User talk:Pythoncoder/News/Archive 2

Archive 2: January–June 2019

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:39, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-02
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News writers, editors and translators wish you a pleasant 2019 year.

Recent changes
 * RelatedSites extension has been undeployed. It was used to create interwiki links on Wikivoyage, now handled by Wikidata.
 * Octicons-tools.svg MediaWiki logstash logging is moving to a new infrastructure. This is an ongoing deployment.
 * Octicons-tools.svg codesearch.wmflabs.org has been updated, with new and updated repositories and a new search options for code.
 * Octicons-tools.svg On several wikis, an account named "" has been created on December 17 to perform some technical maintenance on AbuseFilter. This account has sysop rights but it's a system user and no human can use it. The account already existed on wikis where AbuseFilter can perform blocks, which are issued using this account. See T212268 for more information and future plans.

Problems
 * Octicons-tools.svg In AbuseFilter, the "" action takes three parameters: count, period and groups. They must now strictly respect the requirements listed on mediawiki.org. A list of broken filters is on Phabricator. If you're familiar with AbuseFilter, please take a look and fix them.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 8. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from January 9. It will be on all wikis from January 10 (calendar).

Meetings
 * Search Platform Office Hours is rescheduled to January 9. Check the details for time and date.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:30, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-03
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * You can now use Google Translate in the content translation tool.
 * You can now add captions to files on Commons. Captions are short descriptions of the file. They can be translated to all languages we use. They can't use wikitext markup.
 * Earlier a quoted HTML attribute had to be followed by a space. Now it doesn't. This means that some pages could look different when you save them even if you didn't edit that part of the text.
 * Octicons-tools.svg Templates with   could not show the difference between the live template and the sandbox version when they were tested. This has now been fixed. has a new   parameter now. You can use it for selectors like.

Problems
 * When you see an edit in the recent changes feed or in the history of a page some of them have tags. Some tags are added automatically. You can also add tags manually. Tags for edits that have been added manually can be edited. This didn't work for a little while. This has now been fixed.

Changes later this week
 * You can move files from your wiki to Wikimedia Commons and keep the file history with the new FileExporter. It will be a beta feature on all wikis from 16 January. If you want to test it you activate it and check your wiki's configuration file.
 * Users who could cause more damage to the wikis if someone took over their account have to have more secure passwords. This includes administrators and other user groups. They can't use passwords that are in a list of common passwords. Accounts with common passwords are easy to take over. The list of common passwords was made longer a few weeks ago and has a different error message. Some user groups have been added to those who can't use common passwords. This is to protect all accounts with user rights that could cause damage.
 * Octicons-tools.svg The AbuseFilter variable  has been removed. It was deprecated in 2016. Now you can't use it. You can fix the filters using it. You can find them if you use the search bar on Special:AbuseFilter.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from January 15  17:55, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-04
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News
 * Some people did not get last week's issue of Tech News. This was because of a problem with MassMessage. If you did not get last week's issue, you can read it on Meta.

Recent changes
 * The content translation tool can now use version 2 as the default version for users who turned on the beta feature. For example it adds the tracking category   to translations that might have used machine translations without fixing the problems. This is so others can find them. You can find this category in   on Wikipedias.
 * https://mediawiki2latex-large.wmflabs.org can now convert collects of up to 800 pages to PDF, EPUB or ODT. Previously this was 200 pages.

Problems
 * When a template was edited with the visual editor, it would sometimes put all information on one line. This makes it difficult to read for editors who use the wikitext editor. It also makes it more difficult to see what happened in a diff. This problem affected edits made between 8 and 17 January and is now fixed.
 * MassMessage is used to post a message to many pages. It has not been working reliably. Some messages have not been posted to everyone.
 * Because of a database problem that had to be fixed immediately you could not edit most wikis for a couple of minutes on 17 January (UTC). This has now been fixed.

Changes later this week
 * You will be able to use template styles in the  namespace.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 January. It will be on all wikis from 24 January (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 January at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  20:37, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 2
 News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (January 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the second issue of the new Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg User:Enterprisey's Easy BRFA


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg BrandonXLF: Floating side menu* Mobile View link* Global Preferences link* Green Redirects* To Top* To Bottom


 * Danski454: code-link* cat-next
 * DannyS712: 12Hour time* Draft no cat
 * Enterprisey: script-installer* hover-edit-section
 * FR30799386's copyvio-check* Abelmoschus Esculentus's Source Assess Table Generator


 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Galobtter's Short description helper (now in version 3)* FR30799386's mobileUndo (released from beta)
 * Evad37's XFDcloser (now detects the age of discussions)* DannyS712's Cat Links (now in version 3)
 * Enterprisey's reply-link (now compatible with Comments in Local Time)


 * Farm-Fresh error go.png Following a discussion, has been redirected to Evad37's fork (User:Evad37/duplinks-alt)
 * Flooded with them hundreds temporarily retired from Wikipedia; DannyS712 is now maintaining their scripts:


 * Page Mover Closure, Section Remover, and Section Mover

Open tasks
 * There is an ongoing discussion about promoting Galobtter's Short description helper to a gadget.
 * Evad37 has proposed that a pseudo-namespace be created for script modules. Find out more and discuss here

Pending requests
 * Anyone knows Galician? Their wikipedia has asked for some help
 * A request has been made for a tool to detect duplicated references
 * Want to help code a gadget? Lend a hand here
 * ...and many more, all available at User scripts/Requests



Miscellaneous
 * There was a recent village pump thread about either Enterprisey's or Equazcion's "Script Installer" tool becoming a gadget. It wasn't officially closed, and so far neither has become a gadget. Stay tuned for updates.

Lets keep up the good work! --DannyS712 (talk) 03:09, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

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Tech News: 2019-05
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The Wikimedia servers use HHVM to run the PHP code. They are going to use PHP7 and stop using HHVM. You can test PHP7 with a new beta feature. That way you can help find and report problems.

Problems
 * When someone moves a page to a name that already exists that page that had the name the article is moved to is deleted. For a couple of months this didn't always work. Some users saw an error message instead. This has now been fixed.

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

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 30 January at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:15, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 January 2019
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Enterprisey • JJMC89
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg BorgQueen
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svgprisey

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
 * Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
 * A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

Technical news
 * A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.

Miscellaneous
 * Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
 * A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:15, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-06
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week
 * It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 February. It will be on all wikis from 7 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 6 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  17:12, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-07
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * You can use the  CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use   there are classes you can use.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 February. It will be on all wikis from 14 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-08
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 February. It will be on all wikis from 21 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking
The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a global consultation about communication. The goal is to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for communication.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis, whatever their experience, their skills or their devices.

We are looking for input from as many different parts of the Wikimedia community as possible. It will come from multiple projects, in multiple languages, and with multiple perspectives.

We are currently planning the consultation. We need your help.

We need volunteers to help talk to their communities or user groups.

You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:
 * 1) First, sign up your group here.
 * 2) Next, create a page (or a section on a Village pump, or an e-mail thread – whatever is natural for your group) to collect information from other people in your group.  This is not a vote or decision-making discussion: we are just collecting feedback.
 * 3) Then ask people what they think about communication processes.  We want to hear stories and other information about how people communicate with each other on and off wiki.  Please consider asking these five questions:
 * 4) When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
 * 5) What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
 * 6) What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
 * 7) What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
 * 8) What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
 * 9) Finally, please go to Talk pages consultation 2019 on Mediawiki.org and report what you learned from your group.  Please include links if the discussion is available to the public.

You can also help build the list of the many different ways people talk to each other.

Not all groups active on wikis or around wikis use the same way to discuss things: it can happen on wiki, on social networks, through external tools... Tell us how your group communicates.

You can read more about the overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave feedback about the consultation process in the language you prefer.

Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you. Trizek (WMF) 15:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-09
<section begin="technews-2019-W09"/> 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
 * There is a new version of the iOS Wikipedia app. It has for example syntax highlighting and new toolbars to make it easier to write wikitext. It also has night mode, a find-on-page function and other things. You can give feedback and suggestions.

Changes later this week
 * When you look at your watchlist or the recent changes page you can use the new filters for edit review. There you can choose tags to filter different edits. Empty tags will no longer be shown.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 February. It will be on all wikis from 28 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2019-W09"/> 21:17, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 February 2019
<div class="hlist" style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:16, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 3
<div style="border-style:solid; border-color:#606060; background-color:#f8f8f8; border-width:2px; text-align:left; padding:7px; border-radius: 1em; box-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.5em rgba(0,0,0,0.75);;" class="plainlinks"> News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (February 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the third issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg Bradv's Superlinks


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Abelmoschus Esculentus: Discussion Closer* Edit Filter False Positives Response Helper
 * PrimeHunter's Search sorter* Reinischmax's Internet Archive Books
 * Erutuon's Charinsert-names* DannyS712's De-Stub* Evad37's Timeless New Message Highlighter
 * RhinosF1's Status Changer* Suffusion of Yellow's Filter Highlighter


 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Timotheus Canens's SPI Helper (now in 1.6.8)

Open tasks
 * Evad37 has raised the idea for a pseudo-namespace be created for "script modules". Find out more and discuss here
 * Cyberpower678 has proposed adding a "Read Now" feature for book references; a working demo is available.
 * FR30799386 has also suggested making their mobileUndo script into a gadget

Miscellaneous
 * Following a discussion, a new process for reviewing code for user-scripts and gadgets has been created.
 * See Code review for more.


 * This month we welcomed three new interface administrators: Evad37, Galobtter, and Enterprisey.
 * On a sadder note, just this morning we said goodbye to Abelmoschus Esculentus, a prolific script writer.

We are three months in to this newsletter and everything is going great–keep on creating amazing new scripts! Who knows–maybe the scripts will take over one day... --DannyS712 (talk) 17:59, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Pending requests WikiProject Portals is looking for some help making scripts...
 * to help build navboxes
 * to simplify adding links to portals
 * and even to make creating the portals easier
 * other open requests are available at User scripts/Requests



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

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Evad37
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg There'sNoTime
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Alex Shih • Brian • Mushroom • Nakon • Oscarthecat • PeruvianLlama • Ragib • Reaper Eternal • Rossami • Tom

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Evad37 • Galobtter
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Ritchie333



CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg There'sNoTime
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Keegan • Ks0stm

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg There'sNoTime
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Ks0stm • Sphilbrick

Guideline and policy news
 * The RfC on administrator activity requirements failed to reach consensus for any proposal.
 * Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.

Technical news
 * A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
 * <tt></tt> has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
 * <tt></tt> has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

Miscellaneous
 * Following the 2019 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Base, Einsbor, Jon Kolbert, Schniggendiller, and Wim b.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:13, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.17


Hello ,


 * News
 * The WMF has announced that Google Translate is now available for translating articles through the content translation tool. This may result in an increase in machine translated articles in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to use the tag and gently remind (or inform) editors that translations from other language Wikipedia pages still require attribution per WP:TFOLWP.


 * Discussions of interest
 * Two elements of CSD G6 have been split into their own criteria: R4 for redirects in the "File:" namespace with the same name as a file or redirect at Wikimedia Commons (Discussion), and G14 for disambiguation pages which disambiguate zero pages, or have "(disambiguation)" in the title but disambiguate a single page (Discussion).
 * db-blankdraft was merged into G13 (Discussion)
 * A discussion recently closed with no consensus on whether to create a subject-specific notability guideline for theatrical plays.
 * There is an ongoing discussion on a proposal to create subject-specific notability guidelines for chemicals and organism taxa.


 * Reminders
 * NPR is not a binary keep / delete process. In many cases a redirect may be appropriate. The deletion policy and its associated guideline clearly emphasise that not all unsuitable articles must be deleted. Redirects are not contentious. See a classic example of the templates to use. More templates are listed at the R template index. Reviewers who are not aware, do please take this into consideration before PROD, CSD, and especially AfD  because not even all admins are aware of such policies, and many NAC do not have a full knowledge of them.


 * NPP Tools Report
 * Superlinks – allows you to check an article's history, logs, talk page, NPP flowchart (on unpatrolled pages) and more without navigating away from the article itself.
 * copyvio-check – automatically checks the copyvio percentage of new pages in the background and displays this info with a link to the report in the 'info' panel of the Page curation toolbar.
 * The NPP flowchart now has clickable hyperlinks.

Six Month Queue Data: Today – Low – 2393 High – 4828 Looking for inspiration? There are approximately 1000 female biographies to review. Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost.

Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:18, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 4
<div style="border-style:solid; border-color:#606060; background-color:#f8f8f8; border-width:2px; text-align:left; padding:7px; border-radius: 1em; box-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.5em rgba(0,0,0,0.75);;" class="plainlinks"> News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (March 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the fourth issue of the new Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg Joeytje50's JWB


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg PAC2: Chouette* Just A Click Away
 * DannyS712: FPC voter* Easy-link
 * Zackmann08's unwatch deleted* Begoon's addUploadsLink
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Pythoncoder's voteSymbols (now in release 3.0.3)* Evad37's rater (now in release 1.2.0)


 * Farm-Fresh error go.png Abelmoschus Esculentus retired from Wikipedia; DannyS712 is now maintaining their scripts:
 * Ajax Rollback* Ajax Rollback with summary* Contributions Search* Tags Manager Teahouse Talkback* Mass Category Modifying Helper* EFFP Response Helper Skip to bottom* Source Assess Table Generator* Userspace* RandomAfC Mass Message Sender* Discussion Closer
 * FR30799386 was blocked from Wikipedia; DannyS712 is now maintaining their scripts:
 * communicator* copyvio-check* Undo* Quick-undo* Readonly* Redirectify* Section-strike

Pending requests
 * A request for helping with help requests
 * Hyphenating ISBNs
 * ...and many more, all available at User scripts/Requests



Miscellaneous
 * The Wikimedia Foundation has requested help with the testing of and feedback on a new tool for "Automated article section recommendations" for stub articles. See the village pump notice for more.
 * has been added to, closing a feature request from 2010. It allows users to load a script via URL (like  ) and specify a callback function (like  ). See ResourceLoader/Core modules for more.

Enjoy your April Fool's, --DannyS712 (talk) 18:43, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

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The Signpost: 31 March 2019
<div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's weekly journal about Wikipedia and Wikimedia <div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 15:41, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
 * From the editors: Getting serious about humor
 * News and notes: Blackouts fail to stop EU Copyright Directive
 * In the media: Women's history month
 * Discussion report: Portal debates continue, Prespa agreement aftermath, WMF seeks a rebranding
 * Featured content: Out of this world
 * Arbitration report: The Tides of March at ARBCOM
 * Traffic report: Exultations and tribulations
 * Technology report: New section suggestions and sitewide styles
 * News from the WMF: The WMF's take on the new EU Copyright Directive
 * Recent research: Barnstar-like awards increase new editor retention
 * From the archives: Esperanza organization disbanded after deletion discussion
 * Humour: The Epistolary of Arthur 37
 * Op-Ed: Pro and Con: Has gun violence been improperly excluded from gun articles?
 * In focus: The Wikipedia SourceWatch
 * Special report: Wiki Loves (50 Years of) Pride
 * Community view: Wikipedia's response to the New Zealand mosque shootings

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

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Reaper Eternal • ThaddeusB
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Bogdangiusca • Christopher Parham • Necrothesp • Schneelocke • Siroxo • Sarah
 * Pictogram voting rename.png →

Interface administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Mr. Stradivarius

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg DeltaQuad
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Kingturtle

Technical news
 * In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
 * 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. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.

Arbitration
 * The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the ARBPIA 1RR editnotice edit notice.

Miscellaneous
 * Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
 * As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - April 2019
Hello, Pythoncoder! Here is the April 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard. Hope you like this month's issue! If you'd like to discuss this issue, please go to this issue's talk page. Happy Reading! -- Thegooduser  Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 03:06, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
 * What's Hot! (Oshwah gets his own Wikiproject!)
 * Articles (Wikipedia Hacks, Vandalism Detection Tricks)
 * Editor's Notes (New design, new page main page coming soon!)
 * Activity Page (Fun Activities, and answers to those trick questions...)
 * Ads (Ads)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 5
<div style="border-style:solid; border-color:#606060; background-color:#f8f8f8; border-width:2px; text-align:left; padding:7px; border-radius: 1em; box-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.5em rgba(0,0,0,0.75);;" class="plainlinks"> News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (April 2019). Hello everyone and welcome to the 5th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg The Evil IP address' Heading Editor


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Newslinger's Notifier* Suffusion of Yellow's View Source
 * BrandonXLF: To Top Button* Restorer* Easy Summary* Subpage Mover


 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Evad37: Xunlink (v2.0.0, handles portals)* XFDcloser (v3.13.0, upgrades at TfD and removal of backlinks, minor tweaks and fixes)
 * Twinkle (commit 26305a2, major updates to csd, xfd, and tag menus, additional improvements to other smaller features)


 * Farm-Fresh error go.png DannyS712 is now maintaining Visual editing, a fork of Flooded with them hundreds' VisualEditist script

Pending requests
 * Twinkle for mobile
 * Working with "psuedo-headings"
 * ...and many more, all available at User scripts/Requests



Until next month, --DannyS712 (talk) 00:22, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

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The Signpost: 30 April 2019
<div class="hlist" style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:37, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg HickoryOughtShirt?4 • RexxS
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Necrothesp
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Bratsche • Kyle Barbour • Kzollman • Madman

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

Bureaucrat changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Primefac

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Reaper Eternal

Guideline and policy news
 * A request for comment concluded that creating pages in the portal namespace should be restricted to autoconfirmed users.
 * Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.

Technical news
 * XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.

Arbitration
 * In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done so will not be resysopped automatically.  All current administrators have been notified of this change.
 * Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.

Miscellaneous
 * A request for comment is currently open to amend the community sanctions procedure to exclude non XfD or CSD deletions.
 * A proposal to remove pre-2009 indefinite IP blocks is currently open for discussion.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - May 2019
Hello, Pythoncoder! Here is the May 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard. Hope you like this month's issue! If you'd like to discuss this issue, please go to this issue's talk page. Happy Reading! -- Thegooduser  Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 23:51, 16 May 2019 (UTC)
 * What's Hot! (battle of the hairs?)
 * Articles (Deny Recognition, Wikipedia's Welcome Page!)
 * The Wikipedian This month we interview an Ip editor!
 * News about Wikipedia! (Wikipedia News and Events!)
 * Editor's Notes (New Sections to Main Page!)
 * Activity Page (Fun Activities, and answers to last time's questions...)
 * Ads (Ads)

NPR Newsletter No.18


Hello ,

, a product manager for the growth team, announced that work is underway in implementing improvements to New Page Patrol as part of the 2019 Community Wishlist and suggests all who are interested watch the project page on meta. Two requested improvements have already been completed. These are:
 * WMF at work on NPP Improvements
 * Allow filtering by no citations in page curation
 * Not having CSD and PRODs automatically marked as reviewed, reflecting current consensus among reviewers and current Twinkle functionality.

has been compiling a list of reliable sources across countries and industries that can be used by new page patrollers to help judge whether an article topic is notable or not. At this point further discussion is needed about if and how this list should be used. Please consider joining the discussion about how this potentially valuable resource should be developed and used.
 * Reliable Sources for NPP

Look for information on the an upcoming backlog drive in our next newsletter. If you'd like to help plan this drive, join in the discussion on the New Page Patrol talk page.
 * Backlog drive coming soon


 * News
 * Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.


 * Discussions of interest
 * A request for bot approval for a bot to patrol two kinds of redirects
 * There has been a lot discussion about Notability of Academics
 * What, if anything, would a SNG for Softball look like

Six Month Queue Data: Today – 7242 Low – 2393 High – 7250

Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost. Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of DannyS712 (talk) at 19:17, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - Update
Dear reader,

Thank you for subscribing to TheWikiWizard. This is a special message letting you know that the June/July/August issues of TheWikiWizard may be delayed, due to the absence of User:Thegooduser. Thegooduser and the other editors of TWW will try their best to deliver these issues to you. Thank you for reading TWW, and we hope to see you again in September 2019. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and enjoy your summer! :-) We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Happy Editing!

Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 00:04, 31 May 2019 (UTC) on behalf of DannyS712 (talk)

The Signpost: 31 May 2019
<div class="hlist" style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:11, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 6
<div style="border-style:solid; border-color:#606060; background-color:#f8f8f8; border-width:2px; text-align:left; padding:7px; border-radius: 1em; box-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.5em rgba(0,0,0,0.75);;" class="plainlinks"> News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (May 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the 6th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg userRightsManager


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Opencooper's domainRedirect* Danski454's hotcat-summary* Guywan's 12HourFormat* DannyS712's Subcategories


 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Twinkle (commit 53b6bf4)

Pending requests
 * Help with helping
 * List annotator
 * ...and many more, all available at User scripts/Requests



Enjoy your summer, --DannyS712 (talk) 23:44, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

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Administrators' newsletter – June 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Andonic • Consumed Crustacean • Enigmaman • Euryalus • EWS23 • HereToHelp • Nv8200pa • Peripitus • StringTheory11 • Vejvančický

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

Guideline and policy news
 * An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
 * An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
 * An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.

Technical news
 * The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion.  You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
 * Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution!  The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.

Miscellaneous
 * The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
 * The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:48, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter July-August 2019


Hello ,

More new features are being added to the feed, including the important red alert for previously deleted pages. This will only work if it is selected in your filters. Best is to 'select all'. Do take a moment to check out all the new features if you have not already done so. If anything is not working as it should, please let us know at NPR. There is now also a live queue of AfC submissions in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to review AfCs, but bear in mind that NPP is an official process and policy and is more important. Articles are still not always being checked thoroughly enough. If you are not sure what to do, leave the article for a more experienced reviewer. Please be on the alert for any incongruities in patrolling and help your colleagues where possible; report patrollers and autopatrolled article creators who are ostensibly undeclared paid editors. The displayed ORES alerts offer a greater 'at-a-glance' overview, but the new challenges in detecting unwanted new content and sub-standard reviewing do not necessarily make patrolling any easier, nevertheless the work may have a renewed interest factor of a different kind. A vibrant community of reviewers is always ready to help at NPR. The backlog is still far too high at between 7,000 and 8,000. Of around 700 user rights holders, 80% of the reviewing is being done by just TWO users. In the light of more and more subtle advertising and undeclared paid editing, New Page Reviewing is becoming more critical than ever. NPR is triage, it is not a clean up clinic. This move feature is not limited to bios so  you may have to slightly re-edit the text in the template before you save the move. Anything that is not fit for mainspace but which might have some promise can be draftified - particularly very poor English and machine and other low quality translations. Remember to use the message feature if you are just tagging an article for maintenance rather than deletion. Otherwise articles are likely to remain perma-tagged. Many creators are SPA and have no intention of returning to Wikipedia. Use the feature too for leaving a friendly note note for  the author of a first article you found well made or interesting. Many have told us they find such comments particularly welcoming and encouraging. Admins are now taking advantage of the new time-limited user rights feature. If you have recently been accorded NPR, do check your user rights to see if this affects you. Depending on your user account preferences, you may receive automated notifications of your rights changes. Requests for permissions are not mini-RfAs. Helpful comments are welcome if absolutely necessary, but the bot does a lot of the work and the final decision is reserved for admins who do thorough research anyway. School and academic holidays will begin soon in various places around the Western world. Be on the lookout for the usual increase in hoax, attack, and other junk pages.
 * WMF at work on NPP Improvements
 * QUALITY of REVIEWING
 * Backlog
 * Move to draft
 * Notifying users
 * PERM
 * Other news

Our next newsletter might be announcing details of a possible election for co-ordinators of NPR. If you think you have what it takes to micro manage NPR, take a look at New Page Review Coordinators - it's a job that requires a lot of time and dedication.

Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost. Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 7
<div style="border-style:solid; border-color:#606060; background-color:#f8f8f8; border-width:2px; text-align:left; padding:7px; border-radius: 1em; box-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.5em rgba(0,0,0,0.75);;" class="plainlinks"> News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (June 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the 7th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
 * Cscr-featured.svg Evad37's MoveToDraft


 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg MJL's textDisallow* Opencooper's talkCount* Guywan's List Entry Annotator
 * SD0001: DYK-helper* find-archived-section* draft-sort-burst* UnassessedArticleLinks* StubSorter
 * DannyS712: Subcategories* Examine edits* ExpandHistory* Global watchlist


 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg DannyS712's DiscussionCloser

Open tasks
 * FR30799386's mobileUndo (maintained on enwiki by DannyS712) is currently a proposed gadget. Join the discussion at the village pump
 * Interstellarity has requested help with forking Joshua Scott's pending changes script to add a feature



Miscellaneous
 * After an MfD, DannyS712's MMS was deleted. It was originally created by . If you import either of these scripts, you may want to uninstall them, as they no longer exist.

Having published 6 issues of this newsletter, I decided it was time to move it out from my user space. It is now located at Scripts++. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 11:45, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

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The June 2019 Signpost is out!
<div class="hlist" style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:53, 30 June 2019 (UTC)