User talk:Gadfium/Archive 22

A sad day for Wikipedia
Hello old Wiki friend. I have just seen your request to the crats to remove your adminship, and it greatly saddens me. The WMF clearly has no idea of the damage they have done to the project. Good luck. Moriori (talk) 08:49, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks Moriori. I still expect to be involved as an editor.- gadfium 08:52, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, sorry to see you hand in your bit. I just had a look at my RfA...and you voted for me all those years ago :). Cheers and happy editing. Lectonar (talk) 10:54, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Wow. I'm gobsmacked. I'm sorry to see you leave the ranks. Maybe I should have followed this whole saga more closely. Anyway, if anything needs doing that requires advanced permissions please don't hesitate to drop me a line. Just like I always did for many years.  Schwede 66  12:46, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks Lectonar and Schwede66. I'm enjoying being able to focus on articles at present.- gadfium 19:11, 26 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I hope the WMF gets a grip on themselves and you recover your spirits Gadfium. You were a good administrator. – Epipelagic (talk) 03:15, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you Epipelagic.- gadfium 03:20, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg 28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • 1 • Flyguy649 • 2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
 * 1 's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
 * 2 's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg 28bytes • WJBscribe • Wizardman

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg MSGJ • TheDJ

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Beeblebrox • BU Rob13 • DoRD

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Beeblebrox • BU Rob13 • DoRD • GB fan

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment seeking to alleviate pressures on the request an account (ACC) process proposes either raising the account creation limit for extended confirmed editors or granting the account creator permission on request to new ACC tool users.
 * In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.
 * The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
 * The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
 * A request for comment seeks to determine whether Office actions should be a policy page or an information page.

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

Miscellaneous
 * In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop . This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:19, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

On the "constitutional crisis"
On 10 June, a part of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) - the organisation which runs Wikipedia and related projects - called Trust & Safety (T&S) banned an administrator called Fram from the English Wikipedia for a year. This was an unprecedented action because previously T&S have only become involved in matters with legal implications, and they failed to explain why they banned Fram. Usually, problems on English Wikipedia are dealt with by the community of editors or by the elected Arbitration Committee (Arbcom). The ban created considerable unease amongst editors, which was not calmed by several statements from T&S as they were couched in bureacratic/legal language and failed to address the specifics. A way forward proposed by respected editor Newyorkbrad was rejected outright by T&S.

I followed the discussion with interest, and gave my support to Newyorkbrad's compromise proposal. When it was clear that the community's protest was not being heeded, I decided to make my own protest. On 22 June, I resigned as an administrator with the following post: "I have been dispirited by the recent action of T&S, and even more so by their refusal to explain their action in any meaningful way, to provide any mechanism for an appeal, or to negotiate on a compromise. I do not wish to hold advanced permissions on en.wikipedia in this situation. Please remove my administratorship."

More than 20 other administrators have also resigned over this. In some cases, they resigned because they disagreed with the community's opposition to T&S's action, but most resigned for similar reasons to me. Other editors stopped using administrator tools, or stopped editing articles until such time as the situation was resolved.

Others who resigned also stopped editing Wikipedia articles, but I took a different approach: I became more active in improving articles than previously. I don't know any details about Fram, and I don't particularly care whether or not they are banned, so long as the process is fair. I still very much care about the encyclopedia.

On 28 June, the WMF CEO Katherine Maher began to discuss the situation with the community on her talk page, and on 2 July, the WMF Board of Trustees issued a statement which directed T&S to work with Arbcom to review the case. Individuals on the board made it clear that Arbcom could overturn or alter the T&S ban if it saw fit. T&S provided detailed information privately to Arbcom on why they had banned Fram, and Arbcom has confirmed that although there are some redactions of names in that information, it is sufficient for them to open a case.

The three points I raised in my resignation have now been substantially addressed: T&S have explained their action to Arbcom, which will now consider the evidence and may overrule the ban, and the CEO is actively talking to the community. I will ask for my administrator position back, because I believe that the crisis is over.

I do think the WMF comes out of this badly because they failed to communicate with the community initially, and took a very long time to correct that. I think we need a management organisation which engages with the community in a more timely fashion. The turmoil of the last few weeks may be a wake-up call to them.

I am proud of the community of editors. We've been far from united on this, but in the end we succeeded in forcing the WMF to listen to us and to back down from their early refusal to compromise at all.

More information about the response to T&S's ban can be found at WP:FRAMSUM.- gadfium 04:41, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Welcome back to the team of administrators. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  20:52, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * We'll soon have you back (after the automatic 24-hour-standdown period is over). That's awesome!  Schwede 66  20:55, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * So glad to see this. Hoping for more resysops in the coming weeks. GABgab 21:14, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Welcome back from me as well. I regarded your resignation as being particularly serious given that we have so few admins from NZ. It was principled to quit, and it's principled to return. Nick-D (talk) 22:57, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I've not been highly engaged with the constitutional crisis but I'm impressed with both your principled stand and your good sense, which adds to my long-standing admiration of your WP activity. I'll be pleased to see you with the admin tools again. Nurg (talk) 01:19, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Wellington
Tēnā Koe, Gadfium, it's Leavepuckgackle1998 here. I just wanted to thank you for your advice to help fix the Wellington article I heavily contributed to this afternoon. I read all your feedback carefully, and have corrected all the things you pointed out as being incorrect. However, I did not think it was appropriate how you reverted all my edits I worked so hard on instead of just fixing the two or three mistakes there. That's how we do it on Wikipedia. I'm sure you're a very expereinced editor, but please don't revert people's whole edits even though only 1% of them is a mistake. Please resist temptations from doing this. --Leavepuckgackle1998 (talk) 06:32, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I didn't say the first sentence was the only problem. Let's take the second sentence. One of the references is to a Wikipedia article. You cannot use Wikipedia articles as references for other articles. The other reference says "hundreds of years ago", not the "circa 925 CE" you give. If you are not familiar with recent developments in New Zealand archaeology, I suggest you read https://www.pnas.org/content/105/22/7676.full, which explains that earlier estimates of Polynesian settlement dates in New Zealand have been overturned by modern dating methods, and settlement prior to about 1280 CE is unlikely. More recent papers still suggest post 1300 CE dates. Unfortunately there are still many websites and history books which have not caught up to the state of research, and some Wikipedia articles which use such websites as references. We should not be propogating such incorrect material to more articles. Another issue in this sentence: It calls Kupe a Māori explorer, but the Māori culture developed in the centuries following settlement. Also, there is no historical evidence for his existence; he is a legendary figure. Kupe is according to legend a reknowned Polynesian explorer of the land now called New Zealand...
 * I did point out that the lead section should be a summary of the full article, rather than adding material which is not mentioned in the body. See WP:LEAD.
 * I suggest that you remove or rewrite all material you have added to the lede which is not supported by the body. It is not reasonable to expect other editors to do this for you. I do not have the time to go through and explain the faults in every sentence you have written.- gadfium 07:13, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

I don't expect you to, I was just saying that if it was, say, BCE instead of CE (something that is clearly a typo) you could just fix that? Thanks.Leavepuckgackle1998 (talk) 10:32, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I have replied on Leavepuckgackle1998's talk page.- gadfium 21:44, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

I'm really, really sorry, but it was an accident
Gadfium, I apologise for you for trying to rename Napier, New Zealand to Napier. I clearly didn't know how when I attempted it, but I did it in good faith. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leavepuckgackle1998 (talk • contribs) 03:11, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your selfless acts of kindness
Gadfium, hello. I know we’ve had our disagreements in the past, and I am sorry that happened. I highly respect you as an administrator, because that just shows your commitment to something you volunteer for. So I just wanted to say thank you again for unblocking me, and that I’m incredibly grateful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leavepuckgackle1998 (talk • contribs) 09:05, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2019).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Johnuniq • Kosack • Valereee
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Ad Orientem • Ched • Gadfium • Jonathunder • Nick • Yelyos
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Bald Zebra • Beetstra • Doug Bell • Journalist • Ruud Koot • Splash • Voice of Clam

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

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg RickinBaltimore

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Beeblebrox
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg RickinBaltimore

Guideline and policy news
 * Following a request for comment, the page Office actions has been changed from a policy page to an information page.
 * A request for comment (permalink) is in progress regarding the administrator inactivity policy.

Arbitration
 * Editors may now use the template Ds/aware to indicate that they are aware that discretionary sanctions are in force for a topic area, so it is unnecessary to alert them.

Miscellaneous
 * Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
 * The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing  here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist. Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.

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

Care to comment?
I edited an article by removing four images and leaving three because it seemed to me to be overkill. User:Tahatai objected on my talk page and then there was further mention at Talk:Judith_Baragwanath where Tahatai said she would reinstate the images. I urged her not to. It would be appreciated if you could look to see if I am on the right track. Tahatai joined Wiki in March and has become a fine, competent contributor and I would hate to discourage her. If you don't agree with my removal of the images, I will restore them myself. Cheers. Moriori (talk) 01:29, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks User:Moriori : well said - happy to abide by this. My reasons are several and can be found on the Baragwanath Talk page. Tahatai (talk) 01:47, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

A goat for you!
For your work on Aka Aka.

Stuartyeates (talk) 22:42, 4 September 2019 (UTC) 

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Floquenbeam • Lectonar
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

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

Arbitration
 * A request for comment is open to provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the 2019 English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee election and to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

Miscellaneous
 * A global request for comment is in progress regarding whether a user group should be created that could modify edit filters across all public Wikimedia wikis.

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

Fascism in New Zealand
Hi, that's what I meant. the page should change the name. can you do it. I don't know how too. Evangelical10002 (talk) 09:49, 15 September 2019 (UTC)
 * See WP:Requested moves. I'm not convinced that changing Fascism in New Zealand to Far-right politics in New Zealand is necessary.- gadfium 19:26, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

(this page should change its name Fascism in New Zealand to Far-right politics in New Zealand reason = Australia and many other nations have far right politics pages, 2 Far right politics would include more in the page.Evangelical10002 (talk) 13:20, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Demographics of Auckland
Hi there, the information is available for download as a WINRAR or spreadsheet by NZ stats. It's an estimate for the moment from the collective data they've given us (Asian, Maori, Pacific etc) and, though as more data comes out over the next month or so, the statistics themselves are pretty accurate (As seen in the rise of immigrantion to Auckland, compared to other places of the country). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Foxterria (talk • contribs) 08:54, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2019).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Barkeep49
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Beetstra • KillerChihuahua • Kusma
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Arcadian • Extraordinary Machine • Xeno
 * Pictogram voting rename.png JamesBWatson →

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Evad37

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Courcelles • SilkTork • Timotheus Canens

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Courcelles • SilkTork • Timotheus Canens

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

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

Arbitration
 * The 2019 CheckUser and Oversight appointment process has begun. The community consultation period will take place October 4th to 10th.
 * The arbitration case regarding was closed.  While there will be a local RfC focus[ing] on how harassment and private complaints should be handled in the future, there is currently a global community consultation on partial and temporary office actions in response to the incident. It will be open until October 30th.

Miscellaneous
 * The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:55, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Post by 123.31.43.63
Just curious. The post looked innocent. Does that user have some issues? WQUlrich (talk) 20:21, 6 October 2019 (UTC)
 * If you look at the poster's contributions, you'll see they made very many identical posts to apparently random users, and several accounts previously have made the same disuptive edits: see Special:Contributions/Cebuah and Special:Contributions/Oklippn for examples. Their edits are being reverted and they are blocked for this disruptive editing, and breach of the guideline on WP:Canvassing.- gadfium 21:49, 6 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Aha, I suspected they were trying to get someone with a bit more "status" to do questionable edits for them, so I made up an excuse to say no. I guess I really didn't need to answer at all. Thank You! WQUlrich (talk) 01:20, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Edit on Marlborough Boys' College
Are you able to remove this edit? . It outs a person with current name suppression. Ajf773 (talk) 09:32, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Already dealt with by Schwede66.- gadfium 17:46, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2019).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg GermanJoe • Girth Summit • Kees08 • Nosebagbear
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg DESiegel • GB fan • MSGJ • Voice of Clam • WilyD
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DeltaQuad • Fang Aili • Pakaran

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DeltaQuad • Pakaran

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg MSGJ

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg L235 • Mz7 • SQL • ST47
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Ivanvector
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DeltaQuad

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg L235 • Mz7 • ST47 • Stwalkerster • The Blade of the Northern Lights • Xaosflux
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DeltaQuad • DGG • Julia W

Guideline and policy news
 * An RfC was closed with the consensus that the resysop criteria should be made stricter.
 * The follow-up RfC to develop that change is now open at Requests for comment/2019 Resysop Criteria (2).
 * A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration
 * Eligible editors may now nominate themselves as candidates for the 2019 Arbitration Committee Elections. The self-nomination period will close November 12, with voting running from November 19 through December 2.

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

Just FYI
Over at the ArbCom questions you said "I think their rights were removed by T&S so they could not unblock themselves", but admins can't unblock themselves anyway. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 01:21, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I'd forgotten about that change.- gadfium 01:29, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process
Hello!

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

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

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

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

I'm very flattered
It was a pleasant surprise to see you refer to one of my essays involving Arbcom in your question to candidates. And I have to admit that I giggled when you asked yourself too! Mostly, though, I'm pleased to see that the candidates who have answered so far seem to be of the "well, I'm already busy here, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing" mindset. I think it speaks to the relative maturity of this year's candidates. We as a community will be the real winners here, with so many solid candidates who really get it. Good luck, Gadfium. Risker (talk) 02:29, 15 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks Risker. It was a good essay!- gadfium 04:13, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you!

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

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Beeblebrox
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Deskana

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Evad37

Guideline and policy news
 * An RfC on the administrator resysop criteria was closed. 18 proposals have been summarised with a variety of supported and opposed statements. The inactivity grace period within which a new request for adminship is not required has been reduced from three years to two. Additionally, Bureaucrats are permitted to use their discretion when returning administrator rights.
 * Following a proposal, the edit filter mailing list has been opened up to users with the Edit Filter Helper right.

Technical news
 * Wikimedia projects can set a default block length for users via MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry. A new page, MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry-ip, allows the setting of a different default block length for IP editors. Neither is currently used. (T219126)

Arbitration
 * Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 2 December 2018 UTC. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.

Miscellaneous
 * The global consultation on partial and temporary office actions that ended in October received a closing statement from staff concluding, among other things, that the WMF will no longer use partial or temporary Office Action bans... until and unless community consensus that they are of value or Board directive.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:47, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Whakaari/White Island article title RM notice
You recently participated in a discussion on the title of the Whakaari/White Island article. I have made a formal WP:RM request at Talk:Whakaari/White Island if you care to weigh in. —  AjaxSmack 17:49, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Ihumātao
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I would've considered a book source to be a better trust than an internet source. It takes effort to publish a book. Web pages can be created in a matter of minutes.--210.48.190.54 (talk) 00:54, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm not citing the internet source. I'm using it as an example of the flakiness of paranormal phenomena, which is by the same author at the same site. Not all books are reliable sources.- gadfium 01:04, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2019).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Dreamy Jazz • Newslinger • Rosguill
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Deor • Spartaz • Xeno
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Angusmclellan • clpo13 • Edgar181 • Matthewedwards • NCurse

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Bradv • Casliber • David Fuchs • Maxim • Newyorkbrad • SoWhy • Xeno

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Bradv • Casliber • DGG • David Fuchs • Maxim • Newyorkbrad • SoWhy • Xeno
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Someguy1221

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment asks whether partial blocks should be enabled on the English Wikipedia. If enabled, this functionality would allow administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces, rather than the entire site.
 * A proposal asks whether admins who don't use their tools for a significant period of time (e.g. five years) should have the toolset procedurally removed.
 * Following a successful RfC, a whitelist is now available for users whose redirects will be autopatrolled by a bot, removing them from the new pages patrol queue. Admins can add such users to New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist after a discussion following the guidelines at Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist.

Arbitration
 * The fourth case on Palestine-Israel articles was closed. The case consolidated all previous remedies under one heading, which should make them easier to understand, apply, and enforce. In particular, the distinction between "primary articles" and "related content" has been clarified, with the former being the entire set of articles whose topic relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict, broadly interpreted rather than reasonably construed.
 * Following the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee:, , , , , , , , , ,.

Miscellaneous
 * This issue marks three full years of the Admin newsletter. Thanks for reading!

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:06, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

NRL Stats
Firstly, sorry about the message from the previous poster. However, I believe they are correct. For whatever reason the NRL does not include World Club Challenge matches in their official stats, any more than they do other trial matches. I don't personally have strong feeling one way or the other, except that we should stick by the stats of the competition organiser. Here's a link to support the change:  Doctorhawkes (talk) 06:48, 5 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I have no opinion on whether World Club Challenge matches count, but the IP is making numerous questionable edits, and their response to talk page posts is to delete them rather than present their evidence.- gadfium 07:14, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Spit balling a bit.
I was thinking out loud the other day, how about a kiwiwiki? A somewhat tongue-in-cheek and tourist guide wiki, as part of wikimedia obviously. No BLP's, make up a "Chur" rating system for beaches, suburbs, shopping malls, parks, walks, the Johnkey way (bike tracks), pubs etc. Its task is to get some news coverage here (NZ), drive some new users to wiki in general and recruit more Maori editors, only 2 active currently. I viewed stupidwiki, a German parody site and it gave me pause, FYI, our anthem, according to them is "God shave the Sheep". Second, thanks for correcting my edit today. Lastly, I used to visit Ihuamoto, I may of been the "disembodied voice", reason withheld. 121.99.108.78 (talk) 08:11, 28 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Have you seen kiwiwiki.co.nz? Last activity was about a month ago. They may welcome new contributors and new ideas.- gadfium 08:33, 28 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Just looked at that, yeah nah, and it would not meet any of the objectives above121.99.108.78 (talk) 09:48, 28 January 2020 (UTC)

Question on deletion of my addition to end of life care page
Hi there! I understand recommendations to sites that don't have a wikipedia page might not work for Wikipedia. I am confused though that the entire section I submitted was deleted and not just the links. The page had spiritual and medical aspects covered but completely left off the legal and financial aspects of end of life care. This is a critical step that if forgotten can lead to major medical and financial repercussions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EaseRoad (talk • contribs) 05:21, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Leaving the content unsourced is not appropriate, because it may not be appropriate advice for all juridictions. A source to a suitable international body would be required.- gadfium 07:50, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Ergo Sum • Nick Moyes • QEDK • Wugapodes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Dennis Brown
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Aude • BrownHairedGirl • CALR • Jengod • John Reaves • J.smith • Kim Dent-Brown • K1Bond007 • MECU • Refdoc • RHaworth



CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Ragesoss

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

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

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

Miscellaneous
 * Voting in the 2020 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2020, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2020, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
 * The English Wikipedia has reached six million articles. Thank you everyone for your contributions!

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:05, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2020).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Money emoji
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Athaenara • DeltaQuad
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Fishhead64 • Kudpung • Mikaey

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg DeltaQuad

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg DeltaQuad

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg DeltaQuad

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

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

Miscellaneous
 * Following the 2020 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: BRPever, Krd, Martin Urbanec, MusikAnimal, Sakretsu, Sotiale, and Tks4Fish. There are a total of seven editors that have been appointed as stewards, the most since 2014.
 * The 2020 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Ajraddatz and Uzoma Ozurumba; they will serve for one year.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:20, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of File:Edmund-Hillary-closeup.jpg


The file File:Edmund-Hillary-closeup.jpg has been proposed for deletion&#32;because of the following concern: "unused, low-res, no obvious use"

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

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

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

This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:03, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Demonyms and adjectives
I don't get it. Why do that, when we don't write "Australia actress" for instance? Both are nationalities, not countries. What adjective is there except "New Zealander" for a person who is from New Zealand?-Mcc1789 (talk) 21:30, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Replied at User talk:Mcc1789- gadfium 21:36, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Gadfium, we should have something about this on WPNZ so that we can refer to it. This happens all the time; this morning I tidied up an entry by User:Red Director, for example.  Schwede 66  22:19, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'm not sure quite where on WPNZ this would go, but if we have it documented somewhere then we can point people to it. The conversation is evolving at User talk:Mcc1789, and I've realised this is not a New Zealand idiosyncrasy but part of a rule of English which is instinctive to me but I've never seen explained.- gadfium 22:27, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Maybe here?  Schwede 66  03:07, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I've added List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations to the project guidelines. The discussion at Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 March 25 was interesting but not conclusive.- gadfium 05:17, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the update. I meant to check on that. Guess it is the standard usage. Odd. I'm still confused how there's no singular "New Zealander" denonym, given we have the plural "New Zealanders". Oh well. English makes no sense.Mcc1789 (talk) 16:41, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Happy First Edit Day!
 Happy First Edit Day! Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 00:07, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2020).

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Cabayi • Lee Vilenski
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Boing! said Zebedee
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Jonny-mt • MarkGallagher • PeaceNT
 * Pictogram voting rename.png →

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg SilkTork • WereSpielChequers

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg NativeForeigner

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Someguy1221
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Daniel Case

Guideline and policy news
 * There is an ongoing request for comment to streamline the source deprecation and blacklisting process.

Technical news
 * There is a plan for new requirements for user signatures. You can give feedback.

Arbitration
 * Following the banning of an editor by the WMF last year, the Arbitration Committee resolved to hold a Arbcom RfC regarding on-wiki harassment. A draft RfC has been posted at Arbitration Committee/Anti-harassment RfC (Draft) and not open to comments from the community yet. Interested editors can comment on the RfC itself on its talk page.

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

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:00, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Locked Out
Hello, I am the IP address of User:CityOfSails. I have been attempting to log in to that account but it kept saying Password Inccorect. I then requested a password reset email but it did not arrive. Now I have been completely locked out of Wikipedia. I cannot attempt to log in again with my password because it has been reset. I also cannot request another password reset email because Wikipedia would not send two reset emails to a single email address in one day. Can you please help me? 122.60.168.131 (talk) 01:05, 4 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I've replied at User talk:CityOfSails.- gadfium 01:28, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Watchlist request
Could you please add Christopher Luxon to your watchlist?  Schwede 66  02:30, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅- gadfium 02:34, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks. The new editor has been at it again. A much better edit but there is an insistence in removing the reference. I wonder why that is.  Schwede 66  03:22, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I suspect that description is a liability in New Zealand politics, but I expect National knows what their voters like.- gadfium 03:44, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Ah, yes. General election is coming up and pages get an unusually high editor attention. Another one to keep an eye on is New Zealand Young Nationals. I count two SPAs with substantial input in the last 10 days, plus two editors who have a low edit count who have made substantial edits during that time.  Schwede 66  03:50, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

/* Membership */ an attempt at a neutral account of the reasons why VSM won.
Hi

I've made a couple of changes- I hope it works out. I think the events of the mid-to-late nineties at AUSA are an important part of its history, and the destabilization that resulted- deliberate or not (you know where I stand on that issue) can serve as important lessons for the future. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Flootoo (talk • contribs) 13:50, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
 * That's certainly better than the previous edit, which probably failed our policy on material about living people (assuming the person is question is still living).


 * Ideally you would find an account of the debate leading up to the referendum in some reliable source. The article in the New Zealand Herald Students pay high price for freedom, also published in the Otago Daily Times, is a good source but doesn't go into the background. I've just fixed the link to it in the article. If there are copies of Craccum from the period online then they might be useful, though articles in student newspapers aren't always written impartially.- gadfium 21:12, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

User:Bablos939
User:Bablos939 appears to be a single agenda editor. All of his edits are about posting Chinese women with non-Chinese men on mixed marriage and prostitution articles while deleting information anout Chinese men with non-Chinese women. Recommend undoing all his edits. He is deleting massive amounts of sourced information giving false reasons and even changing sourced information to omit things or say things the sources don't say.Buzinezz (talk) 00:57, 2 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I did notice his focus on a single issue. It's not a subject that I have any interest or expertise in, and I only interacted with Bablos on an article connected to New Zealand. Bablos hasn't edited for several weeks, so there doesn't seem to be an ongoing problem. If you think all his edits should be removed, you can do that yourself (it looks like you've started), or you can ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Sexology and sexuality/Sex work task force for people who regularly edit such articles to get involved.- gadfium 01:56, 2 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Judging from what I found it is going to be an ongoing problem. I found Montalk123 who is banned, Chinese-proti who is also banned and Tongolss looking at other revisions of page histories. They appear to be the same person as Bablos939 and make the same types of edits on Chinese interracial marriage and prostitution for over a decade. They also appear to all be from South Korea. He attacks people he perceives to be against Koreans and in his edits on marriage and prostitution he deletes information about Korean women involved in marrying foreigners and prostitution claiming it's "sexist" in broken English while he does the opposite for Chinese women. User:Bablos939 inserted google books links with .kr, South Korea's domain. All three were doing the same things.Buzinezz (talk) 02:45, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2020). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Gnangarra • Kaisershatner • Malcolmxl5

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Callanecc

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg HJ Mitchell

Guideline and policy news
 * Discretionary sanctions have been authorized for all pages and edits related to COVID-19, to be logged at WP:GS/COVID19.
 * Following a recent discussion on Meta-Wiki, the edit filter maintainer global group has been created.
 * A request for comment has been proposed to create a new main page editor usergroup.
 * A request for comment has been proposed to make the bureaucrat activity requirements more strict.

Technical news
 * The Editing team has been working on the talk pages project. You can review the proposed design and share your thoughts on the talk page.
 * created a script that will show a link to the proper Special:Undelete page when viewing a since-deleted revision, see User:Enterprisey/link-deleted-revs.

Miscellaneous
 * A request for comment closed with consensus to create a Village Pump-style page for communication with the Wikimedia Foundation.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

Thoughts on the Timeline layout
Hi and I do not know who to come across with but you since I have worked with you once before and you're also a Kiwi editor. It would be nice to put your thoughts on regarding my recent discussion of Talk:2020 coronavirus pandemic in New Zealand. Thanks so much. Typhoon2013 (talk) 01:36, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

Help with the Māori Wikipedia
Kia ora Gadfium, hope all's well. No doubt you'll be most interested in today's 4pm news conference.

I'm going through Wikidata entries with a view of ensuring that the New Zealand Gazetteer place ID is present. What I've found is that many Wikidata entries relating to the Māori Wikipedia are blank beyond the article name, and need merging with other Wikidata entries. I've just come across Allandale and Allendale; the former referring to the locality on Banks Peninsula and the latter to the locality near Fairlie in the Mackenzie District. The Mackenzie locality is missing from Google Maps (they do have the Allandale Lodge Bed and Breakfast, though) but more importantly, it is misspelled. I'm not sure how disambiguation works so can't move it myself. Could you thus please move Allendale (Q65429408 is the related Wikidata entry)? I would regard the Banks Peninsula location as the primary topic as that one does show up in Google Maps.  Schwede 66  01:22, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * mi:Allendale and mi:Allandale have exactly the same contents. Both were created by a bot on the same day, and never edited since. I suggest the appropriate action is to delete one of the entries, and it seems from what you have written that the one with the 'e' should go.- gadfium 02:51, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, yes, all the Canterbury geo items have exactly the same content. But in this case, they cover different locations, as per Q65429408 and Q65429404. A better alternative to deletion might be to add some words that Q65429408 refers to the locality in the Mackenzie District on State Highway 79 near Fairlie.  Schwede 66  02:58, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Renamed Allendale to Allandale (Horomaka), because that seems to be the more common term for Banks Peninsula, and I don't know what disambiguation to use for Fairlie or Mackenzie District. Updated Q65429404.- gadfium 03:20, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for May 20
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Dominic Killalea, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Wellington High School ([//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dablinks.py/Dominic_Killalea check to confirm] | [//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dab_solver.py/Dominic_Killalea?client=notify fix with Dab solver]). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

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Administrators' newsletter – June 2020
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2020). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg CaptainEek • Creffett • Cwmhiraeth
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Anna Frodesiak • Buckshot06 • Ronhjones • SQL

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg SQL

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment asks whether the Unblock Ticket Request System (UTRS) should allowed any unblock request or just private appeals.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation that they will develop a universal code of conduct for all WMF projects. There is an open local discussion regarding the same.

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

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:27, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

I don't want to be blocked
Gadfium, I am a new user who created an account yesterday and is now on an editing spree, mostly reverting vandalism. When I edit I feel like I will accidentally do something and get blocked for it. As you have been editing wikipedia for 16 years do you have any advice on how to not get blocked? Southern Lights (talk) 01:56, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Just take care when you edit and use preview to make sure you haven't got the syntax wrong. If you revert vandalism, check the previous revision in case you are only restoring earlier vandalism. If adding content, make sure you add your source. Have a good time!- gadfium 03:05, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I note without much surprise that the above account has been blocked as a sockpuppet.- gadfium 09:46, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Gadfium, your edits regarding 'McGowan' are incorrect. Michael Elphick's character was called 'Magowan'. Check the credits of episode 3, series 1. You will find it on YouTube. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.139.86 (talk) 16:43, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I've reverted myself. Thanks for your note.- gadfium 18:01, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Question on Martin Dreyer's Page
Hello Gadfium, in regards to your editing to Martin_Dreyer, could you please advise the reason that those two links been removed. In addition, are you working for Wikipedia & what's your role in Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.29.31.115 (talk) 05:16, 11 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Embedded links are discouraged on Wikipedia. See WP:External links, which starts by saying "Wikipedia articles may include links to web pages outside Wikipedia (external links), but they should not normally be placed in the body of an article." I am a volunteer editor, as are virtually all editors on Wikipedia.- gadfium 05:26, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

What am I not seeing? Comment
The school rolls on the Kerikeri article puzzle me. Kerikeri Primary for example -- the roll is given at 487. Exploring the reference I see it is actually 535 which I think is more realistic. Is there something amiss with the reference markup, namely  ? Cheers. Moriori (talk) 03:27, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
 * who maintains the NZ school roll template.
 * The syntax is correct, although it's always worth checking that the TKI number is the same in both templates and is the correct one. I copy and paste these from article to article and mistakes are always possible. The TKI number is correct for this school. The template NZ school roll data is displaying the number it contains for that TKI.
 * I checked the most recent available roll for the school at https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/data-services/directories/list-of-nz-schools where I used the "Download the whole directory" button, displaying it in Excel. This shows that the data is as of 1 May 2020, so it is more recent than the data in our template. The student population of this school is given in this data as 489, well within expected variation of the March 2020 figure being 487. I then checked https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school/school/population/year?district=&region=&school=1034 to see where the 535 figure comes from, and find it's from 1 July 2019. So our template is more up to date than the per school page on Education Counts!- gadfium 03:55, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Primary schools build up their rolls over the school year as five-year-olds start school, and then drops in December as Year 6/8 students graduate to intermediate or secondary school. The opposite is true for secondary schools; rolls decrease over the year as those 16 and over leave, and then increase in January as new Year 9s enrol. Also, New Zealand had a small "baby boom" in 2007-10, so a drop in rolls at primary schools is expected as the cohort moves through the intermediate years. Lcmortensen (mailbox) 04:46, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Thanks to you both. Interesting, Moriori (talk) 00:03, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

Pat Evison
Sorry, it wasn't YOUR changes to Pat Evison that I meant to revert, but the earlier several ones that made unreferenced changes, made a mess of formatting etc. Paora (talk) 22:30, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
 * No problem, I was wondering whether to tackle the further issues in the article, but at the time I was following up something else and thought that would take too long.- gadfium 22:34, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Category:Submarine simulators has been nominated for renaming
Category:Submarine simulators has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. ZXCVBNM (TALK) 16:37, 27 June 2020 (UTC)