WikiQueer:Oversight

Suppression on WikiQueer (also known as oversight) is a form of enhanced deletion which, unlike normal deletion, expunges information from any form of usual access even by administrators. It is used within strict limits to remove defamatory material, to protect privacy, and sometimes to remove serious copyright violations, from any page or log entry (including if required the list of users) on the English WikiQueer.

On the English WikiQueer, "oversight," the right to suppress edits, is entrusted to a restricted number of users, who can suppress material if it meets the strict requirements below. Use of these tools is monitored by other oversighters who patrol the log, and by the Arbitration Committee.

The permission is granted by the Arbitration Committee after community consultation and significant review of the user's contributions. Users authorized for Oversight need not be administrators, but must be 18 years of age or older and must have provided personal identification to The Aequalitas Project. Once this information has been verified, the documents supplied to the The Aequalitas Project are destroyed.

Nomenclature
The original term "oversight" (for the function/tool) came from the Oversight extension, a revision removal function, whose log access was intended to allow oversight of its operation. The Oversight extension was intended to be a temporary measure; in 2009 the RevisionDelete system was enabled which fixes several problems with oversight (including causing misattribution of edits and its irreversibility) and added features not originally present (including account and log hiding). For historical reasons, the group of users with the ability to use the RevisionDelete and Oversight tools are still known as "oversighters" and suppression might still be referred to as "oversight." However, "oversight" might refer specifically to use of the Oversight extension, while suppression will not.

Policy
This feature is approved for use in these cases:
 * 1) Removal of non-public personal information, such as phone numbers, home addresses, workplaces or identities of pseudonymous or anonymous individuals who have not made their identity public. This includes hiding the IP data of editors who accidentally logged out and thus inadvertently revealed their own IP addresses. Suppression is a tool of first resort in removing this information.

In the following cases, revision and/or log suppression may be used when justified by the circumstances. However, consideration should be given to whether administrative revision deletion is an adequate response:
 * 1) Removal of potentially libelous information, either: a) on the advice of WikiQueer counsel; or b) when the case is clear, and there is no editorial reason to keep the revision.
 * 2) Removal of copyright infringement, on the advice of The Aequalitas Project counsel.
 * 3) Hiding of blatant attack names on automated lists and logs, where this does not disrupt edit histories. A blatant attack is one obviously intended to denigrate, threaten, libel, insult, or harass someone.
 * 4) Removal of vandalism. Suppression may be occasionally used to remove vandalism for which removal by normal administrative measures is insufficient. Such cases should be handled with suppression, rather than with the Oversight tool, so that they may be reversed if needed.

Actions
Oversighters can perform the following actions:
 * 1) Suppress individual page revisions (as a whole) using Oversight.
 * 2) Suppress and unsuppress elements of individual page revisions (any or all of the text, username, or edit summary) using RevisionDelete.
 * 3) Suppress and unsuppress log entries.
 * 4) Suppress and unsuppress user names when blocking.
 * 5) Review the suppression logs (one for each tool) and suppressed material.

Page revisions suppressed with the Oversight extension do not leave a placeholder in the page history and cannot be restored. Revisions suppressed with RevisionDelete leave a visible placeholder in the page history and can be restored if the situation calls for it.

RevisionDelete vs Extension:Oversight
The key differences are that Extension:Oversight fully removes page revisions (without leaving a placeholder) which cannot readily be restored. RevisionDelete redacts the entries, which can also include log entries and usernames, affects history and contributions much less, allows finer control, and is reversible.

Logging
The RevisionDelete feature can be used both by oversighters, and by administrators. Oversighters may select whether RevisionDelete will be used as a suppression action that prevents administrator access, or as an administrator action that any administrator can see and modify; administrators only have access to the latter. The action will be logged in the suppression log or deletion log accordingly.


 * 1) Page revisions and logged events that have been suppressed using the "also hide from administrators" checkbox are logged in the suppression log.
 * 2) Page revisions and logged events that have been deleted by an oversighter without using the "hide from administrators" checkbox or by an administrator, are logged in the deletion log.
 * 3) Accounts which are blocked with the "suppress user name from lists" checkbox are logged in the suppression log.

The logs list who made the removal, when, from which page, and a provided comment. A diff link to compare the previous live revision to the hidden one is available.

Assignment and revocation
On the English language WikiQueer, access to the suppress function of the RevisionDelete tool is controlled by the Arbitration Committee. Permission is generally automatically granted to members of the Arbitration Committee and retained by them when they leave the committee. Non-Arbitrators may be granted oversighter status at the discretion of the Arbitration Committee and are selected for trustworthiness and availability to handle requests (a successful request for adminship is not a pre-requisite). However only a very few appointments are typically made per year. See the above page for further information or for requesting oversighter status.

Oversighter status may be revoked by the Arbitration Committee at any time. Generally, permission is revoked only "for cause", such as abuse of suppression to remove items that do not qualify under the stated policy, or for unauthorized release of suppressed information. The Arbitration Committee has also ruled that permission will be revoked from oversighters who are inactive for more than one year.

The technical assignment of the permission to the user account is made by the Lead Administrator, acting on instructions from the Arbitration Committee. Emergency requests based upon clear evidence may also be made in exceptional circumstances, the same way. In an exceptional case, and for good cause, the Lead Administrator may temporarily remove the permission, pending a decision by the Committee. The steward should check the matter is well founded, and make clear immediately that it is a temporary response only, since such an action could lead to controversy.

Complaints
Complaints or inquiries about potential misuse of the oversighter flag should be referred to the Audit Subcommittee.