User talk:ToBeFree/A/6
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Coming back to an old block - been busy
I would like to appeal a topic block, but want first to interact with you. The topic block is, IMHO (and I believe I can demonstrate it) based on NOT READING THE SOURCES and assuming bad faith. There are, in my edits, only sources. So, will you consider the sources? Twasonasummersmorn (talk) 16:50, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Twasonasummersmorn, it's been almost two years and things have changed a bit. Your ban is no longer something special; it may be removed by any administrator, for example in response to a normal unblock request. Not all administrators will be aware of this, so you should ideally point to this edit here somewhere in your request. Alternatively, you can appeal your topic ban at WP:AN, and the usual form requirements for such an appeal do not strictly apply anymore. You can go to WP:AN and point to this edit here (based on Wikipedia:Contentious_topics#Appeals_and_amendments's "more than a year ago" clause), explaining to the readers that you are appealing a topic ban that was set over a year ago and thus can be revoked by any administrator, and that it's fine with me if this happens.
- For me personally to undo the ban, I personally would like to see an understanding of what led to it, which is edit warring and incivility (Special:Permalink/1131405903, block log). This is about your behavior and not the sources, and the misunderstanding displayed in Special:Diff/1130308434 appears to be still present, so I currently lack the hope I'd need to undo the ban. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:00, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
- You'll have to point to incivility rather than accurate and polite description. And - again - the edit warring was where other people serially reverted accurate sources, acting in concert. If you're interested in the edits and the sources, they're there. If you're not, then there is indeed no point. Twasonasummersmorn (talk) 13:47, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'm going to presume there's no point and that you're not interested in the actual sources. And the fact that others are serially, in concert, reverting the articles to say that a source says A when the source actually says not-A. Plus, undoing edits when new sources are offered that they don't like. If wikipedia admins don't care about what the sources actually say, then it's become as reliable as twitter. Twasonasummersmorn (talk) 12:03, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
- I have read your messages, but there's nothing convincing to me personally in them, and I have already explained why. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:05, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
Precious anniversary
| Six years! |
|---|
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:51, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Gerda Arendt!

~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:23, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
I did not, actually.
But it's super cool. I left mentorship a long time ago. Having left, I assume there's not an easy way to check the list without rejoining, which I might do, once/if I fully return (I've been away for a while). From back then, I only remember DanCherek, whom I am proud of too, almost as much as of you
I wonder who else is on there.
— Usedtobecool ☎️ 17:48, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
Well, Usedtobecool, "rejoining" just means opening Special:EnrollAsMentor and selecting "Number of mentees assigned to me: None". This enables the mentor dashboard without making you the mentor of anyone. However, as you are still internally listed as mentor for some users, I'm not sure what you'll see. Perhaps a list of mentees, perhaps not. If you see a list of mentees, please do take the opportunity to remove the assignment so they're automatically re-assigned to someone actively mentoring. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:45, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
- Interestingly, it currently doesn't even seem to be possible to remove mentees from oneself. Or I haven't found the option yet. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:51, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
- I am not aware of a way to remove one's mentees other than by them being claimed by another. But I have not kept up with developments that closely either. It does not matter. My mentees still see me as their mentor and get told to contact me. Most mentees ask one question on their first day and never return, not even to Wikipedia editing, at all. Of the few who stay around and could contact me, none have, but that's not because they know I've quit. They have no reason to know, and I've turned none away. All the quitting does and did is, it doesn't assign me new mentees. Yeah, I could rejoin as an inactive mentor but I don't have a good justification to do so, and *they* recommend being an inactive mentor only for known short breaks, not long or indefinite ones, for whatever reason. Best, — Usedtobecool ☎️ 09:04, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
- I could've sworn it was possible from the mentor dashboard, but again, haven't seen it in a long time, so I could be mistaken, or it could have changed. I have vague recollections of removing blocked spammers and vandals from my list of mentees, which could be from a real memory or just a visualised wish
— Usedtobecool ☎️ 09:11, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
- Usedtobecool, there's a way. If a mentor is administratively removed, all mentees get re-assigned. However, a non-mentor apparently can't be removed. So a workaround would be me adding you to MediaWiki:GrowthMentors.json (as there seems to be no interface for doing so) and then removing you from the list through Special:ManageMentors. Also, the bug that allowed you to stop being a mentor without unassigning mentees might simply have been fixed in the meantime.
- If you would like to try this, please let me know! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:02, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
- I suspect you're simply mistaken in your belief that all mentees need to be assigned to active mentors at all times. The program is not even fully launched because of a lack of volunteers. I doubt it would be the most efficient use of resources to keep reassigning people who've already got an opportunity and are no longer new accounts even, to new mentors. An administrative removal perhaps happens for cause, making unassignment desirable, which would not be the case with mentors who stop editing with or without quitting the program. — Usedtobecool ☎️ 00:46, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
- Oh. Usedtobecool, sorry, I've read my message again and it sounds as if I were about to do as proposed. I'm not! This was just an idea in case you didn't want to be a mentor anymore and in case the messages were undesired. You wrote
My mentees still see me as their mentor and get told to contact me
, and I wanted to point out that there is probably a way to fix this. I agree that administrative removal is a different use case than mentor inactivity or mentor quitting, and that reassignment may be completely unnecessary. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:22, 15 July 2024 (UTC)- Ah, I see. You were considering my convinience (thank you)! — Usedtobecool ☎️ 09:54, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
- Oh. Usedtobecool, sorry, I've read my message again and it sounds as if I were about to do as proposed. I'm not! This was just an idea in case you didn't want to be a mentor anymore and in case the messages were undesired. You wrote
- I suspect you're simply mistaken in your belief that all mentees need to be assigned to active mentors at all times. The program is not even fully launched because of a lack of volunteers. I doubt it would be the most efficient use of resources to keep reassigning people who've already got an opportunity and are no longer new accounts even, to new mentors. An administrative removal perhaps happens for cause, making unassignment desirable, which would not be the case with mentors who stop editing with or without quitting the program. — Usedtobecool ☎️ 00:46, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
- I could've sworn it was possible from the mentor dashboard, but again, haven't seen it in a long time, so I could be mistaken, or it could have changed. I have vague recollections of removing blocked spammers and vandals from my list of mentees, which could be from a real memory or just a visualised wish
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New message from Drmies

Message added 01:02, 22 July 2024 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Drmies (talk) 01:02, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Drmies, thanks for the notification! I currently can't investigate this, but I have forwarded your request to the arbcom-en mailing list. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:15, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
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Hashid Khan
You had blocked this user for DE and then unblocked them after they provided an explanation for their edit. I plan to reblock them for socking; they definitely socked while they were blocked by you based on behavioral and likely CU findings, and are possibly a sock of R2dra although I haven't examined the latter claim myself. Wanted to run it by you before implementing the block just in case I am missing something.
PS: Based on what I have seen, this is a case of warring sock-farms. Don't know who, if anyone, is "correct" about the content issues. Abecedare (talk) 17:59, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Abecedare, sorry, I hadn't seen this when unblocking. Of course I'm fine with a re-block. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:18, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
- I didn't spot the sockpuppetry either when I responded to their page protection reuest. :)
- Blocked now. Abecedare (talk) 21:47, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:48, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
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It appears that a recently registered editor has decided they are a SPA
BasketballDog21 and Borgenland could really use some admin input at this noticeboard. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:03, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Never mind. Also, BasketballDog has been blocked as a sockpuppet. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:30, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- That escalated quickly. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:50, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
Block evasion
Hi again! Sorry to bother you but on 6 July I wrote to you about 67.83.125.225 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). You blocked the user for one month and asked that I let you know if the bad edits continue after the block. Well, the block has not yet expired but it appears that the user is evading the block, now using IP 201.229.68.170 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). The behavioral evidence seems clear to me; they are editing the same set of articles, making similar edits. For example, compare Special:Diff/1231917275 with Special:Diff/1166474658, or Special:Diff/1231916612 with Special:Diff/1236661676. CodeTalker (talk) 22:43, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Never mind, @ScottishFinnishRadish has already blocked the new IP for a year. Thanks, SFR! CodeTalker (talk) 22:52, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Glad to help. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 22:53, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks both
~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:51, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks both
- Glad to help. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 22:53, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
IP vandalism at St Margaret's Hope
Blocked already but same editor you blocked nearly two weeks ago. Thought I'd give you a head's up. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:33, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
- Oh. Thanks, Skywatcher68, I have now semi-protected the page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:05, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
Suspicions of sockpuppetry
I am not familiar with the SPI process, so I need an admin with CU permission to take a look. Sadko was topic banned from the Balkans from 2021 until July 2024. Vanished user 297861 was created in 2022, immediately started to make a large number of edits (160 edits in the first week) and in the first day added themselves to the Serbia WikiProject Participants , suggesting that the person using the account had prior knowledge of the editing process. Vanished user's original username was Nickpunk and Sadko was noted in the report that got them topic banned to refer to other editors as "punks". There seems to be a correlation between the periods when Sadko was inactive with the periods when Vanished was inactive. The interest topics also correlate . A few days after Sadko's topic ban was removed , Vanished put a "Retired" tag on their talk page . I would like a CU to see if this is merely a coincidence or there is some truth in my suspicions. Excine (talk) 20:09, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Excine, this is
possible. Guerillero is a checkuser himself and may want to have a look, too, but if Sadko actually did this, they invested a noticeable (but not unlikely) amount of effort into keeping their accounts as separate as they were able to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:00, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- First off, ToBeFree, thanks for the ping. Very appreciated.
- Let's see what do we have here... Editor wih total of 284 edits who was last active in June 2023 has reported for me 'using socks'. The funny thing is, I have never interacted with this person, but they seem to think a lot about my areas of interest, editing habits and what not. That's not something you see every day on WP, at least I do not. And even more interestingly, these... claims get posted (without so much as a ping) just a few hours after I publicly told another editor that I'm traveling and have little time for WP. My guess is that there will be more comments on this topic.
- Very important context aside for a minute... The claim is absurd and illogical. Why would I need a sock if I planned and worked hard to have my topic ban lifted? It makes no sense, but I have seen editors get banned easily in cases like this. Therefore, I'll provide a more thorough analysis, set aside my doubts about the report, and assume good faith, considering this might simply be a significant error on someone's part.
- Note: I'm somewhat familiar with Nickpunk's work and I have no idea why they decided to retire this summer. For example, they expanded an article I created on another project. Considering that I have never been banned or warned on sr.wiki, I have reported myself to admins with CU permissions.
- The two of us talked at some point. The two writing styles are quite different.
- Never have I called anyone a punk, that is simply untrue, nor do I use or like that word for that matter. And I'm not a particular fan of punk music either. : ) A quick google search showed me that there are several members of internet communities in Serbo-Croatian with similiar nicknames. For example.
- I have 50K+ edits on EWP under my belt and I have edited thousands of pages. Comparing my editing history with any editor active within the CEE area would produce a solid overlap.
- Editor Interaction Analyser clearly shows that the other editor paid far more attention to certain pages than I did.
- There is a bunch of topics and articles where the two accouns have zero overlap. My interest is far broader. Another note, they do not post edit summaries, I try my best to do so. Nickpunk/Vanished user's other edits clearly show that they are very interested in everything related to Novi Sad, which has never been a big priority for me. They have wide knowledge of the city, its streets and corners, which I do not possess. The only topic where this editor and myself actually had a common interest is Architecture of Serbia. They know a lot about birds, a topic area which I do not edit.
- Nickpunk has greatly improved Jovan Soldatović, which has been on my watchlist for years. I noticed a rookie mistake regarding style, they left a flag icon in the infobox, which I removed. If this was my 'carefully crafted sock', how moronic would it be to make edits on the same page, just after the other editor made their edits? This editor had no real knowledge of how WP works and they made a lot of newbie mistakes, which can easily be checked via their TP history page.
- (!) It is quite easy to determine that I have no other active accounts on EWP. In fact, when Nick was making his edits here and here, I was patrolling IP edits during the same minute, please see here and here. And here is another example of the two editors working in the same minute of the same day: Sadko - Nick. I could provide more examples, if needed.
- My time is limited at the moment and I had little time to polish this reply, but I hope that this answer will be enough for the moment. P.S: Sorry for the long post and thanks for taking the time to read it. — Sadko (words are wind) 01:54, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much for the detailed analysis, Sadko. Looking at all this, I think there's not much to worry about here. You shouldn't have to defend yourself against sockpuppetry accusations, though; I'm sorry for making it look as if you'd have to write a long defense statement. If the suspicion had turned out to be true, I'd have blocked; that didn't happen. Welcome back to the topic area and don't let these reactions (here and on your talk page) discourage you, please. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:06, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
- My pleasure. Thanks for the kind words. That sort of approach has not stopped only on my TP, but it was taken further. Sorry for commenting on that, but, sadly, things are not what I expected them to be on WP, coming back after some time, and if one did not know any better they would think that I was some kind of Wikipedia Putin. : ) Best. — Sadko (words are wind) 17:37, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:13, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- My pleasure. Thanks for the kind words. That sort of approach has not stopped only on my TP, but it was taken further. Sorry for commenting on that, but, sadly, things are not what I expected them to be on WP, coming back after some time, and if one did not know any better they would think that I was some kind of Wikipedia Putin. : ) Best. — Sadko (words are wind) 17:37, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
BLP issue at Emmanuel Todd
Maybe the references aren't exactly reliable, I don't know, but removing them and the supported content without discussion seems problematic. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 12:01, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, it's an interesting situation for various reasons. Thanks for sharing. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:21, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Frankly, I would undo that entire string of recent IP edits going back to before this one. The user appears to have a strong personal point of view about Todd. -- Cl3phact0 (talk) 14:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Cl3phact0, do feel free to – I only removed a half-deleted, broken section. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:56, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Noted, thanks. (Adding Skywatcher68 for information.) Is the best practice just to undo each successive edit one by one, or is there a better method? Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 15:06, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Cl3phact0, see Help:Reverting – in a nutshell, simply click the timestamp of a version you like, then "edit", enter a summary explaining the revert, then publish. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:07, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Ok, thanks. I'll try that (I don't do a whole lot of undoing other folks work in general). Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 15:13, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- It looks like I may have inadvertently removed the page protection too (which, if true, shouldn't be so easy to do – but that's another matter). Could you take a quick look? Thanks, Cl3phact0 (talk) 16:20, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Cl3phact0, that's just the lock icon template displayed at the top right of the page. It's automatically added back by a bot sooner or later, and can be manually added back by anyone. No worries. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:47, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Got it. Page protection is an aspect of the project where I should probably improve my knowledge. Thanks again for your help. Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 16:53, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- All good
~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:07, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- All good
- Got it. Page protection is an aspect of the project where I should probably improve my knowledge. Thanks again for your help. Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 16:53, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Cl3phact0, that's just the lock icon template displayed at the top right of the page. It's automatically added back by a bot sooner or later, and can be manually added back by anyone. No worries. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:47, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Cl3phact0, see Help:Reverting – in a nutshell, simply click the timestamp of a version you like, then "edit", enter a summary explaining the revert, then publish. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:07, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Noted, thanks. (Adding Skywatcher68 for information.) Is the best practice just to undo each successive edit one by one, or is there a better method? Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 15:06, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Cl3phact0, do feel free to – I only removed a half-deleted, broken section. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:56, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Frankly, I would undo that entire string of recent IP edits going back to before this one. The user appears to have a strong personal point of view about Todd. -- Cl3phact0 (talk) 14:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
Pau Cubarsí
Why did you lock the article on the preferred version of a political vandal? Kingsif (talk) 20:55, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Kingsif, this appears to be a longer dispute between checkuser-blocked Panenkazo, block-evasion-blocked 186.211.107.65 (talk · contribs · IP contribs · WHOIS) and surely more; it is pretty chaotic and I don't have a full overview yet. Describing the edits as vandalism is easy but far from being obviously correct. It took you a few seconds to complain here; please take the same amount of seconds to state at Talk:Pau Cubarsí why Special:Diff/1237005223 is preferable and perhaps why Special:Diff/1237039463 should be reverted. I can then replace the short full protection by longer semi-protection to ensure that disagreement with your talk page explanation is discussed at the talk page instead of through reverts. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:05, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- If you checked the longer history, you would see I was the first user to add the information that the IP vandal is trying to remove. Kingsif (talk) 21:21, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Based on the content, it's clearly a politically-driven vandal, and so waiting for them to edit beyond a final warning and get AIV blocked is the easiest way to deal with it. Locking the article right as it hit that final warning, did not help. Please don't step into these situations with wide-ranging article protection without knowing what's happening, and then accusing someone who has been at the heart of the issue of not paying attention. Kingsif (talk) 21:23, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Kingsif, are you sure? Special:Diff/1233675588 was before your first edit to the page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:25, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- And while that's a concern, I'm referring to this. The inclusion of "from Catalonia", when there are sources, was agreed in a 2018 RfC. Panenkazo block evades and, importantly, did not add sources for the content at Cubarsí. My edit today, had a source. The IP removing the source is trying to give weight to removing it all. Kingsif (talk) 21:28, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- And it still doesn't make sense why you'd not wait for the disruptive IP on the verge of being blocked, to be blocked so the reverts immediately stopped. Kingsif (talk) 21:29, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'll try to find the RfC, but linking to it at least once somewhere, ideally on the talk page of the article, would have helped a lot and would still help a lot. The entire discussion could have been avoided by one single user referring to the RfC. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:31, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, it's at MOS:CONTEXTBIO / Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biography/2018 archive § RfC on use of Spanish regional identity in biography leads. I'll now add this information to the article's talk page... ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:37, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
Done at Talk:Pau Cubarsí. Regarding the full protection, we'll remain in disagreement about whether you and/or AntiDionysius should have used the article's talk page instead of reverting and complaining about protection. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:45, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, it's at MOS:CONTEXTBIO / Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biography/2018 archive § RfC on use of Spanish regional identity in biography leads. I'll now add this information to the article's talk page... ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:37, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'll try to find the RfC, but linking to it at least once somewhere, ideally on the talk page of the article, would have helped a lot and would still help a lot. The entire discussion could have been avoided by one single user referring to the RfC. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:31, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Kingsif, are you sure? Special:Diff/1233675588 was before your first edit to the page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:25, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
Dimitar Glavchev
Hello, I need help. Because in the role of Dimitar Glavchev has a lot of Vandalism. Preime TH (talk) 10:37, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Preime TH, thank you very much for the notification, and for not joining the edit war. I have informed both Jorkdkskakaksjjsk and Panam2014 about issues with their editing of that article now (1, 2). As both editors are extended confirmed, page protection can't solve the problem unless it's full protection preventing edits by all users. So I'm afraid that if this really continues again and again, the only administrative solution would be partially blocking them from editing the page for a relatively long duration, looking at how long this has been going on. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:39, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Jorkdkskakaksjjsk: seems to have accepted the sources. Panam2014 (talk) 14:41, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Panam2014, my concern was about the behavior, not the content itself. It's good to hear that you have found an agreement on one of the discussion points, so please do continue discussing – my only concern is that edit warring and incivility don't help in finding a solution. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:43, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- Jorkdkskakaksjjsk and Panam2014, if the discussion doesn't move forward and seems to be running in circles (but that's not the case yet as far as I can see), you can formally request a third opinion or even start an RfC. See the dispute resolution policy for this advice and more details about it, such as remaining in the top sections of a beautiful pyramid displayed there. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:45, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
- @Jorkdkskakaksjjsk: seems to have accepted the sources. Panam2014 (talk) 14:41, 28 July 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-31
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
- Editors using the Visual Editor in languages that use non-Latin characters for numbers, such as Hindi, Manipuri and Eastern Arabic, may notice some changes in the formatting of reference numbers. This is a side effect of preparing a new sub-referencing feature, and will also allow fixing some general numbering issues in Visual Editor. If you notice any related problems on your wiki, please share details at the project talkpage.
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- Some logged-in editors were briefly unable to edit or load pages last week. These errors were mainly due to the addition of new linter rules which led to caching problems. Fixes have been applied and investigations are continuing.
- Editors can use the IP Information tool to get information about IP addresses. This tool is available as a Beta Feature in your preferences. The tool was not available for a few days last week, but is now working again. Thank you to Shizhao for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and 28 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
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- There are new features and improvements to Phabricator from the Release Engineering and Collaboration Services teams, and some volunteers, including: the search systems, the new task creation system, the login systems, the translation setup which has resulted in support for more languages (thanks to Pppery), and fixes for many edge-case errors. You can read details about these and other improvements in this summary.
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MediaWiki message delivery 23:08, 29 July 2024 (UTC)
Mohseen Moosa apparently being edited by the subject
Just letting you know. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:33, 2 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:59, 2 August 2024 (UTC)
Came back
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Michalis1994#July_2024 Bbb23 (talk) 12:23, 27 July 2024 12.23 his block ended, 12.24 edited, the same as the ip https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&action=history Montigliani (talk) 12:59, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, a block does not automatically prevent nor prohibit contributions made after its expiration. Looking at the article histories and comments such as and , I'm afraid that multiple editors with a (far too) strong opinion on certain topics such as Evangelos Marinakis, Ivan Savvidis and Voice of Reason (political party) are currently attempting to get the "other side" blocked. Please stop using Wikipedia as a battleground. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:21, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
- You're right. Sorry. Montigliani (talk) 23:57, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have to admit I didn't expect that response. All good, no worries. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:50, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- Bringing this to your attention to have a better idea of what they are trying to achieve. Michalis1994 (talk) 17:13, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- The RfC desperately needs attention from uninvolved experienced editors not invited by D.S. Lioness, Montigliani or Michalis1994. Thanks for the notification, but the motives were already transparent enough. It should be clear to anyone looking at the situation for five minutes that it's an unnecessary, unproductive, unhealthy battleground that would best be met with disengagement by everyone currently involved in it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:01, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have now removed the most recent unproductive comments from the discussion and sent everyone a notification ( ). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:17, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- The RfC desperately needs attention from uninvolved experienced editors not invited by D.S. Lioness, Montigliani or Michalis1994. Thanks for the notification, but the motives were already transparent enough. It should be clear to anyone looking at the situation for five minutes that it's an unnecessary, unproductive, unhealthy battleground that would best be met with disengagement by everyone currently involved in it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:01, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- Bringing this to your attention to have a better idea of what they are trying to achieve. Michalis1994 (talk) 17:13, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have to admit I didn't expect that response. All good, no worries. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:50, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- You're right. Sorry. Montigliani (talk) 23:57, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
- Michalis1994 he is 1000% puppet of Phanaris, Dynasty Power. I respect and appreciate you completely ~ ToBeFree, and so I will be patient for a few days. Then I'll delete him. I can't let a user with only malicious intentions laugh and make fun of us. It is not possible for him to write so many accusations in one person's article and at the end say that he has been acquitted of all of them, so as to appear magnanimous. Important events took place in the last two months and he does not mention any of them: Marinakis is re-elected president of the Super League. Marinaki's team won 2 European football titles. For the rigged games, Nikos Georgeas, who denounced him, was finally convicted of perjury. Makis Triantafyllopoulos, a journalist who started the case with Noor 1 was also sentenced to 3 years for spreading false news in the case.
Michalis1994 does not write these. Why Michalis1994 don't you write these? Do not mind. See you later.--Montigliani (talk) 19:12, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
- Michalis 1994 does not answer. Meanwhile the discussion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Evangelos_Marinakis#Request_for_comment started on 22 July 2024 and today we have August 5, 2024. 14 DAYS! How long should it last? I remind the score is 3-2, including his opinion User:SportsGreece https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1225739309 --Montigliani (talk) 09:31, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- There is no "score" as there is no battle. Please find something else to spend your time on. You've made your point, others have made their points, hopefully further uninvolved opinions will appear, someone will close the discussion one day and there's neither a rush in closing nor in making changes to the article. Please take one hour of your time, one single hour, to demonstrate somewhere outside of this conflict that you're here to build an encyclopedia. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:33, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
New user?
Because you are a well-meaning user and because you certainly don't want to be mocked by Michalis1994 perhaps we can point out what I and Montiglianni have figured out about him - see if there is any reason for you to apply for an SPI. You probably know, I did but it wasn't considered because I failed to produce the evidence needed. It was the first time I applied and I didn't know how to do it. We are two users who say We are two users who claim that he is a puppet because we know him from the Greek Wikipedia. We know the way he talks, the topics he supports, his political position. Besides, he is so experienced around Wikipedia, and around old conflicts with other users that it is obvious that he is not a new user. D.S. Lioness (talk) 17:43, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hello D.S. Lioness, this is kind, thank you very much. Coincidentally, the situation has already been resolved. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:06, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- I was delighted to see it. Worthy!!
- By the way, can i remove the controversial sentence from Evangelos Marinakis lead as blocked user contribution or not, because there is an RfC? D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:11, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- D.S. Lioness, which sentence exactly? I might have already removed it, but I'm not entirely sure. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:23, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Well done! You have removed it!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:26, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Ah okay, thanks, I just undid the latest contribution; for a moment I thought there was more. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:27, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- One last thing. I was banned from the Latinopoulou article because of accusation by Michalis1994. Shouldn't I be reinstated? D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:39, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Possibly, but perhaps also rather not. I personally can't decide; it's a community-imposed topic ban. You could appeal it at WP:AN, with a link to , the discussion that led to it. To me personally, while you turned out to be correct about the sockpuppetry issue, the way we went to that conclusion was so horribly rocky that I wouldn't use the checkuserblock by itself as a reason to appeal anything. I also haven't unblocked Montigliani as their block reason (refusing to focus on content on an article talk page and casting aspersions) is still valid to me. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:45, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- The one and only problem for Latinopoulou's article was Michalis1994. I didn't have problem neither High Dunker, nor any other user. I will take my chances and appeal the decision -for the sole reason that i had contributed a pov text in relation to today's malevolent content. Anyway, thank you very much. D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:57, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- I won't stop you.
Good luck and you're welcome. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:17, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- I won't stop you.
- The one and only problem for Latinopoulou's article was Michalis1994. I didn't have problem neither High Dunker, nor any other user. I will take my chances and appeal the decision -for the sole reason that i had contributed a pov text in relation to today's malevolent content. Anyway, thank you very much. D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:57, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Possibly, but perhaps also rather not. I personally can't decide; it's a community-imposed topic ban. You could appeal it at WP:AN, with a link to , the discussion that led to it. To me personally, while you turned out to be correct about the sockpuppetry issue, the way we went to that conclusion was so horribly rocky that I wouldn't use the checkuserblock by itself as a reason to appeal anything. I also haven't unblocked Montigliani as their block reason (refusing to focus on content on an article talk page and casting aspersions) is still valid to me. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:45, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- One last thing. I was banned from the Latinopoulou article because of accusation by Michalis1994. Shouldn't I be reinstated? D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:39, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Ah okay, thanks, I just undid the latest contribution; for a moment I thought there was more. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:27, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- Well done! You have removed it!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:26, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
- D.S. Lioness, which sentence exactly? I might have already removed it, but I'm not entirely sure. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:23, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-32
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
Two new parser functions will be available this week: {{#dir}}and{{#bcp47}}. These will reduce the need forTemplate:DirandTemplate:BCP47on Commons and allow us to drop 100 million rows from the "what links here" database. Editors at any wiki that use these templates, can help by replacing the templates with these new functions. The templates at Commons will be updated during the Hackathon at Wikimania.- Communities can request the activation of the visual editor on entire namespaces where discussions sometimes happen (for instance Wikipedia: or Wikisource: namespaces) if they understand the known limitations. For discussions, users can already use DiscussionTools in these namespaces.
- The tracking category "Pages using Timeline" has been renamed to "Pages using the EasyTimeline extension" in TranslateWiki. Wikis that have created the category locally should rename their local creation to match.
Project updates
- Editors who help to organize WikiProjects and similar on-wiki collaborations, are invited to share ideas and examples of successful collaborations with the Campaigns and Programs teams. You can fill out a brief survey or share your thoughts on the talkpage. The teams are particularly looking for details about successful collaborations on non-English wikis.
The new parser is being rolled out on Wikivoyage wikis over the next few months. The English Wikivoyage and Hebrew Wikivoyage were switched to Parsoid last week. For more information, see Parsoid/Parser Unification.
Learn more
- There will be more than 200 sessions at Wikimania this week. Here is a summary of some of the key sessions related to the product and technology area.
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MediaWiki message delivery 20:41, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2024).
- Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators may locally unblock when appropriate.
- Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.
- The Arbitration Committee appointed the following administrators to the conflict of interest volunteer response team: Bilby, Extraordinary Writ
Sockpuppet Investigation
Hello I have a sockpuppet investigation that I need an administrator to investigate, this is serious. Cookiemonster1618 (talk) 14:03, 8 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Cookiemonster1618, the page has been deleted – if I understand correctly, primarily because sockpuppet investigation pages are named after their master, not the sockpuppet. So if user A has been blocked and returns as "B", you would create "Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry_investigations/A". You may need to ask Bbb23 if that was the issue, as I can't find a deletion notification on your talk page and the deletion summary is rather vague.
- As I am currently at Wikimania 2024, I would probably not have been much of a help, though, and I would probably not have processed a SPI quicker than the rest of the huge queue when asked to do so, unless it is about sockpuppetry I had previously personally dealt with. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:34, 9 August 2024 (UTC)
Contentious topic
@ToBeFree: I want to designate Vasily Utkin as a contentious topic, after removing content related to WP:RUSUKR. 165.16.5.50 (talk) 23:48, 11 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have filed an SPI case about this IP. — Mike Novikoff 09:50, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:56, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
67.83.125.225 again
Hi! The "accent" vandal 67.83.125.225 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) that you blocked on 6 July has returned immediately after their block expired and is making the same disruptive edits to the same articles. Can you take a look? Thanks! CodeTalker (talk) 01:25, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi CodeTalker, thank you very much for the notification! I have now re-blocked for a year. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:41, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks very much! CodeTalker (talk) 05:43, 7 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi again. The very persistent accent vandal is back again, this time at 2601:86:C47F:BE60:2D5A:C15A:7973:96F5 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). This /64 was blocked previously by you on 6 April and then for 3 months by Ad Orientem on 28 April. That last block has expired and they are now repeating the same unsourced disruptive edits to the same articles. They've only made a few edits so far but based on past history this will only get worse. CodeTalker (talk) 18:07, 11 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks, CodeTalker. I'm not sure what was meant to happen in Special:Diff/1239822107, but it seems to illustrate the issue. I've reblocked for a year. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:59, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-33
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
- AbuseFilter editors and maintainers can now make a CAPTCHA show if a filter matches an edit. This allows communities to quickly respond to spamming by automated bots.
- Stewards can now specify if global blocks should prevent account creation. Before this change by the Trust and Safety Product Team, all global blocks would prevent account creation. This will allow stewards to reduce the unintended side-effects of global blocks on IP addresses.
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- Nominations are open on Wikitech for new members to refresh the Toolforge standards committee. The committee oversees the Toolforge Right to fork policy and Abandoned tool policy among other duties. Nominations will remain open until at least 2024-08-26.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in West Coast Bajau (
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MediaWiki message delivery 23:19, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
I found her
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:D.S._Lioness, as it says on its page, it is called Dora. This Dora https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:%CE%94%CF%8E%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%A3%CF%84%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%BC%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%8D%CE%BA%CE%B7&diff=prev&oldid=1145002178. I don't bother to translate for you the insults he exchanges with another blocked user. You will be disgusted. So it's her https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/%CE%94%CF%8E%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%A3%CF%84%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%BC%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%8D%CE%BA%CE%B7
Do what you think. I won't tell you. I'm sorry it's a woman. I'm sorry about the situation in general. Montigliani (talk) 19:26, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- D.S. Lioness, thoughts? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:44, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- About what? Really, i can't understand what he discover. Where is the problem? Both accounts are not blocked in english wp. For your consideration https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Steward_requests/Username_changes D.S. Lioness (talk) 19:57, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- Is that you making that comment and is the person you're making the comment against also an EnWiki editor though? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:03, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- I'm a bit confused and trying to get an overview. If I understand correctly, only Special:Diff/1144987485 is from D.S. Lioness. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:05, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- YES!!!!!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:07, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- that's where i know michalis1994, Nikolaos Fanaris and Glucken!!! Is him!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:08, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- YES!!!!!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:07, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- I'm a bit confused and trying to get an overview. If I understand correctly, only Special:Diff/1144987485 is from D.S. Lioness. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:05, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- Is that you making that comment and is the person you're making the comment against also an EnWiki editor though? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:03, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- And anyway, how can I protect myself from a user who, being unable to deal with me according to the policy of the project, resorts to devious and deceitful methods? D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:01, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- About what? Really, i can't understand what he discover. Where is the problem? Both accounts are not blocked in english wp. For your consideration https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Steward_requests/Username_changes D.S. Lioness (talk) 19:57, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- the guy who insults me is Michalis1994 D.S. Lioness (talk) 19:59, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- This one Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/NikolaosFanaris/Archive? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:11, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- YES!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:12, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- Apologies if this is taking a frustratingly long time to understand, do you think that Montigliani and the IP are NikolaosFanaris? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:15, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- No, i don't think so. it's just that Modigliani, in his haste to prevent me from editing the Marinakis article, supposedly found something against me D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:19, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- You should ask Montigliani who is the purpose of this topic. D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:20, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- No, i don't think so. it's just that Modigliani, in his haste to prevent me from editing the Marinakis article, supposedly found something against me D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:19, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- Apologies if this is taking a frustratingly long time to understand, do you think that Montigliani and the IP are NikolaosFanaris? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:15, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- YES!!! D.S. Lioness (talk) 20:12, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- This one Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/NikolaosFanaris/Archive? Horse Eye's Back (talk) 20:11, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
SORRY, BUT I MUST EXIT. D.S. Lioness (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 20:22, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- I searched a lot and still searching for it. D. S. Lioness or Dora should not be a puppet of Nikolaos Fanaris. They certainly work on the same issues, with the same political point of view and aim to slander. D. S. Lioness is kinder, but just as cruel as Fanaris. Fanaris has a better quality as an editor, but he swears and is malicious. Generally it is the same coin with two sides. An encyclopedia to me should impart knowledge and not gossip or slander. But this is what these two users do. I think that D.S. Lioness made fun of V. Marinakis' article. I believe he will do it again. I don't forgive when they make fun of me. Goodbye Dora. Montigliani (talk) 23:24, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
I searched a lot and still searching for it.
- Your success in identifying Michalis1994 as a sockpuppet of NikolaosFanaris makes it very tough to say this, but I (still) think you're overdoing it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:47, 12 August 2024 (UTC)
- I know that. I have to stop. Montigliani (talk) 07:03, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
What about that?
Here claims not to know the user glucken but here it is obvious that he khowns him User:Montigliani any ideas? D.S. Lioness (talk) 02:58, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Of course I knew him. Searching for Nikolaos Fanaris I ended up with him who is the source of evil. It was my trap to find out who you are. You have no difference. Your edits are defamatory and politically targeted. I am very angry with you. Looks like you got away with it. ToBeFree is big-hearted. Montigliani (talk) 07:11, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
This time you are making a big mistake
EverLove 124 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Super_League_Greece&diff=1237663219&oldid=1214969291
D.S. Lionesss https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:D.S._Lioness/sandbox&diff=1240028059&oldid=1239974293
I told you they act like communicating vessels. One complements the other. There is no difference. If you don't block her, you'll be forced to block me. I appreciate you immensely, but I won't back down. They want to pass the slanders about Marinakis to the Super Liq article. Over my dead body. Montigliani (talk) 09:02, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, the first diff is between 40 revisions by multiple users. A more specific diff would be , for example, and it could be compared to . I don't think that alone is similar enough to justify a checkuser check by itself, but perhaps there's more. Please let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:19, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- There is no difference here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:D.S._Lioness/sandbox&diff=1240028059&oldid=1240025327
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super_League_Greece&diff=prev&oldid=1215012633 In Corruption and violence they write exactly the same. Montigliani (talk) 11:03, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks. That's not much, but together with the sockpuppetry block of D.S. Lioness on elwiki, I did now have a look.
- D.S. Lioness is technically
Unrelated to Michalis1994 / EverLove124 / NikolaosFanaris. It is almost impossible for them to be the same person. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:20, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- They are not the same person, but they work together for the same purpose. They are definitely politically oriented people but for the purpose of propaganda. Montigliani (talk) 12:31, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Okay. So you are concerned about canvassing, if I understand correctly? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:56, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Yes. Montigliani (talk) 13:20, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Michalis1994. First let me say that I have no idea who the two users you mention are. Secondly, I am moved by your solidarity for her Dora Stroubouki Lioness. You are a gentleman. Well done. Montigliani (talk) 15:14, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, I understand the good faith aspect behind statements such as "I'm sorry it's a woman" when referring to someone having misbehaved, or describing solidarity for her as "gentleman"ship. However, the stronger the focus on an editor's gender is, the more inappropriate it is. I had ignored this above but it's appearing here again and please just shouldn't as it's completely unnecessary. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:38, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, I get it. The discussion in the entry is not closed. You shouldn't have allowed her to make changes. Michalis 1994 also comes and supports her. I don't know. Let them dance. I've tired you enough too. I'll handle them myself. Montigliani (talk) 17:01, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, I understand the good faith aspect behind statements such as "I'm sorry it's a woman" when referring to someone having misbehaved, or describing solidarity for her as "gentleman"ship. However, the stronger the focus on an editor's gender is, the more inappropriate it is. I had ignored this above but it's appearing here again and please just shouldn't as it's completely unnecessary. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:38, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Michalis1994. First let me say that I have no idea who the two users you mention are. Secondly, I am moved by your solidarity for her Dora Stroubouki Lioness. You are a gentleman. Well done. Montigliani (talk) 15:14, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Yes. Montigliani (talk) 13:20, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- Okay. So you are concerned about canvassing, if I understand correctly? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:56, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- I'm surprised you had to do a user check to find out I'm not Michalis 1994. It seems like you imagined I was addressing and conversing with myself when I was arguing with the user. Perhaps another administrator would be better suited to handle this issue. D.S. Lioness (talk) 16:58, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- D.S. Lioness, you're saying this as if I hadn't personally been asked by both of you to have a closer look at the situation. You're right, though. My work on this matter is done. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:03, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- They are not the same person, but they work together for the same purpose. They are definitely politically oriented people but for the purpose of propaganda. Montigliani (talk) 12:31, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
- although I am not at all obliged to give you an explanation, I will do so for the last time. I found this entry - which you retracted without reason - YESTERDAY, looking to see if you are Vrahomarinarer - and because it says important things from reliable sources I intend, after editing it, to include it in the article. If you don't like it, that's your problem. D.S. Lioness (talk) 17:11, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
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Voisava Kastrioti
Since you are familiar with the article, can you take a look? A few days ago AzorzaI tried to remove Bicoku, a well-known academic source as "fringe" . Marin Barleti, a biographer of Voisava, said she was of Triballi origin, and Bicoku argues that with "Triballi" Barleti meant "Bulgarian". After the first effort failed and other editors sorted this out on the talk page, AzorzaI is edit warring to add sources which say that Byzantine authors used the term "Triballi" for Serbs and to add "According to Bicoku" to make it look like Bicoku's conclusion is somehow of less importance . It has been explained to AzorzaI by several editors that the content is off-topic because his sources do not talk about Voisava or Barleti's use of the term "Triballi" (Barleti was not Byzantine, he was Albanian-Venetian). The term "Triballi" has been uses by different authors to refer to Serbs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Thracians amd who knows what else; only Barleti's meaning of the word is relevant to the article. Since AzorzaI continues his long-term, slow edit warring on the article in an WP:OWN pattern, can you do sth like a page restriction for the article (some articles have an 1RR for example) or a partial block on AzorzaI himself? Ktrimi991 (talk) 17:30, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- This year alone AzorzaI has 16 reverts on the article, roughly as much as the all the other editors combined. Can provide the diffs if needed. Ktrimi991 (talk) 17:37, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- There is also a history of him misusing sources to unconstructively push and highlight what appears to be a pro-Serb POV (it is debated in scholarship whether Voisava was of Albanian, Serb or Bulgarian origin):
- There he removes well-sourced content that elaborates on Voisava's name . He wants to keep only the part that says that "Voisava" is a Slavic name, and wants to remove the part that says that it was commonly used among Albanians as well. Apparently to reduce the "Albanianess" of the name.
- There he edit wars to add that "most" scholars support a South Slavic origin for Voisava . He does not have a RS saying that the Slavic origin is supported by "most" scholars; it is just his own conclusion.
- There he adds that Stanisha, one of Voisava's sons, "fought for Serbia" . Instead, the source says that Voisava's husband complained that he was forced to send one of his sons as a hostage to the Despot of Serbia, and that he sent Stanisha to help the Serbians. What AzorzaI wrote and what the source says are 2 different things.
- He adds attribution to Bicaku who says that Voisava's biographer, Marin Barleti, uses the term "Triballi" to refer to the Bulgarians, although Bicaku is the only RS in the article that elaborates on Barleti's usage of the term "Triballi". AzorzaI adds off-topic sources that say that Byzantine authors used the term "Triballi" for the Serbs. However, Barleti was not a Byzantine, and those Byzantine authors never talked about Voisava (they had died centuries earlier) and use the term "Triballi" in other contexts. He apparently adds the off-topic content and the attribution to Bicaku to make a Bulgarian origin look less likely or supported, and to highlight the possibility that Voisava was of Serb origin.
- If one goes deeper can find even more such cases where he takes things out of the context provided by the source, adds his own conclusions or removes those parts of the sourced content that apparently do not suit his POV. Ktrimi991 (talk) 19:29, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Ktrimi991, thank you very much for the detailed description of AzorzaI's behavior. I think WP:ANI would be a better venue for this report, so that there is a central venue to discuss it. I also see that Special:Diff/1164362757 may have discouraged you from discussing this with AzorzaI on their talk page. May I copy your messages to ANI? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:07, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- The thing is Balkan discussions at ANI/I rarely get solved for various reasons. Usually because discussions become "too long to read" and admins get discouraged from getting involved. Hence I prefer to seek a particular admin's attention. I chose you in this case because you are familiar with both the article and the editor. If you are not interested in getting involved, I will take this to AE. It takes time to prepare the diffs for an AE report, but from what I have seen Balkan issues always get sorted out there. Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:13, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Ktrimi991, oh right, that's a good idea. AE sounds ideal to me, and I agree that an ANI thread could end up being archived without responses. Your request is an honor to me and I feel bad for redirecting this to a noticeboard, but I'd really prefer AE in this situation. I hope this is okay. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:23, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- It is OK, no worries. I highly appreciate your work and communication skills, and I trust your judgement, hence I have come here in several cases to ask for your input. The AE report limit is 20 diffs, and that is OK to show the misuse of sources. However, to show the long-term, slow edit warring pattern should I just point out the article and the time period of the edit warring instead of providing diffs? Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:32, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you so much for the kind words! For showing edit warring, clever use of the page history parameters may be an idea. For example, when you open my talk page's history, the link is "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:ToBeFree&action=history". You could add "&offset=20220102235959&limit=200" to the link if you'd like to show 200 edits that happened before 2022-01-02 at 23:59:59. It is also possible to use the history's tag filter function to filter for reverted edits, but I wouldn't go that far as it hides edits and may make an disingenuous impression. That feature may be useful for collecting a list of diffs, though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:44, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. Using the page history parameter had not crossed my mind. It is good that I asked because the way I had planned to show the edit warring would drive admins away. lol Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:59, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
No problem. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:16, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you. Using the page history parameter had not crossed my mind. It is good that I asked because the way I had planned to show the edit warring would drive admins away. lol Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:59, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you so much for the kind words! For showing edit warring, clever use of the page history parameters may be an idea. For example, when you open my talk page's history, the link is "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:ToBeFree&action=history". You could add "&offset=20220102235959&limit=200" to the link if you'd like to show 200 edits that happened before 2022-01-02 at 23:59:59. It is also possible to use the history's tag filter function to filter for reverted edits, but I wouldn't go that far as it hides edits and may make an disingenuous impression. That feature may be useful for collecting a list of diffs, though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:44, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- It is OK, no worries. I highly appreciate your work and communication skills, and I trust your judgement, hence I have come here in several cases to ask for your input. The AE report limit is 20 diffs, and that is OK to show the misuse of sources. However, to show the long-term, slow edit warring pattern should I just point out the article and the time period of the edit warring instead of providing diffs? Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:32, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Ktrimi991, oh right, that's a good idea. AE sounds ideal to me, and I agree that an ANI thread could end up being archived without responses. Your request is an honor to me and I feel bad for redirecting this to a noticeboard, but I'd really prefer AE in this situation. I hope this is okay. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:23, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- The thing is Balkan discussions at ANI/I rarely get solved for various reasons. Usually because discussions become "too long to read" and admins get discouraged from getting involved. Hence I prefer to seek a particular admin's attention. I chose you in this case because you are familiar with both the article and the editor. If you are not interested in getting involved, I will take this to AE. It takes time to prepare the diffs for an AE report, but from what I have seen Balkan issues always get sorted out there. Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:13, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Ktrimi991, thank you very much for the detailed description of AzorzaI's behavior. I think WP:ANI would be a better venue for this report, so that there is a central venue to discuss it. I also see that Special:Diff/1164362757 may have discouraged you from discussing this with AzorzaI on their talk page. May I copy your messages to ANI? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:07, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
Question
I wanted to know if I can edit another section of the Super League Greece article - not the disputed one. Can I or will it be considered as edit warring? Thank you! D.S. Lioness (talk) 17:17, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
- D.S. Lioness, I won't judge. If someone ever deals with the report at WP:ANEW, you can ask them. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:53, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
Message from Preime TH regarding the articles about Prayut Chan-o-cha and Phumtham Wechayachai
Heading added ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:36, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
Hello, I need some help with this. Due to the article Prayut Chan-o-cha and Phumtham Wechayachai there is Vandalism by deleting the position of Privy Councillor and Deputy Minister of Transport by IP. I tried to get him to stop making unconstructive edits. But there's no sign of stopping. Can you help with Protection? Preime TH (talk) 06:08, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Preime TH, thank you very much for the notification. If I see correctly, the article about Srettha Thavisin is affected by the recent political discussions as well. I wasn't aware of these, but it seems reasonable to semi-protect all three pages for a while. Please let me know if this turns out to be insufficient to prevent violations of the biographies of living persons policy or edit wars. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:52, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- thank you very much If any article has a lot of harassment or is in the middle of an editing war, I will report it to you. Preime TH (talk) 15:11, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
I want you to do it
I would like you to finish this case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Edit_warring#User:Montigliani_and_User:D.S._Lioness_reported_by_User:ToBeFree_(Result:_). Whatever it is, even at my expense. Do what you think is right. I'm not going to hold a grudge against you if it's against me. You helped me when you didn't know me and if you punish me now that you know me, it means I'm doing something wrong. It's also not my intention to punish the other user. I just want to break free. To know if I can continue writing or go home. So please make the decision yourself. Montigliani (talk) 21:56, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, I'm sorry for having caused, or even causing, you stress. I understand that being on Wikipedia with a sword of Damocles in form of an open report with a block recommendation hovering above you is extremely unpleasant, and (hopefully obviously) not what I intended to happen. I had hoped for a quick resolution, which admittedly would probably not have been the fairest one.
- I think there is one piece of information that you are currently missing yet that could reduce your stress: Not all reports are actioned before being automatically archived.
- The edit-warring noticeboard, differently than others (WP:RFPP, WP:AIV), has no bot that removes reports based on "done" templates or actions from administrators. There is no bot that automatically closes a report because the reported user has been blocked; there is no automatic archival based on which reports are done and which are not. There's just archival based on inactivity, 48 hours to be precise. If no message is added to a section for 48 hours, a bot comes and silently archives it. You can verify this configuration by checking the top of the source code of the page, where it says "2d" for 2 days.
- Also, reports are sometimes formally declared as "Stale" by an administrator when the active edit war is over and there's no preventative need to block someone for an issue far in the past.
- I can't action the report because I am still afraid the best approach would be an indefinite block for now, and I don't longer feel being in a position to place it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:39, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- I admit I didn't understand exactly what you mean. But I liked that you answered me nicely, because I thought you hated me. However, if you think I should be banned indefinitely, do it. Don't hesitate. I think I am right in this argument, but that is beside the point. Thanks again for everything. Montigliani (talk) 23:10, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, thanks for the kind words, and I think I don't hate anyone. I certainly don't hate you. I was annoyed by your behavior for a while but since I no longer need to mediate or sanction in this conflict, I'm just relieved. This is also why, however, I won't jump into another session of arguments and accusations by making myself accountable for a block in this matter anymore. If someone blocks you, you can discuss it with them, and if everyone else turns out to be a block-evading sockpuppet, I won't need to unblock with an apology either. It's comfortable to stay away. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:31, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- Οκ. Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:SpacedFarmer trying to delete the super league formula one entries. It looks like a Nikolaos Fanaris puppet to me. Montigliani (talk) 20:11, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- and of course his entourage ran to consent https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Olympiacos_CFP_(Superleague_Formula_team)&action=history Montigliani (talk) 20:14, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- and see They have the same cookie treat on their talk page https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Glucken123&diff=prev&oldid=963687579#A_belated_welcome! and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:SpacedFarmer
- They also talk in the same sassy way. It's him. I hope you now understand how dangerous they are. Montigliani (talk) 20:44, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- I lack words to describe my feelings about you reverting that user's contributions already ( ). Montigliani, being blocked after editing isn't block evasion. There may be sockpuppetry in play, but that should be reported at WP:SPI instead. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:46, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- I got carried away. Sorry. However, it is he, they, they have no end. Montigliani (talk) 20:50, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- I'm trying to mention him here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations
- I don't know if I'll make it, at least tonight. I can't do it... Montigliani (talk) 21:00, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/SpacedFarmer I think I did it. Easy, but I struggled. Montigliani (talk) 21:36, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- I got carried away. Sorry. However, it is he, they, they have no end. Montigliani (talk) 20:50, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- I lack words to describe my feelings about you reverting that user's contributions already ( ). Montigliani, being blocked after editing isn't block evasion. There may be sockpuppetry in play, but that should be reported at WP:SPI instead. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:46, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- and of course his entourage ran to consent https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Olympiacos_CFP_(Superleague_Formula_team)&action=history Montigliani (talk) 20:14, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- Οκ. Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:SpacedFarmer trying to delete the super league formula one entries. It looks like a Nikolaos Fanaris puppet to me. Montigliani (talk) 20:11, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
- Montigliani, thanks for the kind words, and I think I don't hate anyone. I certainly don't hate you. I was annoyed by your behavior for a while but since I no longer need to mediate or sanction in this conflict, I'm just relieved. This is also why, however, I won't jump into another session of arguments and accusations by making myself accountable for a block in this matter anymore. If someone blocks you, you can discuss it with them, and if everyone else turns out to be a block-evading sockpuppet, I won't need to unblock with an apology either. It's comfortable to stay away. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:31, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
- I admit I didn't understand exactly what you mean. But I liked that you answered me nicely, because I thought you hated me. However, if you think I should be banned indefinitely, do it. Don't hesitate. I think I am right in this argument, but that is beside the point. Thanks again for everything. Montigliani (talk) 23:10, 16 August 2024 (UTC)
RUSUKR
Hi ToBeFree, I created a report at ANI due to a non-extended confirmed editor continuing to not follow WP:RUSUKR (along with various other disruptive edits). I gave them a final warning about RUSUKR after they made a revert (without giving a valid reason) a few days ago. Despite this, they made another edit about the war after this. They have also never responded on their talk page. Unfortunately, no administrator (or any other editor) has responded to that report yet. Can you take a look at this if you have time? Thank you. Mellk (talk) 15:21, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Mellk, thank you very much for reporting this at ANI and for the notification about the lack of action there.
Done ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:58, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
COI issue at Cute Is What We Aim For
Someone claiming to be Fred Cimato has been using two different accounts (Ciwwafred in July and Fredciwwaf today) plus at least one IPv6 range to edit there. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:18, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much! Special:Diff/1241009833 is interesting. I've had a look at the two accounts and think the creation of the second account is fine as long as the old account remains unused/abandoned. Most people probably simply don't know how/where they could ask for a rename, and are certainly unaware of Special:GlobalRenameRequest. The article has been subject to disruption in general, so I have protected it for now, and I have removed the list of band member names due to a lack of citations. Best regards, ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:56, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
You obviously didn't notice
You have removed 9494 bytes of Michalis1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1238788422
D.R.Lioness he brought it all back gradually and in a different order 1)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1238808123 1230 bytes 2)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1238988653 1202 bytes 3)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1238991236 452 bytes 4)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1239230416 646 bytes 5)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1239516487 3248 bytes 6)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelos_Marinakis&diff=prev&oldid=1239517330 319 bytes 7)in between about others 100 bytes
brought back about 7500 bytes that is. Removed about 1800 from the covid 19 adventure and tipped the scales. I told you there is a big scam here. But everything is in your hands and you are too late. Montigliani (talk) 22:49, 18 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have read this message. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:11, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
- The same here. He brought it back with a different title and tweaks, but with the same unreliable sources.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super_League_Greece&diff=1241045405&oldid=1241044922 Montigliani (talk) 05:47, 19 August 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-34
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MediaWiki message delivery 00:51, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
I am disappointed
I don't understand your attitude which continues to be hostile towards me. Do you forget what he has done? 1) brings back contributions by Nikolaos Fanaris 2)Ignores the talk page 3) He's slandering me for stealing, when it turns out he's lying. 4)He says he wants to destroy wikipedia and will make a fan forum. 5) is blocked indefinitely in the Greek Wikipedia and here in an article. 6) He slanders V. Marinakis in his article and accuses me of wanting to whitewash him! I told you he has fooled you there.
You ignore all this. Yesterday he didn't even respond to your suggestion, which I thought was excellent. But you still think I'm bad and she's good. OK!
I am writing to you because at ANI the other administrators do not know the case and apparently do not read what proofs I give and what she gives. Anyway. I'm tired and frustrated. You abandoned me, while you have all the evidence to exclude her. It does not matter. I expect you to punish only me. With true appreciation, but also with great bitterness... Montigliani (talk) 09:03, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Montigliani,
- I think I made a mistake in Special:Diff/1240118860; I didn't want to cause the impression that ignoring gender by referring to everyone as "he" is better than referring to D.S. Lioness using singular they or checking her preference using
{{they|D.S. Lioness}}. - If there's a specific edit of mine that is hostile and/or has upset you, please give me a link to it so I can apologize for specific words or can explain why I used them.
- In
I expect you to punish only me
, I hope "you" is plural, towards the group of administrators. Because I personally see no need to "punish" anyone, and I will generally obviously avoid getting administratively involved in the matter again. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:10, 20 August 2024 (UTC)- I would like your opinion there at ANI. The time has come for them to decide for us. I want to hear your opinion. It is very important to me. I was here for 10 months and I felt like you were my guardian angel. I just want you to tell the truth. What you believe. Montigliani (talk) 21:53, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
- I believe you should not edit Wikipedia in the way you did so far, either by avoiding the topic or avoiding editors you have previously frequently interacted with. This includes persistently asking me for an opinion I mostly already provided or actions I already refused to take. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:55, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
- I understood. Thank you very much. Montigliani (talk) 22:13, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
- I believe you should not edit Wikipedia in the way you did so far, either by avoiding the topic or avoiding editors you have previously frequently interacted with. This includes persistently asking me for an opinion I mostly already provided or actions I already refused to take. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:55, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
- I would like your opinion there at ANI. The time has come for them to decide for us. I want to hear your opinion. It is very important to me. I was here for 10 months and I felt like you were my guardian angel. I just want you to tell the truth. What you believe. Montigliani (talk) 21:53, 20 August 2024 (UTC)
User:Nougat10
This user, after having been warned and given a content block, continues to edit the Russian-Ukrainian war topics, avoiding a technical 3-revert only because it’s taken them four days]. Bearian (talk) 04:32, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Bearian, thanks for the notification! Note that WP:GS/RUSUKR, contrary to the Arbitration Committee's extended confirmed restriction, does allow "constructive comments" on article talk pages, so the main issue is directly editing the article about Korenevo, Korenevsky District, Kursk Oblast, not the (more recent) talk page editing. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:01, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
Thank you
Thank you for dealing with an edit warrior. Bearian (talk) 21:49, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
- Oh – thanks for the kind response!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:50, 21 August 2024 (UTC)
preventing miss info
im sorry for the editing war but for a first block is 2 weeks way to much i just get really annoyed by the people not able accepting the truth wat nintendo decides 87.210.159.212 (talk) 23:12, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi 87.210.159.212, you can still edit Talk:Mario Kart, Template talk:Mario Kart and Category talk:Mario Kart. A discussion about your concern has already been started at Template talk:Mario Kart § Mario Kart Tour, and you'd be welcome to join it. Or, if you are no longer interested enough to have a discussion, you can always disengage from the conflict and edit one of the other 6,871,287 articles. The two weeks are meant to discourage waiting for the block's expiration. If you do just wait 2 weeks and continue as before, I'd re-block for a few months. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:16, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
- god damm for a first block 2 weeks is really harsh for a first block should be atleast 3 days or more but 2 weeks is wayover board for a first block 87.210.159.212 (talk) 23:30, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
- It should not make a difference because you shouldn't continue after 3 days either, but I find that more likely than you continuing after two weeks while completely ignoring the discussion offer. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:31, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
- god damm for a first block 2 weeks is really harsh for a first block should be atleast 3 days or more but 2 weeks is wayover board for a first block 87.210.159.212 (talk) 23:30, 22 August 2024 (UTC)
Beware of the sockpuppet
Michalis 1994 is back with a new puppet (when you blocked his ip)- which, what else? - vandalized one of my edits. Because I took the time and effort to create this section, and because sockpuppet undid it with the false excuse that I was blocked - which you clearly are not, because if I were blocked I could not add it - please do what you have to do to protect the article. Thank you very much. 188.4.124.122 (talk) 00:48, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
Happy First Edit Day!
| Happy First Edit Day! Hi ToBeFree! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy anniversary of the day you made your first edit and became a Wikipedian! The Herald (Benison) (talk) 04:22, 23 August 2024 (UTC) |
Hey The Herald, thank you very much! Time flies! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:37, 23 August 2024 (UTC)
Leroy Cronin
Seems we have a fan of Prof. Cronin vacationing in California. Just one instance of non-neutral content so far but maybe someone to keep an eye on. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:55, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much for the notification! This clearly remains a hot topic, and I think 157.231.25.11 and 184.176.65.42 may have a conflict of interest. They geolocate to two different continents and seem to cooperate on taking focus away from the contentious section that led to extended-confirmed protection for a now-expired year. That was three weeks ago; now 12.208.167.242 comes around with Special:Diff/1241914098. I don't think the article should continue being edited without registration for now. If the promotion continues through the semi-protection, please let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:59, 24 August 2024 (UTC)
- No problem. That's been on my watchlist ever since the whitewashing of his suspension started. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 00:19, 25 August 2024 (UTC)
Message from Montigliani
A liar is always a liar and a thief is always a thief. Watch and I hope you understand https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/%CE%9C%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B1_%CE%B7_%CE%86%CF%83%CF%87%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B7 Montigliani (talk) 14:44, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- Ηere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:D.S._Lioness#I_will_be_honest
- Now you're being mean and unfair, Μαρίνα η άσχημη. D.S. Lioness (talk) 18:20, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- You didn't put this up first
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Evangelos_Marinakis#Request_for_comment
- Now why are you doing the exact opposite? Also, the reference you give is from the site of Makis Triantafyllopoulos. Are you kidding us? Who is Marina the ugly one? What exactly does this mean? Montigliani (talk)
- she is herself talking to herself in the first link Montigliani (talk) 15:11, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- and this https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User_talk:%CE%9C%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B1_%CE%B7_%CE%86%CF%83%CF%87%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B7 Montigliani (talk) 15:46, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- You are totally out of your mind. D.S. Lioness (talk) 17:31, 14 August 2024 (UTC)
- I have read the messages above. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:10, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-35
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
Administrators can now test the temporary accounts feature on test2wiki. This was done to allow cross-wiki testing of temporary accounts, for when temporary accounts switch between projects. The feature was enabled on testwiki a few weeks ago. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Temporary Accounts is a project to create a new type of user account that replaces IP addresses of unregistered editors which are no longer made public. Please share your opinions and questions on the project talk page.- Later this week, editors at wikis that use FlaggedRevs (also known as "Pending Changes") may notice that the indicators at the top of articles have changed. This change makes the system more consistent with the rest of the MediaWiki interface.
Bugs status
- Editors who use the 2010 wikitext editor, and use the Character Insert buttons, will no longer experience problems with the buttons adding content into the edit-summary instead of the edit-window. You can read more about that, and 26 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Project updates
Please review and vote on Focus Areas, which are groups of wishes that share a problem. Focus Areas were created for the newly reopened Community Wishlist, which is now open year-round for submissions. The first batch of focus areas are specific to moderator workflows, around welcoming newcomers, minimizing repetitive tasks, and prioritizing tasks. Once volunteers have reviewed and voted on focus areas, the Foundation will then review and select focus areas for prioritization.- Do you have a project and are willing to provide a three (3) month mentorship for an intern? Outreachy is a twice a year program for people to participate in a paid internship that will start in December 2024 and end in early March 2025, and they need mentors and projects to work on. Projects can be focused on coding or non-coding (design, documentation, translation, research). See the Outreachy page for more details, and a list of past projects since 2013.
Learn more
- If you're curious about the product and technology improvements made by the Wikimedia Foundation last year, read this recent highlights summary on Diff.
- To learn more about the technology behind the Wikimedia projects, you can now watch sessions from the technology track at Wikimania 2024 on Commons. This week, check out:
- Community Configuration - Shaping On-Wiki Functionality Together (55 mins) - about the Community Configuration project.
- Future of MediaWiki. A sustainable platform to support a collaborative user base and billions of page views (30 mins) - an overview for both technical and non technical audiences, covering some of the challenges and open questions, related to the platform evolution, stewardship and developer experiences research.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:30, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
BLP issue at Michelle Salzman
Hey, check out this edit & edit summary when you get a chance. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:06, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much. The content had originally been added by a user named RealTruther2020 and removal appears to implement Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons § Avoid victimization. At very least, it has been removed in good faith and must not simply be restored. I am thus happy to see that noone has done so. If this changes, please let me know.
- I have considered semi-protecting the page, as I often do when there are signs of sudden disruptive attention from outside Wikipedia, but it wouldn't be appropriate to do so in response to a good unregistered contribution. I'd certainly protect if there was any kind of edit-warring about this content. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:35, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- PS: I did also notice that someone already claimed to be the article subject in the revision history of the article, but I didn't verify this in any way and even if it's logged-out editing, it's clearly not done with an intent to deceive. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:37, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
A cup of tea for you!
| Hello ToBeFree,
Thanks for your contribution to Wikipedia. Could you please officially close the two RfCs below that have the same purpose: to decide on a new Trump profile picture? 1. RfC: Trump infobox photo 2. RfC: Trump photo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:2024_United_States_presidential_election#Alternative_options%3F Goodtiming8871 (talk) 13:03, 26 August 2024 (UTC) |
- Hi Goodtiming8871, it's an honor to be asked to close a specific RfC. Thank you very much for asking and for the tea. I currently won't find the time to close the discussion and generally avoid closing RfCs. I think WP:RFCL might be a better place for requesting such closures. Best regards, ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:52, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
A bowl of strawberries for you!
| Thank you for your kind suggeston for closing RfC. Goodtiming8871 (talk) 01:18, 27 August 2024 (UTC) |
- Thank you very much for the kind feedback and for the strawberries! I love strawberries.

~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:34, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
BLP issue at Constantino Mendieta
Seems we have a whitewashing issue similar to what happened with Leroy Cronin's supension (i.e.: declaring sources as invalid, with their content not proven in court and negatively impacting the subject). –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:03, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thanks – I think Tom4460 might have an undisclosed conflict of interest. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:58, 28 August 2024 (UTC)
Update required for File:Flag of India.svg
Hey Tobi 👋 Could you update the svg from the Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_India.svg Danke :) — DaxServer (t·m·e·c) 08:15, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- Hi DaxServer, thanks for asking!
Done – if I see correctly, the file is used on over 400,000 pages; it may take a (long) while for all of them to display the updated version one day. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:31, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- ...thinking about it again, it's not the same as with templates. Nah, the change will probably be visible relatively quickly as there is no permalink to a specific revision of the image coded into the Wikipedia pages. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:33, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you Tobi 👌 BTW did you attend the Wikimania couple of weeks ago?
- Speaking of which, I just noticed @Jeff0justin is using your userpage and thus impersonating you — DaxServer (t·m·e·c) 08:43, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, it was wonderful! 😊 But I've noticed that I lack practice speaking English, struggling with the small talk a bit.
- Regarding the user page, uh, strange. Perhaps a trolling response to the page protection. Or – which would be okay – a first design revision to build an own userpage from. But it shouldn't explicitly claim being me as a person, even if it is meant to be changed later. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:55, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
- ...thinking about it again, it's not the same as with templates. Nah, the change will probably be visible relatively quickly as there is no permalink to a specific revision of the image coded into the Wikipedia pages. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:33, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2024).
- Following an RfC, there is a new criterion for speedy deletion: C4, which
applies to unused maintenance categories, such as empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past
. - A request for comment is open to discuss whether Notability (species) should be adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.
- Following a motion, remedies 5.1 and 5.2 of World War II and the history of Jews in Poland (the topic and interaction bans on My very best wishes, respectively) were repealed.
- Remedy 3C of the German war effort case ("Cinderella157 German history topic ban") was suspended for a period of six months.
- The arbitration case Historical Elections is currently open. Proposed decision is expected by 3 September 2024 for this case.
- Editors can now enter into good article review circles, an alternative for informal quid pro quo arrangements, to have a GAN reviewed in return for reviewing a different editor's nomination.
- A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in September 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,900 articles and 26,200 redirects awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
Tech News: 2024-36
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Editors and volunteer developers interested in data visualisation can now test the new software for charts. Its early version is available on beta Commons and beta Wikipedia. This is an important milestone before making charts available on regular wikis. You can read more about this project update and help to test the charts.
Feature news
- Editors who use the Special:UnusedTemplates page can now filter out pages which are expected to be there permanently, such as sandboxes, test-cases, and templates that are always substituted. Editors can add the new magic word
__EXPECTUNUSEDTEMPLATE__to a template page to hide it from the listing. Thanks to Sophivorus and DannyS712 for these improvements. - Editors who use the New Topic tool on discussion pages, will now be reminded to add a section header, which should help reduce the quantity of newcomers who add sections without a header. You can read more about that, and 28 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
- Last week, some Toolforge tools had occasional connection problems. The cause is still being investigated, but the problems have been resolved for now.
- Translation administrators at multilingual wikis, when editing multiple translation units, can now easily mark which changes require updates to the translation. This is possible with the new dropdown menu.
Project updates
- A new draft text of a policy discussing the use of Wikimedia's APIs has been published on Meta-Wiki. The draft text does not reflect a change in policy around the APIs; instead, it is an attempt to codify existing API rules. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome on the proposed update’s talk page until September 13 or until those discussions have concluded.
Learn more
- To learn more about the technology behind the Wikimedia projects, you can now watch sessions from the technology track at Wikimania 2024 on Commons. This week, check out:
- Charts, the successor of Graphs - A secure and extensible tool for data visualization (25 mins) – about the above-mentioned Charts project.
- State of Language Technology and Onboarding at Wikimedia (90 mins) – about some of the language tools that support Wikimedia sites, such as Content/Section Translation, MinT, and LanguageConverter; also the current state and future of languages onboarding.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 01:04, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 4 September 2024
- News and notes: WikiCup enters final round, MCDC wraps up activities, 17-year-old hoax article unmasked
JCW compilation now tracks free DOIs, Wiki Loves Monuments getting started, WMF's status as UN observer stymied by China for fourth time.
- In the media: AI is not playing games anymore. Is Wikipedia ready?
Updates from the Portland pol's case, the war in Gaza, and other Wiki-related reports.
- Recent research: Simulated Wikipedia seen as less credible than ChatGPT and Alexa in experiment
And other new research findings
- News from the WMF: Meet the 12 candidates running in the WMF Board of Trustees election
Who are they, why are they running and what are they bringing to the Board?
- Wikimania: A month after Wikimania 2024
What all happened in Katowice?
- Serendipity: What it's like to be Wikimedian of the Year
Hannah Clover shares her fondest memories of her first Wikimania.
- Traffic report: After the gold rush
The Olympics (yay!) and the American election (oh no).
- Humour: Local man halfway through rude reply no longer able to recall why he hates other editor
"I can't remember whether he is an incompetent moron, or an incorrigible POV warrior, or some other thing, but either way, to hell with him."
COI issue at Family Policy Alliance
Seems we have we have somebody with a bucket of whitewash. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:53, 4 September 2024 (UTC)
- I'll try to keep an eye on it, but there's currently just one edit (split up into two technical actions, but still just one removal) and no evidence of something else than someone with a disclosed conflict of interest being bold. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:09, 4 September 2024 (UTC)
- The claim that FPA Georgia, headed by Cole Muzio, never had anything to do with them is demonstrably false. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:14, 4 September 2024 (UTC)
Verifiability and namespace
Hello, ToBeFree. I noticed this old comment of yours at MediaWiki talk:Editpage-head-copy-warn regarding verifiability of drafts, and was surprised. Please be aware that WP:V applies strictly to main space, and not to Draft space, User space (sandboxes, subpages) or anything else. This can be seen in paragraph two at WP:Verifiability. (Note also that the string 'draft' appears nowhere on that page.) It must be so, otherwise the whole point of draft space as a relatively protected area to develop one's article (with the help of others, if they wish to join in) where many of the rules don't apply would be lost, and a draft would have to be releasable at every moment and no different than main space, so you might as well just develop there. We *want* editors to have a place where the rules are relaxed, so the rest of us don't have to hover, looking for problems that will hopefully be gone before submission or release.
A draft needn't be cited (if you plan to do that later), it needn't have encyclopedic tone (if you plan to fix that up later), it needn't be in English (if you are working on a translation) and it needn't even be notable (although you are engaging in a futile, time-wasting pursuit if it is not as it will eventually be deleted). None of the usual content policies apply in draft space, and drafts are not checked for adherence to content P&G until they are submitted to WP:AFC, or until they are released by the author (but then they are in mainspace, and all rules apply). Naturally, policies with legal implications still apply, so no copyvio, libel, and so on. I frequently write my drafts full of raw notes, messages to myself, questions about approaches to look into, bare urls in the middle of a sentence, andd even red messages so I don't forget something, and it's all good. I didn't respond at the thread because it was old and seemed kind of o/t, but I thought I ought to mention it. Cheers, Mathglot (talk) 03:42, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Mathglot, the text "Encyclopedic content must be verifiable through citations to reliable sources." is currently shown as part of the copyright information when editing any page including noticeboards, user talk pages and drafts. I see no issue with this text being displayed when editing mainspace and draft pages, especially as this includes drafts about living people where WP:BLP does apply, and drafts of articles written to be immediately submitted via AfC by newcomers. My point is primarily about whether the text should be displayed in the Wikipedia, MediaWiki, User talk et cetera namespaces, not whether WP:V applies to the draft namespace. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:07, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-37
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Feature news
- Starting this week, the standard syntax highlighter will receive new colors that make them compatible in dark mode. This is the first of many changes to come as part of a major upgrade to syntax highlighting. You can learn more about what's to come on the help page.
- Editors of wikis using Wikidata will now be notified of only relevant Wikidata changes in their watchlist. This is because the Lua functions
entity:getSitelink()andmw.wikibase.getSitelink(qid)will have their logic unified for tracking different aspects of sitelinks to reduce junk notifications from inconsistent sitelinks tracking.
Project updates
- Users of all Wikis will have access to Wikimedia sites as read-only for a few minutes on September 25, starting at 15:00 UTC. This is a planned datacenter switchover for maintenance purposes. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis in the coming weeks.
- Contributors of 11 Wikipedias, including English will have a new
MOSnamespace added to their Wikipedias. This improvement ensures that links beginning withMOS:(usually shortcuts to the Manual of Style) are not broken by Mooré Wikipedia (language codemos).
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 18:49, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
BLP & COI issues at Romero Britto
Evidently being edited by the subject or his employee(s) and a COIN discussion back in May hasn't deterred them. Take a look at the IP's WHOIS when you get a chance. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:00, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
- Interesting, thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:53, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
Question
Does this look like gaming? I warned the editor several times to not make edits about the Russo-Ukrainian war, but they persisted until I started a discussion on ANI (as is usual, no one cared enough to take any action). Now, they have made dozens of edits in the past few days that consist of adding language templates in references (such as this), often several such edits per article. Almost immediately after 500 total edits, they asked an admin if there is supposed to be a notification for receiving XC access level because they were told about the general sanctions, which suggests that they made those edits in order to bypass the restriction. Mellk (talk) 15:20, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Mellk, thank you very much for the notification. Courtesy ping: Alex091981. I have revoked the extended confirmation for now and explained this at . ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:43, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
- He asked me about it in Russian on my talk page, as noted in the link. I explained (likewise in Russian) that you revoked it for PGAMEing. Daniel Case (talk) 04:32, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
Daniel Case, I wasn't aware you speak Russian – not that I'd have been able to use it – and am amazed by how different your languages are compared to each other (Russian, English, Arabic writing systems!) Thanks for answering their question in a situation where it may perhaps have resolved language issues/misunderstandings. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:13, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I haven't gone full into Chinese. Though I have had the opportunity in the past. But it literally is a different writing system, not just a different alphabet. Daniel Case (talk) 01:18, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- 😃 ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:45, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I haven't gone full into Chinese. Though I have had the opportunity in the past. But it literally is a different writing system, not just a different alphabet. Daniel Case (talk) 01:18, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for explaining this to them in detail. I have also given them some guidance on their talk page on checking the documentation for the template, since they incorrectly used it in some edits. Mellk (talk) 14:31, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- No problem. Mellk, you mean {{lang-uk}} et cetera? I have to admit I hadn't even noticed them in articles before these mass additions. I do like the use of (HTML or templated) language tags to assist tools like screen readers with converting a page to other forms like audio. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:15, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- They were using
{{In lang}}but the documentation says that if a citation template is already used then the|language=parameter in that template should be used instead. So in this edit it would have been better to have used that parameter in{{cite web}}. But I suppose this is a fairly minor issue. Mellk (talk) 11:06, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- They were using
- No problem. Mellk, you mean {{lang-uk}} et cetera? I have to admit I hadn't even noticed them in articles before these mass additions. I do like the use of (HTML or templated) language tags to assist tools like screen readers with converting a page to other forms like audio. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:15, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- He asked me about it in Russian on my talk page, as noted in the link. I explained (likewise in Russian) that you revoked it for PGAMEing. Daniel Case (talk) 04:32, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
Edit-war on the Kuči tribe page
Hi @ToBeFree,
User Alltan (talk · contribs) has been edit-warring for weeks on the Kuči (tribe) to remove sourced content, including a monograph from a recognized expert of the tribe, the historian Rastislav Petrović, references to another expert, Branislav Djurdjev, and a few other references as well. They have already reverted 3 times today, , and . And since August, they have reverted quite often too, most often over content they don't agree with:
They are usually careful not to break the 3RR so other users sharing the same interests come in their place and revert mostly without discussion, acting with the behavior of a WP:TAGTEAM. The talk page is useless in this case, as they don't want to discuss, using WP:STONEWALLING to present their point of view as the "consensus". Krisitor (talk) 13:38, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- I am not involved in that content dispute, but Krisitor's accusation above that Alltan is invovlved in tag-teaming editing deserves a strong reaction. Krisitor keeps accusing others of "tag teaming", although I warned them that accusations of tag teaming without evidence are personal attacks . Enough is enough. These accusations have gone beyond any acceptable limit. Ktrimi991 (talk) 13:52, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- There was a very good report about the tag-team activities a few years ago, Alltan being mentioned there: . The fact that no administrative action has been taken to put an end to this obvious coordinated behavior does not mean that it does not exist. And as I said in this RfC, I have stopped working on the Kuči page because its content is clearly controlled by the same users. I was hoping the RfC would change that, but it hasn't. Krisitor (talk) 14:04, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- Seems funny that you post this here, and one of the accused in that report replies to you in less than 15 minutes. :D
- Btw, i got notification so please check if you replied to me on that thread, or to Alltan. Setxkbmap (talk) 14:07, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- I have this tp on my watchlist as I have been involved here several times in the past. Big surprise, no? And I am not even defending Alltan about the edit warring accusation, as I have no idea what that content dispute is about. Ktrimi991 (talk) 14:21, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- You have TP of a random admin in your watchlist? Setxkbmap (talk) 14:23, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- That's not unusual, and it's fine. Ktrimi991 has edited this page 11 times before Krisitor added their message. Of course it can be on their watchlist. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:57, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, i made a mistake. He did reply to me down here and i stopped further convo. Setxkbmap (talk) 00:01, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- I have even put the blue "Please click here to add a new message!" button on my own tp :) TBF, I don't want to be time-consuming, but what about my concern of Krisitor's incivility with continuous, unproven tag-teaming accusations? If you see my concern as valid, could you formally warn/sanction Krisitor so they refrain from repeating them? Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:35, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, i made a mistake. He did reply to me down here and i stopped further convo. Setxkbmap (talk) 00:01, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- That's not unusual, and it's fine. Ktrimi991 has edited this page 11 times before Krisitor added their message. Of course it can be on their watchlist. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:57, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- You have TP of a random admin in your watchlist? Setxkbmap (talk) 14:23, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- I have this tp on my watchlist as I have been involved here several times in the past. Big surprise, no? And I am not even defending Alltan about the edit warring accusation, as I have no idea what that content dispute is about. Ktrimi991 (talk) 14:21, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- @Krisitor. **That report from years ago proved nothing. It was written by an editor who is continuous conflicts with the accused editors, and the admins who looked at it were not convinced. You have a long history of accusing other editors of "tag teaming" without proving it with evidence, and you are doing it again after I warned you that unless you prove it at ANI/I or AE, it is a personal attack. Also, taking a look at the article's tp, what is that crude personal attack about
This article has been confiscated for years by Greater Albanian nationalists
?! Ktrimi991 (talk) 14:17, 11 September 2024 (UTC)- How did you get to this page? :) Setxkbmap (talk) 14:19, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- See above and don't make silly questions. Ktrimi991 (talk) 14:22, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- The tag teaming from the same group of editors pushing a POV Albanian spin has occurred for years. Enough is enough, this joke of a circus can’t keep going on. It’s utterly stupid. What’s next, Illyrian Arnauti have been around since the Jurassic period? Athens was settled by Souliotes ? Vaxjo-Agoy-Tetovo-Gjovik (talk) 20:24, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- See above and don't make silly questions. Ktrimi991 (talk) 14:22, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- How did you get to this page? :) Setxkbmap (talk) 14:19, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- There was a very good report about the tag-team activities a few years ago, Alltan being mentioned there: . The fact that no administrative action has been taken to put an end to this obvious coordinated behavior does not mean that it does not exist. And as I said in this RfC, I have stopped working on the Kuči page because its content is clearly controlled by the same users. I was hoping the RfC would change that, but it hasn't. Krisitor (talk) 14:04, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Krisitor, Alltan, Ktrimi991 and Setxkbmap,
- I have now extended-confirmed protected the article, excluding Setxkbmap from editing it for now, with advice on their talk page.
- Alltan and Krisitor have received a formal warning addressing both ( ). They are partially blocked from editing the article for 2 weeks.
- I have additionally indefinitely blocked Vaxjo-Agoy-Tetovo-Gjovik as a disruption-only account.
- The formal warning to Krisitor doesn't explicitly mention casting aspersions as a form of disruptive editing, but of course casting aspersions is disruptive. I'm not entirely sure if that has happened here, and it needs to remain possible to complain about perceived misbehavior on noticeboards (preferably) or administrators' talk pages (ideally not, and avoiding forum shopping). This needs to remain possible even when the perception is wrong, unless it's repeatedly wrong. But I did take action in response to the report, so the report was helpful and I can't complain. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:46, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Vaxjo account is sock of same guy that created account yesterday, with the same idea. Setxkbmap (talk) 00:49, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Setxkbmap, which account? Could you copy the username here? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:51, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- I think it was this dude User:KustrimiAbdu
- I could be wrong, but it's same behaviour as yesterday. Setxkbmap (talk) 00:53, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Setxkbmap, independently of whether it was the same person, thank you very much for reporting this. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:10, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Setxkbmap, which account? Could you copy the username here? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:51, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- I am sure that Krisitor's comments are within the definition of personal attacks, as in the past other editors have been warned and blocked for making unproven tag-team accusations. Repeatedly making the same accusation without having it proven certainly is not acceptable . Anyways, I respect your stance on the issue. Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:53, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Ktrimi991, thanks for pointing this out. Especially the edit summaries of and are indeed personal attacks to me. Special:Diff/1232595103 is also unacceptable. Krisitor has received their warning already but should of course be aware of this. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:09, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Vaxjo account is sock of same guy that created account yesterday, with the same idea. Setxkbmap (talk) 00:49, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Setxkbmap, I was a bit curious how a supposedly new editor was familiar with many things on Wiki. After taking a look at your editing history, the question that comes to mind is: what is your connection with User:NekSeOvajVijekGordi? You created your account on August 9, 2023, just two days after NekSeOvajVijekGordi was blocked for socking (I was the editor who reported him). I noted at his SPI that he edited only the Kuci article. Over 95% of your edits are either on Kuci or on closely related articles. You are both Kuci-focued SPAs. Coincidance? He added Anna Ivanovic as a famous member of the tribe , so did you . It is interesting that both his first edit on enwiki and your first edit argued for Anna Ivanovic as a special case of notability among the tribe members . He argued that Muamer Zurkolic is not part of the tribe , so did you . He made a highly disputed claim that in 1455 the Kuci and the related tribes requested that they have only Orthodox priests , so did you . The fact that both of you edit warred against multiple editors over the same controversial medieval document is quite suspicious. Not to mention that both of you tried every possible way to dispute the statement that the Kuci tribe is only of Albanian origin. There are many diffs on that. He had the habit to keep saying "my bad" all the time . Why do you have the same habit ? Next time you create a sock, be more careful. TBF, if you are convinced with the evidence, please block him. Otherwise I will take this to SPI. Ktrimi991 (talk) 16:05, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- I didn't start here, i started on Serbian Wiki.
- As the rest goes, i was asked by another editor if i had a wiki account before, and i did have one 10 years ago on serbo-croatian wikipedia, but i lost that account because i don't have access to mail anymore, my bad :)
- As for the editor in question, i don't see how Zetski Zbor is highly disputed, or how having similar opinions on topic make you the same person. In fact, Ana Ivanovic info you are citing has been talked many times over Serbian and Montenegrin media, so it's "common knowledge", but ofc there is no RS that will confirm that, and i doubt Ana even considers herself part of any tribe. I've read some of the arguments that happened on talk page of that article.
- That user doesn't even format or quote correctly, he doesn't have his own pages, he wasn't active on any other wiki as far as i can see, and i was active on many other articles, like Drekalovići, Drekale, Lale Drekalov, Vasilije Petrović, Balšići, Xhufi Pellumb, Bjelopavlići, and i've been active on noticeboards as well, for my, but also for other sources.
- I'm not gonna tell you how to spend your time, but this is a bit sad. Setxkbmap (talk) 16:23, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Even after the CU confirmed your previous accounts, you kept claiming they were different people. I have heard this story from you in the past. FYI, there is further evidence, but I don't want to show here every way I can recognize your socks. Bye bye. Ktrimi991 (talk) 16:31, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Remember to tag! :) Setxkbmap (talk) 16:42, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Just for the record, Setxkbmap got blocked as a sock account. Ktrimi991 (talk) 22:16, 14 September 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry for the late response. As it says in the editnotice for my talk page, please do take such cases to SPI first and feel free to notify me about the investigation afterwards. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:25, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hey, no worries. I did notice the note only after I had posted the evidence here. The important thing is that it got sorted out. Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:37, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- Ktrimi991, ah, all good. Thank you very much for noticing and reporting this, especially with good evidence diffs, and for the update. I'm happy to see that your work led to the block of a sockpuppet that fooled me before. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:48, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hey, no worries. I did notice the note only after I had posted the evidence here. The important thing is that it got sorted out. Cheers, Ktrimi991 (talk) 00:37, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry for the late response. As it says in the editnotice for my talk page, please do take such cases to SPI first and feel free to notify me about the investigation afterwards. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:25, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- Just for the record, Setxkbmap got blocked as a sock account. Ktrimi991 (talk) 22:16, 14 September 2024 (UTC)
- Remember to tag! :) Setxkbmap (talk) 16:42, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Even after the CU confirmed your previous accounts, you kept claiming they were different people. I have heard this story from you in the past. FYI, there is further evidence, but I don't want to show here every way I can recognize your socks. Bye bye. Ktrimi991 (talk) 16:31, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
Checking my work
Hello To Be free, While patrolling commons, I found FAUWBB (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log). They uploaded a copyvio to commons, and when I checked the article they added the image to, I found these diffs. As this is my first en-wiki report, I wanted to check with you to make sure I'm not missing something before I make a report. All the Best -- Chuck Talk 16:10, 12 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Alachuckthebuck, thanks for asking! The image has been deleted since. It depends on what it was: Copyright violations done by uploading an image to Wikimedia Commons are mostly a Commons issue and rarely need to be reported here. Image vandalism with thematically irrelevant images on the other hand would well be worth a report. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:30, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
- The image was one part, this diff here was the worse offender. Can you take a look at this and give me your thoughts? All the Best -- Chuck Talk 15:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I hadn't seen these; adding a pipe ("|") after external links breaks them, so I only saw one part of the diff. I have now fixed the external link syntax above. The text addition is a copyright violation, it seems, from . In general, you can safely directly remove non-neutral additions to biographies of living people instead of tagging them. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:11, 16 September 2024 (UTC)
- The image was one part, this diff here was the worse offender. Can you take a look at this and give me your thoughts? All the Best -- Chuck Talk 15:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-38
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Improvements and Maintenance
Editors interested in templates can help by reading the latest Wishlist focus area, Template recall and discovery, and share your feedback on the talkpage. This input helps the Community Tech team to decide the right technical approach to build. Everyone is also encouraged to continue adding new wishes.- The new automated Special:NamespaceInfo page helps editors understand which namespaces exist on each wiki, and some details about how they are configured. Thanks to DannyS712 for these improvements.
- References Check is a feature that encourages editors to add a citation when they add a new paragraph to a Wikipedia article. For a short time, the corresponding tag "Edit Check (references) activated" was erroneously being applied to some edits outside of the main namespace. This has been fixed.
- It is now possible for a wiki community to change the order in which a page’s categories are displayed on their wiki. By default, categories are displayed in the order they appear in the wikitext. Now, wikis with a consensus to do so can request a configuration change to display them in alphabetical order.
Tool authors can now access ToolsDB's public databases from both Quarry and Superset. Those databases have always been accessible to every Toolforge user, but they are now more broadly accessible, as Quarry can be accessed by anyone with a Wikimedia account. In addition, Quarry's internal database can now be queried from Quarry itself. This database contains information about all queries that are being run and starred by users in Quarry. This information was already public through the web interface, but you can now query it using SQL. You can read more about that, and 20 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.- Any pages or tools that still use the very old CSS classes
mw-message-boxneed to be updated. These old classes will be removed next week or soon afterwards. Editors can use a global-search to determine what needs to be changed. It is possible to use the newercdx-messagegroup of classes as a replacement (see the relevant Codex documentation, and an example update), but using locally defined onwiki classes would be best.
Technical project updates
- Next week, all Wikimedia wikis will be read-only for a few minutes. This will start on September 25 at 15:00 UTC. This is a planned datacenter switchover for maintenance purposes. This maintenance process also targets other services. The previous switchover took 3 minutes, and the Site Reliability Engineering teams use many tools to make sure that this essential maintenance work happens as quickly as possible.
Tech in depth
The latest monthly MediaWiki Product Insights newsletter is available. This edition includes details about: research about hook handlers to help simplify development, research about performance improvements, work to improve the REST API for end-users, and more.
To learn more about the technology behind the Wikimedia projects, you can now watch sessions from the technology track at Wikimania 2024 on Commons. This week, check out:
- Hackathon Showcase (45 mins) - 19 short presentations by some of the Hackathon participants, describing some of the projects they worked on, such as automated testing of maintenance scripts, a video-cutting command line tool, and interface improvements for various tools. There are more details and links available in the Phabricator task.
- Co-Creating a Sustainable Future for the Toolforge Ecosystem (40 mins) - a roundtable discussion for tool-maintainers, users, and supporters of Toolforge about how to make the platform sustainable and how to evaluate the tools available there.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:59, 16 September 2024 (UTC)
Off topic, perhaps
Hey, I saw you were checking on that Pantrail already so I'll leave it be. But, a question--would you mind adding to your user page that you're an admin and a CU? I think for other users that's probably useful information. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 01:38, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Drmies, ahem. While I assume that by checking, you refer to the block, I hereby disclose that I have performed checkuser checks in this matter including on the Pantrail account.

- I would value a second pair of eyes on the alleged connection between Xerxescience and Pantrail described at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Xerxescience. My current state is "possilikely", with the actual connection between Pantrail and any specific account being irrelevant enough to block Pantrail for purely behavioral reasons.
- Regarding my user page, if I hadn't promised in Q4 to display recall information there, it would probably not contain any hint of usergroups or editing privileges. By those who neither know nor know how to check, the meaning of adminship is often misunderstood, and I'd like to avoid those who haven't interacted with me in an administrative capacity from suddenly feeling as if they were doing so automatically. This is why I thanked SoWhy for a mop icon yet reverted it in Special:Diff/925568723. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:48, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
- No, I looked at the CU log--I was actually checking another account in that history, but that showed no evidence of foul play. I think the technical evidence is strong enough, but the behavioral evidence makes it a perfect match, IMO. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 01:59, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks, that's a very valuable second opinion that made it much easier to close the SPI. I have now blocked both accounts. In general, I perform more checks than closing SPIs, especially when I think a situation needs to be looked at and might be simple, just to be hit with a case full of questionmarks and silently leaving it for a more experienced checkuser. So when you see me checking in response to a SPI, please don't let that stop you from taking it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:29, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
- No, I looked at the CU log--I was actually checking another account in that history, but that showed no evidence of foul play. I think the technical evidence is strong enough, but the behavioral evidence makes it a perfect match, IMO. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 01:59, 21 September 2024 (UTC)
User:Dmytrootamanenko
Curious edits.
Hello, I hope you don't mind me disturbing you talk page bu I've just gone down a small rabbit hole. I see you have been involved with users; 'D.S. Lioness, Montigliani, Michalis1994 & NikolaosFanaris' previously. A while back I noticed some interesting edits on Reform UK's talk page. IPs (and maybe single use sockpuppets, I don't know) pushing for an edit. Then today the edit https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AReform_UK&diff=1246980861&oldid=1246942078 was made and fairly quickly undone with the edit note; ' Undid revision 1246942078 by 89.242.87.239 (talk) edit from blocked User: Michalis 1994.' The username was misspelt, but it was spelt correctly in another edit by the same IP, and so I read a few old edits and then I saw all the above usernames connected with the same agenda (usually regarding 'far-right' labels amongst others in the pattern.) This 'feud' by who knows how many users seems to be ongoing and spilling put onto other pages, who knows, it's just a guess. I thought it should be brought to your notice.Halbared (talk) 08:57, 22 September 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-39
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on Wednesday September 25 at 15:00 UTC. Reading the wikis will not be interrupted, but editing will be paused. These twice-yearly processes allow WMF's site reliability engineering teams to remain prepared to keep the wikis functioning even in the event of a major interruption to one of our data centers.
Updates for editors

- Editors who use the iOS Wikipedia app in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or Chinese, may see the Alt Text suggested-edit experiment after editing an article, or completing a suggested edit using "Add an image". Alt-text helps people with visual impairments to read Wikipedia articles. The team aims to learn if adding alt-text to images is a task that editors can be successful with. Please share any feedback on the discussion page.
- The Codex color palette has been updated with new and revised colors for the MediaWiki user interfaces. The most noticeable changes for editors include updates for: dark mode colors for Links and for quiet Buttons (progressive and destructive), visited Link colors for both light and dark modes, and background colors for system-messages in both light and dark modes.
It is now possible to include clickable wikilinks and external links inside code blocks. This includes links that are used within <syntaxhighlight>tags and on code pages (JavaScript, CSS, Scribunto and Sanitized CSS). Uses of template syntax{{…}}are also linked to the template page. Thanks to SD0001 for these improvements.- Two bugs were fixed in the GlobalVanishRequest system by improving the logging and by removing an incorrect placeholder message.
- View all 25 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
From Wikimedia Enterprise:
- The API now enables 5,000 on-demand API requests per month and twice-monthly HTML snapshots freely (gratis and libre). More information on the updates and also improvements to the software development kits (SDK) are explained on the project's blog post. While Wikimedia Enterprise APIs are designed for high-volume commercial reusers, this change enables many more community use-cases to be built on the service too.
- The Snapshot API (html dumps) have added beta Structured Contents endpoints (blog post on that) as well as released two beta datasets (English and French Wikipedia) from that endpoint to Hugging Face for public use and feedback (blog post on that). These pre-parsed data sets enable new options for researchers, developers, and data scientists to use and study the content.
In depth
The Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) is used to get answers to questions using the Wikidata data set. As Wikidata grows, we had to make a major architectural change so that WDQS could remain performant. As part of the WDQS Graph Split project, we have new SPARQL endpoints available for serving the "scholarly" and "main" subgraphs of Wikidata. The query.wikidata.org endpoint will continue to serve the full Wikidata graph until March 2025. After this date, it will only serve the main graph. For more information, please see the announcement on Wikidata.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:33, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 26 September 2024
- In the media: Courts order Wikipedia to give up names of editors, legal strain anticipated from "online safety laws"
ANI (but probably not the one you're thinking of), bias and bans, crisis and Clover, Engelhorn's euros, and will the zoomers inherit the project?
- Community view: Indian courts order Wikipedia to take down name of crime victim, editors strive towards consensus
In response to a takedown request, Wikipedia editors reached a consensus on how to handle it appropriately.
- Serendipity: A Wikipedian at the 2024 Paralympics
User Hawkeye7 opens up on his experience as a media representative following the Australian team at the latest Summer Paralympics in Paris.
- Opinion: asilvering's RfA debriefing
User asilvering reflects on their recent successful request for adminship.
- News and notes: Are you ready for admin elections?
More changes to RfA on the way in October, final results for the U4C elections revealed, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- Gallery: Are Luddaites defending the English Wikipedia?
Picture this: medicine, drugs, JFK, Cleopatra, anachronism, and global catastrophe.
- Recent research: Article-writing AI is less "prone to reasoning errors (or hallucinations)" than human Wikipedia editors
And other recent research publications.
- Traffic report: Jump in the line, rock your body in time
Band reunions and Beetlejuice!
RFA2024 update: Discussion-only period now open for review
Hi there! The trial of the RfA discussion-only period passed at WP:RFA2024 has concluded, and after open discussion, the RfC is now considering whether to retain, modify, or discontinue it. You are invited to participate at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase II/Discussion-only period. Cheers, and happy editing! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:38, 27 September 2024 (UTC)
BLP nonsense from new editor Ryan-gozling77
You might want to do something about this brand new editor adding "nicknames" all over the place. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:11, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks Skywatcher68, although reverting and attempting to warn at least once would probably be an idea before reporting. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:27, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-40
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Readers of 42 more wikis can now use Dark Mode. If the option is not yet available for logged-out users of your wiki, this is likely because many templates do not yet display well in Dark Mode. Please use the night-mode-checker tool if you are interested in helping to reduce the number of issues. The recommendations page provides guidance on this. Dark Mode is enabled on additional wikis once per month.
- Editors using the 2010 wikitext editor as their default can access features from the 2017 wikitext editor by adding
?veaction=editsourceto the URL. If you would like to enable the 2017 wikitext editor as your default, it can be set in your preferences. - For logged-out readers using the Vector 2022 skin, the "donate" link has been moved from a collapsible menu next to the content area into a more prominent top menu, next to "Create an account". This restores the link to the level of prominence it had in the Vector 2010 skin. Learn more about the changes related to donor experiences.
- The CampaignEvents extension provides tools for organizers to more easily manage events, communicate with participants, and promote their events on the wikis. The extension has been enabled on Arabic Wikipedia, Igbo Wikipedia, Swahili Wikipedia, and Meta-Wiki. Chinese Wikipedia has decided to enable the extension, and discussions on the extension are in progress on Spanish Wikipedia and on Wikidata. To learn how to enable the extension on your wiki, you can visit the CampaignEvents page on Meta-Wiki.
- View all 22 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Developers with an account on Wikitech-wiki should check if any action is required for their accounts. The wiki is being changed to use the single-user-login (SUL) system, and other configuration changes. This change will help reduce the overall complexity for the weekly software updates across all our wikis.
In depth
- The server switch was completed successfully last week with a read-only time of only 2 minutes 46 seconds. This periodic process makes sure that engineers can switch data centers and keep all of the wikis available for readers, even if there are major technical issues. It also gives engineers a chance to do maintenance and upgrades on systems that normally run 24 hours a day, and often helps to reveal weaknesses in the infrastructure. The process involves dozens of software services and hundreds of hardware servers, and requires multiple teams working together. Work over the past few years has reduced the time from 17 minutes down to 2–3 minutes.
Meetings and events
- October 4–6: WikiIndaba Conference's Hackathon in Johannesburg, South Africa
- November 4–6: MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference Fall 2024 in Vienna, Austria
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:17, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
Xardwen
Hello, ToBeFree,
You made an indefinite block on this editor from certain article and project pages due to having a battleground attitude. I don't have a problem with the block except you made it indefinite, not just for the length of time of the AFD discussion. The AFD has been closed, the article has been deleted but if you go to this editor's Contribution page, there is a prominent block notice at the top of the page which, I think, is no longer relevant. Since the dispute is over, would you consider lifting this block? It will have no future effect as the AFD is closed and the article gone so I think it has served its purpose and can be removed. Thank you for considering this suggestion. Liz Read! Talk! 01:33, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Liz, thank you very much! The partial block has actually lost its meaning, as you describe. Thanks for closing the complex and strange discussion. Looking at Special:Diff/1248527412, I'm afraid the underlying issue is still present, so I have replaced the partial block by a topic ban for now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:45, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
Parliament of Malaysia
Hello, I would like to ask for help because there is non-stop harassment on the Parliament of Malaysia page by an anonymous user who has edited the election year of Malaysia. which is distortion of information Many people have tried to fix it, but he hasn't stopped. Preime TH (talk) 02:46, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Preime TH, I'm not sure if "harassment" is the right term for repeatedly adding the same unsourced information to an article, but I have semi-protected the page for three months now. Please notify me if this turns out to be insufficient. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:32, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- The anonymous user has distorted the information, that is, the current parliament will meet for the first time on 19 December 2022, and this parliament will be in place for 5 years. When the 5 years are up, it will be automatically dissolved on 19 December 2027, and then it must be rebuilt within 60 days, which we must organize no later than February 2028. But he (referring to the anonymous user) has changed it to 2027, even though other users have already said that the current parliament will expire in December 2027, but he has not stopped the correction. But I would like to thank you for helping to prevent it. Preime TH (talk) 12:18, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- I may not be very good at English. I apologize. Preime TH (talk) 12:19, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- It's all good
You're welcome, and thanks for the background information. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:26, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- It's all good
Administrators' newsletter – October 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2024).

- Administrator elections are a proposed new process for selecting administrators, offering an alternative to requests for adminship (RfA). The first trial election will take place in October 2024, with candidate sign-up from October 8 to 14, a discussion phase from October 22 to 24, and SecurePoll voting from October 25 to 31. For questions or to help out, please visit the talk page at Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections.
- Following a discussion, the speedy deletion reason "File pages without a corresponding file" has been moved from criterion G8 to F2. This does not change what can be speedily deleted.
- A request for comment is open to discuss whether there is a consensus to have an administrator recall process.
- The arbitration case Historical elections has been closed.
- An arbitration case regarding Backlash to diversity and inclusion has been opened.
- Editors are invited to nominate themselves to serve on the 2024 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission until 23:59 October 8, 2024 (UTC).
- If you are interested in stopping spammers, please put MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist and MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist on your watchlist, and help out when you can.
edit-warring IP
Before they blanked it from their talk page, you blocked 103.231.73.87 (talk · contribs · IP contribs · WHOIS) for edit warring. Would you mind taking a look at Talk:Peter Ostrum#infobox occupation & years and their associated articular edits? — Fourthords | =Λ= | 12:40, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
P.S. Oh, what fun: they're now following me to my other recent edits and reverting them w/o cause. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 12:42, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Fourthords, thank you very much for the notification. The address is part of a /22 webserver/colocation network of Stark Industries and similar companies, which is now blocked for a year. Additionally, the specific user (independently of their IP address) is blocked for a month. If you see them evading their block, please create a report at WP:SPI and let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:55, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks so much for your time! I'll keep an eye out. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 23:48, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
- It would seem they are now editing as 103.31.182.7 (talk · contribs · IP contribs · WHOIS). I'll head to SPI momentarily. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 02:09, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- I hope I did this correctly: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/103.231.73.87. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 02:29, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- They have now seemingly moved on to 31.210.50.129 (talk · contribs · IP contribs · WHOIS) and Ban Fourthords Community (talk · contribs). I'm going to update Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/103.231.73.87, assuming I am correct to do so (and that I did it correctly in the first place); is there anything further I should do as I've seemingly attracted special ire? — Fourthords | =Λ= | 11:30, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Fourthords, the SPI is helpful. If there is obvious harassment continuing the behavior described at Special:Permalink/1249154433 from any account or address, you can also report it at WP:AIV for a quick block; the main difference between SPI and AIV is that AIV is quicker but should ideally only be used if the behavior is so clearly problematic that demonstrating block evasion isn't needed anymore. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:11, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- Not having used the SPI process before, please forgive me if my first response is to tap you on the shoulder, here, and double-check what to do. Thanks for all the assistance! — Fourthords | =Λ= | 14:15, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- All good, feel free to do so!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:16, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- All good, feel free to do so!
- Not having used the SPI process before, please forgive me if my first response is to tap you on the shoulder, here, and double-check what to do. Thanks for all the assistance! — Fourthords | =Λ= | 14:15, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Fourthords, the SPI is helpful. If there is obvious harassment continuing the behavior described at Special:Permalink/1249154433 from any account or address, you can also report it at WP:AIV for a quick block; the main difference between SPI and AIV is that AIV is quicker but should ideally only be used if the behavior is so clearly problematic that demonstrating block evasion isn't needed anymore. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:11, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
Something odd at Zachary Levi
You might want to check this out. The article is being heavily edited by someone named for one of Levi's characters. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:17, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, this appears to be mostly-harmless fan editing without a conflict of interest, but other recent contributions made me semi-protect the page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:01, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
A goat for you!

Because they eat anything. Including socks. Thanks for the cleanup tag team effort tonight with the "faction".
Star Mississippi 23:42, 4 October 2024 (UTC)
- Aww!

Thank you very much, Star Mississippi! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:06, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
HELE PLEASE
Hello, I would like some help please. Because in the article Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand and Cabinet of Thailand there is added text in the form of Vandalism and it destroys the data table. I ask you Protection for 6 months. Preime TH (talk) 04:51, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Preime TH, I have now semi-protected the two pages and blocked 2001:fb1:160::/46 for 3 months. I hope this helps. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:46, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment

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Tech News: 2024-41
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Communities can now request installation of Automoderator on their wiki. Automoderator is an automated anti-vandalism tool that reverts bad edits based on scores from the new "Revert Risk" machine learning model. You can read details about the necessary steps for installation and configuration.
Updates for editors
- Translators in wikis where the mobile experience of Content Translation is available, can now customize their articles suggestion list from 41 filtering options when using the tool. This topic-based article suggestion feature makes it easy for translators to self-discover relevant articles based on their area of interest and translate them. You can try it with your mobile device.
- View all 12 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- It is now possible for
<syntaxhighlight>code blocks to offer readers a "Copy" button if thecopy=1attribute is set on the tag. Thanks to SD0001 for these improvements. - Customized copyright footer messages on all wikis will be updated. The new versions will use wikitext markup instead of requiring editing raw HTML.
Later this month, temporary accounts will be rolled out on several pilot wikis. The final list of the wikis will be published in the second half of the month. If you maintain any tools, bots, or gadgets on these 11 wikis, and your software is using data about IP addresses or is available for logged-out users, please check if it needs to be updated to work with temporary accounts. Guidance on how to update the code is available.
Rate limiting has been enabled for the code review tools Gerrit and GitLab to address ongoing issues caused by malicious traffic and scraping. Clients that open too many concurrent connections will be restricted for a few minutes. This rate limiting is managed through nftables firewall rules. For more details, see Wikitech's pages on Firewall, GitLab limits and Gerrit operations.- Five new wikis have been created:
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:39, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
| The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar | |
| For helping out with the 184.145.176.58 troll — Safety Cap (talk) 12:49, 7 October 2024 (UTC) |
- Oh.
Thank you very much, Safety Cap! 
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:40, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
- Love you. VERY much.
- Frankfurter, out. Franfurter (talk) 22:54, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:12, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
142.114.1.184
Looks like we have an IP pretending to be an admin at RfPP. Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:54, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
- If they had used (or attempted to use) the templates used by administrators to process these reports, I'd be more concerned. It's strange and I'll keep an eye on this, but making a request and commenting on a few others expressing concerns about them is generally okay. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:16, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin October Issue 1

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Talking: 2024 continues
- WikiArabia Conference 2024 will be held in Muscat, Oman, from October 25 to 27.
- WikiConvention francophone 2024 will be held in Québec, Canada, from November 2 to 3.
- AffCom, Case Review Committee (CRC) and the Ombuds commission (OC) are seeking new member applications from October 14.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on Mediawiki.org
- Tech News: Updates on Dark Mode, Vector 2022 skin, CampaignEvents extension, and more on tech news.
- Translation suggestion: Sign up to participate in the test project, Translation suggestions: Topic-based & Community-defined lists, which will help organisers identify and add relevant content based on high-impact topics to their Wikipedia.
- Wikifunctions: Status updates from September 26.
- Wikipedia Apps: Check out the latest issue of the Apps Quarterly Newsletter!
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta
- WikiWomen Summit: Event summary at Wikimania 2024.
- Let's Connect: Watch recordings of the session Technology for Language Diversity in Wikimedia.
- WikiLearn: The latest online learning opportunities created by Wikimedians for Wikimedians.
- Indonesia: Training for Indonesian Wikipedia Administrators to Safeguard Knowledge Integrity Ahead of the Regional Elections
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Mexico: Wikimedia Foundation files amicus brief in Mexico urging continued use of intermediary liability protections for user-generated content in Richter v. Google.
- Paraguay: Wikimedia Foundation to Paraguayan Supreme Court: Do not allow people to abuse the law to suppress legitimate information
- Global: Celebrating a legal victory in Germany against censorship, reflections on Open Culture strategic workshop, and more global advocacy updates.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Governance: Update from Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, a proposal to ask for help and co-creation in Movement Charter Mapping Exercise.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Wikimedia World · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 23:30, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
Ongoing edit war at Svaðilfari
I don't know who's right but an admin stepping in seems appropriate. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:24, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
- We're slowly getting there! Thank you very much, Skywatcher68. There's now a talk page section where the years-long edit war can be discussed. It's not ideal in my opinion yet, so I've asked Ingwina to adjust it a bit, and we could then invite AntiDionysius, Bloodofox and Waxworker there so they can quickly voice their agreement, and there's finally a documented talk page consensus for the current revision.
- I'm surprised about how stable the IPv6 addresses used for the edit warring are. I've blocked the range for a few years and semi-protected the page for a year, which should end the edit war, and I'd be open to an unblock request that agrees to finally discuss the matter at Talk:Svaðilfari. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:32, 10 October 2024 (UTC)
Jessica Nabongo
Semi no longer sufficient, this user needs a p-block from the article. No objection to them still making edit requests. Valereee (talk) 00:55, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Oh. Thanks, Valereee! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:10, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you, and apologies for leaving a message that seems very terse, I started typing and the doorbell rang! Valereee (talk) 12:32, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- All good.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:39, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- All good.
- Thank you, and apologies for leaving a message that seems very terse, I started typing and the doorbell rang! Valereee (talk) 12:32, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
Edit war at Tailored Films
Seems to me that the bit about Margaret Forde fails WP:BLPGOSSIP. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:39, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- The edit cited Sunday World and Irish Independent. The banned-editor even confirmed this as much. Nofoolie (talk) 19:54, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Nofoolie, I can't see a ban; you're probably referring to Wrtyzxylu13's block. No amount of sourcing justifies ignoring the policy against edit warring, the policy section against restoring biographical content without consensus and the policy section placing the onus to obtain a consensus on those who prefer to include the material. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:59, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Attempts to discuss this were ignored. Attempts to draw the newly-created account (for the purpose of removing my edit) to the process of seeking consensus were ignored. They then responded in their commit message instructing me to not edit the page and their tone suggested they owned the page. Attempts to draw their attention to seeking consensus were just plain ignored. Nofoolie (talk) 20:02, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Nofoolie, I think you might be looking for WP:DISCFAIL, the most helpful essay I have seen so far. I recommend it regularly and have used the approach myself. That said, you and Babysharkboss2 have reverted four times (!) after already provided an acceptable, discussable explanation for the removal. At very least after that explanation, any justification for continuing to restore the material was gone. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:08, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Not sure I read that as "acceptable".
- Appreciate the link to the essay. Perhaps this assertion will appear in print from a reliable-source and then presumably it can be reinstated.
- I can work towards that. Nofoolie (talk) 20:11, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Independently of whether there's a printed source, it can be reinstated as soon as a consensus for doing so is found, probably best on the talk page of the article. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:13, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Nofoolie, I think you might be looking for WP:DISCFAIL, the most helpful essay I have seen so far. I recommend it regularly and have used the approach myself. That said, you and Babysharkboss2 have reverted four times (!) after already provided an acceptable, discussable explanation for the removal. At very least after that explanation, any justification for continuing to restore the material was gone. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:08, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Attempts to discuss this were ignored. Attempts to draw the newly-created account (for the purpose of removing my edit) to the process of seeking consensus were ignored. They then responded in their commit message instructing me to not edit the page and their tone suggested they owned the page. Attempts to draw their attention to seeking consensus were just plain ignored. Nofoolie (talk) 20:02, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Nofoolie, I can't see a ban; you're probably referring to Wrtyzxylu13's block. No amount of sourcing justifies ignoring the policy against edit warring, the policy section against restoring biographical content without consensus and the policy section placing the onus to obtain a consensus on those who prefer to include the material. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:59, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Skywatcher68. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:59, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
2409:408C:8D49:BD9C:B90A:CC26:DBB6:2535/64
TOBeFree, need your help regarding an issue this IP range is engaged in making so many disruptions. I've repoted this IP at WP:AVI but still have not received a result. IP might be conducting block evasion, but I'm not sure their belonging.®asteem Talk 09:03, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- HJ Mitchell was faster.
Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:57, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- No problem. I just worked my way down the list at AIV. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 11:01, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
- HJ Mitchell Thanks for the quick handling at AIV. ®asteem Talk 02:57, 12 October 2024 (UTC)
- ToBeFree
Thank you very much.®asteem Talk 02:55, 12 October 2024 (UTC)
- No problem. I just worked my way down the list at AIV. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 11:01, 11 October 2024 (UTC)
Monsieur Patillo
Hello, ToBeFree,
I looked through all of those diffs on the AIV report and not only do they not seem like vandalism but they are some of the most polite and diplomatic "personal attacks" I've seen before. I'm glad you are discussing the block with the editor as your response to the AIV report didn't seem like an obvious choice to me. There is clearly a dispute going on in a few articles but I don't see any of the editors as blameless and it's hard to see any editor as more responsible than another, at least reading over the dispute that found it's way to AN.
With ongoing talk page discussions and dispute resolution discussions, I'm not sure it had reached the level of an indefinite block yet. It's obvious that the editors are very frustrated with each other but it also seems like multiple editors are trying to eliminate their editorial opponents by painting them in the worst possible light. I'm not in the position to advise you what to do and I'll just reiterate what I said that I'm glad that you are open to discussing the situation with Monsieur Patillo on their User talk page. Thanks. Liz Read! Talk! 03:13, 13 October 2024 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:33, 13 October 2024 (UTC)
Unblocked. Thanks, Liz. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:35, 13 October 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-42
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- The Structured Discussion extension (also known as Flow) is starting to be removed. This extension is unmaintained and causes issues. It will be replaced by DiscussionTools, which is used on any regular talk page. A first set of wikis are being contacted. These wikis are invited to stop using Flow, and to move all Flow boards to sub-pages, as archives. At these wikis, a script will move all Flow pages that aren't a sub-page to a sub-page automatically, starting on 22 October 2024. On 28 October 2024, all Flow boards at these wikis will be set in read-only mode.
- WMF's Search Platform team is working on making it easier for readers to perform text searches in their language. A change last week on over 30 languages makes it easier to find words with accents and other diacritics. This applies to both full-text search and to types of advanced search such as the hastemplate and incategory keywords. More technical details (including a few other minor search upgrades) are available.
- View all 20 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, EditCheck was installed at Russian Wikipedia, and fixes were made for some missing user interface styles.
Updates for technical contributors
- Editors who use the Toolforge tool Earwig's Copyright Violation Detector will now be required to log in with their Wikimedia account before running checks using the "search engine" option. This change is needed to help prevent external bots from misusing the system. Thanks to Chlod for these improvements.
- Phabricator users can create tickets and add comments on existing tickets via Email again. Sending email to Phabricator has been fixed.
Some HTML elements in the interface are now wrapped with a <bdi>element, to make our HTML output more aligned with Web standards. More changes like this will be coming in future weeks. This change might break some tools that rely on the previous HTML structure of the interface. Note that relying on the HTML structure of the interface is not recommended and might break at any time.
In depth
- The latest monthly MediaWiki Product Insights newsletter is available. This edition includes: updates on Wikimedia's authentication system, research to simplify feature development in the MediaWiki platform, updates on Parser Unification and MathML rollout, and more.
- The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter is now available. This edition include: research about improving topic suggestions related to countries, improvements to PHPUnit tests, and more.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 21:18, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
Cebu etc.
Thank you for protecting all those pages! I thought about requesting protection for them as a group but worried it was too big an ask. AntiDionysius (talk) 22:03, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi AntiDionysius, no worries! I think semi-protection of these pages won't hurt much and ends the easiest way for the sockpuppeteer to just continue "fighting" and getting attention. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:05, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
Inquiry related to IP you blocked
Hello ToBeFree. This IP strikes me as the same person as this LTA which you recently blocked (for context see: )
They are exhibiting the same nationalistic and aggressive behavior as the LTA. Stylistically quite similar in their edit summaries. For example: 78xx and 216xx; 78xx, 78xx and 216xx.
What's really interesting is they both make an edit, then revert themselves, and revert themselves again so that they can use the edit summary to rant.
- 78xx: Makes edit, reverts themselves and reverts again to rant in their edit summary
- 216xx: Makes edit, reverts themselves and reverts again to rant in their edit summary
The geographic location is different but the proxy check tool on 216xx reveals it is a proxy. So it seems they are using a proxy to evade block. --Griboski (talk) 15:55, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Griboski, thank you very much for the detailed analysis. The entire /24 range around the IP address belongs to hostus.us, a web hosting provider. There is no reason for that range to edit Wikipedia, especially if there is an open proxy running on the server(s) as you have detected. I have blocked them and, based on your comparison, reverted the latest edits as block evasion. I hope this helps! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:10, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
BLP issues at Vitaly Zdorovetskiy
One newly-registered editor who apparently has close ties to the subject, given that the new photo is the editor's own work, added non-neutral content. Now a second newly-registered editor has restored the same non-neutral content. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:29, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Twice! –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:39, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Accounts blocked, page semi-protected.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Accounts blocked, page semi-protected.
Anti-Vietnamese sentiment
Hey, check out the history here when you get a chance. Newly-registered editor removing large swaths of content on the grounds that said content was added by a sockpuppet; others have already tried discussing the removal on the editor's user talk page. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:48, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much for notifying me about this. I guess already says it all. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:44, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Puppets to the left, puppets to the right. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- This! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Thank you for taking some action here. I didn't want to become involved in an edit war, but it was clear to me something was wrong.
- Appreciate our last interaction wasn't positive, but thank you for your thanks and positive action.
- OXYLYPSE (talk) 21:07, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi OXYLYPSE, you're welcome! I'm not sure which non-positive interaction you might mean; there's an ANEW report but that was justified and led to a block, so I'm thankful for the report and there's nothing negative about it, I hope. Did I decline a request at WP:AIV perhaps? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hey @ToBeFree, Actually I think I've gotten you confused with another editor from VRT that I had an interaction with recently. My mistake; please accept my apologies, and thank you again. OXYLYPSE (talk) 22:39, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Oh, all good. 🙂👍 ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:07, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hey @ToBeFree, Actually I think I've gotten you confused with another editor from VRT that I had an interaction with recently. My mistake; please accept my apologies, and thank you again. OXYLYPSE (talk) 22:39, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi OXYLYPSE, you're welcome! I'm not sure which non-positive interaction you might mean; there's an ANEW report but that was justified and led to a block, so I'm thankful for the report and there's nothing negative about it, I hope. Did I decline a request at WP:AIV perhaps? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
- Puppets to the left, puppets to the right. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 19 October 2024
- News and notes: One election's end, another election's beginning
Find more about the new Trustees, the first election cycle for admins, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- Recent research: "As many as 5%" of new English Wikipedia articles "contain significant AI-generated content", says paper
And other searchings and findings.
- In the media: Off to the races! Wikipedia wins!
Perplexing persistence, pay to play, potential president's possible plagiarism, crossword crossover to culture, and a wish come true!
- Contest: A WikiCup for the Global South
Can it be fun to address systemic bias? Eighty participants say yes, it can!
- Traffic report: A scream breaks the still of the night
Help me make it through the night!
- Book review: The Editors
A novel about us, from the point of view of three of us.
- Humour: The Newspaper Editors
Where do I even start?
- Crossword: Spilled Coffee Mug
Pasta, acronyms, and one computer-crashing talk page.
PIA draft created by a non EC editor
If you have time, could you please look into this draft (as I'm not convinced that the average patrolled will be familiar with ARBPIA)? Thanks. M.Bitton (talk) 23:33, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi M.Bitton, thank you very much for noticing and asking. These normally get overlooked until they don't qualify anymore.
Done ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:36, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-43
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Mobile Apps team has released an update to the iOS app's navigation, and it is now available in the latest App store version. The team added a new Profile menu that allows for easy access to editor features like Notifications and Watchlist from the Article view, and brings the "Donate" button into a more accessible place for users who are reading an article. This is the first phase of a larger planned navigation refresh to help the iOS app transition from a primarily reader-focused app, to an app that fully supports reading and editing. The Wikimedia Foundation has added more editing features and support for on-wiki communication based on volunteer requests in recent years.

Updates for editors
- Wikipedia readers can now download a browser extension to experiment with some early ideas on potential features that recommend articles for further reading, automatically summarize articles, and improve search functionality. For more details and to stay updated, check out the Web team's Content Discovery Experiments page and subscribe to their newsletter.
- Later this month, logged-out editors of these 12 wikis will start to have temporary accounts created. The list may slightly change - some wikis may be removed but none will be added. Temporary account is a new type of user account. It enhances the logged-out editors' privacy and makes it easier for community members to communicate with them. If you maintain any tools, bots, or gadgets on these 12 wikis, and your software is using data about IP addresses or is available for logged-out users, please check if it needs to be updated to work with temporary accounts. Guidance on how to update the code is available. Read more about the deployment plan across all wikis.
- View all 33 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the South Ndebele, Pannonian Rusyn, Obolo, Iban and Tai Nüa Wikipedia languages were created last week.
- It is now possible to create functions on Wikifunctions using Wikidata lexemes, through the new Wikidata lexeme type launched last week. When you go to one of these functions, the user interface provides a lexeme selector that helps you pick a lexeme from Wikidata that matches the word you type. After hitting run, your selected lexeme is retrieved from Wikidata, transformed into a Wikidata lexeme type, and passed into the selected function. Read more about this in the latest Wikifunctions newsletter.
Updates for technical contributors
Users of the Wikimedia sites can now format dates more easily in different languages with the new {{#timef:…}}parser function. For example,{{#timef:now|date|en}}will show as "20 March 2026". Previously,{{#time:…}}could be used to format dates, but this required knowledge of the order of the time and date components and their intervening punctuation.#timef(or#timeflfor local time) provides access to the standard date formats that MediaWiki uses in its user interface. This may help to simplify some templates on multi-lingual wikis like Commons and Meta.
Commons and Meta users can now efficiently retrieve the user's language using {{USERLANGUAGE}}instead of using{{int:lang}}.- The Product and Tech Advisory Council (PTAC) now has its pilot members with representation across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. They will work to address the Movement Strategy's Technology Council initiative of having a co-defined and more resilient technological platform.
In depth
- The latest quarterly Growth newsletter is available. It includes: an upcoming Newcomer Homepage Community Updates module, new Community Configuration options, and details on new projects.
- The Wikimedia Foundation is now an official partner of the CVE program, which is an international effort to catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities. This partnership will allow the Security Team to instantly publish common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) records that are affecting MediaWiki core, extensions, and skins, along with any other code the Foundation is a steward of.
- The Community Wishlist is now testing machine translations for Wishlist content. Volunteers can now read machine-translated versions of wishes and dive into discussions even before translators arrive to translate content.
Meetings and events
- 24 October - Wiki Education Speaker Series Webinar - Open Source Tech: Building the Wiki Education Dashboard, featuring Wikimedia interns and a Web developer in the panel.
- 20–22 December 2024 - Indic Wikimedia Hackathon Bhubaneswar 2024 in Odisha, India. A hackathon for community members, including developers, designers and content editors, to build technical solutions that improve contributors' experiences.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:50, 21 October 2024 (UTC)
Invitation to participate in a research
Hello,
The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this anonymous survey.
You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.
The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .
Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.
Kind Regards,
BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:23, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
BLP issue at Ibrahim AlHusseini
Not sure what's happening here, other than one blocked sockpuppet and possibly two others who remain unblocked. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 04:06, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much! That's a pretty chaotic revision history. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:33, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
Clarification for false positive report removal without explanation
Hello, you removed my false positive report here without a comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AEdit_filter%2FFalse_positives%2FReports&diff=1253028094&oldid=1253011800
I personally feel like this is a bit insufficient for the seriousness of the information outlined in the filtered report. Could you please take a moment to explain why you removed it without any comment? Perhaps it is an issue that could be resolved? Thank you. 145.224.72.102 (talk) 17:25, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hello 145.224.72.102, I would normally avoid answering, but since I have no other way of reaching you, you'll most likely look for the answer here on this page and an answer may be needed to prevent you from doing it again:
- Edits that violate the policy against harassment, specifically the section against outing, or that qualify for revision deletion or oversighting will neither be implemented nor publicly discussed. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:27, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for responding. The COIN page noted an issue with non-public evidence. I considered all of this public information since it is freely available on the internet. Apparently, I was wrong. Sorry for this. Do I understand correctly that sending it to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org would be the appropriate alternative here? 217.142.18.234 (talk) 18:18, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
I'm not sure. Would you mind sending an e-mail to arbcom-en
wikimedia.org and moving to paid-en-wp only if asked to do so in response? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:32, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Sure, will do when I find the time. Thank you for guiding me here! 217.142.18.234 (talk) 19:01, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks – if this turns out to be the right choice, I should have pointed you there earlier and didn't mean to make the path there as bumpy as it has been.
- I'll later remove this section instead of archiving it and hope that's okay. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:24, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Sure, will do when I find the time. Thank you for guiding me here! 217.142.18.234 (talk) 19:01, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for responding. The COIN page noted an issue with non-public evidence. I considered all of this public information since it is freely available on the internet. Apparently, I was wrong. Sorry for this. Do I understand correctly that sending it to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org would be the appropriate alternative here? 217.142.18.234 (talk) 18:18, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
Nomination for deletion of Template:Editnotices/Page/COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
Template:Editnotices/Page/COVID-19 pandemic in Asia has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:34, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Interesting, thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:49, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin October Issue 2

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Talking: 2024 continues

- How Wikipedia is staying relevant in the AI era: Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander talks about Wikipedia and AI in an interview with the ‘Rapid Response’ podcast.
- Wiki for Human Rights is organizing a call for South Asia, East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific communities to discuss the Future of WikiForHumanRights on October 24 at 10 UTC.
- Campaign Events tool: a call with the Indonesian communities will be hosted on October 25.
- Translation suggestions: Topic-based & Community-defined lists project: an office hour with event/campaign organisers and contributors who use Content Translation tool will be hosted on October 26th. Visit this page for more details.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: In issue 2024/42, read about the removal of the Structured Discussion extension (also known as Flow), work on making text searches easier, and more. In issue 2024/43, read about improvements to mobile app navigation, temporary accounts pilot details, the Content Discovery Experiments, and more updates.
- MediaWiki: The latest monthly MediaWiki Product Insights newsletter is available and include updates on Wikimedia’s authentication system, research to simplify feature development in the MediaWiki platform, and more.
- CampaignEvents extension: The CampaignEvents extension provides tools to create, manage, and promote collaborative activities on the wikis, such as edit-a-thons, meetups, and more. You can visit the Deployment page to learn how to get the extension on your wiki.
- Research: The Research team and collaborators are launching new research on editors with extended rights.
- New Content Translation feature: Translators using Content Translation on wikis with mobile support can now customize their article suggestions with 41 filtering options. This feature helps translators find relevant articles based on their interests for translation.
- Wikifunctions: We are collecting feedback on the "About" widget that shows more info about the functions. Also, status updates from October 11 and October 17.
- Temporary Accounts: Temporary accounts will begin rolling out on October 29 to production wikis with an aim to do a complete deployment by May 2025. You can see the deployment plan and timeline on the project page. As we rollout this change, it is likely that some tools (gadgets, user scripts, templates and bots) will be impacted by it. We have a developer FAQ to help developers with making necessary changes to their maintained tool(s). Please let us know on our talk page if you have any tool in mind that may need updating or if you need help with updating your maintained tools.
- Knowledge is Human campaign: The Communications department has just launched a public awareness campaign (landing page) to showcase how real articles are edited and highlight Wikipedia as a source of information ahead of the 2024 “Big English” fundraising drive.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Grants: Announcing the newest round of Knowledge Equity Fund grantees.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase with the theme of Wikipedia for Political and Election Analysis.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Latest transparency report: The latest Transparency Report, covering the period from January to June 2024, is now live on the Foundation website. View also highlights from the report.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Elections: Preliminary results of the 2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections has been announced.
- Affiliates Strategy: Implementation status of a new affiliate health criteria and changes to User Groups recognition process.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 23:52, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
Criminal Complaint - USA vs. IBRAHIM AMEEN ALHUSSEINI - Case No. 2:24-mj-06166-DUTY
Hello - writing to you about Ibrahim AlHusseini
Could you please explain why you removed the section I added regarding the criminal complaint?
Every single statement is factual and drawn from the criminal complaint - it is both relevant and important to the biography of the page. Please advise. If there is a specific reference that is not acceptable, please indicate the specific issue.
Further, I noticed you deleted the Civil Complaint judgement and details - could you explain this? Again, it is relevant and factual - referenced by reliable sources - so should remain. TruthseekerT (talk) 23:12, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hello TruthseekerT, you may not use trial transcripts and other court records, or other public documents, to support assertions about a living person. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:54, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
More COVID editnotices
Thanks for tagging the COVID editnotices with the CT template. There appear to be more at the Special:UnusedTemplates page, such as some cruise ships (Coral/Costa/Grand/Norwegian/Ovation/Voyager/World) that may or may not merit a CT template, Favipiravir, and possibly other pages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:31, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
- [Workbench] ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:34, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
- I think we got them all. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:50, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
- ah, topOnly=1 :)
- Thanks a million, Jonesey95! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:54, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
- I think we got them all. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:50, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-44
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Later in November, the Charts extension will be deployed to the test wikis in order to help identify and fix any issue. A security review is underway to then enable deployment to pilot wikis for broader testing. You can read the October project update and see the latest documentation and examples on Beta Wikipedia.
- View all 32 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, Pediapress.com, an external service that creates books from Wikipedia, can now use Wikimedia Maps to include existing pre-rendered infobox map images in their printed books on Wikipedia.
Updates for technical contributors
- Wikis can use the Guided Tour extension to help newcomers understand how to edit. The Guided Tours extension now works with dark mode. Guided Tour maintainers can check their tours to see that nothing looks odd. They can also set
emitTransitionOnSteptotrueto fix an old bug. They can use the new flagallowAutomaticBackto avoid back-buttons they don't want. - Administrators in the Wikimedia projects who use the Nuke Extension will notice that mass deletions done with this tool have the "Nuke" tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:54, 28 October 2024 (UTC)
Please explain your decision to remove my extended confirmed access
What do you mean by gaming the system? Scharb (talk) 01:36, 29 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Scharb, thanks for asking. I was still typing a message on your talk page, which has now been sent. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:38, 29 October 2024 (UTC)
Block evasion?
Hello,
Do you think this is connected to the same pattern of block evasion seen here ?
Best, Amanuensis Balkanicus (talk) 14:45, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hmm. Hi Amanuensis Balkanicus, the quality of their English is noticeably different. Of course this doesn't rule out them suddenly intentionally making grammatical errors to evade detection. On the technical side, the blocked IP address is from a web hosting provider / proxy while the new one is from a mobile network if I see correctly. If the new address was from a web hosting provider again, I'd block of course. If there's something I've overlooked, please let me (or WP:SPI) know! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:30, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
May I comment on a request for enforcement?
Hi, I am new to arbitration and requests for enforcement. This is going on: Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement#Discussion_concerning_Bohemian_Baltimore. May I comment on this? Or can I request permission to comment on this? Thanks for any information! Yuchitown (talk) 18:04, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Yuchitown, thanks for asking! Yes, you are allowed to simply create a new section for your comment, by editing "Statement by (username)", copying that heading for the next user, and editing the original section. Your statement is limited to 500 words and 20 diffs, but that's all – you're extended confirmed, so you can also comment on topics that are covered by an extended-confirmed restriction (not the case for biographies anyway). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:22, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for that information! Yuchitown (talk) 14:51, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
- No problem! Regarding the green text, I think you might be looking for {{tqq}}. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:48, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
- Cool, TIL! Yuchitown (talk) 02:23, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:00, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Cool, TIL! Yuchitown (talk) 02:23, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- No problem! Regarding the green text, I think you might be looking for {{tqq}}. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:48, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for that information! Yuchitown (talk) 14:51, 1 November 2024 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

- Following a discussion, the discussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine the requests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
- Following a request for comment, Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.
- Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. T366068
- RoySmith, Barkeep49 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2024 Arbitration Committee Elections. ThadeusOfNazereth and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
- Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
- The Arbitration Committee is seeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.
- An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!
Arbitration Enforcement blocks
Hi ToBeFree. Could you offer some general guidance on what might be considered too short of a duration for an Arbitration Enforcement block? Anything shorter than a month perhaps? Daniel Quinlan (talk) 20:38, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Daniel Quinlan, this is probably about Rob Roilen's 24-hour block that was originally an AE action. WP:CBAN provides some data:
- Site ban discussions must generally be open for at least 72 hours.
- If someone is indefinitely blocked and appeals their block at WP:AN, they are either unblocked or site banned as a result.
- All community sanction discussions must be open for at least 24 hours.
- So a 24-hour block will inevitably, per policy, expire before the unblock discussion is closed. That makes the request pointless. The block template for AE blocks correctly notes that an unblock request can only be made through AN or AE, so anyone appealing their 24-hour AE block ends up asking for something pointless.
- This is less likely to be an issue for even just a week-long block, although requiring a noticeboard review for a quick week-long block is also hard to justify. Blocks are normally reviewed by individual administrators on the blocked users' talk pages, and the community would drown in appeal discussions if these were all held at WP:AN instead.
- In the end, it's (mostly) not about the duration of the block but whether you expect another administrator to disagree and simply undo the action. This was a common fear when AE sanctions were intruduced, with sanctions against "unblockable" established users quickly being overruled by at least one of the then-over-1000 administrators, and reinstatement of the overruled action being prohibited as wheel warring. AE blocks exist to prevent me from being unblocked by you in case I made a personal attack, not to sanction battleground conduct by a newcomer.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:56, 2 November 2024 (UTC)- Thanks for the answer. I understand now that shorter durations may be problematic given how appeals work. I had previously read WP:CTOP and WP:AC/P which both say
Contentious topic restrictions may be imposed for any fixed length of time, or for an indefinite period.
and 24-hour to 72-hour blocks don't seem to be rare in the 2023 and 2024 Arbitration Enforcement log (although not as common in 2024). I'm not saying that the current wording of the procedures actually encourages shorter durations, but would it be worthwhile to include some brief practical guidance on those procedure pages? I can file a request if needed, but I wanted to ask for your opinion first. Thanks! Daniel Quinlan (talk) 21:49, 2 November 2024 (UTC)- It's a pretty good question. I guess a not-quickly-undoable 24-hour block of an "unblockable" user may sometimes make sense and may well have been an intended option. Regarding the logged actions, perhaps these are mostly from the WP:AE noticeboard, where practically every action taken on thread closure including short blocks becomes a logged contentious topic restriction that is only appealable on a noticeboard? Perhaps most of the blocked users are aware of their low chance of having the action overturned at a noticeboard, so the actual number of time-consuming reviews is low?
- For a clarification/admendment request, I personally would be happy if a specific improvement to the existing policies was proposed. Specific wording that could be used instead; corrections that would improve the procedures.
- Perhaps the following at Wikipedia:Contentious topics § Administrators' role and expectations already covers this?
Before imposing a delegated enforcement action, administrators must consider whether a regular administrative action would be sufficient to reduce disruption to the project.
- ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:09, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- (It's a bit comical that this comes from me, as I regularly fill the enforcement logs with contentious topic page protections that could simply be normal page protections. The reason why I do so, just for the record, is that placing a year of semi-protection or even a year of extended-confirmed protection without trying shorter protections first is something I wouldn't do if the topic wasn't already known to be contentious.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:14, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I think you (and many other administrators including myself) are in the clear on that. Without logging those protections as an enforcement action, it would be a violation of WP:PREEMPTIVE. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:22, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, right! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:24, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Well, I think you (and many other administrators including myself) are in the clear on that. Without logging those protections as an enforcement action, it would be a violation of WP:PREEMPTIVE. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:22, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- I think that blurb, which I've read before, but didn't cross my mind today, is quite clear and would cover many of these cases including the most recent one, but I believe it would still be helpful to add some practical guidance about the duration of restrictions somewhere.
- It might also be a good idea to add a footnote (or even a sentence) to Wikipedia:Contentious topics § Standard set and Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures § Standard set to remind administrators about the separate section. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:36, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I meant to reply but was unsure what to.
Because I agree with you about the idea yet think if this should ever actually happen, that's probably only after someone wrote that practical guidance and the footnote text and presented them as a ready-to-use solution in their request at WP:ARCA. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:07, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I meant to reply but was unsure what to.
- (It's a bit comical that this comes from me, as I regularly fill the enforcement logs with contentious topic page protections that could simply be normal page protections. The reason why I do so, just for the record, is that placing a year of semi-protection or even a year of extended-confirmed protection without trying shorter protections first is something I wouldn't do if the topic wasn't already known to be contentious.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:14, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the answer. I understand now that shorter durations may be problematic given how appeals work. I had previously read WP:CTOP and WP:AC/P which both say
- I always use an AE action when I'm enforcing a CTOP sanction like 1RR or ECR, since technically the authority to block for those does not exist without AE authority. Another thing worth keeping in mind about when to use AE is if you want the action logged. A block for edit warring is different than a block for edit warring in a contentious topic, and strongly influences further arbitration enforcement. It also provides a helpful log for tracking the baseline disruption in a topic area. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 02:17, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- Ah, that's a good point. Similar to the actions resulting from requests at the WP:AE noticeboard. Perhaps these are the main source of 24-hour CTOP blocks. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:44, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
A question
Hello, am I currently blocked somehow? I cannot reply to comments in any of the active threads I'm involved in. I'm using the mobile app if that makes any difference. Rob Roilen (talk) 20:22, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- You have no active blocks. While blocks on your IP can affect even you when you're logged in, this is unlikely since you're able to comment here. Also you should get some indication you're blocked when editing. Note that if you're trying to use the Wikipedia:Reply tool to reply, I'm not sure if this has been enabled on the Android app. You may have to reply old style, by editing the talk page and indenting your comment as necessary etc. If that isn't the problem, the Android app has a controversial reputation, I haven't used it much myself but when I have IMO it's decent for reading but has limitations when editing. It might be worth using a browser on your Android device whether with the mobile or desktop site when editing talk pages. The reply tool is enabled on the mobile website. Nil Einne (talk) 20:39, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Rob Roilen and Nil Einne, the reply tool is quickly broken by list formatting and templates. It will work here in this discussion because it contains no special code, but as soon as anything unusual is present in the section's code, it will refuse to work. Editing the section and adding a new comment the manual, old way using colons for indentation will work even then, though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:42, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) One thing, if your IP is WP:partial blocked with the setting to prevent logged in users from editing with that IP, this would prevent you from editing anything affected by the partial block which might explain why you can edit here but not elsewhere, especially if all the other pages you're trying to edit are the Wikipedia namespace and that's one of the things you're partially blocked from. However you should see a block notice of some sort even on the Android app (Wikipedia:Mobile communication bugs). It's possible there is some weird interaction between the reply tool and the block so it might be worth trying to edit the page directly rather than with the reply tool if you haven't already. If you can find a block notice, it's more likely you could receive assistance as it's almost impossible for anyone to help without knowing if you're even blocked and if you are, by what block. Nil Einne (talk) 20:46, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Nil Einne @ToBeFree Noted, thank you both. Rob Roilen (talk) 20:49, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
Speedy deletion nomination of User:Khan Bijoy

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. A tag has been placed on User:Khan Bijoy requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section U5 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to consist of writings, information, discussions, or activities not closely related to Wikipedia's goals. Please note that Wikipedia is not a free web hosting service. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such pages may be deleted at any time.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. GPL93 (talk) 21:32, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh my.
Thanks, GPL93. - For the record, I had moved/merged Khan Bijoy's user page and their sandbox to a draft and replaced the resulting cross-namespace redirect by "The draft that had been added to this user page is now at Draft:Khan Bijoy." I also informed them about the situation on their talk page.
- None of this stopped the user from overwriting that text with new self-promotion a few hours later; I hope a two-week block causes them to have a look at their talk page and to consider editing about other topics. If it just continues after the block, please let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:52, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-45
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Stewards can now make global account blocks cause global autoblocks. This will assist stewards in preventing abuse from users who have been globally blocked. This includes preventing globally blocked temporary accounts from exiting their session or switching browsers to make subsequent edits for 24 hours. Previously, temporary accounts could exit their current session or switch browsers to continue editing. This is an anti-abuse tool improvement for the Temporary Accounts project. You can read more about the progress on key features for temporary accounts.
- Wikis that have the CampaignEvents extension enabled can now use the Collaboration List feature. This list provides a new, easy way for contributors to learn about WikiProjects on their wikis. Thanks to the Campaign team for this work that is part of the 2024/25 annual plan. If you are interested in bringing the CampaignEvents extension to your wiki, you can follow these steps or you can reach out to User:Udehb-WMF for help.
- The text color for red links will be slightly changed later this week to improve their contrast in light mode.
- View all 32 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, on multilingual wikis, users can now hide translations from the WhatLinksHere special page.
Updates for technical contributors
- XML data dumps have been temporarily paused whilst a bug is investigated.
In depth
- Temporary Accounts have been deployed to six wikis; thanks to the Trust and Safety Product team for this work, you can read about the deployment plans. Beginning next week, Temporary Accounts will also be enabled on seven other projects. If you are active on these wikis and need help migrating your tools, please reach out to User:Udehb-WMF for assistance.
- The latest quarterly Language and Internationalization newsletter is available. It includes: New languages supported in translatewiki or in MediaWiki; New keyboard input methods for some languages; details about recent and upcoming meetings, and more.
Meetings and events
- MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference Fall 2024 is happening in Vienna, Austria and online from 4 to 6 November 2024. The conference will feature discussions around the usage of MediaWiki software by and within companies in different industries and will inspire and onboard new users.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:48, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
About your block of Riisimit
Seems to have socked up. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:01, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh, subtle. Thanks
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:44, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
AIV block/non-block
Evening,
If they'd made the edits in userspace then yeah i'd have probably blocked them but as they were going through the AFC process (forcibly or otherwise) i was happy to give them the choice. Not disagreeing with the block but just a difference in opinion i guess. Amortias (T)(C) 00:09, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Amortias, ah, I hadn't considered the choice between the User or Draft namespaces. Looking at the timestamps at and , however, their moving to the draftspace was the result of a speedy deletion nomination of their userpage. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:14, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- (for the record, this is about Marketri's block and Special:Diff/1255648836) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:15, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 6 November 2024
- From the editors: Editing Wikipedia should not be a crime
But not everybody is able to legally read Wikipedia, and not everybody is able to legally edit Wikipedia.
- News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation shares ANI lawsuit updates; first admin elections appoint eleven sysops; first admin recalls opened; temporary accounts coming soon?
Defamation, privacy, censorship, and elections.
- In the media: An old scrimmage, politics and purported libel
Plus human knowledge and Ozzie places!
- Special report: Wikipedia editors face litigation, censorship
Asian News International, the Delhi High Court, and the encyclopedia.
- Gallery: Why you should take more photos and upload them
Your photos are more valuable than you may realize.
- In focus: Questions and answers about the court case
What is going on?
- Traffic report: Twisted tricks or tempting treats?
And Tata too!
- Technology report: Wikimedia tech, the Asian News International case, and the ultra-rare BLACKLOCK
IP address privacy tools, and mysterious archive sites.
- Humour: Man quietly slinks away from talk page argument after realizing his argument dumb, wrong
Many such cases.
block review
Hey! Could you review this block? It might need adjustment. Thanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=User%3A203.54.128.0%2F17&type=block. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 02:28, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Deepfriedokra, at very least enabling talk page access should be an option, unless it results in a flood of Special:Diff/1089678601/Special:Diff/1093986733/Special:Diff/1093191348's. I'd say it's worth trying and can easily be undone. Graham87, what do you think? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:21, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Deepfriedokra: I assume this is UTRS 96216; I've turned on account creation (which might help) and talk page access (which might not, but is worth a try). Graham87 (talk) 11:13, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the UTRS link and for the block modifications! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:07, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Deepfriedokra: I assume this is UTRS 96216; I've turned on account creation (which might help) and talk page access (which might not, but is worth a try). Graham87 (talk) 11:13, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin November Issue 1


Upcoming and current events and conversations
Talking: 2024 continues
- Commons Community Call: The first community call with Wikimedia Commons volunteers and stakeholders to help prioritize support efforts for 2025-2026 Fiscal Year will take place on November 21. The theme of this call will be about how content should be organised on Wikimedia Commons. The call will be hosted by Chief Product and Technology Officer Selena Deckelmann.
- Conferencia Justicia climática Perú 2024: Conference on climate justice, indigenous voices and Wikimedia platform will be held in Huaraz, Peru from November 8 to 10.
- Affiliations Committee: Applications for joining the Affiliations Committee is open until November 18.
- Ombuds Commission and Case Review Committee: Applications for joining the Ombuds commission and the Case Review Committee are open until December 2.
- Language community meeting: A language community meeting will be hosted on November 29, 16:00 UTC, discussing technical updates and problem-solving.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Advisory Council: The new Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) was announced. The PTAC will try to publish a set of community-validated recommendations that can serve as a potential 2-3 year blueprint for product and technical success.
- Wikifunctions: The Abstract Wikipedia team is working toward a rewrite of our backend services in a different programming language, likely Rust. More status updates.
- Tech News: The Guided Tour extension, which help newcomers understand how to edit, now works with dark mode; Wikipedia readers can now download a browser extension to experiment with potential features that making it easier for readers to discover information on the wikis. More tech updates from tech news 44 and 43.
- Temporary accounts: Logged-out editors on 12 wikis, including Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Danish, and Cantonese Wikipedia, receive temporary accounts now. This new account type enhances the privacy of logged-out editors and makes it easier for community members to communicate with them. Read the new Diff post to learn more about temporary accounts.
- Mobile apps: The Mobile Apps team has released an update to the iOS app’s navigation, now available in the latest App store version.
- Campaign Events Extension: The Campaign Events extension is now live on two more wikis, Wikidata and the Spanish Wikipedia.
- Admin Retention: A survey on Wikipedia Administrator Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition is open until November 11. As part of the Foundation's 2024-2025 Annual Plan, the research team and collaborators are studying recruitment, retention, and attrition patterns among long-tenured community members in official moderation and administration roles.
- Knowledge is Human: The campaign web page, which educates visitors on Wikipedia’s model and why it’s trustworthy, has earned over 140,000 clicks. The campaign has increased pageviews on WikimediaFoundation.org by more than 50%.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- WikiCelebrate: From making a minor maintenance edit in 2005 to being one of the most appreciated Wikimedians in the Central Eastern European (CEE) region: this month we celebrate Mārtiņš Bruņenieks.
- Wiki Loves Earth: Mountains, Birds and Lakes – Central Asia Edition
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MediaWiki message delivery 22:33, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
About user who disrupt "Yukio Mishima"
Hi. Thank you for letting me know about . I think this User:CyberIdris violated the rule of multiple accounts. Where can I report multiple accounts? みしまるもも (talk) 01:21, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi みしまるもも, thanks for asking! Normally, you can report sockpuppetry at WP:SPI, but I have already seen and dealt with that specific situation. Unless it continues, the warning on their talk page and the already-placed block of the IP address showing the same behavior as the account should be sufficient. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:40, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- Dear ToBeFree, Thank you very much. みしまるもも (talk) 01:55, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- Dear ToBeFree, I would like to report this User:CyberIdris to WP:AIV because he is making the same mistake over again without providing any evidence for the edits I am making based on professional sources. Even in discussions, this person never gives a clear source.--みしまるもも (talk) 06:30, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- Dear ToBeFree, Thank you very much. みしまるもも (talk) 01:55, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
Hi ToBeFree, User:みしまるもも is very uncivil and aggressive. His userpage suggests that he possibly has a conflict of interest or some kind of heavy personal bias toward Yukio Mishima and another user pointed this out about him on the talk page. I think he is improperly weaponizing reports as a way to force his personal views. He seems to be interested in promoting a nationalist POV and not being neutral or helping the encyclopedia. I also want to point out his account appears to be named after Yukio Mishima (his account is Rumomo Mishima). CyberIdris (talk) 07:46, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- I believe it is you who has a personal prejudice against Yukio Mishima. Of course, I like Yukio Mishima, and I have read his works and all his literature, as well as the research of various researchers. That is why I can see where your perception is strange.
- First of all, please tell me the clear source of the edit you made based on your personal assumption (restoring direct rule by the Emperor),(Even before the war, the Emperor did not rule directly, so this is illogical.), why I deleted the edit that established Mishima's position as a literary figure based on Donald Keene's source, and why I changed the official English titles of Mishima's works to incorrect ones.
- Also, I don't really want to doubt you, but you remind me a little of Mr. Ash-Gaar. みしまるもも (talk) 08:00, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hello CyberIdris and みしまるもも, in your article talk page discussion at Talk:Yukio Mishima, please focus on content rather than others' behavior. If someone is behaving in a problematic way, I recommend talking to them on their user talk page. For example, if the conduct of user X upsets you, go to User_talk:X and tell them why. And if this really really doesn't help, you can create a report at WP:ANI, where your own behavior will be scrutinized too, however. AIV is unsuitable for such disputes; use ANI please.
- If possible, discuss the article content on the article's talk page without talking about user behavior, and without asking people directly to do or not to do something, and without criticizing anyone. Such topics don't belong to an article talk page discussion.
- If the article talk page discussion starts running in circles, you can request a third opinion, but this is only an option if you both have really discussed the content rather than people's behavior.
- If absolutely nothing helps, you'll need an RfC to find a consensus, but you're far away from this point. Far away. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
File:Visual Editor - Overlapping issue.png
Hi ToBeFree,
I was going through random files in Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons and came to this one. It's in your category Category:Files prepared for transfer to Commons by User ToBeFree but I don't think this should be transfered, as it wouldn't be useful in other Wikimedia Projects. What do I do, remove it from your category and tag with Template:Do not move to Commons? Or only tag with Template:Do not move to Commons? Thanks, Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 22:30, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Myrealnamm, thanks for asking! In general, I'm very happy about files being removed from this category and marked as unsuitable for transfer to Commons; the category is a chaotic result of a process described at User talk:ToBeFree/A/1 § Image copyright question and in desperate need of cleanup. So thank you very much for every single image you're checking there.
- However, to my knowledge, usefulness to just one Wikimedia project is not an exclusion criterion. On the contrary, a media file that is in use on one of the other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation is considered automatically to be useful for an educational purpose on Wikimedia Commons, and the file is used for an archived VisualEditor bug report. So I'd say feel free to transfer rather than removing or tagging as ineligible. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:38, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh wow, I... never saw COM:INUSE. For sure, I'll transfer it over.
- By the way, I see that when I transfer the file over, Category:Files prepared for transfer to Commons by User ToBeFree also gets brought over to Commons, and there's a discussion that started over three years ago
(that you've participated in) regarding your category in Commons. - I have to go soon, I'll take a look at this tom. Thanks! Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 02:06, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

- A hundred years later people will still stumble upon this horrible category because the English Wikipedia is still full of files that aren't properly sorted between "transferable to Commons" and "not transferable to Commons" and the category is better than nothing for identifying transferable files... ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:10, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- Wait, I just said I would transfer it over... But then I didn't. Now I did. Thanks for the nudge!
- Ha! That's hilarious. Gotta go, coming back tom. Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 02:13, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- That wasn't meant to be a nudge!
Thanks again and feel free to ask about any other files in the category. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:57, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- That wasn't meant to be a nudge!
10 November 2024
@ToBeFree, Could you please check my talk page and the numerous edit warning notices I've received? Despite making constructive and good-faith edits to Rajput, Rajput clans, and Political marriages in India, I haven't engaged in any edit wars or disruptions on Wikipedia and calling my edit as "Shamaless attempt". wich I believe was provoking®asteem Talk 11:25, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- "numerous edit warning notices" - You have only received a single edit warring notice(softer wording) because you were in fact edit warring, see my latest reply on your talkpage. The other was a general note regarding marking non minor edits as minor, therefore not a warning. This is irrelevant now because that phrase was retracted , I also do not understand why are you forumshopping instead of responding to Abhishek. Ratnahastin (talk) 11:31, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- I would like to differ with Ratnahastin. I checked the page edited by Rasteem and found that their edits were genuine. Also, he is comparatively new to Wikipedia, hence the correct way to alert them is not by bombarding with notices rather than making him aware of policies if the need arises. But, as of now, I don't think they've done any blunder which necessitates such heavy warnings as done on the talk page of several articles and their own talk page. Adamantine123 (talk) 12:03, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- @@ToBeFree: Please also consider this talk page discussion I had with Adamantine123 in wich I shared by concerned that I, Adamantine123, @LukeEmily:, & Ekdalian all we have received some edit warning notices just after making constructive edits on Rajput, Rajput clans, Political marriages in India for no actual edit wars by & received edit warning or contenious topic notices from (Ratnahastin), (NXcrypto), (Dympies) and (Abhishek0831996) you may not mind keeping an eye on these articles. These are some notices I received within less then 10 or 12 hours in addition I received same notice twice for the use of minor edit tag on [Rajput]] from Ratnahastin & Dympies. ®asteem Talk 11:59, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Although here I differed with Ratnahastin, but, as an older editor compared to you I also have a piece of advice for you. Ratnahastin is a prolific editor in this area. I am noticing their edits for a long time and I have found that they have done good work to keep many contentious articles clean. Please note, that if you accuse a bunch of editors of colluding with each other, this is called violation of WP:AGF. Although, I agree with you that Dympies have been doing some problematic edits on Rajput caste related articles, which is being discussed here at User Talk: Ekdalian#pings by LukeEmily and Ekdalian, you should avoid commenting on motive of editors. Just point out at their edits with reliable source. Also, don't panic and take proper time in making comments and replying to others so that you can scrutinize your comment here. Adamantine123 (talk) 12:56, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- @Adamantine123 Thank you I'll consider your advise always in my mind before making comments regarding other editors. ®asteem Talk 13:04, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Although here I differed with Ratnahastin, but, as an older editor compared to you I also have a piece of advice for you. Ratnahastin is a prolific editor in this area. I am noticing their edits for a long time and I have found that they have done good work to keep many contentious articles clean. Please note, that if you accuse a bunch of editors of colluding with each other, this is called violation of WP:AGF. Although, I agree with you that Dympies have been doing some problematic edits on Rajput caste related articles, which is being discussed here at User Talk: Ekdalian#pings by LukeEmily and Ekdalian, you should avoid commenting on motive of editors. Just point out at their edits with reliable source. Also, don't panic and take proper time in making comments and replying to others so that you can scrutinize your comment here. Adamantine123 (talk) 12:56, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Rasteem, I think I see what you mean. Special:Diff/1256313211 is okay. Users are sometimes required to send these messages before they can request other actions. It's okay for Ratnahastin to send this message to you, but only once. In general, you are allowed to tell someone to stop messaging you, and they're required to stop. However, {{ani-notice}}, the alert box from Special:Diff/1256313211 or similar notifications may still be sent, of course. If you tell someone not to message you and they continue sending unnecessary messages, that would be a form of harassment. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:53, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
Sandra masters
Why would you block me from making an innocent and accurate biographic statement? She has four kids, her x is Gary Houston the author. I feel it is an informative fact. Townsb (talk) 18:19, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Townsb, where did you find this information? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:55, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-46
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
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- View all 29 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the submitted task to use the SecurePoll extension for English Wikipedia's special administrator election was resolved on time.
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In 1.44.0-wmf-2, the logic of Wikibase functiongetAllStatementschanged to behave likegetBestStatements. Invoking the function now returns a copy of values which are immutable.- Wikimedia REST API users, such as bot operators and tool maintainers, may be affected by ongoing upgrades. The API will be rerouting some page content endpoints from RESTbase to the newer MediaWiki REST API endpoints. The impacted endpoints include getting page/revision metadata and rendered HTML content. These changes will be available on testwiki later this week, with other projects to follow. This change should not affect existing functionality, but active users of the impacted endpoints should verify behavior on testwiki, and raise any concerns on the related Phabricator ticket.
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Unblock account
2months back account got blocked. Now terms and policies are understood and will be followed. Kindly unblock my ip and account Ruben015 (talk) 07:57, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
Nomination for deletion of Template:Contentious topics/anchor
Template:Contentious topics/anchor has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. Gonnym (talk) 13:53, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
The Blue Rider, Helping at WP:VA
Hi there,
I just noticed that User:The Blue Rider got blocked recently and you seemed to have an understanding conversation with him/her. I don't normally approach the admins so I apologize if this isn't the proper forum; I don't know the details about why they were blocked either.
Next time their block is being reconsidered though, I just wanted to add that The Blue Rider strikes me as a helpful participant at WP:VA, where I mainly interact with them. The VA project in particular is under-appreciated, involves a lot of cat-herding, and inevitably brings out WP:FAN behavior. So every fair and reliable contributor there makes a big difference. I just wanted to let you and your colleagues know so you can factor that in, especially if there's a possibility of making their block partial in the future. -- Zar2gar1 (talk) 21:03, 11 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Zar2gar1,
- Thank you very much for the kind feedback in favor of a user's return. This is rare and valuable. To me personally, at the moment, The Blue Rider's behavior has left me without short-term hope for a way for them to return to editing without disruption. Some users write wonderful featured articles and end up being banned for their uncivil behavior. Some users are great template coders and create wonderful technical improvements yet end up being banned for their uncivil behavior. To me personally, this is a sign of a healthy community with working measures and institutions against disruption, attacks and harassment. To me personally, someone working productively and collaboratively in one narrow specific area while starting fights in multiple other locations needs to remain blocked. Whether that changes, we'll see; I'll definitely take your point into account if the discussion comes up.
- Best regards and thanks again,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:54, 11 November 2024 (UTC)- (talk page stalker) I haven't looked closely enough to have an opinion on The Blue Rider's block and don't plan to, but User:Pppery/The iceberg is worth a read in situations like this. I would say that as a general matter the community has gone too far in the deletion of banning otherwise productive people for incivility and is sabotaging itself as a result. * Pppery * it has begun... 00:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Pppery, I generally agree with the idea that a "this user can be replaced" mentality in a large volunteer project can lead to the loss of the only person who cared about a specific topic, or one of the few people who patrolled a specific noticeboard or something similar. I disagree with the idea that bans are part of this issue, as bans result from the community dealing with actual disruption in a situation where other people would start leaving the project if the behavior remained unsanctioned. A "we need this editor's contributions despite their behavior" mentality is what ArbCom exists to steer against, what "discretionary sanctions" have been created to counter (preventing quick unblocks made with exactly this reasoning), et cetera. This view can become a real problem if too many members of a community loudly have it. And regarding this specific editor, the emotional blackmailing that hit me and those watching their talk page yesterday is something you can be happy about not having looked at. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:14, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
- I appreciate the reply, and I agree 100% that you have to run a tight ship. Like I said, I don't know the details of what led to the block; I only noticed it because I planned to respond to something they wrote at VA.
- I felt I should bring this up just in case you decide later that the problems can be limited to specific areas of Wikipedia. I can only vouch for my own impression of their behavior at VA, which has always seemed positive to me, and AFAIK nobody there has ever raised any significant complaints.
- Anyways, thanks for taking the time to reply, and best wishes. It's a tough gig being an internet admin, not something I'm cut out for, so you have my respect. -- Zar2gar1 (talk) 01:58, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you
~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
- Fwiw, I worked in a toxic environment for years because the manager would not take action because the toxic individuals, "did a good job." it's hard to balance all of the needs involved. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 08:54, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you
- (talk page stalker) I haven't looked closely enough to have an opinion on The Blue Rider's block and don't plan to, but User:Pppery/The iceberg is worth a read in situations like this. I would say that as a general matter the community has gone too far in the deletion of banning otherwise productive people for incivility and is sabotaging itself as a result. * Pppery * it has begun... 00:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
Hello. As the editor who templated User:The Blue Rider , which initiated the most recent ANI discussion, I'd also like to add my support in favor of future return of User:The Blue Rider. User:The Blue Rider will need to completely stop uncivil comments such as this . If this condition is met, I think they can be a benefit to the project in the future, after a bit of a cool-down period.
Even though I disagreed with The Blue Rider in some of the WP:VA discussions, I also think The Blue Rider makes positive contributions there. A lot of people ignore WP:VA, but I think it's useful in organizing and prioritizing Wikipedia articles.
Also note that after this exchange , The Blue Rider and I still had a calm debate here: Wikipedia_talk:Vital_articles#RfCs_for_nominating_articles. The Blue Rider provided a study that is favorable to aspects of WP:VA (here's the study: ).
I also understand their comment. Template:Contentious topics/alert/first indeed says You have recently edited a page related to ...
. The fact that talk page discussions are covered under Wikipedia:Contentious topics/Arab–Israeli conflict is not in the template.
I know this discussion is early. But if there is a future discussion about unbanning this editor, and if I miss it, please include my support and this diff. But my support is conditional on complete stop of uncivil comments. Thanks! Bogazicili (talk) 18:15, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Zar2gar1 and Bogazicili, has The Blue Rider sent you a message or asked for support somewhere? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:46, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
- Not to me no. I had put their user page to my watchlist and saw what happened, including edit summaries. Bogazicili (talk) 00:12, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
- No, he / she did send me a welcome-back message a couple weeks back after I came back from a wiki break.
- I edit Wikipedia as just a periodic hobby & writing practice so I try to avoid any drama or edit wars. This is the first time someone I've interacted with over time got a block though.
- I was a little hesitant because I understand processes like this shouldn't have any personal biases. Just in case you were on the fence about a limited block someday though, I felt it was only fair that someone vouched for them away from whatever precipitated the block. Zar2gar1 (talk) 00:24, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
Okay, thanks for the clarification! This is very kind of you both. I personally currently lack the hope needed for even a partial unblock, but we'll see. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:54, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
WP:PERM/EC
Hello, @ToBeFree,
Could you please look at my contribution and give me your opinion? Have I gained the necessary experience that the community expects from me? Thank you in advance for your opinion, it is important to me. --Alex091981 (talk) 15:03, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Alex091981,
- Thank you very much for your patience and for asking not too early.
Done! - (But please don't jump into heated discussions and article conflicts only because you can now
) - Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:24, 15 November 2024 (UTC)
Brazilian Army
Hi @ToBeFree, Long time no chat! :) Just wanted to reach out for some advice from an administrator's perspective of how to best handle an editor making some problematic edits. My patrol of CAT:MISSFILE this morning brought me to Brazilian Army, in which I noticed an editor (Cybershore) removing huge amounts of information and sources (including breaking links and images) without consensus, citing "biased sources" and "irrelevant bureaucratic info" as the reason for their mass removal of content. It appears from their edit history that they have been making edits of this nature for over a decade now, essentially writing off any sources or information they don't like as "biased" or "conspiracy theories." To me, it reads as a clear case of WP:IDONTLIKEIT and WP:NOTHERE, as the editor also seems quite aggressive and unwilling to be open to discussion. While I would just report them to WP:AN/3, another user, Unbaratocha has jumped in and started removing the exact same content. It appears to me that they are the same person using multiple accounts, given Unbaratocha conveniently jumped in to revert right at the edit that would have put Cybershore in violation of WP:3RR. It also seems suspicious that today is both accounts' first time editing since December 2018, and their edit history shows them editing mostly the exact same articles. Given neither account is blocked, and that this seems to be an issue that has persisted for years, I wasn't sure if the best place to report this would be WP:ANI, WP:AN/3 or if opening an WP:SPI report would be the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances. Let me know your thoughts! Cheers, Katniss May the odds be ever in your favor ♥ 18:50, 16 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi KatnissEverdeen, thank you very much for asking and for the detailed explanation of the issue and your ideas how to continue. I think SPI would be the best of these, and I'll have a look (preferably at an SPI but independently of its existence) later today! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:07, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, that was far easier than I thought. It's not possible for two accounts to be
Confirmed more clearly to each other. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:59, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks so much for taking care of it, ToBeFree!
Katniss May the odds be ever in your favor ♥ 17:16, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
- No problem
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:06, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
- No problem
- Thanks so much for taking care of it, ToBeFree!
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Tech News: 2024-47
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
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Grammar
I get the dispute solution.
But please can we atleast retain the grammar I updated. The leading description should say "about a part of" not "about part of"
Thanks ShawarmaFan07 (talk) 11:36, 19 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh. Of course. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:27, 19 November 2024 (UTC)
User talk:Mut.Greg evading the partial block
Hi ToBeFree, it looks like Mut.Greg has evaded his block with an IP:- user talk:41.216.109.104. I have blocked the IP, but didn't want to modify Mut.Greg's block without consulting you. PhilKnight (talk) 10:47, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi PhilKnight, thank you very much for noticing this and dealing with it; I have indefinitely blocked Mut.Greg based on their behavior for now. I didn't perform a technical check, though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:56, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
PROD
Hi, the issue was that the removal was by a COI editor who has been going on something of a spree in recent hours, interfering with the clean up operation and attacking the article of a user participating in that operation. Is there nothing that can be done to put a stop to the situation? Axad12 (talk) 04:02, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Axad12, thanks for the context. I found this through the report at WP:AIV about the issue, but this is really beyond AIV's scope and should long be at WP:ANI with diffs as evidence of the misconduct. Regarding the PROD itself, the next step after any objection, even when it happened with a conflict of interest, is to nominate the page for deletion (WP:AfD). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:05, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Axad12, never mind, I went ahead and blocked. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:11, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you, I was just in the process of asking you to do so.
- I'm supposed to be on Wikibreak, mainly due to disillusionment over the lack of admin intervention at COIN over the last 12 months.
- The user in question was the subject of this COIN thread where there was a consensus for blocking, and this positive SPI investigation .
- Thank you for blocking the user, you have (to some extent) restored my faith in Wikipedia. Whether I will ever return from wikibreak I don't know, but your intervention has made that prospect much more likely. Axad12 (talk) 04:18, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

- Thank you very much for the kind feedback, although it makes me sad to hear the reason for your wikibreak. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:20, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Axad12, never mind, I went ahead and blocked. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:11, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
Evadeluge has left a message for you
It's on their talk page. Since they have not pinged you I doubt you will have noticed/ 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 10:51, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- My error.They do seem to have pinged you.
- Thank you for blocking them. 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 10:52, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh my. 🙂 Thanks for the notification! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:29, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- My oh my! I left them a reply to advise them about misuse if their user talk page post block. I have tried my best to be even handed and polite, and ignored their blandishments.
- Editors such is this make me glad I do not have the keys to the janitorial supplies cupboard. The temptations that go with wielding the floor cleaning spray feel as if they would be very hard to resist. 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 13:48, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- I feel you.
Thanks for your patience. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:10, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- (talk page watcher) Personally, I've found the "mute" button to be a wondrous aid in maintaining my emotional equilibrium. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 12:33, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Deepfriedokra, has your list of e-mail mutes reached 50 too, making you delete older entries to be able to add new ones? I wonder why I didn't ask on Phabricator for the limit to be increased yet. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:53, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh, the limit is not 50 or not 50 anymore. I'll keep an eye on this, perhaps it was already increased. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:57, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- My mute list not nearly as long as yours. 😜 -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 15:06, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- I was sure your work with UTRS led to an even longer list.
Well, good to hear then. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:08, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- I was sure your work with UTRS led to an even longer list.
- My mute list not nearly as long as yours. 😜 -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 15:06, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Oh, the limit is not 50 or not 50 anymore. I'll keep an eye on this, perhaps it was already increased. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:57, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- Deepfriedokra, has your list of e-mail mutes reached 50 too, making you delete older entries to be able to add new ones? I wonder why I didn't ask on Phabricator for the limit to be increased yet. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:53, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- (talk page watcher) Personally, I've found the "mute" button to be a wondrous aid in maintaining my emotional equilibrium. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 12:33, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
- I feel you.
User:Khanbijoy1471
This user made an autobiographical userpage after their block for self-promotion expired. I moved the userpage to draftspace without realizing they had been blocked, and that the draft was deleted several times. Should this user be blocked again? Helpful Raccoon (talk) 01:20, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Helpful Raccoon, thank you very much for the notification. Looking at Special:Diff/1259167556, I'm afraid there's not much else we can do. That message was a direct response to "I’d like to kindly advise against publishing articles about yourself" and further advice. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:01, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin November Issue 2

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Talking: 2024 continues

- Conversation with the trustees: Speak directly with the Wikimedia Foundation trustees about their work at the next Conversation with the Trustees on 27 November from 12:00 – 13:30 UTC.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: Registration is now open for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, May 2–4, 2025.
- Language Community: The next language community meeting will be held on November 29 at 16:00 UTC.
- Wikimania 2025: Application for scholarship to attend Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi is open until the end of December 8.
- Central Asian WikiCon: The Central Asian WikiCon 2025 will take place on April 19–20, 2025, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Applications to be part of the Program and Scholarship Committee is open until November 30.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: Admins and users of the Wikimedia projects where Automoderator is enabled can now monitor and evaluate important metrics related to Automoderator's actions; Stewards can now make global account blocks cause global autoblocks. Learn about the latest tech updates from tech news 45, 46, and 47.
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions now has a new Type: rational numbers. They expand the ability to deal with numbers considerably, allowing us to work with fractions and decimals, and not just whole numbers anymore. More status updates.
- Temporary accounts: We are rolling out temporary accounts for unregistered (logged-out) editors for more wikis including Romanian, Serbian, Danish, and Norwegian Bokmål.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Language & Internationalization: The fifth edition of the Language & Internationalization newsletter is available. Some key highlights: Mooré Wikipedia is live; Keyboard Layouts for Multiple Languages Added; New Projects Added to Translatewiki.net.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase which looked at external factors that help different language versions of Wikipedia thrive.
- Wikipedia Library: What's new in the Wikipedia Library?
- Tulu Wikisource: Welcoming Tulu Wikisource.
- CEE Meeting 2024: Highlights from Central Asian community members at the CEE Meeting 2024.
- Let's Connect: Let's Connect Learning clinic on Gender Sensitivity Training within Wikimedia communities was held on November 22.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Audit reports 2023-24: Highlights from the fiscal year 2023–2024 Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment audit reports.
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Financial report of Wikimedia Enterprise for the fiscal year 2023–2024.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Updates: The Board met in Katowice, Poland on August 5 and held its quarterly business meeting before Wikimania. Learn more about the outcomes of the meeting.
- AffCom: The Affiliates Committee has resumed User Group recognition work after a pause to improve the User Group recognition process.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 18:18, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-48
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
A new version of the standard wikitext editor-mode syntax highlighter will be available as a beta feature later this week. This brings many new features and bug fixes, including right-to-left support, template folding, autocompletion, and an improved search panel. You can learn more on the help page.- The 2010 wikitext editor now supports common keyboard shortcuts such
Ctrl+Bfor bold andCtrl+Ifor italics. A full list of all six shortcuts is available. Thanks to SD0001 for this improvement. - Starting November 28, Flow/Structured Discussions pages will be automatically archived and set to read-only at the following wikis: bswiki, elwiki, euwiki, fawiki, fiwiki, frwikiquote, frwikisource, frwikiversity, frwikivoyage, idwiki, lvwiki, plwiki, ptwiki, urwiki, viwikisource, zhwikisource. This is done as part of StructuredDiscussions deprecation work. If you need any assistance to archive your page in advance, please contact Trizek (WMF).
- View all 25 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a user creating a new AbuseFilter can now only set the filter to "protected" if it includes a protected variable.
Updates for technical contributors
- The CodeEditor, which can be used in JavaScript, CSS, JSON, and Lua pages, now offers live autocompletion. Thanks to SD0001 for this improvement. The feature can be temporarily disabled on a page by pressing
Ctrl+,and un-selecting "Live Autocompletion".
Tool-maintainers who use the Graphite system for tracking metrics, need to migrate to the newer Prometheus system. They can check this dashboard and the list in the Description of the task T350592 to see if their tools are listed, and they should claim metrics and dashboards connected to their tools. They can then disable or migrate all existing metrics by following the instructions in the task. The Graphite service will become read-only in April.
The New PreProcessor parser performance report has been fixed to give an accurate count for the number of Wikibase entities accessed. It had previously been resetting after 400 entities.
Meetings and events
- A Language community meeting will take place November 29 at 16:00 UTC. There will be presentations on topics like developing language keyboards, the creation of the Mooré Wikipedia, the language support track at Wiki Indaba, and a report from the Wayuunaiki community on their experiences with the Incubator and as a new community over the last 3 years. This meeting will be in English and will also have Spanish interpretation.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:40, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
Libby Weaver
Hey, just letting you know that there appears to be another Leroy Cronin situation brewing here – removing sourced content as "unwanted" "tabloid material". –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:53, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, this is interesting for multiple reasons. Thanks for sharing; I hope page protection and an {{anonblock}} help. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:32, 26 November 2024 (UTC)
Re my marking AIV report as content dispute
Thanks for the thanks on Special:Diff/1259786355. I was not doing a deep inspection of what was going on, so I didn’t see or address the edit war. When reviewing AIV reports, should I be making a longer review of the underlying issues? Or is a quick response like the one I gave sufficient? — rsjaffe 🗣️ 03:09, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- [courtesy pings to Remsense and KrakatoaKatie; courtesy notification sent to 79.103.186.102.]
- Hi Rsjaffe, I think the most important thing was not to block the IP address for vandalism in this case.
Whether your decline comes as a quick response, as a removal of the report perhaps with an edit summary pinging the reporter, or even time investment beyond this is probably not as important as the decline itself, which can be a tough decision. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:46, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- Will add that the content dispute that I was rash in reporting has been resolved amicably. Remsense ‥ 论 03:47, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- No worries, and thanks for resolving this! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:48, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- Will add that the content dispute that I was rash in reporting has been resolved amicably. Remsense ‥ 论 03:47, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- Rsjaffe, now that I think about it, I should add: You'll probably see me taking action where you wouldn't have; I think we met on a few users' talk pages in this way already. You warning, me blocking. That's okay, at least to me; I do this when I think the probability of anyone using the same IP address productively is lower than the probability of more disruption. An IPv4 address that has been used for editing Wikipedia for the first time after its over 20 years of existence, and only disruptively, or most IPv6 addresses, can probably be blocked with little hesitation in response to clear vandalism, for example. Vandalism is intentional; real vandals don't need to be informed that their actions are destructive. They sometimes stop when they see that their actions have no lasting effect on the encyclopedia but possibly on their ability to edit. However, the probability of them becoming a constructive contributor and the block preventing really helpful encyclopedic contributions during the next weeks is close to 0, and the probability of them returning for more sophisticated vandalism circumventing filters a few days later has been proven in front of my eyes to exist again and again, sometimes after 36-hour blocks. I ended up blocking vandals for two weeks by default, but that's just a personal habit rather than general advice. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:07, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- I'll agree with that. It's really good that you didn't block for vandalism. I've worked AIV for, gosh, almost 20 years, and I'd estimate 15-20% of reports aren't vandalism. A lot of that 15-20% is IDONTLIKEIT. With experience, you'll see the real vandals quicker and block them faster, and likewise recognize the edit wars and content disputes. I also block IP vandals longer than some others, depending on the geolocation; I'll start with 36 or even 60 hours, then go to at least one week. And don't be shy about blocking schools. I also like pending changes more than some other admins, because I get this picture in my head of a guy sitting in his underwear in his mother's basement drinking Diet Coke and bingeing Squid Game while screaming "WHERE IZ MY VANDALIZMS CURSE YOU WIKIPEDIA". Katietalk 16:00, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:08, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- I'll agree with that. It's really good that you didn't block for vandalism. I've worked AIV for, gosh, almost 20 years, and I'd estimate 15-20% of reports aren't vandalism. A lot of that 15-20% is IDONTLIKEIT. With experience, you'll see the real vandals quicker and block them faster, and likewise recognize the edit wars and content disputes. I also block IP vandals longer than some others, depending on the geolocation; I'll start with 36 or even 60 hours, then go to at least one week. And don't be shy about blocking schools. I also like pending changes more than some other admins, because I get this picture in my head of a guy sitting in his underwear in his mother's basement drinking Diet Coke and bingeing Squid Game while screaming "WHERE IZ MY VANDALIZMS CURSE YOU WIKIPEDIA". Katietalk 16:00, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
User to keep an eye on
Hey I came across this edit reverted, and warned the user. I don't think it's ANI level yet, since that's their only mainspace edit, but I think they should be on an admin's radar. TornadoLGS (talk) 04:57, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi TornadoLGS, thank you very much for the notification. I'll watchlist their talk page so all of their possible future contributions are on my radar. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:16, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- (In the future, do feel free to report racist vandalism at WP:AIV or WP:ANI.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:19, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks. I thought it would be good to watch this one. I usually wait until a registered used vandalizes twice before reporting at AIV or repeated disruption for ANI. TornadoLGS (talk) 21:41, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
Suppress this revision
Justin Goldston
Just giving you a heads-up about the recent promotional edits here. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 05:11, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much! I wonder if DXdy FX's account may have been compromised, but it doesn't seem so. For example, Special:Diff/1258732853 was in an article the user had edited in January. It simply seems to have appeared on their watchlist. There's also no technical evidence of an ownership change at least during the last three months. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:28, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
Recent correspondence
Hi,
Following on from recent correspondence, just a brief note to ask if the background provided was satisfactory?
Hopefully it was at least sufficient to indicate that I genuinely believed that (to the best of my understanding) I was operating within the relevant policy.
If I’m deemed to have crossed a line in that regard I assure you it was entirely accidental. With the benefit of hindsight I probably ought to have used the formulation “an account promoting the work of X”.
Kind regards, Axad12 (talk) 08:25, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hey – I'm sorry for the late reply, Axad12! I have now answered. I hope this is okay? Regarding “an account promoting the work of X”, yeah, that would be a good and safe solution in such cases.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:51, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
November 2024
Signature for archival ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:42, 19 November 2024 (UTC)
Appologies
for cutting you off. NightWolf1223 <Howl at me•My hunts> 01:25, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi NightWolf1223, all good!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:02, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
WP:RUSUKR
Hello!
I have created a draft about a well-known Ukrainian company that specializes in the development and production of electronic warfare and electronic intelligence equipment.
Can I move the article to the main space? Would it be a violation of the WP:RUSUKR rules? Thank you in advance for your response. Your opinion on this issue is important to me. Alex091981 (talk) 20:42, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Alex091981, you meet the requirements for editing in the RUSUKR topic area, so that's fine; of course the content is (very) closely related to the war and affected by the restriction, but that's okay. Thanks for asking! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:48, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- ToBeFree,Thank you for your response and support.--Alex091981 (talk) 17:26, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
I've read WP:FCOI closely, (probably)
Context: . ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:57, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
I see the point you have made, but I'm struggling to find the distinction between Foo who owns Bar Plumbing and Foe who works as an employee of Bar Plumbing should each write about Bar Plumbing. Each derives a benefit from writing about Bar Plumbing, one as Owner's profit and the other as wages because Bar hav=s become better now.
I failed to find words on that section which distinguish between the two. It's perfectly possible that I read it with my interpretation of it in mind so glossed over it. Would you mind taking a detailed look and helping me to find what I am missing, please? 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 21:59, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Timtrent, the strict disclosure requirement from WP:PAID / TOU §4 is about contributions for which someone receives, or expects to receive, an exchange of money, goods, or services. This is not the case when someone promotes themselves or their completely self-owned business or website. They do have a financial conflict of interest if the promotion could lead to an increase in sales, and we do strongly encourage the disclosure of any COI, but the disclose-or-be-blocked language from the {{uw-paid}} series doesn't apply to self-promotion. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:01, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
- I may be being obtuse. To be fair I am also awake (for no good reason, but rather frustratingly) at 4am my time, so perhaps that can be forgiven. I've read the elements you have linked to, yet find it hard to see where a distinction is made between a business owner (who may or may not be employed by the business) and an employee, who is paid for their day to day work by the business. I'm not having a discussion for the sake of it, if you get my drift. I've had problems with the semantics here for some time, and you've been kind enough to engage with me over the topic..
- I appreciate the discussion we're having, and would like to see chapter and verse of why I should change my opinion so that I can change it. I might be word blind, of course, since I have a current opinion! 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 04:06, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
- Timtrent, it's all good, but I think I've provided all points I could. We probably remain with differing opinions about the existence of a meaningful difference between "financial conflict of interest" and "paid editing". It's a topic that led to heated discussions such as at Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Greenman#Oppose #1 (courtesy ping Greenman, Serial Number 54129, JayBeeEll, Bilorv, Levivich, Xeno, Lepricavark, Joe Roe). There was Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Conflict_of_interest_management#Final_decision since, but FCOI vs. PAID wasn't really addressed by it as far as I can see. It's also not really ArbCom's role to decide authoritatively about this specific question. I guess a statement from the WMF could at least help us to understand their definition, and we could still decide afterwards to say "FCOI = PAID", making it a community policy even if the WMF is only concerned about a subset of financial conflicts of interest. If there has been such a clarification already and one of the pinged users is aware of it, please share. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:57, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the ping, TBF... wow, I was a real asshole back then. Thank God I've mellowed so much! :) SerialNumber54129 14:08, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:13, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- We should resolve this ambiguity, but it will be a tiresome process. I think the case above is a good example of why it doesn't make sense to worry about the source of the money; it's the the fact that money is involved that's the (potential) problem. – Joe (talk) 16:38, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Joe Roe, while I agree with both what you said, isn't this also an example of how unnecessary a disclosure can be? It doesn't seem to make any difference in the context case to me. Disclosed advertising or undisclosed advertising both leads to the same block, and a disclosure wouldn't lead to an unblock. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:22, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- I can never understand why discussions on technical matters such as this become heated. I have no difficulty with holding a differing opinion from yours in the very civilised discussion we're having. At least we know that we differ, and have differed collegially.
- A WMF 'proclamation' would help, but their hands off approach means it is likely not to happen
- @Joe Roe I think you are correct. We do need to do this tiresome process. I don't mind which way the verdict goes, just that it happens and is defined. 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 17:17, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks TBF for the ping. FCOI vs. PAID was explicitly addressed by arbitrators at the case you mention: see the votes here, in which the arbitrators voted 3-7-1 against a proposal whose logical structure was "NJ edited while an employee; therefore he engaged in paid editing" (with vote rationales that make it clear that they reject this collapse of a supercategory "editing with a FCOI" into its subcategory "engaging in paid editing"). Unlike SN54129, I'm still an asshole. --JBL (talk) 19:42, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Aah, a finding of fact rather than a principle, and one that didn't make it in the end. That's why I didn't find it yet thought I had seen it in the case. Thanks! Yeah, that 3-7-1 is practically 2024 ArbCom's response to the question, with Moneytrees's support practically being an oppose towards this question. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:29, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the ping, TBF... wow, I was a real asshole back then. Thank God I've mellowed so much! :) SerialNumber54129 14:08, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
- Timtrent, it's all good, but I think I've provided all points I could. We probably remain with differing opinions about the existence of a meaningful difference between "financial conflict of interest" and "paid editing". It's a topic that led to heated discussions such as at Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Greenman#Oppose #1 (courtesy ping Greenman, Serial Number 54129, JayBeeEll, Bilorv, Levivich, Xeno, Lepricavark, Joe Roe). There was Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Conflict_of_interest_management#Final_decision since, but FCOI vs. PAID wasn't really addressed by it as far as I can see. It's also not really ArbCom's role to decide authoritatively about this specific question. I guess a statement from the WMF could at least help us to understand their definition, and we could still decide afterwards to say "FCOI = PAID", making it a community policy even if the WMF is only concerned about a subset of financial conflicts of interest. If there has been such a clarification already and one of the pinged users is aware of it, please share. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:57, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
AIGOGY
Okay guys, I am wondering to write AIGOGY Methodology page or make it better According my previous definition or other Methodology like pedagogy, Andragogy, cybergogy etc. MAL111 (talk) 01:21, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
- None of this, MehdiAlireza, none of these ideas. Please try correcting typography errors in existing articles or something similarly small and neutral to start editing and gaining first experience with the encyclopedia. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:37, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-49
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Two new parser functions were added this week. The
{{#interwikilink}}function adds an interwiki link and the{{#interlanguagelink}}function adds an interlanguage link. These parser functions are useful on wikis where namespaces conflict with interwiki prefixes. For example, links beginning withMOS:on English Wikipedia conflict with themoslanguage code prefix of Mooré Wikipedia. - Starting this week, Wikimedia wikis no longer support connections using old RSA-based HTTPS certificates, specifically rsa-2048. This change is to improve security for all users. Some older, unsupported browser or smartphone devices will be unable to connect; Instead, they will display a connectivity error. See the HTTPS Browser Recommendations page for more-detailed information. All modern operating systems and browsers are always able to reach Wikimedia projects.
- Starting December 16, Flow/Structured Discussions pages will be automatically archived and set to read-only at the following wikis: arwiki, cawiki, frwiki, mediawikiwiki, orwiki, wawiki, wawiktionary, wikidatawiki, zhwiki. This is done as part of StructuredDiscussions deprecation work. If you need any assistance to archive your page in advance, please contact Trizek (WMF).
- This month the Chart extension was deployed to production and is now available on Commons and Testwiki. With the security review complete, pilot wiki deployment is expected to start in the first week of December. You can see a working version on Testwiki and read the November project update for more details.
- View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug with the "Download as PDF" system was fixed.
Updates for technical contributors
- In late February, temporary accounts will be rolled out on at least 10 large wikis. This deployment will have a significant effect on the community-maintained code. This is about Toolforge tools, bots, gadgets, and user scripts that use IP address data or that are available for logged-out users. The Trust and Safety Product team wants to identify this code, monitor it, and assist in updating it ahead of the deployment to minimize disruption to workflows. The team asks technical editors and volunteer developers to help identify such tools by adding them to this list. In addition, review the updated documentation to learn how to adjust the tools. Join the discussions on the project talk page or in the dedicated thread on the Wikimedia Community Discord server (in English) for support and to share feedback.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:20, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – December 2024
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

Interface administrator changes
- Following an RFC, the policy on restoration of adminship has been updated. All former administrators may now only regain the tools following a request at the Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard within 5 years of their most recent admin action. Previously this applied only to administrators deysopped for inactivity.
- Following a request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion, T5, has been enacted. This applies to template subpages that are no longer used.
- Technical volunteers can now register for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. Application for travel and accommodation scholarships is open from November 12 to December 10, 2024.
- The arbitration case Yasuke (formerly titled Backlash to diversity and inclusion) has been closed.
- An arbitration case titled Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 14 December.
I doubt they will visit faWIki
I think their objective was to self promote in English. The escalation to legal threats came at astonishing speed. 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 15:26, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
- You seem to be right. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:08, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-50
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Technical documentation contributors can find updated resources, and new ways to connect with each other and the Wikimedia Technical Documentation Team, at the Documentation hub on MediaWiki.org. This page links to: resources for writing and improving documentation, a new #wikimedia-techdocs IRC channel on libera.chat, a listing of past and upcoming documentation events, and ways to request a documentation consultation or review. If you have any feedback or ideas for improvements to the documentation ecosystem, please contact the Technical Documentation Team.
Updates for editors

- Later this week, Edit Check will be relocated to a sidebar on desktop. Edit check is the feature for new editors to help them follow policies and guidelines. This layout change creates space to present people with new Checks that appear while they are typing. The initial results show newcomers encountering Edit Check are 2.2 times more likely to publish a new content edit that includes a reference and is not reverted.
- The Chart extension, which enables editors to create data visualizations, was successfully made available on MediaWiki.org and three pilot wikis (Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew Wikipedias). You can see a working examples on Testwiki and read the November project update for more details.
- Translators in wikis where the mobile experience of Content Translation is available, can now discover articles in Wikiproject campaigns of their interest from the "All collection" category in the articles suggestion feature. Wikiproject Campaign organizers can use this feature, to help translators to discover articles of interest, by adding the
<page-collection> </page-collection>tag to their campaign article list page on Meta-wiki. This will make those articles discoverable in the Content Translation tool. For more detailed information on how to use the tool and tag, please refer to the step-by-step guide. - The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, now has a multiselect filter for namespace selection. This enables users to select multiple specific namespaces, instead of only one or all, when fetching pages for deletion.
- The Nuke feature also now provides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions. Thanks to Chlod and the Moderator Tools team for both of these improvements.
- The Editing Team is working on making it easier to populate citations from archive.org using the Citoid tool, the auto-filled citation generator. They are asking communities to add two parameters preemptively,
archiveUrlandarchiveDate, within the TemplateData for each citation template using Citoid. You can see an example of a change in a template, and a list of all relevant templates. - One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in Indonesian (
voy:id:) - Last week, all wikis had problems serving pages to logged-in users and some logged-out users for 30–45 minutes. This was caused by a database problem, and investigation is ongoing.
View all 19 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug in the Add Link feature has been fixed. Previously, the list of sections which are excluded from Add Link was partially ignored in certain cases.
Updates for technical contributors
- Codex, the design system for Wikimedia, now has an early-stage implementation in PHP. It is available for general use in MediaWiki extensions and Toolforge apps through Composer, with use in MediaWiki core coming soon. More information is available in the documentation. Thanks to Doğu for the inspiration and many contributions to the library.
- Wikimedia REST API users, such as bot operators and tool maintainers, may be affected by ongoing upgrades. On December 4, the MediaWiki Interfaces team began rerouting page/revision metadata and rendered HTML content endpoints on testwiki from RESTbase to comparable MediaWiki REST API endpoints. The team encourages active users of these endpoints to verify their tool's behavior on testwiki and raise any concerns on the related Phabricator ticket before the end of the year, as they intend to roll out the same change across all Wikimedia projects in early January. These changes are part of the work to replace the outdated RESTBase system.
- The 2024 Developer Satisfaction Survey is seeking the opinions of the Wikimedia developer community. Please take the survey if you have any role in developing software for the Wikimedia ecosystem. The survey is open until 3 January 2025, and has an associated privacy statement.
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Meetings and events
- The next meeting in the series of Wikimedia Foundation discussions with the Wikimedia Commons community will take place on December 12 at 8:00 UTC and at 16:00 UTC. The topic of this call is new media and new contributors. Contributors from all wikis are welcome to attend.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:14, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 12 December 2024
- News and notes: Arbitrator election concludes
New arbs to be seated in January.
- Arbitration report: Palestine-Israel articles 5
Will the fifth try at achieving peace be a mudfight, or something better?
- Disinformation report: Sex, power, and money revisited
Should old acquaintance be forgot?
- Op-ed: On the backrooms
An editor's reflection on social capital and their changing relationship with Wikipedia culture. by Tamzin
- In focus: Are Wikipedia articles representative of Western or world knowledge?
Wikipedia aims to represent the sum of all knowledge. Is there an imbalance between Western countries and the rest of the world.
- In the media: Like the BBC, often useful but not impartial
Ballooning British bias bombast!
- Traffic report: Something Wicked for almost everybody
Fighting and killing – on screen, in politics, and in the ring – competes for attention with Disney.
- Opinion: Worm That Turned's reconfirmation RfA debriefing
The importance of feedback.
Nancy Torresen
Why would a Brazilian IP be concerned about the privacy of a district court judge in Maine? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 16:38, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, good question, but I also wonder where exactly it came from. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:06, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
On my query regarding possible socks
Hey ToBeFree, as communicated, I have opened this SPI case for your perusal. Danke! hundenvonPG (talk) 13:54, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi HundenvonPenang, thank you very much! I might have a look later; the main purpose of me requesting SPI instead of direct messages about sockpuppetry is to allow the normal processes and experienced other users deal with the situation before I have the time to perform a deep investigation. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:08, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
Bill Cowher
Just letting you know about the recent COI edits here. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:59, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
- Very well caught. Thank you very much, Skywatcher68. Octagon CN and Alyssaromano2 are
Confirmed; the article about Andrea Kremer was affected as well. Please check both articles for inaccuracies or badly sourced statements as the conflict of interest and the sockpuppetry do of course not justify bad sourcing. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:50, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
Shahi Jama Masjid (Sambhala)
In the five days that have elapsed since you protected Shahi Jama Masjid, not one of the four/five editors who were fervently reverting me, have shown up at the talk-page. Obviously, it was evident all along that those editors knew the lack of merit in their grievances and had no intention whatsoever to discuss anything; they heckled me (by filing 4 complaints at different venues) in a bid to scare me away.
I and Kautilya3 (who, if you recall, was the only involved editor to speak in support of me) have been discussing issues just as before; then, he is making the edits. This is working fine but is taking a lot of time even for effecting banal edits. Thus, I request that (1) the semi-protection be restored and (2) in future, you pay more heed to which of the involved parties have tried to discuss things, than imposing blocks.
Thanks, Upd Edit (talk) 12:45, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Upd Edit, thank you very much for the detailed feedback.
- If I see correctly, the requirement to request edits at Talk:Shahi Jama Masjid led to highly constructive discussions between you and Kautilya3 about policies and guidelines. It may have been possible to achieve the same result by being bold and making changes yourself, to be corrected by Kautilya3 where needed afterwards, but there was a real risk of Cerium4B or Ratnahastin continuing to object to actual issues by reverting the changes entirely – something they can no longer do as Kautilya3 discusses and removes possible problems before making the edits. Instead of interpreting the lack of reverts and the silence from Cerium4B and Ratnahastin as a reason for downgrading the protection or even saying it was unjustified in the first place, I personally interpret these as a positive result of the protection.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:01, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
UTRS appeal #98001
OK to unblock Elijah_Wilder (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)? Globally locked, so uphill climb. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 11:42, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Deepfriedokra, WikipedianHelper123 was theirs. That was after a promise not to create further accounts from another of their confirmed sock accounts. I'm generally fine with second chances, but looking at Special:CentralAuth/Elijah_Wilder, the broken promise and the current request, it seems too early to me. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:20, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks. I screwed up and clicked decline. Will note your concern for when they return. -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 20:30, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
Pharaoh Cleopatra
What the...? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:51, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Good question.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:10, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin December Issue

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Talking: 2024 continues

- Wikimania: Open call to host Wikimania 2027 and beyond is open until end of January 27 anywhere on earth.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: Chart extension is now available on Commons and Testwiki; a new version of the standard wikitext editor-mode syntax highlighter will be available as a beta feature; Edit Check will be relocated to a sidebar on desktop. More updates from tech news 50, 49, and 48.
- Wikifunctions: WordGraph dataset is released, which is particularly useful for abstract descriptions for people in Wikidata. More status updates.
- Wikipedia 2024 Year in Review: Wikipedia 2024 Year in Review launched, showcasing the collective impact of Wikipedia and Wikipedia contributors in the last calendar year. The iOS App also released a personalized Year in Review to Italy and Mexico, with insights based on reading, editing, and donation history.
- Wikipedia Android App: The Android team has launched the Rabbit Holes feature in the final release of the year as part of Wiki Experiences 3.1. Currently being tested in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this feature suggests a search term and a reading list based on the user's last two visited articles. For more details or to share feedback, visit the project page.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- WikiCelebrate: From Challenges to Change-Making: We Wikicelebrate Chabota Isaac Kanguya, a passionate contributor from Zambia, whose journey through the Wikimedia movement embodies resilience, collaboration, and a commitment to representing underrepresented voices.
- Conference: Announcing Central Asian WikiCon 2025 which will be hosted at Diplomat International School on April 19–20, 2025, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
- Campaigns and topical collaboration: The Campaign Product and Programs teams published research on the needs of WikiProject and other topical collaborations.
- Wikisource: The journey so far and looking ahead with Wikisource Loves Manuscripts (WiLMa).
- CEE Meeting: Experiences and Highlights by Central Asian Community Members.
- Partnership: Wikimedia Indonesia and Google Join Forces for Wikipedia Content Enrichment in Indonesia.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase which discussed AI for Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Ongoing litigation: Update on litigation in India.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Elections: The Board’s Executive Committee shared some thoughts on the 2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections.
External media releases & coverage
- Most popular articles: Announcing English Wikipedia’s most popular articles of 2024.
- Interview: Jimmy Wales on Why Wikipedia Is Still So Good.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 18:03, 16 December 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-51
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Interested in improving event management on your home wiki? The CampaignEvents extension offers organizers features like event registration management, event/wikiproject promotion, finding potential participants, and more - all directly on-wiki. If you are an organizer or think your community would benefit from this extension, start a discussion to enable it on your wiki today. To learn more about how to enable this extension on your wiki, visit the deployment status page.
Updates for editors
- Users of the iOS Wikipedia App in Italy and Mexico on the Italian, Spanish, and English Wikipedias, can see a personalized Year in Review with insights based on their reading and editing history.
- Users of the Android Wikipedia App in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia can see the new Rabbit Holes feature. This feature shows a suggested search term in the Search bar based on the current article being viewed, and a suggested reading list generated from the user’s last two visited articles.
- The global reminder bot is now active and running on nearly 800 wikis. This service reminds most users holding temporary rights when they are about to expire, so that they can renew should they want to. See the technical details page for more information.
- The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 13 January 2025 because of the end of year holidays. Thank you to all of the translators, and people who submitted content or feedback, this year.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed in the Android Wikipedia App which had caused translatable SVG images to show the wrong language when they were tapped.
Updates for technical contributors
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:22, 16 December 2024 (UTC)
Age and health concerns about Donald Trump
Pro-Trump nonsense going back to at least 3 December; the recent BLP vandal unrelated to previous nonsense has been blocked. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:53, 16 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks! The page had semi-protection until it expired 25 November 2024. I have re-added it now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:04, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Thank you for your contributions! 🗽Freedoxm🗽(talk • contribs) 04:26, 17 December 2024 (UTC) |
Hey Freedoxm, thank you very much! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:06, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
Talk:Science of Identity Foundation
Dear ToBeFree, I've got a question as to the extent of my block. Am I merely blocked for two weeks from the article Science of Identity Foundation or also from the associated talk page? If from both, I would have to insist that the ongoing RfC cannot conclude while I am on the sidelines. Str1977 (talk) 22:08, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Str1977, this is really limited to the article itself only and doesn't affect the talk page. Thinking about the situation again, umm... Now that the section is removed until a consensus is found, is there anything you'd change in the article if you were not blocked? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:13, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ah well, the content is back in different form. Mh. Thoughts? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:16, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
Leroy Cronin
One of the COI editors has returned to remove criticism, calling it "trolling". –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:00, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- The protection log of that article is amazing.
- Thanks again, Skywatcher68. If indefinite extended-confirmed protection and a block don't help, I'm starting to run out of ideas. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:27, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
Happy Holidays!



Hello ToBeFree: Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, Katniss May the odds be ever in your favor ♥ 16:58, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

- Long time no see!
Hi KatnissEverdeen, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to you too! 
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:47, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
Merry Christmas, from Iggy the Swan



Hello ToBeFree: Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 12:46, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

- And let the sun move towards us in the northern hemisphere due to the winter solstice being today. Iggy (Swan) (Contribs) 12:48, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Iggy the Swan!
Thank you very much and Merry Christmas to you too! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:19, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Days are finally getting longer again. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:20, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
Merry Christmas!

Joyeux Noël! ~ Buon Natale! ~ Vrolijk Kerstfeest! ~ Frohe Weihnachten!
¡Feliz Navidad! ~ Feliz Natal! ~ Καλά Χριστούγεννα! ~ Hyvää Joulua!
God Jul! ~ Glædelig Jul! ~ Linksmų Kalėdų! ~ Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!
Häid Jõule! ~ Wesołych Świąt! ~ Boldog Karácsonyt! ~ Veselé Vánoce!
Veselé Vianoce! ~ Crăciun Fericit! ~ Sretan Božić! ~ С Рождеством!
শুভ বড়দিন! ~ 圣诞节快乐!~ メリークリスマス!~ 메리 크리스마스!
สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส! ~ Selamat Hari Natal! ~ Giáng sinh an lành!
Весела Коледа! ~ Meri Kirihimete!
Hello, ToBeFree! Thank you for your work to maintain and improve Wikipedia! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
★Trekker (talk) 07:14, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
★Trekker (talk) 07:14, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- StarTrekker!

Hey, thank you very much! Merry Christmas and a Stellar New Year to you!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:46, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
| Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2025! | |
|
Hello ToBeFree, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2025. Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages. |
Hey Davey2010, time flies! Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to you too! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:19, 18 December 2024 (UTC)- Hi ToBeFree, I know where has the year gone?, Feels like I've blinked and 2024 just whizzed past!, Thanks so much :), I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year, Take care my friend, Warm Regards, –Davey2010Talk 17:30, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
Happy holidays!
| Happy holidays! | |
| Wishing you a Merry Christmas filled with love and joy, a Happy Holiday season surrounded by warmth and laughter, and a New Year brimming with hope, happiness, and success! 🎄🎉✨ Baqi:) (talk) 10:59, 24 December 2024 (UTC) |
Hey Jannatulbaqi, thank you very much!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:24, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
Question
Hi ToBeFree. I recently alerted a new editor about WP:RUSUKR because they were making edits in that topic area such as the status of Crimea e.g. this edit. They repeatedly said that those edits have nothing to do with the war. They also said that they would not restore those edits and would instead wait until they reach 500 edits. After this, they began making a series of minor edits making typo fixes e.g. changing "wil" to "will". I have warned them about gaming but they have insisted that this is not gaming and now they have circled back to why it is OK for them to make edits about Crimea and suggesting that I self-revert to "save us both time". What is the best way to proceed here? Mellk (talk) 14:45, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Mellk, thank you very much, both for dealing with the situation and for the notification. I've had a look at the changes as they are made right at the moment and they seem to be fine because they're actually necessary typographical fixes. This is unusual and doesn't yet require intervention. It might become tiresome quickly enough for Maxymczech (hi) to invent less helpful strategies, so I'll keep an eye on this. If there's just 500 of the current type of changes, I'm okay with this. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:21, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- At the moment they are prohibited from making such edits about Crimea, I would imagine? Thank you and happy holidays. Mellk (talk) 15:28, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hello. Thank you for taking a look into this situation. Please refer to User_talk:Maxymczech for full context. I assure you that I am not a vandal and I am not going to "invent less helpful strategies". The situation spiraled out of control after I attempted to fix few factual errors on pages for geographical features in Crimea.
- At this point, from my point of view, it seems like User:Mellk is set out on a personal vendetta to bar me from ever editing those pages out of spite, not out of interest of improving Wikipedia. Maxymczech (talk) 15:30, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- This edit and this edit is specifically about the annexation/occupation. You even referenced this in the edit summary. It is not helpful to continue saying that this has nothing to do with the war. Mellk (talk) 15:53, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- Is it "helpful" to continue threatening me and treating me like a vandal even though it can't be more obvious that I am not one? 🤔 Maxymczech (talk) 16:08, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- This edit and this edit is specifically about the annexation/occupation. You even referenced this in the edit summary. It is not helpful to continue saying that this has nothing to do with the war. Mellk (talk) 15:53, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 December 2024
- News and notes: Responsibilities and liabilities as a "Very Large Online Platform"
What the VLOP – findings of an outside auditor for "responsibilization" of Wikipedia. Plus, new EU Commissioners for tech policy, WLE 2024 winners, and a few other bits of news from the Wikipedia world.
- Op-ed: Beeblebrox on Wikipediocracy, the Committee, and everything
A personal essay.
- Opinion: Graham87 on being the first-ever administrator recall subject
Explanations for what led to it and what it was like to undergo it.
- In the media: Delhi High Court considers Caravan and Ken for evaluating the ANI vs. WMF case
Plus, the dangers of editing, Morrissey's page gets marred, COVID coverage critique, Kimchi consultation, kids' connectivity curtailed, centenarian Claudia, Christmas cramming, and more.
- From the archives: Where to draw the line in reporting?
Who's news?
- Recent research: "Wikipedia editors are quite prosocial", but those motivated by "social image" may put quantity over quality
And other new research findings.
- Humour: Backlash over Santa Claus' Wikipedia article intensifies
Good faith edits REVERTED and accounts BLOCKED.
- Gallery: A feast of holidays and carols
Peace on earth, goodwill to all!
- Traffic report: Was a long and dark December
Wicked war, martial law, killing, death and an Indian movie with a new chess champ!
Merry Christmas!

Joyeux Noël! ~ Buon Natale! ~ Vrolijk Kerstfeest! ~ Frohe Weihnachten!
¡Feliz Navidad! ~ Feliz Natal! ~ Καλά Χριστούγεννα! ~ Hyvää Joulua!
God Jul! ~ Glædelig Jul! ~ Linksmų Kalėdų! ~ Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!
Häid Jõule! ~ Wesołych Świąt! ~ Boldog Karácsonyt! ~ Veselé Vánoce!
Veselé Vianoce! ~ Crăciun Fericit! ~ Sretan Božić! ~ С Рождеством!
শুভ বড়দিন! ~ 圣诞节快乐!~ メリークリスマス!~ 메리 크리스마스!
สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส! ~ Selamat Hari Natal! ~ Giáng sinh an lành!
Весела Коледа! ~ Meri Kirihimete!
Hello, ToBeFree! Thank you for your work to maintain and improve Wikipedia! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Nxcrypto Message 15:52, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi NXcrypto, thank you very much!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too! 
~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:27, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
Happy Holidays
| Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2025! | |
|
Hello ToBeFree, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2025. Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages. |
Abishe (talk) 00:03, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hey Abishe, thank you very much!
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2025 for you too! 
~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:52, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
Happy holidays!
| Happy holidays and a prosperous 2025! | I love that you have a t shirt with your user page's CSS! | |
|
ToBeFree, your cheery demeanor, your dedication to Wikipedia, and your technical chops are astounding. Thank you for all the work you do, whether as an editor, an admin, or arb. Your recent comment to a blocked user made me smile IRL, and your work acknowledging emails sent to various ArbCom mailing lists is appreciated when I need to get in touch. Wishing you and yours the best in 2025, and happy holidays! HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 00:50, 25 December 2024 (UTC) |
- HouseBlaster, you made my Christmas.
Wow. Thank you very much for all your work and for these personalized holiday greetings! ArbCom wouldn't work without you and SilverLocust (and of course Amortias and Dreamy Jazz), and seeing your username in the inbox always makes me happy. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too! 


~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:28, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
- Don't forget MJL! But of course, TBF. You do it all year; I can do it for one day
Merry Christmas (I've still got another 20 minutes of Christmas, so I still get to say it), and happy 2025! HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 04:40, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
- MJL of course! That's what I get for copying from Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Clerks#Personnel. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:07, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
- Don't forget MJL! But of course, TBF. You do it all year; I can do it for one day
Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment

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Question
The article Russian shadow fleet was created by TamsaVakaras, but they are not extended-confirmed and this seems to fall under WP:RUSUKR. Is it eligible for speedy deletion? Thanks. Mellk (talk) 09:38, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Mellk, thanks for noticing and informing them about the restrictions. The page did originally qualify for speedy deletion, but I'd say TylerBurden's Special:Diff/1265371380 can be called substantial enough to make the page ineligible for WP:G5. I have now protected the page, though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:20, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
Happy Holidays!



Hello ToBeFree: Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, Fylindfotberserk (talk) 10:24, 28 December 2024 (UTC)

Fylindfotberserk (talk) 10:24, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Fylindfotberserk!
Thank you very much! Happy Holidays to you too! Winter solstice is sorely needed; I don't want to be greeted by darkness when waking up.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:29, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
Maintaining Neutrality in Wikipedia Articles
Hi@ToBeFree,I hope you're doing well! As I continue editing on Wikipedia, I’ve found that maintaining neutrality in articles can sometimes be a challenge, especially when dealing with controversial topics. I wanted to ask for your advice—how do you approach ensuring neutrality when editing such articles? Are there specific strategies or practices you follow to present information in an unbiased way?
I’d really appreciate any tips or insights you can share on this.
Thanks so much for your time! Click here to know my name (talk) 19:58, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Sheikbaba36524, thanks for asking!
- I rarely directly make substantial edits to controversial articles. I do sometimes, as a matter of maintenance or administration, remove content from such articles if the content is currently being disputed, especially if I protect the page during an edit war and need to ensure that I don't protect something biased. For example, if there is a dispute about a statement about a living person, I remove it to enforce WP:BLPRESTORE, which requires consensus before such content is restored. Another policy section preferring removal during a dispute is WP:ONUS.
- Finding a good balance can be hard. You could think that the most neutral thing to do is to add everything that is verifiable to an article, not excluding anything. However, this may be a bad idea! It would not necessarily be neutral. It may lead to undue weight being placed on irrelevant things.
- When there is a specific article and specific content you worry about, asking someone who is active in that topic area may help. A WikiProject's talk page could help you to find someone guiding you with this.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:04, 28 December 2024 (UTC) - Oh, and Sheikbaba36524, another thing to keep in mind: Wikipedia is a tertiary source. It is built mainly using secondary sources. Primary sources are rarely helpful. Sometimes, neutrality can already be achieved simply by avoiding primary sources. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:07, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for the detailed explanation and advice! Your points about balancing verifiability with neutrality and reaching out to topic experts or WikiProjects are really helpful. I’ll definitely keep these in mind moving forward.
- Thanks again for your guidance!
- Best regards, Click here to know my name(talk) 20:16, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, are you using AI such as ChatGPT to assist with writing messages? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:40, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for replying! Yes, I use tools like Jasper AI to help draft messages, but I always review and adjust them to reflect my own thoughts. Let me know if you have any concerns!
- Best regards,Click here to know my name (talk) 04:38, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, thanks for the clarification. I do have concerns about this. Are there other languages you are more fluent in, in a way that doesn't require you to use AI for interacting on talk pages and potentially severely limits your ways to participate in the main article namespace? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:42, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Just to explain, I’m fluent in English, but I use AI to save time when I’m in a rush. My job keeps me on the move a lot, and sometimes I don’t have the chance to sit down and write a detailed message. When I do have time, I prefer doing it myself. But when I’m in a busy subway or on the go, AI helps me get the message across quickly.
- I really believe that what matters most is making sure the communication is clear and helpful. Hope that clears things up!
- Click here to know my name (talk) 04:55, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, thanks for the clarification but this doesn't really answer my question? :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:58, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- To answer your questions:
- 1. I’m fluent in English and one other language but use English mainly on Wikipedia.
- 2. I do use AI for talk page interactions when pressed for time, but I don’t rely on it for everything.
- 3. Using AI doesn’t limit my contributions to the main article namespace—it's just a tool for efficiency in certain situations.
- Hope this clears things up! Let me know if you have more questions.
- Click here to know my name (talk) 05:02, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, you may be interested in the list of Wikipedias and the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) § LLM/chatbot comments in discussions which could affect your current method of participating in discussions. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:06, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- By the way, I was wondering, are you okay with people using AI in conversations like this? Especially in my case, where I’m just using it to speed things up.The thing is, the thoughts and ideas always come from me—it’s just the AI helping me write them down faster when I don’t have much time. Just curious what you think! Click here to know my name (talk) 05:39, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for asking. I think it depends on the input prompt. If you provide the AI with detailed instructions, the response becomes more personal. But as you say you do so to save time, I'm afraid I'm mostly chatting with an AI rather than a human. At least that would be the case if you just input the existing text and tell the AI to respond. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:42, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I understand your concern, and it’s genuine.Just to clarify, the intellectual material is 100% mine. I give the AI a prompt that outlines my viewpoint or what I want to express about the matter, and then the AI helps me expand it into a proper message. It’s really just about adding words and structure based on what I’ve already said—I’m not relying on the AI for ideas or opinions, just for writing them out more efficiently. Click here to know my name (talk) 05:50, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think I'm missing a puzzle piece as the AI input needs to be written too… Sheikbaba36524, you use voice control for the AI? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:51, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ah no, well, it does make sense even without voice control. I think I can imagine this. You can even make typos and the AI would fix them, so it's just one flow of words into the AI and possibly corrections afterwards, but just once after the message is finished and not during typing all the time. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:54, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- you’ve got it! It’s all just one flow of words into the AI, and yes, the AI can fix typos or make adjustments if needed. I write out the message in one go, and then after it’s finished, I might correct a few things or rephrase them. The AI just helps to expand on my thoughts in a more structured way, but the core of the message is all mine. Click here to know my name (talk) 06:04, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- My prompt is usually short, which helps save me time, but it always coincides with exactly what I want to say. I do sometimes use voice control for the AI, but often I can’t because I travel in very crowded places where the AI can’t hear me properly due to all the background noise. So, when I can't use voice, I type out a brief prompt, and the AI expands it into a more detailed message. Click here to know my name (talk) 05:59, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ah no, well, it does make sense even without voice control. I think I can imagine this. You can even make typos and the AI would fix them, so it's just one flow of words into the AI and possibly corrections afterwards, but just once after the message is finished and not during typing all the time. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:54, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think I'm missing a puzzle piece as the AI input needs to be written too… Sheikbaba36524, you use voice control for the AI? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:51, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I understand your concern, and it’s genuine.Just to clarify, the intellectual material is 100% mine. I give the AI a prompt that outlines my viewpoint or what I want to express about the matter, and then the AI helps me expand it into a proper message. It’s really just about adding words and structure based on what I’ve already said—I’m not relying on the AI for ideas or opinions, just for writing them out more efficiently. Click here to know my name (talk) 05:50, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for asking. I think it depends on the input prompt. If you provide the AI with detailed instructions, the response becomes more personal. But as you say you do so to save time, I'm afraid I'm mostly chatting with an AI rather than a human. At least that would be the case if you just input the existing text and tell the AI to respond. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:42, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- By the way, I was wondering, are you okay with people using AI in conversations like this? Especially in my case, where I’m just using it to speed things up.The thing is, the thoughts and ideas always come from me—it’s just the AI helping me write them down faster when I don’t have much time. Just curious what you think! Click here to know my name (talk) 05:39, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, you may be interested in the list of Wikipedias and the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) § LLM/chatbot comments in discussions which could affect your current method of participating in discussions. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:06, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, thanks for the clarification but this doesn't really answer my question? :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:58, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, thanks for the clarification. I do have concerns about this. Are there other languages you are more fluent in, in a way that doesn't require you to use AI for interacting on talk pages and potentially severely limits your ways to participate in the main article namespace? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:42, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, are you using AI such as ChatGPT to assist with writing messages? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:40, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
Sheikbaba36524, I consider your use of AI to be highly problematic in this conversation. The verbal flourishes that AI inserts, such as I hope you're doing well!
and Thank you for the detailed explanation and advice!
and Thanks again for your guidance!
and Thanks for replying!
and Hope that clears things up!
and I understand your concern, and it’s genuine
all come off as irritating and inauthentic and entirely lacking in substance. Your AI tool seemingly "thinks" that excessive use of exclamation marks makes prose sound cheery and upbeat while actual fluent human English language speakers perceive such usage and the general tone of these comments as immature and unserious. Your efforts to save time with AI are impeding what ought to be your goal of being taken seriously. I highly recommend that if you are too busy to write human prose, that you wait until you have more spare time. I for one resent conversing with chipper robots and yearn for 100% human communication only. Cullen328 (talk) 06:28, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Cullen328I don’t think your view is entirely logical; it seems more like a personal perspective, and I respect that. However, I believe our main goal should be effective communication and addressing the problems we face. Whether the communication is assisted by AI or not isn’t the key point—what matters is the thought and ideas I’m presenting to you. The AI is simply a tool to help me work faster, but at the core, I control the AI entirely. It doesn’t influence or control my opinions or views at any point.In fact, I can easily write a prompt to ensure the AI avoids the cheerful phrases and tone that you find irritating. Click here to know my name (talk) 06:45, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hmm. Would you mind sharing the prompt (or series of prompts) that led to this specific 06:45 message? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:03, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- My prompt for that specific conversation(06:54) was this:"I respect your opinion, but I don't think it is entirely logical. AI is fully under my control. The main point is to have good conversations and solve problems. I can also prompt AI to meet your specific requirements." Definitely, it is also affected by our previous conversations.Click here to know my name (talk) 07:13, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, interesting. I personally would actually prefer that input to the AI output, but at least the word "logical" and the points really came from you. I thought that could have been added by the AI.
- For me personally in our conversation here it's okay. Cullen328's concerns are equally reasonable though, and you may need to change your current approach, perhaps depending on the result of the "chatbot comments" discussion. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:20, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I don't think Cullen328's concerns are equally reasonable. The AI is just expanding on my ideas, based on my past conversations and instructions. It's not generating new ideas or perspectives; it's simply helping me articulate what I already want to say. I can understand the concern if someone is simply pasting a response and asking the AI to answer, but that's not the case here. Click here to know my name (talk) 07:23, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- That's just more vapid bullshit from you and your robot friend, Sheikbaba36524. If you want to garner a reputation on Wikipedia as someone who spouts irritating content-free unpersuasive robotic bullshit that cannot be taken seriously, then you are well on your way to great success. Cullen328 (talk) 07:43, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Cullen328 you can’t just dismiss it because it’s robotic.We should focus on the content of the message and what it's trying to convey, rather than whether it was written using AI or not. I do understand that it's not good to simply paste replies and ask the AI to answer them,though.Please provide rational and logical reasons specifically for not using AI in my case, or you've just got this to say—that it is robotic?!!! Huh!! Click here to know my name (talk) 07:51, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- That's just more vapid bullshit from you and your robot friend, Sheikbaba36524. If you want to garner a reputation on Wikipedia as someone who spouts irritating content-free unpersuasive robotic bullshit that cannot be taken seriously, then you are well on your way to great success. Cullen328 (talk) 07:43, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I don't think Cullen328's concerns are equally reasonable. The AI is just expanding on my ideas, based on my past conversations and instructions. It's not generating new ideas or perspectives; it's simply helping me articulate what I already want to say. I can understand the concern if someone is simply pasting a response and asking the AI to answer, but that's not the case here. Click here to know my name (talk) 07:23, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- My prompt for that specific conversation(06:54) was this:"I respect your opinion, but I don't think it is entirely logical. AI is fully under my control. The main point is to have good conversations and solve problems. I can also prompt AI to meet your specific requirements." Definitely, it is also affected by our previous conversations.Click here to know my name (talk) 07:13, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hmm. Would you mind sharing the prompt (or series of prompts) that led to this specific 06:45 message? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:03, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
Sheikbaba36524, I can see clearly now, as Johnny Nash sang in 1972, that you are the type of editor who rejects good faith feedback from other editors, and accordingly, I will take that into consideration in any future interactions we might have on Wikipedia. Good luck to you and your robot sidekick. Cullen328 (talk) 08:27, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Cullen328 if you have any logical and rational reasons for why I shouldn't use AI specifically in my case, please go ahead and share them with me. I'm open to hearing your perspective, but I think it’s important we focus on the substance of the conversation rather than the tools used to facilitate it.I understand you prefer human interactions over using AI to write something, and I respect your opinion. But that's just not universally applicable. Everyone has their own parameters and perspectives—some might prefer writing messages after giving a short prompt to AI, and some might not. That’s just fine as long as the AI is only providing more structure and making the message more grammatically correct. The thought and ideas behind the message should always be from the human, and that’s the most important thing. We should focus on the content of the message, not the tool used to help create it. Click here to know my name (talk) 08:32, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, I am done with you. Your content is vapid. I now know all I need to know about you and the robot brigade. I am done. Cullen328 (talk) 08:59, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Cullen328 ,Understood. Thank you for your time.Just to clarify one last time, I’m only using AI to save time and to give the message a basic structure and flow, making it easier for others to read. My thoughts are the soul of the message, and the AI is simply crafting the body to let that soul express itself effectively.Btw, this message is written entirely by me, not by an AI.😉Click here to know my name (talk) 10:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sheikbaba36524, I am done with you. Your content is vapid. I now know all I need to know about you and the robot brigade. I am done. Cullen328 (talk) 08:59, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
Problem IP
Hi, it is regarding this IP. After, you protected that page, they started it in another article, which was taken care of by AP 499D25. Have a look. Thanks. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 10:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Fylindfotberserk, thanks for the notification, and to AP 499D25 for the ping at the edit warring noticeboard. I have now blocked the IP address as well. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:34, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks and welcome
. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 16:35, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks and welcome
Why block my representation?
I don't understand why I can't represent my city the way it is. Why can't Muslims of the city be represented on the Addis Ababa city page? Gangaddis (talk) 12:17, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hello Gangaddis, please take a moment to calmly, and without accusing Socialwave597 of hating Muslims or other personal issues, explain your preference at Talk:Addis Ababa, creating a new discussion section if Socialwave597 hasn't created it yet. This is unlikely to be resolved without a discussion on the talk page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:39, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
Large number of banking articles attracting IP-hopping disruptive editors
One of which has been blocked for a couple of weeks and one of those articles has been protected but there are others which are still attracting unconstructive edits; I did make a request regarding two of those others (Ujjivan Small Finance Bank and State Bank of India) at RfPP but nothing happened. This has been going on since 22 December. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:45, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thank you very much! I have now semi-protected these two articles and the one about ICICI Bank. I'm not entirely sure about the protection duration, but I think in these cases a few months increase the chance of this actually deterring the editor from continuing. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:04, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
Huggle
Hi, and thank you for granting the rollback permission! I started using Huggle and came across this edit, so reverted and warned under 16: Test: Editing tests. But after further investigation, I found out that I had unknowingly reverted another 3 of their edits as they were all "clubbed together". I wouldn't like to revert any edit that I didn't see. Is there any way to view the combined diff, if the user makes multiple edits in a row? I've undone the rollback and the warn for now. randomdude121 (leave a message!) 08:35, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Randomdude121, thanks for asking! The option "Group edits made by the same user" in the "Performance" tab of the Preferences screen should already be enabled by default. The option "Switch to the latest revision of the page in case the currently loaded edit is not the latest revision" may additionally be needed. Did you perhaps either revert too quickly (before the other edits were loaded) or too slowly (so the user made additional edits while you chose a warning type)? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:10, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hm. Randomdude121, now I remember. I had disabled the "Switch to the latest revision" option because it could lead to a newer revision being loaded when someone else already reverted, and you could then accidentally revert a rollbacker's rollback. And the "Group edits made by the same user" option might not be the default, it was just loaded from my personal preferences from years ago. So I think all you are looking for is "Group edits made by the same user". ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:46, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Enabled the option. Thanks! randomdude121 13:03, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think I reverted too slowly, keeping in mind your expectation of me using the tool very gradually for the first few weeks. randomdude121 13:03, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
That does seem to be the most likely explanation. Thanks for taking the time to start slowly! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:10, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hm. Randomdude121, now I remember. I had disabled the "Switch to the latest revision" option because it could lead to a newer revision being loaded when someone else already reverted, and you could then accidentally revert a rollbacker's rollback. And the "Group edits made by the same user" option might not be the default, it was just loaded from my personal preferences from years ago. So I think all you are looking for is "Group edits made by the same user". ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:46, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
2024 Wisconsin Senate election
Hi there,
I hope this note finds you well. I made some common sense edits to the page that I explained at length on the talk page when asked about them, and I believe it was pretty straightforward. But a user went straight to the notice board for edit warring when faced with my explanation, I provided examples from other pages in a cordial manner, to be responded with a personal attack. It’s clear that this user just wants to control the page, and I believe that isn’t acceptable and either a compromise should be worked out or my edits reinstated.
Thank you for your help! Stormy160 (talk) 21:31, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Stormy160. I think Special:Diff/1266045832 focuses on conduct while an article talk page is for content discussion. Talthiel's message isn't much better, but at least it addressed a content point. Perhaps a third opinion could help? And as long as noone has replied yet, please consider rewriting your message to focus on content, or removing the message if that is not possible. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:46, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ok, so I have been thinking about it for a few hours, @Stormy160 and @ToBeFree, I would be willing to compromise on some edits that would improve the article, I offer an apology on the uncivil language used earlier, while I do feel strongly about the contents of the table, I do also recognize, after having time to sit, simmer, and think on it, that my edits were not perfect, and they were just a gut reaction to having the edits, my hard work, reverted and attempts to shift the table into state I felt was unacceptable.
I would be open to listing Sens. Ballweg, Agard, Cowles, Bradley in the table in their respective districts, and am somewhat inclined, but still iffy, on removing Jacque and Marklein from being listed in the districts they are listed in. I remain steadfastly against moving Senator Wimberger into the 2nd district row, as he was neither its incumbent representative nor moved into the district due to redistricting, as he moved there for entirely political reasons, Stormy.
I still broadly disagree with the justifications made by Stormy in their own edits, but I will compromise with the edits I mentioned (adding Ballweg and Bradley, with further edits decided on later I suppose) because I realize I was being unreasonable and unbecoming of a Wikipedia editor. I will go back and strike out the inflammatory remark as well, ToBeFree.
Thanks, Talthiel (talk) 22:29, 29 December 2024 (UTC)- This means a lot. Thank you very much, Talthiel! Stormy160, it's a bit hidden in the history but can be seen in Special:Diff/1266061672. If you respond by rewording or removing your message, I think this is a huge step forward. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:49, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, I can remove that message.
- I strongly disagree with the notion that I am removing Talthiel’s hard work. First of all, this is Wikipedia, and you don’t own the work you do. Second, I think we are making out these edits to be much more substantial than they actually are. It wasn’t like I removed the table or erased work, I simply moved things around to make it more concise. I also don’t understand why these were seen as reverts in the first place since I wasn’t undoing anyone’s work.
- Talthiel says they disagree with the reasons I gave, but considering that I provided multiple examples I believe they should have to justify why this situation should be handled differently. Additionally, I don’t understand how someone representing a district until 2026 can be an incumbent for a 2024 district, or vice versa. Simply doesn’t work, and the government itself doesn’t consider them an incumbent for that district. Stormy160 (talk) 01:03, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- This is because the table itself isnt hard and fast on incumbency, nor are most legislative tables for elections to the US house. Incumbents are often listed as being "incumbent" to the district they were redistricted to, even if they didn't represent it at the point of the election. Additionally, I am more open to removing Jacque and Marklein from the 2024 page, because its true they didn't run in those districts and the election has passed, so theres 0 reason for them to be listed there. Talthiel (talk) 01:20, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hmm. If you're going to request a third opinion later, this discussion should be on the article's talk page so someone looking at the request can get an overview. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:21, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- This is because the table itself isnt hard and fast on incumbency, nor are most legislative tables for elections to the US house. Incumbents are often listed as being "incumbent" to the district they were redistricted to, even if they didn't represent it at the point of the election. Additionally, I am more open to removing Jacque and Marklein from the 2024 page, because its true they didn't run in those districts and the election has passed, so theres 0 reason for them to be listed there. Talthiel (talk) 01:20, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- This means a lot. Thank you very much, Talthiel! Stormy160, it's a bit hidden in the history but can be seen in Special:Diff/1266061672. If you respond by rewording or removing your message, I think this is a huge step forward. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:49, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ok, so I have been thinking about it for a few hours, @Stormy160 and @ToBeFree, I would be willing to compromise on some edits that would improve the article, I offer an apology on the uncivil language used earlier, while I do feel strongly about the contents of the table, I do also recognize, after having time to sit, simmer, and think on it, that my edits were not perfect, and they were just a gut reaction to having the edits, my hard work, reverted and attempts to shift the table into state I felt was unacceptable.
Armstrong Williams & 2601:98D:C082:4330:20BD:DA57:7E5A:7F6D
The current occupant of 2601:98D:C082:4330:20BD:DA57:7E5A:7F6D clearly has an axe to grind and was reported to AIV by @Jiffles1: but evidently nothing is going to be done. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:26, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Update: blocked by Ahecht after being declined by a different admin. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 16:37, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Ah well. 🙂 Thanks to you both! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:22, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
2025
| Have a happy New Year filled with light! | |
|
Hi ToBeFree/A, Best wishes that the new year brings peace, good health and happiness. Thank you for what you do for the encyclopedia and this community. It was nice to meet you recently; thought you would like some magical, glowing foxes to bring in the new year. Cheers! |
Oh cool! Are these Inari Ōkami too?- Thank you very much, Netherzone, for the beautiful personal New Year's card with firefoxes!

- May your New Year be filled with light too!

meta: the flame is from Firefox OS :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:02, 1 January 2025 (UTC)- I'm not knowledgeable enough about Hiroshige's work to know whether his intentions were to depict a grouping of the kami Inari Okami, or if he intended to personify the geophysical/atmospheric phenomena of "ghost lights" (sometimes called will-o-the-wisps) or Fox-fire Hitodama, or Shiranui (sometimes called Saint Elmo's fire), or Onibi, but whatever...I find the image so very delightful and inspiring (and even saw one of the original prints (it's tiny!) in a museum show!) Thankfully, there are still mysteries in the world! Netherzone (talk) 16:31, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Diane Harper & 69.181.17.113
The current occupant of 69.181.17.113 is a self-declared relative of the subject who turned the article into a résumé. Judging by the IP's user talk, whoever's been editing from there is having difficulty understanding how Wikipedia works. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:54, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thanks for the notification. Hm. "[name] is a relative" on the talk page of a biography doesn't exactly look like "I am a relative of [name]" to me. Am I overlooking something? Regarding the article itself, I'd protect it but there hasn't been any removal or revert, so there's no reason to believe the content would be restored without protection. There's nothing to be restored even with a COI. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:54, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
- Perhaps I misread "Rebecca Medved is a relative" as the IP stating their relative. I'm too literal sometimes. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:38, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Happy New Year, ToBeFree!


ToBeFree,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
𝙳.𝟷𝟾𝚝𝚑 (𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚔) 20:18, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.
𝙳.𝟷𝟾𝚝𝚑 (𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚔) 20:18, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi D.18th, thank you very much!
Happy New Year to you too!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Request for Assistance
You are an experienced administrator that I respect, @ToBeFree. If possible, I would value your contribution to the Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Palestinian political violence (3rd nomination). It would mean a lot to have your third-party, neutral, and experienced perspective. Firecat93 (talk) 19:56, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Firecat93, this invitation is an honor I am very thankful for.
- Merges are normally proposed using the process described at Wikipedia:Merging § Proposing a merge, and deletion nominations that don't argue for deletion may be closed as "speedy keep" (
perhaps only proposing an alternative action such as moving or merging
). - I have protected the deletion discussion (and the other one) to enforce the extended-confirmed restriction in this topic area, but I have no opinion on whether the articles should be merged or not, and if I had an opinion, I'd still prefer to avoid getting involved.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:10, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Rollbacks don't count as edits?
Since I gotten rollback, I've noticed that every revert I did earlier counted as 2 edits (revert+warn) but now it counts as 1. Does it have something to do with rollback being used? If so, wouldn't not counting it provide an inaccurate edit count figure? Thanks! randomdude121 16:06, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Randomdude121, where exactly are you checking the edit count? At Special:Preferences, meta:Special:CentralAuth/Randomdude121 or using an external tool? Because these edit counts will differ for many reasons, some of which are explainable and some of which seem pretty random. Rollback may actually make a difference, deleted contributions may too, page protections do to my knowledge, page moves are probably counted differently too. Everything else than a normal edit may end up being filtered by one or another tool or counting method. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:13, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- I usually check at Special:Contributions/Randomdude121. Just tried with another rollback and warn, the count still incremented by 1, making it 848 while it should have been 849. Perhaps it takes a few hours to count that edit because of its "special" nature? randomdude121 04:19, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- I'll test this now. 127,703 + this one. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:07, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- 127,704 + this one, at Special:Preferences and Special:Contributions/ToBeFree. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:08, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- 127,714 + this one, after 9 edits and one rollback. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:10, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- Randomdude121, I've tried it in the sandbox with multiple rollbacks now and you're completely right. My edit count didn't increase. Rollbacks currently do not count towards the edit count at Special:Preferences, at the top of the contributions list or at CentralAuth. This used to be different, however, I'm pretty sure. Perhaps I'll find details about this change if there was one. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:18, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- It's a bug! A regression. It used to work and it's currently broken. See phab:T382592 for details. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:24, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- Alright, thanks! randomdude121 06:37, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- It's a bug! A regression. It used to work and it's currently broken. See phab:T382592 for details. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:24, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- Randomdude121, I've tried it in the sandbox with multiple rollbacks now and you're completely right. My edit count didn't increase. Rollbacks currently do not count towards the edit count at Special:Preferences, at the top of the contributions list or at CentralAuth. This used to be different, however, I'm pretty sure. Perhaps I'll find details about this change if there was one. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:18, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- 127,714 + this one, after 9 edits and one rollback. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:10, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- 127,704 + this one, at Special:Preferences and Special:Contributions/ToBeFree. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:08, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- I'll test this now. 127,703 + this one. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:07, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- I usually check at Special:Contributions/Randomdude121. Just tried with another rollback and warn, the count still incremented by 1, making it 848 while it should have been 849. Perhaps it takes a few hours to count that edit because of its "special" nature? randomdude121 04:19, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2024).
- Following an RFC, Wikipedia:Notability (species) was adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.
- A request for comment is open to discuss whether admins should be advised to warn users rather than issue no-warning blocks to those who have posted promotional content outside of article space.
- The Nuke feature also now provides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions.
- Following the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee: CaptainEek, Daniel, Elli, KrakatoaKatie, Liz, Primefac, ScottishFinnishRadish, Theleekycauldron, Worm That Turned.
- A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2025 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!
Manish Kumar Mishra
UP Mirzapur gaon govindpur Mirzapur 117.192.195.74 (talk) 13:02, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi 117.192.195.74, I don't understand. Would you mind providing an English translation? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:24, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Content added to SIF article related to current RfC
Hi ToBeFree. I'm inclined to remove the recent expansion to Science of Identity Foundation by @Theodore Christopher: because it reintroduces Tulsi Gabbard into the article, the subject of the RfC you created after you removed the disputed content about her. I assume Theodore Christopher didn't notice the RfC. - Hipal (talk) 18:27, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Hipal, thanks for the notification – I have reverted and invited them to the talk page discussion. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:35, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Prometheus
Prometheus Society has been deleted, so can we move Prometheus Society (student society) to Prometheus Society? Thanks, Polygnotus (talk) 06:58, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Polygnotus, I'm not an article naming expert but WP:FELU will probably be relevant (although that consideration would apply to the current page title as well). The English term "Prometheus Society" seems to be used by one single source cited in the article, a dissertation that needs to be used with care; are there more sources that use this term? If so, I think you can go ahead and move the page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:05, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hm, good point. This is so local that I doubt there is an "official" international translation or much coverage in English sources. Thanks again! Polygnotus (talk) 08:01, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Polygnotus, at the very least, creating a redirect from the current-redlink to your article won't hurt, I guess. Nor does moving. Both actions can be contested by anyone who knows of a better solution. :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:03, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you! I turned it into a redirect. Polygnotus (talk) 09:00, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Polygnotus, at the very least, creating a redirect from the current-redlink to your article won't hurt, I guess. Nor does moving. Both actions can be contested by anyone who knows of a better solution. :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:03, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hm, good point. This is so local that I doubt there is an "official" international translation or much coverage in English sources. Thanks again! Polygnotus (talk) 08:01, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment

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Italian IP-hopper removing details regarding celebrities' deaths
This has been going on for a long time from several IPs in Italy; I just reverted another of their edits. I reported them to AIV last month but one responding admin requested more details then a second responding admin thought I was requesting a rangeblock. Can anything be done about this? Some of the involved IPs:
151.19.58.228
151.57.143.115
151.35.164.166
151.37.208.134
151.37.140.41
151.47.227.167
151.37.133.229
151.37.130.52
151.57.9.61
151.47.19.185
151.37.230.153
151.57.154.248
151.19.154.35
151.46.183.124
151.43.217.155
- –Skywatcher68 (talk) 23:34, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, the large range could be made one of the conditions of an edit filter (WP:EFR). I have blocked the most recently used address for now, but a filter could prevent the edits or allow them to be found more quickly/easily. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:25, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks! Given that this has been going on for over a year, I followed the suggestion regarding LTA edits and sent an email. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:00, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Advice on disruptive editor
Hi! I wanted to ask your advice on how to handle 150.195.180.35 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). For over a year, this editor has been making the same edits to one particular article (List of Rolie Polie Olie episodes). All their edits involved changing the OriginalAirDate parameter in an {{Episode list}} template to add a date for a second country. My reading of the documentation for this template is that this is incorrect; this parameter should have only one date in it, the date of it's actual first airing. Several editors (mostly me but also others) have reverted these edits and I have added quite a few warnings on their talk page, but they have not responded and continue to persistently make these changes every few weeks or so (lately more frequently). I have also explained my reversions in each of my edit summaries but the editor has never used an edit summary.
This is a pretty minor point and I don't think it rises to the level of vandalism, so I don't think it's proper to bring it to AIV or ANI, and they are not breaking 3RR so AN3 isn't appropriate either. Is there a place that would be appropriate to discuss this? Or perhaps I am in the wrong and should just drop this? Thanks for any advice or help that you can offer. CodeTalker (talk) 01:36, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
- You're correct about such MOS violations, which MOS I'm not sure, not rising to the level of vandalism but an admin such as ToBeFree could place a partial block on the IP to keep them from editing that list of episodes. Wikipedia does not list rebroadcasts of episodes or made-for-TV movies and broadcasts of theatrical movies appear to be only in special circumstances, such as The Wizard of Oz –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:28, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi CodeTalker, thank you very much for the notification! Skywatcher68 is right about partial blocks; I went ahead and placed a full {{anonblock}} for a year because I'd like to see rather an unblock request than this continuing in other articles. It is edit warring, even if it doesn't violate any short-term restrictions on the number of reverts. You can report such long-term edit wars at WP:ANEW too, but I've seen reports unnecessarily declined for a lack of 3RR violations too often to be able to say you should have done so. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:27, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much for the help! CodeTalker (talk) 21:54, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Naming of sections
If the expectation from arbs is that sections are named a particular way, then the rules should be stated. Right now the rules only state "Therefore, with the exception of arbitrators and clerks, all editors must create a section for their statement and comment only in their own section." There is no written rule or expectation about how those sections are named and so if someone as plugged in as I am can violate an unwritten expectation, it feels like it should be made explicit. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:48, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- In fact your renaming just caused me to lose an entire comment I was posting so I find it particularly aggravating. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:50, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Sigh. Barkeep49, how exactly was the comment lost? Were you returned to a page that informed you about an edit conflict and you closed the page, did you use the reply tool and it displayed a red error message and you closed the editor, did you close a tab when the back button would have led back to the comment? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh losing the comment was ultimately my own responsibility. If I had been more careful it could have been prevented. But that's not the core idea here. The core idea is that if ArbCom has expectations it should state them rather than leaving a passive aggressive edit summary imposing them. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:57, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Barkeep49, at the time when you created your section, all others were named [user]'s section and you intentionally chose a different format. Which is as fine as an arbitrator or clerk standardizing section headings on a page that requires everyone to comment in their own section and where free-form headings lead to the incorrect impression that they'd be about a specific topic and could be replied to. I'll continue keeping the headings in this format for this specific proposed decision talk page without proposing a rule or doing it in other cases in the future. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:00, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- I honestly hadn't noticed. In the most recent case to this one Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Yasuke/Proposed decision the sections were not uniform but to the extent it was it used an entirely different format "Comments by <editor>". In fact in the 2024 cases only in one (Historical elections with only 2 comments) were section names standardized, and overwhelmingly sections were named "Comments by <editor>" so my "Barkeep49 comments" follows that standard as much as the unwritten rule you've now invented and feel no compunction about making clear by editing a notice. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 22:07, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Barkeep49, at the time when you created your section, all others were named [user]'s section and you intentionally chose a different format. Which is as fine as an arbitrator or clerk standardizing section headings on a page that requires everyone to comment in their own section and where free-form headings lead to the incorrect impression that they'd be about a specific topic and could be replied to. I'll continue keeping the headings in this format for this specific proposed decision talk page without proposing a rule or doing it in other cases in the future. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:00, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh losing the comment was ultimately my own responsibility. If I had been more careful it could have been prevented. But that's not the core idea here. The core idea is that if ArbCom has expectations it should state them rather than leaving a passive aggressive edit summary imposing them. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:57, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
- Sigh. Barkeep49, how exactly was the comment lost? Were you returned to a page that informed you about an edit conflict and you closed the page, did you use the reply tool and it displayed a red error message and you closed the editor, did you close a tab when the back button would have led back to the comment? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-03
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Single User Login system is being updated over the next few months. This is the system which allows users to fill out the login form on one Wikimedia site and get logged in on all others at the same time. It needs to be updated because of the ways that browsers are increasingly restricting cross-domain cookies. To accommodate these restrictions, login and account creation pages will move to a central domain, but it will still appear to the user as if they are on the originating wiki. The updated code will be enabled this week for users on test wikis. This change is planned to roll out to all users during February and March. See the SUL3 project page for more details and a timeline.
Updates for editors
- On wikis with PageAssessments installed, you can now filter search results to pages in a given WikiProject by using the
inproject:keyword. (These wikis: Arabic Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, English Wikivoyage, French Wikipedia, Hungarian Wikipedia, Nepali Wikipedia, Turkish Wikipedia, Chinese Wikipedia) - One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Tigre (
w:tig:)
View all 35 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, there was a bug with updating a user's edit-count after making a rollback edit, which is now fixed.
Updates for technical contributors
Wikimedia REST API users, such as bot operators and tool maintainers, may be affected by ongoing upgrades. Starting the week of January 13, we will begin rerouting some page content endpoints from RESTbase to the newer MediaWiki REST API endpoints for all wiki projects. This change was previously available on testwiki and should not affect existing functionality, but active users of the impacted endpoints may raise issues directly to the MediaWiki Interfaces Team in Phabricator if they arise.- Toolforge tool maintainers can now share their feedback on Toolforge UI, an initiative to provide a web platform that allows creating and managing Toolforge tools through a graphic interface, in addition to existing command-line workflows. This project aims to streamline active maintainers’ tasks, as well as make registration and deployment processes more accessible for new tool creators. The initiative is still at a very early stage, and the Cloud Services team is in the process of collecting feedback from the Toolforge community to help shape the solution to their needs. Read more and share your thoughts about Toolforge UI.
For tool and library developers who use the OAuth system: The identity endpoint used for OAuth 1 and OAuth 2 returned a JSON object with an integer in its subfield, which was incorrect (the field must always be a string). This has been fixed; the fix will be deployed to Wikimedia wikis on the week of January 13.- Many wikis currently use Cite CSS to render custom footnote markers in Parsoid output. Starting January 20 these rules will be disabled, but the developers ask you to not clean up your MediaWiki:Common.css until February 20 to avoid issues during the migration. Your wikis might experience some small changes to footnote markers in Visual Editor and when using experimental Parsoid read mode, but if there are changes these are expected to bring the rendering in line with the legacy parser output.
Meetings and events
- The next meeting in the series of Wikimedia Foundation Community Conversations with the Wikimedia Commons community will take place on January 15 at 8:00 UTC and at 16:00 UTC. The topic of this call is defining the priorities in tool investment for Commons. Contributors from all wikis, especially users who are maintaining tools for Commons, are welcome to attend.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 01:40, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
Ra rai23487 (again)
The user in question (Ra rai23487 (talk · contribs)), who you blocked yesterday, is back again, this time as Raka rai (talk · contribs). Their edits are so similar (as can be seen here), that I wasn't sure if an official SPI should be started, so I decided to report it to you first. — Sundostund mppria (talk / contribs) 15:23, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Sundostund, thanks! Daniel Case was faster :) But in general, SPI is fine for reporting sockpuppetry, even if you think the case may be too obvious for an investigation. If there is ongoing disruption that needs to be stopped before an SPI would be processed, ANI or AIV can help, but in less urgent cases feel free to create an SPI. You can still notify individual administrators about that SPI after creating it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:47, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 15 January 2025
- From the editors: Looking back, looking forward
The 20th anniversary of The Signpost.
- Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2024
A lot of psephology!
- In the media: Will you be targeted?
HUMINT or humbug?
- Technology report: New Calculator template brings interactivity at last
Hallelujah!
- Essay: Meet the Canadian who holds the longest editing streak on Wikipedia
Johnny Au has edited for 17 years straight without missing a day.
- Opinion: Reflections one score hence
Some thoughts from the original editor-in-chief.
- News and notes: It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me... and I'm feeling free
Public Domain Day 2025, Women in Red hits 20% biography milestone, Spanish Wikipedia reaches two million articles, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- Serendipity: What we've left behind, and where we want to go next
The Signpost staff on achievements of '24 and hopes for '25.
- Op-ed: Elon Musk and the right on Wikipedia
The latest crusade?
- In focus: Twenty years of The Signpost: What did it take?
Our alumni speak!
- Arbitration report: Analyzing commonalities of some contentious topics
Applying the scientific method to a model of conflict that leads to arbitration.
- Humour: How to make friends on Wikipedia
This post fact-checked by real Wikipedian patriots.
That Italian IP-hopper is back again.
151.44.133.154 –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:06, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, I have blocked them as an obvious sockpuppet of 151.19.58.228, but these single-IP blocks won't help. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:55, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
- I did hear back from an admin regarding the EFR email and sent them a link to the list that was here earlier, plus this most recent one. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:04, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:44, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
- I did hear back from an admin regarding the EFR email and sent them a link to the list that was here earlier, plus this most recent one. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:04, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment

Your feedback is requested at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard on a "Wikipedia proposals" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
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A barnstar for you!
| The Barnstar of Diplomacy | |
| Thank you for your careful weighing of evidence in the arbcom case. Andre🚐 02:03, 19 January 2025 (UTC) |
- Thank you very much, AndreJustAndre, this feedback means a lot to me, especially as you're one of the users affected by the case's results. I have taken longer than I hoped (yet shorter than I feared) to gain an overview and to review the evidence. When I had the time to vote on the "Username behavior" findings, my vote was already not necessary anymore. Not voting as an active arbitrator on a case has the same effect as opposing on whether something passes, yet all these findings and remedies had already found the support of a majority. Opposing or abstaining has an effect when done early, not after 12 arbitrators have supported something. Perhaps I was afraid of having too large of an impact; perhaps the evidence felt too much like a mountain that couldn't be processed in time. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:52, 19 January 2025 (UTC)
- I really appreciated that you took your time to review the evidence and gave a good reason why you voted the way you did that was consistent, thoughtful, and logical. That's not to say that other arbitrators aren't also doing a good job, but I think your jurisprudence is easy to understand and consistently articulated. I can tell a few of the other arbitrators are also trying to be very careful and do a good job, too. Andre🚐 03:03, 19 January 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-04
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Administrators can mass-delete multiple pages created by a user or IP address using Extension:Nuke. It previously only allowed deletion of pages created in the last 30 days. It can now delete pages from the last 90 days, provided it is targeting a specific user or IP address.
- On wikis that use the Patrolled edits feature, when the rollback feature is used to revert an unpatrolled page revision, that revision will now be marked as "manually patrolled" instead of "autopatrolled", which is more accurate. Some editors that use filters on Recent Changes may need to update their filter settings.
View all 31 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the Visual Editor's "Insert link" feature did not always suggest existing pages properly when an editor started typing, which has now been fixed.
Updates for technical contributors
- The Structured Discussion extension (also known as Flow) is being progressively removed from the wikis. This extension is unmaintained and causes issues. It will be replaced by DiscussionTools, which is used on any regular talk page. The last group of wikis (Catalan Wikiquote, Wikimedia Finland, Goan Konkani Wikipedia, Kabyle Wikipedia, Portuguese Wikibooks, Wikimedia Sweden) will soon be contacted. If you have questions about this process, please ping Trizek (WMF) at your wiki.
- The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter is now available. This edition includes: updates about services from the Data Platform Engineering teams, information about Codex from the Design System team, and more.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 01:35, 21 January 2025 (UTC)
Kajsa Ekis Ekman
There is some possibly questionable content on Kajsa Ekis Ekman (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs). Some content was removed and I (hopefully not another you know what...) restored it. Thank you Adakiko (talk) 22:10, 20 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Adakiko, thank you very much for the notification. I defer to your judgement regarding most of the article's content. I do however see a sudden rise in what I personally interpret as probably-undisclosed-conflict-of-interest editing and have protected the page, and have reverted the latest addition as a clear form of original research. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 06:32, 21 January 2025 (UTC)
[message moved to Talk:Kajsa Ekis Ekman ~ToBeFree] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leif Stenberg (talk • contribs) 09:43, 21 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Leif Stenberg, thank you for your message. As it seems to argue about the content of the article, I have moved it to the article's talk page, the best place for such a discussion. I personally won't get involved. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:57, 21 January 2025 (UTC)
Hardik Patel
Giving you a heads-up about the newly-registered editor claiming to be the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 16:51, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hm, interesting. At least HardikPatelGujarat (hi!) is open about their connection to the article subject.
Thanks, Skywatcher68. I have semi-protected the page and placed a soft block to ensure this isn't impersonation. Please let me know if this turns out to be insufficient to prevent disruption. HardikPatelGujarat, you may be interested in the FAQ for article subjects. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:18, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
My blockage from page Ecole alsacienne
Hi ToBeFree,
I am facing blackmailing from user Bbb23. I found he has been abusing his power as admin so that when users find out he is removing info that has a reliable sources he does this he warns me then blocks me. I am a student
from Ecole alsacienne I provided reliable sources on what he deleted was true when I produced a link from my school showing what he deleted was true. The he intimidated me with his admin power and in his mail he said “you should listen to older editors you are new and so really bad at editing” I do not think it is fair that he does that. I am therfore lodging an official complaint against user Bbb23 for abuse of power and blackmailing. I am requesting Admin role. Thanks ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:20, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ToBeFree, just so it's clear, I have never e-mailed the user. Anything I've said to him has been on his Talk page.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yup I know that ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 18:02, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Bbb23, thanks for the clarification; I hadn't even thought about e-mails. To my understanding, "blackmailing" didn't refer to off-wiki communication; ConorDavidKennedy seems to have confirmed this above (thanks for that too). It's all good. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:17, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ToBeFree, just so it's clear, I have never e-mailed the user. Anything I've said to him has been on his Talk page.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hello ConorDavidKennedy, Bbb23 hasn't been acting as an administrator in this situation. Any user may inform other users about Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, using templates such as those listed at WP:UWARN, or using custom messages. As you have edit warred disputed content back to the page, which requires sources according to WP:BURDEN, and consensus according to WP:ONUS, I have temporarily blocked you from continuing and restored the revision that doesn't have the disputed material in it. Bbb23 had requested administrative assistance, but I saw this after being automatically notified about the edit war. No action from Bbb23 has led to the block, not even a report. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:37, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Ya know what I’m not gonna sit here and have my school defaced on Wikipedia. I am going to contact my school administration and see what happens when my school gets involved and I’m not saying that and doing nothing I am getting my school admins will get involved. Have fun. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:43, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, where exactly is the "defacement" you are talking about? Could you please quote sentences that are defamatory so I can remove them? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:44, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Bbb23 removed info on alumni and what my school offers. My school administration has been alerted. I can withdraw my complaint with my school. It depends on what I’m offered ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:45, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, sorry, I think I mixed up two words there. You're concerned about the removal of content, not the presence of problematic content, right? This is purely about getting material added to Wikipedia, not a request for anything to be removed? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yes removal of sourced content and when requested that he undo his edit after sending him the link from my school site he didn’t do anything at all. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:48, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, Wikipedia is a volunteer-built and volunteer-administrated encyclopedia, not a web host for organizations. The FAQ for article subjects describes this pretty well, and you may like to share that link with whomever you report this to. It is highly unlikely that a school administration is going to get involved, and if they do, they'd likely do so with a misunderstanding of Wikipedia's purpose. Neither the school nor its administration nor one of its students has any entitlement to content being added to an article, even if that content is verifiable (WP:ONUS). Editors with a conflict of interest, such as you or the school's administration, can request edits using {{edit COI}} on the article's talk page. The school administration would additionally have to comply with Wikipedia's paid contribution disclosure requirements; failure to properly disclose their affiliation would be a violation of Wikipedia's terms of service and can quickly lead to a more permanent block from editing.
- Please have a look at Wikipedia's general disclaimer, and share it too. If you'd like to contribute to the encyclopedia neutrally and about topics unrelated to your conflicts of interest, see the community portal and the Task Center for ideas, each of which is far more productive than running against a wall and calling for help with getting through. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:57, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- How much you want to bet? They are already conferring with me on possible actions to take against you and Wikipedia. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, it's Friday 19:01 in Paris. It's highly unlikely that anyone working for the school is interested in spending their evening on discussing actions against Wikipedia. Let me know when someone you trust has provided the same information to you as I have already attempted to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:03, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Bull crap you do not know the French then. The people I have contacted are on my side. I have contacted the 200 students in my level. 20 people have responded to be on my side. Nobody else has responded ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 18:05, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Please do not use any sort of threat on Wikipedia--I doubt this attempt would yield any results either. Unit Mango (talk) 18:08, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, I thought "they" is the schools's administration. ConorDavidKennedy, please find a different game to play; preferably one where you have a chance of winning. The community likes neither legal threats nor canvassing nor meatpuppetry; you're currently blocked from editing the article and the block also applies to people editing on your behalf. The correct page for discussing the content is Talk:École alsacienne, currently empty. Feel free to start a discussion there but please avoid inviting puppets to it, as they can't help to obtain the consensus needed to restore the material. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:12, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Pls stop ok I am not here to waste my time ok. I am simply here to correct errors done by Bbb23 on my schools page ok. That’s it once this problem is resolved I will stand down. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 18:13, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Bull crap you do not know the French then. The people I have contacted are on my side. I have contacted the 200 students in my level. 20 people have responded to be on my side. Nobody else has responded ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 18:05, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, it's Friday 19:01 in Paris. It's highly unlikely that anyone working for the school is interested in spending their evening on discussing actions against Wikipedia. Let me know when someone you trust has provided the same information to you as I have already attempted to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:03, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- How much you want to bet? They are already conferring with me on possible actions to take against you and Wikipedia. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yes removal of sourced content and when requested that he undo his edit after sending him the link from my school site he didn’t do anything at all. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:48, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, sorry, I think I mixed up two words there. You're concerned about the removal of content, not the presence of problematic content, right? This is purely about getting material added to Wikipedia, not a request for anything to be removed? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Bbb23 removed info on alumni and what my school offers. My school administration has been alerted. I can withdraw my complaint with my school. It depends on what I’m offered ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:45, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- ConorDavidKennedy, where exactly is the "defacement" you are talking about? Could you please quote sentences that are defamatory so I can remove them? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:44, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Ya know what I’m not gonna sit here and have my school defaced on Wikipedia. I am going to contact my school administration and see what happens when my school gets involved and I’m not saying that and doing nothing I am getting my school admins will get involved. Have fun. ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:43, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
Unsourced opinions at Travis Head
I believe placing a partial block on 103.92.160.173 would be a big help here. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:24, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Semi-protected for a year. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:34, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Huh ConorDavidKennedy (talk) 17:38, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Travis Head should be extended-protected, and indefinitely. Vandals just aren’t going to stop Servite et contribuere (talk) 17:46, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Servite et contribuere, you may well be right, but indefinite semi-protection is a rare measure even in cases of severe disruption. Re-protecting the page after a year is usually a good balance between reducing the amount of energy the community has to invest into protection, and reducing the probability of keeping pages unnecessarily protected. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:49, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Good idea. That will do for now. Can it be changed to extended protection by an admin? It can be left for now, but it can wait a bit. Let’s just see what happens over the next little whilst Servite et contribuere (talk) 17:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Sure it can be extended-confirmed protected, in case semi-protection has proven to be ineffective, by requesting at WP:RFPP if disruption gets through the protection. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Just added a link to my user page so I can find it. I will also say what it is with () Servite et contribuere (talk) 18:16, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- User:ToBeFree/Dashboard is full of further link ideas. :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:20, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Just added a link to my user page so I can find it. I will also say what it is with () Servite et contribuere (talk) 18:16, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Sure it can be extended-confirmed protected, in case semi-protection has proven to be ineffective, by requesting at WP:RFPP if disruption gets through the protection. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:59, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Good idea. That will do for now. Can it be changed to extended protection by an admin? It can be left for now, but it can wait a bit. Let’s just see what happens over the next little whilst Servite et contribuere (talk) 17:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Servite et contribuere, you may well be right, but indefinite semi-protection is a rare measure even in cases of severe disruption. Re-protecting the page after a year is usually a good balance between reducing the amount of energy the community has to invest into protection, and reducing the probability of keeping pages unnecessarily protected. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:49, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
Science of Identity Foundation RfC needs closing
Thanks for your help with the article. Could you make a request for closure of the RfC? I meant to yesterday, and it doesn't look like I'll be able today. - Hipal (talk) 17:44, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, the RfC at Talk:Science of Identity Foundation § RfC: Association to living person. Hi Hipal, I had almost forgotten about it. If you'd like to request a closure at WP:RFCL, do feel free to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:35, 26 January 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 1

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues

- Conversation with the trustees: Speak directly with the Wikimedia Foundation trustees about their work at the next Conversation with the Trustees on January 30 at 14:30 UTC.
- Community Resilience and Sustainability: Join the conversation hour which will discuss Trust and Safety, the Universal Code of Conduct, Committee Support, and Human Rights on January 30 at 20:00 UTC.
- Annual Planning: Shaping Wikimedia Foundation’s 2025–2026 annual goals: Key questions for the Wikimedia movement.
- Central Asia Wikicon: Submission for sessions is open until March 22.
- Wikipedia is turning 25: We just celebrated Wikipedia's 24th birthday, and are already planning for next year's big milestone! Share your thoughts on what you have in mind to mark the silver jubilee of Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikipedia App: iOS App users worldwide can now access a personalized Year in Review feature, providing insights based on their reading and editing history on Wikipedia.
- Design System: Codex – Year 2024 in Review: Key Milestones and Innovations.
- Tech News: The CampaignEvents extension offers organizers features like event registration management directly on-wiki; The Single User Login system is being updated over the next few months; Administrators can mass-delete multiple pages created by a user or IP address using Extension:Nuke. More updates from tech news Dec 16, Jan 13, and Jan 21.
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions shares their Quarterly planning for January-March 2025.
- Admin Research Report: The Research Team published their final report on administrator recruitment, retention, and attrition patterns among long-tenure community members in moderation and administration roles.
Annual Goals Progress on Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Distribution of Funds: Next steps toward the creation of the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee.
- Wikipedia Library: What’s new in The Wikipedia Library? (Oct-Dec 2024).
- Conferences: Your Sneak Peak into the 9 approved Wikimedia Conference Proposals for 2025.
- Wikimania: Road to Nairobi: Travel Essentials & Tips.
- Wikisource Loves Manuscripts: Meet-up in Bali: Strengthening the manuscript preservation ecosystem.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase which looked at Reader Attention and Curiosity.
- Resource Support Pilot: Join the discussion about shaping a pilot project on the English Wikipedia that would fund small resource requests (like books) to support editors in improving content.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Global Advocacy: Wikimedians will promote cultural preservation and knowledge diversity at RightsCon 2025. Tune in!
- Mis- and disinformation: Training on misinformation and disinformation prevention for communities in Indonesia: A recap.
- December's Global Advocacy Newsletter: For quarterly insights into the internet governance and policy work the Foundation is doing, subscribe to our Global Advocacy Newsletter. You can see our latest December edition here.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board of Trustees: The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes community-and-affiliate selected trustees and the Board appoints Lorenzo Losa its Chair-Elect.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · other newsletters:
- Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
- Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
- Regions: Central and Eastern Europe
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
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MediaWiki message delivery 16:58, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-05
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Patrollers and admins - what information or context about edits or users could help you to make patroller or admin decisions more quickly or easily? The Wikimedia Foundation wants to hear from you to help guide its upcoming annual plan. Please consider sharing your thoughts on this and 13 other questions to shape the technical direction for next year.
Updates for editors
- iOS Wikipedia App users worldwide can now access a personalized Year in Review feature, which provides insights based on their reading and editing history on Wikipedia. This project is part of a broader effort to help welcome new readers as they discover and interact with encyclopedic content.
Edit patrollers now have a new feature available that can highlight potentially problematic new pages. When a page is created with the same title as a page which was previously deleted, a tag ('Recreated') will now be added, which users can filter for in Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages. - Later this week, there will be a new warning for editors if they attempt to create a redirect that links to another redirect (a double redirect). The feature will recommend that they link directly to the second redirect's target page. Thanks to the user SomeRandomDeveloper for this improvement.
Wikimedia wikis allow WebAuthn-based second factor checks (such as hardware tokens) during login, but the feature is fragile and has very few users. The MediaWiki Platform team is temporarily disabling adding new WebAuthn keys, to avoid interfering with the rollout of SUL3 (single user login version 3). Existing keys are unaffected.
View all 30 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- For developers that use the MediaWiki History dumps: The Data Platform Engineering team has added a couple of new fields to these dumps, to support the Temporary Accounts initiative. If you maintain software that reads those dumps, please review your code and the updated documentation, since the order of the fields in the row will change. There will also be one field rename: in the
mediawiki_user_historydump, theanonymousfield will be renamed tois_anonymous. The changes will take effect with the next release of the dumps in February.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:12, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
New sockpuppetry on Baruch Spinoza article
Hello @ToBeFree
How have you been? Hope you have been having a great new year.
Well, the sockpuppetry attacks again on Baruch Spinoza page. We managed to ban the disruptive users and their sock puppets as you can see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets_of_Cornelis_Dopper and here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets_of_GoneWithThePuffery in the past. However, we will never know how many sock puppets still exists and who is the final big sockmaster. Now the latest case of sock puppetry on the page. I identified more suck puppets who were trying to make the very same edits and disruptions we have had in the past (likely all of them are linked).
I have opened a new report using WP:SPI. Since we have been together fighting off the sockpuppetry on Baruch Spinoza page since the beginning, it'd be cool if you could help the page now again. This time is a pretty standard case of sockpuppetry, you can see my report here: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/DavidDijkgraaf PepGuardi (talk) 09:37, 26 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi, thank you very much! I won't be able to have a look today, but it's good that it's at SPI and anyone can deal with it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:54, 26 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hey. Thanks for answering @ToBeFree. In fact, at SPI I requested a Check User, I wanted to confirm the country where this new sockpuppetry disruption is coming from. As we talked before, during former disruptions on the page caused by sock puppets, I have a feeling that all of them are from a sock puppets master we didn't caught yet. All of them always do the very same edit. Not surprisingly, the CU confirmed they are from the same country where it was located the other 7 sock puppets you helped to identify and ban. DavidDijkgraaf (master) is from the Netherlands, and the Check User confirmed that he and the newly created user Gybebaggy (sock puppet) are from the same country, using the CU words, "same small country". Of course, we will probably never be able to prove all of those many sock puppets are connected, but I wanted to share this with you since your kind support has been crucial all these years for the identification and ban of the sock puppets. CU confirmed both users are from the "small country", but due to different technical details, behavioural evidence needs evaluation so the ban can be applied. Thus I am describing bellow the evidences so you can make the evaluation.
- This new sockpuppetry basically follows same pattern of those ones you helped to confirm and ban in the two former occasions: someone defends the word Dutch must be included, then there is an opposition, and then suddenly a newly created user gets in to defend that idea which found opposition.
- Here you have me reverting the likely sockmaster (DavidDijkgraaf) edit and explaining due to previous consensus no Dutch nationality should be claimed (although he already knew it because there is a note explaining this in the text): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baruch_Spinoza&diff=1271669924&oldid=1271616019
- Then he goes to the talk page and starts a discussion claiming "Dutch" should be included in there. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABaruch_Spinoza&diff=1271335527&oldid=1266582347
- Then there is an opposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABaruch_Spinoza&diff=1271379004&oldid=1271374752 (see the opposition time: 20:16, 23 January 2025 (UTC))
- Then suddenly a newly created user pops up on the discussion taking (of course) the side of sockmaster (DavidDijkgraaf) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABaruch_Spinoza&diff=1271406498&oldid=1271382380 (now look at the time this happens: 22:45, 23 January 2025 (UTC).
- Not surprisingly, when we check the user we find out its account was also created on 23 January 2025, the same day as the sockmaster (DavidDijkgraaf) started the dispute and found opposition. The newly created user very first edit is on that discussion. And after that, the new user disappears and makes no other contribution to any article. Equally not surprising, the CU has confirmed both are from the same country. PepGuardi (talk) 07:58, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much for the detailed analysis. I have blocked one of the accounts now and explained conditions I personally would have for blocking both (Special:Permalink/1272308231). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:11, 28 January 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree So, when I noticed this today my first reaction was annoyance. This user has already accused me of edit warring and canvassing—two claims that could have been avoided by simply reading how these terms are defined in the guidelines. At this point it seems like he tries to make anything stick. However, I do actually agree that single-purpose accounts can be suspicious, especially when they are created precisely when a discussion begins or when they show an unusual familiarity with Wikipedia's workings. In fact, I have caught various sockpuppets in the past for exactly these reasons, which is why it would be highly unlikely that I would resort to such, seemingly obvious, tactics myself.
- Anyway, isn't if fairly obvious that Gybebaggy is a sockpuppet of GoneWithThePuffery? They both left messages on my talk page in which they cite the exact same sources. DavidDijkgraaf (talk) 09:33, 28 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, I hadn't seen the similarity to GoneWithThePuffery yet. Their list of socks was mentioned at the beginning but it didn't look like a connection to them was alleged. Thanks DavidDijkgraaf! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:04, 28 January 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much for the detailed analysis. I have blocked one of the accounts now and explained conditions I personally would have for blocking both (Special:Permalink/1272308231). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:11, 28 January 2025 (UTC)
protection
Hello @ToBeFree
We were talking about sock puppets on Baruch Spinoza page, and you banned Gybebaggy as a result of that. Not surprisingly, few hours after you blocked it, an unknown user made exactly the same change (see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baruch_Spinoza&diff=1272502522&oldid=1271763813) which the blocked user was asking for(see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABaruch_Spinoza&diff=1271406498&oldid=1271382380). Since those disruptions led to almost 10 sock puppets to be blocked (with your kind support) in the past year (all of them acting on Baruch Spinoza article), it’s too many confirmed cases of sock puppetry in a small period of time in a single page, I think a way to prevent this or at least mitigate it by now is protecting the the page. Could you protect it, please?
I open a request here Wikipedia:Requests for page protection/Increase#Baruch Spinoza. Sorry for be writing to you again, but I think you’re the one that understands the most how messy with sock puppetry that page has suffered in the past few months. I didn’t mentioned the level of protection I am asking for because I think you which one is more adequate, but I think it should be a protection that could really dissuade the continuous creation of so many sock puppets that we have seen in the past months. Thank you 🙂 PepGuardi (talk) 04:26, 29 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi PepGuardi, not everyone disagreeing with you is a sockpuppet, and the edit warring on that page really needs to stop. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:18, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hi,
- How long is the extended protection going to last? I have made good-faith edits on the page for a year and want to pick it up again but now I am blocked because of the protection. In my view, PepGuardi could be more responsive to the frustration of many editors who come to the page and want some kind of change.
- Thank you. YourJudge (talk) 16:44, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
- Hello YourJudge, for a year or until you have made 500 edits. I'm not questioning your good faith nor the quality of other contributions, but you had participated in the edit war ( ), so the protection intentionally affects you just like the partial blocks of PepGuardi and DavidDijkgraaf who had to be blocked to achieve the same result.
- The Task Center and the community portal can provide ideas for contributions. You're currently at 436. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:34, 31 January 2025 (UTC)
Recent block
Hi, no issue with you blocking LankanLionUC but as that's now happened thought I'd mention my belief that they're also VidunOriginalezLK, for which I did raise an SPI. Thanks, Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 20:01, 1 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Pickersgill-Cunliffe, thanks! The username similarity alone made me raise an eyebrow already, but I somehow thought they're probably two people with an off-wiki connection and didn't think about it further. I'll have a look at the SPI. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:03, 1 February 2025 (UTC)
Done. Thank you very much for the notification, Pickersgill-Cunliffe; with the appearance of IchLander-Roveria, I think we can safely say they're trolling rather than trying to hide something. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:31, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
Thornhill, British Columbia
Hi @ToBeFree I have seen you put a protection on Thornhill, British Columbia recently however there is a possible vandalism there, someone removed over -5,500 from it and did not explained why he has done that. It may be a potential vandalism. 28monthslater1 (talk) 01:26, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) @28monthslater1: It's not vandalism. user:CambridgeBayWeather simply replaced a hardcoded weather box with a template. Meters (talk) 01:33, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- Oh really? The data removed was that big, so preferred to check with @ToBeFree before reverting it https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thornhill%2C_British_Columbia&diff=1272551477&oldid=1272131945 28monthslater1 (talk) 03:19, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- Try actually looking at the article display before and after the edit. There is no difference.
- The climate data is simply being supplied by the new "{{Terrace, British Columbia weatherbox}}" call instead of being hard coded in the article. This is a short form of "{{Template:Terrace, British Columbia weatherbox}}" and when the article is displayed the content of Template:Terrace, British Columbia weatherbox is copied into it. See WP:TRANSCL. Meters (talk) 10:32, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hello 28monthslater1, thanks for asking! As Meters has helpfully explained above, it's good that you asked instead of reverting. You could ask CambridgeBayWeather themselves on their talk page in case you wonder about a specific edit, but I understand that you didn't want to ask the perceived vandal about their own intentions. In general, when you open a user's contribution list (Special:Contributions/CambridgeBayWeather) and it says something like "A user with 253,622 edits. Account created on 11 June 2005." you can assume that if the user was only here to vandalize, they'd long have been blocked, so you'll probably receive a good answer. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:00, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- I've been doing that a bit recently. The edit summary could have been a bit clearer. By the way I was blocked once, for a minute. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 20:51, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
- Oh really? The data removed was that big, so preferred to check with @ToBeFree before reverting it https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thornhill%2C_British_Columbia&diff=1272551477&oldid=1272131945 28monthslater1 (talk) 03:19, 2 February 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-06
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Editors who use the "Special characters" editing-toolbar menu can now see the 32 special characters you have used most recently, across editing sessions on that wiki. This change should help make it easier to find the characters you use most often. The feature is in both the 2010 wikitext editor and VisualEditor.
- Editors using the 2010 wikitext editor can now create sublists with correct indentation by selecting the line(s) you want to indent and then clicking the toolbar buttons. You can now also insert
<code>tags using a new toolbar button. Thanks to user stjn for these improvements. - Help is needed to ensure the citation generator works properly on each wiki.
- (1) Administrators should update the local versions of the page
MediaWiki:Citoid-template-type-map.jsonto include entries forpreprint,standard, anddataset; Here are example diffs to replicate for 'preprint' and for 'standard' and 'dataset'. - (2.1) If the citoid map in the citation template used for these types of references is missing, one will need to be added. (2.2) If the citoid map does exist, the TemplateData will need to be updated to include new field names. Here are example updates for 'preprint' and for 'standard' and 'dataset'. The new fields that may need to be supported are
archiveID,identifier,repository,organization,repositoryLocation,committee, andversionNumber.
- (1) Administrators should update the local versions of the page
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Central Kanuri (
w:knc:)
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the OCR (optical character recognition) tool used for Wikisource now supports a new language, Church Slavonic.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:07, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – February 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2025).
- Administrators can now nuke pages created by a user or IP address from the last 90 days, up from the initial 30 days. T380846
- A '
Recreated' tag will now be added to pages that were created with the same title as a page which was previously deleted and it can be used as a filter in Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages. T56145
- The arbitration case Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been closed.
The Signpost: 7 February 2025
- Recent research: GPT-4 writes better edit summaries than human Wikipedians
But an open language model is ready to help.
- News and notes: Let's talk!
The WMF executive team delivers a new update; plus, the latest EU policy report, good-bye to the German Wikipedia's Café, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- Opinion: Fathoms Below, but over the moon
Editor Fathoms Below reminisces over their successful RfA from February 2024.
- In the media: Wikipedia is an extension of legacy media propaganda, says Elon Musk
Plus, reports on the ARBPIA5 case, new concerns over projects targeting Wikipedia editors, John Green gets his sponsor flowers, and other news.
- Community view: 24th Wikipedia Day in New York City
Wikimedians and newbies celebrate 24 years of Wikipedia in the Brooklyn Central Library. Special guests Stephen Harrison and Clay Shirky joined in conversation.
- Arbitration report: Palestine-Israel articles 5 has closed
Ending with some bans, and a new set of editing sanctions.
- Traffic report: A wild drive
The start of the year was filled with a few unfortunate losses, tragic disasters, emerging tech forces and A LOT of politics.
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 2

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- 2025 reflections: Reflections on 2025 from the Wikimedia Foundation's Executive team.
- Annual Planning: How can we help more contributors connect and collaborate?
- Let's Connect: The next Learning Clinic will be about WikiLearn Essentials for Course Creators: Building Community Skills Online Part 2 on February 13 at 16:30 UTC.
- WikiCredCon 2025 will take place on February 14–16 in San Francisco, USA.
- Wikisource Conference will take place on February 14–16 in Bali, Indonesia.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Future Audiences: Watch the recording for lessons from the short video experiments. A new Discord bot experiment as a way to interact with Wikipedia, the Future Audiences Discord server and future plans for experiments around how to use gamification.
- WikiProjects: Bridging Knowledge Gaps: Rethinking Collaboration through WikiProjects and Campaigns.
- Wikifunctions: The newest sister project now has 2000 functions.
- Tech News: Editors who use the “Special characters” editing-toolbar menu can now see the 32 special characters you have used most recently, across editing sessions on that wiki; The Data Platform Engineering team has added a couple of new fields to MediaWiki History dumps to support the Temporary Accounts initiative. More updates from tech news week 05 and 06.
- Product & Tech Advisory Council: The council looked at data, needs and trends to make a recommendation for the Foundation's annual plan. They recommended that improving mobile contribution experiences has the greatest potential to bring in new and unheard voices onto Wikipedia and sister projects, and improve the experience of readers and contributors most widely. They are requesting feedback and discussion.
- Structured Tasks: The "Add an Image" structured task is being tested on a representative sample of Wikipedias which allows users to add an image and an appropriate caption to a Wikipedia article.
- Talk page improvements: Usability improvements are being deployed on remaining wikis.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Language Preservation: Empowering the Next Generation to Preserve Indigenous Languages through WikiKata.
- Resource Distribution: Call for candidates for the interim Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC) is opened. Apply until Feb 25.
- WikiLearn: A new edition of WikiLearn News highlights how Wikimedia affiliates are leveraging this online learning platform to support the movement.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy Medium blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Diff policy articles
- Global Advocacy: The Wikimedia Foundation has officially joined the TAROCH (Towards an Open Cultural Heritage Recommendation) Coalition, a campaign run by Creative Commons that aims for UNESCO to release an official recommendation to improve open access to cultural heritage. The team also discussed how media freedom, Wikipedia, and AI connect at the United Nations (UN) Forum on Business and Human Rights; read more monthly updates from the Global Advocacy team.
- Banner & Logo Policies: Help us collect examples of community discussions to run banners or make temporary logo changes.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Welcoming new affiliates: Recognition of Inari Saami Wikimedians User Group.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 23:32, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-07
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) has published a draft of their recommendations for the Wikimedia Foundation's Product and Technology department. They have recommended focusing on mobile experiences, particularly contributions. They request community feedback at the talk page by 21 February.
Updates for editors
- The "Special pages" portlet link will be moved from the "Toolbox" into the "Navigation" section of the main menu's sidebar by default. This change is because the Toolbox is intended for tools relating to the current page, not tools relating to the site, so the link will be more logically and consistently located. To modify this behavior and update CSS styling, administrators can follow the instructions at T385346.
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View all 22 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the global blocks log will now be shown directly on the Special:CentralAuth page, similarly to global locks, to simplify the workflows for stewards.
Updates for technical contributors
- Wikidata now supports a special language as a "default for all languages" for labels and aliases. This is to avoid excessive duplication of the same information across many languages. If your Wikidata queries use labels, you may need to update them as some existing labels are getting removed.
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getDescriptionwas invoked on every Wiki page read and accounts for ~2.5% of a page's total load time. The calculated value will now be cached, reducing load on Wikimedia servers. - As part of the RESTBase deprecation effort, the
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MediaWiki message delivery 00:10, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
Patrick McKee
Hey, just letting you know that the article is being edited by someone claiming to be the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:35, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:40, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
Heather Kozar
Just letting you know about the editing over the past year by IPs claiming to be the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:26, 12 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks again
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:39, 12 February 2025 (UTC)
Problematic user
Hello ToBeFree! I'm here to report another problematic user on the article about singer Chris Brown. This one user seems to like hiding the singer's well documented controversies on his article. For example 1, 2, 3. He was caught also inflating his sales, and changing the occupation of Brown's ex girlfriend to `OnlyFanser`. I think he must be stopped from making that article a piece of puffery109.113.55.182 (talk) 10:55, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
- This issue was already discussed at length on the Chris Brown article talk page. The "inflations" were all supported by secondary sources. But the dispute remained unresolved and as a result the "uninflated" sales figure that I did not prefer was kept in the article. I have since never altered the figure to "inflate" it with supporting sources so there is no "puffery".
- The occupation of Brown's ex is also supported by a secondary source. Currently it is not in her article so I'm not sure what the issue is. Ironically the person who disputed the occupation edit was a sock puppet of user Giubbotto non ortodosso who was using the sock NoOneElseLovEe.
- Per the numerous sock puppet investigations of Giubbotto non ortodosso, it is obvious that they have a pattern of vandalizing Chris Brown related articles and filling them with either puffery or fabricatedunsourced claims; which several other users including me have been correcting. Furthermore, the sockpuppet investigations for Giubbotto non ortodosso reveal that their socks all geolocate to Italy and use a Vodafone ISP. This is also applies to you. So needless to say you are Giubbotto non ortodosso and are being disruptive simply because I reported one of your socks. I'm sure thats why you are using other Italian IPs to revert my edits on medical school articles as you did here 1 Isjadd773 (talk) 14:47, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
Non-neutral, probable COI, edits at Dario Chiazzolino
Hey, giving you a heads-up about the BLP issues here. I've already rolled back to before the IP started editing. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:05, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, you're dealing with an AI. A robot. Beep boop. Thanks for taking the time, but they clearly didn't, so let's move on and not spend too much energy on dealing with a computer's Wikipedia promotion. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:49, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thought so but HIVE wasn't sure. Definitely clear now. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:12, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- I didn't notice it when reviewing the article contributions, I have to admit. As far as I remember, most promotional editing looked like this before ChatGPT arrived, so I guess inserting promotional content into Wikipedia is something AI now does at a human level, which was always low. I guess Special:Diff/1275713250 and especially its formatting completely gave it away to both of us. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:14, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- I had to quote WP:LLM for someone else just yesterday. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:17, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- For a moment, I thought it had become a guideline without me noticing.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:24, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- For a moment, I thought it had become a guideline without me noticing.
- I had to quote WP:LLM for someone else just yesterday. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:17, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- I didn't notice it when reviewing the article contributions, I have to admit. As far as I remember, most promotional editing looked like this before ChatGPT arrived, so I guess inserting promotional content into Wikipedia is something AI now does at a human level, which was always low. I guess Special:Diff/1275713250 and especially its formatting completely gave it away to both of us. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:14, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thought so but HIVE wasn't sure. Definitely clear now. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:12, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
Regarding User:Jtt6969
A user you blocked, User:Jtt6969, posted a personal attack at Special:Diff/1275789619. I recommend revoking talk page access. Z. Patterson (talk) 02:53, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Z. Patterson, interesting, thanks – it's been a while since their last edit in November 2023.

- Looking at the new edit, I think we can afford waiting for one more edit before revoking talk page access. I hope that's okay. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:57, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- Well, that didn't take long. Special:AbuseLog/39989981 was caught by a filter and the trolling just continued. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:02, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
Ikepod via SkywatcherRanch
Hi Patrick
the user in reference told me to address you the page mofifications that were blocked due to my lack of knowledge and wiki rules + the fcat I am the brand owner
Would you have a look? the current page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikepod
best regards
CLC CLC1994 (talk) 10:27, 12 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hello CLC1994, I'm ToBeFree. Patrick is just the name of the subject of an article discussed in the section above.
- Thank you very much for asking, and for the openness about your connection to the brand. As you probably know, you have a conflict of interest regarding Ikepod. Which is fine as long as you request edits instead of making them yourself. Is there something specific you'd like to change at the moment?
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:14, 12 February 2025 (UTC)- hello ToBeFree, sorry I am a bit lost on wikipedia
- and thanks for reply
- Since 2018 and the relaunch there were many evolution even if the brand is still a small one operated by one person, I understand the conflict of interest and if others claim to be the owner ot can be check on zefix dot ch under the name Dopeki sarl, all is registered there legally.
- That said ,the text I proposed was this one :
- (i am withdrawing monochrome watches links as they are blocked??)
- ORIGINAL TEXT
- Ikepod is a wristwatch manufacturer specializing in conceptual timepieces. Originally Swiss made, the watches are currently made in Hong Kong with Miyota quartz movements.
- History
- [edit]
- The Ikepod is a Swiss watch company founded in 1994 by Oliver Ike and Marc Newson and famous for its cult disc-shaped design watches. The Ikepods were among the first watches to start the wave of big diameter design watches in the millennial years with cases in gold, silver, steel, platinum and titanium and exclusive limited edition watch conceptions bordering on the limits of art.
- Newson and Ike have since left the company and the brand was bought in April 2017 by three new investors in Mauborget Switzerland. The new CEO, Christian-Louis Col, has announced that the new Ikepods have maintained the original design elements but have overcome the technical complications of the original Ikepod cases. Furthermore, the Ikepods will no longer be produced in Switzerland but in Hong Kong with Japanese Miyota quartz movements to make them more affordable.
- The new Ikepods were designed in Switzerland by Emmanuel Gueit, the Swiss watch designer responsible for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. The new Ikepods include a time-only 42mm watch called the Duopod and a chronograph model in a 44mm case called the Chronopod. The new models are based on the original Ikepod Horizon and Hemipode models. The new Ikepods feature the same elliptic forms, cases in 316L steel and the original silicone hyperallergenic straps. The company states that its Duopods and Chronpods wear more like 39mm and 41mm watches because of the lack of external lugs and the way the case tapers at the edges. Ikepod relaunched on Kickstarter on 18 September 2018.
- Three of the new Ikepod watches released on Kickstarter
- Clientele
- [edit]
- Kanye West has owned an Ikepod.
- MODIFIED
- Ikepod is a wristwatch manufacturer specializing in conceptual timepieces. The brand has been put on rest two times in 2008 and 2013 and is relaunched since 2018
- History
- [edit]
- The Ikepod is a Swiss watch company founded in 1994 by Oliver Ike and Marc Newson and famous for its cult disc-shaped design watches. The Ikepods were among the first watches to start the wave of big diameter design watches in the millennial years with cases in gold, silver, steel, platinum and titanium and exclusive limited edition watch conceptions bordering on the limits of art. Jeff Koons and Kaws did special editions for Ikepod. https://www.ablogtowatch.com/ikepod-kaws-watch-hands-on/
- Newson and Ike have since left the company and the brand was bought in April 2017 by a new investor in Geneva Switzerland. The new Owner, Christian-Louis Col, has announced that the new Ikepods have maintained the original design elements but have overcome the technical complications of the original Ikepod cases. Furthermore, the Ikepods will no longer be produced are produced in Switzerland with Swiss movements and in Hong Kong with Japanese Miyota quartz movements to make them more affordable. h
- The new Ikepods were designed in Switzerland by Emmanuel Gueit, the Swiss watch designer responsible for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. Alexandre Peraldi, Fabrice Gonet, https://www.ablogtowatch.com/interview-accomplished-swiss-watch-designer-fabrice-gonet/ Claesson Koivisto Rune. In 2018 The new Ikepods include a time-only 42mm watch called the Duopod and a chronograph model in a 44mm case called the Chronopod. The new models are based on the original Ikepod Horizon and Hemipode models. The new Ikepods feature the same elliptic forms, cases in 316L steel or Titanium and the original silicone hyperallergenic straps. The company states that its Duopods and Chronpods wear more like 39mm and 41mm watches because of the lack of external lugs and the way the case tapers at the edges. Ikepod relaunched on Kickstarter on 18 September 2018.
- Three of the new Ikepod watches released on Kickstarter
- Clientele
- [edit]
- Kanye West has owned an Ikepod. The late Robin Williams wore an Ikepod, https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/creating-a-stage-collection-of-marsha-and-robin-williams-n09977/lot.119.html Also tech moguls like Tony Fadell https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/talking-watches-with-tony-fadell or watchmakers like Max Busser https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/talking-watches-with-maximilian-busser CLC1994 (talk) 07:25, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
- No, I won't perform large replacements of article text. If there is something specific you would like to change, keep it simple and let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:17, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for reply, understood
- So can you just change ?
- ORIGINAL
- Ikepod is a wristwatch manufacturer specializing in conceptual timepieces. Originally Swiss made, the watches are currently made in Hong Kong with Miyota quartz movements.
- TO modified
- Ikepod is a wristwatch manufacturer specializing in conceptual timepieces. Currently Swiss made with Swiss movements and made in Hong Kong with Miyota quartz movements.
- thanks a lot
- best regards
- CL 90.54.55.179 (talk) 11:38, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
- If I see correctly, the current text is supported by a Kickstarter campaign from the company itself (kickstarter .com/projects/luxury-design-watch/ikepod-watches ) – is this correct? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:38, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- hello again
- yes a real campaign
- it was in 2018 for the relaunch (I do not understand "current text supported by", sorry)
- now we are distributed by big names like Ethos in India, Seddiqi in UAE, J Osawa in Japan and selling with our website, etc
- thanks
- best 90.54.55.179 (talk) 08:06, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks! "Supported by" means that there is a source that Wikipedia as a tertiary source can use as the source of the statement in the article. Ideally, an independent secondary source that is known for its editorial oversight. The community-built encyclopedia relies on secondary sources' interpretations rather than making them from primary sources such as the company's website or the Kickstarter campaign. The article quotes a secondary source of perhaps questionable reliability, Gear Patrol, which quotes the Kickstarter campaign (). There's a second source provided for the current state of the article, but it seems unreachable to me (). As it's from the company's website itself, it can be mostly disregarded anyway though.
- If the current state of the article is really factually incorrect, removing incorrect statements is something that can be discussed. However, the way you focus on "Swiss made" without disputing "made in Hong Kong" makes your request seem more like a marketing initiative to me. If I understand correctly, you are not really questioning the factual accuracy of the statement, and care mostly about its impression on potential customers. Wikipedia can't help with that.
- However, if you have reliable secondary sources that support your new proposed sentence, feel free to click the "request corrections or suggest content" link at the top of Talk:Ikepod, the article's talk page, in the orange warning box. Make sure to provide your sources and someone will have a look.
- Best regards,
- ~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:56, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks a lot for explanations and time spent,
- the correct link number 2 is https://ikepod.com/en/content/8-ikepod-since-1994 and wikipedia block others sources like monochrome watch e magazine, do not know why then cannot submit these links
- Yes could be felt as marketing ** but I did the minimum as :
- 1 you told me you will not edit too much so I modified only that
- 2 many things are incorrect in the page, swiss made is a fact as much as HK made
- Also I don't know who wrote the page but seems he never come back since 2018, and many info are outdated and wrong.
- I understood that when a reader commented a recent article of ablogtowatch dot com quoting the Ikepod wikipedia page stating that "Wikipedia says the contrary", lol. Then I came to read the page.
- so yes impression is bad, and potentially causing damages
- Again, thanks for your time
- All the best
- CL 90.54.55.179 (talk) 09:35, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you! I have now updated/fixed the broken reference to the company's website. That's the kind of edits that many volunteers will simply make when seeing an edit request. Regarding the not-linkable (blocklisted) sources: They're probably not reliable if they're blocklisted; Kickstarter is blocklisted because of spam and its lack of independence (the campaign pages are primary sources full of claims that might never be held). If you provide the link you mean in an obfuscated form (spaces around every period), I'll have a look why it's on the list. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:28, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you
- i do not find the comment about I phone assembled in China
- For swiss made there is a regulation and strong law to apply the swiss made on a dial, 60ù of the value of "watch head" should be Swiss and it's well defended
- the link banned is monochrome-watches.com/ikepod-horopod-titanium-gen3-swiss-eta-movement-titanium-bracelet-review-specs-price
- have a great week end 90.54.55.179 (talk) 09:37, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- CLC, you should know better than me that this is a press release and thus not an independent source. It's also so non-independent/unreliable that it was added to the spam blocklist last year when multiple accounts started inserting spam links to it on Wikipedia. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:50, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- Ok, thanks
- I would be curious to know who created the page Ikepod in the past. (to be honest I would prefer no page than a page with wrong infos)
- So the state of the Ikepod page is me in conflict of interest and no one contributing to it and the page remaining with wrong infos. Weird situation.
- I thank you for the time spent, I have understood more how wikipedia works now
- all the best
- CL CLC1994 (talk) 21:09, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- CLC, you should know better than me that this is a press release and thus not an independent source. It's also so non-independent/unreliable that it was added to the spam blocklist last year when multiple accounts started inserting spam links to it on Wikipedia. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:50, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you! I have now updated/fixed the broken reference to the company's website. That's the kind of edits that many volunteers will simply make when seeing an edit request. Regarding the not-linkable (blocklisted) sources: They're probably not reliable if they're blocklisted; Kickstarter is blocklisted because of spam and its lack of independence (the campaign pages are primary sources full of claims that might never be held). If you provide the link you mean in an obfuscated form (spaces around every period), I'll have a look why it's on the list. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:28, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- If I see correctly, the current text is supported by a Kickstarter campaign from the company itself (kickstarter .com/projects/luxury-design-watch/ikepod-watches ) – is this correct? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:38, 14 February 2025 (UTC)
- No, I won't perform large replacements of article text. If there is something specific you would like to change, keep it simple and let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:17, 13 February 2025 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism
Thank you for the FYI- I see what must have happened now. Stickymatch 06:32, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
- ()
- All good.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 06:34, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment

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Tech News: 2025-08
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Communities using growth tools can now showcase one event on the
Special:Homepagefor newcomers. This feature will help newcomers to be informed about editing activities they can participate in. Administrators can create a new event to showcase atSpecial:CommunityConfiguration. To learn more about this feature, please read the Diff post, have a look at the documentation, or contact the Growth team.
Updates for editors

- Starting next week, talk pages at these wikis – Spanish Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, Italian Wikipedia, Japanese Wikipedia – will get a new design. This change was extensively tested as a Beta feature and is the last step of talk pages improvements.
- You can now navigate to view a redirect page directly from its action pages, such as the history page. Previously, you were forced to first go to the redirect target. This change should help editors who work with redirects a lot. Thanks to user stjn for this improvement.
- When a Cite reference is reused many times, wikis currently show either numbers like "1.23" or localized alphabetic markers like "a b c" in the reference list. Previously, if there were so many reuses that the alphabetic markers were all used, an error message was displayed. As part of the work to modernize Cite customization, these errors will no longer be shown and instead the backlinks will fall back to showing numeric markers like "1.23" once the alphabetic markers are all used.
- The log entries for each change to an editor's user-groups are now clearer by specifying exactly what has changed, instead of the plain before and after listings. Translators can help to update the localized versions. Thanks to user Msz2001 for these improvements.
- A new filter has been added to the Special:Nuke tool, which allows administrators to mass delete pages, to enable users to filter for pages in a range of page sizes (in bytes). This allows, for example, deleting pages only of a certain size or below.
- Non-administrators can now check which pages are able to be deleted using the Special:Nuke tool. Thanks to user MolecularPilot for this and the previous improvements.
View all 25 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed in the configuration for the AV1 video file format, which enables these files to play again.
Updates for technical contributors
- Parsoid Read Views is going to be rolling out to most Wiktionaries over the next few weeks, following the successful transition of Wikivoyage to Parsoid Read Views last year. For more information, see the Parsoid/Parser Unification project page.
- Developers of tools that run on-wiki should note that
mw.Uriis deprecated. Tools requiringmw.Urimust explicitly declaremediawiki.Urias a ResourceLoader dependency, and should migrate to the browser nativeURLAPI soon.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 21:14, 17 February 2025 (UTC)
AN/I report ignored (notice)
Hey, I made the report, and since then, they've not only not responded to either the report or their talk page (where I did leave a notice of the report), but they've continued their same pattern of behaviour, and you told me if it were ignored to let you know, so I am! livelikemusic (TALK!) 01:01, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi livelikemusic, I'm sorry for having made you go through this tedious procedure. Thank you very much for the notification. Looking at the high-quality list of the issues you've compiled at ANI and them just continuing to edit, ignoring the noticeboard thread, placing a block was now a decision that took less than a minute. I hope the end result is fine even if the path there was a bit of a detour. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:26, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, it's no problem. Glad I was able to outline the issues (with diffs) and that a decision was able to be made! Detour is fine—I even enjoyed the scenic route! livelikemusic (TALK!) 02:32, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:33, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, it's no problem. Glad I was able to outline the issues (with diffs) and that a decision was able to be made! Detour is fine—I even enjoyed the scenic route! livelikemusic (TALK!) 02:32, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
** Asterisks **
Thanks for the explanation. I guessed it was meant to represent some kind of bold formatting or something of the kind, but I didn't know about the connection to AI. However, with hindsight it seems it should have been a good guess that it would be that. JBW (talk) 23:13, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
- Heh. I'm not sure how it ends up in the output, as bold formatting should be ... well, bold formatting, not asterisks. But you can see these asterisks while the AI types its response, and perhaps they end up in the output if you request Wikipedia/MediaWiki syntax to be used for the creation of an article. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:14, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
- My favourite is reading text that looks as though it may be AI generated, and coming across [insert your example here] or something of the kind; that takes away the "may". I guess ** must be similar: just mindlessly copy what the bot produces, without thinking about it. However, I have no experience of using this stuff, so I don't know in what form the output appears. JBW (talk) 23:44, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
- I always thought these placeholders must be from WikiHow.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:56, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
- It turns out that asterisks are used as markup for bold text in the Discord desktop client, and I wouldn't be surprised if it works in other places too. Maybe the editor just assumed the same would work in Wikipedia, or maybe they just copied and pasted source text without any thought. Anyway, assuming it was meant to create bold text, wherever this particular editor got this particular notation from it's one more example of something which has bewildered me ever since I started contributing to Wikipedia. When a new editor tries to do something which produces totally the wrong effect, whether this one, or trying to link an external image, or making changes to an infobox which totally mess it up, or whatever, why do they so often just leave it, rather than seeing that it hasn't worked and self-revert or remove the failed material? JBW (talk) 14:10, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- That's a very good question, I think, and I don't have an answer other than "didn't work immediately, stopped caring". ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:22, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- It turns out that asterisks are used as markup for bold text in the Discord desktop client, and I wouldn't be surprised if it works in other places too. Maybe the editor just assumed the same would work in Wikipedia, or maybe they just copied and pasted source text without any thought. Anyway, assuming it was meant to create bold text, wherever this particular editor got this particular notation from it's one more example of something which has bewildered me ever since I started contributing to Wikipedia. When a new editor tries to do something which produces totally the wrong effect, whether this one, or trying to link an external image, or making changes to an infobox which totally mess it up, or whatever, why do they so often just leave it, rather than seeing that it hasn't worked and self-revert or remove the failed material? JBW (talk) 14:10, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- I always thought these placeholders must be from WikiHow.
- My favourite is reading text that looks as though it may be AI generated, and coming across [insert your example here] or something of the kind; that takes away the "may". I guess ** must be similar: just mindlessly copy what the bot produces, without thinking about it. However, I have no experience of using this stuff, so I don't know in what form the output appears. JBW (talk) 23:44, 16 February 2025 (UTC)
Mary Mouser & Tanner Buchanan
Somebody apparently has an unhealthy fixation on one of them. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 18:42, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hm. Blocked. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:26, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
Australian IP-hopper adding Heath Biden laptop commentary at Lesley Stahl
Just two incidents so far but something to keep an eye on. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:17, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Well, that changed 15 minutes ago. Thanks for the notification. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:33, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
Thank you!
I was already going to file an SPI about those 2 users, but you suddenly blocked them, thank you very much! Kajmer05 (talk) 21:42, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Kajmer05, thank you very much and no problem.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:46, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Also, the person above is Papack806, Tishreen07's sock, I think I should add him to the investigation. :D Kajmer05 (talk) 21:51, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Kajmer05, please do! I currently lack a puzzle piece and don't yet see the behavioral connection, so please add them and notify me so I can check. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:52, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- I filed SPI rn! i didn't go into too much detail, they already make themselves very clear. Kajmer05 (talk) 22:09, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Having a look. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:09, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Okay, I see it now. Thank you very much again, Kajmer05. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:16, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Thank you for your answer. In fact, I do not include such people in the investigation. Usually they either forget their password or want a clean start but I think they are prohibited from constantly editing the same topics/article and still making more disruptive edits, so I filed SPI and asked out of curiosity, thanks! Kajmer05 (talk) 23:39, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
- I filed SPI rn! i didn't go into too much detail, they already make themselves very clear. Kajmer05 (talk) 22:09, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Kajmer05, please do! I currently lack a puzzle piece and don't yet see the behavioral connection, so please add them and notify me so I can check. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:52, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- Also, the person above is Papack806, Tishreen07's sock, I think I should add him to the investigation. :D Kajmer05 (talk) 21:51, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
- I also thank you for the quick action :) Super Ψ Dro 21:55, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:57, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
Revisiting Brigitte Macron
Oh, dear Lord. "[N]ot just crazy conspiracy theories"? They reference a book authored by the former head of a far-right publisher of conspiracy theories! –Skywatcher68 (talk) 04:02, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 08:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
BLP issue at Coyote Peterson
I don't see how "slander" (or libel, for that matter) applies. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:45, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thanks for the notification. I'm not sure if I would have restored that material but it currently seems to be an editorial choice rather than something I'd need to jump into. If there is actually libel and you later notice it, please send it to WP:RFOS. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:00, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
YBSone
I am writing to you in your capacity as a participating administrator in the current dispute in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine article regarding the conduct of one the editors there, Ybsone. His conduct in Talk:Russian invasion of Ukraine#Article size and recent edits has been pretty awful. To give a couple examples,
(1) Disregarding/mocking Wikipedia policies (saying "WP whatever" in a mocking tone when other editors reference WP rules)
(2) Mocking other editors by repeating, verbatim, what they said back to them.
(3) General violations of WP:SOAPBOXING, WP:GF, WP:CIVIL, WP:PERSONAL throughout the thread which did not cease despite being told by others. I would encourage you to read his comments and form your own judgement.
(4) Edit warring and making repeated reversions with very spurious (or non-existent) policy rationales.
It should be noted that this is a pattern with this user. JDiala (talk) 00:43, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi JDiala, thank you very much. I think if the edit war has stopped and a consensus can be found, I'm happy and wouldn't take action; we can ping Ybsone here though (now done), they can of course reply, but WP:ANI would be a more suitable place to hold the discussion if it really needs to be held at this time. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:30, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
At the TP, I made this comment. I don't know if you were aware of this. At the time I placed the comment, this was the current version. Since then, I count five edits involving the contested text (not including yours here). I think that the consequences of continuing to edit war were reasonably clear. Apart from my comment, I am uninvolved in this dispute. You will be aware of WP:GSRUSUKR. I believe some (though not necessarily all) are GS aware. I had intended that further edit warring would be raised at ANI. Before proceeding I would ask your input. Cinderella157 (talk) 01:12, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Cinderella157, thanks, I had seen it; it focuses on behavior rather than the content itself which may be a bit non-ideal for an article talk page message (WP:FOC) but it is of course correct.
- I think I've sent warnings and contentious topic notifications to at least the most significant participants, and some have already replied in ways that give hope (, ). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:24, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi again ToBeFree, I believe you may have mistakenly identified me as one of the most significant participants in the edit warring? I don't object to having my carelessness pointed out, and genuinely appreciated your message on my talk page. However, reading your comment here, I'd just like to point out that there were a number of editors who repeatedly reverted, including after it became blatantly clear there was a pointless edit war and right up to the 3RR line. In contrast I made a single hasty reversion, a mistake, and then went to the talk page. Jr8825 • Talk 03:58, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- I should have written "recent", not "significant". ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:09, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi again ToBeFree, I believe you may have mistakenly identified me as one of the most significant participants in the edit warring? I don't object to having my carelessness pointed out, and genuinely appreciated your message on my talk page. However, reading your comment here, I'd just like to point out that there were a number of editors who repeatedly reverted, including after it became blatantly clear there was a pointless edit war and right up to the 3RR line. In contrast I made a single hasty reversion, a mistake, and then went to the talk page. Jr8825 • Talk 03:58, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
Leaving aside everything else, protecting and then getting involved in the content as you did is weird? Arkon (talk) 02:16, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Arkon, I didn't. Normally I'd just have chosen the pre-addition revision (WP:PREFER), but there were unrelated undisputed changes, so I did a partial revert of only the disputed material. I have no opinion on whether and what content should be added in the end, my only task is to ensure that a consensus is found before that happens, and that the edit warring stops. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:22, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- ""my only task is to ensure that a consensus is found before that happens, and that the edit warring stops." That seems like it would have been really easy at the time, without a post protection revert. But really not here to argue that, it was just weird when ignoring the multiple time reverters. WRONGVERSION is a thing I can respect, but that's not what you did either. Arkon (talk) 02:36, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Arkon, if I had chosen a full revision, it would be Special:Permalink/1276923940, which is before the current dispute started. The difference to my revision is . Do you insist that restoring the former is fine and the latter is not, or can we agree that the main difference is leaving undisputed improvements untouched? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:47, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Not sure what to say here that wouldn't be repeating the above. Arkon (talk) 02:50, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Arkon, I hope Special:Diff/1277343481 complies well enough with the letter of the policy to resolve your concern. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:54, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Ah man, I really wasn't trying to be a pain, but that's fine. I mostly feel like it was obvious that JDiala was the problem in that situation, (I don't think you did anything wrong, it was just weird to me) and everything else was avoidable. Appreciate the responsiveness though. Arkon (talk) 03:08, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Arkon, I hope Special:Diff/1277343481 complies well enough with the letter of the policy to resolve your concern. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:54, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Not sure what to say here that wouldn't be repeating the above. Arkon (talk) 02:50, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Arkon, if I had chosen a full revision, it would be Special:Permalink/1276923940, which is before the current dispute started. The difference to my revision is . Do you insist that restoring the former is fine and the latter is not, or can we agree that the main difference is leaving undisputed improvements untouched? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 02:47, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- ""my only task is to ensure that a consensus is found before that happens, and that the edit warring stops." That seems like it would have been really easy at the time, without a post protection revert. But really not here to argue that, it was just weird when ignoring the multiple time reverters. WRONGVERSION is a thing I can respect, but that's not what you did either. Arkon (talk) 02:36, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
FYI, this appears to be the point at which an edit was made to add the subject material and it was first reverted with this edit. Cinderella157 (talk) 07:42, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- The difference between that revision and the current one is . ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:51, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 3

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues

- Wikipedia as a digital public good: Wikipedia has been recognized as a digital public good by the UN-endorsed Digital Public Goods Alliance.
- Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) Connect: The first edition of this regional community call for 2025 will be held on February 22.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will be about "Wikipedia Administrator Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition" and will take place on February 26 at 17:30 UTC.
- Celebrate Women 2025: The Gender Organizing community in the Wikimedia Movement hosts an annual campaign every March called Celebrate Women. Conversation hours to learn about some exciting tools that can support your efforts at closing the gender gap will be held on February 25 at 14:00–16:00 UTC.
- Outreachy: Wikimedia Foundation is participating in Round 30 of the Outreachy program that runs from June – August 2025. The deadline to submit projects is March 4 at 16:00 UTC .
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Growth features: The new Community Updates module is a new feature to facilitate the connection between wiki editing initiatives and newcomers.
- Simple article summaries: The Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has introduced Simple Article Summaries project on select Wikipedias. It aims to display article summaries that would be easy to digest for readers.
- Language and internationalization: Five new languages added to Wikipedia as part of the future of language incubation initiative. Read more on the latest edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
- Tech News: Communities using growth tools can now showcase one event on the Special:Homepage for newcomers. More updates from tech news week 07 and 08.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Community Insights: The Community Insights 2024 report captures new insights on newcomers (who are more likely to be younger), their motivations (97% liked that their contributions help others), and how for the first time, more than half of respondents (51%) agreed that the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives.
- Let’s Connect Learning Clinic: Watch the recording of WikiLearn Essentials for Course Creators: Building Community Skills Online session 1.
- Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC): Are you interested in improving how funds are distributed across the Wikimedia Movement? Apply to be part of the interim GRDC by February 25.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Public Policy: How Wikimedia projects advance a positive vision for the internet's future through the public domain, the digital commons, and digital public goods.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise has partnered with Ecosia, a Berlin-based search engine.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Wikimedia Brasil: Wikimedia Brasil becomes the newest Wikimedia Chapter!
- Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan: Recognition of Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan.
- Affiliations Committee: Insights about the future of the movement organization ecosystem from Affiliations Committee Strategy Retreat 2024.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 20:13, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
Brigitte Macron ... again
This is more like it – apparently a good-faith attempt to discuss policy regarding how to fight against the conspiracy theory. You or some admin watching should weigh in. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:18, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Skywatcher68, thanks for the notification. If I see correctly, your reply is all that was needed though. Thanks for replying to them with a clear explanation. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:30, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Clear and concise is practically my job description. I'm currently in customer service. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 22:22, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:30, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
- Clear and concise is practically my job description. I'm currently in customer service. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 22:22, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-09
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Administrators can now customize how the Babel feature creates categories using Special:CommunityConfiguration/Babel. They can rename language categories, choose whether they should be auto-created, and adjust other settings.
- The wikimedia.org portal has been updated – and is receiving some ongoing improvements – to modernize and improve the accessibility of our portal pages. It now has better support for mobile layouts, updated wording and links, and better language support. Additionally, all of the Wikimedia project portals, such as wikibooks.org, now support dark mode when a reader is using that system setting.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wiktionary in Santali (
wikt:sat:)
View all 30 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed that prevented clicking on search results in the web-interface for some Firefox for Android phone configurations.
Meetings and events
- The next Language Community Meeting is happening soon, February 28th at 14:00 UTC. This week's meeting will cover: highlights and technical updates on keyboard and tools for the Sámi languages, Translatewiki.net contributions from the Bahasa Lampung community in Indonesia, and technical Q&A. If you'd like to join, simply sign up on the wiki page.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:39, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
Sockpuppetry
Hi Tishreen07 is back can you check the investigation again? Thank you :)
Kajmer05 (talk) 20:32, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
Done
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:41, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, I hope I don't bother you all the time :) Kajmer05 (talk) 20:42, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
- All good.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:47, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hello, I filed SPI again, this time I brought 2 users to the investigation. :) Kajmer05 (talk) 09:26, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
- All good.
- Thank you very much, I hope I don't bother you all the time :) Kajmer05 (talk) 20:42, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 27 February 2025
- News and notes: Administrator elections up for reapproval and 1bil GET snagged on Commons
French Wikipedia defends a user against public threats, steward elections, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- Serendipity: Guinea-Bissau Heritage from Commons to the World
"The only time I ever took photos in my entire life".
- Technology report: Hear that? The wikis go silent twice a year
From patrolling new edits to uploading photos or joining a campaign, you can count on the Wikimedia platform to be up and running — in your language, anywhere in the world. That is, except for a couple of minutes during the equinoctes.
- In the media: The end of the world
Or just the end of Wikipedia as we know it?
- Recent research: What's known about how readers navigate Wikipedia; Italian Wikipedia hardest to read
Of "hunters", "busybodies" and "dancers".
- Opinion: Sennecaster's RfA debriefing
User Sennecaster shares her thoughts on her recent RfA and the aspects that might have played a role in making it successful.
- Tips and tricks: One year after this article is posted, will every single article on Wikipedia have a short description?
What are they? Why are they important? How can we make them better? And what can you do to help?
- Community view: Open letter from French Wikipedians says "no" to intimidation of volunteer contributors
Liberté, liberté chérie.
- Traffic report: Temporary scars, February stars
Grammys, politics and the Super Bowl.
- Essay: The source, the whole source, and nothing but the source
Straight from the source's mouth. A source is a source, of course, of course!
- Obituary: Ümüt Çınar (Kmoksy) and Vinícius Medina Kern (Vmkern)
Turkish linguist wrote about languages and plants; Brazilian informaticist studied Wikimedia projects and education.
Regina Vilela
While patrolling recent changes, I noticed her surname had been changed so I did some checking. There evidently is no consensus in the Wikipedia community at large regarding the spelling. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:41, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, I think Special:Permalink/1277993534 and Special:Diff/1277992963 should do for now. Best regards, ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:22, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
Previously blocked user's troublesome edits
Hello! I had a question about a user whose account you unblocked in 2022 on the condition that they not edit "articles about movies, films, sitcoms, TV shows, and the companies that produce them, anymore, until this condition is successfully appealed at WP:AN or removed by you" and whether they were now permitted to edit such articles.
I ran into LegerPrime when I noticed a seemingly promotional and unsourced edit to Alcon Entertainment. I then saw several other edits that lacked sources or justification for content removal. I can certainly address these issues as independently problematic, but wanted to check first if this user is even permitted to be editing in these areas. Thanks! Vegantics (talk) 22:26, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- LegerPrime, what are you doing? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:07, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- What do you mean? What I added was mentioned in the article that was already cited. LegerPrime (talk) 23:11, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- LegerPrime, did the community or me remove the topic ban somewhere? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:24, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- What do you mean? What I added was mentioned in the article that was already cited. LegerPrime (talk) 23:11, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
Mannargudi Manuneedhi and a new account
Morning (my time). You CU-blocked Mannargudi Manuneedhi on January 7, 2025. A new account, Lokesheswaran, has posted two identical messages to user Talk pages, including User talk:Daniel Case#Attention to Dheeran Chinnamalai Page about Dheeran Chinnamalai, complaining about supposed vandalism by an IP who hasn't edited since December 2024, asking the article be restored to the version before the IP's edits. They also say that since the article was protected by Daniel on January 7, they "have been unable to make further edits". Note that Lokesheswaran has never made any edits to that article. They didn't start editing until today, even though their account was created back in 2021.
I suspect that Lokesheswaran and Special:contributions/86.98.1.149, who was CU-blocked for one week by Izno on, yup, January 7, 2025, are the same person. Certainly it's fairly obvious that Mannargudi and the IP are the same person (I realize you cannot confirm that and I don't ask you to do so). You didn't tag Mannargudi, so if there's a named master, I don't know who it is. Based on comments on their Talk page, though, it seems like they have at least three other named accounts as well as significant logged out editing.
So, what I'm asking is for you to compare Lokesheswaran and Mannargudi. If you prefer that I file a report at SPI, I can, although it would be helpful to know the oldest master and if there's an existing case. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:08, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Bbb23, thanks for asking. I'd say Lokesheswaran is possilikely to Mannargudi Manuneedhi, with intentional CU deception being involved if it's sockpuppetry. Whether it's the oldest account or not, do feel free to create a SPI for the older of both accounts. We'd then have a bit of documentation, perhaps someone naming an older master account, and I'll probably ask for a second opinion after providing mine there. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:08, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks a lot. I'll create an SPI probably tomorrow. I'm too tired to do it today. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 01:09, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- All good.
Thank you very much! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:24, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- All good.
- Thanks a lot. I'll create an SPI probably tomorrow. I'm too tired to do it today. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 01:09, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
That Italian IP removing death details is back again
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/151.57.184.208
Never did hear anything else about my proposal to expand the edit filter for this sort of thing. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 03:43, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- Daniel Quinlan was faster. :) Sorry to hear about the filter request never having been answered; maybe WP:EFR is a better place. You can keep the level of publicly provided details as far as already available in my talk page archive and refer to your e-mail(s) for further details, pointing out that they haven't been answered, I guess. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:56, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- Sorry, I haven't had time to look at this one. @Ohnoitsjamie: This one might be up your alley if you have time to take a look. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 11:37, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- I'm not familiar with that particular vandlism pattern, though I do monitor (and have filters for) a bunch of Italian ranges, which are unfortunately very large and very dynamic. User:Skywatcher68 do you have any other examples? I can check to see if they align with ranges I already have filters for. OhNoitsJamie Talk 13:15, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- @Ohnoitsjamie, I posted a list both here and at AIV a while back; I'll go find that in the history. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:43, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- From back in January:
- 151.19.58.228
- 151.57.143.115
- 151.35.164.166
- 151.37.208.134
- 151.37.140.41
- 151.47.227.167
- 151.37.133.229
- 151.37.130.52
- 151.57.9.61
- 151.47.19.185
- 151.37.230.153
- 151.57.154.248
- 151.19.154.35
- 151.46.183.124
- 151.43.217.155
- –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:45, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- I'm not familiar with that particular vandlism pattern, though I do monitor (and have filters for) a bunch of Italian ranges, which are unfortunately very large and very dynamic. User:Skywatcher68 do you have any other examples? I can check to see if they align with ranges I already have filters for. OhNoitsJamie Talk 13:15, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
Bureaucratship
ToBe, have you ever considered running for bureaucrat yourself? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:45, 2 March 2025 (UTC)
- Oh hey Hawkeye7!
Thanks for asking. I have too many hats already, I'm afraid; I may think about it again after this year, as I won't be running for ArbCom another time. But that's also because I'd like to start building other things and working on other projects than an encyclopedia if I finally find the right person for doing so.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:25, 2 March 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-10
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- All logged-in editors using the mobile view can now edit a full page. The "Edit full page" link is accessible from the "More" menu in the toolbar. This was previously only available to editors using the Advanced mobile contributions setting.
- Interface administrators can now help to remove the deprecated Cite CSS code matching "
mw-ref" from their local MediaWiki:Common.css. The list of wikis in need of cleanup, and the code to remove, can be found with this global search and in this example, and you can learn more about how to help on the CSS migration project page. The Cite footnote markers ("[1]") are now rendered by Parsoid, and the deprecated CSS is no longer needed. The CSS for backlinks ("mw:referencedBy") should remain in place for now. This cleanup is expected to cause no visible changes for readers. Please help to remove this code before March 20, after which the development team will do it for you. - When editors embed a file (e.g.
[[File:MediaWiki.png]]) on a page that is protected with cascading protection, the software will no longer restrict edits to the file description page, only to new file uploads. In contrast, transcluding a file description page (e.g.{{:File:MediaWiki.png}}) will now restrict edits to the page. - When editors revert a file to an earlier version it will now require the same permissions as ordinarily uploading a new version of the file. The software now checks for 'reupload' or 'reupload-own' rights, and respects cascading protection.
- When administrators are listing pages for deletion with the Nuke tool, they can now also list associated talk pages and redirects for deletion, alongside pages created by the target, rather than needing to manually delete these pages afterwards.
- The previously noted update to Single User Login, which will accommodate browser restrictions on cross-domain cookies by moving login and account creation to a central domain, will now roll out to all users during March and April. The team plans to enable it for all new account creation on Group0 wikis this week. See the SUL3 project page for more details and an updated timeline.
- Since last week there has been a bug that shows some interface icons as black squares until the page has fully loaded. It will be fixed this week.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Sylheti (
w:syl:)
View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed with loading images in very old versions of the Firefox browser on mobile.
Updates for technical contributors
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 02:28, 4 March 2025 (UTC)
Sockpuppetry again
@ToBeFree Hello Tishreen07 is back can you check the investigation again? thanks :) Kajmer05 (talk) 11:42, 28 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Kajmer05, I didn't find the time but I'm relieve to see Dreamy Jazz took care of it.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:57, 1 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Thank you very much anyway :) can you protect this article? (Lakestan incident) There are still socking and disruptive editing. And I think Tishreen07 just came back again but I'm wondering if I should add it to the investigation because the investigation was closed just 1 hour ago. :D Kajmer05 (talk) 15:01, 1 March 2025 (UTC)
- Sock blocked, article semi-protected.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:05, 1 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Tishreen07 is back but I am on mobile right now so I can't file the SPI. I will let you know when I do. Kajmer05 (talk) 09:39, 4 March 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks, I think I've got them. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:57, 4 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Tishreen07 is back but I am on mobile right now so I can't file the SPI. I will let you know when I do. Kajmer05 (talk) 09:39, 4 March 2025 (UTC)
- Sock blocked, article semi-protected.
- @ToBeFree Thank you very much anyway :) can you protect this article? (Lakestan incident) There are still socking and disruptive editing. And I think Tishreen07 just came back again but I'm wondering if I should add it to the investigation because the investigation was closed just 1 hour ago. :D Kajmer05 (talk) 15:01, 1 March 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2025).

- A request for comment is open to discuss whether AI-generated images (meaning those wholly created by generative AI, not human-created images modified with AI tools) should be banned from use in articles.
- A series of 22 mini-RFCs that double-checked consensus on some aspects and improved certain parts of the administrator elections process has been closed (see the summary of the changes).
- A request for comment is open to gain consensus on whether future administrator elections should be held.
- A new filter has been added to the Special:Nuke tool, which allows administrators to filter for pages in a range of page sizes (in bytes). This allows, for example, deleting pages only of a certain size or below. T378488
- Non-administrators can now check which pages are able to be deleted using the Special:Nuke tool. T376378
- The 2025 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ*ぜ, Arcticocean, Ameisenigel, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, Galahad, Nehaoua, Renvoy, Revi C., RoySmith, Teles and Zafer as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
- Following the 2025 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: 1234qwer1234qwer4, AramilFeraxa, Daniuu, KonstantinaG07, MdsShakil and XXBlackburnXx.
Pylewell Park & Baron Teynham Protections
Hi @ToBeFree! Thank you for the help with the Pylewell Park & Baron Teynham page protections and the first sock puppet report. The user came back but using a possible compromised / hacked account. Is there a higher level of protection you could set for the pages, above what you've currently set? The possible hacked account has been actioned by @PhilKnight today under a new sockpuppet report (Thank you also for the help!). SummersRising (talk) 20:16, 4 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi SummersRising, an account returning for sockpuppetry editing after almost 5 years of inactivity does indeed seem pretty compromised. I think it's too early to increase the protection level because dealing with this kind of disruption is simple and an insecure account was blocked this way. If it continues, please let me know though. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:54, 5 March 2025 (UTC)
I'm back.
The administrators unblocked me. I'm happy and came to greet you. I never forgot how good you were to me. I hope you're well. Montigliani (talk) 22:22, 9 March 2025 (UTC)
- Oh hey Montigliani!
Welcome back! I wasn't entirely sure and had a look at our conversations again. Thank you very much for the kind feedback! This means a lot to me, especially with the complicated history in mind. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:15, 9 March 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 4


Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Annual Planning: Help shape our early-stage thinking around our Product & Tech work and provide feedback before budgets and measurable targets are committed.
- Global Trends 2025: As part of annual planning, we identify a list of global trends that will impact the Wikimedia movement, such as changes in how and where people search for and contribute information online, the rise of misinformation and disinformation in online spaces, and evolving regulation of online information providers.
- Wikimania 2025: Apply now to speak at Wikimania 2025 whether to lead a workshop, host a panel, present a poster, or showcase a tool demonstration. Submit your session by March 31 anywhere on earth. If you're interested reviewing proposals for Wikimania 2025 and helping shape the program, you can fill out a short form to apply to be a program reviewer by 17 March.
- WikiConference North America 2025: Scholarship applications are now open until April 4. This conference will take place in New York City from October 16–19, 2025, under the theme “Wiki’s World Fair".
- Wikimedia Enterprise and Global Advocacy at SXSW 2025: Wikimedia Enterprise is coming together with Creative Commons on March 9 for a day of conversations and panel discussions at SXSW 2025 that tackles the challenges of AI and the preservation and ethical development of open data. Global Advocacy is participating on a panel on March 8, diving into conversations about the future of the internet.
- WikiCauserie: The online bi-monthly meeting aimed at bringing together the French-speaking member communities of WikiFranca will be held next on March 21 at 18:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Datacenter Switchover: All wikis will be in read-only mode for a few minutes for a datacenter server switchover on March 19 starting at 14:00 UTC for up to 30 minutes.
- Tech News: The wikimedia.org portal has been updated – and is receiving some ongoing improvements – to modernize and improve the accessibility of our portal pages. It now has better support for mobile layouts, updated wording and links, and better language support. More updates from tech news week 09 and 10.
- Wikimedia Recommendation API: We will be removing the recommendation API from the current offerings after March 31. This API is no longer used by newer versions of the Wikipedia Android Mobile application, which was its sole user.
- Wikifunctions: We deployed and tested one of our main milestones for this quarter: the ability to get the right Lexeme given a Wikidata Item, or, put simpler, to get the right word from a thing.
- Wikimedia Apps: We are inviting users to help improve Wikipedia mobile app's reading and editing experiences in offline or limited internet use. We will organize focus groups to discuss these experiences in more detail. Share your thoughts and help improve the app by joining the discussion.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Women’s History Month: Wikimedia Foundation is running a campaign to spotlight some of the Wikimedians working to close the gender gap on Wikimedia projects. The campaign, Knowledge is human. Knowledge is her., is aimed at reaching external audiences in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: "Gender Gaps" will be the featured theme for the next research showcase taking place on March 19 at 16:30 UTC.
- Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC): The call for candidates is being extended until March 31.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Privacy and Transparency: Finding the balance between privacy and openness to stay safe in an open movement.
- Legal Victory: The Wikimedia Foundation has won a legal victory in Germany’s courts that sets a legal precedent defending the Wikimedia projects and volunteers against "forum shopping", choosing a court in a jurisdiction whose laws might be more favorable to them.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise and French AI startup Pleias have joined forces to show that structured, machine-readable knowledge can drive AI innovation while upholding openness, verifiability, and ethical development.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Ombuds Commission: Announcing the 2025 Ombuds Commission.
- Universal Code of Conduct: Wikimedia Foundation has chosen to appoint Jacob Rogers, Associate General Counsel, to the Foundation advisory seat on the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C).
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: The Board met virtually on 11 December to hold its quarterly business. See the most recent corporate actions taken on the Board Noticeboard.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 15:55, 10 March 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-11
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Editors who use password managers at multiple wikis may notice changes in the future. The way that our wikis provide information to password managers about reusing passwords across domains has recently been updated, so some password managers might now offer you login credentials that you saved for a different Wikimedia site. Some password managers already did this, and are now doing it for more Wikimedia domains. This is part of the SUL3 project which aims to improve how our unified login works, and to keep it compatible with ongoing changes to the web-browsers we use.
- The Wikipedia Apps Team is inviting interested users to help improve Wikipedia’s offline and limited internet use. After discussions in Afrika Baraza and the last ESEAP call, key challenges like search, editing, and offline access are being explored, with upcoming focus groups to dive deeper into these topics. All languages are welcome, and interpretation will be available. Want to share your thoughts? Join the discussion or email aramadan@wikimedia.org!
- All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on March 19. This is planned at 14:00 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis in the coming weeks.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- The latest quarterly Growth newsletter is available. It includes: the launch of the Community Updates module, the most recent changes in Community Configuration, and the upcoming test of in-article suggestions for first-time editors.
- An old API that was previously used in the Android Wikipedia app is being removed at the end of March. There are no current software uses, but users of the app with a version that is older than 6 months by the time of removal (2025-03-31), will no longer have access to the Suggested Edits feature, until they update their app. You can read more details about this change.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:07, 10 March 2025 (UTC)
Sarah Hubbard
It appears that somebody associated with her reelection campaign has been editing the article. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 23:49, 11 March 2025 (UTC)
- Oh well. Joyous! may have been a bit too optimistic about their intentions and use of own words.
Unless, of course, these are actually the editor's own words, which doesn't exactly speak against a block either. - Thanks for the notification and the revdel request. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:37, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- ...sigh... AGF bites you now and then. Joyous! Noise! 01:20, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Better this way than the other way around.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:37, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Better this way than the other way around.
- ...sigh... AGF bites you now and then. Joyous! Noise! 01:20, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
| The Admin's Barnstar | ||
| For dealing with the vandalism here. I appreciate it! JeffSpaceman (talk) 23:20, 12 March 2025 (UTC) |
- Thanks for rev-deleting that bigoted trash, by the way. I was just about to request its redaction, when I saw that you had done so. Thank you so much. JeffSpaceman (talk) 23:24, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi JeffSpaceman, thank you very much for the kind feedback!
And for dealing with these edits too! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:26, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- I just wanted to come here to say thank you for the barnstar in return. As I note on my userpage, as a queer-identifying Wikipedian, bigoted vandalism strongly offends me, and I am often genuinely disgusted when I see such content no matter what group it's targeting. Thank you for the feedback too, it really means a lot. JeffSpaceman (talk) 23:48, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Without having been the target of it, and possibly without being able to experience the same level of pain because of this, I share your disgust.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:50, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Without having been the target of it, and possibly without being able to experience the same level of pain because of this, I share your disgust.
- I just wanted to come here to say thank you for the barnstar in return. As I note on my userpage, as a queer-identifying Wikipedian, bigoted vandalism strongly offends me, and I am often genuinely disgusted when I see such content no matter what group it's targeting. Thank you for the feedback too, it really means a lot. JeffSpaceman (talk) 23:48, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi JeffSpaceman, thank you very much for the kind feedback!
Jack Lopresti
Somebody is a bit overzealous, methinks. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 11:43, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
- Rwendland's approach may be playing with the fire a bit, considering that they're now the person responsible for the content they have restored. But many hours passed between the edit and its revert, so perhaps all of the content is now properly reviewed and the concerns have been wrong. Also, for the encyclopedia, the approach may be the best one even if it involved one editor taking responsibility.
- If this becomes an edit war or new editors edit disruptively, please let me know; the rate of reverts on that page is currently so low that even semi-protection would be hard to justify. Oh, and KateKraken's talk page shouldn't be empty. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:11, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment

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User:Mir Kurdish16
Hello, you pinged me yesterday. I reported this user yesterday. they said it was not vandalism. In fact, if it is investigated further, it will be understood that it is vandalism. Anyway, this user created this 1991 Kurdish Uprisings today. But this article is actually an existing Battle of Sulaymaniyah (1991). They opened an article just to mislead people. Kajmer05 (talk) 21:57, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Kajmer05, anything that needs more than a quick look to be identified as vandalism isn't obvious enough for WP:AIV. Please start a discussion at WP:ANI, invite the user to it using {{ANI-notice}} and see what happens. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:07, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
MikeyMouse10's edit summaries
Hi! You have been very helpful to me in the past so I hope you don't mind another request for advice. I'm at a loss about what to do about the editor MikeyMouse10 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). Their edit history shows a number of good, if minor, edits, along with a lot of pointless edits that just add or remove spaces (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). What most concerns me however are the bizarre edit summaries they often use, which seem to be extracts from a description of some fictional work totally unrelated to the page they are editing (I won't bother with diffs; just look at their contribution page and they're pretty obvious). I left a message on their talk page asking them to explain the purpose of these edit summaries, and pointed them to H:ES, but they have not responded and continue to make these edits. They have been editing for 15 years, which makes this even harder to understand. I think they only started using these weird edit summaries in 2023; before that they mostly didn't use summaries at all. Since these edit summaries are annoying but do not actually harm article content (nor do the edits that add/remove spaces), I'm not sure whether I should just drop the issue. Any advice? CodeTalker (talk) 05:17, 17 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi CodeTalker, thank you very much for asking! Let's see if works. If it doesn't, please let me know. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:28, 17 March 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-12
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Twice a year, around the equinoxes, the Wikimedia Foundation's Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team performs a datacenter server switchover, redirecting all traffic from one primary server to its backup. This provides reliability in case of a crisis, as we can always fall back on the other datacenter. Thanks to the Listen to Wikipedia tool, you can hear the switchover take place: Before it begins, you'll hear the steady stream of edits; Then, as the system enters a brief read-only phase, the sound stops for a couple of minutes, before resuming after the switchover. You can read more about the background and details of this process on the Diff blog. If you want to keep an ear out for the next server switchover, listen to the wikis on March 19 at 14:00 UTC.
Updates for editors
- The improved Content Translation tool dashboard is now available in 10 Wikipedias and will be available for all Wikipedias soon. With the unified dashboard, desktop users can now: Translate new sections of an article; Discover and access topic-based article suggestion filters (initially available only for mobile device users); Discover and access the Community-defined lists filter, also known as "Collections", from wiki-projects and campaigns.
- On Wikimedia Commons, a new system to select the appropriate file categories has been introduced: if a category has one or more subcategories, users will be able to click on an arrow that will open the subcategories directly within the form, and choose the correct one. The parent category name will always be shown on top, and it will always be possible to come back to it. This should decrease the amount of work for volunteers in fixing/creating new categories. The change is also available on mobile. These changes are part of planned improvements to the UploadWizard.
- The Community Tech team is seeking wikis to join a pilot for the Multiblocks feature and a refreshed Special:Block page in late March. Multiblocks enables administrators to impose multiple different types of blocks on the same user at the same time. If you are an admin or steward and would like us to discuss joining the pilot with your community, please leave a message on the project talk page.
- Starting March 25, the Editing team will test a new feature for Edit Check at 12 Wikipedias: Multi-Check. Half of the newcomers on these wikis will see all Reference Checks during their edit session, while the other half will continue seeing only one. The goal of this test is to see if users are confused or discouraged when shown multiple Reference Checks (when relevant) within a single editing session. At these wikis, the tags used on edits that show References Check will be simplified, as multiple tags could be shown within a single edit. Changes to the tags are documented on Phabricator.
- The Global reminder bot, which is a service for notifying users that their temporary user-rights are about to expire, now supports using the localized name of the user-rights group in the message heading. Translators can see the listing of existing translations and documentation to check if their language needs updating or creation.
- The GlobalPreferences gender setting, which is used for how the software should refer to you in interface messages, now works as expected by overriding the local defaults.
View all 26 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the Wikipedia App for Android had a bug fixed for when a user is browsing and searching in multiple languages.
Updates for technical contributors
- Later this week, the way that Codex styles are loaded will be changing. There is a small risk that this may result in unstyled interface message boxes on certain pages. User generated content (e.g. templates) is not impacted. Gadgets may be impacted. If you see any issues please report them. See the linked task for details, screenshots, and documentation on how to fix any affected gadgets.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:46, 17 March 2025 (UTC)
Question
Hi ToBeFree, I hope you're doing well. I wanted to clarify something regarding my 1RR restriction. While reverting a large and unexplained content removal by an IP on Drakhtik, I used Twinkle to roll back the edit. The IP's edit appeared to violate WP:GS/AA, as it involved an Armenia–Azerbaijan-related article and the IP didn't meet the extended confirmed restriction (500 edits / 6 months). However, Twinkle initially reverted only a subsequent registered user's edits rather than the IP’s removal. To correct this, I performed another revert to restore the pre-IP edit version. As a result, this appeared as two separate reverts, though my intention was a single rollback of disruptive editing. This was an accidental outcome due to Twinkle's behaviour rather than an intentional breach of 1RR. Given my restriction, would you advise that I self-revert to be safe, or is this acceptable under the circumstances? Thanks for your guidance. Best, – Olympian loquere 11:45, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Olympian, thanks for asking!
You didn't revert twice, though. This is easy. A series of consecutively saved reverting edits by one user, with no intervening edits by another user, counts as one revert.
— WP:3RR- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:14, 19 March 2025 (UTC)- (PS: Additionally, to me, the WP:3RRNO#3 exception applies to reverts of restriction violations such as an extended-confirmed restriction, as they are practically reverts of ban violations.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:16, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you for clarifying that, ToBeFree. It's much appreciated. Best, – Olympian loquere 22:00, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
- No problem! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:44, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you for clarifying that, ToBeFree. It's much appreciated. Best, – Olympian loquere 22:00, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
- (PS: Additionally, to me, the WP:3RRNO#3 exception applies to reverts of restriction violations such as an extended-confirmed restriction, as they are practically reverts of ban violations.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:16, 19 March 2025 (UTC)
Meatpuppet
Hello again! You must remember Tishreen07, he used to make socks all the time. I found a similar editor but I knew they lived in different countries, they both edited the same articles and sometimes made the same disruptive edits, then this person said he knew Tishreen07, which confirms that they are MEAT. I filed this as SPI but I want to take this to ANI but I know the socks and meat puppet cases are handled in SPI files so I don't know what to do for now. Kajmer05 (talk) 14:36, 21 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Kajmer05, where is the "different countries" information from? WP:SPI sounds fine for providing evidence of meatpuppetry, especially as a checkuser might notice that it's sockpuppetry instead. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:39, 21 March 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 22 March 2025
- From the editor: Hanami
It's an ecstasy, my spring.
- Opinion: Talking about governments editing Wikipedia
Let them know what you think!
- News and notes: Deeper look at takedowns targeting Wikipedia
Read this, then forget all about it.
- In the media: The good, the bad, and the unusual
Life on the Wiki as usual!
- Recent research: Explaining the disappointing history of Flagged Revisions; and what's the impact of ChatGPT on Wikipedia so far?
And WMF invites multi-year research fund proposals
- Traffic report: All the world's a stage, we are merely players...
The Oscars, politics, and death elbow for the most attention.
- Gallery: WikiPortraits rule!
The photographers are the celebrities!
- Essay: Unusual biographical images
And very unusual biographical images.
- Obituary: Rest in peace
Send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 5

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikimania 2025: Program submission is still open until March 31. Apply now to speak at Wikimania 2025.
- Research Fund: The 2025 Wikimedia Research Fund is launching, inviting proposals from researchers aiming to advance free knowledge through Wikimedia projects. Submit your proposal before April 16.
- Central Notice Training: Learn more about updates to the Central Notice Guidelines by joining a Central Notice Requester training on March 26 at 14:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Design System: Learn more about Wikimedia’s Codex design system and how to use it while designing for Wikimedia projects.
- Tech News: The improved Content Translation tool dashboard is now available in 10 Wikipedias and will be available for all Wikipedias soon; on Wikimedia Commons, a new system to select the appropriate file categories has been introduced. More updates from tech news week 11 and 12.
- P&T Annual Planning: The Product & Technology department publishes its plans early in the annual planning process, which is on Meta-Wiki and open for feedback. These objectives and key results are not a list of projects, but instead, a set of directions for problems to solve and impacts to achieve over the course of the year. We look forward to engaging with the community on this plan.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Resource Support Pilot: The pilot project on English Wikipedia to fund small resource requests (like books) to support editors in improving content has moved to the next phases of the discussion.
- Wikisource Conference: Some highlights from the Wikisource Conference 2025 in Bali.
- ESEAP Hub: Future plans for the ESEAP Hub one-year pilot project.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Litigation review: Read key points of the Wikimedia Foundation's legal work last year to protect free and open knowledge broadly, and the Wikimedia volunteers and projects in particular.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliations Committee: Announcement of the 2025 Affiliations Committee Appointments.
- Wikimedia MKD: Recognition of Wikimedia MKD User Group.
- Wikimedia Community User Group Burundi: Recognition of Wikimedia Community User Group Burundi.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 17:37, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-13
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking your feedback on the drafts of the objectives and key results that will shape the Foundation's Product and Technology priorities for the next fiscal year (starting in July). The objectives are broad high-level areas, and the key-results are measurable ways to track the success of their objectives. Please share your feedback on the talkpage, in any language, ideally before the end of April.
Updates for editors
- The CampaignEvents extension will be released to multiple wikis (see deployment plan for details) in April 2025, and the team has begun the process of engaging communities on the identified wikis. The extension provides tools to organize, manage, and promote collaborative activities (like events, edit-a-thons, and WikiProjects) on the wikis. The extension has three tools: Event Registration, Collaboration List, and Invitation Lists. It is currently on 13 Wikipedias, including English Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, and Spanish Wikipedia, as well as Wikidata. Questions or requests can be directed to the extension talk page or in Phabricator (with #campaigns-product-team tag).
- Starting the week of March 31st, wikis will be able to set which user groups can view private registrants in Event Registration, as part of the CampaignEvents extension. By default, event organizers and the local wiki admins will be able to see private registrants. This is a change from the current behavior, in which only event organizers can see private registrants. Wikis can change the default setup by requesting a configuration change in Phabricator (and adding the #campaigns-product-team tag). Participants of past events can cancel their registration at any time.
- Administrators at wikis that have a customized MediaWiki:Sidebar should check that it contains an entry for the Special pages listing. If it does not, they should add it using
* specialpages-url|specialpages. Wikis with a default sidebar will see the link moved from the page toolbox into the sidebar menu in April. - The Minerva skin (mobile web) combines both Notice and Alert notifications within the bell icon (
). There was a long-standing bug where an indication for new notifications was only shown if you had unseen Alerts. This bug is now fixed. In the future, Minerva users will notice a counter atop the bell icon when you have 1 or more unseen Notices and/or Alerts.
View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- VisualEditor has introduced a new client-side hook for developers to use when integrating with the VisualEditor target lifecycle. This hook should replace the existing lifecycle-related hooks, and be more consistent between different platforms. In addition, the new hook will apply to uses of VisualEditor outside of just full article editing, allowing gadgets to interact with the editor in DiscussionTools as well. The Editing Team intends to deprecate and eventually remove the old lifecycle hooks, so any use cases that this new hook does not cover would be of interest to them and can be shared in the task.
- Developers who use the
mw.ApiJavaScript library, can now identify the tool using it with theuserAgentparameter:var api = new mw.Api( { userAgent: 'GadgetNameHere/1.0.1' } );. If you maintain a gadget or user script, please set a user agent, because it helps with library and server maintenance and with differentiating between legitimate and illegitimate traffic.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:40, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
Vermelho7
Hi ToBeFree. I informed Vermelho7 at Talk:Yura Borisov that due to WP:RUSUKR, they are unable to make edits related to the topic as they are not extended confirmed. They proceeded to submit a request for a third opinion. I told them again that they can only make edit requests and I left a GS alert on their talk page but they have now decided to edit the article again and it looks like they have ignored what I told them about the editing restriction. They have not made similar edits to other articles so would a page block suffice here? Thanks. Mellk (talk) 14:04, 26 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree
- The information I referenced is from an article published in the Guardian on March 2 It has virtually nothing to do with the Wikipedia:RUSUKR prohibition, and it's a reflection of his publicly-held views and actions. What's more, sections such as this one have appeared in many other profiles of famous Russian artists. Here are some examples:
- Timati (one of the most famous rappers – he has a section called "Support for Vladimir Putin")
- Joseph Kobzon (one of the most famous singers in Russia - he has a section called "Stance on Ukraine")
- Polina Gagarina (one of the most famous contemporary Russian singers, and their rep to Eurovision in 2015 – she has this information in a section called "Social and Political Activities")
- Basta (one of the most famous rappers, and a panelist on Voice - his support for the war appears in a section called "Personal Life")
- I requested a 3O, @IOHANNVSVERVS agreed with me that the information could stay, and suggested that I move it to career, which I did. Please let me know how you'd like me to proceed. Thank you. Best, Vermelho
- Vermelho7 (talk) 18:13, 27 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vermelho7,
- Thank you very much for addressing the concerns and, well, for making this easier than I thought: The subheading of the article you refer to contains the text "war on Ukraine". The article's topic is covered by the restriction.
- The extended-confirmed restriction in the WP:GS/RUSUKR area, similar to most such restrictions and topic bans, is "broadly construed". This means that if you're unsure whether it applies, it probably does.
- I understand that IOHANNVSVERVS's statement may seem to encourage others to perform an edit to the page, but a third opinion is neither a definitive discussion result that must be implemented, nor is it a justification to ignore WP:GS/RUSUKR's extended-confirmed restriction.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:34, 27 March 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks Mellk! It seems to have been an understandable misunderstanding caused by an experienced editor's support for the addition of the material. Also, Vermelho7 has responded above and is clearly open to discussion rather than running against walls. I don't think a block would help anyone at this point, but it's important to have clarified this here, so I'm very thankful for the notification and the ping of the reported editor. I would have pinged them if you hadn't because it's almost always helpful to ask for their perspective. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:37, 27 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Thank you very much for letting me know. Just to ensure I've understood correctly, am I free to add this text once I've exceeded 500 edits? Vermelho7 (talk) 01:34, 28 March 2025 (UTC)
- This is mostly correct, although the permission can be manually removed in case it was obtained in ways clearly designed to circumvent its purpose: Requiring experience with editing other topics. Not 500 edits to a sandbox, for example. It is unlikely that 500 edits will be reached naturally within weeks, and it is relatively uncommon to happen within a few months either. Naturally reaching 500 edits took me three years. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:37, 28 March 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree Thank you very much for letting me know. Just to ensure I've understood correctly, am I free to add this text once I've exceeded 500 edits? Vermelho7 (talk) 01:34, 28 March 2025 (UTC)
FYI re SPI
I filed a new case about an old buddy of ours here. Thank you for your partial block, otherwise. Cheers! JFHJr (㊟) 00:36, 29 March 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the notification! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:19, 29 March 2025 (UTC)
Don't think our new friend is going to make it
After all this conversation today, this thread makes me think we're dealing with a POV warrior, and an immature one as well. Trying to throw a bone out, but... BusterD (talk) 02:06, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- This edit says much. This edit summary says more. No judgements, merely observations. BusterD (talk) 02:37, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I think it's also important to note they have now taken to Ideological bias on Wikipedia to report, without evidence, that Wikipedia is unfairly biased towards right-wing politics. Honestly, not a discussion I'm interested in having myself, given the contentious nature of it, but they have clearly not learned basic Wikipedia policy: cite your statements with reliable sources. I've been monitoring their edits and their talk page since they tried to move It - Welcome to Derry against page naming policy a little while back. GSK (talk • edits) 02:40, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hm hm. Well, WP:UP#CMT does exist. We'll see. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 06:03, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I did restore your block notice and the ongoing discussion there. In addition to my edit summary, and per WP:UP, there appeared to be at least an informal declined unblock request regarding a currently active block (WP:KEEPDECLINEDUNBLOCK). JFHJr (㊟) 17:55, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I can't decline actual unblock requests for a block I placed, so I wouldn't treat a personal refusal to unblock as a declined unblock request at very least if it comes from the blocking admin. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:06, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- Novem Linguae, an admin, did informally talk-down the informal unblock request before your thumbs up. And to their point, the block is pretty short. I'm also happy to help manually re-archive once the block is over and its discussion become irrelevant. If the keepdeclinedunblock should be only narrowly construed, please go ahead and re-archive manually. I've about run out of motivation for courtesy. JFHJr (㊟) 18:21, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I have no idea whether it's narrowly construed.
I just have no issue with users removing unpleasant discussions from their user talk pages, at least as long as there is no new unblock request that conceals the existence of past discussions. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:27, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I have no idea whether it's narrowly construed.
- Novem Linguae, an admin, did informally talk-down the informal unblock request before your thumbs up. And to their point, the block is pretty short. I'm also happy to help manually re-archive once the block is over and its discussion become irrelevant. If the keepdeclinedunblock should be only narrowly construed, please go ahead and re-archive manually. I've about run out of motivation for courtesy. JFHJr (㊟) 18:21, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I can't decline actual unblock requests for a block I placed, so I wouldn't treat a personal refusal to unblock as a declined unblock request at very least if it comes from the blocking admin. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:06, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- I did restore your block notice and the ongoing discussion there. In addition to my edit summary, and per WP:UP, there appeared to be at least an informal declined unblock request regarding a currently active block (WP:KEEPDECLINEDUNBLOCK). JFHJr (㊟) 17:55, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
- Hm hm. Well, WP:UP#CMT does exist. We'll see. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 06:03, 30 March 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-14
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- The Editing team is working on a new Edit check: Peacock check. This check's goal is to identify non-neutral terms while a user is editing a wikipage, so that they can be informed that their edit should perhaps be changed before they publish it. This project is at the early stages, and the team is looking for communities' input: in this Phabricator task, they are gathering on-wiki policies, templates used to tag non-neutral articles, and the terms (jargon and keywords) used in edit summaries for the languages they are currently researching. You can participate by editing the table on Phabricator, commenting on the task, or directly messaging Trizek (WMF).
- Single User Login has now been updated on all wikis to move login and account creation to a central domain. This makes user login compatible with browser restrictions on cross-domain cookies, which have prevented users of some browsers from staying logged in.
View all 35 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Starting on March 31st, the MediaWiki Interfaces team will begin a limited release of generated OpenAPI specs and a SwaggerUI-based sandbox experience for MediaWiki REST APIs. They invite developers from a limited group of non-English Wikipedia communities (Arabic, German, French, Hebrew, Interlingua, Dutch, Chinese) to review the documentation and experiment with the sandbox in their preferred language. In addition to these specific Wikipedia projects, the sandbox and OpenAPI spec will be available on the on the test wiki REST Sandbox special page for developers with English as their preferred language. During the preview period, the MediaWiki Interfaces Team also invites developers to share feedback about your experience. The preview will last for approximately 2 weeks, after which the sandbox and OpenAPI specs will be made available across all wiki projects.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- Sometimes a small, one line code change can have great significance: in this case, it means that for the first time in years we're able to run all of the stack serving maps.wikimedia.org - a host dedicated to serving our wikis and their multi-lingual maps needs - from a single core datacenter, something we test every time we perform a datacenter switchover. This is important because it means that in case one of our datacenters is affected by a catastrophe, we'll still be able to serve the site. This change is the result of extensive work by two developers on porting the last component of the maps stack over to kubernetes, where we can allocate resources more efficiently than before, thus we're able to withstand more traffic in a single datacenter. This work involved a lot of complicated steps because this software, and the software libraries it uses, required many long overdue upgrades. This type of work makes the Wikimedia infrastructure more sustainable.
Meetings and events
- MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop Spring 2025 is happening in Sandusky, USA, and online, from 14–16 May 2025. The workshop will feature discussions around the usage of MediaWiki software by and within companies in different industries and will inspire and onboard new users. Registration and presentation signup is now available at the workshop's website.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:03, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
AI-generated content and 2A04:8EC0:0:240:0:0:0:0/64
I've noticed this range adding large swaths of AI-generated content to Social graph, perhaps they're doing the same elsewhere? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:17, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, I may notice AI-generated content here and there, but I'm not an AI detection website.
If there are issues with a user's editing, WP:ANI is normally a good place to go, ideally after having attempted to talk to the user at least in cases of good-faith disruption. I do happily help with BLP issues when there is a need for administrative intervention and a discussion with the larger community is less suitable than asking an administrator directly, but generally, we do have ANI and RFPP and ANEW, and they normally work quite well at resolving behavioral issues, unregistered editors' joke edits and edit wars. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:34, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 6

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Progress on the Annual Plan: Six-Month Snapshot.
- Global Trends: A message from Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees on global trends and strengthening Wikipedia’s neutral point of view.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: The registration to attend the Wikimedia Hackathon is still open until midnight April 13.
- Central Asia Wikicon: The Central Asian WikiCon 2025 will take place on April 19–20 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Infrastructure: How crawlers impact the operations of the Wikimedia projects.
- Tech News: The CampaignEvents extension will be released to multiple wikis (see deployment plan for details) in April 2025; The Editing team is working on a new Edit check: Peacock check. This check’s goal is to identify non-neutral terms while a user is editing a wikipage. More updates from tech news week 13 and 14.
- Wikifunctions: Read the latest status updates.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki
- Wikipedia Library: What’s new from January to March 2025.
- Let's Connect Learning Clinic: Missed the last Learning Clinic on "Safe Spaces, Strong Voices: Advancing Inclusion through the UCoC"? Recording is now available.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Transparency report: The Wikimedia Foundation’s publishes its latest Transparency Report covering the period from July to December 2024. View highlights from the report.
- Global Advocacy: Read the latest developments on public policy advocacy from Wikimedia Foundation's Global Advocacy team.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise Partners with ProRata.ai to Champion Sustainable Search Engine Practices.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Elections Committee: Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee has appointed a new Elections Committee.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 15:53, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2025).

- Sign up for The Core Contest, a competition running from 15 April to 31 May to improve vital articles.
Tech News: 2025-15
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- From now on, interface admins and centralnotice admins are technically required to enable two-factor authentication before they can use their privileges. In the future this might be expanded to more groups with advanced user-rights.
View all 20 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- The Design System Team is preparing to release the next major version of Codex (v2.0.0) on April 29. Editors and developers who use CSS from Codex should see the 2.0 overview documentation, which includes guidance related to a few of the breaking changes such as
font-size,line-height, andsize-icon. - The results of the Developer Satisfaction Survey (2025) are now available. Thank you to all participants. These results help the Foundation decide what to work on next and to review what they recently worked on.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- The 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, between 2–4 May. Registration for attending the in-person event will close on 13 April. Before registering, please note the potential need for a visa or e-visa to enter the country.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 18:50, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
COI issues at José Mendes (physicist)
Hey, just wanted to let you know that this article apparently is being edited by the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:21, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
- A partial block seems to be a good solution. Thank you very much, Skywatcher68! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:39, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
Ben Pickering
Somebody wants to keep his legal troubles off Wikipedia, claiming "tabloid sourced information". I've restored content sourced to the BBC. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:30, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hmm, the last sentence lacks an inline citation but would be important context to keep, if the section is kept, I guess. As long as there's no repeated removal or edit warring, I'll avoid getting involved. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:00, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
- Yeah, wanted to give you a heads-up in case this turns into another Leroy Cronin incident. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:25, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
- It would be somehow similar; both article histories contain complaints about "tabloid" sources. But there is just one removal yet. We'll see. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:07, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
- Yeah, wanted to give you a heads-up in case this turns into another Leroy Cronin incident. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:25, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 9 April 2025
- Special report: Wikipedian and physician Ziyad al-Sufiani reportedly released from Saudi prison
Fellow doctor Osama Khalid remains behind bars for "violating public morals" by editing.
- In focus: WMF to explore "common standards" for NPOV policies; implications for project autonomy remain unclear
Major changes to core content policy, or still-developing plan for new initiative?
- In the media: Indian judges demand removal of content critical of Asian News International
Defeat, or just a setback?
- News and notes: 35,000 user accounts compromised, locked in attempted credential-stuffing attack
Plus: 30-year anniversary of wiki software commemorated.
- Op-ed: How crawlers impact the operations of the Wikimedia projects
Our content is free, our infrastructure is not!
- Opinion: Crawlers, hogs and gorillas
What is to be done?
- Debriefing: Giraffer's RfA debriefing
Advice to aspirants: "Read RfA debriefs", including this one.
- Obituary: RHaworth, TomCat4680 and PawełMM
Rest in peace.
- Traffic report: Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, off to report we go...
Snow White sinking, Adolescence soaring, spacefarers stranded, this list has it all!
- News from Diff: Strengthening Wikipedia’s neutral point of view
The Wikimedia Foundation's announcement from Diff.
- Comix: Thirteen
Gadzooks!
Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/AnExtraEditor
Notifying you about new sockpuppetry report. Viriditas (talk) 22:12, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Viriditas, thank you very much! I guess it was just a question of time. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:02, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
Tnvol88
Heading added ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:50, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
Have a look at this. Thanks. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 11:56, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- A bit late, Fylindfotberserk. But as the block for similar behavior is over a year ago, it seems to be a general issue that doesn't go away after months. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 12:22, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
Troublesome user
Hey, I'm contacting you because of a block you placed on DotesConk in March. I just placed a warning on the page due to specific hostile behavior, but "she" (I'm assuming the user is female) has been pushing the limits on multiple fronts. I had left a message on the page several days ago while she was still blocked and mentioned the block. She responded, "I am blocked. But I have gotten around it." (You can see our conversation under "United States added note".) This had me raising my eyebrows, not only because of the block, but because she had apparently connived her way around it. She also started a thread in the Teahouse titled something like, "Searching for an easy cheating tool" (since taken down.) Basically, there's a lot of sketchy behavior coming from this user and lots of complaints on her page. I just thought I'd let you know that she might be skirting any block attempts. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 07:36, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Update: DotesConk deleted the warning I'd put on her Talk page and placed an insulting response on my own. Now what? Do I simply revert her deletion? Do I add the next level warning? Do I even have the power to block her from editing for a time? If I don't have the power to make that decision, I don't want to post a warning stating she will be blocked. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 18:19, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) @Ghost writer's cat: I just thought I'd answer part of your question: I agree that the comment on your talk page was rude (whether or not it is blockable conduct can be determined by TBF as an admin), but DotesConk is entirely within her right to remove your warning from her talk page -- see WP:NOTWALLOFSHAME for more information. JeffSpaceman (talk) 18:57, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- @JeffSpaceman Thanks for that interesting enlightenment. (I read elsewhere on DotesConk's page where she was reprimanded for removing content, which gave me the impression this practice was not to be done lightly.) So those warnings seem sort of pointless. If warnings can be removed (seems unlikely anyone is going to dig through the history to see what's been edited) and blocking can be worked around, there doesn't appear to be anything that can truly be done to curb bad behavior, and DotesConk seems to know this. My impression is that she's being as disruptive as possible while stopping just short of having the account shut down. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 20:16, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Ghost writer's cat, thanks for asking. Special:Diff/1285190047 is an acceptable response to "Educate yourself". Focus on content instead of behavior, please. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:45, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree While I don't think being called "stuck up" is within the same vein as "educate yourself" (particularly after lengthy, round-about discussion), the disagreement actually is on content. Aside from the warning, all of my responses to her have been related to article content. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 21:04, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ghost writer's cat, I'm looking at a report about the jaywalking of a bank robber or whatever analogy may be fitting. I'm concerned about a lot but not this at the moment. While the amount of warnings and negative behavioral discussions on their talk page may seem to invite complaints about everything they don't do according to policies, it's not meant to be such an invitation. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:10, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hi @Ghost writer's cat, the comments may have gotten a little bit heated and I apologize for that but my point still stands. I think you are simply confused as to how the United States in relation to non-state territories work. The US owns land and even if unincorporated, its still land owned and managed by the United States therefore giving it a presence on said continent. DotesConks (talk) 21:20, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Without making an assumption about someone else's mental state, it would have been a fine reply
My, my. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:22, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks ToBeFree DotesConks (talk) 21:23, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Without making an assumption about someone else's mental state, it would have been a fine reply
- @ToBeFree While I don't think being called "stuck up" is within the same vein as "educate yourself" (particularly after lengthy, round-about discussion), the disagreement actually is on content. Aside from the warning, all of my responses to her have been related to article content. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 21:04, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Ghost writer's cat, thanks for asking. Special:Diff/1285190047 is an acceptable response to "Educate yourself". Focus on content instead of behavior, please. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:45, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- @JeffSpaceman Thanks for that interesting enlightenment. (I read elsewhere on DotesConk's page where she was reprimanded for removing content, which gave me the impression this practice was not to be done lightly.) So those warnings seem sort of pointless. If warnings can be removed (seems unlikely anyone is going to dig through the history to see what's been edited) and blocking can be worked around, there doesn't appear to be anything that can truly be done to curb bad behavior, and DotesConk seems to know this. My impression is that she's being as disruptive as possible while stopping just short of having the account shut down. Ghost writer's cat (talk) 20:16, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) @Ghost writer's cat: I just thought I'd answer part of your question: I agree that the comment on your talk page was rude (whether or not it is blockable conduct can be determined by TBF as an admin), but DotesConk is entirely within her right to remove your warning from her talk page -- see WP:NOTWALLOFSHAME for more information. JeffSpaceman (talk) 18:57, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Regarding the block, that was limited to the Wikipedia and User talk namespaces, and it was for reasons unrelated to incivility. DotesConks has edited disruptively in multiple ways, and unnecessary personalization in response to unnecessary personalization isn't a significant one of them. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:59, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- @Ghost writer's cat Now that I have read the entire "complaint", when I said "I have gotten around it", I meant that I have adjusted to not being able to edit Wikipedia or User talk namespaces not that I have somehow found a way around MediaWiki software. That teahouse thread was "Looking for sources on a popular cheating tool" to help my draft: GameGuardian, and no that was not "taken down" it was archived. I think this could be a WP:BOOMERANG situation as I really don't see how there was a violation of WP:NPA or even showing any hostile behavior. DotesConks (talk) 21:27, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- (No boomerangs in sight from my side.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:29, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- From my perspective it seems that she actually violated NPA, telling me to go "educate myself" and making a huge fuss. I explained very calmly that the United States territories, such as Guam or American Samoa are apart of the United States even if they weren't official states. But that's just my opinion, you could see it differently. DotesConks (talk) 21:34, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- "Have you ever heard of semantics" is of debatable calmness. I'm not worried much but I don't have halos to distribute here either. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:36, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Funnily enough I learned that phrase from my teacher saying it to me in school, so I thought it was an acceptable phrase. DotesConks (talk) 21:40, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Heh. Well, there are certainly situations where asking someone whether they have heard of something they should know about is fine; a content discussion tends to be not one of them. But now we're discussing one specific sentence; this is all leading nowhere. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:44, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- Funnily enough I learned that phrase from my teacher saying it to me in school, so I thought it was an acceptable phrase. DotesConks (talk) 21:40, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- "Have you ever heard of semantics" is of debatable calmness. I'm not worried much but I don't have halos to distribute here either. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:36, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- From my perspective it seems that she actually violated NPA, telling me to go "educate myself" and making a huge fuss. I explained very calmly that the United States territories, such as Guam or American Samoa are apart of the United States even if they weren't official states. But that's just my opinion, you could see it differently. DotesConks (talk) 21:34, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
- (No boomerangs in sight from my side.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:29, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
| The Admin's Barnstar | ||
| For taking care of this. Cheers! JeffSpaceman (talk) 21:50, 12 April 2025 (UTC) |
Thank you very much, JeffSpaceman! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:36, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
The details | Meatpuppetry - Edit warring on Copts article:
1- The newly-created account's first-ever participation on the Nationalist Slogans spamming issue that is spread throughout the article was voting for Epenkimi (literally the version with missing sources at its end, but telling us otherwise.)
2- On March 31st, I stated on the talk page that I will remove the spam/repetition from the intro, until a consensus is reached.
3- The page was stable for ten days. On April 10th, Epenkimi begun an Edit war by putting the spam in the intro, demanding that no other clarifications should be added.
4- I then revised all the sources from the talk page, tried to maintain neutrality by adding the scientific data to the claim, as their spam without any clarification is clearly misleading and an act of manipulation.
All other users agree that it is misleading:
5- No one, absolutely no one agrees on the current misleading version, except for Epenkimi and the newly-created account (Meatpuppet), and both run circles around straightforward questions to manipulate the system:
Epenkimi acts like no one is noticing how a newly-created account suddenly popped up out of nowhere.
And the newly-created account acts like no one should question them popping up: "Have to answer this? are we back in Soviet Union or what?"
6- Summary:
The newly-created account participated nothing to the article whatsoever, except for two missions:
i. Voting for Epenkimi on the talk page.
ii. Edit warring for Epenkimi on the main page.
Fragrant Peony (talk) 16:58, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much, Fragrant Peony. This is currently the main issue on my radar and hasn't been forgotten; I'm very thankful for the clear list of the history of this. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:07, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
- ~ ToBeFree, thank you so much!
- Fragrant Peony (talk) 18:42, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
- ~ ToBeFree, thank you so much!
Forspoken
Hey @ToBeFree, quick question about editing the Forspoken article. Based on the report, it seems we should only discuss the disputed content for now. Am I allowed to restore content that isn’t part of the dispute, like the OpenCritic score and the extra information on the game's performance in Japan? Vestigium Leonis (talk) 08:27, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vestigium Leonis, thanks for asking. The word "restore" makes me cautious. You're asking about performing a revert. I think you should ask on the article's talk page if there are any objections and then implement the desired change after 48 hours. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:11, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
- Since the other users consistently did full reverts, these specific edits ended up being reverted as well. I actually already did post this on the article's talk page yesterday. In case no one reacts then, I will do the change tomorrow, thanks! Vestigium Leonis (talk) 10:47, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
Strange things afoot at Junior Pope
Various IPs have recently been trying to add one obituary writer referring to the subject as the "Apostle of Agility", now there's one editor doing the same thing with that phrase as their chosen username. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:25, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
- Strange. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:48, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-16
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Later this week, the default thumbnail size will be increased from 220px to 250px. This changes how pages are shown in all wikis and has been requested by some communities for many years, but wasn't previously possible due to technical limitations.
- File thumbnails are now stored in discrete sizes. If a page specifies a thumbnail size that's not among the standard sizes (20, 40, 60, 120, 250, 330, 500, 960), then MediaWiki will pick the closest larger thumbnail size but will tell the browser to downscale it to the requested size. In these cases, nothing will change visually but users might load slightly larger images. If it doesn't matter which thumbnail size is used in a page, please pick one of the standard sizes to avoid the extra in-browser down-scaling step.
Updates for editors
- The Wikimedia Foundation are working on a system called Edge Uniques which will enable A/B testing, help protect against Distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks), and make it easier to understand how many visitors the Wikimedia sites have. This is so that they can more efficiently build tools which help readers, and make it easier for readers to find what they are looking for.
- To improve security for users, a small percentage of logins will now require that the account owner input a one-time password emailed to their account. It is recommended that you check that the email address on your account is set correctly, and that it has been confirmed, and that you have an email set for this purpose.
- "Are you interested in taking a short survey to improve tools used for reviewing or reverting edits on your Wiki?" This question will be asked at 7 wikis starting next week, on Recent Changes and Watchlist pages. The Moderator Tools team wants to know more about activities that involve looking at new edits made to your Wikimedia project, and determining whether they adhere to your project's policies.
- On April 15, the full Wikidata graph will no longer be supported on query.wikidata.org. After this date, scholarly articles will be available through query-scholarly.wikidata.org, while the rest of the data hosted on Wikidata will be available through the query.wikidata.org endpoint. This is part of the scheduled split of the Wikidata Graph, which was announced in September 2024. More information is available on Wikidata.
- The latest quarterly Wikimedia Apps Newsletter is now available. It covers updates, experiments, and improvements made to the Wikipedia mobile apps.
View all 30 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter is now available. This edition includes: an invitation for tool maintainers to attend the Toolforge UI Community Feedback Session on April 15th; recent community metrics; and recent technical blog posts.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:22, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
Being harrassed by Reputn
What do I do? They said they will attack me and quote "get me banned" by contacting the "Wikipedia moderators". They said this to me through Email and I'm unsure how to proceed with them.DotesConks (talk) 23:10, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello DotesConks, if I understand correctly, you are referring to e-mails you have received from a company in response to e-mails sent by you to the company, and neither your nor their e-mails went through Wikipedia's user-to-user e-mailing system, right?
- Then please simply don't engage with them. Block them from your e-mail account, create a rule that automatically moves their messages to "Spam", whatever; despite being about Wikipedia, this is not something Wikipedians can help with. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:38, 14 April 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree You are correct. Personal email exchanges. However they said they would do everything in their power and threatened me. Should I take it as credible? I don't want people looking at my contributions for even the slightest wrong so they can silence me. DotesConks (talk) 00:22, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- DotesConks, everything you do on Wikipedia is public and freely licensed, shareable and reusable by anyone. No, such threats are not credible. If it's a paid editing company, they're more likely to be in trouble themselves. Ignore their threats and stop feeding them including here, please. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:27, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree You are correct. Personal email exchanges. However they said they would do everything in their power and threatened me. Should I take it as credible? I don't want people looking at my contributions for even the slightest wrong so they can silence me. DotesConks (talk) 00:22, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
Notice of noticeboard discussion
There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved.Bcmh (talk) 03:34, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
bcmh (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
- Thanks for the ping and the notification, Bcmh. I think the others have asked good questions there. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:11, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
Forspoken (Part 2)
Hey @ToBeFree, unfortunately the editing continues to be .. difficult. Could you please take a look at the most recent edits and reverts and let me know if I’m misinterpreting the manual? If I’m not, then I’m really starting to wonder if we can continue working through this constructively. I’m holding off on reverting again (in case it will happen after the change as of now) to avoid escalating things, but this is honestly exhausting. Every sentence feels like it’s being nitpicked, and the discussion on the talk page has become really frustrating—especially over such minor changes. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 10:47, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vestigium Leonis, thanks for the notification. You have the latest revision and it's a revert; your previous revision was a revert too. One after 20, one after 10 minutes (give or take). The dispute had long reached a point where "Bold, Revert, Discuss" lost its applicability at least regarding the "Revert" part because everyone was reverting instead of discussing.
- I have fully protected the page for 2 weeks on your preferred revision and blocked you from editing the article for a month. Please keep discussing; neither protection nor block will prevent this.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:17, 16 April 2025 (UTC)- Thanks for taking care of the full protection. I understand the block given the ongoing issues, but I'm unclear why it was applied solely to me. I did not initiate any unconstructive reverts. From my understanding, the changes in question did not align with the guidelines stated in the manual. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 11:38, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- Vestigium Leonis, you were the main participant in repeated reverting that had already reached a point where all reverts of recent edits were inherently disruptive. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:30, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for taking care of the full protection. I understand the block given the ongoing issues, but I'm unclear why it was applied solely to me. I did not initiate any unconstructive reverts. From my understanding, the changes in question did not align with the guidelines stated in the manual. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 11:38, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
Marc Benioff pp
can we decrease page protection here? I am just doing routine maintence on a category and saw he had usual pp Czarking0 (talk) 04:14, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Czarking0, I'm not sure if I understand correctly. Your edit seems to have worked and the page is only semi-protected, and that also just temporarily. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:17, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ya I am not advocating for myself. I am requesting to lower the protection. I searched the pp increase archives and did not see a request for protection otherwise I would be able to articulate by request more specifically. Czarking0 (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ah, all good. But Czarking0, I generally don't want to lower such protections, sorry. Anyone can register and there are 6,981,796 articles, of which perhaps 1% is protected, looking at the protection log statistics. Ten edits to unprotected articles and the page is free for editing, together with all other semi-protected pages. If that's not an option, a button to create an edit request is shown to every affected user too. And if that is not an option, then the change isn't important enough for a contentious page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:21, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- This is not in alignment with WP's policies on protection. PP requires a reason for doing so and PP should be done for the shortest time that would accomplish that reason. For this page, I would expect to hear that there was reason vandalism and that the year of protection you set was the result of escalating attempts at protection. WP:NO-PREEMPT Czarking0 (talk) 14:48, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- Czarking0, I have protected the page in response to persistent additions of "Jewish" to the lead section of the article, most of which except the first one are violations of WP:BLPRESTORE just to name one specific problem with this. Which algorithm would you use to choose a protection duration? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:06, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- This is not in alignment with WP's policies on protection. PP requires a reason for doing so and PP should be done for the shortest time that would accomplish that reason. For this page, I would expect to hear that there was reason vandalism and that the year of protection you set was the result of escalating attempts at protection. WP:NO-PREEMPT Czarking0 (talk) 14:48, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ah, all good. But Czarking0, I generally don't want to lower such protections, sorry. Anyone can register and there are 6,981,796 articles, of which perhaps 1% is protected, looking at the protection log statistics. Ten edits to unprotected articles and the page is free for editing, together with all other semi-protected pages. If that's not an option, a button to create an edit request is shown to every affected user too. And if that is not an option, then the change isn't important enough for a contentious page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:21, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ya I am not advocating for myself. I am requesting to lower the protection. I searched the pp increase archives and did not see a request for protection otherwise I would be able to articulate by request more specifically. Czarking0 (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
IP-hopping POV-pusher at Doug Hutchison
Both have already been blocked for 31 hours but something to keep an eye on. I've already added to my watchlist in case the editor finds another range. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:57, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page watcher) I hope it is OK to butt in on this. If they hop around, it might be worth pulling their talk page access as well. That isn't something I would usually ask for but they continue their accusations after blocking. Knitsey (talk) 14:01, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the notification! Pickersgill-Cunliffe has thankfully dealt with both the page and the talk access of the editors.
- If I understand correctly, an article subject has married a 16-year-old girl at the age of 51. This may make some otherwise libellous terms acceptable opinion statements not requiring oversighting in my personal non-lawyer view, but if you disagree, please send specific diffs to WP:RFOS. I'll revision-delete the attacks towards editors, though. To prevent further disruption, I have extended the page's semi-protection to a year. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:27, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
Sdkb talk 19:46, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:59, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
User talk:217.180.232.50
While I have reported this IP at AIV, I did want to state that some of the edits you rev-deleted contain edit summaries with visible BLP violations. I would recommend redacting those too. JeffSpaceman (talk) 22:40, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks,
done ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:17, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
User talk:2604:3D08:5E7A:6A00:DD4A:13BF:B6EC:FFFD
Hi @ToBeFree I think you made a small mistake while banning the IP, in the log the user is indicated to be banned for 1 year while the notice on the talk page is indicating two weeks. Or this supposed to be like that? Squawk7700 (talk) 01:24, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Squawk7700, thanks! Yes ... you're right. Well. I had originally blocked them (logged-in and logged-out) for two weeks, then extended the block duration but made it affect logged-out users only. If I could easily place two blocks at the same time, I'd probably have kept both. I have now updated the description on the user's talk page to be not longer factually incorrect. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:30, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
- Ah, makes sense now, thanks. Regards Squawk7700 (talk) 01:34, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
Possible page lowering
Hello, and happy Easter!
Tin has a six other Full protection pages that you might consider lowering on the same basis you stated at his userpage "full protection would now prevent the user from editing their own page
". Those six are
- User:Tinucherian/Navigation
- User:Tinucherian/About me
- User talk:Tinucherian/Archives/2008/January February
- User:Tinucherian/Contributions
- User:Tinucherian/Incredible Indians
- User:Tinucherian/Sign.
All his other subpages are accessible to him with the EC level he has now.
I will be transparent in that I have a personal interest in correctively editing the first three pages to address the seven remaining tracked syntax errors from them as I've done for thousands of other pages in various namespaces (the other three pages I found when looking through his subpages looking for the sources of the remaining errors on his profile).
If you aren't comfortable with this request, that is fine. I just thought since you had lowered his profile for the above reason, these fell under similar reasoning and now might be a reasonable opportunity to inquire.
Best wishes to you both, Zinnober9 (talk) 16:11, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
- Oh!
Thanks Zinnober9, I should have checked if other pages in the same userspace exist with the same issue. I just saw that one of Tinucherian's latest protection actions was for User:Tinucherian/Infobox, and later that the main user page was also affected, but I didn't even think about others perhaps existing too. These are now all semi-protected, and I have notified Tinucherian about a possible issue with their signature in case it is substituted from the /Sign page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:21, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
Hey!
If this annoys you, please let me know, but I'd love if you could read my Rollback request at Wikipedia:PERM/ROLL :). If not its fine, I believe I fit all the criteria. Valorrr (lets chat) 22:59, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
- And, happy easter :) Valorrr (lets chat) 22:59, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
- It's all good, but I think Callanecc's offer in Special:Diff/1286644940 resolves this quite nicely for now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:47, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Happy Easter
| A happy easter. | |
| Happy easter! Valorrr (lets chat) 23:02, 20 April 2025 (UTC) |
- Thank you very much, Valorrr! Happy Easter to you too!



~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:47, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
BLP violation rev-delete inquiry
Thanks for taking care of the BLP violations by this IP. I did want to ask, though, do you believe the edit you reverted merits revision deletion under RD2? I would argue it does, but I did want to ask. Thank you! JeffSpaceman (talk) 15:34, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hi JeffSpaceman, thanks! Yes, I think you're right; I hadn't thought much about this because it's such a frequent accusation to be made about a politician, but that doesn't make it less serious. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:37, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
AI Use
Dear ToBeFree,
I hope this finds you well.
I have recently clarified, my use of AI to correct grammar and spelling, given my diagnosis of dyslexia — I do not wish this to preclude editing and I do still have an expertise in the areas of my editing. However, all ideas and content is original (I.E. mine). Is this permissible? If not, I can find alternative methods.
Thanks LU LabourUnited (talk) 16:01, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello LabourUnited,
- Thanks for asking. I have replied at the bottom of with an explanation of the problem and an idea for continuing without ChatGPT while still retaining a way to fix grammatical issues.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:02, 21 April 2025 (UTC)- (for the record, I later noticed that even Grammarly is an AI tool now, which is frustrating to see.) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:12, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 7

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Annual Planning and global trends: Join one of the many conversations happening over April and May about how Wikimedians around the world are responding to global trends and help shape the Foundation's annual plan.
- CEE Catchup: Join the upcoming global trends workshop for the CEE communities organized together with the CEE Hub on April 23 at 16:00 UTC, to discuss AI, NPOV, Wikimedia communities and more.
- Neutral point of view: More information and an update about the work to strengthen Wikipedia's neutral point of view.
- Wiki Workshop 2025: Register for the 12th annual Wiki Workshop taking place on May 21–22. It brings together researchers and scholars from around the globe who are interested in or actively engaged in research and development on Wikimedia projects.
- Learning Clinic: The upcoming Let’s Connect Learning Clinic is focusing on "Understanding and Navigating Conflict in Wikimedia Projects (Part 1)" and will take place on April 29 at 14:30 UTC.
- Community Resilience and Sustainability: Quarterly Conversation hour taking place on April 24 at 18:00 UTC to discuss Trust and Safety, the Universal Code of Conduct, Committee Support, and Human Rights.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: The Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 will take place on May 2–4.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions is now integrated with Dagbani Wikipedia. It is the first Wikimedia project that will be able to call and integrate functions directly into Wikipedia articles. Read more weekly updates on Wikifunctions.
- Edge Uniques: Introducing Edge Uniques, a technical approach which consists of privacy-preserving first-party cookies that will enable usability testing of features through A/B testing, more accurate counting of site visits, and a way to stop distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) with better precision.
- Tech News: The Design System Team is preparing to release the next major version of Codex (v2.0.0) on April 29; Last week, the default thumbnail size was increased from 220px to 250px. This changes how pages are shown in all wikis and has been requested by some communities for many years, but wasn’t previously possible due to technical limitations. More updates from Tech News week 15 and 16.
- Outreachy: Celebrating the excellent contributions from both interns and mentors in Round 29 of the Outreachy internship program.
- Developer Satisfaction Survey: The results of the Developer Satisfaction Survey (2025) are available. Thank you to all participants. These results help the Foundation decide what to work on next and to review what they recently worked on.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki · WikiLearn
- Wiki Loves Monuments: Celebrating the winners of Wiki Loves Monuments 2024.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest research showcase featuring the theme of "Motivation of Wikipedia Editors".
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Digital Rights: Wikimedians leading conversations at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum 2025 (DRIF25).
- Community Resilience: To better support community members when they are facing challenges while contributing to Wikimedia projects, the Trust and Safety team worked with the Arbitration Committees to create Project Maps of communities.
- RightsCon 2025: Key takeaways on advocacy and inclusion.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 17:15, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-17
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Wikifunctions is now integrated with Dagbani Wikipedia since April 15. It is the first project that will be able to call functions from Wikifunctions and integrate them in articles. A function is something that takes one or more inputs and transforms them into a desired output, such as adding up two numbers, converting miles into metres, calculating how much time has passed since an event, or declining a word into a case. Wikifunctions will allow users to do that through a simple call of a stable and global function, rather than via a local template.
- A new type of lint error has been created: Empty headings (documentation). The Linter extension's purpose is to identify wikitext patterns that must or can be fixed in pages and provide some guidance about what the problems are with those patterns and how to fix them.
View all 37 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Following its publication on HuggingFace, the "Structured Contents" dataset, developed by Wikimedia Enterprise, is now also available on Kaggle. This Beta initiative is focused on making Wikimedia data more machine-readable for high-volume reusers. They are releasing this beta version in a location that open dataset communities already use, in order to seek feedback, to help improve the product for a future wider release. You can read more about the overall Structured Contents project, and about the first release that's freely usable.
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Meetings and events
- The Editing and Machine Learning Teams invite interested volunteers to a video meeting to discuss Peacock check, which is the latest Edit check that will detect "peacock" or "overly-promotional" or "non-neutral" language whilst an editor is typing. Editors who work with newcomers, or help to fix this kind of writing, or are interested in how we use artificial intelligence in our projects are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be on April 28, 2025 at 18:00–19:00 UTC and hosted on Zoom.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:58, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
BLP issue at Chap Petersen
"The Virginia Attorney" apparently could use some education regarding the difference between a public citizen and a private citizen, among other things. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:38, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
- These cases are far more complicated than "COI editing is evil" and "publicity justifies negative public statements" or similar things one might think. I'll try to keep an eye on this, and
This page is being updated.
(Special:Diff/1286751133) sounds like there will be more edits than just the currently-reverted one. - I'll notify The Virginia Attorney about this message here (done by ping) and about the conflict of interest guideline. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:10, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
Thank you
...for everything you do. The mutual thanks are like a little, knowing nod. Knitsey (talk) 22:40, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
Hello Knitsey, thank you very much for the kind feedback and the same to you! The Thanks function is one of the best community-strengthening inventions made for Wikipedia so far, I think. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:47, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
UTRS appeal #102600
OK to unblock? Restore talk page access? -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 08:05, 27 April 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Deepfriedokra, for or for ? Or because we want more of perhaps? Or of and . Wherever you look: The user has a long-term problem with incivility and personalizing disputes and doesn't address this at all. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:23, 27 April 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 21:30, 27 April 2025 (UTC)
Ah..
..pre...that's the one. Thanks for fixing my "I can't remember how to do this properly so I'll just misuse this extension" botch job. Sean.hoyland (talk) 13:40, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
Hello Sean.hoyland, no worries! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:42, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-18
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Event organizers who host collaborative activities on multiple wikis, including Bengali, Japanese, and Korean Wikipedias, will have access to the CampaignEvents extension this week. Also, admins in the Wikipedia where the extension is enabled will automatically be granted the event organizer right soon. They won't have to manually grant themselves the right before they can manage events as requested by a community.
View all 19 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- The release of the next major version of Codex, the design system for Wikimedia, is scheduled for 29 April 2025. Technical editors will have access to the release by the week of 5 May 2025. This update will include a number of breaking changes and minor visual changes. Instructions on handling the breaking and visual changes are documented on this page. Pre-release testing is reported in T386298, with post-release issues tracked in T392379 and T392390.
- Users of Wiki Replicas will notice that the database views of
ipblocks,ipblocks_ipindex, andipblocks_compatare now deprecated. Users can query theblockandblock_targetnew views that mirror the new tables in the production database instead. The deprecated views will be removed entirely from Wiki Replicas in June, 2025.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- The latest quarterly Language and Internationalization Newsletter is now available. This edition includes an overview of the improved Content Translation Dashboard Tool, support for new languages, highlights from the Wiki Loves Ramadan campaign, results from the Language Onboarding Experiment, an analysis of topic diversity in articles, and information on upcoming community meetings and events.
Meetings and events
- The Let's Connect Learning Clinic will take place on April 29 at 14:30 UTC. This edition will focus on "Understanding and Navigating Conflict in Wikimedia Projects". You can register now to attend.
- The 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which brings the global technical community together to connect, brainstorm, and hack existing projects, will take place from May 2 to 4th, 2025, at Istanbul, Turkey.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 19:29, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
COI edits at DDG (rapper)
12.74.71.104 has declared WP:BOSS editing; I'm guessing 2600:382:1231:935f:2090:3503:a5f4:2c5 is the same person. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 18:21, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
- Ponyo blocked them for several hours and protected the page. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 18:59, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) Ips adding oft-repeated meme insults about a rapper claim they are doing it on his behalf...? Seems like someone is having a lot of fun trolling. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 19:01, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, this is even at ANI. Well, thanks everyone! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:35, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) Ips adding oft-repeated meme insults about a rapper claim they are doing it on his behalf...? Seems like someone is having a lot of fun trolling. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 19:01, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 1 May 2025
- News and notes: India cut off from Wiki money; WMF annual plan and Wikimedia programs seek comment
As always, Wikimedia community governance relies on user participation; plus, more updates from the Wikimedia world
- In the media: Feds aiming for WMF's nonprofit status
Scrapers, an Indian lawsuit, and a crash-or-not-crash?
- Recent research: How readers use Wikipedia health content; Scholars generally happy with how their papers are cited on Wikipedia
And other new research findings.
- Arbitration report: Sysop Tinucherian removed and admonished by the ArbCom
And don't bite those newbies!
- Discussion report: Latest news from Centralized discussions
And don't bite those newbies!
- Traffic report: Of Wolf and Man
Television dramas, televised sports, film, the Pope, and ... bioengineering at the top of the list?
- Disinformation report: At WikiCredCon, Wikipedia editors and Internet Archive discuss threats to trust in media
Community volunteers network among themselves and use technology to counter attacks on information sharing.
- News from the WMF: Product & Tech Progress on the Annual Plan
A look at some product and tech highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan (July–December 2024).
- Humour: Crisis erupts as furious admins, functionaries complain about crappy t-shirts
Hey! At least it is something!
- Comix: By territory
Zounds!
- In focus: Using AI on the Russian Wikipedia: opportunities or challenges?
Would a billion articles be a good idea?
- Community view: A deep dive into Wikimedia
There's a lot more to this than you think.
- Debriefing: Barkeep49's RfB debriefing
I wonder about having crats, but decided to become one anyway.
- Gallery: Meet the winners of Wiki Loves Monuments 2024
Just beautiful photos!
- Obituary: JarrahTree, JohnClarknew and Yashthepunisher
Rest in Paradise.
Forspoken talk page
Would you mind closing the discussion at Talk:Forspoken#Dispute resolution options (purpose has been resolved since it led to an ongoing RfC) or at least hat the off-topic discussion that started on 29 April 2025? As far as I can tell, a stale discussion was reopened more than a week after the last comment to bait editors to bicker about each other's behavior. Typically, I would feel comfortable hatting something like this myself but since one of the editors is casting aspersions (such as me being part of a tag-teaming group), I felt it would be better to loop in the admin who was previously involved. Thanks! Sariel Xilo (talk) 16:31, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Sariel Xilo, I should normally not collapse a discussion I participated in; let's see if people loudly complain or accept that WP:FOC applies regardless. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:25, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks. And you're completely right about WP:DENY. Unfortunately temperance is not one of my natural virtues. Just10A (talk) 21:44, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
| 13 | |
| Happy 13th anniversary. |
- Huh – oh!
I didn't even notice! Thank you very much, Lionel Cristiano! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:10, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
Shiloh Hendricks
Issues regarding WP:NOTABILITY, WP:VICTIMIZE, WP:LPI, and WP:NOTNEWSPAPER have been raised on the Talk page. Sure could use some admin input regarding whether or not that section should be present. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:58, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
- Well, it currently shouldn't (WP:BLPRESTORE). Thanks for the invitation, Skywatcher68. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:45, 3 May 2025 (UTC)
Dubious IP targeting my edits
Hey @ToBeFree, could you help me out with something? There is an IP editor (149.126.89.48) that does full reverts of my work on articles. Quite dubious behavior that I have seen before on some other articles. Could you check this one out? Alternatively, in case you are not available, where would I have to report this? Vestigium Leonis (talk) 22:23, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
- No, I am not targeting your edits. "Dubious" is your second WP:PA. I've only touched edits which need to be improved, which is a small amount of them. You seem to think that your edits cannot be questioned which isn't a good sign. 149.126.89.48 (talk) 22:45, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
- You did full reverts which is unconstructive and disruptive. And the fact that you stalk my contributions says it all lol. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 22:48, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree You can ignore this. I decided to quit editing, this is not worth my free time anymore. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 23:02, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
- Vestigium Leonis, I've had a look and understand the frustration. Reverting takes a second, perhaps ten to write the summary. You invested an entire day into rewriting Mighty Doom and spent another day on Stardew Valley, just to have both reverted by the same editor with a summary starting with "poorly done". You've both been edit warring; 149.126.89.48 is blocked for 24 hours and you would be welcome to return to editing if you change your mind; please take at least 24 hours for your decision. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:11, 4 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for looking into it. I’m just gonna take a bit of a break for now. Kinda weird having someone stalk my edits and revert everything on multiple articles, but I guess that can happen to anyone. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 07:22, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- I wouldn't necessarily call it stalking; you'd look for similar edits from the same user after reverting too, perhaps. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:57, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- Yeah, was simply the closest word I had in mind. "Go through" edits would probably be more neutral. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 08:07, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- I wouldn't necessarily call it stalking; you'd look for similar edits from the same user after reverting too, perhaps. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:57, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for looking into it. I’m just gonna take a bit of a break for now. Kinda weird having someone stalk my edits and revert everything on multiple articles, but I guess that can happen to anyone. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 07:22, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
pragmatic
Thank you.
We will see what happens when they wake up tomorrow. They have been somewhat frenetic. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 22:16, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, timezones.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:28, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-19
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Wikimedia Foundation has shared the latest draft update to their annual plan for next year (July 2025–June 2026). This includes an executive summary (also on Diff), details about the three main goals (Infrastructure, Volunteer Support, and Effectiveness), global trends, and the budget and financial model. Feedback and questions are welcome on the talk page until the end of May.
Updates for editors
- For wikis that have the CampaignEvents extension enabled, two new feature improvements have been released:
- Admins can now choose which namespaces are permitted for Event Registration via Community Configuration (documentation). The default setup is for event registration to be permitted in the Event namespace, but other namespaces (such as the project namespace or WikiProject namespace) can now be added. With this change, communities like WikiProjects can now more easily use Event Registration for their collaborative activities.
- Editors can now transclude the Collaboration List on a wiki page (documentation). The Collaboration List is an automated list of events and WikiProjects on the wikis, accessed via Special:AllEvents (example). Now, the Collaboration List can be added to all sorts of wiki pages, such as: a wiki mainpage, a WikiProject page, an affiliate page, an event page, or even a user page.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Developers who use the
momentlibrary in gadgets and user scripts should revise their code to use alternatives like theIntllibrary or the newmediawiki.DateFormatterlibrary. Themomentlibrary has been deprecated and will begin to log messages in the developer console. You can see a global search for current uses, and ask related questions in this Phabricator task. - Developers who maintain a tool that queries the Wikidata term store tables (
wbt_*) need to update their code to connect to a separate database cluster. These tables are being split into a separate database cluster. Tools that query those tables via the wiki replicas must be adapted to connect to the new cluster instead. Documentation and related links are available.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- The latest Chart Project newsletter is available. It includes updates on preparing to expand the deployment to additional wikis as soon as this week (starting May 6) and scaling up over the following weeks, plus exploring filtering and transforming source data.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:12, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – May 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2025).

Rusalkii
NaomiAmethyst (overlooked last month)
Interface administrator changes
- Following an RfC, administrator elections were permanently authorized on a five-month schedule. The next election will be scheduled soon; see Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections for more information. This is an alternate process to the RfA process and does not replace the latter.
- An RfC was closed with consensus to allow editors to opt-out of seeing "sticky decorative elements". Such elements should now be wrapped in {{sticky decoration wrapper}}. Editors who wish to opt out can follow the instructions at WP:STICKYDECO.
- An RfC has resulted in a broad prohibition on the use of AI-generated images in articles. A few common-sense exceptions are recognized.
- A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 8

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Marking a transition at the Wikimedia Foundation: update from CEO Maryana Iskander.
- Annual Planning: We published the draft Annual Plan for the coming fiscal year (2025-2026) which prioritizes work to respond to global trends. Feedback welcome on the talk page and many other places.
- WikiForHumanRights: Join the information session for the 2025 WikiForHumanRights Campaign on May 9 at 16:00 UTC.
- Youth Conference: Wikimedia Youth Conference 2025 will take place on May 16-18 in Prague.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- AI Strategy: Our new AI strategy puts Wikipedia's humans first.
- Tech News: Event organizers who host collaborative activities on multiple wikis, including Bengali, Japanese, and Korean Wikipedias, now have access to the CampaignEvents extension. Also, admins in the Wikipedia where the extension is enabled will automatically be granted the event organizer right soon. More updates from Tech News week 17 and 18.
- Abstract Wikipedia selected as a grant finalist: Abstract Wikipedia has been selected by the MacArthur Foundation as one of five finalists for their 100&Change competition. The winner will be announced in late 2025.
- Language and Internationalization: Read some key highlights from the April 2025 edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Wikimania: Wikimania 2025 will be held in the Nairobi neighborhood of Gigiri and will host a special one-off preconference day for users with extended rights.
- Learning Clinic: The recent Let's Connect Learning Clinic was about "Exploring Diff Blog: Sharing your story, & understanding Technical Implementation" and took place on May 6 at 12:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Data privacy: Arguing for data privacy and safety of internet users worldwide: Our amicus brief in the Snap v. Pina lawsuit.
- World Press Freedom Day: We will be advocating for Wikimedia's model and speaking about "Information as a Public Good in the Age of AI" for UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in Brussels.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports
- Risk preparedness: We shared the Foundation's approach to risk preparedness as part of the annual plan.
- Financial Report: Takeaways from the Wikimedia Foundation's Form 990 for fiscal year 2023-2024.
- Annual Report: The Foundation published the Annual Reports for both the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia Endowment. These reports highlight the impact of work done by our global community of volunteers, staff, and donors over the past year.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board and Board committee updates: The Board met in in March to hold its quarterly business meeting and joined other meetings as part of the Wikimedia Foundation's annual strategic planning. See the most recent actions and updates on the Board Noticeboard.
- Wikimedians of Chicago User Group: Recognition of Wikimedians of Chicago User Group.
- Affcom News: Read the latest issue of AffCom News (January-March 2025), the newsletter that distributes relevant news and events about the work of Wikimedia's Affiliations Committee.
- Elections Committee update: Review and comment on the 2025 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection rules for the upcoming 2025 selection process. The deadline is May 15 at 23:59 AoE.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 20:00, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Bill Dudleston
Article may have been created by Mr. Dudleston himself back in 2007 and has received little attention since then. Seems to me that the guy isn't notable. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:05, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
- Send the article to deletion perhaps?
~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:06, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the link. Done. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:26, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
- According to the first responses, looks good! Thank you! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:35, 7 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the link. Done. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:26, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
COI issue at Kelvin Thomson
Apparently being edited by the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 21:59, 7 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hmm hmm. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:02, 7 May 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-20
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The "Get shortened URL" link on the sidebar now includes a QR code. Wikimedia site users can now use it by scanning or downloading it to quickly share and access shared content from Wikimedia sites, conveniently.
Updates for editors
- The Wikimedia Foundation is working on a system called Edge Uniques, which will enable A/B testing, help protect against distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks), and make it easier to understand how many visitors the Wikimedia sites have. This is to help more efficiently build tools which help readers, and make it easier for readers to find what they are looking for. Tech News has previously written about this. The deployment will be gradual. Some might see the Edge Uniques cookie the week of 19 May. You can discuss this on the talk page.
- Starting May 19, 2025, Event organisers in wikis with the CampaignEvents extension enabled can use Event Registration in the project namespace (e.g., Wikipedia namespace, Wikidata namespace). With this change, communities don't need admins to use the feature. However, wikis that don't want this change can remove and add the permitted namespaces at Special:CommunityConfiguration/CampaignEvents.
- The Wikipedia project now has a Wikipedia in Nupe (
w:nup:). This is a language primarily spoken in the North Central region of Nigeria. Speakers of this language are invited to contribute to new Wikipedia.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Developers can now access pre-parsed Dutch Wikipedia, amongst others (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) through the Structured Contents snapshots (beta). The content includes parsed Wikipedia abstracts, descriptions, main images, infoboxes, article sections, and references.
- The
/page/data-parsoidREST API endpoint is no longer in use and will be deprecated. It is scheduled to be turned off on June 7, 2025.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- The IPv6 support is a newly introduced Cloud virtual network that significantly boosts Wikimedia platforms' scalability, security, and readiness for the future. If you are a technical contributor eager to learn more, check out this blog post for an in-depth look at the journey to IPv6.
Meetings and events
- The 2nd edition of 2025 of Afrika Baraza, a virtual platform for African Wikimedians to connect, will take place on May 15 at 17:00 UTC. This edition will focus on discussions regarding Wikimedia Annual planning and progress.
- The MENA Connect Community Call, a virtual meeting for MENA Wikimedians to connect, will take place on May 17 at 17:00 UTC. You can register now to attend.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 22:35, 12 May 2025 (UTC)
Yura Borisov
Hi @ToBeFree. I hope you're well. We spoke earlier regarding edits to Yura Borisov's entry, and thank you once again for your help with those. I have a new question, if I may: it appears as though another editor agreed with me and re-added the material regarding his work in occupied Ukrainian territories. Taking this and the 3O into consideration (where IOHANNVSVERVS agreed with me), do you think the user Mellk is justified in calling the Guardian article "poorly sourced and unreliable" and removing the entry and source from this Yura's page? At this point, it seems like he's grasping at straws and I don't understand the reversion unless he has a personal stake in protecting Yura's page. Thank you once again for your help. Vermelho7 (talk) 23:03, 12 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vermelho7, thanks for the kind feedback and for asking. I have no opinion about whether the material should be in the article, but Mellk's Special:Diff/1289540480 is a justified revert of a violation of the WP:GS/RUSUKR restrictions and labeled as such in its edit summary. Users must be logged in and have 500 edits and 30 days account age to edit about this topic.
- Talking about logging in, I hope you have no connection to 43.241.145.71. For being "another editor", their Special:Diff/1289539596 is remarkably close in content and edit summary style to Special:Diff/1282389211. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:46, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hi @ToBeFree Thank you for your assistance, but I wasn't referring to Special:Diff/1289540480. I have no connection to the other editor whatsoever. I think the question is whether or not the Guardian is a legitimate news source, and if so, then how is the addition of this article to Yura's profile libelous or poorly sourced as this editor claims? How can this be settled once and for all since it seems both 3Os and extended-confirmed editors are being sidelined in favor of a single editor's arbitrary decisions? Vermelho7 (talk) 21:04, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
- Vermelho7, thanks for the clarification. Regarding the article content, again, I don't have an opinion and I'm not in a position to decide about this. All I can say is that you and unregistered editors may not edit articles about this topic and should probably find topics on Wikipedia that are unaffected by such restrictions instead of spending a large amount of time on arguing with experienced editors about topics beyond your current responsibility. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:41, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hi @ToBeFree Thank you. Who is in a position to decide about this? Vermelho7 (talk) 17:25, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Vermelho7, noone is (WP:OWN). You're looking for someone to authoritatively enforce your position rather than finding a consensus for it on the article's talk page, but the authority you're looking for does not exist. If you were extended-confirmed, you could start a RfC, but you may neither start nor participate in such discussions ("Internal project discussions") about the Russo-Ukrainian war according to WP:GS/RUSUKR. So this is currently the end of the line; please disengage. There are 6,993,667 other articles waiting to be edited. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:18, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hi @ToBeFree Thank you. Who is in a position to decide about this? Vermelho7 (talk) 17:25, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Vermelho7, thanks for the clarification. Regarding the article content, again, I don't have an opinion and I'm not in a position to decide about this. All I can say is that you and unregistered editors may not edit articles about this topic and should probably find topics on Wikipedia that are unaffected by such restrictions instead of spending a large amount of time on arguing with experienced editors about topics beyond your current responsibility. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:41, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hi @ToBeFree Thank you for your assistance, but I wasn't referring to Special:Diff/1289540480. I have no connection to the other editor whatsoever. I think the question is whether or not the Guardian is a legitimate news source, and if so, then how is the addition of this article to Yura's profile libelous or poorly sourced as this editor claims? How can this be settled once and for all since it seems both 3Os and extended-confirmed editors are being sidelined in favor of a single editor's arbitrary decisions? Vermelho7 (talk) 21:04, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
Liberal vandalism
SPI opened on the user you blocked. Cheers! Departure– (talk) 21:20, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
- Done, thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:42, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 14 May 2025
- News and notes: WMF to kick off new-CEO quest as Iskander preps to move on — Supreme Court nixes gag of Wiki page for other India court row on ANI — code-heads give fix-up date for Charts in lieu of long-dead Graph gizmo
And comment is requested on a privacy whitepaper.
- In the media: Wikimedia Foundation sues over UK government decision that might require identity verification of editors worldwide
And other courtroom drama.
- Disinformation report: What does Jay-Z know about Wikipedia?
And how he knows it: all about lawyer letters and editing logs.
- In focus: On the hunt for sources: Swedish AfD discussions
Why the language barrier is not the only impediment to navigating sources from another culture.
- Technology report: WMF introduces unique but privacy-preserving browser cookie
And QR codes for every page!
- Debriefing: Goldsztajn's RfA debriefing
When an editor is ready to become staff at a public library (not a brother in a fraternity).
- Obituary: Max Lum (User:ICOHBuzz)
Rest in peace.
- Community view: A Deep Dive Into Wikimedia (part 2)
The technology behind it, and the other stuff.
- Comix: Collection
Gadzooks!
- From the archives: Humor from the Archives
And more.
Possible sockpuppet
@Bubba6t3411 is probably a sockpuppet of @Archiepo. They have the same interests and the same editing style. DavidDijkgraaf (talk) 18:51, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
- See the note I posted at Drmies' talk page where you posted this same message. S0091 (talk) 19:04, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
- ...or the edit notice of this page here :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:35, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
Shlomo Helbrans & Lev Tahor
Disciple Helbrans editing the article about the rabbi and whitewashing the group started by said rabbi? Something's fishy here. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 18:21, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the notification
~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:57, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
Revert needed
There was recently an edit war on the page Dragon Age: The Veilguard which led to the article being completely locked down. The admin Callanecc locked the page down but didn't restore the last clean version from April, and then decided to not be active anymore. Could you therefore restore this version? See also the discussion at the talk page. Thank you! 61.8.154.119 (talk) 04:39, 17 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello 61.8.154.119, you seem to overestimate the importance of this article's current state and can wait until tomorrow, when the protection expires, or submit an edit request on the article's talk page for truly uncontroversial changes (which are highly unlikely to include restoring an entire revision). ~ ToBeFree (talk) 04:42, 17 May 2025 (UTC)
Rollback...
Hey! I've seen you said to TonyST (not mentioning as not needed) to ask on your talk-page for rollback, I was wondering if I could do the same now (permalink), I've been using automated tools and was wondering if I could be able to use SWViewer, AntiVandal etc. If not thats okay! Valorrr (lets chat) 23:00, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Valorrr, thanks for asking. You're enthusiastic, active, looking for things to do and that's all great, but you're overdoing it.
- A declined AWB request.
- A declined AWB request.
- A request for administrative action review because of perceived bias in response to the decline.
- A declined rollback request.
- A declined new page reviewer request.
- A declined rollback request.
- A declined pending changes reviewer request.
- A declined pending changes reviewer request.
- A declined rollback request.
- Over which timespan? Let me check... You've been here for 2 months.
- Valorrr, I had asked you to wait until (about) 1 August 2025,
later is better than earlier
, on 28 April 2025, before requesting the rollback permission again. You have now done so on my talk page less than a month later. - I'll decline the currently-open AWB request as part of a series of permission requests that has become disruptive due to an insistence that binds volunteers' time up to dragging them to noticeboards for not responding to your request in the way you want them to.
- If you request permissions to be added to your account by an administrator on any page before 1 August 2025, I'll block your account from the affected pages or namespaces to prevent further disruption.
- After that time, but please not instantly at 00:00:01 of 1 August 2025, you can ask on my user talk page or at WP:PERM/R, once, for rollback and I'll probably grant it if you manage not to get blocked for finding other ways to cause maintenance work until then. If the one-last-chance request is declined, please do not request any permissions anymore until 2026.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:16, 17 May 2025 (UTC)- Understood. Valorrr (lets chat) 01:02, 17 May 2025 (UTC)
- Just to be sure, if it does get denied, what's the date for 2026? Valorrr (lets chat) 04:16, 18 May 2025 (UTC)
Oh my, Valorrr. This is an unusual question; one would normally a) hope that this doesn't happen and ask only if it does, and b) assume 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z without actually asking on that day to avoid the impression of having waited for a formal limit instead of naturally requesting the permission again one day. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:33, 18 May 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-21
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Editing Team and the Machine Learning Team are working on a new check for newcomers: Peacock check. Using a prediction model, this check will encourage editors to improve the tone of their edits, using artificial intelligence. We invite volunteers to review the first version of the Peacock language model for the following languages: Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Japanese. Users from these wikis interested in reviewing this model are invited to sign up at MediaWiki.org. The deadline to sign up is on May 23, which will be the start date of the test.
Updates for editors
- From May 20, 2025, oversighters and checkusers will need to have their accounts secured with two-factor authentication (2FA) to be able to use their advanced rights. All users who belong to these two groups and do not have 2FA enabled have been informed. In the future, this requirement may be extended to other users with advanced rights. Learn more.
Multiblocks will begin mass deployment by the end of the month: all non-Wikipedia projects plus Catalan Wikipedia will adopt Multiblocks in the week of May 26, while all other Wikipedias will adopt it in the week of June 2. Please contact the team if you have concerns. Administrators can test the new user interface now on your own wiki by browsing to Special:Block?usecodex=1, and can test the full multiblocks functionality on testwiki. Multiblocks is the feature that makes it possible for administrators to impose different types of blocks on the same user at the same time. See the help page for more information. - Later this week, the Special:SpecialPages listing of almost all special pages will be updated with a new design. This page has been redesigned to improve the user experience in a few ways, including: The ability to search for names and aliases of the special pages, sorting, more visible marking of restricted special pages, and a more mobile-friendly look. The new version can be previewed at Beta Cluster now, and feedback shared in the task.
- The Chart extension is being enabled on more wikis. For a detailed list of when the extension will be enabled on your wiki, please read the deployment timeline.
- Wikifunctions will be deployed on May 27 on five Wiktionaries: Hausa, Igbo, Bengali, Malayalam, and Dhivehi/Maldivian. This is the second batch of deployment planned for the project. After deployment, the projects will be able to call functions from Wikifunctions and integrate them in their pages. A function is something that takes one or more inputs and transforms them into a desired output, such as adding up two numbers, converting miles into metres, calculating how much time has passed since an event, or declining a word into a case. Wikifunctions will allow users to do that through a simple call of a stable and global function, rather than via a local template.
- Later this week, the Wikimedia Foundation will publish a hub for experiments. This is to showcase and get user feedback on product experiments. The experiments help the Wikimedia movement understand new users, how they interact with the internet and how it could affect the Wikimedia movement. Some examples are generated video, the Wikipedia Roblox speedrun game and the Discord bot.
View all 29 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, there was a bug with creating an account using the API, which has now been fixed.
Updates for technical contributors
- Gadgets and user scripts that interact with Special:Block may need to be updated to work with the new manage blocks interface. Please review the developer guide for more information. If you need help or are unable to adapt your script to the new interface, please let the team know on the talk page.
- The
mw.titleobject allows you to get information about a specific wiki page in the Lua programming language. Starting this week, a new property will be added to the object, namedisDisambiguationPage. This property allows you to check if a page is a disambiguation page, without the need to write a custom function.
User script developers can use a new reverse proxy tool to load javascript and css from gitlab.wikimedia.org with mw.loader.load. The tool's author hopes this will enable collaborative development workflows for user scripts including linting, unit tests, code generation, and code review on gitlab.wikimedia.org without a separate copy-and-paste step to publish scripts to a Wikimedia wiki for integration and acceptance testing. See Tool:Gitlab-content on Wikitech for more information.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- The 12th edition of Wiki Workshop 2025, a forum that brings together researchers that explore all aspects of Wikimedia projects, will be held virtually on 21-22 May. Researchers can register now.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:10, 19 May 2025 (UTC)
Tiger Hillarp Persson
Article is being edited by an IP claiming to be the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:38, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, thanks for the notification! I think the disputed statements should be removed for now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:23, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- And thank you for clearing that up. I did find a podcast interview with the subject, as "Tiger Hillarp Persson", in which he states his full given name is "Tiger Christopher Robin". –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:49, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hm, perhaps for the article's talk page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:20, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- Okay, done. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:28, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hm, perhaps for the article's talk page. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:20, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- And thank you for clearing that up. I did find a podcast interview with the subject, as "Tiger Hillarp Persson", in which he states his full given name is "Tiger Christopher Robin". –Skywatcher68 (talk) 17:49, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 9

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Global Trends Community Workshop: Join Foundation staff and trustees on May 28th from 16:00 UTC for an online community workshop about global trends impacting Wikimedia. This workshop is part of continuous conversations aimed at connecting the movement and collaborating on the Foundation's annual plan.
- Wiki Causerie: Wiki Causerie call with a focus on discussing the global trends to help shape the Foundation's annual plan will be held on May 23.
- ESEAP Summit: The ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025 will take place in Manila, Philippines on May 23–25.
- EduWiki Conference 2025: The EduWiki Conference 2025 will take place in Bogotá, Colombia on May 30–June 1.
- Wiki Workshop 2025: The 12th annual Wiki Workshop will take place online on May 21–22.
- U4C Call for Candidates: The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee 2025 elections are accepting candidates until May 28.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Content Translation: A decade of consistent improvements to the Content Translation tool yields over two million Wikipedia articles.
- Charts Extension: After successfully deploying the extension on Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew Wikipedia, we are moving forward with the next phase of deployment. Please consult our page to discover when the new Charts extension will be deployed on your wiki.
- Abstract Wikipedia: Where Abstract Wikipedia fits into the new Wikimedia AI strategy.
- Tech News: The “Get shortened URL” link on the sidebar now includes a QR code. Wikimedia site users can now use it by scanning or downloading it to quickly share and access shared content from Wikimedia sites, conveniently. More updates from Tech News week 19 and 20.
- Topical Lists: Read about the important role of topical lists in supporting campaigns and editing, as well as strategies for the future development, implementation, and sustainment of list-building support.
- Two-factor Authentication: From May 20, 2025, oversighters and checkusers will need to have their accounts secured with two-factor authentication (2FA) to be able to use their advanced rights. In the future, this requirement may be extended to other users with advanced rights. Read the announcement.
- Mobile Apps: The iOS app team is experimenting with an "Activity Tab" on Turkish, Spanish, French, and Chinese Wikipedias to see if inviting new editors to add images through Suggested Edits increases engagement. This insight will guide future improvements to the app experience.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Learning Clinic: The next Let's Connect Learning Clinic will be about "Communication and Cultural Sensitivity in Conflict Resolution - Best practices (Part 2)" and will take place on May 27 at 13:00 UTC.
- The Wikipedia Library: An important milestone for The Wikipedia Library (TWL) has been reached. More than a million links have been added to Wikimedia projects by Library users.
- Wikisource: Watch the video celebrating the global Wikisource community in safeguarding our cultural heritage for future generations.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- India Legal Update: Good news from our legal team, the Supreme Court of India set aside the Delhi High Court’s order directing the takedown of the Asian News International v. Wikimedia Foundation English Wikipedia article. The Supreme Court’s verdict upholds the right to report and share information on matters of public interest, including legal proceedings in open courts.
- UK Legal Challenge: Wikimedia Foundation brings legal challenge to new UK Online Safety Act requirements.
- UCoC Updates: The Universal Code of Conduct 2025 annual review concluded, with community voting approving the proposed changes to the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 20:45, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
BLP edit warring at Marina Stefanoni
Primarily involving IPs, who could use some admin input. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:30, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
- Already reverted and protected by Ymblanter, although these situations seem to attract long-term disruption that just becomes subtler over time, so I've extended the protection duration to a year, making it unlikely that someone waits for the protection to end and tries to fly under the radar. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:56, 20 May 2025 (UTC)
Removing Previously Consensus-Supported Content Without Justification
Hi ToBeFree, I just wanted to clarify that consensus was already achieved on the Water fluoridation article. See:
Collaborative editing by others to the lead
Bon courage also falsely accused me of using P. M., Cat Appreciator as a sockpuppet account to disincentivize me from editing after his edit war with someone else. Do you now agree that this is not supported by the evidence, and you were bare minimum misled by Bon courage?
Once content has gained consensus, WP:ONUS no longer applies to its inclusion. However, any removal still requires a valid, policy-based justification, and blanket deletions without explanation are not supported by Wikipedia policy.
For example, I can't go to an article and nuke a good portion of its stable, collaborative content and say "well, it will remain removed until consensus is reached."
Now that you have been informed about the edit history, I want your clear input about whether this should stand or not when the article achieved natural consensus prior to Bon courage's edits. I'd also like your input on the duplicitous behavior of the people removing the content, including what I see as personal attacks against me (rather than debating the policy and science). MightyLebowski (talk) 05:28, 21 May 2025 (UTC)
- Do you thinking spouting all this shit helps you? The sock-puppet concerns were first raised by an admin (this one) and nobody else 'misled' them into doing that. Fictionalising policy on the fly like "Once content has gained consensus, WP:ONUS no longer applies to its inclusion" is an inversion of stated policy. Saying an edit is "shifting the goal post, and misrepresenting the edit history" and linking to a diff that in no way supports that is disruptive and looks almost like trolling. I am beginning to think the Project would benefit if MightyLebowski were removed from fluoridation topic areas. Bon courage (talk) 06:43, 21 May 2025 (UTC)
Do you thinking spouting all this shit helps you?
- You really think I'm spouting "shit"? Did you look at the diffs? I'll be even clearer for you.
- You’ve shifted your position multiple times:
- First, you claimed the NTP and JAMA are fringe.
- Then, you argued the research should be excluded because “an article should not be a complete presentation of all possible details”, a strawman, since no one suggested including everything.
- Next, you said we should “just wait” based purely on your personal opinion.
- And now, you’re alluding to the NTP and JAMA publishing fraudulent research.
- Your reasoning is all over the place because you're making excuses to exclude high-quality scientific research simply because it contradicts your personal belief that water fluoridation is completely safe for children.
I am beginning to think the Project would benefit if MightyLebowski were removed from fluoridation topic areas.
- We're talking about clear research showing damage to childhood neurodevelopment (here and here), and now (after personally attacking me) you call for censorship after losing the scientific and policy debate. MightyLebowski (talk) 02:36, 22 May 2025 (UTC)
- Danth's law strikes again. Bon courage (talk) 04:55, 22 May 2025 (UTC)
- MightyLebowski, I'm not sure what exactly you expect me to do. Consensus isn't achieved by perceiving to have won an argument with one or a few editors. If there was a consensus, you could point me to a neutral uninvolved user's closure of your discussion and it would be hard for Bon courage or any other participant to complain about their summary. What I see here, on the contrary, is a heated conflict, the opposite of a consensus. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 07:55, 22 May 2025 (UTC)
What's going on here?
Why is that on a page belonging to a user who has no edits? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:47, 22 May 2025 (UTC)
- There was a series of confusing page moves; I hope to have fixed that now. Daria2025 is blocked from moving pages for a while. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:18, 23 May 2025 (UTC)
Jon Bryant
Being edited by "Jonbryant17"... –Skywatcher68 (talk) 00:21, 23 May 2025 (UTC)
- Skywatcher68, I think informing them about the conflict of interest guideline was all that's needed for now. Jonrbryant17 responds to talk page messages and their recent edits have not been reverted. The username is too ambiguous to justify a block. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:21, 23 May 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-22
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- A community-wide discussion about a very delicate issue for the development of Abstract Wikipedia is now open on Meta: where to store the abstract content that will be developed through functions from Wikifunctions and data from Wikidata. The discussion is open until June 12 at Abstract Wikipedia/Location of Abstract Content, and every opinion is welcomed. The decision will be made and communicated after the consultation period by the Foundation.
Updates for editors
- Since last week, on all wikis except the largest 20, people using the mobile visual editor will have additional tools in the menu bar, accessed using the new
+toolbar button. To start, the new menu will include options to add: citations, hieroglyphs, and code blocks. Deployment to the remaining wikis is scheduled to happen in June.
The #ifexistparser function will no longer register a link to its target page. This will improve the usefulness of Special:WantedPages, which will eventually only list pages that are the target of an actual red link. This change will happen gradually as the source pages are updated.- This week, the Moderator Tools team will launch a new filter to Recent Changes, starting at Indonesian Wikipedia. This new filter highlights edits that are likely to be reverted. The goal is to help Recent Changes patrollers identify potentially problematic edits. Other wikis will benefit from this filter in the future.
- Upon clicking an empty search bar, logged-out users will see suggestions of articles for further reading. The feature will be available on both desktop and mobile. Readers of Catalan, Hebrew, and Italian Wikipedias and some sister projects will receive the change between May 21 and mid-June. Readers of other wikis will receive the change later. The goal is to encourage users to read the wikis more. Learn more.
- Some users of the Wikipedia Android app can use a new feature for readers, WikiGames, a daily trivia game based on real historical events. The release has started as an A/B test, available to 50% of users in the following languages: English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish.
- The Newsletter extension that is available on MediaWiki.org allows the creation of various newsletters for global users. The extension can now publish new issues as section links on an existing page, instead of requiring a new page for each issue.
View all 32 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- The previously deprecated
ipblocksviews in Wiki Replicas will be removed in the beginning of June. Users are encouraged to query the newblockandblock_targetviews instead.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- Wikidata and Sister Projects is a multi-day online event that will focus on how Wikidata is integrated to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. The event runs from May 29 – June 1. You can read the Program schedule and register.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:02, 26 May 2025 (UTC)
Could you please unblock the Adult Swim (Latin America) website?
hello Could you unlock it tomorrow please Adult Swim (Latin America)? 208.96.134.69 (talk) 23:46, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello 208.96.134.69, the current protection level is the result of sockpuppetry going through semi-protection. I don't think it would be a good idea to lower the protection level, but you can click here to submit an edit request. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:47, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
WP:UNDUE review needed at Sexual abuse by yoga gurus
IP apparently associated with yoga has decided that the WP:TELEGRAPH quote shouldn't be present, first citing WP:UNDUE then WP:PRIMARY. Mind stopping by when you get a chance? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 23:38, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
- The page previously edited by the IP involves the guru mentioned in that quote. That can't be a coincidence and is probably a WP:COI. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 23:42, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
- Skywatcher68, I thought this was about a living person. As it isn't, I'm out. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:12, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
- Fair enough; the person whom the issue at hand concerns died in 2009. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 01:02, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
- Skywatcher68, I thought this was about a living person. As it isn't, I'm out. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:12, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
Oh, this could be messy
IPs registered to the Ohio state government have been editing articles about active Ohio politicians. That range isn't very active, fortunately. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 13:42, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Skywatcher68, thank you very much for finding and reporting this. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:07, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
Rollback
Hello @ToBeFree! I posted on the request for permissions: rollback page on 5/16, and you asked me to reach out on your talk page after two weeks. I appreciate you mentioning how important it is to respond to feedback I get on my talk page. While I'm proud of the responses I gave to people -- especially ones where I realized I had made a mistake -- I can see now that there are a couple that I should have responded to, and this is something I'm working to get better at. I haven't had much practice until recently, and I'm feeling more and more confident in talking with people on here :)
I was actually hoping I could get some advice on what to do with talk page messages from people who leave veiled threats -- are those ones OK for me to remove from my talk page? In situations like that, or when someone leaves incoherent messages, it's sometimes difficult to know how or whether to respond. I've avoided reverting almost anything on that page, but twice in the last few days other editors have stepped in to revert vandalism on my talk page.
For context, since we last spoke two weeks ago, I've:
- Made 3400 edits -- about 240 per day -- mostly reverting vandalism, leaving notices on other users talk pages, or making minor improvements to articles that had just been vandalized
- Needed to report 26 users at WP:AIV. 100% of my reports were deemed valid and 100% of the users I reported were blocked.
- Needed to report 7 accounts at WP:SPI -- all but one were blocked
- Needed to report 1 user at WP:AN/3, who was blocked for edit warring
- Thanked others 60 times
- Been thanked 65 times (this stat is my favorite)
I appreciate you considering me for rollback, and regardless of whether you grant it I hope to continue seeing you around :) —tonyst (talk) 18:51, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hey TonySt, you do a great job, thank you very much! I'm impressed. Very well done.

- Regarding removing messages especially including threats, this is up to your personal judgement in the end. You are generally allowed to do so independently of the message content, even if it's a kind message. Some content should obviously be removed rather than replied to, but the obvious cases are rare and often already dealt with by talk page watchers or people reverting all of a disruptive user's contributions. A fine response to Special:Diff/1292038458 would be moving the message to the bottom of the talk page in a new section, and adding {{uw-nlt}} on the sender's talk page, or (if the threat is clear enough) reporting it as was done at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive1188 § Pointed legal threat by Augmented Seventh. I think rsjaffe's response to the report is perfect. And of course you're free to remove the message instead of moving it to the bottom.
- What I wouldn't do is archiving it unanswered despite this being a third option, as I think such messages then look strange without context and without response in the archive.
- Special:Diff/1292037619 is suboptimal in my eyes as it is arguably incompatible with WP:BLPRESTORE (
If it is to be restored without significant change, consensus must be obtained first
), but this isn't relevant to the rollback permission. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:53, 30 May 2025 (UTC)- Noted, and thank you. Augmented Seventh🎱 23:49, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you for rollback but especially thank you for the note about WP:BLPRESTORE. I'm going to take another gander at all of the BLP policies to make sure I'm not missing anything else. If you see me out in the wild and notice anything else I'm missing, I would greatly value any feedback you'd be willing to offer in the future as well. Take care, and thanks again! --—tonyst (talk) 00:30, 31 May 2025 (UTC)
- All good, thank you!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:32, 31 May 2025 (UTC)
- All good, thank you!
Forspoken edit warring
Hello @ToBeFree, as you have overseen the dispute resolution at Forspoken, I am contacting you again. Some users seem to ignore the RfC consensus. The RfC was formally closed by @Toadspike. My addition, which was not even connected to the RfC, also got fully reverted again without explanation. I did one revert now, back to the consensus version and reinstated my addition. Please take a look, and maybe also @Toadspike, what we should do here. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 10:50, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- I did not know of any dispute resolution and do not plan to get involved in this dispute. I simply closed the RfC at Talk:Forspoken#Follow-up RFC on Japan sales according to my reading of consensus. Please do not look to me to end an edit war or enforce the outcome. Toadspike [Talk] 11:02, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- @Toadspike Apologies if this was not the right approach. I did it with the intention of not overstepping anyone. This was the first RfC closure I have come across, so I was unsure about who to tag in this situation. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 11:20, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- No need to apologize. I'm simply saying that I, as a fellow non-admin, have no more power or authority to stop edit wars than you do. Being the RfC closer doesn't give me any special status here. Anyhow, it seems the brief edit war has ended now. Toadspike [Talk] 11:27, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vestigium Leonis and Toadspike, thank you very much! The closure is fine, the advice in Special:Diff/1293376286 a bit suboptimal and new advice provided at the bottom of and . Both Wyll Ravengard and BMWF are relatively new editors with less than 500 contributions and may simply not have been aware of how this works. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:29, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- NutmegCoffeeTea is the third editor to revert the RfC closure. With that revert, they also responded to the discussion which highlights the correct procedure for challenging a RfC closure (which is not revert & edit war...). Sariel Xilo (talk) 00:21, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- I've left my thoughts on the talk page and so on, but to reiterate: no one here is challenging close content, to my understanding they're simply saying that the discussion is still going on. WP:CLOSECHALLENGE is not applicable here and explicitly says that it does not cover the scenario where an early closure is followed by multiple editors asking that it be reopened for further discussion, or a single editor has brought forth a compelling new perspective to the already closed discussion. This should be closed when the discussion runs its course. NutmegCoffeeTea (she/her) (talk) 03:38, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- NutmegCoffeeTea, the sentence begins with "Closures will often be changed by the closing editor without a closure review if". Of course the advice is applicable: Talk to the closing editor first. Have a community discussion if that doesn't help. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:54, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- I've left my thoughts on the talk page and so on, but to reiterate: no one here is challenging close content, to my understanding they're simply saying that the discussion is still going on. WP:CLOSECHALLENGE is not applicable here and explicitly says that it does not cover the scenario where an early closure is followed by multiple editors asking that it be reopened for further discussion, or a single editor has brought forth a compelling new perspective to the already closed discussion. This should be closed when the discussion runs its course. NutmegCoffeeTea (she/her) (talk) 03:38, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- NutmegCoffeeTea is the third editor to revert the RfC closure. With that revert, they also responded to the discussion which highlights the correct procedure for challenging a RfC closure (which is not revert & edit war...). Sariel Xilo (talk) 00:21, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vestigium Leonis and Toadspike, thank you very much! The closure is fine, the advice in Special:Diff/1293376286 a bit suboptimal and new advice provided at the bottom of and . Both Wyll Ravengard and BMWF are relatively new editors with less than 500 contributions and may simply not have been aware of how this works. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:29, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- No need to apologize. I'm simply saying that I, as a fellow non-admin, have no more power or authority to stop edit wars than you do. Being the RfC closer doesn't give me any special status here. Anyhow, it seems the brief edit war has ended now. Toadspike [Talk] 11:27, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- @Toadspike Apologies if this was not the right approach. I did it with the intention of not overstepping anyone. This was the first RfC closure I have come across, so I was unsure about who to tag in this situation. Vestigium Leonis (talk) 11:20, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Editors reverting RfC closure at Talk:Forspoken. Sariel Xilo (talk) 02:54, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:55, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
@ToBeFree: Can you add an extended confirmed protection to the article?2A00:FBC:EEE8:A781:8903:5610:9C39:C74 (talk) 09:27, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- I currently do not see a need to do so and declined an earlier extended-confirmed protection request at WP:RFPP. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:55, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-23
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Chart extension is now available on all Wikimedia wikis. Editors can use this new extension to create interactive data visualizations like bar, line, area, and pie charts. Charts are designed to replace many of the uses of the legacy Graph extension.
Updates for editors
- It is now easier to configure automatic citations for your wiki within the visual editor's citation generator. Administrators can now set a default template by using the
_defaultkey in the local MediaWiki:Citoid-template-type-map.json page (example diff). Setting this default will also help to future-proof your existing configurations when new item types are added in the future. You can still set templates for individual item types as they will be preferred to the default template.
View all 20 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- Starting the week of June 2, bots logging in using
action=loginoraction=clientloginwill fail more often. This is because of stronger protections against suspicious logins. Bots using bot passwords or using a loginless authentication method such as OAuth are not affected. If your bot is not using one of those, you should update it; usingaction=loginwithout a bot password was deprecated in 2016. For most bots, this only requires changing what password the bot uses. - From this week, Wikimedia wikis will allow ES2017 features in JavaScript code for official code, gadgets, and user scripts. The most visible feature of ES2017 is
async/awaitsyntax, allowing for easier-to-read code. Until this week, the platform only allowed up to ES2016, and a few months before that, up to ES2015.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- Scholarship applications to participate in the GLAM Wiki Conference 2025 are now open. The conference will take place from 30 October to 1 November, in Lisbon, Portugal. GLAM contributors who lack the means to support their participation can apply here. Scholarship applications close on June 7th.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:52, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
Elizabeth G. Loboa
Hey, just wanted to let you know that the article is being edited by an IP claiming to be the subject. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:17, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- Good catch, thank you very much Skywatcher68! I have removed the disputed material for now, semi-protected the page and asked Unit Mango to start a discussion. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:45, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 10

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues

- Wikimania: Register now to attend Wikimania Nairobi! Registration for the in-person event will be open until July 13 or while places remain. For joining virtually, you will be able to register at any time.
- Let's Connect: The next Let's Connect Learning Clinic will focus on "1Lib1Ref: Tools, Tactics and Innovation". The session will take place on June 5 at 15:00 UTC.
- U4C Call for Candidates: The voting period for Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee 2025 is open from June 3 to June 17 at 12:00 UTC.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: The Wikimedia Foundation will publish a hub for experiments to showcase and get user feedback on product experiments; The Moderator Tools team will launch a new filter to Recent Changes, starting at Indonesian Wikipedia. The goal is to help Recent Changes patrollers identify potentially problematic edits. More updates from Tech News week 21 and 22.
- Abstract Wikipedia: A community-wide discussion for the development of Abstract Wikipedia is now open on Meta: where to store the abstract content that will be developed through functions from Wikifunctions and data from Wikidata. The discussion is open until June 12 at Abstract Wikipedia/Location of Abstract Content, and every opinion is welcomed.
- Temporary accounts: Admins, bureaucrats, or stewards will be manually granting access to temporary account IP addresses to users without certain extended rights. Previously, these users were gaining this right automatically. The decision to change this was made by the Trust and Safety Product team after discussing with almost 20 large Wikipedia communities and Meta-Wiki. See the full message about the change. In addition, the team is finishing work which unblocks rollouts on large wikis. A series of deployments will be happening in June. See the latest project update to learn about the satisfaction survey, related changes to features and tools, and more.
- Wikifunctions: Wikifunctions is deployed on five Wiktionaries: Hausa, Igbo, Bengali, Malayalam, and Dhivehi/Maldivian. Users of the five projects are now allowed to call on Wikifunctions' functions freely from their user interface.
- WikiGames: A daily trivia game called WikiGames is coming to the Wikipedia Android app. It invites users to test their knowledge by guessing which historical event happened first based on real events from Wikipedia's "On this day" content. The game's goal is to help new audiences discover a preferred destination for discovering, engaging, and building encyclopedic content. It has been gradually rolled out as an A/B test to 50% of users in English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish.
- Wikimedia Cloud VPS: We have introduced IPv6 to the cloud virtual network, enhancing the platform's scalability, security, and future-readiness.
- CampaignEvents extension: Two new features Invitation Lists and Collaboration List that allow organizers to promote events and WikiProjects on the wikis are now available.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- WikiLearn: Discover how online learning is helping develop Wikidata skills and the new courses coming up this quarter on WikiLearn News May 2025 edition.
- Youth Conference: Young Wikimedians gathered in Prague for the first-ever Youth Conference, created for young people and by young people.
- Gender Gap: Wikimedia Foundation Reflections on the Celebrate Women* Campaign 2025.
- Accessibility: In celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025, we would like to look back together and highlight recent improvements and progress to ensure that the Wikimedia projects are more accessible for everyone.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- India Legal Update: A victory for free speech, for Wikipedia and Beyond! The Supreme Court of India overturned a Delhi High Court order that had required the removal of an English Wikipedia article about an ongoing lawsuit.
- Mandatory 2FA: Checkusers and oversighters will need to have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled, otherwise they won't be able to use their tools. In the future, this requirement may apply to more user right groups. This is to increase the security of user accounts. See the full message.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Election: Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 Selection & Call for Questions.
- Assamese Wikimedia Community User Group: Recognition of Assamese Wikimedia Community User Group.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 21:56, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
John Antioco
Article is being edited by an IP claiming to be the subject's legal counsel. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 22:15, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Skywatcher68, thank you very much! The content had been originally added by Smurfr in Special:Diff/1116688957, removed by the same IP address in 2024 (Special:Diff/1221909161), restored by Smurfr in the same month (Special:Diff/1225175953), removed and restored by Smurfr yet another time (Special:Diff/1274269555) and now repeatedly removed by the IP editor and restored by you and Janan2025. The latest edit summary appears to contain a valid complaint. It may look a bit threatening, but that seems to be the inevitable result of a lawyer's attempt to provide a WP:PAID-compliant disclosure while discussing whether material is libellous. As long as no threats of legal action are made, that's fine.
- WP:BLPRESTORE applies. Those favoring inclusion of the material would need to find a consensus for it on the talk page of the article. As I assume Smurfr might else just add the material a fourth time, I have now informed them about this requirement.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – June 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2025).
- An RfC is open to determine whether the English Wikipedia community should adopt a position on AI development by the WMF and its affiliates.
- A new feature called Multiblocks will be deployed on English Wikipedia on the week of June 2. See the relevant announcement on the administrators' noticeboard.
- History merges performed using the mergehistory special page are now logged at both the source and destination, rather than just the source as previously, after this RFC and the resolution of T118132.
- An arbitration case named Indian military history has been opened. Evidence submissions for this case close on 8 June.
- Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 17 June 2025. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!
- An Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in June 2025, with over 1,600 drafts awaiting review from the past two months. In addition to AfC participants, all administrators and new page patrollers can help review using the Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!
- The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in June 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!
Simon Jupp
Sorry to bother you but you protected Simon Jupp but someone is really really determined to scrub it. Polygnotus (talk) 10:06, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you very much for the notification, Polygnotus! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 10:18, 7 June 2025 (UTC)
User:Foodie 377
Hi You may want to cast your eye over 2025 India–Pakistan conflict where you pblocked this user for two weeks, and they have started edit-warring again immediately after the block. Black Kite (talk) 20:24, 9 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Black Kite, thanks for the notification. Rosguill was faster, but this is happening since 2011, so I have additionally topic banned Foodie 377 indefinitely. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:23, 9 June 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-24
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The Trust and Safety Product team is finalizing work needed to roll out temporary accounts on large Wikipedias later this month. The team has worked with stewards and other users with extended rights to predict and address many use cases that may arise on larger wikis, so that community members can continue to effectively moderate and patrol temporary accounts. This will be the second of three phases of deployment – the last one will take place in September at the earliest. For more information about the recent developments on the project, see this update. If you have any comments or questions, write on the talk page, and join a CEE Catch Up this Tuesday.
Updates for editors
The watchlist expiry feature allows editors to watch pages for a limited period of time. After that period, the page is automatically removed from your watchlist. Starting this week, you can set a preference for the default period of time to watch pages. The preferences also allow you to set different default watch periods for editing existing pages, pages you create, and when using rollback.

- The appearance of talk pages will change at almost all Wikipedias (some have already received this design change, a few will get these changes later). You can read details about the changes on Diff. It is possible to opt out of these changes in user preferences ("Show discussion activity").
- Users with specific extended rights (including administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, and stewards) can now have IP addresses of all temporary accounts revealed automatically during time-limited periods where they need to combat high-speed account-hopping vandalism. This feature was requested by stewards.
- This week, the Moderator Tools and Machine Learning teams will continue the rollout of a new filter to Recent Changes, releasing it to several more Wikipedias. This filter utilizes the Revert Risk model, which was created by the Research team, to highlight edits that are likely to be reverted and help Recent Changes patrollers identify potentially problematic contributions. The feature will be rolled out to the following Wikipedias: Afrikaans Wikipedia, Belarusian Wikipedia, Bengali Wikipedia, Welsh Wikipedia, Hawaiian Wikipedia, Icelandic Wikipedia, Kazakh Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia, Turkish Wikipedia. The rollout will continue in the coming weeks to include the rest of the Wikipedias in this project.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- AbuseFilter editors active on Meta-Wiki and large Wikipedias are kindly asked to update AbuseFilter to make it compatible with temporary accounts. A link to the instructions and the private lists of filters needing verification are available on Phabricator.
- Lua modules now have access to the name of a page's associated thumbnail image, and on some wikis to the WikiProject assessment information. This is possible using two new properties on mw.title objects, named
pageImageandpageAssessments.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 01:14, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
Junior Pope, revisited
That "Apostle of Agility" stuff is back. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 20:04, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
Likely the previous editor who added the same material. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:30, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
David Slater
Being edited by the subject ("Dns75204" and an IPv6 range)? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 19:50, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Skywatcher68, if this is the article subject, they're talking about themselves in the third person (). They were asked to disclose whether they have a conflict of interest four times and whether it's paid editing three times without responding, so I have blocked them from editing for now. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:35, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
Thomas Greason
Is the misconduct section WP:UNDUE? –Skywatcher68 (talk) 15:26, 12 June 2025 (UTC)
- I don't know. WP:ONUS and WP:BLPRESTORE do apply. Thanks for the notification, Skywatcher68.
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:41, 12 June 2025 (UTC)
Thank you
Hi ToBeFree, thank you for your diligent and careful work regarding Greghenderson2006 and Marchiart. I know I dropped you in the middle of complex situation but as I stated, I really felt like it needed someone equipped to handle it which is one of reasons I chose to ping you (and don't you feel lucky lol). The other is because I know you to be diligent with a dash of you being an Arbcom member so if private communication was needed/preferred, you could accommodate. Marchiart has not responded to your instructions and may not but I don't blame them. I can't imagine being placed in the situation they were. S0091 (talk) 18:05, 12 June 2025 (UTC)
Hi S0091, this is very kind, thank you very much! Of course there's just a limited amount of situations I can handle in detail, which is why I direct sockpuppetry reports to WP:SPI in the edit notice of my talk page, for example.- I think Marchiart's account has probably not been compromised and their description of what happened may be slightly inaccurate; I hope they do follow the instructions sooner or later. It hasn't been 24 hours yet; we'll see. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:10, 12 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi ToBeFree, regarding your responses at Greg's talk page, even if WP:DENY didn't really apply in this case, I was the one who blanked the sockpuppet's userpage (except for the sockpuppet tag) because I thought that it was not a good idea to let him have any sort of satisfaction or recognition (i.e. letting all the content in the sockpuppet's userpage remain) while he (as a person) is still banned. I was also tempted to blank the sockmaster's userpage because I often see sockmasters' userpages being blanked after they are blocked for sockpuppetry, but I later resisted the urge to do that. Thanks for helping to blank that userpage. ~SG5536B 00:28, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Just going to add here that I fully empathize with the situation the artist finds themself in, and I'm sorry that they have to deal with the fallout of the situation. However there are still a couple of things that don't quite add up in relation to the GH and M accounts, at least from my observation. I won't go into that in detail here but will share these thoughts in a more discreet manner to if that is of interest to admins. Netherzone (talk) 01:07, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- In my opinion, I think the WP:DENY essay should apply to any block-evading sockpuppet, no matter whether their edits are good or bad. Also, can an admin please help turn off talk page and email access for Historyjunkie2024? I don't see any good reason for that sockpuppet to have access to their talk page and email other users when these for the sockmaster account are already revoked due to 'misuse'. ~SG5536B 01:16, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi ToBeFree, regarding your responses at Greg's talk page, even if WP:DENY didn't really apply in this case, I was the one who blanked the sockpuppet's userpage (except for the sockpuppet tag) because I thought that it was not a good idea to let him have any sort of satisfaction or recognition (i.e. letting all the content in the sockpuppet's userpage remain) while he (as a person) is still banned. I was also tempted to blank the sockmaster's userpage because I often see sockmasters' userpages being blanked after they are blocked for sockpuppetry, but I later resisted the urge to do that. Thanks for helping to blank that userpage. ~SG5536B 00:28, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
Vermelho7 (again)
Hi ToBeFree. I hate to bring this up again, but I am a bit concerned about Vermelho7's behavior at Talk:Yura Borisov.
I previously mentioned that Vermelho7 requested a third opinion despite having been alerted about RUSUKR. You stated a third opinion is neither a definitive discussion result that must be implemented, nor is it a justification to ignore WP:GS/RUSUKR's extended-confirmed restriction
. It seemed after this point the misunderstanding was cleared.
However, after you protected the page, a new account submitted an edit request on the talk page for something similar to what Vermelho7 added to the article previously. Another editor answered the request and decided not to implement this request. After this, Vermelho7 decided to challenge the other editor's conclusion and they then pinged the previous editor who provided a third opinion stating some of these editors seem to be disregarding your previous 3O
. As that editor did not respond to one of their comments they decided to ping this editor again. Since the other editor has not responded, there has been consistent badgering. Mellk (talk) 18:05, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Mellk, there is a difference between
- what non-extended-confirmed editors are allowed to do in ArbCom-designated contentious topics such as WP:A/I/PIA, and
- what non-extended-confirmed editors are allowed to do in community-designated contentious topics such as WP:GS/RUSUKR,
- because the former refers to WP:ECR while the latter doesn't and defines own exceptions instead.
- Do you see the difference and how it could be relevant? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:27, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- While I understand that non-extended-confirmed editors are able to leave comments on the talk page in this case, not just edit requests, does the excessive pinging/badgering still count as being constructive? Mellk (talk) 18:43, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- Perfect; I wasn't sure if I had to explain that difference or if you asked with it in mind. Thanks. Vermelho7, you're sending pings; I hope you see this one. While I personally see no need for action yet, I think people overestimate the power IOHANNVSVERVS has to make decisions there, and the importance of the article or which text it contains. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:51, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- I see, thanks. I think I will just unsubscribe to that thread just in case. Mellk (talk) 19:05, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- When a user is required to use a talk page instead of editing directly, the most effective way of expressing "no" in response to their repeated requests could indeed be refusing to answer further. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:01, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks @Mellk, @ToBeFree. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 20:24, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- When a user is required to use a talk page instead of editing directly, the most effective way of expressing "no" in response to their repeated requests could indeed be refusing to answer further. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:01, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- I see, thanks. I think I will just unsubscribe to that thread just in case. Mellk (talk) 19:05, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- Perfect; I wasn't sure if I had to explain that difference or if you asked with it in mind. Thanks. Vermelho7, you're sending pings; I hope you see this one. While I personally see no need for action yet, I think people overestimate the power IOHANNVSVERVS has to make decisions there, and the importance of the article or which text it contains. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:51, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree @IOHANNVSVERVS
- Thank you for raising these points, and for once again protecting my ability to express myself freely. I am actually concerned about @Mellk 's behavior insofar as it relates conflicts of interest on the page and tendentious editing. He falsely claimed that non-extended-confirmed editors are not able to request 3Os on the page (correct me if I'm mistaken), sought to disregard the 3O as well as the opinions of two other extended-confirmed editors as a result, threatened to ban me on multiple occasions for citing additional outside resources in the talk page and asking questions, and made misleading additions to the page regarding "poorly sourced materials" when I referenced news sources such as the Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Telegraph. He has consistently refused to engage with the substance of these claims, and has instead sought to use Wikipedia's guidelines to constrain and/or ban my participation on the page from the very beginning. If this doesn't constitute misconduct, then I don't know what does. I would like to report this issue and get wider community participation, but it seems I'm not able to ask for an RfC. If you can help me to do so, I would like to make a formal complaint. Vermelho7 (talk) 17:34, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Vermelho7, I understand your position but neither you nor someone acting on your behalf would be allowed to start an internal project discussion about someone's behavior in this topic area. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:37, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Once again, you have misrepresented what I have said (of course, no diffs). Meanwhile, about a third of your total edits is related to you attempting to add a certain statement to his biography. Somehow, we are still talking about this when you were told about WP:RUSUKR at the very beginning. Mellk (talk) 17:44, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- It's okay. We shouldn't be having this discussion. When Vermelho7 is extended-confirmed, we can talk again. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:04, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree I'm just curious, the page wasn't actually categorized as WP:RUSUKR when this discussion started, right? Vermelho7 (talk) 18:45, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Vermelho7, I didn't check but that doesn't matter: It's about the topic itself, not categorization or templates or whatever else is used to indicate that a page is about the topic. If something is about the Russo-Ukrainian war, broadly construed, then you may not directly edit it nor participate in internal project discussions about it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:46, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Understood. Thank you once again for your help, and for clarifying these issues. Vermelho7 (talk) 18:55, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- No worries, thanks for your understanding! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:55, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Understood. Thank you once again for your help, and for clarifying these issues. Vermelho7 (talk) 18:55, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- Vermelho7, I didn't check but that doesn't matter: It's about the topic itself, not categorization or templates or whatever else is used to indicate that a page is about the topic. If something is about the Russo-Ukrainian war, broadly construed, then you may not directly edit it nor participate in internal project discussions about it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:46, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- @ToBeFree I'm just curious, the page wasn't actually categorized as WP:RUSUKR when this discussion started, right? Vermelho7 (talk) 18:45, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- It's okay. We shouldn't be having this discussion. When Vermelho7 is extended-confirmed, we can talk again. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:04, 13 June 2025 (UTC)
- While I understand that non-extended-confirmed editors are able to leave comments on the talk page in this case, not just edit requests, does the excessive pinging/badgering still count as being constructive? Mellk (talk) 18:43, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
Thanks
Hey, thanks for the note about Colin, I just missed to add him to the actual list. (which as you saw was pretty big as it is, given that it's such a vast area that has had it's share of active actors).
Given his case is kind of funky with this self-imposed CTOP ban of his as well, I'm not quite sure if he will jump in, given that he'd basically violate his own self-imposed offer which avoided the formal CTOP ban of staying out of the area.
In any case, I've added him to the list as you already saw and he can decide himself. Raladic (talk) 01:05, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Raladic, thanks! Discussions about a ban itself are exempt from such bans, so Colin would at least be fine to provide a statement in response to those about their own behavior. Beyond this, I'm relatively sure that the committee will provide exemptions where requested and/or needed. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:09, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
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Tech News: 2025-25
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Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 11


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block applied to List of culinary herbs and spices WP:WAR
Can you please explain why you chose to block my editing of this list? When I have been making constructive contributions to its development whereas Ttocserp has been been the one conducting the edit war by making disruptive edits in reverting my work with the unreasonable excuse of "not an improvement". What has been done about Ttocserp? I was the one requesting that the edit warring by Ttocserp be mediated and made the application, so why this restriction? If Ttocserp had been raising serious issues or making suggestions of a way forward to tackle the issues, as I did, I cannot see why this block has been placed. What is the rationale? With MonteGargano, he made a legitimate case for the removal of "Latin:" as a prefix to the scientific binomial, as it is to a degree redundant. The reason recorded, claiming that they are not Latin is wrong, as the names are Latinized formations. With Ttocserp, there was no reasonable contribution at all. I have been trying to ensure a well-rounded list page and one which as it deals with two related subjects - culinary herbs and spices - make it clear which plants were which, as had been requested many times over on the talk page. It really is a basic point to make clear in such as list as to which are which, and those that are both. You chose to block me while I was in the process of delineating this list. I suggested the creation of a wikitable to assist - fairly simple to do, but a bit of work - to which I had got nothing back. I am disturbed that you did not contact me for further information prior to applying the block as well. 94.196.120.45 (talk) 06:00, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
- 94.196.120.45, I see a lot of text that seems to be answerable with "edit warring is disruptive even if you are right", followed by a request to contact you for further information before actioning your own request for administrative action. The next time you request administrative action, please ensure that any information you find necessary to provide is present in your request. Not that it would have made a difference if I understand correctly. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 14:27, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
Help: 18 June 2025
@ToBeFree: Hello, I have a request for help. An anonymous user has bluntly removed information about deputy ministers from the infobox on Anutin Charnvirakul page and removed the position of Head of the Pheu Thai Family, which was once an honorary position for Paetongtarn Shinawatra. I expect that he will continue to delete them, which will not be good for Wikipedia.
And I would like you to protect Sutin Klungsang page, because he has previously removed positions that he thought should not be on Infobox, claiming that there were too many positions. I think this is a very ridiculous excuse. Preime TH (talk) 14:00, 18 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Preime TH, sorry for the late reply. I think I had a look when I saw the message but didn't see anything that made me instantly protect the page. Please request page protection at WP:RFPP if needed. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:43, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
Possible TPA issue
You may or may not want to look at TPA revocation here. Following the declined unblock they vandalized their talk page (twice). 🪷 nahida 20:48, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
- Pinging @Discospinster too as they were the blocking admin, but it shouldn't matter who. 🪷 nahida 20:50, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
Done, and 24 hours were too optimistic for my liking. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:10, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
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Re: malformed AN3 request
Received and understood, but I'd appreciate a brief look at the contributions of the tagged editor on the page as it's pretty clear to me that they are in large part WP:NOTHERE. Etzedek24 (I'll talk at ya) (Check my track record) 00:48, 24 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Etzedek24, I did have a look before recommending talking to the user and taking it to ANI if they persist.
I think reverting, notifying Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools and warning the user is a good approach. Let's see if there is a response other than simply continuing to edit the same way. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:07, 24 June 2025 (UTC)
- Looks like they've decided to take me to ANI. Etzedek24 (I'll talk at ya) (Check my track record) 02:57, 24 June 2025 (UTC)
- Oh my. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:14, 24 June 2025 (UTC)
- Looks like they've decided to take me to ANI. Etzedek24 (I'll talk at ya) (Check my track record) 02:57, 24 June 2025 (UTC)
Draft:Sidewalk Clock, 783 Fifth Avenue
please will you tell me if this is substantially identical to the GregHenderson version you deleted? I don't have the right goggles. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 12:08, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Timtrent, while WP:G4 excludes speedy deletions and the re-creator is blocked, it might not matter that much, but the difference between ToadetteEdit's version and Historyjunkie2024's revision is . ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:22, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- Seems a small difference, thank you. There is a possibility that this might get AFC accepted providing Henderson with a reward. Intellectually many would find that objectionable. I'd appreciate your thoughts. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:07, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- I do! No worries and thank you! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:34, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- Somehow I doubt that rejecting it, even with rationale, will be the end of it. I hesitate to take it to MfD because someone will find a reason to resurrect it. So that is the best I think I am able to do. Henderson may writ his books which is what he ought to have been doing all along. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:37, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- I find it similarly likely that someone creates a new article about the same topic to break that forever while improving the encyclopedia and at worst ending up at AfD with a deletion that covers any reason for keeping the draft. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:49, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- However, this could be a honey trap for Henderson. My global lock request was granted, which gives me cause for hoping future socks, which I am sure are coming, will also be locked. Your concept has appeal! 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:53, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- I find it similarly likely that someone creates a new article about the same topic to break that forever while improving the encyclopedia and at worst ending up at AfD with a deletion that covers any reason for keeping the draft. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:49, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- Somehow I doubt that rejecting it, even with rationale, will be the end of it. I hesitate to take it to MfD because someone will find a reason to resurrect it. So that is the best I think I am able to do. Henderson may writ his books which is what he ought to have been doing all along. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:37, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- I do! No worries and thank you! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:34, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
- Seems a small difference, thank you. There is a possibility that this might get AFC accepted providing Henderson with a reward. Intellectually many would find that objectionable. I'd appreciate your thoughts. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:07, 26 June 2025 (UTC)
May 2025 NPP backlog drive – Points award
![]() |
The Invisible Barnstar | |
| This award is given in recognition to ToBeFree for accumulating at least 5 points during the May 2025 NPP backlog drive. Your contributions played a part in the 17,000+ articles reviewed during the drive. Thank you so much for taking part and contributing to help reduce the backlog! Hey man im josh (talk) 19:45, 27 June 2025 (UTC) |
Thank you very much, Hey man im josh! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:47, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
June 2025
Please do not ever move any of my comments in any discussion ever again. You are completely wrong, and making unfounded assumptions that my original placement of that comment was to convey the meaning it was more important than the others. Thanks. Isaidnoway (talk) 13:56, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Isaidnoway,
- I found the RfC through WP:AN, where you had asked for administrative assistance because Sangdeboeuf had incorrectly marked the initial RfC comment as "unsigned". The reason why a signature is optional for the initial RfC question is probably that it should be as neutral as possible, and this neutrality is improved by not directly saying who asked the question. Often, it is the first person to reply to the RfC, so I think that effect is limited in practice, but it's a good gesture and Xaosflux helped to enforce your good preference ().
- For the same reason why a signature is optional there – neutrality – it is counterproductive to add personal opinions / interpretations / subjective statements to the initial question especially in response to answers to the original question. Neutral clarifications perhaps, but not "multiple reliable sources" or similar judgements. When the AN section was already closed and the issue resolved, you insisted that this additional comment is neither part of the neutral question nor of the discussion, for which an extra section already existed below the survey, as is usual. This is absurd to me: If the position of your comment actually matters (and I agree it does) then the position you chose for it was inappropriate, as that place was reserved for the neutral question. Adding something non-neutral to it just breaks the neutrality and literally puts your comment above all others.
- Sangdeboeuf then took that concept ad absurdum by replying to the comment above the survey (), inflating the effect of their single dissenting opinion by placing it above the others.
- And none of that made sense to me, so I moved the comments to the discussion section. It's good to hear that the "more important than the others" effect was unintentional; I hope it doesn't seem too absurd when I say that it was unintentionally present until removed. It wasn't limited to your comment; the problem became clearer when Sangdeboeuf replied there, and my edit summary addressed you both.
- I'd probably do so again if I saw a similar situation again, and despite it remaining unchanged even after 24 hours, I hope I can interpret Special:Diff/1297635268 and Special:Diff/1297636903 as a rather unprofessional venting of frustration rather than something I'd actually have to write down somewhere. I've had a quick look at your user page and wondered if we can have... peace.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:43, 28 June 2025 (UTC)- Yes, we can have peace, but I stand by my comment with Sangdeboeuf as that unfounded accusation of gaming the system was unwarranted. I just wish you and Sangdeboeuf had approached me on my talk page, before or even after, and explained yourselves. My comment at the RfC, even if in the wrong place, was made in good-faith, and just wish it had been interpreted that way, it's not like it was a false or misleading statement designed to hoodwink anybody. I've seen dozens of RfCs formatted with comments similar to the way I started that RfC. C'est la vie. Isaidnoway (talk) 17:09, 28 June 2025 (UTC)
- I should have done so, sorry. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:21, 28 June 2025 (UTC)
- Yes, we can have peace, but I stand by my comment with Sangdeboeuf as that unfounded accusation of gaming the system was unwarranted. I just wish you and Sangdeboeuf had approached me on my talk page, before or even after, and explained yourselves. My comment at the RfC, even if in the wrong place, was made in good-faith, and just wish it had been interpreted that way, it's not like it was a false or misleading statement designed to hoodwink anybody. I've seen dozens of RfCs formatted with comments similar to the way I started that RfC. C'est la vie. Isaidnoway (talk) 17:09, 28 June 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-27
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- The CampaignEvents extension has been enabled on all Wikipedias. The extension makes it easier to organize and participate in collaborative activities, like edit-a-thons and WikiProjects, on the wikis. The extension has three features: Event Registration, Collaboration List, and Invitation List. To request the extension for your wiki, visit the Deployment information page.
Updates for editors
- AbuseFilter maintainers can now match against IP reputation data in AbuseFilters. IP reputation data is information about the proxies and VPNs associated with the user's IP address. This data is not shown publicly and is not generated for actions performed by registered accounts.
- Hidden content that is within collapsible parts of wikipages will now be revealed when someone searches the page using the web browser's "Find in page" function (Ctrl+F or ⌘F) in supporting browsers.
A new feature, called Favourite Templates, will be deployed later this week on all projects (except English Wikipedia, which will receive the feature next week), following a piloting phase on Polish and Arabic Wikipedia, and Italian and English Wikisource. The feature will provide a better way for new and experienced contributors to recall and discover templates via the template dialog, by allowing users to put templates on a special "favourite list". The feature works with both the visual editor and the wikitext editor. The feature is a community wishlist focus area.
View all 31 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed that had caused some Notifications to be sent multiple times.
Updates for technical contributors
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:38, 30 June 2025 (UTC)
1 July 2025
@ToBeFree: Hello, I would like to ask for help. The page of Srettha cabinet and Paetongtarn cabinet has been continuously Vandalism by an anonymous user. If you say that there is no need to protect the page, I don't know what to do because it is continuously Vandalism. Preime TH (talk) 15:34, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Preime TH, please request page protection at WP:RFPP instead. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:43, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
Seems I've stumbled across an anti-vax POV-pushing IP hopper
Primarily at the recently deceased Rocky De Witt so far but several other articles as well. IPs involved at the time of this comment are:
– –Skywatcher68 (talk) 00:51, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
- Schwede66 was faster
Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:11, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
Move discussion removed
A user named Remsense has unilaterally removed a move discussion I initiated on the Palestine article. Their reason is that only six months have passed. This is not grounded in any applicable policy. This is especially concerning given that three move discussions were previously opened on that page within a span of just three months. Moreover, the user is assuming bad faith towads me with summaries like "If your only justification is that you have the right, it's even clearer you have no concern for wasting other editors' time with a question that was already very safely decided. That you're willfully ignoring that reality is your problem, not ours to deal with." I would appreciate it if appropriate action could be taken. Hauskasic (talk) 02:34, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 12


Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Elections for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Call for candidates is now open until July 2 at 11:59 UTC.
- Sister projects task force: The sister projects task force has started a community consultation about Wikispore and Wikinews.
- Wikimania 2025: Register now to join Wikimania 2025 virtually from 6–9 August.
- Neutral Point of View: This year's annual planning saw many conversations about the global trends that affect our movement including neutrality and the NPOV policies.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Hackathon 2025: Highlights from Wikimedia Hackathon, a place where everything is 'technically possible'.
- Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon: Reflections and insights from participants and mentors.
- Wikimedia API: The MediaWiki Interfaces team will be investing in Wikimedia web (HTTP) APIs to better serve technical volunteer needs and protect Wikimedia infrastructure from potential abuse.
- Tech News: The Editing team will release Multi Check to most Wikipedias. This feature shows multiple Reference checks within the editing experience. This encourages users to add citations when they add multiple new paragraphs to a Wikipedia article. More updates from Tech News week 25 and 26.
- Temporary Accounts: Temporary accounts were rolled out on ten large and medium-size Wikipedias, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Polish, Indonesian and more. Deployments on more Wikipedias will follow this week. Share your thoughts about the project.
- Mobile Apps: Mobile Apps team launched A/B test of Tabbed Browsing on the iOS Wikipedia App. Users in Arabic, English, and Japanese in select regions will see the test.
- WikiGames: The Android team launched Which Came First? — a fun, multilingual trivia game now available to all Android users in nine languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). It's a new step in making Wikipedia more interactive and engaging for mobile users.
- Community Wishlist: Read results of the recently closed "Wishathon", our internal hackathon organized by Community Tech to help fulfil more wishes from Community Wishlist.
- Wikifunctions: Read Wikifunctions' July–September 2025 plans.
- CampaignEvents Extension: CampaignEvents extension has now been deployed to all Wikipedia, meaning that organizers on any language Wikipedia can now gain access to the extension features directly on that Wikipedia through the Wikipedia local admins.
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- Let's Connect Peer Learning: A look into 3 years of Let's Connect and peek into what's next.
- Knowledge Equity Fund: How a Knowledge Equity Fund grantee and a Wikimedia affiliate collaborate on Human Rights.
- A Wiki Minute Videos: We published three new 'A Wiki Minute' videos about what it takes to run Wikipedia and more topics. All videos are recorded and captioned in Arabic, German, English, French, Brazilian-Portuguese, Spanish.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Legal: Administrative update to the Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use.
- Global Advocacy: Expanding tech policy knowledge at the first big UN Wikipedia edit-a-thon.
- Legal: We announced that a Wikipedia admin has joined our UK Online Safety Act lawsuit.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 19:08, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
India Pak 2025 conflict topic ban
Hello,
I have contributed a few times to a few WP articles after the topic ban. Then I was told that I cannot edit anything remotely associated with India. I also duly complied for that and now I am editing only articles completely unrelated to India as per the topic ban. And I have not all indulged in edit warring.
I have truly during this period since my India topic ban, understood the meaning of "contentious topic" and how to gain consensus in Talk before attempting an edit.
This road to perdition that I have been put into has taught me restraint and also taught me that editing Wikipedia is a privilege that should not be taken for granted at any time.
I believe I can contribute positively. Also another point to note is yes I did some edit warring, but that happened too quick and it was not my intention to get into edit war. If you see the talk Page of 2025 India–Pakistan conflict - Wikipedia, you can see I have started many discussions which shows my enthusiasm to improve the article. And you should agree that I actively engaged in dialogue and consensus building.
Was I a bit aggressive in my tone in Talk page at that time? Yes I now realise that I was. I will not repeat that pattern again. There were a few reasons for that but I have learnt to rise over that. There are a few users who seem to just look into getting people banned instead of contributing to the article. Regardless, I take full ownership of my actions and plead guilty to edit warring. Also I have noticed the decorum and behaviour shown by very senior editors who are editing this article and I have learnt from them how to conduct oneself and also how they practice restraint and decorum. It has been a great learning experience observing them and how they edit and avoid conflict.
Sincerely, At this time, this article is struggling and lacking a lot of new updates that have come in. I believe that I can contribute positively.
I would like to humbly submit my plea to unban me.
Sincerely, Regards, Foodie 377 (talk) 11:51, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Foodie 377,
- Thanks for asking, and for the contributions made since the ban. I'm not sure about their quality and am afraid you'll need to have a look at WP:RSP to see a list of possible issues with sources. Self-published sources, promotional tourist websites and most tertiary sources in general are not useful for writing articles in an encyclopedia. I'm also afraid that an AI tool like ChatGPT may have been involved in creating summaries for you, and that this tool plagiarized the words of the source:
- That's not okay. If you did this manually, please don't do that. If an AI did so, please stop using the AI.
- The content removed by Roxy the dog from the article about Aromatherapy (diff) was about a medical topic and thus requires especially strong sources.
- Your current main goal is probably to get the ban removed by making many helpful contributions. You're learning a lot in the process, it seems, which is good. Making you walk faster than before and letting you stumble is not the ban's purpose, though. I'll remove it.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:25, 1 July 2025 (UTC)- Hi @ToBeFree
- Thank you very much for unbanning me. I will definitely strive to improve the quality of my contributions.
- No I have never used Chat GPT and I never will.
- Noted that I will not copy the text from the sources
- Sincerely,
- Thank you Foodie 377 (talk) 15:28, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- All good. Thanks for the clarification and good luck :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 15:39, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
The abuses are escalating.
Original heading: "His abuses are escalating." ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:30, 4 July 2025 (UTC)
Can you deal with him before things get out of control? I don’t want the edit war to escalate. Any editor has the right to start a discussion on any page to correct a mistake. Deal with him! I discussed with another editor who could not bother to respond. Another user urged them to restore the RM. They're labeling my edits as "nonsense" and creating a hostile environment. Not just for me, but for others as well. Hauskasic (talk) 20:41, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Hauskasic, if you'd like to avoid an edit war, you'll need to stop reverting. If you are concerned about a user's behavior and talking to them doesn't help, you can create a new section at WP:ANI. Best regards, ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:49, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- I didn’t revert anything. He and that other editor are not following Wikipedia’s policies. There’s nothing that prevents starting a move discussion.--Hauskasic (talk) 20:52, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, you wrote about an edit war. Who is edit warring with whom? If you are involved, you need to stop reverting. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:54, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- It’s unfortunate what’s happening. What wrong have I done by wanting to correct a mislabeling of a country? And now you're accusing me of being the one who’s reverting. That person removed my section three times! Hauskasic (talk) 20:56, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- So you added it three times, reverting their removal twice? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:57, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Check his talk page. Do you see even 0.1% of the civility required to be part of an encyclopedia like this? Hauskasic (talk) 20:58, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- How can participation by 11 users, 9 of whom agreed, be regarded as a broad consensus? Hauskasic (talk) 21:07, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, you haven't answered my question, but it was mostly rhetorical; my initial point remains: It takes multiple people to edit war, and if you are concerned about one escalating, stop participating. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:07, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- I contacted the other user who removed the move proposal. At first, he thought I had fewer than 500 edits. But he didn’t restore the proposal, and in the edit summary he wrote that in any case, it’s too soon to open a new discussion. Where exactly is that stated? Hauskasic (talk) 21:10, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, perhaps at WP:IDHT. But if you are concerned about a user's behavior and talking to them doesn't help, you can create a new section at WP:ANI. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:11, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Why am I being prevented from opening a move discussion? Did anyone vote no? Was it closed with a speedy close? Also no. No one was even given the chance to express their opinion?! The move request for the disambiguation page saw significant disagreement and was also opposed by several users. Therefore, there is no broad consensus, and nothing prevents reopening the discussion. Hauskasic (talk) 21:16, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, perhaps at WP:IDHT. But if you are concerned about a user's behavior and talking to them doesn't help, you can create a new section at WP:ANI. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:11, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- I contacted the other user who removed the move proposal. At first, he thought I had fewer than 500 edits. But he didn’t restore the proposal, and in the edit summary he wrote that in any case, it’s too soon to open a new discussion. Where exactly is that stated? Hauskasic (talk) 21:10, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, you haven't answered my question, but it was mostly rhetorical; my initial point remains: It takes multiple people to edit war, and if you are concerned about one escalating, stop participating. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:07, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- So you added it three times, reverting their removal twice? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:57, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- It’s unfortunate what’s happening. What wrong have I done by wanting to correct a mislabeling of a country? And now you're accusing me of being the one who’s reverting. That person removed my section three times! Hauskasic (talk) 20:56, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hauskasic, you wrote about an edit war. Who is edit warring with whom? If you are involved, you need to stop reverting. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:54, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- I didn’t revert anything. He and that other editor are not following Wikipedia’s policies. There’s nothing that prevents starting a move discussion.--Hauskasic (talk) 20:52, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
- It's usually beyond the point so I don't point it out, but since you're intent on writing about me for the foreseeable future and put particular emphasis on the importance of civility as you see it: for your edification, I don't know where you got he, him or his from. Cheers. Remsense 🌈 论 20:12, 4 July 2025 (UTC)
Edward Durr
Just giving you a heads-up that the article apparently is being edited by Mr. Durr as a registered user and an IPv6. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 22:27, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
- I didn't check the AP reference, but did check the Save Jersey reference - which seemed to me to be essentially campaign gossip, which, understandably, Mr. Durr found problematic. You removed that before I could, thank you for doing that. Acroterion (talk) 23:08, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks both :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:09, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
- And I'm looking at the IPs that added the content. Although the article is semi-protected, in the interest of equity and the narrow focus from that IP range, I've blocked the /64 for BLP. I'll keep the article watchlisted. Acroterion (talk) 23:52, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, good catch! Special:Contributions/2603:8000:A300:F27A:0:0:0:0/64 is months-long; I hadn't noticed it was one /64 doing this all the time. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:10, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- From Los Angeles, go figure. There is also an edit in the history originating from a US Senate IP. It's not part of the series of additions. We should probably note on Mr. Durr's talkpage that his concerns were heard and acted upon - while he can see that they were, it would probably be kind. Acroterion (talk) 00:28, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- This diff is particularly concerning. Acroterion (talk) 00:31, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, good catch! Special:Contributions/2603:8000:A300:F27A:0:0:0:0/64 is months-long; I hadn't noticed it was one /64 doing this all the time. Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:10, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- And I'm looking at the IPs that added the content. Although the article is semi-protected, in the interest of equity and the narrow focus from that IP range, I've blocked the /64 for BLP. I'll keep the article watchlisted. Acroterion (talk) 23:52, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks both :) ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:09, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – July 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2025).

Interface administrator changes
- Following a talk page discussion, speedy deletion criterion G13 has been amended to remove "Userspace with no content except the article wizard placeholder text."
- WP:Manual of Style/Superscripts and subscripts was upgraded to a guideline following a RfC discussion.
- The 2025 Developing Countries WikiContest will run from 1 July to 30 September. Sign up now!
- Administrator elections will take place this month. Administrator elections are an alternative to RFA that is a gentler process for candidates due to secret voting and multiple people running together. The call for candidates is July 9–15, the discussion phase is July 18–22, and the voting phase is July 23–29. Get ready to submit your candidacy, or (with their consent) to nominate a talented candidate!
Teach me.
Hey, could you teach me how to properly add non-free pictures to use for an artist’s main article picture? BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk) 20:38, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hello BeyonceKnowlesFan123473, is the artist still alive? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 20:46, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Yes BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk) 20:46, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hey do you have a social media page so you can get my notifications and reply quicker? BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk) 20:56, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- No. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:21, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- @BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk page watcher) Wikipedia interactions are better for being fully transparent. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:22, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials may give you the information you seek, @BeyonceKnowlesFan123473. However, pictures must add value to an article and not be for decoration alone. Something about a topic must be illustrated, or the picture has no value. 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 21:24, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
~ ToBeFree (talk) 21:25, 7 July 2025 (UTC)Non-free content should not be used when a freely licensed file that serves the same purpose can reasonably be expected to be uploaded, as is the case for almost all portraits of living people.
— Wikipedia:Non-free content, introduction section
- Hey do you have a social media page so you can get my notifications and reply quicker? BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk) 20:56, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
- Yes BeyonceKnowlesFan123473 (talk) 20:46, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-28
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Temporary accounts have been rolled out on 18 large and medium-sized Wikipedias, including German, Japanese, French, and Chinese. Now, about 1/3 of all logged-out activity across wikis is coming from temporary accounts. Users involved in patrolling may be interested in two new documentation pages: Access to IP, explaining everything related to access to temporary account IP addresses, and Repository with a list of new gadgets and user scripts.
Updates for editors
- Anyone can play an experimental new game, WikiRun, that lets you race through Wikipedia by clicking from one article to another, aiming to reach a target page in as few steps and in as little time as possible. The project's goal is to explore new ways of engaging readers. Try playing the game and let the team know what you think on the talk page.
- Users of the Wikipedia Android app in some languages can now play the new trivia game. Which came first? is a simple history game where you guess which of two events happened earlier on today's date. It was previously available as an A/B test. It is now available to all users in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Turkish, and Chinese. The goal of the feature is to help engage with new generations of readers.
- Users of the iOS Wikipedia App in some languages may see a new tabbed browsing feature that enables you to open multiple tabs while reading. This feature makes it easier to explore related topics and switch between articles. The A/B test is currently running in Arabic, English, and Japanese in selected regions. More details are available on the Tabbed Browsing project page.
- Bureaucrats on Wikimedia wikis can now use Special:VerifyOATHForUser to check if users have enabled two-factor authentication.
A new feature related to Template Recall and Discovery will be deployed later this week to all Wikimedia projects: a template category browser will be introduced to assist users in finding templates to put in their “favourite” list. The browser will allow users to browse a list of templates which have been organised into a given category tree. The feature has been requested by the community through the Community Wishlist.- It is now possible to access watchlist preferences from the watchlist page. Also the redundant button to edit the watchlist has been removed.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- As part of MediaWiki 1.44 there is now a unified built-in Notifications system that makes it easier for developers to send, manage, and customize notifications. Check out the updated documentation at Manual:Notifications, information about migration in T388663 and details on deprecated hooks in T389624.
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- WikidataCon 2025, the conference dedicated to Wikidata is now open for session proposals and for registration. This year's event will be held online from October 31 – November 02 and will explore on the theme of "Connecting People through Linked Open Data".
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:02, 8 July 2025 (UTC)
Toot Toot! Mail truck coming down the street!

It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
Netherzone (talk) 16:53, 10 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks :) Reply sent. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:57, 10 July 2025 (UTC)
Michael K. Clifford
Just letting you know that the article is being edited by someone who appears to be associated with the subject (edit summary "we have corrected"). –Skywatcher68 (talk) 18:58, 10 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hmm. Hi Skywatcher68, we do tell article subjects to edit the article directly in some cases, for example if there are clear factual errors:
If it contains minor "hard fact" errors, such as an incorrect date, a mistake in spelling or grammar, or a dead link, then please correct those errors.
— WP:FAQ/Article subjectsSimilarly, you should feel free to remove obviously mistaken facts about yourself, such as marital status, current employer, place of birth, and so on. (Note it on the talk page.)
— WP:Autobiography § Problems in an article about youVery obvious errors can be fixed quickly, including by yourself.
— Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons § Dealing with articles about yourselfHowever, our policy on matters relating to living people allows very obvious errors to be fixed quickly, including by the subject.
— WP:COI- Removing unsourced material or material with a source pointing to a person rather than a published source is also fine, at very least if the accuracy/verifiability of the information is explicitly challenged, which already happened in their first edit's summary.
- So I'm not entirely happy with TheM1sty's and your restoration of challenged material. That said, the user added unsourced material, which of course is also not okay. I think a good solution would have been removing their additions while keeping their removals for now. Even if they're paid for promotion, the result is a relatively empty article and the promotion failed. At the same time, if they're paid for removing actually factually incorrect information, it's good for the encyclopedia if that part of their assignment was completed.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:05, 10 July 2025 (UTC)
Why did you change the protection on ISIL to extended confirmed protected?
I was researching on wikipedia just now and I noticed you had changed the protection on ISIL to extended confirmed protected indefinitely. In my opinion, this is too harsh, as there has not been a major global event linked to ISIL recently. I find it very confusing why you did this, and I would like to know why. Da badass west (talk) 01:56, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hello Da badass west,
- I had protected the article about the Islamic State in response to disruptive editing that wouldn't have been stopped by semi-protection. The entire topic area is known to be contentious, so special rules apply to it (WP:GS/SCW&ISIL). You can, however, click here to submit an edit request if there's something specific you'd like to change.
- Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:57, 11 July 2025 (UTC)- Oh ok thanks for responding and do you know any apps I can download for wikipedia and you can include linux ones cause I'm going to switch finally Da badass west (talk) 14:27, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
- Which functionality are you looking for? ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:57, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
- Oh ok thanks for responding and do you know any apps I can download for wikipedia and you can include linux ones cause I'm going to switch finally Da badass west (talk) 14:27, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
Glenn Diesen
Might need protection under WP:GS/RUSUKR, please check. –Skywatcher68 (talk) 14:44, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
Done ~ ToBeFree (talk) 18:01, 11 July 2025 (UTC)
Personal attack
Hi! Recently I reverted some unsourced material added to Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle. The other editor restored the material with the edit summary "Vindictive VANDALISM", then added a section to the talk page in which they called me a "Dum-Dum" and assumed bad faith about my reasons for the edit, again saying that I "vandalize[d] [their] humble additions
", "attempting to triggering some ongoing, juvenile, "Edit War"
" and that my edits was "clearly personal, vindictive, and frankly VANDALISM
". I had previously warned them on their talk page about using the term "vandalism" inappropriately. They have been fairly hostile to me in other discussions, so I don't think my responding to their personal attack would be fruitful. Could you have a word with them about WP:PA and WP:AGF? Thanks. CodeTalker (talk) 16:06, 13 July 2025 (UTC)
- (talk page stalker) None of my business, I suppose, but I found the conduct outrageous and blocked the user for 48 hours. The only excuse is that they're pretty new (or I would have placed a considerably longer block). Bishonen | tålk 16:34, 13 July 2025 (UTC).
- Hi CodeTalker and Bishonen, thank you both very much! This looks like a good solution to me. I'll try to keep an eye on whether it happens again after the block, but please notify me if you see it happening. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:11, 13 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks to both of you! CodeTalker (talk) 17:43, 13 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hi CodeTalker and Bishonen, thank you both very much! This looks like a good solution to me. I'll try to keep an eye on whether it happens again after the block, but please notify me if you see it happening. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 17:11, 13 July 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-29
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Featured templates, a new feature related to Template Recall and Discovery will be deployed this week to all Wikimedia projects: With this feature, editors will be able to quickly access a list of templates that are likely to be useful. These templates will be displayed in a list, under the "featured" tab of the template discovery interface. Administrators can define the list via the Community Configuration interface. The feature fulfills a request by the community through the Community Wishlist.
View all 31 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the request to add Malayalam fonts in the Wikisource Book Export Tool was resolved and now, the rendering of Malayalam letters in exported Wikisource books are accurate.
Updates for technical contributors
Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- Developers, designers, and all Wikimedians are invited to submit a project idea for the Wikimania Hackathon 2025. Read this Diff blog post for more details.
Meetings and events
- WikiIndaba 2025 scholarship application and program submission is open until 23:59 GMT on July 20. WikiIndaba is a regional conference for African Wikimedians both on the continent and in the diaspora to unite and grow together. Submit your scholarship application and program proposal now!
- WikiCon Brasil 2025 will take place on July 19-20 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The Brazilian community members are encouraged to register and attend!
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:06, 14 July 2025 (UTC)
Precious anniversary
| Seven years! |
|---|
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:16, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
Time flies! Thank you very much, Gerda Arendt!
~ ToBeFree (talk) 09:32, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 13


Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues
- Wikimania Hackathon 2025: The Wikimania Hackathon 2025 is inviting you to submit your project idea.
- WikiWomen* Summit 2025: The WikiWomen* Summit 2025 will take place in a hybrid format on 5th August, the pre-conference day of Wikimania 2025. Register now.
- WikiIndaba 2025: The scholarship applications and program submissions are open until 23:59 GMT on July 20.
- WikiCon Brasil 2025: WikiCon Brasil 2025 will take place on July 19-20 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
- WikiConvention francophone 2025: The WikiConvention 2025 will take place in Cotonou, Benin, October 2-5. The call for submissions is open until July 15.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: Temporary accounts have been rolled out on 18 large and medium-sized Wikipedias, including German, Japanese, French, and Chinese; The CampaignEvents extension has been enabled on all Wikipedias. More updates from Tech News week 27 and 28.
- AbuseFilter: AbuseFilter maintainers can now match against IP reputation data in AbuseFilters. IP reputation data is information about the proxies and VPNs associated with the user’s IP address. This data is not shown publicly and is not generated for actions performed by registered accounts.
- Favorite Templates: A new feature related to Template Recall and Discovery will be deployed to all Wikimedia projects: a template category browser will be introduced to assist users in finding templates to put in their “favourite” list. The browser will allow users to browse a list of templates which have been organised into a given category tree. The feature has been requested by the community through the Community Wishlist.
- Wikipedia App: We have launched an A/B test of tabbed browsing in the Wikipedia iOS app. This feature allows users to open multiple articles in separate tabs, making it easier to switch between topics, explore, and return to previous reading spots. The test is currently running in Arabic, English, and Japanese in selected regions. We’re collecting feedback and plan to make the feature more widely available soon.
- MediaWiki: The MediaWiki Platform team has introduced a unified Built-in Notifications system, as part of MediaWiki 1.44, that makes it easier for developers to send, manage, and customize notifications across the platform.
Annual Goals Progress on Volunteer Support
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog · WikiLearn News · list of movement events
- Hubs: Personal, consistent and deeply human: How CEE Hub support the region organizations.
- Legal: Good intentions make for bad law in Utah, we argue in our amicus brief in the Netchoice v. Brown case.
- Wikimedia Organizations: The Wikimedia Foundation and a group of experienced co-authors with affiliate background have drafted the paper Towards a Healthy Ecosystem of Wikimedia Organizations. This paper aims to be presented as a proposal for the movement at Wikimania in August 2025 in Nairobi. Share your feedback before July 29.
- Advocacy: We have created The Wikipedia Test: a public policy tool and a call to action to help ensure regulators consider how new laws can negatively affect online communities and platforms that provide services and information in the public interest.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will center around the theme of "Examining the Impact of LLMs on Knowledge Production Communities" and will take place on July 16 at 16:30 UTC.
- Administrative Update to Our Privacy Policies: Following personnel changes, we are removing the name of our former point of contact serving the European Economic Area and the UK for questions and requests related to personal data in the privacy policy and donor privacy policy.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliations Committee: New resolution from AffComm on User Group recognition interval period.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
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For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 18:54, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

