User talk:Cryptic: Difference between revisions

Last year, you helped me by creating this query. I tried to copy it and run it myself to get an updated report, but it appears that the database schema (or whatever the lingo is) has changed, making your query fail to run. I tried to use the documentation and T299417 and a bit of logical thinking to create an updated query, and I got a query that doesn't give error messages, but it never finishes running. I know very little about SQL, so parsing exactly what the query is doing and how to update it is beyond my skills. I have left my new query running for hours with no results. If you have a minute, could you please take a look at the two queries and try to figure out how to update your query from last year to account for the database table changes? Thanks. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:12, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

JOIN linktarget ON lt_id = tl_target_id

Also, the "fork" button works more cleanly than cutting-and-pasting the query. —Cryptic 14:47, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that worked well. I wasn't sure about using "Fork"; I thought it might create a query in "your" space or modify your query in some way, which I wanted to avoid. I will use it in the future. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:51, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why you left no block notice?

Your block came without any warning per WP:BEFOREBLOCK.

I am already trying to resolve this issue here. The block is unnecessary and you should overturn it. Aman Kumar Goel ^(Talk) 18:16, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Because your talk page is a fucking mess that actually managed to crash my browser when I tried to edit it - archive it already - and because I wasted time trying to find a block template that works cleanly with multiple-page partial blocks.

I'm not going to unblock you. There was and never will be a time when it would be appropriate for you to make the edits you did to either page. —Cryptic 18:25, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See the ANI thread at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Page blocked for following WP:DENY, without warning. Aman Kumar Goel ^(Talk) 18:52, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I’m sorry you got dragged into the Kalki Avatar and Muhammad mess I’ve been dealing with this month. It’s unpleasant. You made a very reasonable block and should not have to defend yourself against big walls of text from a clique of editors. At the same time, it’s clear you have broad support from other admins and the broader community.

You acted with integrity.—A. B. ^{(talk • contribs • global count)} 22:32, 19 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I found Category:Disambiguation message boxes. It includes {{number disambiguation}} and {{Letter–number combination disambiguation}}. What are your thoughts on the templates and specifically {{Letter–number combination disambiguation}}? Do you think {{Letter–number combination disambiguation}} should be reconciled with {{Disambiguation}}? Iterresise (talk) 11:16, 17 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'd ask on WT:WPDIS. I don't actually work with disambigs much. —Cryptic 11:20, 17 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I've been trying to figure out how to use complex wildcards in my Wikipedia searches without breaking things and thought you might have some insight. For example, I want to return pages that have words ending in "pillai" (because I stumbled across several Indian surnames ending in "pillai" that were prepended with Catholic given names, and what is that all about!) where the 4 characters immediately preceding that string cannot be a non-letter... I came up with insource:/[a-zA-Z]{4}pillai/ but that is throwing the "timed out, only partial results" error that instructs me to simplify my regex. Thoughts?
Thanks, JoelleJay (talk) 08:47, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't use Wikipedia's search, so I've got negligible first-hand experience. That said, the received wisdom from Help:Searching/Regex#Use regexes responsibly is that insource:// shouldn't be used by itself. —Cryptic 12:01, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently non-regex insource is indexed, so insource:pillai insource:/[a-zA-Z]{4}pillai/ works. —Cryptic 12:54, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oooh that makes sense! I guess I was thrown off by the instruction to simplify the regex. Maybe one day Wikipedia's search function will accept my scribbled FSA directed graphs as input and I won't have to learn occult symbology or hope an obscure DAB page exists to find things... JoelleJay (talk) 17:20, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The rule regarding deaths of prominent persons clearly states "Exceptions to this rule are made for prominent persons who died in office (such as Pope John Paul II and Omar Bongo) or other instances where the death in itself has a major impact." (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_the_Current_events_page_works#Other_guidelines)

There are two exceptions provided: Prominent person who died in office, or prominent person whose death in itself has a major impact. Senator Feinstein clearly falls under the first exception. 2603:6080:B207:AE70:A867:DDB2:96A4:B832 (talk) 16:25, 30 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Feinstein was neither a pope nor a decades-long head of state. Being a legislator for an extended period is not unusual, neither in the US nor elsewhere in the world. Dying in any office is plainly insufficient. —Cryptic 16:30, 30 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) § RfC on the "Airlines and destinations" tables in airport articles. I saw that you participated in a discussion on a similar topic. Sunnya343 (talk) 18:23, 8 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I never do WikiLove, but this just seemed fitting since we both need it per our DRV comments this morning. ;-) Star Mississippi 15:22, 13 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Cryptic,

The article counts in CSD categories are often off by 1 or more pages and in this case, you restored and then redeleted this draft. But we delete hundreds of expired drafts each day, how did you discover it was this one causing the problem? Just wondering what you can see that I can't. Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 02:08, 14 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

quarry:query/69117 (or 68892). —Cryptic 02:16, 14 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why you delete a draft after refund to draft? G8 doesnt apply here. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2023_October_11) And G4 excludes pages in userspace and draftspace where the content was converted to a draft. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark21K (talk • contribs) 20:42, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It wasn't in draft. Which you know, because it was you who moved it back into mainspace. —Cryptic 20:45, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You deleted both. "The Wikipedia page Draft:Christopher Schläffer has been deleted on

21 October 2023 by Cryptic, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Christopher_Schl%C3%A4ffer.

Editor's summary: G8: Redirect to a deleted or nonexistent

page: Christopher Schläffer

So the question is, why the speedy deletion in mainspace and why not restoring the draft after it. Mark21K (talk) 20:48, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I deleted the mainspace page because you moved it there with only trivial changes immediately after a DRV endorsed its previous deletion. Nothing was deleted in draftspace except the broken redirect left from moving it. I chose not to exercise discretion by moving it back to draft because it's clear that your purpose isn't to improve the article, but to solely to get it back into the main namespace by any method you can. You're welcome to bring my G4 up at DRV again. Don't expect as much sympathy there as you got last time. —Cryptic 20:55, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for this clarification. However I reviewed the changes made during the deletion process and there were 4 request to add reliable sources which have all been followed and done. I therefore am of the opinion that all requests for reliable sources (there are now 21 reliable sources in total) have been fulfilled and notability is clearly given. It would therefore be great if you could restore the draft and indicate which other changes you would see as required so that I can work on that. Going through another DRV is the last thing i am in mood for. Mark21K (talk) 21:08, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not going to do that. —Cryptic 21:10, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Cryptic, I would like to ask for your advice as you might have seen me participate in the deletion discussion in this case. I am unfortunately not a well-versed editor yet and a lot of these processes are new to me. However I was aiming to make the article better during the deletion process by adding sources where this was requested by some contributors. To my mind the article meets the criteria of notability and also reliable sources but you seem to see that differently which I fully respect. Could you therefore kindly give a hint what you would expect so that an article can be published as I would like to put some effort into that. And would this have to be done based on the existing draft or in entirely new attempt, which of course would also override previous contributors? Best, Verify.now (talk) 20:17, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I hope you're doing well. I noticed your recent edits on the article Rylan Brownlie. The issue isn't limited to today; the article was created just three days ago with two unreliable citations, and it didn't adhere to WP:ATHLETE. During the curation process, I moved it to the draft at Draft:Rylan Brownlie following WP:DRAFTIFY, and the mainspace page was promptly deleted. However, the creator of the article then made a new one in the mainspace for the same player, adding some more citations that still weren't significant. Most of these citations appear to be profiles and entries. I tagged the page for speedy deletion and added a redirect to the draft. In cases where a user isn't following the AfC process and adds the article again while ignoring the draft, it's important to maintain a consistent approach to uphold Wikipedia's content quality standards.❯❯❯ Chunky aka Al Kashmiri (✍️) 14:38, 24 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article as it stands is not a speedy, and the creator is allowed to contest draftification like that. Your recourse is to bring it to AFD or make it into a (non-speedyable) redirect. —Cryptic 16:35, 24 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

		What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
		Thanks for your nice solution to my question in Wikipedia:Help desk#How to find out the edit count of pages with templates?. Cheers! Thinker78 (talk) 06:55, 3 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Cryptic. I'm writing in regards to the following draft that was recently deleted by you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Ira_Vouk I believe the reason for deletion was Unambiguous advertising or promotion. Is it possible to undelete the article and place it back into the Draft space for further enhancement to meet the wiki requirements? I previously submitted it for a review and it's been declined a couple times. Reasons stated:

• first: not adequately supported, not formal tone
• resubmitted with corrections, declined again: no more issues with the tone but not enough sources with significant coverage
• resubmitted adding secondary sources with coverage, now declined with the reason: not formal again, deleted

This person meets the notability requirements, based on the existence of media coverage of her life and work that is independent of the subject. She also has published books and research papers. There are reviews and citations of those works that were also cited in the article. Those were all added yesterday to the latest version, which got it declined and deleted for being too promotional. Perhaps I overdid it with the sources. So I'm requesting another chance to review it with wiki experts in the help channel before re-submission.

To address the "advertising and promotion" concern: I didn't write the article for myself. I used to work with this person a while back and I have been admiring her work for over a decade, along with thousands of people in our industry. I feel she deserves a wiki page and that probably shows in the language I use when describing her. She is a notable figure in our space with a large following. I just need to understand how to phrase it to make it sound non-promotional.

I'm still hoping to be able to publish it as I've put a lot of effort into it. I would appreciate it if you allowed another chance to fine-tune the article to meet wiki standards.

Please ping me when responding, if you can. Thank you for your consideration. Faminalizblr (talk) 18:48, 9 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Faminalizblr: Jimfbleak already gave you specific advice and restored it for you once on October 14. It had already been so promotional in tone that Wikipedia would not host it, even as a draft, and individual administrators are authorized to delete similar pages on sight. Your edits after his undeletion only incrementally improved the draft at best, and in some ways made it even more promotional; I think it's clear that you're unable to write neutrally about this person. (That's not a value judgment; most people in situations like yours cannot do so either.)

Under these circumstances, I don't think it's in anybody's best interests to restore this again for you to attempt to work on it more - not yours, not Wikipedia's, not Ms. Vouk's - and I'm not going to do so. You can formally appeal at Deletion review. —Cryptic 20:24, 9 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Cryptic Thank you for your prompt response.

I understand your argument and respect your opinion.

May I ask for advice then? I would appreciate it if you could help me understand how to proceed in this situation, rather than simply appealing the deletion, which may result in the same outcome.

When Jimfbleak restored the article, I rephrased and restructured it with his help and to his satisfaction. He encouraged me to resubmit it for review because he was OK with the result (you can see our correspondence in my talk page).

The next reviewer didn't find the article promotional but asked for more relevant secondary sources that contain significant coverage of the subject.

I searched for those and added them, which resulted in your decision to delete the article.

So it appears that there's some level of subjectivity in the decisions, which makes it hard to pinpoint what exactly prevents this article from meeting Wikipedia standards.

Would you be able to help me identify what specific phrases in the article appear to be promotional? Or is it more of the sources used to support the material? If the latter, which of those sources are not considered reliable?

I have read all the related FAQ articles about the language/tone and types of sources that need to be used and I did my best to meet those standards and address reviewers comments but they seem to contradict each other.

I would greatly appreciate your help, if you could.

Sincerely, Faminalizblr (talk) 21:59, 9 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My advice is the same as I gave above - I don't think you should be working on an article about this person. Creating new articles is hard enough already - we generally don't advise new editors to do so, but instead to work on existing ones - and people are almost universally terrible at writing about subjects they're personally connected to. —Cryptic 18:32, 10 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your response @Cryptic.

Sorry, one more question. Something that I'm not grasping as a concept (I apologize if it's a stupid question). Wouldn't it make sense for a person to have some interest in the subject they're writing an article about? For example, I'd like to create more articles about people and organizations in hospitality as I believe our industry is under-represented on wikipedia. I'd prefer writing about that, vs biology for example. But what you mentioned above technically makes me disqualified from writing about the subject I care about.

I'm not sure I get the logic. Is there something I'm missing? Faminalizblr (talk) 16:25, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's a wide difference between writing about a subject you're interested in and about a subject you have a conflict of interest in. —Cryptic 19:11, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah that makes sense.

I don't feel that I have a conflict of interest though. Perhaps I just need more practice writing in a more neutral tone.

Thank you for your advice. I appreciate your time and your responsiveness. Faminalizblr (talk) 22:14, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship	from the Birthday Committee
Wishing Cryptic a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! -- Ezra Cricket (talk) 18:56, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Cryptic, I am contacting you regarding the article: Draft:Immigrant Invest. I ask you to do a favor and restore the article in the Drafts zone. I'll rework the article. Thank you! MazzDak (talk) 12:53, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This wasn't at all a close call, and it would need to change very drastically to no longer be deletable-on-sight. To even come close to borderline - and that's the borderline between being immediately deleted and merely rejected as a draft, not the borderline to being accepted as an article - I'd think half of the lead and the History sections would need to go, the Services section reduced to two or three sentences at most, and the Publications, Conferences, and Memberships sections removed entirely. (And another administrator still might legitimately delete it then.) I'm reluctant to restore. I'd be willing to mail it, if you enable an email address in Special:Preferences, but be aware reposting anything resembling this version will just get deleted again and increase scrutiny of any later versions. —Cryptic 22:41, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Cryptic. I have closed Wikipedia:Files for discussion/2023 November 6#File:Eintracht Frankfurt historial.png as per your suggestion to crop out the non-free logo on the right. When you have a moment could you please take care of that? Thanks, FASTILY 06:25, 15 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is Regarding Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Smiley Children Society

initially how can we download the deleted article, so that it can be stored with references, and added in Wikipedia when it gets notability

second thing is, is it not possible to move the page to draft space and add the information and keep for admin approval,

Thanks CAJaganaddamRJY (talk) 08:53, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's a pretty one-sided afd. Someone at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion might... maybe... possibly be willing to email it to you, if you make it clear that you want it emailed - not restored - and promise not to attempt to put it back on Wikipedia. I'm not. The time to start thinking about an article is after something becomes notable, not as a vehicle to get it there. —Cryptic 11:18, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In your edit summary you mentioned WP:PERM. Did you mean to say I posted in the wrong place? Because WP:PERM says "This is not the place to request review of another user's rights. If you believe someone's actions merit removal of a permission flag, you should raise your concern at the incidents noticeboard." So it's unclear for me why you linked WP:PERM? Or was that meant as a hint for the user as to where to request the right in the future? — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 06:41, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I was directing them there to regain it; I gave the full name of the page in the edit itself. —Cryptic 06:43, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I had opened the page history and assumed the last edit (by you) was the "yanked" comment, but between loading the page and opening the history the discussion developed further. I'm not paying sufficient attention it seems, sorry for the confusion. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 06:48, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding this comment [1]. He's reverted 3 separate edits of mine I've edited Wikipedia since 2007 and were the situation reversed I wouldn't argue that wasn't a violation. You appear to imply that if I were to undo his edits in 3 consecutive edits that would be OK. Can I just check that is your implication and the intention of the restriction? I ask because it overturns all of my understanding of 3RR, so much so I'm considering requesting a clarification at WP:AE WCM_email 10:03, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's right out of WP:3RR: "A series of consecutively saved reverting edits by one user, with no intervening edits by another user, counts as one revert." WP:1RR incorporates that language by reference.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's OK to revert them back, but it's no worse than reverting all of their edits in a single one of yours. Does pose a risk of someone editing another part of the article in between, though. —Cryptic 10:08, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. WCM_email 11:02, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your commentary this morning, I appreciate the redirection of my mistaken understanding of policy. Could I beg a favour and ask if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on my talk page for a while. I suspect some false accusations are headed my way. WCM_email 16:06, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't notify any of the other participants in the DRV because I didn't want to be accused of canvassing, and I don't think that I have ever reported a user at Arbitration Enforcement, because often I am trying to mediate a dispute in these areas. I agree that leniency, as in a logged warning, is in order. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:30, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Cryptic! Thanks for the response here—do you know when/how the imagestyle parameter addition can be merged into {{Infobox company}} so it can be used in that article? — Bilorv (talk) 17:09, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's actually still live in Template:Infobox company/sandbox; I had meant to revert it from there by now. I think making an image with a non-transparent background is the better solution, and not just because of the poor margins - imagestyle isn't really meant for top-level infobox templates. (At least, that's how I understand it. I don't work with infoboxes much; I've always thought them an eyesore whose primary purpose was to make it easier for Google to profit off our work. Though I guess Wikidata's their preferred method these days.)

If you really want the parameter merged in, though, make an edit request on Template talk:Infobox company. I'm not going to edit the live template myself. —Cryptic 18:18, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, got it. Thanks. — Bilorv (talk) 19:05, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings Críptico,

I would like to report that the user "79a" is editing the article Arlyzinho BR, adding non-factual information without supporting references. As the original author of the article, based on research, I am concerned about the user "79a" attempting to link information without specific reference data to substantiate their claims. I kindly request a review of the situation, as this is notably compromising the quality of the content. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Zp124 (talk) 19:11, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You came to me, specifically, about this - why? —Cryptic 22:59, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Cryptic! Confirmado na pt.wiki e reportado no meta. 79a (talk) 11:06, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article was deleted repeatedly, recreated multiple times under multiple titles to avoid the deletion, deleted and s saltethen d, grudgingly and baselessly allowed back into draft space, moved into mainspace without review or approval under a new title to avoid the salting. Why did you unsalt?it. You should resathisinonsense non-notable, unreliably sourced fancruft. t. Banks Irk (talk) 04:03, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It already existed when I unblacklisted it; all my edit did was make it possible to create the talk page. AFD is ---> over there. —Cryptic 04:28, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the explanation. What a mess. Banks Irk (talk) 11:55, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Do I understand correctly how the deletion and salting was evaded? Anybody with pagemover rights can just ignore salting? User talk:Extraordinary Writ/Archive 9#Why was this fancruft nonsense undeleted? Banks Irk (talk) 23:04, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Already aware of that (and had commented there previously). Let's keep it in the one place. —Cryptic 02:29, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Would have sent a beer but it's only 9am where I am, so a tad early for that. ;) Thanks for dealing with the music academy mess, appreciate it! -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 09:20, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hunh. I've never had, or even heard of. (Confused it with baccarat between seeing the summary and the image, and was wondering why someone would put that in wikilove.) Looks unhealthy, so must be good. —Cryptic 09:25, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, it's good, alright. Maybe not the stale stuff you usually get in shops, but if you're ever in Turkey, they have pastry shops specialising in this stuff, and it's to die for (and I don't even like sweet stuff, especially). You do need something to cut through the sweetness, though, such as tea... or indeed my personal favourite, the aforementioned beer. :) -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:21, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, just so you're aware: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Melodica Music & Dance School. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 11:06, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]