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Merry Merry

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Happy Christmas!
Hello RickinBaltimore,
Early in A Child's Christmas in Wales the young Dylan and his friend Jim Prothero witness smoke pouring from Jim's home. After the conflagration has been extinguished Dylan writes that

Nobody could have had a noisier Christmas Eve. And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss. Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said, "Would you like anything to read?"

My thanks to you for your efforts to keep the 'pedia readable in case the firemen chose one of our articles :-) Best wishes to you and yours and happy editing in 2019. MarnetteD|Talk 19:49, 19 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
And the same to you and yours Marnette! RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:11, 19 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Holidays!

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Happy Holidays!
May your winter holidays be filled with joy, laughter and good health. Wishing you all the best in 2019 and beyond.

--Cameron11598 (Talk) 04:39, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

And thank you and the same for you and yours! RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:09, 25 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Season's Greetings

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Hello there! Shearonink (talk) wishes you & yours the very best of the season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
Festivus (for the rest of us!) or even the Saturnalia,
here's to
hoping your holiday time is wonderful
and that the New Year will be an improvement upon the old.
CHEERS!

Share these holiday wishes by adding {{subst:User:Shearonink/Holiday}} ~~~~ to your friends' talk pages.

Shearonink (talk) 19:39, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much! Well wishes for you and yours this season RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:09, 25 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Seasonal Greetings

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Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello RickinBaltimore, 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 a heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:05, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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

Thank you so much!! The best for you and all of yours this season and in the new year. RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:10, 25 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yo Ho Ho

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Liz Read! Talk! is wishing you Seasons Greetings! Whether you celebrate your hemisphere's Solstice or Christmas, Diwali, Hogmanay, Hanukkah, Lenaia, Festivus or even the Saturnalia, this is a special time of year for almost everyone!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding {{subst:User:WereSpielChequers/Dec15b}} to your friends' talk pages.

and the very best to you and all of yours, thank you so much! RickinBaltimore (talk) 01:38, 26 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Some baklava for you!

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thanks for your blocking of user 68.184.156.87 ~ Mitchellhobbs (talk) 14:48, 28 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
You're welcome! RickinBaltimore (talk) 01:40, 29 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

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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)[reply]

Alight Solutions listed at Redirects for discussion

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An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Alight Solutions. Since you had some involvement with the Alight Solutions redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 03:45, 10 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Your fan

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Unless the IP was referring to someone else, you have a fan. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 01:25, 19 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Huh and to think [1] this was my biggest fan. RickinBaltimore (talk) 01:59, 19 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

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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)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
    • paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
    • checkuser-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:13, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Walter Görlitz

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I've protected the SPI page, and added the IPs to the investigation. Clearly socks of each other though (doubt the master is involved). GiantSnowman 13:05, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Walter's not involved. Thanks for protecting it too GS, I was about to. Of note, two of the IPs appear to be from the range that this long time vandal is from, but the behavior is wildly different. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:07, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
New sock at 74.196.254.69 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) which I've blocked. However, given my ArbCom restrictions, I can't do anything more I'm afraid so we'll have to rely on you/other to deal with future disruption... GiantSnowman 13:09, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like it's going to be whack-a-mole with the IPs for now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:14, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Now here which I can't touch, sorry. GiantSnowman 13:17, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Blocked the last two IPs. I'll have an eye on it. I know this much, it's not WG doing this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:18, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. Thanks for picking this up - however I've protected WT:FOOTBALL. GiantSnowman 13:18, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Hiya Rick, don't know how much it helps, but BT is pretty global, they operate in Canada and Portugal, having hubs in all the places these attacks are coming from. The anomaly to me is Single Digits, which is appears to me to be the a proxy gateway, don't know if that helps you know, Regards, Govvy (talk) 14:01, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
At this point it's someone doing it for S & G's I think. Either way, it's stopped with the protection for the moment, but I can say with confidence it wasn't who was accused. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:21, 8 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail

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Hello, RickinBaltimore. 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. Utahabl (talk) 13:21, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Extreme Fighting Championship name redirection

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Extreme Fighting Championship I think should be redirected to EFC Worldwide as Extreme Fighting Championship is the original name of the company. Dwanyewest (talk) 14:41, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Portal RFArb

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I think that you forgot to sign your acceptance. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:46, 26 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the time in Baltimore City and Baltimore County is the same as in Prince Georges County and that was about an hour ago. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:46, 26 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That's my bad. Could have sworn I signed it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:48, 26 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

*URGENT* Hide IP address ASAP

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Hi please hide my Ip address: [REDACTED - Oshwah] from this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Juffali without removing content added if possible. Expunge — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quantom122 (talk • contribs) 14:39, 3 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Osh! To the person making the request, can you send me an email if you need something redacted, that way it's not all over Wikipedia? RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:36, 3 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a 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. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
  • As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello!

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Hi there! It's a pleasure to "meet" you!

I'm rather new to wikipedia and have been trying to learn the ropes, so to speak for awhile and am making some (albeit less than I thought) progress.

I wanted to reach out since I saw you were a user who deleted a long-unworked on draft of an article I had started to write (when I was even more green to the wikipedia format) and have requested it to be un-deleted so that I could attempt to continue to work on it.

Would there be any chance you'd be willing to help me as far as providing some advice and assistance so that I make sure it abides by all of Wikipedia's rules while I learn my way around the platform further.

If so I'd be very grateful. Thanks for your time and have a lovely week!


Cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jojohot1 (talk • contribs) 06:21, 16 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I will be more than happy to! Give me a couple hours to get set at a PC and I can restore the draft for you. RickinBaltimore (talk) 09:55, 16 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
And I have restored it for you. As for what to do to make it fit in for Wikipedia, I would very much suggest to submit it through the articles for creation process. That is a group of editors that reviews drafts like yours and let you know what needs to be done to make it meet our guidelines. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:43, 16 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 special circular

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Icon of a white exclamation mark within a black triangle
 Administrators must secure their accounts

The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.

View additional information

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:35, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I kind of know :) RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:44, 3 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)

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ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.

Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.

We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.

For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:04, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.

Arbitration

  • In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done so will not be resysopped automatically. All current administrators have been notified of this change.
  • Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 5 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

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Precious
Three years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:05, 10 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

... and four --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:38, 10 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Spam help

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Hey RickinBaltimore! I saw that you recently warned User_talk:Dee_dee_anne for spamming his link on the Ketogenic diet, and I just wanted to let you know that he spammed it again. I reverted his revision but wasn't sure if you wanted to take further action. Thanks! ChipotleHater (talk) 19:51, 14 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I gave them a 31 hour block for the spamming soon after you reverted them. They obviously wanted to slip in that link, regardless of what they were told. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:10, 14 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing Concern

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Hi Rick, I understand your concern over the references included. I would note: the only reference is to the official website of a relevant party. Considering the page's subject's official website is also a reference, I can safely assume such a citation is acceptable on Wikipedia. Further, the link to the "blog" is not meant to be a reference or citation, but simply relevant descriptive documentation of the post. Thanks!

For a statement such as that however, we aren't going to be able to use links to https://bwrecords2019.home.blog, which is a blog and NOT a reliable source. The other link that was used goes to the personal site of an investigator, again not a source we would use in the article. If there are reports in a reliable source, such as print media, etc. then re adding the info would be appropriate. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:42, 15 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for my ignorance, but why is the subject's personal website acceptable if the investigator's is not? Also, despite the sources, if this is all factual information (as in: there is an active investigation; there are accounts online) why does the narrative have to be removed along with the sources? Is there something about the picture that is unacceptable? Thank you,

For something such as this which heavily involves our policy on living people, a link to a private investigator page for this sort of allegation will not be appropriate. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:26, 15 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Rick, Thanks for your help on this. I've located the "submit an edit request" option on the page in question, and will use that tool when print media is available as a source. Do you have any other suggestions? --Stophidingbehind (talk) 16:46, 15 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Was that intentional?

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Hi, Rick. Was this removal intentional? I reverted it, since you didn't give a reason, and I couldn't see any obvious problem with Objective3000's post. Bishonen | talk 01:45, 16 May 2019 (UTC).[reply]

Ugh it was not. That was an errant click on my part and I apologize for that. RickinBaltimore (talk) 09:39, 16 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Icodense99

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Thanks for your note. I solidly agree with WP:NOPUNISH and have no hesitation agreeing with an unblock for someone who gets it. Nyttend (talk) 21:14, 17 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, apparently WP:NOPUNISH and WP:PUNISH aren't the same. I meant to refer to the essay. Nyttend (talk) 21:15, 17 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

CMTP

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Hi Rick, I am a student intern at Sheridan College working on a new page for the Canadian Music Theatre Project and was directed to you as you had last been in contact with a page with the same title back in 2017.

Thank you for your help.

I found the draft page that was being worked on here: Draft:Canadian Music Theatre Project. I've restored it for you now, so best of luck in your editing! RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:27, 21 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

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I don't know why every other editor I have run into has either told me I'm a vandal or blocked me for pointing out the vandalism on the Panties article but thank you for reverting it. 2001:4898:80E8:3:3541:C292:A263:D9A1 (talk) 22:08, 31 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

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

Administrator changes

removed Andonic • Consumed Crustacean • Enigmaman • Euryalus • EWS23 • HereToHelp • Nv8200pa • Peripitus • StringTheory11 • Vejvančický

CheckUser changes

removed Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
  • An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
  • An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.

Technical news

  • The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
  • Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:48, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Re: WJBscribe

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I'm slightly discouraged to make a statement at WP:ARC because it would just contribute to the noise, but I do think you might enjoy my little essay on this affair. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 18:10, 13 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I read that the other day, and I do wish everyone would take a deep breath, a step back and just try to be more civil. Thanks for sharing. RickinBaltimore (talk) 01:04, 14 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Well, thank you for reading it! Sometimes it feels like I'm just speaking into the void. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 01:40, 14 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Refund?

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Rick, just noticed that, like two years ago, you deleted this: User:Montanabw/Thoroughbred Daily News. Unless it had egregious copyvio problems, can you restore it? I had it moved to my userspace when someone else had created the article but it was deleted, then, obviously, I never got around to fixing it. Would like to now. Can you put it back per WP:REFUND? Thanks Montanabw(talk)

Of course I can! Sorry for the delay, but will do. RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:42, 16 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Sandeep Maheshwari Draft

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Hello User talk:RickinBaltimore,

Can you please re-enable Sandeep Maheshwari draft page so that I can work on it? I can see that are enough sources to work on his article. Can you please consider?

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

HappyMauritius (talk) 11:34, 23 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019

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

Administrator changes

removed 28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam1 • Flyguy649 • Fram2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
1Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
2Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Guideline and policy news

  • In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.

Technical news

  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:20, 1 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Best wishes

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I hope you're OK, sir. Guy (Help!) 20:11, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No matter what any person says, Baltimore is a wonderful town. Alanscottwalker (talk) 20:17, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for volunteering for one of the toughest roles on the project, at what must be one of the toughest times to be doing it. Best of luck going forward, and hope to still see you around. Seraphimblade Talk to me 21:52, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Best wishes from me too. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to you all. I'll be back in the future, though not sure when. Have to handle some things at home/work that will take priority over my editing on Wikipedia. I want to convey my apologies to the community for leaving ArbCom now at seemingly the worst possible time. This wasn't done lightly, but I unfortunately need to handle things here accordingly. (And yes, Baltimore may have the issues the President mentioned, but it's still a wonderful place to be). RickinBaltimore (talk) 22:39, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Fare well

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I hope things work out for you. Whatever challenges there are, tomorrow might be sunny, and you might be able to get an ice cream. Jehochman Talk 22:51, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A cup of coffee for you!

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Take care Rick. Drmies (talk) 01:35, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Take care and be well

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Hi RickinBaltimore. I'm sorry to hear that things within your off-wiki personal life have prompted your resignation from the Arbitration Committee as well as time away from Wikipedia for an undetermined amount of time. I hope that these off-wiki matters don't come with stress, grief, anxiety, or negative uncertainty, and I hope that you take care of yourself, be well, and that the off-wiki matters in your personal life come to a fast, full, positive, and happy closure and in the manner that you hope or want them to be. I'm available on-wiki or via email should you need anything, and I hope to see you back soon. :-) Best wishes - your pal, ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 06:43, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
  • The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist.

    Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:24, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Request to Reconsider the article marked for Speedy Deletion

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Hello RickinBaltimore. Thanks marking the article for speedy in 2017. I was still learning to write on Wikipedia then. You are absolutely correct. I am totally sorry! However, I have taken a look in that article and I realized that I can improve. Please help me improve it. Thanks . Kabusa16 (talk) 09:35, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019

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

Administrator changes

added Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
readded Floquenbeam • Lectonar
removed DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes

removed Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Technical news

  • Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
  • The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which applies if the category contains only an eponymous article or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories.

Technical news

  • As previously noted, tighter password requirements for Administrators were put in place last year. Wikipedia should now alert you if your password is less than 10 characters long and thus too short.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:55, 2 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  • A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:15, 3 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

[edit]
Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. 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 2019 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) 00:07, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Returning to editing

[edit]

Ok so finally things in the real world have settled in place, and I am back to editing again. (In case anyone was wondering of my status) RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:32, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back RiB. Great to see your name on my watchlist again. Best regards. MarnetteD|Talk 22:12, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

false information

[edit]

French historians of the nineteenth century have always sought to link France to Liguria to justify the annexation of Nice and make history an antiquity. Everything is wrong in what was recently added

You cannot remove content without having a source. All of this content was sourced when entered. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:40, 20 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Ligures

[edit]

Hello RickinBaltimore Can you intervene please on the page "Ligures". French critics modify and try to appropriate the History of Liguries. They erase images, and derive the History of Liguria on France by rewriting history. It's "Shack76" which poses a problem. They have multiple accounts and spread idiots with false information in different languages.

At this point everyone involved needs to take this to talk page and discuss it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:48, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

IMDb page rejection on Wikipedia

[edit]

Hey, I saw your message and I greatly appreciate it because I am a new user to Wikipedia. I noticed that I cannot use sources from IMDb. I fully understand that. Could I use an entry from Wikidata.org to reference that J.T. Gaffney is a producer?

Unfortunately, Wikidata as well wouldn't work, as it's user created and is the central source of the data stored on Wikipedia, so in essence it would be sourcing Wikipedia. RickinBaltimore (talk) 16:51, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Hi again RiB. I thought I'd leave a link to WP:USERGENERATED to help explain the problems with both cites the OP mentioned. Cheers. MarnetteD|Talk 20:43, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! I did leave that as well in my initial message too, but it's always good to have it restated. RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:22, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
oopsie - I had not made the journey to the OPs talk page to see your post there :-) We certainly worked on driving the point home - vroom. MarnetteD|Talk 22:08, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

[edit]
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
This is for your valuable efforts on countering Vandalism and protecting Wikipedia from it's threats. I appreciate your effort. You are a defender of Wikipedia. Thank you. PATH SLOPU 13:04, 26 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:17, 26 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ligures

[edit]

Hi RickinBaltimore there is a big problem with Shack76 (talk) on the page Ligures. User:Shack76 has already been blocked on Italian pages and in other languages ​​to convey false information. he incrustates and invents a history of France by diverting the truth to give an antique image to France on the history of Italy. Would it be possible to block it permanently to prevent it from doing so on the Ligurian pages. --86.238.251.111 (talk) 21:50, 26 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This is a content dispute and needs to be handled on the Talk:Ligures page first. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:49, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Self-confessed sockpuppet

[edit]

Hey Rick, hope you are well. I'm seeing this edit of blocked editor Ellipsanime. Looks like a self-confessed sock of Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/JoeyPknowsalotaboutthat. Just wanted to put it on your radar. Thanks! -- LuK3 (Talk) 17:53, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that! I'll send a request to SPI to confirm and check for sleepers. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:59, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019

[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
removed Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:48, 2 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking action against mean user

[edit]

Thank you for taking action against the user that put the mean comment on my talk page. I have to you two questions: 1. How do I make my IP address a user, as the police told me to do that avoid others using my IP address to vandalize Wikipedia. 2. Would you please consider adopting me on Wikipedia, I may not be very active, due to being a college professor, but I promise to learn from you. Thanks from, --Emarat Deira (talk) 19:32, 12 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome for the help! THe first one, I'm not sure I understand. If you login with your Emarat Deira account from your IP, that is using your IP as a user. You can't make an IP address a user in itself, and this would be something used if you didn't login. As for adoption, certainly! Feel free to ask any questions you have. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:37, 12 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
That's a sock, Rick. Same person as wrote the "mean comment"; presumably they thought games like that would give them more credibility. Bishonen | talk 10:24, 13 December 2019 (UTC).[reply]

Well don't I feel silly now. Thanks for that! RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:38, 13 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Rick, you assumed good faith. Seriously, there's nothing silly about that. Bishonen | talk 11:52, 13 December 2019 (UTC).[reply]

Cheers

[edit]
Damon Runyon's short story "Dancing Dan's Christmas" is a fun read if you have the time. Right from the start it extols the virtues of the hot Tom and Jerry

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old-time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

No matter what concoction is your favorite to imbibe during this festive season I would like to toast you with it and to thank you for all your work here at the 'pedia this past year. Best wishes for your 2020 as well RiB. MarnetteD|Talk 03:36, 17 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Why thank you so much! And best wishes to you and yours as well. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:09, 17 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
You are welcome and thanks back atcha for the kind wishes. MarnetteD|Talk 18:18, 17 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Io Saturnalia!

[edit]
Io, Saturnalia!
Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, from the horse and bishop person. May the year ahead be productive and distraction-free. Ealdgyth - Talk 16:36, 20 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
And the best to you and yours! RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:03, 20 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Season's Greetings

[edit]
Hello there! Shearonink (talk) wishes you & yours the very best of the season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
Festivus (for the rest of us!) or even the Saturnalia,
here's to
hoping your holiday time is wonderful
and that the New Year will be an improvement upon the old.
CHEERS!

Share these holiday wishes by adding {{subst:User:Shearonink/Holiday}} ~~~~ to your friends' talk pages.
Thank you so much, enjoy the holiday season! RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:03, 20 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

[edit]
Merry Christmas, RickinBaltimore!
Or Season's Greetings or Happy Winter Solstice! As the year winds to a close, I would like to take a moment to recognize your hard work and offer heartfelt gratitude for all you do for Wikipedia. And for all the help you've thrown my way over the years. May this Holiday Season bring you nothing but joy, health and prosperity.CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 15:08, 22 December 2019 (UTC) [reply]
Thank you so much! Have a great holiday season! RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:16, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers

[edit]
Merry Christmas RickinBaltimore

Hi RickinBaltimore, I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas
and a very happy and prosperous New Year,
Thanks for all your contributions to Wikipedia this past year,
Onel5969 TT me 23:08, 22 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you and the best to you this holiday season. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:16, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year!

[edit]
 Happy New Year!
🏈May your new year go better than the 31 teams who passed up on this guy🏈
Love,
Action Jackson

Praxidicae (talk) 01:23, 31 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Big Truss! RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:09, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CheatCodes4ever

[edit]

Hi Rick, a direct thank you for the block on CheatCodes4ever, following the ANI thread. I very much appreciate you taking action. My hope is CheatCodes4ever can return in a few years and be a productive editor. I believe their intentions are good, but their inability to understand our basic policies is sadly lacking. Once they're older, I think they could be productive here, under this account or with a fresh start. Again, thanks. Best, The Mirror Cracked (talk) 19:20, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, and mine too. Either they are too immature in years or wisdom right now, but in time they COULD be more productive. Perhaps with a mentor or two at first to ensure they are on the right path. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:30, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

VMRO-DPMNE

[edit]

Hello User:RickinBaltimore, I apologize for the concern but I saw that you are an administrator and I am contacting you about your edit on the article mentioned above. I think the editor-in-chief today User:Lucifer Rex666 is not here to build an encyclopedia. In his only 2 edits he repeatedly has called Bulgaria - Vulgaristan, and the party SDSM - Social Democratic Union of Northistan. It seems to me that this is a serious and deliberate provocation. Greetings. Jingiby (talk) 20:21, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
  • The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input. No proposed process received consensus.

Technical news

  • Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.
  • When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [2]

Arbitration

  • Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:06, 1 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Mountjoy Bayly

[edit]

Hi, I started a page on the above historical person a long time ago and never got around to finishing it. I've got some time on my hands and was finally going to get around to doing some work on it. A box on the draft page said that I should send a message to the person who deleted the original draft before going ahead.

Thanks. Chief Justice JTR (talk) 02:32, 10 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there! You'll be happy to know I restored Draft:Mountjoy Bayly for you just now. Happy editing! RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:31, 10 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2020

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following an RfC, the blocking policy was changed to state that sysops must not undo or alter CheckUser or Oversight blocks, rather than should not.
  • A request for comment confirmed that sandboxes of established but inactive editors may not be blanked due solely to inactivity.

Technical news

  • Following a discussion, Twinkle's default CSD behavior will soon change, most likely this week. After the change, Twinkle will default to "tagging mode" if there is no CSD tag present, and default to "deletion mode" if there is a CSD tag present. You will be able to always default to "deletion mode" (the current behavior) using your Twinkle preferences.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:21, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2020

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  • There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The WMF has begun a pilot report of the pages most visited through various social media platforms to help with anti-vandalism and anti-disinformation efforts. The report is updated daily and will be available through the end of May.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:00, 1 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Request for removal

[edit]

I was referred to admin by The English Wikipedia Oversight team. I'm hoping you can please delete the birth date, which is private, from the page of which I am the subject. It is creating unnecessary issues, and I have asked several times for it to be removed -- which is was, but now it's on there twice. I don't want private information about me so easily accessible for a multitude of reasons. As the person who is the subject of this page -- and as a woman writer, and I've noticed such information is far more prevalent on pages of women writers than those of men -- I hope that this request will be honored.

Thanks a lot for your time. I'm also from Baltimore.

Hi Susan, I saw there is a discussion about the removal of your birth year from the article on going, and I have added this to the discussion. It does appear there is consensus to do so, and I expect it to be removed shortly. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:45, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hello again, and the DOB has been removed from the page. Let me know if you need any other assistance. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:58, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020

[edit]

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

Administrator changes

removed Gnangarra • Kaisershatner • Malcolmxl5

CheckUser changes

readded Callanecc

Oversight changes

readded HJ Mitchell

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Jazz timeline

[edit]

Can you give me some advice on the subject of timelines? More specifically, can you take a look at the this "jazz timeline" and tell me why it doesn't violate NPOV, Verify, Original, GNG, NOTOPINION, INDISCRIMINATE. I don't see how such an article can be written without encouraging opinion over fact. Moreover, I doubt it will ever be properly sourced, like many articles on the jazz backlog going back 12 years. Thanks.
Vmavanti (talk) 09:41, 10 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Heather Dalton

[edit]

Hallo, I note that you deleted G5 an earlier article on this topic (18:59, 30 June 2017). You might like to check the current version (created like this, with badly-formatted and non-re-used refs). Thanks. PamD 18:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And the same editor has also today created (very badly, mistaking "active" for birth and death dates and miscopying year of university admission) Eucharius Cervicornus, which @Hut 8.5: deleted G5 on 21:40, 27 July 2017 as a creation by User:Novonium. They are creating large numbers biographies with no attempt to format their references. Hmm. PamD 18:32, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I've now reported it at SPI, as I'm pretty sure it's another sock of Novonium: until I reread the archived SPI reports I'd forgotten about all this, though there was a certain familiarity to the recent spate of biogs. PamD 18:52, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It's certainly passing the duck test to me as well. I won't delete JUST yet as a G5, but I'm betting it will be rather soon. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:19, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2020

[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added CaptainEek • Creffett • Cwmhiraeth
removed Anna Frodesiak • Buckshot06 • Ronhjones • SQL

CheckUser changes

removed SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

  • A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:27, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2020

[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:25, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation at Conflict of interest noticeboard discussion

[edit]

Information icon There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard regarding a possible conflict of interest incident with which you were involved in past. The thread is Ly Kimlong. Thank you. ~ Amkgp 💬 10:09, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hout Ly/Ly Kimlong

[edit]

Hello! I am going to try and help user Hout Ly to see the proper way of doing a COI declaration. I have a little soft spot for Cambodia from the time I saw Angkor Wat. I'm pretty sure that their misunderstanding of our policies has no mal-intent.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 07:05, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Same here! Thank you for doing that for them, I really appreciate it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:41, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@ThatMontrealIP: I appreciate your help you have offered to the new editor but are these replies not enough that the editor is not willing to declare WP:UPE and WP:COI terms. See below:
@ThatMontrealIP Ok you can do it for me. For newspapers I’ll contact my secretary and he’ll get back to you. But you can contact with Ly Kimlong himself I’ll tell him to reply back to this thread. Hout Ly (talk) 10:17, 15 July 2020 (UTC) (reply)
@ThatMontrealIP do you have social media account so we can contact you? Hout Ly (talk) 10:51, 15 July 2020 (UTC) (reply)
@RickinBaltimore: It seems that the account is still operated as a shared account for "Cambodia Chess Federation". Here the record. Thank you. ~ Amkgp 💬 13:49, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, not good. This might need to be blocked for a promo/shared account. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:10, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I asked on his user page if he's being paid. Not intending to break any policies here, just lending a hand to a new editor who is making an effort to follow our rules as we point them out. I don't think that the "we" in the diff above means shared account, but rather he's speaking as the president of the Cambodian Chess Federation. ThatMontrealIP (talk) 17:18, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
ThatMontrealIP, Let's wait and see ~ Amkgp 💬 17:28, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I'm on the same page, it might have been a royal "we", but the concerns about COI are still pretty strong. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:39, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
RickinBaltimore, I have found something more. I have posted at the WP:COIBOARD. Please have a look at Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard#Ly_Kimlong Thank you ~ Amkgp 💬 09:05, 16 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Red Phoenix
readded Euryalus • SQL
removed Jujutacular • Monty845 • Rettetast • Madchester

Oversight changes

readded GB fan
removed Keegan • Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

Guideline and policy news

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

Closing heat

[edit]

My pa used to say "if you don't feel the heat, you ain't done nothin'"... that's probably the reason he died in that terrible bakery accident.

Thanks for the close.[3] People are editing into it, though - probably no conflict management popping up. Cheers. François Robere (talk) 19:03, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

What's the policy on that anyway? François Robere (talk) 20:13, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
A reminder to stop posting in a closed thread. If it keeps up after that, it could be seen as edit warring. I've archived the last two comments and that SHOULD be it now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:29, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Comment post-thread close

[edit]

Hi,

Since you're active in the topic, could you please take a look at User talk:Archon 2488 and take admin action as required please? I imagine it's pretty obvious from the page history what's needed, but note that the user has requested page protection.

Pinging @Archon 2488: for information.

Thanks, Kahastok talk 20:38, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Annnnd the death threats have started on my talk page. (Thanks for bringing this to another admin's attention, Kahastok). Archon 2488 (talk) 20:48, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hey Archon, sorry you're getting this type of abuse. I protected your page for the day. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:50, 3 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

[edit]
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
For revdeleting that IP's terrifying personal attacks. BlueCrabRedCrab 14:44, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:47, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

user:Adrian L.55 removing CSD templates from Globitex World

[edit]

I hope I am not bothering, but you are the only moderator to reply to this. I have concerns on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:FreeMePlease&diff=prev&oldid=972574894 2001:4898:80E8:3:1135:6FC6:35F4:2B11 (talk) 17:42, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Article rescue

[edit]

Hi Rick, could you userfy/draftify Howard Weinstein (writer)? I'd like to rescue the article, if possible. Thanks. BilCat (talk) 17:52, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sure thing, give me a few minutes and I'll get it for you. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:59, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, and no problem. I'm not in a big hurry. :) BilCat (talk) 18:03, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like Draft:Howard Weinstein (writer) exists already. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:07, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I forgot to look there first. Thanks. BilCat (talk) 18:23, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Please help with usability testing

[edit]

Hello! The mw:Anti-Harassment Tools team is running a usability test to find out how and where IP addresses are used when patrolling wikis, particularly when patrolling RecentChanges. This could include New Pages or RecentChanges patrol. We want to see your patrolling process and get your views on some prototypes. Getting your perspective would be really helpful to us at this stage of the process. If you’d like to help, and have 30 minutes to spare, please fill out this Google form with your details: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjYyRNGMkO4_TdNOgG4qmK9cp9YOKzM4GFO5pTd_bEcu23YQ/viewform


For the purpose of the tests we’ll be using Google Forms for recruitment, and UserTesting.com to conduct the actual tests. Please review the privacy statement and release form in https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ijmwrIoNO0W1p_zfFU1LBf3_6mFF53kUUFy1L_DCUKc (Google docs link)

Thank you,

NKohli (WMF) (talk) and PSaxena (WMF) (talk) 19:52, 18 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

[edit]

Thanks for blocking that vandalism only account that stole my user name. It's patently obvious to me that it's also block evasion from Stark Bollocks, who already evaded using Problem-maker-solver. Just so you're aware of what's going on, the editor makes pointless reverts and then reverts back to the last good version, clogging up the page history. Maybe those edits should be revdeled, though I don't think that might make much of a difference. But what I would like to ask is that the username of the latest sock be forcefully changed so my username is not part of it anymore. After all, I use the same username pretty much everywhere on the internet so I'd like for it not to be dragged through the mud by a clear troll oknazevad (talk) 17:17, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll see if we can do that for you. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:02, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hey @Oknazevad, check out WP:BLPABUSE "Requests for removing attack usernames from logs should be reported to the global Stewards team for evaluation and private removal from all WMF projects." I'd send them a request to remove this for you, since they can take care of all of that better than I could. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:05, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Rick, I've got the same problem with this account, who appears to be the same person, or at least is using the same tactics. I realize Wikipedia doesn't generally delete accounts, but something needs to be done to WP:DENY such accounts visibility. Thanks. BilCat (talk) 18:08, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hey @BilCat, see above. The global stewards should be able to assist with it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:09, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
So a sock, Start Bollokcs just posted on my talk page. He did note that his last sock got completely revdeled. But I don't care, just felt this guy needs a block again. oknazevad (talk) 23:30, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail

[edit]

Hi, RickinBaltimore please check your mailbox because you have got mail. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Flyingfish91276 (talk • contribs) 12:06, 22 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sathya Sai Baba

[edit]

Thank you! The promotional and copyright violation content goes back to that account's first, copious edit. Cheers, 2601:188:180:B8E0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 18:54, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll double check thank you RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:03, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Eddie891
removed Angela • Jcw69 • Just Chilling • Philg88 • Viajero

CheckUser changes

readded SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:56, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Rangeblock

[edit]

It looks like this ip's range needs to be blocked. ◊PRAHLADbalaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 23:49, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be the first to admit I'm terrible with range blocks. I have a few admins that view my page, so any one of my fellow admins that won't end up blocking a small country could assist with this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:52, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Noted, thanks --◊PRAHLADbalaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 05:49, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There already IS a talk page for the term LOLI. You're kinda being a hypocrite right now fam.

[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Loli <-- Number 1 talk page about LOLI's, and people are pretty much saying the same shit there like me; wtf has nothing been done so far? Are you guys really that incompetent? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loli <-- The page which you changed after my fixes. There already IS a talk page made about it, nobody did anything despite many already stating the stupidity of the correlation between lolita and loli. Consensus has already been sought, but the most you can get out of ignorant authoritarian hypocrites is wasted time and energy. I will keep changing the page, correcting the mistakes, by your rules I haven't done anything wrong, a consensus has already been sought ages ago, but nobody with brains actually picked it up and gave the ok sign. It doesn't matter if you agree or not, that's just your opinion. Millions of others share a totally different one, more innocent and purer from your perverse insecurities.


Loli may refer to:


  • Loli; This can refer to an underage girl OR an adult female with the appearance of one
  • Legal-Loli(term), a "loli" that's of legal age or above, may also be used in a Fantasy-setting way. Example; 7000-year-old dragon which the appearance of a child
  • Lolita (term), the sexual portrayal of young girls
    • Lolicon, In Japanese, this refers to a person that has either brotherly/ sisterly/ paternally feelings for an underage girl (or a female that appears underage) OR one that has sexual desires for a person who appears/ is underage. Outside of Japan, some countries have adopted the same meaning with some minor changes; "media focusing on the attraction to young girls".
    • Lolita fashion, a Japanese fashion subculture
  • LOLI Database (list of lists), an international chemical regulatory database
No, there is not. And if you revert it again you WILL be blocked for edit warring. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:52, 16 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Rico

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My colleague, Joe Wolfinger, and I are responsible for the recent attempts to correct the Wikipedia entry on Rico. We are both former FBI special agents and attorneys who never knew Paul Rico personally. However, beginning in 2006, we spent more than five years working with a veteran reporter researching Rico, his career and the charges against him and the surrounding controversies. We published a book on our findings, Wolfinger, Joe; Kerr, Chris; Seper, Jerry, Rico–How Politicians, Prosecutors and the Mob Destroyed One of the FBI's Finest Special Agents. 74–80, 209–26, Telemachus Press. (2012) ISBN 978-1-939337-19-1. We reviewed court decisions, the extensive congressional hearings and testimony and interviewed numerous first-hand witnesses, including the Tulsa, Oklahoma detective and District Attorney who charged Rico. We have sources for every fact in our write-up we posted on Wikipedia several days ago, which corrects numerous errors in what existed previously. Just one example: the "FBI mugshot" of Paul Rico cannot be authentic since Rico was never charged or arrested by the FBI. We are not interested in "editing wars" but would like to discuss any challenge you may have to the facts we have provided or any need you see for improved sourcing of our changes.Chriskerresq (talk) 15:27, 20 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Chris, I saw you posted this on the article's talk page, which is where I would have recommended you bring this up. I will say that we rely on secondary sources for sourcing and not first hand accounts. If you have these sources you are using for some of the info you are including, please include that (not your book, as that's first hand sourcing). RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:33, 21 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Rico

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Thanks much, we are learning the ropes and welcome any advice. What I meant by "first-hand sources" were for example actual witnesses to events and issues connected with Paul Rico. So for example, we analyze the charging documents and affidavits filed in the murder charge against Paul Rico in Tulsa, Oklahoma and traveled to Tulsa to interview the detective who ran the investigation and filed the affidavit, and we spoke with the District Attorney (and for our book we wrote reports of these interviews). Concerning events mentioned in the charging documents, we interviewed available witnesses and wrote summaries of those also. We collected congressional reports and transcripts of sworn testimony by witnesses there. So, I am guessing then that the correct form would be to reference those particular interviews or documents? Is that what you mean? We have considered those to be "first-hand sources."Chriskerresq (talk) 17:06, 21 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

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

Administrator changes

added Ajpolino • LuK3
readded Jackmcbarn
removed Ad Orientem • Harej • Lid • Lomn • Mentoz86 • Oliver Pereira • XJaM
renamed There'sNoTime → TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:43, 1 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

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Thanks very much for dealing with that nothere case. Take care.---Wikaviani (talk) (contribs) 15:42, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. That was a bit much to say the least. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:57, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

GoogleMeNowPlease

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is requesting unblock at UTRS appeal #35523. Given block record, I can't see it. Any feedback appreciated. --Deepfriedokra (talk) 01:27, 6 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. "Even though I didn't break the 3 revert rule..." They are still going back to that in their unblock request. I don't support restating talk page access right now either. They were blocked for this in the past and lost TPA in the past too for being combative. Maybe in 6 months to a year, but not now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 01:39, 6 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
And now seeing their latest UTRS request I think it's time they lose access to UTRS. 1 week after being told to take the standard offer, isn't the standard offer. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:48, 14 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Clueless question

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On ANI, an editor had the numbers 42069 in their name. This seemed meaningful. But what does it mean? Is this a reference to marijuana and “sex”? Or something else? Sixty-one-year-oldster, (not 69!) asking for cultural enlightenment. Thanks from an embarrassed editor. Tribe of Tiger Let's Purrfect! 02:34, 9 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yup you nailed it. The 420 is about marijuana and the 69 is regarding sex. I hate assuming bad faith, but thatis usually the sign of a troll, or a young kid who doesn't quite have the competence to edit properly. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:26, 9 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, thank you! I agree that such a provocative name does not bode well....I am laughing at myself, just read the 420 article, which I did not know existed. Even the oddest topics have an article! Tribe of Tiger Let's Purrfect! 22:15, 12 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your answer regarding block

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I am completly blocked on Swedish Wikipedia so i can't take the matter up there.

I know i messed up yesterday and i don't mind a block, but not permanent with the accusasition that i am here just to destroy.

BertNorman (talk) 22:35, 10 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I Understand that, however we can't do anything on the Swedish Wikipedia. That is it's own entity, and you will need to address your block with those admin there. RickinBaltimore (talk) 22:36, 10 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I have thoroughly explained my perspective on the situation here. Probably didn't have to, and like you said, this is not Swedish Wikipedia. But I wanted to set things straight. EstrellaSuecia (talk) 23:32, 10 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that too, appreciate that you tried to explain it too. RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:34, 10 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

FAQ at Talk:Sushant Singh Rajput

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@RickinBaltimore: Over the past 30 days, you have taken an active role in rejecting and purging edit requests at Talk:Sushant Singh Rajput. In your most recent deletion of a request to change cause of death from "Suicide by hanging" to "Unnatural death, CBI investigation in progress," your edit summary declares: read the FAQ, period. This is not a matter for discussion. I do not dispute your authority as an administrator to rule that something is not a matter for discussion, but in my opinion the FAQ to which you point does a poor job of explaining why Wikipedia cannot change cause of death to "under investigation." The relevant FAQ (first in a list of six) consists of only two sentences. One states that various credible secondary sources have reported medical determinations of suicide, and a person has been accused of abetment of suicide. However, this does not refute that the actor's death is still being investigated, which today CBI officially confirmed. The FAQ's second sentence states that Wikipedia cannot cite investigation or government documents because they are primary sources. Yet numerous WP:RS are reporting the latest announcement that "CBI continues to investigate the death of Rajput." Again, I do not challenge your authority to slam the door on discussing this matter. But I do respectfully ask that you consider rewriting FAQ #1 to better explain why we cannot modify cause of death to reflect the existence of an ongoing investigation. NedFausa (talk) 15:12, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As it stands, while the CIB is looking into it, the cause of death is still been considered a suicide. The CBI is looking into it, but has not changed the terms of his death. Further more, the FAQ does mention the AIIMS finding, whihc confirmed his death. At this point, there is nothing more we can change per WP:BLP, as the sources show this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:16, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The "finding" to which you refer has not been adopted by the CBI, and is in fact based on media leaks by Dr. Sudhir Gupta, leader of the AIIMS forensic medical team. Very iffy stuff. NedFausa (talk) 15:25, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This might be something to bring up on the talk page of the article then. I would be open to that. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:30, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I raised it here because I recused myself a month ago from Talk:Sushant Singh Rajput, where I was an outlier, out of sync with other editors. I apologize if I have overstepped the boundaries of your user talk page, but I feel strongly that good-faith requests (however misguided) are being met with unwarranted contempt at that page. NedFausa (talk) 15:39, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
No worries Ned, the issue is good faith requests are sadly overweighed with the people that, once we explain our policies, refuse to listen and continue to harange and argue. It's fatigue and the external push (see the petition that was created, the Twitter campaign etc.) causing it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 16:03, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

PLEASE EDIT Sushant Singh Rajput Wiki page

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His death is suspicious and his death was misguided by conspiracy, spreading the fake news that he committed suicide. Please Edit the Cause of death as " STILL UNDER CBI INVESTIGATION" . Subham23121996 (talk) 15:24, 19 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Again, read the FAQ on the page. We are not changing this, period. This is not "fake news". RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:39, 19 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Denied

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Wow. Do Martin Urbanec and the other Stewards lurk at ANI like leopards in the shadows, ready to pounce upon the unwary? --Deepfriedokra (talk) 19:01, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And I thought I had leet ninja skills. I was getting ready to just do a standard NOTHERE block when I saw that. I'm guessing the IP was flagged or something. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:02, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I know. Like a streak of lighting-- the sock folded neatly in his jaws. --Deepfriedokra (talk) 19:28, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Just a heads up, delete their post per WP:DENY. I have a feeling they are IP hopping too. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:32, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Returning sockpuppet

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Reverse sofisticated niw (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), who you blocked, has proven to be a master of disguise with a new account Reverse complicated niw (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). I suppose there's no need for a SPI on this occasion? Thank you. FDW777 (talk) 15:41, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That noise you just heard was my facepalm. Obvious sock is blatantly obvious. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:19, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:52, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I need you to do something

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So what I need you to do is to delete my draft I made. I have already nominated it for deletion due to me not needing it anymore. The page is: User:MetricSupporter89/sandbox/2024 United States presidential election There is already a page with the title "2024 United States presidential election" which is why I don't need it anymore. Metric Supporter 89 (talk) 23:01, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You got it! RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:43, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Recent block of 2600:1008:B10D:A8D2:B4C0:A734:7A0F:2C6A

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Would you mind taking a look at this edit? diff. It happened after you blocked the IP. I don't think it was an appropriate response to the block. Would revoking talk page access be appropriate for this IP? Thanks, Interstellarity (talk) 19:09, 13 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nah, it's a one off edit. If it keeps up I'd consider it but for now, not worth it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:16, 13 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Remember what I said? Edits removed and TPA removed as well. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:33, 13 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for looking into this. Interstellarity (talk) 13:06, 15 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

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Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. 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 2020 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) 01:33, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Do I get an I voted sticker? RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:30, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2020

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

Administrator changes

removed Andrwsc • Anetode • GoldenRing • JzG • LinguistAtLarge • Nehrams2020

Interface administrator changes

added Izno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

User:Jefferyleverrr/sandbox

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There is also a sandbox of that one you just deleted. Govvy (talk) 18:00, 2 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Got it, thanks! RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:17, 2 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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