User talk:GeneralNotability/Archives/2021/April

A barnstar for you!
lol sike jp×g 03:20, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

April 2021
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although we invite everyone to contribute constructively to our encyclopedia, at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to User talk:Primefac, was not in accordance with the interests of the Cabal, and as soon as we figure out how to do so, it will be reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, or harsh realities and dark truths of Wikipedia bias you'd like to expose, and take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thank you. Majavah (talk!) 06:25, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

I'm taking you to ARC
admin aboose. – MJL &thinsp;‐Talk‐☖ 15:50, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Okay. GeneralNotability (talk) 23:21, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2021
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2021). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Alexandria • Happyme22 • RexxS

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

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

Arbitration
 * A community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure is open until April 25.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:20, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Greeting Human
--ԺՐՊլՅՏ (talk) 01:52, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Fancy, huh? Drmies (talk) 02:01, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I see is currently beating  on Arturo's "best people" list. You're gonna need to work on those poll numbers, Tony! GeneralNotability (talk) 02:10, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * deleted me once, so it's fair he's ranked above me. TonyBallioni (talk) 03:06, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * And I'll do it again. I don't know if you know this, but I sent him an Easter basket. Drmies (talk) 13:39, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Remember, Arturo, these two have both run checkuser on you, I haven't. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:42, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-14
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Editors can collapse part of an article so you have to click on it to see it. When you click a link to a section inside collapsed content it will now expand to show the section. The browser will scroll down to the section. Previously such links didn't work unless you manually expanded the content first.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-tools.svg The citoid API will use for example  instead of   for dates with a month but no days. This is because   could be confused with   instead of  . This is called level 1 instead of level 0 in the Extended Date/Time Format.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).

Future changes
 * Octicons-tools.svg PAWS can now connect to the new Wiki Replicas. Cross-database  will no longer work from 28 April. There is a new way to connect to the databases. Until 28 April both ways to connect to the databases will work. If you think this affects you and you need help you can post on Phabricator or on Wikitech.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. 

19:38, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

The Downlink – April 2021
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:16, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

(Possibly) stale page restrictions
Hi, I was recently doing a review of all the page restrictions I've placed or taken ownership of over the years, and I noticed that a majority of the pages were no longer battlegrounds and didn't require restrictions anymore. I was looking backwards a couple of months on the article history and talk page looking for major diputes, and for the most part things were pretty quiet. I've removed the BRD restrictions from about 70% of the articles that I had put them on, and the 1RR restrictions from probably 90% of pages.

I figured while I was at it I might as well try to track down the other pages with active sanctions and see if the admins who placed them might also be interested in doing a similar review. The following list might not be complete, but it's the best I could come up with by tracking usages of the American Politics AE template. (Perhaps you can compare it to whatever system you have for tracking your active sanctions.) For convenience I'll put links to the edit notice page and the talk page.


 * Template:Editnotices/Page/Kimberly Klacik	-	Talk:Kimberly Klacik

I'm hoping that removing some of these restrictions can help restore some sense of normalcy to the topic area. In any case I hope this list is helpful. ~Awilley (talk) 00:03, 9 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , thanks for the note. I think that the situation regarding Kimberly Klacik has died down, so I've lifted the restrictions. GeneralNotability (talk) 00:50, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Oyo Rooms
Hi, that user reverted your edits trying to possibly promote that non-RS app/social media link. I've reverted them and issued a level-2 warning for WP:PROMO here. I replaced that source yesterday with RS sources and expanded that part. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 07:51, 11 April 2021 (UTC)
 * , thanks for the heads-up (and thank you for taking the time to add RS!). I'll deal with it tonight. SubjectiveNotability  a GN franchise (talk to the boss) 13:38, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
 * , I see they've backed off for the moment, so I won't be doing anything...but I'll be asking COIBot to keep an eye on that particular domain, just in case. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:55, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * That would be a very good idea. Yes, they seem to have backed off, even apologized for their behavior. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 06:13, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

SPI merging
Hi GN - Sockpuppet investigations/Baingan Curry - all socks are blocked and tagged, but it looks like it needs merging into another case. Want to walk me through it (or do it yourself and then tell me what you did)? Cheers Girth Summit  (blether)  14:50, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi ! So here's what you need to do:
 * First, does the entire case need to be merged, or is there just one section that was filed under the wrong master? If the latter, copy the section with attribution (i.e. edit summary to the effect of "Copying incorrectly filed case from (link to source page), see that page's history for attribution). In this case, it's the entire case, move on to step 2.
 * Make sure the pages don't have any overlapping history (last edit on target page must have been before the first edit of the current page). If they do have overlapping history, you copy with attribution instead - merging pages when they have overlapping revisions leads to a messy history. In this case, there is no overlapping edit history, so you're good to proceed.
 * If you're here, you can use spihelper's case merge! Go to the case that needs to be merged, open up spihelper, under the date dropdown click "All Sections," then check "Move/merge full case (Clerk only)". You'll be prompted for the name of the correct sockmaster, have to acknowledge that you want to perform a histmerge, and then spihelper will take care of the merge for you (since the target is older than the current page, you can't use Special:MergeHistory, you have to do the old-fashioned delete + copy + undelete).
 * If the case you were merging had an archive, check the new case's archive and reorder as necessary; not needed in this case.
 * Retag socks as needed.
 * I know this sounds complicated, but once you've done it a couple times it's pretty painless. If you do run into any issues, ping me and I can help you sort them out. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:46, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * , thanks - I think I've done that right, appreciate the steer, that was fairly straightforward, good old spihelper :). If you come across a case that requires a more complicated histmerge at any point, I'd appreciate the chance to watch you work on it so I can get a handle on what needs to be done. Cheers Girth Summit  (blether)  07:03, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

SPI question
Greetings. I saw that you blocked user:Pealnotch, and part of the reason was "yet another member of the Camella spam group, possibly also block-evading". An article they created was moved to draft by as a UPE concern. That article, Lessandra, was moved back to mainspace by another new user, user:DaveSkylar. The article was also worked on by another blocked editor, user:Theniftymom2021, as well as by another new editor, user:Repaypolk. My question is, is the appropriate venue to report something like this SPI? Or is there a better way to go about it?  Onel 5969  TT me 15:05, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , that's a good question. I don't think we have a proper SPI for this group, but it would not have been wrong to file it at SPI. Posting to my talk page works too :). Repaypolk has my attention, but behavior is inconsistent with the rest of this farm. Blocked DaveSkylar, moved Lessandra back to draft, ECP move-protected it for good measure. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:52, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Will also keep my eye on Repaypolk.  Onel 5969  TT me 03:28, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

SPI help
Hey. Could you possibly check Sockpuppet investigations/Arturo Ungaro? I opened the case about five days ago and the user has continued their vandalism spree. A large part of the vandalism are several intentionally incorrect page moves that need to be reverted (preferably without leaving a redirect back). If you don't the time for latter, I can handle parts of it, though I cannot always G6-deleted. Regards, IceWelder  &#91; &#9993; &#93; 14:57, 14 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , handled the SPI, working on reverting the page moves. GeneralNotability (talk) 23:56, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

WP:SPI case
Hi! Would you care to take a look at Sockpuppet investigations/Ichika Kasuga, seeing as you're familiar with the case? TompaDompa (talk) 08:24, 15 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , handled. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:11, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks! TompaDompa (talk) 08:38, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXXX, April 2021
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 02:09, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Since the matter is resolved
Can you delete the template/script created page at User:Tataqp? The sock issue seems to have been resolved, the unblock has been granted and I don't think that userpage in that form is justified any longer? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 04:21, 18 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , done. GeneralNotability (talk) 21:49, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Greeting Human
I grant you #4 top spot. But always Praxie is #1 best. --IHeartPraxieMost (talk) 21:16, 18 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I can live with that. GeneralNotability (talk) 21:48, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-16
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Email to the Wikimedia wikis are handled by groups of Wikimedia editors. These volunteer response teams now use Znuny instead of OTRS. The functions and interface remain the same. The volunteer administrators will give more details about the next steps soon.
 * If you use syntax highlighting, you can see line numbers in the 2010 and 2017 wikitext editors when editing templates. This is to make it easier to see line breaks or talk about specific lines. Line numbers will soon come to all namespaces.
 * Octicons-tools.svg Because of a technical change there could be problems with gadgets and scripts that have an edit summary area that looks similar to this one. If they look strange they should use  to go back to how they looked before.
 * The latest version of MediaWiki came to the Wikimedia wikis last week. There was no Tech News issue last week.

Changes later this week
 * There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes
 * The user group  will be renamed  . This is for technical reasons. This is the technical name. It doesn't affect what you call the editors with this user right on your wiki. This is planned to happen in two weeks. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. 

16:47, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

SPI helper issue
Hi. If there a way to make sure that the SPI helper script checks if there is already a global lock request at SRG before requesting a global lock? m:User:Xiplus/TwinkleGlobal does this, so is it possible? aeschyIus (talk) 13:15, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
 * , That's maintained by User:GeneralNotability. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:29, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
 * , yes, that's something I can look into. Tracking here. GeneralNotability (talk) 20:52, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 April 2021
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:31, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry investigations and it’s intricacies
I was about to open an SPI but decided not to because I felt the suspected master sock is now “stale”. My question is, why are some SPI's declined because the master sock is stale? and if you can, how long constitutes “stale” ? Celestina007 (talk) 22:10, 25 April 2021 (UTC)


 * , "stale" can mean a few different things at SPI. From a technical (that is, CheckUser) perspective, an account is "stale" if it has not made any actions in 90 days (this generally can be found by seeing when their last edit or log action was, though it includes deleted edits). For IP addresses, we'll usually call them "stale" if they haven't edited in a week or so and the IP appears to move around frequently - that usually means the editor is on a different IP now and there's no point in blocking it. And in general...if none of the accounts in the SPI are blocked and the majority haven't edited in a long time, we usually won't bother with blocking them, since at that point a block would be punitive rather than preventative. GeneralNotability (talk) 00:54, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

Tech News: 2021-17
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Templates have parameters that can have specific values. It is possible to suggest values for editors with TemplateData. You can soon see them as a drop-down list in the visual editor. This is to help template users find the right values faster.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. 

21:23, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Feedback request: Wikipedia technical issues and templates request for comment
Your feedback is requested &#32;at Template talk:Math&#32; on a "Wikipedia technical issues and templates" request for comment. Thank you for helping out! You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name. Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) &#124; Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. &#124; Sent at 03:30, 27 April 2021 (UTC)