This is an archive of past discussions with User:GeneralNotability. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
JovGeo
With regards to this case, I apologise for not presenting the evidence clearly enough. However, JovGeo's file upload of the "Lover" cover (File:Taylor Swift - Lover (Live from Paris) artwork.jpg) was deleted on June 11. He conveniently had logged out to insert it into the article just so it won't be linked to him. The next day, the Tyler Swift Boii account was created and just his seventh edit was asking how to upload this picture. Combined with the same geographical location, lack of edit summaries, grammar issues, and all of their edits being tagged with "Mobile edit Mobile web edit", how does that not constitute some damning evidence? JovGeo had several warning tags on his talk page saying that he would be blocked the next time he violated certain policies. It is disruptive that he has created the Tyler Swift Boii account to continue bogus file uploads and has still not admitted to it, thus freeing him from all of the warnings and bad reputation his first account had racked up. Pretty sure this is some sort of policy violation.--NØ17:55, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
MaranoFan, all of those are enough to suggest similarity, but are fairly circumstantial - plenty of people are interested in Taylor Swift, plenty of people edit from India, plenty of people fail to use edit summaries, and plenty of people edit from mobile devices; I imagine that the intersection of those groups is still a fair numberof people. The warnings on JovGeo's page are for adding unsourced material and changing genres, not for uploading incorrect pictures. Given how many times JovGeo has added pictures while logged in as well as while logged out, I don't think they're trying to hide anything, and since they are still editing actively from that account I don't think they're evading scrutiny. Like I suggested in the SPI close, it is possible that this is two people who know each other, but even if it is the same person, they have not used multiple accounts in a way that would breach WP:ILLEGIT, our rules on when sockpuppetry may not be used (other than possibly "evading scrutiny," but as I said, if they were evading scrutiny they wouldn't still be making the same kinds of edits from the main account). GeneralNotability (talk) 18:11, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
Sure. But these users have all those things in common, along with one asking how to upload a file, the upload of which by the other user had been deleted just the day prior, as his eighth edit; this suggests the second account was created with the sole purpose of carrying out this upload. Not to mention that JovGeo had already started editing logged out to add this image. I highly appreciate your lenient approach, but this is not a legitimate alternate account. It's him trying to add back an upload that was previously deleted, without taking responsibility for it. It makes sense that he liked posing as a new user and kept using both the accounts, since the new one freed him from the bad reputation of the prior. It is noteworthy that JovGeo has stopped editing in the past 3 days, right as Tyler Swift Boii became extremely active and made 5 uploads. The account is behaving disruptively and I will raise this issue somewhere else again. Thank you for your time.--NØ18:25, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
The Medicine case was closed, with a remedy authorizing standard discretionary sanctions for all discussions about pharmaceutical drug prices and pricing and for edits adding, changing, or removing pharmaceutical drug prices or pricing from articles.
On your recent close of my move request, you have two editors that supported the move. That makes WP:SNOW not prudent.Casprings (talk) 20:33, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
Casprings, one !support was purely emotional argument, the other was speculation and did not advance any reliable sources to support the rename, and I expect both would have been discounted as-is by a closing admin. There is no rule that there cannot be any supports in a SNOW, only that it be effectively impossible for the proposal to succeed. It was my judgment that because your move request came only a month after the previous one closed and failed to give a reason why the previous move request's outcome should be changed, along with the overwhelming opposition (something like 16 oppose, most of which were solidly rooted in policy), SNOW was a valid option. You are, of course, free to request review. GeneralNotability (talk) 21:58, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
Name block on 'new' user with name eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee etc
I don't know where to flag this up to any administrator who considers an unblock request, but FYI this editor was previously registered and blocked under the name Bhinegar. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 09:32, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
Passengerpigeon, thanks, that's a good writeup. These were pretty big rangeblocks (biggest ones I've ever applied), I'm hoping that keeps them out for a while so we don't have to play whack-a-mole protecting individual pages. GeneralNotability (talk) 12:56, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
Passengerpigeon, yup, that looks like them. Applied another rangeblock. The worst part is that I doubt they have the technical know-how to be actively trying to block evade, this is just their IP being a normal dynamic IP. I've blocked the latest range involved, but overall block allocated to their ISP is huge (171.224.0.0/11), I'm pretty sure it's not technically possible to issue a block that big, and there would be major collateral damage regardless, so we're just going to have to keep hitting the ranges as they pop up. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:42, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
Another likely IP. I don't understand what this user's game is; I tried messaging them on their talk pages a few times, with the message translated in Vietnamese, and they haven't said a word in response. Passengerpigeon (talk)02:37, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
This looks like a block evasion with bizarre behavior like reverting a bot on sandbox [1] and tagging on sock userpage (like how did he know who is the sock of it), I've filed a SPI report in case they remove it pls check it, when it is confirmed, appreciate it if you revert his edits except countering those vandalism. 14.192.212.93 (talk) 11:52, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
Feedback request: Engineering and technology Good Article nomination
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
The Score extension has been disabled for now. This is because of a security issue. It will work again as soon as the security issue has been fixed. [2]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 July. It will be on all wikis from 9 July (calendar).
Future changes
Abstract Wikipedia is a new Wikimedia project. It will collect language-independent information that can be easily read in different languages. It builds on Wikidata. The name is preliminary. You can read more. [3]
Some rules for user signatures will soon be enforced. Lint errors and invalid HTML will no longer be allowed in user signatures. Nested substitution will not be allowed. A link to your user page, user talk page or user contributions will be required. You can check if your signature works with the new rules. This is because the signatures can cause problems for tools or other text on the page.
Would you mind if I drafted you for a little jquery wrangling? I'm just a dumb python guy, this javascript stuff makes my head hurt. -- RoySmith(talk)20:04, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
RoySmith, I can give it a try, but no promises, I'm a dumb Python guy too :) most of the changes I've made in spihelper have been ones where I can piece together other folks' existing work. GeneralNotability (talk) 20:07, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Uncaught TypeError: $(...).selectize is not a function
The js code that's running is here. This smells like some kind of race condition between my page script loading and jquery, but that's about as far as I'm able to get. The odd thing is that the js code is actually running and doing the right thing. I can see the behavior it adds. I wouldn't invest a lot of time in this, but if you spot something, let me know. Of course, if you've got some javascript-wizard talk page stalkers, I wouldn't mind that either... -- RoySmith(talk)20:34, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Right here I opened an SPI on an individual but it appears as though no SPI clerk has endorsed it nor any CU reviewed it. I was wondering if it was a good idea or if it was proper to directly ping SPI clerks or CU’s on the SPI investigation page right away rather than wait it out but seeing as though the SPI result is pertinent to this ongoing AFD I’m not sure waiting it out might be in the best interest of the community. What do you suggest? Celestina007 (talk) 22:56, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Celestina007, we're a little backlogged right now, so a couple of days isn't unusual, and pinging specific checkusers probably isn't the best idea. I'll try to take a look at the case now, though. GeneralNotability (talk) 23:11, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Hi! Thanks for looking into this case, endorsing it for CU, and helping resolve it. It was my first time initiating an SPI and glad I was able to provide sufficient information for you guys to work on and I aim to help make it even smoothier and easier for future cases. What's the best course of action if I notice other account(s) that may have been missed initially? Like this one for example is an obvious one, but I somehow missed it during my initial report. Can I ping that thread and add more information? Or is it advisable to open a new case? I also don't know whether it's acceptable to add [definitive] IPs in reports, so thought I'd ask. Appreciate your guidance. Also, as this was a global case, shouldn't the accounts be blocked globally (I can add more details in the report of which countries were affected with specific links), or is a call to be made by individual projects? — Infogapp1 (talk) 11:15, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
Infogapp1, if you find new socks, you can open a new case. You can add IPs, but unless they've edited very recently (no more than a week ago) it's probably going to be declined - the IP you referenced, for example, last edited four years ago so there really isn't much we can do about it now. As for global locks - the usual rule is that an account should have been blocked on multiple Wikimedia projects before it is globally locked, and I don't see any blocked on other wikis. I do see that some accounts are active on other wikis, but they're all only blocked on the English Wikipedia. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:21, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
Please Help SocialNews.XYZ to get off Spam Blacklist
My Name is Gop Adusumilli the editor of SocialNews.XYZ. I see that our news website is added to the blacklist and was marked a spamming blog. Please let us know what we should do to get off the blacklist.
We are a genuine Indo-American news website. We cover most of the Indian and American news from reputed sources likes AP/PTI/IANS.
As part of our coverage, we post first look posters of Indian and Hollywood movies(sourced from EPK.TV). Movie fans tend to use those images and add them to Wikipedia since we are usually seen on top of google searches.
Please help us get off the blacklist and we are ready to make any changes you propose.
I would like to request feedback on the new draft page for Basement Systems, Inc.[1]. I have read the comments related to the previous speedy deletion, read all the wikipedia help pages on notability, neutral pov, and reliable references, and have attempted a draft based on these standards. I have the COI declaration. You can see the previous activity in my user talk page. As I understand it, I should not create this page but request it under Requesting Articles but I wanted to put the core sources and draft here and get feedback. Thank you for your consideration. Brittanylees (talk) 17:48, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
Users can thank others for their edits. Checkusers can now see user data related to that action. This can help identify sock puppets who harass others using thanks. [4]
Problems
Everyone was logged out a couple of weeks ago to fix a security problem. The problem was not entirely fixed. Because of this everyone was logged out once again last week. [5][6]
Changes later this week
Wikis that are not for one specific language can translate pages. Sometimes parts of translations are outdated or missing. Outdated translations are marked with a pink background. Missing translations will also be marked in the future. This markup can sometimes break things. It can soon be disabled by using <translate nowrap></translate> on the source page. [7]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 July. It will be on all wikis from 16 July (calendar).
Future changes
Wikimedia code review plans to use GitLab. It would be hosted on Wikimedia servers. [8][9][10][11]
Hi,
I am an agent for the director Aritra Sen thus, was making a Wikipedia page for him. So, wanted to know why was the page deleted and how can I get it back.
Rumpa007 (talk) 15:04, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
Rumpa007, the page was deleted because it was clearly promoting him and was a violation of our rules on what Wikipedia is not - it appeared to be using Wikipedia as a web host. Additionally, if you are Aritra Sen's agent, then you are almost certainly considered to be a paid editor, I will leave a notice on your talk page regarding that. GeneralNotability (talk) 15:09, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
Hi,
I am not being paid directly for any of these edits I am doing this as a favor to my client Aritra Sen who is a director.
Rumpa007 (talk) 15:16, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
Since you ask, mon général, I see a minor problem with your logging of the DS for Karlie Kloss. It's customary and also helpful to include diffs to where the sanctions were set. In this case, I reckon adding this and this to your log entry would be good. Bishonen | tålk21:54, 14 July 2020 (UTC).
Hello, GeneralNotability. You have new messages at WP:PERM/R. Message added 19:09, 15 July 2020 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Empire AS, we don't delete sockpuppet investigation pages unless they are completely misguided or trolling (and the fact that it found two socks means that it was neither). GeneralNotability (talk) 13:27, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Empire AS, OK, thanks for clarifying. I've been reporting socks, trolls and assorted vandals for years now; occasionally, one of them might get a bit fighty and put a bit of crap on my talk page or whatever, but it doesn't usually last long. The way to deal with it, if it happens, is outlined at WP:DENY, and also at WP:RBI. If anyone gives you grief, just revert, report it, and it will be dealt with quickly; I am pretty confident that they will quickly lose interest so long as you don't engage with them. GirthSummit (blether)14:08, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Empire AS, no worries - if you get any grief, report at AIV, but feel free to drop me a line as well and if I'm online I'll take action quickly. As an aside - if this is something you get stressed about, CVUA training might not be for you, as it puts you into direct contact with trolls pretty regularly. My favourite thing to do on Wikipedia is writing content - improving articles, or writing them from scratch - that way, you mostly get to interact with nice, helpful, positive people, and very rarely meet trolls :) GirthSummit (blether)14:19, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Vice regent, that's theoretically possible, but since sockpuppetry is a pretty serious allegation I think that most admins would not like private accusations of sockpuppetry (I could think of a couple of particularly nasty sockmasters that they might make an exception for, but that would be pretty rare). I suspect that in most cases, the response would be "file a report on-wiki" for transparency purposes. GeneralNotability (talk) 15:33, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
A temporary fix helped wikis make their main pages more mobile friendly. This was in 2012. It has not been recommended since 2017. The mobile main page special casing stopped working 14 July. 60 wikis now have main pages that don't work well on mobile. You can see which ones, how to fix it and how to get help in Phabricator. This is the same problem that was reported in Tech News 2020/24 and 2020/26.
Problems
There is a problem with the interlanguage links. The interlanguage links are the links that help you find a specific page in a different language. The sorting is broken. The developers are working on a solution. [12]
Some users keep getting the notifications for the same event. Some of these are old events. [13]
Some users have trouble logging in. This is probably a browser cookie problem. The developers are working on understanding the problem. If you have trouble logging in you can see the details on Phabricator. [14]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 July. It will be on all wikis from 23 July (calendar).
Future changes
There is a Printable version link. This will disappear. That is because web browsers today can create a printable version or show how it will look in print anyway. [15]
Hipal, it's a bit complicated since I imposed the editing restriction as the disputed content was being added/removed, but I think that the "spirit of the law" here is that the content should be removed and re-adding it should be the subject of a discussion. GeneralNotability (talk) 17:37, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks. I just wanted to let you know I was planning to make a revert to the article. Maybe I'll post at BLPN at the same time to get others to look it over. --Hipal/Ronz (talk) 17:43, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
Hipal, well, right now "consensus" is apparently two or three users versus you (not saying that you're wrong - I tend to agree with you per NOTNEWS, RECENTISM, and a whole host of other WP: things). I have reverted to the pre-addition version and applied ECP to stop the edit war, but BLPs aren't my strongest area - I recommend bringing it up at BLPN for outside opinions. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:52, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Hipal, sorry about the late reply. I see that RexxS and Bishonen seem to have dealt with the situation. If people keep reverting, more topic bans may need to be handed out (since people appear to be ignoring the fact that there is an open discussion at BLPN, and so there can't be consensus at this point). GeneralNotability (talk) 17:52, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment
Thank you for picking up Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Sofia Gibson, at the end of which you noted that another editor had joined the fray. I assume this to be Doubledownon10, and you might be able to tell me how (or whether) to proceed based upon my question at User talk:Doubledownon10#July 2020 and the answer by the IP editor, which I presume to be the same editor, but not logged in.
Something is awry here. It appears to centre around UPE, and I'm trying hard to decipher it. Your experience is far greater than mine in this area, and something is quacking. I just cant find which rock it's hiding behind. FiddleFaddle19:31, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Timtrent, agreed that something is up here. It sure was nice of them to give us their IP, at least. My suspicion is still that there are one or more paid editors tag-teaming here, and I see that Doubledownon10 has created a cryptocurrency-related article (and I'm sure you know that cryptocurrency is a particularly spammy area). Based on the IPs and named editors, here's what I have so far:
Special:Contributions/2600:1011:B005:E179::/64 (the IP range that !voted twice in the AfD) geolocates to Albuquerque, NM, but appears to be a Verizon Wireless IP (I'm not sure how accurate the geolocation is for cell phone IPs, I think that two states away is probably outside the margin of error)
Special:Contributions/2600:8801:2f05:5b00::/64 (IP range that includes the IP who replied on Doubledownon10's page) also geos to Las Vegas, NV. And would you look at that...that same range also linked Elizabeth Chevalier onto the Maxim (Australia) page a few days ago.
Doubledown has inadvertently linked themselves to that last range, and their username is thematically appropriate for Las Vegas (blackjack reference).
Behaviorally speaking I think everyone I've listed here (as well as MisterSofteeTruck) is related, they all formatted their keep !votes in similar ways and are similarly bad at grammar, punctuation, and basic sentence construction (in contrast to the surprisingly well-written and -formatted articles the two registered accounts turned out). I'm dead certain that UPE is afoot here in some way, the only question is how Sofia Gibson is related. And as for how to deal with their response...I've given them a GS/Crypto warning, and I'm going to press on them a little. After all, I have magic admin goggles and I can see the history of that page...including a deleted previous version. GeneralNotability (talk) 20:15, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
It's like a duck quacking into a soft pillow. I'll continue to appear the naive fool until you ask me to become a mini-grown up. I'm happy to ask them the idiot style questions. I think itls a related mess. GIbsin seems to have run away, or she works shop hours. She writes decently.
BitCoin Boi - the article leads only to a majorly spammy site.
Admin goggles have an esoteric appeal, but I have a pretty obsessive streak and I woudl lose myself in the weird reality that they bring, one of the reasons I have never wanted the role FiddleFaddle21:48, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
The Starter kit is now available for wiki communities. This page lists technical resources, tools, and recommendations. These are essential to operate a wiki project. This is mostly useful for smaller wikis where the community has limited experience with this. [16]
The first features of the Desktop Improvements project are available for logged-in users on all wikis. In order to use them, uncheck Use Legacy Vector in your local or global preferences in section Skin preferences. More improvements are planned. Feedback is welcome.
The deployment train for MediaWiki has been blocked this week. [17][18]
Translation Notification Bot was sending the same message multiple times to every translator. This has been fixed. [19]
Some users were receiving the same notification multiple times. This has been fixed. [20]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 28. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from July 29. It will be on all wikis from JUly 30 (calendar).
Thanks for looking into this, GeneralNotability. However, it looks like ECP was applied, which is different than what the edit summary says. Could you please take a second look? — Newslingertalk18:29, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
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