User talk:TheSandDoctor/Archives/2020/August

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2020).

Administrator changes

Red Phoenix

Euryalus • SQL

Jujutacular • Monty845 • Rettetast • Madchester

Oversight changes

GB fan

Keegan • Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

Guideline and policy news

• There is an open request for comment to decide whether to increase the minimum duration a sanction discussion has to remain open (currently 24 hours).
• Speedy deletion criterion T2 (template that misrepresents established policy) has been repealed following a request for comment.
• Speedy deletion criterion X2 (pages created by the content translation tool) has been repealed following a discussion.
• There is a proposal to restrict proposed deletion to confirmed users.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:21, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Talk page for review

Hi SandDoctor, we've been caught in time-zone limbo. I messaged a few times on IRC but was told you weren't around or offline. I've radically cut down the sandbox draft of the Gorbuntsov Talk page, but would like to think about it for a few days to make sure that I haven't cut anything vitally important. I'll then submit it to you for review, say mid week. Hope this works. Thanks again for all your help - Capt. Quinlan (talk) 09:08, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

@Capt. Quinlan: Thanks, I'll take a look. For future reference, it is possible to PM me even when I am not around on IRC (I never disconnect and always idle). /msg TheSandDoctor <your message> is how you can message me. If you wish to see when I was last active, then the command is /whois TheSandDoctor and the field of interest is "Online for X days (idle for about <X seconds/minutes/hours>)", where <> is the time increment. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 14:50, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

@Capt. Quinlan:  Done (and I even went further in some areas). Thoughts? --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 15:20, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

Mucked up SPI

Hello! I mucked up my SPI filing. When I pressed post it came up as an archived case, strangely. What I wanted originally was a normal case with CU. If you can fix it is much appreciated.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 02:42, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

@ThatMontrealIP:  Done --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 02:45, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Thanks. Where is the lightning-fast service barnstar?ThatMontrealIP (talk) 02:46, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

@ThatMontrealIP: You're welcome! I am happy to help where I can . I'm not really sure if one of those exist, unfortunately. There are plenty of other barnstars that can be adapted though & you can put your own descriptions. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 15:31, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-32

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• All queries to the Wikidata Query Service failed between 17:50 and 17:59 UTC on Thursday 23 July. Some queries failed during a longer period. [1]
• Interlanguage links were ordered incorrectly for the past few weeks. This problem was also mentioned in Tech News two weeks ago. The problem is now fixed. [2]
• There is a problem with the global preferences for the "Use Legacy Vector" option. Developers are working on fixing it. [3]
• A bug in the Wikibase extension had disabled the "move" and "create" types of protection in the main (Gallery) namespace on Wikimedia Commons. New protections could not be added, and existing protections were not enforced, allowing some page moves and page creations that should not have been possible. This has now been fixed. [4]

Changes later this week

• The video player will change to be simpler and more modern. This week, the current beta feature will become the video player for everyone on most non-Wikipedia wikis. The old player will be removed. [5]
• Users' global.js and global.css pages will now also be loaded on the mobile site. You can read documentation for how to avoid applying styles to the mobile skin. [6]
• In the MonoBook skin, the searchGoButton identifier is now searchButton. This may affect CSS and JS gadgets. Migration instructions can be found in T255953. This was previously mentioned in issue 27.
• Bot operators can use Pywikibot to regularly archive discussions. The behavior when the bot uses counter to prevent large archives was changed. [7]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 5. It will be on all wikis from August 6 (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:43, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

Unfair / Unnecessary Edits Revokes / Speedy Deletions

Hi, I hope you're well! I have recently made viable edits to Jeremie (Jermie) Lynch's page however on at least 3 occasions , users have literally bitten my head off and assumed "vandalism" or "nonconstructive" I understand that a page move would be better , however I am a new user and understand that I haven't been granted that permission yet, so in the interim I have done some minor edits and was planning on requesting a RM thereafter or conducting it myself once the permission had been granted. I am assuming you can view the deletions / "deleted" history to see what I mean, if not I will gladly elaborate. Please assist and/ or advise. Thank you so , much! Glow--stick7 (talk) 13:04, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Unblocked Sock

Hey TheSandDoctor, you archived the page Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/AlaskaLava but the editor was unblocked after only 9 hours, and I left a comment for Salvio giuliano. I still think that the sockpuppet should be blocked. Regards -TheseusHeLl (talk) 03:17, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

@TheseusHeLl: If you have a concern with the unblock, that is best discussed with the user who unblocked them, Salvio giuliano. I am not the right one to be asking in this instance nor is my talk page the right location. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 03:21, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

Okay, Please accept my sincere apologies. Obliviate --TheseusHeLl (talk) 06:34, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

@TheseusHeLl: It’s okay/accepted, you didn’t know. As a general rule of thumb, it is best to ask the blocking party about blocks if you disagree with them and to do so on the blocking party’s talk page, that’s all. — TheSandDoctor ^Talk 17:05, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi

Collapsing troll

Hi, remember me? Factors guy (talk) 06:53, 30 July 2020 (UTC). I met you at User talk:Factors guy#User talk:Tlhoaele! @Factors guy: Yes, I do. Please see Help:Talk pages#Starting a new thread and the section below that (Help:Talk pages#Replying to an existing thread) for talk page etiquette. Do you have a question? --TheSandDoctor Talk 13:10, 30 July 2020 (UTC) Yes, I do, actually. Are you able to sign pages that other people make? Factors guy (talk) 23:16, 30 July 2020 (UTC) @Factors guy: What do you mean? --TheSandDoctor Talk 04:30, 31 July 2020 (UTC) I mean could you just go ahead and sign some random arcticle that doesn't belong to you? Factors guy (talk) 04:35, 31 July 2020 (UTC) @Factors guy: That would be considered vandalism. Please see WP:SIG. --TheSandDoctor Talk 04:36, 31 July 2020 (UTC) Ok. But how did you do the cool THESANDDOCTER name thing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Factors guy (talk • contribs) 04:57, 31 July 2020 (UTC) Using CSS. TheSandDoctor Talk 17:03, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

mwclient vs. pywikibot

Hi. I've been using mwclient a lot, am growing frustrated with it, and wondering if there's a better alternative. I found this github issue, so I assume you've put some thought into comparing the two. Anything you could share? -- RoySmith (talk) 16:04, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

@RoySmith: Hi there! Yes, I have mostly switched over as pywikibot has a lot of pre-existing methods/functions and whatnot that I have found useful. The one downside to it is that it also has a LOT of overhead compared to mwclient, especially when thinking of simple tasks. Pywikibot is also a lot to get your head around and I haven’t found the support for either that great.

I still use mwclient from time to time for simple things and a lot of my tasks were built on it...it’s really only my more recent ones which are built on pywikibot. I hope that that helps somewhat. If you have any other Qs, would like me to explain my thoughts more, etc, please do let me know. TheSandDoctor ^Talk 17:02, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

UAA

Hello,

I saw you were active and WP:UAA this morning (at least in my timezone) and was wondering if you could answer a question for me.

I have found a user who wishes to create a page about a school he goes to. He posted the name of said school on his userpage so I emailed Oversight who should hopefully look into it. Because he attends school, he is probably a minor.

Unfortunately his username is his full, presumably real, name. Hopefully the page will get oversighted soon but I was wondering if he should change his name as well. I don't see anything in the username policy about minors using their full name but it seems to me like a valid reason to have them change their name.

Being someone active at UAA, what is your opinion?

Regards, Giraffer (munch) 11:06, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

@Giraffer: I would suggest emailing oversight and asking them as well. They are best positioned to deal with anything like this. Do NOT report them to UAA. TheSandDoctor ^Talk 16:58, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Wasn't intending to. Will email oversight again. Thanks, Giraffer (munch) 18:58, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

@Giraffer: You're welcome! --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 21:40, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-33

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• FileImporter and FileExporter became standard features on all Wikis during the first week of August. They help you transfer files from local wikis to Wikimedia Commons with the original file information and history intact. [8]

Problems

• The mobile skin displays a message at the bottom of the page about who edited last. This message showed raw wikitext. This has now been fixed. Some messages in Structured Discussions and content translation may still appear as raw wikitext. Developers are working on it. [9]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 12. It will be on all wikis from August 13 (calendar).

Future changes

• All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 1. This is planned between 13:30 and 15:30 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis in the coming weeks. [10][11]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:06, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

TheSandBot task 2

Hi. I just came across one of TheSandBot's edits, and I'm not sure I agree with the removal of the {{Unreferenced}} tag as part of the task. The other covered templates, {{orphan}}, {{uncategorized}} and {{underlinked}}, are appropriate since they can only apply to live articles. But being unreferenced is an issue that can and often applies to drafts, and I don't think there's any particular reason to avoid this tag (but not all maintenance templates). Pinging Primefac who suggested the addition in the BRFA back in 2018. --Paul_012 (talk) 10:38, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

There is/has been general consensus that drafts shouldn't have these sorts of maintenance tags because they clutter up the categories and most of the drafts will be reviewed during the WP:AFC process (and if unreferenced, will clearly be declined). Primefac (talk) 13:40, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

@Paul 012: Please see Primefac's answer above. That is basically what I was going to say. The templates also explicitly talk about "articles", which can cause misconceptions when placed on drafts for new/inexperienced editors. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 05:07, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. It seems rather strange that only these four are currently addressed, but I guess the others may not be as commonly encountered. --Paul_012 (talk) 13:28, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

YGM

Hello, TheSandDoctor/Archives/2020. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.— Marchjuly (talk) 03:26, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

@Marchjuly: Please make sock reports at WP:SPI (expand "How to open an investigation:" and then you can use that to prefill everything & then you just enter accounts/IPs and evidence to open a case). --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 04:15, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for the response. FWIW, I wasn't trying to go around SPI in this particular case; I just wasn't sure one was warranted and didn't want to file a frivolous one. Per above, however, I've gone ahead and started one. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:37, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-34

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• If you revert an edit using the undo link your edit is marked with an undo tag. This will now only happen if you don't change anything in the edit window before publishing the undo. This is to keep users from marking edits as undos when they actually do something else. [12]
• The new OOUI version will not work with Internet Explorer 8. This means the wikis will look strange and not work well in Internet Explorer 8. This was reported in Tech/News/2020/17. This is because keeping the wikis working with very old browsers creates other problems. [13]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 August. It will be on all wikis from 20 August (calendar).

Future changes

• All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 1. This is planned between 13:30 and 15:30 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis next week. This is a reminder. You can help by translating the announcement message. [14][15]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:40, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-35

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 August. It will be on all wikis from 27 August (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

17:59, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

Editing news 2020 #4

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this newsletter

Reply tool

The number of comments posted with the Reply Tool from March through June 2020. People used the Reply Tool to post over 7,400 comments with the tool.

The Reply tool has been available as a Beta Feature at the Arabic, Dutch, French and Hungarian Wikipedias since 31 March 2020. The first analysis showed positive results.

• More than 300 editors used the Reply tool at these four Wikipedias. They posted more than 7,400 replies during the study period.
• Of the people who posted a comment with the Reply tool, about 70% of them used the tool multiple times. About 60% of them used it on multiple days.
• Comments from Wikipedia editors are positive. One said, أعتقد أن الأداة تقدم فائدة ملحوظة؛ فهي تختصر الوقت لتقديم رد بدلًا من التنقل بالفأرة إلى وصلة تعديل القسم أو الصفحة، التي تكون بعيدة عن التعليق الأخير في الغالب، ويصل المساهم لصندوق التعديل بسرعة باستخدام الأداة. ("I think the tool has a significant impact; it saves time to reply while the classic way is to move with a mouse to the Edit link to edit the section or the page which is generally far away from the comment. And the user reaches to the edit box so quickly to use the Reply tool.")[16]

The Editing team released the Reply tool as a Beta Feature at eight other Wikipedias in early August. Those Wikipedias are in the Chinese, Czech, Georgian, Serbian, Sorani Kurdish, Swedish, Catalan, and Korean languages. If you would like to use the Reply tool at your wiki, please tell User talk:Whatamidoing (WMF).

The Reply tool is still in active development. Per request from the Dutch Wikipedia and other editors, you will be able to customize the edit summary. (The default edit summary is "Reply".) A "ping" feature is available in the Reply tool's visual editing mode. This feature searches for usernames. Per request from the Arabic Wikipedia, each wiki will be able to set its own preferred symbol for pinging editors. Per request from editors at the Japanese and Hungarian Wikipedias, each wiki can define a preferred signature prefix in the page MediaWiki:Discussiontools-signature-prefix. For example, some languages omit spaces before signatures. Other communities want to add a dash or a non-breaking space.

New requirements for user signatures

• The new requirements for custom user signatures began on 6 July 2020. If you try to create a custom signature that does not meet the requirements, you will get an error message.
• Existing custom signatures that do not meet the new requirements will be unaffected temporarily. Eventually, all custom signatures will need to meet the new requirements. You can check your signature and see lists of active editors whose custom signatures need to be corrected. Volunteers have been contacting editors who need to change their custom signatures. If you need to change your custom signature, then please read the help page.

Next: New discussion tool

Next, the team will be working on a tool for quickly and easily starting a new discussion section to a talk page. To follow the development of this new tool, please put the New Discussion Tool project page on your watchlist.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:48, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-36

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems This is a reminder. All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 1. This is planned between 14:00 and 15:00 UTC. Please check on the details on the announcement message. [17][18]

Changes later this week

• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:08, 31 August 2020 (UTC)