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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fran Rogers (talk | contribs) at 22:21, 20 August 2014 (→August 2014: anon-blocked). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Welcome!Last edited: Last edited by:22:21, 20 August 2014 (UTC) Fran Rogers (talk · contribs) Interested in becoming a regular contributor to Misplaced Pages? Create an account! Your host, b249-138.house.gov (143.231.249.138), is registered to Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives and may be shared by multiple users of a government agency or facility, so you might receive messages on this page that were not intended for you. To have your own user pages, keep track of articles you've edited in a watchlist, and have access to a few other special features, please consider registering an account! It's fast and free. If you are autoblocked repeatedly, contact your network administrator and request it contact Wikimedia's XFF project about enabling X-Forwarded-For HTTP headers on its proxy servers so that blocks will affect only the intended user. Administrators: review contributions carefully if blocking this IP address or reverting its contributions. If a block is needed, consider a soft block using Template:Anonblock. In the event of vandalism from this IP address, abuse reports may be sent to its network administrator for investigation. In the event of vandalism from this IP address, anonymous editing may be disabled. If you are an unregistered user operating from this address, note that it may be possible for your agency or facility's administration to determine who was making contributions from this address at any given time and abuse reports may be sent to its network administrator for further investigation. Some government IP addresses are considered sensitive. If blocking this IP address, determine if Misplaced Pages:SIP applies; if so, follow directions. Officials and network administrators, to monitor this IP address for vandalism, can subscribe to a web feed of this page in either RSS or Atom format.

This IP address has been repeatedly blocked from editing Misplaced Pages in response to abuse of editing privileges. Further abuse from this IP address may result in an extended block. Notify an administrator • contribs • block • block log

Continuing Vandalism

The vandalism from this IP is steadily increasing. At what point should the IP be blocked? Almost all of the edits are being rolled back within minutes thanks to the congress-edits account. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tenthrow (talk • contribs) 15:18, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Representative, stop vandalizing Misplaced Pages.

Check their IP, it's coming from the house of representatives, and I personally say they be IP banned and all edits reverted. Bumblebritches57 (talk) 19:01, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/search/?diff=617044904&oldid=604844827

Bumblebritches57 (talk) 19:22, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Regardless of who is editing using this IP address (143.231.249.138), the above user's comments (by Bumblebritches57) should be disregarded. That edit was clearly not vandalism. Dustin (talk) 20:58, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Dustin, you need to take another look at WP:VANDAL, which under the subheading "Silly vandalism" states Misplaced Pages's disapproval of adding patent nonsense to pages. The edit in question by 143.231.249.138 is patently nonsensical:

• In spite of allegations to the contrary, the claims that extraterrestrials are housed in this facility are completely unsubstantiated.

Even his edit summary is frivolous: "There are no aliens here."

I remind you that nowhere does the article Nevada Test and Training Range mention aliens or extraterrestrials, much less does it contain allegations that extraterrestrials are housed in this facility. This is clearly a case of a vandal amusing himself at the expense of our encyclopedia, and it sucks. JohnValeron (talk) 23:24, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

@JohnValeron: Regardless, that user still ought to be disregarded considering its previous, now removed comment. Dustin (talk) 23:27, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Also, despite the edit summary and the lack of mention of extraterrestrials, that still isn't "clearly a case of a vandal amusing himself at the expense of our encyclopedia" the way I see it. The edit should have been reverted, but I still wouldn't call that an instance of "obvious vandalism". Dustin (talk) 23:34, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Dustin, are you aware of the context here? Aside from his long history of vandalizing Misplaced Pages from March 2012 onward (as shown above), user IP 143.231.249.138 publicly embarrassed us again today in a high-profile way by vandalizing our articles Alex Jones (radio host) and Abby Martin, predictably attracting the attention of the popular website infowars.com, which headlined its article U.S. GOVT. EDITING WIKIPEDIA TO SMEAR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PERSONALITIES?. Of course the story quickly went viral on social media, much to Misplaced Pages's shame. I cannot understand why you'd stoop to defending this jackal, who should have been banned for life long ago. JohnValeron (talk) 23:48, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

@JohnValeron: I am saying that it wasn't obvious, not that it can't be classified as vandalism. Also, did you even read my earlier comment? "Regardless, that user still ought to be disregarded considering its previous, now removed comment." This is regarding "these" changes. I find it hard to believe that that talk page comment was within policy. Dustin (talk) 23:53, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Also, I might support a temporary block. The reason for this is that I don't believe that it will necessarily always be the same person, representative, or whatever editor from the House of Representatives using this IP address. Someone else could have made the same bad edit as that which you linked. Dustin (talk) 23:55, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Dustin, I honestly don't care about some quickly removed use of the phrase "giving blowjobs to lobbyists," which seems to have robbed you of perspective. By the time I got here, that was long gone. I responded to your assertion that, in the context of the lead for Nevada Test and Training Range, the following edit "was clearly not vandalism."

• In spite of allegations to the contrary, the claims that extraterrestrials are housed in this facility are completely unsubstantiated.

I believe this was intentional, unmistakable and in-your-face vandalism fully consistent with user IP 143.231.249.138's past misdeeds—which deserve to have consequences. JohnValeron (talk) 00:11, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

@JohnValeron: Oh, I see what you are saying now. I actually meant to say "not clearly vandalism". Sorry, I didn't notice that until now. Regardless, as with most IP addresses, I would not consider an indefinite block to be acceptable. You can't always expect the same government employee to use this IP address. Say you have some library IP. Multiple different people may use that IP, and some of then may be constructive while others remain unconstructive. A temporary block would be preferable in these situations. Dustin (talk) 00:33, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

I suppose a soft block of much longer length might still be acceptable, though. Dustin (talk) 00:38, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

These edits , clearly violates the policy on "Biographies of living persons" and "Libel"; also in its history one cand find the removal of sourced content and the use of another IP (144.141.194.2 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) tracked to an US Navy facility in Virginia Beach) to undo the reversion made by a registered user; obvious vandalism in several articles:. This I.P. must be blocked permanently due to its long-term vandalism, because as we can see above, this user has been blocked several times before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Inhakito (talk • contribs) 07:02, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

I think it would be fine to allow edits from registered user accounts using this IP, but the anonymous edits are getting out of hand. Is it possible to block anonymous edits from this IP 143.231.249.138 but still allow edits from registered users? To the effect that further vandalism could be dealt with on a registered user level? I am not familiar with the granularity of IP Bans. The only reason I can see that this IP is allowed to continue editing is that is associated with Congress. If the IP belonged to a McDonald's with public wifi, it would have been banned a year ago. Tenthrow (talk) 13:14, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Even if it was from McDonald's, I doubt that it would be perma-blocked. In that case, it is virtually guaranteed that it won't always be the same person editing with that IP address. As far as I am aware, the majority of IP edits are with constructive intent rather than the intent to vandalize. In any case, with WP:SIP rules applying, an indefinite block of this IP address would be unacceptable. Dustin (talk) 14:50, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Comment from IP removed due to WP:BLP violations. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 02:14, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Please add more info/cites to Draft:CongressEdits

Great start! But please review the further sources I added to the bottom, draw facts from them, and footnote said sources to said facts. MatthewVanitas (talk) 21:27, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

July 2014

Banned for exposing the truth? Are you one of the Kremiln's gremlins? Wake up sheeple! 143.231.249.138 (talk) 13:02, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Aren't there better things to do on US House computers or is the do-nothingness getting to you? Hcobb (talk) 13:12, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Different person here. I would just like to make clear that this IP adress is shared by a large agency that has 435 different offices. Unlike the poster above, I have only been making edits fixing grammar (the serial comma should be a standard Misplaced Pages policy). Also, the claims by the other user at this IP that Alex Jones is an agent of Russian government are completely absurd. Jones clearly works for Stratfor. Is this all part of some massive disinformation campaign? 143.231.249.138 (talk) 13:18, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Hello different person, please feel free to create an account so that your comma placements can be distinguished from claims of alien influence in various members of government. Tenthrow (talk) 13:28, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Misplaced Pages, as you did at Mediaite. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Administrators have the ability to block users from editing if they repeatedly engage in vandalism. Thank you. –Wine Guy~Talk 21:19, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

If this is a shared IP address, and you did not make the edits, consider creating an account for yourself so you can avoid further irrelevant notices.

If this is a shared IP address, and you did not make the edits, consider creating an account for yourself so you can avoid further irrelevant notices.

Out of over 9000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? Some of use here are just making grammatical edits, adding information about birds in Omsk, or showing how one can patch KDE2 under FreeBSD. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 16:27, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

143.231.249.138 may be a shared IP address, but it is not "whole IP range." Why not ask the system administrator at your end to identify the persistently abusive user via date/timestamp on 143.231.249.138 logs corresponding to the vandalism here at Misplaced Pages? Then your sysadmin could report it to the user's supervisor, who should explain to the vandal that such misuse of a U.S. Government computer and Internet service is a criminal offense. JohnValeron (talk) 17:37, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

The assertion that these actions are illegal or a misuse of government computers is absurd. My constructive edits exposing the role of the governments of Russia and Cuba in promoting conspiracy theories and the other user's performance art edits exposing the absurdity of arguments promoting transgenderism and "social justice" (or maybe they're actually promoting those concepts, it's hard to tell these days, see Poe's law) are perfectly legitimate actions for congressional offices to be engaged in, especially for press secretaries and/or press assistants as a means of furthering policy goals.

Do you think that it's a coincidence that the edits exposing the conspiracy theories just happened to start when CongressEdits was created (or more specifically, after Ars Technica covered its existence)? CongressEdits provided the perfect platform to expose these issues that are normally reverted by the shills at Misplaced Pages. These conspiracy theories need to be exposed for their true nature, whether its showing that the secret Bohemian Grove meetings are just alleged, or showing that the Reptilian theory has no basis in reality. Russian disinfo agents promoting these conspiracies are all over the place, especially here in Washington. Just last week I met Russian agent who was promoting her paintings at a gallery on H Street (apparently even spies have regular hobbies in their free time).143.231.249.138 (talk) 13:33, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

If you add information, it must be verifiable in reliable sources. From the sound of that last sentence, you think everyone is a spy. Dustin (talk) 16:02, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

143.231.249.138, are you insinuating that you are a Congressional press secretary and/or press assistant, vandalizing Misplaced Pages as a means of furthering a policy goal advocated by the House member you work for, with that person's full knowledge and consent? If so, I submit that you're not only a cybercriminal but a common liar. JohnValeron (talk) 18:42, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

An okay attempt, but a little too fat. Might want to cut back on Runet memes, 'ere they send the Pyros after you. --illythr (talk) 19:07, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

You're always welcome to create an account. — ceejayoz 16:33, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

I have one, but I don't sign into with my password at work. Theoretically people could find out who I am, but good luck, I'm behind seven proxies. Haters gonna hate. I mean, has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like? 143.231.249.138 (talk) 16:42, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

"I mean, has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?" Pardon?Vysotsky (usurped) (talk) 20:59, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Almost that entire response consisted of Internet memes. It was written by the troll; disregard it. 108.3.188.161 (talk) 21:11, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Well, if that Twitterbot is anything to go off of, then this IP address is the main one being used at the moment, and it is also the main one vandalizing. You can't really work around that without signing in. Dustin (talk) 16:49, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

If an IP can be trusted to be responsible anonymously, then there is no issue. If you are banned for vandalism, the only way around is to use an account. If that account is vandalizing, then it will be blocked as well, if it is contributing, then there is no issue here. Tenthrow (talk) 17:47, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

According to WhoIs (and checked through current government employment records), the contact point to report abuse from within US House-controlled IPs is Stephen C. Pearson, Senior Network Systems Engineer, +1-202-226-3544, Stephen.Pearson@mail.house.gov; in case someone more-closely affiliated with Misplaced Pages than me would like to discuss this with his sysadmin.Mudlock (talk) 17:49, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Clarification sought: ceejayoz advises the user at 143.231.249.138 to "create an account." However, according to Misplaced Pages's Block log, admin Tom Morris at 14:08 today blocked 143.231.249.138 for 10 days, specifically including "account creation blocked." Please, strictly as a point of information, how would any user at 143.231.249.138 create an account during a 10-day prohibition against creating an account? JohnValeron (talk) 18:59, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Hmm... I was unaware of this. Why is account creation blocked for a multi-user IP address? Dustin (talk) 19:04, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

They can do it from any other IP. Life isn't always fair. 99.191.106.234 (talk) 22:38, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/24/wikipedia-blocks-anonymous-edits-and-trolling-from-a-congressional-ip-address/

Do we get to add category WP pages w/news coverage yet? Hcobb (talk) 21:41, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

DONE Added Category:Misplaced Pages pages referenced by the press. For specific articles see Misplaced Pages:Press coverage 2014 – July 10, July 15, July 23, July 24. JohnValeron (talk) 22:43, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Just chiming my two cents in here. Clearly the boys in the House are so bored of bickering over the various hot-button topics that they have to get their jollies by editing and vandalizing Misplaced Pages. Oh JOY. >.> Maybe if we find out who it is we could do something about this by, I don't know...NOT VOTING FOR THE BUTTMONKEY WHO IS VANDALIZING IN THE FIRST PLACE? --Zhane Masaki (talk) 23:17, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

I think the probability is near zero that these disruptive edits are being done by a member of Congress. They're so sophomoric they betray the hand of an intern or very junior staffer delighting in demonstrating to all the world what an asshole he is. JohnValeron (talk) 03:04, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Do not insult the vandals. --Closedmouth (talk) 09:43, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Very well. Please let me revise and extend my comment. The vandal in question is not an asshole. He is a consummate asshole. Better? JohnValeron (talk) 15:59, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Really? You take that much offense to a mere vandal? That's laughable. Just like this guy's edits - at least they're mildly creative, unlike most vandals. The fact that this is from the House is just icing on the cake. --24.209.10.157 (talk) 19:39, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

He is no "mere vandal"—his misuse of US Govt computer and Internet service makes him a cybercriminal. His being on the taxpayer payroll is not icing, it's vomit. JohnValeron (talk) 20:01, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

That's no excuse for insulting him. — Saeed (Talk) 03:44, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

I'll make you a deal. When 143.231.249.138 apologizes for vandalizing Misplaced Pages at taxpayer expense and in violation of the law, I will apologize for insulting him. Sound fair? JohnValeron (talk) 03:53, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

@JohnValeron: I know that one is unlikely to take this the wrong way, but you should have said the vandal using this IP. You can be sure that multiple people have used this IP address before, meaning you cannot identify this IP address as being a single individual, although you can connect the vandalism to one individual (who is yet unknown, and will not likely be ever revealed). Dustin (talk) 04:32, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Additionally, I think the internet access to the House is necessary anyway, and is used for far more than vandalizing Misplaced Pages. Ergo, it's not costing taxpayers any additional money. --24.209.10.157 (talk) 21:41, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages acted correctly. They treat you like -any other person- in this world. You have no other "writing"-rights, only that you have the big letters "US House of Representatives" over you office, standing. Editing articles like the "Mediaite" -one or about the "Reptiles" .. in the way it was done by -your- IP adress, is hilarious, and should result in a life-time "ban". But you can be very happy, that it didn't happen. You also see, that you (maybe for the first time in your life), argue with real writers, Misplaced Pages-writers (authors), ... and you already see what is happening. Misplaced Pages authors aren't dumb, and you can clearly see, what is happening. In this thoughts, and in this way, bye. 89.166.252.249 (talk) 14:16, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Ars Technia has also reported on this and links to this page. --Harizotoh9 (talk) 14:55, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Confusion in Media regarding scope of blockage

As Harizotoh9 points out, on July 24 Ars Technica headlined "Who's banned from editing Misplaced Pages this week? Congress," with the subhead reading "9,000 House staffers can't touch the site, at least not for anonymous edits." The lead asserts, "Most members and staffers of the US House of Representatives won't be able to edit pages on Misplaced Pages for more than a week. Administrators of the popular Web encyclopedia have imposed a 10-day ban on the IP address connected to Congress' lower house."

However, according to the American Registry for Internet Numbers, the entire net range 143.231.0.0 – 143.231.255.255 is dedicated to the U.S. House of Representatives. If so, surely blocking one shared IP address—in this instance, 143.231.249.138—does not shut out the entire House. If someone with greater technical expertise than I could please clarify this, it would be most helpful. Thanks. JohnValeron (talk) 16:53, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

• I think that's Ars getting it wrong, although it's possible that many computers are proxied through this address, even though the house owns the entire range. Protonk (talk) 18:18, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Taking its cue from Ars Technica, Newsweek has now likewise grossly misconstrued this, writing "An administrator for the crowd-edited encyclopedia site has blocked most members of the United States House of Representatives and their staff from anonymously editing the site." JohnValeron (talk) 15:40, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

I blocked this single IP based on disruptive editing and vandalism emanating from it in a similar manner to how vandalism from any other shared IP (from a company, school, public library etc.) would be handled. There are other IP addresses that are publicly associated with the US Congress and I have not seen any particular issue with the edits from the IPs I have looked at—if edits from an IP are not disruptive or in some other way problematic, I don't see why we would need to block them. If you know of particular IP addresses where more vandalism is coming from, feel free to report them here in the normal way and an admin will take a look. There is obviously some press interest in this block. Alas, it is beyond my powers to ensure that the press report accurately and don't overdramatise it. —Tom Morris (talk) 16:49, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Well, if the press were able to read this page earlier, then they ought to be able to read about us discussing their mistakes as well. Dustin (talk) 21:45, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Commisserations

Commisserations on being blocked from editing from trying to expose the real truth. 81.156.97.239 (talk) 19:53, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Possible sock-puppet, as this is the only edit from this IP. LaMona (talk) 02:01, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

That IP is on a talk page and with no real discussion. Not the place to be calling IPs sock puppets, especially where the result is naught. Dustin (talk) 02:11, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

This IP needs to be blocked. Again.

An obvious transphobe is using this IP to edit the article on transphobia, justifying it with rhetoric commonly used by transphobes (i.e. "womyn-born-womyn", "TERF is a slur"). They claim to be acting with the explicit permission of a U.S. Representative, which is either an outright lie (and therefore more reason to block the IP) or true (and therefore more reason to block the IP).

I... honestly have no idea how to actually raise this issue officially. Anyone here know what they're doing? Davidjcobb (talk) 20:25, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I added a cited statement to an article, which was later reverted. When it was reverted I didn't start an edit war; I went on to the talk page of the article and stated my reasoning for for why the statement should be included in the article. What is your justification for banning other than the fact that someone else has a different view than your personal opinion? 143.231.249.138 (talk) 20:38, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

My justifications are "allowing people to use hate speech as a citation is generally a bad idea" and "the IP in question has a lengthy history of disruptive behavior already." Your IP address isn't trustworthy, and you personally are editing a topic that you have an obvious and spectacular bias on, as your comments on the talk page make clear. Davidjcobb (talk) 20:51, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Agree If there were some way to permanently block the vandal abusing Congressional IP 143.231.249.138, I would fully support it. Failing that, at minimum another temporary block is fully justified by his latest antics, which are totally beyond the pale. JohnValeron (talk) 21:00, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm sorry that you're so invested in this topic that you consider any dissenting views to be hate speech, but there haven't been any disruptive edits from this IP adress since the expiry of the last ban. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 21:15, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps if those dissenting views were presented as opinion with some light shed on how hateful those views are, it wouldn't be an issue. 173.26.60.174 (talk) 21:20, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

IP 143.231.249.138's claim that "there haven't been any disruptive edits from this IP adress since the expiry of the last ban" is quite simply another of his barefaced lies. Since the block expired on August 18, he's made (aside from Talk page contributions) five edits to Misplaced Pages articles—only one of which was not immediately reverted for vandalism. His abuse continues unabated. JohnValeron (talk) 21:26, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

The ban expired on August 4th. There have been a lot more than five articles edited since then, and just because some of them reverted doesn't mean that they were vandal edits. Many of the reversions were done by anonymous IP adresses themselves. The personal vendetta that you seem to have against Congressional staffers editing Misplaced Pages seems to be clouding your judgement. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 21:47, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I have no problem with Congressional staffers editing Misplaced Pages. I have a problem only with YOU vandalizing Misplaced Pages. JohnValeron (talk) 22:12, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Another transphobic comment was just made by this IP and then had to be immediately reverted.131.111.185.81 (talk) 15:23, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

Would someone please just permaban this transphobic vandal IP already? Davidjcobb (talk) 20:19, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

If I were an Admin, I'd permaban IP 143.231.249.138 immediately. However, I don't think an ordinary editor can do that. JohnValeron (talk) 20:28, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

Update I just found this page where someone has already formally reported this Vandal. Seems like a good place to weigh in. JohnValeron (talk) 21:33, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

August 2014

Please do not add or change content, as you did to Gavin McInnes, without verifying it by citing a reliable source. Please review the guidelines at Misplaced Pages:Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you. Chris Troutman (talk) 14:55, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

If this is a shared IP address, and you did not make the edits, consider creating an account for yourself so you can avoid further irrelevant notices.

I've blocked this IP from making anonymous edits for a period of one month. If you'd like to make good-faith edits, please create an account. Thanks. --Fran Rogers (talk) 22:21, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

This is the discussion page for an IP user, identified by the user's IP address. Many IP addresses change periodically, and are often shared by several users. If you are an IP user, you may create an account or log in to avoid future confusion with other IP users. Registering also hides your IP address. (WHOIS  Geolocate  Proxy Checker Current blocks XTools Global contributions) (RIRs: Africa America Asia-Pacific Europe Latin America/Caribbean)

• Misplaced Pages user talk pages of shared IP addresses from government agencies or facilities
• Misplaced Pages pages referenced by the press