Meta:Requests for help from a sysop or bureaucrat/Archives/2009-03

Checkuser or something?

Advise and, possibly, action needed. We have an anonymous editor in Belarusian Wikipedia, who vandalises pages and is bad-mouthed in talks. Also boasts on a lines of "you-can't-stop-me". Comes there from time to time from different providers' address pools. Now, there's a strong feeling this is a real user in one of the Wikipedias (good grasp of technology and some useful hints in talks). Vandalising contributions today -- [1], [2]. The talk diff where person promises (in bowdlerized translation) "If I'll want it you'll hardly be able to block me" -- [3]

Could the stewards possibly investigate this and sort of get the message across that such things are not to be done? No great need even to publish who's this or anything. Any other advise, perhaps? Yury Tarasievich 19:14, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Hello, advise is just to block and not to give him any credit (for example talking about him, etc.), he uses open proxies btw. so You could think about blocking open proxy lists, some wikis did that who had serious problems with open proxies. User:DerHexer ran a bot on some and blocked the proxies automatically, I don't know if he still would do that, but You would have to make a community decision about such a measure beforehand anyway. Best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| 00:27, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the advise. Actually, only one of those IPs is open proxy, and we were doing just what you advised, before -- block and, if possible, no talk. That will have to do, then. Cheers, Yury Tarasievich 08:44, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Please enable gadget to suppress fundraising notice

Please see: Talk:Fundraising_2008/design_drafts#Please_add_the_gadget_for_this_project. Thank you. Cirt (talk) 01:36, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

It is enabled. I'm using it. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 04:48, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

It wasn't done at the time of the message from Cirt, but it is now, indeed. - Rjd0060 04:52, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

I need some help at Wikispecies. I'm never a big fan of MediaWiki pages, let alone editing them. We don't have Gadgets there, can someone help me (or provide instructions) so that I can enable it there? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 05:01, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Copy MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice.css, MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice and this diff.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 05:03, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

or : that..--Cometstyles 05:05, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks for that. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 05:38, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, thank you. Cirt (talk) 07:04, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Note, for any wiki's without gadgets the code can still be put in your .css files. xaosflux ^Talk 17:46, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Updates to gl

Please, can you update messages in "Fundraising 2008/core messages/gl" (banners at the top of all pages and messages in donation form in Wikimedia). Thanks a lot! --Toliño ^{Fala aquí comigo} 18:09, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi, can you say exactly what needs changing? That particular page isn't protected. Thanks. Majorly ^talk 18:38, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

They need to be updated in the centralnotices and on foundationwiki, best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| 18:42, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

The messages edited in this two editions need update: firts one and second one. --Toliño ^{Fala aquí comigo} 18:48, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Fundraising Buttons Template error - wrong links in cut'n'paste

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2008/web_buttons

The 'cut and paste' example for each image contains a link, but it links to the image itself instead of href='www.wikimedia.org' as it should. I created an account to edit them only to discover that it's set in a template. "template:FR07 button row"

Anyone who has cut an example from that page up until the time that it is fixed will end up with a banner that links to the wiki page for the banner image... Lost clicks, lost donations...

j

They should still work... have you tested them? We use "?s=cl-Wikipedia-free-mini-button.png" at the end of the url for stats tracking. --Az1568 (talk) 10:01, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

problem on Persian wiki

I dont know if this is somethibng to bring up here, or if it should be brought on meta at all, but here goes:

I'm one of the admins on Persian wikipedia.

Recently, a report on Radiofree Europe mentioned plans of "Baseej" groups (semi-government paramilitary groups in Iran) for mass mobilizing online presences to "bring back Islamic values to the internet" and mass filter "problematic sites on the web". Many of our pages are already filtered inside Iran.

However, lately, we have noticed a massive flux of peculiar users (who seem to know their way around well despite their new accounts), and who have caused chaos on fa:wp

Some have uploaded an anti-Israeli flag and have used it on their userpages to declare their hatred to Israel. Others (such as this user who warned of "washing away Israel with a bucket of water" are even proud to display their intentions on their user pages, proudly depicting "our long-range missiles during operation the holy prophet"). They even proudly profess being members of the "baseej".

These users constantly use ad hominems but are evasive in their edits. They are disruptive, and have stirred up unrest in our AN/I village pump.

Our sysops are often absent from all the management, maybe because I am omnipresently dealing with them, or maybe because they do not wish to get involved, as the "Zionist" and "Israel" issue is a sensitive one, and is off limits to many users (for fear of being tracked down inside Iran).

The problem is, the wave of anti-semitism and disruptive editing is turning out to be overwhelming. My job has now become debating them 24 hours a day about this or that law, and its interpretation. As if they intentionally wish to erode the rule of law and the people enforcing it. They are literally turing wa:fp into a battlefield of good vs evil, and they keep using every seeming loophole they can find (wiki-lawyering) to justify their edits and position. They go around creating pages with titles like "Imam Khamenei issues a Jihad to help Gaza" (even though there was no official declaration of Jihad), and spend hours and hours of everyone's time endlessly debating all the sensational news they put in it (like "students in so and so cities have signed up for suicide bombing Israel"), and ridiculous crap like that. And they object when I tell them such crap is not encyclopedic.

We are way past the "discuss" stage. It is a massive recurrence now. Do I block these people for displaying rhetoric and polemic material on their user pages? What if they keep refusing? How much of a free hand do I have in restoring order and the constructive flow of a proper encyclopedia back? What do I do if they keep throwing "This is an Iranian wikipedia. and therefore we have a consensus to do this and that." ("we" meaning the 10-15 new users who in unison seem to be causing havoc everyhere)? Is taking a more heavy-handed position acceptable for me (as an admin), in order to bring back order? Is adopting more stiff and strict policing methods (and I hate the word policing) acceptable, inorder to stop these people from gaming the system with their agenda? Theyve even accused me of being "an Israeili agent", for trying to stop anti-semitism on fa:wp.

What would you do, and how would you do it? I'm just interested to know ideas and some general tips on what other experienced admins would do.--Zereshk 00:35, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Try RFC. Cbrown1023 talk 02:46, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Request for changing protection level of 대문

대문 is protected per Talk:Main Page. This protection prevented not only vandalism, but also enhancement. There is no sysop who can read and speak Korean. I think [edit=autoconfirmed] is enough to prevent vandalism. 대문 (means Main Page) in Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies are semi-protected. Please change protection level for enhancement.--Kwj2772 08:21, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Done - I have also auto-confirmed move, if there is anything else, don't be hesitant to ask :)....--Cometstyles 08:34, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikiquote portal update

See Talk:Www.wikiquote.org_template#Update: please copy Www.wikiquote.org template/temp in Www.wikiquote.org template. --Nemo 00:28, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Done — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 00:30, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Request for emergency block User:Upperheads

Vandalism.--Kwj2772 14:25, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

• Done - by guillom - Abigor talk 14:27, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Proper channel for request

I need some help to find the right channel for this request: Today there are two wikipedias in Norwegian, Norwegian (bokmaal) and Norwegian (nynorsk). Currently the codes «no» and «nn» are used for these languages. This fact have been discussed on both wikipedias, with several users wanting to change «no» to «nb», since the written forms bokmaal and nynorsk are both subsets of norwegian. Can someone point me to the right place to submit this request? --Ekko 17:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest Bugzilla and/or discussion on Foundation-l/Wikitech-l if there is not already consensus. I don't know that "several users" is enough to warrant changing the domain.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 19:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

But this has nothing to do with the software as such, but pertains to the classification of languages in ISO 639. Would not the language subcommittee here be the body to clear up this? --Ekko 21:14, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

The language subcommittee does not deal with problems from before its creation. This is a never-ending debate :-), the no.wpans don't want to change it and the nn.wpans do. Cbrown1023 talk 21:19, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales

Per the discussion on Meta:Babel, could a bureaucrat please remove Jimbo Wales' local rights? Thanks, Majorly ^talk 03:06, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Done. --Az1568 (talk) 03:43, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Checkuser request

Where can I made a chackuser request for bosnian wiki while our checkuser is not online? --Seha 09:12, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Correct place would be SRCU, however will probably not be done if local checkuser exists. Laaknor 09:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

THX I gonna try--Seha 09:16, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Question on deleted history

Is there any interesting history at Talk:Tbc? The page was Tim Chambers' talk page which he moved from Wikipedia (I moved the part on Wikipedia to User talk:Tim Chambers/Old. By interesting I mean something more than "move from Wikipedia". If there is no interesting history, or it was blanked by its author (either User:Tbc or User:Tim Chambers), then don't worry about it. If there is interesting history, then I'd like it to be moved to User talk:Tim Chambers/Old. BTW "Empty page" is an absolutely useless summary, when I know that there *was* content at that title. It tells me nothing about whether it was blanked because of user request, confusion about the page's purpose, or any other reason. Graham87 15:09, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The history was:

• 2004-11-15T03:12:09 . . Eloquence (Talk | contribs | block) (moved to user talk on en:)
• 2002-01-12T20:14:19 . . 198.108.161.xxx (Talk | block)
• 2002-01-12T20:14:18 . . 198.108.161.xxx (Talk | block)
• 2002-01-12T20:10:26 . . Koyaanis Qatsi (Talk | contribs | block)
• 2001-12-13T16:26:46 . . tbc (Talk | contribs | block) (moved from Wikipedia)

So it seems to be not necessary to restore. --Thogo (talk) 15:12, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, sounds good here. Sorry about the delay in replying: I only just read this messsage, probably due to caching issues on my end. I was checking Special:Contributions/Graham87 to find out if there were any new edits to this page, and it listed my edit at the top for a week or so. Oh well, I guess that's what a watchlist is for. :-) Graham87 05:52, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Duh, I see what happened now! My fixup edit came after your initial reply, which I didn't read until now. Not a caching issue at all. There I was assuming this board was reaaaally slow when it was in fact quite the opposite! It could have had something to do with the fact I use a screen reader to read text. Sorry for probs, Graham87 06:01, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. The page looks alright to me as it is now. -- tbc 00:17, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Just one more update. Tbc content is at User:Tbc~metawiki (talk). — tbc (talk) 21:20, 6 March 2024 (UTC)