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The Barnstar of Diligence

Hi Maxim! I wanted to thank you personally for your contributions to the Arbitration Committee. I've observed that you played a key role during your term in responding to the steady stream of block and ban appeals that come in—making sure they are tracked and answered in an organized fashion. I know that arb work isn't always the most rewarding experience, in part because much of the work you do is behind-the-scenes and invisible to the broader community. For your diligent work in this thankless role, please accept this barnstar. Best wishes for the new year! Mz7 (talk) 21:45, 31 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

	Happy New Year!
	Hello Maxim: Did you know ... that back in 1885, Wikipedia editors wrote Good Articles with axes, hammers and chisels? Thank you for your contributions to this encyclopedia using 21st century technology. I hope you don't get any unnecessary blisters. CAPTAIN RAJU(T) 22:31, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Spread the WikiLove; use ((subst:Happy New Year elves)) to send this message

CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 22:31, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The RfA for MB has gone to a bureaucrat chat. Please join in the discussion. Primefac (talk) 15:01, 8 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Curtis Joseph has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Onegreatjoke (talk) 00:19, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Guessing you'll see the email before this talk page message but just in case.... Barkeep49 (talk) 01:27, 19 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Precious

Eight years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:14, 28 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy bureaucratship anniversary! Hi Maxim! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy anniversary of your successful request for bureaucratship. Enjoy this special day! interstatefive  00:03, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy bureaucratship anniversary! Hi Maxim! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy anniversary of your successful request for bureaucratship. Enjoy this special day! Dinoz1 (chat?) (he/him) 15:25, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dinoz1 (chat?) (he/him) 15:25, 1 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's ok to discuss this, but make it a public discussion, where I can defend myself. I was rather friendly in the discussion and Tony Ballioni strongly justified my block, to answer to that is only fair. Accusing me of Ethno-nationalist debates for reverting a disruptive and eventually blocked editor in a joint operation with another editor and justifying their oppose to the unblock based on that, is at least questionable. I edit for the calmness of wikipedia, and for this I get blocked...is this justice? Paradise Chronicle (talk) 23:12, 27 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You might not realize this @Paradise Chronicle but Maxim is no longer an arbitrator. Barkeep49 (talk) 00:29, 28 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah but they seemed to suggest it. Anyhow, most of who commented at that discussion are just wielding the block weapon and have no diffs for an eventual disruption nor do they even consider my arguments for a solution. I was correct with the ArbCom, the ArbCom told me all is good. Why former members of the ArbCom are now thinking of a block is a bit of a mystery to me.Paradise Chronicle (talk) 01:03, 28 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure how "having served", being in the past tense, could suggest that I am still an arbitrator. Paradise Chronicle, I don't think you realize how much luck you've had in your dealings with ArbCom. It's not that you simply won the lottery, but it's that you've won the lottery at least twice, given the unblock and the follow-up emails, and perhaps even thrice if we consider that you got out of this case with only a warning (Tony's recent comments suggest to me that a more thorough examination of your behaviour may have been appropriate at the time, but not that much was presented in the evidence phase). I urge you to quit while you're ahead, provided that's still possible. Maxim (talk) 11:37, 28 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Maxim. 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 remove this notice at any time by removing the ((You've got mail)) or ((ygm)) template.Barkeep49 (talk) 23:38, 27 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Pppery/Bureaucrat chat and join the discussion when you have an opportunity. Maxim (talk) 18:12, 7 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a log of every request for adminship that was closed via bureaucrat chat? Thank you. CityOfSilver 18:42, 7 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi CityOfSilver, see WP:CRATCHAT, which I believe is exhaustive since the beginning of time. Maxim (talk) 18:44, 7 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

What's hilarious is that I came here to pester you only after I tried WP:BUREAUCRATCHAT and struck out. Thanks again! CityOfSilver 18:52, 7 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Maxim,Yunshui here unfortunately I lost access to my old account as I've forgotten my password and don't use that email anymore. I'm back and am ready to get back to editing again so please let me know if there's a way to get my account back. Yunsui (talk) 09:48, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've taken the liberty of assigning the appropriate editing privileges. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 11:19, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

But you should have given mass message sender first so "Yunshui" could have asked every bureaucrat directly that much more easily... :-) Maxim (talk) 15:54, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I'm cleaning up various syntax errors across Wikipedia that are collectively called WP:LINT, and the particular error I'm focused on, the tidy font error, I have down to 1900 errors on less than 400 pages. 38 pages you full protected, and per WP:RPPD I was wondering if you had any objection to lowing their protection to allow me to address these issues. The pages of interest are User talk:Sceptre archives 1, 3 through 16, 18 through 29, 31, 32, 35, 37 through 41, 43, 46, and 48. Do you have any objection to these pages being lowered?

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. I have Extended Confirmed access, so that or lower is fine, and assuming this is a temporary lowering, I'd let you know when I was finished with the set.

Thanks, Zinnober9 (talk) 18:47, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sceptre, what do you think of setting all of those archive pages to ECP protection permanently? It's probably what we would have done 15 years ago had we had that option... Maxim (talk) 01:19, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That’s fine by me. Sceptre (talk) 01:24, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Zinnober9, I've changed the affected archive pages to permanent extended confirmed protection instead. Maxim (talk) 01:33, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both, I'll get on those shortly. I see that Archives 5 through 9 seem to have been skipped. Any issue with those?

I'm also interested in Archive 57 being lowered for the Tidy Fonts. I had not included it in this requested set initially since it was protected by PeterSymonds (on Sceptre's request), but since Sceptre has given the okay, I'd assume you could lower that one as well? Zinnober9 (talk) 01:47, 15 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The issue was that Special:PrefixIndex spits out pages in alphabetical and not numerical order (so archive 1, 10, 11, ... , 2, 20, 21, and so on) and I cut off at 48, skipping 5–9. I think everything is sorted out now. Maxim (talk) 02:04, 15 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect, thank you! Zinnober9 (talk) 02:31, 15 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

...that you're running for ArbCom again. You have my support! :D Acalamari 21:28, 18 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the kind words, Acalamari. It is very heartening to read that some are excited to see me run again. :-) Maxim (talk) 00:51, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

November songs

story · music

Thank you for standing to become arbitrator again! My story today is Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, - the composer, born OTD 110 years ago, didn't want it shorter (but the publisher), - more here. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:55, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know that I made ((Benjamin Britten)), 10 years ago on the occasion of his centenary? And have a tradition of presenting one of his works when his birthday returns, such as this latest? - Thank you for a reply to my cand question. I may discuss it after tomorrow's concert when we will sing the Mozart and listen to Pärt's urgent call for peace played by the strings, - I'm not in the mood before ;) - I mentioned Pärt for a reason, could have been Beethoven as well, in other words: I believe it's time for a fresh look, as we were told 10 years ago. - "Infobox chaos": no idea when that happened where. I met the conflict in 2012, for Samuel Barber, and then we discussed operas such as Siegfried, and we three discussing cordially (I think) were admonished by arbitration a few weeks later - no idea why, still ;) (the discussion is still on the talk, 10 years later) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:12, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The concert was good, User Talk:Gerda Arendt#Mozart Requiem --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:59, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your answer: the status quo is that editors are compared to armies, and I think that could be improved ;) - Many new editors have no idea of any conflict - we had years without disputes, remember? - and may be surprised that what they added thinking they improved Wikipedia is reverted citing some "PR/FAC" abbreviation they may not understand, instead of an argument. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:39, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Today: in memoriam Jerome Kohl who said (In Freundschaft): "and I hope that they have met again in the beyond and are making joyous music together" --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:13, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for replying to my question; I didn't want to reply there as it doesn't seem overly relevant, but in regards to:

On the other hand, if the push-back happened to be related to a Committee decision, then there would be a responsibility to carefully review the original decision, at least internally. Perhaps it was communicated poorly, or perhaps it is indeed just a poor decision. Committees of the past have certainly made questionable calls, but I don't recall them provoking mass wheel and edit warring, and I like to think that it comes as much as anything from the fact that around this time each year, we as a community can chuck out half the committee, and the rest of it the year after.

My belief is that if there comes a point that ARBCOM makes such a questionable call (one example that comes to mind was the proposed source language restriction) that the community feels it cannot stand, the community will just abuse the ratification and amendment process to overturn it - I don't think it would come to any sort of edit or wheel warring because there is a clear path to correcting it through established processes. BilledMammal (talk) 13:45, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's a very fair point. The hypothetical of a Fram-style situation with regards to an ArbCom decision made me think back to the older days of the Committee where we had incidents between ArbCom and the community that we can call "near misses", but there wasn't a clean way of amending ARBPOL—that process was only put in place in June 2011. If one goes even further down this kind of rabbit hole, ex-arbitrators were only removed from arbcom-l in January 2009 (in part, I believe, due to too much kibbitzing; this is how functionaries-en was created), and, to the best of my knowledge, Jimbo was still "interpreting" election results as late as December 2008 (Special:Diff/259248025). Maxim (talk) 14:34, 25 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add ((NoACEMM)) to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:26, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

December songs

story · music

Today's story is about Maria Callas, on her centenary. - Aaron Copland died OTD, and Jerome Kohl (mentioned in November) said something wise on Copland's talk, - yes, regarding a soft(er) stance towards infoboxes. - I can't follow your point that no compromise can be had because it's infobox or no infobox. The compromise offered by Brian Boulton in 2013 is a minimal box (which he called identibox), - his version is in Percy Grainger, my version in Beethoven (not by me but the community), and I wonder why that has not won more traction. Instead, opposers now came up with the idea that a link to a list of a composer's works is somehow a breach of MoS guidelines (Rossini), which sounds absurd to me. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:59, 2 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did you check out the history of the infobox of Callas? Compare Jessye Norman, Kathleen Ferrier and Jenny Lind. Did you check out the history of Copland? Compare Max Reger, Max Beckschäfer, Colin Mawby (from today's story), and Benjamin Britten (who died OTD). What's the difference? If what you see changes your answer to my question, feel free to change, and ping me. I would like to see a way to avoid in the future hundreds of editors commenting on Mozart RfCs, just to kind of restore the infobox he had in 2006. Happy new era ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:32, 4 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Today, I managed to get the pics to snow (on 28 Nov), and heard a lovely concert, after listening to a miracle of meditative dreaming on 6 December (or just click on music). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:04, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

... and today, to Paris (29 Nov) with a visit to the Palais Garnier, - to match the story of Medea Amiranashvili, - don't miss listening to her expressive voice. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:07, 9 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My story today is about Michael Robinson, - it's an honour to have known him. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:11, 13 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Today, I have a special story to tell, of the works of a musician born 300 years ago. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:44, 22 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations to your election! - I uploaded more pics, with Christmas trees and related artworks, and I have two women on the Main page (for a sad reason). Our Christmas singing (of my user's infobox music "singen, singen") was pictured! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:59, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

❄️ Happy holidays! ❄️

Hi Maxim! I'd like to wish you a splendid solstice season as we wrap up the year. Here is an artwork, made individually for you, to celebrate. I like how the AI extended the puzzle pieces to the gifts in this one. Best wishes with all your 'crat work! Take care, and thanks for all you do to make Wikipedia better!

Cheers,
((u|Sdkb)) ^talk

Solstice Celebration for Maxim, 2023, DALL·E 3.

(View full series)

Note: The vibes are winter solsticey. If you're in the southern hemisphere, oops, apologies.

((u|Sdkb)) ^talk 06:46, 24 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

~ ~ ~ Merry Christmas! ~ ~ ~

Hello Maxim: Enjoy the holiday season and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, Spread the love; use ((subst:User:Dustfreeworld/Xmas1)) to send this message.

CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 21:09, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Maxim, you have been elected to the arbitration committee! The results of the election are available here: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2023#Results. You will likely be contacted by the existing committee for onboarding. Best regards, — xaosflux ^Talk 01:43, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats/condolences. I hope you are once again a voice of reason on the committee. They need it. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 02:49, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations, Maxim! And good luck with all of those email messages! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 05:59, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for the congratulations (or condolences). I'm curious to see how this year goes. We'll have an interesting mix of rookies and veterans; a strong majority of the committee is either going into a first year or a fourth year of service. Maxim (talk) 13:32, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Well done, Maxim, I'm glad you're back on ArbCom! :D Acalamari 12:46, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Arbitration Committee welcomes the following new and returning arbitrators following their election by the community. The two-year terms of these arbitrators formally begin on 1 January 2024:

• Aoidh (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Cabayi (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Firefly (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• HJ Mitchell (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Maxim (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Sdrqaz (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• ToBeFree (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Z1720 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Upon meeting the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public personal data and signing the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement, all incoming arbitrators will be subscribed to all Committee-managed email lists, assigned the CheckUser and Oversight permissions for use in office, and given access to the CheckUser and Oversight queues on the VRTS system.

We also thank our outgoing colleagues whose terms end on 31 December 2023:

• Enterprisey (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Izno (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• SilkTork (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
• Wugapodes (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Outgoing arbitrators are eligible to retain the CheckUser and Oversight permissions, to remain active on cases accepted before their term ended, and to remain subscribed to the functionaries' and arbitration clerks' mailing lists following their term on the committee. To that effect:

• Stewards are requested to remove the permission(s) noted from the following outgoing arbitrators, who have not elected to retain them, after 31 December 2023:

  CheckUser: Enterprisey, Izno, SilkTork

  Oversight: Enterprisey, Izno, SilkTork

• Outgoing arbitrators are eligible to remain active on cases opened before their term ended if they wish. Whether or not outgoing arbitrators will remain active on any ongoing case(s) will be noted on the proposed decision talk page of affected case(s).
• All outgoing arbitrators will remain subscribed to the functionaries' mailing list, with the exception of Enterprisey, who has elected to be unsubscribed.
• All outgoing arbitrators will be unsubscribed from the clerks-l mailing list, with the exception of Izno, who has elected to remain subscribed.

For the Arbitration Committee, KevinL (aka L235 · t · c) 04:24, 30 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Discuss this at: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard § 2024 Arbitration Committee

Happy New Year!

Hello Maxim: Thanks for all of your contributions to Wikipedia, and have a great New Year! Cheers, CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 19:30, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Send New Year cheer by adding ((subst:Happy New Year snowman)) to people's talk pages with a friendly message.

CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 19:30, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Good Afternoon,

I wish to enquire under what arbitration case the sockpuppet user WacoBell was unblocked? I can't find the arbitration case you refer to in their unblocking, and on the talk page their most recent edit was removing the fact their appeal was declined in December (Decline dif, removal dif) which hardly seems the behaviour of someone deserving of such treatment. Rambling Rambler (talk) 17:32, 13 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Rambling Rambler, the Arbitration Committee hears block appeals in certain cases; the majority of these are appeals of CheckUser blocks. The on-wiki documentation for this ArbCom function is not the greatest, but you can see Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Ban appeals and Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Appeals for more information. Users who get unblocked are entitled to archive their talk pages as they wish. While a user is blocked, declined appeals should not be removed, but they're visible in the history, and doing so is not treated as an automatic disqualifier. I also want to note that just because ArbCom has accepted appeal, it does not preclude reinstating a block if there is disruption. I notice you have reverted and warned WacoBell since the unblock, so if you believe there is chronic disruptive editing, I would encourage you to file a report at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents (aka ANI) that describes, with diffs, the issues at hand with WacoBell's edits. Keep in mind that the ANI is not for content disputes, but if there are issues with sourcing, misrepresentation of sources, and similar, then that's a good place to go to. Maxim (talk) 14:22, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply @Maxim,

I was planning on filing an ANI but was preferring to hear a response here first. I think the fact they've already demonstrated the behaviour that got them blocked on their first account and tried to avoid the block on WacoBell via IP editing shows their behaviour is chronic and not likely to change.

Regards, Rambling Rambler (talk) 14:29, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Behavioral evidence has led me to believe Heyandwhoa's claim here that he is not a sockpuppet of Kingshowman as we have said in his block message. I mostly edit Wiktionary now and came across him there. He is not blocked there, although he had had some short-term blocks on the IG account, and I think he is mostly interested in Wiktionary and not Wikipedia, but even so, he is upset and may have at first believed that the administrators of Wiktionary were responsible for his indefinite block on Wikipedia. There is nothing we can do for him there, but I said I would pass the message along because it seems to me that Heyandwhoa could hardly have less in common in with Kingshowman. Unless we know that Kingshowman is fond of cleverly adopting wildly different personalities, I hope you will consider lifting the block on the Heyandwhoa account, or at least restoring his talkpage access here so he can make his case in his own words. Best regards, —Soap— 20:17, 27 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Soap, thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. I agree it is not Kingshowman; that much can be seen from the technical evidence. The two accounts are  confirmed to each other. Having spent some time reviewing my previous work, I am unsure why I made the association to Kingshowman; I cannot figure out how I made that connection at the time... Maxim (talk) 00:12, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day! Hi Maxim! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy anniversary of the day you made your first edit and became a Wikipedian! The Herald (Benison) (talk) 02:25, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]