L235

The Signpost: 14 August 2024

• In the media: Portland pol profile paid for from public purse

• Recent research: STORM: AI agents role-play as "Wikipedia editors" and "experts" to create Wikipedia-like articles, a more sophisticated effort than previous auto-generation systems

• In focus: Twitter marks the spot

• News and notes: Another Wikimania has concluded.

• Special report: Nano or just nothing: Will nano go nuclear?

• Opinion: HouseBlaster's RfA debriefing

• Traffic report: Ball games, movies, elections, but nothing really weird

• Humour: I'm proud to be a template

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:48, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

Edit-a-thon August 24

August 24: Not just an edit-a-thon, an edit-a-thon in Manhattan Beach. Please join WikiLA at an edit-a-thon to improve and create articles related to marine life and the ocean in the Los Angeles area. Inspiration courtesy of the public library in Manhattan Beach, one of SoCal's most beautiful coastal communities. Saturday, August 24 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM Manhattan Beach Public Library, 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach 90266 Get the details and RSVP here To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups remove.your name, from this list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:56, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Sign up for the language community meeting on August 30th, 15:00 UTC

Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Sign up for the language community meeting on August 30th, 15:00 UTC because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.

Hi all,

The next language community meeting is scheduled in a few weeks—on August 30th at 15:00 UTC. If you're interested in joining, you can sign up on this wiki page.

This participant-driven meeting will focus on sharing language-specific updates related to various projects, discussing technical issues related to language wikis, and working together to find possible solutions. For example, in the last meeting, topics included the Language Converter, the state of language research, updates on the Incubator conversations, and technical challenges around external links not working with special characters on Bengali sites.

Do you have any ideas for topics to share technical updates or discuss challenges? Please add agenda items to the document here and reach out to ssethi(__AT__)wikimedia.org. We look forward to your participation!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:19, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Profile Systems and Software

Hello,

The article for Profile Systems & Software needs to be updated with fresh and accurate content. Earlier this year I tried to edit it myself but the edits were disapproved. Can you please help me out? Ktsoura (talk) 11:44, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't have the capacity to help you out as I'm unfamiliar with the background or subject matter there. It may be helpful to review the links that Bri left on your user talk page. Best, KevinL (aka L235 · t · c) 13:59, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Unblock request

Yage Wu has posted an unblock request at UTRS, for a CU block which you imposed in 2020. The account is also subject to a block for sockpuppetry on Chinese Wikipedia, and a global lock. The editor acknowledges that their previous actions were unacceptable, and says they intend to edit constructively in the future. It seems that they have been subjected to Catch 22, by being told on Wikipedia that they need to be globally unlocked before they can be unblocked, and then, when they appealed to stewards for an unlock, told that they have to be unblocked on all projects before they can be unlocked. Can you have a look at it?

In general I tend to take a generous view of blocked disruptive editors who come back several years after a block and say they have changed their attitude, because people can change over the course of a few years, especially if they are young. However, as far as this particular case is concerned, I have not checked the editing history, since not being a CheckUser I wouldn't be able to do anything anyway, so I have no opinion as to the merits of the appeal. JBW (talk) 15:55, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @JBW. I've raised this question with ArbCom, which previously procedurally declined an appeal. As the blocking CheckUser, I likely cannot involve myself in ArbCom's decision on what to do, but I'll get back to you if ArbCom comes to a decision. Best, KevinL (aka L235 · t · c) 18:22, 27 August 2024 (UTC)