User talk:Bgwhite/Archive 59

BG19bot BRFA
Which BRFA for BG19Bot covers this edit ? I looked at the bot's user page, but it is not listed there. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 12:00, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

This is CW error #64. The BRFA is at Bots/Requests for approval/BG19bot 7 -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:13, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Please let me know which BRFA you would use to authorize the edit I linked. If the BRFA does in fact cover the edit, I will raise the issue elsewhere. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 00:49, 21 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Try not to use insults next time... "which BRFA you would use" and "BRFA does in fact cover the edit". As usual, you just think I make things up. You did say you wanted to see me permanently blocked.  You've checked off Magioladitis and now you are turning your attention to me, so I guess you will raise my "evil" editing anywhere you can regardless of what I say. Bgwhite (talk) 07:56, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

Carl makes great effort to learn all the various CHECKWIKI errors. Still the numbers are confusing I guess. :) -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:45, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

If the edit is CHECKWIKI, then perhaps it is from the BG19bot 7. You wrote there, "I'd rather not do any CheckWiki errors that may be controversial." Would you be willing to stop processing that particular error (link equal to wikitext) and any other errors that have no effect on the rendered page? &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 13:27, 21 January 2017 (UTC)


 * You want me blocked. You level insults.  Now you are making demands.  I'm not going to stop doing edits that fit your narrow myopic view of a cosmetic edit.  I will still do edits that have "no effect on the rendered page" such as fix/add DEFAULTSORT, fix WP:LISTGAP, fix, change http -> https, fix TOC placement and change a HTML list to use a template as primary objectives of an edit.  Shortly, I will be changing any ISBN outside of a cite template to use the ISBN template. Most likely, I'll also start adding closing tags to  and  that are not in tables or templates.   You have never been welcome here.  Do not come back.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:50, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

Hey Bgwhite. Would it be possible for you to either (a) enable email or (b) shoot me an email to discuss the CHECKWIKI fixes you're currently running? At the ArbCom case, you expressed concern this was the start of an attack on CHECKWIKI. It is not, and I'd like to talk about possible ways forward to ensure you can keep running your fixes without attracting community scrutiny. (That is not just code for stopping major parts of the task - I really want to discuss this.) For certain reasons, I don't feel comfortable having that conversation on-wiki at the moment. (As an aside, all those examples you listed of non-rendering things are 100% acceptable with COSMETICBOT, in my opinion. They correct actual problems that either (a) cause rendering issues on older browsers, (b) correct accessibility issues, (c) provide machine-readable data that didn't exist before, or (d) enact a broad community consensus that included approval for bots in the case of the https bit.) ~ Rob 13 Talk 18:03, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The start of trying to block me and take down CheckWiki sailed last month. It's only a matter of time now before I'm gone too.  You clearly read the above by CBM and his starting the thread at BRFA.  CBM and MSGJ have been after Magioladitis and me for years.  CBM and MSGJ *will* force community scrutiny.  You may think the tasks listed are not cosmetic, but CBM certainly does as he has reverted some of them as cosmetic.  Other people have expressed they are cosmetic.  While people's definition of cosmeticbot remains "no effect on the rendered page", they will continue to drum block wherever they go.
 * As I stated before, I no longer hand out my email due to harassment. A couple of long-time editor's actions enacted the no email policy, so I trust no one.  Bgwhite (talk) 20:54, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Understood. I guess I'll have to make do on wiki. Basically, I'm hoping you'd be willing to voluntarily send some aspects of CHECHWIKI through a separate BRFA to both ensure your task has broad community consensus and to clearly demonstrate you're taking the community's wishes into account as a botop. I can't speak for the motives of others, but I can say that no sane admin would ever advocate a sanction against an editor proactively taking steps to meet community standards and ensure ongoing consensus. Are you open to this idea? (As an aside, I will speak to anyone who disagrees that the edits you listed are non-cosmetic; just direct them my way. I have links saved to most of the discussions supporting them in my notepad I believe.) Again, can't speak for the motives of others, but my motive is for your bot to continue making productive edits inside the bounds of the bot policy. The ArbCom case is the worst possible outcome of a dispute and I hope we can head off anything even going in that direction years in advance. ~ Rob 13 Talk 22:15, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * A few things wrong with that. 1) Right now, everybody has an opinion on what a cosmetic edit is and nothing is in stone.  2) It's feeding frenzy time and all the sharks are out.  The majority after Magioladitis don't like the accessibility edits I make and those tasks would be denied.  3)  At a minimum, need to wait till after the ARB ruling.  Will better know the lay of the land.  4)  CBM, MSGJ, BMK and others will try to force me out, especially if Magioladitis goes down hard.  CBM and MSGJ have already started.  Bgwhite (talk) 08:39, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I completely reject that I have been "after you for years", and no have idea where such a notion came from. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:29, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Fixing or adding a DEFAULTSORT has no effect on the article's own rendering, this is true; but it does have a noticeable effect upon the linked-to category page, so is not cosmetic when considered globally. Fixing WP:LISTGAP issues has little visible effect for sighted readers, unless they look at the page source and see that removing the blank lines simplifies it significantly - but it has a very large effect for users of screen reader software, so is in line with MOS:ACCESS, and again, is not cosmetic. Fixing TOC placement has a visible effect for sighted people, and opens up otherwise-hidden parts of an article for those using screen reader software - again, accessibility and not cosmetic. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 12:04, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, perhaps others don't pay attention to these things, but I can and do notice a visible effect on improperly spaced unordered list items. As a result, I've been fixing them manually for years, and I really appreciate having them fixed in the mainspace by bot.  (I even wish those bots would run through the Wikipedia: namespace every now and again, or at least that Cluebot would fix those when archiving messages.)  WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:48, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * From today... Like I said, other people do have problems with my edits. (Talk:Upper East Side and ) Bgwhite (talk) 19:10, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * There is indeed a visible effect on improperly spaced unordered list items, but in my experience, it varies between browsers and is also skin-dependent. I use MonoBook and firefox: the difference is there, but so small that you need to look carefully to spot it. But I've been fixing LISTGAP problems since before was . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 22:47, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

thanks. It is very important for me and the ArbCom to know that more editors do not consider these edits as cosmetic. -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:20, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

CHECKWIKI & Prod-nn
In re : If there are undesirable elements in Template:Prod-nn, wouldn't it be better to simply remove them from the template itself rather than editing the result after the subst: via CHECKWIKI? Cheers,—Ketil Trout (&lt;&gt;&lt;!) 01:58, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Checkwiki only finds "errors". Generally, there shouldn't be magilinks such as  in articles.  This is why I was removing them.  I've only seen that particular prod doohickey from one person.  Several people have their own special prod message.  I wasn't aware of prod-nn.  Now that I know, I'll not remove the elements in the future.  Bgwhite (talk) 05:21, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I've cleaned up the template so that the magic words aren't substituted into pages —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 06:33, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann
I am not sure, what was the content of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, but there is a possibility, that it is not duplicate. Situation is a bit complicated, as there are three concepts: --Jklamo (talk) 09:59, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
 * - department store in Paris
 * Galeries Lafayette - chain/brand of department stores
 * - company, operating that chain


 * and I'll ping the article's creator.
 * You are correct and Arthemisbilon brought this up at an undeletion request. The request was denied as the deleted article was highly promotional and a copyvio.  Arthemisbilon, as a first step it might be a good idea to add a couple of paragraphs about the Haussmann store at Galeries Lafayette.  There's only a sentence there now.  Keep the adjectives and adverbs to a minimum, for example "store was unveiled in all its glory" or "is a renowned French department store".   Sentences such as, "Much to the delight of the Parisian public, eager for entertainment, the store began organizing events." are not encyclopedic.  Bgwhite (talk) 21:10, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you @Jklamo and @Bgwhite for your understanding and wise advices. I will first add information, as you suggested, in Galeries Lafayette. However, as I believe there is too much to say compared to the other stores and that it deserve its own page, I will rewrite my article without personal opinion. When reading it back I understood how it can feel promotional as I'm a bit too much enthusiastic about this shop ^^. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthemisbilon (talk • contribs) 10:00, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Hello @Bgwhite, I just rewrote the page Galeries Lafayette Haussmann trying to remove all the subjective elements that could appear as promotional but I see that's not enough. Could you please point out what is wrong for you so I can edit or remove it? Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthemisbilon (talk • contribs) 08:55, 25 January 2017 (UTC)


 * I moved the article to Draft:Galeries Lafayette Haussmann.  This way you can still edit it and not be deleted.
 * First off, formatting.  Don't use one-two sentence sections.  The Services section could be combined into one or two paragraphs
 * You are doing some almost quotes. The corporate social responsibility section is very close to what is in this PDF.  Need to write in your own words.
 * The entire corporate social responsibility should go. It really sounds like an ad.
 * Look how other similar articles do it such as Harrods and Selfridges, Oxford Street. Bgwhite (talk) 09:46, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, I did what you advise me to do, can you check the draft and tell me if it's ok to be online? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthemisbilon (talk • contribs) 13:43, 25 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Still not paragraphs, especially the services section. Still have promotional words, "most affordable to the most prestigious".  An AFC tag was placed on the article.  When you ask for a review, they will give you advice on how to improve it.  This is their specialty, so they can help you better than I could.  I did update the infobox

Changes to List of settlements in Leicestershire by population article
I have seen your edit removing the following and stating you're unsure what this is for. First I must applaud your due diligence and say thanks for keeping a watchful eye on things. While I placed the code for all lines when creating the page, line 3 below has been changed by an IP user substantially.


 * Line 1 was relevant when the lead section was much smaller as it allowed me to 'force' the Table of Contents to a certain position.
 * Line 2 - the clear template allowed me to force the table listing settlements below any elements on the page. There is a floating picture to the right which would squeeze the table of settlements to a narrow width normally but the aforementioned IP user has expanded the lead section past this.
 * Line 3 - the IP user has used Greek symbols instead of my original numbered list, these are prefixed with 1 or 2 and is appearing to create a 2 tier table differentiating larger settlements from smaller villages, the superscript characters act as a key/legend.

Due to all of the above having a reason to the madness especially with a high resolution screen, I am going to reinstate for now. I am happy to wait it out and see what comes of the article, even though this outside user has made the lead more demographic, and moved a few things around which I would normally question if they were a registered user.

Regards, The Equalizer (talk) 10:21, 27 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your note. It is very much appreciated.  At the moment, Line 1 and 2 are unnecessary.  The lead has grown large enough, but waiting is just fine.  My main concern is I didn't know what those 1 and 2 meant.  It's not clear at all.  The Greek symbols are also confusing and I don't know what they mean.  Whenever the IP gets done, if there is to be a key/legend, could you remove it from the section header and add it just above the table.  Hopefully, it will make it clearer for morons like me.  Bgwhite (talk) 20:16, 27 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Agreed, the greek lettering is very intellectual, this is an online encyclopedia which needs to be as simplistic as it can to be accessible by all! Will create a key at some point and readd a number ranking column. Cheers! The Equalizer (talk) 20:32, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Pirates 4-D
Bgwhite: I notice you edited Pirates 4-D with AWB. It looks fine, except one question. Three references to IMDb seem to have been deleted. Since they were exactly on point, what was the issue? Oddjob84 (talk) 03:24, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
 * IMDb and Wikipedia are unreliable references because anybody can edit them. This is the reason I removed the refs.  Having IMDb as an external link is ok.  Also, per WP:BADHEAD, make sure you start out the section headings with a level 2 (==) header and not a level 3 (===) header.
 * As you are Oddjob, please don't kill me. You can do whatever you want.  I'm sorry I edited your perfect article. :)  Bgwhite (talk) 05:32, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

Good morning: I'm unlikely to kill anyone over an edit, you're perfectly safe. Although I have been on Wikipedia since 2011, this is the first article I have really tried to edit. I asked in order to learn. I didn't know about the section heading code (I actually copied what was there), so that's good to know. As to the refs, I have been catching hell from another editor about having enough of them. This is a bit difficult, because of the age of the topic and the nature of entertainment business projects. I really had to dig to find anything, and was pleased to have run the list up from two to 41. However, he is reverting things which are "unsupported" down to the sentence level, so I am trying to support literally everything I have said. Unfortunately, those IMDb references are nearly the only thing I could find. I know from sources I can't use on Wikipedia that they are factual, so I used them. Oddjob84 (talk) 13:37, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I added two refs and reverted myself. You can add them back in.  You are right, it is hard to find refs for this thing.  Personally, I think it looks fine as is.

Thanks. I'm done with it for a while. I'm going to find some other old, obscure show to work on for more practice. Oddjob84 (talk) 03:30, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Reference errors on 29 January
Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. as follows: Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?action=edit&preload=User:A930913/RBpreload&editintro=User:A930913/RBeditintro&minor=&title=User_talk:A930913&preloadtitle=ReferenceBot%20–%20&section=new report it to my operator]. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:30, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * On the Corral Petroleum Holdings page, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=762520565 your edit] caused an unsupported parameter error (help) . ([ Fix] | [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit&section=new&preload=User:ReferenceBot/helpform&preloadtitle=Referencing%20errors%20on%20%5B%5BSpecial%3ADiff%2F762520565%7CCorral Petroleum Holdings%5D%5D Ask for help])

Evraz Place
Hi there. Noticed your 2015 edit here on Evraz Place. This appears to me to be the new name for Regina Exhibition Park, which appeared to me to still present much the same copyvio issues? Anyway, as they do appear to be same district, I've redirected to a stub in which I've paired back the advertorial text dramatically. Created/added some cats, did a bit of deorphaning, added refs. It's a quick and dirty job as I'm pressed for time. Let me know if you've any concerns or if I've messed it up. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 01:02, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * My only concern was the copyright issue and you fixed that. Anything else is upto you.  Thank you for resurrecting it. Bgwhite (talk) 05:29, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

IBM 1130
Hello! Please look at the history and toward the end of the talk page. Other editors have gone back and forth over the rendering of the FORTRAN examples in the article and the one who prevailed wanted the highlighting the way it was before you changed it to use syntaxhighlight. Spike-from-NH (talk) 00:56, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't see anything on the talk page and I don't see anything in the history. Syntaxhighlight is simple to use and consistent with the way FORTRAN is highlighted on Wikipedia and most other software.  It's also 14k smaller and valid HTML.  Finally, the colouring can change, can add line numbers (this is how I always view FORTRAN code) and many other changes. Bgwhite (talk) 05:26, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The discussion at Talk:IBM 1130 at least identifies the protagonists. But, never mind, one of them went back in after and undid you.  Spike-from-NH (talk) 12:59, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

AWB problem - Quote chars in image filenames
This is broken. AWB needs to lay off filenames (and embedded quote chars) in image links. Raised it Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser, but they reckon it's at your end. Andy Dingley (talk) 15:22, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for this one
for Bots/Requests for approval/BG19bot 9. Would it be easy for you to 'export' that to other wikis (e.g., Meta, mw.org, etc.)? WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:40, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes. I can search any wiki via a dump file.  It's just a standard AWB bot that fixes them.  Not all will be fixed by AWB, so I check the articles again and fix any left manually.
 * I can also check for double blank lines, but all those must be fixed manually. Sometimes it's intentional to have double blank lines, thus separate lists.  Bgwhite (talk) 21:56, 23 January 2017 (UTC)
 * How well does your script cope with the translate extension? If it works well, then I'd love to see mw.org get cleaned up.  I also have a little personal goal of trying to support htwiki, and fixes there would be welcome.  I don't expect to find many malformatted lists, though, because the wiki is largely sub-stubs.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:58, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Adding htwiki to CheckWiki is simple. All I'd need is a Translation file made... what errors should be on or off.
 * For the blank lines, it's just a dumb check. Does line #1 start with *? Is line #2 a blank line? Does line #3 start with a *?  If the answer is yes, then it is an error.  It doesn't matter where these lines are located...  body of the article, infobox, image, etc.  I've never dealt with the translate extension. Bgwhite (talk) 08:47, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The translate extension is a bit weird about its formatting. Here's an example:  m:VisualEditor/Newsletter/2016/October.  Since it's not a blank line, I think that would 'pass' as a properly formatted list.  If you'd expect it to accept that (and not add any blank lines), then I think it'd be safe to run that at mw.org and Meta.
 * Can you talk me through the process of making a 'translation'? Generally speaking, my main goal for htwiki is an accessibility check.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:45, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * User:Bgwhite/Sandbox2 contains the listgap for meta... all ~6,400 pages. Where does one go on meta to get bot approval?  I'm guessing Meta:Requests for adminship.   There's ~1,300 for mediawiki and ~9,400 for htwiki.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:14, 24 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I checked for section header errors (#7, #19, 25 and #83) and TOC errors (#96 and #97) as these are accessibility errors. There can be multiple heading errors for one article, meta:The future of Wikipedia has 9 section headers that start with just one =, so it reports 9 errors.  There are ~12,800 errors in Meta, ~2,900 in MediaWiki and 66 in htwiki.  The majority of header errors can be done by a bot.  The TOC errors must be done manually. Bgwhite (talk) 00:02, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * At htwiki, I've started a discussion at ht:Wikipedya:Kafe. It is unlikely that anyone will object, and we're pretty friendly there.  (How did htwiki get so many LISTGAP problems?!  There aren't that many articles long enough to contain lists!  Well, however it happened, they need fixing, so we might as well get it over with.)
 * Meta's a bit more confusing. It wouldn't qualify for global bot status or automatic approval because of the nature of the task (which is unfortunate, because we actually would benefit from global bots doing a huge amount of simple work around the Tidy problem).  I think that you've identified the correct page at Meta to request helping them.
 * The process at mw.org should be straightforward: Just leave a note at mw:Project:Requests.
 * Is there anything I can do to help? Or is this more of a "please stay out of the way" thing?  WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:38, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * As there are so few non-listgap errors on htwiki, those could be fixed manually. Tomorrow, I'll manually run AWB on them.  I'm guessing that will fix 1/2.  Anything left over you can have fun on as some of them will require language skills.  Surprisingly, there is only one TOC problem, ht:Lis Wikipedya.
 * For the other two wikis, after the bot runs on them, anything left will need to be done manually. Unfortunately, there are 250 TOC errors on mediawiki and ~1,500 on meta.  My PTSD is kicking in from remembering the ~15,000 manual TOC article fixes on enwiki. Bgwhite (talk) 07:03, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I fixed the TOC problem at htwiki, and moved the non-article to projectspace.
 * Can you give me the list of mw.org TOC errors? WhatamIdoing (talk) 08:17, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * List is at User:Bgwhite/Sandbox2‎. This is for error #97, material between TOC and first section header.  Some will be easy and some will be fun-filled.  I made the best guestimate I could on placement, but people complained.  For example, instead of moving the TOC down, I should have added a section header after the TOC.  Of course, some people would have complained if I added a section header.  So, just use your best judgment.  Bgwhite (talk) 08:41, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The section headers are all fixed on htwiki. Bgwhite (talk) 22:53, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for fixing up htwiki. So far, I've got one positive response and one Special:Thanks (which I interpret as consent) at htwiki.  If there's no opposition in the next day or two, then you should feel free to start the bot.
 * I think that mw:VisualEditor/Portal/TemplateData (and related translations) is a false positive. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:18, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Feel free to start the bot on htwiki whenever you'd like. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:55, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Yea! Remember, anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you. :)   It looks like I need to add myself at ht:Wikipedya:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage.  It looks like people just added themselves, so I'll do the same.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:17, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * We're too small to be bothered with a bureaucracy. Add yourself, do some good, and remember us whenever you feel like helping out.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:02, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

The script (LISTGAP) searched simply for something like: (blank line) or it was more geniune? -- Edgars2007  (talk/contribs) 08:53, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * blah blah blah
 * another blah blah blah
 * I'm not sure what you mean by "geniune". Basicly your example is what the program does.  Not sure how it could be changed as this is a simple error to find.  The program is the main CheckWiki program, so it won't check for problems in comments,, , , , , , ,  and  tags.  There also must be only one blank line.  Two blank lines could mean a listgap or two seperate, badly formatted lists.  Two blank lines must be done manually and are not included the list above.  The BRFA for this is the first thing given in this discussion.  Bgwhite (talk) 09:23, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I just wanted to make sure. You never know :) -- Edgars2007  (talk/contribs) 13:37, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

Getting that bot flag
Have you asked for a bot flag, or should I? WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:57, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Nomination of Lavender Greens for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Lavender Greens is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Lavender Greens until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Me-123567-Me (talk) 18:41, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter - February 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2017). This first issue is being sent out to all administrators, if you wish to keep receiving it please subscribe. Your feedback is welcomed.

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg NinjaRobotPirate • Schwede66 • K6ka • Ealdgyth • Ferret • Cyberpower678 • Mz7 • Primefac • Dodger67
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Briangotts • JeremyA • BU Rob13

Guideline and policy news
 * A discussion to workshop proposals to amend the administrator inactivity policy at Wikipedia talk:Administrators has been in process since late December 2016.
 * Pending changes/Request for Comment 2016 closed with no consensus for implementing Pending changes level 2 with new criteria for use.
 * Following an RfC, an activity requirement is now in place for bots and bot operators.

Technical news
 * When performing some administrative actions the reason field briefly gave suggestions as text was typed. This change has since been reverted so that issues with the implementation can be addressed. (T34950)
 * Following the latest RfC concluding that Pending Changes 2 should not be used on the English Wikipedia, an RfC closed with consensus to remove the options for using it from the page protection interface, a change which has now been made. (T156448)
 * The Foundation has announced a new community health initiative to combat harassment. This should bring numerous improvements to tools for admins and CheckUsers in 2017.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee released a response to the Wikimedia Foundation's statement on paid editing and outing.

Obituaries
 * JohnCD (John Cameron Deas) passed away on 30 December 2016. John began editing Wikipedia seriously during 2007 and became an administrator in November 2009.

Discuss this newsletter • Subscribe • Archive

13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Recent Edits to Mustafa Ali
Hey There, I've heared that someone has mentioned a wrong birth place of a WWE Wrestler Mustafa Ali. He's not born in Bolingbrook, Illinois, He's a Pakistani origin, descent, and origined wrestler born in Karachi. Please if you know anybody have mentioned a wrong birth place or wrong infos about any kind of WWE contents, so please don't try to replace informations with wrong infos. if we're adding any info about any kind of biographies of living persons or any kind of infos about sports and entertainment, we do proper researches on it. and referances are not needed for it. Broken nutshell (talk) 17:42, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

and if you're not one, i need your help to correcting some wrong infos about WWE contents. I hop you understand this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Broken nutshell (talk • contribs) 17:44, 1 February 2017 (UTC)


 * I've never edited the page before. Bgwhite (talk) 19:26, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Concerning BLP's
Good day to you & how do you do?

Please what is your take on this; there are several articles which are poorly referenced on Wikipedia, my concern majorly is as regards local celebrities here in Nigeria who are really famous in real life but their biographies are not Wikipedia standard. Do I turn a blind eye or push it up for deletion. I'm really confused & i do not want to step on toes. Celestina007 (talk) 12:29, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * You are bound to step on somebody's toes no matter what you do. I do see alot of Nigerian entertainment articles and wonder myself if they are notable.   Wikipedia is about verifiability.  If a person can't be verified by references that they are notable, then they don't get an article. If you think an article might be deletable, first check for references you can add.  If they are famous, in theory, there should be refs.  For starters, only put up one article for deletion.  This way you learn the process.  It also takes multiple people for an article to be deleted, not just you.  So, you aren't stepping on toes, it's the creating editor who didn't follow thru with refs.  You know Nigerian culture, so use your best judgment. Bgwhite (talk) 19:32, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

A kitten for you!
Thanks for edit on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCLE. I was using the visual editor to add citations and it seems to add "format=HTML". Not sure if I was doing it wrong or if its a bug in the beta editor?? Anyway, a kitten for you :)

Beugnen (talk) 03:39, 3 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Format should be used on something other than a web page.  However, some people say you should use it for PDFs and other say not to.  Do what you want in that case.  Bgwhite (talk) 05:49, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The format was correctly added there--it's to specify the file type at the other end of the URL. However, the assumed default for most URLs is HTML, so adding it in that case isn't "the best". I don't see a problem leaving it and I don't really see a problem cleaning it up, and getting changes made to Citoid can be like pulling teeth. --Izno (talk) 13:27, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Regarding recent edits
Your two consecutive edits  removed text from the Index on Censorship article: In the first edit, 2002 award winner Sanar Yurdatapan was moved out of the list of winners to the bottom of the page. In the second edit he was removed completely from the article. The two edits also included a number of unrelated formatting changes which made it difficult for me to review your changes and spot the problem. It would really help if you could flag unsourced information or look for a source (the first hit on Google) and fix forward instead of removing bits from the page. If there is a problem with an interwiki link you could remove the link without deleting the actual text for example. Thanks! OliverHargreaves (talk) 01:44, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * : The attempted interlanguage link was in the wrong format; it was using a kind of link that has been deprecated from the English Wikipedia and is actively removed from articles, which is why it was removed. See Help:Interwikimedia links for information on how to make an interlanguage link. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:03, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I was observing that the formatting should have been fixed instead of deleting the information from the page. For example the link could have been removed or updated to the preferred format instead of removing Sanar Yurdatapan from the list of awardees. Meanwhile keeping bulk formatting changes separate from substantial changes like removals from a list will help people trying to fix these articles which obviously need attention. Cheers OliverHargreaves (talk) 02:22, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Perhaps I was unclear above. Links of that type used to be valid at the end of articles to indicate a link to an article on the same topic in another language. Those links are no longer valid, and they are removed from articles when they are found. To avoid this problem in the future, follow the instructions linked above to insert properly formatted interlanguage links. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:03, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Replacing Tidy
Hi, Bgwhite. I hope that you are fine. I was wondering if you can give me an AWB settings file (if you have any) that can help me in Replacing Tidy. This is to be used on Arabic wikis. Best wishes. --Meno25 (talk) 11:39, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It's not in AWB format, but there is a list of regular expressions to replace in the uncommented portion of User:Jonesey95/AutoEd/month.js. It does not find all of the problems, like, which needs to be examined manually to see if it should be replaced by , or . Any edits made with this set of regular expressions needs to be checked manually before saving, because it produces false positives, like recommending  when  was actually meant by the original editor. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:09, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I noticed from WMF's tool that arwiki had alot of problems. However, the problems were mostly in User and User talk namespace.  AWB would fix these, but use general fixes and cause problems.  So, default AWB is not a good choice.  That leaves three options:
 * Use Jonesey's tool. He has been using this to fix tidy issues in various namespaces.
 * Use WPCleaner in bot mode. Can set it so it only fixes the tidy issues.  It will fix a majority, but some will need to be cleaned manually.
 * Use Jonesey's regex in AWB, but this would take some time to set up.
 * Bgwhite (talk) 19:31, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Also make sure that you fix all of the problems in Template space before you start on other namespaces. Many pages are in the error category because they transclude a template with an error in it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:59, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * and Bgwhite: Thank you all for your help. --Meno25 (talk) 09:04, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Charlie Clough
I have reverted back again as the infobox was, after your edit, showing that Clough played for Dorchester both on loan and permanently at the same time (clearly incorrect) as well as showing his current squad number as 5, which is also incorrect.

A few sources on the page do state that Clough played for Dorchester on loan, however none of them give a date, month or even the season in which the loan took place, nor do they back up the statistics given in the infobox. The Dorset Echo source from August 2012, reporting Clough signing for Dorchester permanently, makes no mention of a previous loan spell. If Clough did ever play for Dorchester on loan, then it would seem like a strange thing to omit from the article.

Soccerway gives no indication of him ever being on loan at Dorchester and they have complete Conference South data going back to 2010-11. Given the absence of any further information about Clough ever being at Dorchester on loan, I can only assume this is a mistake that has been repeated in a few places.

Please don't revert edits where you believe that one of several changes made is incorrect, and also revert other changes that bring the article up-to-date, otherwise you end up with an outdated article.OGLV (talk) 13:47, 5 February 2017 (UTC)


 * This had nothing to do about who played when and where. My summaries never said that. My edit summaries were about messing up the formatting, such as putting part of an infobox into the text of the article. Bgwhite (talk) 06:28, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Minor bot mishap
Hey! Minor bot mishap. It's not clear from the edit summary which BRFA this is or which CHECKWIKI task this is running. Assuming this is the "32 Double pipe in a link". Cheers. — HELL KNOWZ  ▎TALK 17:38, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The page is already fixed. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:50, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The bot behaved fine. There was no mishap.  The edit summary was, "WP:CHECKWIKI error fix. Broken bracket. Do general fixes if a problem exists".  There was indeed a broken bracket. It was reported as an error (errors reset at 0z).
 * If you look at the bot's home page, you can see which BRFA applies to CHECKWIKI.
 * There are six CheckWiki bracket errors. I run the bot on four of them and it fixes between 50%-100% of the articles depending on which error.  After the bot gets done, I manually fix what is left.  The other two bracket errors have a really low fix rate by the bot, so I only do them manually.  As this was Saturday's run, I try real hard not to manually do anything.  It's the only night I try to take off.
 * The bracket errors are the only ones I don't identify by error # when run by the bot. I throw them in all together and run them.  The error on Video game clone would not have been "32 Double pipe in a link".  I don't run AWB, but WPCleaner on error #32. Bgwhite (talk) 07:02, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-06
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems
 * The block log sometimes showed blocks as being much longer than they were. This has now been fixed.

Changes this week
 * Wikimedia pages will now be better at showing pictures when you share them on social media. The descriptions will be different too. You can see an example of before and after.
 * Octicons-tools.svg There are some changes to the OOjs UI. Some old functions will not work anymore or not work as they used to. This could be a breaking change.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 February. It will be on all wikis from 9 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 7 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * Octicons-tools.svg Tidy will be replaced later this year. Instead, the HTML 5 parsing algorithm will be used to clean up bad HTML in wikitext. This will cause problems on a number of wikis. They need to be fixed first. You can see if your wiki still has something to fix here for one of the HTML problems. This list does not cover all problems. You can read about more problems.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  19:45, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Reference errors on 6 February
Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that some edits performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. as follows: Please check these pages and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?action=edit&preload=User:A930913/RBpreload&editintro=User:A930913/RBeditintro&minor=&title=User_talk:A930913&preloadtitle=ReferenceBot%20–%20&section=new report it to my operator]. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:27, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
 * On the Decentralized autonomous organization page, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=764080664 your edit] caused a cite error (help) . ([ Fix] | [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit&section=new&preload=User:ReferenceBot/helpform&preloadtitle=Referencing%20errors%20on%20%5B%5BSpecial%3ADiff%2F764080664%7CDecentralized autonomous organization%5D%5D Ask for help])
 * On the Charlie Clough page, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=764077083 your edit] caused a cite error (help) . ([ Fix] | [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit&section=new&preload=User:ReferenceBot/helpform&preloadtitle=Referencing%20errors%20on%20%5B%5BSpecial%3ADiff%2F764077083%7CCharlie Clough%5D%5D Ask for help])

Aankhen 2
Hello, I noticed that you deleted the article saying that "R2: Cross-namespace redirect from mainspace". I was the first to create the article on the topic. So the credit of creating the article on the topic should go to me. Please restore my article to main namespace and redirect Draft:Aankhen 2 to restored Aankhen 2. Mr. Smart ℒION ⋠☎️✍⋡ 13:00, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Um, as the deletion says, there cannot be a redirect to draft space. This is why it was deleted.  You had a redirect to another article, which is fine.  All you have to do is add the redirect again.  You did the redirect in May 2016.  Writing an article and then immediately removing it with a redirect is not "credit for creating an article".   Editors have been blocked, including by me, for playing the "I get the credit" game.  One editor got a six-month block for this (not blocked by me). Nothing I hate more than editors fighting over who gets credit for "creating" an article about a movie.  The proper way is to create a draft.  Other people can also add to the draft. When the time comes, just move the draft to the article.  Bgwhite (talk) 06:13, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The draft article has been deleted as it was created by a banned user. Now I request you to please restore my page. Mr. Smart ℒION  ⋠☎️✍⋡ 05:04, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
 * You didn't read what I said. Your page was a redirect, you can recreate it yourself.  Bgwhite (talk) 05:16, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Vlasta Dekanova
Hi there, BG White! I can see that you are a much more experienced Wikipedian than I am, so I am confused as to the edit you made to the Dekanova page (thank you for the interest, in any case). Essentially, the edit you made seemed to indicate that I didn't actually use listed references within the content/body of the article. But actually, I did. Therefore, I undid your edit. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know so we can work this out.

Additionally, if you are so inclined, perhaps you could still be of help on that page. The last edit I made after I undid your edit as well as the immediately subsequent edit by GunniX was to add another reference. (I undid GunniX's edit because it seemed to me that his/her edit, which I couldn't exactly detect and make sense of, prevented my ability to update the reference list.) However, I was unable to get the reference to display properly like the other two references in the reference list and I couldn't figure out, by looking at the editing code, how to make it display properly rather than merely "[4]". I'm sorry...I'm still very much a novice at this and am looking for help.

Anyway, thank you for your attention and I would be grateful for any assistance you can provide.

Miloluvr (talk) 04:14, 8 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Both GunniX's and my edits were correct taken as a whole.  You had references that started with a, but didn't have a  .  If you have and opening ref tag, there must be a closing one.  You also had two reflist tags in the same section.  Only one is needed.  You also duplicated the refs.  You have a ref defined in the article and then again in the reference section.  Finally, refs usually go after punctuation.  I've edited the article to reflect these changes.  Help:Referencing for beginners has some good info.  I use cite templates when doing references, such as cite web.  It has positive benefits for readers and editors coming later, but it forces me to fill in all the info needed for a reference such as title, url, date, publisher and when the link was accessed.  I used Citation templates for the first ~9 months when I started out.  I used it as a cheat sheet.  Bgwhite (talk) 05:30, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Bgwhite, thank you SO MUCH for the (speedy) help on the Dekanova page. I explained myself on GunniX's page if you care to look there. I certainly have to bow to your superior technical knowledge. In the future, I will most likely refer to the places of help you just listed. Thank you again.

Miloluvr (talk) 11:11, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Voting time
I think that you, User:NicoV, and User:Magioladitis all probably meet the definition of 'a developer', so you should go vote at the mw:Developer Wishlist. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:45, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Bot to fix /br errors in other namespaces?
Have you considered creating an instance of your bot to clean up instances of (and variations of it) in namespaces other than Template space? It looks like there are at least 65,000 pages that need to be cleaned up, something that would be unpleasant to do by hand. I'd be happy to work with you to create a list of regular expressions that should have a minimum of false positives. I have a script at User:Jonesey95/AutoEd/month.js, but its false positive rate is too high to run unsupervised. I check each edit manually before saving. I think a small subset of that script would make a good bot script. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:40, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * 65,000? Well, I'm now depressed. For the  tags, I've cleaned them up using a regex.  I did that manually, but a bot could do it easily.  For the variations of, AWB does handle it, but it's done with "general fixes".  Template space is an absolute no to run general fixes in, but I'm not sure about any other space.  If we get a series of regexes and put them together, running a bot sounds like a good idea.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:16, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I find 68,000 with an insource search that times out ( in all namespaces). I still think we need a maintenance category to be able to find all of these, as I tried to explain in detail to . We're still waiting for some sort of resolution to that request (or new CheckWiki reports), since I am not confident that insource searches can find all of the errors for us.
 * While we're waiting, though, we should be able to knock out a couple hundred thousand fixes. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:13, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Realistically, I don't think we're going to get the category problem solved in time for this. "Update the categories even when you know nothing's changed on the page (where the categories are defined)" appears to be a major change to how MediaWiki works.
 * For this specific error, though, it looks like it might not actually break as originally predicted. It's still wrong (and I'm still someone who started editing Wikipedia because someone left a typo in the internet, which is even worse than someone merely being wrong on the internet), but it looks like solving this particular typo might be less urgent.
 * Having the search time out is annoying, but presumably it's within the range of things that we can cope with (it gives you an incomplete list that could be processed, at which point, you can get another incomplete list and process that, until the list is short enough that it doesn't time out any longer). Can you give me any good examples of insource: searches that are actually missing known results (i.e., it claims 12 instances, but you know that there are at least 13)?  Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:53, 31 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I gave such an example at on 3 Nov 2016. I just tried those searches again (in the namespaces Article, Wikipedia, Template, and Help), and I get 9 pages for the first search and "An error has occurred while searching: We could not complete your search due to a temporary problem. Please try again later." multiple times for the second search. Sigh.
 * "A major change to how MediaWiki works": What if we think dumb instead of trying to be clever? What if we had a null-edit bot that null-edited 10 pages per second continuously? That would get us a complete refresh in 48 days with the current size of en.WP. If it did 100 pages per second, it would refresh all of en.WP every 5 days. I have no idea how that compares to the current load on the job queue. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:32, 31 January 2017 (UTC)
 * You say above: ... it might not actually break as originally predicted. In a discussion linked above, Bgwhite said It would be nice to have a list of things to be checked, and you said let me see if I can find someone with a few more details for that list. I don't think we've seen that list yet, and I don't think we can do the gnome work without a list (or a maintenance category that works, or something to indicate what needs the be fixed). No pressure, but if WMF wants to move away from Tidy, we'll need some assistance from WMF to make sure that move doesn't break pages. We have suggested a few different forms that assistance could take. I think the ball is in WMF's court. We're happy to help any time you are ready. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:46, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * See the latest updates at mw:Parsing/Replacing Tidy, especially this major update and this tool for self-closing tags (which is category based, and therefore not necessarily entirely up to date). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:05, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Your idea of "thinking dumb" is a good one. Unfortunately, the obvious way to do that is User:Joe Decker's bot, and I think that's the one that's been down since November.  (Also, I'd love to see it run at other wikis, so that  https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikitext-deprecation/ could be relied upon for accurate numbers.)  Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:49, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I am really good at thinking dumb; thanks for the compliment! As for the accuracy of the report, I can confirm that it is currently NOT accurate. I have been fixing templates at other wikis (if there is tracking on that report, you should see that the total number has decreased by 90% or more in the last few days), and many templates with errors are not listed in the error categories. I added a note to mw:Talk:Parsing/Replacing Tidy about this. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:56, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Joe's bot was down, but he got it running at the end of December I could run a null edit bot; however, getting approvals is another thing. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 03:54, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It's almost 900 different wikis, so getting a bot approved on each one of them would be essentially impossible. Is there some sort of Wikimedia-level bot approval?


 * It seems like the WMF should take on the job of null-editing every page on every wiki periodically, just as a basic housekeeping task. Maybe can tell us more about the technical requirements and limitations, and what a reasonable "refresh all pages" rate would be – once a week? Once a month? Once a year? – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:02, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Global bots are a thing, but the policy hasn't been updated since 2008 and is super-restrictive: global bots can make nearly-pointless edits (interlanguage links) and fix double-redirects, and nothing else.

So let's start at the beginning: A null-editing bot doesn't change pages. Its work doesn't appear in RecentChanges or affect watchlists. Therefore, does it truly need a bot flag?

I'll try to find out whether this idea makes the Performance team unhappy, but I'm guessing that it will be okay, at least at a reasonable rate of activity and/or during off-peak hours. (And who knows? Maybe they'll know of a more efficient one-time solution.)  Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:39, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Discussion is also happening at . – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:08, 9 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Note: I'll be able to look at this more next week, I'm giving a photographic workshop through the weekend, but if there's a null edit task I can help with, I'm happy to do so. --joe deckertalk 00:04, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

geology of the burgan oil field
I am jdromero28

bgwhite thank you for the help. Im aware my page is not up to date and that my references are not completely right. This is a project we are doing on my petroleum geology class and is not completed yet. I not very good with wikipedia as you can probably tell. Just wanted to clarify why my page looks like it does. Thanks again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by User:Jdromero28 (talk • contribs) 19:40, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Please take a look if possible
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mongepoche (talk • contribs) 21:39, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Yo Ho Ho


Iryna Harpy (talk) is wishing you Seasons Greetings! Whether you celebrate your hemisphere's Solstice or Christmas, Diwali, Hogmanay, Hanukkah, Lenaia, Festivus or even the Saturnalia, this is a special time of year for almost everyone!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding to your friends' talk pages.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Iryna Harpy (talk • contribs) 05:10, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-07
 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
 * Octicons-tools.svg EventStreams is a new way to show activity on Wikimedia wikis. For now it works with the recent changes feed. It will do more things later. It will replace RCStream. Tools that use RCStream should move to EventStreams before 7 July.

Problems
 * The Firefox add-on Firefogg can cause problems with the Upload Wizard. This will not be fixed, because Firefox will not support Firefogg in the future. The Upload Wizard will no longer work with Firefogg.
 * Tool Labs and Wikimedia Labs databases will be under maintenance on 15 February. This will start at 17:00 (UTC) and last for about six hours. Some tools could have problems during or after this.

Changes this week
 * The TwoColConflict extension is a new way to solve edit conflicts. It makes it easier to copy and paste the relevant text to the text field. It will come to Meta and German Wikipedia this week. It is already available on MediaWiki.org. It will come to more wikis later.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 February. It will be on all wikis from 16 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 14 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * Page Previews will be turned on for logged-out users on the Catalan, Greek, Russian, and Italian Wikipedias in the middle of February. Page Previews shows readers a short part of a linked article when they rest their mouse pointer on the link. This is to help them understand what it is about without leaving the article they are reading. Page Previews used to be called Hovercards. It will come to more wikis later this spring.
 * Octicons-tools.svg The Developer Wishlist is a list where developers prioritize tools they need. The voting closes at 14 February 23:59 (UTC). This process is only for developers.

Review
 * You can read the 2016 product summary from the Wikimedia Foundation Product group to see what they did with things they said they would work on in the annual plan.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:06, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Help!!
Hi Bgwhite, I need your help. Without knowing that an article existed (there were no interwiki links, name was incorrect, linked to only a couple of articles and not his father, wife, etc., plus created by an expelled user) I created Alfonso Enríquez, Count of Gijón and Noreña (translated from es.wiki where I was one of the main contributors). Problem is, an article on this individual already existed, albeit a stub and with a wrong title. The article that already existed is: Alfonso Enríquez de Castilla, count of Gijón y Noreña. What to do? There's not much that can be salvaged from that article. Many thanks, --Maragm (talk) 18:38, 13 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I redirected "Alfonso Enríquez de Castilla, count of Gijón y Noreña" to your article. No articles link to it, so no need to change links on other articles.  Everything should be good now.  Bgwhite (talk) 22:38, 14 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Many thanks. --Maragm (talk) 19:53, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-08
 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 edit summary box is now a little bit bigger. This is to make it follow the Wikimedia design guide.

Changes this week
 * Page Previews will be updated on 23 February. This fixes many bugs. Page Previews can be turned on as the Beta Feature called Hovercards.
 * Octicons-tools.svg There has been a problem where the CSS of gadgets has been loading twice. The Gadgets extension has two new options:  and  . The   option solves this problem. You can use   to create gadgets with more than one style module. Read more about type and peers.
 * Octicons-tools.svg OAuth will handle blocked users in a more consistent way.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 February. It will be on all wikis from 23 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 21 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  19:25, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-09
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems
 * On 22 February the wikipedia.org portal did not work for an hour. This was because of a problem with a JavaScript file.

Changes this week
 * You will be able to use  to write chemical formulas in the visual editor. Previously this only worked in the wikitext editor.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 March. It will be on all wikis from 2 March (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 28 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * You can soon upload 3D files to Commons. The file formats are AMF and STL. The plan is for this to work later this week but it could be later.
 * The name "Wikipedia" will be more obvious at the top of the page when you read Wikipedia in the mobile view. This is because many readers don't realize they are on Wikipedia.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  19:55, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Redirect user page to talk page?
Would you be willing to redirect your user page to your talk page? I understand that some people do not like to do this, but when I ping you on a talk page and your user name comes up red, I get a little sad. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:08, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2017).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Amortias • Deckiller • BU Rob13
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Ronnotel • Islander • Chamal N • Isomorphic • Keeper76 • Lord Voldemort • Shereth • Bdesham • Pjacobi

Guideline and policy news
 * A recent RfC has redefined how articles on schools are evaluated at AfD. Specifically, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
 * AfDs that receive little participation should now be closed like an expired proposed deletion, following a deletion process RfC.
 * Defender, HakanIST, Matiia and Sjoerddebruin are our newest stewards, following the 2017 steward elections.
 * The 2017 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Góngora, Krd, Lankiveil, Richwales and Vogone. They will serve for approximately 1 year.

Technical news
 * A recent query shows that only 16% of administrators on the English Wikipedia have enabled two-factor authentication. If you haven't already enabled it please consider doing so.
 * Cookie blocks should be deployed to the English Wikipedia soon. This will extend the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user after they switch accounts under a new IP.
 * A bot will now automatically place a protection template on protected pages when admins forget to do so.

Discuss this newsletter

Subscribe

Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:14, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Please fix these lists
Would you please send your bot to the English Wikivoyage to fix all of the LISTGAP problems? There were no objections to my proposal. There are eight bureaucrats there, so getting a bot flag should be easy (and necessary). Just ping me if you'd like me to ask one to do it for you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:27, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Deletion review for DaBryan Blanton
An editor has asked for a deletion review of DaBryan Blanton. 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. bender235 (talk) 16:19, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Are these templates ok?
You wrote this: "templates don't go in articles space. Breaking of tables of an article and moving them to subpages isn't the way to go."

Now the templates listed below aren't in article space, however they serve the same purpose, that is taking out tables (incl. references) from articles, and replacing the tables in the articles with a transclusion.

The only reason why I had used article space instead of template space was that the visual editor is disabled for templates, and editing tables without it is awkward.


 * Template:AM4 chipsets
 * Template:AMD APU features
 * Template:AMD GPU features
 * Template:AMD Radeon Instinct
 * Template:AMD Radeon Pro (Mobile)
 * Template:AMD Radeon Pro WX x100
 * Template:AMD Radeon Rx 400
 * Template:AMD Ryzen (Update: Meanwhile the references got removed from this template.)

For example, the product lineup in these two articles are transclusions (using Template:AMD Ryzen): --Pizzahut2 (talk) 20:49, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Ryzen
 * Zen (microarchitecture)

Related to above, I went ahead and asked if the VisualEditor can be enabled on some templates at least: (Update: The answer was "no", the discussion has been archived.) --Pizzahut2 (talk) 14:38, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
 * VisualEditor/Feedback

What happened?
WHat happened to your userpage? Did the someone exterminate it? If looks ad, and bloody, being all read and dead. (t) Josve05a  (c) 20:06, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-10
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * You can now search on English, French, Hebrew and Greek wikis and find words even if you forget the diacritics. It also works if you use diacritics in your search but the wiki doesn't.
 * When you use the mobile view and click on a link to an article in another language you will see that article in the mobile view. Previously it changed to the desktop view.

Problems
 * Some watchlist gadgets didn't work for a period of time last week. This has now been fixed.
 * Admins who click on "mass delete" on a user's Special:Contributions will be taken directly to a list pages created by that user. It has worked like this before, but not lately.

Changes this week
 * The way you switch between wikitext and the visual editors in the desktop view has changed. It is now a drop-down menu. This is the same as in the mobile view.
 * The "flag the edit in the abuse log" checkbox will be removed from the abuse filter interface. This is because the edits are always flagged in the abuse log.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 March. It will be on all wikis from 9 March (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 7 March at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Clarification
 * The 2017/09 issue of Tech News mentioned 3D file formats you can soon upload to Commons. The AMF format will be available later.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  23:23, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-11
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes this week
 * You will be able to show references from  tags in more than one column on your wiki. This is the list of footnotes for the sources in the article. How many columns you see will depend on how big your screen is. On some wikis, some templates already do this. Templates that use   tags will need to be updated, and then later the change can happen for all reference lists.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 March. It will be on all wikis from 16 March (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 14 March at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * Some old web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis in the future. If you have an old web browser on your computer you can upgrade to a newer version.
 * Octicons-tools.svg CSS in templates will be stored in a separate page in the future.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:25, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Precious five years!
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:43, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-12
<section begin="technews-2017-W12"/> 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  button now says   or   on the Wikimedia wikis except for Wikipedias and Wikinewses. This change will come to Wikipedias later. The point is to make it more clear that the edit will change the page immediately.   is when you save a new page and   when you edit an existing page.
 * DMOZ no longer works. Templates that use DMOZ can be redirected to archive.org or another mirror. DMOZ has been removed from the RelatedSites extension on Wikivoyage.
 * You can see monthly page views when you click on  in the sidebar. Developers can also get monthly page views through the API.
 * The Linter extension is now on smaller Wikimedia wikis. It helps editors find some wikitext errors so they can be fixed. It will come to other Wikimedia wikis later. The extension will be able to find more errors later.
 * Octicons-tools.svg The MediaWiki-Vagrant portable development environment has been updated to use Debian Jessie. This means local development and testing will be more like on the majority of Wikimedia production servers.

Problems
 * On 15 March some interwiki links to other languages were not correctly sorted. This has been fixed. If you still see pages where the interwiki links are not sorted as they should be, they should be fixed automatically with time or you can edit the page and save it without changing anything. If this doesn't work, please report it.

Changes this week
 * When you edit with the visual editor, you will be able to switch the direction you write in from right-to-left to left-to-right as you are editing. This is especially important for editors who edit in languages that write from right to left. You can do this with a tool in the editing menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut + +  on PCs or  + +  on Macs.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 March. It will be on all wikis from 23 March (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 21 March at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2017-W12"/> 22:03, 20 March 2017 (UTC)