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Current issues

Omegatron

Omegatron undeleted HHO gas, an article to which he was a significant contributor, during deletion review; Omegatron rails on its deletion debate about repeated "disruptive" deletion nominations, but ignores the fact that all the previous deletion debates and reviews have ended in deletion. This is not acceptable behaviour. Guy (Help!) 07:17, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

a related message moved from WP:ANI:

An admin heavily involved in two articles ([1]-[2]) has undone its deletion.[3][4] while a DRV was under way. Could someone look into this and see if this is appropriate (I am not yet calling it the W-word). Can an admin unilaterally undo the deletion of "his" article if he disagrees? Nomen Nescio^{Gnothi seauton} 07:28, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I would note that, while the article was speedied/salted, the AfD never actually closed that I can tell. For several hours the AfD sat open with the Admin's rationale attached but template unremoved, and a DRV was open for eight hours in that time. Aside from any other problems (which I'm not stipulating are problems,) the speedy undelete did solve the problem of having an open and active DRV discussion while the AfD topic was still open and being commented upon. In fact, one user (apparently unrelated,) made a comment about a different DRV, then commented on the HHO DRV, then commented at the AfD in succession, leading me to believe that the open DRV led the user to the open AfD.

My opinion is that a) The DRV was premature, since the AfD hadn't closed, despite the deletion. b) Omegatron's actions, for whatever motivation, undid what was becoming a rapidly confusing situation. c) The AfD, in being permitted to continue, harmed nobody, where continuing the DRV in this state had potential for being harmful. No harm, no foul. LaughingVulcan 04:10, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I suggest we wait for the deletion debate to end, and just let things lie until then. If the AFD recommends it be deleted, the article being up for two or three more days won't kill anyone. Neil ╦ 10:16, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I would agree with the latter, except that this is over a year old. The HHO gas warring is ancient. In other words, the "harmless" recreation and persistence of it has been a forever presence. If AfD rules and DRV rules, then that's pretty much it for an article that isn't vastly rewritten. When the article concerns something that people are making money on, then that gets much worse. It is not a wheel war to re-delete it: delete is the status it has gotten from previous deliberations, and supporters of the article are the ones who should wait until reviews are done. It is a misuse of administrator's powers to undelete without process. Geogre 11:27, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

You realize that the people who would make money off of this want the article deleted, right? They don't want their hoax to be debunked, and are trying to hide it.

And "ancient" edit warring is not even close to criteria for deletion. Should we delete Palestine Liberation Organization because it's prone to being edited? AfD is for articles we shouldn't have, in any form, or articles that are completely unsalvageable in their current form. These articles are neither. The last DRV explicitly said that the topic was notable enough to have an article and could be recreated. — Omegatron 17:46, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

My rationale:

It was speedy deleted for inapplicable reasons, despite the fact that a large AfD was in progress with no consensus for deletion.

The "Recreation of deleted material" criteria is irrelevant; the previous deletion was reviewed and closed specifically stating that a new article could be created with proper sourcing. Nominator is fully aware of this, and is only repeatedly nominating the article to be disruptive.

The "Blatant advertising" criteria is also irrelevant; the article clearly states that this is a hoax, and provides several criticisms from notable sources.

In the DRV, you'll also see complaints about Nescio's past nominations being improper ("the the last AfD skipped my attention because it wasnt delsorted and User:Nescio didnt notify anyone involved about the Afd"), and similar complaints in the current AfD for slipping Brown's gas into the discussion without most voters being aware of it. (You'll see several votes for deletion of "the article", as if there's only one article being considered, the box at the top right of the page only shows previous AfDs for HHO gas, but doesn't show the previous AfDs for Brown's gas.) One of the votes for deletion was apparently a mistake, etc. etc.

And, since everyone tends to assume things without actually doing any research, I am not a promoter of this "technology"; I think this stuff is completely bogus, but it's our duty to cover stuff like this in Wikipedia. Jimbo agrees. In the past AfDs, promoters actually voted for deletion, because they don't want their products debunked on Wikipedia. (To my knowledge, Nescio is not a promoter, but might as well be.) Please read both articles from top to bottom. — Omegatron 12:09, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Could you retract the NPA suggesting I am involved in promoting this material, and could you correct the false statement regarding the mistaken opinion voiced. AFAIK the commentator has not retracted his opinion. Your suggestion he did is highly inappropriate in light of your other behaviour in this AfD. Nomen Nescio^{Gnothi seauton} 09:58, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

This article has been deleted three times now. Perhaps there is a glimmer of notability there, but if there is, it needs to be in an article called HHO gas hoax or something along those lines, because as proved over the course of the last year, a NPOV article called HHO gas appears to be impossible to write. Nevertheless, regardless of the validity of the G4 speedy, the last person to undelete this article should've been Omegatron who has a long edit history on the article. EliminatorJR ^Talk 12:49, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I think you mean "shouldn't have been Omegatron".  :-) And you're probably right. But everyone agrees the speedy was inappropriate, right? Speedy deletion is only for very uncontroversial cases. As John said, CSD doesn't stretch nearly this far. Assuming that the speedy is obviously improper, what should I do in a situation like this in the future?

I don't think a move to HHO gas hoax is appropriate (for the same reasons we don't have articles named "Water fuel cell hoax", "Allegations of Bigfoot", or "Supposed Loch Ness Monster sightings") but we can discuss it on the talk page if you want. No one but me and Nescio seem to be participating on the talk page at all at this point. Lots of criticism about the article's state, but no helping hands to fix it. I've listed a lot of things that need to be done or researched. — Omegatron 23:38, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I speedied the articles. I don't in general mind if people undo my admin actions, though not everyone feels that way and I think it is policy to talk to the admin first. The problem here is Omegatron using admin tools in a situation where he is involved as an editor, and a party to the discussion about deletion. Still, a one-time lapse in judgement should not be a big deal. Tom Harrison ^Talk 14:48, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

While the personal involvement of the undeleting admin may be problematic, I agree G4/G11 were clearly not applicable and/or erroneously assumed, the speedy deletions were "out of process" and shouldn't have happened in the first place. Femto 17:11, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Seconded. Man with two legs 00:02, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Deletion policy#Deletion review states, "If a page was obviously deleted "out of process" (per this policy), then an admin may choose to undelete it immediately." If the speedy deletion was unquestionably incorrect, any admin may restore it, even an involved one. --BigDT 00:06, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I would recommend not quoting out of context. The next two sentences after that one are: In such a case, the admin who deleted the page should be informed. If there is disagreement, or it is unclear whether it was out of process, it should be taken to deletion review. The determination of "unquestionably incorrect" does not equate to "I disagree with your action". -- JLaTondre 01:16, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Likewise, "should" does not equate to "must", but yes, next time there'd better be some notification. Looks like 17 minutes after the deletions were undone, the deleting admin was already aware of it anyway. [5] This is irrelevant to the validity of the undeletion itself however.

The context here is that the pages were incorrectly speedied, isn't it? By definition, you probably disagree with an action when you want to undo it. That's not what the policy means. "If there is disagreement" means that a case should be taken to deletion review 1. when you already know that people won't agree with your undeletion rationale, or 2. when it is not unreasonable to expect active opposition to an undeletion. None of this seems to have been the case here. Or does anybody still maintain that these pages can be properly deleted per G4/G11? Femto 15:21, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

My comment was generic and not specific to this situation. -- JLaTondre 20:15, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Notes to closing admin:

• I see a slight majority for keep (16:14?), but without a strong consensus for deletion, AfD defaults to keep, anyway.
• Note that several people who originally voted "delete" have since changed their minds. That counts for a lot.
• The discussions about specific editorial and neutrality issues will continue on the articles' talk pages, where they belong. AfD is not for editorial or inter-personal disputes. I've asked the other party to move the interpersonal stuff to an RfC anyway.

I hope everyone who has participated in this discussion will move to the article's talk page and help write a really high quality article. — Omegatron 19:48, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Note that the apparent change of heart was after this user aggressively pursued editors, voicing a delete opinion, to reconsider. Leading one party to withdraw all together and another to be incorrectly cited as having made the wrong comment. Although techniqually allowed I think that if we went after talk pages of all participants in AfD's, or other fora, this might be construed as at best an overly zealous persuasion technique. Nomen Nescio^{Gnothi seauton} 14:53, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm hereby registering my protest at the closure. It does not reflect consensus. If I counted correctly, 13 people recommended to delete, 20 to keep. Even considering the rough history of these articles, and allowing for individual judgement of the arguments, I fail to see how this can be justified as a community decision to delete per our deletion policy, not by a far shot. Femto 12:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Again the articles have been deleted inappropriately. Lack of consensus for deletion defaults to keep. Even if there was consensus for deleting HHO gas (there wasn't), there definitely isn't consensus for deleting Brown's gas. Will someone please restore these? — Omegatron 12:51, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Flameviper

Just thought I'd get some opinions on this. As outlined on my talk page, I have recently recieved a forwarded message from one of my adoptees, originally from Flameviper.

Quote from Flameviper's message: "Now, even though I'm banned, I'm not going to make an ass of myself. I hope that you can do better than I did when I was here. Perhaps you could even carry on my edits where I left off. But I'm sure you have better things to do that concern yourself with some crusty old vandal. I won't badger you if you don't want me around, but I would like to ask you one thing. Could you please ask someone to delete my user and talk pages? I really don't want those ominous, ill-concieved words to follow me everywhere I go. Ask Netsnipe, he'll understand." (This was to Two-Sixteen.)

I don't see any problem with acting on this request, but I'd like to get the views from more experienced admins before acting on anything, as the whole situation involved many users. Is there any reason why the pages still need to exist? Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 08:32, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Can you get a message back ask him to log in and email me, to confirm it's from him (or to log in and drop a message and a {{db-user}} tag on his talk page)? Neil ╦ 10:13, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't generally care very much about block notices on userpages, so delete the main page and blank the talk page if you like. I don't see a real reason to delete the talk page, but protecting blank should be good enough. Kusma (talk) 11:05, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

True, generally we're not supposed to delete talk pages. I've requested the email address that he used to contact 2-16 so I can email him. If he replies to that- his talk page is protected- I'll unprotect the talk page to allow him to request his userpage deletion, confirm that it is him. If he replies, I'll blank the talk page. (I'll also direct him here in the message). Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:36, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

He does have the Right to Vanish, which involves deleting one's talk page. This seems to be what he wants. Just ask him to log in and request deletion of his own talk page. Grandmasterka 19:38, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

He can request his talk page be deleted himself. No reason for us to do anything. EVula // talk // ☯ // 19:51, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

I would prefer the talk page not be deleted, but if the consensus is that it is appropriate in this case, then so be it. --Iamunknown 20:44, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually, his talkpage is protected and has been for months, so he can't request deletion there. Upon receiving confirmation that this is Flameviper's request, I would delete both pages, with the caveat that if he is found engaging in future misconduct they would have to be restored. Newyorkbrad 00:53, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

• This is going to get me shot, but would anyone support his unblocking? I'd like to work with him, be his mentor on the strict understanding that any future disruption results in re-blocking. Ryan Postlethwaite 00:56, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Well, the original post at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Archive74#User:Flameviper_needs_a_coach suggested just as much, but somehow it turned into an impromptu votes for banning thing, which is utterly ridiculous. So yeah, I would endorse an unblock. --Iamunknown 00:58, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I see no problem with that. CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 07:36, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm all for one final chance here, I always felt bad that a banning discussion would be headed under "needs a coach." However Ryan as his mentor you need to be absolutely clear that this is his final opportunity to come back with some maturity, Flameviper seems to have an expectation of an infinite amount of chances to redeem himself, as someone with six infinite bans in his block log, and now serving a 3 year ban at Uncyclopedia, he needs to realize that all patience has been exhausted. --MichaelLinnear 22:36, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

And the comment on his talk indicates some degree of self-awareness, so... why not, I guess. Guy (Help!) 22:40, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I trust your judgement, Ryan; if you think you can talk some sense into him, by all means unblock, as long as you're equally willing to reblock in the (I'm sad to say, but entirely likely) event that he doesn't pick up the clue phone. EVula // talk // ☯ // 22:59, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Unbanning is a bad idea. I remember dealing with this guy; he wasn't here to write the encyclopedia, just join an online community, participate in some web memes, etc. I don't see anything to be gained by unbanning him. He was very immature the last time he tried editing and not much time has passed in the intervening period, so it's very unlikely he's gotten any better. If you unblock, I predict more disruption and a not-so-distant re-banning. --Cyde Weys 15:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

To be fair, a timescale would help here. You seem to suggest he might mature at some point, so you could suggest a time after which he would be allowed to show this new maturity. Or you could just say that when he gets a clue, create a new account. Carcharoth 15:57, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I'll have to be with Cyde on this one, I really can't see any good coming out of unblocking Flameviper. As pointed out above, a reblock is almost entirely going to happen. If he is unblocked there will have to be very strict restrictions set upon his editing and behaviour, with even a little deviation outside those restrictions resulting in a new block. – Chacor 01:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Do we actually have a way of controlling or influencing Flameviper? His previous history shows him rejecting well-intended attempts to get him back on the right path. Anyone who hopes to work with him again should read through the set of comments about him in Archive74 and see if they still have the same hopeful opinion. Unblocking is not just an administrative action, all the rest of us would have to put up with whatever he unleashes on us, and clean up the mess. If this were an an Arbcom ban, he could apply to be unblocked after one year, which would be February, 2008. I think we can afford to wait until then. EdJohnston 01:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I have to agree with those opposing an unblock. I was one of the editors who dealt with him very frequently in his last months on Wikipedia (I was the one who imposed the 1 month block that was later extended to the indefinite block by Yanksox) and don't think this is a wise move. It's been four months since he was blocked. That is hardly enough time for him to mature out of that mindset he displayed on Wikipedia for a very long time (remember this wasn't his first issue, see User:Flameviper/socks). He never brought anything productive to this encyclopedia. It's not like he was a prolific editor who snapped occasionally. Metros 01:50, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Redirects to a protected page protected?

Michael Mullen has been semi-protected after he was nominated as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Do redirect pages like Mike Mullen typically get protected, or is it even necessary? DarkAudit 18:38, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Although I'm not an admin, I do know the answer to this one: no, they're usually not protected unless they're being vandalized as much as the article. See WP:BEANS --Captain Wikify ^Argh! 18:53, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree. The motives behind vandalism of redirect pages are different than for those of their targets (hey, I should know). YechielMan 23:34, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Michael Mullen is not semi-protected and never has been. Should it be? If so, list it at WP:RFPP. Chick Bowen 02:21, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Curious. It was tagged with semi-protection at the time I created the redirect page (~18:30 UTC yesterday). Does that mean a page can be tagged as protected without actually being protected? DarkAudit 14:52, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The actual protection is independent of the templates. The tags are just used to inform people that the pages are currently protected (since as far as I know, people without the admin flag wouldn't be able to tell whether a page is semi-protected or not without them). Anyone could add the templates on a page, but it's usually disruptive if the page isn't actually protected. - Bobet 15:02, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Non admins can tell, it just requires a certain level of knowledge about Wikipedia. If you click "edit this page" on a protected page, some red text appears above the edit window informing you that the page is semi-protected. Also, it shows up in the page history and logs. But one usually has to know what they're looking for to notice those things. Natalie 06:39, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

suggest we unblock Oh yEs itS caRly

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

For the record coelacan restored everything and the user sebsequently made it clear she was sticking by the decision not to edit again. Her user/talk pages have been deleted (after her request by blanking them) and the images deleted too. Thanks/wangi 17:35, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

---

Oh yEs itS caRly (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) was blocked indefinitely by Ryulong after creating an inappropriate username. This occurred after another user nominated many of her images for deletion. This was by no means an uncontroversial action, and while she may have overdone the images on her page, she was nevertheless an otherwise helpful contributor, whom I am now worried that we have driven away. I believe the username creation was a frustrated backlash, and certainly a personal attack, but an isolated incident. I would hope that the user can, if she chooses, return with some dignity without getting the "you are blocked" message in perpetuity, and other users have posted to her talk page asking her to come back, without realizing she currently cannot. She's now been blocked for about 91 hours. I would like to unblock now and let the block be "time served". Ryulong disagrees, so I'm posting here for discussion. ··coelacan 01:51, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The image deletions are spot on, the block is too long. But hey... I don't think it's that big a deal to unblock just now and then reblock if anything untoward happens... /wangi 01:59, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The image deletions by Ryulong went hand in hand with the indef-block; it doesn't make sense to keep images around for an indef blocked user. But if we unblock, I'd like to let the IFD discussions run the normal course; or perhaps relist them on today's IFD since there have been extenuating circumstances that may have affected the votes. I'll be content with any result from IFD. ··coelacan 02:05, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Ifds for personal images usually only result in delete if the image is not used and is not going to be used. I would prefer they be undeleted and then wait and see if the editor comes back to use the images. --Iamunknown 02:08, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Lets not piss around and waste time. We're not here to host around 10 unused personal images. If the user wants to upload another and use it on their user page then fair go, but lets not waste effort in undeleting and redeleting images just do be policy kranks. Ta/wangi 02:12, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Ahh, well, the reason they're not used is because the user blanked her page in "I'm leaving!!!" mode. They were previously used. I think I am reading Martinp23's opinion correctly to summarize that the images should have been left in place; Moreschi seems to say the same below. I think I would agree. Perhaps it is best to simply undelete the images and close the IFDs. They're in the server anyway; we don't save any disc space by having them displayed or not. I think restoring her page would be the most likely way to invite her to return, if she ever looks here again. ··coelacan 02:19, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I see where you're coming from... But personally I can't see the point. If the user returns then they may choose to resurrect their user page. If so we can undelete (a few!) or they can reupload - it's not a big deal. (I'm not really bothered if someone else undeletes them) /wangi 02:28, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't want her to have to run through the steps of figuring out how to petition for undeletion, and I'm willing to go ahead and do the work now. Since there was initially substantial opinion that her userpage should never have been handled in this way, I'm going to bring it back to the pre-incident state and hope for the best. I will also leave a note for her asking that she not use Wikipedia for more personal uploads, and I'll point her to flickr for that. If that plays out well, it should be a happy balance. ··coelacan 02:57, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Blocks should not be used for punishment, so this is not only a controversial indefinite block, but now that it is not "indefinite" it should just be over. Are we afraid this user is going to continue creating inappropiate accounts? Seems highly unlikely to me, so the block should be lifted unless it is to be seen as punishment. -- Renesis (talk) 02:00, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree, indef is too long. Unblock now, seeing as how he or she has already been blocked for 91 hours, and block (not indef, plz) regularly for personal attacks, inappropriate usernames, etc. --Iamunknown 02:02, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

BTW, might not have been clear... But I've already unblocked. Ta/wangi 02:03, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Speedy deletion request

Resolved

 – Or seems to be? – Luna Santin (talk) 07:31, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The shock fodder image Image:Harlequin_fetus.jpg (don't look unless you have to), which was uploaded by a user with more than one vandalism warning, has been given 7 days to get a legitimate copyright status. It is now capable of being speedily deleted. Can an admin please do so? Thanks, Andjam 06:43, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Looks like it's already been done. In the future, it may be quicker to add one of the speedy deletion templates - in this case, it'd be {{db-vandalism}}. Thanks for the note. Ral315 » 07:19, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

One could argue that it's a lot better to mention things like this somewhere else instead of tagging them and harming the virgin eyes of the admins looking through cat:csd. Some people don't have an appreciation for shock images. - Bobet 07:38, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I think we're all pretty hard nosed and have seen plenty of goatses in our time (alas). Secretlondon 21:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

{{Military-Insignia}}

Just a heads up, this template survived two tfds (barely) as no consensus, and on the talk page they've "reached a consensus" to deprecate it. At least one of the images on my watchlist was marked by someone else as having no source data because of this. U.S. government images can be alternately tagged {{PD-USGov-Military-Badge}}. -N 12:45, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

• Going to retag the United States images with AWB. -N 12:54, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Username issue

Hello, I'm Rahk EX, and would like to ask what should be done with the account AFYFAF. As I'm being nice, I will not say who changed the password of my AFYFAF account, but someone did, and rendered it useless. Does anyone have a suggestion of what should be done with it? I am thinking of soft redirecting the AFYFAF user page and talk page to Rahk EX's. Thanks - Rahk  E✘ [[ my disscussions | who am I ]] 13:43, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Do you think the user is going to edit with the compromised account? You can set a redirect if you want. You didn't set an email address on the first account so I'm not sure what we can do. Obviously if the account behaves in a disruptive manner it may be blocked. Otherwise always look after your password and make sure you don't use an easy to guess/crack one like a dictionary word. Secretlondon 21:45, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually the person who changed the password changed it to some random gibberish, so it cannot be used anymore. My currant password is much more secure now, and I will trust it with no one. Thank you - Rahk  E✘ [[ my disscussions | who am I ]] 19:54, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Lifting an indefinate block/ban

BalanceRestored (talk · contribs) was indefinitely blocked due to sockpuppetry.

Trumpetband (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) expressed a belief in BalanceRestored's good faith.[6]

BalanceRestored (talk · contribs) agreed to the following restrictions, under zero tolerance (up to and including reinstatement of the indefinite block):[7]

1. 1RR. You may only make one revert per article per day. All reverts must be accompanied by a polite explanation on the article's talk page.
2. If consensus is against your view, that you will not continually push the issue.
3. Your contributions must be verifiable in reliable sources.
4. You will not disparage other editors, even if provoked. If someone is being uncivil, you could request sysop intervention from WP:AN/I.
5. You will not edit from alternative accounts nor will you edit while logged out as an IP user.
6. If you cannot resolve content conflicts through a reasonable amount of discussion, you will seek dispute resolution instead of continuing to debate the issue on talk pages.
7. You will avoid any other behaviour that could be considered edit warring or disruptive.

BalancedRestored is unblocked under the assumption that he earnestly regrets his errors (assuming good faith) and the principle that a user is only banned if there is no sysop willing to lift the block. Trumpetband expressed faith in BR and I'm willing to second that good faith since the user agreed to stringent zero-tolerance restrictions. Vassyana 15:46, 9 June 2007 (UTC) (This is archived at User:Vassyana/Unblock01)

User wanting to be blocked?

Dannycali (talk · contribs), who seems like a good editor, but was recently reported at AIV for this edit. It seems like it is done on purpose (see edit summary) or perhaps compromised. What should be done? Warn (dont think its necessary, an editor this experienced most likely will know all procedures)? Block (and grant semmingly what is his wish)? Or wait? --soum ^talk 17:44, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

If the user wants to leave, they can leave; a block isn't needed. EVula // talk // ☯ // 17:47, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. What I was asking is should the warn/block process be followed? Or we wait for his next move? --soum ^talk 17:50, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Note: I removed the AIV report with an edit summary linking here. --Iamunknown 17:55, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Iamunknown. After I had posted it there (actually, even while I was posting it there), I began to wonder was I doing the right thing, as it obviously wasn't a standard case of a vandal needing a quick block before more damage was done. ElinorD (talk) 17:57, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

It may well be just someone intending to leave, and wanting to go out with a small bit of drama. It certainly doesn't look as if any drastic admin intervention is needed. I think an indefinite block for would be overdoing it, and there seems little point in a short block for someone who, for the moment, is leaving, even if they change their mind in a few weeks from now. ElinorD (talk) 18:00, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

What if his edit is not a one off incident? What if s/he has choses the path of disruption to prove his point? I think the best thing is to ask him/her for a clarification (warning probably wont have any effect) and wait. --soum ^talk 18:03, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that inquiring about this incident might only incite him to pursue such a path. Contributors burn out on a fairly regular basis, his statement at Wikipedia was probably not a threat. ˉˉ^anetode╦╩ 18:19, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

If this is the first step on a path towards vandalism, we can address it then. If you think someone should talk to them, be bold and do it yourself. Nothing I've seen here involves administrative intervention (don't get me wrong; I'm not chastising you for being concerned, I'm just saying that it isn't an admin-only issue, which is what this board's purpose is). EVula // talk // ☯ // 19:06, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Possible new category of users?

I've seen discussions about administrators who used to edit a lot before becoming administrators, who edits wikipedia, adminstrator title not being a promotion, and similar topics.

Has anyone ever considered a mechanism similar to "request for adminship", except for editing? For example, there could be a board of "senior contributing editors" which people would hold the title for, say, 3 months. This might encourage long term, quality contributing. Later in time, a position of "editor in chief" might be created, though probably not for now.

I mention the idea of senior contributing editors because I see the possibility of me creating 500-750 new articles in the next 10-15 years and possibly 50,000 quality mainspace edits (150,000 total edits). This is because I have yet to scratch the surface to what I have in mind of writing.VK35 18:55, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm opposed to this almost entirely on principle alone; we shouldn't be pushing for "tiers" of contributors. The reason for a "separation" between admins and regular editors is based solely on the fact that the former have privileges that, if widely available, could be very detrimental to the project. There's no reason to create an imaginary "intermediate" step. EVula // talk // ☯ // 19:02, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Why do we need to classify editors? From anons to everyone else, all out editing abilities are some (keeping protected titles out of equation, as they are a special case). What will we gain by such a tiering? --soum ^talk 19:04, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Adminship is not a prize, I've read. My idea was similar to a community awarded barnstar. The idea was also to be temporary, that is, not being a long term senior contributing editor, just one for 3 months. What will we gain? Encouragement for editors to write! I don't want to be an admin but I wouldn't mind a little recognition in the future (and something to strive for in the present). If everyone hates the idea, it's not an issue that I want to fight for. Happy editing!VK35 19:19, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

It would probably be best for you to check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Awards and raise your ideas there. Cheers! Vassyana 20:31, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, after reading your response and re-reading your initial post, it definitely sounds like you're talking about an award. EVula // talk // ☯ // 20:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Category:Candidates for speedy deletion

... is always getting a mention on here due to the massive backlogs that accumulate. Well, take a look at it today :-) I didn't have much to do with this but note that Tony B. has been working there tirelessly for ages, amongst others. Good work, all - Alison ☺ 20:14, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Wow, impressive. Drinks on the house for some, methinks. Moreschi ^Talk 20:23, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Notorious sockpuppet User:BryanFromPalatine is back

ResolvedBlocked already. -- Gavia immer (talk) 17:39, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

User:FreedomAintFree

This user is a almost surely a sockpuppet of banned multiple puppet and puppet master User:BryanFromPalatine permabanned during the Free Republic case. His first edit was to Free Republic and within minutes he was editing Democratic Underground. Both these articles are on probation. He already 'knows' WP, all the issues and long-time editors. Just like socks Bryan and Dino Hinnen, he claims heclaims to have been 'lurking' and studying up on WP. Highly doubtful. Please investigate.64.145.158.163 22:08, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Next time please don't spam this in 10 different places. --MichaelLinnear 22:31, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Improper review of 3RR and tag-team editing

An edit war involving myself, several other editors and the admin Raul654 has been going on at House demolition. Today, User:Raul654 violated 3RR on that page, and was reported by me. The reviewing admin, User:Tariqabjotu improperly closed the report with the incorrect claim that there are only 3 reverts, even though 4 reverts are very clearly listed. He then proceeded to protect the page, but User:Raul654, in an abuse of his admin tools, continues to edit the page, alleging his edits are non-controversial. Isarig 23:22, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't need to respond to this again; Isarig contacted on my talk page about this and I just gave a response to most of this. The allegations of tag-team editing are common and usually unfounded (as is the case here). In addition, the last sentence in Isarig's statement is an exaggeration. -- tariqabjotu 00:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

How is it an exaggeration ? has he not edited the page after it was protected by you, with an edit he has not discussed on talk? If you really want to dispel suspicions of tag-team editing, the proper response would be for you to caution Raul654 about this practice. Isarig 00:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

You make it sound as if Raul has been making multiple edits to the page (...alleging his edits...). If you see Raul's edit (singular) as controversial and related to the dispute, perhaps you should explain why you think that way on the talk page for the article (or else it would not be an abuse of his admin tools). As for dispelling suspicions of tag-team editing, I don't feel the need to do that; you are the only one who has them and I don't give into extortion on days that end with y. You seem more interested in getting me (or someone else) to give Raul some sort of reprimand than simply halt the conflict; that is not what blocks are for. -- tariqabjotu 00:58, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

You have the process ass-backward. It is not up to me (or anyone) to explain why an edit made after a page has been protected is improper - anyone wishing to make edits there after th epage was protected must first, at a minimum , describe what he wants to do on the Talk page, and if it is truly non-controversial, have a non-involved admin make them. For him, as an active participant in the edit-war, to edit the page after it was protected, for ANY reason, is a gross abuse of his admin tools. The way it was done - with Raul violating 3RR, then you improperly closing the 3RR, then you protecting the page, then him editing the page after it was protected, and then you teaming up with him again, making excuses for his behavior here and inviting him come here and voice baseless accusations at me stinks. You should really review your conduct here, as you are out of line. Isarig 04:24, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Isarig is POV pushing on that article, and his behavior in general is quite irksome. Almost every word he writes is either a misrepresentation or an outright falsehood. I'd appreciate an admin taking a clue-stick to him. Raul654 00:36, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

You have been POV pushing on that page AND violated 3RR there AND proceeded to edit the page after it was protected. It takes some gall to make the accusations you have made here, especially the request that someone take a "clue-stick" to me, which sounds like a threat. This is disgraceful behavior from a policy flouting admin. You've been blocked for this kind of behavior before, and should be once again. Isarig 00:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I think you guys are looking for dispute resolution. If Raul were to abuse the tools by making edits related to the dispute or any controversial edits, then there's something administrative that needs to be done ... but until then? There is nothing anyone can do other than mediation. --BigDT 05:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

You are incorrect. WP:PROTECT explicitly says "Admins should not edit pages that are protected due to a content dispute, unless there is consensus for the change, or the change is unrelated to the dispute. However, this should only be done with great caution, and administrators doing so should indicate this on the article's talk page." Raul654 did not do so. A note of some kind from an uninvolved admin pointing him to proper procedure is in order. Isarig 17:16, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

BetacommandBot and Fair use

When starting the current Fair use tagging I planned 3 phases, but since Phase 1 has caused so much grief, I'm going to break Phase 2 into three parts. Also Im going to explain all the parts and my current time table.

Phase 1

• identify and tag all images with less than 20 characters, excluding templates, and skipping pages that have the non-free rationale template.
• this will re-start July 1^st, 2007 and should last no more than five days to tag the remaining 5478 images that meet that criteria.
  • this uses {{missing rationale}}, {{missing rationale2}} and {{dfu}} /or {{nrd}} depending on the upload date.

Phase 2

• check the image description page text for the title of at least one pages where the image is used. tag the image and notify users (per policy you have to state where you need it and why. and this only tags images with zero valid fair use rationales.)
• this will start on July 15, 2007 or when the image backlog from phase 1 is under 1000 images (which ever is longer).
  • I would like input for templates to use for this section. Im thinking the same templates as Phase 1.

Phase 3

• repeat phase 2 for every image use.
• this will start on either August 1^st, 2007 or August 15, depending on the number of images Phase 2 encountered. again this will also follow the 1000 image, or date (which ever is longer) method.
  • I would like input for templates to use for this section.

Phase 4

• have a bot remove images instead of tag images that fail Phase 3.
• this will start no less than 30 days or 1000 images (which ever is longer) from the completion date of Phase 3.
  • I would like input for templates to use for this section.

Suggestions and advice are welcome, personal attacks and complaints can be filed at /dev/null Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 00:52, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a good plan to take a large step towards being closer to being legal with our FU images. ^(H) 01:08, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me too - I'd also just like to thank you for all the hard work you've done on this project; I know you got a lot of grief for it, but it's worth it. --Haemo 03:58, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest looking for the phrase "fair use rationale" as a section heading. There are many people (including me) who do not like to use any template to say that the image has a fair use rationale but rather specify the page layout by hand. --soum ^talk 07:53, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Or anywhere in the page, not just as a heading. Obvious variants "fair use reasons", "fair use justifications" and so on.Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 08:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Searching the entire page for the etxt has some obvious disadvantages. If something like "I will not provide a fair use rationale" is written, then also it will pass the analysis. Thats why I suggested leaving entire sentences out of it. Or may be ignore all instances of "fair use rationale" and variants and still some substantial (50+ characters) text should remain. --soum ^talk 10:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

what im looking for in phase 2 & 3 is if Image:foo.jpg is used on page Bar, Does the text of page Image:foo.jpg contain the word bar. so it shouldnt matter what templates are used. But I would like help creating templates to notify users of the improper fair use rationales. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 12:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

If an image includes a rationale, but does not say "Fair use rationale for article X" or "This rationale applies to article X" or whatever, but is used only in article X, we can assume good faith and conclude that the rationale was meant for that article only, and that the user inaverdently overlooked the fact. Rather than assuming the user does not understand fair use, or is trying to get us sued or whatever. In that case, what about using the bot to add the reference to the article? --soum ^talk 13:13, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

the issue is does that rationale cover said image use? its too difficult for a bot to judge the validity and what text makes up a valid rationale as there can be many permutations of the same idea phrased 1000 different ways. But one key to a valid rationale is saying where you claim the rationale is for. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 23:04, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Can you clarify phase 4 for me.What do you mean by "have a bot remove images" ? Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 08:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

If [:Image:foo.jpg]] is used on page Bar and blah, Does the text of page Image:foo.jpg contain the word bar and blah. If it only finds blah the bot would remove it from Bar but leave it on Bar Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 12:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I presume it means he will orphan the images from articles where the article name isn't mentioned on the image description page. -N 08:30, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

In substantial discussion at WT:FAIR#Way forward, there is broad support for throttling to bot to 300-500 images or image-uses per day, a proposal put up by User:Eagle_101. This is a reasonable amount for third parties to be able to look at, and to add rationales for, when fair use is appropriate; rather than creating another impossible tag mountain that is more than can be humanly processed in 7 days or 10 days from tagging.

Note also broad consensus there to suspend CSD I6 until July 1, to give time to process the existing tag mountain without unnecessary collateral damage; and to rewrite I6 when not suspended to be 7 (or 10) days from tagging rather than from upload.

It would be a mistake to tag images so quickly that I6 had to be suspended again. Jheald 09:17, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Im doing a dry run now to get an Idea of how many images would be caught in each phase right now. when thats done Ill post the preliminary counts. But at last count phase 1 had ~5k images. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 12:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

300 images a day is way too low. As Cyde said, at that rate it's going to take forever to tag all the said inappropriate images. -Pilotguy hold short 13:40, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Betacommand said there were around 5K images. So @300 per day, it wont take more than 3 weeks, which should be acceptible, IMO. Remember tagging is not the goal, purging the offenders is. Thats not bots who will enforce it, its humans. And deleting images take a lot more effort than anything else. --soum ^talk 13:43, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

No reason to go at a snails pace, not unless it is making mistakes. At least 1000 a day, bots do work like that all the time. ^(H) 13:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Bots might, but people are another story. Mister.Manticore 15:34, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

You must be mistaking in what you remember Betacommand saying, because we are dealing with a lot more than just 5,000 images. At the snail's pace of 300 a day it will take way too long. The answer is to increase human participation, not throttle down the bot. A single person can easily handle 100 images in a day. It's not much work, just a lot of deletion. The directions for how to handle these tagged images should be presented in a very clear manner and advertised widely on such places as this board. --Cyde Weys 15:43, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I may be mistaken, but I think the idea is to give people time to write fair-use rationales. It is possible that among the huge piles of tagged images, there are some that could have genuine fair-use rationales. I'm all for getting bots to do the work, but is it not possible to rig up a bot to post notifications on the pages of all the uploaders and/or the talk pages of the articles using the images? On the other hand (my view), just announce in various prominent places that a large number of fair-use images without rationales have been tagged for deletion, then, after a set period of time, get a team of humans to delete them and replace the red-links with a placeholder image (straight removal of red-links might pass unoticed), and then allow a longer amnesty period of a month or so, in which people can request undeletion to add a fair-use rationale. That way, those image that are genuinely required will probably be rescued, those that weren't won't be, and in any case, most fair-use pictures should be obtainable again if really needed, and a fair use rationale added to the new upload. Carcharoth 15:53, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Carcharoth the bot notifies all users in the file history of an image,(except for a few users that I have on an ignore list), it also tags the image, and it leaves a note on the talk page of all the pages that use the image. Oh and to boot im currently working on a wikiproject notification opt-in option for the next round of images. and the 5,000 article count is to finish phase 1. phase 2&3 will generate a lot more images. that 5k count is the remainder of the original tag run that netted over 25,000 images. phase 1 is the loosest phase and should catch the fewest images. I expect phase 2 & 3 combined to identify 60,000+ images that need fixed. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 23:00, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

No, the time to write fair use rationals is now, or even yesterday. The images are still left with the tag for a week. If we lose any fair use pictures they can just be re-uploaded. ^(H) 15:58, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair enough. I quite agree that fair use images, if genuinely fair use, are probably widely available and can easily be reuploaded. So why not just delete all the fair use stuff now? Carcharoth 16:36, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Or, for that matter, they can very easily be undeleted. I've caught a couple of images on my watchlisted articles that got shuffled off the wiki coil because they didn't have rationales. Just undelete and provide a rationale. Voila, problem(s) solved. EVula // talk // ☯ // 16:41, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

That requires a list of admins willing to carry out undeletions on request from non-admins. Carcharoth 16:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Or, even simpler, non-admins can create/re-create the talk page, and use {{editprotected}} to request admin assistance for the undeletion. Or would that be technically an incorrect use of that template? I would suggest that the rationale be provided before undeletion takes place, and that talk pages be restored along with the image (is that the default setting?). Carcharoth 16:52, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Let's remember (Cyde and H n.b.) that this is not about deletion, for deletion's sake.

Our objective here is the Foundation's requirement on us to achieve full compliance on image rationales by April 2008, and our obligation to wikiusers to manage this process with as little collateral damage, and as little undue bruising as possible. We should all keep in mind one of the fundamental injunctions of the project: Don't be a dick.

From what I have seen of BCbot's taggings, the clear majority of the images do have an acceptable fair use on the project. What they don't have is a rationale. There are people now gearing up to supply as many of those rationales as possible. It is reasonable to try to accomodate them.

BC reckons that there will be about 60,000 usages that will require rationales. At 500 taggings a day, that works out at 120 days - so about 4 months, well within the April 2008 deadline. And it may actually turn out to be fewer usages in the event, if BC can circulate his draft list to projects and other interested parties ahead of time -- so we may get there even sooner.

This is not about how much we can delete. It is about how with least upset we can get compliant. Jheald 23:55, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

One comment from a non-admin who is working in an area (numismatics) where many images have unknown copyright and thus must be considered to be fair use. I have been reading everything I can find about writing a fair use rationale. I have asked questions at Wikipedia talk:Non-free content. I have tried to supply a valid fair use rationale on all images I uploaded. I assume I'm doing something wrong though, since I've used the exact same text for multiple images, which I'd like to replace with a template, but templates are supposedly not okay for fair use rationales. I have read many other users questioning why templates are not okay, or how to write a fair use rationale, and not getting sufficient answers. I certainly do not feel confident that I am doing things right, and do not know how to help fix the currency images that are currently not correctly tagged. So, until the guidelines are more clear, I can't see that it's time to tag more images. If it's so easy to write fair use rationales, can User:Betacommand or someone else tell me if Image:East Africa 1 cent (KM22).jpg has a valid rationale? Can you explain why I can't use a template for this and all the other coin images I've uploaded for the same page? If I and some other editors can get a little more help now, I think the bot will need to tag a lot fewer images as we go through and clean up. Ingrid 02:09, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

that is a red link image and Im not an admin, so I cant tell you either way, But see WP:FURG for a guideline on writing rationales. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 02:14, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot the ":Image". I fixed the link above. I've read WP:FURG, and followed it as best I can. But I ended up with what should be a template which makes me think it wouldn't be accepted. Ingrid 02:21, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

and you would be correct. you need to state why you need Image:East Africa 1 cent (KM22).jpg in that specific article. why must that page have Image:East Africa 1 cent (KM22).jpg on it? why cant we just delete the image? why must East African shilling have an image of the coin? see where my questions are going? if you can say that the page doesnt require the image then the image use is not compliant with fair use. Betacommand ^{(talk • contribs • Bot)} 02:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Jheald, I love any opportunity anyone gives me to bring this one out: Don't be a fucking douchebag. --Cyde Weys 02:38, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It wasn't me that titled that essay. I'm just saying it is something we should all bear in mind here. If the essay had been titled "Have a sense of balance and be excellent to one another", I would have linked to it as "Have a sense of balance and be excellent to one another". It's the content of the essay that's relevant here. (Read it, it preaches good sense). My apologies, I am sorry, if you identified the title with yourself personally. Jheald 08:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Valid criticisms

I have just been catching up on wiki-news, and through the Signpost I read about Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Gracenotes, and have read the resulting pages of discussion. What I was wondering was whether the point about valid criticism and useful material (ie. not attack material) on dedicated Wikipedia criticism sites could be secondarily linked to? ie. Could a Wikipedia user post a statement elsewhere on the internet (eg. a personal blog site like those run by, among others, David Gerard and Kelly Martin) discussing and linking to the valid criticism at the controversial site, and then link to that blog post from a Wikipedia talk page? Would this 'distancing' of the controversial link, making it a click-read-click step away, help at all? This wouldn't of course help in the case of reliable parts of a site (well-written, sourced articles) that also has controverial parts (eg. an online forum) being used as a reliable source for a Wikipedia article, but that is a different issue, so I will leave that aside for now. The main question here is, would indirect linking help resolve the problem of not shutting out valid criticism? Carcharoth 12:00, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Speedy speedy deletion

It came to my attention that more and more newbie admins delete "speedy" or "prod" tagged pages without waiting the necessary time. PLEASE DON'T. `'юзырь:mikka 16:35, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Pages marked for speedy deletion can, with very few exceptions, be deleted at any time. Where's the problem there? Anything else, and you'll need to provide some diffs before I'd see it as a potential problem. EVula // talk // ☯ // 16:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[Edit conflict] There is no time limit for speedy deletion, something can have been tagged for very little time or no time at all, the point is that the articles are not valid, full stop. As for the prod situation, can you be more specific? Give some examples? J Milburn 16:39, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Agreed; speedies are no problem, but carrying out a PROD too early is a bad idea. --Masamage ♫ 18:55, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Unless the prodded article also fails a speedy criterion, in which case it can be speedied as normal. That might be what's happening here, but without specifics, there's really nothing anyone can do. Mikkalai, can you point us to any specific instances where you believe a deletion was done improperly? Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 19:46, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Some of our speedy deletion criteria do require a given amount of time however i.e. those for images. It is important that the required time after the uploader is notified of the tagging has actually elapsed before these images are deleted. WjBscribe 20:27, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Some articles are tagged within minutes or seconds of their creation, even when the author is clearly intending to improve it and is just engaging in progressive saves. However, this is not an issue for admins — or even newbie admins — but a failing on the part of RC patrollers. fuddlemark (befuddle me!) 05:00, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Bad image list

Can someone sort out the images on genital wart for the MediaWiki:Bad image list please? (originally raised on the help desk). --h2g2bob (talk) 16:45, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

 Done - ewwww! - Alison ☺ 18:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

"Self-block"

Resolved

 – Monobook.css file fixed. EVula // talk // ☯ // 20:54, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I have accidentally added this to my monobook.css page, and now cannot view Wikipedia any more. I disabled the autologin feature of my browser and created this emergency account. My question is: how can I remove this line from my monobook.css page? The page only seems to be editable by the user it belongs to. Could any admin assist me in this. Cheers, Emergencyaccount 19:16, 10 June 2007 (UTC) (Salaskan)
Oh, by the way, once it's fixed, this account can be indefblocked. Emergencyaccount 19:16, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Fixed your monobook. I'm afraid user requested self-blocks are not typically done. --Deskana (talk) 19:17, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Huh? No, that's not what I meant, I meant that I practically blocked myself when I accidentally put that line in my monobook. Emergencyaccount 19:22, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

• What Deskana was trying to say is that the indef block of the "emergency account" will not be done due to a risk of collateral damage amongst other things. GDonato (talk) 19:23, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

AfD in limbo

This is a bit of a weird situation. There might be a better place for discussing this, but if there is, I couldn't find it and appreciate any references.

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Estonian Age of Awakening is now in limbo. The original nominator, Ghirlandajo, has expressed intent to withdraw the nomination, but subsequently crossed this expression out and finally "left in disgust", apparently abandoning the whole affair. The current consensus is an overwhelming 'keep'; the only 'delete' recommendation is by the original nominator.

Can an administrator look into the situation and decide if a speedy close is appropriate? Digwuren 20:22, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I closed it as speedy keep as the nominator has withdrawn the nom, then seemingly abandoned both the nom and the withdrawal of the nom(!?). Nobody else supports the deletion. ^(H) 20:33, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

IFDs in limbo

Can someone please look at (at least) Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/2007 May 21 through Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/2007 May 25? There are only a few images left, but those that are left were commented on by the IFD regulars (i.e. Howcheng). I'd say delete for all of them, but I'm not an admin.

There are many others (the 27th on), but if we could at least get those five done, it would be much less backlogged. --Iamunknown 21:16, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Plagerism, what to do?

A few weeks ago, I read that wikipedia articles plagerize copyrighted articles much more often than any reasonable editor would like.

I just found an instance where several paragraph are plagerized. See the article for internationally acclaimed architect, I. M. Pei.

This is our (wikipedia article):
before moving to the United States to study architecture at the age of 18. He started at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to receive his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. That same year, he was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Traveling Fellowship, and the AIA Gold Medal. He enrolled at the Harvard Graduate School of Design two years later; shortly thereafter, he served at the National Defense Research Committee in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1944 he returned to Harvard, received his master degree in Architecture in 1946 and stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor. He received the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1954.

This is http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/i_m_pei/index.shtml which says this at the bottom: Copyright © 2001-2004 NetGlimse.com. Privacy PolicyAll Rights Reserved.

before moving to the United States to study architecture at the age of 18. He started at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to receive his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. That same year, he was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Travelling Fellowship, and the AIA Gold Medal. He enrolled at the Harvard Graduate School of Design two years later; shortly thereafter, he served at the National Defense Research Committee in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1944 he returned to Harvard, received his master degree in Architecture in 1946 and stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor. He received the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1954.

Aside from the list of his projects, this plagerized part is over half of the article.

It is interesting to note that the above source has wrong information which was copied to the wikipedia article. I have corrected it. The original name of I. M. Pei's firm was I. M. Pei and Associates and was changed to ....and Partners several years later.

The question posed is what should editors do about plagerized materials? I believe the correct action is deletion, even though it may seem painful. I will rewrite it. VK35 21:18, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Its only deleted if the whole thing is plagiarized from the beginning. Otherwise, remove the copied parts, revert to the last non-plagiarized version, or (best solution) rewrite it. Also, for established articles, there is the chance that the other website copied our article and tried to pass it off as their own. There are hundreds of sites that mirror Wikipedia and use Wikipedia's content, with varying levels of GFDL compliance. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 21:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

In this particular case, I suspect the plagiarism went the other way. See this version and the previous versions which clearly show the development of the version now at http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/i_m_pei/index.shtml. As far as what to do, in this case I think the GFDL non-compliance process at Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks is the appropriate action. What to do about problems going the other way is listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

The problem with the theory that the other site may have plagerized it from wikipedia is that wikipedia's policy is not to have original research. The content in question had only 1 citation and that citation did not provide quite a few details that was in the wikipedia article. So the wikipedia content was either uncited or original research. Another possibility is that the editor had contact with the Pei family. But then, that would be original research.

Regarding Rick Block's comments, he may be correct. On the other hand, there was some discussion about Mr. Pei's birthplace which was then corrected.

Even if the other site copied it from us, this serves as a warning that we as wikipedia editors should uphold the highest ethical and professional standards.VK35 21:48, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

The article's edit history clearly shows that NetGlimse has plagiarised Wikipedia. So while it would be nice of User:VK35 to rewrite the article in order to improve it, there is no legal need to do so. It makes no difference whether the article is incorrect, uncited or whatever. NetGlimse still shouldn't have copied it without following the GFDL rules. -- Derek Ross | Talk 21:52, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Tanya Kach

Why is Tanya Kach a fully-protected redirect to Kidnapping? Where in the Kidnapping is there a mention of this person, and how does the redirect serve the community? Corvus cornix 21:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried asking JzG, who protected the page? - auburnpilot talk 21:56, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Second the asking the person responsible as opposed to asking us, who can only guess. As my guess, however, I consider this version before redirect and protection a major BLP-related concern, especially considering that it was not well-referenced. Also, seeing as how she seems only notable for one event (the kidnapping), I don't think it is appropriate. But that is my opinion. --Iamunknown 22:00, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Then shouldn't it be salted, instead of being a nonsense redirect? You're right, I should have talked to Guy first, I'll do that now. Corvus cornix 22:18, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

• It was redirected in response to well-founded concerns, and WP:NOT a newspaper, and this [8] atrocious version was posted instead, so I protected it as a redirect. See also Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tanya Kach (second nomination). Guy (Help!) 22:20, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Why not just salt and protect? Corvus cornix 22:23, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

• Ask Doc, I guess. Guy (Help!) 22:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I seem to recall inserting a reference to this kidnap victim, appropriate to context and weighting, into Kidnapping. It is possible that it was removed, again on grounds of undue weight. I think it would probably be better as a salted deletion, really. --Tony Sidaway 22:55, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Ah no, here it still is:

Kidnapping frequently excites keen press coverage.

I wanted to say "lurid", but thought that would be too weaselly. --Tony Sidaway 22:58, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

The DRV happened here which resulted in overturn, with a strong suggestion of changing from a biography to an account of the events. The AFD (as linked above) was speedily closed and deleted, given the absolute enforcement of the DRV closure over the Allison Stokke article, I'm surprised that the DRV outcome in this case was not respected. It was then restored after some rightful prodding. The page was then redirected to Kidnapping without discussion which I thought was rather poor (I would not mention Tanya Kach in the Kidnapping article). It would have been a lot more beneficial to have just overturned the deletion, restored the original content and then chop out the shit like "Hose also gained some unexpected celebrity due to his uncanny resemblance to Saturday Night Live actor Kevin Nealon.", moving the article if needs be. It certainly beats the "atrocious" version that JzG links to. - hahnchen 23:30, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

EverybodyHatesChris (talk · contribs) possible trolling?

The above editor, who earlier raised a complaint against me at WP:AN/I#User:LessHeard vanU has assumed bad faith and lied that I have trolled, continues to use another editors, User:Migospia, talkpage to conduct an argument with a third party, User:Danielfolsom, (first example and second example) and I commented, in passing that EverybodyHatesChris (EHC) was causing trouble. This earned me this rebuke, later modified, before EHC returned to his comments about Danielfolsom here and here. In the meantime EHC also had contacted me to note he was complaining about my comments.

I would comment that EHC had previously come into dispute with both Migospia, Danielfolsom and myself a few days ago on the Coral Smith talkpage which resulted in my blocking him for three hours. My involvement ended with the block, but I note he continued to engage with Danielfolsom over another article where their relationship veered between friendliness and rank incivility. It also appears that Migospia was interacting with Danielfolsom at that time.

Could another admin look into this and confirm that EHC is, if not trolling, acting outside the norms of civility and good faith by using a dispute between two other editors to cause further ill-feeling against the absent party? With the history I have difficulty assuming good faith on behalf of this editor, especially considering that EHC's Contribution history shows that there has only been interaction recently with the aforementioned editors and User:Rockpocket, Danielfolsom's mentor and also the subject of an EHC complaint. Since I am already involved in this I would like an opinion on my actions so far, and suggestions on a course to proceed upon.

Whoever takes a peek, I would caution a careful tread and a thick skin! Thanks. LessHeard vanU 22:31, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to add my support to the suggestion that someone take a look at EHC's editing techniques. I was the subject of a similar complaint a few days back (Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive256#Issues w/ Administrator Rockpocket). There appears to be a pattern forming, that would be best nipped in the bud. Rockpocket 01:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I see 200 or so edits that don't build an encyclopedia in the past few days. His last article edit was 5 days ago. He's not here to help us, anymore. I've blocked him indef for now. His choices have been ridiculous.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 03:47, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Indef seemse harsh. Perhaps a week to see if this gets him to behave? Neil ╦ 08:16, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Another editor advised him on how to get unblocked and he has indicated he is retiring from the project [9]. Rockpocket 08:23, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I would reduce the block anyway, and allow him to choose to return if he wants to. Neil ╦ 09:00, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I would support a shorter block, and try to get him/her back to editing articles. When editing article space he is an okay editor. LessHeard vanU 12:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

User:JoJ

Resolved

 – Issue resolved, apparently. EVula // talk // ☯ // 01:08, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

This user keeps posting ridiculously long edit summaries which annoys me because it shows up on the recent changes pages as long lines. What is the user trying to do? Trying to get our attention or just having fun? --_Hdt83 ^Chat 23:18, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean JoJ (talk · contribs)? If so, he only has one edit, and that was to post an unblock request...has someone deleted his edits? hbdragon88 23:27, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

That was fast. An admin deleted the user talk page and then redirected it to the user page, where it shows that it's a WoW sockpuppet. hbdragon88 23:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Request unblock for Anupamsr

Resolved

 – User unblocked. EVula // talk // ☯ // 05:23, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Could an admin unblock Anupamsr (talk · contribs) - this is was a legal secondary account of Scheibenzahl (talk · contribs) blocked in a mis-interpretation of WP:SOCK by User:Rama's Arrow. Since then Rama's Arrow has apologized to him and unblocked his other account, but this block is still in place for some reason. As the user is not banned, and as there have never been any arbitration nor community enforced restrictions on his accounts, this block should not be in place. People would argue that he's left Wikipedia, but I know plenty of people (myself included) who leave Wikipedia after something like this only to come back later - and when he does it is best that there is no confusion on his banned/not-banned status (as there was with me). I would ask Rama's Arrow myself but he is in a rather tight spot in his arbitration and it's best for me to not talk to him.--Konstable 02:44, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to second this, there is no reason for this block to remain in place. --MichaelLinnear 02:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Done. (aeropagitica) 04:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of Bad Faith Account

Could an administrator please delete the account User:CamelCommodore. I posted a message on the user page a few days ago explaining the situation. An investigation revealed that this was an account created for the sole purpose of causing trouble in an arbitration case and casting a shadow of suspicion on another user. Maintaining this account on Wikipedia serves no useful purpose as it is a reminder of a very heated and sensitive situation which all parties have since tried to move past. -195.229.236.213 05:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Uh, at most, it can be indefinitely blocked, rather than be deleted. However, if you'd like it to be blocked, you'd better pony up some diffs. EVula // talk // ☯ // 05:23, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

My understanding is that it has already been blocked. Would like to see it removed from the site if that is possible for a variety of reasons, most of them off-wiki ones. -195.229.236.213 05:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It's not generally possible, for attribution reasons -- but see the Oversight noticeboard at the top if you have serious libel concerns. --Haemo 05:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, it's not at the top; it's here Wikipedia:Oversight --Haemo 05:33, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. That is very helpful. -195.229.236.213 05:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi Husnock! (waves) Neil ╦ 09:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Glaring abuse of Admin Powers by User:Ryulong and unjustified blocking activity

I had to walk across town to use another computer in order to post this message, which I feel needs to be posted. The original inquiry was a legitimate concern and I approached the Admin Noticeboard in good faith and got what I thought was a good answer. However, within hours of my post, my ip address was blocked for an invalid reason and, quite frankly, what seems like someone with a grudge. Requests to get unblocked have gone unanswered and I am hoping that I am not breaking a rule by using another computer to post, but it seems to be the only way I can get on Wikipedia now. My formal complaint is as follows:

I was shocked that within a few hours of this exchange, User:Ryulong proceeded to block the ip address as a “banned account” in accordance with Husnock’s arbitration case. This was a completely invalid reason to block the ip address for the glaring fact that Husnock’s account, or any account associated with him, was never banned. I reviewed Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Husnock and there was absolutely no mention about a ban on this user. I then used a VPN (under a different ip address) to approach the blocking user in order to politely explain the situation and state that a mistake had been made [10]. Ryulong then blocked the VPN even after being told that Husnock was never banned and that the block was unfair and reverted the original inquiry from his talkpage without discussion (as if it were vandlism) [11]. So, I have to ask, why were these accounts blocked? As for any of these accounts actually being Husnock, bear in mind that the point of an anonymous account is that it is anonymous. There is no Wikipedia regulation which states that an anon ip account must identify itself and I will not confirm or deny that I am Husnock or any other user. And regardless of who is “behind the keyboard” in this case, the original concern was very valid which is why I came here in the first place. A member of an IT staff showed extensive knowledge about the Husnock Arbitration case and then admitted to creating the CamelCommodore account. He had knowledge of the account’s password and its edits and was, at one point, a subordinate of Husnock in the military unit which had used the computer facilities from where these accounts originated. I thank the users above for providing the information about the oversight, but ask the other users who launched into this “let’s get Husnock” campaign to step back and think about what you’re doing. I truly feel this was for personal feelings rather than any violation of Wikipedia policy. Finally, I ask that certain people get off this horse that Husnock is some evil user who should be blocked on sight. The arbitration case is over and Husnock hasn’t edited disruptively since last year. In fact, over the last year he has served his country's military in the Middle East. Yet, whenever any account appears which is perhaps in any way associated with him, it is attacked, harassed, and now apparently blocked without cause. This even being the case when ip addresses are spread throughout the world, from different countries, editing within minutes of each other. If Husnock were to return to this site tomorrow, and started editing again under his old account, would he be welcomed back and assisted to rejoin the community? A question to ask oneself, I feel.

Thank you for letting me vent this, it was just very disturbing. I again hope that I not breaking any rule or regulation by posting this. It simply seemed like an admin blocked these ip addresses without any cause, justification, or reason other than a personal dislike for Husnock. This is something that should be brought to other's attention. -213.42.2.22 15:19, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Procedure for multiple recreation of spam page?

Stumbled across The New Release today. Apparently the page has been speedy-deleted twice as spam, but is now recreated with the same content, by the same user. What's standard procedure here? --Alvestrand 06:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Tag it again. If it's recreated a lot in a short span of time, an admin may salt the earth. Natalie 07:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Dishonorable behavior

Last week I was blocked 48 hours for 3RR violation. I already discussed at length on my talk page the mitigating circumstances in that case, which prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I should not have been blocked at all. Of course, I should not have needed to bother with such lengthy statements, as my note on the 3RR report itself was certainly enough, and in any case the record itself speaks the same ideas. Nonetheless, as a result of the contemptible behavior of the admins reviewing my block (with one exception whom I will not name for his protection), I am compelled to come here to seek satisfaction.

The lies and dishonesty used against me must in justice be called lies and dishonesty. Implying that 3RR is always enforced strictly with no discretion, as did Yamla in particular; use of the pejorative term 'wikilawyering' and falsely claiming that I was warned before violation, as did JzG; implying that I was not engaged in a civil discussion, as did the blocking admin; the block summary, calling my actions 'a repeated pattern', as well as falsely calling them 'edit warring' as did several parties; and lastly, ignoring my arguments - as did the blocking admin, all the reviewing admins, and arguably Viridae - could itself be termed dishonest, as there could be no conclusion reached by an examination of them other than that the block was unjust.

In addition to properly vindicating my personal honor, it is necessary to expose this to the entire community in order save my reputation from being ruined by this block. I am not a problem editor in any way and my edit history certainly bears that out - although I do use reverting perhaps more than normal, I am not regularly tendentious, uncivil, ignorant, or biased on any topic. In addition I have a rule, which I have mentioned before, of never reverting more than once without some kind of explanation except in cases of vandalism. The way, the truth, and the light 08:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Edit warring is not acceptable behaviour. Continuing to edit war whilst engaging in discussion is still edit warring. In future, please do not continue to revert other editors - instead, wait until consensus is reached via discussion before making further changes to the article. In order to give other editors a chance to contribute, it's prudent to wait at least 24 hours and sometimes up to a week before taking any action. Therefore there is no excuse for making 3 or more reverts within 24 hours. Waggers 09:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

User:CyclePat

CyclePat (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has emailed me again requesting unblock, but he makes it perfectly clear that he will continue to campaign for the reactivation of WP:AMA, which campaign is what got him blocked in the first place, so I am disinclined to unblock. He is being asked by at least one former AMA advocate to drop it, with similar lack of success. This fills me with sadness. I like Pat, for all that he is irritatingly persistent. I am not sure who can persuade him to drop it, Kim Bruning tried and failed. Good ideas welcome. Guy (Help!) 09:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Blocks are intended to prevent further violations, such as trolling[12] in this particular case. After reviewing Pat's talk page, it seems to me that he is 200% sure that everything he does is perfectly right. I see no point in unblocking him unless he promises to stop his crusade against the communty's consensus. MaxSem 10:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Maybe someone can talk him through the consensus? He really really does not accept that it exists. Guy (Help!) 11:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The only other thing I can think of is banning him from the Wikipedia namespace altogether, just let him contribute to articles. This may not be practical, but it's all I can think of. Every edit he makes to Wikispace is either trolling or useless, often a concoction of both. Other than kickbanning outright forever, this might be an option? Moreschi ^Talk 13:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Kite

FYI, interesting piece of html inserted on kite that made clicking anywhere on the page go to the spam site. I've taken out the angle brackets to disable it: p style="font-size: 50000px; left: -50px; width: 100%; position: absolute; top: -50px; height: 100%; font-color: transparent" [13]. Cheers Clappingsimon talk 14:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

We already seem to have a name for it at WikiProject Spam: "invisible inkspam". Femto 15:05, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Sneaky IP responsible has been softblocked for six months. Neil ╦ 15:16, 11 June 2007 (UTC)