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Request for clarification

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Would you please clarify your closure? - jc37 02:29, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

The primary concern in the discussion appeared to be a concern that articles need reliable sources in order to remain in categories due to the nebulousness of the term "cult leader". The fact that everyone in the discussion [who favored deletion] seemed to support making it into a list (which also needs reliable sources and which would still have problems of definition) served to weaken that argument, as did the note that cult leaders are stock characters in fiction. Taking this in conjunction with the argument that the term can be defined in the category if necessary and the fact that more people supported keeping it than opposed (not dispositive but useful nonetheless) I determined that the consensus was to keep the category. I note that the recent closes of similar categories nominated for similar reasons tends to support that interpretation. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 04:32, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
I also note (for your convenience) the existence of {{Category unsourced}} which I discovered this evening. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 04:32, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
I may be mistaking what you just said above, so let me attempt to rephrase: You are suggesting that since most everyone supported listification, that means that a category is appropriate? - jc37 05:18, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
I clarified my statement with a "who favored deletion". And no, that wasn't my point. The point was that there was an argument against the category (~C) which also applied to listification (~L); listification was supported by those who put forward the argument (L); therefore, the argument against the category wasn't as strong (C). (In case I've managed to verbally mangle this last bit, it's a case of modus tollens.) And, of course, it was just part of the rationale. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 05:32, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
My confusion lies in that, at least this part of the arguements, is that while certain things can be placed in article space, since the comments from sources can be explained in context, simply grouping such in a category doesn't allow for the context. It's a fundamental point of WP:CAT and WP:CLN (and WP:RS) further explains this, I think.
So I'm not sure that I'm understanding your rationale. Could you restate in light of this? - jc37 06:06, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
No offense, but I didn't close the discussion so I could have the discussion on my talk page instead. That said, I'll make one last comment. My response is that per WP:CAT#Some general guidelines, point 7, all categories must have this sourcing anyway - so the fact that a particular category needs the sourcing isn't an argument against the category but a statement of fact about all categories. I also note paragraph 6 of WP:CLN and the existence of {{category unsourced}} for how to deal with the categorization of a particular article.
As far as your context argument goes, with regard to categorization, the entire article (with references) is the context for the category, so I don't see your point there.
Finally, I don't really want to argue about the appropriateness of a particular category - I looked to see what consensus was, I saw it, I acted on it. As before, this part of the reasoning was just a part of that process and similar recent closes tend to support my interpretation. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 06:21, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
I wasn't attempting to reargue the CfD. I am attempting to discern through a request for clarification, your reasoning for closure.
I'm just not understanding:
  • "The fact that everyone in the discussion [who favored deletion] seemed to support making it into a list (which also needs reliable sources and which would still have problems of definition) served to weaken that argument..."
I think you may be conflating how reliable sources may be used (noting that, as we've seen in the past, others have as well).
A source can be generally "reliable", and yet not be "reliable" as a reference in a specific instance. Especially when used to determine inclusion in categoryspace as opposed to contextual explanations in mainspace.
I'm hesitant to explain my confusion further in that I think I'd be duplicating what's already stated at WP:RS.
Would you please take a moment and read over WP:RS? I'm hoping that perhaps it may clarify without me needing to further fill your talk page with re-stating the page. - jc37 06:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

(outdent)So, what is this specific instance you are referring to? Note my reference to Par. 6 of WP:CLN above. Also, I looked at the WP:RS guideline and didn't see anything contrary to what I said - indeed, at the policy WP:V#Reliable sources, I found "Sources should directly support the information as it is presented in an article and should be appropriate to the claims made" which is on point here. Any further discussion would need to be with regard to a particular article and should take place on that article's talk page. You seem to be conflating a rule for individual articles with a rule for the category as a whole. Actually, I'm not sure that's it either. But you're construing a very simple guideline (while ignoring the relevant policy) in a very _weird_ way. (especially in light of comments you made at other recent CfDs and your essay, which don't seem to agree either with repeated CfD concensi [is that the plural of concensus?] or the policies and guidelines they reference). --Philosopher Let us reason together. 07:01, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

To take your last comment first, actually the results at CfD have been mixed, with most of them being "no consensus". (I can provide diffs if you like.) Though DRV has been a bit clearer, with most deletion closures being endorsed.
I had hoped that this would be obvious. I've actually been told that one of my failings is that sometimes while I may perceive something as "obvious" merely from reading, others may require additional presentations for them to understand. So the fault may be mine in presentation.
So at this point, in order to understand your determination, which would seem to hinge on your interpretation of policy, I suppose we should figure out what that policy is.
It will take me a few in order to build the list of references (both in-house and from scholarly works explaining referencing - both of which support what I've been attempting to convey concerning sourcing).
However, if you are disinterested in ascertaining the policy, in your preferred deference to your current feelings, I can understand that. I just really prefer to talk these things out with a closer, in order that we might bother become better editors and better acquainted with policy/guidelines, than just perfunctorily nominating WP:DRV. - jc37 07:16, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
It really boils down to (1) I closed based on the concensus at the article (2) you disagree with the policy people were applying (3) even if the two of us come to an agreement on the meaning of WP:V (which is the important one here, being the policy) it won't matter in the big picture - a discussion about the meaning of a policy should probably take place on its talk page and big (4) It's way past my bedtime and I've got a paper due in the next few days, so even if I wanted to continue this, I probably shouldn't. At least not now. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 07:47, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
Then, I suppose I'll "get back to you" once I've assembled the refs/diffs. (At this stage, I honestly am starting to feel like I'm preparing a presentation for a class, to teach on the proper use of of supportive sourcing.) - jc37 06:40, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
I believe you misunderstood - I wish to discontinue this discussion. At any rate, a discussion to determine the meaning of WP:V should take place on its talk page in order to achieve concensus. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 07:11, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
Yes I did, as I was still operating under the context of attempting to determine understanding your closure, and thought we were progressing. However, your comments now would indicate otherwise. Should I decide to continue this, I'll drop you a notice. - jc37 07:52, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

help me with a wiki page of Raghavendra Gadagkar...

dear Philosopher,

i am new to wikipedia. i am trying to create a page on Raghavendra Gadagkar.

i received your message in my talk page - user:wachak, talk page.

how do i further confirm Prof. Gadagkar's notability for wiki users? he is well known scientist from India and is on par with EO Wilson.

i appreciate your further links, guidelines.

thanking you.

Wachak (talk) 21:32, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

I have replied at Talk:Raghavendra Gadagkar. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 22:59, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

thank you for helping me with wiki page on Raghvendra Gadagkar

Respected Philosopher,

thank you very much for helping with wiki page on Raghavendra Gadagkar.

i am further reading the notablity help page, esp. note 11. will adding reference to his on-line articles help? he has published in Science. he is 'Foreign Associate' of 'National Academy of Sciences, USA'. i hope linking / referencing those pages will help.

i greatly appreciate your kind help.

with best regards, -wachak

Wachak (talk) 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)wachakWachak (talk) 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, adding a reference(s) to his online articles would help also. I've cleaned up some links on his page as well - you only need to use piped links when the target of the link is different than the text you wish to show. Finally, I've added {{fact}} tags to two places in the article where I believe a reference would be useful. Regards, Philosopher Let us reason together. 23:22, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Youtube poop arctile creation

please consider this to be informative, many internet memes are an article on wikipedia, why can't youtube poop be an article?? i could help make it, just please consider doing this. Estemshorn (talk) 02:50, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

That article has been protected from creation because it has been deleted multiple times by multiple administrators as being non-encyclopedic. Therefore, I will decline to unprotect it at this time. You may, however, request unprotection at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 05:52, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
okay, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Estemshorn (talk • contribs) 14:35, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

AutoWikiBrowser

I saw in the history that you approved me for using AutoWikiBrowser. Thank you :-) ~Beano~ (talk) (contribs) 02:20, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Iowa election

Shall we work together updating the house and senate info with race results? I was originally only going to do my local ones, but I figure someone needs to do it all. CTJF83Talk 20:48, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - I assume you already know, but the unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State's office are here. I don't believe absentee ballots are included in those numbers, though I don't know for sure, and believe at least one district (forget which one - it was in the Register) is considering asking for a recount. But yeah, if you want to take the state Senate and Iowa's congressional delegation, I can take the state House - though I won't be doing much updating until tomorrow afternoon due to my classes. Additionally, if you have time, it would be nice to put {{Election box candidate with party link no change}} on each of the bio articles. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 21:03, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Huh? I don't see S of State on that page, and don't remember seeing it yesterday. CTJF83Talk 21:05, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Oh, never mind, I understand now. CTJF83Talk 21:08, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Are you gonna add this type of electoral history to each page, even ones without? Also, do you have IRC, it might be easier to work this out better. CTJF83Talk 21:11, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, that's the kind of thing I would like to add to each page - it's been on my to do list for a while, but with this election coming up I put it off. Also, I don't have IRC currently, but If you think it'd be easier to work on these there, I can get on it sometime tomorrow afternoon. Which server/channel? --Philosopher Let us reason together. 21:52, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
The reason I want to use the "no change" version of the template is because that way we only have to worry about the current election. If/when past election results are added to the individuals' articles, then the "change" field can be added. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 22:07, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

(outdent)On a slightly different issue - do you know if there is anywhere to find the results of the constitutional amendment? I know it passed but can't find the vote count. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 22:14, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Just go here for an IRC with no download. Go to the room wikipedia-en and I can find you there. Just talk page me when you plan to be on it. Here is the Iowa Constitution results. Also, I was thinking, since only 25 of the 50 senators were up for reelection, and all 100 house members, you do house seats 1-75, and I'll do 76-100, the 25 senators, and the 5 US congressional members, and Tom Harkin's page. So I'll have 66 to your 75. CTJF83Talk 23:30, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Sorry about that - I've been a bit busier than I'd expected. I'll try to be on IRC at around 7:00 P.M. Central time (that should be 1:00 GMT). --Philosopher Let us reason together. 15:40, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
I was on, didn't see you, got off again. Try again tomorrow? --Philosopher Let us reason together. 01:35, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
LOL, oh ya...umm, on Tuesday I'll be on from around 11am-4pm and then after 10ish pm...Central Time, of course. CTJF83Talk 08:00, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
Don't have time to chat now...but see you at 10-10:30 tonight? --Philosopher Let us reason together. 19:04, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
Ya, that works. CTJF83Talk 22:16, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
Come into WPSimpsons, instead of Wikipedia-en. CTJF83Talk 03:04, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
You want to see if you can help me take care of Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Iowa? I just bought a digital camera, so I can do cities around the Quad Cities. CTJF83Talk 07:01, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
We should discuss changes to Template:Quad Cities. When are you going to be able to IRC next? CTJF83Talk 03:04, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
I'd love to talk, but won't be on for a few days. Until at least Friday I'm really busy in RL.  :( --Philosopher Let us reason together. 19:14, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
LOL, looks like you're on now? CTJF83Talk 19:31, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Boston Tea Party presidential candidate

Template deletion discussion closed as delete. Shall we go ahead with the rest of them? — Arthur Rubin (talk) 02:48, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

It appears that Jay Jasper has already effectively done it, leaving a lot of redirects from template space. I'll copy the histories of the templates to a sub-page of the talk page ([[/History]] perhaps?) and then delete the redirecting templates after I get back onto my laptop - I can't view the deleted history of the Boston Tea Party template from my alternate account. --Philosopher Let us reason together. via alternate account 19:28, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
After attempting to see if a template redirecting to a section could be disabled with <noinclude>, leaving the redirect available for direct access, (and not being able to do it),I reverted the Boston Tea Party redirect changing my !vote to speedy-author requested deletion. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 21:55, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Template - Religion

But would it really make sense to say someone's religion is: Muslim, because it is not a religion, but refers to a follower of the religion of Islam, and Protestant, a follower of the religion of Protestant Christianity. If you add Religious beliefs, it would work for both Christianity or Christian, or Islam or Muslim. (please reply on template talk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.209.182.29 (talk • contribs)

Nishit Gupta

FYI - I reestablished the SD tag for Nishit Gupta. There is not indication of the firm listed in article in Google. In addition, the Carrier website does not list an authorized dealer for the Jammu state.

ttonyb1 (talk) 21:47, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 10:12, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

User talk:Oughtlines

Thanks for handling that. I stumbled upon it via a link from the users requesting help category. My first thought was to blank and protect, unfortunately it brought my browser to a screeching halt (and crashed several of my programs) before I could get past protecting it... Anyway, thanks for dealing with it. l'aquatique || talk 13:24, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

No problem - the first of those brought my browser to a halt too.  :( --Philosopher Let us reason together. 13:38, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Rollback

I will give rollback to any editor in good standing having ~ 500 edits. I think it is reasonable as AWB requires 500 edits too. However I usually do not demand heavy participation in vandalism fighting (see WP:AN#Review). Ruslik (talk) 04:41, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, sorry

I didn't know some of the user's were real(I checked in the history to see, and thats why I didnt think so) Thanks for the links though —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nurasko (talk • contribs) 22:18, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

No problem. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 01:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Ross Newell

Dear Philosopher, thank you for your message regarding the deletion of wikipedia page for Ross Newell, the UK musician. I think this page has been unfairly deleted because Newell is fairly credited in the sleeve for music CD Read My Lips by Sophie Ellis Bextor and is therefore worthy and notable enough to have a wikipedia entry. But I am getting increasingly concerned that the user Ty (Tyrenius) is trying to block his page by suggesting Newell was not in fact a genuine musician. This is just not fair. Thank you for your help and I look forward to speaking to you more. Madeofstars, 12 December 2008 (GMT)

Have you read WP:MUSICBIO? From what you suggest, he may not meet the requirements listed there. Please point to the specific criterion that he does meet. Thank you. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 21:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I suggested to the initial deleting admin Secret that relevant material should be put into Read My Lips (album), which Newell had contributed to, and Ross Newell redirected there. He was agreeable to this.[1] He also noted that it had been recreated, but was not suitable for G4, as it was not just a recreation - it had additional verified material which contributed to notability. (This material, however, had been raised in the AfD.) However, it's still not sufficient to pass WP:N. Would you be agreeable to using it as a redirect?

Madeofstars seems to have got confused, as I've not suggested deleting or blocking the article - quite the opposite, as in the preceding paragraph. In fact, I found the references that showed he had contributed to Ellis-Bextor's work. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ross Newell.

Ty 04:09, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments Ty which have correctly highlighted that I had completely misunderstood your part in the closure of Ross Newell's wikipedia entry. I now understand that Newell will not be allowed a page here until he has proven himself to be of more notability in his career choices. I am very sorry for any upset this has caused you, and hope you can accept my apology. Best wishes. Madeofstars 13:04, 13 December 2008 (GMT)

I'm re-creating it as a redirect - was there any information from the history that you needed for merging or have you completed that? --Philosopher Let us reason together. 14:22, 13 December 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. I had a look at the deleted version and retrieved suitable material from it to incorporate in the album article. Sole author of the last version was User:Madeofstars and I've logged that info in an edit summary and on the article talk page. Ty 06:10, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Philosopher for your kind help in this matter, and for doing so with such speed, this is great news. Madeofstars 13:04, 13 December 2008 (GMT)

Glad I could help. If you run into any other issues, let me know! --Philosopher Let us reason together. 10:22, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

ArbCom vote

I'm slightly surprised by your oppose vote. If I can take a little of your time, I'll explain why:

  • My BLP comments are basically a risk assessment exercise, reflecting my experience in real life publishing. I don't think the current arrangements are commercially prudent and I would change them if I owned Wikipedia.
  • They don't represent a POV, because I really don't have one on BLP. (See my discussion with Seraphimblade starting here for more information.)
  • Even if it did reflect a POV, I would not ignore other considerations (current community consensus, WMF's rather hands off approach etc) to impose it on ArbCom. I have no history whatsoever of POV pushing.
  • For clarification, I do not think that ArbCom ought to be making policy though the effect of some decisions will inevitably result in policy evolution. The best way forward is a much better partnership between ArbCom and the community it serves. If I'm elected, that is the goal I'd be working towards.

I'm sorry if this is a bit hurried or a bit unclear. Feel free to probe :)))) --ROGER DAVIES talk 17:57, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Which suggests that the route forward might be to abstain? It is almost impossible to predict from hyptheticals and, to put it bluntly, sound-bytes how someone will act in reality. The key question is whether, on balance, if elected, I am likely to relentlessly push a personal POV and if you are leaning in that direction looking to see what actual evidence there is of me having done this in the past. There is no evidence whatsoever that I support judge-made policy creep and, in fact, I'm on record as saying that I don't. However, the final call is of course down to you :)) thanks for thinking about it. --ROGER DAVIES talk 09:49, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
Thanks :) I do understand your concerns, especially given the three-year term of office, and the enormous influence the committee has. --ROGER DAVIES talk 10:13, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

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Small CfD problem

Hi; I'm just been perusing recent CfD closes at WP:CFD/W, and there's a small problem with the implementation of the Category:Football logos to Category:Football (soccer) logos rename that you closed at CfD. (Nothing that is your fault, however.) Although many of the included files were moved by the bot, the bot cannot move hundreds more of these because the category is assigned to those files via a template. The only way I know of changing those is to manually change {{Non-free logo|football logos}} to {{Non-free logo|football (soccer) logos}} one each page. As I said, there are hundreds of them left, so this is looking a bit dodgy as far as being something that a closing admin should have to do. Any suggestions? Do you know of an easier way to make the changes that I'm totally oblivious to? If not, we may have to place this in the CFD manual work queue and try to solicit help with it. Thanks! Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:55, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

It's a simple matter to do with AWB, but as you say there are more than 1,000 articles left in the category. I've noticed situations like this a few other times, though with fewer numbers of edits needed; perhaps I'll look into getting a bot flag on an alternate account so I can handle these sorts of problems. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 06:31, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
Request created at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Philosopher-Bot. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 07:40, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
Thanks; I'm fairly clueless when it comes to AWB, being a Mac user. Good to know it do-able somehow. Good Ol’factory (talk) 08:56, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Cat notifications

No, I didn't realize that I had notified a bot, but I hadn't realized that I was notifying myself either until after the messages appeared on my talk page. DuncanHill (talk) 05:33, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleted too speedy - Let us reason together

Philosopher, you speedily deleted my page i was working on Heimishe Kretchme.
I clearly noted on my talk to another user that I am in the middle of gathering resources and will be citing references soon, only to come back to learn that you deleted the page I worked on. Please restore it so I can revise it. I would love to contribute to WP, please help me enacting. (Kretchmer (talk) 01:13, 18 December 2008 (UTC))

Replied on your talk page. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 01:29, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi Philosopher. I was away a few days. I think its much better now, let me know if it can be moved. User:Kretchmer/Heimishe_Kretchme Thanks Kretchmer (talk) 06:18, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

CSD article dropdown problem

Thank you for involving User:Random832 in trying to solve this problem. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 09:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Charles Thomson

I reverted your edits to that article, as it was the same material as on Stella Vine and it's not in a satisfactory state as yet. It needs more work and there's no point doing two articles at the same time. Also it may need to be adapted to fit the different subject. Let's get one right first. Ty 18:26, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Ditto Stuckism. Ty 18:36, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
Out of interest, if Wikipedia is a democracy, then surely you don't have ownership over those two pages? As you told me the other day? So I should be allowed to edit as I please. I was going to add in some phrases to help them fit in, but you have removed them before I had the chance. I also don't even think they were that out of context when you consider the opening paragraph of Thomson's page contained the comment he was briefly married to Stella Vine, but the remainder of the article has no information. The sections I added are fully referenced, showing both sides of the debate and all very clear as fact. I look forward to speaking with you. Madeofstars 18:43, 18 December 2008 (GMT)

Hi Philosopher, I need your help and advice please. I believe that user Ty is stopping me from adding relevant, referenced from valid sources, information to the pages on Stuckism and Charles Thomson (artist). Please assist me. I moved the above conversation thread for you info, to allow other editors to be aware of this, which shows I have been stopped from making edits to those page. I am still awaiting a response from Ty regarding why this is, and whether he claims ownership to this page. Madeofstars 18:56, 18 December 2008 (GMT)

Two things - first, Wikipedia is WP:NOT a democracy. Second, I'm sure that Ty, as an experienced editor isn't intending to WP:OWN the articles (though it's always possible to do so unintentionally). I'll watchlist your user talk page, but I think I'll wait to look at the substance of the edits until Ty has had an opportunity to reply to you. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 19:29, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

This is the fourth talk page I've found Madeofstar's post on. Just for completeness I'll post what I have already on the other three:

I will take the above comments and the edit summary "I have been prevented from editing this page" as a misunderstanding on your part through lack of experience. Please refrain from pejorative edit summaries with no basis in fact. You have a habit of jumping to conclusions. You have not been prevented from editing. You have done so. So have I. Your edit was to insert material. My edit was to remove it. We are now discussing. A perfect example of WP:BRD. The material was copied across from Stella Vine. For one thing it's a violation of GFDL as it's not stated to be copied from that article, so there is no credit to the work of other authors who may have contributed to it. However, worse than that, it has bias and inaccuracies and needs more work on it. In that state, there is no point in it being in three articles and having to do every edit to the passage in triplicate. Does that not make sense? I suggested getting it right in one article, namely Stella Vine, first.

My edit summary when I removed the text from the articles was "Let's get it right on Stella Vine first." I hope this clears things up. Ty 19:50, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-51

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News

  • Because of the holidays the next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 7 January 2019.

Recent changes

  • Some templates that show notices about the content of the page will now be shown on the mobile website. In many cases they were hidden before. [2][3]
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Problems

  • <ref> tags can use parameters such as "name" or "group". For example <ref name="adams" group="books">. If a <ref> tag has more than two parameters all parameters are ignored. You don't get a warning that they don't work. This will soon be fixed. [5]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 December. It will be on all wikis from 20 December (calendar).

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Future changes

  • The Wikimedia Foundation Android app team are working on making it easier to edit on mobile phones. You can read more about these plans. If you have an Android phone and speak at least two languages you can help testing in English. Tell Dchen (WMF) you want to be part of the testing by writing on her talk page or email her.
  • Advanced item tiles.wmflabs.org and wma.wmflabs.org will stop working. They have no maintainers and run an old operating system. Tools which use it could stop working. This includes the mapnik gadget, hill shading, and hike and bike layers. New maintainers could help out and keep it going. [6]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:34, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 13

Newsletter • December 2018

This month: A general update.

The current status of the project is as follows:

  • Progress of the project has been generally delayed since September due to development issues (more bitrot than expected, some of the code just being genuinely confusing, etc) and personal injury (I suffered a concussion in October and was out of commission for almost two months as a result).
  • I currently expect to be putting out a proper call for CollaborationKit pilots in January/February, with estimated deployment in February/March if things don't go horribly wrong (they will, though, don't worry). As a part of that, I will properly update the page and send out announcement and reach out to all projects already signed up as pilots for WikiProject X in general, at which point those (still) interested can volunteer specifically to test the CollaborationKit extension.
    • Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Pilots was originally created for the first WikiProject X prototype, and given this is where the project has since gone, it's only logical to continue to use it. While I haven't yet updated the page to properly reflect this:
    • If you want to add your project to this page now, feel free. Just bear in mind that more information what to actually expect will be added later/included in the announcement, because by then I will have a much better idea myself.
  • Until then, you can find me in my corner working on making the CollaborationKit code do what we want and not just what we told it, per the workboard.

Until next time,

-— Isarra ༆ 22:44, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2018

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:36, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Philosopher, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019.
Happy editing,
Walk Like an Egyptian (talk) 06:26, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup!

Hello and Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup, the competition begins today. If you have already joined, your submission page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and we will set up your submissions page. One important rule to remember is that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2019, and which you have nominated this year, is eligible for points in the competition, the judges will be checking! Any questions should be directed to one of the judges, or left on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will make it to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · email) and Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:14, 1 January 2019 (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)

Tech News: 2019-02

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News writers, editors and translators wish you a pleasant 2019 year.

Recent changes

  • RelatedSites extension has been undeployed. It was used to create interwiki links on Wikivoyage, now handled by Wikidata. [7]
  • Advanced item MediaWiki logstash logging is moving to a new infrastructure. This is an ongoing deployment. [8]
  • Advanced item codesearch.wmflabs.org has been updated, with new and updated repositories and a new search options for code. [9]
  • Advanced item On several wikis, an account named "Edit filter" has been created on December 17 to perform some technical maintenance on AbuseFilter. This account has sysop rights but it's a system user and no human can use it. The account already existed on wikis where AbuseFilter can perform blocks, which are issued using this account. See T212268 for more information and future plans.

Problems

  • Advanced item In AbuseFilter, the "Throttle" action takes three parameters: count, period and groups. They must now strictly respect the requirements listed on mediawiki.org. A list of broken filters is on Phabricator. If you're familiar with AbuseFilter, please take a look and fix them. [10]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 8. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from January 9. It will be on all wikis from January 10 (calendar).

Meetings

  • Search Platform Office Hours is rescheduled to January 9. Check the details for time and date.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:29, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Ersan ?lyasova

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Ersan ?lyasova. Legobot (talk) 04:23, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-03

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • You can now use Google Translate in the content translation tool. [11][12]
  • You can now add captions to files on Commons. Captions are short descriptions of the file. They can be translated to all languages we use. They can't use wikitext markup.
  • Earlier a quoted HTML attribute had to be followed by a space. Now it doesn't. This means that some pages could look different when you save them even if you didn't edit that part of the text. [13][14]
  • Advanced item Templates with <templatestyles> could not show the difference between the live template and the sandbox version when they were tested. This has now been fixed. <templatestyles> has a new wrapper parameter now. You can use it for selectors like .mw-parser-output <wrapper parameter value> <selector from CSS page>. [15]

Problems

  • When you see an edit in the recent changes feed or in the history of a page some of them have tags. Some tags are added automatically. You can also add tags manually. Tags for edits that have been added manually can be edited. This didn't work for a little while. This has now been fixed. [16]

Changes later this week

  • You can move files from your wiki to Wikimedia Commons and keep the file history with the new FileExporter. It will be a beta feature on all wikis from 16 January. If you want to test it you activate it and check your wiki's configuration file.
  • Users who could cause more damage to the wikis if someone took over their account have to have more secure passwords. This includes administrators and other user groups. They can't use passwords that are in a list of common passwords. Accounts with common passwords are easy to take over. The list of common passwords was made longer a few weeks ago and has a different error message. Some user groups have been added to those who can't use common passwords. This is to protect all accounts with user rights that could cause damage. [17]
  • Advanced item The AbuseFilter variable minor_edit has been removed. It was deprecated in 2016. Now you can't use it. You can fix the filters using it. You can find them if you use the search bar on Special:AbuseFilter.
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 15

17:54, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Editnotices/Page/Steve King

Template:Editnotices/Page/Steve King has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. - MrX 🖋 12:36, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

An invitation to discussion

I kindly invite you to the discussion on Template talk:Infobox election#The Bolding issue to decide whether to bold the winner in the election infobox. Lmmnhn (talk) 19:08, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-04

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News

  • Some people did not get last week's issue of Tech News. This was because of a problem with MassMessage. If you did not get last week's issue, you can read it on Meta. [18]

Recent changes

  • The content translation tool can now use version 2 as the default version for users who turned on the beta feature. For example it adds the tracking category Pages with unreviewed translations to translations that might have used machine translations without fixing the problems. This is so others can find them. You can find this category in Special:TrackingCategories on Wikipedias.
  • https://mediawiki2latex-large.wmflabs.org can now convert collects of up to 800 pages to PDF, EPUB or ODT. Previously this was 200 pages.

Problems

  • When a template was edited with the visual editor, it would sometimes put all information on one line. This makes it difficult to read for editors who use the wikitext editor. It also makes it more difficult to see what happened in a diff. This problem affected edits made between 8 and 17 January and is now fixed. [19]
  • MassMessage is used to post a message to many pages. It has not been working reliably. Some messages have not been posted to everyone. [20][21]
  • Because of a database problem that had to be fixed immediately you could not edit most wikis for a couple of minutes on 17 January (UTC). This has now been fixed. [22]

Changes later this week

  • You will be able to use template styles in the Module namespace. [23]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 January. It will be on all wikis from 24 January (calendar).

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:36, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-05

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • When someone moves a page to a name that already exists that page that had the name the article is moved to is deleted. For a couple of months this didn't always work. Some users saw an error message instead. This has now been fixed. [24]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:15, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 January 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:50, 31 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)

Tech News: 2019-06

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed. [25]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 February. It will be on all wikis from 7 February (calendar).

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

17:12, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-07

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • You can use the ambox CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use ambox there are classes you can use.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 February. It will be on all wikis from 14 February (calendar).

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Michel Temer

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Michel Temer. Legobot (talk) 04:23, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-08

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident. [26]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 February. It will be on all wikis from 21 February (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback. [27]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking

" icon depicting two speech Bubbles"

The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a global consultation about communication. The goal is to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for communication.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis, whatever their experience, their skills or their devices.

We are looking for input from as many different parts of the Wikimedia community as possible. It will come from multiple projects, in multiple languages, and with multiple perspectives.

We are currently planning the consultation. We need your help.

We need volunteers to help talk to their communities or user groups.

You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:

  1. First, sign up your group here.
  2. Next, create a page (or a section on a Village pump, or an e-mail thread – whatever is natural for your group) to collect information from other people in your group. This is not a vote or decision-making discussion: we are just collecting feedback.
  3. Then ask people what they think about communication processes. We want to hear stories and other information about how people communicate with each other on and off wiki. Please consider asking these five questions:
    1. When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
    2. What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
    3. What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
    4. What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
    5. What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
  4. Finally, please go to Talk pages consultation 2019 on Mediawiki.org and report what you learned from your group. Please include links if the discussion is available to the public.

You can also help build the list of the many different ways people talk to each other.

Not all groups active on wikis or around wikis use the same way to discuss things: it can happen on wiki, on social networks, through external tools... Tell us how your group communicates.

You can read more about the overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave feedback about the consultation process in the language you prefer.

Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you.

Trizek (WMF) 15:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-09

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • When you look at your watchlist or the recent changes page you can use the new filters for edit review. There you can choose tags to filter different edits. Empty tags will no longer be shown. [29]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 February. It will be on all wikis from 28 February (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:17, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 February 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:16, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-10

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 March. It will be on all wikis from 7 March (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 6 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • You can give feedback on the future of talk pages.
  • The mobile website will use the standard fonts on your computer or phone instead of a generic font. This will make it easier to read text in many scripts. [30][31]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:38, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Please participate to the talk pages consultation

Hello

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

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

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

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

Please participate to the talk pages consultation - link update

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

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

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

Tech News: 2019-11

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • Some wikis will not be able to edit for a short period of time on 19 March (UTC). This will start at 15:00 UTC. It will last up to 15 minutes but probably shorter. You can see the list of affected wikis. This is because of network maintenance. You can still read the wikis.
  • Editors who use Firefox to edit with the visual editor had a problem with copying text. When they tried to select text that included footnotes, templates or block images in the middle they would often only get part of the text. This has now been fixed. [32]
  • Some maps didn't work for a while on 8 March. This has been fixed. [33][34]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 March. It will be on all wikis from 14 March (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:29, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-12

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • When you use rollback you will be able to get a confirmation prompt on most wikis. It asks you if you wanted to do the rollback. This is to avoid misclicks. You will have to opt in to get it. On German Wikipedia it will be an opt-out feature from 28 March. [35][36]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 March. It will be on all wikis from 21 March (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Admins will be able to block someone from editing a page or a namespace. This already works on a few Wikimedia wikis. You can read more. If your wiki wants to be an early tester of this, you can tell the developers. [37]
  • Advanced item Toolforge will shut down the Ubuntu Trusty job grid. This will happen the week of 25 March. Tools that use this grid needs to be moved to the new Debian Stretch job grid. If they haven't, they will be taken offline. Maintainers can restart the tools later. Users may not be able to use them in the meanwhile. You can see a list of affected tools.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:43, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-13

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The new version of the content translation tool will be used for all new translations. The older version will still be used for translations that were started with it. Most users won’t see any change. More than 80% of the published translations are already using the new version. [38]

Problems

  • There was a problem with editing with Safari on iOS. When you wrote an edit summary you couldn't save the edit. This has now been fixed. [39]
  • The editing toolbar sometimes disappears when you scroll on iOS devices. This will be fixed soon. [40]
  • Wikis can over-ride interface messages on-wiki. A problem meant that sometimes an old versions of any changed messages were shown instead. This included the sitenotice and other important parts of the interface. This was fixed at around 2019-03-22 16:00 (UTC). Logged-out users may still get the wrong message. Purging the page should fix it for them. [41]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 March. It will be on all wikis from 28 March (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 March at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:05, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Formatting Help

Hello! My name is Christian and I am a student at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA. For one of my classes, I have been tasked with creating a Wikipedia article. One of the first pieces of advice I received was to ensure my formatting matched with the standard formats of the various WikiProjects, or else it would be quickly pulled down. For your WikiProject, what formatting requirements must be met? My subject is a living person, but someone who has been moved into Witness Protection. I'm not sure to what extent to follow the guidelines of the regular Biography section, versus the Biography of a Living Person guidelines, and I would appreciate your help. Thank you!

CTCopper (talk) 13:18, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

(by talk reader) @CTCopper: "subject is a living person, but someone who has been moved into Witness Protection" I'm sorry but that makes no sense. Upon which source material will you be basing this biography? Don't you think there's an ethical question here? If the subject is living, WP:BLP applies. (I am not watching this page, so please ping me if you want my attention.) Chris Troutman (talk) 13:32, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

@Chris troutman: I argue this page is important for a number of reasons, but I am eager to hear counterarguments. My subject is Jorge Salcedo. Salcedo was a massively influential figure in the dismantling of the Cali Drug Cartel. There have been books written about him, and he has been portrayed on multiple television shows and documentaries, including perhaps most famously on Netflix's "Narcos". I understand why a lesser figure might not be a good subject, but one as influential in such a noteworthy historical saga as he is, especially when his importance has been emphasized by other public works previously, makes a great subject for such a site as this. There are second hand sources, such as At the Devil's Table which cover his life and his contributions. Again, this is my current perspective on this issue, and I am willing to hear others.

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's weekly journal about Wikipedia and Wikimedia

Tech News: 2019-14

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • Notifications tell you about things that happen on the wiki. You can turn on notifications about new links to pages you created. For performance reasons you can no longer get e-mails about this. [42]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 April. It will be on all wikis from 4 April (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 3 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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16:29, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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