Wikipedia:Using the balanced editing restriction

The balanced editing restriction is designed to discourage single-purpose accounts at articles which fall within ARBPIA5 by requiring editors to make no more than 1/3 of their edits in the article, article talk, draft, and draft talk spaces included in that topic in any given 30-day period. An edit made in violation is considered a topic-ban violation.

Tracking

Filter 1,339 tracks all edits in the four qualifying namespaces that fall under the BER. The filter looks for article talk pages and draft talk pages that are in Category:Wikipedia pages subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and extendedconfirmed articles and drafts whose talk pages are in that category. Unlike most restrictions, the BER is defined in strict technical terms: If an edit trips Filter 1,339, it counts toward the BER numerator; and if it does not trip it, it does not count.

The easiest way to see whether an editor is below the BER threshold is by running their username through toolforge:n-ninety-five with the default settings. This will tell you what percentage of their edits in the four qualifying namespaces, in the last 30 days, have hit Filter 1,339. Keep in mind that, if it has not been 30 days since the BER was imposed, the user cannot be in violation.

Manually checking

Manually getting the numerator is easy: Go to the filter hit log for 1,339, add the username, and set the "after" date to 30 days in the past. Count hits, going backward through pages if necessary. Getting the denominator is a bit more complicated: Go to the user's contributions, select "(Article)", check "Associated namespace", and set "from date" to 30 days in the past. Count. Repeat step 1, but selecting "Draft". Repeat step 1 with Special:DeletedContributions. If you do not have access to that special page, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&list=alldeletedrevisions&formatversion=2&adruser=Example&adrnamespace=0%7C1%7C118%7C119&adrstart=2025-03-01T05%3A22%3A30.000Z, replacing "Example" with the user's name and the "adrstart" timestamp with 30 days in the past. Count the entries. Skip step 4. Repeat Step 3, but selecting "Draft". Sum all the numbers you've counted.

Edge case: Cross-namespace moves

In most cases, this will be all you need to do to check compliance. However, there is a small risk that a cross-namespace move could cause the percentage to seem too high (if a non-BER page was moved to a non-qualifying namespace post-edit) or too low (if a BER page was moved into a qualifying namespace post-edit). Pending clarification from ArbCom, it seems safe to assume that edits should be judged on what namespace they were in at time of edit. It is very rare for a draft or article to be moved to a namespace other than draft, article, or user, so checking a user's contributions and deleted contributions to userspace should suffice to avoid the too-high scenario. To avoid the too-low scenario, look through the user's edit filter hit log on-wiki (see instructions above) while using a CSS rule that highlights redirects, then check where those redirects go.

Requirements and considerations for administrators

The restriction can be placed by an individual administrator or by rough consensus at AE.

A balanced editing restriction, even when made by an individual admin, is considered inherently an Arbitration Enforcement action and must be logged at Wikipedia:Arbitration enforcement log.

The editor can be alerted with the following:

You are subject to a balanced editing restriction for the next <TIME>. Please read that section in full, and keep the following points in mind:

1. The topic-ban portion of the restriction, which applies outside of the main, talk, draft, and draft talk namespaces, except in your userspace, applies immediately, and works like any other topic ban.
2. The percentage-based portion becomes relevant 30 days from now.
3. You can track your PIA editing percentage manually, by dividing your hits on Filter 1339 by your total edits to the four tracked namespaces; or with the tool n-ninety-five, which automates that process (source code).

This action is appealable to <VENUE>.

Venue can be specified as to either AE or ANI or as to ARCA. For this reason, an appeal that an administrator believes should not go to ANI must be specified as going only to ARCA; AE cannot be specified. Requiring an appeal go only to ARCA may mean considering the relative benefits of a time-limited vs. indefinite restriction.

Those assessing an editor's contributions should note that a restricted user effectively cannot violate the restriction until at least 30 days after the sanction has been imposed.

Technical limitations

For technical reasons, the balanced editing restriction requires the editor being topic-banned from discussing PIA except within article, article talk, draft, draft talk, and their own user and user talk spaces. This means they won't be able to participate in PIA-related discussions in Wikipedia space, such as at noticeboards or AfD.

Also for technical reasons, the restriction considers the number of edits, not the amount of added text. This is a feature rather than a bug, as while either type of measure could be gamed, in theory gaming to create multiple small edits could encourage small positive contributions, while gaming to add text would tend to encourage padding and discourage removal of unuseful content.

Usage in other areas

The restriction may be usable by rough consensus at WP:AE for other CTOPs with an appropriate filter.