Loading
  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

User Talk:Holly Cheng

Archives: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

The Signpost: 30 April 2019

ArbCom 2019 special circular

Icon of a white exclamation mark within a black triangle
Administrators must secure their accounts

The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.

View additional information

This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 03:02, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)

ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.

Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.

We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.

For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:03, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.

Arbitration

  • In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done so will not be resysopped automatically. All current administrators have been notified of this change.
  • Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.

Miscellaneous


Sorry to bother

I started work on sourcing the IWD article a little better and i am struggling to come up with how to actually source that May Day is celebrated in places like Ethiopia or Somalia. Would something like lonelyplanet do? Not really confident it would though, hence me asking. I used info from Air France, a german Telecom company and RTE (electricity company) to source the same info in other places, which i assume is acceptable? Otherwise i am just not sure what to look for to verify it, given i don't speak amharic lol. Any thoughts, pointers or hints on the matter would be appreciated. 91.248.136.141 (talk) 20:48, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind! Who would have thought that the federation of Somali trade unions has an english language website hahaha. And i found something for Ethiopia as well after an idea for new search terms. So... sorry to have bothered you. 91.248.136.141 (talk) 22:19, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Renaming a title (of "U.S. intervention in Venezuela")

Best greetings; I've created an article by the name of "U.S. intervention in Venezuela", but a user renamed its title to "Foreign involvement during the Venezuelan presidential crisis". Actually, although it was mentioned in AFD ([1]) (concerning the disagreement of the rename), --but-- he renamed it without surveying the view of others. Afterwards, I'd undo its change (to return it to its first title), but seemingly I hadn't/haven't such option to undo that. Hence, I appreciate your help --to solve the discussion (to return its first name). Ali Ahwazi (talk) 17:07, 8 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Ali Ahwazi: Have you discussed this with Jamez42? At the very least, this should be something brought up on the article talk page, perhaps involving people who were in the AFD, rather than pinging someone completely uninvolved. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 17:13, 8 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Need help

Hi, Howcheng. I need this portrait in original size, could you sent me the deleted version to pamyat at list.ru? thanks. --Алый Король (talk) 01:40, 10 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

UC Irvine edit-a-thon on May 17, 2019

UC Irvine edit-a-thon on May 17, 2019

Dear fellow Wikipedian,

You are cordially invited to an edit-a-thon this Friday in Orange County, focused on gender equity. The event is a collaboration between UCI and Women in Red.

Friday, May 17, 2019
10:00 am – 4:00 pm PDT (UTC-7)

Langson Library, Room 228, at University of California, Irvine

Points of contact:

For more details, including the registration link, please see the meetup page. Everyone is welcome! We hope to see you there.

--Rosiestep (talk) 00:36, 14 May 2019 (UTC) via MassMessaging[reply]

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Jane Avril, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page The Telegraph (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 09:52, 24 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 May 2019

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited June 23, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Henry Larsen (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 12:31, 1 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

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

Administrator changes

removed AndonicConsumed CrustaceanEnigmamanEuryalusEWS23HereToHelpNv8200paPeripitusStringTheory11Vejvančický

CheckUser changes

removed Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
  • An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
  • An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.

Technical news

  • The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
  • Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.

Miscellaneous


A discussion has started about wrapper templates of {{Link language}}. You may be interested in participating because you participated in a related previous discussion. E^pi*i batch (talk) 03:05, 10 June 2019 (UTC) (Retro is my main account.)[reply]

Your comment plz

I was working on this article and found some POV issues, which I then raised at WP:ERROR. Some users are repeatedly removing the POV tag, despite the ongoing discussion. I tried to express my objection in details, but would rather seek a comment by an un-involved experienced user before restoring the twice-removed POV tag. Can I have your input please? --Mhhossein 13:06, 21 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Woohoo

Hey, Howcheng. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day!
Mjs1991 (talk) 04:51, 30 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]


The June 2019 Signpost is out!

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019

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

Administrator changes

removed 28bytesAd OrientemAnsh666BeeblebroxBoing! said ZebedeeBU Rob13Dennis BrownDeorDoRDFloquenbeamFlyguy649FramGadfiumGB fanJonathunderKusmaLectonarMoinkMSGJNickOd MishehuRamaSpartazSyrthissTheDJWJBscribe
Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Guideline and policy news

  • In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.

Technical news

  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.

Miscellaneous


Source of Manufacture section in the Cream Cheese article

Hello Howcheng, I was reading the Cream Cheese article recently and was left curious as to how exactly lowering the pH below the isoelectric point of the proteins would impact the coagulation. Being unable to find articles specifically on the subject and seeing that you were the first to add this kind of information to the page I was wondering if you had source or further readings on the subject. Thanks!

Mikidep (talk) 14:02, 7 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Mikidep: Sorry, I only got the information from a Wired magazine article myself. howcheng {chat} 21:27, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back!

Hi, Howcheng. Welcome back and I hope you enjoyed your vacation! Just so you know, I am working on July 18 as I write this message. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 21:20, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Coffeeandcrumbs: Thanks, I've got 3 weeks' worth of notes to write, so that's very helpful. howcheng {chat} 21:21, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
If you don't mind I would like to do the notes for the three days I did. It would be great learning experience. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 21:23, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
That's great, it would certainly help to have some more hands doing these updates. howcheng {chat} 21:28, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Any concerns on 20 July? Any concerns at all? I am going to stay hands-off on 21 July and skip to 22 July, that is if you have no objections to me continue on. I am going to start doing two per day and get ahead of schedule like I believe you prefer. If you like what you have seen so far, I am happy to continue. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 19:39, 18 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Coffeeandcrumbs: Sorry I didn't reply in time. You can keep going as long as you want. I did this every day for 8+ years so it's nice to not have to worry about it. Just let me know if you need me to step back in for any reason. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 15:25, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

On this day

John William Finn was born July 24 according to his article, but July 23 according to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 23. Art LaPella (talk) 06:08, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

August 1

I proposed some changes to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 1, mostly because I wanted to see Herman Melville listed on his 200th birthday, and I just kept going. Please have a look and feel free to undo anything that's incorrect or which you don't think works. Jonathunder (talk) 23:00, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

OTD

Thank you for allow me to do this for the past few weeks but I think I would like to stop doing it soon or take breaks so I don't burn out. I will continue until August 15. I have learned what a great amount of work you have done for the past few years. If you ever need another Wiki-break please don't hesitate to ask. It was fun and very educational! Maybe we can do a schedule where we alternate every other month. You take August 16 to September 15. I take September 16 to October 15, and so on. Up to you. Cheers.--- Coffeeandcrumbs 22:29, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for allowing me to extend my OTD vacation for a few more weeks! howcheng {chat} 15:42, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
That's it for me. Be back to do this in September. August 1718 is the last one I updated. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 22:02, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I am going to keep going. Feel free to tag back in, if you feel like it. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 07:56, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Coffeeandcrumbs: I was actually going to restart today but then my computer got caught in Windows update hell (it took 2 hours!!), so I couldn't do anything during that time. howcheng {chat} 02:09, 18 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Already working on August 20. You can do the notes and start on August 21. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 02:18, 18 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
BTW, with help from another user, I have created a QUARRY-based system that allows me to find GA and FA-level articles to use for born/died section. So I am going to keep adding more eligible BIOs as we go, even on days that I am not updating fully. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 02:32, 18 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Coffeeandcrumbs: Thanks for doing the births/deaths. That really saves me a lot of time. In fact, that was probably the section that took me the longest to do and thus was the biggest headache for me. If you are going to keep doing those, then I'm fine with doing the regular blurbs. Of course, if you want to jump in and do it, I'm not going to stop you either. :) howcheng {chat} 16:40, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I think we have struck a nice balance. I might throw some event blurbs into the eligible section now and then. Right now I am happy just doing the births/deaths. If I do any more it is going to be rescuing some ineligibles. I am also open to taking a couple of months a year to give you a break. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 18:16, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I discovered Louis XVIII of France when searching for birth dates but I think it is a waste to use the article for born/died. There is an ineligible blurb at Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 30 that you could use Louis XVIII article to rescue. Or another event blurb could be written. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 13:11, 1 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Southern California Wiknic & Bonfire invitation

Who: All members of the public

What: Southern California Wiknic & Bonfire.

When: Sunday 1 September 2019, 2:00PM PDT / 1400 until 10:00PM PDT / 2200

Where: La Jolla Shores

Sponsor: San Diego Wikimedians User Group ( US-SAN )

Your host: RightCowLeftCoast (talk · contribs)

Please add your username to our attendees list so we know how many will be attending, and please add your intended potluck contribution to the list.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of Wikipedia:WikiProject San Diego at 18:27, 1 August 2019 (UTC). You can unsubscribe from future invitations to San Diego Wikimedians User Group events by removing your name from the WikiProject San Diego mass mailing list, and from the Southern California meet-up group by removing your name from the LA meet-ups mailing list.[reply]

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.


OTD of September

I wonder if you present the probable problem with nominating these articles for OTD of September: one, the assassination of Mir Asadollah Madani for 11 September, second, the Battle of al-Harra for 26 August. Thanks!Saff V. (talk) 12:47, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker)@Saff V.: I have been doing the OTD section recently and I would probably not include Mir Asadollah Madani and Event of Mubahala because they low quality articles. Battle of al-Harra is a great addition. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 13:06, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Coffeeandcrumbs: Aha, I hope to be successful in doing the OTD section and Thanks for a response quickly, But could you explain to me exactly problems cause low quality. especially about Event of Mubahala?Saff V. (talk) 13:26, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Event of Mubahala is a not that bad but there are several issues tagged. Look for where it is tagged with "[Citation needed]", "[Which?]", and "[Who?]".
Mir Asadollah Madani is very short and give almost no detailts about imam's life and career. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 13:35, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I get it and will give it try to solve the issues. Thanks!Saff V. (talk) 13:40, 17 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Coffeeandcrumbs: Excuse me, but "I have been doing the OTD section recently"means that Howcheng will not be active in this section from now on.Am I right?Saff V. (talk) 05:53, 19 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Saff V.: No, I'm still active. howcheng {chat} 16:09, 19 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I was removing mentioned issues of Event of Mubahala.Now is it ok to go for OTD of 26 August?Regards!Saff V. (talk) 16:39, 22 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 August 2019

Orphaned non-free image File:A Tribute to Courage (Sam Houston statue).jpg

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:A Tribute to Courage (Sam Houston statue).jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:24, 1 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019

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

Administrator changes

added BradvChetsfordIzno
readded FloquenbeamLectonar
removed DESiegelJake WartenbergRjanagTopbanana

CheckUser changes

removed CallaneccLFaraoneThere'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed CallaneccFoxHJ MitchellLFaraoneThere'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


Just an FYI, Howcheng: I took 1936 Naval Revolt off OTD for Sept.9th. It was pointed out on WP:ERRORS that the articles says this revolt took place on Sept.8th. I've swapped in 1493 Battle of Krbava Field to fill that spot on OTD for now. Hope this helps. Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 16:21, 8 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

A year ago ...
selected anniversaries
... you were recipient
no. 2032 of Precious,
a prize of QAI!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:34, 27 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Ann Jarvis, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Appalachian (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:26, 28 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 September 2019

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.

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Winnie-the-Pooh (book), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page The Telegraph (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:28, 12 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

Awesome
Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:57, 15 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Your GA nomination of Lucia Visconti

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Lucia Visconti you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Amitchell125 -- Amitchell125 (talk) 14:20, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 October 2019

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


On this day

At the bottom of Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 6, Ri Ul-sol died on November 7 not 6, according to that article and its reference. Art LaPella (talk) 04:47, 5 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Another On This Day

At the bottom of Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 7, Paul Sandby died November 9 not 7, according to that article. Art LaPella (talk) 01:17, 6 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Art LaPella,  Fixed --- Coffeeandcrumbs 01:36, 6 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Lucia Visconti, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Countess of Kent (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:27, 6 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Your GA nomination of Lucia Visconti

The article Lucia Visconti you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Lucia Visconti for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Amitchell125 -- Amitchell125 (talk) 19:21, 8 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process

Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking to improve the community consultation outreach process for Foundation policies, and we are interested in why you didn't participate in a recent consultation that followed a community discussion you’ve been part of.

Please fill out this short survey to help us improve our community consultation process for the future. It should only take about three minutes.

The privacy policy for this survey is here. This survey is a one-off request from us related to this unique topic.

Thank you for your participation, Kbrown (WMF) 10:44, 13 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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

If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:05, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Lucia Visconti

On 21 November 2019, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Lucia Visconti, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the unpaid dowry owed by Lucia Visconti's family upon her marriage to Edmund Holland remained a source of friction between England and Milan for more than 60 years after her death? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Lucia Visconti. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Lucia Visconti), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Gatoclass (talk) 00:01, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Suvorov

I'm not sure if we should change the 1729 date, but for Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 24, the Alexander Suvorov article uses both 1729 and 1730 for his birth, several times each. Art LaPella (talk) 05:29, 23 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

OK I moved him to May 18 (death date). howcheng {chat} 06:50, 23 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!

Hello,

Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.

I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!

From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.

If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.

Thank you!

--User:Martin Urbanec (talk) 21:58, 23 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 November 2019

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019

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

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFirToBeFree
removed AkhilleusAthaenaraJohn VandenbergMelchoirMichaelQSchmidtNeilNYoungamerican😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


An automated process has detected that when you recently edited León Febres Cordero, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page El Mundo (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:44, 13 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

OTD question

Hi Howcheng - I saw you update the article history for German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, which spurred me to go look at the OTD entry for the article (I hadn't noticed it was there yesterday) - anyway, the line needs to be corrected (it states the ship suffered "heavy damage" but that's not accurate) but I don't really want to spend the time necessary to navigate the labyrinthine maze of templates. I'm guessing you know your way around the OTD setup better than I do, so could you point me in the right direction? Thanks. Parsecboy (talk) 16:56, 18 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Parsecboy: It's Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 17. Please edit as necessary. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 16:58, 18 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I'll go fix it. Parsecboy (talk) 17:03, 18 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Holidays

Thank you for continuing to make Wikipedia the greatest project in the world. I hope you have an excellent holiday season. BabbaQ (talk) 11:01, 22 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

The Signpost: 27 December 2019

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Elizabeth Ann Seton, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Iona College (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:11, 2 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


I've moved this back. This is a proper name for a specific vase, not the others attributed to him. See WP:VAMOS also. Johnbod (talk) 18:20, 15 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Johnbod: No problem. The only thing is, the article always refers to it as the "Euphronios krater", so that probably should be corrected. howcheng {chat} 18:21, 15 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed - I'll look at that. Obviously it is "the krater" in running prose. Johnbod (talk) 18:23, 15 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Could I ask you to be more careful?

My last two consecutive article edits have been to clean up unfortunate typos from your edits. This and this. Think about that. I'm just looking at articles in my favorite sections DYK and OTD and I come across goofs twice consecutively by one editor? For that to happen, what rate of errors are you committing?

It is a pet peeve of mine that 'experienced' editors seem to not use "Show preview"? When I see "300December" and "desribes" I can only believe that is true, and perhaps due to too much hurry? Shenme (talk) 01:38, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 January 2020

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
  • The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input. No proposed process received consensus.

Technical news

  • Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.
  • When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [2]

Arbitration

  • Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.

Miscellaneous



An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Adolph Dubs, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Washingtonian (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 12:49, 12 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox photo discussion

Hi. Can you offer your opinion on which of two photos is preferable in this discussion? Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 15:41, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 March 2020

Administrators' newsletter – March 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2020).

Guideline and policy news

  • Following an RfC, the blocking policy was changed to state that sysops must not undo or alter CheckUser or Oversight blocks, rather than should not.
  • A request for comment confirmed that sandboxes of established but inactive editors may not be blanked due solely to inactivity.

Technical news

  • Following a discussion, Twinkle's default CSD behavior will soon change, most likely this week. After the change, Twinkle will default to "tagging mode" if there is no CSD tag present, and default to "deletion mode" if there is a CSD tag present. You will be able to always default to "deletion mode" (the current behavior) using your Twinkle preferences.

Miscellaneous



The difference between sex and gender.

Hi

It appears you do not understand the difference between sex (i.e male and female, a biological construct) and that of gender identity. Th Wiki is not about gender identity, it is about the male and female sex. Hence it is *sex and not gender. Male and female, this is where we get sex, heterosexual, sex-equality, sexism etc from. Gender has nothing to do with it and I made clear the two things should not be confused.

Best regards /Eric

81.232.189.161 (talk) 13:30, 6 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Arbitration case opened

In 2018, you offered a statement in a request for arbitration. The Arbitration Committee has now accepted that request for arbitration, and an arbitration case has been opened at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Jytdog. Evidence that you wish the arbitrators to consider should be added to the evidence subpage, at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Jytdog/Evidence. Please add your evidence by March 23, 2020, which is when the evidence phase closes. You can also contribute to the case workshop subpage, Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Jytdog/Workshop. For a guide to the arbitration process, see Wikipedia:Arbitration/Guide to arbitration.

All content, links, and diffs from the original ARC and the latest ARC are being read into the evidence for this case.

The secondary mailing list is in use for this case: arbcom-en-b@wikimedia.org

For the Arbitration Committee, CThomas (talk) 17:36, 9 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Battle of Oosterweel, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Oosterweel (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 13:16, 11 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Non-free use of File:Pepsi targeted ad 1940s.jpg

Thank you for uploading File:Pepsi targeted ad 1940s.jpg. However, there is a concern that the use of the image on Wikipedia may not meet the criteria required by Wikipedia:Non-free content. Details of this problem, and which specific criteria that the image may not meet, can be obtained by going to the image description page. If you feel that this image does meet those criteria, please place a note on the image description or talk page explaining why. Do not remove the {{di-fails NFCC}} tag itself.

An administrator will review this file within a few days, and having considered the opinions placed on the image page, may delete it in accordance with our criteria for speedy deletion or remove the tag entirely. If you have any questions, please ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thank you. Jonteemil (talk) 06:42, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again! I've highlighted a sentence which you violated so you know.Jonteemil (talk) 17:15, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
You may not be aware of this, but I'm one the people who wrote NFCC#8, so I'm very familiar with how it works, although I must admit it has been many years since I have done enforcement of it. However, I agree that the article was used in too many places, so I've limited it to Pepsi and Edward F. Boyd, where it's the most relevant. howcheng {chat} 20:56, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I was not aware of that. Good that you limited its use. Cheers.Jonteemil (talk) 23:41, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries

I see that you reverted 17 of my edits to "Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries" pages. I admit that in Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 27 I messed up when I dropped the y in livery. Other than that, I believe my changes are correct in that they removed bogus image options lint errors. My changes also improved the displayed captions. For example, Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 26, the right-most image caption improved from "border=yes" to "B&O Royal Blue". In other examples, I prevented bad line breaks. Your edit summary each time was "there's a reason for this". Kindly let me know the reason(s) that applied to the 17 reversions (other than, of course, misspelling "livery"). (I am glad to see that you did not revert my edit to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 14, where the lint error I fixed was fostered content.) Cheers ... —Anomalocaris (talk) 06:42, 19 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Anomalocaris: Sorry, but I really don't care about lint errors. The point is not to make the gallery viewable for readers; it's to make it easier to update the events that are displayed. What you call "bogus image options" are actually parameters for the {{main page image}} template, which is used to display the image. This makes it possible to then just cut & paste the line into the template. If we were to use proper image gallery syntax, then that's just more work to prep the day's blurbs (see [3]). Thus, please leave those as-is. Thank you. howcheng {chat} 06:55, 19 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
What am I supposed to see in the "see" link?
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Lines 7 and 13 show how I was able to cut/paste the line from the gallery; the other part of that is farther down the page: {{main page image|File:Traian Vuia aircraft.jpg|Traian Vuia's monoplane|width=x137}}{{main page image|File:Bouvet capsizing March 18 1915 (cropped).jpg|The French battleship ''Bouvet'' capsizing|title=The French battleship Bouvet capsizes after striking a mine during the Battle of Gallipoli.|width=175}}
Lint errors are a serious problem in Wikipedia, and one tiny lint error on a page can cause the rest of the page following to display with incorrect indentation, color, or font size. Therefore, I hope when you say "I really don't care about lint errors" you mean, "I really don't care about lint errors for pages that are used as scratchpads for other pages; of course I do care about lint errors on actual production pages."
Again, my apologies for not being clearer. Yes, that is exactly what I meant.
Please explain the purpose of "title=" and why it appears sometimes and not other times.
Please explain the purpose of "border=yes".
Please explain the purpose of "|width=100" and "width=x137". Can these both be right? —Anomalocaris (talk) 07:49, 19 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
For those, please see the template documentation, although I'm not exactly sure how the x137 syntax works (User:David Levy is the one who usually uses that). Thanks. howcheng {chat} 18:00, 19 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 March 2020

Administrators' newsletter – April 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2020).

Guideline and policy news

  • There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The WMF has begun a pilot report of the pages most visited through various social media platforms to help with anti-vandalism and anti-disinformation efforts. The report is updated daily and will be available through the end of May.

What is this newsletter meant for , can you please explain because I don't understand it

Nndms (talk) 12:23, 2 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Nndms: The above newsletter is for administrators. Since you aren't one, it's not applicable to you. howcheng {chat} 15:44, 2 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Refimprove

Hi. I removed the refimprove section tag on Book of the Law, it seemed fine. Am I missing something there? The section is well in need of a paragraph break or two though. Randy Kryn (talk) 22:29, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Randy Kryn: That big long paragraph only has one footnote, right at the beginning. Thus, the tag. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 22:33, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
When I talk to people about editing Wikipedia they seem hesitant to even attempt to do it, like putting your footprint in new cement or something. So I usually use the example of paragraph breaks, "just find a too-long paragraph and put a break in there". That one is a doozy of a text wall, so good catch. Randy Kryn (talk) 22:36, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
p.s. looks like Regardie's quotes in the long graph (I've added one break) are probably from the same source referenced. Putting it near the start was likely some editors way of referencing the quote bank. Randy Kryn (talk) 22:41, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wish you safety and health

Dear fellow editor. The world is struggling to stay safe from the harms of a some tens of nano-meters sized virus. I wish you and your dear ones full safety from the dangers of this unilateral love! Regards. --Mhhossein 08:22, 7 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Notice

The file File:TeoChewTempleDoor.jpg has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

unused, low-res, no obvious use

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.

Please consider addressing the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated files}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and files for discussion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion.

This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:01, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Fastily: FYI this was a duplicate of File:Han-Jiang-Teochew-temple-door.jpg. I'd forgotten I had uploaded it separately here. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 07:07, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Births

At Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 14, the Arthur Matthew Weld Downing article says April 13, not 14. Art LaPella (talk) 04:38, 13 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I did not know what to do with this eligible article. I was think as feast day on April 24 but I thought I would leave it up to you. It is well sourced but there is a bit of confusion about the feast day. --- C&C (Coffeeandcrumbs) 01:52, 21 April 2020 (UTC) @Coffeeandcrumbs: I'm afraid we can't use it, then. I can deal with ambiguity about the year (c.f. Mariah Carey) but not the actual date. howcheng {chat} 15:55, 21 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 April 2020

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2020).

Administrator changes

removed GnangarraKaisershatnerMalcolmxl5

CheckUser changes

readded Callanecc

Oversight changes

readded HJ Mitchell

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 31 May 2020

Administrators' newsletter – June 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2020).

Administrator changes

added CaptainEekCreffettCwmhiraeth
removed Anna FrodesiakBuckshot06RonhjonesSQL

CheckUser changes

removed SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

  • A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.

Treaty of Trianon

Please, add the article of Treaty of Trianon (1920) to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 4 because of its centenary today. --Norden1990 (talk) 22:24, 3 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much! --Norden1990 (talk) 22:50, 3 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Jeannette Expedition of 1879–81

Hi, Howcheng. I'm a little confused with the dates. Do you mean June or July? 1879 or 1881? I can go fix Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 13 and Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 13 myself, but I thought I should check with you first. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 23:11, 15 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@PFHLai: I'm not sure why I thought the sinking was on July 13. Please feel free to fix it. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 02:54, 16 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It's now back on the June 13th OTD/SA template. Thanks, Howcheng. --PFHLai (talk) 08:03, 16 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 June 2020

Happy...

Hey, Howcheng. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day!
CommanderWaterford (talk) 06:57, 30 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society

Dear Holly Cheng,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Fifteen Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for fifteen years or more. ​

Best regards, Chris Troutman (talk) 13:09, 30 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]


Administrators' newsletter – July 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration


Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/delist/File:Anschlusstears.jpg — not currently used in any mainspace articles, (t · c) buidhe 01:42, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Selected anniversaries for September 8

Hello Howcheng, I would really appreciated if you could add the article Huey Long to the Selected anniversaries for September 8. It was delisted for this year due to atrocious references. In the past month, I've done a lot of work and I think I'll actually be able to nominate for GA in another week of editing. On top of that, this year is also the 85 anniversary of his shooting. Thanks! ~ HAL333 18:11, 22 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@HAL333: 85th anniversary doesn't have get any special treatment, unfortunately. If the GA passes, are you planning to put in for a DYK appearance? If so, that would disqualify him from OTD year. At any rate, I won't be touching that page until a few days prior, so if you do get to a good point, your best bet is to leave a note on the talk page so that I'll see it when I do the update. Thanks and good luck! howcheng {chat} 18:22, 22 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, thanks! ~ HAL333 18:30, 22 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Helen Mirren

Hi, Howcheng. Just an FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helen_Mirren&diff=968513948&oldid=968439307 Your {refimprove} got reverted, too. --PFHLai (talk) 06:01, 24 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if I run it, you can be sure TRM is going to flag it. howcheng {chat} 06:43, 24 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I know... --PFHLai (talk) 13:05, 24 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2020).

Administrator changes

added Red Phoenix
readded EuryalusSQL
removed JujutacularMonty845RettetastMadchester

Oversight changes

readded GB fan
removed KeeganOpabinia regalisPremeditated Chaos

Guideline and policy news


Obama

Hi, Howcheng. Do you mean that Obama is better on MainPage for the 13th anniversary of his becoming POTUS than on his 60th birthday? I prefer anniversaries with nice round numbers, if available. Oh, well... it's okay. --PFHLai (talk) 21:39, 1 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@PFHLai: No, just that people don't normally get to appear for birth/death anniversaries if they are already in a regular blurb. We also might make an exception for really significant birth dates like centennials. Also, it seems that putting him in this year might seem like a political statement, so I don't think he'll make an appearance until next year at the earliest. howcheng {chat} 04:17, 2 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Well, that was indeed for next year. Note my edit summary. Not a 100th, though. --PFHLai (talk) 11:57, 2 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 2 August 2020

Selected anniversaries for August 9

Hello. I saw the changes that you made to the selected anniversaries for August 9, which will be shown on the Main Page in a few days' time. I do not know if the selection of blurbs among those that are in the staging area is random (aside from the restrictions), but my attempt to change some of those was reverted. I did see that my edit resulted in that page having too many 20th century events, but it had already happened at least once, such as in 2018. Was that a valid excuse for the revert? Also, do you think the use of the word cheers (in a probably inappropriate use) in the edit summary might have qualified as a breach of a now-vacated motion?

I would have wanted to have the anniversaries for the Fat Man bomb and the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia displayed on the Main Page, as those events are celebrating their 75th and 55th anniversaries respectively this year. Would it be possible to exempt this year (and not again until the 100th anniversary) from the restriction that the anniversaries for Little Boy and Fat Man should not appear in the same year? Thanks. LSGH (talk) (contributions) 17:36, 7 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@LSGH: Nagasaki unfortunately will always live in the shadow of Hiroshima. If they didn't happen so close in succession, that might be a different story. As for Singapore, the Picture of the Day for August 9 is about Singapore, and it is longstanding custom that we don't duplicate content between sections of the Main Page, so that one is a non-starter. Additionally, 55 is not an anniversary that gets priority: it's multiples of 10 when less than 100 years old, and multiples of 25 for older than 100 years. Articles are not chosen at random. I make an effort to maintain variety in chronology, location, and topic, but sometimes it's just not possible. Please see WP:Selected anniversaries#When guidelines conflict for more details. Lastly, I think you're stretching a bit to find that in violation of anything. It seems to be a perfectly normal British greeting to me. howcheng {chat} 02:51, 8 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I get it now. The two bombs served a very similar purpose anyway. And yes, a lot of other editors use that word when participating in discussions, though they would normally use it as part of a positive or helpful reply. LSGH (talk) (contributions) 05:20, 8 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hit the road, Jack!

Hi, Howcheng. If interested, Percy Mayfield's 100th birthday is coming up on August 12th. He wrote this song, and many others. Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 15:13, 9 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Howcheng, for fixing the referencing on Percy Mayfield's wikipage. I just found out about AllMusic, and then found out you have gotten everything fixed already. Thank you. Happy editing! Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 10:10, 11 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Howcheng. There are quite a few broken links used as references in this article. Some broken links are re-used quite a few times. It looks worrisome. I don't think this can be easily fixed. I'm taking this anniversary off SA/OTD for now. Could you pick another item to replace it, please? Thank you. --PFHLai (talk) 00:00, 13 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 August 2020

Question about image you uploaded

Hi, you uploaded File:Jimmy Cleveland.jpg to Commons a long time ago, probably based on an OTRS ticket. At Talk:Jimmy Cleveland, we're wondering whether this really is Jimmy Cleveland. Any enlightenment would be very much appreciated. Thank you, —Kusma (t·c) 12:45, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Little Green Men (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Charles Napier.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:31, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2020).

Administrator changes

added Eddie891
removed AngelaJcw69Just ChillingPhilg88Viajero

CheckUser changes

readded SQL

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration


OTD September 11

Hello Howcheng, I hope you don't mind me messaging you here - I see you are the person who updates the 11 September OTD most frequently. Rather short notice but I was wondering if Batu Lintang camp could be added for tomorrow - it's the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp in 1945 at the end of WW2. In the selected anniversaries edit box it says it has an unsourced section - I have just been through that section in the Batu Lintang page and added the refs, but can't removed the unsourced warning from the OTD box. Thanks! Jasper33 (talk) 12:23, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Jasper33:  Done 16:25, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you Howcheng, much appreciated. Jasper33 (talk) 07:22, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 September 2020

The Signpost: 27 September 2020

Shouldn't Last use of capital punishment in Spain be in the omitted notes for both 2019 and 2020? Valenciano (talk) 13:02, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Valenciano: No, the meaning of "omitted" here means "was taken out of rotation" or "moved from active to inactive status". howcheng {chat} 15:27, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Got it, thanks, was just wondering. Good job on those pages by the way. Valenciano (talk) 15:42, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2020).

Administrator changes

added AjpolinoLuK3
readded Jackmcbarn
removed Ad OrientemHarejLidLomnMentoz86Oliver PereiraXJaM
renamed There'sNoTimeTheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Beethoven's 250th

Hi, Howcheng. I'm not sure if there are any plans for Beethoven 250th birthday to be featured on MainPage. There is no official record of his birth. He was baptised on December 17th. Shall we have this on the SA/OTD template? It's neither a birth nor a death, so I don't know what the format should be. Any thoughts, please? Thank you. --PFHLai (talk) 20:59, 18 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

We are OK with baptized dates I think. howcheng {chat} 21:19, 18 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I'll ask on Template talk:Born and died list to see if baptism can be included in that template. --PFHLai (talk) 05:54, 21 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 1 November 2020

Sebastian Vettel

Hey Howcheng, the page is listed as ineligible in Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 14. Do you know what it's meant by "too detailed"? --Mhhossein 16:11, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Mhhossein: If you look at the page last year, there was a {{too detailed}} tag on it. howcheng {chat} 02:26, 12 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Template:POTD/2007-07-02 – selected picture at Portal:Sports

Template:POTD/2007-07-02—a POTD subpage which you contributed to—has been added to the Selected picture section of the Portal:Sports. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:59, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As well as many others: Template:POTD/2008-03-01, Template:POTD/2008-05-16, Template:POTD/2008-05-21, Template:POTD/2010-02-07, and so on. Thank you for your contributions to POTDs. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:03, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Similarly for Portal:History:
Thanks. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:11, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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

If you wish to participate in the 2020 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:16, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 November 2020

Administrators' newsletter – December 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2020).

Administrator changes

removed AndrwscAnetodeGoldenRingJzGLinguistAtLargeNehrams2020

Interface administrator changes

added Izno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration


Happy Adminship Anniversary!

The Signpost: 28 December 2020

Administrators' newsletter – January 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration


Brook Taylor copy editing tag

Hey I noticed you were the one who added a copy editing tag to the article on mathematician Brook Taylor for "cleaning up the stilted language of the original Britannica article." I went through and did some minor edits, but I couldn't determine why you added the tag in the first place, or if my edits fixed the problem. (This is the version you flagged by the way, and this is the current version). I'd appreciate some clarification if you have the chance. Cheers. Fredlesaltique (talk) 08:18, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Addition of a day on tomorrow's selected anniversaries

Hello, Howcheng. I recently created the page Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities, which is about a Romanian holiday celebrated on 24 January. I created it with the intention of adding it later to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 24, but I didn't know that I can't edit a selected anniversaries page if it will be shown tomorrow. Since you seem to be the most engaged person on the subject of selected anniversaries, is it possible for you to add this holiday at January 24's selected anniversaries? There is no holiday featured yet from what I see. I would appreciate if you did this but I also understand if this request is rejected or ignored as I am asking for a last minute change to an important page. Regards. Super Ψ Dro 23:21, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Super Dromaeosaurus: So sorry, I wasn't on wiki for a day so I missed your message. We'll have to put it in for next year. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 08:06, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I guess it was just bad luck. Don't worry about it. Super Ψ Dro 09:14, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 January 2021

Administrators' newsletter – February 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2021).

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Hi, Howcheng. I see that you have reverted my edit in the SA/OTD template for Feb. 26th with a note saying "footnote 21 ("Siege of Kaifeng" section)". May I ask if you plan to insert this footnote, please? The date currently appears in that section of the article, but that sentence with the footnote and the date is not related to the hook on the SA/OTD template. I don't have the book to check, so I cannot insert the footnote myself to a sentence related to the hook material. Please advise. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 20:55, 27 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@PFHLai: Ah you're right. I rewrote the blurb to sync with the article. howcheng {chat} 21:18, 27 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Howcheng. Thank you for your quick response on the SA/OTD template. I should let you know that I am going to make further changes there. I have done more digging and was fortunate enough to find an online version of the ref for footnote 21 here. Accordingly, Feb. 26th, 1233 was not the date the emperor left town, but the date he reached the destination GuiDe; considering the means required for transportation back then, he must have left earlier than that. A few lines further down in that same paragraph in the ref, it says the invaders were allowed into the city on May 29th. I think the original blurb can still be used, but on the SA/OTD template for May 29th, instead of Feb. 26th. I shall start moving things to the "new" date after this edit here on your talkpage. Thanks. --PFHLai (talk) 02:35, 28 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Requesting inputs & help

Greetings,

Lot many events like Women's protest March do take place on International Women's Day, amongst them, since 2018 Pakistan women take out Aurat March and is leading to substantial social discourse in Pakistan, with substantial media coverage.

Earlier I requested help to see if Aurat March and/or International Women's Day can be nominated Wikipedia main page 'Ongoing' sub section of Wikipedia:In the news section ?

The Rambling Man suggested me to seek your inputs whether it would be better idea to include Aurat March and/or International Women's Day at WP:Selected anniversaries than WP:ITNC.

Please do guide.

Thanks and regards

Bookku (talk) 12:36, 28 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Bookku: IWD has been included every year for many years. Aurat March looks to be good quality so we can also add it. howcheng {chat} 05:19, 2 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 February 2021

Administrators' newsletter – March 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2021).

Administrator changes

added TJMSmith
removed Boing! said ZebedeeHiberniantearsLear's FoolOnlyWGFinley

Interface administrator changes

added AmandaNP

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
  • When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
  • There have been a number of reported issues with Pending Changes. Most problems setting protection appear to have been resolved (phab:T273317) but other issues with autoaccepting edits persist (phab:T275322).

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Hi Howcheng, just a heads up that I think you missed a closing "noinclude" tag when you updated tomorrow's OTD, which I think would have caused it not to appear on the main page correctly. Luckily I just happened to glance at WP:Main Page/Tomorrow and spotted that the OTD was missing. I think I've fixed it, but if you see any issues then do let me know. Cheers  — Amakuru (talk) 14:52, 24 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 March 2021

Administrators' newsletter – April 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2021).

Administrator changes

removed AlexandriaHappyme22RexxS

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a has been deprecated; it covered immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
  • Following a request for comment, page movers were granted the delete-redirect userright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target.

Technical news

  • When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split and it might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. (T278350)
  • Code to support some very old web browsers is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. (T277803)

Arbitration


Birth year

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 18. The Ippolita Maria Sforza article has conflicting birth years, 1445 and 1446, and the reference is offline. [[User:|Art LaPella]] (talk) 05:49, 17 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Art LaPella: Google searches are inconclusive. I found results in seemingly reliable sources for both 1445 and 1446. howcheng {chat} 06:57, 17 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Format of automatic signatures

For years a cloud of gloom has obscured my joy—this cloud having been borne by a certain aspect of the Wikipedia protocol of using four tildes to automatically sign one's notes. In particular, that aspect is the lack of a suitable transition between the signator's name and the preceding body of text. Even a space would be vastly preferable to no transition. Eventually, I developed the habit of consciously inserting a space between the end of my notes and the start of my tildeic sequence. Yet this barely satisfied.

Today, on an article's Talk page, I chanced to see your markup construction that left a dash before your name, in your signature. At first, the curious combination of punctuatory sigils puzzled—I was critical and suspicious of the naked characters—I said to myself, Lo, what trickery hath here been wrought? When I saw the practical result, my attitude inverted and I was well pleased. Kudos to you, for your delightful, useful invention. It is strong enough to qualify as a candidate for being a universal change to the effect of the quadtildean signature protocol. I’ve not yet endeavored to assimilate the change into mine own signature, but I assure you that doing so is now my priority.

Again, I praise your creativity and I salute you. I shall remain your servant, catsmoke (talk) 08:35, 18 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 April 2021

The Signpost: 25 April 2021

Administrators' newsletter – May 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2021).

Administrator changes

removed EnchanterCarlossuarez46

Interface administrator changes

removed Ragesoss

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • The user group oversight will be renamed to suppress. This is for technical reasons. You can comment at T112147 if you have objections.

Arbitration


Your edits on Lise de Baissac

On the Lise de Baissac article I rolled back your edits because you changed the footnote O'Connor 2012 to O'Connor 2016 which is incorrect as it refers to the wrong O'Connor book. That's understandable on your part as the wrong O'Connor book is listed in the bibliography. So, I have made the appropriate changes in the bibliography and notes to get the O'Connor references correct.

However, my rollback seems to have had an unintended consequence. The footnotes related to Binney, 2003 have a weird error message in red as follows: Binney 2003, p. 141. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBinney2003 (help). I don't perceive what the problem is and a search on Wikipedia help didn't enlighten me. Can you help or explain? Thanks. Smallchief (talk) 08:51, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, never mind. Somebody has already fixed whatever was the problem. Smallchief (talk) 08:57, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Smallchief: Excellent, thanks. Oh, we should use the Telegraph obit for her birth/death dates because you're missing page numbers for the Kramer and Helm sources and I would prefer not to add {{page needed}} to those. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 21:57, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Replace this image

Template:Replace this image has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. Dylsss 22:47, 16 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2021).

Administrator changes

added AshleyyoursmileLess Unless
removed HusondMattWadeMJCdetroitCariocaVague RantKingboykThunderboltzGwen GaleAniMateSlimVirgin (deceased)

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Wikimedia previously used the IRC network Freenode. However, due to changes over who controlled the network with reports of a forceful takeover by several ex-staff members, the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts decided to move to the new Libera Chat network. It has been reported that Wikimedia related channels on Freenode have been forcibly taken over if they pointed members to Libera. There is a migration guide and Wikimedia discussions about this.

Arbitration


The Signpost: 27 June 2021

Happy First Edit Day!

Administrators' newsletter – July 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • Consensus has been reached to delete all books in the book namespace. There was rough consensus that the deleted books should still be available on request at WP:REFUND even after the namespace is removed.
  • An RfC is open to discuss the next steps following a trial which automatically applied pending changes to TFAs.

Technical news

  • IP addresses of unregistered users are to be hidden from everyone. There is a rough draft of how IP addresses may be shown to users who need to see them. This currently details allowing administrators, checkusers, stewards and those with a new usergroup to view the full IP address of unregistered users. Editors with at least 500 edits and an account over a year old will be able to see all but the end of the IP address in the proposal. The ability to see the IP addresses hidden behind the mask would be dependent on agreeing to not share the parts of the IP address they can see with those who do not have access to the same information. Accessing part of or the full IP address of a masked editor would also be logged. Comments on the draft are being welcomed at the talk page.

Arbitration


The article about the Rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman

Dear Howard Cheng,

I have placed the article about the Rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman in the Staging area of the Selected_anniversaries/September_1 page. Actually I am unsure who is checking newly proposed articles and sorting them into the sections Elegible and Ineligible. Now there are six articles instead of the regular five are and so I would like to apologize for causing the trouble with that single article. At least it would be nice if the article about the rescue would appear at the 1st of September 2023 because than it´s the 50th year anniversary.

Best regards Yeti-Hunter (talk) 08:03, 20 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Yeti-Hunter: I do the most of the initial work and then there other eyes on it before it hits the Main Page. Thanks for your contribution! howcheng {chat} 15:32, 20 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 July 2021

Assistance

@Howcheng: I just left a message for you at Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/November 30#2020 notes. I hope to get a nice response. ─ The Aafī 05:31, 31 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC is open to add a delay of one week from nomination to deletion for G13 speedy deletions.

Technical news

  • Last week all wikis were very slow or not accessible for 30 minutes. This was due to server lag caused by regenerating dynamic lists on the Russian Wikinews after a large bulk import. (T287380)

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 29 August 2021

Administrators' newsletter – September 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2021).

Administrator changes

readded Jake Wartenberg
removed EmperorViridian Bovary
renamed AshleyyoursmileViridian Bovary

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • The Score extension has been re-enabled on public wikis. It has been updated, but has been placed in safe mode to address unresolved security issues. Further information on the security issues can be found on the mediawiki page.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 26 September 2021

Administrators' newsletter – October 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2021).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

  • A motion has standardised the 500/30 (extended confirmed) restrictions placed by the Arbitration Committee. The standardised restriction is now listed in the Arbitration Committee's procedures.
  • Following the closure of the Iranian politics case, standard discretionary sanctions are authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, post-1978 Iranian politics, broadly construed.
  • The Arbitration Committee encourages uninvolved administrators to use the discretionary sanctions procedure in topic areas where it is authorised to facilitate consensus in RfCs. This includes, but is not limited to, enforcing sectioned comments, word/diff limits and moratoriums on a particular topic from being brought in an RfC for up to a year.

Miscellaneous

  • Editors have approved expanding the trial of Growth Features from 2% of new accounts to 25%, and the share of newcomers getting mentorship from 2% to 5%. Experienced editors are invited to add themselves to the mentor list.
  • The community consultation phase of the 2021 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process is open for editors to provide comments and ask questions to candidates.

The Signpost: 31 October 2021

Administrators' newsletter – November 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • Phase 2 of the 2021 RfA review has commenced which will discuss potential solutions to address the 8 issues found in Phase 1. Proposed solutions that achieve consensus will be implemented and you may propose solutions till 07 November 2021.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


ArbCom 2021 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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

If you wish to participate in the 2021 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 November 2021

Administrators' newsletter – December 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2021).

Administrator changes

removed A TrainBerean HunterEpbr123GermanJoeSanchomMysid

Technical news

  • Unregistered editors using the mobile website are now able to receive notices to indicate they have talk page messages. The notice looks similar to what is already present on desktop, and will be displayed on when viewing any page except mainspace and when editing any page. (T284642)
  • The limit on the number of emails a user can send per day has been made global instead of per-wiki to help prevent abuse. (T293866)

Arbitration



Administrators will no longer be autopatrolled

A recently closed Request for Comment (RFC) reached consensus to remove Autopatrolled from the administrator user group. You may, similarly as with Edit Filter Manager, choose to self-assign this permission to yourself. This will be implemented the week of December 13th, but if you wish to self-assign you may do so now. To find out when the change has gone live or if you have any questions please visit the Administrator's Noticeboard. 20:06, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

The Signpost: 28 December 2021

Ferdinand Marcos inauguration day again on OTD

I thought we discussed this last year. Can we drop this non-event for this year and all of the succeeding years? December 30 was inauguration day in the Philippines from 1949 to 1969. Howard the Duck (talk) 12:36, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Howard the Duck: ??? But I did that based on your suggestion. It seemed to me like you wanted to highlight the second inauguration instead. howcheng {chat} 17:51, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I asked "What make this more significant than his inauguration 4 years later so that we can highlight Second term of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos?" I did not suggest to replace it with Second term of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos.
Seriously, what's the Marcosphilism? Don't foreigners know other Philippine presidents other than Marcos? (I suppose so!) December 30 comes in the Philippines, and nobody remembers, "Oh, this was when Marcos/Macapagal/Garcia/Magsaysay/Quirino/Quezon was inaugurated!" Old chap Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated in the middle of World War II in what is basically the sewers. (I'm not asking you to replace this with that one in 2022.) You're not even linking to the actual inauguration article. The article you linked to just had one pitiful sentence about the inauguration; I don't even know if that was cited on the reference on the next sentence. Howard the Duck (talk) 18:04, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I misunderstood then. But the inauguration article itself is unusable because it's an unreferenced stub. As for the interest in Marcos, the dude ruled the country for over 20 years, so like it or not that makes him extremely significant to modern Philippine history. And we do have other Philippine articles on OTD, so it's not like this is the only thing we're presenting about Philippine history to our readers. howcheng {chat} 18:17, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
That's understood, but for Marcosphiles and Marcosphobes, December 30 isn't one of the days you'd celebrate or condemn. As I've said last year, there are plenty of other Marcos-related stuff rather than a routine inauguration. Post something most presidents don't do.
Also, if we're highlighting the inauguration, it's a bad cop-out -- and for someone who's been basically handling OTD pages you should know this -- as the boldfaced link alludes to an event that's barely spoken about the article itself. If you'd want highlight the second inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos, boldface that, not... this. Otherwise, find something else. Howard the Duck (talk) 21:16, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree with your interpretation of the rules (I mean, I did write them). But if you're really concerned, you should bring it up at Talk:Main Page to see if there's consensus. howcheng {chat} 09:09, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Is there anything I have to do to remove these nonevent (first and second inaugurations) in OTD for 2022? I've already removed it on December 30. Howard the Duck (talk) 14:22, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Merchandise giveaway nomination

A t-shirt!
A token of thanks

Hi Holly Cheng! I've nominated you (along with all other active admins) to receive a solstice season gift from the WMF. Talk page stalkers are invited to comment at the nomination. Enjoy! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}}  ~~~~~
A snowflake!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2021).

Guideline and policy news

  • Following consensus at the 2021 RfA review, the autopatrolled user right has been removed from the administrators user group; admins can grant themselves the autopatrolled permission if they wish to remain autopatrolled.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The functionaries email list (functionaries-en@lists.wikimedia.org) will no longer accept incoming emails apart from those sent by list members and WMF staff. Private concerns, apart from those requiring oversight, should be directly sent to the Arbitration Committee.

Happy New Year from Wikimedians of Los Angeles!

Happy New Year from Wikimedians of Los Angeles!


We're beginning to plan in-person and virtual events for 2022, and your support is needed as we re-launch the LA User Group.
Please get involved! If you have ideas, or if you're interested in helping to lead the group, leave a note at Ideas for 2022 on our talk page.


Join our Facebook group here.

To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

--JSFarman (talk) 02:08, 4 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How we will see unregistered users

Hi!

You get this message because you are an admin on a Wikimedia wiki.

When someone edits a Wikimedia wiki without being logged in today, we show their IP address. As you may already know, we will not be able to do this in the future. This is a decision by the Wikimedia Foundation Legal department, because norms and regulations for privacy online have changed.

Instead of the IP we will show a masked identity. You as an admin will still be able to access the IP. There will also be a new user right for those who need to see the full IPs of unregistered users to fight vandalism, harassment and spam without being admins. Patrollers will also see part of the IP even without this user right. We are also working on better tools to help.

If you have not seen it before, you can read more on Meta. If you want to make sure you don’t miss technical changes on the Wikimedia wikis, you can subscribe to the weekly technical newsletter.

We have two suggested ways this identity could work. We would appreciate your feedback on which way you think would work best for you and your wiki, now and in the future. You can let us know on the talk page. You can write in your language. The suggestions were posted in October and we will decide after 17 January.

Thank you. /Johan (WMF)

18:13, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

LA to FA 2022

LA to FA 2022

Dear Howcheng,

You're invited to a zoom call, taking place on February 11, with the goal of improving the article on Los Angeles to Featured article status! I often find it daunting to approach the Big Subjects on my own—so if you, like me, want a time to sit down with fellow dedicated editors and tackle something important and complex, this is the zoom for you! I, unfortunately, have no way to transmit snacks over zoom; but I trust you to exercise good judgement and discretion in selecting snacks of your own. Hope to see you there—if you're interested, add your name here!

theleekycauldron (talkcontribs) (they/she) 00:19, 10 January 2022 (UTC) To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.[reply]

The Signpost: 30 January 2022

Administrators' newsletter – February 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • The user group oversight will be renamed suppress in around 3 weeks. This will not affect the name shown to users and is simply a change in the technical name of the user group. The change is being made for technical reasons. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.
  • The Reply Tool feature, which is a part of Discussion Tools, will be opt-out for everyone logged in or logged out starting 7 February 2022. Editors wishing to comment on this can do so in the relevant Village Pump discussion.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Birthday

In Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 5, Bernard of Corleone was born February 6 not 5, according to his article. Art LaPella (talk) 07:22, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion review for File:FuturoscopeClouds.JPG

An editor has asked for a deletion review of File:FuturoscopeClouds.JPG. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 18:21, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image File:KennyWashington.jpg

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:KennyWashington.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:42, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 February 2022

Administrators' newsletter – March 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Date of death

In Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 3, Bohemond I of Antioch died March 5 or 7 according to that article, not March 3. Art LaPella (talk) 05:10, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Art LaPella: Doh, I'm the one who changed the date in the article, too! howcheng {chat} 07:35, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 March 2022

Administrators' newsletter – April 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


New administrator activity requirement

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

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

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

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

22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

75th anniversary of Operation Big Bang on April 18

I have rushed a translation from German and hoped to have cleared up a few metric ton issues. Would you still consider this for tomorrow? --Aeroid (talk) 20:21, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Aeroid: Hi, I didn't see this until now, so it's a little late. However, there are couple of problems with the article: the second paragraph in the "Blasting" section does not have any citations, and the "Background" and "Results" sections could also use a few more footnotes. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 01:03, 18 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 April 2022

OTD

Can we include Asir Adrawi on 20 May's OTD appearance? Regards, ─ The Aafī on Mobile 18:08, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@AafiOnMobile: The quality looks good to me. Go ahead and put it in. Thanks! howcheng {chat} 18:09, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Given your response, I added Asir Adrawi to 20 May, Faizul Waheed to 1 June, Taha Karaan to 11 June and Ebrahim Desai to 15 July staging areas. I'll see few other names from articles that I've created or improved. Regards, ─ The Aafī 18:28, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@TheAafi: Awesome. We are always on the lookout for biographies from non-Western countries. howcheng {chat} 18:35, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration


2022 May 18 - OTD

Was wondering if Bath School disaster might be included in OTD this year. Previous OTD appearances were 2013 & 2017 and it was TFA for May 18th in 2020 so it hasn't been seen in OTD for 5 years. Thx, Shearonink (talk) 15:52, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Shearonink: Seems like that should be good this year. There's no other events with a round-number anniversary that might force its omission. howcheng {chat} 16:43, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Lol I missed that it was a round-number anniversary...wow, 95 years ago. Btw, Irene Dunham, the last Bath School student from the day of the disaster just died earlier this month. She had missed school that day because of a sore throat... Shearonink (talk) 18:04, 10 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Way in advance but OTD question about Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September 11

Last year I improved Mountain Meadows Massacre enough for it to achieve WP:GA status. It's been listed in the OTD section before but hasn't appeared since 2011. I realized recently (after I had added the Massacre article back into the September 11 OTD a while back) that there are now two US OTD entries from the 1850s (Christiana Riots + the Massacre article) now listed and that probably won't fly. I was thinking it might be appropriate for the Massacre article to appear again, especially in light of the Under the Banner of Heaven/Andrew Garfield-FX on Hulu TV series that's been in the news recently. (I confess I haven't been watching it but the book the series is based on includes extensive coverage of the Massacre.) Anyway, wanted to get your thoughts, etc. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 17:03, 11 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Shearonink: Christiana Riot was on last year, so I'll be sure to cycle that one out when I actually do the updates. Looking at the other available articles, September 11 seems to have a lot of US-related ones, which means all of them are competing with each other to get featured. As a side note, I tried to feature Alexander Hamilton one year because the musical was just released on Disney+ at the same time, but someone else foiled my plans on that because they weren't aware of the connection. :( howcheng {chat} 22:35, 11 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Heh I was thinking maybe it might be time for the Japan/murder/genitals article to be rotated out? I'm going to take a look at the eligible OTD articles and see if I can't come up with a new diverse mix. Shearonink (talk) 15:21, 12 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I seem to have mixed-up my dates on the Japanese murder... Sada Abe is May 18th. Shearonink (talk) 15:26, 12 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I swapped out the Christiana riot for a France/Catholic Church event from the 1200's - I think the Sept 11th OTD diversity is pretty good in this version. Shearonink (talk) 15:53, 14 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Shearonink: Thanks, but I am still going to rotate other articles in when we get closer to the date. We try not to have repeats when they're not necessary. howcheng {chat} 18:24, 14 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Ah ok, thanks for the reply. Shearonink (talk) 04:09, 15 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Re Global Accessibility Awareness Day primary source

I wasn't sure about adding it either, so I started a discussion on WP:HELPDESK#Query on when to use a primary source KaraLG84 (talk) 22:04, 18 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Lakh crore

Template:Lakh crore has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:50, 19 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OTD stats question

I've been keeping an eye on Bath School disaster stats and it received a jump in pageviews on/around May 18th (over 25K the day of). Is there a template or something for this when an article appears in OTD? Or is my faulty memory porting something in from DYK/Main Page FA/whatever...? I think I'm thinking of Top 25 or something like that. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 19:18, 19 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Shearonink: AnomieBOT will add one to the article talk page (or reuse it if already exists), or add it to the Article Milestones template, as it did here. howcheng {chat} 00:51, 20 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I was referring to if there was a bot that did a pageviews template... yeah I knew about the milestones thingy...that is so nice :). Shearonink (talk) 02:11, 20 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know of one. howcheng {chat} 06:43, 20 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Death date

At Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 22, Constantine X Doukas died May 23 not May 22, according to his article. Art LaPella (talk) 02:21, 21 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just changed that myself, and this is the first time I have ever made such a change. Art LaPella (talk) 01:41, 22 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

June 13

How do I add: * 1973 - Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell play together as an infield for the Los Angeles Dodgers for first time, going on to set the record of staying together for 8 ½ years

References

  1. ^ "This Day In Dodgers History: Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey & Bill Russell Begin Streak As 'Longest Running Infield'". Dodger Blue.

Thanks. --evrik  01:23, 22 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

GAAD and your help

Hi, thanks for your help of making GAAD article ready for “On This Day” section. Would it be ok for you to a) be mentioned when talking about featuring the event there and b) use your full name? Disclosure, I'm FTE for the Wikimedia Foundation and also part of the Wikimedia Accessibility User Group. Thanks again, Volker E. (WMF) (talk) 05:33, 26 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, but be sure that the other editors get the full credit. My involvement was very minimal. howcheng {chat} 06:46, 26 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 May 2022

Administrators' newsletter – June 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration


Music video references of "Ike Moriz" page

Dear Howcheng I cited all sources of the music video section of the Ike Moriz article by adding the official music video links from youtube which have all information. I found them on the subject's official channel at Youtube channel The same information is also confirmed on social media links such as Instagram and Facebook video posts. I think this should suffice to remove the template, do you agree?--TulipsAndSunshine (talk) 07:52, 4 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 June 2022

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Where are On This Day entries discussed?

Before you post... or do you unilaterally decide what to post and the blurbs attached? Please guide me. Thank you! QueensanditsCrazy (talk) 14:51, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@QueensanditsCrazy: There is no discussion, but I'm not a dictator: anyone is free to participate. However, entries may get overruled due to quality issues, or milestone anniversaries getting priority, which then may force a reshuffling in order to maintain diversity in years, location, and/or topic. We strive to minimize the bureaucracy surrounding the process. howcheng {chat} 16:09, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I see, thank you! I have some complaints/suggestions to make, should I make them here or at Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/July 5 ? QueensanditsCrazy (talk) 16:33, 5 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The OTD talk page is best. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 06:34, 6 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2022

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

The Signpost: 1 August 2022

Administrators' newsletter – August 2022

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

Administrator changes

readded Valereee
removed Anthony Appleyard (deceased) • CapitalistroadsterSamsara

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Carl Karcher article changes

Just a comment on the changes you made to this article. The image does not fit in the infobox. It would be better in the article under the Restaurant business section. I can see the hot dog cart and the building better than Carl, himself. The previous image or another photo of Carl image would be better for the infobox. Also, the image description on the Wikimedia Media Commons should be noted as former Karcher headquarters. The headquarters no longer exist in Anaheim when the company was sold and moved to Tennessee.

Just a comment. Msw1002 (talk) 07:43, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Msw1002: I get that, but the non-free content criteria mandate that we cannot use a non-free image when a free alternative exists, even when the free one is of lower quality. howcheng {chat} 00:39, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 August 2022

Administrators' newsletter – September 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

Please vote in the 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election

Hello hello. I hope this message finds you well.

The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election ends soon, please vote. At least one of the candidates is worthy of support. --MZMcBride (talk) 14:49, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 September 2022

Administrators' newsletter – October 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 31 October 2022

Administrators' newsletter – November 2022

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 28 November 2022

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

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

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

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:21, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2022

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

CheckUser changes

removed TheresNoTime

Oversight changes

removed TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 1 January 2023

Happy 2023

Hi Howcheng, I hope are experiencing a great holiday and would like to wish you an excellent 2023! Best. --Mhhossein 08:09, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year, Howcheng!

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Moops 03:25, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

The Signpost: 16 January 2023

Help with "On this day"

I've been hoping to get an article I've written mentioned in WP:Selected anniversaries for a while, but I'm not quite clear on what the process for this is supposed to be. I see that you've been doing them the last few years, so you seem like the person to ask. If I have a couple entries for this month (Island No. 2, which I've put on the page for January 19, and Chain Island, which I've put on the page for Januar 26), should I do anything extra to make sure one of them gets run? If both of those days' queues are full for this year, of course, I can try to find something else. I remember about a year ago I tried to follow the instructions and just add stuff to a day, and it just got removed before publication because I'd put it in the wrong place or something. jp×g 21:41, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JPxG: I'm actually not involved anymore. It's obviously too late for Jan 19, but you can just add Chain Island directly to WP:Selected anniversaries/January 26 yourself. When the Jan 19 page becomes unprotected in a few days, you can add Island No. 2 to that page as well. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 19:36, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

The Signpost: 4 February 2023

Notice

The file File:Kglk.png has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Former logo of radio station KGLK. No longer serving the purpose specified in its rationale (not helping the reader identify the organization, nor assuring readers that they have reached the right article). Current use is WP:DECORATIVE. Has been replaced in the infobox by the station's new logo.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.

Please consider addressing the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated files}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and files for discussion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion.  ★  Bigr Tex 03:58, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 February 2023

Administrators' newsletter – March 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 9 March 2023

The Signpost: 20 March 2023

The Signpost: 03 April 2023

Administrators' newsletter – April 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration


The Signpost: 26 April 2023

Administrators' newsletter – May 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 8 May 2023

The Signpost: 22 May 2023

Clarification tag

Per the source [4]: "The Rangers burned the first year of Kreider's three-year entry-level just by having him practice." HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 16:59, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@HickoryOughtShirt?4: I saw that in the source, but what does it actually mean? holly {chat} 20:22, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
They used up a year of his contract so they have to renew his contract sooner. So instead of renewing it in three years, it's now two. It's something that got changed with the new CBA. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 20:39, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 5 June 2023

Administrators' newsletter – June 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous


National Historic Lookout Register

I was looking at National Historic Lookout Register. If we bring it up to 1900 characters, it would qualify under a 5x expansion. As an aside, if I were a data guy, I would figure out how to upload all the data from this website nhlr.org/lookouts/number to wikidata. --evrik  19:29, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Evrik: I looked into adding a new property to Wikidata for Los Angeles Cultural Historic ID numbers and I couldn't make heads nor tails of the instructions. holly {chat} 22:33, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Adding to Selected anniversary

Hi! I'm Pbritti, and I've thought about proposing something be added to the "On this day" section for a while. With my most recent article creation, Book of Common Prayer (1559), I feel like I have a good suggested blurb for June 24. However, I'm not exactly confident I fully understand the rules and eligibility requirements. Before I go screwing anything up, I wanted to make sure someone who knows what they're doing is watching me and can revert me quickly if I do make a mistake. Thanks! ~ Pbritti (talk) 22:16, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Pbritti: Just stick it in the staging area. Someone will come around and vet it and/or clean it up if necessary. Thanks for contributing! holly {chat} 22:31, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Awesome. Thanks! ~ Pbritti (talk) 22:37, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Gordon Coutts

On 12 June 2023, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Gordon Coutts, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Gordon Coutts. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Gordon Coutts), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

-- RoySmith (talk) 00:03, 12 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 June 2023

Wrong photo for David Laventhol

Hello Holly

Just letting you know I reversed your edit of a photo for David Laventhol, as that photo is actually of Tom Johnson (journalist). Tom was the publisher of the LA Times before David.

The photo you uploaded is mislabelled at the UCLA archive. I'm also writing to them to get it corrected.

For clarity, I'm a close relative of David and so quite certain what he looked like!

Kind regards,

Jonathan Laventhol (talk) 20:48, 29 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Jonathan Laventhol: Thank you! holly {chat} 06:25, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2023

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

Administrator changes

added Novem Linguae
removed

Bureaucrat changes

removed MBisanz

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

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

The Signpost: 3 July 2023

The Signpost: 17 July 2023

The Signpost: 1 August 2023

Administrators' newsletter – August 2023

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

Administrator changes

added Firefangledfeathers
removed

Interface administrator changes

added Novem Linguae

Technical news

Arbitration


The Signpost: 15 August 2023

The Signpost: 31 August 2023

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous

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

The Signpost: 16 September 2023

The Signpost: 3 October 2023

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The user edited the Hezbollah page thus. I attempted to engage him in discussion, but he simply deleted my entry on his Talk page and reverted my revert.-- Orgullomoore (talk) 21:51, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I gave you the sources and proof that more then half the countries consider Hezbollah as a terrorist group, you left a message in my talk page which I decided to delete since it served no purpose once I reverted your edit V.B.Speranza (talk) 21:55, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Boys, take it to the article talk page. Not sure why I need to get involved, especially seeing as how I'm semi-retired. holly {chat} 21:56, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Howcheng. I'm happy to take it to the talk page, but it seemed to me like V.B.Speranza would ignore it based on how quickly he deleted my message on his talk page and how quickly he reverted my revert. I singled you out based on the WP:ANI's advice to skip the drama and find an active admin ("Want to skip the drama? Check the Recently Active Admins list for admins who may be able to help directly."). I didn't realize you were semi-retired.--Orgullomoore (talk) 21:59, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Orgullomoore: Even in my more active days, I'm more of a mop admin than a referee admin. holly {chat} 22:04, 12 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2023

The Signpost: 6 November 2023

Administrators' newsletter – November 2023

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

Administrator changes

added 0xDeadbeef
readded Tamzin
removed Dennis Brown

Interface administrator changes

added Pppery
removed

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous


Signature

Hello, Holly. Your signature appears to still link to your old username. Per Wikipedia:SIGLINK, please be sure to update the links in your signature. Thanks, Clyde [trout needed] 02:44, 8 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 November 2023

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

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

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

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:23, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 December 2023

Administrators' newsletter – December 2023

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

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

The Signpost: 24 December 2023

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Administrators' newsletter – January 2024

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Thanks!!

Thanks for adding a public domain photo for Swim Coach Peter Daland. He was one of the greatest swim coaches of the late 20th century, and a Hall of Famer. He even helped start Swimmer Magazine!!! Thanks again!!!!! At USC, he had many, many NCAA championships, even beat Indiana after Mark Spitz. Dcw2003 (talk) D. Wasserman Dcw2003 (talk) 22:53, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 January 2024

MfD nomination of Template:User rouge admin

Template:User rouge admin, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Template:User rouge admin and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Template:User rouge admin during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. RudolfoMD (talk) 01:01, 21 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 January 2024

The redirect Gaius Julius Caesar others has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Anyone, including you, is welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 January 31 § Gaius Julius Caesar others until a consensus is reached. Steel1943 (talk) 21:00, 31 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2024

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

CheckUser changes

removed Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

removed

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous


LA Meetup: February 17, 2024

Edit-a-thon and Wikipedia Day Celebration

Please join Wikimedians of Los Angeles on Saturday, February 17 from 12:00 to 4:00 pm for a Los Angeles and West Hollywood-themed edit-a-thon at the West Hollywood Library. (For the details and to sign up, see Wikipedia:Meetup/Los Angeles/February 2024.)

We'll also be celebrating Wikipedia's 23rd birthday/Wikipedia Day. (There will be cake!)

We hope to see you there! JSFarman via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:03, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Join our Facebook group here. To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

The Signpost: 13 February 2024

Administrators' newsletter – March 2024

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 2 March 2024

In appreciation

The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
For your contributions at OTD over many years, "tireless" is almost an understatement. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 16:40, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 March 2024

Administrators' newsletter – April 2024

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

Administrator changes

removed

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

The Signpost: 25 April 2024

Administrators' newsletter – May 2024

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

Administrator changes

readded Nyttend
removed

Bureaucrat changes

removed Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

readded Joe Roe

Oversight changes

removed GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 16 May 2024

June 8, 2024

The Return of the LA Wiknic
Eat, drink, and bask in the glory of Los Angeles in early June at the 9th not-annual Wiknic!

Saturday, June 8 from 11:30 to 2:30 pm
Pan Pacific Park
7600 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90036
Get the details and RSVP here.
(It's a potluck. There's a wish list on the meetup page.)
Get the details and join WikiLA here.
To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:21, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2024

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

Administrator changes

readded Graham Beards
removed

Bureaucrat changes

removed

Oversight changes

removed Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 8 June 2024

Nomination for deletion of Template:ECCP

Template:ECCP has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. Gonnym (talk) 13:14, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

The Signpost: 4 July 2024

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

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

Administrator changes

added
removed

Technical news

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 22 July 2024

Administrators' newsletter – August 2024

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

Administrator changes

readded Isabelle Belato
removed

Interface administrator changes

readded Izno

CheckUser changes

removed Barkeep49

Technical news

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

Arbitration


The Signpost: 14 August 2024

Edit-a-thon August 24

August 24: Not just an edit-a-thon, an edit-a-thon in Manhattan Beach.

Please join WikiLA at an edit-a-thon to improve and create articles related to marine life and the ocean in the Los Angeles area. Inspiration courtesy of the public library in Manhattan Beach, one of SoCal's most beautiful coastal communities.
Saturday, August 24 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Manhattan Beach Public Library, 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach 90266

Get the details and RSVP here
To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups remove.your name, from this list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:56, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2024

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

Administrator changes

removed Pppery

Interface administrator changes

removed Pppery

Oversighter changes

removed Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

removed

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 4 September 2024

The Signpost: 26 September 2024

Precious anniversary

Precious
Six years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:02, 27 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2024

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

Administrator changes

added
removed

CheckUser changes

readded
removed

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


A barnstar for you!

The Special Barnstar
Thank you for creating Template:Editnotices/Page/Cat. It's wonderful. :) Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 23:10, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 October 2024

WP:AN request

Hi Holly Cheng, please see Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#File:Moonrise,_Hernandez,_New_Mexico.jpg. — xaosflux 20:16, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to participate in a research

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this anonymous survey.

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2024

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

Administrator changes

readded
removed

CheckUser changes

removed Maxim

Oversighter changes

removed Maxim

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. T366068

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


The Signpost: 6 November 2024