user talk:TomStar81

Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election have opened. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next coordination year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting will commence on 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the current coord team. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:41, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2024).

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, there is a new criterion for speedy deletion: C4, which {{tq|applies to unused maintenance categories, such as empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past}}.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether Notability (species) should be adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• Following a motion, remedies 5.1 and 5.2 of World War II and the history of Jews in Poland (the topic and interaction bans on My very best wishes, respectively) were repealed.
• Remedy 3C of the German war effort case ("{{noping|Cinderella157}} German history topic ban") was suspended for a period of six months.
• The arbitration case Historical Elections is currently open. Proposed decision is expected by 3 September 2024 for this case.

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• Editors can now enter into good article review circles, an alternative for informal quid pro quo arrangements, to have a GAN reviewed in return for reviewing a different editor's nomination.
• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in September 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,900 articles and 26,200 redirects awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

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Voting for WikiProject Military history coordinators is now open! A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next coordination year. Register your vote here by 23:59 UTC on 29 September! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:35, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

USS Texas (BB-35) has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Note: I have also requested MILHIST A-Class reappraisal. voorts (talk/contributions) 01:43, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2024).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Asilvering

|Significa liberdade

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:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Good Olfactory

|Hesperian

|I JethroBT

|TommyBoy

|Woody

}}

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Barkeep49

|Izno

}}

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Doug Weller

|Spicy

}}

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Administrator elections are a proposed new process for selecting administrators, offering an alternative to requests for adminship (RfA). The first trial election will take place in October 2024, with candidate sign-up from October 8 to 14, a discussion phase from October 22 to 24, and SecurePoll voting from October 25 to 31. For questions or to help out, please visit the talk page at Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections.
• Following a discussion, the speedy deletion reason "File pages without a corresponding file" has been moved from criterion G8 to F2. This does not change what can be speedily deleted.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether there is a consensus to have an administrator recall process.

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• The arbitration case Historical elections has been closed.
• An arbitration case regarding Backlash to diversity and inclusion has been opened.
• Editors are invited to nominate themselves to serve on the 2024 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission until 23:59 October 8, 2024 (UTC).

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• If you are interested in stopping spammers, please put MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist and MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist on your watchlist, and help out when you can.

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File:Yogo2783 Close crop.JPG

Ten years ago, you were found precious. That's what you are, always. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:18, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello, I'm clearing up syntax errors on Wikipedia and ran across your userpage from this report of protected pages with syntax errors. Would you be willing to make the adjustments I've made [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3AZinnober9%2Fsandbox&diff=1252487604&oldid=1252486982 here]? This will correct the Missing, Misnested, and Obsolete tag issues.

Your current version's on the left, and my corrections are on the right. If so, you can edit that version on the right, do a full page copy and paste into your userpage to make things easy for you. If you have questions, I'm happy to chat. Thank you! Zinnober9 (talk) 16:02, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this [https://wikimediafoundation.limesurvey.net/294789?lang=en anonymous survey].

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:21, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

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News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Crisco 1492

}}

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Babajobu

|Daniel

|Elf

|Jayron32

|Thue

|Wugapodes

}}

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Maxim

File:Oversight logo.png Oversighter changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Maxim

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Following a discussion, the discussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine the requests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
• Following a request for comment, Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.

File:Octicons-tools.svg Technical news

• Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. {{phab|T366068}}

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• {{noping|RoySmith}}, {{noping|Barkeep49}} and {{noping|Cyberpower678}} have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2024 Arbitration Committee Elections. {{noping|ThadeusOfNazereth}} and {{noping|Dr vulpes}} are reserve commissioners.
• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The Arbitration Committee is seeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{tl|Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

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File:Information.svg A file that you uploaded or altered, :File:World in Conflict USS Missouri (BB-63).JPG, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for discussion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. 廣九直通車 (talk) 12:04, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello,

I recently invited you to take a survey about administration on Wikipedia. If you haven’t yet had a chance, there is still time to participate– we’d truly appreciate your feedback. The survey is anonymous and should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement.

Take the survey [https://wikimediafoundation.limesurvey.net/294789?lang=en here].

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 00:17, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Nominations now open for the WikiProject Military History newcomer of the year and military historian of the year awards for 2024! The the top editors will be awarded the coveted Gold Wiki. Nominations are open here and here respectively. The nomination period closes at 23:59 on 30 November 2024 when voting begins. On behalf of the coordinators, wishing you the very best for the festive season and the new year. MediaWiki message delivery via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:21, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

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Voting is now open for the WikiProject Military History newcomer of the year and military historian of the year awards for 2024! The top editors will be awarded the coveted Gold Wiki. Cast your votes here and here respectively. Voting closes at 23:59 on 30 December 2024. On behalf of the coordinators, wishing you the very best for the festive season and the new year. MediaWiki message delivery via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:00, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Ahecht

|DoubleGrazing

|Dr vulpes

|FOARP

|Peaceray

|Queen of Hearts

|Rsjaffe

|SD0001

|SilverLocust

|Sohom Datta

|ThadeusOfNazereth

|Voorts

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:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Ajpolino

|Fathoms Below

|Pppery

|Tamzin

|Worm That Turned

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:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Aervanath

|Christopher Sundita

|Dank

|Dennis Brown

|Dragons flight

|Fastily

|Graham87

|JaGa

|Kbh3rd

|Marine 69-71

|Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington

|Yamamoto Ichiro

}}

File:Wikipedia Interface administrator.svg Interface administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|SD0001

|Sohom Datta

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:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Pppery

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Spicy

|TheresNoTime

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File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Following an RFC, the policy on restoration of adminship has been updated. All former administrators may now only regain the tools following a request at the Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard within 5 years of their most recent admin action. Previously this applied only to administrators deysopped for inactivity.
• Following a request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion, T5, has been enacted. This applies to template subpages that are no longer used.

File:Octicons-tools.svg Technical news

• Technical volunteers can now register for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. [https://pretix.eu/wikimedia/hackathon2025/ Application for travel and accommodation scholarships] is open from November 12 to December 10, 2024.

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• The arbitration case Yasuke (formerly titled Backlash to diversity and inclusion) has been closed.
• An arbitration case titled Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 14 December.

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News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2024).

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Following an RFC, Wikipedia:Notability (species) was adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether admins should be advised to warn users rather than issue no-warning blocks to those who have posted promotional content outside of article space.

File:Octicons-tools.svg Technical news

• The Nuke feature also now provides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions.

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• Following the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee: {{noping|CaptainEek}}, {{noping|Daniel}}, {{noping|Elli}}, {{noping|KrakatoaKatie}}, {{noping|Liz}}, {{noping|Primefac}}, {{noping|ScottishFinnishRadish}}, {{noping|Theleekycauldron}}, {{noping|Worm That Turned}}.

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2025 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!

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News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2025).

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Arcticocean

|Wugapodes

}}

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Euryalus

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Firefly

|L235

}}

File:Oversight logo.png Oversighter changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Firefly

|Guerillero

|L235

|Moneytrees

}}

File:Octicons-tools.svg Technical news

• Administrators can now nuke pages created by a user or IP address from the last 90 days, up from the initial 30 days. {{phab|T380846}}
• A 'Recreated' tag will now be added to pages that were created with the same title as a page which was previously deleted and it can be used as a filter in Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages. {{phab|T56145}}

File:Scale of justice 2.svg Arbitration

• The arbitration case Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been closed.

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News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2025).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Jarry1250

|Lethe

}}

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|AmandaNP

|Drmies

}}

File:Oversight logo.png Oversighter changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg AmandaNP

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment is open to discuss whether AI-generated images (meaning those wholly created by generative AI, not human-created images modified with AI tools) should be banned from use in articles.
• A series of 22 mini-RFCs that double-checked consensus on some aspects and improved certain parts of the administrator elections process has been closed (see the summary of the changes).
• A request for comment is open to gain consensus on whether future administrator elections should be held.

File:Octicons-tools.svg Technical news

• A new filter has been added to the {{#special:Nuke}} tool, which allows administrators to filter for pages in a range of page sizes (in bytes). This allows, for example, deleting pages only of a certain size or below. {{phab|T378488}}
• Non-administrators can now check which pages are able to be deleted using the {{#special:Nuke}} tool. {{phab|T376378}}

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• The 2025 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, Arcticocean, Ameisenigel, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, Galahad, Nehaoua, Renvoy, Revi C., RoySmith, Teles and Zafer as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the 2025 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: 1234qwer1234qwer4, AramilFeraxa, Daniuu, KonstantinaG07, MdsShakil and XXBlackburnXx.

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{{ping|Bbb23}} The ip proposing the site ban is me, I’m out of my house at the moment and I do not log into my account when using the iPad for fear of my mobile device being jacked and someone using the admin tools my account has. “We” and “us” is a reference to the admin corps on Wikipedia, not to multiple users who are cycling through an ip address. TomStar81 16:24, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

:You really shouldn't be editing project space as an IP. Couldn't you have waited to when you can log in?--Bbb23 (talk) 16:32, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

::I know. I really ought to consider a new satellite account, but I haven.t gotten there yet. As to the computer, my tower is sitting in a dissembled state in the house because of work I have going on in the house to fix issues with my house. It’ll be a week or so - optimistically - before I can get it out back together again and this issue didn’t seem like one that would wait that long. TomStar81 17:14, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

:::{{ping|Bbb23}} it occurs to me to ask, can these last few edits be Rev-deleted and/or oversighted? Best not to court trouble as it were with people who may be observing. TomStar81 18:04, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

::::I would e-mail the OS team and request suppression. That would also permit you to verify your identity (log in to your iPad and use your Wikipedia e-mail). I would also delete our conversation here and have that suppressed.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:40, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

It's my pleasure to invite you to Event:Wikicurious Pi Day SXSW 2025! Would also be glad to catch up with you before the event if you'd like. Pharos (talk) 19:38, 7 March 2025 (UTC)

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For all of my hopes for {{noping|DaveAndersonSonyMusic}}, he {{diff2|1284107673|posted this}} after our last exchange with EEng. Carrying on about some court order while already being blocked for WP:NLT. Do you think that warrants revoking talk page access? --Drm310 🍁 (talk) 21:19, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2025).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Giraffer

|Goldsztajn}}

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Dennis Brown

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Cyclonebiskit

|Nohat

|Someguy1221

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File:Wikipedia bureaucrat.svg Bureaucrat changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Barkeep49

File:Checkuser Logo.svg CheckUser changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg 0xDeadbeef

File:Oversight logo.png Oversighter changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg GB fan

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Moneytrees

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• Sign up for The Core Contest, a competition running from 15 April to 31 May to improve vital articles.

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Oi mate, I just wanted to give a big thanks for your contribution to the TomTom7474 ANI discussion. Your first comment there explaining the difference between rights and privileges was not only very much needed, but very enlightening. I think all new editors should take a look at that to better understand just what editing Wikipedia means. Shovel Shenanigans (talk) 17:48, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi TomStar81, it's good to see you around taking care of the issues that get reported at AN/I and whatnot. I just wanted to provide one suggestion: that users shall not have their e-mail access disabled when blocking them for regular editing abuse and not email abuse. I'm not an administrator, but the massive majority of blocks that I see done by other admins do not have the email disablement option included from the start. I believe this is so the user can e-mail the Arbitration Committee or ask the blocking administrator for questions regarding their block. Also it even says on the blocking policy page {{tq|This option is not checked by default and should not be enabled when blocking an account except in cases where either the blocked user abuses it, or uses it in order to harass, threaten, intimidate, or cause disruption toward other editors.}}

Thanks, — AP 499D25 (talk) 10:21, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

::{{ping|AP 499D25}} I’m aware of this, but I routinely disable email by default for two very good reasons: first, I rarely if ever check my email, so emailing me doesn’t usually get you a rapid response (if it gets you any response at all). Disabling email therefore ensures someone blocked isn’t waiting eternally for me to get back to them. The other reason I disable email my default is to ensure that a subsequent record of the account that has been blocked can be tracked by those who would consider unblocking. If the unblock requests are made publicly as opposed to being through email then the community can track the requests on the talk page, deferring to any relevant policy, discussion, or AE enforcement related pages that cover the matter(s) that resulted in the block. Keeping email open, by contrast, removes this public information, which can create problems for the community in the future if parts of the unblock were not publicly available. Finally, in this day and age, and in particular since the India court case debacle that resulted in accounts being compromised for foreign nations who should have no legal standing on this site whatsoever, I personally feel the need to disable email to prevent anything that could be construed as a threat - or worse, a tell for someone to track down the irl me - by removing the option to email and therefore risk obtaining that info.

::All of that being said, you are correct though: this is not something I should be doing be default. I suppose I’ll have to learn to live with the risks if I want to continue holding on to the privileges, policy and guideline pages apply to all of us after all, and that includes me. Thank you for the message.

::Sincerely,

::TomStar81 (Talk) 15:33, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

:::Oh, I see! — AP 499D25 (talk) 04:09, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2025).

File:ANEWSicon.png

File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg Administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Rusalkii

:File:Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg NaomiAmethyst (overlooked last month)

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg {{hlist|class=inline

|Master Jay

|Orderinchaos

|Roger Davies

|Tinucherian

}}

File:Wikipedia Interface administrator.svg Interface administrator changes

:File:Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Galobtter

File:Green check.svg Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, administrator elections were permanently authorized on a five-month schedule. The next election will be scheduled soon; see Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections for more information. This is an alternate process to the RfA process and does not replace the latter.
• An RfC was closed with consensus to allow editors to opt-out of seeing "sticky decorative elements". Such elements should now be wrapped in {{t|sticky decoration wrapper}}. Editors who wish to opt out can follow the instructions at WP:STICKYDECO.
• An RfC has resulted in a broad prohibition on the use of AI-generated images in articles. A few common-sense exceptions are recognized.

File:Info Simple bw.svg Miscellaneous

• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!

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