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

• A discussion to workshop proposals to amend the administrator inactivity policy at Wikipedia talk:Administrators has been in process since late December 2016.
• Wikipedia:Pending changes/Request for Comment 2016 closed with no consensus for implementing Pending changes level 2 with new criteria for use.
• Following an RfC, an activity requirement is now in place for bots and bot operators.

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

• The Arbitration Committee released a response to the Wikimedia Foundation's statement on paid editing and outing.

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.

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13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

19:46, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue I, January 2017 Headlines Brazil report: GLAM news in January Côte d'Ivoire report: Editing during #1Lib1Ref, presenting at WikiIndaba 2017 Estonia report: Paintings and graphic art depicting Tartu from Tartu Art Museum's collection, photographers' biographic data Germany report: January: less action - more planning Italy report: WMI @ Uffizi Macedonia report: Winners of DARM Challenge 2 and Karpoš Municipality meeting Netherlands report: WiR in Gelderland; Royal Library supporting #1Lib1Ref; De nieuwe rijschool; Impact assessment image donation Norway report: Immigration of images and #faktajakt Spain report: Open Heritage: our first wikivisit Sweden report: Connected Open Heritage; GLAM and Open data; #1lib1ref UK report: Libraries, Museums, Hospitals and Antiquities Ukraine report: Libraries Help Break Record for Ukrainian Wikipedia Birthday USA report: Wikipedia Day 2017 Open Access report: Over 700 new videos uploaded Wikidata report: Commons structured data takes a big step forwards WMF GLAM report: Ramping up structured Commons, #1lib1ref success, and other updates Calendar: February's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

Just a quick pointer to Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 December 20#Category:Unassessed-Class_articles, which was closed as "rename" per your nomination.

Your nomination seemed to indicate an understanding of the relevant WikiProject classification templates, so I thought that I would notify you in case there was any followup work you wanted to do. If I misunderstood things, then sorry for disturbing you. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 03:54, 11 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• @BrownHairedGirl: Thanks for the notice. I'm waiting a little bit to make the change since {{class}} has over six million transclusions; aiming to update the template code sometime when the servers have slightly less work to start. Can't hurt, right? I'll make the template change first, then use three moves to swap the category and soft-redirect in place, then do an AWB run to fix child categories, the last probably competing a bit with bots—but minimizing the transition period is probably worth it. {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 14:09, 11 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Or, hmm, looks like Cydebot has already done the second parts. Efficient bots are efficient. Since only the template change is left, I'll do it in about 12 hours; looks like sometime near midnight where I am (UTC -5) is good. {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 15:37, 11 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's great work. Looks like it is nearly all done ... but Category:Unassessed-Class articles is not yet empty, and when I tried a few null edits to purge the stragglers, it made no difference. From a quick glance it seems that there are a few specialist templates, such as Template:WPMILHIST Task force assessment level category, which need updating. May I leave those to you to sort out? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 08:10, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• @BrownHairedGirl: WOSlinker deserves the credit, but the top-level category's empty now. The catch is that I've discovered {{unassessed class}}, which is used in {{WPBannerMeta/hooks/qualimpintersect}} and produces the "-Class" suffix when used with UNASSESSED_APPENDIX = -Class or similar. A quick search uncovers more cleanup that'll have to be done. In particular, it looks like the affected WikiProjects are using the "-Class" suffix in lower-level categories. I guess my next step's to work on resolving these lower-level inconsistencies. It'll take some more category moves to fix these, and that parameter ought to be eliminated—the whole point of the move that kicked this off was to provide category naming consistency, after all. I'm just worried that the rabbit hole I'm leaping into is less "Lua-fy {{class}}" (my original goal) and more "Lua-fy {{WPBannerMeta}}" (!!!). {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 16:49, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that you recently edited the Constitution Of The United States (COTUS) page on Wikipedia. I was wondering what had changed. I am a newby at membership (although a Wikiversity member since 2012) and so do not know how to search backwards for changes to entries. Thank you for supporting this page!

Jlodgec (talk) 21:08, 11 February 2017 (UTC)John L. Onnelly (jlodgec)[reply]

• @Jlodgec: Here's the diff (short for "difference", a diff has a specific "textual comparison" meaning) showing the change I made. It was pretty minor: I replaced the template {{further2}} (which takes raw markup as its input) with {{further}}, which takes a page link as its input. As part of that, I "unpiped" the link produced, i.e. removed the display text so it displays the link provided exactly. That said, {{further}} uses Lua to tweak the formatting, so we get pretty output with a section sign ("§") instead of the "#" markup normally part of section links (which comes from its use to implement section links in URLs). Both {{further}} and {{further2}} produce pretty similar hatnote messages, but as far as I'm concerned {{further}} is vastly preferable, so I replaced the usage. Most people won't notice much different there but the display text for the link.

  You can see a full list of changes to articles using the "history" link in the tabs at the top of the page; mine is still the most recent as of this response, so it's at the top. There's also documentation on how page histories work, if you'd like. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me! :) {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 03:48, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Precious

Two years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:50, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Three years now! ----Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:10, 12 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

18:06, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Hello Nihiltres. I noticed that a recent edit you performed on Template:COMICS Work group assessment level category seems to have created a small problem. For some reason, the template is now categorizing pages using it under the category Category:X articles (which don't exist), rather than Category:X-class articles. Since you were the one who made the edit and I'm terrified of editing templates (how do you people keep track of all those brackets?), I thought it'd be prudent to let you know. Thanks! spiderjerky (talk) 21:39, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Spiderjerky: Ack! The problem was precisely that I didn't keep track of all the brackets. I can't believe I bungled that so badly; I've fixed it now. The change means that the template outputs Category:Unassessed articles instead of Category:Unassessed-Class articles when parameter 2 is "unassessed", since the latter category has been renamed to the former. {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 01:03, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

19:25, 20 February 2017 (UTC) 19:56, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

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

• A recent RfC has redefined how articles on schools are evaluated at AfD. Specifically, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
• AfDs that receive little participation should now be closed like an expired proposed deletion, following a deletion process RfC.
• Defender, HakanIST, Matiia and Sjoerddebruin are our newest stewards, following the 2017 steward elections.
• The 2017 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Góngora, Krd, Lankiveil, Richwales and Vogone. They will serve for approximately 1 year.

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.

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I read over the sockpuppetry page and I'm still confused. I want to make a second account. I want to use this one for sports and the new one for everything else. My watchlist is a mess. Can I do this? Thanks. Leggomygreggo8 (talk) 17:54, 3 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Leggomygreggo8: Hmm. That's an interesting question! My initial reaction is that regardless of whether it's technically allowed, it's a bad idea—it'll look strange, and "smell like" a sockpuppet even assuming you're great about keeping everything separate. Although I think a bad idea, I don't think it's a violation of the spirit of the rules, as long as you're clear about it being an above-board alternative account, probably through a prominent link between the userpage of each account.

It's probably worth considering alternatives. For example, if your watchlist feels overloaded, you could create a "secondary watchlist" by making a list of links on a user subpage and then using Special:RecentChangesLinked on that page—the catch being that the secondary watchlist would be inherently public, while the main one is private. {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 18:10, 3 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

23:23, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue II, February 2017 Headlines Argentina report: Images donation Australia and New Zealand report: #1lib1ref - what's next? Belgium report: Local heritage monuments Brazil report: Creating new articles on cultural heritage Bulgaria report: 2017 European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting and Wikimedians of Bulgaria User Group; New scanners for digitizing in BASA Côte d'Ivoire report: Providing sources for the BlackPower Edit-a-thon and more... France report: #1lib1ref and slate museum Germany report: Exhibition photography; WikiLibrary Barcamp Greece report: Memories+History & #1lib1ref workshop Italy report: WLM awards, #1Lib1Ref and seminars Macedonia report: Edit-a-thon and memorandum for collaboration with the Memorial House Of Mother Theresa Mexico report: 100 years of the Constitution of Mexico and Mexican flags: Edit-a-thon in the Center for the Study of Mexican History Netherlands report: Rare drawings of Brazilian animals; Wikimedian-in-Residence Erfgoed Gelderland Norway report: Linking Fotodugnad to Commons Serbia report: Content donation from an artist Davorin Dinić Spain report: #1Lib1Ref Sweden report: Swedish GLAM-WikiEdu project nominated for Pedagogy Award of the year; Connected Open Heritage UK report: Enlightenment comes to Wikidata USA report: Black Lunch Table + Black History Month Special story: European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting Open Access report: Over 1000 new multimedia files, e.g. on predation, prediction and spying Wikidata report: Putting Wikidata on the Map (and on Quora, and on Facebook) WMF GLAM report: European Coordinators Meeting and Planning Calendar: March's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

15:26, 13 March 2017 (UTC) 22:03, 20 March 2017 (UTC) 14:47, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

TheDJ

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.

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17:53, 3 April 2017 (UTC) 18:35, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue III, March 2017 Headlines Argentina report: Images donation Australia and New Zealand report: Serving up Citations Basque Country report: Children Literature project's second edition Belgium report: Open Belgium; Just For The Record; Staff from libraries educated Bulgaria report: First museum photo-thon in Bulgaria Côte d'Ivoire report: Editing during International Francophone Contribution Month France report: Workshop in Berlin; WikiTrain in Rennes; Edit-a-thon at the National Archaeological Museum Germany report: Change Your mind Italy report: Art+Feminism in Italy... and maps Macedonia report: Macedonian voivode and Rivers in Macedonia Netherlands report: Netherlands and the World Exchange Platform; photohunt Egmond aan Zee; Iconographia Zoologica Spain report: Wikipedia course at La Yutera Library Sweden report: Art+Feminism 2017; Connected Open Heritage; Digikult; Art on Wikipedia; Writing about Gothenburg's history; Updating image description with new research results UK report: Wicipop project in Wales; Wikimedia UK's impact report USA report: Art + Feminism Open Access report: Over 600 new multimedia files, e.g. on embryos, robots and bouncing water droplets Wikidata report: More maps, more features, more properties, more data! WMF GLAM report: Wikimedia Conference Calendar: April's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

Hey Nih. The APA has requested we not use their definitions verbatum thus I have paraphrased them here. Best Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:19, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Doc James: Uh, OK. For reference, all I did was reformat it using proper list markup for better accessibility (here's a clearer example of the same sort of edit). Good catch, though, definitely better to paraphrase. :) {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 20:34, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I realize that you did not introduce any concerns. Just letting you know why I went and changed the wording. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:37, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Edward R. McDonald Q.C., you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Irish. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:56, 14 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

19:32, 17 April 2017 (UTC) 16:40, 24 April 2017 (UTC) 19:50, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Karanacs • Berean Hunter • GoldenRing • Dlohcierekim

Gdr • Tyrenius • JYolkowski • Longhair • Master Thief Garrett • Aaron Brenneman • Laser brain • JzG • Dragons flight

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has clarified that user categories should be emptied upon deletion, but redlinked user categories should not be removed if re-added by the user.
• Discussions are ongoing regarding proposed changes to the COI policy. Changes so far have included clarification that adding a link on a Wikipedia forum to a job posting is not a violation of the harassment policy.

Technical news

• You can now see a list of all autoblocks at Special:AutoblockList.
• There is a new tool for adding archives to dead links. Administrators are able to restrict other user's ability to use the tool, and have additional permissions when changing URL and domain data.
• Administrators, bureaucrats and stewards can now set an expiry date when granting user rights. (discuss, permalink)

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.

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02:25, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and adding the new visual diff tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor as a beta feature, and improving the visual diff tool.

A new wikitext editing mode is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. The 2017 wikitext editor has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures to enable the ⧼Visualeditor-preference-newwikitexteditor-label⧽.

A new visual diff tool is available in VisualEditor's visual mode. You can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. More features will be added to this later. In the future, this tool may be integrated into other MediaWiki components. [73]

The team have added multi-column support for lists of footnotes. The <references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. You can request multi-column support for your wiki. [74]

Other changes:

• You can now use your web browser's function to switch typing direction in the new wikitext mode. This is particularly helpful for RTL language users like Urdu or Hebrew who have to write JavaScript or CSS. You can use Command+Shift+X or Control+Shift+X to trigger this. [75]
• The way to switch between the visual editing mode and the wikitext editing mode is now consistent. There is a drop-down menu that shows the two options. This is now the same in desktop and mobile web editing, and inside things that embed editing, such as Flow. [76]
• The Categories item has been moved to the top of the Page options menu (from clicking on the icon) for quicker access. [77] There is also now a "Templates used on this page" feature there. [78]
• You can now create <chem> tags (sometimes used as <ce>) for chemical formulas inside the visual editor. [79]
• Tables can be set as collapsed or un-collapsed. [80]
• The Special character menu now includes characters for Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and angle quotation marks (‹› and ⟨⟩) . The team thanks the volunteer developer, Tpt. [81]
• A bug caused some section edit conflicts to blank the rest of the page. This has been fixed. The team are sorry for the disruption. [82]
• There is a new keyboard shortcut for citations: Control+Shift+K on a PC, or Command+Shift+K on a Mac. It is based on the keyboard shortcut for making links, which is Control+K on a PC or Command+K on a Mac. [83]

• The VisualEditor team is working with the Community Tech team on a syntax highlighting tool. It will highlight matching pairs of <ref> tags and other types of wikitext syntax. You will be able to turn it on and off. It will first become available in VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode, maybe late in 2017. [84]
• The kind of button used to Show preview, Show changes, and finish an edit will change in all WMF-supported wikitext editors. The new buttons will use OOjs UI. The buttons will be larger, brighter, and easier to read. The labels will remain the same. You can test the new button by editing a page and adding &ooui=1 to the end of the URL, like this: The old appearance will no longer be possible, even with local CSS changes. [85]
• The outdated 2006 wikitext editor will be removed later this year. It is used by approximately 0.03% of active editors. See a list of editing tools on mediawiki.org if you are uncertain which one you use. [86]

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:19, 9 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue IV, April 2017 Headlines Argentina report: End of contest, new heritaged donated and digitizing workshop Basque Country report: Students working on literature with new Wikipedian in Residence Belgium report: Brussels writing weeks; Dutch Language Union workshop; Civic Lab Brussels start; Edit-a-thon Leuven Brazil report: Wikimedia Conference, gender and International collaboration Germany report: You may only harvest after putting a grain Ghana report: GLAM Ghana duly launched Italy report: Open Data for Cultural Heritage Macedonia report: 12 Peaks hiking challenge Netherlands report: The Netherlands and the World: Photo hunt Chinsurah; Photohunt public library Tilburg; Wikipedian in Residence for UNESCO's Memory of the World programme in the Netherlands; Picture books from Koninklijke Bibliotheek Spain report: Management and dissemination of cultural heritage Sweden report: GLAM-EduWiki collaboration awarded Pedagogy Award of the year at Swedish museums; Connected Open Heritage UK report: Bio-Medical History Residences USA report: New connections at the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Wikipedia Library report: Books & Bytes Wikidata report: Federation and new datatypes WMF GLAM report: DPLAFest and Beyond Calendar: May's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

21:48, 15 May 2017 (UTC) 22:15, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

• Добрый день коллега! 4 октября 2013 года вы удалили страницу The Ideal Movie за нарушение правил. Редактируя страницу о Папе Римском Пие XII, я наткнулся на эту удалённую ссылку. Не могли бы вы мне помочь: подскажите содержание удалённой страницы или материалами о данном фильме, заранее спасибо! С уважением, — Михаил Рус (обс.) 9:20, 30 мая 2017 (UTC)

Machine translation of the above:

Good afternoon colleague! On October 4, 2013, you removed The Ideal Movie for breaking the rules. Editing the page about Pope Pius XII, I came across this remote link. Could you help me: tell me the contents of the deleted page or the materials about this film, thank you in advance! Yours faithfully, — Michael Rus (talk) 9:20, May 30, 2017 (UTC)

• When I deleted The Ideal Movie, it was just a cross-namespace redirect after being moved to User:Moconnor1414/The Ideal Movie. That page in turn has since been deleted as an old (abandoned) draft. I could email you the source wikitext of the final deleted version if you have email enabled on your account, or you could request its undeletion via Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/G13. Since it might be helpful: the deleted draft cites http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-xii_exh_25101955_ideal-film_en.html repeatedly. {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 16:20, 30 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Мне будет удобнее, чтобы вы прислали мне текст на электронную почту. Вот она zerkalo-serebro@mail.ru. С уважением, — Михаил Рус (обс.) 19:46, 30 мая 2017 (UTC)

12:18, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn

ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC proposing an off-wiki LTA database has been closed. The proposal was broadly supported, with further discussion required regarding what to do with the existing LTA database and defining access requirements. Such a tool/database formed part of the Community health initiative's successful grant proposal.
• Some clarifications have been made to the community banning and unblocking policies that effectively sync them with current practice. Specifically, the community has reached a consensus that when blocking a user at WP:AN or WP:ANI, it is considered a "community sanction", and administrators cannot unblock unilaterally if the user has not successfully appealed the sanction to the community.
• An RfC regarding the bot policy has closed with changes to the section describing restrictions on cosmetic changes.

Technical news

• Users will soon be able to blacklist specific users from sending them notifications.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2017 elections, the new members of the Board of Trustees include Raystorm, Pundit and Doc James. They will serve three-year terms.

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19:05, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue V, May 2017 Headlines Argentina report: #1lib1ref in Buenos Aires, Participation in WikiCite and the editing challenge of the month Australia and New Zealand report: State Library of Western Australia Belgium report: Wikipedia session for museums; education for library staff Brazil report: Articulating new volunteers Côte d'Ivoire report: Preparing a Wikimedia 2030 workshop with GLAM partners France report: Rennes Archives; Archives Nationales Germany report: Central Public Library of Düsseldorf Ireland report: Terry Pratchett workshop Italy report: Sacred art and videogames Macedonia report: From idea to award; ArchiWiki edit-a-thon Netherlands report: The Mind of the Universe; Photos of Syria; Wikipedian in Residence project Memory of the World Spain report: Releasement of images from National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts Sweden report: Connected Open Heritage; Sounds of Changes UK report: Spreading Enlightenment USA report: Artworks Challenge, Women/Media Edit-a-thon, D.C. Protests caught on .jpg, and lots in Wikipedia + Libraries Wikidata report: WikiCite, new tools, and more WMF GLAM report: Documentation, Categorization and Reviewing what we know! Calendar: June's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

15:30, 12 June 2017 (UTC) 15:44, 19 June 2017 (UTC) 15:38, 26 June 2017 (UTC) 15:32, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Happyme22 • Dragons flight

Zad68

Guideline and policy news

• The RFC discussion regarding WP:OUTING and WMF essay about paid editing and outing (see more at the ArbCom noticeboard archives) is now archived. Milieus #3 and #4 received support; so did concrete proposal #1.

Technical news

• Fuzzy search will soon be added to Special:Undelete, allowing administrators to search for deleted page titles with results similar to the search query. You can test this by adding ?fuzzy=1 to the URL, as with Special:Undelete?fuzzy=1. Currently the search only finds pages that exactly match the search term.
• A new bot will automatically revision delete unused file versions from files in Category:Non-free files with orphaned versions more than 7 days old.

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.

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15:07, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue VI, June 2017 Headlines Argentina report: Campaign #1lib1ref in Buenos Aires, new material donated and guidelines for cultural institutions Basque Country report: Idazlezainak: librarians as writers' curators Belgium report: GLAM seminar Sharing is Caring Bulgaria report: Bulgarian GLAM activists were awarded with the "Friends of the Archives" Award Côte d'Ivoire report: Strategy discussion with GLAM partners Czech Republic report: WikiCity Litovel Estonia report: Summer school about photographic collections France report: Conference for Archives of Gironde Germany report: "Wiki Loves Music" project features musical instruments from two museums, and more Italy report: Edit-a-thons & libraries Macedonia report: New collaboration of GLAM Macedonia user group with the City Library in Skopje Netherlands report: Workshop children's books, Sharing is Caring Brussels, short WiR period at Utrecht University Library & Preparations medieval image donation Russia report: WikiProjects of students of Petrozavodsk State University Spain report: Wikipedia and the Museum of Málaga Sweden report: Connected Open Heritage; Wiki Loves Earth; Water data on Wikidata UK report: Summer of data Ukraine report: Sharing images in print and digital USA report: June is bustin' out all over Wikidata report: Requesting your input; news from MySociety WMF GLAM report: Welcome; Documentation Update; Other updates Calendar: July's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

Awesome

Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:51, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

22:59, 17 July 2017 (UTC) 15:58, 24 July 2017 (UTC) 21:45, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 ^{(first RfA to reach WP:300)}

Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

• Following a series of discussions around new pages patrol, the WMF is helping implement a controlled autoconfirmed article creation trial as a research experiment, similar to the one proposed in 2011. You can learn more about the research plan at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial. The exact start date of the experiment has yet to be determined.
• A new speedy deletion criterion, regarding articles created as a result undisclosed paid editing, is currently being discussed (permalink).
• An RfC (permalink) is currently open that proposes expanding WP:G13 to include all drafts, even if they weren't submitted through Articles for Creation.

Technical news

• LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
• The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.

---

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue VII, July 2017 Headlines France report: WikiTrain in Rennes Italy report: Edit-a-thon in Pieve Tesino UK report: Politician pin ups USA report: Dog days of summer Wikimania report: GLAM at Wikimania 2017 Wikidata report: Zotero for Wikidata; Changes to Constraint Handling WMF GLAM report: Edit-a-thons, Structured Commons and Wikimedia Blog Calendar: August's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

21:45, 7 August 2017 (UTC) 23:29, 14 August 2017 (UTC) 18:01, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi, we spoke during the hackathon about getting you some more information on the new page previews code. The person you want to talk to is Sam Smith (samsmith@wikimedia.org, phuedx on IRC). I gave him a heads up you'll be reaching out with some questions! OVasileva (WMF) (talk) 11:51, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

22:10, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Nakon • Scott

Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

• ACTRIAL, a research experiment that restricts article creation to autoconfirmed users, will begin on September 7. It will run for six months. You can learn more about the research specifics at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial, while Wikipedia talk:Autoconfirmed article creation trial is probably the best venue for general discussion.
• Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.

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.

---

22:15, 4 September 2017 (UTC) 19:16, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue VIII, August 2017 Headlines Argentina report: New material on Wikimedia Commons Brazil report: Edit-a-thons to spread mathematics and neuroscience; Women of Culture and other activities Côte d'Ivoire report: Presenting about West African context at Wikimania 2017 Estonia report: First Art Exhibition in the Estonian Wikipedia is now opened France report: Images from Jean-Auguste Brutails Germany report: Collaboration with volunteers and how to "wikify" GLAM-institutions Italy report: Edit-a-thons & goals Macedonia report: WikiWine project; Two days of edit-a-thons Serbia report: Public Domain Photos Donation Sweden report: Connected Open Heritage; Tekniska museet template migration; Stockholm Pride week USA report: WikiMania & Wikiconference North America, Beer, Hip Hop Wikidata report: Meeting Europeana; Conference News WMF GLAM report: GLAM-Wiki team, Wikimania, and updates Calendar: September's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

Hello,

Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.

The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.

To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.

We really appreciate your input!

Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.

For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 19:52, 13 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

15:32, 18 September 2017 (UTC) 16:00, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem

Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
• Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.

Technical news

• You can now search for IP ranges at Special:Contributions. Some log pages and Special:DeletedContributions are not yet supported. Wildcards (e.g. 192.168.0.*) are also not supported, but the popular contribsrange gadget will continue to work.

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.

---

23:25, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue IX, September 2017 Headlines Argentina report: Edit-a-thon in the Parque de la Memoria and new materials in Commons Czech Republic report: 2017 Edit-a-thon in the Research Library in Olomouc France report: Heritage Wiki Days Germany report: Prepare Your data Ireland report: New Irish partnership Italy report: WikiDonne and Wikidata Macedonia report: Three months WiR at the City Library in Skopje accomplished successfully Netherlands report: UNESCO WiR in Middelburg and Amsterdam Spain report: Culture and Citizenship Switzerland report: Third Edition of the Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon Tunisia report: Wikipedian in Residence UK report: Wikidata in Parliament USA report: September Song Wikidata report: Number crunching WMF GLAM report: Running Edit-a-thons, Studying GLAM Uploads to Commons, Project Grants and more! Calendar: October's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

14:21, 9 October 2017 (UTC) 15:31, 16 October 2017 (UTC) 18:18, 23 October 2017 (UTC) 00:20, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93

Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite

Technical news

• The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team is creating an "Interaction Timeline" tool that intends to assist administrators in resolving user conduct disputes. Feedback on the concept may be posted on the talk page.
• A new function is now available to edit filter managers that will make it easier to look for multiple strings containing spoofed text.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors will be invited to submit candidate statements for the 2017 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 12 until November 21. Voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 10.
• Following a request for comment, Ritchie333, Yunshui and Ymblanter will serve as the Electoral Commission for the 2017 ArbCom Elections.

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.

---

18:45, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue X, October 2017 Headlines Australia and New Zealand report: Adding Australian women in research to Wikipedia Brazil report: Integrating Wikimedia projects into the Brazilian National Archives GLAM Bulgaria report: Botevgrad became the first wikitown in Bulgaria France report: Wiki Loves Monuments; Opérations Libres Germany report: GLAMorous activities in October Italy report: Experts training on GLAM projects Serbia report: Wikipedian in residence at Historical Archives of Subotica; Model of a grain of wheat exlusivly digitized for Wikimedia Commons; Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Information and Wikimedia Serbia - GLAM presentations and workshops for museums, archives and libraries Spain report: Women Writers Day Sweden report: Swedish Performing Arts Agency; Connected Open Heritage; Internetmuseum; More Working life museums UK report: Scotland's Libraries & Hidden Gems Ukraine report: Wikitraining for Librarians; Library Donation USA report: trick or treat Wikidata report: WikidataCon & Birthday WMF GLAM report: News about Structured Commons! Calendar: November's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

19:19, 13 November 2017 (UTC) 19:19, 20 November 2017 (UTC) 20:30, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Joe Roe

JzG

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

• Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
• A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.

Arbitration

• Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.

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.

---

Hi, I was about to create an article for the New Zealand author Brigid Lowry but saw that an article with that same name had previously been deleted by you. The author has won a number of awards and is quite notable so I feel she merits an article. I would like to ensure the new article has all the relevant information/sources and justifies its notability so it would be helpful to see the contents of the previous article or know why it was deleted. Would it be possible to move the previously deleted article to the draft space? Thanks in advance for your help! Slafayette (talk) 20:20, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

17:51, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Any update on the Template:Metabanner? You were working on rather interesting stuff last we spoke. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:28, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's currently stuck in development hell, mostly because I've had much less time recently to work on things than usual. I've got a bunch of it a good ways towards done, but I need to write/refactor a lot more code to make it work, let alone be as robust (error handling) as I'd like to make it. Once I've got enough done that I can render a basic template with it, I'll copy things onto the wiki. From there, the focus will be on a) migrating projects using the basic settings to use it and b) supporting more advanced features that certain projects use, e.g. class-masking and sub-criteria for quality ratings. Thanks for checking in; it helps motivate me. :) {{Nihiltres |talk |edits}} 00:50, 9 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue XI, November 2017 Headlines Australia and New Zealand report: GLAM Peak digital collections workshops Brazil report: Can you hear this GLAM?; Glam activities at I IWSC and 3D reconstruction project Côte d'Ivoire report: Training 10 librarians, partnering with APSID-CI Czech Republic report: Edit-a-thon in Regional museum in Slaný 2017 Estonia report: Digital Humanities Conference held as Part of Estonian Presidency of Council of the EU France report: Edit-a-thons in Saint-Brieuc and Montpellier Germany report: A new archive building is born and more GLAM on Tour Stations Ireland report: Digital Preservation Community Workshop Macedonia report: Edit-a-thon related to WWII; Wiki Loves Food 2017 Netherlands report: Photographs of Africa & KB-Wiki partnership Serbia report: Two Wikipedians in residence and one edit-a-thon Spain report: Working with libraries Sweden report: Nordiska museet; Internetmuseum; Statens maritima museer; Nationalmuseum; Swedish Performing Arts Agency workshop Tunisia report: Upload Book UK report: Libraries gave us power Ukraine report: Volunteers cooperate with GLAMers USA report: remember November Special story: Out of This World! Wikidata report: Onwards and Upwards WMF GLAM report: Conferences, case studies, Structured Commons, #1lib1ref Calendar: December's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

17:58, 11 December 2017 (UTC) 15:27, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Muboshgu

Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned

None

Bureaucrat changes

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

• The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
• The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.

Arbitration

• Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.

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16:19, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue XII, December 2017 Headlines France report: Rituels grecs; Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 Germany report: a good working key to GLAM collections Indonesia report: Collaboration with library in Yogyakarta Italy report: Activities in December Macedonia report: Winners of DARM Challenge 3 Netherlands report: Historical aerial photographs from the Ministry of Defense; Texts on Dutch philosophers released under free license; Wikipedia manual; Images from Erfgoedhuis Zuid-Holland Serbia report: Two Serbian museums welcomed their first Wikipedians in Residence Spain report: Wikipedia Club Sweden report: Inputs to the National Library Strategy; Statens maritima museer; Tekniska museet; Riksantikvarieämbetet Tunisia report: Upload Book Ukraine report: Promoting and Community events in Libraries USA report: Fire & Ice & Goats Wikidata report: Happy Q34812! WMF GLAM report: Share Case Studies and Feedback with WMF, #1lib1ref, Structured Commons Research, and Blog Highlights Calendar: January's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

18:45, 15 January 2018 (UTC) 23:56, 22 January 2018 (UTC) 17:07, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

None

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

• The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.

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20:51, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue I, January 2018 Headlines Australia report: We came, we saw, we conquered! Basque Country report: Books, librarians, encounters and borrowed data Côte d'Ivoire report: #1Lib1Ref, Côte d'Ivoire participates for the 2nd time France report: Fonds André Cros; #1lib1ref; Library of Dinan; LATMOS Germany report: sustainability beyond metrics Indonesia report: Digitizing the letters from Dewantara Kirti Griya Museum Yogyakarta continues Italy report: Seventeen: let's talk and celebrate! Macedonia report: Importance of digitization in 21 century Netherlands report: Local heritage made available through Wikimedia & 3rd Wikicafé Tilburg Norway report: Image collection from Armenia and Sami bibliography Serbia report: #1lib1ref first time in Serbia: 786 references added! Spain report: #1Lib1Ref Sweden report: Photos, 3D and training with the National Heritage Board Tunisia report: Upload Book UK report: Oxford Wikidata project Ukraine report: Libraries at the Forefront of Running All-Out Action for Ukrainian Wikipedia USA report: Wikipedia Day Wikidata report: Our constraint reports won't constrain you! WMF GLAM report: Call for case studies, #1lib1ref, Structured Commons and more Calendar: February's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

21:59, 12 February 2018 (UTC) 22:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC) 19:52, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

Read this in another language • Subscription list for the English Wikipedia • Subscription list for the multilingual edition

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode, which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and improving the visual diff tool. Their work board is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor, and improving the visual diff tool.

• The 2017 wikitext editor is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. It has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. The team have been comparing the performance of different editing environments. They have studied how long it takes to open the page and start typing. The study uses data for more than one million edits during December and January. Some changes have been made to improve the speed of the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual editor. Recently, the 2017 wikitext editor opened fastest for most edits, and the 2010 WikiEditor was fastest for some edits. More information will be posted at mw:Contributors/Projects/Editing performance.
• The visual diff tool was developed for the visual editor. It is now available to all users of the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor. When you review your changes, you can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. You can also enable the new Beta Feature for "Visual diffs". The Beta Feature lets you use the visual diff tool to view other people's edits on page histories and Special:RecentChanges. [290]
• Wikitext syntax highlighting is available as a Beta Feature for both the 2017 wikitext editor and the 2010 wikitext editor. [291]
• The citoid service automatically translates URLs, DOIs, ISBNs, and PubMed id numbers into wikitext citation templates. This tool has been used at the English Wikipedia for a long time. It is very popular and useful to editors, although it can be tricky for admins to set up. Other wikis can have this service, too. Please read the instructions. You can ask the team to help you enable citoid at your wiki.

• The team is planning a presentation about editing tools for an upcoming Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting.
• Wikibooks, Wikiversity, and other communities may have the visual editor made available by default to contributors. If your community wants this, then please contact Dan Garry.
• The <references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. This has already been enabled at the English Wikipedia. If you want columns for a long list of footnotes on this wiki, you can use either <references /> or the plain (no parameters) {{reflist}} template. If you edit a different wiki, you can request multi-column support for your wiki. [292]
• If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!

—User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:15, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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

Administrator changes

Lourdes†

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

• Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.

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.

---

17:12, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue II, February 2018 Headlines Belgium report: Photo contest Wiki Loves Public Space Brazil report: Starting new GLAM partnerships Bulgaria report: The first Bulgarian wikitown presented at an International Tourist Fair in Sofia Côte d'Ivoire report: Editing with more librarians as we expanded #1Lib1Ref campaign Finland report: Finland's First Wikimedian in Residence to Kansallisarkisto Germany report: GLAM in galleries Italy report: Boosting collaborations Macedonia report: Startup of the WikiIndustry project Norway report: Intern program for library students Sweden report: WiR at The National Museums of World Culture UK report: Scotland's Public Libraries move toward first edit-a-thons USA report: February made me shiver Special story: Pattypan 18.02: The uploading tool now includes STL support Wikidata report: Cool Tools WMF GLAM report: Structured Data on Commons, Wikidata Workshop materials, and Spring Travel Calendar: March's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

19:44, 12 March 2018 (UTC) 15:03, 19 March 2018 (UTC) 20:04, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG

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

• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

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.

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19:28, 2 April 2018 (UTC) 18:08, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue III, March 2018 Headlines Australia report: Regional GLAM workshops and Art+Feminism Belgium report: GenderGap edit-a-thon; GLAM at Open Belgium Brazil report: Brazilian user group and Portuguese chapter join forces for Women’s International Month Côte d'Ivoire report: Reflecting upon #1Lib1Ref impact, upcoming collaborations Czech Republic report: Second edit-a-thon in Slaný and new cooperation with Institut of Bohuslav Martinů Estonia report: Paintings and photographers' biographies to Wikidata, translation of Rightsstatements.org, rephotography app Finland report: Combining coding, learning and culture France report: CNES, Musée Bourdelle Germany report: Presentation "70. Westfälischer Archivtag" India report: Impact of Odisha Government content donation on Wikimedia Projects Ireland report: Art+Feminism boom in Ireland Italy report: Women's month Macedonia report: Startup of the WikiBeer project & "Bitalon" - The Hackaton of Bitola Serbia report: Edit-a-thons and digitazation of books Spain report: Wikipedia courses in libraries Sweden report: National Museums of World Culture; Air Force Museum Ukraine report: Article Contest for Libraries USA report: Women's History Month Special story: GLAM WIKI Conference in Tel Aviv, November 2018 Wikidata report: Family Favourites WMF GLAM report: Structured Data on Commons; Upcoming events and travel Calendar: April's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

15:21, 16 April 2018 (UTC) 18:16, 23 April 2018 (UTC) 16:18, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

None

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

• The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.

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.

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16:28, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue IV, April 2018 Headlines Australia report: HerStory in Alice Springs and Australasian Open Access Strategy Belgium report: Everybody WIKI Brazil report: Labs to introduce Wikidata and its potentialities in Brazil Catalan areas report: Event: Role of Wikimedia in the era of Open Science France report: City of Grenoble Italy report: Libraries in the spotlight Macedonia report: Macedonian Wikiexpeditions exhibition and workshops with Wiki Clubs members Netherlands report: 325,000 images from Dutch photo archives uploaded by Mr.Nostalgic Philippines report: First Wikipedian in Residence in the Philippines Portugal report: Partnerships, GLAMs & Art+feminism Serbia report: Strong support from the Ministry of culture and information of Republic of Serbia: Financing the three WIR programs and realizing GLAM seminars Sweden report: National museum of world Culture; Sounds and pronunciations; Nordic Museum Tunisia report: Upload Book UK report: National Library of Wales and Oxford University USA report: April showers Wikidata report: April Love WMF GLAM report: Wikipedians in Residence and Travel Calendar: May's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

22:23, 14 May 2018 (UTC) 17:34, 21 May 2018 (UTC)