User talk:NJA/Archive 11

This will be an archive of past discussions from NJA's talk page for the months of December 2013 - 2 December 2018. Please do not edit or add to this page. If you wish to leave a new comment, please do so by clicking here. < 10 (October 2010 - 1 December 2013) | 11 (2 Dec 2013 - 31 Dec 2018) | > 12 (1 Jan 2019 - 18 Sep 2019)

GAN December 2013 Backlog Drive

Hello! Just a friendly reminder that the GAN Backlog Drive has begun and will end on December 31, 2013! If you know anyone outside of the WikiProject that may be interested, feel free to invite them to the drive! If you have any questions or want to comment about something regarding the drive, post them here--EdwardsBot (talk) 00:03, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive

It's that time again! Starting on March 1, there will be another GAN Backlog Drive! There will be several changes compared to previous drives:

• This drive will introduce a new component to it; a point system. In a nutshell, older nominations are worth more points than newer nominations. The top 3 participants who have the points will be awarded the Golden, Silver, or Bronze Wikipedia Puzzle Piece Trophy, respectively.
• Unlike the December 2013 Backlog Drive, earning an additional barnstar if you reached your goal has been removed.
• The allowance to have insufficient reviews has been lowered to 2 before being disqualified.
• An exception to the rule that all reviews must be completed before the deadline has been created.

Also, something that I thought I would share with all of you is that we raised $20.88 (USD) for the WMF in the December 2013 drive. It may not sound like a lot but considering that that was raised just because we reviewed articles, I would say that's pretty good! With that success, pledges can be made for the upcoming drive if you wish.

More info regarding the drive and full descriptions regarding the changes to this drive can be found on the the drive page. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message on the drive talk page.

I look forward to your participation and hope that because of it, some day the backlog will be gone!

--Dom497

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:58, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

GAN March 2014 Backlog Drive

The March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive has begun and will end on April 1, 2014! Sent by Dom497 on behalf of MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:01, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject Good articles Future GAN Backlog Drive

Hello everyone! Hope you've all been having a great summer!

TheQ Editor recently proposed the idea of having another Backlog Drive in either September/October or November/December of this year. For those of you who have participated in the past two drives you know I was the one who organized them, however, come September, this will be my most important year in school so I will not be able to coordinate this drive (if it happens). TheQ Editor has volunteered to be a coordinator for the drive. If any of you would like to co-coordinator, please notify TheQ Editor on his talk page.

If you would be interested in participating in a Backlog Drive sometime before the end of this year, please notify TheQ Editor. Also, make sure to specify what month(s) work best for you.

At the time this message was sent out, the backlog was at 520 nominations. Since May, the backlog has been steadily increasing and we are currently near an all time high. Even though the backlog will not disappear over one drive, this drive can lead to several others which will (hopefully) lead to the day where there is no longer a backlog.

As always, the more participants, the better, and everyone is encouraged to participate!

Sent by Dom497--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

GA Cup

Hello everyone! We hope you have all been having a great summer!

As we all know, the recent GAN Backlog Drives have not had any big impact on the backlog. Because of that, me (Dom497), Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor have worked on an idea that could possibly finally put a dent into the massive backlog. Now, I will admit, the idea isn't entirely ours as we have took the general idea of the WikiCup and brought it over to WikiProject Good Articles. But anyways, here's what we have in mind:

For all of you that do not know what the WikiCup is, it is an annual competition between several editors to see who can get the most Good Articles, Featured Article's, Did You Know's, etc. Based of this, we propose to you the GA Cup. This competition will only focus on reviewing Good articles.

For more info on the proposal, click here. As a FYI, the proposal page is not what the final product will look like (if you do go ahead with this idea). It will look very similar to WikiCup's page(s).

The discussion for the proposal will take place here. Please let us know if you are interested, have any concerns, things to consider, etc.

--Dom497, Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:29, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject Good Articles - GA Cup

WikiProject Good Articles's 2014-15 GA Cup WikiProject Good articles is holding a new competition, the GA Cup, from October 1, 2014 - March 28, 2015. The Cup will be based on reviewing Good article nominations; for each review, points will be awarded with bonuses for older nominations, longer articles and comprehensive reviews. All participants will start off in one group and the highest scoring participants will go through to the second round. At the moment six rounds are planned, but this may change based on participant numbers. Some of you may ask: what is the purpose for a competition of this type? Currently, there is a backlog of about 500 unreviewed Good article nominations, almost an all time high. It is our hope that we can decrease the backlog in a fun way, through friendly competition. Everyone is welcome to join; new and old editors! Sign-ups will be open until October 15, 2014 so sign-up now! If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ page and/or contact one of the four judges. Cheers from NickGibson3900, Dom497, TheQ Editor and Figureskatingfan. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:04, 15 September 2014 (UTC) To receive future GA Cup newsletter, please add your name to our mailing list.

Message from Nij4829

I am not wishing to tread on anyone's toes or cause any friction, but I created a page earlier which was removed by because the admin thinks I was promoting or advertising and received a warning that I could get banned.

This was my first creation, and was in no way meant as a promotion or advertising, it was simply a page for a grassroots motor sport that I appreciate. I can on reflection see his issues with it, but they were a honest mistake. I would like the chance to rectify this if at all possible.

Sorry for any issues caused — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nij4829 (talk • contribs) 18:10, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

If this in regard to the Modstox page, no worries. NJA (t/c) 09:26, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Alan Roger Currie vs. Alan Roger Currie (American author)

Hi, I noticed that you were an admin involved in a deletion decision for the article Alan Roger Currie several years ago. Well, the article is back, this time as Alan Roger Currie (American author). I have gone over the references, and they appear legit to me, but I don't understand why the article was not recreated under Alan Roger Currie unless the page creator is trying to avoid another deletion discussion (which, if the refs are legit, shouldn't matter, no?). I attempted to contact the admin who closed the most recent (second) deletion discussion for Alan Roger Currie, but it looks like he vanished from Wikipedia five years ago and hasn't been seen since. Anyhow, something about this seems a bit fishy to me, and I wanted to ask someone with more authority than me to consider looking into it. Would you be willing to check it out? Thanks! KDS4444^Talk 22:02, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, I've had a look and agree it should be Alan Roger Currie vs the page likely created to avoid deletion so I moved it. Couldn't justify deletion upon reading it but I did tag it for a few issues I found. Cheers. NJA (t/c) 08:46, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for the change from Alan Roger Currie (American author) to simply Alan Roger Currie Chicago Smooth (talk) 14:19, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Invitation to subscribe to the edit filter mailing list

Hi, as a user in the edit filter manager user group we wanted to let you know about the new wikipedia-en-editfilters mailing list. As part of our recent efforts to improve the use of edit filters on the English Wikipedia it has been established as a venue for internal discussion by edit filter managers regarding private filters (those only viewable by administrators and edit filter managers) and also as a means by which non-admins can ask questions about hidden filters that wouldn't be appropriate to discuss on-wiki. As an edit filter manager we encourage you to subscribe; the more users we have in the mailing list the more useful it will be to the community. If you subscribe we will send a short email to you through Wikipedia to confirm your subscription, but let us know if you'd prefer another method of verification. I'd also like to take the opportunity to invite you to contribute to the proposed guideline for edit filter use at WP:Edit filter/Draft and the associated talk page. Thank you! Sam Walton (talk) and MusikAnimal ^talk 18:22, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks I shall take a look :) NJA (t/c) 06:33, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedians who are indefinitely blocked for a violation of the username policy

Category:Wikipedians who are indefinitely blocked for a violation of the username policy, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 05:02, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability 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, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:41, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Requesting rollback

The user Helmoony is mass-removing "Tunisian arabic" in articles that was in place since several months. after the debate in Tunisia portal in september, an admin finally decided to grant the mention of Tunisian arabic for the names of people and places. Things were so settled since then, but the user Helmoony is recently removing all the mentions, could you please do something about it ? Thank you.Zangouang (talk) 16:22, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I see you messaged many admins, some of whom correctly noted to report to WP:ANI including links to articles and proper diffs. However, as you mentioned a request for rollback, I checked your account which is relatively new and fails in-between sock blocks for accounts used for a master User: Exacrion (though the last name being User:Tounsimentounes blocked 4 Jan 2016 for sock puppetry). After a look through that names' contribs and style, and others related to Exacrion, I believe more than reasonably your account is a sock puppet for the aforementioned reasons. Should an unblock request be lodged and or a checkuser be requested and either finding differ from mine I am happy for another admin to unblock. NJA (t/c) 07:49, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Jimarey

Five or six years later, Jimarey is return as an IP 82.53.179.230 to focus on Chris Brown and others. 123.136.111.95 (talk) 08:20, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for your post. I've blocked the IP for disruptive editing, but that's for 31 hours. I cannot do a investigation at this time, therefore if you believe it to be a true sock then report at WP:SPI for action. NJA (t/c) 08:21, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Autopatrol

Thank you approving my request.Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 09:28, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Yemeni module

It is too false. The problem is in the module not in template. Kiluminati could be a Wikipedia:Single-purpose account. The account appeared in December and he speaks of vandalism. It removes sources such as Masdar speaking advances loyalists and source map with Al Masira , official media Houthi . This is unacceptable. I gave a source. --Panam2014 (talk) 18:29, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Source or not you don't 3RR. Stick with what I suggested, i.e. discuss or seek third party assistance as edit warrin is more trouble than it's worth. NJA (t/c) 23:12, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi

Could you treat the request here ? Regards. --Panam2014 (talk) 20:42, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

For more, you could see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring#User:Panam2014 reported by User:K!lluminati (Result: Restriction in lieu of block) and Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring#User:Panam2014 reported by User:K!lluminati (Result: Restriction in lieu of block) and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard#Pov pushing of Kiluminati in Module:Yemeni Civil War detailed map. The problem is very serious. --Panam2014 (talk) 20:58, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

I am away on holiday update the report at the 3RR board and another admin can review. If you believe there’s sockpupptery involved, also make a report at that board and cite your evidence for a review. Best wishes. NJA (t/c) 06:55, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

First, have a good holiday.Second Kiluminati doesn't respect the 3RR. For that, he should be Warned. Could you re open the request or permit me to re open a new. The Kiluminati's 3RR : [1], [2], [3]. The edit introduced by Kiluminati : [4], [5]. The map before the edit : [6]. Clearly, he has violated 3RR. After your come back, could you warn ou block him. Vous know the problem so I think you could resolve the problem. And the problem is serous. Regards. Panam2014 (talk) 10:51, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Numbers.png

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Numbers.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 12:23, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Extended confirmed protection

Hello, NJA. This message is intended to notify administrators of important changes to the protection policy.

Extended confirmed protection (also known as "30/500 protection") is a new level of page protection that only allows edits from accounts at least 30 days old and with 500 edits. The automatically assigned "extended confirmed" user right was created for this purpose. The protection level was created following this community discussion with the primary intention of enforcing various arbitration remedies that prohibited editors under the "30 days/500 edits" threshold to edit certain topic areas.

In July and August 2016, a request for comment established consensus for community use of the new protection level. Administrators are authorized to apply extended confirmed protection to combat any form of disruption (e.g. vandalism, sock puppetry, edit warring, etc.) on any topic, subject to the following conditions:

• Extended confirmed protection may only be used in cases where semi-protection has proven ineffective. It should not be used as a first resort.
• A bot will post a notification at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard of each use. MusikBot currently does this by updating a report, which is transcluded onto the noticeboard.

Please review the protection policy carefully before using this new level of protection on pages. Thank you.
This message was sent to the administrators' mass message list. To opt-out of future messages, please remove yourself from the list. 17:48, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

For all your countless hours online! 107.77.230.98 (talk) 20:23, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

thanks for the pic of cat sex! NJA (t/c) 08:49, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Nomination

This turkey nominated me for adminship as well. Jim1138 (talk) 08:42, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Queue the movie scene of the actress (let's add an American southern accent too as I'm already flipping sexes) being all like "oh my, I didn't even know I was up for consideration". I unsure whether to consider this vandalism or not - whatcha' think? Strange I've been low key lately admin wise. Always a pleasure though. And no whomever you are with the flattering cat sex pics and nominations I won't date you or accidentally post with my IP to let you hack away. NJA (t/c) 08:59, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Well, I could re-nominate you! Jim1138 (talk) 09:35, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

thanks for that, but I respectfully decline at this stage. Thank you 😊 NJA (t/c) 10:15, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Ancient Aliens talk.

You wrote to me yesterday ;

FYI I removed your addition from a while back citing an episode 16 “The Alien Hunters” for season 11. Neither the link you provided to History Channel’s site, nor anywhere on the internet I could find gives a result for such an episode. Cheers. NJA (t/c) 11:34, 3 November 2016 (UTC).

Actually, it's very weird whats going on with that particularly episode. By the way, History Channel's website isn't the best source in my mind for lot of reasons. If you are a meticulous person you surely saw the lot of errors actually on their website like Season-51 and their logo missing in half and so on for only saying a few of. It needs to be resolved (case) and per say, that episode The Alien Hunters is playing a lot here in Canada via Corus Services Providers (Bell) and that episode have the new opening theme (2016 season) and the air date is 2016. I recently wrote (last week) to Giorgio A. Tsoukalos about that but no responses yet. If you can help further with this case, please go ahead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phylyp (talk • contribs) 15:05, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

I believe this is possible, however, and as stated initially on your talk page: I cannot find this episode anywhere. I’ve even tried Corus’s website per your suggestion, AA’s facebook and nothing at all. I even checked Jason Colavito’s site (he does debunk articles on each AA episode). Nowhere can I find a legitimate reference to an episode 16 to season 11 entitled “The Alien Hunters”. If you can find an legitimate source e.g. from a TV network; the show itself (social media, etc), a recap from a reputable site) then add it, though perhaps with the caveat of what appears to be a very limited release. NJA (t/c) 07:12, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

Two-Factor Authentication now available for admins

Hello,

Please note that TOTP based two-factor authentication is now available for all administrators. In light of the recent compromised accounts, you are encouraged to add this additional layer of security to your account. It may be enabled on your preferences page in the "User profile" tab under the "Basic information" section. For basic instructions on how to enable two-factor authentication, please see the developing help page for additional information. Important: Be sure to record the two-factor authentication key and the single use keys. If you lose your two factor authentication and do not have the keys, it's possible that your account will not be recoverable. Furthermore, you are encouraged to utilize a unique password and two-factor authentication for the email account associated with your Wikimedia account. This measure will assist in safeguarding your account from malicious password resets. Comments, questions, and concerns may be directed to the thread on the administrators' noticeboard. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:33, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

A new user right for New Page Patrollers

Hi NJA.

A new user group, New Page Reviewer, has been created in a move to greatly improve the standard of new page patrolling. The user right can be granted by any admin at PERM. It is highly recommended that admins look beyond the simple numerical threshold and satisfy themselves that the candidates have the required skills of communication and an advanced knowledge of notability and deletion. Admins are automatically included in this user right.

It is anticipated that this user right will significantly reduce the work load of admins who patrol the performance of the patrollers. However,due to the complexity of the rollout, some rights may have been accorded that may later need to be withdrawn, so some help will still be needed to some extent when discovering wrongly applied deletion tags or inappropriate pages that escape the attention of less experienced reviewers, and above all, hasty and bitey tagging for maintenance. User warnings are available here but very often a friendly custom message works best.

If you have any questions about this user right, don't hesitate to join us at WT:NPR. (Sent to all admins).MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:47, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, NJA. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

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 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

• New response for your last reply of the November 4th 2016. *

Topic : Ancient Aliens episodes (Listing amendments)

First, sorry for that delay and secondly thanks for your last one.

I finally resolved (in a way) that mystery episode named « The Alien Hunters ». It was a particularly episode specially formulated for the first « Alien Con » event. (https://twitter.com/TheAlienCon) According to my recent understandings and readings, that special episode was television broadcast only for a short period of time via H2 & History, last autumn. I'd never saw it after that period nor more on the web. So, i assume it cannot be added somehow as a regular episode.

I think that is it for the moment.

Phylyp — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phylyp (talk • contribs) 14:20, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter - February 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2017). This first issue is being sent out to all administrators, if you wish to keep receiving it please subscribe. Your feedback is welcomed.

Administrator changes

NinjaRobotPirate • Schwede66 • K6ka • Ealdgyth • Ferret • Cyberpower678 • Mz7 • Primefac • Dodger67

Briangotts • JeremyA • BU Rob13

Guideline and policy news

• A discussion to workshop proposals to amend the administrator inactivity policy at Wikipedia talk:Administrators has been in process since late December 2016.
• Wikipedia:Pending changes/Request for Comment 2016 closed with no consensus for implementing Pending changes level 2 with new criteria for use.
• Following an RfC, an activity requirement is now in place for bots and bot operators.

Technical news

• When performing some administrative actions the reason field briefly gave suggestions as text was typed. This change has since been reverted so that issues with the implementation can be addressed. (T34950)
• Following the latest RfC concluding that Pending Changes 2 should not be used on the English Wikipedia, an RfC closed with consensus to remove the options for using it from the page protection interface, a change which has now been made. (T156448)
• The Foundation has announced a new community health initiative to combat harassment. This should bring numerous improvements to tools for admins and CheckUsers in 2017.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee released a response to the Wikimedia Foundation's statement on paid editing and outing.

Obituaries

• JohnCD (John Cameron Deas) passed away on 30 December 2016. John began editing Wikipedia seriously during 2007 and became an administrator in November 2009.

---

Discuss this newsletter • Subscribe • Archive

13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Request to change Toys R Us article back to standard semiprotection

It has been a while, but I have noticed that you put the article Toys "R" Us on 30/500 protection. I do not think the article is controversial or frequently vandalized enough that it should be protected that strongly. It is not like Donald Trump or Israel, which are both 30/500 protected and both highly controversial.

Your reasoning was that IPs and registered editors were repeatedly vandalizing the article. However, looking at the history [7], the only vandalism in the ~30 edits before the change to 30/500 was from non-autoconfirmed editors (some were registered with fewer than 10 edits).

HotdogPi 22:59, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

What’s the rationale for change as the logs show reduced vandalism, which was frequent enough and fits the parameters for extended confirmed protection? Lastly, the definition you provided for ECP “30/500”, to me, is narrow versus its wider purpose, which, from WP:N “is to combat any form of disruption where semi-protection has proven to be ineffective". My view is the logs show just that, though not as severe as the two controversial examples you gave, but nonetheless not invalidating that use of ECP on less controversial pages such as this, wherein they suffer vandalism mainly from new editors and where other forms of protection weren’t as effective. If however there’s a good rationale I am open to changing the protection, but I will admit I am struggling as its proven effective to date. NJA (t/c) 07:19, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Bots Newsletter, April 2017

Bots Newsletter, April 2017

Greetings! The BAG Newsletter is now the Bots Newsletter, per discussion. As such, we've subscribed all bot operators to the newsletter. You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list. Highlights for this newsletter include: Arbcom Magioladitis ARBCOM case has closed. The remedies of the case include: Community encouraged to review common fixes Community encouraged to review policy on cosmetic edits Developers encouraged to improve AWB interface Bot approvals group encouraged to carefully review BRFA scope Reminders/Restrictions specific to Magioladitis BRFAs We currently have 27 open bot requests at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval, and could use your help processing! Discussions There are multiple ongoing discussions surrounding bot-related matters. In particular: RFC on COSMETICBOT Efforts at WP:CHECKWIKI to identify cosmetic fixes Requested move for the Bot Owners' Noticeboard A phabricator ticket T162685 has been made to have a "bots" tag, so issues related to bot frameworks can be tracked New things Several new things are around: A BAG Guide has been created (WP:BAGG, discussion). Users now have the option to hide AWB from their watchlists via a script (WP:HIDEAWB, discussion) The guidance on how to deal with bot issues has been overhauled (WP:BOTISSUE, discussion) The bot policy has been updated to clarify that bot operators are required to register accounts. (WP:BOTACCOUNT, discussion) Wikimania Wikimania 2017 is happening in Montreal, during 9–13 August. If you plan to attend, or give a talk, let us know! Thank you! edited by:Headbomb 11:35, 12 April 2017 (UTC) (You can unsubscribe from future newsletters by removing your name from this list.)

Bots Newsletter, July 2017

Bots Newsletter, July 2017

Greetings! Here is the 4th issue of the Bots Newsletter (formerly the BAG Newletter). You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list. Highlights for this newsletter include: BAG BU Rob13 and Cyberpower678 are now members of the BAG (see RfBAG/BU Rob13 and RfBAG/Cyberpower678 3). BU Rob13 and Cyberpower678 are both administrators; the former operates BU RoBOT which does a plethora of tasks, while the latter operates Cyberbot I (which replaces old bots), Cyberbot II (which does many different things), and InternetArchiveBot which combats link rot. Welcome to the BAG! BRFAs We currently have 12 open bot requests at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval, and could use your help processing! Discussions Efforts at WP:CHECKWIKI to identify cosmetic fixes are still ongoing. The RFC on COSMETICBOT has concluded with "a clear consensus exists to adopt the proposed language". The new wording is now live. The venue for bot appeals and reexaminations has been changed from WP:BRFA to WP:BOTN (see discussion) The Wikipedia:Bot owner's noticeboard is now the Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard (see discussion). New things A historical correction was made to WP:BOTPOL (see discussion). WP:HIDEBOTS now mentions how to hide all bots from your watchlist, not only specific bots. The phabricator ticket T162685 is now closed, and we now have "#Bots-Framework" tag, so issues related to bot frameworks can be tracked. Wikibits.js has been removed (see discussion). 21 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion). WP:BOTISSUE has been updated to mention that BAG members can act as neutral mediators in bot-related disputes. WP:INTERWIKIBOT has been updated to reflect the post-February 2013 practice of putting interwiki links on Wikidata, rather than on Wikipedia (see discussion). Upcoming HTML Tidy will be phased out in June 2018, or possibly earlier. This may affect some bots (see FAQ). Wikimania Wikimania 2017 is happening in Montreal, during 9–13 August. If you plan to attend, or give a talk, let us know! Thank you! edited by: Headbomb 17:12, 19 July 2017 (UTC) (You can subscribe or unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding or removing your name from this list.)

OTRS ticket

Hi, NJA, I am an OTRS agent with a ticket (VRTS ticket # 2017082010008702 on which I have been asked to give some assistance. The ticket is with regard to the article on Gal Rasche which was speedily deleted under A7 back in February of 2010. There is an article on her in the German Wikipedia as well as the [Spanish, French, Bulgarian, and Hungarian Wikipedias as well. I have never seen the version which got speedily deleted, but I am getting the sense that she is likely notable. Do you have OTRS access? Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you. Thanks! (Note that I have no conflict of interest with regard to this matter— I am just doing an old Russian woman whom I have never heard of a favor as an OTRS volunteer, so please consider my request in that light, yes?) KDS4444 ^(talk) [‘Note:' This user has admitted participating in paid editing,— trust but verify.] 03:00, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

I don’t have access to see the ticket, but I’d say if the question is whether the article could be restored I would be happy to do so on the basis WP:N appears met. NJA (t/c) 06:37, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

That would be excellent! Thank you! KDS4444 ^(talk) [‘Note:' This user has admitted participating in paid editing,— trust but verify.] 12:29, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Added to your namespace to allow any work needed done before restoring to Wikipedia, e.g. to address any notability concerns. NJA (t/c) 06:03, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Gal Rasche

The article Gal Rasche has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

I can't understand how this article made it to Wikipedia. Nothing on the article or online that meets WP:GNG on this subject.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. RelaxedTim (talk) 13:58, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Nomination of Gal Rasche for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Gal Rasche is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gal Rasche until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. RelaxedTim (talk) 15:51, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

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Bots Newsletter, March 2018

Bots Newsletter, March 2018

Greetings!

Here is the 5th issue of the Bots Newsletter (formerly the BAG Newletter). You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.

Highlights for this newsletter include:

ARBCOM

• Magioladitis 2 happened, leading to further restrictions on Magioladitis (decision, summary).
• Betacommand 3 was proposed to be amended to lift the indefinite ban on Δ, but was unsuccessful (decision).
• A motion concerning Crosswiki issues (mostly concerning Wikidata) was passed (see discussion).

BAG

• Hersfold was removed from the BAG due to long term inactivity.

BRFAs

We currently have 6 open bot requests at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval, and could use your help processing!

Discussions

While there were no large-scale bot-related discussion in the past few months, you can check WP:BOTN and WT:BOTPOL (and their corresponding archives) for smaller issues that came up.

New things

• WP:BOTDICT, a dictionary of common bot-related terms (see discussion).
• 6 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion).
• The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey happened. Two bot-related proposal passed, #6 deploy Article Alerts to other languages and #10 Commons deletion notification bot, although other entries may affect bots as well.
• Category:Wikipedia bots and its subcategories has had some cleanup. Bot-related pages that were historically important but are no longer of interests can be found in Category:Wikipedia bots (historical)
• The edit summary limit has been increased to 1000 characters (see T6715). If a bot you operate relied on the old truncation limit (255 characters), please review/update your code, as overly long summaries can be disruptive/annoying. If you want to use extra characters to have more information in your edit summary, please do so intelligently.
• You will soon be able to ping users from the edit summary (see T188469). If you wish to use this feature in your bot, please do so intelligently.

Upcoming

• HTML Tidy will be phased out in June 2018, or possibly earlier. This may affect some bots (see FAQ).

Thank you! edited by: Headbomb 03:11, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

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Niger

You've protected Niger country back in 2010, and now this article should be considered for protection removal. There's not many editing happened, and I should expect editors should be more appropriate now. 202.161.64.247 (talk) 12:11, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

OK. We’ll see. I’ve changed to allow all, but with pending changes as a test. Pending changes didn’t exist back when first protected, so may be appropriate. NJA (t/c) 14:59, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Bots Newsletter, August 2018

Bots Newsletter, August 2018

Greetings!

Here is the 6th issue of the Bots Newsletter. You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.

Highlights for this newsletter include:

ARBCOM

• Nothing particular important happened. Those who care already know, those who don't know wouldn't care. The curious can dig ARBCOM archives themselves.

BAG

• There were no changes in BAG membership since the last Bots Newsletter. Headbomb went from semi-active to active.
• In the last 3 months, only 3 BAG members have closed requests - help is needed with the backlog.

BOTREQs and BRFAs

As of writing, we have...

• 24 active BOTREQs, please help if you can!
• 5 open BRFAs and 3 BRFAs in need of BAG attention (see live status).
• 54 approved bot tasks since the start of 2018. Of note, Community Tech bot 5 (the #10 Wish on the 2017 Community Survey) was approved to notify users concerning problematic images and files from Wikimedia Commons.

Also

• If you're a bot operator that can help with Tidy/Linter error cleanup (see discussion, discussion), please file a BRFA!
• 8 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion, discussion, discussion).

Discussions

These are some of the discussions that happened / are still happening since the last Bots Newsletter. Many are stale, but some are still active.

• Use of tags by bots – Exploring the use of a new 'bot' tag.
• Mass page moves – Bot policy question/clarification about mass moves.
• Creation of redirects – Bot policy question/clarification about the creation of redirects.
• Guidance on disruptive use of semi–automated tools? – Related to meatbots (see also MOS discussion, which resulted in small addition to MOS:VAR).
• Discussion concerning WP:BOTFLAG/WP:RC – A reminder that bots should use the bot flag when it makes sense to use it (see also VPT discussion and CREATEBOT update).
• Out of curiosity... (to all bot operators) – BotPasswords vs OAuth usage amongst bot operators.
• Introducing Toolhub – Toolhub is looking for feedback.

New things

• {{Automated tools}}, a new template linking to user-activated tools and scripts has been created. It can be used in articles previews, and can be placed on any non-mainspace page/template (e.g. {{Draft article}}) to provide convenient links to editors.
• AWB 5.10.0.0 is out, after nearly 20 months without updates. If you run an old version, you will be prompted to install the new version automatically. See the changelog for what's new. Note that the next version will require .NET Framework 4.5. Many thanks to Reedy and the AWB team.
• BotWatch, "a listing of editors that have made >2 edits per minute [without] a bot flag", is being developed by SQL (see discussion).
• Massive updates and improvements have been made to Citation bot in the past few months (see discussions, discussions, discussions). You can activate the bot here, amongst other methods.
• HTML Tidy has been phased out (see Tech News #28).
• {{Newbot}} has been reorganized a bit (diff). In particular, it links to previously approved BRFAs (see discussion).
• Wikipedia:Bots#See also has been reorganized a bit (diff).
• The bot dictionary has two new entries, context bot and context-sensitive edit.
• The bot request header has been updated to include better guidance (see discussion).
• The subcategories of Category:Wikipedia bot requests for approval have been sorted in a consistent manner to make past BRFAs easier to find.

Thank you! edited by: Headbomb 15:04, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

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Request unprotection of Pony

Hi NJA, you indefinitely semi-protected the page Pony about a decade ago for persistent vandalism. Would you be willing to consider unprotecting it to see whether protection is still needed? I'll keep it on my watchlist if you do and let you know if there are any problems that come up. Wugapodes [t^hɔk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɻɪbz] 21:01, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Done NJA (t/c) 10:52, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, NJA. 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)