User talk:Billinghurst/2016

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Tulsi Bhagat in topic Best Wishes !!


2016

Good wishes for etc etc :-) --Herby talk thyme 13:23, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

SBL and TB

I added a link proposed by you, and later you added the same link again, so this link is now twice on the SBL. I added the link because you proposed the addition but you didn't add the link immediately as usual, so I thought you were waiting another opinion or confirmation; sorry next time I will not add.--Syum90 (talk) 15:07, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I was in the process of adding it (had it open to do so), and was waylaid in RL, then finished it later, obviously not noting that you had stepped in. Next time we edit the page, we can clean. I don't own the page and you have every right to make your assessment and act upon it, and nothing for which an apology is necessary.  — billinghurst sDrewth 21:21, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
This is exactly what I thought when you added the link again; well, anyway the next time I will not add because now I know that you always complete the addition of your proposed links.--Syum90 (talk) 10:24, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
  1. As you can see our friend JR has created pages with the title "Javad (singer)" on December, so the code Javad[\. ]{0,5\([sS][iaoe]nger\) doesn't work properly, I think this is probably because a "}" is lost.
  2. Our mentioned friend created this pages on December: Ҷавод моҳи Рамазон and Ҷавод Рамазонӣ. I think this code could work .*Ҷавод\s{0,5}(моҳи)?\s{0,5}Рамазонӣ?.*

Regards.--Syum90 (talk) 15:07, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

@Syum90: Yep, looks like my bad. Re your suggested addition, I would think that we can cast a little broader and would recommend something like .*Ҷавод\s{0,5}\w{0,5}\s{0,5}Рамазон.* the \w will check for all text characters, and rather than regex the end character better to drop it and let the concluding part of the regex capture whichever variation. Persistant PoS that he is, thanks for continuing to watch for him.  — billinghurst sDrewth 21:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
  1. change; added lost "}"
  2. change; extended regex to JR. I've added your proposed regex which is obviously better than mine, off course :-)

Thank you very much.Syum90 (talk) 10:24, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #191

w:Timeline of stegosaur research

Hi,

I was just browsing 'Timeline of stegosaur research' and noticed you had spelled my name incorrectly. It was probably wrong in the original and you copied it, but I was wondering if you could change the entry for 1994 to 'Rachael Walker' rather than 'Rachel Walker'. Thanks.

Rachael Walker

I am not sure that I would have done any editing in that space, maybe some anti-spam work. Do feel that you can edit and correct errors yourself.  — billinghurst sDrewth 09:18, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Re email

@Danny B.: Re your question, I commented about my resignation from stewardry on this talk page. You will find the public comment in this page's 2015 archives in mid December.  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:12, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #192

Blocked IP address

Hi I am trying to create a Wikipedia account but when I try it says my IP address is blocked. How do I get it unblocked? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.98.237.125 (talk)

The information you are seeking is clearly right there, take your request to Steward requests/Global.  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:45, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

unwanted voyage item

long time no speak. there is an unwanted. at your leisure and assuming no further interest from

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Travellers'_pub

regarding

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/List_of_Wikivoyagers_by_destination

could you please delete

trust the ny has been going ok for you

best wishes

:JarrahTree (talk) 09:11, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Deletions should be listed at Meta:Requests for deletion. So   transferred to community for their attention prior to action.  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:14, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
fair enough, thanks for that :JarrahTree (talk) 11:04, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
@JarrahTree: Don't see it being an issue for deletion, and no reason to step outside standard process in a case like this.  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:39, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
sorry, ageing brain - (a) sorry, to date, I hadnt noted that meta required the rfd process outside of admin actions (b) it is unused and unwanted and no one at voyage has any use for it, but you say keep it here for a particular reason ? Very hot here in Perth I'll blame the heat for my potentially missing the point perhaps :JarrahTree (talk) 14:28, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
@JarrahTree: No issue whatsoever with your approach. FWIW I expressed no opinion on the page, and suspect that it will be deleted shortly.  — billinghurst sDrewth 21:30, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
thanks for that :JarrahTree (talk) 01:00, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

ip block

hi sir, why did you block my ip address on all wiki? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 178.162.216.34 (talk)

I have resigned from being a steward, please follow instructions to SRG  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:37, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Mistake

Hi there,

I was browsing through an article regarding simultaneous vs Sequential Line up procedures, and I have found a mistake in one section where it describes the Sequential line up as a Simultanoes one. However my IP address is blocked, which stopped me from fixing this issue. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 178.162.216.37 (talk)

@178.162.216.37: SRG as per instructions.  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:25, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #193

Future IdeaLab Campaigns results

 

Last December, I invited you to help determine future ideaLab campaigns by submitting and voting on different possible topics. I'm happy to announce the results of your participation, and encourage you to review them and our next steps for implementing those campaigns this year. Thank you to everyone who volunteered time to participate and submit ideas.

With great thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF), Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation. 23:56, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #194

Learning Quarterly: January 2016

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:20, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi Apparently you blocked me from editing (which I do very very occasionally)

why did you do that?

best

Ian

104.131.94.126

Hi

I blocked in Turkish Wikipedia 3.5 years ago.

This is a long time really.

And i sent messages and e-mails to Turkish Wikipedia admins for unlock my account. But they are not turn to me.

Can you help me? -- --This unsigned article written by: User:Aguzer 17:38, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

I have no special rights or position across the wikis. Your best means to discuss your matter is with an admin from Turkish Wikipedia on your talk page at trWP or on their talk page here at meta.  — billinghurst sDrewth 20:10, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #195

COIBot reports

Hi billi, today I've started managing COIBot reports, and as you are the master of the COIBot reports :-) I would thank you very much if you review my first actions. This morning I've closed these reports: superstitionmountain.info, statistics.scrum.com, raywj.com, northhollywood.patch.com, migrationsmuseum.it, maps.omniatlas.com. Thank you very much for your support at SE, and especially for your comment. P.S.: I miss you alot as a steward :-( Syum90 (talk) 13:00, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

With my closures, I was looking to leave sufficient commentary/links/thoughts/... for when I come past the next time, in not wanting to have to do in depth analysis each time. Alternatively if someone else comes to the page they may have an idea of why something was done, especially if it was a block. Of course it is all time and energy dependent. As you would know achieving purity with certainty is a hard task, so sometimes it is more about prodding a community and let them know.  — billinghurst sDrewth 06:55, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
Ok, I'll do as you say. Thank you very much for your time and counsels :-) Syum90 (talk) 09:52, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #196

Javad R stuff

Hi! I'm not really sure where the best place to bring this up is, but you're one of the people who seems to be most active in dealing with the JR spam, so I figured I would ask you and hopefully you can help. :) There's a few things:

I wanted to mark glk:جواد (هنرمند) for deletion, but it seems there's no delete template on that Wikipedia, so I'm not sure what to do about it.

I also tagged ml:ജവാദ് റംസാൻ for deletion almost two weeks ago and nothing has happened. I'm not sure what the next step would be.

commons:File:Images123fg.jpg should be deleted. I'm not active on Commons and I'm not familiar with the deletion process so I've been procrastinating for months about doing something about it. It seems you're an admin on Commons, maybe you'd like to deal with it? :)

cy:Javad (singer) was blanked and protected, but looking at Title blacklist it could be deleted now, couldn't it? (I would personally be happy if the page were deleted because I keep seeing it when checking for any new JR pages :P).

Thanks

- Nikki (talk) 16:50, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

@Nikki: you will need to ask a steward or a global administrator for assistance … Steward requests/Miscellaneous, I will deal with Commons.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:40, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Hello

I can't translate page with tools, but I can translate page with manually, can you give me inform about translate page apk for me. Thanks Regars --   Ays (Talk) 06:28, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Arifys: I am not the best person to ask about the translation tools, not my area of expertise. Try talking to MF-Warburg or asking at Meta:Babylon.  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:00, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

blocked entry from Tor etc

Hi billinghurst, what is your idea about people like me in Iran where presently access to commons is once again blocked? I get to the upload page only via Tor or other proxies but then the one I reach is blocked by you.

I understand the problem to keep the trolls away who try to hide behind proxies. But what about the access problem for Iran (it was there before, then gone, now again there. i guess it has to do with the chaotic blocking policy here where uncoordinated internet militias blocking access to site where they either find a nude tit or something about holy stuff they do not like.. I send my graphic to your email and you upload for me?? Kipala (talk) 15:14, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Kipala: I have amended your user rights at Commons so that you should be able to edit. Re the block itself, you either need to approach the admin who placed it, asking for its removal. If you don't want to publicly expose your IP address, then you will need to approach a check user there and explain the problem. I don't know which block is inhibiting you.  — billinghurst sDrewth 20:30, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
Thank you! It works! Kipala (talk) 22:17, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
[clearly half awake when answering this on my phone on public transport.] @Kipala:, I resigned from being a steward so cannot specifically address your issue, nor check the details behind the block. Open proxies are a problem and bots abuse them at a rapid rate, and the vandals and trolls also are problematic, which it is here, the block message should have indicated which it was in this case. Stewards can review if you post at SRG or email the detail via Special:EmailUser/Stewards. They can remove the block, they can lessen its strength, or they can leave it in place, depending on the evidence.

To the issue of blocks and proxies, it is a complex issue, with no perfect answer, so becomes a balancing act. We do have means to circumvent steward/admin imposed blocks for users where they apply, and I have done that for you for Commons. If you face a larger issue xwiki re blocks, the stewards can do for you globally, what I have done at Commons.  — billinghurst sDrewth 22:23, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

I am not looking for a general policy change on this question. I could upload again, so my request is fulfilled. i understand it is a bit complicated. The problem is for peopel from a place like where i live where only proxies allow access to certain sites - momentarily also commons. That may change again, for the moment it works for me. Thanks!! Kipala (talk) 08:16, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

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Open Call for Individual Engagement Grants

 

Greetings! The Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) program is accepting proposals until April 12th to fund new tools, research, outreach efforts, and other experiments that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers. Whether you need a small or large amount of funds (up to $30,000 USD), IEGs can support you and your team’s project development time in addition to project expenses such as materials, travel, and rental space.

With thanks, I JethroBT (WMF), Community Resources 15:56, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

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Badges again

Can you please take a look at this one and this one? -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:53, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

@Magioladitis: I resigned my stewardship last November, and I haven't bother with global admin. You will need to ask at Steward requests/Miscellaneous  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:20, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
billinghurst Thanks for letting me know. You were my favourite steward :) -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:35, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

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Learning Quarterly: April 2016

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:51, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Weird assessment of my Support Desk query (below) as a Temporary mass spambot attack!

Hi Billinghurst - we came across each other some years ago on Wikisource (US Statutes at Large Vol. 33!). Apologies for bothering you, but I need an administrator, and I hope therefore that this isn't the sort of Stewards' business you don't deal with any more.

I have tried three times to post slight variations on the below query at the MediaWiki Support Desk, but it has been rejected twice as spam and once as a Temporary mass spambot attack (little old me - I guess I should be honoured!) I variously removed all the <nowiki>...</nowiki> statements surrounding the template calls and replaced the double curly brackets with double parentheses, removed all wiki markup etc., etc. but all in vain - it's still rated as Spam.

Are you able to help, either yourself, or by posting my query at the MediaWiki Support Desk for me, please? I chose you because you were the first admin name on the list which I knew, but I see that you're a Wikidata guru too, so maybe you are the RIGHT admin to ask after all!

Here's my query:

I'm using a local installation of MediaWiki v.1.23.13 for a family genealogy project.

Is there a template or extension which will let me extract specific template variables (date of birth and date of death in this case) automatically from one page into another? In other words, how can I extract variables defined in the page entitled John Smith by templates {{birth date|1920|01|01}} and {{death date and age|1940|12|01|1920|015|01}} to display them on the Smith family tree page which (manually - VERY manually!) aggregates many people on one page using the {{chart}} template, with each box containing that person's name, dob and dod - i.e.:

John
Smith
1920-1940

Each of the people cited on the family tree page has a page in their own name, including an {{infobox}} with the two date of birth/death templates included. Currently, I'm just adding date of birth and date of death manually to the {{chart}}, so automation would MASSIVELY help with consistency of data and speed of creation of the chart pages. I was wondering if {{Persondata}}) might be the answer, but I can't seem to work out how to use it since it's been deprecated, and WikiData seems a little opaque on the matter! Hope that's clear, and thank you in advance.

Charles CharlesSpencer (talk) 15:00, 13 May 2016 (UTC) Error in Template:Reply to: Username not given.

@CharlesSpencer: the abuse filter at mw: has been updated, so that issue should be circumvented. Re your query, I think that you are wanting to do something with LUA and the module: namespace. (not my area of expertise). You might also look at something like mw:Extension:DynamicPageList. Looking at s:Special:Version gives pointers to some of this stuff.  — billinghurst sDrewth 05:15, 14 May 2016 (UTC)
Thanks for your help - I'll give all that a go! CharlesSpencer (talk) 18:48, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

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Learning Quarterly: July 2016

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Cswiki - vandal/spam fight

Hi, I'm a sysop of cswiki. I've noticed you are currently reverting some edits at cswiki. Could I assist you with this? --Martin Urbanec (talk) 10:38, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

The user has been blocked. Thanks for your work! --Martin Urbanec (talk) 10:54, 2 August 2016 (UTC)
Hi @Martin Urbanec:. Thanks for the note. I was working this from a xwiki sense (see User:COIBot/XWiki/gomelchat.com), rather than specifically csWP. I have left the contributor a note at enWP, and if he doesn't listen I will just blacklist it.<shrug>  — billinghurst sDrewth 12:26, 2 August 2016 (UTC)
Thanks for it! --Martin Urbanec (talk) 12:45, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

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Random query

Any idea why some links get caught by Special:LinkSearch and some don't? Commons is enjoying the attention of image spammers currently - valid images with links placed in them. Obviously bot accounts. Sometimes I search and get results, sometimes not even having copy and pasted the link from the uploaded file?

Hope life is not too bad! Cheers --Herby talk thyme 11:02, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

@Herbythyme: I can only answer generically. LinkSearch only looks for pure links, if it has a level of clever corruption I can only guess it fools it. The you will have to ask the code geeks for specifics. Does there need to be a filter written to capture this stuff? Do you have examples? Have we been able to get COIBot to assist?

Re RL, my change of job last year has me buuuuuuuuusy, and time-poor, though well-challenged and I think making a positive difference.  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:54, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Ahh - think I missed the RL issues but I'm glad it ain't looking bad. I'm time poor currently but out of choice...
Anyways - filling in a few dead moments (!) I realised that a load of steaming excrement is making it's way on to Commons and folk there are not that interested.
COI bot seems equally disinterested - in that sense it hasn't found anything on the odd ones I've tried. F'rinstance has been placed quite a bit on Commons but only shows as a minor issue on fr wp.
Equally this one didn't show up on Commons on Linksearch despite it being placed quite often.
My recent contribs on Commons will give some clues I think. The vast majority are bot accounts with pattern names. Let me know if you want more and have the time.
FWIW I'll not be around much in about a week - places to go. Back by December I guess. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 12:18, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
@Herbythyme: I don't advertise RL, never have.

with regard to the Commons problems, why aren't we blacklisting the links, either locally at C. or globally here? Probably worth providing me with some specific links so I can prod those without aimless wandering. @Beetstra: can you please explain why Commons is less likely to have abusive links reported?  — billinghurst sDrewth 12:36, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

RL - me either largely.
Pretty sure that neither this and certainly not this showed up in link search. The first one I came across three times I think, the latter far more than that. There is still plenty to find one there - I've scratched the surface. The images are legit (well appear to be) from Flickr or US gov type stuff. They simply have various related or unrelated links put in.
Maybe it's my eyes but they are quite easy to see on rc/upload logs. Files tend to be +1000 or more, tend to have pattern accounts (some have been used a number of times cos folk on Commons are getting good at agf...). Packaging, phones, car hire, apps, seo stuff - the usual. I'm putting repeat offenders in the BL so that may slow it down.
Appreciated --Herby talk thyme 12:51, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
Nother example of one that didn't show in link search. - weird. --Herby talk thyme 13:14, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
@Herbythyme: To me this requires a phabricator ticket about abuse of the upload wizard... that spambots are able to create accounts and then then utilise upload wizard to load images is disturbing to me.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:44, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
Do linkreports of these show the diffs? I just poked


If that one does not show the diffs, I'll have to have a look whether COIBot is tracking the wiki (.. is it tracking the File-namespace anyway?). (Note: due to overload, LiWa3 has a backlog of a couple of days). --Dirk Beetstra T C (en: U, T) 16:40, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

OK - looks like there are a number of issues here.

It would be great if @Beetstra: could take a look at the COI bot issue. I realise there is always plenty to do but there are few folk patrolling Commons and almost none look at issues other than copyright really.
It would be good to be able to get a handle on just why the Linksearch is so intermittent. I think I'm clearing stuff (some links date back a bit) however I've no real idea whether I've caught everything (& others would have the same problems).
In practice all here know these accounts come via open/abused IPs. Sadly it seems no one on Commons is that interested in tracking that down via CU from what I can see.
I can't see a filter working but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. So far all have been en (one exception which was de IIRC) as far as I see, files are tending to be +750 upwards, new users with (again only mostly) pattern accounts.
Fundamentally the b@st@rds shouldn't be able to do it. Having been fairly dormant for a while (& will be again) I'm out of the loop on who might be interested in aspects of this so any thoughts are more than welcome.

Many thanks to you both - appreciated. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 10:46, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

I've added the file-namespace to the namespaces to track. Let's see if that results in a bit more reports with this. The bot should then also start detecting if IPs are spamming there (or other SPAs). --Dirk Beetstra T C (en: U, T) 03:48, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
Thanks - that should help a bit. IP's won't be spamming this way as they cannot upload images however it may help to track stuff down.
A further problem has emerged. The BL is not kicking in properly (see my talk on Commons). Speculating but if LinkSearch can't see stuff will the BL have the same problem? Thoughts more than welcome. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 06:52, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
@Herbythyme: It is my experience that to get the attention of developers one needs to put the issues into phabricator. I would hazard a(n uninformed) guess that the mechanisms are different. The blacklist is stored as a giant regex to test newly added links, where what you have seems to be a storage-recall issue.  — billinghurst sDrewth 07:56, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
OK - I'll get something sorted. --Herby talk thyme 08:00, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
@Herbythyme: I think that part of the way to review this shit is the secondaries. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Linksearch/*.gao.gov is interesting and I have identified numbers through there. It is going to be trickyto pick this out, they have a sophisticated approach, not everything is spam url'd. Definitely three file uploads patch, regular use of enWP, and other links. I am tempted to put a challenge in place for gao.gov as that is there favoured secondary, but I will think a little further on this.  — billinghurst sDrewth 13:27, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
I'd seen a few of them on the ones with real spam links on. I assumed as a .gov I'd ignore it but it could be a way in to find others. Thanks --Herby talk thyme 13:39, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
@Herbythyme:I have created c:Special:Abusefilter/157 to see if this allows us to track gao-attached spam. The filter is a little problematic as I am not certain how well abusefilters work with uploads. Uploads don't show as edits for the purpose of batch testing. :-/ If you know of other secondaries, please let me know. I am only tracking GAO at this point of time.  — billinghurst sDrewth 14:46, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
And thinking aloud... That will be worth watching. A characteristic of many of the ones I've seen is multiple en wp links - that is not something that is common in the majority of Commons uploads. They are effectively presenting an article. It also "obscures" the spam links to some degree. Even to me they don't stand out well sometime. Help appreciated anyway. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 15:13, 4 September 2016 (UTC)
@Krd: So you are aware of the conversation, and to note the filter created. I suspect that these upload edits may not even hit the filters, and I am still exploring this situation with regard to filters.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:08, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

@Beetstra: I am not certain that they are being found.



shows no links in the report, yet if you follow the "major wikis" link you can see that there are two links identified at Commons. I have a series of other reports running to see how they may be, the following is one



 — billinghurst sDrewth 13:56, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

FYI

New pattern, with fancy letters as well (note the "a" and "W"). Best regards, —MarcoAurelio 09:22, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Overall view. —MarcoAurelio 09:26, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

@MarcoAurelio: sneaky, note the pipe character in mysеⅼf. Once identified we can just write an easy filter for that corruption. Is that consistent in other spam?  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:41, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Just discovered this today. If norm/ccnorm worked inversely, it'd be easy to fix. —MarcoAurelio 10:45, 5 September 2016 (UTC)
Meh, we just had ccnorm changed to work this way. Anyway, we don't need ccnorm, we can code it directly. I do see that the spam is caught by existing spam filters  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:17, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

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WLM in Urdu

Hi @Billinghurst:, Currently a talk held in Urdu Wikipedia about appropriate Urdu equivalent of Wiki Loves Monuments here which resulted in favor of "ویکی محبوب یادگاریں". So WLM article on Urdu Wiki moved to this. Now we would like here in Meta to replace all previous Urdu equivalents with this in all places and banners and it should be used in future as well. Currently a banner about WLM competition displaying in Urdu with old one, so we request you to change this notice as:
ویکی محبوب یادگاریں: کسی یادگارعمارت کی تصویر کھینچیے، ویکیپیڈیا کا تعاون کیجئے اور انعام پایئے!
at the earliest, Thanks. :) --Muhammad Shuaib (talk) 10:29, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

@محمد شعیب: Please utilise CentralNotice/Request  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:33, 20 September 2016 (UTC)
New notices request should be there, not editing in it. Muhammad Shuaib (talk) 11:49, 20 September 2016 (UTC)
Please put edits there too.  — billinghurst sDrewth 12:21, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

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Learning Quarterly: October 2016

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Community Wishlist Survey votes

Hi Billinghurst, Thanks for participating in the Wishlist Survey! I'm sorry that this wasn't clear -- this is the proposals phase of the survey, when people are posting and discussing proposals. The voting phase starts in a couple weeks, on November 28th. We're not counting votes that are cast early, because the proposals can change during this phase, and you might end up voting for something that changes in a way that you didn't expect. I've added some text at the top of the page, explaining this better.

I don't want people to see your Support votes and get confused, so I'm going to change the Support template in your message to "Good idea". If that response doesn't work for you, then feel free to change it. Sorry again about the confusion -- I'm really glad that you're participating. I hope you keep coming back to discuss and improve proposals, and you'll have a chance to vote starting on Nov 28th. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! -- DannyH (WMF) (talk) 19:03, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

@DannyH (WMF): Thanks Danny, I was just playing follow the leader. :-/ It was late and I should have known better.  — billinghurst sDrewth 06:36, 9 November 2016 (UTC)
Yeah, I know -- it was funny to see it springing up just on that page, and then on a couple other pages as Wikisource people explored some of the other categories. :) It's all good, I was hoping that nobody would be upset that I'd taken their votes away. Thanks. -- DannyH (WMF) (talk) 20:28, 9 November 2016 (UTC)

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Spam

Hi. I have a problem with this kind of spam. Which was the filter that managed that? Regards, —MarcoAurelio 12:02, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

@MarcoAurelio: I am not sure that we have had a global filter that has got that sort of edit catcher. It is essentially text replacement, and it is beyond my filter knowledge how we might catch it. Kaldari is way more adept at those intricacies and maybe can offer some advice.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:21, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
@MarcoAurelio: Unfortunately, that link isn't working for me. Can you describe the edits the IP is making? Kaldari (talk) 18:48, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
@Kaldari: From memory, a couple were
 — billinghurst sDrewth 20:30, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
@MarcoAurelio: I created a test abuse filter for cases like this. We can let it run for a week or so and see what it catches. Kaldari (talk) 23:45, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
@Kaldari: Thanks. I was however asking if we've got a filter similar to Special:AbuseFilter/69 or Special:AbuseFilter/72 where the domains being spammed in plaintext could be added; but this filter is okay too. Thanks, —MarcoAurelio 10:47, 15 November 2016 (UTC)
@MarcoAurelio: they are based on the linking methodology which is an easier check. We can set up straight text filters, then put in conditions of newness, but filtering for generally domain names in text is going to be a horrendous task if there is not some other common feature.  — billinghurst sDrewth 05:38, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #235

2 things

Hi. Two things.

  1. New pattern I think I've managed it through User:COIBot/XWiki/chayplov.ru and listed the socks, which did crosswiki spam.
  2. Can something be done about it?

Regards, —MarcoAurelio 15:01, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Addressing the first point at the moment. @MarcoAurelio: To Special:AbuseFilter/72 we can add something like so visit my blog. And a question is the double colon standard for this spam? If it is then that might be another point of difference we can investigate.  — billinghurst sDrewth 22:00, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
To the second point @Beetstra: will need to look to why COIBot is adding the url (and it does the same to the same effect at enWP, so I am sure he is aware). I have just been ignoring it; it is just noise to the few admins who wander past.  — billinghurst sDrewth 22:02, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
@MarcoAurelio and Billinghurst: As long as it is not hammering, I tend to ignore it. Just noise. However, I tried to resolve this through this and this, making sure that the domain in the parameter in a link does not trigger the spam blacklist (I am not concerned about the few hits on the blacklist, I am more about the bot not saving the report). I'll have a second look, at the moment I don' t know where the link is (and I have limited access to the toolserver at the moment, only through smartphone). --Dirk Beetstra T C (en: U, T) 03:14, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
I've modified the filter. Thanks. —MarcoAurelio 13:41, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #236

Talk:Title blacklist

Can you make the revision 16096421 of Talk:Title blacklist hidden? I am from Germany, and I know that the hyperlink would be illegal here. --84.61.138.217 11:26, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

The link is removed, and I don't see a need for further action. If you think that a law in one country should hide a link, then please take your request to Meta:RFH. If there were laws in China, Russia, etc. about a link, I don't think that they would be heeded, so please look to how you frame your argument if you wish for success.  — billinghurst sDrewth 22:03, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #237

Wikidata weekly summary #238

Wikidata weekly summary #239

Wikidata weekly summary #240

If...

... you're still around and you could look at RecentChanges it'd be good. There's dynamic IP vandal messing around. I've tweaked AF57 too, so worth having a look at that as well if at all possible. Best regards, —MarcoAurelio 00:12, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

Around for a bit (in and out), linking to Special:AbuseFilter/57 and log to ease my way.  — billinghurst sDrewth 00:56, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

Plus ca change...

You go away for a bit, come back and find nothing much has changed ;-). Anyway - speaking of things not turning up in Linksearch (and presumably not affected by the BL) I came across this images uploaded by "different" users on Commons all with the same link on - see my last edit on here for the website. Can't find anything else on Commons at present. Hope life is good... --Herby talk thyme 16:27, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

@Herbythyme: No change? What are you talking about?!? I made at least two changes on my global user page! Otherwise, what would be expected? I will see if I can find Legoktm and ask the question. I thought that it might be the upload methodology (upload by the API) however a purge and a touch made no difference. I think that we need to move to phabricator and shake a stick. Welcome back, I hope someone watered your plastic plants while you were away, dust build up can be a beast. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:12, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
Yep - the lack of change referred far more to spammers than your user page...
Plastic flowers died but in a good cause. Doesn't appear to have stopped the world going to hell in a hand cart tho ;-)
Festive wishes of course --Herby talk thyme 13:53, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

Spam blacklist

Hello.

Are you sure to want to add \bgoogle\.com\b to the spam blacklist, blocking all links to google dot com on all projects ? [3]

Best regards,

Kropotkine 113 (talk) 09:52, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

@Kropotkine 113: Thanks for the ping, fixed. Slightly embarrassing! Didn't think that I had, I was working up the top of the list, and rocked back and forward with the edit, and deleted the auto edition the first time, and forgot after the rock back.  — billinghurst sDrewth 10:05, 25 December 2016 (UTC)
No problem. It happens. I wish you a merry Christmas. Kropotkine 113 (talk) 10:13, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #241

Best Wishes !!

 
Best Wishes, Billinghurst!
Hi Billinghurst, I wish you and your loved ones Happy New Year 2017. Dear, Have a great time !!  TBhagat (talk) 04:18, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
 
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