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== Hi Carch ==

Hi Carch - I made a statement to this effect on the RFAR page, but seriously, please vote what you actually believe at this point, not what you think will make the case end faster. If this case had been handled properly, it would've been over literally a week ago (and quite possibly with me receiving an admonishment - as I've said elsewhere, that's not the biggest deal to me, although I think Tryptofish's latest comment has a point.) The way the case has been handled is bordering on vaudevillian, and another day or two to get any motions straight will do little additional harm at this point. Best, ] (]) 22:25, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Revision as of 22:25, 24 February 2014

This is a Misplaced Pages user talk page. For the fictional wolf of the same name, see Carcharoth.
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Archive

Archives

Memorial tablets etc

Have now had a chance to look at your wiki entry. It is super and was much enjoyed. Regret unable help with leaflet. suggest you contact Commonwealth Graves people to see if they can provide copy of leaflet.

Weglinde (talk) 19:29, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War

Updated DYK queryOn 4 December 2013, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War, which you created or substantially expanded. The fact was ... that in the 1920s and 1930s a series of memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War (example pictured) were erected in French and Belgian cathedrals by the Imperial War Graves Commission? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check) and it will be added to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

The DYK project (nominate) 08:01, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Congratulations on the DYK, Carcharoth! Your article definitely deserves the recognition. AGK 21:52, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Blocked IPs

There is a serious backlog of about 20K individual IPs that are blocked without expiration. I have broken the IPs into groups of 5000: m:User:とある白い猫/English Misplaced Pages open proxy candidates. So they are effectively blocked until time ends. This creates considerable potential collateral damage as the owners of IPs tend to be not very consistent. Some of these IPs are on dynamic ranges which results in arbitrary blocks of good users. Vast majority of the blocks go back years all the way to 2004 - some were preemptively blocked. Nowadays even open proxies normally do not get indefinite blocks.

The problem is that no single admin wants to review this many IPs and very few have the technical capability to review. Such a technical review would be non-trivial for individual IPs which in my humble opinion would be a complete waste of time. I feel ArbCom could step in and provide criteria for bulk action. A bulk unblock of all indefinite blocks (with exceptions if the specific single IP unblocks are contested) before - say - 2010 would be a good start.

Open proxies tend to be better handled at meta as open proxies are a global problem for all wikis.

-- A Certain White Cat 11:31, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

The Misplaced Pages Library Survey

As a subscriber to one of The Misplaced Pages Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasi 14:46, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Your Opine on the Nightscream Case Acceptance

I would like to observe that your opine on this case is quite apt and would like to draw your attention to this where where I observed that there are several ArbCom case requests (or moving to very shortly) with Administrator rights abuse and make a suggestion that ArbCom deliver a blanket (no fault) notice reminding all Admins about their duties. Thank you for your time. Hasteur (talk) 14:03, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue XCIII, December 2013

[[

File:The Bugle.png|250px|link=Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Military history/News|alt=Full front page of The Bugle]]

Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 23:57, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Note for the record

Noting here for the record the following edit, reverted here. Carcharoth (talk) 00:07, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

Help needed

Hi, I just logged in an incident on ANI. Check this . I feel that the action by the admin in discussion was harsh, sudden and one sided. Whilst I wait for the discussion on ANI to progress, I am placing a request to you if you can review this independently and give me your feedback. Cheers AKS

Yo Ho Ho

ϢereSpielChequers is wishing you Seasons Greetings! Whether you celebrate your hemisphere's Solstice or Christmas, Diwali, Hogmanay, Hanukkah, Lenaia, Festivus or even the Saturnalia, this is a special time of year for almost everyone!

Spread the holiday cheer by adding {{subst:User:WereSpielChequers/Dec13}} to your friends' talk pages.

Happy Holidays...

Happy Holidays
Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, from the horse and bishop person. May the year ahead be productive and troll-free. Ealdgyth - Talk 23:43, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 24

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Happy holiday season....

Cheers, pina coladas all round!
Damn need a few of these after a frenetic year and Xmas. Hope yours is a good one....Cheers, Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:50, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Did a bunch of editing to Commonwealth War Graves Commission this afternoon. Care to take a look before I resubmit of GA? --Labattblueboy (talk) 22:20, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Labattblueboy. I've been meaning to get back to that article, but haven't had the time yet. I had a quick look and those edits, and they look great. I think there is more that could be done (see my comments on the talk page) and tidied up, but don't let that stop you resubmitting the article to GA. I will try and do some more editing of the article at some point, but more on the history of the Commission. The current matters I'm less familiar with. You may also want to be aware, if you didn't see it already, of the edits by User:Commonwealth War Graves Commission (see also that user talk page). I do have some questions to ask about editing in and around the WWI topic area in general, can I ask you about that at some point? Carcharoth (talk) 18:47, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

Welcome to the 2014 WikiCup!

Hello Carcharoth, and welcome to the 2014 WikiCup! Your submission page can be found here. The competition will begin at midnight tonight (UTC). There have been a few small changes from last year; the rules can be read in full at Misplaced Pages:WikiCup/Scoring, and the page also includes a summary of changes. One important rule to remember is that only content on which you have completed significant work, and nominated, in 2014 is eligible for points in the competition- the judges will be checking! As ever, this year's competition includes some younger editors. If you are a younger editor, you are certainly welcome, but we have written an advice page at Misplaced Pages:WikiCup/Advice for younger editors for you. Please do take a look. Any questions should be directed to one of the judges, or left on Misplaced Pages talk:WikiCup. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will make it to round 2. Good luck! J Milburn (talk · contribs), The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 17:32, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Hi- just to let you know that a copy-paste problem meant that your submission page wasn't created correctly. It's fixed now. Thanks! J Milburn (talk) 14:34, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Carcharoth. You have new messages at Talk:Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.
Message added 20:51, 1 January 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

JayJay 20:51, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Ottomans/Turks

My apologies for coming late to the Ottoman Empire–Turkey party, but I missed the case, and I see the situation does not appear to be settling down, so I hope no one minds if I comment here. Some time ago, I edited in this topic area briefly at Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt, and at Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and First Transjordan attack on Amman, before fleeing for the relative sanity of wherever it is I am now.

I soon came to understand that these articles were based almost exclusively on one author and followed the text of this document very closely, paragraph by paragraph, and that the editor in question was skilled at paraphrasing. Although the names and dates of the military campaigns are treated differently by different specialists in the field, the titles of the WP articles follow this one source exclusively, and any discussion about renaming the articles always met with resistance, but without any explanation of the underlying reasons. Once I understood this, I saw no reason for my continued participation, as this is a task that can be done by one person.

My take on the editing milieu at that time is pretty much the same as the editors who commented on the just-completed case: that there was one editor willing to take the lead, as far as working COPYVIO and other issues, and who had the consensus of the group to do so. And the upshot of the case, if I am interpreting the smoke signals of the committee correctly, is that rather than vindicating the judgement of the editor in question, the editor has been officially found to have exercised that leadership inappropriately, and the new leadership will now devolve on the WP:AE admins. Now, I have not examined all the diffs of the case in detail, but the ones that I looked at, I could not see the edit warring that was supposed to have taken place, certainly not judging by the 4 reverts/24 hours standard. But like I said, I didn't have time to look at everything in detail.

So as it stands now, the influence of the one user who seemed to have any luck with the situation, and who was probably following policy, has been blunted, and another user with a finite skill set is expected to become a different person. Probably not a good time for bystanders either, if experience is any indicator. No advice, though, not this time. I'm just glad those pages aren't on my watchlist. Regards, —Neotarf (talk) 11:48, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Neotarf, I am recused on this case, so I can't comment on what the committee's intentions are or were here. If you want clarification or to seek any kind of amendment based on your views of the case and the editing history of the parties to that case, you will need to address the committee, not me. I will add a diff to the current amendment request drawing the committee's attention to what you have said here. Actually looking at what you have said, I think I can discern who you are talking about above, and as far as I can tell you are saying the case should have been about something else entirely, rather than what it was about, but is there a reason why you are avoiding naming people? Carcharoth (talk) 01:32, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
Since this seems to be an invitation to talk about specific people, I'll cut to the chase. I totally don't get what is expected of Rskp at the Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification and Amendment#Arbitrator views and discussion 4clarification request. Some sort of quasi-religious ritual that seems to involve seeing the light, making a confession, and being reincarnated, if I may mix religious metaphors, mixed in with some innuendo about being manipulative. I think it would be more productive to substitute a cognitive approach, based on what is good for the Misplaced Pages, what is good for the MilHist project, and what is good for Roslyn.
First, what is Roslyn good at? Writing articles. Alone. The parts that I have spot checked have been very, very good, and detailed as well. Roslyn is good with keeping a huge number of details straight.
What is Roslyn not good at? Explaining things. Copyright issues. Moving stuff around in an article without consensus.
It also seems that Roslyn has been able to follow the parts of an edit restriction that were explained simply, i.e. "don't edit for 72 hours". The Ottoman/Turk thing I don't get--the Ottoman army had other nationalities beside Turks in it--so what's the problem with calling it the Ottoman army? I don't actually care anymore, but I challenge any of the arbs or AE admins to explain it, especially if they're interested in enforcing it. Is there an essay? I seem to remember it came up a year ago as well.
I would also note Roslyn's statement in the clarification request:

Mention must also be made of Neotarf's note in Carcharoth's link which claims articles were written by someone from a list of battle names , none of which were used in the three articles referred to and the lists of citations and references clearly demonstrate the error of claiming the articles were based on this one source.

Not true. Used in Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt:. Used in Sinai and Palestine Campaign . Used in First Transjordan attack on Amman . While later historians don't seem to use this document at all for classification of battles, this appears to have been quite an important document at the time: it contained almost daily descriptions of the actions, and I understand it was used in processing veterans benefits.
So here is my free advice. 1) Let Roslyn do what they do best: write articles. 2) Get someone else to do the part Roslyn isn't good at, ie. editing the article page. I have seen edit requests work well, when someone is willing to take on a voluntary restriction. 3) Negotiate the gray areas--talk pages? Transferring article out of user space? 4) I see Jim Sweeney gets frequent mention on Roslyn's talk page, for evaluating articles and deleting too-close paraphrasing. If Sweeney is willing to keep doing this, I say give him a barnstar, double his salary, and send him an official ArbCom t-shirt.
I don't see any point in all these precipitous AE blocks. Whatever happened to using the talk page? If an AE admin wants someone to do something, why don't they just go to the talk page and say, "hey, I think what you just did violates the terms of X,Y, and Z. Would you care to revert and discuss the matter?" And then WAIT. I have seen blocks follow in less than an hour after initial discussion. One of the Arbcom pages, I forget which one, advises editors who find themselves in too much drama to step back from the keyboard. An editor should have some time to think, to sober up if necessary, and to compose a measured response. The Arbcom might start thinking of ways to encode this so the AE admins know how to follow the spirit, as well as the letter of the case decisions.
Footnote: Does anyone know if Roslyn goes by "he" or "she"? For some reason I thought it was "he", but I don't see anything on the talk page.
I will not be posting at the request page, so make what use of this you will. I would point out that I am not an admin, and would feel neither welcome, nor comfortable, nor safe there. And this topic area does not really interest me, except for its intersection with governance issues. Regards, —Neotarf (talk) 17:31, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
Thank you for this. I will point Roslyn to it (I've assumed Roslyn is she, but now you mention it, I'm not sure of that). The Turkish/Ottoman thing should never have been an issue (the Turks were the ruling political class within the Ottoman Empire, so the term Turkish can quite legitimately be used, though with caveats - having a footnote and now, it seems, a FAQ, on the single article where this became an issue is massive overkill). But that is a content issue and needs to be kept separate from the conduct issues. I am going to keep things as simple as possible with the advice I am about to give on her talk page (not right now, but in an hour or so). Carcharoth (talk) 20:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Please comment at Kelvin Tan's ongoing peer review!

You have listed yourself as a peer review volunteer interested in general copyediting. Would you like to support the quest to counter systemic bias on Misplaced Pages? Would you like to read an interesting article about something different? If so, you are invited to give a thorough review of the article Kelvin Tan, which is about a blind Singaporean Mandopop singer. The article is very short and should not take long to review. Hope you enjoy reviewing it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks! 谢谢！Terima kasih! நன்றி! --J.L.W.S. The Special One (talk) 12:35, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Apologies for the delay in replying. I don't have time to do this right now, but I hope you do manage to find someone to review the article. Thanks for asking, and apologies again. Carcharoth (talk) 23:58, 6 January 2014 (UTC)


DS review

I opened a discussion about whether or not to log alerts/notifications on the here. I'd be interested in hearing your views.  Roger Davies 19:30, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#Misplaced Pages:NO CONSENSUS and Misplaced Pages:NOCONSENSUS

Because you have edited Misplaced Pages:No consensus, your input is requested in the discussion at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#Misplaced Pages:NO CONSENSUS and Misplaced Pages:NOCONSENSUS. Cheers! bd2412 T 14:40, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Thoughts

Please ponder thoughts that 28bytes left us, on waste of time and needed compromise, and my agreement with Nikkimaria:

"As far as I'm concerned (now), you can have an infobox where you are the main editor, assuming no consensus against it, etc. But: it might not be exactly as you want it, and I'd like not to have one without discussion first where I am a main author. Can we work with that? Nikkimaria (talk) 02:21, 26 June 2013 (UTC)" (see User talk:Gerda Arendt/Archive 2013).

It results in "my" Bach cantatas looking like this and "hers" like this, but is that a problem? - I made a simple request for fairness until we reach a broader solution, can we keep it simple, please? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:41, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I've looked Gerda, and those articles are at different stages of development. It is not really fair to compare them as they currently stand. Logically, if they are on the same topic, they should either both have an infobox or neither, as that would best serve the reader. Misplaced Pages should be about the reader, not the editors (sometimes that will involve adding an infobox, sometimes it will involve removing it or changing it). But you need to be able to generalise without making points about specific articles (try writing down your thoughts on infoboxes without talking about Bach cantatas - that would be a start). And no, I'm not going to return to the amendment request discussion and say anything further. I know you mean well, but I've got other things to worry about right now. Carcharoth (talk) 01:14, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for looking. I wrote down my thoughts on infoboxes long ago, including that I was against them and it took me half a year to understand. - All "my" Bach cantatas (and other articles) would have an infobox, even stubs. None of Nikkimaria's would have one, not even the most developed ones. That is a conflict I can't solve. All of Andy's articles would have an infobox, if he wasn't restricted in this way that does not make sense to me and places people who feel the same in a difficult position. - I also have more important things to worry about than the little boxes: the loss of editors such as 28bytes and many more, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:43, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for the link, Gerda, and sorry for not replying earlier. As I've said before, it is not the existence of infoboxes that seems to cause concern for some people, it is the placement and the accuracy. There are article writers who spend an immense amount of time carefully building up an article, taking great care to balance the sources and get the wording just right, and then summarising everything with a carefully written lead section and a carefully selected lead image. What I think happens is that seeing an infobox parachuted in that diverts attention from all that triggers some deep impulse in those who write (as opposed to those who aggregate data - and yes, I know many do both). That, IMO, is at the core of this dispute. Understanding the mindset of writers is key here. Some writers learn to accept infoboxes on some articles, some don't. The 'metadata' argument is a powerful one. Having the data in an easily maintainable place (and not hidden away like Persondata) is also a very valid argument. Articles that have writers stewarding them are less likely to suffer from infoboxes being unmaintained. The obvious solution would be to find some way to have different options for infobox inclusion. The default option would be at upper right. Other options (such as collapsed and/or down the bottom) have been explored. What you, and others, and the wider community need to do, is really thoroughly explore and lay out the reasoning behind all this and have that community-wide RFC that no-one has bothered to work on yet. Simply returning to ArbCom time and time again will not help. Those you could ask for help with this include Nikkimaria, Brianboulton, Quiddity and RexxS. Together, the five of you, and possibly others I have forgotten, would surely be quite capable of sorting something out, though preferably somewhere other than my talk page. Carcharoth (talk) 13:33, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
The link to my thoughts was part of the evidence not looked at. Did you see my latest entry to the clarification (last permitted anyway, no more than 2 in any infobox discussion), mentioning collaboration of Nikkimaria, Andy, RexxS and myself? Did you know that I never inserted an infobox where I expected conflict, - sometimes I was surprised. I rarely added an infobox to an article I had not written myself anyway. How do you like this? Did you read what 28bytes wrote, my reason to come here? I miss him. The little boxes are not at all important to me, people are, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:35, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Nice article. Though I see the article text does not explicitly say he died in Philadelphia. The infobox does. Adding an infobox is an aesthetic decision, relating mostly to presentation and style. Like categories, navboxes, series boxes, and so on, infoboxes are a bolt-on accessory to the core content. The core content is the text and its references and (possibly) the images (some images are mostly decorative, some are central to and tied to the text). Most of the effort spent on Misplaced Pages articles should go towards driving up standards for the core content and its references (i.e. the text of the articles). That includes tracking down and accessing the best possible sources for an article, and checking the current text to make sure it is acceptable. Everything else, nice though it is, should be secondary to that and can come later. Arguing about the extra stuff at too early a stage is like arguing about what colour to paint the walls of a house while the foundations and basic framework are still being built. Carcharoth (talk) 17:46, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Did you see what's unusual about that article? That two people collaborated who are on opposite sides of the so-called infobox war (a war which is a sad myth, if you ask me). I don't argue at all about infoboxes, I think they are as useful as book covers, and no article is damaged by telling a random reader the time and location of a subject. I am known for respecting an author's wish for no infobox (ask Tim riley) and for being asked about input for compromise (ask Brianboulton). All of the above doesn't reflect the question at hand: why should Andy ("A truly first-rate Wikipedian!") not be allowed to add an infobox to his own articles, subject to the normal discussion by "the community"? I am also waiting for another arb to talk about the accusations by Folantin which were not withdrawn although Beeblebrox asked for it. - 2014 had a bad start (I closed completely, and opened again only because a person died who had no article yet), it can only get better, let's work on that. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:36, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
ps: when I added the infobox Philadephia was in the line about his death. By some additions it appeared higher up, but I now duplicated it to that line. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:49, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Working together on articles is not that difficult. That you keep pointing to examples of collaboration is nice, but you are talking to the wrong person. As far as I am concerned, being asked not to add infoboxes is not an onerous restriction. It is perfectly possible to do all sorts of editing without needing to add or remove infoboxes. i.e. some people's approach to infoboxes is not a good fit with the current environment. The environment needs to change before such restrictions are lifted.

The only amendment to the case I am likely to suggest is one that would repeal the current editor-specific remedies (which focus too much on who created or authored an article) and replace them with a blanket remedy that states that all parties to that case are forbidden from adding or removing or changing any infoboxes, or discussing specific infoboxes for a particular article. The remedy would be lifted once a discussion has taken place where all sides of the argument are assembled carefully and without bias, and presented to the wider community for formation of a lasting consensus. That urging for wider discussion is the key remedy in the case, and that the parties have returned to focusing on their individual restrictions, while ignoring the key remedy, feels wrong to me. Instead of working together on articles, why not try and work together on guidelines for infoboxes? If you asked for an amendment to allow you to do that, I would gladly support that. Carcharoth (talk) 19:08, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

I thought I asked something simple in the clarification request. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:34, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

On other matters (changing topic), there is an article on an Ernst Roth (1896-1971) on the German-language Misplaced Pages, but I don't think there is an article here. I have a picture of his gravestone, which I will add to Commons and the German-language Misplaced Pages article at some point. Would you or someone be willing to translate that article for the English-language Misplaced Pages? Carcharoth (talk) 19:08, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

I am willing to do a stub. I just got this one ready for DYK nomination. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:34, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
started, replacing a redirect, Ernst Roth, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:20, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for that, though it looks like Ernst Heinrich Roth (the German violin-maker) might be the primary topic. The stuff about this other Ernst Roth at Boosey & Hawkes is interesting. Will try and upload the gravestone picture soon - the epitaph is nice: "Great music and great musicians have lost his dedicated service". In case you are interested, there was another musician buried there: Leonard Nowell Fowles, with an even simpler epitaph: "Music was his life". The gravestone I had originally gone there to photograph was of a WWI general: William Birdwood. Some of the other gravestones, though, were in less good condition - being in a graveyard like that, it does make you ponder on mortality and the slow decay wrought on stone memorials by wind and rain and time if not maintained by successive generations - maybe Misplaced Pages will be like that one day! The contrast between the Victorian end of the cemetery, with a mixture of decayed, fallen and restored memorials, and the more recent end (with relatively recent headstones) was very noticeable. Carcharoth (talk) 00:16, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
In much better mood (as 28bytes said he will peek occasionally): DYK was fast, will appear in a few hours, I hope you will manage the insertion of the image during the time when he's shown to more people, - I will travel, can look only later, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:16, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
I hadn't realised you had put the Roth article up for DYK. It has gone from the main page now (I am surprised it went through DYK so fast), but I will put the picture up as soon as I can - it can be tedious to get pictures off my camera, so please bear with me for a couple more days.
Take all the time you need, people will keep seeing it, not too many look at biographies in DYK anyway. I expect more for the painter on the Main page now ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:28, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Better case

I've watchlisted Wikipedia_talk:Arbitration_Committee/Discretionary_sanctions/2013_review and became curious as to the context of Neotarf's DS sanction.

In your decline of his appeal you referenced the possibility of a "better case." My understanding is the sanction was imposed for "Their comments here serve no useful purpose with regard to deciding whether the reported edits are sanctionable, and are also mainly concerned with casting aspersions on others, further personalizing the underlying dispute(s)." Looking at the page as it existed at the time of the sanction , the instructions on top of the page state "Messages posted here that egregiously violate Misplaced Pages's civility or personal attacks policies will be redacted and may be deleted." Discretionary sanctions should be for editors disturbing mainspace, not making comments on a dispute resolution board. If Neotarf et. al.'s comments were, in fact, "casting aspersions," they should have been simply removed.

Does that meet your criteria for a better case? NE Ent 14:16, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for not replying earlier, NE Ent. I broadly agree, but to be honest I am less concerned with quibbles about notifications and even cases involving administrators. Both those detract from getting arbitration decisions right where the impact is on actual content. Readers of the encyclopedia, as someone once said, care very little about what goes on behind the scenes, it is what is in articles that matters. But to go back to one point, the bit about "casting aspersions on others, further personalizing the underlying dispute" is not likely to ever take place in articles. Maybe a different approach should be taken, but casting aspersion is still something that needs to be addressed. Carcharoth (talk) 13:15, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue XCIV, January 2014

Full front page of The Bugle Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:12, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Request for peer review

Hello, I'm trying to improve on the List of notable people under Five Eyes surveillance to make it a featured list before Feb 11 so that we can include it for our project (Misplaced Pages:Surveillance awareness day). As time is running short, I hope someone is there to help me do a peer review soon. Could you help me out with that? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

-A1candidate (talk) 09:29, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I'm afraid I don't have time to help with that. I hope you manage to find someone to review the list. Carcharoth (talk) 13:08, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Wrapping Kafziel

Your vote would be appreciated on the Conduct unbecoming FOF to enable us to close the case.  Roger Davies 10:11, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Ike Altgens redux

I've brought this former Featured Article back to snuff as best as I can tell. I need more eyes, for obvious reasons, and you're listed as a volunteer in the history category. Equally obviously, if I can be of assistance of a similar nature, I assume you'll let me know. xD —ATinySliver/ 09:23, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

WikiCup 2014 January newsletter

The 2014 WikiCup is off to a flying start, with, at time of writing, 138 participants. The is the largest number of participants we have seen since 2010. If you are yet to join the competition, don't worry- the judges have agreed to keep the signups open for a few more days. By a wide margin, our current leader is newcomer Smithsonian Institution Godot13 (submissions), whose set of 14 featured pictures, the first FPs of the competition, was worth 490 points. Here are some more noteworthy scorers:

Featured articles, featured lists, featured topics and featured portals are yet to play a part in the competition. The judges have removed a number of submissions which were deemed ineligible. Typically, we aim to see work on a project, followed by a nomination, followed by promotion, this year. We apologise for any disappointment caused by our strict enforcement this year; we're aiming to keep the competition as fair as possible.

Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may be interested to take part in The Core Contest; unlike the WikiCup, The Core Contest is not about audited content, but, like the WikiCup, it is about article improvement; specifically, The Core Contest is about contribution to some of Misplaced Pages's most important article. Of course, any work done for The Core Contest, if it leads to a DYK, GA or FA, can earn WikiCup points.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Misplaced Pages:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Misplaced Pages talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Misplaced Pages:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email), The ed17 (talk • email) and Miyagawa (talk • email) 19:54, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Message on DS review page

Hello Carcharoth,

I've left the message below the DS Review page , and hope you and all the other arbitrators will take a look and leave a note indicating that you've looked at the discussion of the important issues with DS, with indefinite bans, and with the phrase 'broadly construed' which have been raised throughout that page. NinaGreen (talk) 21:59, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Two arbitrators, AGK and Roger Davies, have added occasional comments to this page concerning the significant changes which have been suggested here, all of which are quick, easy and effective fixes which would (1) drastically reduce arbitrator and administrator workload; (2) permit the reduction in the incredibly high number of administrators (1400), as a result of (1), and allow for the elimination, almost entirely, of WP:AE; (3) improve Misplaced Pages's public image; (4) improve the general atmosphere on Misplaced Pages, making it more collegial and far less adversarial; (5) significantly improve editor retention. However are the other 13 arbitrators at all aware of these suggestions? The lack of any comments from them in this review suggests they may not be. Could the other arbitrators just drop a note here to indicate that they are aware of the suggestions? Obviously change can never take place if the people who can effect if aren't aware of the problems which have been identified in this discussion and the suggestions which have been made for fixing them.

Comment placed on Roger Davies' Talk page

I've placed the comment below on Roger Davies' Talk page under the heading 'Correction to collapsed discussion' and am copying it here because the point is obviously one of vital concern to all arbitrators. NinaGreen (talk) 18:45, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Roger,

Could you please correct this comment you made at :

This is your fourth edit since you were asked to back off yesterday. Whatever benefit there might have been in your contributions has been lost in the - to put it mildly - freeranging nature and inquisitorial tone of your comments. You have singlehandedly provided about half the commentary over the last month, sometimes derailing discussions, stopping others in their tracks, and contributing greatly to bloat. Please now step right back.

Your statement is inaccurate. I made only a single comment after I was told my comments were unwelcome by AGK yesterday, and that comment was made in reply to a question asked of me by Robert McClenon. Can another editor no longer ask me a question, and receive a reply? The four 'edits' were merely 'fixes' to that single comment, as is obvious from the edit history. Please correct that inaccuracy by removing your statement which implies that I made four separate comments after being told my comments were unwelcome, and which fails to recognize the fact that I was replying to a question asked of me by Robert McClenon. Your statements that I have 'derailed discussions' or 'stopped others in their tracks' are also both inaccurate. I have never done that, nor have you provided an example of either. I have merely raised questions, and in almost every single case an administrator, either you, AGK, or Salvio has abruptly shut down any discussion of the questions I have raised. The questions I've raised are valid ones. Perhaps they seem 'inquisitorial' to you and to other administrators because you are committed to discretionary sanctions and you cannot look at them from the point of view of the vast majority of Misplaced Pages editors who find DS strange, unjust, and harmful to the project.

Also your own comments which you later added to that section directly contradict the information provided to me by Robert McClenon, so why has Salvio been permitted to collapse the discussion with the comment 'Asked and answered' when the question obviously hasn't been answered? You state unequivocally earlier in the discussion that I was the only one ('one notable exception') who didn't understand the difference between the powers exercised by administrators in DS and in non-DS situations, and Salvio rudely told me that my question had been answered before, and that I was exhibiting 'supine ignorance'. The discussion now shows I was clearly not the only one who didn't understand the difference, since your later comment completely contradicts the explanation of the difference given by Robert McClenon. It is not healthy for Misplaced Pages when even an experienced editor like Robert McClenon obviously doesn't understand the difference between the powers, and when you have to tell Robert that his explanation is completely wrong, and when no Misplaced Pages editor can find anywhere on Misplaced Pages a clear difference and distinction between the powers. The only way to fix this is to set out on the DS project page a clear explanation of the difference between the powers of arbitrators, the powers of administrators in DS situations, and the power of administrators in non-DS situations. At present the differences are completely blurred, and no Misplaced Pages editor has access to a clear statement of what an administrator is actually authorized to do in DS situations as opposed to non-DS situations, or how the powers of administrators differ from those of arbitrators. Robert McClenon stated that administrators in DS-sitations have been given 'arbitrator-like powers'. By what authority has this happened, since administrators were not elected to be arbitrators? This blurring of powers, the refusal to clearly set out for the benefit of all Misplaced Pages editors the differences between the powers exercised by arbitrators, administrators in DS situations and administrators in non-DS situations, and the handing over of arbitrators' powers to administrators who were never elected to exercise such powers is not healthy for Misplaced Pages, nor is it healthy for Misplaced Pages for you, AGK and Salvio to shut down discussion of such a vital point. Nor is it healthy for Misplaced Pages for you to shut it down on the basis of an inaccurate statement about my comments (see above).

Needless escalation

At RfAr you say, "those asking for admin accountability need to not escalate needlessly." User:Future Perfect at Sunrise did use his admin tool while involved, and was exceedingly, exceedingly rude and ignorant to me, and - as someone at the RfAr pointed out - is incapable of or unwilling to cogently explain his actions - something I believe is a minimum requirement for adminship. But my qualms about automatic deletion of blocked users' comments also brought me to arbitration.

If you're referring to me in that quote, I did not needlessly escalate. And, so far, I am very disappointed by the committee's nonchalance regarding this admin. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 10:49, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I just noticed you're equating my (again, assuming you're addressing me) behaviour with FPaS's: you say, "but equally those asking for admin accountability need to not escalate needlessly." If you won't strike or delete the whole second clause, would you consider at least striking "equally"? --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 10:57, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Missing article

Clarification: you are missing an article, is it Infobox or Misplaced Pages:Infobox (other than a redirect)? We who like infoboxes find it amusing that the former doesn't have one ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:46, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

I never realised we had an article infobox. That seems rather self-referential. Do we have an article on databoxes? I am sure that, or another term, is the more proper name for what you see on the side of trains. There is a fundamental difference between constructing a series of boxes to uniformly present data about planets across all eight articles for the solar system (or across many other articles for extrasolar planets) and simply using an infobox as a way to summarise in tabular form for an article (e.g. summarising a biographical article). When you have millions of articles about people, it makes less sense to have a box uniformly presenting the same information across all of them. It is the difference between picking up a 300-page biography of some famous person and reading that in condensed form (in an article) without an infobox in sight, and picking up a biographical dictionary with short 1500-word entries and having a box on each page as you flick through the collection (or a box for the longer articles). It ultimately comes down to editorial style and choice. Some encyclopedias use boxes, others don't (e.g. the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Some use boxes on some articles and not on others. There should be a way to separate the presentation and style issues from the technical issues (ensuring the data can be maintained and extracted). Carcharoth (talk) 23:59, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

for the record

I've resisted until now -- I just gotta say that any Misplaced Pages editor who names their account after a fictional Tolkien character is clearly up to no good. NE Ent 03:47, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue XCV, February 2014

Full front page of The Bugle Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 23:17, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi Carch

Hi Carch - I made a statement to this effect on the RFAR page, but seriously, please vote what you actually believe at this point, not what you think will make the case end faster. If this case had been handled properly, it would've been over literally a week ago (and quite possibly with me receiving an admonishment - as I've said elsewhere, that's not the biggest deal to me, although I think Tryptofish's latest comment has a point.) The way the case has been handled is bordering on vaudevillian, and another day or two to get any motions straight will do little additional harm at this point. Best, Kevin Gorman (talk) 22:25, 24 February 2014 (UTC)