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The Bureaucrats' noticeboard is a place where items related to the Bureaucrats can be discussed and coordinated. Any user is welcome to leave a message or join the discussion here. Please start a new section for each topic.

This is not a forum for grievances. It is a specific noticeboard addressing Bureaucrat-related issues. If you want to know more about an action by a particular bureaucrat, you should first raise the matter with them on their talk page. Please stay on topic, remain civil, and remember to assume good faith. Take extraneous comments or threads to relevant talk pages.

If you are here to report that an RFA or an RFB is "overdue" or "expired", please wait at least 12 hours from the scheduled end time before making a post here about it. There are a fair number of active bureaucrats; and an eye is being kept on the time remaining on these discussions. Thank you for your patience.

To request that your administrator status be removed, initiate a new section below.

Crat tasks
RfAs	0
RfBs	0
Overdue RfBs	0
Overdue RfAs	0
BRFAs	12
Approved BRFAs	0

Requests for adminship and bureaucratship update
No current discussions. Recent RfAs, recent RfBs: (successful, unsuccessful)

It is 22:38:19 on May 23, 2024, according to the server's time and date.

Hello everyone

Just wanted to say, hello old friends, if any of you are still here. I've determined to make time in my life for this project again this year, after career and other obligations prevented me from doing so for the last five years or so. All my permissions are (quite rightly) long gone, I'm afraid, so it's just article work for now, but that's what it's all about, after all. I just wanted to check in here, since I spent so much time on and around this noticeboard in the past. I've missed you all and I hope you've been well. Dan 02:44, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WP Japan! 03:47, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What a wonderful surprise. Welcome back, Rdsmith4! :) Acalamari 12:15, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Great to see you back. Whilst you may not have the permissions anymore, please do feel free to comment on discussions here if you're around. We welcome your thoughts and good judgment. WJBscribe (talk) 13:05, 14 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back from me, too. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 23:03, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks guys! Dweller, I love your "Old Fashioned Wikipedian Values" campaign, what a great idea. WJB, thanks so much, and I'll contribute what I can, but I doubt I'll chime in for a while -- much has changed and I need to find my footing first (and do plenty of article work, which is what got me hooked on Wikipedia in the first place). Dan 09:05, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Dan. You (and anyone else reading this) are warmly invited to sign up, here! --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:12, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Rdsmith4, best little 'crat ever! [Bishzilla sticks the little Dan in her pocket and pours concrete over the catflap.] Not getting away again! Stay! bishzilla _ROARR!! 23:14, 15 February 2017 (UTC).[reply]

We do have a few tunnels and emergency escape routes built into the pocket, you know, Dan. Particularly for weekends, when the servers from the strip clubs come in to work the admin/crat lounge. John Carter (talk) 23:19, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I can't imagine what it was about Rdsmith4 that endeared him to you, 'Zilla [1]. Besides, I believe he is still defending reckless endangerment suits after 'Zilla went on a fire-breathing stampede having overdosed on the new-found power... WJBscribe (talk) 01:28, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

LOL! Hello Zilla, I'm so happy to see you're still here! And though I may have courted controversy with a few permissions decisions, I'm glad to say Bishzilla's never caused me any headaches or regrets. :-) Dan 08:57, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's probably because you really can't feel anything after your head's been bitten off. Lectonar (talk) 09:06, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hmpf. [Bishzilla playfully sends her new pet Komodobish on the scent of @WJBscribe and Lectonar:] Good little smeller! Never give up! bishzilla _ROARR!! 09:45, 16 February 2017 (UTC).[reply]

A Hi, to you. :). Junosoon (talk) 09:13, 18 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Elections for New Page Patrol/Review coordinators

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The election is now open for voters. Voting has now begun for two NPP/NPR coordinators and will remain open until 23:59 UTC Monday 06 March. All registered, confirmed editors are welcome to vote. Please vote HERE. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 18:08, 21 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Resysop request: BU Rob13

BU Rob13 (current rights · rights management · rights log (local) · rights log (global/meta) · block log)

I requested desysop a month ago due to harassment concerns. Since then, something has changed in my personal situation that lessens those concerns. Some members of the Arbitration Committee are aware of the full situation, but I do not plan to expand further on what happened on-wiki. In any event, I wish to return to actively using the mop to improve the encyclopedia. ~ Rob₁₃^Talk 23:34, 21 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bureaucrat note: Self request was here on BN, Special:Diff/762720157. — xaosflux ^Talk 00:14, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

On hold Standard 24 hour hold for commentary opportunity. — xaosflux ^Talk 00:19, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No concerns, note: email response from an arbcom member indicates no "clouds" are in play related to the non-public arbcom info. — xaosflux ^Talk 04:05, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No concerns. –xeno^talk 14:59, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
No concerns from me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WP Japan! 21:28, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Done - Welcome back. WJBscribe (talk) 23:33, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bureaucrat mailing list

Do we still need the mailing list? It was arguably useful for processing privacy-related rename requests. These are now sent to the global renamer mailing list. All we now seem to be getting is spam and complaints about admins, to which replies are sent directing people to the correct noticeboard. All of our business can - and should - be discussed on wiki, so I propose that we now close the list. WJBscribe (talk) 14:40, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The only usecase I can think of is someone wanting to disclose a privacy-sensitive issue about an RfA candidate. This is rather rare. –xeno^talk 14:57, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

All in all, unless there is a cost associated with it, I'd rather have it even if unused than not have it and one day find out a use we'd have needed it for. Plus, we never know in the future what else it may be needed for. It can still be useful to discuss RfX closures (even if not currently used for it, as I understand). ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 15:11, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It is a boring mailing list, we did use it once recently for non-public information about a resysop candidate. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:54, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

So the issue is just a lot of emails being sent to y'all through the mailing list that shouldn't go there? Instead of getting rid of it, perhaps it should be converted to a members-only list with messages from outside the list of bureaucrats and functionaries (since they may have good cause to email) requiring approval by someone in charge of the list? That way you at least cut down on the spam reaching every bureaucrat's inbox. ~ Rob₁₃^Talk 21:51, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think there's a broader issue. FWIW, I have long been an opponent of mailing lists, and would prefer we didn't use them unless absolutely necessary. My main reasons being:

Transparency. They create a temptation for people to have private conversations that should be had here (e.g. RfX closes as Salvidrim! mentions). This temptation is magnified where decisions are likely to be controversial, which is exactly when I think they benefit from more outside scrutiny; and
Security. The main justification for these lists is private information, but they are extremely insecure. Messages get sent to every subscriber on the list, so the failure point is the weakest/pwned password of any of the list subscribers. Plus the list archives are available to future subscribers of the list, so the sender is trusting their information to unknown people who may be given access to the list in the future.

I should flag that I have always opposed this mailing list, which I wish had not been created. I had hoped that, now we no longer handle renames, we might be able to do away with it. WJBscribe (talk) 23:10, 22 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have zero opinion on this, but I do have a question. People who want a rename sometimes email arbcom or arbs thinking we can do it/are the right place for it. Awhile back I tried to fix some of the on-wiki documentation about this, and removed a suggestion on one of the relevant pages (I forget where) to email the crats. A crat suggested I leave it in, because many local crats are also renamers and the list is smaller than the global renamer list, so a sensitive request would go to fewer people and they'd all be familiar with the enwiki context. Is the crat list no longer receiving, or handling, these requests? Is there an enwiki-based-renamer list? Opabinia regalis (talk) 00:02, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is no enwiki-based-renamer list, just a global one. We do very occasionally receive emails in related to renames, and crats who are also global renamers will action such requests if appropriate. As far as I can tell, the bureaucrat mailing list has only received 3 rename-related requests since May 2016: on 1 December 2016, 7 October 2016, and 4 June 2016. My personal opinion is that the best way to get an enwiki global renamer you trust to carry out a sensitive rename is just to email them personally, bypassing the risk of mailing lists. WJBscribe (talk) 00:35, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the vanish requests these days come to the steward OTRS queue rather than the global renamers list (and I guess this one). Agreed that personally contacting a renamer that you trust is the best way for sensitive requests. -- Ajraddatz (talk) 00:57, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have personally never been a fan of having global renamers (or bureaucrats) handle right to vanish requests or other privacy-related renames. The role of the bureaucrat dates from well before Wikimedia's policies on handling private information (think CU/OS) and even today we don't generally factor "handling of sensitive information" into global renamer nominations. For what it's worth, the list is archived indefinitely and is much less secure (and even crats who are removed for cause still retain access to the emails that they received). The best option is contacting the stewards OTRS queue and asking them to handle the request. --Rs chen 7754 01:49, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Now that renames are handled globally, I have no objection to shutting down the mailing list. It arguably served a purpose that no longer exists. MBisanz ^talk 03:02, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]