User talk:TheSandDoctor/Archives/2018/August

Kaplan Test Prep draft page

Hi - per your recommendations, I've added a lot of new sources to this page. Thank you! MT wKaplan (talk) 16:28, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

You're welcome, I'm glad that I could help . --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 19:17, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Riders on the Storm

Hello, can you see what the bot did on Riders on the Storm? Thanks Maxime Vernier (talk) 15:38, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I resolved it. It should be noted, however, that the bot worked as intended in its task as {{Infobox single}} is being merged. The issue occurred with Infobox song (which Infobox single is a wrapper of) since no year parameter was specified. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 19:15, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018

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

Administrator changes

Sro23

KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

• The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.

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

Tech News: 2018-32

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

• Special:NewPages now has the OOUI look. [1]

Problems

• The MediaWiki version that was released two weeks ago was late to some Wikimedia wikis. This was because of bugs. It was on all wikis 30 July. [2][3]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 August. It will be on all wikis from 9 August.

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 7 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 8 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

19:39, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, TheSandDoctor. You have new messages at L293D's talk page.
Message added 16:05, 8 August 2018 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

I realize you probably got my pings, but I'm putting this here as proof that you got my messages. Please tell me if you don't plan to take any action, so another admin can judge instead of all of us waiting fruitlessly. L293D (alt) (☎ • ✎) 16:05, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

I`m sorry

95.145.233.193 (talk) 19:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC) TheSandDoctor I am sorry for doing disruptive edits on different articles, I was thinking what I have done and I am very very sorry TheSandDoctor 19:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Reliable sources problem Julie Apap article

Hi! Could you please let me know what is the exact problem with the source reliability in the article I've been writing ? My sourced are the local newspapers, but as it's an island state, it is impossible to find any other larger source.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Best, Letta

Tech News: 2018-33

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

• CSS in templates can now be stored in a separate page on all wikis. This is called TemplateStyles. This is to make it easier to edit how templates look. [4]

Changes later this week

• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 14 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 15 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The developers are planning more ways to block users. This could be blocking someone from just a page or a namespace. You can read more. You can leave feedback on the talk page. [5]

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

17:53, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Task #6

DeprecatedFixerBot is making some mistakes that you might want to know about. (I’m glad you’ve put such clear instructions in the bot’s edit summaries! Thank you.) This is Task #6, and these diffs show what happened: [6], [7], [8], and [9]. In each case, the singles chronology part of the infobox exposes some of the markup after the bot is finished with the edit. Ping me if you need to know any more. — Gorthian (talk) 05:21, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

@Gorthian: Forgive me, but I don't see any issue with what it is doing in those diffs? --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 05:44, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Here are a couple of screenshots, with the problem circled in red: [10] and [11]. Does that help? — Gorthian (talk) 05:50, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

@Gorthian: Thank you for the screenshots, those helped a lot. Let the Music Play (song) doesn't show an issue for me, but I have corrected the others. That is an issue with the template (Infobox song) rather than the bot itself (which is working as intended). Those will just have to be resolved as they appear. All the bot is doing is enacting consensus of substituting {{Infobox single}} (which itself is a wrapper for {{Infobox song}}). --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 05:56, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Good, I’m glad it’s working right. And I’ve seen some of the template errors you mention elsewhere, though I’m not familiar with the music ones. (BTW, the affected infobox on Let the Music Play (song) is at least halfway down the page—it’s not the one at the top.) — Gorthian (talk) 06:04, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

@Gorthian: Saw it & fixed. Might see if it is possible to add diagnostics though to check the parameters to see if it generates the issue and log it. Won't run task again tonight and will look into it tomorrow. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 06:12, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Jonesey95, would it be possible to add a tracking category to track when things like the above occur? (eg | prev_title = [[Fools Gold/What the World Is Waiting For|"Fools Gold
| prev_title2 = What the World Is Waiting For]]) --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 06:12, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

I don't know of an easy way. Can you re-program the bot to check for "last song = anything in a single set of square brackets" and just assign that text to |prev_title= instead of splitting it? If there are two sets of square brackets, |prev_title2= will probably work. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:40, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

@Jonesey95: I was thinking of the mere existence of prev/next_title2, as they appear to just show in plain text. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 17:08, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

I ran across a different kind of error, which left an error message on the page. It was probably because of bad formatting previous to the bot’s action. — Gorthian (talk) 03:55, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

@Gorthian: That would be correct. Those errors occur when years are not specified as their own parameters. I am honestly not sure why they made it that way, but someone did at some point. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 03:58, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Not what I was thinking of. That would have been a formatting error. All the bot is doing is renaming "infobox single" to "subst:infobox single", which causes it to substitute itself and spit out "infobox song" with filled out parameters (the way it is coded). --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 04:00, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

I do searches every few days (looking for broken infoboxes) that may turn up more; do you want me just to fix them instead of telling you each time? — Gorthian (talk) 04:04, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

@Gorthian: Feel free to reach out to me if you wish, it would probably be best to track these things, even if it isn't necessarily to do with the bot. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 04:07, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Is the task still running? I think you could potentially find them by using Module:String to search for unclosed square brackets. Jc86035 (talk) 18:27, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

Not recently as I simply forgot. Some IRL stuff has come up, but I will try and run it shortly. I think I managed to implement a self check that will log a page if it added it. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 00:35, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Timothy H Dixon

Dear SandDoctor As you know I struggle with wikipedia pages. Prof. Dixon is now able to answer some of your questions about his nascent entry, could you email him at thd@usf.edu and let him know what is needed to make his entry acceptable for posting? We greatly appreciate your help.

   Bob Stern, U TX DallasZyzzy2 (talk) 17:38, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

The image on Jordan Maron

Excuse me, but what? Why was the image reverted? There was an explicit permission to add a photo from the author himself. Seriously, what more do you need for license? Are we supposed to ask him to make a photo dedicated just for Wikipedia or something? --TakeruDavis (talk) 06:31, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

@TakeruDavis: Please see the notice recently added to the top of Talk:Jordan Maron for an explanation. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 06:36, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Jordan Maron’s Approved Picture

Captain Sparklez (aka Jordan Maron) requested that exact picture of him to be put on his wiki page by someone who knows how to do so in his latest video, found here: https://youtube.com/ROLRtjnAe-o

The time code where he discusses it starts at 10:15. As a fan, I’d like to see his wishes respected, so I ask you on behalf of all of his fans to please reverse the deletion, and unlock his page so that fans with good intentions can make reasonable edits once more.

One final note, he took that picture himself, so it does not violate any copyrights.

P.S.: Wikipedia must have deleted my account from inactivity, so I had to recreate it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobal27 (talk • contribs) 07:20, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Apologies for jumping in on what has been covered, though I fail to see how we could effectively communicate the proper channel to him, I hope it gets taken care of by the other user I saw. Feel free to delete this from your talk section, and I hope you don’t get 1000 more like this, since he is a popular channel and wiki makes it easy to comment here without seeing other similar comments first :) Fingers crosses for your sanity :) Bobal27 (talk) 07:30, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

@Bobal27: So far I have only received 3 4 . I have emailed his business email (which I assume to be a representative) last night with information about how to proceed and offering my assistance if he has any questions, as well as commenting on the video. Who knows if he will ever see either or be made aware of it, but it was worth a short. Probably if enough of his fans/viewers reach out to him with the information, he will be made aware of the steps. They aren't that complicated .

I assure you that the removals are not in malice, rather that it's just that we are bound by copyright and things have to be released a certain way for them to be usable by us. While we appreciate what he is trying to do, he either has to email permissions-commonswikimedia.org with this email template or state either verbally or in writing (somewhere public that we either find or are linked to) that a particular image is "released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license." Once that happens, then we can use the image. Until then, we cannot legally. If he does release one in the latter fashion and you find it, please do feel free to link to it here (my talk page) or at Talk:Jordan Maron.

As for the loss of your account, do you know what your previous username was? I assure you that the deletion of accounts is technically impossible software-wise and legally, so the account does still exist. Were you active on Wikipedia previously?

I hope that this helps explain it a bit more. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:21, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Received another. I anticipate more, though that isn't an issue. I am always happy to help where I can. Besides, my talk page is usually very quiet, so a change of pace is exciting --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:31, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Jardon

Can I please edit the captainsparklesz Wiki page — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:644:1:1420:88AD:A2EB:5444:C344 (talk) 07:56, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

You should probably check the talk page on the Jordan Maron Wikipedia page itself, it has more answers. I tried here first as well, but I have since corrected my mistake and left the relevant information on how Jardo Malrissian can get his picture added properly on the subreddit. Bobal27 (talk) 08:14, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for your response here as I was not on and for adding that to the subreddit Bobal27. That is the one area that I forgot to cover last night . Would you mind linking to the post or emailing me the link? --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:24, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Condolences

I'm sorry for your loss. —PaleoNeonate – 08:01, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Thank you PaleoNeonate, it means a lot . It was quite sudden. She was one special relative . --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:26, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia Picture for Jordan Maron article

Hi Sand Doctor,

I notice you have revised my recent edit. I realise I have probably filed the copyright and licensing wrong, but the author and subject have given express permission for the picture to be used in this way. How do I go about ensuring it isn't reverted again?

Thanks

Datipster (talk) 13:19, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Please see my response to User_talk:TheSandDoctor#Jordan_Maron’s_Approved_Picture and the notice at the top of Talk:Jordan Maron as they cover this in detail. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:28, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me, I will attempt to ensure the copyright and licensing is communicated through the appropriate channels Datipster (talk) 13:33, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

@Datipster: You're welcome. Hopefully enough people are able to do it to the point that he sees it and is able to act. There isn't that much that has to be done . --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 13:35, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Bots Newsletter, August 2018

Bots Newsletter, August 2018

Greetings!

Here is the 6th issue of the Bots Newsletter. You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.

Highlights for this newsletter include:

ARBCOM

• Nothing particular important happened. Those who care already know, those who don't know wouldn't care. The curious can dig ARBCOM archives themselves.

BAG

• There were no changes in BAG membership since the last Bots Newsletter. Headbomb went from semi-active to active.
• In the last 3 months, only 3 BAG members have closed requests - help is needed with the backlog.

BOTREQs and BRFAs

As of writing, we have...

• 24 active BOTREQs, please help if you can!
• 5 open BRFAs and 3 BRFAs in need of BAG attention (see live status).
• 54 approved bot tasks since the start of 2018. Of note, Community Tech bot 5 (the #10 Wish on the 2017 Community Survey) was approved to notify users concerning problematic images and files from Wikimedia Commons.

Also

• If you're a bot operator that can help with Tidy/Linter error cleanup (see discussion, discussion), please file a BRFA!
• 8 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion, discussion, discussion).

Discussions

These are some of the discussions that happened / are still happening since the last Bots Newsletter. Many are stale, but some are still active.

• Use of tags by bots – Exploring the use of a new 'bot' tag.
• Mass page moves – Bot policy question/clarification about mass moves.
• Creation of redirects – Bot policy question/clarification about the creation of redirects.
• Guidance on disruptive use of semi–automated tools? – Related to meatbots (see also MOS discussion, which resulted in small addition to MOS:VAR).
• Discussion concerning WP:BOTFLAG/WP:RC – A reminder that bots should use the bot flag when it makes sense to use it (see also VPT discussion and CREATEBOT update).
• Out of curiosity... (to all bot operators) – BotPasswords vs OAuth usage amongst bot operators.
• Introducing Toolhub – Toolhub is looking for feedback.

New things

• {{Automated tools}}, a new template linking to user-activated tools and scripts has been created. It can be used in articles previews, and can be placed on any non-mainspace page/template (e.g. {{Draft article}}) to provide convenient links to editors.
• AWB 5.10.0.0 is out, after nearly 20 months without updates. If you run an old version, you will be prompted to install the new version automatically. See the changelog for what's new. Note that the next version will require .NET Framework 4.5. Many thanks to Reedy and the AWB team.
• BotWatch, "a listing of editors that have made >2 edits per minute [without] a bot flag", is being developed by SQL (see discussion).
• Massive updates and improvements have been made to Citation bot in the past few months (see discussions, discussions, discussions). You can activate the bot here, amongst other methods.
• HTML Tidy has been phased out (see Tech News #28).
• {{Newbot}} has been reorganized a bit (diff). In particular, it links to previously approved BRFAs (see discussion).
• Wikipedia:Bots#See also has been reorganized a bit (diff).
• The bot dictionary has two new entries, context bot and context-sensitive edit.
• The bot request header has been updated to include better guidance (see discussion).
• The subcategories of Category:Wikipedia bot requests for approval have been sorted in a consistent manner to make past BRFAs easier to find.

Thank you! edited by: Headbomb 15:04, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

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Bad deletion.

You deleted the page "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_martial_arts" for the claimed reason that it's OR, well yeah of course it is to SOME extent, because NOONE ELSE HAD DONE ANY LIST LIKE IT. And now you have removed a technically flawed but clearly useful resource for a reason that is effectively administrative pettyness. After a WEEK. After it's proposed deletion have already been rejected once, with the reasons cited then still 100% valid today. You do not score points or earn fame from deleting something. I know at least a halfdozen fanfiction authors that were using that page. Because there isn't one like it anywhere else. And the information is now either not on wikipedia at all, or utterly impossible to locate in a reasonable manner(because i sure couldn't find anything of what i was trying to find, which I KNOW was on wikipedia before the deletion). Reasons stated for deletion: "Entirely original research, and the vast majority of blue linked articles have long since been merged for non-notability. Fails WP:LISTN." It certainly wasn't "entirely OR" last time i looked at the page. And it only fails "WP:LISTN" if you work really hard at ignoring it. And let me guess who got the blue linked articles removed eh? "and contents are all of questionable notability." Pure bullshit. They're important in any number of fictional stories. Seriously, there are whole fictions based on nothing but the martial arts that make up half the story itself. Ranma 1/2 for one very blatant example. "The vast majority is questionable and most likely not notable to find credible sources on." Really? Just read the books or watch the movies or animes or whatever. Yeah, that's not the academics work already done for us, but that's just being lazy, expecting that. The article needed improvement, sure, but that's like arguing for killing the patient because you can't perfectly heal them. "and most, if not all, of the arts are of dubious notability. I fail to see how WP:GNG is met." Because obviously noone reads Sherlock Holmes or Terry Pratchett's Discworld books nowadays eh? Seriously, the reasons given by a mere THREE voters are all utterly pisspoor. And i note that NONE of those voting against the previous time appears to have even found a chance to vote this time(how not surprised i am, oh dear). Rubbish bad reasons, too few voters to have any real validity, and yet you delete after a mere week. I call that very very, no, extremely bad style and request the deletion be undone. Because this was vandalism rather than administration. Basic rule, if you're not improving or correcting something, don't change it. DW75 (talk) 23:01, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @DW75: - It was up for discussion at AFD for almost 3 weeks with -0- keeps. Deletion review would be the place to go to try to get it undeleted. And please make sure that you understand the rules regarding No personal attacks on other editors, as well as assuming good faith. TSD just closed it - and as an uninvolved admin I would agree that there was an overwhelming consensus to delete in this case. SQL^{Query me!} 23:22, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-34

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

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 August. It will be on all wikis from 23 August (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 22 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The 2018 Community Wishlist Survey begins on 29 October. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals from 29 October to 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 16 November to 30 November.
• Legacy JavaScript global variables have been deprecated for seven years. They will soon be removed from all wikis. Gadgets and scripts that use them will stop working. You can test your community's gadgets on "group0" wikis. For example Test Wikipedia or mediawiki.org. The legacy JavaScript global variables are already disabled there. You can read the migration guide to fix old scripts. [12]

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

16:46, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Question on Payment21 Page deletion

Hi, I understand the sanctions taken against the users who posted the entry about Payment21 in June 2018. These users got blocked and/or banned for valid reasons, and as a result, no form of appeal seems to be possible, even though the actual content of the article, that was affected by blocking these users, has not been reviewed with regards to its worthiness for publication. To what extent are other Wikipedia-admins allowed to publish a new article about this officially licensed Swiss-based payment gateway? I have analyzed a number of crypto-related entries on Wikipedia and realize that many of such crypto-currency-entries meet fewer inclusion requirements than this site. IMHO, it is indeed a genuine site and appears to be noteworthy in comparison to others. So I would like to check with the community whether or not Wikipedia needs an article about Payment21. Currently, I hesitate to move forward because of your earlier actions. Let me know if you are in the position to discuss this matter. Your guidance would be highly appreciated. Thanks for your consideration.

WhatAboutKrypto (talk) 14:13, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) WhatAboutKrypto - I don't understand why you are directing this question at TheSandDoctor. TonyBallioni - you've got a lot more experience at WP:AE than either of us. Do you have any suggestions where this editor might better direct their question? SQL^{Query me!} 01:58, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

See what MER-C responded with WhatAboutKrypto. --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 01:59, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-35

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

Recent changes

• You can now see moved paragraphs in diffs in the mobile view. It also works on all languages in the desktop view. [13]
• Bureaucrats on all Wikimedia wikis can now remove the interface admin user right. [14]

Problems

• Some diffs show lines in the wrong order. The developers are working on fixing it. [15]

Changes later this week

• The message you see when you thank a user will change. This is to make it easier to understand. [16]
• AWB will stop adding using AWB in the edit summary. Instead it will add a tag that says AWB. [17]
• Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title. [18]
• Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age. [19]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 August. It will be on all wikis from 30 August (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 28 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 29 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour. You can read more about this.

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

16:16, 27 August 2018 (UTC)