Stewards' noticeboard/Archives/2017-11

Your input on feature to help stop abuse through Special:EmailUser

Hello Stewards,

The Anti-Harassment Tools team plans to develop a new feature to allow users to elect to stop receiving emails through the Special:EmailUser system from select user groups in order to prevent abusive emails from sockpuppeting accounts.

We're particularly interested in input from people who have accounts on a very large number of wikis (Stewards, checkusers, global renamers, global sysops) about the design of the preferences setting because the feature could be especially interesting to you because of the nature of the work that you do attracts trolls, and also we are aware that volume of wikis you would need to set preferences on might effect your use of the feature.

Right now there are two open questions which we want to decide in the next week or so.

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T138165

1.There are two options being considered are for marking preferences:

A) a drop box

or

B) tick box

2. Additionally, accounts with 0 edits on a wiki will be prevented from receiving emails through Special:EmailUser system except:

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T178842

a) from the home wiki (where account created) to allow communication with brand new editors during account creation process, and follow up with new accounts at training events and education programs.

b) emails send by bureaucrat, steward, and global-renamer for usurps (if needed by local policy.)

These additions address all of the special cases that we have encountered related to usurps, Education programs and off wiki editing event follow up. Please let us know if you know of other situations that we need to address.

You can leave comments on this discussion page or in Phabricator, or send an email to the Anti-Harassment Tools team. We value your time and input as we develop this feature. For the Anti-Harassment Tools team, SPoore (WMF) (talk) , Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 21:26, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

Cluttering the preferences with dropdowns or checkboxes for obscure usergroup names is not quite a way to be friendly with users. We're supposedly trying to make Special:Preferences less alienating. --Nemo 21:30, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

If we go the route of a dropdown it won't be another preference but will replace the old "allow email" tickbox. And in general I agree — there are too many preferences that are not pertinent to the average user (much less brand new folks) which is why smart defaults are important. — Trevor Bolliger, WMF Product Manager 🗨 22:15, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

Violation of editing policy and copyright at Croatian Wikipedia

Hi, this is regarding the recent prolonged and detailed letter which was sent to your email address on November 3, 2017. It was about the blatant violation of editing policy and copyrights which was done and supported by some administrators and editors at en:Croatian Wikipedia. Three weeks passed without any reply. What is your consideration of the case, do you plan to make any action, and should I forward the letter to someone else?--Miki Filigranski (talk) 17:44, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

Stewards do not have any authority to police the WMF projects for violations of copyright or any other policies. You should complain to WMF directly. Ruslik (talk) 18:20, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

@Ruslik0: to which email address should I complain then? The "info@wikimedia.org"? I already wrote to "info-en@wikimedia.org" where they suggested me to contact the Croatian team at "info-hr@wikimedia.org" (which I did and there was no reply) and alternatively the Wikimedia Stewards because you provide oversight for all projects. The "violations of copyright or any other policies" among others are the blatant evidence and consequence of, as wrote in the letter, "modus operandi of administrators and editors which is in conflict with Wikipedian policy" and in conclusion called you, or anyone, to do something with the status of specific editor and administrators. You have "the ability to change any and all user rights and groups" and "have responsibility for technical implementation of community consensus".--Miki Filigranski (talk) 09:26, 28 November 2017 (UTC)