HouseBlaster

Welcome to my talk page!

Note: I prefer to keep discussions unfragmented. If you leave me a message here, I will respond to it here as an effort to keep the entire conversation in one place. Unless you request otherwise, I will ping you so that you know I have responded. By the same token, if I leave a comment on your talk page, please respond to it there.

Thank you!

Questions at RfA

I wouldn't race through this first burst of questions. I would take my time and use the opportunity to let !voters into my head. That's what I might do. Opinions vary. The very best wishes in your run. Good noms. Trust them if you have questions. BusterD (talk) 14:11, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Back in late March....

you nominated a fellow editor for the EotW award. You did fine!!! Thanks and good luck at RfA. Buster Seven Talk (UTC) 18:26, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

@Buster7 and BusterD: thank you both for your words of encouragement; they are sincerely appreciated. HouseBlaster (he/they) 18:54, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Questioning the outcome of the discussion

Hi, can you please explain what the result of this discussion is based on? The result you wrote is "keep and populate", but I believe that "populate" is not what follows from the discussion, and leads to the creation of undersized categories. FromCzech (talk) 17:51, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

@FromCzech: stub templates do not always go together with stub categories. For instance, {{Mělník-geo-stub}} does not need to populate Category:Mělník geography stubs‎: it can be set up to feed directly into Category:Central Bohemian Region geography stubs. For that reason, we don't normally delete stub templates. (That way, we can always recreate the stub category and it will be automatically populated by simply updating the templates.) You nominated the templates for deletion, and the result was keep and populate the templates. If you wish to upmerge the categories, you can nominate them directly. HouseBlaster (he/they) 01:54, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-25

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

• People who attempt to add an external link in the visual editor will now receive immediate feedback if they attempt to link to a domain that a project has decided to block. Please see Edit check for more details. [1]
• The new Community Configuration extension is available on Test Wikipedia. This extension allows communities to customize specific features to meet their local needs. Currently only Growth features are configurable, but the extension will support other Community Configuration use cases in the future. [2][3]
• The dark mode beta feature is now available on category and help pages, as well as more special pages. There may be contrast issues. Please report bugs on the project talk page. [4]

Problems

• Cloud Services tools were not available for 25 minutes last week. This was caused by a faulty hardware cable in the data center. [5]
• Last week, styling updates were made to the Vector 2022 skin. This caused unforeseen issues with templates, hatnotes, and images. Changes to templates and hatnotes were reverted. Most issues with images were fixed. If you still see any, report them here. [6]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 June. It will be on all wikis from 20 June (calendar). [7][8]
• Starting June 18, the Reference Edit Check will be deployed to a new set of Wikipedias. This feature is intended to help newcomers and to assist edit-patrollers by inviting people who are adding new content to a Wikipedia article to add a citation when they do not do so themselves. During a test at 11 wikis, the number of citations added more than doubled when Reference Check was shown to people. Reference Check is community configurable. [9]
• Mailing lists will be unavailable for roughly two hours on Tuesday 10:00–12:00 UTC. This is to enable migration to a new server and upgrade its software. [10]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 23:46, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, HouseBlaster. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 13:07, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

ACP Writer's question

"However, with all due respect, you are not answering my questions: do you have a conflict of interest? Are you a paid editor? HouseBlaster (he/him) 00:48, 30 May 2024 (UTC)"

To answer your questions:

Do I have conflict of interest?

No, I believe I do not have any conflict of interest as I have no close affiliation with the company. I am not related, employed or invested in that company.

Am I a paid editor?

Yes, I work for a company which they hired to create a wiki article about them. Despite this, I told them specifically that wikipedia articles (based on my readings) are not something they can control as anyone may edit it.

As for changing the username I do not see any options offered to accomplish. Please see below a snip of my Preferences Page.

ACP Writer (talk) 12:08, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Hi @ACP Writer: weirdly enough, you can't change your username through your preferences. See Wikipedia:Changing username for instructions. Cremastra (talk) 17:18, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

@ACP Writer: Thank you Cremastra explaining how to rename your account; their advice is correct. I will let you follow those directions before proceeding further, though I will note that being paid to edit is inherently a conflict of interest. HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:05, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Purpose of Wikipedia:

"Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by presenting information on all branches of knowledge. Hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, it consists of freely editable content, whose articles also have numerous links to guide readers towards more information."

If the purpose can be achieved with an article that was written, why should it matter if the person was paid or not to write it? Having such an article deleted even if it did conform with Wikipedia's purpose seems... wrong. So with you or anyone's help, I am hoping it is still possible to get it up there.

Anyway, I submitted the request for name change. ACP Writer (talk) 07:18, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

@ACP Writer: paid editors have a really hard time maintaining a neutral point of view. For instance, the draft article you created contained lines like Using the same booking platform, travelers receive the convenience of booking rail and bus tickets in conjunction with flights, making it easy for travelers to connect from one mode of transportation to another. This is too promotional: we don't describe things as convenient or easy.

Anyhow, while we are waiting for a rename, we need to make sure AccessRail qualifies for an article on Wikipedia. We call this "notability", which is a bit of a misnomer: it has absolutely nothing to do with "fame" or "importance", and everything to do with coverage it has received in reliable sources. You can read the guideline at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), and you should read the entirety of the "primary criteria" section. Once you have done so, please provide a list of three or four sources which demonstrate notability. HouseBlaster (he/they) 00:12, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Trouted

Whack! You've been whacked with a wet trout. Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know that you did something silly.

You have been trouted for: Blehhhhh :3 Skxnteq (talk) 21:50, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Congrats

Congrats for a successful RfA. Take it easy and use the tools wisely. Ask plenty of questions; all of the existing admins will only be too happy to give advice. Welcome to the team. Schwede66 01:10, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Felicitations!

-Ad Orientem (talk) 02:06, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

• Congratulations! Great job on riding it out for sure. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 04:19, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm about to leave for my vacation, but I wanted to stop by here first to say congratulations! I hope your adminship goes well. QuicoleJR (talk) 09:55, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

• Congratulations! — Qwerfjkltalk 10:07, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
• cg! ^Thanks,L3X1 ◊distænt write◊ 12:44, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
• Congrats! —Ganesha811 (talk) 19:32, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Your request for adminship

Hi HouseBlaster, I have closed your request for adminship as successful. While your candidacy is a success, there was a non-trivial amount of opposition to your request; heeding any advice and concerns expressed would be well advised. That being said...Congratulations! As always, the administrators' reading list is worth reading and the new admin help pages are most certainly available if you feel that you might require some practice with the tools in a safe environment prior to applying them elsewhere on the project. Good luck! Acalamari 02:04, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, Acalamari! HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Congratz!

	A toast for you!
	Congratulations on a successful RfA! As long as you stay out of trouble, I'm sure you'll do a great job. ❤HistoryTheorist❤ 02:13, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Congrats!

• On your successful RfA.
• Your nomination received his EotW award.
• My family has a similar tradition. My parents were very open about their passing. Buster Seven Talk (UTC) 03:53, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
• Let me get your t-shirt. Sorry for the delay, the delivery truck broke down unexpectedly. Cremastra (talk) 13:59, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

  

A baton for you!

	The new admin baton
	I managed to run a couple of laps but you've come along just as I got out of breath. Sprint on! Congratulations on your successful RfA! Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 10:25, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

• Thank you! Looking forward to passing the baton sooner rather than later :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 13:57, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Congratulations on your RfA! Hawkeye7 (discuss) 01:50, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

WP:RFU Nuclear Medicine Oncology & Radiotherapy Institute Nawabshah

While you did nothing wrong here, there are a number of us who prefer to draftify restorations of soft deletes and PRODs, so that the article doesn't immediately get re-nom'd. Do a search for "draftify" on the RFU page to see how I reply to these such requests. And welcome to the RFUn! :D - UtherSRG (talk) 12:00, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

@UtherSRG: thank you for the note; I will keep it in mind in the future :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 20:44, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-26

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

• Editors will notice that there have been some changes to the background color of text in the diff view, and the color of the byte-change numbers, last week. These changes are intended to make text more readable in both light mode and dark mode, and are part of a larger effort to increase accessibility. You can share your comments or questions on the project talkpage. [11]
• The text colors that are used for visited-links, hovered-links, and active-links, were also slightly changed last week to improve their accessibility in both light mode and dark mode. [12]

Problems

• You can copy permanent links to talk page comments by clicking on a comment's timestamp. This feature did not always work when the topic title was very long and the link was used as a wikitext link. This has been fixed. Thanks to Lofhi for submitting the bug. [13]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 June. It will be on all wikis from 27 June (calendar). [14][15]
• Starting 26 June, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link at English Wikipedia, making this feature available for you to use at all wikis. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they were linked to, even if this comment has since been moved elsewhere. You can read more about this feature on Diff or on Mediawiki.org. [16]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 22:30, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 June 26#Category:Articles unintentionally citing retracted publications

Good morning,

I've submitted a new renaming proposal for the above template and a number of linked ones. As you were involved in the previous discussion, I would welcome your views on the new proposal. Mdann52 (talk) 06:18, 26 June 2024 (UTC)