Wikipedia talk:Administrators' newsletter

Quick TechAdmin question

So are you going to track techadmin changes on this newsletter? — regards, Revi 05:51, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

I think we can make mention of new appointments, sure, like we do for the ombudsman commission, functionaries and stewards. It's relevant news, after all, so seems appropriate. However ideally there won't be many techadmin changes, because the entire point is to keep the members of this user group to a minimum. — MusikAnimal ^talk 02:24, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

I've listed the six temporary interface administrators at the top of Wikipedia:Administrators' newsletter/2018/9. Mz7 (talk) 18:58, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

Testing question

(non-admin question) I saw in the newsletter this an invitation to help with testing once it is available. Are they looking for people to be test-blocked or just admins to try it out? In case of the former, I'm (and I assume others) game only if it stays off my permanent block log. ^Thanks, L3X1 ◊distænt write◊ 02:06, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

​They are looking for the latter. — JJMC89 (T·C) 04:16, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

Issue about November 2018

I have edited the newsletter to add a link to the article on Raymond Arritt, who has died and participated on WP as Shock Brigade Harvester Boris. I hope this is an appropriate addition. Please revert if it was not. Thanks, EdChem (talk) 20:13, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

Bots must have 10-character passwords too, as of December 20

But this is old news, too. It would have been nice if this had been announced in advance, as it would have saved me a bunch of trouble. You know bot operators may put their bots on "autopilot" and rarely log in to their bot accounts, so they won't notice any new password requirements until after someone notices and reports that their bot is down. So, of all users, bots should have been a top priority to notify about upcoming changes in advance – not a group to neglect to mention or merely allude to as a "some other user group". – wbm1058 (talk) 01:03, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

It looks like this edit didn't make it into the Tech News. And for clarity, "Bot admins" doesn't mean bot administrators' accounts, it means their bots' accounts, i.e. presumably any account which has the bot flag. – wbm1058 (talk) 01:24, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

@Wbm1058: Thanks for bringing this up. I added it to the list here – does that look good to you? Mz7 (talk) 21:03, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Sure, thanks. wbm1058 (talk) 21:09, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

@Wbm1058: I never actually checked this, are you sure? "Botadmins" are a user group - just not one we use on the English Wikipedia. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:47, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

@Xaosflux: I don't know anything about that user group. But the first of my bots to have login problems because of the increase in minimum pw length was Merge bot, whose user rights are (bot, administrator). I presume it was blocked from logging in because it's an administrator, and not because it's a bot, because my other bot whose password was the same length was not effected, until I believe it was exactly one week later, when the subsequent weekly software rollout added bots to the list as well. Because a week later RMCD bot stopped being able to log in as well. It was only after RMCD bot was locked out that I noticed Merge bot had been locked out for a full week with nobody reporting the issue (I didn't notice myself). Of course when RMCD bot was locked out, that was noticed and reported within hours. My third bot never had any issues because its password was already longer than the new requirement. – wbm1058 (talk) 22:21, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

@Wbm1058: hmm I think it's a bug wherein 'bot' is "in" botadmin and is hitting. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:33, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

phab:T217609 opened to review. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:39, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

@Xaosflux: Well, I had no idea that the 10-character requirement for bots wasn't intentional, but that would explain the failure to adequately document and warn bot operators of the change. FYI, here is the discussion documenting the "emergency" I had to deal with when this came down unexpectedly": User talk:RMCD bot#Bot is down. The message I was seeing coming back from the API wasn't exactly clear about the problem either. – wbm1058 (talk) 22:48, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

@Wbm1058: ok so it is intentional - but it wasn't well advertised. I updated that ticket with the reference, and it is buried in defaultsettings file. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:52, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 March 2019

Please add my IP address to the list of users who are subscribed to this newsletter. Thank you,211.27.115.246 (talk) 23:24, 10 March 2019 (UTC) 211.27.115.246 (talk) 23:24, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

 Done not sure why you want to subscribe, but I have added you ([1]) DannyS712 (talk) 00:58, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 March 2019

I used to own 211.27.115.246. Please remove that IP from this list and replace it with the IP posting this message. Thank you.111.220.164.171 (talk) 02:51, 16 March 2019 (UTC) 111.220.164.171 (talk) 02:51, 16 March 2019 (UTC)