User talk:Iazyges/Archives/2017/February

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss this newsletter • Subscribe • Archive

13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

4th GA Cup - Round 3
--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:10, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of USS Dictator
The article USS Dictator you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:USS Dictator for things which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 18:01, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

New Page Review - newsletter No.2
Hello , We now have New Page Reviewers! Most of us requested the user right at PERM, expressing a wish to be able to do something about the huge backlog, but the chart on the right does not demonstrate any changes to the pre-user-right levels of October. The backlog is still steadily growing at a rate of 150 a day or 4,650 a month. Only 20 reviews a day by each reviewer over the next few days would bring the backlog down to a managable level and the daily input can then be processed by each reviewer doing only 2 or 3 reviews a day - that's about 5 minutes work! It didn't work in time to relax for the Xmas/New Year holidays. Let's see if we can achieve our goal before Easter, otherwise by Thanksgiving it will be closer to. Remember that we are the only guardians of quality of new articles, we alone have to ensure that pages are being correctly tagged by non-Reviewer patrollers and that new authors are not being bitten. This is even more important and extra vigilance is required considering Orangemoody,  and
 * A HUGE backlog
 * Second set of eyes
 * Abuse
 * 1) this very recent case of paid advertising by a Reviewer resulting  in  a community ban.
 * 2) this case in January of paid advertising by a Reviewer, also resulting in  a community ban.
 * 3) This Reviewer is indefinitely blocked for sockpuppetry.

Coordinator election
Kudpung is stepping down after 6 years as unofficial coordinator of New Page Patrolling/Reviewing. There is enough work for two people and two coords are now required. Details are at NPR Coordinators; nominate someone or nominate yourself. Date for the actual suffrage will be published later. Discuss this newsletter here. If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:11, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your work on Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges (consul 265 BC)
Thank you for taking the time to review the proposed deletion of this article, and fix the issues! I hope my subsequent edits didn't ruin your work. I started on it when I saw a PROD notice appear unexpectedly on the talk page of another article, in the middle of a move discussion, and although I couldn't see anything on the Gurges article, I assumed that it would be proposed for deletion as soon as the editor realized his "mistake". So I undertook to fix the same problems that you did, apparently neglecting to check recent edits to discover that you'd already deprodded it. As it turned out, there was still a serious issue of potentially duplicated material between two biographies perhaps representing the same individual. So I spent my morning revising both of them to try and work out 1) whether there could reasonably be two of them, and 2) if so, what to say about the controversy in each article. I finally resolved this by focusing the prodded article on the controversy as to his identity, without duplicating most of the other material (although there wasn't really much else to duplicate anyway). Only this morning, when I saw the deprod notice, and tried to figure out what changes had been made in the process, did I realize you'd already worked to fix the problems. So I wanted to let you know that your efforts were sincerely appreciated! P Aculeius (talk) 14:49, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * No problem! -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  15:02, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

RFC and DRN
You were correct. An RFC takes precedence over DRN. Thank you for noticing the RFC. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:50, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXXX, February 2017
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) 04:45, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

I am not puppet!
are you idiot? (Idot (talk) 18:26, 7 February 2017 (UTC))
 * check my global contribution dumb ass! (Idot (talk) 18:31, 7 February 2017 (UTC))
 * 1. Chill out. 2. That has nothing to do with VP:M. 3. Your post highly resembled a post made by a sockpuppet. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  21:19, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
Hi Iazyges! I'm sorry that another was able to review my GA nominee Europeans in Medieval China before you were able to tackle it. I'd like to know if you'd be interested in reviewing Macedonia (ancient kingdom) instead, my latest Good Article nominee. Do you have time for this sort of thing? If so I'd be very grateful if you could review it. The GA review process is so damned slow otherwise! Pericles of Athens Talk 12:52, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Sure thing PericlesofAthens, I'm about to leave the house right now, but I should be able to start on it as soon as I get back! -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  13:42, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Katherine Johnson
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Katherine Johnson. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Mongolia is not and was not a part of China!About-a-treaty of Kyakhta (1915)
It was unjust and agreement violations by butt and international laws and regulations against small and poor-country.16:32, 10 February 2017 (UTC)Wrote from Ulan-bator-Mongolia!....... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.181.179.209 (talk)

Raqqa
Hi and thank you for dealing with RMT requests. Re this – I don't think it's generally a good idea to move a talk page without leaving a redirect if it has incoming links. – Uanfala (talk) 14:58, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Emmett Till
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Emmett Till. Legobot (talk) 04:23, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Sirius
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Sirius. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Political appointments of Donald Trump
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Political appointments of Donald Trump. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Disputed status of Gibraltar
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Disputed status of Gibraltar. Legobot (talk) 04:24, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

February 2017
Welcome to Wikipedia. It might not have been your intention, but your recent edit removed a file deletion tag from File:DebraKahnTolchinsky.jpg. When removing deletion tags, please be sure to either resolve the problem that the template refers to, or give a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry, as your removal of this template has been reverted. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia, and if you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Whpq (talk) 02:47, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I removed the DI under the belief it was being DI'd for not being used, rather than the possibility of there being a free version. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  04:18, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Far-left politics in the United Kingdom
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Far-left politics in the United Kingdom. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Taiwan
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Taiwan. Legobot (talk) 04:24, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Government of the Republic of China
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Government of the Republic of China. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:List of sovereign states
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:List of sovereign states. Legobot (talk) 04:24, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:George Wylde
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:George Wylde. Legobot (talk) 04:24, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

New Page Review-Patrolling: Coordinator elections
Your last chance to nominate yourself or any New Page Reviewer, See Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Coordination. Elections begin Monday 20 February 23:59 UTC. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:17, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Request a query
hi, I noticed you watch the above page, this request was posted 2 days ago(UTC), I was wondering if you might be able to help, thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:08, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Willie and Joe
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Willie and Joe. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Guild of Copy Editors February 2017 News
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:21, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

NPP stats
Hi Iazyges, you left a message at this query request - did you manage to take a look? -- Samtar talk &middot; contribs 10:19, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * User:Samtar Yeah I did, I started it at User:Iazyges/Stats. But counting out how many patrols there were is a pain in the rear, so I'm only gonna do the other 4 ones. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  15:56, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

NPP training
Hi Iazyges! I've been doing new page patrol over the last week or so, and wanted to keep learning about how to do new pages patrol. New pages patrol/School has you listed as an instructor, so I decided to ask. Please let me know if you can do this, as well as your schedule; lots of the time during the week, (as an aside, I'm in EST) I will be in class, and unable to respond, though after classes I will be able to. Thanks! MereTechnicality  ⚙  22:47, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * (Another thing: I did apply for the NPP right about 2 weeks ago, but was denied because my account didn't meet the 90-day threshold by about 6 days. Just to let you know.) MereTechnicality   ⚙  22:49, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * User:MereTechnicality Sure thing! I'm not as active as I have been in past, due to school mostly, but I should have time enough to help you. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  23:27, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks! MereTechnicality   ⚙  23:28, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Where/when do I start? Let me know what times work for you (or what times don't work for you). Most of my free time is between 3 and 6 PM EST/8 and 11 PM UCT, though there is a small amount of free time outside of that time. MereTechnicality   ⚙  23:36, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The first thing to do would be to familiarize yourself with CSD, PROD and AFD reasons, and deletion policy in general, then read up on NPP policy. The rest is mostly experience based. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  23:45, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I live in CST, should be available around those hours. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  23:46, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Okay. I think that I'm pretty familiar with CSD. The only problems that I have are with pages that only contain infoboxes; whether to tag something as a test or as vandalism (though I often figure that out based on how new the creator is); and whether to tag suspected (not confirmed) sockpuppet's pages as G5. For PROD, it's where the page, for whatever reason, does not need to exist, and the deletion would be uncontroversial. (BLPPROD is where it's a BLP and there are no sources. In contrast to PROD the template can only be deleted when sources have been added) AfD is basically the same thing, but where the deletion would be controversial (including if the author deletes the PROD template).


 * I have dinner now, so I'm going to go eat. I would like to know what to do with regards to the CSD confusion I listed above. Thank you for mentoring me! MereTechnicality   ⚙  23:59, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Infobox only is currently being discussed, and currently has no definitely answer, PROD is usually "no sources for x years", or other such concerns. The sockpuppet G5 thing doesn't technically work until they are actually banned, but almost all sockpuppet pages I've seen fit G4. --  Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  16:00, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Usually all the recreations I see go through CSD, which is not counted under G4. Does the 10-15 minute "grace period" for A1, A3, and A7 apply to recreated articles? Or can I tag them immediately? MereTechnicality   ⚙  17:44, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't do according to everything I've seen, especially if the article was recreated after being deleted under one of them. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  17:45, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Okay. Something unrelated to NPP, is there a way to make it so I don't have to keep adding colons to replies? MereTechnicality   ⚙  17:50, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Go to your mw:User:MereTechnicality/global.js and add  to it. It automatically adds another colon when you hit return on a line. It also signs your comments automatically. --  Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  17:55, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It doesn't seem to have worked. Oh well, that's okay. Can you clarify what you meant when you said "PROD is usually "no sources for x years", or other such concerns"? MereTechnicality   ⚙  19:53, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Prod is meant to literally "prod" or poke, someone into action, ie "please fix this, if you don't it will get deleted", whereas AFD is for larger problems. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  22:05, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression it was for Proposed Delete. MereTechnicality   ⚙  22:08, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * It is, but it also works literally, basically a wake up call. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  22:09, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

(wrapping discussion back out of the colons) Ah, ok. Should I use PROD on new articles where it should be deleted and no CSD apply? MereTechnicality  ⚙  22:11, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Not really, prod tends to be for longstanding problems, such as lack of citations etc. Usually it is used for niche subjects, such as some obscure protein, but it wouldn't be used for say "Donald Trump's cabinet" even if it had no citations, because it is a matter of high public interest. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  22:14, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Alright, got it. You said that I should learn deletion policy, then read up on NPP policy. I've read WP:NPP, and every page linked on WP:NPP school. Are there other essays/guidelines you'd recommend that I read? MereTechnicality   ⚙  00:54, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

New Page Review - newsletter No.3
Hello , Voting for coordinators has now begun HERE and will continue through/to 23:59 UTC Monday 06 March. Please be sure to vote. Any registered, confirmed editor can vote. Nominations are now closed. We now have New Page Reviewers but despite numerous appeals for help, the backlog has NOT been significantly reduced. If you asked for the New Page Reviewer right, please consider investing a bit of time - every little helps preventing spam and trash entering the mainspace and Google when the 'NO_INDEX' tags expire. Discuss this newsletter here. If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:35, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Still a MASSIVE backlog

The future of NPP and AfC
Voting for coordinators has now begun HERE and will continue through/to 23:59 UTC Monday 06 March. The coordinators will do their best for for the advancement of the improvement of NPP and AfC and generally keep tracks on the development of those things. Coordinators have no additional or special user benefits, but they will be 'go to' people and will try to keep discussions in the right places. This very much involves this project too, especially with growing renewed interest around the site about what WP:ACTRIAL was all about.

Please be sure to vote. Any registered, confirmed editor can vote. Nominations are now closed. Discuss this message here. If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from this list. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:31, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Ty Law
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Ty Law. Legobot (talk) 04:23, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of USS Dictator
The article USS Dictator you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:USS Dictator for things which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 00:41, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Germany
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Germany. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Operation Léa
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Operation Léa. Legobot (talk) 04:23, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

RFC on routine file deletion
Hi Iazyges. Just noticed you closed this after only about a week of discussion. As per Requests for comment, RfCs are usually open for 30 days. If you want the community to accept this proposal as a new policy, then I think you should re-open the discussion, allow it to run for another three weeks, and advertise the discussion at Template:Centralized discussion or via watchlist notice. Regards,  F ASTILY   09:36, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geography
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geography. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Unused License Tags
Hi Iazyges. FastilyBot compiles a weekly list of free license tags that can be sorted by transclusion count. It might be useful to some of your recent work. Regards,  F ASTILY   10:01, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks, its super helpful! -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  14:08, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Battle of France
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Battle of France. Legobot (talk) 04:24, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

March Madness 2017
G'day all, please be advised that throughout March 2017 the Military history Wikiproject is running its March Madness drive. This is a backlog drive that is focused on several key areas:


 * tagging and assessing articles that fall within the project's scope
 * updating the project's currently listed A-class articles to ensure their ongoing compliance with the listed criteria
 * creating articles that are listed as "requested" on the project's various task force pages or other lists of missing articles.

As with past Milhist drives, there are points awarded for working on articles in the targeted areas, with barnstars being awarded at the end for different levels of achievement.

The drive is open to all Wikipedians, not just members of the Military history project, although only work on articles that fall (broadly) within the military history scope will be considered eligible. More information can be found here for those that are interested, and members can sign up as participants at that page also.

The drive starts at 00:01 UTC on 1 March and runs until 23:59 UTC on 31 March 2017, so please sign up now.

For the Milhist co-ordinators. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) & MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:23, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Review for Germanicus article
I'd really appreciate it if you could review the article Germanicus. Any thoughts on the article would be nice. I saw you got Iazyges promoted to GA status, which is what I'd like to do with Germanicus in the future. Psychotic  Spartan  123  09:50, 26 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Will do. -- Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  14:04, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of USS Dictator
The article USS Dictator you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:USS Dictator for things which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sturmvogel 66 -- Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 21:41, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Operation Storm
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Operation Storm. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 28 February 2017 (UTC)