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Tech News: 2019-29

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

  • The mobile web will get more advanced editing tools. Seven more Wikipedias can use them now. This works for Arabic, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai Wikipedia. You can try the tools on the mobile web and give feedback. [1]

Changes later this week

  • Advanced item The abuse filter system user will soon do maintenance edits on broken abuse filters. This user is called Edit filter and has administrator rights. This is meant to fix technical problems. It will not do any other changes. You can read more.
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 July. It will be on all wikis from 18 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add image captions to images on Commons. It will only invite users who have added a number of edits in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback. [2]

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

15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #1—July 2019

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon to start editing.

Edit Cards

Toolbar with menu opened

This is what the new Edit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here: 📲 Try Edit Cards.

Welcome back to the Editing newsletter.

Since the last newsletter, the team has released two new features for the mobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal to make editing on mobile web simpler.

Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:

Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?

If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.

Follow these instructions and share your experience:

📲 Try Edit Cards.

Recent releases

The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team has recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:

  1. Section editing
    • The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
    • The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
  2. Loading overlay
    • The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.

Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.

New and active projects

This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.

  • Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how: 📲Try Edit Cards.
  • Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
  • Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
  • Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use.  The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.

Looking ahead

  • Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to them about how editing can be improved.
  • Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.

Learning more

The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) and Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2019

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 11, No. 1 — 2nd Quarter, 2019
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q2 2019, the project has:

Content

Project Navigation
To opt-out or sign up to receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to update the distribution list.
(Delivered ~~~~~)

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

This week's article for improvement (week 30, 2019)

The Montsoreau Flea Market is the largest flea market in the Loire Valley, France
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Flea market

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Decriminalization of marijuana • Sadomasochism

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 22 July 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-30

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

  • The release of the last version of MediaWiki (1.34.0-wmf.14) has been blocked for groups 1 and 2. [4]

Changes later this week

  • Phabricator database will be moved to a different server. Writes will be blocked on Thursday 25 July, between 05:30 and 06:00 AM UTC. Reads will remain unaffected. [5]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 July. It will be on all wikis from 25 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 24 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

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

13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Growth team updates #9

Welcome to the ninth newsletter from the Growth team!

The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects.

Opening Growth features to more wikis

The Growth team has existed for about one year. During that time, we have developed several features that we think can help increase retention. Though we are still gathering data to detect scientifically whether the features increase retention, we think that some of the features are ready to be deployed on more wikis that want to experiment with them. If your community is enthusiastic about welcoming newcomers, we encourage you to contact us so that we can verify together if your wiki is eligible.

Then, go through the checklist to start the process of getting these features:

  • Help panel: allow newcomers to find help and ask questions while they edit.
  • Welcome survey: learn what topics and types of edits newcomers are interested in.
  • EditorJourney: learn what workflows newcomers go through on their first day.

General news

Indicator that encourages users to look at their Notifications for responses to their questions
  • A new quarter of the year has started, and the team has set our goals for the next three months. The most important goals are:
    • Newcomer homepage: increase activity through a task recommendations module. Now that we have seen several weeks of positive activity on the newcomer homepage, we think that the most important thing to add is a way for newcomers to find tasks to work on. The challenge will be recommending the right kind of tasks at the right point of their journey.
    • Newcomer homepage: increase feature discovery rate by 100%. Right now, only 20% - 30% of newcomers ever visit their homepage. We want to double that number by making sure all newcomers know how to find it.
    • Help panel: increase usefulness through improvements to affordance, search, and UX flow. We have looked closely at data and anecdotes from the usage of the help panel, and we plan to pursue specific improvements to increase its effectiveness (see accompanying image of a feature that helps newcomers find responses to their questions).
  • Wikimania is coming up next month, which includes a "Community Growth" space. We hope to see people from all communities there to talk about how to bring newcomers into our movement.
  • We have started to deploy features to our team's fourth target wiki: Arabic Wikipedia. That wiki is the biggest one we target, it has a high percentage of mobile users, and also is our first right-to-left language. This will help us make sure that our features are valuable for as many types of users as possible.

Mobile homepage and early analysis

Button to help newcomers find their homepage from their empty Contributions page
  • The mobile version of the newcomer homepage was deployed to Czech, Korean, and Vietnamese Wikipedias. Now, newcomers can access their homepage from both desktop and mobile devices.
  • We have published our first set of data about the performance of the newcomer homepage. In summary, we are happy with the homepage's performance so far. We see about half of visitors clicking on something, and the majority of them returning to the homepage multiple times.
  • Because we see positive usage of the homepage, we will deploy several small features in the next two weeks that help more newcomers discover their homepage (see accompanying image of a feature that helps newcomers discover their homepage from their empty Contributions page).
  • As listed in our goals above, we'll be starting to focus on adding task recommendations to the newcomer homepage. We'll be publishing early thoughts on this feature so that community members can give their thoughts and advice.

Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

14:26, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 31, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Butter churning in Nepal

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Flea market • Decriminalization of marijuana

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 29 July 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-31

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

Problems

  • Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [10]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 July. It will be on all wikis from 1 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 31 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

21:42, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:17, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
  • The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist.

    Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:23, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 32, 2019)

The human body has several organs.
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Organ (anatomy)

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Butter churning in Nepal • Flea market

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 5 August 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-32

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 August. It will be on all wikis from 8 August (calendar).

Problems

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 7 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Today everyone can see IP addresses if someone edits without an account. In the future this could be more hidden. This is to protect unregistered editors so fewer can see their IP address. This would only happen after we make sure the tools for vandal fighting can still be effective. You can read more and comment.

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

13:24, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 33, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Great Spirit

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Organ (anatomy) • Butter churning in Nepal

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 12 August 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-33

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

Recent changes

  • Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools. Feedback on the discussion page is appreciated. [13]
  • Due to the absence of volunteer maintenance of Cologne Blue skin, the link to activate it will be hidden. The skin will still work, but editors using it are encouraged to switch to another skin. [14]

Changes later this week

  • Due to Wikimania, there is no deployment this week. [15]

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • The "Wikidata item" link will be moved from "Tools" to "In other projects" section on all Wikimedia projects, starting on August 21. Full announcement, Phabricator task.

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

18:19, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 34, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Bianca Wahlgren Ingrosso

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Great Spirit • Organ (anatomy)

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 19 August 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-34

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

Tech News

  • There will be no Tech News issue next week. The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 2 September 2019.

Problems

  • Advanced item Some abuse filters stopped working because of a code change. Only variables for the current action will work. Variables defined inside a branch may not work outside of that branch. You can read more to see how to fix the filters.
  • Only six accounts can be created from one IP address per day. Between 12 August and August 15 this was two accounts per day. This was because of a security issue. It is now six accounts per day again. [16]

Changes later this week

  • Only a limited number of accounts can be created from one IP address. An IP address can be whitelisted so that it can create as many accounts as needed. This is useful at events where many new persons learn to edit. IP addresses that are whitelisted for this reason will also not show CAPTCHAs when you create accounts. This will happen on Wednesday. [17]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 August. It will be on all wikis from 22 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 21 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • There is an RFC about creating a new global user group with the right to edit abuse filters. This will be used to fix broken filters and make sure all filters will still work when software changes happen. You can read more and comment.
  • Special:Contributions/newbies will no longer be working. This is because of performance reasons. It showed edits by new accounts. You can see this in the recent changes feed instead. [18]

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

15:21, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Hi

Ip by staff I didn’t do anyhow — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blake20 (talk • contribs) 23:58, 20 August 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 35, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Pitchfork

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Bianca Wahlgren Ingrosso • Great Spirit

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 26 August 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Elaine Cameron-Weir edits

Hello,

I was editing the page of Elaine Cameron-Weir to better reflect her career. An updated and concise narrative biography felt appropriate. If my original edit could be restored, that would be much appreciated.


Id245829 (talk) 20:58, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Hello,

I noticed that my edits to the Wikipedia page for Elaine Cameron-Weir were reverted again. These changes were made per her gallery's request. Can my changes be reinstated? If not, what can I do to make sure that my edits are not removed?


Id245829 (talk) 14:14, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Id245829, the reason your edits were reverted were:
  1. Your edit removed basically everything from the article, including valid citations to sources.
  2. Your edit replaced the entire article with something that is both shorter and less informative than the previous version.
Have a look at this edit, for instance. An edit like that would almost certainly be reverted, because you removed the entire article and replaced it with something of lower quality.
You may also want to look at your talk page to see the messages left for you there.
Moving forward, there are some things to keep in mind:
  • Editing with a conflict of interest is a bad idea. If you're being asked to make changes by someone you're close to or work for, it's worth taking a pause. Additionally, if you're being paid to edit, you must explicitly disclose who is paying you. In such cases, it is often preferred that you use the talk page of the article to discuss changes, and make edit requests for any changes you want to make.
  • Everything you add needs to be verifiable. Everything on Wikipedia needs to be supported by reliable sources, and they must be properly cited in the article. We cannot accept original research (e.g. "I just know it" or "<person> told me").
  • We do not remove information simply because "it is old" and "outdated". If it is encyclopedic and well-supported by sources, we keep it. The process of updating articles, therefore, should not result in the removal of the entire article.
—k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 23:23, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:41, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 36, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Organ (anatomy)

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Pitchfork • Bianca Wahlgren Ingrosso

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 2 September 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-36

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

  • You can use the new termbox interface if you edit Wikidata on a mobile device. This is to edit labels, descriptions and aliases easier on the mobile pages. [19]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki has been deployed during the last week.
  • The previously announced change of positions of the "Wikidata item" link on all wikis has been rollbacked due to unexpected cache issues. [20]
  • The limit for rollbacks has been increased from 10 to 100 rollbacks per minute. [21]
  • The advanced version of the edit review pages (Recent Changes, Watchlist, and Related Changes) now include two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces. However the "All discussions" filter does not include pseudo talk pages, like discussions that are in the Project: or Wikipedia: namespaces. But it will include changes happening on Project talk: or the Wikipedia talk:. [22]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 3 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 4 September. It will be on all wikis from 5 September (calendar).
  • When you log in, the software checks your password to see if it follows the Password policy. From this week, it will also complain if your password is one of the most common passwords in the world. If your password is not strong enough, please consider to change your password for a stronger password. [23]

Meetings

Future changes

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

09:07, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019

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

Administrator changes

added Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
readded Floquenbeam • Lectonar
removed DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes

removed Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Technical news

  • Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
  • The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 37, 2019)

A vegetable soup prepared using udon noodles
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Vegetable soup

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Organ (anatomy) • Pitchfork

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 9 September 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Wikipedia user supporting terrorist organizations

Is there any way I can report a user on Wikipedia for supporting terrorist groups? SpinnerLaserz (talk) 14:39, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 38, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Miniature book

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Vegetable soup • Organ (anatomy)

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 16 September 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Lil Tjay Name

Hi There - I’m a representative of Columbia Records. The name on Tjay’s Wikipedia is incorrect. I’ve changed it to Jayden. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jvincentsalcedo (talk • contribs) 19:26, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Barnstar!!

The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
This is for your valuable efforts for countering Vandalism and protecting Wikipedia from it's threats. I appreciate your effort. You are a defender of Wikipedia. Thank you. PATH SLOPU 16:21, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, K6ka. 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 remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.Lupin VII (talk) 02:29, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 39, 2019)

Animation illustrating the discovery history of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way over the last 100 years. The classical satellite galaxies are in blue (labeled with their names), SDSS-discoveries are in red, and more recent discoveries (mostly with DES) are in green.
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Satellite galaxy

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Miniature book • Vegetable soup

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 23 September 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

September 2019 GOCE Newsletter

Guild of Copy Editors September 2019 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since June 2019.

June election: Reidgreg was chosen as lead coordinator, and is being assisted by Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis, Tdslk, and first-time coordinator Twofingered Typist. Jonesey95 took a respite after serving for six years. Thanks to everyone who participated!

June Blitz: From 16 to 22 June, we copy edited articles on the themes of nature and the environment along with requests. 12 participating editors completed 35 copy edits. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

July Drive: The year's fourth backlog-elimination drive was a great success, clearing all articles tagged in January and February, and bringing the copy-editing backlog to a low of five months and a record low of 585 articles while also completing 48 requests. Of the 30 people who signed up, 29 copyedited at least one article, a participation level last matched in May 2015. Final results and awards are listed here.

August Blitz: From 18 to 24 August, we copy edited articles tagged in March 2019 and requests. 12 participating editors completed 26 copy edits on the blitz. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: As of 03:00, 23 September 2019 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors had processed 413 requests since 1 January. The backlog of tagged articles stood at 599 articles, close to our record month-end low of 585.

Requests page: We are experimenting with automated archiving of copy edit requests; a discussion on REQ Talk (permalinked) initiated by Bobbychan193 has resulted in Zhuyifei1999 writing a bot script for the Guild. Testing is now underway and is expected to be completed by 3 October; for this reason, no manual archiving of requests should be done until the testing period is over. We will then assess the bot's performance and discuss whether to make this arrangement permanent.

September Drive: Our current backlog-elimination drive is open until 23:59 on 30 September (UTC) and is open to all copy editors. Sign up today!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis, Reidgreg, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:58, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Sockpuppet account

The editor you just banned is back as a named account ArthurWithCommonSense and has inserted the same content on the Karl Pilkington article. – Wallyfromdilbert (talk) 22:51, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

@Wallyfromdilbert: I blocked them. Obvious quack. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 23:28, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 40, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Aaron Fechter

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Satellite galaxy • Miniature book

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:17, 30 September 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

The Signpost: 30 September 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:07, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-40

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

Problems

  • Last week's Tech News had delivery problems. Some did not get the newsletter. Some got it more than one time. The problem where some pages got it three times should now be fixed. [28]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 1 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 2 October. It will be on all wikis from 3 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 2 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

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

16:50, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which applies if the category contains only an eponymous article or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories.

Technical news

  • As previously noted, tighter password requirements for Administrators were put in place last year. Wikipedia should now alert you if your password is less than 10 characters long and thus too short.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:55, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Growth team updates #10

Welcome to the tenth newsletter from the Growth team!

The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects.

General news

  • Growth team features are now fully deployed in Arabic Wikipedia and Basque Wikipedia (along with Czech, Korean, and Vietnamese Wikipedias). If your community is enthusiastic about welcoming newcomers, we encourage you to contact us so that we can verify together if your wiki is eligible. Then, go through the checklist to start the process of configuring the features.
  • We have deployed features that help newcomers find their newcomer homepage. These features were successful, and more than doubled the number of newcomers who find their homepage. In Czech Wikipedia, 72% of newcomers visit their homepage and in Korean Wikipedia, 49% of newcomers visit their homepage.
  • You can now join the Growth discussion space on the Wikimedia Space. This space has been created during Wikimania, to coordinate initiatives around welcoming newcomers. Please come and say hello!

Growth at Wikimania

Opening panel in the Community Growth space
  • Several members of the Growth team attended Wikimania in Stockholm. We helped organize a conference track around Community Growth, presented about our team's work, and had many conversations with community members from around the world.
  • Here are the most important links:
  • These are some of our topline notes:
    • Alignment on newcomer retention: It seems like Wikimania attendees generally believe that newcomer retention is an important problem.
    • Connecting offline to online: Enthusiasm for ideas that connect our features better to offline events, such as making homepage mentors correspond to offline mentors.
    • Mentor dashboard: Experienced users requested a dashboard with which they could monitor newcomers who may need help.

Newcomer tasks -- feedback needed!

Mockup of newcomer tasks
  • The Growth team's main project right now is newcomer tasks, which will suggest easy edits for newcomers. It will be built as a new module for the newcomer homepage.
  • We hope that this project will help newcomers build their skills before attempting more difficult edits, such as creating new articles or adding images.
  • These are the three main challenges we've been working on:
    • Where to find the tasks? After considering many different sources for tasks, we've decided to start by using maintenance templates, which are applied by editors on most wikis, and including tasks like copy editing, adding links, and adding references.
    • How to match to interests? Research shows that users are more likely to work on articles that are related to their interests. We are currently prototyping methods to ask newcomers their interests and then find articles that match.
    • How to guide the newcomer? Once a newcomer has selected a recommended article, they will need guidance on how to complete the edit. We have decided to use the help panel to provide that guidance while the newcomer edits.
  • We are currently engineering on this feature, and we recently published notes from user tests that give mostly positive feedback.
  • You can explore the design for newcomer tasks in these interactive mockups. We hope to hear from you about your thoughts on the project talk page. Do you think this could be helpful for newcomers? What are we missing?

Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:49, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

IP copyvio

You recently blocked User:74.218.153.218 for 36 hours several days ago for repeat WP:COPYVIO violations. They have now returned and resumed, see [30]. Would you mind applying a lengthier block and rev delling the aforementioned edit? Heiro 19:36, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

@Heironymous Rowe: Looks like Yamla already got to it. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 20:43, 6 October 2019 (UTC)
Awesome. Thanks Heiro 21:12, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 41, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Frenemy

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Aaron Fechter • Satellite galaxy

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 7 October 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-41

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

Problems

  • There is a problem in the visual editor when you copy or delete text with footnotes. It will be fixed soon. [32]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 October. It will be on all wikis from 10 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 9 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • The Community Wishlist Survey has a new format. It will focus on wikis that typically get less support. It will probably go back to the normal format next year. It is not decided exactly how it will work this year. You can leave feedback.
  • The URL of the Wikimedia wiki main pages could be changed. This is because the current URLs cause several problems. For example https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page would be https://www.wikidata.org/ instead. You can tell the developers if this would cause problems for your wiki.
  • There is a new technical community newsletter. You can read more about the work of Wikimedia's technical community. Subscribe to get the information in the future.
  • Advanced item Outreachy is an internship program for groups who are underrepresented in free and open-source software. There are seven Wikimedia projects about coding, documentation and quality assurance in the next round. Persons who fit the criteria can apply. The last day to apply is 5 November.

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

15:35, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q3

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 11, No. 2 — 3nd Quarter, 2019
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q3 2019, the project has:

Content

Project Navigation
To opt-out or sign up to receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to update the distribution list.
(Delivered ~~~~~)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by MediaWiki message delivery (talk • contribs) 15:51, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 42, 2019)

The U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Josephus Daniels (CG-27) maneuvers around an island as it passes through the Strait of Magellan en route to Punte Arenas, Chile, on 1 July 1990, during exercise "Unitas XXXI", a combined exercise involving the naval forces of the United States and nine South American nations.
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Strait of Magellan

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Frenemy • Aaron Fechter

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:15, 14 October 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-42

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 15 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 October. It will be on all wikis from 17 October (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are no longer supported. This means the browsers might start looking a bit weird. They will not get security support. You can't read Wikimedia wikis in Internet Explorer on Windows XP or Windows versions that are older than Windows XP. This is because almost no one uses the browsers anymore. Supporting them made the wikis less secure for everyone else. [34]
  • In the future section headings might have a share link. This is to make it easier to link to the section. You can read more and discuss.

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

23:55, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages – October 2019

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Inside this newsletter, the Editing team talks about their work on the mobile visual editor, on the new talk pages project, and at Wikimania 2019.

Help

What talk page interactions do you remember? Is it a story about how someone helped you to learn something new? Is it a story about how someone helped you get involved in a group? Something else? Whatever your story is, we want to hear it!

Please tell us a story about how you used a talk page. Please share a link to a memorable discussion, or describe it on the talk page for this project. The team would value your examples. These examples will help everyone develop a shared understanding of what this project should support and encourage.

Talk Pages

The Talk Pages Consultation was a global consultation to define better tools for wiki communication. From February through June 2019, more than 500 volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and multiple projects, came together with members of the Foundation to create a product direction for a set of discussion tools. The Phase 2 Report of the Talk Page Consultation was published in August. It summarizes the product direction the team has started to work on, which you can read more about here: Talk Page Project project page.

The team needs and wants your help at this early stage. They are starting to develop the first idea. Please add your name to the "Getting involved" section of the project page, if you would like to hear about opportunities to participate.

Mobile visual editor

The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing the visual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

Edit Cards

What happens when you click on a link. The new Edit Card is bigger and has more options for editing links.

Toolbar

The editing toolbar is changing in the mobile visual editor. The old system had two different toolbars. Now, all the buttons are together. Tell the team what you think about the new toolbar.
  • In September, the Editing team updated the mobile visual editor's editing toolbar. Anyone could see these changes in the mobile visual editor.
    • One toolbar: All of the editing tools are located in one toolbar. Previously, the toolbar changed when you clicked on different things.
    • New navigation: The buttons for moving forward and backward in the edit flow have changed.
    • Seamless switching: an improved workflow for switching between the visual and wikitext modes.
  • Feedback: You can try the refreshed toolbar by opening the mobile VisualEditor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Toolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania

The Editing Team attended Wikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session on the mobile visual editor and a session on the new talk pages project. They tested two new features in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned in the team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead

  • Talk Pages Project: The team is thinking about the first set of proposed changes. The team will be working with a few communities to pilot those changes. The best way to stay informed is by adding your username to the list on the project page: Getting involved.
  • Testing the mobile visual editor as the default: The Editing team plans to post results before the end of the calendar year. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: VisualEditor as mobile default project page.
  • Measuring the impact of Edit Cards: The Editing team hopes to share results in November. This study asks whether the project helped editors add links and citations. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: Edit Cards project page.

– PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:51, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 43, 2019)

A vignette thought to represent Medjed, Greenfield papyrus, British Museum
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Medjed (god)

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Strait of Magellan • Frenemy

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 21 October 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-43

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

Recent changes

  • Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. The API sandbox and help pages now show more clearly when API modules are marked as internal. API modules marked as internal were probably internal before. It was easier to miss. You should look for non-internal alternatives. [35]

Problems

  • There is a translation tool we use on wikis with more than one language. For a few days it did not create pages for new languages when someone translated a page. The languages did not show in the language bar. This has been fixed. [36]
  • The history and diffs can show wrong content. This is because of a cache problem. It will soon be fixed. [37]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 October. It will be on all wikis from 24 October (calendar).
  • Reference Previews will be a beta feature on all Wikipedias and some Wikivoyages. It shows you a preview of the footnote when you hover over or click on the number. It has been a beta feature on German and Arabic Wikipedia since April.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 October. See how to join.

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

14:35, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 44, 2019)

Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Audience

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Medjed (god) • Strait of Magellan

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 28 October 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Thanks

Thanks for the warm welcome (and the cookies) :)

Cathaleya (talk) 14:29, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

A cupcake for you!

For swiftly taking care of WP:LTAs at WP:AIV DBigXrayᗙ 15:56, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-44

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

  • You can post proposals for the Community Wishlist Survey. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals until 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 20 November to 2 December. This year the wishlist will focus on Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikivoyage and Wikinews. You can read more about the format for this year.
  • Mobile users now have a specific design for their Watchlist. [38][39]
  • You can share feedback and ideas on the Desktop Improvements project. The goal is to make the interface easier to use for readers and editors without removing any functionality. The Foundation's Readers Web team will work on this over the next two years.
  • Advanced item OOUI now allows using px (pixels) instead of em (em) for some specific cases. [40][41]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 October. It will be on all wikis from 31 October (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • There will be no software changes from 19 December to 2 January. The first MediaWiki version next year will come the week of 6 January. [42]
  • Advanced item Gadgets and user scripts can access variables about the current page in JavaScript. In 2015, this information was moved from global variables named wg* to mw.config. The old global variables will be removed later this year. You can know more about it and tell the developers if you want to try this out on your wiki first.

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

16:15, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 October 2019

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:12, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

TeamTrees and Draft:Team Trees

Hi, k6ka. I see you're currently working on TeamTrees. I suggest not start working on the page TeamTrees because there's a draft currently pending review at Draft:Team Trees. If you want to contribute to the topic, please do it in the draft because the topic hasn't been approved to be an article yet. You could continue your work by moving and modifying your contributions to the draft. If you think the correct title should be "TeamTrees", start a discussion in Draft talk:Team Trees. I really appreciate your effort. We mentioned about it in Discord today if you forgot. —Wei4Green • #TeamTrees🌲 03:31, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

I honestly just started editing it very absentmindedly; I thought the draft had already been merged (didn't check the page history and was only half-paying attention to Discord). Oh well, it's time for me to go to bed anyways... —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 03:33, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

  • A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:15, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 45, 2019)

Concert attendees at the Electric Daisy Carnival, Los Angeles, California, 2010
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Concert

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Audience • Medjed (god)

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 4 November 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-45

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

  • At Special:Contributions you could see up to 5000 edits at the same time if you edited the URL. This has been lowered to 500. This is to stop requests which break the sites. [43]

Changes later this week

  • MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry can set the default length to block a user for your wiki. You will be able to use MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry-ip to set a different default block length for IP editors. [44]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 November. It will be on all wikis from 7 November (calendar).

Meetings

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

16:47, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Bishop Auckland

Should Wikipedia:Requests_for_page_protection be updated with your change? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChipWolf (talk • contribs) 21:30, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

 Marked —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 21:37, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 46, 2019)

The Coleco Gemini video game console, a console clone of the Atari 2600 produced by Coleco in 1983
Hello, K6ka.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Coleco Gemini

Please be bold and help to improve this article!

Previous selections: Concert • Audience

Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations

Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 11 November 2019 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Tech News: 2019-46

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

  • MediaWiki2LaTeX can put different pages from a Wikimedia wiki into a PDF. It can now make a PDF with around 5000 pages. Previously this was 800 pages.

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Future changes

  • Wikimedia will take part in Google Code-in. This is for young students who want to help with open source software. You can read more. Experienced technical Wikimedians can mentor students.

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

22:03, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

ANI Notice

Information icon There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. --Jehochman Talk 16:39, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

I'm perplexed

I really don't get your block of Parulpahari. Did you not see my comments at the AIV report or on the user's talk page? – Uanfala (talk) 15:29, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

@Uanfala: I did see your comments. And I disagree with them. See Praxidicae's response. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 15:31, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
The user adds to Western Pahari a link to a website about the Western Pahari languages that contains extensive description of their gramars: that was good. Then they add the link to a broader article: Northern Indo-Aryan languages, where it arguably does not belong. The Praxidicae comes along and reverts them alleging it was spam (no, the website is not a personal blog, I don't know where they got that idea from), then directly escalates to giving the user a level-4 warning (no previous messages of any type had been given on the user's talk page) and reporting them to AIV. Yes, the user was wrong in reinstating the link to Northern Indo-Aryan languages after it had been removed and they were wrong to add it to the two category pages – and that's what I was trying to explain to them. I did comment both in the AIV report and on the user's talk page, to the same effect as what I'm explaining now. I only did what frankly should have been both Praxidicae's and your own due diligence and what happens then is that you completely ignore all that and give the user an indefinite block. I hope you'll appreciate why I'm finding this situation perplexing. – Uanfala (talk) 15:47, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
It's their own personal blog. It's not a reliable source and it's a blatant attempt to spam their own work. Praxidicae (talk) 15:48, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
If you click the link you will also see this. They link their FB, Twitter and other social networks there where it explicitly states it's a personal blog run by "@pahariparul". We don't allow self-proclaimed experts to insert their personal websites all over the place just because it is about the subject. Praxidicae (talk) 15:52, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
(edit conflict)Yes, it's likely they are the creator of the website. But where did you get the idea it was "a personal blog". What I'm seeing at https://www.himachalibhasha.in is a website entirely dedicated to the Western Pahari languages, with extenstive content on aspects of the grammars (see for example its content on nouns or the phonology. This is a suitable website to add as an external link. – Uanfala (talk) 15:57, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
Literally, read the site. It's not a reliable source. It is not suitable as an external link and it literally says "personal blog" on their "official" Twitter and Facebook, all of which are on the website. Praxidicae (talk) 16:01, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
Yes, I did read the site. Have you read it too? I didn't know you can read Hindi. – Uanfala (talk) 16:02, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
And yes, the website has links to the bottom to a corresponding page on facebook and on twitter, so what? Yes, it's no a scholarly publication and should not be used as as a source for any strong statements, but it is not used as a source – it's added to the "external links" section. For minority languages, it's common to add external links to websites by members of the communities concerned. – Uanfala (talk) 16:02, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
If I claim to be an SME in Baltimore accent can I link my personal website which is unsupported by reliable sources, even if it's correct? No, that would be called original research and we don't allow that in external links or anywhere else. Praxidicae (talk) 16:04, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
  • Any site that misleads the reader by use of factually inaccurate material or unverifiable research, except to a limited extent in articles about the viewpoints that the site is presenting. - WP:ELNO. Praxidicae (talk) 16:08, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
    • What exactly on the website do you find misleading? Anyway, I'd be happy to continue this discussion on the article's talk page (or elsewhere), but as for the Baltimore accent, the situation is not comparable as there likely exist quality online sources already, so there's less scope for community-led initiatives here. Anyway, what brought me here was the unjustified block of this user. K6ka, would you mind lifting it please? It really continues to be difficult to see why a user should be blocked without meaningful explanation and over a matter that experienced editors disagree about. Thanks! – Uanfala (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:13, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
Clear cut. Repetitive spam/promotion that continued after warnings and multiple reverts. I'd have blocked too. It's not a CIR block, it's a spam/promotion block. They can appeal at any time if they promise to stop spamming their site. -- ferret (talk) 17:24, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
Uanfala "It is not right to indef people over a matter that there's disagreement about"? So you think that every time one individual editor is against an indefinite block that editor has a veto on the block, even when there is an unambiguous consensus among other editors for it? Because that is what you are saying. When you posted that message you knew full well that three other editors, including two administrators, all held the same opinion, and that you alone held a different view. (Since then Ferret has raised those figures to respectively four and three.) Consensus is that the editor was spamming, and that the block was justified. No, we don't forbid blocks whenever there's "disagreement" about it, especially not when the disagreement consists of one person out of line with consensus among everybody else. JBW (talk) Formerly JamesBWatson 22:03, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Are we looking at the same case, JBW? Here's the sequence of events as I've seen them:

  • Parulpahari adds to the article Western Pahari a link to https://www.himachalibhasha.in/, a website in Hindi about the Pahari languages.
  • I have a look at the website and decide that this is the kind of external link we normally allow on that sort of article, so I incorporate it into the external links section
  • The user then adds that link to two categories (where it does not belong) and to another article (where, arguably, it also does not belong)
  • Praxidicae, who it later turns out mistook the website for a personal blog, then comes in and posts Parulpahari's first talk page message: a level 4 [sic!] warning, and then files a report at AIV.
  • I comment on the report [45] to the effect that this is not spam and there's no need for admin action, and leave a brief note stating the same on the user's talk page.
  • At this point I was hoping the misunderstanding would have been cleared, but K6ka jumps in, ignores what I've written and blocks the user straight away. Now, if there's consensus among "three other editors, including two administrators", then this is nowhere to be seen at this point. The only thing that at least comes near to an informed opinion was against any type of block.

So, what am I missing? Yes, several editors have so far commented favourably about the block, and maybe that's the consensus you're referring to. But it was my impression that consensus was meant to be achieved through informed discussion and not through head count, and what I'm seeing so far is one editor perpetuating the false claim that the website was a personal blog, and two other editors simply asserting that the link was spam, without giving explanation and without any readily visible means how they could have arrived at that conclusion without either experience in the topic area or knowledge of the language the website is in. – Uanfala (talk) 01:23, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

Uanfala, I'm not sure why you can't see that the user in question was clearly attempting to spam their own website and game SEO by backlinking on Wikipedia. Prax is correct, the site does not meet the guidelines for inclusion set out in WP:ELNO. It's clearly NOT the kind of site we would normally include in the external links section. Aside from the attempted SEO gaming, it's only one website about a broad topic, and linking to it would give preferential treatment (WP:UNDUE) to that one site. In a broad topic area (rather than a specific person, company, product, or similar), we would link to some sort of verifiable and "official" professionally published site in the External Links section, but not other random sites that someone puts up on the internet about that topic. You claim Prax "mistook the website for a personal blog", I don't think she's necessarily mistaken at all, the site has contact info with what is clearly a personal live.com email address. That really looks like someone's personal blog/website to me - a prettily formatted one, for sure, but still not any kind of official website or professional publication. I would seriously and very kindly suggest that you drop the matter. Waggie (talk) 01:40, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
Thank you for your input. Well, I guess I don't see the topic to be as broad as you do. This is a group of closely related languages without any official status, and I wouldn't expect there to be any decent "official" websites out there. See, even for the more significant Nuristani group, all we've got is one linguist's collection of notes, and for many of the smaller languages of neighbouring Pakistan we don't have any online resources besides the scant content at the Forum for Language Initiatives. Sure, that guy's page isn't coming from an established organisation, but for minority languages we can't often expect more. My approach has generally been to allow, and often encourage, links to grassroots initiatives. As far as I can see, a huge amount of work has gone into that website and I'm not seeing any indication it's being used to promote any views or to sell anything. – Uanfala (talk) 02:01, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
I'd suggest running it by a WP:RSN then and seeing if it's usable. But the fact remains, the link was being spammed by an editor named after the site's owner. This is a classic spam case and almost any admin viewing AIV reports would have blocked. That the link might be useful is irrelevant to the user's clear intent and disruptive behavior. -- ferret (talk) 02:08, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
I'm not seeing any indication it's being used to promote any views or to sell anything. Now it's my turn to be perplexed. This edit most certainly looks like an attempt to get people to visit their website. That is indeed spam (and fairly run-of-the-mill spam too). —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 02:44, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
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