Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard

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For urgent incidents and chronic, intractable behavioral problems, use Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. If you are new, try the Wikipedia:Teahouse instead. Do not report breaches of personal information on this highly visible page – instead use Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. For administrative backlogs add {{Admin backlog}} to the backlogged page; post here only if urgent. Do not post requests for page protection, deletion requests, or block requests here. Just want an admin? Contact a recently active admin directly. If opening a close appeal, use {{RfC closure review}} When you start a discussion about an editor, you must leave a notice on their talk page. Pinging is not enough. You may use {{subst:AN-notice}} ~~~~ to do so. Sections inactive for over seven days are archived by Lowercase sigmabot III.(archives, search) Start a new discussion

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Administrative discussions

Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive1169#Proposed_topic_ban_on_Adamantine123_from_caste_topics

(Initiated 11 days ago on 10 October 2024) Ratnahastin (talk) 15:24, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Lightburst making poorly disguised personal attacks and hosting WP:POLEMIC content in his userpage

(Initiated 3 days ago on 17 October 2024) There's a number of proposals made as part of the discussion that require closing as a number of editors have expressed a desire that the whole discussion be closed. Can a admin please close all proposals and then the whole discussion itself. TarnishedPath^talk 03:38, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

 Closed by editor Daniel. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 15:24, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Requests for comment

Wikipedia talk:Notability (species)#Proposal to adopt this guideline

(Initiated 72 days ago on 9 August 2024)

Wikipedia talk:Notability (species)#Proposal to adopt this guideline is WP:PROPOSAL for a new WP:SNG. The discussion currently stands at 503 comments from 78 editors or 1.8 tomats of text, so please accept the hot beverage of your choice ☕️ and settle in to read for a while. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:22, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Philippe Pétain#Rfc for Lede Image of Philippe Pétain

(Initiated 65 days ago on 17 August 2024) Requesting immediate procedural close for Talk:Philippe Pétain#Rfc for Lede Image of Philippe Pétain, because it is blocked on a Wikipedia policy with legal implications that no one at the Rfc is qualified to comment on, namely U.S. copyright law about an image. At a minimum, it will require action at Commons about whether to delete an image, and likely they will have to consult Wikimedia legal for an interpretation in order to resolve the issue. Under current circumstances, it is a waste of editor time to leave the Rfc open, and is impossible to reliably evaluate by a closer, and therefore should be procedurally closed without assessment, the sooner the better. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 20:42, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

• It's not appropriate to make an immediate procedural close in those circumstances. Wikipedians routinely make decisions about copyright, even those Wikipedians who aren't US attorneys. This is not a high-drama situation. However I'm starting to wonder if the RFC nominator might be on a crusade about our lede images for prominent WW2 figures, and if so, whether they might benefit from a sysop's advice and guidance about overusing our RFC process.—S Marshall T/C 09:16, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

  I'll do this, although I'm going to do the other close I committed to first. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 16:56, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

  @Compassionate727 FWIW the image was kept at Commons and here's a bit of a follow up on the copyright stuff discussed afterward.[1] Nemov (talk) 01:02, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

  @Compassionate727 do you still plan on closing this? Nemov (talk) 20:01, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

  Yes, sorry. The outcome of the Commons DR and subsequent discussions have raised more difficult questions than they answered that I'm struggling a bit to sort through. I've requested input at WP:DfD; depending on the feedback I receive, I may settle on an outcome or punt the whole thing to someone more experienced with images. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 20:25, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

  If Commons has decided to keep the image I think we're good on this and this discussion can be closed. This came up after the RFC was created the original topic seems to be simple. Nemov (talk) 14:46, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

  Commons has a lot of problems, especially with its... lax attitude toward copyright. I don't think we can safely consider Commons' decision as authoritative.

  In any case, I have decided to vote here, so I won't be closing this. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 11:23, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Jinn#RfC -- In the article section "Islam", should the following sentence be added at the beginning?

(Initiated 46 days ago on 5 September 2024) An RfC about adding a short summary to a section. Last addition/comment was 8 October. All those involved with previous discussion have been notified of RfC (although not all have responded).--Louis P. Boog (talk) 16:44, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight#RfC – In the article section about "Haifa", should the following paragraph be added?

(Initiated 37 days ago on 13 September 2024) RFC tag has been removed by the bot. Last comments over a week ago. TarnishedPath^talk 07:19, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Assassin's_Creed_Shadows#RfC:Should_Assassin's_Creed_Shadows_include_the_Re-enactment_flag_controversy_and_Japanese_reaction?

(Initiated 26 days ago on 25 September 2024) Last addition/comment was a week and a half ago (October 4th). As far as I can tell all those involved with previous discussion have responded. Relm (talk) 10:43, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Deletion discussions

XFD backlog

V	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Total
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TfD	0	0	0	5	5
MfD	0	0	3	0	3
FfD	0	0	0	0	0
RfD	0	0	0	57	57
AfD	0	0	0	0	0

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 October 12#Category:Riize

(Initiated 27 days ago on 24 September 2024) HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 01:49, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 October 12#Category:Tourist attractions in Salem

(Initiated 26 days ago on 25 September 2024) HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 01:49, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 October 12#Centuries in Landskrona‎

(Initiated 24 days ago on 27 September 2024) HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 15:14, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 October 10#!(*$

(Initiated 18 days ago on 2 October 2024) Cremastra (u — c) 20:20, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Other types of closing requests

Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)/Archive 194#Notifying_Wikiprojects_and_WP:CANVASS

(Initiated 146 days ago on 28 May 2024) Latest comment: 3 days ago, 79 comments, 37 people in discussion. Closing statement may be helpful for future discussions. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:29, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

 Doing...— Frostly (talk) 22:35, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

@Frostly Are you still planning on doing this? Soni (talk) 16:57, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Soni, yes - have drafted close and will post by the end of today. Thanks! — Frostly (talk) 17:56, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

I wanted to note that this is taking slightly longer than expected, but it is at the top of my priority and will be completed soon. — Frostly (talk) 05:14, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

@Frostly Just checking, would you like someone else to help with this? Soni (talk) 07:31, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

@Frostly: also checking in. voorts (talk/contributions) 00:33, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi Voorts and Soni, thanks for the pings! I've unfortunately been in the hospital for the past week but am now feeling better. I apologize for the long delay in putting out the close and appreciate your messages! Best, — Frostly (talk) 03:59, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

I'm sorry to hear that; a week-long hospitalization is not fun. But, I'm glad that you're feeling better. Best, voorts (talk/contributions) 19:06, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Ping @Frostly again (I saw you've been editing Commons). Hope your still better, and if you don't feel like doing this one anymore, just let people know. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:02, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Archived. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 13:32, 24 July 2024 (UTC)

Just a note here that Frostly has not edited in over a month. Might be best for someone else to close. --Super Goku V (talk) 07:45, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

• I can't touch that cos I !voted, but although that was a productive and thought-provoking discussion, it's not a discussion that has an actionable outcome. I personally feel it can lie in the archives unclosed.—S Marshall T/C 11:36, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
• This isn't a priority given S Marshall's input, but I'll save it for offline reading. If I have time while I'm in Cuba next week, I'll take a look at it and see if I can't summarize some of the broader points and ideas potentially worth pursuing. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 23:27, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Israel–Hamas war#Requested move 13 August 2024

(Initiated 69 days ago on 13 August 2024) It's been more than a month. The closer must be shrewd and articulate, as the topic is highly contentious. They should also discard comments based on personal opinion rather than policy, and, of course, avoid having their own opinion influence their assessment of consensus. InfiniteNexus (talk) 21:51, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Imane Khelif#Proposal to create and split off new article "2024 Olympic Boxing Controversy"

(Initiated 65 days ago on 16 August 2024) Discussion has slowed. No comments in a few days. TarnishedPath^talk 02:12, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Climbing#Suggesting_a_change_of_WP:WikiProject_Climbing/Article_recommendations

(Initiated 56 days ago on 26 August 2024) I'd like a closure of this discussion, which was preceded by this discussion:Talk:Cobra_Crack#MOS:ITAL Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:50, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

There's not a lot of participation here. It might benefit from going to an RfC. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 18:17, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

The Cobra Crack discussion had 8 people. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:33, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond#Proposed merge of Loch Lomond (Runrig song) into The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond

(Initiated 44 days ago on 6 September 2024) Contested proposed merge. Neutral closer required per WP:MERGECLOSE. voorts (talk/contributions) 15:22, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2024_Lebanon_pager_explosions#Requested_move_19_September_2024

(Initiated 31 days ago on 19 September 2024) - Discussion has kind of stabilized, with 68 people giving over 256 comments. Awesome Aasim 21:00, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

 Closed by editor asilvering. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 15:15, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Yuta_Nakamoto#Requested_move_27_September_2024

(Initiated 24 days ago on 27 September 2024) The discussion has passed the seven-day mark. I kindly request an uninvolved editor to review and close it at their earliest convenience. Thank you! Btspurplegalaxy 💬 🖊️ 06:36, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

 Closed. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 14:40, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

PC2 for Mangoeater targets

As anyone who monitors AN/I, SPI, CSD, AFD, or even, lately, RFA [2] knows, de facto banned Mangoeater1000 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · logs · block log · arb · rfc · lta · SPI · cuwiki) has been incredibly persistent in his disruption, generally in relation to articles on NYU Poly (promoting it) and Cal Poly Pomona (trying to minimize it). It got so bad that two weeks ago Reaper Eternal full-protected Polytechnic Institute of New York University and List of NYU Polytechnic Institute people‎ until March 28 and March 6, respectively. To me this seems unfortunate (though I completely understand and agree with Reaper's decision), especially as both articles are in serious need of improvement. So, I was wondering if we could discuss the option of implementing Pending Changes Level 2 protection (in conjunction with semi-protection, probably). While there was never any community endorsement of its use, neither was there, as King of Hearts pointed out at AN/I recently, explaining his decision to apply PC2 to 1948 Arab-Israeli War, any consensus against its use, meaning that there's nothing to stop the community from making ad hoc IAR decisions to apply it to certain articles. (Elockid has since applied PC2 to First York, Transdev York, and York Pullman.) Clearly it's better to let users edit an article, subject to review, than to not let them at all, and both articles are monitored by several reviewers and admins. Furthermore, Mangoeater has been active since May, had his first sock blocked in July, and has been indeffed since October, so there's no reason to believe he won't just start up again come March. I suggested at the Arab-Israeli War AN/I thread that we hold future discussions PC2 discussions here, as AN/I can be so hostile that well-respected community members steer clear of it, limiting the degree of consensus that can be achieved on anything policy-related. So, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Thoughts? — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 00:06, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• Makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Not because I don't think putting PC2 on as an alternative to full-protection is a bad idea to protect against banned socks (etc.) but because the community consensus in the PC RfCs doesn't endorse PC2 and use of it is likely to lead to accusations that we are setting off down a slippery slope, on an express train through some undemocratic wasteland. So, yes, support in theory, but in practice it seems like the community will excrete a brick. —Tom Morris (talk) 01:04, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• Incidentally, the previous discussion I mentioned can be found at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive781#What is the appropriate level of protection for an article with the following characteristics ? Everyone who commented agreed that PC2 was merited, simply leaving the question of whether the community allowed its implementation. The only objection to KoH's decision was by The Devil's Advocate, who himself noted that he supports PC2; considering that this managed to fall off the board, it's clear that no one, even at AN/I, had a serious enough objection to raise hell in the ways you describe. — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 01:43, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• Support. Both PC2 and full protection are game-able by socks, but this won't be substantially easier for them, while this will be substantially easier for good-faith editors than it would be to force them to use editprotected requests all the time. Nyttend (talk) 02:41, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support per IAR, even though I believe it would be more optimal to gain consensus for its use to avoid any possible shenanigans. I would also think an edit filter would be a good alternative in many cases, but here it seems that the behavior is not truly consistent enough for that.--Jasper Deng (talk) 02:51, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support, this seems to be one of those cases for which IAR exists. --Nouniquenames 04:43, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Note, if anyone would like to reference the note I ended up leaving on the talkpage of the article referenced above, that kind of note should suffice to explain the reasoning for the PC2. As long as we don't go PC2 on everything, I think it's okay for a very select few articles. gwickwire^talk_edits 04:47, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose. A little ironic, because I like PC2 and detest PC1, but with the amount of dishonesty that went on with the original implementation of PC, I think anything that even smells of going against community consensus needs to be avoided. The primary opposition to PC was based on "slippery slope" style of arguments, and this just feeds them.—Kww(talk) 04:58, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose This is ridiculous. Maybe Elockid added PC2 by accident, but either way this should not be getting implemented like this, period. It can only create confusion for admins and reviewers. So I implore any admin to immediately remove the PC2 protection from any articles that have them. As far as I know this would just be the 1948 Arab-Israeli War article, the Transdev York article, the First York article, and the York Pullman article.--The Devil's Advocate _{tlk. cntrb.} 06:01, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• How do you suppose it will confuse admins or reviewers? --Jasper Deng (talk) 06:11, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• I know it confused me to see an article on my watchlist (1948 Arab-Israeli War) with PC2 protection when I knew the RfC did not get consensus for that level of protection. You may also have the old "other people are doing so it must be acceptable" reaction and then have admins imposing PC2 protection like any other protection under the impression it is now legit. Not to mention that we don't have a clear procedure set out for reviewing changes of the sort PC2 is being used to stop in these ad-hoc cases. Although not related to the above, the whole notion of half a dozen editors using AN/ANI as a workaround for an RfC that involved several dozen editors is not the sort of thing I endorse.--The Devil's Advocate _{tlk. cntrb.} 06:29, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• Unfortunately, I don't understand your last sentence; could you clarify what you mean? Nyttend (talk) 06:12, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• I believe TDA is listing the four articles currently under PC2 protection (according to the relevant category; it's possible that others are, but haven't been tagged with {{pp-pc2}}, which auto-categorizes them). In response to TDA's general points, though, I, like, Jasper, don't really follow: This is about as visible a forum as it gets; if it's good enough to ban and unban users, I'd think it's good enough to apply protection to a single article. So I don't really understand what could be confusing about this. I don't see what's ridiculous about trying to stop a lone troll from permanently stalling the improvement of two articles in need of substantial cleanup. — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 06:26, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• You may find this astonishing, but plenty of people edit Wikipedia without paying any mind to cesspools such as this page and certainly many edit without looking at it on a regular basis. Circumventing a broad and lengthy community discussion involving dozens of editors by using AN because you want to thump on the socks is not appealing to me at all.--The Devil's Advocate _{tlk. cntrb.} 06:40, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• I'm not circumventing consensus; I'm seeking it. Circumventing it would be to find some out-of-the-loop admin and email them to ask if they'd mind downgrading it to PC2. Starting a thread at the board that we use for some of our most substantial discussions is seeking it. "No consensus" is not a valid reason to oppose a proposal, for rather obvious reasons. If the consensus here is that this really needs to be done by RfC, so be it, but WP:PC2012/RfC 1 closed as "No consensus", so it's really not circumventing anything to start a discussion in a prominent community forum as to whether we should apply PC2 to a particular article. — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 06:52, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• I'd normally agree with you that you can't subvert a "no consensus", but since the original PC trial was marred by such blatant dishonesty and efforts to bypass our normal consensus process, I think we need to tread especially carefully.—Kww(talk) 16:11, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose I have been a firm supporter of using PC2 in limited circumstances, and this is certainly one of them. But the PC debate has been a feculent clusterfuck of drama in large part because of the failure to end the initial trial on time. As such, doing *anything* new with PC, including any use of PC2, without an explicit and broad community consensus, seems foolhardy due to the risk of disrupting the community. It's "cheaper in the long run", to do this right, even if it means a few full protects in the meantime. Want PC2? I'll be there at the RFC supporting it. But not until. --j⚛e decker^talk 06:35, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

  Moving to Support in view of listing at WP:CENT, which I believe will reduce the probability of bad splashback. --j⚛e decker^talk 02:35, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• Support In this case, I believe WP:IAR applies. This is a wayyy better solution than full protection here since good faith editors don't need to make edit-requests all the time. It also protects against socks. It's a win-win situation, and it works extremely well here. Vacation9 13:16, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support. Gives editors in good standing better leverage against likely POV changes from socks. Binksternet (talk) 14:45, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support. Use this as a test case if necessary but the more countermeasures we use for persistent socks the better off we will be.
   — Berean Hunter (talk) 16:06, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support, this is definitely the case for PC2 to be implemented on. A little concerned that PC2 had no consensus at the time of PC implementation, but in this context, I like it. Let's see if the community is willing to play ball. -T.I.M^(Contact) 00:39, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose if we were to every use PC2, this would be the type of case. But A) there is no consensus to use it at all and B) as Kww and others have said, there has been way too much drama around this in the past to open up this can of worms now. Fully protect it if needed, but PC2 is a really bad idea as it will create more drama and work than it will save. Hobit (talk) 18:12, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose. PC2 has never been approved for use on Wikipedia (outside of the trial a couple of years ago). That it was approved was one interpretation of the close in June to the big PC RfC, but during the September RfC specifically on PC2, the case was convincingly made that neither the voters nor the closers in the spring had given PC2 much thought. PC2 would be something not only new, but revolutionary, on Wikipedia (creating a class of Wikipedians whose job it is to decide which edits of everyone else are good enough to stay and which aren't), so turning it on would require consensus; the RfC was closed as no consensus. To use it now is to say that developers and not the Wikipedian community have the authority to decide how we protect pages on Wikipedia. Reading quickly, I don't see evidence that any of the supporters above have considered any of the problems with PC2 that were pointed out in the September RfC. In particular, this is a critical stage for PC1, which is new and unexpected for most editors ... and now, as a result of allowing the use of PC2 here, an editor has just changed the table which is supposed to describe PC1 back into a table giving two PC2 options, which is going to make it even harder for people to get comfortable with PC1. Having said all that: IAR is policy, and I'm always in favor of non-disruptive experimentation. If this were just treated as a lone experiment, with discussion about possible positive and negative consequences and requests for alternatives that might be better than PC2, and if there were no changes to the main PC page, I wouldn't have any strong feelings about it. - Dank (push to talk) 01:24, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• I'd totally support changing it back when there are no article space pages with PC2, but it appears there are a couple currently [3]. Monty₈₄₅ 01:33, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• I've respectfully reverted you, Monty; if this proposal is successful, I'm planning on adding a few footnotes explaining that there've been a handful of IAR applications. But considering that the abbreviated table already links to the full one, I think it's unnecessary to revise policy based on the minority of cases. I'd like to make it clear to all who've opposed that I very much feel that a large-scale implementation of PC2 should only be conducted through an RFC, and that this noticeboard is not the place to establish binding precedent. Anyways, Dank, if I clarify that my intention, at least, as original poster, was only to, as you say, treat this as a lone experiment (and, looking through the support !votes, it appears to me that this is the general sentiment among those who support), would you perhaps reconsider your !vote? You make some very good points against PC2 in general, but you seem to concede that it could be effective here. — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 01:45, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• When this turns into an actual experiment ... with the supporters agreeing that the point is to try new approaches to a difficult problem, discussing pros and cons and alternatives on the article talk page, rather than taking the position that this is an approved protection tool that needs no discussion ... I'll strike my oppose, if this thread hasn't been archived. Note that a form of protection that would be obviously superior to PC2 (if used only for these rare cases of very determined socks) would be to make some pages require 50 (or 100 or 250) prior edits by new accounts; that wouldn't create a special class of editors charged with ruling on everyone else's edits, but it would succeed in frustrating the socks, and would make it easier for us to identify them, possibly before they can even edit their target pages. - Dank (push to talk) 02:49, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• Do you mean as a sort-of ultraconfirmed usergroup, and corresponding ultra-semi-protection? gwickwire^talk_edits 03:00, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• You could think of it that way, though I'd want this to remain rare enough that it wouldn't make sense to talk on-wiki about a new "class" of Wikipedians ... just have the code exclude edits by people with less than 100 (or whatever number works best) contribs, for a handful of articles. Obviously not something we'd want to apply often, but it beats all hell out of PC2 ... particularly in this case, where PC2 is being used to let reviewers rule on whether edits are coming from socks ... when reviewers aren't being selected or encouraged to do any such thing, reviewers are supposed to be checking for vandalism and BLP edits. - Dank (push to talk) 03:06, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose There exists, as of this posting, 125,500 active users, of whom only 7,000 have reviewer capability(reviewers + admins). Only 3600 editors are watching this page, and obviously many of those are admins. Even if we assume there are zero admin or reviewer watchers, that means only 117,000 or 3% of active editors are monitoring this page. To disable the effective editing capability of 97% of Wikipedia editors without notice is disruptive to the editing process. NE Ent 02:30, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• I don't quite follow: Currently, there are only 847 users who can edit these articles, and very few of them probably ever will; if we implement PC2, any user (or, assuming we combine it with semi-protection, any autoconfirmed user) will be able to; yes, their edits will be subject to review, but I think it's safe to say reviewers will be very cautious before rejecting submissions that wouldn't fall under their purview under PC1. (In fact, we can explicitly mandate this, if desired.) I hate removing editing access to the encyclopedia that anyone can edit as much as the next guy, but that's why I'm suggesting this: Nothing less than PC2 will have any hope of being effective while Mangoeater's out there, and full protection is... awful. The question here is should we leave an article un-edit-able for three months over philosophical objections to the general theory of PC2? — Francophonie&Androphilie^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 07:39, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• Full protection provides a clear and well known interface; PC2 does not, it provides a "fake edit" interface that makes it appear to autoconfirmed editors they're editing the current view of the page, but they're not. FPP is good because we know it's painful, which mitigates the temptation to overly apply it; because PC2 appears to be cheap there will be a tendency to use it more and more. Long term normal editors will have to become reviewers or the reviewers will have to spend more and more time reviewing. Now is the the time to address the question how will this scale? "Four" articles becomes 40 becomes 400... NE Ent 11:39, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Philosophical objections? Replying on your talk page. - Dank (push to talk) 11:46, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• I would support using PC2 on the pages only if we agree that it is a test case and the protection is temporary. (Having worked with Dank on some of the recent PC RfCs, I agree with many of his views on the matter.) ~Adjwilley (talk) 03:43, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose, largely per Kww. Let's not go down this road. We just finished a seemingly interminable process involving multiple RfCs and much contentiousness. Enough is enough for a while. While it may be tempting to make "just one exception" here, exactly how long would it be before someone wants another exception, and another, and another? And if the rationale given in those subsequent requests is compelling, what then? Somehow we got by for more than a decade without PC1, and we seem to be doing all right without PC2 now. Anyone who'd like to modify a fully-protected article can make an edit request. Rivertorch (talk) 10:36, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support with the condition that every registered (inserted edit - I meant autoconfirmed) user is given reviewer rights. Otherwise Oppose. Only in death does duty end (talk) 11:51, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Maybe this is just a case of somewhat-too-deadpan reductio ad absurdum (in which case, well played), but granting all registered users "reviewer" status would not only make PC2 identical to PC1, but reduce both of their protectiony-ness to below that of the current PC1, since it would allow non-autoconfirmed but registered (and therefore reviewer) accounts to bypass the protection. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:56, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
    • I knew I should have wink-smiley-faced it. One of the reasons PC2 didnt gain consensus was the argument that it would create another layer of trusted users/permission levels/senority, however you wish to word it. Setting the reviewer bar as low as possible would eliminate that concern. However I did mean 'auto-confirmed' in the above, not merely 'registered' so have clarified. But I was only semi-serious. I would support admins ignoring the lack of community consensus regarding PC2 only if the reviewer bar was low, as accusations of power-gathering/protectionism are irrelevant at that point. Otherwise if the 'community' is not going to be made reviewers, then effectively the lack of consensus should stand, otherwise its just another wedge between admins and non-admins. Either respect lack of previous consensus, or hold another PC RFC (yes yes, another one). Only in death does duty end (talk) 15:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose I'm not usually a big fan of slippery-slope arguments, but in this case, it's compelling. We as a community have seen fit to keep PC2 from entering the admin toolbox. We've had one instance of PC2 slipping under the radar already; here we're asking for another. At what point are we admins just overreaching and ignoring the consensus of the community? I don't think this instance puts us over that line, but it's a line that we should be staying far away from. If it's not in our toolbox, we don't get to use it, period. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:48, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose obviously. WP:PC2012/RfC 1. -Nathan Johnson (talk) 19:39, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

• So a lack of consensus is reason to oppose an attempt at getting consensus? Nyttend (talk) 17:22, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
  • With respect, I think you've got it backwards; it appears to me that the opposers are doing the things normally associated with trying to get consensus, such as pointing to past discussions and weighing pros and cons. I'm not saying that supporters don't know what they're talking about, and don't believe that ... but if I'm just looking at what's on this page, I don't see evidence that the people who supported before I weighed in were either considering past arguments or encouraging people to treat this as an experiment. OTOH, I'm not on board with "just say no", either ... the September RfC closed with a recommendation to look at this again in six to nine months, after we had sufficient experience with PC1 to be able to say something intelligent about where all this is going. Let's make it six months, and let's spend a couple of months looking at PC1, PC2, and alternatives to PC2. My preference, based on what I've seen so far, is stated in my thread above. - Dank (push to talk) 17:55, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
  • There's no problem attempting to get consensus, there's a problem with claiming consensus for so fundamental a wikitask as article editing on a page which bills itself as "This page is for posting information and issues that affect administrators ... Issues appropriate for this page could include: General announcements, discussion of administration methods, ban proposals, block reviews, and backlog notices." (emphasis original)NE Ent 18:15, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
    • But this does affect administrators because this thread is about a specific dane-braimaged sock and trying to effectuate countermeasures to halt him. Yes, Dank, my support statement above encourages this to be an experiment but one that needs done now not in one or three months. Mangoeater is wasting too much of our time and we are looking to halt him ASAP. This limited use on what, maybe 10 articles(?), probably would affect less than 100 regular editors. I'm not part of the discussions on PC and hold no particular opinions on them but my ears have perked up at the idea of seeing another tool in grasp for ridding us of some of the worst problem children.
       — Berean Hunter (talk) 18:50, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose' even though it might make my specific job easier. I am currently dealing with an edit request for one of the related articles, which I am answering in good faith, though it is made by a new SPI, and consists essentially of a request to restore the old and inappropriately promotional material. It is I think easy to justify my edits and non-edits, but I am editing through protection, which is always an uncomfortable position. The reason for my oppose is very simple: irrelevant to the merits of PC2, doing it now is hopelessly confusing. We have enough problems with PC1 being unfamiliar. Let's learn to use it first, and then see if the community wants to make a trial of going to the next level. If the PC1 experience is good, they probably will, so what we should concentrate on is getting PC1 to be part of the accepted and understood routine. DGG ( talk ) 22:32, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
• Support as a one-off test case. Much of the opposition to PC2 (IMO) was more about "let's not do this kind of complicated thing yet", with a three-month delay suggested before reviewing the issue again, rather than "absolutely never". The expected flood of articles listed at RFPP for PC did not materialize. The couple of times I've checked, the entire queue has had a single-digit number of changes yet to be reviewed. The predicted endless complaints haven't materialized (well, I haven't seen any, but I am behind on my watchlist, so perhaps I've just not gotten to the pages where the whole world is freaking out). So I think that reality has proven less dire than predicted, and we could probably cut short the planned three-month system for such an appropriate use. (I don't think that I'd support its use at this time with anything less than a significant discussion here at AN.) WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:32, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

• Four other articles have PC2 protection so this instance would be expanding from several others.--The Devil's Advocate _{tlk. cntrb.} 06:15, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

• Those of you who read F&A's linked discussion may or may not have noticed that my question was never answered. Now, I freely admit my ignorance: I am not very familiar with Mangoeater1000's case, and I don't know much about blocking account creation, but before I weigh in, I'd love to hear an explanation for why a hard block doesn't or wouldn't work on Mangoeater1000. Is he circumventing an account creation block, or is there not one currently in place? Full protection or PCPP 2 both seem excessive when they're essentially only there to thwart one persistent user. I can't disagree that semi-protection is probably insufficient here, but why is further protection the only answer? —Rutebega (talk) 20:49, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Just realized I can see the user's block settings in his block log, sorry. He's justifiably been indef hardblocked since December, which does raise the question of how he's been circumventing that to keep on socking. I'll wait for further comments on this before I cast my !vote. —Rutebega (talk) 21:01, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

• "Account creation blocked" only applies to the user account itself, and to its last-used IP address when autoblocked. However, after the autoblock expires, more socks can be created while logged out. Although CheckUser can help prevent this by find out and hardblocking the underlying IP address(es) for extended periods of time, IP hopping can and does occur.--Jasper Deng (talk) 06:50, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
• Pretty much everything has been tried. Skimming through a random sampling from Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Mangoeater1000, it appears that all (or almost all) of the 79-and-counting socks have been hardblocked. And according to the SPI archive, Avi and DoRD have now blocked at least 6 ranges. I don't know if those ranges were softblocked or hardblocked (or softblocked with account creation disabled), and I see that earlier on there was some hesitation to hardblock an NYU range that Mangoeater was using; if a CU is at liberty to comment on the degree to which IP-blocking actions have been pursued, I think that would be helpful to editors like Rutebega who want to be sure that PC2 is the only feasible alternative to full-protection before they consider supporting this. — PinkAmpers&^{(Je vous invite à me parler)} 16:28, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose until consensus for PC2 is achieved first. 01:33, 21 January 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by EngineerFromVega (talk • contribs)

Comment: If anyone is wondering my rationale for applying PC2 + semi, here it is. As you may or may not have known, getting autoconfirmation is extremely easy. So easy in fact that a number of blocked and/or banned users have decided to take advantage of this ease of attaining autoconfirmation and bypass semiprotection. In some cases full protection has been applied to deal with the disruption, but from what I have seen, editors tend to opt for allowing at least some people (not just admins) to edit an article. There are really no other more feasible means of preventing the disruption while minimizing collateral. Elockid ^(Talk) 21:31, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose Many school articles--I would say almost all school articles-are edited mostly or entirely by students or alumni. Obviously, they're the people most likely to be knowledgable & interested. We just can't rely on a 16-year-old high school dropout(PinkAmpersand)--Unitskayak (talk) 22:24, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mangoeater1000 for Unitskayak. 72Dino (talk) 22:26, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Too many comments here seem related to the use of PC2 as a standard form of protection. There's no consensus for it's use in that way, but it's use on certain articles may be beneficial to the encyclopedia. Maybe it can be used in some circumstances, but in each case should be reviewed to determine whether it's the most appropriate form of protection. Certainly protecting poor quality articles (such as Transdev York, which has now been nominated for deletion) isn't the best solution. Peter James (talk) 01:57, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Blocking misbehaving bots

Wanting to let everyone know about the new {{Bot block message}}. Over at WP:ANI, someone reported that CrimsonBot was misbehaving, so I performed a standard block: indef with no autoblocks and a message at the operator's talk page explaining what was going on. Unfortunately, this has contributed to the operator's sense that Wikipedia's not enjoyable, and he's retired. With this in mind, I looked for a boilerplate template to be used on the talk pages of operators of good-faith, approved bots that have been blocked because of malfunctioning, but I couldn't find one. Toshio Yamaguchi has written the new template (in response to my request at WP:HD), and I believe it's ready to go. Please make necessary tweaks and updates when you think of them. Nyttend (talk) 13:42, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Good idea ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 14:36, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

The bot owner should NOT have taken the blocking of their bot personally ... my own was blocked because it was operating in error. It in no way reflects on the BotOp .. technology is not perfect. (✉→BWilkins←✎) 16:06, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Has anyone e-mailed CrimsonBlue (talk · contribs) to see if he'll re-consider his retirement? GiantSnowman 16:10, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

While BWilkins is right, it's no big deal, Nyttend should not have blocked the bot regardless, as it hadn't edited in two days. A simple message to the operator's talk page notifying them of the issue is advisable and equally effective. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 16:11, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

There are 4000 inclusions of the template the bot was incorrectly replacing and, as I recall, only half had been done at the time of the block. Blocking was the correct thing to do (and kudos to Addshore for reverting the bad bot edits). NE Ent 16:33, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

That's precisely why I blocked it; if it had been done with the task, I would have left it alone, but I didn't want it to do two thousand more incorrect template changes when it got going again. Nyttend (talk) 16:44, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Bit concerned about this - some bot blocks do give the operator permission to unblock the bot explicitly. --Rschen7754 19:13, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Well we don't have to use the template. Pretty sure that we don't routinely give permission, and when one of those exceptions occurs, we can just leave a custom message. This isn't meant to change policy one little bit. Nyttend (talk) 19:22, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

admin parameter added to template. NE Ent 19:52, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Will that always display "you may unblock the bot" to admins? If so, it shouldn't be added; even admins shouldn't normally unblock their own bots. Nyttend (talk) 20:13, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Only if the user of the template intentionally adds the parameter. (Personally I don't think it's ever a good idea for an admin to unblock their own template, but that's between ya'll. ) NE Ent 20:20, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

I feel that instances like this would always be better to use a custom message rather than a template. Yes the bot had only got part way through the task and blocking was probably the right thing to do, but as above the bot hadn't edited in days, may have been able to be resolved without the block. Also in regards to admins unblocking their own bots, I disagree in saying that they cannot. I have always unblocked my bot after it has been blocked due to errors. The bot operator is the only person that knows when it is safe to unblock the bot, essentially what you would be doing is asking someone that can unblock the bot and that knows it is safe to do so to ask another admin to unblock the bot who would know less about the situation. ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 20:24, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Addshore, I agree with you (in most cases) but recent arbcom cases have really muddied this. To some, it is a truly egregious violation of INVOLVED to unblock your own bot in any scenario without explicit permission. I've never blocked a bot, but if I did in a case like this and the owner was an admin, given the recent arbcom noise on this I would almost certainly say "go ahead and unblock once you've fixed this" in my notifying message. So for me, I guess I can't use this template, generally. Again, I haven't blocked a bot and don't do a lot of blocks anyway so don't change it on my account, I'm just trying to provide a perspective here. HaugenErik (talk) 21:42, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

The message will say When the concerns have been addressed, you may unblock the bot. if the template is posted with admin=y (e.g.

{{subst:Bot block message|[[User:ExampleBot]]|admin=y}}) 

NE Ent 21:49, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

I see absolutely no problem with a bot op unblocking their own bot once they've fixed whatever problem prompted the block in the first place. Requiring them to ask another admin to do it is pointless bureaucracy, in my opinion. As Addshore says, the bot operator is in the best position to know whether the bot is ready to go back online. 28bytes (talk) 21:51, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

ya'll got a source for that contention? "Inexperienced managers sometimes gamble on the success of a project by skipping thorough testing or having programmers do post-development functional testing of their own work, a decidedly high risk gamble." NE Ent 21:58, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Let's say my bot goes nuts and is blocked. I think I fixed the problem and then unblock it, but it continues to go nuts. Well, then I'm rightfully on the hook for unblocking it. But let's say, instead, I ask another admin to unblock it, telling them it's fixed, so they unblock it, and it goes nuts, and now both of us look bad. How is that an improvement? The unblocking admin isn't a QA department; the bot op is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of their bot, whether they unblock it themselves or go bother another admin to do it. 28bytes (talk) 22:10, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

First of all, why do you assume CrimsonBlue's decision to stop editing is related to the bot being blocked? I doubt he has a problem with it, he has personally asked me to block malfunctioning bots in the past. Secondly, the case of blocking a malfunctioning block is so rare as to be a case where a custom message should be typed. It is a very simple thing to do. Finally, if a bot was blocked for malfunctioning, and you fix it, then you can unblock it. That's just common sense. Prodego ^talk 22:17, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

He left a message at my talk page in which he notes that this block was part of his reason for retiring. Nyttend (talk) 00:44, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

There have been issues in the past related to bot operators unblocking their own bots which have resulted in significant expenditures of dispute resolution resources and significant sanctions for the bot operator. NE Ent 22:27, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

You can't legislate away incompetent bot operation. No matter who unblocks, you are still taking the bot ops word that "the problem is fixed". Prodego ^talk 22:45, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Sanctions, I hope, for unblocking a still-malfunctioning bot. Sanctioning anyone for unblocking a fixed bot would be a bit daft. 28bytes (talk) 22:47, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree, but again, arbcom and many others certainly do not. Unless and until WP:BOTISSUE is amended to reflect what you and I see as common sense, it is probably best to explicitly and clearly give admin bot owners the goahead if you block. HaugenErik (talk) 19:29, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

It looks like the "don't unblock your own bot" language in WP:BOTISSUE is a very recent addition: January 5, 2013. I strongly disagree with that change to the policy, so per the usual procedure I'm going to undo it and start a discussion on the policy talk page. 28bytes (talk) 19:41, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia talk:Blocking policy/Archive 18#Unblocking bot accounts. Anomie⚔ 23:00, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Instead of having a flag to say that the operator is an admin and may unblock (as opposed to contacting the blocking admin or a noticeboard), I suggest that there be a flag to say that unblocking is at the sole discretion of the bot operator. With this flag, admin operators can unblock their own bot (uncontroversially), and non-admins can post an uncontroversial unblock request. The flag would be used when there is no reason to believe that the operator would allow the errors to continue. This allows the blocking admin to disclaim ownership of the block, reduces unnecessary drama on noticeboards, and levels the playing field slightly between admins and non-admins. Cheers, Bovlb (talk) 22:20, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

And at the end of the day after a bot malfunction I am sure any BotOp, after fixing the issues, would test their code again and watch their bot edit for a duration before they deem it to be fixed. (EC by Bovlb), After reading what you have written it would almost make sense to have a flag for all botops to control the status of their bots on wiki, I am not saying the ability to block and unblock, but maybe something else, just a thought. ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 22:24, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

...and not to throw a wet blanket on the whole template idea, but I suspect in almost all cases a brief, personal explanation as to why you're blocking would be preferable. 28bytes (talk) 22:47, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

My whole reason for wanting a your-bot-was-blocked template was because I feared that my personalised note to CrimsonBlue was ungracious and thus part of his reason for retirement. I wanted to know if we had a gracious template that would get across the you're-not-in-trouble message, since all our block templates are meant for more-or-less bad faith editing, not misbehaving bots. Nyttend (talk) 00:50, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

As a bot operator, I'd find that template singularly unhelpful: I don't want reassurances that I'm not in trouble or vague statements that "something might be going wrong", I want diffs showing problematic edits, and (assuming it's not something self-evident like page blanking) an explanation of why the diffs are problematic. See [4] for an example of what I consider a good problem report, and [5] for a bad one. --Carnildo (talk) 02:22, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I'd envisioned leaving a two-part message: first the template, and then a message explaining the problem or linking to a discussion about it (e.g. an ANI thread), except of course in cases when the owner had already been notified about the issue. Boilerplate here is meant as a reassurance that the operator's good faith isn't being doubted and that the blocking admin is hoping to see the bot fixed instead of seeing it being stopped permanently. That's why I preferred my wording, which solidly asserts that the bot was broken and that it needs to be fixed; when something might be going wrong, we should warn the operator, and we should only block a bot when it's plainly going bonkers. Nyttend (talk) 03:36, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I still fall into the "don't template the regulars" camp on this one, but perhaps other bot operators have a different view. I've posted a note on the bot owners' noticeboard requesting their feedback. 28bytes (talk) 20:32, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Hmm. My suggestion was aimed at helping anyone who might otherwise question the subsequent unblock. I don't think anyone was arguing that a template would supplant the need to explain the specific problems with the bot behaviour. Bovlb (talk) 00:52, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion. I wont lie the block did come as a shock to me, I think it is important to note here not all bot owners realize that a block on their bot is not a bad reflection as an editor, me included. I support this template and hope that it is used. The block did have an impact on my decision to retire, however not because of the blocking admin. A conversation I had with an experienced admin MzMcBride off-wiki is what had the biggest impact in my decision to retire, as he did say that it is a poor reflection on me as a bot operator, which is where my interests lie and that is the last thing I want. It's better to not edit then be a net-negative to Wikipedia. I wanted to clear this up so this discussion can be more about the template and not about my retirement. CrimsonBlue (talk) 10:25, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm rather certain that MzMcBride would not have suggested that a blocked bot is a poor reflection on the editor - a bot owner that does not respond to issues about their bot would be, but not a blocked bot. As the discussion was off-wiki, we'll never know - but MzMcB knows far better than to have made any such suggestion (✉→BWilkins←✎) 10:38, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

For those of you that may want to discuss Bot policy clarification in regards to bot blocking and unblocking by admin botop then please see Wikipedia_talk:Bot_policy#Policy_clarification ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 01:00, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Number of page watchers tool deprecated

Hi. It's now possible to view the number of page watchers via the "info" action. For example, at <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=info>, you can see that Main Page has over 76,500 page watchers. In the coming weeks, I'll be deprecating the watcher tool. --MZMcBride (talk) 17:04, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

The info page itself has a link to the old tool at the bottom, under "External Tools" -- I have no idea how that's edited. NE Ent 02:20, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Pageinfo-footer. 28bytes (talk) 20:36, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for updating that page. :-)

The link is also available from MediaWiki:Histlegend. I'm thinking that replacing (rather than removing) the link from there makes more sense, but I think I'd like to develop a better target for the link first. I guess there are two approaches to take: (1) replace the watcher link with a link to action=info; or (2) replace the watcher link with a link to action=info with an anchor to the number of watchers row, preferably highlighted (like we do with clicked references). Option 2 is my preference, but the underlying HTML currently has no support for this. The tool is only deprecated, not yet abandoned, though, so there's time to work all of this out. --MZMcBride (talk) 22:31, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I like (2), and I suppose this is better than nothing. (It's quite bizarre that the id for that sub-table begins with #, though. Is that typical?) AGK [•] 22:56, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I can't code, so I can't solve problems, but I'm good at pointing out problems for others to worry about. Currently, if a non-admin clicks on your (MZMcBride) tool and there are less than 30 watchers, it comes back and explains "fewer than 30 watchers". If a non-admin clicks on the action=info page instead, for a page with less than 30 watchers, the page watchers line is just gone. So for non-admins looking at MediaWiki:Histlegend for a page with less than 30 watchers, clicking on "Number of watchers", for both options (1) and (2), are just going to confuse them. --Floquenbeam (talk) 23:08, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I see three bugs here, but I probably won't have time to file them until later. I'll post here after I do. --MZMcBride (talk) 17:39, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Is it anticipated that a link to the "info" action will replace the link to your tool? Otherwise, it seems the only way to get to the info action page is to manually edit the url. ‑Scottywong| squeal _ 19:13, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

If you go to the History tab for a page, there's a "Page Information" link in the toolbox on the left. 28bytes (talk) 19:14, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

That link isn't just on the history tab. KTC (talk) 19:18, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Depends on the skin; in MonoBook that's the only place I see it. 28bytes (talk) 19:34, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

In both Monobook and Vector, the "Page information" link should be present in the "toolbox" section of the sidebar for any action (history, view, edit, etc.). If it's not, there's a bug.

AGK: bugzilla:42629 is the bug you're describing, pretty much. Floquenbeam: bugzilla:44252 and bugzilla:44253 are the bugs you want. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:17, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Request for comment on Article feedback opened

Hi all,

The request for comment on article feedback has opened. All editor are invited to comment, endorse other users's views, and/or add their own view.

Thanks, Legoktm (talk) 01:09, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Block review requested

• Doktorspin (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Ihutchesson (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ihutchesson/Archive

I think these blocks need a community discussion. They are blocked as socks. Doktorspin is claiming that they are in fact two Wikipedians living together, and that the he used the other account by accident. As a matter of policy that is generally not ok, but is it really so far-fetched that we must block them both, one indef and the other for a month, for what they claim is s simple mistake? I placed the unblock on hold while consulting with the blocking admin, User:Someguy1221, who seems basically unwilling to reconsider, citing behavioral evidence, and undid the hold on the unblock request, so I am bringing this here for further discussion. Beeblebrox (talk) 16:31, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

To my naive eyes, this looks to be a variance of the little brother argument, as there is indeed strong evidence they are the same editor; the attitude displayed on Doktorspin's talk page fills me with further unease about the situation. GiantSnowman 16:45, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, the little brother argument involves blaiming someone else. This person is saying "yes, I did it, it was an accident." I don't see that as the same at all. Their attititude is exactly what I would expect from someone who feels they are being railroaded and wiki-lawyered into a permanent block. If the finding of socking is upheld, that is what it will be, socks are the exception to the "indefinite does not mean infinite" rule. Beeblebrox (talk) 16:49, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Assuming they are the same person, it is precisely the same as the little brother argument.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:51, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) "Whoops, I used my partner's account by mistake, honest" and "whoops, my little brother got on my laptop and started messing around, honest" are very similar defences. GiantSnowman 16:52, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I strongly disagree. One excuse blames another, the other excuse takes the blame. Similar at a glance, perhaps, but at a closer look the psychology and rationale are totally different. --Nouniquenames 18:45, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) As a matter of policy and precedent, I think we should start with the presumption that Doktorspin's explanation is false. I also think that when two people (partners) live together, they do NOT share the same computers (Doktorspin mentions "access to the same computers"). I haven't reviewed the underlying details.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:50, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Wow, really? I know AGF is not a suicide pact but it seems like everyone just wants to disregard it entirely here. My wife and I use the same computer all the time, as I am sure many couples do. She has no interest in editing WP so I have never had this problem, but it is hardly unprecedented. I don't want to call anyone out, but experienced users may recall more than one situation where even admins have had similar problems. When they admitted their error and promised not to let it happen again we accepted that, why is everyone soooo convinced not to even consider the possibility here? Beeblebrox (talk) 17:12, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I wouldn't let anyone touch my computer, not my wife, my partner, my closest friend, or my dead grandmother (on my maternal side). But I suppose people's level of trust varies considerably. Perhaps we should do a survey.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:33, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

There are editors with such a relationship. My spouse and I each have a computer, but we use each other's too. --Nouniquenames 18:45, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Not everyone in the world is wealthy enough to have a computer for every member of the household. Just saying. Danger ^{High voltage!} 02:56, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

A very good point. (Indeed, some have zero computers; I'm aware of at least one prolific contributor who does all their editing from a public library.) 28bytes (talk) 03:12, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Personally, I think it's a load of malarky. My wife and I have totally different interests in articles, even though we have the same "schedule" in many cases. We also use the exact same computer(s). However, I would not be averse to unblocking both with restrictions:

1. only one account is allowed to edit any article or its associated talkpage, ever.
2. they must take great care to logout at the end of any editing session, and will take even greater care in verifying that it is them who are logged in
3. future violations will lead to both accounts being indefinitely blocked

Probably more restrictions would fit in ... but WP:ROPE and WP:AGF are at the crux of this. (✉→BWilkins←✎) 16:58, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Look at the toolserver report, Talk:Suetonius_on_Christians Do you overlapping, let's pretend to be two people edits? Nope. Do you see something that's plausibility, oh I thought I was logged in, didn't realize you had borrowed my computer? Yep. So, in case of doubt, we're supposed to assume good faith. Simply unblock both and require they cross link users pages with {{User_shared_IP_address}} to avoid future confusion per policy. NE Ent 17:03, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Question Are these accounts blocked "ONLY" because they share the same ip address or was there some inappropriate editing going on as well?--JOJ ^Hutton 17:09, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

They appeared to be socks, and a CU was run. The blocking admin and Doktorspin seem to have a different recollection of the exact series of events, he claims he admitted to it before the CU results were in, Someguy seems to feel it happened the other way around. Beeblebrox (talk) 17:37, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

That doesn't really answer the question for me. What disruption or damage to the encyclopedia were the alleged sockpuppets doing? Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 17:48, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

The disruption was confusing a talk page discussing by using the pronoun 'I' to refer to edits of the other account. NE Ent 17:54, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

And that's it? No edit warring, no personal attacks, no copyvios, no unreferenced BLPs? Sounds like a pointless set of blocks from that angle, if I'm honest. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 17:57, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Admission came before CU. spin resigning ihuchession posts, DQ's CU statement three hours later. NE Ent 17:54, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

And, since we do not have cameras in their house or the ability to read minds, we can never know for sure if he is telling the truth or not. All we have left to guide us is our own policies, and I believe AGF is the most relevant here. Our other option is to assume this user successfully hid their socking since at least 2008, until this mistake blew the whole deal. Does anyone really believe that? . Beeblebrox (talk) 18:00, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Unblock and encourage the use of {{User shared IP address}} as recommended by NE Ent, so that if both editors edit the same article or participate in the same discussion, other editors are aware of the connection. We have current and former arbs who share computers with other longstanding editors; let's not have different standards for new editors in the absence of some evidence that the editors are doing something nefarious. As an aside, the idea that someone would marry a person that they wouldn't trust to use their computer seems a bit weird. 28bytes (talk) 18:10, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Now, now, comments about relationships are generally ill-advised. I remember one woman who said that another couple couldn't possibly trust each other because they didn't share finances, whereas she and her husband did. Interestingly, the sharing couple divorced and the non-sharing couple are still very happily married. Each to his own.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:26, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I think it is worth noting that in one recent case the "little brother" argument seemed to ultimately be found to be factually accurate. I also think there is a rather real chance of us sooner or later encountering identical twins, with even more identical editing and language patterns, perhaps editing the same topic area because of their remarkably similar interests in general, perhaps in relation to some classes they might be taken together. I have no particular objections to seeing the block in place, but I think it does make sense to advise the parties in question that they are free to try to contact some administrator in a more direct manner, possibly through skype or some other means, to try to establish that they are in fact two different people who might just occasionally be using the same computer or internet connection. John Carter (talk) 18:16, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

The "little brother" case usually applies to alternation between useful article edits and juvenile vandalism. That's not what we're talking about here, is it? Unless there's some evidence of bad edits beyond a single incident of making a similar article edit, I'd recommend unblocking, per WP:ROPE, with a strong recommendation to be more careful in future, and avoid editing the same article. Cheers, Bovlb (talk) 18:21, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• Comment I don't really think that Beeblebrox really understands what a sockpuppet really is. Two accounts editing from the same ip is not sock puppetry. There was no disruption or attempts to game the system. No evidence that any one of these accounts was being used as leverage in the debate. I would call this a bad faith attempt to get a rival editor blocked for technicality. I think that both accounts should be unblocked immediately and the blcoking admin should be censured and have someone explain to him/her what a sock puppet really is as well.--JOJ ^Hutton 18:24, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Uh, could you please review the facts of the case and possibly re-evaluate your remarks about me? I am the one tryong to get this block overturned. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:32, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

My Mistake.--JOJ ^Hutton 21:15, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I really do not want to spend much time on this, so I will make the passing comment that having looked at the edits, I now actually think there are two physical human beings there, of differing characters, Huchesson being a low key person (based on his tone) and Doktorspin a more aggreesive/argumentative type. Yet, I am not sure if the September and October 2012 edits indicated by Rschen7754 ([6] & [7] and [8] & [9]) were the same person or different people. I think the issue on the SPI involved the previous edits from 2012 as well. Now I will stop, type no more and let you guys figure it out. History2007 (talk) 18:33, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the links above are quite concerning and why I think they should remain blocked. --Rschen7754 18:38, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The blocks seems bad (looking back, it may have looked fine walking in,) and should be lifted. --Nouniquenames 18:45, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• I was the one who encouraged Rschen7754 Someguy1221 to make the block. As I saw it, on the SPI page they said "I used a computer yesterday that had already been logged on", so right there we have sharing of accounts, which is a big issue. Now I can't go over the CU results again just yet, but I seem to remember that the edits were very closely timed together on the same IP. That said, being it's a first violation, I think that Bwilkins has the right idea towards an unblock, as blocks are meant to be preventative. If they stay off of each other's accounts, don't cross the same subject area, and be very very careful about IP editing, then I'm willing to AGF. -- DQ on the road (ʞlɐʇ) 19:07, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
  • For the record, that was Someguy1221 who made the blocks --Rschen7754 19:11, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I don't want to give the impression that I think everything is ok here, but I am concerned at losing one or two long term contributors over what appears to be a mistake. Did Doktorspin act carelessly? Yes, clearly he did. Was it malicious or actually intended to deceive? Doubtful, but even if it was I think the message has been sent by now that the two of them need to be more careful about this sort of thing. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:15, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Rschen, I obviously need more french vanilla today. I'll reply to the above when I get home. -- DQ on the road (ʞlɐʇ) 19:16, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• Doktorspin made this edit at 09:10, 10 January 2013 (UTC). Four minutes later, Ihutchesson made this edit, followed by this and this; then, a mere three minutes later, Doktorspin made this edit. All of the edits are made from the same IP, using the same operating system and (not particularly common) browser. I'll leave it to others to draw whatever conclusion they want to draw from this. T. Canens (talk) 19:19, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• They were sitting on each other's laps? Playing musical chairs? Distracted by the dog chewing on the cable? Good faith my foot.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:37, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
• Those diffs show spin working on Marie Stopes (1st and 5th) while Ihutchesson was working on Haven (2nd, 3rd, 4th). This is sockpuppetry?? It's hardly suprising multiple computers in the same location would have the same browser installed and isn't it the IP of the router that shows up in a log? Like many words, uncommon is a tricky one in that its meaning depends on context. Chamicuro is a very uncommon language in the context of the world, but if one person in a particular dwelling in Peru is speaking, it's highly likely another person in the same dwelling is, too. NE Ent 20:12, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
  • I agree. While my wife and I used different computers with different software, I'd have to believe that for a lot of couples one person would maintain both computers. In any case, even if this is one user with two accounts, I'm not seeing anything that would be abusive socking. And I suspect it's two users given the analysis above about writing styles etc. Block wasn't unreasonable, but time to warn the users to be sure they don't abuse the situation and unblock. Hobit (talk) 22:58, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
    • My wife and I have a single laptop between the two of us, and we often use the same account and browser. Luckily this isn't a problem because she doesn't edit, but just saying it's not really that strange of a situation. And I've edited from the shared computer at my parents' house, which is likely the same computer my sister has used to edit Wikipedia with her account (Again, not a problem, since she's been inactive for a couple years). ~Adjwilley (talk) 23:29, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

If anyone is interested, we have three computers in frequent usage, for which I do all the maintenance, installs, updates and fixes. That's the only time I touch my partner's computer, though that doesn't stop me from accessing webmail, checking forums, etc, while I'm there. The problem in this recent incident was the computer in the lounge room, which I wouldn't have expected my partner to use, but this was vacation time and it's close to the kitchen. -- spin|^control 22:29, 21 January 2013 (UTC) copied from tp by Ent

I wasn't aware of the reassigning of signatures three hours before the checkuser, but I still would not consider on par with admitting the alleged mistake. That said, the abuse in this case is giving the appearance of being two different people in current and historical content disputes. That said, the purpose of my block is to prevent Doktorspin from interfering with normal dispute resolution processes. Although I still believe that they are one person, the problem would also be solved with the unblock conditions suggested by Bwilkins. The reason I haven't unblocked is that I don't believe the excuse. But if spin and hutch agree to these conditions, I wouldn't object either. Someguy1221 (talk) 23:30, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• I contacted the user on his talk page, laying out the conditions set above that seem to be the general consensus on his talk page and requiring an answer from both parties before proceeding with anything. If the reply is deemed satisfactory and agreement to the conditions is settled, I will unblock (or will let Beeblebrox, the reviewing admin, do so), as the blocking admin explicitly said he wouldn't oppose an unblock if the conditions are accepted. Salvidrim! ✉ 02:59, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

  Considering the fact that both accounts have been active for years and that, as far as I've seen here, no violations of our sockpuppet policy have occurred whatsoever except for a very recent mistake, I am inclined to recommend an unblock (unless the next reply on Doktorspin's talk page is somehow highly unsatisfactorily). It's not uncommon for partners to have similar interests and thus editing patterns, and if the situation was a problematic sockpuppet case, it would have arisen a long time ago. I also see a part of the community seems to lean the same way, although with (justified) concerns. Salvidrim! ✉ 05:27, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Looking through the above discussion, and associated evidence, while I am not entirely convinced that they are in fact two separate editors, I think the claim that they are two distinct editors is sufficiently plausible that an unblock is appropriate. Monty₈₄₅ 17:28, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Could we allow page overlap (editing the same page) with the exception of responding to RFCs, XFD, and any voting situation? This seems a reasonable response to the concerns brought up at the account's talk page. --Nouniquenames 17:32, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

... but what about tag-team reverting, etc? Do they as a couple get WP:6RR? It's all about the appearance of false consensus, which is exactly what WP:SOCK/WP:MEAT is about (✉→BWilkins←✎) 18:16, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)You know, we've had users accidentally share a laptop before. How'd that turn out? We made one an administrator and elected the other to ArbCom poor sap ... so is it really that big a deal to let these folks you know, like, edit? To date no one has shown any usage of overlapping accounts for tactical advantage ... they're not editing Climategate or The Beatles or vote stacking the infernal Mexican-American War article title discussion. They overlapped editing on Haven, hardly a contentious hotbed ... why are we still talking about this? NE Ent 18:27, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Have to agree with NE Ent here. All you need to do is say "I'm married to X" on your user page. Simple. Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (Message me) 19:43, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Title: Question regarding Wikimedia Commons interactions between users

Hello! I am interested if misbehaviour on Wikimedia Commons can lead to sanctions on English Wikipedia. More precisely, I'd like to know if the uncivil speech of User:CoolKoon on a Wikimedia Commons discussion page, where he insulted me and User:Yopie by calling "Czechoslovak mascots" is punishable also on English Wikipedia and can lead to sanctions as interaction bans. To be noted that this editor is under Wikipedia:ARBEE warning and I had several conflicts with him in the past here on en.wikipedia [10] [11]

I am worried that he could consider that his affirmations on Wikimedia Commons talk pages could not affect his account here, so he can resort to a less self-consored speech. --Omen1229 (talk) 18:47, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Speaking to the general principle, each WMF site is independently run; however, crosswiki behavior can be considered if it continues here, and we generally give fewer chances to such crosswiki violators. --Rschen7754 19:11, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

We also don't do punishment - we do prevention. As an addition to the above by Rschen, Wikipedia can do Wikipedia-wide bans, but they're rare, and not done here directly on en.wikipedia (✉→BWilkins←✎) 19:26, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

WP:OWNTALK

• Brief discussion

I need some input as to what to do next. As you can see, the discussion on the guideline talk page has not attracted a lot of comment. It doesn't seem to me that I can just change the guideline on my own, much as I'd like to. What would be the best course of action? WP:VPP?--Bbb23 (talk) 20:07, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

That and/or an RFC. Being bold is a great idea when editing content, but policy changes, not so much. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:10, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Another admin has now commented at the talk page, perhaps because of this thread. Beeblebrox, do you think it would be acceptable to open a topic at WP:VPP that just asks editors to comment at the guideline talk page? I could also insert an RfC at the talk page as you suggest.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:20, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Editor of the Week

Several weeks ago, Dennis suggested that an "Editor of the Week" recognition be created over at WP:WER. The purpose would be to recognize not those such as Dennis, who receive lots of acclaim already, but to an editor who:

• Writes or significantly expands articles on a regular basis.
• Cleans up articles by, for example, adding sources, expanding citations with the necessary information, aligning prose with the manual of style, or improving the quality of the prose through copy-editing (such as making the text more concise and removing redundant wording).
• Serves as notable voice of reason in discussions with other editors.
• Performs behind-the-scenes work, not normally seen by the general community.

We are looking to recognize the under-appreciated, dedicated content contributors who go about what they do quietly and who often go unrecognized. Dennis suggested that a note might be placed here, in case any of you have come across an editor who may meet those criteria. You can nominate someone here. You can read about the project in general here. Make sure, if you use the shortcut, that you make sure the "ot" is "ot" and not "OT", as otherwise it will redirect here. We've recognized two editors thus far, and are looking for more nominations. Thanks in advance. On behalf of the seven or so of us actively involved in the project's administration, Go Phightins! 00:34, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Not to say we don't need more awards and encouragement, but User:Bibliomaniac15/Today/Archive is a useful thing to check out. Maybe some extra help or coordination would be good too. --Jayron32 06:11, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• One great way of turning "under-appreciated, dedicated content contributors" into divas more concerned about their FA star galleries than improving the project is by glorifying them through easily-politicised awards, IMO. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 11:21, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Alternatively, we could assume good faith...Go Phightins! 12:33, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
    • I'm sure you mean nothing but the best. That doesn't alter the historical precedent that awards like this seem to result in cliques and more than the odd editor going off the rails in an effort to collect prizes. We already have WikiLove if editors simply want to show their appreciation to others in an informal manner anyway, and it's not obvious why a formal system would improve upon that. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 12:42, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
      • Because a few editors might turn into a Diva is not a reason not to do something. Anyway, I don't see how such a program can be managed without creating a "EOW Clique" or cabal. Someone has to pick the weekly winner and it shouldn't be a popularity contest nor should it be one person's arbitrary decision if it's a community-sponsored program. However, there is no reason that you or Dennis couldn't manage your own personal "EOW" similar to how people do User:Rlevse/Today/Archive.--v/r - TP 17:08, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

I can think of several editors worthy of such recognition, but the problem isn't the editors who are voted EOW, the problem is the ones that aren't. I mean, if editors are going to be nominated, then presumably there has to be some function to oppose their candidacy? Could you just imagine how dispiriting it would be if a hard working editor were nominated, and then people start coming along and saying this editor doesn't contribute enough, this editor gets into edit wars, this editor isn't collaborative? What starts off as a nice gesture could turn unpleasant against an editor that has made decent contributions. Betty Logan (talk) 17:32, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

The WMF t-shirts initiative managed to avoid that problem, more or less. One area where the WMF t-shirts initiative did generate negative vibes was over whether banned editors should be "recognised" in that way. The editor of the week initiative won't have that problem because, if an editor was banned some time ago, they won't be eligible anyway because they won't have made any important contributions this week.

In a similar way, the editor of the week initiative also has a slightly anti-WP:DIVA element, in that if an editor is temporarily in "retired/sulking" mode, then they won't be eligible to be editor of the week because they won't have made any contributions that week. (The "you have to be in it to win it" concept.) So DIVAs will be less eligible, editors still contributing will be slightly more eligible - which after all is the point of editor retention.

I do admit that there is a potential problem if nominations are aimed at being a political football rather than based on the editor's contributions in that week. So for example if someone were to nominate a recently blocked editor with a very large number of edits, or an arbcom "whistleblower", or an editor who feels harassed by arbcom and administrators, or an arb who some parts of the community feel was unduly rude about that editor but other parts of the community didn't... not wishing to spread WP:BEANS about, but it should be obvious why all of these would be extremely bad choices, choices based on politics rather than choices based on contributions in that week. Hopefully "who go about what they do quietly and who often go unrecognized" implies it will never descend into this sort of political "popularity contest" divisiveness. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 20:00, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Betty, to date we have not been notifying nominees that they've been nominated and surprising them with recognition, though naturally as this becomes more recognized, people will start to watch it more often. We do have some guidelines on it at the page. Go Phightins! 20:02, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Re the t-shirts initiative — I appreciated the way that was framed. I saw some names there whom I didn't believe should be sent shirts, but I said nothing because the initiative was set up in such a way that it was plainly not meant for disputes or "doesn't deserve a shirt" comments; the creator(s) made it clear that we were trying to overlook difficulties. If we could frame this proposal in the same way, Betty's highly relevant comments might not come true frequently enough to be a problem. Nyttend (talk) 20:55, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Group awards better: try WikiProject of the Week: Among the 2,000 (many inactive) wp:WikiProject groups, there should be plenty to praise. In general, group-based awards are safer to judge, in terms of total output, less diva-naming, and fewer problems of awarding a fraud later found to have pirated other work or diagrams. There was a famous story of a guy (no names please) who competed in a company for "Employee of the Month" and was finally caught "inventing problems" so that he would be seen as the most-helpful, quick-working employee in the company. It was amazing how fast he knew how to fix "broken" things around the workplace, as if he already knew exactly which electric plug was loose, where a missing tool was stored, which file had been corrupted, which errors in a report led to false totals, or whatever (you do the math!). Naturally, the guy was the "hero of the workforce" until people discovered the truth, and how hard he worked to create problems which caused others to suffer desperately until they received his amazing help. I think he was about to win "Employee of the Month". Ya buddy. -Wikid77 (talk) 21:17, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

I have blocked User:Beeblebrox as a possibly compromised account

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Beeblebrox (talk · contribs) and his talkpage are on my watchlist. Having viewed the most recent series of edits to his talkpage, including the final one with the edit summary "FUCK OFF YOU PETTY FASCIST IDIOT", I have blocked Beeblebrox indefinitely as a possibly compromised account. This spate of behaviours does not appear to be consistent with Beeb's usual behaviour. Does anyone think we need an emergency desysop? (✉→BWilkins←✎) 21:51, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• I'd say that's a fairly typical response (even if left unsaid) to anybody who attempts logic with the user Beeblebrox was having a discussion with. So, probably not compromised. --auburnpilot talk 21:54, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Helpful. No, we need an unblock, then a level-headed discussion about outbursts etc. No reason to suggest this account is compromised in any way. Please unblock. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:54, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
• And his account is now locked. I'm 99% certain from a behavioral perspective that he is not compromised, but I'll defer to those who know more. MBisanz ^talk 21:55, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
• I would support a 24 hour block, as "FASCIST IDIOT" is pretty bad, but no this isn't compromised. (As evidence the IGNOREMETA a year ago). --Rschen7754 21:56, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

I've unblocked. --Golbez (talk) 21:56, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

It won't matter as long as he's still locked, he can't log into his account to edit. MBisanz ^talk 21:57, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Why was he locked? Do meta admins globally ban someone based on the out-of-process claim if a single person now? --Golbez (talk) 21:59, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Compromised accounts are generally locked to prevent the person who compromised it from having the ability to change the password or email address associated with the account. MBisanz ^talk 22:02, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

While I disagree with the measure taken as the account clearly wasn't compromised, as I tried to point out having interacted with the user before, the measure is not taken by meta admins but m:Stewards and it was a temporary precautionary measure due to Beeblebrox's access to advanced user rights. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 22:09, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Unlocked a few minutes ago. --Rschen7754 21:58, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Since this probably should use more words: Due process. You had an opinion that someone yelling was a compromised account, and didn't bother to clear it with anyone, especially since he hadn't done any admin actions that needed immediate stopping (not that this would have stopped those, mind you). Not really the best idea. And if he warrants a block for "fascist idiot", no comment, but it will be a different block than this one. --Golbez (talk) 21:59, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

(ec) Under normal circumstances, if two of the most recent four edits for an administrator account involve telling other editors to "fuck off," I think it's not outrageous to be immediately concerned that the account may be compromised. (I say this not knowing Beeblebrox or how he normally interacts with others, granted.) user:j (talk) 22:06, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

• Support short block for that wholly unacceptable comment, unsure if the account is compromised - we need to e-mail to find out. GiantSnowman 21:57, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  • No, we don't need email to find out, as there has been absolutely no evidence, let alone proof, supplied that it was compromised. Evidence that the person on the other side of the keyboard was perhaps unusually pissed, but that's never proof that the account is compromised. --Golbez (talk) 22:34, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  • CU has said it is not compromised. --Rschen7754 22:05, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
• Couple thoughts here: First, no, he's not got his account compromised, that's Beeblebrox's style that we're seeing. Second, ugh, why must it be Beeblebrox's style. This is the sort of thing people complain about when they say that admins call people names, etc. It's not ok for Joe Editor to do it, and it's not ok for Joe Admin to do it, and it doesn't matter how upset or frustrated either of them claims to be to excuse it. Third: This immediate unblock has made things even more uncomfortable - Bwilkins had already been informed that the "compromised" bit was an error, and whether that part was or not, Beeblebrox has indisputably violated our civility policy. It pains and embarrasses me to have to say it about another admin/functionary, because we're supposed to be the people who know better, but a block for personal attacks was called for here. I would much have preferred letting the blocking admin (or AN) reconsider the block as an NPA block instead of what's now likely to be a bouncing ball of blockage because of the immediate unblock. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 22:05, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
• (edit conflict) The statement seems to me not inconsistent with the user's past comments, which are not the most civil that I have seen. I suggest that the block be switched to one for Civility violations or whatever, and that the Arbitration Committee consider withdrawing the user's advanced user right as this sort of conduct is most definitively not acceptable. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 22:07, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
• I did the lock since the account involved belongs to an oversighter. Considering the sensitiveness of his tools I choose the more prudent way to protect the Project while a local checkuser was checking whatever the account was compromised or not. Please note that lock is the only countermeasure (except for deflag) which can prevent misuses of oversight, while the block cannot do it. My apologies for the inconvenient though I prefer the risk to lock an user for some minutes by mistake than having a serious leak of suppressed contents.--Vituzzu (talk) 22:14, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  • If an oversighter were compromised, the much more likely thing is they *wouldn't* make it obvious. If I had a compromised oversight account would I be yelling fuck you on my talk page? No, I'd be quietly tittering at all the hidden gems. --Golbez (talk) 22:34, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
    • Actually a compromised account can last only until the owner finds out the hack, so the "silent method" is probably useless. Anyway I'm not a psychiatrist so I can only make a deal between security and moderation.--Vituzzu (talk) 22:51, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

I can't say I am super thrilled about having my account locked by the same steward who defended a meta admin's "right" to troll my talk page[12]. Ironically, you above all should have known that when someone tries to bully me I tend to tell them off. Beeblebrox (talk) 23:38, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Actually I completely forgot that issue (and you were, btw *so* wrong, while Nemo was wrong too, probably just a bit less wrong than you), recalling it I don't find anything related to the current problem: I had two users reporting of a possible oversighter compromised account so, unless a check has been performed I prevented any abuse by temporary disabling the account. The useless incivility of some answers of yours (saying "I'm used to do so" is not a justification at all) aren't my business at all ;) --Vituzzu (talk) 00:34, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

• I don't react well to bullies. I'm referring to Kosh here, not B. Not content to just go away, he appointed himself the civility police as well as the content police, and was equally inept in both roles. So i told him to fuck off. Then he tried to re-open the closed thread, so I told him to fuck off, and that he was a petty fascist idiot. That is in fact exactly what he was acting like. A user persistently posting to my talk page after being asked to stop is the only situation that has ever compelled me to tell another user to fuck off, and I completely stand behind my right to do so. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:17, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

  Administrators and holders of advanced user rights should set the example, and not dish out personal attacks when feeling frustrated. I stand behind your right to behave like this once in a while, I do not stand behind you doing so in a position where you're representing this project. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 22:20, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

As I said, i only do it when someone won't stop posting to my talk page. I don't believe trying to maintain some degree of control over the ability to close a thread on my talk page constitutes "representing this project". I was representing myself, nothing more. I don't see any need to keep discussing this either. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:49, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Indeed. FWIW I also have the admin bit and would probably have told Kosh exactly where to go as well. Black Kite (talk) 00:12, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

WT:Requests_for_adminship/2013 RfC

This has support so far, although BWilkins has suggested I go slow. Feel free to edit or comment. If nothing changes, I'm inclined to take it live in around 12 hours, so we're going to need some maso closers in about a week. Note that this is a 3-part RfC, and after the first round, the voters have the option of asking for new closers, after they see your closing statements. (That's necessary because success in the second and third rounds depends on the voters having a lot of confidence in the closers.) - Dank (push to talk) 22:51, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, but that page is tl;dr for me. Looking at the page I find it very hard to figure out what it is all about. A meta-meta-meta RfC about how to word enother RfC? Fut.Perf. ☼ 23:13, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

What we've found in many years of trying to reform this ten-year old process is that the way that people usually approach RfCs hasn't worked (not once) for problems as complex, and voters as dug-in, as are involved in RfA reform. I am terribly sorry that I have taken more than my fair share of air-time to discuss the problems. But I can't remake the RfC system into something that will work for this particular problem, and then apply it to the most intractable problem on Wikipedia, in 25 words or less. This format is getting some support at WT:RFA#New RfC, and you may need to read that discussion as well to figure out what's going on here. - Dank (push to talk) 23:39, 22 January 2013 (UTC) (I hope I'm not being too snippy ... it's just, if that's TLDR, then you don't want to go anywhere near this RfC, because I'm deliberately structuring it to try to get people to say more than they would normally say ... and the people who engage in RfA reform discussions generally don't need any prodding to give you pages of thoughts. I'm not looking forward to it; I just don't see any other way forward, and so far, neither has anyone else.) - Dank (push to talk) 00:06, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Btw ... if the concern is how much the voters will have to read rather than the closers, I'm going to be breaking the big RfC into a series of little RfCs, and telling the voters for each piece only what they need to know (and referring the curious ones to the big page). - Dank (push to talk) 00:30, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

First phase is live at WT:Requests for adminship/2013 RfC/1. It's more digestible. - Dank (push to talk) 05:52, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Unsalting needed

Soulbust/PewDiePie should be at PewDiePie, but that title is currently WP:SALTed. Can an admin please un-salt the title and move the page, since PewDiePie is the work's most common name? Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 22:52, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Done just to fix the borken page-move, but I haven't checked to see if it was substantial recreation of the material in the previous AfD. Salvidrim! ✉ 23:05, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Say, what's the usual procedure -- should deleted history be restored in this case? Salvidrim! ✉ 23:20, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

I checked the sources and they all suffer from the same problems that were expressed in the AFD. Two PRWeb sources, some trivial blogs, primary sources, and trivial mentions (one sentence) in actual reliable sources.--v/r - TP 00:30, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

This was in User:Soulbust's userspace, he was a major contributor of the article (as far as I can see), and I find no explanation as to why it was moved to mainspace. He wasn't the one to do it, I believe. Should I be re-userfied? Salvidrim! ✉ 00:42, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

• If I cam across this as a candidate for speedy deletion as being recreated after AfD, I'd likely delete. Much of the text is the same and there is not a substantial difference between the deleted version and the current version unless you count the removal of content. --auburnpilot talk 01:10, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

What? I can find absolutely no content that's been reposted from the deleted version; it's entirely newly written and nowhere near a G4 candidate. Nyttend (talk) 02:51, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

After a moderately quick readthrough, I also find that the text and sourcing is not subtantially similar. It is not completely different, obviously, but definitely not a G4 candidate in my eye. Salvidrim! ✉ 02:58, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

That being said, I agree with the comments from TParis; he doesn't look notable. Still, thanks for moving the page in question; it would have been silly to hold up the pagemove until we'd decided whether it was a repost. Nyttend (talk) 03:39, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

The editor who moved it from Soulbust's userspace to article space had also done the same with his own user talk page, so I have a feeling this should stayed userfied. I pinged Soulbust for him to reply here before porting it back to his userspace. Salvidrim! ✉ 03:52, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm leaning against userfication. Presumably Soulbust feels that it's as complete as it's going to be (why move it to mainspace otherwise?), so he probably doesn't expect to be able to develop it more thoroughly. As is, it doesn't look to pass WP:GNG, and the long deletion logs for sv:Pewdiepie and sv:PewDiePie suggest to me that there aren't tons of Swedish-language sources either. Basically, we're apparently faced with choosing between deleting it from mainspace and moving it to userspace to become a WP:STALEDRAFT. Nyttend (talk) 07:05, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

As mentioned before, the page was in Soulbust's userspace but he was not the one to move it to mainspace. I'm waiting on a reply from him but all signs point to a draft that wasn't ready to be moved. The last improvement(s) to the page while in userspace wasn't old enough to qualify the draft as "stale" IMO. Salvidrim! ✉ 07:14, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

No, sorry. I mean that we shouldn't move it back to his userspace now that it's out, simply because he's unlikely to make it a proper article about a notable subject. Either he'll leave it alone, or he'll move it back into mainspace where we get this thread repeated; the best thing that will happen is a WP:STALEDRAFT. Bedtime. Nyttend (talk) 07:29, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

I was mostly responding to "Presumably Soulbust feels that it's as complete as it's going to be..."; I see nothing that would lead to that assumption and that's why I've asked the user to comment. :) Salvidrim! ✉ 07:35, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Oh, oops, you're right. Too sleepy when I wrote that, I guess. Nyttend (talk) 13:17, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

It's Kevin Canzanello (talk · contribs) that we should all be paying attention to. The account did this move, and also did this move and this edit. If you see the ironic edits from 2011, please remember how young the accountholder claims to be now. Uncle G (talk) 08:32, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Alright so, I've seen the page has been moved so that it doesn't include my name. However, I was planning to contribute more information as I looked for more sources (and will continue to do so) so it would benefit the article and make it less likely that it would be speedy deleted or nominated for deletion. To make it clear I have no problem with it being moved back to User:Soulbust/PewDiePie and I have no problem with the article being currently placed in it's own main namespace. Soulbust (talk) 11:26, 23 January 2013 (UTC)