Meta:Requests for help from a sysop or bureaucrat/Archives/2014-03

Template:Main

Saw today a lot of "Template loop detected" errors when I clicked on some of the pages linked to this template. Could an administrator take a brief look at the underlying template code and fix whatever is wrong with it? TeleComNasSprVen (talk) 05:04, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

It's some problem with TNT I guess that is recently spreading on various pages. I have long given up to follow the bazillion changes made to these templates to know what exactly. --MF-W 12:55, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Since the most recent contributor to these templates were Verdy p, I think he's familiar enough with the code that he might be able to help us. TeleComNasSprVen (talk) 19:20, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Translation

I need a translator admin with sysop rights to mark Legal and Community Advocacy/Foundation Policy and Political Association FAQ to translation (the page is protected). Thanks. --Zerabat (discusión) 21:50, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Normally sysops do not mark pages for translations (many of them are not translators, they operate only on a technical level), they only unprotect a page so that editors can update the text, then a translation admin (not necessaily a sysop) mark the page for translation after validating the format.

A translation admin should be a translator aware of translation issues, and able to test it by actually performing at least one translation.

The translation admin should also help fixing some left vs. right layout issues for RTL (languages like Arabic, Farsi or Hebrew) or numeric expressions involving dates due to the number formatting (such as dot vs/comma decimal separator, comma vs. space for group separators), or punctuation issues (including the unwanted space, not used as word separator in East Asian scripts). Or ask for help (this often means that the source page (eve if it's already been marked a first time, may still need to be updated.

Most pages on Meta do not need any protection (translate admins are monitoring them, and anyway there's alsways a stable /en version which is not editable directly (and nt modifiable by the public translate tool, only modified when a source page is updated and marked again for translation).

So basically, you just want to look for an admin to unprotect the page.

Note that Bureaucrats do not do that; their job is for handling cross-wiki configuration, they have lots of privileges so there are not many of them and they are too busy to handle such unprotection request on a single page of a single wiki. So look for an admin only to have the page unprotected. verdy_p (talk) 22:17, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

MassMessage right

Hi :) Please add me to the list of senders? Thanks! --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 11:42, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Done, thank you. --M/ (talk) 12:42, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Meetup/Hong Kong

Please semi-protect this page, it's a vandalism target of cross-wiki abuse 1abacada: [1][2][3][4][5].--GZWDer (talk) 16:06, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Protected for three months. It can be extended as needed. PiRSquared17 (talk) 16:14, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Meetup/Hong Kong/86. This page also appears to be a target of this LTA. See page history. --Glaisher [talk] 10:59, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

question about mass message

Hello! I am a bureaucrat of ru.wiki and now we are reviewing inactive bots in order to remove flags from those that won't be used in future - discussion.

I wanted to ask, whether it's possible to use Global MassMessage to notify all botowners about this discussion in order to learn about their future plans? Before introduction of MassMessage I've done it manually but it would save me much time to use a tool... If it's possible I would provide some meta sysop with the list and message to be delivered rubin16 (talk) 08:10, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

@Rubin16: You can use MassMessage on ruwiki as a local sysop. LlamaAl (talk) 12:15, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

I know but a lot of botowners come from other wikis and I can't use MassMessage there rubin16 (talk) 12:57, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

How would you determine which wiki to send each message to? PiRSquared17 (talk) 16:12, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

all user pages of bots have template with username of botowner - I've manually looked through them and prepared list of userpages of all bot owners and their home wikis rubin16 (talk) 18:41, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

If you want to; feel free to put the list and the message you want to send in your userspace and an administrator or another MassMessage-sender will take a look and probably send it on your behalf. Assuming I see the message a list before deciding - I'd be willing to do it within reason. John F. Lewis (talk) 18:45, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

That's the list: User:Rubin16/list. That's the message: User:Rubin16/message. Thanks rubin16 (talk) 05:30, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

so, are there any news here? I am a bit embarrassed that it takes so much consideration when a trustworthy user asks for non-spam message been sent in order to save time, that otherwise would be sent by myself manually and wouldn't be called spam in any case. rubin16 (talk) 19:33, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Done apologies for the delay. I have sent it to the list as you asked correcting a few grammatical issues in the message to make it easier to read but the same point is there. If you have any more queries; feel free to poke me directly instead of this noticeboard :) John F. Lewis (talk) 19:41, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

thanks a lot! rubin16 (talk) 05:52, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Translations:Terms of use/Paid contributions amendment/13/ar

Could an admin, please, delete this message? It is not translated. (Created by an IP with contents identical to the English source.) --Meno25 (talk) 04:37, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

There's no need for any admin here. Deleting the message would not change the fact that the transalted page wil still display the English message.

Keep it; it does not matter and does not harm anyone. Admins have more serious things to do than this minor issue created by someone just clicking a button on the translate interface and not fully completing the translation.

Instead, if you really want to help, translate this message to Arabic; if you can; if you cannot because you do not understand Arabic, leave it unchanged and leave the Arabic translators do the job.

As long as the item is not a spam; you don't need to do anything (only spa,s used in creation need to be deleted; because you can't revert them easily; except by replacing it by the content of the English source).

In summary: we should not ask to admins to delete pages that are extremely likely to be recreated under the same name and for the same purpose.

If you want, you can insert "!!FUZZY!!" at the begining of the English text to force that resource to be considered as if it was untranslated (as long as this tag is present, the source in English will still be displayed in the rendered page, but newcoming translators will see that this resource needs translation. verdy_p (talk) 13:36, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

OK. I have translated the message. --Meno25 (talk) 19:12, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Change text in Special:CentralNoticeBanners/edit/ChangeToU2014_v1

I need a sysop to change a text in Special:CentralNoticeBanners/edit/ChangeToU2014_v1 to make a correction in a text in Spanish. The text in ToUAnnounceText2 should be Por favor realice sus comentarios sobre la propuesta de modificación sobre las ediciones remuneradas. (in bold text to change).

Thanks. --Zerabat (discusión) 20:09, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Can you make this change in [6]? PiRSquared17 (talk) 20:47, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, but I already edited in the link you provided me, but the banner does not changed yet. --Zerabat (discusión) 02:25, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Published the text there. PiRSquared17 (talk) 02:32, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Leucosticte

Earlier this month, MZMcBride blocked Leucosticte for defending an essay that Leucosticte wrote. Whiling blocking Leucosticte, MZMcBride also robbed him of his ability to use his talk page or Email and claimed that Leucosticte must use unorthodox channels to become unblocked rather than appealing to the Meta community and its sysops. A few users (DanielTom, Nemo_bis, and me) have voiced their opposition to this: [7], [8]. I now proposed for Leucosticte's talk page and Email access to be restored and for Leucosticte to be able to appeal his block via the proper channels. --Michaeldsuarez (talk) 12:42, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

It was MZMcBride's obvious opinion that Leucosticte, by seeking to debate a highly controversial issue on Meta, was attempting to create probable disruption here, and because this was partly supported on Leucosticte Talk, it was reasonable for MZM to shut down talk page access. Leucosticte has no history of abusing email, however, so, in the absence of abuse, email access should be restored. As to the talk page, any admin restoring talk page access should properly restrict the usage of the talk page, setting clear limits. Leucosticte will usually respect clear limits.

I do not recommend an unconditional restoral of talk page access, because if Talk page access is restored, Leucosticte will place an unblock template, it's predictable, and, indeed, that should be allowed. Without restriction, however, he will likely argue that his essay and arguments and attempt to create an MFD over his deleted essay -- which would then have opened up debate on the topic -- were not disruptive. Those arguments will be disruptive by opening up the very debate that MZM was interdicting. I know the issues and the debate, and it is more insanely disruptive than any other topic I could imagine. I've seen a wiki come completely unglued over this, with users resigning, threats of violence, off-wiki legal action, and more.

No. Not on meta. Leucosticte should be allowed to place an unblock template, but not to argue the merits of the block. Rather, he may make promises about future behavior, which, if accepted by an administrator, would allow unblock, by making the block unnecessary. And, if not, won't. If he then argues the merits of the block, thus raising the issues, or raises the issues on meta within the original block period, talk page access should be promptly revoked. If anyone has questions about details, my email is open.

Meanwhile, if email access for him is opened, "more normal appeal process" may begin. I'd recommend that a willing admin email him to offer Talk page unblock on conditions. If he accepts the conditions, then his Talk page access can be restored. --Abd (talk) 16:00, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Michaeldsuarez: You paint a pretty distorted picture of what happened here. A user was persistently engaging in pedophile advocacy, he was warned to stop, and rather than stopping, he chose to try to make a scene here at Meta-Wiki. Two users (DanielTom and yourself) inquired about the block and I responded on my talk page.

I find two parts of your opening post here uncouth: (a) nobody was "robbed" of anything, and (b) nobody was blocked for defending an essay. Leucosticte was blocked for inappropriate behavior after having been clearly and sufficiently warned to disengage from this subject.

Leucosticte is banned on the English Wikipedia, and barring an objection from a Meta-Wiki administrator, will be de facto banned here. It's an old wiki principle that in the absence of any local administrator willing to unblock, a user is deemed community banned. Perhaps an uninvolved Meta-Wiki administrator will step in, though nobody has yet. As I said on my talk page, most of the feedback I've received from past and current wiki admins has been support for the block, with hints that I should have made it indefinite. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:14, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

While it is on the very firm side of a block, the user wasn't unaware of the circumstances, nor of the consequences. Grist for the mill.  — billinghurst sDrewth 02:43, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

The user was aware of the circumstances, they were just wikilawyer-ing to make it appear as if they weren't. Also, this note from MZMcBride makes the consequences, in my opinion, clear. This is a solid block, and had it been me, Leucosticte would not be welcome to continue to edit in three months. Tiptoety ^talk 03:04, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

@MZMcBride: I don't believe that "making a scene" should be a crime. If ancient cynic and philosopher Diogenes of Sinope were a Wikimedia user, would you block him whenever he "makes a scene"? I'm not fond of the idea of "no drama". Stirring the pot and rocking the boat aren't crimes outside of Wikimedia. Even so, I'm not asking for the block to be undone; I'm only asking for the restoration of talk page and Email access and usage. --Michaeldsuarez (talk) 12:04, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

This is a lightly edited version of what I told both Abd and Leucosticte via e-mail:

I can't really devote the same amount of time and words to this as you, for better or worse. Leucosticte seems to be a provocateur. What he personally believes or what he is are largely irrelevant. His behavior was problematic, he was warned, and he chose to ignore that warning. Now he's blocked for three months. I'm not touching this again until the three months are up. If and when he returns, if he continues to edit in this area and try to use Meta-Wiki as an advocacy platform, he'll be re-blocked. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:40, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Diogenes of Sinope? Many Ancient Greek, and Roman, philosophers would have to be blocked for pederasty. Socrates would be banned from WP pretty quickly. ~ DanielTom (talk) 20:50, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Not done for what concerns email and talkpage access. This is, by the way, a noticeboard read by meta's sysops so that thread is even more visible than an unblock request. In my capacity of local admin I also agree with MZMcBride's decision while it's possible another sysop reading this noticeboard would reconsider it. --Vituzzu (talk) 21:09, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Mark for translation: Changing username

Hello. I need someone to mark for translation the changes I made to the English-language page, consisting in create some new transation units to separate subtitles from text/paragraphs. Thanks. --Zerabat (discusión) 17:16, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Done and thank you for your changes! Vogone talk 18:16, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Site-wide links to https://tools.wmflabs.org/guc/

I realize this is probably in the wrong place, but as far as I can tell, https://tools.wmflabs.org/guc/ is linked to from commons, wikipedia, meta, and other wikimedia projects on every user's Contributions page, at the bottom. It seems to be a broken link. If, as I suspect, this is the wrong forum for this question, could you please point me to the correct place? Thanks, Storkk (talk) 16:54, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm guessing this is due to the recent eqiad migration. *checks toollabs:?status tools-webgrid-01* Yep, there is no lighttpd-guc job. This means Luxo should ssh to tools-login (eqiad, of course), become his tool account, and run `webservice start'. I had the same problem with my account. Also, for the record, this is not the correct place to report such things. Meta admins have no control over Wikimedia Labs or Tool Labs specifically. You could ask on Tech, Wikimedia Forum(?) or in #wikimedia-labs^connect. Then again, we'll obviously try to help if you have any questions. Regards, PiRSquared17 (talk) 16:56, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, I suspected this wasn't the place. Out of curiosity, if there had been a typo in that link bar at the bottom, where would I have needed to report it? Storkk (talk) 17:02, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

What link bar? PiRSquared17 (talk) 17:04, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

At the bottom the a user's contributions page, I see a bar with links to "Subpages · User rights · Global: rights · accounts · Edit counters: vvv's yaec · X!'s pcount · global contribs · Q's SULinfo " here on meta. Come to think of it, this must be project specific, because on enwiki, the links are a little different, but every project I have checked points to the broken Global edit counter. I will leave a message for Loxo on enWiki, as he seems to not be active on deWiki, and I don't have a wikitech account. Storkk (talk) 17:14, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

The talk page of MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer-anon with an {{edit request}} or this page. Luxo is very busy in real life. --Glaisher [talk] 17:17, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Ah, that's what I was looking for. Are these special "transclusions" for lack of a better word listed anywhere? Thanks, Storkk (talk) 17:20, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Special:AllMessages. See also mw:Help:System message --Glaisher [talk] 17:25, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

The easiest way to find them may be to add ?uselang=qqx or &uselang=qqx to the end of the URL. PiRSquared17 (talk) 17:26, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

This is now moot - Luxo seems to have performed the migration, and the link works again. Thanks for your help, Glaisher and PiRSquared17! Best, Storkk (talk) 11:57, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Request for CentralNotice banner

Hi all! I would some help to create a CentralNotice banner for the edit-a-thon planned by Wikimedia Argentina in La Plata, next April 5th. The banner should be based on the design available here.

We want to try two different campaigns:

• Campaign 1:
  • link: //es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editatón_Radiofónico
  • from March 26th to 28th, 2014.
  • logged-in and anonymous users.
  • only in Argentina, only in Spanish projects.
  • text1: ¡Vení a editar sobre rock argentino al primer editatón del año!
  • text2: Te esperamos este 5 de abril en La Plata.

• Campaign 2:
  • link: //es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editatón_Radiofónico
  • from March 29th to April 3rd, 2014.
  • only logged-in users.
  • only in Argentina, all projects, all languages.
  • text1: ¡Vení a editar sobre rock argentino al primer editatón del año!
  • text2: Te esperamos este 5 de abril en La Plata.

Thanks a lot, Osmar Valdebenito (WMAR) (talk) 15:58, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

@Osmar Valdebenito (WMAR): Do you want the same image File:Wikimedia_Argentina_logo.svg? This would be quick to clone. PiRSquared17 (talk) 16:30, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, thanks @PiRSquared17: --Osmar Valdebenito (WMAR) (talk) 20:05, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

@Osmar Valdebenito (WMAR): Done, please check.

• I created a campaign called WMAR_Editathon_2014_1 and a banner of the same name.
• I created a campaign called WMAR_Editathon_2014_2 and a banner of the same name.

You can preview [9][10]. PiRSquared17 (talk) 20:30, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

They are working perfectly. Thanks a lot, @PiRSquared17:! --Osmar Valdebenito (WMAR) (talk) 20:11, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

RfC closer required

I put this on Meta:Babel as well but it seems like this is probably a better place for it.

Requests for comment/Wikimedia Commons interwiki prefix#2014 RfC has now reached its closing date. Could an experienced administrator please assess the cross-community consensus on the proposal, taking into account the "Next steps" section that lists wikis which have participated in the preparatory clean-up effort. Thank you. — Scott • talk 16:06, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Template talk:MovedToMediaWiki

I've written at Template talk:MovedToMediaWiki about 9 months ago. Has Meta a template for indicate it (like Commons:Template:Edit request)? --Tacsipacsi (talk) 15:02, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi! Sorry for the delay. You can use {{editprotected}} or just ask here for a quick response. PiRSquared17 (talk) 15:46, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

MassMessage access

Hi there. I had EdwardsBot use access, and then became an admin on EN WP and was able to use it, regardless. Anyway, I'd like to be able to use MassMessage, since it's now replaced other bots like EdwardsBot. I'm not an admin here on meta, so please let me know if that's possible. I really appreciate it. Thanks! SarahStierch (talk) 01:48, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

@SarahStierch: Seems fine, but do you have anything specific you will use it for? PiRSquared17 (talk) 14:02, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi @PiRSquared17: thanks for reviewing my request. I have used EdwardsBot for quite sometime to send out a few different types of messages: edit-a-thon announcements and WikiProject calls to action (i.e. campaigns, right now we have over 200,000 articles on backlog that need to be de-orphaned, and we've designed a barnstar and we're having a campaign to get that number down). I can't really imagine using it on any other wiki's other than English Wikipedia. Thanks again, SarahStierch (talk) 03:22, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

@SarahStierch: MassMessage sender rights on Meta are for cross-wiki messages. If you only need to send messages on the English Wikipedia, you might consider w:WP:MMS instead. English Wikipedia admins can use MassMessage on enwiki anyway. PiRSquared17 (talk) 03:25, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Done xwiki admin, and many messages are xwiki, and had previous bot. Let us not do the Spanish Inquisition.  — billinghurst sDrewth 11:52, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

You're right - I was being too strict. Sorry Sarah. PiRSquared17 (talk) 12:27, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

That is nonsense, if there is no need for the right, there is no reason to give it, however trusty the requestor may be. --MF-W 14:47, 31 March 2014 (UTC)