Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 01:34, 23 September 2006

Responses will be posted to this page. Do not leave your email address (responses will not be emailed anyway, and you will just increase the amount of spam you get).

• For content errors click on "edit this page" or "discussion" at that particular article.
• See Misplaced Pages:Vandalism in progress to report persistent vandalism.
• See Misplaced Pages:Help desk for questions about editing on Misplaced Pages.
• See Misplaced Pages:Reference desk for factual questions not yet answered by Misplaced Pages.
• See Misplaced Pages:Village pump for policy and technical information.
• See Misplaced Pages:Resolving disputes to resolve issues between users.

After reading the above, click here to file a complaint or ask a question
Your question/complaint will be placed at the bottom of the page

Please place resolved entries on Misplaced Pages:General complaints/Archive 4

Old entries can be found in Archive 1 (resolved/unresolved), Archive 2 and Misplaced Pages:General complaints/Archive 3.

Problems with Danny Lilithborne

Hi my username is Neptunekh. When in the past I've tried to add links on the SailorMoon pages a user named Danny Lilithborne deletes them. He says fansites aren't allowed on Misplaced Pages. Thanks!

Fansites are occasionally allowed, but only in exceptional circumstances such as being the main source of information on a topic. Misplaced Pages cannot link to them indiscriminately otherwise every page would have hundreds of links at the end, which would be of very little value. Read this for more. --Cherry blossom tree 10:24, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Also see Misplaced Pages:External links Jon513 12:45, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Etiquette ?

I have a disclaimer on my user talk page of what I will keep in regards to comments; and its outline what I will keep and get rid of. Even within that disclaimer I provide a link of where I stand on certain issues so I do not have to deal with the petty arguements and accusations. Is thier a specific rule against this. Do note every comment I receive, I do give a reply but I do not find it necessary to keep all comments for every user. I will like to hear your comments and idea. Sincerely Paul.Paquette

There is no strict policy regarding what you can and can't do with your own talk page - Help:Talk page and Misplaced Pages:User page are the nearest things, but they aren't binding. People may object, however, especially if you remove negative comments (warnings about vandalism, particularly) because it looks like you're trying to cover them up dishonestly.--Cherry blossom tree 21:27, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I have a similar disclaimer on my talk page, which states "...Messages will be deleted from once I have read them and they are no longer needed." —EdGl 02:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

User Discospinster Keeps Reverting the Unicru entry and uses lies to do so

The user Discospinster keeps reverting entries on unicru, especially mine, to one with less information. He appears to be a plant for unicru.

Please stop Discospinster from reverting with a false reason as well, he claims that it is because of POP UPS. I investigated entries with claims that they were removed because they used pop ups, yet I found no pop ups. I would really appreciate it if you could give me his IP to see if he is based out of portland, or where unicru is located.

He also called my revision a test, he said, "thankyou for your test". What test? I edited it to be updated. So what he is smoking?

You can see his persistant history of abuse at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Unicru&action=history

Sincerely,

Jayden

The appropriate forum for this discussion is the article's talk page, which user:Discospinster has referred you to in the most recent edit summary. Please try to talk this out on the article's talk page. If you can't reach resolution, please see Misplaced Pages:Resolving disputes. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:02, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Deletion of Ares2.jpg

Who deleted my pic???? It was called File:Ares2.JPG, and there was nothing wrong with it! please get it again, because I sure as hell can't! And dont delete pics I've uploaded again! yes, of course, all of them agree with the damn GNU Free Documentation License! So, dont delete please! - Bagel7 22:19, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Can you give a description of the image, where it was obtained, who owns the copyright to it, etc. so that we can help determine the best way to proceed on this? --Kickstart70-T-C 23:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

When the image was deleted, the summary was: "WP:CSD Image #4 - "Images in category "Images with unknown source" or "Images with unknown copyright status" that have been tagged with a template that places them in the category for more than 7 days, regardless of when uploaded."", which is pretty clear cut - you must have forgotten to tag the image. If it is an image that you own the copyright to then you must explicitly release it under the GFDL by adding {{GFDL-self}} to the page (or selecting that option when uploading.) We have no way of knowing the copyright status of any image that is not properly tagged, so they are deleted. If you upload it again and tag it properly there should be no problem. --Cherry blossom tree 23:56, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Me coming from an aol address....

Hiya,

I'm kind of confused....I love using wikipedia every so often. I have noticed the 'You have new messages ' before but not clicked on it..that is until now.... ...There are a load of complaints about vandalism(??!!??) coming from me? I am an aol user, so it says something about lots of people using my portal ( or similar)..I'm afraid I'm not much of a computer-whizz and don't understand this...Anyway, tried to register myself so that it might stop this confusion, but it says 24 people have registered from my - thingy- in the last 24 hrs!!! I just want to say that I would'nt do any 'vandalism', in fact I've never even tried putting in any info or anything, so I'm sorry guys but it aint me!! ;o)

Hello! Sorry to see that you're encountering these inconveniences. It's because you are an AOL user. AOL connects to the Internet in a way that makes it look (to our computers) like you're all the same person. Creating an account is a good idea. Unfortunately, we have to restrict the number of accounts created from each thingy (ok, "IP address") each day, because otherwise some people would create a lot of accounts to make trouble for us. Please try again in a few hours. Again, we're sorry that it's such a pain - basically, AOL, the Internet in general, and Misplaced Pages in particular don't always connect up smoothly. Thanks for your patience and your cheerful attitude! :-) FreplySpang (talk) 12:31, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Problems with particular members

Im not sure where to go for this but there is currently a Wikipedian member who is consistently removing images from pages (primarily television) and citing the fair use policy. Whether or not he is removing them fairly, I feel that his method of removal without discussing the issue first is something that I feel has led to numerous problems and a number of edit wars. His username is Ed g2s.

Is there anything that can be done? Lummie 03:20, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Stop puting fair use images into articles unless you have a legit fair use rational.Geni 12:57, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• I'm not, and that doesn't really help. Lummie 02:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

If you disagree with their reasoning, try discussing it on the article talk page, or directly with the user. Warofdreams talk 02:09, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Improving the validity of wiki

Hi I am a grad student and TA who has had to discourage students from using wiki in papers since you guys do use peer review nor do you cite sources. I am wondering if people that post could please cite thier sources. It would be a great help to researchers like me.

It is already official policy that all information come from reliable sources, see Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, and users are strongly encouraged to cite their sources, see Misplaced Pages:Citing sources. Users are also cautioned about citing Misplaced Pages as a source, see Misplaced Pages:Citing Misplaced Pages. You might also be interested in Misplaced Pages:Researching with Misplaced Pages. Of course, there are many articles lacking sources, see Category:Articles lacking sources but Misplaced Pages is a work in progress (and likely always will be). -- Rick Block (talk) 18:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Evolution

   First Thank you very much for all the wonderful 

information. May our God and creator bless all of you.

   How can anyone truly believe that any thing ever evolved? Why is there water? Why are you? etc. 
   Get true scientific answers from the Answers in Genesis web site. 

       Sincerely Richard C. Corbett

Ohter than provideing evidence that you don't understnad what evolution is about do you have a complaint?Geni 12:56, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Now in the Book there is Job, 38 : "Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?"

We do not know why there is water. But the Genesis does not tell anything else than "God did it and he liked it".

We want to know everything else about water. How to keep it clean and how to share it between brothers. This is good. --193.56.241.75 12:18, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

hexane

what are the methods to test the purity of hexane in short span of time other than gc.pls help.my email id is

This is not a complaint about Misplaced Pages. You might receive an answer if you ask this question at the Science reference desk. Warofdreams talk 18:28, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Prison Break

I don't know if this counts as anything regarding vandalism or not (so I put it here), but there is a problem searching for the program "Prison Break". Try typing it and you get an incredibly lewd series of messages about sucking somebody's anatomy.

Yup. Garden variety vandalism, reverted 5 minutes after it occurred. -- Rick Block (talk) 22:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Display the last edit in "My Contribution"

Could you add an option in the "my contribution" page which only displays the last edit of a page (much like the watchlist). CG 12:35, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, the last edit ones will have "(top)" after them; isn't that good enough? —EdGl 02:58, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

But when you make a lot of edits in the same page and in several pages, it gets crowded ans hard to see. CG 08:40, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's true. —EdGl 14:32, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Extra information in Artist Profile

I have a suggestion. In the music artist profile, I think we should include the Artist's Vocal Range. i.e.- specify whether the person is a Soprano, Baritone, Bass etc. This is fairly important information when it comes to musicians, what say?

Sid.

Reorganizing?

I recently just realized that Help Desk Humanities, Mathematics, Science, Miscellaneous, & Language IS the Reference Desk Humanities, Mathimatics, Science, Miscellaneous, & Language; I was sorely confused by this.

Maybe Misplaced Pages, at the least,, I don't know,, should be reorganized?

Please, , THANKS!

24.70.95.203 08:19, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

its way too confusing its needs organizeing or atleast a separte area like regular forums or something and u need to get rid of or change something with when u click on wiki forums or something u want to taken to where they r not some help page explaining it and giving a list of 30 more places like on on navigation put wiki forums or something --Template:Agentheartlesspain

Legend Of Zelda passwords

Could you please put in the passwords to these games? My game restarted and I lost all of my passwords.

You might have better luck getting these passwords at a site like . WIkipedia doesn't generally have things like level paswords for games. ···日本穣 22:38, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I hope that's not a feeling of Misplaced Pages you have; if its info, it should be included. For your question, you might request an article. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, & at the very least it should try to strive to include as much info as possible. All Wikimedia projects should improve, all Wikis for that mattter.

24.70.95.203 03:47, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually, not all info is suited to Misplaced Pages. See Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not. Mo-Al 03:17, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I didn't read anything there that would invalidate putting passwords for Zelda games on Wiki. As long as the passwords are constant.66.118.233.213 19:55, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

The relevant paragraph is WP:NOT#Misplaced Pages is not an indiscriminate collection of information #4:

"Instruction manuals - while Misplaced Pages has descriptions of people, places, and things, Misplaced Pages articles should not include instruction - advice (legal, medical, or otherwise), suggestions, or contain "how-to"s. This includes tutorials, walk-throughs, instruction manuals, video game guides, and recipes."

Passwords for a video game would likely fall under either the walk-through or video game guide criteria above. We would therefore try to avoid including such material wherever possible. Road Wizard 21:53, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages layout?

The creators of this website seem to have taken Wiki's layout. Is this even allowed? http://www.baka-tsuki.net/ Terukiyo 21:37, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes. The software that runs Misplaced Pages is freely availible for anyone to use in accordance with the GPL--inks 22:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

deleted.

I am just curious why two times now my non profit organization gets deleted by one of your admins?

The reason why I wanted it listed here like other Religious groups is for the content of its history.

If the Church of Satan, Temple of Set, and other maybe perhaps smaller orgs can have their own listing how about us as well? The page that was deleted was the Church ov Apeiron.

Now of course if we violated one of your terms of policies please let me be aware of which one and maybe this could be corrected in the future.

Thank you for your time.

I only see that it was deleted once, and (at least this time) it was deleted because the text was copied from http://www.coa.altervista.org/coa/coa_revised.htm. Text included in articles in Misplaced Pages must conform to the GFDL, meaning the text must be originally written for Misplaced Pages (and when you submit it you agree to license it under the GFDL) or the text must be from a public domain or otherwise "copyright-free" source. Please also refer to Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not#Misplaced Pages is not a soapbox and Misplaced Pages:Notability. Even an article you write completely from scratch may be nominated for deletion if the content is viewed to be primarily self-promotion, or the topic is viewed not to be of encyclopedic notability. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:02, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Chemistry Template Boxes, Or Whatever

An entry in the Chemistry Template Boxes, or Whatever, in 'chemical data' says molecular weight; this is incorrect, it should be molecular mass, but I don't know how to change it, so I'm putting this up here, cause I don't know where else to let you guys know.

68.148.165.213 07:18, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I assume you're asking about Template:Drugbox. Perhaps confusingly (chemists are real jokers), molecular weight is what molecular mass is usually called - see molecular mass. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:01, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

The capitalization of the first letter in a cell is wrong, please reprogram everything so this doesn't happen.

Thanks

68.148.165.213 07:31, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Which cell and which letter? If you mean a cell in Template:Drugbox I don't see one that looks wrong to me. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:01, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Compare Selected Versions button gone from top of Page History

Is there any reason that the Compare Selected Versions button was removed from the top of Page History? It's excruciatingly frustrating to have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the history just to check the five most recent edits. -- ChrisB 15:21, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, much better. Thanks to whoever fixed that. -- ChrisB 15:25, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Hello

Hi people, it is not a complaint of any sort, but I'd like to know where to start when attempting to understand physics. I've got an A-level in it, and I've got a degree in molecular biology but I am keen to learn more about my universe

In terms of Misplaced Pages, Portal:Physics is probably the best place to start. Beyond that (with a cautionary warning that I don't have any more of an academic background in the subject than you), as you already have a background in science, it might be best to look at books on the specific branches of physics which interest you. For instance, A Brief History of Time is an excellent introductory work on ideas in cosmology. Reading New Scientist gives a good overview of recent developments, in an accessible format. Warofdreams talk 21:39, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Splash page Misplaced Pages tagline

This is something that bugged me but didn't know who to ask - you have the translations in the splash page for "The 💕". The german translation says "Die freie...", which in context means liberated. Did you mean that for context, or did you mean free as in no cost? If that's the case, it should be "Die gratis Enzyklopädie"...or maybe gratis should be at the end.

Just a point of cutiosity. Thanks!

That's how it's supposed to be: free as in freedom, not as in "free beer". In a way, the German tagline is better because it's not ambiguous. —da Pete (ばか) 10:24, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

• It actually means both, but since each language chooses their own translation of the phrase differences get in, - Mgm| 12:42, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

RfA

I had attempted to vote for a very qualified user in the Requests for Adminship. The page was blocked, even though the deadline had not passed. The user had overwhelming support, and I thought maybe they had closed the nomination down. Can somebody shed some light on this situation? Viva La Vie Boheme 21:28, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Which user was it? Can you provide a link to the RfA page? When you say "blocked", do you mean protected, or what? -- SCZenz 21:32, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Main page has obscenity on it

To whom it may concern--

My son and I went onto your site (as we normally do) to do some research. When I opened the main page, todays topic was a Pokemon charactor but there was a picture of a penis being held by a woman's hand. I am embarrassed to say that I reccomend this site regularly to my church friends and my other friends who want to shelter their children and there homes from such images. Please do not allow such images to be available on the main page and only to be available if requested.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

I'm very sorry about this. It is our general policy to restrict these images to articles in which you would expect to find them, but Misplaced Pages generates content by allowing members of the public to write it. Unfortunately a minority of people abuse this by making changes such as the one you saw. These changes are normally spotted and changed back very quickly, and we try to prevent them happening on the main page altogether, but the system is imperfect and can sometimes lead to images such as the one you saw appearing, even if only for a brief time. Again, I'm sorry about this and hope that you will continue to find Misplaced Pages useful. --Cherry blossom tree 20:47, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

It was Template:Pokenum which was used on the main page, I heard it getting vandalized, sorry —Minun 13:31, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Justification

Has someone just changed all of English Misplaced Pages from left justification to full justification? If so, please change it back promptly, because the new way sucks. Badagnani 03:35, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Sometimes this (and similar random formatting errors) can be caused by your browser failing to fully load the Misplaced Pages CSS. A hard refresh ought to do it (Ctrl-F5 in many browsers). (ESkog) 03:45, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Lockdown, the movie

I recently tried to edit the page on this movie to expand it and when i saved the page the screen was littered with these stupid boxes that took large portions of my text and horizontally stretched it across the page therefore making it psychologically impossibly to read, whats with that and how to I get it to normal format.

I have taken a look at the article Lockdown (film) and fixed the problem. Unfortunately the wiki software interprets a space at the start of a paragraph to mean that you want the text to appear in boxes like the ones you saw. If you are new to Misplaced Pages, you may wish to read our Getting started page or Editing Misplaced Pages page. If you need any other help with editing, you can also try our Help desk where a team of volunteers will try to answer your questions. Welcome and happy editing. Road Wizard 22:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Tiscali UK

I'd like to put a complaint forward on behalf of all anonymous Tiscali UK users who until yesterday were banned from performing anything other than reading articles. One administrator called Chris 73 performed this action which I felt discriminated against millions of Tiscali customers because of the actions of one user. He's made an apology, but he and some others fail to see what the problem was with this action which is comparable to banning say Verizon in the US.

The reason being was that one user was causing a lot of bother, and in my opinion, rather than to deal with the problem appropriately, some administrators felt it best if they had the easy life by blocking millions of users. I'd hope Misplaced Pages would take this complaint seriously and have words with this admin to make sure it doesn't happen again, to make clear how severe such an action is, plus to ensure that he realises that as an administrator, its his job to clean up after idiots and if he can't cope then he should resign as administrator and not go banning ISP's willy nilly. There are several annoyed Tiscali users out there now who are personally agrieved and I was shocked to find out that no attempt was made to contact Tiscali's abuse department (They do have one, they are Europe's third largest telecommunications company) before carrying out this ISP ban.

Thanks in advance.

Articles of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Misplaced Pages:Long_term_abuse.2FGeneral_Tojo http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia_talk:Long_term_abuse/General_Tojo

These seem to justify such a ban aswell

14:37, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I understand that you are annoyed and I agree that this block was a mistake but seeking recriminations won't help. I seems that it has already been made clear to the admin in question that blocking the whole of Tiscali UK was a bad idea and that is where the matter will end. People are not blocked on Misplaced Pages for mistakes made in good faith. Blocks are reserved for people who have persistently acted maliciously. If the same admin made similar blocks in the future despite being made aware of the negative effects then some action would be taken but unless that occurs then nothign will happen. I should also point out that it is not his job to clean up here - he volunteers to do it.

I'm sorry for the problems you have encountered.--Cherry blossom tree 16:23, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Thats fine with me as long as he realises that making his duties (or anyone's duties for that matter) as a volunteer easier by using the cop-out method of banning Europe's 3rd largest ISP isn't the way to go, he'll have to tackle these matters by deleting, reverting etc. Cheers. 17:51, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Here we go again, 1/4 of Tiscali has now been blocked, what a joke! RobertBFC 22:43, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

So what are you doing to solve the problem? The infomation I have suggests that disscusions with Tiscali ae under way.Geni 22:53, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

What do you want me to do, you lot are the admins, you're supposed to keep going around and banning him, if you can't be bothered to that then why are you an admin. I'm just an aggrieved user, unhappy at these childish actions of keeping the whole class behind because of one user. Do you expect me to go and visit this Tojo or something. RobertBFC 16:34, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure why you would be so aggrieved, since your edits are only about this block. I guess if it weren't for this block, then there wouldn't be anything for you to contribute to Misplaced Pages! Andrew73 21:13, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Well you could send an email to Tiscali saying that the behaviour of one of thier customers is causeing you problems. Admins do keep going around and banning him. Due to Tiscali's setup that involves blocking the whole of Tiscali.Geni 11:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

You're the admins, you contact Tiscali, only wikipedia can complain because its abuse on the wikipedia website. I had to register to get round the block. I'm only an infrequent visitor, however these actions have led me to strongly put my views forward on this by frequently visiting because I feel very strongly about it, the userbase of Tiscali seems to have gone over peoples heads here. When people like profsnow are adding templates to the profiles of those who've complained, including myself, suggesting that I'm a sockpuppet, can you understand why I'm fuming? It's an absolute disgrace. RobertBFC 10:59, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You are giving Tiscali money. Logicaly they should listen to you. If you don't like the service they provide stop giving them money.Geni 11:16, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Stop trying to find excuses to have a power trip on banning millions of users. The Tiscali service is fine, its this websites inability to provide a decent service and the fact that I'm not allowed to make a valid complaint and in doing so have this sockpuppet tag. It's down to wikipedia and tiscali to sort this tojo out and if the administrators can't be bothered to e-mail them and would rather ban millions because of one person, then yes I feel very justified in voicing strong opinions on this. RobertBFC 11:25, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Dude I've blocked AOL. Blocking Tiscali would be a step down. Yopu have zero article contributions thus I'm not massively concernded about any inconvience you suffer. In not being able to do something you have never done anyway.Geni 11:37, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You're not even listening, I used to be an anonymous user until all these bans, I managed to register somehow to get past this so I could then make a complaint. It's not just inconvenience to me, but inconvience to millions of Tiscali users. Especially now as IP blocking covers registered users as well. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see a full ban very soon to shut me up. AOL can sort their problem out by not using caching. Tiscali are not using caching, they give dynamic ip's out like loads of other ISPs. If you want a solution its down to Misplaced Pages to bring changes in to the permissions for registered and unregistered users. Or someone from wikipedia can get off their backside and put forward a complaint to Tiscali. I've said it before they don't have a shed for an office, they are Europe's third biggest ISP. RobertBFC 11:54, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I already told you that disscusions with Tiscali are under way.Geni 12:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Might be worth someone looking at my user page to see proof that I was accused of being a sockpuppet for no other reason than the user not liking my attitude. Surely that's not right? RobertBFC 21:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that User:Profsnow hasn't exactly displayed a great attitude on your User: page. The sockpuppet tag has been removed and as far as I can see that is the end of the matter. Almost every block issued on Misplaced Pages has the potential to stop good users making edits. We try to keep these to a minimum but no-one has any right to edit and sometimes trade-offs have to be made. Because Tiscali use dynamic IP addresses and do not give XFF headers (see m:XFF project) it is impossible to block a specific user without also blocking all the others. In almost all cases this means we don't block it at all and just clear up the vandalism after it. It seems that in this case it was felt that the gain from not having to revert extensive vandalism outweighed the loss from anonymous Tiscali users not being able to edit and thus blocking Tiscali for a period improved Misplaced Pages. As User:Geni said discussions are underway with Tiscali to come to a better solution but until then this decision will have to be made.--Cherry blossom tree 22:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, the most helpful I've had to date. Just a shame that people like profsnow can get away with such things but that's life. RobertBFC 11:10, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Requiring admins to participate in conflict resolution processes

Now that I've taken a break from a bad situation involving an admin, I've come to the conclusion that the largest failure in the resolution process I just went through was the failure to require an admin to participate in a resolution process for a conflict he or she is involved in.

I won't go into the details of the conflict itself, as that would be counterproductive at this point. However, I felt a profound disparity between the respect asked of users for admins and a reciprocal respect from the admins for users. What's been set up is a rather arbitrary class system where the users have to go through many more steps in a resolution process to seek a solution, whereas an admin can avoid the situation for an excessively long time....wearing out the patience and time of otherwise helpful and well-intended editors.

I would recommend a requirement for admins to participate in some resolution processes, and those that are not required for admins to participate in be clearly stated on each of their main pages. --Kickstart70-T-C 22:09, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Spelling mistakes

I (and probably most people) make spelling mistakes when typing in a term in the search bar. Because of these spelling mistakes some users find some articles to be confusing. The list of items shown matching the word search is usually taken literally for the spelling mistake. Would it be possible to implement a dictionary (similar to the one google uses when searching a spelling mistake) by adressing the mistake and offering a correctly spelled version?

Please see Misplaced Pages:Village pump (perennial proposals)#Better search feature. This has been a requested feature for quite some time, but the current stance seems to be that it can't easily be done without adversely affecting performance. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

This is not a complaint!!!!

This is not a complaint, just a thought, i'm a big fan of wikipedia, and often just browse looking for new knowledge... I just have a suggestion... i'm a big trivia fan, and when i stumble upon a trivia question that i get wrong i usually look it up in wikipedia so in the future i know it... have you ever thought of integrating a trivia game into wikipedia where you can click on the answer and get all the facts?? i know i'd love it!!!

You guys do a great job!!!

Ted Windsor, SSM, Canada

Sounds like you might be interested in Misplaced Pages:Department of Fun, in particular the trivia section. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:41, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Same name, different band

Maybe it's somewhere on Misplaced Pages's policy list and I didn't see it but people who edit or create articles need to be sure that when they use "internal" links (i.e. to Misplaced Pages) that it's not linked to something that appears to be the same but is not. It seems worst with links to bands and films/TV shows. For instance, I was looking at the entry on Jon Anderson, the lead singer for Yes and it mentioned that he started his career in an obscure band called "The Warriors" in 1962. Somebody had impulsively (to be generous) linked to a Misplaced Pages entry on a hardcore band by the same name founded in 2002 (40 years later) of the same name. Please folks: at least use the "(disambiguation)" page in these instances. And for God's sake, test your links before you call it a done deal. --— Preceding unsigned comment added by Brianmacian (talk • contribs)

A lot of articles violate copyrighted materials in Encarta

I won't go into specific article names, but just to let the community knows that I do recognizes that a lot of passages found here on Misplaced Pages are actually a cut and paste from Encarta encyclopedia; its not even a paraphrase since the editor did not even mention that it have used Encarta's materials. I recognized this because I could remember many passages from specific articles in Encarta by heart. Those passages were written by college professors with PhD. degrees and not by some anonymous, unaccountable, wikipedian editors. I have a very strong feeling that if Microsoft were to go through it, a number of lawsuits would come about with the Wikimedia foundation. Please, wikipedian editors, write your own stuff!

It would be helpful if you did go into specific article names; cut and pastes from Encarta are definitely not allowed and when identified will be removed. Warofdreams talk 16:22, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

• Or reworded to get rid of the copying. Yes, please mention specific articles so we can identify the users in question. - Mgm| 12:37, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Why Does WIKIPEDIA DOESNT ALLOW VIDEO DOWNLOADS???

Hi Im an Avid user of wikipedia and it helps me a lot on my works and researches at our town. Besides my hectics schedule as an administrative professor at arlington boston, i also work as a partimer in a dance club studio. and because of that i used to search some aricles here in the wikipedia about some dance steps but unfortunately the pictures are not enough for me to follow the correct and graceful dance step. I ask a the author of the said dance search for him to put video instead of pictures in able for me to follow and watch the correct timing of the dance. but then he replied to my e-mail that video uploading is not allowed in wikipedia..sad to say :(

Misplaced Pages does permit video uploads - see the information at Misplaced Pages:Media#Video or m:Video policy. They must be in Ogg Theora format and are limited to 20 megabytes. Warofdreams talk 21:47, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

An important suggestion

I suggest making the database of wikipedia (3.7 GB) downloadable so that it can be downloaded and burned into CDs and then distributed to people who don't have a fast internet connection.Just imagine having the biggest encyclopedia in the world on your computer. By the way, I don't mean downloading just a small part of wikipedia, but I mean the whole encyclopedia.

meno25

Do mean something different than Misplaced Pages:Database download? -- Rick Block (talk) 01:42, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Bayesian Econometrics

Since the 1960's, there has been substantial growth in the number of Bayesian econometric methodological and applied studies, books, papers, organizations, etc. For references, see current texts and books by G. Koop (2003), Bayesian Econometrics, Wiley, T. Lancaster(2004), "An Introduction to Modern Bayesian Econometrics, Blackwell, J. Geweke (2005), Contemporary Bayesian Econometrics and Statistics, Wiley, A. Zellner (1997),Bayesian Analysis in Econometrics and Statistics, Elgar, etc. Also, there is more information about texts, monographs, computer programs, meetings etc., at the websites of the Int. Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA), http://www.bayesian.org and of the Am.Stat.Association's Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS), http://www.amstat.org

  Hope that you find this quickly written note helpful and that you will include these and other references, etc. in your wonderful dictionary.
                      Arnold Zellner (arnold.zellner@chicagogsb.edu)

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/arnold.zellner/more/index.htm

Timothy V. Johnson

Something is wrong with this page: Timothy V. Johnson. I would edit its talk page, except that nothing displays except the Misplaced Pages background graphic. BlongerBros 17:04, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

What is wrong with it? You'll have to be more specific. --Cherry blossom tree 17:53, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Talk pages don't exist until someone adds something to them the first time. You'd be the first on this talk page. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:03, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, what do you see when you click on this link: Timothy V. Johnson? I get nothing except an empty browser window filled with the Misplaced Pages background image. There is nothing to click on -- no way to add or edit content -- nothing. BlongerBros 20:05, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

A look at the source code reveals a broken page that ends in the middle of some JavaScript code. It could be a cacheing problem somewhere. Pressing Reload doesn't fix it here. BlongerBros 20:08, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I see the whole page. Perhaps try Misplaced Pages:Bypass your cache? -- Rick Block (talk) 20:32, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Ja...thanks...that took care of it. BlongerBros 22:17, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

How to file a complaint against a moderator?

What is the procedure (if there is one) if one would like to file a complaint against a moderator?

This is not about a dispute resolution, but about the general behaviour of a specific administrator.

I'm sure everybody who becomes an administrator has been a decent and productive member of Misplaced Pages at some point. But what if they go "rogue" (as it often happens with people once they get power)? Who keeps track of their behaviour? What safeguards are there to keep them from abusing their power and position? --Frescard 20:25, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

You weren't very specific but I think your interests would probably be best served by filing a request for comment to gain other opinions on the matter. --Cherry blossom tree 21:10, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

one more film to the list

on your elizabeth shue the actress page she has also acted in the right stuff about astronaugts.

It should be easier to post images.

I think it is rather hard to post images, could someone please simplify this task? The velociraptor 00:55, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you have any suggestions as to how the process could be simplified? Warofdreams talk 01:45, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Boneheaded Wikipedian

You'll forgive me if I rant a little on this particular subject. I have ongoing problems with a particular user, who for purposes of anonymity, we'll call The Starman.

This user would essentially fall into the category of "Stubborn-headed Editor" or "Bully", as specified in WP:VAND in the section What vandalism is not. Essentially, he cannot come to agreement with those who are willing to talk to him on talk pages, and he repeatedly make changes opposed by everyone else.

I've tried talking to him. Over and over again. And I'm not the only one! A number of regular contributors have weighed in on a number of subjects, pointing The Starman to various Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines to try to help him be a better Wikipedian, but it is all to no avail. It got so bad that I had to file a formal request for mediation about a month ago, but so far no action has been taken on that front yet.

The worst part is that this editor is a generally rude and abrasive character. He constantly makes personal attacks against other users, yet he masks it either by claiming ignorance or by applauding himself as a champion of morality and justice. For example, he constantly accuses others of vandalism when it is obvious that they have not committed any infractions. He's also fond of accusing users of being sock puppets, simply because they all are in agreement that he is wrong. He also likes to accuse people of being involved in issues in which they have no involvement (a simple check of user contributions would make this clear). As I said though, he rarely stoops to childish name calling (though he does this, too, sometimes), so most people are willing to let the insults slide, time and time again. Also, he loves to intersperse his insults with statements to try and make himself look better, such as "I am acting in Good Faith" or "please be mature".

I can't claim that this user is a vandal, either. Although he has blanked talk pages before and repeatedly removed dispute tags from articles when there clearly was dispute, these cases could merely be ignorance of Misplaced Pages policy (though God knows I've pointed him to WP:VAND often enough). Nor has he violated the 3 Revert Rule, though rv'ing pages twice a day is not uncommon.

The main problem is that The Starman believes that only avid supporters of the subject of the pages in question should be allowed to edit these pages. The Starman has a fervent, almost religious, belief that it is his moral obligation to protect the subject of said pages from any outside or potentially negative influence. Also, The Starman seems to think he has ownership of the articles, as he will revert changes to the wording of the article merely because he likes his version best (of course, in the edit summary he always says that it's to provide "accurate and factual" wording).

Does everyone know the statement about a loud minority? That a loud minority can drown out a majority? The Starman is an extremely loud minority, and he manages to make life an absolute pain for any regular contributor to the articles in question.

So, what do I do? Unfortunately, I'm afraid there's nothing really that I can do, except to continue to act in a civilized manner and hope that one day said user will suffer amnesia and stop being such a nuisance.

Sorry, I just had to get this off my chest... But if you have any suggestions, please let me know! - Runch 16:06, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I forgot to add that another complicating factor in all this is that a number of The Starman's contributions are quite good, but they are interspersed with all the others and his more-than-questionable talk page etiquette. He also generally means well, which makes it all the more difficult. - Runch 16:13, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, if this starman were not attacked and targeted on everything he did, perhaps he would not have to be so curt. I'm well aware of the *proof* the Starman has that these few people doing the improper editing and smearing of several pages had it planed out and in a few cases were egged on to trash the pages. I think that anyone with any clarity would be able to look at the situation and see that this starman has been not only backed into a corner, but attacked, been the focus of a slew of snide and abusive actions...and all simply because he was defending the pages he's working on, cleaning up content, adding pertinent and FACTUAL content. Now these few people deemed it nessary to focus on and remove or alter poorly every little thing he did in making positive changes to said pages. As I look it all over this, it would seem this starman has indeed made good edits and a few people even said so, But then these few “other” people took it as an invitation to edit war. It looks as if this ‘‘‘starman’’’ did have well meaning additions, has also logged into the IRC chat room to ask questions of admins to help clarify situations and for making these GOOD EDITS. I also see that he and the pages he's worked on were the focus of edit warring by these same few people! Even a few of these people openly admitted it.

SO I think that this starman may have reasonable cause for taking a stance! After all the Misplaced Pages guidelines also specifically state, "be bold". As I've read over the pages of talk and read the fact that this starman was wrongly warned when he was simply defending himself and the other attackers/offenders were not even so much as admonished for their actions also shows the bias on your part Runch...But that is just my humble opinion. And as this starman is not mentioned by name, I can only offer up an unbiased and objective opinion. I for one would think a more ethical and honorable thing to have an open discussion with this starman offering up your concerns and hopes....rather than going about only warning him when he is forced to defend himself after having been ganged up on, and forgoing any mention of offence to the gang...Me...Personally...I think that one would want their honorable and ethical standards to be evident in everything they do....especially on such an open page. I guess that I would be wrong...how sad that... I guess I just find it a rather low thing to do changing someone’s name and whining about him or her to the open public kinda bad form. As I said, were it "me" I would simply approach this starman and open a dialogue to find common ground and a stable platform from which to find understanding from.... but that's just me and my humble opinion... ~shrugs~--Mystar 22:21, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

And apparently the individual is a Wikistalker as well... - Runch 22:41, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I think you probably want Misplaced Pages:resolving disputes. --Cherry blossom tree 23:20, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Informal dispute resolution has already been tried with this editor. A formal mediation was also filed but has not yet been looked at despite sitting there for several weeks. Really at this point there is little else to do except pursue a block/ban from an admin or take it to an ArbCom. Most of the affected editors don't want to have to go that route and I think Runch was just looking for some advice in dealing with this problem editor so he didn't have to take it to that level. NeoFreak 00:51, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Thus sayth the instigator and edit war person. I think a quick look at your talk/contribs also gives a clear picture of attack and retalitaory editing. A block/ban woudl be nessary were there cause. But as not only "I" have stated, but others... my eidte were made in Good Faith and are Good edits. That I've been hurrassed for making them by you and WLU is also clear, by my comments and others. :)--Mystar 01:34, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages community forums