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Western Front (World War II)

Dear PBS,

A user is constantly trying to change the flag order in the article (by putting United Kingdom, over the United States), as well as adding a date to only a certain nation (the United States). I have reverted his edits, and said that he should take his suggested edits to the talk page, so that we can discuss the flag order and how dates should be used in the info box. But he constantly reverts back to his version, without giving any explanation or note. I do not know how to address this problem, and I know that I should refrain from participating in an edit war. Could you please help me?

Kindest regards /EriFr (talk) 17:16, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

My apology

Dear PBS,

I am a new user in Wikipedia, Today is my first day of joining as User. If I broke any rules or conditions of Wikipedia mistakenly please forgive me. I am just wanted to see firstly that how this kind of Editing works, But then I just wanted to improve the data over that Article over Western Front (World War II) that United States is joined World War II from 1941, so United Kingdom fighting the war from begining so I change the flag positions and add the year. My aim is not to harm any country or any user and if i did then i am begging for forgiveness. 


                                                                                                           Your's faithfully
                                                                                                             Alexboy2622  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexboy2622 (talk • contribs) 17:57, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

Happy New Year, PBS!

Happy New Year!

PBS,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
-- ψλ ● ✉ ✓ 23:14, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

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

Military Historian of the Year 2017

 The WikiChevrons 
As nominated by your peers as part of the 2017 Military History Newcomer of the Year Award process, you have been highlighted as an editor who has contributed significantly to the Military history project in 2017. As such, I hereby award you these Wikichevrons. Thank you for your efforts in 2017. AustralianRupert (talk) 02:09, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for merging of Template:Ahnentafel-compact4

Template:Ahnentafel-compact4 has been nominated for merging with Template:Ahnentafel-compact5. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Chicbyaccident (talk • contribs) 13:24, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Muboshgu
readded Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned
removed None

Bureaucrat changes

readded Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

Arbitration

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

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:52, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Lourdes†
removed AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V
† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

Obituaries

  • Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:01, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Henry Cromwell, you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages First Civil War and Vincent Gookin (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:14, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

A page you started (Augsburg raid) has been reviewed!

Thanks for creating Augsburg raid, PBS!

Wikipedia editor Elmidae just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

Impressive job! I wonder if you could give the paragraph starting "The pursuers returned to Crum’s Lancaster" a bit of a reformulation? That one comes up as little close to comfort regarding close paraphrasing of two websites (weaponsandwarfare.com and warfarehistory.com). Cheers!

To reply, leave a comment on Elmidae's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

Elmidae (talk · contribs) 08:41, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018

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

Administrator changes

added 331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG
removed Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando

Guideline and policy news

  • Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
  • Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
  • The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
  • The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

Technical news

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

Miscellaneous

  • A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Nomination for merging of Template:Ahnentafel-tree

Template:Ahnentafel-tree has been nominated for merging with Template:Ahnentafel. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Chicbyaccident (talk) 22:01, 16 April 2018 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Narrowboat, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Diesel (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:39, 27 April 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Obituaries

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

Operation Oyster

Hello PBS. I had an editing question I was hoping you could answer. I am nearly done with an article on Operation Oyster, the 2 Group raid on the Philips works in Eindhoven. The problem is there is already an article by the name of Operation Oyster. What would you suggest for the creation of the article page. Operation Oyster (RAF raid)? I don't want to mess this up. Thanks for your consideration. Gunbirddriver (talk) 18:44, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

Duplicate EB1911 entries

Also @Slowking4: For your amusement. I happened to stumble across these doppelgänger in EB1911: s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Van der Weyden, Roger and s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Weyden, Rogier van der (canonicalizing van and de la names is hard!) Interesting to compare two scholars' takes on the same biography. Also, see the See Also link on the first of those pages. It should probably be fixed to refer to the WP article, but WP should also have a redirect with that spelling. This is about #1,258 on the priority list of course. (posting this to your WP talk page because I don't know if you monitor your WS talk) David Brooks (talk) 15:59, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

@Slowking4 and DavidBrooks: Thanks for that. See also Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography/Archive_2#A salutary lesson, which led to the article Apocryphal biographies in the Dictionary of National Biography -- PBS (talk) 00:01, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
@PBS and Slowking4: Your DNB experience is even more - astonishing - and gives concern that EB1911 may contain other phantasmagoria. But my case is almost the opposite: two articles about one person who certainly existed, and which agree on the broad outlines of his life and work. The editors didn't realize they had commissioned both, perhaps because he was filed under both V and W. Modern Britannica has quite an extensive article about him; it is definitive about his trip to Italy (EB1911 and WP, as of now, are only tentative) and provides the detail that he taught technique there, so perhaps that should be paraphrased and acknowledged in WP. David Brooks (talk) 02:11, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject status

Greetings! I see that you are one of only two members of WikiProject Encyclopedia Britannica. I was wondering if you would agree with my assessment that the project is now defunct. (I have contacted the other to ask him the same question.) —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:22, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Still Confusion?

Perhaps I can sort out who and what the Callendar earldom is for you, if there is still confusion. I subscribed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography tonight, and that is a very reliable source for Scottish peers. Please tell me if there is still confusion, as your talk page entry was long ago.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 22:13, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Bureaucrat changes

removed Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

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

Cite RfC

And RfC like that will never go anywhere unless it's done at WP:VPPOL. The same crew have near-totally controlled WP:CITE (and WT:CITE) for over a decade. Seeking change at that talk page is like asking the 1% to give away all their money.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  06:10, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Anarion family tree

Template:Anarion family tree has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2C4:C480:946:FC71:F76:5CFA:4ECB (talk) 23:01, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Sro23
readded KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Heartfelt Apology

Hellpo guys i am deeeply sorry for all the mess i made, i just saw it and im mot new to coding or this information i just wasn't aware that i didn't nt babe a code thaf cleaned up my signature but i know know i dont and i will 100% never do thag again i just got too interested and carried away, but i love being here and have no intentions of making it shitty for you.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Waveybug (talk • contribs) 12:07, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Battle of Powick Bridge, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Astley (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:15, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Limits of Hagley Park

Hi, there! I see you've been taking an interest in the articles on Hagley and was intrigued by the question of whether Wychbury Hill (or a part of it at least) was ever part of Hagley Park. I think it was in the 18th century, which is why the obelisk was built there to commemorate the Lyttelton family. In those days the main road from Halesowen came directly down to the Hall, so it would be parkland on either side of it. And since the present Lord Cobham was involved in repairing the monument in 2011, I guess the land still belongs to him, although it may not now be counted part of the park. The A456 is one of the busiest in the county (along which cars rush at 60mph) and getting across it from the present park would be a bit of a hazard! Sweetpool50 (talk) 23:37, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Sir Richard Wynn, 4th Baronet, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Thomas Myddelton (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

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Administrators' newsletter – September 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Interface administrator changes

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

White Knight (Fitzgibbon family)

Hi, could you please look at the edits of this new account? I'm a bit surprised to see sources suddenly being found. Thanks. Doug Weller talk 05:31, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Worcestershire in the English Civil War, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page First Civil War (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:09, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. And despite my telling him on his talk page he should not be insulting editors and should AGF, he's just posted to the talk page insulting you, me and Opera Hat. And he's using old sources for his claim of a current relationship. I'm guessing none of the sources make that explicit claim and that it's his OR. If this is a new editor with an excellent grasp of inline citations, that might be excusable, but not his behavior. Doug Weller talk 11:28, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Interface administrator changes

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

Oversight changes

removed Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited History of Oxfordshire, you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages Harold and Canute of Denmark (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:16, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Edward the Black Prince, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Thomas Hearne (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:12, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, PBS. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Downton Abbey family tree sources

This is nothing more than a plot summary. All content comes (and absolutely must be from) the fictional primary source material, in this case the series episodes that must be viewed to understand the summary. This template absolutely CAN BE sourced if need but a tag is not need as referencing plot summary content is not needed. Some information can be inferred because of the legal way names are transferred in real life, which the show is based on. Feel free to revert that if you still disagree.--Mark Miller (talk) 06:16, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018

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

Administrator changes

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

Interface administrator changes

removedDeryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

Obituaries

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

Requesting to remove protected tittle

Hi there, I would like to create an article about Pavan Kumar N R. So please remove the protection and allow me to write.2405:204:5206:3C2D:0:0:18AE:68AC (talk)

Ask User:Kudpung, or put in a request at WP:AN mentioning that User:Kudpung protected it and you want it unprotected. -- PBS (talk) 15:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
The answer is 'No', because the article, a highly promotional piece masquerading as a BLP, is the subject of persistent socking by a large sock farm and attempts to create/re-create the article. The master account, the eponymous SPI, is globally locked across all Wikimedia projects. I have blocked this IP, and in any case, IPs (and new users) can't create articles. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 16:00, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

Recreation of deleted content

Hi PBS,

I see that content that you deleted back in 2011 has just been reinstated. Apart from the fact that it's completely uncited, I can't see whether it's problematic in any sense. --Slashme (talk) 09:50, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Also Joan_Oldcastle,_4th_Baroness_Cobham --Slashme (talk) 12:42, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

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

Administrator changes

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

Interface administrator changes

removedEnterprisey

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

  • Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
  • A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:15, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Clan Keith, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Falkner (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:18, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for merging of Template:Ahnentafel-chart

Template:Ahnentafel-chart has been nominated for merging with Template:Ahnentafel. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. PPEMES (talk) 16:35, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for merging of Template:Ahnentafel-tree

Template:Ahnentafel-tree has been nominated for merging with Template:Ahnentafel. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. PPEMES (talk) 16:35, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Community consensus

Your unblock went directly against community consensus -- see Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Mark_Dice_related_blocks. Now would be a good to time to reverse your action. --Calton | Talk 13:27, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

If you don't reverse your action, there will certainly be an ArbCom case filed. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 14:35, 16 February 2019 (UTC)
Yeah, but they haven't edited since 12:18 and did say that they were walking away from the thread, so they've probably not seen what happened there, nor the notes here. - Sitush (talk) 14:55, 16 February 2019 (UTC)
Well, the FA Cup's on. They're probably a commiserating Derby fan  :) ——SerialNumber54129 15:33, 16 February 2019 (UTC)
I'd say it's a Really Bad Idea (tm) for an admin to make a clearly-destined-to-be-controversial serious action like this one and in the same breath declare "I'm walking away from the thread" in which that action is going to be discussed. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 17:37, 16 February 2019 (UTC)
I agree but the timing also explains why the comments here have been missed. - Sitush (talk) 18:51, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

Australasia

Hi PBS. I wonder if you might be able to help. The above (quite often read) article contains a number of conflicts. Is there a source which you would regard as authoritative which can firmly define the territory covered by the name? Thanks, Eddaido (talk) 10:52, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Category for DNB copies?

Is there an equivalent of Template:EB1911 article with no significant updates for articles lifted wholesale from DNB? I just came across Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, which is essentially a copy of his DNB article (apart from the Family section); if it were from EB1911 I would have added that template. I just added a Template:More footnotes and moved on (if it had been based on 1911 I would probably have taken the time to insert footnotes on each para, but trying to conserve my energy). David Brooks (talk) 15:24, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Post-revisionism

I think it would be useful to recreate post-revisionism, which you create-protected in 2009, as a redirect to Historiography of the Cold War. Would you be so good as to unprotect it? All the best, – Arms & Hearts (talk) 22:54, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

ArbCom 2019 special circular

Icon of a white exclamation mark within a black triangle
 Administrators must secure their accounts

The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.

View additional information

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 03:01, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)

ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.

Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.

We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.

For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:04, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Douglas

Thank you for this; i'm well aware that Lundy is not reliable, and rather embarrassed that i didn't catch that error at the time ~ i have no recollection of the edit, to be sure. I've taken a look at a random selection of my other edits then, and it doesn't seem that i made a similar mistake elsewhere, so it must have been simply a momentary madness or possibly a twitch by ProveIt, which has on a few other occasions made unexpected adjustments to mine edits. Anyway, again, thank you for catching and correcting. Happy days, LindsayHello 14:10, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited History of Worcester, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page First Civil War (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:07, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

User name (3)

I saw your name and I first thought Public Broadcasting Corporation. Do you watch PBS kids?🤣Manabimasu (talk) 22:03, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

@User:Manabimasu are you an American (othewise why jump to that conclusion)?. Usually I reply on the talk page of the person who contacts me. That way the user gets an automatic notification. However in this case I will reply here as this question has been asked before:

-- PBS (talk) 08:39, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Community response to the Wikimedia Foundation's ban of Fram

Indie / Independent video game RM

Hi! I started an RM at Talk:Independent video game#Requested move 16 July 2019 regarding the "indie game" or "independent video game" use in the title. —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 08:58, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Research Interview Request

Hello, PBS. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.— Etchubykalo (talk) 17:22, 5 November 2019 (UTC)
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