This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

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.

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Where did you get those coordinates? I was going to finish up when I had time to ask someone. Now that they're there, I suppose they need a source.

As of the formatting, I've used that format since I created my first populated place stub, and don't know precisely where I got that formatting. Maybe I need to change it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:30, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

@ Vchimpanzee: I got the coordinates from the GNIS entry that I cited in the article. The ref at the end of the "Geography" section of the article should cover it. As far as the rest goes, I was basically using what I've seen in other articles about U.S. unincorporated settlements ("unincorporated community" seems a bit more informative than "populated place"), and getting rid of the extra spacing cluttering up the infobox code. Deor ( talk) 20:03, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

The source I used calls it "populated place", but I suppose either works. I didn't know about the GNIS web site when I did my first one (but I seem to have figured out how to at least put the GNIS information in the infobox), but I'm still using my first one for the format.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:25, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I see something else I've been doing wrong. I wish I knew where I got the incorrect format from, but that was years ago. Maybe I will remember to go to Long Island from now on when I see the need to create a populated place stub.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:12, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Dear, Sir/Wikipedian

I want your help for moving two article pages by you.I hope you can help and move pages.The first article page is Sattari to 'Satari' and secondly is Sattari, Malda to 'Sattari'.I hope you check and moved there pages.Will you do it I will feeling helpful by you. Thanking You

Yours Faithfully JMM000 ( talk) 13:06, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

@ JMM000: Most of the sources in the Sattari article spell the place name in the way the article is titled, and I don't know enough about the place to go against that. If you think that the articles should be moved, I suggest that you post a move request on the Sattari talk page, following the directions at WP:RM and explaining your reasons for wanting the pages to be retitled. Deor ( talk) 19:13, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Dear, Sir

I have a request to change two article pages title with move by you.The first is English Bazar Municipality (E.B.M) to 'English Bazar Municipality'.And secondly Sattari Sarbojanin Primary School, Sattari to 'Sattari Sarbojanin Primary School'.There are correct information.I hope you will do it anyway.Thanking you

Yours faithfully JMM000 ( talk) 05:10, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Reply Me Sir JMM000 ( talk) 13:00, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Given Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Jiam Momin, where you are being invesigated as a possible sockpuppet (and where it is pointed out that you have been asking others to perform various article moves for you), I'll decline for now. Sattari Sarbojanin Primary School, Sattari has been redirected by another editor as a nonnotable primary school (see WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES), and there was previously an article English Bazar Municipality that has also been changed to a redirect and which your article seems to duplicate. (I'm also not sure how English Bazar (community development block) is related to the topic.) Some things clearly need to be sorted out with regard to these articles, but let's let the sockpuppet investigation run its course first. Deor ( talk) 16:47, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi, can you please clarify for which reason have you deleted this draft Draft:Hodl_Hodl and what should I do so it would be posted on Wikipedia? Artur970 ( talk) 10:26, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@ Artur970: Someone tagged the draft for speedy deletion as a copyright violation of this Web site; and after looking into the matter, I agreed that it was a copyright violation and deleted it. Wikipedia does not allow copyright violations to appear anywhere on our site, even in draft space. If you want to re-create the draft, it will have to be in your own words, not with material copied from somewhere else. (As you probably know, a previous version of the draft was deleted for the same reason on 12 December last year.) Deor ( talk) 14:42, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Could you provide coordinates for Talk:Bruton Abbey, where you commented in 2012?-- Dthomsen8 ( talk) 03:51, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

@ Dthomsen8: The coordinates in the article are correct, according to old OS maps. What do you mean by "provide coordinates for" the talk page? Deor ( talk) 07:57, 2 February 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.

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of this. John from Idegon ( talk) 23:49, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

I was unaware that Facebook pages wouldn't work on the "about" page if you didn't have an account. I don't edit much anymore, so I've lost track of the finer points of Wiki editing. But I thot this current replica project was worthy of an addition. Many thanks for the clean up! Mactographer ( talk) 06:22, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

Hello Deor, gee, I didn't know there was a problem with too many digits in coordinates. I copy and paste them out of Google maps. I have done several hundred. I don't want you to drive yourself crazy. Rhadow ( talk) 19:19, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Sure, WP:COORDPREC says that six digits exceeds the precision of civilian GPS. Nevertheless, no damage is being done. Rhadow ( talk) 19:33, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

@ Rhadow: You're not driving me crazy :). Six decimal places gives a location to a matter of a few centimeters, which is is far too precise for something like a railway station. (Even for something really small, like an outdoor sculpture, five decimal places is almost always as many as one needs.) What is a bit concerning is that some of the coordinates you've added are rather off, from a matter of 100–200 meters away from the correct location to over a kilometer away. A good tool to use for determining coordinates is GeoLocator, where one can pinpoint the desired location and set the desired precision. Deor ( talk) 20:43, 18 February 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.

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Apologies for mistagging the speedy deletion on Draft:THE METAL DEN. Because it focuses on conspiracy theories and falsehoods, a G3 seemed like the best option. If you'd rather I speedy it for G11 (unambiguous promotion) I could do that instead. Bkissin ( talk) 20:04, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

@ Bkissin: Since the draft isn't in mainspace and is currently in the review queue, I think it best to just let a reviewer take care of it. It doesn't seem egregiously promotional, and perhaps it could be rewritten or otherwise improved to eliminate the problems. I am not familiar with the Web site that the draft is about; but if this were an article, it might be speediable as A7 or certainly might be AfD'd. Deor ( talk) 20:16, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Deor... I am an AfC reviewer. Bkissin ( talk)

I know you said you were going to bed, but in case you are still up, they continue to edit their talk page for their made up tournament. I guess the initial block didn't include the talk page so they could communicate with the community, but they show no willingness to do so. Spike 'em ( talk) 09:13, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Hi!

could you clarify why you undid my addition to the Serial comma article? The addition was self-referential (which as I understand is usually avoided on Wikipedia), but I feel that the style guide of a collection of text with such a large cultural presence is very relevant to the contents of the article.

-- Poopchen ( talk) 19:41, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Well, in addition to being self-referential, the edit was sourced only to the Wikipedia MOS, which is forbidden by the policy WP:CIRC. I think you overestimate the "cultural presence" of Wikipedia, but in any event the addition was, I think, only of tangential relevance to the article. Deor ( talk) 20:48, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Awesome

Ten years!

-- Gerda Arendt ( talk) 07:30, 23 March 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.

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This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:40, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

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 21:03, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

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.

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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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Wishing Deor a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Mjs1991 ( talk) 04:24, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is User:Thpeeni and MOS:ERA. Jayjg ^(talk) 13:28, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for the years of service. I totally understand why you gave up the bit, I gave mine up for the same reason. Good luck in your future endeavors. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 17:53, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Well, all the cool kids were doing it, so ... Deor ( talk) 19:25, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

June

cornflowers

some wildflowers of thanks and understanding, for your time outside -- Gerda Arendt ( talk) 20:08, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	Thank you for all your efforts. And hope to see you back once we get these issues resolved. Doc James ( talk · contribs · email) 21:15, 29 June 2019 (UTC)