McCormick & Baxter
[edit]You may be interested in taking a look at McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Company, which I recently got started. I've linked J. H. Baxter and Co. and Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company in the "see also" section, but I'm not sure if their relationship should be clarified in the article more explicitly. Zeibgeist (talk) 04:08, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- Cool, I'll take a look! I mostly made the connection through genealogy research, so it might be original research. Does the family ever make it explicit? Valfontis (talk) 04:14, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- The Oregonian articles I browsed never stated the relationship explicitly, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that the C. R. McCormick Jr. who co-founded McCormick & Baxter is the son of the Charles R. McCormick who founded the lumber company. I'd assume the two
McCormicksBaxters are related as well. I'll need to do a bit more digging to see if there are any sources that directly mention the connection. Zeibgeist (talk) 04:26, 6 September 2025 (UTC)- I established a connection between the Baxters by doing original research. Here is Mr. Baxter: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/281938640/howard-wentworth-baxter Do you have Newspapers.com? I do. I can dig through my clippings. I think I ran across an article about Charles Jr. (actually III) someplace online...maybe when I was looking up info on the proposed botanical garden. Valfontis (talk) 04:37, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- I don't have Newspapers.com; my subscription expired a while back and I haven't renewed it. That would be great if you're able to find some clippings! Zeibgeist (talk) 04:44, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- Come to think of it, I did see an Oregonian article that only mentioned McCormick as the owner of the company in the 1980s, which would make sense if H. W. Baxter died in 1957. Zeibgeist (talk) 04:48, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- I'll see what I can drum up. This is part of a slow, long-term effort to bring the history and ownership of privately owned PNW timber-related companies to light. They do a lot of philanthropy but kinda operate in the shadows! Valfontis (talk) 04:52, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- H.W. of McC&B did work for J.H.&B. It doesn't say they're related, but it's something. Valfontis (talk) 05:36, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- Best I could do. Valfontis (talk) 06:18, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- Nice, I'll keep that info in my back pocket for a potential expansion later on. Thanks for taking a look! Zeibgeist (talk) 06:23, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- Best I could do. Valfontis (talk) 06:18, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- H.W. of McC&B did work for J.H.&B. It doesn't say they're related, but it's something. Valfontis (talk) 05:36, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- I'll see what I can drum up. This is part of a slow, long-term effort to bring the history and ownership of privately owned PNW timber-related companies to light. They do a lot of philanthropy but kinda operate in the shadows! Valfontis (talk) 04:52, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- I established a connection between the Baxters by doing original research. Here is Mr. Baxter: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/281938640/howard-wentworth-baxter Do you have Newspapers.com? I do. I can dig through my clippings. I think I ran across an article about Charles Jr. (actually III) someplace online...maybe when I was looking up info on the proposed botanical garden. Valfontis (talk) 04:37, 6 September 2025 (UTC)
- The Oregonian articles I browsed never stated the relationship explicitly, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that the C. R. McCormick Jr. who co-founded McCormick & Baxter is the son of the Charles R. McCormick who founded the lumber company. I'd assume the two
Books & Bytes – Issue 70
[edit]Issue 70, July–August 2025
- New collections:
- Times of Malta
- Africa Intelligence
- Intelligence Online
- La Lettre
- Glitz
- Spotlight: Wikimania
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 13:16, 18 September 2025 (UTC)
(This message was sent to User:Valfontis and is being posted here due to a redirect.)
Administrators' newsletter – October 2025
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2025).

- After a motion, arbitration enforcement page protections no longer need to be logged in the AELOG. A bot now automatically posts protections at WP:AELOG/P. To facilitate this bot, protection summaries must include a link to the relevant CT page (e.g.
[[WP:CT/BLP]]), and you will receive talk page reminders if you forget to specify the contentious topic but otherwise indicate it is an AE action.
The Signpost: 20 October 2025
[edit]- News and notes: Board shuffles, LLM blocks increase, IPs are going away
- Special report: The election that isn't
- Interview: The BoT bump
- In the media: An incident at WikiConference North America; WMF reports AI-related traffic drop and explains Wikipedia to US conservatives
- Traffic report: One click after another
- Humour: Wikipedia pay rates
Guide to temporary accounts
[edit]Hello, Valfontis. This message is being sent to remind you of significant upcoming changes regarding logged-out editing.
Starting 4 November, logged-out editors will no longer have their IP address publicly displayed. Instead, they will have a temporary account (TA) associated with their edits. Users with some extended rights like administrators and CheckUsers, as well as users with the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will still be able to reveal temporary users' IP addresses and all contributions made by temporary accounts from a specific IP address or range.
How do temporary accounts work?
- When a logged-out user completes an edit or a logged action for the first time, a cookie will be set in this user's browser and a temporary account tied with this cookie will be automatically created for them. This account's name will follow the pattern:
~2025-12345-67(a tilde, year of creation, a number split into units of 5). - All subsequent actions by the temporary account user will be attributed to this username. The cookie will expire 90 days after its creation. As long as it exists, all edits made from this device will be attributed to this temporary account. It will be the same account even if the IP address changes, unless the user clears their cookies or uses a different device or web browser.
- A record of the IP address used at the time of each edit will be stored for 90 days after the edit. Users with the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will be able to see the underlying IP addresses.
- As a measure against vandalism, there are two limitations on the creation of temporary accounts:
- There has to be a minimum of 10 minutes between subsequent temporary account creations from the same IP (or /64 range in case of IPv6).
- There can be a maximum of 6 temporary accounts created from an IP (or /64 range) within a period of 24 hours.
Temporary account IP viewer user right
- Administrators may grant the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right to non-administrators who meet the criteria for granting. Importantly, an editor must make an explicit request for the permission (e.g. at WP:PERM/TAIV)—administrators are not permitted to assign the right without a request.
- Administrators will automatically be able to see temporary account IP information once they have accepted the Access to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy via Special:Preferences or via the onboarding dialog which comes up after temporary accounts are deployed.
Impact for administrators
- It will be possible to block many abusers by just blocking their temporary accounts. A blocked person won't be able to create new temporary accounts quickly if the admin selects the autoblock option.
- It will still be possible to block an IP address or IP range.
- Temporary accounts will not be retroactively applied to contributions made before the deployment. On Special:Contributions, you will be able to see existing IP user contributions, but not new contributions made by temporary accounts on that IP address. Instead, you should use Special:IPContributions for this (see a video about IPContributions in a gallery below).
Rules about IP information disclosure
- Publicizing an IP address gained through TAIV access is generally not allowed (e.g. ~2025-12345-67 previously edited as 192.0.2.1 or ~2025-12345-67's IP address is 192.0.2.1).
- Publicly linking a TA to another TA is allowed if "reasonably believed to be necessary". (e.g.
~2025-12345-67 and ~2025-12345-68 are likely the same person, so I am counting their reverts together toward 3RR
, but not Hey ~2025-12345-68, you did some good editing as ~2025-12345-67) - See Wikipedia:Temporary account IP viewer § What can and can't be said for more detailed guidelines.
Useful tools for patrollers
- It is possible to view if a user has opted-in to view temporary account IPs via the User Info card, available in Preferences → Appearance → Advanced options →
Enable the user info card
- This feature also makes it possible for anyone to see the approximate count of temporary accounts active on the same IP address range.
- Special:IPContributions allows viewing all edits and temporary accounts connected to a specific IP address or IP range.
- Similarly, Special:GlobalContributions supports global search for a given temporary account's activity.
- The auto-reveal feature (see video below) allows users with the right permissions to automatically reveal all IP addresses for a limited time window.
Videos
-
How to use Special:IPContributions
-
How automatic IP reveal works
-
How to use IP Info
-
How to use User Info
Further information and discussion
- For more information and discussion regarding this change, please see the announcement from the Wikimedia Foundation at Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF) § Temporary accounts rollout.
Most of this message was written by Mz7 (source). Thanks, 🎃 SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 02:47, 31 October 2025 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2025
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2025).

- The speedy deletion criteria U5 has been repealed, with U6 and U7 replacing it. See the FAQ for more clarifications.
- Community-designated contentious topics may now be enforced and appealed at the arbitration enforcement noticeboard (AE) as a result of an RfC.
- You can enable a handy user info card next to usernames, which when clicked displays edit count, blocks, thanks, and other information. To enable this feature, visit Preferences → Appearance → Advanced options →
Enable the user info card
- The arbitration case Transgender healthcare and people has been closed
- Uninvolved administrators may impose an AE participation restriction on any thread at the Arbitration Enforcement noticeboard.
- An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!
The Signpost: 10 November 2025
[edit]- News and notes: Temporary accounts go live and WMF board member self-suspends
- Wikicup report: BeanieFan11, WikiCup victor of 2025, covers the results
- Recent research: Taking stock of the 2024–2025 research grants
- Obituary: Struway
- Comix: Head of steam
