User talk:AmandaNP/Archives/2016/June-October

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Hello, AmandaNP/Archives/2016. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 19:55, 11 June 2016 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

-- LuK3 (Talk) 19:55, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

Replied. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 12:21, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-24

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Changes this week

  • You can filter user contributions to hide minor edits. [6]
  • It will be easier to edit galleries with the visual editor. [7]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 June. It will be on all wikis from 16 June (calendar).

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18:41, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Username policy violation

Hi DQ,

Just bringing to your attention this newly created username User:Sony Xperia X Performance that appears to be violating WP:PRODNAME. The user has already edited the article Sony Xperia X Performance. Stanleytux (talk) 20:28, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

your advice please...

You blocked Which Hazel? and That man from Nantucket.

Just prior to their block, this individual initiated Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Libby Garvey.

I never interacted with this contributor before -- under this wiki-id. But since their block was lifted all their edits have targeted my contributions. Many of these edits are clearly bad edits. Many are the kinds of edits that trigger edit-warring. They have also left several comments that explicitly accused me of acting in bad faith.

I've been civil, in my comments to them, which they have explicitly told me they will not read. Several of their edits explicitly accuse me of editing in bad faith.

Among the bad edits that targetted my contributrions were several excisions of entries to disambiguation pages I started. Yesterday I responded to a request for help at Help talk:Disambiguation.

Their reply tacitly acknowledges their wikistalking.

Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day. The edits they made, targeting my contributions, do include some valid edits. But I think their blatant violation of WP:Wikipedia is not a battleground is more important.

WP:Twinkle#Abuse says those who use twinkle in counter-policy ways: "risk having one's account blocked." The individual or individuals using this wiki-id have used twinkle in their harrassment of me. Is this sufficient for them to be blocked? I assumed one had to apply to use twinkle, and that rogue twinkle users could merely be blocked from using twinkle any further.

How would we know whether the individual or individuals who use this wiki-ID were currently using previously undetected sockpuppets? Geo Swan (talk) 13:25, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

@Geo Swan: I did not block the users you specify, I only gave a CU result on them. After a review, I have found that the edits to consitute wikistalking which is a form of harassment. Shortly after this, I will stop by the talkpage of TMFNT and leave them a reminder about their future edits. If they continue, they will be outright blocked. As for undetected sockpuppets, that chance always exists with any sockmaster, blocked or not. If you have a specific user in mind, please bring a case forward so the evidence can be evaluated. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 04:45, 24 June 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-25

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Notifications were not always marked as read when you followed a link from an email notification. This will now happen. [8]

Changes this week

  • The list of other languages an article is available in will be shorter on small Wikipedias and non-Wikipedia projects. This is to make it easier to find the most relevant languages for each user. You will still be able to see the other languages. [9][10]
  • Alerts (the red badge) will not be automatically marked as read when you open the Notifications popup. [11]
  • When you get several thanks you can see them as one notification. This is instead of one notification for each thanks. [12]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 June. It will be on all wikis from 23 June (calendar).

Meetings

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19:14, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-26

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The ORES service has now moved to a new location. This should make it easier to use ORES. The ORES review service is now available as a beta feature on Wikidata and Persian Wikipedia. ORES is an artificial intelligence system for Wikimedia wikis to help editors. [13]
  • The order of wikis in collapsed cross-wiki notifications was different than when the list was expanded. This is now fixed. [14]
  • A new category for tracking pages with math errors was added: Category:Pages with math errors. [15]

Problems

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 June. It will be on all wikis from 30 June (calendar).
  • The way to mark notifications as read or unread will be changed to be more clear. [18]

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 28 June at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • The Collaboration team at the Wikimedia Foundation will look at developing better tools for edit review. This is because research suggests we scare away newcomers who want to help. [19]
  • An e-mail from the Editing Department explains the technical work that is planned and being researched for the future. Items include better wikitext and visual editing, prompts for edits, language improvements, annotations, and meta-data separation. [20]
  • The sorting of Notifications into the two fly-out menus is going to change on July 5 to 7. Bundled notifications should be easier to explore and mark as read individually. [21][22][23]
  • From 29 June git.wikimedia.org (running Gitblit) will redirect all requests to Phabricator. The vast majority of requests should be correctly redirected. [24]
  • Catalan and Polish Wikipedias will have Wikidata descriptions added to articles in the mobile view by default. This is currently a beta option for the mobile versions. This might come to other wikis later. [25]

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15:42, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Super quick Q

When I approve/activate UTRS accounts, does the admin get an email notification? --Jezebel's Ponyobons mots 21:46, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

  • Yes. When you activate it but not when you approve (or the other way around). I still have a copy of it somewhere. It used to be an issue back when we had non-admin requests, because we used to approve-but-not-activate and that still sent out an e-mail. ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 22:20, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
Thanks Salv; I approved and activated simultaneously, so it should trigger an email confirmation.--Jezebel's Ponyobons mots 22:22, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
FYI, although it's no hard rule, I've taken the habit of leaving a note on the user's talk page as well in reply to the thread they've had to start anyways as part of the request (and I've noticed TParis doing the same). ;) ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 23:13, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
Well if all the cool kids are doing it then I will too!--Jezebel's Ponyobons mots 23:23, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-27

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • A daily email summary of notifications could be sent even when there were no notifications from the wiki. Now no email will be sent if there is no activity. [26]

Changes this week

  • The "⧼citoid-citefromidtool-title⧽" button in the visual editor's toolbar will move into the "Insert" menu except for Wikipedias, Wikibookses and Wikiversities. This is to make it less prominent on wikis that don't use it as much. [27]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 July. It will be on all wikis from 7 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can take part in the next office hour for Wikidata on IRC on July 8 at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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19:45, 4 July 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-28

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • A new image scaler fixed a number of bugs for showing SVG files. Some new problems turned up. [28][29][30]
  • Notifications are grouped by types. They are now counted by number of notifications and not by unread groups. That change may increase the number of notifications displayed. The earlier way of counting was often incorrect. Unread notifications will also be displayed first. [31][32][33]
  • Special:Notifications now has a maximum width for the notifications list on desktop computers. This allows long titles and descriptions to be cut properly. Notifications are now also better parsed. [34][35][36]

Problems

  • On 5 July Wikimedia Commons had problems and could not be edited for 20 minutes. For a short while after that the recent changes log and some gadgets were not working properly. It affected administrative actions on other projects too. [37]
  • Users who have multiple unread notifications can mark them as read by visiting Special:Notifications page on their wiki.

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 July. It will be on all wikis from 14 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 12 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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15:15, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Laptop died

{{Computer death}} Hi all. My laptop has conveniently appeared to have died. I'm currently using an older laptop that I was able to find a OpenSuse live CD for and installed that, and using it with mild frusturation. I do still have my phone and tablet, but they are very hard to edit Wikipedia with. I'll keep posting updates here as things progress. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 10:29, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

--Cameron11598 (Talk) 03:20, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
  • Furthermore my internet connection has been terminated without reason this morning and my phone battery is having some major issues as of yesterday. This will further delay responses. -- DQ mobile (ʞlɐʇ) 15:25, 20 July 2016 (UTC)
  • Service has been restored. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 01:35, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
:-) --Cameron11598 (Talk) 23:36, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-29

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • On July 12 all wikis were rolled back to MediaWiki 1.28.0-wmf.8 due to a problem in the log-in system. [41][42]

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 July. It will be on all wikis from 21 July (calendar).
  • Special:Log now has a help link. [43]
  • The RevisionSlider can be tested on the beta cluster. From 22 July, it will be available as a beta feature at: German Wikipedia, Arabic Wikipedia, Hebrew Wikipedia

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 19 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the next meeting with the Architecture committee. The topic this week is "Devise plan for a cross-wiki watchlist back-end". The meeting will be on 20 July at 21:00 (UTC). See how to join. [44]

Future changes

  • User scripts and bots can no longer use http:// to edit wiki pages. [45][46]
  • Gerrit is going to be updated. Developers are invited to test it. [47]

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12:01, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

UTRS appeal #16212

A user you have blocked has opened UTRS appeal #16212 on the Unblock Ticket Request System. The reviewing administrator, Seraphimblade (talk · contribs), has requested your input:

MeredithCockerille (block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • abuse filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

Time: Jul 25, 2016 03:49:48

Message: null

Notes:

  • If you do not have an account on UTRS, you may create one at the administrator registration interface.
  • Alternatively, you can respond here and indicate whether you are supportive or opposed to an unblock for this user and your rationale, if applicable.

--UTRSBot (talk) 03:49, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Heya DQ, I'm reviewing a block on this editor. I don't see how their username is offensive, could you clarify that? Seraphimblade Talk to me 03:51, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
Seraphimblade: FYI, DQ is having computer, Internet and phone issues atm so may or may not be able to reply promptly. My own (talk page stalker) opinion would be to unblock (and apologize...), considering that the block is two years old, there were no edits, and a quick Google search shows that "Meredith Cockerille" is a real girl's name indeed. ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 04:11, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
Good to know. Given that, I'll go ahead with the unblock. DQ, you're still welcome to ping me if there's something else at play here, but I can't see any reason that the block is necessary, for username reasons or any other. Seraphimblade Talk to me 04:22, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-30

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • Sometimes, the visual editor required saving twice. That problem is now fixed. [49]

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 July. It will be on all wikis from 28 July (calendar).
  • It is now possible to mark all Notifications as read on Special:Notifications, by clicking on the cog icon. [50]
  • Wikipedia search will now detect the language of your search if 2 or fewer results are found. It will then show results from the matching language Wikipedia, if any relevant article exists. It will start to roll out in 5 languages. [51]

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 26 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the next meeting with the Architecture committee. The topic this week is "an extension that implements an authenticated key-value store". The meeting will be on 27 July at 21:00 (UTC). See how to join. [52]

Future changes

  • The current icon for Notifications "Notices" (in English "Notices") will be changed from a bubble-speech icon to a tray icon for consistency. [53]
  • Special:Notifications page code will be changed to be more Mobile friendly. [54]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:54, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-31

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • A prototype for structured data on Commons is available now. [55]
  • The RevisionSlider beta feature can now be tested on mediawiki.org, German Wikipedia, Arabic Wikipedia and Hebrew Wikipedia.

Problems

  • Renamed users on some wikis were not connected to their account on other wikis between 20 July and 21 July. This has been fixed. [56]

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 August. It will be on all wikis from 4 August (calendar).

Meetings

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21:48, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

UTRS appeal #16280

A user you have blocked has opened UTRS appeal #16280 on the Unblock Ticket Request System. The reviewing administrator, Salvidrim! (talk · contribs), has requested your input:

173.231.50.50 (block log • active blocks • global blocks • autoblocks • contribs • deleted contribs • abuse filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

Time: Aug 05, 2016 23:33:14

Message: Both MatSci and DQ suggested I check in with you specifically on this (see Material Scientist's talk page)

Notes:

  • If you do not have an account on UTRS, you may create one at the administrator registration interface.
  • Alternatively, you can respond here and indicate whether you are supportive or opposed to an unblock for this user and your rationale, if applicable.

--UTRSBot (talk) 23:33, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

 Done -- Amanda (aka DQ) 04:09, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-32

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • In notifications, the icon for Notices has been changed from a speech-bubble icon () to a tray icon () for consistency. The Alerts icon has been redesigned too. The colors have been changed for accessibility. [57]

Problems

  • If you use the wikEd gadget, changes you made were not kept when you switched from the wikitext editor to the visual editor while you were editing. This has now been fixed. [58]

Changes this week

  • Wikimedia search will now ignore question marks at the end of the sentences or words you use when you search. Until now the question mark was just a wildcard. [59]
  • On Commons, UploadWizard will now be available on mobile, rather than just the old upload form. This should reduce the workload for the community in reviewing images. [60]
  • When you edit with the visual editor a puzzle symbol tells you there is an invisible template in the article. It will now mention the name of the template. [61]
  • The button to read something in another language will move for mobile users. This will happen on 9 August. [62]
  • When someone mentions you and links to your user page you get a notification. You will now get a notification when you mention yourself this way. [63]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 August. It will be on all wikis from 11 August (calendar).
  • A message on Notifications panel will invite users to try Special:Notifications page. [64]

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on August 9 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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15:41, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

Blocking of Adam Aflah II

Hello DeltaSQuad, I have to ask, why User:Adam Aflah II isn't blocked indefinitely? ArdiPras95 (talk) 05:43, 10 August 2016 (UTC)

The normal time used to block sockmasters at WP:SPI is two weeks and escalate from there if issues continue per the blocking policy. Blocks are preventative, not punitive. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 14:17, 11 August 2016 (UTC)


CaptainHog sock/SPI

Since you ran the checkuser on the last CaptainHog sock, I thought I would make you aware of yet another one. The sock has been blocked, just trying to fish out any sleepers. Is a rangeblock possible? - Neutralhomer • Talk • 00:25 on August 13, 2016 (UTC)

Not at this time. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 04:06, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
Darn, I figure collateral damage is an issue? Sorry to hear about your computer. - Neutralhomer • Talk • 05:22 on August 13, 2016 (UTC)
It's more I need more information (aka socking) before I can make a determination on what to block. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 07:19, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
The best I can give you on that is the suspected socks and the confirmed socks. Maybe you can pull the IPs off those via CU and that might narrow down the range. - Neutralhomer • Talk • 14:31 on August 13, 2016 (UTC)
Sorry, I should have specified. I need more CU data beyond what we already have. I can't block anything in the meantime. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 14:42, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
Ah, gotcha. I wasn't sure if you had that info, but that makes sense. CaptainHog will probably turn up soon enough, so there will be added data. That guy just never learns. - Neutralhomer • Talk • 14:53 on August 13, 2016 (UTC)

Please enforce the word limits

Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Michael Hardy/Evidence#Please enforce the word limits in the interest of fairness --Guy Macon (talk) 02:50, 13 August 2016 (UTC)

SPI

Re: This SPI [65], there were no sock blocks handed out. Is there a reason for that? -- WV ● ✉ ✓ 18:28, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

The investigation is not closed yet. I make it a policy that unless checkuser results are fully confirmed and we are dealing with a major sockmaster or immediate heavy disruption, that I refrain from using both my CheckUser and admin toolset at the same time. It just gets a fresh set of eyes on my results and is a review to make sure I didn't miss anything either. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 10:04, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-33

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

  • Last week Tech News announced you will get a notification when you mention yourself the same way as if someone else had mentioned you. This caused some problems and will happen later instead. [66]
  • Creating and editing links to sections on other pages on the wiki now works again in the visual editor. [67]
  • For some users, cross-wiki notifications haven't been working properly. The count has been wrong when only cross-wiki notifications were present. The cross-wiki bundle has been showing only the names of wikis and not the actual notifications. This will be fixed soon. [68][69]

Changes this week

  • The login session when you choose "Keep me logged in" will now last a year. Previously it was 30 days. This will happen on August 16. [70]
  • Some abuse filters will have to be updated during the week. This is because a bug will be fixed. [71]
  • In compact language links, two new kinds of languages will be shown in the shorter language list: Languages that are used in the article's text, and languages where the article has a badge like "featured article" or "good article". [72][73]
  • The visual editor will be available by default for logged-out editors on Wikipedias that use the Arabic script. It is already default for logged-in editors. [74]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 16. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 17. It will be on all wikis from August 18 (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on August 16 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Starting the week of August 22 there will be three software deployment windows. They will be at 13:00, 18:00, and 23:00 UTC. This is to have more times when software of the wikis can be updated and make it easier for developers in different parts of the world. [75]

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19:37, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-34

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The ORES review tool is now available on Special:Contributions as a beta feature. It can make it easier to find contributions that are probably damaging the wikis. The ORES review tool is available on Wikidata and Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish and Russian Wikipedia. [76]
  • The norm and ccnorm functions have been updated to make it easier to write abuse filters. This also affects the TitleBlacklist extension. You don't have to transform "I" and "L" to "1", "O" to "0" and "S" to "5" anymore. [77]
  • The old pageview data in the "pagecounts-raw" and "pagecounts-all-sites" files is no longer being updated. You can find the new pageview data here. This happened on August 5. [78]

Problems

  • Some big image files could not be thumbnailed. This has now been fixed. [79]
  • When you moved a page over a redirect it would delete the redirect without saving it in the logs. This has now been fixed. [80]

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 August. It will be on all wikis from 25 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 23 August at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Sometimes when you mention another user they don't get a notification. You will be able to get a notification when you successfully sent out a mention to someone or be told if they did not get a notification. This will be opt-in. You can test this on the test wiki. [81][82]
  • How you add text after an edit conflict might work in a different way in the future. You can test the prototype. [83]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:18, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-35

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Wikimedia mobile sites now don't load images if the user doesn't see them. This is to save mobile data and make the pages load faster. [84]
  • When you edit a table with the visual editor, pressing Tab in the last cell of a row will take you to the first cell in the next row. Pressing Shift and Tab in the first cell of a row will take you to the last cell in the previous row. [85]

Changes this week

  • The name of the "Save page" button will change. The button will say "Publish page" when you create a new page. It will say "Publish changes" when you change an existing page. [86][87]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 August. It will be on all wikis from 1 September (calendar).

Meetings

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16:02, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-36

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Word-level diffs now work in longer paragraphs. [88]
  • Interactive maps now have a frame by default. This is to make them look like other multimedia objects. This affects all Wikivoyages, the Catalan, Hebrew, Macedonian Wikipedias and Meta. [89]
  • When you preview the MediaWiki:Captcha-ip-whitelist page it will show a validation output of the listed IP addresses instead of the list of addresses only. This can help you to identify if your whitelist rules will work or not. [90]

Changes this week

  • You will be able to use <maplink> on all Wikipedias. It creates a link to a full screen map. [91][92]
  • Sometimes when you mention another user they don't get a notification. You will be able to get a notification when you successfully send out a mention to someone or be told if they did not get a notification. This will be opt-in. [93][94]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 September. It will be on all wikis from 8 September (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 6 September at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

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17:12, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Note

Hello DQ. I'm not sure if the user that had tendered their resignation should be informing the ArbCom about it. Just in case, please take note that User:Euryalus has just resigned his oversight permissions and I've actioned their request. Regards, MarcoAurelio (talk) 10:41, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Marco, they stepped down a few months ago. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 06:38, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-37

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The Wikimedia Commons app for Android can now show nearby places that need photos. [96]
  • <maplink> and <mapframe> can now use geodata from Open Street Map if Open Street Map has defined a region and given it an ID in Wikidata. You can use this to draw on the map and add information. [97][98]

Changes this week

  • The RevisionSlider will be available as a beta feature on all wikis from 13 September. This will make it easier to navigate between diffs in the page history. [99]
  • A new user right will allow most users to change the content model of pages. [100][101]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 13 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 14 September. It will be on all wikis from 15 September (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 13 September at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:04, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-38

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will hopefully be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 September. It will be on all wikis from 22 September (calendar). This is the version that was meant to go out last week.

Meetings

Future changes

  • Wikidata will start working on adding support for Wiktionary. The Wikidata development team is now taking one last look at the development plan. [104]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

22:09, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Extended confirmed protection

Hello, DeltaQuad. This message is intended to notify administrators of important changes to the protection policy.

Extended confirmed protection (also known as "30/500 protection") is a new level of page protection that only allows edits from accounts at least 30 days old and with 500 edits. The automatically assigned "extended confirmed" user right was created for this purpose. The protection level was created following this community discussion with the primary intention of enforcing various arbitration remedies that prohibited editors under the "30 days/500 edits" threshold to edit certain topic areas.

In July and August 2016, a request for comment established consensus for community use of the new protection level. Administrators are authorized to apply extended confirmed protection to combat any form of disruption (e.g. vandalism, sock puppetry, edit warring, etc.) on any topic, subject to the following conditions:

  • Extended confirmed protection may only be used in cases where semi-protection has proven ineffective. It should not be used as a first resort.
  • A bot will post a notification at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard of each use. MusikBot currently does this by updating a report, which is transcluded onto the noticeboard.

Please review the protection policy carefully before using this new level of protection on pages. Thank you.
This message was sent to the administrators' mass message list. To opt-out of future messages, please remove yourself from the list. 17:47, 23 September 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-39

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • If your wiki wants numerical sorting in categories you can request it after a community decision. See how to request it. [105]
  • When you edit text and mention a new username they are notified if you add your signature. Before this only happened under certain conditions. [106]
  • Users are notified if they are mentioned in a section where you add your own signature even if you edit more than one section. Before, users were not notified if you edited more than one section in one edit. [107]

Problems

Changes this week

  • There will be no new MediaWiki version this week. [110]

Meetings

Future changes

  • Abandoned tools on Tool Labs could be taken over by other developers. There is a new discussion on Meta about this. It will be discussed until 12 October and then voted on. [111]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:07, 26 September 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-40

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 October. It will be on all wikis from 6 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 4 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Tidy will be replaced. Instead the HTML 5 parsing algorithm will be used to clean up bad HTML in wikitext. This would cause problems on a number of wikis. They need to be fixed first. [112]
  • <slippymap> will not work on Wikivoyage after 24 October. You should use <mapframe> instead. If you need help to fix this before 24 October you should ask for it as soon as possible. [113]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:30, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for your email dated [some time ago]. I'm not joking when I say in a big message on my talk page that I don't check my email often. Sometime... time... thanks. -- zzuuzz (talk) 08:42, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

What?!

Man, there's so little info at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ricky81682 -- I'm baffled as to what happened here. He was one of the few admins operating in the world of Indian film. This is going to make my life significantly more difficult. :( Sorry to be nosey, but how'd this come about, if I might ask? Cyphoidbomb (talk) 19:23, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

@Cyphoidbomb: This came through information passed along to the Arbitration Committee and is why we passed a motion about it after review. Specifically, there were some CUs ran on the vandal accounts when they were in operation, and the result was passed onto ArbCom for review. I'm sorry that it makes your life more difficult I hate having to make such determinations, but it is required to protect the integrity of the encyclopedia. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 20:29, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
Well obviously you owe me no apology... But your sympathy is much appreciated. Wow. Bummer about this. Thanks for your hard work as always. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 21:19, 7 October 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-41

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • You can show Special:RecentChanges on a page by using {{Special:RecentChanges}}. You can now use tag filters by using {{Special:RecentChanges/tagfilter=tagname}}. [114]
  • The notification badge is coloured if you have notifications. When you check the notification the badge will now turn grey on all wikis instead of just the local one. [115]
  • Colours used in the Wikimedia wikis' main interface changed slightly. This is to make them easier to see for readers and editors with reduced eyesight. [116]

Changes this week

  • Hidden HTML comments will be more visible when you edit with the visual editor. <!-- You write hidden HTML comments like this. --> [117]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 October. It will be on all wikis from 13 October (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • Language converter syntax will soon no longer work inside external links. Wikitext like http://-{zh-cn:foo.com; zh-hk:bar.com; zh-tw:baz.com}- must be replaced. You will have to write -{zh-cn: http://foo.com ; zh-hk: http://bar.com ; zh-tw:http://baz.com }- instead. This only affects languages with Language Converter enabled. Examples of such languages are Chinese and Serbian. [118]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:30, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Ricky ban

Was it a CU block or an AC ban? I'm kind of confused. I'm guessing that there was some crossover with CU results and after the results, the Committee banned Ricky. --QEDK (T ☕ C) 07:16, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @QEDK: Checkuser block, arbcom desysop. Ks0stm (T•C•G•E) 07:35, 15 October 2016 (UTC)
Aye, thanks. --QEDK (T ☕ C) 08:10, 15 October 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-42

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • Some users got a warning about Wikipedia's security certificate last week. This was because of a problem GlobalSign had. This has now been fixed. Only a small number of users got the warning. [119]
  • Editors couldn't edit semi-protected pages in the Wikipedia app for Android. This has now been fixed in the beta version. [120]

Changes this week

  • There will be no new MediaWiki version this week. [121]

Future changes

  • The Editing Department are working on a new wikitext editor. It will have tools that are in the visual editor but not in the wikitext editor today. You can read more about this. This is an early plan and things can change. The old wikitext editor will still exist.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:42, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

NPP & AfC

After 5 years of unstructured since ACTRIAL, a dedicated venue has been created for combined discussion about NPP & AfC where a work group is also being composed to develop recommendations for necessary changes to policies and related software. It is 'not an RfC, it is a call for genuinely interested users who have significant experience in these areas to join a truly proactive work group. There is some reading to be done before signing up. See: Wikipedia:The future of NPP and AfC. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk)


New newsletter for Notifications

Hello

You are subscribing to the Notifications newsletter on English Wikipedia.

That newsletter is now replaced by the monthly and multilingual Collaboration team newsletter, which will include information and updates concerning Notifications but also concerning Flow and Edit Review Improvements.

Please subscribe!

All the best, Trizek (WMF) (talk) 10:51, 29 September 2016 (UTC)


Tech News: 2016-43

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from October 25. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from October 26. It will be on all wikis from October 27 (calendar).
  • The "Search" text in the search box will show the name of the project. For example, on Wikipedia it will say "Search Wikipedia". [123]
  • About a dozen wikis now have numerical sorting in categories. If your wiki wants numerical sorting in categories you can ask for it. [124]
  • Some wikis that want numerical sorting in categories can also ask to use UCA to sort categories. The biggest difference is that characters with diacritics will be sorted together. For example, for most languages Ä will be sorted with A instead of at the end of the alphabet. This is not true for languages that have Ä as a character in their alphabet. Wikis that already use UCA are listed on Meta. Languages that can use UCA are listed on MediaWiki.org. You can test it.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

17:39, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Whoops

Sorry for the abrupt departure; my internet went wonky for a bit. I'll talk to a BAG member about it and get back to you. ~ Rob13Talk 05:51, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-44

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Now you can include Commons video films with subtitles in your wiki language. Before you could see translated videos on file page at Commons only. [125]
  • Search now has an updated preference tab to configure the search completion suggester. [126]
  • The visual editor is now available on all wikis using only one language script. [127]

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 1st. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from November 2nd. It will be on all wikis from November 3rd (calendar).
  • Now you can use autocomplete for page names in "Preview page with this template (what's this?)" field when editing templates. [128]
  • Special:NewPages can now be filtered by page size. [129]

Future changes

  • New MediaWiki deployments will be now based on MediaWiki 1.29. [130]

Miscellaneous

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:18, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

UTRS for Portuguese Wikipedia

Hello, DeltaQuad. With regards to using UTRS for Portuguese Wikipedia, do you have any news?

We had a discussion on pt.wiki about that and I believe there is clear consensus for using it there instead of the current system. Regards.—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 17:06, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi @Teles:. With TParis back as a developer, I finally have some time to put into this. This will be my single priority with UTRS, so we can actually get this moving and on the road.
Instructions for translators: I will request that any translators create an account at [github.com Github] so that they can be given the permissions to edit the relevant files. From there, they will need to notify me so I can add them to the translators group. Once I've done that, they can start editing the translation file right on the github website. Also they will need to keep an eye on their email for new updates which will require translation.
Some information on the tool itself: Pt.wiki will get it's own database, so it won't be confused or mixed with enwiki's. On the main appeal form there will be the ability to select either ptwiki or enwiki. We'll also have it so that it will default to whatever is pasted in the url like "utrs.wmflabs.org/?uselang=ptwiki" or something as such so you can set it to that by default. Any questions in which you have so far?
Courtesy ping @Salvidrim!:. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 19:11, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
Hello, Amanda. I've joined GitHub as 'radixwiki'. Thanks, RadiX∞ 01:50, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Amanda, excellent news! I have notified other sysops so some of them can show interest on helping. My account on Github is 'Lteles'. I can start translating ASAP. Regards.—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 01:54, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Hi Amanda, good fay, I am also sysop of pt:wikipedia and i've joined GitHub as Le0nsaud. Greetings--Leon saudanha (talk) 13:48, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
@Leon saudanha, Teles, and RadiX: Invites sent, they need you to accept. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 15:45, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
Thanks :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leon saudanha (talk • contribs) 13:35, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
Hi Amanda, i have translated te most messages of UTRS, but in time to save I think I just accidentally merge the ancient version of script with the version translated... do you can correct this?--Leon saudanha (talk) 14:27, 8 May 2016 (UTC)
  • I am translating the file. Can you explain what is the meaning of "Revealed this appeals email" and similar messages? I am stuck on these ones. Thanks!—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 18:40, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
    • Emails are hidden from normal tool users because that information is private. Checkusers and developers have an ability to unhide that information if it's needed for CU or administrative purposes.--v/r - TP 18:43, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
@TParis: thanks! It is that the phrase doesn't seem to make sense for me. Could you please write the phrase in other words?—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 20:14, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
How about "accessed the hidden e-mail address from which the appeal was sent"? ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 20:22, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
@Salvidrim!: Got it! Thanks!—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 20:36, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
  • @Teles: Would you be able to pass on the following message to the ptwiki community to keep them updated?

Hi ptwikipedia, I wanted to give you an update as a community of where we are at with making UTRS availible for ptwiki. We have made some large strides in the past few months, but indeed we have meany more to make. As soon as the translations are done for the relevant file I will be able to show you what the appeal form (from the blocked users point of view) will be like. I'm excited for that to happen.

There are still many files that need to be prepared for translation and I'm working on those. As of this moment, there are 50 messages to be translated, many of which came from updates made in the past 24 hours. We also have a working list of bugs that need to be addressed for you guys to be able to have your own version. These pages are updated dynamically.

While the translations are not yet availible on the beta interface, it is availible to play around with if you wish. You can't break anything there, or if you can, it's the developer's fault.

As for the design, ptwikipedia will have it's own database, using the same links that enwikipedia uses. The configuration that determines which language you get will be provided through a cookie. With the databases seperate, you will not be able to see each other's appeals, so there will be no confusion.

If you do have any questions or requests for features, please do let Teles know, who can pass them on to @Salvidrim!: - Your tool Ambassador.


— -- Amanda (aka DQ) 10:24, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Message sent.—Teles «Talk to me˱M @ C S˲» 04:58, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


Bot-reported UAA

I saw there was a backlog at UAA, so thought I might contribute. I blocked User:Homoz and then re-read the instructions. They say "Wait until the user edits. Do not report a user that hasn't edited unless they are clearly a vandal. We do not want to welcome productive editors with a report at UAA. Nor do we want to waste our time dealing with accounts that may never be used." Homoz hadn't edited yet; should the bot be reporting such accounts pre-emptively? Fences&Windows 10:15, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

@Fences and windows: Interesting, I had never read that subpage before. I understand that waiting until the user edits would also reduce the number of reports coming in. At the same time though, I stay back from trying to get myself involved in interpation of policies and best practices surrounding UAA/UPol. So with that, I'll ask that you seek a brief consensus of the people who watch the noticeboard, and then if that is fruitful, I'll need some time to code it in to the bot. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 05:28, 24 June 2016 (UTC)


Bambifan101 active? enWS getting Disney shite

Hiya. Hope all is well with you.

At enWS we are getting Disney type IP edits, and I was wondering whether Bambifan101 was active again? Or whether there was another PITA editing away similarly, of whom you may be aware? Examples are

etc. s:Special:Log/delete. And that doesn't show much at the specific IPs (one edit), I will hazard a guess that there are other edits in the range, though they are big ranges, and presumably busy locally. If there is any intelligence that is available publicly, or can be public, I would appreciate the help so I can shut it down more gently. If email is better for you, you know where I am. Thanks. — billinghurst sDrewth 00:19, 11 July 2016 (UTC)


IP claiming to be blocked user BuickCenturyDriver

Hello! I recently came across 97.47.70.15 (talk), who is claiming to be BuickCenturyDriver (talk · contribs · logs · block log) (example), an editor you indeffed in March for socking. Care to extend the block? Also, he's cast several votes at AFD; what's the proper procedure for those? Striking through? Outright removal? Thanks. Rebbing 11:41, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

(tps) Just one point of clarification: BCD has been indef-blocked since March of 2013. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 11:53, 28 September 2016 (UTC)
I stand corrected; I just looked at the top of the block log. Also, I see there is an SPI file for BCD. Should I take this there? I'm not clear about the proper protocol for sock IPs. Rebbing 12:14, 28 September 2016 (UTC)


ACC for zhwiki

Hi DeltaQuad! Some zhwiki sysops and I am quite interested in using waca for our account creation procedures. Currently we are using our unblock mailing list, but due to the Firewall the requests are becoming overwhelming. Moreover, being able to get the requests' source address would mean we can give out ipblock-exempt more appropriately.

So would you think it's better for us to piggyback onto accounts.wmflabs.org (if that's possible after all), or to spend some time and create our own portal? Thanks! Jimmy Xu (talk) 20:21, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

@Jimmy Xu: I'm sorry for the delay on responding to you on this. I read it and some reason it did not register in my head. A lot of the answer to your question depends on if you are looking for it for people who need accounts, people who already have accounts, or both. Cause there are two different softwares used here to achieve that. @Stwalkerster and FastLizard4: informational ping only -- Amanda (aka DQ) 06:53, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
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