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Maniphest T415674

Implement UI for viewing contributions from related temporary accounts
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Description

Background

As part of improving patrollers’ ability to identify activity from connected temporary accounts sharing the same IP address, we want to expose a user interface that allows viewing contributions from a cluster of related temporary accounts.

Designs

https://www.figma.com/design/0E3RHEA7M6kU2BsVOYBXWG/4.8-Simpler-patrolling-of-temporary-accounts?node-id=1-13094&p=f&t=6B3wiRHlVb60krPk-0

Requirements

  • Special:Contributions
    • Add an alert message at the top of the page when viewing a temporary account.
    • Alert includes a link to the contributions page filtered to show edits from the related temporary account cluster.
    • Add a checkbox to the search section:
      • Selecting the checkbox and submitting the search includes contributions from related temporary accounts.
  • Special:IPContributions
    • Add an alert message at the top of the page.
    • Alert includes a link to the contributions page filtered to show edits from the related temporary account cluster associated with the IP.
    • Add a checkbox to the search section:
      • Selecting the checkbox and submitting the search includes contributions from related temporary accounts.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:
SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
Add warning box about related temp users on Special:Contributionsmediawiki/extensions/CheckUsermaster+138 -20
Customize query in gerrit

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Event Timeline

Madalina created this task.Jan 27 2026, 2:55 PM
Restricted Application removed a project: Patch-For-Review. · View Herald TranscriptJan 27 2026, 2:55 PM
OKryva-WMF moved this task from Backlog to In progress on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Daffodil (Jan 19 - Feb 6)) board.Jan 28 2026, 12:56 PM
OKryva-WMF moved this task from Inbox to 4.8 TA Patrolling on the Temporary accounts board.Jan 28 2026, 1:10 PM
OKryva-WMF edited projects, added: Temporary accounts (4.8 TA Patrolling); removed: Temporary accounts.
OKryva-WMF moved this task from In progress to Ready on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Daffodil (Jan 19 - Feb 6)) board.Jan 29 2026, 12:54 PM
Tchanders moved this task from Ready to In progress on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Daffodil (Jan 19 - Feb 6)) board.Jan 29 2026, 3:48 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Jan 30 2026, 4:12 PM

Change #1235357 had a related patch set uploaded (by Tchanders; author: Tchanders):

[mediawiki/extensions/CheckUser@master] WIP Add warning box about related temp users on Special:Contributions

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1235357

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Jan 30 2026, 4:12 PM
Tchanders added a comment.Jan 30 2026, 4:18 PM

I found more questions while implementing this:

  • If the exact count is 1, should we omit the warning box? This could help patrollers quickly see whether there might be more to investigate with this temp account. I implemented this.
  • Should we change the link to hide the related accounts if they are currently shown? I implemented this too.
  • Are we allowed to show the exact number of temp accounts and IPs without logging that the user saw this? If we have to log it, we will be making a log every time a user with IP reveal visits a temp user contributions page, which will be a lot of logspam. Until we can answer this, I've implemented the bucketed count only, so as not to expose private data unlogged to users.
Madalina added a comment.Feb 2 2026, 12:10 PM

All the above sound good to me.

For point 3, I'll check in with Legal to see whether there's a better option down the line but until then let's keep the bucketed count only.

gerritbot added a comment.Feb 2 2026, 6:14 PM

Change #1235357 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/CheckUser@master] Add warning box about related temp users on Special:Contributions

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1235357

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.14; 2026-02-03).Feb 2 2026, 7:00 PM
Tchanders moved this task from In progress to Needs QA on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Daffodil (Jan 19 - Feb 6)) board.Feb 4 2026, 12:50 PM
Johannnes89 subscribed.Feb 4 2026, 2:03 PM
Faendalimas subscribed.Feb 5 2026, 12:34 AM
Madalina moved this task from Backlog to In current sprint on the Temporary accounts (4.8 TA Patrolling) board.Feb 9 2026, 10:48 AM
OKryva-WMF edited projects, added: Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Flower (Feb 9 - Feb 27)); removed: Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Daffodil (Jan 19 - Feb 6)).Feb 10 2026, 8:39 AM
OKryva-WMF moved this task from Backlog to Needs QA on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Flower (Feb 9 - Feb 27)) board.Feb 10 2026, 8:57 AM
dom_walden moved this task from Needs QA to Done on the Product Safety and Integrity (Sprint Flower (Feb 9 - Feb 27)) board.Feb 13 2026, 1:43 PM
dom_walden subscribed.

I have looked at Special:Contributions for various temporary accounts on testwiki, testwikidata and test2wiki.

I experimented briefly with different languages (including RTL), skins (including mobile), pagination and filters.

It does not appear in Special:IPContributions. @Tchanders I guess this is deliberate?

Madalina closed this task as Resolved.Mar 27 2026, 5:14 PM
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