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Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

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

Administrator changes

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

CheckUser changes

readded SQL

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the minimum length for site ban discussions was increased to 72 hours, up from 24.
  • A request for comment is ongoing to determine whether paid editors must or should use the articles for creation process.
  • A request for comment is open to resolve inconsistencies between the draftification and alternative to deletion processes.

Arbitration

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

Blocking name

Please excuse me, I have no idea how to use this system. Yesterday I set up an account and it got blocked by Red Phoenix. I didn't see anywhere on the site when setting up the account the guidance on how the name should be formed. After the block I set up another account in what I hope is an acceptable name.

All I woanted to do was add some current pictures to the page for the International Bomber Command Centre as the ones there were over 5 years old and showed the place whilst under construction. Every image that I have tried to add comes up saying I don't have permission to use them but they are my photos. I don't understand what I am doing wrong. Some of the images may have been used, by me on media stories in the past, but I won all the rights. I have tried to find out how do get over this but the information is confusing.

I thought the point was to make Wiki up to date, relevant, etc and the images that were on there were neither of those things.

Please help Nicky at IBCC — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C6:61B9:DB00:29DF:50FA:B018:8402 (talk) 08:52, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Nicky, thank you for reaching out. Please ensure that you are logged in for all future editing so that your edits are associated to your username and not your IP address. Additionally, please ensure that you read the conflict of interest guideline and the "plain and simple" conflict of interest guide. It appears that you have a close connection or other relationship with the IBCC, such as employment. Writing an article about a topic with which you have an external relationship is strongly discouraged on Wikipedia because the topic deals with something you would be too closely connected with. With regards to IBCC, you have a conflict of interest ("COI"). Editors with a conflict of interest in a topic area often unintentionally edit against some of our core content policies through no fault of their own. For example, you might unconsciously over-embellish your organization, or perhaps omit verifiable facts that may be negative or controversial—this would violate our neutral point of view policy. Alternatively, you might inadvertently add details that haven't been published in reliable sources—a violation of verifiability and no original research. For these reasons, I would strongly recommend you avoid editing the article about your organization and instead suggest edits to editors on the talk page. If you are being paid or compensated for your Wikipedia editing, you must declare this on your user page—see Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure. Thank you. Mz7 (talk) 16:45, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Mail

Hello, Mz7. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

--Wikiman2718 (talk) 18:10, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Admin's Barnstar
For your assistance with SPI, socks, vandals, and spammers during this difficult time. Wear it with pride. ◊PRAHLADbalaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 01:48, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-37

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

  • Normally pages can be moved to a title that has no existing page yet or to a page that has only one revision, which is a redirect to the page to be moved. A new user right allows editors to move pages over one-revision pages that redirect to anywhere. [1]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 September. It will be on all wikis from 10 September (calendar).
  • Advanced item All MediaWiki API modules will now use watchlist instead of watch. This was inconsistent before. [2]

Future changes

  • The Wikipedia Android app team might work on patrolling tools in the future. You can let them know what tools would be useful for you or for less experienced patrollers. See the page on mediawiki.org.
  • OTRS will be updated to a new version. This will probably take around two days. OTRS agents will not have access to the system during these days. Emails that come in during the update will be delivered when the update is done. The plan is to start around 08:00 UTC on 14 September. This could change. [3]
  • The Wikipedia Android app will send push notifications if users want them. This could help you see for example when someone wrote on your talk page or your edit was reverted. This will need Google Play Services to work. It will also be possible to get the app without Google Play Services but push notifications will not work. Google Play Services is also used to make the app work for Android 4.4 users. [4][5]
  • Advanced item Wikimedia code review could move to GitLab. It would be hosted on Wikimedia servers. You can take part in the consultation.
  • Advanced item Dropdown menus in the Vector skin use a .menu class. This will not work in the future. Scripts can use nav ul instead. .vectorTabs and .vectorMenu will also not work. Some scripts need to be updated. You can read more in Phabricator.

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

15:59, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Looks like eruthelord has returned

Koronerman, uncuthair and sawiper looks like eruthelord, please look into it. Thank you Mamallarnarashimavarman (talk) 01:47, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Eruthelord

Eruthelord is deleting my comments on https://en.m.wiki.x.io/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/EruTheLord plz stop him. 2409:4072:6D8C:A9FA:8586:FBA7:E2B1:DB8A (talk) 14:50, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-38

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 Wikipedia apps briefly showed pages without CSS last week. This meant they looked wrong. It was quickly fixed but cached pages without CSS were shown for a few hours. [6][7]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 15 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 September. It will be on all wikis from 17 September (calendar).

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

16:18, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

DYK for McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission

On 16 September 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that after Ohio fined a woman $100 for not putting her name on a political leaflet, her estate appealed the fine all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

 — Amakuru (talk) 12:02, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Eruthelord

Eruthelord(https://en.m.wiki.x.io/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/EruTheLord) is back as

http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Special:Contributions/Harpypawl and http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/User_talk:Scalerebel and http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Special:Contributions/Bonecipro 2409:4072:292:BF2A:7635:1236:40CA:3449 (talk) 16:57, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Jelly Nutella Vandalism

When will the page need to be semi protected? 4thfile4thrank (talk) 23:55, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

4thfile4thrank, I just blocked 2600:1702:49E0:6120::/64 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial)) the IP address range that was targeting that article, so I think that should be sufficient to prevent further vandalism for now. Mz7 (talk) 00:00, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Sidowpknbkhihj

Sorry to disturb you, but can you please revdel their copyvios? I also request closing the SPI. Sorry if this is a short message. Thanks, SMB99thx my edits 08:43, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

SMB99thx, I did the revdel. Will need some time to look through the SPI. Mz7 (talk) 17:31, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-39

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

Recent changes

  • There is a new tag for reverted edits. For example you can see it in the recent changes feed or in the article history. It is added to edits when they have been undone, rollbacked or manually reverted to an older version of the page. [8][9]

Changes later this week

  • The number of times you can do something in a period of time on wiki is limited. This could be the number of edits per minute or the number of users you email in a day. Some users are not affected by all limits because of their user rights. They could soon see the limit even if it does not affect them. [10]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 September. It will be on all wikis from 24 September (calendar).

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

21:26, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

Ratan375 SPI

Hello and thanks for dealing with this. I'm afraid I got the wrong master and I've apologised to MRRaja001. Fortunately, there's no hard feelings. It was obvious that Dhina wasn't a new member because he wasn't finding his way around, he was throwing his weight around. Anyway, right result via the wrong route. Thanks again and all the best. Keep safe. No Great Shaker (talk) 10:07, 22 September 2020 (UTC)

Pending changes

Hello,

Thanks for granting me pending changes reviewer! I have one question. On the policy pages regarding the user right it gives the impression that the substance of the edit doesn't matter so long as it isn't libelous, vandalism, or a copyvio. I have reviewed a grand total of 2 edits using 'normal' editing techniques. This means that even if the edit is not libelous, vandalism, copyvio, etc., if it is unhelpful I reject it. Can I use it as I normally would/have been, or should I be more lenient? Thanks! Giraffer munch 07:00, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

@Giraffer: Yep, I would simply review pending changes as I would normally react to the edit. I think the relevant section here is WP:RPC#Acceptable edits:

You should treat the edits as you would habitually, following the appropriate policies and guidelines. It is not necessary for you to ensure compliance with the content policies on neutral point of view, verifiability and original research before accepting, but of course you are free to uphold them as you would normally with any edit you happen to notice.

Even if the edit is not libelous, vandalism, or a copyvio, you may still revert the edits if you would have reverted them anyway if you had noticed them in any other context. I would just be mindful of WP:BITE and WP:PRESERVE; if it's possible to fix the edit rather than remove it, then we should try to fix it. Mz7 (talk) 07:08, 26 September 2020 (UTC)
Ok, thanks. Giraffer munch 10:35, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 September 2020

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:47, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 September 2020

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:53, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-40

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

  • Admins can now see links to diffs of deleted revisions on Special:AbuseLog. This uses the interface of Special:Undelete. [11]
  • Editors are automatically added to some user groups. For example editors are added to autoconfirmed users when they have edited enough times and long enough. Abuse filters can hinder users from automatically getting user rights for a period of time. They can also remove rights user have. Wikis can now ask to change how long this period of time is for their wiki in Phabricator. It is currently five days. [12]

Problems

  • Last year some abuse filters stopped working because of a new change. If they tried to use variables that were unavailable for that action they would fail. This has now been fixed. [13]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 September. It will be on all wikis from 1 October (calendar).

Future changes

  • You can't see the language links to other language versions from the talk page or history page. They are also not shown when you edit an article. This could change. It is not decided if for example the history page should link to another history page or to the article. You can take part in the discussion in Phabricator.
  • The link colours could change. This is to make the difference between links and other text more clear. You can read more in Phabricator.
  • In your preferences you can choose to get different notifications on the web or by email. You will see Apps as one of the alternatives later this week. This is because the Android and iOS Wikipedia apps will use push notifications for those who want them. You can see the preferences on the test wiki. The goal is to have push notifications on Android in October and on iOS in early 2021. [14]
  • You can soon put pages on your watchlist for a limited time. This could be useful if you want to watch something for a shorter time but don't want it on your watchlist forever. It now works on mediawiki.org and will come to more wikis later. You can read more and see when it will come to other wikis.
  • You can see what Wikimedians think are the best new technical tools this year. You can also nominate them.

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

21:23, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

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

Administrator changes

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

Revoke TPA?

Someone may need TPA revoked: Special:Diff/981424750. Thanks. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 12:16, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

@AlanM1:  Done. Thanks, Mz7 (talk) 17:15, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-41

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

Recent changes

  • There is a new tool where you can see which home wiki users have in discussions on Meta. This can help show which communities are not part of the discussion on wikis where we make decisions that affect many other wikis.
  • You can now thank users for file uploads or for changing the language of a page. [15]

Problems

  • There were many errors with the new MediaWiki version last week. The new version was rolled back. Updates that should have happened last week are late. [16]
  • Everyone was logged out. This was because a user reported being logged in to someone else's account. The problem should be fixed now. [17]
  • Advanced item Many pages have JavaScript errors. You can read more and now see a list of user scripts with errors.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 October. It will be on all wikis from 8 October (calendar).
  • Letters immediately after a link are shown as part of the link. For example the entire word in [[Child]]ren is linked. On Arabic wikis this works at both the start and end of a word. Previously on Arabic wikis numbers and other non-letter Unicode characters were shown as part of the link at the start of a word but not at the end. Now only Latin and Arabic letters will extend links on Arabic wikis. [18]

Future changes

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

16:24, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

one more sock puppet

hi this is user is http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/User:Biblegunk sock puppet account of http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/User:Bonecipro please once check his contributions Jeevan naidu (talk) 11:46, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

@Jeevan naidu:  Confirmed.  Blocked and tagged. Thanks, Mz7 (talk) 16:39, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

thank you for immediate response Mz7. Jeevan naidu (talk) 08:58, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

About AWB

I was wondering if I can get access restored. I acknowledge that I should slow down, thus I will refrain from doing repeated automated tasks as before. For now, I will refrain to using typos. Starzoner (talk) 13:38, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi, Starzoner. I had noticed your request at WP:PERM/AWB and was planning to comment, but I noticed that you withdrew your request. Do you still wish to pursue this request? If so, do you think you could briefly provide a few examples of typos that you intend to fix with AWB? Thanks, Mz7 (talk) 20:03, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
I had intended to use the full suite of typos that it provides, and just use them through the COVID-19 pages. Starzoner (talk) 14:43, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
@Starzoner:  Done. Please see my comments here for my thoughts and future guidance. Best of luck, Mz7 (talk) 19:09, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-42

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

Problems

  • Because of the problems with the MediaWiki version two weeks ago last week's updates are also late. [20][21][22]

Changes later this week

  • Live previews didn't show the templates used in the preview if you just edited a section. This has now been fixed. You can also test CSS and JavaScript pages even if you have the live preview enabled. Previously this didn't work well. [23][24]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 13 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 14 October. It will be on all wikis from 15 October (calendar).

Future changes

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

15:23, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

ACE2020 Electoral Commission

Hello Mz7. Thank you for volunteering to be an election commissioner for the 2020 Arbitration Committee Election. Following the community RfC, you have been appointed as an election commissioner! While you have certain responsibilities - you are not in this alone, along with the other appointed commissioners other community members have volunteers to assist as coordinators. Best of luck with the election this year. — xaosflux Talk 00:23, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Safford Unified School District v. Redding

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Safford Unified School District v. Redding you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Buidhe -- Buidhe (talk) 06:01, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Sanctions

I'm here with a query and it is that : Can a Wikipedia editor charge us with sanctions if we do not follow the guidelines and repeat the same mistake over and over?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Von de leorde (talk • contribs) 06:43, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi Von de leorde. To be clear, only Wikipedia administrators may impose discretionary sanctions on editors, and they may only do this within the specific topic areas listed at WP:DSTOPICS (biographies of living or recently deceased people, such as Sushant Singh Rajput, is one such topic). With that in mind, yes, an administrator can sanction an editor if they fail to carefully follow Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, perhaps by repeating the same mistake multiple times. I hope this answers your question. Mz7 (talk) 06:51, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks a billion. That poses a threat to me also so I have decided to stop editing Wikipedias at least till I'm done with my school years. Will miss you and never return to make any mistake in future again. Von de leorde (talk) 09:42, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

To be honest i enjoyed editing and learnt many things. Thank you for your guidelines. Von de leorde (talk) 11:01, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

LTA - THCNVN_Channel

Hey Mz9. Could you please take another look at user:TVOLD3? The username fits the criteria for the LTA account above, and this[26] edit was made three hours ago by an account that was confirmed by a sock of THCNVN. Thanks. Beryllium Sphere (talk) 04:44, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Actually that edit was made by me. t was the edit I was undoing that was by a now-blocked LTA. Meters (talk) 04:53, 19 October 2020 (UTC)
I mean the edit by CongHoaLienBangJtalia. Beryllium Sphere (talk) 07:25, 19 October 2020 (UTC)
 Check declined by a checkuser. Because the TVOLD3 account has not edited at all since it was created in April 2020, it is  Stale. Mz7 (talk) 01:14, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-43

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 October. It will be on all wikis from 22 October (calendar).

Future changes

  • You will be able to read but not to edit the wikis for up to an hour on 27 October around 14:00 (UTC). It will probably be shorter than an hour. [27]
  • Advanced item In the AbuseFilter extension, the rmspecials() function will be updated soon so that it does not remove the "space" character. Wikis are advised to wrap all the uses of rmspecials() with rmwhitespace() wherever necessary to keep filters' behavior unchanged. You can use the search function on Special:AbuseFilter to locate its usage. [28]
  • Some gadgets and user-scripts use the HTML div with the ID #jump-to-nav. This div will be removed soon. Maintainers should replace these uses with either #siteSub or #mw-content-text. A list of affected scripts is at the top of phab:T265373.

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

16:29, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Safford Unified School District v. Redding

The article Safford Unified School District v. Redding you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Safford Unified School District v. Redding for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Buidhe -- Buidhe (talk) 21:03, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

User:ThinCats2020

You may also want to block User:DaniThinCats as well. Firestar464 (talk) 03:38, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi Firestar464. Because that account has not been edited since January, I don't think we need to block it at this time. Additionally, the username may fall under the "Dani at XYZ Company" exception to WP:ISU, so it may not be a strict violation of the username policy (although I wouldn't fault any editor that thinks differently). Mz7 (talk) 03:43, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
@Mz&: This account was previously paid to edit until someone told the owner of the account to stop. Firestar464 (talk) 04:15, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
Firestar464, I did notice that they were given a paid editing warning and stopped editing afterwards. Because the account has been abandoned for almost 9 months, I am disinclined to block it. In general, accounts that have not edited for a long time rarely need to be blocked; see also WP:PREVENTATIVE. Mz7 (talk) 04:22, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Revdel query

Hiya. Can I just check the rationale behind only revdelling certain entries here? Are the remaining entries less severe than the edit summaries which have been redacted? I would have thought we'd redact all the abusive entries. Cheers, Darren-M talk 19:40, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi Darren-M. So, I was not the one who revdelled those edits—see also WP:ANI#User TemplatePeterBaldwin for context. The redacted edit summaries are indeed the same as the ones that haven't been redacted yet. While I would not fault any administrator who might decide to redact those edits under WP:RD3, I am personally disinclined to because I think they're more-or-less "common vandalism". Mz7 (talk) 20:23, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
Mz7, Cheers, I (lazily) assumed if you'd blocked you'd also revdelled without checking. Thanks for the ANI pointer. Best, Darren-M talk 20:29, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Privacy of paid editors

Just suppose someone opened a complaint about a paid-editing sock operation and filed a copy of a pitch they received, to OTRS. The person writing to them was offering to create a Wikipedia article on them. Perhaps what happened was, the recipient of the pitch emailed a steward and it wound up in a OTRS paid-editing queue for checkuser attention. If this solicitation is a common pattern, it probably needs to get publicized on the wiki, so others can keep an eye out. Maybe at WP:COIN. Am I right that paid editors don't deserve the full protection of the privacy policy? So anyone handling this would be in the clear if they made sure that whoever *forwarded* the report to us didn't have their personal details shown? The original solicitation email, offering paid article creation, contains some words that show up elsewhere in Google searches. The words appear even on Wikipedia itself at this link. So I could post the contents of the paid-editing proposal at WP:COIN, removing headers and signatures? Thanks for any advice, EdJohnston (talk) 16:35, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi EdJohnston, thanks so much for volunteering to tackle that paid-editing queue. I think your question goes to the heart of the conflict between paid editing and WP:OUTING, and you'll have to forgive me for saying I'm not 100% sure. I think good context to look back to is 2017, when WMF Legal made a statement on the question that seemed to favor transparency, but shortly after the statement was released, ArbCom made a counter-statement that favored privacy. The current view seems to be that the outing policy does take precedence over COI investigations (quoting WP:COI). I am inclined to say that it would be OK to quote the solicitation email as long as personally identifiable details are omitted, but out of caution I would post your question to the functionaries-en list, where other functionaries more experienced with responding to paid editing might be able to weigh in. Mz7 (talk) 17:09, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
Arbcom's counter-statement from 2017 does seem to narrow the range of permitted investigation of off-wiki activity. I wonder if most of these issues could be avoided just by saying 'We have reports about an off-wiki firm which states it has done paid editing of this set of WP articles.' Individual editors could then review the edit history of those articles to look for anything suspicious. Any blocks issued would then be due to the on-wiki visible behavior (and possibly to sockpuppetry, if that was involved). So we'd be using the off-wiki information only to get a list of articles to check. Do you think that would be acceptable? Certainly I don't want to try persuading Arbcom to reconsider their 2017 statement, and I don't want to do any blocks that say they are based on private information (I.e. there would be no visible grounds provided for the block). In my opinion Arbcom should be the one to do private-information blocks, if any are needed. EdJohnston (talk) 19:43, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
@EdJohnston: Yeah, I would agree that "we have received concerns about paid-editing on XYZ article" would be okay. As far as private-information blocks go, the paid queue was originally set up as a checkuser queue because a few years ago it was thought that most paid editing schemes involved sockpuppetry, e.g. WP:LTA/OM. Nowadays, we know a lot of paid editors are actually independent freelancers, against whom the CheckUser tool is relatively ineffective. The relevant question is whether checkusers are allowed to make blocks based on private information submitted to the paid editing queue, even if we don't actually use the CheckUser tool. I think this is an open question that may need further discussion; the relevant policy seems to be WP:BLOCKEVIDENCE. I think the uncertainty here is a large part of why the OTRS queue is chronically backlogged. Mz7 (talk) 20:35, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
Yes, what I've looked at suggests this particular one is a small-time operation. Many of the suspicious-looking accounts are still red-linked. A one-size-fits all remedy might be just to put EC protection for a few months on any articles we believe to be targetted. EdJohnston (talk) 20:49, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-44

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

Problems

  • You will be able to read but not to edit the wikis for up to an hour on October 27 around 14:00 (UTC). It will probably be shorter than an hour. [29]
  • Last week, links to "diffs" from mobile watchlists and recentchanges were linking to page-revisions instead of diffs. This has now been fixed. [30]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes

  • Since the introduction of the interface administrators user group in 2018, administrators couldn’t view the deleted history of CSS/JS pages. Now they can. [31]
  • There was a problem with the Change Tags. The software would apply the "Reverted" tag to any page actions such as page-protection changes if they came directly after a reverted edit. This has now been fixed for new edits. [32]
  • The Reply tool will be offered as an opt-in Beta Feature on most Wikipedias in November. Another announcement will be made once the date is finalized. [33]

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

17:37, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Appeal of arbitration enforcement sanction

Hi there Mz7! ! I sincerely hope you've been doing well, and I hope you and your loved ones have been safe and coping well amidst the pandemic! It has been a few months and I was wondering if my sanction could be lifted. I'm not sure if now is the appropriate but time to ask for an appeal to be lifted but I just wanted to make sure if it would be okay. It has been several months now since my sanction was applied and during this timeframe, I have engaged in proper behaviour and etiquette on Wikipedia by fully abiding by the community guidelines and regulations. I fully refrained from edit-warring with any users and I tried my utmost best to collaborate with fellow members of the Wikipedia community.


I completely understand that it may be difficult for you to trust me as I have caused disruptions in the past. I understand your concerns and hesitance in lifting the ban. Your concerns are completely valid, and I want to assure you that I understand your concerns. I deeply regret having caused all those disruptions. I will be sure to carefully cooperate with others to not repeat the same mistakes. When I make contributions to Wikipedia, I will think thrice before publishing the edit, and I will never edit war with others. If someone reverts my edit, I will not edit war with them. There is a reason for talk pages and edit warring does nothing productive for the community. I want to be able to engage in civil discourse with others on topics of my interest, such as modern US politics. I want to collaborate with others to make this website a better place. I want to be able to give my insights, but I also want to take in the insights of others. I want to be able to prove that I am capable of learning from my mistakes and capable of doing better. I recognize that my actions were wrong and harmful. It is my fault and my fault alone. I will not give any excuses for my wrongful actions because there is no excuse for disruptive actions on Wikipedia or not knowing the rules. I have received several warnings before, it was my own fault that I disrespected the rules. Not familiarizing myself with the rules is not an excuse.

I believe my topic ban should be lifted as I believe that I deserve a second chance as it was my first ban on Wikipedia. I want to personally pledge and promise to you that I will never, ever, use a second sockpuppet account again for disruptive purposes. I promise I will never edit war or remove sourced material with out clear summary. I understand that I need consensus from others. If things do not go my way, I have to understand that's OK. I understand that things will not always go my way, and that is perfectly normal and okay - it's not the end of the world. It's okay if others don't agree with me as everyone has different views and stances on various subjects. The most important and crucial thing is to respect everyone and their perspectives. I have to respect the contributions and inputs of others. It's not just about me, wikipedia is a community-driven platform. I cannot just go on about edit warring with others like I own the place, - if everyone did that Wikipedia would be a disruptive mess. Wikipedia is for everyone and I have to respect the insights of others, not just my own. Thanks to preventative measures meant to preserve the integrity of Wikipedia, Wikipedia can be the wonderful place it is today. During my ban, I read over the Wikipedia guidelines very carefully again. I pledge to carefully abide by all of these guidelines. You can trust me in that I will not edit war or abusively use a second sockpuppet account since I recognize that disruptive edits won't help anyone and goes against the community-driven based ideals of Wikipedia.

Once again, I deeply regret the disruptive damage I previously have caused before on Wikipedia. I want to reassure you that I have learned my lesson since then. I fully understand if you believe it still has been too short of a timeframe for you to trust me again and I fully will respect any decision you will make. In writing this, I have no intention at all of troubling you or giving you any hard time. I am so sorry if this is currently an inappropriate time to be asking or if I am being bothersome. Thank you so much for your time, and sorry for any inconveniences. I hope you have yourself an excellent day!~ All the very best, Sincerely Yeungkahchun (talk) 00:49, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Yeungkahchun: I still think it is too soon, as it has only been two months since you were unblocked for disruptive editing in this topic area. I would return perhaps in January with an explanation of the kind of edits you intend to make if the ban is lifted. Mz7 (talk) 19:42, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Permissions on alt accounts

Hello, just wondering if it is acceptable to request perms such as pending changes for an alt account such as this one when my main account already has it? I read the rules for requests, alts are only mentioned for confirmed and ecp. Thanks Terasail II[Talk] 22:48, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi Terasail. That's fine by me as long as the connection between the accounts is clearly and publicly indicated, and you have a legitimate reason for using multiple accounts. The only rule I am aware of is you're not allowed to have multiple accounts with administrator rights (except for admin bot accounts). Mz7 (talk) 23:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
Mz7, you mean that I shouldn't have an alternative account with admin perms? oops. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:05, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Perm Pending Changes

Hello, I am here to let you know that I understand my mistake with the BLP. If you have any more mistakes that I made please let me know, thank you. I will work towards not making that same error again. InterestGather (talk) 09:41, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

Please block

Hi. Will you please block 114.4.0.0/16 (talk · contribs) since IPs on this range have been persistently harassing and vandalizing pages I edited and my talk pages for months. Not only in enwiki but also across several wikis like idwiki and commonswiki. Its sisters, 120.188.0.0/17 (talk · contribs) and 114.5.0.0/17 (talk · contribs) (also 114.5.0.0/16 (talk · contribs) on ENWIKI) are now globally blocked for this exact reason. Thanks. Flix11 (talk) 04:49, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Flix11, I placed a 1-week range block on 114.4.220.0/22 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial)). Right now, I think this is the best I can do in order to limit collateral damage—these are very dynamic ranges, and blocking them could conceivably block many unrelated users. Mz7 (talk) 05:24, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Thank you! Firestar464 (talk) 05:55, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

User Kdb0152

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Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

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The Signpost: 1 November 2020

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Tech News: 2020-45

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

Recent changes

  • You can no longer read Wikimedia wikis if your browser uses very old TLS. This is because it is a security problem for everyone. It could lead to downgrade attacks. Since October 29, 2020, users who use old TLS versions will not be able to connect to Wikimedia projects. A list of browser recommendations is available. All modern operating systems and browsers are always able to reach Wikimedia projects. [34]
  • Advanced item There is a new automatic tracking category available: Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments. It collects pages which use the {{formatnum}} parser function with invalid (non-numeric) input, e.g. {{formatnum:TECHNEWS}}. Note that {{formatnum:123,456}} is also invalid input: as described in the documentation, the argument should be unformatted so that it can be reliably and correctly localised. The tracking category will help identify problematic usage and double-formatting. The new tracking category's name can be translated at translatewiki. [35]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 3. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from November 4. It will be on all wikis from November 5 (calendar).
  • Administrators and stewards will be able to use a special page (Special:CreateLocalAccount) to force local account creation for a global account. This is useful when account creation is blocked for that user (by a block or a filter). [36]
  • The Reply tool will be offered as an opt-in Beta Feature on most Wikipedias on November 4. This change excludes the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias, plus a few smaller Wikipedias with special circumstances. You can read the help page and the troubleshooting guide for more information. [37]

Future changes

  • A discussion has been restarted about using a Unicode minus sign (− U+2212) in the output of {{formatnum}} when it is given a negative argument. [38]
  • In the future IP addresses of unregistered users will not be shown for everyone. They will get an alias instead. There will be a new user right or an opt-in function for more vandal fighters to see the IPs of unregistered users. There would be some criteria for who gets the user right or opt-in. There will also be other new tools to help handle vandalism. This is early in the process and the developers are still collecting information from the communities before they suggest solutions.

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

16:08, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-46

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

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes

  • You can see reference previews. This shows a preview of the footnote when you hover over it. This has been a beta feature. It will move out of beta and be enabled by default. There will be an option not to use it. The developers are looking for small or medium-sized wikis to be the first ones. You can let them know if your wiki is interested. [39]
  • From November 16 the categories will not be sorted in order for a short time. This is because the developers are upgrading to a new version of the internationalisation library. They will use a script to fix the existing categories. This can take a few hours or a few days depending on how big the wiki is. You can read more. [40][41]

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15:49, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

can you unblock that random man

He is my friend he is blocked for 2-3 months isn't that enough? Packshaul (talk) 19:34, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Another suspected sockpuppet

Hi. This SPI case Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/PapazaTaklaAttıranİmam is closed by you. But another suspected sockpuppet just appeared. Should I submit a new report before the previous report becomes archived? --Wario-Man (talk) 12:17, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Hi Wario-Man. Yes, you may submit a new report before a previous report gets archived. I'll take a look at this account later today when I get more free time. Mz7 (talk) 18:56, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
@Wario-Man: Based on CU information, I think it is  Unlikely that Shakshak31 is the same user as Yiğit Han Kerim. Mz7 (talk) 19:28, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
Thanks. Another editor has submitted this SPI and it seems the suspected user is related to another account. --Wario-Man (talk) 05:20, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

DYK for Safford Unified School District v. Redding

On 13 November 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Safford Unified School District v. Redding, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that in a 2009 case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a group of school officials violated the U.S. Constitution when they strip-searched a 13-year-old middle-school student? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Safford Unified School District v. Redding. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Safford Unified School District v. Redding), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

 — Amakuru (talk) 00:02, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

ACE

Hi Mz7 - I saw your note about a dearth of candidates at AN. WP:SOFIXIT popped into my head - you'd have my support, if you had the time and inclination. Cheers GirthSummit (blether) 13:01, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

Girth Summit, thanks for your message! Fortunately, my response is quite easy : this year, I am serving as a member of the Electoral Commission, which disqualifies me from putting my name in the hat. Mz7 (talk) 16:19, 15 November 2020 (UTC)
Mz7, ah - I'd overlooked that, fair enough. Kevin suggested that I run, but I feel like I don't have the experience at this point, plus I've got too much on my plate IRL at the moment to be able to commit. Hope you get some more takers in the next couple of days. Cheers GirthSummit (blether) 16:22, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-47

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

  • Listings on category pages are sorted on each wiki for that language using a library. For a brief period on 16 November, changes to categories will not be sorted correctly for most languages. This is because the developers are upgrading to a new version of the library. They will then use a script to fix the existing categories. This will take a few hours or a few days depending on how big the wiki is. You can read more. [42][43]

Changes later this week

  • If you merged two pages in a namespace where pages can't redirect this used to break the merge history. This will now be fixed. [44]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 17 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 18 November. It will be on all wikis from 19 November (calendar).

Future changes

  • The Community Wishlist Survey is now open for proposals. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals from 16 to 30 November. You can vote on proposals from 8 December to 21 December.

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

15:36, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Please block this spambot

103.144.175.38 4thfile4thrank {talk} :? 02:11, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

 Done. Mz7 (talk) 02:13, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Edits to Donald B. Gillies page

It is really frustrating since I wrote the article in ~2003 and have been the source for 100% of the material in this article, and I feel like you are suppressing handicap information which is discriminatory. Where am I going to find a reputable source that talks about my father's stammering? Other than the word of one or more of his students? His wife - my mother - is deceased. I feel like this will cause me to start a new article outside of wikipedia to deal with wikipedia's failings. SystemBuilder (talk) 21:35, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

And you are ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT that personal correspondence is not admissable for a biographical article. In many cases, personal correspondence is 90% of the sourcing used for ANY biography of any sort. SystemBuilder (talk) 21:36, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Hi SystemBuilder, I am sorry for the frustration, but I want to make sure our policies are clear. Perhaps personal correspondence would be appropriate for a biography published in a newspaper or a book about the subject, but not Wikipedia. As an encyclopedia, we only publish information that reliable sources have already published, so that our readers are able to go and verify that what is written has appeared in such a published source. If your father's condition does not appear in any such published source, then under our policies I'm afraid it simply cannot appear in Wikipedia. I wasn't aware before now that you were the son of the article subject; I would also like to make you aware of our conflict of interest guideline. In summary: we strongly discourage editors from editing articles related to their family members, as this may introduce a conflict of interest and lead to situations like this one where information is added that cannot be verified in any published, reliable source. Mz7 (talk) 21:50, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Plz block this LTA

http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Special:Contributions/38.18.118.10 4thfile4thrank {talk} :? 03:49, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

 Already done Mz7 (talk) 03:54, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Can you please address this grossly insulting edit?

http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/User_talk:Ponyo#Should_this_be_revdelled_under_RD2? 4thfile4thrank {talk} :? 03:58, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

4thfile4thrank, I have suppressed this material in accordance with the oversight policy. In the future, as Ravensfire suggested in the discussion that you linked, in the interest of privacy it would be a good idea to report these kinds of serious BLP violations on IRC rather than on-wiki. Even if you don't have an IRC client, you can usually access web-based IRC by clicking the green "connect" button here: #wikipedia-en-revdel connect. In egregious cases where material is potentially libelous, as it was here, you may also contact the oversight team privately by following the instructions at WP:RFO. I hope this information is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Mz7 (talk) 04:05, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
@Mz7: How do I know if edits other than obvious personal info need suppression? There are many levels of less-serious BLP-violations. 4thfile4thrank {talk} :? 04:07, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
@4thfile4thrank: This is always a matter of judgment, and there aren't always clear-cut rules. As general advice, if you find an edit that accuses a specifically identifiable living individual of a serious crime without sources or justification, that would be something that I would report to oversight as potentially libelous. The content would have to be more egregious than merely "grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material". If you are ever unsure, you may err on the side of requesting oversight. Mz7 (talk) 04:15, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Myles Turner

The Padlock Barnstar
Thank you for protecting the article Myles Turner and dealing with the vandals, you deserve this barnstar! Jerm (talk) 06:57, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

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HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 19:45, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Old F1 friend

Back again here. If he's going to keep using his (likely) real name or some variety of it, well... (master was Rowde). Thanks. Eagleash (talk) 02:35, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

@Eagleash:  Blocked and tagged. Thanks! Mz7 (talk) 09:00, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
Thank you! Eagleash (talk) 09:14, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-48

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

  • Timestamps in Special:Log are now links. They go to Special:Log for only that entry. This is how timestamps work on for example the history page. [45]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes

  • Advanced item The Wikimedia Cloud VPS hosts technical projects for the Wikimedia movement. Developers need to claim projects they use. This is because old and unused projects are removed once a year. Unclaimed projects can be shut down from 1 December. Unclaimed projects can be deleted from 1 January. [46]

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17:17, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

ACE2020 procedural quession

On the Q&A pages, followup stuff is supposed to be refactored to talk page. Is this something I should do myself, or wait for ElectCom people to do it?  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  23:02, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

@SMcCandlish:  Done, thanks for the heads up. In the future, I would wait for ElectCom to do it. Mz7 (talk) 01:25, 24 November 2020 (UTC)
Orca-dorka. :-)  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  02:00, 24 November 2020 (UTC)
PS: I thank you and GeneralNotability for your swift and thoughtful action on ... a particular mess. I know you have to be studiously neutral in the WP:ELECTCOM work, and also not over-reach (e.g. clobber candidates' honest responses to even disingenuous questions). The solution was well-done, and even I felt compelled and happy to answer the cleaned up question.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  15:59, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

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--HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 18:16, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Si Thu Moe Min

While I'm not sure what these people are (and the IP range 210.14.96/20) at first that edited Arakan-related articles (and I have battled against them for months), I just found out that these people are no other than persistent sockpuppeteer/LTA Si Thu Moe Min. Please consider checking them out. SMB99thx my edits! 12:11, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

Looks like this was already handled at the SPI. Mz7 (talk) 21:29, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

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The Signpost: 29 November 2020

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Tech News: 2020-49

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 1 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 2 December. It will be on all wikis from 3 December (calendar).

Future changes

  • The iOS Wikipedia app will show readers more of the article history. They can see new updates and easier see how the article has changed over time. This is an experiment. It will first be shown only to some iOS app users as a test. [47][48]
  • Advanced item The Wiki Replicas can be used for SQL queries. You can use Quarry, PAWS or other ways to do this. To make the Wiki Replicas stable there will be two changes. Cross-database JOINS will no longer work. You can also only query a database if you connect to it directly. This will happen in February 2021. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech. [49]

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17:44, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Mz7/September–November_2020&oldid=994342602"