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== Mass killings under communist regimes ==
== Mass killings under communist regimes ==

As for [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes&diff=1040659749&oldid=1040659703 this], I think the reasoning given in the template you have removed was clear. "Everything here is sourced ... ." The problem is that it is sourced to the author themselves. Author A says thing A, and is sourced to author A; author B says thing B, and is sourced to author B; and so on. They should be sourced to secondary sources because when they are making analysis or interpretation, the authors become primary sources on what they said, and we need secondary sources both to avoid original research and to establish weight; if no secondary sources, and they need to be about the topic and not to something unrelated or in passing, can be found, it means they are undue, hence the tags.
As for [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes&diff=1040659749&oldid=1040659703 this], I think the reasoning given in the template you have removed was clear. "Everything here is sourced ... ." The problem is that it is sourced to the author themselves. Author A says thing A, and is sourced to author A; author B says thing B, and is sourced to author B; and so on. They should be sourced to secondary sources because when they are making analysis or interpretation, the authors become primary sources on what they said, and we need secondary sources both to avoid original research and to establish weight; if no secondary sources, and they need to be about the topic and not to something unrelated or in passing, can be found, it means they are undue, hence the tags.


As our policy says: "A book by a military historian about the Second World War might be a secondary source about the war, but where it includes details of the author's own war experiences, it would be a primary source about those experiences." Changes this to "A book by Rummel about events in Communist states might be a secondary source about the events themselves, but where it includes details of the author's own interpretation of the events, it would be a primary source about those interpretations." It is the same thing. Incidentally, for Rummel we correctly cite him to Jacobs and Totten, which is why it was not tagged, so why is not the same done for all the others? Perhaps because they are undue, as they cannot be found in secondary sources. [[User:Davide King|Davide King]] ([[User talk:Davide King|talk]]) 01:42, 26 August 2021 (UTC)
As our policy says: "A book by a military historian about the Second World War might be a secondary source about the war, but where it includes details of the author's own war experiences, it would be a primary source about those experiences." Changes this to "A book by Rummel about events in Communist states might be a secondary source about the events themselves, but where it includes details of the author's own interpretation of the events, it would be a primary source about those interpretations." It is the same thing. Incidentally, for Rummel we correctly cite him to Jacobs and Totten, which is why it was not tagged, so why is not the same done for all the others? Perhaps because they are undue, as they cannot be found in secondary sources. [[User:Davide King|Davide King]] ([[User talk:Davide King|talk]]) 01:42, 26 August 2021 (UTC)
: But the authors are established experts on the topic, their commentary is due weight. We're not using Wikipedia's voice to provide their commentary, we're saying that this is a view that these established experts have and here are examples of them saying it. [[User:ThePlatypusofDoom|ThePlatypusofDoom]] [[User talk:ThePlatypusofDoom|(talk)]] 05:06, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

But the authors are established experts on the topic, their commentary is due weight. We're not using Wikipedia's voice to provide their commentary, we're saying that this is a view that these established experts have and here are examples of them saying it. [[User:ThePlatypusofDoom|ThePlatypusofDoom]] [[User talk:ThePlatypusofDoom|(talk)]] 05:06, 26 August 2021 (UTC)
:: "But the authors are established experts on the topic" Of course, this ignores the fact that genocide studies, despite growing research and interest, has not achieved mainstream status in political science; scholars of communism disagree with many of their conclusions, and most events in their main articles are not described as mass killings. "their commentary is due weight" It is only due if it is reported in secondary sources, like we do for Rummell. "We're not using Wikipedia's voice to provide their commentary, we're saying that this is a view that these established experts have and here are examples of them saying it." But we are citing their own works to do that, which are primary sources in this case, and could be original research because it is us, not experts who reviewed their work, doing that. As I said, we do that for Rummel; there is simply not a good reason to not do the same for others, unless, of course, one is trying to push a POV and give undue weight to them.
:: Indeed, several of such sources are misrepresented because it is us editors interpreting them through their own work rather than let secondary sources and experts doing that for us. While noting that mass killings have occurred under Communist regimes, Valentino provides no theory about the connection. It would be the same as if he said that there have been mass killings in Asia and we created an article called "Mass killings under Asian regimes." Valentino identifies mass killings as over 50,000 people intentionally killed in a 5 year period, which is not the definition used here, and concluded that most Communist regimes did not carry out mass killings and only three definitely did (Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia), and only in specific periods (Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot); Valentino refers to "radical Communist" regimes, which are Stalinist USSR, Maoist China, and Pol Pot's Cambodia rather than, say, Gorbachev's Soviet Union. Valentino does not elaborate on his theory, and it would only justify creating an article on his theory, although the lack of secondary sources covering it meets it fails notability. Max Weber presented a theory, the Protestant ethic which says that Protestants are more industrious than Catholics due to their religious beliefs, and rightly that article explains his theory. But it does not attempt to prove his theory by coatracking in articles about economic success in the UK and U.S., and economic failure in Italy and Spain.
:: Valentino provides little that connects them and only discusses Stalinist USSR, Maoist China, and Kampuchea; it only discusses specific instances where over 50,000 people were killed and excludes "counter-insurgency" mass killings, which he groups in his book with similar killings by capitalist regimes. In other words, they were not ideologically driven according to him but resulted from the same motivations as non-Communist states. So if we were to use his article as a model, it would restrict the scope of the article. Yet, we act like Valentino is talking about all Communist states and that communism is the main culprit, hence original research and synthesis, and why we desperately need secondary sources explaining for us what those authors actually wrote.
:: I cited you Valentino, but this could be used for other scholars mentioned as well. The article should be about the theory that mass deaths under Communist regimes, which indeed did happen and were astonishing, are to be categorized as mass killing (but they are mainly used to categorize only three specific periods in three Communist states and not to every Communist state as the article implies), and that this is a theory proposed by some scholars (Valentino) but is rejected and criticized by many others. [[User:Davide King|Davide King]] ([[User talk:Davide King|talk]]) 14:16, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Revision as of 14:23, 26 August 2021

Barnstars and stuff: User:ThePlatypusofDoom/Shiny Things

Pun Generator



The baker's business burned down last night. Now his business is toast.

The Signpost
4 July 2024
 

NOTE

Note that if I accidentally reverted your edit, feel free to revert it, if you are cleaning up vandalism, I mess up sometimes. ThePlatypusofDoom (Talk) 23:13, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]


My Archive of Archives

User:ThePlatypusOfDoom/Archive/Archive

Season's Greetings

Hello ThePlatypusofDoom: Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, GABgab 03:48, 25 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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

Seasons Greetings

Hello ThePlatypusofDoom: Enjoy the holiday season, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, -- Dane talk 08:16, 25 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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

Yo Ho Ho

Doug Weller talk is wishing you Seasons Greetings! Whether you celebrate your hemisphere's Solstice or Christmas, Diwali, Hogmanay, Hanukkah, Lenaia, Festivus or even the Saturnalia, this is a special time of year for almost everyone!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding {{subst:User:WereSpielChequers/Dec16a}} to your friends' talk pages.

Your (seasonal) signature

Looks great. Green is dignified, strong and aesthetic. ;) MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 14:34, 27 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year, ThePlatypusofDoom!

Happy New Year!

ThePlatypusofDoom,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. -- Dane talk 02:23, 1 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]


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

Happy New Year ThePlatypusofDoom!

Happy New Year!
ThePlatypusofDoom,
Have a prosperous, productive and wonderful New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.

--Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 20:32, 1 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

I just wanted to stop by and thank you for your revert of my edit on this page. I did not in any way intend to blank the page. While I was attempting to make the changes I intended, my Wikipedia session expired, and the changes were not put through. Instead, the page was blanked. Thanks so much for catching this unintentional error. Today when I realized what I had done, I felt so stupid about it. But I was able to go back in today and make the changes I wanted to make without making the same mistake again. Sorry for the inconvenience, thanks again for catching my error, and best wishes for your continued editing success here on Wikipedia! --Jgstokes (talk) 03:23, 3 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Re:January 2017

My edit on List of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episodes isn't a vandalic act but a restored edit, because it's not necessary to insert that "Story" in the Writers sections. It must remain faithful in the way as shown on the original TV presentation of all episodes. Luigi1090 (talk) 21:15, 4 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Counter Vandalism Unit Academy

Hi! I'm starting to remove vandalism from Wikipedia. Since you're a CVUA trainer, could you train me to fight vandalism? I noticed you are in the Eastern Time Zone, however, I'm in the Mountain Time Zone. What hours are you available for? I'm available from around 3PM to 9PM MST. Anyway, if you consider it, thanks! XboxGamer22408 (talk) 22:34, 5 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@XboxGamer22408: Sure, I'd be happy to help! I'm able to edit from 7:30 to 8 AM (in ET or EST), and pretty much whenever on weekends. I've created your page here. Thanks! ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 00:21, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom:OK, I've finished the first assignment. If I am doing everything wrong though, please explain what exactly I'm doing wrong. It just helps immensely if I'm told specifically what I'm doing wrong. XboxGamer22408 (talk) 03:06, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@AWMSSilent:I was wondering if you could train me too. I am in the central time zone. I am available from 8:30am to 9:15am and 10:20am to 11:00am CST, Monday thru Friday. Would that work for you?AWMSSilent (talk) 14:56, 6 January 2017 (UTC)AWMSSilent[reply]
@AWMSSilent: Hi, the requirement at WP:CVUA says that you need at least 200 mainspace edits to start training. When you've got that many, message me, and I'll be happy to help! ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 16:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@AWMSSilent:I don't know what is a quicker way to get mainspace edits, editing or creating an article. And I was hoping that doing counter - vandalism work, I could get quite a bit of contributions.AWMSSilent (talk) 22:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)AWMSSilent[reply]
@AWMSSilent: You should get some knowledge of Wikipedia's policies, as well, read this to start off. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:45, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Hey I've had this account for a while and I was wondering if I could start counter vandalism training now?AWMSSilent (talk) 16:30, 27 February 2017 (UTC)AWMSSilent[reply]
@AWMSSilent: I can't. You still don't have the required number of edits (you need 200 mainspace edits), and I'm too busy right now to train another person. Come back when you have 200 mainspace edits. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:12, 27 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Hello

It was a bug. The Content Translator tool was set to translate that page to Portuguese, but my work was published in the English Wikipedia article, replacing its content. I would normally realize that within minutes and revert it (like a did here, for example), but you got it faster. Last time I translated a page from EN to PT, it all worked well, though (and that was yesterday). I'll report this bug again in the same place I reported it last time it happened. Sorry for any inconvenience. Victão Lopes Fala! 01:33, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVU Academy training

Hello there, I was wondering if you could train me on counter-vandalism, as I saw that you had open student slots over at Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy. I've been editing for a few months now, and been reverting vandalism for a while, but I'm not quite certain that my fundamentals are as in-shape as they should be, and that my understanding of the process is as strong as it should be. If you could mentor me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm available from 4 PM to 9 PM PST on weekdays, and pretty much whenever on the weekends. Zupotachyon Ping me (talk ⋅ contribs) 04:30, 11 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Zupotachyon: Sure! I've created your page here: User:ThePlatypusofDoom/CVUA/Zupotachyon ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 12:53, 11 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Alright, thanks. Zupotachyon Ping me (talk ⋅ contribs) 19:28, 11 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Could you help me, please?

Hi, im User:ilovehorrorstories, I'm here to ask you if could help me add categories into my user page? —Preceding undated comment added 20:18, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Firstly, sign your name after posts. Put 4 tildes (~~~~) at the end of your post to sign. Secondly, you don't need to put categories on your user page. For info about categories, see here. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 21:37, 12 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A beer for you!

Cheers! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:06, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Pioneer Zephyr

Fear not, I only deleted what I was attempting to enter but could not successfully format. BTW, if you are able to take the content box I was attempting to enter and make it work, that would solve the problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.208.11.42 (talk) 23:45, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Old news

...but still: this is a copyvio. Drmies (talk) 20:13, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Drmies: Sorry about that. I think that was a semi-protected edit request, I should have checked it first. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 20:16, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I am not revdeleting a few hundred edits because of that one sentence, though other admins may disagree. There's a bit of to-do about that article and I don't want to lose the history--tell you what, I'm pinging Moonriddengirl. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 20:21, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Drmies: Sorry to make so much work! I don't know what I was thinking when I made that edit. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 20:23, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It's OK--shit happens. Let's see what MRG says. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 01:49, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Senpai?

I wish to join the CVU and you are listed as an available trainer? Will you be my sensei in this fight against vandals? -Arkhaminsanity (talk) 16:21, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Arkhaminsanity: Firstly, post stuff on the bottom of talk pages, not the top. Secondly, at WP:CVUA, it says "Check that you have already made sufficient mainspace edits (generally around 200)". You only have 79 mainspace edits, wait until you get 200 and I'll be happy to train you. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 20:12, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to join the CVUA now. Will you teach me the ways of the force? Arkhaminsanity (talk) 09:06, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Arkhaminsanity: I'm too busy, sorry. I've already promised someone else that they can be my next trainee, so I don't think I'll be able to train you for over a month. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 16:05, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Fear not sire, I will learn the ways of the force elsewhere. Thy time is appreciated. Arkhaminsanity (talk) 16:19, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Willy Munyeta

Yeah I'm not sure what to do with this, its a messy bit of POV pushing to be sure. There do appear to be quite a few sources, though I haven't looked too hard at them.  InsertCleverPhraseHere  13:06, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Insertcleverphrasehere: Yeah, it's a mess. I posted at the fringe theories noticeboard about it, and Chrissymad's working on it. I'll work on it later (I'm currently busy). ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 13:09, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah I didn't have time to work on it either, it seems I've been the only patroller on the New Page Feed for the past 2 hours, and there have been quite a few shockers. Off to bed now, 2 AM here. Good to know somebody else has it handled.  InsertCleverPhraseHere  13:12, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
That Pun Generator is brilliant BTW, I've copied it onto my user page "The roundest knight at King Arthur's table was Sir Cumference. He gained his size from too much pi." >_<  InsertCleverPhraseHere  13:14, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVUA teacher needed.

Could you please help me improve my anti vandal skills? FriyMan talk 14:25, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Friyman: I'd be happy to help. Your page is here. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 14:58, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@FriyMan: Pinging you again as I broke the first one. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 14:19, 30 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Re: A barnstar for you!

Thank you for the barnstar! It is an honor to receive one from you. =) -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 05:12, 30 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@bubblefett: what??/a pun generator and illuminati kittens..AWSOME!!! but i came to talk about the bage awarded by you to robert, the anti-vandilism bage, im wondering if there are any others, just edit me back on my page or here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubblefett (talk • contribs) 15:49, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page watcher) @Bubblefett: A word in your shell-like, but you should probably focus more on avoiding making edits like this and less on barnstars. Happy editing. O Fortuna!...Imperatrix mundi. 15:55, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@bubblefett: what who are you talking about i dont understand..... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubblefett (talk • contribs) 16:30, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@bubblefett:why did you flagg my page, ive talked to the wikipedia authorities.my reason is that it states in the wikipedia guidelines that a user may put whatever they want in thier talkpage/homepage, bu it can not be mall intented, my page had a few illuminati mentions, but i was on my way to clean it up after deciding someone may bann me for it, when my page got flagged. And mypage specifically doent promote lluminati or its ideals or iffiliates, i dont praise it whatso ever, and my unhelpfull edits o cabildo counsel and others, i was already punished for majorly, and i learned. so it is in goodwill that i nicely ask that the wise wikipedia admin please correct the flagging of my page. i worke for 4 hours straight hours so please consider a lesser punishment. like a 5 day user page ban at MAX. I really just want to inform people like other wikipedia users, and when i get to my page ill remove all disrespectfull content. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubblefett (talk • contribs) 16:44, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Huh? This looks to be incoherent rambling to me. Also, why is this conversation on my talk page? ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 17:07, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVUA

I can see that you are a teacher at the Counter-Vandalism academy. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to be trained by you. Please consider my application and I hope to talk to you soon! Qaei ☎ 17:39, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Qaei: I'm a little too busy right now, so I can't train anyone else, but one of my students is graduating soon. Come back in a couple weeks and I'll train you. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:17, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Sure, it's fine. All the other trainers are inactive or don't respond XD. Thanks Qaei ☎ 18:25, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Qaei: I'll ask a couple other patrollers about mentorship, to see if I can find anyone that'll mentor you. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:28, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom:Thanks, that's really kind Qaei ☎ 18:30, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Qaei: I can mentor you now, if you want. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 00:14, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Fantastic, thanks. Can't wait to get started Qaei ☎ 00:26, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Counter-Vandalism

Hello, I was wondering if you could train me in the Counter-Vandalism Academy. I would really appreciate it since I'm trying to become a better editor of Wikipedia. So completing these courses would be very helpful.

Bel-Shamharoth (talk) 21:34, 2 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Bel-Samharoth: I'm sorry, but I'm already training 3 people, and I'm fairly busy, so I can't train you right now. I'll ask some other patrollers if they would be willing to mentor you. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:04, 2 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Bel-Shamharoth: If that doesn't work, I'll be able to train you in a month or so. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:05, 2 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Alright, that'll work. Thanks anyways. Bel-Shamharoth (talk) 00:10, 3 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Help request

Hi! I have been asked to write up an editorial for The Signpost. It is at User:Guy Macon/Draft of Signpost Editorial. If you have time, could you give it a quick look and correct any glaring errors you spot? Thanks! --Guy Macon (talk) 04:04, 7 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Rollback rights question

Hi! If I was to apply for rollback rights now, how would I fare? By the way, I finished my last assignment ;P Qaei ☎ 20:58, 13 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Qaei: I wouldn't apply now, we'll get to that later in the assignment.ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 21:11, 13 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Ok, cool! Qaei ☎ 21:13, 13 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: After you left IRC this morning, Samtar and I were discussing rollback rights. He said that he would be happy to grant them to me if he got your consent. I wondered what you thought :P Qaei ☎ 22:02, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Qaei: Sure, go ahead. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:03, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]


Speedy Deletion Nomination

Hi! I've been contributing my work to Wiki since long time. This page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalyan_choudhury) is not based on any promotion, but a reference to who the one is, who has been contributing. I don't think it's a violation, but if it is, please let me know. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kalyan Choudhury (talk • contribs) 17:53, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Kalyan Choudhury: It seemed promotional, but that was just one of the reasons I tagged it. "Contributing to Wikipedia" isn't a claim of significance, therefore I tagged it under CSD criterion A7. Also read WP:AUTOBIO. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 19:09, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Monitoring period

@ThePlatypusofDoom: Hi, isn't my 5 day monitoring period done? I am really excited about the final test! FriyMan talk 20:20, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@FriyMan: Thanks for reminding me, I forgot. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 22:24, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVUA

I'd like to be trained on anti-vandalism. Most of my edits are trying to revert vandalism on the Recent Changes page, if you look through my contribs it becomes apparent. Thanks :) Weegeeweeg (talk) 05:06, 18 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Weegeeweeg: I'm too busy right now to mentor another user. Ask again in a month or so, I might be able to mentor you then. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 14:33, 18 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@ThePlatypusofDoom: Alrighty. Thanks for the reply Weegee (talk) (contribs) 14:52, 18 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sudeep's Marital Status

No no, I'm not asking You to contact the Actor Himself. I was asking whether if You could contact His Personal manager. AradhanaSharon (talk) 07:47, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@AradhanaSharon: That would still be a primary source, so no. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 14:34, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Then what should I do so that you could believe.. He is not divorced Sir. Please try to understand. How would people feel reading His biography on Wikipedia. How could newspapers write unless that the court hearings took place. That too, for two times. Why are you not believing. Sudeep's personal manager himself told me that He's not divorced Sir. Those links which I provided you earlier. Aren't those enough for you to believe Sir. What more should I do so that you would believe?! AradhanaSharon (talk) 16:16, 20 February 2017 (UTC)AradhanaSharonAradhanaSharon (talk) 16:16, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@AradhanaSharon: Provide sources that other editors agree is reliable. That's the only solution in this case. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 16:40, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here is the link from Times of India(Certified site) http://m.timesofindia.com/entertainment/kannada/movies/news/sudeep-not-to-divorce-wife/articleshow/56435284.cms

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/sudeep-priya-divorce-couple-trying-save-their-marriage-711701

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/kiccha-sudeeps-marriage-back-track-reunite-wife-priya-684861

Please go through those and take them unto consideration. Thank you. AradhanaSharon (talk) 12:47, 21 February 2017 (UTC)AradhanaSharonAradhanaSharon (talk) 12:47, 21 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Final Exam

Finished the monitoring period! Can't wait to finish the course. Qaei ☎ 18:23, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much!

Qaei's Award of Excellence with distinction
I don't know how to thank you enough for teaching me through the CVUA Course, I honestly am extremely grateful for helping me out. I decided that the best way to thank you was my own personal touch, so here you go! Qaei ☎ 17:16, 24 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies

Hey there,

Sorry for this edit. I accidentally clicked the rollback button, and I have self-reverted my accidental use of rollback. Thanks for your understanding. --Dps04 (talk) 03:45, 26 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget about my course!

Hi! I am done with my test. Can you check it? FriyMan talk 19:57, 28 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

My RfA chances.

Hi! After finishing my CVUA course I have a few questions to ask you. Do you consider, that I will have a good chance of becoming an admin in approximately in visible future? P. S. Would you consider me capable to start designing my teaching course for CVUA? FriyMan talk 06:51, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@FriyMan: I'm sorry, but you wouldn't have much of a chance at RfA. You would need at least a year of editing, and you'd need to show that you'd be a good admin. Also, I don't think you should start a CVUA training course just yet, wait until you've been on for 6-10 months.ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:19, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@FriyMan: Pinging again as the first ping didn't work. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:19, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. I agree, I do not have much chances in RfA, but I will start writing my CVUA guide. FriyMan talk 18:21, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@FriyMan: I wouldn't start writing a guide.. I'd wait until you had around 6000 edits or so. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:22, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

March 2017 WikiCup newsletter

And so ends the first round of the competition, with 4 points required to qualify for round 2. It would have been 5 points, but when a late entrant was permitted to join the contest in February, a promise was made that his inclusion would not result in the exclusion of any other competitor. To achieve this, the six entrants that had the lowest positive score of 4 points have been added to the 64 people who otherwise would have qualified. As a result, some of the groups have nine contestants rather than eight. Our top four scorers in round 1 were:

  • Scotland Cas Liber, last year's winner, led the field with two featured articles on birds and a total score of 674.
  • European Union Iry-Hor, a WikiCup newcomer, came next with a featured article, a good article and a tally of 282 bonus points for a score of 517. All these points came from the article Nyuserre Ini, an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh,
  • Japan 1989, another WikiCup newcomer, was in joint third place at 240. 1989 has claimed points for two featured lists and one good article relating to anime and comedy series, all of which were awarded bonus points.
  • South Australia Peacemaker67 shared third place with five good articles and thirteen good article reviews, mostly on naval vessels. He is also new to the competition.

The largest number of DYKs have been submitted by Vivvt and The C of E, who each claimed for seven, and MBlaze Lightning achieved eight articles at ITN. Carbrera and Peacemaker67 each claimed for five GAs and Krishna Chaitanya Velaga was well out in front for GARs, having reviewed 32. No featured pictures, featured topics or good topics yet, but we have achieved three featured articles and a splendid total of fifty good articles.

So, on to the second round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is a good article candidate, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:52, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WON Awards editing

There's a mess with tables, so I'm fixing them. Yes, you did a mistake, but I also made one mistake. No I'll "fix 'em all".176.36.57.234 (talk) 22:37, 3 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Your CVUA course is amazing. You are an amazing vandal fighter. Cheers, FriyMan talk 19:19, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

March 2017

I was reverting Tataral who wants to add a disputed label in first sentence when there's no consensus for it, and probably also constitutes a violation of WP:BLP. Next time please be more careful.--Ganafyj (talk) 00:57, 22 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Delotrooladoo. Sro23 (talk) 01:03, 22 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sea Silk

Hi. Thanks for pointing out the error I made. I was trying to reformat the note into an actual note and forgot that there was a second auto generated note in the main body of the text. I re-edited the page and hopefully, everything looks fine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ehgarrick (talk • contribs) 21:58, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2017

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

Administrator changes

added TheDJ
removed 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) 10:55, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Block notice (JOKE)

Stop icon with clock
You have been blocked from editing for a period of OVER 9000 YEARS for being so sarcastic, way too girly and crashed on Capital Beltway on Washington DC. Oh F****ing stop on this s***** interstate!! it's funny LOL. :D Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful driving. If you think there are good reasons why you should be unblocked, you may get off the highway by first reading the guide to being a girl driving on I-44, then adding the following text to the bottom of your talk page: Hey! I'm on Australia, get me back on Northern Virginia by plane and get me in I-66! Perhaps I'm a a sock of Supreme Genghis Khan and unblock me lol :D

(Note: Even if you're male, this is not intended to offend you and your fine.) [April Fools!] KGirlTrucker81 huh? what I've been doing 18:46, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

April 2017

Information icon Hello, I'm ThePlatypusofDoom. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions —the one you made with this edit to Indoline— because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 21:42, 5 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

SFUO edits

I am a student from the University. Not affiliated with the SFUO. The information found in that section can be found in the two citations I used.

Please stop inappropriately deleting the entire section.

@Dvasq090: Firstly, sign your name by putting 4 tildes at the end of your post. Secondly, that section is only cited to one source, and that is discouraged, as it does not confirm the notability of the event. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 01:33, 14 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have now added 2 additional sources. Both from the Student newspapers. Sorry about forgetting the signature- Dvasq090 Dvasq090 (talk) 01:41, 14 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dispute Resolution Noticeboard Volunteer Roll Call

This is a volunteer roll call sent to you on behalf of the current Dispute Resolution Noticeboard Coordinator, Robert McClenon, and is being sent to you because you have listed yourself as a volunteer at DRN. If you remain interested in helping at DRN and are willing to actively do so by taking at least one case (and seeing it through) or helping with administrative matters at least once per calendar month, please add your name to the roll call list. Those who do not add their name on the roll call list will be removed from the principal volunteer list after May 31, 2017 unless the DRN Coordinator chooses to retain their name for the best interest of DRN or the encyclopedia. Individuals whose names are removed after May 31, 2017, should feel free to re-add their names to the principal volunteer list, but are respectfully requested not to do so unless they are willing to take part at DRN at least one time per month as noted above. No one is going to be monitoring to see if you live up to that commitment, but we respectfully ask that you either live up to it or remove your name from the principal volunteer list.

Best regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 21:54, 27 April 2017 (UTC) This is an informational posting only and I am not watching this page; contact me on my user talk page if you wish to communicate with me about this.[reply]

May 2017 WikiCup newsletter

The second round of the competition has now closed, with just under 100 points being required to qualify for round 3. YellowEvan just scraped into the next round with 98 points but we have to say goodbye to the thirty or so competitors who didn't achieve this threshold; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Our top scorers in round 2 were:

  • Scotland Cas Liber, led the field with five featured articles, four on birds and one on astronomy, and a total score of 2049, half of which came from bonus points.
  • Japan 1989 was in second place with 826 points, 466 of which were bonus points. 1989 has claimed points mostly relating to anime and Japanese-related articles.
  • South Australia Peacemaker67 took third place with two FAs, one GA and seven GARs, mostly on naval vessels or military personnel, scoring 543 points.
  • Other contestants who scored over 400 points were Freikorp, Carbrera, and Czar. Of course all these points are now wiped out and the 32 remaining contestants start again from zero in round 3.

Vivvt submitted the largest number of DYKs (30), and MBlaze Lightning achieved 13 articles at ITN. Carbrera claimed for 11 GAs and Argento Surfer performed the most GARs, having reviewed 11. So far we have achieved 38 featured articles and a splendid 132 good articles. Commendably, 279 GARs have been achieved so far, more than double the number of GAs.

So, on to the third round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:16, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Karanacs • Berean Hunter • GoldenRing • Dlohcierekim
removed Gdr • Tyrenius • JYolkowski • Longhair • Master Thief Garrett • Aaron Brenneman • Laser brain • JzG • Dragons flight

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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)[reply]

Counter Vandalism Training

I notice that you have slots open for counter vandalism training. May I please occupy one of these. I will really find the training useful. Thank you. I am at UTC+1 (UTC+0 in winter). Pablothepenguin (talk) 22:29, 5 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Pablothepenguin: I'm currently not very active, as I am busy, so I can't train you right now. I might be able to in a couple of months. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 23:45, 5 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Very well, I'll try someone else. Pablothepenguin (talk) 23:46, 5 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn
removed ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

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

WikiCup 2017 July newsletter

The third round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 288 points being required to qualify for round 4. It was a hotly competitive round with all but four of the contestants exceeding the 106 points that was necessary to proceed to round 4 last year. Coemgenus and Freikorp tied on 288, and both have been allowed to proceed, so round 4 now has one pool of eight competitors and one of nine.

Round 3 saw the achievement of a 26-topic Featured topic by MPJ-DK as well as 5 featured lists and 13 featured articles. PanagiotisZois and SounderBruce achieved their first ever featured articles. Carbrera led the GA score with 10, Tachs achieved 17 DYKs and MBlaze Lightning 10 In the news items. There were 167 DYKs, 93 GARs and 82 GAs overall, this last figure being higher than the number of GAs in round 2, when twice as many people were taking part. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 4, we say goodbye to the fifteen or so competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 05:38, 30 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Happyme22 • Dragons flight
removed Zad68

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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)[reply]

Sunday July 16: New England Wiknic @ Cambridge, MA

Sunday July 16, 1-5pm: New England Wiknic

You are invited to join us the "picnic anyone can edit" at John F. Kennedy Park, near Harvard Square, Cambridge, as part of the Great American Wiknic celebrations being held across the USA. Remember it's a wiki-picnic, which means potluck.

1–5pm - come by any time!
Look for us by the Wikipedia / Wikimedia banner!

We hope to see you there! --Phoebe (talk) 16:33, 12 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for Boston-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

CVUA

Hi, Platypus! Remember that conflict we had, when I took a user under my wing and tried to teach him Anti-Vandalism? Well, you told me that I have to wait a bit before doing this? Would you say, that I am ready to do it now? Sincerely, your Cheers, FriyMan talk 19:53, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind. Cheers, FriyMan talk 19:54, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 (first RfA to reach WP:300)
removed Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

WikiCup 2017 September newsletter

Round 4 of the WikiCup has ended and we move forward into the final round. In round 4, a total of 12 FAs, 3 FLs, 44 GAs, 3 FLs, 79 DYKs, 1 ITN and 42 GARs was achieved, with no FPs or FTs this time. Congratulations to Peacemaker67 on the Royal Yugoslav Navy Good Topic of 36 items, and the 12 featured articles achieved by Cas Liber (5), Vanamonde93 (3), Peacemaker67 (2), Adityavagarwal (1) and 12george1 (1). With a FA scoring 200 points, and bonus points available on top of this, FAs are likely to feature heavily in the final round. Meanwhile Yellow Evan, a typhoon specialist, was contributing 12 DYKs and 10 GAs, while Adityavagarwal and Freikorp topped the GAR list with 8 reviews each. As we enter the final round, we are down to eight contestants, and we would like to thank those of you who have been eliminated for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. The lowest score needed to reach round 5 was 305, and I think we can expect a highly competitive final round.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck, and let the best man (or woman) win! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 06:25, 1 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Nakon • Scott
removed Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

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)[reply]

BLP

Hey man, I noticed this edit you made - why no source? ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 06:46, 2 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Oshwah: Sorry about that. I was planning to get to that later, but forgot about it. I'll revert my edit. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 13:07, 5 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No apologies needed - someone just noted it and I thought it was strange. Thanks :-) ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 13:29, 5 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVUA?

Heya! I was wondering if you have time to train me in counter-vandalism, but I notice you've been busy in past months, so if you're still busy no worries! Thanks for your time, MapleSyrupRain (talk) 19:26, 8 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]


@MapleSyrupRain: Sorry, I'm not able to right now. I'll probably be back on in a month, and if you haven't found a mentor then, contact me. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 20:07, 8 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2017

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

Administrator changes

added Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem
removed Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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)[reply]

Red categories

Hello odd-looking, venomous Creature of Doom,

Would you please purge the red categories on your user page? The trouble with categories is that they don't affect just your user page. Red categories create an error in the category system, and they interfere with the work of editors who perform category maintenance tasks at Special:WantedCategories—see WP:REDNOT for further details.

I would be grateful if you would remove the category code, or at least insert a column ([[:Category), so that they will not clutter up Special:WantedCategories forever.

Thanks, -- Black Falcon (talk) 05:25, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I was extremely close to requesting the same thing, I'm glad you said something. It will help those of us that like to work with categories if these were removed. Thanks, VegaDark (talk) 05:49, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@VegaDark: @Black Falcon: Hi, thanks for pointing this out. I would prefer to keep these categories on my userpage, though. The issue is that these categories can't be actually created, per WP:USERCAT. I don't want to hold an RfC, and inserting a colon makes it all clutter up the bottom of my userpage. Is there another option? ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 14:53, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for responding. The challenge is that categories are not on your userpage; instead, the category code generates a category that includes your userpage. You could switch to a display-only format by inserting the following text on your userpage (you could have more or fewer bullets as you wish):
{{fmbox
| image = none
| textstyle = text-align:left; margin:1em 0em;
| text  = {{flatlist|
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who are bored with life and need something better to do, so they choose to edit Wikipedia|Wikipedians who are bored with life and need something better to do, so they choose to edit Wikipedia]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who only have imaginary friends|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians that something is wrong with|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who add far to many categories to their user page|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who are zombies|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who seriously need to stop adding categories right now|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who are being investigated for abuse of categories|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who pointlessly add long categories to their user page, because the user is bored|Wikipedians who pointlessly add long categories to their user page, because the user is bored]]
* [[:Category:Hi! You just looked at this pointless category!|]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who.... Crap, I forgot what the category was|Wikipedians who.... Crap, I forgot what the category was]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedians who might be Wikipedians|]]
* [[:Category:User pages that have more than half of their categories red-linked|]]}}
}}

This would produce:

-- Black Falcon (talk) 03:35, 19 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Black Falcon: Okay, I'll try that out. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 11:17, 19 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, I appreciate it! -- Black Falcon (talk) 04:27, 20 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

CVUA

Greetings I am Bobherry I am a mostly experienced editor but was wanting to catch up on stuff via the CVUA and was wondering if you would be my instructor. Thanks Bobherry Talk Edits 19:18, 21 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Bobherry: Sorry, but I'm too busy right now to train anyone in anti-vandalism. I might be able to in a few months, but I'm not sure. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 21:46, 21 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

ani/i comment spoton

Fukin' A, Bubba--Dlohcierekim (talk) 17:15, 30 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018 May newsletter

The second round of the 2018 WikiCup has now finished. Most contestants who advanced to the next round scored upwards of 100 points, but two with just 10 points managed to scrape through into round 3. Our top scorers in the last round were:

  • Scotland Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with three featured articles
  • Republic of Texas Iazyges, with nine good articles and lots of bonus points
  • India Yashthepunisher, a first time contestant, with two featured lists
  • Cascadia (independence movement) SounderBruce, a finalist last year, with seventeen good topic articles
  • United States Usernameunique, a first time contestant, with fourteen DYKs
  • San Francisco Muboshgu, a seasoned competitor, with three ITNs and
  • South Carolina Courcelles, another first time contestant, with twenty-seven GARs

So far contestants have achieved twelve featured articles between them and a splendid 124 good articles. Commendably, 326 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2018 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met; most of the GARs are fine, but a few have been a bit skimpy.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:10, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Re,

This...odd indeed. Esp. since they are an editor of ten-years' tenure. Although, likewise, this is perhaps the footprint that says, simply, "never learns"  :) What say ye? —SerialNumber54129 paranoia /cheap sh*t room 18:29, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Serial Number 54129: Yeah, I have no idea what to do about that editor. I haven't edited in around a year, and am only really starting to get back into editing, so I'll let you decide what to do. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 18:34, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Welcome back—yeah, I see you was away, hope all's well? It's like riding a bike—you never forget! Well, it's Drmies* talkpage, perhaps he has special knowledge. In the meantime, footsoldiers do wot they gotta do :) Take care! —SerialNumber54129 paranoia /cheap sh*t room 18:38, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
*Note the deliberate ping, awaken the Kraken!
  • Ha, the old platypus is back! I sensed a little...existential anxiety? on your user page so I took the liberty of offering a quick fix. A-Day was well attended, and of course you know 12 Alabama players were drafted, an all-time record (some other school once had 14 but I prefer not to name them). Yes, ah, Factchecker--lovely. Thanks. Later folks, Drmies (talk) 21:21, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2018

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news

  • The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
  • A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news

  • AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
  • When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
  • The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
  • There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

Obituaries

  • Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:05, 2 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Draft:Russkaya Reklama concern

Hi there, I'm HasteurBot. I just wanted to let you know that Draft:Russkaya Reklama, a page you created, has not been edited in 5 months. The Articles for Creation space is not an indefinite storage location for content that is not appropriate for articlespace.

If your submission is not edited soon, it could be nominated for deletion. If you would like to attempt to save it, you will need to improve it.

You may request Userfication of the content if it meets requirements.

If the deletion has already occured, instructions on how you may be able to retrieve it are available at WP:REFUND/G13.

Thank you for your attention. HasteurBot (talk) 01:32, 13 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2018

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
  • There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
  • It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

Arbitration

  • A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:00, 1 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
readded Gogo Dodo
removed Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes

removed Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

  • Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
  • Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

  • Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Sro23
readded KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

  • After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
  • Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.

Technical news

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:31, 5 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2018

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
renamed Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

added Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

Technical news

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
  • Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title.
  • Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Justlettersandnumbers • L235
removed Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter

Interface administrator changes

added Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333

Oversight changes

removed Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
  • Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
  • The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
  • Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
  • Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
  • A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
  • The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

Arbitration

  • Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
  • The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en@wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:19, 3 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, ThePlatypusofDoom. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018

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

Administrator changes

readded Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
removed Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes

removedDeryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
  • A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
  • A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
  • Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2019!
Hi ThePlatypusofDoom! Thank you for all the hard work and effort you put into Wikipedia. God bless! Onel5969 TT me 14:36, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  1. G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
  2. R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
  3. G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.

Technical news

  • Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:
  1. At least 8 characters in length
  2. Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
  3. Different from their username
User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
  • Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
  • {{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
  • Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

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

Administrator changes

added Enterprisey • JJMC89
readded BorgQueen
removed Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes

removedEnterprisey

Guideline and policy news

  • A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
  • Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

Technical news

  • A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.

Miscellaneous

  • Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
  • A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:16, 4 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
    • paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
    • checkuser-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:13, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Please participate to the talk pages consultation

Hello

Our team at the Wikimedia Foundation is working on a project to improve the ease-of-use and productivity of wiki talk pages. As a Teahouse host, I can imagine you’ve run into challenges explaining talk pages to first-time participants.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis – to ask questions, to resolve differences, to organize projects and to make decisions. Communication is essential for the depth and quality of our content, and the health of our communities. We're currently leading a global consultation on how to improve talk pages, and we're looking for people that can report on their experiences using (or helping other people to use) wiki talk pages. We'd like to invite you to participate in the consultation, and invite new users to join too.

We thank you in advance for your participation and your help.

Trizek (WMF), 08:37, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Please participate to the talk pages consultation - link update

The previous message about the talk pages consultation has a broken link.

The correct link has been misinterpreted by the MassMessage tool. Please use the following link: Wikipedia:Talk pages consultation 2019.

Sorry for the inconvenience, Trizek (WMF), 08:48, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
  • As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

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

Administrator changes

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

CheckUser changes

removed Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

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

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019

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

Administrator changes

removed 28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam1 • Flyguy649 • Fram2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
1Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
2Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

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

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

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

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

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019

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

Administrator changes

added Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
readded Floquenbeam • Lectonar
removed DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes

removed Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Technical news

  • Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
  • The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which applies if the category contains only an eponymous article or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories.

Technical news

  • As previously noted, tighter password requirements for Administrators were put in place last year. Wikipedia should now alert you if your password is less than 10 characters long and thus too short.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:55, 2 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  • A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:15, 3 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process

Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking to improve the community consultation outreach process for Foundation policies, and we are interested in why you didn't participate in a recent consultation that followed a community discussion you’ve been part of.

Please fill out this short survey to help us improve our community consultation process for the future. It should only take about three minutes.

The privacy policy for this survey is here. This survey is a one-off request from us related to this unique topic.

Thank you for your participation, Kbrown (WMF) 10:45, 13 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed 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 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:20, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Of red pens and platypuses

Are you of any relation? Would a SPI filing be a misstep? --Pudeo (talk) 19:26, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Pudeo: I'm unconnected to that account. You can file an spi if you want, though. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 03:02, 30 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019

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

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
removed Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:48, 2 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Edits at Richard Benjamin Harrison article

You seem to have attended that article, for edit approvals from non-loggers, and to take that job thoughtfully and seriously, and so I wanted to call your attention to the pile of serious, move-toward-encyclopedic edits I made today. I also created a Talk page entry to mention the observations made. Cheers. 2601:246:C700:9B0:258D:AF9C:CCA9:24A4 (talk) 19:52, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers

Damon Runyon's short story "Dancing Dan's Christmas" is a fun read if you have the time. Right from the start it extols the virtues of the hot Tom and Jerry

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old-time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

No matter what concoction is your favorite to imbibe during this festive season I would like to toast you with it and to thank you for all your work here at the 'pedia this past year. Best wishes for your 2020 as well TPoD. MarnetteD|Talk 21:42, 16 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers

Merry Christmas, ThePlatypusofDoom!
Or Season's Greetings or Happy Winter Solstice! As the year winds to a close, I would like to take a moment to recognize your hard work and offer heartfelt gratitude for all you do for Wikipedia. May this Holiday Season bring you nothing but joy, health and prosperity. Onel5969 TT me 11:12, 20 December 2019 (UTC) [reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020

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

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
  • The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input. No proposed process received consensus.

Technical news

  • Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.
  • When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [1]

Arbitration

  • Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:06, 1 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following an RfC, the blocking policy was changed to state that sysops must not undo or alter CheckUser or Oversight blocks, rather than should not.
  • A request for comment confirmed that sandboxes of established but inactive editors may not be blanked due solely to inactivity.

Technical news

  • Following a discussion, Twinkle's default CSD behavior will soon change, most likely this week. After the change, Twinkle will default to "tagging mode" if there is no CSD tag present, and default to "deletion mode" if there is a CSD tag present. You will be able to always default to "deletion mode" (the current behavior) using your Twinkle preferences.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:21, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

  • There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.

Technical news

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  • The WMF has begun a pilot report of the pages most visited through various social media platforms to help with anti-vandalism and anti-disinformation efforts. The report is updated daily and will be available through the end of May.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:00, 1 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 00:43, 7 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020

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

Administrator changes

removed Gnangarra • Kaisershatner • Malcolmxl5

CheckUser changes

readded Callanecc

Oversight changes

readded HJ Mitchell

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2020

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

Administrator changes

added CaptainEek • Creffett • Cwmhiraeth
removed Anna Frodesiak • Buckshot06 • Ronhjones • SQL

CheckUser changes

removed SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

  • A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:28, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiLoop Battlefield new name vote

Dear ThePlatypusofDoom,

Thank you for your interest and contributions to WikiLoop Battlefield. We are holding a voting for proposed new name. We would like to invite you to this voting. The voting is held at m:WikiProject_WikiLoop/New_name_vote and ends on July 13th 00:00 UTC.

xinbenlv Talk, Remember to "ping" me 05:16, 30 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2020

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:26, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Announcing WikiLoop DoubleCheck

Dear Wikipedians and contributors, the open source Wikipedia review tool, previously "WikiLoop Battlefield" has completed its name vote and is announcing its new name: WikiLoop DoubleCheck. Read the full story on the program page on Meta-wiki, learn about ways to support this tool, and find out what future developments are coming for this tool.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the vote!

xinbenlv Talk, Remember to "ping" me 18:29, 23 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

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

Administrator changes

added Red Phoenix
readded Euryalus • SQL
removed Jujutacular • Monty845 • Rettetast • Madchester

Oversight changes

readded GB fan
removed Keegan • Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:21, 1 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Join the RfC to define trust levels for WikiLoop DoubleCheck

Hi ThePlatypusofDoom,
you are receiving this message because you are an active user of WikiLoop DoubleCheck. We are currently holding a Request for Comments to define trust levels for users of this tool. If you can spare a few minutes, please consider leaving your feedback on the RfC page.
Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts. Your opinion matters greatly!
María Cruz

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:59, 22 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
If you would like to modify your subscription to these messages you can do so here.

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

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:57, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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

Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:53, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

New, simpler RfC to define trust levels for WikiLoop DoubleCheck

HI ThePlatypusofDoom,
I'm writing to let you know we have simplified the RfC on trust levels for the tool WikiLoop DoubleCheck. Please join and share your thoughts about this feature! We made this change after hearing users' comments on the first RfC being too complicated. I hope that you can participate this time around, giving your feedback on this new feature for WikiLoop DoubleCheck users.
Thanks and see you around online,
María Cruz
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:06, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed 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.

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Administrators' newsletter – December 2020

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

Administrator changes

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2021

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:08, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2021

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:10, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Long time no chat!

I hope you're doing well! I just wanted to leave you a message and let you know that I was thinking about you... ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 04:42, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Oshwah: Hello! I haven't been editing that much, but I'm still occasionally around. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 03:02, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, it's good to talk to you. It's all good - I'm happy to see you around! ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 03:04, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2021).

Administrator changes

added TJMSmith
removed Boing! said Zebedee • Hiberniantears • Lear's Fool • Only • WGFinley

Interface administrator changes

added AmandaNP

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
  • When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
  • There have been a number of reported issues with Pending Changes. Most problems setting protection appear to have been resolved (phab:T273317) but other issues with autoaccepting edits persist (phab:T275322).

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:15, 1 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

WikiLoop 2020 Year in Review

Wikipedia mini globe handheld
Wikipedia mini globe handheld

Dear editors, developers and friends:

Thank you for supporting Project WikiLoop! The year 2020 was an unprecedented one. It was unusual for almost everyone. In spite of this, Project WikiLoop continued the hard work and made some progress that we are proud to share with you. We also wanted to extend a big thank you for your support, advice, contributions and love that make all this possible.

Head over to our project page on Meta Wikimedia to read a brief 2020 Year in Review for WikiLoop.

Thank you for taking the time to review Wikipedia using WikiLoop DoubleCheck. Your work is important and it matters to everyone. We look forward to continuing our collaboration through 2021!

María Cruz
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:35, 25 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2021).

Administrator changes

removed Alexandria • Happyme22 • RexxS

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a has been deprecated; it covered immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
  • Following a request for comment, page movers were granted the delete-redirect userright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target.

Technical news

  • When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split and it might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. (T278350)
  • Code to support some very old web browsers is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. (T277803)

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:20, 1 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 21:14, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2021).

Administrator changes

removed Enchanter • Carlossuarez46

Interface administrator changes

removed Ragesoss

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • The user group oversight will be renamed to suppress. This is for technical reasons. You can comment at T112147 if you have objections.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 7 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2021).

Administrator changes

added Ashleyyoursmile • Less Unless
removed Husond • MattWade • MJCdetroit • Carioca • Vague Rant • Kingboyk • Thunderboltz • Gwen Gale • AniMate • SlimVirgin (deceased)

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Wikimedia previously used the IRC network Freenode. However, due to changes over who controlled the network with reports of a forceful takeover by several ex-staff members, the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts decided to move to the new Libera Chat network. It has been reported that Wikimedia related channels on Freenode have been forcibly taken over if they pointed members to Libera. There is a migration guide and Wikimedia discussions about this.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:46, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • Consensus has been reached to delete all books in the book namespace. There was rough consensus that the deleted books should still be available on request at WP:REFUND even after the namespace is removed.
  • An RfC is open to discuss the next steps following a trial which automatically applied pending changes to TFAs.

Technical news

  • IP addresses of unregistered users are to be hidden from everyone. There is a rough draft of how IP addresses may be shown to users who need to see them. This currently details allowing administrators, checkusers, stewards and those with a new usergroup to view the full IP address of unregistered users. Editors with at least 500 edits and an account over a year old will be able to see all but the end of the IP address in the proposal. The ability to see the IP addresses hidden behind the mask would be dependent on agreeing to not share the parts of the IP address they can see with those who do not have access to the same information. Accessing part of or the full IP address of a masked editor would also be logged. Comments on the draft are being welcomed at the talk page.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:27, 3 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC is open to add a delay of one week from nomination to deletion for G13 speedy deletions.

Technical news

  • Last week all wikis were very slow or not accessible for 30 minutes. This was due to server lag caused by regenerating dynamic lists on the Russian Wikinews after a large bulk import. (T287380)

Arbitration

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:19, 1 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Mass killings under communist regimes

As for this, I think the reasoning given in the template you have removed was clear. "Everything here is sourced ... ." The problem is that it is sourced to the author themselves. Author A says thing A, and is sourced to author A; author B says thing B, and is sourced to author B; and so on. They should be sourced to secondary sources because when they are making analysis or interpretation, the authors become primary sources on what they said, and we need secondary sources both to avoid original research and to establish weight; if no secondary sources, and they need to be about the topic and not to something unrelated or in passing, can be found, it means they are undue, hence the tags.

As our policy says: "A book by a military historian about the Second World War might be a secondary source about the war, but where it includes details of the author's own war experiences, it would be a primary source about those experiences." Changes this to "A book by Rummel about events in Communist states might be a secondary source about the events themselves, but where it includes details of the author's own interpretation of the events, it would be a primary source about those interpretations." It is the same thing. Incidentally, for Rummel we correctly cite him to Jacobs and Totten, which is why it was not tagged, so why is not the same done for all the others? Perhaps because they are undue, as they cannot be found in secondary sources. Davide King (talk) 01:42, 26 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

But the authors are established experts on the topic, their commentary is due weight. We're not using Wikipedia's voice to provide their commentary, we're saying that this is a view that these established experts have and here are examples of them saying it. ThePlatypusofDoom (talk) 05:06, 26 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"But the authors are established experts on the topic" Of course, this ignores the fact that genocide studies, despite growing research and interest, has not achieved mainstream status in political science; scholars of communism disagree with many of their conclusions, and most events in their main articles are not described as mass killings. "their commentary is due weight" It is only due if it is reported in secondary sources, like we do for Rummell. "We're not using Wikipedia's voice to provide their commentary, we're saying that this is a view that these established experts have and here are examples of them saying it." But we are citing their own works to do that, which are primary sources in this case, and could be original research because it is us, not experts who reviewed their work, doing that. As I said, we do that for Rummel; there is simply not a good reason to not do the same for others, unless, of course, one is trying to push a POV and give undue weight to them.
Indeed, several of such sources are misrepresented because it is us editors interpreting them through their own work rather than let secondary sources and experts doing that for us. While noting that mass killings have occurred under Communist regimes, Valentino provides no theory about the connection. It would be the same as if he said that there have been mass killings in Asia and we created an article called "Mass killings under Asian regimes." Valentino identifies mass killings as over 50,000 people intentionally killed in a 5 year period, which is not the definition used here, and concluded that most Communist regimes did not carry out mass killings and only three definitely did (Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia), and only in specific periods (Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot); Valentino refers to "radical Communist" regimes, which are Stalinist USSR, Maoist China, and Pol Pot's Cambodia rather than, say, Gorbachev's Soviet Union. Valentino does not elaborate on his theory, and it would only justify creating an article on his theory, although the lack of secondary sources covering it meets it fails notability. Max Weber presented a theory, the Protestant ethic which says that Protestants are more industrious than Catholics due to their religious beliefs, and rightly that article explains his theory. But it does not attempt to prove his theory by coatracking in articles about economic success in the UK and U.S., and economic failure in Italy and Spain.
Valentino provides little that connects them and only discusses Stalinist USSR, Maoist China, and Kampuchea; it only discusses specific instances where over 50,000 people were killed and excludes "counter-insurgency" mass killings, which he groups in his book with similar killings by capitalist regimes. In other words, they were not ideologically driven according to him but resulted from the same motivations as non-Communist states. So if we were to use his article as a model, it would restrict the scope of the article. Yet, we act like Valentino is talking about all Communist states and that communism is the main culprit, hence original research and synthesis, and why we desperately need secondary sources explaining for us what those authors actually wrote.
I cited you Valentino, but this could be used for other scholars mentioned as well. The article should be about the theory that mass deaths under Communist regimes, which indeed did happen and were astonishing, are to be categorized as mass killing (but they are mainly used to categorize only three specific periods in three Communist states and not to every Communist state as the article implies), and that this is a theory proposed by some scholars (Valentino) but is rejected and criticized by many others. Davide King (talk) 14:16, 26 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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