Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Stephan Schulz (talk | contribs) at 21:30, 26 October 2006 (Persistent disruption by [[User:Heqwm]]). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Latest comment: 18 years ago by Stephan Schulz in topic Persistent disruption by User:Heqwm
    Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents

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    RfA vote spamming

    I would like to know if vote spamming in WP:RfAs is permissible, as was done by various (also anonymous) users in Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Khoikhoi 2. All anon users seem to have been blocked. However, there is one registered user, User:Mustafa Akalp, who hasn't. He is a Turkish user, who right before initiating his spamming, decided to become incognito by moving the Turkish flag from his userpage ([1]) to a subpage ([2]). He later posted several vote-bullying messages that request users (in Turkish) to vote Strong oppose, as seen in the following diffs: ([3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21]) There are many more (check contribs). •NikoSilver 13:28, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Mustafa's spamming should be rollbacked and the guy blocked for disruption. This is the worst thing that may happen on RfA: the nomination may be derailed for good. --Ghirla -трёп- 13:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    IMO, it is questionable whether the votes brought through the vote stacking made by Mustafa Akalp can be considered legitimate; probably they should be discounted from the vote, as is often done with the disruption of polls. And yes, the spamming should be rollbacked to set an example, and its author blocked.--Aldux 13:49, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Can someone translate the turkish comments in some of these posts? Thatcher131 14:15, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    • Here is my point of view and replies;
    Here is first alert message for about campaign is not allowed ; message from Gwernol
    Here is ,my response to that admin.
    I stopped to send any message to any user anymore. see my Contributions. I will check the rules more detailed. It seems some complexs, to make a campaign in the vote in any country obviously free, but not in wiki. I will learn and discuss the rules asap.
    I will send some messages to some admins about my alleges before; see this,

    see this, see this This my oppinions is not new..

    Flag about in my page. It is a comic idea, to change flag.Why flag is distruptive for my alleges. My alleges not belong today(as you see above) and flag was there in all times.
    Here the reality about flag; Old version was animated one that User:Tekleni had complained about copyvivo to an admin User_talk:Future_Perfect_at_Sunrise, I took an alert from that admin User_talk:Mustafa_Akalp#Copyright_violation and I send my first response first response and second response
    Now I transferred ( not delete!!)flag to my sadbox to replace a new pure-self made animated flag.
    That is the reality.

    Regards to all. Note; I can help for translations on my messages. Mustafa AkalpTC 14:28, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm rolling back the spamming now. This type of behaviour is never acceptable. I'll leave the decision on whether or not to block up to others; a stern warning may suffice depending on the translation of the comments. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:29, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Looks like Naconkantari beat me to most of them. Oh well. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Hmm. Agree with reverts. Agree with possible block depending on comments. Noting here that there's been a bunch of IPs going around adding nonsense regarding this RFA to articles, which should probably be blocked on sight until at least the end of the RFA. – Chacor 14:31, 19 October 2006 (UTC)~Reply

    • Here is the traslations of Turkish to English;
    Lütfen acilen oy kullanın: Please come in vote urgently.
    User:.. admin olmak için oy topluyor.-User.. in vote to be admin. Lütfen hemen oy kullanın.;Please come in vote immediately. Görüşlerinizi yazın.; Wtite your oppinions. İşte benimkiler; Those is mine.....Görüşlerin iletilmesi çok önemli; It is important to put oppinions/poit of wievs.

    .Selam.:Regard. İlgili link..;related link

    It is possible to have traslation from another source of course.
    As you see, I never invite any body to an oppose vote .I required their oppinions at vote page.

    Regards Mustafa AkalpTC 14:47, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    First you included your own opinion in your spam messages, which shows a clear bias. More importantly you have selected which editors you advertize the RfA to. This introduces tremendous bias into the process and is unacceptable. Gwernol 15:30, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I have blocked for disruption. ≈ jossi ≈ t@ 15:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Ok, this is getting out of hand. He is now continuing his spamming activity in the Turkish WP. Contribs. •NikoSilver 15:57, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    My bad. :-( I didn't check the times. The usual wrong assumption that something is done when you see it done, and not when the timestamp reads. My apologies to all involved. However, these contributions in the Turkish WP above can be used as evidence for Aldux's proposal above. ("it is questionable whether the votes brought through the vote stacking made by Mustafa Akalp can be considered legitimate; probably they should be discounted from the vote, as is often done with the disruption of polls.") •NikoSilver 16:35, 19 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


    (Having received an e-mail from Mustafa). While agreeing with all said above, I'd propose to the community that the block is lifted. I think that 48 hours for the first offense is way too much, and blocks are supposed to be preventative, not punitive; the crime he commited is serious and took a while to repair, but I don't think he was really aware how much it was against the rules. The thread above shows that Mustafa was civil and kind in response, as is my experience in contacts with him so far. I do agree what he did was way out of line, but I have a kind of understanding (if not sympathy) for what he perceives as team-tagging in Turkey and Greece related articles. He has simply chosen a very bad way to combat it, and (I hope) he learned his lesson. Duja 12:26, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm sorry but I disagree. I may not be fully neutral on the issue, as I supported his nomination, but I feel that no tolerance must be shown to blatant attempts to disrupt a Rfa; IMO, it must be clear that all such attempts to carefully select the editors on a national base so to sink a rfa must earn a block.--Aldux 12:35, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I strongly agree with Aldux. I also received an email from Mustafa Akalp which clearly shows he does not understand that what he did was wrong. He claims: "my messages is not include any comment to receivers for 'opposite vote'" despite the fact that his messages all included his strongly worded oppose in them. He openly admits he was trying to taint the RfA pool "I sent my messages to some users that possibly had problems previously with Khoikhoi" and sees nothing wrong with this action. He genuinely believes he has proved his case against the candidate despite not providing any evidence. This is an organized witch hunt against Khoikhoi where allegations alone are expected to be accepted as evidence of serious wrongdoing. We must take a firm stand against this. I strongly oppose lifting this user's block, and personally consider a 48 hour block to be too short. There is plenty of reason to believe Mustafa Akalp will continue to disrupt Wikipedia's processes and articles as he doesn't understand what he did was wrong and has open and clear biases. Gwernol 12:46, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I would support shortening the block (I've already asked jossi to consider it), merely because I'd like to give him the opportunity to withdraw his comments from Khoikhoi's RFA before it closes. If he doesn't wish to do so, then a longer block may be in order, but I think we should give him the opportunity. Yomanganitalk 13:07, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'd support this but only with the specific condition that Mustafa Akalp agrees to withdraw his oppose on the RfA and apologize to Khoikhoi for his accusation. I don't see the benefit of lifting the block unless he agrees to this beforehand. Gwernol 13:41, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Khoikhoi's RfA is to be completed within 24 hours. I don't think it's necessary to unblock Mustafa until the deadline. His behaviour was not acceptable and he should have ample time to reflect on this. --Ghirla -трёп- 13:47, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Shorten the block? No way! I'd support lengthening it to indefinite. We don't need any nationalist struggles on Wikipedia. That's the worst kind of disruption. --Cyde Weys 14:03, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I've just received another email from Mustafa Akalp in which he claims his spamming was intended to "reach consensus" and in which he makes the claim that "from a neutral POV, No body had accused with like an allege before, in the history of wiki. More than 10 different users have this allege. This allege will have a stamp on this Rfa for ever." (by "allege" he is referring to his allegation that Khoikhoi was orchestrating edit wars by email off-Wiki). It is clear to me that Mustafa Akalp sees nothing wrong with his actions, is intentionally attempting to blacken the name of an editor in good standing and is an inveterate WP:POV pusher who will do anything to oppose those who are trying to maintain WP:NPOV. He has clearly declared that he will not remove his oppose contribution. I support an extended block or indefinite ban on this user, per Cyde. Gwernol 14:30, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I may dazzle you with this comment, since I am the one who initiated all this, but I'll go ahead and say it (and it is not a pretence of goodwill): Mustafa probably hasn't understood that vote-spamming is bad, because nobody explained it to him adequately (forgive me if I miss something). I suppose that if we explain why the community has decided that this practice cannot be tolerated, he will reform himself, as he shows many signs of goodwill (i.e. self translation of Turkish messages etc.) I am willing to proceed in doing this but maybe I am not the most welcome e-mail correspondent of his! I propose that someone does it, and if he is convinced to strike his unfounded comments from the RfA, he can continue to edit. That's my two drachmae! •NikoSilver 14:49, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Sorry, but the problems with his actions have been explained to him in meticulous detail over email (he sent email to me, I replied). His response is above, a firm belief that he has done nothing wrong, is trying to maintain WP:NPOV and reach WP:CONSENSUS. He genuinely does not understand the notion that spamming people known to oppose the candidate with his Oppose statement in the email might in some way bias the RfA proceedings. He also clearly stated that he intends that his allegations will leave " a stamp on this Rfa for ever". He simply won't admit any wrongdoing and has no intention of removing his comments. Someone this far from the vision of neutrality should not be participating in Wikipedia. Gwernol 15:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Agreed. I support an indefinate block in this case, and in the case of all knowing vote spammers, especially in such a serious case as an RfA, and especially when used to display such a nationalist agenda. --InShaneee 15:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I would also consider that an indef block is appropriate in the case of such a serious disruption. -- Grafikm (AutoGRAF) 16:21, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Consider my previous comment retracted then. After all, we use cents now! :-) •NikoSilver 15:06, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    He has been clearly told that his actions were wrong; and he appears to be unrepentant, and by his last messages, continuing his groundless accusations. As for that all this was done to "reach consensus", i.e. calling all the fellow Turkish editors he knew. He simply refuses even to remember of a simple thing called WP:AGF. For this I support Gwernol and Cyde's positions.--Aldux 15:10, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    If that's the consensus, then, I'll go ahead and extend the block. --InShaneee 19:59, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Sorry to butt in, but I just would like u to remind that Mustafa is not a native English speaker and certain things might get lost in translation :)).. I share Nikos' opinion on this.. He is a relatively new user and I don't think that we are being able to communicate with him effectively. I voted strong support for Khoi, OTOH I think that we shouldn't just bang up on people who might feel differently, especially if they r not native anglophones.. Instead we should try to improve mutual communication.. Believe me, there are much more serious nationalist POV pushers here, but they are native speakers and know their way around, so they never get caught; Mustafa however is relatively naive coz of the language barrier and hiw rookieness.. It would not be fair just indefinitely blocking him just coz of that. As for the vote spam.. He also sent me the same msg as email even though he knew I was a Khoi supporter beforehand from previous discussions.. I voted support and I find racist the suggestion or implication that all Turks r against Khoi's membership for whatever reason, TR users voted support more than oppose.. People have the intelligence to make up their own mind u know :))) Baristarim 21:42, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I would like to request the rest of the users here to give Baris the chance to explain to Mustafa why vote-spamming is not tolerated in WP in his own language. Baris, if you don't know either, it is because the participation in the polls has to be from all wikipedia in a proportional way. Specific groups may have made up their mind for or against an opinion, and inviting only those that you presume will share your views is not permissible. As I responded to you in the RfA, it is not a matter of racism or IQ. It is a matter of POV, and there are many smart guys out there with a strong POV. In case the other users agree, you will have to convince Mustafa to retract his unsubstantiated accusations for Khoikhoi in the RfA, and acknowledge that vote spamming is not permissible. •NikoSilver 22:25, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm going to have to disagree with the inef. block. First off, I don't think it's appropriate for a first offense. Most importantly, I believe that Mustafa is a good editor, and has contributed positively to articles such as Imbros. Does anyone mind if I unblock him? —Khoikhoi 02:28, 21 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    He can be told to behave better and be given a last chance I think. I support it mainly because of the extreme, damning irony involved in Khoikhoi unblocking this guy. ;-) Grandmasterka 08:37, 22 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'd like to thank Khoikhoi, Niko and Baristarim for their efforts at giving Mustafa another chance here. I've had previous dealings with Mustafa and have found him generally good-willing and prepared to learn, but of course quite strongly hampered in his interactions on Wikipedia by his rather poor command of English. Fut.Perf. 16:35, 22 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    This talk is continued in WP:AN#Requesting consensus to unblock Mustafa Akalp. •NikoSilver 11:57, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


    User:Street Scholar

    I recently had a run-in with this user over the speedy deletion of some pages he'd worked on. I offered to restore two of them (without going through DRV), but his sexism and personal attacks quickly made the conversation turn. (See the conversation I removed here, as well as my comments (admittedly not the calmest I could have written) here.) Another user alerted me to the fact that he'd been warned for personal attacks in the past (which I had gleaned from his talk page), but I did not realize he had a similar incident report just a few weeks ago (see here). While this was amicably resolved, it seems that he did not learn from the incident. While a person's beliefs are his or her own business, attacking a person based on gender is a clear violation of WP:NPA, and requesting all womankind to respond to his attacks is using WP as a soapbox. I'm not sure if this should go to RfC, since the first attempt to resolve this was "successful". Any help would be greatly appreciated. -- Merope 18:29, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I have encountered similar irreverence to wikipedia norms from this user before.I'm not sure how to link to this, but he made several uploads of images that were blatant copyvios (he put one in Mountain warfare here) which were speedily deleted. However, he had uploaded several such images from the same website that had a clear "All rights reserved" statement on it and, if an admin could assist me, then I can cite the records of the speedy deletions.This shows an irreverence for copyright rules on wikipedia. In addition, a mediated debate progresses on Cheema (see Talk:Cheema) where he continuously misrepresents sources and tries to push a POV without adequate WP:V. Most of the sources cited in the article are fabricated or misrepresented and, when confronted about this by a mediator here ignored the mediator completely and still continues with such tendentious editing (see mediator's assessment here). He has also made numerous veiled ethnic slurs on Talk:Cheema and further misrepresented the facts to try to bait users into argument here is an example. He remains unapologetic for these acts and continues on Talk:Cheema.Hkelkar 19:09, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    "I'm not sure if this should go to RfC, since the first attempt to resolve this was "successful"."
    To be honest, I considered it closed at that time for that reason (assuming of course you were referring to the incident on my talk page and elsewhere). However, this doesn't appear to be the case! If the previous incident had been resolved successfully, then surely the same problem wouldn't have arisen again. While this user does have many good and invaluable edits among his contributions, it's also evident that he has displayed/aired these very offensive views on wikipedia throughout the history of his membership and is unlikely to change them. I would say that a firm message needs to be sent - the question of course is what that message would entail, which is a question I cannot answer. The eeasy way has been tried already. --Crimsone 22:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    he persists with his remarks even after he got admonished [22] [23]. He does not seem to have reformed at all.Hkelkar 17:17, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    In light of those attacks (and this edit), I've blocked him for 48h. I'll monitor his edits once the block expires. -- Merope 17:26, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    This user is thoroughly unpleasant and seems to want to push his distasteful view of women on anyone nearby. It doesn't help that he's insulting and demeaning to those who disagree with him. My own peace of mind (and civility of comments) has slid downward such that I doubt I can interact with him civilly, and that's even without having the gender his bile targets. Wikipedia doesn't need behaviour like this, and he's expressed that it is his God-given duty (literally, as he's excused his words on religious grounds) to not keep it to himself. — Saxifrage 17:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He continues his behaviour on his Talk page even while blocked for it.[24]Saxifrage 15:46, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Yeah, I noticed that, too. He's earned himself a week's block. After this, however, I'd like another admin to review his actions. I dislike being the only admin involved in this kind of dispute, particularly when I was one of those attacked. -- Merope 15:52, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    As another admin I endorse the current blocks. If you want I'll make any further blocks as an uninvolved admin. JoshuaZ 16:02, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    And yet more.[25] (Note the linked diff is over three contiguous diffs, to capture his whole edit including corrections.) The message doesn't appear to be getting through his convictions. — Saxifrage 15:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    38.119.52.98 (talk · contribs)

    Please be careful about blocking 38.119.52.98 (talk · contribs), this is a school IP - and if there's vandalism, please leave a message on my talkpage. Any blocks will cause collateral to me. --Pajnax 18:54, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Not all - for several months we've been able to block anonymous users only. --Sam Blanning(talk) 02:03, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Internet for Learning: Vandalism traced to schools

    I am an employee of Internet for Learning, and I have just spent hours trawling the firewall logs to see which schools are responsible for the vandalism on this site.

    The schools include:

    • Formby High School (www.formbyhigh.org)
    • Ainsdale High School (www.ainsdalehope.co.uk)
    • Greenbank High School, Southport, Lancashire (http://www.greenbank.sefton.sch.uk/)
    • Marling School, Bath, Somerset
    • Estover Community College

    along with 2 other schools in the West Midlands, and 2 in the East Midlands.

    The vandalism seems to emanate from the 3 5 educational facilities mentioned above; I will post back any more information when I can find it.

    Apparently students seem to have used the IFL grid to access pornographic material ('Nuts' magazine) and Wikipedia; these two sites appear most frequently in our firewall logs.

    I would like to apologise for the behaviour of the students and I assure you, there will be an investigation into this (however, due to confidentiality, I cannot discuss the ongoing investigation any further). --Neil McCarthy (Internet for Learning) 19:14, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Well, for what it's worth, school IPs usually do commit a lot of vandalism. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 19:47, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    AN:I troll? Anyone? --InShaneee 21:27, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    refer to WP:AGF... ~crazytales56297 O rly? Ya rly! 22:45, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    This is genuine, I have checked the logs, and they trace to user logins on terminals at these 5 schools:
    • Formby High School (www.formbyhigh.org)
    • Ainsdale High School (www.ainsdalehope.co.uk)
    • Greenbank High School, Southport, Lancashire (http://www.greenbank.sefton.sch.uk/)
    • Marling School, Bath, Somerset
    • Estover Community College

    Contact the relevant schools if you wish to discuss IP blocks - thanks. --Neil McCarthy (Internet for Learning) 21:53, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    But we can't do much because you haven't provided the school's IP addresses. We block and warn the IPs, we usually don't send emails to the districts' headquarters. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 22:33, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I don't see where we're being asked to do anything. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:29, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I read it as that he wants us to take action on the issue. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 00:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    These are the relevant IPs:

    What I am saying is, contact any of the 5 schools mentioned above to discuss blocking issues and repeat vandalism from students. That is the only way forward.

    I have checked the firewall logs, and they trace back to the 5 schools above. --Neil McCarthy (Internet for Learning) 11:01, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Also be careful about blocking 38.119.52.98 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) - see the IP's talk page for details. --Neil McCarthy (Internet for Learning) 11:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Personal attacks & incivility on WP as well as offwiki meatpuppet recruitment

    Will314159 has taken a consistently incivil position towards myself and other users. He has increasingly engaged in this derogatory attitude, including personal attacks. I also recently discovered that he had written similar statements online (outside Wikipedia), including requests for meatpuppets on the specific article that we both often edit. I suggest that he be blocked for 1-4 weeks in order that he might have a better appreciation for acceptable behaviour, though I ultimately leave that up to the relevant administrators' prerogative. TewfikTalk 20:12, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Online:

    General incivility, personal attacks, and assumption of bad-faith:

    Although off-wiki actions aren;t technically punishable, this user invited further disruption of Wikipedia in addition to the disruption he himself has already caused here. Everything taken togehter, I have decided that a block of 10 days is appropriate. RyanGerbil10(Упражнение В!) 20:42, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I think any off-wiki action that cases on-wiki disruption is can result in a block to help protect the wiki further. But blocks are never punishment anyway... ---J.S (t|c) 22:12, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:Hrist is persistently spamming and has ignored warnings. Is this the correct place to report the issue? Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism doesn't appear to include linkspam. —Celithemis 23:23, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Blocked indef by Grandmasterka [26]. --PinchasC | £€åV€ m€ å m€§§åg€ 23:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:SafeLibraries.org's inappropriate username (again)

    For months, User:SafeLibraries.org has been using his username for the purpose of linkspam, as explained at [27]. After several months of promising to change his username, he was recently blocked, but was then unblocked to request that his username be changed. However, the request he posted on Wikipedia:Changing username was rejected because the new username he requested was also inappropriate. After being unblocked, User:SafeLibraries.org has continued to edit articles, thereby adding further linkspamming to their edit histories. Since this user has persistently refused to allow his username to be changed, I submit that his linkspamming needs to be stopped. John254 00:42, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Just block him until his username is actually changed. An admin can post the change name request to Wikipedia:Changing username on his behalf. --Cyde Weys 01:49, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He can't block him, Cyde; he's not an admin. (I would, but I'm not going to be around for a few days, so won't be able to follow up.) —Cryptic 02:46, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Geez people. I just blocked him. Grandmasterka 02:52, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Am I misunderstanding something in these speedy delete images?

    Image:CloudOpticalThickness.jpg, Image:Cincinnati-procter-and-gamble-headquarters.jpg and Image:Cord Front Drive Model 812 (1937).jpg are a few of a bunch requested for CSD because "This is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image" but they appear to be the images from commons, not just a duplicate. Am I misunderstanding something, or is the template incorrect? Gotyear 01:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    You are ;). See the [28] vs. [29], and notice the odd question in the image description on the Wikipedia one. That's the bit that needs speedy deletion. 24.76.102.248 01:26, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    If you look at the history you will see it is a new user either being ignorant or malicious. I am trying to determine which. And 24, that is not enough to qualify it for speedy deletion. HighInBC (Need help? Ask me) 01:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Oh dear, look at this[30], I don't have time to fix this right now, but he needs a swift block in the pants. HighInBC (Need help? Ask me) 01:29, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    The template is incorrect, he is a vandal, feal free to revert any or preferably all of his edits to images where he puts incorrect templates. The vast majority of his edits are vandalism if not all, so mabye an admin could fix it faster. HighInBC (Need help? Ask me) 01:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Not all his edits are vandalism. I sampled one lower down, and it does indeed have no license info, as the template he added indicates. Since I created none of those images, and I'm now pretty sure the templates with that reasoning and a "from Commons" description are incorrect, I'll remove a few, but he has 130 edits. If a majority of them are bad, I'll need help. If an admin can rollback, that'd be great. Gotyear 01:44, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    At least one of the images user tagged did not have an empty description page. Many of the blank ones have history that may be worth saving. The template was edited October 14; is this not in accord with I2 or should this be reverted too? Gimmetrow 01:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Many of these images were uploaded by the User:Aka - is a connection possible? Gimmetrow 02:02, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    With a lot of help from Grandmasterka, I believe all of the commons images are now off CSD. The rest have "no source/copyright info, delete in x days" tags, which I didn't scrutinize but generally look correct. Gotyear 07:45, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Again, how is tagging empty image description pages for commons images with the correct template vandalism? I thought we already went through this a day ago. - Bobet 19:19, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    So deleting those pages will not affect the pages that link to those images? If so, then I admit I'm completely in the wrong, which is why I waited for more opinions on AN/I before proceeding. I and others who responded were concerned the images might be CSD'd incorrectly and lost.
    Considering this incident and another you mention, the template should have a bold note so it's crystal clear slapping it on images with "This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. The description on its description page there is shown below." is exactly what's supposed to happen.
    While it's clear to you, it's not clear to the people who responded here, all in good faith. I had no knowledge of the previous incident and noticed this one when I browsed some images in CSD.
    I apologize for my actions.
    I'd be willing to revert the edits, though I'd be doing them manually. Is there someone who can revert all of ours in just a few keypresses? If not, I'll do my part. Gotyear 21:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Deleting the description page here won't affect the image in commons, or the description page there in any way. If you want to delete the actual image from commons, you'd need to log in to commons and be an admin there. Sometimes the description pages that are on wikipedia for commons images aren't useless, such as translations for longer pieces of text in the image description, but in these cases they were empty, and as such added nothing to the descriptions themselves. That's why the template says "[...]or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image". - Bobet 05:59, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'm copying your reply on my talk page because it imparts useful info that your AN/I reply doesn't have, and I'm replying on AN/I so that a few more people might see it, even though it is Grand Central Station. Gotyear 09:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hi, don't worry about it, I'll probably fix (ie. delete) them eventually. And there's really no fault in what you did, you just happened to get unlucky by having people who weren't familiar with the subject answering at WP:ANI. As an example, I deleted the image page I linked above. As you can see, it's still a bluelink, but if you click on it, you'll see that it doesn't exist on wikipedia anymore (the "image" tab at the upper left corner is red). This is how it should be for the commons images. - Bobet 06:36, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'm glad it's not a big issue and that you understand. I see the image is still there and that the Image tab is red, and "empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image" makes sense now.
    See, I thought that "empty image description page" means that there'd be no image to view, just a description, especially given the other two: a missing or corrupt image. I wasn't sure if deleting the file "here" would delete it from commons or not, but I thought there'd be many missing images on the pages in "File links". Yes, some of the images had no WP pages linking to them, but in my mind there was a chance they'd be deleted from commons as well.
    The other possibility was exactly what you just explained to me, that deleting these pages are fine. (How'd they come to exist on WP, since none of them had English translation descriptions?)
    The wording is unclear since we all believed the incorrect option or were at least very unsure, and this is the second such incident. I suggest adding IMPORTANT: This will NOT delete the image from Commons, and if you see the image fine above, you will STILL BE ABLE TO SEE this image on any page it's linked to, at this exact address and with this description. In other words, Don't Panic!
    I'm serious. It should be crystal clear that a good faith user seeing this 1. Shouldn't panic and 2. Why s/he shouldn't panic. I'd be bold, but Template talk:Db-noimage says Be timid. Or to be precise, "Please read Template talk:Db-reason before editing." That link gives me no help to understanding what I might screw up if I edit this template. Gotyear 09:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Harassment on my User Page

    Some months ago, I was forced to ban someone from the portion of the message board website, [www.nitcentral.com www.nitcentral.com], that I moderate for violating that site's rules governing civil behavior. This person responded by going on what another moderator described today as "a rampage", making countless off-topic posts on other boards to attack me or otherwise complain about his ban, and eventually attack the other visitors to the site as well, even after he was repeatedly informed that that site's owner had reviewed the issue and upheld his partial ban, and that he was to cease making off-topic posts to reignite that issue. His repeated refusal to do so, and insistence that he was a victim fighting for justice incurred the ire of just about every other moderator and visitor to the site in the process. He even attempted to get our server/host to shut down the site, and even followed me here to Wikipedia, where he created a single-use identity, Rwetruck, for the sole purpose of participating in an AfD to get an article deleted simply because I had created it, and lash out at nitcentral. Just today, another moderator banned Rwetruck from the site's "Kitchen Sink" (the area where visitors can discuss administrative issues pertaining to the site), for repeatedly ignoring his past warnings to cease this behavior, and informed me via email that Rwetruck flooded his email to excoriate me.

    Now, Rwetruck is harassing me on my User Page, having made three posts just today, asking me to contact him, and demanding an "apology", and is even addressing me using my real first and last name, despite the fact that he knows I do not use my real name on this site. I would appreciate suggestions. Thanks. Nightscream 02:36, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Edits deleted, editor warned, hopefully dealt with. —Cryptic 03:09, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    This guy is back

    This guy was suspended for vandalism - and he's back at it again.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Rudolf_Steiner&diff=83333574&oldid=83331644

    User:Shotwell abusing Wikipedia procedures

    Shotwell has accused several editors of all being sockpuppets in retaliation for a question being raised about his relationship with another editor, both of whom are involved in various disputes on the following articles: Advocates for Children in Therapy, Candace Newmaker, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, and Bowlby (User:Sarner was blocked for a brief period of time for similiar conduct on the Bowlby article). In addition, Shotwell has been engaged in a series of edit wars and revert wars and other uncivil actions that are not consistent with building consensus or reducing disputes. There is a mediator involved, but the mediator is new and seems over his head; he's not taken any action or made any recommendations and the issue is beyond the one page he "signed on" for. DPetersontalk 03:37, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Asad Aleem at it again?

    SPUI

    It seems SPUI has been trolling with the edit summaries of SQUIDWARD! for the past few days now. Any comments on how to deal with this? semper fiMoe 04:49, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He was blocked for this disruption before following a report on an arbitration report page. He is obviously ignoring that, he needs another block.--Konst.ableTalk 05:05, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You what? For inappropriate edit summaries to six edits in the last ten or so days? Erm... Thanks/wangi 05:07, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Has anyone asked SPUI nicely to not do that? It's not like he's really disrupting anything, just being mildly silly. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 05:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Yes he has been asked not to do it a week ago by Lar (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), he has ignored this. He is also on ArbCom parole for disruption on Highway-related article.s--Konst.ableTalk 05:15, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I would give him a more mild block next time he does it then. Obviously 15 minute blocks don't cut it and, when warned, he ignores it, so maybe a 24 hour block he continues? semper fiMoe 05:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I just had a 24 hour block on him shortly after reading this, but I've shorterned it to 8 hours. I don't think this will affect him too much, he doesn't seem to edit too frequently, but could work as another warning.--Konst.ableTalk 05:24, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Most certianly agree with the short block. Since he's not frequently editing at this point, there stands a reason to give this block for this blatent disruption.. OK.. maybe his edits weren't all that too bad, but edit summaries copying a well known vandal isn't exactly what I would call helping. semper fiMoe 05:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hes SPUI. Hes a little silly, but really, hes a freakin genius. --CableModem 05:38, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He obviously does not care. Any thoughts?--Konst.ableTalk 06:22, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    At this point, he has 110 entries in his block log. Short blocks are perhaps business as usual. I don't know.... is it worth trying to force someone to not use silly edit summaries for otherwise semi-productive edits? --Interiot 09:19, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    My opinion is that, whatever positive edits SPUI is contributing, it's more than offset by his unacceptable behavior and he should be blocked indefinitely. Unfortunately, others don't agree and will simply unblock him no matter how unacceptable the behavior is, and he will resort to sockpuppetry (with impunity) if blocked, anyway. --Nlu (talk) 10:01, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Or, hell, maybe we ALL should start taking breaks to vandalize and disrupt every so often, if it's going to start becoming an acceptable practice. --InShaneee 13:40, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Vandalize? As I understand it the complaint here is solely about edit summaries? How is that vandalism? If he used no edit summaries AT ALL would we be blocking for that? It isn't the preference, but hasn't normally been a blockable offense. Is "SQUIDWARD" so much worse than nothing that we must warn and then block for it? What exactly is it harming other than his own credibility? To me this seems like looking for excuses to inflate a trivial issue into an actual problem. Leave it alone unless he does something which would actually require a block to prevent damage to the encyclopedia... not because he is using silly edit summaries while improving the encyclopedia. --CBD 23:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Sillyness is harmless fun. As soon as someone starts debating whether or not it's harmless fun, it's not sillyness, it's disruptive. Stop it or be blocked. That's how I feel. --Lord Deskana (talk) 23:36, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Normally I would agree with you CBD. But, look at this diff [31] This is hardly what I think of when I think 'harmless' or 'silly'. To me, removing cleanup tags, blanking an article and adding the edit summary SQUIDWARD are not the kinds of things I expect out of an editor to behave. I wouldn't mind one or two of those silly edit summaries if he actually had a point to add the summary, but copying the vandal's edit summaries repeatedly after an extended period of time and after two blocks, whats there left to assume good faith with? semper fiMoe 23:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    With this many blocks he should be thankful that the ArbCom put him on probation and did not ban him for a couple of months. Instead he continues to make intentionally disruptive edits. If you look carefully, he was not just removing the tag once earlier, he was revert warring over it with that edit summary! (See [32], [33], [34]) This is almost vandalism. I see no reason to let him get away with it, especially while on probation.--Konst.ableTalk 00:13, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    But the stuff being removed is a bunch of unsourced original research... Disrupting attempts to re-add drivel of this sort seems morally ambiguous perhaps, but not disruptive to Wikipedia itself. The edits you cite are improving the article, in spite of the trolling done with the edit summary. Mike Dillon 00:17, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Edit summaries are meant to explain your edit to help others understand. Edits removing large ammounts of content (wether it belongs or not) with the edit summary "SQUIDWARD!!" will be seen as trolling. When he begins edit warring, not explaining his edit at all, it is disruptive. An indef sounds perfectly logical to me.--KojiDude (Contributions) 00:27, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I agree completely, Mike. The article is unsourced nonsense and perhaps JesseW summed it up best [35]. This was discussed at length in #wikipedia IRC. I looked at the article and suggested it should be either deleted or the scarce useful content merged to Turnpike. At worst, SPUI is guilty of proving a WP:POINT, that some people will look for any excuse to block him. — CharlotteWebb 00:38, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Looking at the specific situation in the diffs above I agree (with Moe) that this is more than just a useless edit summary... those were extensive changes which could lead to confusion as to whether they were valid or not. The usual situation then is to communicate about the reasoning... I checked Talk:Shunpiking, User talk:SPUI, and the edit summaries in the history of that page, but it doesn't look like anyone even asked SPUI for an explanation. Others have since provided seemingly valid reasons for SPUI's changes here. Yes, meaningful edit summaries might have explained the changes up front and thus avoided the need for additional communication... which is why we strongly suggest that people use them. However, again... we have not to date blocked people for failing to provide that 'up front' explanation so long as they do explain when asked directly. SPUI seems to be 'acting out' in a less than helpful way... presumably because of the browbeating with which the road poll was pushed through (which, it should be noted, I supported, though reluctantly, given the wider disruption resulting from not settling on some standard). However, jumping to block isn't going to make that better. If he does something which seems strange without explaining it we should be able to muster the civility to at least ask WHY and only block if he doesn't explain it. Basically, the situation here is that we'd rather block than expend the effort to ask for an explanation. If SPUI were an actual 'vandal' who was unlikely to have a valid reason I could see that, but given that everyone (I think) agrees that SPUI is trying to improve the encyclopedia (as he sees it) why make a small problem into a bigger one? We should block people when we find we have to, not when we think we can. If SPUI wouldn't provide explanations for disputed edits then we'd have to block him... but if we don't even ask for explanations it doesn't seem like we're even trying to resolve things - just going straight to blocks whenever we think there is some reason that we can. --CBD 12:42, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm wondering, what philosophy drives this block? An edit summary of "SQUIDWARD!" is not disrupting anything, nor is it any more useless/useful than a blank edit summary, which i don't see many other people being blocked for. If I chose to write SQUIDWARD or leave the edit summary blank, what difference does that make? atanamir 19:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    You are obviously not aware there is a recurring vandal who vandalizes articles by posting pictures of squidward and leave the edit summaries of SQUIDWARD!!!, right? semper fiMoe 20:49, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Oh, I was not aware of that; my apologies. You aren't referring to SPUI as the vandal, correct? I havne't seen him doing that recently. In either case, unless this vandal is / is a sockpuppet of SPUI, the edit summary alone shouldn't warrant a block though, is my opinion. atanamir 21:10, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    No problem. No, I wasn't refering to his as a vandal, but his edits did look suspicious when he blanks article sections and tags and has the edit summary of SQUIDWARD! He clearly didn't vandalize, but the edit summaries just go beyond exceptable of what WP:DISRUPT and WP:POINT say. SPUI shouldn't be blocked anymore right now. If warnings on his talk page continue to grow, I would call for a more stern block. semper fiMoe 22:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:Calton harrasing me and unnecesary tags on Alex Machacek

    A User:Calton has been unnecessarily harrasing me by posting person attacks on my talk page and tagging the article I created. I created the article Alex Machacek (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), then out of nowhere came User:Calton and tagged the article as advert here. He mentioned in the summary the word - "Jawdropping". I removed the word and removed the tag. Then I informed him about me removing the tag. He retorted with this on my talk page - Personal Attack 1. He said "Repack that attitude, son, it's not going to get you far." He mentioned two more specific POVs, one which I promptly changed and the other wasn't a POV, for which I included a citation. I again told him that I'd removed the tags and rectified the matter. Again he comes and put the tags - this time he puts NPOV tag. He posts on my talk page another personal attck. He says "It's said often to me, kiddo, by trolls, the dishonest, the incompetent, and the fanatical." I add more references and remove the tags. He again comes and tags the article here. He then attacks me again - Third personal attack. He writes "What IS your major malfunction?". I ask him twice, to mention the specific instances of POV, so I can remove/rectify them, but he doesn't reply.

    These seem to be done in a totally bad faith. The User:Calton is not interested in removing POV or doing any good. It seems he wants to put the tags just for the sake of putting 'em and harrassing others.

    --NRS | T/M\B 05:18, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    • Ah, so bald -- and unsourced -- statements of "jawdropping" debuts and "extraordinary chops" in the first graf is standard for musician articles. Fanboys, take note. Meanwhile, I need to go make a few changes of my own in a few articles.
    • Then I informed him... "Informed"? I quote from the message: "...Don't sabotage other's hard work. By the way, Alex Machacek is a leading fusion guitarist and he is in no way related to me. [Where THAT came from, I don't know] Where does the idea of advert comes in ? I am removing the tag. If you have any issues, please tell me first. Don't tag articles just like that."
    Between the bad-faith attitude, his own initial personal attacks, complete misunderstanding about the purpose of tags, his peculiar projection regarding motivation (it never occurred to me that he was related UNTIL NOW), and ownership issues, he's got nothing to complain about. --Calton | Talk 06:27, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Before saying things like these and attacking other users as fanboys etc., the user must first take a look at my contribs. I am registered since last year. This is nothing but undue harrasment of other users. By the way, the idea of relation came after you tagged the article as advert. An advertisement would be done only by those people who are related to the subject or the subject themselves. And that's why I said that. I reiterate again, rectify your attitude, instead of treating everyone as trolls, wannabes, etc. (in your own words). --NRS | T/M\B 07:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Accusations of harassment have no place here, either, so don't even ask him to "rectify [his] attitude" when clearly you're also being uncivil. – Chacor 07:41, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Okay, I don't have any problem. I won't contribute the article from now on if that's what you people want. Thanks. --NRS | T/M\B 07:46, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    "Don't sabotage other's hard work" isn't a personal attack. It's reactionary, but that isn't the same thing. Also, NRS, there's no reason to stop contributing. No one asked you to; the first response to your report was positive, then you got a negative response from the person the report was about (which is normal), and then a statement was made about the nature of the discussion. There's a dispute here, but you're not in trouble. Just ride it out. --Masamage 07:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Alright, I am sorry to have said that. Wikipedia is very close to me now. I will certainly contribute. I know these things happen. Thanks, everyone. --NRS | T/M\B 09:03, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    "Don't sabotage other's hard work" isn't a personal attack. It's reactionary, but that isn't the same thing. Utter crap. Tell me, did you pick up your nuclear-powered hair-splitter at Home Depot or WalMart? --Calton | Talk 04:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Irony abounds. --Masamage 05:32, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User Page Harrassment, Uncivil Behaviour, Excessive Reverting and More

    63.17.106.109 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)

    I've never seen anything like this, or at least been harrassed on here like this. The user above (and other IPs all beginning with 63.17) has posted psuedo vandalism-warnings on my talk page, reverted legitimate edits from other contributors on the Designer Whey Protein article in an edit war with myself and two other users (most notably David D.). This user was improperly using [citation needed] tags on the Biological Value article, which is fine, however he reverted attempts at fixing these sections using proper templates and the posted "vandalism" and "admin" notices on my talk page after reverting perfectly legitimate edits back after I'd fixed them. Finally this user is attempting to draw admin Glen S into this by claiming that Glen knows about him, and by referencing/baiting him in his edit summaries. Then the user left the following edit on another editors talk page regarding this issue - suggesting that I may be sockpuppeteering the entire thing. [36]. The last instance of the users beligerant behaviour here on my talk page [37] and in edit summaries here:[38] where he's trolling.

    Sorry this is such an unusual request. I'm attempting to keep a cool head, however my patience is limited. I've asked the user to stop, however providing boiler plate warnign is useless because of the mulitple IP addresses that are being used. And as you can see, from the last edit to my talk page, this user is not interested in doing anything other than what they want. Thanks in advance for any help. Yankees76 21:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Update - the baiting continues today - from yet a third IP, though it's clearly the same user. See edit summary [39]. Yankees76 20:41, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:WickedHorse

    This new user seems to be "wiki stalking" me. Their first edit to the Volkstaat article (16:06, 15 October 2006, [40]) was merely to move a section I worked on to the bottom of the article and this directly following a difference of opinion (diff: [41]) the preceding days on Talk:2010 FIFA World Cup#Readiness for the tournament section. I tried to discuss it, but the user now also edited another unrelated article (Valkiri) – that I created – diff [42]. Deon Steyn 06:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    DaffyDuck619

    DaffyDuck619 (talkcontribspage movesblock userblock log) has been an issue for a few months now. He has generally been edit warring at Films considered the greatest ever (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) and John Cena (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (the latter of which he has a Mediation case involvement. Here are just a few examples from the last few hours at John Cena about how these things generally occur:

    1. 02:04, October 24, 2006
    2. 02:17, October 24, 2006
    3. 02:23, October 24, 2006 "See talk page"
    4. 02:26, October 24, 2006 "Revered edits back, see talk page"
    5. 02:30, October 24, 2006 "Somebody must be a sockpuppet of lil crazy thing"

    While this was up at AIV, Yamaguchi stated:

    Endorse block of the person above, perhaps a community ban is in order, but that should be discussed somewhere else. Yamaguchi先生 07:26, 24 October 2006

    Certainly, something must be done about this editor. Golbez had indefblocked him, pending that he come back and discuss things on his user talk (which he has), but he has just begun to repeat the same edits, the same disruption, and other such nonsense. Right now, he is sitting out a 48h 3RR block. —Ryūlóng (竜龍) 07:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:1QUIner

    Can someone please investigate 1QUIner (talk · contribs), he's making some strange edits to talk pages. --SimonTheFox 11:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I have just reverted all those. But the history of his userpage is fascinating. In his very first edit he suspects himself of being a Sock of JzG. He later changes the name of who he is supposed to be a sock of. Definetly a vandal only account. Agathoclea 11:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    And already blocked. Agathoclea 11:52, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Help needed with copyvio policy dispute

    I have been engaged in a lengthy correspondence with User:PM Poon. The history is as follows:

    • User posts three copyvio articles.
    • I mark them as copyvios.
    • They write back, unhappy about this. I explain why I did this, and explain why it is sometimes difficult to AGF in the case of multiple copyings, and express my relief that they are a good-faith editor.
    • User apologises, rewrites two of them, I rewrite the other.
    • I write back to them, thanking them for their good edits, and all is right with the world.
    • Some time later, the user returns to my talk page, arguing the toss about whether their edits were a copyvio in the first place, and demanding that I show them how their text resembles the original text
    • I show them, in a long and careful (and partially computer-aided) analysis of their text. (Summary: over 90% is either literally copied, with slight puntcuation changes, or lightly paraphrased from the original source)
    • They take this as a personal affront, and advance a number of impassioned arguments about why they are right and I am wrong, wrong, wrong. (The correspondence is no longer of my talk page, but can be found here: [43])
    • When asked for a second opinion, I invited them to take up my deletion of their content on Wikipedia:Deletion review, but they have not done so.
    • They complain about the "ABUSE OF ADMIN POWER". They complain about my "HALF-BAKED IDEAS ABOUT WHAT COPYRIGHT IS ALL ABOUT". They invite me to "Ask God whether you have indeed been honest to yourself, and had weighed the evidence fairly and squarely?" They claim to have "consulted my ex-company's lawyer" who has apparently told them that they are in the right.
    • So far, so normal.

    However, they are now advancing a new and potentially dangerous argument, in which they justify their literal copying under the principle that, since they are only copying a small part of the original work (for example, "only" a few paragraphs from a longer work), and are not doing it for profit, this qualifies as fair use. They are clearly convinced that they are in the right, and seem intent on continuing with their behavior.

    At this point, I feel that rational argument has failed. They clearly feel that they are now legally entitled to copy as much stuff as they like into Wikipedia, regardless of what anyone else says, and consider my attempts to stop them from doing this as persecution. They feel that they have the law, their friend the lawyer, God, right and truth on their side. And they won't be told otherwise.

    At this point, I seriously considered just blocking them as a serial copyvio artiste, and being done with it. However, that edit was carried out before our lengthy discussion, and the user has not made any further copyvios since the discussion started. Indeed, they haven't done anything else other than carry on this lengthy discussion, in spite of my repeated attempts to bring it to a close.

    However, if they are allowed to carry on with this, WP:COPYRIGHT enforcement will become impossible, since they no longer regard the copying of whole sentences, or even paragraphs, from elsewhere as being evidence of potential copyright problems. Short of blocking, the only course of action I can see would be watch their every edit like a hawk from now on, and to clean up after them, forever. I don't have the time to do this, and nor, I believe, does anyone else.

    At this point, I feel that their announcement of their intention to start ignoring the copyright policy has become, in effect, an announcement of an intention to disrupt Wikipedia. However, I am reluctant to simply LART-and-go, since I don't want them to have any justification for them regarding this as a personal campaign against them on my part.

    I feel that I have exhausted every possible avenue with this user, short of blocking them. I'd like to believe that I've done so whilst remaining civil, and assuming good faith as far as possible. I would appreciate it if other people (preferably several other people) could take a look at this, just to be sure that this matter has been properly dealt with. -- The Anome 12:23, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    If he makes one more post which implies that he will continue violating copyright, whether on talk or posting copyvio, then he should be indef blocked, immediately, and told that until he promises to respect copyright policy he will not be unblocked. I'll do it myself if I happen to be around when that happens. We don't play games when it comes to copyright. --Sam Blanning(talk) 12:35, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Update: Aaargh. After taking a second look, the fourth and last copyvio previously mentioned above, in Internews Pakistan, wasn't theirs: it was introduced in an earlier edit. I've removed that from the comments above: the remaining three are still valid, as admitted by the user in their earlier comments. I'm also going to remove my text concerning it from their talk page, since they do not appear to have read it yet, and the last thing I want to do is to mistakenly accuse them of anything extra that they didn't actually do. However, the rest of my comments stand. -- The Anome 12:44, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'm myself not quite sure about this aspect of copyright law - does it make sense to distinguish between "copyright violation" (a legal concept) and "plagiarism" (a concept of academic ethics)? In the case above, it seems quite clear that, even if the guy should be right and it's not the one, it's the other. Does plagiarism automatically fall under copyright terms according to US law? And if not, should Wikipedia add to its policies that plagiarism is just as unacceptable even if it should escape the legal definitions of "copyright"? Just a thought. Fut.Perf. 12:54, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    As a policy issue, this problem will probably get worse before it gets better. As the screws are tightened on WP:V and WP:OR, it becomes more difficult to add original writing to an article, especially on more contentious subjects. Everything has to be tied to a quote. If the quotes are too short, someone complains that the quote is out of context. If you paraphrase the quote, you're accused of original research. As one editor (a well known admin) has written, "We publish what the most authoritative sources on the subject have written. That is all we do." Thus, with limits on original writing on one side, and limits on copying on the other, it becomes difficult to write anything in articles where all the rules are very strictly enforced. Tightening up even further may make it impossible. --John Nagle 18:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Travb

    This user has previously conspired against me off wiki by attempting to get in touch with users I have had disputes with [44] [45] [46] [47]. They are currently editing under two names Travb and RWV. They have begun an edit war on the article Allegations of state terrorism by United States of America and so far have not stated why they are reverting. They originally said to see talk page, however they cited a straw poll as reason why a section without sources should be kept. As I pointed out to them and want to make clear here, the sections have sources stating they happened, however they do not have sources stating accusations of terrorism carried uot by the US, per the article title. It was decided long ago that section would have to meet this criteria, containing sources that actually allege terrorism, however Travb has initiated an edit war without providing these sources. I making this note here because I want it on record that I attempted to discuss on the talk page with him, and he has instead reverted without even adding the sources, or continuing the talk page discussion of it needing sources that accuse the US of terrorism. --NuclearZer0 12:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    The user has now attempted to intimidate me instead of discussing by mentioning my previous arbcom ruling[48], which User:Thatcher131 previously warned him of doing, stating Arbcom rulings are not act as scarlet letters. [49] --NuclearZer0 13:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    This user has a long history of using Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard against other users, this is the third time he has reported me here on this same article, it would save a lot of people's time if he simply read the above:
    This is not the Wikipedia complaints department. If you came here to complain about the actions of a user or administrator, or if your problem is a content issue and does not need the attention of people with administrator access, then please follow the steps in dispute resolution. These include: mediation, requests for comment, and as a last resort requests for arbitration.
    Now that he has brought his complaints to the attention of ANI, I feel I must respond.
    It appears like Nuclear/Zer0 is violating Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Zer0faults, which if this edit war continues, I will have to report him to the arbitrators.
    There was a strawpoll which was mediated by a third party, User talk:Wikizach in which the consensus, decided by the mediator was to keep, these sections Nuclear/Zer0 is now deleting.
    I am editing different articles under the name RWV and Travb, which is permitted under Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry, I made no secret about this change either, and was very open about the change (unlike this user). I started editing under a different account for several reasons, but one of the reasons was because of Nuclear/Zer0 harrasment, including deleting my newly created articles, which User:Sean Black called "trolling". Travb (talk) 13:19, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    May I ask, Zer0faults, although it is clear that there is no question of you trying to hide the fact, why do you use the "User:NuclearUmpf" sockpuppet? Its a little confusing. Lord Seabhcán of Baloney 13:45, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    My attempts to hide it by linking my other profile in my name or by linking it on my userpage for NuclearUmpf? Or by it being included in my arbcom decision? Please stop your wikidrama. --NuclearZer0 15:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I specifically noted you weren't trying to hide it, yet it is still confusing that you, Zer0faults, use a sockpupped called NuclearUmpf. I was politely asking why? Lord Seabhcán of Baloney 15:36, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Its noted above in my initial complaint, Travb attempting to ally people I disagree with via off wiki means, its been discussed already with an admin, and he has been warned about it. Please read the my first paragraph again if you do not understand. --NuclearZer0 15:37, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please refrain from personal attacks. I again ask an admin to look into the situation with Travb please. --NuclearZer0 15:04, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I think it's a valid question. --InShaneee 15:18, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    [50], that covers the issue. Or you could ask Thatcher131. Again I ask for an admins intervention in this user threatening me with arbcom etc. --NuclearZer0 15:22, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Zerofaults adopted a new name to get a new start, offering on his talk page to tell admins privately his new user name. When he was called on it by Travb, and informed of his error by one of the arbitrators, he changed his sig and has been open about it since. That aspect of the case is a closed book in my opinion. Regarding his current allegations, I have previously said that arbitration provides remedies for disruptive behavior but is not a scarlet letter. The arbitration enforcement page specifically warns users against baiting editors who are under arbitration restriction. (For precedent see one of the Deathrocker cases, where Deathrocker was blocked for edit warring but so was the user who was baiting him.) Unfortunately I am at work and can not analyze the specifics right now. If any other admin can examine the facts (is NuclearUmpf editing disruptively and is he being baited) a third party review would be appreciated. I will return to this probably after work. Thatcher131 16:00, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Amazingly, while I went and had what passes for a life around here for a few hours, the problem took care of itself, largely through the actions of a third editor who provided sources for a disputed section. Amazing how things work out when you follow policies. Thatcher131 03:38, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Question about importance

    An article Indian rock cut architecture, having inline citations from five different sources on the web, has been tagged unimportant for the following reason:

    This looks like original research based on web-only sources. Aren't there any books or academic journals on the subject? If not, how is this important? Ekajati (yakity-yak) 15:48, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

    Is this a valid reason for tagging an article as unimportant? Mattisse(talk) 16:06, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I think this shows signs of actions specifically directed at one user. User:Ekajati and User:Hanuman Das seem to be following User:Mattisse around, tagging articles User:Mattisse has worked on, reverting tags which M has added, and generally trying to stir up problems (see User talk:Aguerriero). This is linked to past tagging by M on articles HD worked on and lots of sockpuppet acusations. It seems to me they are on the wrong side WP:POINT and WP:AGF. --Salix alba (talk) 16:37, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You've got that backwards. It has been Mattisse stalking first Rosencomet, then 999, then Hanuman Das and to some extent myself. She used sockpuppets to stalk Rosencomet and 999, and is probably using Timmy12 now to continue to stalk Rosencomet. How long will the admins let this continue? I've put many of the involved article on my watchlist so can see the patterns. Have you looked? Ekajati (yakity-yak) 16:49, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    That is a past event which has been resolved with administrator intervention. We are now talking about current events such as [51], [52], removing/moving citation tags on various blues artist. Basically anything Matisse edits seems to have Ekajati quickly doing a dimetrically opposite edit. Comparing contributions for Mattise [53] and Ekajati [54] show remarkable similarity. --Salix alba (talk) 17:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I don't believe it is over. Check out these edits by Timmy12:

    Ekajati (yakity-yak) 20:15, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:BubbaJubba

    Would appreciate someone else looking at BubbaJubba (talk · contribs). Appears to be leaving, and feels like s/he has been the victim of trolling, which is hardly the case IMO. Left a kind of nasty message on my talk page, etc. Not sure if deserving a block due to general incivility. I'm tired and cranky right now, so a 3rd opinion would be helpful. thanks. --ZimZalaBim (talk) 16:19, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Looks like a troll with few edits, I find it unlikely they were trolled. Anyway, check messages that have been left on their talk page. More than likely just a vandal unhappy with things.--Andeh 15:42, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Constitution

    Can we please get a temporary user-protect on Constitution ?? Thanks for taking a look. ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 16:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Serial vandal blocked for one month - no page protection warranted. --Aguerriero (talk) 16:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I left a similar message at intervention and another admin protected. By the way, the attack was coordinated by 3 or 4 IP's, did you get them all? ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 16:41, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Jesús Gabaldón shenanigans

    Ever since I nominated his autiobiographical article for deletion, a certain jazz/rock bass player from Spain has been giving me endless grief. Using a variety of anonymous IP's, Jesús has blanked my hilarious user page and my stimulating talk page 10-15 times each. Check out the edit histories[55] [56]--many of these IP's have already been blocked. Most recently, he signed up for an account, which plays on my own user name. After he resurrected the Jesús Gabaldón page in a foriegn langauge, I correctly tagged it for speedy deletion. In retalliation, he tagged my User Page for speedy deletion.

    I admire his relentlessness, but his behavior is becoming exhausting. I don't want to ask an admin for broad protection of my user page and talk page, because I want any anon user to feel free to add his 2 cents about my edits. But is there a way to ban him alone from editing my talk pages--maybe a IP range block or something.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 16:24, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I just reverted it again. Someone want to block the IP till he cools down? Whispering 21:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Inappropriate editing

    There is some bad behavior summarized at this AfD that I would like someone to investigate. Rather than defending his behavior, Leinad-Z is accusing all the newer users there of being sock puppets, and I want my name cleared by somebody who is randomly appointed. --DixiePixie 16:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Hi, I am the user DixiePixie is talking about. I agree that the incident must be investigated. There are at least 3 apparent sockpuppets in that discussion, way too many for it being ignored. DixiePixie, who wrote the message above, is one of them. I have already tried to contact an administrator on the matter, but no response until now. Please help. --Leinad  -diz aí, chapa. 17:43, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Leinad-Z has not limited his accusations to users participating in that discussion. He had also failed to notify the new users of his accusations. I just found out today. One of the new users left Wikipedia out of disgust early in the discussion. --DixiePixie 19:41, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Reverting or removing tags without fixing problem

    User:Ekajati, along with her cohorts, has repeatedly reverted or removed tags placed on articles without addressing the underlying problem between yesterday and today. I have warned her (and her cohorts) politely, as recommended above, not to do so.[57]

    In placing these tags, I am going by a long standing discussion with User:TomTheHand.Please see recently (yesterday) on my talk page and User:Ekajati was involved. :[58] and
    [59] This administrator :has been very clear and consistent over time.

    I was told above [60] that if this persisted, it constituted vandalism. I would like to report it has such. Mattisse(talk) 17:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    My dear Mattisse. You are simply misinformed. I've removed an inappropriate tag "unsourced", from articles that listed their sources. That tag is inappropriate in that case. I've moved the appropriate tag, not removed it. Please don't mischaracterize what has occurred. What is happening is that you are tagging in an intentionally annoying and serial manner in violation of WP:POINT. You have annoyed several editors in doing so. They don't agree with you. You refuse to really discuss it with anyone, despite there requests for you to do so, but simply revert to "your way" right or wrong, without discussion. Then you try to tar others with your own brush. Why not do something more constructive? Ekajati (yakity-yak) 17:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'd like to add that although Mattisse is acting with best intentions, this has been a problem in the past and a number of her sockpuppets (see Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Mattisse) have been indef blocked for mass tagging of articles. There have been two sockpuppet checks conducted ([61] and [62]) that resulted in blocks, and a third that didn't [63]. I'm not rationalizing any behavior on the part of User:Hanuman Das and User:Ekajati (especially removing valid tags), but perhaps it sheds some light on why other editors are wary of Mattisse's tagging activities.
    Additionally, I would not group User:Anger22 in with the others. His involvement with Mattisse is similar to mine - we first noticed her when she began tagging a number of articles we have on our watchlists as part of various projects. Her replies to questions of her motivation/strategy for tagging have mostly amounted to "The rules say I can!" despite other editors making the point that it can be disruptive. --Aguerriero (talk) 17:43, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please check the edit histories of each article to see what happened. Again I ask you to check
    [64] and
    [65]
    Also, please check comments under Question about importance above which relate directly to this issue:
    [66]
    Thank you! Mattisse(talk) 17:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I would not normally raise it on this page, but tagging along with the discussion, I have found myself in conflict with the same user over a blues page. John Lee Hooker has a reference, to a book. After some other edits, and some edit warring over the addition of an "unsourced" tag, Matisse has added a swathe of "citation needed" tags, with the commment "added citation needed tags - please do not remove without addressing problem as doing so is considervanalizm as Ekajati, Notinasnaid [that's me] & Anger22 have done previously". I would remove them, because there is a reference and no indication that the reference does NOT apply, and no previous history before today (on this article) of inline citations. However, I don't want to do what would be considered vandalism. I would welcome guidance, in passing, from people already involved with or looking over this dispute (I realise content disputes per se don't belong here)." Notinasnaid 18:07, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Please check the edit histories of each article to see what happened. Again I ask you to check

    [67] and
    [68]

    Also, please check comments under Question about importance above which relate directly to this issue:

    [69]
    Thank you! Mattisse(talk) 17:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I put User:Anger22 in the same category because of that user's involvement with my name over time. :e.g.[70] and because Anger22 makes assumptons about my behavior that are unjustified without evidence:

    [71]
    [72]

    Furthermore, User_talk:Aguerriero is hardly unbiased. First, where is the evidence that I answered in the manner he characterized above? I have not had contact with any of these people for months, if ever. I don't believe I ever had a conversation with User:Aguerriero until yesterday. His talk pages contain conversations about his personal life to Anger22, so he is not neutral. Secondly, the following took place recently on his talk page:

    [73]

    So he is part of the "group". Mattisse(talk) 18:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Further, please consider the pattern of harrassment on User:Ekajati's part. The user was instrumental in disrupting my life with this incident:

    [74]

    and the user and his group have continued this pattern for months. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. I have done nothing wrong since my original mistake. Please allow me to function on Wikipedia without constant harassment. Thank you. Mattisse(talk) 18:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    P.S. I apologize for repetitious postings but editing conflicts confused me. Please overlook them. Thank you. Mattisse(talk) 18:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    There is no cabal. Ekajati (yakity-yak) 19:42, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    "Citation Needed" in John Lee Hooker

    About the many "citation needed" tags on this article, rather than fighting over where they're really needed or not, the best thing seems to be to actually provide the requested citations. It's not that hard, most of them seem to be on actual fact issues that should be possible to look up and cite. Here, let me do one, just to show you how easy it is. Note, though, that all that I know about The Blues is that they come after The Greens and before The Indigos. :-)

    1. Requested citation: "Hooker recorded over 100 albums and lived the last years of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he licensed a nightclub to use the name Boom Boom Room, after one of his hits.[citation needed]"
    2. Google for: "John Lee Hooker" "Boom Boom Room"
    3. Get: lots of results that I don't know from Adam, but the first one is a link to the BBR page itself,[75] and on the second page of results is an excerpt from a For Dummies book.[76] That's a published book from a very well known series, a pretty good reliable source.
    4. And what do you know - reading the reference the sentence in our article is wrong. He didn't license a nightclub to use the name, he founded the nightclub!
    5. Rewritten sentence: "Hooker recorded over 100 albums. He lived the last years of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, in 1997, he opened a nightclub called "John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room", after one of his hits.[1]"
    6. Ref: ^"Discovering the Blues of John Lee Hooker" Adapted from: Blues For Dummies, by Lonnie Brooks, Cub Koda, Wayne Baker Brooks, Dan Aykroyd, ISBN 0-7645-5080-2, August 1998
    7. External link: The Boom Boom Room San Francisco nightclub founded by Hooker

    I'll go add that to the article. Not so hard - 7 steps, a few minutes each at most. And the article is clearly much improved, useful link, additional reference, correction of minor inaccuracy. It's not as if by adding the tags Matisse is deleting stuff, he's just questioning facts that really should be possible to verify. John Lee Hooker is a well documented person, so it should be possible to do the same for most of the other requested citations without making a fight out of it. AnonEMouse (squeak) 19:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


    Folks, there seems to be a continuing misunderstanding about what citations are. Read WP:CITE for complete information, but in summary, when claims are made it's necessary to cite the claim's source at the sentence in which the claim is made. I believe part of the misunderstanding stems from the fact that WP:CITE says that an article can use any citation method. However, a list of references is not a citation method. They are half of a citation method, but the other half is the notes within the text stating which source claims were taken from.

    As an example, the citation tag on John Lee Hooker placed here was necessary and appropriate. Removal of the tag by Anger22, Ekajati, and Notinasnaid was wrong and shows a misunderstanding of WP:CITE. On the other hand, Sir Isaac Lime and AnonEMouse added citations for various claims, which was helpful. Mattisse added specific "citation needed" tags to particular claims that were especially in need of citation.

    Mattisse has never tried to force citations for every sentence in an article. Rather, tags are placed on articles that have absolutely no citations. Often, a contributor will add some citations, and Mattisse will add a few specific "citation needed" tags to claims that are felt to be especially in need of citation. This is the way things should work, and if we can just get rid of this "freakout phase" of the cycle everything will be great.

    I'll summarize. Articles need citations. References are not citations. Do not remove tags requesting citations without adding citations. TomTheHand 21:38, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    WP:CITE is a guideline, not policy, and there is apparent consensus on Wikipedia:WikiProject Physics and Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics that is inappropriate on (some of) those articles. This may not be applicable to the specific problem here, but WP:CITE is disputed in some contexts. I'm afraid TomTheHand is bordering on WP:NPA, as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Arthur Rubin (talkcontribs) 18:38, October 24, 2006.
    WP:CITE is a guideline to teach people ways they can cite sources. However, citing sources is mandated by WP:V. I've looked at Wikipedia:WikiProject Physics/Citation guidelines proposal, and it says this about not using inline citations:
    There are a few cases when it is not necessary or helpful to provide in-line citations. Most commonly this is for short, technical articles which can be written using only two or three sources: a primary source and a review article or textbook. In this case, a short "References" section at the end of the article suffices. An example of this sort of article is scalar-vector-tensor decomposition.
    That is not relevant in this case, and in other cases it encourages the inline citation of sources. The biographical articles in question here need to cite sources. TomTheHand 23:09, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Just because Ekajati is almost certainly wrong doesn't mean that the complaintant and TomTheHand are correct (or WP:CIVIL). But I don't know much about this sort of article. I have enough trouble dealing with situations in which the source material is in Japanese, and we pretty much have to trust the editor's translation..... — Arthur Rubin | (talk) 23:43, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Folks, there seems to be a continuing misunderstanding about what citations are. — Yes, but it is not the one put forward. A citation is the raw information necessary to uniquely identify and to locate a source. For (say) a book it is (at minimum) the author, publisher, title, and date of the book. The links between the citations and specific content are matters of style. But they are links from the content to the citations. They are not the citations themselves. An article without such links is not lacking citations. The citations identifying the sources are there. It is simply that the article isn't spoon-feeding to the reader the exact source to consult for any specific part of the article. (Adding such links from sections, or even paragraphs, to the relevant citations in general improves an article.)

    Wikipedia:Citing sources is a style guideline, discussing (in addition to the Wikipedia house style of citations themselves) the Wikipedia house style for such links, which encompasses <ref>, Harvard referencing, and others.

    The policy is Wikipedia:Verifiability, which merely requires that sources be cited, somehow. The (minimum) author+publisher+title+date information for (say) a book source, enabling readers to locate the book, must be present, in some fashion. The exact cross-linking of content and citations is a matter of style, some differences of opinion, and (anyway) what the cross-connections are in each specific case. Uncle G 10:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'd like to insert a comment. I haven't read most of this conversation, so apologies if I'm abusing a deceased horse, but re: "About the many "citation needed" tags on this article, rather than fighting over where they're really needed or not, the best thing seems to be to actually provide the requested citations."
    That's true. There may be legitimate concerns about the factualness of the article, and providing sources (inline or not) improves the quality of any article. However, I'd like to note that it's possible for an editor to be unkind strewing many [citation needed] tags all at once. The length of the tag, though relatively small, is still obtrusive, especially in great quantity. Partially, it's supposed to be obtrusive, to encourage editors to get off their backsides and source this one particular fact or sentence.
    Instead of adding such a tag en masse though, a good faith editor should either add an Template:unreferenced at the top of the article/section (which may not encourage editors enough to source particular facts) or add a few [citation needed]s and at least make an effort to find some of the facts him/herself.
    Nothing except derogatory material about a living person needs to be sourced immediately. It can be done over time. So don't do the easy, unsightly, unkind thing and strew the tag. Instead, add 3 or 4. If you want to source some yourself, do it. It shows you're willing to make the same effort you're asking of others. It's not necessary, but I argue that adding 3 tags and checking back in a week is far preferable to adding dozens and making it virtually unreadable.
    Also, I'd like to prpose making it smaller. Some people said [?] (question mark) wouldn't be easily readable on all fonts, but something smaller and still differentiable from already sourced tags such as [1].
    If there's a better place to discuss these aspects, let me know. Gotyear 12:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Propose indefinate block of User:TV Newser, and a look into his buddy User:Ponch's Disco

    This has been going on and on. Newser was blocked on the 21st for repeated harassment of Tecmobowl, and continued it when he got off. He has therefore been blocked again. I'm getting sick of reading this. TV Newser is repeatedly adding sock puppet tags to Tecmobowl's userpage, and accusing him of being a vandal/sock without evidence and despite warning. His response to the latest block was far from dignified. While everything Tecmobowl has done hasn't necessarily been to code either, that still doesn't seem like a reasonable excuse for this.

    As for Poncho's Disco, see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The American Card Catalog, as well as Poncho's contribs. The user seems to be cooperating with TV Newser in this; Newser showed up in the AFD some 14 minutes after it started, and as his first contribution after the block. I'm guessing they know one another outside of the wiki.

    I know there are discussions on this already. There is even a mediation (which only Tecmobowl has shown any interest in participating in). I don't think the hoopla is necessary; we should just block the troll and be done with it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Agreed on both measures. --InShaneee 19:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Sounds good to me. Khoikhoi 19:18, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Agreed. Three's the magic number, I've blocked TV Newser indefinitely. I'm not sure about Ponch's Disco. Clearly some highly problematic behaviour, but I'm not sure whether he merits an indefinite block either on account of being a sockpuppet or being completely intolerable. I'd be interested to see how he reacts to Newser's block. --Sam Blanning(talk) 19:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I support the indefinite block. The block I originally instated was supposed to give Newser time to reflect, not time to plan more mischief. His last edits indicate he has no interest in building an encyclopedia. I am not certain about Ponch, though it does seem suspicious. Firsfron of Ronchester 20:51, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    TV Newser has needed an indef block for a long time, really. He's been little but trouble since I came across him, which was within a few hours of his account creation. There is, and I say this only tentatively, a possibility that in fact he is a sock himself of a well-establisher socket, since he share linguistic traits with a particularly unpleasant user who I blocked long ago. Add to this the fact that his 'recommendations' on who I should block tend usually to be the reverse of what I actually decide to do and well....I may have allowed us to be...you know whatted. I've had my eye on Ponch's Disco for some time, and if he puts the outside edge of a toenail wrong, he'll be gone for good. -Splash - tk 21:06, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Good stuff. I'm glad we came to a solid agreement here; it's been long enough. I'll also keep an eye on Poncho, just in case. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:58, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Or I won't. He's been indef'd as well. Can't say I disagree too much; the creation and subsequent AfD'ing of self-created articles (the American Card whatsit one) actually fits the "MO" of the very vandal that TV Newser was accusing Tecmobowl of being. Odd, that. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:03, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Gardez Bien (talk · contribs) has been waging a one-man POV edit war on Washington, D.C., Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Prince George's County, Maryland, insisting on placing in the introductory paragraphs of all of these articles that the state of Maryland donated the land that is now D.C. A discussion on Talk:Washington, D.C. has shown a consensus against including this information in the introduction as opposed to purely the history section, based on the current relevance of that information. Gardez Bien has nevertheless continued to unilaterally edit war, and accused those who disagree with him of being POV Virginia and Southern boosters on that talk page, as well as in edit summaries.[77] Edits such as this and this show how absurd and non-constructive his position is, as he is insisting on defining the Maryland topics by the connection to D.C. Someone with no prior involvement with these topics needs warn him against disruption and POV trolling, watch him for 3RR violations, and block accordingly. Postdlf 17:54, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He's at it again.[78],[79] Postdlf 15:16, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User unwilling to accept messages or discuss on user talk page

    Mikkalai (talk · contribs) apparently refuses to accept messages or discuss issues on his talk page. Here's a revert of a recent message I left [80], with no followup on my talk page or the article (which might be acceptabel if he just wanted to keep is talk page clean). To me, this level of non-responsiveness is uncivil. I recall a discussion about this practice a few months ago, but don't recall the consensus. Thoughts? --ZimZalaBim (talk) 19:53, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User adding content to XennoBB talk page

    Lately, XennoBB talk page has been "cluttered" with link spam by User:Draky, bad comments regarding some GPL violations which never occured (we're in process of identifying the user and pursuing legal charges against him), and the only "sources" he quoted are a forum he uses currently (no problem in adding content there) and a blog. Surely, this is not the case where I can add something on my blog then quoting it on WikiPedia for example, right? The comments must come from a legitimate and verifiable source, right? Well, this is not the case with our vandal. If the Wikipedia admins' idea of democracy is that everybody can add whatever content they wish to a software talk page(a free GPL redistributed software, which doesn't get any money from it) well, I'd say it's a serious problem. Hopefully the messages can be removed. Thank you. - Osgiliath 20:12, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Firstly, the user has done nothing outright 'wrong' and is certainly not a vandal, although his comments may certainly be incorrect. However, there are far better ways to deal with incorrect comments than suggesting they are "full of ####" and removing the comments you don't agree with. Leave the comments there and try to start talking things out in a civilized manner. Additionally, legal threats against wikipedia users such as the one you made above are absolutely not allowed, and if you make any more you will be blocked from editing. --InShaneee 20:35, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Okey so If I understand correctly, I can add ANY unverified content to any wikipedia talk page and the owner/editor of that page must prove that my statement is wrong? Good thing to know ... And my legal threat was not concerning wikipedia since it's not regarding this comment, it's because the user tried to hack our website on numerous occasions. And it wasn't even a legal threat, but heh, who am I to decide ... -Osgiliath 20:41, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Since nobody bothered to reply to my last statement, I consider it correct. I think that's a violation of the "somebody being innocent until proved otherwise" principle; I wonder if such content was added to an administrator talk page or a page monitored by him, any measures would have been taken against the editor. I bet there would be, but clearly, trashing the name of a legitimate GPL software does not qualify for the same measures. It's a pretty sick sight to watch ... Don't bother telling me I violated the WP:CIV rules or such, any administrator who read my first complaint clearly violated the WP:NPA and WP:AGF rules, which you so dearly "enforce". I kindly ask such a "neutral" administrator to block/remove my account because do not want my name associated anymore with Wikipedia and its unjust decisions. - a disgusted ex-user -Osgiliath 04:44, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hello. As I'm involved, I'm telling some words. 1st, excuse my english, I'm French not English... (Osgiliath told me he didn't understand me so I'm excusing myself again). 2nd : I recognize that I was too rude and that I didn't respect exactly the "civility rule" of WP so I apologize for this point. The rest of the discussion is on the talk page of the article XennoBB where I was saying something that is sourced with blog and forum assertions (like source code comparison) so it might continue on the XennoBB talk page ! I do not wish to attack personnaly Osgiliath, I'm just telling that is "program" is not OK. So... thanks for reading me. and I apologize again for breaking the "civility rule". Draky 09:01, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Kilz

    User:Kilo-Lima blocked User:Kilz's IP address for 48 hours due to it being "used to avoid 3RR detection". I have two problems with this block, which I've brought up on the talk page but since the user appears to be offline I'll mention it here too. Firstly, Kilz made one non-logged in edit (to Swiftfox) and acknowledged responsibility for it 6 minutes later, without any prompting that I can see, so it hardly counts as attempting to avoid 3RR detection, or even using a sockpuppet. Secondly, it was that user's first edit to that page for more than 24 hours, so I cannot see how 3RR comes into it at all. If there's something I'm missing here I'd be glad to hear of it, but otherwise I cannot understand the reasoning behind this block. Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 21:01, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    The issue needs further attention as it looks like a larger issue with User:Kilo-Lima. He is very fast to close Sock reports and tagging the accounts as blocked. But he does not remove the tags if he changes his mind and unblocks, or as in one case even does not block the account in question. Just doesn not make sense. Agathoclea 16:07, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please have faith. Firstly, I do not add the tags to suspected users, the accuser does that. Secondly, in case you do not know, I am the only one (of 1,035) administrators who take care of WP:SSP. This means that I have done this for about four months, closing and checking these cases. Because of this, and due to this page being backlogged easily, I have to quickly check, close, block, tag and report on all of the user accounts here; this cause me to, because of the pace that I do it at, to make mistakes. And, yes, I will admit it. KiloT 17:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Another IP puppet of User:Zarbon

    Zarbon (talk · contribs) was blocked for 2 months for 3RR. Only a few hours after his block, he used an IP adress to continue his POV pushing, and that adress was also blocked for 2 months. Now he has another IP; 149.68.168.154 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log). If you look at the page histories of Dodoria, Zarbon, and Kiwi (Dragon Ball), you'll see other socks (ex: Recoome (talk · contribs)) that he's using. This kind of behavior has been going on for months. I think an indef would be suitable here.--KojiDude (Contributions) 21:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    He's also using Recoome and 149.68.168.159 to avoid the block. Nemu 21:21, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Time to take it to CheckUser. --InShaneee 21:44, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Can you block the current IPs while the chekuser is being done/filled out? I'm trying to have a decent meal here but I have to revert all his edits.--KojiDude (Contributions) 22:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Reverse dictionary attack?

    Between 19:56 and 20:13 Wikipedia time, 169.204.238.174 (talk · contribs) requested that my password be reset over 150 times, at times around once every two seconds. I'm concerned that perhaps the new password is not generated randomly enough (and so collisions could be found with a bot), or maybe there is a plan to mailbomb people using this facility. Either way I thought that this should be brought to your attention. Dave 21:17, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Mass e-mails happen all the time, and we already know about them :) You don't get a new password everytime you get one of those e-mails. You have to autoconfirm this by clicking on this link in the e-mail, then it becomes your password. If you never confirm these e-mails and you delete them, you never change your password. semper fiMoe 23:23, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    The emails I receive are like this:
    Someone (probably you, from IP address 169.204.238.174) requested that we send you a new Wikipedia login password for en.wikipedia.org.
    The password for user "Dave" is now "********". You should log in and change your password now.
    If someone else made this request or if you have remembered your password and you no longer wish to change it, you may ignore this message and continue using your old password
    Dave 23:56, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Yep, I got 200 of those in one minute once :\ I think you'll find in those e-mails a thing that says to confirm this 'click here' kind of message, right? Well, as long as you donn't click it, and do as the e-mail says ("you may ignore this message and continue using your old password"), you should be fine. semper fiMoe 00:14, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thing is, I was wondering if someone has found a loophole such that they can make a reasonable guess what the password will be changed to. Not being familiar with the mediawiki software, there may be some kind of attack possible. I can't think of any other reason to do it, except as a bizarre attempt at mailbombing. Dave 14:59, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I believe it has been previously established that one request overwrites the previous one so no matter what at any one time you only have two usable passwords. – Chacor 15:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Yep, but if you do a reset, then try a password, then another reset, and so on? Dave 23:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Since this keeps coming up, why not throttle the password request function down to once a day/hour/fortnight? -- nae'blis 16:14, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Talk to the devs. I've been told such a fix has been created, but not implimented. --InShaneee 16:21, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hot off the presses mailing list - [81]. This has now been fixed. Hooray! the wub "?!" 23:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Francis Schonken (talk · contribs): knowingly filing a false 3RR/sock puppet report

    This reports Francis Schonken (talk · contribs) as knowingly filing a false 3RR/sock puppet report re the Republic page (and what was verging on a 3R war), based on what he has made to appear as such (in a Checkuser report), but which is refuted by viewing that page's history. Therein, all will note that I failed to realize that I had signed out, subsequently resigned in, and made a new edit with a notice to that effect. He had to know and indeed knew all this, and chose to file a false report.

    further, this user is falsely accusing abusive language by leaving out the words surrounding the alleged abuse, i.e., context. none of this is 'abusive' anyway. this user is also relentlessly badgering and otherwise harrassing me, which can be noted on the Republic talk page. i'm requesting a block of this guy, until he can be made to act like a civilized individual. Stevewk 22:25, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Steve, the RFCU seems to have been unneeded as you claimed that edit, but there does appear to be a 3RR violation there on your part. The same changes are made 4 times. What is the falsity in that claim? Georgewilliamherbert 00:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Ah, ok, I found it. The first listed should properly be:
    Stevewk edits a version by Francis
    The first edit listed by Francis is:
    00:26, 23 October 2006 (as Stevewk)
    is really:
    your non-edit of ArmadilloFromHell's revert
    Which was...
    a vandalism fix revert
    Ok. Got it. The first and last edits Stevewk actually made in the four sequence are greater than 24 hrs apart. The cited "first revert" skips several intervening posts which place the actual time outside 24 hrs, and the first edit in the sequence (first listed above) isn't a revert.
    I don't know if Francis' selection of the skip-several-edits first comparison was on purpose or accidental, but the 4RR claim is bogus.
    Georgewilliamherbert 01:07, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:The Ministry of Truth

    Ok, I was just looking through recent changes and saw this user. I went to his contributions and found that every edit is to his userspace and his userboxes, even some of which I find offensive or not in good taste. I find it strange that this user's first and only edits this far are userbox creation and too his userspace. Does anyone else think this is very suspicious? semper fiMoe 23:42, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Sock of a userbox fan created to store userboxes probably, only thing they could really be violating is WP:POINT, other wise unless they edit else where you can't really do anything.--Andeh 01:07, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I was going to wait and see if, as a new user, he did anything productive, but it does appear that he is not actually new. —Centrxtalk • 01:29, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    He is doing all his edits at User:The Ministry of Truth/Userboxes. On that page, he says This is a userpage directory of "beliefs" userboxes. It is intended to track migrations to and help archive and organize userboxes in userspace. The corresponding directory, Wikipedia:Userboxes/Beliefs was deleted.
    I don't see any violation here (perhaps it's subtle?); he's clearly only playing around in his own space. He could be preparing for something, I suppose; my sense is that wikipedia administrators don't often do preemptive strikes. John Broughton | Talk 15:19, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    It's not so subtle. Wikipedia is not a free webhost. He's playing around not really in "his" user space, but in everybody's. Way back when, we discussed how to make rules governing those people who don't do anything but build in user talk space. No one could figure out a rule, but it's pretty clear that you've got to be working on Wikipedia in some way to get that lovely storage space. If he's an unlabelled alternate account, then he's a user who isn't editing Wikipedia. That's not good. Geogre 16:21, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    The rule is it's not allowed, but if someone were a new user they are given a chance to make productive contributions. —Centrxtalk • 19:18, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I've warned him that I will delete them unless he comes up with a good reason for having them. Let's see what he has to say first though. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 19:28, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:Rexisfed & Wicky woo

    Can someone monitor Rexisfed (talk · contribs) for me? Ever since the article Wicky woo was put up for deletion earlier today, he has continuously removed the AFD tag, replacing it with angry messages. I have already warned him up to {{drmafd4}}, but I will be signing off soon, so I probably won't be around to watch his next action. Scobell302 23:56, 24 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'll do the best I can to moniter it. :) semper fiMoe 00:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    After I proposed his article for deletion, he vandalized my userpage, and then did it again with Rymysterio3 (talk · contribs) --Sbluen 03:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Cmr924 (talk · contribs) and 24.7.214.28 (talk · contribs)

    Cmr924 (talk · contribs) and 24.7.214.28 (talk · contribs) these two or same users are on my talk page "demanding" I explain why they can't remove cited criticism. Cmr924 (talk · contribs) removed warnings on his page. They appear to be the same users it you look at my talk. An adminstrator should step in and deal with his issues as he doesn't want to listen to me. Arbusto 01:56, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Arbustoo has not helped at all. I want to know why the last edit I made, as user Cmr924, is in violation of vandalism. I clearly had good intentions. As the article stands, it is very biased. It is very one-sided, and reflects negatively. This is not something Wikipedia is about at all. White washing? So, trying to fix its inherent bias is now white washing? It would be white washing if it was a BALANCED entry. Also, I simply did not login, although I thought I had. This is why my IP Address showed up first.

    Arbustoo also claimed I was a bunch of different users. I invite you to investigate that, as I only have one username and that is Cmr924.

    Dralwik (talk · contribs)

    Dralwik (talk · contribs) is going through wikipedia and changing [[Chicago, Illinois]] to [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]] or [[Chicago]]. Chicago, Illinois is a functioning redirect and does not improperly reflect the city. The user has been told twice to stop changing, but continues. [82][83] Think someone could make a swing by the user's talk page and add an admin voice to stop with the pointless changes.;) --Bobblehead 02:04, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Why? He's not doing any harm. If you have an editorial dispute, discuss it with him. Administrators aren't content police. --Slowking Man 07:08, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    It's not a content issue though. The issue is the server cost of making these changes. The cost in server load of making the changes is thousands of times more than the cost of letting them stay and just letting the redirect work like it should. Changing functioning redirects is completely unnecessary and wasteful. — Scm83x hook 'em 07:17, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Um, right. Of course. Where did the developers provide those figures? Or did you do profiling? Morwen - Talk 10:57, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    FWIW, I haven't researched where that information comes from, but it has been stated like Scm83x says on WP:R#Don't fix links to redirects that aren't broken for a long while. Fut.Perf. 11:05, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Ah, I see. Still, I'm not aware there's an actual server performance problem being caused by all these people making minor unnecessary style edits : this page seems mainly there to explain that if you are doing it because you think it helps server performance, you are wrong, not to tell people not to do it for aesthetic reasons. Morwen - Talk 11:19, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I can think of no logical situation where the right side of a piped link would be longer than the left one. However, changing [[Chicago, Illinois]] to [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]] would be quite logical, as it gives the reader the benefit of an extra link, with no sacrifice on the wiki-text end. Generally speaking, don't ever pipe a link just for the hell of it. If you think a redirect should be bypassed, rephrase the sentence to accomodate an unpiped direct link. If that can't be done, you might be better off canceling the edit. —freak(talk) 11:37, Oct. 25, 2006 (UTC)

    Diane S (talk · contribs), in real life a moderator of the forums at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, wrote to an administrator:

    • Yankee Gal, you are being reported for the locking of an article that contains links to libelous websites, you have locked the article after including former edits of atheists/ propagandists, and liberal/atheists linking and editing this article. We will proceed with legal recourses, no not a threat, a factDiane S 02:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[84]Reply

    This appears to me to be a clear legal threat. I posted this note to her talk page:

    • You may be aware of WP:NLT. In any case, it'd be best if you do not engage in further edits to Wikipedia until your legal recourses have been completed. I'm sure you understand that it would not be appropriate to be participating in this project while you are involved in legal action against it and its members. -Will Beback 02:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[85]Reply

    Does this merit a block? -Will Beback 02:49, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Yes, I think so. I'll take care of it. --Yamla 02:54, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Yes. Legal threats screw everything up, and should be treated fairly strongly. The user is also an SPA, repeatedly trying to push her own obvious bias on only a couple of articles. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:57, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Clearly, good call on your part. Snoutwood (talk) 03:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please everyone keep an eye on related topics (e.g. Matt Slick) and sock/meat puppets, several of which are still active on both articles as whitewashers/criticism-removers. Antandrus (talk) 03:11, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Is this your card? No? How about this one? Still not right? Then maybe this one is!—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 03:30, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Oh, and I forgot to ask about this one, too.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 03:31, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Exactly. And it looks like Matt Slick's article may also need protection soon if "they" persist. Antandrus (talk) 03:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    And now another. I'm catching just a whiff of checkuser upwind. Antandrus (talk) 03:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    May need to look under this card, too! Justin Eiler 04:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Request for assistance

    I have been drawn into a sockpuppet, etc. mess I want no part of surrounding User:Timmy12. Said user, who has an apparent history of tagging articles for various reasons with little or no reason, and has aggravated various people with said actions while refusing to read anything associated with the article in terms of references, rather simply posting annoying tags, etc. The article in question is Joseph Byrd, which Timmy12 has repeatedly tagged despite the fact the article has numerous inline citations and references listed at the bottom of the article from a variety of sources. After disputing Timmy12's tagging, they have labelled me as part of some cabal of people they've had an ongoing set of issues with I have nothing to do with. Timmy12 has now crossed any sense of good faith by reverting a significant number of inline citations I made to the page earlier today, just to attempt address an issue they raised I felt never existed in the first place, merely to repost their own citation tag that was inappropriate to begin with. I and others, from reviewing the history of Timmy12, have repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with this person, who may or may not be a sockpuppet. The last revert by Timmy12 can be seen as nothing but vandalism, and this person should be suspended from continuing this kind of behavior. I read commentaries on cites, etc. from a link Timmy12 left on my talk page, but they don't follow what they insisted I read. Any and all assistance/advice you can provide would be helpful, this kind of behavior is absurd. I'd add, in this particular case, the material on the page has been verified not only via the numerous sources cited, but by Joseph Byrd himself, who has commented directly to me and others on the material provided, is a person I have known for some years and have published material about. I should also add I write for a major newspaper group and am a professional writer and researcher by trade. Thank you. Tvccs 04:51, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Block of NBGPWS

    I have blocked NBGPWS (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) for a month due to ongoing issues about civility as posted at the personal attack noticeboard [86] and based on the fact that NBGPWS had already been blocked 6 times by 6 different admins in the last two months. NBGPWS was offered to be unblocked to post an Rfc or go and file a case with arbcom and declined. He is now posting links to what he claims is misuse of WP:BLP by a third party for their political gain and I am requesting a neutral admin look at the following link and see if there is any merit to his claims.[87] Thanks.--MONGO 06:36, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    No comment on the link; general comment on the block--support as he has been doing a lot of trolling recently. Not sure about the duration as it seems a big escalation from a week, but I trust your judgement. Thatcher131 11:35, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Having looked at the article he is upset about, the content he wanted left in may not technically be a violation of BLP since the persons aren't named, but it is definitely un-encyclopedic axe-grinding, and its removal certainly doesn't justify acting out rather than following the normal dispute resolution processes for article content. Thatcher131 12:17, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Additional harrassment by this user

    • Vandalism:
      • [88] [89] user just keeps adding it. And to others pages [90] [91], that is two times to the same page, and in the same exact section, notice the semi threat attached. They then started using it for edit summaries when adressing me as a means of intimidation. [92], there own user history also reflects this [93]
    • Insults and labeling:
    • Inappropriate comments:
      • "WHAT???? If you think THAT'S an attack, You need more (or less) Byron!" [100]
        Byron reffering to The Byron Technique, "a sexual technique in which two male homosexual partners are involved"

    --NuclearZer0 10:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    (Procedural note: MONGO has since reduced the block to 48 hours "due to email".)
    NBGPWS's intentions are clear from his username: "Neocons Be Gone, Protest Warrior Sucks". Until recently, NBG has put a great deal of effort into vexing supporters of Protest Warrior at that article and related articles. In other words, NBGPWS is a special-purpose troll account. NBG has since branched out into wild claims at AfD and DRV pages. NBG's marked problems with spelling, grammar and wikisyntax seem to fade out when he gets really het up, suggesting to me that NBGPWS may be a sock-puppet account. Is a longer ban appropriate? CWC(talk) 11:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I also request this considering the additional information I provided above as well as the information now provided by CWC of the users name. --NuclearZer0 12:02, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    The question really shouldn't be whether he is vexing "supportors" of Protest Warrior. Is he vexing _neutral_ editors at those articles? At any rate, MONGO had his reason for the block and he had his reasons for the shortening, and there's nothing new presented here that wasn't known before. Derex 12:24, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Actually Mongo's block wasnt based on the information I listed, I believe, I am sure Mongo can state if it was or not however. In any event this is a noticeboard and both I and CWC feel this users actions require further attention from administrators. --NuclearZer0 12:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I reduced his block which now should expire in about 40 hours. He promised me he would be nice...so give him a chance and if the same patterns start up again, then the block will probably be reinstated. Nobody better be baiting him either as folks are usually hot anyway when they come off a block. I wish everyone would let the votes do their job and not let the upcoming U.S. elections over run Wikipedia...I never trusted a politician anyway, no matter what their politics are.--MONGO 12:33, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Has anyone been baiting him in the first place? He's made a habit of baiting other people since Day One; he hardly needs anyone else to help dig a hole for himself. Rogue 9 18:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Ive been remaining neutral on the Protest Warrior article, and he has tried using me as an individual as a consensus to push his agenda, when I was reasonably trying to support his argument. Id certainly say thats vexing, because it does a good job in deamonizing me. Im sure his block log speaks for itself, and I dont take "He'll be nice" at face value by any means. Piuro 19:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Request roll-back anon's multiple spamming

    Hi, could an Admin consider doing your "roll-back" option on User:203.45.150.147's dumping of external links into multiple pages for a single website's articles on acupuncture please (counts as WP:SPAM). Thanks David Ruben Talk 07:25, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Done. --210physicq (c) 07:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    (edit conflict) LOL I started at the top and Physicq210 started at the bottom of the contributions list and we met in the middle. Done. Grandmasterka 07:31, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I would have thought the time spent writing a paragraph of text (and waiting for somebody to read it) would be much greater than making 15 reverts. — CharlotteWebb 07:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    No big deal, is it? --Lord Deskana (talk) 08:09, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Some of us have slow dial up connection, so yes 15 reverts does take time, and any way I did not think there was any race to perform the reverts (also I did rather need to leave to get to work). So yes, if a nice Admin such as Physicq210 (thank you) can do this with a single click, so much the easier is the overall effort on the wikipedia editorialship. If at any point I gain Admin or rollback privelages, then even easier too :-) David Ruben Talk 15:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Enormous sockpuppet army wiped out

    After seeing some vandalism tonight, I ran a checkuser on an account and discovered an *enormous* sockpuppet army massing. Come to find out it happened to be the range used by Blu Aardvark (72.160.0.0/16). I blocked over 100 of the easily recognizable ones (see Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Blu Aardvark - almost everyone one of them was one I blocked tonight). I blocked that range for 6 months - anon editing and account registration, but not regular users.

    Here's another 45 or so accounts that may or may not be Blu's. I suspect the vast majority are, but didn't block them for fear of hitting a bystander:

    I would appreciate someone keeping an eye on them. Raul654 09:42, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Modified list to display talk/contribs encase any get any messages.--Andeh 09:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Cmuniga (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
    Dt61 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
    Currently unblocked vandals from above list.--Andeh 09:51, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hmmmm, tagging them and making sure they were all blocked sure was fun - took myself, Raul and aksi forever to do it! Cheers, Daniel.Bryant 09:49, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I just reran through the list and I found a few more probables Raul654 10:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    You should probably post the diffs of this conversation to Blu's arbitration cases. Thatcher131 11:33, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I've gone through and blocked a lot of the obvious ones that follow the typical pattern of Blu Aardvark's sockpuppet names. Some already had vandalism but weren't yet indef-blocked. --Cyde Weys 20:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Copyvio on Gymkata - does anything need to be done?

    I just blanked the plot synopsis of this movie because it is identical to its IMDb entry. Does anything else need to happen? Anchoress 11:11, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    You could leave a note for the person who added the copyvio material, or go through his contribs to see if s/he's done it in other articles. (Sometimes people go through and add IMDB stuff to a whole batch of movie articles at once.) In this case, though, he hasn't contributed since August, so I wouldn't bother with the note. And I looked at his other contribs, and they look okay. :-) FreplySpang 12:44, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    OK, cool. I was wondering if it is supposed to be purged from the history? Anchoress 13:22, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    We do that if the copyright holder asks us to, but not by default, in cases like this. If the entire article was copyvio, we'd delete the whole thing. FreplySpang 14:25, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    K, thankx.Anchoress 16:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Jack Cox - Daniel Brandt's plagiarism data

    Jack Cox (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been contributing to Wikipedia since February 2005 and has some ten thousand edits under his belt.

    Daniel Brandt's recent plagiarism report uncovered that Jack had added text without attribution from the Utah History Encyclopedia, which is not a public domain resource, to the article on Utah governor Henry H. Blood. Following Brandt's lead I've found that Jack Cox also plagiarized from the same source in writing articles on Charles R. Mabey, John Christopher Cutler, Heber Manning Wells, William Spry, Herbert B. Maw, George Dewey Clyde, Calvin L. Rampton and Scott M. Matheson - all of them Utah governors. In each case I've deleted the articles and restored pre-Jack versions where there were any.

    I have checked a few of Jack's other contributions and found one more plagiarism incident, Charlie Wyse, which was not from the same source. Obviously I have made nothing like a comprehensive check of Jack's thousands of edits, most of which don't have an edit summary. It his highly likely that multiple copyright violations inserted by him are still out there.

    Looking at Jack's talk page I notice that OrphanBot doesn't like him and the feeling is mutual I get the feeling that this contributor habitually doesn't exercise enough caution in handling copyrighted material. Please take whatever action you feel is appropriate. We would of course be fully justified in banning him but if someone could engage him productively, get him to clean up his act and help in identifying old boo-boos that could be even more valuable.

    I'd also like to encourage more admins to get involved with the project on identifying serial plagiarists at User:W.marsh/list. We've already found multiple longstanding copyright violations starting with the data from Brandt and looking at other contributions by the same editors. Haukur 12:36, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Stalking, vandalism, possible sockpuppetry evasion of block by Timmy12

    Timmy12 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) appears to be stalking Rosencomet and vandalising Rosencomet's additions of citations by removing the citations. In the past, Mattisse also stalked and tagged articles by Rosencomet. There is reason to believe that Timmy12 is a sock of Mattisse currently being used to evade a block for 3RR. -999 (Talk) 13:56, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm Rosencomet, and yes, it seems that Timmy12 is actively stalking me, following behind me and eliminating the citations I post on articles I have either created or contributed to. He characterizes them as commercial, although I have asked respected Wikipedia editors who have been here much longer than I if I am doing anything wrong, and they say I am not, and have in fact reversed his efforts several times. Evidentially, I am not the only person having problems with this individual.
    The most recent examples have been elimination of citations for speakers and presenters appearing at an important event, one that constitutes a credit for them, that is three years old. The web page referred to advertises no new event nor any product, although one could visit the rest of the website from there if one was interested, but the purpose of the citation was to support the fact of the participation in the event, not to promote anything. In fact, they were mostly reactions to others (if they were others) claiming that I must provide citations when I state such facts in an article.
    Except for the declaration that he has "taken down a commercial link", he has given no justification for his actions nor attempted to contact me or my talk page, yet the moment I reverse his actions he repeats them. I see that he has done similar vandalism to others, yet I find little or no contributions by him among the articles of Wikipedia. I'm relatively new at this, yet I've created and/or contributed to about 100 articles, revisiting most of them often with additional data. I've encountered several very helpful folks in this microcosm, and have been pleased to see stubs grow and expand into useful and informational articles. People like Timmy12, it seems to me, ruin it for the rest. I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Please advise.Rosencomet 14:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I think there is a need for a CheckUser on User:Timmy12 and User:Mattisse. The previous sockpuppet enquiry Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Mattisse (3rd), which was negative but inconclusive. Some users still beleive these to be sockpuppets, and are spreading the acusation around, which is not condusive to a plesent community. There is a chance that they are actually socks, in which case Mattise is looking a a ban. --Salix alba (talk) 15:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Quite. The place for sockpuppet checks is WP:RFCU. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Although not really comfortable doing so, I've filed a checkuser here. If anybody could contribute further evidence or support the need for the checkuser I would appreciated it. Ekajati (yakity-yak) 16:26, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    A more pertinent issue to examine might be the probable linkspamming by Rosencomet (talk · contribs) of his website, often using the claim that they're "citations". --Calton | Talk 00:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    77 links -- that's a lot! I've left a note at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam. --A. B. 04:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I apologize for barging in uninvited. I do RC Patrol, and it is common practice for me, when I see vandalism, to check the contributions of the user involved to determine if there is more vandalism to be reverted. I do not know whether that is Wikistalking or not, but it is my practice, and as far as I know it is standard practice for many RC Patrollers. It would seem to me quite non-sensical not to follow up on the users contributions.
    User Rosencomet has an extensive history of editor's complaining about his/her link spamming or otherwise promoting his/her festival. [101] [102] [103] [104] [105] [106] [107]. So, all in all, I think looking at this users contributions is an appropriate way to protect Wikipedia. --BostonMA talk 04:31, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please note that two of those complaints were from confirmed sockpuppets of Mattisse, GBYork and NothingMuch. One is from me, and after discussions with Rosencomet and my own research, I no longer consider the links to be spam. I've struck out the three comments above. —Hanuman Das 15:47, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Recently there seems to be a few articles about briefs being created, many of them I suspect to be WP:HOAXes.

    This may require further investigation. --SimonTheFox 15:42, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Please point me to some.--Andeh 15:43, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    At a glance I'd say [108] or [109] is what Simon is referring to; looks like more Colberrorism. -- nae'blis 16:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    These articles don't seem to be created because of Colbert, I suspect it's rather more that there is a user/a group of users obsessed with briefs. --SimonTheFox 16:36, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    This is the second briefs-related section to appear on AN/I today. The first was added about twenty minutes before this one [110] by User:Pajnax. It was then removed a few minutes later by User:Jeffrey O. Gustafson. Just pointing this out, draw from it what you may. Metros232 16:50, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    It's kids from Range High School, SimonTheFox is a student there, so is Pajnax. All coming from an Internet for Learning grid of IPs. --Neil McCarthy (Internet for Learning) 17:15, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Yes, one of these bored kids created his own long term abuse section recently (I deleted it). Basically he/they plan to create a fake article, nominate it for AfD and swarm it with disruptive fake Keep "votes". I suggest you delete the pages and any AfDs on sight.--Konst.ableTalk 23:54, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Briefs, eh? Wikinews has had a problem with a "briefs vandal" where a sockpuppet army (one sockpuppet at a time) would basically rise and create articles about briefs. They, of course, get banned quickly, do the CheckUser, and get on with our lives. Anyways, Wikipedia may be encountering the same thing. —this is messedrocker (talk) 00:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Harassment by Hanuman Das and User:Ekajati

    I am reporting this now, having spent time gathering evidence. There is much more I can get.

    User talk:JzG replies: You assert this as fact, but CheckUser suggests otherwise. Guy 10:30, 13 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    and User:Netsnipe said on many such pages that User:Ekajati and User:Hanuman Das should use Check User before sockpuppet accusation. I have not gathered the talk page mentions, but I will if necessary. Nor have I gathered the rude and uncivil edit summaries that are routinely entered. An example is below:

    • Malicious edit put in the edit summary by Hanuman Das on Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart on 05:18, October 13, 2006 - (revert malicious edits by User:Timmy12; several editors have attempted to communicate with this user on his talk page and have been ignored). This was after he banned me from his talk page. See:

    [112] I consider that a malicious message. Some users who have been involved by reverting and removing my tags in tandem with hosting talk page conversations against me, with uncivil and rude comments and personal attacks on me are

    Thank you for checking into this very much. Timmy12 15:57, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Without commenting on the above material, we've now got about 4 threads here involving Timmy. Anyone want to combine them for easier reading? And can anyone fast track those checkuser requests so we can say something decisively about them? --InShaneee 16:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Please indicate which of my edits are relevant here, so I will know whether to defend myself, plead ignorance (I have learned something useful today), or apologise. Based on a quick scan of recent edits, I can't see anything in common between Special:Contributions/Notinasnaid and Special:Contributions/Timmy12 (except this page, of course), but I could easily have missed something. Thank you. Notinasnaid 17:30, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Actually Timmy12 is getting his personalities mixed up. He listed me and you above, when actually we have reverted Mattisse's tags, not Timmy12's. It's all very confusing. [113] [114]. --Aguerriero (talk) 18:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Hmm, so Timmy12 is complaining about reverts which affected Mattisse, not Timmy12. That's more evidence of sockpuppetry. Ekajati (yakity-yak) 18:16, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    This is a plea for help message I sent to User talk:JzG maybe you can help. It is a long passage with comments by User:Ekajati and User:Hanuman Das As a result (I think) of this long conversation, User talk:JzG nominated Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart for deletion Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart Timmy12 18:41, 25 October 2006 (UTC) We also discussed User:Rosencomet's commercial links and User talk:JzG said there were at least 75 such commercial links from Wikipedia to User:Rosencomet's commercial sites and that he disapproved of commercial link spam. Timmy12 21:31, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I found this message to User talk:JzG Timmy12 and check user from User:Hanuman Das in response to one left on his user page: Timmy12from User talk:JzG that User:Hanuman Das did not like.

    Messages from User:Ekajati Timmy12 and Removing tages from articles is vandalism to User:Tvccs. This explains the long, lengthy messages he left in my talk page. Let me second Ekajati

    Therefore, I am substituting User:Tvccs as a member of the harassing group in place of User:Notinasnaid, a name that I could find no harassing evidence for. I am removing User:Anger22 for now as currently he is staying out and seems to be distancing himself. Timmy12 21:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    • Addendum #4

    I am adding User:Anger22added back on list do to recent activity: Timmy12/Mattissee Saw your note

    Please note that Timmy12 has been editing the wording of her complaint [115], in the process removing one of the users in which the dispute was with Mattisse rather than Timmy12, but which Timmy12 claimed as her own. Ekajati (yakity-yak) 22:19, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


    • Addendum #5

    After an administrator removed warnings placed on my talk page by User:999, Vandalism warning question I received the following message from User:Ekajati: Removing citations is vandalism The warnings were removed from my talk page after I posted here below *Vandalism warning -- question* Timmy12 22:23, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Timmy...this is not the Wikipedia complaints department. Take this elsewhere. --InShaneee 22:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Where should I take it? Look at the history of my talk page history:

    Timmy12 talk page history Tell me where to go and I'll go there. These people are preventing me from doing anything on Wikipedia. Timmy12 22:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    • Addendum #6

    Don't be taken in by Timmy12 This message appeared above an administrator User:Samir I consulted after User:Samir removed vandalsim warnings from my talk page and they reappeared within minutes. User:Ekajati is stalking me. I am being stalked. Timmy12 23:58, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    First strike capability

    Having a poll here, is it about time that we institue a 1 strike policy for repeat offending sharedips, 1 vandal edit, and a 24 range block, 2 and they earn themselves a 48 hour ban, and so on, could be the solution to our AOL problem. All in favor ..--Heliac 18:20, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Support

    1. Heliac 18:20, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Oppose

    Other

    Take your straw poll some place else, this is not a good place to do it. Try WT:VAN or WP:VP. — Nearly Headless Nick {L} 18:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Indeed. This page is for concerns needing immediate administrator intervention. --InShaneee 18:49, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Tyciol (talk · contribs)

    User:Sneewop

    Sneewop (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) is on his second block, once for vandalism and now for repeatedly blanking warnings from his talk page. He has threatened to evade blocks/bans by creating a new account. Would there be support for a indef block or ban in this case? --Aguerriero (talk) 18:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply


    Help for Anti-Georgianism article

    How can I extend this article Anti-Georgianism? Can you give help me? --AGNLDM 19:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Vandalism warning -- question

    I received these two vandalism warnings today:

    *First warning:

    --Vandalism warming--

      Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia, as you did at Winterstar Symposium, without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you. -999 (Talk) 13:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    *Second warning:

    --Removing citations is vandalism--

    Please stop removing citations from articles. It is vandalism--

     

    This is your last warning.
    The next time you vandalize a page, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. -999


    *My actual behavior:

    The "vandalism" of Winterstar Symposium consisted of (as recorded in the edit summary) -- (External link - removing 1 of 2 links to a Rosencomet commercial site as 2 links to exact same site address are unnecessarily commercial). This was one edit only. I have not edited that article since, so I do not know what the second warning refers to. The last time I edited that article was October 12, 2006.

    The warning was given to me by the same person who left the note below, soon after I joined Wikipedia so I had no idea what it meant:

    -- You again? --Hello, Mattisse! -999 (Talk) 17:35, 19 September 2006 (UTC)Reply


    I had a discussion of User:Rosencomet commercial links a while ago with User talk:JzG [116], he agreed the site was commerical and said he was in favor of reducing link spam.


    How am I to interpret these warnings? Are they real? What are the actual rules? Timmy12 20:01, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I can tell you the rules of this page. It's in red at the top, and you've violated it about three times now. "This is not the Wikipedia complaints department". This is not something that needs immediate admin intervention. --InShaneee 21:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Ah, so instead of doing something about the complaint, threaten the complainant. ALWAYS a useful and productive approach that fosters a good working atmosphere. --Calton | Talk 01:20, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I think you are correct Timmy12 and will remove the warnings -- Samir धर्म 21:50, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thank you so much! I was just posting it on Technical Pump, not knowing where else to go. So Thanks! Timmy12 22:00, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Possible Username violation

    user:Bastardpoopshoot Only two contribs, but seems to be vandal only. Additionally, the username violates WP:UN:

    • "Names that are recognised as slurs or insults"
    • "Names that refer to or imply sexual acts, genitalia, or sexual preference including slang, innuendo, and double entendre"

    If this is not the right place to report this, let me know and I'll put it in the correct place. :) Thanks, Adminers. Justin Eiler 21:32, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Blocked by DakotaKahn (in general, check out Special:Log to see the blocked status of a particular user). Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism is generally preferred to AN/I for obvious username violations, but don't worry about it. ~ PseudoSudo 21:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thanks--I forgot to check the block log to see if they had already been blocked (didn't see anything on the talk page). :) Justin Eiler 21:51, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    With cases these obvious, it's not necessarily needed to leave a talk page message. The user will already see the entry in the block log when they try to edit a page, and frankly with cases like these it should be perfectly obvious to them why they're blocked. --Sam Blanning(talk) 23:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Any user with the phrase "poopshoot" should be automatically perm-blocked. Just wanted to add my two cents.IWentToTheAlexanderGrahamBellMuseumAndGotWikiBlocked.Why? 17:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Cyrillic alphabet

    Can an admin add {{protected}} to this page? It has been protected in lieu of an edit war, but the sysop protecting it forgot the template. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 22:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Done. --Mr. Lefty (talk) 23:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Vandalism warning -- question again!

    As soon as you removed the warning, saying:

    I think you are correct Timmy12 and will remove the warnings -- Samir धर्म 21:50, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    See: Vandalism warning question asked above.

    The warning reappeared on my talk page within seconds: Removing citations is vandalism

    What should I do? Where should I go for help? Thanks! Timmy12 22:40, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    For the last time, go to dispute resolution like it says in BIG, RED LETTERS at the top of this page. One more complaint here and I'll block you myself for disruption. --InShaneee 00:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I've told Timmy to stop posting to AN/I on his talk page, however... on first inspection, what's happening here is that he's deleting a widespread commercial spam by Rosencomet (talk · contribs · count) and some possibly related accounts posting links to rosencomet.com wildly. I believe this needs to be investigated and possibly add that site to the URL spam block list if the links are found to be spam. Georgewilliamherbert 00:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I've asked him what Rosencomet is as a start, and what the affiliation is with the Association for Consciousness Exploration. It looks to me like they are synonymous, in which case, it may be appropriate to judiciously include Rosencomet based links as references for ACE events -- Samir धर्म 02:35, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    slow spam + harassment

    204.50.176.199 (talk · contribs) has run up to the spam-4 level with links to highspeedsat.com and other sites. Now appears to have slowed to avoid being blocked and turned to harrassment in the form of user-page vandalism. Suggestions? JonHarder 22:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Already blocked. Grandmasterka 22:48, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:Omallystwin

    Could an uninvolved administrator or two take a look at Omallystwin (talk · contribs) and his activities at Alton Brown (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) to help determine is utilizing Wikipedia:Disruptive editing is appropriate. --Allen3 talk 23:03, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I blocked an anon (128.226.160.147 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) who was reported on AIV (anon only block) for repeated and varied issues today for 3 hours, and left a list of recommended reading for him[117] which I hoped he would read while blocked. Instead, he removed several posts from his talk page and went to lunch. He now has shown his need to be also educated in WP:NLT:[118] As he stated that "I HATE YOU FOR BANNING ME FOR THREE HOURS" and "if I wished, I would sue you." I am guessing that 1) he will not be open to hearing anything from me and 2) he is either ignorant of NLT or doesn't care. I am posting this here for another, previously uninvolved admin to deal with it - if you can get this person to calm down, and read the policies, and help mentor him some, he may be a helpful contributor. If the consensus is to block him for legal threats, that's fine too. I am leaving his horrendously long and poorly formatted post on my page (most of it is a cut-and-paste letter to another editor, some is commentary about what others have left on his page, and some, of course, is actually directed to me.) Note: He looked at my block log; comparing my block message about him to a block message I left for another anon; He signed with a link to Liberty and a small icon of an American flag, and all in all seems to have a good bit of Wikipedia experience, legal threats and calling a short block "banning" notwithstanding. He has repeatedly vandalized another editor's User, not Talk, page, and in this puppy's opinion knew what he was doing. I could be wrong, of course. Cheerfully awaiting community input and assistance on this issue - KillerChihuahua?!? 23:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Blocked for 2 fortnights. That should about solve it ... (for 2 fortnights at least). --Cyde Weys 23:52, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    thanks, Cyde - he'd already made 9 edits to my talk page! Sheesh. KillerChihuahua?!? 23:53, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You could've just blocked him yourself, I think. No need to worry about a potential conflict of interest or whatever when the other person's abuse is so blatant. --Cyde Weys 23:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    True, but I tend to be careful if I think it is at all unclear. OTOH I've merrily blocked people myself, while others were discussing how to best work with them (Trolls are only good for reducing the goat population!). KillerChihuahua?!? 00:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Adding:Also, I think it is better coming from another Admin, as that shows that he is actually violating policy here and not being trampled on by one Rouge Admin. KillerChihuahua?!? 00:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I think it was quite classy to have an uninvolved admin take care of it. -- Samir धर्म 01:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thanks for having him removed. I probably could have handled that better, but seeing that he was invading my own user page and talk page after just a simple revert of some stupid edit he made to a article, I just stopped caring. Let's hope that this resolves everything. :) :: Colin Keigher   00:16, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    fyi, He's not "removed" just blocked for a while - and he can always register. KillerChihuahua?!? 00:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Poor choice of words on my part. I meant "removed" as in "gone for a bit." :: Colin Keigher   01:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    His IP traces to the State University of New York at Binghamton WhisperToMe 01:08, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    and now I wonder (disproving Samir's very kind assessment of me as classy) what the standards are now for admission to that University? KillerChihuahua?!? 01:27, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    They appear to be quite high, actually. Then again I know from some experience that colleges will often trump up their own statistics a lot. Grandmasterka 04:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Inappropriate usernames waiting to be blocked

    Virus (talkcontribspage movesblock userblock log) and Worm (talkcontribspage movesblock userblock log) are all usernames relating to malware, so I listed them at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism as violations of Wikipedia:Username. Xaosflux then removed them from WP:AIV claiming that this is not the right place to report bad usernames, and said that they should be listed here, instead. Could someone please block those bad usernames and edit Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism/header to reflect that WP:AIV is the preferred way to report bad usernames. Please correct me if I am wrong. I used the same place to report Maf54 (talkcontribspage movesblock userblock log) yesterday, and the inappropriate username was blocked. (See Mark Foley scandal if you do not know why Maf54 fails the username policy.) Jesse Viviano 04:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I see nothing wrong with Virus or Worm as usernames. --Carnildo 06:25, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Nor do I. In any case, here isn't quite right, either; you want to be at WP:RFC/NAME. —Cryptic 08:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I see no problem with either name, especially Worm (talk · contribs) which holds a number of benign meanings besides the reference to Computer worms. No reason to discriminate against worms in general.  ;-) We should avoid instruction creep, assume good faith, and maybe think about culling back some of the Wikipedia:Username#Inappropriate_usernames verbiage if it is going to be taken so literally. Can't sleep, clown will eat me 09:19, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    To clarify, obviously bad usernames that merit an instant no-questions-asked block (profanity, sockpuppets, etc) can be posted on WP:AIV, but anything that isn't obvious shouldn't be. Asking the user politely to change is the best first step, then WP:RFC/NAME. --Sam Blanning(talk) 09:47, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Episode nuking

    Narfers02 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) has been making (horribly written) pages for every single episode of Codename: Kids Next Door which are all copy-paste jobs from the various episode lists. Practically all of her contribs need to be nuked, and perhaps a short block placed on the account so we can clean up and she doesn't keep making more and more useless articles. —Ryūlóng (竜龍) 04:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    They are copyvios, then? Can you point us to an example of where one was copied from? Grandmasterka 04:52, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    (Edit conflict) They're not really copyvios, but copy-paste jobs from List of Codename: Kids Next Door episodes. Pretty much any blue link there is a copy-paste from that season's own article. Compare List of Season 2 episodes in Codename: Kids Next Door#T.H.E.-S.H.O.G.U.N. with Op. T.H.E.-S.H.O.G.U.N..—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 05:02, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    See Op. S.P.A.C.E. --ArmadilloFromHell 04:58, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Oh man, what a mess. I deleted all of the split-off articles and administered a short block to end this and force communication. --Cyde Weys 05:13, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Also, looks like someone should go through and remove all of the redlinks on List of Codename: Kids Next Door episodes. That looks to be what led to this mess in the first place ... this user saw those red links and thought it'd somehow be a good idea to split up the list of episodes into dozens of individual pages :-( Cyde Weys 05:16, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Mission complete! Although, Op. P.O.O.L. might have to go :/ —Ryūlóng (竜龍) 05:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    [email protected] (talk · contribs)

    Can someone have a talk with this user about how to use fair-use images? He or she has repeated reuploaded unsourced images, again and again, simply reuploading them whenever they're deleted, and I don't really have the energy to deal with this. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 05:56, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Block and/or request username change is also required. Daniel.Bryant 08:59, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Old Proxy blocker block?

    Hey everyone, could someone please unblock DarkElf109 (talkcontribspage movesblock userblock log) who's currently being blocked on 68.98.18.98 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) which was previously a TOR exit node. Despite numerous attempts to unblock the address, it seems like an old unlisted Proxy blocker (talk · contribs) block is still in effect. Could someone else please take care of this for me? Thanks. --  Netsnipe  ►  07:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Something isn't right, I don't see any blocks made by Proxy blocker (talk · contribs)? Anyone else? Can't sleep, clown will eat me 08:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You need to ask one of the devs, the Proxy Blocker is a list of blocked addresses which works outside the regular blocking mechanism. --pgk 11:58, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User: Éponyme

    Need some guidance. I was about to block this user when I realized I should get other opinions first. He's been a problem in the past, blocked twice for racist, disruptive and personal attacks on others. He was blocked on September 19th and 25th. Well, he's back at it. Here is a racist (and homophobic) edit summary ("letting the sweaty Nazi immigrant faggot beat me down"). And then we also have this and this, 2 more racist posts from the last hour or so. And finally, we have a personal attack here, with such choice lines such as "Therefore, cease this prattle and go back to your Mitteleuropaische shithole." and "Epf also thinks he is "English", even though his recent Italian heritage really doesn't fit in the concept of an English person.".

    Actually, I am going to block him for 2 weeks (1 week was his last block). If someone disagrees, they can shorten it. To me, this is a user who apparently is going to just keep on attacking and attacking. --Woohookitty(meow) 10:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    And now he is reverting others out of hand. --Woohookitty(meow) 10:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Two blocks for the same thing in the last month-or-so, then returns to such diabolical behaviour? I would have been thinking at least a month, considering what he said. However, if you reckon 2 weeks is enough, that's fine. I can't see anyone shortening it, given his past, and the fact that the blatant PA's contained such racist and homophobic content. Cheers, Daniel.Bryant 10:54, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    On a side note, a user got a one month block for racism with no prior blocks. I think it would be justified if (considering earlier blocks) a fairly long block were applied in this case. Michael Billington (talkcontribs) 11:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    OK. I'll extend to 1 month. I usually start small. --Woohookitty(meow) 11:11, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    That's fair enough. However, I think it'd be stretching AGF a little too far to block this user for less than what he has been. Daniel.Bryant 11:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Spammer using a bot to flood Wikipedia?

    If you check the history of User talk:Brian0918/Guestbook, you'll see that two different IPs spammed content on this talk page recently, using gibberish of the same format (a first name and 3 random letters) for the comment each time, and spamming links that you'd normally find in junkmail. It looks like someone has created a bot to spam articles in the same way used for spamming junkmail. — BRIAN0918 • 2006-10-26 11:53Z

    Those were the only edits by those IPs. Probably a prank from someone who knew him. Durova 14:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Not likely. I've blacklisted the links and blocked the IPs. The bot was probably programmed to find pages with "Guestbook" in the title and spam them. Naconkantari 14:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I really doubt that it was simply a prank. Why would they create all those spammer accounts on blogs? That there is only 1 edit to each IP is not surprising; persistent AOL vandals often look the same way. — BRIAN0918 • 2006-10-26 20:25Z

    User:Fact Finder

    Fact Finder (talk · contribs) has been ranting on his user talk page and the Wikipedia:Help Desk about how other editors are violating a trademark (perhaps of his employer?) by mentioning the name (Ecopave) in discussion and not letting him censor it from others' comments. His rants have sometimes included legal threats. *Dan T.* 11:58, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    User:Truthseeker 85.5's disruptive behaviour

    I'm hereby reporting User:Truthseeker 85.5's behaviour, that is becoming more and more disruptive with time.

    Originally an anonymous and variable IP stalking several people on WP, his finally made an account and was warned by Alex Bakharev and Blnguyen against such kind of stalking [119].

    He was again warned by Bishonen for RFA disruption and PAs: [120]

    Just a few days ago, he was warned by Alex and Piotrus as per WP:NPA and WP:CIVIL policy: [121]

    I warned him yet another time for personal attacks just today. Indeed, I discovered that he has been spamming people's talk pages to vote on a (in)famous WP:RM regarding the Jogaila article. In addition to that, his tone was deeply inflammatory and offensive (see an example here).

    Needless to say, he promptly blanked his talk page for "archiving" [122] Of course, no archive files was made, it is just plain BS to remove all these warnings.

    Based on this, I request that a stern action should be taken against such kind of disruptive behaviour. Thanks in advance, Grafikm (AutoGRAF) 12:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    That is some disturibng behavior. I propose a short block, as I believe it is the user's first. Hopefully, the blocks don't need to escalate in time and severity as time continues. RyanGerbil10(Упражнение В!) 13:47, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I've restored his user page talk warnings, blocked him for three days, and asked him to consider why this happened and how he could change his behavior. RyanGerbil10(Упражнение В!) 13:56, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thanks Ryan. Such behaviour is indeed not tolerable on Wikipedia... -- Grafikm (AutoGRAF) 14:25, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    While Truthseeker should mind WP:NPA more, please note that his behaviour (which is inexcusable and I do support the block) is only a reply to comments on Talk:Jogaila such as 'I am amazed at the tireless activities of some Polish guys, who manage simultaneously to promote their agenda'; ' I don't see why the opinion of four nations is dismissed so carelessly, in order to please the Poles', ' let's give the Poles what they want and add the stupid diacritics', It looks like that you voted on hatred'... if Truthseeker is blocked for his comments, those other editors should be at least warned for their part in this flame war.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  15:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    If you are quoting, quote properly: It looks like that you voted on hatred not knowing the main problem here. The present title of article bears Lithuanian name of the monarch, the original one which he personally used till death. By taking baptism Jogaila received and new name; now Poles trying to rename this article by presenting new one Wladyslaw II Jagiello, which is not his baptism name at all. And I do not see here any “childish name-calling” and even do not see “they gather voters and blacklist others”. For Jogaila to stay, voting many different people – from Lithuania, Belgium, Russia, Scotland etc.The message was to find out the reason of the content delivered by particular contributor, which was: “my opposition to acts by propagandists on Portal Russia”, “I dislike childish name-calling”, “way they gather voters and blacklist others.” And mine message was not hostile and insulting, and was delivered to better understand the problem of complex voting not to bring flame wars and was not connected to User:Truthseeker 85.5. M.K. 16:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    First, to put things mildly, that statement is not true. This guy was an anon IP stalker in the first place, resorting on dynamic IP to turn down any block attempt, then recieved warnings (including one of Piotrus') back in September (and even August if memory serves). He should have been blocked back then, but for some reason wasn't. Plus, he spammed talk pages and blanked his own in an attempt to delete warnings. He also disrupted an RfA with PAs. So all this stuff is only a catch-up for a block that should have been applied long ago.
    Second, since when is it permitted to reply to incivility with incivility? That's absolutely false. Even if some statements were made (and while borderline, they don't reach the heights of Truthseeker's own comments), it is NOT a reason to go spam talkpages, be incivil, blanking your own talk page and so on.
    Consequently, a) the block is well deserved, b) I don't see what's the problem is. -- Grafikm (AutoGRAF) 16:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I am not disputing this block, but I am asking if this is the only user that should have been warned/blocked in this particular dispute?-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  19:30, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You are right, this contributor actions should be evaluated too: [123] [124] [125] M.K. 20:17, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Too soft: permaban for extreme trolling and xenophobia is warranted

    User:Truthseeker 85.5's only contributions to the article space come from stalking a couple of editors and his choice of stalking aims and edits is entirely based on his xenophobic views, as he recently expressed in this edit where he addressed the editors who happen who disagree with him on images copyright status with an uspeakable xenophobic and racist tirade picking up on the ethnic issues:

    Feel free to pirate images with false tags and dubious rationales at your own "Russopedia", whenever you create one. This is a western project, and inherently respectful of copyright laws. Truthseeker 85.5 00:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Sadly, user:Lupo, who received this kind of "support" from this fellow chose not to dismiss such "help" either. --Irpen 17:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I have to agree with Irpen that a block for three days is too soft (he has made longer breaks in his edits). I am going to block him for a month for stalking Ghirlandajo and Irpen in the past couple months. The recent edits were just a part of it, but this time it got out of control. Usually the stalking was done in the article namespace over some minor details and one could argue it helped to NPOV the articles, but spitting out hatred on talk pages, already troubled with conflicts, is too much. Of course, not mentioning some insulting edit summaries. I hope one month will give enough time to reconsider behaviour. Renata 17:44, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    As the original blocker, I would endorse a longer block if the community agress on it. I only blocked for three days because it was the user's first block, and there wasn't community consensus for anything longer. The user had seemingly violated a buffet of Wikipedia policies, but didn't press his luck with any particular offense. Since there were not warnings for having either posted multiple personal attacks, multiply blanked his talk page, etc., I decided a short block would be appropriate. However, if there is community consensus to block for a longer period of time, I do not contest it. RyanGerbil10(Упражнение В!) 18:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    There is a long story about this user. At first he was a dinamic IP wikistallking a couple of editors, but then somehow was convinced to get an account. He continued stallking but since the "stallkees" knew who they are dealing with they did not bother with formal warnings or reports. His main offense is not blanking or removing warnings from talk pages, but stallking. He made those comments on talk pages that were reported here because he followed contributions of one particular editor and rigoriously opposed whatever he had to say. Renata 21:09, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

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

    Unproductive user, refuses multiple requests to be reasonable. After I protected s/his talkpage after a dozen blankings, s/he decided to go blank mine. Asking for an indef block on this user. - CrazyRussian talk/email 14:52, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    This user clearly isn't going to edit productively (at least on that account), especially after this. Infef'd. -- Steel 15:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg

    This admin used totally unnecessary offensive wording in this edit summary [126] "As much as I hate those limey bastard". I would certainly have expected that someone would be blocked if they stated "as much as I hate those Jew bastard" in an edit summary so I assume similar action will be taken here. Arniep 15:32, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I'm British, and I'm not offended. Let's all move on and not worry about minor things like this. -- Steel 15:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    It doesn't matter if you're not offended. If everyone is allowed to use those kind of racial slurs Wikipedia will become an even more unpleasant place than it already is. You are in effect saying that it would be OK to say "as much as I hate those kike bastards" or "as much as I hate those nigger bastards" in edit summaries. Arniep 15:53, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    You really ought to provide the full context for the quote. The full wording was As much as I hate those limey bastard we must give precdence to whatever variant was written first on a case by case basis, and it was a reversion of an anon's edit which changed the spelling of an article from British English to American. Note also that – unlike the words kike or nigger – it is actually possible to use the word limey in friendly (albeit very informal) conversation. WP:AN/I is not the political correctness police, and the usage in this context was obviously not meant to be offensive or derogatory. Please find something worthwhile to worry about. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Sorry this is not about political correctness it is about people and races being treated equally. Yes the word nigger may sometimes be used among black people themselves as a joke- but I doubt if the phrase "nigger bastard" was used it would be taken merely as a "joke". Arniep 16:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I don't suppose you asked Moshe nicely first, did you? Thatcher131 16:43, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Just thought I should point out that User:Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg is not an admin. --W.marsh 17:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    More plagiarism

    Note that Daniel Brandt is still adding to his plagiarism report. These are the most recent articles: Henri Pitot, William Coddington, Thomas Gisborne, Cuno Amiet, Meredith Miles Marmaduke, Thomas Willis, Herbert Stothart, Julia Tutwiler, Édouard Vuillard, James Tait, August Zaleski, Anna Magdalena Bach, John Skene, Albert Thomas, Mary Church Terrell and Charles Young. Please help sorting this out. Haukur 15:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Something I haven't understood since the start of Brandt's plagiarism project: why not just post everything he finds on Wikipedia:Copyright problems? There are a number of editors constantly reviewing that page. I got involved there myself on what turned out to be a silly mixup about the Steven Millhauser article.
    Every month the WP copyright problems page finds far more examples than Brandt ever has. So why not just put his examples on the same page with everybody else's, so they can be dealt with accordingly? Casey Abell 17:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Well, with the introduction of G12 as a speedy criterion, things like this don't really need to go to WP:CP anymore (not much does, really). People just need to be made aware of them to deal with them. --RobthTalk 17:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    (edcon)Brandt doesn't much like us, I'm afraid. The purpose of his project is not to assist Wikipedia, but to advance the theory that Wikipedia is a massive infringer of copyright and a massive hive of plagiarism. My suspicion is that if and when we fix any instances of plagiarism or copyright violation (the two shouldn't be confused--neither is a subset of the other, and only one is illegal, though the other is certainly unethical and shouldn't be tolerated on Wikipedia), he may well claim that our doing so is "misconduct" and/or "destroying evidence". Brandt's understanding of the "safe harbor" provisions of the DMCA is a bit suspect; that's entirely the point. When copyvios are discovered (by the rights holder or anyone), they are removed. Which is how the law is supposed to work.
    Brandt seems to think that the safe harbor might not be as safe if a) particular copyvios persist for a long time, or b) if the number of occurrences exceeds a given threshold. There is AFAIK no case law to support either conclusion. a) might hold if agents of Wikipedia (however that is defined) were to know about a copyvio for a long time and do nothing, however Wikipedia is fairly agressive about dealing with copyvios. An interesting legal question is who exactly are "agents" of Wikipedia--Brandt feels that any administrator is an "agent".
    --EngineerScotty 17:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on WP, but putting Brandt's examples on the copyvio page (at least when a speedy is not immediately indicated) seems like the best defense to a charge that WP doesn't care about plagiarism. We could make the case that we did everything possible to handle his examples, by using the mechanisms we've already set up and which have successfully dealt with many other examples. As for supposedly "destroying evidence", anything deleted can be successfully restored, so nothing is really getting destroyed in the first place. Casey Abell 18:08, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Because the speedy deletion criterion, the mechanism we have set up is to delete them immediately unless it is uncertain, or where there is something salvageable in the page history that should be retained. —Centrxtalk • 18:47, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Yes, Brandt hates us, but we can put the energy he puts into his anti-Wikipedia campaign to good use. It's a little like the way in aikido you use your opponent's energy for your own purposes. I think there's a quotation by Morihei Ueshiba on the matter. We can put his list to good use. (I'm still struggling to find what's plagiarised in Anna Magdalena Bach, though.) Antandrus (talk) 18:58, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    That's because I've removed it already. One paragraph, present from the initial revision, went practically unchanged up until my edit, with other, presumably legitimate, material being added around it. This puts us in sort of a catch-22. If we delete the article and only restore the lone non-copyvio revision, it would create the appearance that I wrote the entire article myself. And that, my friends would be plagiarism in itself, not to mention gross exaggeration of my writing abilities. —freak(talk) 19:13, Oct. 26, 2006 (UTC)
    Ah, thank you. I figured it out just as you posted this (but I had to go to Brandt's site to find it). I can add something unplagiarised in place of the deleted material. Antandrus (talk) 19:39, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    That might be particularly helpful, as I know nothing about the topic. —freak(talk) 19:49, Oct. 26, 2006 (UTC)

    Persistent disruption by User:Heqwm

    Heqwm (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) has been persistently attempting to push his POV at Boy Scouts of America and related articles. Much discussion has occured at that article's Talk page and also on Heqwm's talk page and is still visible.

    Heqwm himself filed a mediation cabal case, Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2006-10-08 BSA. Several editors have responded to that cabal case and documented Heqwm's problematic behavior. 10 days ago, a moderator said he would accept the case, but wanted to make sure he was acceptable to the parties since he has belonged to the BSA. Heqwm has continued to edit the articles [127] and the mediation cabal case[128] during this time, yet he did not reply to the question of whether he would accept the moderator. Today, after the moderator stated that he would take the case, since there has been no objection, Heqwm has objected.[129] This is clearly a stall tactic.

    Meanwhile, he continues to be disruptive at the articles. For instance, he made this massive deletion today removing multiple sourced statements with the spurious edit sumarry "Removed unsourced claims". This has gone on long enough as he is consuming time and harming the project.

    I believe that he should be blocked under WP:Civility and Wikipedia is not a battleground. I have also documented what I believe to be a personal attack against me in that Heqwm repeatedly accused me of lying even after I provided diffs to back up my statements. Johntex\talk 16:02, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    I don't know the situation in detail, but the massive deletion seems to be well justified, if perhaps not in the best of style. You cannot use documents published by an organization directly as sources about the organization. You need to find reliable neutral sources for your statements. --Stephan Schulz 17:49, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Actually, the policy at reliable sources says "Material from self-published sources, whether published online or as a book or pamphlet, may be used as sources of information about themselves in articles about themselves, so long as there is no reasonable doubt who wrote it, ..." We often use information provided directly from the source. For example, sales figures of companies, quotes from the subject of a biography, etc... Deletion of that material was absolutely not justified. If the user felt this sourced informaiton was inappropriate, he should have discussed it. Instead, he continues his pattern of disruption and incivility. Johntex\talk 18:00, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Read the article in whole. Self-published sources should only be used "when not contentious; not unduly self-serving or self-aggrandizing;", also note "Although the company or organization is a good source of information on itself, it has an obvious bias." (and should be used with caution only). Your examples are very different from the case at hand: Quotes are properly attributed. If you write "according to the BSA, they do...", you can use them as a source. For the absolute statement "The BSA does ..." this is not a good source. Performance data for notable companies is typically audited by a professional auditor, and people who misrepresent them can go to jail. As such, they have a certain level of review and are more reliable than pure fluff and marketing materials.--Stephan Schulz 20:21, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    OK, but even if we conclude additional sources should be added, that does not excuse the behavior of this user, who does not bother raising these types of arguments at all. He is simply making deletions. And he is doing this in the face of his own supposed attempt to bring in a mediator. He needs to recieve a block and/or a stern warning against this sort of behavior. I can't do it because I'm a party to the mediation case - if it ever moves forward. Johntex\talk 21:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    As I wrote above, I don't comment on the overall behaviour, having no detailed knowledge about the case. If you cannot get mediation to work, the next step would be an RfC. However, also assume good faith. Not every editor is online all the time, so delayed responses are to be expected. --Stephan Schulz 21:20, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    • Comment To quote you, I don't know the situation in detail, you need to look at the whole history before commenting on it. Heqwm has clearly being intentionally disruptive and the mediation records, article history, and talk document this. This needs to be stopped now, not months from now. Rlevse 21:18, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Looking around a bit, User:Heqwm has 62 edits in 3 weeks, about half of them on talk or on the mediation page. How disruptive can 28 name space edits (slightly more than 1/day) be? I fail to see the urgency.--Stephan Schulz 21:30, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    RFC rules

    I've tried to explain how things work at RFC to User:Black Flag, but I've been met with . . . well, stubborn resistance. Take this and this, for example. I don't know what else to do about it other than mention it here. · j e r s y k o talk · 20:12, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Well, I've reverted back to your version with, I hope. a helpful edit summary.[130] I don't know what else to do either; perhaps a bit of a mass effect might do it. Bishonen | talk 20:24, 26 October 2006 (UTC).Reply
    I had respectfully requested that Jersyko not blank my RFC comment. He continued to blank, actions which I deem inappropriate. Furthermore, when I left remarks on his talk page, he blanked those as well, actions which I understood to be likewise inappropriate.--Black Flag 20:27, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    Thank you, Bishonen. I believe your edits are fair, and that is all I and others ask. Respectfully, --Black Flag 20:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply
    The "remarks" left on my talk page warned me of "vandalism" and 3RR (which I did not violate). Keeping Rfc in line with the rules at the top of the page is hardly "vandalism", yet I kept that comment on my talk page. I did remove the big, ugly 3RR stop hand, though. And I'm glad you agree that Bishonen's edit, which was identical to my own, is fair. · j e r s y k o talk · 20:32, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Linkspammer

    Could someone with a rollback button take care of edits by User:Me345? He/she/it has been linkspamming. See example [131]. I've left a warning, and I don't care to rollback all the spam by hand. Zora 20:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Done. --InShaneee 20:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

    Copyvio edits by me

    I have received several messages that in the first months of my editing wikipedia (early 2004), I violated the copyrights of others on Cuno Amiet (now deleted for copyright reasons), Edvard Munch and Edouard Vuillard. I will manually go through all my edits, to see if I have done this in other articles. If any of you come across such edits before I've found them, please let me know. I deeply apologize for this. Aecis Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984. 21:12, 26 October 2006 (UTC)Reply