MediaWiki talk:Globalblocking-ipblocked-range/en

Proposed information on where to request exemption

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T243974

Along with many other users I find myself subject to an IP range block imposed by a steward who does not respond to requests on his talk page. It is therefore necessary to provide more information in this notice as to where else to seek help.

I therefore propose that the following line:

You can contact $1 to discuss the block.

should be changed to:

Logged-in users can request exemption at meta:SRIPBE.

You can also contact $1 to discuss the block.

Or perhaps something more generic, {IF X exists: "For additional information see X"} where X is a new message that can point to a page? (This approach was suggested elsewhere by user:Xaosflux.) Fayenatic london (talk) 09:02, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

@Fayenatic london: I think what I suggested was that you file a phab ticket that would allow this message to have additional parameters such as a local information link, with meta-wiki needing to support users of all languages putting in an english-only workaround isn't usually the best approach. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:20, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Also, wasn't the problem you were seeing is that the $1 steward was ignoring contact - because that should be addressed in another manner. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:21, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

@Xaosflux: I was going to do that, but I understood from user:~riley's comment here that it was not necessary. Fayenatic london (talk) 21:28, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

In your discussion with me, you did not mention that you were seeking to add additional paramaters - that will indeed require a ticket. Simple modifications, such as changing in wording, would not require a ticket. ~riley (talk) 21:32, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

@~riley: correct, but we don't normally put in special message wording for only English here on meta-wiki - if a message for anyone needs a new format it should be done via phab so that it will be properly translated on translatewiki. — xaosflux ^Talk 22:51, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Good to know, thanks for sharing that info Xaosflux. Thanks for the suggestion, Fayenatic london, and for helping the next user that is impacted by this. ~riley (talk) 00:07, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Well, the Phab ticket has been completed. Apparently MarcoAurelio found that this notice could not be overridden on Wikimedia wikis, but now after the fix it can be overridden.

So, should MediaWiki:Globalblocking-ipblocked-range (as well as /en) be amended in accordance with my proposal above? Fayenatic london (talk) 10:34, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

There's no need to alter local messages. After my patch the message that will be displayed to globally rangeblocked IP addresses will be MediaWiki:Wikimedia-globalblocking-ipblocked-range (on Meta and elsewhere on WMF-wikis). Regards, —MarcoAurelio (talk) 12:05, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you, that will be good, but it's not working yet. When I try to edit an article on e.g. Simple English Wikipedia using Puffin browser (globally blocked), I still see the old notice with "You can contact Vituzzu to discuss the block", not the new notice that you linked above. Fayenatic london (talk) 12:36, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

@Fayenatic london: Simple English Wikipedia is in the group2 of wikis to which the patch has not yet arrived as you can see at https://tools.wmflabs.org/versions/. There's a problem with some coding that is blocking the update as stated in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T233866. I expect the new message will be in WMF wikis next week. Patch is already working for wikis in the group0 and group1. Regards, —MarcoAurelio (talk) 12:42, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

My long-term project is the creating of a wizard, a series of steps to go through for blocked users in order to understand more precisely what they should ask.

Most of times people are caught by blocks because they forget to turn of their VPNs, "safe Internet", or because they are using some weirdly configured captive portal.

What should be tackled is the way our messages create a confusion about different kinds of blocks: users end up thinking gblocks target them, instead of "something being between them and the wikis".

--Vituzzu (talk) 19:08, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Heads-up: unfortunately all wikis had to be downgraded to MediaWiki version 1.35.0-wmf.16 because there's something broken in the MediaWiki version 1.35.0-wmf.18. This is expected to be fixed on Monday. If however this is not resolved by then, I'll cherry-pick the patch that included this new message to the 1.35.0-wmf.16 branch and ask that it be backported to that version, making the message available for all wikis. I'll keep you posted. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 23:38, 7 February 2020 (UTC)