Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)

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Revert these edits from 15+ years ago on pages by IP editor on pages about Greek instruments

I don't know if here is where this should be posted. On pages about ancient Greek musical instruments like epigonion there is something about "ASTRA Project" that appears to be advertising of this project. These links were added over 15 years ago, and no one noticed. They should be removed as said previously it's advertising. Draheinsunvale (talk) 01:57, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

While I see plenty of things that could be improved in the Epigonion article, I don't think advertising for ASTRA is a problem. I couldn't find a surviving link to anything that explained what ASTRA was. Donald Albury 02:28, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Links to www.astraproject.org (LinkSearch) were added around 2009 and are in Aulos + Barbiton + Epigonion + Salpinx + Physical modelling synthesis. It should all be removed because the reference (archived example) is not worthwhile and the original (astraproject.org) has been usurped and is now gambling spam, see WP:JUDI. Johnuniq (talk) 03:11, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Export and Wikidata QID?

Hello everyone, the Wikidata for Wikimedia projects team is investigating the benefit of adding a new <tag> for a Wikidata item QID into the XML file output from the Special:Export function.
Have you used this function before? If yes, we would like to hear from you.

Would adding a new <tag> for a linked Wikidata item (e.g. <wikidataid>) aid you?
What types of pages did you export? (article, template, talk etc.)
What did you do with the exported content?

Please leave your comments or questions as a reply to this message, thank you. -Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 15:36, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What does this new tag do? Blueboar (talk) 18:25, 27 November 2024 (UTC)tag.[reply]

@Blueboar The message is referring to tags in the XML file you get from exporting a page, not tags that are used in wikitext. The tag doesn't "do" anything, XML files use HTML like tags to mark up data fields. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 20:32, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can see this being useful to others, but the tag name (wikidataid) seems suboptimal. Could "wikidata-id", "wikidata-qid", or even just "wikidata" or "qid" be used? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:41, 30 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello @Pigsonthewing, yes it can be different, although <wikibaseitem_id> was suggested to fit with an existing schema. However, we have put the task on hiatus due to the potential consequences this addition could have on the size and time required for the weekly Wikipedia database dumps. -Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 16:55, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Desblock my account in Wikipedia spanish

Hi wikis,please asked to the User:Taichi (hes blocked my account and e-mail indefinitely from this https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Solicitudes_de_verificaci%C3%B3n_de_usuarios?markasread=58923216&markasreadwiki=eswiki) I'm not a sockpuppet of these users. AbchyZa22 (talk) 10:47, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But im a good faith so please asked this user Taichi AbchyZa22 (talk) 10:48, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AbchyZa22, as this is the English Wikipedia, we have no authority over the Spanish Wikipedia. Each language Wikipedia is a separate project. If you are blocked on Spanish Wikipedia, you will have to appeal your block there; you can find instructions here in regards to that. Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 10:54, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, AbchyZa22. This is the English Wikipedia. The Spanish Wikipedia is a separate autonomous project with its own policies, guidelines and administrators. We have no influence or power over them. We cannot help you here. You must use the block appeal processes on the Spanish Wikipedia. Cullen328 (talk) 10:57, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thank you AbchyZa22 (talk) 10:58, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Cullen328@Seraphimblade:Can't edit (https://es.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Especial:UsuariosBloqueados&wpTarget=%239201891) look AbchyZa22 (talk) 11:05, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to hear it, but there's really nothing we can do about it. You will have to follow whatever appeals process the Spanish Wikipedia has; we can neither do that for you nor do anything about it. Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 11:07, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AbchyZa22, I hope that you understand that English Wikipedia editors and adminstrators have no power whatsoever over the Spanish Wikipedia. We are not their bosses in any way. Cullen328 (talk) 11:33, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Temporary Accounts - introduction to the project

The Wikimedia Foundation is in the process of rolling out temporary accounts for unregistered (logged-out) editors on multiple wikis. The pilot communities have the chance to test and share comments to improve the feature before it is deployed on all wikis in mid-2025.

Temporary accounts will be used to attribute new edits made by logged-out users instead of the IP addresses. It will not be an exact replacement, though. First, temporary users will have access to some functionalities currently inaccessible for logged-out editors (like notifications). Secondly, the Wikimedia projects will continue to use IP addresses of logged-out editors behind the scenes, and experienced community members will be able to access them when necessary. This change is especially relevant to the logged-out editors and anyone who uses IP addresses when blocking users and keeping the wikis safe. Older IP addresses that were recorded before the introduction of temporary accounts on a wiki will not be modified.

We would like to invite you to read the first of a series of posts dedicated to temporary accounts. It gives an overview of the basics of the project, impact on different groups of users, and the plan for introducing the change on all wikis.

We will do our best to inform everyone impacted ahead of time. Information about temporary accounts will be available on Tech News, Diff, other blogs, different wikipages, banners, and other forms. At conferences, we or our colleagues on our behalf are inviting attendees to talk about this project. In addition, we are contacting affiliates running community support programs.

Subscribe to our new newsletter to stay close in touch. To learn more about the project, check out the FAQ and look at the latest updates. Talk to us on our project page or off-wiki. See you! NKohli (WMF) and SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:39, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My main question is: will people still be allowed to mention the IP adresses onwiki in e.g. sockpuppet investigations? If not, then this seems like a severe nuisance for such investigations. But if this will be considered a form of outing or confidentiality breach, then that should be made very clear and taken into consideration before deciding whether this is a blocker for this project or not. Fram (talk) 17:47, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Great question. The Wikimedia Access to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy says

When it is reasonably believed to be necessary, users with access to temporary account IP addresses may also disclose the IP addresses in appropriate venues that enable them to enforce or investigate potential violations of our Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, or any Wikimedia Foundation or user community-based policies. Appropriate venues for such disclosures include pages dedicated to Long-term abuse. If such a disclosure later becomes unnecessary, then the IP address should be promptly removed.

In short, it's better not to do it unless you have a good reason and you do it on the right page (like Wikipedia:Long-term abuse). SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:55, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I presume any "official" page dealing with abuse (WP:AN, WP:ANI, WP:SPI, and arbcom) may be considered acceptable locations then. Of course within reason, not gratuitously disclosing IPs for the sake of it. Fram (talk) 18:06, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, exactly! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 18:12, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My hope, although I've not seen this spelt out anywhere, is that temporary accounts will end CUs deliberately tying their own hands regarding IP socking, due to privacy concerns linking accounts to IPs. As CUs can still see IPs from temporary accounts, and IPs will not usually need to be revealed even on SPI pages, what would before have been socking that can't be technically examined (one tool among others but a useful one), will now be temporary accounts that can be listed alongside permanent accounts at SPI pages and similar. CMD (talk) 02:27, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I believe all admins and also some power users (account age 6 months, 300 edits, opts in) will still be able to see temporary account IP addresses. So the checkuser practice of declining to link IPs to permanent accounts may still continue. –Novem Linguae (talk) 03:22, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The opt-in is already in our preferences, even though we don't have the full system yet. I do hope the SPI practice could change though, trying to get a benefit from this shift. CMD (talk) 12:35, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In the screenshot, a popup says "An auto-generated account has been created for you by adding a cookie to your browser."

What if the user has cookies disabled?

This is likely to alarm novice users (has the message been user-tested?). It would probably be wise to add a few words of explanation, say: "A temporary auto-generated account has been created for you by adding a cookie to your browser, in order to preserve your anonymity and not reveal your location." and changing "creating an account" to "creating a permanent account"Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:48, 30 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing, I believe you are looking for mw:Trust and Safety Product/Temporary Accounts/FAQ#How long does a temporary account last? WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:43, 30 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Talk:2024 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence § Disinformation in Introduction of the page

You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:2024 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence § Disinformation in Introduction of the page. Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 04:51, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The last time I posted about an earlier version of this discussion at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard#Talk:2024 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence#Article protected, it received no response; this discussion would really benefit from additional viewpoints. Thank you. Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 04:51, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Avoiding conflicts with WikiEd course work

Two days ago I created an article on Ann Trevenen Jenkin, as part of WP:Women in Red's "Women who died in 2024". Yesterday there was a message on its talk page to say it is part of a WikiEd project, and I find that a student has been working on their draft article on this topic since 2 October. In the nature of student projects, they have been working step by step, week by week. Their draft is not yet fit for mainspace, and the course continues until 18 December. This must happen fairly often, when students pick notable topics which are missing from the encyclopedia but other editors spot the same gaps.

To avoid duplicated work like this, it would be very helpful if topics which are the subject of assignments in WikiEd courses could be flagged in some way, so that when an editor starts to create an article they are alerted, just as we are routinely alerted to the fact that an article on the topic has previously been deleted. Unless the editor feels that an article on the topic is needed with some urgency, they could then leave it aside (perhaps watchlisting it in case the student work needs some improvement), and choose a different topic. Could this be done? Where should I suggest it? PamD 09:37, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose that on a practical level the course tutor could create an article and then speedy-delete it G7 (requested by author) after adding the course banner to the talk page...? PamD 09:40, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't like to see that done. The expectation is that WikiEd should not be disruptive to the rest of the project, and should work within its normal operations. That includes that if you're drafting an article, someone else may "beat you to it"; that's a normal part of editing and something students who are learning to edit Wikipedia should be expected to deal with. They could always offer ideas for improving the newly-created article instead. Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 09:41, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't see it as disruptive, it wouldn't be an instruction not to create an article, but a nudge that an article was under construction so that it might be a good idea to put ones efforts elsewhere. I'll be interested to see what happens at course end, and I hope the student won't expect to be able to upload their article regardless! I suppose a difference from a normal drafting is that students are forced to work over a matter of months, while normal editors can in most cases work faster. PamD 09:50, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Mary Washington/Writing and Literacy in the Digital Age (Fall 2024) has a useful scope table. AllyD (talk) 09:50, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's a standard course dashboard, but only useful if you know to look at it ... ah, just had a thought. Special:WhatLinksHere/Ann_Trevenen_Jenkin includes the Brigham Young course. So, if I remember, my process for starting an article will now include a "What links here" with particular care to look for WikiEd courses. PamD 09:53, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to mention "what links here"; I think that's a good idea anyway. Back in 2012 while creating Petite Suite (Debussy), I encountered a similar situation while checking links because there was an articles for creation submission at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Petite Suite (Debussy) (requires admin goggles to view). Nowadays draftspace exists (it was created a year later) and editors do get alerts when there's a draft page at the same title as an article. Graham87 (talk) 14:59, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It happens outside of WikiEd. Early last year I was working on an article on my user sub-page when I realized a new editor was drafting an article on the same topic. In that case, I merged what I had written into their draft. I'm not sure it is worth worrying about such collisions ahead of time. Donald Albury 15:02, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]