Meta:Requests for help from a sysop or bureaucrat

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Meta-Wiki has a small active community. When a normal user requires the assistance of an administrator or bureaucrat for some particular task, it is not always easy to find one. This page helps users find one when they need one; asking specific admins directly via their talk pages is one way to elicit a fast response. It is only for assistance required at Meta-Wiki, help for other wikis needs to be requested at those wikis.

See also: Stewards' noticeboard, Access to nonpublic personal data policy noticeboard, Category:Meta-Wiki policies, Category:Global policies


Cooperation requests for: comments (local) (global) · translation

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Please find answered requests in the archives (this month).

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Contribution to a Talk page could not be saved because some tool blames it to be "spam"[edit]

On page Talk:Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month, I wanted to expand my previous contribution like this:

(...) – Here again, the same tool does not allow me to insert the text in question. So, how am I to appeal to the administrators, as recommended?

In my understanding, this text is 100% on-topic, and there is no third-party advertising involved (apart from a reference to the Ukrainian Institute, which is a sponsor (or the like) of the Ukraine month, hence an ally of Wikimedia in this matter).

Therefore, can you please unblock? Thank you. -- Martinus KE (talk) 15:29, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

@Martinus KE: Make your edit again. It should work. Leaderboard (talk) 15:32, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
@Leaderboard: Yes, it did. – Thanks for stepping in!
... and in case you want to verify that it really is not spam, you're welcome to be "my first reader". -- Martinus KE (talk) 15:47, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
No need, we can see the edits that were caught in the filters. Your first edits here just hit upon a combination of phrases that has been more akin to some of the spambots. Once they were not your first edits, you passed one of the hurdles.  — billinghurst sDrewth 18:51, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
Should the filter be changed maybe? 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 10:27, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
Filters are generally not static, and will be amended as required. There will always be false positives for any filter that is strongly out to get abuse edits.  — billinghurst sDrewth 12:11, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
Administrators can view the filter log, so you don't need to cite the "text in question". 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 10:27, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Steward requests[edit]

Hi, I couldn't find a more appropriate page for what I have to say. It's about steward requests: all sub-pages are checked almost daily, from checkuser requests to miscellaneous requests, but global requests for blocks, locks and hiding are checked very poorly. Currently there're requests for global locks going back to a week and requests for global blocks going back to even 2, but it also happened that some requests have been left there for almost a month in the past. They're about cross-wiki vandals, abuse, disruption... I wonder why such requests are given so little significance. I do understand that there're also a lot of other kinds of requests to keep up with, but these are quite important too, imho. I hope that pointing out this matter will stimulate an improvement of their management.

5.171.89.225 22:44, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Viewpoint of a former steward … real life, presumably. Running checks on IP addresses prior to blocking things is firstly a bit of an art, and time consuming, and sometimes there is just too much in the way to block, and not everyone does it. Reportees are variable in their requests, and some are overly reactive and ask for blocks based on smallest sample size, so the English adage "fools rush in ..." can have some reflective thoughts. The wikis themselves are the predominant means to block their IP addresses and stewards role is to act only when their is clear difficulties that require their action, not just because someone makes a report. So there needs to be the certainty that the action needs to be taken, not that a report has been made. So I would personally reject the bland and simple assessment that you make, too facile. I would also ask that if you want to be a big person to make such commentary that you do it from a user account, not hide behind an IP address.  — billinghurst sDrewth 12:08, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
I've read your message, billinghurst. Well, you may be right if "each request took, for example, 10 days". But this isn't the way things work, because "20 or 30 requests which have been waiting for so long are often solved in a few minutes". Why doing such an operation massively every 2 or 3 weeks instead of checking a few requests every 2 or 3 days? Just wondering. I think that checkuser operations, that is checking and linking different usernames to each others through theirs IPs and IP ranges, would take more than simply blocking a user who's reported for making cross-wiki vandalisms. I'm not a steward, so my opinions might me wrong. There's just one thing I'd like precisely to tell you: I didn't like your subtile implications in your last sentence. I haven't got a registered account that I'm not using right now for these comments, I'm not "hiding" behind anything, you got wrong. A former steward should know well the "AGF" thing, especially toward a user who hasn't done anything to be suspected of something bad. Any checkuser could verify I'm saying the truth about myself.
5.171.89.225 21:45, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
I said nothing about checkuser. Why? Because it is my opinion that many of the requests are trivial and pointless, many reactively stop next-to-nothing. Expecting a steward to sort out all the required block requests from the drivel is major impediment. Too many request a block that is temporarily problematic and should be handled by the wikis themselves, or just ignored. Stewards are responsible for their blocks and to check local and xwiki impact of the impact of the blocks they place is just damn difficult. SRG now seems to be considered a general clearing house for any crap found, rather than a place to stop systematic and real xwiki abuse. Some of the LTAs jump proxies so quickly, so they are abusing a proxy service rather than true OPs, so they are pointless to block retrospectively, but are still added. Can the stewards do a better job? Sure, we all can. Are they doing a bad job and not making the required urgent blocks? Not from what I can see.

You brought the conversation to Meta:RfH; rather than addressing it to stewards at their noticeboard. For a random IP address to know about SRG, let alone be commenting on the stewards undertaking blocks and locks and backlog itself is the signs of an editor with a clear level of involvement. So to when that IP address is not actively editing anywhere to be coming here with such a query is hardly an innocent enquiry. I don't know, that looks unusual to me. It looks like someone stirring trouble than genuinely open enquiry, where I would give AGF. And I love the wording that indicates that you are between accounts at the moment. Really?  — billinghurst sDrewth 13:05, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Central Notice banner[edit]

Hey!

If a CN-sysop could please fix the InternationalWomensDayMonth banner by doing the following:

Within the style sheet, please add to #cnotice-translation-link:

color: white;

and then on a new line please add: 

#cnotice-translation-link a {
    color: white;
}

This should make the [Help with translations!] text easier to read! :D –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 05:44, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

@MJL I respectfully disagree, it would make it white, on a white background. I'd say it makes it much harder to read ;). Am I missing something?
Note that on my screen, it appears like https://ctrlv.cz/cada. Best, Martin Urbanec (talk) 13:00, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Suggest following up at CentralNotice/Request/Int. Womens day 2021 where another problem with this banner have been raised, waiting for replies. — xaosflux Talk 13:46, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Will do. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 18:38, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
@Martin Urbanec: Weird, this is how I see it on my screen. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 18:38, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
Yes check.svg Done that's the UCDM banner though--Sakretsu (炸裂) 20:05, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Updating CentralNotice for Wu language[edit]

Hello, I need someone's help to update CentralNotice message from these translations:

Is it necessary to request for update every time after translating? --Lt2818 (talk) 04:10, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Done. I think someone is usually checking and publishing these without any request here, but sometimes it can take many days, so it's faster to ask here. Stryn (talk) 07:34, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Malcolmxl5@en.wiki[edit]

This user needs to be watched very carefully. Removing posts critical of your admin actions from your own talk page is one thing, but removing posts from a noticeboard where, if the issue were to be investigated, your own failings as an Administrator might be uncovered by a local community, that has to cross some kind of ethical line.

Put simply, there's a whole section in a biography lacking sources. He has edited that article since an attempt was made to remove it, and he has also blocked the person attempting removal. He is therefore fully aware of the issue of the lack of sourcing, and has made a deliberate choice only to perform one Admin action, and otherwise leave unsourced information in a biography, perhaps only to piss off the user he had blocked, because apparently there is something wrong with using a sock to remove unsourced material from Wikipedia on BLP grounds. I know, it's so 2007. Worth noting, he is a legacy Admin.

I am posting here because obviously, someone who has obtained the rank of en.wiki admin, usually finds it quite easy to get the others in power over there to close ranks and pretend like there's no issue. Malcolm's Conscience (talk) 06:20, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

@Malcolm's Conscience: You need to raise this in en.wiki, not Meta. Leaderboard (talk) 07:56, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Protection of page on Meta[edit]

Hi,

could someone please protect Gender gap/International Women's Day? We decided to increase visibility for the banner for IWD, so the page will be getting lots of traffic today. Ciell (talk) 08:16, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

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