User talk:Beetstra/Archive 22
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Administrators' newsletter – July 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2022).
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Technical news
user_global_editcountis a new variable that can be used in abuse filters to avoid affecting globally active users. (T130439)
Arbitration
- An arbitration case regarding conduct in deletion-related editing has been opened.
Miscellaneous
- The New Pages Patrol queue has around 10,000 articles to be reviewed. As all administrators have the patrol right, please consider helping out. The queue is here. For further information on the state of the project, see the latest NPP newsletter.
\bsalvagedata\.com\b
Hello Dirk,
It has come to my attention that our resource is in wikipedias blacklist, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spam_blacklist#:~:text=%5Cbsalvagedata%5C.com%5Cb I am not fully sure at which point this was added there, however I do know that over the last few years, since 2017 to be exact, we've gone through some 3rd party SEO companies until we found some irrefutable damage done by these companies, to our brand and other resources overall. Since going all in-house marketing, we've identified this issue and wanted to reach out to see if it can be appealed. Please consider removing our resource from the blacklist and we will make sure that our team stays within the rules of Wikipedia going hereinafter. Highly appreciate your attention and consideration of this matter.
Bogdan Glushko
CEO of SalvageData Recovery LLC
dglushko@salvagedata.com Porthaspro (talk) 22:13, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
- I'm curious what you expect to do with the URL if it is removed from the blacklist? It's already listed on SalvageData. Dirk; for ref - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:COIBot/XWiki/salvagedata.com. --Hammersoft (talk) 23:05, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
- We don't expect to do anything, but just to fix the issue created. We publish content regarding data recovery, ransomware, and digital forensics, and some of our own R&D which may want to be used as a reference by someone in the future. Porthaspro (talk) 15:01, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Porthaspro if someone needs it, they will ask for whitelisting. All the blacklist does is making sure the abuse stops (and you are obviously still interested in getting linked). Ping user:Billinghurst, who pulled the trigger on this. Dirk Beetstra T C 15:42, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
- ok it makes sense now. we don't have anything to be linked to at this point but once something comes up we will either ask whitelistening for a specific page or the publisher will. Thank you for your help! Porthaspro (talk) 16:30, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Porthaspro if someone needs it, they will ask for whitelisting. All the blacklist does is making sure the abuse stops (and you are obviously still interested in getting linked). Ping user:Billinghurst, who pulled the trigger on this. Dirk Beetstra T C 15:42, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
- We don't expect to do anything, but just to fix the issue created. We publish content regarding data recovery, ransomware, and digital forensics, and some of our own R&D which may want to be used as a reference by someone in the future. Porthaspro (talk) 15:01, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Porthaspro it was added in November 2018 as it was spammed/pushed for SEO purposes (as is much of the text on our local article). That results in us protecting Wikipedia by blacklisting such domains. You can ask for delisting, but, as @Hammersoft says, it is on the article and I do not see any use outside of that article.
Defer to Global blacklist for such requests, as it is a community decision. Dirk Beetstra T C 04:55, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2022).
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC has been closed with consensus to add javascript that will show edit notices for editors editing via a mobile device. This only works for users using a mobile browser, so iOS app editors will still not be able to see edit notices.
- An RfC has been closed with the consensus that train stations are not inherently notable.
Technical news
- The Wikimania 2022 Hackathon will take place virtually from 11 August to 14 August.
- Administrators will now see links on user pages for "Change block" and "Unblock user" instead of just "Block user" if the user is already blocked. (T308570)
Arbitration
- The arbitration case request Geschichte has been automatically closed after a 3 month suspension of the case.
Miscellaneous
- You can vote for candidates in the 2022 Board of Trustees elections from 16 August to 30 August. Two community elected seats are up for election.
- Wikimania 2022 is taking place virtually from 11 August to 14 August. The schedule for wikimania is listed here. There are also a number of in-person events associated with Wikimania around the world.
- Tech tip: When revision-deleting on desktop, hold ⇧ Shift between clicking two checkboxes to select every box in that range.
EL use in List of schools in Christchurch
Hi Beetsra. What do you think of the external link use in List of schools in Christchurch. There are lots of embedded links in the various tables and it seems as if (at least to me) they're not really needed. It looks like a single link to the NZ MOE website could replace all of the MOE links in the tables since reader could search for a school on their own. The offical website links also seem unnecessary. Since you tend to have lots of experience with this type things, I wanted to see how you felt about this. -- Marchjuly (talk) 01:20, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Marchjuly The website column should go (it should be on the own page, we are not the yellow pages, schools are by definition notable?), and the MOE column could go to a note/reference (it signifies legitimate existence of the item). Dirk Beetstra T C 04:16, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you for looking at this. I pretty much agree with your assessment, but wanted to make sure it wasn't just an opinion particular to myself. One possible argument which might be made for the website column is that not all of the schools currently have stand-alone articles; so, the list article is currently the only place for those links. I don't necessarily agree with such a thing bascially for the reasons you gave above, but I have seen others make it before. As for the MOE links, that's what I thought as well. Some editors for some reason think having 100+ citations in "References" section of an article is excessive, but seem to have no issues with 100+ embedded links (embedded citations) throughout the body of the article. For some, the extra click needed to access the source seems to justify embedding the link. Perhaps that was the case way back in the day, but I don't believe it's acceptable practice these days. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:43, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Marchjuly there is no reason to put a statement on top ‘all schools listed here must be accredited by organisation.<ref to list>. Then blue/redlink every school, official website should be on the page. Dirk Beetstra T C 13:37, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you for looking at this. I pretty much agree with your assessment, but wanted to make sure it wasn't just an opinion particular to myself. One possible argument which might be made for the website column is that not all of the schools currently have stand-alone articles; so, the list article is currently the only place for those links. I don't necessarily agree with such a thing bascially for the reasons you gave above, but I have seen others make it before. As for the MOE links, that's what I thought as well. Some editors for some reason think having 100+ citations in "References" section of an article is excessive, but seem to have no issues with 100+ embedded links (embedded citations) throughout the body of the article. For some, the extra click needed to access the source seems to justify embedding the link. Perhaps that was the case way back in the day, but I don't believe it's acceptable practice these days. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:43, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
Precious anniversary
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| Eight years! |
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... and thank you for the clarity above --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:07, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you! Dirk Beetstra T C 03:58, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2022).
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Guideline and policy news
- A discussion is open to define a process by which Vector 2022 can be made the default for all users.
- An RfC is open to gain consensus on whether Fox News is reliable for science and politics.
Technical news
- The impact report on the effects of disabling IP editing on the Persian (Farsi) Wikipedia has been released.
- The WMF is looking into making a Private Incident Reporting System (PIRS) system to improve the reporting of harmful incidents through easier and safer reporting. You can leave comments on the talk page by answering the questions provided. Users who have faced harmful situations are also invited to join a PIRS interview to share the experience. To sign up please email Madalina Ana.
Arbitration
- An arbitration case regarding Conduct in deletion-related editing has been closed. The Arbitration Committee passed a remedy as part of the final decision to create a request for comment (RfC) on how to handle mass nominations at Articles for Deletion (AfD).
- The arbitration case request Jonathunder has been automatically closed after a 6 month suspension of the case.
Miscellaneous
- The new pages patrol (NPP) team has prepared an appeal to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) for assistance with addressing Page Curation bugs and requested features. You are encouraged to read the open letter before it is sent, and if you support it, consider signing it. It is not a discussion, just a signature will suffice.
- Voting for candidates for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees is open until 6 September.
Administrators' newsletter – November 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2022).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- The article creation at scale RfC opened on 3 October and will be open until at least 2 November.
- An RfC is open to discuss having open requests for adminship automatically placed on hold after the seven-day period has elapsed, pending closure or other action by a bureaucrat.
Arbitration
- Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 13 November 2022 until 22 November 2022 to stand in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections.
- The arbitration case request titled Athaenara has been resolved by motion.
- The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has entered the proposed decision stage.
- AmandaNP, Mz7 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee Elections. Xaosflux and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
Miscellaneous
- The 2022 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of two new CheckUsers.
- You can add yourself to the centralised page listing time zones of administrators.
- Tech tip: Wikimarkup in a block summary is parsed in the notice that the blockee sees. You can use templates with custom options to specify situations like
{{rangeblock|create=yes}}or{{uw-ublock|contains profanity}}.
Administrators' newsletter – October 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2022).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, consensus was found that if the rationale for a block depends on information that is not available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee, a checkuser or an oversighter for action (as applicable, per ArbCom's recent updated guidance) instead of the administrator making the block.
- Following an RfC, consensus has been found that, in the context of politics and science, the reliability of FoxNews.com is unclear and that additional considerations apply to its use.
- Community comment on the revised Universal Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines is requested until 8 October.
Technical news
- The Articles for creation helper script now automatically recognises administrator accounts which means your name does not need to be listed at WP:AFCP to help out. If you wish to help out at AFC, enable AFCH by navigating to Preferences → Gadgets and checking the "Yet Another AfC Helper Script" box.
Arbitration
- Remedy 8.1 of the Muhammad images case will be rescinded 1 November following a motion.
- A modification to the deletion RfC remedy in the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been made to reaffirm the independence of the RfC and allow the moderators to split the RfC in two.
- The second phase of the 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review closes 3 October.
Miscellaneous
- An administrator's account was recently compromised. Administrators are encouraged to check that their passwords are secure, and reminded that ArbCom reserves the right to not restore adminship in cases of poor account security. You can also use two-factor authentication (2FA) to provide an extra level of security.
- Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections open 2 October and close 8 October.
- You are invited to comment on candidates in the 2022 CUOS appointments process.
- An RfC is open to discuss whether to make Vector 2022 the default skin on desktop.
- Tech tip: You can do a fuzzy search of all deleted page titles at Special:Undelete.
Please vote in the 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election
Hello hello. I hope this message finds you well.
The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election ends soon, please vote. At least one of the candidates is worthy of support. --MZMcBride (talk) 14:51, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls
Hi, I marked some of the duplicate |domain= in Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/b23.tv which look like they result from improperly closed nested templates. The page is very large as well, appearing in Category:Pages where post-expand include size is exceeded. I don't know if anything can be done about these two issues. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 15:26, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
- @Plastikspork nope, they are not duplicates, and your edit broke functionality. Something is wrong with detecting duplicate parameters, maybe it is improperly detecting nested templates.
Regarding the large size, lets just wipe the ‘additions’ section. COIBot will regenerate if s.o. is interested. Dirk Beetstra T C 18:52, 21 August 2022 (UTC)- Thanks, they were definitely duplicates or the page wouldn't appear in Category:Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls. You can see one of the nested problems if you pull out the line that the I marked and count the the open and closing braces. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 13:05, 22 August 2022 (UTC)
@Plasticspork:: ah, you are right, but the problem is different, there are faulty closing brackets in a parameter. That is caused by mediawiki wrongly parsing an added link: https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:%E6%97%A5%E5%BF%97&type=spamblacklist&logid=11355292 (mediawiki says that someone added the link 'b23.tv/lEqnpq |accessdate=2020-06-03}} */ 调整格式、排版，将参考来源移动到正文中'), which gets misinterpreted/wrongly parsed) by LiWa3/COIBot's parsing, resulting in also a 'broken record' in 'my' database. I'm unsure how mediawiki included stuff after a space as part of the link ... may be worth a ticket. --Dirk Beetstra T C 04:17, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks, now Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/docdro.id is in Category:Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls, which could be the same problem? Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 01:19, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
- Since I didn't hear back from you, I have rolled back the last edit to that page. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 13:59, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
- Sorry, I am very limited in time. With these it is just fine to blank the whole additions section (put a message it is blanked), leaving the rest. Same goes for those which turn out to be massive pages. No need to ask for my permission next time. Dirk Beetstra T C 17:39, 6 November 2022 (UTC)
- Since I didn't hear back from you, I have rolled back the last edit to that page. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 13:59, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
COIBot on vacation
Hi Beetstra, just wanted to let you know that COIBot hasn't edited since 10 Oct, and it's also not on IRC. Maybe it hiccuped during some of the cloud maintenance WMF's been doing? GeneralNotability (talk) 02:46, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
- No clue what the reason, but both XLinkBot and COIBot (who share a VM) were missing in action. As I changed laptop, and the bastion changed location I was totally locked out of the system. Still missing things, but at least I have access to the two VMs (LiWa3 and COIBot/XLinkBot), and have started the latter two again. Dirk Beetstra T C 17:41, 6 November 2022 (UTC)
ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message
Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:24, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – December 2022
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2022).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- Consensus has been found in an RfC to automatically place RfAs on hold after one week.
- The article creation at scale RfC has been closed.
- An RfC on the banners for the December 2022 fundraising campaign has been closed.
Technical news
- A new preference named "Enable limited width mode" has been added to the Vector 2022 skin. The preference is also shown as a toggle on every page if your monitor is 1600 pixels or wider. When disabled it removes the whitespace added by Vector 2022 on the left and right of the page content. Disabling this preference has the same effect as enabling the wide-vector-2022 gadget. (T319449)
Arbitration
- Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 12, 2022 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
- The proposed decision for the 2021-22 review of the discretionary sanctions system is open.
- The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has been closed.
- The arbitration case Stephen has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 1 December 2022.
- A motion has modified the procedures for contacting an admin facing Level 2 desysop.
Miscellaneous
- Tech tip: A single IPv6 connection usually has access to a "subnet" of 18 quintillion IPs. Add
/64to the end of an IP in Special:Contributions to see all of a subnet's edits, and consider blocking the whole subnet rather than an IP that may change within a minute.
Happy New Year, Beetstra!
Beetstra,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
— Moops ⋠T⋡ 02:05, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.
Administrators' newsletter – January 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Oversighter changes
Guideline and policy news
- Speedy deletion criterion A5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following an unopposed proposal.
Arbitration
- Following the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, CaptainEek, GeneralNotability, Guerillero, L235, Moneytrees, Primefac, SilkTork.
- The 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review has concluded with many changes to the discretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
- The arbitration case Stephen has been closed.
Miscellaneous
- Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
- Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.
MfD nomination of Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/energia.ru
Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/energia.ru, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/energia.ru and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/energia.ru during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Beland (talk) 05:06, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
Nomination for deletion of Template:Sbl-log
Template:Sbl-log has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:11, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – February 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, the administrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from the Arbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
- Following a community discussion, consensus has been found to impose the extended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Kurds and Kurdistan.
Technical news
- The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.
Arbitration
- The arbitration case Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
- In December, the contentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces the former discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initial implementation period. There is a detailed summary of the changes and administrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system at their noticeboard.
Miscellaneous
- Voting in the 2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
- Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
- Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.
Good article reassessment for Persistent carbene
Persistent carbene has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Onegreatjoke (talk) 22:12, 9 February 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
- Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
- A request for comment is open to discuss making the closing instructions for the requested moves process a guideline.
Technical news
- The results of the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey have been posted.
Arbitration
- Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been rescinded.
- The proposed decision for the Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
- A case related to the Holocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.
Miscellaneous
- The 2023 appointees for the Ombuds commission are AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, JJMC89, MdsShakil, Minorax and Renvoy as regular members and Zabe as advisory members.
- Following the 2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Mykola7, Superpes15, and Xaosflux.
- The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a
[p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing
. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.
COIBot
Hi Beetstra, for the past weeks most COIBot reports show no additions (or just additions from past years) even though there was recent xwiki spam (example: [1]). Could you take a look at this? Thanks! :) Johannnes89 (talk) 17:04, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- A community RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involving gender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.
Technical news
- Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users of Internet Explorer 11. (T178356)
- The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
- A link to the user's Special:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown on Special:Contributions. This was voted #17 in the Community Wishlist Survey 2023.
Arbitration
- The Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
- A case about World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.
Administrators' newsletter – May 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.
Technical news
- Progress has started on the Page Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their 2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.
Arbitration
- The proposed decision in the World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.
Miscellaneous
- The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.
Administrators' newsletter – June 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, editors indefinitely site-banned by community consensus will now have all rights, including sysop, removed.
- As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation's IP Masking project, a new policy has been created that governs the access to temporary account IP addresses. An associated FAQ has been created and individual communities can increase the requirements to view temporary account IP addresses.
Technical news
- Bot operators and tool maintainers should schedule time in the coming months to test and update their tools for the effects of IP masking. IP masking will not be deployed to any content wiki until at least October 2023 and is unlikely to be deployed to the English Wikipedia until some time in 2024.
Arbitration
- The arbitration case World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been closed. The topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933-1945) and the history of Jews in Poland is subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction.
Miscellaneous
- Following a community referendum, the arbitration policy has been modified to remove the ability for users to appeal remedies to Jimbo Wales.
Administrators' newsletter – July 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2023).
Administrator changes
Bureaucrat changes
Guideline and policy news
- Contributions to the English Wikipedia are now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) license instead of CC BY-SA 3.0. Contributions are still also released under the GFDL license.
Technical news
- Discussion is open regarding a proposed global policy regarding third-party resources. Third-party resources are computer resources that reside outside of Wikimedia production websites.
Arbitration
- Two arbitration cases are currently open. Proposed decisions are expected 5 July 2023 for the Scottywong case and 9 July 2023 for the AlisonW case.
Administrators' newsletter – August 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2023).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
Technical news
- The tag filter on Special:NewPages and revision history pages can now be inverted. This allows hiding edits made by automated tools. (T334338)
- Special:BlockedExternalDomains is a new tool that allows easier blocking of plain domains (and their subdomains). This is more easily searchable and is faster for the software to use than the existing MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. It does not support regex (for complex cases), URL path-matching, or the MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist. (T337431)
Arbitration
- The arbitration cases named Scottywong and AlisonW closed 10 July and 16 July respectively.
- The SmallCat dispute arbitration case is in the workshop phase.
free chicken
107.138.209.194 (talk) has given you a plate of Kentucky fried chicken, seasoned with a recipe of 11 herbs and spices. Finger lickin' good!
A plate of KFC promotes WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. You can spread the WikiLove by giving someone else some KFC, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. To spread the goodness of Kentucky fried chicken, you can add {{subst:KFC chicken}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message!
107.138.209.194 (talk) 22:05, 7 August 2023 (UTC)
- Looks like a vegan dinner to me. :) --Hammersoft (talk) 22:10, 7 August 2023 (UTC)
- Thanks! Dirk Beetstra T C 04:38, 10 August 2023 (UTC)
Precious anniversary
| | |
| Nine years! |
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--Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:17, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
- @Gerda Arendt Thanks! Dirk Beetstra T C 04:08, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
Nomination for deletion of Template:WiredForBooks
Template:WiredForBooks has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:01, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
Suspected long term author advocacy activity
This unexplained edit to my watched article raised suspicion where a academia.edu journal article by John Paull was inserted Special:Diff/1172292612 After further investigation, I found a long term trend of various articles authored by the author being inserted into multiple articles by anonymous editors that do not seem to fall within reasonable editing process. After locating John Paull sources in articles, it was found that same IPs from Australia or UK tended to insert John Paull with each IP exhibiting a pattern of different John Paull sources into different articles. As you specialize in spam, I was hoping you had a useful feedback. These are a few examples I tracked down:
- Special:Contributions/86.161.250.120 July 2011 SPA
- Special:Contributions/203.45.17.190 2016-2020 Australia
- Special:Contributions/110.142.48.21 April 18, 2018 Tasmania, AUS
- Special:Contributions/203.53.100.186, 2021 Australia
- Special:Contributions/65.181.3.220, one article. March 15, 2023 Sydney, AUS
- Special:Contributions/59.167.200.223,three articles in 2017-2018 Tasmania, Australia
Graywalls (talk) 07:16, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
- @Graywalls::
- 86.161.250.120 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- 203.45.17.190 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- 110.142.48.21 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- 203.53.100.186 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- 65.181.3.220 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- 59.167.200.223 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
- I asked COIBot for some reports. Some stuff may be before that, but lets see. It may however show you certain links that are added, and a search for those links may show up more. I think I would suggest to submit this to WP:COIN. Edits like diff (first paragraph) is very strong a coatrack .. Dirk Beetstra T C 13:47, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
- I could do that, but should I? If it was a specific URL, it's easy to handle it. I am wondering if it's technically feasible to do anything about it in something like this with case the current site software in which the only constant is the specific author being inserted, but by numerous IPs. Graywalls (talk) 15:58, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
- @Graywalls: We could first just report and discuss, it gives more eyes to see what is happening. Then if it is deemed disruptive and we have some attempt to contact the person doing this (which is rather futile I agree, but a message on their last used IP and an attempt to do that on the next used IP as soon as possible should be attemped). It is easy to generate an edit filter triggering on additions of "Paull, John" in monitoring mode, and some IPs seem to be used for a longer time so they may return and see messages to them. A sufficiently long block on the last IP is also an option (for not-too-bad spammers that edit once a month I just start with a 3 month block, knowing that they are likely to come back within that time so it enforces their attention).Later steps could be warning or blocking filters or blacklisting (even pre-emptively) all their specific material. The edit I referenced above is rather bad, it is really a sentence that should be referenced to a proper source, but it is a coatrack for (what I expect) their own source. Dirk Beetstra T C 06:36, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
- I could do that, but should I? If it was a specific URL, it's easy to handle it. I am wondering if it's technically feasible to do anything about it in something like this with case the current site software in which the only constant is the specific author being inserted, but by numerous IPs. Graywalls (talk) 15:58, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, TFAs will be automatically semi-protected the day before it is on the main page and through the day after.
- A discussion at WP:VPP about revision deletion and oversight for dead names found that
[s]ysops can choose to use revdel if, in their view, it's the right tool for this situation, and they need not default to oversight. But oversight could well be right where there's a particularly high risk to the person. Use your judgment
.
Technical news
- Special:Contributions now shows the user's local edit count and the account's creation date. (T324166)
Arbitration
- The SmallCat dispute case has closed. As part of the final decision, editors participating in XfD have been reminded to be careful about forming
local consensus which may or may not reflect the broader community consensus
. Regular closers of XfD forums were also encouraged tonote when broader community discussion, or changes to policies and guidelines, would be helpful
.
Miscellaneous
- Tech tip: The "Browse history interactively" banner shown at the top of Special:Diff can be used to easily look through a history, assemble composite diffs, or find out what archive something wound up in.
Narratively.com, Substack.com
Should they join the media wiki block like HubPages and their sister site? I'm currently trying to locate their editorial policy, but they look essentially the same in what they do. Graywalls (talk) 19:46, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
- Could be, they are similar in nature. It would however need community consensus that they should not be used, as we are not blacklisting on spam reasons (I presume). Dirk Beetstra T C 04:18, 3 September 2023 (UTC)
bot poke
So the inquiries I submitted to BOT poke still doesn't work after days of waiting and I believe I am on the authorized list. Why is it not working? Graywalls (talk) 01:46, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
CfD nomination at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2023 October 1 § Category:WikiProject X members
A category or categories you have created have been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2023 October 1 § Category:WikiProject X members on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Qwerfjkltalk 09:33, 2 October 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2023).
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Guideline and policy news
- An RfC is open regarding amending the paid-contribution disclosure policy to add the following text:
Any administrator soliciting clients for paid Wikipedia-related consulting or advising services not covered by other paid-contribution rules must disclose all clients on their userpage.
Technical news
- Administrators can now choose to add the user's user page to their watchlist when changing the usergroups for a user. This works both via Special:UserRights and via the API. (T272294)
Arbitration
Miscellaneous
- The 2023 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of one new CheckUser.
- Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections opens on 2 October and closes on 8 October.
Category update needed on CSS page
Please update Category:WikiProject Chemicals members from "members" to "participants" in User:Beetstra/userpage.css per Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2023_October_1#Category:WikiProject_X_members. – Fayenatic London 08:02, 22 October 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2023).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
Technical news
- The WMF is working on making it possible for administrators to edit MediaWiki configuration directly. This is similar to previous work on Special:EditGrowthConfig. A technical RfC is running until November 08, where you can provide feedback.
- There is a proposed plan for re-enabling the Graph Extension. Feedback on this proposal is requested.
Arbitration
- Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 12 November 2023 until 21 November 2023 to stand in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections.
- Xaosflux, RoySmith and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee Elections. BusterD is the reserve commissioner.
- Following a motion, the contentious topic designation of Prem Rawat has been struck. Actions previously taken using this contentious topic designation are still in force.
- Following several motions, multiple topic areas are no longer designated as a contentious topic. These contentious topic designations were from the Editor conduct in e-cigs articles, Liancourt Rocks, Longevity, Medicine, September 11 conspiracy theories, and Shakespeare authorship question cases.
- Following a motion, remedies 3.1 (All related articles under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned), 6 (Stalemate resolution) and 30 (Administrative supervision) of the Macedonia 2 case have been rescinded.
- Following a motion, remedy 6 (One-revert rule) of the The Troubles case has been amended.
- An arbitration case named Industrial agriculture has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case close 8 November.
Miscellaneous
- The Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in November 2023, with 700+ drafts pending reviews for in the last 4 months or so. In addition to the AfC participants, all administrators and New Page Patrollers can conduct reviews using the helper script, Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!
Nomination for deletion of Template:RSourceSummary
Template:RSourceSummary has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:34, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
Clarifying tone
I wrote this edit summary, meant as reproaching myself, and then realized after saving that it could come off as referring to you. I don't want to make a dummy edit on an MW-namespace page, so I'm just posting here to clarify that the mistake originated with me. Feel free to email if you have questions. -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (they|xe|she) 05:56, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
- Thanks for email. Replied. -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (they|xe|she) 04:58, 22 November 2023 (UTC)
ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message
Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
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Administrators' newsletter – December 2023
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2023).
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- Following a talk page discussion, the Administrators' accountability policy has been updated to note that while it is considered best practice for administrators to have notifications (pings) enabled, this is not mandatory. Administrators who do not use notifications are now strongly encouraged to indicate this on their user page.
Arbitration
- Following a motion, the Extended Confirmed Restriction has been amended, removing the allowance for non-extended-confirmed editors to post constructive comments on the "Talk:" namespace. Now, non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace solely to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided that their actions are not disruptive.
- The Arbitration Committee has announced a call for Checkusers and Oversighters, stating that it will currently be accepting applications for CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions at any point in the year.
- Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 11, 2023 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
some escaping
Hi. Hope your well. In the spam (black|white)list, there is no requirement to escape a forward slash in an url, according to the information on the extension, so the use of backslash there is redundant. I have removed those specific backslashes in the recent whitelist additions. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:13, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
- I know, but I am a regex purist. Dirk Beetstra T C 18:11, 10 December 2023 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).
Administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Oversighter changes
Arbitration
- Following the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Cabayi, Firefly, HJ Mitchell, Maxim, Sdrqaz, ToBeFree, Z1720.
- Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that were enacted in June 2009.
- The arbitration case Industrial agriculture has been closed.
Miscellaneous
- The New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
Administrators' newsletter – February 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2024).
Administrator changes
Bureaucrat changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.
Technical news
- Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)
Arbitration
- Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
- Community feedback is requested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section at WP:AE.
Miscellaneous
- Voting in the 2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
- A vote to ratify the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) via Secure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be found here.
- Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of the Community Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes. Read more
- The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!