Wikipedia talk:STiki/Archive 10

Requesting permission to use STiki
Hello,

I am currently trying to learn and get hands on with fighting vandalism on wiki, only that I do not know how to find vandals easily. I would like to use STiki to make correct choices and fight vandalism appropriately. Can I get the permission to use it? (Sadly I do not possess enough experience to get the rollback permission which I would have preffered.). Thanks, TheOriginalSoni (talk) 18:49, 11 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I see that you have enrolled in an "Adopt a User" program, read some essays on vandalism, and generally demonstrated a good-faith attitude towards the project. For these reasons, I have decided to enable your account. Proceed cautiously and realize that any edit you mark as "Pass" will be given to another, more experienced STiki user. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:09, 11 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks TheOriginalSoni (talk) 19:14, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Problems with vandalism by people "climbing" the leaderboard
There is an innate problem with rewarding people with attention for their number of edits and revisions. There are people who will defacto vandalize good edits when they think they can get away with it just to move up such boards. The most likely people this will happen to is people who don't bother to log in before tweaking some small item. They likely won't notice such a reversion has taken place until and unless they happen to go back to the page, which might never happen.

I suggest to you that making a "leaderboard" is a very very bad idea.

--OBloodyHell (talk) 08:16, 14 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Having a leaderboard could encourage people to make reckless edits. However, I think you may have got the wrong end of the stick about what STiki is and how the leaderboard is constructed.
 * WP:STiki is a tool which directs people to possible vandalism and makes it easy for them to revert it. The leaderboard enables people to be ranked on a number of things, but the default is number of classifications, not the number of edits.  Obviously it is possible for people to make a stream of reckless classifications to try to edge up the leaderboard.  However, I think a bigger incitement to recklessness is "edit-count-itis" - where people just want a high edit count.  People may feel that the edit count impresses more people.  This is a risk with STiki and other tools like Huggle, but the balance of risk is generally seen to be in favour of having the tools.  Having the leaderboard doesn't change that.
 * Is there a specific case that has raised your concern? I think it would be better deal with concerns on a case-by-case basis.
 * Yaris678 (talk) 10:43, 14 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Yaris stated things quite eloquently. The default "leaderboard" sort and basis for barnstar dissemination is "classifications" not "vandalisms labelled." Besides, marking good edits as vandalism is sure to eventually cause one troubles in the form of talk-page complaints. See also this project scale leaderboard. The threat of gamification is constant, but it is also one the entire project faces. If anything, STiki reduces this concern with its admission requirements. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 15:57, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

WikiTrust server down for over 200 days?
I have just had a go with the WikiTrust queue for the first time in ages and absolutely every diff I saw was over 200 days old. I think the range was about 205 to 275.

Needless to say all the diffs were innocent. A lot of them were category changes like this and redirects like this.

I did manage to fine two WP:CUTANDPASTE moves, so it didn't feel entirely unproductive.

Andrew, can you investigate why WikiTrust is showing such consistently old diffs? My first guess would be that the WikiTrust server may have been down for the last 205 days and so no new scores have been gathered for that queue since then.

If this is so and if there is no immediate prospect of the WikiTrust server coming back on line, it may be a good idea to remove this queue from the STiki GUI.

Yaris678 (talk) 20:52, 16 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it appears nothing new is coming in (not of *terrible* concern, given that it seemingly took forever to notice this; no one really uses that queue). I'll ping my contacts who run the tool and see if they are interested in doing anything about it, and if not I will disable it in the next release. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 22:04, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Please grant me permissions
Please grant me permission to use STiki. I do a lot of vandal reverting, new page patrolling etc. so this tool would help me out a lot. Cheers! Kevin12xd... &#124; speak up &#124; take a peek &#124; email me 22:39, 16 December 2012 (UTC)


 * You've been around a little while and I've noticed your adopt-a-user progress with respect to vandalism. For this reason, I've approved your account. HOWEVER, I encourage you to see my approval of "Greatuser" above and the subsequent traffic on his/her talk page. These powers can be abused. People will notice. It will not end well. When in doubt, do not revert. There are lots of helpful people around here who can give you advice in "sticky" situations. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 00:24, 17 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I concur with what Andrew said. Obviously, if you are in doubt you still have the issue of whether to press "Pass" or "Innocent".  A good rule of thumb is that if you think it is possible that someone with more experience would decide that it is vandalism you should press "Pass".
 * And yes, asking someone is a good idea. That is how you learn how to handle a similar situation next time.  Asking the user who adopted you may be the best port of call.  But if that gives no joy, try asking on this talk page.
 * When asking an opinion, provide a diff. The best way to do this is click on "Wiki-DIFF" in the STiki interface and then copy and paste the web address of the diff into your message asking for help.
 * Yaris678 (talk) 11:43, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Pending Changes
Pending-changes protection started being applied to some articles on the 1st of December and it seems to be rolling out smoothly and slowly.

Therefore, it may be a good time to discuss the relationship between PC and STiki. I think this comes under a number of categories. I have put them below in different sub sections, in case people want to discuss any of them further.

Yaris678 (talk) 19:32, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Technical interaction
Based on my understanding of the two systems, I don't think there should be any real incompatibility between PC and STiki. In some situations, if you revert an edit on a PC-protected page your edit will await approval by a reviewer before it "goes live". But unless someone has already approved a vandalised version of the page, the vandalised version will never "go live" so no harm will be done.

The one situation when a STiki user's revert will be automatically be approved will be fairly common but it requires a number of things to all be true: Yaris678 (talk) 19:32, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * The user is a reviewer
 * The user is a rollbacker
 * The user pressed "Vandalism" not "Good-faith revert"
 * The edit reverted to has already been approved.

Applying for reviewer status
There will be many STiki users who would make good reviewers. If you think you may be in this category, check out WP:Reviewing. That explains more, including how to get the "right". Yaris678 (talk) 19:32, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

PC-protecting pages
STiki users will come across many pages that are suitable for pending-changes protection. Protection policy says PC-protection can be applied to pages that are not frequently edited but do suffer from persistent vandalism, BLP violations or copyright infringements. So if you come across an article with a lot of vandalism in its history that isn't getting a lot of attention then I suggest requesting protection at WP:RFPP. Yaris678 (talk) 19:32, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Example: I came across Sublimation (phase transition) through STiki. Investigating the history of the article showed a lot of vandalism.  I logged a request, which was accepted and the page is now PC protected until March.  Yaris678 (talk) 11:40, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion for ST
Hi Andrew, I think it would help if you introduced a function that...well, let me just roleplay it:
 * Newb makes a good faith but unconstructive edit-this was his/her FIRST edit
 * Kevin12xd marks it as good-faith and reverts it
 * STiki automatically posts a "Welcome" banner on the user's page.

Cheers, Kevin12xd... &#124; speak up &#124; take a peek &#124; email me 00:52, 18 December 2012 (UTC) By the way, STiki is working out really well for me and I appreciate your creation of the tool.


 * This is a fine idea but sounds little outside of STiki's scope, which tends to be very vandalism/damage focused (plus, why should we only welcome the users who are good-faith reverted in STiki? wouldn't innocent new users be even more deserving of a welcome? And STiki probably only encounters a small percentage of all users...). Regardless, there a number of projects around here that are focused on welcoming new users. However, the most exciting and dynamic is one in development called WP:Snuggle, which will do things like this and many more. It actually consumes STiki scores via API to make judgements about how to welcome new users (based on edit quality) with the ultimate goal of editor retention. Check it out! Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 03:21, 18 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Snuggle looks awesome. I have signed up for updates.  Yaris678 (talk) 11:32, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Cool. Looking at the research of Snuggle's author has led me to another suggestion.  Yaris678 (talk) 13:16, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Broken link
In the message that you send to new STiki users, the link to userboxes needs to be changed to WP:STiki. I would change it myself, but I'm not sure where the template is. ''' The Anonymouse ( talk  •  contribs ) [ Merry Christmas! ]''' 05:59, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Well spotted. The template is at STiki/welcome template.  I have made the change.  Yaris678 (talk) 10:21, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks! (now I know where the template is too )  The Anonymouse ( talk  •  contribs ) [ Merry Christmas! ] 18:15, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Requesting for permission to user STiki
Hello, Please give me the permission of using STiki so that i can revert Vandalism I have read essays, pages related to Vandalism I have completely come to know what is Vandalism and What is not Vandalism? I also tried in Rollbacking Permission but i was denied Please enable STiki in my account, Thank You Greatuser (talk) 10:26, 13 December 2012 (UTC) –&#32;Gareth Griffith-Jones / The Welsh Buzzard 11:17, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * You have made over 1000 edits, so you don't need permission to use it. Mdann52 (talk) 11:00, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Polite to ask first though. Thank you –&#32;
 * Actually... it's 1,000 article edits required for automatic qualification and Greatuser is not quite there. I would be inclined to give you the access but the decision lies with Andrew because he has access to the database.  Yaris678 (talk) 11:45, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- Account approved. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:27, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank You So Much for approving my account for using STiki Greatuser (talk) 13:45, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Seeing this and this, would it not be prudent if the STiki permissions and the rollback rights were frozen until the user undergoes a mandatory CVU training? He is definitely very enthusiastic about this project, but we might benefit a lot more (than be on our toes) if that enthusiasm was mixed with the proper kind of advice and training. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 10:10, 15 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Ugh. Not good. This user classified about 150 edits yesterday with a 94% revert rate. I can't do anything about the rollback right which he has acquired (you could post about that elsewhere if you see fit; but he can freely use Huggle et al.; and with the rollback right he doesn't even need special permission to use STiki). Rather than blocking him and creating some ill-feelings towards us, I am going to try the diplomatic approach of asking him to stop using STiki until he goes through CVU training or otherwise demonstrates some better judgement. I'll notify him/her on the user talk page. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:18, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh! Oh! I really apologize, I am so sorry, sorry and really sorry I have read the page Vandalism and Vandalism and have completely come to know further i will take care about this and will not disrupt Wiki, Thank You Greatuser (talk) 14:33, 18 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I have raised some more recent issues. Thine Antique Pen (talk) 17:04, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm in holiday transit right now and cannot give this the attention it deserves. Just dropping him from our "specially accepted users" list achieves nothing, as this user has 1000+ NS0 edits and rollback rights. How bad is it? You point out many instances, but what percentage of his overall STiki contributions are unacceptable? Does this warrant a STiki block? Stripping of rollback? Should these go hand in hand? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 07:54, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Upon closer investigation, this is a muddy case. The questionable judgements are not usually completely off-base, but perhaps should have been "AGF" instead of "vandalism" classifications. He admits to his inexperience, yet refuses to participate in any adoption program. The edits are broadly constructive and not generating much talk page controversy. I plan to continue monitoring the situation before taking any action. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 04:39, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I had my rollback removed a while ago due to three incorrect edit summaries (should've been blanking, not vandalism), I recall, so this is not a "muddy case." Thine Antique Pen (talk) 11:21, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Well what is your preference for how this is handled? I'm fishing for ideas here. He's not operating in bad-faith so some type of pre-block warning/ultimatum would have to be issued. It seems he's been aggressive in doing other "tagging" tasks across the encyclopedia (e.g., good/featured articles). I don't think a STiki-specific block would address the issue here, he'd move onto a different tool. If action is needed, I think it should be at the permissions level. Thoughts? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 12:37, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * The rollback permission has been removed by Kudpung. Thine Antique Pen (talk) 14:57, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Rights revoked
Hi Andrew. I'm just  letting  you know that I  have revoked Greatuser's use of rollback. I have also asked him to stop using STiki immediately. Perhaps you could review the situation, but  I'm  sure you'll  come to  the same conclusion. I think the sooner this is done, it will avoid anyone creating  unnecessary  drama by  opening  an ANI case. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 13:08, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Per a thread above on the topic, I agree with this and believe that the rollback permission was the proper level to deal with the issue (rather than anything STiki specific). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 01:09, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

A separate section for new requests
Hello guys I was thinking if we could arrange a separate section for new requests(like AWB or something similar) to use STiki here.Every user planning to use the tool adds a new section unnecessarily increasing the length of the page. Cheers and Season's greetings!  TheStrike Σagle  13:17, 23 December 2012 (UTC)


 * No objection, but I'd prefer to keep it on this page (one less to watchlist). Then, of course, there is the matter of whether or not people will actually use it or start a new section. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 01:12, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Please grant me permissions to use the tool
Please grant me access to STiki. I want to help reduce vandalism, but I'm struggling to find articles to edit. This tool would be a great help. Thanks. -OneAwesomeGuy (talk)  06:32, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * WikiTyson, I'm afraid you don't yet have the experience to gain STiki permissions. At this time, you have only 16 main namespace edits in several months on the encyclopedia. If this is something you are serious about, you can join the adopt-a-user program or  counter-vandalism academy to find a mentor who will issue advice, lesson plans, etc. about doing this kind of work. If you make good progress there, your application for STiki rights will be viewed more favorably. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 15:02, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

STiki right removal
Hi Andrew, please remove my STiki rights until I request them again, because I will not be using this account for a while until probably February 2013 or so. Cheers! Kevin12xd (talk) (contribs) 03:43, 26 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Kevin, as you have 1000+ article namespace edits, you don't require the "special permission" to use the tool. I could go the extra step to *block* you from using STiki, but this does not appear to be a necessary step. Enjoy your wiki-break, and if/when you return make sure to take your criticism in stride, take your time, and always assume good faith. Best of luck. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:38, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

STiki may be Down
It appears someone at Wikipedia has changed the way diffs are rendered (without notification, it would seem). This does not play nice with my code, thus STiki is seeing every edit as a "null revision" and showing nothing in the diff browser. I am investigating the problem. In the meantime, please close your STiki instances, because my database is getting smashed as all clients are continually requesting fresh reservations. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 20:32, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
 * That's wierd... I hope nothing else is broken. Vacation nine 20:35, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Village_pump_(technical). Per that link (and its response), this is a recently known bug introduced with a new version deployment. STiki itself is not broken and there is nothing I can do until that bug is resolved. Everything will be fine again once fixed. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 21:02, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Now fixed! Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 01:54, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Alt Account
Hello! Would it be possible to allow User:Vacation9 Public to use STiki and have it map to my account? I heard this is possible now due to backend changes. Thanks, Vacation nine 12:51, 11 January 2013 (UTC)


 * ✅ Should be good to go. I've done the mapping and given the public account explicit access rights. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 21:54, 11 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Much appreciated! Vacation nine 00:54, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Permission to use STiki
Greetings! I've been an editor for a while now (although only a really active editor for about a week), and the past few days I've started doing manual vandalism patrolling using the Old school method of watching the Recent changes and clicking (diff) links for changes with no summary. I have a sneaking feeling that it's not having much effect. I've reverted some things, some obviously vandalism, some probably a new user experimenting, some obviously good faith edits that happened not to be constructive.

I would use Twinkle or some similar tool, but unfortunately I'm using a public computer that limits my access to updated browsers and some software. STiki works, and I'd love to have permission to use it to make Wikipedia better. Thanks! --Kierkkadontalk/contribs 14:40, 17 January 2013 (UTC)


 * user's recent reverts seem fine.But the overall edits is just ~180 and the reverts in them make no more than 10-15 of them.I suggest they work for sometime on manual reverts and Twinkle before they request access to the tool.However, the decision lies with Andrew.  TheStrike Σagle  14:54, 17 January 2013 (UTC)


 * First off, what computer limits browser access but lets people run Java programs? And how do you know STiki will work? Regardless, I am going to side with StrikeEagle on this one, as you have a very limited revert history. Its easy to catch obvious vandalism, but whether to revert/AGF/ignore the subtle cases is where we most often run into problems. You seem quite capable, so (1) you can demonstrate some more manual ability (say, ~100 reverts), or preferably (2) pass through WP:CVUA which should concentrate on these cases. When either of those are met (assuming no interim issues), I will happy to grant permissions. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 17:16, 17 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm limited to using older versions of IE that can't use Twinkle, and many links to download programs were blocked; STiki happened to be one I was able to download and run. The program runs, but doesn't let me log in, which is expected. As far as the other stuff goes, roger that. I completely understand, I'm happy to keep working with (diff) links for now. Thanks! --Kierkkadontalk/contribs 17:26, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * As Andrew mentioned above, identifying obvious vandalism is entirely different from good-faith edits.As I already mentioned, work for some more time on manual reverts(say atleast 50) and return.You would be granted access for sure.  TheStrike Σagle  17:34, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

CHANGELOG for the 2012-12-04 release
In this release you'll find a couple of minor front-end changes and bug fixes. These had been accumulating for a good while, so I decided to go ahead and release without any real "centerpiece" feature. As always, thanks for your continued support. West.andrew.g (talk) 17:25, 4 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Zero difference edits (i.e., null diffs) where no changes are made will no longer be presented to users. These appeared in the earlier transition to the diff browser displaying "rollback"-derived differences.
 * The location of the STiki server is no longer hard-coded. Instead, an independently controlled DNS routing is used, useful in migrating STiki to a new location (likely to happen with my PhD completion).
 * Because AGF edits cannot use native rollback (as they must not be marked "minor"), software rollback uses the "edit full text" API call when 2+ edits must be reverted in this fashion. Unlike every other edit path, this operation does not have an integrity checks that would cause the edit to fail if intermediate/conflicting edits had occurred. An explicit check has been added.
 * Minor update to a "revert panel" message: The "beaten to revert" case only displays when an identity revert has taken place as a conflicting edit. Thus, if a non-identity change/conflict took place while an edit was in the diff browser, the "last revert panel" would say "Undid 0 edits / unknown error / check page hist". This message has now been corrected to say "conflict or error".
 * Backend: IRC reporting of STiki scores now outputs a URL by which the diff for an RID can simply be opened in browser.
 * Backend: Functionality added for "unification" of accounts. Imagine someone has a "public terminal" account and a primary account. It is now possible for all actions of either account to map to the primary one (primarily for leaderboard purposes). An edit "pass/ignored" in one account is similarly reflected in the other.

Can I use STiki?
I did some vandalism removal job here and West said he can allow me to get permission for using this super, awesome tool. Thanks! Wiki4Blog (talk) 15:47, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I would like to note that this account was created yesterday, and doesn't even have 50 edits. (Thus, they are not autoconfirmed) I don't think this user has quite enough experience from one day of editing to be granted this tool. This revert is a bit troubling as well: . I would suggest that after you are autoconfirmed you do a bit more patrolling with Twinkle, which any autoconfirmed user can use, before using STiki. But, of course, the decision is up to the developers. Vaca  tion  9  17:17, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
 * You are right Vacation9.But Wiki4blog requested the permission only after Andrew | asked him to do so.So lets leave it to Andrew. Cheers  TheStrike Σagle  03:41, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * That's correct. If he/she can indeed produce a history of anti-vandal work on Wikia then I would be satisfied enough to grant access. Consider that he/she downloaded a copy of STiki many months ago in order to study more about it and possible applicability to Wikia properties. Moreover, the particular edit you highlighted isn't one I'd consider constructive. While I'd probably give it an AGF revert, I don't think we should over analyze minor deviations of subjectivity. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 07:32, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅ Based on information this user has privately submitted to me, I have approved his/her STiki account. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 04:34, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Feature proposal
This is so simple it must be a perrenial request, but I do not see it in an archive so I will ask; It would be crazy to update the leaderboard in real time, but could a system be developed similar to a manual purge link that an actual editor can use to refresh the stats? Not sure how much impact that system would have on resources. I... Um, have a bad case of editcountitis and it kills me everyday to wait for the 12AM refresh. :$ Thank you for all your hard work and great product Andrew! I'm using it religiously now, from Huggle. I'm climbing that leaderboard! Cheers; -T.I.M(Contact) 15:26, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


 * System resources aren't really of concern here, I have plenty of CPU that can re-generate the leader-board as needed. However, extending this functionality to end-users brings social and security concerns. (1) People watchlist the leader-board; do we really want to bombard them with frequent updates? (2) I assume there would be a link or button a user could use to trigger this action, and it could be a potential vehicle for DOS attacks. (3) You should see someone about that nasty case of edit-count-itis. Other than personal pleasure, this serves no real purpos, does it? There is a "recent usage stats" function in the queue menu and the most I'd probably be willing to do is update that with a "personal classification" counter. Thoughts? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 18:06, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Here are my 2 cents. People stay on the internet because it's entertaining. We should have the features to make it as enjoyable as possible to edit. Of course, I don't want anyone to be addicted to Wikipedia, but we should always be willing to increase personal pleasure for personal pleasure's sake, as long as it encourages productive editing, because that helps Wikipedia. Biosthmors (talk) 19:31, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I agree that game-ification is a powerful tool we should be harnessing. Towards that, I wonder if the "personal counter" inside the STiki tool might be sufficient to meet this user's desires? Better yet, I could probably also produce a "local leader-board" that displays inside the tool, but doesn't actually make an edit on the wiki site. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:52, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Added as T#023 in the feature request table up to. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:55, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Andrew; Thank you for considering the idea! I understand your concern about the sheer vulnerability of an open link operating the refresh operation and using the write API for every user (if that's how it works, my sysadmin career never got off the ground!). The "local" idea is great! It's everything I asked for. :) Thanks again. All the best, -T.I.M(Contact) 20:22, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


 * a) It will be great to number 1, 2, 3.. like WP:EDITS so that one can easily learn his ranking! b) (I don't know, but,) is there anyway to lock the header row of the table only? --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:22, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I've already coded this up in my local source. (a) Done. (b) Difficult. Certainly not worth the time investment for something like this. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:07, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * a) thanks, but, can not see changes, b) The reason to ask for a sticky header is when I scroll down to see my ranking, it is something like:

And one needs to scroll back to top to see what does 43.47% etc mean! Surely, it'll not an issue for me after few days, but not easy for first/rare time visitor. If the table is split into multiple sub tables (ranking 1-250, 251-500 etc) it'll be to easy to to follow the header!
 * We've touched on this somewhere in the archives, I think. Splitting the tables is bad, as it breaks global sorting functions, and that is how I use it! To see who is "winning", how the newest users are faring, and who is doing the densest amount of labor. West.andrew.g (talk) 17:24, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

CC SA attribution: Some portion of this post is copied from STiki/leaderboard --Tito Dutta (talk) 16:24, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * You'll get the hang of it eventually -- or just classify enough edits that your name makes it near the headers! You can't see the changes yet because while they have been made "in source", I wait until a few changes accumulate before pushing a new download version (it would be annoying to do this for every tiny change). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:51, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

STiki installation help!
35,000+ edits, OS: Windows 7, BitZipper, after extracting files when I am double clicking on the JAR file, the file list is opening in BitZipper. I am certainly missing a very easy thing. Can someone point out? --Tito Dutta (talk) 10:56, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I feel you dont have Java runtime environment installed in your PC.Google it and install it.It hardly takes any time.I faced the same problem, but in my case it opened using WinRAR cheers  You may download it from here, a trusted site(by me) TheStrike Σagle   11:04, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Very good! --Tito Dutta (talk) 11:14, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Pass (potential overuse of pass button)
Bang, within 3 minutes of starting using STiki, I have got an an alert "potential overuse of pass button"! Manual says "Pass" means "Skip". Of course, I'll skip until I'm 100% sure of an edit. Any harm of overusing "pass" button? Any suggestion? --Tito Dutta (talk) 11:23, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * hehe...I get the alert almost everytime I use it.It suggests that we should rather use innocent rather than the skip everytime.However, if you feel that you are not 100% sure, better go for pass and bear the alert .No, it doesnt cause any harm.Its a single issue notice for one login.It would alert you only after you use it again the next time.So feel free to ignore it if you feel you are right. never mind,I messed up my language above and I'm too lame to correct it Cheers  TheStrike Σagle  11:35, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Excellent! Got it now! --Tito Dutta (talk) 11:57, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Technically speaking, one should not receive this warning message during each session. If you are using a recent version and the same login/computer, STiki counts uses of the "pass" button to a local configuration file (which persists across STiki sessions). The warnings should be exponentially less frequent over time, i.e., after {1, 10, 100, 500, 1000, 5000} passes. Those aren't the exact numbers, but you get the idea. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 13:35, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi Tito. You asked if any harm would be done by passing a lot. Well.. yes and no. No direct harm is done. The concern is that if some edits are passed by a lot of people then they all waste a small amount time on those edits, which adds up to a lot of time, which would otherwise be spent looking at better candidates for reversion. That's why if you think that the vast majority of STiki users wouldn't know you should just press innocent, and leave the edit to article watchlisters. Of course, this requires you to guess at what other STiki users will do, which is easier said than done... so, especially as someone new to STiki, it is understandable that you pass a lot. Yaris678 (talk) 22:19, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Editor type/group
Is there any way to– In short, please tell me about STiki customization options! --Tito Dutta (talk) 11:57, 17 January 2013 (UTC) Answers by SE
 * Bring the "Edit property" box at the top of the page (by default human eyes read left to right and top to bottom (unless you are reading Urdu ), so, if the box is at top of the page, there are more chances you'll notice it)?
 * Show the edit summary of the editor (if any) in bold? (eg. An edit summary like "Removed 3 paragraphs, completely biased information, see talk page for information" makes good sense)?
 * More importantly, is there any way to differentiate (bg color, edit tag, editor tag, highlight) editor groups (I mainly want to see these IP, Auto-confirmed, Admins)?
 * I'm not sure of moving the column to above.Better contact User:West.andrew.g, the developer.I didn't find any option for the customization of this section though.
 * The tool already shows the edit summary of the editor in the Edit Properties section(the one mentioned above).I do agree that the summary section is often ignored(by me), due to its small size and as you said, we dont tend to read anything that lies in the extremes of the page :)
 * Yes, when you try to revert the edits of any autoconfirmed user who has above 150(or 50.I dont remember) edits to the mainspace, the tool warns you once and asks you to rethink.You may go ahead with the revert if you wish so the second time.
 * Customization:You can opt for warnings to be sent to the offender's talk.You can opt it out if you feel it unnecessarily increases the no. of your user talk space edits.(left bottom)
 * You also have the option to customize the edit summary of warnings, in case you opt for them.(Left bottom)
 * You can use any of the four rev Queue mechanisms.(top left in the title bar). Cluebot NG and STiki are the most used ones.You get CluebotNG as default.
 * That's all the customization I know in the tool. Hope you make the best out of it. Cheers  TheStrike Σagle  12:09, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I know these too, but sincere thanks for your help! It seems STiki does not have these customizing options (or think of keyboard shortcut Alt, Alt, Alt, Alt for vandalism, Good faith, Pass and Innocent respectively! ) --Tito Dutta (talk) 12:22, 17 January 2013 (UTC)


 * (1) There are hot keys. See STiki and the "interface tips" subhead in particular. (2) I prefer the "edit properties" at GUI bottom. The most important component of a Wikipedia edit is not *who* or *when*, but the *what* has been changed. Thus the diff takes prominence. In borderline cases I will look at an edit summary and registration status, but those are a secondary contextualization of what has been done. (3) Annotating feature groups in some way is an interesting idea, and one I will consider a feature request for future versions. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 13:41, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * On 2, this should not be related to Wikipedia norms since in web interface edit diffs, editor identity and timestamp comes first and below that the edit diff, and it increases chances that you notice the edit summary (BTW, after spending 2 hours with STiki, I don't see an urgent need for this. those IP editors generally don't write edit summary, still having an option to take the "Edit property" box at top will make it similar to Wikipedia web interface). and thanks for answer 1 and 3. --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:29, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

WRT Tito's second bullet point at the top of this thread... I agree that it would help to make the edit summary more prominent. It was suggested here that it should be put at the top of the edit properties box. I agreed with that suggestion. It might also help to do something else to make it stand out - the edit summary is a lot more useful than the other info. I would be against putting it in bold... but maybe make the font one point bigger.

On a related note, I notice that sometimes the edit summary is truncated. It appears that the GUI doesn't give it much space. I suggest that the box in the GUI be expanded so that the whole edit summary can be read without clicking through to the diff.Yaris678 (talk) 22:14, 20 January 2013 (UTC) I do remember this coming up before. I will now add explicitly to the bug-tracking/feature-request table so it doesn't escape my memory in the future. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 05:42, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Simple revert option as catch-all
Thanks a lot for answering my questions on the first day of my STiki use. The answers are really helpful. Is there any option to have a simple "revert" option as "catch-all" (typo, Wikicreole error, MoS error, edit test etc). I generally use the word "vandalism" very carefully. For example, please see this edit, there was nothing "good faith" in that edit, but not a serious vandal attack too. A simple revert option might be helpful here! --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:44, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

There is no point in carrying out this undertaking if you wish to avoid the retroaction of the odd, unpleasant post on your Talk page ...if appropriate I would edit the warning on the page. Perhaps this has something to do with my percentage which hangs always just under the 50% –&#32; – Gareth Griffith-Jones   – The Welsh  Buzzard''  – 04:23, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I think we might mention this in the section I linked above, but .... I would certainly label that case as "vandalism" -- it is blatantly unconstructive and not in good-faith. Notice that the level one warning template does not mention the word "vandalism" at all. only "unconstructive". For this reason, I think we have consensus that such instances should get a vandalism label. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:27, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Excellent! Thank you. Last one.. can we rename "pass" simply as "skip"! "Pass" might mean "promote" too (and if you are a DYK, GA, FA reviewer then you "pass" an article means completely the opposite thing of STiki's Pass.) --Tito Dutta (talk) 17:13, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I think I used "pass" precisely because the edit is "passed" to another STiki user -- although I see some possibility for this conclusion. This would create some issues with power-users who have the keyboard shortcuts hard-wired into their fingers. I'll think about it. West.andrew.g (talk) 17:20, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Totally agree with you Andrew on this. I always mark similar instances as vandalism, although I invariably then check the User's Talk to get an idea of the history. For instance, is he/she a rookie editor or an established, problem vandal, et cetera.

Creating a barnstar
Do you mind if I create a barnstar for STiki?-- Pr at yya  (Hello!) 13:21, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Your free to do as you wish! I will, however, also point you to WP:STiki/milestones where you should note we have several templates at the top. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Need help or suggestion...
...here --Tito Dutta (talk) 07:03, 22 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm having a hard time parsing what is going on there (or which reports you are talking about if there are multiple), plus I have a flight to catch so I am a bit rushed. Many of those reports have custom authored messages, whereas STiki leaves a static/default message. I'll assume you changed them after STiki placed the warning. In the first case, at least, STiki did the right thing. Another editor had recently placed a "vandalism-4im" template on the user's talk page. You reverted another edit by the same user, STiki saw this template, and STiki took the next logical step in requesting a block. Someone at AIV used their discretion to decline the block; it happens. I don't have time to fully vet the case, but if this is indeed "edit warring", then STiki's confusion lies at the fact that humans were using anti-vandal templates to curb the issue. Was there another problem in the diff you presented? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 15:22, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Alright, I'll carefully watch the STiki AIV reports and write back in details if it happens in future! Thanks! --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:36, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

That is a very odd case. created an article with just an infobox. He then expanded the article and was reverted "Revert non-encyclopedic addition - content needs to be factual and neutral in nature". Unfortunately we can't tell what the edit was because it has been deleted. MrDilly kept adding stuff and has been reverted multiple times, including by Titodutta. I don't think any of the reverts used STiki. Titodutta submitted the case to AIV manually. Tito submitted other cases using STiki at around the same time, which may have lead to some confusion. Mr Dilly has not edited recently.

Although the edits were deleted, we can get some idea of their content from this post on his talk page.

In summary, MrDilly appears to have been doing adding non-encyclopedic and copyright-infringing information. This was reverted a number of times and deleted from the record, presumably because of the copyright infringement.

Tito, for future reference, I wouldn't have used the term edit-warring in this situation. I would say "repeatedly adding copyright-infringing material" or something like that. I would also post the message at Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents, rather than AIV. That's what it suggests at Copyright violations.

Yaris678 (talk) 13:10, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Good observation. Next part (unrelated to STiki) at your talk page.. --Tito Dutta (talk) 13:15, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Suggestions for default AGF user messages (for T#019)
Greetings team. I am going through some feature-requests and bug-fixes today. Towards that, I have begun to look at T#019. The idea is that after pressing "AGF revert", a dialogue will pop-up (if the option is enabled) that will allow you to author a custom message for the user's talk page. In addition to just a blank (and dull) form field, I'd like to have a drop-down box with some common default messages (maybe things like "unacceptable grammar", "Wikipedia is not a fan site", etc. etc.). I'd appreciate if you guys could split off a page and collaborate on what (a) types there should be, and (b) what they should say -- while I concentrate on the technical bits. We can of course have placeholders for things like "username", "article edited", etc. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 18:01, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * That sounds excellent! Few Twinkle warning/notice/alert type messages will be helpful. --Tito Dutta (talk) 18:05, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi Andrew,
 * There are loads of templates listed at Template messages/User talk namespace.
 * Depending on how clever you can be with interface design, I reckon you want a smallish subset of these, plus a "more" link to that page.
 * I guess it would be helpful to get the opinion of several STiki users on which templates should be on the shortlist... but here are some suggestions from me:
 * Template:Uw-badlistentry
 * Template:Uw-coi
 * Template:Uw-crystal
 * Template:Uw-deadlink
 * Template:Uw-linking
 * Template:Uw-spoiler
 * Template:Uw-talkinarticle
 * Template:Uw-joke1 to Template:Uw-joke4
 * Template:Uw-advert1 to Template:Uw-advert4
 * Template:Uw-biog1 to Template:Uw-biog4
 * more...
 * Yaris678 (talk) 21:30, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the listing, Yaris. My initial thought was that we wouldn't "subst" templates like these directly, but maybe upon selection from a drop-down box the raw wikitext (presumably of the templates, or something similar) would appear in a textbox and be ripe for immediate customization and modification. This should be a very good starting point. I don't think STiki users should be too intimated by a little bit of template formatting. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 05:40, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅ I included a quite minimal subset in the new STiki version pushed tonight. I am sure once people familiarize themselves with the functionality, that these requests will generate a little more traffic. I was trying to concentrate on cases I had actually seen before. Thanks West.andrew.g (talk) 03:32, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Feature request
Stay signed in! Possible? --Tito Dutta (talk) 18:05, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Somewhere in the archives we discussed the possibility of saving passwords or cookies (similar as we already do with the user name field). This seems like the moral equivalent. To summarize, its probably not the best idea and regardless its not a burden I'm looking to take on if things go awry. I can't imagine the burden of typing in a password every now and then is one that is too troublesome. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 03:47, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Agree with this feature request to save the password. Widefox ; talk 19:20, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
 * If persons using the tool want to take the responsibility upon themselves, an AutoIT script would be trivially easy to create. 118.92.203.57 (talk) 20:43, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Would you care to expand on that, for those that might be interested? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 23:36, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

A second supplication
I previously asked for permission to use STiki here, but my application was politely rejected due to my lack of experience. I have since done what I feel is a lot of constructive contributing in a short time, and I feel confident in my own abilities to use STiki responsibly. As such, I'm asking again if I may be permitted to use what looks like a great tool for monitoring vandalism on wikipedia. --Kierkkadontalk/contribs 15:24, 25 January 2013 (UTC)


 * ✅. Your access has been approved. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 16:03, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Queues still working
Because I'm the sort of person I am, I decided to use the old version of STiki (2012_12_04) and see if the WikiTrust and LinkSpam queues still work. And they do! Yaris678 (talk) 20:32, 27 January 2013 (UTC)
 * In the case of WikiTrust, the surprising thing is that all the diffs were only a few days old. Does this mean that the WikiTrust server worked for a period?  Or does it mean that the STiki server is just serving me a different queue (STiki or or CBNG)?
 * In the case of the Link Spam queue. I got up to date diffs of some spammy links.  Does this mean that you just haven't disabled this queue yet?
 * I cannot speak specifically to the WikiTrust queue. When I contacted them, they seemed to indicate they knew there was a problem, but it wasn't one they were terribly eager to fix. I would expect any periods of operation to be intermittent, and the larger point remains that its accuracy was not very good and no one used it. I turned off the link spam queue to coincide with the new release (i.e., probably within the last 24 hours). These queue's will still be "accessible" for those with older versions of the tool, but they will not be getting populated with new revisions (although this could be trivially restarted at any moment). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 20:40, 27 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Cool. Thanks for the info.  Yaris678 (talk) 21:15, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

General message
Hi Andrew, I just did a good-faith revert. I like the new message feature, although I decided not to use it on this occasion.

One slight quibble. I notice that there is a general message, which says <div class="notice" style="background:#def; border:1px solid #468; padding:0.5em; margin:0.5em auto; background-color:#EBFFEB;">

Recent edits to #a#
Hello, and thank you for your recent contributions. I appreciate the effort you made for our project, but unfortunately I had to undo your edit(s) because it did not meet one or more of our policies. Feel free to read more there, or contact me directly if you have any questions. Thank you! ~

I don't think a general message should mention policies. Two reasons:
 * 1) The list is so massive that it could just confuse new users. If a STiki user can't direct the user to a specific policy they mean they probably shouldn't bother.
 * 2) There is the possibility that the good-faith revert was done for a reason not mentioned in policy (or even guidelines). e.g. a pointless addition to a list

Maybe the general message should be

<div class="notice" style="background:#def; border:1px solid #468; padding:0.5em; margin:0.5em auto; background-color:#EBFFEB;">

Recent edits to #a#
Hello, and thank you for your recent contributions. I appreciate the effort you made for our project, but I decided to revert your edit(s) to #a#. If you would like to discuss this change, feel free to leave a message on my talk page or #at#. Thank you! ~

Note that #at# means the article talk page. Yaris678 (talk) 21:39, 27 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I'll be the first to admit the imperfection of these pre-formatted options. I am hopeful now that they are in live versions that suggestions like these will roll in, and I have no issue pushing the changes in the next release (and in the mean-time, the "user custom" options can be used to store the improved versions). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 21:47, 27 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Good idea.
 * You could facilitate people collaborting on improvements by posting the contents of the messages to a subpage. e.g. WP:STiki/GFR messages.
 * Yaris678 (talk) 22:25, 27 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I would love for these to be developed in a community fashion, if you can find others willing to participate. I tried to poke at this during the development stage (where only you responded), but perhaps having the feature live will generate some more traffic. I like to concentrate on the technical bits and let the practitioners tell me what they need. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 22:31, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Question
How does one get permission to use this program? Seems like it's a great tool.--YHoshua (talk) 04:19, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
 * You have implicit permission, as you have 1000+ article namespace edits! Download the tool, and once you enter your username/password, you'll be let right in. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 04:31, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Raymond Franz
Can anyone suggest me what to do with this? They deleted whole article, so my revet was correct there! But, the way they are criticizing us for giving wrong/false information and demanding an apology from Wikipedia, should we do something or leave as it is? (I know almost nothing about the subject) --Tito Dutta (talk) 18:46, 29 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Seems its been dealt with. WP:ANI would also be a reasonable place to get some feedback, in the future, thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:44, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Feature Request
After going through recent changes old school with the help of twinkle, this is a great improvement. But more warning templates would be great, because we can't choose a level of warning, nor most of templates for specific kinds of disruptive editing. If I'm wrong, could you tell me how to get more warning templates? Thanks! &#8213;<font color=#FF6200>Ross</font color=#FF6200><font color=#0101DF>coolguy</font color=#0101DF> 23:54, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

–&#32; Gareth Griffith-Jones &#124; The Welsh Buzzard &#124; 23:57, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi! When reverting AGF revisions with STiki, I always use WP:TWINKLE –&#32;


 * Well, if you press the "vandalism" button the level of warning will automatically increment based on the recent vandalism warnings on the user talk page. This is a practical necessity -- via this progression is how the blocking process usually proceeds. Vandalism is "vandalism" and when damage is intentionally performed, I don't think we should be too subtle in parsing out its motivations. However, if you classify an edit as a "good faith revert", a dialogue should pop that provides more subtle, descriptive, and customized options. Similarly, as Gareth mentioned, Twinkle actions fired from STiki hyperlinks can always cover the corner cases... Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 04:44, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Low Priority Feature Change for Pass Reminders
Hello! I really appreciate the hard work that has gone into making STiki such a wonderful tool, but, even as I continue to use it, I find it very annoying that I am getting messages asking me to not "pass" as often. I think that users should not feel pressured to find something innocent that they do not know the details of. Yes, I feel that editors should do their due diligence is screening out potential information on their own, but sometimes things just aren't in our area of expertise. The reason that it is really annoying, though, is that I often find an error, go to the actual page on Wikipedia to fix it, then pass so that I'm not reverting my own changes. The original edit isn't necessarily innocent (or "guilty"), but my changes are fine, so I want to leave it untouched. Andrew, what is your recommendation - should I hit "innocent" instead (thus avoiding someone reverting my changes unintentionally), should a new option be added ("fix manually"), or should the warning be reduced, or some alternative? Please advise. Thanks again! --Jackson Peebles (talk) 18:39, 2 March 2013 (UTC)


 * I believe it may be somewhere deep within the documentation page, but: (1) If an edit displays in STiki, and you use a web browser to make a change, then when you return to the STiki window, classifying as "vandalism" or "AGF" will NOT revert your changes. Classify the diff as appropriate, as your feedback is still being recorded for retraining purposes, but no changes will be made. Regardless of how you classify, no one else will ever see the edit again, because it is no longer the most recent on the article by virtue of your edit. (2) The "don't pass" dialogue should occur less and less over time, I think it is set for something like a user's 10th, 50th, 100th, 250th, 500th, 1000th, 5000th pass action. However, your "number of passes" is stored in a client-side settings file. If you are using different computers, this could indeed get annoying (but shouldn't in the general case). West.andrew.g (talk) 19:21, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! --Jackson Peebles (talk) 03:51, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Permissions request
Hi! I've recently been doing a fair bit of vandalism reverting so I was wondering whether I could be granted special permission to use the Stiki tool. If you are concerned whether I am a trusted user or not, I have the reviewer permission and a clean block log. I also have an understanding of the relevant wiki policies regarding vandalism. My contributions are mainly in the area of GA reviews, of which I have conducted about 30. If you have any questions regarding my application please ask. Thanks!  ★ ★ RetroLord★ ★  00:53, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- West.andrew.g (talk) 01:56, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Spelling error
There appears to be a spelling error in the pre-made good faith revert messages. The one for unencyclopedic details says something like "we maycollaborate" without a space between the two words. Is anyone else getting this?  ★ ★ RetroLord★ ★  03:32, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
 * It has mentioned in the recent archives and fixed in source; such a minor bug is no reason to push a new release, though. There are also some discussions about more/alternative customized messages in that archived thread. Those that currently exist are just my attempt to hack some basic ones out quickly (since I couldn't get the community to care much about them prior to the feature being included). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 03:38, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Video instructions?
The project page is potentially daunting to newcomers, by merit of being so prose-dense and well-documented. Might there be a YouTube video the curious could watch to get an entertaining, quick, and visual how-to demo of STiki? Biosthmors (talk) 20:41, 26 February 2013 (UTC)


 * There could be... with screen capture software and a nice voice-over it could probably be done reasonably quickly, as well. I would support any community member who wants to attempt this. However, I am currently loaded with technical tasks. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 08:22, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * If Wikimedia (or someone else - there's an academic license, which I'm eligible for, but it's still $299) wants to give me a license to Adobe Captivate, I'd be happy to do this. (This is actually semi-serious, so if anyone from WMF is watching and thinks they could get a donation or someone from Adobe can make this happen, I could do this for a LOT of tutorials.)  --Jackson Peebles (talk) 18:43, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Let me just leave this link here: User:West.andrew.g/Flow_funding cough*cough. If this were only being used to build a tutorial for STiki, there would be some pretty significant conflict-of-interest such that I should probably avoid. However, if your willing to make a larger commitment to multiple tools/processes, then I think this is appropriate and within scope. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:11, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Very interesting, didn't know that this existed (sorry, missed the reply until now). This is something that I would be interested in.  If we can come up with a list of projects that would benefit from this work and what tutorials would need to be made, this could develop into something very good.  --Jackson Peebles (talk) 04:05, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Diamond Metal of Merit
I have created a new version of the STiki Barnstar of Merit, available here. I believe that this could potentially be used for an editor's 100,00th classification. I am open to any suggestions any of you make. Thank you.  Frigid Ninja  23:22, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Looks reasonable to me... Integrate it into the template and update documentation accordingly. Who knows how long it will be until we actually need this one, though! Thanks! West.andrew.g (talk) 03:19, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Connection Issues
My STiKi client was working fine up until about an hour ago, it now appears that it cannot connect to the STiKi server(or whatever it logs into) when i enter my account username and password. Any ideas?  ★ ★ RetroLord★ ★  07:43, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

-- It appears to be fixed. Thanks!  ★ ★ RetroLord★ ★  08:57, 3 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Connection issues are notoriously hard to troubleshoot. It could be on (a) your end, (b) my end, (c) Wikipedia's end. So long as it is not recurring and others are not experiencing it, then I am not going to fret it. Regardless, all seems to be running smoothly currently. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 06:40, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Permissions request
I would like to have permission to use STiki. I have been doing quite a bit of vandalism reverting and would like to be able to use STiki to be able to spot more vandalism. I think I will be able to help make Wikipedia stay a safe learning enviroment more using STiki.--Liberalufp (talk) 22:05, 4 March 2013 (UTC)


 * -- Absolutely not. Many of your edits show negligence and perhaps abuse of automated tools -- and you have a minimal amount of anti-vandalism work. If this remains something you are interested in, you need to familiarize yourself with policy, and at minimum complete the WP:CVUA training. West.andrew.g (talk) 22:27, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Java exception
Related to my last post, I thought I would try to get STiki working on my girlfriend's computer. It didn't work from double clicking on the icon so I had a go through the command line. The screen dump here shows the text I got back.

I'm using Windows 7 and Java updated itself yesterday. I don't think its anything specific to the Java update; I've tried and failed to get it to run on this machine before.

Yaris678 (talk) 10:22, 17 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Apologies, this got pushed to my back burner given some other wiki work. Can you confirm the output of this and post or privately submit if you need to? This is often an error seen with Java version mis-alignment, but that seems unlikely given your recent update. I don't use MS-DOS very much, so can you also confirm that the command-line syntax is correct and normal? On Linux, it would look more like java -jar foo.jar . Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 17:53, 22 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I have also had delays, hence the de-archiving!
 * Pretty sure the syntax is correct. Tried it on a different Windows machine a few days ago and got the same response as double clicking on the icon (as it happens this was a message box saying there was trouble connecting to the STiki back end, but I assume that was a temporary glitch, it normally works fine on that machine).
 * Still getting the same message on my girlfriend's computer.
 * The Java version thingy reports as follows:
 * Vendor: Sun Microsystems Inc
 * Version: Java SE 6 update 39
 * Operating system: Windows 7 6.1
 * Architecture: 32 bit
 * I hope this helps!
 * Yaris678 (talk) 16:37, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

(Dissertation writing, so I can't dig too deep at current). I would look at trying to force a Java update, as Java 7 has been around since mid-2011. This might also be a generally good idea, given some of the security issues that Java's browser plug-in environment has been having as of late. Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 19:04, 5 March 2013 (UTC)