User talk:BethNaught/Archive 6

This is an archive of past discussions with User:BethNaught. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

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Archive 4

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Administrators' newsletter – March 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2017).

Administrator changes

Amortias • Deckiller • BU Rob13

Ronnotel • Islander • Chamal N • Isomorphic • Keeper76 • Lord Voldemort • Shereth • Bdesham • Pjacobi

Guideline and policy news

A recent RfC has redefined how articles on schools are evaluated at AfD. Specifically, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
AfDs that receive little participation should now be closed like an expired proposed deletion, following a deletion process RfC.
Defender, HakanIST, Matiia and Sjoerddebruin are our newest stewards, following the 2017 steward elections.
The 2017 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Góngora, Krd, Lankiveil, Richwales and Vogone. They will serve for approximately 1 year.

Technical news

A recent query shows that only 16% of administrators on the English Wikipedia have enabled two-factor authentication. If you haven't already enabled it please consider doing so.
Cookie blocks should be deployed to the English Wikipedia soon. This will extend the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user after they switch accounts under a new IP.
A bot will now automatically place a protection template on protected pages when admins forget to do so.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:14, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Removal of url on talk page entry

Hello, you removed the DailyMail url that I added to the talk page entry at User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Another_unflattering_news_article. I'd like to readd it. Administrators are not supposed to act blindly. It is common sense that this url be kept there as the talk page entry is about it. Also the ban said "generally unreliable and its use as a reference is to be generally prohibited, especially when other more reliable sources exist" - it only says "generally prohibited" which means you and others should make use of common sense and it wasn't even used as a reference. Also it's a talk page and not an article.

--Fixuture (talk) 13:25, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

WP:OUTING. You can't link to external pages containing other users' undisclosed personal information. BethNaught (talk) 13:30, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Oh, didn't know that. Thank you. Btw it would be good to always name the reason / policy when content is deleted. --Fixuture (talk) 13:40, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Overview #2 of updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process

Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English. This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.

As we mentioned last month, the Wikimedia movement is beginning a movement-wide strategy discussion, a process which will run throughout 2017. This movement strategy discussion will focus on the future of our movement: where we want to go together, and what we want to achieve.

Regular updates are being sent to the Wikimedia-l mailing list, and posted on Meta-Wiki. Each month, we are sending overviews of these updates to this page as well. Sign up to receive future announcements and monthly highlights of strategy updates on your user talk page.

Here is a overview of the updates that have been sent since our message last month:

Update 7 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (16 February 2017)
- Development of documentation for Tracks A & B
Update 8 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (24 February 2017)
- Introduction of Track Leads for all four audience tracks
Update 9 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (2 March 2017)
- Seeking feedback on documents being used to help facilitate upcoming community discussions

More information about the movement strategy is available on the Meta-Wiki 2017 Wikimedia movement strategy portal.

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, 19:42, 9 March 2017 (UTC) • Please help translate to other languages. • Get help

mozoon

I have created a new page for mozoon (Loyalty programme). Unfortunately You have been deleted. I am also new for wikipedia and my company was asked me to update the their new loyalty programme. I don't know even how this talk page work. Sorry if i did something wrong, Please kindly advise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ablbaset (talk • contribs) 08:59, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

It was deleted for being promotional—you wrote an advert rather than a neutral encyclopedia article. See WP:PROMO, WP:NPOV. Also Wikipedia has strict rules about conflict of interest editing, see WP:COI. If you are being paid to edit you must formally disclose this, such as on your user page, and you are strongly discouraged from editing or creating articles about your company or its products. BethNaught (talk) 22:10, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Continued block evasion

Not sure who the master is but I know several incarnations of this user have been blocked/contribs deleted today, so you may be interested in this. CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 19:34, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

@Chrissymad: thanks for reporting—the account has been blocked by another admin. For future reference the master is Nsmutte. BethNaught (talk) 20:28, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

@BethNaught: yeah I realized that after this latest one. Silly vandals. CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 20:29, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

We invite you to join the movement strategy conversation (now through April 15)

This message, "We invite you to join the movement strategy conversation (now through April 15)", was sent through multiple channels by Gregory Varnum on 15 and 16 of March 2017 to village pumps, affiliate talk pages, movement mailing lists, and MassMessage groups. A similar message was sent by Nicole Ebber to organized groups and their mailing lists on 15 of March 2017. This version of the message is available for translation and documentation purposes

Dear Wikimedians/Wikipedians:

Today we are starting a broad discussion to define Wikimedia's future role in the world and develop a collaborative strategy to fulfill that role. You are warmly invited to join the conversation.

There are many ways to participate, by joining an existing conversation or starting your own:

Track A (organized groups): Discussions with your affiliate, committee or other organized group (these are groups that support the Wikimedia movement).

Track B (individual contributors): On Meta or your local language or project wiki.

This is the first of three conversations, and it will run between now and April 15. The purpose of cycle 1 is to discuss the future of the movement and generate major themes around potential directions. What do we want to build or achieve together over the next 15 years?

We welcome you, as we create this conversation together, and look forward to broad and diverse participation from all parts of our movement.

Sincerely,

Nicole Ebber (Track A Lead), Jaime Anstee (Track B Lead), & the engagement support teams

05:02, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Jamal Mohamed College

Hi, fyi the lede & history section are also copyvio from the college website 'about us' page , and was added over a year ago by Sulthan90. perhaps you could do the necessary? tks--79.71.8.129 (talk) 04:26, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Done, thank you. BethNaught (talk) 07:04, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Question about Nsmutte socks

Hi. I spend a lot of time at Afd had felt that User:PRIYAMHH was an Nsmutte sock, but wasn't sure enough to report it. Basically, any new user who goes straight to Afd, with a poorly worded rationale, is that what I should look for? There was no Bonedea tie-in here, from what I could see. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 19:08, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @Shawn in Montreal: Pretty much - there are a few other socks who do this too, like Atorres50 and they all share the same trait: unintelligible nonsense. CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 19:19, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

If there is a user as you describe, and they have not done anything non-Nsmutte-y, there is a high chance it is Nsmutte. Like Chrissy says it's not always true, but if you get a hunch it's worth a report. BethNaught (talk) 19:28, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. Will do. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 19:37, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

The heck?

~~Is this some kind of humorous/joke page?~~ Boomer Vial^{Holla! We gonna ball!} 08:27, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Disregard. I did some more digging, to find out it was an April Fools Day joke. That did throw me through a loop, for a second. Boomer Vial^{Holla! We gonna ball!} 08:45, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

First draft

Since you seem to be technically able to offer a pretty comprehensive feasibility evaluation (which I certainly am not), I would be thankful for any input on this first draft for a counter proposal to that currently under discussion at Wikipedia talk:Protection policy. TimothyJosephWood 23:43, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Indeed I cannot. However I would note your current proposal suffers the same technical limitations (i.e. would require software development) as the original Protector proposal. If you want to get the attention of a real MediaWiki expert try asking at VPT. BethNaught (talk) 19:18, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Done Thanks. TimothyJosephWood 19:29, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Kenneth Levinson Deletion

I didn't have time to contest the deletion. Can you explain how this is promotional? Specifically, I wrote it from a neutral point of view. As the rules state, "Note: Any article that describes its subject from a neutral point of view does not qualify for this criterion." What wasn't neutral?

I'm a fellow lawyer and he's a notably accomplished trial attorney I think merits a page. Willeadie (talk) 01:04, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

WP:DRV is thataway. I disagree that the page was written with a neutral point of view. You had multiple long quotes which praised Levinson or described his work from a positive rather than an encyclopaedic point of view. There was a long list of awards. The line about Solo Practice university is a little peice of trivia but you managed to get in several buzzwords of positivity. BethNaught (talk) 22:17, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Help me understand. Awards are a good thing. A list of awards someone won is a fact. You can describe that neutrally--by listing them, for example--but is that not neutral because awards are good? That's pretty circular.

Anyway, I'm happy to rework it. Can you provide it back to me and I'll add it to the sandbox and get feedback? Any initial suggestions for improvement?

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Will

Willeadie (talk) 00:48, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Bump.

At least need the content back to start over in the sandbox. Willeadie (talk) 03:51, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

The page history has been moved to User:Willeadie/Kenneth Levinson. BethNaught (talk) 17:32, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

So I'm probably being stupid, but clicking on the link doesn't show the original content. Any help appreciated. Willeadie (talk) 03:41, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Click on the view history tab to select from the old versions. BethNaught (talk) 06:35, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Ooh

Thanks for this! I didn't know that template existed. --bonadea contributions talk 11:50, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Pinging Oshwah, who also dealt with this socker. ansh 666 04:00, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Poof! ;-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 04:02, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2017).

Administrator changes

TheDJ

Xnuala • CJ • Oldelpaso • Berean Hunter • Jimbo Wales • Andrew c • Karanacs • Modemac • Scott

Guideline and policy news

Following a discussion on the backlog of unpatrolled files, consensus was found to create a new user right for autopatrolling file uploads. Implementation progress can be tracked on Phabricator.
The BLPPROD grandfather clause, which stated that unreferenced biographies of living persons were only eligible for proposed deletion if they were created after March 18, 2010, has been removed following an RfC.
An RfC has closed with consensus to allow proposed deletion of files. The implementation process is ongoing.
After an unsuccessful proposal to automatically grant IP block exemption, consensus was found to relax the criteria for granting the user right from needing it to wanting it.

Technical news

After a recent RfC, moved pages will soon be featured in a queue similar to Special:NewPagesFeed and require patrolling. Moves by administrators, page movers, and autopatrolled editors will be automatically marked as patrolled.
Cookie blocks have been deployed. This extends the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user if they switch accounts, even under a new IP.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:54, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

The Admin Barnstar!

The Admin Barnstar

		The Admin's Barnstar
		With genuine respect and real admiration for your actions and comments in closing the Winkelvi block appeal. Your actions, explanation and comments to all involved, were thoughtful, respectful, well-measured and well-expressed. Succinct, Socratic and superb. Your work very likely went a long way in diffusing that tricky situation - for at least a while. Very well done, indeed. Admin-ing at its best! Thank you! X4n6 (talk) 01:26, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

Unprotection request

A few months ago I asked for User talk:Sro23/unconfirmed to be semi-protected indef. Recently I've changed my mind, however, and would like to give it one last try. Could you please remove protection? Sro23 (talk) 16:47, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

@Sro23: I've done so. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 17:04, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

@NeilN: Thank you. Sro23 (talk) 17:07, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

The sock I reverted earlier...

...from your ANI request has returned. Hopefully you can take care of it. I have to get on the road for now. Happy editing! Scr★pIron^IV 21:39, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

I see you got to it by now, thank you. BethNaught (talk) 07:30, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2017).

Administrator changes

Karanacs • Berean Hunter • GoldenRing • Dlohcierekim

Gdr • Tyrenius • JYolkowski • Longhair • Master Thief Garrett • Aaron Brenneman • Laser brain • JzG • Dragons flight

Guideline and policy news

An RfC has clarified that user categories should be emptied upon deletion, but redlinked user categories should not be removed if re-added by the user.
Discussions are ongoing regarding proposed changes to the COI policy. Changes so far have included clarification that adding a link on a Wikipedia forum to a job posting is not a violation of the harassment policy.

Technical news

You can now see a list of all autoblocks at Special:AutoblockList.
There is a new tool for adding archives to dead links. Administrators are able to restrict other user's ability to use the tool, and have additional permissions when changing URL and domain data.
Administrators, bureaucrats and stewards can now set an expiry date when granting user rights. (discuss, permalink)

Miscellaneous

Following an RfC, the editing restrictions page is now split into a list of active restrictions and an archive of those that are old or on inactive accounts. Make sure to check both pages if searching for a restriction.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:19, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Okay Hear me out please

I used to edit Wikipedia pages with and without logging in, on my IP address and on this account. Today I am on my IP and I try to look at the source of an article and I found I out i was banned till 17:25, 17 June 2017. I am apparently 107.77.200.0/24. For "long term abuse", the link provided sent me to a page on Ninja Robot Pirate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NinjaRobotPirate/Animation_hoaxer#Copycat Where I found my IP address under IPv6 Drop down box. It seems I was banned since December by you. I did not do any animation hoaxing. Can you provide the page that I was banned on. So I can read the history and see it. I also made a ban appeal. I am currently the only active ban on the list on NinjaRobotPirate Page.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Valletpeter (talk • contribs)

The IP address range you are using is cuurently blocked because a troll has been adding fake information to various articles about films. If you are not this troll (and I see no evidence to suggest you are) then the sanctions are not against you and you are free to edit while logged in to your account, as you have done today. BethNaught (talk) 08:09, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Join the next cycle of Wikimedia movement strategy discussions (underway until June 12)

Message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki

The Wikimedia movement strategy core team and working groups have completed reviewing the more than 1800 thematic statements we received from the first discussion. They have identified 5 themes that were consistent across all the conversations - each with their own set of sub-themes. These are not the final themes, just an initial working draft of the core concepts.

You are invited to join the online and offline discussions taking place on these 5 themes. This round of discussions will take place between now and June 12th. You can discuss as many as you like; we ask you to participate in the ones that are most (or least) important to you.

Here are the five themes, each has a page on Meta-Wiki with more information about the theme and how to participate in that theme's discussion:

On the movement strategy portal on Meta-Wiki, you can find more information about each of these themes, their discussions, and how to participate.

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation • Please help translate to other languages. • Get help

19:30, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Wahooo! Water Park Bahrain

Hello, this is a gentle request to restore Wahooo! Water Park Bahrain page to Draft space. Please let me know, if this is possible. Roses23 (talk) 06:16, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

No, I won't. It was clearly promotional and such pages should not exist anywhere on Wikipedia. You may start from scratch if you wish to write a neutral article. BethNaught (talk) 07:08, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Invitation to test the Echo notification blacklist

Hello BethNaught, The Echo notifications blacklist feature is ready for testing and we'd like your help 1) to test that the feature works as expected & 2) to verify that our documentation is accurate before we invite the larger Wikimedia community to test and provide feedback. Instructions about the feature are found on the meta page. It's available for testing on beta Wikipedia, which requires a separate account from production. It should be easy to test by using a sock or by buddying up. If you find any bugs, either write on the Phab ticket T150419 or email me directly. Feel free to edit the meta page as you see fit. Thank you, and happy testing!

Links-

Special preferences for echo

For Anti-harassment tool team- SPoore (WMF) (talk) , Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 20:49, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2017).

Administrator changes

Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn

ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

An RfC proposing an off-wiki LTA database has been closed. The proposal was broadly supported, with further discussion required regarding what to do with the existing LTA database and defining access requirements. Such a tool/database formed part of the Community health initiative's successful grant proposal.
Some clarifications have been made to the community banning and unblocking policies that effectively sync them with current practice. Specifically, the community has reached a consensus that when blocking a user at WP:AN or WP:ANI, it is considered a "community sanction", and administrators cannot unblock unilaterally if the user has not successfully appealed the sanction to the community.
An RfC regarding the bot policy has closed with changes to the section describing restrictions on cosmetic changes.

Technical news

Users will soon be able to blacklist specific users from sending them notifications.

Miscellaneous

Following the 2017 elections, the new members of the Board of Trustees include Raystorm, Pundit and Doc James. They will serve three-year terms.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:40, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 9 June 2017

From the editors: Signpost status: On reserve power, help wanted!

Inviting new writers, editors, and ideas

News and notes: Global Elections

WMF Board election results, and FDC elections begin

Arbitration report: Cases closed in the Pacific and with Magioladitis

Two cases were closed from 19 February to 27 March.

Op-ed: Wikipedia's lead sentence problem

Lead sentence metadata is out of control and a serious impediment to readability

Featured content: Three months in the land of the featured

Eighty-eight articles, forty-three lists, five topics and twenty-two pictures were promoted

In the media: Did Wikipedia just assume Garfield's gender?

Garfield is male, and other places Wikipedia made the news

Recent research: Wikipedia bot wars capture the imagination of the popular press

...but are they real?; personality and attitudes to Wikipedia; large expert review experiment

Technology report: Tech news catch-up

Bots, scripts, tools, and changes from February to June 2017

Traffic report: Film on Top: Sampling the weekly top 10

Two weeks of film dominance: Baahubali and the Academy Awards

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:17, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Survey Invite

I'm working on a study of political motivations and how they effect editing. I'd like to ask you to take a survey. The survey should take 5 minutes. Your survey responses will be kept private. Our project is documented at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_%2B_Politics.

Survey Link: http://uchicago.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_80J3UDCpLnKyWTH?Q_DL=1R1zIzg92FHco4d_80J3UDCpLnKyWTH_MLRP_40kdC7S7z9XfgNv&Q_CHL=gl

I am asking you to participate in this study because you are a frequent editor of pages on Wikipedia that are of political interest. We would like to learn about your experiences in dealing with editors of different political orientations.

Sincere thanks for your help! Porteclefs (talk) 21:24, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 June 2017

News and notes: Departments reorganized at Wikimedia Foundation, and a month without new RfAs (so far)

While the English Wikipedia community produces no new requests for adminhood in June, the Wikimedia Foundation makes changes to the Product and Technology departments.

In the media: Kalanick's nipples; Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill

The anatomy of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's chest area has been the talk of the month. But so have high-profile edits, hacked articles, and one particular newborn growing up.

Op-ed: Facto Post: a fresh take

Exploring sourcing issues in Wikimedia projects, a solution in Wikidata and fact mining, and a newsletter to continue the conversation.

Featured content: Will there ever be a break? The slew of featured content continues

22 featured articles, 17 featured lists, 7 featured pictures

Traffic report: Wonder Woman beats Batman, The Mummy, Darth Vader and the Earth

Summer blockbusters and sports, Trump and world events.

Recent research: Utopian bubbles: Can Wikipedians create value outside of the capitalist system?

A researcher applies Marxist critiques of political economy to investigate whether gamification, a culture of altruism, and other anti-corporatist influences on peer production can create a sustainable gift economy in a project like Wikipedia.

Technology report: Improved search, and WMF data scientist tells all

Search now can include sister projects; EpochFail

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:31, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2017).

Administrator changes

Happyme22 • Dragons flight

Zad68

Guideline and policy news

The RFC discussion regarding WP:OUTING and WMF essay about paid editing and outing (see more at the ArbCom noticeboard archives) is now archived. Milieus #3 and #4 received support; so did concrete proposal #1.

Technical news

Fuzzy search will soon be added to Special:Undelete, allowing administrators to search for deleted page titles with results similar to the search query. You can test this by adding ?fuzzy=1 to the URL, as with Special:Undelete?fuzzy=1. Currently the search only finds pages that exactly match the search term.
A new bot will automatically revision delete unused file versions from files in Category:Non-free files with orphaned versions more than 7 days old.

Miscellaneous

A newly revamped database report can help identify users who may be eligible to be autopatrolled.
A potentially compromised account from 2001–2002 attempted to request resysop. Please practice appropriate account security by using a unique password for Wikipedia, and consider enabling two-factor authentication. Currently around 17% of admins have enabled 2FA, up from 16% in February 2017.
Did you know: On 29 June 2017, there were 1,261 administrators on the English Wikipedia – the exact number of administrators as there were ten years ago on 29 June 2007. Since that time, the English Wikipedia has grown from 1.85 million articles to over 5.43 million.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:59, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 July 2017

News and notes: French chapter woes, new affiliates and more WMF team changes

The English Wikipedia sees its first new admin of the season, discord rocks Wikimedia France, some tweaks to the WMF reorg, and a new WMF annual plan mark this issue's community news.

Featured content: Spectacular animals, Pine Trees screens, and more

Recently promoted articles, lists, and pictures.

In the media: Concern about access and fairness, Foundation expenditures, and relationship to real-world politics and commerce

A grab bag of alt-right speech, classical scholars, the dark web, elicited European tourism, $500,000 golden parachutes, forgery, the Great Firewall, net neutrality, nukes, paid editing, porn, and terrorism.

Recent research: The chilling effect of surveillance on Wikipedia readers

A closer look at the research that found that the 2013 Snowden revelations coincided with a significant drop of pageviews for privacy-sensitive Wikipedia articles

Op-ed: Why Task Forces are Dying in 2017

...and is there anything we can do to stop it? Opinions and examples from across the project.

Gallery: A mix of patterns

An interesting mix of patterns and colors to brighten your day...

Humour: The Infobox Game

Enjoy the Parameters: The Infobox Game can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those interested in water buffalo breeds, volcanic hotspots or the mysterious heteroisoform, and some day just might spawn an important facet of the financial derivatives industry.

Traffic report: Film, television and Internet phenomena reign with some room left over for America's birthday

Popular interest in celebrities, blockbusters and an upcoming season of a popular television show drive traffic, with a smattering of world events, holidays and a Reddit storm around – surprise – free porn for the U.S. Congress.

Technology report: New features in development; more breaking changes for scripts

Syntax highlighting, changes to Recent Changes, Wikidata on the enhance watchlist, accessible editing buttons and jQuery upgrade may break scripts.

Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 3 wrap-up

The heat turns up on the 32 contestants who entered round three: 13 featured articles, 82 good articles, 167 DYKs, but we had to pick just eight of them to advance.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:48, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2017).

Administrator changes

Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 ^{(first RfA to reach WP:300)}

Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

Following a series of discussions around new pages patrol, the WMF is helping implement a controlled autoconfirmed article creation trial as a research experiment, similar to the one proposed in 2011. You can learn more about the research plan at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial. The exact start date of the experiment has yet to be determined.
A new speedy deletion criterion, regarding articles created as a result undisclosed paid editing, is currently being discussed (permalink).
An RfC (permalink) is currently open that proposes expanding WP:G13 to include all drafts, even if they weren't submitted through Articles for Creation.

Technical news

LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 5 August 2017

News and notes: Non-English special edition! 99% no news about English-based wiki communities!

Wikimania in Montreal, lawsuit in Sweden, challenges in France

Recent research: Wikipedia can increase local tourism by +9%; predicting article quality with deep learning; recent behavior predicts quality

Local tourism gains +9% when Wikipedia articles are improved; significant improvements in predicting article quality with deep learning; recent editor behavior is a strong predictor of content quality

WikiProject report: Comic relief

An interview with a project that is centered around comics.

In the media: Wikipedia used to judge death penalty, arms smuggling, Indonesian governance, and HOTTEST celebrity

Wikipedia and reliable sources of information continue to define each other

Traffic report: Swedish countess tops the list

Plus plenty of sports, film, and television

Blog: Canadian Supreme Court rules against Google in favor of worldwide court orders

The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Google must remove search results worldwide, dismissing concerns that this may impede freedom of expression for people outside of Canada or inspire other countries to censor speech.

Special report: Sharing Wikipedia offline medical information in the Dominican Republic

Wikimedia contributors support each other's projects in many unexpected ways

Featured content: Everywhere in the lead

Recently promoted articles, lists and pictures – with a very heavy one in the mix

Technology report: Introducing TechCom

The Architecture Committee adopts a new charter and name; and the latest in script, bot, and tech news

Humour: WWASOHs and ETCSSs

An elite squad of highly insightful editors can lead the way for other editors who may need to retrain their faces into forming a smile.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:21, 5 August 2017 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, BethNaught. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 14:38, 9 August 2017 (UTC). 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.

—MRD2014 ^{Talk • Edits • Help!} 14:38, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Revoke TPA

Please revoke the talk page access of User talk:Shabihabbas110, the self promo continues. – Train2104 (t • c) 19:02, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

Done BethNaught (talk) 18:48, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

Deleted file

Hi BethNaught. I was wondering if you could provide an explanation (as deleting admin) to why File:Pink Beautiful Trauma.png was deleted. It was uploaded earlier than Livelikemusic did (19:05, 10 August 2017), which can be proved by the time I added the image to the corresponding article (16:54, 10 August 2017)? It was of the same resolution as File:PINK - Beautiful Trauma (Official Album Cover).png as far as I can remember. The file was left unused because it was replaced on the article by another file that was uploaded after the initial one. Thus, it appears to me that F1 does not apply. Please tell me if I got anything wrong. Hayman30 (talk) 14:46, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

It doesn't matter for F1 about when the files were uploaded, is the short answer. If you're unhappy about Livelikemusic having one-upped you on this image, I can't explain their actions. BethNaught (talk) 20:58, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

That's what thought would be closest answer, but I just thought I'd ask, since I've never seen a situation like this before. Definitely *a little* unhappy since it shouldn't have happended at all but wouldn't bother me that much anyways. Hayman30 (talk) 00:36, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2017).

Administrator changes

Nakon • Scott

Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

ACTRIAL, a research experiment that restricts article creation to autoconfirmed users, will begin on September 7. It will run for six months. You can learn more about the research specifics at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial, while Wikipedia talk:Autoconfirmed article creation trial is probably the best venue for general discussion.
Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.

Technical news

You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
In your notification preferences, you can now block specific users from pinging you. This functionality will soon be available for Special:EmailUser as well.

Arbitration

Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:35, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 6 September 2017

From the editors: What happened at Wikimania?

Please share your Wikimania 2017 experiences!

News and notes: Basselpedia; WMF Board of Trustees appointments

Some of the goings-on from Wikimania 2017.

Featured content: Warfighters and their tools or trees and butterflies

Take your pick of the best of Wikipedia.

Traffic report: A fortnight of conflicts

White supremacists v. anti-fascism groups, Mayweather v. McGregor, Moon v. Sun.

Special report: Biomedical content, and some thoughts on its future

Wikipedia's medical and scientific content has come a long way since 2001. Here are some thoughts on how it may continue to evolve.

Recent research: Discussion summarization; Twitter bots tracking government edits; extracting trivia from Wikipedia

A list of recent research publications on various topics.

In the media: Google's Ideological Echo Chamber; What makes someone successful?

Plus the latest reports of vandalism and mistakes in Wikipedia.

WikiProject report: WikiProject YouTube

WikiProject YouTube is a new project on both English and Simple English Wikipedia.

Technology report: Latest tech news

Syntax highlighting, failed login notifications, watchlist filters, and more.

Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 4 wrap-up

Ships, typhoons, birds, and more!

Humour: Bots

They do the things you don't want to do (and sometimes things you don't want done).

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:43, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Invitation to Admin confidence survey

Hello,

Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.

The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.

To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.

We really appreciate your input!

Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.

For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 20:56, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 September 2017

News and notes: Chapter updates; ACTRIAL

News from Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Macedonia, and Wikimedia Israel's; Autoconfirmed article creation trial begins

In the media: Monkey settlement; Wikipedia used to give AI context clues

Also: Jeopedia, Dubaipedia, shaping science, fake quote reused by scholarly sources

Humour: Chickenz

The best that poultry has to offer

Recent research: Wikipedia articles vs. concepts; Wikipedia usage in Europe

Plus the latest research publications.

Technology report: Flow restarted; Wikidata connection notifications

Plus more tech news, and the latest scripts and bots

Gallery: Chicken mania

Complimenting this issue's Humour about chickens...

Special report: Two steps forward, one step backward: The Sustainability Initiative

Finally we're seeing some initial successes, but the Wikimedia movement is still far from being environmentally sustainable.

Traffic report: Fights and frights

Boxing, hurricanes, clowns, and more!

Featured content: Flying high

Newly featured birds, planes, and high achievers

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2017).

Administrator changes

Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem

Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.

Technical news

You can now search for IP ranges at Special:Contributions. Some log pages and Special:DeletedContributions are not yet supported. Wildcards (e.g. 192.168.0.*) are also not supported, but the popular contribsrange gadget will continue to work.

Arbitration

Community consultation on the 2017 candidates for CheckUser and Oversight has concluded. The Arbitration Committee will appoint successful candidates by October 11.
A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:23, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Help design a new feature to stop harassing emails

Hi there,

The Anti-Harassment Tools team plans to start develop of a new feature to allow users to restrict emails from new accounts. This feature will allow an individual user to stop harassing emails from coming through the Special:EmailUser system from abusive sockpuppeting accounts.

We’re inviting you to join the discussion because you voted or commented in the 2016 Community Wishlist discussion or IdeaLab discussion about letting users restrict who can send them email.

You can leave comments on this discussion page or send an email to the Anti-Harassment Tools team.

It is important to hear from a broad range of people who are interested in the design of the tool, so we hope you join the discussion.

For the Anti-Harassment Tools team SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 21:48, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.

The Signpost: 23 October 2017

News and notes: Money! WMF fundraising, Wikimedia strategy, WMF new office!

The Wikimedia Foundation publishes the latest fundraising report, convenes over the close of the strategic plan discussion, and moves into a new space.

Featured content: Don, Marcel, Emily, Jessica and other notables

A variety of topics promoted.

Humour: Guys named Ralph

If your name is Ralph, well sorry.

In focus: Offline Wikipedia developed at OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon

Advocates for sharing offline information gather to make content, software, hardware, and social decisions.

Blog: The future of offline access to Wikipedia: The Kiwix example

A chat with a developer of open source software which allows users to download web content for offline reading, and the future of offline access to Wikipedia.

In the media: Facebook and poetry

Fighting fake news and plagiarism.

Special report: Working with GLAMs in the UK

Wikimedia UK's partnerships and achievements working with GLAM institutions.

Traffic report: Death, disaster, and entertainment

Readers interested in the the death of Hef, Puerto Rico, films and television.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:36, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

Special:AbuseFilter/755

We now have per-filter performance tracking available to those who have access to Logstash. In the report, it showed filter 755 was regularly slowing down editing by nearly a second for some users. I noticed it isn't tripped very often, so I don't think the expense is worth it in this case. I've disabled the filter for now, but if you need help cleaning it up and reducing condition count, etc., just let me know :) Best — MusikAnimal ^talk 19:58, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2017).

Administrator changes

Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93

Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite

Technical news

The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team is creating an "Interaction Timeline" tool that intends to assist administrators in resolving user conduct disputes. Feedback on the concept may be posted on the talk page.
A new function is now available to edit filter managers that will make it easier to look for multiple strings containing spoofed text.

Arbitration

Eligible editors will be invited to submit candidate statements for the 2017 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 12 until November 21. Voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 10.
Following a request for comment, Ritchie333, Yunshui and Ymblanter will serve as the Electoral Commission for the 2017 ArbCom Elections.

Obituaries

The Wikipedia community has recently learned that Allen3 (William Allen Peckham) passed away on December 30, 2016, the same day as JohnCD. Allen began editing in 2005 and became an administrator that same year.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:49, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

A little early, but still...

Wishing you a day of celebration, relaxation, and happiness.

If you don't celebrate, pass this on to someone who does! -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 01:12, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Special:AbuseFilter/755

I've had to disable this again. The most recent hits on the Grafana dashboard show this is sometimes crazy crazy slow (over 30 seconds!). The per-filter stats within the interface were recently re-added, so you can see that recent runtimes are acceptable (I don't think it's an average, despite what it says), but it's those few times where the conditions are right that it gets really slow.

I don't really know what's wrong. I tried to make some modifications to help, but apparently that didn't do the trick. I'm guessing the big issue involves reducing maximum condition count and avoiding running regex on big variables like old_wikitext. Use removed_lines instead, if possible. Other tactics: If you want to use rlike but the regex is just plain text, you should be using contains, contains_any, etc. Same with irlike. If it is plain text but case-insensitive, try first using lcase then using contains. Going by the timestamps I see in Grafana, users are getting slowed down by the filter, but not actually triggering it (because I don't see a log entry for the same timestamp). This suggests perhaps there is a way to reorder the conditions so that things that are most likely to evaluate to false come first. You might be able to combine some of the conditions, too.

Overall you may have to rethink this filter entirely. In general I don't think there should be pages of separate conditions. Please also note this filter is rarely hit (relatively speaking) but affects everyone who edits. — MusikAnimal ^talk 17:44, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

See also Special:AbuseFilter/884 which I think it for the same purpose. We had issues with that filter being slow too, so now I think I know why. See my comment in the Notes. — MusikAnimal ^talk 18:11, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 November 2017

News and notes: Cons, cons, cons

The first ever Wikidata conference was a con we wanted. Problematic paid editing while in a position of trust: not so much.

Arbitration report: Administrator desysoped; How to deal with crosswiki issues; Mister Wiki case likely

Arbitration matters from October and November.

Technology report: Searching and surveying

A new advanced search interface; the Community Wishlist Survey is back.

Interview: A featured article centurion

Brianboulton talks about featured articles on his 100th promotion.

WikiProject report: Recommendations for WikiProjects

A novel approach to recruit members for your project!

In the media: Open knowledge platform as a media institution

Wikipedia seen as flawed but important; conservative think-tank fellow wants his say; volunteer in Madison wants to close the gender gap.

Traffic report: Strange and inappropriate

Readers intrigued by the Netflix show Stranger Things, and by sexual assault allegations.

Featured content: We will remember them

War memorials, soldiers, extinct species, and devastating hurricanes are some of the most recently promoted featured content.

Recent research: Who wrote this? New dataset on the provenance of Wikipedia text

And other new research publications.

Humour: Good faith (but still incomprehensible)

The entertainment value of Wikipedia.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:39, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, BethNaught. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

ANI Experiences survey

The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative (led by the Safety and Support and Anti-Harassment Tools team) is conducting a survey for en.wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with the Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works - which problems it deals with well, and which problems it struggles with.

The survey should take 10-20 minutes to answer, and your individual responses will not be made public. The survey is delivered through Google Forms. The privacy policy for the survey describes how and when Wikimedia collects, uses, and shares the information we receive from survey participants and can be found here:

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2017_AN/Incidents_Survey_Privacy_Statement

If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be mailed to you via Special:Emailuser.

Sign up here to receive a link to a survey

Please be aware this survey will close Friday, Dec. 8 at 23:00 UTC.

Thank you on behalf of the Support & Safety and Anti-Harassment Tools Teams, Patrick Earley (WMF) talk 21:14, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017).

Administrator changes

Joe Roe

JzG

Ericorbit • Perceval • Thingg • Tristanb • Violetriga

Guideline and policy news

Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.

Technical news

Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.

Arbitration

Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.

Miscellaneous

Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:57, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion From Your's Truly

Please pardon me if I put this in the wrong spot, but I would like to inform you of a user that has been constantly vandalizing pages, but has not been caught (since the Wikipedia bot reverted all of his "possible vandalism" edits). His IP address is 64.45.204.127. His latest edit was on the walking catfish page, where he deleted all of the article and replaced it with "suck it" Thank you... DoctorSpeed (talk) 19:12, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 December 2017

Special report: Women in Red World Contest wrap-up

Global article creation contest/editathon exceeds expectations.

Blog: Close encounters of the Wikipedia kind

Astronaut is first to specifically contribute to Wikipedia from space.

Featured content: Featured content to finish 2017

Seventeen articles, twenty-nine lists, three pictures and one featured topic were promoted.

In the media: Stolen seagulls, public domain primates and more

The media discuss online copyright issues, Wikipedia's coverage of the capital of Israel and creation of a "reasonably clean, honest and reliable" work on Earth and in space.

Arbitration report: Last case of 2017: Mister Wiki editors

Evidence phase in Mister Wiki editors case is complete; the community is proposing remedies and the Arbitration committee is slated to make a decision by end of year. Meanwhile, voting has closed on 2017 elections.

Gallery: Wiki loving

Winners of the international photo competitions Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments.

Interview: Interview with Charlesjsharp, regular contributor of Wikipedia's Featured Pictures

Looking back on a decade of contributions including over 1,000 images and over three dozen Featured Pictures, Charles shares his wildlife photography experience and tips.

Recent research: French medical articles have "high rate of veracity"

And other recent research publications.

Technology report: Your wish lists and more Wikimedia tech

Including improved blocking tools, new user scripts, and the latest technical news.

Traffic report: Notable heroes and bad guys

We like our heroes and bad guys.

Humour: On their way to the WMF Incubator

u-nye-loo-lay-doo? Dochvetlh vISoplaHbe’.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:27, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

User talk:Leadingent

You may wish to revoke talk page access.--Cahk (talk) 08:36, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello BethNaught: Enjoy the holiday season, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, -- ψλ ● ✉ ✓ 16:17, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings1}} to send this message

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas BethNaught!!

Hi BethNaught, I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year,
Thanks for all your help and contributions on the 'pedia! ,
–Davey2010 ^{Merry Xmas / Happy New Year} 13:21, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Hello BethNaught: Enjoy the holiday season, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, —MRD2014 ^{Merry Christmas!} 01:44, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings1}} to send this message

73.110.38.97

Please block user:73.110.38.97. She is not stopping despite being reported. CLCStudent (talk) 17:14, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Done 🎄BethNaught (talk)🎄 17:16, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

She is back as user:73.110.33.47. CLCStudent (talk) 17:27, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

IP blocked and page protected. 🎄BethNaught (talk)🎄 17:29, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Happy New Year, BethNaught!

Happy New Year!

BethNaught,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
-- ψλ ● ✉ ✓ 23:34, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).

Administrator changes

Muboshgu

Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned

None

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

Technical news

The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.

Arbitration

Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 January 2018

News and notes: Communication is key

Two new WMF Communications department leadership appointments; a new way for Wikimedia communities to communicate their capacities.

In the media: The Paris Review, British Crown and British Media

Wikipedia manipulated and copied – again

Featured content: History, gaming and multifarious topics

Historical and pop culture articles promoted.

Interview: Interview with Ser Amantio di Nicolao, the top contributor to English Wikipedia by edit count

How do you make an average of 3,600 edits a week for over a decade? And what do you learn when you've done it?

Technology report: Dedicated Wikidata database servers

Plus the latest technology upgrades, tools and news.

Humour: Why don't we have an article about _________?

Notable missing articles.

Arbitration report: Mister Wiki is first arbitration committee decision of 2018

In deciding to de-sysop an admin for efforts to evade discussion and review of paid edits made on behalf of a PR firm, Arbitration Committee doesn't significantly change the rules around paid editing, and leaves it up to the community whether to apply special restrictions to administrators.

Traffic report: The best and worst of 2017

A look back at the most popular articles in a tumultuous and intriguing year.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:27, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

Technical news

A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

Arbitration

The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:51, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 5 February 2018

Op-ed: Do editors have the right to be forgotten?

Should an editor's block history be a permanent "rap sheet", or does Wikipedia forgive and forget? A reform initiative has begun.

Featured content: Wars, sieges, disasters and everything black possible

Exemplary content recognized between January 12 and January 20, 2018

Recent research: Automated Q&A from Wikipedia articles; Who succeeds in talk page discussions?

Also: Polish quality, Russian political mythologization, and multilingual analyses

Blog: New monthly dataset shows where people fall into Wikipedia rabbit holes

The Wikimedia Foundation's Analytics team compiles a clickstream dataset, now available as a series of monthly data dumps for English, Russian, German, Spanish, and Japanese Wikipedias.

Interview: Interview with The Rambling Man, Wikipedia's top contributor of Featured Lists

Lessons on Creating a Featured List

Traffic report: TV, death, sports, and doodles

The most popular articles for January 14 to 27

Special report: Cochrane–Wikipedia Initiative

A partnership to improve and update Wikipedia's medical content

Arbitration report: New cases requested for inter-editor hostility and other collaboration issues

Politeness and collegial behavior about to be taken up by Arbcom, and perhaps a revisit of the infobox question.

In the media: Solving crime; editing out violence allegations

Also, did UCF really win?

Humour: You really are in Wonderland

Enjoy the humour of another contributor

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:12, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Four years of editing

Hey, BethNaught. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day! Chris Troutman (talk) 07:17, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 20 February 2018

News and notes: The future is Swedish with a lack of administrators

Sweden selected for Wikimania 2019; research report on shaping the future; a scarcity of RfAs.

Recent research: Politically diverse editors write better articles; Reddit and Stack Overflow benefit from Wikipedia but don't give back

There might be good things about an edit war.

Arbitration report: Arbitration committee prepares to examine two new cases

Editor in self-imposed exile and infobox wars a thorn in the side of arbitration committee.

Traffic report: Addicted to sports and pain

The Superbowl, the Winter Olympics, death, and accusations of unspeakable things.

Featured content: Entertainment, sports and history

An eclectic mix of promotions.

Technology report: Paragraph-based edit conflict screen; broken thanks

And other recent tech news.

Humour: Impossible and unexplained traffic report

Stubs get a lot of pageviews.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:11, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).

Administrator changes

Lourdes†

AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V

† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news

The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

Technical news

CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
The edit filter has a new feature contains_all that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

Miscellaneous

Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.

Obituaries

Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

AIV

Hi Beth, can you take a look at WP:AIV - there's a bit of a backlog. -KH-1 (talk) 09:12, 17 March 2018 (UTC)