The Wikimedia Foundation announced that they will develop a universal code of conduct for all WMF projects. There is an open local discussion regarding the same.
Arbitration
A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.
The Medicine case was closed, with a remedy authorizing standard discretionary sanctions for all discussions about pharmaceutical drug prices and pricing and for edits adding, changing, or removing pharmaceutical drug prices or pricing from articles.
Sysops will once again be able to view the deleted history of JS/CSS pages; this was restricted to interface administrators when that group was introduced.
Twinkle's block module now includes the ability to note the specific case when applying a discretionary sanctions block and/or template.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. LizRead!Talk!16:25, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Voting for proposals in the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey, which determines what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year, will take place from 8 December through 21 December. In particular, there are sections regarding administrators and anti-harassment.
By motion, standard discretionary sanctions have been temporarily authorizedfor all pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes). The effectiveness of the discretionary sanctions can be evaluated on the request by any editor after March 1, 2021 (or sooner if for a good reason).
A request for comment is open that proposes a process for the community to revoke administrative permissions. This follows a 2019 RfC in favor of creating one such a policy.
A request for comment is in progress to remove F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a, which covers immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
A request for comment asks if sysops may place the General sanctions/Coronavirus disease 2019 editnotice template on pages in scope that do not have page-specific sanctions?
When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
By motion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, any gender-related dispute or controversy and associated people. Sanctions issued under GamerGate are now considered Gender and sexuality sanctions.
Following a request for comment, F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a has been deprecated; it covered immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
Following a request for comment, page movers were granted the delete-redirect userright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target.
Technical news
When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split and it might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. (T278350)
Code to support some very old web browsers is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. (T277803)
The user group oversight will be renamed to suppress. This is for technical reasons. You can comment at T112147 if you have objections.
Arbitration
The community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure was closed, and an initial draft based on feedback from the now closed consultation is expected to be released in early June to early July for community review.
If you can spare the time, could you please help out a bit on the Laplace–Runge–Lenz_vector, perhaps by adding a few citations or otherwise improving it? I'm not sure if you ever saw the article; it was an early FA of mine, from a time even before we two met on Wikipedia. The article is now under review as a Featured Article, and your comments/suggestions/contributions would be most welcome, no matter how critical.
Sorry that I missed that boat - I have had some busy years - but am glad to see it remains an FA, surely thanks to your efforts. Geometry guy22:50, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Wikimedia previously used the IRC network Freenode. However, due to changes over who controlled the network with reports of a forceful takeover by several ex-staff members, the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts decided to move to the new Libera Chat network. It has been reported that Wikimedia related channels on Freenode have been forcibly taken over if they pointed members to Libera. There is a migration guide and Wikimedia discussions about this.
Consensus has been reached to delete all books in the book namespace. There was rough consensus that the deleted books should still be available on request at WP:REFUND even after the namespace is removed.
An RfC is open to discuss the next steps following a trial which automatically applied pending changes to TFAs.
Technical news
IP addresses of unregistered users are to be hidden from everyone. There is a rough draft of how IP addresses may be shown to users who need to see them. This currently details allowing administrators, checkusers, stewards and those with a new usergroup to view the full IP address of unregistered users. Editors with at least 500 edits and an account over a year old will be able to see all but the end of the IP address in the proposal. The ability to see the IP addresses hidden behind the mask would be dependent on agreeing to not share the parts of the IP address they can see with those who do not have access to the same information. Accessing part of or the full IP address of a masked editor would also be logged. Comments on the draft are being welcomed at the talk page.
Arbitration
The community authorised COVID-19 general sanctions have been superseded by the COVID-19 discretionary sanctions following a motion at a case request. Alerts given and sanctions placed under the community authorised general sanctions are now considered alerts for and sanctions under the new discretionary sanctions.
An RfC is open to add a delay of one week from nomination to deletion for G13 speedy deletions.
Technical news
Last week all wikis were very slow or not accessible for 30 minutes. This was due to server lag caused by regenerating dynamic lists on the Russian Wikinews after a large bulk import. (T287380)
A discussion is open to decide when, if ever, should discord logs be eligible for removal when posted onwiki (including whether to oversight them)
A RfC on the next steps after the trial of pending changes on TFAs has resulted in a 30 day trial of automatic semi protection for TFAs.
Technical news
The Score extension has been re-enabled on public wikis. It has been updated, but has been placed in safe mode to address unresolved security issues. Further information on the security issues can be found on the mediawiki page.
Arbitration
A request for comment is in progress to provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the Arbitration Committee election and resolve any issues not covered by existing rules. Comments and new proposals are welcome.
Following an RfC, extended confirmed protection may be used preemptively on certain high-risk templates.
Following a discussion at the Village Pump, there is consensus to treat discord logs the same as IRC logs. This means that discord logs will be oversighted if posted onwiki.
A motion has standardised the 500/30 (extended confirmed) restrictions placed by the Arbitration Committee. The standardised restriction is now listed in the Arbitration Committee's procedures.
Following the closure of the Iranian politics case, standard discretionary sanctions are authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, post-1978 Iranian politics, broadly construed.
The Arbitration Committee encourages uninvolved administrators to use the discretionary sanctions procedure in topic areas where it is authorised to facilitate consensus in RfCs. This includes, but is not limited to, enforcing sectioned comments, word/diff limits and moratoriums on a particular topic from being brought in an RfC for up to a year.
Miscellaneous
Editors have approved expanding the trial of Growth Features from 2% of new accounts to 25%, and the share of newcomers getting mentorship from 2% to 5%. Experienced editors are invited to add themselves to the mentor list.
The community consultation phase of the 2021 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process is open for editors to provide comments and ask questions to candidates.
Phase 2 of the 2021 RfA review has commenced which will discuss potential solutions to address the 8 issues found in Phase 1. Proposed solutions that achieve consensus will be implemented and you may propose solutions till 07 November 2021.
Unregistered editors using the mobile website are now able to receive notices to indicate they have talk page messages. The notice looks similar to what is already present on desktop, and will be displayed on when viewing any page except mainspace and when editing any page. (T284642)
The limit on the number of emails a user can send per day has been made global instead of per-wiki to help prevent abuse. (T293866)
The already authorized standard discretionary sanctions for all pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes), broadly construed, have been made permanent.
A recently closed Request for Comment (RFC) reached consensus to remove Autopatrolled from the administrator user group. You may, similarly as with Edit Filter Manager, choose to self-assign this permission to yourself. This will be implemented the week of December 13th, but if you wish to self-assign you may do so now. To find out when the change has gone live or if you have any questions please visit the Administrator's Noticeboard. 20:06, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
Following consensus at the 2021 RfA review, the autopatrolled user right has been removed from the administrators user group; admins can grant themselves the autopatrolled permission if they wish to remain autopatrolled.
The functionaries email list (functionaries-enlists.wikimedia.org) will no longer accept incoming emails apart from those sent by list members and WMF staff. Private concerns, apart from those requiring oversight, should be directly sent to the Arbitration Committee.
You get this message because you are an admin on a Wikimedia wiki.
When someone edits a Wikimedia wiki without being logged in today, we show their IP address. As you may already know, we will not be able to do this in the future. This is a decision by the Wikimedia Foundation Legal department, because norms and regulations for privacy online have changed.
Instead of the IP we will show a masked identity. You as an admin will still be able to access the IP. There will also be a new user right for those who need to see the full IPs of unregistered users to fight vandalism, harassment and spam without being admins. Patrollers will also see part of the IP even without this user right. We are also working on better tools to help.
We have two suggested ways this identity could work. We would appreciate your feedback on which way you think would work best for you and your wiki, now and in the future. You can let us know on the talk page. You can write in your language. The suggestions were posted in October and we will decide after 17 January.
The user group oversight will be renamed suppress in around 3 weeks. This will not affect the name shown to users and is simply a change in the technical name of the user group. The change is being made for technical reasons. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.
The Reply Tool feature, which is a part of Discussion Tools, will be opt-out for everyone logged in or logged out starting 7 February 2022. Editors wishing to comment on this can do so in the relevant Village Pump discussion.
A RfC is open to discuss prohibiting draftification of articles over 90 days old.
Technical news
The deployment of the reply tool as an opt-out feature, as announced in last month's newsletter, has been delayed to 7 March. Feedback and comments are being welcomed at Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project. (T296645)
Access to Special:RevisionDelete has been expanded to include users who have the deletelogentry and deletedhistory rights. This means that those in the Researcher user group and Checkusers who are not administrators can now access Special:RevisionDelete. The users able to view the special page after this change are the 3 users in the Researcher group, as there are currently no checkusers who are not already administrators. (T301928)
When viewing deleted revisions or diffs on Special:Undelete a back link to the undelete page for the associated page is now present. (T284114)
Following an RfC, a change has been made to the administrators inactivity policy. Under the new policy, if an administrator has not made at least 100 edits over a period of 5 years they may be desysopped for inactivity.
A public status system for WMF wikis has been created. It is located at https://www.wikimediastatus.net/ and is hosted separately to WMF wikis so in the case of an outage it will remain viewable.
Arbitration
Remedy 2 of the St Christopher case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to place a ban on single-purpose accounts who were disruptively editing on the article St Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine or related pages from those pages.
You're receiving this message because you have conducted 5+ good article reviews or participated in previous backlog drives. Click here to opt out of any future messages.
The New Pages Patrol queue has around 10,000 articles to be reviewed. As all administrators have the patrol right, please consider helping out. The queue is here. For further information on the state of the project, see the latest NPP newsletter.
An RfC has been closed with consensus to add javascript that will show edit notices for editors editing via a mobile device. This only works for users using a mobile browser, so iOS app editors will still not be able to see edit notices.
An RfC has been closed with the consensus that train stations are not inherently notable.
Administrators will now see links on user pages for "Change block" and "Unblock user" instead of just "Block user" if the user is already blocked. (T308570)
Arbitration
The arbitration case request Geschichte has been automatically closed after a 3 month suspension of the case.
Miscellaneous
You can vote for candidates in the 2022 Board of Trustees elections from 16 August to 30 August. Two community elected seats are up for election.
Wikimania 2022 is taking place virtually from 11 August to 14 August. The schedule for wikimania is listed here. There are also a number of in-person events associated with Wikimania around the world.
Tech tip: When revision-deleting on desktop, hold ⇧ Shift between clicking two checkboxes to select every box in that range.
A discussion is open to define a process by which Vector 2022 can be made the default for all users.
An RfC is open to gain consensus on whether Fox News is reliable for science and politics.
Technical news
The impact report on the effects of disabling IP editing on the Persian (Farsi) Wikipedia has been released.
The WMF is looking into making a Private Incident Reporting System (PIRS) system to improve the reporting of harmful incidents through easier and safer reporting. You can leave comments on the talk page by answering the questions provided. Users who have faced harmful situations are also invited to join a PIRS interview to share the experience. To sign up please emailMadalina Ana.
Arbitration
An arbitration case regarding Conduct in deletion-related editing has been closed. The Arbitration Committee passed a remedy as part of the final decision to create a request for comment (RfC) on how to handle mass nominations at Articles for Deletion (AfD).
The arbitration case request Jonathunder has been automatically closed after a 6 month suspension of the case.
Miscellaneous
The new pages patrol (NPP) team has prepared an appeal to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) for assistance with addressing Page Curation bugs and requested features. You are encouraged to read the open letter before it is sent, and if you support it, consider signing it. It is not a discussion, just a signature will suffice.
Following an RfC, consensus has been found that, in the context of politics and science, the reliability of FoxNews.com is unclear and that additional considerations apply to its use.
The Articles for creation helper script now automatically recognises administrator accounts which means your name does not need to be listed at WP:AFCP to help out. If you wish to help out at AFC, enable AFCH by navigating to Preferences → Gadgets and checking the "Yet Another AfC Helper Script" box.
Arbitration
Remedy 8.1 of the Muhammad images case will be rescinded 1 November following a motion.
An RfC is open to discuss having open requests for adminship automatically placed on hold after the seven-day period has elapsed, pending closure or other action by a bureaucrat.
Tech tip: Wikimarkup in a block summary is parsed in the notice that the blockee sees. You can use templates with custom options to specify situations like {{rangeblock|create=yes}} or {{uw-ublock|contains profanity}}.
An RfC on the banners for the December 2022 fundraising campaign has been closed.
Technical news
A new preference named "Enable limited width mode" has been added to the Vector 2022 skin. The preference is also shown as a toggle on every page if your monitor is 1600 pixels or wider. When disabled it removes the whitespace added by Vector 2022 on the left and right of the page content. Disabling this preference has the same effect as enabling the wide-vector-2022 gadget. (T319449)
Arbitration
Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 12, 2022 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
The arbitration case Stephen has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 1 December 2022.
A motion has modified the procedures for contacting an admin facing Level 2 desysop.
Miscellaneous
Tech tip: A single IPv6 connection usually has access to a "subnet" of 18 quintillion IPs. Add /64 to the end of an IP in Special:Contributions to see all of a subnet's edits, and consider blocking the whole subnet rather than an IP that may change within a minute.
Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.
Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.
Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a [p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.
The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
Pending suspension of administrative permissions due to inactivity
Established policy provides for removal of the administrative permissions of users who have not made any edits or logged actions in the preceding twelve months. Because you have been inactive, your administrative permissions will be removed if you do not return to activity within the next month.
Inactive administrators are encouraged to rejoin the project in earnest rather than to make token edits to avoid loss of administrative permissions. Resources and support for reengaging with the project are available at Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/administrators. If you do not intend to rejoin the project in the foreseeable future, please consider voluntarily resigning your administrative permissions by making a request at the bureaucrats' noticeboard.
This policy is stupid because you are throwing away goodwill. And you deliver the message via bot? Have you no consideration for people? Geometry guy22:59, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:
Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period
Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.
22:52, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
Imminent suspension of administrative permissions due to inactivity
Established policy provides for removal of the administrative permissions of users who have not made any edits or logged actions in the preceding twelve months. Because you have been inactive, your administrative permissions will be removed if you do not return to activity within the next several days.
Inactive administrators are encouraged to rejoin the project in earnest rather than to make token edits to avoid loss of administrative permissions. Resources and support for reengaging with the project are available at Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/administrators. If you do not intend to rejoin the project in the foreseeable future, please consider voluntarily resigning your administrative permissions by making a request at the bureaucrats' noticeboard.
Suspension of administrative permissions due to inactivity
Established policy provides for removal of the administrative permissions of users who have not made any edits or logged actions in the preceding twelve months. Because you have been inactive, your administrative permissions have been removed.
Subject to certain time limits and other restrictions, your administrative permissions may be returned upon request at WP:BN.
Homotopy groups of spheres has been nominated for a community good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. -- Beland (talk) 07:54, 29 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Administrators using the mobile web interface can now access Special:Block directly from user pages. (T307341)
The IP Info feature has been deployed to all wikis as a Beta Feature. Any autoconfirmed user may enable the feature using the "IP info" checkbox under Preferences → Beta features. Autoconfirmed users will be able to access basic information about an IP address that includes the country and connection method. Those with advanced privileges (admin, bureaucrat, checkuser) will have access to extra information that includes the Internet Service Provider and more specific location.
You have been blocked from editing from certain pages (Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard) for a period of 31 hours for disruptive editing and re-opening discussion after it being closed by two administrators and an administrator/bureaucrat. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful contributions.
Wow. This is the first time I have been blocked. You guys must be scared that I am making reasoned arguments and calling out your censorship. You should apply for jobs with the Chinese Communist Party. Geometry guy23:25, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I understand being upset about losing your bit. I wasn't exactly happy when it happened to me, either . The way you are behaving now isn't helping the situation at all. Please take a step back, I'm afraid you're going to end up with a full block at this rate. SQLQuery Me!23:33, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Don't treat me like a child: I have extensive experience of conflict on Wikipedia. Losing my "bit" is meh, I never used it much anyway. But the process and the way I have been treated for daring to comment on it... reflect on this. Geometry guy23:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
If you wish people would avoid treating you like a child, you shouldn't act like one. I was trying to be nice as I've had the same experience. SQLQuery Me!02:25, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Geometry guy, as the one who initially reverted your edits, I did so not because I wish to silence you or because I am "scared" of you, but because the discussion had been closed; I even said in my edit summary that I had no problems with the issue being discussed further, it just had to be done in a new thread or at a different venue. You are still welcome to do so, though as SQL states above, I would try to avoid some of the rhetoric you have been using recently as it tends to put people off from wanting to engage. Primefac (talk) 06:09, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciated you taking the time to reply, Primefac. And I mean that sincerely, it was polite of you to do so. I think perhaps that the 'crats were right, that I am out of date with community norms: to close and hide discussions, to delete complaints, and to block further complaints. I would not be a good admin in this regime, so you did the right thing. Geometry guy22:33, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Geometry guy. I've been on holiday for a week so I missed the drama. It's great to see you back - as you know, I have long held you to be one of the good folk on Wikipedia - you were a model to me back in the day, so it's sad to see that you have been desysopped, and especially your reaction to that desysopping. You are not the first to be upset regarding the admin activity process. Some, when getting the notices, accept the process and volunteer their resignation. When that happens I give them a special barnstar:
Job Done
Awarded to User:Example for good services as an admin, and for resigning the tools in a noble manner.
I kind of like the sense of there being some kind of mark of respect for an admin when the admin role has come to an end. I'd like to find some way that all users who are admins can come to the end of their role with dignity with or without needing to resign. As it clearly does upset some folks when the tools are taken away without their own involvement in such a way that it feels like a disgrace. Do you have a suggestion as to a better way to inform users that their admin function is going to be removed / has been removed? SilkTork (talk) 15:38, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Hi SilkTork, great to hear from you after so long. I remember when you were on ArbCom and I thought "poor guy" - that was serious hard work. A lot of editors are imagining my emotions, but they have no clue how I feel. If I punctured some bubbles, I am happy about that. But I think I just discovered that Wikipedia is slowly rotting. Geometry guy22:39, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Ten years ago, you were found precious. That's what you are, always. I remember you for explaining with unbelievable patience. - Sorry, we didn't have "your" day this year, so I missed it, on top of being absorbed in Prayer for Ukraine. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:38, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hi WhatamIdoing, I remember working with you. The admin newsletter helped me to know whether I was still an admin or not. Apparently now I am not, but was kicked out for doing nothing when I was busy with life. Well, if that is how Wikipedia treats its most dedicated contributors when they have a break from contributing, then I think you will have to get used to missing me. Geometry guy23:12, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I am delighted to see your name on my watchlist! Wikipedia seems to think that inactive admins loose there skills, - just tell the bureauctrats that it's not true for you, and you will be reappointed without major effort (no RfA, I mean), - I've seen that happen, and would happily support. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:48, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't followed the re-sysopping, but I suspect that it's easier if you made ten thousand edits a year, missed the inactivity for a year and a day, and then reapply, than if you've been mostly off wiki for several years. I know another long-time editor who makes one or two edits a year just to avoid this (they've told me that this is their plan for the foreseeable future, and that if they ever loose admin rights, they will never re-apply).
Although I've been active throughout, I feel like there have been some pretty big changes in the community during the last few years. I don't think it can all be put down to the pandemic, though there are certainly some new names now, and some old ones missing. I think there's more desire to follow rules rigidly. There's more of that feeling that you're not just having a conversation with another human; instead, you're playing a kind of virtual card game, and using different WP:ALLCAPS shortcuts in the discussion scores points for your side. (The problem that Wikipedia:Nobody reads the directions still exists; we will always have people who cite SOMETHING without realizing that they've linked to a discredited userspace essay, or that they've linked to a page that bans that thing, instead of supporting it. As an example, there is a pretty extensive problem with people, especially editors who started in the last couple of years, believing that uncited is an exact synonym for unverifiable. I had a chat with one of these editors a couple of years ago about "The capital of France is Paris", and he didn't appear to realize that I quoted the example straight out of the Wikipedia:No original research policy. He claimed that any fact added without a citation would be a NOR violation, despite that exact example being explicitly authorized as non-NOR in the policy itself.)
There's maybe a bit more sense that we have enough content, and the primary job is to exclude new contributions. As an example, I know several editors whose net contribution to the mainspace is a negative number of bytes. All they do is revert other people's contributions and then argue about it on the talk pages. These aren't RecentChanges patrollers looking for obvious vandalism; these are people who have picked a subject and police the articles to make sure that nobody adds the Wrong™ POV. Wikipedia:Ownership of content isn't new (after all, that page was written in 2003), but back in the day, I didn't know editors who only rejected other editors' contributions from a set of articles, without trying to add their own.
With all of that in mind, maybe if you've got some time again, the thing to do is to improve some article content. So long as every new paragraph contains an inline citation, you're unlikely to run into any drama, and it's the content that ultimately matters. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:12, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much for writing to me at such great length. You really understand the system, and I would trust a GA review written by you. It does not matter to me much if I am banned: my spirit survives in GA Geometry guy00:31, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Recognition
Too often our processes can feel so impersonal, and even if canned thanks responses weren't used on BN or the pre-notifications were delivered by a real person instead of a bot, it would still probably be impossible to avoid the appearance that it's all merely pro forma.
It hurts to let some things go, that's true even when there's time to prepare for what inevitably happens to all good things. Making people feel treated like spreadsheet entries instead of individuals certainly doesn't help either.
Anyway, there aren't all that many editors who can contribute as extensively as you have at say Penrose tiling, and you've also done some excellent work behind the scenes with reviews and assessments that has not been forgotten, it's a quite tedious area and not many have the time or experience needed to help out that area. Whatever happens, your assistance will always be appreciated.
I've heard of you, Geometry guy, because you used to do great work with good article reviews, that made sure people read the article and made sure it met the right criteria. You don't have to be an admin to write articles, and actually writing lots of GAs and FAs is far harder than going into AIV and blocking a vandal. Substantially and significantly harder, in fact. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)15:34, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you both for your kind words. My philosophy as an admin was always to use the tools as little as possible, and I believe this was part of the reason I was trusted to use them wisely. I think Wikipedia is making a mistake to make blanket removal of admin tools for inactivity, but there are worse things going on in the world. I'm happy about the path I help GA create. Perhaps one day I will work a bit more on Penrose tiling. Geometry guy23:17, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I ultimately think the reason for the increased inactivity policy is to weed out the "bad apples"; there have been several Arbcom cases over the past year or two when somebody who passed RfA before 2008 used the tools in a way that flatly contradicted day to day practice, and then either doubled down or stopped responding, leading a desysop but only after a lot of discussion and disgruntled editors. I think it will weed out some "good apples" too, but I would suspect that if they ever got back into regular editing, they would pass RfA again eg: Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Jackmcbarn 2.
Also, I know a couple of longstanding editors who have no interest in becoming admins, and who wouldn't pass RfA because of a complete lack of activity in the maintenance areas - and yet it would be these editors who I would greatly miss as they make enormous contributions to the encyclopedia. And, for the record, I don't think people would be able to guess these editors unless they looked closely at what articles we both contributed to. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)11:32, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
This is a trend that I have increasingly noticed in our society. Because it is difficult to sanction individuals for breaking some rules, it is easier to make a mass sanction so no one can break the rules. Such authoritarian behaviour needs to be opposed, which is one reason that I did not accept my current situation gracefully. Geometry guy23:31, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
As promised: flowers and personal links. - I made an exception from my DYK abstinence for Good Friday, - see my story today. Interesting to compare a hook 2023 style to one in 2012 (they don't want to pass knowledge these days, just hook by something that can be tangential to the subject, - in this case it is not tangential, but that is also an exception). - I sang, including chorales from Bach's greatest Passion. I recently listened to one by Homilius: a discovery! - For a long time I had your "Every editor is a human being" in my edit notice, until Raymond died, and I needed his advice even more strongly - myself. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:13, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Gerda, thank you, you are one of the warmest human beings I have ever met, both in real life and on Wikipedia. Any wise person who meets you should marry you in a second. I can be a bit more strident and confrontational, but sometimes it is important to tell people that they are fucking things up. Geometry guy23:35, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
