Stewards' noticeboard/Archives/2020-07

Crosswiki spam

Dears,

There is a crosswiki spam situation about this personality. Attempts have been made for seven years to insert articles about this person on pt wikipedia, where it has already been deleted more than once (1, 2). It has also been eliminated in other projects (de, en, nl). In summary, it has no notoriety and uses projects as a means of dissemination. The articles always appear to be valid, like that of fr wikipedia (created by proxy), but the sources usually bring only news about unique events or events that would hardly attribute notoriety. Some articles are being marked for deletion (an, be), but proxies such as 88.202.186.64 are being used to remove the tags. I write only to make stewards, GS and other crosswiki users aware of the situation and to hear opinions on how to deal with it. See too c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Taurino Araújo. Regards, Rafael ^{(stanglavine) msg} 23:53, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

It's possible to put his name on the Title blacklist.. Any wiki that actually wants an article about the guy will require a local admin (or other user with tboverride) to create the page. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 15:06, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Hey Stanglavine, thanks for the headsup! I've blocked a few of proxy ranges that were abused to post it here. I see a proposal to titleblacklist was already given at Talk:Title blacklist, and I also see articles were marked for deletion where applicable, so I think this is closed now. --Martin Urbanec (talk) 16:51, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Billinghurst wants to see consensus before adding Araújo to the blacklist. So everyone please respond either here or at Talk:Title blacklist#Taurino Araújo. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 20:29, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: Martin Urbanec (talk) 16:51, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Direction regarding a publication

Hi I am a Bureaucrat and CU on Wikispecies and would appreciate some direction in regards to a scientific publication that came out today. For purposes of the discussion I provide a link to it here only [1]. On wikispecies as a Crat and CU I perform what is expected of me I also of course edit.Wikispecies is an aggregator of knowledge of species and their relationships. This paper actually recognises this fact specifically using Wikispecies as an example and in a positive light. Wikispecies is placed in Figure 1 on par with Catalogue of Life as one of two existing models for the aggregation of data on all life. It is also discussed within the the paper that the wiki-based model of Wikispecies is a desirable option for future development of Global Species Lists. I would like to make this paper available for the editors on Wikispecies and the members of the w:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life. There may be others interested but from those two locations I am sure they could find it. As I am an author on this paper I recognise the policy issues here, ie NPoV and OR.I think since the paper actually discusses Wikispecies that members at that wiki may be interested to see they are being noticed by science. I am basically asking for advice on how to proceed with this and ensure I do not cross any lines with regards to policy, also of course is self advertising. The paper is Open Access and free to download for anyone. Thank you, Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) ^talk 01:56, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

Some general thoughts. The CoI guidance at enWP is always top class, and also their commentary on paid editing. 1) Declare your interest in your user page. 2) Use of talk pages. 3) Hasten slowly. 4) Add the work to English Wikisource if it is peer-reviewed, and create author ns pages; and of course add to Wikidata; images to Commons. The last three all have slightly different inclusion criteria that have allowance for additions where you have an interest in the work.  — billinghurst sDrewth 02:42, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by:  — billinghurst sDrewth 07:26, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/ThesenatorO5-2

This user's behavior at SRGP may need steward intervention.--GZWDer (talk) 11:44, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

I guess this was resolved without much intervention or do you still think you need one? — regards, Revi 17:37, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by:  — billinghurst sDrewth 07:28, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Notification of Requests_for_comment/Steward_rights_abuse_and_threats_by_User:Rxy_on_the_Japanese_Wikipedia

Just wanted to notify stewards that an IP user started an RFC on later May to discuss the abuse of Steward and admin rights on Japanese Wikipedia. I would note that User:Rxy is currently banned from Japanese Wikipedia as per this discussion and he has been stripped of all of his rights. Stewards, please evaluate the claims made in this RFC and take an appropriate action. Ainz Ooal Gown (talk) 13:16, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

Review period for stewards by the community is February each year.  — billinghurst sDrewth 07:25, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by:  — billinghurst sDrewth 07:25, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Meta:Babel#Meta:Snowball,_revisit_again

For notifying.--GZWDer (talk) 00:39, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Archived at Meta:Babel/Archives/2020-07#Meta:Snowball, revisit again --DannyS712 (talk) 05:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: DannyS712 (talk) 05:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Tool for finding accounts created by a user

Hi. I recently came across a number of LTA accounts created by the same account[1], rather than by the LTA while logged out. I wanted to see if they had created accounts on other wikis as well, since those accounts would have belonged to the same LTA, but unfortunately central auth only shows edit count and doesn't include log info. While it is possible to manually check an account's logs on all the wikis they have registered accounts on, it was tedious, so I wrote a script :)

See User:DannyS712/AccountsCreated.js - simply navigate to Special:BlankPage/AccountsCreated, input the user name to check, and it'll give a list of all of the other accounts that user created, on any attached wiki. Its not the fastest, but its quicker than doing it manually. Hope it comes in handy.

Let me know if there are any other tools that would make stewards' lives easier. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 06:41, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

[1] See w:cr:Special:Log/Eklander

Thank you. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 08:53, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: DannyS712 (talk) 05:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Potential misuse of sysop tools from OsvátA on hu.wikiquote

OsvátA on hu.wikiquote seems to be regularly blocking stewards and global sysops for invalid reasons, leaving cryptic block summaries, and refusing to engage in discussion about the blocks.

OsvátA blocked today (17 July 2020) the global sysop Stanglavine with reason I. The question that Praxidicae left at q:hu:Special:Permalink/50685#Block? remains unanswered. The edit that triggered Stanglavine block was q:hu:Special:Diff/50683 from September 2019 which the admin reverted today. The edit is correct given that such special page was removed and no longer works. The block is abusive, as it's the lack of reasoning behind it and should be removed.

However this has not been the only incident:

• On 2018 blocked steward علاء because "renaming is boring". [2]. He was unblocked two days afterwards but he neither engaged with Stryn nor علاء about its actions despite being asked.
• On April 2019 blocked global sysop Praxidicae for two weeks as "vandal". The admin was asked by Tegel about the block, yet the admin refused to answer either to Tegel or Praxidicae.
• On September 2019 he blocked steward Martin Urbanec [3].

While I acknowledge there might be a language barrier (I think Tacsipacsi is engaging with him here), this is the fourth time OsvátA has blocked legit users on hu.wikiquote for doing legit edits.

Could someone, perhaps in Hungarian, please tell him to be careful about the blocks he's doing and ask him to unblock Stanglavine by the way?

Thanks, —MarcoAurelio (talk) 22:13, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

@Grin: the other admin at huWQ who I believe has a good capability in English.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:07, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

I asked him to revert his revert and unblock Stanglavine, and all I’ve got so far is a “thank you” (I have no idea what he thanked for, by the way), with no actual action. OsvátA always had an odd style, but this is more than enough… Unfortunately I don’t see any policy on huwikiquote about revoking administrator right (q:hu:Wikidézet:Adminisztrátorok says admin rights can be revoked at Jimbo Wales’ request or upon Arbitratrion Committee’s decision—there’s no AT on huwikiquote—, but not when the admin misbehaves). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 23:19, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

This could be moving into emergency desysop territory - I see similarities to the amwiki case (blocking stewards etc. for just doing their job) and the small size of the project. Surely blocking someone for an edit to a MediaWiki: page (which only admins can edit) would give me pause. Probably worth seeing if Grin responds as they are also a bureaucrat there (though seeing as they are semi-active, I wouldn't count on a timely response). --Rschen7754 23:39, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

It seems that this is isuse of tools rather than abuse of tools. I would think that I would have categorised amWP as abuse. Maybe we can provide some simple text and links to a couple of pges where the user can check permissions, and have that translated to Hungarian. Something that allows simple checks of stewards and global sysop listings would be a start.  — billinghurst sDrewth 23:48, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

Comment Ping @Bencemac: as hu-N user --Alaa :)..! 08:40, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Tacsipacsi, OsvátA truly has an “odd” style, but these actions aren't acceptable. I don't want to hurt the user, but he's objectively a complicated phenomenon @huwiki. If you need me or anything in Hungarian, please let me know how I can help! Bencemac (talk) 08:59, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

I've been summoned, thanks for the notification. I have checked the visible details and there are possibly three problems:

1. serious language barrier,
2. lack ot technical knowledge on OsvatA's part,
3. lack of volunteers to be admins.

OsvatA is a person with good intents but admittedly no deep technical knowledge about the wiki, and he tries to do the undesirable cleanup work using the admin bit, but easily miscategorise hard-to-understand actions from non-local people as vandalism. All these blocks were not - in my personal opinion - bad faith but lack of due care and means of communication. I know him asking more knowledgeable admins on other projects to revert his misaligned actions on his behalf because he never have done reversing and often either don't know the means or don't trust his abilities not to do more harm. These are genuine requests (again, in my personal opinion). He is also open to help, eg. telling him "please don't do this if you see that", obviously not in English.

I do not readily have the time to write him a "do's and don'ts" but if anyone would describe the problem and what not to do when he sees what then I'll translate to English (or probably any of the Hungarian editors here). I prefer the friendly approach even in case of lack of tech skills but the presence of the will to do useful work. Also I can raise the blocks in no time, obviously, I'll look around. --grin ✎ 11:43, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Grin:: Thanks for your reply. I agree with your assessments. Like I said, I don't doubt his good intentions and I support a gentle approach always where possible. If there's anything I or we can do to help him identify our actions as "good" I'm willing to do it. Best regards. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 17:50, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

@Grin: Hello, did anything happen here? We'd appreciate if one of the hu-N users could explain global roles to the user, so they don't block us again . Thanks! --Martin Urbanec (talk) 16:58, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

@Martin Urbanec: already have been done within the extents of possibilities. :-) --grin ✎ 12:33, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! Closing this thread for now. --Martin Urbanec (talk) 16:35, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: Martin Urbanec (talk) 16:35, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

Newly created RfCs

• Requests for comment/Amendment of the Steward policy
• Requests for comment/Make checkuser and oversight logs public - this directly contradicts with Access to nonpublic personal data policy and may be speedily closed
• Requests for comment/WNExit
• Requests for comment/Steward rights abuse and threats by User:Rxy on the Japanese Wikipedia

There are significant activity in RfC by unexperienced users, but no users clerking them. The fourth may be a valid issue, but the first three should be closed.--GZWDer (talk) 18:38, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Deleted the first three as they had no meaningful content or history. No need to clutter the archives with them. – Ajraddatz (talk) 18:42, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Maybe also Requests for comment/LogChecker --DannyS712 (talk) 21:10, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Someone else has commented, so I'll close that one instead. Thanks for pointing it out. – Ajraddatz (talk) 02:25, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

As far as the fourth RFC: I am concerned that a steward is blocked for 6 months on their home wiki. That being said, it is inappropriate for a RFC to take place with mostly IP users commenting and it should really be restarted from scratch. --Rschen7754 02:18, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

The fourth RFC does not have any recent activity and should be closed. --GZWDer (talk) 00:32, 13 August 2020 (UTC)