Misplaced Pages

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Misplaced Pages talk:Articles for deletion#RfC: Merge, redirect and Misplaced Pages talk:Bot policy#Misplaced Pages:BOTPOL#Mass_article_creation

Misplaced Pages talk:Articles for deletion#RfC: Merge, redirect and Misplaced Pages talk:Bot policy/Archive 22#Misplaced Pages:BOTPOL#Mass_article_creation were listed at WP:CENT and archived by SilkTork (talk · contribs). Would an admin (or admins) close and summarize these discussions? Thanks, Cunard (talk) 04:28, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

While I doubt that any user will be rushing to close the AfD RfC, I want to point out that it has a few days remaining in its 30-day listing period. Flatscan (talk) 05:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for the correction. I withdraw for now my request to close the above RfCs. Cunard (talk) 09:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I miscounted – the RFC bot delisted the AfD RfC yesterday. Thanks for creating this request. Flatscan (talk) 05:19, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Instead, would an admin (or admins) close and summarize Misplaced Pages:Non-free content/Cover art RfC (initiated 3 January 2011) and Misplaced Pages talk:Protection policy#Admins editing through full protection: proposed addition (initiated 8 January 2011). These discussions were also listed at WP:CENT and were archived a few days ago. Cunard (talk) 09:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I have moved this back from the archive. Cunard (talk) 10:03, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Future timestamp appended so this will not be archived until the four above RfCs are closed. Cunard (talk) 09:50, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Audit Subcommittee vacancies: Call for applications

The Arbitration Committee is seeking to appoint at least three non-arbitrator members to the Audit Subcommittee.

The Audit Subcommittee ("AUSC") was established by the Arbitration Committee to investigate complaints concerning the use of CheckUser and Oversight privileges on the English Misplaced Pages, and to provide better monitoring and oversight of the CheckUser and Oversight positions, and use of the applicable tools.

Matters brought before the subcommittee may be time-sensitive and subcommittee members should be prepared and available to discuss cases promptly so they may be resolved in a timely manner. Sitting subcommittee members are expected to actively participate in AUSC proceedings and may be replaced should they become inactive. All subcommittee members are subject to the relevant local and global policies and guidelines concerning CheckUser and Oversight.

If you think you may be suitably qualified, please see the appointments page for further information. The application period is scheduled to close 7 March 2011.

For the Arbitration Committee, –xeno 23:20, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Discuss this

•  Note: The application period will close in just over 24 hours. –xeno 22:40, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Tobby100

Should these edits be rollbacked? They generally contain links to hedgepedia.com, which is unreliable as a source because it is an open wiki with various mistakes or lacking editorial oversight and useless as an external source because it is inaccurate and incomplete, as per its general disclaimer page. Should this site be blacklisted as well? :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 07:48, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

• hedgepedia.com: Linksearch en - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • MER-C Cross-wiki • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced • COIBot-Local - COIBot-XWiki - Misplaced Pages: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.org • Live link: http://www.hedgepedia.com

Domains added by Tobby100: hedgepedia.com (33).

Looks like WP:REFSPAM. MER-C 09:46, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah. Roll back. --jpgordon 16:04, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

I rolled back ~20 top edits, all referencing the site and adding no other content. I undid several others that were no longer top edits. — Scientizzle 18:12, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Done, removed all links from the LinkSearch so far (save this page). He also seems to be editing from his IP, 70.31.247.188, according to the LinkReport. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 01:20, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

User:Tobby100 I have read your arguments regarding the hedgepedia postings. Here are some responses to your concerns:

(1) With regards to the site’s disclaimer - Given that the site provides financial information, a disclaimer regarding to the accuracy of the data is common practice. Please have a look at the disclaimers of well established sites in the same field, such as hedgefund.net disclaimer, or absolutreturn-alpha disclaimer sited on Misplaced Pages

(2) With regards to the quality of the information - the source of the information is a respected in the industry, quoted on the page of the article and verifiable for those who have access to the 2009 Top 100 hedge funds report.

(3) With regards to the relevance of the information - The information provided relates to the ranking of each hedge funds by AUM. A fund's AUM is a key measure of comparison between funds in the industry and should be relevant to any the reader who takes interest in the industry.

For those reasons, I believe that those additions made are relevant and if no further objection, should be reinstated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tobby100 (talk • contribs) 21:47, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

You're missing the point. Why have you "cited" only hedgepedia.com? MER-C 04:40, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Because that page contains the 2009 list of the largest 100 hedge fund ranked by AUM. It therefore applies to numerous funds with a page on Misplaced Pages and I have cited their specific ranking on their respective pages.--Tobby100 (talk) 05:38, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

...and why do all of your edits to Misplaced Pages involve inserting citations to this site? (Apologies, on reflection this is what I should have asked in the first place.) MER-C 03:35, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I have read your link about SPA and understand where your concern comes from. However, do you feel it makes the information posted any less valid or relevant? It is not redundant with any of the information already posted on the pages, it is unbiased relative to those hedge funds, and offers the reader with the key mesure of the relative importance of each hedge fund.--Tobby100 (talk) 02:20, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Help

General call for help at Misplaced Pages:Pending changes/Request for Comment February 2011. This thing is like a Hydra. Polls keep popping up in what is supposed to be a discussion, attempts to steer or target discussion have failed. Admins or really anyone who thinks they can help rope this in and keep it on point, please jump right on in. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:25, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

It ain't gonna happen. Once upon a time there were a number of Wikipedians who were willing to consider Pending Changes objectively -- if someone could provide things like proof that it works, in what situations, & how it should be to best implemented. But no one did: the "experiment" turned out to be a Trojan horse for turning it on permanently, & those of us who didn't have a strong opinion about it either way left to do more rewarding things. All who are left arguing about it are the true believers on either side who are willing to continue until their death -- or they are banned from Misplaced Pages. I, for one, don't want anything to do with this: IMNSHO, all of you deserve each other, & I hope this debate goes on inconclusively forever & the rest of us can enjoy contributing to Misplaced Pages in relative peace & quiet. -- llywrch (talk) 05:48, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I had a half-formed notion of a way out; noting that this is a very rough pre-alpha-pre-discussion-vague-thoughts-draft, see here. Could something like that, possibly, work? I could probably use help with it, if proposing it; my thought was to first come up with something like that, then post it on the RFC talk-page (not the RfC itself), and see if we could form consensus to at least put it forward. I'm totally against any further poll, but if necessary we could perhaps make such a proposal and insist upon "support" or "oppose" with brief comments (limited to, say, 300 characters or something) and we could move anything longer into a 'discussion' section.

A very important point, I think, is that the RfC is generally getting decent discussion - so let's not mix up length problems with drama. Yes, it is long, and yes, it's been going on for a few weeks now - but PC is a complicated issue, and potentially (depending on deployment, scope, etc) quite fundamental to Misplaced Pages core values of open editing.

So in other words - Llywrch - I personally think that it can reach consensus. Not easy, but I think it can...eventually. Maybe I'm naive, idealistic and overly optimistic - but I can live with that.  Chzz  ►  20:52, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Protector of Wiki unblock request

Protector of Wiki (talk · contribs · count · logs · block log · lu · rfa · rfb · arb · rfc · lta · socks)

Protector of Wiki requests unblocking at their talk page. The last unblock request ended as no consensus on this page at on 15th October 2010  Ronhjones  23:27, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

• Weak Support for unblock. When I read the unblock request, my initial reaction was "Why not? We can always reblock if they backslide". After reading the section regarding the email to the blocking admin, I suspect that the backslide may be more likely than not. However, why not unblock them and get it over with? Perhaps they will confound my expectations? So, on that basis... LessHeard vanU (talk) 23:54, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
• I'm trying to AGF here by my spidey-sense is telling me this is going to be a waste of time. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 02:09, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Support unblock – Protector of Wiki has made many made good contributions and strictly follows our content policies, including recently creating two articles from WP:AFC on their talk page. The problem has been in getting along with the community, which is clearly essential. As one of Protector of Wiki's two mentors, I've observed a dramatic improvement in this regard recently, which seems to be driven by a high motivation to contribute. I don't know if this motivation will be sufficient in the long-term to maintain good relations with other editors. Protector of Wiki has been putting into practice many of the anti-frustration techniques that I've suggested. The only way to determine how well it will work is to unblock. If things go bad, it's easy to reblock and the project will at least have gained some valuable contributions in the meantime. —UncleDouggie (talk) 03:04, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Comment - The username really is misleading as a position of Wiki Authority, so under WP:U it should have probably been blocked. However, if the user has made good faith contributions, then maybe requesting a username change before being unblocked, would be better fitting. IMHO. Who (talk) 04:13, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Support - For what admins granteth, admins may taketh away. Mjroots (talk) 05:19, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• I think any unblock should be conditional on a namechange and a prolonged period of supervision under strict terms which would result in an immediate, unconditional indef block (with the standard offer available) if violated. I still hold concerns from the last unblock request but admit to not having too closely followed his actions since then so if his mentor thinks he's ready, then I'll buy into that. Strange Passerby (talk • contribs • Editor review) 05:26, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Strong oppose The discussion at User talk:Protector of Wiki#My email to PeterSymonds from a few days ago is highly troubling. In it Protector of the Wiki appears to either be playing a semantic game with PeterSymonds (talk · contribs) (who was the blocking admin) by pretending to not understand his responses or is genuinely unable to comprehend Peter's clear posts. The thread finishes up with this attack on Peter which seems to me to be entirely unjustified as his responses were clear, polite and helpful and two other editors had pointed out that Peter's responses were fine. Rather worryingly, Protector of Wiki gave this thread as an example of 'good intentions' in their latest unblock request. Whatever's going on here, I think that this indicates that Protector of Wiki is not about to start editing collaboratively and the block should remain in place. Nick-D (talk) 05:41, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Strong oppose. Definitely not. This kind of attitude and battleground mentality does not belong on Misplaced Pages and is not welcome nor ever will be. Reading over this user's talk page only convinces me of that. -- œ 06:00, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• I recommend that the unblock request be declined because it does not address the problematic behavior that caused the block (notably, the ALL-CAPS SHOUTING) and so does not convince me that it will not reoccur. In an older section on their talk page, the user states: "I think that everyone knows I've stopped using caps for emphasis and have adopted italics and bold, though I sometimes falter since it is a habit hard to break". This does not fill me with confidence, and neither does the user's generally confrontative approach to editing that is evident from the talk page and even the unblock request.  Sandstein  08:59, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose Nick D pretty much sums up my opinions on the matter. -DJSasso (talk) 11:27, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose That recent debate (about email) does not indicate a willingness for collegiate editing. I suggest any request should go to BASC.  Chzz  ►  17:29, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose, and remove talk page access while we are at it. T. Canens (talk) 18:48, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
• Oppose for what it's worth. Reading between the lines a bit, arrogance and condescension don't just drop from that unblock request, they practically gush. Tarc (talk) 19:34, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
• Support. The purpose of a block is the prevent disruptive editing. Editor has declared that he will be better in the future, and AFG tells me that he should be taken at his word. Better to unblock this account so his edits can be monitored, as the other choice is to deny his unblock request which will only serve to drive this editor underground. Onthegogo (talk) 16:43, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

User page

Please check user page User:Alexander "The Great" Talkington--Musamies (talk) 18:27, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

 Checked. Looks to me like it would need some pretty serious editing to become a Misplaced Pages article.  Frank  |  talk  18:37, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

This user page of a minor should be deleted per Misplaced Pages:Protecting children's privacy and Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Protecting children's privacy#Current practice. Would an admin delete this page? Cunard (talk) 20:20, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

I'll purge the identifying information. The rest should be okay. Dcoetzee 10:56, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

User page

Please check user page User:ThePeopleGroupIreland--Musamies (talk) 18:36, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

I CSD'd it --Demiurge1000 (talk) 18:38, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

User page

please check user page User:Restaurantandre, same text in page Andre Chiang--Musamies (talk) 19:00, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

User page

please check uswer page User:AWARDCHESS--Musamies (talk) 19:02, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Promotional userpage

Promotional userpage User:Maudimaadil--Musamies (talk) 19:08, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Deleted, but, in future, try not to bring routine requests here. Just tag the page with {{db-spam}} and an admin will deal with it soon enough. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:17, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Not according to my experience. My experience has been that users are allowed to have spam in their User space, and my MfD was rejected because it was a potential article. Corvus cornix_talk 22:23, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Huh? I do that all the time, at least once a day; you aren't allowed to advertise a business anywhere. That's why it's G11, not A11. The restrictions in userspace are somewhat looser, but that doesn't mean all bets are off. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 06:09, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Miscellany_for_deletion/User:Chasetwomey/Zoro_Tools. Corvus cornix_talk 19:59, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

What is not allowed in user space is blatant advertisement - anything that meets WP:CSD#G11 ";Pages that are exclusively promotional, and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic." Just being about company does not make an article, or a draft, an advertisement. We want users to develop articles in user space rather than put them prematurely in mainspace and get them speedied. This one, as you can see, is purely descriptive, but it was speedy-tagged two minutes after first input. That is quite inappropriate for a userspace draft; the speedy was properly declined, and the MfD also declined to delete. It may well not be notable, but we do not need to decide that before the author posts it in the main space. JohnCD (talk) 20:19, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

So, as I've been told repeatedly in the discussion concerning this page, spam is allowed in User space, which is what I said above. Corvus cornix_talk 20:27, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. --Floquensock (talk) 20:29, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Look at the definition of WP:CSD#G11: "Pages that are exclusively promotional, and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion." and WP:SPAM: "Articles considered advertisements include those that are solicitations for a business, product or service, or are public relations pieces designed to promote a company or individual." The draft considered here is not spam. JohnCD (talk) 20:34, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

And regardless of that (which is all quite true), it is not appropriate to come asking here, when you've been told elsewhere what was wrong with the deletion requests.  Chzz  ►  20:42, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

There was something seriously wrong with the !voting in that MfD, when editors argued to keep a draft for which no reliable sources can be found. That's totally perverse. Fences&Windows 23:26, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

If you will look again, you will see that I did not being this discussion. Corvus cornix_talk 00:30, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Fences and windows, a draft does not need RS.  Chzz  ►  07:17, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Could somecoy take care of cheking

Could somecoy take care of cheking show contributions of new accounts only of userpages, there seems to be promotional userpages and out of scope user pages and user pages that shall be move to sub-page. It's more easy way to clean up those pages than study me to mark right way. Thanks for co-opeartion--Musamies (talk) 20:31, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

I don't know what the problem is. If you want it deleted, use CSD. If you want it moved into a subpage, be bold and do it yourself (and tell the user why!). If you aren't sure, ignore it. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 04:19, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Can anyone help out with edits to animation pages

This was posted on my user page after a report at AIV. Unfortunately I know nothing about this subject so don't know how to verify. If TServo2050 is correct these IP edits will need to be mass reverted and possibly blocked. Theresa Knott | Sort that Knee! 20:51, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

78.155.239.29 and 24.218.241.94 - vandalism

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about with this 78.155.239.29, the diff page for an edit to Gerald Potterton that I removed.

Gerald Potterton never worked at Disney. This can easily be verified by his IMDB page.

I first noticed this person because of very, very similar false information being added to IMDB.

Another person to watch out for is 24.218.241.94. For example, look at this diff - this guy added a bunch of names of Disney crew members who absolutely did not work on "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". This diff also adds false information claiming that this person worked on the same show, also mentioning a Disney animator who never worked on "Foster's" either. And he adds mention of the same "Destination: Imagination" title to the biography of Eric Larson in this diff - Eric Larson died in 1988, two decades before, so he couldn't have worked on it no matter what.

This is just really frustrating for me, but I don't have the time to go back and remove all the false info added by these people.--TServo2050 (talk) 19:48, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

(I've left a note at Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Animation mentioning this thread.) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 04:02, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I should have thought to do that myself. Theresa Knott | Sort that Knee! 21:38, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

New Twinkle blacklist proposal

We are currently embarked on a large rewrite of Twinkle. The current method of blocking users from using Twinkle is difficult to use, prone to breaking Twinkle for everyone if an admin makes a mistake, prone to being bypassed by slightly savvy users, and changes may not take effect for weeks due to caching. The new Twinkle offers the possibility to implement blocking in a different way as a byproduct of the transition to using the MediaWiki API exclusively. One approach is that to block a user from performing Twinkle functions, an admin would create a subpage in the userspace of the blocked user of the form User:UncleDouggie/No Twinkle and apply protection to the page so that it cannot be moved. This page could have any contents desired or even be blank. We can setup Twinkle to immediately disable all functions upon detection of this page. Deleting the page would immediately restore Twinkle functions. The performance impact would be minor because Twinkle would only query the page when actually performing an edit. The query would be embedded within other API calls that are already being centrally performed for all modules in the new version. In most cases, there wouldn't even be an extra API call made. The technique can even be sufficiently embedded into the regular processing so that only an expert user would be able to bypass it. A blocked user would still be able to bring up the Twinkle user interface, but all edits would fail with a technobabble error message. If we are to make this change, it would be easiest to do it now while the patient is still in the middle of open-heart surgery, so to speak, and before testing has started.

Another alternative would be a central page containing a list of blocked users. However, this would have a minor performance impact and would be easier to bypass, although still not as easy as the current method. Yet another approach would be a protected tree at WP:Twinkle/blocks with one subpage for each blocked user.

There are currently 28 users blocked from using Twinkle. I don't know if the low number is partially due to the difficulty of properly performing a block, or if abuse just isn't that much of a problem. We could also implement selective blocking for only the more advanced Twinkle functions, while still allowing users to issue warnings and use Friendly. I'm hesitant to go there now because I'd really like a decision within the next two days while the surgery on the impacted code is still in progress. To be clear, there is no problem with retaining the current blocking method if that is the desired approach.

I'm raising this issue here instead of on Misplaced Pages talk:Twinkle because admins are the ones charged with controlling access to Twinkle. —UncleDouggie (talk) 10:54, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

From a transparency standpoint, the central page would seem to be the best one (possibly a central list + subsidiary tree if that is more efficient). It'll certainly be interesting to see if taking permissions away becomes more common once it's easier to do - I strongly suspect that it will. Shimgray | talk | 11:01, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I would favour User:UncleDouggie/No Twinkle. This seems far simpler to implement for checking than the central page (we will check far more often than we change) and has all the decentralised benefits of robustness. It relies on user subpage protection being simple and robust, which I understand to be the case. A central tree would have these advantages too, but it's just creating a new root to duplicate something we already have from the user: namespace. It also scales well for many blocked users and expands nicely for introducing per-feature access control to Twinkle, by embedding markup onto the control pages. If per-feature control becomes useful, that would drive a massive expansion of this feature as the multitude of unblocked users also had such a page. For that reason it should probably be labelled and discussed as "Twinkle access control" rather than "Twinkle block". Andy Dingley (talk) 11:19, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm not keen on the User:UncleDouggie/No Twinkle option, it seems a lot more open to abuse. From what I understand, I could create say User:Andy Dingley/No Twinkle (hope you don't mind me picking on you Andy!) - which would disable your Twinkle access. It doesn't sound like something that would be noticed to fix. Although, could the page be "noTwinkle.js" instead? Therefore only an admin or the user could create it. On balance, a centralised protected list seems like a much safer solution. Worm 12:29, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

That's a very good point. A user could obviously fix such a problem by moving the page, but that's not a good way to go. Switching to User:UncleDouggie/No Twinkle.js would fix the problem, assuming that admins remember to put on the .js. Then again, we could just create a new Twinkle function that would automatically create the proper page for an admin. I think this vulnerability makes the WP:Twinkle/blocks approach unusable because we don't have any equivalent way to provide protection like we do in userspace. —UncleDouggie (talk) 13:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Sure we do, just fully protect it like we do with AWB at Misplaced Pages:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage#Approved_users.  -- Lear's Fool 13:11, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

We can do that, but then the contents of that page will need to be retrieved before a Twinkle edit is performed, which might slow things down a little. It also might not be as expandable to a finer grain access control mechanism.

Huggle does a similar thing using User:UncleDouggie/huggle.css. We could say for now that the existence of User:UncleDouggie/twinkle limits.css will block all access and in the future expand this to a finer grain control if it's needed. —UncleDouggie (talk) 13:22, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I like the idea of a centralized twinkle access control. If you centralized the twinkle page with subpages you could use the title blacklist to keep non-admins from editing or moving the pages. It seems to work well for Editnotices. User subpages are harder to keep track of and it would be difficult to see which users have access revoked. Alpha Quadrant 14:33, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

A user actively bypassing a Twinkle blacklisting hasn't been a problem in the past, as far as I'm aware; if a user were ever found to actively avoid the blacklist and thus typically community consensus that his use of scripts in editing Misplaced Pages is disruptive, said user can and should simply be blocked.
As you said, it has popped up from time to time that a user was blacklisted, but could continue to use Twinkle since he still had the old version of the script cached. It would be nice to decouple the blacklist from the base script to only allow a very brief cache time (down to zero, if so desired, performance impact would probably be negligible).
If you're reworking the blacklist format I suggest adding fields/columns to note the date of blacklisting, a suggested date to lift the blacklisting, a permalink to the discussion leading to the blacklisting (if any), and a comment.
But changing the mechanism isn't really that important, IMO. It's rare that an editor is abusing Twinkle to the point of blacklisting and can't be reasoned with, but is otherwise constructive. Amalthea 16:27, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Oh, and I'd certainly favor a central blacklisting mechanism, either as one list (as long as it can be kept short, which should be the norm) or as subpages of one central page. Amalthea 16:30, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

With apologies for sounding negative: I am not convinced the complication is worthwhile. I am aware of one user who circumvented a "twinkle block" (Amalthea - so yes, it does happen)...however...Twinkle does nothing that the user cannot do otherwise; it doesn't confer any rights. It makes things simpler, sure; but really saying "you cannot use Twinkle" is a bit of a false restriction. Twinkle (for non-admins) just undoes edits, puts messages/warnings on user talks, and reports them to boards. Users are responsible for all their edits, whether using tools or not. If a user is issuing inappropriate warnings, undoing good edits, or inappropriately reporting to boards - then surely that can be dealt with in the normal manner?

Mostly, I'm worried about WP:CREEP - and people wondering what on Earth this protected page is all about. If it must be done, I'd certainly say centralise it, not put it in a user subpage - because that at least avoids the user or others wondering what the subpage is. Also concerned about help requests, "Why isn't Twinkle working?" and a quite complex extra thing to have to trace and debug. And, without getting into BEANS, if a user has worked out how to circumvent the current restriction method, it won't take much more for them to circumvent this new method.

But, overall, I'd say it is an unnecessary added complication to our already over-complicated wiki. There's many many other tools...are they all going to start having custom config files and restrictions? If a user is doing things wrong, then surely normal warnings/blocks are fine?  Chzz  ►  17:11, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

P.S. Small technical point - users with "Account Creator" can also bypass the title blacklist.  Chzz  ►  17:11, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Well considering there are only a handful of them, I don't think that's likely to be much of a problem. Certainly any account creator who used the permission to get round a Twinkle block wouldn't have it for much longer.

Twinkle allows editors to edit at a rate that is much quicker than it would be if they were doing everything manually and, in my experience, the reasons for blacklisting are typically a faster rate of editing combined by a lack of thought as to what they're doing. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:34, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

ACC - agreed; as I said, "small technical point", I was just correcting it.

Twinkle does not allow editors to edit faster. It simplifies things. A clueful editor could just as easily script a tonne of API calls, and edit faster than Twinkle. Chzz  ►  17:43, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

• First, a centralized system is definitely much better, since it is easier to track and manage. Isolated user subpages are virtually impossible to track. Second, I agree with Amalthea that we need not worry too much about circumvention. Anyone who is found to be doing that will likely get a swift block - or, if we are feeling particularly lenient, we can blank and protect all of their skin js files. T. Canens (talk) 18:44, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

But is it worth the hassle? Adding this check (to see if a page exists) will presumably add *some* tiny amount of time to every single use of Twinkle - and although I suck at maths, I do know that "tiny" times "lots" can be "quite a bit". Of those 28 users currently excluded, 6 are indefinitely blocked, and 4 haven't edited since 2009. Yes, I'm sure admins would add more people if it was easier...but is that a Good Thing? If they're being disruptive, can't we just ask 'em to please stop it? And if they don't, block - as per every other type of thing?Is this really worth the added complexity?  Chzz  ►  19:37, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

We can take out the blocking ability entirely if the admins don't see a need for it. The functionality is there currently, so I assume it was considered valuable at some point. An extra user was also recently blocked. The bypass issue is secondary to the other three shortcomings with the current method. We could greatly reduce extra queries to a centralized page by suppressing such checks for admins, account creators and rollbackers. —UncleDouggie (talk) 20:24, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

• Would adding a category to the userpage help with the centralization concerns? Shell 20:10, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

It might be a little bit aggressive (labelling the editor for a quite specific 'restriction' - and this is kinda what bothers me about this in general...making it a "big deal"), or even a bit of a troll-feed; I can picture a userbox now; "This user is not allowed to play with Twinkle!"  Chzz  ►  20:37, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure it is worth the hassle however if there remain <100 users blocked from twinkle then I am also of the opinion that any solution which garners a performance benefit and doesn't threaten transparency is perfectly ok. I'm willing to endorse whatever the folks working to improve twinkle want to do. Protonk (talk) 00:01, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Isn't this just another example of administrators trying to exert their authority where no authority needs to be exerted? How can anyone abuse their use of Twinkle without also falling foul of one or other of wikipedia's policies? A blocked user can't use Twinkle. Malleus Fatuorum 00:16, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Well that's presumably partly why there are so few people currently banned from using Twinkle. But it makes sense that there are occasionally cases where a block would be unduly heavy-handed, but a user is just too eager to click the "rollback " button (or whatever) where it's not entirely warranted. Being able to deal with that without needing to block them seems a useful option to have (and exists already, just not in a very easy to use way.) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 06:51, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Twinkle isn't crack, users can just stop using it. I would have thought that just telling otherwise good faith editors to stop using Twinkle if its a problem, plus Misplaced Pages:People who are not currently allowed to use Twinkle tucked away somewhere would be sufficient. If someone has been asked to stop and carries on, just block them. Elen of the Roads (talk) 13:54, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Is there a way to attract outside input for a controversial requested move?

There is currently a hotly contested requested move (lodged by myself) going on at Talk:Occupation of the Baltic states. This request is the latest installment of a long-standing debate which has gone on for months to years at this point. The talkpage is "run" by a handful of "regulars" (myself included), who have taken sides and set up their respective barricades long ago (if you'll excuse the WP:BATTLEGROUND analogy). This environment is not particularly conducive to civility, and allegations of user misconduct have been raised in a recent ANI thread, which passed largely unnoticed and was summarily archived (a total of 27 threads at ANI have dealt with issues surrounding this controversial topic). Good faith and assumptions thereof often run dry here, making it exceedingly difficult to form a satisfactory consensus.

I submitted an RfC not too long ago in an effort to break the deadlock one way or another. However, due to the apparently poor visibility of the RfC process across the project, my request attracted very few responses, and was soon taken over by us "regulars" and driven into yet another wall. Demonstrating the hostile and mistrustful environment of the talkpage, another user even questioned my intent in lodging the request, believing that it was an attempt to rig the vote in some way.

Another user recently sought the personal opinion of a notable scholar in the area on the matter. This did not change the opinions of those involved much, and the discussion quickly disintegrated into debates over various interpretations of this opinion. Neither side has shown particularly willing to give up much ground.

I wish to attract sufficient outside input from uninvolved editors so as to provide the most satisfactory end to the debate possible, without giving the impression of canvassing. I would like to make it clear up front that I have certainly contributed to the problems in this debate, and I accept full responsibility for my actions. My desire here is not to enforce my own POV, but to reach an acceptable consensus on the matter. Since the topic matter falls within the bounds of such cases as WP:DIGWUREN, it is necessary to exercise a certain deal of caution in dealing with this. The move request was an effort on my part to induce some kind of focused debate; what I believe to be necessary now is to involve people other than the regulars so that accusations of collusion or partisanship do not stick, whichever way the request goes.

My question is, how can I involve neutral editors in reaching a final decision here? Do I file another RfC? Do I seek higher arbitration/mediation? Or do I simply continue with the move request and hope for the best?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 11:21, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

It appears the dispute is going in circles. You could submit a request for mediation, or I could offer to step in as mediator. Alpha Quadrant 14:20, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Since there is already a discussion in motion, I feel that it is too late for the former. In retrospect, going to WP:MEDCAB is what should have been done instead of hastily submitting a move request; I fear this may only be feeding the flames, for the only "new" editors commenting at the moment have not improved the rhetoric and general atmosphere at the page. Both are presumably Russian and seem to have a friendly history with one another, which may draw claims of bias from some users. One of them has a history of less-than-pleasant interactions with several of the "regulars" and has been placed under WP:DIGWUREN restrictions in the past.

However, I think that it would be immensely helpful if you were to provide some mediation services. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 21:52, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure what there is to mediate. It seems we have a number of editors who desire moving an article contrary to Misplaced Pages policy. They are saying we should ignore WP:TITLE's direction to survey a wide variety of sources and instead rely upon the opinion of one single scholar in finding a common name, and to ignore WP:TITLE's direction to consider only English-language sources but instead also to consider the POV of Russian-language sources (though no one has actually furnished such a source). --Martin (talk) 05:21, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Martin, though I certainly respect your opinion, you must recognise that the way things are going, there is not going to be a satisfactory outcome for all parties involved. We have been see-sawing back and forth for months now without any resolution of conflict; something needs to be done. Since neither side trusts the other, and since nobody can seem to agree on the interpretation of WP policy, we require outside intervention. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 11:59, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Well mediation may work, but even if consensus was achieved by a small group of editors on an article talk page in this particular case, it cannot override the wider community consensus on policy. --Martin (talk) 15:25, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

You could consider listing the move request at Misplaced Pages:Requested moves. However, it could be that the topic holds little interest for other editors, the issues are too complex, it takes too long to read the discussion and editors may not wish to become involved in a highly controversial subject about which they do not hold strong opinions. However this is not the correct forum for this discussion - but then I do not know what forum is. TFD (talk) 15:35, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

To several above, the additional input of a noted scholar has not helped because the various parties interpret that source to suit their position, e.g., one editor states the scholar says Soviet "intervention" not occupation, while the scholar writes that the USSR "crushed" the Baltic states and occupied them. Or editors are focusing on the finer points of the Soviet annexation and making more far reaching contentions which are not fundamentally supported. The bottom line regarding the article in question is that it is a summary of a continuous period of three contiguous occupations by two invading foreign powers, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, focused on the policies and actions of both of those powers with regard to the rights and lives of the Baltic nationals (ethno-agnostic) subjugated under said foreign powers.

IMHO, some editors appear hell-bent on expunging "occupation" wherever it touches upon the portrayal of the Soviet legacy under the false mantle of "NPOV" ("occupation" implies something "bad" happened, "bad" is judgemental, etc., etc., etc.). My perception only, of course.

Regardless, there is nothing wrong with the title or article content or scope. PЄTЄRS J V ►TALK 16:03, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Sandbox pages

I would like to have these sandbox pages which i had previously gotten deleted brought back, together with their talk pages. I wish to work on certain potential articles, and bringing back the pages would save me quite some time and effort.

• User:Joyson Noel/Luis de Menezes Bragança
• User:Joyson Noel/Francisco Luís Gomes
• User:Joyson Noel/Joaquim Heliodoró da Cunha Rivara
• User:Joyson Noel/Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado

Joyson Noel 19:56, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

All restored. Courcelles 20:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Informational post re: McDonald's & corporate communications

I don't think there's any admin action required here, but this is something I thought would be of interest to admins -- if true, it's certainly a new take on how corporate communications departments might deal effectively with Misplaced Pages.

An editor claiming to be part of McDonald's "communications team" - User:Egerstea - has in the last three months contacted three editors to thank them for their work on the McDonald's article, and to offer themselves as a resource should any information be needed. The comments are boilerplate - here's the first one.

As you can see there's no request for any specific edits to be made, information to be added or deleted, it just looks like "bridge building". The only pitfall I can see is that any information coming directly from the McDonald's corporate communications people should probably be in the form of pointers to already published information, rather than stuff released specifically for use on Misplaced Pages - although, if they were to seperately publish any new information provided to us in a press release, that could alleviate that concern. In any event, I would think that anything coming directly from McD's should be clearly labelled as such, and, if possible, verified with third-party reliable sources, just to make sure that they're not shaping data in a way that's advantageous to their public image.

I would never want Misplaced Pages to be an appendage of the corporate world, but it would be nice to be able to get information directly from companies when it's necessary to do so. Beyond My Ken (talk) 21:30, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Corporate publicity isn't something I know a lot about, but when I did have limited contact with public relations firms about ten years ago, some of the main services they provided was indeed collecting and organising pointers to already-published information about their client organisations. So there is more potential for this to be useful from a Misplaced Pages perspective than might initially be imagined - the sort of information that these people would collect pointers to, would quite often be exactly the sort of reliable sources that Misplaced Pages articles need. (With a little bit of natural bias thrown in, of course.) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 06:43, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Edit Request for Special:Newpages

The Twinkle feature that marks new pages patrolled when tagging them is currently down. Would an admin please add the following to the instructions:

"The Twinkle feature that automatically marks pages patrolled is currently down. New Page Patrollers, please mark pages patrolled manually before tagging them with Twinkle."

Thank you. N419BH 01:54, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean on MediaWiki:Newpages-summary? Also, any idea on how long it will be down? If it's just temporary, I don't think a note is really needed, but if it's a few days, sure. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 02:17, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Wherever the directions are edited is where I mean...and I'm not sure where that is. And it's already been down for several days. I have no idea how long it will continue. The twinkle bug report page doesn't indicate any timeframe for bug resolution. N419BH 02:22, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Done. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 02:43, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

It will be down until the rewrite is complete, which will be several weeks. —UncleDouggie (talk) 17:49, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

A question for Administrators (and others interested)

I am considering advancing a proposal. Because it might increase the admin workload and perhaps create a new notice board similar to AIV and UAA I would like to first ask for some opinions here. If this is not appropriate, accept my apologies and remove the thread as misplaced. I think there should be a direct option, at some appropriate screen, perhaps the one when selecting (cur | prev), to request RevDel, for certain egregious examples which qualify for redaction. I would propose that when a user, presses Revdel, the edit is reverted as in rollback, and a report filed to a notice board for admin consideration. Of course the decision to redact would rest where it properly exists now, and abusive reporting should be discouraged, and carry consequences. But for the most blatantly obvious, which fit the criteria a mechanism for reporting could increase use of this perhaps underused resource. I would anticipate it as a good fit to bundle as a Rollbacker user right. Thank you and please comment regarding the merits of such a proposal. My76Strat 10:06, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I like the idea. There would have to be a confirmation dialog though, to avoid accidental requests. — Oli Pyfan! 10:16, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

(Non-administrator comment): It is a good idea, but there is a possibility of misuse. I think a better way is to have a link that allows for easy access reporting to RFO for RevDel and Oversight. Instead of having to go to WP:RFO, click the link, fill out the email with the links, wait for a reply, rinse, repeat. Just a button for reporting, or something like that in TWINKLE or HUGGLE. Putting it in Rollbackers access would be bad. RevDel should only be for admins. - Neutralhomer • Talk • Coor. Online Amb'dor • 10:21, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

My76Strat wasn't saying that revdelete powers should be given to rollbackers, but rather that rollbackers should have access to a link that makes it easy to request an admin revdelete something. — Oli Pyfan! 10:30, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Ah, gotcha! My goof. :S Then this is a definite good idea. Should be put into the other links we already have. The link should just forward the information to the RFO email address, with a checkbox for RevDel or Oversight to make it easier on the admins. - Neutralhomer • Talk • Coor. Online Amb'dor • 10:33, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I agree, and to clarify I do not suggest rollbackers be able to RevDel, Only that perhaps the one button report should be part of their user right. Or as you stated it could be part of twinkle and available to a wider user base if that is deemed appropriate. Just like AIV and UAA, the action must be accomplished by an admin. I only suggest a streamlined mechanism to initiate the report. Thanks for your interest and response. My76Strat 10:42, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I'm slightly confused: how would this work technically? Or are you saying that you'd like to gauge interest and then find out if it would work technically? The idea sounds very good; my only hesitation is on the actual implementation side. Nyttend (talk) 12:37, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I am really gauging for the opinion of the user group most impacted by the possibility of an increased workload. I think the technical aspects are less daunting, but could be wrong. And the important considerations are likely to be highlighted from a discussion here. For example I hadn't considered, but acknowledge the importance of a multifaceted tool. One which could append the majority of reports to a noticeboard while allowing the necessary ability to divert some of the more sensitive reports through oversight. And the benefit of a redundant confirmation to reduce false reporting and accidental clicks. So yes, all of this seems within reasonable reach and I do appreciate every response. I know there is likely to be some valid opposition and I eagerly anticipate that as well. My76Strat 13:09, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

I posted a question to the techs on the IRC and this response seems to corroborate my assumptions: "It could be implemented in the software, but it shouldn't be too hard to do it in JavaScript, or even as a new feature in something like Twinkle". My76Strat 13:28, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

This sounds like a very good idea to me. Decreasing the visibility of RevDel requests would be a good thing; the current practice of posting them on a widely-read noticeboard is less than ideal for obvious reasons. Could all the requests appear on a Special: page that only admins could see? That would seem preferable to a public queue, if it's possible to implement it that way. 28bytes (talk) 13:42, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

You could simply have twinkle send a report to AIV marked with !! or something similar. No separate noticeboard needed. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 13:46, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Neutral on the noticeboard issue but adding an extra link to Twinkle when viewing diffs (next to the current rollback/revert links in red/green/whatever) seems reasonable. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 16:48, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Arbitration motion regarding Ebionites 2

Per an interim motion:

The request for arbitration is accepted (titled Ebionites 2). However, the case will be held in abeyance for four weeks to allow mediation to proceed. After four weeks, or earlier if the mediation is closed as unsuccessful, the Committee will reexamine the situation to determine whether the case will proceed or be dismissed.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, Dougweller (talk) 14:21, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Discuss this

Sandbox page

Please bring back the following sub-page, which i had previously gotten deleted:

• User:Joyson Noel/José Gerson da Cunha

Thanks. Joyson Noel 16:47, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

 Done - in future you can ask for a WP:REFUND. –xeno 16:58, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

QuackGuru again - what do I do now?

Ok, I'm at a loss. A while back I asked for a site ban on QuackGuru (talk · contribs) for deeply tendentious editing practices, which you guys saw fit to deny (that's fine, I bow to your judgement on that), but now I have no idea how to deal with him. The current issue - which is another manifestation of the behavioral problems I had with QG previously - is at the pseudoscience article. There is an ongoing tussle over the removal of a paragraph (you can see the RfC statement here, which contains links to the paragraph in question and the abstract of the source involved). The removal of the paragraph and source is a bit contentious, for reasons I have a hard time understanding, but I seem to be getting the basic point across to most people, slowly and painfully. However, I keep running into the following issues with QG:

• He continually harps on wp:V and wp:RS, even though no one is arguing that there is a problem with the reliability or verification of the source.
• He never addresses the issues of wp:WEIGHT and wp:SYN that are the core of the problem with the paragraph, despite the fact that I and others have stated numerous times that that is where the issue lies
• He continually makes claims in the vein "...no editor has given justification for deleting text...", when in fact two or three threads on the talk page are filled with reasoned justifications for removing the text
• He constantly accuses me or others of OR or other policy violations in edit summaries and text: , , , ,

I can handle the content dispute perfectly well, for the most part - that's just a matter of walking people through the logic of it enough times so that they see the sense of the removal - but there is no way to handle someone who simple refuses to address (or is incapable of addressing, maybe) the pertinent issues. His attitude (as far as I can tell from his monomaniacal focus on wp:V) is that he is going to defend the use of this quote come hell or high water, completely ignoring any assertions that the quote is being misused, that the author is being misrepresented, that the source is being taken out of context... It's like being trapped in one of those funky, depressing existentialist plays where the meaning of language itself is denied.

So, you guys want to keep QuackGuru around as an editor - okayfine. Now, tell me how to get him to use even a modicum of common sense and reason so that we can have a proper discussion on the page. I'm dropping this in your lap now, because if you don't do something to get him to fly right you'll leave me with no choice except to shout him down and shut him up. I'm very capable of doing that (as some of you should be aware), but if I have to go that route things will get progressively more ugly. We don't want that (or at least I don't), so give me another solution. --Ludwigs2 19:56, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Editors have repeatedly added/restored OR to the article while deleting source text and I have addressed the context issue. What are editors supposed to do when Ludwigs2 and other editors continue to restore text that failed V and delete text that is well sourced. Ludwigs2 and other editors are unable to provide WP:V when asked to provide V. QuackGuru (talk) 20:10, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Given how the last discussion of this type ended (see Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive220#Community ban for User:QuackGuru) I think the best thing we can hope for is that some of those who at the time were against a ban get involved at WP:Pseudoscience to get some first hand experience with QG's behaviour. Hans Adler 20:52, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Hans Adler, you blindly restored OR after it was discussed on the talk page and in my edit summary. Your controversial edit is being discussed on the talk page. Do you agree you won't restore the text that failed verifaction when you are unable to provide V. QuackGuru (talk) 20:57, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages noticeboards