User talk:GeneralNotability/Archives/2020/November
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.
Hey there, could I trouble you to take a look at Flyingcolouredbutterfly's edits, please? I'm getting a very strong promotional vibe from them, like they're being paid to squat on Eisha Singh and maintain some sort of "approved" version of that article. There are a few reasons why I think this:
The article has been extensively maintained by an Indian Punjabi-region IP range 124.253.*. This range has added, among other things, an award section focussed on Golden Petal Awards and Zee Rishtey Awards, and later the International Iconic Awards.
Here I delete bollywoodlife.com as the link doesn't resolve and there was no Wayback archive. (It's also not a reliable source, but that's another issue.) I also flagged the other ref as failing verification. Here the dead reference is restored and the maintenance template removed.
As other examples of promotional editing, here at Adnan Khan, they add an image containing Eisha Singh, and create a Co-star column in his filmography just so they could add Eisha Singh's name to his article. These changes are reverted by Materialscientist (because the image was a copyvio), but the co-star parameter gets added back here (now with obnoxious purple table header) and here (note also the insistence upon using {{birth date}} instead of {{birth date and age}}).
Please also note that the user has been entirely unresponsive to talk page notes, and they don't seem to be using the undo button, as I don't get pinged, or they're deliberately deleting the edit summary to suppress a ping and to avoid scrutiny. So, this seems like it's part of a coordinated effort to maintain what the Eisha Singh article looks like and disallow community input, which is suggestive to me of undisclosed paid editing, but of WP:OWNERSHIP at best. Thanks, sorry for the long-windedness. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 20:50, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
Cyphoidbomb, interesting spot. I don't see clear enough proof to treat them as a UPE rather than someone with OWN issues, so I'm going to take a different approach - I've partially blocked them from the article (which they were due for anyway, they're blatantly edit warring). Let's see how they respond. To be clear, I wouldn't be surprised if this is UPE (perhaps a sock, the Zee TV topic area is rife with them), I just don't think there's strong enough evidence to block them as such. GeneralNotability (talk) 00:12, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
Sysops will once again be able to view the deleted history of JS/CSS pages; this was restricted to interface administrators when that group was introduced.
Twinkle's block module now includes the ability to note the specific case when applying a discretionary sanctions block and/or template.
The Soyuz MS-17 launched on 14 October 2020, 05:45:04 and docked after a "two-orbit rendezvous flight plan" to the ISS only three hours later at 08:48:47 UTC.
The OSIRIS-REx probe successfully makes brief touchdown and collects a sample from the asteroid Bennu at 22:13 UTC on 20 October 2020.
Expedition 63 ended on 21 October 2020, 23:32 UTC after 187 days, 21 hours and 38 minutes duration.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman and politician. He was the third person and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio; in 1998, he flew into space again at age 77.
Image of the month.
Captured on Oct. 20, 2020 during the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this series of images shows the SamCam imager’s field of view as the NASA spacecraft approaches and touches down on asteroid Bennu’s surface, over 200 million miles (321 million km) away from Earth.
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
You can no longer read Wikimedia wikis if your browser uses very old TLS. This is because it is a security problem for everyone. It could lead to downgrade attacks. Since October 29, 2020, users who use old TLS versions will not be able to connect to Wikimedia projects. A list of browser recommendations is available. All modern operating systems and browsers are always able to reach Wikimedia projects. [1]
There is a new automatic tracking category available: Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments. It collects pages which use the {{formatnum}} parser function with invalid (non-numeric) input, e.g.{{formatnum:TECHNEWS}}. Note that {{formatnum:123,456}} is also invalid input: as described in the documentation, the argument should be unformatted so that it can be reliably and correctly localised. The tracking category will help identify problematic usage and double-formatting. The new tracking category's name can be translated at translatewiki. [2]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 3. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from November 4. It will be on all wikis from November 5 (calendar).
Administrators and stewards will be able to use a special page (Special:CreateLocalAccount) to force local account creation for a global account. This is useful when account creation is blocked for that user (by a block or a filter). [3]
The Reply tool will be offered as an opt-in Beta Feature on most Wikipedias on November 4. This change excludes the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias, plus a few smaller Wikipedias with special circumstances. You can read the help page and the troubleshooting guide for more information. [4]
Future changes
A discussion has been restarted about using a Unicode minus sign (− U+2212) in the output of {{formatnum}} when it is given a negative argument. [5]
In the future IP addresses of unregistered users will not be shown for everyone. They will get an alias instead. There will be a new user right or an opt-in function for more vandal fighters to see the IPs of unregistered users. There would be some criteria for who gets the user right or opt-in. There will also be other new tools to help handle vandalism. This is early in the process and the developers are still collecting information from the communities before they suggest solutions.
Hello. I don't think we have ever directly interacted but you have helped on some sock issues in the past for pages I've doppelganged around. Nice to meet you in the Wiki-verse. The Swaminarayan Sampradaya page has been hit with a lot of sockpuppetry recently resulting in its lock but I have come in and out to help provide some NPOV assistance on sections and it seems I am now blocked from editing that page which is tough since I have not done anything wrong. Is there anything that can be done about that? I ask because it seems at times long discussions leading to sourced info gets undone after time passes and now I can't undo such behavior. That whole page has some weird blend of sock/meat puppetry so I have taken a major step back from that page but I kept getting sucked back in, probably my ocd of having to respond if its directed to me. I need to work on that. But its tough when you invest a lot of time reading and researching in a multi-month long discussion. Make the right points, make the sourced change, and weeks later its just undone without follow-up to the discussion and especially when it contradicts all the research and sources. Just wondering if it still needs that elevated level of protection or if I am allowed to make changes. Thank you Kbhatt22 (talk) 03:58, 29 October 2020 (UTC)
Hi Kbhatt22! I unfortunately do think that the page needs to remain protected due to all of the sockpuppetry from a very persistent sockmaster. I see that Harshmellow undid some of your work; it's only been about 12 hours since you asked them about their change, so I wouldn't worry quite yet. For what it's worth, the protection runs out early next week, we'll see if the sockmaster comes back then. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:57, 29 October 2020 (UTC)
Thank you so so much for responding. I will wait for a response on that talk page. My last follow up [1] to that discussion went unanswered for 3 weeks. Once the discussion auto archived, the desired changes were just done ignoring my points so I guess my initial reach out to you was a tad bit influenced by frustration. Apologies. Hopefully the sockpuppet does not return. Thanks again! Kbhatt22 (talk) 14:17, 29 October 2020 (UTC)
Hi. Figure Id atleast share a final note. Thank you for listening. I do appreciate it. I waited a full week after laying out the sources and reasoning again and did not get a response from reverter like last time. We shall see what happens. Thanks again Kbhatt22 (talk) 14:57, 5 November 2020 (UTC)
Cyphoidbomb, ehh, don't think it would be justifiable at this time, we haven't had evidence of them operating multiple accounts at the same time (as far as I know) and my guess is they're a solo act rather than part of a farm. Personally, I think it could be useful to checkuser them to establish a baseline for checking suspected socks in the future, since if this really is Editor 2050 they'll probably lay low again for a while...but my understanding of policy is that that's not a justifiable use of the CU tool. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:46, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
Hey there, two other questions: Can you divulge the company involved? Had TamilMirchi properly followed WP:PAID, that information would be available. Also, I'm curious how many articles were called into question, if you're allowed to say. No pressure, though. Thanks! Cyphoidbomb (talk) 17:13, 2 November 2020 (UTC)
Cyphoidbomb, I don't think I can; this is a sticky situation since a company that paid for edits emailed us, so disclosing that would violate OTRS privacy rules. They mentioned about seven articles, but said there were more they hadn't listed. GeneralNotability (talk) 18:03, 2 November 2020 (UTC)
Update: Hey there, so I've noticed some odd activity lately and I'm not sure if you think it means anything or not. TamilMirchi started a Draft:Nikki Tamboli article. Under-the-radar user Pundir1474 started this article in live space, and the two versions were merged (good-faith edit by another user). It strikes me as odd that this unknown Pundir is fleshing this out along with an IP hopper who also knows things about adding WikiProjects. And, probably not surprising, they are in a position to add wikilinks to this new article to articles like this, which probably-not-coincidentally was created by TamilMirchi. It could be a coincidence--maybe her being a contestant on Bigg Boss increased her exposure, but I thought I'd mention it. Just feels like bees swarming around the Tamil UPE hive. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 07:11, 7 November 2020 (UTC)
Largoplazo, it's not blocking because it's a fairly "fragile" filter and because it won't stop all of their edits anyway (since some of their additions, like "Drama," would have a ridiculous false positive rate) - instead, there's a filter-watching bot configured to report any hits on that filter to AIV immediately. GeneralNotability (talk) 14:59, 7 November 2020 (UTC)
Removing redirect ?
Hi, I am thinking of removing redirect of Hasan Piker and move Draft:Hasan Piker to Hasan Piker, I think It has been expanded with lot of new information, sources and notable improvements since your redirect and Afd, It can still be expanded, written in better way and improved but I think its time publish the draft, Here you said, "doesn't establish notability for him independent of TYT", I think his notability as Twitch streamer and political commentator has many new WP:SIGCOV now. Panda619 (talk) 19:54, 8 November 2020 (UTC)
Thank you! I watch a lot of the pages they routinely return to vandalise, so I'll let you know if they appear again. – DarkGlow (✉) 21:42, 6 November 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.
Changes later this week
There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Future changes
You can see reference previews. This shows a preview of the footnote when you hover over it. This has been a beta feature. It will move out of beta and be enabled by default. There will be an option not to use it. The developers are looking for small or medium-sized wikis to be the first ones. You can let them know if your wiki is interested. [6]
From November 16 the categories will not be sorted in order for a short time. This is because the developers are upgrading to a new version of the internationalisation library. They will use a script to fix the existing categories. This can take a few hours or a few days depending on how big the wiki is. You can read more. [7][8]
Can Gleeanon409 be tagged with {{sock|Benjiboi|blocked}}? I gather that it's okay from the SPI but I didn't want to overstep. I think tagging will help future editors identify socking. Crossroads-talk-04:32, 11 November 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
Listings on category pages are sorted on each wiki for that language using a library. For a brief period on 16 November, changes to categories will not be sorted correctly for most languages. This is because the developers are upgrading to a new version of the library. They will then use a script to fix the existing categories. This will take a few hours or a few days depending on how big the wiki is. You can read more. [10][11]
Changes later this week
If you merged two pages in a namespace where pages can't redirect this used to break the merge history. This will now be fixed. [12]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 17 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 18 November. It will be on all wikis from 19 November (calendar).
Future changes
The Community Wishlist Survey is now open for proposals. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals from 16 to 30 November. You can vote on proposals from 8 December to 21 December.
Because of Reasons for the record i'm not a meat puppet for Boskit190 heck i don't even know who he is! - User:CarterC166289
Enid Mumford's Wikipedia Page
Hi,
I noticed you recently removed some content from Enid Mumford's Wikipedia page under the 'Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems' section. Could you explain why you decided to remove this content and whether you think it would fit better under its own subsection labeled 'Mumford's Employment Contracts', as can currently be seen on the page? NathernB (talk) 09:46, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
Hey there, here I asked you to look at the edits of Flyingcolouredbutterfly, who was being a pain at the Eisha Singh article. Yesterday she changed the article image to this image, which appears to have been stolen from Instagram. The editor claimed it was their own work and that it was licensed into the Creative Commons, which just seems dubious unless they just happened to take the photo and give it to Singh so that she could post it. That could be possible if she is into UPE as I suspected, but is probably unlikely given how prolific copyright violations are in Indian topic areas. And, there was no EXIF content that would lead me to believe that this user had anything to do with snapping the image. I nommed it for speedy deletion, and she appears to have re-uploaded it, despite my warning on her talk page. Thoughts? Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 18:29, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
Cyphoidbomb, sigh. Probably just a fan who doesn't know that uploading something doesn't make it their own work. I've requested speedy deletion on Commons and have asked a friendly neighborhood Commons admin to give them a rap on the metaphorical knuckles. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:24, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
Well, I thought my stern admonishment on their talk page would have inspired them about the perils of content theft. I appreciate your Commons approach. Based on their total silence from warnings and a block, I'm not too sure they even speak English, but we shall see. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 01:46, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
Market America editor
I was asked by the blocked editor to intervene. I know nothing of the information that resulted in the block. (I probably don't want to know about it.)
Robert McClenon (talk) 22:37, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
Hey, I note that you were the admin who initially blocked this user "Sapah3" for sockpuppetry. It seems like they have continued despite their block being reduced to just 2 weeks... ShelteredCook (talk) 04:41, 23 November 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
Timestamps in Special:Log are now links. They go to Special:Log for only that entry. This is how timestamps work on for example the history page. [13]
Changes later this week
There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Future changes
The Wikimedia Cloud VPS hosts technical projects for the Wikimedia movement. Developers need to claim projects they use. This is because old and unused projects are removed once a year. Unclaimed projects can be shut down from 1 December. Unclaimed projects can be deleted from 1 January. [14]
Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed 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.
A user appears to be using several accounts on Tax competition, see Hjkl;lkj, Jessica88888800, Hhfffddd, and Lkjhgfds654. I suggest that a checkuser check be performed, and that it'll also be checked whether there are more accounts on other pages that are related to these ones. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 20:46, 25 November 2020 (UTC)
I am NOT an sock....I only wrote in a friendly way that if it is allowed the article "Mogadishu under Italy", why is it not allowed the article "Addis Abeba under Italy"?.....and quickly a not too much clever user:Onel5969 (who seems to hate Italians & Italy) ordered a SPI checkup against me. You wrote last week that I "look LIKE Brunodam" in that SPI, but I am NOT this "eternal" sock......and you are not sure 100% about! Please, can you check up in a real complete way: I can send you my data, so you'll understand who I am really. I live in Boca Raton like the sock, but there are 125000 more people living here. Yes, I am an Italian American, like the sock; but there are many more of us who write about Italy during fascism.....So, why 6 months of block? I am sure you are not like the hate-ruled Onel5969. Sincerely, Mark T. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.117.66.2 (talk) 23:56, 25 November 2020 (UTC)
Hi GeneralNotability, as the person who closed my false sock-puppet investigation, I would like to know which board or committee I should contact if I'm very certain a current admin has become so involved and bias, in a long-ranging investigation that continues to wrongfully accuse innocent editors, to the point that they're no longer an objective participant and hence are abusing their powers by trying to force a block solely based on my opinion that Somali editors should be treated fairly, and my apparent competence of reading user-friendly Wiki-guidelines to edit articles, and set up SPIs [16]. Thanks. --GoldenDragonHorn (talk) 23:18, 25 November 2020 (UTC)
Please restore my article for The Brook (casino).
I don't feel it was fair for you to have deleted it because it was in the process of being edited as per suggestions by other editors.
There is NOT a conflict of interest which I disclosed. Also, my sources are relevant (and 3rd party).
There are sources that directly support the features of the property (which I cited correctly). Also, there are other Wiki pages that describe the features of a property that were approved. See example here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(hotel_and_casino). This page has features mentioned and cited. Why was mine deleted?
(talk page watcher) Janine3116, I'm guessing the issue wasn't so much the sourcing or list of features as the fact that the draft contained phrasing like
President Greg Lee and COO Andre Carrier are excited by the charity casino model and believe in its positive effects on the local community
This vision to serve is at the heart of Eureka’s core values: serving guests, community, and one another with care, compassion, and dedication
committed to a grand revitalization of the property
Hello GeneralNotability. Thank for your help here. I am Bezeq1 but forget my password. I write to you since the IP vandal who is using the BLP notice board is repeating what was deleted. Since page in question is locked & this seems to be a poor coordinate attempt from anonymous IP users to edit the subject page also BLP notice page sees anon IP users add with false or exageratted informations I ask: it is possible to remove the entry from BLP notice board since it is being used as a platform to continue the BLP violations & the thread was started on the BLP notice board by the anon semi-SPA who reverted back to the changes which violate BLP, OR, V, and others. I ask because problem has been stopped, page is protected, & originator of post was involved in reverts to the bad edits is now using this as forum to continue speculation. Other wise it will be a week from the last post I think until it is archived. I try to stop abuse of process. Thank you. Bezeq2 (talk) 12:56, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
Bezeq2, they don't seem to have edited either the article or BLPN since I performed the deletion. I would prefer that someone who routinely edits BLPN make the decision about whether or not to delete the thread. Regarding your password, you can go to Help:Reset password to find information about resetting your password, though that requires you have an email address associated with your account. If you did not use an email address when setting up the account, then you will not be able to reset your password. GeneralNotability (talk) 20:22, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
