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Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

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

  • A request for comment found consensus that incubation as an alternative to deletion should generally only be recommended when draftification is appropriate, namely 1) if the result of a deletion discussion is to draftify; or 2) if the article is newly created.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

DYK nomination of New York State Agricultural Society

Hello! Your submission of New York State Agricultural Society at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) at your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Yoninah (talk) 00:03, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Please remember to add the source in the first paragraph under Activities. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 01:00, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
Oh, you did! Thanks! Yoninah (talk) 01:00, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-41

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

  • There is a new tool where you can see which home wiki users have in discussions on Meta. This can help show which communities are not part of the discussion on wikis where we make decisions that affect many other wikis.
  • You can now thank users for file uploads or for changing the language of a page. [1]

Problems

  • There were many errors with the new MediaWiki version last week. The new version was rolled back. Updates that should have happened last week are late. [2]
  • Everyone was logged out. This was because a user reported being logged in to someone else's account. The problem should be fixed now. [3]
  • Advanced item Many pages have JavaScript errors. You can read more and now see a list of user scripts with errors.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 October. It will be on all wikis from 8 October (calendar).
  • Letters immediately after a link are shown as part of the link. For example the entire word in [[Child]]ren is linked. On Arabic wikis this works at both the start and end of a word. Previously on Arabic wikis numbers and other non-letter Unicode characters were shown as part of the link at the start of a word but not at the end. Now only Latin and Arabic letters will extend links on Arabic wikis. [4]

Future changes

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

16:24, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Edward G. Faile

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Edward G. Faile you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Eddie891 -- Eddie891 (talk) 23:22, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi. I have a question.

Related to : [[6]]

Hi. I have a question.

I received a warning for asking too much sockpuppets investigation.

I apologize for that. So I tried not to request an investigation as much as possible.

I don't enjoy attacking others. Even if he's avoiding the block, I'll stay still if he doesn't harm others.

However, users who are too obvious to be sockpuppets continue to interfere with the discussion.

Other users suspect him as sockpuppets too.[[7]]

If he is sockpuppets, he is mocking the Wikipedia system too easily.

But I am not entitled to request an investigation. What should I do?Bablos939 (talk) 23:35, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Boilingorangejuice

Why make this change?

Please don't ping me if you reply. Flyer22 Frozen (talk) 03:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 65#Proper use of Template:WMF-legal banned user?. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Barnstar for you!

The Checkuser's Barnstar
For archiving the SPI case list. Heart (talk) 16:22, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Edward G. Faile

The article Edward G. Faile you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Edward G. Faile for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Eddie891 -- Eddie891 (talk) 21:22, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

New user recreated page

Hi, hope you are doing great! A new user Wolferstanarms recreated Joe-Warren Plant, previously created by a sock Evacuatezoe. They appears editing in the same area. TheBirdsShedTears (talk) 17:35, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

TheBirdsShedTears, Thanks, I've taken care of it. If you find more of these, please just open an SPI case to speed up processing. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:54, 11 October 2020 (UTC)
OK thanks. TheBirdsShedTears (talk) 18:00, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the laugh!

Hi! I don't think we've met, but something you posted on the SPI page cracked me up, so I thought I'd drop by to say "Thanks!"

find somebody with more experience to transfer blame to help you out

I've done sysadmin work most of my 40+ year career, and have had that exact thought more times than I can count. After I read it, my wife asked, "What *are* you laughing at?"

Take care! — UncleBubba ( T @ C ) 20:18, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-42

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

Problems

  • Because of the problems with the MediaWiki version two weeks ago last week's updates are also late. [8][9][10]

Changes later this week

  • Live previews didn't show the templates used in the preview if you just edited a section. This has now been fixed. You can also test CSS and JavaScript pages even if you have the live preview enabled. Previously this didn't work well. [11][12]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 13 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 14 October. It will be on all wikis from 15 October (calendar).

Future changes

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

15:23, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Issues with persistent Euro2024

Hi RoySmith, Would you mind jumping in with this? I've reported a disruptive editor who is removing the reports. Quite persistently. If he's going to disrupt the noticeboards then it's harder to report. --Paul ❬talk❭ 13:10, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Paul Carpenter, Looks like Amanda got there first. Already blocked. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:12, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
Thanks, (and thank you AmandaNP). I'm not too sure what the appropriate next step is when someone starts subverting the reporting process? Also his report of me is still on AIV, I'm guessing I should just leave that. --Paul ❬talk❭ 13:20, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
Paul Carpenter, I don't have experience with the processes at AIV so I'm not going to remove it, but I'm sure the admins who work there will notice that Euro2024 was vandal blocked and do the right thing. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:25, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
@Paul Carpenter: AIV automatically deals with itself. What I was able to easily determine fast through the contribs was there was excessive blanking at many articles which flagged it for me as VOA. AIV was probs your best bet, I just got to it and saw more from elsewhere. I was flagged to it on IRC, but looks like this is excessive crosswiki disruption, see Special:CentralAuth/Euro2024 and their sock Special:CentralAuth/정지숙. Potentially more socks too crosswiki and i'll handle those as they come in. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 13:28, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
Thanks AmandaNP. --Paul ❬talk❭ 13:33, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

DYK for New York State Agricultural Society

On 16 October 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article New York State Agricultural Society, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the New York State Agricultural Society annually recognizes farms that have been owned and operated by one family for a hundred years? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/New York State Agricultural Society. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, New York State Agricultural Society), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Gatoclass (talk) 00:02, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-43

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 20 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 October. It will be on all wikis from 22 October (calendar).

Future changes

  • You will be able to read but not to edit the wikis for up to an hour on 27 October around 14:00 (UTC). It will probably be shorter than an hour. [14]
  • Advanced item In the AbuseFilter extension, the rmspecials() function will be updated soon so that it does not remove the "space" character. Wikis are advised to wrap all the uses of rmspecials() with rmwhitespace() wherever necessary to keep filters' behavior unchanged. You can use the search function on Special:AbuseFilter to locate its usage. [15]
  • Some gadgets and user-scripts use the HTML div with the ID #jump-to-nav. This div will be removed soon. Maintainers should replace these uses with either #siteSub or #mw-content-text. A list of affected scripts is at the top of phab:T265373.

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

16:30, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Bablos939 repeated abuses

Bablos939 keep repeatingly the same style aggressive disrupting editing (removing work of other editors and harrassing other editors).

He was blocked last time for the same mistake of removing and accusing with aggresive behaviour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Bablos939 Vamlos (talk) 16:47, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Vamlos, I am aware of the issue, thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 18:25, 18 October 2020 (UTC)
He is again doing the same thing in 19 October. Instead of bringing the matter to the talk page , he just decides to remove the work of every other editors contributions included.
[18]
[19]
Clearly Bablos939's didn't learn anything from the 1 week block edit for disruption. Vamlos (talk) 15:43, 19 October 2020 (UTC)
RoySmith can more actions be taken against Bablos939, he clearly hasn't learned anything from it's 1 week block and still continuing bad behaviours.
For example. He called me a defective user [20] and it was seen and told by Canterbury Tail[21] and so they changed the heading.
Just recentlyaA sockpuppet investigation on Bablos939 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Bablos939
A clerk concluded "I think there is enough evidence to prove that the two IPs listed are Bablos " ( the two IP were a single edit purpose account to give Bablos939 fake support ). Although no actions were taken because it's been a month ago.
However he recently again just started accusing other users randomly despite the IP 220.117.225.165 shows being related to Bablos939. This is proven the investigation. Shouldn't Bablos939 be stopped for his wrongdoings and breaking wikipedia rules because I don't understand why he still just randomly accuses another user when the IP numbers have been checked to being related to him (check here) [22] Is he not breaking wikipedia rules for making these same wrong and repeated accusations and blaming on others ? He keeps accusing people of being socks even when evidence is directed towards him. Vamlos (talk) 14:36, 20 October 2020 (UTC)
Vamlos, As I said earlier, I am aware of the issue and have been tracking it closely. There's no need to keep providing updates on my talk page. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:08, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

October 21: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC

October 21, 7pm: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-8pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop. To join the meeting from your computer or smartphone, just visit this link. More information about how to connect is available on the meetup page.

We look forward to seeing local Wikimedians, but would also like to invite folks from the greater New York metropolitan area (and beyond!) who might not typically be able to join us in person!

In honor of Wikidata's 8th birthday earlier this month, we especially encourage lightning talks related to Wikidata and Wikidata adjacent projects and tools. We'll also discuss the recent proposal to change the Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws, including the Statement of Opposition from Wikimedia NYC.

7:00pm - 8:00 pm online via Zoom (optional breakout rooms from 8:00-8:30)

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

--Wikimedia New York City Team 04:10, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Hey

Hey, since you did not answer on my talk page and I asked you more than once [23], [24] let me ask you here: are you going to ban me again if I edit article Battle of Paštrik? Or am I allowed to only edit it once per day? Why am I the only one who faces such restriction? Do you ban people immediately when someone from other side of edit-conflict comes screeching to you about me [25], [26] or do you at least make an effort to see what's the issue? Are there any other ad hoc rules that only apply to me I should be aware of? Peervalaa (talk) 14:03, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Peervalaa, Answered at User talk:Peervalaa. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:10, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
No, you haven't. I asked several specific questions and received no proper answers. Peervalaa (talk) 14:16, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
Peervalaa, I've answered your question to the best of my ability. If you need additional help on how to work collaboratively with your fellow editors, WP:TEAHOUSE might be a good place. If you believe I am not conducting myself properly as an admin, WP:ADMINABUSE offers some guidance. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:31, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
Yeah, like that's going to help. Take care. Peervalaa (talk) 15:00, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Revisiting a sock/IP pair

I filed a new case at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Djtechno95. You dealt very well with the previous case, which brings me to ask for your attention once again, if you have time. Binksternet (talk) 14:03, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Binksternet, Thanks, I'll take a look, but might have to leave it for somebody else to process if I don't have time to get into it. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:10, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-44

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

Problems

  • You will be able to read but not to edit the wikis for up to an hour on October 27 around 14:00 (UTC). It will probably be shorter than an hour. [27]
  • Last week, links to "diffs" from mobile watchlists and recentchanges were linking to page-revisions instead of diffs. This has now been fixed. [28]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes

  • Since the introduction of the interface administrators user group in 2018, administrators couldn’t view the deleted history of CSS/JS pages. Now they can. [29]
  • There was a problem with the Change Tags. The software would apply the "Reverted" tag to any page actions such as page-protection changes if they came directly after a reverted edit. This has now been fixed for new edits. [30]
  • The Reply tool will be offered as an opt-in Beta Feature on most Wikipedias in November. Another announcement will be made once the date is finalized. [31]

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

17:37, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Re: Workflow for updating javascript tools on wiki?

Hi!

Regarding your message at wikitech-l, I noticed ru:User:Vlsergey/wef.js seems to be an example of a script being deployed to wiki automatically.

The author uses https://github.com/vlsergey/WE-Framework/blob/master/package.json#L91 to build its wiki version.

Maybe that helps? Helder 18:30, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Broken template

I think this is broken since you added it and I couldn't figure out how to fix it... --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 06:28, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Piotrus, Wow, that's a mess. Thanks for the note. It looks like the badness started way back in 2008 and I just made it worse. I'm not up on the details of how {{Old XfD multi}} is supposed to work, but I'll ask around. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:57, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Hello dear RoySmith ! I wanted to say thank you so much for helping me climb up that steep learning curve !!! Maybe one day I'll see you there when we get to the top !!!! <3 Dbug000 (talk) 09:37, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Please block

Hi. Will you please block 114.4.0.0/16 (talk · contribs) since IPs on this range have been persistently harassing and vandalizing pages I edited and my talk pages for months. Not only in enwiki but also across several wikis like idwiki and commonswiki. Its sisters, 120.188.0.0/17 (talk · contribs) and 114.5.0.0/17 (talk · contribs) (also 114.5.0.0/16 (talk · contribs) on ENWIKI) are now globally blocked for this exact reason. Thanks. Flix11 (talk) 04:56, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Flix11, I decline to block such a large range. Perhaps some other admin would be willing. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:42, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Log entry made me laugh

This log entry gave me a chuckle. "Icky-pedia" is right given the circumstances.

On a serious note, thank you for the thankless task of keeping Wikipedia clean from dirty socks. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 18:38, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Davidwr, What's one "w" between friends? :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 18:41, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
What is one "w" between freinds? It's either Shakespeare with a German accent or an up-side-down piece of Halloween candy. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 18:50, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

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)

The Signpost: 1 November 2020

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:52, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-45

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 no longer read Wikimedia wikis if your browser uses very old TLS. This is because it is a security problem for everyone. It could lead to downgrade attacks. Since October 29, 2020, users who use old TLS versions will not be able to connect to Wikimedia projects. A list of browser recommendations is available. All modern operating systems and browsers are always able to reach Wikimedia projects. [32]
  • Advanced item There is a new automatic tracking category available: Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments. It collects pages which use the {{formatnum}} parser function with invalid (non-numeric) input, e.g. {{formatnum:TECHNEWS}}. Note that {{formatnum:123,456}} is also invalid input: as described in the documentation, the argument should be unformatted so that it can be reliably and correctly localised. The tracking category will help identify problematic usage and double-formatting. The new tracking category's name can be translated at translatewiki. [33]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 3. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from November 4. It will be on all wikis from November 5 (calendar).
  • Administrators and stewards will be able to use a special page (Special:CreateLocalAccount) to force local account creation for a global account. This is useful when account creation is blocked for that user (by a block or a filter). [34]
  • The Reply tool will be offered as an opt-in Beta Feature on most Wikipedias on November 4. This change excludes the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias, plus a few smaller Wikipedias with special circumstances. You can read the help page and the troubleshooting guide for more information. [35]

Future changes

  • A discussion has been restarted about using a Unicode minus sign (− U+2212) in the output of {{formatnum}} when it is given a negative argument. [36]
  • In the future IP addresses of unregistered users will not be shown for everyone. They will get an alias instead. There will be a new user right or an opt-in function for more vandal fighters to see the IPs of unregistered users. There would be some criteria for who gets the user right or opt-in. There will also be other new tools to help handle vandalism. This is early in the process and the developers are still collecting information from the communities before they suggest solutions.

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

16:08, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

November 21st ~ NYC COVID-19: Environmental Justice in Public Health Edit-A-Thon - ONLINE

November 21st, 11am-1pm E.S.T: NYC COVID-19: Environmental Justice in Public Health Edit-A-Thon - ONLINE

Hello RoySmith!! You are invited to join the Brooklyn based Sure We Can community for our 2nd NYC COVID-19 themed Wikipedia Edit-a-thon / translate-a-thon - ONLINE - this Saturday, Nov 21st, 2020 11am - 1pm. The edit-a-thon is part of Sure We Can's work with NYC Health + Hospitals to stop the spread of Covid-19. We plan to continue to work on translating the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City article into the many languages spoken in New York City; as well as, work on other ideas about how wikipedia could slow the spread of Covid-19.

Please join us, we'd love to see you (online).

11:00am - 1:00 pm E.S.T online via Zoom (optional breakout rooms available)

--Wil540 art (talk) 22:21, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Editing my comments

There doesn't seem to be a way to say this without it sounding irritable, but I dislike it when people modify my comments (like this edit). I'd prefer if you just made your own comment. That way, I can choose my own words and templates, and you can choose yours. If I wanted some huge template in the middle of my sentence, I would have used it myself. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 05:25, 4 November 2020 (UTC)

NinjaRobotPirate, OK. I didn't think it would be controversial, but no problem, I'll revert it. -- RoySmith (talk) 05:27, 4 November 2020 (UTC)

DYK for Edward G. Faile

On 6 November 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Edward G. Faile, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Edward G. Faile raised prize-winning cattle in what is now The Bronx? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Edward G. Faile. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Edward G. Faile), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:02, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Battle of Paštrik article

Hello. Peervalaa is again reverting other editors without getting consensus on the talk page. It would be of help if you took a look at it, whenever time permits. Ktrimi991 (talk) 23:31, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Ktrimi991, Hmmm, thanks for the note. I see three edits in six days. I'm hesitant to call that edit warring. I had asked him to hold to WP:1RR, and he's been (mostly) doing that, so I'm going to hold off for the moment. If things escalate, it might be worth going to WP:DR to get some additional impartial. Fresh eyes can be helpful sometimes. -- RoySmith (talk) 00:39, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
It is kind of "slow edit warring". In the past in Balkan topics such behaviour has been responded to with different approaches, maybe based on the level of perceived disruption: have other editors rv till the "edit warrior" comes to understand that rv are not the way to go, block for edit warring, or put a protection on the page. After all, an article is not supposed to be reverted to different opposing versions every few hours or days. That is a strong case of quality disruption. I am not actually interested in the content dispute; I just see the many rv on my watchlist. Maybe a RfC could be a solution; maybe a community decision would be enough to settle the dispute once and forever. In any case, I leave it to the interested editors to decide what path is the best for them to follow. Thank you for your input and response. If you keep an eye on the article just in case things escalate, it will be great. Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 11:07, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
Peervalaa is following the technical part of 1RR, but they're still edit-warring. They made 1 revert yesterday and one revert today[37]. If an edit has been rejected for five consecutive months, every single day by almost 10 editors, then there is a WP:DROP point after which reverting - even 1RR - becomes disruptive.--Maleschreiber (talk) 14:30, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Hall monitors are back I see (but they never mention albanian socks who break 3R rule or restoration of unsorced content). And it would have been polite to inform me I am being discussed here. Peervalaa (talk) 12:04, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Help with a sockpuppet

Hello, I noticed you were an admin involved in Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Bablos939 which is related to the Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rajmaan case. There is a new user at Solniun (t c) who is making similar edits in the same vein as Rajmaan (similar focuses on Chinese crimes against minorities, intermarriages, genetics, and sexual crimes, often with cites to Google Books with full quotes). Also, the user shows competence beyond a new editor and apparently waited more than a week before making big edits on the new account. As Rajmaan (t c)'s contribs are hidden and the SPI archives are a proper mess, can you help with looking into the account or advise on how to fill a SPI on them? Thank you. _dk (talk) 19:23, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Underbar dk, The easiest way (by far) to file an SPI is using the Twinkle ARV tool. If you open the report, I'll take a look (but I can't guarantee I'll have time to dig into it immediately). -- RoySmith (talk) 22:13, 5 November 2020 (UTC)
Thanks, I have opened a SPI Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rajmaan _dk (talk) 02:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

User:Rajmaan does not exist?

Hi Roy. I was looking at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rajmaan/Archive but it seems that Rajmaan (talk · contribs) is not a registered account. Curiously, the page at User talk:Rajmaan *does* exist but it has no contributions link. Do you know what could be going on? Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 05:10, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

EdJohnston, Looks there's been at least three username changes [38], [39]. I found:
  • User:DregerClock
  • User:Incrassate
  • User:Rajmaan
  • User:OChistory
and then I got tired of digging more. Why do the folks who do renames allow this? -- RoySmith (talk) 13:13, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
This is a complete mess. What happened, to the best of my understanding, is:
  1. On November 8, 2006, an account named "Milktaco" was created.
  2. They were renamed to "Dividing" on February 27, 2008.
  3. Dividing last edited in 2017 and is unrelated to the Rajmaan sockfarm.
  4. On February 16, 2008, an account named "DregerClock" was created.
  5. That username was deemed inappropriate since they created the article Dreger clock (see User_talk:OChistory#The_Clock), and they were renamed to "OChistory" on February 28, 2008.
  6. OChistory last edited in 2011 and unrelated to the Rajmaan sockfarm.
  7. On 27 September 2012, an account named "Rajmaan" was created.
  8. They were renamed to "Incrassate" in October 2017. (This doesn't seem to be logged properly for some reason, but it definitely happened).
  9. They were renamed to "Frowarden" in March 2018. (I can't find this logged in the English Wikipedia, but it is logged on Meta)
  10. This is the "Rajmaan" who was blocked for sock puppetry on June 8, 2018.
  11. They were renamed to "Milktaco' on June 14, 2018 (log entry). This rename should clearly not have happened.
  12. A new "Rajmaan", unrelated to the previous one, was created on October 2017.
  13. They were renamed to "DregerClock" on June 13, 2018.
  14. They were blocked as a sock puppet of "Rajmaan" (then actually called "Frowarden") on June 8, 2018.
  15. A new "Incrassate", unrelated to the previous one, was created on March 24, 2018, and blocked as a sock puppet on June 8, 2018 without ever being renamed.
What should probably happen is that Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rajmaan is moved to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Milktaco (the current username of the master), and that User:DregerClock and User:Milktaco get tagged as a sockpuppet and a sockpuppeteer respectively instead of redirecting to userpages of uses who used the same username many years ago. * Pppery * it has begun... 15:10, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
Pppery, Thanks for the information, but it would be more useful if you posted this to the SPI. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:12, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Lactoseintolerantsapiens11 and Idontknowhwatimdoing

Can user:Idontknowhwatimdoing and user:Lactoseintolerantsapiens11 please be blocked ASAP. See both their contribs and their filter logs. CLCStudent (talk) 15:18, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

CLCStudent, Looks like Materialscientist got there before I did. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:28, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 17:54, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-46

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15:49, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

THREE

You started a cross-namespace redirect WP:THREE to your user essay User:RoySmith/Three best sources.

I too have drafted a bunch of user essays. I haven't tried to move any of them from user space to the wikipedia namespace.

Can I point out some of the ways we treat user essays and wikipedia space essays differently?

  1. I think there is lower bar for inclusion for user essays. I've participated in WP:MFD for essays in wikipedia namespace. One essay I favoured keeping was deleted, in part, because it was argued other essays made it redundant. I have never seen an MFD for a user essay. I think they would only be deleted if they lapsed from BLP, or some other policy.
  2. Anyone can edit a wikipedia space essay. If someone wrote an essay, got some positive feedback on it, and moved it to the wikipedia namespace, they could find themselves a witness to seeing it rewritten to say stuff they never agreed with. If they found themselves in the minority position in discussions on the talk page they would have to grit their teeth and bear seeing it changed to say stuff they disagreed with.
  3. People put more stock in wikipedia space essays.

Are you sure a cross-namespace redirect, from a user essay, to the wikipedia namespace is appropriate?

I suggest that if you want the looser inclusion standards of a userspace essay the redirect is not appropriate.

I suggest that if you are ready for the more stringent inclusion standards of a wikipedia namespace essay you should consider putting it in the wikipedia namespace. Geo Swan (talk) 14:40, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Geo Swan, Thank you for your cogent note. I'm in a bit of dilemma here. On the one hand, eliminating the redirect would be impractical at this point; there's over 1000 links to it. On the other hand, I will admit my reason for keeping the essay in userspace is to exert more control over it than I could in project space (and even in userspace, I occasionally get people editing it). I just read over WP:XNR, which mostly talks about mainspace, so no help there. I do note that WP:R#KEEP says not to delete a redirect if "Someone finds them useful", which I think applies here. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:32, 9 November 2020 (UTC)
  • Thanks for your prompt reply.
  • I don't think I have a good suggestion as to how to deal with the existing instances.
  • I link to my essays with a pipe [[User:Geo Swan/opinions/When complying with BEFORE is not straighforward|When complying with BEFORE is not straighforward]]. Years ago I got some pushback from contributors who voiced concern that I was implying my user essays were in the wikipedia space. Since then I always state the essay is a user essay.
  • Going forward, with new essays, you could link to them, in your fora comments, with a pipe.
  • Thanks for not interpreting my concern personally!
Cheers! Geo Swan (talk) 15:45, 9 November 2020 (UTC)
Geo Swan, I've started a discussion on WP:VPM -- RoySmith (talk) 16:06, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

user:Nixon Now

Hi. In doing my NPP, I came across User:Sowny, who still had 2 unreviewed articles out. However, they have quite a few other articles which they have created. Should they be CSD'd? Onel5969 TT me 20:27, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Onel5969, Thanks for the note. BTW, I've been working on a tool to help find these. Looks like there's quite a few. I'll take a closer look. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:01, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
RoySmith, I can take care of it, just wanted to know if I should. Onel5969 TT me 21:22, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
Onel5969, Absolutely, go for it. Thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:34, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
RoySmith, Sowny's done. I didn't do the redirects, however. Onel5969 TT me 00:52, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Request for consideration

RoySmith & Onel5969 That's a shame. If you look at the articles they were productive contributions, including a series of articles on Toronto election results. Easy to delete but hard for other editors to replace. I was originally blocked by Bbb23 (who has since had his CU privileges revoked) over a stupid edit war I got into and block evasion that resulted. If you actually look at my history of edits subsequently you will see I've actually been productive - my crime has been evasion of blocks, not vandalism etc. I was willing to sit out for 6 months or a year and ask then for a fresh start but this response from Bbb23 led me to conclude that would be pointless(scroll to bottom)

Bbb23 is gone so I'll ask again - if I stay off of wikipedia for a period of time and then asked for a fresh start would you support that? I no longer have access to the passwords for Nixon Now, Ffolkways, or Sowny so I would have to start a new account but I am willing to abide by the rules - including using only one account etc.

Cheers Ex-Nixon Now, Ex-Flolkways, ex-Sowny etc.208.98.222.0 (talk) 16:10, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Henry Oscar Waffle deletion

Hi RoySmith. You recently deleted Henry Oscar Waffle because it fulfiled CSD G5. I posted an objection to the talk page because I had worked on restructuring the article, adding information and checking the sources. I believe this qualifies as a substantial edit by another user (me) and thus not fulfiling the criteria. Can I have more information on why it was deleted? Thanks for your help. Z1720 (talk) 04:34, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Z1720, My bad, I didn't see your talk-page note. I've undeleted it. -- RoySmith (talk) 04:40, 7 November 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for doing this. Let me know if there are any questions or concerns. Z1720 (talk) 16:36, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Check

Lorant33 and Lorent33 Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations.Dam222 (talk) 15:30, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Dam222, I don't understand what you're asking. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:09, 10 November 2020 (UTC)
Ah. One account stopped editing on April 3rd, and the other account was created two days later. My assumption is they lost their password. We prefer that people use Password recovery, but its quite common for people to just create a new account, which is also OK. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:43, 10 November 2020 (UTC)
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