Stewards' noticeboard/Archives/2021-10

2021 Persian Wikipedia Advisory Council Election

Hello Stewards,

This year we have the sixth election of Persian Wikipedia Advisory Council (a body similar to the Arbitration Committee) using SecurePoll just like the English Wikipedia Arb Com elections. The arrangements necessary are listed on phab:T292685. We need two steward volunteers to serve as scrutineers for the election. We would prefer if scrutineers do not have much involvement with fawiki in order to help preserve the integrity of the election. The current timetable will have voting between 22 October and 4 November. Based on last year's election, the turnout is expected to be about 100 to 150 votes, so the task would not be too time-consuming. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please ping me in your responses. Thanks! Mahdy Saffar (talk) 19:31, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Hi Mahdy Saffar! I can volunteer to it. Best, —Thanks for the fish! ^{talk•contribs} 20:01, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I can help too @Mahdy Saffar:. stanglavine ^msg 20:04, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

@Stanglavine: and @Tks4Fish: Thanks to both of you. Mahdy Saffar (talk) 04:12, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: stanglavine ^msg 17:10, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Bullseye grant proposal

Good afternoon all, I have submitted a Rapid Grant proposal for bullseye, a tool I have been working on to consolidate detailed information about IP addresses into a single view. It is primarily targeted at checkusers and stewards, but is usable by all editors. At the suggestion of one of the grant coordinators, I am informing potentially interested communities about this proposal. I welcome any and all feedback on the proposal. Best, GeneralNotability (talk) 17:06, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: stanglavine ^msg 17:10, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

User:Спасимир

It appears from comments on their Facebook page from friends and family that our colleague User:Спасимир has sadly passed. Please can someone take the usual measures? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:58, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Moved from RFH. --Rschen7754 18:07, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Why? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:17, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Stewards need to globally lock and desysop on bgwiki. --Rschen7754 18:18, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Locked globally, desysoped and de'crat. My deepest sympathies to you and your family --Alaa :)..! 18:57, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: stanglavine ^msg 17:10, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Steward requests/Global

Hello! Currently, Steward requests/Global is so large that it exceeds the post-transclusion template inclusion size. I think it could use some attention. Tol (talk | contribs) @ 16:53, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Has been resolved by the Stewards now. JavaHurricane 07:51, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: JavaHurricane 07:51, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Looking for Scrutineers

It's that time of the year again and the Electoral Commissioners are looking for 3 brave victims to serve as Scrutineers for the English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee Elections. Do I have any takers? Please specify if you would prefer to be a primary Scrutineer, or a reserve scrutineer. —CYBERPOWER (Chat) 00:43, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

@Cyberpower678 Count me in :). Martin Urbanec (talk) 08:55, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

I'm not brave, but you can use me where you need me O_o --Sotiale (talk) 11:28, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

I can be a reserve scrutineer, since I was one last year and enwiki prefers if it's not the same every year. —Thanks for the fish! ^{talk•contribs} 22:58, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Of course, I'm also happy to step out for another steward to do the job instead, as I also was a scrutineer last year. Martin Urbanec (talk) 23:57, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

• As it stands now, the scrutineers will be Martin Urbanec, Sotiale, and Tks4Fish. Any more takers?—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 01:40, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

I can serve as reserve - not the main. I dunno what's gonna happen IRL later this year, so I'd rather not be the main one (Sorry Tks4Fish!). I can probably accommodate if there is no other option though. — regards, Revi 21:47, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

• @-revi and Tks4Fish: if you now any stewards that would be interested in volunteering, please point them here. :-)—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 14:10, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

You know, enwiki ACE scrutineer-ing is not a pleasant job (We all know that, I think?) and since this has been on the radar for +10 days, those who are interested already volunteered to enter, I'd like to assume. — regards, Revi 00:04, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

I know how unpleasant it is and I know that it's likely those that offered are the only candidates willing to volunteer. Just want to make sure we have our bases covered in terms of available scrutineers. I'll go and update the enwiki page with the appointed scrutineers. —CYBERPOWER (Chat) 00:18, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Thank you to those scrutineers who are willing to spend time doing this. It's a very behind the scenes job that I know is difficult. It is appreciated. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 00:26, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Effect of Apple’s iCloud Private Relay

Hello!

Communities typically block edits from IP addresses that obscure individual users. Usually, it has been about “open proxies” or virtual private networks (VPNs). Now, there's a new Apple service called iCloud Private Relay that obscures the IP addresses of desktop and mobile users of the Safari browser.

As Apple users adopt this new service, we estimate that 3-5% of all logged-in and logged-out editors will have these obscured IP addresses. If we don't change anything, they may be blocked within a few months. This wiki may be severely affected. A lot of people editing here use the Safari browser. Next, other browser providers may do the same. The problem will grow.

The communities, users with advanced MediaWiki permissions, the Wikimedia Foundation and others need to work together. We all need to decide how the security of the wikis can be maintained. At the same time, the pathways to editing should remain open for all good-faith participants.

Read more on Apple iCloud Private Relay. Answer the questions and comment on its talk page.

Thank you!

SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 21:34, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

I should point out the relay isn't just restricted to Safari. It's a network wide implementation at the OS level, which means ALL traffic from ALL apps are getting relayed. I disabled mine for my home network as I think it's unnecessary but most Apple users will not be aware of it. Given how many people use Apple products on Wikipedia, I think your underestimating the number of users getting impacted by this. —CYBERPOWER (Chat) 22:22, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Cyberpower678, really? My understanding was that the relay function only applied to Safari; announcements have been quite insistent that this is not a VPN, just a web traffic anonymizer. GeneralNotability (talk) 22:23, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Maybe I misunderstood the implementation of the relay. I thought it was meant to hide all traffic network wide, not just web activity. —CYBERPOWER (Chat) 22:24, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

It is indeed just Safari and only for people who a) pay for an iCloud subscription and b) opt in. Blablubbs (talk) 22:29, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

The vast majority of people won't have a clue what this is, and when faced with a question like, "Do you want to turn on safer internet browsing?" will indeed opt in. I mean, who doesn't want safer internet browsing? The IS0 7-layer model isn't gospel, but the transport layer should just be for moving bits from one place to another. If you want to start enforcing access permissions, you need to be doing that somewhere higher in the stack. If you're making application-level decisions based on IP addresses for anything more important than, "Which movie listings should I show the user?", you're doing it wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RoySmith (talk) 22:48, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

I think we need to distinguish between macOS (where my understanding is that it is just Safari) and iOS (where it might be more since Safari is more deeply integrated into the OS). --Rschen7754 04:25, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

I'm not sure how criticising Apple's decisions is helpful in this context. ~~~~
User:1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 20:52, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

To clarify, all iCloud Private Relay IP addresses are already hardblocked, both globally and on the English Wikipedia, and will continue to be. It's just the use of them that will increase over time. This is a similar problem to the days of web accelerators like w:WP:GWE and Opera Mini, but at least those have a site-specific opt-out. As of now, iCloud Private Relay is all-or-nothing. AntiCompositeNumber (talk) 23:44, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

@SGrabarczuk (WMF): If I were completely honest, there is a need to talk about this on a more wider scale. Currently we have 280 pending stewards tickets for use of an IP blocked as a proxy. That is an underestimate as only search queries are used to filter that. To me, this is a running problem. We should not have that many tickets pending for just global blocks on proxies. But then again, we also have the blocking of a major Tmobile IPv6 range 2607:fb80/32 both globally and on enwiki. So the amount of exemption requests (for an account or IPBE) for it all together are insane. I was going to bring this up at the next stewards meeting with the WMF (courtesy ping: @JSutherland (WMF):) but this brings up the issue again. Personally I see this as needing a wider discussion on what is and isn't blocked and mitigation methods (like maybe ACC exemptions where an email has to be provided that is removed 7 days after the request to root out LTAs or something). Not a perfect idea, but a start of an idea on what we could do. So I thought I would raise this point and i'm hoping for input from other stewards too. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 01:38, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for all your comments above. Could I cut them and paste into Talk:Apple iCloud Private Relay? It might be easier for everyone interested to participate in a centralized discussion. I was thinking of transcluding this section. I'm sure you know the drawbacks of such a solution. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 14:27, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

I think you would get less participation from moving them over. But you could. Maybe some quotes of things you want to highlight too could help that page. -- Amanda (aka DQ) 20:55, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

@AmandaNP, I particularly like the "if I were completely honest" part. Let's be completely honest and go back to your opinion "there is a need to talk about this on a more wider scale" and "what is and isn't blocked and mitigation methods". Would you like to elaborate on that? SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 19:34, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

With that so called 'ip masking' (LOL) I started to believe we should just follow steps with orgs like OSM and require registration to edit. But yeah - we have to deal with the stuff right now - and there should be something done by WMF (because we the Stewards are simply too weak and small in number compared to the malicious party utilizing that proxies so we end up all-or-nothing solution) to help us pinpoint the malicious party, or to deter them utilizing the proxies. (And no, I ain't go to yet another talk page) — regards, Revi 00:06, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Alright, you're the hosts here. The more comfortable participation, the better. I've let my colleagues know that there is this discussion. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 00:26, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

For example, you could start with dealing with T243863: Templates used in global block summaries should only reference Meta templates. and it will give a better notification why their contributions are blocked when they are on 1.1.1.1 Warp+, iCloud stuff, Opera Mini, etc etc. — regards, Revi 22:39, 20 October 2021 (UTC)