Wikimedia Forum/Archives/2018-12

Please do not post any new comments on this page. This is a discussion archive first created in December 2018, although the comments contained were likely posted before and after this date. See current discussion or the archives index.

New wikiproject - paintable historic maps

I loved the kartographer extension. Inspired by that, I would like to propose a new extension. History is an integral part of Wikipedia and empires and kingdoms are integral part of history. But historic maps have not improved since hundreds of years. Having such amazing technologies, I would like to propose a new kind of historic maps. Key features include 1) Time element - Kartographer gives you two dimensional independence now, but adding the independence of time will liberate the map from age old problem. 2) Crowdsourced paintings of empire boundaries which is appropriately sourced with images and texts.

This section was archived on a request by: — billinghurst sDrewth 23:24, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Commons down

Other projects still up. 64.114.223.5 17:53, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

The error message:

"Error: Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical problem. Please try again in a few minutes. See the error message at the bottom of this page for more information.

If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.

Request from 216.171.227.197 via cp4025 frontend, Varnish XID 89884830

Upstream caches: cp4025 int

Error: 404, Requested domainname does not exist on this server at Fri, 07 Dec 2018 17:54:23 GMT

64.114.223.5 17:55, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Back up, but upload.wikimedia seems to have wiped all Commons images:

"Page not found: /wikipedia/commons/3/32/Mezquita_de_Malek,_Kerman,_Ir%C3%A1n,_2016-09-22,_DD_20-22_HDR.jpg

We could not find the above page on our servers.

Did you mean: /wiki/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Mezquita_de_Malek,_Kerman,_Ir%C3%A1n,_2016-09-22,_DD_20-22_HDR.jpg

Alternatively, you can visit the Main Page or read more information about this type of error."

64.114.223.5 17:56, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

In fact, upload.wikimedia has been wiped entirely. 64.114.223.5 18:06, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Upload is back up, but Commons is displaying the 404 again. 64.114.223.5 18:08, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Commons back up; image servers down again. 64.114.223.5 18:09, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Upload.wikimedia and Commons seem to be alternating downtimes. 64.114.223.5 18:12, 7 December 2018 (UTC) Closed issues resolved. Check with NOC team for fault reports. — billinghurst sDrewth 23:23, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

This section was archived on a request by: — billinghurst sDrewth 23:23, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

New Wikimedia password policy and requirements

Please help translate to your language

The Wikimedia Foundation security team is implementing a new password policy and requirements. You can learn more about the project on MediaWiki.org.

These new requirements will apply to new accounts and privileged accounts. New accounts will be required to create a password with a minimum length of 8 characters. Privileged accounts will be prompted to update their password to one that is at least 10 characters in length.

These changes are planned to be in effect on December 13th. If you think your work or tools will be affected by this change, please let us know on the talk page.

Thank you!

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 20:02, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

user name policies, ar.wikipedia

I got a message on my en-talkpage, that my user name is not allowed on ar.wikipedia and will be banned unless I change it. I only ever made 4 edits to the ar-wiki, the last one in 2005.

(my edits on: de.wikipedia.org 13,348, www.wikidata.org 1,912, commons.wikimedia.org 1,759, kn.wikipedia.org 772, en.wikipedia.org 670, meta.wikimedia.org 330, fr.wikipedia.org 51).

How does this arabian policy conform with SUL?

--𝔊 (Gradzeichen Diſk ✉Talk) 07:51, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

There's no global username policy and username policies remain within the confines of local communities. We encounter this issue from time to time when we globally rename an user. The username can be valid in one wiki but maybe not in others, and leads to absurd situations sometimes. Maybe @علاء can advice here as arwiki user. Thanks. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 12:30, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Gradzeichen: per Arabic Wikipedia Username policy your username is unacceptable in arwiki, but in arwiki we exclude active accounts in other wikis/projects from our username policy (per this discussion), so your account will not block in arwiki, as you are in this category (=Category:unacceptable usernames but have contributions outside arwiki). Dr-Taher added it to your talk page. best --Alaa :)..! 17:06, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello, As Alaa explained, I created a category for "Active account on other wikis " to avoid blocking them. So don't worry.--Dr-Taher (talk) 17:22, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Invitation from Wiki Loves Love 2019

Please help translate to your language

Love is an important subject for humanity and it is expressed in different cultures and regions in different ways across the world through different gestures, ceremonies, festivals and to document expression of this rich and beautiful emotion, we need your help so we can share and spread the depth of cultures that each region has, the best of how people of that region, celebrate love.

Wiki Loves Love (WLL) is an international photography competition of Wikimedia Commons with the subject love testimonials happening in the month of February.

The primary goal of the competition is to document love testimonials through human cultural diversity such as monuments, ceremonies, snapshot of tender gesture, and miscellaneous objects used as symbol of love; to illustrate articles in the worldwide free encyclopedia Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) projects.

The theme of 2019 iteration is Celebrations, Festivals, Ceremonies and rituals of love.

Sign up your affiliate or individually at Participants page.

To know more about the contest, check out our Commons Page and FAQs

There are several prizes to grab. Hope to see you spreading love this February with Wiki Loves Love!

Kind regards,

Wiki Loves Love Team

Imagine... the sum of all love!

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:12, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Virtual Wiki Events

Hello! I was unsure of the best place to start this discussion, and I was hoping I could be pointed in the right direction. I would like to see going about creating some virtual English Wikipedia events for editors to attend that can't go to the events held in real life. Any guidance would be appreciated! Thanks. Snowycats (talk) 04:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Subject? Klaas `Z4␟` V: 15:20, 31 December 2018 (UTC)