User talk:Shanes/2008 to 2020

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Your rant[edit]

Hi, I'm here to ask permission to add material to your rant, I believe there are still too many tags, and that they are too big. (IMO tags like the current one in the George W. Bush article are tolerable, but not the ones like in the Rant article. My suggestion : make most of them visible only to users that are logged in (even if I have no idea how that would work). Pro bug catcher (talk • contribs). 19:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, the rant. It's so outdated now that it could probably have that Update tag on top of it. But I'm not up to the irony of that, yet.
Yes, since I wrote it, almost two years ago, we've got the sprotected2 tag, which I agree is acceptable, and the spoiler-tags I've always hated are also gone. But I'm a bit wary of changing or appending much to it now. It's being linked to from a number of places, and I just think it should stay this way, outdated now, but making sense in the context it was once written. Instead I suggest you write your own more up to date essay, and I'll just link to it in my rant. Shanes (talk) 05:38, 7 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WW 2 Casualties[edit]

I just made some posts to the WW2 Casualties talk page, if you get a chance please read them. Thanks --Woogie10w (talk) 12:45, 28 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for late reply, I'm not as active here anymore. Might improve in the future. I'll read the talk page later, but I have been watching the article now and then, and you really deserve praise for how you've taken care of both the article and responding to comments and questions about it on the talk page. Good work! Shanes (talk) 09:09, 2 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar long in coming[edit]

I would not be surprised if you will regard this Barnstar as unjustified or over-the-top, but I think that the time has come to recognize the impact of your rant. When I first read it, a little more than 18 months ago, it made a huge impact on how I saw this project, moving me from an editor-centric to a reader-centric viewpoint. I placed a link to it on my Userpage (not that anyone ever sees it there) and also placed a link to it within the edit summaries of hundreds of edits that I did where I either removed or moved the tag. I also wrote an essay on one specific tag that irked me possibly the most, though I don't think it convinced anyone of anything (and it, too, is now dated, especially graphically).

When I first started moving tags from the top of pages, I was taken to task by a great many of our fellow editors, and was threatened on at least one occasion with being blocked for violating "policy". But as time has gone on, I have found resistance to tag removal has disappated greatly, and I think it is now at least recognized that minimizing the use of tags at the top of articles is a legitimate school of thought. Over the past year and a half I have seen several other editors who either moved/removed such tags, and out of curiosity have asked a number of them why they do this. Some have explained their reasons (which parallel yours) and more than once I have been told to read this really "great rant" which will make it clear to me, and of course, the link is to your page. We also need to look at the existence of the small icons. I have no idea whether or not Moe read your rant before creating the small sp icon, but it did come afterwards. And whereas it was argued early on that the small icon should be used only on a limited basis (for long-term use), in point of fact it has become the de facto standard, with many of us citing your rant when changing from big tag to unobtrusive icon. And it is not entirely alone, there is now a permanent protection icon as well (and another one that I saw that was green which I don't remember what it was for, but it was nice to see.)

I know that the sheer number of different tags has increased geometrically in the same time. (I'm waiting for the "Recently Died Albino Ventriliquist" tag.) But while the species continue to increase in number, the genus is being hunted, and the total population is being kept down. And, occasionally, we do get to see an extinction take place. Rare, but satisfying.

Maybe you do realize the extent of your impact. I hope so. Regardless, I wanted to thank you for articulating this idea and helping to improve the encyclopedia. Cheers. Unschool (talk) 07:19, 31 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
For articulating an idea that others had either never brought to the fore or had not even begun to formulate—the problem of the Plague of Tags—and for the impact that this idea has had on this Project. No, the battle is not won, and may never be, but because of your truly great rant, we know for what we struggle. Unschool (talk) 07:19, 31 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much for the kind words and the barnstar!
The last months I've been a less active wikipedian due to real life stuff, but I read and refer people to wikipedia all the time, and it really annoys me when quite fine articles starts off with one or more tags with (more often than not) either trivial and obvious information (that is usually repeated in the first paragraph of the article, anyway), or with some off topic note about how the article is not perfect. It makes me want to not share the article with others.
Yeah, the sheer number of different tags is increasing. Often this leads to even more tag-bloat in the same article because the more specific the tags are, the more of them you need to cover a slightly wider topic. Like (random example) the article on the Bering Strait bridge. The general future construction template was replaced by two newer and more specialized tags, the tunnel and the bridge tag, because they both apply. Of course, nobody seems to question whether the tags really are helpful to the reader. If someone actually doesn't know that the thing hasn't been build yet, the first sentence of the article would tell him that anyway.
And on low resolution displays (still very common in poorer parts of the world, and I sometimes use one myself) the tags really come off as obtrusive and annoying because they are often all you see of the article without scrolling.
Again, thanks for the kind words! Shanes (talk) 09:05, 2 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FAR nomination[edit]

Ku Klux Klan has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. OrangeMarlin Talk• Contributions 23:14, 31 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I really have only been involved in keeping the article free of vandalism, and haven't edited it for quite a long time. I don't have the time to get involved in this review now. Shanes (talk) 09:14, 2 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Conclusion: Image placeholders centralized discussion[edit]

Hi. I'm sending this to you because you participated in the Centralized discussion on image placeholders that ended on 23 April.

That discussion must produce a conclusion.

We originally asked "Should the addition of this box [example right] be allowed? Does the placeholder system and graphic image need to be improved to satisfy policies and guidelines for inclusion? Is it appropriate to some kinds of biographies, but not to others?" (See introduction).

Conclusions to centralized discussions are either marked as 'policy', 'guideline', 'endorsed', 'rejected', 'no consensus', or 'no change' etc. We should now decide for this discussion.

Please read and approve or disapprove the section here: Conclusion --Kleinzach (talk) 11:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please note this message conforms to WP:CANVASSING and has not been sent to anyone has not already participated in the centralized discussion.

Adding the external link (www.justdial.com) on Vizag City article...[edit]

Dear, 

My understanding is that if somebody is looking at the city article on wikipedia, it means the person is looking for more details about that city and if a site can help a user to find local details it should be included. As such www.justdial.com can provide many such local details and it should be included in the external links.

Regards, Alok. Harmonyinfotech (talk) 14:44, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Theodore Roosevelt FAR[edit]

Theodore Roosevelt has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 02:25, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Improvements necessary to keep Rosa Parks as a Featured Article[edit]

As with most articles promoted so long ago, this article does not currently meet the Featured article criteria. Since you have been a major contributor to the article, I would appreciate your help to bring this article up to the current standards. Please don't take this as an insult to the article, as it is well-written and there shouldn't be a lot of work necessary.

I have listed my concerns on the article's talk page. I would like to get this up to the current standards without going through a Featured Article review, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks, GaryColemanFan (talk) 20:15, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimania 2010 could be coming to Stockholm![edit]

I'm leaving you a note as you may be interested in this opportunity.

People from all six Nordic Wiki-communities (sv, no, nn, fi, da and is) are coordinating a bid for Wikimania 2010 in Stockholm. I'm sending you a message to let you know that this is occurring, and over the next few months we're looking for community support to make sure this happens! See the bid page on meta and if you like such an idea, please sign the "supporters" list at the bottom. Tack (or takk), and have a wonderful day! Mike H. Fierce! 08:10, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cato Zahl Pedersen[edit]

Hi. Thank you for your addition to this list! I've created a stub on Cato Zahl Pedersen, based on what little information I could find in English. If you'd like to complete it based on sources in Norwegian, that'd be great. Thanks again! Aridd (talk) 11:50, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've also created a stub about Ragnhild Myklebust. But there's a problem with the medal tally. Several websites say that she has a total of 22 medals, but if you add up the 18 she won from 1988 to 1994, according the IPC website, and the 5 she won in 2002 (also according to several websites), you get to 23. Would you happen to know whether she won 22 or 23? Aridd (talk) 12:19, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry, I really don't know much about Paralympics, but Cato Zahl Pedersen is kind of famous in Norway. But I might look into this later. Shanes (talk) 08:31, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You've hit the big time (at least for the moment).[edit]

I've just added a link to your rant here: Wikipedia:Accessibility. We'll see if it sticks. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 15:28, 7 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

re: tim berners-lee[edit]

i don't have a message about this edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tim_Berners-Lee&diff=237891234&oldid=237886616 message was about the source Lihaas (talk) 17:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, some of your recent edits have been reverted as they could be seen to be defamatory or potentially libellous. Take a look at our welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. Lihaas (talk) 07:08, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Missouri Compromise protection[edit]

Thanks for semiprotecting the page from IP vandals. I wish this was used much more frequently on various pages. After fighting for this before on other frequently vandalized pages I got so much resistance from the supposed guardians that I gave up on wiki's protection process. It seemed structured to waste the time of conscientious editors and protect IP vandals. Red Harvest (talk) 17:27, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Info opstuss[edit]

Hei, uunskylld - skirver dete litte forrvanssket. Kune trenngt lit rådd eller jelp. Det er vallg "over dammenn" og det virker som om dette resullterer i en del sytemisk oppførsell på Wikipedia. Jeg er interessert i forsvaarshistorie og filosofi. Stort sett kikker jeg på alt det flotte som er lagt til på Wikipedia om ulike militær-relaterte artikler; teknisk interesse som jeg har. Nå har jeg imidlertid begynt en serie utvidelser på interessante artikler - Foreign interventionism og Bush Doctrine. Eter allt opstusset derr over - om den sisste av disze artiklene - så virrker det som om de gjøre live surtt for end-ringer. Haar duu non' gode råde å giv mej? Beklager forspanskingen av språrket her, men du skjønerr kanskje - vil ikke dra u-nødigg grei-ehr om vemm jei e' och om valjet som-er-dher. Jej beer omm du får til å kjike på greja, praht på sia' om Talk:Bush Doctrine og kjik på skriivinga. Tusen takk. Scierguy (talk) 20:42, 19 September 2008 (UTC) Jeg vil også bare gjøre klart at min rettning er beggrenset ahv historie og filosofi, itjnå parrti. Sjåast Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countering systemic bias#Bush Doctrine... Scierguy (talk) 20:44, 19 September 2008 (UTC) Frestande å ji opp nær de e såå my trøblate greia, men en have nu kommi så længt. Dæm e bare gænske hårsaar av sæ oxo dæm som driv på. Mang pussi teknikker såm brukass. Trauri och vanskeli å rii ut deh aleihne... Regner med det kanskje blir en del vandalisering av artikkelen når den kommer ut av beskyttelse nå snart... Scierguy (talk) 23:29, 19 September 2008 (UTC) Forresten, og beklager all skrivingen, men du kan oversette alt over hvis det er i strid mot wiki-interesser. Eig berre sjåar på den tismessie vinkern i å få på plassa innholje, og at det kan forbedres. Det er jo det hele Wikipedia handler om. Emmene verker utruli kontroversielt før mang... och de e berre synnj. Unnskyld bryderiet uansett. See you around. Scierguy (talk) 23:41, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jean Etienne Valluy[edit]

Hi Shanes

New user here asking for your help please. I am Jean Etienne Valluy's grandson and have made a few changes to his entry and linked to a new page on the French site. I would like to change the titles of the page to the right name but as far as I understand I can't do that without 10 edits. Maybe you could do it and also check that I have not contravened any wiki policies.

Many thanks,

Ptrickf (talk) 08:16, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What about the moon?[edit]

In all the discussion of NEO's impacting earth, is there a possibility of moon impact that could have 'collateral damage' to earth? I assume there would be a much lower kinetic energy involved for the same NEO hitting the moon, but how much impact can the moon stand? Would 1000 MT cause a big enough chunk to come off the moon that it would,also, be a PHA? 76.226.118.135 (talk) 21:58, 26 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In general, an impact on the moon is much less likely since it's smaller. But if a really big one hits the moon, it could have consequences for the earth as moon rocks being ejected from it could shower us as lunar meteorites some time later. The moon rocks found on earth today are debris from such earlier impacts. I don't know how many MT such an impact would have to be. An impact large enough to destroy the moon would need an asteroid so big that we'd known about it by now. But when scientists calculate impact probabilities, the moon and its trajectory are taken well into account. So it's very likely that we'll know about any moon impact of that size well in advance. Shanes (talk) 12:06, 28 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Merge/Redirect with no discussion[edit]

Hi Shanes, In 2006 you were very helpful in combatting the attacks of a sock-puppeteer on the Ben Best page, so I am wondering if you can investigate a recent edit to that page. With no discussion or warning Sticky Parkin has effectively deleted the Ben Best page by asserting it is non-notable and redirecting the page to Cryonics Institute. This was in no sense a "merge", none the contents of Ben Best were moved to Cryonics Institute, and most of those contents would be inappropriate there. I realize that I have a vested interest in the matter, but the fact is that I am a notable personality in the cryonics movement -- not simply because of my Cryonics Institute Presidency -- and the Ben Best page has stood for over 3 years without this kind of high-handed ruling by a single user that the subject is not independently notable. Your attention to this matter would be appreciated. --Ben Best (talk) 19:13, 31 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest you take it up with User:Sticky Parkin and sort it out with him. Shanes (talk) 20:45, 2 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Message[edit]

First Crusade has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. OpenSeven (talk) 17:00, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A favor[edit]

Shanes, what would it take to have my own IP address permanently blocked? Without, of course, impacting my ability to edit under my username? I have an adolescent in the house that I am trying to control, and I want him to edit only with a username, not as an anonymous editor. Our home's IP address is 68.218.222.8. Can this be done? Unschool (talk) 03:50, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've blocked that IP from editing now. Users with an account can still edit if they log in. Shanes (talk) 11:42, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Man, I was wondering when you were going to respond, and I was just checking back now before I went to bed, to see if you had edited at all today. Turns out I had forgotten to put your page on my watchlist. Anyway, thanks a million for doing that for me; that timing is good, too; it'll give him plenty of time to develop good habits if he has the desire to really do this. Thanks again! Unschool (talk) 08:59, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ravens Bluff[edit]

Hello. I'm not sure what content was under Ravens Bluff when you deleted it; since then a redirect has been placed there. If it was not copyvio, could you please restore the edit history? Thanks! BOZ (talk) 05:01, 24 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done. As you can see, the original ip-author blanked its content, someone then placed a db-empty there, and I deleted it. This is over 3 years ago. Shanes (talk) 08:44, 24 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Rough Diamond (album)[edit]

It's not by David Byron, it's by a very short lived, NN band that he was part of. The band has absolutely no notability besides that he was part of it (no sources at all), so I felt that A9 was warranted. The source is just a copy from allmusic that doesn't even mention the album really. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • (Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP) 00:02, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can argue about the fame of the band, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the album is notable simply from the fact that he sang on it (and co-produced it etc). David Byron was a very notable musician. So is Clem Clempson and to a lesser degree Geoff Britton. I notice that you're rather young and probably haven't heard about any of these people, and maybe you didn't bother to find out who these guys are/were, or maybe you're just being anal about sources. Google for 'Rough Diamond David Byron' if you want sources. In my opinion any recordings by these people are notable and the article on this album should be kept. After finding out what the proper procedure is nowadays I'll either just restore it myself and have you take it to afd if you still insist that the recording isn't notable, or I'll take it to delreview. Shanes (talk) 01:16, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New Page[edit]

Hi I want to create a new page Battle Casualties of WW2. How do I do it?--Woogie10w (talk) 02:16, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, how do I get a Contents box to appear?--Woogie10w (talk) 12:34, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Also what is the current Wikipedia template for citing sources? ref>>> ??? Please take a look at my edits to the new page and let me know if I am doing it correctly, thanks--Woogie10w (talk) 12:39, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Stubs?[edit]

Shane I reverted the edit you made this moring Pietas (goddess) but on second thought I would like some advice. Is it implied in stub that they do not have references or is it appropriate to mark stubs as requiring a reference? RP459 (talk) 15:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on User talk:RP459 Shanes (talk) 18:44, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Need hep to protect the page of Albanian Armed Forces[edit]

Hello Shanes. Sorry, I went through you name trying to contact an administrator because I need help. Since 2 years so far I have been building the page on the Albanian military. Adding neccesary info and pictures. I am a former albanian military, and I work within a NATO HQ that provides advice to the Albanian Armed Forces. Recently there are many people who do set up fake info in this page, last one yesterday, new user Saranda1, mainly copy paste from stupid nationalist pages, quite common on the net. The page on the Albanian military used to be protected, I mean only established users were able to change it. Recently this doesn't seem to work. Of course wikipedia fo me is a free time passion, but because my work is important I am not a master in delaing with many technical details of it in case I would need some help. Would you help me? I would appreciate that. Best regards. Gerd_72 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gerd 72 (talk • contribs) 08:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It looks to me like an ongoing content dispute on the Military of Albania article. Looking through the recent history of that page, I see some editors that want to add a an "Equipment" section to the article, while you keep deleting it. On Talk:Military of Albania a user has even called your removal of that section for vandalism. I have no idea which one of you is right, but I believe the article's talk page is the proper place to discuss content issues like this. So I suggest you try to reason with the other editors on Talk:Military of Albania, maybe start by explaining why you don't want that "Equipment"-section in the article. Shanes (talk) 09:50, 19 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the rant . . .[edit]

Shane, as I'm sure I've told you, I often place a link to the rant directly onto talk pages. Of course this means that the reader, if they actually click on it, is getting a taste of archeology. Now I totally understand and support your position on not updating the rant. Indeed, I don't think its necessarily necessary. But I would suggest that some type of disclaimer be placed on it, indicating that you are aware that it is dated, but that it still serves the same purpose.

After all, you have achieved total victory on spoiler tags and the semi-protected tag has been replaced by a small icon 99% of the time. An acknowledgement paragraph at the top might be good for the editor who has been on Wikipedia for only a couple of months and lands here and just doesn't know what you're talking about. Cheers. Unschool 21:56, 22 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree and have added a note. Shanes (talk) 09:45, 23 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good. Unschool 05:33, 24 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for File:Per Borten.jpg[edit]

Thanks for uploading or contributing to File:Per Borten.jpg. I notice the file page specifies that the file is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Wikipedia constitutes fair use. Please go to the file description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'file' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "File" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Stifle (talk) 16:49, 25 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

George W. Bush GA Sweeps: On Hold[edit]

I have reviewed George W. Bush for GA Sweeps to determine if it still qualifies as a Good Article. In reviewing the article I have found several issues, which I have detailed here. Since you are a main contributor of the article (determined based on this tool), I figured you would be interested in contributing to further improve the article. Please comment there to help the article maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 21:59, 3 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Panama Canal[edit]

I have nominated Panama Canal for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. DrKiernan (talk) 16:48, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Your Opinion would be appreciated[edit]

I would appreciate your comments regarding the use of sources Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Sources for WW2 losses in Asia

Thanks --Woogie10w (talk) 23:19, 24 July 2009 (UTC

Hello, Shanes. You have new messages at User talk:Shanes/Why tags are evil.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Milton Friedman Criticisms[edit]

The 'Criticism' section in Milton Friedman's article is so inherently biased that it does more harm than good. Instead of creating an objective list and explanation of academic/popular criticisms the article offers straw man arguments and conservative rebuttals.

Until it can be improved the criticism section should not be included. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kapitalsmith (talk • contribs) 20:57, 12 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I'm fine and agree with that. But it's important that you put a comment/explanation in the edit summary field when you make substantial edits like that. Shanes (talk) 21:12, 12 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mathematics big change: Discrete mathematics[edit]

I see you want to protect the integrity of the article Mathematics, and rightly so. Yesterday, Bethnim replaced the paragraph about Discrete Mathematics with a paragraph about Theoretical Computer Science, removing half of the subdiscipline-indicating images within Discrete Mathematics. The quality seems to be far less than the previous version, but I don't feel myself the right person to solve this problem. Can you? Thanks, BertSeghers (talk) 10:53, 24 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia's tagline[edit]

Hi. I noticed that you participated in a 2005/2006 discussion and straw poll on whether or not the tagline at the top of all Wikipedia articles should be changed from "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" to "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit". I don't know if you're still interested in this issue or not, but this exact change has been proposed once again, this time at the Village pump, and there is currently an RFC (Request for Comment) on the subject where it is being discussed. All Hallow's Wraith (talk) 18:14, 13 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

First Crusade A-Class review[edit]

Hello. As you are one of the major contributors to the First Crusade, I invite you to comment and help with suggestions at its A-Class review. Thanks. —MC10 (T•C•GB•L) 17:06, 15 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Would you be interested in helping with a documentary on the Panama Canal?[edit]

Hello, I noticed that you have more than ten edits on the Panama Canal article. First of all I would like to say thank you for contributing to Wikipedia. Secondly, I am writing to ask you if you would consider participating as an advisor to a group producing a documentary about the canal and its history. If this is of interest to you please drop me a note on my talk page. Thank you for your time. Psingleton (talk) 15:54, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Soda?[edit]

Do you drink soda? FortNikitaBullion (talk) 12:55, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would appreciate your input (a discussion about cleanup tags)[edit]

Hi Shanes. A couple of weeks ago I began a discussion concerning the size and number of cleanup templates found in articles today. Within the discussion, your "Why tags are evil" essay was brought to my attention. Given our two concepts are roughly similar, I would appreciate your views on what is being said in the discussion, whether or not you agree with my point of view and attempt on the issue. Thanks. — CobraWiki ( jabber | stuff ) 07:35, 4 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done. I wholeheartedly agree with you. --Shanes (talk) 20:43, 5 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Splitting Olympic medalist articles[edit]

Hello, since you have been involved in managing the articles List of multiple Olympic gold medalists and List of multiple Olympic medalists a lot longer than I am, and are in favor of splitting at least the former, perhaps you would like to comment on this again on the respective talk pages if you feel the need to do so. I just added a split template to each of the pages, but I'm not sure how long to wait for response before actually carry on with splitting, since you didn't get much response on your earlier call for opinions. Thanks. Gap9551 (talk) 21:39, 12 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you. And we've been waiting more than long enough. Just go ahead and split it. --Shanes (talk) 10:23, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, splitting completed. Gap9551 (talk) 18:35, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Featured article review for Rosa Parks[edit]

I have nominated Rosa Parks for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. You have received this notice because you have been identified as one of the top five editors of the article by edit count. Brad (talk) 03:52, 12 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]


MSU Interview[edit]

Dear Shanes,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication

Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia

Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU,

a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known

about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!)

want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea

(the class) to the community [[Wikipedia:Village_pump_

(proposals)/Archive_82#Learn_to_be_a_Wikipedia_Administrator_-_New_class_at_MSU|HERE]],

where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a

few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes,

dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our

students.


So a few things about the interviews:

  • Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
  • Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of

communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)

  • All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym)

will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission

to do so.

  • All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an

interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.

  • The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics

review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students

have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.


Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to

speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain

anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable

doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will

be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.


Sincerely,


Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 07:26, 12 February 2012

(UTC)

Young June Sah --Yjune.sah (talk) 20:30, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inappropriate time[edit]

Hi Shanes, may I ask you to remove all the tags in the article subjected to this Afd (except the Afd one, of course)? Whether or not you agree with the "keep" over there, yet you know that tags are many times used under bad faith, thus you will easily realize the tags there may be used as an attempt to influence the direction of the debate to a specific view. I mean, those tags were posted after the beginning of the Afd (though they have a early history), and the Afd’s debate in most part concerns if the subject (repeated in the tags) is a prejudice without any fundament. Therefore the tags are bad faith at worst, or totally redundant at best. Excalibursword (talk) 16:16, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but I'll stay away from that article. I sense major controversy, and since I'm not very active these days, I shy away from stuff like that. And, to be honest, that article doesn't interest me at all. Sorry. Incidentally I think tags warning about factual mistakes or original research are one of very few tags that could be appropriate to have in an article since readers might not become aware of problems like that without them. They are tags meant for the readers. Whether or not that article really is full of original research or not, I have no idea. Sorry, again. --Shanes (talk) 23:20, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It is OK. As likely you realized numerous editors, including me, realize that article very well sourced and totally encyclopedic (so, there is no room to SYNT or OR); besides, as I told you, those tags were inserted after the Afd (so hardly they were put for readers). Anyway, you were very courteous, thanks. Excalibursword (talk) 01:00, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Request to move Adolf Hitler's vegetarianism to Adolf Hitler's diet[edit]

Your comments would be appreciated at Talk:Adolf_Hitler's_vegetarianism#Requested_move. Nirvana2013 (talk) 16:35, 9 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Shanes[edit]

Do you have an interest in Gerald Ford?

Then maybe you might have an interest in joining WikiProject Gerald Ford! We're a group of editors working to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the life, career, and presidency of Gerald Ford.

We're very much a new project, so you have the opportunity to help form the design and structure of the WikiProject itself in addition to creating and improving content about Ford. You are more than welcome to join us by adding your username under the "Participants" section of our WikiProject page. Everyone is welcome, and you are free to contribute where and when you like.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask a member, and we'll be happy to help you. Hopefully we'll see you around the WikiProject!
You received this invitation in view of your significant contributions to the Gerald Ford article. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:17, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

for helping me (and others) keep an eye on the List of architecture firms‎. The list thung can get tricky - when to remove red links and when to let them stay. This is a list where I believe they should go as soon as possible. What to you think/feel about this list, for example? Carptrash (talk) 19:14, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's tricky. I think at least lists of companies should be limited to those with an article. In general, if a list could have many thousand entries without any filtering, the "article first"-rule is good. I'm more reluctant to the rule for older and more historical lists. But it depends on the number of potential entries. Medallists is a topic I don't know anything about, those who do should weigh in. But maybe it could be enough that the medals they made are notable. --Shanes (talk) 22:43, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Apophis edit warring[edit]

You recently blocked 70.171.255.160 for disruptive editing at 99942 Apophis. Almost the moment his block expired, he went right back to the same edit war, without even pretending to discuss. Someguy1221 (talk) 11:08, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I've blocked him again now. --Shanes (talk) 11:52, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

handball disambiguation[edit]

Please have a look at Talk:Team handball#Requested move. --Joy [shallot] (talk) 11:54, 6 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Georgia (country) to Georgia move suggestion[edit]

Please comment here. Thanks. georgianJORJADZE 18:24, 19 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Request for comment[edit]

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Asylum[edit]

Hi i just wanna ask you if i already have finger print in belgium can i do asylum in uk? Or any chance to stay in uk because here in belgium life is shit have no place to live many problems

Hehe. I'm really dying to know why you came to me with that question! Shanes (talk) 09:03, 11 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Article upgrade assistance request (Pre-translation stage)[edit]

Seasons Greetings,

This is in reference to a relatively new umbrella article on en-wikipedia named Ceremonial pole. Ceremonial pole is a human tradition since ancient times; either existed in past at some point of time, or still exists in some cultures across global continents from north to south & from east to west. Ceremonial poles are used to symbolize a variety of concepts in several different world cultures.

Through article Ceremonial pole we intend to take encyclopedic note of cultural aspects and festive celebrations around Ceremonial pole as an umbrella article and want to have historical, mythological, anthropological aspects, reverence or worships wherever concerned as a small part.

While Ceremonial poles have a long past and strong presence but usually less discussed subject. Even before we seek translation of this article in global languages, we need to have more encyclopedic information/input about Ceremonial poles from all global cultures and languages. And we seek your assistance in the same.

Since other contributors to the article are insisting for reliable sources and Standard native english; If your contributions get deleted (for some reason like linguistics or may be your information is reliable but unfortunately dosent match expectations of other editors) , please do list the same on Talk:Ceremonial pole page so that other wikipedians may help improve by interlanguage collaborations, and/or some other language wikipedias may be interested in giving more importance to reliablity of information over other factors on their respective wikipedia.

This particular request is being made to you since your user name is listed in Wikipedia:Translators available list.

Thanking you with warm regards Mahitgar (talk) 05:57, 24 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom elections are now open![edit]

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability 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, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:49, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary![edit]

Wishing Shanes/2008 to 2020 a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! FiendYT ★ 00:32, 29 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! Shanes (talk) 16:54, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship anniversary![edit]

Wishing Shanes/2008 to 2020 a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Elsa Enchanted 14:43, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
Thanks! Shanes (talk) 16:54, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Extended confirmed protection[edit]

Hello, Shanes. This message is intended to notify administrators of important changes to the protection policy.

Extended confirmed protection (also known as "30/500 protection") is a new level of page protection that only allows edits from accounts at least 30 days old and with 500 edits. The automatically assigned "extended confirmed" user right was created for this purpose. The protection level was created following this community discussion with the primary intention of enforcing various arbitration remedies that prohibited editors under the "30 days/500 edits" threshold to edit certain topic areas.

In July and August 2016, a request for comment established consensus for community use of the new protection level. Administrators are authorized to apply extended confirmed protection to combat any form of disruption (e.g. vandalism, sock puppetry, edit warring, etc.) on any topic, subject to the following conditions:

  • Extended confirmed protection may only be used in cases where semi-protection has proven ineffective. It should not be used as a first resort.
  • A bot will post a notification at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard of each use. MusikBot currently does this by updating a report, which is transcluded onto the noticeboard.

Please review the protection policy carefully before using this new level of protection on pages. Thank you.
This message was sent to the administrators' mass message list. To opt-out of future messages, please remove yourself from the list. 17:49, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

Soda = fat.[edit]

You drink soda, you get fat. It's that simple. Get it squarely into your head. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.168.59.134 (talk) 18:02, 30 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Fark you for blocking me in 2008.[edit]

Idiot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.168.59.134 (talk) 18:55, 31 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Two-Factor Authentication now available for admins[edit]

Hello,

Please note that TOTP based two-factor authentication is now available for all administrators. In light of the recent compromised accounts, you are encouraged to add this additional layer of security to your account. It may be enabled on your preferences page in the "User profile" tab under the "Basic information" section. For basic instructions on how to enable two-factor authentication, please see the developing help page for additional information. Important: Be sure to record the two-factor authentication key and the single use keys. If you lose your two factor authentication and do not have the keys, it's possible that your account will not be recoverable. Furthermore, you are encouraged to utilize a unique password and two-factor authentication for the email account associated with your Wikimedia account. This measure will assist in safeguarding your account from malicious password resets. Comments, questions, and concerns may be directed to the thread on the administrators' noticeboard. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:32, 12 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A new user right for New Page Patrollers[edit]

Hi Shanes.

A new user group, New Page Reviewer, has been created in a move to greatly improve the standard of new page patrolling. The user right can be granted by any admin at PERM. It is highly recommended that admins look beyond the simple numerical threshold and satisfy themselves that the candidates have the required skills of communication and an advanced knowledge of notability and deletion. Admins are automatically included in this user right.

It is anticipated that this user right will significantly reduce the work load of admins who patrol the performance of the patrollers. However,due to the complexity of the rollout, some rights may have been accorded that may later need to be withdrawn, so some help will still be needed to some extent when discovering wrongly applied deletion tags or inappropriate pages that escape the attention of less experienced reviewers, and above all, hasty and bitey tagging for maintenance. User warnings are available here but very often a friendly custom message works best.

If you have any questions about this user right, don't hesitate to join us at WT:NPR. (Sent to all admins).MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:47, 15 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open![edit]

Hello, Shanes. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

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 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. Mdann52 (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open![edit]

Hello, Shanes. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

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 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter - February 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2017). This first issue is being sent out to all administrators, if you wish to keep receiving it please subscribe. Your feedback is welcomed.

Administrator changes

NinjaRobotPirate • Schwede66 • K6ka • Ealdgyth • Ferret • Cyberpower678 • Mz7 • Primefac • Dodger67
Briangotts • JeremyA • BU Rob13

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • When performing some administrative actions the reason field briefly gave suggestions as text was typed. This change has since been reverted so that issues with the implementation can be addressed. (T34950)
  • Following the latest RfC concluding that Pending Changes 2 should not be used on the English Wikipedia, an RfC closed with consensus to remove the options for using it from the page protection interface, a change which has now been made. (T156448)
  • The Foundation has announced a new community health initiative to combat harassment. This should bring numerous improvements to tools for admins and CheckUsers in 2017.

Arbitration

Obituaries

  • JohnCD (John Cameron Deas) passed away on 30 December 2016. John began editing Wikipedia seriously during 2007 and became an administrator in November 2009.
Discuss this newsletter • Subscribe • Archive

13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2017).

Administrator changes

Amortias • Deckiller • BU Rob13
Ronnotel • Islander • Chamal N • Isomorphic • Keeper76 • Lord Voldemort • Shereth • Bdesham • Pjacobi

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • A recent query shows that only 16% of administrators on the English Wikipedia have enabled two-factor authentication. If you haven't already enabled it please consider doing so.
  • Cookie blocks should be deployed to the English Wikipedia soon. This will extend the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user after they switch accounts under a new IP.
  • A bot will now automatically place a protection template on protected pages when admins forget to do so.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:14, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2017).

Administrator changes

added TheDJ
removed Xnuala • CJ • Oldelpaso • Berean Hunter • Jimbo Wales • Andrew c • Karanacs • Modemac • Scott

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion on the backlog of unpatrolled files, consensus was found to create a new user right for autopatrolling file uploads. Implementation progress can be tracked on Phabricator.
  • The BLPPROD grandfather clause, which stated that unreferenced biographies of living persons were only eligible for proposed deletion if they were created after March 18, 2010, has been removed following an RfC.
  • An RfC has closed with consensus to allow proposed deletion of files. The implementation process is ongoing.
  • After an unsuccessful proposal to automatically grant IP block exemption, consensus was found to relax the criteria for granting the user right from needing it to wanting it.

Technical news

  • After a recent RfC, moved pages will soon be featured in a queue similar to Special:NewPagesFeed and require patrolling. Moves by administrators, page movers, and autopatrolled editors will be automatically marked as patrolled.
  • Cookie blocks have been deployed. This extends the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user if they switch accounts, even under a new IP.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:55, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2017).

Administrator changes

added Karanacs • Berean Hunter • GoldenRing • Dlohcierekim
removed Gdr • Tyrenius • JYolkowski • Longhair • Master Thief Garrett • Aaron Brenneman • Laser brain • JzG • Dragons flight

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

  • Following an RfC, the editing restrictions page is now split into a list of active restrictions and an archive of those that are old or on inactive accounts. Make sure to check both pages if searching for a restriction.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:20, 2 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2017).

Administrator changes

added Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn
removed ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:40, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]


Can you help verify translations of articles from Norwegian[edit]

Hello Shanes,

Would you be able to help evaluate the accuracy of translations of Wikipedia articles from Norwegian to English Wikipedia?

File:Language icon.svg

This would involve evaluating a translated article on the English Wikipedia by comparing it to the original Norwegian article, and marking it "Pass" or "Fail" based on whether the translation faithfully represents the original. Here's the reason for this request:

There are a number of articles on English Wikipedia that were created as machine translations from different languages including Norwegian, using the Content Translation tool, sometimes by users with no knowledge of the source language. The config problem that allowed this to happen has since been fixed, but this has left us with a backlog of articles whose accuracy of translation is suspect or unknown, including some articles translated from Norwegian. In many cases, other editors have come forward later to copyedit and fix any English grammar or style issues, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the translation is accurate, as factual errors from the original translation may remain. To put it another way: Good English is not the same as good translation.

If you can help out, that would be great. Here's a sample of the articles that need checking:

All you have to do, is compare the English article to the Norwegian article, and mark it "Pass" or "Fail" (templates {{Pass}} and {{Fail}} may be useful). (Naturally, if you feel like fixing an inaccurate translation and then marking it "Pass", that's even better, but it isn't required.)

If you can help, please let me know. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elinruby (talk • contribs) 09:58, 2 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2017).

Administrator changes

added Happyme22 • Dragons flight
removed Zad68

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

  • A newly revamped database report can help identify users who may be eligible to be autopatrolled.
  • A potentially compromised account from 2001–2002 attempted to request resysop. Please practice appropriate account security by using a unique password for Wikipedia, and consider enabling two-factor authentication. Currently around 17% of admins have enabled 2FA, up from 16% in February 2017.
  • Did you know: On 29 June 2017, there were 1,261 administrators on the English Wikipedia – the exact number of administrators as there were ten years ago on 29 June 2007. Since that time, the English Wikipedia has grown from 1.85 million articles to over 5.43 million.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:59, 6 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2017).

Administrator changes

added Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 (first RfA to reach WP:300)
removed Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 1 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2017).

Administrator changes

added Nakon • Scott
removed Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
  • Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
  • In your notification preferences, you can now block specific users from pinging you. This functionality will soon be available for Special:EmailUser as well.

Arbitration

  • Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:35, 1 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2017).

Administrator changes

added Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem
removed Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

  • Community consultation on the 2017 candidates for CheckUser and Oversight has concluded. The Arbitration Committee will appoint successful candidates by October 11.
  • A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:23, 2 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2017).

Administrator changes

added Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93
removed Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite

Technical news

Arbitration

Obituaries

  • The Wikipedia community has recently learned that Allen3 (William Allen Peckham) passed away on December 30, 2016, the same day as JohnCD. Allen began editing in 2005 and became an administrator that same year.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:49, 2 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2017[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017).

Administrator changes

added Joe Roe
readded JzG
removed Ericorbit • Perceval • Thingg • Tristanb • Violetriga

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:57, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2017 election voter message[edit]

Hello, Shanes. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible 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 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).

Administrator changes

added Muboshgu
readded Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned
removed None

Bureaucrat changes

readded Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
  • Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

Technical news

  • A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:51, 4 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Lourdes†
removed AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V
† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news

  • The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
  • Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
  • A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
  • A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

Technical news

  • CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
  • The edit filter has a new feature contains_all that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

Miscellaneous

Obituaries

  • Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added 331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG
removed Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando

Guideline and policy news

  • Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
  • Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
  • The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
  • The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

Technical news

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

Miscellaneous

  • A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news

  • The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
  • A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news

  • AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
  • When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
  • The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
  • There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

Obituaries

  • Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:05, 2 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
  • There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
  • It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

Arbitration

  • A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:00, 1 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
readded Gogo Dodo
removed Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes

removed Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

  • Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
  • Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

  • Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Sro23
readded 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

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

Administrators' newsletter – September 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
renamed Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

added Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

Technical news

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Justlettersandnumbers • L235
removed Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter

Interface administrator changes

added Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333

Oversight changes

removed Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
  • Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
  • The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
  • Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
  • Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
  • A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
  • The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

Arbitration

  • Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
  • The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en@wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:19, 3 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2018 election voter message[edit]

Hello, Shanes. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible 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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018[edit]

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

Administrator changes

readded Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
removed Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes

removedDeryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
  • A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
  • A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
  • Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  1. G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
  2. R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
  3. G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.

Technical news

  • Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:
  1. At least 8 characters in length
  2. Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
  3. Different from their username
User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
  • Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
  • {{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
  • Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Difficult Editor[edit]

I'm not entirely sure this is the right place, but I need some advice. I added made an edit here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Democratic_Socialists_of_America&diff=prev&oldid=876810292 Which resulted in a dispute with this user: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JesseRafe

He seemed to consent to the fact that more/a better citation was needed.

Here is our discussion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:JesseRafe#Anti-Racism

Later on I noticed incorrect information on sale times for my home state and made the following edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_alcohol_laws_of_the_United_States&oldid=876973017

Two days later it seems he's reverted it with no explanation. If I go to his talk page and ask him about it, he will probably accuse me of harassment again.

I don't edit frequently so I'm not sure how this should be addressed.

Thanks for any advice

74.196.133.39 (talk) 20:57, 9 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

My advice to a new or inexperienced editor who comes across disputes like this is to just take a step back, let it go and edit somewhere else. It's not worth the time and frustration. I'll also recommend getting a named account. Edits from a named account are more likely to stick and there really aren't any drawbacks to it. All the best Shanes (talk) 22:25, 9 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the response.
I did end up figured out what he meant by "Rv OR". I don't see how NCGS 18b-1004 is original research. Though it's a primary source, it seems to be allowed per the guidelines and given the context.
I did try to log into my old account, but I wasn't able to recover it because I no longer have access to that email.
I could make another account, but should I have another dispute with a user and they are sore about it and follow my account around I assume the advice would be the same.
There is no reason to create another account to be told to just don't edit.
I know that's likely not what you meant, but that seems to be the effect.
LB 74.196.133.39 (talk) 23:16, 9 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Enterprisey • JJMC89
readded BorgQueen
removed Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes

removedEnterprisey

Guideline and policy news

  • A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
  • Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

Technical news

  • A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.

Miscellaneous

  • Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
  • A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:16, 4 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019[edit]

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

ArbCom 2019 special circular[edit]

Icon of a white exclamation mark within a black triangle
 Administrators must secure their accounts

The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.

View additional information

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:47, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)[edit]

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)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

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 so will 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.

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 5 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019[edit]

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

Administrator changes

removed Andonic • Consumed Crustacean • Enigmaman • Euryalus • EWS23 • HereToHelp • Nv8200pa • Peripitus • StringTheory11 • Vejvančický

CheckUser changes

removed Ivanvector

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

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:49, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019[edit]

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

Administrator changes

removed 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.

Guideline and policy news

  • In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.

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

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:20, 1 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

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.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:24, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
readded Floquenbeam • Lectonar
removed DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes

removed Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed 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

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019[edit]

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

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.

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

Miscellaneous

  • The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:55, 2 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

  • A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:15, 3 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message[edit]

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 {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:04, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019[edit]

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

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
removed Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:48, 2 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020[edit]

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).

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.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:06, 1 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2020).

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 than should not.
  • A request for comment confirmed that sandboxes of established but inactive editors may not be blanked due solely to inactivity.

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


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:21, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2020).

Guideline and policy news

  • There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.

Technical news

Arbitration

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.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:00, 1 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary![edit]

Wishing Shanes a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Aasim 01:16, 29 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary![edit]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Have a very happy adminship anniversary on your special day!

Best wishes, CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 02:02, 29 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2020).

Administrator changes

removed Gnangarra • Kaisershatner • Malcolmxl5

CheckUser changes

readded Callanecc

Oversight changes

readded HJ Mitchell

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2020).

Administrator changes

added CaptainEek • Creffett • Cwmhiraeth
removed Anna Frodesiak • Buckshot06 • Ronhjones • SQL

CheckUser changes

removed SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

  • A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:28, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:26, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2020).

Administrator changes

added Red Phoenix
readded Euryalus • SQL
removed Jujutacular • Monty845 • Rettetast • Madchester

Oversight changes

readded GB fan
removed Keegan • Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

Guideline and policy news

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:21, 1 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2020).

Administrator changes

added Eddie891
removed Angela • Jcw69 • Just Chilling • Philg88 • Viajero

CheckUser changes

readded SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:57, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2020).

Administrator changes

added Ajpolino • LuK3
readded Jackmcbarn
removed Ad Orientem • Harej • Lid • Lomn • Mentoz86 • Oliver Pereira • XJaM
renamed There'sNoTime → TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:43, 1 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

October 2020[edit]

Information icon Welcome to Wikipedia. It might not have been your intention, but you recently removed maintenance templates from Mojibake. When removing maintenance templates, please be sure to either resolve the problem that the template refers to, or give a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Please see Help:Maintenance template removal for further information on when maintenance templates should or should not be removed. If this was a mistake, don't worry, as your removal of this template has been reverted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia, and if you would like to experiment, please use your sandbox. Thank you. Elizium23 (talk) 00:56, 31 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Shanes, per WP:TTR I feel templates are a neutral and effective way of communicating to other users when they have made an error, and it matters not to me the experience of the one to whom I send a template, although I considered raising the warning level above "1" given your obvious experience and editing time. Elizium23 (talk) 01:27, 31 October 2020 (UTC) Elizium23 (talk) 01:28, 31 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:53, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. 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 2020 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 {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:17, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2020[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2020).

Administrator changes

removed Andrwsc • Anetode • GoldenRing • JzG • LinguistAtLarge • Nehrams2020

Interface administrator changes

added Izno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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