User talk:Synoman Barris

Protection level of user talk pages, revision deletions, the bot flag, and test edits

Hi Synoman Barris,

I see that you are making the most of the administrator tools and the bureaucrat bit. However, as part of my daily review of our public logs, I noticed several important items I thought I should address with you, so that you know them for the future. Most of our policies are outlined, but we do rely a lot on a combination of common sense and unwritten customs and conventions that have normalized over time, so it's often helpful to advise users of these customs and conventions as they occur. Each is discussed in turn.

• Protection level of user talk pages. User talk pages should not be set any higher than autoconfirmed or registered, logged in user levels. This is because a bot and/or maintenance script need access to user talk pages in order to administer the inactivity notifications, as applicable, from time to time. Secondarily, as bureaucrats, we grant user rights, which sometimes are requested on our user talk pages. Additionally, non-administrators may have questions of us. Thus, for these reasons, we should not protect our user talk pages higher than those levels, as you did in this edit.
• Revision deletions. Unless it's on revision deletion test, you should always revert any revision deletions, and never hide the performer (principally, or most often, you) of the action. We value transparency on Public Test Wiki, so there is almost never a reason to hide the performer, as you did in this log action.
• The bot flag. While bureaucrats can grant, technically and procedurally, the bot flag, usually to their own account or sub-accounts, it should only be done for a temporary basis to prevent things like Special:RecentChanges flooding, as you did with your sub-account here and here. If you want to apply for a full, permanent bot account, you can request it at TestWiki:Bot approval requests, and a Consul will review your request in due course.
• Reverting test edits. Per this policy sub-section, you should always make sure you are undoing any test edits or log actions, including test page creations, test blocks, and other actions, broadly construed. I've noticed you are mostly doing this, and this is to your great credit, but have noted a few instances where it was not, so thought it would be a good reminder.

Thanks for your attention to these notes, and happy testing! :)

Cheers,
Dmehus (talk) 22:45, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Open proxy blocking

Hi Synoman Barris,

I personally have no issues with you blocking open proxy IP addresses per the global no open proxies policy as it's somewhere between harmless and potentially useful in that your blocking the open proxy IP addresses does create an entry in the #cvt-feed, which may give it an elevated prominence to Global Sysops and stewards. However, my only question is how you arrived at the varied duration of the blocks? Since they're anonymous only soft or soft-ish blocks, my first thought would be to make the local blocks for a 3-6 months, consistent with the global convention for such blocks. However, I could also see blocking for only a couple weeks to a month, since, presumably, these would be blocked on a global level eventually.

Anyway, hope this is helpful.

Cheers,
Dmehus (talk) 16:31, 26 September 2020 (UTC)