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Hello sir, I'm AR.Dmg (talk · contribs) could you assist me on the article assessment of my created articles. AR.Dmg (talk) 08:49, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@AR.Dmg: Assessment should probably be handled by someone familiar with the subjects in question. I suggest you add relevant WikiProject banners to the talk pages of your articles (leaving the assessment empty), thus listing them for these WikiProjects as in need of assessment. Interested editors can then easily find these articles. You can use user scripts such as User:Kephir/gadgets/rater or User:Evad37/rater to easily add such templates. Regards SoWhy 10:01, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

please undelete abi angelos he is an official artist and all the notes on article was right — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abhapatel15121 (talk • contribs) 13:18, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Abhapatel15121: Yeah, no. The page was a mess of promotional language and apparent attempts to use Wikipedia to boost someone (most likely you). Fittingly, there were no sources except iTunes for anything. Feel free to pick a service out of Comparison of free web hosting services to create a homepage for Mr. Angelos but Wikipedia is not the place for it. Regards SoWhy 15:25, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there,

Longtime reader, first time contributor here. Before I begun contributing, however, I'd like to learn the ropes from a more experienced member of the community.

Let me know if you are open to discussing further.

Best, John — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:6000:EF02:8E00:A57B:160D:791A:72C (talk) 23:17, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi John. I don't think there is need for that. Wikipedia works based on a be bold principle that invites you to just dive in. If you are unsure, how about you create an account and then dive into The Wikipedia Adventure? It's designed to easily tutor new users in the most basic areas. Of course you can always ask me if you have any questions. PS: Sorry for the late reply, I somehow missed the message. Regards SoWhy 11:46, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hey! I noticed you deleted the "Joseph Trem" article. I understand that at this time the article didn't include a lot of info and seemed to not be needed on Wikipedia. But, the article is important, as I planned on adding a lot more info on the artist. Please unremoved it. 69.121.195.96 (talk) 11:15, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If you can provide some reliable sources that significantly cover the subject, I will be happy to consider it. Regards SoWhy 11:48, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2019).

Administrator changes Reaper Eternal • ThaddeusB Bogdangiusca • Christopher Parham • Necrothesp • Schneelocke • Siroxo • Sarah Mentifisto → Lofty abyss Interface administrator changes Mr. Stradivarius

Bureaucrat changes DeltaQuad Kingturtle

Technical news

• In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the ((ARBPIA 1RR editnotice)) edit notice.

Miscellaneous

• Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
• As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Adele Spitzeder you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Spintendo -- Spintendo (talk) 14:22, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The article Adele Spitzeder you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Adele Spitzeder for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Spintendo -- Spintendo (talk) 16:02, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that RFA uses the phrasing:

"In December 2015 the community determined that in general, RfAs that finish between 65 and 75% support are subject to the discretion of bureaucrats (so, therefore, almost all RfAs below 65% will fail)." (emphasis added)

Referense to "general" or "generally" played a material role in the response of many to the Arbcom case proposal. However, I am puzzled about how that word came to be in the guidance.

The RFA itself does not use the word.

How did we get from RFC wording which says:

"We could expand the discretionary range to 65–75%, making it a 10% range, as opposed to our current 5% range (70–75%)."

to the different standard in the RFA guidance?

(FYI, I have been active in Wikipedia, mostly in copyvio work, and not as close to arbcom/rfa issue for the past few months, so wanted to see if I was missing something before jumping into the discussion.)--S Philbrick(Talk) 18:37, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Sphilbrick: The wording using "in general" was added by Biblioworm with this edit after the RFC. However, it's not really a change in policy, merely a different phrasing. As you can see from the diff, the previous wording instead used "Historically" and clarified that the actual decision of passing or failing is subject to the bureaucrats' discretion and judgment, and in some cases further discussion (which has been the wording since 2008). While the wording has varied over the years, almost any version of the instructions included some kind of reminder that these are not fixed numerical values but subject to crat discretion, e.g.

• Version as of 10 July 2006: The bureaucrats who handle admin promotions review the discussion to see if a general consensus is present (the threshold for consensus here is roughly 75–80 percent support) (emphasis added)
• Version as of 22 June 2007: The numbers of people supporting, opposing, or expressing another opinion on a candidacy are the main factor in determining consensus. Generally the line between successful and unsuccessful candidacies lies at 75% support, though a few have failed with more support or succeeded with less support. (emphasis added)
• Version as of 7 April 2009: At the end of that period, a bureaucrat will review the discussion to see whether there is a consensus for promotion. This is sometimes difficult to ascertain, and is not a numerical measurement, but as a general descriptive rule of thumb most of those above ~80% approval pass, most of those below ~70% fail, and the area between is subject to bureaucratic discretion. (emphasis added)

Hope that helps. Regards SoWhy 19:35, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

SoWhy, I don't disagree that the history of RFA was that the ranges should be viewed as rough rules of thumb rather than hard and fast, but a case can be made that the December 2015 RFC changed from "soft" rules of thumb to a more definitive range. Note that a number of participants preferred two-thirds (66.7%) but accepted 65%. I only noticed one participant who suggested that they could support a value less than 65%. Many of those opposed felt that 65% was too low. A plausible interpretation of the RFC is that no value lower than 65% would be acceptable.

I'm conflicted, because I want the 'crats to have some latitude. However, I think 'crats have been fairly universal and noting that they are supposed to enact the will of the community rather than superimpose their best judgment if it doesn't conform to the clear statement of the community. I would be happy to support the notion that the community ought to add a qualification that the 'crats should treat it as guidance rather than definitive, but that doesn't seem to be what happened. I think it was Avi who suggested that if the community wants an explicit range they should say so explicitly or words to that effect. it seems to me that an RFC establishing an explicit range would be worded virtually identical to the one that happened in December 2015. S Philbrick(Talk) 19:48, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum - I subsequently learned that the wording in the RFA guidance was changed with this edit. I haven't yet figured out how I think about the Arbcom case (leaning toward saying that's not their function), nor how I feel about the crat chat, but I am troubled that so many people are leaning on the word "generally" when I'm not convinced that's a fair summary of the RFC. @Biblioworm:. (But I can take this discussion elsewhere, if appropriate.)--S Philbrick(Talk) 19:34, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

We edit-conflicted there probably. See my reply above. Long story short, a variation of "in general" was in use for a long time before that. Regards SoWhy 19:37, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

SoWhy, Yes, and my reading of the December RFC was that the community changed from "in general" to an explicit range. S Philbrick(Talk) 19:50, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

SoWhy, I'll stop now. My goal was to see if I missed something fundamental. I'll now figure out whether I want to make my point somewhere but this isn't the place. Thanks for your prompt and in-depth response. S Philbrick(Talk) 19:52, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Sphilbrick: Ahh, I understand. Still, I don't think that was what the community intended in the 2015. The question, as you put it, was merely whether to expand the discretionary range numbers but had no other suggestion to rephrase those parts I mentioned above, so I don't think one can successfully argue that the community wanted to change the "in general" part. Also, reading the supports in that section, one notices that a significant number would also support less than 65% and quite a number also opine that RFA is still not a vote. Any "strict" enforcement of these numbers would turn RFA into a vote and that would certainly require an explicit RFC consensus. Regards SoWhy 20:06, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

SoWhy, good answer. Thanks. S Philbrick(Talk) 20:37, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]