User talk:Metropolitan90/Archive 26
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Administrators' newsletter – August 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2017).
Administrator changes
Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 (first RfA to reach WP:300)
Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem
Guideline and policy news
- Following a series of discussions around new pages patrol, the WMF is helping implement a controlled autoconfirmed article creation trial as a research experiment, similar to the one proposed in 2011. You can learn more about the research plan at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial. The exact start date of the experiment has yet to be determined.
- A new speedy deletion criterion, regarding articles created as a result undisclosed paid editing, is currently being discussed (permalink).
- An RfC (permalink) is currently open that proposes expanding WP:G13 to include all drafts, even if they weren't submitted through Articles for Creation.
Technical news
- LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
- The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.
RE:
A question. Why do you warn me, when I only intervened twice and very briefly? Google traslate --Jcfidy (talk) 18:51, 11 August 2017 (UTC)
- (Referring to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros/Publication list.) It was just advice. If I went to es:Wikipedia:Consultas de borrado and requested the deletion of an article in the Spanish Wikipedia, but I only gave my reasons in English, some readers there might not understand me.
(Refiriéndose a Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros/Publication list.) Sólo era un consejo. Si yo fuera a es:Wikipedia:Consultas de borrado y les pidiera el borrado de un artículo de la Wikipedia en español, pero dando mis razones solamente en inglés, algunos lectores no me entenderían. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 01:33, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
Deletion of Katharine Gorka
Could you please explain why you deleted this article? It was marked as G4, but I contested that on the talk page for multiple reasons. First, the nominator, User:Randykitty, said it had the same sources as the original article. This was a false claim, because two of the six sources (at the time) were news reports from yesterday. Second, I pointed out (twice) that the previous page was deleted because of a COI on the part of its creator and a lack of coverage of the subject independent of her husband. Neither was true this time. Aside from Randykitty response that the sources were not new, none of my points were ever addressed. I strongly believe this was a bad CSD tag, and a bad delete. Argento Surfer (talk) 12:35, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- In general, if someone is going to re-create an article that was deleted via AFD (especially a recent one) as this was, the article has to unambiguously establish that the reason it was deleted no longer exists. I don't have access to the original text, but adding a couple of sources, probably isn't going to pass that test. I suspect that the subject of this article may be worthy of an article about her at some point but it looks like this is a case of WP:TOOSOON. Toddst1 (talk) 13:16, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Argento: The main factor in my decision to delete the article under WP:CSD#G4 was that Katharine Gorka was considered non-notable at the AfD (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Katharine Gorka) just last month and it seemed unlikely that the situation had changed significantly in the short time since then. However, you can take the article to Wikipedia:Deletion review if you prefer. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:22, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- I don't believe a review is needed - if it had gone through AfD again I'm not sure 100% I would have voted keep myself. That's why I only contested the CSD instead of removing it. I was just frustrated that everyone seemed to assume the situation hadn't changed and didn't acknowledge the points I raised.
- Would you please restore the material to my sandbox so I can merge the relevant information to Sebastian Gorka? Argento Surfer (talk) 13:36, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Argento: The main factor in my decision to delete the article under WP:CSD#G4 was that Katharine Gorka was considered non-notable at the AfD (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Katharine Gorka) just last month and it seemed unlikely that the situation had changed significantly in the short time since then. However, you can take the article to Wikipedia:Deletion review if you prefer. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:22, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
Seconding restoration to sandbox and complete preservation to entire history--Wikipietime (talk) 13:55, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- If the history's important, it may be easier to restore the article and I'll merge/redirect it to Sebastian. Argento Surfer (talk) 14:11, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- It was deleted after an AfD, so restoring the complete history is akin to undoing the AfD. It would be more appropriate to copy just the sources that were used (such as they were, some were only rather irrelevant in-passing mentions), for possible inclusion in the article on her husband. --Randykitty (talk) 14:33, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- This history was not deleted after an AfD. But I don't care about that - I just don't want to dig through the sources again. I'd rather save time and prune from the work I did yesterday, whether it be through my sandbox or a restored article. Argento Surfer (talk) 14:45, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Okay, I've moved the article to User:Argento Surfer/Katharine Gorka so you can work on it. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 16:18, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks! Argento Surfer (talk) 16:41, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Okay, I've moved the article to User:Argento Surfer/Katharine Gorka so you can work on it. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 16:18, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- This history was not deleted after an AfD. But I don't care about that - I just don't want to dig through the sources again. I'd rather save time and prune from the work I did yesterday, whether it be through my sandbox or a restored article. Argento Surfer (talk) 14:45, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- It was deleted after an AfD, so restoring the complete history is akin to undoing the AfD. It would be more appropriate to copy just the sources that were used (such as they were, some were only rather irrelevant in-passing mentions), for possible inclusion in the article on her husband. --Randykitty (talk) 14:33, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
I am not convinced that he, Sebastian Gorka, should not be mentioned on an article of Katharine Gorka. There may be some chauvinistic basis at play that he is the most worthy. After all, she apparently has the family connection and was a US citizen; whereas, he immigrated and I assume became a citizen via marriage. May very well have it reversed. ( for listening enjoyment! https://wiki2.org/en/Katharine_Gorka )--Wikipietime (talk) 19:46, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
- Is that a double negative -- that is, do you mean that Sebastian should or should not be mentioned in the article about Katharine? But in any event, Wikipedia would normally mention a person's spouse in an article about them, and especially if the spouse is notable enough to have an article about them as well. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:26, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2017).
Administrator changes
- Nakon • Scott
- Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee
Guideline and policy news
- ACTRIAL, a research experiment that restricts article creation to autoconfirmed users, will begin on September 7. It will run for six months. You can learn more about the research specifics at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial, while Wikipedia talk:Autoconfirmed article creation trial is probably the best venue for general discussion.
- Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.
Technical news
- You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
- Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
- In your notification preferences, you can now block specific users from pinging you. This functionality will soon be available for Special:EmailUser as well.
Arbitration
- Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.
Invitation to Admin confidence survey
Hello,
Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.
The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.
To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.
We really appreciate your input!
Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.
For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 19:52, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – October 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2017).
Administrator changes
- Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem
- Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box
Guideline and policy news
- Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
- Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.
Technical news
- You can now search for IP ranges at Special:Contributions. Some log pages and Special:DeletedContributions are not yet supported. Wildcards (e.g. 192.168.0.*) are also not supported, but the popular contribsrange gadget will continue to work.
Arbitration
- Community consultation on the 2017 candidates for CheckUser and Oversight has concluded. The Arbitration Committee will appoint successful candidates by October 11.
- A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.
Removed Content Copy Request
Hi. I know The Cell Phone! was deleted so I am requesting for a copy of the deleted material. ScottStephenJones (talk) 00:01, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
- Okay, I have moved it to User:ScottStephenJones/The Cell Phone!. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 03:34, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
Halloween cheer!
Hello Metropolitan90:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia, and have a happy and enjoyable Halloween!
– North America1000 15:08, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2017).
Administrator changes
- Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93
- Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite
Technical news
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team is creating an "Interaction Timeline" tool that intends to assist administrators in resolving user conduct disputes. Feedback on the concept may be posted on the talk page.
- A new function is now available to edit filter managers that will make it easier to look for multiple strings containing spoofed text.
Arbitration
- Eligible editors will be invited to submit candidate statements for the 2017 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 12 until November 21. Voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 10.
- Following a request for comment, Ritchie333, Yunshui and Ymblanter will serve as the Electoral Commission for the 2017 ArbCom Elections.
Obituaries
- The Wikipedia community has recently learned that Allen3 (William Allen Peckham) passed away on December 30, 2016, the same day as JohnCD. Allen began editing in 2005 and became an administrator that same year.
A cup of tea for you!
|
For denying my CSD but letting me know why . Whispering 03:34, 5 November 2017 (UTC) |
Please reconsider the request for a G11 CSD on this user page. This user account, along with User:LatiaBurbidge6 and User:BerryMarmon7604 were created within minutes of each other today. Amongst the normal-looking biographical details on each user page was "ENTREGA DE GÁS" and the external links on their pages were one link away from this advertisement. The other two user pages have been deleted, and more suspiciously none of these three users has made any edits other than the one that created their user pages.
I've just also found User:PMFKaren4346307 with the same two-step link to https://sosgasosasco.com.br/, and all of these look to me like an SEO attempt.
Thank you. --| Uncle Milty | talk | 04:29, 5 November 2017 (UTC)
- And, I just found that this WikiProject Spam Report which would be the reason they are using two-step external links. --| Uncle Milty | talk | 04:33, 5 November 2017 (UTC)
- I didn't see this request until just now, but I see that those user pages have all been deleted already. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 14:39, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
Needs your attention...
Please see this close. I don't recall withdrawing that nom. Perhaps the IP can provide a diff. Atsme📞📧 14:24, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
- @Atsme: Fixed it. You could have reverted that yourself, as it was clearly not a WP:SK or a withdrawn nomination. – filelakeshoe (t / c) 14:31, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
- Filelakeshoe: Thanks for resolving this. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 14:38, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
- While I didn't remember withdrawing the AfD, the boldness of the IP's actions made me hesitant to do anything. I was also hoping an admin would act on the IP's disruptive behavior, but I'll go ahead and place a warning on their TP. Thank you - sorry for the inconvenience. Atsme📞📧 15:25, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
- Filelakeshoe: Thanks for resolving this. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 14:38, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
Can I withdraw one of my noms?
I think that Ylike clearly passes, as we found a reference for it (which I added), and someone cited something about places being notable, despite being a single sentence. I thus think that nomination should be withdrawn, though not sure if that's possible. The Ice Screamers page, I still think is not notable, as there are no sources on it anywhere on the internet. (I did find a photograph proving it existed, but that's it.)The Tortfeasor (talk) 05:46, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks. I see you've done this already for me. You move fast! Appreciate your help. The Tortfeasor (talk) 05:56, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – December 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017).
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.
Technical news
- Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
- A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.
Arbitration
- Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.
Miscellaneous
- Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
- The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.
ArbCom 2017 election voter message
Hello, Metropolitan90. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible 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 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
Attribution error
Please review [1]. I think you will see that it was another editor who created the AfD. I hope that you will fix this.
Since I've started this discussion, I'd like to continue with some concerns. The reason I have noticed this history was initially because the nominator is not using edit summaries to announce AfD nominations. This may be seen as an attempt to avoid attracting attention in the watchlists of people with vested interests in an article, which is contrary to WP:Deletion guidelines for administrators, which states, "If the major stakeholders have not been notified of the proposed deletion or given time to respond, reliable consensus determinations will rarely be possible".
Further review took me to this puzzling first edit for this nominator. I thought that ACTRIAL was in progress to prevent new editors from creating pages.
Regarding this editor's edit history, this seems to be an AfD-only account. Thank you, Unscintillating (talk) 17:48, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
- I have just corrected the signature of the AfD nomination (see [2]). As to WP:ACTRIAL, if I understand it correctly, it only prevents new editors from creating pages in article space; it doesn't stop them from creating AfD pages in the Wikipedia: namespace. For the other issues you have raised, I recommend taking them up with the editor themself at their user talk page, or at WP:ANI. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 18:11, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
Deleted: To kill for
Thanks dude. came back to edit, and the page is gone! (talk) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Najafhaider (talk • contribs)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).
Administrator changes
- Muboshgu
Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned- None
Bureaucrat changes
Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.
Technical news
- The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
- The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.
Arbitration
- Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.
Administrators' newsletter – February 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
- Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.
Technical news
- A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.
Administrators' newsletter – March 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).
Administrator changes
- Lourdes†
- AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V
- † Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.
Guideline and policy news
- The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
- Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
- A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
- A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.
Technical news
- CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
- The edit filter has a new feature
contains_allthat edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.
Miscellaneous
- Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.
Obituaries
- Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.
Deletion of User:Curzmg
I'm really not sure whether this is the best place to post this, but I deleted my page some time ago and think I made a mistake. Does a history of edits get restored along with a user page, or is that gone for good? Thank you. Curzmg (talk) 16:11, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
- I looked at the edit history of the page -- it's not gone for good, but only administrators can view it. The only substantive content that it ever had was a paragraph generally praising Wikipedia. Also, it had (what I assume is) your full name on the page. I can restore the full edit history of your user page if you want me to (or any other administrator can do so). --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:18, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).
Administrator changes
- 331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG
- Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando
Guideline and policy news
- Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
- Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
- The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
- The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.
Technical news
- There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.
Miscellaneous
- A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
- The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.
Administrators' newsletter – May 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060
Guideline and policy news
- The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
- A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.
Technical news
- AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new
equals_to_anyfunction can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash. - When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
- The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
- There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.
- AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.
Obituaries
- Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.
Administrators' newsletter – June 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington
Guideline and policy news
- Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
- Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.
Technical news
- IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
- There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
- It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.
Arbitration
- A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.
Miscellaneous
- In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.
Administrators' newsletter – July 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).
Administrator changes
- Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
- Gogo Dodo
- Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD
Bureaucrat changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
- A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.
Technical news
- Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
- Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon (
) in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates. - IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
Miscellaneous
- Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Administrators' newsletter – August 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
- Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.
Technical news
- The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.
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