Finding unverified articles

Unverified articles collect on one list in Knowledge. Here is where that list lives, how to clear it, and why the most-read articles come first.

Unverified articles collect on one list in Knowledge. Here is where that list lives, how to clear it, and why the most-read articles come first.

Find them

1. In Knowledge, click Manage articles in the sidebar.
2. Open Needs verification. Everything a verification rule has flagged is here.

You need to be a Knowledge admin, or an agent with edit permissions, to see the list at all.

Verify one article

1. Open the article in edit mode.
2. Click the Unverified dropdown in the article header.
3. Select Verify article. The status changes to Verified and the article leaves the list.

Article owners with publishing permission can do this for their own articles, so the work does not all have to land on one admin.

Verify a batch

1. On Needs verification, use the checkbox beside Title to select articles. Thirty at a time is the maximum.
2. Open the Article settings menu at the bottom of the list and select Verify.
3. Confirm with Verify.

Bulk verification is for Knowledge admins only. It also stops the reminder emails to the owners of those articles.

Work the most-read first

An unverified article nobody reads costs nothing. An unverified article read four hundred times a month is the one that matters. The list does not rank by traffic, so bring your own order to it rather than starting at the top.

Three outcomes per article

• Still correct. Verify it. Seconds.
• Nearly correct. Fix the detail, then verify.
• No longer needed. Archive it. This is the outcome people skip, and it is the one that keeps the list finite.

Only verifying gets an article off the list

Changing the rule does not, and neither does deleting it: articles that were already flagged stay on the list, and their owners keep getting the reminder emails, until somebody verifies them by hand.

Twenty minutes a week

Better than four hours a quarter, because the list never gets long enough to feel hopeless, and because the articles get checked closer to when they changed.

Verify honestly

Marking something verified without reading it is worse than leaving it unverified: the status now says somebody checked, and nobody did. If you do not have time to read it, leave it.

Watch what keeps coming back

An article that returns to the list every cycle and always needs the same correction is describing something that changes faster than the article can be maintained. Consider linking to the source rather than restating it.

See also

• Managing verification rules
• Article verification: what it is and how to set it up
• Archiving and restoring an article