User talk:Samsara/Archive18
Administrators' newsletter – January 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).
Administrator changes
Muboshgu
Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned
None
Bureaucrat changes
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
- The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
- The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.
Arbitration
- Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.
Administrators' newsletter – February 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • 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
- The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.
Please explain... edit
Can you explain why you removed Felix E. Reed as Felix Feist's son? It is a well known fact that this is his son. If you contact his adopted son, Raymond, he can confirm this fact.
Knowthyselfwell (talk) 01:51, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
- It's in the edit summary. But to repeat, WP:BLP is the relevant policy. Samsara 02:36, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).
Administrator changes
- Lourdes†
- AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike 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_allthat edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.
Miscellaneous
- Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.
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.
Concurrent semiprotection and pending changes edit
Re: protection levels on Mike Tyson and other cases where PC and semi are in use at the same time, I understand your point (from the previous discussion) about losing the display of which edits are accepted by whom, and I mostly agree. The thing is, when PC and semi are in use at the same time, edits that would normally be held for review under PC are instead disallowed by semiprotection, so any edit that makes it to the history will be automatically accepted. Is maintaining that display useful?
On the other hand, MRD2014, for the same reason (all edits are automatically accepted) is there any benefit to removing PC? It isn't creating any extra work for anyone.
Just some thoughts. I didn't want to pollute RFPP with too much tangential discussion. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 13:31, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
- As you've correctly surmised, the main effect from removing PC is to remove contextual data from the edit history. Depending on the selected colour scheme, it may also change the colour in which edits are displayed, and remove the "automatically accepted" from recent edits. BUT removing the contextual data makes it harder to understand why the protection was elevated from PC to semi (or any higher level). So removing PC can put you on a slippery slope towards accepting further degradation of protection for a page where this is not appropriate, simply because the markup will be missing from the part of the history that precedes the pp elevation. I advise against it. I also think this should be regarded as a bug to be fixed - the record of PC should not be eradicated for those entries to whom it was relevant, when PC is (perhaps temporarily) disabled. If that were addressed, we could disable or re-enable PC without any ill effects, i.e. in my opinion the default or perhaps only behaviour should be retaining all historic PC data when PC is disabled. Samsara 13:49, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
- As MRD2014 pointed out, the review history is preserved in the page's review log, however that log is not very convenient to find and not a very convenient display in terms of comparing with edits in a timeline. It would be more convenient if reviewed edits could remain visible on the page history after PC is turned off, and I think it would be worth a note at WP:VPT. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 14:09, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
Just a head's up, I removed the pending changes you put on this article as it is now indefinitely semi-protected, making it superfluous. Hope that makes sense. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 15:03, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
- @Ritchie333: If I leave it in place, it's deliberate - please see the above discussion. IMO, until that bug is fixed, no such action should be taken. Samsara 17:13, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
- Okay, so what should happen to this article - does it make any sense to restore PC now or is this simply a reminder to myself that this isn't an uncontroversial action after all? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 17:39, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
- @Ritchie333: I used this opportunity to confirm that re-enabling PC1 does not bring the history data back. I self-reverted upon that confirmation, and suggest we now leave it as is, there doesn't seem to be any point to doing otherwise. Thanks for bringing it up. May I ask what drew your attention to that particular page? I'm asking because of the coincidence of two discussions on this issue within four days, after not hearing about it for months. Was this discussed somewhere else? Samsara 17:00, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
- I looked at the article because EEng and MjolnirPants want to improve it to GA status so it can get a DYK nomination in a week or two, and I offered to lend a hand in improving it. I didn't see the above thread until I'd written this message, which was done simply on the grounds that even if you think reverting an admin action is uncontroversial, it's only polite to notify the admin who placed it. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 17:04, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks for clarifying, and no hard feelings. Cheers! Samsara 17:08, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
- I looked at the article because EEng and MjolnirPants want to improve it to GA status so it can get a DYK nomination in a week or two, and I offered to lend a hand in improving it. I didn't see the above thread until I'd written this message, which was done simply on the grounds that even if you think reverting an admin action is uncontroversial, it's only polite to notify the admin who placed it. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 17:04, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
- @Ritchie333: I used this opportunity to confirm that re-enabling PC1 does not bring the history data back. I self-reverted upon that confirmation, and suggest we now leave it as is, there doesn't seem to be any point to doing otherwise. Thanks for bringing it up. May I ask what drew your attention to that particular page? I'm asking because of the coincidence of two discussions on this issue within four days, after not hearing about it for months. Was this discussed somewhere else? Samsara 17:00, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
- Okay, so what should happen to this article - does it make any sense to restore PC now or is this simply a reminder to myself that this isn't an uncontroversial action after all? Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 17:39, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).
Administrator changes
- 331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG
- Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando
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
- There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.
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.
List articles on photographic flashes edit
Hi Samsara,
I thought you might be interested in these recent deletions of list articles (and, IIRC, a large number of incoming redirects into them):
which were transcluded into a number of other articles now lacking vital information on these flashes (iISO flash shoe, Multi Interface Shoe, Sony α etc.). Ironically those lists were originally split out of these articles to allow the information to be maintained more easily and in a single place rather than being scattered around over multiple articles.
In my opinion, these deletions were not helpful for the reasons above and also incorrect because formally I should have been informed of the nominations, but wasn't. Thus I could not provide the background and the (IMHO convincing) reasoning for the existance of these articles, resulting in the current outcome. I asked for a deletion review, but unfortunately the closing admin is one of those individuals who can't be bothered even to reply. Therefore, per our procedures, I am asking someone else for assistance.
Since you are working on photographic topics as well, you might be able to evaluate the impact of the deletions and if they have been carried out correctly, and were helpful or not in regard to our project. Can you do something about it and restore the articles (and redirects) or at least the information? Thanks for your consideration. See also for my attempt to communicate with the closing admin: User_talk:Postdlf#Request_for_review_of_two_recent_AfDs
Thanks and greetings, Matthias --Matthiaspaul (talk) 13:42, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
- @Matthiaspaul: If there's wasn't prior consensus to remove the information from the original articles, you could just merge the forks back in. Do you need me to supply copies? Samsara 13:17, 11 April 2018 (UTC)
- To the best of my knowledge there was no prior discussion. At some stage, the list was just moved into a separate article and then transcluded back into the article (these are some diffs I found: [1] [2] [3] [4]) in order to improve maintainability and usability following the same model as with the other Minolta/Konica Minolta and Sony lists of cameras and lenses.
- Therefore, yes, the information could be moved back into the articles. I guess the best place for now would be Sony α#Flash system, which still contains the red links to the transcluded lists, and retarget all the deleted redirects into the lists there as well. But I don't have local copies of the lists (and don't have an overview what those redirects were - I just seem to remember that there were quite a few with the flash names in various spelling variants).
- However, given that the AfD was not carried out correctly in multiple ways, don't you think this would entitle one to be bold and - for the benefit of the project - (f.e. per WP:IAR) ignore the IMO premature outcome of the discussion and just restore the articles in their original places - after all, the purpose was to improve maintainability? (Don't worry, I won't go for it unless I would have the backing of a few other people as well.)
- In either case, can you restore the deleted redirects and retarget them to Sony α#Flash system as well?
- Thanks and greetings --Matthiaspaul (talk) 10:57, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
- I believe the naming of the Sony Alpha articles first needs to be made compliant with the article naming guidelines/policies before redirects are created, otherwise there will be additional clean-up needed. Samsara 21:47, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
Fake News edit
Hello Samsara. I'm writing to you because you as admin have applied restrictions to Fake News and I therefore assume that you keep watch of the article. I know that as an admin your main concern is editors' behaviour in keeping with policies and guidelines and as such, you would not generally be involved with the content. Not that the article is locked to me, I do wish to broach one topic and ask that you assist with one issue. Basically the article is in need of clean-up, and for this page, one has to be very careful how they go about it. I removed the Russian entry for reasons specified in the talk page but I'll be the first to restore the entry once I can solve a small problem (i.e. very soon). Nevertheless, do you have the tools, authority or ability to insert some kind of caveat in the "Historical Examples" subheading - something which merely advises to be careful what is being inserted because biased reporting and being government-funded is not the same thing as disseminating fake information. In order that a story be established as fake, we need to know where the claim was exposed, and more importantly that the original claimant has either acknowledged this or has silently dropped the claim. If what a claimant does is respond later to its accuser then the claim remains a matter of personal interpretation between Source 1 and Source 2, even if Source 2 is called Snopes. Can something be done to this effect? --Juicy Oranges (talk) 10:37, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
- For advice on that topic, please see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Hidden text. There is no admin privilege related to hidden text - anyone can insert it. Samsara 21:44, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
- Many thanks for directions. Regards. --Juicy Oranges (talk) 10:50, 21 April 2018 (UTC)
Hi, I was wondering if you would remove the semi-protection you placed on the Tania Nolan article in July 2017? I believe the problem with IP editors adding unsourced content is now over. - JuneGloom07 Talk 21:16, 26 April 2018 (UTC)
Done Samsara 03:49, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
- Thank you! And thank you for protecting it in the first place. - JuneGloom07 Talk 17:00, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – May 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060
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_anyfunction 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.
- 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
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.
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.
Administrators' newsletter – June 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington
Guideline and policy news
- Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
- Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.
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
- In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required 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.
Is there a reason, why you uploaded this locally? Armbrust The Homunculus 22:15, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
Hello! need help.. edit
Hello Samara, Can u please help me add the below info in B. R. Ambedkar page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Modernhindu (talk • contribs) 11:09, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
B. R. Ambedkar was no longer a hindu, he converted to Buddhism for good. [1] [2]
References
- ^ "Why Dr. Ambedkar Left Hinduism And Chose Buddhism". December 6, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
- ^ "Though I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a Hindu". April 4 , 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
- @Modernhindu: I see that you have added this and that there has been no opposition. Since I am not familiar with this subject, I am content to leave it at that and believe no further action is needed. As an aside, I should point out that I did not read the HuffPost article since it requires me to consent to its updated privacy policy, which I do not have the time to review right now. The other source is one I have not come across before. Best wishes, Samsara 12:18, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
Thank you so much for your reply.
- )👍 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Modernhindu (talk • contribs) 00:15, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
Hi Samsara! I hope your day has been pleasant! I noticed that you semi-protected Toys "R" Us indefinitely - wouldn't setting it to perhaps expire in a year or two from now be better instead of setting to never do so? I don't think the article is going to go through this level of vandalism two years from now; in fact, I doubt anybody will even care much ;-). What are your thoughts? I just wanted to message you and ask about it and get your input. Cheers :-) ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 21:26, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
- Hi @Oshwah: - what you're suggesting was my initial impulse as well, but then I looked at older history. The article goes through spells of revert activity - as early as September-November 2010 or August 2011. I'm not sure of the value of leaving the article as bait waiting for these to happen - my philosophy is to not embolden vandals, and this imo means denying them success. Otoh, we probably needn't worry too much that this article will be unwatched in a few years' time, so I've set it to PC1 indef and 3 years semi. Samsara 21:35, 16 June 2018 (UTC)
- Samsara - Sounds good to me! Thanks for the heads up :-) ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 21:38, 16 June 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – July 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).
Administrator changes
- Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
- Gogo Dodo
- Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD
Bureaucrat changes
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.
Administrators' newsletter – August 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).
Administrator changes
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
- The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.
15 years of editing, today edit
|
Hey, Samsara. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Nat965 (talk) 10:32, 16 August 2018 (UTC) |
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Administrators' newsletter – September 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam
Interface administrator changes
- Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux
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 isarticle_textwhich is nowpage_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.
File:524px-Sex life cycle.JPG listed for discussion edit
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:524px-Sex life cycle.JPG, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for discussion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Magog the Ogre (t • c) 21:28, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
I'm requesting for unprotection. I'm planning to move an existed article to that. Don't worry, it's been semi-protected after suspected a persistent sockpuppetry (see Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Bertrand101). JayBustamante (talk) 14:35, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – October 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018).
Administrator changes
- Justlettersandnumbers • L235
- Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter
Interface administrator changes
- Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333
Oversight changes
- Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno
Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, the process for appointing interface administrators has been established. Currently only existing admins can request these rights, while a new RfC has begun on whether it should be available to non-admins.
- There is an open request for comment on Meta regarding the creation a new user group for global edit filter management.
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.
Administrators' newsletter – November 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2018).
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Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment determined that non-administrators will not be able to request interface admin access.
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the Mediation Committee should be closed and marked as historical.
- A village pump discussion has been ongoing about whether the proposed deletion policy (PROD) should be clarified or amended.
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether pending changes protection should be applied automatically to today's featured article (TFA) in order to mitigate a recent trend of severe image vandalism.
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.
Nomination for deletion of Template:Pagelinksmorehistory edit
Template:Pagelinksmorehistory has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 04:43, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
(Possible) Request for Unprotection edit
About 2 years ago, you added PC protection to Big Brother 13 (U.S.). I'm not sure that's still necessary, what do you think? power~enwiki (π, ν) 20:59, 11 November 2018 (UTC)
ArbCom 2018 election voter message edit
Hello, Samsara. 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)
Administrators' newsletter – December 2018 edit
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018).
Administrator changes
- Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
- Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike
Interface administrator changes
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
- Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
- To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
- Since deployment of Partial blocks on Test Wikipedia, several bugs were identified. Most of them are now fixed. Administrators are encouraged to test the new deployment and report new bugs on Phabricator or leave feedback on the Project's talk page. You can request administrator access on the Test Wiki here.
Arbitration
- Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 3 December 2018. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.
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
- Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as Raymond arritt on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.