User:Oshwah/TalkPageArchives/2022-11

You are currently viewing an archive of Oshwah's user talk page from November 2022. Please do not modify this page.

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Hello. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 20:06, 2 October 2022 (UTC). 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.

Vanamonde (Talk) 20:06, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Vanamonde93 - Received and replied. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:34, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Revision deletion

Hello, Oshwah,

In the revision deletions you just did to User talk:Elmidae, the IP editor identified themselves as another new editor. Can you use your CU goggles and see whether this is true and another block is in order? Of course, it could have just been done to get the other editor in trouble but I thought I'd ask. Thanks! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:18, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Liz! I'm already on the case! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:34, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

@Liz: that's what the email above was about :) Noting this just in case you saw my block, and were wondering at the lack of action on the account. Vanamonde (Talk) 20:43, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Cheers guys! --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 10:58, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Elmidae! Welcome! I hope you're doing well and that your day is treating you nicely. Next time any shenanigans like that happen again, please don't be a stranger! My duty here is to protect you, and I'll be damned if I let anything like that stand. I'm only one email message away (definitely email redaction or suppression issues privately - never on Wikipedia publicly); I'll be happy to step in and take care of it. Cheers, and it's a pleasure to meet you! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 11:38, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Will do, thanks. After the respective report staled out at AIV, I concluded that it apparently didn't merit even as much of a stink as I had been willing to put up. Always a little tricky to judge :/ --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 12:27, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Elmidae - That shouldn't have happened, and I'm sorry that it did. There are many resources that can get you connected to an administrator immediately should you feel the need to contact one right away. The fastest way to find an active administrator is to use this tool. This link will immediately return a list of the last ten administrators who edited Wikipedia the most recent. We're also on IRC and Discord (I'm always connected to both) if you need to reach us there, or if you're just looking to live chat with a bunch of fellow Wikipedians. :-) It obviously goes without saying: If anyone makes a threat toward you that makes you feel threatened, frightened, or even uncomfortable, this page has all of the necessary instructions for you to follow. Thanks again for the response here. Don't be a stranger if I can be of any assistance; I'll be more than happy to help! :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 13:45, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Should I CSD Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Carcaterran

Looks like you took care of this, and know what's going on. Probably doesn't need the SPI. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 00:42, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi ScottishFinnishRadish! It's good to talk to you again. :-) No need to CSD; if anything, this is good for record-keeping purposes. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:43, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

I expect we'll be bumping into each other more often now. It's weird how when I first started editing I thought I was reasonably aware of the amount of LTA/sockpuppetry/other horrible shit, then as I edited for a while I saw it was much worse. Now in the short time I've been an admin I realize it's even worse. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 00:49, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

ScottishFinnishRadish - Ohhhh yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately, your observations are in-line with mine, and I'll add this: Being in my position as a CU and OS vs when I was just an admin, I can tell you that it's wayyyy worse! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:54, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

I can guess, based on some of the horrible shit I sent up to OS multiplied by the number of recent changes patrollers I see active, that it's an absolute cesspit. There's no accounting for Human Behaviour.

Meanwhile, while writing this, I'm getting emails letting me know I have new trolling messages on my talk page. I don't know what hobby is more odd, trolling Wikipedia or trying to stop the trolling on Wikipedia? ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 01:01, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

ScottishFinnishRadish - Wow, good question. People could see both as equally odd depending on the person... LOL. :-D ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:03, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

I have suspicion that User:Hellomate1777777 is also a sock, considering this edit on a hurricane-related article. CU? Magnatyrannus (talk | contribs) 01:27, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Magnatyrannus - I don't think this is within CalebHughes' MO. They usually edit sports-related templates and articles and BLP articles, but I could be wrong... :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:40, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Well he vandalized a hurricane-related article, as stated on his long term abuse page. Magnatyrannus (talk | contribs) 01:44, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Magnatyrannus - Ah, okay thanks. I was just about to look there, and you beat me to it! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:04, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

And this IP (71.14.100.168 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) might possibly belong to the sock master, considering that he was editing the same article once Hellomate was blocked. Magnatyrannus (talk | contribs) 02:07, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

That would, of course, require no CU action for blocking. Magnatyrannus (talk | contribs) 02:12, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	Thanks for your good work! Andre🚐 03:00, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Andrevan! Thank you for the barnstar and for the kind words. It means a lot to me, and I appreciate it very much. :-) I remember that we've run into each other before, and I'm sure that we'll run into one another time and time again. Until next time, my friend... ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:06, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Question from RayanGonzales (06:56, 3 October 2022)

Hi, What description do I need to upload a picture for my article, it seems like my file had been rejected a couple of times because of the description. --RayanGonzales (talk) 06:56, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi RayanGonzales, and welcome to Wikipedia! If you're not using Wikipedia:File Upload Wizard to aid with uploading of the file that you'd like to use, I'd recommend doing so. It'll help you with filling in all of the required information. Generally, a description will include a summary of the file and what it is or does, the licensing of that file, and other information. If you still have questions after using the wizard, please let me know and I'll be happy to help you further. Again, welcome to Wikipedia! We're happy to have you here! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:01, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Thank you very much for your complex and frequent edit filter management! I've just had a look at one's history and was impressed. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:10, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

ToBeFree! It's been awhile, my friend! I hope you're doing well - long time no chat! :-) Thank you for the barnstar and for the appreciation! It really means a lot to me, and I'm happy that I've somehow managed to make a positive impact somewhere on this project. ;-) Ohhh, that's awesome! Which one did you look at? I actively maintain three filters that I created - #51, #53, and #54, and I've also completely optimized and improved existing ones recently, like #1202 and #1164. I'm curious as to which one you saw. Again, I thank you for taking the time to leave me this barnstar. It's very kind, and (as always) it's a pleasure to say hello to you. :-D ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 11:52, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Same! I was about to say "#53", but now that I have looked at the other links, the barnstar is for all of them. The last linked diff demonstrates pretty nicely what kind of magic I'm talking about. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:55, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

ToBeFree - You are too kind. :-) #51 is my personal favorite - not because of the code or anything, but because of the challenges I faced with new LTA accounts that were created with usernames that were intentionally trying to bypass this (and other) filter's conditions at the time. It made me have to re-sharpen my regex skills so that I could find a way to "fix the holes". ;-) Again, I really appreciate the recognition. I've only had maybe a few users message me or comment on my code for any of these scripts (aside from the pings I'd occasionally get from the false positive reports page asking me about this obscure situation or that one). It makes the many hours of time and effort spent toward maintaining them feel worth it (other than the happiness I feel when I squash an LTA account and before they even get a chance to start their BS... lol). I hope you're doing well, and I definitely hope you stay in touch! :-) Cheers, my friend - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 13:54, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Is there a specific tool you can recommend for dealing with these regexes? I mean, if you edit these purely on-wiki in the "Conditions" field, you'll get another barnstar, but I find that quite unlikely. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:36, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

ToBeFree - Sure! Use a code text editor like Notepad++ to help with looking through large amounts of code, and use this regex site to help with debugging them. That website also provides help sections, tutorials, example code, syntax reference, and even a quiz exercise list! For the quizzes, you're basically asked to write a certain regex code to solve a specific problem that is given to you and submit it. I've gone through most of the exercises, and I think you'll find those particularly challenging, helpful, and fun. ;-) Please let me know if I can offer any assistance, information, or point you in the right direction. You know where to find me; don't be a stranger. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 14:44, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

A late reply because I fell down the rabbit hole yesterday: Wow. I knew basic regex, and I considered my regex skills to be comparatively advanced. I did know about regex101.com and had hoped for an open source tool providing the same (or better) functionality, but I have to admit that in such cases, a closed-source web tool can be the best place to go. What I didn't know is how advanced that website is, and how helpful the quiz section is. I may have seen the quiz section sometime in the past and didn't bother setting up an account, but your description of the quizzes made me do so. And again, wow. That's crazy stuff. I'm beginning to start understanding lookarounds and am currently stuck with the "replace each dot by a hyphen, unless the dot is surrounded by digits" exercise. Trying to build an email address validator was mad and fortunately optional, but I might come back to that later.

The exercise that made me suddenly understand the lookahead syntax is "Find text that contains X, Y or Z, unless the text also contains A, B or C." That's the "spam filter" exercise. I almost felt 💡 a light bulb turning on. Click. /^(?!.*(A|B|C).*).*(?:X|Y|Z).*/i Perhaps this can be further optimized, but not far (77 vs. 71 characters).

I'm still... dazzled.

I'll report back if I ever finish the quiz. Thank you so much. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:12, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

ToBeFree - Those exercises really helped me with concepts that I either didn't use, or (at the time) didn't take the time to truly develop strategic use with. The HTML tag one is the optional one on mine, but the email one isn't too tricky. It took a bit of time to remember the TLD and domain character rules. For example: I didn't know that you could have more than one dash ("-") together in a domain name. In the end, I was able to satisfy the exercise's test cases. It's doesn't have an insanely good score compared to other submissions (89 characters, better than 62.9% of other submissions), but my code was:

Spoiler alert! Click to reveal answer:
/^\w+\.?(?:[!#$%&'*+\-\/=?^_`{|}~])*\w+@(?:[a-z0-9]+(?:-*[a-z0-9])*\.)+(?:[a-z]){2,6}$/gi

What exercise number are you currently on? I did end up stopping after the email one. I'll pick up the rest of them later. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 22:41, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

The spoiler-hidden answer is exactly what I mean by "mad". Congratulations, I'll have to try that again later.

I think reaching the top result often involves optimizations that are rather impractical, such as replacing "test|words" by "(te|word)st?". That example makes no sense and the two aren't identical, but I mean this kind of optimization even when done properly. There's a reason code golf languages aren't used for writing serious software... to my knowledge...

I found a (way too complicated, but working) solution to "15. Not surrounded by digits" and am at "16. Repeated Words" at the moment.

8. HTML tags
<.*?>|[^<>]*>|<[^<>]* /g Either anything in HTML brackets, or from line start to a closing bracket, or from opening bracket to line end.

15. Not surrounded by digits

(?<![0-9])\.(?![0-9])|\.(?![0-9])|(?<![0-9])\. /g Either a dot not surrounded by any digits (without consuming these characters), or a dot without a digit to the right, or a dot without a digit to the left. Optimizing this by replacing the negative lookarounds by positive ones for "\D" didn't work for me; it's not the same. I think it's because "not a digit" and "a non-digit" differ by their treatment of nothing (which is not a digit but not a non-digit).

~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:22, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

ToBeFree - That's correct; the less number of characters that you use with the code you submitted will return a higher score. I don't mind code optimization if it's practical. That's what I've been doing when I visit and complete re-factor, re-organize, and re-structure the code to a random edit filter (like I did to #1202 and #1164 that I linked you to above). There are times where "optimizations" can cause the code to be more difficult to read or review by other users - especially as its complexity and needs grow. I have additional challenges in the two LTA filters that I maintain that even ccnorm() doesn't resolve (I'll email you those details; I'm not going to share them here for obvious reasons lol). Fixing those issues, while very necessary due to LTA shenanigans, adds a huge level of complexity to the code of both of those filters. It would take a madman just to interpret and understand it all. :-)

You're on exercise #16? Right on! I'll get caught up to you soon. Those exercises get very complex, but they absolutely help with giving you experience and practice, and with improving your skills. I didn't review the regex codes that you provided previously; I don't want to spoil it for myself and cheat the exercises, and I'd be curious to present the code that I came up with to solve each one compared to yours. :-) I'll update you once I get caught up! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:05, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for regex101

I take the URL from your talk with U:ToBeFree above for myself, and for my colleagues, too (talk page stalker) CiaPan (talk) 15:28, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

CiaPan - Isn't that site incredible?!! :-D No problem; always happy to help. I'm not gonna lie - I've fixed a lot of weird issues with help from that site. It's a must-have for debugging and testing your regex before you roll out any changes to production (especially to an edit filter). ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 16:59, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi! You're right, the regex101 is incredible. Although, to be honest, Wikipedia is really incredible, too! :-D
BTW, I notice you seem offline for quite a few days, hope to see you back soon, helping, cleaning-up, and smiling as usual. --CiaPan (talk) 11:58, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi CiaPan! Unfortunately, with work and all sorts of other things, I tend to be active for a few weeks and then inactive for a bit to keep caught up with everything. Don't worry, in these instances where I'm offline for a little while, I haven't left the project and I'll definitely be back soon. Also, I'm back! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:34, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Help me writing my artist biography page?

Hey Oshwah, I really need help writing my artist biography page and I was wondering if you could maybe help me write it as I am a small upcoming artist, but I do have a google knowledge panel, so I need a biography to display on there. Thank you for your time

147.148.29.160 (talk) 00:15, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi there, and thanks for leaving me a message here! Welcome to Wikipedia! I'm glad that you're here. :-) Are you writing an autobiography, or a biography about yourself? If so, this is highly discouraged behavior on Wikipedia. Autobiographies are problematic, as they usually contain significant amounts of original research (which is not allowed on Wikipedia), and are usually biased to favor the article subject (it's nearly impossible for users to write their own article and reflect a neutral point of view - another requirement for all Wikipedia articles). Users and patrollers will also bring forth the concerns regarding Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines as well, which would be an obvious concern as well... can you blame them? I obviously can't force you to do anything, but I highly recommend that you don't spent any more time toward creating this autobiography of yourself. In the end, the article will very likely not last long, and will end up being deleted. I'm not telling this to you in order to try and discourage you, bring you down, or cause you to feel disheartened; I'm telling you this now so that it will save you from spending hours, if not days of time, effort, and energy attempting to craft, write, and create this article, and for all of that time and effort to ultimately be wasted and go toward nothing when the article is deleted. Instead, you should focus your time, energy, and your desire to write or expand content toward other articles that already exist. What subjects, places, people, or hobbies interest you? There's likely a WikiProject that exists and for users who are interested in the exact same thing! Find a WikiProject that interests you; they'll have lots of articles, pages, and subjects that you can help improve or expand that relate to your interests. Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them and assist you. Thanks again for the message, and I wish you a great day and happy editing. :-) Best regards - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:12, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Question from Ministry Of sport (05:19, 5 October 2022)

Hello how can I write any biography --Ministry Of sport (talk) 05:19, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Ministry Of sport! Welcome to Wikipedia! I'm glad that you decided to create an account and join us as a Wikipedian and become a member of our community! Being new and learning how things work around here may seem to feel like a task that's a bit tricky for awhile, but it's nothing that you need to worry or stress over. ;-) If you decide to regularly contribute to Wikipedia and the project (and I really hope that you do!), you'll find yourself becoming familiar with how everything works in no time at all - it just takes practice, patience, persistence, and the willingness to grow and learn (just like anything that you're first introduced to in life, such as a new job, or a new hobby, skill, or practice). Back when I first created my account and was very new to Wikipedia (which was back in January 2007), I didn't have any of the tutorials, projects, editors, help pages, guidelines, and tools that we've since developed and have available today - and I ended up getting through the "new and novice phases" of Wikipedia just fine. ;-) Depending on your level of dedication and time that you spend on Wikipedia, you'll feel mostly-proficient with all of the basic fundamentals, founding principles, and important policies to understand and follow after about 6 months of time has gone by. Don't worry, though... that time goes by fast. :-)

Now, onto your question: Have you gone though any of Wikipedia's help and tutorial pages for new users yet? If you haven't, I'd first start by going through Wikipedia's getting started page, and then complete Wikipedia's interactive new user tutorial lessons and learning topics. The first page will guide you through where to start, what things you should know and familiarize yourself with first, and help you with how the structure of Wikipedia and its pages and namespaces work. The new user tutorial, which I always recommend that new users go through completely and finish, is an interactive guide that shows you the basic fundamentals, tools, and items that are essential for this project to function and work, and teaches you how to use them properly. In those tutorial pages I linked you to, you will be presented with the topic of creating a new page, and how to do this. However, instead of just linking you straight to that help topic and saying "good luck, bye!" to you, I though that I'd provide you with the pages that will actually help you. Creating a page is only one step out of many that you'll need to know and understand if you want to be a successful editor and member of the community here.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need any help with the new user pages that I provided you with above. I'll be happy to answer them, and I'll be happy to assist you with anything that you need. Again, welcome to Wikipedia! I'm glad that you decided to join us, and I hope that you'll take off your jacket and stick around with us for awhile! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:25, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Yet another

Herousero. I block 'em, and you CU-block 'em. Are they just all socks of each other, or is there an LTA behind all this? Oh, btw, hi!--Bbb23 (talk) 00:32, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Bbb23! The accounts that I confirmed in the SPI were only confirmed to one another. I couldn't directly connect anything to past socks or the apparent master. It looks like this user found another range to noodle around in. Let me do some digging and get back to you... ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:35, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Update: It's a completely different range than the big list of others that I found and blocked. No other accounts or sleepers found. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:13, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for checking, Oshwah.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:11, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Sorry, what SPI are you referring to?--Bbb23 (talk) 02:15, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Bbb23 - This one. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:53, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

I don't think we're talking about the same group. I'm referring to socks like Baedosureo.--Bbb23 (talk) 03:36, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Bbb23 - Ahhh... Yeah, I remember those accounts. There were also accounts such as Baedo925 a and Baedo925 that I found as well. However, I didn't see Baedosureo or any of the others when I ran Herousero. However, when I check back on the logs where I ran each user, I do see a pattern (geolocation and ISP). I'd say these are all  Likely - especially when you add a behavioral analysis to the equation. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:51, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

I was checking your block log Oshwah, I was wondering if it is possible to hide those LTA IP ranges affected by the blocks you did yesterday or can't that be possible? Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 08:37, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Iggy the Swan - Without revealing the order in which I block (or blocked) any ranges after (or before) I block (lol... or blocked) any accounts (the order in which I do so is not consistent and likely not in the order in which you see them in my logs), I don't feel that it is the right thing to do unless I screwed something up badly - in those cases, I'd still ask another admin or functionary to hide them when possible. I've done so before, but only in very very clear-cut cases. Otherwise, it would be an abuse of my power to hide my own logs, you know... since I placed those blocks. ;-). To answer your question: Can I redact or suppress my own logs? ...Yes, meaning that I have the ability to do so. Is it ethical or okay to do so and outside of protecting users and Wikipedians, and when allowed per policy? Ugh... That's when I stop becoming a functionary, and I start becoming a "Supreme Court Justice", a supervisor over a team of those pesky workers who are in charge of wiping floors and cleaning the dirty bathroom, or something like that... If I really want to step it up, I could be the owner of the building who employs that supervisor, too. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 08:59, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Seems reasonable enough. Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 10:40, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Iggy the Swan - I do my best with what I got ;-)... ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 10:50, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

page move

hi there! small note: i notice you moved Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/theleekycauldron to Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Theleekycauldron – given that there was discussion of the page title at the time of the RfA, and there was no consensus to move, I wonder if the move could be reverted. My username is generally spelled lowercase, and for most technical reasons, there's not much of a difference anyway. thanks in advance :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 22:10, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Theleekycauldron! Happy Friday, and thanks for taking the time to reach out to me. I wasn't aware that such a discussion had taken place - thanks for the heads up, and I apologize if the move caused any inconvenience and frustration. The main reason why I decided to move the page and leave a redirect was just for technical purposes. There could be scripts or other forms of automation that probe RFA (and other) pages for statistics, information, or other stuff, and where the developer makes the (very fair, understandable, but not great) assumption that since all usernames must begin with a capital for technical reasons, then these RFA pages do too.

However, I really doubt that changing the first letter of your RFA page from an 'L' to an 'l' is going to make the "wiki-world explode" (after all, we're... still here, so it hasn't happened yet) ...and even if it does, then we probably deserve it if our essential and core scripts are written that badly. ;-) Give me a few minutes to wrap some things up, and I'll get the moving van started up. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 23:22, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, no frustration at all! I appreciate it – I do realize it's a very minor small thing :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 06:05, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Asking to help with Artistic page

Hello Oshwah! I'm impressed for your presentation vibe. Hope we will find same language in dialog. Our colleague made page of my friend (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Ilya_Shagalov). He is a great artist, and he left Russia because of military mobilisation. Now he is abroad. This page would help him a lot, to find a new projects. Please, could you to curate the page creation process. It will help us a lot.

looking forward for any answer. 46.46.201.182 (talk) 17:05, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi there, and thanks for leaving me a message here. The curation process for draft pages is handled by a team of reviewers listed on this page, not myself or other Wikipedia administrators. If you need help with the review or curation process, you can get in touch with a reviewer by asking for help at the articles for creation help desk. They will be able to assist you with your request better than I can. If you have additional questions about anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out to me and let me know. I'll be happy to answer them and assist you, or at least point you in the right direction. :-) Best regards - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:01, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Thank you!

Just wanted to say thank you for redacting my IP that I posted by accident on my talk page. I was in the middle of sending an email to Oversight about it and a few other instances and noticed you got rid of one of them.

Thank you so much for doing it without me even asking for it! :D — That Coptic Guy (let's talk?) 00:11, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

That Coptic Guy - You bet! I was just doing my usual thing... keeping an eye out for my fellow Wikipedians so that they're safe and protected. ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:36, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 13:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC). 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.

— 3PPYB6 ^{(T / C / L)} — 13:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi 3PPYB6! I apologize for the delay responding to you here. Life, as usual, has been keeping me busy. I've just finished up with responding to all of the messages that were left on my talk page here, and I'll start reading and responding to the emails that I've received here in just a few moments. Stay tuned... :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:32, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

3PPYB6 - Received and replied. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:01, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Adding picture to an article

how do I add pictures to an article? My university library has given permission to use them. Nubia 77 (talk) 17:33, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

@Nubia 77: Hopefully the Wikipedia:Images page will be of some help for you, especially first two sections (Policies and Tutorials). (talk page stalker) CiaPan (talk) 19:05, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

yes it was helpful. Thank you. Nubia 77 (talk) 23:52, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Nubia 77! I apologize for the delay responding to your question here. As CiaPan stated above, Wikipedia:Images will be the help page and resource that you're looking for. CiaPan - Thank you for assisting this user while I was away. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:56, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Need some advice

I need some help, especially given that I instantly get angry (and getting my blood boiling) over edits that I made that were reverted. I Know I try my best to explain my defense and sometimes, I have the feeling that I worried that people are rude (Even I feel that it's hard to convey people's emotions when you talk in text 😓). I don't like to be involved in edit wars and I know I hadn't been into a full-on scale one (thankfully) but I feel my contributions in some of my pages are unwelcome (not all of them but many thank me for great ones like helping save a page from being deleted and some don't welcome me either. I know I'm sometimes like an instant hothead but I'm trying to cool it. I'm not sure what to do. I'm editing here for 10 years and I feel like a newbie myself. I'm worried about how rude editors can be and stuff even if I'm trying to be nice. 20chances (talk) 03:51, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi 20chances! Thanks for leaving me a message here with your thoughts and your request for advice. I understand how easy it is for people such as yourself to become angry, feel frustrated, and feeling the need to respond in a rash and combative tone toward others who revert your changes - especially if you feel like they're being rude to you (either through their actions or with their comments made toward you). The first thing that you need to remember is that you are absolutely not unwelcome anywhere on Wikipedia. We encourage you to be bold; if you see anything on an article that can be improved or fixed, by all means - click on "edit" and make it so! :-) In the situation where another editor reverts your changes, the first and foremost thing to remember is to not interpret the revert to mean or imply that you've done something wrong or that the edit you made is unwelcome.

Important policies that you (and other editors) must always follow is Wikipedia's dispute resolution protocol. Edit summaries do not count as sufficient communication with other editors when it comes to disputes or important matters. If someone reverts your edit and if you disagree with it, you should start a discussion on the article's talk page, make sure that you ping the other user when you do so, and give them time to respond. If they don't respond within a day or two, re-instate your changes - since they didn't reply, the implicit consensus through editing remains that the changes should be made. If they revert it back a second time and if they don't follow up with a response to your talk page discussion, leave a message on their user talk page, and kindly point them to the talk page discussion that you started. Holding someone accountable isn't uncivil, isn't out-of-line, and isn't rude if you do so civilly. It's on them to participate in the discussion if they're going to repeatedly revert your changes.

Just remember... Wikipedia is the sixth most visited website in the world right now. As of the time of this writing, 122,997 accounts have made an edit to Wikipedia in the last 30 days, and those are just accounts - it doesn't include the number of unregistered users who make changes. With this number of active users and the number of edits that follow, you're absolutely bound to run into a disagreement, conflict, or dispute with another editor. In fact, I'd consider it extremely lucky if an editor hasn't run into any disagreements at all with another editor if they're regularly contributing. I've run into many disagreements and conflicts on Wikipedia over the 15+ years that I've been here. It's normal, and it doesn't need to result in a heated situation simply because there's a disagreement.

Even if the other editor is being uncivil, rude, or unreasonable toward you, you absolutely have the power to diffuse the situation by simply responding to the user in a respectful and civil way, and keeping your subsequent responses civil. Always remember the golden rule. If they're being uncivil and nasty toward you, it's not out of line to respond and call them out on it. Simply start by stating something like, "I appreciate the discussion, but your choice of words and your tone are coming off as unreasonably heated. Can we discuss this in a positive and collaborative manner?" You'd be surprised how often something simple like this will positively change their tone. If you find yourself becoming angry or frustrated toward someone, and feeling the drive to hit the "edit" button and rattle off in return, stop what you're doing and step away from the discussion for awhile. Let the emotions pass, then come back and respond when your emotions are not driving the basis of your thoughts. I understand that this can be hard, but remember that breaking a habit or incorporating new second-nature habits takes time, practice, and self-awareness.

If you have any further questions, concerns, or would like my further input or thoughts about anything specific in this area, please let me know. I'll be more than happy to work with you and provide you with some tools that will help you with keeping self-aware so that you can avoid heated discussions or emotions. My talk page is always open to you. :-) Best - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:27, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Question from Rkagroup (05:05, 21 October 2022)

How can I make my own biography --Rkagroup (talk) 05:05, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi, Rkagroup, it's CiaPan here (talk page stalker). I'm sure Oshwah would be happy to answer your question in detail, alas he seems absent from Wikipedia for quite a few days. Writing your biography at Wikipedia is strongly dicouraged for multiple reasons, the main of which is a definite Conflict of interest, which results both in unavoidable breaking the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy (bias in writing, simply speaking) and an Ownership of content attitude towards the already written bio. A side result of the bias is usually missing WP:Notability criteria, which are one of crucial issue at Wikipedia.

Apart from all concerns I mentioned above, please also be aware that having your bio at Wikipedia may have unexpected (and unwanted!) results. You may want to read Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing.

I'd also like to notify you that the username you chose may not meet Wikipedia:Username policy, as it suggests a strong relationship to a commercial entity (https://rkagroup.com/) which falls under WP:CORPNAME & WP:SHAREDACCOUNT & WP:ISU of the policy. Please consider following the steps described at Wikipedia:Changing username to avoid blocking you from editing.

Should you have more questions, please ask them at Wikipedia:Help desk, where they can be answered more swiftly and by more experienced editors.

Finally, welcome to Wikipedia, and happy editing! :) --CiaPan (talk) 07:13, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

P.S.
You may be interested in reading the #Question from Ministry Of sport (05:19, 5 October 2022) section above, in which Oshwah replied to a similar question. :) (talk page stalker) CiaPan (talk) 07:25, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Rkagroup! CiaPan's response above is correct and points to the exact policies and guidelines that you should review and understand. The behavior of creating an autobiography on Wikipedia isn't just highly discouraged, but usually also results in the article being deleted - usually for failing to show a credible claim of significance or establish notability about, well, yourself. :-) I would instead encourage you to focus on creating or expanding content in other articles or areas on Wikipedia. If you're undoubtedly a very notable person, then another editor will without a doubt create an article about you. ;-) Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them for you. Another thanks to CiaPan for responding while I was away. Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:33, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

The Wiki Show YouTube channel

Hi Oshwah, I would be interested in your opinion on the YouTube channel, The Wiki Show. I watched some of their videos and I was very impressed with the way they explained Wikipedia's policies and core features despite having very little edits. I wish more experienced editors and administrators provide video tutorials on this subject. I would be interested if you would recommend this channel to new Wikipedia users who are learning the ropes of editing. I value your feedback. Interstellarity (talk) 19:34, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Interstellarity! Interesting! Thanks for pointing out this channel to me. With what you've watched or seen so far, do the videos accurately describe Wikipedia's policies and guidelines? Are there any disagreements with what one or more videos might have stated or said? This would be the most important factor to peer review and consider before recommending any tutorials that aren't on-wiki. I'll give it a look through; thanks again! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:36, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

So far, I haven't come across any videos that do not accurately describe Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. I'd be interested to see if you found any videos that describe Wikipedia editing inaccurately. Interstellarity (talk) 12:33, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

BC/AD vs BCE/CE

Hi Oshwah, I would be interested to know why the article titles on years, decades, centuries, and millennia use the BC/AD system of dates rather than BCE/CE. I've seen both conventions used in Wikipedia articles and am aware of the policy of MOS:ERA which says to use the one based on the context of the article as they are both correct. My question to you is why the article titles on years, decades, centuries, and millennia use the BC/AD rather than BCE/CE and who made the decision to use the titles? Interstellarity (talk) 19:45, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Interstellarity! Welcome back! :-) The short answer to your question is that I don't know. I know that the manual of style states that the form should be used consistently throughout the article, and that either form is okay "depending on the article context" (which to me is a very broad statement). The most likely answer is that someone probably just started creating articles on years, decades, centuries, and millennia and just used the BC/AD notation without giving it much thought, and that subsequent articles that were created or written in this topic area likely followed suit just in order to be consistent. There might have been a talk page discussion or request for comment on which notation should be used that was closed with a consensus reached, but I don't recall ever seeing one. You might try asking at WikiProject Days of the year or WikiProject Time, as participants there will likely have an accurate answer for you. :-) Please let me know what you find out! I'd be interested in knowing... ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 02:48, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

I started an RFC here regarding which format should be used. It looks like the consensus right now is to keep the status quo, but feel free to give it a read if you're interested. Interstellarity (talk) 22:31, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Interstellarity - Thanks for the update! Will do, and thank you for the link. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:29, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Edit filters

Hi Oshwah. I think it's been awhile since I posted here but I remember you :) Anyways, I have a vague memory of someone referring to you as being good at edit filters? If I can trust that recollection, maybe you could do something to prevent edits like this [1]. I'm assuming they were using the other characters as an attempt to evade some sort of edit filter because otherwise it would've been simpler to just state what they were obviously intending. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for reaching out about that. I was going to look into it, but I really need to grab a couple hours of sleep before getting back to my blind. Should be a simple filter, I imagine. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 18:15, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

Another variation for when you have the time to take a look [2]. I have no idea what people find furfilling in spamming insults like that. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 18:20, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Clovermoss! It's good to talk to you again! I hope you're doing well and that life is treating you nicely. :-) My short answer to your question is yes. These edits are examples of users implementing what is commonly referred to as easily confused characters, or "confusables", in order to abuse the project and get around edit filters that would normally disallow the edit from being saved. I've actually been actively updating some existing edit filters these last few months in order to implement a function that does exactly what you're looking for! The function, when implemented correctly into an edit filter, takes any "confusables" that someone may be attempting to save with an edit, and convert them back into the standard upper-case alphabet before checking if a string condition is a filter hit.

While the function isn't 100% perfect and likely doesn't catch every instance of this kind of abuse, it's proven to me to be very far beyond a "damn good start in the right direction", and it's actively being expanded as new "confusables" are discovered and used within abusive edits. :-) Unfortunately, adding this function to edit filters isn't as easy as just inserting it into the right code statement, saving the changes, and walking away - there's a lot more to it. It's a very careful balance that takes time and care to implement so that the edit filter:

1. continues to function exactly as it did before I changed the code, and operates as it was intended and designed to, and...
2. while verifying that false positive hit possibilities are not introduced that result in the edit filter being less accurate with flagging hits than before I modified it

Please let me know if you have any questions or additional concerns, and please keep me posted if you continue to regularly see this kind of abuse on Wikipedia. Over time, as I implement the necessary updates to key edit filters, we should hopefully see these attempts at getting around the edit filters go down. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:18, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for the detailed response! I figured it was probably more complicated than it sounded or else it would've been fixed already. Thanks for working on this over time, by the way. :) Feel free to notify me when you think you've gotten things worked out in regards to that, I admit I'm a bit curious now.

It's good to talk to you again, too. Honestly IRL is incredibly stressful right now but I'm getting through it, I really do appreciate the sentiment though. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 20:21, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Clovermoss - I feel the same way about RL as well. Life is busy, life is stressful, but I'm working through it and I'm fine (at least for now). If you're curious to learn more about what I'm doing, you can read about the exact function I'm implementing into major filters by visiting this page (it's called ccnorm). I'll definitely keep you up-to-date, but know that it's a process and will take some time. ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:36, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Twinkle question

Hello Oshwah! I hope you're doing well! I had random question about Twinkle and its welcoming templates. I noticed as I was trying to welcome a few new users (who have already edited constructively,) that the welcome templates that provide information in graph form are no longer an option to use (specifically the blue/gold and the graph with about sixty links.) Is there a way that you know of to have those added again? It's not a huge deal per se, and I can still welcome new editors, but wasn't sure about those :) Thanks again for all the help you've given and I look forward to seeing you around! SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (contribs)} 13:01, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @Spf121188, even I was facing this problem a while ago. You can go to the welcome section in the Twinkle preferences and add the required templates. Kpddg ^(talk) 13:28, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

OH! Excellent, thank you for the help, Kpddg! Greatly appreciated! :) SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (contribs)} 13:30, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

You're welcome :) Kpddg ^(talk) 13:32, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Spf121188! Sorry for the delay getting back to you here. Life, as usual, has been keeping me busy. :-) It looks like Kpddg was able to answer your question and assist you. My sincere thanks to Kpddg for helping Spf121188 while I was away. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:21, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

You never need to apologize to me, my friend! Happy as always to hear from you! 😊 SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (contribs)} 04:34, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Spf121188 - I echo the same statement to you as well. I'm glad to hear that you're doing well and that your question was answered. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 05:43, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Question from PhilipAntony62 (13:15, 26 October 2022)

Hiya Oshwa, I am presently involved in the creation and performance of a play about the Women's Suffragette Movement: When did it start? Who were the main Inspirers of it? The protests and what happened? Who suffered and how did they suffer? Abuse? Hospitalisation? Imprisonment? As much knowledge as I can get really. As I don't want women saying after the performance: "Well, that wasn't right!" or "That didn't happen!" So, what ya reckon?

Phil --PhilipAntony62 (talk) 13:15, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi PhilipAntony62! Welcome to Wikipedia! I wasn't able to find anything about the "Women's Suffragette Movement" on Wikipedia or within search engines. Are you perhaps referring to the Women's suffrage movement by chance? If so, then the article I linked you to should hopefully provide you with the information that you're looking for. :-) Please let me know if I can assist you with anything else; I'll be more than happy to help! Best regards - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:28, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Your description as a mentor

Hello Oshwah

You are listed as a mentor, and you welcome newcomers. Thank you for them!

I observed at Special:ManageMentors that your description is too long (more than 240 characters), and it has been shorten. You can edit it at Special:MentorDashboard.

Best regards, ~~~~ Trizek (WMF) (talk) 16:07, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

Trizek (WMF) -  Fixed; thank you for letting me know. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:29, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Db-r2 template and candidates for speedy deletion

Hi, I've noticed that, in some cases, redirects tagged with {{Db-r2}} aren't showing up in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as inappropriate cross-namespace redirects (even after purging the page). This seems to be the case when using the User:Evad37/MoveToDraft script. As far as I can tell, the script only adds {{Db-r2}} to the redirect after the page has been moved, so the redirects should show in the category but they aren't. Examples of redirects with this issue are Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and Space Dogs (musical). Wondering if you could take a look? Thanks. Uhai (talk) 22:56, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Uhai! I'm assuming that we're talking about situations where a page is moved leaving a redirect from the original location pointing to the new location. I took a look at both of the redirects that you provided above, and they're both properly tagged with Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as inappropriate cross-namespace redirects and appear to be in perfect order. When you said that you purged "the page", did you purge redirect page? Or did you purge the category page? Regardless, it appears to me that it's working fine; it just takes time to propagate those categories to where you can see them on the bottom of the target page. I believe that you have to purge both pages before you'll see the category appear if you don't wish to wait, but don't quote me on that. I remember testing this a long time ago, but I don't remember 100% what I concluded. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 23:26, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I was referring to purging the category page, but upon trying both, the redirect still didn't show in the category. It looks like you're right: it's category propagation timing issue. I followed the advice of Wikipedia:FAQ/Categorization#Why_might_a_category_list_not_be_up_to_date? and made a null edit to Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and then purged the category page, and the redirect page was instantly present there. It's interesting how you could see them as being tagged with the category as I was unable to until I did this. Also interesting is how, whenever I tag pages for CSD with Twinkle, the pages also show up instantly in the candidates for speedy deletion categories. Perhaps it's some weird behavior with the MoveToDraft script tagging the redirect for speedy deletion too quickly after the move, causing delayed category propagation? Regardless, it's not an issue with the template, so thanks! Uhai (talk) 00:02, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Uhai - Ah, very good! I'm glad that you managed to find a solution. The issue where you're not seeing the category updating the page when I can is likely due to your browser's caching settings. As you're very likely already aware, browsers will cache resources and objects from pages you visit so that it doesn't have to download it again if you were to go back to it. The negative side effect of this is that you won't see live changes when they're made if you were to visit the page immediately afterwards if you recently visited it before. It's because your browser is loading the version that it cached instead of downloading an updated copy of the page from the internet. Just clear your cache if you're noticing an issue like this, and you'll be all set. I set my browser to automatically clear all cookies, cache, downloaded objects, and other data when it's closed. This way, I get a fresh browser experience every time I open it. On top of this, if I'm having a caching issue, I just have to close and re-launch - issue resolved. ;-) I doubt that it's an issue with the script itself. If its only functionality is to perform a page move, drop an R2 tag on the resulting redirect automatically, and save the changes for you - it's extremely unlikely that the script is the cause of the issue. Anyways, no problem! Should you run into any questions, or need for input or advice, don't be a stranger! I'm available and happy to lend you a hand. ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:33, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Rangeblock for IP needed

IP at this railroad template keeps re-introducing station names I cannot find or verify in railroad documents, Thank you. Cards84664 15:43, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Cards84664! Thanks for letting me know about this. This IP range, 2600:1700:B971:1930::/64, has also been causing other trouble over the last month. Their edit recent history shows many reverted edits where the user adds unreferenced content about railroad stations that can't be verified. I've blocked this range for one month for this reason (which includes the edits that you reported above). Their block history shows that I also blocked them back in March for the same exact thing. Seems like nothing has changed since then... ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:07, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Question from Ashiya Parvin (07:14, 2 November 2022)

How to add my details! --Ashiya Parvin (talk) 07:14, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Ashiya Parvin! Welcome to Wikipedia! Are you asking about the creation of your user page? If so, make sure to follow Wikipedia's policies on user pages - specifically, what you can and cannot have on your user page. Remember that Wikipedia is not a social network; user pages can discuss some details about yourself, but it should be focused primarily on Wikipedia-related things, such as your WikiProjects and interests, or your experience with an on Wikipedia. If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to me again. I'll be more than happy to answer them and help you. :-) Best - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:05, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

Thank you Ashiya Parvin (talk) 17:08, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

Ashiya Parvin - You bet, and welcome! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:28, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

how to make user pages with the boxes and stuff?

sorry if thats a bad discription,im new here lol ItsMeKeys (talk) 15:49, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi ItsMeKeys! Welcome back! What you're looking for are userboxes. Other design elements that you'll likely find useful are tables, lists, infoboxes, and pictures. Remember that you can also try enabling and using the VisualEditor to make edits and add content to pages. Not everyone chooses to use the VisualEditor to make changes; most of us "old timers" (including myself) prefer manually working with the formatting and code. If anything, the pages I linked you to above will prove to all be great resources that will help you. Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 19:22, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

ok,thank you! one more question,so i am using a book on internet archive,am i allowed to link the internet archive link as a source or no? ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:37, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

im using a book on internet archive for reaserch,is what i meant to write ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:37, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

(by talk reader) Published books are often allowable as sources. I'm not sure why you're referring to a link on Internet Archive; Wikipedia cannot link to copyright violations. Chris Troutman (talk) 19:42, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

ok,so i list it as a source then instead of linking to the website ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:47, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Unblock requests

Well, yes, I think I do know you better than that, really. It's just that I get so used to the fact that most of the administrators who frequently check unblock requests have a strong aversion to ever accepting them that I have sort of slipped into the habit of automatically pleading against that tendency, whether in a particular case it's warranted or not. Anyway, thanks for dealing with the request. JBW (talk) 21:33, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi JBW! You bet; always happy to help! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:19, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Adding new cases to closed investigation

Hi Oshwah. Where does one add further accounts suspected of being reincarnations of blocked sock master MissAsean2022? Regards, Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 15:50, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Rui Gabriel Correia! To create another SPI case to report more sock puppets of Archive blocked sock master MissAsean2022, all you need to do is go to WP:SPI (Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations). Scroll down the page until you see a white collapsed message box titled "How to open an investigation". Click the [show] link on the right-hand side, and the box will expand. Then, just enter the sock master (Archive blocked sock master MissAsean2022) into the text field and click on "Submit". This will cause you to edit the correct page automatically, and with the SPI case details added to the content box and ready for you to fill in. Once you're done adding the list of sockpuppet accounts and your evidence showing that these are sock accounts of the master, just save the page and it'll be submitted. :-) Please let me know if you get stuck anywhere, or if you have any questions or need assistance with anything else, and I'll be more than happy to help you. :-) Best - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 16:40, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) Damn Oshwah - your way sounds complicated! Click on the word 'blether' to see my way. Rui - how many CUs did you ask? ;) Girth Summit _(blether) 16:50, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, Oshwah. Living and learning. Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 16:52, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Rui Gabriel Correia - See the response that Girth Summit added on his user talk page answering your same question. I agree; use Twinkle to do it for you. I... honestly have no idea why I didn't think about that. Oh well, it's Friday... :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:10, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Oshwah and Girth Summit, firstly my apologies for the queries on two separate talk pages; I just wanted to have a reply as soon as possible and did not know how soon any of you would be around. So I was very happy yo see replies from both so soon after leaving my question. Again, thanks for the valuable pointers. The reason for the haste was that a group of accounts was creating havoc on the Portuguese Wikipedia editing/ creating a wide array of articles on miss competitions/ titles. I soon discovered that they were all related and homed in on the suspected master and saw that it was globally locked. That led me to believe that I should report the matter where I saw a discussion on global locks of the master accounts. So a whole new set of accounts have now been locked, some had already been locked in other projects. The only issue is that I suspected and reported the account Wildfm985 as a sock of MissAsean2022 and it was confirmed as such. However I later saw that that account is suspected of being a sock of RadyoUkay819 and has been blocked as such. Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 03:24, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

Rui Gabriel Correia - No need to apologize. We understand and we're more than happy to help you. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 03:26, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

EF question

I'm trying to figure out a way to have this promo sock's account creations filtered/logged. Would your Filter 54 work? -- Ponyo^{bons mots} 17:07, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) Beat you to it DatGuy^Talk_Contribs 17:16, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Ahhh, that's a much better fit than my suggestion. Cheers for that!-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 17:41, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hi Ponyo! Happy Friday! I hope you're doing well and that life is treating you nicely. :-) Yes, edit filter #54 would catch the account creation if they used something like "business" or "merchandise". I'll do you one better: I'll add some conditions to edit filter #51 so that any additional similar accounts from this LTA are flagged there. Keep in mind that these filters do not intervene, warn, or disallow any actions - they simply flag positive hits and tag them. Stand by; I'll add that condition now... :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:27, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Ponyo -  Done. The changes I made can be viewed here. ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:29, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Hello again....

...My friend! Question... I left a message on this talk page, instead of reporting to UAA. Is this a situation where I should go ahead and report since the username is unambiguously promotional? Just want to make sure for future reference :) I think I've asked you this before, but my memory can sometimes be terrible lolz. Thank you though, as always for your help!! SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (contribs)} 18:31, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Spf121188! Welcome back! You should either do one or the other, not both - since they're both contradictory to one another in regards to norms and best practices that were established about this. Typically, you'll want to simply discuss the matter with the user on their user talk page if their username isn't compliant with Wikipedia's username policy, but not in a way that's blatantly offensive, disruptive, or promotional. For blatant clear-cut cases of offensive, profane, threatening, or similar such usernames that any typical person would agree is unacceptable. Many users have asked this question, and I've (unfortunately) seen users finding themselves at the receiving end of some frustrated users' words and scolding when they were discovered to be both leaving the user a message about their account and reporting it to UAA. Either it's one or the other. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:37, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Fair enough! That makes sense and I'll (attempt to) keep that in mind! I certainly think I can remember this for the future. It seems most of the time I don't have an issue as I do report OR leave them a message, but I know sometimes there may be a gray area. I typically am heavily involved in UAA especially as most of the time don't run into problems, but I always like to ask, just to make sure I don't make a dumb mistake :) Either way, thanks again for responding so quickly and for your help! I'll do my best not to continue bothering you on your talk page! :) See you around! SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (contribs)} 20:46, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Spf121188 - That's great that you take the time to ask for help when you're in a situation where you're 100% not sure of what the proper process is. It's much better to stop and ask someone knowledgeable and get the right answer first compared to just carelessly "going with the flow" and then figuring out later (usually when one or more other users come running at you with torches and pitchforks to lecture and scold you) that what you've been doing doesn't comply with relevant policy or process. ;-) And don't worry about anything in regards to "bothering me" on my user talk page. I'd much rather have you come to me and ask for help than have you "guessing" at what the correct process is and potentially making mistakes or causing disruption. Answering one's questions and providing them with assistance is much much easier compared to repeatedly undoing that same user's mistakes, messaging them and telling them to stop, that their actions are causing disruption, and to please review the policy or guideline first. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 22:24, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Adam1213/old

Why did you only undelete the most recent revision? That's bizarre and leaves the history looking like a mess. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 04:49, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

To fix this, do these two steps:

1. Undelete the earlier deleted revisions for Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Adam1213/old.
2. Special:MergeHistory from Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Adam1213/old to Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Adam1213.

GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 15:43, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Pppery! I'm not sure why only the most recent revision was undeleted... I meant to restore all of them. I've restored the previous revisions and I've merged them accordingly. Thanks for letting me know! :-) I'll also ping GeoffreyT2000 as well. Best regards - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:18, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

Hey oshwah,i have an idea

i have noticed that suck pupetry is somewhat common on wikipedia,and i had an idea to reduce it.it is a system that reads through the ip history of accounts and looks for suspicous activity (ie multiple accounts with nothing on them,long usernames,blocked accounts etc) and based on the activity,block the account or not.i think this is better because most of the time ip users have done nothing wrong,and this is much better,in my opinion,then ip blocking.this would likly have to be manual at first,but maybe bots can do it in the future.also,i think that ip address should be blurred when something like someones requesting a block on an ip range,because doxxing has gotten increasingly common online. cheers~ ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:10, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

also,how do i use lupin? is it useful to me or no? ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:20, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

i accedently wrote suck pupetry,but i meant sock puppetry ItsMeKeys (talk) 19:23, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi ItsMeKeys! We actually already have a system in place to combat and stop sock puppetry in a (somewhat-similar) manner that you're describing. See Wikipedia's page on CheckUsers, who are a small group of users who have advanced user rights, and access to retrieve this information (within policy). We have automated systems in place to locate and automatically block common sources of sockpuppetry abuse, which are IP addresses and ranges belonging to open proxies and VPNs. It's also important to know that there aren't automated systems to check the IP addresses of suspicious accounts, since this would very likely violate Wikimedia's privacy policy and terms of use. By rule and per policy, access to this information is under very tight and strict control. Nonetheless, fear not! We already have a means of identifying and blocking sockpuppet accounts. :-)

Lupin's anti-vandal tool was a tool that I frequently used way back when I was newly-proficient with performing recent changes patrol duties (which would be 12+ years ago). This tool has long since become deprecated and hasn't been updated or in active development for a very long time. There are many helpful tools that aide in the same tasks, and that use services that Wikipedia has since implemented to help make identifying bad-faith edits easier (such as ORES). Check them out at the link I provided to you above. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 20:57, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

ihad no idea that there was a system already in place to find sock puppet accounts,very neat! also,is everyone able to use these tools? just curios,cheers~ ItsMeKeys (talk) 21:09, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

ItsMeKeys - No. Checkusers (Wikipedia users with the CheckUser permissions) are a very small group of appointed users on Wikipedia who have undergone a rigorous month-long vetting, community input, discussion, and approval phase. While CheckUsers technically don't have to be current administrators, all users who have been appointed as a CheckUser on the English Wikipedia (as far as I know) have been. You can read more about the user access level by clicking here. Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 21:54, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

hey,can you revert the changes i made to User:interstatefive ? i accedently mixed the userpage up for a page about interstate five. ItsMeKeys (talk) 16:18, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

,i got it. thanks for showing me around wikipedia! cheers~ ItsMeKeys (talk) 16:22, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

ItsMeKeys - Just confirming: Did you still need my help with reverting your changes made to User:Interstatefive, or was it resolved? Let me know; I want to be certain that you received assistance. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:31, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

it was reverted,but thank you! ItsMeKeys (talk) 15:44, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

rangeblock for ip needed.

hello,2A02:14F:85:2AFD:0:0:0:1 has made some very disturbing/disruptive edits,and needs to be blocked. ItsMeKeys (talk) 18:37, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @ItsMeKeys – NinjaRobotPirate has taken care of this issue. For future reference, if you wish to get a much faster response, you can report a vandal to Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism, which is a centralized noticeboard for administrators to deal with vandals accordingly. Thanks! — 3PPYB6 ^{(T / C / L)} — 14:33, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

@3PPYB6 yeah, i left this message on both of these pages.thanks anyways! cheers~ ItsMeKeys (talk) 06:21, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi ItsMeKeys! I apologize for the delay responding to your block request. Work has been picking up a lot during the holiday season, so I've been extremely busy with all of the "wild and crazy fun and goodness" that comes with the increased pace. :-) It looks like this request has been handled. In the future, if you need to request a blocking of an IP address or account for vandalism or disruption, I recommend that you file it at AIV instead of asking me directly. I mean, don't get me wrong... you're of course more than welcome to ask me directly, but it'll likely be handled faster if you simply report it at AIV, since that page is viewed by many administrators (my user talk page here is viewed by many administrators as well, but... you get what I mean lol). Thanks again for the message, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. :-) Best regards - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:28, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Also, a big thanks to 3PPYB6 for helping this user out while I was offline and swamped with work... :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:29, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

have a good day :) ItsMeKeys (talk) 18:38, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Range block

Hi there. I recall a while back that you were able to do a range block. Would you have a moment to look at the edit history of List of Italian-American entertainers? There is an IP that has been adding mostly unsourced content (not all though) for ages. I've left messages on the talk page, but the IP keeps changing. Thanks for looking at this. Cheers. Magnolia677 (talk) 12:34, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

You may be away. I asked NinjaRobotPirate. Cheers. Magnolia677 (talk) 12:08, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Magnolia677! I apologize for the delay responding to your request here. Work has been picking up quite a lot during the holiday season, so I've been extremely busy with all of the shenanigans that come with meeting the demand of our clients. ;-) Let me know if I still need to assist you with this here. I'll be more than happy to do so if it's necessary. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:33, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

It's all good. Cheers. Magnolia677 (talk) 08:50, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Magnolia677 - Thanks for letting me know. Don't be a stranger if you need anything else - I'll be happy to lend a hand. ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:00, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Chatting using our voices

Hi Oshwah, hope you are doing well. I noticed on Wikipedia, we almost always chat using text or written messages. I was wondering if you would be open to chatting with me using our voices like with Zoom or Jitsi Meet. I sometimes see that there is a language barrier when chatting using text and would like to know if this is something you would be interested in. I sometimes find it easier to say it out loud what I need help with on Wikipedia rather than write it down. What do you think? Interstellarity (talk) 20:29, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Interstellarity! Are you on Wikipedia's Discord server? Check out how to join by navigating to Wikipedia:Discord! We have an official server with channels there, and Discord allows for both text and voice chat! :-) You can add me as a friend by looking for the username Oshwah#9999. :-) To answer your question, sure! I have both text and voice chat going all the time on Wikipedia's discord! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 06:36, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. I will look into it. Interstellarity (talk) 11:59, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Interstellarity - No problem! Joining and participating is free and quite easy to do, and there are lots of people you see on-wiki there frequently (including myself). ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 15:26, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

editing

Hi, hope you are doing fine. I created a page for my favourite author from India but I need more guidance as I'm new on this portal. I joined this month and learning. I want to create many pages but it takes long for approval. Is there a group where I can share my uploaded pages and get them verified fast.

Thanks, Riya Princessriyaahuja (talk) 21:51, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

(by talk reader) @Princessriyaahuja: You haven't submitted Draft:Author Prachi Gupta for review which is why no one has looked at it, yet. Since you seem to have a conflict of interest on this subject, you should not be asking for quick reviews of your promotional work. Chris Troutman (talk) 21:54, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Princessriyaahuja! Welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you're doing well and that you're enjoying your stay here as a member of the community! :-) As Chris troutman stated above, you need to have the article reviewed by submitting it by following the instructions here. Someone will review your draft article, and (assuming that no issues are found with it) accept it for publishing and move it to the article (main) space to become an actual article on Wikipedia. These are also the exact people that you're asking for with your message above; assisting new editors such as yourself with any questions or requests for help is part of their duties, and they'll be more than happy to aide you - simply reach out and ask. :-) If you have any questions or need assistance, please let me know! I'll be more than happy to help you with anything that you need. Welcome to Wikipedia! I'm glad that you're here, and I hope that you stay with us for awhile! :-D ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 08:00, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Willmonitor

Template:Willmonitor has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:16, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Jonesey95! Darn, I thought at the time that it might become a useful template. Meh, oh well... It's not the end of the world. When I saw your message here and reviewed the template that was deleted, I took a little bit of time and added it as an option when responding to AIV. I'll move on to adding it as an option to WP:RFPP and others, too. Thanks for the message and for the heads-up. :-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:03, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

So it goes. If you make a new template, it helps to add documentation, use it somewhere with a transclusion, and put it in a category. When a template has none of those things, it is sometimes not possible to know if it is even useful. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:14, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Jonesey95 - Indeed. I know this; after creating the template, I got busy with other Wikipedia-related things and just never got around to doing them... lol ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 15:21, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Template:Year in various calendars

Hi how are you? You've already edited in the past Template:Year in various calendars, I opened in discussion section a thread about a consensus for a flaw I identified in the template that goes back to 2006. There I explain better.

Best regards, Jvbignacio9 (talk) 20:56, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Jvbignacio9! Thanks for the message! The only edit I made to that template was to revert vandalism that was added there about four years back. I'll check out your request - thanks for letting me know! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:04, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Mail

Just sent you an email but didn't check to see when your last contribution was made before writing. As usual, other people probably emailed while you are currently off wiki as well. Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 23:39, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Iggy the Swan! I'm back! ;-) No worries, I'll check it out tonight or tomorrow and get back to you. Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:05, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Question from Robinlewisadams 1 (12:53, 27 November 2022)

Hello Oshwah,

I am wondering how to reference a review (of a music album) which does not have an online presence but is in a notable publication (Q Magazine)

Many thanks

C --Robinlewisadams 1 (talk) 12:53, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

@Robinlewisadams 1 Basically, you just don't add a url to your citation, but all the other info you have like title of article, author, date, publication, page etc. General guidance at WP:OFFLINE, you can see some examples at Skeeter Reece. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 13:41, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

You already unblocked me!

I was trying to edit semi-protected pages but I couldn't edit them because I was an IP address user, before I created an account. Then I was logged out and blocked by you! I was just trying to edit! Also, I promise to NEVER be a disruptive editor. Please forgive me with my edits. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aarushthakkar0909 (talk • contribs) 21:57, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

Noting that Oshwah hasn't edited since November 11 and may not respond quickly. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 22:19, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

In the interim, I've blocked the user.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:21, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

Gråbergs Gråa Sång, Bbb23 - Thanks for handling this while I've been away. My job around the holidays becomes quite busy... ;-) Cheers - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:07, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Question from Zohaib Munawar (18:14, 28 November 2022)

Hi, I want to write an article on my teacher can I write it o Wikipedia. --Zohaib Munawar (talk) 18:14, 28 November 2022 (UTC)

That is not really recommended on Wikipedia as I have spotted pages in the past which are about people who are not notable enough to have an article to be kept. I doubt that your teacher would meet the notable category on that point as they are not as famous as e.g. Brian Cox who is a professor. I know a couple of people who are musicians of some sort or play sports but they don't have articles about themselves as they are not notable worldwide. Cheers, Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 21:59, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Hi Zohaib Munawar! Welcome to Wikipedia! As Iggy the Swan has pointed out in their response above, this person that you wish to create an article about needs to meet Wikipedia's guidelines on notability before an article can be written about them. Otherwise, it will end up being nominated and deleted. I would check out Wikipedia's help page on creating your first article. It will provide you with a list of necessary and relevant policies and guidelines that you should understand and know before you begin creating new articles. Otherwise, if you don't take the time to understand them, you'll end up spending hours, if not days' worth of time creating an article, and just for it to wind up being deleted. This is one of the main pitfalls that cause new editors on Wikipedia to be left feeling discouraged and disheartened and leave the project altogether. Don't let yourself fall into that pit! If you have any questions or need help with understanding any of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, please let me know and I'll be more than happy to go through them with you and help you to understand them. :-) Again, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope that you take off your jacket, pull up a seat, and stay with us for awhile! :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 09:13, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

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Question from ThatItalianGuy05 (19:56, 29 November 2022)

Hi, could you tell me how i can report someone please ? I tried to look it up but nothing came of it. --ThatItalianGuy05 (talk) 19:56, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

@ThatItalianGuy05: Hi! Oshwah seems temporarily inactive since 11 November, so he may not respond any soon. Please see WP:ANI, hopefully you will find an approprate link in the table at the top of that page. --(talk page stalker) CiaPan (talk) 21:43, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

ThatItalianGuy05 has been blocked for sockpuppetry (at least three different accounts) so I wouldn't pay too much attention to this. 10mmsocket (talk) 21:48, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Comment to @10mmsocket - I think there are probably more user names which have done similar editing behavior like this one which could well be the same person asking these questions. If we look at the history of this talk page or Oshwah's archives, back months there are section headers which are of the same format as this one. I guess other talk page stalkers are also unaware of this recurring theme as I was until I spotted the section below and if that continues later in the month, it may be more noticeable to others. Cheers, Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 22:16, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

Interesting. I will keep a watch out. Thanks 10mmsocket (talk) 22:51, 5 December 2022 (UTC)