Misplaced Pages

Actually, I haven't stalked you. I've strongly contemplated wikistalking you in self-defense, but I haven't yet done so - and given that I know now there's at least one administrator who's looked at this case, I don't think I'll have to. I do have this page on my watchlist - after all, there's an accusation against me! I'd darn well better be keeping an eye on this. As for me asking for the AfD to be closed in your favor... do I have to point out I also stated before then, on your talk page, that an AfD was improper, as it was not an article? Someone wondering about the timing might be advised to take a look at my contributions - I've been doing a moderate amount of editing the past few days, and most of my posts that in some way, shape, or form have something to do with this IP have been at the same general time as other edits. As for "untrue personal attacks", I can't even think of any personal attacks I've made, at least not lately. Claiming that you said Midgley is anti-semitic is not a personal attack - it may not be entirely accurate, but it's not a personal attack, especially when it is and has been perfectly clear what I'm referring to at that point. Claiming that Midgley is not anti-semitic is also not a personal attack, to my knowledge. Michael Ralston

All that said... Anon, can we try to work this out somewhere it belongs? Because it definitely doesn't belong here. Given your apparent opinion of me (and, I'll admit, my opinion of you), I doubt mediation would be effective. If you'd like to open an RfC on my conduct, I will willingly waive the two-person requirement as long as you'd be willing to agree not to report me for any further alleged misconduct elsewhere without first notifying me on my talk page. Does this sound fair to you? Michael Ralston 19:57, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Oh - and I'll be willing to reciprocate and cease my discussion on the MfD for your talk page, as well as any similar locations that may come up. Michael Ralston 20:02, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I checked again: I don't see any evidence of personal attacks, wiki-stalking, or bad faith on Michael Ralston's part. Judging from 86.10.231.219's comments above, it seems you are more interested in escalating the underlying dispute rather than resolving it. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 21:52, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

There appears to be an ad hoc mini-mediation taking place here ] which looks very promising and positive. Lets see how that goes? - The Original Invisible Anon 08:46, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Raymond Samuels

There has been an anonymous user User:209.226.117.80 claiming to be Raymond Samuels repeatedly blanking and reverting the article on Raymond Samuels. I have placed them on a 24 hour block but they seem to have issues with the information portrayed on the article. I would appreciate it if some other editors could look over the situation. --Martyman-(talk) 10:39, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I also note there have been legal threats made. --Martyman-(talk) 10:49, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Appears to have switched to this IP: 72.1.195.5. Have warned but will bear watching. --Malthusian (talk) 23:21, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Am reporting this IP to WP:AIV, has continued to blank and make legal threats. --Malthusian (talk) 23:24, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

There have been more legal threats made . --Martyman-(talk) 23:29, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

User:CJCurrie has semi-protected the page and has made an attempt to rewrite the article to remove the contriversial bits. --Martyman-(talk) 01:12, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Is it possible for us to contact the ISP and get legal retaliation on this person? As I am aware, he is conducting a coordinated act of sabotage, which under both US communications law (we can get extradition), and Canadian law as I am aware (we have used the same justification for preparing a case against the Misplaced Pages is Communism vandal), and we can promptly shut down this user. I am encouraged by this because from what it seems from this dnstools page that the IP used (209.226.117.182) is "directly allocated" and "non-portable" and the user alleges himself he can get his ISP to change whenever he wants, so we can quickly get the ISP to deny access to this user. This would be a good way to evade his "change IP" tactics. Elle _{vécut heureuse} (Be eudaimonic!) 19:18, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Just to update: the vandal is now spamming random pages, circumventing the semi-protection of Raymond Samuels and Talk:Raymond Samuels, and is now posting a link to a blog which contains, among others, the email address of someone supposedly involved. See Special:Contributions/206.172.131.1). --Malthusian (talk) 02:18, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Money money money fat fat fat

User:Money money money fat fat fat has been blocked indefinitely for uploading a photograph of me with fraudulent sourcing and for being a disruptive troll. Phil Sandifer 15:45, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

1. He uploaded a photograph of you? While very wrong and certainly blockable, from afar you have to note the humor in such an act (of course, I say that having not seen the actual photo). – ClockworkSoul 14:09, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It was a high quality troll. He got the photo from my webspace. Phil Sandifer 16:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

A picture of you spinning snow? Ral315 (talk) 05:09, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Briefs vandal

Jefferylebowski_in_briefs (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
Dude_in_Briefs (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
The_Briefs_Dude (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
Briefs_Dude (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Check their contributions. This is a new vandal to watch out for! If WP:CVU are reading this, it's important! --Sunfazer (talk) 21:21, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Chad Michael Murray

Vandal placed a phone number on the page. No idea if it's really the guy's phone number. I've reverted the revision. I know that admins can delete specific edits from the history. Whether the number is his or not, IMHO it should not be left visible. However, being a reletively new admin, I have no idea how to go about removing specific edits from a page's history. Could someone with the time please take care of this? - TexasAndroid 21:34, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

The personal info is gone. You can remove specific edits by deleting the page, then at Special:Undelete, checking the boxes only for the revisions you want to restore. (Notes: I accidentally had to do this twice, the first time I restored some older copyvio revisions by mistake. Check for older deleted revisions before you delete!) --bainer (talk) 22:01, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I resored another 89 revisions that were not related to the incident. Now the only deleted version is the one that contained the offending digits. – ClockworkSoul 14:20, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:JJstroker uploading problem images

Over the past month, JJstroker (talk · contribs) has uploaded several hundred images in the past month, often with false copyright information. For example, Image:JFKagee2.jpg was tagged as {{PD-ineligible}} on the grounds that images from "a public learning institution generally free from copyright", while Image:USAloseyP1.jpg was tagged as {{PD-ineligible}} on the grounds that the source website didn't have a copyright statement. In among the dozens of image-tagging notifications on his page are comments indicating that he does not understand and is not aware he doesn't understand copyright, including this gem:

"Copyright "violation" for http://en.wikipedia.org/Image:Davidchockachi2.jpg. This is ridiculous and I would appreciate if you noobie editors would stop wasting my time. Why dont you try uploading pictures for a change? The photo is from a premeire which is always press release. The copyright is fine. Please remove the copyright violation."

Could someone look into this? --Carnildo 23:41, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Apparantly the user has also created copyright-infringing articles as well . Jkelly 23:54, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I have now warned them on their talk page. If they continue to upload material that is incorrectly tagged or copyrighted text, they should be blocked from editing. --Martyman-(talk) 00:05, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Looks like good-faith ignorance to me. Perhaps just kindly request that he stop uploading pictures until he finishes his law degree? fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 01:02, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

He's uploaded four more problem images:

• Image:Alvahbessie2.jpg, Image:3c14608t.jpg - From the Library of Congress, claimed as "work of the federal government" which is almost never true for LoC images, source link is dead.
• Image:Sdickstein22.jpg - Claimed as PD-USGov-Congress-Bio, but it's from americanjewisharchives.org, which doesn't indicate where they got the image. The image is probably PD-old or PD-USGov, but there's no evidence for this.
• Image:USAcellerE.jpg - Claimed as PD-USGov-Congress-Bio, but it's from www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.

--Carnildo 21:18, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Left some biolerplate and a personal plea to stop. Jkelly 21:37, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

He's also uploaded two images that have copyright problems for the following:

• Image:22mtyson2.jpg
• Image:Riderstrong2.jpg

These are from WireImage.com. I've tagged them with copyvio. There are several of WireImage photos he's uploaded to Misplaced Pages, however he claimed they were press release. adnghiem501 (talk) 22:11, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Request for block

62.255.232.84 (talk · contribs · block log) is significantly trolling. Interestingly, his first edit was on User talk:62.255.232.5, saying "i didnt vandalise". User 62.255.232.5 (talk · contribs · block log) is a known vandal.

Also interestingly, the second I post on his talk page, I get vandalised by 62.255.236.161 (talk · contribs · block log), who is also a known vandal.

Could someone block him/them please?!

Cheers, The Minister of War 00:18, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Martyman! The Minister of War 00:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Shane bellinger

User:Shane bellinger seems to have uploaded a series of images that aren't used in any articles, but are hotlinked from his website. Looking at his contributions shows at least a dozen or so like this. Most have questionable copyright status and a couple are already up for deletion, but I feel like this could be much better served by having an admin just knock off the lot and give him a stiff warning. WP:NOT a free webhost and this is a pretty blatant violation of that. Night Gyr 01:09, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Looking at his userpage and website, I'd guess he's not very old, and his intentions are good. I'll make some suggestions when I've woken up a bit more. --ajn (talk) 07:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I've deleted half a dozen of what looked to be his own drawings, and left what I hope will be interpreted as a friendly message on his talk page. There are a bunch of other images which are things like wavy flags and rainbow <hr/> subsitutes, and those are all flagged as having dubious copyright and will no doubt be deleted eventually. --ajn (talk) 10:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Janizary vote recruitment from userbox template

Janizary (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) recently embarked on a vote-stacking campaign to astro-turf the DRV on Template:User fsm, which was speedily deleted as per Jimbo's statement against belief-oriented userboxes. Janizary used the "What links here" functionality from the fsm template to send our vote-stacking messages to the talk pages of people who still had the fsm userbox template transcluded. The use of the What links here functionality was one of the reasons proposed as to why template userboxes should be done away with. That one of the pro-userbox people is offering up such irrefutable evidence that What links here functionality can be and is abused is ironic in the extreme. The exact beginning text of the recruitment message was, "I'm calling out a posse." Clearly this is a plain attempt at disruption. Some sort of disciplinary action is necessary. Note that this campaign has already produced a clear majority of "Undelete" votes in the DRV process, yet I believe the end result should remain "Keep deleted", because we should not allow process to be disrupted in this kind of manor, and if we do allow the template to be kept it will just be used in future attempts at vote-stacking. Here is a full list of diffs of the campaign effort from Janizary:

The full text of the vote-stacking message was:

I'm calling out a posse, to fight for freedom of choice, to fight all those who think that only their opinion's right, template:user fsm was speedy deleted by an administrator without any cause or even discussion, I'm therefore putting it up for undeletion since people have put a jihad out against opinions in userboxes. As you were one of many people using the template, I'm trying to rally you into the posse. If you think the template should be returned to active status, put in a vote at Misplaced Pages:Deletion_review/Userbox_debates#template:user_fsm. Janizary **date/time**

Cyde Weys 02:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Cyde, I agree that it's tacky, but it happens a lot, and I don't think there's anything more to be done about it than scolding the user. I recently caught a user who is normally believed to be a "generally good user" doing the same thing in regards to an rfc. The user responded with "well, since I only contacted people who were involved with the disagreement it's different than vote stacking." Or words to that effect. While this is something of a social more here, it is only sporadically discouraged, and then only when somebody wants to prove that they are in the right because the other person couldn't possibly be (or why would they need to stack votes, right?). My 2c. ... aa:talk 02:19, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Nothing to be done but scold the user? This is the most damaging and disruptive thing to Misplaced Pages that I can possibly think of. Misplaced Pages is not a bunch of factions who identify themselves by userboxes and recruit each other in the dozens to astroturf any sort of decision they disagree with. In that way lies absolute madness. --Cyde Weys 02:23, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Cyde, you really need to slow your roll. I mean, Christ boy, the functionality of these user categories and userboxes can be done by other means, just by linking to an article you make yourself available on a list, which, if grepped through, can be used to collect all the users who are interested in the subject. Removing the boxes won't remove your paranoid fear of people rounding up people to modify articles, the userboxes and categories do make it much easier and entirely more pleasent for everyone involved. What I did was a specific targetted collecting of the people who were directly effected by this unjustified speedy delete of a userbox. Only the people who used it were informed of the attempt to undelete the template, since they were never given a chance to defend it, as they should have been. Janizary 06:13, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The key difference, Janizary, is that merely knowing someone is interested in an article doesn't allow you to try to POV push - because if there's a POV to push on that article, there's almost certainly an opposing one of some sort... and some of those watching the article are going to be of an opinion disagreeing with you. This does not apply to these userboxes that expressly take a stance. Michael Ralston 06:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:AvengerRSPW

Can someone put a stop to this guy? All of his edits are vandalism, and given his impersonation of me on User_talk:TruthCrusader, I'm starting to suspect that it's his sock instead of one being run by the infamous "DickWitham" troll. - Chadbryant 02:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

{{indefblockeduser}}. No evidence he was doing anything positive at all in the month he's been here. Essjay 02:56, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Already returned as User:StephenSignorelli - can I request that someone look into what IP's this guy is coming from? $10 US says it's somewhere near the Czech Republic, which pretty much narrows it down as to who is behind it. - Chadbryant 03:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Blocked and tagged. Essjay 03:39, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

And his latest work is as User:PyterTaravitch. - Chadbryant 03:48, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It appears that Curps nailed 'em. Mackensen (talk) 04:06, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

That he did - as well as another sock, User:Lord Of Darkness. Clearly the work of one particular individual who is *not* the infamous "DickWitham" troll. - Chadbryant 04:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Biased Mediator

There is a mediation on the page Neoconservatism. On Talk:Neoconservatism, the mediator just posted this:

• I'm well aware of your constant use of this resource to push your far left anti conservative viewpoints....so don't challenge me.--MONGO 03:44, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I respectfully request an unbiased mediator.--Cberlet 03:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

You will need to ask this from the Misplaced Pages:Mediation Committee. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 03:52, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

OK. Thanks.--Cberlet 03:53, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

MONGO is neither a mediator, nor assigned to the case as a deputy mediator. He should not be representing himself as the mediator assigned to the case; as of this moment, no mediator has been assigned to that case because it was just accepted yesterday.

For the Mediation Committee, Essjay 03:54, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

He doesn't appear to have done so. In the talk page from which Cberlet quoted, MONGO said, "I am also not here to mediate." Chick Bowen 04:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm just making it clear that he is not a mediator; I didn't intend my note to imply that he had or had not represented himself as one, and I apologize if it appeared to do so. Essjay 04:25, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

You didn't, I was also just clarifying. Chick Bowen 04:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• I never did say I was a mediator. I have no interest in being a mediator. Show me where i stated I was a mediator...I simply contested that CBerlet wanted to use references from biased sources such as "antiwar.com" and that he appears to be stating that he wants to argue with talk page edits such as this--MONGO 04:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

As I said above, I didn't mean to imply that you had said that you were, I just wanted to clarify that you aren't, given that at least one participant thought you were. Essjay 04:46, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

My comment was to all concerned, not explicitly you. CBerlet made an erroneous assumption, but I assume good faith that he did so innocently.--MONGO 05:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Category:People shot by standing Vice Presidents

After going through Cfd and reaching, what I thought, anyway, was "no consensus," the category was speedied by User:MarkSweep. The reason given for the speedy was WP:SNOW, which isn't even a Misplaced Pages policy, much less a speedy criterion, and it certainly isn't a reason to delete a category that has reached no consensus in Cfd. Maybe I'm simply missing something, and I do not want to rush to judgment. Can someone explain what happened here? - Jersyko·talk 04:32, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

This is not an encyclopedaic category, very obviously since it is overly-specific and would have only one member, and is an attack to boot. Thus the deletion makes sense, although I would've cited WP:IAR if I were him—the guideline that says if something is obvious, you don't have to slavishly adhere to process. But if you want to have the decision reviewed, the place for it is Misplaced Pages:Deletion Review. -- SCZenz 04:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If it goes to deletion review, here's what I'll say: the debate appears to have been improperly closed. The Keep arguments were not well-reasoned, and seem to in many cases be from meatpuppets and/or sockpuppets. The closing admin should have used discretion on these matters, and while it's understandable that he didn't, the consensus was clearly the one implemented by User:MarkSweep. -- SCZenz 04:55, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

But the category went through Cfd with no consensus with several keep votes by regular users (User:Adrian and myslef spring to mind just off the cuff . . .). Actually, it had two members: Whittington AND Alexander Hamilton, which is EXACTLY why I think the category is useful!! Nevermind, I suppose this isn't really worth the fuss. I agree that perhaps a delete consensus was appropriate, even if no sock/meatpuppets were involved. - Jersyko·talk 05:03, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Couldn't we just BJAODN it and go to bed? I admit getting a laugh out of it, but it's really not a serious category, nor is it likely to be useful. (Neat trivia, and perhaps something to be mentioned in the appropriate biographical articles—but not worthy of a category.) And I'll speedy myself any creation of or variation on Category:Standing Vice Presidents who have shot people or Category:Firearms used by standing Vice Presidents to shoot people. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 05:12, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I also voted for it, quite seriously. This is not the worst outcome; at least this way we are not stuck with that awful wording. I am concerned, however, that MarkSweep (who clearly has strong feelings on the subject) should have used his admin powers to settle what was in effect a content dispute. I recall him as a fairly good editor of articles; perhaps he should go back to that for a while. Septentrionalis 05:20, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The CfD was obviously closed incorrectly (I counted 70% support for deletion from registered users who had made at least 10 edits prior to voting). Instead of going through DRV with a predictable outcome and another CfD, etc., I decided to put it out of its misery quickly. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 06:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

And he deleted it again; whatever happened to the principle "if it really needs to be done, someone else will do it"? Septentrionalis 06:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Mark, if there was no consensus to delete, why did you take it upon yourself to speedy it? ... aa:talk 06:47, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Because there was a clear consensus to delete. Even you yourself said that you don't like this category. It's a classic case of WP:SNOW. It doesn't even have to go through DRV. The outcome is predicatble: either it will be deleted by DRV; or it will be relisted, and there is a very good chance (>70%) that a second CfD will yield an outcome with >66% favoring deletion. And that's saying nothing about the inherent merits of this category, of which there are none. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 08:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Er.. I'm sorry? Where was the harm in the category existing for the duration of the DRV debate? Why not allow the (obviously more cool-headed) people who monitor that handle it? You don't get to decide issues before the community. You are not Jimbo Wales. You are not more important then me, Xoloz or any other editor here.

I think you're in desperate need of a wiki-break before you drive off anymore editors with your unilateral actions lately. —Locke Cole • t • c 08:25, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The DRV debate was unnecessary to begin with, per WP:SNOW. Just acknowledge, per discussion above, that the closing was done in error, and move on. The presence of the category is harmful because it will convey the idea that this and similar categories are welcome on Misplaced Pages. The community already had decided that this category should go. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 08:38, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

That's nice. Stop citing WP:SNOW, it is neither policy nor guideline. It is an essay, and not one endorsed by the community at large. And if you want to bring up meaningless essays, go read WP:PI before you drive off any more editors over your unilaterism. —Locke Cole • t • c 08:48, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The fact is, there was more than sufficient consensus for deletion. Enough so that the outcome of DRV and any future CfD would have been predictable. There is no need to go through all these steps. I had indeed considered bringing this to DRV myself, but it occurred to me that the net result would have been the same. WP:SNOW is a convenient way to refer you to a more detailed explanation of what I've just said. Second, if Xoloz (talk · contribs) thinks he needs a break, that's entirely up to him. The fact that he has continued to edit after blanking his talk page suggests that he has more to say. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 09:01, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If it's predictable, then you should have allowed the process to complete rather than simply assuming for the rest of us how it would have turned out. It is not your place to decide things for the community. And my reference to WP:SNOW before was the fact that you're citing it like it's some kind of policy in your administrative actions; it is not an excuse to ignore process. The community did not spend time voting on policies and discussing guidelines to have you come along and decide you have a better way. Use your sysop bit with care. —Locke Cole • t • c 09:22, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The community has already decided. Have you read the CfD discussion? It's really quite simple; ask yourself 3 questions: What is the community consensus? What is good for Misplaced Pages? What is the common sense thing to do? In this case, it's the same answer to all 3 questions: delete the category and move on. In such a situation, let's not waste everyone's time. Every subsequent debate will see fewer participants and it will be corrspondingly harder to gauge consensus. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 09:45, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It's not a matter of taking it upon one's self. There are some core policies that cannot be voted away, however many people stack up and scream "CONSENSUS!" We cannot vote away our neutral point-of-view, we cannot vote away our anti-copyvio policy, and we cannot vote away our status as an encyclopaedia. Now, I'm not saying that this is what actually occurred here, but — in theory, in theory! — if "consensus" is that we no longer need to pay attention to what is and is not encyclopaedic, then admins have a responsibility to ignore that. fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 07:47, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If the category survives deletion, how many articles would it hold? Any less than say 6, at mimimum, is a waste and speaks for itself that the category creation isn't warranted. Are there six (to use my own example) such article candidates ready for inclusion? If so, does anyone care actually care and want these articles categorised in this way? Will this lead on to further bizarreness, such as Category:People who've never watched Sesame Street. Ignore obvious trolls. Voting and unvoting about obvious trash contributions isn't helping to progress anyone's encyclopedia. -- Longhair 09:54, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Recreated

This was recreated, so I have taken it to deletion review: Misplaced Pages:Deletion_review#Category:People_shot_by_standing_Vice_Presidents. I am sorely tempted to just delete it as blatantly non-encyclopedaic for the reasons I gave above, but wheel warring is a Bad Thing. -- SCZenz 06:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

MarkSweep appears to have deleted it again; I noticed just as I was about to delete it and close the DRV debate. It should have been deleted in the first place; there was an obvious consensus to do so. TexasAndroid made a newbie mistake; we've all made those and I think no less of him for it. There's no need to run through a process twice to get the same result. Mackensen (talk) 14:43, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The category has now been deleted after closure of the deletion review. That's fine, that's how things are supposed to work: people disagreed with the closing admin's judgment at the CfD, it was submitted for review, and the closure was overturned. The only problem was MarkSweep's gratuitious and pointless speedying of the category (and then his wheel-warring to keep it deleted), which very predictably antagonized several users while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Process is not all-important, but egregiously trampling on process in order to accomplish nothing at all is quite simply bad for Misplaced Pages. I hope that we have not lost Xoloz, a very good editor, because of MarkSweep's poor judgment. Babajobu 15:01, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

My speedying this category was intended precisely to avoid a gratuituous and pointless DRV debate. Xoloz seems to have made a tactical retreat, if you check his contributions. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 18:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The DRV debate was actually pretty painless, as DRVs generally are. People debate, and then we get an answer. The only pain was caused by the speedy deletion and the subsequent wheel warring, which pissed people off. Babajobu 18:37, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Wow, another conflict of this nature? Seems we need to start getting a consensus on the consensus. But then we'd also need a consensus on that consensus. Where will it end? --Shadow Puppet 15:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, no, we don't need consensus that there is a consensus. In fact, the admin closed it as "no consensus", and then it was speedied by another admin; then undeleted by another admin who thought we might as well just let the deletion review take it's course; then immediately deleted again by the same admin who had originally speedied it. Accept for the wheel warring, the poorly closed AfD, the pre-empted deletion review, and the users who left the project because of all this, I'd say we admins really handled the whole thing quite wisely and effectively! a A cookie for us! Babajobu 16:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Guys guys guys, please. I'm just trying to help, I'm not condemning anyone to the scaffold or anything. If my comment is unhelpful or misled in some way, just say so and move on. Please don't be so defensive and don't smack me if you can avoid it. Also: I'm hoping the heavy sarcasm was obvious in that "consensus" statement I made. --Shadow Puppet 16:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It looks to me like there was consensus to delete and the common sense approach was to delete it. Let's not waste more time arguing about process. Johntex\ 15:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Yea, it looks plain to me too. Just wondering why someone thought otherwise. But I'll shut up. --Shadow Puppet 15:33, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It was only plain to delete when you went through the Keep votes and tossed out 40% of them as invalid votes. I did not do this. This is the "Newbie mistake" that Mackensen mentions above. I should have vetted the votes. Without invalidating some of the Keep votes, the tally was 45 to 25 or so, short of the 2-1 ratio generally used as the threshhold on CFD. - TexasAndroid 16:44, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

TexanAndroid, your mistake was understandable, and could easily and painlessly rectified by deletion review, which comes in handly in precisely those sorts of situations. This mess was not of your making. Had MarkSweep not wheel warred over the deletion, and instead just allowed the deletion review to take its normal course, this thread would not exist, Xoloz would still be at the project, et cetera. Babajobu 16:52, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

In other words, we're to be angry at MarkSweep for doing the right thing which was upheld scant hours later. The right response here, I would think, would be to commend MarkSweep for recognizing that the closing admin had made a mistake. We don't need to deletion review for obvious-and-quickly-rectified mistakes. Mackensen (talk) 17:31, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Being angry won't accomplish anything, but I'm not interested in "commending" someone for wheelwarring over something trivial that would have resolved itself the next day, anyway. Especially as numerous other experienced editors had asked him to please just let the deletion review take its normal course. Would have accomplished the same thing, would have pissed fewer people off, and wouldn't have required wheel warring. Sounds like that would have been the way to go, commendations aside. Babajobu 18:04, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

One other thing, TA ... *fD are not "votes", and the tally is only as relevant as you want it to be. fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 16:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Not sure I entirely agree with that Fuddle...of course fDs are not votes, but Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators still says that our duty is to determine consensus at AfD, rather than to simply review the discussion and determine the correct outcome. So if, say, 70% of good-faith, reasoned recommendations from experienced editors suggest that an article be kept, and the closing admin decides, "to hell with them, I know better than all keep voters, and I'm closing it as a delete", then the closing admin should be prepared to have their little heinie pwned at deletion review for not correctly discharging their responsibility (provided, of course, that they don't just choose to wheel war over the deletion rather than waiting for the outcome of review). A well-vetted tally is a good barometer of consensus, and the closing admin shouldn't disregard it. Babajobu 17:25, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, I've never yet had a close overturned on me, and I don't count votes, on principle. We have to weigh "votes" based on the validity of their arguments (one "keep because of x, y, z" is worth innumerable "nn d"s). I basically read the discussion, and if it looks like a delete, it's delete, if it looks like a keep, it's keep, and if I'm not sure, it's no consensus. I recently closed a discussion where a terrible article about a school was nominated because "it's terrible and unverifiable", and got a buncha people saying delete because "needs cleanup, unverifiable". Someone came along and cleaned it up and verified it ... but delete votes, if one happens to swing that way, still overwhelmingly outnumbered the keeps (nobody commented after the cleanup was done). How do you think I closed? fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 03:23, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Right, well if someone has done a significant clean-up or provided citations for previously unverified info, then consensus that was forming around an older version is no longer as relevant as newer comments. The guidelines for administrators actually say this explicitly. And I do weigh the strength of arguments when a vote is on the border between a no consensus and a keep or delete closure. But when a clear consensus has formed around the present version of an article, and when consensus is not trumped by an issue such as copyvio, then I don't think it's our place to decide consensus is wrong. No one has entrusted us with that authority; no one has stated that they think our judgment is good enough to outweigh the judgment of a large majority of established users. In our role as closers of AfDs, the community has said we're capable of performing the fairly menial administrative function of determining whether consensus exists; they've not expressed any special faith in our judgment as to whether articles should be kept or deleted. That's my understanding, anyway. Babajobu 08:26, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

It has nothing to do with "our judgement as to whether articles should be kept or deleted". The whole point of AfD is that, sometimes, the judgement of a single admin is not enough (that's why we're not speedying everything in sight, and the userbox brigade can shut up at this point ... yes, I see those smirks). My point isn't that it's up to an admin to decide, on the article's merits, whether to keep or delete ... it's that AfD is not a vote. It's perfectly appropriate to ignore a bunch of incredibly stupid reasons to delete an article and go with one or two good reasons to keep (and vice versa). One of the things admins do is weigh arguments. We're not returning officers, we don't just do a head-count and say, no, that's 65%, we must keep, oooh, 67%, that's a deleter. If we can't be trusted to read an AfD and make the right decision based on the discussion (not the tally) then we shouldn't be closing them. fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 09:08, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Right, I of course agree with you that AfD is not a vote. That's why the name was changed from VfD to AfD. But the Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators still state that the criterion for closure is whether a "rough consensus" has been achieved. It doesn't say that the closing admin should act as a judge, and weigh the merits of the two sides to determine who has the stronger argument. In practice, we all do weigh the merits of the arguments and disregard the sillier ones, especially in cases in which we think existence of consensus is borderline. But ultimately, according to the guidelines we have been given, and presuming we think those guidelines should be taken seriously, we're still just functionaries determining consensus. We're not judges. Or, at least, we're more the former than the latter. Or, perhaps, the style of different closing admins varies depending on whether they consider themselves more the former or the latter. But I agree with you that simple vote counting only in order to determine whether the vote hits a particular sacred percentage is a very poor way to close. Babajobu 09:25, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Shadow Puppet - just to clarify, I was not making my comment to you specifically. I was just making a general comment in favor of the deletion and a desire to move on as quickly as possible. Johntex\ 15:41, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Awsome. If everyone gets so upset over my teeny input, I guess, Newby or not, my words do have some power (NOTE: sarcasm). --Shadow Puppet 17:08, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Happyjoe

This user has been removing evidence and reformatting this page ridiculously for the past 2 hours. Example here: where I did not remove content, but fixed format and linked to specific sections. Example here: of evidence removal. Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Happyjoe pschemp | talk 05:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to Essjay for fixing this. All taken care of...go back to your naps. pschemp | talk 06:08, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Nestore

This user has repeatedly uploaded copyrighted images with bogus copyright attributions, even after multiple warnings, to a variety of articles. I've blocked him for 1 week pursuant to WP:COPY#If you find a copyright infringement. I recommend that his edits be monitored when he returns - if he continues the way he has done, I see no alternative to a permament block. -- ChrisO 08:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Please review God of War block

I've blocked God_of_War (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) indefinitely for trolling. This is intended to be a temporary block, with the exact duration to be determined here. Related accusations of trolling have been made elsewhere. God of War has now announced that he will not be bound by the outcome of an MfD. That makes it rather obvious that he's not acting in good faith. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 08:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't see him as trolling. I see him as trying to express his view, and thinking that he has the right to have this material on his main userpage instead of a subpage, even if the subpage is deleted. I'm not convinced a block is warranted. -- SCZenz 08:48, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I disagree with the block, God of War spends too much time in namespaces not directly related to the encyclopedia, but has some good contributions as well. Recommend unblocking. Sjakkalle (Check!) 08:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I propose we unblock him, but make it clear that if this material is deleted it will not be acceptable to move a long non-Misplaced Pages-related essay to his main user page either. -- SCZenz 08:55, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• I agree with SCZenz. Sjakkalle (Check!) 08:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

God of War has promised to follow the MFD result. I have therefore lifted the block now. Sjakkalle (Check!) 09:20, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 09:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It might also be good if you let someone else block any further "freedom fighters" as you're perceived as being "the enemy". Best not to add fuel to the fire, and there are plenty of admins around. - brenneman 14:18, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It seems to me that comments like that serve to expand that perception, Aaron. We have no freedom fighters on Misplaced Pages, and no opressors either—people who see themselves as fighting a war simply aren't going to achieve their aims. I think the most productive thing that users who see MarkSweep as "the enemy" can do is, well, stop seeing him that way. MarkSweep saw what he thought was trolling, responded, asked for administrative consensus, and accepted a reversal when the consensus didn't agree with him—exactly what any admin should do. -- SCZenz 18:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

There may not be any 'freedom fighters', but I apparantly am seen as a crusher of dissent who must be opposed (). I hadn't realized I held so much power, and me not even an admin. :-) -- Donald Albury (Dalbury) 00:42, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

User talk:Nlu

Nlu's talkpage is taking a heavy amount of vandalism using the summary (-------- >Nlu is a FAGGOT and so is Nescio – They are butt buddies< --------). The vandal is using open proxies to edit. I strongly encourage any admin who sees vandalism with that summary to block the offender as a proxy and list the IP here; I will go through and scan each of them to be sure and then tag them accordingly. Alternatively, block for 24 hours and list the proxy here, and I will scan and reblock. Essjay 10:22, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Similar activity at Faggot. Essjay 10:36, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• I have indefinitely blocked 82.63.145.182 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) for this edit. Sjakkalle (Check!) 12:09, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Yep, same group. They've apparently moved there since Faggot was sprotected. 82.63.145.182 is an open proxy on port 80. Essjay 12:12, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Returning vandal at Craigpod

Nonsense article created by Gumbatron (talk · contribs), speedy notice removed several times by 62.171.194.43 (talk · contribs), 62.171.194.6 (talk · contribs), 62.171.194.40 (talk · contribs), all from a shared network often used for vandalism. More than enough warning given. Gazpacho 10:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Both IPs are registered to Research Machines PLC, a company that provides internet services and software for schools in the UK. Most likely more school vandals. Essjay 10:53, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Those school vandals were also vandalizing random articles and should have been blocked temporarily. Any articles they vandalized need to be cleaned up. Gazpacho 18:51, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

User:212.135.1.185

Non stop vandalism of random pages, inserting little phrases, etc. The IP's talk page is a sea of red "This is your last warning" signs - someone want to follow through on those numerous threats ;) The IP's contribution page Smitz 13:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It's bound to be a shared IP address. Secretlondon 13:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Your definately correct, I forgot to mention that it's a school in warwickshire, UK. Would it be so wrong to block the entire IP block, but allow logged in users to edit, forcing any real editors from that IP block to register an account? Smitz 14:03, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

WP:RPA in substantial use

Please review this series of diffs Hipocrite - «Talk» 15:11, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Restored comments dubiously deleted per RPA and warned the user about it. android79 15:19, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I've also started a discussion at Misplaced Pages talk:Remove personal attacks#Suggested name change. The "R" in RPA is so often misapplied that I feel it ought to be changed to "Refactor". android79 15:22, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Block of User:Grue

A short time ago, User:Kelly Martin blocked User:Grue because of this comment on an RfA, for 24 hours. While I don't believe the comment helped anyone, I don't believe that blocking Grue does either. Grue wasn't warned, and I think it is a fairly poor reason to block a perfectly decent user (and good administrator). I've removed the block, although Grue may want to reconsider his choice of words on that RfA. Esteffect 15:20, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Here's a great example of why "never unblock without bringing it up with the blocker" is a bad idea. This block was obviously inappropriate, and it's proper that it was undone quickly. Kelly, not sure what you were thinking, but if you must block, please be more reasonable about it. Friday (talk) 15:29, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree - worse comments have been said and no one got blocked. --Latinus 15:31, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Grue's remarks were a breach of WP:AGF, WP:NPA, and WP:CIVIL, there is no excuse and a perfectly decent user (and good administrator) ought to know better. In the current climate we need to choose words with care, and avoid such inflammetory remarks. However, a stern waring, an invitation to retract, or failing that an extremely short block would have been better. I believe Kelly acted in good faith, but too severely, and the unblocking was justified. --Doc 15:36, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The remark was snarky. It may reflect poorly on Grue in some folks's eyes. That is all the sanction that is needed in such a case. Friday (talk) 15:43, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with what Doc said. Blocking was perhaps too harsh, but Grue owes everyone an explanation for why he apparently no longer assumes good faith. Mackensen (talk) 15:48, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Friday. The remark was certainly snarky, possibly uncivil. It was not a personal attack. I believe Kelly acted in good faith to try to move us towards more civil discourse, but the comment by Grue did not merit a block. Johntex\ 15:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The situation was discussed on IRC. I believe the block was warranted. However, I'm not going to get into an extended fight over it, and frankly am not even interested in discussing it at this time. Whatever resolution the community decides is most appropriate in this situation is fine with me. Kelly Martin (talk) 15:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Your attitude horrifies me. Secretlondon 19:38, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Here's an idea for resolution....Apologize. You were wrong. Just because you don't agree with someone is not a reason to block them.(And I assume that one of his/her allies will block me for speaking my mind, since that's been the nature of the cabal in the userbox wars.)Karmafist 18:23, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm...nobody said that they blocked due to disagreement...and most of us agree that the RfA comments where not civil or "snarky" at best. The issue is whether they warranted a block. And bringup up cabal userbox comments is borderline trolling.Voice-of-All 23:53, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

You assume bad faith, you mean? Don't. Dmcdevit·t 18:29, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Wow. I see a few things I very strongly disagree with: 1) the idea that the block was warranted, and 2) the idea that discussing it in a chat room somehow makes it better, and 3) the willingness to block without an accompanying willingness to discuss the block on the wiki. Blocking is quite controversial, as we should all know, so if you're not presently willing/able to be involved in the wiki much, you shouldn't be using the block function. Friday (talk) 16:52, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Just let it go. I don't agree with the block either but he's unblocked, so we can now all go about our merry way. Demanding apologies isn't getting us anywhere. --Ryan Delaney 18:35, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

So, the story from my perspective. After making the above remark, I decided to go into IRC to discuss the recent RfA voting patterns and I saw people discussing just that, and also the blocking of some guy. Before I decide to ask whom they're talking about, I was informed, that it's me who is blocked. I was like WTF and indeed, I was blocked (this is the first time I saw what happens when you try to edit a page while blocked). Thankfully I was unblocked rather quickly. I won't call for Kelly's head, but I think that making sudden 24hr blocks is not the practice that should be encouraged.  Grue  19:09, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It is disconcerting, isn't it? My first time was last year during the affair which eventually led to Stevertigo's desysopping. It really threw me for a loop. Anyway, I would agree that the block for unnecessary, but I kindly ask that you assume good faith in the future. Best, Mackensen (talk) 19:15, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If it happens once, it will happen again. - Mailer Diablo 12:13, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Grue made a particularly unhelpful remark in an RfA (minus two cookies to Grue), Kelly over-reacted (minus one cookie to Kelly), Grue was swiftly unblocked, the story is over. Everyone go home and enjoy your remaining cookies. --Doc 19:20, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

You made a grammar mistake. IIRC, the correct preposition is "from", not "to". Minus one cookie crumb from Doc. Elle _{vécut heureuse} (Be eudaimonic!) 19:24, 23 February 2006 (UTC).

Grue's comment was snarky but not uncivil and not directed at any specific person. Blocking him for it was completely and totally out of line, and I am shocked that it happened. This intimidates participants in RfA. I will endorse an RFC if it is opened. Jonathunder 19:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Oh FFS, what good would that do? --Doc 19:33, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It would further point out that RfC is more and more broken. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 23:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

For one incident? That's a bit overboard. To me, it's a simple matter of, if you're not willing to use the sysop tools responsibly, don't use them at all. This is not an unreasonable expectation. The drive-by blocking with the cavalier attitude of "It was justified and I don't have time to discuss it" is completely inappropriate, so I don't think it's unreasonable in the least to ask Kelly to refrain from using the block tool. The sysop buttons are not toys. Friday (talk) 19:38, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, IRC rears it's ugly head again. Were the massive oppose votes after closing the result of IRC action? -- Cecropia 19:32, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

No, not as far as I know and I was one of the first in the quick burst of opposes. I found some edits I felt were uncivil enough to oppose. Grues comments were uncivil....and snarky and empty of any good faith. The block may not have been justified but I for one am getting really discouraged over the lower and lower standards of communication on Misplaced Pages. I can understand the frustration she might have felt, people can be as sarcastic and biting as they want and somehow it's seen as an acceptable way of communicating. Rx StrangeLove 19:47, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Harshness in RfAs has increased lately (see this comment which really was incivil) and it is something I have spoken out against, even when done by those who voted the same way I did. In fact, I voted the same way KM did in the RfA in question, but I really am concerned blocking Grue for his comment will intimidate voters. Let the 'crats run RfA and leave any blocks for disrupting it to them. Jonathunder 20:00, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Blocking User:Grue merely for that comment he made in that RfA is unacceptable. Lowering the bar on bans so low — down to the ankles — will damage Misplaced Pages. Alexander 007 20:06, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm shocked that someone was blocked for a WP:RFA vote. Sadly, I'm not particularly surprised at this point, nor am I particularly surprised as to whom the culprit was. This is a blatant attempt at voter intimidation. We need about half a dozen good desysoppings to keep these people under control. Crotalus horridus (TALK • CONTRIBS) 20:44, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

No, Cecropia - This happened after the restart. Esteffect 22:51, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

No way to know for sure Cecropia; some admins thought it would be a swell idea to have a private channel for admins only, so if some attempt at vote stacking were made there, non-admins would have no way of knowing. —Locke Cole • t • c 00:27, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Can I make an attempt at perspective? Grue said something he shouldn't have. Kelly said something she shouldn't have. Both mistakes were reversed. No long-term harm was done except whatever bitterness people choose to make themselves. Everyone makes mistakes and infallibility is not a prerequisite for adminship. I found the sudden rush of votes to oppose Djr's nomination distressing, but RFA is probably the single area where Misplaced Pages drama does the least harm.

Since people are quoting Jimbo's opinions on userboxes until they're blue in the face whenever the subject comes up, here's one of his views I remember:

" should be no big deal".

This spat is making it into one. --Malthusian (talk) 22:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed.--Doc 22:42, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Adminship has been getting a bigger deal since IAR became fasionable. No big deal is dead.Geni 23:08, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Agree with User:Geni 100%. As admins become increasinly enamored with IAR, and as we become increasingly contemptuous of consensus and process, adminship becomes a bigger and bigger deal. "No big deal" is as dead as a doornail. Babajobu 08:00, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

The basic problem is that in many instances we have outgrown our policies, they haven't scaled, no big deal almost certainly fits with that to. Yet our basic set up is very resistant to change since most proposals are effectively scuppered by a few who disagree, and many not caring, making consensus difficult to reach. We also face the problem of many users believing process to be the end itself rather than the means to an end, and the rather bizarre belief that consensus is some how a trump card which overides common sense and the basic project goals. But this is nothing new, the "no big deal" line has been trotted out frequently, ususally on failing RFAs, which to me indicates that the person themself does believe it to be a big deal, in much the same way that WP:BOLD is often trotted out when someone knows they have over stepped the mark. --pgk 08:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with much of what you say, except that I don't think we really have a problem of users who believe that process is an end to itself. I think that's a bit of a strawman. I think users who make a good faith effort to participate in the various processes that have developed in Misplaced Pages would like admins to generally respect those processes unless they have a good reason not to. Admins who go trampling on process for no good reason whoatsoever win a lot of respect among other admins, but infuriate non-admins and make Misplaced Pages a less pleasurable, less interesting experience for them. But I agree with you that WP:BOLD, like WP:IAR, is often trotted out in defense of actions that serve no purpose. Babajobu 08:37, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

The Monty Hall problem shows that "common sense" is flawed and thus there is no reason no to overide it.Geni 09:00, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Then I'll be more specific: Becoming an admin may be a big deal, but not becoming an admin certainly isn't. --Malthusian (talk) 09:33, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

WTF? Grue is one of the good guys! Somethign is borked and no mistake. Just zis Guy you know? 23:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Sigh...I really didn't want to wade any deeper into this, but since it's the latest in thing to do, I'll shoot myself in the foot. Kelly was wrong. Grue was wrong. Both have had their mistakes undone. It's finished. This is living proof that the wiki system works -- any mistakes (which are always inevitable due to our humanity) are undone as soon as possible. Stop living on them and go write the encyclopedia. Also, please don't blow this out of proportion. Kelly clearly stated she was blocking for incivility, not for the vote. AGF plzkthx. Johnleemk | Talk 09:52, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Kelly's block for incivility strikes me as somewhat inconsistent considering that just a couple of days ago she was calling people "idiots". When the personal attack was removed Kelly disapproved saying that "WP:RPA is controversial". She even took the time to explicitly "stand by" her original comment that certain people are "idiots". It's true enough that RPA is controversial. But blocking without warning, reference to the blocking policy or review at WP:AN/I is pretty controversial too as has been pointed out here. Blocking is a big deal. Please use it carefully. Please apologize when you get it wrong. Haukur 10:51, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Seconded. Grue's comment hardly even qualifies as a personal attack, though it was a bit incivil. Blocking him for it without so much as a warning or a prior request that he chill out was rather a bigger faux pas than his comment, especially considering Kelly was on the opposite side of the debate and absolutely shouldn't have been carrying out a block even had it been warranted. "Blocking is a big deal. Please use it carefully." Babajobu 12:16, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Suspected Copyvio Image

Hello, Image:Harrywhittington shot.jpg has been uploaded to illustrate the Harry Whittington and Dick Cheney hunting incident articles. The photo is from an online newspaper and the photo is copyrighted by Reuters. Is use of this picture permitted on these two articles? Johntex\ 15:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

No, it's not. You should remove them from the articles and follow the instructions here to list the images for deletion. --Aaron 15:56, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Looks like someone already removed them from those two articles and tagged it with {{no license}} Zzyzx11 (Talk) 16:03, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I have previously removed the picture from the articles, but the uploader put it back. I have completed the tagging process as instructed by Aasron. Thanks to you both. Johntex\ 16:16, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Now, it looks like it was speedy deleted for being a blatant copyvio. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 19:44, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

General rule of thumb: if an image is from a news agency, and the article is tagged as a current event, the image is a copyvio: we're competing directly with the agency as a news source, so the image cannot qualify for fair use. --Carnildo 21:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Banned User Anotherblogger (talk · contribs) using sockpuppet ScottMiller (talk · contribs)

He's continuing his link spam of Perverted-Justice.com. There's a checkuser on him here: which is pretty indicative that we have sockpuppetry, aside from the fact that he's continuing the activities of Anotherblogger. Fieari 16:05, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Buriednews.com spam campaign

Buriednews (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and Merrysoul (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) have been running a short-lived spam campaign to link to "buriednews.com", some sort of Drudge Report lookalike. I've blocked both indefinitely, but the block on Buriednews did not affect Merrysoul, AFAICT, so be aware that this spammer may be running other usernames. android79 16:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• It's too bad there isn't a way to block links to certain domains, sort of a wiki-wide blacklist... that would be a great way to discourage truly disruptive linkspammers. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 00:54, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
  • I thought there was a spam blacklist...? I don't know the details, though, and I may be totally wrong. In other words, this comment is useless. :-) android79 01:05, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
    • There is a spam blacklist on Meta, that applies to all the wikimedia projects: m:Spam blacklist Mairi 01:23, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
      • but be careful with adding sites to that; if urls already in articles are added to the blacklist, further edits to the article will be rejected. dab (ᛏ) 09:57, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Blocked user bsuinfosys

I have blocked Bsuinfosys (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) for persistent whitewashing of Breyer State University (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), removing everything which alludes to its unaccredited status and questionable past. Previous block was 24h, on return he came straight back and did the same thing again, so this time it's indefinite. Feel free to reduce if you think that's over harsh, but the fact that the username includes BSU and there are no edits whatsoever to any other article does rather indicate that this is somebody associated with BSU. Just zis Guy you know? 20:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a serial issue. Looking at his edits, he's gone for a while, then comes back to the same article, and just that article. I'd say give him a long span; perhaps he'll lose interest. (BTW, I'm not an admin, so I hope I'm not out of line). --Shadow Puppet 20:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Good suggestions are welcome from anyone, admins or not. :-) android79 21:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

WHEELER

Could somebody have a word with WHEELER (talk · contribs)? He is repeatedly placing external links to his own highly original essays on a number of articles. He seems to think that I am the embodiment of evil, so could a third party please tell him about our external links policies. - SimonP 00:53, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I thought he'd left the project. Heavens. Mackensen (talk) 01:57, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

And here I was thinking that you were the embodiment of evil! Silly me. :)--Sean Black 03:13, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Did someone say evil? --LV 03:15, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

He seems to be back, he has just added Revolution within the form and Cretan/Spartan connection. He admits that both are original research. I'm not going to touch these, so could somebody else deal with them. - SimonP 20:51, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, I found the spot. As soon as I posted one External link---SimonP who has NO classical training or education kept deleting the External link (see page history of "History of Crete" as an examle) like Misplaced Pages is his personal space. Does Misplaced Pages belong to SimonP? I put asked him: User talk:SimonP#Hostility; he responded on my site: User talk:WHEELER#Links. Anything I do on this Website---he deletes or seeks to destroy the article. (1) I point to xenelasia where an external link to Wikinfo was changed by SimonP calling it "remove spam". (2) I point to synoecism where SimonP puts a cleanup tag with this comment "({cleanup} mix of original research and nonsense)". (3) I point to Classical definition of effeminacy where SimonP also puts a cleanup tag "({cleanup}, this article has a lot of problems)".

This man follows me everywhere I go In Misplaced Pages---him and his gang---go around harrassing me and doing immature things. There is no problem with an External link to Wikinfo articles!!! Should there be?? Is there that much visceral hatred by you people???

Get this man off my back and stop the persecutions. Please stop this immaturity.WHEELER 00:10, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Why not stay on Wikinfo? You understand by now that original research isn't permitted on Misplaced Pages, but you are continuing to post your own research in Misplaced Pages articles. I guess I don't get the attraction. I think you've done some interesting work, but it isn't appropriate here. Rhobite 00:22, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I caught you guys red-handed with "Article laundering". I don't trust you as much as I can throw you. One wikipedian deletes an external link as " (rv to SimonP; Wikiinfo not sister project). " My external links don't violate your policy!!!!

Second case of article laundering===Cultural imprint on politics/Revision at Misplaced Pages. Which was conventently deleted recently. Here is a quote from someone on that page:

This is a draft for a fair rewrite of an encyclopedic subject that simply discusses the imprint that culture has on politics. The basis for the present text was unacceptable to many Wikipedians as being an original essay with a strong personal slant (POV rather than a neutral encyclopedia report on the development of this self-evident idea, making references and citing sources. Don't make angry edits, try to forget any agenda of your own, and keep the English-speaking reader firmly in mind. Thanks.

You were attempting to steal an article at Wikinfo!!!! You deleted it. And then try to surreptissiously put it on your site ""Washed"" without tracing back!!!!! This is morally wrong for you people. I see your extermination policy of external links!!!! ala Bill Gates---you guys take lessons from him!!!! Instead of bringing it back on and referencing it back to Wikinfo---You are attempting to "Article laundering" in defiance of copyright laws regarding Wiki's. You people are evil. Do you have that much hatred for Wikinfo??? Is Hate the basis of what goes on around here???WHEELER 00:35, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Howdy! I note that wikinfo uses GFDL. As Misplaced Pages also uses this same license, and the terms of GFDL allow (in fact, encourage) distribution as long as the derivatives remain under GFDL, I'm not certain how this could be stealing, even assuming that it was a straight copy/paste job (which it wasn't). Also, most of Wikinfo's content is copied from Misplaced Pages as an FYI. Regards, CHAIRBOY (☎) 16:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Can anyone tell me the downside of external links to WHEELER's articles? Sam Spade 00:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

The main problem is that they are to essays that are at best highly POV, and at worst deeply inaccurate. - SimonP 01:12, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Now, I am rightfully scared that anytime I try to put an external link---they will delete it--run out---create another article on the subject--put in on Misplaced Pages themselves--thus preventing any external link!!!! I see this game you guys are trying to pull. And this should be noted.!!!! WHEELER 00:43, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I really am quite congenial. I understand the NPOV policy here. I understand the policy of NO original research. That is why I first tried to put in External links. I think the info is needed to inform readers. You can NPOV those articles but leave a link back to the original post so people can learn more. I am not interested in Turf Wars. Or delete the article and make it an external link. I'd rather you make it an external link. But what I see, scares me, I am forced to act the way I did. Those two article do in small ways violate your policies and need to be edited or moved to external links. I totally agree. But I will not stand for stealing my hard work or the "washing" of articles. And I don't believe in persecuting people.

Why can't I put an external link such as "Please see SPOV article at " or "For original research material on subject please see "? Why is this so hard?WHEELER 16:15, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

because literature cited has got to be notable ("notability" is relative to the subject matter). Wikinfo isn't a notable or reputable source by any standard. You have no "right" to link to your articles; the only way to get a policy-sanctioned "right" to discuss or link to your views is to publish them in peer-reviewed journals so that they arguably may be described as a notable academic minority position. 62.202.79.186 16:31, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Naked Short Selling/User:Tommytoyz

The Naked Short Selling page has been a source of repeated troubles in recent weeks -- edit wars that have included vandalism requiring freezing of the page, personal attacks, and a POV fork resolved by deletion of the duplicative page. Much of this was the work of User:Tommytoyz, who continues to engage in disruptive edits and confrontational tactics aimed at intimidating other editors and skewing the POV of the page. Attempt to resolve by third party intervention unsuccessful. Today, after being warned by two other editors concerning his personal attacks, excessive reverts, and edits bordering on vandalism, he resumed his disruptive reverts as if nothing had happened. Please block this user. --Tomstoner 02:06, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

SimulacrumCaputosis and Zombiebaron

Two editors with very short histories, SimulacrumCaputosis (talk · contribs) and Zombiebaron (talk · contribs) keep trying to insert a link to Unencyclopedia into Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not. -- Donald Albury (Dalbury) 03:53, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is the place to contest this, but in all honesty Uncyclopedia is basicly the antichrist when compared to Misplaced Pages. Sorta makes sence to add it to what wikipedia is not, because wikipedia is not a place for blatent rascism, featured stubs, humor, cell churches, and the like. I feel that SulacrumCaputosis and me are completely justified in our addition, and numerous reverts. Zombiebaron 17:23, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Since I've contested your insertion of the link to Unencyclopedia, you can propose the insertion at Misplaced Pages talk:What Misplaced Pages is not. These things are done by consensus over here. -- Donald Albury (Dalbury) 17:58, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

User:217.96.248.99

User 217.96.248.99 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) use to make strong national attacks and to vandalize user pages of everybody he suspects in the Pro-Ukrainian POV. Today he seems to went on a rampage producing edits like: , , , , , , , etc. He was already blocked for one week for the very similar behavior.

It appears that the IP is a static IP belonging to an individual. Simple IP tracing shows his real name and the phone number. He sometimes produces good faith edits, but also many personal attacks and vandalizing.

I gave him 24h block, just to cool down, but I feel that if he will repeat quite longer blocking must be applied. I was already criticized that the block is to lenient. abakharev 03:55, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

• The first minutes the block expired, he started with personal attacks. I had to double the block (48 hours). abakharev 14:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

User:ColonelS

Can we have a sockpuppet check on this guy? On his first day he headed straight for the Chip Berlet article and started bringing up all the same old disputes, so I'm wondering if this is Nobs or Cognition or somebody else who has been dealt with by ArbCom. Gamaliel 05:00, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Requests for checkuser. Jkelly 05:32, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. That's quite a backlog over there. Gamaliel 05:45, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Yep... Jkelly 05:48, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Both myself and Fred Bauder looked at it. That user comes from an IP address which seems to regularly spawn 'new' users with similar far-right beliefs and writing styles, each of which seems to stick to a limited subset of articles. They seem to be the same person. However, the use of multiple accounts doesn't seem to be actually disruptive - more, perhaps, to prevent the user being recognised / tracked. There is no multiple voting, use to evade 3rr/blocks, or anything of that sort that I can see.

The writing style doesn't look like Nobs or Cognition to either of us, however, and it's obviously impossible to tell for sure after this time. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 12:43, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Dean McVeigh

There are significant issues with unregistered or very recently registered users editing the article on Dean McVeigh in continuing contravention of Misplaced Pages:Reliable sources. Could it have semi-protected status?--A Y Arktos 09:16, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

No action has been taken, and hence I renew am renewing my request.--A Y Arktos 19:56, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Still no action - have I put this request in the wrong place? Misplaced Pages:Semi-protection policy does say an admin would respond if I popsted here. I will try at Misplaced Pages:Requests for page protection too.--A Y Arktos 03:42, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I've taken a look over at the article history and enabled sem-protection for now. -- Longhair 03:45, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Association of British Counties continual reverts

By sockpuppets of banned user IanDavies. Can this page be protected temporarily until he finds something better to do? Owain (talk) 12:27, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Semiprotected.--File Éireann 13:22, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

The blocklog says IanDavis has been blocked as a sock of User:Irate. Secretlondon 15:39, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Woohookitty unblocked this article earlier today - and IanDavies reverted it within the hour. Can we at the very least have it semi-protected again, and perhaps fully protected? - there's really not much more to add to the article as it stands. Can the IP range be added to the list of sockpuppets and blocked temporarily?

User:IanDavies (and User:Son of Paddy's Ego ) are sockpuppets of User:Irate, who was banned indefinitely by Jimbo Wales. Aquilina 14:16, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Not really - that's all of Bulldog Manchester and so presumably covers Liverpool as well (where Irate lives). That's a popular ISP with millions of users, and we can't really rangeblock the whole thing - David Gerard 12:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Erwin Walsh (talk · contribs)

User insults me at random not once but twice. Also incivil towards other users as well. Many examples are avalible but these should be sufficient.

He has a total of 532 edits of which only 66 ae in articlespace. Those edits were mostly vfds.

A partial list of his vfds: Quad Electroacoustics Anal masturbation,Massage therapist, 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

User has been blocked 4 times so far. Of which 2 of the cases due to vandalism

I do not see a reason why we have to put up with him. Please end his misery. --Cool Cat 15:35, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Will anyone at least comment? --Cool Cat 11:54, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

He was blocked a half-fortnight by Curps for personal attacks. // Pathoschild (_admin / ) 12:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Blatant Policy Abuse by Celestianpower

In regard to the AfD entry concerning Steven Levitt, Celestianpower closed discussion a mere 35 minutes after its opening. Such insanely early closings only serve to further the secularist POV of such an editor. Voting MUST run its course - closing the polls early just because you happen to be ahead is patently unfair, and NOT what Misplaced Pages is about. This is a heads-up, as I am sure he will continue trying to push his view through the guise of janitorial tasks.

Peace in Christ, Steven Taylor 15:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Assume good faith, please. As Christians, it's the least we can do. Anyway, I can't see why on earth anyone would want that article deleted. Celestianpower was totally correct in ignoring all rules and closing a debate that had a snowball's chance in hell of getting the article deleted. Johnleemk | Talk 16:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

On the contrary, that was a rather absurd AfD nomination; we don't delete articles on authors with best-selling titles. Closing the discussion early was exactly the right course of action. The fact that you refer to "voting" and "closing the polls early" shows that you do not quite understand how AfD is supposed to work. android79 16:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

CheckUser requested for Steven Taylor. The absurd abuse of process to prove a point along with the talk page spamming (look at this user's contributions), leads me to believe this may be a sockpuppet of Jason Gastrich. Hexagonal 16:13, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Your incivility makes me sick. Steven Taylor 16:24, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

(ec) Wow. Just, wow. I'm not the suspicious type, but if someone wanted to demonstrate the harm caused by categories like Category:Christian Wikipedians, the edits made by Steven Taylor (talk • contribs) make the point pretty clear. Friday (talk) 16:15, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I was just going to say that. android79 16:18, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I was about to say the same thing. Account created today, listed Steven Levitt for deletion and then worked (partway) through Category:Christian_Wikipedians trying to round up a posse. Whoever it is ought to thank Celestianpower for saving them some typing. --ajn (talk) 16:17, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention the use of "godless" and the "Peace in Christ" sign-off in the vote recruiting, both trademarks of Gastrich's writing style. I tagged him as a suspected sockpuppet, not that there's much point as the next time we see him he'll have a new account. --Malthusian (talk) 16:59, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I've blocked Steven_Taylor (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) for 24 hours for disruption, and I imagine it ought to be a lot longer block. Is there any way to fast-track a CheckUser? android79 16:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

No. Just wait until someone with access to it gets around to tackling the problem. Johnleemk | Talk 16:33, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and listed this at the WP:RFCU page. Hopefully someone will be able to confirm or deny whether this is a sock. Hexagonal

I reblocked indefinitely. Looking at the user's contributions, it's beyond doubt that he is somebody's sockpuppet. Those are not the actions of a clueless newbie, or of someone's legitimate sockpuppet. Whoever is pulling the strings knows what they are doing and is acting in bad faith. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 20:59, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Just a thought - saying explicitly here what's tipping you off might be a case of spilling the beans.
brenneman 00:50, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Not sure what you're saying here. Are you contesting the block? If you are suggesting that it's not obvious, you probably haven't had a chance to look at the contribution history. If you're saying that spelling out what would be successful sockpuppeteering is a case of WP:BEANS, I agree with you. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 02:04, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

There shouldn't be any disagreement over the validity of this block anymore. The checkuser request was granted, and Morven found that this sock was part of a sock farm operated by Gastrich. He also went ahead and blocked the IP responsible, which should save us some future grief. Hexagonal 03:59, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Repeated vandalism and posting of personal data by User:207.99.39.86

See edits at All your base are belong to us. --Captaindan 16:07, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Kaiser Permanente

Can someone take a look at Kaiser Permanente? One user refuses to allow anyone to include an image of Kaiser Permanente's logo in the article, or to allow people to link to the company's homepage from the infobox. This is disruption. Rhobite 19:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Wacky. Left a {{3rr}} at User talk:Pansophia. Jkelly 19:54, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

If things continue like they have, I see no good solution short of banning Pansophia from directly editing any article related to Kaiser. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 21:12, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

The 3RR rule was not, however, applied to MarkSweep. A good process for ensuring balanced editing was worked out yesterday, but today Rhobite ignored it. Rhobite and MarkSweep also seems to be stalking me on other pages. This is a (double-teamed) attack on myself as a user in order to weed out an editor to win an editorial dispute. --Pansophia 21:54, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I reverted 3 times. If you believe that I reverted more than 3 times, please post the diffs. Rhobite 23:31, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe it's important to point out that that "good process for ensuring balanced editing" had, thus far, largely allowed User:Pansophia to replant her POV into the article proper (removing the organisation's logo from infobox because it's an "ad," repeatedly reinserting her LiveJournal blog as an external link, etc.). It's also notable that this is not the first time other editors or administrators have "(double-team..) attack" User:Pansophia, at least by her own assertion... Justen Deal 23:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing out this is not the first time that this has happened. No one has done anything about your false accusation of sock puppetry, by the way. I assume you're only here to try to "get me" by other means? --Pansophia 01:07, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

See also Pansophia's rant from 3 days ago, above. --Calton | Talk 05:05, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

"Tag teaming" as it regards 3RR is no crime. In fact it is explicitly excluded from 3RR policy because 3RR is designed to keep one editor from hijacking an article against the wishes of a consensus of other editors. · Katefan0/poll 05:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I take it weasel wording (re:rant) against other users is also within the letter of the law? --Pansophia 09:49, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

User:64.107.114.4

64.107.114.4 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) is going around to various pages related to American conservatism, blanking them, and replacing them with the content from Andrea Mackris. He's also using fraudulent edit summaries in an attempt to stop editors and admins from double-checking the pages. A block will probably be necessary. --Aaron 20:47, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

He should have been blocked after his first racist edit to Flag of Mexico. User:Zoe| 21:36, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Fort Drum proxy blocked indefinitely

I have blocked gahccache.drum.amedd.army.mil = 192.138.65.36 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) indefinitely as an open proxy. The IP was previously blocked for 24 hours by Markalexander100 for linkspamming, and has no legitimate contribs. This address belongs to U.S. Army MEDDAC, Fort Drum, New York, and appears to be a misconfigured dedicated web proxy. I have personally verified that the proxy is indeed open to the public and can be used to access Misplaced Pages. (Yes, this means I just portscanned a U.S. Army computer. I'm feeling a bit nervous now.) I have not yet notified the administration for the site. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:54, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

You portscanned a U.S. Army computer? Uh-oh, you'd better watch out before... Ilmari Karonen (talk) Woops, too late. --Deathphoenix 21:01, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I have now sent an e-mail notice to the webmaster of www.drum.amedd.army.mil and requested that it be forwarded to the person or department responsible for the proxy. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 21:20, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Anon. using dynamic IPs is POV pushing and vandalizing Argentinian pages

I just blocked the anon 200.45.6.172 for vandalism and blatant attacks on Talk:Huemul Project . These attacks were previously posted to a variety of user talk pages (including mine - removed) under a different IP. The anon has been waging a revert war/vandalism attack on Huemul Project and related pages, resulting in several protects on those pages. I have suggested the regular editors of those pages file an rfc, but don't see that it would be effective. Talk:Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica has also been under attack by the anon and was protected by User:Pablo-flores, who has also been attacked by the anon. Take a look at the history of those pages and see what has been going on. The anon is currently spamming my talk from IP 200.43.201.132 . Vsmith 03:34, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I can't quite tell what's going on here, but have you considered the possibility that the anon has a legitimate complaint and doesn't know how to go about articulating it? After all, their contributions keep getting reverted as "vandalism" (e.g. here), but I don't see how that edit in isolation qualifies as vandalism. Looks like more of a regular edit war based on a content dispute. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 06:17, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

It looked like that to me at first, but by now a pattern is clear to those involved: this person (using one of many IPs in a block we have more or less identified) alters the content of an article regarding a certain particular topic (Argentina's attempts at nuclear fusion and the Argentine nuclear research institutions, basically), presenting a particularly biased POV based on disparaging those institutions; he doesn't respond to attempts at discussion, reverts any changes, and attacks the other editors. Several of the IPs have been blocked, to no effect, and pages have had to be protected. The editor in question also doesn't respond to suggestions of registering under a username, and continues the disruption using multiple IPs. --Pablo D. Flores (Talk) 14:20, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Jeff Merkey

Could someone take a look at the current edit war du jour on the Jeff Merkey article and try to make some determination. the accusations are flying. the dispute is over whether the article should be tagged with the NPOV and other templates.--Alhutch 06:43, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Well though I'm "involved", I have removed the wikify and cleanup tags, since it clearly is wikified and it doesn't require clean up. I've left the NPOV tag, though personally I'm not convinced of there being any issue, but other opinions would be most welcome. --pgk 13:52, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Brainhell still harassing Lucky 6.9

Lucky has left the building, but Brainhell's vexatious litigation against him continues. The Requests for comment/Lucky 6.9 opened by Brainhell with the help of User:Robert McClenon was properly deleted for being improperly certified (there had been no attempt at mediation or other dispute resolution, and there still has not), but it's talk page remains and is being used by Brainhell as yet another attack page. Lucky has stated on the page that all he wants is to be left alone, and I think it's time he was. Unless people object, I propose deleting Misplaced Pages talk:Requests for comment/Lucky 6.9, and have posted on it to announce that intention. Please comment. Bishonen | ノート 07:45, 25 February 2006 (UTC).

there's been altogether too much harassment of Lucky by Brainhell already, I approve of deleting the page.--Alhutch 07:48, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Motion seconded and carried. Shouldn't the talk page have been deleted at the same time the project page was deleted? --MarkSweep (call me collect) 07:56, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

probably.--Alhutch 08:14, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I asked Raul654 the same thing at the time, but if I understood him he thought there would be less fuss and uproar this way. In any case, today I thought it was looking so ugly it was time for it to go. I guess not a lot of people would have had time to review my proposal before you deleted the page, Mark, but it can always be temporarily undeleted if anybody requests it. I guess Brainhell won't know what's going on if he finds the page deleted without having read my recent post on it, so I'm going to inform him. Bishonen | ノート 08:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC).

Thank you one and all. Of course, there's always the matter of Brainhell's talk page (and his thinly veiled attacks which totally comprise his user page), but I'm relieved that this is off of the main article space. Raul654 felt that the talk page should remain in hopes that the situation would burn itself out. I guess that wasn't the case. Love you guys. Lucky 6.9 via 71.102.89.240 08:25, 25 February 2006 (UTC). Over and out...

Speedying of TIME magazine images

User:Ta bu shi da yu has decided that most uses of thumbnailed TIME magazine covers is, by his definition, not fair use, and has taken to removing them from articles and speedying them. I'm happy with someone disputing their fair use status, arguing for a rewrite of the template, or removing them from the article and letting the orphanbot get them if they stay un-used for a week or so. But I think that the approach being taken here is somewhat out of procedure -- copyvio speedies are for blatant violations, and none of these low-res TIME magazine covers are, under our current Misplaced Pages:Fair use guidelines, as such. Speedying them as orphans is not intended to be used in this way -- if you remove the image from an article, it does not automatically become a speedable orphan, in my opinion. In any event, I'd appreciate it if someone else could look at his/her behavior on this, because I have not seen any open explanations of why he has decided to start doing this, and we all know that image deletion is much harder to reverse than any other admin actions. I'm of course very concerned with Misplaced Pages's proper fair use compliance, but I don't think this admin's approach is correct in this instance, at least without some discussion first either at WP:FU or WP:WPFU. --Fastfission 17:26, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

There was discussion of this issue at WP:AN#TIME Magazine covers. You're right that the main issue raised was removal, not deletion. However, there is a general consensus that we have too many TIME covers over all, and that something had to be done about this. Ta bu shi da yu is not really acting unilaterally; he has the support of a number of admins, including me, and, I gather, some people at the Foundation as well (you should ask him about that). Yes, if it were me, I would have listed them at IFD instead of deleting them straight off. But something had to be done and I'm glad he's taken the flak and done it. Chick Bowen 17:36, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict) What Chick Bowen said. Mackensen (talk) 17:38, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Unless the images are being used to illustrate an article on TIME magazine itself, fair use does not apply. Did you discuss it with TBSDY before bringing it here? User:Zoe| 17:40, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, that's not really true. If the article discussed someone's selection as Man of the Year or something similar, then there would probably be a valid fair use claim. Just using the image as illustration would not be fair use. Sam Korn 18:22, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, of course I left a message for TBSDY first, but was disturbed that other people have asked him about it and he referenced only e-mails from Jimbo as his justification. I think something like this should be discussed on Misplaced Pages:Fair use -- many of the images he deleted (I made a brief survey of them) were used in ways which were acceptable under the current fair use policy, IMO, or were at least close enough to it that discussion would be necessary before speedying them.

And I wouldn't have brought it up here at all if I thought he was only deleting clear cases of non-fair use. In any case, I don't think that's the right way to handle fair use claims: they should be put up at WP:PUI, not speedyable. If taken in good faith they are not blatant copyvio in the way that someone listing a copyrighted image as GFDL or PD would be. --Fastfission 21:08, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

And hey -- as anyone who is familiar with my work on the Fair Use policy both here and on the en mailing list would know, I'm extremely sympathetic to the desire to lessen the number of fair use images used on Misplaced Pages and to keep our use of them thoroughly in a legally safe zone! I just think that many of the images deleted are completely in accordance with our current policy; if the policy is bad, we should change that first before going around and speedying dozens of images. --Fastfission 21:10, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

It would have been much preferable if someone had taken the trouble of explaining what was going on, in the talk pages of all articles affected. And I'm not sure all of those covers should have been done away with. I'm having trouble understanding why William Lawrence (Massachusetts)'s picture on the 1924 cover of Time wouldn't be fair use. I mean, come on! -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 06:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Fair use is not a black-and-white thing, and discussion is the best way to resolve these things (and I do quite a lot of this). Out-of-process action with regards to fair use violations in the past has caused some ill will, so I think that some more discussion would have been a better idea. JYolkowski // talk 15:42, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, how's the best way that I could get into some discussion in regards to the instance that I just mentioned? -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 03:27, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe that legal matters like this might not be appropriate to discuss in the same light as our normal view of consensus, because there's an external reality (the law) that we're dealing with that we *definitely* want to stay on the right side of. It might be good to have a discussion, but I believe it's probably best not to include in it a vote or poll because such things cannot influence that external reality, and not many Wikipedians are lawyers. --Improv 03:37, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

If you have trouble understanding why Lawrence's picture on TIME's cover is not fair use, you have not understood fair use at all. See my comments on WT:RFAr. Johnleemk | Talk 04:03, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Further discussion should go on Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Ta bu shi da yu 2. Thanks, JYolkowski // talk 22:16, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

• I just want to note, on this, that in looking over the deletion policy again there is currently no basis for speedying copyvio images (WP:CSD specifically allows speedying of blatant copyvio articles but not images). So I think whatever one thinks of the interpretations of fair use, speedying along this lines is well outside the bounds. Now I don't know if TBSDY was aware of this (for some reason, I had thought that images were speediable as copyvio), and I haven't seen anybody else mention it, but I've posted it around a little bit (we could also use a little boning up on WP:CSD now and then) so hopefully from this point forward it can be a matter of discussion in this instance (that is, I am not implying that it necessarily should be applied backwards in a punative manner). --Fastfission 01:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Wheel Warring - In progress?

I found the following sentence on the talk page of Catamorphism, and I think this is an attempt to organise a wheel war. Also this doesn't seem right, because I've tried talk on the talk page of parental notification and even revised my version for neutrality. It is just that the version currently up (if Catamorphism has heeded Alienus' call) lacks some information. Chooserr 18:16, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Chooserr has continued to revert the same low-quality version of parental notification repeatedly, and I don't want to violate 3RR. Please jump in. Alienus 18:11, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I also wanted to post the alienus' accompaning comment from the summary bit - Parental notification call to action. Chooserr 18:21, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

You mean User:Catamorphism? That girl has always been rude. Lapinmies 18:53, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

help requested

I have become involved in a situation on the articles Total Olympics medal count and Summer Olympics medal count where 2 users have been pushing the inclusion of a POV statement in a purely numerical list of medals won. Please see examples of the edits here and here. The two users involved are User:Medalstats and User:Them medals.

The first has been employing rather insulting and inappropriate language to further his arguments, see here for example. The latter of these, Them Medals, has been editing only for a day or two after the conflict started and has not made contributions other than supporting and replacing Medalstat's edits. I suspect him of being the same person as Medalstats. I have left a note on Medalstats userpage but he has not gotten back to me yet. I am unsure what to do short of becoming involved in a viscious circle of reverting each other's edits and I would appreciate an admin looking into it. Thank you for your time,--Kalsermar 18:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

But he does have a point and makes sense. Lapinmies 18:47, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Using offending language and inserting POV statements without source only to make a point is having a point and making sense?--Kalsermar 19:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I suggested a compromise on the talk page: A column with the number of Olympics each country has particapated in. That way the point is made without adding POV edits like this county dominates that country. Rx StrangeLove 19:05, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Please see also here for today's latest personal attacks on me by User:Them medals. How best to deal with this without running afoul of 3RR myself?--Kalsermar 23:21, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Uri Geller

User:Earthacademy showed up at the Uri Geller article claiming to be Geller's representative and added a bunch of ranting about "intellectual bigots" and so forth. I left a polite note about NPOV, legal threats, etc. but wanted to give everybody a heads up in case this escalates. Gamaliel 19:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Looks like the user is also 217.46.167.13 (talk · contribs). --cesarb 22:18, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Swedenman

User:Swedenman (contribs) has been involved in several edit wars and is at the moment removing other users' comments from his own talk page. User:Swedenman is identical with Filipman (contribs) on Swedish wikipedia. So far he has been blocked 8 times (sv:block log) for rabid edit wars and for abusing other wikipedians. Several users have vainly tried to reason with Swedenman. Probert 22:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Harry Potter and the Gold Fires

User:Harry Potter and the Gold Fires (talk) has been adding the {{libel}} tag to several articles including Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne. (See contributions) Since the account has only recently begun editing Misplaced Pages, it is possible that the person behind the nickname could be an indefinitely blocked user in an attempt at reincarnation. —Eternal Equinox | talk 23:43, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Account has already been blocked by Gamaliel for 24 hours. The user placed both {{WoW}} and {{MPS}} on his/her user page; I removed them but was tempted to actually block indefinitely for claiming to be those two vandals, but didn't. Thoughts? Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 23:47, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm... I shall keep an eye on the situation. --LV 23:49, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, because the user chose to place the templates on his/her user page, they must be familiar with operating Misplaced Pages. Although I don't want to, I'm going to be placing their talk page on my watchlist for now, but I'm sincerely no fan of playing babysitter. —Eternal Equinox | talk 23:56, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

It's the latest in a loooong line of accounts from a vandal that some people call the Hotrocks vandal. His MO is to put provocative tags (NPOV, totally disputed, delete etc.) onto a range of articles. He particularly (dis)favours Girls Aloud (check out its history), and he clearly reads this page and ViP, as he often apes the vandalism of whomever is the vandal-of-the-moment. As with dozens of his other accounts, I've made the block permanent. He'll be back tomorrow (at around 10am). DOn't be surprised, incidentally, if he adds a fake apology to the mix once in a while. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:54, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Should this user account be indefinitely blocked then? —Eternal Equinox | talk 23:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

This account is blocked indefinitely, but he'll create another one. And another... -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:59, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

All right, well, we do what we have to do. —Eternal Equinox | talk 00:10, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

• Woah, vandal-vandal war going on? I remember blocking User:Misplaced Pages is Girls Aloud! some time back. Well whoever wins, Misplaced Pages loses... - Mailer Diablo 01:58, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
• I've blocked the 'Hotrocks' vandal using the HOSTS file on his user account, so he can't access Misplaced Pages! Problem solved! --Craig Whitford 13:55, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

• Note that whoever Craig Whitford is, he is likely being almost completely ficticious, since the IP address he has also edited (and edited from) — User:82.42.237.114 &mdashh does not check out to being used across the whole United Kingdom as a shared IP: . -Splash 20:54, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Ted Wilkes violated his probation

User: Ted Wilkes has violated his probation, as he is continuing edit warring and has removed content from the Nick Adams page which deals with Adams's supposed homosexuality. See, for instance, , , , . Wilkes also included some additional passages in the Boze Hadleigh article which try to denigrate this author who has written on the homosexuality of celebrity stars. See . The arbcom clearly said that "Ted Wilkes and Wyss are banned from any article regarding a celebrity regarding which there are significant rumors of homosexuality or bisexuality..." and that "Ted Wilkes and Wyss are banned from making any edit related to a person's alleged homosexuality or bisexuality." See and . Wilkes also removed an external link to a Crime Magazine website which includes the best account of Nick Adams's life, presumably because this webpage makes mention of Adams's supposed homosexuality. See . Onefortyone 03:40, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Could someone offer a third opinion on Matt Leinart

Jossi blocked User:Davis21Wylie for violating the 3 revert rule on Matt Leinart. Davis21Wylie was not warned, and was blocked nearly 4 hours after the fact. Also, I have tried to explain to Jossi that this is not a content dispute at all, but a case of pure vandalism. Several trolls have been inserting information that Matt Leinart is gay. This information is unsourced and their persistence in re-inserting it amounts to vandalism. I think User:Kbh3rd, User:Wahkeenah, and User:IanMcGreene will vouch for Davis21Wylie that this is not a legitimate content dispute. Davis21Wylie was acting in good faith and should be unblocked. Could someone take a look at the situation and offer their opinion? thanks, --Alhutch 04:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I understand the point about the attempts by anons and user:Cooldc19 to add material without sources. Nevertheless, the tone in the talk page and the comments made by Davis21Wylie in the edit summmaries are not the way to proceed in these cases. If you want to remove the block, please go ahead. Just make sure that you explain to that user that regardless of vandalism, there is no need to escalate things by feeding the trolls, and that there is always semi-protection to deal with IP vandalism. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:11, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

The page was already semi-protected while these reverts were going on. The anon had created an account and waited several days so as to get past semi-protection. Since you have assented, Jossi, I'm going to go ahead and unblock Davis21Wylie because he was acting in good faith during the whole episode.--Alhutch 04:15, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

No problems. Just make sure to cool off the air and remind Davis21Wylie that even if he considers an edit to be vandalism, and there is a need to revert, to not feed the trolls by writing things like Straight-up rv'in, baby, Yeeah, this is how we do... rv., Illin' like a villain... rv, Word to your mother... rv, and other. These comments were the ones that prompted me to to check the edits and assessed them to be a violation of WP:3RR. Thanks. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:22, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

• Additionally, I have blocked User:68.48.237.65 for vandalism/3RR, for adding the exact same stuff back in repeatedly, and adding basically a trolling message to the talk page, trying to further stir things up. --W.marsh 05:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Anderson12 (talk · contribs)

I suspect Anderson12 (talk · contribs) is a sockpuppet of banned user Lightbringer (talk · contribs) Ardenn 04:38, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Blocked for 24 hours for 3RR violation, I'd like another administrator more knowledgable in the Lightbringer case to let me know if the sockpuppet claim is true, in which case an indefinite ban is in order. Ral315 (talk) 05:40, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Megaman Zero and his forged award

I attempted to have a discussion with Megaman Zero about his editing of an "award" on his user page -- he had changed a weird "bicycle" award into first an exceptional newcomer award and then, in response to my talk, a series of motorcycles (?). He has also edited the post of the user who originally posted the award.

More seriously, he has turned to simply deleting my posts from his talk page, as he does not seem to want to acknowledge the issue.

User:Prodego has also commented to Zero that what he's been doing amounts to forgery.

Just to be clear, I did edit Zero's user page twice to restore the original award; once along with my original post to his talk page and again after he first deleted my talk. This was what attracted Prodego to the issue.

I have again attempted to restore my comments to his talk page, but at this point expect him to simply delete them again. Please see:User talk:Megaman Zero#bicycle award and this oldid in case he deletes my talk again. I'm done trying to have a talk with an American teenager about ethics, but hope that others will comment on his, and my, actions.

Thank you,

--Moby 09:13, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I urge both parties not to be a dick. Alphax  09:44, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Better? Thanks for the interesting link. --Moby 10:48, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Its okay. I will delete his post, and I will continue to delete it. It offended me, and furthrmore, is an false accusation on my intregrity. I don't tolerate trolling, especially when it deverges from the subject of the well-being of the encyclopedia. I made an in-depth expanatory thesis concerning this on my talkpage.

Moby Dick is most likely an nice chap, but he's taking this furthur than it needs be and the situation amounts to nothing. I've a mind to delete the whole conversation, as it amounts to nothing in concerns to the encyclopedia. I also decline to take advice from an user with an scat 100 edits who proceeds to accuse me of untrue fallacies. -Zero 09:51, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, altering another user's signed comment is not appropriate. — Knowledge Seeker দ 10:08, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree, but it was in Megaman's own talk page, not in an article discussion, and IMHO, User:Moby Dick will now see that he shouldn't edit anyone elses userpage without their permission aside from reverting vandalism. Hopefully these two can "shake hands" and this will end it.--MONGO 10:19, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I fail to see how it matters whether the comment is on an article talk page or a user talk page. User's signed comments should not be altered, with the possible exception of obvious typographical errors which you can be fairly certain the user would not object to. — Knowledge Seeker দ 21:29, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

In one of my deleted posts to his talk page I stated that the misattribution was the crux of my complaint. I have already said to Prodego that I will not edit Zero's user page again. --Moby 10:48, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Hopefully we can place this behind us and proceed to be on more friendly terms in the future. I was quite dissapointed to rub you the wrong way over something as nonsensical as this. I really hate to engage in concerns that don't involve the well-being of the encyclopedia, as well as offend others. That's silly. -Zero 15:31, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

You could help this by restoring my comments to your talk page. --Moby 07:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Certainly not. I cannot restore inflammatory content. -Zero 11:43, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

diff --Moby 12:14, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Certainly I intend to go on deleting trollish and inflammatory discussion where it traduces the rpa policy or the civilty policy. What of it? I'm not in your club and I don't have to subscribe to its rules where they diverge from those of Misplaced Pages. -Zero 14:20, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm curious what you meant by the American Teenager/ethics comment? Rx StrangeLove 15:36, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

In the course of reading his user and talk pages (including some of the history) it became obvious the Zero is a teenager and is an American. And it is my view that his actions — messing with an award as well as deleting my comments — are highly unethical, something I don't see much of in that group.

My original complaint to him was about his having obviously changed his user page to imply that a user had given him an "Exceptional Newcomer Award" when this, in fact, is not the case. It is also highly unethical of him to have repeatedly deleted about half of my comments on this subject and gone on to post his own extensive spin on this both on his talk page and now here. --Moby 07:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe he's refering to my exhaustive thesis which I've copied over from my talkpage:

Amounts to forgery..? Oh this is just so much tosh. Take Moby Dick's conversation with me on my talk page:

• Moby Dick falsely accuses me of inappopriate liberties on my own userpage . He tells me its okay to vandalize my web page under an act of honesty. He seemed to have a problem. He wanted the award kept but he had thought up some process-based reason why he should replace it without asking me the true purpose of the substitution. A good, solid bureaucratic reason no doubt, but not a reason for him to decide. It appears to me, the exact opposite of what I thought was merited on an simple transmogrification for my preferences.

• I explained my view to him --that I merely wished an better image of my own preference. I added some emphasis on the purpose of the fact it was my userpage and I withold the right to merely change an image. It was an incorrect fallacy to state I was claiming the newcomer award.

• He replied that he thought that that didn't matter and I was still claiming the award (hoo boy!) . He raised a good point about me playing with captions as an motive for mischief. He said that he thought that this was nonsense (it isn't, and I think that it's significant to note that it wasn't even the intention he summerized). He said I playing around with award images amounts to "forgery" (duh!)

• I explained the true meaning of my transmogrification . I corrected him on some points of fact (I find I have to do this a lot, it wasn't just the oringinal post). I edited my prior comment to fix an spelling mistake which he mocked me on as well. He also trollishly asked me if I recieved all my awards this way. This really is not an nice thing to do, but asssume good faith...

• I then proceed to remove the trollish comment . Moby replied that he hadn't a clue what I was talking about and proceeds to replace it with another mockerous comment about an nice conversation . He again tried to reason by incorrect analogy. He thought that any attempts to change images was wrong and therefore any attempt to sabotage my userpage would be justified, only to find himself reverted. Nice try, no banana . He went on a bit. He said I didn't understand the meaning of an award.

But now Moby Dick seems to believe that we were just talking past another, and no serious discussion took place. He also seems to have mistakenly placed the management of my own user and talkpage as his own business. How odd. I believed that I had indicated that I understood his qualms and agreed with them, and that it had nothing to do with the encyclopedia, as well as any of his concern. -Zero 13:50, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

-Zero 15:59, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

If you don't like the award, you either leave it on your talk page or you remove it completely. Changing the image is like painting gold over your silver medal and pretending you came first (to put an Olympic spin on it) or giving yourself a Barnstar award and trying to claim some "fame" off that. There's nothing wrong with removing an unwanted barnstar from your page (someone's done that with a barnstar I gave him), but there's everything wrong with changing that barnstar into something it's not. Maybe you should have asked the person who gave you that award to change it to something else, and letting that person do it. --Deathphoenix 16:20, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Deathphoenix needs to do his homework. I've already made an exhaustive summary of my intent which is almost the direct opposite. Could you please tell me how you came to your conclusion out of thin air..? Its quite baffling. I' m afraid you don't understand the situation at all. I merely changed an image. Its not an barnstar at all. It also not an attempt to change the award to an higher presitige of status. Please understand the entire situation before making utterly incorrect comments and accusations such as that in the future. -Zero 16:30, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Fine. No more comments from me about your actions in this regard, except for one. Sorry. --Deathphoenix 17:00, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe you had it right before you struck the above out; please see my above post and these: --Moby 07:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Stirring words from an editor that has not constructed one edit to mainspace in the course of this entire ordeal . I have explained my actions in full on the my talkpage and here. Please assume good faith; of course I'm not going to assume you are taking this to the extreme, though possibly somebody else will. Please get back to working on the encyclopedia and reflect on *why* exactly you are here. -Zero 08:11, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

--Moby 09:15, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Absolutely! When I screw up, I don't sit around and wring my hands. In the meantime, I've more articles to write. -Zero 14:23, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't think you'll get anywhere by adopting these antagonistic attitudes towards me or pursuing this nonsense. I'll certainly continue to assume good faith in regards to your actions, but I expect the same from all others involved. I'll not give this misled situation anymore of my time, and I humbly inquire the same of others. We're here to increase the productivity and educational value of the encyclopedia, not discuss kindergarden issues.

Your contributions in article space are quite noteworthy. Unfortunately, you are trolling, as exemplified by the actions you concern yourself so much with, and such actions are becoming far too common on Misplaced Pages, and they must die. I invite you back onto my user and talkpage with civilty and legitimite concerns in regards to the encyclopedia. Hopefully you will undoubtedly learn these in your experience here, and meanwhile you will, I hope, find time enough to construct more of your productive edits. I wish you the best.-Zero 14:46, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Another sockpuppet of Wik

User:Riveraz is almost certainly another sockpuppet of User:Rivraze, who is apparently a sockpuppet of Wik. Rivraze was blocked 18:04, 13 February 2006; Riveraz's first edit was: 21:43, 13 February 2006, three hours later, to the same page. I'd block, but I wanted to get a second opinion. JesseW, the juggling janitor 11:26, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Now permablocked, by User:SushiGeek. JesseW, the juggling janitor 06:20, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

User:Officeskank

Officeskank (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) Officeskank is a sneaky vandal. During 4 hours time period started 2 articles to vandalize them. Sharon Rocha and Almond roca. Continued vandalism with false edit summaries. I cleaned up the mess and I left a block warning. Will an administrator follow-up and block if Officeskank returns? Thanks, FloNight 13:11, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

• I'm thinking that we should block on inappropriate name alone. In fact, I'm going to be bold and do that now. The usual "I know I may be undone" applies, of course. – ClockworkSoul 16:30, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

24.160.180.50 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) User:24.160.180.50 is vandalizing the same articles in the same way. From the look of IP user talk:24.160.180.50 page, same vadal several other times in Feb. FloNight 02:04, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Is it necessary to have libellous mad ranting?

http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Special:Contributions&target=81.158.53.200 Midgley 16:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)