User talk:Mattinbgn

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It is approximately 9:19 AM where this user lives.

You seem very serious about getting that guy topic-banned. To be honest, I'm fed up with him and his antics, so he must be reported. I'd like to report him, but I already warned him about attacking other editors. --George Ho (talk) 08:46, 14 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, I don't see a need for a topic ban at this stage. I think page protecting and blocking if the personal abuse is over the top is sufficient at this stage. These were his first significant edits in nine months. Happy to wait and see what happens. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 10:23, 14 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

He's blocked for two weeks. As you said, let's wait to see what happens. --Gh87 in the public computer (talk) 21:29, 14 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

	The Photographer's Barnstar
	It seems every time I go looking for a photo for some Queensland topic, a town hall, a museum, or whatever, I find a Mattinbgn photo! I know you uploaded a lot of them some years ago, so you must have been wondering if you'd wasted your time, but I'm thrilled at the coverage of small town Queensland that you have provided. Many thanks, Kerry! Kerry (talk) 05:54, 23 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! I wasn't concerned about wasting my time - I always thought someone would get around to using them for something sooner or later. I still have huge chunks of Queesland to cover yet though. Great work on the Queensland Heritage Register items too, by the way. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 06:34, 23 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Mattinbgn I love your image of the Mt Walsh National Park / mountains, which features on the Wikipedia page titled "Mt Walsh National Park". I am wondering if you would give permission for me to use the image on a website. For more information, feel free to email me direct at <redacted> Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Responded via email - removed email address to avoid spammers. Mattinbgn (talk) 20:07, 23 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible to downgrade the protection from Australian Magpie? I don't think it is necessary now. © Tbhotch^™ (en-2.5). 19:11, 7 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Done! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 19:35, 7 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. Thank you for editing Burnett River. Would you please be able to add some embedded references? It would also be great to flesh out the subsection about the fish present in this river, if we can find sufficient information... Thank you again, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.Zigzig20s (talk) 08:57, 13 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have no access to sources other that general internet searches on this topic, sorry. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 04:17, 15 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi again. Are you interested in creating a page for the Callide River in Queensland? I have very slow internet connection, so I can't look for the right references at the moment. I know you do great work with wikipedia, so I thought I would ask. Thanks.Zigzig20s (talk) 08:59, 13 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, you reverted my edit which stated the gender of a person. Don't you think it's time to include this crucial information in our biographies? I was reading an article in a newspaper which included the name of Hetty Johnston and I needed to write an article myself in a non-English language. In some non-English languages it's impossible to talk about a person (or even an unanimate thing like a table or a chair, or an abstract thing like a country or an idea) without stating their gender. It's impossible to know the gender of a person from their name, particularly in English. The issue may sound like an non-issue but it is if you write many articles in non-English languages and you have to spend 10 or 20 minutes before writing every article just to find out someone's gender. In some cases for non-famous people it was impossible for me to find out someone's gender and I had to write my non-English article guessing the gender and in more than one ocassion readers who knew the gender of the person I was referring to wrote to me saying I referred to a male as a she (or to a female as a he), but what can one do? In some non-English languages it's also impossible to say something like "gender unknown" because the gender of a person can change most of the words of a whole article, so it's not one could simply include both the male and female forms of one or two words and let the rest of the article be the same, all the words in the whole article have to change according to the gender. As I did some work searching the internet to find it out her gender, I added it to her Wikipedia article. If we don't state the gender of a person in our biographies, the only way this information is conveyed if through the use of "he" or "she" and "his" or "her", but we shouldn't rely on this grammatical feature because it can easility be lost after an editor's re-write or copyedit. Indeed, many times I've checked Wikipedia biographies hoping to see quickly a "he" or a "she" or ideally a photograph in the first paragraphs but in many Wikipedia biographies this doesn't happen, or the much-searched-for "he" or "she" is only included after many paragraphs of text or not at all, and it's prone to be removed by copyediting (or even put there by someone like me who wrongly assumed the gender of someone after failing to find it out by searching on the internet). I think the best way to avoid these problems and make Wikipedia biographies more useful is to include the gender of the person in parentheses after their date of birth, or inside their infobox if the article has one. What do you think? Would you agree with including the gender of people in their biographies and refrain from reverting such edits like mine which include this crucial and much-needed information? You can read more about why the gender of a person is important in the grammatical gender article. Cogiati (talk) 08:31, 14 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• You can see another example of an article (not edited by me) which includes the gender of a person (a photographer, I'm also a photographer myself but I also write articles so I have the problem of finding out the gender of a person almost every day and it's really a serious problem for someone having to write many articles every day, don't underestimate what it's like to lose 10+ minutes before writing an article just for finding out the gender of someone!) here: Polixeni Papapetrou in which we read that "Polixeni Papapetrou (born 1960) is a female photographer from Melbourne, Australia." Would you copyedit the article to remove the word "female" in that instance? If not, then why revert an edit introducing the word "female" into another biography where such crucial and much-needed essential biographical information is not included or is only conveyed through the utilization of "she" (or "he") which can easily be lost in other editors' copyedits? We should strive to make Wikipedia more useful rather than less useful, and we do this by including all the information needed by our readers. Cogiati (talk) 08:44, 14 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The sex of a subject is certainly important but it should be a little more stylishly introduced than just whacking the term "female" in brackets next to the birth date. More than anything else, it reads like the subject was born female but may no longer be. What you are proposing is a rather significant change to Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biographies and one I would not support. Perhaps take it up on the talk page there -- Mattinbgn (talk) 04:15, 15 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Thanks for all your Queensland war memorial photos. I've been busy adding them to articles. Kerry (talk) 07:00, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! I need to get back up to Queensland with the camera again ... -- Mattinbgn (talk) 08:07, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There's a proposed move of Category:Townsville to Category:Townsville, Queensland taking place here and I know this issue of primary topic vs disambiguation is usually something you have strong views about. Kerry (talk) 23:03, 31 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Mattinbgn. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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--Mdann52talk to me! 14:51, 1 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Pardon my ignorance but could you check Metung's subsection on Metung Productions. My knee-jerk reaction is that this is the result of a series of vanity posts. However your expertise in small town articles may see some reason why this article has about 1/3rd of its content on this particular film group. To me the whole section is unreferenced, PoV, poorly written and fairly repetitive: I'm tempted to delete it but I'd like a second opinion. [signed very late, sorry] shaidar cuebiyar (talk) 05:51, 18 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How would you rewrite the article in a way that makes sense now that the town no longer formally exists? I am usually a fan of separate articles, and there are plenty of examples where articles on degazetted towns still make sense (i.e. Wittenoom), but I can't see how it makes sense to maintain an article on a tiny town that no longer has a separate identity. What is your objection to merging the content into the Flowerdale article? The Drover's Wife (talk) 03:09, 10 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You provided a name move and disam page. So instead of a page we now have two and lots of links that need tidying up after ... And other towns of the same naming convention that haven't been moved. Should they ? --Dave Rave (talk) 05:17, 19 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Two things - Firstly, we should always have had two pages - there should have been a redirect from the plain name "Bredbo" to "Bredbo, New South Wales" just as there is now a redirect the other way. As long as there are no double redirects, there is no urgency to "fix" the links - this can be done at someone's leisure. Therefore there is no extra page and also no extra work. Secondly, the naming convention at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#Australia applies and clearly Bredbo belongs at its plain, undisambiguated name. Should the other titles similar to this be moved as well? In my view, yes, absolutely - but there is no hurry - so long as redirects from one name to the other exist, readers will find the article they are looking for. Hope this explains my actions. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 06:06, 19 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, As a longtime Dalby resident, I would like to point out that your photo that has been labelled as "Dalby War Memorial 2008" on the Dalby page is actually an obelisk erected to the memory of Joshua Thomas Bell an early MP, pioneer and landholder and is found in Bell Park at the end of Cunningham Street.The War memorial is in Patrick Street near the swimming pool and features a digger on top of a plinth. You might want to edit same.

Scottimac (talk) 07:42, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you - you know that you are allowed to fix it yourself if you wish. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 21:02, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year!

Mattinbgn,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 10:14, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year 2015}} to user talk pages.

Hello Mattinbgn, with your knowledge on these matters, I'd like to ask your help/opinion on moving "Super 10 (Southern Hemisphere competition)" page to be the primary topic at Super 10. The peak dates of 1992–97 on Google Books Ngram seems to support it's primacy.

The Super 10 page now just redirects back to it. There is a disambig page at: Super 10 (disambiguation). An Italian tournament also used the name at one time but it is now called the Eccelenza. Is requesting a multiple page move the way to go or would this be a waste of time? Thanks -- Ham105 (talk) 15:35, 19 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A multiple page move request at WP:RM would be the way to progress this. Gather your evidence for the move and draft up a move request. I am happy to take a look at it before you post it, if you like. Be aware that there may be some discussion about a merge with Super Rugby, although that was different altogether. Good luck! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 00:26, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Hopefully nothing is missing in the code below. -- Ham105 (talk) 17:03, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

{{subst:Requested move |new1 = Super 10 |current2=Super 10 |new2= Super 10 (disambiguation) |reason =   The international tournament within major rugby nations South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1990s should be the Super 10 primary topic. From [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Super+10&year_start=1985&year_end=2015&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CSuper%2010%3B%2Cc0 Google Books Ngram], the peak counts in the period 1992–97 supports its case for primacy.  After 2000, the Italian domestic rugby competition previously known as Serie A adopted the name for a time before being rebranded again as Eccelenza. Its wikipedia page is "National Championship of Excellence". I propose to include a hatnote on the page of the international Super 10 saying "For the Italian former Super 10, see National Championship of Excellence. For other uses, see Super 10 (disambiguation)." -- ~~~~

I'm replying to your edit of the Banjo Paterson poem "Clancy of the Overflow", as I'm a bit confused about the correct approach to poems of this sort.

I added the "Australian poems" category to the page a day or so back only for it to be reverted by user Michael Bednarek who stated "Category:Australian poems is parent to Category:Poetry by Banjo Paterson". I believe the implication is that as the poem is listed under "Category:Poetry by Banjo Paterson" it isn't required to be listed under "Category:Australian poems" as that would amount to a duplication.

As I have a number of other poems that fit this category (along with others by Henry Lawson) I'd like to standardise the approach to avoid an "edit-war". Any thoughts? Perry Middlemiss (talk) 21:11, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In fact, user JackOfOz is reverting all the category additions now. Perry Middlemiss (talk) 21:14, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Hello haven't looked at your pic yet but in the early 1950s the postmistress (of the destroyed PO just over the Crawford) baked the best gingerbread in the world. Probably need more for an article. Cheers Epistemos (talk) 11:26, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think so! :) Was fascinating travelling around the south west. Lots of scope for new articles in that region. The Rising Sun Hotel in Hotspur could almost sustain an article on its own!. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 01:17, 30 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Matt. I have noticed you have been altering article titles to remove "unnecessary disambiguations", such as your move from Mullumbimby, New South Wales to Mullumbimby. I am just wondering if you have consensus for these moves? Because last time I checked, the consensus was to retain the disambiguators, whether "unnecessary" or not. Gatoclass (talk) 10:20, 13 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest having a look at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#Australia. "Most Australian settlement articles are at Town, State/Territory; however, the name of a city or town may be used alone if the place is the primary or only topic for that name (e.g., Sydney rather than Sydney, New South Wales). If you feel that the town is not the primary topic for "Mullumbimby", feel free to start a WP:RM stating why it isn't. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 22:35, 13 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That guideline language is not necessarily an invitation for moving pages from the long-accepted name, it is permissive of creating new articles at the shorter name. This was noted in the discussion on WP:AWNB by gnangarra in the last week. --Scott Davis ^Talk 23:28, 13 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's unfair - I have not been bulk-naming articles and if there is any controversy I have either accepted opposition or used WP:RM. I have also largely left SA WA articles alone as I am aware that some editors there have strong pro-mandatory disambiguation views.

What I do think is wrong though is to use claims of "disruption" to derail the process of moving articles to their natural names. The discussion around disambiguation was had - and contrary to claim at AWNB, the discussion was detailed and comprehensive - and it is time to move on. Any idea that only new articles should be at undisambiguated names is nonsense - so Mungar can be at its natural name but Orroroo, South Australia let's say, created earlier, can't? (BTW, read Talk:Orroroo, South Australia) What is disruptive IMO is forcing a WP:RM discussion every time an article that has a unique name or is clearly the WP:PRIMARY topic. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 00:54, 15 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There have been several people recently moving Australian place articles around. I don't think anyone has used the term "disruption" specifically about you. There are two other editors I would consider using it for (but I don't think I have actually said it about them either, although others might have). You and I are quite possibly close to the extreme ends of the continuum of opinions, but I think we generally manage to be polite and accepting that the other has a legitimate point of view even if it's not our own. In general, I prefer precise naming of articles, while I would say you prefer concise naming. I've always described "<name>, <state>" as a qualified name, not a pre-disambiguated name, in the "fully qualified" sense that you don't really expect a kid's letter to be delivered successfully to "grandma, High Street". I chipped into this conversation from the side, from having your talk page on my watchlist, not from any specific issue about Mullumbimby. I explicitly thanked you for the WP:RM conversation about Coolangatta, since I got to that one amongst several other disputed moves that had not been discussed by their movers. --Scott Davis ^Talk 12:11, 15 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the explanation Matt. It seems things have changed since I last took a look at this issue. Anyhow, I am fully in favour of the removal of unnecessary disambiguators - how many towns in the world named "Mullumbimby" are there likely to be? - so you are welcome to proceed from my POV. I just wanted to be sure you were not editing against consensus. Gatoclass (talk) 13:48, 15 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wondering if you could have a look at this article Norm Houghton (historian), and see if you have a view on its notability, which has been proposed for AfD, and if you don't think t gets there yet, whether you have any suggestions for possible sources that might help, thanks Garyvines (talk) 01:49, 13 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if you are aware that in April this year I nominated the Richie Benaud article for "Good Article" status. It took a while for the review to come though and I now find there are a number of items that need to be addressed. I'm okay with the bulk of them but a few are outside my area of expertise - particularly in terms of illustrations fitting copyright and commons requirements. As you have an interest in Australian cricket I was wondering if you'd like to join me in getting the Benaud article up to scratch, or, if not, if you could recommend someone else who might be able to help. Cheers, Perry Middlemiss (talk) 22:35, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Happy to help and will take a look when I can. Also, the team at [[W{:CRICKET]] would be able to provide some advice. I suspect the photos in question are not public domain unfortunately. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 08:55, 2 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'll raise the issue with WP:CRICKET when I can, probably over the weekend when I might have a bit more time.Perry Middlemiss (talk) 22:43, 4 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:16, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I was wondering if you could assist me in constructing an FA-quality summation of Tom Wills' cricketing style and captaincy. I'm not very well-versed in the lingo and technical aspects, and couldn't hope to produce anything like the work you've done on Bill Ponsford. Also being the soul editor of the article for so long, it would be nice just to have a fresh take on things. Cheers. - HappyWaldo (talk) 04:37, 31 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I am using wikipedia for photographs , and have come across a few photographers that I would like to talk to, briefly , and occasionally donate money to, as well as wikipedia. I respect the work that is done on a voluntary basis, by the photographers on Wikipedia, and whilst I am a business startup, and do not have a load of money, I appreciate the work being done, and want to reward if I have any spare money, to the individual photographer, but find this hard to do. So I joined Wikipedia. I look at a lot of town and city images around the country, and around the world, on wikipedia, for my job. I can occasionally now guess a photographer before I see who took the pic :)

Also want to learn the ropes for photos occasionally , to upload my own, to wikipedia towns and cities.. still early days.. I hope I am using the photos the right way, on my website. Thanks for reading.. .Marty (Martyk@ezebook.com ) please delete email address after initial read? Thanks

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sports in rural Australia

Thank you for quality articles about Australian topics, beginning with football clubs such as Strathmerton Football Club, then today's Harry Trott and Riverina, for creating navboxes, for good illustration with your own photography, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:10, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Three years ago, you were recipient no. 1450 of Precious, a prize of QAI! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:00, 5 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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Hi Mattinbgn.
I see you've updated the List of Commissioners of New South Wales Police page, with Mick Fuller.
The source says that Fuller has been 'appointed', I know I'm being picky, but isn't Scipione still the 'commish' until he retires, which is apparently on Friday? --220 of ^Borg 23:28, 30 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Today is Friday, hence my edit. However, happy for you to clarify on the page if you think it is necessary. Thanks for the courtesy of discussing it with me.-- Mattinbgn (talk) 00:09, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed it is, I assume they do mean Scipione retires 'this' Friday, so I'm splitting hairs a bit lot. I think when I queried, I had assumed they meant he retired 'next' Friday 10 April. Technically, perhaps, he's commish until the moment he retires, or formally hands over to Fuller. I've also updated Scipiones page, may need copyediting this evening, feel free as I may not have internet access then. Regards --220 of ^Borg 01:20, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Facepalm Thanks for the fix.[1] I copied the infobox from Scipiones' page and edited it to suit, but missed the AO. --220 of ^Borg 05:05, 10 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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• Administrators, bureaucrats and stewards can now set an expiry date when granting user rights. (discuss, permalink)

Miscellaneous

• Following an RfC, the editing restrictions page is now split into a list of active restrictions and an archive of those that are old or on inactive accounts. Make sure to check both pages if searching for a restriction.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2017).

Administrator changes

Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn

ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC proposing an off-wiki LTA database has been closed. The proposal was broadly supported, with further discussion required regarding what to do with the existing LTA database and defining access requirements. Such a tool/database formed part of the Community health initiative's successful grant proposal.
• Some clarifications have been made to the community banning and unblocking policies that effectively sync them with current practice. Specifically, the community has reached a consensus that when blocking a user at WP:AN or WP:ANI, it is considered a "community sanction", and administrators cannot unblock unilaterally if the user has not successfully appealed the sanction to the community.
• An RfC regarding the bot policy has closed with changes to the section describing restrictions on cosmetic changes.

Technical news

• Users will soon be able to blacklist specific users from sending them notifications.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2017 elections, the new members of the Board of Trustees include Raystorm, Pundit and Doc James. They will serve three-year terms.

Hi Matt, I saw you noticed some of my edits to Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, I'm hoping to bring it up to FLC standards and then co-nom it with you, if you're interested? I've tinkered with both the Frank Worrell Trophy (at FLC now) and the Trans-Tasman Trophy (waiting for FLC) as well. I'm not sure how I've stumbled into working on these three Aussie lists, but outside the Ashes, us Poms don't really have anything that interesting to report about! Cheers, The Rambling Man (talk) 07:35, 10 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry @The Rambling Man: - I meant to come back to this and reply and got caught up. Thanks for the work you have done and the thought re: co-nomming - it is appreciated. I have deliberately stayed away from participation in the FA/GA process over the past few years. I found the process incredibly frustrating. I am happy to help though where I can. Cheers, Mattinbgn (talk) 22:08, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No worries. I'm pretty cool with the FLC process, so shouldn't be a major biggie. The Rambling Man (talk) 06:40, 21 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2017).

Administrator changes

Happyme22 • Dragons flight

Zad68

Guideline and policy news

• The RFC discussion regarding WP:OUTING and WMF essay about paid editing and outing (see more at the ArbCom noticeboard archives) is now archived. Milieus #3 and #4 received support; so did concrete proposal #1.

Technical news

• Fuzzy search will soon be added to Special:Undelete, allowing administrators to search for deleted page titles with results similar to the search query. You can test this by adding ?fuzzy=1 to the URL, as with Special:Undelete?fuzzy=1. Currently the search only finds pages that exactly match the search term.
• A new bot will automatically revision delete unused file versions from files in Category:Non-free files with orphaned versions more than 7 days old.

Miscellaneous

• A newly revamped database report can help identify users who may be eligible to be autopatrolled.
• A potentially compromised account from 2001–2002 attempted to request resysop. Please practice appropriate account security by using a unique password for Wikipedia, and consider enabling two-factor authentication. Currently around 17% of admins have enabled 2FA, up from 16% in February 2017.
• Did you know: On 29 June 2017, there were 1,261 administrators on the English Wikipedia – the exact number of administrators as there were ten years ago on 29 June 2007. Since that time, the English Wikipedia has grown from 1.85 million articles to over 5.43 million.

Oops! Thanks for that. (Brain insufficiently engaged.) Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 07:30, 22 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No worries! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 07:50, 22 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2017).

Administrator changes

Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 ^{(first RfA to reach WP:300)}

Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

• Following a series of discussions around new pages patrol, the WMF is helping implement a controlled autoconfirmed article creation trial as a research experiment, similar to the one proposed in 2011. You can learn more about the research plan at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial. The exact start date of the experiment has yet to be determined.
• A new speedy deletion criterion, regarding articles created as a result undisclosed paid editing, is currently being discussed (permalink).
• An RfC (permalink) is currently open that proposes expanding WP:G13 to include all drafts, even if they weren't submitted through Articles for Creation.

Technical news

• LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
• The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.

Hope you don't mind this --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:19, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Not only do I not mind it, I am grateful you have taken an interest in it! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 21:08, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I created this little baby in 2012. Seems extraordinary that we're now running FAs twice because of a shortage of FAs, when we've still got quite a lot of very good quality FAs from 10 years ago that haven't run once. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 21:42, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have scheduled Johnson for TFA on December 8, 2017. Thanks for your work.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:00, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all involved here for the presentation on his birthday! What's next? - I received flowers which I could share for the occasion! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:20, 8 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2017).

Administrator changes

Nakon • Scott

Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

• ACTRIAL, a research experiment that restricts article creation to autoconfirmed users, will begin on September 7. It will run for six months. You can learn more about the research specifics at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial, while Wikipedia talk:Autoconfirmed article creation trial is probably the best venue for general discussion.
• Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.

Technical news

• You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
• Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
• In your notification preferences, you can now block specific users from pinging you. This functionality will soon be available for Special:EmailUser as well.

Arbitration

• Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2017).

Administrator changes

Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem

Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
• Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.

Technical news

• You can now search for IP ranges at Special:Contributions. Some log pages and Special:DeletedContributions are not yet supported. Wildcards (e.g. 192.168.0.*) are also not supported, but the popular contribsrange gadget will continue to work.

Arbitration

• Community consultation on the 2017 candidates for CheckUser and Oversight has concluded. The Arbitration Committee will appoint successful candidates by October 11.
• A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2017).

Administrator changes

Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93

Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite

Technical news

• The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team is creating an "Interaction Timeline" tool that intends to assist administrators in resolving user conduct disputes. Feedback on the concept may be posted on the talk page.
• A new function is now available to edit filter managers that will make it easier to look for multiple strings containing spoofed text.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors will be invited to submit candidate statements for the 2017 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 12 until November 21. Voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 10.
• Following a request for comment, Ritchie333, Yunshui and Ymblanter will serve as the Electoral Commission for the 2017 ArbCom Elections.

Obituaries

• The Wikipedia community has recently learned that Allen3 (William Allen Peckham) passed away on December 30, 2016, the same day as JohnCD. Allen began editing in 2005 and became an administrator that same year.

There is no coup (yet) in Zimbabwe. How is creating a page saying there IS a coup NOT a hoax? Cheers. ‡ Єl Cid of ᐺalencia ^ᐐT₳LKᐬ 03:27, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi El cid, el campeador and thanks for your feedback. From Wiktionary - Hoax - "Anything deliberately intended to deceive or trick". The article was not a hoax. It may have been mistitled, poorly sourced or factually incorrect, but we deal with these matters via editing and discussion, not deletion. Cheers, Mattinbgn (talk) 00:24, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017).

Administrator changes

Joe Roe

JzG

Ericorbit • Perceval • Thingg • Tristanb • Violetriga

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.

Technical news

• Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
• A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.

Arbitration

• Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.

Miscellaneous

• Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
• The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.

Hello, Mattinbgn. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).

Administrator changes

Muboshgu

Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned

None

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

Technical news

• The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
• The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.

Arbitration

• Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
• Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

Technical news

• A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Goroke is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Goroke until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. — Insertcleverphrasehere ^{(or here)} 02:40, 18 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).

Administrator changes

Lourdes†

AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V

† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news

• The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
• Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
• A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
• A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

Technical news

• CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
• The edit filter has a new feature contains_all that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.

Obituaries

• Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.

You know what the guideline says: something that says "both are acceptable" is not an invitation to attempt to unilaterally force your passionately-held naming views on the project. You have single-handedly conducted mass moves of hundreds of articles virtually alone among all users in Australian Wikipedia, in spite of a guideline that does not support this, so you could - predictably - turn around and claim that the status quo had changed and try to use that unilateral effort to overcome your long-standing inability to get a consensus for your desired position. You didn't have consensus support for the moves in the first place, so forcing you to actually get that consensus is hardly WP:POINT. Go bully someone else. The Drover's Wife (talk) 08:00, 14 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Good morning. I just noticed that you have set your user page to "Retired". While you and I have clashed over the naming convention and its application for Australian places on-and-off for a very long time, I have valued your contributions to article content, especially photographs of rural places. I also took a few years off of Wikipedia when other stuff became more important. I wish you well in your life and hope to see you back here one day. --Scott Davis ^Talk 01:08, 15 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).

Administrator changes

331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG

Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando

Guideline and policy news

• Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
• Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
• The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
• The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

Technical news

• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

Miscellaneous

• A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
• The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news

• The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
• A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news

• AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
• When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
• The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.

Obituaries

• Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
• Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.

Technical news

• IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
• There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
• It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

Arbitration

• A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

Miscellaneous

• In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).

Administrator changes

Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor

Gogo Dodo

Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes

Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
• A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

• Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
• Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
• IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

• Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider