This is an archive of past discussions with User:28bytes. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as Raymond arritt on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.
Yup, I'm aware. In fact, that RFC was so well-supported that it was given a WP:SNOW closure (as in "Use common sense and don't follow a process for the sake of it.") 28bytes (talk) 12:22, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
if youre open to requests - wondering if you could possibly semi protect [1] as an IP has just pounced with an item I believe exists in the [2] in my opinion... however if its not your cup of whatever, no big deal - I am sure someone will do something, just happened to notice you n my watchlist JarrahTree06:35, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
Hi there. You were right to remove that material: the bit about his son is a not relevant (WP:COATRACK) and the bit about him seems to be sourced to other politicians' speeches. I'm about to sign off for the night, so if the IP reinstates that edit without discussion feel free to remove it again and direct him to the talk page for discussion (and explain what the problem is on the talk page so you can point to that.) We don't usually protect after one bad edit, but if it continues feel free to report the IP to WP:ANEW. 28bytes (talk) 06:45, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
I am new to Wikipedia editing and I have recently done grammar and typo corrections
just wanted to say hello from carrollton,GA!
LYON 02:26, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
Huge Amount of Paid Editing and Paid article creation is done in India.
Please Take a look at these articles most of the artcles are just "GRADE SCHOOLS" and we all know that grade schools are not notable at all.
The citation provided are not independent, and grades school are not notable these types of articles are created by such private school to attract students so they can increase their PROFITS, it's a very common practice in india. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion#G11 And also check who creates such advertisements he should be banned from editing Wikipedia there are more than 1000s of such non-notable paid advertisements in English Wikipedia.
You are my last hope for Independent Wikipedia in India. parents are forced to pay high fees in these schools as we all trust wikipedia, and these schools take advantage of it.
Hi Nuksanhai. I see you have sent this message to a number of other bureaucrats. You should be aware that bureaucrats do not have any special powers to delete articles outside of our regular deletion processes. Following the guidance in our deletion policy is the best way to get unsuitable articles removed from the site. 28bytes (talk) 14:41, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
Merry Merry
Happy Christmas!
Hello 28bytes
Early in A Child's Christmas in Wales the young Dylan and his friend Jim Prothero witness smoke pouring from Jim's home. After the conflagration has been extinguished Dylan writes that
Nobody could have had a noisier Christmas Eve. And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss. Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said, "Would you like anything to read?"
My thanks to you for your efforts to keep the 'pedia readable in case the firemen chose one of our articles :-) Best wishes to you and yours and happy editing in 2019. MarnetteD|Talk07:32, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
2019
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!
Hello 28bytes, 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 a heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019. Happy editing,
bradleyagin 13:03, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
On 19 December 2018, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Sharesleuth, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that billionaire businessman Mark Cuban funded the operations of the investigative reporting site Sharesleuth by short-selling the companies the site reported on? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Sharesleuth. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Sharesleuth), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Excellent. On some Thanksgiving, I met Michael Robinson - please click again tomorrow, for the DYK stats ;) - A friend took my to the gathering, arguing that it was impossible to spend Thanksgiving alone. I met his widow two years ago, strolling here. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:11, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!
Hello 28bytes, 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 2019. Happy editing, TheSandDoctorTalk07:34, 25 December 2018 (UTC)
R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.
Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.
Technical news
Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:
User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
{{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.
Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Hello sir, If I search on english about Nepali wikipedia it will redirect us into another aeticle please fix it and create a page on Nepali wikipedia. Thankyou. — Preceding unsigned comment added by पर्वत सुबेदी (talk • contribs) 16:34, 4 January 2019 (UTC)
Please check out "Happy" once more, for a smile, and sharing (a Nobel Peace Prize), and resolutions. I wanted that for 1 January, but then wasn't sad about having our music pictured instead. Not too late for resolutions, New Year or not. DYK that he probably kept me on Wikipedia, back in 2012? By the line (which brought him to my attention, and earned the first precious in br'erly style) that I added to my editnotice, in fond memory? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:28, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.
Technical news
A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.
A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
I would like to have a permission to create a page
Hello,
so I want to translate the page of Martin Klus from Slovak to English, but it says me that I do not have the permission to create a page. Here I found that I need to have a permission from one of the administrators.
You will need to first add references. Right now it is only referenced to another Wikipedia article, which is not allowed. Once it is properly referenced it can be submitted. 28bytes (talk) 13:41, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.
Technical news
A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.
Arbitration
The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
paid-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
checkuser-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.
The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.
Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.
Hello. For privacy reasons i ask you as a renamer to globally change my user name from my family name "Schmelzle" to "TRXX-TRXX". I haven't been active for ages, but i was active on german and english wikipedia, on commons and on various other MW-pages. You might answer here and also contact me by mail via user page. Thank you in advance! Schmelzle (talk) 11:11, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
Hello. The rename was reset. Actually i ask for privacy and my real name to disappear from version histories etc. That's why i ask to rename my account on all wikimedia pages. What can i do to gain privacy and have the account renamed? Schmelzle (talk) 21:29, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for the hint. I did as you supposed, but i fear my english is too bad to follow any discussion there in all details. i would very much apprecciate if a native english speaker who understands my request for removing my real name from here would have an eye on the process. Does "on hold" mean, that the issue will be discussed over and over again for the next weeks? and who is discussing that? whats there left to discuss in the matter of a personal data removal? regards Schmelzle (talk) 22:23, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
Unfortunately it looks like a different global renamer has declined your request. The only thing I can suggest at this point is seeing if you can get your block on German Wikipedia lifted, or perhaps contacting the oversight team. 28bytes (talk) 23:40, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
My apologies for the above section stating that you are a party. You are not, I made a mistake with the template. -- Amanda(aka DQ)19:51, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
They're a great band, aren't they? Got to see them live when they toured to support that album. But anyway, it's their "most recent" album, sure, but since none of them have since died (thank goodness) it's a little early to call it their "final" album, don't you think? I'm willing to be convinced otherwise if a reliable source is referring to it that way, but short of that it seems like we'd be affirmatively stating that they're never going to make another, which is where WP:CRYSTAL comes in. Thoughts? 28bytes (talk) 04:53, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
Yes, the Cars are a good band; although usually that type of music isn't my thing, the Cars are exceptional. I don't know about you, but it seems most people's viewpoints on Wikipedia, outside of the hip hop area (they can sometimes record a lot of unreleased material, see 2Pac), seem to agree that it's reasonable to call it their final record if a band has broken up because often the thought of reunion is implausible until it actually happens. Although I see now that there's been no formal breakup announcement and the band's infobox doesn't reflect the exact sequence of events...alright, that's fine then. dannymusiceditoroops05:03, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
Recently, several Wikipedia admin accounts were compromised. The admin accounts were desysopped on an emergency basis. In the past, the Committee often resysopped admin accounts as a matter of course once the admin was back in control of their account. The committee has updated its guidelines. Admins may now be required to undergo a fresh Request for Adminship (RfA) after losing control of their account.
What do I need to do?
Only to follow the instructions in this message.
Check that your password is unique (not reused across sites).
Check that your password is strong (not simple or guessable).
Enable Two-factor authentication (2FA), if you can, to create a second hurdle for attackers.
How can I find out more about two-factor authentication (2FA)?
Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)
ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.
Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.
We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.
XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.
Arbitration
In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done so will not be resysopped automatically. All current administrators have been notified of this change.
Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.
Can you call doggos puppers if they arent a pupper but are just small?
Please Help
Thanks, will
On the Verge
Dear 28,
Did you see the article on Verge. I'll mention it in The Signpost, probably in "In the media' in the next edition, and just have a couple of questions for the author. Going by his self-description on Verge (see bottom of page) I'd guess he's not you but you might know him. If you do, could you ask him to email me. I'll check with a few others and have no doubt that he can find me if he wants to. Thanks. Smallbones(smalltalk)01:22, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
The author's name doesn't ring a bell, unfortunately. You could try emailing global-renamers@lists.wikimedia.org; if he's a global renamer he should get it. 28bytes (talk) 01:53, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
re the waltons
hi,i have entered robert wightman as the actor of john boy who played the eladest son,,he is in it for the last two series,a person keeps on changing and has threatened me and is is very vindictive towards me for changing/ adding him to the bottom of the character actors who played john boy,can he not not be put in twice to verify who played whom?
The person who keeps changing it is very much a bully
Can you please look into this,I am most upset with all this
best wishes Andrew aka ~~drew270~~
Are you an admin or not?...ive had nothing back from yourself and rcarter has reported me and his admin has reverted it back to rcarters change and threatened us both with blocking,,,please reply asap.thanks
Well rcarter reported me to admin,i really felt let down...i changed them and rcarter kept on reverting them back..they arent propsed they actually happened so i need help with this!
The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.
Miscellaneous
The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.