User talk:TheImaCow/Archive/2020/August

OMN article creation
I found a passing mentions of OMN in major news. However, there are a plenty of news covering about OMN in Ethiopian news, Government media and in BBC, DW and VOA that broadcast in local language. There is also thesis on OMN influence for Master degree graduation published. Though they are independent, I was wondering if these are considered valid/reliable source to approve the article creation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.190.154.225 (talk) 06:37, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

I think I've made the necessary fixes to the Jay Boberg article
Hello, TheImaCow (I'm sure that's not your real name!,

I've addresses what I believe are your concerns about the new Wikipedia article about music and wine industry figure Jay Boberg. I've addressed the inline references issues (I believe) and have provided a new reference for the link that didn't meet Wikipedia standards. So now I think/hope it should be ready to publish. Can you let me know? Thank you, Jrtaylor18 (talk) 18:42, 28 July 2020 (UTC)Jonathan Taylor, 07.28.20
 * This edtor is unable to assist you at present. I have left a comment on your draft Fiddle   Faddle  09:53, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Would you be able to have a look at Draft:Richard Gaskin as well? I just came across it and, while I wasn't the one who drafted the article, it appears to have been declined by ThelmaCow with a spurious rationale (as I noted on the draft talk page before realizing that the reviewer was indef blocked). Despite its having been questionably declined, however, the original editor of the draft,, seems to have addressed the reviewer's concern. 207.161.86.162 (talk) 03:35, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I see it is up for review. I'll make no comment on the prior decline, that would be wrong of me, but I will review it if I feel capable of doing so. So drafts I shy away from because they are not in my field. Fiddle   Faddle  06:34, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, ! 207.161.86.162 (talk) 06:44, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
 * There are improvements needed, but it is good enough to main space, and is now there Fiddle   Faddle  06:46, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

The Signpost: 2 August 2020
 News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's weekly journal about Wikipedia and Wikimedia
 * Special report: Wikipedia and the End of Open Collaboration?


 * COI and paid editing: Some strange people edit Wikipedia for money


 * News and notes: Abstract Wikipedia, a hoax, sex symbols, and a new admin


 * In the media: Dog days gone bad


 * Discussion report: Fox News, a flight of RfAs, and banning policy


 * Featured content: Remembering Art, Valor, and Freedom


 * Traffic report: Now for something completely different


 * Gallery: Photos of threatened species from iNaturalist


 * News from the WMF: New Chinese national security law in Hong Kong could limit the privacy of Wikipedia users


 * Recent research: Receiving thanks increases retention, but not the time contributed to Wikipedia


 * Essay: Not compatible with a collaborative project


 * Obituaries: Hasteur and Brian McNeil


 * In focus: WikiLoop DoubleCheck, reviewing edits made easy

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 18:26, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-32
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems
 * All queries to the Wikidata Query Service failed between 17:50 and 17:59 UTC on Thursday 23 July. Some queries failed during a longer period.
 * Interlanguage links were ordered incorrectly for the past few weeks. This problem was also mentioned in Tech News two weeks ago. The problem is now fixed.
 * There is a problem with the global preferences for the "" option. Developers are working on fixing it.
 * A bug in the Wikibase extension had disabled the "move" and "create" types of protection in the main (Gallery) namespace on Wikimedia Commons. New protections could not be added, and existing protections were not enforced, allowing some page moves and page creations that should not have been possible. This has now been fixed.

Changes later this week
 * The video player will change to be simpler and more modern. This week, the current beta feature will become the video player for everyone on most non-Wikipedia wikis. The old player will be removed.
 * Users'  and   pages will now also be loaded on the mobile site. You can read documentation for how to avoid applying styles to the mobile skin.
 * Octicons-tools.svg In the MonoBook skin, the  identifier is now  . This may affect CSS and JS gadgets. Migration instructions can be found in T255953. This was previously mentioned in issue 27.
 * Octicons-tools.svg Bot operators can use Pywikibot to regularly archive discussions. The behavior when the bot uses  to prevent large archives was changed.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 5. It will be on all wikis from August 6 (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  15:43, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-33
 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
 * FileImporter and FileExporter became standard features on all Wikis during the first week of August. They help you transfer files from local wikis to Wikimedia Commons with the original file information and history intact.

Problems
 * The mobile skin displays a message at the bottom of the page about who edited last. This message showed raw wikitext. This has now been fixed. Some messages in Structured Discussions and content translation may still appear as raw wikitext. Developers are working on it.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from August 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from August 12. It will be on all wikis from August 13 (calendar).

Future changes
 * All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 1. This is planned between 13:30 and 15:30 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis in the coming weeks.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:06, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Sportspeople from Luhansk Oblast


A tag has been placed on Category:Sportspeople from Luhansk Oblast requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. UnitedStatesian (talk) 04:57, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Some article maintenance category


Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. This is a notice that the page you created, Category:Some article maintenance category, was tagged as a test page under section G2 of the criteria for speedy deletion and has been or soon may be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. UnitedStatesian (talk) 02:52, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-34
 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
 * If you revert an edit using the undo link your edit is marked with an  tag. This will now only happen if you don't change anything in the edit window before publishing the undo. This is to keep users from marking edits as undos when they actually do something else.
 * The new OOUI version will not work with Internet Explorer 8. This means the wikis will look strange and not work well in Internet Explorer 8. This was reported in Tech/News/2020/17. This is because keeping the wikis working with very old browsers creates other problems.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 August. It will be on all wikis from 20 August (calendar).

Future changes
 * All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 1. This is planned between 13:30 and 15:30 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis next week. This is a reminder. You can help by translating the announcement message.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  20:40, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Very sad to see you go like this Ashamed of you
Wow. I just found out about this, and I just have to say, wow. One of our best editors indeffed. I'm honestly surprised that nobody came to lament over you, like did at User talk:Total Eclipse 2017.

First of all, I don't really think you're paid. MER-C's expertise doesn't really mean they don't make mistakes, and IMHO this is one of them. After all, even though you have like 43,000+ edits, you're still relatively new, only having been here ~5 months. Plus, some AfC reviewers aren't cautious enough, and no offense, but I think you're one of them.

Second of all, the offwiki evidence I don't know, but it could be very true. Checkusers need to be extra cautious. However, as I don't know what it is, I'll abstain from giving an opinion.

Anyways, I hope you stay safe during this dark and cold period, and find something more fun to do. I know you're pretty sad about this whole thing, but trust me, I was just like that here too. I appealed it successfully and was able to get back to editing. I hope you read this and do, too.

Best, ◊ PRAHLAD balaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 02:01, 31 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Oh, I seen the offwiki evidence alright, and to say I'm ashamed of you is an understatement. --◊ PRAHLAD balaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 02:32, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * oh thanks for your kind words. I just wasted almost an hour looking for this "proof" and found nothing. I would like to know how you, as someone who has nothing to do with the whole thing, got this "proof". Not where it is, but how you supposedly found it. The only thing I found that has something to do with me was this, and it is even quite well written (with regard to how to do it correctly, and not how to get yout nonnotable company into wikipedia). Just saying/asking. --TheImaCow (talk) 16:03, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * TheImaCow, sent me an email giving me the offwiki evidence. I won't say much about it per L235's reply to Tommy, but I will say that you asked for a fee and promised to do it within a day. Additionally, a lot, if not most or all of your AfC accepts were either speedied or AfD'd. I'm not some MER-C fanboy, but their experience in this field makes me trust that you are paid even more. Anyhow, stay safe. --◊ PRAHLAD <sup style="color:#707">balaji  (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 22:18, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ok, now i know why i wont make an unblock request... Honestly, what kind of trash are you talking about? Most of my acceptances have been deleted? I just went through the list, and it was 12 deleted out of 67 - that's 17%. This is not supposed to justify anything, even 17 percent is far too much, but if that is "most" for you, then I don't know either. Not a single article was deleted due a CSD. Then there are crazy actions like this "Quarantine" - where exactly is the advertising? I don't even want to know how many months it will remain as an AFC submission and then at some point be rejected because of something. or this red tag, where nobody knows what it is supposed to do. Okay, next question, why do random people, with whom I had nothing to do, get this alleged "proof" sent to them as if it were suddenly nothing now?? But I am not allowed to see it? What is wrong with this ...t ?? --TheImaCow (talk) 09:57, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Literally, 17 percent is a large number, for somebody as experienced as you. And I forgot to mention that some of your AfC accepts were draftified too... So now you can't argue that only a small percent of your drafts wete faulty. If you really aren't paid, do what said and appeal to ArbCom. But only if you're really sure. --◊ <b style="color:#095">PRAHLAD</b> <sup style="color:#707">balaji  (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 18:25, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I won't comment any more except be true to yourself and take TryKid's advice. --◊ <b style="color:#095">PRAHLAD</b> <sup style="color:#707">balaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 23:34, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * TheImaCow, you can send an unblock request to ArbCom if you think you've been blocked unfairly. I don't know what the blocking admin knows, but from what I've seen, the evidence seems circumstantial and the "clarification" of the evidence (that I've seen) should also work in your favour. But I think you would need a *very* good reason for accepting so many obviously promotional drafts. Paid shilling is a big problem on Wikipedia, cleaning up after them is extremely tiring and nobody wants to subsidize the corrupt shills by improving their extremely low quality work. Considering the blocking admin's expertise in these matters, I think it's a bit unlikely; but if you really aren't a paid shill, give the ArbCom a shot. Regards, TryKid&thinsp;<sup style="white-space:nowrap;">[dubious – discuss] 17:05, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * , this is completely uncalled for. – bradv  🍁  16:09, 1 September 2020 (UTC)


 * sorry. I just wanted to say something. I knew him fir a very long time and wanted to say, "wow". ◊ <b style="color:#095">PRAHLAD</b> <sup style="color:#707">balaji (M•T•A•C) This message was left at 18:07, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Goodbye
I do not know what happened here and gather it to be from a social media post explaining something. Either way goodbye. It's not nice to see a contributor leave, regardless of what they have done, and I do hope that you come back eventually; I really do. — Yours, Berrely  • Talk∕Contribs 17:14, 7 October 2020 (UTC)