User talk:Billinghurst/2012

Thanks and happy new year

Thanks for your alert on my talk page. I have responded on my talk page itself. Wish you a happy new year. --Arjunaraoc 04:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

To look at MediaWiki:Gadget-SBHandler.js

• 'add to local blacklist', an 'add to XLinkBot revertlist', and maybe even an 'add to meta blacklist' (for meta admins)
• put the paths to the lists into user-configurable paths already

... billinghurst sDrewth 13:15, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Not exactly .. here on meta it works on Talk:Spam blacklist and on the /XWiki reports from COIBot (e.g. User:COIBot/XWiki/example.com).

This gadget should be ported to local wikis, where the situation is slightly different - if we take en.wikipedia.org as the start (which is the most complicated), then the situation is first as follows:

• Source-pages: en:MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist, the COIBot /Local files (en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/Local/example.com), and the request page of XLinkBot - en:User_talk:XLinkBot/RevertList
• Target-pages: en:MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist and en:User:XLinkBot/RevertList - these should be accessible from all the three sources, as sometimes things requested for blacklist are not bad enough for blacklisting but could be tested under reverts first, and some stuff on the revertlist request should go to the blacklist immediately.
• Log-pages: [[:en:MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist/log] and en:User:XLinkBot/RevertList_requests/log.

I think that if it is restricted to this, it would be a good start, but you might want to be prepared (but unless it is really easy, I would start with what is here above, and maybe first start with only the blacklist):

• XLinkBot has both a normal revertlist (for normal external links which are not inside references), and one for links inside references, links can be on either or both (en:User:XLinkBot/RevertReferencesList). Latter not much used, but maybe that changes when additions get easier.
• Local wikis also have a whitelist, which operates in the same way, but there the 'rule' that needs to be constructed from a link is way more complicated (generally more than only a domain).
• Some 'mortals' (non-admins, who are nonetheless really trusted in the anti-spam field) have a private revertlist for XLinkBot. en:User:MER-C is one of them. They may have pages which they may use as 'request' pages and pages they use as log-pages (those editors should log things even more strong then admins, otherwise they could loose the right to the private lists when an admin removes them from the XLinkBot settings). LiWa3 and XLinkBot read also these private revertlists when asked to. So for those editors, those pages (request, target and log pages) should be configurable, and those editors should also then be able to use add from the other pages and target them to their 'own' revertlist. For MER-C the revertlist is en:User:MER-C/RevertList.css and en:User:MER-C/RevertReferencesList.css (as you know, .css pages are only editable by the user themselves ánd admins, which makes them perfect for private revertlists).

For really crappy stuff it may be good for those of us who are both a local admin and meta admin, that we can also meta-blacklist from local request pages (all reports are available on meta, which can be used as evidence, and otherwise the evidence is on another wiki, but as long as it is properly linked it perfectly fine - I think there are links blacklisted on meta with as evidence a local request. Also sometimes a request for blacklisting a redirect is posted on a local wiki - now we first have to port it to meta before we can blacklist.

Although never tried, both XLinkBot and COIBot are prepared for being portable to other wikis.

I hope this explains, we'll talk more on other days. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} (en: U, T) 14:29, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

COIBot editting the Main Page — broken?

Hi. Please see here. I've never saw COIBot editting outside the User:COIBot/* namespace. I'm CC'ing Beetstra as the owner of the bot. Thanks. —Marco Aurelio (Nihil Prius Fide) 07:31, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, I think I am aware of what has happened, though the why or how is part of the coding of which I don't know. I revert the edits for that domain, but I had the misfortune to have two empty spaces in a command line and obviously it was coded for one and has taken the other into the regex that rather than ignore the spaces. :( \b vitaclub\.ro\b I noticed the regex issue but totally unaware that it would do that, and had already sent a message to Beetstra asking that we code to ignore the space(s). Apologies for that, very unexpected consequence, and will presume that will be Beetstra's comment. :( billinghurst sDrewth 10:30, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Damn, the blame has been taken away from me, Beetstra has said I have no MYSPACE ;-) it was something else. Beetstra is looking into the issue and the plan is for the naughtiness not to happen again. :-)

As I said on my talkpage, I am going to blame billinghurst anyway. But the fault was mine, COIBot changed wiki-of-login during the edit (fault in a check-command which did not have the correct wiki as a parameter), and then did not load the correct page, and hence did not save the correct page. It did however its utter best (probably) to save it as the mainpage.

Anywayz, COIBot has been trying to save the mainpage on wiki now for a couple of days (at least 4 IRC commanded revertlistings), generally failing miserably and just throwing an error that I did not see in the logs. However, today it managed. Anybody an idea why COIBot today was allowed to edit the mainpage? I mean, COIBot is a mere bot, at the mercy of our hands .. not an admin ...

The bot has been repaired - this error will not happen again (don't worry, Murphy predicts that COIBot will find something else). --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} (en: U, T) 13:00, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Blind assisting blind...?)

Could you take a look at this - not my specialist subject but? Not currently enabled in case it brings the entire system down. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:38, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Fiddled and tested. I am still learning too. :-) What happened to the simple times when you just smacked them upside to the head? billinghurst sDrewth 11:06, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Hence the heading ;-) not sure who the guide dog is... Thanks for looking - enabled now so if everything crashes it is obviously "all your fault" - gone to put it on Commons too. Does seem to be a real outbreak of junk currently.

AND - the filter is not good - it just prevented this posting! Back to the drawing board I guess Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:19, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

OK - revised and enabled without disallowing for now? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:31, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

I will play. billinghurst sDrewth 11:32, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Pretty sure it needs "regex" not "rlike" under the circumstances and I've added article_text which I think is needed. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:37, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

What it needed was for me to properly save my edits. Incompetence rules. Saved and back into test, no tags. billinghurst sDrewth 11:39, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Many thanks - let's watch for a bit. Reading the media wiki stuff I probably should get to grips with it - might knock a few predictable folk stone dead by the look of it. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:42, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

www.babies-kingdom.com

Hi, my name is Luis Garcia, you took out my link from "bebe" and "fecundacion" thats the last change you have made, and you also block me. I Believe the changes a already made follow wikipedia's External Links Policy. Please go to www.babies-kingdom.com and let me know what else need to be change. I respect any rule and I will like your approval before proceed to add any other link from any other of my websites. I Apologize for the inconvenient.

Please do not hesitate on email me, yamilopr20@gmail.com att: Luis Garcia

P.S Sorry for my english and if I wrote this in the wrong place too. Thanks. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.175.180.13 (talk)

The url was entered at two sites in a number of articles over a few days.[1] There was no reasoning provided for why your links are special or why they wer added, your site is not unique in its detail, nor does it show specialist information, or anything to lead credibility to the links. This is an encyclopaedia, not a listing service for Wikipedia:external links and you have not clearly demonstrated the value of your links nor why they should be hosted. If you are after a listing service please use http://www.dmoz.org/ billinghurst sDrewth 06:20, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Good luck

Hi Billinghurst, glad to see that you decided to step up in the elections. Good luck! Steward elections are usually somewhat harder for English-based users for some reason, but I believe you have a good chance of getting elected. At least, you certainly don't seem like the sort of person to make many enemies :) Jafeluv 18:38, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks mate. Some of us English-speakers are not in the place to be competent in multiple languages, and that is something that I cannot remedy, well not in any short timeframe. Ultimately I am just here to help, and if the community doesn't want that help from me, that is okay, it is there choice, and I just get to bother other people to do the required tasks. :-) I am okay with that, as it truly isn't about me. With regard to enemies, <shrug> I probably have some, however, I try to treat all people with respect, again with the philosophy that this is not about me, but our community, and in general for real contributors we are going to agree on more than what we disagree, and that makes a good starting point. billinghurst sDrewth 12:12, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Hey! What is it?!

http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Спеціальна:Contributions/Billinghurst --Dim Grits 18:17, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi Dim Grits. I will take the question locally to ukWP later today. Probably works better to be done there. billinghurst sDrewth 06:36, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Question

Hi Billinghurst, as I demonstrated here arbcom has never looked at my evidences. I was simply refused in a conflict resolution with no reason. Now I am community banned, although I have done nothing wrong. It does not feel good at all. You are an admin on a few wikis, including English wikipedia. I wonder, if you'd be willing to go over these differences with me in a privacy of my talk page, for example. I am not in a hurry. We could do a difference or two per day. Then, if something will cause your concern, it could be deleted from RFC? Another question. The biggest concern I expressed in my RFC was misusing tools while involved. May I please ask you, if it is a common thing, when admins misusing tools while involved, and the policy was never actually enforced? Thanks--Mbz1 04:49, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

I am not sure that is fully appropriate, and it is not something that I would do without the imprimatur of ArbCom, as while I am an admin here, the topic matter is related to enWP, and they have the ultimate decision-making in that place. Let me consult with, and seek opinions of, a couple of people here at Meta, and at enWP about this. I hesitate, though I do wish to assume good faith. billinghurst sDrewth 06:43, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I assure you that the only thing I really want is a fair and balanced examination of the evidences, and discussing these evidences in specific therms. I have never got any specifics from anybody. The irrelevant evidences should be removed, but with explanation in specific therms.Yesterday, one of members of arbcom posted this. So he basically agrees that imposing blocks when involved is misusing the tools. I documented quite a few cases of Gwen Gale misusing the tools while involved. The latest case happened, in the beginning of February. Nobody ever said anything in particular abut any of the situations, including my own. Thank you.--Mbz1 12:31, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

FYI

Re [2], I've opened a Requests for comment/Meta-wiki requests for comment on users yesterday. ASCIIn2Bme 18:10, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Deleting users without evidence?

About the election, you had a question from Dream Focus about your deletion of user Savingsplus. In the deletion box, there is a citation of the WP policy under which the deletion was done. But the user had not done any editing. You didn't explain any specifics. I'd like to know why you didn't include specifics that would explain your action, so it would not appear that you had done the deletion only because of the name. In other words, if that user had posted spam, where is the evidence? My suspicion is that the account deletion box template should include a field for this evidence, and needs to be changed to do so. What do you think? David spector (talk) 10:26, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Gday David. There is documentation at w:en:User talk:Savingsplus that states that it is spamusername, and it was for spamming with links to the appropriate policy. I deleted the spam, which is why it doesn't show up in the contributions, though for all administrators it will show up as a deleted contribution, and if you have a look at the user page you will see a system note that the page has been deleted.

The practice for clear and evident spam names is to not excessively document the situation, it is to block the account, undo or delete the spam and move on, as it is extremely rare for general users to even notice blocked spam accounts; for the clear spamming activities, shut it down and demonstrate to spammers that we do not tolerate it. There is the ability for the blocked account to appeal a block, and the administrative notes are usually quite sufficient. For good faith and even borderline cases we will provide more documentation, and in some circumstances advice. With regard to noting the page, we can with some of the templates if there is value to do so, with deleted spam pages, they would be redlinks that highlight the spurious. And to note we don't delete accounts, they are forever, we can and only delete pages, so all content can be retrieved if someone appeals and it is successful. Thanks for asking. billinghurst sDrewth 11:23, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick and detailed response. I think a link to the nonexistent article in the 'deleted' User and/or UserTalk pages would not be over-documentation. I also think that it should be possible for anyone to read a deleted article (with significant effort to find it) in a place hidden from search engines. (This can already be done automatically by poor external scanning tools.) David spector (talk) 11:47, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

As a wikipedian and a wikisourcerer I have moved pages between both to get pages to align with both scopes, so I can see good reasons to delete especially with regard to scope. I am also not a big supporter of spam, so don't favour giving spammers a "free kick in front of goal" to come and ruin pages. Similarly, when to comes to legitimate copyright and intellectual property enforcement, there would be clear reasons to not allow viewing. So with that as background, I look forward to reading a proposal and a rationale. billinghurst sDrewth 12:08, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

"both scopes": Sorry, don't understand "scope". Is this a standard WP term? I certainly agree that spam should be deleted without fuss--I understand that issue well. However, when the reason for deletion is spam, some evidence ought to be given. Even phrases like "cheap drugs" or "larger penis" would make the reason for deletion clear without giving spammers any monetization. Without evidence, anyone with access rights can delete any user and claim they were spamming--or at least it may seem that way to WP readers. As to a proposal, I'm nowhere near that stage in my thinking, as you can see. I did not even know that this issue existed until you helped me to see it. David spector (talk) 14:03, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Scopes of enWS and enWP … What Wikipedia is & What Wikisource includes, so what they do and implicitly what they don't do. Re the practice, I will see what I can do; here the spamusername block says 1) spammed, and 2) clearly relationship between the username and either a business or a product name. Any of the administrators can review without issue, or recourse to other admins, so there is nothing that can be done without overview.

Okay, you've lost me. I have no admin experience at all, just an editor. I never heard of Wikisource. I don't understand "on the quiet". I've said exactly what I feel about evidence in the case of spam user deletion. I NEVER will agree that a username should be deleted ONLY because of what someone thinks it means, because they could be wrong. I will always want WP to demand evidence for the deletion of anything. If any of what I've said is useful to WP, good. If we've stopped communicating, let's leave it at this. If I care, and if I have the time, I'll find someone else to talk to about this, maybe at the Village Pump? Anyway, thanks for the interesting discussion! I couldn't have clarified this on my own. David spector (talk) 00:26, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Not heard of Wikisource? Oh no! How do you get through your days???<mock horror> Wikisource is our open library where we produce public domain texts. Many pre-1923 works are being reproduced, and have a great tool that puts OCR text next to images to enhance transcription and correction. billinghurst sDrewth 09:51, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

OCR@Wikisource

Oh, I thought that was WikiMedia, where the File: namespace is stored. What do I know? That sounds interesting. Where can I read about that great tool? Does it really take an image and do OCR on it? How does it compare to the top of the line physical OCR scanners? Please tell me more. 67.255.236.4 14:35, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

We have a great scheme in place. The images are stored at Commons, and through our use of an extension we create a frame to hold the image and we have text sitting beside it. We have an really easy means to manage this with .djvu files where we can extract layers, and proofread straight against it, or we can do other components, like transcribe from a jpg file, or we have people undertaking translations.

• s:en:Help:Proofreading
• s:en:Help:DjVu files

With regard to OCR, through the use of our transcription/proofreading namespace, we have a means to run an OCR on toolserver against a page. The quality of the scan is still important, then it uses Tesseract that comes with one of the linux builds. Re quality? I don't know but it manages the English that I need. Perfect? No. Am I the expert? Most definitely not. billinghurst sDrewth 15:12, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Info

Sneaky bastards - here - may be worth being aware of - cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 16:52, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Thx. That is the third time that I have seen the link, so 1) they do repeat their spam xwiki, and we should look to consider blacklisting earlier, 2) bastards! blacklisted. billinghurst sDrewth 01:09, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for info - I was going to poke that link today after reflection.

Speaking of... I poked this one yesterday. I notice the bot reported one placement but not the other which was on the talk page of the same page - does the bot not pick up those for some reason? Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:01, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Dunno, that is a little black magic. When I am doing clean up, I utilise the [?] Erwin report and double check the Special:Linksearch billinghurst sDrewth 09:37, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Questions

Please reply at Meta:Proposal_for_a_policy_on_involved_administrators. Thank you. Alanscottwalker (talk) 14:27, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi ASW. Thanks. I am watching, though as I do like to see other people's opinions and consider their points of view I am not ready to respond.

In general while I don't agree with certain points of view, it is legitimate that they be heard, as they can have elements of truth, and accordingly should be allowed to be said (courtesy and respect provisions apply). Please note that I also work on the philosophy of quality of discussion rather than quantity of such, I find that the practice of continued comment unhelpful in sorting through an argument, hence, I make an attempt to speak less and add opinion when I think that it has real value. billinghurst sDrewth 23:08, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I think that's excellent practice. I too try to be patient and generally am. What concerns me is I raised a process question in the discussion, to you and Avi, which neither of you responded to. This is distressing and confusing for someone who is trying to work with the group as a good metamedian. This concern, to me, is born out by the fact that it appears that Nemo has now made a process objection, in the discussion on Babel, that any discussion of a best practices policy is right now in the wrong place. As to general communication issues, please, if you have a chance re-read the entire discussion at the the RfD Discussion page (hopefully you will note that I never requested de-admining anyone) more, importantly please look how Sj responded to me a perplexed user. Sj acknowledges the process concerns, the confusion and explains some actions to be taken and imparts some understanding. But really I ask you to think about how to communicate to even the occasional user through clear written policy. This, I think, is all the more important, since many admins are busy or doing other important stuff in their lives or here. Thanks. Alanscottwalker (talk) 19:02, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

It has been busy spam- and vandalism-fighting and real life days, and for me I need/like clean thinking time for these aspects. billinghurst sDrewth 21:45, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Spammy thoughts

Still on this thread generally - could/should we try and "reach" the folk with a real cross wiki interest in this somewhere? I know we are not the only ones but I'm not sure who the others are who are really concerned with the issue.

IMNSHO yes. There are numbers who don't like the (mis|ab)use and the process for management is fractured and seems to be directed by the purity of programmers.

Any suggestions as to how to "catch" those folk? Or do we try and create a list and then spam them with some thoughts and find a page (here?) to try and organise stuff? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:39, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Not a single original thought is left in this skull this evening, beyond pushing back to the list community and picking up the general bot operators doing at each wiki, and I think that the listees would see and know them. billinghurst sDrewth 12:54, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

So - if sleep has improved the brain at all ;) - it is how to get to folk with an interest in cross wiki spam that I was wondering about. Global sysops maybe, obviously Beetstra, Bever, likely Quentinv57 for egs? Meta is the obvious venue maybe? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:33, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Per my post on 'source I've started to run all abuse log postings from here and Commons through COIbot - good/bad idea? Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:47, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I think that it is good, it creates a baseline from which to work. If quiescent in that space, then no harm; if revisited then we have a record. Also creates an evidence base for use with the powers that be, andthus not rely on opinion or anecdotal recollections. billinghurst sDrewth 12:08, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

For tomorrow!

When you are awake & I'll think through the reply above - however

I've not been as actively involved in the spammy stuff of late but I just poked this one due to a user page spam on here. In the bad old days before there were many folk around I reckon I would have bl'd this one. While most are not recent it has just been spammed again? Leave it till you've slept! --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:02, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

It was blacklisted, presumably subsequently and just not cleansed. billinghurst sDrewth 23:58, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks - in passing I assume the bot is not working because of server issues? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:33, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Linkwatcher fell over, I believe that it has had a band-aid applied, and a kiss on the knee to make it feel better. billinghurst sDrewth 13:05, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks - 3 from yesterday are still sitting there - may repoke. Any answer to the one above and mail next :) --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:35, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

It knows that they are there and waiting, it just gives them lower priority (xwiki highest)
<COIBot> 220 records waiting: 0 XWiki, 156 Local, 24 Redirect, 6 Poked, 0 Meta, 0 IP, 7 requested
<COIBot> Waiting: sainte-rita.net, iom-world.org, e-ochronainformacji.pl, photographyoflewiscarroll.googlepages.com, textes-psy.com, panizparila.com, ceriscope.sciences-po.fr, nitronix.ru, xaz
<COIBot> On Wiki: 22 open XWiki reports and 2407 open Local reports.

billinghurst sDrewth 14:28, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Bugs detected in wiki software and/or filter

This action has been automatically identified as harmful, and therefore disallowed. If you believe your edit was constructive, please inform an administrator of what you were trying to do. A brief description of the abuse rule which your action matched is: new user adding external links

I was trying to create my user page in WikiSource, a sister website to WikiPedia and part of the WikiMedia family of sites.

The error is in categorizing me as a new user. I've been here for roughly 9 years.

A related error is that separate user and talk pages are supported in each of the many sister websites, and in each language, in spite of a common login. The preferences don't appear to be shared, either, although I haven't tested this.

Seems to be an oversight of the programmers of the underlying Wiki software, although there could be an error in the filter code as well. I don't know even a fraction of what I would need to fix it myself.

Sometimes, developers deny that a bug is a bug. In such cases, I invoke the principle of least astonishment. Whenever someone knowledgeable expects something to work a certain way, and it clearly doesn't, it's usually a bug. David spector (talk) 14:44, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

You might find what I was trying to post on my user page at WS relevant, since it contains external links. Note that the external links are to sister websites!

==Thanks for visiting here.== There seems to be a bug in the WikiMedia family such that multiple user pages are supported. This page is the non-language WikiSource page. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:David_spector is my English WikiSource page. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:David_spector is my Meta-WikiMedia page. I don't use any of these, it's too complicated! I use the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:David_spector along with its talk page, because I started with WikiPedia.

David spector (talk) 14:51, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I went looking at English Wikisource and couldn't see a problem, then I worked it out that it was oldwikisource:. Some concepts … every wiki that you visit for the first time creates your account at that wiki (that is the situation here) and each wiki has a period of time before you are autoconfirmed (usually several days). The filter that caught your edit stopped external urls being added in those circumstances. There is actually a better way to have the text that can be applied now, and is actually using some of the neat tricks of interwiki linking. Try with interwiki …

==Thanks for visiting here.== There seems to be a bug in the WikiMedia family such that multiple user pages are supported. This page is the non-language WikiSource page. [[en:User:David_spector|]] is my English WikiSource page. [[m:User:David_spector|]] is my Meta-WikiMedia page. I don't use any of these, it's too complicated! I use the [[w:en:User:David_spector|Wikipedia page]] along with its talk page, because I started with WikiPedia. billinghurst sDrewth 22:31, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Heh, heh. Poor, overly-complicated, unplanned-growthy, subtly buggy WikiSystem... David spector (talk) 00:25, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Not really. The filter at wwwWSare presuambly to stop spammers coming along and creating an account and spamming. The interwikis do simplify and allow for protocol neutral links whether people are using http (insecure) or https (secure) logins, otherwise hard urls like you used would force people using secure logins to not be logged in. Example of the ease:

• Wikisource s:
• Wikiquote q:
• Wikipedia w:
• Wiktionary wikt:
• Wikibooks b:
• Commons commons:
• Wikiversity v:
• Meta m:

Shortcut wikilinks are fantastic at English Wikisource and other sites as we can link to articles at other languages or other wikisites with quick code, and not fully expanded urls. billinghurst sDrewth 03:24, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

These shortcuts do not seem to work in my Wikisource user page:

There seems to be a bug in the Wikimedia family such that multiple user pages are supported. This page is the non-language Wikisource page. s:en:User:David_spector is my English Wikisource page. m:User:David_spector is my Meta-Wikimedia page. I don't use any of these, it's too complicated! I use the Wikipedia page w:User:David_spector along with its talk page, because I started with Wikipedia. David spector 17:56, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

David spector (talk) 18:02, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I have created requested page, and I did do a little stuff up & corrected. All done. Play until your heart is content. :-) billinghurst sDrewth 21:49, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! David spector (talk) 01:24, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Puzzled

Per this site was bl'd in December (& is on the sbl) BUT it has just been spammed again on Meta...? (unless I am particularly dim today) Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:15, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Looks like a failure in the system somehow
[01:59] <sDrewth> wherelisted biurokonkret.com
[01:59] <+COIBot> biurokonkret.com is caught by blacklists: [global] \bbiurokonkret\.com\b, [meta] \bbiurokonkret\.com\b

<shrug> keep watching for a reproduction? billinghurst sDrewth 15:02, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

I couldn't add it manually to this page, so that block works as expected. billinghurst sDrewth 15:09, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks - weird, obviously "things going on" abuse log is out too. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 15:34, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations, Dear Steward!

Hello Billinghurst! On behalf of the stewards' election committee, congratulations on your appointment as a steward! Your permissions have now been set and you are able to start the work.

You have been added to the list of stewards and the stewards' chart. Please take a moment to check that your details are accurate and update them if necessary. In addition, please subscribe to checkuser-l, the private mailing list for Wikimedia checkusers, and stewards-l, the private list for stewards. In addition, you will be given access to the related private wikis, one for checkusers and the other solely for stewards, details of which will be provided.

If you use IRC, please contact an operator for access to #wikimedia-checkuser and #wikimedia-privacy. Please also idle in #wikimedia-stewards when you are available for duty.

Best of luck with your new tools; I am sure you will do a fantastic job. Please remember that your fellow stewards are always available if you need a second opinion, either via the mailing list or on IRC.

Useful links:

• Stewards policy
• Steward handbook
• Steward requests

On behalf of the election committee,
— [ Tanvir | Talk ] 01:26, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

• Congratulations, and thanks again for Listen template help at Tech. -- Proofreader77 (talk) 01:28, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Congrats :-) --Katarighe (Talk) 01:36, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to all. All a bit humbling the thoughts by those who knew me and effort made by many who did not to evaluate my suitability, whichever way people voted. billinghurst sDrewth 01:48, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

FWIW

That global IP block... Just had an identical edit from an open proxy (different ip) on Commons. I smell a rodent... Cheers (btw the way - enjoy the new toys :)) --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:17, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I did extend it after I was pointed to have a look at http://www.stopforumspam.com/ . I guessed it was dodgy, I just wasn't sure how much, so thanks for the notification. I hasten slowly on toys, I don't want to wear out the button. billinghurst sDrewth 13:16, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

I also tend to look at http://www.projecthoneypot.org/ :) --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:18, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

'nother couple of links here which may interest or not. Latest pattern accounts here. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:34, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Being the good string puppet, I have updated Template:IPSummary so that it gives us some extra click spots. Downside is that you have to add it to a wiki page. I was wondering in the value of a universal generic page where we just

* {{IPSummary|xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx}} ~~~~

and we just cull the contents every now and again. It would allow us to keep track of bits and pieces. And/or, I could put it into the Category: space at another wiki where IP addresses are categorised as a heading template. billinghurst sDrewth 14:29, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Maybe string (haha) but obviously with brains - not thought of that... Good thinking.

That neatly leads me on to the fact that the WHOIS link here doesn't like us any longer - something about too many queries - so that could come off and I was wondering if we could find one or two useful ones to put on there? Some form of DNS lookup would obviously be useful but maybe one of the links here or on Barras's page too? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:59, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Correction - the WHOIS one is now working again but the point applies generally. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 15:00, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Info

And maybe look for obvious mistake here - not at all sure about words with spaces? These are culled from recent phrases used on Commons. Thanks & regards --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:22, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

CU

Congrats! I've just closed the request and Peter gave you the mop! I think you already know how everything works. -Barras talk 10:43, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

It's now your turn to get to work right now! Thanks a lot! --Katarighe (Talk) 15:17, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, the supercharge squeegee for the mop looks nice. billinghurst sDrewth 21:53, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Help

Can you help me in id.wiki now? Mikhailov Kusserow (talk) 15:01, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

I am not sure that I am the best person to assist in idWP. Have you spoken to an administrator there? Someone like User:Meursault2004 ? billinghurst sDrewth 15:39, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Spam blacklist

Fyi: this had to be a mistake. Regards, Trijnstel_talk 15:34, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Yep. Very weird, I am not sure how it only partially loaded that page, yet still gave a complete page that could be saved, though it probably had to do with my dodgy connection. :-( Good catch and thanks. billinghurst sDrewth 03:57, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Block Request

Can you block my global wikimedia account?--Player23 (talk) 04:27, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

My meaning is ALL.--Player23 (talk) 04:28, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

No person can block all instances of a wikimedia universal account, that needs to be blocks at each site, so would be local administrators at each wiki, sulutil:Player23. What can be done is for an account to be locked to login, which effectively achieves a similar thing. Please see "Managing global accounts" and if that is what is required, then it can be undertaken. It would be terminal for the account as there is little further means to effectively enable communication from the account without an external note recording process. Such is possible, however, would involve a further level of communication. billinghurst sDrewth 04:56, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

@Billinghurst, please see this CheckUser request and perform it if you want. :) Trijnstel_talk 09:51, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Odd?

I had this on Commons yesterday - per this I tried to block the user but the dialogue said the account didn't exist...?

I updated the filter so it now gives a warning, and the bot is not scripted to get through that step, so it fails to confirm its action so if fails to create the account. I probably should get it to tag as a secondary act, where the account is then forced to be created. I did email other checkuser about the mod, though not explicitly stating the technical aspects.

Appreciated - obviously it prevents running CU too as it stands? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:48, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes there is no account to check, so no different from a blocked IP address just this time we have the evidence of the attempt. billinghurst sDrewth 12:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

for the local rendition I added a tag that will show the creations in the log, so this is the accounts that progress past the warning. It may be worthwhile looking to create a custom warning message, I just haven't got there yet.

Also COI bot seems dead? Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

I am seeing it there and responding to commands

[21:31] <sDrewth> !waiting
[21:31] <COIBot> 6457 records waiting: 3 XWiki, 10 Local, 6 Redirect, 65 Poked, 0 Meta, 0 IP, 6155 requested
[21:31] <COIBot> Waiting:  irkipedia.ru, highspeedsoft.blogspot.com, ex.ru, bmpt.du.ac.bd, tourism.euskadi.net, turismo.euskadi.net, osiptel.gob.pe, jamonor.com, ironreavergames.com, geoweb.venezia.sbn.it
[21:31] <COIBot> On Wiki: 13 open XWiki reports and 3096 open Local reports.

billinghurst sDrewth 11:38, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Panoramas in Estonian Wikipedia

I don't think there's any reason to delete the links to copter panoramas from Estonian Wikipedia.--Morel (talk) 15:24, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Hey

Lock my account globally please. I'd rather not have to edit in a way which would result in a global lock. --Claritas (talk) 22:42, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

The place for these requests is Steward requests/Global#Requests for global (un)lock and (un)hiding. Before requesting a lock of your own account, please read the links at the top of the page about the reasons for locking. billinghurst sDrewth 01:04, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Another view

Here - not sure this is really a "project", looks like it could be a misunderstanding but I don't want to be grumpy... --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:56, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't belong here, and possibly not on WMF at all. it may be possible that it should be at v:, and that is where I would suggest that they take it. billinghurst sDrewth 15:03, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Might be of interest

This is stolen from en wp - testing for now and on Commons too. Feel free to share - cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:19, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Great. billinghurst sDrewth 13:12, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

The usual... another view?

If you checkout my most recent poke (here) would you "run" the top twenty wiki search on atoptics when you get the chance. I came across it on Commons - a single placement - however it looks like something more organised maybe. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:34, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

[23:39] <sDrewth> research link atoptics.co.uk

[23:39] <COIBot> 1/6: Link atoptics.co.uk: 32 additions by 20 (18 unique) users to 7 wikis; atoptics.co.uk on server 88.98.24.69: 80 additions by 80 (50 unique) users to 80 wikis

[23:39] <COIBot> 2/6: Top 10 users of atoptics.co.uk (UL, ULW, TL): user:ClueBot NG (4, 4, 252888), user:86.68.38.39 (3, 3, 3), user:84.97.149.211 (3, 3, 3), user:ChrisCarss Former24.108.99.31 (2, 2, 47), user:Thegreatdr (2, 2, 243), user:Ordinary Person (2, 2, 29), user:Shirik (2, 2, 409), user:Leluthier (2, 2, 2), user:84.97.149.219 (2, 2, 4), user:84.97.149.81 (2, 2, 2)

[23:39] <COIBot> 3/6: atoptics.co.uk added between 2012-01-31 15:11:09 and 2012-04-13 09:17:13; Top 5 days when atoptics.co.uk was added: 2012-04-04 (5), 2012-02-15 (3), 2012-01-31 (2), 2012-02-16 (2), 2012-03-01 (2), 2012-03-19 (2), 2012-03-28 (2), 2012-04-01 (2), 2012-04-05 (2), 2012-04-09 (2); 24 links in 5 days.

[23:39] <COIBot> 4/6: Top 10 domains on server 88.98.24.69 (L, UL, DUL, WL): atoptics.co.uk (32, 32, 32, 32), explainthatstuff.com (11, 11, 11, 11), alt-usage-english.org (6, 6, 6, 6), movable-type.co.uk (5, 5, 5, 5), eastlondonlines.co.uk (4, 4, 4, 4), radaenterprises.org (4, 4, 4, 4), yachtsnet.co.uk (4, 4, 4, 4), thecalmzone.net (2, 2, 2, 2), heatingcentral.com (2, 2, 2, 2), natgould.org (1, 1, 1, 1).

[23:40] <COIBot> 5/6: Top 10 users of server 88.98.24.69 (US, USW, TSU, DTSU): user:ClueBot NG (8, 8, 252888, >>), user:ANHL (4, 4, 46, 46), user:86.68.38.39 (3, 3, 3, 3), user:84.97.149.211 (3, 3, 3, 3), user:Jim1138 (2, 2, 17764, >>), user:ChrisCarss Former24.108.99.31 (2, 2, 47, 47), user:NJIT HUM..Hugo92 (2, 2, 2, 2), user:Thegreatdr (2, 2, 243, 243), user:Seldimi (2, 2, 7, 7), [[use

[23:40] <COIBot> 6/6: Server 88.98.24.69 added between 2012-01-22 01:27:14 and 2012-04-13 09:17:13; Top 10 days when server88.98.24.69 was added: atoptics.co.uk (32, 32, 32, 32), explainthatstuff.com (11, 11, 11, 11), alt-usage-english.org (6, 6, 6, 6), movable-type.co.uk (5, 5, 5, 5), eastlondonlines.co.uk (4, 4, 4, 4), radaenterprises.org (4, 4, 4, 4), yachtsnet.co.uk (4, 4, 4, 4), thecalmzone.net (2, 2, 2, 2), heatingce

[23:46] <sDrewth> getrevids link atoptics.co.uk

[23:46] <COIBot> revids w:en:474221389 w:en:474221389 w:ja:41131558 w:tr:10760749 w:de:99694230 w:en:477094470 w:en:477094470 w:de:99755907 w:de:99762886 w:ar:8200946

[23:46] <COIBot> revids w:en:479636235 w:en:479636235 w:ja:41570628 w:en:482742568 w:en:482742568 w:en:484384578 w:en:484384578 w:en:484952842 w:en:484952842 commons::69277963

[23:46] <COIBot> revids commons::69278817 commons::69281248 w:fr:77320816 w:fr:77320816 commons::69365207 commons::69366580 commons::69523199 commons::69564993 w:fr:77497102 commons::69719150

[23:47] <COIBot> revids w:fr:77618130 commons::69742483

[23:47] <COIBot> 32 records shown.

Hum - based on special:linksearch I think there are rather more than that. Just removed rather a lot on Commons mostly IP placed. I'll likely bl it on Commons if it starts to return. I guess others can do as they wish. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:59, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

COIBot should only be used as indicative; well that is how I regard it. There are downtimes, feed issues, etc. so let it lead me to the bulk of the problems, hardly all of them. billinghurst sDrewth 14:14, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Block

why my IP was blocked? 201.9.173.123 13:00, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Is this a serious question? Maybe you can talk to me about your editing today billinghurst sDrewth 13:22, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

My IP is shared with others people. What will I do now? 201.9.173.123 14:15, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Talk with those using this IP address about a block being put in place for the misuse of the WMF's wiki. We can identify misuse of the wikis and have records that go back over a number of weeks, hence this more specific action to stop the abuse. You are still able to read the wikis, just the ability to edit is not available for another day at which point it will be back. Hopefully, we will only need to have this conversation once. billinghurst sDrewth 14:54, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Good day. Thanks. 201.9.173.123 14:53, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm zorry

I'm zorry i can on future time back to request this? I back on 8 months later,goodbye201.220.233.207 12:27, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

My talk page

I replied at my talk page. If you are more used to a reply at your talk page, then I'm just informing you, just if you want to make any further replies, reply at my talk page. Ian Streeter (talk) 20:28, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Checkuser

Hi. Was this? Érico ^msg 05:44, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Brilliant, thanks to your team for fixing that. billinghurst sDrewth 06:03, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Placed 7 sizable IP range blocks

You have new messages

Hello, Billinghurst. You have new messages at ValJor's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

--ValJor (talk) 11:11, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Largely for info...

A case of what you come across when you look. From here I got to here via one or two stages. Not saying anything needs doing about it now but it does seem part of a pattern. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:26, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

I saw some comment somewhere to have User:COIBot/XWiki/irangooya.ir generated during the day, and I will get to it. Well, I will do it now. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:33, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi Billinghurst. Would you checked this users. [3] [4]. --N KOzi^Talk 13:38, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi. For trwiki, they have their own trWP CU, so please ask one of them. For azwiki  Confirmed.

Re: Welcome to Meta!

Thanks for you welcome!--铁铁的火大了 (talk) 14:09, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

MahdiBot

Hello! according to this edit, im guess you locked my bot. im want to ask why this happening occured? im not run wrong code or arguments. im want to help wikipedia.when the bot was tandem block. what happens to bot runner?:) thanks a lot.Mahdi.hajiha (talk) 15:17, 2 May 2012 (UTC) /

an example of a problem edit as:MahdiBot in the main namespace, and I am told that it was also seen at barwiki — billinghurst sDrewth 15:37, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

note that I have just moved it to as:সদস্য:MahdiBot — billinghurst sDrewth 15:48, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

why its become happens? we not some code to create the userpage for bot? a code not this problem.thanks:)/Mahdi.hajiha (talk) 16:32, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

I am not a programming specialist, so I am unable to assist with your query. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:05, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

okey. thanks my friend;-)/Mahdi.hajiha (talk) 18:00, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Deleting spam page on chy: Wikipedia

Hello Billinghurst, I see you have deleted a page on chy: Wikipedia. Could you also delete another spam page for us? It's User:‎Ningwen0142. Thank you! Djembayz (talk) 15:38, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Done. Do know that you can just stick {{delete}} upon the work, and it will be cleared on time. — billinghurst sDrewth 16:01, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Thoughts?

On this appreciated. The IP on the rDNS is quite different from the IP checked and there have been quite a few spammer account that have that rDNS recently I think. An issue - nothing? Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:10, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Meat-puppetry

Proofreading and validating eachothers pages is clearly evident. Yes, some of the accounts edited other pages outside of this group of accounts, but all primarily worked on pages proofread by LadyInGrey from works she was currently proofreading or works from years ago. One of the "signs" of meat-puppetry was distinct knowledge of a page edited; with most of these works not being listed in RC, collaboration, user pages, or even (at the time, some of them) transcluded anywhere, that it is highly irregular for them to pick up where LadyInGrey left off at every turn.

I still am convinced that it is one person operating all of these accounts; I am not changing my conclusion to meat-puppetry; I am only following Quentin's conclusion, that if it is an apparent case of familial relation, friends, then it is a meat-puppetry case we are dealing with, and that needs to be addressed. - Theornamentalist (talk) 14:15, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

To me it is like you are not listening to an independent point of view (and I am not meaning mine). Not one steward said that it is clearly CU material. So all I can say is move on from your set position. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:23, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

I respectfully disagree with the conclusions of all the stewards involved. To be fair, this consists of Magister, whom I do not feel is appropriate to have ever gotten involved in this; you, who has not really made it clear where you stand on it; and Quentin, who's conclusion suggests that it may be a case of meat-puppetry. After reading their comment, I looked over the requirements "signs" (by definition, all are not clear cut evidence) and these accounts show syptoms of each sign listed. - Theornamentalist (talk) 14:32, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

I respectfully tell you that you seem to be becoming obsessive about a checkuser. At least eight stewards looked at it and pretty well came to the same conclusion, no checkuser. None have said that things look perfect at esWS, however, you are now getting outside our area of operation, and you have been given direction you how you could progress the matter. That is all that I have to say on this matter. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:39, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Local file uploads roa-tara:

Dear, I've uploaded image files on local wiki because I've taken by it.wiki. I don't know dirt the common archive because I think the autor of these photos can be upload that. Bye --Joetaras (talk) 15:28, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Mvkulkarni23@mr.wikisource

Hi Billinghurst. Please see this reply in the archive of SRP of (apparantly) Mvkulkarni23. You gave him 6 months temporary admin rights, while he claims to have requested permanent rights. No idea if we should copy-paste it back to SRP, but I thought it would be good to inform you. Do with it what you want. :) Kind regards, Trijnstel_talk 12:17, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

They did ask for permanent, and at that time of the request for permissions there was insufficient response by the community for that to be granted, hence 6 months of temporary. IMNSHO it can wait for renewal. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:10, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Unblocking me from all wikis

billinghurst, dude, I am truely sorry if I vandalized all those pages on all the wikis. Could you, like, find any way in your heart to forgive me and let me go on there again and unblock me, please? I am sorry. -- AnthonyAngrywolf 3:37pm, June 12, 2012 (UTC)

Requests for unblock belong at Steward requests/Global‎‎ where the community can comment. Something to reflect upon is "I am sorry Mum that I pissed in your pot plant, will you forgive me?" All I have got to say is "WHAT?!?" (the polite version) — billinghurst sDrewth 09:15, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

re: [Patting the To Do list] convert to common.js-able

Hi sDrewth. I responded to User talk:Pathoschild#[Patting the To Do list] convert to common.js-able. —Pathoschild 15:59, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Please use Meta:Flood flag when locking many global accounts

Hi Billinghurst. I don't think locking clear spambot accounts en masse is controversial, and policy regarding the flood flag makes mentions re "locking global accounts". Can you please consider using the 'flood' flag to avoid cluttering the RC feed when locking spambots en masse? Thanks for your fantastic work! Best regards. — MA (audiencia) 14:53, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

If that is the wish of the community, happy to oblige. Though it is often not the intent to block many, it is what unearthed when you take to the spade. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:56, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. It's not to use it when there's just 1, 2... 10 to lock. But if there's more than 20 I'd consider it. Please don't get me wrong. It's just a suggestion :) Regards. — MA (audiencia) 14:58, 15 June 2012 (UTC) CC Trijnstel

Completely understand. As I use the collapse feature for RC, it is less noticeable to me that it an issue, so the reminder was useful.

Νote

This anonymous user, former Lady6thofAu, with puppet account Peter S. Hunt Haw been banned for vandalising politicians' articles. The fact is that everyone knows she is female at least in Greek wikipedia. By calling her Girl I certainly did not expose any unkownn personal information. Since I know that she is in direct contact with your channel repeating herself, pls don't feed trolling behaviours that intercepts wikipedia's development. Thanks for notifying--Kalogeropoulos (talk) 12:43, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Hello Billinghurst. The account you mentioned in my discussion page is inactive since 01/12/2012 as you can see here. The user claims in his user page that this account is used only for uloading photos, (while using an IP for editing articles and does not sign in any discussion, even with his IP) but as you can see yourself this is not true. Another anonymous user added a banner about sockpuppeting from a user being banned from el.wikipedia for 3 years, (banning has expired) nicknamed "Lady6thofAu" as Kalogeropoulos mentions above, something we cannot prove without checkusing, which we do not intend to, for the time being, but possibly Kalogeropoulos (and FocalPoint below) are right. Anyway, I cannot see existing somewhere an unfair treatment by any of the administrators of el.wikipedia for this specific user. Ask him, if you like, to suggest the specific point of the unfair treatment by an administrator. Thanks for your time. --Ttzavaras (talk) 13:13, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Hi to all. As I said to the person who contacted me, stewards do not get involved with resolving issues at communities where the communities have that ability existing; our role is technical. Where someone asks us to suppress information about a person where they believe that it causes them difficulties, and in content of the post, one acts and one notifies. Thanks for your understanding. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:00, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Your edit in el-wikipedia

Hello. You have hidden an edit of user:Kalogeropoulos, because a user requested removal of certain text about herself and specifically her gender. However, her edits have clearly shown to all users who where around, that she is a user banned in the past from el wikipedia for a long period of time called Lady 6th of August. As she is not hiding it, using the same behavior pattern and revoking issues discussed by her, I have some difficulty in understanding whether she is entitled to such protection. --FocalPoint (talk) 12:54, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

(Edit Conflict: I see that user:Kalogeropoulos has written above, more or less giving you the same information)

Sure, though I am not sure why you are here. I would have thought that the user needed another to argue their point. I contacted the affected person directly, and another administrator, there is no need for more to jump onto the pile. Whether a person is banned is irrelevant to whether a suppression is made or not, and all people are worthy of protection whether you like their actions or not. We do not make people victims when we have a choice. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:07, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

I was not aware that you had contacted another administrator at the time I wrote here. I am here under my capacity as an administrator of el-wikipedia. I explained to you the history of the user, only to help you understand the reason I thought that there was nothing to protect, as the user in question has revealed herself her gender in her recent edits. I came to ask your opinion, if based on the above information, you agree that there is no private information to protect when referring to her gender. I fully support that everybody is entitled to protection, irrespective of their present or past behavior (with the exceptions mentioned in the relevant policy). --FocalPoint (talk) 22:10, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

I advice to {FocalPoint, Tzavaras and Kalogeropoulos} to discuss this issue in the el.wikipedia community and not here. BTW.. I don't find any of you neutral enough to support or write against this user. This user (sometimes this user is trolling, sometimes not).. is not the major trolling problem in el.wikipedia -- as all of you know. Ggia (talk) 22:44, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

My expectation, as a steward and hence representing the broader WMF community, is that the elWP community fairly resolves the issue for both sides of a dispute. Where that happens is immaterial. — billinghurst sDrewth 01:14, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry dear Billignhurst for overusing your talk page but I advise user Ggia to keep advices for himself. Thank you for your wise answer and sorry again. --Ttzavaras (talk) 19:30, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry Ttzavaras I don't agree with your bad-faith comment. The "wise answer" of billinghurst is just common sense of how a wikipedia works. None of you discussed the problem in the elWP. I started the discussion here [5]. Ggia (talk) 19:44, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

On such matters, we are all entitled to have an opinion, and to politely express it, though that does not force us to accept or follow that opinion. To me, it is not unreasonable to ask for the matter to be discussed at elWP if the input of the broader community is warranted. Exactly how this situation is handled, will be under the expressed processes of your community. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:31, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Il Dottore

Hello! I'm Il Dottore. user from the Russian Wikipedia. Why did you block my account? I contribute only in Ruwiki and I don't place the advertisments on meta pages. Maybe my IP was hacked. But my English isn't so good to give the unblock request. Would you be so kind to help me with this problem?--Il Dottore (talk) 07:21, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Your account was not blocked, though you would have been caught in a temporary block on your IP through a block on your ISP. Wikimedia was getting multiple attacks from inside that IP range so I put a temporary block in place while we dealt with the issue. If the block is still in place, then it should be finished within the the next eight hours. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:18, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thanks.--Il Dottore (talk) 15:05, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for the autopatroller flag.  :) --Varnent (talk) 21:29, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Emergency request

Hi, Good to see you. I'm not english speaker, please understand me.

Please help Korean Wikipedia. One Vandalist do vandal indiscriminately. ko:special:log/move. but admin do not connect now. User:Amesroom is a vandalist. Help me, please. He moves many user pages and talk pages now.

|Plus : I'm so sorry, admin connects now. Thanks you for your service. I'm sorry. --Sotiale (talk) 14:37, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

No need to be sorry, it is quite okay. Glad that someone is fixing. :-) — billinghurst sDrewth 14:44, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks you for your favor.. have a good time :) --Sotiale (talk) 14:51, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

waiting for an update

Hi,

I'm waiting for an update on this. [6]. User:Snowolf should inform me about the status. He had Desysop me. So he promised to update about the status. This is the thing happens for smaller wikis. I need to bring this matter to all you big guys. BIG guys not put their heads on smaller wikis. it should not to be happens. anyway, if you have any possibility to speedup my Desysop matter. if you guys think I should be block please do so. but just remind how much I have contribute. thank you. -- බිඟුවා ^{සාකච්ඡාව} 04:35, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

nr

Hi, I see you're doing a grand job on sorting out the COIBot-reports, keep up the good work :) Noticed this comment, does "+nr" mean that you've added it to noredir via IRC? Best regards, Finn Rindahl (talk) 16:33, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes (link nr add regex as per bot instructions). If/as I process them through IRC, I try to make comment about what I have done, especially of actions that I have undertaken, thought bubbles, general info. Hopefully it makes it easier for me and/or others next time around. — billinghurst sDrewth 04:22, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Global ipexempt

Thanks! SpeedyGonsales (talk) 17:01, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

Can you also set global-ipexempt for my bot, hr:User:SpeedyBot? Thanks in advance! SpeedyGonsales (talk) 15:36, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Done to note that the block on the ISP wears off in a year, and that is when I believe that someone may review whether the IP-exempt should continue, and it may be worthwhile making a calendar note for July/August next year. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:56, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Don't understand this block

I am an American currently living in the Philippines and happened to look up my home town (Corunna, Michigan) and saw that there was some information that I could add to the article on Corunna High School (the current high school building opened for the fall of 1976). I found that I couldn't do any edits or even register for an account because my IP address is blocked. I am wondering why?

This is the message displayed: The block was made by Billinghurst (meta.wikimedia.org). The reason given is Cross-wiki spam: spam with xff.

Start of block: 13:15, 2 June 2012 

Expiry of block: 13:15, 2 September 2012

You can contact Billinghurst to discuss the block. You cannot use the "E-mail this user" feature unless a valid e-mail address is specified in your account preferences and you have not been blocked from using it. Your current IP address is 121.97.59.59. Please include all above details in any queries you make. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 121.97.59.59 (talk)

Hi. I have removed the block. Thanks for making contact. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:40, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

AvocatoBot@en.wikisource

Hello. Please unblock my bot there, I can't remember when I said that my bot is getting retired?! I just request renaming it (in addition to my main account) for privacy reasons. You can note that I requested the same thing globally. I will create my bot's userpage globally soon.--Avocato (talk) 05:25, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

You asked for deletion of the user pages of both the bot account and your main account, which would generally be a retirement of the bot, without evidence to the contrary. I have unblocked the bot. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:18, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks.--Avocato (talk) 11:58, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

az.wikipedia

Thanks for your help! --►Safir yüzüklü Cekli^mesaj 11:02, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Very welcome. Vogone's keen eyes and contacting stewards. I just mopped. :-) billinghurst sDrewth 11:07, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Username changes

Hello Billinghurst. Could you please deal with this request?--Avocato (talk) 12:15, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Not something that I have been working upon. If you see that it needs to be prioritised then it may be worth a note to Stewards' noticeboard — billinghurst sDrewth 12:41, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Is it not done yet? :)

Can I ask you about checkuser at kowikiquote? IMHO, You may forget about it. Please check it! If it is in progress, I'm so sorry that I make my useless notice. Thank you for your hard work. Sotiale (Talk·Contribs) 21:37, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, all done. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:39, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

unblock me

It might be someone else using my IP that is doing the abuse, so please unblock me on en, zh and commons. TheChampionMan1234 (talk) 05:19, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

It will be over in a day. If it is someone using your IP, then I would encourage you to ensure that it isn't still happening and doesn't happen again. The next block is usually longer. — billinghurst sDrewth 10:38, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Might be of interest

Noticing that you gblocked one with this rDNS you might also want to keep an eye for 46.37.165.178 & 46.37.165.253 - both have the same rDNS and similar "profiles". Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 17:31, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I explored the IP and poked wider, and have smacked and locked a larger IP range (46.37.160.0/19). Intolerance rulez. — billinghurst sDrewth 05:20, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

'nother ubiquity one - 142.91.93.89 Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 07:34, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

blocked the /24, though is is part of a bigger /21 (142.91.88.0/21). If we see stuff in the broader space, then we should increase the block. — billinghurst sDrewth 07:55, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

On the subject of Ubiquity... I have a suspect account on 23.19.13.43 which this suggests might be associated with Ubiquity? Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:33, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

It may have just been the /24, however, I was generous and did the whole 23.19.0.0/19. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:35, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

If you look at the CU log a minute or so before this post the /16 might be worth you re-running and being aware of - off out or would do more. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 08:17, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

If they are continuing to be problematic, then I am comfortable with just blocking the whole /16, which I have now done. — billinghurst sDrewth 09:55, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Meh - I was going to say thanks but I seem not to be communicating well :). I was on about 50.31.0.0/16 which doesn't seem to have been checked by you? Blocked locally now but worth keeping in mind I think. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 10:27, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Apologies for not fixing that mind reading gene prior to communicating; all my fault. That is one that I addressed to CUs as the /17, and I am off to block it imminently. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:21, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

I have to say that really is one of my (many) failings - I always assume others know what I am talking about despite years of exprience on Foundation sites which should have changed my behaviour... Thanks - appreciated --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:44, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

HR Wiki

Can you, me to make a user account for Wikipedia as a steward? There can not log in no way. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 02:53, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

I do not see that this account is blocked, so I do not see that anything needs to be done globally. If you are having a local issue, then you will need to take it up with the local wiki. — billinghurst sDrewth 02:57, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

I have a problem I can not access your account for Wikipedia. I'm not locked at all there. Just asking you if you is not hard to open my account to jel the only solution. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 03:01, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

I cannot help you at hrwiki, they have their own admins and bureaucrats who manage that wiki. Stewards only act as global admins and bureaucrats on wikis without those roles. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:37, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

I spoke to you for help as a steward to help me, by going there just to open my account for Wikipedia Kolega2357. They will not be there that I do not know who to turn to more. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 03:44, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

That is not within my ability. I would suggest if you need help from an hrwiki admin, that you contact them either from their meta user talk page, or an email from their meta account. — billinghurst sDrewth 04:11, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

Your help would be great we arrived, ask someone on the Croatian Wikipedia administrator that we just opened an account there Kolega2357. Here you'll reasoning: Adding Interwiki, correcting spelling mistakes, create categories, returning vandalism. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 04:19, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

No. You can talk to hrwiki. — billinghurst sDrewth 04:22, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

I've already talked with two administrators and unsuccessful attempts. Attempts can be found here. You be the true steward would help me for something I said a little before you disappoint me man. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 04:40, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

If you have talked to two admins at hrwiki and they have refused, that is the end of the story. Stewards do not override the wishes of a local community. Your expectations of what a steward can do are misplaced. Matter is closed Not done. — billinghurst sDrewth 04:52, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

A request

Hello. Could you please deal with this request?--Avocato (talk) 06:29, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Re: Checking ptWV

Hello. Yes, I reattached it, everything is ok now. Thanks.--Avocato (talk) 10:06, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I didn't ask for moving page; since I will create new userpages there with new history. I asked for renaming and I thought you was talking about that too!

Another thing: I will request renaming at fy.wiki & ceb.wiki, with ignoring all the rest (I will create new accounts there instead). Best regards.--Avocato (talk) 14:27, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Just following Global rename policy, proposed but that is the closest to the rule that is in place. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:36, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Ok, Can you do this on my old name "محمد الجداوي"? I want you to rename it too (without moving userpages).--Avocato (talk) 15:07, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Can it wait a little while? To do it via requests to individual wikis and manually is a bit of a PITA, and we are hoping that WMF will convert the proposed policy to actual policy, and we can implement a proposed tool. If it is a priority, then you will need to ask the local wikis with crats to undertake the requests, and we can do what is more than a weak old, or 'crat free. If the latter, then you can either provide a clean list of the wikis, or build a list with the my scrubby User:Billinghurst/rename template — billinghurst sDrewth 15:16, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

How dare you block a lifelong scholar of Boyce?

Margaret Amelia Askew,known by her pen name Sara Boyce,was a writer who is most famous for her brutal murder at age 54 by the serial killer the Angel.Boyce was born into a wealthy family in 1825. She recieved no education. At sixteen,she married the Baron Wilmot. The marriage started out happy,but quickly became abusive. Nevertheless,Lady Wilmot produced many children before leaving her family in 1861. Escaping to London,she became the mistress of writers who encoraged her to begin her literary career. Her first book,From the Darkness,was published in 1867. At first,she was credited as "The Lady of London",she did not adopt her pen name until her second book,Ladies in Danger,in 1870. In 1872,she legally changed her name. Her third book,a historical,Jumping the Plot,was published in 1874.Boyce by this time had recieved fame as a result of her novels,and they were read by royalty. Boyce wrote her fourth book,Claiming the Thunder,in 1877. While she was researching her fifth book,she recieved death threats by a man. She did not take them seriously,but two weeks later she was found naked,tied to her desk,with a knife wound in her chest and blood dripping from her.Boyce's novels are mostly unknown,although popular in her day,and her legacy consists of her violent and inhuman murder.— The preceding unsigned comment was added by 92.13.201.43 (talk)

We only block those who are unable to control their edits in line with community expectations, irrespective of their interests or expertise. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:11, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

No good shall be undone; ne evil go unpunished. The rules of the martian kingdom must be obeyed. The first law of Robotics is totally insync with the wish of the Wiki community world wide to give absolute inheritable power to the stewards especially those who dare to name themselves Billinghurst. May he rulefor ever and be glorified in Wikiheaven after 200 sarry years MoiraMoira (talk) 14:15, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

But on a more serious note (to Billinghurst) - thanx for the swift steward action. I also plced the file on this vandal on meta ITMT. Kind regards MoiraMoira (talk) 14:17, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

unlock rolandhelper

Can you unlock my account Rolandhelper? I'm serious because my account globally locked for sockpuppetry. Because,can you globally unlock my account Rolandhelper?--112.215.66.82 09:03, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

The place for unlock requests is Steward requests/Global#Requests for global (un)block or you could ask the blocking steward Dungodung (talk · contribs). — billinghurst sDrewth 10:14, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. See me at Wikipedia.--112.215.64.179 09:56, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Note:I found AbuseX ,Rolandhelper 4,5,6 globally locked.--114.79.56.147 07:01, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Correct. I believe that the message that I am asked to implement is "Stop your actions, and, please, quietly go away. People do not consider your efforts helpful, and in fact, find then quite unhelpful." Take a break mate. — billinghurst sDrewth 07:08, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

I also found Boing! said Zebedee on English wikipedia, he is trying to stop me using page protection and he want to revert my uploads by summary:"Revert sock".--182.5.211.71 01:55, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

English Wikipedia manage their own affairs, it is not in the realm of stewards to interfere or to intervene. — billinghurst sDrewth 02:27, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Closed IP address

Hi Billinghurst,

you closed my IP address and I don't understand why. The reason is Open proxy: mail server; http://whois.domaintools.com/212.121.159.34.

This is my IP adress: 212.121.159.34

I want to sign in from my pc at my office.

What can I do?

Regards Iris — The preceding unsigned comment was added by WWW123POICOM (talk)

Your connection says that it is coming through the server mail.mairdumont.com and this is a bit of an issue for us. We can (and I will) unblock that access, though if there are further issues, then we are likely to block it again. If you are looking to contribute to the Wikipedias, then I would also suggest a username that is not a url, as some wikipedias will simply block it on site as being in contravention to their username policies. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:58, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Re 82.193.109.249/19 ... fixed

Thanks to those who pointed out to me that when I reinstituted the block on 82.193.109.249/19 that I missed and forgot to make it anonymous only. My apologies for that oversight, now fixed. — billinghurst sDrewth 00:24, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, but you block not only anonymous user. I use this service provider and I couldn't make any changes! This is not personal IP but a big part of ISP! — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.193.102.240 (talk)

I have double-checked and the current block is anonymous only, meaning IP addresses, like you are using, cannot edit. To note that I did not put the original block into place. If you wish to request the removal of the block, then place to do so is at the page SRG. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:54, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks patrollers :-)

Thanks for the vigilance and the actions. Appreciated. — billinghurst sDrewth 06:09, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

zloygumanist

why i am block? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by zloygumanist (talk)

If you login to the wiki, you should be able to edit. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:57, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

U fecking biquity

142.91.208.88 - sorry time v short. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 08:27, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Shame, that IP had a "nacident"!  :-/ — billinghurst sDrewth 10:31, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

To quote the teletubbies "o-oh". More. 142.91.116.0/22 gone — billinghurst sDrewth 12:09, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

'nother - 142.91.176.177 :( --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:06, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

tick <sigh> — billinghurst sDrewth 14:20, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Milosczv2222

This user has 28 accounts locked for Wikipedia. Constantly put false information on Wikipedia 4 as follows: sh, sr, hr and en Wiki. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 15:50, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Local wikis can manage it. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:51, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

He just constantly open accounts. On the English Wikipedia has just blocked. Greeting! --Kolega2357 (talk) 15:53, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Local wikis can manage it. — billinghurst sDrewth 16:01, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

blocked by IP

When I start editing Chinese Wikipedia today, I found the IP at my university(210.53.1.x) was blocked by you from Sept 10, 09:10 to Oct 10, 09:10 due to Cross-wiki spam: spambot. Can you enable Autoconfirmed User Editing through this IP? --水樹美月 (talk) 07:27, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Removed the block. Thanks for contacting. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:14, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. --水樹美月 (talk) 13:28, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Block by IP too

Hello,

my IP 188.165.255.x is blocked too because of "Cross-wiki spam: spambot: Blocked due to ongoing spam from ovh.com services, and no response from their abuse services. Contact http://www.ovh.com and ask them to email stewards@wikimedia.org.". Although I understand that dealing with spambots is a PITA, it would be nice as a long registered user on an IP the only wrongdoing of which is to be part of a bad IP range to be able to do my yearly edit ;) On a side note, OVH repeatedly stated on their forums that they never reply to e-mails sent to abuse@[...] but that they nonetheless do take actions. Well, so they claim, at least ^^ Patheticcockroach (talk) 13:46, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I have added a global exemption for your username. OVH cannot expect people to know that, and if they advertise the address, and there is a continuation of the spamming from the IP, then there should be no surprise that we start to range block. The current spambot issue is worse than just a PITA, especially from within OVH, it has been a plague. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:55, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

IMPORTANT!

Billinghurst, I'm from Wikipedia on Spanish, you cannot block wikis that youre not registred on.

Why would you mind on other wikis?

Can you delete this block please?

Thank You

--216.172.135.158 08:50, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

This block is in place for all of the Wikimedia foundation websites due to the prevalence of spambots operating from that hosting network. If you can show that the block adversely affects your account, then please login to your account here at meta, and lodge a request for an IP block exemption at the page SRP. — billinghurst sDrewth 09:28, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

To note that as that block has been in place for a while, and the spambots are probably (hopefully) less likely to activate, I have modified the block to now be anonymous only, so that should allow you to login. Note though that if the spambots do continue to abuse through the IP range that the block will be returned to the stronger version. — billinghurst sDrewth 09:45, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't know why I'm blocked?

Hello there. I just found out that my account is blocked, and I don't know why. I have also seen the block started on 4th of September, but just yesterday I made two new articles on the croatian wiki - hr:Javanski nosorog and hr:kapski dikobraz. So I'd really like it if you cold unblock me if I didn't do anything. If I did, I'll just accept the block. Štaki000 (talk) 11:06, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I have added your username to the global IP exempt list, so you should be clear to edit. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:35, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thank you! Štaki000 (talk) 13:17, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Matter that needs your attention at en.wikipedia.

See [7] and the section "My account is "locked" but not "blocked". What can I do?". It appears a global lock was placed on the user's account, but there's nothing at en.wikipedia by his behavior to indicate why. I'm sure there's a good reason, but the user seems unaware. Could you comment there if you have the chance? Thanks! --Jayron32 (talk) 13:12, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, not even sure myself now It was recorded as spambot, so it must have been in among a swathe of accounts at or around the IP address. I will dig further, however, as there is a real person there, and definitely not a bot, I have undone it, and will look further into the issue. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:28, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Why was my account locked?

Earlier you locked me out? Was my account hacked or just the result of collateral damage? Should I take any action like changing my password? Slacka123 (talk) 14:00, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

No worries, just collateral damage. You don't need to do anything.Jasper Deng (talk) 20:16, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

• As a side note, you may want to notify the Unblock Ticket Request System people about this issue. They kept saying my account wasn't "blocked", even thought I said it was "locked". After a few back and fourth emails, I gave up, and tried an anonymous post in the help desk where you guys cleared it up right away. Thanks again! Slacka123 (talk) 08:02, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

  As requested, I have forward this message to them. — billinghurst sDrewth 09:24, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

IP blocked

I tried to revert a minor vandalism edit but I found my IP blocked. This particular subnet I presume was recently trensferred to my ISP (before that all my dynamic IPs were in a different one), so you may consider lifting the ban on it.— The preceding unsigned comment was added by 5.39.153.160 (talk)

Thanks. Good information and thinking. I have removed the block after confirming the IP range transfer. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:36, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

-Request

Hi, can you please look my request? (diff) Gálaniitoluodda (talk) 14:49, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

• unblock182.20.175.182

Wikimedia Travel Guide: Naming poll open

Hi there,

You are receiving this message because you voiced your opinion at the Request for Comment on the Wikimedia Travel Guide.

The proposed naming poll opened a few days ago and you can vote for as many of the proposed names as you wish, if you are eligible. Please see Travel Guide/Naming Process for full details on voting eligibility and how the final name will be selected. Voting will last for 14 days, and will terminate on 16 October at 06:59:59 UTC.

Thanks, Thehelpfulone 21:49, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

• changing by シロクマスイッチ182.20.175.182

CU rights on eswikisource and something else

Hi Andrew. I see you still have CU rights on eswikisource. Was that on purpose? If so, apologies, if not, could you please remove them now? :) Trijnstel_talk 11:35, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

BTW, Have you read the email I send to you on 3 October? I never got a reply... Trijnstel_talk 11:35, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, apologies, I see you're still checking and blocking accounts. But I would still like to have a response to the email if you don't mind. Trijnstel_talk 11:42, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

[EC] I am still working on esWS, it is a massive job cleaning up, and not a spambot job. I had to stop for family time, and already it has eaten up hours. Re the email, if it was about the unblock, Isaw when it I got back that weekend. I have spoken with the other person about it in IRC, and when I see you in IRC whenever it is, happy to talk. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:48, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Question about personal attack account name

Hello, Billinghurst. Can I have a question? February 16 2012, Quentinv57 blocked inappropriate name puppet account(ko:Special:log/Quentinv57), based on CU. But in the past, similar case had occurred. Unlike February 16 2012 account terror, past terror had targer user. Names of blocked account have personal information (for example, Real name), personal attack (for example, eunuch, motherf***, bit**, etc..). I heard that such account name can be hidden. Is it true and what can I do for it? --Sotiale (talk) 12:30, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

For a local wiki, an admin can hide account names in line with your local policies; and further if your wiki has oversight, then oversighters can give an extra level of suppression. Stewards can do the same where it is required and within guidelines imposed by communities. Generally we would only hide for personal attacks, or similar, we generally haven't hidden just because it is rude/coarse, etc. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:35, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I have more question. If Oversight uses hideuser function, usename of Special:ListUsers is hidden? (It is aim, not page history username). And.. (Correct Me If I'm Wrong. I don't understand enough.. Sorry!) oversight action(Oversight don't exist at kowiki) for hidden personal information/attack needs local consensus? --Sotiale (talk) 13:07, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Oversight explains the process for a community; so if no users have been allocated the right, then it is held by stewards. The groups page shows the rights. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:25, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks :) Then.. Can I send account list to e-mail? (kowiki don't exist local oversight.) If you want to know account meaning, I also send translation and description. --Sotiale (talk) 02:12, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

If you have a list of accounts with usernames that are problematic, then either catch someone in IRC, or mail to the Stewards@ mail address. Whomever first tends the OTRS mail queue will deal with that email address. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:14, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I will do that :) --Sotiale (talk) 03:15, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Helpful diffs

Apologies for not including diffs in my request. I realize more information would've been helpful in a case like this. I'll try to keep that in mind from now on. Thanks for taking care of the request anyway. Kind regards, Mathonius (talk) 22:09, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

Absolutely no worries, it was more if you are there, may as well grab them. I knew that you weren't going to give me a bum-steer about the problem, so I just went and did a little of the digging for the evidence base. Hmm, and I probably should have addded them too <sigh> and <deskthunk> — billinghurst sDrewth 23:00, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

fr:Etats-Unis d'Europe

Bonjour,

Je comprends votre souhait d'objectivité mais il ne me paraît pas s'appliquer à ma contribution. Sur l'article Etats-Unis d'Europe, il est impératif d'avoir une section concernant l'actualité ou au moins plus généralement le XXIè siècle. La position présentée n'est pas plus une opinion personnelle que ne l'est celle de Churchill au XXè siècle ou Victor Hugo au XIXè siècle.

Cette position n'est pas présentée comme une vérité indépassable mais comme la présentation objective d'une idée dans l'ère de temps. Cette idée de fédéralisation de l'Europe pour s'intégrer dans la mondialisation en défendant les valeurs européennes et pour résister aux différentes crises de ce début de XXIè siècle est partagée par de nombreuses personnes de droite (Juppé) comme de gauche (Attali), dans divers pays de l'Union et même à l'étranger (Joseph Stiglitz).

Un article sur les Etats-Unis d'Europe ignorant la pertinence que beaucoup trouvent à ce concept en ce début de XXIè siècle est incomplet.

Si la rédaction de ma contribution vous semble partiale, je vous serais reconnaissant de la corriger mais l'éliminer purement et simplement n'est pas de l'intérêt de la connaissance encyclopédique.

Cordialement,

Laurent1217--Laurent1217 (talk) 14:40, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

You have added the link to the article at a number of places crosswiki, and to a site where it appears that you have a conflict of interest. If you think that an article has interest and relevance, then you would do well to add a link and an explanation to the talk page, and then let someone else evaluate the link and add it if they think that it is relevant. Neither of our personal opinions is relevant, and should not be added to an encyclopaedic page.

Please also read

• fr:Wikipédia:Conflit_d'intérêts
• fr:Wikipédia:Liens_externes and
• fr:Wikipédia:Citez_vos_sources

If you have concerns about the other parts of articles being commentary, and not cited facts, then please remove them. It is a wiki. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:04, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

EdwardsBot help

I've prepared a list and a message for this issue. Can you please help me with EdwardsBot? Thank you, M/ (talk) 19:14, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Going to the airport, can I suggest that you chat with the bot-owner MZMcBride (talk · contribs). Honestly, I have never used it, just on the receiving end. — billinghurst sDrewth 00:28, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

"Spambot" unlocked

Hi Andrew. I just unlocked LacoR (talk · contribs) per request of Danny B. as this active user was clearly not a spambot. Please be a bit more careful. Trijnstel_talk 14:17, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Idiots abound

Sprot user page - feel free to revert if you want. Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 10:18, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

Archives

Semi-solved, problem detected and bugreport sent. I hope there's a solution soon. Regards. -- MarcoAurelio (talk) 21:00, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Blacklist request

Would you mind taking a look at Talk:Title blacklist#Rschen7754? Thanks. --Rschen7754 02:19, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

Maybe global?

Might be worth keeping an eye on/out for 200.106.87.230. Recent pattern account here & Commons - info really - cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:07, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

un trou, c'est bien du vide avec de la matiere autour.

un trou, c'est bien du vide avec de la matiere autour. j'ignore pourquoi cette definition des plus basiques a ete retiré du mot "trou". merci de m'eclaircir vous qui etes si intelligent. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 93.182.180.58 (talk)

Umm, I am not sure to what you are referring. Apologies. — billinghurst sDrewth 08:53, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

I blocked?

Why when I want to edit, there is a message:

“ Your IP address has been blocked on all wikis.

The block was made by Billinghurst (meta.wikimedia.org). The reason given is Cross-wiki spam: spambot www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/118.97.208.194. Start of block: 22:54, 3 November 2012 Expiry of block: 22:54, 3 November 2013 You can contact Billinghurst to discuss the block. You cannot use the "E-mail this user" feature unless a valid e-mail address is specified in your account preferences and you have not been blocked from using it. Your current IP address is 118.97.208.194. Please include all above details in any queries you make.

”

I did not do anything. Can I edit Wikipedia again? Can I excluded in this block? Thank's Exagren (talk) 02:57, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Hi Exagren. I have exempted your account from the global IP block. As I am still seeing that the internet is being spammed from that IP address (see the url in the block explanation), are you able to explain to me the nature of the connection? Is this via a proxy of an ISP? Is this a shared IP address? Somehow, somewhere close to you, someone is spamming the internet, and while this is unresolved, there is a possibility that more sites will block the IP address. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:45, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Translation

Could you please import the TranslateWorkflowStates from Wikidata? Justincheng12345 (talk) 11:48, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

I will discuss this with my fellow stewards.

I think that it would be best if you went through the instructions at the bottom of Special:Translate, and we can get it done from there. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:38, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

As I'm not a sysop here, I can't edit the MediaWiki namespace, and hence I can't do it on my own(And I only request for the zh-hant one...). Or should I go to WM:RFH also?-Justincheng12345 (talk) 12:51, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

And if it is possible, please change MediaWiki:Tagline/zh-hant to <span style="font-size:0.9em;">元維基，協調維基媒體項目</span>, span tag is required as we make the font bigger on zh.wikipedia, but not the tagline, as it looks wired on meta, now.--Justincheng12345 (talk) 11:59, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

This would be best to come from an administrator or 'crat at zh-hantwiki and be made formally to Meta:Requests for help from a sysop or bureaucrat. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:34, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

I'll ask a sysop from zh.wikipedia, thanks! -Justincheng12345 (talk) 12:51, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

AJAX patrol

Hello, I see that you use AjaxPatrolLinks. I have good news for you: AJAX patrolling is now in core! On Wikimedia projects, it should arrive with MediaWiki 1.21wmf5, between 2012-11-26 and 2012-12-5. You should disable this gadget when the new feature change is enabled, because it will become redundant and to avoid double patrolling. Thanks, Nemo 08:06, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

82.193.98.44 ban

I'm a user Artemka, I have three accounts in Russian, Ukrainian and Commons wikipedia, I want to register in English wikipedia, but have no permission with banned IP 82.193.98.44. Maybe my provider give not separate IP to each other users, in my connection info I see another IP.

The block is only against anonymous editing, and the use of a global user account would allow you to login and edit. I would suggest that you convert your account to one of these as then we can grant an IP block exemption. To note that the username is already in use at enWP. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:06, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #33

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Development
  • Updated demo system
  • Refactored and improved change propagation code
  • Add option for client and change propagations to work with job queue
  • Added filter and preference for recent changes on the client, to show/hide Wikidata edits
  • Pruning of changes table
  • Fixed some issues in the Wikidata Vagrant
  • Added puppet recipe for Wikidata on WMF labs
  • Worked on making statements editable in the frontend
  • JSON of entities is sent to the frontend now
  • Finalized DataTypes extension’s $.valueview system
  • Improved entity selector widget
  • Added Selenium tests for special pages
  • Tracking separate revision ids in Javascript to fix the edit conflict handling
  • Fixed fatal PHP error in Special:SetLabel
  • Entities with just whitespaces as label/description are not allowed anymore
• Discussions/Press
  • http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/news/wikidata-wikipedias-game-changer
• Events
  • upcoming: Offener Sonntag at WMDE’s membership assembly
  • upcoming: SWIB
  • foss.in
  • local meetup in Bangalore
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Wikidata has been added to wikistream
  • We now have nearly 800 active users \o/
  • We are still looking for partners for ourevent at 29C3. Any pointers?
• Open Tasks for You
  • wikidata:Wikidata:Task forces and meta:Wikidata/Contribute are a good starting point
  • Hack on one of these

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 09:05, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

I blocked?

Your IP address has been blocked on all wikis. The block was made by Billinghurst (meta.wikimedia.org). The reason given is Cross-wiki abuse: www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/81.177.144.176. Start of block: 02:55, 22 November 2012 Expiry of block: 02:55, 22 November 2013 You can contact Billinghurst to discuss the block. You cannot use the "E-mail this user" feature unless a valid e-mail address is specified in your account preferences and you have not been blocked from using it. Your current IP address is 81.177.144.176. Please include all above details in any queries you make.

Yes you are blocked if you are behind that IP address; we are getting spammed from that IP address and it seems so is much of the internet. Please discuss this with your internet service provider to see if they can assist with why there is spam coming from that address. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:17, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Checkuser.

See Steward requests/Checkuser#정과@ko.wikipedia again plz. Thank you.--Altostratus (talk) 15:31, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #34

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Development
  • Added DirectSqlStore to client so that it can directly access the repository database, and not require creating any tables on the client
  • Bug fixing on the client extension, and preparing it for first deployment
  • Less edit conflicts due to a smarter conflict detection
  • Better recent changes comments on the client
  • Clean up on the backend for entity artefacts
  • The statement UI enables to create statements and displays them, but has still a few glitches
  • The client now accesses the data on the server directly, and the data is not replicated anymore
  • Added a number of profiler calls
  • Special:Contributions displays labels now
  • User preference on the client to hide Wikidata edits
  • Statements can be created and saved now
  • Statements are properly styled in JavaScript and non-JavaScript version
  • Improved JavaScript part of the templating engine
  • Improved entity selector widget
  • Client:Watchlist Selenium Tests
  • Client: RecentChanges Selenium tests
  • Added DataValues, DataTypes, jQuery.ui QUnit tests to Selenium
  • Some PHPUnit test fixes
• Discussions/Press
  • Behaviour on null edits
• Events
  • Linuxday
  • Open Sunday after Wikimedia Deutschland’s membership assembly
  • SWIB
  • foss.in
  • upcoming: intro and Q&A in Bangalore
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Chart of item creation progress
  • Demo system will be unavailable shortly next week
  • Code-base is now nearly 100 000 lines
  • You can now look up Wikidata identifiers on dbpedia lite and it shows up in the RDF
• Open Tasks for You
  • Hack on one of these
  • Give the demo system a try

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 08:25, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

Steward requests

Can you please revert this edit (the discussion was already closed before). --Smihael (talk) 14:44, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

No. Just let it be, reverting will just start the person up again. This person is passionate and wants to be heard, let them be heard. There is a valid discussion to be had about the process, and that discussion once concluded will direct us on potential for deletion, or not. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:05, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

IP block

Hey, sorry I have to say this and I know it will go nowhere and you will ... just google it. But, try something else for a change.

You guys are seriously messing up blocking women using a VPN service that you, lazily assume, is damaging wikipedia.

What this actually show about wikipedia is that human monitoring by lazy admins, does not workk.

Sorry...actually, I'm not it's just how we say it over in 4' south. (That's longitude and not latitude). If you can count... the words here you will have your other coordinate. But, the only people that can probably do that are the folks to solved the Adobe Seraph... LOL! I almost gave that away. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 93.182.137.185 (talk)

Thanks for contacting me as one of the stewards about the block. The issue is not personal, we have blocked a range of IP addresses through the VPN service due to the proliferation of spam from within the network.[8][9] Please ask your ISP to manage their spammer and we can we look to remove the block. There are measures that we can apply to allow SUL accounts to edit, and, if that is of interest to you, then please login and apply for an exemption at Steward requests/Global permissions. — billinghurst sDrewth 06:31, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Need help

Hello, I am not sure where to start as I am new to wiki. I recently signed up on wikivoyage.org and after less then a half an hour I was blocked. The Bureaucrats there ignore policy and in my opinion are acting in a conspiracy. A quick look here may give you an idea on what is going on there; voy:User_talk:IBdick I am at whit's end because I have be stifled though no fault of my own. I do not know where to turn at this point. Is there any possible help you could afford me? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by IBdick (talk)

Hi. Stewards do not have any power to intervene in a local issue of a community, so the best that I can do is offer an independent point of view, and a possible solution … I can see how you may see that the username is completely harmless and has no connotations, unfortunately that is not their reality. With your username at wikivoyage, you are stepping into/onto an area of intense inflammation and aggravation. Now, you can stand to your principles about your username or not, completely your choice; just know the reality is that you will not win the battle over your username. The practical solution that I can offer is for you to head over to Special:GlobalUsers and pick some new usernames and test them out at sulutil: and look for something that is clear to use and something that does not have a emphasised IB. Then we can look to either move your account to the new name, and request an unblock, or you can simply start afresh.

I know that this is an imperfect solution, however, if you can think of some personal issue that is a really personal sore spot, and then translate that a whole community that shares the sore spot … <elements of sigh and shrug>. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:21, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I will find someone to explain to me why they do not have to abide by their own policies. 64.12.7.163 22:30, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Try Don Quixote. The world and wikis are imperfect, you can sit and bitch about it, or you can get on with enjoying the good bits that they represent. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:12, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #35

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Development
  • Deployed new code on wikidata.org with a lot of bug fixes and a new Special:EntitiesWithoutLabel (all changes here)
  • http://test2.wikipedia.org now uses Wikidata (click “edit links” at the bottom of the page), and we are working to enable the synchronization of changes to test2 and display links from the repository
  • Added wbsetqualifier API module
  • Added wbremovequalifiers API module
  • New JavaScript wb.Api now used for labels, descriptions, aliases and sitelinks
  • Improved Selenium tests and PHPUnit tests
  • Selenium tests now independent from ULS
  • Selenium tests for statements UI
  • Existing statements can be edited now
  • Filtering anons and Wikidata in RecentChanges on client now works correctly
  • Added extra checks on client RecentChange save point to avoid duplicate entries
  • Started an experimental branch with API methods for claims
  • Link to Commons Media displayed for Snak values of related data type
  • Improved styling of statements in JavaScript mode
  • Improvements in templating engine
  • Started working on adding Statements to existing section of Statements
  • Set up a fresh dev server for testing
• Discussions/Press
  • Publicity for Wikidata and Wikivoyage
  • “Importing data is hard: a rant about integrating open data projects”
  • Disallowing links to locked wikis
  • Sourcing of every statement
• Events
  • Foss.in
  • Intro and Q&A in Bangalore
  • WhereCamp Berlin
  • Upcoming: Wikidata talk as part of a lecture on knowledge management, Karlsruhe
  • Announced next office hours
  • Still looking for people/projects to join us for the mass collaboration assembly
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • New mockups for phase 2: 1 and 2
  • New admin notice board
  • “How to Edit Wikidata” presentation by Sven
  • “Working With MediaWiki” has been released. First book to mention Wikidata!
• Open Tasks for You
  • Give feedback on phase 2 mockups
  • Code on one of these
  • Have a look at Wikidata:Contribute

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 13:26, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

n:Talk:NOAA predicts increased hurricane activity in U.S.

Query for clarification. --Pi zero (talk) 15:57, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I've replaced one image with the other, as requested. :-)  --Pi zero (talk) 00:56, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks (back at you). I have completed the tasks at Commons. — billinghurst sDrewth 01:15, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #36

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Development
  • Deployed new code on wikidata.org. All changes can be found here
  • Updated demo system
  • http://test2.wikipedia.org now uses http://wikidata.org for getting language links and wikidata.org edits affecting the existing articles on test2 show up in RecentChanges (if they are not hidden)
  • Statements (think of “population: 2.000.000” and similar things) are taking shape in the interface. They are still pretty buggy though at this point.
  • It is now possible to link to images on Wikimedia Commons in a statement (think of “image: sundown_at_the_beach.png” for example)
  • Links are now protocol-relative (bugzilla:42534)
  • No longer possible to create new items and set labels when database is set to read-only
  • Added more tests to the GeoCoordinate parser
  • Make use of EditEntity in removeclaims API
  • Removed many singletons to reduce global state
  • Made SpecialSetLabel work with non-item entities
  • Improved settings system
  • Improved options of ValueFormatters
  • Improved options of ValueParsers
  • Moved label+description uniqueness check out of transaction to avoid deadlocks and changed it to only be enforced for edits changing any violating values
  • Fixed serialization of SiteArray
  • ~=[,,_,,]:3
  • Had to fix reporting of aliases in wbsearchentities again
  • Implemented integration of baserevids for statements UI API calls for editconflict detection for statements/claims/snaks
  • Universal Language Selector fallback fix for Selenium tests
  • Report URL to entity in wbsearchentites API module
  • Moved the demo system to a larger server
  • Fixed several bugs in Statements user interface, most notably, adding Statements to existing sections and layout fixes
  • Added wikibase API module on the client to provide information about the associated repo (e.g. url, script path, article path)
  • A bunch of messages for autocomments were fixed (they are automatically added as an edit summary for edits on items and co in Wikidata - for example: “‎Changed [en] description: Finnish rock band”)
• Discussions/Press
  • “Wikidata: Summing the sum of human knowledge“
• Events
  • WhereCamp
  • Wikidata talk as part of a lecture on knowledge management in Karlsruhe
  • upcoming: 29C3
  • upcoming: Office hours
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • More pretty Wikidata artwork
• Open Tasks for You
  • Want to help Lydia write the next weekly summary? Let her know.
  • Hack on one of these

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 14:51, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

A little request/question

Hi Billinghurst. Can you take a look at this Rfc, if you have time? And I don't know how Rfc(s) work here, can you tell me how is this going to end?--Rapsar (talk) 14:59, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

I will bring it to the attention of my fellow stewards. To note that we (stewards) are not an arbitration committee, and in the situation of a fully informed community all we can really do is have an opinion, we have no authority to act. — billinghurst sDrewth 22:25, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your interest.--Rapsar (talk) 13:10, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

There was a summary in the page that has been written by User:とある白い猫. I copied it to below, and did some updates. Now I'm translating it to Turkish. Can you read that summary if you have time? Thanks for your interest again.--Rapsar (talk) 13:36, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Can you just do something about this issue? A lot of users have been waiting for "justice" for months, and you stewards are doing nothing. I want you to give more interest about it, please. Thanks in advance.--Rapsar (talk) 11:06, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

I can see that you are busy, but did you read the summary? I'm really sorry for disturbing you again but you are the only steward that seems interested about the issue. Have a nice day.--Rapsar (talk) 13:25, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

• Hi Billinghurst. Can I ask you that why didn't you answer my questions?--Rapsar (talk) 20:03, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Life! I haven't read it. Again ... real life. As I mentioned before stewards are not and cannot act as an arbitration committee for a fully-fledged wiki community. The discussion is there for the community and their opinion. The role of stewards is clearly defined at Stewards, and I think that you are either misinformed, or misguided on our role and abilities to intervene. I believe that I did mention this above. — billinghurst sDrewth 10:32, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Stewards generally do not perform actions on wikis where local users are available to perform them, except in emergency... says the "stewards" page. O think it is a "emergency" situation :) Because five admins had a "secret" meeting and blocked four users for being "troll", which is not a proper reason for blocking (as long as I know this page is not a "policy", it's just an "essay"). That blockings mean these five admins can have another secret meeting and block any user that they want. Isn't that an emergency? :) Thanks for your interest, again...--Rapsar (talk) 13:23, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

That statement applies solely within the context of our role, so relates to actions about spam, blocking, checkuser, etc. There is no emergency. We cannot act. Meta essays/policy are not individual community wiki policies. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:56, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I agree and know Meta essays/policy are not individual community wiki policies. I don't want to get into details so much, but this page in Turkish Wikipedia about trolls is an essay too, not a policy. Anyway, I'm trying to say that these admins block users with no valid reasons, without any warning. In emergency situations, such as cases where an administrator improperly blocks established users(...) administrator permissions are removed by stewards. says this page.--Rapsar (talk) 14:20, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

You can argue all you like. Point here, point there, it matters not. Stewards cannot act that way in established communities, in such our role is technical only. I am calling a halt to this thread. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:00, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

OK. I'm waiting for your "opinion" for the Rfc then (If you have enough free time of course :) Have a nice day...--Rapsar (talk) 15:12, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #37

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Development
  • Deployed fix for bugzilla:42956 on wikidata.org that caused problems when using the site in French in Firefox
  • Updated demo system
  • Fixed some bugs in wbsearchentities
  • Removed empty aliases structure from wbsearchentities
  • Heavy Selenium testing of statements UI
  • Improved overall usability and responsiveness of the statements UI
  • Implemented remove functionality for statements in the UI
  • Refactored and added tests for language links handler in the client
  • Bug fixes in the client
  • Improved SiteLinkTable class in WikibaseLib and added tests
  • Started work to improve AbuseFIlter integration
  • Added logic to find all referenced entities for a given set of claims
  • Added serialization of referenced claims to output of entity pages
  • Diff Extension: Split off diffing code from MapDiff and ListDiff to dedicated Differ classes
  • Diff Extension: Added dedicated patcher classes, which are used for the getApplicableDiff functionality
• Discussions/Press
  • Representing values 1 2 (including a prototype to try out the current state of discussions)
  • "Wikidata: People And Bots Busy Filling The System In Phase One"
• Events
  • Office hours (logs for English and German)
  • Wikidata talk as part of a lecture on knowledge management in Karlsruhe
  • upcoming: 29C3
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Announced the expected date for deployment on the Hungarian Wikipedia
  • Wikidata has been added to the Wikimedia stats site
  • Video of the Wikidata talks at Wikimania 2012 is online now
• Open Tasks for You
  • Give input to the representing values discussion
  • Hack on one of these

Have a great holiday season!

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 13:55, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #38

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. It's rather short this time because pretty much everyone enjoys some well-deserved vacation.

• Development
  • Some of us unwrapped gifts (-:
  • Started working on supporting different kinds of Snaks in the user interface
  • Fixing support for PostgreSQL in core, which was broken with introduction of the sites stuff
  • Code reviewing of changes in MediaWiki core
  • Adding watchlist filter in client for Wikidata changes
• Discussions/Press
  • Ranking of Items
• Events
  • right now: 29C3
• Open Tasks for You
  • Hack on one of these

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 19:51, 28 December 2012 (UTC)