User talk:RoySmith/Archive 38
 | This is an archive of past discussions about User:RoySmith. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
| Archive 35 | Archive 36 | Archive 37 | Archive 38 | Archive 39 | Archive 40 | → | Archive 45 |
Administrators' newsletter – March 2021
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2021).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment is open that proposes a process for the community to revoke administrative permissions. This follows a 2019 RfC in favor of creating one such a policy.
- A request for comment is in progress to remove F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a, which covers immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
- A request for comment seeks to grant page movers the
delete-redirectuserright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target. The full proposal is at Wikipedia:Page mover/delete-redirect. - A request for comment asks if sysops may
place the General sanctions/Coronavirus disease 2019 editnotice template on pages in scope that do not have page-specific sanctions
? - There is a discussion in progress concerning automatic protection of each day's featured article with Pending Changes protection.
Technical news
- When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
- When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
- There have been a number of reported issues with Pending Changes. Most problems setting protection appear to have been resolved (phab:T273317) but other issues with autoaccepting edits persist (phab:T275322).
Arbitration
- By motion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions
authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, any gender-related dispute or controversy and associated people.
Sanctions issued under GamerGate are now considered Gender and sexuality sanctions. - The Kurds and Kurdistan case was closed, authorizing standard discretionary sanctions for
the topics of Kurds and Kurdistan, broadly construed
.
- By motion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions
Miscellaneous
- Following the 2021 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: AmandaNP, Operator873, Stanglavine, Teles, and Wiki13.
Sock farm
After closing the recent sock puppet investigation against Wikipedia blocked Ethnic vandal Adhithya Kiran Chekavar, he or his group is again in grounds for something big.
Please investigate the accounts
MarkJonez
Shivashankar108
Ameliajoyceadams7777
Cid Corrapton
AnujRudra
Skibidibruh
Vasterbrat
987Paxller
Pratyush9494
Also please check the edit history of the recently created article by 987Paxller.
Without a doubt, a big sock farm in action. 157.46.188.143 (talk) 16:46, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
- I'm tied up with mostly non-SPI stuff for a bit; could I ask that you open a new report and get it on the queue? Thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:21, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
| March 6, 12:30pm: Met Women's History Month Virtual Edit Meet-up | |
|---|---|
  You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community and the Metropolitan Museum of Art for our The Met x Wikipedia Virtual Edit Meet-up: Women's History Month. We will be partially coordinating with Art+Feminism and all of the International Women's Day and Women's History Month campaigns. Watch and join the livestream! The Metropolitan Museum of Art event on Saturday Mar 6 will host a tutorial and question-and-answer session live on YouTube and other social media platforms.
Chat about improving articles! Support will be provided to help guide new editors in this area at Wikimedia Gender Gap Editing Chat for the duration of the campaign.
| |
(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 01:54, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
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
- Section translation now works on Bengali Wikipedia. It helps mobile editors translate sections of articles. It will come to more wikis later. The first focus is active wikis with a smaller number of articles. You can test it and leave feedback.
- Flagged revisions now give admins the review right. [1]
- When someone links to a Wikipedia article on Twitter this will now show a preview of the article. [2]
Problems
- Many graphs have JavaScript errors. Graph editors can check their graphs in their browser's developer console after editing. [3]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 March. It will be on all wikis from 11 March (calendar).- The New Discussion tool will soon be a new discussion tools beta feature for on most Wikipedias. The goal is to make it easier to start new discussions. [4]
Future changes
- There will be a number of changes to make it easier to work with templates. Some will come to the first wikis in March. Other changes will come to the first wikis in June. This is both for those who use templates and those who create or maintain them. You can read more.
- Reference Previews will become a default feature on some wikis on 17 March. They will share a setting with Page Previews. If you prefer the Reference Tooltips or Navigation-Popups gadget you can keep using them. If so Reference Previews won't be shown. [5][6]
- New JavaScript-based functions will not work in Internet Explorer 11. This is because Internet Explorer is an old browser that doesn't work with how JavaScript is written today. Everything that works in Internet Explorer 11 today will continue working in Internet Explorer for now. You can read more.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
17:50, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
Thanks
Thank you for your kind words[7] on the Bureaucrats noticeboard. I felt a lot of it became about me and my edits versus what I was trying to accomplish. It seems things have changed a lot around protection from when it was introduced and that created a lot of the disconnect on it (I remember all the debate around it and the original intent for it to be used very sparingly). I felt the best thing was to hang up the toolbelt for now, I appreciate your comment in case I change my mind in the future. --WGFinley (talk) 16:42, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
| March 13, 12-5pm: Asia Art Archive in America: Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon | |
|---|---|
 You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community and Asia Art Archive for our fourth annual (and first virtual) Asia Art Archive in America: Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon! Organized by Asia Art Archive in America and NaPupila in collaboration with Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and supported by Wikimedia NYC, this event brings together participants to discuss, create, share, and improve Wikipedia articles about women and non-binary artists. We will be partially coordinating with Art+Feminism and all of the International Women's Day and Women's History Month campaigns. Register and join the virtual event!
P.S. Next WikiWednesday You are also invited to join our March 17 WikiWednesday next week with a Saint Patrick's Day guest speaker from Wikimedia Community Ireland. | |
(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 00:18, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
| March 17, 7pm: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC with Wikimedia Community Ireland for St Patrick's Day | |
|---|---|
 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! As this WikiWednesday coincides with Saint Patrick's Day, we will have a guest speaker from Wikimedia Community Ireland, about Irish-language Wikipedia, the efforts of the community in Ireland, and personal work on historical biographies with a special Irish-New York connection. This month will also include a discussion of Black WikiHistory Month in February and WikiWomen's History Month and Art+Feminism in March, and of course the great work that is being done in these topical areas throughout the year. If there's a project you'd like to share or a question you'd like answered, just let us know by adding it to the agenda or the talk page.
| |
(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 14:47, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
GA Review
I see you passed HCR's GA nom. Don't forget to complete the checklist at the top of the review page. (Checklists are good; they help make sure you didn't overlook anything.)
Also, if you're into it, you can submit it and any other GA reviews you complete this month to Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/GAN Backlog Drives/March 2021 and get a barnstar.
Happy editing. – Reidgreg (talk) 20:24, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
- Reidgreg, Hi. I think I hit everything on the checklist. Is there something you noticed that I missed? But I see I didn't actually update the cute little icons. I've gone back and done that. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:24, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
- PS, I hope it wasn't too obvious that I shamelessly picked a submission above my own in the queue, to help mine get to the top faster :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 21:27, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
- Oh, I see how this works. Tell the guy he gets a barnstar, then it turns out you need to do TWO reviews to get a barnstar. The cake is a lie! -- RoySmith (talk) 21:34, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
- PS, I hope it wasn't too obvious that I shamelessly picked a submission above my own in the queue, to help mine get to the top faster :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 21:27, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
|
The Reviewer Barnstar | |
| I saw your review at the GAN drive. It is a superlative review that goes above and beyond at offering helpful feedback and improving the article, while remaining focused on the GA criteria. Even more impressive, this is your first review! I hope you continue to do more GA reviewing, the process could certainly use more such reviews. Note, this is awarded purely in a personal capacity, it is not related to the drive. (t · c) buidhe 22:05, 15 March 2021 (UTC) |
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
- Wikis that are part of the desktop improvements project can now use a new search function. The desktop improvements and the new search will come to more wikis later. You can also test it early.
Editors who put up banners or change site-wide JavaScript code should use the client error graph to see that their changes has not caused problems. You can read more. [8]
Problems
- Due to database issues the Wikimedia Beta Cluster was read-only for over a day.
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 March. It will be on all wikis from 18 March (calendar).
Future changes
- You can add a newline or carriage return character to a custom signature if you use a template. There is a proposal to not allow them in the future. This is because they can cause formatting problems. [9][10]
- You will be able to read but not edit 12 wikis for a short period of time on 23 March at 06:00 (UTC). This could take 30 minutes but will probably be much faster.
- You can use Quarry for SQL queries to the Wiki Replicas. Cross-database
JOINSwill no longer work from 23 March. There will be a new field to specify the database to connect to. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech. PAWS and other ways to do SQL queries to the Wiki Replicas will be affected later. [11]
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
23:21, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
Please help, about "Zhou Chengzhou"
Hi,
Dear RoySmith
Today, I found that the item about "Zhou Chengzhou"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Chengzhou) has a clause to be deleted. I feel at a loss, so I added more reference sources for "Zhou Chengzhou" web pages, books and newspapers.
This deletion clause was proposed by AINH.
I respect the standards and terms of Wikipedia very much, and I always love Wikipedia and many thanks to helping us. If there is anything wrong with this clause, please give me some suggestions. I am very willing to accept the suggestions.
Best and have a good day. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Armidazhou (talk • contribs) 05:07, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
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 at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
(t · c) buidhe 15:09, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
Re, about "Zhou Chengzhou"
Hi,
I'm really as an new editor.. I don't know which sources are reliable. Could you please check the other sources in these links again? Thank you. Please check it again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Chengzhou
Or I find three new sources. Thank you so much.
https://aestheticamagazine.com/profile/zhou-chengzhou/
https://www.lensculture.com/2018-lensculture-art-photography-award-winners
https://www.adkfilmfestival.org/portfolio/sub-subconscious/
A masterpiece-Shape and color hatching square-Zhou Chengzhou. CHINA PHOTO PRESS(中国摄影报）: Fifth full page. 2018.（It is the largest official photographic newspaper in China）
This item is not easy to come by. Please review it again. Thank you soooo much!
Armidazhou (talk) 16:13, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
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 Wikipedia app for KaiOS phones. They don't have a touch screen so readers navigate with the phone keys. There is now a simulator so you can see what it looks like.
- The reply tool and new discussion tool are now available as the "Discussion tools" beta feature in almost all wikis except German Wikipedia.
Problems
- You will be able to read but not edit twelve wikis for a short period of time on 23 March at 06:00 (UTC). This can also affect password changes, logging in to new wikis, global renames and changing or confirming emails. This could take 30 minutes but will probably be much faster.
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 March. It will be on all wikis from 25 March (calendar).
- Syntax highlighting colours will change to be easier to read. This will soon come to the first wikis. [12]
Future changes
- Flagged revisions will no longer have multiple tags like "tone" or "depth". It will also only have one tier. This was changed because very few wikis used these features and they make the tool difficult to maintain. [13][14]
- Gadgets and user scripts can access variables about the current page in JavaScript. In 2015 this was moved from
wg*tomw.config.wg*will soon no longer work. [15]
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
16:51, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
GA review of Siwanoy
Thanks for your GA review of Siwanoy. I've incorporated many of your suggested changes and there is a standing request for an improved map on the article's talk page. Thanks. Rhythmnation2004 (talk) 13:13, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
Your GA nomination of Carlisle & Finch
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Carlisle & Finch 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 The Rambling Man -- The Rambling Man (talk) 14:21, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
Your GA nomination of Carlisle & Finch
The article Carlisle & Finch you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold 
. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Carlisle & Finch for issues which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of The Rambling Man -- The Rambling Man (talk) 18:01, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
Your GA nomination of Carlisle & Finch
The article Carlisle & Finch you nominated as a good article has passed 
; see Talk:Carlisle & Finch 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 The Rambling Man -- The Rambling Man (talk) 10:21, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
Requesting to change the protection level of A2Z (Philippine TV channel) and List of programs broadcast by A2Z (Philippine TV channel) to semi-protection
Hi, I would like to request to change to semi-protection of the page A2Z (Philippine TV channel) and List of programs broadcast by A2Z (Philippine TV channel) since you protected it. You protect the article because of the sockpuppetry of ASIANPOPCHANNEL, these 2 articles needs to be semi-protection because any sockpuppet accounts cant edit semi-protected articles until account is 4 days old and has made 10 edits. SeanJ 2007 (talk) 12:27, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
- SeanJ 2007, Nope, sorry. This is long-term abuse and it's too easy to game autoconfirmed. Not to mention, for somebody who has been on wikipedia for 2 weeks, you have a surprisingly in-depth understanding of how things work. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:01, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
block help
Hi Im here to ask for your help please. Im a novice with wikipedia, but ive recently wanted to edit some pages and discovered im blocked and your name is on the special block list as the blocker, so i thought i might ask for your advice please. I dont understand why ive been blocked. I also dont understand how to appeal, express my innocence or be unblocked. I havent attempted to edit wikipedia for very many years so im a bit upset that i discover recently i cant. I even made a donation a few years ago so i find it all a bit ironic now. Anyway, i dont recall even attempting to edit any page on a show called 'britannica', but my memory is not great due to a neurological condition i have so any advice you can offer to help me make a fair contribution to an article id like to edit would be great. Many thanks Valentine 2A04:4A43:467F:3EC:503C:E260:1FEE:B68E (talk) 00:33, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
- Can you tell me what page you were trying to edit, and the exact error message you got (copy-paste the full message). -- RoySmith (talk) 00:38, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
I actually get blocked from two things:
1) If i attempt to create a new account with wikipedia Or 2) I tried to edit the page on Eric Clapton (musician) approx one week ago by adding some details regarding the controversy attached to his name (the current entry is misleading regarding his present day position on the issue)
The error message says block ID #10364820 Evasion of block Related to Sockpuppet investigation by SethRuebens
Many thanks Valentine 2A04:4A43:467F:1B45:DE3:5070:F3CC:CE58 (talk) 23:52, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
- OK, try creating an account now. I changed one of the block parameters so you should be able to do that now. If you're still having problems, let me know. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:59, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
Thanks Roy, I have successfully created a wiki account in the name of VeMangoTree.
I attempted to edit the page of Eric Clapton (musician). My intention was to address some of the controversy in his personal life which is currently on the page only in a very selective and outdated way, which does not accurately reflect his contemporary views on the issue which he has given in recent interviews. The current page gives the false impression he continues to hold the same controversial views that he did back in the 1970s when he was going through addiction problems.
When attempting to add new details (with reference to a radio interview from 2018) i received an error message: This page has been protected to prevent editing or other actions.
Any advice please?
Also, is there any feedback you can give regarding the previous autoblock that you just helped fix please? I mean, what did I do wrong please, and how can I ensure it doesn't happen again?
Many thanks V VeMangoTree (talk) 22:49, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
- VeMangoTree, Hmm, we don't actually have a page called Eric Clapton (musician), but we do have just plain Eric Clapton, which as you have noticed, is protected so that new users can't edit it. This was done a number of years ago, in response to persistent disruption. The level of protection applied is what we call "semi-protection", which means you will automatically be authorized to edit it once your account is four days old and you've accumulated 10 edits.
- However, since you say you want to work on a controversial aspect of his personal life, I strongly urge you to read our policies on Biographies of living persons. We have a page called The Teahouse which is set up to help new editors navigate our often confusing and complicated policies. While you're waiting for your four days to run, you might want to post there, explain what you want to write about, and get some friendly advice. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:53, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
Brilliant. I will follow that advice. Thanks so much.
VeMangoTree (talk) 19:36, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 28 March 2021
- News and notes: A future with a for-profit subsidiary?
- Gallery: Wiki Loves Monuments
- In the media: Wikimedia LLC and disinformation in Japan
- News from the WMF: Project Rewrite: Tell the missing stories of women on Wikipedia and beyond
- Recent research: 10%-30% of Wikipedia’s contributors have subject-matter expertise
- From the archives: Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes
- Obituary: Yoninah
- From the editor: What else can we say?
- Arbitration report: Open letter to the Board of Trustees
- Traffic report: Wanda, Meghan, Liz, Phil and Zack
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
- Some very old web browsers don’t work well with the Wikimedia wikis. Some old code for browsers that used to be supported is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. [16]
- IRC recent changes feeds have been moved to a new server. Make sure all tools automatically reconnect to
irc.wikimedia.organd not to the name of any specific server. Users should also consider switching to the more modern EventStreams. [17]
Problems
- When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split. It might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. [18]
- Some translatable pages on Meta could not be edited. This was because of a bug in the translation tool. The new MediaWiki version was delayed because of problems like this. [19][20]
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 March. It will be on all wikis from 1 April (calendar).
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
17:29, 29 March 2021 (UTC)
spihelper
Hello RoySmith, I made this userbox for editors such as yourself who use spihelper. Jerm (talk) 01:14, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
| Wikitext | userbox | where used | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
{{User wikipedia/spihelper}}
|
|
linked pages |
Possible sock account
Hi Roy, sorry to bother you. I hope you're well and don't mind me asking your help here, but as you were the last one to edit Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rishabisajakepauler/Archive], could you please kindly check out this IP? I suspect it as another possible sockpuppet of Rishabisajakepauler, their edits seem to fall under the same interests, and they asked a user for help, and it happens to be the same user who one of Rishabisajakepauler's IPs asked helped from before. I did add a new section to the SPI, but not sure how quick that will get a response there, so your help would be appreciated. Thank you. AshMusique (talk) 08:30, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
- AshMusique, Hi, thanks for your note. The best way to do this is to file a SPI report. Please see the "How to open an investigation" section of WP:SPI, for instructions. Thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:38, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
- Thank you, Roy. I didn't immediatly realize that SPI case was archived. Either way, I've submitted a new report. Again, thank you. AshMusique (talk) 22:22, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2021
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2021).
Administrator changes
Alexandria • Happyme22 • RexxS
Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a has been deprecated; it covered immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
- Following a request for comment, page movers were granted the
delete-redirectuserright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target.
Technical news
- When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split and it might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. (T278350)
- Code to support some very old web browsers is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. (T277803)
Arbitration
- A community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure is open until April 25.
Regarding this script-aided edit
Regarding the creation of a user page 'this is a sock master' at User:AK at Aquila Polonica Publishing, have you seen the unblock request at User_talk:AK_at_Aquila_Polonica_Publishing#Blocked_for_sockpuppetry and the accompanying one at User talk:Tataqp? See also my discussion with the blocking admin linked there; they have no objection to the unblock. I think it is a likely misunderstanding that the two new editors have already explained. Per WP:AGF/WP:BITE and such, I think the friendlier course of action would be to unblock them (and see what happens, if there is more tag-teaming, CU can be revisited). On a side note, marking that account as a sock master is not only counterproductive (uglifying a new editor's user page with an erroneous claim) - also that account will get auto-unblocked in few days so what's the point of the template if they can presumably remove it themselves? And if this is indeed a misunderstanding (per AGF I see no reason to assume it is not), it would mean that the CU block, while initially justified, in the light of the explanation provided, was in fact incorrect, so that template will probably need to be deleted/oversighted... Anyway, since their unblock request is already 2d old, may I kindly ask you to consider it instead of just templating their userpage? Unless there is new evidence suggesting that we are being played for fools here? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 03:51, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
- Piotrus, Thanks for your note. To be honest, while I acknowledge that paid advocacy editing is allowed if the rules are followed, I personally find it abhorrent and antithetical to what Wikipedia is all about. Like GeneralNotability, I have no objection if another admin wants to take action here, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to accommodate paid editors who claim they didn't understand the rules. -- RoySmith (talk) 12:57, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
- RoySmith, As the author of WP:CORPSPAM, I have little sympathy for PAID editors either. And I would hardly be spending my time trying to help those editors if I thought their purpose here was related to COI. But each of those accounts made only a single edit to a different article related to the books their company publishes: [21], [22], and the edits themselves do not strike me as overly promotional, although I'd fully support cautioning those accounts to follow best practices, such as that they should propose such changes on the talk pages of the articles where COI is involved rather than carry them out themselves In fact, I'd be happy to put actions behind my words and try my hand at coaching them and offer WP:MENTORSHIP to both accounts if they are unblocked and coach them on how to avoid COI in their edits (which is not hard, really - all that needs to happen is to convince them not to edit the articles about their company and books, and see if they stick around and edit other stuff or not - this will also show us if they want to build an encyclopedia or promote stuff). And if I am wrong and they move on to making over-the-top COI edits, I have no problem with reverting them myself, and reporting them to COIN or elsewhere if necessary. Over the years I have mentored hundreds of students, this shouldn't be that different. What do you think? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 14:17, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
- Piotrus, Personally, I think you're nuts for investing this much effort in this, but that's your choice. I do however see that I made a mistake applying the tag. I was puzzled by your "auto-unblocked" comment. I now see that you were referring to the fact that they were not indef blocked, which I missed originally. I've deleted the tag, which backs out my total involvement with this. I'll leave it to you and GeneralNotability to figure out the blocking aspects. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:39, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
- RoySmith, I guess I am in the mood for helping, even if it may be a lost cause - not that I think CoI is an issue, but probably I am putting much more effort into helping new editors who, statistically, are not going to be very active. But I see potential here - association with a publisher means, for example, they have access to photos, maps, or diagrams, not to mention book covers, they could relicense under a free license and that would enhance a number of articles. I'd like to convince them to adopt CC license for such media. Alas, this requires some goodwill and we are hardly building this with them given how we are treating them (and now ignoring their appeal). We talk a lot about the need to recruit new editors, problems with retention - and when push comes to shove, what I am seeing is, well, BITE everwhere :( Let me help here. I'll also ping GeneralNotability as you did, given that next to nobody seems interested in helping out here. I hope that my offer of mentorship for those accounts would resolve any lingering concerns? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 02:31, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
- Piotrus, Personally, I think you're nuts for investing this much effort in this, but that's your choice. I do however see that I made a mistake applying the tag. I was puzzled by your "auto-unblocked" comment. I now see that you were referring to the fact that they were not indef blocked, which I missed originally. I've deleted the tag, which backs out my total involvement with this. I'll leave it to you and GeneralNotability to figure out the blocking aspects. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:39, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
- RoySmith, As the author of WP:CORPSPAM, I have little sympathy for PAID editors either. And I would hardly be spending my time trying to help those editors if I thought their purpose here was related to COI. But each of those accounts made only a single edit to a different article related to the books their company publishes: [21], [22], and the edits themselves do not strike me as overly promotional, although I'd fully support cautioning those accounts to follow best practices, such as that they should propose such changes on the talk pages of the articles where COI is involved rather than carry them out themselves In fact, I'd be happy to put actions behind my words and try my hand at coaching them and offer WP:MENTORSHIP to both accounts if they are unblocked and coach them on how to avoid COI in their edits (which is not hard, really - all that needs to happen is to convince them not to edit the articles about their company and books, and see if they stick around and edit other stuff or not - this will also show us if they want to build an encyclopedia or promote stuff). And if I am wrong and they move on to making over-the-top COI edits, I have no problem with reverting them myself, and reporting them to COIN or elsewhere if necessary. Over the years I have mentored hundreds of students, this shouldn't be that different. What do you think? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 14:17, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
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
- Editors can collapse part of an article so you have to click on it to see it. When you click a link to a section inside collapsed content it will now expand to show the section. The browser will scroll down to the section. Previously such links didn't work unless you manually expanded the content first. [23]
Changes later this week
- The citoid API will use for example
2010-12-XXinstead of2010-12for dates with a month but no days. This is because2010-12could be confused with2010-2012instead ofDecember 2010. This is called level 1 instead of level 0 in the Extended Date/Time Format. [24] - The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 April. It will be on all wikis from 8 April (calendar).
Future changes
- PAWS can now connect to the new Wiki Replicas. Cross-database
JOINSwill no longer work from 28 April. There is a new way to connect to the databases. Until 28 April both ways to connect to the databases will work. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
19:39, 5 April 2021 (UTC)
Sockpuppet question
At NPP I noticed a new page was created by a user. A page with a very similar title had been deleted for sockpuppetry concerns, which I discovered when I went to link it with a different language, the creator of the page is a relatively new account which has edited a number of pages the socked user edited per the User Interaction Tool. Is this enough evidence to open a sockpuppet investigation? Thanks in advance. SportingFlyer T·C 14:21, 7 April 2021 (UTC)
- SportingFlyer, Sounds like it to me. I suggest when you open the SPI, you fill in a few more details, however :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 14:35, 7 April 2021 (UTC)
You should be very careful with IP bans: sometimes they're shared
You recently had me and who knows what other amount be unable to do mobile editing since you banned an IP due to an investigation on a possible sockpuppet. What seemed particularly annoying is that you should have noticed the IP itself (had minimal troubling behaviour). --181.115.61.86 (talk) 05:11, 9 April 2021 (UTC)
Hey Roy, I hope you're doing well. I just archived Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Txbiassss, and, immediately after archiving, realised that the case move was done as a section move as opposed to a case move, with the page history still living under a redirect at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/KIENGIR, which is otherwise empty. Not sure whether that was intentional (and if it wasn't, whether it needs fixing), but I thought I'd bring it up because it struck me as unusual and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. Best, Blablubbs|talk 19:39, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Blablubbs, I suppose it should have been done as a case move. To be honest, however, I'm sure there are other clerks who are more expert at such process details than I am. -- RoySmith (talk) 19:57, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
- Blablubbs, I didn't give you a very good answer the first time. My apologies. What I was thinking was that if this was a brand new case, I would have moved the entire case, but since it was an existing case, I just moved the one section. Of course, it was really the one and only section. So, yeah, moving the entire case would probably have been the right thing to do. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:30, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
- No worries, thanks for the explanation. :) Blablubbs|talk 18:05, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
| April 21, 7pm: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC with Environmental focus | |
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SPI
Hello – I started an SPI here. Did I do it correctly? It's the first SPI I've started, so let me know if there are any errors. – DarkGlow • 12:08, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
- DarkGlow, It looks fine to me, thanks for filing it. I see you used Twinkle, which is good; that takes care of getting all the fidgetly formatting bits correct. This one looks like a no-brainer. -- RoySmith (talk) 12:36, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
- Yeah, I'm experienced with Twinkle but had never used the SPI tool on it so I thought I'd try it, on like you said, a no-brainer. Thanks for checking it out! – DarkGlow • 12:38, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
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
- Email to the Wikimedia wikis are handled by groups of Wikimedia editors. These volunteer response teams now use Znuny instead of OTRS. The functions and interface remain the same. The volunteer administrators will give more details about the next steps soon. [25][26]
- If you use syntax highlighting, you can see line numbers in the 2010 and 2017 wikitext editors when editing templates. This is to make it easier to see line breaks or talk about specific lines. Line numbers will soon come to all namespaces. [27][28][29]
- Because of a technical change there could be problems with gadgets and scripts that have an edit summary area that looks similar to this one. If they look strange they should use
mw.loader.using('mediawiki.action.edit.styles')to go back to how they looked before. [30] - The latest version of MediaWiki came to the Wikimedia wikis last week. There was no Tech News issue last week.
Changes later this week
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Future changes
- The user group
oversightwill be renamedsuppress. This is for technical reasons. This is the technical name. It doesn't affect what you call the editors with this user right on your wiki. This is planned to happen in two weeks. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
16:48, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
March 2021 GAN Backlog drive
|
The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar |
| Thank you for completing 8 reviews in the March 2021 backlog drive. Your work helped us reduce the backlog by over 52%. Thank you specifically for your clear attention to detail and the resulting high quality review. Best, Eddie891 Talk Work 13:42, 21 April 2021 (UTC) |
DYK for Carlisle & Finch
On 25 April 2021, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Carlisle & Finch, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Carlisle & Finch used carbon-arc technology in both toy trains (example pictured) and military searchlights? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Carlisle & Finch. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Carlisle & Finch), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 00:01, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
SPI helper issue
INTSF investigations
Hi RoySmith, I understand there's a large SPI backlog, but regarding the INTSF cases, could action be quickly taken on the IP range including 183.90.36.65 (talk · contribs)? They've gone from the usual disruption to also following me to other articles [31][32]. Best, CMD (talk) 11:13, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
- Chipmunkdavis, I'm on it. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:57, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 25 April 2021
- From the editor: A change is gonna come
- Disinformation report: Paid editing by a former head of state's business enterprise
- In the media: Fernando, governance, and rugby
- Opinion: The (Universal) Code of Conduct
- Op-Ed: A Little Fun Goes A Long Way
- Changing the world: The reach of protest images on Wikipedia
- Recent research: Quality of aquatic and anatomical articles
- Traffic report: The verdict is guilty, guilty, guilty
- News from Wiki Education: Encouraging professional physicists to engage in outreach on Wikipedia
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
- Templates have parameters that can have specific values. It is possible to suggest values for editors with TemplateData. You can soon see them as a drop-down list in the visual editor. This is to help template users find the right values faster. [33][34][35]
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 27 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 28 April. It will be on all wikis from 29 April (calendar).
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
21:23, 26 April 2021 (UTC)