User talk:Ezhiki/2018

Latest comment: 5 years ago by Lea Lacroix (WMDE) in topic Wikidata weekly summary #344

Please comment on Talk:Cary Grant edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Cary Grant. Legobot (talk) 04:47, 1 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #293 edit

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).

 

  Administrator changes

  Muboshgu
  AnetodeLaser brainWorm That Turned
  None

  Bureaucrat changes

  Worm That Turned

  Guideline and policy news

  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

  Technical news

  Arbitration


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

SpacemanSpiff edit

Now on SIA Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Vyborgsky_District&diff=817855706&oldid=420181818 78.51.214.48 (talk) 23:46, 30 December 2017 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #294 edit

Wikidata weekly summary #295 edit

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Capital letters edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Capital letters. Legobot (talk) 04:35, 19 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #296 edit

Wikidata weekly summary #297 edit

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  None
  BlurpeaceDana boomerDeltabeignetDenelson83GrandioseSalvidrim!Ymblanter

  Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
  • Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

  Technical news

  • A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

  Arbitration


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:51, 4 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 4 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #298 edit

Red Army maps copyright edit

Dear Ezhiki, I wonder if you could advise on the possibility of using such Soviet maps in Wikipedia, e.g. could a free license be claimed for the map

http://loadmap.net/en/m11456

so that it could be uploaded in Wikimedia Commons and used for illustration purposes?

Apparently there used to be some relevant debate before, but it's been deleted so I am not aware of the current view on this matter. Best, Apcbg (talk) 09:13, 12 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

I'd love to help, but I'm not an expert on copyright. If you are going to upload this to the Commons, it would be best to ask there. You will definitely need to know what year these maps were published, though.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); February 12, 2018; 16:51 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll try to seek advice at the Commons; and no, that site gives no year of publication. Best, Apcbg (talk) 12:05, 13 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #299 edit

Speedy deletion nomination of Khlevny edit

 

A tag has been placed on Khlevny requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G6 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an orphaned disambiguation page which either

  • disambiguates only one extant Wikipedia page and whose title ends in "(disambiguation)" (i.e., there is a primary topic); or
  • disambiguates no (zero) extant Wikipedia pages, regardless of its title.

Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such pages may be deleted at any time. Please see the disambiguation page guidelines for more information.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. The Mighty Glen (talk) 12:47, 13 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #300 edit

Please comment on Talk:A Wizard of Earthsea edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:A Wizard of Earthsea. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 20 February 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #301 edit

14 years of editing, today edit

  Hey, Ezhiki. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day!
Chris Troutman (talk) 12:28, 1 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
 
Thanks! Here's to fourteen more, and then doing it all over again :)—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 1, 2018; 14:04 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  Lourdes
  AngelOfSadnessBhadaniChris 73CorenFridayMidomMike V
† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

  Guideline and policy news

  • The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
  • Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
  • A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
  • A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

  Technical news

  • CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
  • The edit filter has a new feature contains_all that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

  Miscellaneous

  Obituaries

  • Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Russian populated places set index edit

Hey Ezhiki!

I was randomming articles in boredom when I stumbled on a set index of Russian populated places called Mochalishche. I added coordinates for the one village that was missing. Thing is, I found another place called Mochalishche in Ukraine, it even has a Wikidata entry. I read some of the policy, but got pretty confused. Since you created the index, I thought I'd ask you: Should the index be replaced with a disambiguation page including the Ukranian location? Should there be a seperate disambiguation page? Should there not be a disambiguation page at all? Hecseur (talk) 16:21, 3 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Hi, @Hecseur:! Yeah, these can get tricky sometimes. You have to look at each case individually. In general, yes, when a set index on Russian localities conflicts with entities of a different type (but the same name), the best way to handle that is to move the set index to a title conforming to WP:NC:CITY#Russia and create a disambiguation page under the vacated title (from which the set index would be linked, as well as all those other entities). When a conflict is with just one other entity, then it's often sufficient to just leave the set index where it is but add a hatnote on top linking to that entity. If the Ukrainian Mochalischche had an article in the English Wikipedia, this would have been the best course of action in this particular case. However, since it doesn't have one (nor does Mochalishche, Ukraine even meet the disambiguation page red link requirements), there really isn't anything we can do about it until that article is written. Guidelines clearly discourage placement of red links in hatnotes. Hope this helps, but let me know if anything is still unclear. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 5, 2018; 16:14 (UTC)
I think the best course of action will be to start creating new articles for these villages. I know the Ukrainian Mochalishche has an article on the Ukrainian Wiki which I can use to build an article on the English Wikipedia. Honestly it's past time these red links will get 'blued'. Thanks for all the help! You really helped a struggling Wikipedian out! Hecseur (talk) 16:58, 7 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
Happy to help! And as a matter of fact, encouraging the creation of new articles is one of the reasons we even bother with these set indices in the first place :)—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 7, 2018; 19:42 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #302 edit

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Military history edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Military history. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 9 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #303 edit

Use WP:EPON edit

Hello. Please read carefully WP:EPON for categorization of cities/towns.

91.124.117.29 (talk) 19:58, 13 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Actually, this is one piece of advice you should heed yourself. I've left you a message on your talk page; you might want to stop what you are doing and give it a more thorough thought. Best,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 13, 2018; 20:00 (UTC)
Don't add category like "Populated place established in X" for that cities' categories. Because the only main article (name_of_town) related to such category (subcats are unrelated). You were reverted many times not by me, see [1] 91.124.117.29 (talk) 20:10, 13 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • From WP:EPON. There are three options:
  1. Keep both the eponymous category and the main article in the parent category. This is used in Category:Western Europe to allow that region's country articles to be navigated together. This rule is used for all geographic categories (town and cities) now.
  2. Keep just the child article. This is used in Category:British Islands, to prevent a loop. No any loops in discussed categories.
  3. Keep just the eponymous category. This is used for Category:Farmworkers in Category:People by occupation. Such "X by Y" categories sometimes cover a limited navigational set, not a topic (see #Category tree organization), thus there is no logical article content. There are no "X by Y" categories in the involved category tree.

So, the first option is used for cities categories. 91.124.117.29 (talk) 20:19, 13 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

When supercats like "Populated place established in X" are added to a category (eponymous or otherwise), they refer solely to that category, not to every article that category contains (otherwise we would hardly ever be able to add any subcategory to a category—you work up the category tree, not down). It is that idea one must keep in mind when considering how to build a category tree.
The Moscow revert you cited is related to the ongoing re-organization of categories dealing with establishment years and is not in the same league as what you are doing. And most other examples you might be able to find are going to almost always be one-time deals similar to your activities, where the structure is changed with no regard to the big picture.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 13, 2018; 20:26 (UTC)
On the "three options", there is no guidance as to which areas of knowledge these options are to be applied; only examples. If you read WP:EPON closely and carefully (an advice I started with), you'll see that's where the "editor consensus" part kicks in. Once the "[t]his rule is used for all geographic categories (town and cities) now" part you added above becomes an actual part of the guideline, then there will be no reason to argue with you; until then you don't really have an argument, only an opinion.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 13, 2018; 20:26 (UTC)
For example, the Region (Oblast, Krai) has own category with 15 cities. For example, only four or five of them have an own eponymous categories. If we use Option 3, we have 10 related articles (not all cities!) and 5 subcategories. If we use Option 1, we have 15 cities (all cities!) and 5 subcategories in it. WP:EPON said Keep both the eponymous category and the main article in the parent category... to allow that region's country articles to be navigated together. When the reader navigated the category, what is better? When he had 10 (Option 3) or all 15 (Option 1) cities articles in it? Why you are for Option 3? 91.124.117.29 (talk) 20:42, 13 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
I personally don't see one option being better than another. Categories grow, and eventually this example will have fifteen (eponymous) categories and no (individual) articles. Until that happens, we'd have a mix of articles (without eponymous categories) and categories. All fifteen entities are included in both cases, so where's the problem?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 19, 2018; 16:14 (UTC)
The problem is to allow that region's country articles to be navigated together. When they are hidden in respective subcategories, they aren't navigated together. In other case, it's a very hard for readers to define the number of correct entities in the category and to receive the full list of entities. When all N=38 cities included (and none missed), then a reader knows, N=38 cities are located in that region. As of now, as I can see, the rule is used in most cases in the geogrpaphic tree, see for example Category:Capitals in Europe, Category:Cities and towns in Norway, Category:Cities in South West England, Category:Central European countries etc. 91.124.117.29 (talk) 15:26, 20 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #304 edit

Semikarakorsky District edit

So the subdistricts are not supposed to be linked from the district that contains them? Dr. Vogel (talk) 14:25, 22 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

No, it's not that. If lower divisions are linked properly, that's great. The problem here was that it was easier to kill the whole section wholesale than to fix it. For one, the terminology should match what's used elsewhere—we are not, for example, using "subdistrict" or "rural district" in the context of Russia. It wasn't even matching the infobox information. Then, the links seem to be not to the selsoviets (called "rural settlements" in Rostov Oblast, which this district is a part of), but to individual rural localities, which is not at all the same thing. And even the localities were not being linked the same way they are being linked in other articles. In all, there is a lot of background work that needs to be done before these kind of lists can be added easily; at this point they would just be creating a maintenance backlog and confuse readers.
Let me know if you have questions; I'll be happy to elaborate. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 22, 2018; 14:34 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Comedian edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Comedian. Legobot (talk) 04:27, 25 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #305 edit

Translation help edit

Hello. I'm trying to verify whether a whaling station was built on Big Shantar Island in the 19th century. I haven't found anything in English and most of the whaling done there was by Americans. An old steam engine on the island has been variously identified as belonging to either a Russian American Company or just American whaling station. I found two news articles (both in Russian) which appear to say a Soviet-era military settlement existed on the island. I don't entirely trust Google translate (it likes to translate a certain word into "giraffe" for some reason), so I was wondering if you could verify this? They're both short articles. I'd be grateful for any assistance you could provide me. Here are the articles in question: here and here. ST1849 (talk) 20:40, 28 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

I've looked at both articles, and unfortunately neither one mentions a whaling station (or anything about the 19th century history). The first article says that the "larger islands" of the archipelago are uninhabited (except for the personnel of the weather station), but there used to be "military townlets" and "Soviet-era settlements" there, which have since been abandoned. The second article specifically states that Bolshoy Shantar used to house a military unit. No word on the island giraffe population, sadly :)
Hope this helps and let me know if you need anything further.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 28, 2018; 20:57 (UTC)
Thanks. I should've been more clear. Google translate didn't mention any whaling stations either. It's just that the image in the first article has been floating around on other sites as what is left of an American whaling station. I just wanted to know if the articles indeed mentioned the Soviet-era settlements. Thanks for verifying that. I'm starting to wonder if they just tell tourists it's an abandoned whaling station because that sounds more interesting than a lonely military outpost? So far I've found no documentary evidence to back up that claim. ST1849 (talk) 22:20, 28 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
Here's one of the websites that associates that steam engine with an American whaling station and mentions those elusive giraffes. ST1849 (talk) 23:38, 28 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, that one describes the whaling aspect in a great deal of detail, but while I have no reasons to doubt the source's veracity, it doesn't look it could qualify as a reliable source (it is an article published on a TV network site, which would normally be OK, but it is in their "blogs" section, which is not). The "giraffe", incidentally, refers to a whale fat-melting device (and I honestly have no clue why google decided to translate this term so). It was identified as previously abandoned by American (as in US American) poachers by the Khabarovsk branch of the All-Russian Preservation Society of Historical and Cultural Monuments, so perhaps that would be a good lead to continue with the research?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 29, 2018; 15:07 (UTC)
Oh, I know. I don't trust any news site/blog written in English, let alone Russian. The problem is you can't use Google translate on books or peer-reviewed papers. I'll see if that preservation society has an English-language email I can contact. Thanks for all the translation help. ST1849 (talk) 18:12, 29 March 2018 (UTC)Reply
If it helps, the Society's website is http://voopik.ru, and the page for the Khabarovsk branch is http://voopik.ru/region/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=246. Not much information there, but they do have an email listed, if you want to pursue that route. If you manage to stumble upon anything else useful that you need translation help with, feel free to contact me again. Best,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); March 29, 2018; 18:52 (UTC)
Ok. Thanks for the link. ST1849 (talk) 19:01, 29 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  331dotCordless LarryClueBot NG
  Gogo DodoPb30SebastiankesselSeicerSoLando

  Guideline and policy news

  • Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
  • Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
  • The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
  • The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

  Technical news

  Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

  Miscellaneous

  • A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #306 edit

Gritsovsky edit

Hi. I just added the article on Gritsovsky, and noticed that your sandbox had a link to it. Are you, or do you know someone who is, good with infoboxes? --Bejnar (talk) 23:09, 3 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

I'll take care of it in the next couple of days. Thanks for letting me know (and for creating the stub). Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); April 4, 2018; 02:30 (UTC)
You indicated that "urban-type settlements should not be included with cities and towns". Yet the article on Urban-type settlement indicates that This type of locality has been used in all 15 member republics of the former Soviet Union since 1922 when it replaced a number of terms which could have been translated by the English term "town" .... Gritsovsky is a little bigger in size than the US town that I grew up in was. Having a hospital is more than many small towns in the US have, much less a refrigerator factory. So, could you tell me why an "urban-type settlement" should not be considered a town? The satellite view certainly looks like a town. Or is the English word "town" just entirely inappropriate when talking about Russian settlements smaller than a city? If not a town, could/should there be a subsection or subsections of the {{Tula Oblast}} template for other settlements, comparable to the {{Socorro County, New Mexico}} template? Should the top settlement section have only cities? Where would be an appropriate place to discuss this? --Bejnar (talk) 23:52, 10 April 2018 (UTC)Reply
Well, just because the term can be translated as "town" doesn't mean the place is a town... "Urban-type settlement" is a very specific connotation (and by definition, an urban-type settlement is not a town, but an urban entity roughly between a town proper and a rural locality), but since the concept itself is very much Russia- and former Soviet Union-specific and has no apparent equivalents in Western countries, "town" is an acceptable translation when a place needs to be identified as something, but where an exact designation does not really matter (such as in a news coverage for an area where an urban-type settlement is located). In Wikipedia articles dealing with Russian geography, however, the designation does in fact matter.
You are completely right about the Tula Oblast template needing another section, though. I was going through those templates before, but never made it to Tula Oblast (see, for example, {{Republic of Bashkortostan}} or {{Sakha Republic}}). I'd be happy to add a section to Tula Oblast's template if you wish; just let me know. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); April 12, 2018; 14:46 (UTC)
Yes, please. --Bejnar (talk) 16:36, 20 April 2018 (UTC)Reply
I've added them. I also just remembered that a bunch of urban-type settlements in Tula Oblast (Gritsovsky included) were demoted to a rural status a few years ago. The list now in {{Tula Oblast}} is current.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); April 24, 2018; 14:15 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Infobox Russian city/doc edit

 Template:Infobox Russian city/doc has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:26, 6 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Please comment on Talk:Germanic peoples edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Germanic peoples. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 9 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #307 edit

Wikidata weekly summary #308 edit

Wikidata weekly summary #309 edit

Please comment on Talk:Mark Weisbrot edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Mark Weisbrot. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 25 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Hello, from the Portals WikiProject... edit

You are invited to join the effort to revitalize and improve the Portal system...

The Portals WikiProject was rebooted 9 days ago, and is going strong. Fifty-two editors have joined so far, with more joining daily.

We're having a blast, and excitement is high...

Our goal is to update, upgrade, and maintain portals.

In addition to working directly on portals, we are developing tools to make building and maintaining portals easier. We've finished one so far, with more to come.

Discussions are underway about how to upgrade portals, and what the portals of the future will be.

There are plenty of tasks (including WikiGnome tasks too) on the WikiProject page.

With more to come.

We may even surprise ourselves and exceed all expectations. Who knows what we will be able to accomplish in what may become the biggest Wikicollaboration in years.

See ya at the WikiProject!

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   03:22, 27 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

I won't be joining, but best of luck to y'all with this endeavor.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); April 27, 2018; 13:19 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #310 edit

Administrators' newsletter – May 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  None
  ChochopkCoffeeGryffindorJimpKnowledge SeekerLankiveilPeridonRjd0060

  Guideline and policy news

  • The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
  • A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

  Technical news

  • AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
  • When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
  • The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
  • There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

  Arbitration

  Obituaries

  • Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:05, 2 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #311 edit

Iskateley edit

I created this stub and will work on it in the coming days. For the Nenets AO, I do not have a slightest idea what its divisions are (and Administrative divisions of Nenets Autonomous Okrug does not help much), but if you have expert knowledge (I am sure you have) and time (I am less sure) may be you could add an infobox with proper references and write a section on administratiove status? Thanks a lot.--Ymblanter (talk) 11:02, 8 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

It's been hard finding time to do anything meaningful around Wikipedia for me lately (and I'm not sure when this situation will improve), but I will certainly add your request at the top of my to-do list. However, please feel free to take a stab at this task yourself if it takes me longer than a reasonable amount of time to get to it.
As for NAO's administrative structure, it is pretty straightforward. Naryan-Mar is incorporated as a town of okrug significance, and the rest of NAO's territory comprises Zapolyarny District. (On the municipal divisions side, those correspond to Naryan-Mar Urban Okrug and Zapolyarny Municipal District). The (administrative) district is further divided into eighteen selsoviets and one urban-type settlement of district significance (that would be Iskateley), which municipally correspond 1:1 to rural settlements and an urban settlement. The administrative divisions are enumerated in this law, which you can probably find online (or feel free to shoot me an email and I'll be happy to send you a Word copy of the latest revision). Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); May 8, 2018; 15:57 (UTC)
Great, thank you very much. I will do whatever I can do, and checking hopefully takes less time than creation from zero.--Ymblanter (talk) 17:33, 8 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
I believe I have fixed the references.--Ymblanter (talk) 07:31, 16 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
An unrelated question: in some subject templates we have first cities/towns, then urban-type settlements, and then districts (sometimes we have federal-level settlements but I am not now talking about them); in other templates we have first cities/towns, then districts, and then urban-type settlements. We probably should come with a unified design; I believe it is more logical to have urban-type settlements between towns and districts. What do you think about it?--Ymblanter (talk) 07:34, 16 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
We used to have separate templates for districts and for cities/towns, and I think when I was merging them, I was mostly using city/town templates as a starting point, but since I wasn't merging them all in one sitting, in some of them cities/towns ended up at the top, and in others in the middle. You are right, of course, that a consistent approach would be an improvement. I would think a top-down approach—listing districts, then cities/towns, then urban-type settlements—makes most sense (with the ZATOs being listed either last, or between the districts and cities/towns), but I guess as long as everything is consistent across the board, it doesn't matter all that much. If you want to change these templates to use a certain order, I sure am not going to complain. Thanks!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); May 16, 2018; 16:13 (UTC)
Good, thanks. Let is make it districts -> ZATO -> towns -> urban-type settlements then. I will change them (I am adding the urban-type settlements where they are missing anyway).--Ymblanter (talk) 06:01, 17 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Music edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Music. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 11 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Khabarovsk Oblast edit

Hi Ezhiki!! Kges1901 has tried to assist your great efforts by creating this article. I'm sure he was specifically thinking of your Far Eastern heritage ;) Please amend/change as required.. Buckshot06 (talk) 08:47, 19 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Please comment on Talk:Forever alone edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Forever alone. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 27 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Administrators' newsletter – June 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  None
  Al Ameer sonAliveFreeHappyCenariumLupoMichaelBillington

  Guideline and policy news

  Technical news

  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
  • There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
  • It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

  Arbitration

  • A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

  Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:59, 1 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Please comment on Talk:Succession to the British throne edit

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Succession to the British throne. Legobot (talk) 04:31, 11 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Administrators' newsletter – July 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  PbsouthwoodTheSandDoctor
  Gogo Dodo
  AndrevanDougEVulaKaisaLTony FoxWilyD

  Bureaucrat changes

  AndrevanEVula

  Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

  Technical news

  • Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
  • Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon ( ) in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

  Miscellaneous

  • Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

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July 2018 edit

  Hello. It appears your talk page is becoming quite lengthy and is in need of archiving. According to Wikipedia's user talk page guidelines; "Large talk pages become difficult to read, strain the limits of older browsers, and load slowly over slow internet connections. As a rule of thumb, archive closed discussions when a talk page exceeds 75 KB or has multiple resolved or stale discussions." - this talk page is 1425.7 KB. See Help:Archiving a talk page for instructions on how to manually archive your talk page, or to arrange for automatic archiving using a bot. If you have any questions, place a {{help me}} notice on your talk page, or go to the help desk. Thank you. --Jax 0677 (talk) 17:12, 26 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Interested in translating some articles for WP:WIR's event this month? edit

Hello! Would you be interested in translating some articles from Russian to English for WP:WIR's event this month? I have a list of links of indigenous women missing from the en-wiki that I've been collected forever and it'd be nice to get some more of them translated. And if you know anyone else that would be interested, please feel free to let them know! -Yupik (talk) 03:51, 2 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  Sro23
  KaisaLYmblanter

  Guideline and policy news

  • After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
  • Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.

  Technical news


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:31, 5 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Administrators' newsletter – September 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  None
  AsterionCrisco 1492KFKudpungLizRandykittySpartaz
  Optimist on the runVoice of Clam

  Interface administrator changes

  AmorymeltzerMr. StradivariusMusikAnimalMSGJTheDJXaosflux

  Guideline and policy news

  • Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

  Technical news

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
  • Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title.
  • Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age.

  Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

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A barnstar for you! edit

  The Original Barnstar
thanks for your contribution on improving Russian-relate Wikipedia articles La.ph (talk) 19:17, 9 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Administrators' newsletter – October 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  JustlettersandnumbersL235
  BgwhiteHorsePunchKidJ GrebKillerChihuahuaRami RWinhunter

  Interface administrator changes

  Cyberpower678Deryck ChanOshwahPharosRagesossRitchie333

  Oversight changes

  Guerillero NativeForeigner SnowolfXeno

  Guideline and policy news

  Technical news

  • Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
  • Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

  Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
  • The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
  • Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
  • Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

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Gone? edit

Are you still with us on enwiki? Haven't seen you edit for a while. I'm finding it difficult to dedicate as much time as I used to, but I hope you haven't gone for good. Fenix down (talk) 16:05, 28 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Yes :)—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); October 1, 2020; 15:34 (UTC)

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Administrators' newsletter – November 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2018).

  Guideline and policy news

  Technical news

  • Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
  • A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
  • The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

  Arbitration

  • Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
  • The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:18, 3 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

Nomination for deletion of Template:Infobox Russian inhabited locality edit

 Template:Infobox Russian inhabited locality has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. eh bien mon prince (talk) 19:22, 3 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

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ArbCom 2018 election voter message edit

Hello, Ezhiki. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible 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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #339 edit

Nomination for deletion of Template:Infobox Russian city district edit

 Template:Infobox Russian city district has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. eh bien mon prince (talk) 15:49, 24 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

Nomination for deletion of Template:Infobox Russian district edit

 Template:Infobox Russian district has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. eh bien mon prince (talk) 15:57, 25 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

Wikidata weekly summary #340 edit

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018 edit

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018).

 

  Administrator changes

  Al Ameer sonRandykittySpartaz
  BosonDaniel J. LeivickEfeEsanchez7587Fred BauderGarzoMartijn HoekstraOrangemike

  Interface administrator changes

 Deryck Chan

  Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
  • A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
  • A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

  Technical news

  Arbitration

  Miscellaneous

  • In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
  • Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

  Obituaries


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)Reply

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