User talk:Xaosflux/Archive38

Venue for WP-space scripts

Sorry, got hung up with RL things. Regarding this, was my guess right? I ask because, cascading issue aside, if we do want to deal with projectspace scripts en masse in advance of phab:T171563, VPT or AN might be a better venue than IANB. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 15:00, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer: Oh sure, I was just wondering about the list you wanted to unprotected, if they are currently be used we don't want to open any holes. Do you have a list of the ones you want to unprotect? — xaosflux ^Talk 15:19, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Regarding cascading protection, sure. Having thought about it a bit more, I'm not sure what a good course is beyond nothing. There are a lot more WP-space scripts, nearly all ancient, with varying levels of protection (most full, some semi?) and not all cascaded. I had thought to remove cascading as pointless, but I suppose someone get a sysop to add a template and then they could insert a JS-y bit into the template? Not sure if that would load. Best thing might be to just delete the entire area, in advance of its deprecation, or lower everything to semi protection, since full protection is required for JS loading. The latter would flush out folks who relied on them. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 15:56, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer: as far as removing the cascade option goes, I don't see any issue after review. As far as how to deal with these, if they are going to break, they won't be a security concern - they could still be 'template' that people could fork to userspace I suppose? — xaosflux ^Talk 17:26, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

There's no timeline on the phab, so it's a quiet risk in that any sysop can use them to execute code as long as they're full protected. I'm leaning toward batch semi-protecting 'em, but will do some digging to see if any are used much. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 17:40, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer: I'm a bit lost - you want to change all the cascading full prot scripts to semi prot to increase security? — xaosflux ^Talk 18:10, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Code in projectspace can only be imported if it's full-protected; meta:Tech/News/2018/40 is misworded, but the email in the first footnote is correct (compare this fully-protected page to this unprotected page or this semi-protected page). Removing full protection removes the ability to importScript the page, whereas until phab:T171563 is resolved any sysop may edit those scripts. Sorry for the confusion, hopefully that's a little clearer? Unrelated to that, I thought to remove cascading protection as pointless. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 19:50, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer: OK, gotcha and that was a bad technews statement for sure! Removing full protection will break these, so that's a bad idea to do without VPT/AN chat. Changing Full+Cascade to just Full seems fine, you should be able to just do it as housekeeping. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:45, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Uh-oh, did I just break something already?

Why are there a bunch of en>'s here, but not in other imported pages? Was I supposed to check the "Assign edits to local users where the named user exists locally" box? Or should I just cut-and-paste (with attribution) when I need a template at testwiki? Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 00:18, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

@Suffusion of Yellow: it is actually best the way you did it. That is a newer feature (last year) and it helps to show that the page was actually imported. For testwiki, if it is going to be there for a while, use attribution for sure, if it is only going to be there for a shortish test, just note the summary and delete when done. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:21, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

Doubt related to bots

I have recently created a bot account named Adithyakbot. The account was created as a normal user. I am interested in getting the bot approved so that I can make changes to various checkwiki error present. I would like to know what I need to do inorder to get the bot flag. I am actually not developing a bot instead, I am interested in doing them only by using AWB without the use of any scripts.Adithyak1997 (talk) 15:46, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Adithyak1997:, if you will be making repetitive minor corrections that shouldn't require checking by others, using a bot flagged account with AWB is a good idea (as it keeps the edits off of the normal watchlist and recent changes patrol feeds). To request bot status, please see WP:BRFA. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Edittools request

Hi,

Just wondering if you're waiting for feedback on the Edittools request. I can ask at WProject Linguistics if you are. — kwami (talk) 01:59, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 04:39, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

Re edit filter in Admin Inactivity Discussion (redux)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T216827

Hi Xaosflux -- I also found [1], [2], [3] in Feb 2019 and [4], [5] in Jan 2019. Those are all to Picture of the Day (POTD), but there's a similar daily-dated system for On this Day (OTD), Today's Featured Article (TFA), and Today's Featured List (TFL; currently weekly). They're linked off main-page talk in the Main Page toolbox. As far as my limited knowledge goes, they are fully protected ~24 hours before going live, then (I think) unprotected after they've run. Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 04:20, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

thank you for the note, looks like a bug in that the 'page_restrictions_edit' value is not getting populated when the protection type is inherited via cascade; I'll get a phab ticket open on it! — xaosflux Talk 12:53, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Note to self, recent example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:AbuseFilter/examine/1131845088 — xaosflux ^Talk 12:54, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Ah, that makes sense; a lot of the main-page components do fall under inherited protection. Thanks for investigating! Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 13:22, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

@Espresso Addict: phab:T216827 opened on this, thanks for reporting! — xaosflux ^Talk 14:42, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

OutreachDashboardBot

Hi Xaosflux. Regarding this, it's probably most efficient to just add the confirmed flag. I'm not sure I fully understand the user rights history, so I'll just leave it with you. It might also hopefully prevent it being constantly reported to UAA/BOT, but if not I'll whitelist it (you'll see it's already been blocked once). -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 21:56, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

@Zzuuzz: I updated 527 to avoid this false positive. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:05, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Also added confirmed. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:07, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. It also needed whitelisting for the UAA bot, which I've now done. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 21:38, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Event Coordinator StatusMcbrarian

Thanks for giving me event coordinator status! The event is now over. Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to turn it off or just allow it to expire. Thanks again! Mcbrarian (talk) 13:03, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

Inactive bureaucrat

Hi. Looking back, I have a question about Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard/Archive 40#Inactive bureaucrat removal, which you posted on March 1: why wasn't User:Pakaran, who last edited in February 2018 ([6]) included under provision 1? (Bureaucrat accounts that have been completely inactive for at least one calendar year (without any edits or other logged actions) may have their bureaucrat permissions removed.) Was this an oversight? Or did I miss something? Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 08:31, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Special:Log/Pakaran: Logged action in Sept 2018. –xeno^talk 10:09, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

@DannyS712: what xeno said. Just FYI, as crat critera 1 is the same as the admin criteria, we track them along with Wikipedia:Inactive_administrators. For the other criteria, we track under Wikipedia:Bureaucrat_activity. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 14:28, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Thanks --DannyS712 (talk) 17:42, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

How'd you do that?

(No, it's not a new TV series, but it could be). Just curious...as to why there's no edit history for that section of the discussion, or am I looking in the wrong place by simply clicking on view history? ^Atsme 📣 📧 17:32, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

@Atsme: it was a copy-and-paste text move only, the original history and attributions for those edits are on the main page. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:42, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Thank you ^Atsme 📣 📧 19:06, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Trigger fingers

Looks like we both were waiting to pull the trigger. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WP Japan! 01:16, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Question

Hello, thank you for your work on wikipedia. I am a newer user. I got the message that you instituted the following: " (User rights log); 15:36 Xaosflux (talk | contribs) changed group membership for Novitchka2000 from confirmed user to (none) ‎(-confirmed, is now autoconfirmed) Tag: PHP7 " What does this mean? Also, I've had a question about a citation for a page I started (For Rita Gonzalez) Do you have any suggestions about where to get an answer on the citation related question? I posted my question on the Talk area of the page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Rita_Gonzalez#[Question_about_Citation] Thank you Novitchka2000 (talk) 18:16, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Novitchka2000:, that "rights log" is standard maintenance. It looks like you were an event attendee and someone set a temporary override to some of the restrictions that brand new users have. Since you are not "brand new" anymore (you are now 'autoconfirmed') the temporary override is not longer needed. Judging by this edit you made, I take it you got your answer about that citation. In any case, welcome to Wikipedia and happy editing, — xaosflux ^Talk 19:13, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:1976 Tangshan earthquake

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:1976 Tangshan earthquake. Legobot (talk) 04:47, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Confusion

This page is ridiculously large. If nothing else, think of users with mobile devices.

At 2019-03-14 02:19:55 you restored Wikipedia:Outreach Dashboard/Queen Mary, University of London/Research Methods Film but left the speedy delete tag in place. What did you want to happen to the page? — RHaworth (talk · contribs) 09:32, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

@RHaworth: archived a bunch, regarding those pages - thought someone else was working on them a bit quicker, but they should be csd tag declined for right now at least, there is a discussion at Wikipedia:Education_noticeboard#Speedy_Deletions_of_Outreach_Dashboard_pages. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 12:01, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

My talk page

Thanks for helping with that. If the harassment continues, I may ask you to close my account. I feel I have contributed a lot to the project but I don't have time to spend playing whack-a-mole with Mark Bourrie's stalker(s) reverting all my edits and putting crap all over the encyclopedia. Spoonkymonkey (talk) 15:44, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

@Spoonkymonkey: sorry for the trouble, it happens from time to time. Please note there is no "close account" process, however you can always start a new account (see Wikipedia:Clean start for information on that). — xaosflux ^Talk 15:58, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

I hate to walk away from 11 years of edits. I look at my last 50 edits and it's all dealing with this garbage. I enjoy spending quiet time finding historical articles translated from European Wikipedia and improving them. I also have come across Canadians who have been targeted for BLP violations. That's why I have held on pretty hard to the Mike Duffy and Mark Bourrie pages. Duffy was the focus of a lot of bile during the Canadian Senate expense scandal. That's pretty much old news now. Bourrie is targeted by at least one Canadian. The page is as solid as a rock. I've sourced every fact from the spelling of his wife's name on down. I think it needs protection for a while, as it has been vandalized a lot these past few days. Spoonkymonkey (talk) 16:05, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

@Spoonkymonkey: If you see pages being disrupted, please post at WP:RFPP for page protection requests (this can be for your own page as well). — xaosflux ^Talk 16:13, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

And Duffy paid you to edit his page.[7]

Here's one now. Spoonkymonkey (talk) 16:53, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Interaction ban violation

A couple days or so ago I read Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:The Ministry of Truth/Userboxes/Fascist and noticed the page had been speedily deleted. RHaworth was the deleting administrator. I left a few notes on their talk page (a higher level of concern was reached when I noticed the deletion was one of many by checking RHaworth's deletion log). I eventually opened up Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2019 March 15#User:The Ministry of Truth/Userboxes. I will also note that "[most of the pages in question were] deleted [by RHaworth] without anyone else's suggestion" (see here); as I am unable to view deleted page history, I can only see who deleted pages and not who placed speedy deletion requests.

This edit at Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2019 March 15#User:The Ministry of Truth/Userboxes clearly violates the "neither may comment or edit in any way on or about XFD's started by the other, in any venue, other than in circumstances covered by Wikipedia:Banning_policy#Exceptions to limited bans" clause of the "Legacypac and Godsy" interaction ban logged at Wikipedia:Editing restrictions/Placed by the Wikipedia community.

There are many times where I have been involved with pages and have been prevented from participating in discussions started by the other party due to the interaction ban, e.g. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Draft:Kissing Candice (band) (where I was pinged as was in this case for the other party; I was also the user who placed the {{promising draft}} tag on the page) and Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:A2soup/Don't use draftspace (see here). I also browse through WP:MFD daily, and it is not uncommon that the other party has started 25-50% or so of the discussions there. I rarely start XfD discussions, so this clause rarely effects the other party.

Also pinging Ivanvector and Lourdes, two administrators who were recently involved with a matter related to the interaction ban (i.e. User talk:Godsy/Archive/2019#February 2019).

— Godsy ^(TALK_CONT) 17:14, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

@Godsy: what do you want done? For ban enforcement or clarification/adjustments, please post at WP:AN or WP:ANI. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:20, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It is a community restriction (as opposed to one from the arbitration committee) so I do not think those are the proper venues. User talk:Legacypac/Archive 14#Admin assistance requested recently resulted in me receiving a block (then eventually an unblock due to the retroactive an/i discussion) in relation to the i-ban. I chose this page because you closed the interaction ban thread; WP:BANEX seems to allow "asking an administrator to take action against a violation of an interaction ban by another user." I guess I think the other party should be issued a block (I am not sure for how long) and perhaps the comment at Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2019 March 15#User:The Ministry of Truth/Userboxes should be struck. If you, Ivanvector, or Lourdes (or any other administrator watching this page) does not wish to take any action, I guess I am content with letting the matter rest.

On an aside, I find this interaction ban perpetually frustrating. Have to check who started a deletion discussion or edited a page last before editing to avoid an actual or seeming violation of the ban is a large, tiresome burden. — Godsy ^(TALK_CONT) 17:44, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Feel free to {{moved to}} this to my talk page if you do not want it here. Warm regards, — Godsy ^(TALK_CONT) 17:47, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

@Godsy: I'm a bit swamped right now so don't have time to dive in to this matter right now, unless there is something that some process requires only me to act on (please let me know) - that's why I referred you to the noticeboards. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:41, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

5 years?

I was looking through all the policies and I could only see the 2 & 3 year one. Where is the 5 year? -- Amanda (aka DQ) 06:12, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

@DeltaQuad: (talk page stalker) see WP:ADMIN#Restoration of adminship and Special:Permalink/828580847#RFC: Slight tweak to lengthy inactivity policy. --DannyS712 (talk) 06:13, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Damnit, I only had to read one line further. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 06:16, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-12

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

• When you use rollback you will be able to get a confirmation prompt on most wikis. It asks you if you wanted to do the rollback. This is to avoid misclicks. You will have to opt in to get it. On German Wikipedia it will be an opt-out feature from 28 March. [8][9]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 March. It will be on all wikis from 21 March (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Admins will be able to block someone from editing a page or a namespace. This already works on a few Wikimedia wikis. You can read more. If your wiki wants to be an early tester of this, you can tell the developers. [10]
• Toolforge will shut down the Ubuntu Trusty job grid. This will happen the week of 25 March. Tools that use this grid needs to be moved to the new Debian Stretch job grid. If they haven't, they will be taken offline. Maintainers can restart the tools later. Users may not be able to use them in the meanwhile. You can see a list of affected tools.

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19:44, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Ministry of Transport

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Ministry of Transport. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Bot Subst'ing

Hi. I saw this log entry, and was wondering if it would be a good idea to file a BRFA to substitute them. I know its better to substitute from the start, but either way, shouldn't the message be substituted at some point? Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 07:40, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

@DannyS712: I don't think that is a good idea, deleting the page may actually be a better solve. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:51, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

GreenC bot 11

Previously you suggested: This needs more live edits, and likely an extended ramp-up trial with batches and pauses; we've done these before and as long as you are ok with it, should help (e.g. 500 edits, then a 1 week pause for comment, ... 1000 edits, another week pause....). Would you be able to help arrange/approve this? I feel like the bot is stuck in limbo. -- GreenC 13:32, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

@GreenC: I'll try to get to it soon, we have a huge backlog right now :( — xaosflux ^Talk 14:46, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

@GreenC: (talk page stalker) sorry about that, I caused a large part of the backlog. --DannyS712 (talk) 17:18, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-13

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

• The new version of the content translation tool will be used for all new translations. The older version will still be used for translations that were started with it. Most users won’t see any change. More than 80% of the published translations are already using the new version. [11]

Problems

• There was a problem with editing with Safari on iOS. When you wrote an edit summary you couldn't save the edit. This has now been fixed. [12]
• The editing toolbar sometimes disappears when you scroll on iOS devices. This will be fixed soon. [13]
• Wikis can over-ride interface messages on-wiki. A problem meant that sometimes an old versions of any changed messages were shown instead. This included the sitenotice and other important parts of the interface. This was fixed at around 2019-03-22 16:00 (UTC). Logged-out users may still get the wrong message. Purging the page should fix it for them. [14]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 March. It will be on all wikis from 28 March (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

18:05, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

.js help

Hello Xaosflux, I was wondering if you could help me with an adaption of a user script, the maintainer has not edited for almost three years. The version I'm working off of is User:Equazcion/OneClickArchiver.js, my version is here User:FlightTime/OneClickArchiver.js. My concern is, I'd like to remove the scripts placement of {{clear}} as seen here. Some times I can figure out these things, but here I just don't know what exactly to remove from the script, any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, - FlightTime (open channel) 18:11, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) FlightTime the issue is that the script you actually have installed is User:Technical 13/Scripts/OneClickArchiver.js. In there, where the {{clear}} comes from is very clear (from the line sectionContent = '\n\n{{Clear}}\n' + sectionContent;). Galobtter (pingó mió) 18:18, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

@Galobtter: Yeah, I've been using the script since Technical 13 wrote it. So if I just remove that line you posted, I'll be good ? - FlightTime (open channel) 18:22, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

@FlightTime: yes, you should be (another (talk page stalker)). But, I would advise against removing it completely. If you don't want the clear template, I would leave it as '\n\n' + sectionContent, to ensure that there is at least some spacing between sections, especially given that as far as I can tell there isn't a newline at the end of sectionContent by default, so using the script twice could result in the section heading of a new topic being one the same line of the end of the previous topic, and thus not being treated like a section heading. --DannyS712 (talk) 18:25, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

FlightTime, I put a fixed version at User:FlightTime/OneClickArchiver.js - the line is still necessary to prepend a new line, but the {{clear}} can be removed. Galobtter (pingó mió) 18:29, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

@Galobtter and DannyS712: Thank you both for your help, it is appreicated. - FlightTime (open channel) 18:34, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Guess I'll just pass out lemonade :D — xaosflux ^Talk 18:36, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, that sounds great. - FlightTime (open channel) 00:09, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, Xaosflux. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 00:07, 28 March 2019 (UTC). 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.

- FlightTime (open channel) 00:07, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Music/Music genres task force/Colours

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Music/Music genres task force/Colours. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Protection level for Clade template and module

I think it would be better to grant Jts1882 template editor rights, rather than lower the protection of the template and module, which will result in significant disruption if incorrectly edited or vandalized. Jts1882 has amply demonstrated competence. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:49, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: I'm at work right now, so don't have time to review that request - but didn't want to hold him up in the meantime. If they get that access I'm fine with anyone re-raising the protection level. I did set it at extended-confirmed, and it has <5000 transclusions so it's not a big risk during the interim. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:52, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Regardless, this is still a highly used template with a transclusion rate of 4312, template protection should be restored. Just my opinion. - FlightTime (open channel) 17:54, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

@FlightTime: 4000 is certainly visible, and this is on many articles, but it is not easy to accidentally edit this (not like it's a navbox for example) and I can't recall any recent extended confirmed template vandals (got any examples?). I left a note on that perm request, assuming the request is strong and it gets granted, the closing admin is welcome to re-raise the protection level. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:15, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

No I have no examples, just stating my opinion, however I trust your judgement. - FlightTime (open channel) 18:18, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:The Transhumanist/QuickPortal.js

In case you miss my ping, can you do the blanking for Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:The Transhumanist/QuickPortal.js? I'm not an interface admin so I can't. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 21:02, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 21:23, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

EVC granted to JJBullet

Saw that you granted EVC to JJBullet yesterday, but I think they may just be testing/hat-collecting. Their initial edit said they just wanted the perm to test things out. They then granted themselves confirmed and created a few test accounts, although one (Jervvg) might be valid (although it seems similar to their previous username (Jeriqui123; see also JeriBot request). They just went on a perm-requesting spree (which I've declined), despite barely editing outside user/user talk space, not to mention their BrfA and malformed request for testwiki bureaucrat. I figured you might want to touch base with them, to say the least. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 11:09, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

My Account Jervvg is an alt account for JJBullet, I know it may seem close to JerBot this is only a mere coincidence, sorry if I have caused any drama. ~~ JJBullet 11:56, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer: thanks for the note, I'm usually very lenient on EVC, I'm thinking about adding the +10d conf process to User:OutreachDashboardBot, at that point a huge number of these EVC requests can go away, using the dashboard usually leads to a more structured process. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:08, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

My Role

Hi There, Recently you added the events coordinator role onto my account, I have just had confirmation that the event is no longer happening at my college, sorry to be a pain, please can you remove it ~~ JJBullet 11:53, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I've done this. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 12:00, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

@JJBullet: you are all set. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:08, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Thanks ~~ JJBullet 12:09, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Log correction

Hi. I saw this log entry you made, with a link to Special:Permalink/89416823. It could just be that the revision was deleted (but I don't think so, since the last deletion log entry for WP:BN is from November), but I think you meant to link to Special:Permalink/889416119, which has the relevant request. I have seen in the past admins/bureaucrats reverse log entries to remake them with a corrected summary, and wanted to alert you to this potential error. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 03:10, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I think rather it was intended to be Special:Permalink/889416823 (missing 8 up front). ~ Amory (u • t • c) 09:17, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

@Amorymeltzer and DannyS712: I made a clarification log entry for the records. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:26, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Cool, thanks --DannyS712 (talk) 15:27, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's weekly journal about Wikipedia and Wikimedia

• From the editors: Getting serious about humor
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• Traffic report: Exultations and tribulations
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• Recent research: Barnstar-like awards increase new editor retention
• From the archives: Esperanza organization disbanded after deletion discussion
• Humour: The Epistolary of Arthur 37
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Tech News: 2019-14

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

• Notifications tell you about things that happen on the wiki. You can turn on notifications about new links to pages you created. For performance reasons you can no longer get e-mails about this. [15]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 April. It will be on all wikis from 4 April (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 3 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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16:29, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

WP:REFUND request

Hello XF: please restore all the subpages of Portal:Nudity you deleted as a result of that portal's AfD; that portal has been restored. Since there are now assessments as to whether the single-page or multi-page versions are better for the encyclopedia, the only way these assessments can proceed is if the subpages are restored. Thanks in advance, UnitedStatesian (talk) 21:23, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

 Not done @UnitedStatesian: however this should be considered at the active discussion Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Nudity (2nd nomination) and I leave a note there. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:43, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Sino-Vietnamese conflicts, 1979–1991

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Sino-Vietnamese conflicts, 1979–1991. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Primefac's RfB

Hello 92.19.173.101, I have participated in that RfB by voting, so am recusing myself from anything to do with the reviewing or clerking of it. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:19, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

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

Administrator changes

Reaper Eternal • ThaddeusB

Bogdangiusca • Christopher Parham • Necrothesp • Schneelocke • Siroxo • Sarah

Mentifisto → Lofty abyss

Interface administrator changes

Mr. Stradivarius

Bureaucrat changes

DeltaQuad

Kingturtle

Technical news

• In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the {{ARBPIA 1RR editnotice}} edit notice.

Miscellaneous

• Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
• As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Mail

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

Its not from Meg Ryan though —usernamekiran(talk) 22:40, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject HBO

Don't forget to clean up your leftovers. There are lots of subpages, templates, and categories that can be safely G6/G8'd. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 02:16, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-15

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

• More wikis are now testing visual editor section editing for mobile users. You can read more.
• Admins on French and Polish Wikipedia can block someone from editing a page or a namespace. If your wiki wants to get these blocks before they are available to all wikis, you can tell the developers. [16][17]

Problems

• You will be able read but not edit most wikis for 30 minutes on 11 April at 05:00 (UTC). This is because of a hardware problem. You can see a list of the affected wikis. [18]
• A map update caused some problems on 29 March and 30 March. It was rolled back. [19]
• Pages on some Wikivoyages had problems with the top headline. This has been fixed. [20]

Changes later this week

• When you add an edit summary the VisualEditor will search your recent edit summaries in case you want to re-use one. This works in both the visual and wikitext modes on desktop. It also works on the mobile site. [21]
• The Wikimedia wikis will get a URL shortener. This will work from 11 April. You can read more. [22]
• The {{REVISIONID}} magic word will no longer work. This is for performance reasons. When you preview a page it will return "" (empty string). When you read a page it will return "-" (dash). For now this will only affect content namespaces. [23]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 April. It will be on all wikis from 11 April (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 10 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• You will be able to preview references. This means that when you hover over the link you will get a popup that shows you a preview of the reference. It will work much like page previews. This is so you don't have to go to the bottom of the page to see a reference. This will now be available as a beta feature on German and Arabic Wikipedia. [24][25]
• The Wikidata JSON output will change. Empty containers will be serialised as empty objects. This is a breaking change that will affect tools that use JSON outputs and APIs. It will happen on 30 April. You can read more and see how to test your code.

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

18:24, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Bureaucrat chat

Hi there. If you are recusing then I don't think the "notes" are appropriate. Please comment on the talk page like everyone else. Thanks — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:38, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Hi @MSGJ: brief comments in recusals are fairly common, but sure - moved to talk. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:46, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/RexxS/Bureaucrat chat

I've opened a bureaucrat chat for a current RfA. Your input would be most appreciated at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/RexxS/Bureaucrat chat. Best regards, Maxim_(talk) 22:08, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Article titles

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Article titles. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-16

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

• All wikis now have the TemplateWizard for the wikitext editor.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 April. It will be on all wikis from 18 April (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Wikidata will get a new constraint status called suggestion. This will change how the WikibaseQualityConstraints constraint checking API works. [26][27]
• You can test the depicts property for structured data on Commons.

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

23:00, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). Legobot (talk) 04:28, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Resolution

Template:Resolution has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Izno (talk) 16:57, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Ambox important.svg

Hi there,

I think there's something wrong with File:Ambox important.svg, either with the file or with Wikipedia's caching. If you download the SVG, you don't get the file that's shown in the PNG renders, instead it's a weird face-like image made with potrace. Can you have a look into this, as the file was uploaded and protected by you.

Thanks in advance. -Einstein95 (talk) 16:12, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

@Einstein95: it looks like @Nick: is doing some work on this file? We should have a protected local copy though. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:56, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure what has happened, the SVG code for the file on Commons was different to the code for the local file here on en.wp, yet when I tried to overwrite the local file with the SVG taken from Commons, en.wp wouldn't allow this as it considered both files to be identical. I had to delete the local file and upload the file from Commons as a completely fresh upload, rather than as a new version of an existing content. I and others I've asked have confirmed the code for the SVG files on both Commons and en.wp now match, but it's exceptionally odd. I can find no reason for this variation in the SVG code to exist. I don't know if it's worth a Phab ticket (or a sweep through Phab for similar issues). Nick (talk) 17:20, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Subpages

Hey XF, I saw you were the deleting admin. on the MfD of Portal:24. This portal has a bunch of subpages as well; can you take care of them or do I have to tag each subpage with CSD G8 myself instead? Thanks! UnitedStatesian (talk) 02:36, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

@UnitedStatesian: thanks for the note, I think I got them now - let me know if you see any others I missed. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:20, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

I am impressed.

Hi Xaosflux,

Judging by your user page, you are an administrator of (almost) everything here, and you've made 59k edits. I am impressed :-) Vikom ^talk 05:36, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

@Vikom: I've just been around a while, there are many with more contributions than me! Check out Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:03, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Academic Journals/Journals cited by Wikipedia/Questionable1

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Academic Journals/Journals cited by Wikipedia/Questionable1. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cockatoos

You closed this as delete. However, malformed batching of two further pages remains in limbo. The pages Portal:Larks and Portal:Macaws are still tagged, but undeleted.

It looks to me like there was consensus to delete them too. But whatever you conclude, please can you either delete them or untag them? They are kinda in limbo for now.

Thanks! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 05:36, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

@BrownHairedGirl: deleted them as well, let me know if you need anything else on this! — xaosflux ^Talk 13:37, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 11:28, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-17

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

• The advanced search function URL now shows which namespaces you search in. The namespace field is collapsed by default on the search page. You can also add new fields to the search interface through a hook. [28][29][30]
• The wikis now look slightly different in the mobile web version. [31]

Changes later this week

• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Wikipedia articles will have the sameAs meta property. It adds structured data. This makes it easier for search engines to find Wikipedia articles. It also makes it easier to reuse content. There will an A/B test. [32][33]

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

19:08, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

I need your help.

Hi Xaosflux,

We had a discussion about Protection policy. But several days ago when I wanted to edit an article about Michael Jackson I immediately realized that the "30/500 protection" rule applies to me too. I have been editing the English Wikipedia for over 10 years, and made over 1500 edits under various IPs. I've never been blocked neither here nor in Polish Wikipedia, where I've made 2,384 edits so far. Am I eligible to get extended rights? If so, could you help me? On the other hand, the Wikipedia official policy reads: "Unless you are requesting confirmation for a legitimate alternate account your request will almost certainly be denied." Do I have any chance? Vikom ^talk 02:56, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

@Vikom: we don't consider unregistered or off-project edits towards ECP. One of the reasons for this is that it is used for 2 primary purposes: Vandalism by (mostly throwaway) confirmed accounts, but also to enforce page restrictions on all editors as determined by the arbitration committee (even good faith, good content edits). On pages such as Michael Jackson, the protection isn't 'recent' or related to an arbcom restriction - so you can ask the last protecting admin, EdJohnston (as they are recently otherwise active) to reduce it, or appeal it at WP:RFPP. — xaosflux ^Talk 03:06, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for so fast response. BTW, could you please delete permanently my IP numbers from the history? Vikom ^talk 03:51, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Wow, you actually did it. Thank you so much :-) Vikom ^talk 13:27, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

It was a reasonable request, and we try to be reasonable here! Note, those edits are still available to admins - as they are not conclusive evidence of account to address linking in my opinion - if you want a second opinion on that you can request further redaction using the process at Wikipedia:Oversight. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 16:11, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

I read carefully what you wrote but could not understand some things, and this is probably a language issue. Well, my English (a second language) is good enough to read The New York Times articles on any subject without a dictionary and I understand what I read directly in English without translating anything to my native language, which is Polish. Bragging is not my intention but I will provide some essential information about me to make our communication easier. So, I am, by vocation and avocation, a programmer, geek and philosopher. However, I can not understand this:

• "they are not conclusive evidence of account to address linking in my opinion"

So far, I have understood that

• in your opinion they (= those, already deleted, edits?) are not conclusive evidence of account (=a Wikipedia user account?) to address (?) linking (which?).

What do you mean by "to address linking"? The word "address" can mean many different things. I know them all, but what exactly did you mean? I believe that you know what you are talking about. The problem is that language (especially English) is ambiguous. In this case even context does not help. Could you please be more specific? I will be very grateful. Vikom ^talk 15:17, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

@Vikom: If I say "I edited using User:127.0.0.1" it is not conclusive, because I can say anything I want. Compare to a checkuser stating "Xaosflux edited using 127.0.0.1" - this is conclusive, as they have both the trust and the ability to verify that statement. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:30, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

New message from DannyS712

Hello, Xaosflux. You have new messages at Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard.
Message added 05:03, 28 April 2019 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

DannyS712 (talk) 05:03, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

Replied there. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:09, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-18

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

• The Wikipedia app for Android now invites users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. [34][35]

Problems

• Tech News was late last week because of a MassMessage bug. Other newsletters had the same problem. [36]

Changes later this week

• You will see when you last refreshed the recent changes page. This is so you can see how recent the changes are. [37]
• When you write a comment in Structured Discussions but have not posted it yet your web browser will save it in local storage instead of session storage. This means you do not lose them even if you close your web browser. Structured Discussions used to be called Flow. [38]
• You will be able to turn off milestone notifications. Milestone notifications congratulate you when you have made certain numbers of edits. [39]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 May. It will be on all wikis from 2 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 1 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The Wikidata wb_terms table will be dropped. This will affect some Wikidata tools. They need to be updated. The table has become too big which is causing problems. This will happen on 29 May. You can read more. You can ask for help if you need it.
• Wikimedia wikis will soon use a token when you log out. This changes how the API works. Some tools might need to be updated. [40]

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

22:27, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship. Legobot (talk) 04:33, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 April 2019

• News and notes: An Action Packed April

• In the media: Is Wikipedia just another social media site?

• Discussion report: English Wikipedia community's conclusions on talk pages

• Featured content: Anguish, accolades, animals, and art

• Arbitration report: An Active Arbitration Committee

• Traffic report: Mötley Crüe, Notre-Dame, a black hole, and Bonnie and Clyde

• Technology report: A new special page, and other news

• Gallery: Notre-Dame de Paris burns

• News from the WMF: Can machine learning uncover Wikipedia’s missing “citation needed” tags?

• Recent research: Female scholars underrepresented; whitepaper on Wikidata and libraries; undo patterns reveal editor hierarchy

• From the archives: Portals revisited

• Humour: Jimbo and Larry walk into a bar ...

• Opinion: The gaps in our knowledge of our gaps

• Interview: Katherine Maher marks 3 years as executive director

• Community view: 2019 Wikimedia Summit gathers movement affiliate representatives to discuss movement strategy

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:38, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Event Dashboard

@Xaosflux: Thank you very much for letting me know that we could create new accounts using our event dashboard! This will be very helpful for our upcoming event and future events.

ArbCom 2019 special circular

Administrators must secure their accounts The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised. Use strong, unique passwords for your Wikipedia account and associated email Change your password now if your Wikipedia account password or email password is reused on another website, exposed, or weak Enable two-factor authentication now for improved security

View additional information

Why have I received this message? All administrators are receiving it. What prompted you to send this message? Recently, several Wikipedia admin accounts were compromised. The admin accounts were desysopped on an emergency basis. In the past, the Committee often resysopped admin accounts as a matter of course once the admin was back in control of their account. The committee has updated its guidelines. Admins may now be required to undergo a fresh Request for Adminship (RfA) after losing control of their account. What do I need to do? Only to follow the instructions in this message. Check that your password is unique (not reused across sites). Check that your password is strong (not simple or guessable). Enable Two-factor authentication (2FA), if you can, to create a second hurdle for attackers. How can I find out more about two-factor authentication (2FA)? You can find out more about 2FA at m:2FA.

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:30, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

I need your help again

I hope that you remember me :-)

I have a problem :-( Some Wikipedian reverted my 7 consecutive edits, then restored only one. These edits took me a lot of time and effort. Were they all wrong? Really? Could you please take a look at them? Vikom ^talk 03:27, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

@Vikon: please see WP:BRD, to discuss your edits further, bring it up at Talk:Black hole. — xaosflux ^Talk 00:23, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)

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

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

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

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

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019

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

Administrator changes

HickoryOughtShirt?4 • RexxS

Necrothesp

Bratsche • Kyle Barbour • Kzollman • Madman

Interface administrator changes

Pharos

Bureaucrat changes

Primefac

CheckUser changes

Reaper Eternal

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment concluded that creating pages in the portal namespace should be restricted to autoconfirmed users.
• Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

• A request for comment is currently open to amend the community sanctions procedure to exclude non XfD or CSD deletions.
• A proposal to remove pre-2009 indefinite IP blocks is currently open for discussion.

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

Tech News: 2019-19

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

• Special:Watchlist can show the wrong information. It does not always show which edits are read and which are unread. The developers are working on solving the problem. [41]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 May. It will be on all wikis from 9 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 8 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

16:27, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/China and Chinese-related articles

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/China and Chinese-related articles. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). Legobot (talk) 04:30, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-20

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

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 May. It will be on all wikis from 16 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 15 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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00:48, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for May 14

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Minoan Moulds of Palekastro, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page BC (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:27, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Video games

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Video games. Legobot (talk) 04:31, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thanks for fixing all those fully-protected double redirects relating to MedCom for me! SemiHypercube ✎ 02:29, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	For implementing all of my edit requests at Template talk:Protected page text and elsewhere {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 02:44, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

@Pppery: certainly, I know it is a slow process sometimes - but we want to be very careful with some of the interface messages, keep up the good work. — xaosflux ^Talk 03:15, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-21

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

• The report for phase 1 of the talk pages consultation 2019 has been published. Communities are invited to start phase 2 of the consultation on their wikis.

Problems

• File descriptions for files from Commons were not shown properly on other Wikimedia wikis for a few days. For example the image descriptions and license information were missing. This has now been fixed. [42][43]
• Some diffs show an error message when you try to see them. The developers are working on fixing it. It could be because of some edit comments. [44][45]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 May. It will be on all wikis from 23 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 22 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The content translation tool on Wikipedia can use machine translations. There is a system to stop translations where the editors do not fix machine translation mistakes. This warns or stops them if they seem to just copy what the machine translation gives them. If this system is too strict or not strict enough you can tell the language team. [46]
• The Wikidata wbeditentity API endpoint will remove all aliases if the request includes an empty alias. This is how it supposed to work. It has not been working this way because of a bug. This will start on 12 June. [47]

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

13:04, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

Displaying personal email

Hi all, i have noticed that a certain user has given out their personal email on his/hers User Page, i wanted to ask you if this is allowed before i hand out a warning.... many thnaks - JJBullet (Talk) 10:40, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

@JJBullet: it is not against policy in general, but if it is a minor or being done in a spammy way it may be best to remove. I wouldn't "warn" them unless it is overly promotion, but for anyone you may want to suggest they remove it if you don't think they understand that it will be harvested. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:32, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

YGM

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

JJBullet 13:59, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 19:51, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

User:Edit filter

Hi. I just came across User:Edit filter. I saw that it was an administrator, but you removed that per Special:Permalink/876634428#Abusefilter_blocker_account. However, I wanted to let you know that the account is still flagged as an admin, likely due to it being "hard-coded" into the abuse filter extension - see Quarry:query/36217. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 19:21, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

@DannyS712: yes, one of the software jobs is readding it even when not needed phab:T212268 and its related tasks may fix it one day. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:49, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

Quickdraw McGraw

You beat me to even finishing the thought 'I should probably request temporary sysop at BN...'. Fastest flags in the west! SQL^{Query me!} 03:19, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Bayer designation

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Bayer designation. Legobot (talk) 04:27, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

Question on bot policy

I'm considering renaming a bot of mine that used to hold the flag (I requested the removal). Do I have to request another BRFA or note something somewhere? --qedk (t 桜 c) 20:10, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

@QEDK: the "rename" part is not really relevant. To request a new bot flag (and more importantly to reactivate or start a new bot task) then yes, file a BRFA please. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:37, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

No worries, I'll file a new BRFA. --qedk (t 桜 c) 22:06, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-22

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

• Big changes to the replica database will happen on 3 June. Some tools on Cloud Services will stop working if the maintainers do not update them to use the new schema. This probably affects tools that query for revisions or log entries made by a user. [48][49]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 May. It will be on all wikis from 30 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 29 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

15:33, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

19 Kids and Counting

Just wondering why the Duggar family page no longer includes grandchildren? It was really helpful to know who is having babies when! (some unsigned)

Read through the associated talk page, I think it is being discussed there. — xaosflux ^Talk 05:01, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Hoping to see the 19 kids and counting updated soon (some unsigned)

Please updated the duggar family page. Please put back on the grandchildren. Lauren and Josiah are expecting after a miscarriage. She deserves to have people celebrate her expecting a baby. Deedeelovescharlie (talk) 02:45, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

I don't normally edit that page, try it's talk page. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:47, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

@Deedeelovescharlie: see above. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:40, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

The discussion is open here: Talk:19_Kids_and_Counting#Grandbabies_and_children-in-law. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:41, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

If you are not going to update this page wish you would get it to someone who will update it (unsigned by 98.22.158.195

@98.22.158.195: see above. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:23, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

Can you please try and change the protection level for the 19 Kids and Counting Page it change the page back to how it was with the grandchildren and in-laws. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.66.185 (talk) 01:38, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Xaosflux, can you please try and change the protection level for the 19 Kids and Counting page. There is a lot of information that needs to be updated and many people do not have the ability to change it. If the protection level could be changed by you please do. If not, please change the version back to how it was before Coolsinger changed it. It was not that long ago and since you have the ability to change stuff on this page, you can revert the edit. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.80.66.185 (talk) 01:40, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Hi 67.80, see above. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:48, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Please fix the 19 Kids and Counting page numerous people have been asking for it to be changed and updated back to how it originally was. Or please change he protection level so I can edit it myself. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Superfix143 (talk • contribs) 19:39, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

@Superfix143: see above. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:50, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Why do people keep asking you this? You didn't protect the page. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 19:51, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thanks for dealing with the clutter at MfD. I've been staying away from most of the contentious ones because I'm involved, so I appreciate your work taking care of that. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 22:21, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

RevDel Request

Are you available to do a RevDel request? - Neutralhomer • Talk • 12:49 on May 30, 2019 (UTC)

Nevermind, another RevDel'er has taken care of the issue. Thanks though. :) - Neutralhomer • Talk • 13:01 on May 30, 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 May 2019

• From the editors: Picture that

• News and notes: Wikimania and trustee elections

• In the media: Politics, lawsuits and baseball

• Discussion report: Admin abuse leads to mass-desysop proposal on Azerbaijani Wikipedia

• Arbitration report: ArbCom forges ahead

• Traffic report: Dark marvels, thrones, a vile serial killer biopic, that's entertainment!

• Technology report: Lots of Bots

• News from the WMF: Wikimedia Foundation petitions the European Court of Human Rights to lift the block of Wikipedia in Turkey

• Recent research: Wikipedia more useful than academic journals, but is it stealing the news?

• Essay: Paid editing

• From the archives: FORUM:Should Wikimedia modify its terms of use to require disclosure?

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:12, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-23

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

Recent changes

• You can now write all special letters in all African Wikipedia languages. This works in the desktop version. [50]
• There is now a field called depicts on Commons. This is a way to show what is in a picture with the help of Wikidata. It is still in development. [51]
• Some tools on Toolforge may break on or after 3 June because of database changes. Maintainers should update their tools to use the new schema. [52][53]

Problems

• You will be able to read but not to edit Wikimedia Commons for 30 minutes on 19 June at 05:00 (UTC). This is to fix a hardware problem. [54]

Changes later this week

• Some wikis have one tab for the visual editor and one tab for a wikitext editor. Others wikis just have one tab. If your wiki has two tabs, clicking a link to create a new page has always opened a wikitext editor. It will now open the editor you used the last time you edited. [55]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 May. It will be on all wikis from 6 May (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 5 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

15:24, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

Citation bot at WP:AN

I started a thread at the administrator's noticeboard to try to find a way forward with this, and would welcome your participation there, as you have been involved in some of the prior discussions, and have extensive involvement in botty matters. UninvitedCompany 17:36, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

@UninvitedCompany: thanks for the note, I left a reply there, tried to keep it to the policy points, not programming issues. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:04, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

I see that the AN discussion has failed to draw the wider review that I had hoped for. I believe it is perceived as a third-rail topic by other administrators since no one wants to disagree with a prominent blocking admin, or go on the record as opposing the operation of a widely-used bot. Wikipolitics. For my part I can see both sides. I believe the best way forward is to, at the same time, unblock the bot, while also opening a formal request for reexamination at WP:BOTN. I believe it is important to unblock the bot first to avoid creating facts on the ground. Your thoughts? UninvitedCompany 16:31, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

@UninvitedCompany: in general I think most of the "making bad edits" issues seem to have been addressed by the operator, so on that consideration unblocking and resuming operations should be allowed. I think the force edit summaries to include the editor it is reacting to part is an outstanding consideration - however I don't think it is a showstopper. Policy-wise, I don't see these edits that react to requests as elevating the others to the status of "operator", as such editors do not exert autonomous control over the account. (Compare to how someone not signing an edit is not operating sign-bot). I'd want to see affirmation acknowledgement of the current operator (Smith609) that they will be responsive and take responsibility for all edits their bot makes, and that if minor adjustments are needed to meet changing standards (e.g. if a certain parameter should not be removed from a template) they will comply to the standards. Taking responsibility for edits of one's bot is a core tenant of bot operations, and "garbage in - garbage out" isn't an affirmative defense (it should be "garbage in - nothing out"), as they are always welcome to NOT make any edit. While I'm on BAG, this is not intended to be a response "for BAG". — xaosflux ^Talk 17:37, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

Copied to AN thread. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:40, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Un-move-protect Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks

In February 2018, you protected Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks, as it was linked from a system message, however it no longer is. I have just closed a WP:RM discussion that resulted in consensus to move Wikipedia:Notifications, and I have moved its subpages too, however I was not able to move Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks, due to the protection. Can you remove the protection when you get the chance, please. Danski454 (talk) 21:22, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

@Danski454: Unprotected. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:18, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

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

Administrator changes

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

CheckUser changes

Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

• The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
• The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:49, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Video games

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Video games. Legobot (talk) 04:33, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-24

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

Recent changes

• When you create a PDF from a page on the wiki this is now done by Proton. Before this we used Electron. It should look the same but work better. Both use Chromium. This is a different system from when you collect several articles into a book and make a PDF from them. [56][57]
• The Flagged Revisions extension now uses the standard OOUI icons. There will be additional minor fixes for positioning in the next deployment. [58]
• Bots and other scripts that do not set an identifiable User-Agent may find their requests strictly rate-limited until they identify themselves properly. [59]

Problems

• Please check if the Flagged Revisions configuration on your wiki is as you expect (or as it was a few weeks ago). If not, please report it. [60]

Changes later this week

• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 12 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

17:06, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

What do i do?

Hello Xaosflux, what did i do if someone is blatantly ignoring the [Wikipedia:Signatures#NoTemplates]] rule, and how do i report them?

Hello Xaosflux, what did i do if someone is blatantly ignoring the [Wikipedia:Signatures#NoTemplates]] rule, and how do i report them? ~JJBullet~ {Talk} 11:25, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

@JJBullet: first, ask them to stop. If it persists, you can list them at WP:AN/I for administrator review. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:58, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. Legobot (talk) 04:33, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-25

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 Wikimedia Commons for 30 minutes on 19 June at 05:00 (UTC). This is to fix a hardware problem. [61]

Changes later this week

• MIDI files can soon be played without the Score extension. You can then add them with [[File:Filename.midi]]. Later override_midi and override_audio will stop working. Instead you will need to add the MIDI file below the music score. [62]
• A new video player will soon replace the old one. You will be able to enable it as a beta feature in your preferences. It will later be enabled for everyone if there are no big problems. [63]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 June. It will be on all wikis from 20 June (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 19 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Some gadgets and user scripts still use the old wgEnableAPI and wgEnableWriteAPI values. These values are always true. They will soon be removed. This might break the gadgets and scripts. You should fix your gadgets to not use these values. [64]

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

20:37, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Article Wizard

Hello, Xaosflux! :)

We talked some days before about the import function. You helped me a lot with your explanation. Can I ask for your help on a different subject?

I'm an admin at the Albanian Wikiquote. Right now there there are only 5 formats how an article can be written depending on the subject. See the table of contents here. It could be useful to us if we could make a article wizard to guide the new users through one of the five formats (and maybe give a sixth option for articles that don't fit in any of those five). I was thinking something similar to the Article Wizard here. I saw your name at the revision history of one of the JS pages related to it and decided to ask. Can you help me a bit by showing me the way how to create a wizard like that so I won't need to learn everything from scratch? Any kind of help is appreciated. Maybe by showing the pages needed to make it work, the system messages related to them, a wizard similar to what I'm asking in a different Wiki or a written guide... I just wanted to ask before experimenting. I have interface administration rights so creating and editing JS/CSS pages won't be a problem.

Thank you in advance! - Klein Muçi (talk) 00:17, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

@Klein Muçi: I probably just did some minor tweak in there, I don't have much to do with that page. I did take a look, and it is mostly just some pages with buttons that are links, and an input box with a preload that gets the user to where they can eventually just click "save" (with most of that page coming from the preload template). You can walk through the process from this page: Wikipedia:Article_wizard. On the new page dialog (Make A New Page Here&action=edit example) we just have a link in the introduction text section suggesting people use it. That intro section is in: MediaWiki:Newarticletext. I don't think we're using a javascript gadget in the workflow, but I can check further if you have a specific question. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:28, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

I see. Is there any way to force all the creation process through the wizard, something similar with file uploads? That + preloaded specific sections depending on the format chosen would help create the system I described above. - Klein Muçi (talk) 02:02, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

@Klein Muçi: I don't think that is going to be an "easy" one, but I'd start looking at the article creation flow as referenced here: phab:T156442 as a starting off point. — xaosflux ^Talk 02:08, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

I will. Thank you for your help! :) - Klein Muçi (talk) 02:14, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Close

Hi, I think your close here should be undone. If you had those views, you should express them in the MfD, but the closing statement clearly goes against the consensus that the script was against policy to create. TonyBallioni (talk) 14:59, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

@TonyBallioni: what outcome are you looking for, a keep? I can amend the closing statement further to strengthen the "use of scripts like this can be disruptive" parts, but really if someone "used" this to send a message to say TWO people it wouldn't be "disruptive" would it? (Just like if you used AWB to send a message to a couple of people). — xaosflux ^Talk 15:12, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

My concern is that you substituted the community’s understanding of policy for your own. Multiple administrators and experienced users commented agreeing with the nominating statement that using a script as a way around the MMS user right was a policy violation. You don’t think it is. You have a right to that opinion, but you should not be inserting it into a closing statement when everyone else disagreed with you. The AWB example is a bad one, because there is also a check system in place where an administrator has to add you to the checklist. This script had no such safety feature and was ripe for abuse if someone actually wanted to use it for such reasons (think: porn vandal EC gaming, compromised account, etc.) The community has in the past opposed the existence of scripts that are just ways around user rights, and they opposed it again here. Your close reads as if anyone is free to recreate this on en.wiki, which was not what the consensus was. TonyBallioni (talk) 15:41, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

@TonyBallioni: OK, yes it's not appropriate for others to remake it and use it based on the discussion. I've amended the closing statement Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:DannyS712/MMS, does that alleviate your concerns? AWB is open source and can forked obviously to remove any checks, the mere existence of software is hardly disruptive - but we certainly shouldn't be doing anything that could promote misuse either. I will still happily REFUND it to testwiki if someone really wants it. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:02, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

Sure, thanks for listening. I do appreciate it :) TonyBallioni (talk) 16:03, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Naming conventions (US stations)/NYC Subway RfC

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Naming conventions (US stations)/NYC Subway RfC. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-26

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

• The new version of MediaWiki for last week was not fully released due to issues. It was removed from most wikis on Tuesday and from test wikis on Thursday. [65]
• Most wikis were slow and then briefly read-only last week due to one of the database servers having a problem. It is now replaced. [66]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 June. It will be on all wikis from 27 June (calendar).

Meetings

• You can watch or join the next Wikimedia Language showcase. It will be about the usage of Machine Translation in Wikimedia projects. The showcase will be on 26 June at 13:00 (UTC). A recording will be kept for later viewing
• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 26 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

17:29, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

Oh. Just a typo/Freudian slip

heh. At first I thought there were big new developments I wasn't aware of! --Floquenbeam (talk) 15:08, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

ty, replied there. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:27, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

No, I meant your edit summary.... --Floquenbeam (talk) 15:31, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Oh yea, certainly was a slip there, was looking at the page title to hard! — xaosflux ^Talk 16:36, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Dates

Should we be using the date they resigned or the date that the stewards finally removed the toolset? –xeno^talk 12:12, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

@Xeno: hmmm, I don't really care that much? I suppose if we link to a revision or logid, a written date with the link should be the same date as the thing it is linked to though. Feel free to edit mercilessly! — xaosflux ^Talk 12:15, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

I'll think on it. –xeno^talk 12:19, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

Vikon ?

Somehow my ID was coMfused with someone else. I am Vikon not VikoM. I did not make the edits you mention. Good luck.

Hi, I really don't know what you are talking about. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:21, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

js pages

Hi @Oshwah: VPT is kinda busy so following up here (your page looks a bit busy now as well :D ). I think I followed your concern from VPT but could be missing something. When I was referring to "import" it was about using the .js importScript command in your own js, as this is the way that people "use someone else's' scripts (e.g. in this page: Special:PermaLink/903959491). If you load someone else's script in to something that normally runs (like your skin.js/common.js) it won't actually import unless the page is in the .js content model. Is there a chain of events you would like to see checked out, we can easily do it here or on testwiki. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:07, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Hi Xaosflux! Yeahhh, it dawned on me what you were referring to with "import" after I had replied asking for clarity... lol. Thanks for responding and for following up with me here. Here's the scenario that should be tested (I'll list each step):

1. Create a new page in the user namespace, Wikipedia namespace, mainspace, or other namespace where code file pages can live. Do not give it a title that ends with ".js", ".css", or ".json"
2. Add some test code to the new page that will execute when called via the importScript function or other means.
3. Add an import function call (or similar method) to a code page that you can use and test with safely. Set the function call to import a different title in the same namespace. Make sure that the title you add ends with ".js", ".css", or ".json"
4. Move the new page you created in step one to the title that you pointed your import function call to in the previous step
5. Try editing the page using a different account that is not an interface administrator or the user whose userspace the page is currently located. Are you able to edit the code page?
6. Try calling the import function using your existing code page. Does the code execute? Will it execute after making changes to it using a different account? (assuming that you're able to edit the code page in the previous step above)

This is exactly what I was going to test. From what I was reading in that discussion on VPT, it seemed like after the user moved their incorrectly-spelled code page to a correct title, an IP was able to edit it before I changed the content model of the page. This is what started my thoughts and concerns about security and the ability to edit/call code pages here. On another thought, I notice that all pages I've looked at have been set to the "Sanitized CSS" content model by default, whether it be an article, user page, code page, whatever... so... maybe content models have nothing to do with whether or not the page receives system protection for being a code page? I'm trying to think this all out and figure out for sure how this works...... input, comments, and help would be appreciated. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 04:27, 29 June 2019 (UTC) Okkkkkayyy... I just realized that I was using Special:ChangeContentModel to view what the current content model of each page was. That doesn't work... you have to use the "Page information" link to see it. Special:ChangeContentModel's drop-down field option is labeled "New content model", meaning that the drop-down list isn't set to the current model by default, it's just set to the item on the top of the list (which is "Sanitized CSS").... I'm a fool..... ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 04:40, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

OK well that makes sense why you were seeing CSCC everywhere @Oshwah: :D. For your steps above, in #1 if you don't give it the right name when you create it, it will also automatically make it in 'wikitext' - which will not only obviously be in the wrong editor but will not be able to be imported in step 3 (since it is the wrong content model). Other steps also won't matter because step 3 doesn't work, step 6 won't work either (so it really doesn't matter who can edit in step 5). See an example of a correctly named, but wrong content model page here: User:Xaosflux/common2.js, if it is imported to my common.js it doesn't work. Am I missing something? — xaosflux ^Talk 12:14, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Xaosflux - No, you're probably not missing anything at all. So long as there's no potential security hole like I initially thought there might have been, perfect! That's the best result we could've hoped to see! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 12:17, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

@Oshwah: I'll keep poking around, I haven't found one yet. There is a small social-engineering aspect I guess, you could trick an interface-admin (or an admin for a page in their own usersapce) to change the content model to js/css after it had been tampered with, "promoting" bad code. But really, that's on us! — xaosflux ^Talk 12:20, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it's definitely on us to make sure that we're extremely diligent and careful with changes in this area. If pages created do not end with ".js", ".css", or ".json" have their content model changed to "JavaScript", etc - does the MediaWiki software allow you to import it using the importScript function and use the code like any typical code file page? I haven't tested that yet... maybe you have. Let me know. :-) Also, I amended my initial thought on VPT here. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 12:25, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

@Oshwah: yes, the js import process doesn't care about page name, just content type (e.g. you can import User:Xaosflux/common3DOTjs and it will work, since it is actually in js content model - but other non-IAdmins can't edit it, because it is in js content model). — xaosflux ^Talk 12:32, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Proposing a requirement that the target page must end with ".js", ".css", or ".json" before it can be sued as script code or imported using importScript() would help to resolve that social engineering aspect you mentioned above. The title is the first thing most admins see when they're asked to make a change to a page, and should the content model on a page without the ending requirement be changed by an admin who doesn't understand code, or who doesn't thoroughly check the page for malicious code first - it wouldn't have any effect. ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 12:42, 29 June 2019 (UTC

Oshwah, if you're curious, the conditions that prevent a page from being executed as javascript is this piece of PHP code here:

!$title->isUserJsConfigPage() &&
!$title->inNamespace( NS_MEDIAWIKI ) &&
!in_array( 'sysop', $title->getRestrictions( 'edit' ) ) &&
!in_array( 'editprotected', $title->getRestrictions( 'edit' ) )

Galobtter (pingó mió) 13:06, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Galobtter - This is definitely good information to see and know. Thank you for sharing this. :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 13:08, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Taiwan

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Taiwan. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Please can you update 19Kids and counting ASAP

This wiki page is over a month overdue with adding information on it! If you want me to take it over I will if it’s too much for you. Thanks Georgiegirl74 (talk) 05:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I'm not going to do anything else with that page, feel free to discuss on it's talk page. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:09, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

The June 2019 Signpost is out!

• Discussion report: A constitutional crisis hits English Wikipedia

• News and notes: Mysterious ban, admin resignations, Wikimedia Thailand rising

• In the media: The disinformation age

• On the bright side: What's making you happy this month?

• Traffic report: Juneteenth, Beauty Revealed, and more nuclear disasters

• Technology report: Actors and Bots

• Gallery: Unlike the North Face, Wiki Loves Earth

• Special report: Did Fram harass other editors?

• Recent research: What do editors do after being blocked?; the top mathematicians, universities and cancers according to Wikipedia

• From the archives: Women and Wikipedia: the world is watching

• Opinion: Why the Terms of Use change didn't curtail undisclosed paid editing—and what might

• In focus: WikiJournals: A sister project proposal

• Community view: A CEO biography, paid for with taxes

• Op-Ed: 2019 Wikimedia Affiliate Selected Board Seats Election Results

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:53, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019

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

Administrator changes

28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam¹ • Flyguy649 • Fram² • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe

¹Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

²Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Bureaucrat changes

28bytes • WJBscribe • Wizardman

Interface administrator changes

MSGJ • TheDJ

CheckUser changes

Beeblebrox • BU Rob13 • DoRD

Oversight changes

Beeblebrox • BU Rob13 • DoRD • GB fan

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment seeking to alleviate pressures on the request an account (ACC) process proposes either raising the account creation limit for extended confirmed editors or granting the account creator permission on request to new ACC tool users.

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

• The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
• The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
• A request for comment seeks to determine whether Wikipedia:Office actions should be a policy page or an information page.

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

• In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop Fram. This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.

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

Tech News: 2019-27

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

• The development of Wikidata Bridge has started. The goal is to allow Wikidata edits from Wikipedia. [67]

Problems

• Sometimes pages load slowly for users routed to the Amsterdam data center. Investigation is in progress. [68]
• Wikidata query service was overloaded between 11:50 UTC until 13:15 UTC on June 24. It has been fixed. [69]

Changes later this week

• You will be able to read but not to edit all wikis for a short amount of time, on 3 July at 06:00 (UTC). This is to move a database. [70]
• There is no deployment of a new version of MediaWiki on the wikis this week (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 3 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

21:23, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Otto Brixner

If you have any interest, would you take a look at the request for revdelete on my talk page. It seems a bit odd, and I won't have time to deal with it for a few days. If you have no interest (or time, given all the other goings-on here) do you know a trusted user who would? You are the lucky person I'm bugging because of your work on the talk page. I hope this is not an intrusion. All the best, 78.26 _{(spin me / revolutions)} 23:17, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

Replied at your talk, need more information. — xaosflux ^Talk 02:52, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Revision deletion

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Revision deletion. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-28

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

• For event organizers, if you request a temporary lift of the IP cap for mass account creation, this will now also raise the edit rate limit for those new accounts at the event, which will prevent another bottleneck. [71]
• Administrators at all Wiktionary, Wikivoyage, and Wikisource wikis are now able to use the new partial blocks feature. [72]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 July. It will be on all wikis from 11 July (calendar).
• The design of MediaWiki's software windows will change for desktop users. Layout will be simpler, buttons will be bolder and clearer, and close buttons will be just icons. This is like the mobile design. This will affect ContentTranslation, VisualEditor, TemplateWizard, and other tools. [73]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 10 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [74]
• There will be a change in the name format of new Wikidata RDF dumps starting on 15 July. [75]

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

20:12, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Edit request

Hi, Xaosflux, and thank you for all your help! There is a slight change needed in regard to this edit request. The rcat, {{R from more specific geographic name}}, should be removed and replaced by the rcat, {{R from alternative spelling}}. Thanks again for your help in this! Paine Ellsworth, ed. ^put'r there  01:03, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 01:43, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Please look at this again, Xaosflux. It is as follows:

• the Kyiv redirect should have {{R from alternative spelling}}, just as I requested.
• the Kiev, Ukraine redirect should be tagged with {{R from more specific geographic name}}

I'm afraid you got them reversed. Please fix. Paine Ellsworth, ed. ^put'r there  03:51, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

 Done @Paine Ellsworth: hope that fixes it, let me know if there is still a problem. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:03, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, yes, that fixes it well! Paine Ellsworth, ed. ^put'r there  10:04, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States. Legobot (talk) 04:31, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Category:Funeral homes has been nominated for discussion

Category:Funeral homes, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Rathfelder (talk) 11:21, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Rajasthan Technical University

Hii, can you please revdel 2 revisions by 42.108.248.1. Also delete the edit summary it is offensive as well (in Hindi). Thanks, Regards! -- CptViraj (📧) 17:19, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

@CptViraj: it looks like reversion (as you have done) is certainly the right response, but as far as deletion - can you point out which criteria these fall under? Machine translation is making it look like routine vandalism that is normally out of scope for redaction, but I don't read Hindi to know if these are idioms/etc. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:25, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Criteria 2 (Clearly Offensive). A student of the Rajasthan Technical University is asking to give their results in very offensive way. -- CptViraj (📧) 17:30, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

@CptViraj: done. Note: if any admin that understands Hindi thinks this is wrong and wants to overturn it, please do so without consultation. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:41, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-29

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

• The mobile web will get more advanced editing tools. Seven more Wikipedias can use them now. This works for Arabic, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai Wikipedia. You can try the tools on the mobile web and give feedback. [76]

Changes later this week

• The abuse filter system user will soon do maintenance edits on broken abuse filters. This user is called Edit filter and has administrator rights. This is meant to fix technical problems. It will not do any other changes. You can read more.
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 July. It will be on all wikis from 18 July (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add image captions to images on Commons. It will only invite users who have added a number of edits in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback. [77]

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

15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Responded at User_talk:Adam_Cuerden#Response_added

It's very frustrating that trying to document history is getting such a negative response. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 6.8% of all FPs} 01:45, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Template:Independent politician/meta/color

Why did you action the edit request to Template:Independent politician/meta/color? The #DDDDDD colour has been used for 10 years and various attempts to change it have been rejected. Sionk (talk) 20:49, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

Replied at Template talk:Independent politician/meta/color. — xaosflux ^Talk 00:39, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Restore a mass message list shell

Hi, I have moved the page Wikipedia talk:Mass message senders/Shell-0044 for an upcoming survey, according the instructions. But I am not able to restore the code, so that the empty shell remains intact. Please restore it, and also let me know how to do it. KCVelaga (talk) 03:45, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

@KCVelaga: (talk page stalker) You would need to make a new shell, but you can't. See phab:T92795. --DannyS712 (talk) 05:54, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

@KCVelaga: I'm not sure what you want to "restore"? Your moved mailing list is right here: Wikipedia:Mass message senders/Shell-STC2019IN, and you can revert to prior versions of it using the normal history tab / edit old version process. If you want to make a new list, you can just select and move any of the empty shells from here. Does that help? — xaosflux ^Talk 11:01, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-30

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

• Communities interested by easing newcomers' first steps can now benefit from the Growth team experiments on their wikis. Check the conditions and the request process.
• The Coolest Tool Award 2019 is looking for nominations. You can recommend tools by July 29. The awarded tools will be presented at Wikimania. [78]

Problems

• The release of the last version of MediaWiki (1.34.0-wmf.14) has been blocked for groups 1 and 2. [79]

Changes later this week

• Phabricator database will be moved to a different server. Writes will be blocked on Thursday 25 July, between 05:30 and 06:00 AM UTC. Reads will remain unaffected. [80]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 July. It will be on all wikis from 25 July (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 24 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Some items in the visual editor will change later this week. This will make it easier to edit links, citations, and templates on both desktop and mobile. [81][82]
• With advanced search turned on you will be able to choose the sorting order of the search results when you do a search. [83][84]
• Users who edit from IP addresses whitelisted on a request for temporary lift of the IP cap for mass account creation will bypass CAPTCHAs. This will happen in August. If you think this should not happen for some reason, please let us know.
• The variable user_wpzero will be removed from AbuseFilter. A list of filters needing a fix is provided.

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

13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

File:OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg listed for discussion

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for discussion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. © Tbhotch^™ (en-2.5). 18:31, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Aviation

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Aviation. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Floquenbeam 2/Bureaucrat chat

I've opened a bureaucrat chat for a current RfA. Your input would be most appreciated at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Floquenbeam 2/Bureaucrat chat. Primefac (talk) 19:51, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-31

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

• Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [85]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 July. It will be on all wikis from 1 August (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 31 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

21:42, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

• News and notes: Wikimedia grants less accessible for travel, equipment, meetups, and India

• In the media: Politics starts getting rough

• Discussion report: New proposals in aftermath of Fram ban

• Arbitration report: A month of reintegration

• Gallery: Classic panoramas from Heinrich Berann

• On the bright side: What's making you happy this month?

• Community view: Video based summaries of Wikipedia articles. How and why?

• News from the WMF: Designing ethically with AI: How Wikimedia can harness machine learning in a responsible and human-centered way

• Recent research: Most influential medical journals; detecting pages to protect

• Special report: Administrator cadre continues to contract

• Traffic report: World cups, presidential candidates, and stranger things

• In focus: The French Wikipedia is overtaking the German

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:18, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019

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

Administrator changes

Johnuniq • Kosack • Valereee

Ad Orientem • Ched • Gadfium • Jonathunder • Nick • Yelyos

Bald Zebra • Beetstra • Doug Bell • Journalist • Ruud Koot • Splash • Voice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

Dinoguy1000

CheckUser changes

RickinBaltimore

Oversight changes

Beeblebrox

RickinBaltimore

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, the page Wikipedia:Office actions has been changed from a policy page to an information page.
• A request for comment (permalink) is in progress regarding the administrator inactivity policy.

Arbitration

• Editors may now use the template {{Ds/aware}} to indicate that they are aware that discretionary sanctions are in force for a topic area, so it is unnecessary to alert them.

Miscellaneous

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

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

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

Edit filter helper request

I'd like to inform you of my request for edit filter helper rights, currently at Wikipedia:Edit filter noticeboard#EFH for DannyS712 (2). I'm leaving this note because you closed the previous discussion at Wikipedia:Edit filter noticeboard/Archive 5#EFH right for DannyS712, and per policy I am supposed to notify you of this new request. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 05:25, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-32

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

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 August. It will be on all wikis from 8 August (calendar).

Problems

• A change in RelatedArticles extension accidentally enabled it for everyone, not just for mobile users. This has been fixed. [86][87]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 7 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Today everyone can see IP addresses if someone edits without an account. In the future this could be more hidden. This is to protect unregistered editors so fewer can see their IP address. This would only happen after we make sure the tools for vandal fighting can still be effective. You can read more and comment.

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

13:24, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Admin application question

Hello Xaosflux, I was wondering, when someone is applying for Administrator, is there a particular ratio of "support" to "oppose" votes that the admins look for? Or is it simply a support of over fifty percent? Or something else? Johnsmith2116 (talk) 14:54, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Johnsmith2116:, in general RfA's with 75%+ "support" pass without much issue, and in general ones under 65% do not. If you are considering applying I strongly recommend you review Wikipedia:Guide to requests for adminship and Wikipedia:Advice for RfA candidates first to get a better understanding. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 15:04, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. Actually though, I wasn't asking for myself. I had asked a question on the application page for another editor, and I was always curious as to how much percentage is typically considered enough. Cheers. Johnsmith2116 (talk) 15:10, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Icons

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Icons. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, Xaosflux. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 15:16, 7 August 2019 (UTC). 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.

——SerialNumber54129 15:16, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

replied. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:24, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

No worries, thanks very much! ——SerialNumber54129 15:32, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-33

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 using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools. Feedback on the discussion page is appreciated. [88]
• Due to the absence of volunteer maintenance of Cologne Blue skin, the link to activate it will be hidden. The skin will still work, but editors using it are encouraged to switch to another skin. [89]

Changes later this week

• Due to Wikimania, there is no deployment this week. [90]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The "Wikidata item" link will be moved from "Tools" to "In other projects" section on all Wikimedia projects, starting on August 21. Full announcement, Phabricator task.

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

18:19, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Categorization

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Categorization. Legobot (talk) 04:32, 13 August 2019 (UTC)