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I just looked at the history of Candidates/Guide, and it struck me just how much work you do behind the scenes to make Wikipedia happen. So, take this:

		All Around Amazing Barnstar
		For being quietly amazing. SilkTork (talk) 18:53, 23 November 2022 (UTC))[reply]

Hi xaosflux - I was communicating with another editor, and your name came up in reference to something we wouldn't need to do because you'd done it. However, this was overshadowed by a far more crucial issue: that we had each been confidently sure we knew how to pronounce your name since we'd been editing Wikipedia, and our two ways were different. So, tl;dr: how do you pronounce your username? Nosebagbear (talk) 23:39, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Nosebagbear I think this is the right markup: /ˈzeɪ.as.flʌks/. I'm not super picky since I rarely hear it aloud! — xaosflux ^Talk 23:55, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(c.f. testwiki:User talk:Xaosflux/phonos). — xaosflux ^Talk 23:57, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't suspect three syllables. It was always just two in my head. SmokeyJoe (talk) 01:04, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@SmokeyJoe think back in the day I derived it from the words "chaos" and "flux", and may have been inspired by the animated series Æon Flux. I've been called "Zous" by some. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:08, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Don't worry about it, Joe. As a WP:Talk page stalker here, I thought it was just using the "X" for a Greek Chi and have always pronounced it as "Chaos Flux" in my head. TIL. VanIsaac, GHTV ^cont_WpWS 01:49, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(That was my method, too, @Vanisaac!) :) Nosebagbear (talk) 10:09, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Once we get the phonos extension installed, maybe we can make a new "hear my username" userbox! — xaosflux ^Talk 11:15, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there. I wanted to tell and concern about this. 8TV (Malaysian TV network) is suffering from vandalism and needs to be protected from the unregistered users because of the false information/gibberish into pages. There's no news about ceasing it's operation and it is proven to be false or just fake news. GlorysiaMelodyYT (talk) 10:16, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oh yeah, don't forget about 8FM, it is also suffered from vandalism before I undo it. GlorysiaMelodyYT (talk) 10:19, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Third one: List of programmes broadcast by 8TV (Malaysian TV network) were also got hit, I trying to stop the vandalism but the unregistered users won't stop spreading fake news. GlorysiaMelodyYT (talk) 10:30, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@GlorysiaMelodyYT Hello, to request a page be protected please post at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 11:14, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:33, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean by that? As far as I can tell only interface admins have the right to implement my request because it requires editing CSS in someone else ("User:UBX")'s userspace, which uses the editusercss right, which per Special:ListGroupRights only iadmins have. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:44, 16 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Pppery yes, the target of that probably should have been the userpage, not the template - it was showing up on the wrong report, looks like the entire thing has been speedily deleted now though so nothing to do. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:46, 16 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:58, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi - do you think this would be useful for my Google authenticator? Just in case? Don't want to loose access![11] Thanks. Doug Weller talk 15:55, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have two Yubikey 5's I use. -- Avi (talk) 16:11, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Avraham any idea what the difference is between the cheaper one that I linked and the one that you have? Thanks Doug Weller talk 16:30, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See https://www.reddit.com/r/yubikey/comments/adzfqb/yubco_security_key_nfc_vs_yubikey_5_nfc/. The 5 has more methods. You could put GPG keys on it, for example. Or you could use the YubiAuth App with the key for TOTP (like Authy or Google Authenticator). -- Avi (talk) 11:38, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Doug Weller I don't recommend it here. From what I see that would mean you'd convert your 2FA from TOTP to WebAuthn; WMF has even less support for WebAuthn than for it's almost non-existent TOTP support system. There is currently no self-service recovery for WebAuthn failures. I use TOTP, and set it up on 2 devices, that way if one device fails I still have it on the other. The easiest way to do this is to register them both at the same time (turn off TOTP and set it up again). Additionally, ensuring that you safely store your scratch codes for TOTP is important. If your authentication device fails it can take up to 2 scratch codes to turn off 2FA until you can re-enroll. I have used some of the hardware keys with other systems, but they are ones where I register my real-world identity to them and have various built-in recovery mechanisms. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:07, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have two keys that I use for my FIDO2, including Wikipedia, and they work fine. But I have two in case I lose one. That's the downside of the increased security of a physical device: no virtual back door. I consider that a feature, not a bug. -- Avi (talk) 11:40, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I have my codes. It’s on my android phone so unless that dies before I replace it I can transfer it to a new phone. Doug Weller talk 17:10, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Doug Weller if you have a secure computer, you could also install a software TOTP client. It won't help in the "your computer was taken over" type of attack, but still provides multifactor security from external cracking. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:13, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

good idea I can add Google Authenticatior to Chrome.. Thanks. Doug Weller talk 17:19, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux! I wanted to write a question here but I got a notice saying it didn't get many watchers so I thought about asking you personally given that you had answered quite some questions there. (The question above me is also about 2FA. Strange coincidence...)
I use a PC and a laptop to edit Wikipedia. The PC uses Windows and the laptop is on Linux. I want to activate the 2 factor authorization but I'm not sure as to what would be the best way to act on this case. Do I really have to get 2 different groups of scratch codes by 2 different programs? Is there "a better way"? Sorry if I'm not clear. I'm a bit confused by the whole 2FA thing. — Klein Muçi (talk) 12:43, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi 2FA isn't related to the devices that you use to log on. 2FA (sticking to the TOTP model here) requires an authenticator, which is software that can take an initial secret seed, the time of day, and output a short-lived code. Most people that use our TOTP use a smartphone app as their authenticator. When you activate 2FA it will give you your initial registration seed, at that point you can use that seed to register multiple authentication devices (I use a software application on a trusted computer, and a software application on a smartphone). You shouldn't store that seed as it could be used to impersonate you. During registration you will get a set of scratch codes. These are attached to your account, not to your authenticator or any computer you log on to. They should be used only in the even of a broken authenticator, and only to unenroll from 2FA until you can set it up again. Does that answer your questions? — xaosflux ^Talk 14:06, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

To be 100% clear, you can never have "2 different groups of scratch codes"; the only way to get scratch codes is to activate 2FA, and the only way to get another set is to deactivate it (invalidating the old scratch codes) and reactivate it. There is not currently support to register multiple TOTP instances with different seeds and scratches. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:10, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

During registration you will get a set of scratch codes. These are attached to your account, not to your authenticator or any computer you log on to.
Aha! Okay then. That was my dilemma. Thank you! :)) — Klein Muçi (talk) 16:01, 22 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, whether it's Christmas or some other festival, I hope you and those close to you have a happy, restful time! Have fun, Donner60 (talk) 00:16, 23 December 2022 (UTC)}} [reply]

Donner60 (talk) 01:41, 24 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux! Thank you for your work to maintain and improve Wikipedia! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 19:15, 25 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Abishe (talk) 21:50, 31 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

– Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year}} to user talk pages.

CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 22:14, 31 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi xaosflux. It would be best to use {{inactive admin 2}} instead of {{inactive admin}}. — JJMC89 (T·C) 02:13, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JJMC89 thanks, good thing I'm doing these in batches! — xaosflux ^Talk 02:17, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

	The Admin's Barnstar
	You deserve this barnstar because of your hard work at Wikipedia:Inactive administrators/2023. Great work! Sarrail (talk) 03:31, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

aand...

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Sarrail (talk) 03:34, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wishing you a year filled with prosperity, happiness, and good health. Dr.Pinsky (talk) 12:23, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

— Moops ^⋠T⋡ 17:07, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for notifying me on my user talk page that my admin permissions have been suspended due to inactivity. Sadly, I have been too busy with other projects to do much Wikipedia editing in recent years. I still think Wikipedia is a great resource and a shining example of volunteer collaboration. Best wishes and Happy New Year.

--Sheldon Rampton Sheldon Rampton (talk) 19:42, 3 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).

Administrator changes

• ComplexRational
• Extraordinary Writ

Stephen

• Andrew Yong
• Dbenbenn
• DESiegel
• GlassCobra
• Joe Decker
• Nancy
• Pathoschild
• StuffOfInterest
• William Pietri
• Wwwwolf
• Xdamr

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

CheckUser changes

Moneytrees

• Ivanvector
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• GeneralNotability
• Moneytrees

• Guerillero
• SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criterion A5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following an unopposed proposal.

Arbitration

• Following the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, CaptainEek, GeneralNotability, Guerillero, L235, Moneytrees, Primefac, SilkTork.
• The 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review has concluded with many changes to the discretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
• The arbitration case Stephen has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
• Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.

The RfA for MB has gone to a bureaucrat chat. Please join in the discussion. Primefac (talk) 15:02, 8 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just a ping that I answered you at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License&diff=1132579220&oldid=1132570362&diffmode=source although commenting on your discussion because we probably should move the discussion somewhere more centralized -so others can participate, too-, either on wiki or on Phabricator. :-) I pinged legal already and I am waiting for their advice, too on how flexible we can be. Regards, and thank you for answering! --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 15:17, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JCrespo (WMF) thanks; are there other wikitext pages that are being monitored that may also need to be dealt with similarly? — xaosflux ^Talk 15:20, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Let me check the code and will get back to you. --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 15:22, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As far as Mediawiki-content controlled pages for enwiki, I found only 2: check_legal_html!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and check_legal_html!https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, and then wikibooks, aside. Only contents in MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright are checked(and the main page redirect should not be moved without also updating that code)- but after rendering into the Main page. We should wait for legal to answer first, maybe the check is not needed anymore in the current form. Or maybe we could change the alert to just check the links exist and that would give you more flexibility, rather than forcing you to notify us every time. --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 15:38, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JCrespo (WMF) thanks, this seems somewhat useless if MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright being the same is enough, as it links to the actual license external from that page! (Either a local copy such as we have at Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License - and could just edit. Or completely outside of our control such as when it links to [12] and could be changed or corrupted there. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:43, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't necessarily always understand the lawyer's requests, but I am sure to follow their advice to avoid legal problems. :-) My guess is that at some point in the past, the footer disappeared due to a software bug/html rendering issue and that could have had legal consequences for us. I believe things like the license and the privacy policy are important enough to merit alerting over not having them! I don't know the details- what I know is that we (system administrators) get an alert when the footer is edited and want to make that better for us, in the most reasonable manner possible! Our lawyers understand the wiki, and they will know the best way to keep things editable while minimizing risk, I have no doubt- this is not about closing up things! --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 15:52, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In any case, removing the alerts is one of the possible outcomes indeed, in which case you wouldn't be affected at all. --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 16:01, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I gave you a personal thank you, in addition to mentioning it publicly on the ticket, for your role giving feedback on how to improve this particular legal check. Regards. --JCrespo (WMF) (talk) 17:26, 12 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:06, 10 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! When did you start to become an admin MintyEditor (talk) 05:47, 12 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In 2006. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:06, 12 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Your feedback is requested at Talk:Andrew Tate on a "Wikipedia style and naming" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 16:30, 14 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My apology for reverting your edit as it had nothing to do with your change. I was trying to select the "diff" link on a page in my watchlist and I accidentally clicked the "revert" link on your edit instead. I undid the revert as soon as I realized what I had done. RedWolf (talk) 23:39, 15 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No worries, accidents happen. Cheers! — xaosflux ^Talk 23:40, 15 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:08, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe you actually processed the unblock for The best dude 2023. :) -- Yamla (talk) 16:15, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Yamla if I didn't make the block, I wouldn't have, and I don't have high hopes but figured a little WP:ROPE will tell. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:17, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I meant I believe that user is still blocked. You are of course welcome to lift the block, I just think you haven't done that yet. --Yamla (talk) 16:18, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Yamla oooooooo, thanks for that - done. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:20, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Fingers crossed this person justifies your good faith in them. Have a great day! --Yamla (talk) 16:21, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I had meant to, but collided with my rename. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:21, 17 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux! I find myself in need of your technical advice. I was updating the SqWiki main page some days ago when I noticed that it doesn't render nice on mobile. Then I tried seeing what happened with EnWiki (I'm not an avid mobile wikiuser myself so I hadn't concentrated on such details before) and there I saw that the whole page layout changed, its "blocks" being rearranged in a very optimized column manner. Trying to replicate the same effect, I was searching around the source code to see what made this happen and eventually I learned about the existence of flexing in CSS. Given that I just learned about it I haven't been able to achieve much yet. Can you help me make SqWiki's main page behave in a similar manner as EnWiki's does in regard to that? - Klein Muçi (talk) 07:21, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi sorry, I don't have the cycles to work on that right now. You can try asking for a volunteer over at WP:VPT. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:30, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's okay. Apparently the problem is far more complex than just using Display:Flex as I was hoping when I wrote that. Experimented a bit around. Maybe it should wait a bit. — Klein Muçi (talk) 13:33, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi for some all images on wikipedia do not work please help me fix it thank you The best dude 2023 (talk) 16:19, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The best dude 2023 what happens if you try to load an image directly, such as by this link? — xaosflux ^Talk 16:47, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It will not load at all... The best dude 2023 (talk) 14:55, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure, sounds like a problem on your client - possibly with an extension. Try another browser. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:03, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I use safari The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:37, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The best dude 2023 yes, try another browser, ensure it is a current release, ensure your operating system has current TLS/SSL support. Nothing else I can really do for you from here; you can try asking over at commons:Commons:Village pump/Technical. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:40, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It loaded but it says Restricted Site The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:52, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No idea, sounds like something on your network in your browser; if you can verify that the "restricted site" message is coming from a WMF server (not just something your browser generated) you can open a bug report here. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:55, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I do work for a organization so maybe they blocked it The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:58, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That happens, sometimes it isn't a direct block, but an extension that is blocking it too - if you don't control your network and computer you should start by contacting your org helpdesk. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:32, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ok thank you for your help The best dude 2023 (talk) 19:14, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for wasting your time. The best dude 2023 (talk) 16:10, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi I am reporting a hacked account The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:17, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying your account was hacked? Please review WP:COMPROMISED. --Yamla (talk) 15:21, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No my friend got hacked The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:23, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Please provide the account name and evidence of this so we can block the compromised account. --Yamla (talk) 15:25, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And do so at WP:ANI, not here. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:31, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry but the account name is Dummy boy 2.0

and here is evidence "Ha ha ha i hacked this account no one can stop now lol lol lol" The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:35, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The best dude 2023 see above, post this at WP:ANI. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:38, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ok i did it sorry The best dude 2023 (talk) 15:46, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

OP blocked as a vandal sock. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 17:28, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:44, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You are the man. (ref this Special:Diff/1135488182) Thank you very much, for everything you do and thank you very much for the things you've helped me with. - FlightTime (open channel) 00:21, 25 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just saying :P - FlightTime (open channel) 00:23, 25 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In other words, Reply works properly, but Edit is totally screwed up. Milkunderwood (talk) 02:39, 28 January 2023 (UTC)[reply][reply]

When you go to that preferences page, which skin is currently selected? — xaosflux ^Talk 12:43, 28 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Frankly, I don't know -- I just accepted all the defaults. I use WP just to look up information, and edit only to the extent of making small corrections to obvious spelling or grammatical problems. I've never bothered to figure out the jargon here, such as "skins". In the meantime, Edit seems to work more or less properly, except when it doesn't, jumping to top of page instead of to the correct Section.

(This is a copy/paste from our original discussion, to your talkpage. I very much appreciate your help and interest, but I'm another distressed user who wishes that far better than "good enough" had been left alone. If there were a way for users to choose the look and feel of WP as it used to be, I'd definitely be there instead.) Milkunderwood (talk) 10:04, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and also, both times I've gone to Preferences, the Save button has been grayed out. Milkunderwood (talk) 10:09, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The save button will always be greyed out until you make a change. I asked you to go there and look so I could try to guide you, but you never answered. If you want to reset all your options to the current default, you can go to these two pages and confirm: Special:Preferences/reset / Special:GlobalPreferences/reset. Note, there is no way to "undo" a preference reset. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:16, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You may first want to actually check that Skin setting. It is right at the top of the page here: Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering, it says "Skin" and only one can be selected at a time. The new default is "Vector (2022)", the older default that you may want to try is "Vector legacy (2010)". — xaosflux ^Talk 11:18, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, it works! Thank you! I never understood what all that gobbledygook was, other than giving me a headache. (If I didn't reply, I don't live on WP, but just visit when I need to. Most questions I might ask are never responded to.) Milkunderwood (talk) 16:15, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Good to hear you are fixed! — xaosflux ^Talk 20:48, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I am so happy now! Thank you again! Milkunderwood (talk) 00:23, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, there's a community ban discussion going on at WP:AN#User:Doug Coldwell. Just before the votes, it says:

Per WP:CBAN, "discussions may be organized via a template to distinguish comments by involved and uninvolved editors". Please declare prior involvement and post in the "Involved" section only if you were previously involved.

I looked at the policy and saw no guidance on what makes an editor "involved". I was hoping you might know how this works, in practice if not policy. Also, how does an "involved" editor's vote compare to an "uninvolved" editor's vote when the discussion is closed? The whole thing seems pretty odd to me, but I don't generally vote - or even pay that much attention to - these discussions. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:32, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 creating such a section doesn't appear to be required by policy, in general declaring involvement is beneficial so this may just make it easier. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:53, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Beneficial to whom? Other editors? The closer? I still don't get it, but it's not important, thanks for your reply.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:02, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 the purpose of the CBAN is to determine if the community should ban someone - so if someone is in a personal dispute with the subject they may still have something to contribute but could be biased, and the closer could take that in to consideration. It is likely a short way to help someone just call that out instead of starting threaded comments about the other participants possible involvements. I don't think it is used often like that. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:09, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 00:04, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have plans for {{Uw-ublock-nonsense/doc}}? It looks like the parent template uses shared documentation. If some random editor had created it, I would TFD it, but I figure that you either have plans for it or know how to use CSD G7. Thanks. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:24, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Jonesey95 deleted. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:55, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).

Administrator changes Gimmetrow Bjelleklang Bob the Wikipedian Leithp WhisperToMe 100 inactive admins

CheckUser changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim MusikAnimal Oversighter changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, the administrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from the Arbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
• Following a community discussion, consensus has been found to impose the extended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Kurds and Kurdistan.

Technical news

• The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
• In December, the contentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces the former discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initial implementation period. There is a detailed summary of the changes and administrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system at their noticeboard.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
• Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.

@Xaosflux Hello, can you give me a verified account flag? GlazaLubvi (talk) 21:20, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Replied on your talk. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:32, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 10:19, 6 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:47, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Your feedback is requested at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Scotland on a "Wikipedia style and naming" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 14:31, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Xaosflux. I was somewhat surprised, to say the least, to receive a notification that The Night Watch is my new mentor, because you have removed Kaleeb18 from mentorship. 🤔 JBW (talk) 17:18, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JBW: you must be opted-in to being a mentee - probably from one of the early experiments, @Kaleeb18: was your prior mentor who has retired from WP; I removed them as a mentor so that people sending "ask my mentor" questions wouldn't go to him anymore, when this happened all of his prior mentees were pseduorandomly assigned to new mentors. You probably don't need mentoring at this point in your wiki career :) As an admin, I think you can claim yourself as a mentee at Special:ClaimMentee if you want to stay opted-in, but avoid that sort of thing in the future, or you can always poke The Night Watch and ask for some suggestions on articles to edit ;) — xaosflux ^Talk 17:43, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I have no memory whatever of opting in to be a mentee, and if I did ever opt in then I certainly never followed that up and actually became a mentee. Perhaps, however, I should take it up now: there may be a benefit of advice from someone newer, with a fresh outlook, instead of the jaded and worn-out approach that I have probably fallen into. 🥱 JBW (talk) 18:40, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JBW: there is also a chance that you got hit with phab:T301981. Some people that never opted in get a notification anyway when their mentor changes (everyone has a mentor, but for most established users they are never used for anything). I'll keep following up on that ticket to avoid noise for people that don't need it. You are welcome to use the feature if you want! — xaosflux ^Talk 20:45, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Everyone has a mentor"? Really? Why? JBW (talk) 20:49, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JBW it is just the way the system got initiated, something about not having null entries in the database tables. Most existing users never got opted-in, so it doesn't do anything - except for now possibly give people annoying notifications until that gets fixed! — xaosflux ^Talk 22:07, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

For me, the notification was not at all annoying, in fact I found it more amusing than anything else. Anyway, thanks for the explanation. JBW (talk) 08:25, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Mentoring still exists on Wikipedia? I thought all those old processes went inactive years ago. That's nice to know. I always thought that peer mentoring was a good concept. - jc37 19:11, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Jc37 the old "mentoring" process (Wikipedia:Mentorship) sort of is still around, the new process that this log event was related to is primary targeted at brand new editors and is described at Wikipedia:Growth Team features. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:43, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting! Thank you for the information. Learn something new every day  : ) - jc37 03:37, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:56, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Your feedback is requested at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) on a "Wikipedia policies and guidelines" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 00:30, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My username is IntegerSequences. I added the code of Wikibreak Enforcer to my common.js page but later found that it was a mistake but only me and interface admins can edit that page. Please help! 10:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 10:33, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. IntegerSequences (talk | contribs) 12:04, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Your userpage says User Boxen instead of Userboxes, it must have 1 capital and no typos, also you must join the two words UrSUS529 (talk) 17:20, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the suggestion, I like it how it is. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 17:28, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

UrSUS529, this is an inside joke for computer nerds from the old days of computing. The joke is that "oxen" is the plural of "ox", so "boxen" should be the plural of "box". – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:56, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Really? I always thought it was a German thing. What do oxen have to do with computers? Or is it that computers were sometimes called boxes? Still, I like Xaosflux's answer - it's so polite.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:27, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, "Unix box" or "Linux box" is jargon, where "box" means "computer" or "server". The Jargon File says that "boxen" originated as an analog of "VAXen" (multiple VAX computers), which came from "oxen". It's just a jokey mapping of a morphological pattern onto a place where it does not belong. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:40, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't suppose they had cows in mind when they created the VAX acronym. My knowledge of Latin is not scholarly, but rather through my knowledge of French (vache), if I happen to think about it.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:02, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See more language tips in this mirror of the jargon file! — xaosflux ^Talk 22:30, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, that's fine UrSUS529 (talk) 17:17, 25 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Xaosflux! When I recently tried to move Draft:Pete Sutherland to Pete Sutherland (currently a redirect to a soap opera character), it gave me the normal error, as non-admins cannot overwrite a page. I'm about to submit a request to WP:RM#TR to usurp the title, but I noticed that the interface message does not point to it, or indeed even suggest that usurping is possible; it just says The page could not be moved, for the following reason: A redirect already exists at Pete Sutherland, and it cannot be deleted automatically. Please choose another name. Telling editors unilaterally to choose another name when sometimes usurping is the right course of action is bad advice (and reinforces systemic bias to the extent it gives precedence to older articles), so I think it should be changed. I couldn't find where that message is stored, as searching doesn't turn it up and I'm not able to add uselang=qqx to the URL in the middle of submitting. You tend to be knowledgeable about this area — would you be able to help me find and modify the message? Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 05:31, 25 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Sdkb The common move move fails messages should be: MediaWiki:Cannotmove as the first line, followed by a "reason" such as MediaWiki:Articleexists or MediaWiki:Redirectexists. I think you hit the last one there. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:14, 25 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's it; thanks! Requested the edit there. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 22:51, 25 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux and friendly talk-page stalkers.

The mw:Editing team is starting a new project, mw:Edit check. They are particularly seeking the views of RecentChanges patrollers and other reviewers. One of the open questions is: When should the visual editor encourage people to add a citation?

The meeting will be this Friday, 3 March 2023. More information is available at mw:Editing team/Community Conversations#3 March 2023. I hope that you will be able to attend, but if you aren't, please consider leaving your advice to the team on the talk page. They would particularly value hearing about the citation standards at different Wikipedias, and also what you think the biggest problem is with the first edits made by new editors. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:21, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux,

Your user page is showing up on the broken redirects page as a page to be deleted or fixed because, well, it is a broken redirect. But I see in the page history that it is a test edit. So, I'm unsure what to do here. We delete broken redirects or at least remove or correct them from the page they are on but we also don't generally mess around with user pages of editors who have as much experience and advanced privileges as you have. But these error pages get updated every 6 hours and until the page is either deleted or the content altered, it will keep showing up as an error that needs to be dealt with.

So, maybe you could finish up with your test or alter the content so that it links to an existing page before my mild OCD kicks in. Thank you! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:05, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Liz blanked it for now, was a quick test for phab:T44899 - but any that need to stay live I'll drop on testwiki. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:55, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:45, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).

Administrator changes The Wordsmith Fuhghettaboutit Spinningspark (deceased)

CheckUser changes Callanecc Oversighter changes Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
• Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
• A request for comment is open to discuss making the closing instructions for the requested moves process a guideline.

Technical news

• The results of the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey have been posted.

Arbitration

• Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been rescinded.
• The proposed decision for the Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
• A case related to the Holocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.

Miscellaneous

• The 2023 appointees for the Ombuds commission are AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, JJMC89, MdsShakil, Minorax and Renvoy as regular members and Zabe as advisory members.
• Following the 2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Mykola7, Superpes15, and Xaosflux.
• The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a [p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.

• Congratulations on your election! I hope you find the work interesting. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 03:33, 3 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Liz thank you, there is a lot to it, but there is a good team! — xaosflux ^Talk 11:29, 3 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I was just archiving my old talk page and noticed you had welcomed me back. Thank you! —siroχo 05:42, 3 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:48, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:18, 13 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux! Is there a way one can block an account from creating other multiple accounts? If you check w:sq:Speciale:Log/newusers and search the page for Të paret e Llapit you'll see that they have wrongly created 4 new accounts now, maybe attempting to write an article (they've also tried using their user page as an article page). Any function that can block this functionality from an account? - Klein Muçi (talk) 10:25, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi yes, see this example block (just do partial, and only select creating accounts. There are of course many many many ways around that (including just logging out). — xaosflux ^Talk 13:10, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give me temporary admin access on TestWiki for 1 week so I can unblock and reblock your 2nd account and thus learn what option to use for that? We have the interface badly translated in Albanian in such a way that most options don't make any sense for us. I need to retranslate them. — Klein Muçi (talk) 13:35, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi since youre a prod sysop it can be indefinite there :D And block your own account :D — xaosflux ^Talk 13:44, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot! Small curiosity: I'm not familiar with the expression "prod sysop". What exactly does prod stand for? — Klein Muçi (talk) 02:44, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi sorry for the jargon, "prod" = "production". We generally will give any permeant sysop of a production public wiki admin access on testwiki to test things. — xaosflux ^Talk 09:26, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, okay. That's what I was thinking but I couldn't find the definition anywhere explained. Do these rules apply to the interface admin role as well? I was thinking that maybe testing and localizing new gadgets there before getting them to run on SqWiki would be a good thing but currently I'm not working with any gadgets. — Klein Muçi (talk) 15:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi basically yup, if you need it there feel free to ping me. We generally do remove it from people not actively using it after a while. The one sort of gadget test we don't normally like much of on testwiki is default gadgets, so if your gadget is for logged-out-users, you can test it QUICKLY, then turn it right off (otherwise it can interfere with lots of other people's tests). If it is a gadget for users (even if you will make it default elsewhere) - don't make it default, and just turn it on to test it (and once done, delete it). — xaosflux ^Talk 15:09, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for information! — Klein Muçi (talk) 15:18, 15 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much, I have no idea why I couldn't figure this out, I'm just no good on working in variables. I will use this, if you don't mind :P - FlightTime (open channel) 22:31, 16 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Think I'm done messing around with it now, have fun! — xaosflux ^Talk 22:34, 16 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for all you do, you're a legit project gem. Cheers, - FlightTime (open channel) 22:41, 16 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Xaosflux

While responding to Wikipedia:Edit_filter/False_positives, I came across Abuse Filter 225 which looked like it missed something. After putting it in Regex it looked like !summary rlike ("/\* .*" + match + ".* \*/") misses something. Would !summary rlike ("\/\* .*" + match + ".* \*\/") fix it? 1AmNobody24 (talk) 09:26, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@1AmNobody24 which FP item is that regarding? (Suggest moving this to WP:EFN with exact examples). — xaosflux ^Talk 10:01, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux I found it while I was on this, but that one was a different problem. Since it isn't really connected with a FP i wasn't sure if WP:EFN is the right place for it. 1AmNobody24 (talk) 10:07, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

EFN is fine for any filters you think have an error, especially if you have an example and a proposed fix - worse case nothing happens :) — xaosflux ^Talk 10:17, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Got it I'll take it there then.  Thanks for the fast replies. 1AmNobody24 (talk) 10:24, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@1AmNobody24 (also I don't want it to get lost here - I won't have time to work on that for a couple days, but someone else may!) — xaosflux ^Talk 12:38, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux I got it already sorted out at WP:EFN. The / was used as text for detecting the automatic summary not as a delimiter that has to be escaped, but escaping it would still work, so it makes no difference if changed or not. 1AmNobody24 (talk) 12:44, 17 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

		The Special Barnstar
		Thanks for your work in the userbox! Thinker78 (talk) 20:56, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:24, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaos! Can you help me solve something in SqWiki? This is our template for creating RFAs: Link. It works fine in itself (recent example) but look what happens when you transclude it on the main page where people are expected to see RFAs: Link. The problem is with {{User|{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}. I think I should be using {{safesubst}} somewhere over there to solve it but I'm not sure where exactly. - Klein Muçi (talk) 19:51, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi I think I understand what you want, is it this: When someone makes a new application (such as it would appear in this link) all those SUBPAGE values should be subst'd in on to the new page they are creating? — xaosflux ^Talk 20:20, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose so. I was talking only about the first SUBPAGE value because that is what is bringing problems but maybe all of them should be subst'd. — Klein Muçi (talk) 20:23, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi yup, do them all. QND example link - just wrap them in something like I did here: w:sq:Përdoruesi:Xaosflux/sandbox/2, that's what we usually do. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:27, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, that solved it. — Klein Muçi (talk) 21:11, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:12, 28 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I guess I finally figured this out 2600:1702:1F8D:1010:681:1CFE:77F4:2250 (talk) 13:38, 28 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux!

I was wondering if you could provide some practical advice on matters related to categories. My homewiki has always been a mess in regard to categories. Now we're trying to put our attention to that area a bit. Any advice on how to start attending to the category-tree so we can provide a well-structure hierarchy? From what I've seen, we've started dealing from the branches: Users translate articles and with them, they create the missing categories (and sometimes their parent categories) they find on EnWiki on those articles. This makes maintenance/technical categories almost non-existent when compared with their content homologues.

Bonus question: Why can't we have redirects work on category pages? I was thinking of asking about such a thing in the technical wishlist but I thought that it looked as a too obvious request so I thought that maybe there must be a reason why that doesn't exist. — Klein Muçi (talk) 14:05, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi for the second part, phab:T5311 is ~20 years old, it may never happen for a pile of reasons. For the first part, there are lots of philosophies, and it depends what your community wants. Categories do not need to be a "tree" (and they seldom only are) - they are more of a "web". For example take the article, w:sq:Banka_e_Shqipërisë, it is in w:sq:Kategoria:Ekonomi - is that useful? Who is it useful to? Categories may be used in different ways by different people (editors vs readers for example). In general, I think that very large categories are not useful for readers. For example our Category:Scientists would be unwieldy if it was fully populated, but with only 54 entries w:sq:Kategoria:Shkencëtarë could still be useful for your readers. Wikipedia:Categorization contains the guidelines that we use here on enwiki. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:21, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I've read those guidelines. I just don't know how I would start applying them practically. I mean, I was searching for a way I can "supervise from the top" the web-creating process, if that makes any sense. Utilizing tools and mass-changes. Creating a standard. Because now everyone just creates the categories needed for their article and as you said everyone is using different philosophies.

That's a bit sad to read. Some main reasons why that cannot happen? — Klein Muçi (talk) 15:14, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

On the concept, a community discussion about what you want and what you don't want is where to start. Good background would be any deletion or merge discussions you may have had about categories in the page. Do you want your category pages to contain their own content as well, or not (such as an overview of the topic) - do you want them to just be for navigation, or also for content?

On the redirects, one of the primary reasons is that categories are primarily managed by wikitext on the screen, and what to do if a category is moved (and how to do it), especially during category splits or merges. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:26, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry but I fail to understand what you mean about redirects. :/ — Klein Muçi (talk) 16:13, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:38, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).

Administrator changes Aoidh KillerChihuahua

CheckUser changes Ferret

Guideline and policy news

• A community RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involving gender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.

Technical news

• Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users of Internet Explorer 11. (T178356)
• The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
• A link to the user's Special:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown on Special:Contributions. This was voted #17 in the Community Wishlist Survey 2023.

Arbitration

• The Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
• A case about World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.

MediaWiki message delivery 20:04, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if anyone saw this edit, but the bot still has the flag, so I'd guess not. Could you action? Izno (talk) 16:44, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno  Done, thanks for the note. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:10, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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Hello, Xaosflux! I find myself a bit confused as how to handle a certain situation.

If you look at sq:Marrëdhëniet e jashtme të Maqedonisë së Veriut, you'll see that there are some empty sections and some other strange behaviors in it. After a bit of investigation I found out that this was coming from {{Pb}}. In EnWiki PB=Paragraph break but in SqWiki PB=Përdorues i bllokuar (Blocked user).

If you search for Template:Pb in SqWiki you'll see that apparently that is a really old template we would use to notify users about their blocks. If you check its transclusions you'll see that it has been used less than 50 times in all these years. Now normally I want our Pb template to serve the same purpose as the one here. Most of our new articles are CX translations and for CX to work correctly it needs to have the same technical infrastructure in templates. The problem is that I don't know how to handle those ~40 old transclusions. I can use AWB for massediting but what change would I need to do exactly? - Klein Muçi (talk) 12:56, 17 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi have you fixed one "manually" (diff?) If so I might be able to tell you what to put in AWB. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:55, 22 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's the problem: I don't know how to handle the situation. Should I just remove all those ~40 cases? Should I create another template and use that in those? Maybe I should just substitute the code there in those cases? A completely different solution? I don't know what would be the best choice in such situations dealing with these kinds of conflicts. — Klein Muçi (talk) 18:19, 22 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi ah ok, so there are a few options. Yes you should remove those from those pages, as they certainly don't belong there. As far as exactly what to do, this will depend a bit on how your project standardizes style (or doesn't). It looks like you have w:sq:Stampa:Quote that you may convert things to, or you can just use plain wiki text, something like this. It really comes down to how much and what type of templates/wikitext/etc you want to be on your page sources. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:03, 22 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Xaosflux! Sorry it took me so long to get back to this but I took a wiki-break and now I'm just starting to slowly ease myself in into work again. I tried converting them to quotes but the whole thing is a mess. Check the last post in here: w:sq:Përdoruesja diskutim:Rrjedha
Hitting Edit on it sends you to edit the template itself. I've come to the conclusion that I should remove them completely from the talk pages. Any idea how to quickly remove such sections with AWB? — Klein Muçi (talk) 09:59, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi maybe, send me a link of a diff of an edit that makes the change from broken to "fixed" made manually. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:17, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Përdoruesja diskutim:Rrjedha (Diff ~2550895) — Klein Muçi (talk) 10:22, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi OK so you want to:

• Find everything in a {{Pb|...}}, plus any line breaks before it, plus any line breaks after it, plus any unordered list content following any of that
  • Delete all that

That seems overly complicated, are you sure? — xaosflux ^Talk 10:40, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Well, yes. I can always remove them manually if it seems too much for regex. We're talking about only 40 cases in total. I was expecting for something greedy like .* if you understand what I mean. Basically if that template is in a section all that section must go. — Klein Muçi (talk) 10:56, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi why are you trying to match unordered lists that happen to be following that template? Just matching the PB template and their content is one thing, but the second part gets complicated - how many levels of unordered lists are you also trying to capture? (What is the identifier to know when to stop including text?) To be clear, I'm asking about how you are also removing the text in that diff that starts with this: :Gjithashtu të hoqa edhe nga grupi i përd. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:01, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Note: even only the PB's would need to be manually reviewed, as the ending delimiter would be the }}, but you have to watch for cases where another template is inside of that template. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:02, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm aware of that.
I'm matching the whole discussion. The template notifies one that they are blocked. Sometimes a discussion issues after that "Why was I blocked? Because you did this. No, I did not!" The whole section must be removed so maybe the delimiter would be ==, the starting point for the next section? — Klein Muçi (talk) 11:16, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi that's beyond what I normally do in AWB, you can ask over at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks. For what it's worth this would likely be completely disapproved here: removing/replacing a broken template would always be fine - but just deleting user discussions as a side affect of a "template cleanup" would not be. Of course, how your project operates is up to your community, but I suggest you use a good edit summary so it doesn't appear you are trying bury discussion removals under the guise of template repair. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:10, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm aware of that. That's why I tried finding a workaround but I was literally unable to find a solution for quite some days now so I'm going for the "good edit summary" way. :/ And no problem about AWB. I only said that after your initial suggestion. I can remove them manually if that is the only solution. - Klein Muçi (talk) 13:26, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 01:53, 18 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 22:02, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).

Administrator changes Spicy Ale jrb Dbachmann DGG (deceased) Jimbo Wales

CheckUser changes Jimbo Wales Oversighter changes Jimbo Wales

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Progress has started on the Page Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their 2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.

Arbitration

• The proposed decision in the World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.

Miscellaneous

• The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.

According to policy, when a user is blocked, the only page they can edit is their Talk page, but something came up on a blocked user's Talk page that I've never seen before, and I wanted to confirm the language in WP:OPTIONS: "Sitewide block will prevent the user from editing any page on Wikipedia with the exception of their own user talk page." (emphases in original). Can a blocked user change their Preferences? Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 11:28, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 yes, sitewide blocked users can do things like change their own preferences and update their watchlist, however your quote above isn't wrong "... the user from editing any page..." - those type of actions are not considered "edits" and the targets of those actions are not "pages". Such a block would prevent pseudo prefernces such as a Special:MyPage/twinkleoptions.js from being updated. Does something else seem amiss? — xaosflux ^Talk 13:58, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There are two ways I know of to change your watchlist. One is to "view and edit" it and the other "edit raw watchlist". Although both use the word "edit", it seems like the latter is more like editing a "page". Assuming a block user can do either, what is the point of all this? Why should they be permitted to do it? And although it may seem obvious to a technical user like you, I would favor clarifying the policy section, although I'm not sure how it should be worded.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:04, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 I suppose the key part there is that neither of those are "pages". They are made up of system messages (which are on pages, that they can't edit) - and private data.

Blocking is a control that we use to stop disruption, preferences and watch lists can be used for adjusting ones "reading" experience, thus they are not prevented from being maintained during a block (There isn't an option to turn that on either in the current software).

We don't have a specific local "policy" about this, I think that section of the policy page is just meant to be informational, perhaps you could clarity what "edit"s are there by linking to Help:Editing.

You could also add a statement that clarifies that blocked users may still manage their user settings. There are lots of reasons that should still be allowed - for one blocks are not necessarily indefinite, and being able to do things like: change your notifications, mute abusive users, fix things like a bad signature that got you blocked in the first place, etc - should certainly be allowed.

If a user does manage to create special disruption via their private preferences (which the local admins wouldn't be able to detect and would generally have a sysadmin and a security task involved), their account can be locked to prevent them from logging in at all. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:37, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

What you're saying with respect to the why makes a lot of sense to me, thanks. As for clarifying the policy, I don't see where Help:Editing says anything that elaborates on what is a "page" and what is not (I skimmed it - it's awfully long). Would a steward lock a user just because of the private preference subterfuge? I always thought locks were generally available only for cross-wiki abuse. As an aside, I'm not sure what kind of private preference you're referring to.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:48, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 such a lock would likely come from WMF T&S or a sysadmin, hypothetical example - a vulnerability exists that if someone loaded some exact combination of things in to their watchlist it caused system disruption, they may be locked for TOS violation (and people would be scrambling to patch the vulnerability), other times locks have been temporarily used were when someone was causing disruption by abusing the read API (things that are transparent to project admins).

mw:Help:Page is a redlink, the technical aspects of "what is a page" are here: mw:Manual:page table. In high-level "edit" is an action that create a revision to a "page". Things like: what your signature is, the contents of your watchlist, what your password is, etc - are certainly not 'pages' and don't have revision entries. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:04, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'd only add mw:Manual:page table to the blocking policy if I was really pissed and wanted to torture anyone who read it. :p --Bbb23 (talk) 15:09, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 wrapping back to the start - I'm assuming there is some confusion of "why can a blocked account edit their preferences", it's just because they can. Perhaps adding "Blocked users are not prevented from managing their preferences." to the end of that information line would be your fix? — xaosflux ^Talk 15:15, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That would certainly be the simplest and smallest change. I don't like making any significant changes to policies without first obtaining a consensus. I'll think about it. Given this issue has never come up until now after all these years of blocking editors, maybe it's unnecessary to do anything. FYI, the issue came up because of one of your examples above (changing one's signature). In closing, I just wanted to say that I always learn a lot when having these kinds of discussions with you, and I appreciate it.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:24, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 you are welcome, hope I helped without getting too technical; for the specific situation, think I've dealt with such a user once or twice. They had a non-compliant signature (something with templates or images I think), asked them to change it, they wouldn't, blocked them until they said they changed it, unblocked. FYI: phab:T306574 is a feature request that would allow admins to forcibly reset someone's signature. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:34, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You helped and got very technical (smiling), but if the answer is technical, what can you do? Besides, you do a good job of teaching. This user wasn't blocked for their signature, although editors complained about it. In case you're interested, see the block of ChiserYT and the post-block discussion about their sig.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:43, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

• A bit off-topic. You changed the blocking policy on partial blocks to include a third option: "or from performing a specific set of actions". I looked at the block form, and I don't see any way to do that or even what you mean. Could you clarify?--Bbb23 (talk) 15:04, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Bbb23 just reverted myself there, thought that feature was here, but isn't quite live yet. PBlocks will be able to be used against only specific types of actions soon (see example block here: testwiki:Special:Redirect/logid/360996). — xaosflux ^Talk 15:09, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  Although I'm not a fan of partial blocks generally, that feature looks kinda cool.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:11, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Bbb23 goal of that is just to give admins choices, I agree that often a pblock isn't very effective against a user that wants to be disruptive. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:17, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 00:34, 9 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 21:43, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

 – Was a commonswiki issue. — xaosflux ^Talk 09:11, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I was blocked, possibly auto-blocked with no appeals process in place, while providing a source of information for citation as requested. I tried to reset the password on my account but the one sent to my email did not work. I am still logged in here. I am mentally disabled, and have been accused of multiple wrongdoings, all of which are not true and there being no appeals process, I am beginning to grow concerned over the validity of Wikipedia's editing processes. Please unblock. TENROU9999 (talk) 21:44, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@TENROU9999 this account is not blocked. If you have a question about a block that *I* made here, please reply with more details. Else, please see Wikipedia:Appealing a block for help. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:25, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your feedback. I am looking at a page that says I am blocked, and it says Im blocked for reasons which do not make sense to me. I cannot properly navigate this web of decentralized editing procedures due to my disabilities, and I am seeking help from a person rather than a help page. i have already looked at the help page and it did not answer my question, as I h

followed the instructions and I was blocked for a longer period of time instead. Can you please direct me to a person that can help? TENROU9999 (talk) 22:43, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@TENROU9999 what makes you think that you are blocked? What exactly is the message you are seeing? Blocks generally include the name of the administrator that made the block, and as you are not blocked (as you are able to post this message) you can also post a message to the administrator that made the block. For a general support type question, you may visit Wikipedia:Teahouse where volunteers can help you. If you prefer to get help by (much slower) email, you may email info-enwikimedia.org. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:10, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the redirect to someone who can help. Have a great day! TENROU9999 (talk) 23:33, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how to share screenshots here. The page that says I am blocked will not let me copy and paste the text to here. It is accessible in my Edits tab TENROU9999 (talk) 23:37, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a rough copy of the text for reference. The user who blocked me appears to be engaging in biases which are too complicated to unpack here. "The account has been blocked from Editing Wikipedia. This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages" The account TENROU9999 has been blocked (disabled) by Achim55 for the following reason(s): Vandalism on 10 other projects blocked up to 5 years" TENROU9999 (talk) 23:40, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree with the misnomer of Vandalism on these pages as I was providing necessary removal of other's vandalizing those pages using biased editing processes. My block is being done to me by someone with a clear bigotted bias. TENROU9999 (talk) 23:42, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The user you mentioned, Achim55, is not an administrator here on the English Wikipedia. They are an admin on Wikimedia Commons, a different project. Your userid is not blocked on any project. If you email full screen shots of your entire screen, with the error message, to info-enwikimedia.org someone will be able to look in to it further. — xaosflux ^Talk 00:01, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

• Notes for self, phab:T336721 opened about this being the wrong message - root cause: commonswiki failed to autocreate account due to underlying network block. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:08, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  Thank you for the updates. I apologize for the trouble this has caused you. I appreciate your help. TENROU9999 (talk) 01:40, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

		The Barnstar of Diligence
		You have the patience of Job when you help editors with technical problems, and I thought you deserved some formal recognition for it.--Bbb23 (talk) 12:29, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Xaosflux, could you help me unblock my location? And also, why did I get blocked? I'm just using my account in another location so I could add this.UserAV666 (talk) 08:36, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@UserAV666 your account has never been blocked here on the English Wikipedia. Some network ranges are blocked, but they are not specific to you. To look in to that, we would need the exact details of the block message you are seeing. — xaosflux ^Talk 09:27, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh...Well yes I checked and I'm not blocked anymore!:D I was blocked a few days or weeks ago, but now I'm not. The only thing that I remember is that it said that most people who see this did nothing wrong. Then I only understood that my location or account was blocked and I tried to edit in another area of where I live and it worked. So I thought my location was blocked. Now I can edit in where I live. And also, where did you see that "I've never been blocked before"? UserAV666 (talk) 11:30, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@UserAV666 see Wikipedia:Blocking policy for a lot of information about blocks. In general there are 2 main types of blocks: (a) Blocks of a user account; (b) Blocks of a network address. Blocks of a user account are about a specific user - you can see your own block log (it is empty) here at Special:Logs. Blocks of a network address impact anyone that happens to be using that address, and can happen for many reasons - depending on how you access the internet your network address could be shared with thousands of other people or more - especially if using a VPN or other "private browsing" software. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:12, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there @Xaosflux,

Once again, I want to thank you for your reply on TSventon's talkpage. Even though I could not figure it out, I think it was good advice. I do want to ask about machine translation, as I'm not sure what my problem is. Basically, I'm in the process of translating articles from the Russian Wikipedia onto here, but even though I try my best to work the phrases/sentences into logical English, it still shows up as being "machine translated". For example, I have one translation in progress that is 60% complete, but it shows 100% machine translated. As a disclaimer, I use Google Translate for assistance but only when I absolutely have to. Is there a way to find out why it's being flagged like this? Please let me know. Thanks again for any help you can provide. Losipov (talk) 05:33, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"machine translation" isn't enabled here, so I'm a bit confused you are seeing that specific warning here. Are you seeing that inside of the translation page? Check the address, does it start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation?? — xaosflux ^Talk 10:50, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No, it does not appear to be that specific one. Here is the exact link I have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation#draft

When I hover my mouse above a translation, it will have two numbers: "x% translated, y% from machine translation". It's weird because for some translations that I check multiple times, I will have 0% machine translation one time and then all of a sudden it shows I have part of it machine translations. Seeing that machine translation isn't available here, I'm also confused. Losipov (talk) 17:43, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Losipov are you sure you are translating to English? I would expect that if you are translating in to another language. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:43, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. All of the translations I've done (and are currently doing) are to English. Losipov (talk) 20:06, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Losipov that is odd, as machine translation isn't enabled here. When you started the translation, were you on another project (such as the source project)? — xaosflux ^Talk 20:50, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If by "project source" you mean editing other articles in different tabs, most likely not (at least not that I can recall). I don't know what I'm doing wrong for it to happen. Do translations have to be extremely precise? Because on the Russian Wikipedia the articles are written in a different way than here. So, it's not exactly in that style but still I try to translate as accurately as I can. Losipov (talk) 00:19, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Losipov I'm trying to duplicate the issue, but need to know the exact steps you are doing that lead to where you are. When you decide to translate something, can you tell me what you do, step by step? For example: (a) Go to the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple (b) Click Translate (c) .... ;; especially if (a) is starting on another site such as https://ru.wikipedia.org

Thank you! — xaosflux ^Talk 01:21, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Here's an example. I go to "Contributions" and click on "Translations", and pick articles to go through. If you want, the article "Artik & Asti" from the Russian Wikipedia might be the easiest to show my problems (in fact, that's the article I was referring to when I said 60/100% in the original comment. I click "add translation" for some sections like the tables, and just fix them up with English translations wherever necessary. When I exit and hover over the progress bar, it shows that it's somehow machine translated (for that specific article, it shows 100% machine translated). Is it a problem with the templates? I'm not sure. But those are some of the steps.

Here's the article, by the way: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artik_%26_Asti Losipov (talk) 03:02, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Losipov that may be a display bug, we don't have machine translation turned on here (it's not automatically trying to translate the text is it?). Will it let you continue? — xaosflux ^Talk 03:38, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You could get the error about "unmodified text" that has a comment about Automatic translation is provided only as a starting point. Make sure that the content is accurate and reads naturally in your language. Your translation cannot be published without further editing., if there are many templates/etc. — xaosflux ^Talk 03:41, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Before I respond to your latest replies, I do want to point out something that happened very recently. I published the page Sayonara detka within the past hour, and up until the moment I published it, it showed "80% translated, 0% from machine" or something like that. I made one final translation of something minor there, and when I go back to check out the final result in Content Translation, it shows "88% translated, 20% from machine" (or something like that). Keep in mind it's a short article, so I don't know what the problem is.

Now to your latest replies:

1) Yes, I can keep working on that translation. 99% of time it doesn't automatically translate; only for some templates it does (Example: On the Russian Wikipedia for the article Lesha Svik, it shows critics reviews. And those almost always automatically translate if I click on "add translation". Here's the article: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BA,_%D0%9B%D1%91%D1%88%D0%B0)

2) I do get that message constantly. I always make it go away with edits though (ie: I translate enough to the point of it going away automatically). Again, it's confusing why the machine translation message is there even when its disabled. Losipov (talk) 03:59, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Losipov if you look at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-personal, under internationalization, what is your language set to here? — xaosflux ^Talk 04:01, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's English.

By the way as a side note, thanks for trying to help me. I greatly appreciate it. Losipov (talk) 04:03, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Would you upload a screen shot of the warning that says machine translation please? — xaosflux ^Talk 09:49, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Losipov (talk) 15:36, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I apologize if the screenshot comes out wonky, but that's what I'm seeing. Is this normal? Let me know if you can't see the screenshot by the way, or if you need more of them. Losipov (talk) 15:37, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

• @Losipov: thank you for the screenshot, this appears to be a software bug. I've opened bug ticket: phab:T337201, you may subscribe to that for updates. You may be able to publish your draft translations even if that value is still there. I suspect what is happening is that the label on that is wrong, and it is actually reporting the "unmodified text" value, not the "machine translated text" value. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:50, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  So there is nothing "wrong" with my translations correct? That isn't supposed to happen? From the looks of it it shouldn't. I had another question in the meantime. Oftentimes when I do translations and leave the articles, the place of the text will move to the wrong spot. For example, if there's a section titled "Music videos" and I made another section name somewhere else in the article (like "History" or something). This happens pretty frequently and I'm not sure why that is. It's not that big of a deal, but do you know of a solution to this? Losipov (talk) 19:19, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Losipov the draft translations are private, so I can't see if there is something "wrong" or not, but I'm guessing that counter is counting something else. If you reuse a section that is the same template with the same template content, it may say it is 'untranslated'. I'm not sure how the section titles work in that tool, I haven't done much in that area. I would expect that almost anything coming out of the translate tool would require some manual cleanup once it is published -- why it is always best to publish to a sandbox first, finish the cleanup, then move the article to mainspace in my opinion. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:57, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Xaosflux Ok, I get what you're saying. If I publish it in the sandbox, will it still have the article attribution (ie: It shows that the article was translated from another Wiki)? That might be a better route, now that I think about it. It's just that the charts/tables I put in get messed up somewhere along the line, and other editors are able to fix them. Not all hope is lost there lol. Losipov (talk) 05:34, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Losipov oh yes, it will be exactly the same if you publish initially to a sandbox or mainspace. — xaosflux ^Talk 09:03, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Xaosflux so one of my translated articles was deleted, but I asked the editor who deleted it to bring it back into a draftspace. If I edit the translation and publish it into my draftspace, will that create a duplicate or will it replace what currently exists there? If you know, of course. Thanks again. Losipov (talk) 21:06, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  And I apologize if this thread is unnecessarily long lol. I did not envision it being this way. I do appreciate your advice though; it's very helpful. Losipov (talk) 21:07, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  @Losipov you should wait for them to undelete it and move it, then you should just edit it directly. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:35, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, can you restore my testwiki +sysop again? I want to do some tests related to MediaWiki talk:Captcha-addurl-whitelist#Protected edit request on 11 April 2021 (and a few other things). Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 19:23, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Suffusion of Yellow  Done — xaosflux ^Talk 19:44, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again! Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 19:46, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

...aaaand it seems link handling on testwiki is totally broken, see phab:T337149. I guess I'll try again later. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 20:40, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Suffusion of Yellow of course it is .... — xaosflux ^Talk 20:42, 20 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

At risk of hat collecting, can I also have +sysop on test2wiki? I'm not totally sure of the answer to this question. But assuming my theory is right, test2wiki should be unaffected. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 19:43, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Suffusion of Yellow ok. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:52, 21 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

16:53, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

I found a user advertising in this talk page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yello_Mobile please remove it, thanks Notrealname1234 (talk) 16:56, 22 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Notrealname1234 that doesn't require an administrator, see Help:Reverting for how to undo something. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:11, 22 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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Hi Xaosflux, I noticed that my interface protected edit request in User:Shadow of the Starlit Sky/common.js isn't answered yet. Can you please look over it if possible? I'm asking you as you are a sysadmin. -- Shadow of the Starlit Sock 14:19, 24 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Done — xaosflux ^Talk 14:22, 24 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Xaos! :)

Can you help me with a small change related to an interlink?

Check sq:Stampa:Faqja kryesore/Mbyllja and click Wiki-Burimet. It sends you to the general mainpage of the Wikisource mainpage. It should instead send you to this? I'm not well informed on Wikisource and that link above does look strange but maybe that is the right place where it should lead? (Shqip=Albanian) If so, any idea how to change change the template? - Klein Muçi (talk) 02:01, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi looks like that is getting links from w:sq:Stampa:Sisterprojects layout; unlike some of the other links there, there is no "sqwikisource" project so you should probably format that one like you did for the wikispecies link. — xaosflux ^Talk 02:20, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you try doing the said change? I lowered the protection from that template. I've tried doing that in the past but failed to accomplish it. :/ — Klein Muçi (talk) 05:55, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi looks like that is only used on Faqja_kryesore, you just want the wikisource link to go to that page on wikisource? Or is this template going to be used on many pages and need dynamic output? — xaosflux ^Talk 11:58, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You are right. That template serves only as the main page footer for the sister projects of Wikipedia. — Klein Muçi (talk) 12:13, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi I tried a little bit, but didn't solve this yet - no more time right now. Looks like some problems in w:sq:Stampa:Sisterprojects layout. I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do there, it looks like you are trying to send your readers to all sorts of different links on the sister projects based on their interface language (as opposed to just linking to the sq-xxxx projects). Is that your intention? If not those templates look severely over complicated. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:51, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not really sure... I remember I've copied that template from somewhere with the exact same name (maybe EnQuote). The idea is to send readers to the Albanian versions of localized projects (and to the general ones if no localized versions exist, like in the case of Commons, Wikidata, etc.) I don't know what exactly is going on with Albanian Wikisource... — Klein Muçi (talk) 16:38, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi may want to simplify that, all that copy-paste dragged a lot that you don't need in there. You mentioned "Albanian Wikisource", however there is no such thing. For example, there is an English Wikisource and a French Wikisource. You are wanting to just link to some subpages on the interlanguage-wikisource. (wikisource.org). — xaosflux ^Talk 16:58, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I would simplify it if I knew how to do that while preserving the current state. As for the Albanian Wikisource... So that's only a weird experiment someone has done in the past ? :P If that's the case, maybe linking to the wikisource.org is good enough. — Klein Muçi (talk) 17:45, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Klein Muçi I'm not familiar with how language groups organize on wikisource, may want to ask someone over there. As far as your template, I don't think you need any of those conditionals, layered project names, etc - since all you want is a set of static links, someone from your project may be better off forking to a new page instead of trying to drag all that overhead from some other project over. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:03, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, lately I've noticed problems with the above tool. Take a look at this comparison. It says that there is no page intersection, which is wrong. I'm not sure how many, but here are two: Draft:Riyad Al-Qasbaji and User talk:Dr-Vivoo. Is this a known problem? Should I report it and, if so, where? Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:16, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 it looks like that tool is maintained by Σ, they would be the only person that appears to be able to help with it. You may want to try this similar tool that has more maintainers: meta:Community health initiative/Interaction Timeline. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:37, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This stuff really wears me out. Σ hasn't edited in almost a year. With great difficulty, I set up the so-called health tool, and it shows "no results". See here. Did I do the set-up wrong?--Bbb23 (talk) 16:15, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 I'm assuming you are expecting to find Hassan El Asmar? It may be not showing as the replication lag is almost 3 days behind right now. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:20, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I assumed I'd find more intersection than that, but after glancing at some other pages, the intersections occurred on May 26, at the earliest. I can't interpret the link to the lag you provided, but I'll take your word for it. Wouldn't that also affect the EIA? Is the lag unusually behind recently because that might explain why EIA has been working intermittently lately.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:34, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 yes, 83 hours is unusually long, it will likely settle down during the week. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:53, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

So, should I take from this that EIA's results may be incomplete depending on the lag? When you say it will probably settle down, do you mean that the lag will go back to "normal", or is there a new longer normal? Just trying to figure out what to expect.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:41, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 if I recall correctly, the tool data base replica is usually <12 hours. Check back with that link above later in the week - if it persists being many days long for a while we can open a ticket. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:01, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As usual, many thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:07, 28 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 22:00, 29 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I did NOT clogged up the edit request queue. I made three requests in the span of three days with very reasonable, clearly described, X to Y requests, and have had multiple successful requests to other protected, active admin pages. User:AnomieBOT/PERTable has not had more than 11 active protected page requests at one time. Hardly a busy list.

On the request instructions, it states "If you have noticed an error or have a suggestion for a simple, non-controversial change, you can submit an edit request by clicking the button below and following the instructions. An administrator may then make the change on your behalf. Please check the talk page first in case the issue is already being discussed". It does NOT state that admin pages are off limits. Nor should it. Admin pages should be held to the same standard as other userpages, and if an issue is known, there should be an avenue to rectify the issue. These protected page requests ARE this avenue.

If there is a rule for only one request at a time, I am unaware of this. Apologies for having three requests open on a slow week. I will do better with timing.

I know there is procedural denial for requesting pp reduction for admin pages, but requesting valid fixes are 100% permitted, as demonstrated by the multiple, unquestioned, similar clean syntax requests in the past month I've made to active admin pages. ALL of which were accepted, by multiple administrators:

Accepted by Izno: (CJCurrie), (Materialscientist), (Nihonjoe; some discussion), (SpacemanSpiff), (Cactus.man)

Accepted by MSGJ: (Starblind) (Mojo_Hand) (Versageek)

Timotheus_Canens himself: (Timotheus_Canens)

Other than the three pages you've marked 'not done', I've had NO rejected admin page correction requests.

I've cleared over three thousand of these Tidy Font errors on Wikipedia the past few months. My edits are clean, nonproblematic, and noncontroversial. Mediawiki's July 2018 change to RemexHtml rendered the <font>[[link]]</font> format of coloring links broken on many browsers (browsers affected default back to normal blue instead of displaying the user specified colors), and this issue is a highpriority WP:LINT error to fix.

If you disagree with the side note inquiry on User:Versageek/Talk/Archive/2, that's fine, it may be ignored. That's why I noted it as a side comment and not directly part of the request. I was surprised MSGJ lowered Versageek/Talk/Archive/1 since Versageek is Admin, but thought since there were the same errors on 2, 3, and 4 of the same user, I'd at least inquire if the same reasons for lowering 1 held for 3 and 4 so that I wouldn't need to make additional protection requests for this issue on those pages later on.

Nihonjoe has already permitted this type of request on his pages. If he wishes to directly review this change too, I welcome it. My request to one of his other pages earlier in May was the only one I've ever made that needed a discussion to pass, and it was due to our views and knowledge on ''' vs <b>. This discussion was smoothly resolved, and my requests was permitted with his approval. I don't see his Award list being any different.

Sure, User_talk:MastCell/Barnstars is a bit longer of a request, but one request for 7 X to Ys to clear a longer page of all issues seemed reasonable opposed to the idea of multiple single X to Y requests over a longer period of time. I consider and weigh my requests so they are reasonable. This is why I did not request changes to all the other, lesser issues on [User talk:Versageek/Talk/Archive/2]].

I ask that you reconsider these three requests, as I've followed the rules at WP:EDITXY as I have for all other requests, and these three requests are in line with others I've made for all admin pages; clearly defined, noncontrovertial syntax corrections that fix visually broken issues.

Thank you for your time, Zinnober9 (talk) 07:03, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The edit request queue serves as an important check against the protection policy, so patrolling it is an important workflow for other admins. I'm not saying there is anything intrinsically wrong with asking for these changes, but it would be more appropriate to just ask on the base usertalk page of the user - especially when you are creating an entire new talk page that will unlikely ever be used for anything else ever - just to hold that request. If the user is inactive, you could add an administrator edit request there (or if they are lengthy inactive, perhaps the page doesn't need protecting anymore and it would be better to request its unprotection). — xaosflux ^Talk 09:21, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I was just wondering, do bots on enwiki have page mover access similar to auto-patrol? (on mrwiki bots have page mover access, but there is no special page-mover or "extended-mover" user-group there). Also, can bots move categories as well? or do they need to get page-mover flag? —usernamekiran (talk) 17:01, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Usernamekiran you can see all the permissions per group here: Special:ListGroupRights; if we have an approved bot that also needs something else, we usually just add the bot to additional groups. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:57, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

thanks. I looked at WP:User access levels, but I couldn't find the info there. ListGrouRights had that info. Apparently, bots are not added to "page movers" by default, but they can move category pages. Thanks again, —usernamekiran (talk) 18:11, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Usernamekiran Comparing Page Movers to Bots, bots do not have: move, delete-redirect, move-subpages, or tboverride. However in practice bots will generally also be in the autoconfirmed group, so they would pick up "move" from there. If a bot needed some of the other permissions, for example Special:UserRights/ProcBot, it will also be added to other groups. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:34, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]