Wikibooks:Reading room/Administrative Assistance
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Welcome to the Administrative Assistance reading room. You can request assistance from administrators for handling a variety of problems here and alert them about problems which may require special actions not normally used during regular content editing. Please be patient as administrators are often quite busy with either their own projects or trying to perform general maintenance and cleanup.
You can deal with most vandalism yourself: fix it, then warn the user. If there is repeated vandalism by one user, lots of vandalism on a single page, or vandalism from many users, tell an admin here, or in #wikibooks (say !admin to get attention).
For more general questions and assistance that doesn't require an administrator, please use the Assistance Reading Room.
Please revdel and delete username
The following discussion has concluded. Please open a new discussion for any further comments.
The following discussion has concluded. Please open a new discussion for any further comments.I think this page is out of scope, but IPs are removing the SD tag. Please have a look at this page. MathXplore (discuss • contribs) 03:02, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
Done thank you! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 03:25, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
The following discussion has concluded. Please open a new discussion for any further comments.1 year+ backlog on Wikibooks:Requests for import
On RFI, there is a request that has not been fully completed, despite having been made in March 2023. Additionally, there are several other requests from months ago where the page content has been cut-and-pasted, but the revisions were not imported, contra the requests for "import and merge." Additionally, there is a simple import request that I made recently. JJPMaster (she/they) 00:55, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Unprotect Template:=
This template is currently now unused since it is now a magic word in MediaWiki. Can admins unprotect this template? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 09:26, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I'm not sure I understand—why does it need to be unprotected if it's unused? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 19:46, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- It is no longer a high risk template. MW has already made {{=}} a magic word, so this template is now unused as it is replaced by this magic word. English Wikipedia had already unprotected w:Template:= because of this. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 21:20, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- My question is why don't we just get rid of it? If it's already been replaced by a magic word, is there any reason we need to keep it at all? Are you hoping to make edits to the template? I'm just confused about why you want it to be kept but unprotected. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 21:50, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- Two reasons:
- Historical reference
- So that a message like "Error: The retired template {{=}} has been transcluded; see mw:Help:Magic words#Other for details. To fix this, use only the code {{=}} to generate the = character." could be displayed if someone tried to use it instead of the magic word.
- JJPMaster (she/they) 22:04, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm I think Template:! should also be unprotected for these reasons above. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 07:57, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done both – I think we would need to discuss this thoroughly before deleting this, but I cannot see the harm in keeping it for historical purposes. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 12:02, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm I think Template:! should also be unprotected for these reasons above. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 07:57, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- Two reasons:
- My question is why don't we just get rid of it? If it's already been replaced by a magic word, is there any reason we need to keep it at all? Are you hoping to make edits to the template? I'm just confused about why you want it to be kept but unprotected. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 21:50, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- It is no longer a high risk template. MW has already made {{=}} a magic word, so this template is now unused as it is replaced by this magic word. English Wikipedia had already unprotected w:Template:= because of this. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 21:20, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
Requested move of Category:Users who are bots
The following discussion has concluded. Please open a new discussion for any further comments.That category should be at Category:Wikibooks bots instead, for consistency with c:Category:Commons bots, c:Category:All Wikipedia bots, etc. JJPMaster (she/they) 01:40, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- @JJPMaster I have no issue with this move and am happy to do it. If we adopted this move, would you be willing to recategorize all the users with the new category? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 13:29, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm: Yes, I can just edit
{{bot}}to change the category it uses, and use AWB to take care of the rest. JJPMaster (she/they) 13:41, 10 December 2024 (UTC)- Sounds fine. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 14:44, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 19:21, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm: Yes, I can just edit
Semi-protect Template:Color
This template should be semi-protected as it is used in a large number of pages, specifically 1,350 pages, so it is a high-risk template. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 07:17, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 11:59, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
This IP has repeatedly created inappropriate pageS. Can admins block this IP? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 21:47, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
This IP has inappropriately created pages multiple times, so blocking should fix the issue. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 11:22, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done for 1 week by Kittycataclysm. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:11, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
Repeatedly bad page creations. Can admins block this IP? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 14:27, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done for 1 week. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:11, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
This user continued to add links to non-existant pages despite the final warning. Can admins block this user? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 19:12, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done for 3 days. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 19:33, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
Fully protect these modules
These modules are used on over 11,000 pages, so these are very high risk modules. Can both be protected to admins only? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 10:20, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- Makes sense, done. MarcGarver (discuss • contribs) 10:58, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- And Template:Mbox as it is used on over 10,000 pages. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 13:13, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- And Template:Yesno as it is used in over 7,500 pages.
Courtesy ping: Kittycataclysm, Leaderboard, SHB2000. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 19:21, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done the latter, seems Kittycataclysm's already done the former. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- @SHB2000 The former is only semi-protected currently, but it is used in 10,000+ pages, so an increase in protection level to admins only is welcome. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 09:27, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done the latter, seems Kittycataclysm's already done the former. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- And Template:Yesno as it is used in over 7,500 pages.
- And Template:Mbox as it is used on over 10,000 pages. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 13:13, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
Import cleanup help request
On the English Wikipedia, importers have the ability to merge histories (see also: w:Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 214#RfC: Enable the mergehistory permission for importers) and I somehow did not realize that they don't on here as well. Because of that, I was unable to fix what happened here, so I have to request the following:
- Please delete all of the pages here
- Please merge the histories of these pages with their corresponding subpages of Character Encodings/Code Tables/MS-DOS (e.g. Code page 778 and Character Encodings/Code Tables/MS-DOS/Code page 778)
- I think I've done all of these! MarcGarver (discuss • contribs) 14:37, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
The second problem occurred when I tried to use the "import to a subpage" feature, which means that an update to phab:T349560 may be in order. Courtesy pings: @Leaderboard, Kittycataclysm, MarcGarver:. JJPMaster (she/they) 11:14, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- change happens slowly here and new features rarely get deployed until someone gets interested in it. Mergehistory is one of those things. Despite it being available for ten years, nobody has needed to think about whether it should be made available to usergroups other than admins. MarcGarver (discuss • contribs) 14:22, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- @JJPMaster That being said: nothing stops you from proposing the change, which you can do it here. Personally I think it's a good idea, and support adding mergehistory for importers and importuploaders. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 08:28, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- I have no issues with this. It makes sense to me that importers should be able to history merge. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 13:14, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
Proposal: Grant importers and import uploaders mergehistory
It seems like this proposal has some support above already. It would allow members of the transwiki and import groups to use Special:MergeHistory to merge page histories. It would not allow them to use the traditional delete-then-partially-undelete method to do the same.
Disruptive edits after final warning. Can admins block this IP? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 21:44, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done for 2 weeks. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 22:07, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
This IP range has repeatedly created nonsensical pages over previous couple of days. Can admins block this range? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 13:52, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Another IP, specifically 98.97.114.16, has been repeatedly created inappropriate pages. Can admins block the /22 range? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 19:09, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- There is a clear long-term abuse pattern over the /22 range over weeks. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 19:12, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done for 1 week. Unfortunately, the tool I usually use to calculate the smallest required IP range to block is down for reasons I don't understand. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 19:28, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm: I understand the reason! It's because of this admin recall petition for the author of the tool, leading them to resign their adminship, retire from Wikipedia, and relinquish access to all of their tools. See T381138. JJPMaster (she/they) 19:34, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- There is a clear long-term abuse pattern over the /22 range over weeks. Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 19:12, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
This IP has repeatedly created nonsensical pages. Can admins block this IP? Xeverything11 (discuss • contribs) 18:41, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
MassMessage list creation request
I intend to create a technical newsletter (similar to Tech News) for the English Wikibooks, and I would like to request that a MassMessage list be created. The title should be "WikiProject Little Star Newsletter", and the description should be "A monthly newsletter that provides information about the activities of WikiProject Little Star, as well as other technical progress on the English Wikibooks." JJPMaster (she/they) 05:08, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
I found a broken redirect with a large number of revisions. Should we restore the previous versions or should we delete this? MathXplore (discuss • contribs) 14:43, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
Preventing LTA 73 account creations
About twice per day, LTA 73 creates an account with an attack username, the edit filter blocks them, the account has to be locked by the stewards, and the block log entry needs to be revdelled. A plausible means to prevent this cycle from continuing would be to add common terms that appear in their usernames to the MediaWiki:Titleblacklist. I will not disclose them here, since they have been hidden, but this would be helpful. JJPMaster (she/they) 01:46, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
- I don't think it would be super helpful – they could just create the same username on another wiki and circumvent our local title blacklist. This is probably something more for the global blacklist (which I'd rather not touch). --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 06:09, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
Syn Wpedziucha dawał żopy pod Progresją reported by JJPMaster
- Syn Wpedziucha dawał żopy pod Progresją (discuss · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block log · block)
Repeatedly BLARing language articles JJPMaster (she/they) 19:50, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
- Is the request that they be blocked? If so, I think they already are. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 14:11, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Kittycataclysm: They were blocked and locked between my report and your reply. JJPMaster (she/they) 14:16, 26 December 2024 (UTC)
Self-block request
This is perhaps unusual, but I would like to test how the markblocked gadget works with partial blocks, so please block me from the TimedText talk namespace (since I never use it) for 24 hours. JJPMaster (she/they) 00:07, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
Nazish Fatima01 reported by MathXplore
- Nazish Fatima01 (discuss · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block log · block)
Spam MathXplore (discuss • contribs) 12:20, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 13:18, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
98.97.114.16 reported by MathXplore
- 98.97.114.16 (discuss · info · whois · deleted contribs · block log · block)
Vandalism MathXplore (discuss • contribs) 14:19, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Done thanks! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 14:49, 28 December 2024 (UTC)