 | This page in a nutshell: The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) was a research and data gathering experiment the Wikimedia Foundation ran on request of the English Wikipedia community from 14 September 2017 until 14 March 2018. During that time autoconfirmed status was required in order to create new articles. For an archive of the 2011 proposal and planning, please see this archive. For the request for comment that closed in favour of making the trial permanent, see this discussion. |
In April 2011, a proposal was put forth to require autoconfirmed status in order to create articles. (Previously, no registration had been required; since 2005, an experiment was ongoing where registration was required.) In May 2011, the proposal was closed with a consensus that a trial should be implemented to test out this new idea. A second RfC was then opened to determine duration of the interventional phase of the trial, and it was decided that the interventional phase should run for 6 months, and then the changes should be reversed for a period of one month while their effects are discussed. The Wikimedia Foundation prevented the idea from going forward in 2011, but in June 2017 agreed to conduct and help implement ACTRIAL as a research experiment. In July 2017, after a post on his talk page, Jimmy Wales issued a personal statement regarding ACTRIAL supporting the use of limited trials to gather data to make Wikipedia policy decisions.
The discussion on the duration and terms of the assessment of the interventional phase was announced at the Village Pump and at Centralized Discussion, and was officially closed by independent admin summary 18 August 2011, in favour of the proposal with "... a clear consensus for a six-month trial, followed by a one-month period of discussion to determine the trial's effects. Given the wide support and uncontroversial nature ..."
ACTRIAL will serve as a trial of the original proposal that achieved community consensus. Information will be gathered during the trial period and reported to the English Wikipedia community at its conclusion, and the community will decide if any additional steps that should be taken based on the results. The trial began on 14 September 2017 and lasted for 6 months.
The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki. The community discussed the results and their impact on the English Wikipedia at Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed article creation trial/Request for comment on permanent implementation, which closed on 18 April 2018 with support for making the changes permanent.