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The Signpost: 1 December 2018

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:47, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018).

Administrator changes

readded Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
removed Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes

removedDeryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
  • A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
  • A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
  • Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-49

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

Recent changes

  • Admins will not be able to unblock themselves if they are blocked by someone other than themselves. This is because it can cause damage if someone else takes over an admin account and other admins can't block them. If this is a problem for your community you can report it on Phabricator. You can also ask questions on Meta. There is a discussion on Phabricator about how to solve this if two admins fight with each other on a small wiki. [1]
  • Small SVG images are now bigger when you see them in MediaViewer. [2]
  • You can go to a section from the edit summary by clicking on the section name. Before this you had to click on the arrow. [3]
  • When you jumped to a footnote that was referenced several times in an article it could be difficult to see where you were in the text. Now there are jump marks and highlights to help you find your way back. [4][5]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

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

16:12, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Top marks for protecting Deutsche Bank

The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Very top shelf work protecting Deutsche Bank from vandals chanelling from Bulge Bracket. You're the type of admin Wikipedia deserves. Danke schön! One Factor (talk) 01:15, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
@One Factor: Bitte schön! If you think that an article needs to be protected, you can request it at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. Or you can contact me here, if I'm around. Mz7 (talk) 07:41, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Miga, Quatchi, Sumi and Mukmuk.jpg

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 03:38, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Olly, Syd and Millie.gif

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 03:43, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-50

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

Changes later this week

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

Meetings

Future changes

  • New accounts will need passwords that are at least 8 characters long. Admins, interface admins, bureaucrats, oversighters, CentralNotice admins, global renamers, check users, stewards and some other user groups will need passwords that are at least 10 characters long. This is because an attacker could cause damage to the wikis if they took over these accounts. [6][7]
  • When you hover over a footnote it will show you the reference as a pop-up. This is so you don't have to jump down to the bottom of the page to see a reference. This will happen in 2019. Some wikis already have gadgets that do this. You will be able to turn it off. [8]

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

17:33, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hi Mz7, Sending you a warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019 and may this new year bring you joy and laughter. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 15:49, 13 December 2018 (UTC) Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

CVUA Trainers

Hi Mz7, I realise I'm probably jumping the gun on this, but I was wondering what the criteria were for volunteering as a CVUA trainer. Do you need to be an admin, or is this something that ordinary users can do? I'm sure that a certain period of 'earning my spurs' would be appropriate, and I don't imagine that I'm quite over the line yet; nevertheless, your feedback has been encouraging, and I would be interested in helping others get started in the right way once I have satisfied the community that I'm ready. If this is something that I can do without admin status, and if it might be helpful, please let me know how to proceed once you've graduated me. As an aside, thanks for working me through everything over the last few weeks - I've learned more in the last few months about how Wikipedia works than I'd figured out for myself in the previous 10 years. GirthSummit (blether) 21:12, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Hi Girth Summit. There aren't any formal requirements for being a CVUA trainer; you don't need to be an administrator, and there's no objective numbers needed. If you feel that you are sufficiently knowledgeable about counter-vandalism on Wikipedia and feel confident that you would be able to pass that knowledge on to others, then I say go for it! I think you're pretty knowledgeable already. :) I will take a look at your answers and graduate you later today. Mz7 (talk) 06:07, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
Great, thanks. Do I need to sign up anywhere, or do I just edit the table on Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy/Instructors to include my details? GirthSummit (blether) 15:31, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
@Girth Summit: All you need to do is edit the table at Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy/Instructors to include your details. For the course materials, I used User:Callanecc/CVUA/Tasks for much of it, though I modified some assignments for you, since you already had experience with some tools, like Twinkle. If you have any questions or run into any difficulty, feel free to ask me at any time. Mz7 (talk) 05:02, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.16 15 December 2018

Hello Mz7,

Reviewer of the Year

This year's award for the Reviewer of the Year goes to Onel5969. Around on Wikipedia since 2011, their staggering number of 26,554 reviews over the past twelve months makes them, together with an additional total of 275,285 edits, one of Wikipedia's most prolific users.

Thanks are also extended for their work to JTtheOG (15,059 reviews), Boleyn (12,760 reviews), Cwmhiraeth (9,001 reviews), Semmendinger (8,440 reviews), PRehse (8,092 reviews), Arthistorian1977 (5,306 reviews), Abishe (4,153 reviews), Barkeep49 (4,016 reviews), and Elmidae (3,615 reviews).
Cwmhiraeth, Semmendinger, Barkeep49, and Elmidae have been New Page Reviewers for less than a year — Barkeep49 for only seven months, while Boleyn, with an edit count of 250,000 since she joined Wikipedia in 2008, has been a bastion of New Page Patrol for many years.

See also the list of top 100 reviewers.

Less good news, and an appeal for some help

The backlog is now approaching 5,000, and still rising. There are around 640 holders of the NPR flag, most of whom appear to be inactive. The 10% of the reviewers who do 90% of the work could do with some support especially as some of them are now taking a well deserved break.


Really good news - NPR wins the Community Wishlist Survey 2019

At #1 position, the Community Wishlist poll closed on 3 December with a resounding success for NPP, reminding the WMF and the volunteer communities just how critical NPP is to maintaining a clean encyclopedia and the need for improved tools to do it. A big 'thank you' to everyone who supported the NPP proposals. See the results.


Training video

Due to a number of changes having been made to the feed since this three-minute video was created, we have been asked by the WMF for feedback on the video with a view to getting it brought up to date to reflect the new features of the system. Please leave your comments here, particularly mentioning how helpful you find it for new reviewers.

If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, go here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:14, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-51

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

Tech News

  • Because of the holidays the next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 7 January 2019.

Recent changes

  • Some templates that show notices about the content of the page will now be shown on the mobile website. In many cases they were hidden before. [9][10]
  • Admins can no longer unblock themselves, except for self-blocks. A blocked admin can block the user who blocked them but no one else. This is so no one can block all admins on a wiki without being stopped. [11]
  • Advanced item The ParserMigration extension has been removed. It compared the result of two versions of the MediaWiki wikitext parsing pipeline. It was used when we moved to the Remex parsing library instead of Tidy.

Problems

  • <ref> tags can use parameters such as "name" or "group". For example <ref name="adams" group="books">. If a <ref> tag has more than two parameters all parameters are ignored. You don't get a warning that they don't work. This will soon be fixed. [12]

Changes later this week

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

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Wikimedia Foundation Android app team are working on making it easier to edit on mobile phones. You can read more about these plans. If you have an Android phone and speak at least two languages you can help testing in English. Tell Dchen (WMF) you want to be part of the testing by writing on her talk page or email her.
  • Advanced item tiles.wmflabs.org and wma.wmflabs.org will stop working. They have no maintainers and run an old operating system. Tools which use it could stop working. This includes the mapnik gadget, hill shading, and hike and bike layers. New maintainers could help out and keep it going. [13]

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

20:34, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Vinicius and Tom.png

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 19:05, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas !!!

CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 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 Christmas cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas3}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

You've got mail

Hello, Mz7. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.TheSandDoctor Talk 01:45, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2018

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:36, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Mz7, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
TheSandDoctor Talk 07:28, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Mz7, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
―Abelmoschus Esculentus talk / contribs 07:59, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Greetings !

Hello Mz7: Enjoy the holiday season, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, ---Wikaviani (talk) (contribs) 18:25, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings1}} to send this message

Seasonal Greetings

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Mz7, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
@Boothsift 01:11, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Village pump (proposals)#Reduce number of vandalism warning levels

Hi Mz7, Greetings to you. There is a proposal at Village pump(proposal) regarding Reduce number of vandalism warning levels which you might be interested to join the discussion. cheers. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 22:49, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

A cup of tea for you!

I had no other way to thank you for one of your recent edits. Imagine this to be a piping hot cup of Lapsang Souchong. Best regards, Hamster Sandwich (talk) 07:32, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, Hamster Sandwich! Mz7 (talk) 07:33, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry (Belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Mz7, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
Hummerrocket (talk) 03:46, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Happy New Year, Mz7!

Happy New Year!

Mz7,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
Donner60 (talk) 06:33, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Mz7,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
TheSandDoctor Talk 02:08, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Template:Your welcome listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Template:Your welcome. Since you had some involvement with the Template:Your welcome redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. UnitedStatesian (talk) 03:13, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Hello Mz7: Thanks for all of your contributions to Wikipedia, and have a great New Year! Cheers, ―Abelmoschus Esculentus talk / contribs 05:34, 1 January 2019 (UTC)



Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year snowman}} to people's talk pages with a friendly message.

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2018).

Guideline and policy news

  1. G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
  2. R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
  3. G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.

Technical news

  • Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:
  1. At least 8 characters in length
  2. Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
  3. Different from their username
User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
  • Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
  • {{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
  • Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, Mz7. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.Hummerrocket (talk) 23:44, 1 January 2019 (UTC)
Hi Hummerrocket. Just want to let you know that I have seen your message, and I'll probably get back to you at some point tomorrow. Mz7 (talk) 01:47, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
Hi, just checking in. No rush. Hummerrocket (talk) 03:40, 4 January 2019 (UTC)
Hey Hummerrocket, I sent you a reply. I apologize in advance about its length. I tend to get carried away like that. Mz7 (talk) 06:15, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

CVUA

Hi, I pinged you on my CVUA page and you said you'd evaluate the answers that evening but, you weren't able to do so. I know you're busy but I thought of reminding you. Thanks in advance. Bingobro (Chat) 15:57, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

Bingobro, sorry about the delay! Mz7 (talk) 23:50, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

You Jin

Hi - I saw that you reverted the changes I made to You Jin’s Page. You Jin is my mother and the information from the library page is actually from my mum’s biography. So she owns the copyright. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.56.98.179 (talk) 14:24, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

Unfortunately, your mother will need to send proof of this to us, as well as give us permission to use her work. We need a specific kind of permission: we need permission not only to use her work, but for anyone in the world to also use and edit it freely. Please see Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for more information. Mz7 (talk) 18:26, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

You are cordially invited to Stanford University to celebrate Wikipedia's birthday

Join us in celebrating Wikipedia's 18th birthday at Stanford University!
Wikimedia Community logo
I am delighted to invite you to the 2019 Wikipedia Day party at Stanford, which will be held on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, at 5:00-8:30pm.
There will be pizza, cake, and refreshments; both newcomers and experienced Wikimedians are welcome! We will have a beginner track with tutorials, and an advanced track with presentations, lightning talks, and tips and tricks. Admission is free, and you do NOT have to be a Stanford University student to attend.
Details and RSVP here • register here
See you soon! All the best, Kevin (aka L235 · t · c)
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:40, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

thankyou for conditional unblock is the redaction of my talk page OK?

Hello thankyou very much for your kind consideration and the conditional unblock. I have redacted my talk page so that I do not even have the appearance of self promotion. Is this OK? E.3 (talk) 03:44, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

E.3, please don’t redact the comments that I was making. It’s okay to archive or even remove our conversation from your talk page, but I think it’s important that if you do keep our conversation up, you leave it intact as it was. Mz7 (talk) 04:16, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
OK thankyou I will unredact it and then archive. E.3 (talk) 04:17, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-02

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

Tech News writers, editors and translators wish you a pleasant 2019 year.

Recent changes

  • RelatedSites extension has been undeployed. It was used to create interwiki links on Wikivoyage, now handled by Wikidata. [14]
  • Advanced item MediaWiki logstash logging is moving to a new infrastructure. This is an ongoing deployment. [15]
  • Advanced item codesearch.wmflabs.org has been updated, with new and updated repositories and a new search options for code. [16]
  • Advanced item On several wikis, an account named "Edit filter" has been created on December 17 to perform some technical maintenance on AbuseFilter. This account has sysop rights but it's a system user and no human can use it. The account already existed on wikis where AbuseFilter can perform blocks, which are issued using this account. See T212268 for more information and future plans.

Problems

  • Advanced item In AbuseFilter, the "Throttle" action takes three parameters: count, period and groups. They must now strictly respect the requirements listed on mediawiki.org. A list of broken filters is on Phabricator. If you're familiar with AbuseFilter, please take a look and fix them. [17]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 8. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from January 9. It will be on all wikis from January 10 (calendar).

Meetings

  • Search Platform Office Hours is rescheduled to January 9. Check the details for time and date.

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

18:29, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Soohorang and Bandabi.jpg

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:44, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Counter-Vandalism

I am interested in taking the Counter-Vandalism course(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism_Unit/Academy). I would like to learn about all the different tools and I am like roll backing edits in my free time. I am mostly only available on weekends(Sat, Sun) and a little on weekdays, so please let me know if that is an issue for you. Could I enroll in your class? Mosrod Talk 00:29, 9 January 2019 (UTC) (Forgot my signature on Phone)

@Mosrod: Sorry for the delay in responding. How about we start this weekend? On Friday, I'll set up your course page. Mz7 (talk) 03:12, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: Ok, I can do Friday after about 8:00PM EST, then on Saturday from 8:00AM EST to 1:30PM EST and 9:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST and Sunday from 8:00 AM EST to 10:00PM EST ( mostly the whole day) Thanks for enrolling me and I'm excited to learn more about Wikipedia's counter vandalism unit! MosrodTalk 00:25, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
Mosrod, we don't need to schedule to this degree of granularity. The way it'll work is I'll leave a set of questions or tasks that you'll do on your own time, and I'll leave feedback once you let me know you're finished, then give you the next set of questions or tasks. Mz7 (talk) 05:36, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@Mosrod: I've created your course page at User:Mz7/CVUA/Mosrod. Please take a look at the first assignment and let me know if you have any questions! Mz7 (talk) 05:44, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: I completed the questions on the course page. MosrodTalk 02:23, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: Should I ping you when I completed the questions? MosrodTalk 00:23, 3 February 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: I've finished the questions. MosrodTalk 00:23, 3 February 2019 (UTC)
@Mosrod: Sorry for the delay in responding. I've had an extraordinarily busy week. I will get back to you by Friday. Mz7 (talk) 04:47, 6 February 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: Ok, thanks. I also got Rollbacker perms and have been using Huggle for a week, and I have some questions about it:

How do you set permission levels (not automatically)? Is a level one warning indicating a AGF edit? If it was obvious vandalism, do you warn the user with a one first (how to change this in Huggle)? How do I order the vandalism queue from worst score to best? What is the difference between disruptive editing vs vandalism(is disruptive editing only edit warring)? I am Keen to get course on Countering Vandalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism_Unit/Academy). I am approximately active every day on Wikipedia in this year and I would be pleased to get knowledge about these topic by you. Manupriy Ahluwalia (User talk:Manupriy Ahluwalia) —Preceding undated comment added 05:30, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

@Mz7: I am willing to have course on counter-Vandalism by you. I wish to get some time of yours for above subject . Please reply I will be waiting.Manupriy Ahluwalia (talk) 08:50, 27 April 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-03

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

Recent changes

  • You can now use Google Translate in the content translation tool. [18][19]
  • You can now add captions to files on Commons. Captions are short descriptions of the file. They can be translated to all languages we use. They can't use wikitext markup.
  • Earlier a quoted HTML attribute had to be followed by a space. Now it doesn't. This means that some pages could look different when you save them even if you didn't edit that part of the text. [20][21]
  • Advanced item Templates with <templatestyles> could not show the difference between the live template and the sandbox version when they were tested. This has now been fixed. <templatestyles> has a new wrapper parameter now. You can use it for selectors like .mw-parser-output <wrapper parameter value> <selector from CSS page>. [22]

Problems

  • When you see an edit in the recent changes feed or in the history of a page some of them have tags. Some tags are added automatically. You can also add tags manually. Tags for edits that have been added manually can be edited. This didn't work for a little while. This has now been fixed. [23]

Changes later this week

  • You can move files from your wiki to Wikimedia Commons and keep the file history with the new FileExporter. It will be a beta feature on all wikis from 16 January. If you want to test it you activate it and check your wiki's configuration file.
  • Users who could cause more damage to the wikis if someone took over their account have to have more secure passwords. This includes administrators and other user groups. They can't use passwords that are in a list of common passwords. Accounts with common passwords are easy to take over. The list of common passwords was made longer a few weeks ago and has a different error message. Some user groups have been added to those who can't use common passwords. This is to protect all accounts with user rights that could cause damage. [24]
  • Advanced item The AbuseFilter variable minor_edit has been removed. It was deprecated in 2016. Now you can't use it. You can fix the filters using it. You can find them if you use the search bar on Special:AbuseFilter.
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 15

17:54, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi Mz7, Slightly bizarre but just wanted to say thanks for not blocking the editor - RL called and then I'd completely forgot to remove the report so many thanks for not blocking them, If Many thanks, –Davey2010Talk 22:19, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

ACC tool access request approved

Thank you for your interest in the account creation process. I have verified that you have signed the confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information and approved your request.

You may now access the interface here pending a tool root marking your account as identified in the tool database. Before you begin handling requests, please ensure you have read and understood the account creation guide to familiarize yourself with the process.

Please subscribe yourself to the private ACC mailing list following the instructions on that page. I also advise that you also join us on IRC #wikipedia-en-accounts connect where a bot informs us when new account requests come in and you can get real time advice on how to handle requests.

Please note failure to correctly assess requests will result in suspension of tool access. Account creation is not a race, and each one should be handled diligently and thoroughly. Releasing personally identifying information (such as IP and email addresses), whether intentionally or unintentionally, is treated very seriously and will generally result in immediate suspension.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions. Thank you for participating in the account creation process. Again welcome! — JJMC89 (T·C) 04:16, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-04

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

Tech News

  • Some people did not get last week's issue of Tech News. This was because of a problem with MassMessage. If you did not get last week's issue, you can read it on Meta. [25]

Recent changes

  • The content translation tool can now use version 2 as the default version for users who turned on the beta feature. For example it adds the tracking category Pages with unreviewed translations to translations that might have used machine translations without fixing the problems. This is so others can find them. You can find this category in Special:TrackingCategories on Wikipedias.
  • https://mediawiki2latex-large.wmflabs.org can now convert collects of up to 800 pages to PDF, EPUB or ODT. Previously this was 200 pages.

Problems

  • When a template was edited with the visual editor, it would sometimes put all information on one line. This makes it difficult to read for editors who use the wikitext editor. It also makes it more difficult to see what happened in a diff. This problem affected edits made between 8 and 17 January and is now fixed. [26]
  • MassMessage is used to post a message to many pages. It has not been working reliably. Some messages have not been posted to everyone. [27][28]
  • Because of a database problem that had to be fixed immediately you could not edit most wikis for a couple of minutes on 17 January (UTC). This has now been fixed. [29]

Changes later this week

  • You will be able to use template styles in the Module namespace. [30]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 January. It will be on all wikis from 24 January (calendar).

Meetings

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

20:35, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

A Dobos torte for you!

7&6=thirteen (☎) has given you a Dobos torte to enjoy! Seven layers of fun because you deserve it.


To give a Dobos torte and spread the WikiLove, just place {{subst:Dobos Torte}} on someone else's talkpage, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.

7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:41, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Civility Barnstar
Your summary at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/@world record egg was diplomatic and well said. Thank you. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:45, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
Thank you, 7&6=thirteen. Mz7 (talk) 09:15, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Mail call

Hello, Mz7. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Bishonen | talk 15:57, 23 January 2019 (UTC).

Hi Bishonen, I've sent you a reply. Mz7 (talk) 06:44, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-05

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

Recent changes

Problems

  • When someone moves a page to a name that already exists that page that had the name the article is moved to is deleted. For a couple of months this didn't always work. Some users saw an error message instead. This has now been fixed. [31]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

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

18:15, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 January 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

CVUA trainer

Hi Mz7, Greetings. I have been doing vandalism for a year now after graduated from CUVA and would like to be the trainer for CVUA as would like to seek you advise if I am qualified and if so, would seek you guidance while I am coaching someone. Thank you. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 13:36, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

@CASSIOPEIA: We seem to have a good number of instructors already at the moment, but the sign-up form is at Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy/Instructors. If you ever need backup or assistance with something, feel free to let me or another instructor know. (User:Vermont is de facto captain of CVUA at the moment.) Mz7 (talk) 22:47, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
Mz7, Thanks for informing. Cheers. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 23:49, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019).

Administrator changes

added Enterprisey • JJMC89
readded BorgQueen
removed Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes

removedEnterprisey

Guideline and policy news

  • A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
  • Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

Technical news

  • A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.

Miscellaneous

  • Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
  • A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:15, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, Mz7. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.TheSandDoctor Talk 16:23, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-06

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

Changes later this week

  • It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed. [32]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 February. It will be on all wikis from 7 February (calendar).

Meetings

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

17:12, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Shared IP Tagging

Hi, hope you're well. I've picked up a couple of CVUA students now, and am taking them through their paces. Looking at Callanecc's course, I noticed that there is a section there on Shared IP Tagging that you and I didn't go through last year. I'm just checking to see whether that was intentional - is it perhaps something that relatively inexperienced users aren't encouraged to do nowadays? Cheers GirthSummit (blether) 14:35, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

@Girth Summit: Yeah, I skipped it because I feel that it wasn't extraordinarily important. My philosophy is: if you spot a shared IP address, feel free to tag it, but generally, I let people who are experienced with dealing with IP addresses handle the tagging. Mz7 (talk) 21:58, 7 February 2019 (UTC)
OK, thanks. Basically, it's not a particularly important part of the course, but there's nothing against doing it. I think I'll follow your lead and skip it, perhaps mention it towards the end of the course as an 'optional extra'. Cheers GirthSummit (blether) 23:22, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

CVUA

Hi,

I saw there is an open student slot at the Academy. I would like to gain more experience in handling vandalism. I think you are perfect the trainer for this work. Regards, Xain36 (talk) 16:38, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Xain36, I'm afraid I'm too busy in real life to take on students at the moment. Please try another trainer, or if none is available, ask me again in a few weeks. Sorry about this. Mz7 (talk) 12:35, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
@Mz7: Its ok. I will try next time. Xain36 (talk) 13:03, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
I am back after a few weeks. Are you ready? Xain36 {talk} 11:44, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Remove Talk Page acess

Hey, Would you like to remove talk page access because they did a large spam in the talk page several days after you indefinitely blocked. Sheldybett (talk) 08:27, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Sheldybett,  Done thanks for the tip Mz7 (talk) 09:57, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Protection request

Hello, I’m one of the active editors on Charlotte Crosby, and the page is recently inundated with vandalism, if you look at the page history. It’s becoming increasingly exhaustive for editors to keep reverting edits, so please protect the page. I beg!

Thanks! – Joesimnett (talk) 12:37, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

@Joesimnett: I took a look, and it appears to be  Already done. In the future, you can get a quicker response at WP:RFPP. Mz7 (talk) 23:07, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-07

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

Recent changes

  • You can use the ambox CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use ambox there are classes you can use.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 February. It will be on all wikis from 14 February (calendar).

Meetings

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

18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Counter Vandalism request

Can you please be my Trainer for the WP:CVUA for me, thanks.--Akrasia25 (talk) 02:47, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Akrasia25, I'm afraid I'm too busy in real life to take on students at the moment. Please try another trainer, or if none is available, ask me again in a few weeks. Sorry about this. Mz7 (talk) 12:35, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
no problem. Thanks for responding so quickly.--Akrasia25 (talk) 13:52, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Harassment?

Why are you harassing me I'm just a relatively new Wikipedia user trying to get along on the site — Preceding unsigned comment added by Persononthinternet (talk • contribs) 16:35, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm trying to get extended confirmed so I don't have editing restrictions — Preceding unsigned comment added by Persononthinternet (talk • contribs) 16:39, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Delete my account if you want — Preceding unsigned comment added by Persononthinternet (talk • contribs) 16:42, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

No-one has to erase your account if you just would make sensible edits! Just read this, please. Oxygene7-13 (talk) 16:48, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
(edit conflict) @Persononthinternet: My intent was not to harass you or push you off this site, but I did identify what I think is problematic behavior in your editing which in the past has led to disruptive editing, and I’m interested in preventing that if possible. As I’ve explained, extended confirmed was intended to restrict editing to users who have made hundreds of legitimate, substantive edits, not to those making hundreds of garbage sandbox edits. Mz7 (talk) 16:50, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Alright I'm about to get deleted I understand — Preceding unsigned comment added by Persononthinternet (talk • contribs) 16:53, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

You don't have to be if you'd stop these useless edits! Oxygene7-13 (talk) 16:55, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
(edit conflict) @Persononthinternet: No, you’re not about to be “deleted” (admins can’t delete accounts, but they can technically prevent them from editing, which is probably what you mean). I would just like you to stop making all those sandbox edits. A small number of tests are fine, but not hundreds of the same gibberish. Mz7 (talk) 16:58, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

@Mz7 You really think this one is ever going to listen? Oxygene7-13 (talk) 17:02, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

@Oxygene7-13: They seem to have stopped. I’m toying instead with the idea of manually revoking extended confirmed after it is granted as an alternative to blocking. Mz7 (talk) 17:04, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
He just cleared his talkpage where I started the same discussion, told him this is pretty useless since it can be found in the page's history. Just looked, he cleared that too. This is not one that'll stay, I guess... Oxygene7-13 (talk) 17:08, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
@Oxygene7-13: See also [33] :( Mz7 (talk) 17:10, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

I was JUST on my way to show you the same... I don't get it. Did he WANT to be "deleted"? Oxygene7-13 (talk) 17:12, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-08

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

Recent changes

  • When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident. [34]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 February. It will be on all wikis from 21 February (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback. [35]

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

23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Mz7. You have new messages at Thewinrat's talk page.
Message added 16:24, 19 February 2019 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

TheWinRatHere! 16:24, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking

" icon depicting two speech Bubbles"

The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a global consultation about communication. The goal is to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for communication.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis, whatever their experience, their skills or their devices.

We are looking for input from as many different parts of the Wikimedia community as possible. It will come from multiple projects, in multiple languages, and with multiple perspectives.

We are currently planning the consultation. We need your help.

We need volunteers to help talk to their communities or user groups.

You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:

  1. First, sign up your group here.
  2. Next, create a page (or a section on a Village pump, or an e-mail thread – whatever is natural for your group) to collect information from other people in your group. This is not a vote or decision-making discussion: we are just collecting feedback.
  3. Then ask people what they think about communication processes. We want to hear stories and other information about how people communicate with each other on and off wiki. Please consider asking these five questions:
    1. When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
    2. What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
    3. What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
    4. What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
    5. What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
  4. Finally, please go to Talk pages consultation 2019 on Mediawiki.org and report what you learned from your group. Please include links if the discussion is available to the public.

You can also help build the list of the many different ways people talk to each other.

Not all groups active on wikis or around wikis use the same way to discuss things: it can happen on wiki, on social networks, through external tools... Tell us how your group communicates.

You can read more about the overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave feedback about the consultation process in the language you prefer.

Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you.

Trizek (WMF) 15:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-09

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

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • When you look at your watchlist or the recent changes page you can use the new filters for edit review. There you can choose tags to filter different edits. Empty tags will no longer be shown. [37]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 February. It will be on all wikis from 28 February (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback.

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

21:16, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 February 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:16, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Mz7/December_2018–February_2019&oldid=1222541160"