User talk:Mifter/Archive 11
 | This is an archive of past discussions with User:Mifter. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
| Archive 5 | ← | Archive 9 | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | Archive 12 | Archive 13 | Archive 14 |
Hello! Welcome to one of my Archive Pages. This page contains all comments and discussions that took place on my User Talk Page, were inactive for 15 days or more, and have been archived by a robot. If you would like to leave me a new message or revive some old discussion please leave me a note at my current talk page found here. Thanks and All the Best, --Mifter (talk) 17:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
Welcome to my talk page archive. Please Do NOT edit this page.
If you would like to leave me a new comment/message please click here.
Request for undeletion
Hi, this page has been deleted as G3 in a mass deletion, but this is a user talk page ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:49, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi ToBeFree, thanks for your message. The user talk page in question was created by a LTA who created a number of user talk pages with highly disruptive content prior to being blocked. As the pages were new, were created as pure vandalism, and would have had to be blanked and had the creating edit revision deleted, I mass deleted the disruptive page creations as vandalism and also per WP:DENY. As the deleted revisions are only vandalism or reverts related to it, I do not see a reason to undelete the previous revisions. Please let me know if you have any questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 00:53, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Mifter, thanks for the explanation. I was about to explain an edit reversion to the user when I noticed that there might be previous warnings to be restored and built upon. This is probably not the case then, and there is no need for undeletion from my side anymore either. Thanks for denying recognition to the LTA.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:46, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
- ToBeFree, happy to clear that up, its certainly a valid concern as we do not generally delete talk pages. The only revisions (there are two of them) from the former page are the disruptive creation (by the LTA) and the page then being blanked (by a Recent Changes patroller) so nothing that would be relevant to the IPs current conduct. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Mifter Public (talk) 04:19, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Mifter, thanks for the explanation. I was about to explain an edit reversion to the user when I noticed that there might be previous warnings to be restored and built upon. This is probably not the case then, and there is no need for undeletion from my side anymore either. Thanks for denying recognition to the LTA.
Indian elections
Thanks for protecting Kamal Nath. Would you look at protecting Shivraj Singh Chouhan, which is experiencing similar silliness? There are probably others (like the election articles). I can't decide which is the tail and which is the dog any more 
. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 15:42, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi AlanM1, thanks for the note. I've taken a look at the article and applied pending changes protection for a week to it. Please feel free to me know if you have any other questions. Cheers, Mifter (talk) 17:59, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
- I think it's going to take a longer protection. The fun continued at Kamal Nath and probably others as soon as protection expired. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 02:01, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
- I RPP'd it and suggested related articles should be protected as well. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 18:46, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks AlanM1, I was away from my computer today but am glad to see it has been handled. Best, Mifter Public (talk) 03:59, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Please see note on your DYK review. Yoninah (talk) 17:08, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks Yoninah, I've replied there (and approved your proposed ALT hook). Best, Mifter Public (talk) 04:00, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Protection level
Can you please change the protection level on Template:Speciesbox/parameterCheck to "template editor"? (You set it at "administrator".) Although I created and will maintain this template, I can't edit it at present! All three error-tracking categories are no longer needed, as we have managed to empty them (including by a bot in one case); I intend from now on to use only a single category "Speciesboxes with incorrect parameters specifying the taxon". Peter coxhead (talk) 18:12, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
- Peter coxhead, thanks for your note. I've updated the protection level per your request. Best, Mifter (talk) 19:08, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks! Peter coxhead (talk) 19:39, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Prep 4
Hi, is there some reason you're filling Prep 4 instead of the earlier preps? Yoninah (talk) 22:51, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Yoninah, no particularly strong reason. I promoted an image hook and thought I would piece together a part of a set as well while I was at it as it was a fully blank prep. If it would be more useful to transfer the hooks to other preps, I have no objections to doing so. Best, Mifter (talk) 23:01, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi. I've recently put semiprotection on this article per a complaint at WP:AN3. Hope this is OK with you, since I notice you recently applied PC. My reasoning for a stronger action is that the use of the multiple IPs from Granada is evidence of sockpuppetry. Let me know if you disagree. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 15:37, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Ed, thanks for the note. I have no concerns with you stepping the protection up based on the AN3 report. Merry Christmas, Mifter (talk) 19:27, 24 December 2018 (UTC)
Question
Hi, in regard to this report at RPP and your response, this IP user has made the same edit six times since 11 November, and has been reverted by two different editors. The appropriate action would to temporarily protect the page, so he'll go away (or engage on a talk page as requested, but which he has refused). Please review your decision there. Thanks - wolf 06:08, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Wolf, thank you for your note. I took a second look at the page, however I still do not believe the page is in need of protection. As the disruption is by a single user, warning and then blocking, if any action should be taken, would be the restriction least likely to cause collateral damage. Given that our goal is to use the lightest sanction that would be effective and minimize collateral damage, protection does not appear necessary at this time as blocking is a viable option. Please let me know if you have any questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 06:36, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
Again...?
Why decline reports that obviously require admin action? Why require editors to go to other boards and fill out more reports, basically passing the buck to other admins to do the job for you? Editors here volunteer their time here. If they have already come across actionable disruptive behavior, then action it. Just because it's reported at RPP, does not mean you are limited to protecting a page. Disruptive editors are not entitled to a full set of warnings, or any warnings for that matter. You were wrong here. Thankfully another admin stepped in. You asked for this right, but if you're not going to administer this project as required, then resign the tools. - wolf 01:02, 25 December 2018 (UTC)
- Wolf, thank you for your message, Merry Christmas! I appreciate your concerns though I disagree with many of your points. I am always happy to take a second look at any decisions I make however I will not tolerate incivility as I too am a volunteer. In this case, as I mentioned in declining the protection request, page protection is generally not appropriate when a single user is being disruptive (as blocking would have the least collateral damage). Additionally, unless a user is being blatantly and openly disruptive (e.g. blanking, obvious vandalism, etc.), they generally should be warned prior to blocking as we assume the best of intentions until we have reason to see otherwise. Sysops are granted considerable discretion in handling matters and, when possible, I prefer a light touch and restraint (as I mentioned above). With that discretion in mind, I frequently use a variety of approaches when dealing with reports to our various noticeboards however in this case I did not feel an immediate block was necessary. Unfortunately, from their contributions, they continued in their pattern of behavior and a block was eventually placed. From your message I suspect our approaches to handling the issues that inevitably arise with a project of our scale and openness are different. This is not a bad thing, as rationale people can and do disagree. However, while I will always engage in discussion, review our policies in case I missed something, take a second look when asked, keep an open mind, and admit/fix any mistakes I make, I am under no obligation to "administer this project" in line with your personal opinions. Merry Christmas, Mifter (talk) 03:17, 25 December 2018 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
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The Admin's Barnstar |
| Thank you so much for all your work keeping RFPP under control during this past week when so many “regulars” are away from their computers! I hope whatever holidays you celebrate were enjoyable, and the new year will be a good one for you! MelanieN (talk) 23:59, 27 December 2018 (UTC) |
- MelanieN, thank you so much for the kind wishes! I hope your holidays were excellent and wish you a happy new year as well! Best, Mifter (talk) 19:50, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi! Please restore semi-protection as extended protection was expired two days ago. Thanks. Hhkohh (talk) 09:25, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi Hhkohh, thanks for your note. Looking at the article, as no disruptive edits have occurred since the ECP expired, I'll keep an eye on it but do not think semi need be restored quite yet as we do not protect pages preemptively (the page remains Pending Changes Protected). Best, Mifter (talk) 19:10, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
- okay, thanks. Because of this comment, but unless Mujhideen101 uses sock(s) to edit this article again, I will agree with you, thanks again Hhkohh (talk) 09:01, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
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Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019! |
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Hello Mifter, 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. Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages. |
- Wish you happy all the time Hhkohh (talk) 12:22, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks, you as well! Mifter (talk) 19:51, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
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Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019! |
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Hello Mifter, 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. Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages. |
- Thank you, you as well! Best, Mifter (talk) 19:51, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
Wikiproject class
Hi Mifter, Your suggestions were very helpful in improving the article to the stage where it is now. The DYK has been approved. May I request you to kindly re-assess the article on Quality scale, since a lot of improvement has been done. Also how far do you think this stands currently from GA level ? Would like to aim for GA as the next milestone, so your suggestion based on your experience would come in handy. Happy holidays.--DBigXrayᗙ 15:29, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
- Hi DBigXray, I am glad you found my feedback helpful. I have gone and re-assessed the article (my original assessment was because stub class articles are not eligible for DYK and the article was clearly not a stub). I don't work too much with GA, but will take a look and leave a note if I find anything that sticks out to me. Best, Mifter (talk) 20:08, 29 December 2018 (UTC)
- Thanks for the kind reply and re-assessment. My best wishes for the new year, Cheers.--DBigXrayᗙ 20:16, 29 December 2018 (UTC)
Happy New Year, Mifter!
Mifter,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
Donner60 (talk) 07:23, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to 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).
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Guideline and policy news
- There are a number of new or changed speedy deletion criteria, each previously part of WP:CSD#G6:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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}}.
- The Wikimedia Foundation now requires all interface administrators to enable two-factor authentication.
- Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.
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:
- At least 8 characters in length
- Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
- 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
- Following the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: AGK, Courcelles, GorillaWarfare, Joe Roe, Mkdw, SilkTork.
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.
DYK for Andrew L. Lewis (admiral)
On 3 January 2019, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Andrew L. Lewis (admiral), which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that, before Andrew L. Lewis became commander of the United States Second Fleet, he flew more than 100 combat missions as a naval aviator? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Andrew L. Lewis (admiral). You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Andrew L. Lewis (admiral)), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Re:Image without license
Hi!!! Firstly, I was about to add it on Wikimedia, but it ended up in Wikipedia. Secondly, I'm still pretty new and a rookie here; and I'm still to learn about Wikipedia and needed help. And lastly, I really need to removed the image so that I'm gonna move it to Wikimedia. But, thank you for sending your message. Sorry about that. Movies Time (talk) 12:26, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
- Also, how to edit a media file because I have to add a license and tags. Thanks. Movies Time (talk) 12:46, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
- Hello Movies Time, thanks for your message. You can edit an image page the same as you would edit any other page (clicking "edit" on the top toolbar of your preferred interface skin). Looking at the image you uploaded, it appears that it should remain here on Wikipedia and not be transferred to Wikimedia Commons as it is a fair use image that is not freely licensed. Per our policy, only freely licensed images can be stored on Wikimedia Commons, and any images licensed under Fair Use should remain locally on their respective project. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 00:43, 16 January 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks!!! Movies Time (talk) 08:58, 17 January 2019 (UTC)
- Hello Movies Time, thanks for your message. You can edit an image page the same as you would edit any other page (clicking "edit" on the top toolbar of your preferred interface skin). Looking at the image you uploaded, it appears that it should remain here on Wikipedia and not be transferred to Wikimedia Commons as it is a fair use image that is not freely licensed. Per our policy, only freely licensed images can be stored on Wikimedia Commons, and any images licensed under Fair Use should remain locally on their respective project. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 00:43, 16 January 2019 (UTC)
RevDel's
Hello Mifter, please check over the recent revdel's you have made regarding user Youwikitubepedia. I have just reversed two of your redactions as they do not appear to be supported by the deletion policy and do not match the reason you listed in your log entry. I suspect these are fall out from some bulk-processing, however if you have made more of these unnecessary deletions they should likely be reverted. Example 1, Example 2. Thank you! — xaosflux Talk 17:06, 17 January 2019 (UTC)
- Hi Xaosflux, thanks for the catch! I took a closer look and fixed them where appropriate. You are correct, I had used a bulk tool to handle the edit summaries (useful from previously helping address the Ref Desk mess) but clicked the "select all" button out of habit prior to processing the changes and while thought I had caught and fixed the collateral after realizing the mistake (the revs previously were manually selected) I clearly was incorrect. I have re-checked them all manually, so we should be good and will take steps to ensure this does not happen in the future. Thanks again for catching them. Best, Mifter (talk) 20:16, 17 January 2019 (UTC)
Fred penner
Hi. I've reduced the template protection at the redirect Fred penner to extended confirmed as per a request at WP:RFPP. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 20:40, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
- Hi CambridgeBayWeather, thanks for letting me know, I appreciate your handling the request. Best, Mifter (talk) 22:37, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
DYK
Hullo Mifter Public, I hope all's well. Could you let me know if you intend to come back to Template:Did you know nominations/Sarlacc's Pit cave or should I request a new reviewer? I understand either way, would just like to know. Many thanks, 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:02, 18 January 2019 (UTC)
- Hi there, thanks for your note and reminder. I'll take a look at the review shortly. Best, Mifter (talk) 22:43, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
Untitled message from MarioKart12
can you tell me How do i add a tag for the link of the image for the character?.
can you tell me?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MarioKart12 (talk • contribs) 01:09, January 26, 2019 (UTC)
- Hi MarioKart12, thanks for your note. It looks like you uploaded a copyrighted game screenshot/character. In order to use an image owned by someone else it must comply with our rules concerning fair use ("fair use" being the legal term that allows us to use images owned by others in a very limited fashion). Assuming the image follows the criteria you would add a license tag from here (just copy and paste) to the image along with a usage explanation. I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 22:43, 1 February 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – February 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019).
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
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.
Message from Murugesan Ramalingam
Appreciate your taking time to help me with your comments, dear @Mifter! Despite my sincere efforts in going through guidelines info, I find it difficult to post updates to my submitted article. The picture and the comments submitted to be a part as an inset in my submitted article was "deleted" by a reviewer. I seek your guidance and help how to upload/add the picture of my own creation with relevant info to appear in the inset. Please help me with specific guidelines. Thanks Murugesan Ramalingam — Preceding unsigned comment added by Murugesan Ramalingam (talk • contribs) 07:18, 8 February 2019 (UTC)
- Hello Murugesan Ramalingam, thank you for your message. To upload an image to Wikipedia for general use it should be freely licensed (we allow copyrighted content, that is content made by someone else, under a very limited set of circumstances) and have the correct image copyright tag to indicate its status. The file upload wizard does a good job walking you through the process. Looking at your original upload, it looks like it was deleted as copyright infringement. If an image is copyrighted and used elsewhere, it should have permission/evidence of it being freely licensed sent in to confirm its status and avoid the image's deletion. I hope this helps, please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. Best, Mifter (talk) 22:36, 10 February 2019 (UTC)
DYK help
Mifter, thank you for getting me involved in the DYK process a little over a year ago. I have learned a lot from my experiences there, and it is mostly enjoyable. I'm really struggling with the nominator's rationale at Template:Did you know nominations/Vikram Sood. Would you be so kind as to offer advice? Thanks. Flibirigit (talk) 18:10, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
- Hi Flibirigit, thanks for your note and kind wishes. I'm currently about to step away from my computer but would he happy to take a look afterwards. Best, Mifter (talk) 18:14, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks, and no rush. I'm working on some tedious things to relax my mind, before I comment on the nomination. Flibirigit (talk) 18:17, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
Alleged Image without license
Bot wrote: Unspecified source/license for File:HavredeGraceRacetrack.jpg
The source is clearly specified as it's copyright status as pre 1923 U.S. photos. Note, if you click on the link to the source (The New York Public Library) it identified the donated photo date as before 1921.
Look right here for what it says on the image page: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-ba82-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99#/?zoom=true New York Public Library Digital Collections Havre de Grace Race Track This image is in the public domain in the United States. In most cases, this means that it was first published prior to January 1, 1924 (see the template documentation for more cases). Other jurisdictions may have other rules, and this image might not be in the public domain outside the United States. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.
Thank you. Stretchrunner (talk) 17:02, 11 February 2019 (UTC) P.S. leaving that "save" note on your page is insulting.
- Hello Stretchrunner. Per our image policy, all images must have a file copyright tag on them and not just state their license status in plain text. As your upload did not have public domain tag on it, my bot correctly tagged your image for further review which it then received. Best, Mifter (talk) 18:12, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
- Gotcha. My oversight. Thanks. Stretchrunner (talk) 23:54, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
copyright - File:Lawschoolseal.jpeg
For File:Lawschoolseal.jpeg please note
 | I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. If this is not legally possible: |
— I’m releasing this image taken by me into the public domain. Thanks, Quaerens-veritatem 13:17, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
P.S. This is a photo of a decoration used on a building, it is NOT the official UGA law school seal. Thanks, Quaerens-veritatem 13:21, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- The RfC on administrator activity requirements failed to reach consensus for any proposal.
- Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.
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.
- paid-en-wp
- 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).
Miscellaneous
- Following the 2019 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Base, Einsbor, Jon Kolbert, Schniggendiller, and Wim b.
File:Vineeth Sreenivasan in Aravindante Athidhikal.jpg
The file you mentioned was uploaded by mistake. Will re upload another file later with all necessary steps. Please delete the current file as soon as possible. Thanks in advance. AhamBrahmasmi (talk) 18:54, 8 March 2019 (UTC)
Hi Mifter,
I've self-reverted, but thought I gave a reasonable enough WP:FAIRUSE rationale there.
Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 12:49, 24 March 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2019).
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Technical news
- In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the {{ARBPIA 1RR editnotice}} edit notice.
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.
WikiCup 2019 May newsletter
The second round of the 2019 WikiCup has now finished. Contestants needed to scored 32 points to advance into round 3. Our top four scorers in round 2 all scored over 400 points and were:
Cas Liber (1210), our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three DYKs. He also made good use of the bonus points available, more than doubling his score by choosing appropriate articles to work on.
Kosack (750), last year's runner up, with an FA, a GA, two FLs, and five DYKs.
Adam Cuerden (480), a WikiCup veteran, with 16 featured pictures, mostly restorations.
Zwerg Nase (461), a seasoned competitor, with a FA, a GA and an ITN item.
Other notable performances were put in by 
Barkeep49 with six GAs, 
Ceranthor, 
Lee Vilenski, and 
Canada Hky, each with seven GARs, and 
MPJ-DK with a seven item GT.
So far contestants have achieved nine featured articles between them and a splendid 80 good articles. Commendably, 227 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2019 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. The judges are pleased with the thorough GARs that are being performed, and have hardly had to reject any. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them.
If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:46, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
ArbCom 2019 special circular
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Administrators must secure their accounts
The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.
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This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:48, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)
ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.
Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.
We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.
For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:04, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – May 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment concluded that creating pages in the portal namespace should be restricted to autoconfirmed users.
- Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.
Technical news
- XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.
Arbitration
- In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases,
the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions
; administrators found failing to have adequately done sowill not be resysopped automatically
. All current administrators have been notified of this change. - Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.
- In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases,
Miscellaneous
- A request for comment is currently open to amend the community sanctions procedure to exclude non XfD or CSD deletions.
- A proposal to remove pre-2009 indefinite IP blocks is currently open for discussion.
Requiem For a VERY Little Known Rock Album to be Created
Over 9000 eons ago a punk rock ensemble project named Subject to Change consisting of Cree Summer (yes voice of Susie from Rugrats and Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures and Pinky Elmyra and the Brain) guitarists Greg Bell and Carl Young and bassist Oneida James released an album titled Womb Amnesia. Unfortunately this was the only one they premiered.
Much lesser known than Street Faerie because unlike said album none of the fourteen songs in the long player were being released as singles and it clocks at 66 plus minutes due to penultimate song Only Color standing at 10 minutes and six seconds.
And I know you're not familiar with her and her voice acting but a page for this full player must be invented one day. Hope you don't reply back about having an article being rejected.
Good night,
Administrators' newsletter – June 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2019).
Administrator changes
Andonic • Consumed Crustacean • Enigmaman • Euryalus • EWS23 • HereToHelp • Nv8200pa • Peripitus • StringTheory11 • Vejvančický
CheckUser changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
- An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
- An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.
Technical news
- The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
- Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.
Miscellaneous
- The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
- The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.
Administrators' newsletter – July 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2019).
Administrator changes
- 28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam1 • Flyguy649 • Fram2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
- 1Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
- 2Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
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Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment seeking to alleviate pressures on the request an account (ACC) process proposes either raising the account creation limit for extended confirmed editors or granting the account creator permission on request to new ACC tool users.
- In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.
- The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
- The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
- A request for comment seeks to determine whether Wikipedia:Office actions should be a policy page or an information page.
Technical news
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.
Miscellaneous
- In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop Fram. This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.
WikiCup 2019 July newsletter
The third round of the 2019 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round needed to score at least 68 points, which is substantially lower than last year's 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:
Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with 500 points derived mainly from a featured article and two GAs on natural history topics
Adam Cuerden, with 480 points, a tally built on 16 featured pictures, the result of meticulous restoration work
SounderBruce, a finalist in the last two years, with 306 points from a variety of submissions, mostly related to sport or the State of Washington
Usernameunique, with 305 points derived from a featured article and two GAs on archaeology and related topics
Contestants managed 4 (5) featured articles, 4 featured lists, 18 featured pictures, 29 good articles, 50 DYK entries, 9 ITN entries, and 39 good article reviews. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and it is imperative to claim them in the correct round; one FA claim had to be rejected because it was incorrectly submitted (claimed in Round 3 when it qualified for Round 2), so be warned! When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.
If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:12, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
About User GEO IS THE BEST
That's my old account, block it:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:GEO_IS_THE_BEST
I hope that you're okay
Hi Mifter! I just wanted to leave you a message and wish you a great day! I figured I'd message you to know that I was thinking about you... I see that you haven't been active in some time... I hope that you're doing well and that we speak again soon. :-) ~Oshwah~(talk) (contribs) 08:10, 28 July 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, the page Wikipedia:Office actions has been changed from a policy page to an information page.
- A request for comment (permalink) is in progress regarding the administrator inactivity policy.
Arbitration
- Editors may now use the template {{Ds/aware}} to indicate that they are aware that discretionary sanctions are in force for a topic area, so it is unnecessary to alert them.
Miscellaneous
- Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
- The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist.
Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.
A barnstar for you!
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The Original Barnstar |
| You are a great Wikipedian IIndia (talk) 02:26, 25 August 2019 (UTC) |
A barnstar for you!
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The Original Barnstar |
| You are a great Wikipedian IIndia (talk) 02:26, 25 August 2019 (UTC) |
WikiCup 2019 September newsletter
The fourth round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 454 points being required to qualify for the final round. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with over 400 points being eliminated, and all but two of the finalists having achieved an FA during the round. Casliber, our 2016 winner, was the highest point-scorer, followed by Enwebb and Lee Vilenski, who are both new to the competition. In fourth place was SounderBruce, a finalist last year. But all those points are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.
Round 4 saw the achievement of 11 featured articles. In addition, Adam Cuerden scored with 18 FPs, Lee Vilenski led the GA score with 8 GAs while Kosack performed 15 GA reviews. There were around 40 DYKs, 40 GARs and 31 GAs overall during round 4. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.
As we start round 5, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).
If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:44, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2019).
Administrator changes
Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
Floquenbeam • Lectonar- DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana
CheckUser changes
Oversight changes
- Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime
Technical news
- Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
- The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.
Arbitration
- A request for comment is open to provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the 2019 English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee election and to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.
Miscellaneous
- A global request for comment is in progress regarding whether a user group should be created that could modify edit filters across all public Wikimedia wikis.
Precious anniversary
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| Three years! |
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We give thanks, we give thanks ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk)
Thanks Gerda! Hard to believe its been over three years. Mifter (talk) 03:53, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
Happy Admin Day!!
Have a very happy adminship anniversary on your special day!
Best wishes, Mjs1991 (talk) 09:27, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
Thanks Mjs1991! Mifter (talk) 04:04, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
Retaining the page - Sangramsingh Thakur
Hello Dear @Mifter
I am working continuously on this page and other pages. I am going to add more content to this article in the coming days. I want you to reinstall this page so that I can continue my service to Wikipedia. Thank you.--Romeonew (talk) 05:16, 15 September 2019 (UTC)
Hello
can you fix the file in We Try (Chris Medina), beacuse i have a problem with edit that file. And your bot said:
Thanks for uploading File:WeTry.jpeg. The image has been identified as not specifying the copyright status of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. Even if you created the image yourself, you still need to release it so Wikipedia can use it. If you don't indicate the copyright status of the image on the image's description page, using an appropriate copyright tag, it may be deleted some time after the next seven days. If you made this image yourself, you can use copyright tags like
| | I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. If this is not legally possible: |
(to release all rights),
   | This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. |
 | Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. |
(to require that you be credited), or any tag here - just go to the image, click edit, and add one of those. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided copyright information for them as well.
For more information on using images, see the following pages:
Wikipedia:Image use policyWikipedia:Image copyright tags
This is an automated notice by MifterBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. NOTE: Once you correct this, please remove the tag from the image's page. --MifterBot (Talk • Contribs• Owner) 07:46, 16 September 2019 (UTC) Esc Steven (talk) 08:05, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – October 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which
applies if the category contains only an eponymous article or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories
.
- Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which
Technical news
- As previously noted, tighter password requirements for Administrators were put in place last year. Wikipedia should now alert you if your password is less than 10 characters long and thus too short.
Arbitration
- The 2019 CheckUser and Oversight appointment process has begun. The community consultation period will take place October 4th to 10th.
- The arbitration case regarding Fram was closed. While there will be a local RfC
focus[ing] on how harassment and private complaints should be handled in the future
, there is currently a global community consultation on partial and temporary office actions in response to the incident. It will be open until October 30th.
Miscellaneous
- The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.
Please adjust page protection
Please adjust the page protection settings on the following pages. As discussed at there is clear community consensus that ECP should not apply for "high risk templates" and nothing under WP:ECP supports such protection to this/these template(s) (example: "by request" is insufficient).
- Template:Wikidata
- Template:WikiProject Fungi/class
- Template:Crime opentask
- Template:Post-nominals/GBR
- Template:W-graphical
Thank you. Buffs (talk) 16:30, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
Bot problems
Hello!
I have now twice, I think, had your bot messenging me about my files having no license the same second I've uploaded my files. Can your bot perhaps wait an hour form the time of uploading until it messages me, or anyone for that matter. Because when I try to license my files, which I do directly after upload there is a edit conflict because your bot already has tagged the file with no license, and I also have to delete the message from my talk page. All in all it's quite annoying. Please fix!Jonteemil (talk) 12:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
Copyright
Can Photos uploaded on social media for promotional purpose be used on Wikipedia? Nafiszami (talk) 14:34, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
WikiCup 2019 November newsletter
The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is 
Adam Cuerden (submissions), who over the course of the competition has amassed 91 featured pictures, including 32 in the final round. Our finalists this year were:
- Adam Cuerden (submissions) with 964 points
Lee Vilenski (submissions) with 899 points- Casliber (submissions) with 817 points
- Kosack (submissions) with 691 points
SounderBruce (submissions) with 388 points
Enwebb (submissions) with 146 points- Usernameunique (submissions) with 145 points
HaEr48 (submissions) with 74 points
All those who reached the final will win awards. The following special awards will be made based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field. Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!
- Casliber (submissions) wins the featured article prize, for a total of 7 FAs during the course of the competition.
- Lee Vilenski (submissions) wins the good article prize, for 14 GAs in round 5.
Yashthepunisher (submissions) wins the featured list prize, for 4 FLs overall.- Adam Cuerden (submissions) wins the featured picture prize, for 91 FPs overall.
MPJ-DK (submissions) wins the topic prize, for 7 articles in good topics in round 2.- Lee Vilenski (submissions) wins the DYK prize, for 14 did you know articles in round 5.
Muboshgu (submissions) wins the ITN prize, for 7 in the news articles in round 1.
Ed! (submissions) wins the reviewer prize, for 56 good article reviews in round 1.
Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition, not forgetting User:Jarry1250, who runs the scoring bot.
We have opened a scoring discussion on whether the rules and scoring need adjustment. Please have your say. Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2020 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth 14:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- An RfC was closed with the consensus that the resysop criteria should be made stricter.
- The follow-up RfC to develop that change is now open at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/2019 Resysop Criteria (2).
- A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.
Arbitration
- Eligible editors may now nominate themselves as candidates for the 2019 Arbitration Committee Elections. The self-nomination period will close November 12, with voting running from November 19 through December 2.
A kitten for you!
_by_Ron.jpg)
here :)
ArbCom 2019 election voter message
| | Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add |
Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!
Hello,
Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.
I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!
From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.
If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.
Thank you!
Administrators' newsletter – December 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2019).
Administrator changes
- EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
- Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂
CheckUser changes
Interface administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC on the administrator resysop criteria was closed. 18 proposals have been summarised with a variety of supported and opposed statements. The inactivity grace period within which a new request for adminship is not required has been reduced from three years to two. Additionally, Bureaucrats are permitted to use their discretion when returning administrator rights.
- Following a proposal, the edit filter mailing list has been opened up to users with the Edit Filter Helper right.
Technical news
- Wikimedia projects can set a default block length for users via MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry. A new page, MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry-ip, allows the setting of a different default block length for IP editors. Neither is currently used. (T219126)
Arbitration
- Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 2 December 2018 UTC. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.
Miscellaneous
- The global consultation on partial and temporary office actions that ended in October received a closing statement from staff concluding, among other things, that the WMF
will no longer use partial or temporary Office Action bans... until and unless community consensus that they are of value or Board directive
.
- The global consultation on partial and temporary office actions that ended in October received a closing statement from staff concluding, among other things, that the WMF
Image for Personal Uses
Is there a way to use the image: File:F1 Mercedes Fan.jpeg for personal use? F1 Mercedes Fan (talk) 04:47, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
image had open copyright when uploaded in Commons
Hello,
The picture on the "Warren Klein" page had been given open copyright when uploaded in Commons. Why is it not recognised as such? If it has to be added to the image on the article, it is not clear how to do so.
Thanks, Warren Klein 12/7/2019 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wkpobox (talk • contribs) 06:33, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
"Chuck Robertson disambiguation" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Chuck Robertson disambiguation. Since you had some involvement with the Chuck Robertson disambiguation redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. DannyS712 (talk) 01:06, 25 December 2019 (UTC)
Happy New Year Mifter!
.jpg)
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve the encyclopedia for Wikipedia's readers, and have a happy and enjoyable New Year! Cheers, Donner60 (talk) 05:53, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
Welcome to the 2020 WikiCup!
Happy New Year, Happy New Decade and Happy New WikiCup! The competition begins today and all article creators, expanders and improvers are welcome to take part. If you have already signed up, your submissions page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and the judges will set up your submissions page. We are relaxing the rule that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2020 will count; now to be eligible for points in the competition, you must have completed significant work on the content at some time! Any questions on the rules or on anything else connected to the Cup should be directed to one of the judges, or posted to the WikiCup talk page. 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 move on 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) 11:43, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2019).
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Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment asks whether partial blocks should be enabled on the English Wikipedia. If enabled, this functionality would allow administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces, rather than the entire site.
- A proposal asks whether admins who don't use their tools for a significant period of time (e.g. five years) should have the toolset procedurally removed.
- Following a successful RfC, a whitelist is now available for users whose redirects will be autopatrolled by a bot, removing them from the new pages patrol queue. Admins can add such users to Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist after a discussion following the guidelines at Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist.
Arbitration
- The fourth case on Palestine-Israel articles was closed. The case consolidated all previous remedies under one heading, which should make them easier to understand, apply, and enforce. In particular, the distinction between "primary articles" and "related content" has been clarified, with the former being
the entire set of articles whose topic relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict, broadly interpreted
rather thanreasonably construed
. - Following the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Beeblebrox, Bradv, Casliber, David Fuchs, DGG, KrakatoaKatie, Maxim, Newyorkbrad, SoWhy, Worm That Turned, Xeno.
- The fourth case on Palestine-Israel articles was closed. The case consolidated all previous remedies under one heading, which should make them easier to understand, apply, and enforce. In particular, the distinction between "primary articles" and "related content" has been clarified, with the former being
Miscellaneous
- This issue marks three full years of the Admin newsletter. Thanks for reading!
File:Padlock-black.svg listed for discussion
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Padlock-black.svg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for discussion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 21:11, 29 January 2020 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – February 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
- The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with
wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input
. No proposed process received consensus.
Technical news
- Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.
- When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [1]
Arbitration
- Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators
that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.
- Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators
Miscellaneous
- Voting in the 2020 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2020, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2020, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
- The English Wikipedia has reached six million articles. Thank you everyone for your contributions!
refer to the message left for me
I tried to get one image saving from a blog. Since it is not meeting the copyright specifications, I have not uploaded the same. Thanks for alerting me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vjsuseela (talk • contribs) 15:55, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
refer to the message left for me
Received some alert message from you. I tried to upload an image file from a blog. since it is not meeting copyright conditions, I have not done it. However, thanks for sending alert.
Vjsuseela — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vjsuseela (talk • contribs) 16:05, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
Happy First Edit Day!
Have a very happy first edit anniversary!
From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 00:32, 4 February 2020 (UTC)
Precious anniversary
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WikiCup 2020 March newsletter
And so ends the first round of the competition. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2, with 57 contestants qualifying. We have abolished the groups this year, so to qualify for Round 3 you will need to finish Round 2 among the top thirty-two contestants.
Our top scorers in Round 1 were:
Epicgenius, a WikiCup newcomer, led the field with a featured article, five good articles and an assortment of other submissions, specialising on buildings and locations in New York, for a total of 895 points.
Gog the Mild came next with 464 points, from a featured article, two good articles and a number of reviews, the main theme being naval warfare.- Raymie was in third place with 419 points, garnered from one good article and an impressive 34 DYKs on radio and TV stations in the United States.
Harrias came next at 414, with a featured article and three good articles, an English civil war battle specialist.
CaptainEek was in fifth place with 405 points, mostly garnered from bringing Cactus wren to featured article status.- The top ten contestants at the end of Round 1 all scored over 200 points; they also included L293D,
Kingsif, Enwebb, Lee Vilenski and 
CAPTAIN MEDUSA. Seven of the top ten contestants in Round 1 are new to the WikiCup.
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These contestants, like all the others, now have to start scoring points again from scratch. In Round 1 there were four featured articles, one featured list and two featured pictures, as well as around two hundred DYKs and twenty-seven ITNs. Between them, contestants completed 127 good article reviews, nearly a hundred more than the 43 good articles they claimed for, thus making a substantial dent in the review backlog. Contestants also claimed for 40 featured article / featured list reviews, and most even remembered to mention their WikiCup participation in their reviews (a requirement).
Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Some contestants made claims before the new submissions pages were set up, and they will need to resubmit them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.
If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:47, 1 March 2020 (UTC)
WikiCup newsletter correction
There was an error in the WikiCup 2020 March newsletter; L293D should not have been included in the list of top ten scorers in Round 1 (they led the list last year), instead, Dunkleosteus77 should have been included, having garnered 334 points from five good articles on animals, living or extinct, and various reviews. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:30, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2020).
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Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, the blocking policy was changed to state that sysops
must not
undo or alter CheckUser or Oversight blocks, rather thanshould not
. - A request for comment confirmed that sandboxes of established but inactive editors may not be blanked due solely to inactivity.
- Following an RfC, the blocking policy was changed to state that sysops
Technical news
- Following a discussion, Twinkle's default CSD behavior will soon change, most likely this week. After the change, Twinkle will default to "tagging mode" if there is no CSD tag present, and default to "deletion mode" if there is a CSD tag present. You will be able to always default to "deletion mode" (the current behavior) using your Twinkle preferences.
Miscellaneous
- Following the 2020 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: BRPever, Krd, Martin Urbanec, MusikAnimal, Sakretsu, Sotiale, and Tks4Fish. There are a total of seven editors that have been appointed as stewards, the most since 2014.
- The 2020 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Ajraddatz and Uzoma Ozurumba; they will serve for one year.
Atalanta Ltd image
Thanks for your note regarding File:Atalanta ltd photo march 1921 vol 1 pg 57.JPG - I have added copyright info to indicate this image is out of copyright - please check and remove deletion template. Ietlibarch (talk) 16:17, 4 March 2020 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2020).
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Guideline and policy news
- There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.
Technical news
- There is a plan for new requirements for user signatures. You can give feedback.
Arbitration
- Following the banning of an editor by the WMF last year, the Arbitration Committee resolved to hold a
Arbcom RfC regarding on-wiki harassment
. A draft RfC has been posted at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Anti-harassment RfC (Draft) and not open to comments from the community yet. Interested editors can comment on the RfC itself on its talk page.
- Following the banning of an editor by the WMF last year, the Arbitration Committee resolved to hold a
Miscellaneous
- The WMF has begun a pilot report of the pages most visited through various social media platforms to help with anti-vandalism and anti-disinformation efforts. The report is updated daily and will be available through the end of May.