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Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents
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User:Gene Nygaard pages moves

Hi, this user is moving pages with diacritics to versions without them only because there was no redirect from the unaccented version (e.g.). He refuses to make simple redirects because it does not teach the involved editors to make redirects. Three users protested his actions, but he is still insisting on his own way. See related talk section. I have no time or will to babysit him and revert the moves. Please do something about it. Thank you. Renata 17:34, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Mr. Nygaard seems to be on the edge (or beyond) of WP:POINT, but well-intentioned. Perhaps if a few admins weighed in we could channel his desire to help more effectively. Martinp 01:00, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I have restored this comment to the noticeboard as this editor has continued moving pages despite eight editors asking him to stop or reverting his edits - a clear action against consensus.

Just one example: Rétság was moved to Retsag today. Now, for no encyclopaedic reason, it is the single Hungarian place in its category without the correct diacritics, and all the internal links point to a redirect. This is not a good thing.

Gene claims on his talk page that he moves the pages (rather than creating the necessary redirect) to make a point to the original page creator that they should have created a diacriticless redirect earlier. As mentioned by Martinp, this breaches WP:POINT; this editor should not be working against consensus, disturbing consistent naming schemes and creating needless redirect, RFM and page move work for other editors in order to attract attention to a cause.

Administrator help for the clear-up would be much appreciated, too. Aquilina 16:51, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I would add that he does not seem to look for a compromise. Renata 16:58, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree entirely. Something should be done about this. —freak(talk) 17:01, Aug. 14, 2006 (UTC)

If we can collide him with User:Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (who did a huge number of disruptive pagemoves in sort of the opposite direction recently) would there be a matter-antimatter explosion? Phr (talk) 17:09, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I've reverted Gene's latest moves. He does seem to be doing more harm than good, despite having a perfectly valid point about unaccented redirects. — sjorford++ 17:13, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I've left a warning on his user page. If he continues I think a 1 hour block would make sense (I don't want to block for longer because this is minor and Gene is a generally good contributor). JoshuaZ 17:24, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I have left a message on his talk page as well. Regardless of his motives - and I believe, from long experience, Gene has the best interests of the project at heart - this is not the way to go about things, and only inflames people. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 17:44, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

The issue of non-English-alphabet names needs to have a clear policy -- something to be decided from above. I have made it my rule so far to create articles with the native name, creating redirects for all the Anglicized versions. I agree that Gene's policy of anglicizing article names (without that being a clear WP policy) does more harm than good -- Palthrow 18:44, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't see a big issue, I thought we have guidelines (see the RAN incident) that we name the article with the most common English spelling, e.g. John von Neumann instead of Neumann János. But in the cases where the name isn't commonly used in English, we use the native spelling. Phr (talk) 19:24, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

So, according to the very valid points you are making--no determination has yet been made as to the proper English Wikipedia title in the articles I am moving. Therefore, no one has any real grounds for complaint against my moves. The unaccented form has not yet been considered by anyone. If you disagree with my choice as to the particular title, you can discuss it on that articles talk page. Or, you can even revert me--but at least we don't end up with the totally unacceptable position which prevailed before. If you do revert me, the redirect will remain. That means that someone who sees some word or name of a person or place in an English language newspaper or magazine story will now at least have a reasonable chance to find the Wikipedia article on the subject, if one exists. That wasn't the case before.

Sure, in many cases it really doesn't matter all that much which of the various spellings and forms appears in the article title, as long as you can find the article by slapping on the squigglies after I have moved it to the English form, or whatever. What is totally unacceptable is not to have a search for the English alphabet version work. Gene Nygaard 02:26, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

A couple of other things to consider:

1. After my moves, all links from forms with accents still work and still get you to the proper article.
2. After my moves, entering the accented form into the "Go" box still works.
3. After my moves, many former redlinks are now blue, and take you to the correct article.
4. After my moves, entering the English alphabet form in the "Go" box works as well, something that wasn't true before.

Actually, there are almost no places where you will even notice that the article has been moved, when it comes to finding information in Wikipedia.

Furthermore, many of these articles are accompanied by another problem--not being indexed properly in the categories. It isn't a one-to-one correspondence; some of those missing any connection the the English alphabet form have already been indexed properly (and in most cases, appear as they should in the same place in the list whether the accents are included in the article title or not), and some with the article title in an unaccented version have improper use of diacritics in the indexing sort keys. But quite often the two problems go hand in hand. Gene Nygaard 02:40, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Al those things you mention in the numbered bullets would be correct if you made a simple redirect! And for the record, Gene moved 2 more pages after posting here. Renata 11:56, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

The problem with redirects is that they are invisible.

One of the major problems with that is that you miss out on the knowledge of those people who know when a letter is often transliterated as two letters rather than one (dj, dz, aa, ou, etc.), and can thus also create redirects from the other spellings as well. If their attention isn't called to the problem, because we only made an invisible semi-fix to one particular article, then that is missed. One of the problems, of course, is that a single character can be transliterated differently in different languages, so there is not any one size fits all solution, even if I were to bother even trying to learn all those silly rules for each of the thousands of possible characters. Gene Nygaard 12:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Ten people have told you to stop.

• A redirect does not move a page to a name inconsistent with all the other related articles in its category, unlike your moves.
• A redirect does not need WP:RM and an admin to undo, unlike some of your moves.
• A redirect does not require a team of editors to waste their time reverting your contributions needlessly, unlike your moves.
• A redirect does not move the page does not move the page to an arbitrary transliteration like your moves do - you even admit you don't fully understand transliteration schemes above.
• A redirect does not cause multiple double redirects which you don't bothered to fix, unlike your moves.

Gene, these are just a few of the reasons people have told you to stop. If you want to highlight something to editors, put a reminder on their user talk pages, or bring it up on the community policy talk pages: do not abuse page moves. You have carried on moving pages unnecessarily [1], [2] despite multiple warnings, and you have clearly declared your intent to carry on ("I shall continue to express my choice in my way" - [3]). This wasting of other contributors' time to prove a point should not continue. Aquilina 17:35, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Gene, how many other people need to tell you to stop? Or do we need to get in the business of blocks and RfCs? No one wants that, everyone thinks your intentions are well, but please stop. Renata 17:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

So, try this. Put "Taniko" in the box on your Wikipedia page. Then click on either "Go" or "Search". Do you find an article dealing with a weaving technique? As I write this, you won't.

Now figure out some other way to find the article dealing with that weaving technique. Then show me by example how your method works, what you'd do to fix the problem. Show me whose talk page you'd go to, and what you'd say, and let me know how well it works.

Or are you just interested in being a pest and disrupting things? Gene Nygaard 00:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It was easy to fix. Taniko is now a redirect to Tāniko. What's wrong with that? —ptk✰fgs 07:41, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, for starters

1. It had no effect whatsoever on the fact that Ngai Tai remains a redlink, whereas if you had called it to the attention of someone who had actually edited the Tāniko article, they might have taken the hint and fixed others as well. But no one with Tāniko on their watchlists will even know that you had made any change related to it.
2. You failed to fix it so that Tāniko is indexed correctly in its categories. Gene Nygaard 11:34, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Just want to say that I fully support using only standard ASCII characters in article titles. Using non-standard characters makes finding articles and editing them very annoying. Gene Nygaard should be commended for his effort.  Grue  07:36, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Tu put it short: I do not agree with Gene for the simple reason that if nobody makes a redirect we have a wrong article title and the reader does not know that (he cannot know whether the title is an alternative name, the correct spelling, the wrong spelling etc.). Therefore I am strictly against any such titles and I have seen no rule saying that we should have wrong article titles. Juro 02:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

They are most definitely not "wrong" article titles. You might argue that one is better than the other for the one slot we have available for the actual title, but redirects mean that we can find it under any of the "correct" possibilities--as long as they exist, of course. The problem is, these redirects often do not exist. Gene Nygaard 21:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Gene, that is exactly what we are arguing. You seem to be saying that it doesn't matter at all where the article is, as long as all appropriate redirects point to it. Your aim of making sure all possible redirects exist - which, I stress again, is an aim I agree with 100% - is one that can be achieved without moving these articles from their established titles. I ask you one last time, please stop these disruptive and pointless moves. — sjorford++ 08:39, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Let me highlight the problems as clearly as possible. Looking at Category:Towns in Turkey, it is clear that to find or refer to any Turkish town, I should use the name with diacritcs, as this is the form that has been used by the editors of all these 74 pages. Except this isn't true any more; Güzelçamlı and Çatalsu weren't after your spree last night.

Is there any encyclopaedic reason for this, or perhaps a reason stemming from principal usage? No. It's completely arbitrary, and purely down to the stubborness of one editor who freely admits he doesn't fully understand the principles of transliteration in these languages. An editor, in fact, who doesn't sort out the dozens of double redirects he creates to these pages by moving them, but who justifies himself by complaining about double redirects. One who says the article title hasn't been considered, but does not take into account the considerations of the article creator, all subsequent editors, and the consideration given to the naming within the group of articles as a whole.

Gene, looking through your contribs you're not even implementing the current conventions correctly:

• we don't move articles to the "English name" just because one exists (see Takuu) - we move it there if that "English name" is the predominant usage. Hence Moscow but not Marseilles or Saragossa.
• we don't strip people of diacritics just because they are American; you do so if they are American and their name is predominantly used without them: my esteemed friend Mr Müller didn't have to relinquish his umlaut to obtain an American passport, and neither did his children who were born there, and their u's remain adorned to this day.
• we don't move articles if they index peculiarly - we fix the indexing with the tag. If editor education is your main aim, as claimed, why revert 30-odd edits by User:Ionius Mundus last night for this reason and not even bother to discuss it with him on his talk page?

There is no current canon yet on whether we use a restricted character set for titles. If you want to change naming conventions, change it at the policy level through the proper channels and not through isolated, inconsistent, incomplete and disruptive page moves. At least at the moment we have consistency within related article groups. It is not worth losing this when we can achieve largely the same result a less disruptive fashion. Fix the index tags like you normally do, create the diacriticless redir, fix the double redirects and if you really want, leave a note on the article creator's talk to politely remind them to create the redir themselves in future. Make a template to do so if you wish.

You have made ~100 such edits. All have been reverted. This usually shows you're doing something people think you shouldn't.

Doing so even when repeatedly requested not to by numerous editors, administrators, and a member of ArbCom is disrupting the encyclopaedia. Aquilina 12:00, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I had this Gene appear out of nowhere like a bear with a sore head making threats to revert moves made to Polynesian mythology articles because the macronised vowels in those names upset the categorization which it seems in his book is more important than accuracy. He said that if he had to do it he would do it the easy way, ie, revert the moves. Why could he not have approached me civilly and pointed out the deficiencies in my use of category sort codes (of which I knew nothing) nicely? OK, I learned, but he made me angry for no good reason. Then he shifted Takuu, (an article about an atoll in Papua New Guinea I was heavily involved in writing) to Mortlock Islands because apparently 'if there is an English name we should use it.' That was uncalled for and annoying because 'Mortlock Islands' is little used in this part of the world to refer to Takuu, and because there is actually another group of islands called 'Mortlock Islands' in the Federated States of Micronesia. It was like he looked up my contributions and decided to mess with Takuu just because I added diacritics to some article names. I feel annoyed because I have done a lot of work to begin cleaning up a huge mess in the Polynesian articles, and I get treated like a vandal by this rude Gene. Editing to make a point is not kosher is it? Another thing that he may not be aware of, is that English comes in many flavours, and in the New Zealand flavour, accepted spelling of Māori words often INCLUDES THE DIACRITICS. Coincidentally (or not), at the same time as Gene was threatening the reverts, an anonymous person with the IP 66.97.252.168 added sort codes on two categories on the Māori Wikipedia Kahuroa 12:26, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't change the indexing, even if it is "often" though certainly not universal in New Zealand it still is indexed with a rather than according to Unicode numbers. Even in mi:Category:Ngā tāone o Aotearoa you should be fixing the indexing so that ā doesn't come after "b", let alone after "z" as it usually does now--but that doesn't mean I'll bother getting a user name there, even if I do help out a bit. That also includes indexing of categories in their supercategories. I'll give you a little more time before following up on your moves here on English Wikipedia and fixing any you might have missed. After you finish that, maybe you'd be interested in fixing those such as the Ngai Tai mentioned above which remains a redlink as of this posting, even though more than two days without any of the supposedly concerned people following this thread taking the hint. Gene Nygaard 13:59, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Note also that the Maori Wikipedia puts Maori accent marks in its spelling of Europe (mi:Ūropi). There's nothing unique about English articles being in the English alphabet spelling. And mi:Tiamana, fr:Allemagne, nn:Tyskland, de:Deutschland, and en:Germany are all articles about the very same place. Gene Nygaard 14:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Does your "esteemed friend Mr Müller" have a Wikipedia article in need of attention? Where will I find him in the Social Security Death Index when he dies? Have you actually seen any of his children's report cards from school? What does his driver's license say? What does the court docket say if he is stopped for speeding or arrested for something else, or the newspaper in its report of that? In some of such cases, usage with accents can probably be established; but in most cases, all that justifies is a redirect from the accented form. The burden is on those trying to establish that fact, especially with regard to the article name rather than just a redirect, whereas I was obviously dealing with cases where it had never been considered since there wasn't even a redirect or disambiguation page link. Gene Nygaard 14:48, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, Aquilina, if you fix categories such as Category:Districts of Kırşehir so that they are sorted properly, then I won't find so many articles ripe for a move. Note that this isn't an easy task; it is complicated by nasty templates adding the categories in a way not visible on the edit page. Gene Nygaard 15:10, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

This editor seems to be working against consensus, although he may have some folk in support of the naming question, the consensus seems clear that he should not be doing what he is doing the way he is doing it. Arguing the points of what is right or wrong about naming is out of place on this, the Administrator's Notice board, and ought to be taken elsewhere.

The only relevant question here is, are the actions of this editor disrupting the encyclopedia, and if so, what should be done about it? The answers seem clear to me, they are disruptive, and if he will not agree to stop doing them until consensus is clear, and then agree to abide by consensus whether he agrees or not (these are our norms, after all), he should be blocked. Gene Nygaard, Bobblewik, SPUI... these seem of a class... acting in good faith and with good intentions, up to a point, but unwilling to abide by consensus, and insistent on editing to enforce their view in the face of strong opposition. That's just not collegial. Therefore I think a block is in order here. ++Lar: t/c 15:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Jtkiefer

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

Some rather ugly things coming to light at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Jtkiefer 3: Jtkiefer (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), who is also apparently Pegasus1138 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), has had various interesting interactions between his accounts, including responding to his 3RR report, telling himself that he won't block himself for 3RR, supporting himself for a bot flag (but opposing his own RFA), double-voting on RFAs, and other such things. What do we do now? I would suggest an indefinite block of at least one of the accounts—perhaps with a shorter block on the other—and possibly a checkuser to see if he has any other sockpuppets waiting in the wings. Kirill Lokshin 16:37, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I have indefinitely blocked Pegasus1138 as an admitted sockpuppet engaged in devious activity. I would support a long block -- even an indefinite one -- on Jtkiefer, but will not impose it myself, given his history of hostility to me. Xoloz 16:54, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Support, way beyond anything acceptable. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 17:03, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Some other strange goings-on here that may relate to this case. Kirill Lokshin 17:00, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

My apologies for top-posting, but use RFAR. This is a picture perfect RFAR situation and the living example of a thing not to be done by head nods on AN/I. Geogre 19:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

So is User:Thygard another sockpuppet? A checkuser seems strongly in order. JoshuaZ 17:05, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

What makes you suspect that? Editor88 17:06, 11 August 2006 (UTC) Never mind... I've got it figured out. 17:07, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I am in the strange position of having some good memories of Jtkiefer (and incidentally, bad ones of Pegasus). At this time, and based on this evidence, I would not yet be willing support an indefinite block. While there is evidence of abusive sockpuppetry, and the puppets should be blocked, so far I don't see enough evidence of the kind of persistent disruption that normally motivates an indefinite block. Dragons flight 17:20, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I have indefinitely blocked Thygard for the same reason as Pegasus1138. Xoloz 17:09, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Moved from WP:AN

Due to the gravity of the persistent and repeated abuses of trust reported in the course of Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Jtkiefer_3, I propose that we ban him from Wikipedia [4]. --Tony Sidaway 17:16, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Not sure. His actions convince me that he should never be an admin, and any future RfAs should be speedily closed. He should also be limmited to one account. But aside from that, I think probation rather than a ban is in order. There is no evidence (that I know of) that he's been a particularly disruptive editor. Arbcom might be better than an outright ban. --Doc 17:19, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Per Doc, I would suggest an RfArb over anything else. — FireFox ^(talk) _{17:21, 11 August '06}

Hi, everyone. I must say that I disagree with a community ban. I know I'm not an admin, but I have just finished looking over the situation out of my own curiosity, and I don't believe that he's actually harmful. I agree that his potential future RfAs should be speedily closed and he should be limited to one account, but I don't think an indefinite ban is necessary - I'd say ArbCom. Sorry if I'm out of place... Srose (talk) 17:26, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Your comments are certainly not out of place. (Particularly since you are agreeing with me - which shows your inate wisdom ;).) --Doc 17:28, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Doc is, I think, quite right, and his suggestions seem roughly orthogonal with those of Cyde infra. Jtk should be limited to one account, of course, with the provision that his creating a sockpuppet for the purpose of disrupting projectspace will be strongly disfavored; his mainspace participation seems to be altogether fine, and I don't think there's any risk of disruption relative to work on articles. I'm not certain that a year-long ban from RfA is in order—his only sockpuppeteering at RfA seems to have been relative to his own RfAs, and I can't imagine that he'll be requesting adminship anytime soon—since he may have particular prescience apropos of the judgment of prospective admins, but I don't think such a ban would be particularly wrong. Joe 17:44, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

So how about this: Jtkiefer is put on a standard one-year probation with an added provision of being banned from RFA and its subpages (for one year). He is also limited to only one account. --Cyde Weys 17:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Concur, for reasons enumerated above. Joe 17:44, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

He should also be banned from WP:FPC for sockpuppet voting there as well. -Ravedave 18:14, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think we should close the admin window on him permanently - changes can happen outside of one's imagination. I do, however, prefer that he be required go through Editor review before his next admin application. Editor88 17:33, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I say ArbCom and RFC (should have been RFCU). I definitely feel there should be consequences over this, but a community ban seems a bit much. So ArbCom to get official status of some consequences/limits, and RFC to find any other current problem socks. - TexasAndroid 17:34, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

RFC? Maybe a straight checkuser would be more effective in actually finding out what his other socks are? Kirill Lokshin 17:41, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Sigh. Checkuser is exactly what I meant. I just typed the wrong acronym. Sorry for any confusion. - TexasAndroid 17:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I was going to say. RFC in this case would just become a venue to bash him. JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 17:54, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

There's a lot of ugly in that RFA, but if he can agree to having only one account, there's a possibility he can still be a useful editor (though not an admin or anything with additional trust, apparently). Very sad to see this occur...I think Cyde has an acceptable compromise here. Are you actually intending to forbid him from voting on RFAs, though? -- nae'blis 17:35, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Given his use of sockpuppets to get muliple votes on at least three previous RFAs (that we know of), there need to be some consequences and provisions to ensure the integrity of the process. --Cyde Weys 17:43, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Good point, I was just making sure I understood your proposal. I'm not entirely certain how CheckUser works (not having the bit), is it only done on comparison of users, or does it reveal all users at a particular IP? I ask because it would make a difference in my confidence of all socks being caught/gone... -- nae'blis 18:00, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree with finding his various sockpuppets, it would help over at WP:FPC -Ravedave 18:14, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• Indef ban may be a bit of an overkill, but I would support a RfAr hearing on all these. - Mailer Diablo 17:36, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• ArbCom is probably a cleaner way of going about this than a straight ban; but the various sockpuppets should be blocked outright. There's no need to risk having some of them slip under the radar at this point. Kirill Lokshin 17:41, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Just bringing it to everyone's attention: [5]. — FireFox ^(talk) _{17:36, 11 August '06}

• I think indef block is too harsh, but placing Jtkiefer on probation for a year would be suitable. The socks should be indef blocked of course. Doubt an ArbComm case would be productive, there's really not much to arbitrate. -- Миборовский 17:55, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• I think that Jtkiefer could be a good article editor again but should not be given any positions of trust, or allowed to comment or vote on them, until maturity has been demonstrated. I'd rather see him restricted to his current account with some curbs in place (no standing or running for admin, arb, or 'crat, and no commenting on other candidacies, not commenting/voting on anything else either) instead of his setting up another identity which then has to be managed/monitored somehow (and without fishing around it might be hard to do that anyway...) ++Lar: t/c 19:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• One oppose vote by a new editor was odd to me in Jtkiefer's RfA. Namely by Republitarian (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). The user registered 2 days ago and started editing with edit summaries etc. Just strikes odd, with that previous self-oppose incident also. feydey 19:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Not one of mine, sorry to burst the bubble of anyone who expects to find more socks, Pegasus and Thygard were my only two. Jtkiefer 19:35, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't bother

Don't bother, I am perfectly capable of knowing where and when I am not wanted and I am obviously not wanted here, please also indef. block Jtkiefer if it'll make you feel better but I'll save you all the trouble and go through a self imposed wiki-ban, for the record all I ever wanted to do was help the project, everything I did was an attempt to help though I honestly don't expect you all to believe that, well so long and thanks for all the fish. Jtkiefer^{T | C | @} ---- 17:44, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

To the contrary, you are wanted so long as you make good contributions, and not the types of shenanigans that have upset so many. - Taxman ^Talk 17:49, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

To be fair, while recent revelations have been distressing, the person most hurt by Jtkiefer's behaviour is almost certainly Jtkierer, himself. And the fact of opposing his sockpuppet's RfA suggests that this is not a straightforward case of duplicity for the motive of gain, but that the user may have been going through problems that we know nothing about. AnnH ♫ 00:45, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

(sigh) It's not that you are not wanted, just that certain behavior is not wanted. All discussion here seems to be related to project-space problems; can you handle being "just" an article editor for a while, to re-establish trust? -- nae'blis 18:00, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Jt, I don't believe you would dispute that your actions have been less than appropriate. People are responding to them differently, and at this point the community has not come to any kind of decision -- and I don't suppose that it would be reasonable for you to expect that all of this be forgotten at the drop of a hat: if you want this to be let go eventually, the first step is to own it, that is, accept responsibility for the mistakes made.
I don't have a crystal ball, of course, but if I had to guess, I'd say you are not likely to be banned, but you are equally unlikely to become an administrator, or to hold any kind of special position in this community. If you can settle for being an editor (and doing it from a single account), who knows, in the future (granted, it would take a lot more time than "usual"), you might even arrive at a point where the community will we willing to trust you with Admin tools again. But if you up and leave now, nothing gets resolved, and the last memory of your participation in the project would be this debacle. Would you say that's fair? Be patient; accept responsibility. And don't get angry because people are having a hard time digesting what has happened, since that's not fair either. Redux 18:16, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

<de-indent> I thought I did, anyway yes I do take responsibility for what I was doing was wholly innapropriate and wrong and I apologize for violating everyone's trust, in my defense of Pegasus1138 though that sock was actually known and permitted by both Jimmy Wales and the arbitration committee in respone to the RFA/RFB incident that happened between the two accounts. Jtkiefer 18:35, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

No, Jt is correct to some extent. He/She certainly IS unwanted by some of us. The unbelievable and offensive arrogance he/she showed at WP:FPC speaks volumes. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 20:39, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention to arrogance of self-nominating a sock puppet for RfA four times. -Will Beback 20:58, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Good article editors are welcome always, but this user should never be an admin. Thatcher131 (talk) 21:23, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

The regularity with which this user has attempted to gain "authority" over others here (and the underhanded tactics utilized) indicates (IMO) that he/she should be banned permanently from the Wikipedia. There is no place in our community for someone with the mindset that this user displays. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 21:27, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Solution

As I've said I am going on a self imposed Wikiban from this account and the other 2 have already been blocked and I fully agree to a community enforced one account probation, however due to the strong feelings in this case I am loathe to do it on this account and once this discussion has died down I will be scrambling my passwords on this and the other two accounts to long letter/number combinations to prevent abuse by myself or others. Considering that if my one account would not have a fair shot of being a good editor I would not publicly reveal what the nick is (when I have created it) however if a few trusted Wikipedian's would come forth and swear secrecy I think that having them as oversight would be a good idea, that way the needs of the community knowing what I'm doing and the needs of me being able to make a fresh start under one account would be met. Jtkiefer 17:58, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I would agree to this, on the one additional proviso that, if you ever want to seek RFA on the new account, you must publically reveal the link in the process. This may result in it being impossible for you to ever get adminship back, but I'm afraid that that would have to be part of the consequences for you actions. For you to ever seek adminship again, it must be done in the public light. I have no problem with you returning to edit quietly, but I have a big problem with the possibility of you using that secrecy to try to get adminship once again. As for who could be trusted to know your new account, User:Kelly Martin, for one, appears to have been trusted by you for quite a while, and could possibly be one of the people, IMHO. - TexasAndroid 18:07, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Considering that Pegasus dissappeared with a very similar claim, I still think an RFCU would be in order. JoshuaZ 18:09, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Already filed. - TexasAndroid 18:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I've taken this to Requests for arbitration [6]. --Tony Sidaway 18:15, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

And the request for checkuser was shot down as a fishing expedition, I have already created my single use account btw, and as per the community imposed terms (and I don't think anyone will disagree if I say that this is the probation version of a community ban decision} of the single account probation I have created my secondary account, and as of now am limiting this account to this AN/I thread, my user, talk, and subpages, and the pending RFAr against me. Jtkiefer 18:18, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I would not call it "Shot Down". Mackensen said there were no "extant accounts" other than the 3 we already know of. (And he deliberately did not reveal the new account, if it had been created before the check) I read this as check performed, nothing found beyond the known ones, and possibly the new one. As such I consider the RFCU issue to be closed. - TexasAndroid 18:24, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that's a very accurate analysis of it actually, so hopefully that can be put to rest. Jtkiefer 18:28, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• Just a status update, I have scrambled the passwords for both Pegasus and Thygard so I no longer have access to either account, nor is there an email address set for either account. Jtkiefer 18:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

• Both accounts are blocked indefinitely, so that's a moot point actually. - Mailer Diablo 18:51, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, but I think it's an attempt at showing good faith on my part in me accepting using only one account if nothing else. Jtkiefer 19:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it would be quite irresponsible for us to Assume Good Faith on your part after your behavior. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 21:28, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I support arbitration to examine the entire history and all areas of potential abuse by the editor. For the record, I was seconds from blocking him for his utterly unacceptable attack of JDG ^[7], only to find out this was his (not his 1st) "I'm leaving" note. El_C 21:57, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:FPC

For the record, Jtkiefer has been involved in some potential irregularities on the WP:FPC. See here for details. His/Her consistent attempts to act as if he/she has "authority" over others or some special status seem in the same vein as his/her attempts to achieve adminship. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 20:36, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Userpage deletion

I have requested several times that User:Thygard be deleted using {{db-owner}} perfectly in line with policy it has been confirmed that I am the owner and it is not a talk page. The sock notice which should be preserved is also present on the the talk page so that's not an issue eithyer. My requests while inline with policy have been deemed "vandalism" and my userpage ad been protected against even me editing it. Could an admin please fulfill my request? thanks. Jtkiefer 20:54, 11 August 2006 (UTC) CanadianCaesar has brought up the good point that there may be an administrative need to keep the page, I disagree since my userpage is just links and notes created as a listing of my interests and some of my comings and goings and unlike my talk page has no real administrative substance but more comment is probably needed in that regard. Jtkiefer 21:00, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

It is useful in that it serves as a link to the contributions of that "user". --Dante Alighieri | Talk 21:17, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Per policy and common practice, the userpage may be blanked, deleted and protected; the talk page may be blanked as a courtesy but will not be deleted, to retain the history of comments, warnings, etc. Even at a blanked/deleted user page, the contribs link will still work. Thatcher131 (talk) 21:22, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, you learn something new every day. ;) --Dante Alighieri | Talk 21:25, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Resolution

I'm bringing this back out of the archive to bring a final resolution. It seems there is consensus for a one account limitation for Jtkiefer and he has agreed to this. Because the issue was already more or less decided here, the arbitration request was declined. The only outstanding issue is for Jtkiefer to disclose to a number of people what new account he is editing under so they can prevent future abuse. While Jtkiefer wants that to be permanently secret, he has abused that in the past, so it seems reasonable to keep the identity secret unless he tries to do anything irregular (such as supporting the positions of his sockpuppets or anything else in WP:SOCK or tries to stand for adminship or another position of importance. There has been a checkuser performed, and it looks like another would need to be run unless Jtkiefer voluntarily discloses his new account to at least a few members of the arbcom and a couple bureaucrats. I'm willing to be one of the bureaucrats the account is disclosed to, but I'm also fine if people don't want me to be one of them for whatever reason. Once the account is disclosed the people that know should confirm they know and by private means confirm it is the same one. Thanks all. - Taxman ^Talk 17:58, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I notice that you have informed Jtkiefer about this discussion on his talk page. I suggest that, if he should want to continue editing under a new account, he should contact a bureaucrat and disclose his username. It doesn't need to be generally published, as long as it is known within the bureaucratship. If he doesn't come forward within a month or so, I guess we assume he's not interested. If he is then detected at some time in the future (due to problematic behavior) then we'll deal with that when it arises. --Tony Sidaway 18:11, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I agreed to use one account and continue to agree to however I do not agree with mandatory disclosure should I request adminship and that's holding me back from full agreement from this. I understand the community has an interest in knowing if I ever go up for adminship again, however statements like dante's "oppose indefinitely" make me weary of disclosure since I feel that I will never be able to get a fair chance again for adminship due to people who will infinitely oppose even after I've earned trust again, also I am not sure if the community will accept anything short of the arbcom and even though I am trying to assume good faith I do not have faith that this won't be done then I'll end up being perm banned by some admin who can claim that this isn't a "community wide decisions". Jtkiefer 18:18, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, we reallize that you want to be able to reapply without having to disclose the situation, but that is unacceptable. Many RfA's pass with some opposes and some with a significant amount. If significant time passed where you were able to demonstrate an exemplary edit history and some patience, then I believe you could have a successful RfA. Heck, not that many Wikipedian's stick around forever. If you're patient enough, you can out-wait them and then your candidacy would be fully judged on the merits. - Taxman ^Talk 18:35, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

We're at a bit of an impasse then since disclosure while not originally unacceptable to me has been made unacceptable by comments by people who will hold a permanent grudge against me and to answer the accusation that I might do something suspicious that would warrant another checkuser, as I said before this account is only being used to respond to these threads and to notes on my talk page and on my undisclosed I'm going back to my basics and trying to get some article editing done in peace. Jtkiefer 18:46, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, sorry, but then I think the only option is forced disclosure or community ban. Restriction to one account with disclosure if need be was just a compromise to allow you to edit. If you are unwilling to disclose the situation should you choose to try for a position of importance, it would be disclosed for you. You made your choices, now you don't want to have to live with the consequences. Sorry, but it doesn't work like that. - Taxman ^Talk 19:17, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It sounds like you want to create a new identity, rack up some edits, promptly apply for adminship again, and a month later for bureaucratship. I can sympathize with you wanting a blank slate for editing, but your constant need for more power is very suspicious, and any future applications for adminship under a new identity should include your past history in this area. If there has been sufficient time and good behavior then I'm sure people can overlook your past deceptions, but it's not going to happen in 2 months like I think you expect. If you don't agree with the terms Taxman outlined, then I would propose that your other account be revealed and blocked, and you be restricted to editing as user User:Jtkiefer. 12.75.4.22 20:00, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Jt, the only reason it seems that people will hold permanent grudges is because they do. You burned a lot of bridges, did you really think that people would just ignore it? Your actions have consequences, and one of those is that you don't get a free pass to have a secret identity so you can be an admin. This is not a matter of us failing to Assume Good Faith, you've PROVEN (more than once) that this community cannot trust you and that you do not care about the opinions of the people who make up the community. If you want to be an admin, you go ahead and convince a sizable majority of people that they can trust you. Now, I doubt you'll be able to do that, but you are entitled to try... OPENLY. I would also like to make a special request that someone who's a regular on the WP:FPC page be made aware of Jt's secret identity, as there are concerns about his behavior on that page specifically. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 22:12, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

A possible other solution, since it appears that I risk being banned if I don't give into being railroaded, what if I edit only as Jtkiefer and do a 6 month voluntary ban on all spaces outside of article/user/and user talk with a one year ban from FPC and RFA and all subpages and related pages, which of course would be enforced not only by myself but the community at large I guess since I can assume that from now on all my contributions will be gone over with a fine tooth comb, this is not my first choice for a solution and the conversations above so that you do not have a legitimate excuse for a community ban as the community by and large is split over possibly banning me but I'm willing to abide by it if it will appease Taxman, Dante, and the community. Jtkiefer 00:35, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Threads on AN and AN/I directly about me would be exempt from this as would RFAr's and RFC's against me of course since even though I don't forsee ever having to use it again I should be able to take part in the dispute resolution procedure if needed. Jtkiefer 00:44, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Note that I have no special weight here, other than that I have been especially vocal in my disapproval of Jtkiefer's recent controversial behavior. As such, Jt has referenced me by name above, and accordingly, I am responding. I will grant that "permanent" was perhaps a bit harsh on my part with respect to a ban. I suppose it is possible for people to "reform" and change their attitude, so leaving the door open in the future is not wholly unreasonable. I would not oppose Jtkiefer's proposed solution (listed above), specifically with respect to the one year voluntary ban from FPC and RFA pages. I am uncertain whether the 6 month ban on "generic" non-article/user pages is necessary, and do not consider it required for a reasonable solution. As Jt's objectionable behavior appears to have been limited to FPC and RFA pages, I have no problem with the punishment being confined to those pages, especially if he continues editing on a known account (User:Jtkiefer, for example, with no socks). Based on a brief check of Jt's additions to the article namespace, it does appear that his "problem" is limited to administrative tasks, and that he would probably be capable of making useful contributions to the 'pedia if they were limited to the article/user space. I maintain my position that his behavior with respect to seeking authority is absolutely unacceptable, but acknowledge that he has contributed outside of that capacity and should probably be allowed to continue to do so. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 01:18, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

You're not being railroaded. You just don't want to deal with the consequences of your actions. But from my perspective you don't need to agree to any namespace bans as long as you agree to edit from one known account and to have that be enforced. You'd be free to e$it as you please and build back trust with the community. That seems like a reasonable solution to remove the problems but allow you to continue the good editing you do. - Taxman ^Talk 01:32, 1u August 2006 (UTC)

Sounds fair to me, I'll only edit via this account without any namespace restrictions, though I think I'll for now just vote on FPC's and not close them, and stay as far away as possible from RFA for the most part. Jtkiefer 02:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok from me at least, but one account means one account — you have to disclose the other account(s) you've been editing under. Also, the no restrictions bit is subject to approval by others of course. - Taxman ^Talk 02:58, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

And therein lies the rub, the unfortunate side-effect of the arbcom rejecting the case is that means that anyone can reject this "solution" and block me in an instant and this is not binding in any way, shape, or form, beyond those of us involved in this thread or indeed really between you, me, and maybe Dante if he feels so inclined. Jtkiefer 04:43, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Lets get this straight, you were found using sockpuppets abusively, abusing your previous admin powers and you are now presented with two options (a) A community ban (b) And alternative which still has a risk of a community ban (though it since I have no reason to believe Taxman is not dealing with this honestly in which case consensus for the ban would not be met). I'm sure many editors wouldn't be given an option (b), yet this isn't good enough for you, as above you seem to want to avoid dealing with the consequences of your actions. I can't speak for anyone else but reading through this thread, this seems to wearing a bit thin and perhaps we should consider withdrawing option (b). --pgk^(talk) 06:48, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Community ban isn't really on the table actually, since the above conversations show that there is strong dissent against a community ban, probably due to something your forgetting, like my 2 years of editing productively, since I am still convinced that I cannot and will not ever get a fair chance under this username anymore I will be invoking my m:Right to vanish and you will all have to trust me when I say that I will follow the guidelines laid out here in terms of FPC, one account, and RFA though I will not rule out doing any of them in the eventual future. I'd appreciate being left to my edits but if you really feel the need to continue this then I am as you so aptly keep reminding me, not in a position to argue about it. Jtkiefer ^talk 07:52, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

It should also be noted that blocks are meant to be preventive and not punitive and treating my refusal to tell you what nick I am going to be using even though I have sworn to obey policy from now on as a blockable offense would be a big mistake and blatantly against blocking policy, as would assuming you have community consensus for a community block as there is not widespread support and I have apologized for and rectified all policy violations so there's no policy basis to block or ban me either. I hate to wikilawyer and usually avoid doing so but I just had to say that. I don't see how blocking me would be productive either and I suggest that we just drop this and get back to writing an encyclopedia which is what Wikipedia is really about. I will retain access to this account for a little while but won't use it other than to reply here or on my talk page if needed then I plan on scrambling the password and leaving it. Jtkiefer ^talk 08:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I am going to email taxman with the username of my new nick, after that I will leave it up to him how he uses that information and who he tells, I trust that he'll let a group of people he knows and trusts about it and will reveal who I am should I run for adminship. Other than that I will stick to staying away from closing anything or running for RFA for awhile and I hope that will be satisfactory to everyone. Unless anyone else has any other conditions for me to agree to as soon as I send the email off to Taxman I don't see why this wouldn't be resolved for now. Jtkiefer ^talk 08:24, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

This shounds mostly workable to me. Someone who knows Jt's new identity just needs to check from time to time to verify that he's keeping to his new promises. Also, obviously, if Jt does decide to run for Admin at some point, I believe that full disclosure would be appropriate AT THAT TIME. Other than that, I am content to let Jt vanish into the mists of anonymity providing he keeps his promises. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 15:28, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

If jtkiefer follows through, that suits me. --Tony Sidaway 23:01, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

So far nothing. - Taxman ^Talk 01:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Resent using the email user function which should work. Jtkiefer ^talk 05:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

This compromise keeps changing. Yesterday Jtkiefer stated he'd stick with that account, and not use any sock puppets. I'd object to him using a sockpuppet. Watching his edits should be the responsibility of the whole community, not one hand-picked admin. I don't see any reason why he should have a hidden identity. -Will Beback 03:46, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It will not just be one admin, he will tell people he trusts, including probably the arbcom and a couple bureaucrats and maybe even a few other admins he trusts, I honestly do not know nor should I probably know who knows but I trust taxman to pick good people, and if he wants to tell you who he has picked then you can ask him about it. Jtkiefer ^talk 05:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't get it. How is "don't run sockpuppets and you can edit in any namespace" a compromise? As far as I'm aware every Wikipedian is operating under exactly these constraints.

Meanwhile, Jtkiefer asserts that he has a new account; so why hasn't the Jtkiefer account hasn't been blocked indefinitely?

Snottygobble 04:17, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think they are waiting for this thread to die, since blocking me would prevent me from responding here, once this thread is done by all means please block User:Jtkiefer indefinitely. Jtkiefer ^talk 05:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd much rather we just RfCU again and block any other socks. JoshuaZ 04:43, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I do not see how there would be any basis for that, I have dealt with all policy violations including allowing myself to be monitored and the connection to be revealed should I go up for adminship again, I have also abandoned Jtkiefer except for user, user talk, and the noticeboards the former would be available to any blocked or banned editor and the latter will stop as soon as this thread ends, I have also fully rectified my mistakes as best as possible and have apologized for violating policy, I do not see why there would be a benefit to blocking my account. Jtkiefer ^talk 05:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

You've seriously violated the community trust in the past, going so far as nominating sock puppets for Admin. I don't see any good reason why you can't continue contributing under you existing user name, or have a conventional name change. If I understand your words correctly, you are using a sock puppet currently. Is that true? -Will Beback 05:49, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

No, the only page I am editing with this account that I could not contribute to were this account blocked is this one so I hardly consider that sockpuppetry, this account is totally inactive except for replying on this page and replying to anything on my talk page. If you consider me being able to reply to any comments, questions, or accusations on this page sockpuppetry then I guess I would fall under that definition this is no different than a ban on an editor editing anything except for user talk and his/her arbcom case except in this case it's not an arbcom page it's this set of threads and subthreads in AN/I. Jtkiefer ^talk 07:10, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Let me rephrase the question: How many accounts are you now using, and what are their names? -Will Beback 09:17, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Jtkiefer is now indefinitely blocked as I know the identity of the other account and so do other trusted editors. The difference here Will, is Jtkiefer now can't use any other accounts than the one new account he created. Not even alternate accounts as permitted by WP:SOCK. And there is a right to vanish so he can stop editing from Jtkiefer and start over as long as he sticks to one account and that is monitored, which he will be. So it's a one account limitation or it will revert to a community ban and if he applies for any position of trust, the situation will be disclosed. To me it seems like a good compromise to eliminate problem behavior, but let him keep making good contributions. - Taxman ^Talk 14:39, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that's a good solution, though it might be prudent to use CheckUser periodically to make sure no account other than the known one is being used. Given his past history with socks, I don't think AGF would prevent this. Aren't I Obscure? 14:50, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that Taxman has committed to taking responsibility for Jtkiefer. I expect that he will take that responsibility seriously, and realize that it is a long-term commitment. If he finds he is no longer interested, or becomes inactive on Wikipedia, it should be delegated to another equally responsible, editor. I still see no reason why Jtkiefer's new identity should be secret, but I'll defer to his new mentor. -Will Beback 23:37, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it's now in good hands and that we should move on. Metamagician3000 07:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

User:207.188.29.244

Moved to Talk:Webspace 11:48, 15 August 2006

Bobblewik (talk · contribs) date delinking (again)

I have temporarily blocked Bobblewik because he has returned to rapid en-masse date delinking of articles, just 8 minutes after his last one month block expired. He is also doing other less controversial MoS style edits, but the date delinking ones are accompanied by the less than descriptive edit summary of "links". I bring this here for review. Bobblewik has been repeatedly blocked for continual delinking of dates. Despite extensive past discussions at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers), he is well aware that there is no widespread consensus for these edits. From past discussion here, on his talk page and his block history, he is well aware that these edits are extremely controversial and disruptive. I think this is an editor who is clearly not prepared to stop these disruptive edits and is on the brink of expending the patience of the community completely. I think it is time to consider a community imposed ban. Thoughts everyone, thanks. --Cactus.man ✍ 13:19, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd support either an indef block or if consensus fails that, a new, longer block than last time, as there's no evidence of any desire to work within the concerns that others have raised. ++Lar: t/c 14:11, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

This seems rather minor a problem for an indefinite community ban. Has anyone thought of bringing an ArbComm case? Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 14:19, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Rebecca thought about it [8] but blocking has proved more popular [9]. Thincat 15:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Certainly a lot of people object to Bobblewik's year delinking, and a lot of other people support it. The MOS says "There is less agreement about links to years. Some editors believe that links to years are generally useful to establish context for the article. Others believe that links to years are rarely useful to the reader and reduce the readability of the text". At one stage there was a suggestion that one should not edit articles specifically to remove date links. It looks to be that today Bobblewik has been finding articles with units to tidy up and then delinking years when he saw them too. This obviously has not placated the opponents! Personally I support delinking but I wish BW wouldn't do it because it gets some people so upset. Can't his tremendous number of valuable edits allow room for a bit of leeway? Thincat 14:38, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Sure. If he stops doing what he's doing nobody will bother him. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:23, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Could the discussion of this be moved to User talk:Bobblewik so he can respond ? He feels that the block was unjustified given that he was operating within the restrictions imposed on him. Megapixie 15:37, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of unblocking him provisionally on that he will not touch dates and he'll come here to discuss this. This is not an unblock I have a stake in -- if in the judgement of anyone this is not kosher or he does something to abuse that trust, I won't be offended if you undo my action. Please see here for my reasoning. --Improv 16:22, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

No problem with the unblock - see below, just my slow typing speed (why was there no edit conflict ???) --Cactus.man ✍ 16:50, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

This discussion needs to be held here for maximum community exposure. This is a recurring pattern of editing from Bobblewik. You make reference to "restrictions imposed on him", but from what I see, that was some informal comment by some editors regarding the speed of his edits (and whether or not he is running an unauthorised bot), not some officially community sanctioned imposition. Those comments also made reference to the "necessity of leaving more descriptive edit summaries or talk page messages on your delinkings (with reasonings on why you removed a particular link) and throttl[ing] the number of such edits down to something below 6 in a minute". Editing speed has certainly been reduced, but the use of descriptive edit summaries and talk page summaries have clearly not been improved.

The problem is that even at his newly reduced editing speed there is clearly no scope for full consideration of the relevance of any date links to the context of the article he edits; THAT is where I believe the majority of opposition to these edits has stemmed from. I agree that many articles are overly date linked, but context is everything and many date links can be considered relevant. Bobblewik's latest bout of editing just removed all linked dates when encountered, at a speed that clearly would not allow sufficient examination of the context in which each date was linked. There is wide disagreement on this issue between editors and no clear consensus that these edits are acceptable. Bobblewik has been asked by numerous people, including Jimbo apparently, to stop this. After expiry of each and every block what happens? Boblewik returns and starts delinking dates, and I repeat en-masse because that's what is happening. Articles edited today with a non preference linked date were changed at at around 2 per minute initially. All linked dates were changed - blam, onto the next one - that is en-masse date delinking without consideration of the context in relation to the article.

I agree with Sam that a community ban is probably too hasty, but this recurring pattern is definitely disruptive - perhaps ArbCom is the correct way forward. This needs to be resolved one way or another. In response to Megapixie, I am prepared to unblock Bobblewik to allow him to respond here, provided he gives an undertaking not to delink dates while this discussion is ongoing. --Cactus.man ✍ 16:45, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I think Bobblewik could be a good contributor, and the delinking of dates is justified in some circumstances. I think we need more input from the community on what to do with this user; I'd mentor him if anyone approves of this idea. --TheM62Manchester 17:23, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that date delinking is often justifiable but the problem is Bobblewik's rapid "carpet bombing" method of doing so. I think some form of mentorship might have some merit as you suggest M62. We await some input from Bobblewik, now that he's unblocked. --Cactus.man ✍ 07:44, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for undoing the block. The problem is that square brackets are used for two independent functions:

• 1. Hyperlinks
• 2. Date preference

Many editors say that they thought that *all* date components must be within square brackets. It is clear that much of the excessive linking is by well-meaning editors that misunderstood the issue and/or just followed others.

Furthermore, the implementation mechanism is so complicated that we get things like [[November 12th]], [[November 15|15 Nov]] which prevent the preference mechanism working. In some cases, we get plausible errors that make the text difficult to read with preferences. For example, even experienced editors believe that [[November 12]]-[[November 15|15]] look fine, but it actually parses to the unacceptable form: 12 November-15. These could be solved on their own (a few editors, including myself have solved many) but they are merely symptoms of the problem.

Even if I never delinked another date, the desire to resolve this problem will not disappear. Around 70 to 80 % of editors that voted in a limited poll thought that action should be taken. There are many editors willing to take action. The question is, what? bobblewik

Bobblewik, you have potential - anyhow, I've got a solution, leave a message on my talk page for details... --TheM62Manchester 17:07, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe this will all be moot once Wikipedia:Date Debate is resolved? —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-08-16 17:28Z

It will be easier: problem is newer editors think that all years should be linked (because that's what they see), link lots of years, and propagate the myth. Until this cycle is broken, the problem won't go away. Rich Farmbrough 07:08 17 August 2006 (GMT).

Can I have a definition of 'en-masse' please? bobblewik 15:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, from my earlier post above:

The problem is that even at his newly reduced editing speed there is clearly no scope for full consideration of the relevance of any date links to the context of the article he edits; THAT is where I believe the majority of opposition to these edits has stemmed from. I agree that many articles are overly date linked, but context is everything and many date links can be considered relevant. Bobblewik's latest bout of editing just removed all linked dates when encountered, at a speed that clearly would not allow sufficient examination of the context in which each date was linked. There is wide disagreement on this issue between editors and no clear consensus that these edits are acceptable. Bobblewik has been asked by numerous people, including Jimbo apparently, to stop this. After expiry of each and every block what happens? Boblewik returns and starts delinking dates, and I repeat en-masse because that's what is happening. Articles edited today with a non preference linked date were changed at at around 2 per minute initially. All linked dates were changed - blam, onto the next one - that is en-masse date delinking without consideration of the context in relation to the article.

--Cactus.man ✍ 10:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that Bobblewik's behaviour is disturbing; I advise all the interested parties to take this case to the ArbCom. I don't see another effective way to solve the issue. --Ghirla ^-трёп- 10:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Cactus.man, I read that text before but I still don't understand. It describes a speed complaint, not a complaint about number of edits. Is 'en-masse' being used here as a synonym for 'fast'? bobblewik 11:37, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Bobblewik, thanks, but this is nothing to do with your speed of edits. I acknowledged that you have reduced them in line with other editor's concerns. With regards to en masse (my apologies for introducing a non existent hyphen) please consult your dictionary, thesaurus or other online resources for the meaning. En masse - all together, in one group or body, as one, as a whole ... etc. That is what you have been doing with your repeatedly contested edits. Every individually linked date or century link has been delinked by your edits, en masse, without reference to the relevance in relation to the context of the article. The speed issue relates only to your capability to properly assess the relevance of each link. Please continue discussion of this in the relevant forums but, until there is consensus for your date linking edits, please stop. Thanks. --Cactus.man ✍ 13:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Aha. You use 'en masse' to mean multiple edits *within* an article. I understand you now, thanks.

You are mistaken about relevance, I do take it into account.

I see that there is indeed a new discussion going on at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers) and User talk:Tyrenius. See you there. bobblewik 14:14, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:Pain again

I (AYArktos (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)) seem to have once again failed in using my admin tools, such that it has been recommended that I should resign from adminship if the best you can do is stick up for bullying. Firstly, can someone else see if they can help LGagnon out - see his complaints at WP:PAIN. I would happily receive feedback as to what I should do differently or whether I should resign. As a volunteer I am getting a bit sick of the attacks.--A Y Arktos\^talk 01:07, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't resign. If you think you might be using the tools incorrectly, then be more conservative with them until you gain more confidence. From my 15-second glance at that PAIN page, I'd have advised telling both of those guys to cool down, but you did ok. If you get stressed out dealing with that kind of dispute, then just stay away from them and work on other areas. Phr (talk) 02:23, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Do not resign. Do not even think about it, AY. Sarah Ewart (Talk) 07:42, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for the messages of support. The issue was of course not using the tools rather than using the tools incorrectly. I will be staying away from PAIN and other incidents for the time being.--Arktos ^talk 12:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

LGagnon removing Rand philosopher references

User:LGagnon, as seen from his contributions [15] is combing through every Wikipedia article he can find to remove any implication that Ayn Rand was a philosopher or that her belief system constituted a "philosophy". This is despite that fact being meticulously documented by reliable sources. Although this may appear like a mere content dispute warranting dispute resolution, it is not. The matter is being discussed here [16], and the consensus is leaning heavily agains the change LGagnon wants to make. He is being extremely disruptive to make such extensive, difficult-to-reverse changes to numerous articles based on what he wants to be the policy. I ask that you put a stop to this until the consensus can be reached. MrVoluntarist 02:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC) Some examples before they are hard to find: [17] [18] [19] [20] MrVoluntarist 02:29, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Nice try with the strawman. The dispute is actually leaning towards my argument, not away from it. There is not enough proof that Rand is a philosopher, as only a very rare few academics back this claim. Rand-related articles are currently skewed in her and her followers favor, making all of them POV. What I am doing is required in order for these articles to maintain a NPOV status. There are very, very few academic sources that call Rand a philosopher, and most "reliable sources" given in articles come from Rand's supporters, almost all of whom have no academic credibility. Consensus isn't needed when the facts say that calling Rand a philosopher is POV. -- LGagnon 02:50, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Just because you disagree with a claim, does not make it a strawman. Let's use terms properly if we could. Someone doesn't have to be "academia approved" to be a philosopher. Please. We've gone over this for months and months. No one is going to be unduly influenced in favor of Rand by seeing that she's a philosopher. That's just insane. MrVoluntarist 02:54, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I meant the entirity of your argument is one. You are trying to make a simple content dispute look like a holy war.

And again you assume your statements are understood to be true instead of backing them with evidence. Yes, a lot of people back Rand because she claims to be a philosopher; in fact, most Randists do. It's not until they learn that they are dealing with a pseudo-philosopher that they stop backing her ideology.

And you are trying to keep an academic term in articles involving an anti-academic and her pseudoscientific ideology. Her work is only "philosophy" in the sense that intelligent design is a "theory". It only counts as such in the vernacular sense, which a responsible and accurate encyclopedia should not be using to describe a pseudo-science. -- LGagnon 03:17, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

As you've been counselled by multiple editors, try dispute resolution. There's no administrative action that will help out here. Shell ^babelfish 03:12, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

A couple of people - one of them was Agent Cooper were doing what looked like some reasonable informal mediation on the Rand articles. What happened? Mediation still seems like the way to go. As I said when I closed the AfD on the "Responses" article, it's going to be difficult, and people should be patient as they work through it. There's not much we can do as admins unless someone's conduct goes over the line. Metamagician3000 09:51, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

• I think it's very different to state that someone is a philsopher and to state that one agrees with the stated philosophy. Being a philosopher, IMO, is to concern oneself with a certain broad sphere of ideas -- IMO it's safe to call her a philosopher but still disagree with her over all the philosophical stands she takes. --Improv 21:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Violation of WP:TROLL, WP:NPA and WP:CIVIL by Cyde

Here's the diff[21]. He blocked me for apparently the same thing a few days ago, i'm awaiting his block, unless there's a double standard around here. Attic Owl 02:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Well I hope it isn't, but this sounds a bit like Karmafist to me. Karmafist was bragging on WR about how his socks voted for Phaedriel, which this user did. I hope its just a coincidence that they both live in New Hampshire. pschemp | talk 02:39, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Also Kamafist started List of Bountyheads in Cowboy Bebop, featured on User:Attic Owl. Sigh. And here I was hoping his news about the socks was a disinformation campaign designed to have us paranoid and wasting our time. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 02:48, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Everyone and their great-aunt voted for Phaedriel, didn't they? Powers ^T 20:22, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to put my two cents in here real quick. Attic Owl has behaved in an uncivil manner towards Kelly Martin and Cyde Weys. Now Cyde did in my opinion make a boardline uncivil comment on A.O.s page about becoming a member of Esperanza. Cyde Weys was in my opinion as a Non SYSOP to be justifed in 48 hour block. A.O. has shown that he doesn't understand Wiki Policy. How ever if this member is a possible sock then can we run a check user? Æon ^{Insane Ward} 02:44, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Cyde's comment, while I found it funny, probably did go a bit too far (but if this is indeed a sockpuppet, I couldn't really care less). Still I don't see the point of a block except to slap him on the wrist... not really what blocks are for. --W.marsh 02:54, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Tada, and we just bagged one of those sockpuppet accounts that Karmafist claims was "ready to go up for adminship". LOL. He's not going to have too much success with these if he can't resist slandering Kelly Martin and me. --Cyde Weys 02:45, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Incivility that is provoked is understandable. Occasional incivility is forgivable. Constant incivility is the only thing worth bothering this noticeboard with, and I don't see that here. If Cyde's occasional snarkiness has contributed here to outing a chronically disruptive sockpuppeteer, then that is a Good Thing. FeloniousMonk 02:56, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Just a note I have informed Natalya about Attic Owl so she can take action where Esperanza is cocerned )Since he just became a member of EA) Just want to let you all know. Æon ^{Insane Ward} 02:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

All the proof you need. Karmafist gave himself away too easily on this account. --Cyde Weys 03:00, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

That's not proof, or at least it's not all the proof I need. But I do think this is looking like an obvious enough sock, yes. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Think it's a coincidence that as soon you said it was an obvious sock you got this little present on your userpage? --Cyde Weys 03:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually I do. I'm chasing EddieSegoura/The Exicornt vandal around at the moment, that's exactly his style, and and... trying... trying... nyyyyyyyrghhhhhhh ah I can't stretch my ABF far enough right now to believe Karmafist is him. Although it is tempting, given the timing. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

We've already seen interesting allegations of Karmafist being or being associated with the airport vandal. It wouldn't surprised me if there was a vandal cabal somewhere out there. --Cyde Weys 03:30, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh silly me. I thought that that's what WR was. pschemp | talk 03:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

WR actually does seem to have a useful purpose. It's where the trolls go to troll and attack each other. Today's big blowup thread is especially fun for me ... it's like watching Hitler's car wreck in slow motion, you know exactly what's about to happen and you wouldn't want to stop it anyway. --Cyde Weys 04:07, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

WR? huh? -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 04:13, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

WR = Wikipedia Review. I'm not linking them; they're easy enough to Google, if you must. -Hit bull, win steak^(Moo!) 21:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

With regards to "it's ok to be rude to socks" I'd suggest that it's never ok to be rude. Do we so easily forget TheChief? How he was roundly derided as an obvious abusive secondaccount , subjected to a bollocking, and then "Oops not a sock after all!" - brenneman ^{L} 04:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I would agree quite strongly. Being rude to a sock only encourages the creation of more disruptive attack socks. 71.57.164.200 04:28, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:WR redirects to Wikipedia:WikiReader, but somehow, I don't think that's what they are referring to. ⇒ JarlaxleArtemis 04:39, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

They mean Wikipedia Review, which you will have to Google for. Ashibaka tock 05:20, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I would like to state that the creation of more disruptive attack socks would not necessarily be a bad thing, as they are amusing and would just be blocked, anyway. ⇒ JarlaxleArtemis 04:43, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Sockpuppets are amusing but you also have to deal with them. Better to have fewer disruptive sockpuppets and more people working on articles. Ashibaka tock 05:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I concur in the block. Mackensen (talk) 11:32, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I have blocked three more sockpuppets; all of these three got a confirmed CheckUser hit with each other and Attic Owl. Note that all three were used to "vote" on Pmanderson's RFA.

1. Super King (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
2. Carmen Chamelion (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
3. User To Be Named Later (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

--Cyde Weys 03:37, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I noticed some multiple-voting from these accounts on Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Kelly_Martin2. -Hit bull, win steak^(Moo!) 17:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Normally I would say go ahead and strike them with a note. However, because Cyde is something of a lightning rod, and I can not find an on-wiki source for the checkuser report, you might want to wait for public conformation from one of the checkusers. I think I know who ran the check, but it would help if Cyde can point to an on-wiki diff, or if one of the checkusers could sign off on this, just to dot the i's properly. Thatcher131 (talk) 17:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Impending edit war on anarchism

Most of us, including some of the most partisan among us, have been engaged in fruitful discussion, compromise, and negotiation regarding anarchism and its related pages. That'sHot, a new user (created a little over a week ago -- possibly a sock puppet), arrived out of nowhere and began making significant and controversial changes to the article, ignoring the ongoing discussion. As might be expected, the focus has been removed from the dialogue, and is now almost entirely centered on That's Hot's changes. There have already been numerous back-and-forth reverts and many of the cooler-headed editors are absent. It would be very helpful if a neutral person, or someone with a cool head, might hang around for a bit and monitor things or offer a few mediating words. Dropping a note on That'sHot's talk page might help, too. Thanks to anybody who sticks their hand into this fire. --AaronS 17:41, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

This user is almost certainly a sockpuppet. The name and subjects of interest really ring a bell... --Deathphoenix ʕ 18:02, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm taking a break from these articles. There is far too much sock puppetry going on. Those involved might find it amusing, for whatever reason, or might believe that they're spreading the Truth, but it's actually quite silly. --AaronS 19:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Is this another Maggie? If so, just post that it's a suspect, and there are quite a few folks here who have an interest in investigating and ending those puppies. Geogre 02:52, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The first report here (no I'm not going to pry it out of the archives) was that That'sHot might be RJII. Thatcher131 (talk) 05:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

El_C blocked me

El_C blocked me, Moe Epsilon for an uncivil comment I made. Not really sure what comment was uncivil really. But I'm sure you're not supposed to block someone you're in a dispute with. See his talk page. 216.78.95.172 18:02, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I see no indication that El_C explained the block on your talk page, and there's no diff in the block log to explain it either. So I'm inclined to call this an unjustified block, but I don't really know the circumstances. Surely we don't block users with no explanation? Friday (talk) 18:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

There's now an explanation on the talk page. Friday (talk) 18:10, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Meaning, the original explanation was immedately (albeit innocently) archived by Moe Epsilon. El_C 19:20, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Moe, following an edit like this, why exactly do you care if you are unblocked or not? It seems like you're leaving Wikipedia anyway ... Cyde Weys 18:10, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it's because Moe wanted a spotless block log. --Deathphoenix ʕ 18:17, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Once a block is done it cannot ever be undone, at least in terms of the block log. This explanation doesn't make sense. --Cyde Weys 18:18, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it was meant mostly as a joke. Accounts with spotless block logs go for more on eBay, you know. --W.marsh 18:25, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. I think my account's block log makes it more valuable, not less. --Cyde Weys 18:28, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

W.marsh, if you're referring to me, no, I actually wasn't joking. At one point, Moe Epsilon said something on his user page to the nature of (and I'm paraphrasing from what I remember) "I'm leaving, but I'm not going to do anything to get myself blocked because I want a spotless block log." --Deathphoenix ʕ 18:33, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh okay, I stand corrected. Sadly... --W.marsh 18:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I also seem to think there is a certain policy that prohbits using sockpuppets to get around a block? Just e-mail the blocking admin instead, it is between you and him, not us. --Pilotguy ^{(roger that)} 18:30, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think you may have been mistaken Pilotguy, I was informing a more broad area of Wikipedia to inform you of my block to see it was justified or not. Wasn't attempting to break WP:SOCK, but I don't think an IP is really you're sockpuppet, no? And no Cyde, I'm not leaving Wikipedia, blanking a sub-page doesn't always mean that. Let's just drop this since I'm unblocked now.. — Moe Epsilon 19:07 August 16 '06

First, block evasion is not permitted. Still, I'll let the unblock stay, I suppose. Moe appeared to need a cooldown following my removal (and his subsequent reversion) of what I felt constituted an attack page, entitled "Users who I lost my respect for...". El_C 19:20, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Now there's a hitlist worth being on. Mackensen (talk) 23:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Who said it was a "hitlist"? That was a pretty unrationale response. — Moe Epsilon 01:19 August 17 '06

I said it. I suppose I forgot the "s." Mackensen (talk) 11:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Let's leave it at that. People have survived unscathed for worse. I really don't think he's been the worst offender in the events of recent days, and he has a good record here. I hope he'll realise soon why the actions that have upset him were necessary, even if not handled in the best possible way or by the most appropriate possible people. I'm being deliberately obscure for good reason - no need to revitalise discussion of the situation that led to it all. Metamagician3000 22:22, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Strongly agree with MetaMagic3K, which is why that I did not —and will not— even hint on that event. El_C 22:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Abuse of WP:PAIN

jayjg (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) placed a notice on WP:PAIN claiming that I had called another user a dick which I did not. I simply asked the user to stop wikistalking me, harrassing me and being a dick. Jayjg was previously in a dispute with me and this is clearly abuse of reporting boards because of some grudge of his. He obviously finds the situation amusing judging by all his smilies. Could someone remove the report, remove the subsequent warning I received because of it, and remind jayjg not to abuse reporting tools? Paul Cyr 18:44, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll put a warning on my Talk: page, and insist that I not remove it; will that do? Jayjg ^(talk) 18:46, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Given the fact that you have no problem in abusing reporting boards, I imagine you would also find warning yourself equally amusing. Paul Cyr 18:48, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Your complaint here strikes me as a case of WP:POINT. Who is abusing reporting boards again? FeloniousMonk 18:52, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I do find the irony of his making this post on this board amusing, but perhaps the irony escapes him. Jayjg ^(talk) 18:57, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Mine or his? Paul Cyr 18:53, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Yours. FeloniousMonk 18:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm more concerned about the poor WP:PAIN board; now that it has been "abused", how will it recover without proper therapy? Do you know of any support groups that can help? Jayjg ^(talk) 18:57, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

How does me asking for a review on AN/I disrupt Wikipedia? Paul Cyr 19:05, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a schoolyard, guys. Now shake hands and resume writing articles :) dab (ᛏ) 18:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Paul, is this you abusing a reporting board to accuse Jay of abusing reporting boards, just as you made a personal attack while warning about personal attacks, and indeed removed a report [22] while warning about removing reports??? SlimVirgin ^(talk) 19:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Since when is asking someone to stop being a dick a personal attack? Is asking someone to stop being confrontational a personal attack? If it is then why does WP:DICK exist at all? Obviously since refering to it is a personal attack. And I removed the report because it was taken here; notice the edit summary and how many times I've done the same for other reports that are taken to AN/I? I never warned about removing reports, I warned about removing warnings. Paul Cyr 19:05, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

What is all this bickering? Are we forgetting the bigger issue here? WP:PAIN has been abused!!! WP:PAIN is in pain!! Can no-one provide succor? "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the reporting board been restored?" Jayjg ^(talk) 19:12, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Nice smart ass remark. Obviously violates WP:CIVIL, but hey, your an admin, so it's ok and I'm sure you'll be given a barnstar for your wittiness. Paul Cyr 19:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I also find it amazing that we warn users without a second thought, but the past two times I've warned an admin, a big blow up occurs. No wonder I've seen so many complaints about admins being able to do what ever they want. From what I've seen, argue with an admin about content and it's all diplomatic and attempts at a peaceful resolution. However warn them about conduct and it turns into a schoolyard (as Dbachmann said). To be honest, this is nothing more than bullying as shown by Jayjg's smart ass remarks. Even if I haven't been that diplomatic, the admins here have definately not made any attempts to resolve the situation, but instead keep trying to make their point without budging. Paul Cyr 19:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

For what it's worth, telling someone to stop "being a dick" (whether this links to WP:DICK or not) is a kind of personal attack, and at the least is uncivil. Linking to project pages doesn't mean you don't have to be polite. I think, given that Jayjg is an admin, and could have taken action himself, reporting you to the noticeboard is totally appropriate: that means that someone ELSE should be the one to decide on any action. It's even a better idea than warning you himself, which would escalate your conflict, whatever it is. Mangojuice^talk 19:27, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Yep it was probably a bit incivil, but hey, it's ok for the admin I was talking to to keep harrassing me after telling me to stop harrassing him, it's ok for Jayjg to make smart ass comments, it's ok for a user who has been given barnstars by other admins and thanked for his work to be called a troll by another admin, why? Because they're admins, and they are breaking policies and bullying for the good of Wikipedia! Paul Cyr 19:31, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

You would do well to stop making false accusations about me and twisting the facts of the matter. You would also do well to remember that the purpose of Wikipedia is to write an encyclopaedia. We need people to write an encyclopaedia. We don't need professional scolds. Try contributing to the encyclopaedia for a while instead of filing spurious complaints against people. Also, if you stopped doing exactly what you scold people for doing, people might take you seriously. Instead, you engage in personal attacks while issuing NPA warnings, you complain when people archive their talk pages without it being to your liking, but delete warning on your talk page (while calling people liars), you complain about people deleting complaints from WP:PAIN, but you delete complaints against you, you engage in bullying, and complain that people are bullying you. Try making edits to the Main namespace, and people might take you seriously. Whatever you do, at the very least try not doing what you scold other people about. Guettarda

The hilarious part is that everything you just said (aside from number of contributions) applies to you to. Paul Cyr 20:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

<insert loud whistle sound here>Personal Foul on the Offense number 21, Personal Foul on the Defense number 72, Offsetting penalties, replay second down. OK, everyone went a tad overboard here. Y'all are among the more respected editors and admins here; perhaps we can curtail the wisecracks and digs on both sides and get back to our lives work of wasting inordinate amounts of time, cough cough, I mean building an encyclopædia? -- Avi 19:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but when Jayjg starting making blatently smart ass remarks that would only make the situation worse, and no one said anything, I'm starting to believe the people who claimed that admins get away with anything. Paul Cyr 19:44, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually there appears to be a pattern of abuse here. Initially I thought he just had a meltdown because I dared to question his authority, but there really seems to be a pattern of disruption on this part of this editor. Guettarda 19:48, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

FYI: Guettarda was the first admin who I warned for personal attacks. His response: make a personal attack against me while telling me to stop harrassing him. Can we say hypocrisy? Paul Cyr 19:52, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps certain concepts of what constitutes a "personal attack" are a bit too broad, no? Maybe we should just let some of this roll off our backs without climbing the Washington Monument dressed as the Green Hornet? Right?!? WP:BJAODN this thread, or better yet, just archive it out as a distraction. Jim (the editor sometimes known as JChap) T / E 20:37, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

AGREED. Obviously this isn't going anywhere. There's no point in discussing it further. Paul Cyr 21:00, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Something I just found out. I recently (today actually) found a link to a site called The Wikipedia Review. From what I've seen, the site's objective is to criticise Wikipedia. To me, that in itself makes me take it with a heavy grain of salt. However from reading some parts on that site and some of the links on there to certian "events" on Wikipedia, apparently Slim, Felonious and Jayjg have been heavily critisised for certain actions (some of the links to Wikipedia were rather interesting), so whether or not most of the site is trash, some of the stuff it brings up gives me pause. In fact it's actually helping restore my faith in WP admins, as now I know what happened above is apparently not an isolated incident, that the admins involved have some sort of connection with each other, and the users here who were not mentioned on The Wikipedia Review, are ones who have tried pacify this situation. Paul Cyr 00:31, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

"What happened above" is no big deal. Just chill. As for the "Wikipedia Review," they're users that WP has banned, but they just can't let go: it's the Denise Show of cyberspace. JChap2007 00:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

MIT Press linkspam

MITpress (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been adding well-formed and relevant citations to the References sections of numerous articles, but it appears that the cited publications were not actually used in the creation of the articles, but rather are simply related to the same topic. Normally, I'd revert, warn, and let it go, but a) there's a lot to revert, b) the citations are indeed well-formed and relevant, and c) it's possible this is an official MIT Press action. I wanted to toss it up to admins to see what the best course of action is, and maybe get some help with the reversions. Powers ^T 19:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think (unfortunately) keeping the edits has to be decided on a case-by-case basis, so let the editors of the articles in question decide; it'll get sorted out eventually. In the meantime, find some examples of the worst links and present them to that user and explain what's wrong with them; explain the spam policy, and if they don't respond and continue, they can be blocked. Mangojuice^talk 19:22, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

• That's interesting. I'm not sure I'd consider it spam, exactly. Generally "Further Reading"-type entries are useful in an article, even if they don't provide reference for the text. It bears watching closely to make sure none of the books are too tangental, but if they're on-topic I'd generally say to keep 'em. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 20:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

The username is a volation since it is the name of a company. They need to change it. pschemp | talk 20:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I have already asked them to. Jkelly 21:25, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

If they are topical, I'd make a bibliography or further reading section. I think it adds a lot if we can give readers places to go for more information, especially to hard copy. Tom Harrison ^Talk 02:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I concur with Tom Harrison and others: the problem, such as it is, is that the publications are placed in "References," when they weren't cited, rather than "Bibliography." It's probably good to ask the user to either actually insert citations and add to references or add only to a Bibliography. Personally, I wish we did employ bibliographies more, as I may only cite a couple of omnibus publications in an article but wish that readers were aware of other cool articles and sources. We have no problem with uncited "External links," so we ought to approach "Bibliography" the same way. Geogre 02:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Morton Devonshire

Would someone be willing to review Morton Devonshire? His mainspace editing history appears to be very disruptive, with generally unexplained mass rv's on hot-button topics. Just now, he Rv'd with no explanation four edits by three users here.

He also appears to be maintaining an inflammatory listing of users here, which I can't see any reason for except to cause a disruption. His main user page as well has additional material which can be seen as highly disruptive. He's been sporadically vandalizing other pages, as seen here: [23], [24], [25]. I have placed a warning on the user's talk page. rootology (T) 20:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

(Disclaimer: not an admin) The listing of users probably falls within the guidelines of community consensus, for some reason. Kelly Martin has maintained lists of editors that have butted heads with her in the past, and after some contention and ugly MfD debates she seems to have been allowed to keep them. The reverts without explanation, however, are definitely worrisome, and I would hope an admin would take a look at them. The user definitely does adopt a very hostile and aggressive style of editing. However, bear in mind that you're also not doing right by Wikipedia policy - by describing the edits as vandalism you're not assuming good faith; vandalism is a very serious charge to level on Wikipedia. Captainktainer * Talk 21:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

The undoing of three peoples' good faith work without comment (a trend for this user), I'll leave then to others to debate. However, redirecting a page to "Jackass"[26], adding insulting info to a biographical article[27], and leaving what appears to be a personal insult on an editor's page [28] I believe are vandalism. I didn't search through all his edits, just the recent stuff--there may be more. His talk page has many warnings from other editors in regards to personal attacks and vandalism. rootology (T) 22:00, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll ask him to stop being naughty.--MONGO 22:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I have left a polite warning on his talk page. Andrew Levine 22:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you (to both). rootology (T) 22:09, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I think his "This user mocks truthiness, and Fuckwit Wikipedians who use the term" userbox crosses the WP:CIVIL line Pete.Hurd 02:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• It's abrasive, but I'm not sure it's uncivil. Are there many people who use "truthiness" to be offended? It seems like Pop Rocks at this point, the gushing over that term. Geogre 02:43, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • I'd be interested to learn which "Truthiness and Fuckwit Wikipedians" self identify with that user box to be offended. --Tbeatty 03:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
    • Well, that would be me... --Striver 20:59, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Responding to Captainktainer, I must disagree. - brenneman ^{L} 03:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Kelly Martin/B - Deleted by Cyde prior to close of dicsussion
• Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Kelly Martin/R - Closed as delete.
• Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Kelly Martin/Q - Speedy deleted as recreated material.

Morton Devonshire edits controversial subjects but he is not disruptive. He passionately fights POV pushing articles (like the one cited by rootology) and supporters of the article disagree. There maybe content disagreements but there is no actionable item for administrators. rootology needs to take content disputes to mediators or the Arbitration Committee, but Morton Devonshire is just making sure that articles are sourced properly and have a neutral POV. In the case that rootology listed, it appears that rootology had rv'd a completely different editors version. Not sure how he can complain that multiple editors versions' are disruptive when the objective is consensus. --Tbeatty 03:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Okay Gents, I promise to tone down the mockery -- except for Truthiness -- if you can't mock Truthiness, a term that Stephen Colbert uses to mock people who use the term, then what can you mock? Get real. "Truthiness" As far as not editing articles, sorry, I won't agree to do that. I know certain editors would like me to go away, but that isn't going to happen. I will agree, however, to play nice. Pile on should you wish. Cheers. Peace out. Tschüss! Morton devonshire 04:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't see how using the word "Fuckwit" contributes to an encyclopedia, or the intellectual environment. It's just a symptom of how Wikipedia is more of a social-networking usenet experience than writing for a real encylopedia, there's a lot more childish behaviour and posturing. Pete.Hurd 04:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Fuckwit had it's own page. That's the "truthiness" of it. --Tbeatty 06:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It's not making fun of "truthiness" that's inappropriate. It's calling other Wikipedians "fuckwits." --Unsigned comment by User:Andrew Levine

Or anyone, I don't have to insult an identifiable wikipedian before I violate the principle that insulting language and behavior doesn't belong on WP. Pete.Hurd 20:43, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, that goes without saying. Andrew Levine 20:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Margana

Margana's edit-warring at Psephos has been going on for so long it is practically a geological process. There has been a brief respite during which he abstained out of fear of being blocked by me, but as soon as I undertook not to block him again (having become too involved) he returned to the article to edit war some more.

For months he has edit-warred and disrupted this article out of his insistence on including his personal POV version of an assertion that the subject of the article is politically biased, using Cuba as an example. With a resolution finally at hand, he has today suddenly decided to use Laos instead, taking us back three months to have the whole argument all over again. I am so frustrated and angry about this blatant trolling.

Can an uninvolved and relatively calm admin please review and do something before I blow my top? Snottygobble 23:52, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It looks nicely balanced now. What is the source of the argument? Would it be something for our political science folks or our Australians or....? Geogre 02:49, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Margana is blatantly trying to bait Adam Carr with his edits to this article, and in his incessant edit warring is driving just about every regular Australian editor up the wall. The only reason the article looks reasonable at the moment is because Margana hasn't done his round of reverts for today. I really think this is about time for a community ban - Margana has no useful edits, and wasting enormous amounts of good users' time on this. Rebecca 06:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

You looked through all of my 664 edits and determined that all of them were useless? Quite a feat! I should explain to the gallery that Rebecca (who happens to live in the same city as Adam Carr) is the one who wrote that Psephos article, about Adam Carr's website, on Adam Carr's request, and with unverifiable information privately supplied by Adam Carr. She has since on numerous occasions not only reverted without explanation, but also abused rollback to do that. Snottygobble, another Australian with a long history of edit-warring in conjunction with Adam Carr and Rebecca, then violated both protection policy and (twice) blocking policy after he had been involved in the edit war, and just now pledged to stop this, after I engaged an advocate. Margana 21:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, Snottygobble, I think you'd be prudent to keep out of it now. From a brief review, this looks like a user who is confrontational and "difficult" but good at Wikilawyering (though I have no idea who is correct about the underlying content dispute, and I don't want to know). It's better if some completely uninvolved admins watch the page and see what happens. Rebecca, have you tried any dispute resolution processes? You should know that it sometimes does more harm than good for admins to try to get involved and conciliate (the term I use for mediation backed by threats) disputes unless there is blatantly abusive conduct. Metamagician3000 08:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

This editor has been a pain in the butt at Jimmy Wales in the past, insisting that wikitruth was a reliable source and that info on there should be included in the article. That was resolved by a strawpoll, when it became clear that he was alone in this. This editor games the system systematically, using exactly three reverts per day, even at one time selfreverting after noticing that he had done the fourth within 24 hours [29] and doing it immediatly after the 24 hour period was over [30]. I blocked him after that anyway for gaming the system [31], but it shows the gaming aspect of this user. As this user is active in a narrow range of articles, only a limited number of editors has encountered him, but the amount of edit warring and gaming is staggering. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 13:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It's a blatant lie that I insisted that "wikitruth was a reliable source" - I didn't use wikitruth as a source for facts, I quoted it, and of course every website is a reliable source as to what it itself says. As to those reverts, all it shows is that I scrupulously respect the 3RR. Somewhere on my talk page I have already explained the absurdity of the whole "gaming" concept (it's like a cop saying "the speed limit is 50 here - you're consistently driving 49, I'm fining you for gaming the system"). Also, a strawpoll, by its very nature, can not possibly "resolve" anything. If anything, a proper vote might resolve something, but then, WP:NOT a democracy. Arguments count, not dittos. I should also note that after KimvdLinde was involved in an edit war with me on Jimmy Wales, she started stalking me and opposing me wherever she could - she would never otherwise have been interested in Psephos, but seeing me there, she reverted against me. Margana 21:34, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Your analogy demonstrates to me that you do not understand 3RR, which is to encourage people to resolve their differences on talk pages and build consensus, rather than attempt to get/keep certain content on a page by reverting. Maybe if you discussed things more and tried to compromise/reason with other editors you would have fewer problems? JChap2007 21:55, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I know what the ideal is, but talking and consensus-building requires that both sides are willing to do that, and acting in good faith. I suggest you take a look at the relevant talk pages. I am the one who discussed more than anyone else. Now on the other hand, try to find the name Rebecca on Talk:Psephos... Margana 22:03, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

If you want to convince people to be sympathetic to you, directing them to that talk page is not a good idea. You are obviously engaged in a pattern of tendentious editing, trying to edit war against a broad consensus (which is not, I hasten to add, synonymous with unanimity). I doubt you will convince people that Cuba or Laos have free elections. You need to realize that you are not going to be able to "win" every "battle" on a wiki, accept it and move on. JChap2007 22:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Your comment about me not convincing people "that Cuba or Laos have free elections" shows that you do not remotely understand what this dispute is about, and are shooting from the hip based on what can only be a superficial skimming of the talk page. Nor is there a broad consensus, as I have explained repeatedly. Margana 23:08, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It sounds like further steps need to be taken for this user; this has been going on for so long that hopes of resolving it peacefully are slim-to-none. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 16:58, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Hence a community ban. Rebecca 01:45, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I haven't formed a particularly favourable view of Margana from my limited investigation of the matter so far (see above), but IMHO it's way premature to be talking about a community ban. Again, aren't there dispute resolution processes that could be tried? Is there a problem with someone initiating an RfC in some appropriate form, if the problem seems all that bad? Metamagician3000 02:35, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• It sure looks like one against all and that one being quite recalcitrant. It also looks like there has been enough time passed that this go to mediation. If that fails (and it probably will), ArbCom. Because this user has been selectively warring or insisting, depending upon your point of view, it isn't really a "community" worn out, so I agree that a community ban isn't appropriate. Geogre 02:50, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Harassment by Mais oui!

I would like Mais oui! to be blocked. He regularly makes sock puppet accusations against me and persistently makes disruptive POV edits to practically all of my contributions. He admits that he is keeping watch on me. I am growing increasingly weary of having to fight a constant rearguard action against his unconstructive POV changes. If he continues, I am going to have to give up contributing to Wikipedia. I am sure I am not alone in considering him a disruptive element, and it would be best for the Wikipedia project if he were blocked from editing it. Mallimak 00:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The pair of you should stop spamming people all over the place if you expect to earn any sympathy for your respective plights. People won't take you seriously while your approach is akin to stuffing pizza leaflets through their letterboxes. This page is not for dispute resolution, and doling out a block is rarely used to resolve a dispute, and irritating you is not nearly serious enough to earn an idefinite block (nor, likely, any block at all). You need to use dispute resolution properly. If you've tried RfC, which I expect you haven't seeing as my talk page didn't get spammed about one, then try one. If that fails, try Arbitration. Also, try being nice to one another and tolerating each other's foibles. -Splash - tk 01:08, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Firstly, this is a repeat posting of this:

• virtually identical entry made to WP:AN/I on 13 August - now archived at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive128#Harassment_by_Mais_oui.21

Secondly, for background, you may wish to read these:

• Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Orkney (on-going)
• Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Mallimak (currently outstanding)

Thirdly, for a second opinion from Admins familiar with User:Mallimak, you may wish to consult:

• User:Wangi
• User:Alai

Fourthly, as User:Alai puts it:

" ... this is just abuse of the project space (to go with earlier abuse of the article space, the category space, and template space by the same user). The description of an edit that adds "The Orkney archipelago is a council area of Scotland." as "vandalism", and reverting it with summary "Mais oui! Why are you interfering here? Can t you just bugger off?" basically sums up the problem with Mallimak's behaviour: a determination to have his "own" content in some niche of wikipedia, regardless of encyclopaedic value, and independent of other editors' input. If this keeps up, an RFC would be indicated."

And fifthly: life is just too short. Frankly, I am "sick to the back teeth" of him, and would strongly prefer for Admins to deal with him, rather than me having to monitor his growing WP:POINT campaign. In summary: User:Mallimak has a very serious attitude problem, and is totally unwilling to even make an attempt to follow WP:NPOV, WP:CITE, WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL or WP:NPA, among others. Thanks. --Mais oui! 01:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC) - Don't game the system! Mallimak 16:04, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't wish to be drawn into the specific complaint raised by Mallimak. However, Mais oui! has also falsely accused me of sockpuppetry and now routinely reverts my edits simply because they are my edits, without any discussion or attempt to reach consensus. He is the only user against whom I have encountered these problems.

I have no view about the efficacy of formal steps against Mais oui!. He clearly makes a wide range of contributions, many of which are valued by others. He has a rather transparent agenda, namely to promote Scotland and other Celtic areas at the expense of balance, objectivity or context. I would suggests that an editor whom he trusts and respects encourage him to adopt a more collaborative, less confrontational approach and to discuss directly his objections and observations wih other contributors. Normalmouth 06:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

For the background to that last comment, please see:

Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Normalmouth

"... falsely accused..." - There is no proof of whether my allegation of sockpuppetry is "false" or true because CheckUser refuses to expose a Users IP address except in "extreme" circumstances, but the evidence clearly points to Normalmouth logging-out and using his IP address to vote in a Requested move discussion. And I am very sorry to say that Normalmouth has an extremely "transparent agenda": to do all he can to stain the reputation of Plaid Cymru. No other Wikipedia article on a UK political party is as one-sidedly negative as the PC article, and a large measure of the responsibility for that lies at the doorstep to Normalmouth.

I would like to record my complete agreement with the above comments by Mais oui!Rhion 06:54, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

"... routinely reverts my edits simply because they are my edits... " - Not true at all. I routinely have to revert your edits because they are consistently, and heavily, POV.

I am very happy to confirm that I do contribute heavily to Scotland-related articles (as is my prerogative), and if that "promotes" Scotland I would be delighted (although slightly surprised). As for "Celtic countries": I could not give a hoot - I do not look at the world in that way. But I do do my very best to "promote" other countries I like, mainly Sweden, Norway, England, France, Italy, Canada, the US, Australia, Switzerland (actually, this list could get rather long... ). --Mais oui! 06:57, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

"Thirdly, for a second opinion from Admins familiar with User:Mallimak, you may wish to consult: User:Wangi" — I'm not an admin, just another editor trying to settle things down. Thanks/wangi 08:37, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• Note to admins: The above discussion is very revealing. User:Mais oui! would appear to have a tactic of indulging in edit wars and constantly attacking the contributions of users who don't agree with his POV, and of accusing them of sockpuppetry in order to undermine their credibility, obviously with the aim of getting them to give up contributing to Wikipedia. I wonder how many good contributors Wikipedia has lost as a result of Mais oui!'s tactics? He is bad news for Wikipedia and should be banned. Mallimak 09:52, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Both seem to be as bad (or at least almost as bad) as each other. However, Mais oui! certainly makes a number of valuable and constructive contributions, when he puts aside his own POV... I'm not as familiar with Mallimak, although his repeated spamming of this page over what appears to be a content dispute is not impressive. It might be an idea for both to talk to each other (and to whomever else might be interested) directly and to DISCUSS edits and changes before making them, in order to avoid future difficulties. That is the Wikipedia way, after all. Badgerpatrol 11:12, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry about the spamming, having seen User:Mais oui! do it, I thought it was "the Wikipedia way" to inform potential supporters for one's case - so now we can add "setting a bad example" to his list of sins! Mallimak 11:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it's not always easy to know where to go in these kind of situations. Assuming that you have tried to communicate with each other (ALWAYS the first step) and still can't resolve the issue, then you might try here for a problem of this nature. Badgerpatrol 12:02, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I would agree that Mais_oui does indulge in edit warring, and attacking the contributions of other users. After I had nominated a Scottish template for deletion in favour of the British one- he responded by reverting all my recent edits with the comments- "rv English Nationalist" (see for example- [32]). Also any attempts to engage with the user and avoid edit wars is usually met with personal abuse- eg [33]. Astrotrain 13:49, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

He is difficult, he is aggressive, and he is a POV-pusher. By the same token, he does make very valuable contributions. I'm not taking sides in this particular issue, because it seems to me that neither are angels. But in general, I think many problems could be solved here simply by more communication and less unilateral action. Badgerpatrol 14:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Are User:Mais oui!'s contributions really so valuable that they make up for all the contributions lost to Wikipedia on account of his actions chasing other contributors away and putting others off bothering contributing? 81.158.163.232 15:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC) - (Now, look at that! I was away from the computer for a while and Wikipedia has automatically logged me off, so my IP address is given. Does that constitute sockpuppetry? Mallimak 15:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC))

An observation... I have noticed a series of less than helpful edits (removal of valid categories, switching Scottish to either Orcadian or British... you could call them disruptive) from a large number of IP accounts in the same range as Mallimak (talk · contribs)'s IP above:

• 81.156.60.96 (talk · contribs)
• 81.129.246.219 (talk · contribs)
• 81.156.57.207 (talk · contribs) (I left a comment on this IP's talk page)
• 81.155.33.133 (talk · contribs) (only made a talk page comment - cleary by Mallimak)
• 81.153.148.0 (talk · contribs)
• 81.156.56.25 (talk · contribs)
• 81.158.167.232 (talk · contribs)
• 81.158.163.17 (talk · contribs)
• 81.129.246.190 (talk · contribs)
• 81.158.163.17 (talk · contribs)
• 81.129.246.190 (talk · contribs)
• 81.129.246.185 (talk · contribs)
• 81.154.91.225 (talk · contribs)
• 81.156.57.224 (talk · contribs) (blanking WP:SFD entry)
• 81.158.162.234 (talk · contribs)
• 81.154.95.18 (talk · contribs)
• 81.156.57.185 (talk · contribs)

Clearly Mais oui! (talk · contribs) thinks these edits are being made from an IP account to get around associating them with Mallimak's account. Thanks/wangi 16:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• Many of these IPs have been checkusered and are likely Mallimak. The question is do these IPs edit in a way that is abusive or to give the false impression of consensus, or is it plausible as Mallimak says that sometimes his computer logs out without him noticing. Of more concern are the two logged in accounts that are also likely Mallimak socks. Thatcher131 (talk) 16:37, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The IP accounts themself seem to be used for nonsense switching of nationality - there is the potential of avoiding 3RR with them, but I don't think it's been the case. On the other hand Mallimak, Gruelliebelkie (talk · contribs) and Orkadian (talk · contribs) have all taken part in the current Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Orkney MfD. Although to be honest it is possible they are three different people, in the same area / telephone exchange who all use BT for a broadband connection... Some of the comments in the MfD discussion are very similar. Thanks/wangi 16:45, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one continually getting logged out. It's not only plausible, it's a damn nuisance. I get logged out during any good-sized edit, and am saving more often because of it - clogging the edit history with nonsense versions. I'd dated it from approx Chris73's total Tiscali block a few weeks ago, but it it's affecting BT users as well, maybe I'm wrong... JackyR | Talk 16:58, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

For long edits I work in a personal sandbox, saving as often as I need, then copy to the article when its done. Thatcher131 (talk) 17:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• Will User:Mais oui!'s harrassment never stop? More sock puppet allegations: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion#Portal:Orkney, and deletion of an entry on the Wikipedia:Orcadian Wikipedians' notice board, which he labelled as "bogus" - obviously, on reading it, it was not his POV. Can nobody rid us of this bogus Wikipedian? Mallimak 23:01, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Jasper23 (talk)

After being warned repeatedly, this user has continued to remove warning templates from his page, including a personal attack message. I would like to request a temporary block for the user. Thank you. American Patriot 1776 01:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I myself am not an admin, so I can't do much, but I will recommend that simple cases of vandalism like these would be better reported at WP:AIV. Thanks. --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 01:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Simple cases of vandalism? Did you look up the supposed personal attack, and the exchange between the users...? It's not vandalism for a good-faith editor to remove dubious warnings. My suggestion is that American Patriot 1776 stop pestering and threatening Jasper23 on his talkpage. Right now, or you may get blocked for harassment. Bishonen | talk 01:29, 17 August 2006 (UTC).

Ooh. Sorry, my mistake. Didn't see that. --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 01:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Ah, yes, a closer look at said AfD discussion would reveal Jasper not making personal attacks, and American Patriot harassing him about removing an invalid warning. Never mind, do not go to AIV, do not collect $200. --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 01:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

And I would ask that you, sir, assume good faith and not to threaten me again. In my opinion, this edit qualfies as a personal attack and this edit qualifies as page blanking vandalism. In addition, blocking policy states that making deliberatly misleading edits (i.e. removing legitimate warnings from your talk page) is disruption. Should you wish to challenge that, fine, go try and change Wikipedia policy if you think that it will help the project. But do not threaten me, or Wildnox ([34] again without basis. American Patriot 1776 01:50, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Shows how observant I am...;) WTF, Bishonen? Looks legit to me... --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 01:57, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Jasper23 addressed that remark on his talk page. [35] Anchoress 02:02, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Still, no reason to blank his whole talk page... --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 02:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The edit you refer to does not qualify as a personal attack, American Patriot, and as you must be aware, the user himself regretted the strong wording and removed it. (Thanks, Anchoress, yes, exactly.) Your warning was illegitimate and self-interested. Your edit warring to keep it on his page was harassment. Anyway, what is this vengeful activity for? If Jasper removes a warning, Jasper has seen it. That was what it was for, wasn't it? What more do you want? Thank you for posting on this page and making admins aware of what was going on. Now just stop. Mr Lefty, no, I appreciate your excellent intentions, but this is not a bona fide use of warning templates. Also it's the tired old assumption that using a template, per se, somehow means it's virtuous to edit war on another person's talkpage. Wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have done the blanking, but if you follow the whole dialogue, you can see that he's taking the warnings seriously and getting stressed out and frustrated, so I can't say I blame him. Anyway, it's his page, he can blank it--remember, it did not contain any legitimate warnings, or anything else that Wikipedia needs to force him to keep in view. Bishonen | talk 02:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC).

(deindent) I've just waded through the entire history of the Afd for Zapatista and the recent history of Jasper23's talk page. Note that the outburst on the AfD took place on 10 August -- that's a week ago, folks -- and the edit warring on Jasper's talk page has kept up since then. I don't have a problem with the initial NPA warning. Jasper23 knew his words were heated, and undid them. Warring to keep the warning tags - and then to keep the warning tags about removing the warning tags, etc, isn't right. My view, we should fight to keep tags only in the same cases where we're likely to report someone to WP:AIV. Then and only then is speed really an issue. In all other cases, any blocks to be issues need to be done with deliberation anyway; and that deliberation demands that the actual history of the event be investigated, not just what's on someone's talk page at the moment. So -- once it is clear that there isn't active vandalism in progress from an account, don't edit war over the tags. Yes, I know this doesn't mesh up with whatever the proposed policy de jour is. Let common sense rule. The goal is not to "bag" people, to get them in enough trouble to block. The goal is to help people, and build an encyclopedia. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 03:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your input. I apologize to everyone for my actions. American Patriot 1776 03:43, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a nice resolution, thank you very much. I'll overlook your removal of my message from Jasper's talkpage, but I've reposted the link to this discussion thread for him. It's not to rub your nose in it. I just do think people should be told when their actions are subject to comment on a page they're unlikely to stumble on. Bishonen | talk 11:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC).

Admin help requested

I have found myself in dispute with User:Travb concerning the article Allegations of state terrorism by United States of America. I had initiated an AfD for this article and result was keep by no consensus. Since the AfD I have tried to clean up the article a bit and perhaps I am not always diplomatic in this endeavour or maybe I shouldn't have after the AfD. However, my edits are in good faith. Travb B has, however, even during the AfD, hounded me with baseless accusations and implied I behave like a vandal. He streeses I should not be deleting sections that I believe are not appropriate because I don't add anything. This is contrary to policy, I should not be required to add to an article in order to delete inappropraite sections. Also, by looking at his edits here, here, here and here (note edit summary I see a pattern of accusing me of vandalism and not acting in good faith because I "lost" the AfD. As someone who has always had the best of WP in mind I resent these accusations which almost make me want to quit the project over it. See also the talk sections on the article here, here and here and finally here where there is apparently a tabulation of words I added and deleted.

I would highly appreciate an outside admin looking into this.

I apologize for the length of this post. Thank you, Kalsermar 01:46, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I have also been accused of vandalism for deleting original and poorly researched material from the article. The article suffers from lots of POV-advocacy, and needs to be pared frequently to keep it within Wikipedia policy. I recommend that the article be kept in a protected mode until people can educate themselves about WP:RS, WP:OR and WP:Verify. Morton devonshire 17:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Kalsermar has deleted 1,857 words, and added 3 words to this article, please see my temporary page User:Travb/Deletions. This page lists every single edit of User:Kalsermar since he began posting to this page. He has deleted several very well referenced sections, see User:Travb/Deletions. As I stated on User:Kalsermar page, stating wikipedia policy: about vandalism: Any good-faith effort to improve the encyclopedia, even if misguided or ill-considered, is not vandalism. Apparent bad-faith edits that do not make their bad-faith nature inarguably explicit are not considered vandalism at Wikipedia. For example, adding a personal opinion once is not vandalism — it's just not helpful, and should be removed or restated. User:Kalsermar, who lost the AfD, now is attempting to delete the entire article, section by section. A ratio of 3:1,857 words deleted, especially just days after User:Kalsermar lost an AfD, makes me question his alleged "good faith" efforts. I have removed my accusation of stating that User:Kalsermar are bording on vandalism. I have requested that this page be protected.[36] I have attempted to change the name of the article to a less controversial one, and have actively attempted to define terrorism on the talk page to stop revert wars. Travb (talk) 02:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for strengthening my case Travb. Since when is it appropriate to keep tabs on how many words an editor adds or deletes? Seems like stalking to me. And again, how does one loose an AfD?--Kalsermar 02:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Please assume good faith. "I expect the implication of [stalking] on my part to be removed from this message forthwith or I will take this further." (your words) I am simply showing the reason why I am requesting this page to be protected. You did not mention that I apologized in the AfD for stating that you are not assuming good faith, said I was wrong, and struck the words out.[37] Travb (talk) 02:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It isn't clear what admin action is needed. This sounds more like something that should go to Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Politics or perhaps Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. Jkelly 02:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'm not overly familiar with dispute resolution protocols and where to go with that or how to initiate it. The help I was seeking is in how to deal with the accusations against me. My request has not to do with content dispute.--Kalsermar 02:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion Jkelly. I will post something on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Politics I have considered a third party neutral mediator, I will request one now. Can you protect the page Jkelly? Travb (talk) 02:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

If everyone would get away from the keyboard for a while much of this would work out. It's not the end of the world if the "wrong version" is up for a day or two. Tom Harrison ^Talk 02:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Again, it is not the content dispute I seek to resolve rather the accusations against me wich on my talk page are now being deleted by Travb. Either way, I won't be back till tomorrow afternoon anyways so I'll see what happens in the meantime.--Kalsermar 02:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

> I apologize for accusing you of your edits of "bordering on vandalism". I deleted those words,[38] and stated I did so here.

> What are you implying here? : accusations against me wich on my talk page are now being deleted by Travb As mentioned, I also apologized about 10 days ago for accusing you of not having "good faith". I was wrong. I am sorry. I would appreciate you striking out that I am "stalking" you, and apologize to me.

> The three edits which User:Kalsermar siteshere, here, here are all posted on User:Kalsermar wikipage, and the information which has offended User:Kalsermar has been removed.

> The other edit did not accuse User:Kalsermar of anything[39], and in this edit I accidently deleted a large section which User:Kalsermar has deleted himself. In trying to restore User:Kalsermar deletions, I made a mistake, which was quickly changed by another user.

> I find it ironic that User:Kalsermar is pointing out my accidental deletion "note edit summary" when he has deleted a ratio of 3:1,857 words, and started the AfD without ever contributing a single word to the article. My accidental mistake in no way lessens User:Kalsermar guilt or innocent, they are mutually exclusive actions, under Tu quoque logic. If this "is not the content dispute" as User:Kalsermar states, why would he bring up my accidental deletions stating: "note edit summary"? User:Kalsermar can't have it both ways: it is either a content dispute or it is not.

> User:Kalsermar wants this not to be a content dispute because what led me to say those things, is because the "content dispute" involves User:Kalsermar's behavior, with a ratio of 3:1,857 word deletions, paints him in a bad light. This argument is about a content dispute, and began because of a content dispute. I don't understand how User:Kalsermar is able to seperate the two, especially when he himself mentions my accidental deletion: "note edit summary".

> The talk page links here, here and here that User:Kalsermar links to are statments I have stated here, to my knowledge I do not accuse User:Kalsermar of anything anywhere else, if I have, I will remove those comments, and apologize.

> I need to apologize one more time though, I was wrong, User:Kalsermar has contributed 3 words to this article, not zero. I will change this right now. Sorry User:Kalsermar, my mistake. (talk) 02:28, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I will state this once more, I am not required to add anything to an article in order to be justified in removing sections I believe are not supposed to be in the article for whatever reason. If I delete a million words without adding a single one I am still contributing to the article. Can you even understand that. I have explained my reasoning for the deletion of the sections involved and they have been reverted without any substantial refuting of my arguments. I have not, in doing so, accused you of vandalism or destructive behaviour. You on the other hand continually do so against anyone who does not conform to your POV. I struck out the stalking comment and I apologize for assuming bad faith in your behavioural pattern. I will not, however, let accusations of vandalism or destructive behaviour on my part stand and I again request an admin's help in this matter.--Kalsermar 18:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

>User:Kalsermar wrote: I will state this once more, I am not required to add anything to an article in order to be justified in removing sections I believe are not supposed to be in the article for whatever reason. If I delete a million words without adding a single one I am still contributing to the article. Can you even understand that. I have explained my reasoning for the deletion of the sections involved and they have been reverted without any substantial refuting of my arguments Wait, didn't you just say yesterday, "Again, it is not the content dispute I seek to resolve rather the accusations against me wich on my talk page are now being deleted by Travb." I thought this had nothing to do with the content dispute?

>I will state this once more, I am not required to defend referenced material in the article in order to be justified in keeping the sections I believe are supposed to be in the article, when you support no referenced material on why this should be deleted and contribute nothing to the article. If I add a million referenced words which met WP:V and the other rules, and you come along and delete all of them, this is not contibuting to the article. I have explained my reasoning for the sections to remain and they have still been deleted without any substantial refuting of my arguments. I have not, in doing so, accused you of wikistalking. You on the other hand continually do so against anyone who does not conform to your POV. I struck out the vandalism comment and I apologize for assuming bad faith in your behavioural pattern. I will not, however, let accusations of stalking on my part stand and I again request an admin's help in this matter.

>It goes both ways User:Kalsermar it is obvious your 3 words and your 1,857 words deleted is not any signifigant contribution. If you can't see this, then we will have to let others decide this in arbitration. Since you are too stubborn to respect the decision of the AfD, which was no consensus, which by default means keep, and you continue to delete large sections, I will be forced to start a RfC, followed by arbitration. The entire two months this is going on, the article will be protected. All of those words you want to delete will stay on wikipedia. Then, the arbitors will punish any large deletion of referenced material by booting you, for one day up to a month. So: you have a choice. Stop deleting content that does not match you POV, try to reach a consensus on the talk page, or the page remains protected for months, and then you get booted when you start deleting large portions of referenced, verifiable material. I already know the conclusion to this, I have seen the same behavior a million times before. I wish you would surprise me but there appears to be no comprimising with you. Travb (talk) 00:02, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Again my dear Travb, you are strengthening my case. Just look at your diatribes, and o, of course you know how it will end. I suggest strongly you shut up addressing me before I will say something nasty.--Kalsermar 00:41, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• My tentative investigation of this matter (as a neutral third-party at the suggestion of Kalsermar) suggests that -- as one might expect -- some of the content-removal by Kalsermar was clearly justified, and some was questionable. The correct course here is for neither editor to alter the article at this point without seeking talk-page consensus, a measure enforced for the moment by protection. It is important to note that, as Kalsermar says, content-removal is oftentimes a positive contribution to an article, deleting bias and increasing focus. The ratio of "words deleted vs. words added" is irrelevant: the merits of the edits are the only question that matters. Xoloz 01:30, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

AOL trolling on Seth Ilys's talk page

A quick glance at the history of Seth Ilys's talk page will reveal an AOL user constantly asking Seth to guess what he stuck up his butt today. (Sound familiar?) Anyway, it'd be good if people could keep an eye on this page to deter further trolling. --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 02:04, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Carrots? Do I win a prize? ;-) Bishonen | talk 02:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC).

His head? Is Seth on break? Geogre 02:39, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User evading Indef Block

Johnny Canuck (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) is quite clearly JohnnyCanuck (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) attempting to evade his recent indef block for sockpuppetry. His contribs say it all. A block would be appreciated, if just for username violation. -- pm_shef 02:49, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• Also, Pete's Watching (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) per contribs. -- pm_shef 03:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Both blocked. Thanks. -- pm_shef 03:51, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

He is a persistant puppeteer. I have blocked these two and a few others today. -- JamesTeterenko 04:02, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Deuterium (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

This user has altered User:Robdurbar's 3RR report edit and reverted to his altered version now five times.

• rv1
• rv2
• rv3
• rv4
• rv5

I warned this editor that he was nearing violation of WP:3RR but he continued to revert (and subsequently removed my warning).

Another pair of eyes would be useful here towards preventative ends.

Thanks. (→Netscott) 03:01, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The "altering" is simply removing the tag, as I do not believe the incident was correctly tagged. The 3RR was not correctly dealt with as anyone can see from actually looking at the reverts in question. There are 5 reverts in a 24 hour period! How can that not be a violation? There is no rule that a random admin's decision is binding, and anyway I will just relist if it is deleted. Deuterium 03:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The 3RR states that one can make no more than three reversions on the same article in a 24 hour period, so your 5 reversions clearly constitutes a violation.- Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg | Talk 05:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I suspect that Deuterium (talk · contribs) was not aware of the type of vandalism referred to as, "Changing people's comments" when he altered User:Robdurbar's original comment. (→Netscott) 03:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I didn't alter his comment, you're lying. I changed the tag of the incident because it was incorrectly tagged. Deuterium 03:34, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It was not incorrectly tagged since you did indeed violate the 3RR, so it was inappropriate for you to remove it.- Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg | Talk

Yes User:Deuterium is way over the 3RR limit. Now he's removing my own commentary. Could someone please wield the cluebat with this editor? Thanks. (→Netscott) 06:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

This user, even in other contexts, knee-jerk blanket-reverts, rolling back spelling and grammar fixes. Nysin 07:08, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

N and D are both being mind-bogglingly silly about this. I'm blocking both for 12h for edit-warring on the 3RR page. Don't do it William M. Connolley 07:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

That has to be the stupidest place to get into a revert war. (Like using a sockpuppet to complain on a checkuser page) :-/ Thatcher131 (talk) 13:40, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes it was a bit silly. User:Deuterium kept reverting a report marked as "No block" to read as though the report hadn't been reviewed (obviously in hopes that an inexperienced adminstrator would falsely block me.) My edits (they were not reversion) were to prevent that from occurring. Well today Deuterium (talk · contribs) is back to his old tricks of trying to get me blocked under false pretenses by again filing the same report. I honestly wish someone would take some action here... this has gone much beyond ridiculousness with this editor. (→Netscott) 23:54, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok, this is just nuts. There's now been two admins who've seen User:Robdurbar's (Result: No block) tag and reverted it: User:William M. Connolley, and User:PinchasC but Deuterium still reverts it. Seriously this person needs to be blocked for Disruption a la WP:POINT. (→Netscott) 00:14, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm having trouble understanding this. All I see from the diffs is what Netscott claims, that Deuterium is changing the admin decisions on WP/3RR because he, who filed the reports, thinks the decisions ought to have gone his way. It makes me blink in disbelief... especially when William MC states that both users are being "silly", and blocks them both. How is Netscott silly for reverting this absurd vandalism, or isn't it absurd vandalism, have I totally missed some vital point? I do have faith in William MC's experience and judgement, I'm more than willing to be convinced, but, what is it I'm not seeing? Please somebody explain? Bishonen | talk 00:16, 18 August 2006 (UTC).

Net, I have asked Deuterium to drop the matter. If he continues I will block him. I suggest you drop the matter as well. JoshuaZ 00:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Are you kidding me?... this is an ongoing pattern from yesterday. This user has been making concerted efforts towards admin shopping. And now is displaying this report on his user page. I got blocked by User:William M. Connolley for reverting his 3RR vandalism of changing commentary... and now he's trying to get me blocked again. This guy seriously needs to be cooling off. (→Netscott) (→Netscott) 00:23, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

If he continues being disruptive, I will block him. He understands that. For now, I'd prefer if you both went back to editing articles. JoshuaZ 00:25, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

This is rather indicative of where this is going, " Alright, I'll remove the listing but I'm not letting this go. Deuterium 00:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)" (→Netscott) 00:27, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Update: well, I hope somebody answers my concerns above eventually, but until then, I do consider that only one person was being disruptive and it wasn't Netscott. I would wield the cluebat, but since Joshua has an agreement (yes?) with Deuterium to block iff he makes any more of those edits on WP/3RR, and since I seem alone in finding them outrageous, I'll leave well enough alone for now. Bishonen | talk 00:44, 18 August 2006 (UTC).

You weren't alone in finding them outrageous - see his talk page, eg [40] and also the 3RR page - eg comment by PinchasC - I would support a block of Deuterium for a violation of WP:POINT for relisting this--Arktos ^talk 00:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Given the edit summary in this diff I think it'd be pretty safe to say that User:William M. Connolley'd support this block for POINT violation as well. (→Netscott) 01:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

InShaneee has blocked him for 48 hours for trolling and WP:POINT. Bishonen | talk 02:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC).

User:Deuterium again

This User's User page is a personal attack and should have the attacking information removed. User:Zoe|(talk) 02:10, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've removed it. This should probably be made a subthread of the above discussion of this user, though. --InShaneee 02:12, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Just a further POINT violation by this user. (→Netscott) 02:13, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Nice, now he's edit warring with User:InShaneee over his user page. (→Netscott) 02:29, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm hope I am not out of place adding my two cents here as I am not an admin and have nowhere near the reputation many of the people who contribute to this page do but I think that a block for being so blatantly disruptive would not be out of place here as Deuterium has repeatedly assumed bad faith on his comments and by the fact that he has repeatedly disruptived the 3RR noticeboard among other pages with his comments and despite being first suggested and then told that it would be better for everyone if he just dropped it he has continued to be disruptive. Please feel free to remove this if I am out of line here but that's just my $.02 Cat-five - talk 02:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

He's been blocked, "with an expiry time of 48 hours (trolling, POINT violations)" by User:InShaneee but is requesting an {{unblock}}. Obviously, I would advise against unblocking. (→Netscott) 02:45, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

{{Db-bio}}

So who deleted this template and why? The only mention on nn-bio regarding a delete debate was "no concensus" and I just noticed a page I left it on its suddenly gone.--Crossmr 03:35, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Here is the deletion log report: 03:23, 17 August 2006 Aguerriero (Talk | contribs | block) deleted "Template:Db-bio" (Does not assert significance or importance.). DVD+ R/W 03:38, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It is back now. DVD+ R/W 03:40, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

A new admin saw the rose box on a page (the page being the tempalte itself) and thus blindly deleted it without taking a minute to wonder what was going on. -- Drini 03:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

If that's true then that's a really bad thing. We don't need admins who blindly delete things because they've been tagged without even checking the page history, or gosh, the page title. If admins were really to just serve as automatic deletion bots we'd give the delete button to all users. Instead, we give it to a select few who we believe are trustworthy enough (*ahem*) to make carefully considered and informed judgements rather than rushing into anything. --Cyde Weys 13:27, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• I restored it, this is a case where reversing an admin action was kind of needed. An explanation from the admin would be nice, though Drini's explanation is quite possibly right. --W.marsh 04:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Ouch, if it's true. —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-08-17 04:22Z
    • Hey, sometimes you just press the wrong button... Titoxd^(?!?) 05:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
      • You should indefblock yourself for that travesty. Purely preventative, you know. :) —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-08-17 06:57Z
  • Just an accident I think. BTW, Titoxd, that was classic! -- Samir धर्म 05:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
    • • • That edit summary is classic 8-D -- Avi 20:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi, yes it was an accident, and I apologize. I assure you that is is not a modus operandi for me and I will be triply careful not to let anything like that happen again. Interestingly enough, I also rear-ended someone on the first day I had my driver licence, but haven't been in an accident since. :) --Aguerriero (talk) 13:11, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Just to add a note of explanation, I am well aware that the box on that page did not signify that it should be deleted. I was using tabbed browsing last night in Windows IE7, which I never use. As I was deleting my last speedy page before logging off, the browser froze and then closed a tab that I thought was open (the tab containing the page I actually intended to delete). As I result, I simply clicked the wrong button and deleted the template page. Again, I apologize, and I have taken steps to make sure it never happens again; I simply will not be using IE7 or Windows period to edit. --Aguerriero (talk) 13:33, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Firefox is definitely better than IE, I'll give you that :-P Cyde Weys 18:29, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Andy's next move it to delete WP:ANI. FYI to all. - CrazyRussian talk/email 19:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Mike18xx: WP:Civility and WP:NOT a soapbox

These are some of the user's recent edit summaries which are extremely hostile:

• fluffery elimination; main Allende bio doesn't contain this "gushing", so there's no reason to entertain it here [41]
• Please stop the *BS*, Vints. This bloated, irrelevent, even redundant, paragraph concercing cessation of foreign aid DOES NOT BELONG in a "intervention" section. [42]
• And furthermore, Allende's "Marxist expirement" was a complete success -- it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Marxism was a dismal economic failure on every conceivable level. [43]
• If you're going to brag about your spiffy new source in Talk, why don't you actually use it in the ARTICLE, Vints? This is so tedious.. [44]
• Hey, look over there.... [45]

Also, take a look at Talk:Chile under Allende which has been turned into a soapbox. The user has already been blocked several times for these kinds of actions.--Jersey Devil 03:41, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The following is a recent comment made by the above user to User:Vints:

Perhaps Vints should go over to the Nazism page and edit in a couple remarks reminding everyone, obsessively, that the Nazis were freely elected. Because, after all, that's soooo relevent and justifies dictatorship. Er, right.--Mike18xx 05:06, 15 August 2006 (UTC) [46]

The hell they do. Go breathlessly announce it on the Nazism page, Vints, and see how far the fluffing gets. [47]--Jersey Devil 03:50, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

This user appears to have been blocked multiple times before with little effect. A long block may be appropriate and would have my support. ++Lar: t/c 04:35, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Now the user is making false accusations of vandalism:

rv errors, loaded-insinuation phrases and straight-up rubbish for reasons cited previously. This is just vandalism now. [48]--Jersey Devil 02:01, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Shotcaller8

This user will not stop adding extraneous, unnecessary images to the Layla El article. I request someone warn him or give him a temp. block for his actions, as he has been warned numerous times. Thank you. — Chad "1m" Mosher ^Email Talk _Cont. 03:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Light current block review?

Light current has already had a block review declined, but he's asking the two admins currently involved User:Lar and User:Drini to make sure they're acting on the correct info. I'm not on either side of this but just passing on the info. --Anchoress 05:10, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

As another independant observer, based on his explanation there does seem to be a possibility that he was re-blocked on a misunderstanding. I would urge an admin to take a fresh look at this, perhaps User:Drini could confirm whether s/he intended to unblock as User:Light current suggests. Rockpocket 05:25, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I think the crux of Drini's block was a belief that Light current made an attack page that an EnthusiastFRANCE sock made. While Light current's behaviour has been less than spectacular on his talk page (particularly with respect to his discourse with Pschemp) I don't think it warrants a month's block. -- Samir धर्म 05:40, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, i concur. I think (hope) Light current will see the, uh, light and realise that the way forward is an apology to Pschemp, a better understanding of WP:CIVIL and then he can get back to his excellent work on engineering related articles. Thanks for your attention, Samir. Rockpocket 07:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I tecnincally am the last admin to block... I happened to see the block by Drini, and it looked like (due to an error calculating timespans on my part) like Drini was trying to extend. So I unblocked and reblocked. It turns out I goofed, it was a new block not an extension so my action was unneeded. Allegations have been made that Drini lifted or meant to lift, which I think are incorrect. I've left a note on Drini's talk page stating that I am fine with whatever Drini does, leave it, reduce, lift... I gotta say that I see a LOT of nastiness and intransigence in this user's behaviour though. At a time when a month long block of Giano is being seriously mooted for one funny suggestion to a known troublemaker who really needs a community banning, I don't see a month in this case as disproportionate... but I'm not at all wedded to this block, and, particularly, defer to Drini. ++Lar: t/c 12:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Short version: Drini made the original block. Please speak with him about it. pschemp | talk 17:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

He's "apologised" 4 times now (under his definition) but hasn't yet actually admitted fault. We can't force people to apologise but my metric for how closely to watch a user includes whether they apologised sincerely or not, a sincere apology tends to be a sign of reduced risk of further problems. I wish Drini would weigh in. ++Lar: t/c 10:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I still wish Drini would weigh in. But all in all this user is now showing more understanding (see this) so I've taken it upon myself to reduce the block to 3 hours from now, menaing that the user will have been blocked for about 3 days. That now feels right to me. Drini or anyone else is welcome to comment on my actions. ++Lar: t/c 21:45, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I did try to unblock you soon after, then the block dialog said "the blockid is not vlaid, probablky user is already unblocked". I did lift an autoblock (you may check), so I assumed it was all clear, as I dont' follow every AN thread, I rather got ocnfused about waht was going on 4444

Personal threat against my family

While on new pages patrol, I deleted Eric_the_camping_bot a few times, warned the creating user (User:Edgar789) to knock it off, then blocked him briefly for continuing to repost it. He created a sock (User:Horseskunk) and recreated it again. I blocked that account indef, then a few minutes later received the following email:

From: Nickpatience <nick_patience@hotmail.com> to Chairboy

the blocking of ericthecampingbot and nickpatience was invalid. if we are not unbanned in 20 minutes we will send samual l. jackson to your house to eat your children. if still you do not comply we will pursue leagal actions for the murder of your children.

This reads like a threat against my family, I'd like some suggestions on how best to deal with this. - CHAIRBOY (☎) 06:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd just ignore. Sounds like an idle threat. Expect that Edgar/Eric/Nick will get bored soon -- Samir धर्म 06:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Concur with Samir. I have indef blocked the user in question and warned him that should he persist, it is possible that his actions could result in his being investigated and reported to the police for making terroristic threats over the Internet - which is a federal crime in the United States. FCYTravis 06:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

For a threat to be a threat, the person must be able to, or believed to be possible of carrying out the act. I don't think he's going to send Samual L. Jackson to his house, and I don't think SLJ is a cannibal. Paul Cyr 06:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

No, a threat is a threat, whether you think it's realistic or not. I don't know where you'd get the idea that only credible threats are threats. - Nunh-huh 06:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I think you'll find that most legal jurisdictions to indeed distinguish between credible threats and "threats" that are plainly not meant to be taken seriously. The law relating to assault, etc., is pretty sophisticated. That said, I'm content with the handling to date. We're probably well rid of this person independently of the "threat". Metamagician3000 07:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

We are not a "legal jurisdiction", and the fact that some laws distinguish between types of threats does not make those threats non-threats, or the threat listed above any less of a threat. - Nunh-huh 15:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you just ignore him. A court would not never believe that you truly feared for you and your family's safety from that threat for one moment. Emailing him back will probably provoke him since he's probably an immature kid and see it as a challenge. If he continues to harass you further, then you can threaten to email his ISP and get the authorities involved. --  Netsnipe  ^(Talk)  07:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

We've corresponded, and he apologized for the message. I don't think he thought it through, and we've discussed the importance of thinking these things out. He's a teenager, and we all did dumb things when we were teens. The important thing is whether we learned from 'em. I'm now confident that there was no real physical threat intended (unless he's a master bullshit artist) and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Consider the matter closed. For the folks that said "ignore it", a note, I've got children, and when you've got something that looks to be a threat against your actual, non-metaphorical children, it's a bit more serious than a casual "I'll hit you so hard your kids will be born dizzy". Regards, CHAIRBOY (☎) 07:35, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

If someone says "I'm going to throw a bear on your head and eat your mother's lungs for supper" it isn't really a threat. But it is evidence that the "threatener" is not in exactly the right frame of mind to be working on an encyclopedia. --FOo 07:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• I've protected the deleted page too, since it seems to have been re-created at least 7 times. For what it's worth, I think the original threat certainly warrants a block, especially since it's toward Chairboy's children. If the user had a complaint, there's any number of ways they could have dealt with it. Physically threatening someone's children is never okay. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 20:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

inappropriate username

I am reporting the username "Nigga360" because I feel is it obscene and not appropriate for a username. Thanks. Wikipediarules2221 06:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Blocked, thanks. —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-08-17 06:52Z

Usernames like that can be reported at WP:AIV. ;) --Andeh 09:51, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Webville

User has linkspammed links to his website, isurvived.org, which promotes a minority viewpoint on many Holocaust-related topics. He has made many unhelpful, bad-faith edits to Hiram Bingham IV, attempting to portray him in a negative light. He has reverted edits, which I had given reasoning for on the talk page without explanation several times. He has made zero contributions other than those trying to promote his website, a clear single-purpose account. I am perfectly willing to "clean up" his damage (remove isurvived.org links, revert his minority POV additions such as those at Hiram Bingham IV, and an already-reverted edit to Hiram Bingham III); however, I want to make sure that this is an appropriate course of action. I also am quite certain he will reinstate all the links afterward, so I do not think it will be enough. I brought attention to him earlier on the noticeboard, but the only response was an editor offering to remove his spammed links (although he did not), and I do not believe that will be enough anyway. -Elmer Clark 09:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Webville (talk • contribs • page moves • block user • block log)

Added to help track user.--Andeh 09:50, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The user has also engaged in some incivility, see [49] Aranherunar 12:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm keeping an eye on Bingham as well; someone else might want to look at it, as I've reverted it three times in the last few hours. It does just seem to be a case of insistently spamming his edits back onto the page; I'm not entirely sure if this is self-promotion or just a desire to say "nyah nyah not a hero nyah", but either way it's unhelpful. Shimgray | talk | 19:20, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I've blocked him after he dumped material back onto the page again. If someone could check this all looks above-board, I'd appreciate it... Shimgray | talk | 19:46, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and removed all his linkspammed links to isurvived.org. There are still a few links to the site that were previously added to other users; I went ahead and left those as they all appear just to link to specific documents or news stories that happen to be hosted there are were as far as I can tell added in good faith. -Elmer Clark 22:54, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Dangerous user continues to censor and insert POV into articles

Tywright (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) continues to censor the Charlie Crist article and add POV to Tom Gallagher article. This appears to be a vandalism-only account and it should be blocked as such. --CFIF (talk to me) 10:35, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User made some POV edits, and one edit I'd classify as vandalism, but hasn't edited at all since the 15th, and has been warned twice (by Bastique and by you) only since then (on the 16th and 17th). Seems to be more of a POV pusher than an outright vandal. I feel a warning should suffice for now. Other opinions?--Firsfron of Ronchester 11:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks like someone with a stake in the election that these two politicians are involved in, rather than an ordinary vandal. We may need to act to block indefinitely if there are further edits to those pages, and further warnings don't work quickly. Suggest some eyes are kept on the relevant pages (i.e. the two politicians and the contributions of Tywright). Metamagician3000 12:12, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Watching appropriate pages.--Firsfron of Ronchester 06:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Shanequinlan01 still uploading images with false copyright tags

Shanequinlan01 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). For example Image:0000120e0b2.jpg claims the GFDL when it quite plainly isn't. They have previously uploaded dozens of images with false copyright tags, all of which had to be deleted. This behaviour has continued despite innumerable talk page warnings, and even a 24-hour block [50]. The user has promised several times [51] [52] to desist with this behaviour, but these promises appear to have been made in bad faith. Can an administrator take a look and take the appropriate action? Thanks! Demiurge 12:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

See also Image:0000120NoelBrown.jpg, another obvious false license. Aranherunar 12:28, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• I've applied a 1-week block on the user. If they do it again, we should probably block them for good. --Improv 12:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Linkspamming from 12.148.252.66

Could someone take a look at 12.148.252.66 (talk • contribs • page moves • block user • block log) please? Note repeated warnings about linkspamming on the talk page and this user's immediate repost of reverted linkspam. Thanks! --Craig Stuntz 15:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I blocked them for 24 h for linkspam, we'll see if that takes care of it. Syrthiss 15:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks again! --Craig Stuntz 15:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Proudzionist2347 is a sock puppet of Zonerocks

Proudzionist2347 is a sock puppet of Zonerocks as established by CheckUser and the evidence provided therein (similar article edits, self-congratulatory, stacking a move poll, and signing in the wrong place). It would seem there are other concerns about Zonerocks, but at the least the puppet should be blocked, correct (even though the poll was over weeks ago)? I'm loathe to use {{sockpuppetcheckuser}} as it says the user has been blocked already, which obviously I can't do. -- nae'blis 15:37, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I have blocked the Proudzionist2347 account indefinitely. Jkelly 17:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Jkelly. I noticed that he removed talk page comments twice about sockpuppetry, but since he's left it alone on his userpage, I'm not too worried about it. -- nae'blis 14:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture (2nd nomination)

I nominated this for deletion, but it is obvious that there is WP:SNOW chance of this AfD succeeding. Someone want to close it as withdrawn nom?--Isotope23 19:08, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Done. (actually, you could have done it yourself)--Doc 20:29, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Slow motion Kleptomania edit war?

I find myself in a slow motion edit war.

Whilst reading Nobby Nobbs, I came upon a link to Kleptomania. I was vaguly disturbed to find an article that smelled funny, rambling on about Monomania; I googled, found that Kleptomania was listed in the DSM, and checked the history.

And found that the current version was the work of one editor, User:Tobias Müller, who wrote the only modern paper cited as a source.

I reverted; and have since had to revert again.

And I'm wondering:

What should I do now?

^Thanks, _{Luc "Somethingorother" French} 20:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

First of all, I noticed you haven't tried communicating with Tobias. No wonder why you two are in an edit war, both the article's talk page and his user talk page are empty. Start a dialogue with him and try resolve your differences civilly. There's no real point raising a complaint here unless he continues to ignore you. PS: You're not allowed t blank your own User Talk page, you're only allowed to archive old messages. --  Netsnipe  ^(Talk)  20:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm really hoping to be able to hand this situation off to somebody (preferably an admin, thus my posting here) who can deal with a POV warrior and/or a crank (which is what Tobias Müller may very well turn out to be, given his choice of sources), as I suspect I wouldn't be very good at handling this sort of situation. Anybody care to volunteer? ^Thanks, _{Luc "Somethingorother" French} 21:50, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

You could also try stealing the article :) Cat-five - talk 00:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Timeline of cosmology query

In "Talk:Timeline of cosmology", I have asked another editor what I believe are reasonable questions concerning their edits. They are now refusing to respond to my queries, claiming I am baiting them. I am doing no such thing. Any suggestions? --Iantresman 20:13, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Please see WP:DR. --Doc 20:30, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It says "First step: talk to the other parties involved". I've done that, but have been refused a response. Now what?

Read on to the next steps. --Doc 21:48, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Copyright problems - User:Paul Arnott

This user came to my attention today because he made a separate page for Karen Carpenter, which was a redirect to The Carpenters, and it showed up on #vandalism-en-wp. I checked the page and it looked like a copyvio to me, and sure enough it was - taken verbatim from the Internet Movie Database.

I reverted it back to a redirect page, then went to notify him, but it seems like this is SOP for Paul Arnott. He's got warning after warning after warning for copyvio problems, mostly local news anchors that he kept recreating after they were deleted. Mets501 blocked him for 24 hours on August 14, but that apparently hasn't fazed him at all. I put up another warning and am bringing it here because the guy seems determined to plagiarize. Thanks. Baseball,Baby! ^{balls•strikes} 21:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Metz got him again - for 7 days. Third strike and he's out. --Doc 21:47, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Jadger

Jadger (talk · contribs) has falsely accused me of various fancy things at Talk:Extermination through labour. I asked him at his talk page to provide some backup for his claims or to remove the remarks, but to no avail, which makes me think that his comment is ordinary libel, intended to tarnish my good name. As per WP:NPA I removed the remark several times in a row, but it's been inserted back. Any ideas what could be done with it? Could any of the admins instruct Jadger that spreading lies and accusations of other users is not what makes Wikipedia better? //Halibutt 22:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

User:PhoenixPinion

Why was this user indefinitely blocked for a joke which, admittedly was in bad taste, but didn't violate any policy? JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 22:52, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps because nobody's thought that we needed a policy that says "Don't claim that other editors are dead, unless it is really obvious to everyone that you are here to write an encyclopedia and simply lapsed in judgement once". Jkelly 23:02, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Well that user whom he claimed was dead has said it was a joke and one he found rather funny. I fail to see what harm has been done to anyone involved in the encyclopedia by this incident. I can understand a short block if Raven had been upset over the joke. But as he wasn't and it didn't violate any policy, indef blocking is overkill here and probably out of line. JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 23:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I am not liking the indef block here at all. PhoenixPinion doesn't have much of an editing history, but he has done some OK looking stuff. If User:The_Raven_is_God doesn't have a problem with PhoenixPinion saying he was dead, I think we should treat it as a dumb joke, unblock now, and move on. Unless if there's more backstory that I'm missing. Is there? —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 23:08, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Not that I can tell. Raven may have even approved of the "claim" he was dead from what I can garner. He too is serving a block from what I can see which should also be lifted. Being the butt of a joke is hardly grounds for a 48 hour block. JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 23:10, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It would make sense to take this up with User:Cyde, the blocking admin in both cases. I note that the unblock was denied by User:Shell Kinney. Jkelly 23:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I was just asking him to join us here. (Raven's block has expired, BTW). —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 23:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I wouldn't unblock in this circumstance, because what we are dealing with here is a clique of people who know each other in real life and came on Wikipedia to have fun, not write the encyclopedia. --Cyde Weys 23:20, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about that. I see several productive edits from this user. And it's not like he's either on here often or has a history of disruption. JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 23:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Somewhere along the way of having fun and not writing the encyclopedia, PhoenixPinion seems to have fallen into our trap of trying to make it inviting and fun to actually write an encyclopedia. Look at this: actual edits that not only include content but also cite sources properly. I feel a little uncomfortable citing WP:BITE, as often as it is bandied about like a weapon, but this is what it is about: we attract people for all sorts of reasons and some of them just might make good editors. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 23:28, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreee with Bunch and Johnny. Recommend the block be lifted. JoshuaZ 23:32, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I support unblocking--Arktos ^talk 23:44, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Since there does seem to be a good amount of support for an unblock can it be reconsidered? JohnnyBGood t c VIVA! 00:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, he and the other involved users do have a history of disruption and vote stacking (and multiple accounts, at least in the case of User:The Raven and User:The Raven is God), but that doesn't become immediately clear from their contribution history as the hoax articles in question have been deleted. You can check their edits to WP:AFD and related pages, and their edits to each others home pages. But I don't mind that the block is lifted, it was perhaps enough to stop the joking and disruption. Fram 06:29, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

For the record, yes I did find Phoenixpinion's edits of my page humorous (upon logging in I discovered that I was dead, and of a monitor induced seizure no less!). Seeing as it is his first offense too (at least, his first block), I see absolutely no reason that it should be indefinite. While I wouldnt go so far as to call him a regular contributor to wikipedia, I would say he has made quite a few notable edits in his stay here (much more than me in any case)... which is why I strongly advocate the re-considering of his block (See his talk page). --The Raven is God 01:15, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've unblocked him. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 01:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

A user has expressed concern over this block. I think I can shed some light on this; Cyde (the blocking admin) and I were in a rather extended dispute for a while. I know Phoenix in real life in a similar way that Raven is God knows him, and I fear that Cyde may have noticed Phoenix's actions and been a bit harsh due to his association with me. (Cyde blocked me for 34 hours for adding myself to a category that was on CfD after I put it through DRV because Cyde closed the previous CfD prematurely.) I don't know if that's really why Cyde did it, but he didn't respond to my inquiries about it so I pretty much let it go, as I assumed that the community would agree to unblock Phoenix. I've pretty much given up on trying to resolve things with Cyde, and as much as I hate to let it just slip by, I don't have the time to do much of anything about his actions. At any rate, that's what I believe happened, as it's unlikely that Cyde would've noticed the edit (since the first one was made weeks before he blocked Phoenix) had I not questioned him about blocking me, the premature CfD closing, etc. syphonbyte _(t|c) 03:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Not "weeks before he blocked Phoenix", but 12 days[78]. And the important thing is not the first edit, but obviously the time since the last edit, which was less than 2 days[79], and which was the edit that put The Raven is God into the category (before that, it was only a text on his userpage). So your statements are incorrect wrt the timing. Fram 15:38, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

User Evading Indef Block

• RoyalFrush (talk · contribs) is JohnnyCanuck (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) attempting to evade his indef block. A block would be appreciated. Thank. -- pm_shef 23:59, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• That is a suspicious user. However, it is not as clearcut as most of his other sockpuppets. Let this one go until it starts playing the games that the others do. -- JamesTeterenko 02:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Appreciate some help - vandalism by User:The Prophecy

The Prophecy (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has a series of vandalistic redirects. (The last being my talk page and user page.) I temporarily blocked the user, though it should probably be a permanent block for a vandalism only account. I'd appreciate some help with reverting the mess. Thanks. — ERcheck (talk) 00:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• I'm new to this and not sure where to start. I don't want to delete pertinent histories. — ERcheck (talk) 00:25, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I tried moving the Aginar page back, but it failed because he created a page with the same title as the one it had moved from. I think what needs to happen is that a bunch of articles need to be deleted (the redirects and so on) so that the pages can be moved back to their original locations for starters. I'll try reverting the edits he made to any content, that should be easy--BigCow 00:27, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I think I got it. He started with moving Aginar to Large Mammals and then kept moving it to a series of expletive/nonsense titles. I fixed the Aginar and my user pages, I think all the rest can be deleted. Just need to take care. — ERcheck (talk) 00:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

All deleted; I think it's fixed now. Thanks for posting the notice. Antandrus (talk) 00:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks to you Antandrus. — ERcheck (talk) 00:40, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Marudubshinki

About three weeks ago Maru was blocked indefinitely by me for a fairly serious BOT useage violation. The incident was discussed here but is now archived. Maru has now requested the block be removed, which I've done, as he's given a promise [80] that he won't do it again. -- I@n 00:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Sounds fine to me. Reblock if the bot reappears though, I assume. --W.marsh 01:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

This has become a most serious and depressing affair.

Quite a while ago, Maru was blocked indefinitely for continually running an unregistered bot that constantly misbehaved. He unblocked himself, claiming that the bots were shut down, then resumed running his bots that same day.

Some time later he was blocked again, for the same reason, and during the discussion around this later block it was discovered that he had previously unblocked himself on a pretext. He was then warned in the strongest of terms that he must not unblock himself. IIRC, Essjay even threatened an emergency de-sysopping.

As I@n says above, Maru has now promised not to run any unauthorised bots, and requested an unblocking.

However, now things get really sleazy. Maru has just disclosed on his user page that he sometimes uses another account, Rhwawn. [81] Nothing wrong with that, and kudos to him for making it public, except...

He created this account three days after he was blocked, and has made over 700 edits with it. If blatant evasion of a block isn't bad enough, most of Maru's edits through the Rhwawn account are unauthorised bot edits!

This has gone on too long. I am going to apply indefinite blocks to both Maru and Rhwawn, ask Essjay to look into an emergency desysopping, and request a CheckUser.

Snottygobble 01:46, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Endorse permanently banning Rhwawn as an unauthorized bot account and sockpuppet. Endorse indefinite block (in the sense of to be determined) on Maru. Essjay has not been around for several days so you might want to contact another bureaucrat about the de-sysopping and an arbitrator about the checkuser. Thatcher131 (talk) 01:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

If the main account is unblocked, I don't see a (policy) reason to block the sock, if the evasion was in the past. An alternative is arbitration now, but since as far as I know he's promised in good faith to stop the bot then I think we should give him a chance. --W.marsh 02:04, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

FYI As far as I've been able to gather (from Marudabshinki), he *is* using the pywikipediabot framework, but he's using a manual or semi-auto tool. This is a lot faster than editing the wiki directly, but it's still under manual control. Kim Bruning 01:59, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

This isn't about Maru's bot flag anymore. It is about Wikipedia having an admin that

1. Unblocks himself on a pretext
2. Creates socks to avoid blocks
3. Requests unblocking on a pretext

Snottygobble 02:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Endorse block and emergency desysopping. This guy has always struck me as a bit reckless, and he isn't playing by the rules anymore. CanadianCaesar Et tu, Brute? 02:09, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Opinion struck per below. CanadianCaesar Et tu, Brute? 02:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Um, like the original block was really dumb? I think the separate account is for when running the bot... (as long as he possibly declared it) , and requesting unblocking is always ok. Granting the request is something else.

I'm not saying that I'm nescesarily right, but it does still seem possible to assume good faith in this instance.

If Marus story is true, then perhaps we could think about desysopping someone else. There's some decent ways to determine the truth though.

We could have an admin or two unblock him, and watch him carefully for a little while. Is that ok? Worst case he messes up, and they can block him again. Kim Bruning 02:12, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Can you clarify your "perhaps we could think about desysopping someone else" comment for me? Snottygobble 02:26, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Um that pretext stuff is pretty assuming bad faith there snotty. Did he evade the block? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes. Is it worth a desysopping? No. He didn't abuse any admin tools this time, just made a sock that did good edits. pschemp | talk 02:09, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

In the first case, Maru was blocked indefinitely, explicitly told not to unblock himself, and told that he would be unblocked once he agreed not to run an unauthorised bot. He unblocked himself, with edit summary "bot shut down", then started up the bot again the same day. That is unblocking on a pretext; its pretty hard to argue with that. The quality of his subsequent edits have nothing to do with it. Snottygobble 02:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I am inclined to reduce the blocking to maybe a week or less. Others agree? User:Zscout370 ^{(Return Fire)} 02:14, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Blocking is a means to protect the wiki. Not a punishment. Unblock right away, but keep an eye on Marudabshinki for a while so everyone stays happy. If he's truely the root of all evil, we can always block him again for good. I have some doubt if that'll happen though. Either way, I'd just like to have a couple of extra pairs of competent eyes on the matter. Kim Bruning 02:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

If you guys want an admin running around that unblocks himself, evades blocks by creating sockpuppets, and promises not to run unauthorised bots while running an unauthorised bot through a sock, you go ahead an unblock him. I won't wheel war with you, but I will think your decision is stunningly stupid. Snottygobble 02:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Maru has posted this on his user page; posting here as a courtesy. Snottygobble 02:16, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Needless to say, I strongly disagree with this block. I don't particularly mind you blocking the Rhwawn account, since it was originally for the Board election, and I don't expect to need it again, but blocking my main account for semi-automated disambiguating and de-selflinking edits really cooks my chestnuts. Was I ban avading? Under a strict interpretation, I suppose so. A process wonk could surely argue that this is grounds for a few days or weeks banned, but an indef ban? Look at my edits. THey were good edits. We're supposed to judge by results, not mindlessly follow process; that's what IAR is all about, and we keep it around for a reason. Does de-sysoping, an indef blocking (with an apparent intention of making it truly indefinite and infinite) truly seem proportional to my actual offenses? I've contributed so much good work to Wikipedia, and so little bad work; doesn't that merit any consideration when I violate your interpretation of policy in my haste to actually get something done? I'd reply on AN/I, but there seems to be some technical problem. --maru (talk) contribs 02:14, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, we're having him follow procedure now, and watching him. If he is really being stupid, that's all there is to it. If he's actually being smart and someone else is being stupid, we'll find that out quickly enough too. Kim Bruning 02:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Zscout has unblocked citing "reducing duration to time served". That's a strange basis, considering the block was for running an unauthorised bot, and Maru spent his "time served" running his unauthorised bot through a sock. Honestly, I find this decision absolutely mind-bogglingly incomprehensible. Snottygobble 02:37, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't really want to be making any more suggestions of my own here but some history might be useful. See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive124#User:Marudubshinki running unauthorized robots.

1. He ran a bot account, Bot-maru (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), which was blocked as an unauthorized bot, and because it was not assisted and was making mistakes. Rather than go to WP:BRFA, he started running the bot on his main account.
2. He was blocked again because the bot was making mistakes, with the understanding that he could unblock himself if he stopped running the bot. He unblocked himself, and started running the bot again.
3. The bot was deleting pages, using Maru's sysop bit. Quoting Essjay, This is greatly concerning, as the use of bots with admin privs is opposed very strongly on en.wiki (with the possible exception of Curps, though his is not without it's critics, and may or may not still be running) and by the Foundation (an adminbot on another wiki was desysopped by Anthere not too long ago).
4. He was blocked again with instructions not to unblock himself. He did anyway, and started running the bot again.
5. He was blocked a third time and told to stop running the bot. Rather than accept responsibility and seek bot approval at WP:BRFA, he started running the bot on a second account, thereby violating both bot policy and policy against using socks to edit while blocked.

I'll let the rest of you make the decisions. I wonder whether you really expect he will stop running the bot this time, or you just don't care; and I wonder how long he will run it in assisted mode before he turns it loose again; and I wonder if he will lend it his own sysop functions again. But it's not really in my hands. Thatcher131 (talk) 03:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

If he runs the bot again without requesting approval first, we will take him out for some ParkingLotTherapy. Basically we're giving him a bit of a last chance, but watching him carefully. We'll soon see if he behaves or not. :-) Kim Bruning 02:44, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've just come back here after an hour off-line and see the sh*t has hit the fan. I'm in total agreement with Snottygobble - I'd thought that his last block was his last chance. Maru must have been awfully close to being de-sysopped after he was exposed for unblocking himself to continue using an unauthorised admin-bot. We now find he was using a sock in order to to evade the block. I'd assumed good faith in unblocking him but clearly that was misguided - Maru was cheating his block all along. He is a loose cannon and has shown ongoing behaviour unbecoming of an administrator. -- I@n 02:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree that he should be de-sysoped but not blocked because he makes lots of useful articles. ⇒ JarlaxleArtemis 04:11, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Based only on the information presented here (having not yet done the research myself) I'd support the dead-minning. - brenneman ^{L} 04:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think the death penalty is the answer here. --Cyde Weys 05:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe take this to a RFC, and/or the ArbCom? If I was an admin, I wouldn't have bots running until I got them authorised.

Marudubshinki (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has made good edits, as JarlaxleArtemis said, so I don't think an indefinite block is warranted. --TheM62Manchester 08:45, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I would support a de-adminship (not an indef block, too harsh) based on evidence presented here too. - Mailer Diablo 08:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't an RFC or ArbCom be a better solution? --TheM62Manchester 09:00, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Sure, just that we'll need someone willing to do the filing process. - Mailer Diablo 13:43, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

---

A lot of people seem to be saying that an indef block is too harsh. But I haven't heard anyone actually propose an indef block, so I'm not sure who you're arguing against. I hope you people don't think my reinstatement of I@n's block was intended to be a final solution; as I stated on Maru's talk page, I reinstated the block "while we thrash out the implications of you running unauthorised bot edits through an alternative account created to avoid an indefinite block applied for running unauthorised bot edits".

For the record, I also do not think Maru should be blocked indefinitely. But I am firmly opposed to him retaining his sysop flag. Snottygobble 09:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Indef block isn't appropriate given his good contributions, but unless someone is disputing the facts as laid out above, he has clearly abused the admin tools, and thus should not retain them. Just remove the problem and allow the good contributions. Then block later if it becomes becessary. If consensus here isn't enough for a steward to go on to desysop, send it to arbcom. - Taxman ^Talk 11:39, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Let's not rush to any unnecessarily hasty decisions. This isn't dangerous. This isn't an emergency. Bring the case to the ArbComm. De-adminship in non-cut-and-dry situations (i.e. repeatedly unblocking self or deleting the main page) is the role of the ArbComm. He is unblocked. Don't reblock him, please. If you think it's serious enough, bring the case to the Committee. No vigilante justice, thank you very much. Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 12:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Concur. ArbCom is appropriate if someone wants to do it. If there are further problems, I'll do it myself. Extra chances are good for minor infractions, but at a certain point we have to assert firmly that admins are as bound by policy as everyone else. -- SCZenz 14:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Problems with MEChA

Two anon editors 128.97.143.170 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) and 71.135.249.20 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) (probably the same person) have been making unencyclopedic rewrites to MEChA over the last few days (see here and here for two examples). 71.135.249.20 also blanked sections of the talk page and made personal attacks. [82] [83] [84] I tried to show good faith and have left messages on the talk pages of both the IP's regarding their actions, but none of my attempts have been responded to. I keep urging this user to discuss their edits on the talk page, but they have yet to do so in any meaningful way. There is also a small bit on this topic at Meeples' talk page. If some more people can keep an eye on these pages and try and talk to this person, that would be great. If the actions continue, I think a block may be in order. Ungovernable Force^{The Wiki Kitchen!} 01:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, TheKaplan has found the source of these edits. [85] So in addition to being unencyclopedic, it's also a possible copywrite violation. Ungovernable Force^{The Wiki Kitchen!} 01:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll semi-protect the page. -Will Beback 06:11, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Ungovernable Force^{The Wiki Kitchen!} 07:36, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Copyright concerns regarding Zelda imagery

Over the last few days there has been some contestation between myself and several users regarding the use of a logo from the Legend of Zelda series of games. In particular the image that is at the middle of this is Image:Triforce.svg. A very close likeness of this image is featured prominently at http://www.zelda.com/universe/, and is in fact the avatar Nintendo uses for that website. My stance is that Image:Triforce.svg is a copyrighted work, and I've changed the tagging it from {{pd-self}} to {{logo}} (though perhaps {{game-icon}} is more appropriate). The counter response to this is that the image is a Sierpinski triangle and is inherently uncopyrightable as a result, plus being user created. My counter-response has been that the image being a mathematical construct does not change the fact that it is a copyrighted work. The logo for Mitsubishi is also a mathematical construct (simply parallelograms arranged around a focal point). A quick summary of these respective positions may be found at Wikipedia_talk:Copyright_problems#Image:Triforce.svg.

As of now, the point remains in dispute. Recently, a used replaced the image with a yellow triangle, which from my chair is perfectly acceptable (see [86]). A day later, this was replaced by using the same triangle image three times, creating essentially the same image as Image:Triforce.svg (see [87]). I reverted this change since it did create an essentially identical image [88]. Shortly thereafter, the original Image:Triforce.svg was placed back on the template [89]. I've reverted this change as well, returning to the single triangle version [90].

This dispute has gone on for four days now, and I've reverted/replaced five times over those days vs. three other users who have been reverting me. The dispute has also involved {{Zeldaproj}} and {{Zelda-stub}} though with less reversion in their histories. User:BigNate37 who put in place the single triangle (a good move I thought) also made a good suggestion my talk page to "call in a second opinion" [91]. Since Wikipedia_talk:Copyright_problems didn't produce any dialogue, I'm bringing it here.

For the record, I think it's blatantly apparent this is a copyrighted image both by nature of the presence of it on Nintendo's website and by the fact that several users are quite interested in having some version of it on the various templates. If the image were not tightly related to Zelda, there would not be such interest. The image is tightly related because Nintendo markets it as such. They have a vested interest in protecting the use of such logos. The single yellow triangle is an acceptable, free-use alternative.

Lastly, I think the core of the dispute and its value is questionable; the argument is over using a copyrighted image (potentially or otherwise) on templates that do not contribute content to the main article namespace. The stub marker for example is not compromised by the lack of the logo; it would be served just as well by a single triangle. I do not see the value in potentially violating Nintendo's copyright in order to support a (subjectively) prettier version of three templates. I would much rather see the people who think this image is usable contact Nintendo regarding its specific stance regarding this image; this is the right path to take, not presume it isn't copyrighted.

If consensus is otherwise to my stance, I'll quite happily concede the point. --Durin 01:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

IP isn't my daily grind, but -- FWIW -- Nintendo has probably trademarked the triangle as a mark of the Zelda game. The company couldn't copyright a construct discovered in 1915, and Mitsubishi hasn't copyrighted theirs either. As a trademark, use of the symbol is permitted to any party not competing with Nintendo. Trademarking does not remove a mark from the public domain, and only restricts its use within the limited industry or trade to the party trademarking. In short, the triangle is usable, unless we start "Wikipedia:The Video Game". :) Xoloz 01:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I seem to recall a story that that arangement of trangles, was printed on various goods in Japan before the existance of the video game. This needs to be looked into. If it is true, the symbol may be inelligible for copyright. (Of course, without a reference, this is only a theory!) Though, as stated, its relation and use in video games may be trademarked by the Nintendo company. --Kevin_b_er 02:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

That is also pretty much the logo of the American Academy of Actuaries, Image:2006AAALOGO.jpg -- Avi 04:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I would say copyright fears have been allayed. Gateman1997 05:00, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I took a look at Nintendo's trademarks on the USPTO site. They have 287 active registered trademarks, including the word "Triforce" for a huge range of uses. They've trademarked several pictures of Mario, several variants of their "circle within a circle" logo; their cube of the letter N, and the outline of each of their controllers. They've trademarked a long list of Pokemon names, plus "Gotta catch em all!". But they don't seem to have trademarked that triangle symbol. --John Nagle 06:17, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks everybody for your hard work! Much appreciated. Based on this discussion, I've retagged the image as {{pd-ineligible}} and put it back [92][93][94] on the templates in question. --Durin 12:28, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Image:JohnMarkKarr.jpg

Could someone please explain fair use to User:Mineralè? User:Zoe|(talk) 02:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

His personal attacks ([95] have gone over the edge, and I will not deal with him any more. All of this because I listed his image as a copyvio. User:Zoe|(talk) 02:54, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Did you linnk the right diff there? - brenneman ^{L} 02:59, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You don't think "please note some of us are actually trying to build a wikipedia, not just play whack a vandal MMPORG." is an attack? User:Zoe|(talk) 03:02, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I do, but that was the diff before and I wanted to make sure which one you were talking about rather than guessing. He's clearly incivil and wrong about the image to boot. - brenneman ^{L} 03:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Zoe is absolutely correct here. Non-iconic images from press agencies are not candidates for fair use. (→Netscott) 03:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

As its silly and a legal liability to have this copyright violation sitting around, and since Minerale keeps taking the non fair use tags off, I have deleted this image. Take it to DRV if anyone disagrees. pschemp | talk 03:19, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Pschemp: I only removed the tag once, the second time it was a bot generated tag becuase it was briefly orphaned. Like it or not His image will be plastered around the media for the next year or so as the trial, conviction, sentencing and appeals go through, his image will be on that article. I see many people here do not like APF, and I understand that, here's a Reuters photo: [96]

• http://www.cnn.com his photo is on front page
• http://www.msnbc.msn.com Front page
• http://www.ajc.com front page

The image of Karr will serve as a reminder of the grave mistakes the media made in accusing the Ramsey family. I urge you to upload and use the Reuters photo, looks like y'all are not going to agree with me on this for now, consider it for next week. —Mineralè 2006-08-18 03:34Z

You are totally missing the fact that is is illegal to use images from AFP. There is no attempt at censorship here, just a protection of Wikipedia's legal liability. pschemp | talk 03:48, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

If an image qualifies under fair use, it does not matter who 'sells it'. Even if IF AFP were to specifically deny wikipedia the right. See: [97] —Mineralè 2006-08-18 03:54Z

Mineralè, please see Wikipedia:Fair_use#Counterexamples #5 and know that guideline (and the policy below) is what Wikipedia operates under. (→Netscott) 03:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

That's correct, grandparent entry said it's illegall to use no matter what, point five carves out an exception. —Mineralè 2006-08-18 04:09Z

Indeed, an exception to which the photo you uploaded did not fall under. The photo itself was not newsworthy merely the individual in the photo. I would recommend that you use your time in an effort to source an image that will qualify for fair usage or better yet a "free" image. (→Netscott) 04:15, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You've misunderstood the meaning of "iconic". If the photo became so well known that it merited an article of its own, then reproduction of this photo would be fair use in the article about the photo itself. It will virtually never be fair use in an article about the subject of the photo. Snottygobble 04:13, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, there's nothing to agree to. The photos of agencies like Reuters, AFP etc. will never qualify for fair usage unless the image in question is "iconic". (→Netscott) 03:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Legal threats regarding edits to Myron Wolf Child

209.107.99.199 (talk · contribs · count) has been making legal threats regarding edits made to Myron Wolf Child. The IP has been blocked for a 6 month period, but claims that Myron Wolf Child's nation-wide network and Legal Defense Team will continue correcting the information until legal matters have been settled. Just wanted to mention this here before it escalated into something nasty. -- Natalya 03:29, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I have removed the legal threats; if it continues, then I would protect the page. Iolakana•T 15:25, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Date warring

I am somewhat bothered by the way that SuperJumbo (talk · contribs) seems to have unilaterally decided to reformat dates. As I understand it, there is a longstanding semi-formal agreement that in articles dealing with things outside of the English-speaking world, we don't particularly favor U.S. or Commonwealth style on dates; instead, we wikify and let the software format it to the users' preferences. Hence, edits like these ([98], [99]) are at least mildly annoying. Tazmaniacs (talk · contribs) reversion of these ([100], [101]) was, of course, almost inevitable; but what I really don't like is what comes next: Superjumbo using popups ([102] [103]) to revert. The navigation tools are not intended as utilities for edit warring. - Jmabel | Talk 05:02, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I think Jmabel to be, on the whole, correct (the issue ought, IMHO, for unwikified dates, to be treated as is AE/BE by the MoS, which treatment WP:DATE seems to suggest), but if I'm not crazy almost all of the dates over which edit-warring has occurred here are wikified, such that, for registered users (who necessarily, IIRC, make a date preference election), that which displays will not be affected; aren't most of these edits purposeless? Joe 05:15, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• This is a non–issue, I'm afraid. Go to your "my preferences" and change your dating format preference from "No preference" (or "15 January 2000") to "January 15, 2000", and all dates that he "re-formatted" will appear as you have selected. His changing of these dates is pointless as any one user can select preference for one of these methods over the other. That's why this preference selection was created. — ^{`</sup>CRAZY`(lN)`SANE<sup>` [discl.]} 05:19, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

It would be a non-issue if and only if people like SuperJumbo didn't unilaterally change dates to match their personal preference. The "preference selection" was designed to prevent such changes by rendering them pointless. No one thought anyone would be so silly as to go on a jihad to convert dates to his "preferred preference" just in order to have non-logged in users see them, but obviously we didn't reckon on how bellicose people can be in insisting you adopt their whims as default. But that is the argument he offered when I objected to him converting all articles relating to Monaco to day-month-year. - Nunh-huh 06:00, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand why it matters. It might be pointless for him to do this, but why would anyone go to the trouble of reverting it? He has wikified so that it will appear as per whatever preference users have adopted. If people don't have accounts or haven't logged in, I don't think they'll suffer greatly if the date appears the way he prefers in the articles he's edited. Or am I missing something here? Metamagician3000 07:05, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You're missing the fact that it's fundamentally disrespectful to insist on having one's own way in what is supposed to be a cooperative or at least collegial editing environment. When you change "color" to "colour" or "haemophilia" to "hemophilia", it annoys people because you are insisting "their" way is wrong and your way is right. It's the same with dates. If it doesn't, or shouldn't, matter, then it shouldn't be changed. You should have the decency to leave de minimus matters alone, and respect other's choices, rather than privileging your own. If you don't, you encourage edit wars, ill-feeling, and distract from the business of writing an encyclopedia. - Nunh-huh 07:23, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I understand all that, I guess. I still don't understand why it matters so much, given what the outcome actually is for users of the encyclopedia. If someone changed the way I had the dates (but wikified them properly) I would smile at their relatively harmless idiosyncracy rather than thinking this was terribly important or needed to be dealt with by admins. It seems that any disruption is de minimus. Oh well, maybe another admin will take a greater interest in it. Metamagician3000 08:11, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

SuperJimbo wikified the dates so that date preferences are enabled. Tazmaniac's blind reversion de-wikified the dates. I agree we shouldn't edit war over which date style is the default, but all dates should have date preferences enabled when possible. —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-08-18 08:16Z

Eh, no SuperJimbo changed, for example, [[November 11]], [[1942]] (November 11, 1942) to [[11 November]] [[1942]] (11 November 1942) — both formats are valid and display dates as per the user preferences. It was a pointless edit. Thanks/wangi 08:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've reverted a good number of his changes and warned him that if he does this again he will be blocked. We have a policy in place that warns against doing this for a very good reason. --Cyde Weys 13:46, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm coming in late to this discussion, but may I suggest that rather than edit warring, and reverting all of my careful work, people take a moment to read the guidelines laid down in WP:MoS? I'll thank Cyde to go and undo his reverts, and request that in future he discuss before acting against consensus.

I quote from the Manual of Style:

If the topic itself concerns a specific country, editors may choose to use the date format used in that country. This is useful even if the dates are linked, because new users and users without a Wikipedia account do not have any date preferences set, and so they see whatever format was typed. For topics concerning the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, most member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, and most international organizations such as the United Nations, the formatting is usually [[17 February]] [[1958]] (no comma and no "th"). In the United States and Canada, it is [[February 17]], [[1958]]. Elsewhere, either format is acceptable. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English for more guidance.

Using this as a guide, I suggest that Cyde's changes to the King Edward VIII article were insufficiently considered, to be polite. --Jumbo 22:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, can you promise to confine yourself to topics that clearly relate to the UK, etc., and to UN agencies? Maybe you're already doing this, but that's not clear to me. You should give that undertaking and stick to it. I think that talk of blocking is overreacting as long as your activities are so confined. I still think is all a bit of storm in a teacup, but I suppose what you're doing could be irritating if it's not clearly confined to appropriate articles. Metamagician3000 22:45, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

My actions have been in accordance with the Manual of Style throughout. Jtdirl, an expert on style, and familiar with the precise history of dating conventions in Wikipedia, has seen fit to comment on several occasions:

• On my talk page
• On Nunh-hunh's talk page
• On the talk page for Prince Rainier III

I would appreciate it if participants in this discussion would familiarise themselves with the consensus guidelines before commenting and proffering advice. --Jumbo 23:11, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Clearly your interpretation of the MOS is at odds with others equally "expert". You have no consensus to make the changes you are making and have resisted suggestions that you actually try to build one. Why don't you just stop, and do so, instead of becoming a Wikilawyer? - Nunh-huh 23:20, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Taeguk Warrior

Taeguk Warrior (talk · contribs) refuses to stop removing warnings and similar notices from his page. He was recently blocked for a week due to this behavior, and resumed it immediately upon "release". I've blocked him for another week in order to give us time to discuss what should be done. I'm all in favor of blocking for at least a month, if not longer. Taeguk Warrior is constantly revert-warring on many different articles in addition to his own user talk page [104]. He has also gotten into rows over whether or not an image is tagged properly, and has removed dispute tags on several images: [105], [106], [107], [108], and there are others. So, what say ye? ···日本穣^{? · Talk to Nihonjoe} 07:04, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Mana.ustad

User has been banned in the past for uploading unsources images, but is doing it again. He also created Sana (actress), consisting only of an image, and removed my PROD tag without explanation. -Elmer Clark 08:03, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I have blocked him for a month (yes I know, a bit on the short side) and will delete his images and the non-article. Kusma (討論) 08:46, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• PRODs can be contested for any reason (or the lack of it). I've speedied it as {{empty}}, which you should have tagged it with. - Mailer Diablo 08:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Ah, right you are, sorry. And I did not restore the PROD he contested, I just asked him to explain why he did so. -Elmer Clark 08:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Inshaneeee (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Indefblock, please, impostor. - CrazyRussian talk/email 10:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Done. Kimchi.sg 10:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

"Iron" InShaneeee? This guy's my new (indef blocked imposter) hero! --InShaneee 23:09, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Consumed Crustracean's RfA

is being overrun by obvious and ridiculous socks that have totally stolen the show. Would anyone please restore order? - CrazyRussian talk/email 10:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I don't see a huge overrun of socks. Every sock and point violation looks like they've been caught and noted as such for the bureaucrat to ignore. While I supposed we could sprotect, I'm not sure we've ever sprotected a RFA :). I'll just try to keep it on my watchlist for the remaining two days or so that its running. Syrthiss 11:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks like it was sprotected anyhow. Syrthiss 12:33, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

It's happened before: Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Eluchil404. -- nae'blis 12:48, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Fotimus

There is an edit war occuring over a suspected sock template placed on that page. Anyone want to resolve? (Please note: first edit was to Consumed Crustracean's RfA). Viridae^Talk 12:29, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've full protected that userpage with the sock notice intact, tho the user is requesting changes to it with {{editprotected}} on their talk. I'm not inclined to edit it, but I won't stand in the way if another admin wishes to remove the protection. I'm also not going to stand in the way if another admin were to indefblock the user as a sleepersock. Syrthiss 12:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Srebrenica massacre

There is a nasty edit war at Srebrenica massacre. I've been a bit lax, hoping that with a bit of patience, advice and warnings it would resolve itself, but I'm now think some blocks are required to give some credibility to our policies. I'm probably too much involved myself to mete out blocks, so I'd like to request short blocks to what I see as the main problem users:

• Osli73 (talk · contribs) for constant edit warring (see the history). He violated the 3RR with reverts on 18 Aug 05:18, 17 Aug 16:34, 17 Aug 16:01, 17 Aug 06:58; look for instance at the section titled "(Dispute regarding) Serb casualties around Srebrenica", starting around line 435, to see that these are reverts. He was warned by User:Heah (diff), I also told him to stop (diff), but Osli replied that he will continue edit warring diff), and indeed he did. (I realize that there is a page for 3RR violations, but I'd like to have everything together.)
• Bosniak (talk · contribs) for personal attacks and sterile edit warring. Bosniak said that Osli "lack basic tenets of common sense, general knowledge, and intelligence." (diff). Bosniak was blocked for personal attacks before (log). Furthermore, he blindly reverts the article every day, without any regard of what has changed, and thus wipes out any improvements. For example, the reverts on 18 Aug 00:45, 17 Aug 01:11, 16 Aug 05:31, 15 Aug 05:25 and 14 Aug 04:02 all reintroduce spelling mistakes. He was told not to do this by Live Forever (diff) and me (same diff as my warning to Osli). This makes it very hard to find a compromise version.

Of course, I'd also appreciate help from anybody with experience in handling disputes. Specifically, I'm wondering about temporarily protecting the page. My only concern is that one of the parties is asking for page protection (diff, diff) — guess they've never heard about m:The Wrong Version — and I don't want them to think that their edit warring got them what they wanted. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 13:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Fishy checkuser request related to Romanian/Hungarian articles

Over at Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Árpád, Latinitas (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has filed a checkuser request against Árpád (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) for "Fascist edits." Both accounts are only a week old, and they edit Hungarian/Romanian topics. I'm pretty sure something else is going on here but I can't quite put my finger on it. Any help? Thatcher131 (talk) 14:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

When I see Latinitas' own edits on Magyarization [109], I start to wonder whether it is not a sock of a banned editor... -- Grafikm ^(AutoGRAF) 14:42, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Abuse of admin powers

User:Caltrop blocked me for breaking the 3R rule during a dispute he was having with me at T-4 Euthanasia Program. Possibly I was in breach of 3R (I wasn't counting), but if I was, so was he. Furthermore, I had explained my reversion at the Talk page, to which he replied only with juvenile and ad hominem comments and made no attempt to engage with the issue. Finally I consider it most inappropriate for an admin to block an editor in a dispute to which they themselves are a party, and indeed largely initiated. I request that Caltrop be formally warned not to abuse his admin powers in this way. This is the first time in three years of editing that I have had occasion to complain about an admin. Adam 15:00, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it was a mistake on his part and you were unblocked because of it - but - [110] is highly innapropriate for you to say after you were unblocked. I would suggest that you remove that, as it serves no purpose other than to taunt him and rub the issue in his face (not to mention the header, which in itself is extremely incivil). Thank you. Cowman109^Talk 15:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I dare say. I have removed it. I don't deny I am very angry at this kind of stupid behaviour at an article on such a topic. Adam 15:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. It might be a good idea to ask for third opinions from the village pump if you need help with the issues on that page. Cowman109^Talk 15:49, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Requesting help in reviewing a user's edits

Hi all, Special:Randompage landed me this morning on an article with a really bizarre section (that I removed) left by Acaryatid. I'm starting to look at his edit history, and see some things that look anomalous. I'd appreciate some more eyes on their contribs to help determine if there's a problem or not. Thanks. --Improv 15:57, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an admin, but I will go through from the beginning and see if there's anything problematic and, if so, remove it. The user doesn't seem to have top edit on anything, so I'll have to manually revert anything that's in violation of policy, if anything. UPDATE: I'm removing most of the politicalfriendster links, with a few exceptions where the spamminess is outweighed by usefulness. Captainktainer * Talk 16:05, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've removed pretty much everything I could find that hasn't already been removed, barring the rare occasion where this user's contributions have been helpful. Thanks for finding that. Captainktainer * Talk 17:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks like several of his additions have been copyvios. · rodii · 16:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Spreading neologisms

I thought I would dump this here as it is outside my comfort level. User Vgfarmer (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) seems to have an agenda to post new words and synonyms (neologisms) into existing articles and one new article Pratdigger. What is notable is that the words may all come from http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=57262821. From there: "We are planting Verbal Seeds around the world to see what will grow. Please help us disseminate the seeds, water the shoots and then reap the harvest." I began by reverting the additions, but I think it needs more than that, but I don't know what. There is some still unreverted in British coinage: I began by adding a "citation needed"... Notinasnaid 16:19, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

• Everything's been reverted no, and he's been warned. The behavior halted about six hours ago. --Durin 18:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Review of block requested

MONGO suddenly blocked a user with no apparent bad edits, indefinitely, and blocked his user page. The user is User:Weevlos. His contribs. He apparently suspects that this user spammed admins (but there is no apparent proof of this), and that page of template information was actually on dozens of pages all over Wikipedia during MONGO's conflict with an outside website. MONGO also protected this user's talk page so that he could not request a review, seen here. Would someone be willing to review this? This user appears to have done nothing to warrant this. Thank you. - —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.172.234.92 (talk • contribs) 2006-08-18T13:16:36 (UTC)

Having examined a couple of the users edits, I see behaviour warranting a block. Not having examined all the edits, I will trust MONGO over an anon IP that the indefinite block was appropriate. -- JamesTeterenko 20:27, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

The last edit was pretty much libel, so MONGO was right to block for it. User:Zscout370 ^{(Return Fire)} 21:34, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, the last edit, IMHO, was in no way libellous (at least as regards United States law), even as it may have expressed a value judgment with which some of us might disagree; this doesn't, of course, speak to the broader issue, but it is useful for us to take care that we not use libel too broadly, if only because, in the context of mainspace, such broad use sometimes serves unnecessarily to temper contributions... Joe 22:10, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

The evidence is at User:Weevlos/Compiling Evidence which MONGO deleted at 09:50, 18 August 2006 (UTC) with the reason "(same subpage used to email spam hndreds of admins a month ago)". Only another admin can see what it says. MONGO probably had a very good reason to react the way he did after reading that page. --  Netsnipe  ^(Talk)  21:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

But other than that single page (I'll take your word that it existed and wasn't just a typical rfc/rfar note-taking page), what else makes for a permanent ban based on the judgement of a single admin? I looked at the last two months of contribs, and they all seemed like good reliable edits - the majority of which are in article space, aren't vandalism, look sourced, etc. Based on what I can see as a non-admin, a permanent ban of a good editor based on one user sub-page seems way overblown. SchmuckyTheCat 22:21, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't worry Schmucky...all the encyclopedia dramatica trolls can always pull it from their pages at their website and use it once again to spam hundreds of admins about my "abuse"...interesting that you noticed.--MONGO 22:27, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Just for what it is worth, do we have any evidence or proof beyond the one off color edit on AN/I from this user that he violated any policy? rootology (T) 22:31, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've been spammed with the content of that page repeatedly; I'm glad MONGO ferreted out who it was and I support the block. Its too bad this editor had contributed productively in the past, but unfortunately, he let himself get so involved in one article that he went bananas. Shell ^babelfish 22:35, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I thought somebody else had been singled out already for sending the spam? I don't know or care why this user had the page (and I can't see the contents of deleted pages) but I don't see any evidence this person was sending the spam. SchmuckyTheCat 22:41, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

As Schmucky said, someone was previously banned for that spam. That content during the MONGO/ED fiasco was on many archived pages, on many users, even an admin's page, as seen here. Is there evidence that this user did this spamming? rootology (T) 22:43, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

(unfounded personal attacks removed, WP:NPA ) --MONGO 22:49, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

MONGO, you have made such accusations in the past. Please proove them, file an RfC, or ArbCom, or please stop harassing me. If you look at my contribs, I do nothing of the sort. rootology (T) 22:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Can an admin at least unprotect this person's talk page so that he can speak for himself? rootology (T) 22:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

People are blocked all the time...interesting that you find this situation interesting.--MONGO 23:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I've known this person for several years BEFORE I was ever on Wikipedia, from various online IT and computer science/research circles, and I had his page as someone I've known on my watchlist (same as ANI). I was amazed when I saw he was blocked, since I know this person DOESN'T do anything of the sort. What evidence/proof/policy violation did he do that warrants a one-person initiated indef ban? rootology (T) 23:09, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

He should have thought twice about his last comment and about using his userspace to post the same harassment information that was used to spam hundreds of editors, both via email and on their talk pages, as well as in the admin noticeboard areas. Tony Sidaway has also commented about your direction here at Wikipedia...I don't think you're fooling anyone.--MONGO 23:17, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Tony has been working with me rather civilly on a policy proposal, so I have no idea where you're going with that. As to "harassing" information on his userspace, please look at my above link--an admin had it on his user page for months, and it was on many other's pages after it was mailed by someone to a zillion people. Will an admin review how long that page has been idle before it was deleted? I'd venture that it was idle since around the time of the mass mailing. Will you please let me know what policy this user has violated, and why he cannot have his talk page unlocked so that the blocking can be reviewed? As for that last comment about Nathan in the history, I'd politely point out that in the past two weeks a lot of people have said inappropriate things about that user (I could care less why, I'm not involved), and I didn't see any mass bans over that. rootology (T) 23:23, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

As a side note, that was also the spam emailed out to many administrators about a month ago. -- Natalya 22:58, 18 August 2006 (UTC)