Last August, so-called "review audits" were introduced on MSE.
These are fake review samples added to the review queues, designed to catch those users who (in a dash to get a badge) practice mindless button mashing instead of careful consideration while reviewing.
Prior to the introduction, people were enthusiastic -- me included.
However, in three months, we have generated:
- STOP! Look and Listen. (+58)
- Examples of poor review audits (+26)
- Audits: this is getting ridiculous. (+27)
- Try to comment: Fail review audit (+13)
in which threads, more and more people start stating their resentment of the whole auditing thing, with wordings like Vedran Šego's:
The first time I got an audit, I thought it was a good idea. Well, not anymore.
It is time to evaluate. Some valid concerns have been raised, but not addressed by the SE developers. A tour around Meta.StackOverflow reveals a similar picture. The developers are unwilling to invest the time to do something about at least the most-heard complaints about the audit system.
However, the current implementation has a far too high "false negative" statistic: Too many conscientious reviewers are being shouted at by the audit system for trying to be helpful to their best judgement.
Therefore, pending improvements to the audit system to reduce the "false negatives", I want the audits to be disabled on Math.StackExchange. Do you agree?
Please find two polling answers below -- you can use an upvote to indicate your preference.
Seeing as (to the best of my knowledge) the audit system is standardised SE-network-wide, the relevant feature requests for improving the audit system should be filed at Meta.StackOverflow.
The vote tallies have more or less crystallised. Disregarding downvotes, and taking into account my own, the final result is:
- Disable audits: 24 votes
- Keep audits: 15 votes
This falls short (and has consistently fallen short throughout the poll) of the "qualified majority" (two thirds) I had in mind for requesting the termination of the audits. That means the audits remain, if I am to decide.
s/false negative/false positive/
$\endgroup$