Misplaced Pages

Invitation to Vancouver meetup

Hello,

Wikipedian British Columbians are planning a meetup at the Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, on Sunday, October 16th, as part of the Misplaced Pages Loves Libraries events. If you wish to attend, please see Misplaced Pages:Meetup/Vancouver and add your signature to the list.

Thank you! InverseHypercube 03:17, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Larry Summers

Although you're right that the "intrinsic aptitude" hypothesis was just that—a hypothesis—Summers did conclude his talk by saying that he personally believed that it was the most likely explanation: "So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is... that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude... and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination." If Summers had never uttered those last few sentences, and stuck to offering hypotheses, he would probably still have a job at Harvard. Kaldari (talk) 23:14, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, well if he was out to provoke, mission accomplished I guess. :) I suppose my response would be to question nim closely on what exactly his guess was based on. Summers was/is a very bright person and I rather doubt he would hold to a position based on sheer dogma. And he wasn't suggesting the pretty little things stay home and work on embroidery, or that the university policy would change to reflect his supposition. And it seems to me that if (a big if) there truly are differences in intrinsic aptitude, then it would be even more important that those women who are "top end of the curve" get the support they need to realize their potential. I didn't follow the nitty-gritty details, but my impression was that he was pilloried for even suggesting that men and women might have intrinsic differences that should be recognized. Coming from a family where my sisters were always told they could do anything they wanted (architect, doctor, doctor), I've never bought into the idea that difference implies inferiority. It just seems simpler that if my sister needs to move something heavy, rather than her working out a system of levers and pulleys, she calls me and I come over and lift it. Franamax (talk) 01:44, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

For your information

Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Layout#Against_putting_nav_boxes_in_their_own_section. I can say no more. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 11:25, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Bobby Hull - Chicago Black Hawks 1960 - LAC -E002505660.jpg

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Thank you. DASHBot (talk) 18:39, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

Shared IP archiving

Hi Franamax,

You weighed in a bit on this proposal to archive shared IP talk pages at VPR – I've since updated the specs a bit, and I'm working with Petrb to design a bot that would help us (some first-pass bot operating instructions here). If we get consensus on the proposal, we'd take the bot through WP:BRFA.

If you have a minute, mind weighing in again on the VPR discussion? :) Thanks! Maryana (WMF) (talk) 22:01, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Canada article - ranking of academic papers in space research

Courtesy note that I posted some thoughts (actually I got into it altogether too much) about the sentence that troubles me on the Canada Discussion page. In brief, after careful consideration I judge the source as flimsy per criteria, and thus the sentence to be unduly weighted. Further, it doesn't add meaningful substance to the section which is otherwise very well presented. I am deferring to you and / or the general community, rather than merely redacting your edit that replaced the material and citation. Nice to run into the WP:FRIES granddaddy. Respectfully, and with kindest regards. FeatherPluma (talk) 06:53, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Block of Δ

Hello Franamax, why did you block Δ? The block is not a violation of the ArbCom ruling. He is not enforcing the NFCC policy by having a tool that allows users to enforce the NFCC. The tool has existed long before the ArbCom ruling. Thanks, Alpha_Quadrant 04:16, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes he is still trying to enforce NFCC. Usually a topic ban means you stop dealing with that subject matter for a while, that's the whole point. The toolserver access has left Beta still semi-participating in that area, but on-en:wiki, they are topic-banned. That means not discussing the topic in any sense of enforcing it. Franamax (talk) 04:21, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

He is prohibited from enforcing the NFCC. No where in his restrictions does it say that he is prohibited from maintaining a tool that assists other users in enforcing NFCC. He did not violate his restrictions by notifying a user who uses the tool of changes he made to the tool. It is common practice to do that. The tool existed before the ArbCom sanctions. If ArbCom wanted him to stop maintaining the tool, wouldn't they have said so? Alpha_Quadrant 04:27, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

ArbCom quite rightly recognizes that they have no jurisdiction over use of the toolserver. They do have jurisdiction over use of this particular WMF wiki, the enjoined Bwta from making edits relating to NFCC enforcement on this wiki, and Beta made an edit relating to MFCC enforcement. Beta is topic-banned from NFCC enforcement. What else was that edit related to? Franamax (talk) 04:37, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Franamax, I generally think you've got your head on straight, but this time I think your reading of the ArbCom remedy is just plain mistaken. Delta isn't topic-banned from NFCC enforcement. He's banned from making "edits enforcing the non-free content criteria". By rephrasing the restriction the way that you keep doing, you're (presumably unintentionally, but erroneously) significantly broadening the language and interpretation of Delta's restriction. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:43, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

The block is sound, Δ was clearly doing just what he is not supposed to do, working on NFCC enforcement. The difficulty is that the wording of the arbcom restriction isn't quite right, and Δ operates in the "give me an inch, I'll take a mile" mode regarding his restrictions. The comments on ANI are focusing on the literal wording and ignoring the spirit of the restriction; I don't believe anyone has contested that the purpose of the edit was to assist with NFCC enforcement. I have added this incident to the arbitration evidence page and I'll eventually write a proposal on the workshop page to see if arbcom is interested in tightening the wording of the restriction. — Carl (CBM · talk) 12:34, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Notice

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is ]. Thank you. Alpha_Quadrant 04:46, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Excessive, robot-like NFCC enforcement

Hi Franamax, I noticed that a page I follow had some images stripped by user Alpha_Quadrant. Looking at the user's change history , I also saw discussion about a bot written by user "Δ". I don't know if Alpha_Quadrant uses that bot program, but I see user Alpha_Quadrant actively defending user Δ. Looking over a handful of changes by Alpha_Quadrant, which happened in fast succession, and I saw several absurd image removals. I reverted some, but there seems to be a larger problem at hand of removing images because of faulty metadata about rights, without any common sense being involved. I don't know much about this, or how involved you are, but let me know if I can help with this discussion. I encourage you to continue to try an prevent wholesale removal of content by robots. There's no way that humans can follow up on dozens of automated image removals. And content should not be removed just because the Misplaced Pages contributor is not expert in Fair Use metadata. In most of these cases, the origin and legitimacy of the image can be quickly deduced. Wxidea (talk) 00:22, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Well first of all, to my knowledge there are no "bots" running in the area of NFCC enforcement as far as actually editing this wiki. There are lots of software tools that let editors collate and assemble data, and then it is up to each one of them to decide what to do. Some may just work from a list of iisues to investigate, some may try to run through an automatic list of predefined edits. You haven't specified with diffs what you think I should be looking at, so I'm not sure how I can help you here. There's no doubt that we have a problem here with people inappropriately adding images owned by others, and we have a big problem too with people uncritically adding text copyright violations, which is a bit more my field. What specifically do you have a problem with? Franamax (talk) 01:02, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. It looked like a bot because the edits were systematic, so I thought it might be related to the issue you had raised. Sorry if this has nothing to do with you. User Alpha_Quadrant removed valid images that lacked specific fair use rationale tagged to the image. Any common sense or reading of the captions shows the images are valid. He said on his talk page that the "burden is on the user who added the image to add fair use rationale." That's true, but there's a risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater if we rely purely on metadata. FYI, here's some examples:

• - removal of Singapore currency notes - few things are more public domain than currency
• - removal of images, including one with a caption that noted 'Photographs are all circa 1907 or earlier, and thus in the public domain according to the author'

I understand this issue might not interest you. I only mention it to complete the explanation, as it seemed related to the NFCC bot issue you were talking about previously.Wxidea (talk) 06:02, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Just because something is currency does not make it public domain. Quite a few currencies are in fact heavily copyrighted. ΔT 22:25, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Beta, please do not use the (now removed) {{facepalm}} template as you did above, here on my talk page. I've several times now read the discussion here and it seems clear that the accepted use is to either indicate one's own ambarassment, or to indicate frustration after a prolonged unfruitful discussion, and even then with discretion. You are coming here and using the template in the more bitey and disapproved way, and you are not entering the discussion in a civil way, nor have you provided any useful diffs to support your case. And umm, why are you getting involved in discussions about what is and isn't NFCC? Franamax (talk) 22:52, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

See my explanation here. The removals I made to the images were well within NFCC policy. As to the above examples Wxidea cited, the cira 1909 images would need to have verification that the images are in public domain in the United States. The photographs appear to have been originally published in Germany. In any case, right now they have license tags stating they are assumed to be copyrighted, and used under fair use. Therefore the images must have a valid fair use rationale per NFCC criteria 10c. As to the currency images, there is no evidence provided that said currency is in public domain. It may indeed be copyrighted. On a side note, Betacommand is prohibited from making any edits enforcing the NFCC policy. He is not prohibited from discussing the NFCC policy. Alpha_Quadrant 02:57, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments. I have trouble comprehending the behavior of people who jump at the opportunity to remove content and unravel the work of others, when they know the content is ok, just because it's missing some non-free use rationale. I will not further discussion on this on this page. Wxidea (talk) 06:14, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Wixidea, you are free to discuss wiki-things here anytime you want, so long as people stay civil and concentrate on the encyclopedia content, we're furthering our goal of creating this work. In your first example diff, on the national banknotes, there are two issues: one is the public-domain status of the images, which has been and still is discussed widely here. The works have to be copyright-free in the USA since that is where the servers are. Here is Cornell's handy and greatly confusing guide to figuring it out. And there is a related issue, which is that even if the banknote images are copyrighted, can each of those images be shown in one single article if they all have proper non-free rationales - and that is another item of heated discussion, mostly on whether or not the WMF resolution wording about "must be minimal" means there should be a limit on the number of non-free images used in any one article. I don't believe that has ever been definitively settled. On your second diff, I took a look at that article and what jumped out at me was the "Sources of information" section, the first entry states "This was a pioneering work" in Misplaced Pages's own editorial voice. Fine, maybe it was, but says who? So I really got stuck there before evaluating the image use you are contesting, and I will always focus first on the words before the images. Additionally, do keep in mind that the editors here who choose to work on making sure our image use is compatible with our "free" mission are faced with a daily onslaught of inappropriate use by new(ish) editors who just don't understand our policies. I think it's better to try to appreciate their efforts, which at times will probably seem robotic, 'cause yeah, when you concentrate on a task here, you do end up doing the same thing over and over again. If you have anything further to say, don't feel that you are prevented in any way from expressing it here. Franamax (talk) 07:14, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. It's interesting to me that you have rationale for rejecting the above examples. Here's one more: Why are some logos kept, and other deleted?Wxidea (talk) 08:03, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, that's an interesting diff. The "easy" answer off the top of my head is that the Foundation resolution I linked above does specify "machine-readable format" for the exemption doctrine policy. That means dumber than a human and is why we insist on separet FURs for aach instance of use. If the removed images don't have those FURs then the removal is legitimate and policy-compliant. "It's obvious" is not an acceptable argument to retain those images, but cheatnote: you can just copy and modify the exact rationales used on the images which are left in. Which comes to the second question, by my reading of "minimal use", no non-free images should be used there at all, as they are not essential to aid the reader's understanding of the topic of the article. So I would agree with you that either all the image usages should be removed, or a common rationale should be provided for each. I'd be interested to hear AQ's view on this. Franamax (talk) 09:27, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Email

You should have gotten an email from me yesterday, although I was having some problems with the interface and am not entirely certain it got sent. Nikkimaria (talk) 14:04, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes I did get it. Haven't had time to look at it yet, I was on my 17 km hike today. :) Franamax (talk) 04:06, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Just a short note on incorrect pics

Hi,

Just to leave you a short note that the images you put on about 2 years ago of Thni Kong Tnua, the Jade Emperor's Pavillion, are actually of the Goddess of Mercy Temple, Kong Hock Keong Temple. I didn't remove them outright as that page is rather empty anyway.

Stkhoo (talk) 09:36, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, interesting. I was working with Acred99 (talk · contribs) at the time, they were the uploader and I helped them with proper licensing and article formatting. Can you explain why you think they are wrong? They come (properly released) from Acred's website here, maybe you could comment on that too. I don't see similarities between the website images and our existing image of Kong Hock Keong here, for instance the chandelier in one, the ceiling canopy in others. We shouldn't leave misplaced images lying around the wrong article, so more details would be helpful. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 22:43, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Hmm .. must have been a slight mix-up or something by Acred or something, compare this image from the TKT article, http://en.wikipedia.org/File:Thni-Kong-Tnua-Jade-Emperors-Pavilion-Taoist-temple-Mar-2001-00.JPG with this image from the KHK article, http://en.wikipedia.org/File:Kong_Hock_Keong_Penang_Dec_2006_002.jpg

You will find that they are of the same place. Confusion may have arisen as there is a banner stating donations to TKT in the TKT pic, but I can assure you that both temples are under one administrative trust and as such there were banners on all the temples belonging to the same trust. In fact two different banners stating the same thing is on the both pictures, with TKT rendered as Tnih Kong Tnua in the TKT article, and Tien Kong Than in the KHK picture. I will note that these are just different transliterations of the same chinese characters in Penang Hokkien and Mandarin.

As for the second image in the TKT article, while I have no image evidence to back it up, I can 100% assure you that is the internal compound of the Goddess of Mercy (KHK) temple. Feel free to ask me further for clarification should it be necessary. Stkhoo (talk) 01:53, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

In lieu of a talkback template

G'day there. Re Károly Ferenczy and Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems/2011 November 12, do you happen to know where I might get my hands on the Art Online source for free? --Mkativerata (talk) 18:26, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

(Jumping in) AFAIK there isn't a free version, but I've emailed a copy to you. Nikkimaria (talk) 18:45, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Nikkimaria. --Mkativerata (talk) 18:48, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Nikkimaria, my work here is done. :) Another productive morning, time for lunch now... :) Franamax (talk) 19:58, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Just riding it out til your pension kicks in, eh? The Interior (Talk) 20:08, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

I saw blue sky today for at least 1/2 hour this morning, so I'm planning another day-long geocaching mission. Should be lots of newly fallen trees out there to clamber over (as opposed to the day 2 months ago when we were in the bush when the "pressure wave" came through and cottonwood branches were falling within metres). :) Franamax (talk) 20:16, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Re: Guy Laverne Fake

Misplaced Pages:Help_desk#For Franamax on mispelling in title of article on Guy Leverne Fake. Dru of Id (talk) 16:12, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Been trying to catch you; the FJC link that was in the article has the Leverne spelling. Dru of Id (talk) 16:14, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm looking at it now. Franamax (talk) 16:17, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Should be all done now, let me know if you see any remaining problems. Franamax (talk) 16:47, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

:D Dru of Id (talk) 17:22, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for jumpng in

Thank you for the help with "Stephen G. Granger". I do have a question as your an admin can I get you to delete this record from edit history. I have saved the text in a separate edit so All the rest will not be lost.Moxy (talk) 05:34, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Looked clean so I gave it a shot and passed it up the chain to oversight. You will either see no (-two) edits that used to be there, or deleted edits in the history, or restored edits if someone decided I done wrong. ;) Franamax (talk) 06:09, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Chat with Special Collections

Hey Franamax, how's it hanging. I was able to have a little in-person chat with Ms. Russell at the VPL. To avoid being repetitive, I'll link you to User Talk:InverseHypercube where I've explained myself further. Best, The Interior (Talk) 23:46, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Internet utility to project the horizon

I saw your question just now as it is about to be archived, so I'll answer here as well as on WP:RD/C, to make sure you receive the answer. I found this site:

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/wjr.html

It appears to do exactly what you want. I tried it out from my location. It didn't label all the peaks, but it drew a nice, sideways-scrollable map of the horizon, with a map underneath, allowing you to click on a point in the horizon, and find the corresponding point on the map underneath. Hope this helps, --NorwegianBlue 15:35, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

RD/M revision deletion

Did you really intend to hide as many diffs as you just did? (WP:RD/M, 6+1 revisions at 01:06 and 01:13.) —Steve Summit (talk) 01:38, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, as they are all covered by the same policy. I checked and I'm certain that all the editor contributions that need to be there are still there, and since they are all timestamped with a sig, I'm confident the proper attribution is there. Your bot's edit is not attributed properly, but I'm not too worried about that as I don't think that qualifies under the "principal authors" part of GFDL, and I think it's questionable under CC-BY-SA. The substantive content is all still there as far as I can tell. If you notice any discrepancies, please let me know. Franamax (talk) 01:48, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

The part I missed (until I found the note from User:Fluffernutter at User talk:HyperStudent) is that you all were trying to suppress some personally-identifiable information, which unfortunately involved a certain amount of collateral damage. The attributions are all fine; it's just unnerving not to be able to see the diffs. (I mean, you can't even see the diff that Comet Tuttle announced he removed!) I'll explain briefly Thanks for explaining at WT:RD for any others who are as baffled by all this as I initially was. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:59, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it's precisely because of the potential collateral damage that one has to go through the process as quickly as possible, explaining as little as possible, until it gets resolved. All I can do is apologize afterwards that some things just need to be done first. I agree that it's pretty confusing, there's a nagging detail I still can't figure out, but that's another topic. Franamax (talk) 02:09, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Removal

Yes please - I noticed the confusion on RD/Talk, and was confused myself. Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:31, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Could you point me to the page that documents the fact that that specific piece of information is oversightable? I read the criteria at WP:SIGHT and WP:Revision deletion and did not see that particular type of information listed as a criterion for redaction. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:51, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

E-mail sent! Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:09, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

The mercury-obsessed IP editor

Regarding this, I appreciate that you stepped in, but I have little doubt that 96.54.160.222 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) is the same person as 199.60.104.18 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log), whose comments he was erasing and, later, rewriting.

To provide a bit of context, he's been blocked twice in the last couple of weeks for tendentious editing at thiomersal, thiomersal controversy, and their associated talk pages. Among other problems, he has an unfortunate habit of advocating for the inclusion of random quotations he's found on the internet (often from blogs), citing in support references that he either hasn't read or hasn't understood. His tendentious editing, WP:COMPETENCE issues, and IDHT attitude have also led to those articles – and later one of the talk pages – being semiprotected for extended periods of time. The straw that broke the camel's back probably came yesterday at talk:thiomersal controversy, when he used both of those IPs plus a third address, 216.18.10.17 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) to declare agreement with himself. He's showed up on my talk page today primarily because his usual outlet for conspiracy theories (Talk:Thiomersal controversy) has been semiprotected, and he just can't let go.

He has also taken to rewriting his signed comments – or, in more extreme cases, deleting entire talk page threads – when faced with challenges to his claims or explanations why his positions or suggestions are unreasonable. It's annoying enough when he does it on article talk pages, but I can't abide by him doing it on my own user talk page. I don't mind when editors make minor corrections to their spelling and grammar a little while after they post, but it's a deceptive rewriting of history when they come back a week after the fact and try to pretend they didn't say something (or worse, try to change it into a childish taunt.) Feel free to revert any of those IPs if they show up on my talk page again; he's aware that he's unwelcome there. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 02:39, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks fot the explanation, I had noticed a few variants of the same word flitting about here and there (I say thimerosal as a Canadian). I chose to address it as a pure technical problem, the editor can either disclose the connection between accounts or leave other posts alone, nice and simple. If I need to look more closely, I can do that too. I've communicated with the editor, it's pretty much up to them now. Franamax (talk) 07:58, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Tenofalltrades complains and complains and complains. Note, he fails to deal with specifics like why the thiomersal article mentions half life of inorganic mercury in the brain at 120 days, but in the controversy article he refuses to entertain this improvement. Like I said, he will not address specifics and constantly complains. There is no edit warring as the articles are not being edited. His position is that he KNOWS thiomersal is so safe that any truth that might create doubt he says is never sourced, and that the contribution is never a contribution so he says. Summing up, his little group's attitude is this quote, "It would be a gross violation of WP:WEIGHT to give ... vaccine opponents equal time as we give the entire mainstream worldwide medical community." Note, the openning statement of the article is very different from this and this is why I call what tenofalltrades does vandalism. Quote opening of article, "The thiomersal controversy describes claims that vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thiomersal contribute to the development of autism and other brain development disorders.

This source is used to show this is not made up, quote"Brain concentrations of inorganic mercury were approximately twice as high in the thimerosal group compared to the methylmercury group. Inorganic mercury remains in the brain much longer than organic mercury, with an estimated half-life of more than a year." Quote, "the proportion of inorganic mercury in the brain was much higher in the thimerosal group (21–86% of total mercury) compared to the methylmercury group (6–10%)" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280369/

Thiomersal article source for half life is password restricted. http://informahealthcare.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408440600845619 The wiki thiomersal article article quote, "Inorganic mercury metabolized from ethylmercury has a much longer half-life, at least 120 days" Why can't this also go in the thiomersal controversy article too???? This certainly also should be in the controversy article, but TENOFALLTRADES thinks he knows best, not so. RATHER THE CONTROVERSY ARTICLE STATES THIS quote, "Currently used methods of estimating brain deposition of mercury likely overestimates the amounts deposited due to ethylmercury, and ethylmercury also decomposes quicker in the brain than methylmercury, suggesting a lower risk of brain damage." Can't mention half life this undermines this quote, so tenofalltrades undermines any editor that wishes to correct this. Ethical duty to mention half life in the controversy article. Please Tenofalltrades, please answer why the fact about half life of inorganic mercury in the brain should be in the general article but not in the controversy article about thiomersal.--199.60.104.18 (talk) 21:00, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Case in point. Tenofalltrades declares, his words "What I have done – and will continue to do – is criticize ...you" --199.60.104.18 (talk) 21:42, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

This is indeed the case in point. The anonymous editor has serious difficulty with identifying, understanding, and presenting sources. In a remarkably ironic twist, he has engaged in similarly problematic selective quotation and misrepresentation when he quotes me—the full quotation actually reads "What I have done – and will continue to do – is criticize your ongoing failure to do adequate research before you post to article talk pages." Sorry to see you get dragged into this, Franamax. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:05, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Tenofalltrades should the half life of inorganic mercury in the thiomersal article be entered into the controversy article?? The improvement to the article should be the subject of your posts not the editor. The controversy quote that thiomersal leaves the brain faster is a misquote from this primary research monkey brains dissected, and that thiomersal leaves the blood stream faster. Your concern should be correcting the thiomersal controversy article statement it leaves the brain faster, when the established medical position is it stays longer. The problematic quote, "Currently used methods of estimating brain deposition of mercury likely overestimates the amounts deposited due to ethylmercury, and ethylmercury also decomposes quicker in the brain than methylmercury, suggesting a lower risk of brain damage." The research finds that the thiomersal carbon cloak around mercury once eaten by the cell, leaves the can, inorganic mercury, which sadly the brain has problems evicting. Tenofalltrades, I do not think you understand what the preservative thiomersal does and why it is so affective wiping out all life in a vaccine. It's bait. The carbon is food. And therefore, the issue with the FDA testing non bait methlymercury to talk about bait is retarded. The lame man metaphor pin points the process. I WOULD LOVE FOR THIS TO BE WRONG, SO PLEASE SAY WHY! --199.60.104.18 (talk) 17:34, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Reviewing the reference in the controversy article that thiomersal decomposes quicker in the brain and is safer [http://www.springerlink.com/content/3398g44388158630/fulltext.pdf The paper DOES NOT SAY decomposes quicker in the brain, yet the wiki article says it does. "p.64-65 Because Ethylmercury Decomposes Much Faster Than MeHg, the Risk of Brain Damage is Less for Ethylmercury Than for MeHg. Further the paper's science is weak as its logic is that MeHg is so deadly that anything that is not this, therefore by definition safer is the base of their claim.

The paper disclosed that, "there is no evidence in the literature to substantiate that inorganic mercury retained in the CNS plays any role in the neurotoxicity of organomercurials, including ethylmercury, nor is there evidence corroborating a putative role for inorganic mercury derived from demethylation of MeHg in the development of neurological effects during the chronic latent phase of exposure." Quote, "no data is available on the longer-term effects (

Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard#Richard Arthur Norton: Revisiting topic ban; Should it be removed or made indefinite?

Hi Franamax. You participated in Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive228#Richard Arthur Norton copyright violations, in which a one-month topic ban on creating new articles and making page moves was imposed on Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk · contribs). The closing admin has asked for community input about whether to remove the topic ban or make it indefinite at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard#Richard Arthur Norton: Revisiting topic ban; Should it be removed or made indefinite?. Cunard (talk) 09:02, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

homeless person using shelter, library and drop-in center computers

Please do not block TALK as several people use these computers and it creates REAL problems. The reason for the many PID's is the limited access to the net. Living outside ain't so bad. It don't snow here, but it sure rains alot. Happy holidays. --96.54.160.222 (talk) 15:54, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

An alternative solution to the navbox layout problem

Would you please take a look at and comment on this: User:Butwhatdoiknow/Sandbox. Feel free to edit it as long as you are there. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 19:11, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Autoblock fixed

Todd got it. :) ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 07:46, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

Muhammad images arbitration case

An arbitration case in which you commented has been opened, and is located at Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Muhammad images. Evidence that you wish the Arbitrators to consider should be added to the evidence sub-page, at Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Muhammad images/Evidence. Please add your evidence by January 15, 2011, which is when the evidence phase closes. You can contribute to the case workshop sub-page, Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Muhammad images/Workshop. For a guide to the arbitration process, see Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Guide to arbitration. For the Arbitration Committee, Alexandr Dmitri (talk) 15:10, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

I swear sometimes I would forget my body if my mind wasn't attached. Tivanir2 (talk) 23:45, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I doubt I'll ever get accused of sockpuppetry. I have enough problems managing just the one account... ;) Franamax (talk) 23:52, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

about deletion log

Hi, I'm relatively new to this & wanted to know what deletion logs mean when you take something out with this reason: " removed edit summary for 1 revision (BLP violation)" - don't know what it means is all and want to learn. What does it mean? Thanks Franamax. Manytexts (talk) 08:59, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Edit summaries and revert

Franamax, an inaccurate edit summary isn't enough to justify reverting an edit. If the edit was genuinely wrong, let me know and I can address it. The dabsolver tool I used, in addition to making it easy to fix links to disambig pages, also makes various technical edits, and that is what was missing from the edit summary. D O N D E groovily Talk to me 07:04, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

My initial qualm was about resolving a dab to a redlink, which I would question but willing to discuss (maybe a sentence on the dab page or redlink there would be better). Beyond that, I believe I'm OK to revert as "unexplained changes" and let you justify what you're trying to do, here or on article talk. I checked the dabsolver link you gave in your edit summary and nothing I saw there described any (in WP:AWB terms) "genfixes" as part of the task, nor that those changes have community approval. Since you didn't explicitly describe the purpose of those changes, and they formed the more substantive portion of the alterations, my conclusion is that you used a deceptive (rather than inaccurate) edit summary. Please be much more clear on what exactly you feel your technical edits are improving, or link to a task which has prior community approval. What exactly is your task doing, is it described somewhere? I'd rather not scour back through your past edits trying to figure it all out. Franamax (talk) 07:33, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

I'll make the disambiguation edits, and point the dabsolver guys to this page. With the exception of disambiguation hatnotes "For other uses, see", articles shouldn't link to disambiguation pages but to a page about the specific topic the page is discussing. If the topic doesn't have a page, a redlink is better than a link to a disambiguation page. Link to a disambig means that the user sees a blue link and thinks there's an actual article when there's not. Redlinking makes clear that there isn't an article and the user is welcome to create one. D O N D E groovily Talk to me 15:21, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your time

Moved to originating talk page per my stated preference, replied there. Franamax (talk) 22:59, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

New Section

Dear Franamax User, Please read the message that I posted on the Internet Provider talk page that is in my signature for more details. I have looked into recent events in which a friend of mine created an account on this website in order to troll it. I can tell you everything I know if I was able to contact you and talk privately via e-mail, but I do not know the password to the Comet Egypt account. I need some information on what is going on if you can help me. Thanks for your consideration, yours truly, 204.112.104.30 (talk) 05:24, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

thank you

Thanks for your kind words on my talk page. I'm glad that I can help out and it gives me a chance to explore a great library system. GabrielF (talk) 20:56, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Another thanks for cooling down Soglad and averting an ANI. As you may have noticed, I do have other frustrations out there. (sigh). Montanabw 19:21, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Shattuck

Thanks for fixing that.LuciferWildCat (talk) 23:17, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Yeah. I hope I don't have to intervene again. Reading over the discussions, there's more than one editor I'm losing patience with. Please think about whether your own actions are really furthering our overall goals, as opposed to just your own ideas of who should be contributing here. Franamax (talk) 23:23, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Who'd a thunk? Not me

Obviously, serendipity at work. Either that or we're eachother's socks. I looked at it and thought it read like an ad--I guess the one time that I didn't run it through Google I should have. Thanks! Drmies (talk) 21:05, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, we need to coordinate better on the sekrit mail list. ;) Kinda funny there was all this foofaraw about a new editor working so hard on an article when all they used was a mouse. I was thinking about Googling last night, but then all that cool drahmaz broke out... Franamax (talk) 21:10, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

BTW, I'm not against templating the regulars, I'm against templating in general. I use {{W-graphical}} and occasionally the block templates, and first time through an unfamiliar process I follow the instructions to be sure I provide all relevant links, but beyond that I always try to write (and link) in my own words. I think it's a more human and respectful way to do things, even if it takes me longer. Plus I think it scares the hell out of vandals on study break when they get "Hi. Time to stop now" on their user page, as in turn around to see if the teacher is watching them. :) Franamax (talk) 21:42, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

OK, we're clearly not socks--I'm a great fan of templates, but I've often been accused of putting quantity before quality, haha. I'm just not as nice anymore, I guess, and the older I get, the less patience I have... Drmies (talk) 22:47, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Heh, there's a thread on VPR about duplicate section headings where someone complains about thanking for WikiLove messages ending up in the wrong section. I was tempted to say "you don't need a software change, just stop being so damn nice". I never have a problem with excess kittens on my page. :) Franamax (talk) 23:25, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

A kitten with a song. And now you know how to spell it too.

Drmies (talk) 23:43, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Dammit, I knew I was running the risk! :)

This is your final warning, if you vandalize my page again, you will be blocked from editing. Love the P-Funk though. :) Franamax (talk) 00:13, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

I hereby award you the lazy feline award for...well...it's just a cute picture to further your aggravation... Buffs (talk) 06:56, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You have a fine attitude

No sarcasm. Thanks for helping with the IP vandalism thing. fredgandt 03:18, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Waffle cake!

appreciation

I thank you for your extremely good summary at User talk:Steph-osborn. You are right that my own was a little more brusque than my usual--looking at all the associated articles, I though best to make a clean sweep rather than leave some hanging, and that inevitably might well seem unfriendly. There seems to be a sphere of relative degrees of dubious notability surrounding the publisher Twilight Times Books which will repay watching. They are not a vanity publisher, rather one of the fringe ones making use of the ease and inexpensiveness of ebook production. DGG ( talk ) 04:05, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

I fully agree with what you were saying, I just cringe when I see someone complaining about getting bombarded with all these automatic(-seeming) messages, getting an explanation - then getting more of those automatic(-seeming) messages. Honestly, where was she supposed to respond, and what the hell is an "edit conflict" anyway? I'll hasten to add that the outcome is usually the same, I'm just anti-template as a general approach to new editors. Interesting background on the publisher, thanks! Franamax (talk) 04:40, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

agreed. But I'm at fault this time for adding the templates in that confusing way via twinkle. It's a dilemma--not set up to add the templates automatically, and risk not notifying people, or addd them automatically and produce the confusing result I produced. What I should have done, I suppose, is gone back and rearranged them quickly. In the longer term, we need to get those templates rewritten. The rewriting project has started with the warning templates, but perhaps we should do the speedy ones as a priority--but changing templates now means coordinating a lot of things all at the same time. There's also the problem of how to deal with people when one judges they aren't listening or acting in good faith. I would never have come down that hard if it had been a single article, but discovering a group like that , frankly, got me a little angry. My reputation for calmness is being defeated by the increasing promotionalism. And, alas, getting all the promotionalism is inevitable given out increased visibility. Our amateurish way of doing things has been our great strength, but is also a weakness. We can't help often doing things wrong. Just like I try to help when I see others being unreasonable, I count on others to help me out similarly. You're one of the people I trust most for that. DGG ( talk ) 08:47, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

One thing I would like to see is a feature in Twinkle (and tools in general) that could combine notices under the same section heading. So if 3 images are being nominated for deletion, the editor doesn't get 3 entire new sections in a row, just one section with either 3 templates or one combo template. If someone has already posted a speedy deletion notice, say for G12 copyvio, and I am also reviewing and delete another page for the same reason, my instinct would be to just add in plaintext under the template notice "I've also deleted <this> as a verbatim copy of <that>. <sig>". There likely are drawbacks to that approach too, but I don't like the point-and-shoot aspect of tools like Twinkle, in a way they make it too easy to address issues one at a time, rather than considering the combined impact on the target editor. I don't like the aspect of "stamp the page, I'm done here", though I do see its utility in dealing with lots of volume. Franamax (talk) 23:59, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Gandt

Thanks. As the user was "physically shaking with anger" it seemed best for me walk away. I guess everyone has bad wikidays. Toddst1 (talk) 19:40, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Betacommand

As one of the admins who blocked Betacommand/Delta in the 12 month period leading up to the present ArbCom case, it would be helpful if you could look over the questions here and see how much information you can recall. SilkTork 00:35, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Responding to your comment made at an ANI thread

I was reading through the last couple of comments in the ANI thread I started last night. You said "Yes Lecen was wronged, Carcharoth could have blocked immediately." You are right, but I wanted to explain here why I didn't do that. When I noticed Lecen's comment, it had already been several hours since he posted it, but I couldn't let that comment go unchallenged, so despite having been about to leave the computer for a few hours I took the time to post to his talk page (he responded almost immediately), and then I posted to ANI, and then to Sandy's talk page, saying I'd check back in an hour or so (which I did later). I could have done nothing, or just posted to Sandy's talk page (and let her deal with it, though given what Lecen said, that didn't seem entirely fair), or done various other things, but I thought more eyeballs were needed on the situation and probably more than a block was needed (i.e. some discussion about whether more than just a block was needed). And contrary to what some think about ANI, I don't think ANI always makes things worse. In my view, Manning (and Salvio) did a good job of calming things down and doing what was needed. So to sum up, I saw something where action was needed, had time to alert others to the situation but not fully deal with it myself (more than one person needed to deal with something like that anyway), trusted that it would get handled appropriately, and it did as far as I'm concerned. The matter may not end here, but at least more eyeballs are on this now. Carcharoth (talk) 17:16, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Really frustrated

The header says it all. I had been typing something here, but given recent postings and the way some things get misconstrued around here, I'm copying it offline instead. Hopefully you'll be able to work out what got me so annoyed. And the mood I'm in, I'm liable to shout at anyone, even you, so don't be too surprised if I get grumpy over anything you (or anyone else) says here. Carcharoth (talk) 19:42, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh my, the things I miss when I spend a happy day geocaching. I wasn't actually criticizing you for bringing the matter to ANI, your explanation was valid. And actually yes, that thread was handled relatively well by the two people you mention, although it certainly took a nasty turn later. My point to TCO was actually that the initiating comments were blockable no matter what, and the alternatives were getting blocked immediately, or getting blocked from an AN/I report. There are other ways to resolve disputes, as Manning had pointed out. Now I'm going to work on a New York Times Saturday crossword, my favourite. :) Good luck, I hope your usual equilibrium returns shortly! :) Franamax (talk) 01:38, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Eh, so-so. My equilibrium is returning, but I do feel that I've been gagged slightly, unable to respond to certain things that have been said because I might upset various people and because it could be misconstrued as baiting. But that's life, I suppose. Thanks for the reply and hope you had pleasant weather for the geocaching. Carcharoth (talk) 01:52, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello

I just wanted to say OK, and thanks! But that does mean I cannot answer the questions you've asked me there, so I'll do it here. The answer to the first question is no, the answer to the second question is that I wouldn't mind. User JackofOz helped explain things in the end. Now I am going to play a game of "hide the carrot" with mr. Bugs, that is more fun. Von Restorff (talk) 07:24, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

It's getting late here, so I'll just address the first one. If you were serioulsy issuing that templated warning, then I will deal with it administratively and dismiss your warning and no, ToaT will not "mey be blocked" from editing. You clearly disregarded Ten's instructions to cease the discussion on Ten's own talk page, perhaps because you are hard of "hearing". The hatting was legitimate, however WP:IDHT has a connotation of tendentious editing, which could be considered as a comment on the contributor rather than the content. It was solely for that reason that I modified Ten's own close, as a courtesy to defuse the situation - and Ten made an acceptable change. For you to come along afterward and warn about potential blocks, when clearly I am already capable of warning and blocking all by myself, strikes me as more tendentious editing better suited to a battleground than a collaborative work. You need to work on that. I may look at wider issues tomorrow, but hopefully not. You never know what you'll turn up when you start really scrutinizing edits, and I'm fundamentally a lazy person. If you have any serious concerns outside of that talk page, I'll bet you can put some diffs here. Franamax (talk) 08:24, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Sleep well. It was not a templated warning, Ten did not give instructions to cease the discussion on his talkpage, I was unaware you are an admin, and I do not have "serious concerns", even though I am a bit disappointed in him. The endresult is that both mr. Bugs and myself decided to ignore him. Feel free to scrutinize if you want to, there was a tempest in a teapot that I repeatedly tried to defuse by asking people to drop their sticks, JackofOz explained that using "of course" in the English language is considered very rude in certain contexts, I was unaware of that because the direct translation is not rude in my native language. Pretty boring story. Now that I know you are an admin I do have a request. Would you be so kind to take a look at this section on my talkpage and tell me if you can block this ip or if I need to request a checkuser or ignore it? Thanks in advance, Von Restorff (talk) 08:55, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

You should probably take that to WP:SPI, but be very circumspect with off-wiki and potentially personally-identifying evidence. I believe there is a listed address for the checkuser mailing list to send supplementary info. Franamax (talk) 10:11, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! I will do that when I return from shopping. Von Restorff (talk) 10:12, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

I took a bit of information off your page history. Bugs had some good advice. I wasn't sure exactly what was the "thing" to look at, as in exactly what editor you wanted blocked. You should probably email me with details (if you want) as well as submitting an SPI report. Franamax (talk) 10:28, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your help with blocking that annoying duck, luckily he quacked so loud that we can safely assume it wasn't a rabbit. Von Restorff (talk) 20:50, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

I believe the position of rabbit is already filled on this site. God forbid we should have two. ;) Franamax (talk) 21:37, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

2 female or 2 male rabbits on Misplaced Pages wouldn't be a problem. But a female and a male rabbit who read the Misplaced Pages article about the birds and the bees would breed, eh, well, like rabbits, and their natural enemy is absent! Von Restorff (talk) 23:21, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

I have a long story about a previous property I owned, and a signal event involves a mommy rabbit and her tiny bunnies, me and a lawnmower, and me shutting doen and running away pleading "I'm sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know". No rabbits were harmed, but they never came back to their little home. I subsequently naturalized thr back yard and planted some native species (which I'd already partly been doing). There was a tiny bit of (tiny) community opposition to this, but when I started talking about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and previous appeal court decisions and the species names of dozens of natural wildflowers on the property, the bylaw guy got a serious workload of other things to attend to first. Anyway, it became perfectly normal to come out the door in the morning and see a rabbit nibbling on the front lawn, and watch the families growing up (and getting smaller) out the back. One spring, I noticed a little baby weasel that got lost on my back patio somehow and was darting around while I had my coffee. Later that summer, on a hot and still night I heard an unearthly and chilling scream that brought me bolt upright out of bed. I finally figured it out, that baby weasel was grown up now and getting a fresh serving of rabbit. And it finally sank through: I have an apex predator now, much as I hate the thought of my bunnyrabbits dying, my ecosystem is complete. All those years of planning and doing and hoping and wondering why they don't come - now I have dozens of birds singing all day long, heck a dozen different species of bird, hawks hit my lawn to get snakes while I sit and watch, there's not an invasive weed in sight, there's a constant chorus of frogs and crickets all night, fireflies down by the intermittent stream, I have to gently brush preying mantis nymphs off my shoes when I go inside - and I have a king of the yard. I did it, I've finally done it, I've created my paradise. That was a good moment. :) (And that's the short version! :) Franamax (talk) 00:34, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Will you marry me? Von Restorff (talk) 00:37, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikimedia movement funds dissemination

Hi. Because you recently contacted the Wikimedia Foundation about funding resources, I wanted to invite you to help us create a list of the kinds of resources Wikimedians might need. This is to help generate ideas towards the development of guiding principles for funds allocation in the Movement. More explanation is given here. Your participation there, and that of any others you may know who have sought or considered seeking resource funding, would be much appreciated.

(This is, of course, in relation to this conversation. :)) --Maggie Dennis (WMF) (talk) 12:56, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Courtesy notice

FYI - may be of interest  7  03:11, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

RE: User Talk 173

Thanks for bringing the diffrence in IPs to my attention on editing my comments in a talk section. I forget when editing on a mobile pad that it uses a different address each time. I'll look forward to creating an account for myself. Thanks, soon to be formerly 173. 173.122.113.169 (talk) 20:57, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Adminship

Allow me to preface this by stating I have no opinion on your fitness for adminship pro or con.

Your RFA was closed as successful by Rlevese at 11:00, 10 November 2009. It was a close close. Rlevese apparently had his wife, JoJo, ask a question in your RFA. In my opinion, this tainted his close - users should not assert consensus in discussions where they, or someone very close to them, is involved.

Would you be willing to have another bureaucrat review the close? Thank you. Hipocrite (talk) 13:19, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

I should also note as a postscript, because I forgot to in the text, that I do not believe you were aware of this or were at all at fault here. Hipocrite (talk) 13:20, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Hipocrite, that's not fair, and you know it's not fair. You're trying to put Franamax in a position where he would be embarrassed, or shamed, or otherwise socially pressured if he doesn't go along with a needless bit of procedure for procedure's sake and fall on his sword. I'm willing to stand up right now and state that it would be a bad idea for Franamax (or anyone) to ask for or endorse such a review in any situation where there wasn't any reasonable apprehension of actual error on Rlevse's part. Admins should not invite pointless drama.

Given it was a 'close' close, what would you expect the other crats to do? They'll say "Yep, that was close, could have gone either way" and shrug. A small but vocal minority will spend anywhere from a day to a week on various noticeboards trying to drum up a mob to harrass Franamax, until they find a new evil admin to annoy.

Feel free to find the instances where something was actually broken, but don't go looking for stuff that's just going to need a rubber stamp. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:16, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Let me again lead with my statement that I really don't know Franamax from a hole in the wall. When a judge is found to be taking kickbacks from prisons, the judge goes to jail for the rest of their lives, and every single one of their convictions is reviewed. I could just ask that Franamax, and every other Rlevese promotion be desysoped (again, I don't know Franamax from a hole in the wall), but I didn't. I only looked at the close closes, and the bureaucrat closes (they are always, by definition, close), where the puppet account voted or commented. I can't think of any more circumspect way around the fact that Franamax may or may not legitimately be an admin - can you? Hipocrite (talk) 15:56, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

No I would not. Sorry, I'm not interested in performing in this particular circus. Franamax (talk) 19:09, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

IMHO totally not necessary, but crats are well aware of the issues surrounding Rlevese and if they deem it necessary they should be the ones to initiate the process.  7  00:58, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Good for you, Franamax. When we start comparing bureaucrats to judges taking kickbacks, Misplaced Pages "is not a moot court" takes on whole new meaning. :/ Where do we go from here? Do we reblock everybody he ever unblocked? Undelete every article he ever deleted? Or delete the ones he didn't? Process for the sake of process does nobody any good. --Moonriddengirl 01:32, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Is that position entirely consistent with the practice of looking at all of an editor's articles once a pattern of copyright violation has been established? Malleus Fatuorum 01:38, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

It is completely unrelated. The practice of looking at all of an editor's articles once a pattern of copyright violation has been established is addressing a known problem. The sheer numbers of copyright issues that have been cleaned up through WP:CCI demonstrate that it isn't process for the sake of process. If people misuse their tools, that's the point to question whether they should have the tools. --Moonriddengirl 01:40, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps, but frankly I don't see the difference. Unless people look, they won't find. Malleus Fatuorum 01:43, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You don't see the difference between "we know you've systematically violated this policy on copyright in creating articles, so we're checking articles to see if you violated it in any we haven't found" and "we know you've violated this policy on sockpuppetry, so we'd better have somebody else determine if these other people should still be administrators and bureaucrats"? Strange. It seems so obvious to me. :) --Moonriddengirl 01:46, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

What I find strange is that you find it strange, as it seems so obvious to me that you are cherry-picking the decisions to question. Malleus Fatuorum 01:54, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Hopefully my explanation below will help make that clearer. --Moonriddengirl 01:57, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

(multi-e/c, I will be heard! :) Malleus, you don't go ask the articles to review themselves. You get into the trenches, read and compare, and clean up where necessary. It would be completely inappropriate for me to initiate any review. Franamax (talk) 01:48, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't expect you to initiate any review. And for just for the sake of clarity, I haven't looked at your RfA and so I don't know if it was close or not, or how the voting may have been affected by any socks; I'm simply making a general point, not singling you out, as so far as I'm aware you've been a competent administrator. Malleus Fatuorum 01:50, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Which is exactly why this situation is fundamentally different from CCI. :) In the CCI situation, we know that the articles are likely to violate copyright policy. We have reason to evaluate them for problems. They are intrinsically connected with their creator. In this case, we have no reason to assume flaws in Franamax or Nihonjoe or Avraham. They are not intrinsically connected with Rlevse or any socking he may have done. --Moonriddengirl 01:56, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

But we're not talking about flaws in any of those editors you mention; what we're talking about is potential flaws in the way they were promoted. To extend your argument into the area of reductio ad absurdum, what would your position be on an administrator who had clearly benefited from the votes of a number of sockpuppets, whether his own or someone else's, but had nevertheless demonstrated himself subsequently to be a decent administrator? The end justifies the means? is that really a message you want to be putting out? Malleus Fatuorum 02:03, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Shouldn't we wait 'til that absurdum actually happens? Covert misconduct in gaining adminship is already proven as a non-starter for the community. I'm sure you don't need links to verify that assertion. What flaw do you find here? And since this thread started as a request for me to initiate a review of my own promotion and you and I both agree that would be inappropriate, what was it again that's under discussion? Franamax (talk) 02:18, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Isn't that a bit like saying we shouldn't have laws against murder until someone is actually murdered? Or that we shouldn't have post-mortems in the case of suspicious deaths? Malleus Fatuorum 03:31, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Murder? Really? You'll have to enlighten me there, how is any of this in any way at all related to laws against murder? Were there Nazis involved? ;) Franamax (talk) 03:47, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

I think that according to Godwin's Law you lose, but the issue is quite simply to do with natural justice. Malleus Fatuorum 04:36, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

This doesn't just extend my argument; it changes it altogether. Especially when you add "his own". :) (Because if it's his own, then clearly it is intrinsically connected with him, and it brings into doubt his ethics.) In any event, I'm afraid I don't really have time to form and take a stance on your fictional administrator who has clearly benefited from the votes of a number of sockpuppets. If he comes up, we can discuss handling him then. In this case, which differs significantly from those you posit, reassessing these decisions made years ago on the basis that somebody who took part in them may have used a sock would be as pointless as rerunning every AFD in which a sock puppet had !voted or canvassing had occurred. It's a huge waste of time. If there are actual problems, the way to address them is through a new discussion evaluating them on their merits. --Moonriddengirl 02:24, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Restore {{editprotect}} petition?

In deference to the original submission, perhaps the {{editprotect}} petition should be restored? Regards. JakeInJoisey (talk) 19:43, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

In light of what turned up after another editor complied with the request, I'm thinking it would be controversial under any circumstances so I won't restore the "answered=no" myself. I'm going AFK for now, so feel free to ask another admin or at a noticeboard if you feel this is urgent. In my RL time off, I'll be thinking about a Clarification request, partly along the lines of your own suggested wording. Franamax (talk) 19:59, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Reconsidering this, I think I better understand your premise. JakeInJoisey (talk) 21:02, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Recognizability poll

Franamax, since you participated in a previous poll on the wording of the "recognizability" provision in WT:TITLE, your perspective would be valued in this new poll that asks a somewhat different question: WT:TITLE#Poll to plan for future discussion on Recognizability. – Dicklyon (talk) 05:12, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview

Dear Franamax,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Misplaced Pages administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community HERE, were it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

• Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
• All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
• All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
• The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 19:22, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello

I was looking at this Talk:Canadian heraldry#Loyalist crowns and noticed that ROUX is being attacked right away. Perhaps its time for him to change identities - his reputation is simply to hard to ignore by most editors now a days it looks like. His past history is clouding peoples judgement of him of the bat. A fresh start may be a good idea at this point. I would post this to him, but as you can see hes only interested in hearing from admins at this point. Perhaps you can mention this to him in some fashion. Moxy (talk) 10:11, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I believe that Roux does know his heraldry, so it's a disappointing read. Did you look any further into the various other edits which preceded that exchange? How did those evident bad feelings come about? Franamax (talk) 10:24, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

I am not sure how that heraldry incident happened - But to be honest I am not sure why hes like that - here is my first encounter with him a few years ago - did not go well and I avoid most post if I see hes involed. I realy think he needs a "fresh start" his reputation and mannerisms are off the wall and getting worst as is reputations grows. Moxy (talk) 10:39, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Talk pages, retirement, and boxes of dogs

From what I understand, removing others' comments from others' user talkpages is generally left to the users themselves, barring something completely inappropriate, but from this, would it be appropriate to assume you speak for Δ, then? Despite the fairly random nature in which the questions were presented, I would still appreciate a response.

• Why is Δ's user talkpage redirected to his userpage, when people might still want to talk to him?
  • Is he retired? Only plausible explanation I could see, but nothing in his recent history seems to overtly support this besides the fact that he hasn't edited in five days, and that's not actually that long.
• How exactly was this vandalism?

Thanks. — Isarra (talk) 18:42, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Beracommand (currently Δ) made those changes to their user and user talk pages when a proposal for a site-ban gained a majority of votes in this Arbitration case (which has not yet concluded). As I understand it, he also stopped operating his bot. I'm not sure if he's retired, but I'm pretty sure he's really pissed off right now, so I felt it better to respect his preference for blanked user pages. I believe he is unlikely to respond to queries just now, and you could take the redirection as a sign that you should ask questions elsewhere (which you are now doing here). The reverting edit you question was not vandalism, but in fact a misunderstanding as to Beta's intentions. I believe that Beta just happened to pick that option using a tool such as Twinkle.

You are correct that it is unusual to manage other people's talk pages, but this is an unusual situation, as a very long-running arbitration case is stalled just before closure, with possibly severe sanctions for Beta. My intention is to just give him space, while he and the rest of us wait for a conclusion. Do remember that he is able to review his talk page history, and if he finds your questions interesting, he can restore and answer them, so nothing is getting lost here. Franamax (talk) 19:08, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Right, thanks. But if that is the case, perhaps someone should post a sign? There wasn't much indication that such questions should be asked elsewhere; he's clearly more active than I am, and redirecting the talkpage to a page of nothing with vague summaries and vague reversions is just... vague. A sign saying this editor went fishing and got attacked by giant sea lemurs and as a result probably won't be around to respond to things anytime soon, however, would get the message across quite nicely even without getting into the whole... pile of other stuff that I don't really understand. And I doubt I could be the only one; wikipedia is pretty vague... er, large, that is. And vague. — Isarra (talk) 23:14, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Heh, yes, the Misplaced Pages editing enironment can be quite, let's say, challenging, and at times somewhat vague too. I blame this on the founders of the site allowing human beings to edit here. Ideally you are right, we should have convenient signs to explain everything, and not argue endlessly about what colour the sign should be and how large the box with the dogs actually is. This is a rather unsusual situation though, the "other stuff" is that Beta has been hauled in front of the "highest court" and may be banned from the site - but we don't know, because we're waiting for the court to make up its mind. So if the editor is not banned, we give them wide latitude to manage their own userpages, and until we know one way or another, manage as best we can. Note that I don't think you did anything "wrong" by posting there, and I very certainly don't "speak" for Beta in any way. I'm just trying to strike a middle course that respects their presumed intent, and head off things that might upset them further, or worse, get them into more trouble. Hope this helps, though I have a feeling it doesn't. :) Franamax (talk) 04:18, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Mmkay, so as I understand it, folks familiar with the dealy just tend to avoid on principle - but folks not familiar won't necessarily, but he didn't want to put up something descriptive, so anyone else trying to put up something descriptive would be potentially problematic, and folks commenting (especially in rather bizarre manners) could be problematic, and protecting it to keep people from doing that is also probably problematic, and basically the entire thing is a giant pile of ack?

Right. So this sort of thing is unusual, then? — Isarra (talk) 11:41, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

santorum merge

Hi -- per this, could I suggest that you remove the merge template from Campaign for "santorum" neologism? thanks, Nomoskedasticity (talk) 15:54, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Talkback

I know you watch pages where you leave messages, but just in case you miss it, I wanted you to know that we finally have an answer to your question! I don't have much clue what it means, but it's an answer, nonetheless. :) --Maggie Dennis (WMF) (talk) 14:19, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Alberta provincial ridings

Franamax, I apologize for moving it in the first place. My fault. So there is a requested move discussion between hyphen vs em dashes. I know that em dashes are federal ridings. Should I still participate in the discussion? I hope I will participate in the discussion. I move it back to a em dash temporarily. I apologize for moving it in the first place. And write me back if I can participate in the discussion. Thanks. Steam5 (talk) 07:00, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes of course you can participate in the discussion as long as it is open. You didn't do anything wrong, it looks like you started with an article with no talk page notice, so you were being bold. Do check article history and talk pages before moving a whole series of articles though, you can see here that the article had been moved just 10 days ago, so that's often a hint to look for a discussion or ask around. No harm done, and most things can be fixed pretty easily anyway. Regards! Franamax (talk) 07:18, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

At WP:Civility

Hi there User:Franamax. May I take this up with you , briefly? Is there a difference between these two phrase “Your edit” and “The edit you made”? Yes, what is that difference: The first phrase is all nouny, and implies possession or "ownership” and fails WP:NPOV, since an edit once made belongs to the community, under free liscencing. The second phrase puts the emphasis on the edit itself, and the process of “making”an edit; in short it has a verb in it. Verbs are the friends of clarity in the English language, and nouns are the allies of habitual un-think, management-speak and the crushing of the potential for individual action.

Verbs are real, possessive pronouns reinforce the falsity that anyone can “own” anything. Being responsible for the actions one takes is an admirable trait ; accusing a human being of “owning” something is an outright insult. Be that as it may, failing NPOV is a serious defect. And damaging the English language is not the sort of thing to be proud of, while writing an encyclopedia.

Be that as it may, I will surely continue to put up with the habitual and casual insults hurled my way, and the damage done to the English language, since any amount of attempted “education” imposed by “myself” would amount to egotism and gross self-aggrandisement on my part, as well as being an enterprise condemned to failure. But, I will still feel my private pain each time some well-meaning but unthinking user accuses me of "owning” something., and does one more needless cut of damage to that magnificent creation, the English language. Discuss? NewbyG ( talk) 20:02, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

How the English language can confuse the best minds of a generation. (1) source of confusion. Peace! NewbyG ( talk) 06:52, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

(outdented here) Oh well, no discussion, therefore no consensus. Perhaps a perusal of Naming and necessity#A theory of naming may give some indication of how the matter of names and personal pronouns is considered by those who have to consider such matters from a professional, or educated stance. NewbyG ( talk) 19:04, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the fix

Thanks for your detective work and fix at the WT:RD. I'm curious as to why only on my iPad (not on my iMac) and how you "guessed" it so I can be on the lookout for any future problems. BTW, also confused re above ;-) hydnjo (talk) 22:55, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I wasn't just guessing randomly, I use the formal "wild-ass guess" methodology. You'd pinned down the edit, I just looked at what seemed anomalous about it. I've seen those long URLs mess up pages before, I think it might set up some sort of conflict with "width=80%"-type stylesheet directives and the various overlying containers get confused. The other reliable fix is to lift one corner about 1/4" then drop it, that's worked for at least 30 years for me. :)

Coincidentally, one of the first places I solved an obscure page-layout problem involving super-long links was on a page belonging to the source of that rather confusing bit above. Still mulling how to answer that one... Franamax (talk) 04:35, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Didja mean Me? Confusion shared is confusion out and loud and proud. (Whatever that means.) <smiley> NewbyG ( talk) 05:40, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Invitation to Vancouver meetup

Hello,

You are invited to an edit-a-thon at the Prophouse Café on Sunday March 25, as part of Women's History Month events all over the world. If you wish to attend, please see Misplaced Pages:Meetup/Vancouver WikiWomen's Edit-a-Thon and add your signature to the list.

Thank you! InverseHypercube (talk) 09:48, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Response

Regarding this, yes I think that would be pretty uncivil. WP:Just drop it expresses my thoughts on that kind of thing pretty well.

In this particular instance, for myself at least, after the first few comments I began to see that this was something that had been a problem before but that was never actually dealt with. I wanted to finally bring it to the forefront and succeeded in doing so by not letting it go so readily. Many might disagree with prolonged arguments like these but my (I'd even say "our") intentions are to fix the issue so it doesn't keep arising in the future -- not to get the last word in. Equazcion 23:58, 23 Mar 2012 (UTC)

Note

Given the last edit of that LC IP before he was blocked, what are the odds that the redlink in is the same guy? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 20:08, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Dispute resolution survey

The Troll Hunter

Hi Franamax. Just to let you know a 3-1 consensus has been reached regarding the Troll Hunter title. Unanimity can't be reached because there is one user who ignores all the proof provided. Thanks for your time. Film Fan (talk) 14:37, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It is not for you to declare consensus. Let the discussion run and let an uninvolved editor make the determination. Why are you so determined to "win", to the extent that you are deceptively overwriting images? Franamax (talk) 15:02, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Because I'm sick of wasting time on something that is so clear-cut. It's not about "winning". I'm sometimes wrong and I admit when I am. But in this case I have proven my case. I determined to have the page corrected - not to "win". And I have not been deceptive at any time, thank you very much. Goodbye Film Fan (talk) 15:07, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Please

Hey - I'm just keeping an eye on things on Courcelles' talk page and I was hoping you'd be kind enough to redact yourself here. Besides being uncivil depending on whose definition you asked for on a particular day, it really doesn't help to diffuse an already dramatic process. If we can keep the frustrations and anger to a manageable level, we might all get through this without a ton of left over resentment.--v/r - TP 18:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

• Yeah - it's probably not optimal that Malleus ended up reverting it, but it's not really becoming of an admin, however heartfelt it is. Black Kite (talk) 19:47, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Sure, consider myself redacted voluntarily. I stand by and am willing to explain the comment, but it is rather pointless. The removal certainly adds a beutiful tinge of irony, so I'll leave it at that. :) Franamax (talk) 20:12, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

It adds a beautiful sense of symmetry, so you can leave it at that. Malleus Fatuorum 20:39, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Greetings Malleus, I'm glad to see you reconsidered your retirement. :) Franamax (talk) 20:58, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Amongst other things, you seem to misunderstand what "retirement" means. In my case it means that I will no longer be contributing to articles here in any way, shape, or form. But it doesn't mean that I'm prepared to let administrators abuse other editors just because they think they can; hence I removed your personal attack, the one you ought to have removed yourself. Malleus Fatuorum 23:26, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

He might have if he had seen my comment before you redacted his edit. If you look at his edits, that was his only edit today at the time. Just took time. Some folks say things they later regret, I'm sure you understand.--v/r - TP 00:03, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

No, I don't. And you are now getting perilously close to a personal attack yourself; unlike too many others here I never say anything I don't mean and won't stand by. How long do you consider it reasonable to allow personal attacks to remain for? Does it depend on whether they're made by an administrator or a regular editor? Malleus Fatuorum 00:25, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure how you can come to that conclusion, but you're free to think so.--v/r - TP 01:31, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

All you have to do is think. How long was it before my comment was unilaterally removed? Malleus Fatuorum 01:34, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Do you want to take this to mine or your talk page so we're not cross chatting here?--v/r - TP 01:36, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Take it wherever you like, it changes nothing here. Malleus Fatuorum 01:37, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't think I misunderstand much at all. certainly not your "retirement". Now that you've opted to cast in with the chattering classes though, you should bone up on your manual of tactics. You can remove a comment, or chastise someone else for not removing it, but not both at once. You should mix in a little vandal-fighting with the uber-commentary to maintain a thin veneer of respectability as a site editor. You should be able to specify exactly, or even approximately, who is being personally attacked when you claim personal attacks, which you've now done twice. And you should make sure your comments on other people's talk pages have some relevance to something more than your insistence on always having the last word. Hope those tips help, there's a lot of new stuff to learn once you decide to not be one of the article writers. Franamax (talk) 03:33, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I'll say that I felt personally attacked by "ragtag coterie who rush after Malleus, plucking at his coat-sleeves for approval" since I was among the first to post my disapproval of the block. Your marginalization of my opinion and casting me (and others who opposed this block) as a mindless automaton is a far more inflammatory remark that what Malleus was blocked for. And I assure you that Malleus enjoys an immense amount of respect as a "site editor". --Laser brain (talk) 03:48, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I think a lot of people, in this and several other recent drama-fests, should be taking a long hard look at their own actions and asking exactly what ideals they truly are defending lately, including whether "encyclopedia" would feature among them. I haven't been keeping a ledger though, so I have no idea where you stand - and as I say, I think it's up to each editor to review their own conscience. I've you've just been feeding the same useless politics of division and insistence there can only be one winner, maybe I did mean you after all. Not sure where you're getting mindless automaton though... Franamax (talk) 05:58, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

And you should be right at the top of that list of people who need to be having a long hard think about what they're doing here. Malleus Fatuorum 12:09, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I have for many years made sure that I evaluated my own activity here before trying to judge that of others. I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at right now, I'm much the same as yourself, except that I do more article work than you do. Franamax (talk) 18:38, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

By my standards you do almost no article work at all. Malleus Fatuorum 18:58, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

By anyone's standards I do very little article work. However you don't work on articles at all, hence I'm more of an "article guy" than yourself. Franamax (talk) 20:17, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Huh? Whilst obviously a sysop is inevitably going to rack up more edits in Talk and Misplaced Pages namespaces than other editors, thus reducing the percentage of edits to article space (my graph is fairly similar to yours), to claim Malleus "doesn't work on articles at all" is completely ludicrous. Black Kite (talk) 20:52, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

After consideration, I believe he is referring to the fact the Malleus has stated he has finished with article work on WP.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 20:57, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmph. Somewhat facile IMO, but then given the rest of the conversation on this page and others I don't suppose I should be surprised. Black Kite (talk) 21:00, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

You have no idea where I stand, huh? I guess that's the problem with issuing blanket assessments from an ignorant position. You're willing to call out everyone who defends Malleus without bothering to check the facts and events. At the same time, you're suggesting that I opposed the block just because it's Malleus and not because I used some process of logic. That's an automaton. It doesn't matter that you didn't call me out by name—you made an insulting comment that covered everyone who came to his defense. Quite the contrary to "politics of division", I speak out against unfair treatment of editors and the proliferation of a useless class of career Wiki-politicians who spend all their time opining on matters as if they had one bit of extra credibility owing to being an administrator. --Laser brain (talk) 15:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

You know, you haven't even once asked me to clarify or explain any statements I've made, instead you've invented your entire grievous injury from whole cloth, you basically just made that all up for the sake of picking a fight. I can't really convince myself that I'm responsible for your inventions, nor the psychic harm you choose to inflict on yourself. As far as your claim there to not be promoting divisiveness, that you (and Malleus) can be the one to invoke administrator status as having anything to do with this, and that you can mention "a useless class of career Wiki-politician" without even a brief nod to the supreme irony (or is it farce?) inherent in your words - well, it speaks volumes to me. Franamax (talk) 18:35, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Possible navbox heading alternative.

It is now clear even to me that too many people have a visceral "it's new and I don't like it" reaction to the Related information heading idea to ever have it gain traction. But the problems you were trying to solve remain. So I was thinking about a less radical alternative: Put an anchor above the navboxes and add "Click here for more articles and topics related to ...." flag in the See also section. You would still have the problem of internal links in the External link section, but at least readers would be clued in to the fact that there are navboxes to be found at the end of the page. What do you think? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 11:40, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I think I'll make the idea set forth above Plan C. Would you please take a look at Plan B and comment on its talk page?

Abuse Filter on the Article Feedback Tool

Hey there :). You're being contacted because you're an edit filter manager, At the moment, we're developing Version 5 of the Article Feedback Tool, which you may or may not have heard about. If you haven't; for the first time, this will involve a free-text box where readers can submit comments :). Obviously, there's going to be junk, and we want to minimise that junk. To do so, we're working the Abuse Filter into the tool.

For this to work, we need people to write and maintain filters. I'd be very grateful if you could take a look at the discussion here and the attached docs, and comment and contribute! Thanks :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 18:15, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

You've got email

Hi there. I sent you an email requesting your wpW5 tool. Thanks Veritycheck (talk) 11:40, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Moving Trollhunter to Trolljegeren?

I read your posts about Trollhunter in WT:RM. In the light of Talk:trollhunter#Requested move, I have created a new discussion, and, if you're interested, you are welcome to join. It would be beneficial for us to improve the consensus. --George Ho (talk) 17:43, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Almost forgot: Talk:Trollhunter#Move back to Trolljegeren?. --George Ho (talk) 19:00, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

deletionists on the rampage

Every so often I log in to see what messages there are, typically lately there's deletion notice after deletion notice...I saw your fix/close on the Muskwa Ranges map.....do the deletion-happy ever THINK about what they're doing, or do they just wallow in their newfound power to wipe stuff out once they've got it? That somebody could CREATE a map, release it into the public domain, and then have someone claim it's not "unfree", just doesn't make any sense. But as I learned the hard way, common sense is in short supply around Misplaced Pages ..... thank god there's some sane people around or the whole thing would have been auto-deleted by now - Skookum1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.239.74.71 (talk) 16:48, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

GA nomination - really?

The article looks GA worthy to me. It's well cited, written, NPOV, etc and I believe it meets GA criteria. Aside from some vandalism every now and then apparently by this DT character I see no problem with it. I had simply forgotten about the article until this recent edit popped on my radar. It's not a means of "battling". -- ◅PRODUCER _(TALK) 09:13, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

I've cleared up some dead links, wrong dates, and added new refs. -- ◅PRODUCER _(TALK) 11:51, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Large-scale constructs

You are invited to contribute to the discussion at Misplaced Pages talk:Plagiarism#Large-scale constructs. Aymatth2 (talk) 23:16, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Could you please explain more fully...

I thanked you for your reply in the thread Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#When should administrators decline to email the source text to deleted material?

I also asked you to clarify your position.

When I did my best to take your comments at their face value you seemed to be saying administrators had the authority to enforce their interpretation of wikipedia policy on copyright holder's use of their intellectual property outside of the wikipedia -- which I suggest is outside of wikipedia administrator's jurisdiction.

Your comments seem to be based on two interpretations of copyright and publishing which I thought merited asking for comments in threads of their own: Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#Copyright and cite templates, spelling and punctuation corrections; Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#transmittal by email and the meaning of publishing. I'd be grateful if you clarified your position there, as well.

Were you suggesting that only the rendered text of references from deleted articles should be made available -- not the source text with the {{cite}} templates and other markup information -- because you believe the content of those references is protected by copyright? I suggested that as per Fieth v. Rural the internal markup of references, while valuable, contains no originality or creativity, so it not eligible for copyright protection under US law.

Is it your position that transmission by email constitutes "publishing"? Different copyright rules apply to published and unpublished material. My recollection of discussion at the WMF commons is that sending material via an individual private email does not constitute publishing.

Thanks in advance for making the effort to explain your position more fully. Geo Swan (talk) 14:38, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

You've got mail!

real-world consequences

I posted a question at the AN thread, but since you mentioned real-world consequences, perhaps you can answer. (To be fair, you didn't say it was policy; I haven't yet figure out whether someone else claimed this or the whether Guyovski jumped to a conclusion.)

The talk page discussion implicitly accepts that there is a Misplaced Pages Policy prohibiting actions that have "real-life consequences". I'm unaware of such a policy. Can someone enlighten me?--SPhilbrick(Talk) 17:11, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Off topic

I told Guy, and that stands for you too:

I will not discuss off topic subjects in threads where they don't belong.

If you want to substitute Guy Macon, and follow me around instead of him, and bring off topic subject matter to every discussion I participate in, that is just as lame.

Guy Macon's doing so is only embarrassing himself.

If you want to do that too, to yourself, be my guest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nenpog (talk • contribs) 11:34, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

This troll was clearly compiled with inferior tools. My guess is that you used Visual Troll++, or possibly TurboTroll 2000.

These first generation tools are quite limited, and there is a severe garbage-collection-related performance hit when you try optimizing the output of VT++ for flaming or insults.

I suggest that you try the latest version of GTC; the Gnu Troller Collection. It is *the* standard when it comes to creating Trolls. It is also Open Source, reentrant, and is fully compliant with the Triple Troll, Troll-On-Troll and TrollChow protocols.

I hope this helps. --Guy Macon (talk) 12:53, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

Your comment at ANI

Your comment about blocking and desysopping was in line with Rschen's comment. I have a question I preferred not to ask at ANI. At WP:WHEEL, it says: "Wheel warring usually results in an immediate Request for Arbitration. Sanctions for wheel warring have varied from reprimands and cautions, to temporary blocks, to desysopping, even for first time incidents." I'm assuming the sanctions come from Arbcom, but what does "temporary blocks" mean in this context, particularly in light of your comment that a block doesn't prevent use of the tools? Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 01:02, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, no idea. Which editor made that wording? They might know. I looked through all the arbcases in the nearest footnote and no blocks were used as remedies for admin actions. That's not to say that no-one ever got blocked for being an asshat in the same dramahz that lost their bit. Certainly if an admin was going way overboard with admin actions you might block them just to get their attention, but since it's possible to unblock yourself (at enormous wiki-cost), it's in no way a true preventive measure. Franamax (talk) 01:55, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

It'd probably be easier to discuss why the current phrasing should remain than to track the history. I started to track it, and it appears that at one point WP:WHEEL was a separate page, as opposed to part of WP:ADM, as it is now. As you can see, in 2008, User:FT2 added language from that separate page here. You don't need to see the diffs that ensue, but FT2 decided to comment it out in the very next edit. Then, a few months later, User:Causa sui removed the comment code, and since that time it has remained. So, we'd have to turn to the history of WP:WHEEL, when it was separate, and I don't even know how to do that. I may ask at the Help Desk, as much to satisfy my curiosity as anything else. Do you think it would be constructive to start a topic at the WP:ADM Talk page on the language, or should I just let it go?--Bbb23 (talk) 08:38, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the research. I just took that phrase out, so if someone puts it back, presumably they will have a reason (which of course is fine). The ANI thread ended up with a recognition that it would be a "symbolic" action to block an admin for (putative) misuse of the sysop userright - which yeah, there have been such symbolic blocks done in the past to enshrine things in the permanent record, admin or not, all of then essentially futile IMO. Feel free to start a discussion, it does interest me that the wording is (/was) there, since I'm really quite sure that the only way to stop wheel warring is to zero out the sysop bit of the subject editor, which can only be done with higher permissions than sysop. Franamax (talk) 09:01, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Your edit was reverted by MF. I'll wait a bit to see what you do (or you can tell me here), and then perhaps I'll start a discussion on the Talk page. If your change ultimately sticks, I won't start a discussion because, although I don't really know how this works, everything you say makes sense to me.--Bbb23 (talk) 09:14, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, MF has some sort of a thing for me, not sure if he's trying to wind me up or what. I do nurture the thought that he finds me interesting to deal with, we had some discussions in the distant past that I thought were sort-of productive, but MF would likely disagree and whatever, that subject bores me anyway. What I am doing now is to check back into the linked history - when you get redirected (as at WP:WHEEL) you can click on the "redirected from" link just below the title, which gets you to the raw (redirect=no) page. So let's see there how that wording came about. Franamax (talk) 09:23, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

I tried going to the redirect and came up with a dead end. I'll let you do it. MF has a big mouth and gets away with using it because some apparently think he's a content god (notice he picked on you for not having enough article edits). I just find him intermittently obnoxious. Sometimes he actually says something non-self-indulgent and cogent. Anyway, let me know what you find.--Bbb23 (talk) 09:33, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

You clearly need to watch your own ignorant mouth Bb23. There are some arseholes here who think it's perfectly acceptable to abuse anyone they take exception to, while screaming to the heavens when they themselves feel abused. They're wrong. And compared to you even my cat is a "content god". Malleus Fatuorum 09:49, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

You're very amusing, MF, I figured you'd read my comment and respond in your usual mature fashion (hey, look at the initials). I'm deeply hurt. Does your cat have an account?--Bbb23 (talk) 10:09, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

You're a waste of space and time Bbbb23. What is it that attracts ignorant clowns like you to a project putatively about writing an encyclopedia? Malleus Fatuorum 10:17, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

No, I have "some sort of thing" for honesty and integrity. You don't get to change the rules just because you don't think that administrators ought not to be blocked for misuse of their tools. Malleus Fatuorum 09:59, 4 July 2012 (UTC)