Heron

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ArbCom 2019 special circular

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Why have I received this message? All administrators are receiving it. What prompted you to send this message? Recently, several Wikipedia admin accounts were compromised. The admin accounts were desysopped on an emergency basis. In the past, the Committee often resysopped admin accounts as a matter of course once the admin was back in control of their account. The committee has updated its guidelines. Admins may now be required to undergo a fresh Request for Adminship (RfA) after losing control of their account. What do I need to do? Only to follow the instructions in this message. Check that your password is unique (not reused across sites). Check that your password is strong (not simple or guessable). Enable Two-factor authentication (2FA), if you can, to create a second hurdle for attackers. How can I find out more about two-factor authentication (2FA)? You can find out more about 2FA at m:2FA.

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:14, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)

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

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

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

For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:03, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society

Dear Heron,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Fifteen Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for fifteen years or more. ​

Best regards, Urhixidur (talk) 02:08, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, Urhixidur. Invitation accepted. I'm proud to be a member. Heron (talk) 10:25, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of File:Clovehitch.png

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Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

Awesome

Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:46, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

I had forgotten about Heron's Day. Thank you for reminding me and giving me a pleasant start to my day. --Heron (talk) 08:23, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

You are welcome! - Remembering some reasons to thank is a good start in the day for me. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:41, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Los Solidos

Hello,

  I noticed your Latin King edit and thought the subject might be of some interest to you and I was wondering if you could help me clean up Los Solidos page? I've been working on it for quite some time and can't figure how or what has to be done to remove the clean up noticed and such. Veddernarian (talk) 23:00, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Hi Veddernarian. I know nothing about this subject but I've cleaned up the article for you. The main things were to add more wiki links and move the references to the right places in the text. Maybe you could help me by checking that I put the references in the right places. All the best --Heron (talk) 13:21, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Looks good, thank you! Veddernarian (talk) 13:46, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

James Le Mesurier

I have removed the Wikitree cite because it is an open wiki, which are not WP:RS. I hope you've learned anything from this. ミラP 17:08, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

Fair enough :) --Heron (talk) 17:32, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

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Precious anniversary

Precious

Four years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:56, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you again! --Heron (talk) 10:20, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

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Nomination for deletion of Template:Voltaire timeline

Template:Voltaire timeline has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. Izno (talk) 04:21, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Five years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:00, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. 😊 --Heron (talk) 09:13, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

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18:12, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Nomination of Outline of Roget's Thesaurus for deletion

The history shows the article created by an IP address that made no other edits, then you made some edits afterwards, so perhaps it was you. Anyway, if you know anything about this, please participate at: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Outline of Roget's Thesaurus Dream Focus 23:54, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for alerting me, Dream Focus. I decided to keep out of the discussion, as it's a long time since I created this page and I don't have a strong argument for keeping it. Maybe there's a Roget's fansite somewhere that I can contribute to instead. :) --Heron (talk) 19:55, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

New administrator activity requirement

The administrator policy has been updated with new activity requirements following a successful Request for Comment.

Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:

1. Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
2. Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period

Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.

22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Six years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:20, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you again! --Heron (talk) 08:25, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

(but it's today, I was confused) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:12, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Nomination of Natural Area Code for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Natural Area Code is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Natural Area Code until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

–LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 08:31, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Your favourite policy (as stated on your user page)

It may interest you to note that "refers to" has crept back in to the lead of Computer architecture. SpinningSpark 17:06, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Thank you, SpinningSpark. I don't like the current lead at all, as it now contains three different definitions of 'architecture' and the first two aren't very helpful. What do you think? --Heron (talk) 17:21, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Well, I thought I should tell you because you looked like someone who might do something about it! If I didn't already know (or at least think I know) what computer architecture is, that lead wouldn't help me in the least. SpinningSpark 17:26, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Is it any more helpful now? --Heron (talk) 17:48, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I think so. SpinningSpark 19:48, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

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Pampas

Hi Heron, I have a question and would like an answer, please. The question is regarding the Pampas article that you created in 2003. Is the word “Pampas” in English a plural and singular "Pampa"? Or is it a singular word? If it is singular, what is the English plural of the word? I'm talking about English, not Spanish or Quechua from which the word derives. best regarding.محمد ماجد السورميري (talk) 19:47, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Hi محمد ماجد السورميري. According to the dictionary I used at the time (Chambers 1993) and still use, pampas is both singular and plural in English. You can say the pampa is, the pampas is or the pampas are, but the third form is the most common. I just googled a few news articles and they mostly use the third version. --Heron (talk) 20:14, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Heron But in the article it is mentioned that this word has its origin from the Quechua language, which is called “Pampa” for them, just as it is in the Spanish and Portuguese languages spread among the inhabitants of South America also called “Pampa”, so can we say when translating this word into languages other than English that these plains are called Pampa? Then regarding English, where did the letter “s” come from in this word, as long as this word is not an English term, and it must be kept as it is, unless the “s” here is for the plural? Please respond to these two questions.محمد ماجد السورميري (talk) 21:17, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I would call it pampa in non-English languages if there is no other established usage. In English the -s seems to be the English plural ending, with an example of singular pampas from 1957 by a writer who perhaps didn't know the origin of the word. He might have been influenced by pre-existing forms like pampas grass and pampas sheep. Nowadays most people (including the OED) write pampas unless they are deliberately using the foreign form. --Heron (talk) 18:08, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Heron One last question, excuse me for being so long. Is the word "Pampas" in the English language taken directly from the Quechua language? Or was the word taken from Spanish or Portuguese?.محمد ماجد السورميري (talk) 18:50, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

That's OK. The OED says it's from Spanish. --Heron (talk) 19:01, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Seven years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:43, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

😄 --Heron (talk) 20:23, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

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Proposed deletion of Help & Manual

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Precious anniversary

Precious

Eight years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:22, 10 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. --Heron (talk) 19:57, 10 August 2024 (UTC)

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