RickinBaltimore

Administrators' newsletter – April 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2022).

Administrator changes

Firefly • Sdrqaz

Ad Orientem

Geschichte • Ryan Postlethwaite • Sabine's Sunbird • Wassupwestcoast

Interface administrator changes

Evad37

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open proposing a change to the minimum activity requirements for administrators.

Technical news

• Access to Special:RevisionDelete has been expanded to include users who have the deletelogentry and deletedhistory rights. This means that those in the Researcher user group and Checkusers who are not administrators can now access Special:RevisionDelete. The users able to view the special page after this change are the 3 users in the Researcher group, as there are currently no checkusers who are not already administrators. (T301928)
• When viewing deleted revisions or diffs on Special:Undelete a back link to the undelete page for the associated page is now present. (T284114)

Arbitration

• Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures § Opening of proceedings has been updated to reflect current practice following a motion.
• A arbitration case regarding Skepticism and coordinated editing has been closed.
• A arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been opened.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines has closed, and the results were that 56.98% of voters supported the guidelines. The results of this vote mean the Wikimedia Foundation Board will now review the guidelines.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:14, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

UTRS appeal #56969

I'm sending this to you as you performed the block and I figure the user wants confidentiality. You'll see what I mean. --Deepfriedokra (talk) 21:27, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

All done, thanks for the heads up! RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:34, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Delete a Draft

Hello, can you please delete this draft Draft:Mirette Elhariri because It is a cross wiki promotion and has been deleted several times like here Draft:Mirette El Hariri, and you should find a way to stop its continues re-creation. 197.52.1.155 (talk) 13:14, 10 April 2022 (UTC)

Again, the draft has been re-created in different name Draft:Mirette Hariri, I hope after you delete it, protect it and protect this one as well Draft:Mirette El-Hariri, we need to stop this mess. 197.52.222.107 (talk) 16:10, 10 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks so much, but don't forget to protect this deleted draft as well Draft:Mirette El-Hariri because he might re-create it again. as he did with Draft:Mirette El Hariri. 197.52.202.36 (talk) 17:08, 10 April 2022 (UTC)

MouseHorse

Can you whack User:BaboonMoon too, please? Obviously the same editor. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:23, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

He's sleeping wid da fishes. RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:29, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

[1] ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:32, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

New administrator activity requirement

The administrator policy has been updated with new activity requirements following a successful Request for Comment.

Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:

1. Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
2. Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period

Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.

22:53, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Is this OK?

In the article Otis T. Carr, a social security number is on the page. The subject died 40 years ago. Is this OK? I would think it should be deleted and REVDEL'ed, but what do I know? Thanks for listening. Jacona (talk) 16:23, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Can you link to the edit that had the SSN? I can't find it when I looked through the edits. RickinBaltimore (talk) 16:43, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

It's still in the article, has been since 2007, buried in the references. [2]Jacona (talk) 11:59, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

I've just sent a request to have this oversighted. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:03, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, it's been oversighted. If you see something like this in the future, you can go here: Special:EmailUser/Oversight to get the Oversight team to remove the offending text. I only have the ability to revdel, so it would still be visible to admins. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:18, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Thanks so much! Jacona (talk) 00:19, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Jenny/eon337

Hello? It this a person who used to go by Rahfu? I've heard you're interested in an old internet user named Jenny, also known as eon337. Created something called the "longest text ever". If you're willing to talk, I have some information on this person I'd like to share, and I'd like to hear what you know. If this is the wrong person, deepest apologies. RedG (talk) 08:37, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

Not me I'm afraid! RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:51, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

Darn. Well, thanks anyway. RedG (talk) 19:01, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2022).

Administrator changes

Colin M

David.Monniaux • Fribbler • Grue • Kpjas • West.andrew.g

CheckUser changes

Ks0stm

Oversighter changes

Ks0stm

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, a change has been made to the administrators inactivity policy. Under the new policy, if an administrator has not made at least 100 edits over a period of 5 years they may be desysopped for inactivity.
• Following a discussion on the bureaucrat's noticeboard, a change has been made to the bureaucrats inactivity policy.

Technical news

• The ability to undelete the associated talk page when undeleting a page has been added. This was the 11th wish of the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey.
• A public status system for WMF wikis has been created. It is located at https://www.wikimediastatus.net/ and is hosted separately to WMF wikis so in the case of an outage it will remain viewable.

Arbitration

• Remedy 2 of the St Christopher case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to place a ban on single-purpose accounts who were disruptively editing on the article St Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine or related pages from those pages.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:34, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2022).

Administrator changes

Tamzin

Barek • Darkwind • Geometry guy • ProcseeBot • RoyBoy • Sean Whitton • Valereee • Visorstuff • WAvegetarian

Sn0wflake → VersedFenrir

CheckUser changes

Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

• Several areas of improvement collated from community member votes have been identified in the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines. The areas of improvement have been sent back for review and you are invited to provide input on these areas.

Technical news

• Administrators using the mobile web interface can now access Special:Block directly from user pages. (T307341)
• The IP Info feature has been deployed to all wikis as a Beta Feature. Any autoconfirmed user may enable the feature using the "IP info" checkbox under Preferences → Beta features. Autoconfirmed users will be able to access basic information about an IP address that includes the country and connection method. Those with advanced privileges (admin, bureaucrat, checkuser) will have access to extra information that includes the Internet Service Provider and more specific location.

Arbitration

• Remedy 2 of the Rachel Marsden case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to delete or reduce to a stub, together with their talk pages, articles related to Rachel Marsden when they violate Wikipedia's biographies of living persons policy.
• An arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been closed.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:55, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

Happy Birthday!

Wishing RickinBaltimore a very happy birthday on behalf of the Birthday Committee!   Chris Troutman (talk) 20:05, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

Block evasion

Hi Rick, in May, you blocked an IP user, Special:Contributions/158.181.81.24, for 3 months. Special:Contributions/158.181.83.72 appears to be the same user, based on the types of articles being edited. Thanks. BilCat (talk) 19:59, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, wasn't around much this weekend. I'll have a look at the edits. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:29, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

No problem. BilCat (talk) 21:39, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Odd behaviour

Yesterday I warned F1V8V10V6 (F1) for edit warring on the Max Verstappen (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) article. Their response was that I was stalking them (I wasn't, MV's article is on my list of articles I keep an eye on). F1 then thanked me for an edit I made to a shipwreck list. Today, he's thanked me four times for edits made to three different articles, none of which fall within his area of interest on Wikipedia. I know its a bit early to say for sure, but given the comment this seems to me the start of some stalking by F1. Not sure what to do here, but so far there has been no resumption of the edit war. Any thoughts or advice? Mjroots (talk) 13:33, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

I'd keep an eye on it. It might just be blowing off steam and is forgotten about in a day or so. If it keeps up though, let me know. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:50, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

For info: I've blocked the editor in question for edit warring on the Max Verstappen article. A different edit war, but edit warring nonetheless. Mjroots (talk) 07:31, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2022).

Administrator changes

AA • Gwalla • Ioeth • Laurascudder • Moriori (deceased) • Nat • Rfl

Drilnoth → AFigureOfBlue

Bureaucrat changes

Lee Vilenski

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

Technical news

• user_global_editcount is a new variable that can be used in abuse filters to avoid affecting globally active users. (T130439)

Arbitration

• An arbitration case regarding conduct in deletion-related editing has been opened.

Miscellaneous

• The New Pages Patrol queue has around 10,000 articles to be reviewed. As all administrators have the patrol right, please consider helping out. The queue is here. For further information on the state of the project, see the latest NPP newsletter.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:29, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

N1TH Music

In looking over User talk:N1TH_Music, and considering the fact that they have reviewed relevant guidelines and accepted an offer of mentorship, and has been overall quite civil and understanding, I am willing to unblock that account. As the blocking admin, do you have any objection? ~Anachronist (talk) 17:05, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

Go right ahead, no argument from me. That was the purpose of the block to begin with, glad they realized what they were doing. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:57, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

@Anachronist: On second thought....seeing their continued diatribe on their talk page, I don't think it's a good idea to unblock. They don't get it, and I have a feeling if we unblock, we are going to be right back were we are now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:06, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

And I was right...RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:29, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

sock

@Patrickmstumph Is a sock puppet of @Https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/35.143.190.63 Uricdivine (talk) 00:12, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Walorski

Please consider revdeleting this addition to the page's archive. Thanks. General Ization ^Talk 21:28, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Got it, thanks for the heads up! If you find anymore, let me know. RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:33, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2022).

Administrator changes

Valereee

Anthony Appleyard (deceased) • Capitalistroadster • Samsara

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has been closed with consensus to add javascript that will show edit notices for editors editing via a mobile device. This only works for users using a mobile browser, so iOS app editors will still not be able to see edit notices.
• An RfC has been closed with the consensus that train stations are not inherently notable.

Technical news

• The Wikimania 2022 Hackathon will take place virtually from 11 August to 14 August.
• Administrators will now see links on user pages for "Change block" and "Unblock user" instead of just "Block user" if the user is already blocked. (T308570)

Arbitration

• The arbitration case request Geschichte has been automatically closed after a 3 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

• You can vote for candidates in the 2022 Board of Trustees elections from 16 August to 30 August. Two community elected seats are up for election.
• Wikimania 2022 is taking place virtually from 11 August to 14 August. The schedule for wikimania is listed here. There are also a number of in-person events associated with Wikimania around the world.
• Tech tip: When revision-deleting on desktop, hold ⇧ Shift between clicking two checkboxes to select every box in that range.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:44, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

User talk:Joseph2302

cross-posting unblock request for your consideration. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 19:59, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I like that. That's someone that GETS why they were blocked, recognized the behavior, and gave ways to make it better, not just the usual "I won't do it again". I support an unblock. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:01, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I know this isn't my place but I also feel strongly that we're overlooking a lengthy history here. Why are his reassurances now any better than those in the past? PRAXIDICAE🌈 20:04, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Because if he violates this, and ends up blocked again, that's it from me. All of my good faith will be done. Let's just say this is the last shot from my perspective. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:07, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. I hope they do well. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 20:55, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I have finally made my way through CAT:UNBLOCK. Will only need to look at them as they arise. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 20:57, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I see you're active

Can you whack Aziz al-Abub (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) please? LTA harassment account. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:37, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Someone's more active than me. Oshwah's already blocked them. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:38, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Just saw that, thanks. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:39, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2022).

Administrator changes

DanCherek • DatGuy • Femke • Z1720

Aldux • Graham Beards • Nyttend

Interface administrator changes

Mr. Stradivarius

Guideline and policy news

• A discussion is open to define a process by which Vector 2022 can be made the default for all users.
• An RfC is open to gain consensus on whether Fox News is reliable for science and politics.

Technical news

• The impact report on the effects of disabling IP editing on the Persian (Farsi) Wikipedia has been released.
• The WMF is looking into making a Private Incident Reporting System (PIRS) system to improve the reporting of harmful incidents through easier and safer reporting. You can leave comments on the talk page by answering the questions provided. Users who have faced harmful situations are also invited to join a PIRS interview to share the experience. To sign up please email Madalina Ana.

Arbitration

• An arbitration case regarding Conduct in deletion-related editing has been closed. The Arbitration Committee passed a remedy as part of the final decision to create a request for comment (RfC) on how to handle mass nominations at Articles for Deletion (AfD).
• The arbitration case request Jonathunder has been automatically closed after a 6 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

• The new pages patrol (NPP) team has prepared an appeal to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) for assistance with addressing Page Curation bugs and requested features. You are encouraged to read the open letter before it is sent, and if you support it, consider signing it. It is not a discussion, just a signature will suffice.
• Voting for candidates for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees is open until 6 September.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:12, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Strength of a cyclone

I was trying to find a source for this note: 2017 Atlantic hurricane season#cite note-1. The same note was on 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. You had left talk regarding this on Talk:2017 Atlantic hurricane season#Hurricane Maria strongest hurricane?. I couldn't find anything obvious by a web search. Seems like a source should be added on that note. Thank you! Adakiko (talk) 23:23, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Wow, I forgot I even added that edit. RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:51, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Touch my balls ...

... is Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Evlekis, so would you please remove TPA (see note on SPI). Cheers, - Tom | Thomas.W ^talk 20:13, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Yup, all taken care of. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:14, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2022).

Administrator changes

ScottishFinnishRadish

Staxringold

Ahoerstemeier (deceased) • Ched

Interface administrator changes

Cyberpower678

CheckUser changes

GorillaWarfare

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, consensus was found that if the rationale for a block depends on information that is not available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee, a checkuser or an oversighter for action (as applicable, per ArbCom's recent updated guidance) instead of the administrator making the block.
• Following an RfC, consensus has been found that, in the context of politics and science, the reliability of FoxNews.com is unclear and that additional considerations apply to its use.
• Community comment on the revised Universal Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines is requested until 8 October.

Technical news

• The Articles for creation helper script now automatically recognises administrator accounts which means your name does not need to be listed at WP:AFCP to help out. If you wish to help out at AFC, enable AFCH by navigating to Preferences → Gadgets and checking the "Yet Another AfC Helper Script" box.

Arbitration

• Remedy 8.1 of the Muhammad images case will be rescinded 1 November following a motion.
• A modification to the deletion RfC remedy in the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been made to reaffirm the independence of the RfC and allow the moderators to split the RfC in two.
• The second phase of the 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review closes 3 October.

Miscellaneous

• An administrator's account was recently compromised. Administrators are encouraged to check that their passwords are secure, and reminded that ArbCom reserves the right to not restore adminship in cases of poor account security. You can also use two-factor authentication (2FA) to provide an extra level of security.
• Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections open 2 October and close 8 October.
• You are invited to comment on candidates in the 2022 CUOS appointments process.
• An RfC is open to discuss whether to make Vector 2022 the default skin on desktop.
• Tech tip: You can do a fuzzy search of all deleted page titles at Special:Undelete.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:43, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2022).

Administrator changes

• 
  • Isabelle Belato
  • Whpq
• 
• 
  • Atama
  • Astronautics~enwiki
  • Athaenara
  • Eddie891
  • GraemeL
  • Marianocecowski
  • Natalya
  • Pratyeka
  • SB Johnny

Interface administrator changes

• TheresNoTime
• Ragesoss

CheckUser changes

• 
  • Blablubbs
  • Firefly
• Joe Roe

Oversight changes

• DGG

Guideline and policy news

• The article creation at scale RfC opened on 3 October and will be open until at least 2 November.
• An RfC is open to discuss having open requests for adminship automatically placed on hold after the seven-day period has elapsed, pending closure or other action by a bureaucrat.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 13 November 2022 until 22 November 2022 to stand in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The arbitration case request titled Athaenara has been resolved by motion.
• The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has entered the proposed decision stage.
• AmandaNP, Mz7 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee Elections. Xaosflux and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.

Miscellaneous

• The 2022 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of two new CheckUsers.
• You can add yourself to the centralised page listing time zones of administrators.
• Tech tip: Wikimarkup in a block summary is parsed in the notice that the blockee sees. You can use templates with custom options to specify situations like {{rangeblock|create=yes}} or {{uw-ublock|contains profanity}}.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:23, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:35, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2022).

Administrator changes

• Eddie891
• Euryalus
• TheresNoTime

• Alex.muller
• Excirial
• RedWordSmith
• Ron Ritzman
• TheresNoTime
• Stephen

Interface administrator changes

TheresNoTime

TheresNoTime

CheckUser changes

TheresNoTime

Oversight changes

TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• Consensus has been found in an RfC to automatically place RfAs on hold after one week.
• The article creation at scale RfC has been closed.
• An RfC on the banners for the December 2022 fundraising campaign has been closed.

Technical news

• A new preference named "Enable limited width mode" has been added to the Vector 2022 skin. The preference is also shown as a toggle on every page if your monitor is 1600 pixels or wider. When disabled it removes the whitespace added by Vector 2022 on the left and right of the page content. Disabling this preference has the same effect as enabling the wide-vector-2022 gadget. (T319449)

Arbitration

• Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 12, 2022 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
• The proposed decision for the 2021-22 review of the discretionary sanctions system is open.
• The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has been closed.
• The arbitration case Stephen has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 1 December 2022.
• A motion has modified the procedures for contacting an admin facing Level 2 desysop.

Miscellaneous

• Tech tip: A single IPv6 connection usually has access to a "subnet" of 18 quintillion IPs. Add /64 to the end of an IP in Special:Contributions to see all of a subnet's edits, and consider blocking the whole subnet rather than an IP that may change within a minute.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:44, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Maniasophy

The idjit might need his TPA revoked as well ... [3] Ravenswing 20:21, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

I did that hours ago actually. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:22, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

You have a message

UTRS appeal #67169 Peace on earth to users of good will. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 23:30, 25 December 2022 (UTC)

Wow. RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:54, 26 December 2022 (UTC)

I'm speechless from that. And honestly a bit insulted. It's coming off as patronizing. RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:56, 26 December 2022 (UTC)

Happy Kalends of January

		Happy New Year!
		Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year, from the horse and bishop person. May the year ahead be productive and distraction-free and may Janus light your way. Ealdgyth (talk) 14:05, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you and the same to you and yours! RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:24, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).

Administrator changes

• ComplexRational
• Extraordinary Writ

Stephen

• Andrew Yong
• Dbenbenn
• DESiegel
• GlassCobra
• Joe Decker
• Nancy
• Pathoschild
• StuffOfInterest
• William Pietri
• Wwwwolf
• Xdamr

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

CheckUser changes

Moneytrees

• Ivanvector
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• GeneralNotability
• Moneytrees

• Guerillero
• SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criterion A5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following an unopposed proposal.

Arbitration

• Following the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, CaptainEek, GeneralNotability, Guerillero, L235, Moneytrees, Primefac, SilkTork.
• The 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review has concluded with many changes to the discretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
• The arbitration case Stephen has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
• Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:09, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Help?

Does "from" Baltimore mean "in" Baltimore? If so, I need help with a photo. I found this photo that I want to use. Yes, the paper was copyrighted, but copyright was not renewed, when it expired in 1987. (Masthead shows copyright]. Periodicals shows issue 32 for March 7 copyrighted as B760640. Checking the on-line catalog I find no renewals.) It is the only image I have been able to find for Bertha McNeill, but it is horrible. Poking around, the LOC doesn't have issues from the 1950s, nor does newspapers.com. Google News archive has an even worse copy. I'm in southern Mexico, which is a really long walk to Baltimore, but I know when I lived in the US one could obtain back issues of local newspapers at the public library. Do you know if Baltimore offers this service, and would you be willing to try to find me a decent copy of this photograph? SusunW (talk) 20:00, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

I'm certainly IN Baltimore for sure! I see it's from the Baltimore Afro-American, let me see first if the Enoch Pratt Library has a copy of that available. If they do, I'll see what I can do. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:04, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I literally pulled up every single article written about her searching for a photo. It was the only one I found and lucky me, it doesn't appear to be copyrighted. SusunW (talk) 20:06, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

I'll have to go in person, so it might be a bit of a delay in getting back to you. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:23, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

No worries, I just started working on the article and there is no deadline for Wikipedia. I truly just appreciate that you are willing to try to get it. SusunW (talk) 20:29, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

Just wanted to follow up, it might be a few weeks for me to get out to look at this, so I wanted to keep you in the loop. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:20, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Muchas gracias! I keep getting called away from working on her to do other things, so no worries. Perhaps if the stars align, I'll be able to finish her and publish the article for Black History Month in February. Appreciate your help whenever it can happen. SusunW (talk) 13:53, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Pressure is off ;) I'd still like to have the photo, if you can find it, but I am pretty sure I finally found another that I can use. SusunW (talk) 23:00, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Oh that's good news! I still plan on getting that library card taken care of, if I come across it as well I'll let you know. RickinBaltimore (talk) 00:34, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

That would be lovely. I've finished writing her so if you can get it, we can always just add it to Bertha McNeill. SusunW (talk) 18:01, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Disable TPA

Mind removing the TPA of Ramy Marciano Amram Mendosa Moroccan Israeli Sephardic Poet? All they're doing is spamming their talk page with facebook links. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 15:18, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Does the Thanos finger snap Done. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:19, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 15:20, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

That /27 range at ANI

Sorry about that, Rick. The thing is, I didn't altogether understand how you got the range you blocked, 92.40.218.0/27 (still don't). I constructed a /27 range from the single IP I had, 92.40.218.204, in the way I usually do, by adding /27 to it, thus getting 92.40.218.204/27. Assuming that would work the same way as yours, I tested it with the "contributions" function, which automatically converted it to 92.40.218.192/27 (leaving my comprehension behind, but that seems to be how it works). Anyway, it includes 92.40.218.204 and 92.40.218.206. So I don't think a /24 block was actually needed. (Actually, if it was only about covering those two IPs, so closely related, blocking the tiny 92.40.218.204/30 range would be enough. But it's certainly as well to catch a few more.) Be that as it may, it was stupid of me to assume your /27 and my /27 were the same; of course I should have checked your /27 by itself, before signing off on it. What can I say, except I guess my understanding of ranges is too shallow to be giving advice about them. The blind leading the blind. Sorry! Bishonen | tålk 11:35, 21 January 2023 (UTC).

It's ok. I swear even working in the IT field for 2 decades some of it STILL stumps me. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:48, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).

Administrator changes

Gimmetrow

• Bjelleklang
• Bob the Wikipedian
• Leithp
• WhisperToMe
• 100 inactive admins

CheckUser changes

• BDD
• Bradv
• Donald Albury
• Maxim
• MusikAnimal

Oversighter changes

• BDD
• Bradv
• Donald Albury
• Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, the administrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from the Arbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
• Following a community discussion, consensus has been found to impose the extended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Kurds and Kurdistan.

Technical news

• The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
• In December, the contentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces the former discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initial implementation period. There is a detailed summary of the changes and administrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system at their noticeboard.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
• Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:38, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Trying to establish a page for Teel James Glenn

Teel James Glenn is one of the leading pulp authors in New York at this point and has a number of novels published as well as numerous short stories.

He is a Swordmaster in America and has worked as a stunt man for years.

He is an artist with drawings published.

He has contributed significantly to the Horror Writer's of America and deserves his page!

I keep attempting to set up his page and I have been told that he is not 'significant' enough a person to have a Wiki page. Last year alone I believe he sold 47 short stories. This seems significant to me. Zingasvryka (talk) 19:04, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

We need to have it documented from reliable independent sources that he meets our standards of notability. This isn't something that can be negotiated, these are basic guidelines for creating an article on any subject. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:07, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

User Salmasalma2 and Juan Branco

Firstly, thanks for blocking indefinitely Salmasalma2. Possibly you did not remark that Salmasalma2 is one further of several usernames of Juan Branco himself (see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Brancojuan/Archive).

Following my revert of the first edit of Juan Branco by Salmasalma2, I received the following mail of Juan Branco, with "Mise en demeure et enclenchement d'actions pénales" as an object:

Monsieur le Professeur d'université émérite Daniel Lazard,

je me permets de vous écrire afin de vous informer de votre identification sur l'encyclopédie Wikipedia, sous le nom d'utilisateur D.Lazard.

Vous avez, au cours des dernières années, et en appui ou avec l'appui d'une autre personne (sous le pseudo XlNolanX, devenu EdgarAllanFrost, et son faux nez , contribué à publier de façon répétée des informations diffamatoires, ne pouvant bénéficier ni de l'exception de vérité ni de la bonne foi.

Ces publications ont atteint lourdement à ma réputation, à mes intérêts professionnels et à ceux de mon cabinet, entraînant de lourdes et violentes conséquences sociales et personnelles. Ils ont atteint aux intérêts de mes proches, de mes clients et des personnes que je défendais. Ils ont non seulement entaché mon honneur, ma considération mais aussi ma présomption d'innocence.

Vos interventions sont en conséquences constitutives des délits de diffamation publique et d'injure, et constituent des faits de dénigrement au sens de la Cour de cassation.

La cour de cassation a établi que le simple fait de rétablir ou de poster des paroles diffamatoires déjà existantes sur une plateforme en ligne est constitutive d'une nouvelle publication poursuivable en tant que telle, y compris lorsqu'ils prennent source en des publications antérieures effectuées par des personnes tierces.

C'est donc avec un véritable soulagement que je vous annonce qu'une plainte pénale sera déposée prochainement à votre encontre.

Je vous met en demeure de toute réitération de vos actes.

Juan Branco

I am not really afraid by these legal threats, since I am not the author of any sentence in Juan Branco, and, for the French law, defamation requires that the involved sentences must be explicitly cited.

Nevertheless, other editors and Wikipedia itself may also be involved and must be prepared to react. Also, if a legal action is started (I do not believe that this will be, but ...), I think that my defense should be supported by Wikipedia).

Please, tell me what I have to do further in this affair. Thanks in advance. D.Lazard (talk) 15:49, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

This is way past my pay grade I'm afraid. If you are concerned about any possible legal actions I would suggest you reach out to legal@wikimedia.org with this information and advise them of this. They would be be best advised on what to do in this case. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:05, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

Notice of noticeboard discussion

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. White 720 (talk) 22:46, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

As a follow up to the discussion, I hadn't seen the 2017 article, and I apologize for having failed to improve upon it. Thank you for your response. White 720 (talk) 00:18, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

Juan Branco, again

Just after your indefinite block of Salmasalma2, another WP:SPA, named Paulk12, started to edit the same article Juan Branco. This is certainly block evasion and sock-puppetry, as the unique object of both accounts is to introduce a more positive presentation of the article subject (however, the second account proceeds with more subtlety, probably for trying to avoid a block). Another indice of sock-puppetry is that both WP:SPA are owned by an experienced editor.

So, I suggest to block Paulk12, and to semi-protect the article.

Thanks and sincerely. D.Lazard (talk) 15:09, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

I'm going to file a SPI to confirm. Seems pretty cut and dry, but I like to cover my bases on something like this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:20, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).

Administrator changes

The Wordsmith

• Fuhghettaboutit
• Spinningspark (deceased)

CheckUser changes

Callanecc

Oversighter changes

Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
• Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
• A request for comment is open to discuss making the closing instructions for the requested moves process a guideline.

Technical news

• The results of the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey have been posted.

Arbitration

• Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been rescinded.
• The proposed decision for the Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
• A case related to the Holocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.

Miscellaneous

• The 2023 appointees for the Ombuds commission are AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, JJMC89, MdsShakil, Minorax and Renvoy as regular members and Zabe as advisory members.
• Following the 2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Mykola7, Superpes15, and Xaosflux.
• The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a [p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:20, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

Typo

I think you meant "an" instead of "and"? [4] Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 17:52, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Ugh. Thanks! RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:09, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).

Administrator changes

Aoidh

KillerChihuahua

CheckUser changes

Ferret

Guideline and policy news

• A community RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involving gender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.

Technical news

• Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users of Internet Explorer 11. (T178356)
• The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
• A link to the user's Special:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown on Special:Contributions. This was voted #17 in the Community Wishlist Survey 2023.

Arbitration

• The Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
• A case about World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:11, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Procedural notification of additional proposal at an RfC you participated in

Hi, I and others have proposed additional options at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#RfC_on_a_procedural_community_desysop. You may wish to review your position in that RfC. TonyBallioni (talk) 02:14, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Vincent Stewart

His stepson confirmed his death. I provided the link.

https://twitter.com/revivalofman/status/1651943344564518914?s=46&t=LaNhF6pdhuzF021KNFiFgw 74.89.31.221 (talk) 20:24, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Twitter is not considered a reliable enough source for this. Our policy on living or recently deceased people is pretty straight forward about it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:25, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

So if the person’s stepson says he is dead then that is not reliable? 74.89.31.221 (talk) 20:27, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

WP:UGC goes over this. "Examples of unacceptable user-generated sources are Ancestry.com, Facebook, Fandom, Find a Grave, Goodreads, IMDb, Instagram, ODMP, Reddit, TikTok, Tumblr, TV Tropes, Twitter, and Wikipedia (self referencing)". Unfortunately, we cannot prove that he is the stepson of Mr. Stewart, therefore it can't be used as a reliable source. If he has passed away, he is notable enough that it will be mentioned in the news, and then can be added. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:29, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

My block of DP

You're more than welcome to ramp it up to indef if you'd like. When I placed the block I had seen the last block for breaking this particular edit restriction was 2 weeks, so I went up to a month. I knew that there was a better than fair chance that a more significant sanction was called for, which is why I left the discussion open. My hope was to establish the block and allow the discussion to continue without back and forths. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 18:50, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me on this. At this point, I will wait for the community to decide (which I think will be for a c-ban). But I didn't want to step on your toes, so I left it as is. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:52, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).

Administrator changes

Spicy

• Ale jrb
• Dbachmann
• DGG (deceased)
• Jimbo Wales

CheckUser changes

Jimbo Wales

Oversighter changes

Jimbo Wales

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Progress has started on the Page Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their 2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.

Arbitration

• The proposed decision in the World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.

Miscellaneous

• The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:23, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

User OmoOwo

Hello RickinBaltimore. Thanks for blocking the user. Can you hide this edit summary please. Regards ----WikiUser1234945-- (talk) 19:36, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Got it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:37, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much ----WikiUser1234945-- (talk) 19:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

User CHINATOWN DI PRATO È PER PIERMARK FONDATORE DI RADIO ITALIA CINA TV!

Can you block access of this user talk page? They are still spamming. SeanTVT (talk) 14:08, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

Another sockpuppet of TheCurrencyGuy

Main page: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TheCurrencyGuy

I am reasonably confident that user:92.21.252.186 is another sockpuppet. Looks like an SPA created to reinstate edit by an earlier one of his sockpuppets, knows too much about editing to be genuinely new. The article involved (Pimlico) has had minimal changes until now and the focus of attention is the same as usual. Do I really need to open another SPI? Or just block as another WP:DUCK again? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 15:28, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Can you create one, just to be safe? I think a CU may need to look more into this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:36, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Seven years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:01, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:31, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Edit conflict

Hi Rick, how's it going? It appears we had an admin conflict,[5] where I appear to have undone precisely what you apparently intended to do. Given the circumstances, I thought I'd open a channel. Any thoughts? -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 20:34, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

We crossed the streams! It's fine, it happens. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:54, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

OK, no worries. Here's a tip while I'm passing: with this one, always take the opportunity to hardblock the IP, because the account has always already been created and will be waiting to exploit the softblock. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 21:05, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up, will file that for later use. RickinBaltimore (talk) 21:13, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

SPI

Hi! I have opened an SPI where you were involved. Feel free to comment if required. – Callmemirela 🍁 22:57, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

I saw that! Thanks for opening it. It appears the main account might be User:Jasgjrgr per the note left by Bbb23. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:11, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2023).

Administrator changes

Ingenuity

• Ddstretch
• Prodego
• Resolute

CheckUser changes

Courcelles

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, editors indefinitely site-banned by community consensus will now have all rights, including sysop, removed.
• As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation's IP Masking project, a new policy has been created that governs the access to temporary account IP addresses. An associated FAQ has been created and individual communities can increase the requirements to view temporary account IP addresses.

Technical news

• Bot operators and tool maintainers should schedule time in the coming months to test and update their tools for the effects of IP masking. IP masking will not be deployed to any content wiki until at least October 2023 and is unlikely to be deployed to the English Wikipedia until some time in 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been closed. The topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933-1945) and the history of Jews in Poland is subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction.

Miscellaneous

• Following a community referendum, the arbitration policy has been modified to remove the ability for users to appeal remedies to Jimbo Wales.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:33, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Happy Birthday!

Hey, RickinBaltimore. Just stopping by to wish you a Happy Birthday from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Mann Mann (talk) 03:46, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2023).

Administrator changes

Novem Linguae

• Deckiller
• Electionworld
• MBisanz
• Penwhale
• Raul654
• Roadrunner
• Viridae
• Yannismarou

Bureaucrat changes

MBisanz

Guideline and policy news

• Contributions to the English Wikipedia are now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) license instead of CC BY-SA 3.0. Contributions are still also released under the GFDL license.

Technical news

• Discussion is open regarding a proposed global policy regarding third-party resources. Third-party resources are computer resources that reside outside of Wikimedia production websites.

Arbitration

• Two arbitration cases are currently open. Proposed decisions are expected 5 July 2023 for the Scottywong case and 9 July 2023 for the AlisonW case.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:58, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Clear the log?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/StealthForce - Can you clear the log of this page, as it's taken care of? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.92.204.120 (talk) 16:22, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

That's done by the CU clerks, and it looks like a request was made for them to handle it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 16:59, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Good Humor
	Counting this, this, and this, and probably more I've forgotten, I think you qualify as "consistently lighten[ing] the mood." Heavy Water (talk • contribs) 14:14, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! Got to try to keep things light at times. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:20, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

User:104.218.36.228

Hi. Since you previously blocked User:104.218.36.228 last December, I thought I'd let you know that I placed a warning on their page for adding numerous uncited paragraphs to Cassette tape, something for which that editor had been warned numerous times on his talk page. Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 16:39, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Sorry

Edits clashed and I ended up removing your post too. Apologies. — Trey Maturin™ 14:39, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

Unacceptable! Indeffed forever. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 14:40, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

GAH! My life is ruined and there is no God. No really, everyone trying to clean up at once, it happens! RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:44, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

Tiny note

Hey Rick, just wanted to let you know that I've logged the editing restriction at Wikipedia:Editing restrictions/Placed by the Wikipedia community in your stead. qedk (t 愛 c) 15:53, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! Sorry I forgot to add it there. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:00, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2023).

Administrator changes

Firefangledfeathers

• AlisonW
• Amberrock
• Closedmouth
• Scottywong

Interface administrator changes

Novem Linguae

Technical news

• The tag filter on Special:NewPages and revision history pages can now be inverted. This allows hiding edits made by automated tools. (T334338)
• Special:BlockedExternalDomains is a new tool that allows easier blocking of plain domains (and their subdomains). This is more easily searchable and is faster for the software to use than the existing MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. It does not support regex (for complex cases), URL path-matching, or the MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist. (T337431)

Arbitration

• The arbitration cases named Scottywong and AlisonW closed 10 July and 16 July respectively.
• The SmallCat dispute arbitration case is in the workshop phase.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:54, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Wikihounding

Regarding your recent closing of a discussion at ANI and incivility may I ask about some behaviour seen on the relevant user's talk page where other editors have come to lecture him about incivility.

This is an example, though previous comments in similar vein have been deleted.

While these may well be well-meaning, I do not think that they are terribly constructive in that they seem to my mind to have a certain touch of baiting or goading about them. If he responds in an impolite manner on his own talk page - even simply deleting previous messages is called out by one of these editors - then perhaps one of them or someone else just there for the show will report him on ANI for incivility. I don't think that this sort of thing is playing fair.

Sure, there's community consensus of a problem and that something should be done about it, and I support the solution but I feel that poking the guy with a stick until he snarls is disruptive. --Pete (talk) 21:27, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I wanted to let you know I'm not ignoring this, I'm going to be inactive for a few days due to a family emergency. I will drop a note on the talk page to advise people, let this drop now as there's no reason to pile on. RickinBaltimore (talk) 22:02, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, RickinBaltimore. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.Doug Weller talk 07:35, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Air India protection level

Hello, it seems the page Air India has been in WP:ECP for too long now. The socking incident happened 6 years ago, and the perpetrators have probably been blocked by now. Can you please reduce protection to WP:SEMI? Thanks. Super yoshi013021 (talk) 08:44, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

I checked and there appears to not have been any reported socks of that user in 5 years. I'll go ahead and lower it now. If it needs to be changed, it can be done again. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:59, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

::Actually, scratch that I will request on your behalf at WP:RFPP. I have some concerns about this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:01, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Nevermind, reducing protection on it now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:13, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

User talk:ABILAG BURUNDI

Hi, I used G10 to blank the racist language used while someone dealt with deleting the page. Please let me know if there was a better option to use? Equine-man (talk) 19:28, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

The comment isn't really something I would consider revdeling. It's rude/vandalism, but in the guises of a comment, not worthy of removal. Instead of deleting the page, if that was the issue, that could be done. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:31, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. As the editor was indef banned and I perceived it as racist, I just thought nuke the page and hide the contents until someone sorted it. Thanks for the help! Equine-man (talk) 19:37, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

No problem! RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:39, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2023).

Administrator changes

• Pppery
• Theleekycauldron

• Dwheeler
• G.A.S
• Royalbroil
• Ssd

CheckUser changes

Bradv

Oversighter changes

Bradv

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, TFAs will be automatically semi-protected the day before it is on the main page and through the day after.
• A discussion at WP:VPP about revision deletion and oversight for dead names found that [s]ysops can choose to use revdel if, in their view, it's the right tool for this situation, and they need not default to oversight. But oversight could well be right where there's a particularly high risk to the person. Use your judgment.

Technical news

• Special:Contributions now shows the user's local edit count and the account's creation date. (T324166)

Arbitration

• The SmallCat dispute case has closed. As part of the final decision, editors participating in XfD have been reminded to be careful about forming local consensus which may or may not reflect the broader community consensus. Regular closers of XfD forums were also encouraged to note when broader community discussion, or changes to policies and guidelines, would be helpful.

Miscellaneous

• Tech tip: The "Browse history interactively" banner shown at the top of Special:Diff can be used to easily look through a history, assemble composite diffs, or find out what archive something wound up in.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:22, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

WP:G6 request

Hi, RickinBaltimore! Remember your salt protection on Aryan Khan in 20 December 2016? Check out the "Administrators needed" section of WP:RMTR up logging in; another of such unnecessary "DABber" request is waiting for you. See you there. Intrisit (talk) 16:42, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

Do I remember 2016? Hell I barely remember last week! I'll have a look, thank you. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:13, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

Page moved. Since the subject has an article that passed AfD not too long ago it makes sense to move it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:16, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

BrendanDHarris

No problems, it was just so farcical I did not take it as seriously as I shoud have done. I treated it as more of a joke. Slatersteven (talk) 11:10, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Years ago I would have, but in today's political climate I have no place for that kind of talk, whoever says it. I just didn't want to seem like I didn't trust your judgment, I very much did! RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:25, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Change to the Functionary team

Following a request to the Committee, the CheckUser and Oversight permissions of RickinBaltimore (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) have been restored.

For the Arbitration Committee, Primefac (talk) 08:21, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

Discuss this at: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard § Change to the Functionary team

Foxbro69 might have a new sock

HummyPumny registered and headed straight for Interstate 20 in South Carolina, same as Waterson49.   –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:43, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Already blocked it looks like, thanks for the heads up! RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:53, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Quite welcome. Jamie noticed them as a result of my requesting page protection.   –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:27, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Foxbro appears to have been in the sock drawer again. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Interstate_20_in_South_Carolina&diff=prev&oldid=1175240907   –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:13, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Yup, confirmed. No sleepers that I detected. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:21, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Quack, quack.   –Skywatcher68 (talk) 12:58, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Well that was obvious. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:05, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Self-requested block

@Rick "Undead-American booster" Grimes Hey Rick! How's Baltimore? I'm writing this to request a four-day-block to enforce a wikibreak. Thanks! Bremps... 02:37, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

96 hour block in place starting...NOW! Seriously, enjoy the break. RickinBaltimore (talk) 02:51, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2023).

Administrator changes

Hey man im josh

• Alex Bakharev
• CorbieVreccan
• Cyphoidbomb
• Davodd
• Hog Farm
• JamesR
• KnightLago
• Mark Ironie
• Nosebagbear (deceased)
• Rschen7754
• Tamzin
• TonyBallioni

CheckUser changes

DatGuy

• Ferret
• RickinBaltimore

• TonyBallioni
• Worm That Turned

Oversighter changes

RickinBaltimore

• TonyBallioni
• Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open regarding amending the paid-contribution disclosure policy to add the following text: Any administrator soliciting clients for paid Wikipedia-related consulting or advising services not covered by other paid-contribution rules must disclose all clients on their userpage.

Technical news

• Administrators can now choose to add the user's user page to their watchlist when changing the usergroups for a user. This works both via Special:UserRights and via the API. (T272294)

Arbitration

• Remedy 9 ("MarioProtIV topic ban") of the WikiProject Tropical Cyclones case has been rescinded.

Miscellaneous

• The 2023 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of one new CheckUser.
• Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections opens on 2 October and closes on 8 October.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:41, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

Can I ask for a rev/del please

[6]and [7] thanks, Knitsey (talk) 15:33, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Only because you said please. All taken care of. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:35, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Ha, thank you, Knitsey (talk) 15:37, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, RickinBaltimore. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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BangJan1999 01:20, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

"Global Day of Jihad" deletion

You closed Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Global Day of Jihad, clearly correctly. I found myself fixing and expanding some content on the day in question at Protests on the 2023 Israel–Hamas war#13 October. While it was a non-event as far as terrorist attacks go, it was a day of peaceful protest, and fears of violence lead to bans on pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas protests in some countries, so it seemed reasonable to give some coverage in an article on protests. It is also a topic with a lot of misinformation, which it took forever to sift through, so some Wikipedia coverage seems desirable.

Given that the deletion discussion contained a number of statements to the effect that, while the subject wasn't notable, some related content in another article would be appropriate, and (I think) no statements to the opposite effect, do you think a redirect to {{anchor|Global day of jihad|Global day of rage}} in the Protests on the 2023 Israel–Hamas war#13 October section would be appropriate? If not, should I do a deletion review? HLHJ (talk) 18:16, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Could you take it to deletion review? I would like a wide audience to look at that to be safe. Of course, if it's worthy of a redirect, I'd be happy to switch it to that. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:31, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Sure, I'll do that. The delrev page just asked me to ask you first . HLHJ (talk) 18:41, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Not a problem! And that is an odd one, a redirect to something in the future. Worth a look now overall. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:14, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Deletion review for Global Day of Jihad

An editor has asked for a deletion review of Global Day of Jihad. 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. HLHJ (talk) 19:10, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Hello, HLHJ,

Please do not forget to tag the AFD with a DRV notice. Instructions are there at DRV on what template to use. Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:16, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Thank you, Liz, I was not sure quite how to do that. I think I've done it correctly, but please correct me if I've messed up. HLHJ (talk) 19:24, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Our AN friend

I blocked the /20. Some nasty stuff in here.-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 20:23, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm not as well versed in range blocks as I should be. I did see they hopped to a new IP range however. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:27, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Based in the edit history at Talk:Persecution of Christians and wording of the NPAs, this is User:LittleBrother07. Probably not the master, but a starting point of an SPI becomes necessary.-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 20:30, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Also, I range blocked the new /20 (176.220.240.0/20) as well.-- Ponyo^{bons mots} 20:32, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Awesome thanks, and keeping that account noted. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:34, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

User_talk:Toufeeq690#October 2023

Hi, In respective for Deletion of the page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqlain_Miyan Toufeeq690 (talk) 12:13, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

As I said on ANI, you need to take this to WP:AFD and list your reason for deletion there. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:16, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Rick, I feel a block is imminent, and CIR may be the first reason that comes to mind. Drmies (talk) 12:17, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

I saw you already took care of it. I was trying my best to be in good faith, but yeah that was the likely outcome. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:18, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, they finally said who they were. It may be that there is a follow-up, if they jump through the hoops, but that's a later concern. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 12:22, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Reply

Hi Rick, I was actually re-doing an edit I made to the page a while ago that was reverted without explanation (except an unfairclaim of vandalism) by another editor. The edits I made were because I believed the campaign finance section constituted undue weight and that the scare quote usage of "claim" is a violation of Wikipedia's manual of style. It seems like the IP address who made the revert is simply the same editor named OrcaLord that initially added it and seemingly has a goal of adding as much thinly sourced "negative" information about Slotkin as possible to the article (I clicked through to the Twitter account provided on his profile and the location of the IP matches). If I'm approaching this incorrectly, I would appreciate any help in editing the page so it's not just a place for OrcaLord and his Twitter friends to run their campaign against Slotkin. Thank you. 216.93.126.69 (talk) 12:21, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

I'd suggest to take it up on the talk page. It does appear at first glance to be sourced info, as I feel this would require a wider discussion on the talk page to hash out, rather than revert/deletion. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:25, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

I came to this page from Twitter because Orca is actively organizing other Twitter users to help him add negative information about Slotkin as possible. Is that allowed here? I did post to the talk page but I am not a big Wikipedia user except for some run ins years ago. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.93.126.69 (talk) 12:30, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

That's an accusation that needs proof to be honest. Also, the talk page is where this should be discussed. If there is a consensus to have this info there on that page, then it would remain. RickinBaltimore (talk) 12:35, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2023).

Administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

Tamzin

Dennis Brown

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

• Ragesoss
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

• The WMF is working on making it possible for administrators to edit MediaWiki configuration directly. This is similar to previous work on Special:EditGrowthConfig. A technical RfC is running until November 08, where you can provide feedback.
• There is a proposed plan for re-enabling the Graph Extension. Feedback on this proposal is requested.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 12 November 2023 until 21 November 2023 to stand in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections.
• Xaosflux, RoySmith and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee Elections. BusterD is the reserve commissioner.
• Following a motion, the contentious topic designation of Prem Rawat has been struck. Actions previously taken using this contentious topic designation are still in force.
• Following several motions, multiple topic areas are no longer designated as a contentious topic. These contentious topic designations were from the Editor conduct in e-cigs articles, Liancourt Rocks, Longevity, Medicine, September 11 conspiracy theories, and Shakespeare authorship question cases.
• Following a motion, remedies 3.1 (All related articles under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned), 6 (Stalemate resolution) and 30 (Administrative supervision) of the Macedonia 2 case have been rescinded.
• Following a motion, remedy 6 (One-revert rule) of the The Troubles case has been amended.
• An arbitration case named Industrial agriculture has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case close 8 November.

Miscellaneous

• The Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in November 2023, with 700+ drafts pending reviews for in the last 4 months or so. In addition to the AfC participants, all administrators and New Page Patrollers can conduct reviews using the helper script, Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:23, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you!

You jumped on that LTA that was created to bother me. It's one of dozens that's been created over the past year. Someone out there is fanatically obsessed with me, it seems.

Nobody has ever dealt with one of these LTA accounts as rapidly as you did - often, the LTA is allowed to engage on talk pages for days or weeks, completely derailing my conversations and my work. It's very frustrating. I wanted to say "thank you" for dealing with it quickly and firmly. Take care. Philomathes2357 (talk) 20:35, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Not a problem, I recall seeing that the other day on AN or ANI and it rang a bell. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:42, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Recovering Peter W. M. Blayney page - and adding to it

I'd like to recover the deleted page for Peter Blayney. He is a very highly regarded academic in the Bibliography and Shakespeare scholarship fields, with many published works and awards to his name, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Biblioographical Society's Gold Medal.

Could you please restore the page you deleted, and then I can take it over to add more details since 2017. Thank you. ZoneAlarm5 (talk) 19:12, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

I had to dig around a bit to find the page, since this was 6 years ago and I didn't even recall deleting it. I can do that sure, it was deleted as created by a banned editor, but since you're obviously looking to recreate it in good faith, I'll do so now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:18, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Ok, all set! RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:20, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you muchly! Very quick turn-around; I appreciate it.

It needs some work, but I'll fix it up over the next few days. Let me know if you object to something; I'd prefer this page sticks around! :-) ZoneAlarm5 (talk) 19:25, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

No worries, like I said the original article was created by a sock, but since you're taking it over that's fine! RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:27, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Notice of noticeboard discussion

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Template-salt in mainspace?. Thank you. You are recieving this semi-automated notification because you template-protected a page in mainspace. This is not an indicator of any wrongdoing on your part. Queen of AWB (talk) 00:26, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:29, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Can a deleted user be reinstated? Afiller

I see you deleted User:Afiller in 2017. I know who this user is - he's Dr. Aaron Filler. Dr. Filler made foundational contributions to magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) and deep gluteal syndrome. I know this both because I edit articles on these topics (e.g. I wrote deep gluteal syndrome) as well and have spoken to him on several occasions outside of wikipedia. I don't know if there is an appeal process to reverse deletions but I think it should be strongly considered especially considering the listed reasons for the deletion do not seem serious. Wikipedia is not going to have a better qualified medical editor on MRN and nerve entrapment than Dr. Filler.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8095572/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15739520/ Snake playing a saxaphone (talk) 03:29, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

The user was not deleted, as user accounts aren't deleted, just the User page. The reason for deletion was the user page was being used as a host for his CV, which is not a purpose for Wikipedia. Dr. Filler's account however is active, and he is more than welcome to edit here at his leisure. RickinBaltimore (talk) 13:06, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2023).

Administrator changes

• Ganesha811
• JPxG

• Ajpolino
• Lourdes
• Mairi
• RockMFR
• Somno
• WilyD

Beeblebrox → Just Step Sideways

CheckUser changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Oversight changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Guideline and policy news

• Following a talk page discussion, the Administrators' accountability policy has been updated to note that while it is considered best practice for administrators to have notifications (pings) enabled, this is not mandatory. Administrators who do not use notifications are now strongly encouraged to indicate this on their user page.

Arbitration

• Following a motion, the Extended Confirmed Restriction has been amended, removing the allowance for non-extended-confirmed editors to post constructive comments on the "Talk:" namespace. Now, non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace solely to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided that their actions are not disruptive.
• The Arbitration Committee has announced a call for Checkusers and Oversighters, stating that it will currently be accepting applications for CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions at any point in the year.
• Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 11, 2023 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:54, 8 December 2023 (UTC)

Rollback

¿Por qué? Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 16:27, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Oh heck I must have misclicked when I was on my watchlist. Sorry about that. RickinBaltimore (talk) 16:50, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

No problem at all, GiantSnowman fixed it while I was typing here. A bit of welcome Monday morning humour that you misclicked and rolled back my comment in a thread about somebody else's misclick. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 18:11, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Yo dawg, I heard you like misclicks.... RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:42, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas, RickinBaltimore! Or Season's Greetings or Happy Winter Solstice! As the year winds to a close, I would like to take a moment to recognize your hard work and offer heartfelt gratitude for all you do for Wikipedia. May this Holiday Season bring you nothing but joy, health and prosperity. Onel5969 TT me 15:16, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Onel5969 ^{TT me} 15:16, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

Hello there! Shearonink (talk) wishes you & yours the very best of the season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
Festivus (for the rest of us!) or even the Saturnalia,
here's hoping your holiday time is wonderful and
- especially -
that the New Year will be an improvement on the old.
CHEERS!

Share these holiday wishes by adding {{subst:User:Shearonink/Holiday}} to your friends' talk pages.

(Sent: 16:05, 24 December 2023 (UTC)) Shearonink (talk) 16:05, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Sockmaster Foxbro69

First off, my condolences for your loss. We recently had a loss in the family as well.

Just wanted to let you know that it appears Foxbro has been in the sock drawer again. As you can see there, Yamla did a check user but it was inconclusive.   –Skywatcher68 (talk) 22:24, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay, I would trust Yamla on that to be honest. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:20, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).

Administrator changes

Clovermoss

Dennis Brown

• Julia W
• Marasmusine
• PBS

CheckUser changes

• Aoidh
• HJ Mitchell
• Sdrqaz
• Spicy
• ToBeFree
• Vanamonde93
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• Aoidh
• Firefly
• Sdrqaz
• ToBeFree
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Arbitration

• Following the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Cabayi, Firefly, HJ Mitchell, Maxim, Sdrqaz, ToBeFree, Z1720.
• Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that were enacted in June 2009.
• The arbitration case Industrial agriculture has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• The New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:54, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

On sockstrike

Hello! Recently I reverted an edit which falsely added sockstrike even though the user isn't a sock. Before removing the sockstrike i checked https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:BLOCKEVASION&redirect=no and searched for block evasion strike but found no mention of using sockstrike on block evasion so i reverted the edit. Salekin.sami36 (talk) 19:06, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

If you look at the IP, they are currently blocked for block evasion: [8]. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:13, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

yes, I've checked the user is currently blocked when checking for sock. if you check further notice he's blocked on 9 January, 2024 at (note the time) 13.14 and the last he edited on the page was 13.10 , 9 January, 2024 Special:Contributions/45.248.151.129. So he neither did evade the block nor he's a sock. I think the user who added the strike knows this as he was also involved in the "User conduct at Bangladesh genocide RfC and TBAN violation" section. I see this as an abuse of tags. Salekin.sami36 (talk) 19:39, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

The IP is evading a block and is a pretty blatant block evasion. The admin who performed the block is not involved in the discussion. RickinBaltimore (talk) 19:47, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

I disagree. His last block before doing the edit expired before August, 2023. Up until the last edit he was unblocked as per the block logs. I think @45.248.151.129 should create an account and discuss the matter with the involved admin. Salekin.sami36 (talk) 20:00, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

The IP needs to request an unblock on their IP page. The admin that did the block was not involved in the discussion at all. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:10, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

RickinBaltimore: If you really look at the sock strikes throughout the talk pages, you'll notice a lot of them have been falsely blocked, either due to being 'suspected socks' or for reverting sock strikes that have been placed there only to be removed after a few days (although not all of them are socks). 88.239.12.37 (talk) 07:16, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

pinging @Robertsky 88.239.12.37 (talk) 07:21, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Quick note on User talk:Another Wiki User the 2nd

Thanks for your edits to User talk:Another Wiki User the 2nd.

I think you meant to also remove TPA for User talk:Another Wiki User the 1st and User talk:Another Wiki User the 3rd and User talk:Another Wiki User the Guest as well? They seem to have a network of accounts used for silliness. Awesome Aasim 22:38, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

I revoked on the one you mentioned because of their constant trolling. The other accounts since being blocked haven't done anything really to warrant talk page removal however. RickinBaltimore (talk) 22:56, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Okay good to know. Awesome Aasim 23:05, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

2024

Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht

Happy New Year

2024

Thank you for your compliments on ANI (of all places, while I slept)! As you know, I have a DYK on the Main page, but my story would be different, about Figaro, - this Figaro. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:48, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

On the Main page: the person who made the pictured festival possible --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:52, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

story · music · places

Today a friend's birthday, with related music and new vacation pics --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:53, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

*sigh*

Suspected sockpuppets of StealthForce

• 2601:84:8D00:1E9D:0:0:0:0/64 (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RBLs · proxy check · block user · block log · cross-wiki contribs · CheckUser (log))
• 2601:84:8D80:22:0:0:0:0/64 (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RBLs · proxy check · block user · block log · cross-wiki contribs · CheckUser (log))
• Tools: Editor interaction utility · Interaction Timeline · SPI Tools

There he goes again. It's that guy once again, StealthForce, and please, don't listen to what that guy says. He's just going to make out that I'm the enemy here, and do his "screaming" method of talking; both IP ranges trace to New Jersey, once again. I'm sorry, but this is just frustrating. Please do what you can. He just never learns his lesson. Thank you. 174.61.189.42 (talk) 21:24, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Syed Shial/VECTOR A TPA

Hi, I hope all is well. Per a conversation in the IRC unblock channel, Syed Shial wants to appeal their block on-wiki, but can't edit their talk page; I'm not sure what exactly is going on, but as far as I can tell it's related to your TPA yank of VECTOR A in 2021 (they say they're logged in to the master account, so my best guess is that they're hitting autoblock). Would you be ok with me reversing the TPA revocation on VECTOR A to allow for an appeal? --Blablubbs (talk) 17:20, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Sure thing go ahead. RickinBaltimore (talk) 17:24, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Done! Thanks for the quick response. --Blablubbs (talk) 17:26, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2024).

Administrator changes

• Red-tailed hawk
• Robertsky

• Ameliorate!
• Ancheta Wis
• Anthony Bradbury (deceased)
• Cobi
• Ev
• Moondyne
• Worm That Turned

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

• Enterprisey
• Izno

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)

Arbitration

• Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
• Community feedback is requested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section at WP:AE.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• A vote to ratify the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) via Secure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be found here.
• Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of the Community Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes. Read more
• The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:00, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

TPA not revoked

Not actually sure you revoked TPA on XiounuX. --Yamla (talk) 15:41, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

I have no idea what you mean. Seriously thanks, thought I did. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:44, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

We all need more coffee. :) --Yamla (talk) 15:47, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

GSS

FYI, I have requested oversight and forwarded that ANI thread to ARBCOM to investigate as it seems to be OUTING. SmartSE (talk) 14:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. Something does not smell right with that request though. RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:13, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

It's a dog-eat-dog world for paid editors - it's not uncommon for one to out the other. Arbcom can of course CU OP if they want to. SmartSE (talk) 14:23, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Abdul-Kerim Edilov

Hi RickinBaltimore, Good day. I would like to request the subject to have a page created to be lifted.
I am one the one of the reviewers for new page (NPP) and draft page (AfC) and also one of the new page reviewer trainers - WP:NPPS. An article was blocked to be created by indef by ex-admin Alex Shih - see
HERE. Now after 4.5 year later, a draft page of the subject is created - see Draft:Abdul-Kerim Edilov. I have reviewed the sources and it meet the GNG guidelines. Kindly help to lift off the block. Thanks in advance. Best. Cassiopeia talk 05:49, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

You got it! All taken care of. RickinBaltimore (talk) 15:06, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Hi RickinBaltimore, Thank you very much! Stay safe and best. Cassiopeia talk 03:28, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Q

Hi--can you please revert this? Thx. 199.80.8.254 (talk) 20:46, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, took care of it. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:49, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

No, thank you! 199.80.8.254 (talk) 21:04, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

I think you'll find this guy is in Ohio/Kentucky. Please block ASAP. Thank you, 199.80.8.254 (talk) 21:06, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Ponyo gets the $10 check! 199.80.8.254 (talk) 21:10, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

I reverted another one like that earlier on Leap year, might be some kind of meme to keep an eye out for. 184.152.68.190 (talk) 21:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2024).

Administrator changes

• Sdkb
• The Night Watch

• East718
• Isabelle Belato
• Mzajac
• Staecker
• Stan Shebs
• Sugarfish
• Tamzin

Bureaucrat changes

SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the 2024 RfA review is now open for participation. Editors are invited to review, comment on, and propose improvements to the requests for adminship process.
• Following an RfC, the inactivity requirement for the removal of the interface administrator right increased from 6 months to 12 months.

Technical news

• The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. (T353388)

Miscellaneous

• The 2024 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Doǵu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, MdsShakil, Minorax, Nehaoua, Renvoy and RoySmith as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the 2024 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Ajraddatz, Albertoleoncio, EPIC, JJMC89, Johannnes89, Melos and Yahya.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:22, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

They're back...

Yep, that's right. The IP you blocked in February? Well, they're trying to send ANI notices once again and have started a discussion on the ANI thread. Their new IP address is 174.126.129.226. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 00:51, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Oookay, never mind. Ad Orientem blocked them. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 00:54, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Oh good! RickinBaltimore (talk) 14:04, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

They never learn from their mistakes huh? NoobThreePointOh (talk) 14:15, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2024).

Administrator changes

• Kbdank71
• Kosack
• NrDg
• TLSuda

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open to convert all current and future community discretionary sanctions to (community designated) contentious topics procedure.

Technical news

• The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (T313405)

Arbitration

• An arbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".

Miscellaneous

• Editors are invited to sign up for The Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improve vital and other core articles on Wikipedia.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:48, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Warning

If at first you don’t conclude, it’s a zero. Favonian (talk)19:14, 1 April 2024 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.11.74.205 (talk)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2024).

Administrator changes

Nyttend

• JohnOwens
• Killiondude
• MelanieN
• Nihonjoe

Bureaucrat changes

Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe

Oversight changes

GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the 2024 requests for adminship review has concluded. Several proposals have passed outright and will proceed to implementation, including creating a discussion-only period (3b) and administrator elections (13) on a trial basis. Other successful proposals, such as creating a reminder of civility norms (2), will undergo further refinement in Phase II. Proposals passed on a trial basis will be discussed in Phase II, after their trials conclude. Further details on specific proposals can be found in the full report.

Technical news

• Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks. T280531

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Conflict of interest management has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• This may be a good time to reach out to potential nominees to ask if they would consider an RfA.
• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 15,000 articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
• Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 9 May 2024. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:24, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Reminder to vote now to select members of the first U4C

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki. Please help translate to other languages.

Dear Wikimedian,

You are receiving this message because you previously participated in the UCoC process.

This is a reminder that the voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) ends on May 9, 2024. Read the information on the voting page on Meta-wiki to learn more about voting and voter eligibility.

The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community members were invited to submit their applications for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, please review the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

On behalf of the UCoC project team,

RamzyM (WMF) 23:10, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Eight years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:49, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

I‘m not sure if this is the proper channel for a CU, but…

Based on timing and verbosity, I think that this user could be a sock of this user. Would you be willing to check? FortunateSons (talk) 18:45, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Eh, I'm not quite seeing a link between the two. The comments are similar in tone, however the suspected sock seems to be a bit less inflammatory to begin with. CU isn't to be used for fishing, so I'd be hesitant to run a check here on this. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:50, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Makes sense, thank you. Would this be the appropriate venue if he does something additional (beyond starting editing in the same place 20 mins after the user was given a last warning)? FortunateSons (talk) 18:55, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

If you're suspecting a sock account, WP:SPI is the best place to request an investigation. That way other CUs can look at it too. RickinBaltimore (talk) 18:56, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I’ll direct it there then, thank you! FortunateSons (talk) 18:57, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

For your information, I found what I believe to be a a second one and opened an investigation. FortunateSons (talk) 22:52, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I've looked I to it, and it doesn't look like they are related. RickinBaltimore (talk) 02:04, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much for taking the time! FortunateSons (talk) 02:57, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2024).

Administrator changes

Graham Beards

• Deskana
• Mets501
• Staxringold

Bureaucrat changes

• Deskana
• Warofdreams

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

• Phase II of the 2024 RfA review has commenced to improve and refine the proposals passed in Phase I.

Technical news

• The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title. T43351

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Venezuelan politics has been closed.
• The Committee is seeking volunteers for various roles, including access to the conflict of interest VRT queue.

Miscellaneous

• WikiProject Reliability's unsourced statements drive is happening in June 2024 to replace {{citation needed}} tags with references! Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Block

Hiya Rick, thanks for the self-block last time. I am in need of your blocking services from now until June 28, 2024, to concentrate on examinations. Hope you're alright in Baltimore. Cheers, Bremps... 06:32, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Oh I plan on staying inside as much as possible, thanks! Will set that up for you now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 11:05, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

Administrator changes

• Elli
• HouseBlaster
• Pickersgill-Cunliffe

• Brianga
• De728631
• Georgewilliamherbert
• Hyacinth (deceased)
• ProveIt
• The Night Watch

Technical news

• Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript. Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (T6086)

Miscellaneous

• The Community Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024. Read more

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:59, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

The flag of Baltimore covers the page history button on your user talk page

Is this intentional, or a bug? I'm just wondering. BombCraft8 ^{(talk) (contributions)} 01:27, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

It might be how it's viewed on your device, for me it's normal. I'll see if I can move it though. RickinBaltimore (talk) 10:22, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

Meh, I'll remove it for now. RickinBaltimore (talk) 10:24, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

k thx BombCraft8 ^{(talk) (contributions)} 15:21, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2024).

Administrator changes

Isabelle Belato

• Ian.thomson
• Modussiccandi

Interface administrator changes

Izno

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49

Technical news

• Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators may locally unblock when appropriate.
• Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee appointed the following administrators to the conflict of interest volunteer response team: Bilby, Extraordinary Writ

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:00, 6 August 2024 (UTC)