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Welcome to the Administrators' Noticeboard.

This space is for anyone who needs to contact an administrator ("sysop") for actions such as protecting a page, deleting spam, or blocking vandals.
If you rather need to reach a Translation administrator, please use the Translation Administrators' Noticeboard instead. For general conversation, see Wikispecies:Village Pump.

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New tags: AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) and File renamed on Commons, and new edit filter[edit]

I would like to suggest the creation of two tags:

Please also create a new edit filter (or abuse filter) for tracking files renamed on Commons, as suggested at Wikispecies:Village Pump/Archive 65#Track renamed images on Commons. pl:Specjalna:Filtr_nadużyć/46 can be imported or copied. Thanks, Korg (talk) 20:19, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If no one else responds in two weeks, you can ping me and I'll try to implement —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:02, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'm all for this. Good initiative @Korg, and yes @Justin, please do (imo). –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 15:31, 24 November 2023 (UTC).[reply]
I also agree to both proposals. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 01:13, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I've created the AWB tag and it seems to be working. The Commons ditto still needs some tinkering. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 16:22, 4 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

┌──────────┘ @Justin: Please have a look at the Commons file rename change mentioned above, if you find the time. I can't seem to get it to work. Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 18:38, 11 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Hm, I can't figure out the issue. :/ —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:42, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hello again, @Korg: Do you have any insights that might help us figure out why the "File renamed on Commons" tag doesn't show up? –Tommy Kronkvist (talk) 07:25, 12 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

User's javascript file[edit]

Hello fellow admins, and Happy New Year! Does any one now what the User:Cookai1205/timeless.js javascript file is all about? It seems to be a list of IPs and a few URLs, but what do you think might be the purpose? For reference, the user is a (Taiwanese) member of the abusefilter-helper user group in Chinese Wikipedia. So far, editing this file is their only contribution to Wikispecies, except for creating their user talk page back in 2022. Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 19:27, 2 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

These aren't IP addresses, they are using the data: scheme to make an image. The fact that it's called "Timeless" makes me think that it's some script hack to change the appearance of the Timeless skin. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:45, 2 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, of course – thanks, Justin! I first just had a quick glance and the link to W3.org (i.e. the the World Wide Web Consortium) sort of threw me off. After a closer look I now see that the code string http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg is of course equal to http://www.w3.org/2000/svg about "SVG in HTML" in the XML namespace, which makes sense in regards to images within data URLs and such. By the way, the user have now also created a similar file for their Vector 2022 skin. Case closed, I guess. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 13:56, 4 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Spam blacklist[edit]

Do we have our own blacklist on this project? I wish to add two top-level URLs and all pages below them. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:25, 4 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Andy: We do. It can be found at MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist however I believe that these old types of blacklists are soon to be deprecated, in favour of Special:BlockedExternalDomains which is a lot easier to edit for users unfamiliar with editing wiki code in text-only mode.
Note however that this new feature doesn't support regex (for complex cases) nor URL paths matching – hence in your particular case you may prefer the blacklist. Also it doesn't currently support bypass by whitelists which I think is another reasons why we still keep the blacklist file, even though our spam whitelist is currently empty. You can find more information about all this in task T337431 at Phabricator if you want. It's an open Phabricator task, yet to be finalized. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 14:29, 4 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]
Thank you. Is there any reason that list is currently empty? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:31, 4 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not to my knowledge, but I have a very vague memory of a discussion several years ago mentioning that most of the URLs would be moved to the global spam blacklist. Not sure though.
As a complement to the above we also have the MediaWiki:Email-blacklist (also empty) and an External links search feature (sometimes very useful!) –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 16:56, 4 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Special:Contributions/2001:EE0:4CCC:AC40:315A:116A:6A0B:D0B[edit]

Dear Wikispecies admins, the user is repeating unexplained removals at Scorpiones, please have a look at their edits. MathXplore (talk) 02:59, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

MathXplore (talk • contribs • block log • all projects) I have restored the previous complete version, rolled back 6 edits. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 03:15, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Also applied a 24 hour block for page blanking, they need to explain themselves. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 03:17, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've extended the block up to two weeks (residential IP, not a school of equivalent). –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 15:28, 11 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]
I think that this discussion is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, don't hesitate to replace this template with your comment. DannyS712 (talk) 07:23, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

User:Babies are mine[edit]

Vandalism-only account. --Leonidlednev (talk) 04:45, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Blocked Indef as per other wikis. -- Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 05:55, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
​​​I've changed the local block from indefinite (account creation disabled) to indefinite (account creation disabled, email disabled, cannot edit own talk page)
Please note that the account is also globally locked. Some of their edits here at Wikispecies lead me to believe that perhaps we should contact a Steward?
–Tommy Kronkvist (talk) 16:17, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I also think a Steward could be involved, as I suspect we could be finding sock-puppets appearing in due course. Andyboorman (talk) 18:40, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think we need stewards since we have local checkusers - @Koavf @Faendalimas @Dan Koehl FYI --DannyS712 (talk) 18:57, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Correct: we could do sockpuppet-related CheckUser requests locally if need be. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:26, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

┌────────────┘ I was referring to the death threats, rather than the risk of future sock-puppetry. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 19:46, 28 January 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Violent threats need to be escalated to legal@. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:47, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Absolutely refer to legal. Andyboorman (talk) 20:01, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Technically this user has not done anything that would require CheckUser Actions, however, threats can be refered to legal@. Cannot use the CheckUser Tools to control for this its a matter for legal. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 22:08, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think that this discussion is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, don't hesitate to replace this template with your comment. DannyS712 (talk) 07:23, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy Deletes[edit]

Could a fellow admin please look through the current list of speedy delete requests. I am not sure how valid they are. Thanks Andyboorman (talk) 17:46, 7 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Link for convenience: Category:Candidates for speedy deletion. Checking just now, it was empty. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:48, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The speedy deletion category is still empty. Details can be found via the above link handed by Justin, plus the log at Special:Log/delete. Unfortunately we've seen quite lot of vandalism and out of scope edits the last few days. As a result, I took the liberty to add edit protection to pages such as "Godzilla" and "Category:Dinosaur" plus a few more. (Those pages were of course deleted first, but the edit protection still sticks. It was set for one year, during which time only administrators are allowed to edit them.) –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 06:45, 9 February 2024 (UTC).[reply]
I think that this discussion is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, don't hesitate to replace this template with your comment. DannyS712 (talk) 07:23, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Contributions/129.63.22.25[edit]

Could somebody take a look at this user's contributions? They are making out of scope pages and removing deletion tags placed on them. Thanks! Fehufanga (talk) 01:20, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 Done by someone else —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 02:58, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think that this discussion is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, don't hesitate to replace this template with your comment. DannyS712 (talk) 07:23, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Nominations for autopatrolled[edit]

Fellow admins, I'd like to suggest that a few users be considered for autopatrolled permissions to reduce the burden of patrolling recent changes. I have not granted the rights myself since I don't actually know that much about taxonomy and cannot judge the accuracy of the edits; I defer to my more knowledgeable collogues. Looking through recent changes, the following users seem to be fairly active and established:

This is not an exhaustive list, just a few names I saw in recent changes. Keep up the good work! Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 16:35, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 Done -- gave all autopatrol. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 07:39, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikispecies:Administrators/Inactivity Section[edit]

Hi, this is just a friendly reminder that according to Wikispecies:Administrators/Inactivity Section the next run of the Activity Review should take place this month. I would appreciate if one of the Admins or Bureaucrats could start this review. Thanks, --Ameisenigel (talk) 10:25, 25 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Doing a quick review over our admins:
  • this seems to be <5 "admin actions" in 12 months.
  • this is <5 edits (didn't check logs).
  • this is <5 "admin actions".
  • this is <5 "admin actions".
  • this is <5 edits (didn't check logs).
  • this is <5 "admin actions".
  • this is <5 "admin actions".
Some logs were way too extensive to bother (e.g.), but I assume that there are enough admin actions in there. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:48, 25 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And for those keeping score at home, that is seven of 27 admins, including bots. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:44, 25 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Koavf: Last time this was run, which I did, AlvaroMolina was one who barely scraped through, ie given benefit of the doubt so that will be a discussion again. From memory Circeus has essentially left editing for some time now so probably should be removed per the policy. We need to discuss the others too, remember that Dan_Koehl is also a Beaurocrat and CheckUser and if we remove admin we should remove all three. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 14:55, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. I'm not a bureaucrat, tho, so I can't do the removals. I was just trying to do a quick scan. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 14:56, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
None of us can, as a crat when I need the admin flag removed I have to make a Steward Request. I am checking on CU among the OC as I am a member but I think it would be a cascade for Dan, iff we remove admin he has to loose crat and with no admin flags he cannot really have CU so I am checking on that right now. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 15:07, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Only guidence on this would be this RFC. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 15:13, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Dan Koehl: we are going to need you to comment here on what you would like to do. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 15:22, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Tommy Kronkvist:, @Keith Edkins:, @Dan Koehl:, @MPF:, @OhanaUnited:: I have set up the review page here please add any comments under discussions. Will send out email template soon. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 16:36, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Faendalimas: As I recall, {{Ping}} only works when you use it with a signature, so going back to add it to a comment will not ping the person. You need to re-sign your comment, I believe. (I didn't ping all those other guys in to avoid double-pinging them, in case I'm misremembering). —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:32, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
thanks sorry I do this on so many wikis these days I forget which wiki has which template. Bureaucrat is the one word in English I can never spell, do not know why. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 16:39, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
With all due respect to my franco friends, it is a terrible, terrible word and we should never have picked it for our super-admin group. :/ —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:43, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I understand, and I know I have not been very active lately. WS is running smoothly, with few problems, and IM happy for that. Fighting for high democrazy on WikiSpecies, I humbly accept any decision from the WS community, having my admin rights removed. But if possible, maybe it can wait until 31 March, so I made 10 clean years? Dan Koehl (talk) 09:42, 28 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I have to give 30 days notice per policy and can leave the removals to do as a lot at the end of this, so if thats the decision it can all wait till then which would take it all to beginning of April in all liklihood so yes we can accomodate your request I believe. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 14:00, 28 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
All Bureaucrats and Admins and anyone else who wishes please assist with this vote -- Wikispecies:Administrators/Inactivity_Section/February_2024#User:Dan_Koehl. Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 14:26, 28 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Please note that despite inactivity on this discussion it must not be archived until after 27 March for the review period. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 23:06, 7 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Humbly greatful for the positive comments, and the confidence shown, it kind of warmed my old heart, and for many reasons, I will be happy to remain "on post" if its the wish of the community, and I hope I may futurewise increase my activity on WS. Dan Koehl (talk) 11:44, 23 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[username redacted][edit]

x-wiki vandalism-only account. --SHB2000 (talk) 08:19, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, the user is now locked the second I make this request. --SHB2000 (talk) 08:19, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
 Done Great minds think alike: I had already posted to the Stewards on m:. Thanks. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:33, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Request[edit]

Please block 135.26.120.92. Thanks, --Mtarch11 (talk) 02:53, 3 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 Done globally. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 03:06, 3 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Request[edit]

Please block 39.50.198.206, out of project scope & nonsense edits. ChasingAir (talk) 12:58, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(Note) Already deleted and blocked. MathXplore (talk) 13:07, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
According to w:Wikipedia:Blocking_IP_addresses#Block_lengths, IP addresses should not be indefinitely blocked. This IP has been blocked indefinitely. What would be the optimal block length here? MathXplore (talk) 13:09, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed @Andyboorman: —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 14:16, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Apologies  Done Andyboorman (talk) 14:52, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I went ahead and changed a bunch of other blocks, accordingly. This includes some IPs that are also globally blocked. Please see Log of blocks by Tommy Kronkvist (prior to March 20, 2024) for details. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 19:46, 19 March 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Recent barrage of IP edits[edit]

Attention fellow administrators: 1234qwer1234qwer4—Andyboorman—Burmeister—Dan Koehl—DannyS712—EncycloPetey—Faendalimas– Floscuculi—Hector Bottai—Keith Edkins—Koavf—MKOliver—MPF—Mariusm—Neferkheperre– OhanaUnited—PeterR—Pigsonthewing—RLJ—Thiotrix.

We've recently had a lot of edits and page creations made by what can only be described as a small army of "new" IPv6 users. Most of the edits looks to be well intentioned, but there's also been a lot of gibberish and nonsense added in together with the taxonomy, and the pages are often poorly "wikified". Here are some examples, with links to their respective contributions:

Please note that the above list is very far from compete: unfortunately there are many, many more.

Preferably we need to very quickly mass-educate the user(s) behind these IP addresses, or I'm afraid we will need to start banning them. (A few have already been banned, primarily by Burmeister and myself.)

Any ideas on how we should best proceed? –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 19:09, 13 April 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Are we sure this isn't the same person (or a couple of people), IP hopping? If so, it will be extremely difficult to communicate anything to them. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:19, 13 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
They are all in the same /64 range, which generally means it's at least the same local network. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 10:35, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for bringing this up - might be useful to add an abuse filter for excessive uses of <br/> which seems to be common among the edits. Unfortunately since I know basically nothing about taxonomy I cannot really help with whether edits are proper or not if they look correct --DannyS712 (talk) 19:21, 13 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Looks to me they are all the same person, same pages are edited by different IPs. The few pages I followed were taxonomy wise correct, but totally lacking any quality respect. I sent a message trying to educate on some points, with no response, yet.--Hector Bottai (talk) 19:28, 13 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Checking, it looks like these have been undone or otherwise fixed, correct? If there is cleanup to do, let me know. I would support a rangeblock if you made one. That may cause this person to slow down. You could even put a link to this conversation in the notes. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:18, 13 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Heya sorry I have been on a couple of weeks leave due to illness. I will be back in a day. From what I can quickly tell I would support Koavf with a rangeblock. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk 12:17, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Tommy Kronkvist, EncycloPetey, DannyS712, Hector Bottai, and Koavf: Sounds to me like a school class project by some well-intentioned teacher, tasking their kids "Start a new page on Wikispecies" - I've seen similar activities happen on iNaturalist. Good idea in principle, but tends not to work very well in practice, schoolkids aren't serious enough for this sort of work unfortunately . . . - MPF (talk) 20:29, 13 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@MPF: Yes, that was my initial thought as well. It's of course great that the kids learn about taxonomy, nomenclature and biological systematics, but it takes time and effort to truly understand how all those pieces are fitted together, so to speak. And to be frank Wikispecies' many conventions regarding content, format, citations etc. aren't the easiest to master... On top of that we also have a huge number of templates: I think we use about 1,000 different templates—not including their respective template documentation templates (977), Taxonavigation templates (+100,000), and reference templates (+125,000). –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 00:35, 14 April 2024 (UTC).[reply]
@Justin: Many are corrected, yes, but certainly not all of them. See for example the version of Stagmomantis carolina from 16:43, April 13. Furthermore some of the pages are more or less blank. See for example the version of Megalopyge opercularis from 17:12, April 13.
–Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 00:35, 14 April 2024 (UTC).[reply]
Ugh. I'll go thru Special:RecentChanges and see unmarked ones by unregistered users. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:13, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I checked several from the perspective of a non-taxonomist and deleted a few that were quite literally just {{Image}} and cleaning up some obvious noise. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:24, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Note that some of the "unpatrolled" edits might have actually been corrected, however some of them haven't yet been marked as patrolled. I've tried to mark all of the pages that I've fixed so far, but may have missed a few. –Tommy Kronkvist (talk), 01:30, 14 April 2024 (UTC).[reply]
Pobody's nefrect and teamwork makes the dream work, etc. Thanks for all you do, T. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 02:03, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@LiAnna (Wiki Ed): and @Ian (Wiki Ed): Looks like we have a class editing Wikispecies (which is great and expanding beyond Wikipedia!) But there are some issues with the edits from the students in the class. I don't mind stepping in to help, whether remotely or going to the classroom in-person since the IP addresses stated that they're from Toronto (where I live). Are you aware of any Canadian instructors running an education program on Wikispecies? OhanaUnitedTalk page 04:11, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Now see Diapheromera femorata. This was recently created by one of these entities. It looks legit, but seems to have installed a
and string of H's while creating. There also has been some correction and adjustment of the entries. It does not appear to be alone. Also somewhere earlier today, someone made a large number of redirects shifting author names to taxon pages. These are now far downlist on Recent Changes. The majority of the edits I looked at involve holding down a key so it repeats. Neferkheperre (talk) 13:44, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah that is really weird. The string or repeated characters is obviously undesirable on the page and should be discouraged, but why would they go through such an effort in creating an otherwise-perfectly fine page just to insert some obvious vandalism? OhanaUnitedTalk page 20:37, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@OhanaUnited I don't think these are coming from any class we're working with. I looked through the classes we're supporting who could be editing in topics related to organismal biology, and none of them appear to be anywhere near Toronto. (The closest I can find is in Montreal, and it's being run by an experienced instructor who's very unlikely to have their students make edits like these.) I also looked at several of the species articles on en.wp and I don't see recent student edits (which is what I'd expect if students were being encouraged to edit Wikispecies items related to the Wikipedia articles they're working on. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:54, 15 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Has anyone left a message on any of the IP talk pages asking them to explain, and/or to modify their behaviour? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:54, 14 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Andy Mabbett: Not to my knowledge, no. The closest we've got is these two messages at User talk:2607:FEA8:2462:6900:83A:31F:59BC:1C29, entered by Maculosae tegmine lyncis and Hector Bottai. They only mention taxonomy though. Please (any admin) go ahead and ask the IP users about their edits, preferably with information on how they should proceed. Simply adding the {{subst:Welcome-anon}} template might be a good start.
I don't know how many of these IPs we've had problems with, but I would guess it's about 15–20. This version of the "Recent changes" page can be helpful in finding that out. It only shows IP edits for the past 25 days, without listing edits by registered accounts.
Personally I'm logging off for a while. It's a long day tomorrow, and I've been coding at work for +14 hours today. :-)
—Tommy Kronkvist (talk) 17:22, 15 April 2024 (UTC).[reply]
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