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Question from Mahrukh zameer (09:16, 16 November 2024)

hello --Mahrukh zameer (talk) 09:16, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Mahrukh zameer, and welcome to Wikipedia! Let me know if you have any questions about Wikipedia, and I would be more than happy to assist :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:40, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

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YouTube Videos y ha abbrechen

Sugar av. unhappy 47.185.108.229 (talk) 07:33, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean. HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:23, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

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Post tag

Hi @HouseBlaster can you tell me what this post is about? This user (and others) have previously cast unsubstantiated accusations like this at me before and that he has been warned of this behaviour before.

As I also mentioned to other admins this sort of bad faith editing behaviour is pushing me away from this site. Galdrack (talk) 01:10, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Galdrack. I am a clerk for ArbCom, and given the brewing arbitration case about Palestine-Israel articles I am steering away from anything "in the weeds". You are, of course, welcome to file a report at WP:ANI or ask a recently active admin for more substantive advice. Sorry I am unable to help further. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 04:25, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
That's ok thanks for the help, I'll try and look into it further when I have more energy. Galdrack (talk) 20:08, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Question from Pizzzyy (01:38, 20 November 2024)

Hey there!! I am trying to do my first wiki page for a sealion that has a remarkable journey and has recently gained traction on tiktok and local media. Found it odd she didn’t have her own wiki page, so was happy to get the ball rolling. There’s a lot more that goes into it than I initially thought, so really want to the formatting, structure, and information to be as accurate as possible.

I saw the reference page auto fills, I added it myself, also the pictures and the main profile wireframe, where does that come from/how do I add? The photos I just find online, so don’t own them myself, adding pathway to the photos didn’t work. I’ve read all the steps that need to be taken, but feel I am missing a bunch of things.

Thanks for your time! --Pizzzyy (talk) 01:38, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Pizzzyy, and welcome to Wikipedia! So before I can answer your question, we need to make sure that this topic is eligible for inclusion on Wikipedia. We have a lot of articles (almost seven million!), but not everything meets our threshold for inclusion, which is given the unfortunate misnomer "notability", even though it has nothing to do with fame or importance. To be eligible for inclusions, we need to have two or three reliable sources which are independent of the subject and cover it in detail. Reliable sources have a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, so social media is out. We have a far from complete list of sources considered reliable, but we are looking for sources like The New York Times. Independent sources means nothing affiliated with the animal itself, such as the zoo. And finally "significant coverage" generally means two or three paragraphs of detail. Once you have those, we can get to the actual writing. I realize that this is a lot of information; creating a new article from scratch is one of the hardest tasks on Wikipedia! But I am here to help, and am more than happy to answer any questions you might have along the way :) Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 04:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
Hey @HouseBlaster thanks for your quick reply!!
This can be a little tough because I only found a couple reputable 3rd party news outlets, one being a local NBC affiliated one out of Buffalo, and a mention in a larger article from a CBS publication out of Chicago
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/beloved-sea-lion-returns-to-aquarium-of-niagara/71-43250598-d299-49d9-91e3-372dfe3c165f
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/two-california-sea-lion-pups-make-public-debut-at-brookfield-zoo/
others just cited the cbs article like
https://news.wttw.com/2017/07/21/2-california-sea-lion-pups-debut-brookfield-zoo
https://abc7ny.com/sea-lion-pups-baby-lions-born/2126869/
I did find this in a subscription article by the Niagara Gizette
https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/aquarium-of-niagara-celebrates-sea-lion-s-return/article_6987ddf1-91fd-5566-8dda-74e8776b9dce.html
And the Buffalo News, but again subscription needed
https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/return-of-sea-lion-makes-a-splash-at-aquarium-of-niagara/article_2fc03b9a-d71a-5671-9bce-17b1cebeb5d2.html
There is a decent amount of credibility here, mixed with the conservation acts of the aquarium she currently resides, and the Zoo in which she participated in the breeding program. Not sure if that’s enough.
I also wrote the page, but had it edited in chatgpt for flow and grammar, and it was flagged as LLM generated. I am more than happy to rewrite it, but felt it flowed nicely and was very accurate on the information out there regarding her journey. Pizzzyy (talk) 06:06, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Alright! Here is my analysis of those sources:

Source assessment table prepared by User:HouseBlaster
Source Independent? Reliable? Significant coverage? Count source toward GNG?
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/beloved-sea-lion-returns-to-aquarium-of-niagara/71-43250598-d299-49d9-91e3-372dfe3c165f Yes Yes Appears to be reliable No Only four sentences which are not quoting the aquarium's Executive Director is not significant coverage ✘ No
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/two-california-sea-lion-pups-make-public-debut-at-brookfield-zoo/ Yes Yes Considered reliable No Only a one-sentence mention. ✘ No
https://news.wttw.com/2017/07/21/2-california-sea-lion-pups-debut-brookfield-zoo Yes Yes No Again a one-sentence mention ✘ No
https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/aquarium-of-niagara-celebrates-sea-lion-s-return/article_6987ddf1-91fd-5566-8dda-74e8776b9dce.html Yes Yes Yes A good two meaty paragraphs ✔ Yes
https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/return-of-sea-lion-makes-a-splash-at-aquarium-of-niagara/article_2fc03b9a-d71a-5671-9bce-17b1cebeb5d2.html Yes Yes Yes Not the most significant coverage I have seen, but I would consider this significant ✔ Yes
This table may not be a final or consensus view; it may summarize developing consensus, or reflect assessments of a single editor. Created using {{source assess table}}.

I can see the conversation you are having at User talk:Pizzzyy#November 2024 – I see the draft was declined. I would put the two sources which have all three tickboxes front and center, and I would revert back to your own writing (rather than ChatGPT). AI can be helpful if you need to rephrase a sentence or two, but otherwise its tone is not appropriate for Wikipedia. It likes to use a flowery, embellished tone, which can compromise our policy on maintaining a neutral point of view. I think this topic is notable, though it is borderline. Please note that there is a real chance this gets deleted for lack of notability. If you are ready to continue working with that possibility in mind, we can do that. But writing an article is one of the hardest things to do on Wikipedia, and I would personally advise you to practice improving articles through the task center to gain a deeper understanding of how Wikipedia works beforehand. I realize that this can be disappointing, but I would do you a disservice if I did not mention this up front. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:23, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

I literally just spent an hour writing and adding citations, tried to save and publish, and it just reverted back to original copy. Not sure what happened, but do I now have to start all over again? Pizzzyy (talk) 18:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
@Pizzzyy: I see you made some changes to the page; sometimes it takes a minute for them to appear. They look like great edits to me! Did you do anything else? HouseBlaster (he/they) 23:04, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
I added more credible citations, reverted to earlier copy, without 4o fluffing, but now would like to add photos and that like wireframe intro box. I’m sure others would then want to contribute and add more color to the page. Being one of the more viral videos on tiktok this month, I’m sure there will be a lot more organic news coverage and articles written as well that can be mentioned. Pizzzyy (talk) 01:19, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
Still flagged for not having credible sources. I guess we will still need to wait. Pretty sure cbs, and local new stations are reliable, but maybe they don’t really mention her full back story. Or I am formatting and adding the citations incorrectly. Also adding citations by Facebook, tiktok, and YouTube might be incorrect? Should I just be providing links or posting the videos instead of referencing them as citations? Pizzzyy (talk) 01:27, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
Hi Pizzzyy! The tag for not having credible sources is now out of date – it is left there so the next reviewer can see what the problem was and therefore know what to check when they do the review. Don't worry: It will be removed once the draft is published live! You are formatting the citations correctly, but Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube are not considered reliable sources. Some more substantive advice:
  • I have renamed the draft to Draft:Arie (sea lion), which follows the standard title policy convention to use (parenthesis) to "disambiguate" between other uses of the word Arie.
  • Draft:Arie the Sealion § Species Overview: California Sea Lion is not really something we include in most Wikipedia articles; this article is about the specific sea lion. We include background all the time, but generally only background essential for understanding the article, and most readers are familiar with sea lions. We rely on the link to sea lion (and California sea lion) to do the rest of the job for us.
  • Unlike many publications, Wikipedia uses sentence case for section titles. So, for instance, Social media presence instead of Social Media Presence.
  • Using images is quite complicated on Wikipedia. I've been meaning to write a beginner's guide to them, but in a nutshell: We require that images either be licensed under a free content license, in the public domain, or else satisfy all the non-free content criteria. Of the non-free content criteria, the first is that the content be irreplaceable with free content, which does not apply here (anyone can go to the zoo, take a picture, and release it under a free license). And to fall into the public domain, the photographer needs to have died 70 years ago, which is impossible if they took a photograph of Arie. That leaves a photo released free content license. Have you personally taken any photos of Arie? If so, that would make this much easier.
  • As for the introduction wireframe, that is called an "infobox". You want to add Template:Infobox animal (click "Insert", then click "Template", and then type Infobox animal).
Sorry this is a lot of information... I told you writing an article is difficult :) Still here to answer questions! Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 01:58, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Template:Establishment category in country by century/resolve

Hi HouseBlaster, looks like you did a great job automating Template:Establishment category in country by century – thanks! However, you left Template:Establishment category in country by century/resolve still using the old parameters, and this is not mentioned in the documentation. E.g. [5] for usage.

Perhaps the neatest thing would be a separate version of /core with more resolving, and a switch in the main template to use that core instead if there was a new parameter resolve=yes. Would you care to implement this, please? – Fayenatic London 12:51, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Happy to do that later today :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 14:07, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
Update: it is not as easy as I thought it would be; I hope to do this Friday night (when I can dedicate a sustained period of time). Apologies for the delay. HouseBlaster (he/they) 01:51, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
 Done HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:00, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Question from Amogelang22 on User talk:Amogelang22 (10:34, 9 November 2024)

Hello Can i ask How can create an article based on my culture --Amogelang22 (talk) 10:34, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

So who deleted it and why Amogelang22 (talk) 11:20, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
I do not see any deleted contributions on this account – did you have a different one? Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:05, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
i heard someone saying that the account contribution has been deleted Amogelang22 (talk) 15:32, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
Well, that good news is that has not happened! Nothing has been deleted. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:34, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
okaythats good Amogelang22 (talk) 15:35, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
can I ask you a question Amogelang22 (talk) 15:44, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
Of course! HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
why people are abusive to us as their fellow community members Amogelang22 (talk) 15:55, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
how did you start being a Wikimedia member Amogelang22 (talk) 15:57, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
You can read about my start at Wikipedia at User:Clovermoss/Editor reflections/1–100#User:HouseBlaster – December 2, 2023 :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 16:02, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
Was it easy Amogelang22 (talk) 08:47, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
Not super easy, but very rewarding! HouseBlaster (he/they) 16:16, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
How Amogelang22 (talk) 07:25, 16 November 2024 (UTC)
I used Help:Getting started, which has lots of helpful information! HouseBlaster (he/they) 15:39, 16 November 2024 (UTC)
then what were the rewards Amogelang22 (talk) 18:14, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
There aren't any tangible rewards (except WP:TWL). You do it because it is fun, which is its own reward :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 23:45, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
okay Amogelang22 (talk) 03:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Sign up for the language community meeting on November 29th, 16:00 UTC

Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Sign up for the language community meeting on November 29th, 16:00 UTC because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.

Hello everyone,

The next language community meeting is coming up next week, on November 29th, at 16:00 UTC (Zonestamp! For your timezone <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1732896000>). If you're interested in joining, you can sign up on this wiki page: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/Community_meetings#29_November_2024>.

This participant-driven meeting will be organized by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Language Product Localization team and the Language Diversity Hub. There will be presentations on topics like developing language keyboards, the creation of the Moore Wikipedia, and the language support track at Wiki Indaba. We will also have members from the Wayuunaiki community joining us to share their experiences with the Incubator and as a new community within our movement. This meeting will have a Spanish interpretation.

Looking forward to seeing you at the language community meeting! Cheers, Srishti 19:54, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

CFD closure query

Hello, HouseBlaster,

I'm back! I have a question about Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 November 7#Category:Buildings and structures by decade of destruction. Yesterday, User:JJMC89 bot III deleted all of the categories they were supposed to delete but didn't create categories that should have been created or move all of the articles and categories back into the newly created categories. For example, if you look at Category:Buildings and structures by decade of destruction and Category:Buildings and structures destroyed in the 18th century you can see categories that are still present in these deleted categories and that are empty because the bot didn't transfer the associated articles.

Can you look into this? I know it's a massive CFD but I'm not sure how to nudge the bot to finish up its work. Many thanks! Liz Read! Talk! 02:02, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Liz! You are always welcome on my talk page :)
I forgot to update the templates again... apologies for the confusion. It seems to be all sorted now; there might be a couple stragglers but the jobqueue has been moving fast as of late. Thank you so much for bringing this oversight to my attention! Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:17, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Feedback request: Politics, government, and law request for comment

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Tech News: 2024-48

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

Updates for editors

  • Wishlist item A new version of the standard wikitext editor-mode syntax highlighter will be available as a beta feature later this week. This brings many new features and bug fixes, including right-to-left support, template folding, autocompletion, and an improved search panel. You can learn more on the help page.
  • The 2010 wikitext editor now supports common keyboard shortcuts such Ctrl+B for bold and Ctrl+I for italics. A full list of all six shortcuts is available. Thanks to SD0001 for this improvement. [6]
  • Starting November 28, Flow/Structured Discussions pages will be automatically archived and set to read-only at the following wikis: bswiki, elwiki, euwiki, fawiki, fiwiki, frwikiquote, frwikisource, frwikiversity, frwikivoyage, idwiki, lvwiki, plwiki, ptwiki, urwiki, viwikisource, zhwikisource. This is done as part of StructuredDiscussions deprecation work. If you need any assistance to archive your page in advance, please contact Trizek (WMF).
  • View all 25 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a user creating a new AbuseFilter can now only set the filter to "protected" if it includes a protected variable.

Updates for technical contributors

  • The CodeEditor, which can be used in JavaScript, CSS, JSON, and Lua pages, now offers live autocompletion. Thanks to SD0001 for this improvement. The feature can be temporarily disabled on a page by pressing Ctrl+, and un-selecting "Live Autocompletion".
  • Advanced item Tool-maintainers who use the Graphite system for tracking metrics, need to migrate to the newer Prometheus system. They can check this dashboard and the list in the Description of the task T350592 to see if their tools are listed, and they should claim metrics and dashboards connected to their tools. They can then disable or migrate all existing metrics by following the instructions in the task. The Graphite service will become read-only in April. [7]
  • Advanced item The New PreProcessor parser performance report has been fixed to give an accurate count for the number of Wikibase entities accessed. It had previously been resetting after 400 entities. [8]

Meetings and events

  • A Language community meeting will take place November 29 at 16:00 UTC. There will be presentations on topics like developing language keyboards, the creation of the Mooré Wikipedia, the language support track at Wiki Indaba, and a report from the Wayuunaiki community on their experiences with the Incubator and as a new community over the last 3 years. This meeting will be in English and will also have Spanish interpretation.

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:39, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

What I did on my draft

Warning:My draft of Pelles C (go click it here) is a translation of the Italian article of Pelles C. Gnu779 (talk) 13:52, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

@Gnu779: Alright. We need to make sure that we have attributed the Italian Wikipedia article. See WP:HOWTRANS for information on that. Thanks, HouseBlaster (he/they) 14:29, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:List of video games with AI-versus-AI modes

Hello, HouseBlaster. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or draft page you started, "List of video games with AI-versus-AI modes".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material, the draft has been deleted. When you plan on working on it further and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Hey man im josh (talk) 20:22, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Question from Picaro31 (06:19, 28 November 2024)

Hello, Is there any way to save an edit as a draft? There has been far too many times where I'll spend loads of time on an edit at home and finish it in class and am unable to publish as I'm on the schools IP address- which, of course, is blocked by Wikipedia due to vandalism by others. Thanks! --Picaro31 (talk) 06:19, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Picaro31! There is no built in way to do that, unfortunately. You can save something on your talk page – just make sure you add an edit summary saying something like "this edit copies content from <link to page>, see that page for attribution" to ensure you satisfy your copying within Wikipedia obligations. You should still have access to your talk page even while blocked. Let me know if you need any additional help, and I would be more than happy to assist. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 16:45, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Question from InfoNerds (07:38, 30 November 2024)

How do I put up a Wikipedia article with a photo, dob, and biography? If you look at my recent sandbox “talk” I am trying to get it published. It’s for a very known underground musician “Chance Morris “ from Kansas City Missouri please help --InfoNerds (talk) 07:38, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello InfoNerds, and welcome to Wikipedia! The first thing I need to ask is if you have a conflict of interest with Morris. Some examples of conflicts of interest include knowing Morris personally or being paid to write this article. The next thing we need to do is ensure Morris qualifies for an article. Do you have two or three reliable sources which are independent of Morris (that means not paid for or solicited by Morris or anyone associated with him) and cover him in detail? Thanks, HouseBlaster (he/they) 19:46, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Question from Amogelang22 on Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions/Archive 15 (11:49, 30 November 2024)

Hi How do people recognise their talents --Amogelang22 (talk) 11:49, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

What does this have to do with editing Wikipedia? HouseBlaster (he/they) 19:48, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 November 22#Category:LGBTQ by continent and country

Hello, HouseBlaster,

When you close CFDs with category moves, could you make sure that the bot leaves a redirect? Because of this closure, we have dozens of broken category redirects that have to be cleaned up now. An example is Category:LGBT history in Africa by country. This happens all of the time with speedy renames but it's now happening with all of the categories that were LGBT that are now LGBTQ. It's past midnight here now so I'm going to leave this work for another admin or editor to handle. But we get broken category redirects every day because the bot doesn't leave a redirect when it moves a category. It would be nice if this practice changed. Thank you. Liz Read! Talk! 08:25, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi Liz! If we are going to change the general practice, I think a broader discussion at WT:CFD would be better than at one admin's talk page. When the items are removed from WP:CFDW, part of the admin's job is to update links/delete broken redirects. Spitballing: Perhaps an WP:ADMINBOT could also handle the redirects, updating the target (if the category has been renamed) or deleting it (if the category has been deleted)? Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 18:00, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
Yes, ideally if the bot fixed all incoming links including for redirects, then I agree there probably shouldn't be a need for an old redirect to stay around and it doesn't need to be manually cleaned up by an admin after. Raladic (talk) 18:38, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-49

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

Updates for editors

  • Two new parser functions were added this week. The {{#interwikilink}} function adds an interwiki link and the {{#interlanguagelink}} function adds an interlanguage link. These parser functions are useful on wikis where namespaces conflict with interwiki prefixes. For example, links beginning with MOS: on English Wikipedia conflict with the mos language code prefix of Mooré Wikipedia.
  • Starting this week, Wikimedia wikis no longer support connections using old RSA-based HTTPS certificates, specifically rsa-2048. This change is to improve security for all users. Some older, unsupported browser or smartphone devices will be unable to connect; Instead, they will display a connectivity error. See the HTTPS Browser Recommendations page for more-detailed information. All modern operating systems and browsers are always able to reach Wikimedia projects. [9]
  • Starting December 16, Flow/Structured Discussions pages will be automatically archived and set to read-only at the following wikis: arwiki, cawiki, frwiki, mediawikiwiki, orwiki, wawiki, wawiktionary, wikidatawiki, zhwiki. This is done as part of StructuredDiscussions deprecation work. If you need any assistance to archive your page in advance, please contact Trizek (WMF). [10]
  • This month the Chart extension was deployed to production and is now available on Commons and Testwiki. With the security review complete, pilot wiki deployment is expected to start in the first week of December. You can see a working version on Testwiki and read the November project update for more details.
  • View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug with the "Download as PDF" system was fixed. [11]

Updates for technical contributors

  • In late February, temporary accounts will be rolled out on at least 10 large wikis. This deployment will have a significant effect on the community-maintained code. This is about Toolforge tools, bots, gadgets, and user scripts that use IP address data or that are available for logged-out users. The Trust and Safety Product team wants to identify this code, monitor it, and assist in updating it ahead of the deployment to minimize disruption to workflows. The team asks technical editors and volunteer developers to help identify such tools by adding them to this list. In addition, review the updated documentation to learn how to adjust the tools. Join the discussions on the project talk page or in the dedicated thread on the Wikimedia Community Discord server (in English) for support and to share feedback.

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:20, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

A fox for you!

you seem pretty cool! thank you for spending so much time making wikipedia a nicer place

Johnsamman (talk) 05:36, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Aww, thank you, Johnsamman! Hope you stick around :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 05:58, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

Administrator changes

added
readded
removed

Interface administrator changes

added
readded Pppery

CheckUser changes

readded

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:20, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Question from Bailey's Wiki Editing Account (19:13, 4 December 2024)

Hi! How do I do create a well-made citation? --Bailey's Wiki Editing Account (talk) 19:13, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello Bailey's Wiki Editing Account, and welcome to Wikipedia! To create a well-made citation, you can follow the steps at Help:Introduction to referencing with VisualEditor. The more information you are able to fill out in the form, the better! Make sure you are citing reliable sources; we have a list of sources by reliability. The list is far from complete, so don't worry if your source is not on the list! If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 19:41, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

Purging of categories

Hi, I unfortunately have another clarifying question regarding the purging of categories, specifically the level of effort (or due diligence) a purging editor is expected to make to ensure that a page does not belong in the category that is to be purged. Generally, the characteristic that a category is about must be mentioned explicitly in the article, and it's not enough if it's maybe mentioned in some cited source but not stated in the article (random example: let's say, a person's article is in Category:People from Johannesburg, the person is indeed from Johannesburg, and this origin is stated somewhere in one of the cited sources, but the article doesn't mention the location at all), right? If I'm correct in assuming that, I see three possible options/levels of effort:

  1. One acts solely based on what's already in the article (without checking the cited sources; so in my previous random example, one would simply remove the article from Category:People from Johannesburg).
  2. One acts based on what's already in the article as well as anything in the already cited sources (so in my previous random example, I imagine, it would be considered good practice to not remove the article from Category:People from Johannesburg but to add the information to the article, citing the already cited source).
  3. One acts on what's in the article and any of the already cited sources as well as any information one can find in other (reliable, secondary) sources (so assuming for my random example that the information was not already in one of the cited sources, one would check whether a source exists that supports the Johannesburg claim, and if one finds such a source, I imagine, it would be considered good practice to not remove the article from Category:People from Johannesburg but instead add both the information and the new source to the article).

Which one of these is correct or standard practice (or the approach you usually take)?

I'm asking because I recently took on Category:Body horror video games (deletion discussion) and quickly looked at every page in that category (and its subcats), and not a single one mentions the term "body horror" (NB: one says ... the choices made by the player affect the narrative and visual design..., generally along the lines of eldritch or body horror, but the term is not used in the cited sources). This, paired with the fact that afaics, every page in this cat was added to it by the same user (Latiromazzaire, who also created the cat) on the same day (1 June 2024), made me think that the deletion rationale (entirely original research) was accurate, and of course, choosing option 1 above would be equivalent to emptying this category (I have not looked at every cited source in every article but the refs' titles were obv included when searching for the term).
Note: In the deletion discussion, Zxcvbnm gave two examples of sources where games are described using the term. The games covered in those sources are a) Winnie's Hole (article is currently only the parent cat Category:Body horror but does use the term "body horror" supported by other sources [note: this is also the only video game article I found when searching for the term in Wikipedia articles in general]), and b) Zoochosis (video game) (article is currently in the cat but doesn't cite this specific source or use the term). So, the cat could potentially have at least two entries.

I'm usually inclined to choose option 3, but given the history of the user who added the categories, I'm not sure how fruitful this option would be in this case (I'm also not at all familiar with horror-ish video games, so I'm not great at judging for which of the games in the cat a search could be worth it if there are any for which this is the case). Sorry for the long message. Felida97 (talk) 14:02, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Felida97! Again, thank you for helping at CFDWM – it is truly appreciated :) I normally find it best to do a mixture of options 1 and 3. My logic is well-developed articles (roughly B/GA/FA) will not neglect to mention WP:DEFINING characteristics. If the article is less well developed, I generally find it easier to jump straight to google rather than examining each source individually. Again, if it is not showing up consistently, it does not meet WP:DEFINING and should be removed. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 16:46, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
Thank you very much, that logic makes a lot of sense and is very helpful! Felida97 (talk) 22:23, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Question from Picaro31 (16:44, 6 December 2024)

Hello HouseBlaster.

According to the Wikipedia Conflict of Interest policy (COI), self-edits are prohibited. I'm in a situation where an article that I'm actively editing is being self-edited (as in, the person the article is about is editing their own article).

Additionally, I have no way of confirming if they are the real person or an impersonator, since they haven't referenced their Wikipedia account on any of their social media pages. The only thing I'm going off of is the fact that they have their name as their username.

So I'll just get to the point: What exactly should I do in this situation? I'm assuming it would either be to,

A) Report self-edits B) Leave the policy violation alone C) Undo their self-written contributions to their own article

Thanks! --Picaro31 (talk) 16:44, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi Picaro31! What is their username? Per WP:REALNAME, account using the names of "famous" people (including anyone with an article about themselves) needs to be blocked until they either change their name or verify that they are the person in question.
In the future, you should first try talking to the person and explaining WP:COI. If they are not willing or unable to adapt their behavior, you can report them to WP:ANI. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 00:46, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
Hey HouseBlaster, thanks for the response
I am referring to video game composer Tee Lopes, their username simply being @Teelopes. I'll add a topic to their talk page addressing WP:COI, as well as requesting proof of identity.
Thanks! Picaro31 (talk) 05:34, 7 December 2024 (UTC)

CFD closure advice

Hey @HouseBlaster,

I would like to contribute by closing some simple and straightforward CfD nominations. As a non admin, what advice or suggestion would you give me for starting my journey?

For simple merges or renames, after moving the cat, what csd should I tag for the redirect? For cats with very less pages I just plant to use my AWB alt to do the renaming or merging, but for the larger cats should I use User:Qwerfjkl/scripts/CFDlister? Does it work for list at the talk page for non-admins?

Thanks for your time! ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 12:03, 7 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi Bunnypranav! Thank you so much for volunteering to help out at CFD. It is really appreciated :)
You have already picked up on what my advice would be: closing some simple and straightforward CfD nominations. These are generally the unanimous ones with at least one support besides the nominator. The next most complex is knowing when WP:SILENCE applies to an unopposed nomination; sometimes these should be relisted and sometimes they should be soft deleted/merged/renamed/etc. It is more of an art than a science, but I generally relist large bundled nominations and close nominations of 1–3 categories after a week. Beyond those two examples, you should follow the process for determining consensus in the discussion.
As for processing them manually, because you are not yet a page mover, you cannot actually move categories with Special:Move. Please do not do a cut/paste move, and if you have already done any cut/paste moves please request a history merge. CFDlister, which is designed for non-admins, lists discussions at WT:CFDW so admins can process them. This should be done for all moves until you acquire the page mover permission. If you do any merge or delete nomination manually, {{db-xfd}} is the appropriate CSD tag.
I think that is everything; let me know if you have any questions and I would be happy to help
Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 23:28, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
@HouseBlaster Thanks for the detailed response
As a non-page mover, can I close as rename, edit the few pages (maybe like 10 or so) by hand or AWB, move the cat, and db-xfd the the redirect? ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 05:18, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
@Bunnypranav: You cannot. The page mover permission is required by the software to move categories; see Wikipedia:Page mover § move-categorypages. Try visiting Special:MovePage/Category:X1 to see what I mean. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 05:24, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Ah, I assumed that it was like moving article pages. Thanks again for your advice! ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 05:34, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Violation

The original matter has been dealt with. HouseBlaster (he/they) 19:46, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Hello HouseBlaster, hope you're well. Aren't these diffs [12], [13], [14], violations of the user's tban that you're enforced as an unblock condition? The article even has whole separate sections for Armenia and Azerbaijan, I think this clearly shows the user's incompetency to abide by the topic ban. Additionally, they've added Azeri script here (Qar Qızı). Vanezi (talk) 11:25, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Those edits to Ded Moroz are not topic ban violations given that Viceskeeni2 did not touch the section of the article about Armenia or Azerbaijan. I am unwilling to block someone over a one-time incidient of adding Azeri script, but Viceskeeni2: This edit was a topic ban violation. Do not do it again, or I will be forced to reblock you. I know editing with a topic ban can be difficult, but you agreed to be bound by a topic ban. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 18:54, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Okay, didn't know this counts as a violation. My bad, sorry, I won't do it again until those 3 months are up and I can make a request. Viceskeeni2 (talk) 18:59, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Are you really checking my edits to see if I edit on Azerbaijan/Armenia to get me blocked... I don't want to say anything, but alright. Viceskeeni2 (talk) 19:00, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Are you asking an obvious question that was answered to you already once about adhering to restrictions [15]? If you really "don't want to" say anything, you're welcome to not say anything. Vanezi (talk) 19:19, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Crazy. And then I'm the one who has people living rent free in his head. Viceskeeni2 (talk) 19:25, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Violation 2

@HouseBlaster You've collapsed the thread above, hope you don't mind me opening another discussion because the user violated their conditional topic ban again and hounding me in the process [16]; FYI, the RfC discussion that Viceskeeni2 is replying to me in (never taking part in it before me btw, and I made a single comment just today) is about inclusion or exclusion (and other options) of Armenian genocide in the lead of Turkey. And the sources in my comment which Viceskeeni2 is replying to ALL talk about Armenia. The user has no competence and regard to the topic ban, violating or dancing around it constantly even after you just warned them about it. What do you and the admin blocking Viceskeeni2, @Rosguill, think about this? Vanezi (talk) 20:05, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

[17] does this look like someone who's competent or in good faith? They're literally commenting under an RFC about Armenian genocide and saying they're not topic banned from Turkey, and hounding opposing my comments for the second time now. Vanezi (talk) 20:28, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
@Vanezi Astghik: Generally, collapsing threads indicates that the conversation is over. That was the intended effect of my action, so I am a little concerned that you immediately opened a new thread. I seriously contemplated issuing an interaction ban between you two, and if the bad blood continues I will do so. You are not the enforcer of Viceskeeni2's topic ban, and it is very clear that your goal is to get them re-blocked.
@Viceskeeni2:, I can't comment on the last one because I'm not allowed to, but that one doesn't talk about Turkey either is also a topic ban violation. Saying putting "I can't say this but..." does not make whatever follow not a get out of jail free card to violating your topic ban, and if I had discovered this independent of Vanezi's hounding I would have indefinitely blocked you for it; I warned you less than an hour before you made that comment. If part of a conversation concerns Armenia or Azerbaijan, you cannot participate in it. It doesn't matter that Turkey is also involved. If someone pings you to the discussion, you may make a single post saying "I am not allowed to participate due to my topic ban". You may not elaborate any further. The next time I will indefinitely block you again. I want to see you continue to contribute productively, but you need to follow your topic ban. HouseBlaster (he/they) 20:31, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Okay Viceskeeni2 (talk) 20:36, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
You are not the enforcer of Viceskeeni2's topic ban, and it is very clear that your goal is to get them re-blocked. Dear HouseBlaster, I don't agree with your accusation. My goal is for everyone, including myself, to adhere to our policies and so forth. What is the wrong in that? You are the admin who unblocked them with a tban; I had prior experience with the user and users under tbans are expected that others may look at so they don't violate it, that's completely normal. I saw evidence of violation and brought it to your talk page as you're the enforcing admin (again completely normal interaction and happened many times on Wikipedia), you then collapsed the thread before new evidence occurred. What was I supposed to do then? I didn't bring this to ANI out of respect to you, I first wanted to show you the evidence as the tban enforcing admin.
And that even after you warned them here, they not only showed further incompetence and violated the tban again, but also hounded me in the process with subpar "analysis" of my RFC comment [18], saying my sources don't talk about Turkey when the genocide happened in Ottoman Empire and Turkey is literally the successor state after the genocide – do you know how incredibly disrespectful and outright disingenuous that reply is from Viceskeeni2? Especially from someone clearly aware about the region, and someone that shouldn't even comment in the discussion? What did you expect me to do after seeing this hounding disingenuous comment, NOT to inform you, the enforcing admin, of yet another violation minutes after I had a discussion here? I'm sorry but I disagree with you, I think Viceskeeni2 has been given too much rope at this point. Vanezi (talk) 20:54, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
I don't know, maybe because I'm the only user whose violations you inform him about. Like I siad, I already apologized for doing it because I didn't know those two were included in the topic ban on Armenia/Azerbaijan. I have been doing edits in the last time, that have nothing to do with the topic I'm banned from, and whe nI do one small mistake (which is giving the name of some character in Azerbaijani), bam you immediately repor tme. It's clear you're trying to get be re-banned. It's not your job to inform admins about it, why don't you inform them about other violkations? Yes, you had prior experience with me, that prior experience being immediately reporting every small violation I make to some admin to get me banned. Do it with other editors to if your goal is "for everyone to adhere to our policies and so forth" Viceskeeni2 (talk) 20:58, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Request review of CFD close on Category:Yeniseysk

Do agree with the decision at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 October 27#Category:Yeniseysk, but believe a spelling error was unintentionally introduced. The cat was moved to Category:People from Yeniseyk as suggested in the CFD. The town is actually called Yeniseysk (an s before the k.) Would you consider boldly moving to Category:People from Yeniseysk instead?--☾Loriendrew☽ ☏(ring-ring) 23:20, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi! I have nominated it for speedy renaming. Thank you for catching that typo :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 23:57, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Question from Olothando mabuto on Wikipedia talk:Main Page alternatives/(Old PDA version) (04:12, 9 December 2024)

Hello Wh --Olothando mabuto (talk) 04:12, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello Olothando mabuto, and welcome to Wikipedia. I don't think you finished typing your question; feel free to either submit another one or reply here. Best, HouseBlaster (he/they) 05:11, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
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