User talk:Berig

Following this finding of fact in the arbitration case (unrelated to me) I have stopped all administrator activity in the areas I edit — everything related to Northern Europe. I may occasionally make fully uncontroversial actions, such as blocks for and protections against obvious vandalism and obvious BLP violations.

Archives

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, to be archived

Please leave a message below (I archive the talkpage when it becomes unwieldy, so check out the archive or the talkpage history if you want to see an older discussion).

DYK for Ganna (seeress)

On 27 October 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Ganna (seeress), which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The entry was: ... that the early Germanic priestess Ganna may have been named for her magic staff?. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Ganna (seeress). You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Ganna (seeress)), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 04:39, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Seeress

You are a drastic achiver. Here I wanted to thank you for the DYK for Ganna (seeress), and you archived already. It's also featured on Portal:Germany (where I put everything remotely related to Germany, see? I liked reading your user page. You said Wikipedia was more convivial once. How about reviving that spirit? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:34, 27 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't archived the notification for the DYK. The fact that my DYK appeared on the front page was skipped and ignored.--Berig (talk) 04:32, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I see, and now it came and I moved my post. It wasn't ignored by the readers, making the stats (right above a cute production of teh gang)! - I'll have In Freundschaft in the next DYK set, GA mostly by Jerome Kohl, - let's live it. I updated the October pics to brighter colours. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:51, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it seems to have been quite popular :-). The autumn colours in Germany are beautiful!--Berig (talk) 15:13, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Gerda Arendt, you asked me about reviving the old spirit of Wikipedia. I think it is too late for that, unfortunately because Wikipedia has grown too big and too important. Almost cut-throat in a way. Also back in the early more innocent years of Wikipedia, good editors were basically just good editors. Then came the scandals, and you can read about some of them here. I have been told that it was the Essjay scandal that made WP slowly turn sour, and recently a banned editor almost became an admin with a sock, before arbcom stopped it. These things don't instill a lot of communal trust even in the well-behaved regular editors, and it makes the community even harder and less tolerant on editors who have problems following WP policy and guidelines. I have "my own" corner here on WP and the few people who turn up are almost invariably nice and respectful.--Berig (talk) 20:22, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) If I may interject - I think the internet is just generally a less friendly and trusting place than it used to be. I first edited here as an IP back in 2010, and I'm fairly certain all of my edits would have been reverted as unsourced if I had done them today (even though they were backed up by sources, but not cited ones). Certain areas of WP are sort of controlled by/highly contested between nationalist cabals as well, not to mention the scandals and socks that Berig mentioned. None of this lends itself to collegiality outside of a small group of like-minded editors.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:06, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, but we three could at least begin to not make that happen further. When we see an under-referenced article, we can add references (instead of tags, blaming the author, moving the thing to draft space where really nobody will see it, so nobody improve), - for a simple example. No article has to begin perfect, almost no article will ever be perfect, we can help each other to make it better. I said this on AN, and feel I talked Chinese. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:11, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Gerda Arendt, that is what I do. As far as I can remember, I have never added "ref tags" (which I consider to be a kind of trolling), but I look for references and check references in order to improve the articles. The long thread that I started and that sadly led to you losing your friend AlainLouis, was not about him, but about other editors who hoax their references. I was so frustrated with a Swedish editor who for ideological reasons had messed up early Swedish history articles and added references that contradicted his information. He even admitted it to me, but I did not take action because he openly admitted to it and promised to stay away from them in the future.--Berig (talk) 15:45, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I didn't loose that friend, - the English Wikipedia lost him. I lost another friend today and don't yet know to what. Frédéric Blanc (which I wanted for a bio to appear on DYK 1 Nov) was created in my German user space, and I'm working on it. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:51, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Gambara (seeress)

On 29 October 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Gambara (seeress), which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that according to legend, the god of wisdom Odin was tricked by his own wife, and her priestess Gambara, to give victory to Gambara's tribe? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Gambara (seeress). You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Gambara (seeress)), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:03, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Haliurunas

On 31 October 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Haliurunas, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the account of the Haliurunas in the 6th century history of the Goths, the Getica, is a precursor to later Christian traditions that wise women had sex and orgies with demons and the Devil? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Haliurunas. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Haliurunas), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Amakuru (talk) 12:02, 31 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Waluburg

On 31 October 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Waluburg, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the Germanic seeress Waluburg is only known from a pot shard found on the island Elephantine in southern Egypt? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Waluburg. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Waluburg), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Amakuru (talk) 12:03, 31 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2021).

Administrator changes

Clpo13

Brian0918 • JDoorjam • Karanacs • MrDarcy • Mindspillage

Interface administrator changes

Evad37

CheckUser changes

Dreamy Jazz • Ferret • GeneralNotability • Girth Summit • RoySmith

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz • LuK3

Guideline and policy news

Phase 2 of the 2021 RfA review has commenced which will discuss potential solutions to address the 8 issues found in Phase 1. Proposed solutions that achieve consensus will be implemented and you may propose solutions till 07 November 2021.

Technical news

Toolhub is a catalogue of tools which can be used on Wikimedia wikis. It is at https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/.

Arbitration

GeneralNotability, Mz7 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2021 Arbitration Committee Elections. Ivanvector and John M Wolfson are reserve commissioners.
Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves to stand in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections from 07 November 2021 until 16 November 2021.

Miscellaneous

The 2021 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of five new CheckUsers and two new Oversighters.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:43, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wharf?

Hi Berig! Just out of curiosity: why is your sandbox called "wharf"?--Ermenrich (talk) 21:44, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I had so many sandboxes for a while that I wanted to call them something more interesting than sandbox1, sandbox2, etc. So I called them "incubator", "launchpad", "nursery", "workshop", "workspace", etc. "Wharf" seemed like a nice metaphor, as in place where something is constructed to be launched later when done.--Berig (talk) 21:56, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Ermenrich:, oops! Now I am embarassed. Wharf is a false friend. In Swedish we call dry docks or ship yards varv, which is the same word as wharf. ~~When I am done with the article, I will delete the sandbox, as misnamed.~~--Berig (talk) 22:02, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have renamed it now. Thanks for pointing out the mistake!--Berig (talk) 22:20, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that explains it then! I figured you'd worked on some sort of nautical-themed article at some point.--Ermenrich (talk) 23:24, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Woman of the Chatti

On 8 November 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Woman of the Chatti, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the woman of the Chatti was allegedly a Germanic prophetess whose advice inspired Roman Emperor Vitellius to murder his own mother, Sextilia? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Woman of the Chatti. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Woman of the Chatti), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:02, 8 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

		Hook update
		Your hook reached 12,887 views (537 per hour), making it one of the most viewed hooks of November 2021—nice work!

theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 01:25, 11 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Cimbrian seeresses

On 21 November 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Cimbrian seeresses, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Cimbrian seeresses are said to have predicted the future by slitting the throats of war prisoners and studying how the blood trickled down into a cauldron? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Cimbrian seeresses. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Cimbrian seeresses), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 12:02, 21 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

		Hook update
		Your hook reached 6,900 views (575.0 per hour), making it one of the most viewed hooks of November 2021—nice work!

theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 03:19, 22 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2021 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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Administrators' newsletter – December 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2021).

Administrator changes

A Train • Berean Hunter • Epbr123 • GermanJoe • Sanchom • Mysid

Technical news

Unregistered editors using the mobile website are now able to receive notices to indicate they have talk page messages. The notice looks similar to what is already present on desktop, and will be displayed on when viewing any page except mainspace and when editing any page. (T284642)
The limit on the number of emails a user can send per day has been made global instead of per-wiki to help prevent abuse. (T293866)

Arbitration

Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee Elections is open until 23:59, 06 December 2021 (UTC).
The already authorized standard discretionary sanctions for all pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes), broadly construed, have been made permanent.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:24, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Great work on these feminine figures

Awesome stuff and very circumspectly done. Wish we had an icon of some kind. I've looked and I'm sure you have as well. Getting a nice "pantheon" of these seeresses. Super job on these pages. Fascinating reading. BusterD (talk) 22:15, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you BusterD, it means a lot that you appreciate the articles :-).--Berig (talk) 11:43, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators will no longer be autopatrolled

A recently closed Request for Comment (RFC) reached consensus to remove Autopatrolled from the administrator user group. You may, similarly as with Edit Filter Manager, choose to self-assign this permission to yourself. This will be implemented the week of December 13th, but if you wish to self-assign you may do so now. To find out when the change has gone live or if you have any questions please visit the Administrator's Noticeboard. 20:05, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

DYK for Albruna

On 12 December 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Albruna, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Albruna may have been the woman of "superhuman size" who stopped Roman general Drusus's campaign in Germania by prophesying his death? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Albruna. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Albruna), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Amakuru (talk) 12:02, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, just read Albruna. What an interesting article! Great job. Very interesting comparison of Germanic v Roman deification of women, which could in itself make an interesting article. I see from your talk page it’s part of a ‘series’. I’ll have to check the others out. DeCausa (talk) 18:33, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! I am glad to learn that my work is appreciated!--Berig (talk) 20:30, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

		Hook update
		Your hook reached 7,552 views (629.3 per hour), making it one of the most viewed hooks of December 2021 – nice work!

looks like DeCausa wasn't alone on that one! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/she) 18:27, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Merchandise giveaway nomination

A token of thanks

Hi Berig! I've nominated you (along with all other active admins) to receive a solstice season gift from the WMF. Talk page stalkers are invited to comment at the nomination. Enjoy! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk ~~~~~

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2021).

Administrator changes

Amalthea • Ihcoyc (deceased) • Kateshortforbob • Kirill Lokshin • Rifleman 82 • Ryan Norton • Wrp103

Interface administrator changes

Mr. Stradivarius

CheckUser changes

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Opabinia regalis

Casliber • David Fuchs • Newyorkbrad • SoWhy

Oversighter changes

Cabayi • Donald Albury • Enterprisey • Izno • Wugapodes

Opabinia regalis

Casliber • David Fuchs • Newyorkbrad • SoWhy

Guideline and policy news

Following consensus at the 2021 RfA review, the autopatrolled user right has been removed from the administrators user group; admins can grant themselves the autopatrolled permission if they wish to remain autopatrolled.

Additionally, consensus for proposal 6C of the 2021 RfA review has led to the creation of an administrative action review process. The purpose of this process will be to review individual administrator actions and individual actions taken by users holding advanced permissions.

Arbitration

Following the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Beeblebrox, Cabayi, Donald Albury, Enterprisey, Izno, Opabinia regalis, Worm That Turned, Wugapodes.

Miscellaneous

The functionaries email list (functionaries-enlists.wikimedia.org) will no longer accept incoming emails apart from those sent by list members and WMF staff. Private concerns, apart from those requiring oversight, should be directly sent to the Arbitration Committee.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:24, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How we will see unregistered users

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18:13, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Very belated holiday wishes

Dear Berig,

I hope you and yours are doing well! A very belated god Jol and a happy new year to you!--Ermenrich (talk) 16:35, 5 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The same to you, dear Ermenrich!--Berig (talk) 17:19, 5 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed deletion of Norwegian Runic Inscription 239

The article Norwegian Runic Inscription 239 has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Nothing to indicate that this stone is any more notable than the thousands of others in the database which is its one source (and I'll upgrade the ref so that it links to this stone rather than just to the database): unless the plan is for Wikipedia to copy the entire database, there seems no reason to have an article on this particular stone. Unless I am missing something?

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

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

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. PamD 15:03, 14 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @PamD: for explaining to me that a 1000 year-old memorial is "not notable". It is one of only 50 surviving Norwegian runestones, and in addition it belongs to a minority of c. 10% in all of Scandinavia that tells of voyages abroad. I am very surprised.--Berig (talk) 12:19, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't say it wasn't notable: I said that nothing in the article indicated that it was notable, but admitted that I might be missing something. The fact that it has a "Common name" and the further sourcing provided by @Phil Bridger: clarify that it is notable. PamD 12:57, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Talk:Thor

Hey there, why did you rollback my edits on Talk:Thor? --TylerBurden (talk) 09:00, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it was a mistake. I am sorry. In fact, I must have slipped unawares, because I was not aware of it.--Berig (talk) 09:05, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, can happen easily with rollback. --TylerBurden (talk) 09:07, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Strange IPA for Old Norse

Hello Berig! I've come across this at least twice, most recently today [1]. Someone's been adding some idiosyncratic IPA's of Old Norse names, with the ending -r given as [z̠]. My understanding was that -R had shifted to -r long before the time these names would have been written. (Also not sure about [ɣ] for /g/). I suspect this will be in more places around the encyclopdia. You're a linguist so I thought you'd better be able to judge this than me.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:32, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have seen it too, but I think it is a realistic rendering of early ON. G was pronounded as [ɣ] in medial position. The pronunciation of the nominal case marker -r/-R as [z] is thought to have lasted into the Viking Age, and [r] and and a kind of [z] are still allophones in Swedish, and in Stockholm the letter r is usually pronounded as a kind of [z], probably a remnant of R.--Berig (talk) 19:19, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2022).

Administrator changes

AustralianRupert • Cimon Avaro • Euryalus • Jehochman • Nunh-huh

28bytes

Bureaucrat changes

28bytes

Interface administrator changes

Evad37 • Galobtter

Ragesoss

Guideline and policy news

The Universal Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines have been published for consideration. Voting to ratify this guideline is planned to take place 7 March to 21 March. Comments can be made on the talk page.

Technical news

The user group oversight will be renamed suppress in around 3 weeks. This will not affect the name shown to users and is simply a change in the technical name of the user group. The change is being made for technical reasons. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.
The Reply Tool feature, which is a part of Discussion Tools, will be opt-out for everyone logged in or logged out starting 7 February 2022. Editors wishing to comment on this can do so in the relevant Village Pump discussion.

Arbitration

Community input is requested on several motions aimed at addressing discretionary sanctions that are no longer needed or overly broad.
The Arbitration Committee has published a generalised comment regarding successful appeals of sanctions that it can review (such as checkuser blocks).
A motion related to the Antisemitism in Poland case was passed following a declined case request.

Miscellaneous

Voting in the 2022 Steward elections will begin on 07 February 2022, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2022, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
Voting in the 2022 Community Wishlist Survey is open until 11 February 2022.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:01, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Runestones

I snuck back into Germanic stuff. I am afraid I just mucked about a bit with your Sö 140 article; as I read him, although he cited the interpretation of siþi as "work magic", he actually wanted to read "bring about [protection]". So I added a citation for the magic working and for both amounting to invoking protection. I hope I haven't misread the Swedish and mucked it up.

I've been looking also at Öl 1 / DR 411. Obviously most at the disputed crosses/hammers. It occurs to me that the two parts of the runic inscription are in conflict, insofar as the prose merely refers to raising the stone, while the verse describes the guy as a draugr in a barrow. Obviously this stone is a provocation. Since the verse is generally agreed to be West Norse, may I ask whether the prose is, too? And whether there is any indication that there was a barrow? The skalds didn't quote each other, but while I was considering the possibility that the stone as we have it is the result of a graffiti war, it popped into my head that this stone may be an exception to that rule. Yngvadottir (talk) 13:31, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the entire inscription is believed to have been made by a Norwegian or an Icelander, which is based on the use of the r-rune instead of the R-rune. Since the stone is also usually associated with warriors who returned from the Battle of the Fýrisvellir, this should not be very surprising since there was also an Icelandic skald named Þórvaldr Hjaltason on the Swedish side in the battle. There would have been a barrow at the site, but most barrows were small and have disappeared due to a millenium of plowing. The word draugr does not seem to refer to a "draugr" though, but to a meaning "tree trunk" and part of a kenning for chieftain.--Berig (talk) 16:04, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thank you! draugr dolga Þrúðar, I see it now. McKinnell, Simek, and Düwel say it "also conjures up the image"; I can see only ch. 12 of their book in pdf thanks to somebody on Wikipedia, and it seems a bit uncritical (and on that stone, appears to be counting the Latin-lettered side too when they tot up the number of hammers?). Yes, it seems a safe hypothesis that this is one of the Fyrisvellir dead, and I suppose it's possible the entire cohort were Norwegians/Icelanders ... so they managed to get the body out? I was thinking that was unlikely. I finally found it not yet edited at the Skaldic Project with the help of Google, and from there in Skjaldedigtning p. 177. Yngvadottir (talk) 23:05, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

According to excerpts from the recently discovered and possibly forged Gesta wulinensis published by Sven Rosborn, Sibbi was the Danish king's jarl and ruled over Jutland and Zealand. He appears to have conspired with the Swedish king against Styrbjörn.--Berig (talk) 21:20, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, intrigues within intrigues, thanks; and that document again! If true, that might explain his getting a mound. But I still suspect the stone has been subject to some tit-for-tat symbol carving and altering. Thanks to modern digital cameras and an apparent dose of herbicide, I was able to get a good look at the base of the front side and compare to DR 120 (and that reminds me, at some point I have to get Google maps to show me how close together some of these runestones really are). Apologies; I know I make more errors than sense. Yngvadottir (talk) 09:09, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pointing out DR 120. I had missed it.--Berig (talk) 08:36, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, you had? Thanks for the article! I see my guess was right and sprængt does not suggest the stone had been dynamited; did you notice at Danske Runeindskrifter that the museum later moved to a new building and it got dropped and broke into twice as many pieces? Poor old stone. They think it may be a tau cross, which is of course a lot of hooey; on the other hand they provide the ref for the Thor article, which I ought not to edit, interpreting DR 48 as a Thor's hammer, though Moltke and McKimmell/Simek/Düwel think it's too late. Katherine Beard's dissertation is proving useful, though I find I disagree with her on some things, including the front side of Karlevi. But then I tend to find points of disagreement with everybody ... By the way, using the plan a trip function at Google maps, last night I think I successfully replaced a couple of scholarly statements about stones being "nearby" with Sö 140 being 7 miles from Sö 133 and less than 2 miles from Sö Fv1948;289 (and peered at a few runestones on Google Street View). Yngvadottir (talk) 09:54, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Feel free to expand the article. I'm too busy IRL, ATM.--Berig (talk) 11:48, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Move request listing

Hi Berig, do you know if I've listed this move request correctly: Talk:Robert of Courçon#Requested move 8 February 2022? I'm wondering why the bot doesn't seem to have picked it up yet.--Ermenrich (talk) 20:12, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but I am usually perplexed by that kind of procedure. I move it myself, as it doesn't look very controversial.--Berig (talk) 21:25, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am usually perplexed by that kind of procedure - that makes two of us!--Ermenrich (talk) 21:34, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Collaboration?

Hi Berig,

I know that you're quite busy, but I was wondering if you might be interested in contributing to this draft, which I intend to eventually replace Germanic paganism. It remains in the earliest stages so far. In particular, I'm not yet sure how the section on the the gods should be arranged - I'm just collecting info that might end up being useful elsewhere at the moment and then I suspect it should be condensed into a single section discussing them as a group and probably some of the details removed.

In either case, I think that an article more focused on the actual archaeological evidence of Germanic religion is well in order and I'm slowly collecting that (especially since it's not controversial in the way that the deities are). It would be good to have another editor with a different perspective and access to different sources than I have contributing even in a small way, and I enjoyed working with you on Germanic heroic legend before.--Ermenrich (talk) 15:56, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like a very good start indeed! I will see if I can add information and help out, but I don't think I can commit myself as much as I did last time.--Berig (talk) 19:55, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever you can do! I really should be doing something else myself. The divorce of Premysl Otokar I is not going to research itself, after all.--Ermenrich (talk) 20:41, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Ermenrich:, I will not hurry because the topic deserves time. We need two approaches to this article. You have already started the bottom-up approach, but we also need a top down approach that takes into account how comparative studies can shed some light on Germanic paganism.--Berig (talk) 08:37, 12 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Good call!--Ermenrich (talk) 12:13, 12 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2022).

Administrator changes

Modussiccandi

BOZ • Brookie (deceased) • Jackmcbarn • Jamesday • Jonathunder • Master of Puppets • Saravask

CheckUser changes

Callanecc

Oversighter changes

Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

A RfC is open to change the wording of revision deletion criterion 1 to remove the sentence relating to non-infringing contributions.
A RfC is open to discuss prohibiting draftification of articles over 90 days old.

Technical news

The deployment of the reply tool as an opt-out feature, as announced in last month's newsletter, has been delayed to 7 March. Feedback and comments are being welcomed at Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project. (T296645)
Special:Nuke will now allow the selection of standard deletion reasons to be used when mass-deleting pages. This was a Community Wishlist Survey request from 2022. (T25020)
The ability to undelete the talk page when undeleting a page using Special:Undelete or the API will be added soon. This change was requested in the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey. (T295389)

Arbitration

Several unused discretionary sanctions and article probation remedies have been rescinded. This follows the community feedback from the 2021 Discretionary Sanctions review.

Miscellaneous

The 2022 appointees for the Ombuds commission are Érico, Faendalimas, Galahad, Infinite0694, Mykola7, Olugold, Udehb and Zabe as regular members and Ameisenigel and JJMC89 as advisory members.
Following the 2022 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: AntiCompositeNumber, BRPever, Hasley, TheresNoTime, and Vermont.
The 2022 Community Wishlist Survey results have been published alongside the ranking of prioritized proposals.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:46, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Finnic peoples

Hi. Since we discussed this before, I thought I'd point out a renewed edit-war on the article. Figured a few more eyes couldn't hurt. — kwami (talk) 22:00, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Probably a sock

Hi Berig, I'm pretty sure that Rosengarten zu Worms is the same long-term abuser we've banned a few times making edits around Germanic heroic legend. Can't remember the exact name at the moment, but the same focus on the Rosengarten is evident. He posted some insulting messages on your talk page as you'll recall. In any case, more scrutiny of his edits is needed, as he doesn't actually appear to know what he's talking about (see the discussion at talk:Gudrun and talk:Sigurd for examples).--Ermenrich (talk) 15:11, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

One of the previous user names was Alpharts Tod. They've both edited Böðvildr in the same way, see [2], [3]. I call WP:DUCK.--Ermenrich (talk) 15:15, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2022).

Administrator changes

Firefly • Sdrqaz

Ad Orientem

Geschichte • Ryan Postlethwaite • Sabine's Sunbird • Wassupwestcoast

Interface administrator changes

Evad37

Guideline and policy news

An RfC is open proposing a change to the minimum activity requirements for administrators.

Technical news

Access to Special:RevisionDelete has been expanded to include users who have the deletelogentry and deletedhistory rights. This means that those in the Researcher user group and Checkusers who are not administrators can now access Special:RevisionDelete. The users able to view the special page after this change are the 3 users in the Researcher group, as there are currently no checkusers who are not already administrators. (T301928)
When viewing deleted revisions or diffs on Special:Undelete a back link to the undelete page for the associated page is now present. (T284114)

Arbitration

Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures § Opening of proceedings has been updated to reflect current practice following a motion.
A arbitration case regarding Skepticism and coordinated editing has been closed.
A arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been opened.

Miscellaneous

Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines has closed, and the results were that 56.98% of voters supported the guidelines. The results of this vote mean the Wikimedia Foundation Board will now review the guidelines.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:12, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

New administrator activity requirement

The administrator policy has been updated with new activity requirements following a successful Request for Comment.

Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:

Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period

Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.

22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2022).

Administrator changes

Colin M

David.Monniaux • Fribbler • Grue • Kpjas • West.andrew.g

CheckUser changes

Ks0stm

Oversighter changes

Ks0stm

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, a change has been made to the administrators inactivity policy. Under the new policy, if an administrator has not made at least 100 edits over a period of 5 years they may be desysopped for inactivity.
Following a discussion on the bureaucrat's noticeboard, a change has been made to the bureaucrats inactivity policy.

Technical news

The ability to undelete the associated talk page when undeleting a page has been added. This was the 11th wish of the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey.
A public status system for WMF wikis has been created. It is located at https://www.wikimediastatus.net/ and is hosted separately to WMF wikis so in the case of an outage it will remain viewable.

Arbitration

Remedy 2 of the St Christopher case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to place a ban on single-purpose accounts who were disruptively editing on the article St Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine or related pages from those pages.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:33, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2022).

Administrator changes

Tamzin

Barek • Darkwind • Geometry guy • ProcseeBot • RoyBoy • Sean Whitton • Valereee • Visorstuff • WAvegetarian

Sn0wflake → VersedFenrir

CheckUser changes

Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

Several areas of improvement collated from community member votes have been identified in the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines. The areas of improvement have been sent back for review and you are invited to provide input on these areas.

Technical news

Administrators using the mobile web interface can now access Special:Block directly from user pages. (T307341)
The IP Info feature has been deployed to all wikis as a Beta Feature. Any autoconfirmed user may enable the feature using the "IP info" checkbox under Preferences → Beta features. Autoconfirmed users will be able to access basic information about an IP address that includes the country and connection method. Those with advanced privileges (admin, bureaucrat, checkuser) will have access to extra information that includes the Internet Service Provider and more specific location.

Arbitration

Remedy 2 of the Rachel Marsden case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to delete or reduce to a stub, together with their talk pages, articles related to Rachel Marsden when they violate Wikipedia's biographies of living persons policy.
An arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been closed.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:55, 2 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2022).

Administrator changes

AA • Gwalla • Ioeth • Laurascudder • Moriori (deceased) • Nat • Rfl

Drilnoth → AFigureOfBlue

Bureaucrat changes

Lee Vilenski

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

Technical news

user_global_editcount is a new variable that can be used in abuse filters to avoid affecting globally active users. (T130439)

Arbitration

An arbitration case regarding conduct in deletion-related editing has been opened.

Miscellaneous

The New Pages Patrol queue has around 10,000 articles to be reviewed. As all administrators have the patrol right, please consider helping out. The queue is here. For further information on the state of the project, see the latest NPP newsletter.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:28, 10 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back!

Just wanted to say I'm glad to see you around again!--Ermenrich (talk) 15:28, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but I am not sure I am back. I guess I am a bit bored after a few weeks of vacation ;-).--Berig (talk) 15:31, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I know the feeling. Since the war started I haven't actually done anything fun on Wikipedia.--Ermenrich (talk) 15:39, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The war has taken a toll on me too.--Berig (talk) 16:05, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Unfortunately I'm increasingly drawn into fighting with Russian disinformation here which makes me want to rage quit the place. Our policies appear to be quite weak when it comes to (possibly well-meaning and misinformed) people spreading crap. People are literally being tortured, murdered, and shelled for no good reason but we aren't allowed to say that "influencers" who justify or deny it are spreading propaganda because they're barely covered in RS...--Ermenrich (talk) 19:52, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Russian nationalism is a cancer. I have friends in Russia, IRL, who are fervently pro-Putin, but out of respect for me (they know I love Russia), they avoid discussing it with me. In my case, I have lost an entire fortune in Russia due to the sanctions.--Berig (talk) 20:03, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oy gevalt. My in-laws are currently refugees because of the war, although their region is still mostly unaffected. Unfortunately they were brainwashed by the Russian Orthodox Church and can't quite wrap their heads around the situation - they don't support the war exactly but they believe the "Ukraine is shelling itself" stuff and are more concerned with anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine than the f*cking Russian army murdering everyone - but my wife at least is sane about it. She also can't talk about it with them, it makes her too upset. Then again, her parents also believe that Covid isn't real and various other things, so I guess she's used to it.--Ermenrich (talk) 20:11, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, people really are that brainwashed in Russia. My brother-in-law is totally pro-Putin, but his wife is totally against the war. He has argued incessantly with my wife (his sister) and his own wife. I am actually proud that my wife's closest relatives all have gone to the Israeli embassy to claim the "right of return" to Israel. They will probably all be living in Israel in the future.--Berig (talk) 20:17, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It's even more disheartening when the brainwashed people are Ukrainian... This is hardly new with them though. When I visited one time they gave me Miracle Mineral Supplement to help with a fever (I didn't know what it was). My wife told me they forbid her from using playing cards because the card suites are somehow Satanic, and they wouldn't let her watch Teletubbies as a kid because they thought the antennae on the Teletubbies's heads looked like devil horns...--Ermenrich (talk) 20:38, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That really sounds like rural conservative Christians. I grew up in a small town that was predominantly baptist, and I can imagine some of the people I grew up with sharing the same kind of delusions.--Berig (talk) 20:58, 13 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You came back! You came back! I'm so glad. Yngvadottir (talk) 11:27, 19 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2022).

Administrator changes

Valereee

Anthony Appleyard (deceased) • Capitalistroadster • Samsara

Guideline and policy news

An RfC has been closed with consensus to add javascript that will show edit notices for editors editing via a mobile device. This only works for users using a mobile browser, so iOS app editors will still not be able to see edit notices.
An RfC has been closed with the consensus that train stations are not inherently notable.

Technical news

The Wikimania 2022 Hackathon will take place virtually from 11 August to 14 August.
Administrators will now see links on user pages for "Change block" and "Unblock user" instead of just "Block user" if the user is already blocked. (T308570)

Arbitration

The arbitration case request Geschichte has been automatically closed after a 3 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

You can vote for candidates in the 2022 Board of Trustees elections from 16 August to 30 August. Two community elected seats are up for election.
Wikimania 2022 is taking place virtually from 11 August to 14 August. The schedule for wikimania is listed here. There are also a number of in-person events associated with Wikimania around the world.
Tech tip: When revision-deleting on desktop, hold ⇧ Shift between clicking two checkboxes to select every box in that range.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:44, 5 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2022).

Administrator changes

DanCherek • DatGuy • Femke • Z1720

Aldux • Graham Beards • Nyttend

Interface administrator changes

Mr. Stradivarius

Guideline and policy news

A discussion is open to define a process by which Vector 2022 can be made the default for all users.
An RfC is open to gain consensus on whether Fox News is reliable for science and politics.

Technical news

The impact report on the effects of disabling IP editing on the Persian (Farsi) Wikipedia has been released.
The WMF is looking into making a Private Incident Reporting System (PIRS) system to improve the reporting of harmful incidents through easier and safer reporting. You can leave comments on the talk page by answering the questions provided. Users who have faced harmful situations are also invited to join a PIRS interview to share the experience. To sign up please email Madalina Ana.

Arbitration

An arbitration case regarding Conduct in deletion-related editing has been closed. The Arbitration Committee passed a remedy as part of the final decision to create a request for comment (RfC) on how to handle mass nominations at Articles for Deletion (AfD).
The arbitration case request Jonathunder has been automatically closed after a 6 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

The new pages patrol (NPP) team has prepared an appeal to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) for assistance with addressing Page Curation bugs and requested features. You are encouraged to read the open letter before it is sent, and if you support it, consider signing it. It is not a discussion, just a signature will suffice.
Voting for candidates for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees is open until 6 September.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:11, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Floda church

Just wanted to let you know I found something more on that image of Dietrich's heroes at Floda church, including the painter, Albertus Pictor, that's been floating around Wikipedia for years, see [4].--Ermenrich (talk) 13:19, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Also, it turns out that Dietrich and Witege, the only two Germanic heroes in the image, are upside down. I wonder if we shouldn't flip the image and replace it.--Ermenrich (talk) 13:23, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Went ahead and did that. Will replace at Thidreks saga too.--Ermenrich (talk) 13:39, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Well done! I actually once knew a scholar whose mother was the minister of that church, and I have long thought of going there to take colour pictures of the the paintings :-)--Berig (talk) 16:13, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That would certainly be cool. I'm giving a talk on images of Dietrich von Bern in about a week and I happened upon the information. I've decided to include the church fresco briefly in my talk :-). It's a gathering of Germanists, so I doubt they'll know much about medieval Sweden, though a few have studied Old Norse.--Ermenrich (talk) 12:49, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, you wouldn't happen to know who the knight on the fresco labeled "Trullat" (or possibly "Crullat") is, would you? His opponent is not labeled, unfortunately. The other figures are David and Goliath, Holger Danske and Burmand, and Dietrich and Witege.--Ermenrich (talk) 12:53, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Trullat must be a rendering of Trollet, i.e. 'the Troll'. At least in the Swedish version, there is a Troll. Medieval Trolls were not the same as modern-day fantasy Trolls.--Berig (talk) 18:17, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Troll was my best guess as well, but that leaves me to wonder why the opponent is unlabeled - it's a good versus an evil figure in the other cases, so the unnamed knight must be the "good guy" in that case. Could a troll be a jousting knight? I'll need to look into it more if I pursue this beyond the talk, there's some published descriptions of the frescoes, though I think the best one is in Swedish.--Ermenrich (talk) 18:34, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt that much is known about medieval Scandinavian Trolls. I can very well imagine a Troll jousting as a knight, because they may have been relatively hard to tell apart from from humans. Moreover, the word troll basically means "supernatural" and "magical", and there is a strong shape-shifting element in Scandinavian myths.--Berig (talk) 19:08, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ermenrich, I have an Swedish source by Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius [5] that lists the characters as Holger Danske and Burman, Sone Føslink and the Troll, Diderik van Beran and Wideke Welansson.--Berig (talk) 19:39, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Berig! Can’t say I’ve heard of Sone Føslink! Do you think the sources for the illustrations are ballads? I might need to see if there’s a ballad of Dietrich fighting Witege, rather than assuming the source is the Didriks Krönike.—-Ermenrich (talk) 21:15, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The ballads were probably more well-known by the parishioners. Sone Føslink and the Troll must refer to the Swedish ballad Sven Flötling och trollet[6]. Among the Swedish ballads we also find Holger dansk och Burman. I can't find a ballad about Didrik fighting Vidrik, but there may very well have been one. The vast majority of the ballads are probably lost.--Berig (talk) 07:19, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Germanic paganism

Hi Berig!

I'm starting to get the Wikipedia itch again for the first time since the war started, although I really don't have time for it at all. Looking at my sandbox I'm struck that, besides information on gods in the pantheon, the draft is mostly done. Do you share that impression? That would give me and any willing helpers a more limited task to focus on. Maybe I can try summarizing the articles on e.g. Thor and adding the info that way as well (normally I like to always write it myself/new for an article so I can be sure about the references, but I don't know that I have time).--Ermenrich (talk) 13:09, 24 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You have done a great job with it. It is a fine article in its present state, and I think you should go ahead and launch it. There are things to improve, naturally, but there always are, and it is mostly a matter of polishing, but that can always be done later.--Berig (talk) 17:45, 24 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Berig! I'll try to put it out as soon as I can. I have a feeling I'll need to give up even more on Wikipedia editing than I have - I've just been asked to become the treasurer of a major scholarly organization for medievalists (not Germanists) and even though I'd rather tell them I'm way too busy, I should probably say yes. Could be useful when I go up for tenure next year. For the moment, the decision is really stressing me out though.--Ermenrich (talk) 19:29, 24 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Of course you should choose what is beneficial for your career! I am sure many present and former Wikipedians deeply regret that they didn't have their priorities straight and let WP steal too much time and energy.--Berig (talk) 19:36, 24 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Believe me, Wikipedia does not factor until my considerations, haha!—Ermenrich (talk) 01:01, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nic work, Ermenrich, and congratulations with your career progress! Would it be an idea to name the article Germanic religion instead of Germanic paganism? The former appears to be the common name in both English and German-language scholarship. An additional source that could be used for the article is the Encyclopedia of Religion. It has articles with an overview and history of research on the topic, and articles about deities and creatures such as Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyja, Freyr, Freyja, Loki, Njo̹rđr, Baldr, Heimdallr, dwarves, elves, jötnar and valkyries. Krakkos (talk) 09:30, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Krakkos, thanks for the extremely useful suggestion! I don't have a strong opinion on Germanic religion vs. paganism. I think the only upside to saying "paganism" is that it excludes "Germanic Christianity," but I leave that decision up to others.--Ermenrich (talk) 17:34, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think calling pagan beliefs religion is a misnomer. Religion implies standardization, dogma and an organized priestly class, things that were rare or non-existent in Germanic and other forms of paganism.--Berig (talk) 04:44, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2022).

Administrator changes

ScottishFinnishRadish

Staxringold

Ahoerstemeier (deceased) • Ched

Interface administrator changes

Cyberpower678

CheckUser changes

GorillaWarfare

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, consensus was found that if the rationale for a block depends on information that is not available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee, a checkuser or an oversighter for action (as applicable, per ArbCom's recent updated guidance) instead of the administrator making the block.
Following an RfC, consensus has been found that, in the context of politics and science, the reliability of FoxNews.com is unclear and that additional considerations apply to its use.
Community comment on the revised Universal Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines is requested until 8 October.

Technical news

The Articles for creation helper script now automatically recognises administrator accounts which means your name does not need to be listed at WP:AFCP to help out. If you wish to help out at AFC, enable AFCH by navigating to Preferences → Gadgets and checking the "Yet Another AfC Helper Script" box.

Arbitration

Remedy 8.1 of the Muhammad images case will be rescinded 1 November following a motion.
A modification to the deletion RfC remedy in the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been made to reaffirm the independence of the RfC and allow the moderators to split the RfC in two.
The second phase of the 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review closes 3 October.

Miscellaneous

An administrator's account was recently compromised. Administrators are encouraged to check that their passwords are secure, and reminded that ArbCom reserves the right to not restore adminship in cases of poor account security. You can also use two-factor authentication (2FA) to provide an extra level of security.
Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections open 2 October and close 8 October.
You are invited to comment on candidates in the 2022 CUOS appointments process.
An RfC is open to discuss whether to make Vector 2022 the default skin on desktop.
Tech tip: You can do a fuzzy search of all deleted page titles at Special:Undelete.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:42, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2022).

Administrator changes

- Isabelle Belato
- Whpq

Interface administrator changes

CheckUser changes

Oversight changes

DGG

Guideline and policy news

The article creation at scale RfC opened on 3 October and will be open until at least 2 November.
An RfC is open to discuss having open requests for adminship automatically placed on hold after the seven-day period has elapsed, pending closure or other action by a bureaucrat.

Arbitration

Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 13 November 2022 until 22 November 2022 to stand in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections.
The arbitration case request titled Athaenara has been resolved by motion.
The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has entered the proposed decision stage.
AmandaNP, Mz7 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee Elections. Xaosflux and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.

Miscellaneous

The 2022 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of two new CheckUsers.
You can add yourself to the centralised page listing time zones of administrators.
Tech tip: Wikimarkup in a block summary is parsed in the notice that the blockee sees. You can use templates with custom options to specify situations like {{rangeblock|create=yes}} or {{uw-ublock|contains profanity}}.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:22, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

I'm sorry I inadvertently prioritised Old West Norse, I was trying to keep it simple and in any case would have presumably got it wrong. As it is the guy still doesn't seem to understand the problem of no canonical spelling; he probably isn't aware how widely English pronunciations vary, and he may think "Norse" is the same thing as "Norwegian". Anyway, sorry to have bothered you, and thanks. I hope the term is going well. I may try to add some info to Tängelgårda stone, and in the old days I'd have written amulet ring (unsatisfactory stub on sv.) or even hammer ring, but we lack the necessary images on Commons and besides there are so many reasons I shouldn't :-) Maybe I'll put something in my userspace. Yngvadottir (talk) 21:20, 5 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. The problems of Wikipedia are well-known.--Berig (talk) 07:08, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:36, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2022).

Administrator changes

Interface administrator changes

TheresNoTime

CheckUser changes

TheresNoTime

Oversight changes

TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Consensus has been found in an RfC to automatically place RfAs on hold after one week.
The article creation at scale RfC has been closed.
An RfC on the banners for the December 2022 fundraising campaign has been closed.

Technical news

A new preference named "Enable limited width mode" has been added to the Vector 2022 skin. The preference is also shown as a toggle on every page if your monitor is 1600 pixels or wider. When disabled it removes the whitespace added by Vector 2022 on the left and right of the page content. Disabling this preference has the same effect as enabling the wide-vector-2022 gadget. (T319449)

Arbitration

Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 12, 2022 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
The proposed decision for the 2021-22 review of the discretionary sanctions system is open.
The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has been closed.
The arbitration case Stephen has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 1 December 2022.
A motion has modified the procedures for contacting an admin facing Level 2 desysop.

Miscellaneous

Tech tip: A single IPv6 connection usually has access to a "subnet" of 18 quintillion IPs. Add /64 to the end of an IP in Special:Contributions to see all of a subnet's edits, and consider blocking the whole subnet rather than an IP that may change within a minute.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:43, 1 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas!

MBlaze Lightning (talk) is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas2}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

MBlaze Lightning (talk) 09:10, 25 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hoppar också in och säger god jul, förstår inte hur du orkat med Wikipedia så länge. :P TylerBurden (talk) 01:59, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

God Jul till dig också! Ja, jag frågar mig samma sak. Saken är den att bland alla knäppskallar, besserwissrar, idioter och rent ut sagt otrevliga typer finns det också en de riktigt bra människor här på WP.--Berig (talk) 06:35, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).

Administrator changes

Stephen

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

CheckUser changes

Moneytrees

Oversighter changes

Guideline and policy news

Speedy deletion criterion A5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following an unopposed proposal.

Arbitration

Following the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, CaptainEek, GeneralNotability, Guerillero, L235, Moneytrees, Primefac, SilkTork.
The 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review has concluded with many changes to the discretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
The arbitration case Stephen has been closed.

Miscellaneous

Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:08, 6 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).

Administrator changes

Gimmetrow

CheckUser changes

Oversighter changes

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, the administrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from the Arbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
Following a community discussion, consensus has been found to impose the extended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Kurds and Kurdistan.

Technical news

The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.

Arbitration

The arbitration case Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
In December, the contentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces the former discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initial implementation period. There is a detailed summary of the changes and administrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system at their noticeboard.

Miscellaneous

Voting in the 2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:37, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).

Administrator changes

The Wordsmith

CheckUser changes

Callanecc

Oversighter changes

Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

Following a request for comment, F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
A request for comment is open to discuss making the closing instructions for the requested moves process a guideline.

Technical news

The results of the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey have been posted.

Arbitration

Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been rescinded.
The proposed decision for the Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
A case related to the Holocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.

Miscellaneous

The 2023 appointees for the Ombuds commission are AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, JJMC89, MdsShakil, Minorax and Renvoy as regular members and Zabe as advisory members.
Following the 2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Mykola7, Superpes15, and Xaosflux.
The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a [p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:18, 1 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).

Administrator changes

Aoidh

KillerChihuahua

CheckUser changes

Ferret

Guideline and policy news

A community RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involving gender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.

Technical news

Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users of Internet Explorer 11. (T178356)
The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
A link to the user's Special:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown on Special:Contributions. This was voted #17 in the Community Wishlist Survey 2023.

Arbitration

The Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
A case about World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:10, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).

Administrator changes

Spicy

CheckUser changes

Jimbo Wales

Oversighter changes

Jimbo Wales

Guideline and policy news

A request for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.

Technical news

Progress has started on the Page Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their 2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.

Arbitration

The proposed decision in the World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.

Miscellaneous

The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:22, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Shimon (DJ) for deletion

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

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

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

Thebiguglyalien (talk) 15:12, 8 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2023).

Administrator changes

Ingenuity

CheckUser changes

Courcelles

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, editors indefinitely site-banned by community consensus will now have all rights, including sysop, removed.
As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation's IP Masking project, a new policy has been created that governs the access to temporary account IP addresses. An associated FAQ has been created and individual communities can increase the requirements to view temporary account IP addresses.

Technical news

Bot operators and tool maintainers should schedule time in the coming months to test and update their tools for the effects of IP masking. IP masking will not be deployed to any content wiki until at least October 2023 and is unlikely to be deployed to the English Wikipedia until some time in 2024.

Arbitration

The arbitration case World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been closed. The topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933-1945) and the history of Jews in Poland is subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction.

Miscellaneous

Following a community referendum, the arbitration policy has been modified to remove the ability for users to appeal remedies to Jimbo Wales.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:32, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Myarchive

Template:Myarchive has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. WOSlinker (talk) 18:55, 19 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2023).

Administrator changes

Novem Linguae

Bureaucrat changes

MBisanz

Guideline and policy news

Contributions to the English Wikipedia are now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) license instead of CC BY-SA 3.0. Contributions are still also released under the GFDL license.

Technical news

Discussion is open regarding a proposed global policy regarding third-party resources. Third-party resources are computer resources that reside outside of Wikimedia production websites.

Arbitration

Two arbitration cases are currently open. Proposed decisions are expected 5 July 2023 for the Scottywong case and 9 July 2023 for the AlisonW case.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:57, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Help deciphering Old Swedish abbreviations

Hi Berig!

I was wondering if you might be able to help me. I'm working on a project involving the Old Swedish Didriks Kroenika (which does not have a separate article on WP, unfortunately), and the only edition is basically a diplomatic transcription of the manuscript [7]. My Old Swedish is based entirely on my (not spectacular) Old Norse, so I'm having trouble deciphering them. On page 220 there is sort of this passage:

videke rendhe vndhan th3 mesthe han motte A'n didrik effther honum / tha rendhe vidheke vti swyo'n ok sanch strax(?) vnter vatnith. didrik sko't sith spywth epther honum sa ath th3 stodh j bakkan harth vidh Ana.

Here it is in Cumpstey's English if that helps:

Wideke ran away as best he could, and still Didrik followed him. Then Wideke ran out into the river, and sank at once under the water. Didrik threw his spear after him so that it landed in the hill right next to the river.

And this is on page 300:

Som hii fo'r haffuer horth huru wideke welanson flydde fo'r didrik aff bern ok sanch j syon wid granz?port / tho kom til honum en haffru hans fadher fadher modher ok togh honum ok fo'rde honum til sa'landh ok war ther longa stundh

English:

As you have heard before, Wideke Welandsson fled from Didrik of Bern and sank into the sea at Gransport. Then a mermaid came to him, his father’s father’s mother, and she took him and carried him to Sealand, and he was there for a long time.

Do you know what word "th3" should be? The 3 reminds me of a Latin abbreviation for "-um", but that seems wrong. It also could be a z, but "thz" is clearly an abbreviation for something. It's a form of de/det I'm guessing. Is that sort of hook (represented here by ') an acute accent? A way of writing "i"? And what on earth is with "strax" - the x looks king of like a Latin abbreviation for -rum, but again, that seems wrong.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:25, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The first "th3" means "the" , but the second is "thet" and means "that". The writer appars to have left out the last -t. The phrase "th3 mesthe han motte" is in English "the most he might" (translated with the English cognates). "Strax" is still a used word and means in a "short moment". It is a loan word from a German word "strack(e)s". The accent is an old way of writing the umlaut, so o' is simply ö, and a' is ä. Berig (talk) 21:14, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. German actually does a line like that for umlaut too sometimes at this time. I was confused by strax because the x looks funny in the edition. The scribe seems to always write “th3”, so I’ll need to figure out when it’s de or det!—Ermenrich (talk) 23:38, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

A self-correction. I wrote the answer just before going to bed. Now that I am awake and thinking more clearly, th3 is simply way of writing "thet", modern Swedish "det". Both "the"/"de" and "thet"/"det" can correspond to English "the" as definite articles ("DET stora huset"="THE big house" and "DE stora husen"="THE big houses"), while "thet"/"det" can mean "that" as a neuter pronoun ("jag vet DET"="I know THAT"). Berig (talk) 07:56, 20 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again, that makes sense. I wonder if I should transcribe it as "thz" or th[et]...--Ermenrich (talk) 15:24, 20 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe it is a "z", but an ampersand, a ligature of "e" and "t". There used to be a huge variation in how ampersands were written.Berig (talk) 19:43, 20 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The sign is usually transcribed as "z", or the word is spelled out without comment - it is also often used in "mz", "met", modern Swedish "med", 'with'. For examples, see the first page of Erikskrönikan in a more scholarly and a more popular edition: [8][9]. I've tried to look into it, but there is a lot of at best semi-contradictory claims about it. The abbreviation sign seems to have been identical in form to a z, but depending on when and where the manuscript was written, there might not be a lot of ordinary z:s.

Andejons (talk) 07:51, 21 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2023).

Administrator changes

Firefangledfeathers

Interface administrator changes

Novem Linguae

Technical news

The tag filter on Special:NewPages and revision history pages can now be inverted. This allows hiding edits made by automated tools. (T334338)
Special:BlockedExternalDomains is a new tool that allows easier blocking of plain domains (and their subdomains). This is more easily searchable and is faster for the software to use than the existing MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. It does not support regex (for complex cases), URL path-matching, or the MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist. (T337431)

Arbitration

The arbitration cases named Scottywong and AlisonW closed 10 July and 16 July respectively.
The SmallCat dispute arbitration case is in the workshop phase.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:53, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2023).

Administrator changes

CheckUser changes

Bradv

Oversighter changes

Bradv

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, TFAs will be automatically semi-protected the day before it is on the main page and through the day after.
A discussion at WP:VPP about revision deletion and oversight for dead names found that [s]ysops can choose to use revdel if, in their view, it's the right tool for this situation, and they need not default to oversight. But oversight could well be right where there's a particularly high risk to the person. Use your judgment.

Technical news

Special:Contributions now shows the user's local edit count and the account's creation date. (T324166)

Arbitration

The SmallCat dispute case has closed. As part of the final decision, editors participating in XfD have been reminded to be careful about forming local consensus which may or may not reflect the broader community consensus. Regular closers of XfD forums were also encouraged to note when broader community discussion, or changes to policies and guidelines, would be helpful.

Miscellaneous

Tech tip: The "Browse history interactively" banner shown at the top of Special:Diff can be used to easily look through a history, assemble composite diffs, or find out what archive something wound up in.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:21, 1 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2023).

Administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

Tamzin

Dennis Brown

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

The WMF is working on making it possible for administrators to edit MediaWiki configuration directly. This is similar to previous work on Special:EditGrowthConfig. A technical RfC is running until November 08, where you can provide feedback.
There is a proposed plan for re-enabling the Graph Extension. Feedback on this proposal is requested.

Arbitration

Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 12 November 2023 until 21 November 2023 to stand in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections.
Xaosflux, RoySmith and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee Elections. BusterD is the reserve commissioner.
Following a motion, the contentious topic designation of Prem Rawat has been struck. Actions previously taken using this contentious topic designation are still in force.
Following several motions, multiple topic areas are no longer designated as a contentious topic. These contentious topic designations were from the Editor conduct in e-cigs articles, Liancourt Rocks, Longevity, Medicine, September 11 conspiracy theories, and Shakespeare authorship question cases.
Following a motion, remedies 3.1 (All related articles under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned), 6 (Stalemate resolution) and 30 (Administrative supervision) of the Macedonia 2 case have been rescinded.
Following a motion, remedy 6 (One-revert rule) of the The Troubles case has been amended.
An arbitration case named Industrial agriculture has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case close 8 November.

Miscellaneous

The Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in November 2023, with 700+ drafts pending reviews for in the last 4 months or so. In addition to the AfC participants, all administrators and New Page Patrollers can conduct reviews using the helper script, Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:22, 7 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Heppa"

Hi Berig - in the Thidreks saga the character of Apollonius uses the pseudonym "Heppa" at one point while disguising himself as a woman. I haven't found this in Foerstemann - any idea where the name might come from? It looks like it's short for something. P's are of course rare in Germanic except for in Bavarian where b->p.--Ermenrich (talk) 15:01, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it a short female form of heppinn, i.e. "lucky".--Berig (talk) 21:24, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

PS. This word created a bit of a semantic mess for me that I had to correct. The modern Swedish form of heppinn (häpen) means "surprised" and the Swedish cognate of lucky (lycklig) means "happy".--Berig (talk) 07:23, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2023).

Administrator changes

Beeblebrox → Just Step Sideways

CheckUser changes

Oversight changes

Guideline and policy news

Following a talk page discussion, the Administrators' accountability policy has been updated to note that while it is considered best practice for administrators to have notifications (pings) enabled, this is not mandatory. Administrators who do not use notifications are now strongly encouraged to indicate this on their user page.

Arbitration

Following a motion, the Extended Confirmed Restriction has been amended, removing the allowance for non-extended-confirmed editors to post constructive comments on the "Talk:" namespace. Now, non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace solely to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided that their actions are not disruptive.
The Arbitration Committee has announced a call for Checkusers and Oversighters, stating that it will currently be accepting applications for CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions at any point in the year.
Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 11, 2023 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:53, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).

Administrator changes

Clovermoss

Dennis Brown

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Arbitration

Following the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Cabayi, Firefly, HJ Mitchell, Maxim, Sdrqaz, ToBeFree, Z1720.
Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that were enacted in June 2009.
The arbitration case Industrial agriculture has been closed.

Miscellaneous

The New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:54, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2024).

Administrator changes

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

Guideline and policy news

An RfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.

Technical news

Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)

Arbitration

Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
Community feedback is requested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section at WP:AE.

Miscellaneous

Voting in the 2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
A vote to ratify the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) via Secure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be found here.
Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of the Community Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes. Read more
The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:01, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Request of unblocking

It's been more than a year now since I was blocked and I would like to request to be unblocked as I will stick to the rules now of editing from now on. Countrymaster (talk) 13:34, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2024).

Administrator changes

Bureaucrat changes

SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

Phase I of the 2024 RfA review is now open for participation. Editors are invited to review, comment on, and propose improvements to the requests for adminship process.
Following an RfC, the inactivity requirement for the removal of the interface administrator right increased from 6 months to 12 months.

Technical news

The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. (T353388)

Miscellaneous

The 2024 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Doǵu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, MdsShakil, Minorax, Nehaoua, Renvoy and RoySmith as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
Following the 2024 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Ajraddatz, Albertoleoncio, EPIC, JJMC89, Johannnes89, Melos and Yahya.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:21, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2024).

Administrator changes

Guideline and policy news

An RfC is open to convert all current and future community discretionary sanctions to (community designated) contentious topics procedure.

Technical news

The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (T313405)

Arbitration

An arbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".

Miscellaneous

Editors are invited to sign up for The Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improve vital and other core articles on Wikipedia.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:47, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2024).

Administrator changes

Nyttend

Bureaucrat changes

Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe

Oversight changes

GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

Phase I of the 2024 requests for adminship review has concluded. Several proposals have passed outright and will proceed to implementation, including creating a discussion-only period (3b) and administrator elections (13) on a trial basis. Other successful proposals, such as creating a reminder of civility norms (2), will undergo further refinement in Phase II. Proposals passed on a trial basis will be discussed in Phase II, after their trials conclude. Further details on specific proposals can be found in the full report.

Technical news

Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks. T280531

Arbitration

The arbitration case Conflict of interest management has been closed.

Miscellaneous

This may be a good time to reach out to potential nominees to ask if they would consider an RfA.
A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 15,000 articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 9 May 2024. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:25, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2024).

Administrator changes

Graham Beards

Bureaucrat changes

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

Phase II of the 2024 RfA review has commenced to improve and refine the proposals passed in Phase I.

Technical news

The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title. T43351

Arbitration

The arbitration case Venezuelan politics has been closed.
The Committee is seeking volunteers for various roles, including access to the conflict of interest VRT queue.

Miscellaneous

WikiProject Reliability's unsourced statements drive is happening in June 2024 to replace {{citation needed}} tags with references! Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:43, 5 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

Administrator changes

Technical news

Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript. Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (T6086)

Miscellaneous

The Community Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024. Read more

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:58, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiproject

Hi, I see you've contributed a lot to Hrothgar, would you be interested in a taskforce on oral tradition? Kowal2701 (talk) 09:47, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am sorry, but I am too busy writing IRL.--Berig (talk) 20:01, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No worries Kowal2701 (talk) 20:02, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2024).

Administrator changes

Isabelle Belato

Interface administrator changes

Izno

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49

Technical news

Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators may locally unblock when appropriate.
Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.

Arbitration

The Arbitration Committee appointed the following administrators to the conflict of interest volunteer response team: Bilby, Extraordinary Writ

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:59, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Administrators' newsletter – September 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2024).

Administrator changes

Pppery

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

Oversighter changes

Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

Guideline and policy news

Following an RfC, there is a new criterion for speedy deletion: C4, which applies to unused maintenance categories, such as empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past.
A request for comment is open to discuss whether Notability (species) should be adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.

Arbitration

Following a motion, remedies 5.1 and 5.2 of World War II and the history of Jews in Poland (the topic and interaction bans on My very best wishes, respectively) were repealed.
Remedy 3C of the German war effort case ("Cinderella157 German history topic ban") was suspended for a period of six months.
The arbitration case Historical Elections is currently open. Proposed decision is expected by 3 September 2024 for this case.

Miscellaneous

Editors can now enter into good article review circles, an alternative for informal quid pro quo arrangements, to have a GAN reviewed in return for reviewing a different editor's nomination.
A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in September 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,900 articles and 26,200 redirects awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2024).

Administrator changes

CheckUser changes

Guideline and policy news

Administrator elections are a proposed new process for selecting administrators, offering an alternative to requests for adminship (RfA). The first trial election will take place in October 2024, with candidate sign-up from October 8 to 14, a discussion phase from October 22 to 24, and SecurePoll voting from October 25 to 31. For questions or to help out, please visit the talk page at Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections.
Following a discussion, the speedy deletion reason "File pages without a corresponding file" has been moved from criterion G8 to F2. This does not change what can be speedily deleted.
A request for comment is open to discuss whether there is a consensus to have an administrator recall process.

Arbitration

The arbitration case Historical elections has been closed.
An arbitration case regarding Backlash to diversity and inclusion has been opened.
Editors are invited to nominate themselves to serve on the 2024 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission until 23:59 October 8, 2024 (UTC).

Miscellaneous

If you are interested in stopping spammers, please put MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist and MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist on your watchlist, and help out when you can.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:59, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to participate in a research

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this anonymous survey.

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Have a very happy adminship anniversary on your special day!

Best wishes, Adr28382 ^{(Talk to me!)} 16:05, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you!--Berig (talk) 16:26, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

Administrator changes

Crisco 1492

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Guideline and policy news

Following a discussion, the discussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine the requests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
Following a request for comment, Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.

Technical news

Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. T366068

Arbitration

RoySmith, Barkeep49 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2024 Arbitration Committee Elections. ThadeusOfNazereth and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
The Arbitration Committee is seeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.

Miscellaneous

An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:20, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Have a very happy adminship anniversary on your special day!

Best wishes, DaniloDaysOfOurLives (talk) 03:49, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!--Berig (talk) 16:27, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]