This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
The CampaignEvents extension is now available on Meta-wiki, Igbo Wikipedia, and Swahili Wikipedia, and can be requested on your wiki. This extension helps in managing and making events more visible, giving Event organizers the ability to use tools like the Event registration tool. To learn more about the deployment status and how to request this extension for your wiki, visit the CampaignEvents page on Meta-wiki.
Editors using the iOS Wikipedia app who have more than 50 edits can now use the Add an Image feature. This feature presents opportunities for small but useful contributions to Wikipedia.
A problem with the color of the talkpage tabs always showing as blue, even for non-existent pages which should have been red, affecting the Vector 2022 skin, has been fixed.
Future changes
The Trust and Safety Product team wants to introduce temporary accounts with as little disruption to tools and workflows as possible. Volunteer developers, including gadget and user-script maintainers, are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. The team has created documentation explaining how to do the update. Learn more.
My article on Pinxton Castle is live now, just made my deadline
I wanted to finish this - at least to the point of moving it to article space, by the time I started my chemo. I've had a lot of help see the talk page), and today with some great help in the writing from User:KJP1 and some proofreading from User:Tryptofish I was able to make it live. It's nearby and I managed to go see it again today. It's not really a castle, and is covered with trees and bushes and a lot and ditches and humps making it hard to navigate unless you find the right way in! I need to add a gallery, maybe some of my photos. Doug Wellertalk18:49, 3 July 2024 (UTC)
Wonderful work...... I was not aware of this place I thought it was somewhere completely different. Thank you for educating me. Moxy🍁 16:38, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
I'm pleased you like it. It's something I've been meaning to do for years and, well, it was time to do it. I've got some good photos I took in April[1] that I want to add and someone has suggested using the metadata to help identify what they are. Doug Wellertalk16:54, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
OK, I see you don't need to review any other nominations. I thought I could help with that, but I had forgotten that quid pro reviews aren't required for the first five nominations from an editor. Now I'm waiting to see it appear. Donald Albury17:01, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
You won't be able to see it yet, on the Main Page. Here's how that works. The reviewer has passed the nomination, which you can see at Template:Did you know nominations/Pinxton Castle. (It's important to watchlist that template page, because other editors might still want to make changes in the hook. I'm watching it too, by the way.) Next, an admin will promote it, and close the discussion. After that, it gets moved to a "prep" area, where changes can still happen. It will probably sit there for a few days. After that, it gets moved to a "queue", where it might still get changed. (All of that shows up when you watchlist it.) When that queue's turn comes up to be transcluded onto the Main Page, that's when it appears there. --Tryptofish (talk) 17:42, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
My pleasure. I just realized I said something that I should make clearer. You'll see on your watchlist when it goes to the prep area. After that, you should watchlist the prep area for when it goes to the queue. Then you can un-watch the prep and watch the queue until it goes to the Main page. --Tryptofish (talk) 18:53, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
Hi there. I'm part of part of couple of months long going dispute and preparation for RfC at Jinn, (starting around here). At the suggestion of Bookku (here), I was wondering if you could take a look at this post by VenusFeuerFalle and see if you find it in breach of WP:DR spirit of WP:AGF as Bookku (our informal dispute facilitator) and myself do.
Example:
I am willing to give the involved users one last chance, to make one clear suggestion, I want to respond one last time. Then we can go step by step over to the other ones. If it fails, I will not reply to that anymore, and then either the edits meet the Wiki-Criteria or they don't. If they do not meet them, they will be reverted, no matter of you understand the reason or not. Because, I just feel my time being wasted. If the users again derail the discussions, I will report Eagle and let an admin check on all involved users for canvassing, harrassment, and potential sockpuppetry.
It certainly looks like it is. That's all I can say and I'm not getting involved, I'm writer's block at an article I'm writing and need to break out before chemo debilitates. me. Doug Wellertalk07:05, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
Ah well, I can at least see if I can do something about the distractions (a good distraction from the thing I've got writer's block on!) – Joe (talk) 12:50, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
For record and info, I wish to keep this discussion updated soon before it gets archived to note some likely misrepresentation about this discussion. Pl. excuse me for inconvenience if any Bookku (talk) 10:11, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
No I am not looking for specific help at this point of time as already aware you are busy somewhere else, and we can seek help from other admins and appropriate forum if as and when needed.
But unfortunately clear confusion of LPB about Joe's communication above seem to have been used to misrepresent LPB by VFF more than once. I propose to put up couple of paragraphs for record with collapse template. Purpose is to make concerned user VFF realize its not a good practice and such practices can be deconstructed. Bookku (talk) 13:04, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
For information and record:
For dispute resolution at the article Jinn, as discussion facilitator I put in adequate effort to keep discussion focused on content, still in heat of moment two editors Eagle107 and VenusFeuerFalle (VFF) engaged in edit war - also some micro aggression- subsequently article was admin protected WP:PREFER, talk page discussion came back to track, most RfC inputs would have made VenusFeuerFalle happy, but after joining from break, probably not forgiving/ forgetting earlier state of disagreement with Eagle107, VenusFeuerFalle posted uncalled for emotional response against Eagle107 at the article talk page, instead of sorting out at user talk and ANI, by the way underlying issue was any way getting resolved through RfC. Since June 2 Eagle107 is on edit break.
Since VFF's emotional wall of text would be distracting from further RfCs planned by LPB with help of WP:DRN moderator and Talk:RfC, so I suggested Louis P. Boog (LPB) to get VFF post reviewed and if possible collapsed from admin since Admin can be approached per WP:DR (helps avoid escalation to ANI), to follow neutrality even in approaching Admin I suggested LPB to find last active admin from WP:ANI. But since taking that course first time LPB got confused by ending up non-admin last ANI participant, then approached Doug Weller here, but DW recused being busy in some 'article'. User:Joe Roe's reply mentioned word 'article' but which article, Jinn or the article Doug Weller working on? not being clear LPB approached User Talk:Joe Roe. It's all good faith confusion. VFF picked up these approaches misrepresenting (or gaffe?) as WP:CANVASS at 1) WP:ANI that too which was report against Eagle107 not LPB 2) Talk:Jinn The apt adage "Hanlon's razor says: "Do not attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by confusion." Not expecting any action as of today, but this is just for information record. Bookku (talk) 08:02, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
DYK for Pinxton Castle
On 16 July 2024, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Pinxton Castle, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the moat around Pinxton Castle was inside the perimeter walls, rather than outside? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Pinxton Castle. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Pinxton Castle), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Wikimedia developers can now officially continue to use both Gerrit and GitLab, due to a June 24 decision by the Wikimedia Foundation to support software development on both platforms. Gerrit and GitLab are both code repositories used by developers to write, review, and deploy the software code that supports the MediaWiki software that the wiki projects are built on, as well as the tools used by editors to create and improve content. This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers and prevent problems in code review from affecting our users. More details are available in the Migration status page.
The Wikimedia Foundation seeks applicants for the Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC). This group will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform. Council members will evaluate and consult on the movement's product and technical activities, so that we develop multi-generational projects. We are looking for a range of technical contributors across the globe, from a variety of Wikimedia projects. Please apply here by August 10.
Editors with rollback user-rights who use the Wikipedia App for Android can use the new Edit Patrol features. These features include a new feed of Recent Changes, related links such as Undo and Rollback, and the ability to create and save a personal library of user talk messages to use while patrolling. If your wiki wants to make these features available to users who do not have rollback rights but have reached a certain edit threshold, you can contact the team. You can read more about this project on Diff blog.
Next week, functionaries, volunteers maintaining tools, and software development teams are invited to test the temporary accounts feature on testwiki. Temporary accounts is a feature that will help improve privacy on the wikis. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Please share your opinions and questions on the project talk page. [3]
Editors who upload files cross-wiki, or teach other people how to do so, may wish to join a Wikimedia Commons discussion. The Commons community is discussing limiting who can upload files through the cross-wiki upload/Upload dialog feature to users auto-confirmed on Wikimedia Commons. This is due to the large amount of copyright violations uploaded this way. There is a short summary at Commons:Cross-wiki upload and discussion at Commons:Village Pump.
Hi, the photo edit you have just reverted was taken in June, 2024. Whether that party is officially open or not is irrelevant. Therefore please re-insert it as it explains that today communist stickers (whichever party it may be) can be seen in downtown Edinburg. Thanks...Ogün Eratalaymessage13:47, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
@Ertly Who cares? That might be an old one someone put there as a joke, it could be anything. But it's not significant in any way and its use would imply that that there there is an active RCP party there. Doug Wellertalk13:59, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
My dear friend, first of all I care. Furthermore if you read the link on the sticker you can see that it is an active initiative to re-build a party. See the active link for the initiative: https://communist.red/join-the-communists-build-the-revolutionary-communist-party/ That proves my point that an active group of communists put out stickers in Edinburgh to call people to join their movement. Therefore this picture belongs to Far-left politics in the UK. Kindly revert your edit please. Thanks... Ogün Eratalaymessage14:07, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
(talk page stalker)The picture itself does not explain that; without your assertion that it was taken in Edinburgh in June 2024, it lacks significance, but that assertion doesn't satisfy WP:V. As a piece of photojournalism it's contrary to WP:OR. To assert, pictorially or in text, that someone is trying to recreate a party requires WP:RS and must be WP:DUE, and reliance on an image alone is contrary to WP:IMAGEOR. NebY (talk) 16:45, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Dealing with editor at Atlantic slave trade who seems to lack sufficient comprehension of English
Hi Doug, I see you have been corresponding with editor Mcorrlo on his talk page. He seems to be confused about what exactly the *Transatlantic* slave trade is (as shown by this revision), vis-à-vis the strictly European slave trade with Africa, which began earlier, initiated by the Portuguese. The very first sentence of the article is "The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade". I have made some changes in response to his edit, but the lede still needs more work, and I have to get to work on my real-world project. Would you be able to help keep an eye on the article? Thanks, Carlstak (talk) 12:35, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
Hello Doug Weller. Yes, I thought better, Carlstak and you are right. I see your point, and I will try to get better. The other point, my english... well, one more time I beg your pardon for my bad english, I learned the language, but many years have passed... Mcorrlo (talk) 17:04, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
Thanks, Doug. I will work on the lede of the article tomorrow to sort things out with it and what the body of the article says, if someone else doesn't do it first. I'm taking the day off, so I'll have the mental energy.;-) The lede was fine before the recent changes, but perhaps it could use some fine-tuning. Mcorrlo added a cite of Paul Butel, a respectable historian who specializes in colonial history, and I want to read what he has to say on this subject. Ideally, of course, the info in the lede doesn't need sources if it is covered in the body with citations. Not to be harsh, but I don't think editors who lack a firm grasp of English should be adding info to English WP. I appreciate the desire to contribute, but if the additions come at the cost of other editors' time and energy to repair them, it's just not worth the investment. I suggest that the editor read reliable Portuguese sources with English translations by academics and compare the two to help improve his comprehension. An English course would help. Carlstak (talk) 01:42, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
Hello from Portugal, Carlstak. Sorry, I'm not dumb, I know I don't have a perfect knowledge of the language, but I try to do my best, and in my good old days at an English course, I was one of the best students. Of course I am not getting any younger , and again I am sorry for my "transatlantic confusion"; sometimes I feel tired... ~~~~Mcorrlo (talk) 21:11, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
@Mcorrlo The idea that you are dumb never crossed my mind. I understand feeling tired, you may have noticed my own health issues mentioned above. @Carlstak not sure you've seen this. Doug Wellertalk08:22, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Ok, thank you for your words. Yes, I noticed your health problems. I sincerely hope you are getting better! Mcorrlo (talk) 08:48, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Thanks, Doug, I did see it. I certainly never thought for a moment that Mcorrlo is dumb, nor have I ever thought that anyone I might perceive as not being fully conversant with the English language is dumb. At my age, I can absolutely sympathize with feeling fatigue; when I woke this morning, I did not want to get up.;-) Doug is facing his cancer treatment with great courage, and I can only imagine what chemotherapy must be like. I've seen your name around, Mcorrlo, but I haven't looked into your editing history. I will only say that if you should encounter any difficulties, please don't hesitate to leave a note on my talk page, and I will do what I can to help as soon as I'm not feeling too tired myself from the labors of the day.;-) All the best, Carlstak (talk) 12:54, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Godd morning Carlstak, and thank you for your reply. I said I am not dumb, but I'm not a wise man either! I know my limitations. I have many many books - but have I read them all? No way! I'm more of a guy who likes to know things. Ever since I started editing on Wikipedia, the need to know what I was talking about has forced me to learn a lot of things I didn't know. We learn until we die. But I still make many mistakes! Mcorrlo (talk) 07:04, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
Books & Bytes – Issue 63
The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 63, May – June 2024
I've never been much of an article creator, mainly just an editor, but this has been something I've been meaning to do for years but only got around to this year when I realised I didn't have a lot of time to do it. I set my deadline as my first chemotherapy day which worked as an incentive. It's a 10 minute drive from my house and in the past I've visited the site several times - a wooded site next to a major outlet centre, always heavily overgrown but this year in April it had been cleared and I was able to get good photos. Not much to see and it never was actually a castle.
I have had tremendous help writing the article and it was definitely a group effort, see the talk page and article history. I would not have managed to finish it or make it as good an article as it is on my own. Wikipedia may have its problems with some editors, but when good editors get together to work on something it can be a marvelous place and a great community. It's been a vital part of my life since I retired and certainly one of the best things I've ever done. I have only met a very few editors in real life but the friendships I've made here, virtual though they may be, are for me very real. Thank you all. Doug Wellertalk08:17, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Yay! Congrats on a job well done. The first thing I did on logging in today was look over the Main Page, and when I saw it, I was very pleased indeed. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:27, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Thank you for creating and writing the article on Pinxton Castle, and thank you also to everyone who helped. I'm hoping this is the first of many new articles from you to come, if that's at all possible given your circumstances and all the other things you have going on. One thing that stuck out at me; I've always been curious about the type of fish farming that occurred in the UK, and over the years, I only ran into one good source about the subject. I had a minor discussion about this subject on Wikipedia many years back, mostly about the history of Hawaiian aquaculture, wondering if there were any shared similarities. In fact, I think I did figure out at the time (15 years ago?) what kind of fish they were farming in the UK, but I can't recall now. Any ideas what type of fish might have been used for food at Pinxton Castle? And is it even possible to analyze the sediment to find traces of fossils? Thanks again. Viriditas (talk) 22:18, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Our page on Fish pond#History says that carp and pike would be likely, and that's consistent with sources that I've read. I'm not aware of any sources about Pinxton Castle, specifically. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:30, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
Oh, I think I found the page: Aquaculture in the United Kingdom: "Historically in the United Kingdom, as in other European nations, the keeping of fish in ponds for use as food dates back centuries, possibly as far as the 13th century. A fish pond was a way of keeping a steady supply of food through the winter, and most Medieval and monastic houses and castles had a fish pond stocked with carp, pike and bream." Viriditas (talk) 01:38, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
That's most likely. There is pretty much zero chance of any further investigations, but I do plan to notify the two Parish Councils, the County councils and the local district councils, maybe get some publicity at least.. Doug Wellertalk09:11, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
Is there any chance our new friend isn't a sock? move requests in their first handful of edits and some pretty nuanced deletion flagging. Jumping to MfD a sandbox draft set off all the bells. Curious for your thoughts although I have nothing concrete. StarMississippi16:48, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
@Star Mississippi Of. course they could be the new account of a very experienced IP, but the chances of that seem approaching zero. Far more likely they are a sock but I doubt that csn ever be proved unless someone recognises the behaviour. The MfD isn’t random. Doug Wellertalk17:36, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
Hopefully someone will. I see it has also been raised on their Talk, so the eyes may help shake it out. It's exhausting! And 1000% on the last sentence. Unfortunately that subject matter (content, not Valjean to be clear) is fraught with old fights. StarMississippi17:49, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
This is not my first account (note Special:Diff/1225534254). I abandoned my previous account (which was never sanctioned) because I did not want to associate with older comments I had made about Israel-Palestine after the events of late 2023. I don't intend to say any more other than in private communications with ARBCOM. Walsh90210 (talk) 18:32, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
As far as the MFD: 3000 edits (according to XTools, across 3 misleadingly-named drafts), a multitude of statements that are plausibly BLP violations, and constant claims that discuss the article is "harassment" is beyond the pale. I cannot continue to edit and remain quiet about this. Walsh90210 (talk) 18:43, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
Clean Start aside, if there's a history that cannot be discussed on Wiki, I'd suggest you raise it with ArbComm now. It's not going to get resolved via MfDs and will only devolve from here. Especially in this year & election cycle. StarMississippi18:48, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
I would have been willing to consider withdrawing this if there was agreement that removing material I consider to violate BLP, or commenting to the talk page, would not also be met with accusations of harassment. Clearly that is not the case. Valjean insists on WP:OWN-ing this material and shouting-down any comment about it. I will let the process play out without any further involvement from me. Walsh90210 (talk) 19:25, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
As long as it's in my userspace, hidden away, I do own it in many ways. We have rules that allow editors to use their userspace in this way, and I have not violated them. The instructions for contacting me are written clearly there at the top: "Email me". If you have an issue with something I have written, as you obviously do, you can contact me by email and I'd happily respond. I do not want to violate any PAG. I just want to be left alone to work in peace. This is a topic that does not need more eyes on it YET. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 19:34, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
This is all happening in private userspace where the user has control. You have no right to treat it like an existing article or article talk page. The rules are VERY different. Editors are allowed to work quietly, at their own speed, as they create articles. That's what I'm doing. We are volunteers here.
The content is based on RS, many of the highest quality and reliability, as this has national security implications and is the subject of FBI and Congressional investigations, testimony, and several lawsuits by Trump, which he has lost.
You should read the DYK? items I have added in a note at the top, and reproduce here. They are also for your benefit, as I suspect you are totally unaware of these facts. Myriad RS are behind each one:
Did you know?
... that Trump has known about the rumor since he left Moscow in 2013?
... that the rumor did not start with the Steele dossier?
... that Trump has repeatedly lied about this?
... that before anyone pinpointed the possible time of the alleged incident, Trump lied very specifically about exactly that time?
... that Trump's lies were so blatant and egregious that they got the Director of the FBI to change from a pee tape skeptic to a maybe peeliever?
... that many other notable people have strong suspicions that the rumor is true?
... that Trump's own actions cause them to think this way?
... that Trump and others have acted as if the tapes were real and actually exist?
... that Michael Cohen has testified about this to Congress in 2019 and revealed many of these facts?
... that Cohen and a group of allies have worked for many years to track down the tapes and stop this rumor? He was willing to pay a lot of money for the tapes. He testified about this.
... that myriad RS, Congressional investigations, and other very reliable sources have written about this and analyzed it?
... that the fact that the actual tape has not been published means the rumor, true or not, remains unproven?
... that the real issues here are kompromat and national security issues, not Trump's alleged sexual proclivities?
And one more:
... that editors should be allowed, without harassment, to use their userspace to create articles, including potentially controversial ones?
I do not use words lightly, and whenever necessary, I have used words like "alleged", which is what we do with unproven claims and allegations. The rumor has not been misrepresented as proven fact. It's an extremely notable and serious rumor that did not start with the Steele dossier, and Trump has repeatedly lied about it. That increases the notability, as RS have documented it. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 19:16, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
TPA block notice
FYI, if you block/unblock using Twinkle, which I think you are, you can uncheck the "Add block template to user talk page" box near the top, if you want to avoid leaving such a notice. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 22:03, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
I never was quite convinced about the idea of sticking round for US 4 November, more a prospect of a nightmare than a tickling thrill for future events. But there's one that must definitely go on your busy calendar for must-see stuff to set one's sights on, i.e., the date's now set for the reopening of Notre Dame, brilliantly reconstructed, on 8 December 2024, at 11.15am sharp. The last time I saw it, I didn't revisit but stood round smoking cigarettes as my father-in-law and my dear niece went in to soak up the atmosphere. It was his graduation gift to his favourite niece. Unfortunately, I left the financing of their side of the trip to him and his brother-in-law, who accompanied us as far as Toulon where they had old friends to meet up with. The father-in-law had an agreement that his younger brother would use his credit card to pay for the week in Toulon, and the two would settle up once back in Italy all this before we three skylarked off for Paris on our own, with me acting as guide and interpreter (though my father-in-law was a native French speaker. He refused to speak French because he feared that he would be arrested at 80 for having evaded military service in the French army in the late 30s!!!)
Since my impression was that the two brothers were not particularly attentive about money matters, I had taken along several hundred dollars for emergencies just in case, as usual, something stuffed up. Sure enough, when paying the week's hotel bill, the well-heeled brother paid for his room, and when asked by my father-in-law about his credit card, said:'Sorry, can't help you there. I left it back home'. He'd completely forgotten the arrangement made with his elder brother. I paid it, and then had to recalculate how one might negotiate a week in Paris on the smell of an oil rag, without letting on to my father-in-law that his proud gift-trip to his niece would be at risk of having to be aborted for lack of funds. He had a deep sense of honour and responsibility and would have cancelled it had he known the desperate state of our finances, and would have spent his final years apologizing and regretting the balls-up.
The short of it is that I took them everywhere, pretending I was flush with the ready and that each night I'd booked a room near theirs (while sleeping on my feet outside), pretended I wasn't hungry at mealtimes (only ordering a thin bowl of onion soup etc), and pretending tourism bored me at major sites I'd already visited many times, when tickets had to be purchased for entry. And so, at Notre Dame, I stood outside, smoking, my only luxury, to tamp down terrible hunger pangs! When we got back, all safe and sound, my sister-in-law took one look at me, guessed I hadn't eaten for a week, and went and cooked me a kilo of pasta, over which I recounted with comic gusto the hidden inside story of what became one of the funniest and most enjoyable trips in my, and my niece's, life. Cheers, pal. Nishidani (talk) 08:38, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature News
Stewards can now globally block accounts. Before the change only IP addresses and IP ranges could be blocked globally. Global account blocks are useful when the blocked user should not be logged out. Global locks (a similar tool logging the user out of their account) are unaffected by this change. The new global account block feature is related to the Temporary Accounts project, which is a new type of user account that replaces IP addresses of unregistered editors that are no longer made public.
Later this week, Wikimedia site users will notice that the Interface of FlaggedRevs (also known as "Pending Changes") is improved and consistent with the rest of the MediaWiki interface and Wikimedia's design system. The FlaggedRevs interface experience on mobile and Minerva skin was inconsistent before it was fixed and ported to Codex by the WMF Growth team and some volunteers. [4]
Wikimedia site users can now submit account vanishing requests via GlobalVanishRequest. This feature is used when a contributor wishes to stop editing forever. It helps you hide your past association and edit to protect your privacy. Once processed, the account will be locked and renamed. [5]
Have you tried monitoring and addressing vandalism in Wikipedia using your phone? A Diff blog post on Patrolling features in the Mobile App highlights some of the new capabilities of the feature, including swiping through a feed of recent changes and a personal library of user talk messages for use when patrolling from your phone.
Wikimedia contributors and GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) organisations can now learn and measure the impact Wikimedia Commons is having towards creating quality encyclopedic content using the Commons Impact Metrics analytics dashboard. The dashboard offers organizations analytics on things like monthly edits in a category, the most viewed files, and which Wikimedia articles are using Commons images. As a result of these new data dumps, GLAM organisation can more reliably measure their return on investment for programs bringing content into the digital Commons. [6]
Project Updates
Come share your ideas for improving the wikis on the newly reopened Community Wishlist. The Community Wishlist is Wikimedia’s forum for volunteers to share ideas (called wishes) to improve how the wikis work. The new version of the wishlist is always open, works with both wikitext and Visual Editor, and allows wishes in any language.
Learn more
Have you ever wondered how Wikimedia software works across over 300 languages? This is 253 languages more than the Google Chrome interface, and it's no accident. The Language and Product Localization Team at the Wikimedia Foundation supports your work by adapting all the tools and interfaces in the MediaWiki software so that contributors in our movement who translate pages and strings can translate them and have the sites in all languages. Read more about the team and their upcoming work on Diff.
How can Wikimedia build innovative and experimental products while maintaining such heavily used websites? A recent blog post by WMF staff Johan Jönsson highlights the work of the WMF Future Audience initiative, where the goal is not to build polished products but test out new ideas, such as a ChatGPT plugin and Add a Fact, to help take Wikimedia into the future.
Hey Doug. I hope the chemo is bearable. Sending you an impression of one of the nicest places in the Netherlands. Sand, wind and water in perpetual motion, like genesis, the beginning of time. Always changing, everlasting. All the best, Joshua Jonathan - Let's talk!20:12, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
Hey Doug, I hope you're doing and feeling well. What's your opinion on an article about an israeli swimmer- do you think that would fall under a topic ban on the Israel-Palestine conflict? Logically, it seems obvious it shouldn't, but common practice on Wikipedia can sometimes defy logic ;) JoeJShmo💌18:15, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
Hey there, welcome to the 25th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter, covering all our favorite new and updated user scripts since 1 March 2024. We've got a ton of wonderful editors taking back their pitchforks today. Don't worry, for they come in peace, to forcibly fix and extend existing scripts you use with sheer passion. There's so many, them forks have got what's basically their own column now! gift us with some rows before it's too late Aaron Liu (talk) 04:00, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
Got anything good? Tell us about your new, improved, old, or messed-up script here!
To a lesser extent, the same goes for PrimeHunter/Search sort. I wish someone would integrate the sorts into the sort menu instead of adding 11 portlet links.
An easily configurable script to add a link to the #p-vector-user-menu-overflow portlet with a name, target, and icon. This one should be a relatively easier one. I would do it myself, but I'm too busy rotting away on Celeste (video game).
After the ＲＩＩＪ update, Aaron Liu: Watchlyst Greybar Unsin has a dismiss button that allows you to mark an item as read in one click and cycle to the next Watchlist item.
Lordseriouspig/StatusChangerImproved is just like Enterprisey's script, except you select your status from a dropdown instead of cycling through them with a button. The WMF operates out of car-centric infrastructure anyway. Shame!
Newly maintained scripts
Aaron Liu has created Duplinks from Evad37/duplinks-alt; his fork adds a config variable to automatically highlight duplicate links on the loading of any page where the portlet link would've appeared.
Tired of staring at a bunch of filtering text and waiting for darn filter logs to load? Msz2001/AbuseFilter analyzer can parse abuse filters into a visual syntax tree and evaluate locally on-demand!
Polygnotus/DuplicateReferences finds references with the same link and displays the number of them along with a button to add the {{duplicated citations}} tag under the references section. Being lazy has never been easier!
fastest gun on the net Ponor/really-quick-block really quick add to contribution lists three buttons awesome
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
Two new parser functions will be available this week: {{#dir}} and {{#bcp47}}. These will reduce the need for Template:Dir and Template:BCP47 on Commons and allow us to drop 100 million rows from the "what links here" database. Editors at any wiki that use these templates, can help by replacing the templates with these new functions. The templates at Commons will be updated during the Hackathon at Wikimania. [7][8]
Communities can request the activation of the visual editor on entire namespaces where discussions sometimes happen (for instance Wikipedia: or Wikisource: namespaces) if they understand the known limitations. For discussions, users can already use DiscussionTools in these namespaces.
The tracking category "Pages using Timeline" has been renamed to "Pages using the EasyTimeline extension" in TranslateWiki. Wikis that have created the category locally should rename their local creation to match.
Project updates
Editors who help to organize WikiProjects and similar on-wiki collaborations, are invited to share ideas and examples of successful collaborations with the Campaigns and Programs teams. You can fill out a brief survey or share your thoughts on the talkpage. The teams are particularly looking for details about successful collaborations on non-English wikis.
The new parser is being rolled out on Wikivoyage wikis over the next few months. The English Wikivoyage and Hebrew Wikivoyage were switched to Parsoid last week. For more information, see Parsoid/Parser Unification.
The latest quarterly Language and Internationalization newsletter is available. It includes: New design previews for Translatable pages; Updates about MinT for Wiki Readers; the release of Translation dumps; and more.
Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.
Hi Doug, hope you are somewhat better.. considering another fresh attempt of caste promotion, I would like to request you to take necessary action against the user Aceofalljackofnone for persistent promotion of Poundra (caste) in spite of warnings! You had already warned the user. Thanks & Regards. Ekdalian (talk) 11:10, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
Poundra is a Scheduled caste, i.e. outside the four tier Varna system; in other words, they rank below the 4 varnas: Brahmin (highest caste), followed by Kshatriya, then comes Vaishya & finally Shudra. Poundras, like all other castes, have tried to promote themselves and later on claimed Kshatriya status, which has obviously not been accepted by others! The user added the term Poundra Kshatriya in the lede in order to promote the caste, even though they are aware that no reliable source supports the same; WP:UNDUE as far as lede is concerned. This is only a claim by the community, as per all sources; the user didn't try to mention that it is only a claim! I personally hate this classification (which I explained above), but the user has repeatedly failed to adhere to our policies, especially considering the discretionary sanctions on caste articles! Sorry for the lengthy explanation. Regards. Ekdalian (talk) 18:54, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
I hope you're doing well. I don't think we've spoken directly before, but I wanted to start by saying it's great to see you continuing your work on Wikipedia despite your health challenges. I’m reaching out regarding the upcoming Signpost, HouseBlaster's RfA debrief. Given 'the Doug diff' was almost central to the RfA, I believe including your response would add valuable context to the report.
HouseBlaster I'd completely forgotten about this. I'm not sure why I didn't respond to your earlier response. It's an excellent question. I don't have an answer. I do know that if I had a lot of friends living near me, I would want to have a party before I died. I remember seeing a movie where a Shakespearean actress who was dying did this and I thought it was a great idea. But I don't know how to transfer it to Wikipedia. Do you have any suggestions?
I believe it's important for the reader to understand that the question raised was indeed well received by you. Would that be alright with you? Svampesky (talk) 12:55, 9 August 2024 (UTC)
Great. I'm just waiting for HouseBlaster's approval to include it since it is his debrief and should have full editorial control over it, without anyone superseding this. Thanks. Svampesky (talk) 13:18, 9 August 2024 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Stewards can now specify if global blocks should prevent account creation. Before this change by the Trust and Safety Product Team, all global blocks would prevent account creation. This will allow stewards to reduce the unintended side-effects of global blocks on IP addresses.
On 13 August, Bach's cantata was 300 years old, and the image one. The cantata is an extraordinary piece, using the chorale's text and famous melody more than others in the cycle. It's nice to have not only a recent death, but also this "birthday" on the Main page. And a rainbow in my places, - share with your wife, please. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:23, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
This https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Don't_overlook_legal_threats isn't what has happened is it? Even thought I've been on here for a long time, I'm not prolific so a mere amateur (and have been excommunicated myself for non-malicious events like forgetting I'm using a VPN or making what I considered not substantial edits). From my limited experience, the ins and outs of editing on Wikipedia are akin to deciphering the intricacies, nuances and inconsistencies of The Bible or, even more challenging, the US IRS Code (I'm a recovering CPA). I would greatly appreciate help in understanding the differences, if any, between the banning of the editor citing Indian law and the "Don't Overlook Legal Threats" entry. Much appreciated. Best, Fiona Fionaussie (talk) 15:24, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
They wrote "As a lawyer i request you to remove the misleading and offensive statements, otherwise i will have to initiate necessary legal action against the editor."
I noticed just now your mention of some hard times you're going through. I want to say I'm sorry that's happening, and here's hoping the outcome is a good one. EEng04:36, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
@EEng Thanks. The best I can hope for though is another year. I'm not terribly bothered and would hate to die of Parkinson's instead, as I think I've mentioned.. Doug Wellertalk08:33, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
In the past several maps have been removed from this page (in my opinion all these have been removed because they do not show Spain climatically diverse "enough"). A few examples:
And I stop at 2017, but one user already noticed back then that "psycho vandalism" was going on and it was being waged on multiple pages by one user using different IPs (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Climate_of_Spain&diff=prev&oldid=774993814). Now this user was also blocked for being a vandal, but I think he was not making stuff up here.
On this topic and page I am missing a lot for sure because I don't look at it often.
@Barjimoa Watching tv with wife and horrible chemo tomorrow morning. I don’t know if I’ll be up to much after that. I do want to look into this though. Remember we have to be cautious about IPs and saying they are socks, it’s a bit tricky. Doug Wellertalk18:52, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
The only one I can CU is August as after 90 days they are stale, and that is not on the same IP range as the accounts. Sorry. Doug Wellertalk09:25, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
I am also sorry to hear that. I have a dear friend who has slow-progressing Parkinson's. I'm conjecturing were I to be in the position of having Parkinson's it would be hardest on those close to me; I would be unaware of any memory losses. Best wishes. Fionaussie (talk) 02:11, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
May be you are just a grumpy person, but I really don't like to be called "disruptive editor" or 'picky". I was just a "drive-by" editor because my attention was caught by edits in Electric Slide, which I am watching for unrefenced and dubious stuff, an I was baffled that someone repeats the 1976 nonsense, which even Ric Silver (who claims authorship of ES) removed from his website. And suddenly I am a bad guy. --Altenmann>talk17:07, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
Oh, shucks. S**t happens. You cannot believe I am always confusing "Bascom" and "Camden" streets in San Jose. THe names sound exactly the same to my brain :-) Like Liverpool and Manchester (I am referring to a silly joke about English spelling: you write Liverpool and read Manchester). --Altenmann>talk17:35, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
It was said with tongue in cheek. I see words in colors and also taste words. The same for musical notes (ribbons of colors at different heights and depths). A certain smell can have me feeling textures on my skin. And here I thought I was normal, turns out I may be extraterrestrial, or just confused. I'm leaning toward the latter but you never know. --ARoseWolf17:44, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
Editors who want to re-use references but with different details such as page numbers, will be able to do so by the end of 2024, using a new sub-referencing feature. You can read more about the project and how to test the prototype.
Editors using tracking categories to identify which pages use specific extensions may notice that six of the categories have been renamed to make them more easily understood and consistent. These categories are automatically added to pages that use specialized MediaWiki extensions. The affected names are for: DynamicPageList, Kartographer, Phonos, RSS, Score, WikiHiero. Wikis that have created the category locally should rename their local creation to match. Thanks to Pppery for these improvements. [11]
Technical volunteers who edit modules and want to get a list of the categories used on a page, can now do so using the categories property of mw.title objects. This enables wikis to configure workflows such as category-specific edit notices. Thanks to SD001 for these improvements. [12][13]
Bugs status
Your help is needed to check if any pages need to be moved or deleted. A maintenance script was run to clean up unreachable pages (due to Unicode issues or introduction of new namespaces/namespace aliases). The script tried to find appropriate names for the pages (e.g. by following the Unicode changes or by moving pages whose titles on Wikipedia start with Talk:WP: so that their titles start with Wikipedia talk:), but it may have failed for some pages, and moved them to Special:PrefixIndex/T195546/ instead. Your community should check if any pages are listed there, and move them to the correct titles, or delete them if they are no longer needed. A full log (including pages for which appropriate names could be found) is available in phab:P67388.
Editors who volunteer as mentors to newcomers on their wiki are once again able to access lists of potential mentees who they can connect with to offer help and guidance. This functionality was restored thanks to a bug fix. Thank you to Mbch331 for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and 18 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Project updates
The application deadline for the Product & Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) has been extended to September 16. Members will help by providing advice to Foundation Product and Technology leadership on short and long term plans, on complex strategic problems, and help to get feedback from more contributors and technical communities. Selected members should expect to spend roughly 5 hours per month for the Council, during the one year pilot. Please consider applying, and spread the word to volunteers you think would make a positive contribution to the committee.
Learn more
The 2024 Coolest Tool Awards were awarded at Wikimania, in seven categories. For example, one award went to the ISA Tool, used for adding structured data to files on Commons, which was recently improved during the Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon. You can see video demonstrations of each tool at the awards page. Congratulations to this year's recipients, and thank you to all tool creators and maintainers.
The latest Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin is available, and includes some highlights from Wikimania, an upcoming Language community meeting, and other news from the movement.
You probably don't have the same type of cancer I do but your comment about neuropathy makes me think you are also getting one of the taxanes. So here are some things that helped me. If you take a bag of ice into the room with you and keep icing your hands and feet, it will constrict the blood vessels there. This limits the amount that these areas are exposed, which is good, since cancer does not usually travel to limbs, I am told. Also, someone suggested l-carnitine, and I found it helpful, although I can't swear it wasn't a placebo effect. That supplement has a bad reputation but ignore that; some people were apparently trying to hawk it for weight loss, for which it seems it is of dubious effectiveness. You may want to run these suggestions past your doctor but they helped me, and as far as I know cannot hurt you. Elinruby (talk) 03:27, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
the above also assumes that what we are both calling neuropathy is the same thing. What I was trying to address was 1) my feet very convincingly screaming that they were on fire and 2) severe numbness and tingling in the hands. Anyway hth Elinruby (talk) 02:13, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
You are amazing, Doug. I sing songs for you daily. I do it and tell you so you know someone views you as important enough to make the time to stop and focus on thoughts about you, good thoughts, of peace, healing and the love of friendship. --ARoseWolf12:25, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
the ice helped with that the symptom too. I still get something like an echo of it sometimes, but the doctor gave me choices about how aggressively to go after the cancer and I am just glad to be here to have such problems. If you only have one more treatment and your feet aren't affected yet, then you probably for whatever reason just won't, is my (non-medical) guess. This was an early side effect for me; also this was a dozen years ago and they may have refined the cocktail by now.
I do have another doctor tip that yours may not have thought to tell you. (As a nerd I made it my business to interrogate everyone involved in the process.) If you are bothered by pain/discomfort somewhere on your body, it can often be blocked out by giving something to think about to nerves that connect to the spine above the ones that are complaining. For hands for example, a cold compress on the neck might work for example. It only blocks it while you are doing (whatever you are doing) but I found it was much easier to put up with that stuff when I knew I could make it stop. Again, hth. Elinruby (talk) 04:45, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
Talk:Leo Frank
I thought it was just easier to send to archive that thread (and a couple of others) rather than mess around with hatting/striking. revert if you think otherwise. DeCausa (talk) 18:06, 25 August 2024 (UTC)
@OMGShay 92 Thank you for your understanding. I realise it was good faith, why should you know? We all learn by our mistakes. And thanks for the good luck wish. As an ex-pat American in Britain I often can’t remember whether something is American or British.! Doug Wellertalk16:21, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-35
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
Administrators can now test the temporary accounts feature on test2wiki. This was done to allow cross-wiki testing of temporary accounts, for when temporary accounts switch between projects. The feature was enabled on testwiki a few weeks ago. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Temporary Accounts is a project to create a new type of user account that replaces IP addresses of unregistered editors which are no longer made public. Please share your opinions and questions on the project talk page.
Later this week, editors at wikis that use FlaggedRevs (also known as "Pending Changes") may notice that the indicators at the top of articles have changed. This change makes the system more consistent with the rest of the MediaWiki interface. [15]
Bugs status
Editors who use the 2010 wikitext editor, and use the Character Insert buttons, will no longer experience problems with the buttons adding content into the edit-summary instead of the edit-window. You can read more about that, and 26 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Project updates
Please review and vote on Focus Areas, which are groups of wishes that share a problem. Focus Areas were created for the newly reopened Community Wishlist, which is now open year-round for submissions. The first batch of focus areas are specific to moderator workflows, around welcoming newcomers, minimizing repetitive tasks, and prioritizing tasks. Once volunteers have reviewed and voted on focus areas, the Foundation will then review and select focus areas for prioritization.
Do you have a project and are willing to provide a three (3) month mentorship for an intern? Outreachy is a twice a year program for people to participate in a paid internship that will start in December 2024 and end in early March 2025, and they need mentors and projects to work on. Projects can be focused on coding or non-coding (design, documentation, translation, research). See the Outreachy page for more details, and a list of past projects since 2013.
Learn more
If you're curious about the product and technology improvements made by the Wikimedia Foundation last year, read this recent highlights summary on Diff.
To learn more about the technology behind the Wikimedia projects, you can now watch sessions from the technology track at Wikimania 2024 on Commons. This week, check out:
bruh it ends on the 10th of August not on the 5th. I don't know why that misinformation is up there. If you don't reply to this, I'll just revert it back through a different account so you better reply. Amil2012 (talk) 19:14, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
@TryptofishLOL, which no longer means "little old lady" and was first used with its current meaning on Usenet, which I remember fondly. Spent a lot of time fighting pseudoarcheology there when I wasn't on the cooking groups. Doug Wellertalk08:04, 28 August 2024 (UTC)
Edits made on Khushal Singh Jamadar page.
The two sources cited for his lineage in the early life clearly mention that he is a Gaur Brahmin.
Dogra Rajputs reside in Jammu and kashmir as the name suggests.
Tyagis are a sub-class of Gaur Brahmins and reside in uni-community villages and Ikari is one of them.
All the best with your cancer recovery! Aadhrit260892 (talk) 08:55, 28 August 2024 (UTC)
Does "Tej Singh was born as Tej Ram in 1799 into a TyagiGaur Brahmin family" make sense then? See [16] where Tyagi was added to sourced text which I doubt mentions Tyagi. This is pretty typical. I'll look at the rest later. Doug Wellertalk10:19, 28 August 2024 (UTC)
Villages in western UP (where meerut lies) are all uni-community villages.Ikari is one of the prominent Taga gaur brahmin villages.
And yes that statement makes sense because even within the brahmin sects there are sub castes and tyagis are gaur brahmins who took up agriculture which led to separate villages. Aadhrit260892 (talk) 10:31, 28 August 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia developers can now officially continue to use both Gerrit and GitLab, due to a June 24 decision by the Wikimedia Foundation to support software development on both platforms. Gerrit and GitLab are both code repositories used by developers to write, review, and deploy the software code that supports the MediaWiki software that the wiki projects are built on, as well as the tools used by editors to create and improve content. This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers and prevent problems in code review from affecting our users. More details are available in the Migration status page.
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Arbitration
Please review and vote on Focus Areas, which are groups of wishes that share a problem. Focus Areas were created for the newly reopened Community Wishlist, which is now open year-round for submissions. The first batch of focus areas are specific to moderator workflows, around welcoming newcomers, minimizing repetitive tasks, and prioritizing tasks. Once volunteers have reviewed and voted on focus areas, the Foundation will then review and select focus areas for prioritization.
--Tryptofish (talk) 21:17, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
