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Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2018).

Guideline and policy news

  1. G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
  2. R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
  3. G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.

Technical news

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

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

18:29, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Captions in January

The previous message from today says captions will be released in November in the text. January is the correct month. My apologies for the potential confusion. -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 20:43, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Structured Data - file captions coming this week (January 2019)

My apologies if this is a duplicate message for you, it is being sent to multiple lists which you may be signed up for.

Hi all, following up on last month's announcement...

Multilingual file captions will be released this week, on either Wednesday, 9 January or Thursday, 10 January 2019. Captions are a feature to add short, translatable descriptions to files. Here's some links you might want to look follow before the release, if you haven't already:

  1. Read over the help page for using captions - I wrote the page on mediawiki.org because captions are available for any MediaWiki user, feel free to host/modify a copy of the page here on Commons.
  2. Test out using captions on Beta Commons.
  3. Leave feedback about the test on the captions test talk page, if you have anything you'd like to say prior to release.

Additionally, there will be an IRC office hour on Thursday, 10 January with the Structured Data team to talk about file captions, as well as anything else the community may be interested in. Date/time conversion, as well as a link to join, are on Meta.

Thanks for your time, I look forward to seeing those who can make it to the IRC office hour on Thursday. -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 21:09, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

17:54, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

20:34, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:Criminal charges brought in the Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)

Hello,

You added {{American politics AE}} to Talk:Criminal charges brought in the Special Counsel investigation (2017–present). Just for your information: only uninvolved admins may impose page restrictions and the restrictions are not valid unless there is proper editnotice on the page, see WP:AC/DS#sanctions.page. Hence I replaced {{American politics AE}} with {{Ds/talk notice}}, which is more general and which any editor may add (or remove if the article clearly does not fall under the specified area).

If you think that the article should have some page restrictions, you can make a request at proper venue, for example at WP:AE. Thank you. Politrukki (talk) 23:29, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

18:15, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 January 2019

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019).

Administrator changes

added EnterpriseyJJMC89
readded BorgQueen
removed Harro5Jenks24GraftR. Baley

Interface administrator changes

removedEnterprisey

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous

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

17:12, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

AFD 2 for Olwen Kelly

I thought you might like to know Olwen Kelly is up for deletion again at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Olwen Kelly (2nd nomination). You were involved with the article. --Tyw7 (🗣️ Talk) — If (reply) then (ping me) 18:13, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Natural element listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Natural element. Since you had some involvement with the Natural element redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Thryduulf (talk) 20:22, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking

Trizek (WMF) 15:08, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Could you translate one sentence from Danish for me, please?

"Dette Amalgam adskiller sig med en stor Hurtighed i Beröring med Luften, og giver ved Destillation, uden Beröring med Luften, en Metalklump, som i Farve og Glands noget nærmer sig Tinnet." This sentence comes from Hans Christian Oersted's report to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters on his discovery of aluminum (page XXVI if you need context). Google Translate would normally be enough for me to handle the task on my own, since I happen to speak English and German, and Danish is relatively close to these, but I can't really make out what the word "Hurtighed" means and how to put in into right context here, so I need help from a native speaker. The latter part is commonly referred to in English as "a lump of metal which in color and luster somewhat resembles tin."--R8R (talk) 15:12, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

@R8R: Today, you wouldn't use "stor Hurtighed", but "stor hastighed" or just "adskiller sig hurtigt [i berøring med]" ...

I would translate it to:
This amalgam quickly separates ("hurtighed"/like the German "Schnelligkeit", happens fast/quickly) in air, and by distillation, in an inert atmosphere ("uden Beröring med Luften" literally means: without touching the air), gives [a lump of metal which in color and luster somewhat resembles tin].
Christian75 (talk) 15:51, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Aha! Yes, indeed, this makes sense. Probably I should've figured this out myself. Thank you very much!--R8R (talk) 16:01, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
You are welcome. It is old Danish, and not easy to understand. Christian75 (talk) 16:15, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk pages consultation 2019

The Wikimedia Foundation has invited the various Wikimedia communities, including the English Wikipedia, to participate in a consultation on improving communication methods within the Wikimedia projects. As such, a request for comment has been created at Wikipedia:Talk pages consultation 2019. You are invited to express your views in the discussion. ~ Winged BladesGodric 05:16, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

21:16, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 February 2019

16:38, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2019).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous


Angstrom...

Hi, would you please consider reverting your change to Angstrom? The name with diacritics is almost never used in English, and not even listed in some major dictionaries. Even the OED puts "angstrom" as the main spelling. For all practical purposes, the name of the unit in English is "angstrom".
But, more importantly, diacritics should not be used. Please see the Talk page.
All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 06:58, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

19:29, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

19:43, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

18:04, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

interwiki

Hi, a bot should move it to wikidata. Tarawneh (talk) 16:12, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

In the beginning bots transferred it to Wikidata. I do not know what the current status is. Christian75 (talk) 16:17, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

16:29, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2019).

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

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

18:24, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

23:00, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

19:08, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

dihydrogen cation

Hi, could you please specify in the talk page what are your objections about the dihydrogen cation head section?
The only thing I did was move a technical discussion of how easy it is to apply QM to it, which had no place in the head, to the body of the article. If the head is "bad" now, it was only worse before. --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 18:57, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

22:27, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 April 2019

A carbon nanotube is a molecule

Carbon nanotubes (plural) are a species. A carbon nanotube(singular) is a bona-fide molecule (like a strand of DNA, a chain of PTE, etc.) Even Sante Iupaque would agree to that. --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 21:12, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

@Jorge Stolfi: What do you mean with Sate Iupaque? Please explain! And no, its no a molecule because its an allotope. Christian75 (talk) 21:16, 30 April 2019 (UTC) You could argue that a carbon nanotube is a molecule, but it depends on your definition. At least the most important thing about nanotubes should be said first - that its an allotrope. Christian75 (talk) 21:27, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
Sorry, Sante Iupaque is the IUPAC.
An allotrope is a bulk form of an element with a fairly definite and distinctive structure (and therefore distinctive bulk properties). Diamond and graphite are bona-fide allotropes of carbon; an isolated carbon atom in vacuum, or a C2 molecule, is not. Pure solid C60, with the balls arranged in a specific crystal structure, is another allotrope of carbon. Pure solid C70, ditto, is yet another. If the same balls are packed in a different arrangement, you have another allotrope.
Calling carbon nanotubes (plural) an allotrope, while popular among the researchers, is rather problematic. Is each (m,n) type a different allotrope? What about (5,3)-nanotubes that are only 10 atoms long, and (5,3)-nanotubes that are 1000 atoms long? What about the latter, packed in two different ways? If all nanotubes are the same allotrope, then graphene (the limiting case of a very wide nanotube), C20 (the limiting case of a very short capped nanotube), and Cyclooctoparaphenylene (the limiting case of a very short uncapped one) are all the same allotrope too..
So, it may be okay to say that all fullerenes together (including graphene) are one allotrope of carbon. (Except that graphite is a limiting case of a very wide, very multiwalled nanotube...)
Besides, note that a carbon nanotube must have some other atoms, like hydrogen or hydroxyls, to satisfy the dangling bonds at the open ends. That is also true of graphite and diamond, but the fraction of those capping atoms in any macroscopic chunk is absolutely negligible. In constrast, if you have a mass of nanotubes that are only 1000 atoms long, the capping groups will have a drastic influence on the bulk properties of the material, like solubility.
The fact is that the term "allotrope" is not useful for this kind of stuff. The term was invented a long time ago, when chemists noticed that some elements like phosphorus, sulfur, carbon, and tin came in two or three different forms, with very distinctive chemical and physical properties. For compounds, they had the concept of "isomer": the same atoms joining in different ways to make the molecules. But how to explain two different forms of a pure element? They did not have Xray diffraction and Raman etc to figure out what was going on. It was natural to invent another term for those forms. But now we know that even a single element can make an infinitude of solids, all with different complicated structures and very different properties. It is no longer useful to refer to each form, or to a whole class of such forms, as "an allotrope".
So we must mention that nanotubes (plural), with other fullerenes and graphene, are considered an allotrope of carbon — because many chemists say so; but it is hardly the most important thing about nanotubes, and in fact it is more confusing than illuminating.
But, anyway, one nanotube is not an allotrope of carbon: it is just a molecule.
All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 23:12, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
C
2
is an allotrope of carbon. (Allotrope: "Different structural modifications of an element." source: IUPAC[1]. re: "Is each (m,n) type a different allotrope? " Yes, if they are different structural modifications. re "So, it may be okay to say that all fullerenes together (including graphene) are one allotrope of carbon." First, if you can find a reference from a high-level textbook it would probably be ok. But original research is not ok. A quote from Greenwood and Earnshaw about fullerenes says[2]: Chapter 8:Carbon, section 8.2.4: Fullerenes: One of the most exiting and challenging developments in recent chemistry has been the synthesis and characterization of many new, soluble, molecular modifications of carbon. As a result, the number of identified allotropes of this element has increased enormously, [...]". Christian75 (talk) 15:56, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
Do you have a source that says that C
2
is an allotrope of carbon? The IUPAC definition does not let one say that. (You are not engaging in OR, right? 😀)
If a single molecule of C
2
is an allotrope of carbon, then every cluster with n atoms of gold is an allotrope of gold (or more, depending on the atom arrangement). Does that sound right to you?
It is obvious that whoever wrote that IUPAC definition did not think about our question; otherwise they would have been more specific.
The quote from the Holy Prophets G&E does not answer it either. Were they thinking of "C60" as an allotrope of carbon, or would they use that word only for "solid C60 with the buchyballs in a cpp arrangement"? The latter would be consistent with saying that graphite is a different allotrope from graphene, which many nanotech guys seem to assume.
On the other hand, check the IUPAC definition of "molecule". A carbon nanotube is definitely a molecule by that definition. (Unless it picks up a stray electron, of it is of type (1,0) and has length 1...)
Here is another way to look at the issue. As I wrote, the word allotrope has been used traditionally for bulk condensed forms of an element (mostly solid, perhaps liquid), that differ in their macroscopic intensive properties like color, crystal group, density, reactivity, etc. — independently of the shape of the sample. No one would say that iron sheet, iron wire, iron balls, iron turnings, and iron filings are allotropes of iron. That has always been the case even for microscopic bits: the allotrope is the material that the thing is made of, whatever its shape or size. Two disks of copper with same dimensions, one work-hardened and the other annealed, are still the same allotrope. Two platelets of graphite 1 μm thick, one cut parallel to the graphene planes, the other across them, are still the same allotrope. That in spite of the fact that the physical and even chemical properties of the two objects, in each case, are very different; and even though the difference has to do with the relationship between the shape of the object and the atomic structure of the material. Agreed so far?
Now, the goal of nanotechnology is to create structures so small that you build them atom by atom, with "bars" that are only one or a few atoms wide, and "sheets" that are only one or a few atoms thick. Relatively few (if any) people who are studying buckyballs and nanotubes, even for practical applications, are studying the bulk properties of pure macroscopic samples of those things. Most scientists are studying the properties of single bluckyballs or single nanotubes. (Even because, if there are infinitely many buckyball and nanotube types, the number of bulk substances that consist of such molecules is "infinity to the infinitieth power"...) That is, they view each molecule as as an object to be studied; and nanotechnologists, in fact, view it as an object to be built and used, like a mechanical engineer would view a coffee grinder or grain silo.
But then it should be easy to see that a C60 and a (3,5)×1000 nanotube are not different materials, but simply two nanoscale objects with different shapes, both built from the same material: pure carbon. In fact, out of the same allotrope of carbon: with atoms sp2-bonded in an hexagonal quasi-planar lattice (graphene/graphite), as oposed to atoms sp3-bonded in a tetrahedral three-dimensional lattice (diamond).
Surely you will agree that this view is not not inconsistent with the IUPAC definition. Work-hardened and annealed copper obviously do not count as "different structural modifications" for the purposes of that definition, even though their different properties are entirely due to different arrangements of the atoms. So why would a buckyball and a nanotube count?

On a more general note, the definitions adopted by an entity like the IUPAC (or of any similar body, like the IAU, IEEE, BIPM, ...) are normative only for the publications of that entity. For the rest of the world, those are only suggested nomenclature. Scientists and technicians may find it useful to adopt that nomencature; journal editors and publisher may decide to impose it on authors; governments may decide to impose it on teachers and contrators. But even the most respected entiy cannot change the meaning of words in the English language.
It is proper to say that the metre is what the BIPM defines it to be, because they define the concept as well as its name. But the IUPAC did not invent the molecule; so, it is wrong for Wikipedia to say or imply that "a molecule is〈IUPAC definition〉". A molecule is whatever English speakers call by that name; and since usage varies, the Wikipedia should note that "molecule may refer to 〈thing1〉although it may also mean 〈thing2〉and the IUPAC defines it as 〈thing3〉", etc.
All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 04:36, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.

Administrators' newsletter – May 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2019).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

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

Arbitration

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

Miscellaneous


16:27, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

00:48, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

13:03, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

15:33, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 May 2019

15:24, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

Carola Remer

I made the reasonable decision to redirect an POORLY sourced article of defunct directories and forums with a fruitless AfD where editors who don’t know 💩💩💩 about modeling resorted to ad hominem attacks on me rather than actually point out notability, to her modeling agency. If you disagree, take it to the talk page. Trillfendi (talk) 16:33, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

The AfD was closed as no consensus. Not redirect or anything else. Christian75 (talk) 19:06, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2019).

Administrator changes

removed AndonicConsumed CrustaceanEnigmamanEuryalusEWS23HereToHelpNv8200paPeripitusStringTheory11Vejvančický

CheckUser changes

removed Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

Miscellaneous


A discussion has started about wrapper templates of {{Link language}}. You may be interested in participating because you participated in a related previous discussion. E^pi*i batch (talk) 02:52, 10 June 2019 (UTC) (Retro is my main account.)

17:06, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

20:37, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 14

Newsletter • June 2019

Updates: I've been focusing largely on the development side of things, so we are a lot closer now to being ready to actually start discussing deploying it and testing it out here.

There's just a few things left that need to be resolved:

  • A bunch of language support issues in particular, plus some other release blockers, such as the fact that currently there's no good way to find any hubs people do create.
  • We also probably need some proper documentation and examples up to even reference if we want a meaningful discussion. We have the extension documentation and some test projects, but we probably need a bit more. Also I need to be able to even find the test projects! How can I possibly write reports about this stuff if I can't find any of it?!

Some other stuff that's happened in the meantime:

  • Midpoint report is out for this round of the project, if you want to read in too much detail about all the problems I've been running into.
  • WikiProject Molecular Biology have successfully set up using the old module system that CollaborationKit is intended to replace (eventually), and it even seems to work, so go them. Based on the issues they ran into, it looks like the members signup thing on that system has some of the same problems as we've been unable to resolve in CK, though, which is... interesting. (Need to change the content model to the right thing for the formwizard config to take. Ugh, content models.)

Until next time,

-— Isarra 21:43, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

17:29, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

The June 2019 Signpost is out!

Hello, when you add people to the Deaths in 2019 page, please note that they should be in alphabetical order by family name under each day. Thank you. --Marbe166 (talk) 12:47, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing it. I will try to remember it in the future. Christian75 (talk) 19:35, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2019).

Administrator changes

removed 28bytesAd OrientemAnsh666BeeblebroxBoing! said ZebedeeBU Rob13Dennis BrownDeorDoRDFloquenbeam1Flyguy649Fram2GadfiumGB fanJonathunderKusmaLectonarMoinkMSGJNickOd MishehuRamaSpartazSyrthissTheDJWJBscribe
1Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
2Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.

Guideline and policy news

  • In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.

Technical news

  • The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.

Miscellaneous


21:22, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

20:12, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #1—July 2019

Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon to start editing.

Edit Cards

Toolbar with menu opened

This is what the new Edit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here: 📲 Try Edit Cards.

Welcome back to the Editing newsletter.

Since the last newsletter, the team has released two new features for the mobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal to make editing on mobile web simpler.

Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:

Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?

If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.

Follow these instructions and share your experience:

📲 Try Edit Cards.

Recent releases

The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team has recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:

  1. Section editing
    • The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
    • The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
  2. Loading overlay
    • The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.

Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.

New and active projects

This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.

  • Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how: 📲Try Edit Cards.
  • Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
  • Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
  • Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use.  The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.

Looking ahead

  • Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to them about how editing can be improved.
  • Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.

Learning more

The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) and Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

21:42, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

Administrators' newsletter – August 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2019).

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
  • The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist.

    Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.


13:24, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

18:19, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

15:20, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2019

09:07, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2019).

Administrator changes

added BradvChetsfordIzno
readded FloquenbeamLectonar
removed DESiegelJake WartenbergRjanagTopbanana

CheckUser changes

removed CallaneccLFaraoneThere'sNoTime

Oversight changes

removed CallaneccFoxHJ MitchellLFaraoneThere'sNoTime

Technical news

  • Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
  • The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


Signetics categories

Hi Christian75, You removed the article Signetics from two categories, with the edit description "Remove non-company categories". As it turns out, one of the removed categories is the company NXP Semiconductors which currently owns/contains the remnants of Signetics. I didn't do a partial revert since I wasn't certain of your reasoning. I hope this is useful info. Cheers, Overjive (talk) 19:03, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

@Overjive: Hello. You are right; I have re-added Category:NXP Semiconductors to the article. Christian75 (talk) 21:09, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Rhodium

I noticed that you reverted a recent change to the rhodium page regarding the upper limit for a rhodium containing thermocouple. I have checked the source which was added by the anonymous editor and it does support the change to suggest that the limit for rhodium containing thermocouples is above 1300 oC. JM the platinum group metals company have published documents which suggest that the thermocouple is OK to use above 1300 oC. I think that you have reverted a change which removed a subtle form of vandalism thus putting the vandalism back into the page.

https://www.technology.matthey.com/article/17/2/52-56/ Cadmium (talk) 09:06, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

@Cadmium: I didn't just revert it. What finally made me revert it was the use of oC. Never heard about it before. But from your edit I guess its the degree sign. I had (and still have) som problems finding the numbers in the reference. But if you think I reintroduced vandalism - I will revert myself. Christian75 (talk) 07:14, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for the mail, I am a chemist but when I write in word I normally write degrees centrigrade as oC with a superscript for the o.Cadmium (talk) 16:02, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Structured Data - blogs posted in Wikimedia Space

There are two separate blog entries for Structured Data on Commons posted to Wikimedia Space that are of interest:

  • Working with Structured Data on Commons: A Status Report, by Lucas Werkmeister, discusses some ways that editors can work with structured data. Topics include tools that have been written or modified for structured data, in addition to future plans for tools and querying services.
  • Structured Data on Commons - A Blog Series, written by me, is a five-part posting that covers the basics of the software and features that were built to make structured data happen. The series is meant to be friendly to those who may have some knowledge of Commons, but may not know much about the structured data project.
I hope these are informative and useful, comments and questions are welcome. All the blogs offer a comment feature, and you can log in with your Wikimedia account using oAuth. I look forward to seeing some posts over there. -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 21:33, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 15

Newsletter • September 2019

A final update, for now:


The third grant-funded round of WikiProject X has been completed. Unfortunately, while this round has not resulted in a deployed product, I am not planning to resume working on the project for the foreseeable future. Please see the final report for more information.

Regards,

-— Isarra 19:23, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 September 2019

Wikidata weekly summary #384

16:49, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2019).

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion, a new criterion for speedy category renaming was added: C2F: One eponymous article, which applies if the category contains only an eponymous article or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories.

Technical news

  • As previously noted, tighter password requirements for Administrators were put in place last year. Wikipedia should now alert you if your password is less than 10 characters long and thus too short.

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The Community Tech team has been working on a system for temporarily watching pages, and welcomes feedback.

15:35, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #386

23:33, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages – October 2019

Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Inside this newsletter, the Editing team talks about their work on the mobile visual editor, on the new talk pages project, and at Wikimania 2019.

Help

What talk page interactions do you remember? Is it a story about how someone helped you to learn something new? Is it a story about how someone helped you get involved in a group? Something else? Whatever your story is, we want to hear it!

Please tell us a story about how you used a talk page. Please share a link to a memorable discussion, or describe it on the talk page for this project. The team would value your examples. These examples will help everyone develop a shared understanding of what this project should support and encourage.

Talk Pages

The Talk Pages Consultation was a global consultation to define better tools for wiki communication. From February through June 2019, more than 500 volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and multiple projects, came together with members of the Foundation to create a product direction for a set of discussion tools. The Phase 2 Report of the Talk Page Consultation was published in August. It summarizes the product direction the team has started to work on, which you can read more about here: Talk Page Project project page.

The team needs and wants your help at this early stage. They are starting to develop the first idea. Please add your name to the "Getting involved" section of the project page, if you would like to hear about opportunities to participate.

Mobile visual editor

The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing the visual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

What happens when you click on a link. The new Edit Card is bigger and has more options for editing links.
The editing toolbar is changing in the mobile visual editor. The old system had two different toolbars. Now, all the buttons are together. Tell the team what you think about the new toolbar.
  • In September, the Editing team updated the mobile visual editor's editing toolbar. Anyone could see these changes in the mobile visual editor.
    • One toolbar: All of the editing tools are located in one toolbar. Previously, the toolbar changed when you clicked on different things.
    • New navigation: The buttons for moving forward and backward in the edit flow have changed.
    • Seamless switching: an improved workflow for switching between the visual and wikitext modes.
  • Feedback: You can try the refreshed toolbar by opening the mobile VisualEditor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Toolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania

The Editing Team attended Wikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session on the mobile visual editor and a session on the new talk pages project. They tested two new features in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned in the team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead

  • Talk Pages Project: The team is thinking about the first set of proposed changes. The team will be working with a few communities to pilot those changes. The best way to stay informed is by adding your username to the list on the project page: Getting involved.
  • Testing the mobile visual editor as the default: The Editing team plans to post results before the end of the calendar year. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: VisualEditor as mobile default project page.
  • Measuring the impact of Edit Cards: The Editing team hopes to share results in November. This study asks whether the project helped editors add links and citations. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: Edit Cards project page.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:51, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

14:29, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

16:11, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 October 2019

Administrators' newsletter – November 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2019).

Guideline and policy news

  • A related RfC is seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure.

Arbitration


16:47, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

22:03, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process

Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking to improve the community consultation outreach process for Foundation policies, and we are interested in why you didn't participate in a recent consultation that followed a community discussion you’ve been part of.

Please fill out this short survey to help us improve our community consultation process for the future. It should only take about three minutes.

The privacy policy for this survey is here. This survey is a one-off request from us related to this unique topic.

Thank you for your participation, Kbrown (WMF) 10:44, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

20:16, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:07, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

currency infobox

is in redevelopment, see Template talk:Sidebar punctuation marks. The plan is to have something like the Wiktionary infobox. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 15:28, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!

Hello,

Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.

I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!

From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.

If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.

Thank you!

--User:Martin Urbanec (talk) 21:58, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

16:51, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 November 2019

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2019).

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFirToBeFree
removed AkhilleusAthaenaraJohn VandenbergMelchoirMichaelQSchmidtNeilNYoungamerican😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous


16:58, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Punctuation marks template

I know that we should wp:BEBOLD when appropriate but this was not such a case. You really should have invited comment on your proposal to move that template at its talk page rather than just charging in and doing it. If you had done so, someone might have told you not to waste your time because the template is under reconstruction as a navbar. There are other actions in progress to split out currency signs and mathematical symbols. Even administrators should consult. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 16:08, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

@John Maynard Friedman: In was moved without discussion and I moved it back. Even as a navbar it should have the same name (without navbar or sidebar) Christian75 (talk) 19:41, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

16:37, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Weekly Summary #395

00:16, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

20:04, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 December 2019

Forgotten {{R to ⋯}} lessons

Hello.
[154] – there is no section. You confuse “to section” with {{R to anchor}}. Incnis Mrsi (talk) 11:34, 6 September 2019 (UTC)