User talk:HJ Mitchell/Archive 117

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Administrators' newsletter – July 2018

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

Administrator changes

added PbsouthwoodTheSandDoctor
readded Gogo Dodo
removed AndrevanDougEVulaKaisaLTony FoxWilyD

Bureaucrat changes

removed AndrevanEVula

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

  • Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
  • Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

  • Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks!

Military history reviewers' award
On behalf of the Milhist coordinators, thank you for your two reviews during the April to June 2018 quarter. Here is a WikiStripe for your contribution to our article quality processes. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 08:29, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

Keep track of upcoming reviews. Just copy and paste {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} to your user space

The Bugle: Issue CXLVII, July 2018

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) 12:12, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

Could you unprotect User talk:Ryulong? Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Ryulong was opened today but no notices can be left without using WP:RFED. I don't think potential gravedancing is a concern after so many years and if someone wants to leave them a message, why prevent it? I do not believe it is a standard practice to protect such pages but perhaps there are factors I am unaware of. Best regards, — Godsy (TALKCONT) 03:11, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

@The Wordsmith, B, Bbb23, DoRD, and Drmies: Pinging sysops who've left messages on the page since its protection in the hopes of expediting this request. — Godsy (TALKCONT) 21:36, 16 July 2018 (UTC)
@Godsy: I avoided the issue and closed the MfD as Snow Keep.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:28, 16 July 2018 (UTC)
Thank you all. Drmies (talk) 16:22, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
I fail to see why you would need to leave a notification for somebody who hasn't edited for four years and is banned with no talk page access. They couldn't respond if they wanted to so it's a pointless exercise. I fail to see why someone would want to delete the parting comment of a long-term editor either but that's another matter. As for standard practice, those were far from standard times. I can't see any good coming from unprotecting the page unless and until Ryulong successfully appeals his ban (which I would encourage him to do if he's reading; four years is more than enough water under the bridge). HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 10:27, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Congratulations from the Military History Project

The Military history A-Class medal with oak leaves
On behalf of the Military History Project, I am proud to present the A-Class medal with Oak Leaves for Civil Service Rifles War Memorial Royal Naval Division War Memorial, and Tower Hill Memorial. MilHistBot (talk) 04:48, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Not quite sure what to do with this

Hey HJ, you've been very helpful with Wikipedia policy before, so I was just gonna run this by you. I just noticed a message on my talk page telling me to kill myself from a few months back. I have removed it upon noticing it, but the editor themself doesn't seem active anymore, and I have no idea whether messages like this require administrative action. Thank you for the help! – FenixFeather (talk)(Contribs) 05:22, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

@FenixFeather: Looks like a garden-variety troll. Nothing worth worrying about. I've blocked the account so you shouldn't be hearing from them again. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 10:51, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 July 2018

Hi Harry, a favour. The above is up for FAC here, Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Sandringham House/archive1. Although far from Lutyens quality, it has some interest as the site of the deaths of two kings. And as a rare example of a full Victorian estate still running in the 21st century. If you had the time and inclination to review, I'd greatly appreciate it. All the best. KJP1 (talk) 21:17, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018

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

Administrator changes

added Sro23
readded KaisaLYmblanter

Guideline and policy news

  • After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
  • Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.

Technical news


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:31, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLVIII, August 2018

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) 08:35, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Bringing an article to Featured Status

Hello HJ Mitchell! About 7 months ago after my RFA you offered to provide some advice on bringing an article up to featured status. I thinking of taking on that task but not sure on where to start or even how to choose an article to work on. I've done several Good Articles and Good Topics. I would be grateful for your advice on this matter. Thanks! --Cameron11598 (Talk) 01:18, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

For reference the article I was thinking of starting would be on the California Peace Officers' Memorial --Cameron11598 (Talk) 01:33, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

NoCal

Hello Harry. Previously you had gone through an SPI of NoCal100 but said you had not had time to look at the next sock (here). That next investigation was archived without any comment (now here). If there is some deficiency in the evidence so be it, but as the user vanished once that SPI was initiated I thought little of it. The account is now back, and I at least remain convinced that is NoCal. Would you mind looking over that evidence? Sorry to keep bothering you with this user, but the intersection of admins familiar with NoCal and willing to do something about his constant ban evasion is an ever dwindling number. Thanks, nableezy - 15:55, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2018

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election nominations open

Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election are now open. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting doesn't commence until 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the coord team. Cheers, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:53, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2018

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

Administrator changes

added None
removed AsterionCrisco 1492KFKudpungLizRandykittySpartaz
renamed Optimist on the runVoice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

added AmorymeltzerMr. StradivariusMusikAnimalMSGJTheDJXaosflux

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

Technical news

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
  • Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title.
  • Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLIX, September 2018

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) 22:19, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced

G'day everyone, voting for the 2018 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:35, 15 September 2018 (UTC)

Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced

G'day everyone, voting for the 2018 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:22, 15 September 2018 (UTC) Note: the previous version omitted a link to the election page, therefore you are receiving this follow up message with a link to the election page to correct the previous version. We apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Request for deletion

I just need to request you that please delete two pages - User talk:Ram The Editor and User talk:Misser Boss as the reason of criteria G6. We don't need those pages any more. Thank you. 122.162.36.29 (talk) 14:36, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

Romeoville, IL

Hello. On the page Romeoville, IL, I had posted a list of the town's mayors. This list was removed by a moderator. Can you please copy the deleted list into my user draft page so that it can be approved for posting by an admin? I work for the village and was told this is what I must do. Thank you. Romeoville.mark (talk) 15:27, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

re Arbcom thing

Hi HJ, I've never been involved in an arbcom issue before, and was completely bewildered by it. I think I was dragged into it because I had done a lot of copy editing on the articles that the complainant questioned. I also thought, silly me, that it could all be worked out without such acrimony. auntieruth (talk) 14:40, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Have your say!

Hi everyone, just a quick reminder that voting for the WikiProject Military history coordinator election closes soon. You only have a day or so left to have your say about who should make up the coordination team for the next year. If you have already voted, thanks for participating! If you haven't and would like to, vote here before 23:59 UTC on 28 September. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:29, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 October 2018

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018

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

Administrator changes

added JustlettersandnumbersL235
removed BgwhiteHorsePunchKidJ GrebKillerChihuahuaRami RWinhunter

Interface administrator changes

added Cyberpower678Deryck ChanOshwahPharosRagesossRitchie333

Oversight changes

removed Guerillero NativeForeigner SnowolfXeno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
  • Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
  • The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
  • Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
  • Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CL, October 2018

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) 07:00, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious
Six years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:56, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 October 2018

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018

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

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
  • A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
  • The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

Arbitration

  • Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
  • The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en@wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:18, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

November 11 TFA

Hi Harry. I was wondering if you had any plans to suggest one of your war memorial FAs to go up on 11 November? I see that the TFA queue for November has been populated. The article currently scheduled for 11 November has a primary contributor who doesn't appear to be active right now. I guess the first stage is to wait to hear from you, to see if you are happy for an article to be put forward. And then to contact the TFA coordinators, either direct and/or at the requests page (am not sure how amenable the coordinators are to late requests for possible replacements). Carcharoth (talk) 11:09, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

Quick update. I took some advice from others (see here) and am not going further with this (as I said there). You might be interested in the listing I did there of TFAs on 11 November from 2004 to 2018. Hope all is OK and that we will see you back soon. Carcharoth (talk) 12:21, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
Hey Carcharoth, sorry for the belated response. I've been following the discussion on my tablet but editing/typing on a tablet is a pain. I've also just seen the conversation at WT:TFA. In short, I'm not wedded to any particular option. It looks like the centenary will be noted one way or another on the main page. Had I managed to get the Cenotaph to FA in time I might have proposed that. It's a shame we don't have any FAs on broader aspects of WWI, but those are difficult to write. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:22, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLI, November 2018

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) 09:40, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, HJ Mitchell. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible 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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Devon County War Memorial scheduled for TFA

On 20 December 2018. Enjoy.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:20, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 December 2018

Nominations now open for "Military historian of the year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" awards

Nominations for our annual Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards are open until 23:59 (GMT) on 15 December 2018. Why don't you nominate the editors who you believe have made a real difference to the project in 2018? MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018

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

Administrator changes

readded Al Ameer sonRandykittySpartaz
removed BosonDaniel J. LeivickEfeEsanchez7587Fred BauderGarzoMartijn HoekstraOrangemike

Interface administrator changes

removedDeryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
  • A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
  • A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
  • A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news

Arbitration

Miscellaneous

  • In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
  • Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries


Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLII, December 2018

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) 10:34, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello, HJ Mitchell,

I was looking through Wikipedia:Database reports/Unusually long IP blocks and found you had blocked 64.90.250.32 for 27 years. Is there a reason for such an extended block period for an IP account? I understand the school account might be prone to vandalism but I haven't encountered an IP block that was more than one year. Thanks. Liz Read! Talk! 06:04, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Actually, there is also 213.2.48.70 who is blocked for 19 years which is also quite an extended period of time for an IP account. Liz Read! Talk! 06:07, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi Liz, multi-year blocks are not uncommon with school IP addresses; simply put, they're often more hassle than they're worth. Multi-decade blocks on the other hand, not so much. Those two were probably a typo or a mistake so I've unblocked them. It's easy enough to re-block them if or when it becomes necessary. Best, HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 13:14, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Voting now open for "Military historian of the year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" awards

Voting for our annual Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards is open until 23:59 (GMT) on 30 December 2018. Why don't you vote for the editors who you believe have made a real difference to Wikipedia's coverage of military history in 2018? MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:17, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Thanq for block ip

I was filed 3rr complaint against a disruptive editor . he again and again remove this complaint . please announce result, by block this ip . YOU BLOCKED HIS OTHER IPS

User:Baristor reported by User:157.44.73.167 (Result: )

You blocked following ip https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:183.83.115.215&diff=prev&oldid=874156669

(Baristor (talk) 14:38, 17 December 2018 (UTC))

Self block on my old account

Since you are in this category, I would like to request that my old account WikiImprovment78 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) is indefinitely blocked, just in case it gets compromised. I am never going to use the account again and its always better to be safe; if someone were to compromise it and pose as me, I could get a sockpuppet block. IWI (chat) 23:20, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

@ImprovedWikiImprovment: Sure. Done. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:08, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Happy Saturnalia

Happy Saturnalia
Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, from the horse and bishop person. May the year ahead be productive and troll-free. Ealdgyth - Talk 16:57, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

A very happy Christmas and New Year to you!


May 2019 bring you joy, happiness – and no trolls or vandals!

All the best

Gavin / SchroCat (talk) 21:28, 18 December 2018 (UTC)