User talk:RoySmith/Archive 49

DYK hooks
Hi! Thanks for volunteering to fill preps at DYK. I noticed that you promoted the ALT1 hook from Template:Did you know nominations/Banking in ancient Rome to prep set. That hook, however, has not yet been approved, so we cannot promote it. Whenever a new hook is suggested by someone, we need a reviewer to approve that before promoting. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 15:35, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * OK, what's the best way to fix it now? -- RoySmith (talk) 15:37, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd say that the ideal course of action would be to reopen the nomination and add  to request a new reviewer to check ALT1. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 15:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Will do, thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:11, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi there! Echoing Kavyansh's thanks with another note: as a general rule, if you're going to make any significant changes to the hook, you'll want to ping the nominator in the edit summary. We get recurring discussions every time someone wasn't pinged about their hook changes, and didn't like the outcome :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 21:19, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
 * It wasn't clear how to interpret WP:DYKNN where it says, "Don't be afraid to ruthlessly trim hooks of extraneous information and clauses". Please continue to provide feedback as I continue to make a hash of things. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:46, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank you for volunteering to build preps, and you are hopefully open to questions. You dramatically shortened the hook for the Ukrainian composer. In that version, we don't see a relation to Ukraine, so no hint at what kind of censorship, and there's also no hint at his class and perios: the short version could be about any music, including trivial 21st-century, while we talk about someone rated one of three for a whole period, which most people don't know so I believe it's worth saying. I suggest you stick to approved hooks. If you don't like them you could ping people in the nomination, asking what they think of your version. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:25, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * @Gerda Arendt thank you for your feedback, and yes, of course I'm open to questions. As I said above, I was just going with the advice in WP:DYKNN about trimming hooks, but it's obvious from your comment that I went too far.  I have restored the original hook in the prep area. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:38, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you, that's great! - Quite generally, as a prep builder, your job is to place approved hooks, and while omission of redundant words, or more elegant phrasing may count still as what was approved, major cuts really make a hook different so not the approved one. Discussing this beforehand - such as saying "I was going to promote this but think it could be shortened" would cause you little trouble, and leaves the question open and transparent for all to see. What happens between nomination and prep often remains a mystery, needlessly so. We had a hook today about a woman of colour improvising jazz-fusion, and it came without any of this leaving only improvising (no woman, no colour no jazz-fusion, not even jazz), and no image which would have told without extra words that she was a woman of colour. I had no time to fight ... --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:48, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * No problem. I also went back and reverted some of the other edits I made to hooks in the prep.  It might be worth revising the "Don't be afraid to ruthlessly trim hooks of extraneous information and clauses" that is currently in the instructions, however. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:58, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for helping with the preps, - it must be tough, and many gave up because we complain too much ;) - The rose pic was taken on 11 Sep 2021, and this year was full of music that day, Tag des offenen Denkmals, not only singing in church and rehearsals for Verdi's Requiem, but two concerts at special places pictured, one a synagogue (pictured on its wall). Today three DYK: a piece we'll perform on Sunday, a violinist we heard in June playing the Berg Concerto (my brother played in the orchestra), and a Youth Orchestra shaped by a conductor who recently died. Almost too much of a good thing. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:23, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

... and today I wrote an article about music premiered today, Like as the hart. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:05, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:14, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Checkuser on MarsTrombone
Hi, thank you for your prompt close at SPI re MarsTrombone/Jessehutch19. Neither account has made a mainspace edit since, but I've noticed that one is backing the other up on BLP noticeboard and that they're apparently talking to each other on Jessehutch19's talk page. It seems likely that there will be another attempt at mainspace soon. Given that you said "a Likely finding wouldn't be unreasonable" I'm not sure how to relate to them. I really don't want to waste my time arguing with Jesse if he's really a user already blocked for tendentious editing, let alone defending against an illicit tag-team. I'm hoping that, now that both are simultaneously active for the first time, it'll be possible to be sure? Or maybe that's not at all how it works. But if it is I'd appreciate it if you could check again. Thanks for your service! GordonGlottal (talk) 03:50, 19 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the note. I'll take a look. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:29, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

I forgot to mention — Jessehutch19 also edited his own page as IP 192.159.179.26. GordonGlottal (talk) 22:24, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

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Riddle me this
Given the info on CU-wiki regarding this sockmaster, is Sockpuppet investigations/Əzərbəyəniləri/Archive not the same? Or has the data on these two masters become co-mingled at some point? Thoughts?-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 17:12, 22 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @Ponyo Interesting. It certainly seems likely.  I'll do some digging there when I get a chance. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:21, 22 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I was going to poke around, but you've already done some substantial heavy lifting on these cases (in other words, I'm passing the buck, ha) .-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 17:24, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Viking Saga censorship incident
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 00:02, 21 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @RoySmith Just wanted thank you for your work on the Viking Saga page, which I discovered today via DYK. (Hadn't heard of the incident previously; glad it's documented.)
 * Enjoyed the Not advertising??? and Wiki Sadness bits on your about page :)
 * Jonathan Deamer (talk) 17:19, 21 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the kind words, and I'm glad you liked the article. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:42, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 21:31, 23 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Yeah, but the queen still beat me by a mile :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 21:33, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Wikitext list markup
Regarding [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)&diff=1111912335&oldid=1111896673 this comment]: if you're interested, here are a few links describing wikitext list markup. My apologies if you have see any of the following links already, or if it covers ground with which you are already familiar. The basic documentation for list markup is at Help:List, with more information on using lists in talk page discussions available at Help:Talk pages and Colons and asterisks. My contribution is User:Isaacl/On wikitext list markup. To quote a little of it: "The *, #, or : characters introduce a new list of a specific type—bulleted, numbered, or unbulleted—as well as a specific item in that list. ... So a string of these characters defines a nesting of lists. For example, *:# means (reading from right to left) a third-level numbered list item nested in a second-level unbulleted list item nested in a first-level bulleted item." The rest of the page continues to discuss nested lists. I hope some of this may be useful. isaacl (talk) 23:55, 23 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Except that sometimes it goes sideways. See Special:Diff/1111969783 :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 00:12, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, if someone manually nests an unbulleted list item and writes in their own number, that's what you get ;-) isaacl (talk) 02:34, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

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MediaWiki message delivery 00:28, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Arsi786
During the last SPI, I forgot to mention that this account (LionAjk) was created 1 month after his main account had unblock rejected.

Can I file a new SPI since more evidence has emerged now, such as: ? Aman Kumar Goel (Talk) 19:42, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:43, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Question about the DYK for Fred Franzia
Hi, RoySmith. Thanks for promoting Template:Did you know nominations/Fred Franzia. I'm just curious: why did you remove "the inexpensive wine nicknamed" from the hook? That explains WHY Two-Buck Chuck was said to have turned the wine industry on its head. Without that definition - the fact that it was a wine, and inexpensive - it seems to me people are left wondering "huh? What the heck is Two-Buck Chuck, and what does it have to do with turning the wine industry on its head?" I know you have a much better understanding of DYK than I do; is it your belief that the way to get people to click on a hook is to leave it kind of unclear or puzzling? I'm not asking you to put it back, more to educate me a little on DYK philosophy. Thanks for any input. MelanieN (talk) 18:55, 2 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Yup, it's a good thing that the hook leaves people wondering. The idea of a hook is to get people interested enough that they click the link to find out more. -- RoySmith (talk) 19:03, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * BTW, I do need to push back on one thing you said, which is you have a much better understanding of DYK than I do. Given how many DYKs you've got and how many I've got, I'm going to just chalk that up to you being kind.  Which is always nice, and sometimes in short supply on the wiki. -- RoySmith (talk) 19:57, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the compliment, but I don’t consider myself any kind of DYK expert, and I know nothing about the inner workings of the system. Kudos to you for taking this essential work on! But looking at some of the comments on your talk page here, I venture to suggest that maybe you are taking the advice, “Don't be afraid to ruthlessly trim hooks of extraneous information and clauses”, a little too far or a little too literally. The key is to remove EXTRANEOUS information, not all context. In my 50-some DYKs this is the first time I have seen the promoting administrator trim a hook, and it surprised me; I think that may be more rare than you think.


 * I agree that some mystery can intrigue people and make them more likely to click on the hook. This one, for example, was a model of brevity and mystery, and got 7000 views as a result. But brevity can be overdone; context is essential. I recently had a DYK that got over 100,000 views in two days - by far my most ever. But if that hook had been trimmed of its context — “…after U.S. Navy pilot Royce Williams engaged in a solo dogfight with seven Soviet MiG-15s during the Korean War…” — I doubt anyone would have looked at it.


 * Anyhow, you can leave mine the way you revised it, but give this suggestion some thought! -- MelanieN (talk) 21:00, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * @MelanieN: If I might chime in, as a talk page stalker and prep set promoter :) I'd say that the frequency with which hooks get trimmed in prep largely depends on the prep set promoter in question; some promoters like to leave hooks untouched, while others try to make improvements where they see a need or opportunity for hookiness. I wind up more on the prolific side of that spectrum :) I think that what gives a hook hookiness is its mystery; it's not always the case, however (although it often is), that a shorter hook creates more of that storytelling tension. To take your Royce Williams hook as an example, the context you mention makes the story rather unintuitive, in a hooky way. If the hook were simply:
 * ... that Royce Williams was ordered to never speak of his dogfight?
 * that would, I wager, also attract attention, but not as much; stuff gets classified sometimes, it's the military, not so mysterious. But your description of the very battle that took place, in a succinct manner, makes people stop to think "that's so cool! why would it need to be classified"? You've given a description of something interesting and signalled that there's more to the story, if users want to click. Adding more information, in that case, created more mystery. The opposite might be true for the Franzia hook :) it's important, then, that promoters be able to use their judgement in determining how much information is needed to create the hookiest hook. In this case, I do think I would have made the same cut RoySmith did, were I to have promoted. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 21:25, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input, leeky. I am definitely learning here. -- MelanieN (talk) 22:55, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * BTW, while I'm a newcomer to creating prep sets, I'm confident in saying that we can still use more help working on preps and we'd be more than happy to have your assistance. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:00, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * couldn't agree more :) the best promoters are the ones with open minds, so you'd do great. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 23:14, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Well, thanks for the nice invitations, but I don't see DYK work in my immediate future right now. But just to provide "the rest of the story" re Royce Williams: Decades later the secrecy was lifted, he was allowed to talk about it, and his seven-to-one dogfight was confirmed by (of all things) Soviet archives. There has been a decades-long attempt by various Navy brass, and lately by Congress members, to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Williams. This year it was even added as an amendment to a piece of legislation, to award him the medal. But the award is still not a sure thing, because the contemporary Navy records do not report his dogfight. The clock is ticking; he is 97. I sure hope he gets it. -- MelanieN (talk) 03:26, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

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MediaWiki message delivery 00:22, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

Al-Nasafi
Hi @RoySmith, I saw that you promoted a hook from this nomination. I'm not sure why did I forget to advise Alt0a to be promoted but nonetheless please tell me if there's a way to get Alt0a promoted which I find more hooky than the one that has been promoted. ─ The Aafī   (talk)  19:11, 5 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I thought the one I promoted was the best. ALT0a seemed excessively verbose to me. -- RoySmith (talk) 20:25, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I see. This one is okay as well. ─ The Aafī on Mobile   (talk)|undefined  20:48, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Softlemonades block
Hi, there's a block appeal for this user and they are denying sockpuppetry: since you said it was likely but not confirmed, might this be a false positive? Andre🚐 15:46, 7 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your note. This is already being discussed off-wiki by several checkusers. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:52, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Alright, thanks. Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 15:53, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Looks like they were unblocked. Would you be willing to self-review your other past SPIs, if there are any? in light of this false positive? Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 20:58, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * If you have any specific ones in mind, I'll be happy to look at those. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:03, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I didn't have any specific ones in mind, no, and I'm uninvolved, and not looking to give you a hard time, but if I were in your shoes, I'd double check my recent work. No obligation. Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 23:04, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * False positives happen and are not due to sloppy CU work, as you seem to be implying. -- Ponyo bons mots 23:05, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't doubt it. Everyone makes mistakes. This one seems glaring though. Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 23:09, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * If you can't see the data, I'm not sure how you could call it "glaring", which again has negative connotations. Regardless, I'm off to be thankful.-- Ponyo bons mots 23:14, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Hope you have a great holiday, and I meant on the behavioral case and just my interactions with this user versus the case made by an IP that was swiftly accepted with not a lot of critical thinking it seemed. Reasonable minds may differ as they say. I didn't mean to imply that RoySmith is any less than competent. Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 23:18, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not meaning to be defensive, but the best answer I can give you is that I really can't go into the details of what went into my decision to block and what went into GN's decision to unblock (which I approved of when we discussed it in advance off-wiki). And it actually hurts me to say that because I remember how unsatisfying that answer was when I raised similar questions of CUs before I was one.  One thing I can point is out that we have different words we use (suspected, proven, confirmed) which denote varying degrees of certainty, and this one was "suspected". -- RoySmith (talk) 23:23, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * That is very fair. Thank you. And I'm sorry if I seem accusatory, that is not my intention either. Andre<span style="border:2px solid #073642;background:rgb(255,156,0);background:linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,156,0,1) 0%, rgba(147,0,255,1) 45%, rgba(4,123,134,1) 87%);">🚐 23:24, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Not a problem. Please keep asking questions.  It's the only way to keep us honest. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:36, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Tech News: 2022-41
<section begin="technews-2022-W41"/> 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
 * 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).
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14:07, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

Page protection
Greetings RoySmith, I notice you just blocked, can you also protect the article Cristóvão da Gama, its a favorite for two different masters, i'm not sure if they're collaborating or just have the same interests. Magherbin (talk) 21:45, 10 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Done -- RoySmith (talk) 22:44, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

Static Media pages - Looper page removed in 2018
I am currently trying to create a draft for the Looper (website) page to be sent for review with proper disclosure of COI. I noticed there had been a previous version of the page that was deleted on 29 July 2018, citing the following reason: WP:G11, One of many Static Media spam drafts recently created. For our future draft submission, we have provided a skeleton of information from a neutral standpoint with the assumption that it will be further edited who do not have a conflict of interest with the company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&logid=92140709

Savanna at Static Media (talk) 18:40, 12 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi. I'm not quite sure what question you're asing here.  Could you explain more clearly what your request is?  Thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 19:56, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Hello.
 * Thank you for your prompt response. My apologies for not being more clear in the previous message.My name is Savanna, and I currently work for Static Media. We are an online media company that owns over 14 different websites, with a following of several million readers worldwide. You can find the page for our company here: Static Media, and our website here http://static.com/about
 * In recent months, it's come to our attention that some of the information on Wikipedia about our brands is either outdated, inaccurate, or not available. On our Static Media page, for instance, our CCO's last name is misspelled as Schieke, when it should be spelled Schiecke. The pages for Tasting Table and /Film, two other websites we own, are also outdated .Per the log, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&logid=92140709, the page for our flagship site, Looper, was deleted in 2018 citing self-promotion. When I tried to create an updated version for Looper (website) today, I was told to reach out to you before submitting a similar page to avoid potentially having the same thing happen again.
 * I am reaching out to ask what I need to do in order to move forward with publishing unbiased, straightforward pages for our sites created within the Wikipedia Guidelines. I have interviewed the sites' founders myself to gather the vital information, and am happy to provide verification of my employment over email to prove my relationship with the company. I have already disclosed a conflict of interest on my user page to ensure that I am being totally transparent about my role with creating these pages.
 * Please forgive my ignorance. I've never updated a Wikipedia page before, and I want to make sure I am going about this in the most ethical way possible.Thank you.
 * Savanna at Static Media (talk) 21:23, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I certainly appreciate you being upfront about your intentions. Thank you for that.  To be honest, this is not my area of expertise, but I'll tell you what I can.  A good place for follow-up questions would be WP:Teahouse, where you'll find people much more knowledgeable about this area, and eager to help.
 * First, Conflict Of Interest editing is covered by WP:COIEDIT. You've already done the first thing, which is to disclose your interest, so that's a good start.
 * My suggestion for Looper is to write you page at Draft:Looper (website) I see from the logs that this was created several years ago and I deleted it, although I don't remember anything about the specifics, but you can certainly try with a new version. I can't make any promises about whether it will get accepted or not.  You should read Notability (web) which describes our requirements for an article about a web site. -- RoySmith (talk) 22:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

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<section begin="technews-2022-W42"/> 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 recently implemented feature of article thumbnails in Special:Search will be limited to Wikipedia projects only. Further details are in T320510.
 * A bug that caused problems in loading article thumbnails in Special:Search has been fixed. Further details are in T320406.

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).
 * Octicons-tools.svg Lua module authors can use <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"> to load data from JSON pages.
 * Octicons-tools.svg Lua module authors can enable <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"> to add errors for some possible code problems. This replaces "Module:No globals" on most wikis.

Future changes
 * The Beta Feature for DiscussionTools will be updated at most wikis. The "" button will look different after this change.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2022-W42"/>

MediaWiki message delivery 21:44, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Birding in New York City
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:02, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

DYK Regensburg Botanical Society
Hi! I like the shorter hook. However, there were botanical societies formed before Regensburg Botanical Society; they just don't exist any more. That could indeed make it the oldest? Is that OK or too fussy? MerielGJones (talk) 14:42, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Did_you_know/Preparation_area_6&oldid=prev&diff=1117839144 MerielGJones (talk) 14:42, 24 October 2022 (UTC)


 * @MerielGJones How about I make it "... is the world's oldest extant botanical society?" -- RoySmith (talk) 14:45, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Brilliant!! MerielGJones (talk) 15:06, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Done. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:09, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Tech News: 2022-43
<section begin="technews-2022-W43"/> 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 have been some minor visual fixes in Special:Search, regarding audio player alignment and image placeholder height. Further details are in T319230.
 * On Wikipedias, a new preference has been added to hide article thumbnails in Special:Search. Full details are in T320337.

Problems
 * Last week, three wikis had read-only access for 25 minutes. This was caused by a hardware problem.

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).
 * Octicons-sync.svg Some wikis will be in read-only for a few minutes because of a switch of their main database. It will be performed on at 07:00 UTC (targeted wikis) and on  at 7:00 UTC (targeted wikis).
 * Starting on Wednesday, a new set of Wikipedias will get "Add a link" . This is part of the progressive deployment of this tool to more Wikipedias. The communities can configure how this feature works locally.
 * Starting on Wednesday October 26, 2022, the list of mentors will be upgraded at wikis where Growth mentorship is available. The mentorship system will continue to work as it does now. The signup process will be replaced, and a new management option will be provided. Also, this change simplifies the creation of mentorship systems at Wikipedias.
 * Pages with titles that start with a lower-case letter according to Unicode 11 will be renamed or deleted. There is a list of affected pages at Unicode 11 case map migration . More information can be found at T292552.
 * The Vector 2022 skin will become the default across the smallest Wikipedias. Learn more.

Future changes
 * The Reply tool and New Topic tool will soon get a special characters menu.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2022-W43"/>

MediaWiki message delivery 21:21, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Blocking stale accounts?
Hi RoySmith. As you may have noticed, I've dabbled at SPI recently, in response to having time available and seeing it permanently in the admin backlog. I've been confused about our apparent practice of not blocking stale accounts, or accounts with no edits (here, for instance, where I read through expecting blocks to have been placed). I'm unable to find guidance on this; if it's common practice, as seems evident, could you elaborate? Best, Vanamonde (Talk) 05:09, 26 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi. Yeah, I've seen you around.  Thanks for helping out at SPI; we always need more admins there!  Like with so many things, I don't know that there's any official guidance on this, but I think a good place to start is WP:BLOCKP.  If an account isn't active, then blocking it won't prevent imminent or continuing damage and disruption.  Often, calling the account out in public is enough to make the sock abandon them, which is just as good as being blocked.  And if they do reactivate that account, it's easy enough to recognize later.  On the other hand, for LTAs where there's a history of warehousing accounts, I get more aggressive.
 * If an account has not edited in years, I'm certainly not going to waste my time going through their edit histories to convince myself there's enough evidence for a block.
 * Hope that helps. I'm sure if you ask a bunch of other SPI denizens you'll get a bunch of different answers, so don't take anything I've said here as gospel. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:56, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the detailed response. My thought was that if any edit by an account would be a policy violation, then a block is by definition preventative; so you wouldn't even need to go over the edits? And if someone has multiple old accounts that could become active at any time, placing that block is a better use of community time than having to watch all their contributions, which I certainly am not going to do. An account may be stale, but if the password has been saved, there's nothing to stop the owner editing again, is there? Not trying to start an argument, just wondering if I've missed something obvious, because I was quite ready to block all the "obvious" stale/inactive accounts before remembering I'd seen them ignored before. Vanamonde (Talk) 15:33, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I was thinking along the lines of "I need to look at the old edits to make sure this really is the same person", but looking specifically at Sockpuppet investigations/Jonardondishant again, I see the stale accounts were all created by the master, so there really isn't any doubt. I left the case in "checked" state so somebody else could take a look and finish up the processing, so please feel free to be that person and block all those accounts if you like.  You should consider signing up to be an SPI clerk.  I think you would be good at it, and we certainly need more help, especially from admins. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:26, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'll take a look as soon as I have a moment. I'm a bit hesitant to offer myself up as a ritual sacrifice SPI clerk, simply because I have neither an overabundance of time nor a particular liking for behavioral investigation. I've been dabbling because I often do adminny tasks when I have downtime at work, and SPI is always backlogged. When I have larger chunks of time for Wikipedia I prefer to be writing. But I'll think about it, and I appreciate the vote of confidence. Vanamonde (Talk) 19:48, 26 October 2022 (UTC)

Argent!
Hello please check IamPriyaBhavani’s edits. I feel this user is a sock puppet of Rahul Sankrityan Rao. This user has also used similar edit summary like this in the page Raashi Khanna which are similar to users like Shilpha Manjunath and Priyanka Hedge which are already a sockpuppet. You may check this revision also. Also I suggest to start the sockpuppet investigation for the same. Theoder2055 (talk) 15:12, 27 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Please file a report at WP:SPI, thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:03, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

DYK copy-edit
Thanks for the ping--I'm fine with this edit. blameless 00:14, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Prep 3: Chuck Deardorf (nom)
Howdy! I noticed you promoted Chuck Deardorf to prep – I noticed that I don't think the the reviewer actually approved that alt? Although you may have interpreted it differently... theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 21:33, 28 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I interpreted your comment as expressing a preference for ALT1, but both were approved. Did I read that wrong?  ALT0 made me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS-zEH8YmiM, and how can you beat that? -- RoySmith (talk) 21:51, 28 October 2022 (UTC)
 * theleekycauldron, RoySmith I approved both. I just talked about my preference for alt1. Onegreatjoke (talk) 22:07, 28 October 2022 (UTC)
 * that's my bad, then :) cheers! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 22:08, 28 October 2022 (UTC)
 * No problem. Always good to have extra eyes making sure what gets on the main page is the best we can make it. -- RoySmith (talk) 22:48, 28 October 2022 (UTC)