User talk:AmandaNP/Archives/2014/November

Tech News: 2014-45
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * The "Special:Cite" page is now called "Special:CiteThisPage". That way, you know it's to cite the page, not to add a reference.
 * You can no longer use the  keyword for text searches. It caused issues with the new search tool. It will come back later.

Problems
 * There was a bug in VisualEditor with Internet Explorer. It hid tools like the link editor when you opened them. The bug was fixed on Monday.
 * Issues with the new search tool caused geo data code to show up on pages on Monday and Friday. The mobile "nearby" tool was also broken. The problem is now fixed.
 * HHVM caused server issues on Thursday. They are now fixed.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf5 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since October 29. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 4, and on all Wikipedias from November 5 (calendar).
 * Some wikis have icons at the top of a page to show if it is protected or featured. Icons show up using CSS. You can now use the  tag in these templates instead to add the icons. [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning#Page_status_indicators]
 * VisualEditor now tells you if you're editing a re-used reference. This helps you avoid changing it if you just want to add a new one.
 * The icons in VisualEditor's template editor tool for adding more fields are back, along with other fixes.
 * After November 6, all wikis will have the tool to edit TemplateData. [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:TemplateData]

Future changes
 * The new search tool will come to the last wikis in the coming weeks. This includes Wikipedia in French, Chinese, German and English.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  17:28, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

IP question
DQ, what you make of ? The geolocate is weird, and it's blacklisted out the kazoo.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:13, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Pulled from http://tools.wmflabs.org/whois/gateway.py?lookup=true&ip=104.207.136.83. --Ankit Maity «T § C» 04:21, 4 November 2014 (UTC)


 * It's a webhosting company range which I have now blocked. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:01, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, DQ. Is there a way I could have figured this out? Can I use the tool that Ankit used? Is it good enough so I could issue a rangeblock on my own, or should I check with a CU?--Bbb23 (talk) 22:59, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I've just blocked for one year. I believe they are using the same service, although the characteristics are not identical. I'll leave it up to you if you want to issue a rangeblock. Please let me know what you decide (for educational purposes  ). Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:14, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry to throw this at you piecemeal, but I didn't realize there were two new ones. The second is .--Bbb23 (talk) 23:23, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * No worries, I blocked the appropriate ranges. What I do is use the tool DomainTools Whois and I will either look for the name of the company (all the big companies you will come to recognize as you go on) or the domain part of the abuse email address provided. I then go look that up through google or directly in my browser, see what services they offer, if Colocation is in there, I sadly have to use a less preventative measure colocationwebhost. I also make sure they don't offer residential IP service. Once that is done. I go back and find the appropriate range listed on the whois report and block it. There can be two ranges, or no range, and if no range you have to calculate it using inetnum or NetRange. If you have two ranges, you go with the one that matches with the company you looked up. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:23, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * At work I use CentralOps because I feel it provides more complete information; just throwing it out there in case you find it useful. If you have anything that points back to an ISP I work for, feel free to poke me. ;) ☺ ·  Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  23:12, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

DQB UAA
Apart from the pywikipedia framework, and the Python source codes on GitHub, does the UAA task of DQB require anything else? --Ankit Maity «T § C» 04:36, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * There's no pywikipedia directory anymore. It's either compat or core (so some folder in them). But there's no folder called pywikipedia anymore. So, what do I configure it as? --Ankit Maity «T § C» 10:54, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Pywikipedia is not a framework that was made by me. The link shall provide you with what you need. You will also need to edit "DeltaQuadBot / UAA / localconfig.py" to your custom settings for whichever wiki your using. You would also need to setup the appropriate blacklist, whitelist and similar pages on your wiki. I should also warn you i'm still trying to find the time to fix a core issue with the whitelist at the moment. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:05, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I know that you didn't make the framework :D . I have localized all the settings I could find. And just a question, are you able to log in using the core branch, for me it's not really working out unless I log in using compat's login.py. Just a question was what is the purpose of winpath or linuxpath for that matter? --Ankit Maity «T § C» 12:43, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I got it. It looks for the localconfig.py file in the specified path. God, damn it! I must be blind. --Ankit Maity «T § C» 12:44, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Does the bot have any false-positives in relation to the usernames specified in regex (in the blacklist page). And as a note, this is my wiki. --Ankit Maity «T § C» 12:59, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I've used extended login just fine. Sometimes it's because you can't use captcha. I used to fix that by just logging in on the web and then trying it. Any Regex blacklist you have always has false positives when it reports the names. And just to be sure, your not deploying it on enwiki are you? -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:26, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Nope, I'm not deploying it. You bot is already there, isn't it? I'm just trying to understand how the bot works. And localizing the code for other wikis is what I'm trying to achieve. The only question remaining is the function of Time. --Ankit Maity «T § C» 17:00, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Ahh ok. Time is a native function within python, i'm not sure how much I can offer up on that. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  15:53, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 November 2014
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 * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:01, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

YGM
Eurodyne (talk) 06:52, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Replied. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:12, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

CU stored?
Hi DQ!

Regarding this case: Sockpuppet investigations/E4024...I just want to check whether you had stored the CU logs. Thanks. Étienne Dolet (talk) 20:18, 9 November 2014 (UTC)
 * The CU logs (what IP/user was checked, by whom, and when) is stored on WP and never expires. The CU data, which we actually make our conclusions on, expires after a certain amount of time, and I did not store it, as our normal practice only stores it on long term abusers. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:29, 9 November 2014 (UTC)
 * That's understandable. Thank you. I also had another question, since the master account is topic banned from all topics related to Greece, Turkey, and Armenia, isn't it appropriate to revert all his contributions under the SPA in those areas? Can the rollback feature be applied in this case? Thanks in advance, Étienne Dolet (talk) 07:43, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I certainly wouldn't have though so, but apparently it is authorized at WP:G5, under certain conditions. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:00, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-46
<section begin="technews-2014-W46"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * You may see a new tool on the mobile site of the English Wikipedia. It asks simple questions to make the article better. In the future, your answers will go to Wikidata.
 * The MediaWiki API now shows information in a nice format. You can translate it in translatewiki.net.

File information cleanup
 * Reminder: You can help fix file information on your wiki. It will help robots understand the information. After that, it will be easier for you to search files and re-use them.
 * You can join two IRC chats this week to learn more about the file cleanup project. One will be on Wednesday at 18:00 (UTC) and the other on Thursday at 04:00 (UTC). You can ask questions during the chat if you need help to fix files on your wiki.
 * You can see a list of files to fix on the Labs tool. You can report bugs and ask questions on the talk page.

Problems
 * Wikimedia Labs was broken for a few hours on Thursday. It was due to a hardware problem.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf7 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since November 5. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 11, and on all Wikipedias from November 12 (calendar).
 * You can now use more editing tools for tables in VisualEditor. You can add rows and columns, merge cells, and edit table captions.
 * The style and insert menus in the toolbar of VisualEditor now show fewer tools. This helps you see the most common tasks. You can see all items by clicking "More".
 * The way windows inside VisualEditor work has changed. VisualEditor should be faster and have fewer bugs.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2014-W46"/> 15:00, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

CU request
Could you chime in at WP:AN please? Someone's afraid that his account's been hacked; he's asking for self-CU to see if the account's been accessed by anyone other than him. Nyttend (talk) 17:50, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help! I feared that you would decline it because it was a request for a self-check and not exactly "Vandalism, sock puppetry, disruption (or potential disruption) of any Wikimedia project, or legitimate concerns about bad faith editing".  Appreciate your willingness to IAR in this situation.  Nyttend (talk) 22:44, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 * No worries, and no, we check for potential hacks and I feel it falls under potential disruption clause of that. Not the first time i've checked an account on such grounds, just one of the few times I haven't blocked. As for the actual, as CU doesn't log password changes, but only reset requests, there is no indication of any hacking. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  05:06, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

CU request 2.0
Here's a more routine CU request. User:Biblioworm (the userpage itself) was vandalised by a lot of new accounts (explanation at WP:AN) before someone semiprotected it. Could you check to see if the vandal created any other accounts? Nyttend (talk) 16:47, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
 * The mention here showed up on my notifications, so I thought I'd chime in and mention that there's yet another account called Bibliotroll. It was blocked for violation of the username policy before it could be used, but I'm quite certain that it is another member of the attack-Biblioworm sockfarm. -- Biblio worm  17:00, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
 * They are all from the same area, but blocks of the accounts is all we can do for now. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:12, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the check! Nyttend (talk) 21:10, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

For all your hard work

 * Thanks! -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  02:53, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Your opinion is needed
Hi. Can you offer your opinion in this consensus discussion? I know you did this last month, but it wasn't a formal consensus discussion, but now it is. Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 00:30, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Could you please link to where I was previously involved with this topic? -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  02:49, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I think I found the correct sockmaster
Hi Delta, I was doing some poking around at Mickey's House of Villains, an article that was being manipulated by recently exposed sock Soy Hermoso. I happened upon yet another account similar to Benjalindo, Benjalocolito, namely. Turns out Soy Hermoso and the rest may be socks of Bambifan101. Whatcha think? Disney Villains seems to be a hotbed of activity. The user tends to keep referring to himself and/or his beauty. Benja the beautiful (masculine), little crazy Benja, Benja the Beauty Boy, I am Beautiful. I've posted this stuff at the SPI too. Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 03:09, 14 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I've purposely stayed away from the complicated behavioral profile of Bambifan 1) Because other people usually detect it first 2) I've got many other sockmasters in my head. should be able to provide some insight. --  DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  05:16, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

MehulWB
You might want to have a look at in connection with the SPI. I am not sure where should I mention this because I found the SPI case is already archived. BengaliHindu (talk) 07:11, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

— Berean Hunter   (talk)  15:22, 16 November 2014 (UTC)
 * There aren't any obvious contribs or deleted contribs either for that IP. I'm not sure if he is supplying his real address or not. If on the other hand there happens to be an account that used that address then there might be a sock at the end of it.
 * No worries, thanks for letting us know. I can't say what i've done with the information, but it has been put to use. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  04:51, 17 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you gentlemen. BengaliHindu (talk) 17:38, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 November 2014
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 * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:45, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

BCD
I've been seeing questionable activity over the past year on a Power Rangers related page. Would you mind taking a look?— Ryūlóng ( 琉竜 ) 03:18, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
 * That's extremely vague and gives no indication what I'm looking for. You will need to be more specific. Plus, I really don't remember much about BCD behavior wise and would have to re-familiarize myself with the case. I'd be willing to do so if you can point me in the direction. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  04:56, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Candidate statement
I trust you mean that you would work to "alleviate" rather than "elevate" the e-mail backlog. :) Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 15:44, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh boy...yes...thank you kind sir, it is fixed. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  15:48, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-47
<section begin="technews-2014-W47"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf8 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since November 12. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 18, and on all Wikipedias from November 19 (calendar).
 * The new search tool ("CirrusSearch") will be on the English Wikipedia from November 19.

Move from Bugzilla to Phabricator
 * The tool to track bugs will change on November 21.
 * You won't be able to add or edit bugs between November 21 and November 24.
 * You can make the change easier for you by creating your account.
 * Bugzilla will be frozen after the change. You will see, edit and report bugs in Phabricator.
 * You can join two IRC chats to learn more about the change. The chats will be on Tuesday, November 18 at 16:00 (UTC) and 23:00 UTC.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2014-W47"/> 18:28, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Pssst
has left an inquiry for you at UTRS (#12278 in the CU queue).-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 22:21, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, replied. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  18:11, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Question
Regarding this, just wanted to remind you that you and I made it clear about a month ago that I was not using more than one name or making edits under an IP. I will very much appreciate it if you ran a quick CU on User:TheSawTooth (which was created less than a month ago whom I suspect being another puppet of User:Mar4d, editing from Brisbane, Australia, ) and User:Faizan (whom I suspect as being User:Faizannehal / User:Faizanalivarya, a resident of Karachi, Pakistan).--Krzyhorse22 (talk) 22:33, 21 November 2014 (UTC)
 * These guys decorate their main Ids as constructive editors but are falsifying Wiki information/P.O.V. pushing/attacking Afghans and Indians under sockpuppets.--Krzyhorse22 (talk) 22:37, 21 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Replied on the SPI. I'm considering the matter closed. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:29, 25 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I do not understand this I gave evidence of similar language and habits too. It was not enough? --- The SawTooth   (talk) 19:52, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * You may have said that in words, but you need to link diffs to the previous sock(s/master) doing the same thing also. There is not a single link in your evidence statement of a diff from the master account or one of it's socks. That's what I'm looking for you to present. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  05:33, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * These were diffs in investigation he is using same language "I recommend TheSawTooth be blocked" "I recommend you be blocked" and all. Do I need more evidence than writing style and point of view? You can check his IP that he is Lagoo sab after these diffs? --- The SawTooth   (talk) 20:54, 30 November 2014 (UTC)
 * As I made comment to on the SPI, I've already checked him (more than once) for reasons unrelated to this investigation. At the times I checked, there was no connection to Lagoo Sab. So what your going for now, if anything, is a behavioral block that a clerk or patrolling admin would make at SPI. And the threshold for evidence is a lot higher for a block than it is a CheckUser. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  02:28, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

User:Editing userz
Although I'm not familiar with the master, I'm guessing that this is actually a sock of User:Mr Wiki Pro. Take a look at this edit by one of the new accounts, and there is also a confirmed Mr Wiki Pro sock with a similar user name: User:User Userz.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:51, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I am sure it is Mr WikiPro. I have seen enough of his socks.  Everything points to him, I have retagged them.  -- GB fan 21:30, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I was fairly convinced when yet another sock appeared (after I left the first post here). I see you tagged that one, too. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:57, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * , and  are ✅. And it's highly likely they are all him. --  DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:07, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I've changed the tags from suspected to confirmed. What about the last one: User:Brfbgatevvafe?--Bbb23 (talk) 22:20, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Looks to be him again, no rangeblocks possible atm. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:26, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-48
<section begin="technews-2014-W48"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The move from Bugzilla to Phabricator is done. You can now report bugs in Phabricator.

Problems
 * There was a problem when editing tables in VisualEditor. VisualEditor was trying to fix bad values for the  or   option. VisualEditor now leaves the bad values to avoid making things worse. This was fixed on November 17.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf9 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since November 19. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 25, and on all Wikipedias from November 26 (calendar).
 * You will be able to try VisualEditor on many new wikis for the first time. After November 26, VisualEditor will become available on Wikidata, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews wikis. You can find it in your Beta options.
 * VisualEditor now tells you if your edit needs to be approved.
 * You can now use VisualEditor's tools directly when you resume editing after closing the save window.
 * VisualEditor's table editing tools now work better in right-to-left languages.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2014-W48"/> 19:31, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

your reversion to the guide
Hi, DeltaQuad! I saw that you reverted my change to the guide. I went ahead and put the proposed changes in my sandbox (you can read the proposed changes here). When you have time, can we you explain exactly what loopholes that my edit created so that I can revise them? I think that this section of the guide is unclear in some parts, and it's also missing some cases that I've run into after only being granted access to the tool a few days ago, which concerns me. I'd really like to make it much simpler for users to refer to.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   22:52, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * In 1.1, the section flashes out with an infobox, and then has exceptions below. People will by default tl;dr it and defer it. I don't think we should encapsulate that in a box.
 * In 1.2 the first line tries to explain school blocks in a vague format, and could allow for wrong interpretations. Lets separate the two ideas and put in a 'if it's a school block, see 1.3'.
 * In 1.2, the AOL comment is useless, lets nuke it.
 * Otherwise that should be good. There are some additional changes that may be worth it, but at this time they still need to be worked out. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:01, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi, DeltaQuad. Thank you for taking the time to address the concerns with my edit to the guide in so much detail. I agree with your input and have changed the draft to reflect your suggestions. Can you review my changes (here) and let me know if you still have any concerns or suggestions?  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   22:51, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * A few formatting changes I still wish to make, I'll roll those in tomorrow on my day off. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  18:38, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Need advice before proceeding with SPI
Hi Delta, I was hoping to pick your brain as quickly as possible before filing an SPI report. I'm coming to you because I've bugged Ponyo a lot lately. :) Looking through the editor list from the List of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu episodes history, I'm coming across a lot of single purpose accounts and IPs that are adding unsourced future content to the article. It started with an observation of Danbob531, who at this article adds a very specific future season end date here. Lloyd TheGoldenNinja adds the same date here. Danbob again adds it here. A lot of the problematic content is removed by ConspicuousNinja who I can't help but notice is a freshly created account with a similar name, which is followed by another SPA Oooooooopooooooooopooooooojhffvnvccvv adding the March 22, 2015 date again. Who do I report? Everybody? And for full disclosure, I reported Danbob531 to AIV for disruptive behavior but my report was declined by Diannaa because she felt I should contact Danbob again, which I have attempted to do. It was while talking to her that I discovered this other bizarre behavior. Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 04:20, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I would try and find additional clues just beyond editing the one similar article before filing an SPI (time lineups, signatures, other articles, etc). It can also help determine who is not involved and avoid the potential damage to the account. The stronger the evidence you have at the start, the more likely it's going to get some blocks, even if only behaviorally. Hopefully this gets you on a starting point and feel free to come back if you have more questions. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:06, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 November 2014
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Hey DeltaQuad (need your help)
Hey delta. I need some help regarding a CU... Can you please perform a check user and see if the following IP belongs to User:Faizan after which I will open an SPI (for evading block and sanctions and by logging out to make problematic edits on an article): Any help will be appreciated. Saadkhan12345 (talk) 07:40, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, this is unfair accusation. The IP is not aiding me there, in fact it is probably a new one, besides 6 other users which took part in the conflict. So how does this prove the IP my socks? Fai  zan  19:41, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I made a statement about this mess at an SPI, please read it. CheckUser will never be ran without evidence, which is absent right now, and I can't reveal any connections from IPs to accounts. Also the fact that your asking for a precursory checkuser to an SPI you haven't filled, and your having issues presenting evidence in previous cases does not instill any confidence in me. If you still wish administrative action on this, based on behavior, please file a well evidenced SPI, and you may wish to speak to a clerk first to assist you in seeing if you have a viable case. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  05:40, 30 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Ok thank you DQ for replaying. I will file an SPI. Btw those were the noob times. lol Saadkhan12345 (talk) 06:10, 30 November 2014 (UTC)