Misplaced Pages

It appears that this user is being subjected to remedies under the homeopathy probation, but may not have been informed of that probation and so not may not know that remedies could be appealed to the Administrators' noticeboard. Perhaps an independent admin can take a look? —Whig (talk) 18:46, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Without comment: R. Baley (talk) 18:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That is interesting, why was Anthon01 removed from that list? —Whig (talk) 19:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

East. Anthon01 (talk) 19:29, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I see. That makes sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whig (talk • contribs) 19:32, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

This is the second action against me in 2 days. Why? Anthon01 (talk) 19:36, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, he was properly notified, but more to the point, the reason given for the block is 'stonewalling'.... What is 'stonewalling' in this context and are there diffs that demonstrate this supposed behavior? I know what stonewalling is, in a general sense, but I don't know how it substantively differs from 'continuing to disagree'. Disagree with whom? The consensus? Obviously there IS no consensus, any way but even if there were, disagreeing about it is not disruptive in and of itself. I thought you were allowed to express your disagreement with the consensus (if there is one), as long as you don't engage in disruptive editing. Is there a policy or guideline that describes the parameters of 'stonewalling'? I don't want to accidently violate a guideline or policy that I may not have heard of. Dlabtot (talk) 19:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Probationary sanctions were imposed by an uninvolved admin (see here), who also implied there were some checkuser findings being sorted out. Those sanctions can be appealed here, if that's Anthon01's intent, in which case I'd suggest briefly making a case and allowing input from other uninvolved admins. You could also ask the admin placing the sanction for specifics if that's your concern. MastCell 19:45, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The stated reason for the block is "stonewalling". Was that accurate? or was he blocked for some other reason? What was that reason? Someone's suspicions? Something that was implied? What is the specific reason he was blocked? Dlabtot (talk) 20:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Meanwhile the edit warring rages on with nary a warning or block or ban in sight, except me. And guess what. I haven't touch the article at all. By an admin who has express his disdain for alternative medicine. Anthon01 (talk) 19:47, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Presenting a case? How long will the case stay open? Will Guy come by and take another swipe at me trying reveal my indentity an accusing me of being a meat puppet and commanding to leave, as he repeatedly does? Anthon01 (talk) 19:52, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

So far, you're not making a very persuasive case. MastCell 19:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Considering I just caught you using a half dozen accounts to edit war for the past six months across multiple pseudoscience-related articles and had the results verified via checkuser, the more germane question seems to be if you can evade a block. east.718 at 20:02, February 2, 2008

Half dozen accounts? Please read the checkuser account carefully. You're making alot of unfair accusations here. You are wrong. Ask FT2 if I have a half dozen accounts. You should do you homework before accusing me. Anthon01 (talk) 21:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Again wrong. Will I be given enough for me to comment and other admins to comment? Anthon01 (talk) 20:10, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

What is your comment on the Checkuser report here? Why is it wrong? Lawrence § t/e 20:12, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Here is a relevant link . Quack Guru 20:14, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

East. I know you have you work cut out for you. This problem is a big one but you've pointed your adminstrative arrow in the wrong direction. Note as I have left the problem has gotten worse. Just consider that I may be a moderating force instead of an extremist. I have reached consensus with a number of editors including Jim Butler, Art Carlson and Scientizzle and Arthur Rubin. So far I am unimpressed by your efforts in this case. Your block of JacobLad is unimpressive. Used once for 1.5 hours and never never used again. Please delete as you can see I have no need for it. Anthon01 (talk) 21:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I will defend this on my talk page. And let me say it here before Guy comes through for his drive-by accusation. I have absolutely `nothing to do with Ilena. Anthon01 (talk) 21:21, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

While there was strong suspicion in the beginning that Anthon01 might be Anthony Zaffuto, the partner of User:Ilena, I no longer believe this to be the case and think that no one should raise this accusation against him. -- Fyslee / talk 06:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I will comment here once I have completed my defense there. Anthon01 (talk) 21:22, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I have sent my explanation to FT2 and am awaiting his reply. Anthon01 (talk) 01:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

While Anthon01 may appeal to some few collaborative situations with some editors (a couple of whom share his POV on many alternative medicine matters), he is pretty much constantly in conflict with editors who are scientific skeptics and supporters of mainstream POV. Those conflicts cannot be ignored or undone by a few favorable situations when editors of his own persuasion support him. -- Fyslee / talk 06:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Commenting purely on the sock concerns (and not on any other article editing matters): Quick summary - The information available supports AGF on the sock concerns, with lessons hopefully learned about the perils of not logging in, that no harm was done with the Jacoblad account, and no malice seems to have been intended. The editing both logged in and logged out, and under multiple IPs (home, work etc) was problematic and might have led to further sock concerns, but hopefully Anthon will avoid that in future. I have taken steps in private to address that. (My comment). FT2  12:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Greetings Fyslee: I will be commenting a little later today. Anthon01 (talk) 14:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I still want to know what 'stonewalling' is, precisely, and see the diffs in which User:Anthon01 engaged in this behavior. Dlabtot (talk) 16:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Otherwise how can I defend myself properly. Anthon01 (talk) 17:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Background info regarding improper use of a sock by Anthon01

In contrast to Anthon01's statement above, I find the actions of Anthon01 while using his sock puppet, JacobLad, quite "impressive" and a significant violation of policy here. Talk about a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny! I noticed the edits by JacobLad at the time because they occurred at a very opportune time for Anthon01. Why? Because at that exact time period (minutes) we were engaged in a very heated discussion (with Anthon01 being backed up by Levine2112, both of whom are very strong advocates of chiropractic, a competing profession) about edits that made quite false implications about my own profession of Physical Therapy.

This diff is the last edit in the section where the discussion can be found, so the whole section can be read on that page. I tried to improve the false phrase by a rewording and the introduction of very good sources. They continually reverted it. You will notice that the List still fails to contain a single mention of chiropractic in any manner, even though numerous attempts have been made, even with good sources, to include its pseudoscientific aspects (vertebral subluxation, Innate Intelligence, vitalism). This situation is caused mainly by the efforts of Levine2112, who claims to be a "chiropractic advocate" and has admitted he is here "to protect chiropractic's reputation." The edit history of the List shows this charge to be true. This type of deletionism of well sourced inclusions needs to be stopped. It is disruptive protectionism and violates NPOV policy. When Anthon01 arrived, they became a tag team to protect chiropractic.

By editing the Physical Therapy article in the manner which he did, Anthon01 was effectively taking revenge by attempting to smear my profession. He was trying to do it at the List of pseudosciences and pseudoscientific concepts, and then he used a sock puppet to do it at the PT article itself. He also edited it using his Anthon01 username, in cooperation with Levine2112.

It is important to note that I respect NPOV, even when it goes against me and even when it means the addition of nonsense, as long as it is encyclopedic and properly sourced. That is why I didn't revert his additions or edit war with him and Levine2112, since the additions were properly sourced and to some degree true. Whether they are a notable POV is another matter, since the same can be said of some aspects in most mainstream medical professions, and most aspects of all alternative medicine. It is an especially ironic situation, considering it is an example of the Two wrongs make a right logical fallacy being used by two believers in alternative medicine and pseudoscience. They delete obviously good sources that criticize their favorite profession, and then attack a mainstream profession in revenge.

All of mainstream medicine has issues of this type because we are working with inherited techniques that seem to work, but are sometimes uncertain. Fortunately they are dumped if proven to be ineffective. That last part isn't mentioned by them in their edits there.... Within alternative medicine, and to a large degree chiropractic, this is not the case. Applied Kinesiology is itself a notable example of a pseudoscience being practiced by a rather large number of chiropractors. It is also an article which Anthon01 tried to dominate when he arrived here.

What should be done about this misuse of a sock puppet to edit disruptively (even when using good sources) is up to admins to decide. It was definitely not a collaborative situation. Just because it happened some time ago, doesn't mean it should go unpunished. -- Fyslee / talk 06:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Greetings Fyslee: I will be commenting a little later today. Anthon01 (talk) 14:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This definitely puts the use of the sock, together with copious volumes of other disruptive activites on the part of Anthon01, in a new light. Thanks Fyslee.--Filll (talk) 15:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Disruptive? Prove it! Anthon01 (talk) 15:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Two comments: (1) are you not under some administrative restriction now? (2) your posts here speak for themselves. I rest my case.--Filll (talk) 15:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well consider me ignorant. I am under no admin restriction. Please clarify. Please consider WP is very new to me, and certainly this process of adminstrative review is. Anthon01 (talk) 15:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Filll: Re: copious volumes of other disruptive activites. Prove it. This is hyperbole on your part. Anthon01 (talk) 15:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The current situation is a bit too dangerous for me to engage in this sort of provocative and confrontational activity. I leave it to the admins who have already dealt with you and I suspect might deal with you further in the future if an attitude and behavior shift is not imminent. I hope so.--Filll (talk) 16:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Would you consider striking out some of your inflammatory comments? Anthon01 (talk) 16:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I respectfully decline to do so, until such time as I am informed by some authority that this was a mistake or has been rescinded, and Fyslee informs me that he was mistaken. Thanks.--Filll (talk) 16:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Fyslee: This is mostly a rant. Theres is absolutely no need to respond to most of what you have written here as it belongs on a talk page. If you would like we can take it to your or my page, or a talk page if you find that more appropriate. If there is a specific violation policy that you think I should be penalized for then state it and I will respond. Anthon01 (talk) 15:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Fyslee: Please provide diffs. Anthon01 (talk) 15:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Is it worth having this user around?

Can anyone point to one positive contribution this user has made? If not, should we consider, perhaps, a community ban? ScienceApologist (talk) 19:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Does this editor actually do any editing? While communication is an important part of the wikipedia process, it has to be balanced with contributions to our primary purpose - that of creating an ecyclopedia. I am not seeing much evidence of this balance. I think before a community ban, the editor should be encouraged to spend some time doing some editing... --Fredrick day (talk) 19:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Anthon01 has done sufficient editing for the encouragement to be unnecessary. SA's point stands. •Jim62sch• 20:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Seems a fair point, sadly. The sheer tendentiousness by which he has handled his "defence" here does not suggest future promise, either. Orderinchaos 11:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Question about admin action

Merged here from WP:AN. I was banned for 1 week from editing the homeopathy article and talk pages by East718 for stonewalling. Besides that, user East718 did not specify why he imposed it on me. Is it possible for me to get greater clarity as to why I was banned? Perhaps some concrete examples so I can consider if there is any reason for me to appeal and what I should appeal. Thank you. Anthon01 (talk) 20:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

My impression is that you are tendentiously pushing a point of view, using whatever measures you can to try to get your way and frustrate the editors who oppose you. Look at your own contribution history. Virtually every edit you make related to homeopathy fits into that pattern. I think East718 can provide specific diffs to support their actions. Jehochman 20:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment. I await East718's input or any other admins' input. Anthon01 (talk) 20:56, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think a diff might be helpful to explain what Anthon01 is doing wrong. —Whig (talk) 21:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Notify East718 that a discussion is occurring. That would be the first thing to do. Jehochman 21:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think he deserves at least a diff and evidence presented to know why he was blocked for a week. Bstone (talk) 21:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Do I understand correctly tht Anthony01 was blocked for continuing to disagree on the talk page aka stonewalling? To me, this blocking for this "offense" sounds exaggerated. Andries (talk) 21:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Anthon01 was temporarily topic banned from homeopathy, per Talk:Homeopathy/Article probation. If they would like an explanation of that action, they should ask East718. No block has occurred to my knowledge. I do not understand why Anthon01 address his question here, rather than at User talk:East718. Jehochman 21:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I am new to wikipedia and don't understand the process. I thought that since this is the admin board, I could get an answer here? Anthon01 (talk) 21:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

this is the noticeboard to notify admins (and indirectly the entire WP community) about admin related iussues. if you have a personal discussion with a user going on, address it to their talk page like User:Jehochman recommended instead of airing your dirty laundry out for everyone else to see.

I will take responsibility for suggesting that Anthon01 ask on WP:AN (not WP:ANI) because that is where appeals of admin actions are supposed to occur pursuant to the homeopathy article-probation, as I understood it. I should perhaps have suggested that Anthon01 go to East718's talk page first. —Whig (talk) 21:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

i have always beleived that it is better to try and explain your side of the story to the admin first instead of humiliating both yourself and the admin on an easily accesed discussion board like this. such a drastic step should be a second move in case appeal negotaitions stall since alot of these issuses can be resolved informally through a chat between the adminsitrator and the blocked user. Smith Jones (talk) 21:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I still would like to know what 'stonewalling' is, and where it is referenced in Misplaced Pages policy. I've heard of tendentious editing, and actually, it seems to be pretty common in th homeopathy/pseudoscience disputes, on both sides. Is that what Anthon01 is accused of? Is this related to the article parole? In other words, did this take place after the article was put on parole? If so, where are the diffs that show his actions? Personally I think there are perhaps as many as 6-8 editors on both sides of this WP:BATTLE who have engaged in tendentious editing, over a long period. To single out one editor, without actually saying specifically what he did to deserve being singled out, seems arbitrary. Dlabtot (talk) 21:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You can look up stonewalling in any good dictionary. Just because it isn't referenced in Misplaced Pages policy doesn't mean that it cannot be a rationale for blocking. ScienceApologist (talk) 21:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Here is a diff: . It happens to be the last diff this user made to the Talk:Homeopathy page. Now, taken out-of-context like this, some people may say, "hey, this isn't so bad". But after seeing only this kind of argumentation (that is, stonewalling) and continually arguing for removal of some rather obvious categories while insisting that "there is no consensus" looks not only like obstructionism, it looks like Wikilawyering, disruptive editing, and tendentious editing. ScienceApologist (talk) 21:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Of course you don't need to explain the dictionary definition of stonewalling. I've observed plenty of stonewalling on WP from both sides in the many battles that you are involved in. What I want to know is how it is different from 'continuing to disagree' and if 'continuing to disagree' is against Misplaced Pages policy. What actions did User:Anthon01 take that User:East718 believes violated policy in some way, and what is that policy? How is the stonewalling that User:Anthon01 has engaged in different from the stonewalling that you have engaged in? Has User:East718 communicated this information to you? Dlabtot (talk) 21:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

to the best of my knowledge, stonewalling i defined as deliberately refusing to understand other editors' positions in order to make a WP:POINT. it is pretty much exactly the almost the same the as the WP:TEND violation, but some users prefer the term stonewalling because the user creates a stonewall of text to obstruct any progress for personal or imperatious reasons. . Anthon08 was probably accused of this because he refused to cooperate with another editor. i was not present tot this altercation so i don not know why User:Anthon was singled out for this, but i am certain that there was a good reason or the block will be overturned. Smith Jones (talk) 21:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This situation is disturbing. Anthon01 did the right thing taking the specific concern over whether or not a particular position paper can be used as a reliable source to include the PseudoScience cat on the homeopathy page. Taking this to RS is I repeat, the correct procedure. The long discussion there was no consensus over the particular issue as anyone willing to review it can plainly see. The mass counter-attack over content issues is absolutely unwarranted. This is clearly a disputed content issue. Admin action should not be taken to resolve this issue. That is contrary to our don't smother conflict. If any admin action is taken it must be imposed equally on all warring parties. I'm not an involved editor in homeopathy, but I am a strong advocate of the freedom to reach consensus. Anthon01, does not appear to have done anything against policy in this case. If he has that must be made crystal-clear with diffs. This situation is highly antagonistic and simple approaches will only serve to inflame it more.Wjhonson (talk) 00:46, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

You'll have to ask East718 to be sure, but I interpret "stonewalling" as "tendentious editing"--in particular, Anthon01 has been willfully obstructing the formation of consensus, rather than working towards it. It's not over one particular action, but rather a pattern of being uncooperative. --Akhilleus (talk) 03:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Another accusation but no diffs. You have said that Anthon01 has been willfully obstructing the formation of consensus. Have you any diffs to support statement? I'm trying to understand what it is I have done wrong or different then anyone else on homeopathy? Has anyone really taken the time to look thoroughly at my recent edits on homeopathy? Anthon01 (talk) 03:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Is "tendentious editing" equal WP:BOLD??? Igor Berger (talk) 03:54, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Consensus doesn't exist, because consensus doesn't exist. I'm not going to ignore the attempts to process the critics into silence. Tendentious editing is not interpretable as "we can't reach consensus so let's report the other side for being obstructive". That is not the goal of our project. We reach consensus. Once we have consensus, then we act upon that consensus. There are articles for which we cannot reach consensus, and in those cases we do not act. That is why we have dispute resolution. Editors seeking dispute resolution should not then be processed into silence. We are not a project run by forcing silence on critics, we are in-fact, one of the most open projects being run. If you cannot find common ground, then I would suggest reviewing again the full DR process and taking the appropriate step along it. Wjhonson (talk) 04:00, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the history of Homeopathy and related articles, which have been a source of intense conflict lately. DR has been pursued, and a request for arbitration (still visible at WP:RFAR) was rejected, and article probation has been imposed as a trial solution. Anthon01 has been banned from the Homeopathy article (and its talk page) for a week as a result of that probation. That's the path that DR is following here. --Akhilleus (talk) 04:05, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

And we're discussing the basis of that ban. I feel that ban is not appropriate because no evidence has been presented here that warrants it. Any person wishing to, can present the evidence that warrants it. If no one can present the evidence, then there is no evidence and the ban was not appropriate. That's what we're discussing. I'm open to being shown what is the evidence. Wjhonson (talk) 04:08, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

This thread is too critical of the admins. Someone should clamp an archive template around it to stop it and edit-war with anybody trying to remove it. Is anybody willing to do this? ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 04:32, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Many of my views on Psuedoscience are summarized here. Anthon01 (talk) 04:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

If no diffs are provided to support this ban of Anthon01, will it be lifted and how? —Whig (talk) 05:43, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

That would be premature. If anybody has notified East718, please post a diff. Otherwise, the conversation has not even begun yet. Complaining to a noticeboard without notifying the relevant parties is rude and disruptive. Jehochman 14:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Can somebody review this and, if possible, delete it?

User:BQZip01 and myself have been engaged in an editorial dispute over the inclusion of some meaningless statistics at Talk:Kyle Field. I filed an RfC, which has gone mostly unnoticed. User insisted on a response from me to his suggestions at his 2nd request for Adminship, which I then did.

We weren't able to come to an agreement, but, for reasons I don't understand, user has created his own indictment of my editorial practices within his userspace. I asked him to remove it on his talk page and he responded saying that, since it was his userspace, I couldn't tell him what to do. I think it's somewhat unfair to me for him to advertise what a terrible editor I am, as it's uncivil and (I suppose) constitutes a personal attack. I would ask somebody to review the material on that page, determine if it violates it policy and, if so, delete it. Thank you. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 23:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

• It would seem he's since removed the request I made on his talk page. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 23:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it strikes me that this needs to go – constitutes a personal attack, seeing as it's all about the negative points of one editor. Would be nice if he requested speedy deletion of it, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. — alex.muller (talk) 23:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually after reading really thoroughly through WP:NPA, it doesn't seem to be a personal attack. It's just plain not nice — alex.muller (talk) 23:14, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the more appropriate venue for this is a RFC and not a page on his userspace. hbdragon88 (talk) 23:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It almost looks like that's what the userpage is being used for, prepping an RFC. Tony Fox (arf!) 00:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• But he also says "It may take weeks, months, or years to put this page together," so I don't know how long he wants to wait before filing that RfC, but in the meantime I don't think it's appropriate to for him use it as a platform to accumulate accusations and negative remarks about my editing style. If he's going to file an RfC, he should file it so I'm not waiting on hold with this thing. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 00:15, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• Looks to me like it's prep for an Arbcom, which I'd highly recommend. As it says on the page itself, Unless someone is poring over my contributions (as they might be in my RfA), there is no reason that anyone would have to even see this page. Also, BQZ's remarks are more about Cloud's poor behaviour than "editing style". - BillCJ (talk) 01:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• The previous comment was brought to you by the same user that brought us 70.4.12.147 (talk) 01:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• What's with the "" after "pore", above? It's being used correctly -- or are you suggesting that User:BQZip01 thinks someone will be dumping liquid all over his contributions? --Calton | Talk 16:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I haven't used this term in some time, but I did use it in this page. This seems to be a tit-for-tat response to a perceived wrong. is used to show a quote is taken directly as stated and spelling errors (or malice for that matter) were kept as originally written. — BQZip01 —  19:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• This looks like content dispute not ArbCom or RFC... Igor Berger (talk) 01:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Respectfully, I wish someone had told me about this sooner. I would have been happy to explain. I suppose this is preparation for an RfC, WP:ANI, or something else. Personally, I hope it won't be necessary, but this is merely preparation for such an administrative request.

That said, this page is linked absolutely NO WHERE that CC didn't first bring it up. Moreover, I have never linked it myself, though I have certainly responded accordingly. I had no intention of ever linking it to anything (hence the term "draft"). It is not complete and I may phrase about a bazillion things differently or delete whole sections altogether. How CC believes this is "advertising" is beyond me.

As for "he removed the request I made on his talk page." I certainly did.

1. It was taken away to prevent any "advertising". this is a draft, not a final version of what I want to say. (see above and the disclaimer on the page)
2. WP:USER

In order to make this process more transparent, I invite anyone to read my edit history. BQZip01 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

— BQZip01 —  19:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Just to get this right, are your surprised that people looked at your contribution history when you nominated yourself for adminship 20 days after your last attempt failed? --Hans Adler (talk) 20:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No. — BQZip01 —  20:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• So if you have no intention of filing an RfC, or going to ANI or anything, what's the point? What is this a draft of? The fact that it isn't linked anywhere isn't really relevant, since you're still compiling what amounts to an attack page. You've said a couple of times that nobody should have found, so I have to wonder if you were trying to bait me into an argument by doing it that way.
• If you're not going to do anything with it, I'm going to ask you again to delete the page. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 20:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I never said I wasn't going to file something, only that it isn't imminent (you can change your behavior, I could change my opinion, etc.). The fact that it isn't linked is certainly relevant as you stated I was "advertising" it; in fact, I am not the one even bringing it up: you are. I am not compiling an attack page, but my analysis of your actions and how I find them contradictory to the goals, policies, and guidelines of Misplaced Pages.

I never said no one was supposed to find the page (those are your words, not mine...again) only that I have taken good measures to not advertise it until completed. I see no problem compiling my thoughts and preparing such an admin request for assistance. If you feel as if you have been baited into responding...that's your feeling and I can't do anything to change it. I'll let your comments and characterizations stand on their own. — BQZip01 —  21:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• So you're going to track my edits for the foreseeable future and use that page to judge whether or not they're acceptable to you? Sorry, but that's not OK with me. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 21:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
• You've left this page up for the past 6 months, long, long after the RfC with ThreeE failed. I do not want a protacted dispute about the contents on that page. Do something with it or delete it. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 21:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

1. I never said I was going to track your changes for the forseeable future. If you will notice, all of these on this page are in the past (prior to my RfA). PLEASE stop putting words in my mouth. I never said this at all.
2. Misplaced Pages already tracks your edits and anyone can see them at any time. Anyone can look at them if they wish.
3. I cannot "judge" whether or not they are acceptable, only express my opinion. Judgement is the job of an ArbCom or admin.
4. I'm giving space to allow for something other than an RfC or RfA. You don't seem to even want that assurance and want to take it there ASAP. Would any of your response change if I said, "I plan on filing an RfC on 27 February at 4:30 PM CST. This is my draft for that RfC"? If so, why? I don't know when I will file it. Why should that change your mind?
5. Sorry that it isn't ok with you, but your "okay" isn't policy and I don't need your permission/acquiescence. I'm quite frankly tired of trying to reason with you as your edits are misleading/misrepresenting.
6. As for "do something or delete it", please read WP:DEADLINE. I have no intention of rushing into something. I plan to take my time and think this through.
7. Again, please stop misrepresenting me. That draft was created not 6 months ago, but just over four. I also ceased edits on it a LONG time ago (about 4 months ago) and am not actively doing anything with that page. I see no problem in deleting it.
8. For the last time...it is a DRAFT!!! not my final thoughts. — BQZip01 —  22:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
9. As for the "RfC that "failed" with ThreeE, I hardly think 10 editors agreeing with my side of the issue and 1 that agrees with his side could be considered "failed". — BQZip01 —  22:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• After reading BQZip's comments it's become obvious that he won't take any action to delete it himself and currently has no plans to use it for an RfC or anything else, so it serves now only as an attack page. I would ask that it be promptly deleted. Thank you. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 22:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I said, I'm not ruling it out, but I don't have to rush and submit anything immediately. I'm really hoping it will come to not be necessary, but let's just say here and now that I plan to use it for one of the methods of dispute resolution, but my plans could change and I don't know the exact date I will submit it. Does that make any difference to you? Why should it?
• Again, you are not some deity or entity that can just proclaim something to be "obvious". You intentionally ignore what I type and want to have some sort of immediate battle. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going that way. I have no intention of having a rushed confrontation and can take any reasonable time I want to put this together. — BQZip01 —  22:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I don't believe that you intend to file anything, since this is a (trivial) content dispute that already has an open RfC at Talk:Kyle Field. Claiming that you may or may not file something in the future is a stall tactic to allow you to keep this material on that page indefinitely. I'm asking you to start the process now or remove it from that page. The bottom line is that it shouldn't be in your userspace anyway, even if it's a draft. Put it in a text file on your desktop if you truly intend to come back to it, otherwise file your RfC or delete the page. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 01:42, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Um...no. I hate to be blunt on this, but you just don't seem to get it: you aren't my boss and cannot order me to do something. I have broken none of the policies or guidelines of Misplaced Pages. I don't need to post something right now or delete it just because you want me to. I'm standing firm on this right now out of principle. This page would have disrupted nothing if you didn't bring it up. — BQZip01 —  05:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Hey BQZip? Not to nose in or anything, but couldn't you just stick that same content into a Word file or a Yahoo/Gmail or whatever, take it off your userspace, work on it in its new and non-Wiki incarnation, and let the holler cease? Just a thought (I was reading thru the page, saw this, and thought "hey, you know what would stop this?") Gladys J Cortez 22:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

  I would agree wholeheartedly except the formats used are completely different. I can't work with the links and syntax within Misplaced Pages there. Good idea though and thanks for the feedback. — BQZip01 —  22:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Sure you could. It wouldn't take that long to convert the links and such, and you could speed up most of it by doing a "replace all" search, replacing "]" with "http://www.en.wikipedia.org/xxxxx". I think it might be worth it, considering the discontent the page is causing as is. -Elmer Clark (talk) 23:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Do it in Word or whatever. Any final wikilinks- not sure what you mean as you can put a ] round something even if you write in a word processor, it just won't do anything until it's pasted onto wikipedia- but you can tinker with them when you finally file whatever-it-is, and just use the preview button until it's right. It will work against you having this here anyway, as well as seeming like an attack it gives your 'opponent' chance to formulate his responses far in advance.:) Merkinsmum 23:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

He may work on a rebuttal, but that is his right. I have no problem with him editing and working on his own rebuttal if he wishes. I can see that one too, if necessary. I prefer transparency to obfuscation. — BQZip01 —  05:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• I don't think I'll be doing that. It would needlessly escalate a conflict that has already been blown way out of proportion. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 06:04, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I think a reminder of two points from the fourth pillar is in place:

• Work towards agreement.
• Forgive and forget.

May I suggest continuing discussions about optimal approaches to a systematic long-term breach of this guideline elsewhere? --Hans Adler (talk) 23:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• There is nothing wrong with the sub-page BQZip01 has created. It is commonplace to use an out-of-the-way sub-page to gather ones thoughts. Johntex\ 05:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• THANK YOU!!! — BQZip01 —  05:05, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
• Thanks, but I'll wait for the opinion of an uninvolved third party. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 05:23, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I *am* an uninvolved party, I believe. Why would you think I am an "involved party". I have not, to my recollection, had any part in creating the sub-page in question. Johntex\ 05:32, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Well, I don't want to make this problem any worse than it is, but I've noticed that any time BQZip01 has an issue with something he's more likely to ask you for administrative advice or intervention first. I'm sure he'll dispute this as another misrepresentative falsehood, but in the interest of resolving this amicably for everyone, would you mind if I waited for a second opinion. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 05:45, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I certainly have no objection to you seeking additional opinions. The more the merrier. I hope you and BQ can work this out between you. For the record (in case readers don't want to follow the diff CC posted), BQ did not ask my opinion on this matter at all. I learned of this posting quite by accident. Johntex\ 05:57, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Let me rephrase this to sound less confrontational: I appreciate your response. I disagree, but hopefully we can sort this thing out with more input from others. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 06:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I respectfully disagree with Johntex and say there is something wrong with the subpage. It's uncivil and unnecessary. If you need to preserve the wiki syntax, I recommend hiding it at another wiki. (May I suggest taking up useless E.D.'s disk space?) —Wknight94 (talk) 05:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. Actually almost grounds for a speedy under G10 IMO. Orderinchaos 11:41, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Comment Never even knew the page in question even existed until the complaining editor brought it to the noticeboard. My advice to the complaining editor is to ignore it. If the page is true, having it removed will not hide that truth. If the page is false, then the editor has nothing to fear and can fall back on the relative merits of his edits and contributions and say "See, this how I edit!". The page in question may be a singular and isolated affectation... or it might be indicative of how others may also feel. The editor is being given an opportunity to see how another perceives certain editing characteristics, and can now approach a "problem" amd make it an opportunity for growth and accord. This is exactly what Wiki consensus ia all about. If any editor's edits are good, they will survive consensus. If they are bad, consensus will have them removed. Karma does exist. (PS If I should not make a comment here, where should I have made it? I have already vowed to not put anything on the complaining editor's talk page.) MichaelQSchmidt (talk) 06:59, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree with you to an extent, but I think that would be more applicable if we were talking about an RFC. A user-space page is a different animal, at least in part because it doesn't allow the sort of consensus-building discussion that I think you're contemplating, and that you would see at an RFC. --TheOtherBob 08:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Comment On one hand I think it's permissible to create a user-space evidence page in preparation for dispute resolution - a "draft," if you will. On the other hand, "enemies pages" are not permitted. I'm not sure which this is - but I don't think it matters. Whether this page is permitted or not, Misplaced Pages is not a battlefield. If this list is racheting up the animosity, then my suggestion would be for BQ to take responsibility for removing it in the spirit of compromise. There may or may not be a "rule" that covers this situation -- but Misplaced Pages is based on consensus, compromise, and working together to build an encyclopedia. This page does not appear to be directed toward those goals, and seems to me a bad idea that's only serving to create ill will. --TheOtherBob 08:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thinking that people are watching your contributions is annoying but expected - that's why contribs are public. To see it in print is a whole other thing entirely. This page needs to come down soon. Find whatever justification you want - WP:CSD#G10, WP:U#NOT, WP:STALK, WP:CIVIL, WP:IAR. —Wknight94 (talk) 12:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• I am still not convinced there is anything wrong with this sub-page that BQZip01 has created. As I say above, it is quite normal and accepted to use a user sub-page as a sort of draft working area. BQZip01 has not created any inbound links to the page, so a reader would not find this page by accident. One would have to be looking for it, or following BQZip01's edits.

Never-the-less, the comments here indicate that some people do view it with concern. Therefore, I would like to propose a compromise to BQZip01 and Cumulous Cloud: What if BQZip01 keeps the page but removes editorial comments about how he views the edits?

This would allow BQZip01 to keep the list here on Misplaced Pages, where formatting is better maintained than off in a Word document somewhere. (I completely disagree with the idea of moving this to some other wiki, such as ED. Cumulous Cloud does not want the information published, so I don't see how deliberately publishing it to another wiki would be a good idea for anyone.)

At the same time, it would remove any editorial comments that could be viewed in any way as a personal attack.

I think this would be a fair compromise. Johntex\ 14:19, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

PresterJohn continues misrepresenting source in BLP

In article David Hicks /Religious and militant activities/Afghanistan a source lists allegations against David Hicks. US charges David Hicks

Prester John continues to edit to present the allegations as facts/admissions. This problem has been discussed on the talk pages of David Hicks with PresterJohn and on Talk to the Hand/"David Hicks allegations" section.

Misrepresenting edits

Revision as of 00:43, 3 February 2008

Revision as of 01:59, 13 January 2008

Revision as of 00:10, 12 January 2008

The same edits have also been performed by IP

Revision as of 03:10, 1 February 2008 by 124.180.162.217

PresterJohn had been blocked for 1 month starting 09:49, 9 December 2007 (UTC) by Save_Us_229 according to page Talk to the Hand. The first of the misrepresentation of sources began 12 January 2008.

SmithBlue (talk) 02:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

See here for relevant talkpage discussion Prester John 08:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Discussion continues on this topic. However, given that there are multiple sources for Hicks' training with al-Qaeda, SmithBlue's fundamental dependence on the use by a newspaper of the word "alleged" seems a wee bit precious, and I wonder if this ANI report is aimed at resolving an edit dispute by nobbling those with opposing views. --Pete (talk) 02:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

See my reply to this content dispute at the David Hicks talkpage. Prester John 02:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

see also: Talk:David_Hicks/Archive2#Satanic_symbols cygnis insignis 03:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No dispute that "Hicks trained with AlQ" from me and I was pleased to see PresterJohn's recent removal of many POV headers and phrases from the article. This issue is more fundamental to editing an encyclopedia. Accuracy of representation of sources is essential to WP. Without it? ... what do we have? SmithBlue (talk) 03:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Blocking user comments

Is there a way or means I can use to stop or prevent or block Lanfear's Bane from harassing me by posting pointless comments to my user talk page which I have asked him (or her) not to do? Thanks. Julie Dancer (talk) 02:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Isn't this like a month old? It looks like he stopped. Maybe you should too? --Haemo (talk) 02:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Julie Dancer is only editing about once a month these days, so from her point of view it's something that's just happened now. --Coppertwig (talk) 03:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, thank you Coppertwig. That is the case. What I would like to know is if there is any way, such as with email accounts, that I can block or divert undesired comment from specific users? For instance, I can set up rules in my email client to screen out emails which contain profanity or are from unwanted admirers. Is it possible to do this here with comments posted to user talk pages? Julie Dancer (talk) 15:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Physically and practically, no. However, I shall request the editor not to contact you directly again under threat of sanction - I will also put your pages on my watchlist. LessHeard vanU (talk) 22:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, LessHeard vanU, very much. Julie Dancer (talk) 04:26, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Was this even investigated properly? I posted a light-hearted comment on the ref desks which Julie Dancer deleted and jumped straight to my talk page calling me a disruptive troll. User was less than ten days old and personal attacking. User was also supported by Special:Contributions/71.100.168.148 (only one edit! surprise!). User was then deleting my response on her talk page without due cause. I feel that she might be a sockpuppet or a new user not familiar with jumping straight into calling people trolls. I suggest my comments on her userpage be reverted. Or I can do what she does which is just delete all the comments and then come and cry here? Lanfear's Bane | t 10:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Yup. You returned a warning to the same user talkpage, misquoting WP policy to justify it. WP says that warnings, etc. can be removed since it is an indication that they have been read. You were asked to stop. You didn't. You are now acting in bad faith in suggesting they are a sockpuppet. If you were familiar with WP policy you would AGF or WP:DENY; whichever you feel is appropriate. I strongly suggest that you let this matter drop and get back to editing the encyclopedia. LessHeard vanU (talk) 14:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

HELP

The user styrofoam1994 keeps on deleting my supporting evidence from the sockpuppetry case that he filed against me even though he did it before and it was dismissed. Please help me as soo as you can. Thanks--DurzaTwink 02:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

For convenience, here's a link to the page I think is meant: Misplaced Pages:Suspected sock puppets/Durzatwink --Coppertwig (talk) 03:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No big deal. Just fill out a 3RR report. One or both of you ought to get blocked. Maybe they won't block you because you were just restoring evidence that had been deleted -- maybe that could count as reverting vandalism? There were definintely more than 3 reverts, anyway. --Coppertwig (talk) 03:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I posted a warning at User talk:Styrofoam1994, focussing mainly on 3RR, though really I suppose deleting evidence is worse. --Coppertwig (talk) 03:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Styrofoam1994 (talk · contribs) seems to have stopped reverting. I think this thread can be considered resolved. --Coppertwig (talk) 12:56, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The rest of the story is on WP:AN Agathoclea (talk) 14:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Can someone review this decision please?

User:HanzoHattori just has been blocked indefinitely: . Of course his incivility is obvious, but I think such harsh decision would require a community discussion or ArbCom ruling. I know him as a good, reasonable and highly productive editor (~28,000 edits) who was always willing to discuss any disagreements with me.Biophys (talk) 04:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I endorse this block. The incivility is unacceptable. Note that the block is indefinite rather than infinite. If he wants to return and edit without making personal attacks, he can be unblocked. Nakon 04:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This User has been blocked 12 times. Indefinite doesn't mean infinite, if they'll agree to quit making the incivil edits, they might be unblocked. Corvus cornix_talk 04:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I blocked because they obviously didn't get the message from increasing blocks, I highly doubt that they'd reform. Keilana| 04:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually, for practical blocking purposes, indefinite and infinite mean the same thing in the block entry. As for HH, being highly productive does not give one the right to be uncivil. — Rlevse • Talk • 04:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I certainly agree with that. Being highly productive does not give one the right to be uncivil. To tell the truth, another user just came to my talk page and blamed me of bad faith and "manipulations" . I tried to explain him about WP:CIV and delete his uncivil comments, but he reverted me three time at my talk page to blame me of "lie" without any proof... With regard to Hanzo, I can only hope that he will rethink his behavior and ask for unblock.Biophys (talk) 05:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I must also endorse this block, this editor has a long history of incivility, edit warring and tendentious editing. User has ignored a long list of warnings, recommendations and blocks. Dreadstar † 06:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Due to the continued incivility on his talk page, I have protected it. Dreadstar † 06:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Ban proposed

HH's behavior has gone way beyond tolerable. I propose a formal ban. — Rlevse • Talk • 11:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree, the community has shown an incredible level of tolerance towards his lack of civility and, which is an almost bigger problem, tendentious editing.--Aldux (talk) 15:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Having read just a few of HH's comments, I think a ban is in order. 28,000 edits is no excuse to throw civility out the window. — Edokter • Talk • 19:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I have to endorse as well. Misplaced Pages is not therapy, period. GlassCobra 19:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I also endorse this ban. Long-term, ongoing problems with this editor. Dreadstar † 20:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I encountered this editor a while ago and found their poor demeanor egregious. Jehochman 20:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems he is gone forever. Let's save our time. If he asks to lift his block (which I strongly doubt), then such discussion would be meaningful.Biophys (talk) 20:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This uncivil message cited by Dreadstar was addressed to me and in reply to my message. May I ask you please not to impose a community ban on him, since that is partly my fault? I should not ask him and should not post this review request here at the first place. Besides, that would be an excessive and unnecessary punishment for someone who already has serious problems.Biophys (talk) 21:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I bet his "departure" is only temporary. He's had plenty of chances to learn to behave and only gets worse. Wiki is neither therapy nor a counseling center. It all boils down to that the rest of us shouldn't have to put up with this stuff. — Rlevse • Talk • 22:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think we've been very patient with him for a long time. If he can't learn to be polite, then there's no place for him on Misplaced Pages. Rudie M. (talk) 22:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

At the end of the day, Misplaced Pages is a project to create an encyclopedia through collaboration by its editors. If an editor's actions are disrupting that objective, the wider interests of the project have to take precedence. That applies to repeated incivility just as much as it does to more obvious forms of disruption such as vandalism. -- ChrisO (talk) 22:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is nothing to dispute here. Hanzo was able to work productively and collaboratively with me and other users who gave him these barnstars . He worked a lot and edited in a good faith. Unfortunately, he lost his temper many times. I saw the problem growing and tried to mediate his conflicts on several occasions but missed this one. I wish I could help...Biophys (talk) 00:56, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

User:SqueakBox/right to vanish and User:SqueakBox/gone

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Enough. This has already been decided; appeal decision elsewhere, please. El_C 23:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Can we get a consensus together to delete these pages? It's the history of SqueakBox's userspace, he doesn't want them there, he said he was excercising his right to vanish, but it's clear he just wants to remove the userpage history. He's had a death threat because of the history in November and he is more than entitled to get rid of the history per WP:SPEEDY#u1. Swatjester (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) has decided to restore the pages, I've attempted to discuss it with him, but he won't redelete, hence why I'm bringing it here for further review. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

We were still discussing this. ⇒SWATJester 04:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No we weren't, you refused to redelete it, even given it's quite clearly a U1 deletion, I also see no attempt to discuss this with the deleting admin. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh really I didn't? So while I was attempting to figure all of this out, you filed an AN/I complaint prematurely, without finishing discussing it with me first? As for the deleting admin, did you look at Squeakbox's talk page? The deleting admin is quite confused by Squeakbox's actions, saying "I deleted two pages you tagged for deletion. I am confused that you seem to have recreated your user page. You can ask for your user page (not talk) to be deleted at any time, without moving it. But "right to vanish" only applies if you actually vanish, and recreating your user page seems to contradict that. — Carl (CBM · talk) 18:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)" ⇒SWATJester 04:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:USER he cannot have it speedy deleted under U1 if he has significant conduct issues, which he does. That's the "admin reason to keep" clause in the U1 speedy. WP:USER is very clear about that: He MUST submit it to MfD if he wants it deleted. For the record, SqueakBox's conduct issues were that he had a bad night editing, blanked all his pages and called Misplaced Pages a hate site, and said he didn't want any more part of it. Fine, he has a right to do that. He invoked right to vanish. Fine, he has a right to do that. But as soon as the page was deleted, he came right back, saying that all along he didn't intend to vanish, that he only wanted to have the edit history deleted. So, he intentionally lied to have his user page deleted. That's no bueno, and that's significant conduct issue that I'm contesting the speedy deletion, as WP:USER explicitly allows me to do, and explicitly says I should undo the deletion, and that Squeakbox must put the deletion up on MfD.⇒SWATJester 04:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Significant conduct issues generally means the user is banned, Squeak is nothing of the sort, and his conduct issues are nothing compared to many users here. U1 overrides WP:USER just about every time - you have not yet stated a reason for your undeletion, and the reason why this is significant enough to override U1. Many users delete their userspace, and given there's been a death threat, I'm a little astounded you won't meet the request. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

21 block log entries, and an ArbCom parole with 5 violations is not significant user conduct issues? ⇒SWATJester 04:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There are people making death threats against me. Swatjester is helping them by providing information about me and my family. This has got to stop now. Thanks, SqueakBox —Preceding comment was added at 04:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the above comment is about, nor did I look to see who wrote it. But as for evidence of significant user conduct problems: SqueakBox's block log fills up my entire 15 inch screen. He is only a few months off of a 1 year personal attacks/civility parole which he was blocked 5 times for violating. For that reason alone, he cannot have his page deleted via U1. ⇒SWATJester 04:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

BTW I've offered to individually delete the death threats. No response from him yet. And I don't take that accusation kindly. ⇒SWATJester 04:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh look, he lied again, the death threats are not even on Misplaced Pages. Why isn't he blocked yet for disruption? ⇒SWATJester 04:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's his userspace for god sake, let him delete it, like we would anybody else. WP:USER does not let you undelete a page with no discussion whatsoever, especially when you're going against the deletion criteria.Open your eyes, the death threats came because of his userpage, they didn't happen on wiki. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• Maybe you guys should just tone it down. This kind of tone is not helpful in this situation. I don't see a serious problem in deleting his userpage, since his talk page will be preserved which contains all pertinent material relating to his blocks. --Haemo (talk) 04:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The problem was that it was an invalid speedy deletion in the first place, and that he's lied now twice to get the page deleted to cover his history. I'm about 15 seconds away from indefinite blocking him for disruptiveness to the project. Haemo there is no problem in him MFD'ing his user page, but he is expressly NOT allowed to speedy it per WP:USER precisely for reasons like this that he is trying to do. ⇒SWATJester 04:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the issue is that his user page contains(ed) information which could be used to personally identify him. Understandably, since he has received death threats due to his on-wiki actions, he would like this removed. This shouldn't be a contentious request — perhaps he made a mistake in saying he wanted to "vanish". Fair enough — I don't think it matters, or has any bearing on what we should do here. --Haemo (talk) 04:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Why isn't this U1? Any conduct issues are documented on his talk page, not his userpage. WP:USER is a guidline, WP:SPEEDY is policy, we really should be following that. I strongly suggest you don't block him indef. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Except he can't have his talk page deleted, and this is about his user page, not his talk page. ⇒SWATJester 04:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Whoops; fixed. That doesn't change the content of what I said. I couldn't care less if this was a U1 or J8 or whatever; the issue is more basic than that, and it shouldn't matter what guidelines we cite. --Haemo (talk) 04:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

If SqueakBox is actually leaving, then why not go ahead and let the pages be deleted? If he comes back, either with this name or with another name, then it can be undeleted. Corvus cornix_talk 04:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

He's not leaving, he just wants his userpage deleting which meets U1. Ryan Postlethwaite 04:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Then what's the problem? --Haemo (talk) 04:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The problem is it doesn't meet U1. He's not leaving, he's deleting his user page history to cover up his misdeeds over the past years. This is specifically one of the exceptions to U1: Significant user conduct issues. 14 blocks, an arbcom parole for a year, recent personal attacks, etc. that's the exception.⇒SWATJester 04:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Question, how does deleting his USERpage (not the talk page) hide his misdeeds? SirFozzie (talk) 04:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah; I don't see the issue here. The talk page comments are well-documented. --Haemo (talk) 04:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Your reason would be valid if only the user page was the locus of those misdeeds. The mere existence of sanctions does not preclude an invocation of CSD U1 on pages unrelated to said sanctions. —Kurykh 04:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The problem is that he has a history of harrassing others. He called Misplaced Pages a "hate website" (in user page edit summary, hence deleting the page hides at least one personal attack/incivility/disruption/whatever-you-want-to-call-it). As has been noted, his block log takes up more than one page. He has engaged in personal attacks, harrassment, bad faith, and so much more, and much of that can be evidenced (could have been) or documented there. And the moment that Swat took a breath to evaluate the situation, Squeak demended he be de-admin-ed. It's a longstanding history of attacking and threatening anyone who dares to disagree blindly with Squeak. VigilancePrime (talk) 04:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

We're discussing his user page, you're discussing his behavior. We're not even talking about the same thing. The user page is independent of his behavior. —Kurykh 04:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No, it is not. His behavior is clearly demonstrated ON his user page. That's why he wants it gone. The two cannot be seperated. He made an attack on the whole of Misplaced Pages on his user page (edit summary). How is that not related to his (chronically disruptive) behavior? VigilancePrime (talk) 04:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

One edit summary, which is unrelated to any sanctions, is not a reason to deny his reasonable claim. --Haemo (talk) 05:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The fact that the user received death threats due to his user page is sufficient reason for deletion irregardless of whether the user has "significant user conduct issues." Since when did we start valuing transparency over human life? —Kurykh 05:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Allegedly recieved threats. There is no evidence to support that, that claim surfaced only after this brouhaha started, and he has explicitly refused to share that info with an admin. Pairadox (talk) 05:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Squeak claimed (apparently inaccurately) that he was vanishing. He may have misunderstood the right to vanish or he may have other motives for not accurately stating the reason to delete. Either way, he induced an admin to delete his userpage under a pretense that doesn't match reality. If he wants to vanish, then by all means, he should. But if he wants to stay, he shouldn't be able to wipe away part of his edit history considering his historic and ongoing conduct issues. I've tried three times to ask Squeak about this issue, all to no avail. In short, WP:VANISHing is fine, but it's not a pretense to get an unsuspecting admin to delete. Transparency is key to this project. It's the user's conduct in giving the deleting admin an inaccurate reason that raises a concern with me. If the deletion is for good cause, then why not say so to start with? It's the inaccuracy that is the locus of both the deletion and conduct issues. --SSBohio 04:56, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

If he isn't trying to leave, why is he claiming right to vanish? Corvus cornix_talk 04:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Does anything happen to the block log if the user page is deleted while the user talk page is kept? R. Baley (talk) 04:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed with R. Baley. The block log speaks for itself. I see no reason why the user page SHOULD be kept if the person wants it deleted and suggest SwatJester step back, and have a Nice cup of tea and a sitdown and reign his temper in. SirFozzie (talk) 05:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The general rule is that userpages (as opposed to talkpages) may be deleted on the user's request. I know of no circumstance that would warrant an exception to this rule for an editor currently in good standing. Talkpages are a more complex matter, and sometimes we decline deletion where the user is not leaving the project permanently and there are significant contributions by other editors on that page. However, these rules should be enforced, however, with a view toward minimizing unnecessary disruption and avoiding creating a dispute about nothing in particular. In this case, we have an editor whose controversial history is reasonably well known, and reflected in his block log, so there can be no legitimate concern that the user is trying evade administrator scrutiny by these deletions (which in fact are causing more attention to be focused on him than ever). In light of the claim that the user is receiving death threats based on information that has been revealed on his userpage or talkpage, and out of a desire to avoid unnecessary disputation or disruption over a matter not of importance, I see no reason not to grant the deletion of all the relevant pages, without reference to any technicalities or norms that would otherwise apply. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This is what I've been saying; agree completely. --Haemo (talk) 05:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You said it yourself brad: Editor in good standing. He is not an editor in good standing. ⇒SWATJester 05:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't see any current ArbCom cases. I don't see any current ArbCom Sanctions against him. So, I don't see your point. As things stand, he's an editor with a checkered past (to be kind), but right now, he's an editor in good standing. Once again, Swat, please take a step back. SirFozzie (talk) 05:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is no reason to engage in edit-warring or wheel-warring to keep userpage content (or user talkpage content, for that matter) intact against the wishes of the relevant user, even in ordinary circumstances. Beyond that, in view of the allegation that death threats have been directed against the user, an emergency situation is presented. Common sense suggests that discussion concerning alleged death threats and similar problems should not take place on-wiki. These pages are not to be restored. Any further concerns about the matter should be presented privately to the Arbitration Committee. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

(ec's) Agree with the deletion of the user page (assuming the block record is preserved) however, the talk page should be deleted and then restored with any offending/problematic edits redacted. Or in the alternative, problematic edits to the talk page can be oversighted. But in general, the bulk of the talk page history should be kept, and the details of what to remove should be conducted privately. It should be OK to delete the talk page immediately, and work out what to restore in a timely fashion. R. Baley (talk) 05:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

To my comment above, I will add that I can see little reason to fight to keep userspace content which a contributor, rightly or wrongly, believes presents a danger to himself and his family. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Allegations that he's already misled us about once, coming hot on the heels of having just lied about invoking right to vanish. Right. Emergency situation. Got it. Glad to know that we lend tendentious editors with extensive block histories and known credibility issues every protection, including allowing ArbCom to sweep this under the rug, while we chastise an admin for following EXACTLY WHAT THE TEXT OF WP:USER SAYS. If that's where our priorities lie, I don't want to be a part of this. ⇒SWATJester 05:28, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the fact that this user has a contentious history and a long block log is going to be forgotten if we delete some userpage content by request. If the request turns out to be ill-founded, that can be dealt with in due course. I do not, in the least, understand the level of importance that is being placed on this entire matter. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Indeed we do. If he's a liar the full weight of process can of course be brought to bear. In the meantime please direct further hatemail to Arbcom. Cheers, Mackensen (talk) 05:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

And a representative of the arbitration committee will post an on-wiki notification of the result of said discussions, including the veracity of any reasons for deletion? If that is a given, then fine. Carcharoth (talk) 05:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Swat, I can completely understand your point. From his history, he seems to have been a real pain, and I can certainly sympathize with your point. However, I don't see any point in not allowing him to delete his user page. I think his talk page should stand, or be deleted with the block history replaced. If he's going to change identities, it won't help us to leave his old info up on the old user page, so I'd err on the side of caution. If he's claiming death threats, let him vanish. I'm sure he'll pop up again and we'll deal with that when it happens. Snowfire51 (talk) 05:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

A side-effect here is that by requiring a long debate about whether to allow this deletion or not, the amount of administrator and community time devoted to dealing with an allegedly disruptive user is substantially increased. I don't see how that could be considered helpful from any perspective. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What is arbcom's role in this matter? To make clear my concern, I only worry that by having the page speedied under a pretense, edits which should be part of his history will disappear from scrutiny. Has an admin taken a look at the history of the deleted page to see if there are actual issues here, or just possible ones? If there are no problem edits in the deleted history, I have no problem with its staying deleted. --SSBohio 05:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is no formal ArbCom case or anything of that nature. The reason I have referred this to the Arbitration Committee is that if someone has to post along the lines of "the personal information is in this revision and this one and this one, and the death threats are here and here," that type of information cannot and should not be posted on-wiki. The confidential Arbitration Committee mailing list is the customary repository for sensitive information of that nature. Therefore, while my first preference would be to allow the deletion to stand, and not expend any more time on this (see my comment above), in the event people insist on pursuing it further it should be done confidentally as indicated. Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There's no reason not to delete a user page upon reaquest - doing so does not erase the block log. The talk page should at least be blanked, and any possibly harmful edits oversighted. SwatJester appears to be assuming bad faith which isn't helpful. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 05:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Will, it's a prima facie challenge to good faith to claim WP:VANISH if vanishing isn't his intention. The admin making the deletion was surprised when Squeak recreated the page. SwatJester isn't making any unwarranted assumption that I can see. --SSBohio 05:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

SSB is right. Perhaps it was simply an accidental mis-wording (as had been noted elsewhere), but that Squeak refuses to answer a simple question about why he deleted the page and there is coniderable background and potential for information to be lost, the motives are paramount to this discussion. That said, I generally support userreq deletions of both userpages and user talkpages, but this is a possible exception. VigilancePrime (talk) 05:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The user page contains a lot of personally-identifying information. If a user wishes that to be deleted it is a priority. People often post such material, without at the time realising the possible consequences. As Will Beback observes, deletion of contributions does not affect the block log at all. Tyrenius (talk) 05:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm solely concerned that there may be edits or edit summaries deleted which bear on this user's ongoing conduct issues. If someone could take a look at that, I'd be happy. No one should face off-Wiki risks from on-wiki editing. --SSBohio 06:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• For the record, I just went to SB's talkpage. He moved it to a user subpage, which was then deleted. This effectively removes his entire talkpage history. Perhaps this is one of the problems SJ had with the deletion? I'm genuinely not certain, but it seems to be a problem to me. 71.54.57.168 (talk) 05:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

SqueakBox is a user in good standing, and if there's anything identifying in his user page history, the usual practice is to delete it. SlimVirgin 06:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Reposting of information (on hate websites no less) is a procedure used by some admins (Link in text) and supported wholly by SqueakBox. In a way, what goes around comes around. How's it feel now, Squeak? The point is, I can see the need to delete personal info (it shouldn't have been posted in the first place, and Squeak, as a 45-y/o man - something he points out at every opportunity while harrassing and impuning others - should know better), but the editing history - including the accusation that Misplaced Pages is a "hate site" - are of great import in describing Squeak's chronic, consistent disruptive behaviors.

Note: SqueakBox is hardly an editor in good standing...! VigilancePrime (talk) 06:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You are treading very close to a block for harassment. east.718 at 06:17, February 3, 2008

You who? Me for pointing out the reasons? How am I harrassing for linking to an admin's edit? How am I harrassing for backing up an admin who is following WikiPolicy? How am I harrassing for contributing to the discussion? Or were you referring to someone else, cause it was ambiguous what or who you're talking about. Or if you were referring to SqueakBox, then I understand (and agree). VigilancePrime (talk) 06:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's clear you have a history with Squeakbox, so it's hard to take your recommendations at face value — even though you may feel you are unbiased in your assessment, comments like "How does it feel" and "What goes around, comes around" indicate that you have an axe to grind, and should probably recuse yourself. --Haemo (talk) 06:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I can see that. FWIW, he has a history with me more than the other way around... But you're probably right. I would refer to my additional comments below to point out that I support the admin in this and support total deletion if the pages are to be deleted. Generally, I don't see any reason not to delete user talk pages with the user talk pages when requested. I generally remain unbiased, even in areas where I'm invested, but I do see your point that I might have a particular POV in this from having been on the receiving end of Squeak's hostilities and attacks. Maybe that's why my thoughts are needed, but I'll recuse myself (mostly) I guess. I do think it's ironic, though, that he's claiming similar issues to ones he has supported in the past. You have to admit there's irony in that. VigilancePrime (talk) 06:56, 3 February 2008 (UTC) :-)

RTV, oversight, and talk history

I thought we didn't delete user talk pages, even under Right To Vanish, and only deleted/oversighted identifying information in them. My understanding was that eliminating user talk history, as seen here, made it so that non-admins had no ability to review an editor's public records and history for things like Dispute Resolution. All his old talk page archives are now lost in three files which are:

• User talk:SqueakBox/right to vanish
• User talk:SqueakBox/gone
• User talk:SqueakBoxArchivehsitory

Is this user leaving and doing a RTV? If not, why not just Oversight the material in talk? I don't see the need to hide his entire talk history from the public. What is the need for that? It gives a user a false new start to people that don't know to look closer. If this is an actual RTV, where this user will need to disclose his new account if any to the Arbitration Committee given his disruptive history, do we delete talk pages in those cases? Lawrence § t/e 06:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's a problem necessarily with deleting user talk pages. This is a special case, which is why it's here. I'd say all or nothing... if it is decided that the deletions are legit, then there's no reason not to delete user talk pages too. The issue is whether or not there is sufficient reason (meaning "evidence") to keep the user page. If so, keep all. If not, there's nothing wrong with deleting the talk pages too. VigilancePrime (talk) 06:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well the user page: who cares? People can delete them or ask for their deletion because of a death threat, an upset stomach, or for the hell of it. I'm just talking about the talk history, since it looks like an absolute mess and I've seen mention before that we don't delete those. If Squeak is gone, full RTV, and that page with his history of interactions is going to go, perhaps editing access for the account should go too. If he decides to come back later, the talk page then gets recreated with history. But the user page itself, who cares? How is this usually done? Lawrence § t/e 06:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Point of Information: SqueakBox is not gone. He said he was vanishing and half a day later started all this and article editing. It has a red herring look to it, or perhaps a change of mind, or perhaps an emotionally-distressed decision rescinded with a later clear head (who of us has never had something like that?). I don't have a problem with deleting the pages, user and user talk, per se, but there is some controversy as to whether it removes (and intentionally so?) evidence of some of his past bad acts on Misplaced Pages and to other Wikipedians. That's the only issue here. VigilancePrime (talk) 06:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is no deleted history at any of those three pages. The history of SqueakBox's talk page is still available for non-admins, you just have to know where to look. east.718 at 06:59, February 3, 2008

"You just have to know where to look"?!? I'm sorry, but how exactly is that done? I've been around for a while, think I'm fairly conversant with how to find things with limited access, and I can't figure it out. Why are editors being made to jump through hoops to find the talk page history? Why is finding it being made so difficult? Pairadox (talk) 07:15, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The same way a number of other users have been stalked in the past by Misplaced Pages attackers. The broad overview of how it was done is on a few attack sites, but that doesn't mean we need to spread it around. John Nevard (talk) 09:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

How do we locate those redlinks above, which contain the edit history of his user talk page? They look like any other redlinks, and their effect is to obscure the talk page history. Delete any personal identification that others have posted, but bring back the history to User talk:SqueakBox in the interest of transparency. --SSBohio 14:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't see what the big problem is here - his talkpage was deleted in error, restore it and remove any revisions necessary. His userpage is a userpage, has no relation to any conduct issues, bears on the potential for death threats and should obviously be removed/stay removed. I understand some people don't like him, but the comments here are beyond the pale. 14:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've supported SqueakBox more than once on other issues. I have one concern; I believe it to be legitimate: Are there any edits in the edit history of User:SqueakBox that should be kept for reasons of user conduct or content? I don't see where they've been looked at WRT the issue I've raised. For now, the history was deleted under a pretense and no one has established what was there before deletion and what might need to be kept for purposes of maintaining an accurate user history. Edits to deleted pages not only disappear from those pages, but from the user's contribution history, as well. Avruch, if you look at the history and say "there's nothing there for you to be concerned about," I'm prepared to endorse the deletion. If no admin wants to check, then undelete the page and I'll look for myself. --SSBohio 14:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Per NYB's above comment, the pages are not to be restored. Questions should be directed to the Arbitration Committee, via arbcom-l@lists.wikimedia.org. 15:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is no deleted history in User talk:SqueakBox/right to vanish. My impression is that SqueakBox moved his user page and accidentally move the talk page at the same time. Then he moved the talk page back, and I deleted the redirect. I apologize for the bad deletion summaries; there was a bug in the deletion reason script at the time. At the moment, the talk page history is at User talk:SqueakBox/Archivehistory. My impression is that SqueakBox was simply confused about how to archive the talk history, since most of the deletions are for redirects. See my discussion with SqueakBox on the archived talk page. — Carl (CBM · talk) 15:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

{{discussion bottom}}

I can't for my life imagine that this issue is actually resolved. Inconvenient? Yes. Resolved? No. As I see it, the three issues here are:

1. Squeak had his userpage deleted under a false pretense, and there's been nothing presented to verify that his second pretense is more valid than his first. To my recollection, there was no personally identifying information requiring deletion on his userpage, and no one has shown differently or even asserted same.
2. Squeak has had a checkered history involving making impassioned comments, both on pages and in edit summaries. Despite my request, no one can assure me that the history deleted didn't contain problematic edits such as those.
3. Squeak's user talk page history is now obscured in a subpage, which is explained as his being confused about how to archive. He's been archiving his talkpage for years without any confusion. The history should be back at User Talk:SqueakBox in the interest of transparency.

Now, if someone wants to revert my doing this, then so be it. To my mind, calling this a resolved issue beggars belief, but I'll accept the community's consensus otherwise. We at least have to know that there is personally identifying information at stake before invoking ArbCom. No one has checked, or if they have, no one has stated that such information was there. There has been no indication that ArbCom has taken up this issue. The talkpage issue is still open, as well. Please, do something other than disappearing the issue. --SSBohio 16:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Ultimate Issue

I have been thinking about this over the night. Really, I came to his one conclusion: This is only an issue because he asserted a Right to Vanish while he had absolutely no intention of actually vanishing. But, if he had simply said {{db-userreq}} with "rationale=no longer wish to have a user page, please delete", this would not be an issue as much as it is. Yes, there would still be the questions of motives, and there'd be the issue of his poor behavior in some edits and edit summaries, but there wouldn't be the issue of trying to "trick" admins into deleting the page.

That said, I really don't have a problem with the deletion. I don't think anyone else should either. So SqueakBox wants to delete his user page. If he wants to delete his user talk page, that's fine too. Whether this is to protect against alleged death threats or because he's trying to hide his bahaviors is actually pretty irrelevant. Let him delete his own pages. Just as I feel a user should have virtually unlimited discretion in creating and maintaining userspace pages (something SqueakBox has, of late, gone after in attacks like the great crusades), one should have virtually unlimited discretion in deleting their own userspace content.

TO BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, SWATjester did exactly what he should have done, followed policy to the letter, and was illegitimately attacked and harrassed for it. Here we (finally) have an admin who goes to great lengths to do the right thing and he is vilified for it. That's the real tragedy here. That is the real bastardization of justice. That an admin can be impuned for doing his job and doing it extremely well is a problem that we all should be much more concerned about. EVERYONE here should go to his talk page and leave him a note saying that he was right, he is valued/appreciated, and requesting that he stay at Misplaced Pages. Those who attacked him through this discussion should also note an apology for vilifying him.

• Let the pages stay deleted.
• Thank SWATjester for his service and careful oversight.
• Live and Let Live.

There's still plenty of fodder for an anti-SqueakBox campaign if anyone ever wishes to mount one... he has made it so very easy through his name-calling, attacks, and harrassment. These couple pages are hardly missed in that. Let the dead rest, and the past remain the past, eh? VigilancePrime (talk) 16:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What is past is prologue & those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Squeak has pressed for deletion before with the effect of removing troubling elements of his own history. This has the hallmarks of being more of the same. It's that simple. --SSBohio 17:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

While I don't want SWATJester to leave (we need all the good editors we can get!), no he was not right on his interpretation of WP:USER, and should not take that he was right from this discussion. That point has been made clear by several arbitrators, and the consensus of this discussion. As for an apology, that depends on if he will apologize for being strident, dismissive and repetitive in his comments. And let me also say that I'm not amused about this thread continuing after it was made clear that further discussion of this issue should be made to ArbCom, privately. SirFozzie (talk) 17:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Even granting that something should go to ArbCom, that's no requirement that it must. Do you assert that this is a resolved issue, as the closing editor did? I honestly can't see that anything's been resolved, or that anything is required to go to ArbCom. If either is true, that's fine, but simple assertions are no way to establish consensus. --SSBohio 17:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Not only do I assert, but NewYorkBrad, an Arbitrator, asserts as well. SirFozzie (talk) 17:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

"an emergency situation is presented" (from your link)? That's ridiculous. If these threats have been longstanding as Squeak has alleged, what makes it suddenly an emergency situation? Because he has finally decided to delete content? No, that is an extreme reaction. ArbCom is, as many are becoming concerned, for sweeping things Misplaced Pages doesn't want public under the rug. That's what some are trying to do with this discussion. Now, it is a simple matter of reading policy that SWAT was right. If "we" don't like that, perhaps we should rewrite the policy. The pages might as well stay deleted, per my lengthy comments (in support of Squeak) above. SSB is correct about past and future behavior, but even without the user pages and user talk pages (and other article pages he has managed to delete), there's still plenty of SPOV and SqueakAttacks to be documented if ever there is a need. I agree that this should be dropped. But dropped here, not in the ArbCom under-the-rug committee. VigilancePrime (talk) 18:15, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

And there is NO WAY an involved party should be closing this issue... come on, that's a highly dubious closure, and this clearly is not resolved.

I was just restoring the LAST Archiving that was promptly ignored. ArbCom has spoken, ignore it at your own risk. SirFozzie (talk) 18:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

That sounds like a threat. Maybe it isn't. Sounds like it though.

As you have pointed out, Fozzie, one ArbCom member said it should go there. But there has been nothing to say that it must or that it has. Has it? And if so, where can a peasant, second-class Wikipedian watch for results of such an ArbCom? VigilancePrime (talk) 18:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's not a threat. It's attempting to give you warning, VP. And cut it out with the, "Help, help, I'm being oppressed, come see the violence inherent in the sysadmin" (to mangle Monty Python). It ill behooves you. With the privacy issues claimed by SqueakBox, ArbCom is the one to handle it. A public kicking is NOT in WP's best interests. If you have questions, email NewYorkBrad privately, or the full ArbCom mailing list. SirFozzie (talk) 18:27, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Huh? Where's my claim of oppression or violence in admins? I don't even understand what you're talking about, unless it's just unfounded accusations (personal attacks?) intended to cloud the issue. As it stands now, there are no privacy issues as the privacy-issue pages are deleted. Maybe if you read my earlier comments endorsing the deletion you'd understand. I don't get why you're so into vilifying me now. I'm agreeing with you (in the original question). VigilancePrime (talk) 18:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

HEY. Sorry to shout. Any chance we could all stop discussing this and come back to it tomorrow when we've all had a good night's sleep and we might not over-run the page? Just a thought. It's unlikely we will resolve this right now, and it might save us all a bit of, you know, feeling a bit wrought or fractured. Hiding T 18:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I did sleep on it. VigilancePrime (talk) 18:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC) :-)

Hiding, that's the best idea I've heard today. I intend to bow out of this discussion until tomorrow. Perhaps then I won't have to remind people that should and must are two different words with distinct meanings. --SSBohio 18:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've put in a request to have things clarified for those who are arguing with this on NewYorkBrad's talk page. Hopefully THAT will settle things once and for all. Instead of Reductio ad absurdum, perhaps this should have been tried a while back, rather than undoing two archivals? (and yes, I am guilty with that too until now) SirFozzie (talk) 19:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I went to Brad's talkpage after reading your comment, and, to clarify your clarification, what you're asking is that he change materially what he wrote. He already indicated what he thought should happen. If he changes his stated position to support yours, it would be after the fact. His words were plain, and his abilities as a wordsmith are well-regarded. --SSBohio 21:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Copying and pasting own deleted contributions

I've been reviewing my deleted contributions, and there are some edits there (mostly those to user talk pages of users who have asked for their talk pages to be deleted) that I would like to retrieve (at some point) and record on a subpage of my userpages. Is this an acceptable use of admin tools? I'd say yes, because I still have the copyright on my contributions, even after freely licensing them under the GFDL, but I'd appreciate confirmation of this. Carcharoth (talk) 05:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure that's the best use of your time, but I don't see anything against policy, assuming obviously that there's nothing problematic in the edits themselves. Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd agree with Newyorkbrad. Under the GFDL, you still own your comments, so go for it. ~Kylu (u|t) 06:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Is this about Squeakbox? Obviously, there's no copyright reason you can't ... but please make sure you aren't treading on WP:POINT territory. --B (talk) 06:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Not Squeakbox. It's actually Bishonen's talk page. I vaguely remember a long mini-essay I may have posted there (though it may have been somewhere else), and that is one of the things I'd want to organise and move to the right place at some point. And Brad, my time is my own to spend, like everyone else here. I could have just viewed the edits, and copy-pasted them off-wiki, but as some of the comments involve on-wiki stuff, I'd prefer to keep them all in one place. Carcharoth (talk) 13:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I am a non-admin editor and I would like access to this same facility. Where can I review my deleted contributions and obtain copies of same? I would not wish to preserve them on-wiki, however I assume I have the same rights under the GFDL as described above.

I'm thoroughly confused with the user-talk deletion policy (NOT the user-page deletion policy). I was fairly sure I'd read articles to the effect that user-talk pages were not subject to right-to-vanish or courtesy-deletion provisions when they contained substantial edits by other users. Over the last few months, I've seen several talk-page erasures carried out by fiat, now I can't find the policies, some of the pages I thought I'd read have been recently edited, so I'm just not sure exactly what the policy is anymore.

In any case, I'm comforted that all GFDL contributors will be extended the same rights. At least I hope they will be... Franamax (talk) 11:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Custom is changing towards greater ease of deleting user talk pages as well as user pages. Maybe this should be debated more fully. See also Meta - RTV. You might want to check out Category:Misplaced Pages administrators who will provide copies of deleted articles. Tyrenius (talk) 11:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Custom is changing? Is that the same as the community consensus is changing? Or is custom being changed? Maybe this should be discussed more widely, it's disconcerting to read ArbCom cases and watch the links go from blue to red to blue before the voting starts, at the highest forum in the land.

Pace Carch, who only started the thread, but I assert my exactly equivalent GFDL rights. How do I go to a provide-deleted-article admin and say "it's in a history thread somewhere, I think it's there"? How do I know what to ask for, when I can't see my deleted contributions? I'm not chasing any particular edit here so it's not ANI-worthy, but the question has been asked... Franamax (talk) 12:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You ask them to review your deleted contributions and, in my opinion, provide you with a list of deleted pages. You can generate this sort of list yourself if you have the "watch all pages I edit" option turned on. Then review the list of pages you have watchlisted and note the ones that have turned red. You can then decide which ones are worth taking further. Carcharoth (talk) 13:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

For the record, Franamax, you have 15 deleted edits. 14 of those are to subpages of your userpage. One is to User talk:Freshacconci. This is a fairly simple request to fulfill, but more complex requests may need more discussion. I'd be uncomfortable posting this sort of information on-wiki in a complex case without more consensus behind it. Carcharoth (talk) 13:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Carcharoth, I've now turned that option on, it will save me clicking "watch" on every page I edit, the way I have up 'til now. As I said, I'm not pursuing any particular edit, or anything other than a principle. But there you go, which of those subpages was the one where I wrote "please kill me"? (In the db-userreq, part of a defined software test, with a funny-ha-ha explanation, honest :) Are we equivalent? I can't see my licensed contribution, although someone could restore it without my knowledge or consent at any time - but you can see all of yours, any time you want, and make copies of them. And you can make copies of my GFDL edits which I myself have no (browsable) access to?

The salient point here is that I am not able to view the text of my own deleted edits, thus I have no way of pinpointing which edit I might wish to ask someone else to provide me details of. The broader point is the promptness of responses to purported RTV requests; declarations of "I'm leaving"; self-page-blanking; and the resulting loss of community overview of the leading events.

No, I have no particular complaint, I'm asking the general question: what is the defined policy on talk-page deletion? and does that defined policy address the concerns of non-admins who don't have free access to examine and browse the contents of individual edits? (PS move to talk at your option to spare the ANI page) Franamax (talk) 13:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm sympathetic to non-admins being unable to see their deleted edits. I've said in the past (even before I was given the tools) that this function should be tweaked so all users can see their own deleted edits (but not the deleted edits of others). Those who post unsuitable material may recycle what has been deleted, but that will only get them blocked faster, and there is no way to distinguish between re-posting of off-wiki stuff and repoting of on-wiki stuff. Anyway, you are right, the stuff specific to our edits should be taken to talk. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page. Carcharoth (talk) 17:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, one thing I forgot. Some of the edit counting tools (the ones that scrape the contributions logs) give a total number of edits that is the non-deleted edits. API queries (eg. here) give the total number. Theoretically the difference is the number of deleted edits. Unless you do lots of tagging of pages that get deleted, the number of deleted edits should be quite low. Carcharoth (talk) 17:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it is time to get community consensus against deleting talk pages, especially those of admins. For admins, everything we do should be visible unless there is very good reason otherwise. Except of course for removing vandalism, though i see that many of us dont even bother removing vandalism, just archiving it,. I would also support this for other users. And I agree with Carcharoth about seeing one's own deleted contributions. For one thing, it would cut down on unnecessary requests at Deletion Review for emailed copies. DGG (talk) 17:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

One very slight problem - what about when your talk page has a huge number of edits and doing anything with it risks slowing down the server? I had to move my edit history recently to an archive for that very reason. Orderinchaos 11:51, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

User:Bill edmond

User:Bill edmond recently deleted a large portion of the article Igbo people with the somewhat odd summary "For the sake of posterity in keeping the RULES of WIKIPEDIA, let this article be edited, but not be deleted." Judging by his talk page, he has been admonished in the past, and even blocked for a month, for disruptive edits to this article. I haven't really been tracking this, and I don't have time to look into it, so I'm not the one following up on this possibly complicated matter, but I suspect that another long block is in order. - Jmabel | Talk 06:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I see no response here. Is someone taking this on? - Jmabel | Talk 17:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I find it near impossible to get through to Bill edmond (having dealt with both this account and past ones). He's a good faith user, but he just doesn't seem to want to cooperate with other editors of Nigeria-related articles. Your assessment here is correct, too; that article is impossible to keep in good condition. Picaroon (t) 22:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Suicide note update

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

As per the above, no further comments.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 10:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Don't Worry, It is extremely unlikely that this was a genuine suicide note:

"i am going to kill myself. i have to i am nothing anymore and i wish i was never fucking born. I have a shitload of pills and it will be ok soon. Tell Shonna I Love Her And that I'm Sorry."

The following observations lead me to conclude that this is a hoax:

• "I have a shitload of pills", suicide notes almost never contain references to the intended life-ending method.
• Suicide notes are almost always written to a specific person.
• This message does not contain a rationalization, a reason why this person feels it is ok to end their life.
• The note is too short. (The reason why someone writes a suicide note is to basically talk themselves into it. Sometimes a suicide note can can reach 5-10 pages long)
• Contrary to popular belief, suicide notes are usually written with a calm, purposeful hand. The disparity between the style of writing at the beginning and at the end is frankly not believable.

Compare this: "i have to i am nothing anymore" with this: "Tell Shonna I Love Her", the sudden capitalization of "I" does not fit. Also, the writing style is more likely get worse as the person writes, than to get better.

• The final nail in the coffin, pardon the expression, is this: "I'm", first of all, this is too casual in context with the rest of the sentence. And second of all, contractions are a sign that the person is lying. It is one of the only signs of lying in written prose.

However, This does not discount the possibility that this person may be someone on the brink. These observations would likely be seen in someone who is not yet ready to take their life, which means that we may be able to do some good here

Hope this helps. --BETA 06:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What is this referencing?—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 07:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, First ANI thread --BETA 07:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Post archive (no more, please):
The above "observations" by BETA is NOT helpful, and should be struck out, not just closed. Not even a professional would say such a thing as BETA has done here. ←Gee♥Alice 10:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

People are free to advocate a policy that would force us to feature these notices prominently, coordinate efforts, etc., or, push for the opposite. But, in the meantime, disrupting day-to-day administrative operations, as BETA did upon creating this 'non-update' analysis of the note, which goes explicitly against my asking for no further comments and archiving the first thread, needs to be actively avoided. Thanks. El_C 23:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Block of administrator RyanGerbil10

RyanGerbil10 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

I have blocked this administrator indefinitely after a conversation in #wikipedia-en-admins.

He vandalized the main page. :| east.718 at 07:08, February 3, 2008

He's also been emergency desysopped after a discussion in #wikimedia-stewards. Mr.Z-man 07:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I suppose anything is possible, but I wouldn't think most people who go to the trouble of a committed identity would have an easily crackable password. His user page says he's a college student ... maybe a drunk roommate at the computer? --B (talk) 07:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd believe it. My general experience is that how important an account is has no bearing on how good the password is, and that about 75% of users have easy-to-crack passwords. --Carnildo (talk) 08:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I have taken a look at this with CheckUser on suspicion that the account has been compromised. Unfortunately, however, there was no unusual change in IP between recent edits and Ryan's normal edit. This would rule out the possibility that someone discovered his password (which is what happened in the last bout of admin account compromisings), and the simplest explanation is that he did it himself. However, there always remain those possibilities that CheckUser can't account for, like that he someone was using his computer, or that he left his account logged in on a public terminal (less likely because his last edit was hours previous). The devs are working on those two-way computer screens still. As I said though, without an insightful explanation from Ryan this result is pretty clear that is is likely there is no compromised account. Dmcdevit·t 07:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The "roommate" theory does not seem particularly unlikely. - Jmabel | Talk 07:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, the "compromised account" lexicon does cover a wide range of possibilities. Personally, I would wait for an explanation from RyanGerbil10 himself before further speculating or acting. —Kurykh 07:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Considering that it's the hour when college students drink, my vote is on drunk roommate. --B (talk) 07:27, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree. He may be having a party and somebody started playing on the computer. Or a young relative may have done the same. For the meantime shutting down the account is the right solution. He can straighten it out tomorrow if there's a good explanation. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 07:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Umm, isn't every hour an hour when college students drink? Joe 08:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Seems like a clear case of WP:Bold. the_undertow 08:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Comment from Ryan

The account is not compromised. Someone broke into my room, likely one of the kids on my dormitory floor. It is well-known that I am a Wikimedia sysop, I am surprised the vandlaism was not worse. I am in control of this account as I always have been, and the people who have used my account abusively have been reported to the campus police. This has been a terrible nightmare for me, I am deeply sorry that something like this has happened. RyanGerbil10(Kick 'em in the Dishpan!) 12:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I was about to unblock per Ryan's request and explanation, but decided to allow the community to respond first (nice of me, being so magnanimous). Per AGF and Ryan's past record I see no reason to disbelieve him and support unblocking asap. Resysopping can be something left to Ryan once he is unblocked (I presume there is a record of his reporting the break-in he can provide.) LessHeard vanU (talk) 12:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I actually unblocked him a while ago - how could he post here otherwise? :P east.718 at 12:39, February 3, 2008

duh!LessHeard vanU (talk) 16:28, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

All in all, I would say I prefer my usual hangover. RyanGerbil10(Kick 'em in the Dishpan!) 12:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd say this is a fine example in support of the "Log out" button. I see no reason why he shoulden't be re-sysopped in light of the situation. --Hu12 (talk) 15:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to disable the "Remember me" button for admins? ;) Pairadox (talk) 16:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I must say I'm somewhat amused by the fact that people assumed it was a drunk roommate. Are college students really that predictable to you all? -- tariqabjotu 15:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yup. 15:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Ryan's always done good by me. I'd give him back his full privileges before the incident, and say "shame on them for disrupting your account" and if something like this is to ever happen again then I'd say "shame on Ryan for letting it happen again". If that was to happen again then the de-sysop'in should remain. For now give him back the tools—he's a good admin. —MJCdetroit 15:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• Support re opping. Spartaz 16:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
• Hey Ryan, Windows Key + L when you walk away from the computer, even ones behind locked doors. SchmuckyTheCat (talk)

I'm usually very secure and confident, both in the people I live with and the building I live in. Obviosuly, that trust has been violated. Needless to say, I will of course be changing the way I log onto Misplaced Pages in the future. At first, I thought that perhaps, in my compromised state, I had done the vandalism, but when I dsicovered that things were missing from my room and that my desktop background had been changed to lemonparty, something more severe had happened. Speaking from the next morning, I just want to take this time to apologize formally to the community, and I hope that this episode, which has been a nightmare for me, can be safely put to bed behind us. RyanGerbil10(Kick 'em in the Dishpan!) 17:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much, I just googled "lemonparty". Are you serious that that on your desktop was the last thing you noticed? :) Relata refero (talk) 22:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I agree it would be fine for the stewards to give back the tools right now. DGG (talk) 17:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Don't let this incident get you down. And I hope the campus police catch the people who did this. Nwwaew (Talk Page) (Contribs) (E-mail me) 23:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Suggestion that might deter admin account hacking

When admin accounts are hacked, it's usually to use the account's sysop tools to vandalize.

What if we had a second password needed in order to access the sysop tools on that account? For example, an admin logs in. They see a vandal that needs blocking. So, they hit the block button. In order to use sysop controls, the admin would have to enter a second password that is different from the account login password. Then, while they're active, and for an hour after their last edit, they can use their sysop tools normally. After an hour, if they came back and did an admin action, they'd have to enter the password again. Basically, think Linux: you have your ordinary user account. In order to do certain things, though, you need your root password. Nwwaew (Talk Page) (Contribs) (E-mail me) 23:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Admin account hijackings are so rare and the damage done is so minimal, this seems like it will be more trouble than its worth. Mr.Z-man 23:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Mass date format changes

Looking at diffs such as Adolf Hitler and Phil Collins, it is clear that User:Wtimrock‎ has mass changed date formats in the article from International Dating format to American Dating format, against the guidelines of the Manual of Style. I've asked him to change them back, but I can't force him to do this, and it's a lot of work to go through and change each date individually. --Pete (talk) 08:02, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

They are interchangeable. 14 January, 2008 is the same as January 14, 2008 per Misplaced Pages:DATE#Dates. While you are technically correct, given that both are not native to America, it's really no big deal, and it would really be a waste of time to go through and revert all of the edits when the date format works the same. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 08:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Most of our users are readers, without accounts or date preferences. Perhaps you should log out and see it as an average user would. Obviously the two formats are not then interchangeable. --Pete (talk) 08:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Did you want a cookie? 72.193.12.47 (talk) 09:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Logged out and the dates were exactly the same. Obviously the two formats are interchangeable. You are merely making a mountain out of a molehill. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 01:15, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

He shouldn't do it. It may well be annoying for editors who chose the other style. There is no reason to make the changes. Tyrenius (talk) 09:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, it's annoying. Phil Collins is, at least, British (and is as influential as John, George, Ringo, Paul, The Who, Floyd, etc), so the date format should remain British. Will 10:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The latter part of your argument is severely compromised by comparing a drummer who got lucky when the lead singer/songwriter left, to the subsequently named bands. In reverse order those bands invented or were the leaders of British psychedelia, hard/art rock, and... British post war musical everything. Phil Collins possibly invented British post divorce melancholy pop rock... ooh, looky - red link. He is a better actor than the rest of the above combined, though. LessHeard vanU (talk) 11:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC) ps. I agree with you about the date thing.

Well, thanks, guys. In the old days, there'd be an ArbCom case when editors changed BC into BCE or something similar, but all I get is murmurs and the usual misunderstanding about date prefs. Anyone gonna give the editor a boot in the balls? Looks like he's a problem, from the number of warnings on his talk page. --Pete (talk) 00:32, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

User:Blue eyes gold dragon

I became aware of this user because of this Wikiquette alert. What I have seen is worse than what was reported there: . Perhaps someone can have a look at this until their adopter User:JetLover is online again? --Hans Adler (talk) 10:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC) Blocked 72h. — Rlevse • Talk • 19:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

82.45.166.24

Please block 82.45.166.24, because he has vandalize pages such as List of programmes broadcast by Boomerang UK & Ireland. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hmr (talk • contribs) 11:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Also and Block 65.78.194.114 please, because he has vandalize List of programmes broadcast by Boomerang UK & Ireland as well, Thanks. HMR 11:57, 03 Feburary 2008 (UTC)

You need to take these to WP:AIV. Ros0709 (talk) 12:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. HMR 14:30, 03 Feburary 2008 (UTC)

Pure Reason Revolution

This is a complicated case about the article for the band Pure Reason Revolution. User Justpassinby has only ever edited this and related articles. His/her posts generally have a negative attitude towards the band and its members, but, earlier on, edits made tended to be more reasonable and followed policy. More recently, Justpassinby's edits have been unreasonable; various editors considered these edits to be vandalism and left warnings. These were ignored and this led to Justpassinby being blocked. Since then, there were a sequence of vandalising edits by 78.105.130.169 (the first ever edits from this IP address): these largely repeated Justpassinby's edits and I presume are Justpassinby avoiding his/her block. Yesterday, was the first and only edit by user Joncourtney. Jon Courtney is a member of Pure Reason Revolution. However, the edit made by the user Joncourtney was insulting towards Jon Courtney and the band and was in a similar style to edits by Justpassinby and 78.105.130.169, so I am concerned that the Joncourtney account is a sock-puppet and raises further issues of impersonation. There have been two further edits by 78.105.130.169 since too. I would like to suggest semi-protection for the page and further administration action against Justpassinby and the Joncourtney account. Bondegezou (talk) 13:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think a condensed version of the above should be submitted to WP:SSP. LessHeard vanU (talk) 16:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, I can vouch for his accounting of the events, I just took a look. The vandalism reads like it's being done by either a former member of the band, or that former member's supporter. SSP might be able to give it a good block, but maybe it should be semi'd until they get to it. ThuranX (talk) 16:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've reported the case to WP:SSP as Misplaced Pages:Suspected sock puppets/Justpassinby. Bondegezou (talk) 23:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Whitemartian

Keeps creating socks (Whitemartian3.0, Whitemartian2.0), etc., for pure vandalism. I think there's history between him and User:David A - can an IP block stop him? gb 15:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

To try and get an IP block for him, unless you can give a provable IP address for this vandal, you need to request at WP:RCU. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 15:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I have removed the random pornographic image added to this section by User:Juno24631 and given that user a warning. --Masamage ♫ 20:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Barry Wellman

The page Barry Wellman has a potential conflict of interest that is being covered up. The primary editor that has put most of the promotional language on the page is User:Bellagio99. After what appears to have been an incident where he continually defends edits that try to make the page more objective, it seems to have a new defender in User:Anthon.Eff that is quickly reverting the addition of a WP:COI2 template tag and he waits until a few minutes after 24 hours to revert edits to avoid a 3rr. It seems that the two editors are in cahoots to defend a rather self-interested self-promotional page that reads more like a resume than an encyclopedia entry. Please take a look at both editors and the page in question to help determine what is going on. Are there 2 accounts for the same person perhaps? Or are they just helping each other out to maintain self-interested and self-promotional language? 64.171.57.46 (talk) 15:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm seeing a lot of discussion via edit summary. Has anyone tried talking in the wikispaces dedicated for such interaction? LessHeard vanU (talk) 16:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Personal attack.

Here an editor came at me with a level of vitriol far above what was called for. This is not the first time Mactographer has stirred up trouble related to the Mike Huckabee article. Since this comment reflects his extreme POV as well as a cheap shot, I'm asking for a block for him to cool off and remember taht we're all here to improve the articles, not to attack each other, or at least a warning from an admin. ThuranX (talk) 16:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Maybe I'm misreading the diff, but I don't see a "level of vitriol far above what was called for". Also, WP:BLOCK specifically mentions cool off blocks as something that shouldn't be done. - auburnpilot talk 16:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've seen worse. Perhaps a level one warning. DGG (talk) 17:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Not even a level-one warning. If there's anything that stands out in the diff, it's ThuranX's remarks about Huckabee. -- tariqabjotu 21:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think so. Huckabee's actually spoken about his ability to mis-speak, and I made a joke about that. The return was an insult both about Clinton, which was thoroughly out of place, and at me for being ignorant. The article in question was later edited to reflect that if 'acting' governors are not counted (although they are sworn in) it's 44, if they are counted as sworn in governors, it's 54. Whether or not Huckabee knew this is beyond our ability to source. That I made a joke to an editor I'd previously edited with, without this level of acrimony, and got that insult in return is absurd. OF course, it might just be that since he's on the of the Huck'sArmy editors I've brought up for CoI multiple times, he's decided to get proactive and blatant about his attitudes. ThuranX (talk) 22:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

That diff doesn't seem all that bad to me, barely warnable. — Rlevse • Talk • 22:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the vindication of the obvious. If ThuranX hadn't provoked the incident in question with his rude and uncalled for attacks on Governor Huckabee, I wouldn't have had the slightest reason to reply in kind. And, in fact, he was ignorant in the classic sense of the word since he was unaware of the correct numbering system ... of which the Governor himself was fully aware. It seems to me if someone doesn't want to get into a verbal sparing match, he shouldn't throw the first punch and then come running to the admins complaining about it. --Mactographer (talk) 05:19, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok, so I admit it. mactographer has no sense of humor at all. He's too vociferously defending Huckabee on the article and everywhere else to see a JOKE. Next time, I won't make jokes with a member of Huck'sArmy.com, I'll just report the COI and off-wiki canvassing again. It was a clear joke, one that came with an explanation. He's now picking a bigger fight about this, and it's clear he's not about to stop. This is ridiculous. HucksArmy was upset months ago when I presented their COI to bot AN/I and the BLP boards here, and now he thinks he's got a chance to get me in trouble. His continuing personal attacks and misrepresentations are getting tiresome. I'm requesting he be block to prevent further attacks. ThuranX (talk) 05:24, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

User:58.177.113.21

This users history is providing Chinese translations of names in Hong Kong related articles and nothing much else. Basically doing good work (but maybe a little too much and cluttered for my taste). However, he has just gone to work on a chemistry article, here's his/her first diff on it. This is just weird, surely we don't want Chinese translations of every chemical name in Misplaced Pages? But as I don't know any specific policy he is violating, I have not reverted him. Also, I would not want to scare away someone with a valuable skill to us. Can somebody please advise? SpinningSpark 16:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

True, our practice per MOS is to a non-english language term only when relevant to the actual subject, not for terms like "anticholinesterase inhibitor" DGG (talk) 17:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Rollback and a polite note on the users talk page would be appropriate? Oh no, have to do it the hard way, rollback for clear vandalism only. SpinningSpark 17:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Gwernol

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

User:Gwernol blocked me for adding a block quote to an article ( See: ] and ] ) , then suggested an edit I'm suggesting would be considered vandalism( See: ] and] and] ) . Chuck Marean 17:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What is the point of this forum-shopping? The matter is currently the subject of an arbitration request, Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration#Chuck Marean - Gwernol, in the course of which all three arbitrators that have commented so far have endorsed the block. I see no need for administrator action here, except possibly another block of Chuck Marean if this wasting of community time continues. Sandstein (talk) 17:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

User:ChrisO gaming WP:AE

User:ChrisO gamed the WP:AE board rather badly yesterday. Here's the sequence of events that took place.

After a fairly lengthy discussion on the Pallywood Talk: page, on Feb 1 User:ChrisO decides to make a bunch of unilateral changes to the article. His changes are reverted and the reverter explains why on the Talk: page:

Rather than discussing the issue further, ChrisO decides he needs an advantage. So, on Feb 2 he posts a comment to the Talk: page:

then at 00:18 he rounds up an ally on IRC, kylu, who offers to take action on WP:AE as soon as ChrisO puts up some evidence.

At 00:52 Chris then reverts Pallywood to his version: and at 00:56 Chris files his arbcom enforcement request:

And at 00:57 he then goes back to IRC, and asks someone to enforce his request, pointing Kylu directly to it.

At 01:06 Kylu applies 1RR.

This is perhaps the most blatant abuse of the WP:AE board I have seen; he lines up a "neutral" admin, reverts the article, puts up his AE request, then his "neutral" admin puts a 1RR per week restriction on the page *after* Chris has just reverted it. It's obvious the 1RR restriction should be removed, but what other sanctions are appropriate for ChrisO? FeloniousMonk (talk) 17:44, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

As the editor ChrisO went against, let me just state for the record that a) I'm not particularly proud of some of the comments I made to ChrisO, though (and I don't offer this as an excuse), they're scarcely worse than his to me; b) I actually do believe kylu when he claims (albeit rudely) neutrality; c) I stand by my comment to kylu that this is an area where, by now, angels fear to tread; d) as an act of good faith, I'll voluntarily comply with the 1RR ruling, whether or not is it upheld. --Leifern (talk) 19:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, abusive as heck. Chris, you don't get to do this; it's exactly the same sort of abuse as an admin getting into an edit war and then setting up his opponent for a 3RR block with the aid of a confederate. It's the same using admin tools to gain an edge in an edit war. It won't be tolerated twice, I suspect; for now, I'd suggest removing the 1RR and moving forward. --jpgordon 18:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Is there evidence of the IRC conniving? Spartaz 19:15, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is evidence on IRC of conniving, but I'm not sure whether or not I should post IRC logs here. FeloniousMonk (talk) 19:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

No, probably not a good idea. I presume that they can be made available to arbiters as necessary? I'm happy to take your word for the fact that they exist. I'd be interested in Chris' views but, if true, I'd say that some kind of sanction is appropriate. Spartaz 19:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I find this whole thing befuddling. I see a dispute that has to do with some fairly specific isues of content, including the phrasing of some passages and the section headings. I do not see any notable violation of personal behavior policies that would justify ArbCom - is this some kind of diversionary tactic, or just an attempt to bully? - and I do not see any major policy violation that would call for administrative enforcement. I want to just say "Fellas, keep talking it out on the talk page, try to bring others into the discussion" but that would be half my response to an RfC. It's ChrisO's taking this to AE. I just don't get it. Why? The 1RR restriction is wholely unjustified. I'd like to hear ChrisO's justification and Kylu's justification but frankly I can't imagine what they would say. FeloniousMonk asks what sanctions are appropriate. I am willing to be generous with ChrisO and suggest that he got overzealous and just needs a cooling down period, say a 1 week ban from editing this article. But gaming AE - this is really serious, it undermines the whole process, and does call for some more serious sanction. Slrubenstein | Talk 19:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Felonious for bringing this up. I saw the AE report yesterday and was confused as to why this article was put on probation as there didn't seem to be a huge problem here. Consider the restriction removed. -- tariqabjotu 19:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think your notion of "neutral" admin assumes bad faith on Kylu's part, and I would ask you to reword that slightly, as after inspecting the logs, I think Kylu is in fact fully neutral. On the rest of the dispute I can't tell much, but I don't think the minor discussion on IRC is much to worry about. It's not like the cabal is planning some evil takeover here. _→AzaToth 20:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• Kylu didn't show bad faith; the only problem is that Kylu didn't notice that ChrisO was gaming the system. I wouldn't think it necessary for ArbCom to issue a clarification that this sort of manipulation of arbitration enforcement (not to mention this sort of manipulation of other administrators) is improper; isn't it just common sense? --jpgordon 21:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

A clarification: While ChrisO did in fact bring attention (in general, not to me specifically) on IRC to the AR request, I applied it and made sure he understood it applied to all participants, including him. The problem I see is that instead of discussing the situation, someone used revert to simply wipe someone else's edits and avoid discussion instead of using it to remove vandalism, which is not what Help:Reverting suggests it be used for.

This sort of putting one's fingers in their ears and ignoring the other side in a content dispute is exactly why the whole Israel-Palestine case got sent to ArbCom in the first place, and the reason I asked those involved to not involve me further. I was trying to maintain my distance from what I see as a distasteful and mutually-disrespectful content dispute, however Leifern refused to allow me to do so. The enforcement needed to be done lest the article devolve into another pointless series of revert warring, but it certainly doesn't mean I need to be involved in the arguing after it.

Was the enforcement timed to benefit one party over another? Of course. They usually are, when one of the parties involved is doing the reporting. Does the enforcement do more harm than good by minimizing the revert-warring and promoting discussion? I think it does, and that's why I set it for that article. Thanks to tariqabjotu for informing me of this thread, btw. ~Kylu (u|t) 21:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Regardless, you got took. ChrisO first looked for an admin willing to act (no problem there), then went and reverted the article to his favored version, then posted the request on AE, which you acted upon. That's the only problem -- his reversion before requesting the AE was not appropriate. If he had not reverted first, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all. --jpgordon 21:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There are two cases: 1. At the time ChrisO was reverting, he had already in mind the later enforcing of 1RR. 2. He reverted and then noticing that his revert might be followed with a series of edit wars as was normal in such articles, filed the AE request.

This two cases should be also considered against the following context: It also appears that ChrisO was certain of the soundness of his edit and aside from the content dispute had found the reaction of the other editor inappropriate.

I can not personally think of a test that can distinguish the case 1 from case 2. Either one can be the case but only one of them implies gaming of the system. Regarding the claim of Kylu playing the role of an ally, I don't know but it appears to me that it considers an event in the light of subsequent developments and is kind of akin to conspiracy theories. Just my humble view and I am the first to admit my mistake.

Now, my suggestion is that: 1. ChrisO's version to be reverted. 2. The community decides the validity of ChrisO's statement that "User:Leifern, who created the article in the first place, has indiscriminately reverted my good faith edits with an aggressive edit summary (diff) and accusations of bad faith on the talk page (diff), but no explanation of what he considers unacceptable about my edits" and takes an action if this statement is correct. Cheers, --Be happy!! (talk) 23:13, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, it's more a matter of case 3, if I can put it that way. I originally had in mind posting an AE request directed specifically at Leifern after I saw that he had reverted without discussion. I reconsidered after it occurred to me that Leifern's action was just a symptom of a wider problem - editors on both sides blindly reverting. I saw a danger of this happening on the article, as it had already experienced edit wars. I therefore decided to act in the spirit of the ArbCom's decision in Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Palestine-Israel articles, which avoided targeting any individual editors and set general principles for the entire topic area. I reverted the blind revert solely because it was a blind revert and not permitted by custom; if he had justified his revert with discussion it would not have been an abusive revert and I would have had no reason to act. After I did so, I posted my request to AE pointing out the problems that blind reverts have caused on articles in this topic area and requesting that editors on all sides be restrained from abusing or overusing reversion (note that 1RR still permits reverts - it just limits their frequency). And I would add that there's no cause to revert my edits, as that too would violate WP:REVERT#Do not. -- ChrisO (talk) 23:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. My main point was that Jpgordon and FeloniousMonk's reading was not the only possible interpretation of the bare facts; the only interpretation that makes you guilty. The reason that I asked for your edit to be reverted was that Jpgordon and FeloniousMonk's reading is a possible interpretation anyways but at the same time I suggested that your statement be investigated by the community and a serious action is taken against the other editor if your statement is correct. That decision can also involve restoring your edit later if the community decides that you were making good faith edits and the other editor blindly reverted you. Just a suggestion, you guys know better than me. Cheers, --Be happy!! (talk) 23:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually I wouldn't support taking action against Leifern. As I've already said, he was simply acting in the same way that people have been acting on these articles for far too long. He wasn't a party to Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Palestine-Israel articles, I don't think he made any statements in it, he wasn't informed of it and I'm not at all sure that he was aware that the articles were "under new management", so to speak. I wouldn't be at all comfortable taking or requesting action against him in those circumstances. The important point is that he now knows about the arbitration and (hopefully) understands what the ArbCom now requires of all editors in this topic area. -- ChrisO (talk) 23:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You guys know better than me about this; I haven't edited those articles and don't know what's going on. I just saw an admin-against-admin case and that attracted me here :D because such cases are usually exciting and interesting :P. This is my last comment here. Have a nice time everybody... --Be happy!! (talk) 23:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

(ec) I'm not sure what he did was wrong from the point of view of encouraging people not to blind-revert. He'd just attempted a rewrite which was reverted without discussion. He asked for restrictions on all participants. What difference would have putting the AE request up and then reverting made, precisely? Relata refero (talk) 22:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This is really not accurate. I wish FeloniousMonk had bothered to ask me about it before posting accusations here (and it would be nice not to be burned at the stake in absentia, if you'll excuse the mixed metaphors). There certainly is no "gaming" going on. The article has a long history of edit warring and disputes including two AfDs. After another editor recently added a "coatrack" tag to the article (an action with which I had absolutely no involvement), I had another look at the article to see whether it could be improved - I hadn't touched it since November last year, since when there had at least 100 edits by other editors. I had recently found some media articles which actually discussed the topic of the article. I decided that the article needed to be a bit more concise and would benefit from having some newly published citations - the changes I made are discussed in detail here.

Leifern (talk · contribs) reverted the changes without discussion here. Now, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this was an abuse of reversion. WP:REVERT makes it clear that reversion should not be used in such circumstances: "If what one is attempting is a positive contribution to Misplaced Pages, a revert of those contributions is inappropriate unless, and only unless, you as an editor possess firm, substantive, and objective proof to the contrary. Mere disagreement is not such proof." Kylu took the same view (which is after all just basic editing policy) in this exchange with Leifern on his talk page. (Leifern's visible hostility and accusations of bad faith should be noted. Unfortunately it seems that any admin who intervenes on one of these articles can expect to be attacked.)

I therefore restored my good faith edits; as Leifern had abused reversion, it would not have been appropriate to let the results of an abusive edit stand. I posted this request to WP:AE. In it, I pointed out the history of disputes on the article, the clear misuse of reversion in this case and the role that aggressive reversion has played in inflaming disputes. I requested 1RR on the article - not on any specific editor - for the sole purpose of restraining all sides from using reverts to edit war. I did not request any enforcement action against Leifern, so jpgordon's implication that I somehow "set him up" is off-target, though I did ask if someone neutral could explain to him the rules of WP:REVERT. My intention in doing this was not to "game" anything - don't forget I'm just as constrained by 1RR as anyone else editing the article - but simply to prevent a nascent content dispute from escalating into a revert war as it has done so many times in the past. At that point, as far as I was concerned, both Leifern and I had had the "1 revert". I had no intention of reverting again but given that editors on both sides have abused reversion before, I had good reason to believe that someone would do a further revert and spark an edit war. I took the view - and I stand by it - that it was better to restrain both sides from escalating.

Kylu is completely innocent of any "collusion". As far as I know I've never had any contact with her before so I can't consider her an "ally" (see Kylu's own statement on this accusation). I simply asked on IRC if someone could review an AE request for me (log available on request - admins only). Kylu volunteered to review it and she was certainly under no obligation to act on my AE posting, let alone implement the requested 1RR. I actually asked the channel twice (at 00:17 and 00:57) and Kylu was simply the first to respond on both occasions.

To put the issue in a nutshell - which is better, stopping a potential revert war before it starts, or waiting until the house in on fire before acting? I requested 1RR solely as a preventative measure to encourage all sides to discuss rather than revert. I made this point explicitly in my AE request: "editors ... need to be encouraged to collaborate rather than confront. Discouraging aggressive reverting is an essential starting point." It seems to be both an overreaction and rather an assumption of bad faith to construe a request for an even-handed discouragement of revert warring, on an article where that's been a problem before, to be somehow "gaming the system". -- ChrisO (talk) 22:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I guess I'm missing something. You first went to IRC to find an admin to help -- that's OK. You knew to make sure the help you were requesting on IRC was backed by an on-wiki request; that's also OK. But before you made the request, you reverted the article to your own favored version, to make sure that the article was in the condition you wanted before restrictions were placed on it. In what way is that distinguishable from an involved admin making sure their favored edits are in an article before protecting it from a good-faith edit war? --jpgordon 22:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

As Relata refero asks above, would it have made any difference if I'd reverted the article after I had posted the AE request? As far as I was concerned, that was my 1RR. Bear in mind that under the 1RR regime I would have been entitled to restore my edits anyway. Or are you arguing that Leifern's reversion without discussion was a legitimate action and should have been left in place? My sole concern was that another editor - maybe Leifern, maybe someone else - would revert my reversion, and another would revert that, and so on to the point of an edit war. The fairest way of preventing that was to restrain both sides equally - including myself. -- ChrisO (talk) 23:07, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it would have made a difference, because that revert would have counted as your 1RR. You should have just waited, and then this whole kerfuffle wouldn't have arisen. Small details change the tone of sensitive situations, and anything covered by the arbitration in question is necessarily sensitive. Just be careful, that's all. --jpgordon 01:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair point. For the record, though, as I said above I did count that revert as my 1RR. -- ChrisO (talk) 01:07, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it would be best if "involved" admins (such as ChrisO) would just stay away from the enforcement of the arbitration decision. Completely. I think that's what the ArbCom really had in mind, and I hope they will take this opportunity to eliminate any doubt about that. I think the committee was trying to reduce the scope of the dispute, but if involved admins are constantly pushing up against the "line" of what they are permitted to do (and in this case, I believe, crossing the line), that will only expand the scope of the dispute. 6SJ7 (talk) 23:27, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Any "involved" editor can and should submit arbitration enforcement requests if they feel it's justified - note that I acted as an editor, not an admin (obviously I can't enforce the arbitration decision). Prohibiting "involved" editors from making AE requests would make the arbitration decision unworkable. Obviously the "involved" editors are the people most likely to be aware of disputes, and therefore are best placed to explain what the problem is and why enforcement is needed in a particular case. -- ChrisO (talk) 23:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Figures, I take a week break from AE and the whole place collapses! But enough about how great I am! One universal I'd like to narrow this down on, as a lesson to be drawn for the future, is that for enforcement which is likely to result in such probationary measures, it is important that the enforcement nomination itself remains disconnected from the nominator's preferred version being last due to their own efforts. Which is to say: the nominator should not have the article reverted to their own preferred version immediately before or after filing the nomination. Because that does tend to defeat the point of having enforcement as, ultimately, a balancing mechanism. El_C 00:09, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I wonder if this is a reasonable solution. There's no real dispute that Leifern's actions were specifically prohibited by WP:REVERT. If a violation of editing policy like a blind revert is permitted to stand, isn't that in effect allowing the violator to get away with it? A revert that isn't a violation of WP:REVERT should of course be allowed to stand, but I don't think we should be encouraging or permitting editors to enjoy the fruits of a violation of basic editing rules. Oh, and don't feel too guilty about things going to pot in your absence - it's just that some people are too fond of drama. See where WP:DRAMA redirects to. :-) -- ChrisO (talk) 00:16, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

My approach goes so far as to even leaving counter-reversions to the closing administrator's discretion. The greatest difficulty, I think, is finding uninvolved admins that are clued-in and oriented enough to close these reports. This, since some disputes cannot be resolved by, robotically, following a set of rules. As soon as a facet of enforcement is oversystematized (like with last reverts), one side may play that to their advantage and then the enforcement platform loses its cohesion and the confidence of the community. That's why I want closing admins sometimes doing the unexpected, to keep the disputing parties on their toes, to motivate them to play fair. El_C 00:30, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I think you've put your finger on the key problem - the need to find uninvolved admins. There's a related problem, which is that some editors are likely to attack even uninvolved admins if they dare to intervene in disputes on these articles. If you want examples, ask User:MastCell, User:^demon and User:Betacommand (who was an admin at the time). I said during the arbitration that I believed that a number of editors were doing this deliberately to discourage and intimidate admins into giving them a free pass. I still believe that's the case. It's certainly been true that outside Misplaced Pages, partisans in this conflict have been quite vicious in attacking individuals whose involvement they dislike - this guy, for instance, has reportedly been the target of death threats for his news reports. I fear that the same heckler's veto mentality is a factor here as well. -- ChrisO (talk) 00:45, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Chris, you went to IRC to find an admin, then when you had one lined up, you reverted the page, quickly asked for enforcement, and got that enforcement. That is the issue at hand; attempts to deflect this to a larger "key problem", involving intimidation of admins, death threats against journalists, and who knows what else, about which you are merely a disinterested observer trying to solve a vexing problem, become less and less convincing each time you play that hand. It is little different from the times you have protected articles over which you were edit-warring, except this time you did it once-removed. Jayjg 02:15, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Predictable nonsense. You're wrong about the sequence of events; I didn't ask anyone to review my request until after I had posted it (obviously, there was no request to review until that point). Don't rely on FeloniousMonk's timeline - it's inaccurate and out of context, like most of the rest of his tendentious accusations. And I might point out that you're in no position to lecture given your own record -- ChrisO (talk) 08:04, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

(reset indent) ChrisO, I did in fact discuss my revert after I did, but more importantly, your unilateral rework of the edit was in direct response to my concerns about the scope of the article. In other words, you thought the article should be about B, I thought it should be about A, and rather than discuss you just went ahead and made it about B. When I reverted and asked that we discuss before making further changes, you went running to a forum only you as admin have access to. And your request included an admonishment to me. --Leifern (talk) 13:06, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thatcher reinstated the probation because he believes I'm -- sigh -- "involved in the I-P dispute", so can we get some comments on whether the 1RR/week restriction should stay in place? -- tariqabjotu 13:19, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Forgery & misapplication of WP:RPA by User:Gustav von Humpelschmumpel

GvH feels i violated WP:NPA by describing a series of his article-talk edits as an "intermittant rant". I'll find a wording that should ameliorate that before i go offline in the next half hour or less. But in the meantime, he has cited WP:RPA in justifying a far more aggressive editing of the talk page than i remember ever seeing, even when Misplaced Pages:Remove personal attacks was a frequently cited essay instead of a Rdr. (He excised half of one contrib including its sig, and the whole of an apology that was a separate contrib, leaving the appearance that the whole was a single contrib. I trust no one will suggest i am overly prissy in holding that every modification of another editor's signed contribution must

be signed by the modifier,

maintain clarity about where removals have been done, and what that remains is original and what modified

to avoid condemnation as forgery.) I am about to rv all his removals on that talk page of my writing, with edits of my own wording to address his sensitivites, but in light of his responses, in summaries and on my tk (lk'd above) to my expressed concerns anticipate the possibility of another reversion by him. In that event i will block him for 8 hours and revert, before leaving to attend to an overdue commitment lasting something like 6 hours, and hope for the attention of another admin, to counsel restraint by him (in place of his self-righteous advocacy of restraint by me) and remove the block.
--Jerzy•t 19:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I am usually weary of comments being removed. But your comments are too personal and inflammatory, needlessly so. Up to and including the title you chose for this notice, with the first word being "forgery." Can I press on you to tone down the rhetoric and, generally, limit your interactions with him to impersonal, dispassionate, matter-of-fact communication? Thanks. El_C 23:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for needed feedback, with which i could use some less abstract assistance if you are willing. (I fear your efforts will be wasted on me if they stop here.)

I need more help from you or someone.

In particular, it is all very well for me to intend to apply what may be learned from this, but in the meantime there is the present situation to be dealt with.

And, excuse me, but i cited forgery first bcz that is the most objective and least defensible offense; if it seems inflammatory, it is IMO simply bcz forgery of talk contributions

1. is a threat to WP in the same way and degree that forgery in society is a threat to the reliability of contracts and other important documents, and
2. is so obviously intolerable that there is no Rdr named Misplaced Pages:forgery to direct us to the neologism that might have developed for it, if there had ever been a defense made of forgery in certain circumstances (as there was a essay page Misplaced Pages:Remove personal attacks, even tho it was so problematic that the page is now vigorously deprecated), and the term that sounds like a criminal act does quite well, thank you, except for those who want exceptions made for them to forge contribs.

(Of course, that editor's conception of RPA does not even live up to the now suppressed examples in the old essay, which presumably were too encouraging of misuse to survive the, uh, refactoring.)

I would like to be the first to say that the editor who is the victim of forgery is not an ideal enforcer of the no-brainer prohibition of forgery. The proper response to that fact is not to try to get me tie to my own hands, but to intervene, now, to solve the forgery problem first, ameliorating the personality and passion issues, instead of exhorting me to to the Herculean task of rising above them. This is personal bcz am the immediate victim, but it is worthy of a passionate attitude for far better reasons than its being personal, and it is not matter-of-fact.

Since i first wrote here (but before receiving ElC's counsel), i moderated my terminology (without labeling as a PA what IMO was not), and solicited feedback on whether my use of "utterly unfounded insinuation" was something he would like ameliorated. GvH simply said on my talk page

Right, now you seem to be deliberately drawing attention to the personal attack that you made in the first place so I am just going to revert you again. Regards

and reverted, with summary "rv harrassment". I have seen no hint that he is prepared to seek what he wants without forgery, and every reason to think that he simply wants a veto power on mentions of him. The effort to remove my comments, without attempting negotiation of a rewording, began some 25 hrs ago, under the cryptic summmary "rv to me, i made that comment and it is directly related to the thread". (I took that to be a proprietary statement that he was free to delete, in the refactor i began, a hdg he originally created, and which i had until then assumed we both wanted to preserve -- Hey, no biggie.) No one else has shown the least concern about the forgery aspect, and the time will soon arise when i do my best to take the counsel of User:El C (who hasn't edited in about the last 4 hours) as i enforce the crucial (if de facto) prohibition of forgery of signed contribs.
--Jerzy•t 04:42, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I deleted the Main Page

It was sort of an accident. See, the Main Page used to be blocked from deleting because of the 5000 revision thing. I was bored a bit, and looking at the Main Page's deletion log from the delete interface. I asked in IRC whether it's possible to delete the Main Page again. A certain user who might like to show up here, possibly, told me that he tested it and confirm doesn't properly work. I was a tad too gullible and tested it for myself. Luckily, the damage was reversed and I think everything should be back to normal. Sorry, folks. Maxim_(talk) 20:31, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yup, that was my fault. I thought it was obvious I was joking, but clearly it wasn't. I accept the responsibility for this one, and I'd like to appologise to everyone for that - I was way way way out of line here. Ryan Postlethwaite 20:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems a couple desysoppings and bans are in order. ;) --Rory096 20:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well my pride is seriously damaged, that's for sure. Ryan Postlethwaite 20:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

"Jumping off an 70-floor building won't kill you, I tried it and was fine"... Whitstable 20:34, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've never heard anyone who jumped off of a 70-foot building complain about it. --B (talk) 20:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It should be noted that jumping off tall structures has never killed anyone - it is hitting the hard stuff at the bottom of said structures that usually causes the problem... LessHeard vanU (talk) 23:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's not the fall that kills you... —Animum (talk) 23:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, you can undelete a page, you can't unjump off a building. --Deskana (talk) 23:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Did you guys know that if you put a picture of goatse on one of the interface pages, it doesn't show up? srsly --- RockMFR 20:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't see any need for anything to become of this. I support forgetting about it- everyone makes mistakes, and everyone forgets that jokes don't translate well over the Internet. It is pretty funny though. J Milburn (talk) 20:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

C'mon, that's about how I feel now... I deserve a big chunk of the blame for actually pressing that damned button. Maxim_(talk) 20:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Awesome. --Masamage ♫ 20:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• hmmm, yes well ...! :) Black Kite 20:39, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• As I mentioned on Talk:Main Page, perhaps we should institute some sort of protection against these things? We could have another prompt to enter one's password before an edit to the main page went through, and an "are you sure?" box before one deletes the main page. That could help prevent some of these things from happening. --Rory096 20:49, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It wouldn't have helped. Ryan told me, jokingly, that it simply won't work. So I foolishly tested it myself. Those wouldn't have stopped me... Maxim_(talk) 20:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

True, but if a box pops up that doesn't normally pop up saying "Are you absolutely positive you want to delete the Main Page?" you might have been alerted to the fact that one can, in fact, delete the main page. Also, the password prompt would have prevented the editing of "Misplaced Pages" to "Dickipedia" that happened this morning. --Rory096 20:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

However, as I said on Talk:Main Page, it wouldn't have helped with our penis-image-related vandalism the other day, as that was through an edit to a template. The templates are edited a lot- needing to put in your password would not help. Anyway, most people would have their password saved anyway (is there a way to get around that?) and having to enter your password would slow down reversion, too. Sounds pathetic, but I think we need reverts almost instantly in the case of main page vandalism. J Milburn (talk) 20:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

How long does it take to enter in a password, though? It seems like it would only be a very minor inconvenience, even if it were applied to templates on the Main Page, and it would only add a second or two to reverts, which wouldn't really make a big difference, especially considering it would probably prevent vandalism that would last longer than the extra couple of seconds any vandalism that did get through stayed up. --Rory096 21:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The Main spage os the cornerstone of Wikipedian society. adding extra protections to prevent it form being vandalized is the most worthwhile ambition imaginable. I seen o reason why we cannot formally ask the developemnt team on wikipedia to consider adding this to the program. Smith Jones (talk) 21:22, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I see no reason why we shouldn't expect administrators to behave better than this. This is a behavioural issue, not a software one. Risker (talk) 22:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This was an accident that could have been prevented if he realized he was mistaken, and this morning's incident was a result of someone gaining access to a computer logged into an admin account, and it would have been prevented if a password were required. --Rory096 22:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• See User:Pedro/Sarcasm for my "long standing rationale" on this ... ) Pedro :  Chat  21:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
• I noticed this. Assumed it was a mistake of some kind. Still, did it really take 13 hours for the protection to be put back on the Main Page? Or was the page really still protected all that time? Carcharoth (talk) 21:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• If you have the correct timestamp format enabled in your preferences, you will see that the two log entries are only 19 seconds apart. —Animum (talk) 22:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
• The protection was removed by the delete, not the edit this morning. --Rory096 22:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• This needs to go into WP:BEANS. The definitive Misplaced Pages beans. Hiding T 22:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Best laugh of the day on here is this thread. ThuranX (talk) 22:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Maxin, that's hilarious. Do you now get to put a "This user has deleted the mainpage" userbox on your userpage? Tim Vickers (talk) 22:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• I can't work out if by writing Misplaced Pages:Don't delete the main page I have violated WP:BEANS. With apologies to Ryan and Maxim. Hiding T 22:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I have no idea how this happened. I can personally attest to the fact that the Main Page was impossible to delete for about the past month -- since 'bigdelete' was implemented. It seems the Main Page no longer has 5,000 revisions. How? I have no idea. A word to all admins: if the form appears, it means you can delete the page. The warning message takes the place of the form if it isn't possible to delete the page (try United States for an example). --MZMcBride (talk) 22:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry, couldn't resist). 23:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hiding (talk • contribs)

By all means, encourage admins to attempt to delete the United States :) GeeJo ⁄_(c) • 23:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You lot are a bad influence. Especially with the goatse idea lol.:) Merkinsmum 23:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

We need a Misplaced Pages:Village stocks to list these things, then we can all go and giggle and/or throw rotten tomatoes at people who delete the main page and crash the servers by deleting the sandbox.  :-) Gwinva (talk) 23:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Great idea! BTW, I tried to delete the United States, and the warning notice appeared. :-( Carcharoth (talk) 23:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Carcharoth, if you'd succeeded in deleting the United States, I have a feeling there are some smaller nations who would be forever in your debt. (Now if you'd just delete a few of our politicians, as well....)Gladys J Cortez 00:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Even stranger things have happend to the main page in its long and turbulent life... How about this: ? I personally quite like the name "Little Barrier Island" for the main page... -- Ekjon Lok (talk) 23:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've added some MediaWiki: namespace magic that should hopefully make deleting the Main Page a bit harder, at least... -_- krimpet✽ 23:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Bad idea, Maxim - you're supposed to take it to AfD first. Anyone for Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Main Page? -- ChrisO (talk) 23:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, man, that is FAWESOME! And I thought User:Scientizzle did the most-amazing deletion ever when he broke the whole 'pedia...what was it he tried to delete again? Isn't that why the >5000-edits thing was supposedly put in place in the first place? Anyway, kudos on your amazingness--you are now the official patron saint of us folks who trip over rocks, spill things on our shirt, and otherwise make unintentionally-hilarious mistakes. :) Gladys J Cortez 00:00, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

OK guys, I went and created Misplaced Pages:Village stocks. Do with it what you will. Turn them into patron saints, too, if you like.  ;-) Gwinva (talk) 00:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Ban all admins from Misplaced Pages for one year and let us regular folks go back to business as usual..:) Igor Berger (talk) 07:29, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

According to this tool, the Main Page is only 8 edits shy of 4,000, and could've been deleted for not reaching the "bigdelete" limit (5,000). That's been fixed now. We laughed, some cried, let's move on. - Mtmelendez 14:13, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

French village stubs

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

User:Blofeld of SPECTRE is creating unrefernced stubs on French villages at the rate of approximately 5 per minute. I am discussing if these articles are useful, or if they should be deleted on the user's talk page, but more input would be appreciated. Tim Vickers (talk) 20:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Infoboxes will be added once the articles are set up. Info can be transalted from the official websites on each of the at a later date. These can soon by developed into articles like Ottrott and eventually into full length articles. Other wikipedias have had these articles for at least four years and we are lagging behind. Use your head. This is wiki. Articles won't remain "useless stubs" forever. They are here to build up into full articles. This is the most efficient way to get them up and running of which I see precious few other people bothering. The links to other wikipedias are there which show that they are valid. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ 20:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Examples include Saint-Félix-de-Bourdeilles, Saint-Étienne-de-Puycorbier, Sainte-Sabine-Born etc... Tim Vickers (talk) 20:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, we do have a precedent of sorts with the US and Canadian place articles... —Kurykh 20:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

They most defintely should not be deleted. Creation of articles about all real places which we do not yet have articles for, should be encouraged, not discouraged. Corvus cornix_talk 20:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd be perfectly happy if they included something like a link to a French government website, or even an atlas, but creating completely unreferenced one-line stubs? Tim Vickers (talk) 20:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Note to Tim. Look if anybody on this website knows how to build an encyclopedia it is me. I haven't put 109,000 edits into this and not learned a thing or two about what wikipedia is. Info boxes can be added within seconds from french wikipedia as above. This is the quickest way to get articles which were on the other wikipedias five years onto here. We are laggin behind. If more people helped me develop them rather than sitting around moaning how bleak they are it would take off in no time. Please think about the future of wikipedia rather than dwelling on how it is this second. I really dislike being disrupted like this ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ 20:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Blofeld for adding the infoboxes to the stubs I linked to, they look pretty good now. If you could do this with the other stubs and add something like an external link, that would solve the problem entirely. Tim Vickers (talk) 20:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Blofeld isn't the only editor creating French commune stubs, although his are a bit on the short side. It looks like an effort is being made to create an article for every French commune. It would be better if a little more info could be provided - e.g. the infobox as used on the French Misplaced Pages (see Carnoy). Mjroots (talk) 20:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

As I;ve told you I almost always add a reference or a locator map and infobox or something -why do you think the other day I went through all the Category:Cities in Kazakhstan etc etc and added infoboxes and locator maps because I know how important this is. WHo do you think the guy is adding infoboxes to articles like Karakol etc and thousands of others?. But because of the sheer amount missing I need to methodically get them on to here first and this is the best way to start it. It would take months otherwise. I am all for articles being referenced and quality, I actually spend a lot of time taggin articles as unreferenced myself. I appreciate your concerns but there isn't anything stopping you from helping. INfoboxes can and will be added within seconds afterwards. PLease please believe me that I wouldn't create an article for the sake of it however it may seem ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ 20:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Quick side note from an uninvolved non-admin-As someone who works with a lot of French wine articles as part of the Wine Project, I find Sir Blofeld stub articles to be quite useful-particularly once the infobox and location coordinates are added. For users not familiar with French locations, knowing what department a city is in and its relative location within major wine regions can be quite useful. In the past, I have also expanded some of the stubs when they involve a notable wine village. Having a good starting point, infobox and all, makes those efforts much easier. Agne/ 20:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

As a new page patroller, I have see a lot of Sir Blofeld's articles. I think it is a shame they are unreferenced, but he says that he is going to add references and infoboxes, and I trust him. These articles are valid, and useful additions to the encyclopedia. J Milburn (talk) 21:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Although unreferenced they are linked to the French wiki version. I see no reason why these will not develop more if given time. i can think of wrose and less relevant micro stubs. David D. (Talk) 21:10, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Well what reference can I add ? I feel the french and dutch wikipedia links are enough to show they are valid. When the infoboxes are added the external links/references will be copied straight from french wikipedia. This can be done in seconds. There are other editors gradually doing this but I would really appreciate it if a few more people got together and helped out. The best way things like this can develop is through people working together not against each other. I don;t generally create articles without external links either but this case is special because of the sheer content missing which should have been done years ago. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ 21:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Next stage will be to developed them like Sainte-Sabine-Born within seconds and later translated from french on various sites ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ 21:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• The basis of inclusion - I do newpage patrol as well - is whether the articles are verifiable (these are) and noteworthy (places of habitation default are); so no problem - they stay. LessHeard vanU (talk) 22:36, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

This is exactly what we need, more real world content. WP:NOT#PAPER is a perfect way to get a full gazetteer style set of pages in here. I think this is one of the best applications of our time and pages, far more useful and informative than fighting to keep 22 pages for the third season episodes of My Secret Identity. ThuranX (talk) 22:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

User:Alien from brixton

Alien from brixton (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) Earlier today the above user redirected their userpage to an article they had created Irish Sea Tunnel. I reverted the edit and explained to them that userpages should not be redirected to an article. (I had an article they had edited on in my watchlist) However they have now redirected their user talk page again to the articles talk page, making it impossible to leave a message on their userpage. Also on the article Irish Sea the same user removed a whole section discussing a proposed Irish Sea Tunnel, initially without an edit summary and eventually stating on my talk page that they did so because it was "crap". I have tried restoring the content following discussion on the articles talk page when I said that I would be restoring the content as it is sourced, valid and relevant, and adding a "main article" link. However they left a message stating "you will not" and have yet again removed the entire sourced section. I just seem to be annoying the user. I have tried sorting this out on their talk page (when they had one) and on the articles talk page, explaining that they would be best editing the section but unfortunately this has falled on deaf ears. I will not be reverting again and getting further involved into an edit war and I have left the article as it was. However, could someone deal with this please? I would leave a message informing them of my bringing this up on here but as I said above they now have no user talkpage. Thank you.♦Tangerines♦·Talk 21:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I am not an administrator, but I have gone ahead and reverted the redirected talk page back to a normal talk page. In the future, if you want to edit a redirect page, when you are on the page you have been redirected too, under the article title a link to the redirect should be present. By clicking on it and then on history, you can revert it. At any rate, I am going to go ahead and leave a note on the importance of talk page. Besides that, I will leave it to an administrator. SorryGuy  Talk  21:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've left a welcome message and a polite note about the redirect, which I hope helps. The editing dispute doesn't really need adminstrative action. Bencherlite 21:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough, but how do I now restore the tunnel section to the article? I added the "main article" link in the section to Irish Sea Tunnel but that was also removed and now the article merely states, "There have been various tentative proposals for an Irish Sea Tunnel". The content is relevant to the article, however if I re-add the content again, even if a smaller section, I will be breaking the 3RR and no doubt winding up Alien From Buxton even further. Removing content from an article because they had "made a new article because the old crap in the Irish Sea article is crap and not really revelent" (the explanation given on my talk page) is surely not a valid reason to remove a whole sourced section. The article needs more than a one line throwaway comment.♦Tangerines♦·Talk 21:28, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Try Misplaced Pages:Dispute resolution. As I said, this doesn't need administrative action. Bencherlite 22:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

legal threat from IP/sock - blocked

Just a quick heads up, 142.162.14.78 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) dropped a legal threat on User talk:142.162.14.78. Since I can't really indef block an IP, especially considering it's probably not static, I made a 1 week hard block on the IP. If a checkuser gets a chance it might be good to make sure I'm not causing any collateral damage. Cheers =) --slakr 00:12, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Most likely a sock of Juno24631 (talk · contribs) (who threatened to kill herself via vandalism to Suicide) and quite likely herself a sock of Kagome 85 (talk · contribs) who is making the same changes the IP and Juno did. JuJube (talk) 00:13, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Lol, didn't know about the whole suicide thing. Somehow it seems that they're finding their way to me this week. :P Anyway the evidence was clear when the user claimed he was on AOL when it's not an AOL range to lift an unblock on the sock account then proceeded to make all of the same edits his sock made. --slakr 00:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

And is now making the same changes as Kagome 65 (talk · contribs). JuJube (talk) 00:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

And again as Saturn 18 (talk · contribs). JuJube (talk) 00:24, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Socks blocked. IrishGuy 00:28, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Need a page move by a newbie editor undone

Rockk3r (talk · contribs) page moved the "Portal Rush (band)" to "Portal Rush" and the result is a broken portal made up of a bunch of red links. I explained blunder to the editor but it looks like he's offline and can't correct his mistake. Can someone pop by and undo his goof. 156.34.213.34 (talk) 00:23, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

 Done, though I managed to screw it up the first time as well. Black Kite 00:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Black Kite. The editor is still online but did not get back to "undo his do's". 156.34.213.34 (talk) 00:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Systematic removal of WikiProject Totalitarianism project tags

Brought over from WP:AIV. — ERcheck (talk) 01:48, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

"Maglev Power (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log): I don't know if this is really vandalism, but I don't know where else to report it. Maglev Power has taken it upon himself to strip every single article in WikiProject Totalitarianism of its talk page tag, because he doesn't like the idea of the WikiProject. He is currently in the process of doing it. There is absolutely no consensus to do this, and he seems to shrug off complaints on his talk page. At one point he said "Encyclopedias are based on facts, not 'consensus.'" I think some administrator should step in. --ElPeruano (talk) 01:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)"

Discussion also on WP:AN — ERcheck (talk) 02:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Odd vandalism pattern by 76.109.246.250

This isn't ongoing but appears to have been overlooked at the time; just thought I'd mention it in case others see the pattern in other similar addresses. Special:Contributions/76.109.246.250 made a series of edits to Legal drinking age and Television content rating systems on November 26. In both cases, the first edit in the series is truncated when viewed in WP:Popups, and looks innoccuous 'above the fold'. Below the fold, urls have had pieces removed. This first edit is followed in quick succession by minor, possibly good faith edits (some of these are possible number vandalism). Previous edits from the same address show a pattern of number vandalism and url breakage, but this looks like a deliberate attempt to hide what's being done. --Bazzargh (talk) 02:09, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I have evidence to an effect of things being hidden as well. Edits disappearing! If you need it please let me know and I will dig it up. Igor Berger (talk) 04:25, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

The IP cited above has only edited 7 times since November, and none are what I would call "bad faith" edits. What is the issue here? This is in all likelyhood a different person than edited back in November... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:24, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Except for a general reminder to scroll down a bit to check for hidden vandalism at the bottom of an edit, there's nothing to do here. Gimmetrow 06:19, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Process attack by Hu12

Admin Hu12 has now instead of making an attempt to resolve this dispute, escalated the situation by reporting my own site here to the Spam police. Grossly mischaracterizing the situation. It seems to me that he is attempting, yet another process-end-run to try to discredit anyone pointing out his own anti-project behaviour. Wjhonson (talk) 06:14, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Attack? Neutrality is an important objective at Misplaced Pages, Unfortunately the External links policy on Advertising and conflicts of interest states You should avoid linking to a website that you own, maintain or represent, even if the guidelines otherwise imply that it should be linked, which is in line with the conflict of interest guidelines. This is not the first time this has been an issue with you, seeAN/I Original research and linkspam on Talk:Mike Huckabee.. You're here to improve Misplaced Pages, not just to push adjendas or funnel readers off Misplaced Pages onto your site, right?..Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam#http:.2F.2F.countyhistorian.com--Hu12 (talk) 06:26, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

What's "this dispute" which you refer to, Wjhonso? (it's linking to WP:DR, not to any specific dispute) El_C 09:27, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

And you know we've already run this EL process and your position failed. The previous AN/I failed as anyone can see. There was no follow-up, and no further action. And all reviewers can plainly see that this situation has developed solely because you are seeking to discredit me for pointing out your own conflict-of-interest in the entire King of Mann / unrealroyal.com circus. Wjhonson (talk) 06:31, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Wjhonson, rules are rules. It's your site. WP:COI tells you what to do with it. Besides, it fails WP:RS and WP:EL, so it's inclusion is dubious regardless of the COI. Shot info (talk) 06:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I am not in disagreement with that interpretation Shot info. I have a few rare times added a direct link to an article I've writen to an in-wiki article page. As A.B. correctly pointed out on the Spam Project, editors are not only allowed, but encouraged to provide in-TALK links to information, including their own, that might be useful for developing article detail. For the most part that is indeed what I did. In the few cases, where there is a link from article space to my site, I would have no problem at all, with removing them. Hu12 has never approached me to resolve this which would be the normal and correct first step. His report is merely, part and parcel of the entire long-running King of Mann fiasco. Now that Mann has evidently returned to Misplaced Pages, I'm sure we'll see much more of this sordid situation.Wjhonson (talk) 06:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

You were aware of this back in March 2007 @ AN/I Original research and linkspam on Talk:Mike Huckabee., so there is no excuse and I yes I've notified you . While one or two talk page request may have have been appropriate (discounting the WP:RS and WP:EL issue), spamming 18+ additions to talk pages is called Canvassing (Source soliciting), and unacceptable.--Hu12 (talk) 07:46, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I tend to agree with Wjhonson here. This does not seem to be extensive or intensive enough to warrant blacklisting. El_C 09:21, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Can I have a link to the "spamming 18+ additions to talk pages," please? El_C 09:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

See also - →Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam#http:.2F.2F.countyhistorian.com

• 7 March 2007--26 August 2007--1 February 2007--5 February 2007--06:20, 2 April 2007--6 March 2007--arbitration/Bluemarine 10 January 2008--July 2007--December 2007--9 November 2007--30 December 2007--7 March 2007--5 March 2007--rfc/Bluemarine 19 September 2007--1 February 2007--23 August 2007--26 August 2007--12 August 2007--28 May 2007--Deletion review 28 May 2007
  --Hu12 (talk) 10:33, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• This is all from a while ago, so what prompted the latest? El_C 10:39, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
• What's the problem with his comment at the rfc/Bluemarine? El_C 10:43, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It being a continuation of past behavior, but that was an honest statement. Nothing here in my opinion warrants blacklisting (not sure who brought that up, nor did I suggest). These reports take time (started a month ago), and the long term nature (since 2004) of the additions required just that, more time. In any event, if one or two talk page request were made probably wouldent have spent the time as it would have been appropriate (minus WP:RS and WP:EL).--Hu12 (talk) 11:08, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

(OD) No redirect Hu12. Anyone who reads the AN/I you linked above can see quite clearly that no action or response was taken. You have failed Hu12 to notify me on my talk page, or request any sort of reaction or response there. That is the first step in dispute resolution not the last one. And I reject your repeated use of the word "spamming" in this derogatory fashion. Anyone can clearly see, the links were placed over a long period of time, and were directly related to updating certain particular article details. Admin A. B. has already addressed this for you, since you seem confused about proper use of external link information on article talk pages. You have misinterpreted our policy a number of times, which is disconcerting since you should be in a position to understand it more clearly. Your behaviour here and elsewhere is really quite remarkable. And I don't think I need to clarify that any further. El C, the 18+ Talk links to which he refers, were diffed by him on the Wikiproject Spam link, Hu12 provided above. Anyone can read them, and convince themselves that those diffs, have no relation to spam, the links being directly related to information useful for expanding the articles. And placed on the talk pages as we as editors are encouraged to do. Hu12 is just fishing around for something to use against me. Whatever might stick.Wjhonson (talk) 09:52, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Blocking of User:X3210

Could someone please review the blocking of User:X3210, it followed an incident where an administrator incorrectly reverted his user page (that the user had blanked as is his right) and told the user it was not allowed. I became involved because of this post Misplaced Pages talk:Don't restore removed comments#Disagree in which the administrator cited this as an example (which is also unfair and should be removed).

When I checked the page it seemed to me that the administrators involved acted hastily, without complete understanding of policy and with a serious misunderstanding of the users contributions (the use was characterized as a "vandal" and all I can see is that he was undoing vandalism on Tom Petty, incorrectly tagged an IP, apologized for it and then blanked his page after the other involved parties had replied. I don't see where an attempt was made to verify policy until after the incident had escalated. Thank you. Awotter (talk) 06:30, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems X3210 was (wrongly) told not to blank his talk page, proceeded to make a WP:POINT by blanking someone else's user and talk page, and that got him blocked by a previously uninvolved administrator. I see no error in that administrator's actions. Sandstein (talk) 07:08, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

For the record, while it looks like the people who reverted the blanking of this users talk page were not entirely correct (any user may blank their talk page at any time; blanking of ones own talk page confirms that one has read any messages thereof; archiving is not required, and we don't make users wear Scarlet Letters.) the users response thereof was ENTIRELY inappropriate, as they seemed to go on a blanking rampage of other users talk pages. So, to sum up, this user SHOULD have been allowed to blank their own talk page; the people who told them this was not allowed were incorrect. However, the users response was entirely inappropriate, and merited a block. In the future, users should contact admins here or at WP:AN and not attempt to rectify a misunderstanding by revenge. I endorse the block, but the editors who told them the wrong info should be set straight also. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:10, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Gah - I just wrote a long post with diffs to try and clarify the sequence of events, and here I get beat to the punch >.< I agree that the editors need to be set straight--it's worth noting that a user even used rollback to restore the contents a couple of times, although they later posted on the talk page that blanking is acceptable. --jonny-mt 07:23, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

First, he blanked his talk page, not user page as stated above. I have no problem with people blanking their user page at any time. It is, however, correct that I was mistaken about user talk page policy. I still disagree with that policy, and the essay that backs it up. In the future, I will only restore very recent warnings that were clearly removed in bad faith; I understand that still technically contravenes policy, but I have seen many editors do it. Second, I of course didn't block X3210, or accuse him of vandalism. He was blocked (31 hours) by Slakr because he blanked my user talk page, Pumpmeup's user page, and told me to "buzz off". I did not request that block.

I don't understand what is unfair about me "citing" my blanking (I didn't cite the block, or say the block was justified) at Misplaced Pages talk:Don't restore removed comments#Disagree. I was quite frank that I had done something that was in violation of the essay. I also explained why I disagree with the essay. Superm401 - Talk 07:28, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Other than making a user wear a big giant red "A" on their chest, what is the purpose of preventing registered users from blanking their own talk page? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

WP:refactor. Igor Berger (talk) 07:41, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

There is none, anybody can blank their own talk pages. It's usually a sign of frustration when vandals or other editors who've been warned again and again keep blanking warnings, and the legit editors keep stuffing the warnings back up to show they've been tagged as vandals. It happens. Heck, it happens to me, too. Snowfire51 (talk) 07:45, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually I had no problem with the dude blanking his user talk page at all, since it's our policy to allow users to do that. Of course, when he started retaliating at others for restoring the pages instead of taking the issue here or elsewhere, it seemed like a clear issue of civility and harassment/retaliation. However, if the user is willing to be civil and use the proper channels for resolving disputes, I'll be more than happy to unblock him/her. --slakr 07:47, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Well I like to keep it all transparent. To me it is a Red Badge of Courage! But that is just me. Igor Berger (talk) 07:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies, I should make it clear that I don't think what the did user was at all appropriate, but had it been handled better and a bit slower, the user might not have gotten to that point, in fact the user did reply on the talk page of the admin initially and not in an uncivil way and his page was reverted again.Awotter (talk) 07:56, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

There's a reason we have multiple levels of warnings. If someone pastes gibberish into an article one time, I'll give them a polite warning. If I see they've done it before, I'll give them a more severe warning or block them. But I don't want to look in the talk history, just because the user prefers to blank their page completely every time someone puts a message. Superm401 - Talk 13:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• We shouldn't really be surprised that users react poorly when they perceive they are being harassed, and lash out at those they see as the harassers. Someone restored X3210's talk page hours after it had been blanked, and without leaving any explanation. Gimmetrow 07:51, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

  Communication is the key! Templating regular users does not work. They are not vandals. If people would learn to communicate better we would have less Flame Wars going on! Igor Berger (talk) 07:55, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

True, restoring someone else's talk page shouldn't be done. However, to me that's a very small problem. When a blocked editor has caused trouble all over the place, legit editors get frustrated and sometimes make bad decisions. To misappropriate Chris Rock, "I ain't saying I would have done it...but I understand." Snowfire51 (talk) 07:57, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• • However, neither should we condone the lashing out. This user wasn't exactly a newbie, and any reasonable person never resorts to blatant vigilante-style revenge when faced with perceived harassment. I am nto surprised when people act like dicks, but it doesn't mean I think it should go unchecked. Reasonable people look for authorities to turn to when they perceive harrassment by others. This user's first response was to return fire. Hardly a proper move... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
    • Actually, the first response was this at 3:46:04, which looks pretty civil. Then at 3:46:59, Superm401 restores X2310's talk page, and at 3:47:56, X3210 blanks Superm401's talk page. Not the best response, but hardly seems to have merited a once-and-final NPA warning. Gimmetrow 09:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Superm401"In the future, I will only restore very recent warnings that were clearly removed in bad faith; I understand that still technically contravenes policy, but I have seen many editors do it." I'd like to suggest may be you not be concerned with what users do on their pages talk or otherwise, good faith, bad faith or indifferent faith. If they've blanked it they've read it, that's the essence of the policy. The warnings don't disappear.Awotter (talk) 08:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It may not have been known by the editor that users have every right to blank their pages, even involving bad faith, warnings, block notices. That's something a lot of editors have a problem with, from what I've seen. Snowfire51 (talk) 08:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I never said they disappear. I said they become needlessly inaccessible. It seems like this policy exists for the whims of editors, without any consideration for the efficient functioning of the wiki.Superm401 - Talk 13:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Continued OWNership and reverts against consensus

Moved from WP:AN

On the article Boerboel, Frikkers (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has continually defied consensus, violated the 3RR, and been uncivil. Blocked three times for violation of 3RR, admin Samir worked hard to personally facilitate a discussion, which Frikkers refused to participate in. In December Frikkers was blocked for one month as a result of attempting to change Boerboel back to his preferred version against the consensus of the discussion. As soon as his block was up on January 31st, Frikkers again reverted. As the last user (not me) to revert his latest actions put it in their edit summary, "rv WP:OWN of article against consensus, removing interwiki links and removal of sections by user repeatedly against consensus". Considering that Frikkers continues to not only makes reversions against consensus, but almost totally ignores attempts to engage him in discussion, I don't know what the best solution is. Please advise. VanTucky 04:07, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I think it belongs at AN/I? Might get more attention there. Bstone (talk) 04:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the user set up the account just to edit this article. Special:Contributions/Frikkers. If not ownership there must be WP:COI. Igor Berger (talk) 06:29, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Banned user Grawp

Grawp is reverting a large number of redirects to non-notable D&D articles using the IP 71.107.164.232 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log). I request that someone block him and semi-protect everything the IP has touched. FWIW, these redirects were all made by User:Craw-daddy who I see as one of the D&D "fans"; one who is editing quite reasonably. --Jack Merridew 07:41, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about the sockpuppet accusations, but the massive reversions seem to be a problem. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:46, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Alison dinged them. So resolved. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Alison seems on top of this; he'll rant on the ip talk page until someone protects it a while. Watch for a return on some other IP or D&D-themed sock account. Cheers, Jack Merridew 07:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

 Confirmed as Grawp yet again. Also Keysapart (talk · contribs), now blocked - Alison 08:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

And 71.107.164.232 has had their talk page protected to prevent further trolling. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 08:02, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

He's back with IP tag-team tactics such as which fake-out ClueBot . Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:36, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Blocked the 3 IP's in question as probably grawp socks. SQL 08:55, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. --Jack Merridew 10:23, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

nb: also came back as User:Whomtends but that's all over and blocked; should be checkusered. --Jack Merridew 10:24, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Done and checkusered. Blocked another account and its underlying IP - Alison 11:09, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Is this an unapproved bot or am I being paranoid?

I admit it's possible I'm just being paranoid, but see this: Markussep (talk · contribs)

For roughly three and a half years straight (since August 2004), this user has, about 8 to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, generated full directory entries (generally geographical data on eastern Europe, but also obscure European athletes) at incredible speeds.

Their edits also sometimes seem to follow certain algorithms. See my comments on their talkpage. Although, of course, that could just be a person themselves counting the alphabet.

Could a person really have the mental and physical capacity to do this?

Even if they're doing it manually, I told them to stop because it's anti-collaborative. Is this an unreasonable request?

So far, they've made roughly 1,500 comments on talkpages, while making roughly 42,000 contributions to the mainspace. That's not "collaboration." At this speed, it's not physically possible for the average editor to review these contributions for notability and so on, because by the time they have, the user has already created a couple hundred more. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 08:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

This is allowed. User:Zscout370 08:43, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Should it be? ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 09:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Of course. We have bots all of the time transwiki articles to here from other places or create articles from databases. That is how we get the articles on all of the US cities and towns; a bot did them all. During the 2 Million article rush, many of the new articles were made by a transwiki bot from the Portuguese Misplaced Pages. We have a bot now that makes articles on all cities and communes within France. In fact, we welcome those. User:Zscout370 09:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

If it's just an approved bot, can we have the articles it creates automatically marked as "New page patrolled?" Pairadox (talk) 09:52, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Bots like this are fine and long welcomed here in the community; they help create stubs that can later be expanded upon by human editors. A ton of our articles on populated places in the USA and elsewhere started out as stubs generated from census data and blossomed into well-written, comprehensive articles. krimpet✽ 10:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Zenwhat you need to investigate people not bots. Bots are not Evil. We are not Robo Rama movie..:) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Igorberger (talk • contribs) 10:31, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It's not an approved bot and he denies that it's a bot. If you guys agree it's a bot, then yes, he needs to get it approved, per WP:BOT, since what he's doing drastically alters the mainspace and is therefore not just automated editing

Bots should not be auto-generating possibly contentious content, because as noted above, how are users supposed to collaborate? ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 10:52, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Well is it a good bot or a bad bot? Igor Berger (talk) 10:56, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

If the bot does something disruptive or harmful to the project, I'd be the first one to block it; but where is this "contentious content"; and for that matter, how is it harming collaboration to be creating stubs for people to build off of? krimpet✽ 11:40, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello Zenwhat, you forgot to mention your previous discussion with Markussep. Are you claiming that Markussep lied to you? How about notifying him about this thread? If you spent a bit more time editing the content of Misplaced Pages rather than trying to control its contributors you, too, might learn to edit so fast. --Hans Adler (talk) 11:25, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

In my opinion asking this kind of question here shows you still haven't learned to assume good faith. The editing patterns of this user are obviously not those of a bot. His core times are about 4 hours per day, typically something like 7pm-11pm Middle European Time, i.e. after work. Sometimes more during the weekend. Sometimes only an hour. If you suspected Markussep of lying to you the right thing was to check these things on your own by looking at his editing patterns with an open mind. Just selectively picking some details in order to make a case is a highly disruptive behaviour. Stop it. --Hans Adler (talk) 11:55, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

From all I can see, Markussep is human and collaborates with others on the creation of stubs for many towns and geographical features. He has an excellent track record of collaborating with others through WikiProjects, for example through many subpages of the Germany project. He deserves praise, not paranoia. Kusma (talk) 12:04, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Odd vandalism on Jakarta International School

Hi folks, Just a bit of odd vandalism - a user appears to be making some form of bomb threat (be it a prank or not) to a school, Jakarta International School. The user is Soul_988, and I've added a regular vandal tag to their talk page - just wanted to let an admin know in case there's any special procedure or perhaps this is genuine in any way (I don't want to make a call like that myself). Thanks. SMC (talk) 10:30, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Diff is here, contact details are here. Worth somebody who's familiar (if there is anyone) letting them know — alex.muller (talk) 11:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

• Looks like a vandal. But you never know! The user made the same remarks to another school as well Special:Contributions/Soul_988 Who knows what are procedures for this type of behavior? Igor Berger (talk) 11:10, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Someone like that can just be blocked indef now, right? Several years ago there was thought to be a risk of an attack and the school was actually closed for a time. Hardly a laughing matter (although it sounds like bored kid). --Merbabu (talk) 11:15, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Main Page discussion (notice)

Just in case anyone has missed it: Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard#Adding useless revisions to pages to make them undeletable. See also this wiki-tech mailing list post. The main outcome seems to have been this, which means that all main pages on all wikis are undeletable and unmoveable. Please, no discussion or comments here (go over to WP:AN to add comments). This is just a notice. Carcharoth (talk) 11:16, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Notice of AN post

Please see Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard#Summary for three issues (A, B, C) that I think it would be good to discuss in regards to a recent block of a bot and a set of admin actions:

• (A) Consequences of BetacommandBot's week-long block and how to handle the work it does.
• (B) Whether an arbitration case should be opened to handle the desysopping points (East718).
• (C) Whether there has been abuse of a bot flag (Betacommand)

Posting here and notifying of discussions there, to avoid splitting the threads. Carcharoth (talk) 13:30, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

User:59.163.208.2

Could someone review this edit? User:59.163.208.2 has recently returned from a 31 hour block and made exactly the same kind of edit (s)he got banned for (removal of AfD notice) plus added a sharedip tag for the IP address they are using. The history of edits from this IP suggests a single user, plus a reverse DNS lookup gives 59.163.208.2.static.vsnl.net.in - implying that it is a static IP address. Is this a likely to be a disingenous attempt to prevent or limit future blocks? Thanks! Ros0709 (talk) 14:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)