Archive 15 Archive 16 Archive 17 Archive 18 Archive 19 Archive 20 Archive 25

Wikidata weekly summary #440

The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!

 

Greetings,

Thank you very much for participating in the Months of African Cinema global contest/edit-a-thon, and thank you for your contributions so far.

It is already the middle of the contest and a lot have been achieved already! We have been able to get over 1,500 articles created in over fifteen (15) languages! This would not have been possible without your support and we want to thank you. If you have not yet listed your name as a participant in the contest page please do so.

Please make sure to list the articles you have created or improved in the article achievements' section of the contest page, so that they can be easily tracked. To be able to claim prizes, please also ensure to list your articles on the users by articles page. We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:

  • Overall winner
    • 1st - $500
    • 2nd - $200
    • 3rd - $100
  • Diversity winner - $100
  • Gender-gap filler - $100
  • Language Winners - up to $100*

We are very excited about what has been achieved so far, but your contributions are still needed to further exceed all expectations! Let’s create more articles before the end of this contest, which is this November!!!

Thank you once again for being part of this global event! --Jamie Tubers (talk) 10:30, 06 November 2020 (UTC)

You can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

Wikidata weekly summary #441

Wikidata weekly summary #442

ikidata weekly summary #443

Wikidata weekly summary #444

Wikidata weekly summary #445

Wikidata weekly summary #446

Please double check

Hello Z. We edit conflicted here. My fixing the bare urls means some of your edits may have been lost. Apologies. Thanks for your work and have a nice week. MarnetteD|Talk 03:03, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

MarnetteD, thanks for the heads-up. Will check. Thanks also for your ongoing help filling in citations!
Small request: please can you hold off making those edits when a {{wip}} template is present? That way, we can avoid the risk of edit conflicts and surrounding confusion.
Thanks again, Zazpot (talk) 03:07, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
I can try but what would work best is to not put the fix bare url template on the article until you are completely done editing. Since I am not the only one who works on fixing them others won't know to look for the wip one. Cheers. MarnetteD|Talk 03:10, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
OK, I will try to remember to leave adding the {{bareurls}} template until last. That said, if you use a tool to help you identify which articles have that template present, perhaps the tool could be updated to exclude articles that also have {{wip}}? (If not using a tool, not to worry.) Zazpot (talk) 03:14, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
Ooof that is way above my knowledge. I suspect that won't be possible but you could always ask at the WP:VPT. cheers again :-) MarnetteD|Talk 03:29, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
MarnetteD, thanks for the suggestion. I may do that at some point. But first, can I ask how you find the pages that need cleanup? Do you use something like this and just visit the pages manually, or do you use a tool of some kind? Ta :-) Zazpot (talk) 03:35, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
When any of the variety of fix bare url templates is placed on an article it puts it in the Category:All articles with bare URLs for citations. That alerts us to go to that article and get the fix started. That is another reason to wait until you are done editing. Now that can mean done for the day rather than completely done with all the work you want to do on the article. I hope that helps. MarnetteD|Talk 03:43, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
Ah, OK, that seems like a different way to get the same page list. I'll chew this over. Thanks again, Zazpot (talk) 03:55, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
MarnetteD, turns out that my wikibreak had drained my brain, and since I came back I have been using {{wip}} where I should have been using {{in use}}. Can I ask: do you (or other wikipedians like you) still fill in refs on {{bareurls}} pages even if there is an {{in use}} template present? Zazpot (talk) 04:31, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
Your ping didn't work Z but I'm still here :-) AFAIK everyone who works on filling bare urls doesn't look at what other templates are on the page. Now I don't think this edit conflict problem is going to happen very often but it can be avoided completely if you don't put the fix bare url tag on the article until you are done with it. I apologize because I sense that isn't the answer you want. MarnetteD|Talk 05:01, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
MarnetteD Ah, it's not ideal, but I'm still grateful enough for your and others' assistance filling the citations that I don't feel I can complain too much about having to hold off with bareurl templates. Thanks for explaining :) Take care, Zazpot (talk) 05:07, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
Both of these pings worked :-) You are welcome Z. I hope that you have a pleasant weekend and that the rest of your 2020 goes smoothly - heaven knows the previous 11 months have been a real pain in the patoot. Cheers MarnetteD|Talk 05:24, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Zazpot/Security and privacy in computer systems moved to draftspace

Hi Zazpot, it looks like sending this article to mainspace might have been a misclick? I have taken the liberty of moving it into Draftspace at Draft:Security and privacy in computer systems, however if this is incorrect then please let me know and I'd be happy to move it again to wherever would be most useful for you. Thanks, --Jack Frost (talk) 02:33, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Jack Frost, yikes, I meant to create it at User:Zazpot/Security and privacy in computer systems, not Zazpot/Security and privacy in computer systems. Mea culpa! Thank you for catching it so fast and moving it out of mainspace, Zazpot (talk) 02:40, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Corrected some points but you marked them spammy

Hi,

The Background section has some inaccurate information, the "FTP server was not secure" is a grossly incorrect statement in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2020_United_States_federal_government_data_breach&action=edit&section=1 The FTP server had no known vulnerability and there is no evidence that states the FTP server was insecure, the credentials of that server were exposed.

I added some references that mention the exact vulnerability including the first source of that report, a GitHub exposure of FTP credentials, and you appear to have marked those articles which describe this in depth, as spammy and reverted them.

May I know why? — Preceding unsigned comment added by AviationKing (talkcontribs) 09:31, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

The FTP credential exposure was already mentioned in the article, and reliably sourced, so there was no need to change that.
As for your links: you posted three new links, and they were all to savebreach.com . Are you affiliated with savebreach.com? Zazpot (talk) 09:47, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
Pointing out that the "FTP server is not secure" notion is fundamentally wrong, it was a credential leak and not a case of insecure (insecure signifies vulnerable and unpatched) FTP server. Not affiliated with savebreach.com, but I found those articles on Twitter, turns out they actually interviewed the researcher Vinoth Kumar in those posts and the repository and configuration file which caused the leak are mentioned in that article, so its a reliable source I guess. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AviationKing (talkcontribs) 10:34, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
I'll address each of your substantive points.
  • Pointing out that the "FTP server is insecure" notion is fundamentally wrong, it was a credential leak and not a case of insecure (insecure signifies vulnerable and unpatched)...
The article says, "In November 2019, a security researcher had warned SolarWinds that their FTP server was not secure, warning that "any hacker could upload malicious [files]" that would then be distributed to SolarWinds customers." (The article also provides three sources for that claim, where the interested reader can verify that claim and find additional detail.)
So, either you're saying that a server whose credentials have leaked is secure; or you're saying that Wikipedia should specify not only that the FTP server was not secure, but also that the reason it was not secure was because SolarWinds had exposed credentials on GitHub. The former would be nonsense; the latter would be true but not WP:TERSE. The article is already borderline too technically detailed for many readers; let's not needlessly make it worse on that front.
  • Not affiliated
Just to be sure, have you read WP:COI?
  • turns out they actually interviewed the researcher Vinoth Kumar in those posts and the repository and configuration file which caused the leak are mentioned in that article, so its a reliable source I guess.
That does not make the website a WP:RS, and it does not make it not WP:LINKSPAM or WP:REFSPAM for you to repeatedly post links to it. Zazpot (talk) 10:56, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
Yes I wanted to mention the vulnerability because not secure is too vague (not secure would mean it had a vulnerability), it can imply that the server had a vulnerability but in this case it was an unintended exposure. The vulnerability happened due to a human error which I wanted to cite in the article. If I have an FTP secured with username and password, it technically is secure (unless we take into account other factors) but the fact that I unintentionally leak them in a public repo its a human error, like information disclosure. I wanted to make the article more technically accurate and not spammy because I think its too vague in its current state adding that it was a due to a credentials exposure on GitHub could make it more technically correct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AviationKing (talkcontribs) 11:14, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
  • not secure is too vague
Welcome to summary style.
  • not secure would mean it had a vulnerability
Not in the sense that you mean it. If your house is protected by a lock that can easily be picked, then it is not secure. But if the lock is fine, yet you leave copies of the key in plain sight on the front step for anyone to use anytime they like, then it is also not secure.
(Please sit down and think about this, if you need to, because I have already had to explain it to you twice. I'm pretty patient, but not infinitely.)
  • I wanted to make the article more technically accurate
You have yet to point out a way in which it was technically inaccurate.
  • and not spammy
In that case, the existing sources are perfectly adequate, aren't they? So why add the same one over and over again? Zazpot (talk) 11:25, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
  • FTP server was not secure
I would still differ, you don't have to explain again. But the wording is technically incorrect (if any source says this, its technically inaccurate). Take the following example, a Google employee exposes a Google Maps API key != Google Maps API server is not secure, Google Maps API server is secure but it's the end user/employee's fault to expose the API key. So, you should reword it to "A SolarWinds's employee exposed their FTP credentials" rather than what you wrote before to make it technically accurate.
I'm sorry, no. Integrity and authenticity are is a fundamental security propertyies. Legitimate SolarWinds users downloading files from SolarWinds's FTP server expected those files to have been created by SolarWinds, not by random strangers.
But as Vinoth Kumar said (source cited in article), by using the exposed credentials against the FTP server, "any hacker could upload malicious exe and update it with release [sic] SolarWinds product."
If you think that means the FTP server was still "secure", then you are clinging to a perversely narrow definition of "secure".
If you want to check whether I'm right, then here's an experiment you can perform. Publish the usernames and passwords to all your online accounts in highly visible locations like GitHub or on your social media accounts or whatever, leave the credentials unchanged, and see how long the accounts stay secure. (Obviously, it would be a bad idea to actually do this.)
I'm going to ask you to stop pestering me, now. Zazpot (talk) 13:29, 19 December 2020 (UTC); edited 13:46, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Relevance to northern saw-whet owl article

The section shows the increased news coverage of the species in pop culture since it was widely communicated event for a week. --Aspenbear (talk) 04:29, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Aspenbear, the article is not about pop culture, the article is about a species of owl. Pop culture is not very relevant to owls or their biology. This is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid. Zazpot (talk) 04:32, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
Aspenbear, also see WP:SUSTAINED and WP:LASTING. The section you are referring to meets neither of those criteria.
(To be clear, a new paint scheme for an airline is not notable re: owl biology. Maybe it is worth mentioning on the airline's page, if: it affects a substantial part of the fleet with all of the investment that implies for the airline, and if the fact has coverage in multiple WP:INDEPENDENT WP:RS.) Zazpot (talk) 04:41, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
I agree with your opinion of the Frontier airlines reference added by someone else. However, I thought the Rockefeller tree story is relevant since it objectively elevated the saw-whet owl's profile. --Aspenbear (talk) 05:40, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
Aspenbear, there was an objective temporary spike in coverage and awareness, yes. But that does not imply WP:SUSTAINED and WP:LASTING.
Please also see MOS:POPCULT and WP:WHATISTOBEDONE. If you were looking up the saw-whet owl in the Encyclopedia Britannica or even Encarta, I don't think you'd expect to find information about one owl that got stuck in a Christmas tree.
If you want to see what a good, encylopedic article about an owl species looks like, see e.g. barn owl. If you want to do something for Wikipedia and/or saw-whet owls, please strive towards something like that. Thanks, Zazpot (talk) 05:53, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #447

Wikidata weekly summary #448

About your message I received

"Hello, I'm Zazpot. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Uniqlo, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so."

That edit was done over 2 months ago and I had also already included reliable sources for it back then, so I'm not sure why you're sending me a message now. Seems rather pointless. 80.57.73.124 (talk) 00:53, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

You did not initially provide a reliable source, which is why another editor initially reverted your edits. Ideally, that editor would have warned you directly at the time, but they did not. When I saw that, I warned you myself, albeit belatedly. Zazpot (talk) 06:04, 29 December 2020 (UTC)
Initially I didn't, but I fixed it later so the message 2 months later was unnecessary. Seems a bit like you're flexing your power or something. 80.57.73.124 (talk) 23:09, 30 December 2020 (UTC)
I'm sorry you feel that way. As I say, ideally you would have been messaged at the time. Anyway, thank you for addressing the concern and sorry that the warnings came afterwards. Take care, Zazpot (talk) 01:43, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

IP block exempt

I have granted your account an exemption from IP blocking. This will allow you to edit the English Wikipedia through full blocks affecting your IP address when you are logged in.

Please read the page Wikipedia:IP block exemption carefully, especially the section on IP block exemption conditions. Inappropriate usage of this user right may result in revocation. I hope this will enhance your editing, and allow you to edit successfully and without disruption. Deryck C. 14:08, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #449

Rollback granted

 

I have granted the "rollbacker" permission to your account. After a review of some of your contributions, I believe you can be trusted to use rollback for its intended usage of reverting vandalism, and that you will not abuse it by reverting good-faith edits or to revert-war. For information on rollback, see Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Rollback and Wikipedia:Rollback feature. If you do not want rollback, contact me and I will remove it. Good luck and thanks. FASTILY 06:43, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

  You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:2021 storming of the United States Capitol § Capitol Police Officer dead by suicide. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:26, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Just want to clarify why I reverted your edit. The discussion about including this is still ongoing and it related content was removed before; so, it better to wait to see what consensus is established before re-adding it. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:28, 11 January 2021 (UTC)
@Marchjuly:, thanks for explaining. Zazpot (talk) 02:47, 11 January 2021 (UTC)