Administrators' newsletter – June 2018

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

Administrator changes

None

Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
• Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

• In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required 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.

---

DYK for Comités Jeanne

Gatoclass ( talk) 04:16, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

References for Russian reversal

(moved to Talk:Russian reversal, since it looks like we have to request 3rd opinion, because we disagree in the interpretaion of the policy) . Staszek Lem ( talk) 19:46, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Amélie Diéterle

Bonjour L293D. Suite à votre importation de la photographie d' Amélie Diéterle sur le WikiProject Women in Red/Meetup/81, je viens de créer l'article dans la version britannique. Mais ma maîtrise de la langue anglaise, est loin d'être parfaite ! Je me permets de vous demander votre aide pour une relecture et d'apporter les corrections nécessaires si vous avez un peu de temps à consacrer à cet article. Je vous remercie par anticipation et je reste bien entendu à votre disposition pour toutes les informations complémentaires se rapportant à Amélie Diéterle. Bien cordialement, LIONEL76 ( talk) 16:25, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

@ LIONEL76: oui, c'est pas mal! J'y jetterais un coup d'oeuil dans les prochains jours. Mais dites, vous saviez que je parle français ou quoi? Vous m'avez remarqué sur le wikipédia Français? C'est drole que vous écriviez en français. Cordialement, L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 17:10, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

@ L293D: Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse et votre aide à venir. J'ai vu votre page utilisateur sur la Wikipédia anglaise avec le français en langue maternelle. J'ai préféré m'exprimer en français, car comme indiqué ci-dessus, mon anglais a bien des lacunes. Je poursuis toujours mes recherches sur Amélie Diéterle et je dois importer sur Wuikimedia Commons de nouvelles photographies. Merci encore pour votre aide, c'est super sympa ! Bien cordialement, LIONEL76 ( talk) 17:41, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

@ LIONEL76: Le truc que vous verrez, si vous essayez de traduire des articles de français en anglais ou d'en écrire, c'est qu'en Français, on écrit au present (en 1938, il se distingue...), alors qu'en anglais, on écrit au passé (en 1938, il se distingua...). L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 00:16, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

Bonjour L293D. Effectivement, je ne connaissais pas cette différence sur le passé-présent suivant les langues. Merci pour cette précision. En discutant de cette notion de temps, j'ai ajouté la date de naissance au début de la biographie. Je sais qu'elle figure dans l'infobox, mais cela m'a semblé nécessaire. Merci beaucoup pour votre relecture et les corrections apportées. Pensez-vous que la biographie est à présent correcte et si je dois laisser encore le bandeau translation ? Merci pour votre retour. Bien cordialement, LIONEL76 ( talk) 09:48, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

Friendly caution about unblock requests

Hi L293D! It's good to run into you again and I hope you're having a good day. So... without injecting any of my personal opinion into the matter, I just wanted to leave you a message to give you a friendly caution in regards to making non-admin closures of unblock requests (this is an informal friendly note from me to you, not any kind of warning with the "admin hat" on lol). I saw that you declined one on User talk:179.189.113.51 that was a blatant troll and from an LTA (the page is now deleted). The reason I'm cautioning you is because I used to do the exact same thing back before I became an admin (I declined unblock requests that were blatant trolling or from LTA users). However... if you look through my last RFA and go through the opposition and many of the neutral votes on there, you'll quickly see that non-admin closures of unblock requests is something that the community does not like to see - it was the main issue that drew pause, comments, questions, and opposition on my RFA and it almost caused me not to pass (it closed at a perfect 75.0% - pretty much as close as it gets before it goes into the "grey area / crat chat territory"... yeah, talk about a close call... lol). I'm messaging you about this because I wasn't warned about this at all, and I didn't find out that what I was doing was looked down upon until I went up for RFA and the declines started piling on about it (lol)... I just don't want to see you get into any hot water over this and caught by surprise like I was, so I figured I'd leave you a message and let you know. Keep up the excellent work, and I'll see you out on the battlefield ;-). Cheers - ~Oshwah~ ^{(talk) (contribs)} 00:20, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Oshwah: Yes, thanks for the friendly notification. Ill keep that in mind. And yeah, there was a shit ton of vandalism this morning - I raked up more than 200 edits! I'm tired of seeing diffs fly by on HG, pressing Q and then the space bar and then Q indefinitely... :-) Best, L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:03, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Also, since you're quite tech savvy, do you know if there is an HTML class that would make text appear only to IPs? Something like <span class="autoconfirmed-show">? L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:07, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Good question! You're looking for a way to display text only if the user is unregistered? And not display if the user is logged into an account? ~Oshwah~ ^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:09, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Yup, for my cool template at the top of this page to appear only to non-autocomfirmed users. You'll see, its really cool with editintros and preloadtitles and preloads... L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:12, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Oshwah: ping. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:43, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

I remember seeing a module or something in that regards that would determine the user's account status or if they're registered and it would only display to them, but I'm going to have to remember where I found it and look for it... I'm pretty certain something similar to what you're looking for exists (probably at a higher level than HTML); I just don't remember where... I'll do some digging and see what I can find for you... ~Oshwah~ ^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:49, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Well, since <span class="autoconfirmed-show"> works, you could try <span class="non-autocomfirmed-show">. I'll do some testing in the SB. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:54, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

You've removed my edit because it seemed like a test.

Hi,

I received a notification that you thought my edit on the Monarch's Way was a test. It was my first edit, but not a test. Please put it back, I need to insert a reference and it'll be good to go.

Kind regards, Kieran — Preceding unsigned comment added by World'sBestPacer ( talk • contribs) 15:34, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

@ World'sBestPacer: I reverted your edit because you had added <ref></ref><ref></ref> at the beginning of your edit. This looked quite obviously like a test. If you want to test more, use the wikipedia sandbox. But I restored your edit (without the <ref></ref> tags) so now you can add a citation. Best, L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 16:48, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

A hefty thank you.

Bonjour. Thanks for your help in getting MyAnimeList created! R9tgokunks ⯃ 21:52, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

@ R9tgokunks: oh, thanks for thanking! I was only too happy to help! Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you. Best, L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 00:21, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Draft help request by Adams1peace on 18 Jun 2018

Draft:Culture of peace ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Wiki editor Randy Kryn has done considerable editing and we would like you to see if the new version now meets the standards of Wikipedia: /info/en/?search=User:Adams1peace/Culture_of_peace Thank you for your consideration.

Adams1peace ( talk) 23:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

I will take a look in a couple hours. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 23:20, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

I accepted your draft. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 01:29, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Group of physicists would like to help update Alpha centauri

Hi! A set of astronomers and physicists have offered to help update the Alpha centauri article. Some got together at the EWASS2018 conference, and the others are from NASA Ames. Would you be interested in being involved? After the update, I'm also encouraging them to submit it for both GA review, and for external academic review by WikiJSci. I'll make a post on the Alpha centauri talk page so that there's a record there too. None of them have previously edited Wikipedia (to my knowledge) so they may also need assistance with formatting etc (though I'll also watch the page to help out). T.Shafee(Evo&Evo) ^talk 04:20, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I replied on the article's talk page. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 12:07, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

David Rudolf

Hi. Just a quick note on David Rudolf. Users (even IPs) are allowed to remove PROD notices if they disagree, so it went to AFD. Thanks. -- Alexf ^(talk) 10:07, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Question

What was this hat about? Your edit summary mentioned PAs.... ^{Atsme 📞 📧} 12:18, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Look in the title of the hat. Jdcomix had hatted the discussion saying "This thread devolved into personal attacks and political fluff, closing it". I couldn't see any PAs, no I unhatted. Were not going to had every discussion that one person doesn't like. Talk:Donald Trump wouldn't look much like a talk page but a hat collection if we did. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 12:26, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Ahhhh...I see. You are spot-on about that TP looking like a haberdashery for millineries if some control wasn’t exercised. 🎩 ^{Atsme 📞 📧} 12:48, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

New page reviewer granted

Hello L293D. Your account has been added to the "New page reviewers" user group, allowing you to review new pages and mark them as patrolled, tag them for maintenance issues, or in some cases, tag them for deletion. The list of articles awaiting review is located at the New Pages Feed. New page reviewing is a vital function for policing the quality of the encylopedia; if you have not already done so, you must read the new tutorial at New Pages Review, the linked guides and essays, and fully understand the various deletion criteria. If you need more help or wish to discuss the process, please join or start a thread at page reviewer talk.

• URGENT: Please consider helping get the huge backlog down to a manageable number of pages as soon as possible.
• Be nice to new users - they are often not aware of doing anything wrong.
• You will frequently be asked by users to explain why their page is being deleted - be formal and polite in your approach to them too, even if they are not.
• Don't review a page if you are not sure what to do. Just leave it for another reviewer.
• Remember that quality is quintessential to good patrolling. Take your time to patrol each article, there is no rush. Use the message feature and offer basic advice.

The reviewer right does not change your status or how you can edit articles. If you no longer want this user right, you may ask any administrator to remove it for you at any time. In case of abuse or persistent inaccuracy of reviewing, the right can be revoked at any time by an administrator. Mz7 ( talk) 20:29, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Nowzad Dogs

Thanks for reviewing Nowzad Dogs the text and links are based on the Pen Farthing page. I would like to understand the parts that you think are an advert so that I can change them. RonaldDuncan ( talk) 10:14, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

@ RonaldDuncan: some of the wording was a bit promotional, like "The company seeks to reunite". Writing about the company's vision of goal is considered promotional. Always remember to write from a neutral point of view, as articles that are too promotional can be deleted from Wikipedia as advertisements. I have seen several nice articles that have been deleted only because of a sentence of two or because of an external link that was not conform to our external links policy. In tagging your article with the {{ advert}} tag, I was protecting it from other editors who would have cared less and requested speedy deletion. But just reword a couple sentences about the company's vision or goal, and you can remove the tag. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 12:30, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

@ RonaldDuncan: I have reworded the article. Let me know your thoughts thanks. RonaldDuncan ( talk) 13:02, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

The undertaker page (First match in WWF/WWE

Sorry I am kinda new to this editing thing. Wasn't sure what would be the best way to contact you. But in regards to what I wanted to add to the Undertaker page was not something that needed changed, just something to add. During his first match in WWF/WWE he eliminated Koko B. Ware, by using his tombstone piledriver, which is stated. However to just add to that, after the match Koko was upset and felt undertaker was a little snug on his move and almost dropped Koko on his head. The reliable source was in my description. "Something to Wrestle" with Bruce Prichard, which is his podcast. Bruce was brother love at that time and was undertakers' manager. He was also a producer backstage and was there when this all happened. Sorry for any confusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ShyOne317 ( talk • contribs) 21:40, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

I'm really confused by this, so I reactivated the request on the talk page for some else to do. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 17:39, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Revert of Naut Humon

Hello! You recently reverted my edit to Naut Humon citing that I needed to put a source to any edits. However, the edit was changing the "background" field which is a hidden value in an infobox. Therefore, I'm not entirely sure that I actually need to put a source to a value changed in a hidden field in an infobox. Please clarify that, because this is simply maintenance on infoboxes not the actual article. Sources are needed for statements in the actual article, not hidden variables that are not visible to the public. LopezJayLo98 ( talk) 01:39, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

I've self-reverted. I didn't know it was a hidden field, but I still wonder what it is for. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 01:42, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Person vs edit violating 3RR

• [1]

Interesting perspective. I usually look at 3RR from the perspective that a person has reverted 3+ times in a day, but I guess your characterisation of this edit as "fixed typo" would suggest that most people see it as an was the 3rd or higher-order revert within a day. Deryck C. 15:17, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Well, I always thought a revert violated 3RR, but you're right that a user can violate 3RR too. I shouldn't have said " fixed typo" in my ES, and since my edit is technically a violation of WP:TPO, I've self-reverted. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 15:24, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Okay I was concerned I might've committed some kind of rudeness offence ( WP:NPA?) by saying "user" rather than "edit". Deryck C. 16:05, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the original edit ("no single user") is accurate because it's the "three revert rule", and while a single edit might be the fourth revert, it's the user that's doing the editing. And yes, good call on the TPO issue. At the end of the day of course it's all just semantics, and it's likely anyone reading the report is going to understand what's going on. Primefac ( talk) 17:24, 30 June 2018 (UTC) ( talk page stalker)

Jordan Fung

If you wish to contest a speedy deletion you click on the blue tag on the speedy template. Please do not remove the tag, as you have done with this article.---- Anthony Bradbury ^"talk" 19:04, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. I've contested the deletion of the TP. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 19:18, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

for the page of Dwight D. Eisenhowerneutral

hello, in my point of view, the Republic of China is neutral and Official name, taiwan is just a name of island, it is like the great britain is name of island, the name of nation is call United Kingdom, so taiwan is wrong name, it is not country. as same as China, neutral point of view: there are two china in the world(truth)), first is the Republic of China(Free China), another one is the People's Republic of China(Red China), both 2 China have said that they are the only legitimate government that represents China. Both sides deny each other, when you only treat the People’s Republic of China as China, you are not neutral because you recognize the one-China policy of PRC, please consider my opinion, thank you!-- 219.79.116.5 ( talk) 02:37, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

I've re-instated you edit. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 20:40, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

Megan Price

Hello! You put a message on my page for Megan Price saying it was a copyright violation, but I've check it with CopyVio and it doesn't agree. Can you tell me what's up? Jesswade88 ( talk) 17:51, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

@ Jesswade88: see this page. There is close paraphrasing from several sources. I didn't tag it as a copyvio: I tagged it for close paraphrasing. Also note that you do not own article you write, so saying "my page" is confusing. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 18:03, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

It says "Violation Unlikely". The majority of pages are < 20 %. I am very confused. Please suggest where the text violates significantly or ways to improve it rather than just tagging it. Jesswade88 ( talk) 18:56, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

20% is very high. I've seen big copyvios that scored <5. But the high score mostly came from long job titles she has, so I've removed the tag. L293D ( ☎ •  ✎) 20:37, 1 July 2018 (UTC)