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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

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:15, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-45

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

Recent changes

  • At Special:Contributions you could see up to 5000 edits at the same time if you edited the URL. This has been lowered to 500. This is to stop requests which break the sites. [1]

Changes later this week

  • MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry can set the default length to block a user for your wiki. You will be able to use MediaWiki:ipb-default-expiry-ip to set a different default block length for IP editors. [2]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 November. It will be on all wikis from 7 November (calendar).

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:47, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Image duplication at Blue Moon Tavern

Hi. Do you have any idea why Blue Moon Tavern page has an image duplication at the infobox? -- Gprscrippers (talk) 17:35, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

@Gprscrippers:, some of the infobox values are getting pulled from Wikidata, and this can sometimes lead to such unintended effects. If you see an infobox value coming from "nowhere", check the infobox documentation for some mention of Wikidata in that particular parameter context. Unfortunately not all of the new Wikidata usages are perfectly logical and clearly documented. GermanJoe (talk) 17:51, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
@GermanJoe: Thank you for fixing this. Not sure that I will be able to fix it myself. --Gprscrippers (talk) 17:57, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
You're welcome :). If you see such cases again and get stuck in the documentation, feel free to ping me. GermanJoe (talk) 18:00, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXIII, November 2019

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 21:44, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-46

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

Recent changes

  • MediaWiki2LaTeX can put different pages from a Wikimedia wiki into a PDF. It can now make a PDF with around 5000 pages. Previously this was 800 pages.

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Future changes

  • Wikimedia will take part in Google Code-in. This is for young students who want to help with open source software. You can read more. Experienced technical Wikimedians can mentor students.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

22:03, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

My article (East Francia) was a HISTORICAL one so all years are essential. Kapeter77 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:35, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Kapeter77, please see WP:YEARLINK for more information. Just linking a broad worldwide list of dates (most of them have nothing to do with East Francia) doesn't increase the reader's understanding about this specific topic. And historical details closely related to East Francia should be in the article itself of course. GermanJoe (talk) 14:50, 12 November 2019 (UTC)
GermanJoe Well, I disagree because in a historical article dates are important but... don't wanna quarrel about it. :-) Kapeter77 (talk) 17:54, 12 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)

Reverted paragraph

Hi GermanJoe,

My name is Anton,

Few days ago I tried to add some info about the Virtual Reality related project I'm working on tor a last 4 years. I do have a US patent Virtual reality exercise device Patent number: 9940847. Working all by myself, I was able to put together a working prototype. Device might also be used for those recovering after stroke etc. as it helps to move and even walk. Anybody can learn about this device from my website https://www.hapticpower.com/ I think this is the first real and affordable device that allow anyone to enjoy a full, no restrictions, exploration of a VR world, with full physical presence. However,the paragraph I wrote in a few of related Wikipedia articles was removed and I was temporary blocked. I'm just trying to understand what did I do wrong? Working on this project alone, I couldn't pay for the costly Google adds to move me to the top of the search. That's why there are only few mentioning about my apparatus on the Internet. But I think US Patent is credible enough.

Please review my case and allow me to let people know about this project of mine. If you wish, you might also reach me via info@hapticpower.com Being new to the Wikipedia I'm very open to suggestions and advice.

Thanks in advance, Anton.

Hello Anton, it seems you misunderstand this project's purpose. Wikipedia is an encyclopedic project with information being based on independent secondary sources, it is not a PR platform. Any and all promotional activities are prohibited here. I wish you good luck with your projects, but Wikipedia is the wrong venue to "let people know about" something - unless it has already been covered by independent reliable sources like books, journals and acknowledged non-promotional news media. And even then such information should be added by uninvolved editors without a conflict of interest. GermanJoe (talk) 19:38, 31 December 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for a prompt answer and Happy New Year.
I taught that a true journalism is to promote the credible, relevant and novel information, not to block people based on technicalities.
When I said I'm new to Wikipedia, I meant new as an editor and contributor, not as an active user.
In fact, when I came up with an idea for my VRealizer-1, the first place I went before even filing for a patent was Wikipedia, to make sure idea is really new and nobody created anything of the same kind. I trust Wiki with all my heart and always believed it is the most accurate and to the point source of information.
If US Patent is not good enough to make my information verifiable, I'd be more then happy to offer any additional info(photo, video etc.) about my prototype.
I'm not trying to place an ad here, nor make any money. I guess you are a credible source and an influential person in Wikipedia, then why don't you do an investigation and, if it is credible ant interesting, place a paragraph about a VRealizer-1 in the relevant article? To me, that would be a true journalism.
Thanks again for answering and Happy New Year.
Anton. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.159.162.102 (talk) 17:17, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
I have provided all necessary information above and in the blue-linked guidelines. There is really nothing more to say - if you have further questions about Wikipedia editing, please ask at WP:Teahouse. I am not interested in a detailed discussion about Wikipedia's current guidelines. GermanJoe (talk) 17:30, 1 January 2020 (UTC)

Dear GermanJoe.

All I'm asking is for you as a credible, respected and reliable source to do the journalist's investigation and, if you thing this is important, interesting and credible information, do the edit of corresponding Wikipedia's page(s) yourself. Don't you think this is a duty of a true journalist to make sure that Wikipedia's information is complete and accurate? Thanks, Anton.

Tech News: 2019-47

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

Problems

Changes later this week

  • You can soon vote on proposals for the Community Wishlist Survey. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can vote on proposals from 20 November to 2 December. This year the wishlist will focus on Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikivoyage and Wikinews. You can read more about the format for this year.
  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

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) 00:13, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

Re: Using your own publications

Hello GermanJoe, according to the policy citing one's own work "is allowed within reason, but only if it is relevant, conforms to the content policies, including WP:SELFPUB, and is not excessive. Citations should be in the third person and should not place undue emphasis on your work". I argue the editing I did was within reason (also considering that I fixed technical issues in the original, rather poorly written text), the reference(s) are relevant, and are few.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Dangyuri (talk • contribs) 19:53, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Dangyuri, of course improvements especially from topic experts are appreciated. But you didn't add much new content and the existing content was already sufficiently sourced by other references. Anyway, "when in doubt" please suggest further similar additions of your own work on article talk, per WP:SELFCITE. Thank you. GermanJoe (talk) 16:46, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Creating Wikipedia Business Pages

Hello GermanJoe, I couldn't help but notice your tips on creating a business page on Wikipedia. Would it be too much to ask of you to look over a text edit I put together and give me some tips of any changes I should make for it to meet the guidelines of Wikipedia? Sean1sposato (talk) 19:16, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Sean1sposato:, I am sorry, but I don't have time for a review of the deleted draft. One important point though: please disclose a possible conflict of interest or possible paid editing, if either of these guidelines apply to your editing (see the linked pages for more details). Thank you for your consideration. GermanJoe (talk) 20:23, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
NO worries, and quick question: Where would I disclose the fact that there could be a conflict of interest? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sean1sposato (talk • contribs) 20:50, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
@Sean1sposato:, usually on your userpage and on top of the talkpage of affected articles. WP:DISCLOSE contains more "how to" details - please check such links for more information. GermanJoe (talk) 21:03, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
GermanJoe, thank you for all the help! I appreciate it. Sean1sposato (talk) 21:06, 22 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)

Tech News: 2019-48

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

Changes later this week

  • The mobile beta mode will be disabled to have less maintenance. The developers will focus on the desktop improvements project. You can turn on advanced mobile contributions mode if you want to see the categories. You could also jump back to the top. This can instead be done with a gadget or user script. [4]
  • Parsoid is software we use for the visual editor, content translation, Flow and the Android app. This has been rewritten. It will come to the wikis gradually over the next two weeks. It has been tested, but there could be some diffs or previews that don't look right. If you see any you can report them. [5]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 November. It will be on the other wikis next week (calendar). This is because of holidays.

Meetings

Future changes

  • You will switch between the article and the talk page in a new way in the mobile view in the future. It will use tabs. This is more like in the desktop view. [6]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:51, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

Regarding my edits

Hi Sir,

I am new to Wikipedia. I made 2 edits today.

The first edit was related to Fairytrail (dating app for travelers which is safer than other dating apps). The second edit was related to Devblog (a tool that helps developers to create developer stories on their own domains instead of medium.com).

I was trying to add value to the readers since I thought they must know about both the products. It may look promotional as I am a new user. Please let me know where I went wrong. If you feel that the information I shared is genuine, please undo the changes you made.

Sincerely, Vikas — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cryptochild07 (talk • contribs) 18:31, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Both edits lacked independent 3rd-party sources and were clearly intended to promote these websites/products. Both aspects violate our most basic content guidelines - Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a PR platform for products and companies. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask at WP:Teahouse, a forum for new editors. GermanJoe (talk) 18:57, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Oops

I forgot that Twinkle notified of speedy deletions...sorry about that! As you realized, was just doing a merge. My apologies - should've done the manual way. --TheSandDoctor Talk 16:08, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

No worries :). GermanJoe (talk) 16:59, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

FeelThere

Regarding a post I made about Feelthere, It was not my intention to post any advertising, or marketing material, I just love the game and find it interesting that it is not showing anywhere on wikipedia, I have been playing it for a while now and would like to contribute so other people can experience the game and know what is it like to work as an air traffic controller. Again I apologize for any content that should not be published here your hlep if highly appreciated on how to include this game in wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arielazo (talk • contribs) 20:04, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Arielazo:, 3 important points:
  • If you have any close connection to this game (for example as developer or other kind of employee) and want to suggest content in affected articles, you must disclose this connection per WMF's Terms of Use for this website (see WP:COI and WP:PAID).
  • Content on Wikipedia should be primarily based on non-promotional independent 3rd-party sources, not on self-published information or PR platforms. If you have such independent non-promotional sources, it is a lot more likely that edits and edit requests with new content will be accepted.
  • Entries in lists should usually have an article with independent sources written first, especially for large lists (see WP:WTAF and WP:YFA).
I hope these tips are helpful. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask or you can post for additional advice at WP:Teahouse, a forum for new editors. GermanJoe (talk) 20:39, 10 November 2019 (UTC)


Hello German Joe, for your first point, I have no relationship with the developer, I mentioned this before there is no conflict of interest. For your second point, I understand that the link I used the first time was direct to the developer page and obviously their intention is to sell the game since we need third party websites that have written about the subject, I found this one written by sim flight a webpage dedicated to flight simulators, https://www.simflight.com/2010/01/24/review-feelthere-erj-145v2/ I'm working on an article in my sandbox about Feelthere, I find it interesting and challenging meeting all the requirements Wikipedia has, and will continue to work on this until I achieve a good article with several references that is worth being published.

Looking forward to hearing from you shortly. Thanks & Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arielazo (talk • contribs) 15:12, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Arielazo:, I don't have time for a full review at the moment, but as long as you use independent non-promotional sources for your edits and the content is neutrally phrased, your edits should be generally fine. If you are planning to contribute flight simulator-related or similar content, you might be interested in Wiki-Projects such as Wikipedia:WikiProject Software, Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation and Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games (broadly construed). Beyond my more general tips, editors interested in these special topic areas might be better qualified to offer specific topic-related advice and assess topical sources if needed. Many Wiki projects for specific topic areas also provide detailed guidance for editing these topics in the form of project information and essays. GermanJoe (talk) 16:52, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello German Joe I read your recommendation about COI and I'm not receiving any payment to make these contributions, I see that the problem was that the webpage I used as a reference not only shows information about the game but also attempts to sell the product, I've made some research work here and Feelthere seems to be a good game developer I could find some references in the STeam Webpage but if I try using that it will also be closed because Steam webpage is about sales of video games. On the other hand, I found the following links that are from 3 party sources and would like to ask if it is ok to use them as a reference? I'm an aircraft maintenance technician and aviation enthusiast the reason why I want to bring this into Wikipedia is that back in 2007 I started playing the early version of the ATC game and that inspired me to pursue a career in the aviation field. I appreciate your help a lot.

BTW happy thanksgivings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arielazo (talk • contribs) 12:20, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Help Needed

Thanks for your comment. I have an article created but still in the sandbox and not sure how to publish it as there is no drop down menu/publish button in my sandbox. Can you please help. My Sandbox/article are at:

User:Teslalover2019/sandbox

Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Teslalover2019 (talk • contribs) 17:27, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Teslalover2019:, you should try to find 1-2 more independent reliable sources to establish the topic's notability first. When you believe that the draft article is ready for publication, you can submit it for review by an uninvolved, experienced editor: just add {{subst:submit}} on top of the page (article reviews might need a few weeks, make sure to check back for eventual feedback). Hope this helps, but please feel free to ask me or at WP:Teahouse if you have further questions. GermanJoe (talk) 19:15, 1 December 2019 (UTC)
Hello @GermanJoe:

Thanks for your help!

Administrators' newsletter – December 2019

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

Administrator changes

added EvergreenFir • ToBeFree
removed Akhilleus • Athaenara • John Vandenberg • Melchoir • MichaelQSchmidt • NeilN • Youngamerican • 😂

CheckUser changes

readded Beeblebrox
removed Deskana

Interface administrator changes

readded Evad37

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • The global consultation on partial and temporary office actions that ended in October received a closing statement from staff concluding, among other things, that the WMF will no longer use partial or temporary Office Action bans... until and unless community consensus that they are of value or Board directive.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:47, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-49

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

Recent changes

  • Mix'n'match is a tool to connect Wikidata items to information in other databases. It can be used to find subjects that are missing in a Wikipedia. It now has more than 3000 datasets. Before it was closer to 2000.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 3 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 4 December. It will be on all wikis from 5 December (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • Advanced item There will be a new schema for XML dumps. Scripts and apps that use them will need to be updated. If they are not updated they will no longer work. [7]
  • Advanced item The {{REVISIONID}} magic word will no longer work in the content namespaces. This is for performance reasons. When you preview a page it returns "" (empty string). When you read a page it returns "-" (dash). In the future this will also affect other namespaces. The next ones are file and category namespaces. [8]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:58, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-50

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

Recent changes

  • Wikimedia projects use Translatewiki to translate the wiki interface. You can now use WatchTranslations to watch projects there. You would get an email if there are missing translations to your language. [9]
  • Advanced item There is a new dataset you can use. It shows the number of editors per country per month for a number of countries. You can read the documentation and download the dataset.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 December. It will be on all wikis from 12 December (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:38, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

To cheer you up! from a new Wikipedian with love

Sabaybayin (talk) 02:58, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

SPICMACAY

I shall feel grateful if you could let me know which part of the edit was promotional. Undid revision 930777321 by GermanJoe (talk) This edit is very essential and it is not promotional. This is about an organisation which is approved by the government and works on cultural heritage of India. All mentioned points are pertinent to for one who would want to know about SPIC MACAY. if any point is objectionable, kindly write to us and the necessary explanations can be furnised. This update was done by an appointed member

Hello, as a member of this organization you should not edit the article yourself to begin with. Please read WP:COI for more information. I have added some more details and tips on the article's talkpage - please feel free to join the new thread to discuss this issue at Talk:SPIC MACAY. And you can also suggest policy-compliant sourced content on the article talkpage aswell, however Wikipedia is no PR platform for organizations to present themselves. GermanJoe (talk) 13:49, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Talk page access revocation

Hello GermanJoe, hope all is well. You might need to revoke talk page access for ScrõtumButt. They are creating bogus unblock requests. Thanks! -- LuK3 (Talk) 14:49, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

@LuK3: - already done. But thank you for keeping an eye out for such issues. GermanJoe (talk) 14:55, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-51

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

Problems

  • The Linter extension helps you find technical errors in articles. It did not show new changes last week. This was because of an API problem. It is now working again. [11]
  • Special:Watchlist can show the wrong information again. It does not always show which edits are read and which are unread. This is because of a database problem. The developers are working on solving the problem. [12]

Changes later this week

  • You can get email notifications. You can get them immediately, a summary every day or a summary once every week. If you choose a summary you can soon choose not to get notifications you have already marked as read on the wiki. [13]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 17 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 18 December. It will be on all wikis from 19 December (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • The partial blocks feature is now stable. It will come to most wikis on 6 January. Your wiki can ask to wait. Contact NKohli (WMF) if you don't want it now. [14]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

00:16, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXIV, December 2019

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:47, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-52

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

Tech News

  • Because of the holidays the next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 6 January 2020.

Recent changes

  • All mobile site users now have new features. Features include: tabs for page/discussion; an expanded user-menu; direct access to history pages. These features were initially part of the "advanced mode".

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week or next week.

Future changes

  • You can use setlang in the URL to change the user interface language. This will no longer happen automatically. When you open the link you will be asked to confirm the language change. This will not happen if Javascript is not working in your browser. [15]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020

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

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:06, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

List of SIP software - unclear revert

https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=List_of_SIP_software&type=revision&diff=941722738&oldid=941720322 Can you please explain why you deem this as a PR? baresip is a non-commercial SIP client like all the rest listed. Thanks, jose1711

Hello @Jose1711:, have you seen the large red message on top when editing the list with the source editor? The message explains the inclusion guidelines for this list: no stand-alone article with independent reliable sources = no entry in this list (more details about this can be found at WP:GNG and WP:WTAF). Also, if you have a personal or professional connection with baresip, you shouldn't add content about it at all (as explained in WP:COI). Please read these linked information pages. You are welcome to start a discussion or suggest content on article talk Talk:List of SIP software in this case though. GermanJoe (talk) 08:47, 20 February 2020 (UTC)
Hi @GermanJoe:, I respect the "write article first, then add to list". But then it was not mentioned in the original explanation of revert. It only went "PR talk/COI" - so let me repeat my question: why you were/are under impression that the edit is promoting my/someone else's work in any way? Is using the software on one of my computers taking away the right to add it to the list on the said page? What do you mean by a "connection" to the sofware? 10:20, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-02

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

Changes later this week

  • When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [16]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 January. It will be on all wikis from 9 January (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:20, 6 January 2020 (UTC)

Smart city: Tel Aviv

Could you please elaborate how the removed materials are promotional from you point of view? There are two paragraphs which both are factual and relevant to the subject matter. Why do you see both as promotional? --Alexey.chalimov (talk) 12:41, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

As I have noted in my message, content should not be based solely on self-published or involved PR publications, but should be based on independent secondary sources from uninvolved parties. The mere mention of such activities is promotional unless a truely independent 3rd-party source has already covered it. GermanJoe (talk) 12:49, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

To add a neobank in the Neobank List

Hi,

I was trying to update the neobank list with a Indian neobank startup. Name of the neobank is Open. Ref; bankopen.com and https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/25/indias-open-neo-bank-raises-30-million-to-help-businesses-automate-their-finances/

Kindly do the needfulAnji mba (talk) 13:28, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

Please provide an independent non-promotional source with some significant coverage about this neobank. Their own website and a routine announcement are not sufficient. GermanJoe (talk) 13:29, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-03

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

Recent changes

  • You can no longer read Wikimedia wikis if your browser use very old TLS. This is because it is a security problem for everyone. It can lead to downgrade attacks. Since 9 December you just see a warning. Soon the browser will not connect to the wikis at all. Most are users on Android systems older than 4.4. You can read the browser recommendations. [17]
  • Special:LinkSearch has been moved from the "Redirecting special pages" section on Special:SpecialPages to the "Lists of pages" section. [18]

Changes later this week

  • Advanced item Wikis can protect pages so that only some users can edit them. The standard protection levels are Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access and Require administrator access. If your wiki use more protection levels the technical name might be renamed for standardisation. This doesn't affect what users see. [19]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 January. It will be on all wikis from 16 January (calendar).

Future changes

  • Deepcat and Catgraph will stop working. This will happen at the end of January. This is because you can now use the normal search function instead. [20]
  • You can use <ref follow="…"> to merge footnotes that follow each other. It is meant to be used for digitised books on Wikisource. If the order of the footnotes is wrong no error was shown but the bad <ref> was shown outside the <references /> list. This will change and you will see an error message instead. [21]

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:39, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Live streaming

Hi there, I've recently added a section on Stream Yard to the Live Streaming article. I saw it was moved to applications, which is fine, but then it was completely removed by you on Dec 14th. In the edit summary, in which you also trimmed the section on Restream, you wrote "trim - notable, but undue weight (excessive details already in main article), blatant advertising based on self-published and PR sources". There's a difference between trimming and removing altogether. That section did not use blatant advertising nor self-published / PR sources. It simply used the website of the company and I did my best to stick to the facts. Could it be that you deleted the whole section on Stream Yard by mistake, thinking that you're editing the Restream section? And if not, could you please explain why? They are notable, and I have no agenda in adding this section, other than informing the public of a good service that exists. Thanks very much for all your work and for rechecking. I appreciate it. Best, Shani Evenstein. (talk) 03:26, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Hello @Esh77:, thank you for asking to clarify the issue. Restream is Wiki-"notable" (in English Wiki's special usage of the term) because it has a stand-alone article including independent sources. The part about StreamYard on the other hand was solely based on a promotional YouTube video and on self-published company information. Neither of these types of sources counts as independent. On English Wikipedia most information should be based on independent secondary, non-promotional sources. If you can provide such a source for StreamYard, a brief mention would probably be possible. Otherwise such details should not be added (there are literally dozens or hundreds of products that we do not mention in broad topical articles). I hope I could clarify the background for my reasoning a bit, but please feel free to ask if you have any further questions. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 08:23, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
Thanks much, GermanJoe . I know our policies for notability and references quite well, but somehow felt in this case it was so obvious that the references I brought would be enough. I'll look for additional external references of others reporting on their work (which are not promotional, of course). Should I find them I'll re-add the section, in a briefer version. Thanks again, Shani Evenstein. (talk) 00:07, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLXV, January 2020

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:56, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-04

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 January. It will be on all wikis from 23 January (calendar).

Future changes

  • There is a new suggestion for what to show when someone edits without registering an account. This is to give unregistered editors better privacy and make some anti-vandalism work go faster. You can give feedback.
  • Advanced item Pywikibot is a Python library to automate work on wikis. It will no longer support Python 2. Use the python2 tag if you need to continue running Python 2 scripts. The Pywikibot team strongly recommends to migrate to Python 3. You can get help to do so. [22]
  • Advanced item The weekly MediaWiki branch cut will soon become automated. The timing for this cut may change. You can discuss in Phabricator if this affects you. [23]
  • Advanced item You can read about coming technical events and mentoring interns.

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19:41, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-05

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

Problems

  • Some mobile diffs have problems. A couple of buttons are not shown. Structured data diffs on Commons are confusing. The developers are working on fixing it. [24][25]
  • Administrators on wikis that use Structured Discussions can't move discussion pages. This is a bug. The developers are working on fixing it. [26]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Future changes

  • There is JavaScript code on Special:Undelete for administrators that makes it possible to automatically select multiple checkboxes by holding the "Shift" key and clicking. This code is also loaded by accident on other special pages and on articles. This makes pages slower to load. This will be fixed. If you know of other special pages where this is useful please tell the developers at phab:T232688.

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18:52, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
  • The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input. No proposed process received consensus.

Technical news

  • Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.
  • When trying to move a page, if the target title already exists then a warning message is shown. The warning message will now include a link to the target title. [27]

Arbitration

  • Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.

Miscellaneous


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:05, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-06

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 February. It will be on all wikis from 6 February (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:04, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Miaojiang Great Wall

I created a page called Miaojiang Great Wall a few years ago. I have noticed that you removed the travel guide sources from the page. However, almost all of the sources about the wall are travel guides or trip advisors. I know these are not reliable sources but they give a lot of simple information about the wall. But I was lucky to find just one reliable source on the topic which I inserted into the article. Can you give me advice on how to find and determine reliable sources for articles? LightPirate (talk) 18:51, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello @LightPirate:, for a topic like this with historical background I would look for publications from historians or atleast from acknowledged authors with some general expertise on Chinese topics. Of course a language barrier can make such research quite challenging and time-consuming, unless you happen to understand Chinese. On the other hand the current sourcing with the new, better reference is OK as is (imo), most of the details seem to be uncontroversial and for a basic stub one source seems sufficient. If you are looking for a second source, [28] might also work for uncontroversial info. Technically the site promotes regional tourism, but it is also an "official" authorized .gov site with some credibility regarding their information. GermanJoe (talk) 19:27, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-07

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

Recent changes

Problems

  • There was a problem with the new MediaWiki version last week. It deleted some messages by accident. The new version was late because it was stopped to fix things. [30]

Changes later this week

  • Advanced item The MediaWiki action API is used by various tools like bots and gadgets. Some error codes will change. Some parameter values that do not follow the standard will no longer work. [31]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 February. It will be on all wikis from 13 February (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:11, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Comparison of project management software

Since you have recently edited Comparison of project management software, I wanted to hear your opinion. The article is not encyclopedic and should be deleted in my opinion. What is weird is that it was nominated for deletion, and the result of the debate was delete: WP:Articles for deletion/Comparison of project management software. However the article was not deleted. What is worse, in the article talk page the deletion debate is summarized as "keep". How can that be?

Setreset (talk) 07:15, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello @Setreset:, I kind of agree with you about the article not being encyclopedic. On the other hand there seems to be a good number of editors who like such "Comparison of ..." articles, especially in software-related topics. I have no idea what went wrong in the 2005 debate and its aftermath (as far as I know, the proceedings were less organized and strict back then). So if you feel strongly about the issue, I recommend to research the article history and start a new AfD discussion outlining the flaws and problems of this article. Personally, I try to accept the existance of such sub-optimal article types in a grey area, and only work on keeping the worst spam out of them. But YMMV. GermanJoe (talk) 08:04, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
By the way, the AfD listing template has now been fixed (only 1 of the 2 past discussions had been listed, which caused the template to malfunction). GermanJoe (talk) 08:30, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
OK, thank you. Setreset (talk) 19:48, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

List of Internet entrepreneurs

Hi. I am wondering whether this page is just junk> It is a tabular list of next to zero value, and could be equally served as a category. There is no criteria for being added to the list, and it just looks like rubbish to me. What am I missing? — billinghurst sDrewth 12:21, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

@Billinghurst:, the list certainly has some flaws in its concept. On the other hand its basic information seems relatively uncontroversial, so there seems to be no big harm in keeping it (the underlying problem is that some parts of the list guidelines are either too vague or have never been sufficiently enforced, but that's a discussion for another day). See also my response for a similar situation in the previous thread directly above. If you feel strongly about this list, such concerns should be best discussed on list talk or in a formal AfD. GermanJoe (talk) 10:00, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

UNHRC

Please do not revert without discussing.2600:387:5:805:0:0:0:3A (talk) 16:53, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Please do not include non-neutral political statements without proper secondary sourcing. Wikipedia is no platform to voice your (or my) political opinion, but to present established verifiable facts. Also, please read WP:BRD. The onus is on you as the changing editor to provide a reference that justifies such a change, or to discuss the suggested change on article talk prior to its implementation. GermanJoe (talk) 16:57, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-08

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

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 February. It will be on all wikis from 20 February (calendar).

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:17, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Good and service tax edits

I just want to know why you have change the informatation in gst page before my editing their was just a link was their with out any heading and that link is redirecting in someones personal page and i added goverment official website so you have removed and you have i have personal releatationship ..i dont think i think you having id with good amount of point so you are behaving like a king of wikipedia ..their are lots of rubbish informatation their in GOODS AND SERVICE TAX PAGE YOU CAN SEE THAT BUT YOU ARE NOT REMOVING THOSE LINKS ... like gabbar singh search for gabbar singh and you knw who is gabbar singh just search on google that you will realise that is right place to inseart that or not but u just pointing me ... Nilimawiki (talk) 03:59, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

@Nilimawiki:, please stop adding commercial links and/or copyrighted content, and there will be no further problems. And if you see other spam or inappropriate content in other sections or articles, please feel free to remove them with a meaningful edit summary or raise such concerns on article talk. No need for shouting. Thank you. GermanJoe (talk) 07:27, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
@GermanJoe:, I am shouting just because you did wrong I accept that I inserted links but if I cannot provide links so how can I give information anyway i dont want to post anything I m going bye-bye be happy with your Wikipedia .i just make myself very clear i did not promote anyone i just inserted what is required there and before my edit, there was a link which is not good i mean its just a page with their website information so i inserted Indian government official website clear tax and their everyone get rely updated information so what i did wrong but...anyway you are big i cannot do anything i m helpless bye have a nice day and sorry if I said something wrong to you.

Motor Oil wiki - 12:36, 3 January 2020‎ GermanJoe talk contribs‎ 65,383 bytes -570‎ rmv - not a reliable source

Can you please tell me where I can find out how and why "Transparency Market Research (transparencymarketresearch.com) is "not a reliable source". Thanks. Samhu (talk) 15:25, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

@Samhu:, their services include syndicated research and consultancy. And their primary goal is not to provide factual information, but to further the interests of their clients (and to sell their "research" reports to as many customers as possible), as their website makes clear in several descriptions. Such paid-for "research" is not credible for encyclopedic purposes. More generally speaking, editors should be cautious using sources that are primarily promotional or lobbying, and/or have a clear conflict of interest regarding their relations with these customers. Please see the guidance at WP:RS for more details. Also, this opinion piece describes very well, why such "research" institutes are borderline scams but not credible and unbiased expert research institutes. GermanJoe (talk) 17:18, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
@Samhu: again, failed the ping first time. GermanJoe (talk) 17:18, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
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