Help:New filters for edit review/Filtering

Note: When you edit this page, you agree to release your contribution under the CC0. See Public Domain Help Pages for more info.

This page explains how to get the most out of the new filtering interface. The new Highlighting tools and use of the predictive User Intent and Content Quality filters are described separately.

Basic functions

Check the box next to a filter to include edits with the filter property. E.g., Registered users are included in this search. To exclude a property, leave it unchecked while selecting all the other filters in its filter group. E.g., Experienced users and Unregistered are excluded from the search. (Edits by Newcomers are included and also highlighted, in green — see the Highlighting page to learn more.)

Clicking in the Active filter display area or in the Filter search bar opens the Dropdown filter panel, which displays a menu of filtering options.

To find a property

To find edits with a particular property, find the filter for that property in the filter menu and check the box next to its name. The filter becomes "active", and a tag for that filter will appear under “Active filters” in the Active Filter Display Area. Unlike the previous RC Page filters, which were designed to exclude various properties, the new filters include the property the filter names.

Example: the “Registered” filter finds edits by registered users.

To exclude a property

To exclude edits with a particular property,

leave the filter for that property unchecked
check any (or all) of the other filters in its group.

You’ll notice that the unchecked filters turn gray, to show they are inactive.

Example: to exclude Changes by you, leave that filter unchecked and check Changes by others.

To share or save filter settings

You can re-use your filter settings or share them with others by copying the page URL. When you click on that URL again or paste it into the address bar, the system will reinstate the desired filters. This will work for mobile browsers as well (even though mobile browsers don't currently display the new filter interface).

You can save filters sets you like.

Set the default filter

You can set a filter you have saved as the default filter.

Understanding filter groups

The filters in are divided into groups of related properties. In most (but not all) groups, the properties are mutually exclusive and collectively cover the entirety of edits. For instance, the Bot filter and the Human (not bot) filter are mutually exclusive and cover all cases.

When no filters in a group are selected, all filters in that group are active. So everything in that group will be included in your results. If all filters in a group are selected, the effect is the same: everything in that group will be included in the results.

Within groups vs. between groups (OR vs. AND)

Understanding how filters interact with one another may help you get better results. The key point is that adding multiple filters from a single group has a different effect than selecting filters from multiple groups. That sounds confusing, but in practice it should be intuitive for many since this logic is common on popular shopping and other search-based sites.

Within groups, broaden the search (OR)

Within a filter group, adding more filters to your search broadens the search and returns more results. That’s because filters within a group relate to one another via Boolean OR functions. OR functions broaden the scope of a filter by saying that the results can be this OR that.

Example: check the Newcomers filter and the Learners filter within the Experience Level filter group. Your results will include edits by both types of users (Newcomers OR Learners).

Between groups, narrow the search (AND)

By contrast, adding filters from multiple different filter groups to your search narrows the search and returns fewer results. That’s because each filter group relates to the other groups via Boolean AND functions. AND functions narrow search results by imposing more restrictions. This AND that.

Example: Take the search mentioned above, made of filters from the Experience Level group (Newcomers OR Learners). Adding the Non-minor edits filter from the Significance group imposes a new restriction that narrows the search. As a formula, the logic of your search would now look like this: Results = Non-minor edits AND (Newcomers OR Learners). With this formula, edits made by either Newcomers or Learners will be included in the results, because both those filters are from the same group. But all results will be Non-minor.

Useful interface signals

The Active Filters area provides a summary of your settings. The colored tags in this example tell you that two filters are in conflict. No results will be shown until the conflict is resolved. Hovering over a conflicted filter tag displays a tooltip that explains the problem.

When filter tags are grayed, the interface is communicating that those filters have no effect. In most cases this isn’t a problem; you will still get the results you wanted. But it’s a chance to learn more about how the tools function. In the example, the user has selected all the filters in a group. As the tooltip says, “Selecting all filters in this group is the same as selecting none, so this filter has no effect. Group includes: $1”

The interface provides useful feedback about your filtering choices. Knowing how to read these signals will help you master the tools. Two particular sets of signals are worth mentioning; these tell you:

when selected filter combinations are in conflict,
when a filter has no effect.

Conflict combinations

If you see filter tags in the Active Filter Display Area marked by a red border, it means you’ve selected filters that are in “conflict.” You've asked for something that can't happen. The system will return no results until you change the settings. A message in the results area tells you what the problem is. You can get even more detail by hovering over the conflicting filter tags.

You won’t see those red tags every time you select filters that produce no results. The conflict signals are reserved for situations where the conflict is:

structural, meaning that the combination will yield no results every time, by definition
hidden, meaning that users probably won’t be able to diagnose the problem themselves.

Example: Content Quality Predictions are not available for Wikidata edits (yet). So if you select the “Wikidata edits” filter and a Content Quality filter such as “May have problems”, the combination is impossible. Your filters are in conflict.

No-effect combinations

If you see a filter tag in the Active Filter Display Area that’s grayed out, it means that filter has no effect. This doesn’t really signal a problem; you’re probably getting the results you asked for. But the system is giving you cues that may help you work more efficiently.

If you see such grayed tags, it means one of three things:

You’ve selected all the filters in a group. As discussed above, selecting everything in a group is the same as selecting nothing.
The filter is not selected but is Highlighted only, in which case you’ll also see a colored dot.
One filter you’ve selected finds results that are a subset of another selection.
Example: Every edit found by the “Very likely have problems” filter would already be included in the results for the “May have problems” filter, which is more broad. If you choose both, the more selective filter has no effect. (Tip: If you want to be able to identify a subset within a broader group, try Highlighting it.)

To know why a filter tag is grayed, try hovering over it with your mouse to get an explanatory tooltip.

Filters list

Basic filters

User registration and experience

These filters are available for registered users only.

Registered: Logged-in editors.

Unregistered: Editors who aren't logged-in.

Newcomers: Registered editors who have fewer than 10 edits or 4 days of activity.

Learners: Registered editors whose experience falls between "Newcomers" and "Experienced users."

Experienced users: Registered editors with more than 500 edits and 30 days of activity.

Contribution authorship

Changes by you: Your own contributions.

Changes by others: All changes except your own.

Automated contributions

Bot: Edits made by automated tools.

Human (not bot): Edits made by human editors.

Review status

Review status filters are available only to users with appropriate rights on wikis that have implemented RC Patrol.

Unpatrolled: Edits not manually or automatically marked as patrolled.

Manually patrolled: Edits manually marked as patrolled.

Autopatrolled: Edits by advanced users whose work is automatically marked as patrolled.

Contribution authorship

Changes by you: Your own contributions.

Changes by others: All changes except your own.

Significance

Minor edits: Edits the author labeled as minor.

Non-minor edits: Edits not labeled as minor.

Latest revisions

Latest revision: Only the most recent change to a page.

Not the latest revision: All changes that are not the "latest revision".

Type of change

Page edits: Edits to wiki content, discussions, category descriptions…

Page creations: Edits that make new pages.

Category changes: Records of pages being added or removed from categories.

Logged actions: Administrative actions, page deletions, uploads…

Watchlisted pages

On Watchlist: Changes to pages on your Watchlist.

New Watchlist changes: Changes to Watchlisted pages you haven't visited since the changes occurred.

Not on Watchlist: Everything except changes to your Watchlisted pages.

Advanced filters

It is possible to filter specific elements using advanced filters. Those filters have shortcuts in the Filter search bar and at the bottom of the Dropdown filter panel.

Filter results by namespaces available on the wiki. You can access the list of namespaces by typing : in the Filter search bar.
Filter results by tags available on the wiki. You can access the list of tags by typing # in the Filter search bar.

You can learn more about those filters on the dedicated page.