User talk:Jalexander-WMF/Archive 4

User:Nikerabbit and global interface editor

Hi! We are wondering if Nikerabbit's global interface editor rights are granted for WMF purposes, or as a volunteer (if it was the latter, the rights are expired and need to be removed). The original discussion is at Steward_requests/Global_permissions/2012-08#Global_editinterface_for_Nikerabbit. --Rschen7754 19:39, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

The rights never went through us and so I would generally consider them to be within the volunteer purview. I'm happy to write to him to see if he needs them for work purposes and, if so, we can convert them into staff rights. Do we know if he's been using them (is that why they are expiring)? Or are they just expiring because they expire automatically with or without use. I can certainly envision a reason for needing them in his language engineering work but whether he actually needs/uses them is a different question :). Jalexander--WMF 19:45, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

The rights are supposed to be reconfirmed after one year, unless they are granted through WMF staff request. Following... recent events, we checked to see if any other people with this right had not been reconfirmed within the last year. I can wait to remove them until we hear back from you. --Rschen7754 19:53, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks much, I've written Nikerabbit and his manager. Jalexander--WMF

Have you heard anything back? --Rschen7754 17:33, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Bump. --Rschen7754 09:18, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Kneejerk reaction

https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy_policy&diff=8477438&oldid=8475976 one of the two changes is uncontroversial. The other is a "Slight change" according to LuisV (WMF)/LVilla (WMF), but I would not dispute the ter substantial, which you used. Why did you revert the former? All it does is link to the new official blog entry. Sheesh. --Elvey (talk) 01:34, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

I was leaving a message on your talk page but since you beat me to it I'll move it here :). The policy as written has been approved by the board and will become the official policy in just over 3 weeks now. I understand you don't like some of the changes made by Luis (and haven't since he made them) I also know that many (possibly all) of the board members read through the comments that were made on the privacy policy before the vote and likely saw your comments as well. Unfortunately that question is now a longer term one and further changes, even 'small' ones like the one you reverted by luis are not possible without another board vote etc. That's why I reverted and protected the page (I also realized there had been vandalism edits earlier, the protection was certainly not just because of you). Regarding the link, I'm happy to add that back (and remove Michelle's signature, since we're changing the comment I don't think it's fair to have her old signature there as if she wrote all of it). Jalexander--WMF 01:41, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I meant to put it after her sig. Whoops.--Elvey (talk) 03:26, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

Please test the new feature Special:PageMigration

As a Google Summer of Code Intern, I have been working on the Mass Migration tools project for Wikimedia. We are now ready with a minimal working product. The tool helps translators and translation administrators import the old translations into the Translate Extension.

An instance of the same has been set up on labs. You can find some useful instructions on the main page.

Please test the tool and report bugs/suggestions using the link provided on the main page itself. You can have a look at the tracking bug to check already reported bugs.

Looking forward to hearing from you! Cheers. BPositive (talk) 14:33, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Tou amendment banner campaign

My apologies, I don't recall touching that campaign at all, this must have been a fat fingers mistake on my part.--Pharos (talk) 03:51, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

no worries! I've done the same :) thanks! Jalexander--WMF 04:03, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

Rename

zh:User:Jimmy xu wrk was renamed globally to Jimmy Xu - does his name on the identification page need to be changed? (Also, should WMF staff be the one making that change, I assume?) --Rschen7754 19:36, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Generally, yes, I think it's best for one of us to do the change mostly just so that someone can link to a diff of that (just like they do for when we add someone to the list in general). Do you have a log entry (or a request post if it was a global one here on meta) for Jimmy Xu? Jalexander--WMF 19:38, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Log entry is [1], request [2]. --Rschen7754 19:42, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Midom@ocwiki

Sorry to bug you again... but I have just desysopped the above user on ocwiki under AAR. However, after the fact someone mentioned that he might need the rights as a sysadmin (though he isn't in the global group). I'm told that he is exempt from admin inactivity policies on dewiki (though he is on the account de:User:Domas Mituzas there due to a SUL conflict). Should the rights be restored? Now that I already did it, I won't restore it until I hear officially otherwise... --Rschen7754 21:41, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the ping, Domas has the ability to ask for and receive rights (including, and probably most importantly, the global sysadmin group) when needed for his volunteer development and system administration work. I think that if, such as in the deWiki case, the community decides to leave him with the rights that should be respected however I am in general happy to leave up to the community individual local rights, such as the ocwiki one you removed, because 1. the particular technical issues which arise requiring rights do not necessarily continue to reappear on the same wiki and 2. they are relatively easy for him to get back when needed. I obviously reserve the right to change my mind if he, or another developer, comes to me with a specific need (at that point we'd debate whether local or global rights make most sense). Jalexander--WMF 23:33, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Little question regarding your username

Dear James,
please allow me a little question about a detail regarding your username for this (your official WMF) account: The standard way of "flagging" such an official WMF account is by adding "(WMF)" to the username, which is consistent with the renaming scheme you apply when you rename other accounts. Why does your own official WMF account name not follow this scheme, but has a "-WMF" attached instead?
Thank you, Troubled @sset   ^{Work  •  Talk  •  Mail}   19:48, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

@Troubled asset: Of course. You're right that the norm is the (WMF) at the end of the name and that's generally what people are getting. The -WMF version is an alternative offered where there are concerns for rtl languages (the parens cause issues on rtl languages and look very bad). Because I am the one who tends to go to projects where there may be privacy policy violations (and in the past that has included rtl languages) I decided it would be best to have the -WMF at the end of my username rather then (WMF). That happened when I renamed my old exclusive staff account to add the WMF flag at the end. One of the main reasons we've kept the (WMF) styling as the norm is because that is what people have come to expect but we have offered -WMF as an option to staff members concerned about the rtl issues. (you can see ar:User:Philippe_(WMF) as an example) Jalexander--WMF 20:11, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, James, for this explanation. I don't speak any rtl languages and therefore never use any such WP sites, so I was not aware of this problem.
Still wondering, though, whether this display behavior is kinda unavoidable or could be fixed in the software fairly easily …
Best regards anyway, Troubled @sset   ^{Work  •  Talk  •  Mail}   09:09, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

enwiki (researcher)s

Hello Jalxander,

I was doing some cleanup of inactive users with advanced permissions on enwiki and came across a few I've been meaning to follow up on for a while. It looks like these are staff-related actions, so wanted to ping you first instead of a community discussion and a stewards request. There may be multiple solutions. There is an old permissions group (researchers) that was worked on by prior staff. The enwiki user list here. This was made in 2011 (see note here) and project page here Research:Wikimedia Summer of Research 2011. I'm not sure if this is still required for any special reason. It was worked on by former staff en:User:Steven_(WMF). If it is still needed, we have 2 users that are in it that may have left the project entirely en:User:Digitalshawn and User:Ymatsubara that should have no further use of these non-standard permissions. Thanks for looking this over. xaosflux ^Talk 03:04, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

@Xaosflux: Thanks, I know both of them still do academic research on Wikipedia (or at least have very recently) but I don't know if they still have a need for these rights. I will reach out to the research group and to legal to check the use cases for all of the users and if they still need it and will remove if not. Some of them are also staff members now and we need to figure out if these are for staff or personal research use. Jalexander--WMF 03:36, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Staff-global renamer

Hi James. I was wondering. We have global renamers and stewards who do renames, but I see you perform some global renames too. As I looked into it, the global renamer user group is locally on meta and the stewards have gotten this right locally on meta added to their user group too. But the staff got the user right globally... Since you are the only one doing the renames of the staff, isn't it more logical to make you individually have the global renamer right and then remove it from the staff user group? This way staff could accidentally rename accounts on any project, while you are the only one doing those renames anyway... And we couldn't keep track of any mistakes either. Trijnstel_talk 12:44, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Hmm, I see now the staff also has the ability to rename users on individual projects... Can't you write down some clear explanation about the use of these tools so that no staff member will make a mistake with those powerful tools? (If you haven't done so already...) Trijnstel_talk 14:42, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Trijnstel's opinion. It would be good to have clarity about staff who rename. --MF-W 10:41, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

That's fair, I'll chat with Philippe but it makes sense for me to get the separate right and remove from staff. The local rename right was because, at the time (when we were dealing with the mass staff user name changes), there were some fancy shenanigans I did with a couple accounts to merge 2 usernames in order to get them fully set before our deadline. Now that the actual account merge tool is coming out that is no longer needed (and shouldn't be used). Jalexander--WMF 10:45, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Please review a CentralNotice (somewhat urgent)

Hi James. Can you please have a look at Meta:Requests_for_help_from_a_sysop_or_bureaucrat#ESEA_Meetup_proposal_CentralNotice_banner? CentralNotice has changed a bit and I do not know if I did everything OK. Moreover, there might be concerns about the banner itself as it looks some Fundraising banners are still enabled. Thank you very much for your help. -- M\A 13:07, 10 December 2014 (UTC) I also would like to take this oportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, in case you celebrate any of them. Best regards.

email

Sent you an email (via Meta). [BTW, can stewards (or the like) read such emails if they feel like it? How would one know?] Cheers ~ DanielTom (talk) 01:56, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

DanielTom Received, though at the moment it's at the bottom of a fairly large email pile that built up today (I've been with out power for most of the day and so work was... sporadic) I should be able to get to it tomorrow though. To your question about stewards (or the like) reading such emails the answer is no. The actual text of emails is sent through the servers but not stored anywhere, a checkuser (through a logged check) could find out 'that' you sent an email during the data storage window but they can't see the text or the recipient. Jalexander--WMF 03:25, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Disqualification of my candidature for stewards elections

My candidature was denied with the argument I did not grant the prove of my identity to Wikimedia foundation in time. I sent the documents to info@wikimedia.org on 28th of January 2015. My identity is also publically very well known. I have Iearned in the meanwhile that the correct address would have been secure-info@wikimedia.org. But even if that is trough it would not be fair not to consider my candidature for such a formal reason – Wikimedia did get the my information on their main address and it would just be fair to redirect them to the right address or than to respond to me that I did send the documents to the wrong address. As there is still time to check my documents I cannot understand that you Wikimedia will this case not handle with generosity and fairness and so I appeal to you to reconsider this case and accept my candidature.DidiWeidmann (talk) 17:13, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

@DidiWeidmann: I have now received your ID and posted it to the ID noticeboard. Regarding the qualification unfortunately the WMF can't help with that since it's a community run process but I encourage you to talk to the election committee and I'm sure they will listen to the issue. Jalexander--WMF 20:39, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Instaed of hiding ...

... those images, how about a "sorry" to the contributers and some explenations of how such crap software changes can happen? Does it go in San Francisco with the motto "no thinking, just coding whatever"? Sorry, but i'm very pissed by the foundation's performance a further time. --Julius1990 (talk) 21:40, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

@Julius1990: I'm not someone who is able to answer those questions. I agree that those results are very concerning, but I'm not someone who can fix it or address the concerns well since I just don't know enough about that piece of the software. So I wanted to ensure that we don't cause more problems (if you see those images when you aren't expecting it it can be very jarring, I completely realize that what happened IS a problem but I don't want to crate more for anyone viewing the talk page) while pointing the right people to that discussion (which I have done) so that they can address the concerns more fully. Jalexander--WMF 21:51, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

I actually believe that the hyperventilation the confrontation with such images causes especially US people would help that the issue gets adressed properly, since without such kind of pressure nothing happens. That's why 950+ volunters still wait on a response to the open letter in the superprotect/media viewer issue and noone seems to care. So i know it gets to the wrong person when you are adressed here by me, but to me as an ordinary wikipedian it seems that noone over there really cares, sometimes there are some answers, then the dialogue stops again, sometimes we get no response at all out of the foundation. And at some point the patience is not existing anymore, and that moment was long ago ... --Julius1990 (talk) 22:04, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

User:Reedy (WMF)

Shouldn't this account be locked? Glaisher (talk) 09:41, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Barnstar

	Engaged WMF Employee Barnstar
	For your quick response to my request on the mailing list. On a Thursday at 8PM. Not sure if you are "on call", you do your job for fun on the side, or if you work unusual hours. Either way, very user-friendly; there should be some sort of award for this! Magog the Ogre (talk) 00:31, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Please fill out our Inspire campaign survey

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Foundation election CN banner

Hello, currently on wikis with language converter (thus with the dropdown menu near nstab), the logo in CN banner overlaps the dropdown menu because it has z-index:1. See http://imagebin.ca/v/1z3Bk7u5vSEj for a screenshot. Could you rewrite the banner so it doesn't use z-index? Thanks. Liangent 04:21, 21 April 2015 (UTC) @Liangent: This should work ok now, could you verify? Jalexander--WMF 05:57, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Yeah it works now. Liangent 13:19, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Community discussion on harassment reporting

There are many current proposals as part of the 2015 Inspire Campaign related to harassment management. I’ve created a page, Grants:IdeaLab/Community discussion on harassment reporting meant to serve as a central space where the various stakeholders in these proposals and other community members can discuss which methods might serve our community best so that we can unify our ideas into collective action. I encourage you to join the conversation and contribute your ideas! OR drohowa (talk) 02:24, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Confirming my personal information

Dear Mr.,

As required for the Board Elections, I had sent an email to secure-info in which I involved some proofs of my personal identity. So, please confirm my information as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Yours Sincerely,

--Csisc (talk) 13:29, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

The title of the sent email to secure-info@wikimedia.org is About confirming my identity for Board Elections.--Csisc (talk) 11:36, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks @Csisc: we did receive it. We will contact you with any questions. Jalexander--WMF 21:08, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

@Jalexander-WMF: I had sent you an email including the required copy as RE:About confirming my identity for Board Elections to your email as well to secure-info today. --Csisc (talk) 08:07, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

• For the record this was done this morning (I responded to Csisc by email) :) Thanks Csisc. Jalexander--WMF 03:54, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

verify my accoount

Hi Jalexander

hi sent mail to secure-info at wikimedia.org to verify my email for board election , but it didn't verified yet --Mohamed Ouda (talk) 18:43, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

• For the record this was done this morning (I responded to Mohamed by email) :) Thanks Mohamed. Jalexander--WMF 03:54, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

MediaWiki:CentralNotice/Resources/MinEditsMaxViewsFDC.js

Hi, i think something is wrong. i had the full JS text displayed above the green bar on Commons a few minutes ago. Holger1959 (talk) 02:16, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, no clue what happened but I've removed it. Will try to figure out what happened as soon as I can which sadly won't be for a couple hours, for now I've just turned it off Jalexander--WMF 02:31, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Excluding spaces from character count

Hi, just noticed that instruction. In my long experience, character counts always include spaces. I guess it's too late to alter for this election, but in the future it might be better to keep to the general standard. Thanks. Tony (talk) 07:11, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Tony, I will certainly make sure to bring it up with the next election committee (or, preferably, with a permanent election committee we want to create). The no spaces rule has been a traditional rule for the board elections (I think to allow freedom making lists and formatting etc) and is something the board itself has generally wanted too however I agree it's very "different" and probably deserves a re-look. Jalexander--WMF 07:14, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Please verify my particulars

Hi Alexander, I sent my particulars yesterday to secure-info@wikimedia.org . Today I forwarded the same message with Id proofs to your official email as well. Request you to please verify my particulars (identification). Cheers. --Muzammil (talk) 11:15, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Translations on board elections

Hi James, this is to note that there was an error causing missing text and typos in my (standard wikimedia) signature on the 20 versions of my board candicacy text. The missing text and typos were displayed for the last week to all voters. The error has now been fixed by Trijnstel [3]. The valediction which was in my English text is still missing. I understand and appreciate all the hard work you did, but just please be more careful in the future and proofread the texts. This can be a major influence on voting. I would personally not vote for someone who does not use valediction and cannot type their own name... Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 02:44, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Special:UserRights/Fhocutt_(WMF)

<Glaisher> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UserRights/Fhocutt_(WMF)
<Glaisher> for WMF staff work - temp until 30 April 2015

Glaisher (talk) 12:35, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi James, could you also please check Special:GlobalUsers/staff. For example User:Erik Moeller (WMF) is no longer an employee. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 17:35, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks @Taketa:, I check that list regularly (every monday, often more often) and rights are removed instantly as soon as I get notice that someone has officially departed. While it is certainly true that we have had issues at times sending me (or others) that notice and so been delayed in removing rights it is also true that long term or important staff members (and that includes many who have staff rights) are often helping the WMF at some level for a couple months after they leave the foundation and may still require rights. Because of that I'll check with those responsible again but won't be removing rights until I hear back. Jalexander--WMF 17:45, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Wiktionary talk:News for editors: backups

Thanks for the answer. But since backups cannot be done by regular volunteers (database contains critical data) the new board should also include these problems in their agenda. --Xoristzatziki (talk) 04:32, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

@Xoristzatziki: I appreciate the feedback. I agree that the backups are an critical service that should be continued. In general however the Board is not the one who needs to (or should) get involved in day to day operations like that however. There are just so many day to day concerns (both good and bad) that their work tends to focus very directly on the strategic direction of the foundation as a whole especially since they can not be completely aware of all of the different priorities and other problems that need fixing at the same time. I would encourage you to make your concerns known though. The best place would be too reach out to some of the technical operations team or, even better, searching for a task (a bug) on Phabricator and creating a new one if you can't find one involving the backup issue so that the right people, and their bosses, can be made aware if they aren't already and can track their progress even if they are already working on it. Jalexander--WMF 05:19, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

2015 Strategy/Community consultation

As the originator of this page, perhaps you would be so kind as to point to the report that you stated would be ready within a "few weeks" when you closed it over three months ago. Perhaps you could put the link at Talk:2015 Strategy/Community consultation#"We will report back to the community". Thank you. Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 21:30, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

I trust that following up after an interval of two months will not seem importunate. A week after I posted this message, Philippe Baudette assured me that this report was in hand and being prepared by @Kgilbey (WMF): unfortunately there is no evidence that such a person even exists, let alone that they are working on this report. Their user page contains no information or contact details, they do not appear on the wmf:Staff and contractors, their global contribution list is empty, they have not responded to a request made in June, and most cogently there is still no report and no indication of when such a thing might ever materialise. I asked Philippe about that a fortnight ago but he has not had the time to reply. There are two possibilities here. One is that the report is not being worked on, and the information I have been given is false: I am very reluctant to come to that conclusion, so will go with the other, which is that there has been a serious failure of communication between staff and community. I ask you to please find out when this report is going to appear and have that information relayed to the community in the near future. (It would probably be a good idea to have the reason for the communication breakdown looked into, too.) Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 19:33, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I believe there have been many reasons for the communications breakdown including many changes in direction and I will not pretend that I am not personally frustrated by them as well. Philippe has sadly been out on medical leave off and on for a little while now (which is why he likely hasn't had the time to respond to you). I will look for a better answer and get back to you. Jalexander--WMF 20:03, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. I am sorry to hear that Philippe is not well and hope he has a speedy recovery. I will take the opportunity to repeat a point made before, that however busy the 270 members of staff may be, a short simple holding response by the staff member with overall responsibility for this work or an associate, taking perhaps one minute to post at some point in the past two months, cannot be regarded as unreasonably onerous. Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 20:22, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Please also see User_talk:LilaTretikov (WMF)#2015 Strategy/Community consultation. Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 19:14, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

@Rogol Domedonfors: I unfortunately don't have a date for you or the ability to make promises. I know that the person who was responsible no longer holds a contract with the WMF however has reached out to Maggie and is working with her to release the report as soon as possible because they want to do so regardless so that the community can see the results. I would love to be able to give you more information (and to have been able to give you more information as this went on). Unfortunately I had no information to give and it changed so frequently that I was afraid that anything I gave would be perceived as incorrect at best and purposeful miscommunication at worst. I won't pretend that other things don't take priority for me at times but I've tried to follow this issue as close as possible to get the community an answer and have been unable to provide one. I will, however, continue to try and pass on everything I can. Jalexander--WMF 19:20, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for that information, which does tend to explain if not excuse the delay. You will appreciate I am sure that it paints a rather dismal picture of the priority that the WMF has accorded to following through on the commitments that you and Maggie made, I accept in all good faith, back in March. However, the issue of what happened and why, as I said to Lila, is one for her to handle internally -- no doubt lessons will be learned. The issue for the community is whether and when this report will see the light of day (at least, in time for it to have any value). I appreciate that it is not your responsibility to answer that question, and thank you for the efforts you have made to clarify the issue. Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 19:47, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

A staff member

I had been planning to leave a message for a staff member but I see that all their accounts were locked by you yesterday. Will there be an explanation to the community? Didcot power station (talk) 17:37, 17 June 2015 (UTC)