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

Administrator changes

Sro23

KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

---

19:39, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

17:53, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Sent to your Wikipedia library email address. --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 02:44, 16 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

16:46, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 25 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

16:16, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

None

Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz

Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

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.

---

16:47, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

An editor has asked for a deletion review of Cultural Marxism. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review. Erik (talk | contrib) ^{(ping me)} 19:39, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Erik: Oh boy was I thrilled to see a notification about that article on my talk page... But it actually looks like you might have a good point about the sources that have come up since the page was deleted. I'll try to make time to chime in at the DRV soon. Sam Walton (talk) 08:59, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Please note that I'm evolving to suggest the possibility of both Cultural Marxism (just an academic article) and Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory (more focused on this decade's events and consequences). From what I've read, the academic concept and the conspiracy theory have been conflated and warrant separation. Let me know what you think? (The current sources may need evaluation, as some of them don't seem to hold up.) Erik (talk | contrib) ^{(ping me)} 11:50, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

22:35, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

21:58, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

15:23, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

17:34, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Justlettersandnumbers • L235

Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter

Interface administrator changes

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

Oversight changes

Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, the process for appointing interface administrators has been established. Currently only existing admins can request these rights, while a new RfC has begun on whether it should be available to non-admins.
• There is an open request for comment on Meta regarding the creation a new user group for global edit filter management.

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.

---

23:38, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Hi Sam,

I have a story which you may find interesting, and which can involve some assistance from yourself et al. I am 30 something years old now, officially, and my entire life has been a journey which is soon to reach it's climax. I could be God, the Devil or just a simple man but the interesting part is that the label doesn't really matter. What does matter, is the reaction any specific label can achieve with any other specific persons.

I am writing a handbook. The handbook contains no new information and the manner in which it is written consolidates everything. It is quite short, and I believe the concept and language can be translated to other languages easily. My plan was always to finish the handbook and simply deploy it across the globe simultaneously to every news network, university and psychology, government department. I have encountered a slight problem however; I understand the concept so well that I am able to contract and expand on any section and this is where I need input. Just so it is suitably explained for others to understand.

To give you an example, I can consolidate every book written about psychology so far in to a single sentence: Everybody does what they want, whether they realise it or not. If what you want to do differs from what you had intended to do, then something in your mind is going on that you are not aware of.

The handbook simplifies the Human struggle, points out a few very-integral faults and then provides a method where we can be better. My attitude towards the handbook is "world peace in a can". I am that guy; whoever that is to you.

Would you like to know more? After all, they say that it is better the Devil you know than the one you don't. Perhaps, given the state of the world and predicted future, the One who blows down houses may be a safer bet. Thewolfde (talk) 06:15, 11 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Thewolfde: Is this somehow related to contributing to Wikipedia? I'm struggling to understand what it is you're describing. Sam Walton (talk) 09:25, 11 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Samwalton9: Yes, this is related to contributing to Wikipedia. Here is a dropbox link. Have a read through some of the files to get an understanding of the information. Perhaps Wikipedia is not the place for it, perhaps it is - I am not breaching the policies on Wikipedia but perhaps I am not strictly following them either, due to the nature of the article. Dropbox link to my works

Thewolfde (talk) 09:33, 11 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Thewolfde: This looks to be original research, which doesn't belong on Wikipedia. Content on Wikipedia must all be neutral, factual, and cited to reliable sources. This content looks like it would be better suited to a personal website or blog. Sam Walton (talk) 09:51, 11 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks @Samwalton9: - I'll take your word as authoritive on this matter of Wikipedian content. Thewolfde (talk) 00:59, 12 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

22:40, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Sent to your @wikipedialibrary email. --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 21:30, 20 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

23:11, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:43, 25 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

20:08, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

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

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment determined that non-administrators will not be able to request interface admin access.
• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the Mediation Committee should be closed and marked as historical.
• A village pump discussion has been ongoing about whether the proposed deletion policy (PROD) should be clarified or amended.
• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether pending changes protection should be applied automatically to today's featured article (TFA) in order to mitigate a recent trend of severe image vandalism.

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-enwikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.

---

17:28, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

19:22, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

23:28, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

22:22, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Have a very happy adminship anniversary on your special day!
Best wishes, A 10 fireplane (talk) 18:26, 28 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A 10 fireplane (talk) 18:26, 28 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I just saw this account creation in the logs and noticed that the user page states that this bot belongs to you - can you confirm that this is true? With all of the incidents occurring lately (account compromises, continued ref desk troll harassment, etc), I need to check and make sure that this is actually you or not. Please let me know as soon as you can (make sure to ping me in your reply; I have too much going on in my watchlist right now...) - thanks :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 12:22, 1 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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

Administrator changes

Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz

Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes

Deryck 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

• Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
• To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
• Since deployment of Partial blocks on Test Wikipedia, several bugs were identified. Most of them are now fixed. Administrators are encouraged to test the new deployment and report new bugs on Phabricator or leave feedback on the Project's talk page. You can request administrator access on the Test Wiki here.

Arbitration

• Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 3 December 2018. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.

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

• Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as Raymond arritt on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.

---

16:12, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

17:33, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

20:34, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:34, 21 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

	Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2019!
	Samwalton9 -- Thank you for all the hard work and effort you put into Wikipedia. God bless! Onel5969 TT me 14:36, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

	Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
	Hi Samwalton9, I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, Thanks for all your help and thanks for all your contributions to the 'pedia,    –Davey2010 Merry Christmas / Happy New Year 14:50, 23 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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

Guideline and policy news

• There are a number of new or changed speedy deletion criteria, each previously part of WP:CSD#G6:

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}}.

• The Wikimedia Foundation now requires all interface administrators to enable two-factor authentication.
• Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.

Technical news

• Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:

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

• Following the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: AGK, Courcelles, GorillaWarfare, Joe Roe, Mkdw, SilkTork.

Miscellaneous

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

---

18:29, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

17:54, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

20:36, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

18:15, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

Enterprisey • JJMC89

BorgQueen

Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes

Enterprisey

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.

---

17:12, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Trizek (WMF) 15:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Would be nice to trial something if it's ready for action. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Headbomb: Unfortunately not. Waiting to hear back from RetractionWatch so that I can get access to their data to power the bot. Sam Walton (talk) 09:54, 22 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

21:17, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:30, 26 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

16:38, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

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

Guideline and policy news

• The RfC on administrator activity requirements failed to reach consensus for any proposal.
• Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.

Technical news

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

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
  • paid-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
  • checkuser-en-wpwikipedia.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

• Following the 2019 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Base, Einsbor, Jon Kolbert, Schniggendiller, and Wim b.

---

Hello

Our team at the Wikimedia Foundation is working on a project to improve the ease-of-use and productivity of wiki talk pages. As a Teahouse host, I can imagine you’ve run into challenges explaining talk pages to first-time participants.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis – to ask questions, to resolve differences, to organize projects and to make decisions. Communication is essential for the depth and quality of our content, and the health of our communities. We're currently leading a global consultation on how to improve talk pages, and we're looking for people that can report on their experiences using (or helping other people to use) wiki talk pages. We'd like to invite you to participate in the consultation, and invite new users to join too.

We thank you in advance for your participation and your help.

Trizek (WMF), 08:37, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The previous message about the talk pages consultation has a broken link.

The correct link has been misinterpreted by the MassMessage tool. Please use the following link: Wikipedia:Talk pages consultation 2019.

Sorry for the inconvenience, Trizek (WMF), 08:48, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

19:29, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

19:43, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

you communicated with the concerned people as to the The Ken? Their publications are damn excellent and am quite interested to be kept in the loops:-) ∯WBG^converse 10:30, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Winged Blades of Godric: Not yet, but I'll let you know if we make any progress there! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:38, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Have managed to get a (free) annual subscription that allows unlimited access to all of their articles. Additionally, it allows me to gift access to 5 stories per month to other users, in any manner, as I deem fit. Took two months of coaxing and they were quite conducive to the prospects of being used as a reference over Wikipedia:-) FWIW, have been engaging with [107] and hope for some good outcome. ∯WBG^converse 08:39, 5 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Also, can you update the progress of each thread over Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library/Databases/Requests? ∯WBG^converse 08:39, 5 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

18:05, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

I'd appreciate some support here (concerning the publication of User:Headbomb/Crapwatch) if you think this is a good initiative. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 12:08, 28 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

16:29, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

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

Technical news

• In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the {{ARBPIA 1RR editnotice}} edit notice.

Miscellaneous

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

---

18:24, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

I'm hope I'm not intruding on administrator business, Sam, but I'm not sure the rationale you gave for the closing of the Katie Bouman AfD was the correct one; after all, if I recall correctly, for mainspace articles, absent severe error or vandalism, only the original nominator can WP:CSK. I think you were thinking about WP:SNOW, instead, which is perfectly valid for the reasons given. Anyway, have a good day! —Javert2113 (Siarad.|¤) 21:07, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Javert2113: You're totally right! I clicked the wrong button in the AfD dialog - I've adjusted the text. Thanks for the heads up :) Sam Walton (talk) 21:11, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, it happens to all of us! Appreciate your timely response (and thanks for not calling me out for being too pedantic)! —Javert2113 (Siarad.|¤) 21:12, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, we seem to have been trying to do the same thing at the same time here and I made a bit of a mess. – Joe (talk) 18:29, 13 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Joe Roe: No problem! I think we figured it out :) Sam Walton (talk) 18:37, 13 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

23:00, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Atheist church. Since you had some involvement with the Atheist church redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. MB 15:39, 22 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

19:08, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/RetractionBot was approved. Happy editing! --TheSandDoctor ^Talk 16:46, 28 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! @Headbomb: I'll look at making your improvements soon, haven't had time this week, but will set the bot going in the meantime so we can flag the references already identified. Sam Walton (talk) 17:11, 28 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

22:27, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:57, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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]

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

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment concluded that creating pages in the portal namespace should be restricted to autoconfirmed users.
• Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.

Technical news

• XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.

Arbitration

• In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done 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

• A request for comment is currently open to amend the community sanctions procedure to exclude non XfD or CSD deletions.
• A proposal to remove pre-2009 indefinite IP blocks is currently open for discussion.

---

16:27, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

00:48, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

13:04, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:41, 21 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

15:33, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

Glad you blocked JGaines2012. Can you please revdel his garbage off my TP, too? Thanks. Kleuske (talk) 14:02, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Kleuske: No problem - done. You might want to request an edit filter for this guy, seems like a good fit. Sam Walton (talk) 14:05, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the suggestion. Not quite sure how to go about it, yet, but I’ll figure it out. Kleuske (talk) 14:08, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Just link to a few recent accounts and someone can figure out the best links between them to craft a filter. Sam Walton (talk) 14:10, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sam. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but for the record i think that FPaS and perhaps Black Kite have reacted incorrectly to your report. I completely disagree that the edit was obviously a joke, as they both say ~ i don't understand the insult, nor do i care to, but it is pretty clearly an insult; the fact that the two are friends is really irrelevant: As we have seen said so many times, in a purely text-based medium the possibilities for misinterpretation are rife. I fully agree with your statement of "disagreeing with allowing these kinds of personal attacks that make Wikipedia appear to be a hostile community to be a part of", and don't believe we should be permitting them generally. Happy days, Lindsay^Hello 19:37, 2 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@LindsayH: Thanks for sharing your thoughts! If you're comfortable doing so I'd definitely appreciate you sharing your thoughts in the ANI thread. Regardless, the edit is still deleted so the immediate problem is taken care of. Sam Walton (talk) 19:46, 2 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

15:24, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

I left you a message over at TWL on wikimedia. I never know where you are. You renewed me on Project MUSE on May 1. But it's now June 3, and Project MUSE does not seem to recognize the renewal. Please advise. — Maile (talk) 18:32, 4 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Maile66: Best place to get in contact with us is on one of our talk pages, or directly at wikipedialibrarywikimedia.org :) A couple of weeks ago Project MUSE received the final list of this round of renewals - I've just sent a followup email to see if there's anything blocking those going through. Apologies for the delay! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:38, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Maile66: Can you double check your account now? Project MUSE say all accounts should have been renewed. If that's not the case I'll let them know. Sam Walton (talk) 12:53, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Everything appears to be working today. Thanks. — Maile (talk) 13:09, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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

Administrator changes

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

CheckUser changes

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

• The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
• The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.

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17:06, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

20:37, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Samwalton9. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Half-Life 3".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. CptViraj (📧) 09:06, 23 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

17:29, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam¹ • Flyguy649 • Fram² • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe

¹Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

²Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment seeking to alleviate pressures on the request an account (ACC) process proposes either raising the account creation limit for extended confirmed editors or granting the account creator permission on request to new ACC tool users.

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

• The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
• The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
• A request for comment seeks to determine whether Wikipedia:Office actions should be a policy page or an information page.

Technical news

• The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.

Miscellaneous

• In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop Fram. This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.

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21:23, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

20:12, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:21, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:10, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

21:42, 29 July 2019 (UTC)