User talk:Black Falcon/Archive 17

Administrators' newsletter – December 2017
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Joe Roe
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg JzG
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Ericorbit • Perceval • Thingg • Tristanb • Violetriga

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.

Technical news
 * Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
 * A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.

Arbitration
 * Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.

Miscellaneous
 * Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:57, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Change of headings
Hi Black Falcon - you have been making several edits on anatomy pages, changing the usually used Additional images heading to Gallery. The use of Additional images is long-standing and referred to in WP:MEDMOS. ? --Iztwoz (talk) 09:12, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * @Iztwoz: Thanks for informing me. I've restored the 'Additional images' section heading to a few other articles where I had changed it. I'm curious, though, why WP:MEDMOS deviates from the overarching guidance on gallery sections, but I suppose that's a topic for a larger discussion. -- Black Falcon (talk) 16:49, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Muboshgu
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg None

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

Technical news
 * The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
 * The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.

Arbitration
 * Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee:, , , , , , ,.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

60s punk redirect discussion closed way too soon
I just noticed the change in the re-direct for "60s punk". I was not aware that there had been the preceding discussion. I would have liked to have been included in that deliberation, considering that I have been active at all of the related articles (I did a major expansion on the garage rock article helping get it to GA), and have a deep knowledge of the topic, which would be helpful for everyone's consideration. Though I wish that the an effort had been made to contact me and other editors knowledgeable about the subject and who had been active on those pages, we can have that opportunity now. I feel the discussion needs to be re-opened. I think that last year made an earlier change, moving the re-direct "60s punk" from proto-punk over to garage rock. I believe that he made the correct decision. That is where it should have stayed.
 * No one involved in that discussion seems to have read up on garage rock and its history and terminolgy. With all due respect to credentials and fine work of, , I think that everyone needs to go back and read the sections in the garage rock and punk rock that cover the historical terminology/etymology and look at the sourced statements there about how term "60s punk" is used today.  Incidentally, I think that  was hinting that we take some time and study this.
 * The term "60s punk" is a common term used amongst garage fans and commentators to describe 1960s garage—as an alternate name for the genre. Proto-punk has a different meaning (I'd like to get into this in more detail).
 * Note that the re-direct does not attempt to say "1960s punk" (that would be too literalistic and would understandably cause confusion). Whereas "60s punk" (minus the "19...") makes it clear that we are dealing with a colloquial name.  It should be directed towards the target for which it is used.
 * I would be glad to share sources and other helpful information with everyone.

I think that the thread needs to be re-opened and for us to consider re-directing "60s punk" back to garage rock where it belongs. Garagepunk66 (talk) 07:53, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * That RFD dates back to 2011. Your account hadn't been created then so it would have been a little hard to include you. Since the article has been expanded in the last seven years, just be bold and update the redirect. Your edit summary can explain it with something like "re-targeting based upon article expansion since 2011 RFD". Content changes over time so that is quite understandable. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:17, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I'll give that a try. I should have looked more closely at the dates--it was late last night when I noticed the change (over at the garage rock article), so I assumed that the decision had been more recent.  Sorry for any misunderstanding.  Garagepunk66 (talk) 21:57, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * , I just made the change as you recommended. However, I noticed that "'60s punk" is not yet re-directing to the garage rock article as it should. I'm guessing that because it takes a while for the system to finalize the re-direct.  I'm guessing that it will be re-directing properly in a day or so. Thanks, Garagepunk66 (talk) 22:50, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Category:History of the Catholic Church by country
Thank you. As proposed, I would support if you petitioned also updating said category tree. Chicbyaccident (talk) 10:03, 25 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your kind help. I'm not familiar with the procedures, but while you're at it, would you mind also speedy-proposing consistency also regarding the subcategories of Category:History of the Catholic Church by continent, and Category:History of the Catholic Church by country, as well as per haps those listed in Category:History of the Catholic Church even? Thank you! Chicbyaccident (talk) 12:06, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Full discussion re category merge for Category:Works set in Kenya
Please go to here Hugo999 (talk) 04:12, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Though I did not participate in the discussion, thank you nonetheless for notifying me. -- Black Falcon (talk) 07:21, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

If you have a moment ...
... for some CfD closes, there are 2 discussions still open at Categories for discussion/Log/2018 January 6. Should be straightforward. -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:02, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done, and they were very straightforward, indeed! -- Black Falcon (talk) 06:22, 21 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for helping to trim the backlog. It was huge at the start of the year, but I did a big blitz a fortnight ago, clearing about 150 in 3 days. I'm hoping we can stop it spiralling out of control again.
 * So if you were able to dip in to Categories for discussion/Old unclosed discussions from time to time, that'd be great. Some of the backlog is a bit knotty, some is simple but verbose, and a decent chunk is fairly simple stuff where regular closers have been participants so can't close.  -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 20:41, 21 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw that—you even got Marcocapelle to remove the 'admin backlog' tag!
 * I'll do what I can to pitch in with the backlog, though at times I end up participating in the older discussions instead of closing them. -- Black Falcon (talk) 07:26, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for following up my speedy nomination thoroughly and correctly, re Category:Templates for speedy deletion with incorrect formatting. However, I looked at it more closely and realised that my nomination was mistaken, so I have reverted all the changes. I'm only writing here because you deserve an explanation from me. – Fayenatic  L ondon 23:05, 21 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I appreciate your note. I saw you reverting the changes and figured you had a good reason for doing so. :) Thanks, -- Black Falcon (talk) 07:26, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks!
Thanks for removing the deleted category from the 2007 test. I just copy-pasted the test from the edit history, so I didn't catch the error. Thanks again! —AnAwesomeArticleEditor (talk contribs ) 20:58, 25 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Happy to do it, just routine maintenance! Cheers, -- Black Falcon (talk) 23:08, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

"Category:Wikpedidians who are a absent-minded creature" and so on
Hi Black Falcon, and thanks for your message No surprises here - as a fully-fledged member of of the "Wikpedidians who are a absent-minded creature" community - that I vaguely aware of the cull of silly user categories sometime in 2017. And then promptly forgot about it. Thanks again - I'll have a try at following your how-to to fix it.--Shirt58 (talk) 11:04, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedia protected pages
Hi Black Falcon

As you may have seen, Categories for discussion/Log/2018 January 5 was closed as "rename" by.

The subcats were moved by the bot, but the protected pages required a mod to Module:Protection banner/config, which I did on 27 Jan in this edit.

An edit to a template usually results in the pages which transclude it being purged within ~24 hours. That has not happened here.

I infer from this that the server treats edits to modules differently to template edits. If so, that seems like a bug. I should probably raise it at WP:VPT.

What this means is that the soft redirected Category:Wikipedia protected pages is not empty. I manually purged ~100 pages a few days ago (by WP:NULLEDITs), but when I checked again today nothing else had moved. One of the 170+ pages is with 400 views per day, so page impressions aren't helping.

Woukd you be able to purge the remainder? -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 18:34, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Being curious, I tried a null edit and it worked this time. I used WP:JWB to repeat this on all the rest, and now only Template editor/sandbox remains. – Fayenatic  L ondon 21:39, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * If it's calling Module:Protection banner/sandbox, I can't see how to make an edit equivalent to the one that user:BrownHairedGirl linked to above. – Fayenatic  L ondon 22:40, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi
 * Thanks for doing all those null edits. I thought that would be all that was needed to clear the lot, but was fed up with null editing. (I didn't know about WP:JWB. It looks useful)
 * I too found that the one straggler (Template editor/sandbox) uses Template:Pp-template/sandbox, which just invokes Module:Protection banner/sandbox. I can't see how to fix the module. -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 01:18, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, this was a useful conversation just for sharing JWB! I find it invaluable.
 * I've now cut the transclusion of Template:Pp-template/sandbox from Template editor/sandbox, as it's only an inactive sandbox. That empties the category. – Fayenatic  L ondon 22:05, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg None
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news
 * An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
 * Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

Technical news
 * A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:51, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

CFD closures

 * Thank you! It's a small effort compared to your more regular work at CfD, but I greatly appreciate the recognition and kind words. Cheers, -- Black Falcon (talk) 01:57, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Looking for help
Hi, my name is Lisa, I just visited the english Wikipedia site of the rapper Krondon and I found a very racist and degrading commment under the section 'early life' about his heritage. I deleted the sentence but because it was so bad, I am concerned about the user who wrote it. I just saw an IP address and this was the first time I ever edited something in Wikipedia. I tried to look up in the wiki how to proceed with the user but I wasn't sure, because I only saw the IP. Maybe you can help with this matter? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.146.128.55 (talk) 22:00, 7 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Hello, and thank you for removing that sentence. The sentence was added by an anonymous user, IP address 174.227.142.16. I added a warning at the user's talk page; see User talk:174.227.142.16, though they do not appear to have made any edits since then. Please let me know if I can offer any other assistance. Cheers, -- Black Falcon (talk) 02:39, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Years and decades in medieval Norway
You just closed Categories for discussion/Log/2018 February 3.

I have an AWB module for this sort of merge. Would you like me to use it here? -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 01:51, 19 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Certainly, that'd be much appreciated! I listed the categories at WP:CFD/W/M, but there are nearly 120 of them, so any means of (semi-)automating the task would be helpful. -- Black Falcon (talk) 01:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I spent whole days doing some similar merges, and finally sat down on Friday to do the module. It turned out to be quite simple code, so I used it on Categories for discussion/Log/2018 February 9, which it flew through with no errors in ~250 pages: no false positives, no false negatives, no errors in replacement. Massive timesaving: I just loaded up each century category recursively, used pre-parse to remove remove pages which needed no change, then checked each edit.
 * Once I've done Norway, I'll polish the code a bit to clarify configuration and then publish it with some instructions so that others can use it (at their own risk).
 * But that'll all be tomorrow. -- Brown HairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 02:46, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Lourdes†
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V
 * † Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news
 * The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
 * Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
 * A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
 * A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

Technical news
 * CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
 * The edit filter has a new feature  that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

Miscellaneous
 * Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards:, , , ,.

Obituaries
 * Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Portal:Africa/Featured article/33 listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Portal:Africa/Featured article/33. Since you had some involvement with the Portal:Africa/Featured article/33 redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. Steel1943 (talk) 19:11, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg 331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando

Guideline and policy news
 * Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
 * Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
 * The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
 * The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

Technical news
 * There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

Miscellaneous
 * A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
 * The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Expertise required
You would be one of the extremely nice people I would be referring to as a page watcher (in the nicest possible way) in the following edit: a link. Hiding T 14:03, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Categorise promising drafts, DraftSpace and UserSpace.
I wonder, could I get an nice super-competent person to help me?
 * I would like to autocategorize from Template:Promising draft, and create a sister autocategorising template for old but promising userspace drafts.
 * The idea to is to help with identification and navigation to draft articles holding promise, as a more positive alternative to seeking deletion of every old draft that does not hold promise.

--SmokeyJoe (talk) 00:29, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg None
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news
 * The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
 * A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news
 * AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new  function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
 * When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
 * The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
 * There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.

Obituaries
 * (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:05, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg None
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
 * Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.

Technical news
 * IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
 * There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
 * It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

Arbitration
 * A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

Miscellaneous
 * In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:59, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Gogo Dodo
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news
 * An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
 * A request for comment closed with a consensus that the promising draft template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news
 * Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
 * Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon (Codemirror-icon.png) in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
 * IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous
 * Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Sro23
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news
 * After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
 * Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.

Technical news
 * The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:31, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Categories
Hello, I am very sorry for moving the categories without discussion. But the article name its argued. --ElmedinRKS (talk) 21:12, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
 * @ElmedinRKS: No worries at all, it happens quite a bit. Regarding the article name, I encourage you to have a discussion with User:Antidiskriminator at the article's talk page, or to start a move discussion (let me know if you need any help starting one) to invite participation from other editors. Bis später, -- Black Falcon (talk) 21:25, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2018
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:03, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg None
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
 * Pictogram voting rename.png →

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

Technical news
 * Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
 * Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says . An example is   which is now.
 * Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Women in Red World Contest
Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by MediaWiki message delivery (talk • contribs) 03:05, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 October 2018
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:44, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Justlettersandnumbers • L235
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Guerillero • NativeForeigner •  Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a request for comment, the process for appointing interface administrators has been established. Currently only existing admins can request these rights, while a new RfC has begun on whether it should be available to non-admins.
 * There is an open request for comment on Meta regarding the creation a new user group for global edit filter management.

Technical news
 * Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
 * The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
 * Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
 * The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
 * Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
 * Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Precious anniversary
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:32, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 October 2018
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:09, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2018).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Sir Sputnik
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Kudpung • Liz • Lourdes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Everyking • Jackmcbarn

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Dinoguy1000

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg AGK • Ivanvector • Stwalkerster • TonyBallioni

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Amorymeltzer • Oshwah • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Keilana

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment determined that non-administrators will not be able to request interface admin access.
 * A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the Mediation Committee should be closed and marked as historical.
 * A village pump discussion has been ongoing about whether the proposed deletion policy (PROD) should be clarified or amended.
 * A request for comment is in progress to determine whether pending changes protection should be applied automatically to today's featured article (TFA) in order to mitigate a recent trend of severe image vandalism.

Technical news
 * Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
 * A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
 * The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

Arbitration
 * Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
 * The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en@wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:18, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you
thank you, black falcon. you are appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.208.131.42 (talk) 01:21, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
 * That's very kind of you to say! -- Black Falcon (talk) 17:17, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 December 2018
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:46, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Health care categories
Please see my proposal to rename Category:Health care to Category:Healthcare and Category:Catholic health care to Category:Catholic healthcare (and associated articles?) Hugo999 (talk) 13:04, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svgk Chan

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
 * A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
 * A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
 * A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news
 * Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
 * To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
 * Since deployment of Partial blocks on Test Wikipedia, several bugs were identified. Most of them are now fixed. Administrators are encouraged to test the new deployment and report new bugs on Phabricator or leave feedback on the Project's talk page. You can request administrator access on the Test Wiki here.

Arbitration
 * Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 3 December 2018. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.

Miscellaneous
 * In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
 * Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries
 * (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2018
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:35, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2018).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Galobtter
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Orangemike
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg BorgQueen •  Davidruben • Ocee • Revolving Bugbear • Theda • There'sNoTime • Timc • Tijuana Brass • Tristessa de St Ange

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Addshore



CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Joe Roe • SilkTork
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Euryalus • Newyorkbrad • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg AGK • Joe Roe • SilkTork
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Euryalus • Newyorkbrad • There'sNoTime

Guideline and policy news
 * There are a number of new or changed speedy deletion criteria, each previously part of WP:CSD:
 * G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is db-disambig; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
 * R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion).  This is db-redircom; the text is unchanged.
 * G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use db-blankdraft.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation now requires all interface administrators to enable two-factor authentication.
 * Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.

Technical news
 * Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length . All accounts must have a password:
 * At least 8 characters in length
 * Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the [//github.com/wikimedia/password-blacklist Password Blacklist library])
 * Different from their username
 * User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
 * Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
 * Copyvio-revdel now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.

Arbitration
 * Following the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee:, , , , ,.

Miscellaneous
 * Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
 * Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:38, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 03:32, 28 December 2018 (UTC)


 * The image has been restored to the article in which it was being used. -- Black Falcon (talk) 05:06, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

Eastern Orthodox category
The purging as mentioned in Categories_for_discussion/Log/2018_November_25 has been completed. Could you have the renaming executed by the bot? Marcocapelle (talk) 20:45, 28 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Done, and now just waiting for the bot to finish. Thanks for pinging me and sorry for the wait. -- Black Falcon (talk) 19:20, 5 January 2019 (UTC)