User talk:MER-C/archives/23

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WP:HAU

Hello yet again. I regretfully inform you that the bot we were using to update the user status at Wikipedia:Highly Active Users, SoxBot V, was blocked for its constant updating. With this bot out of operation, a patch is in the works. Until that patch is reviewed and accepted by the developers, some options have been presented to use as workarounds: 1) Qui monobook (not available in Internet Explorer); 2) User:Hersfold/StatusTemplate; 3) Manually updating User:StatusBot/Status/USERNAME; or 4) Not worry about it and wait for the patch to go through, which hopefully won't take long. If you have another method, you can use that, too. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Useight (talk) 22:31, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

goatse image

Hi,

You reverted my change, where I put the image back onto the goatse page.

You gave the reason as vandalism.

Will all due respect, I don't see how it can be seen as vandalism,

If you could reconsider your reasoning, please could you revert your edit.

Thanks, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.242.32.12 (talk • contribs)

This looks like vandalism to me. MER-C 12:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh - that's horrible! But it's nothing to do with me. Perhaps its another person using this internet connection - it is a few days ago I think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.242.32.12 (talk • contribs)

Yeah, last Monday. However, this IP is probably an open proxy. Editing through open proxies is not allowed. MER-C 12:18, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,

I've just read that article, and I don't think you've understood it correctly. It says that proxies "may be blocked [...] this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked".

So I think it's OK to use this until/if it gets blocked? Is that correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.242.32.12 (talk • contribs)

Blocked for 5 years. MER-C 12:43, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki.java

Hello. I was using some of your bot's functionalities (login and edit primitives) as a base for my bot lately. There were some problems about encoding in general and wpStarttime generation, new way the contents of categories are being listed which I solved. But lately (few days ago) came up something that I cannot resolve. Bot can't make an edit, yet it still can login and read pages. It is likely that there is a new parameter to be passed, but I just can't find what one it would be. Would you have a clue about what is happening? :) Mihajlo [ talk ] 13:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed this yesterday, oddly enough: the problem was CentralAuth cookies. Either way, here's the fix - in edit() add cookies2.putAll(cookies); as follows:
// What we need to do is get the edit page and fish out the wpEditToken, wpStartTime and
// wpEditTime values. See [[mw:Manual:Parameters to index.php]]
String URL = base + title + "&action=edit";
logurl(URL, "edit"); // no need to check lag, have already done so in getProtectionLevel()
URLConnection connection = new URL(URL).openConnection();
setCookies(connection, cookies);
connection.connect();
grabCookies(connection, cookies2);
cookies2.putAll(cookies);  // HERE
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new GZIPInputStream(connection.getInputStream())));

I'll rewrite that lot once API edit becomes stable, which should do away with most of the cookie and screen-scraping nonsense. I also fixed bugs in whatLinksHere() and log entry timestamps. getCategoryMembers() works for me, which version are you using? Please tell me about the encoding issues, I do all of my testing either here or on testwiki. I'll get out the fixed version as soon as I chuck in a Special:(Short|Long)pages equivalent. MER-C 09:15, 6 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, this worked well. :) I will certainly look later into the changes that I made to your basic script. Be well. Mihajlo [ talk ] 09:44, 6 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Now I went through it, and I can mention these:

  • In the method edit you generate wpStarttime and add two extra zeros on it when sending. These two zeros were causing MW to reject some of bot's edits in the past, since they do not appear in the regular form anyway. So, for me this line is just out.print(wpStarttime); without two zeros on the end.
  • Wherever you have a name of something, encode it to UTF-8 before send. I needed to do this in the imageUsage method in order to be able to read data also about the images whose names are not made of the English alphabet only. Also consider adding an extra parameter "UTF-8" wherever you create a new InputStreamReader.

I think the rest has been fixed. I'll report if I see anything else. Mihajlo [ talk ] 07:29, 7 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

These should all be fixed (I think). MER-C 10:59, 7 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Central Board of Secondary Education link

I goofed.

After spending hours putting together Talk:Central Board of Secondary Education/Spam and listing domains at WikiProject Spam I screwed up and left in the spammy cbse.co.in link by mistake, not the official http://www.cbse.nic.in. I am glad this error got corrected and I am sorry for the mistake. --A. B. (talk • contribs) 17:49, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Heads up

Here - cheers --Herby talk thyme 12:14, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking out the trash

Have a nice day. Dhatfield (talk) 19:43, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Speaking of which, there has been a bit of a mix-up with the polar bears and neither Cat-Five nor I are confident in our skills to handle this. Please assist, merci Dhatfield (talk) 07:14, 13 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Michael ebetino

Just a quick reminder; when nominating a page for speedy deletion you should really leave a tag to that effect on the creators talk page. Thanks! Ironholds 12:34, 14 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I feel there is adequate warning in the top left corner of every page (among other places). Plus most of the cookie-cutter templates miss the point by quite a margin. MER-C 12:56, 14 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just in case...

...hey Mer-C. Just in case you thought this concerned you, eh, well, it was a reflex edit-conflicting-rv (with you) when I saw that ugly edit summary by the anon. Anyway, hope you don't mind me leaving it to the version before he started swearing and blanking, rather than the one before he posted his comment. Cheers! NikoSilver 12:09, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that's fine. MER-C 12:16, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Blackhistoryposters

Hello again, MER-C/archives ... Would you please block Blackhistoryposters (talk · contribs)? They have been warned about their WP:LINKSPAM activities, but they are back and still at it ... Happy Editing! — 151.200.237.53 (talk · contribs) 21:26, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As per the red text at the top of this page, I can't help you. MER-C 11:40, 18 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
D'oh! :-) — 151.200.237.53 (talk) 14:38, 18 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Polar bear video author

Hi, MER-C.
I'am not sure, if you are the right person to ask the question, but may I please ask for your opinion about author information for the polar bears viideo. We have a disagreement with Dhatfield. While he proposes text like this:
"Author = derivative work: Dhatfield.
Cub_polar_bear_is_nursing.wmv.OGG: Mila Zinkova"
I propose text like this:
"Author =Mila Zinkova and derivative work: Dhatfield".
Here's the link to the message at my Commons talk page.Thank you for your time.--Mbz1 (talk) 14:36, 18 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The current situation is fine. MER-C 03:55, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you.--Mbz1 (talk) 13:55, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The polar bear snuffle shuffle

Thanks for all you input. Dhatfield (talk) 11:01, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks for reverting the vandalism on my talk page, much appreciated! ——Ryan | t • c 13:15, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

HMS Burford (1722)

Hola, just looking for a little style help. I created HMS Burford (1722) and for some reason can't get the infoboxes in the right place. Would you have any idea what i'm doing wrong?

Done. P.S. That long URL is nasty, and the title of that page unfortunately isn't any better... MER-C 05:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The title? you mean with the year of launch? and thanks :). Ironholds 10:41, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The auction item. MER-C 10:44, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
ahh, ok. Thanks again for your help! Ironholds 10:51, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Meh

99acres.com , Naukri.com & loyovo.com??? I just deleted one & then wondered - other opinions? Cheers --Herby talk thyme 11:34, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Now answer me this question: why would a new article have maintenance tags from January this year? Also of interest is Naukri (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam). You need to look at the deleted edits of all accounts and at Jeevansathi.com and 99acres.com, both of which have prior deletions. I note that all the domains are related, see the bottom of naukri.com. Obligatory link info and tracking URLs follow, which reveal a few more spammers... MER-C 12:06, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, and having a similar name to one of the sites being spammed is a dead giveaway. MER-C 12:11, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
OK - they have gone - worth watching & appreciated (got involved in a Commons vandal attack session, unusual but prevents boredom :)) --Herby talk thyme 12:19, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sites spammed

http://spam.99acres.com

http://spam.jeevansathi.com

http://spam.naukri.com

Related domains

http://spam.infoedge.in

http://spam.shiksha.com

http://spam.naukrigulf.com

Image plagiarism

Wow. That is an interesting story behind that South Pole image. The sequence seems to be that someone pointed the problem out to you by finding a similar picture, and you then found the right picture and pointed this out at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/South Pole. A few weeks later (not sure if you ever spotted this), up pops Bill Henrikson to comment at the top of that FPC. Fascinating! Someone later copied that comment to the Wikipedia image page. Is there a way to transfer that over to the Commons page? And did anyone point out to User:Rebroad what he should have done when uploading it? From the page history at the Wikipedia image page, I see he put PD, and then PD-self. There is also a previous discussion here. That previous image (Image:SPSM.05.5.JPG, a very similar filename, uploaded 17 May 2005) was described as "buildings at the South Pole). While trying to track down that image, Rebroad made the following edits (see the contribs for January 2006): [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Rebroad then uploaded Image:SPSM.05.jpg on 9 March 2006. See also Image:012905-AM-Aerial-WNH085-crop-s.jpg, which eventually got tidied up but is currently orphaned. Rebroad is still active - what would be the best way to mention this? I also had a quick look at Rebroad's image logs - a fairly mixed bag, but not too bad really. More generally, do you think you could add a few sentence to Wikipedia:Plagiarism about the need to watch for image plagiarism (in this case it seems to have been a misunderstanding and not intentional, I hasten to add)? Carcharoth (talk) 20:45, 21 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I remember looking through his upload logs at the time and it looked like an isolated case - most of the other stuff was attributed correctly - and it probably was a mistake. This case is probably too mouldy to do anything about it. I've dealt with the description. MER-C 10:00, 22 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I deleted the empty page. Does anything else need doing? Carcharoth (talk) 11:11, 22 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think so. MER-C 12:42, 22 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How do I contact you?

Hi MER-C, how do I contact you in order to discuss your recent warning that you sent me? Thank you! Boaznb (talk) 12:25, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Um, you just did. Go on... MER-C 12:18, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ahh, there you are. Glad I caught you. Did you receive the email I sent you? Boaznb (talk) 12:25, 24 June 2008 (UTC) Are you still online? Boaznb (talk) 12:51, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, vaguely. I prefer to keep discussions on-wiki to keep my email address quasi-private. That said, linking to or referencing your own website is strongly discouraged, let alone writing about it. It gives the impression that you're here to drive traffic to your site, which isn't allowed.
As for contributing constructively, you can start at this category or anything here that meets your fancy.MER-C 13:11, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

But it wouldn't serve to drive traffic to the site. It is well known that Wiki links do not count toward internet statistics. And the sites I linked to never sold any product or service, all were free and filled with respected information and rich in content.

I had read all the material in advance to make sure I wasn't doing anything wong and even signed up for an account for the first time so that it would be easy to contact me in case I made any mistakes. Perhaps I did make some (though I only had good intentions). But did you actually click on any of the links to see how valuable they were?

I challenge you (in a constructive and friendly manner) to tell me one link that I added that doesn't add tremendous value to the wikipedia. For instance, under "earnings call" I added a link to the only source online where people can look up free earnings call transcripts for all major US companies. How does that not add value? Or under Eric Savitz, a link to all of his works of authorship. Is that unrelated or detract from the entry in any way? Under Exxon Mobile, you deleted a link to a detailed company profile with an financial analysis and hundreds of news articles about the company, yet left some link to a company profile at a site called portfolio that added almost no value to the Exxon wiki page. Or for Ebay, you removed a link to their most recent earnings conference call but left links for people's personal sites about Ebay that are biased and not very related. I don't get it! I even added the homepage for Calgon Carbon Corporation (www.calgoncarbon.com) and you deleted that too! What could be more appropriate than adding the company's homepage that was missing???? I am sure you had your reasons, but I would have much prefered someone contacted me and asked me to stop before I wasted hours of work on enhancing the content of wiki. If you don't want me to add anymore, I won't but I wish you had contacted me before you deleted everything because I think if you had looked carefully, you would have agreed, that everything else aside, the wikipedia was better off with the content than without. Is there any way, you would be willing to revert your deletions? You can't imagine what it is like to put in all that effort and have it dissapear before your eyes. Thank you for your understanding, I'm really not a bad person and meant no harm. I thought I was doing a good thing and didn't vandalize or delete anyone else's links even though I felt some really didn't belong on the site.

Thank you, I await your response. Boaznb (talk) 15:02, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Don't blame MER-C for all the edits. I removed several links that you added when you weren't logged in, and which showed only your IP address. So for example in the case of Calgon Carbon, I removed the company link that you added (in addition to the Seeking Alpha link) because the company link is already present in the infobox at the top of the page. As for your more general concern, here's the problem. When an editor sees an account created (i.e., yours), which immediately creates a page for a stock market analysis firm and then methodically proceeds to add links to that firm to a score or more of various articles, the immediate (and not unreasonable) inference is that the new editor is somehow affiliated with the site, and is adding links in order to either drive up web traffic or simply raise the profile of the company. (The kind of thing that you'd pay for at an advertising or PR firm in fact.) That kind of activity raises concerns under a variety of Wikipedia guidelines, including WP:COI, WP:SPAM, and WP:SPA. And while it may not be the most nuanced of responses, in the majority of such cases (it happens a lot), the most straightforward way of dealing with it is simply to track down all the new editor's additions and remove them all. JohnInDC (talk) 16:10, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Cargon, it seems to be that there is a lot of inconsistency on the pages then. Because every other company I viewed, had the company homepage at the bottom of the external links section. This company didn't, so I added it (and yes, all the others companies had an infobox link as well). And no, I'm not a PR firm and I'm not paid to do this. But I am a big fan of SA and was shocked that the site didn't have a listing so yes, I created one. And fully referenced all of the content. Isn't that the entire purpose of wikipedia? I think if either of you were in the financial sector you would agree. And at least MER-C sent me a warning, but you JOHNInDC just deleted my postings without so much as a courtesy email? That simply isn't nice. I don't know what to say anymore. I think your response was harsh but I admit, totally understandable now that you explained yourself. But at the end of the day, I think the only ones to suffer will be your readers. Oh and by the way, I wasn't the first to do so. Many of your listings (look at the theStreet.com for instance) had a link to seekingalpha long before I started linking to them. That was where I actually got the idea from. I saw it on some listings but not on others. I found it very useful and wanted to make them consistent. Again, maybe if there was an editor whose expertise was in the financial sector, they would better understand as Seeking Alpha is very well known in the industry. It would be like if you claimed yahoo or google was trying to force their way on to your site becuase you saw links to their content.

So is there no solution here? All my work is to remain deleted? There is no appeal process or anything like that? I must admit, my first attempts at doing major re-editing at Wiki was very dissapoining. How are people supposed to invest any time in improving the site when they know that if an exisitng editor doesn't recognize or agree with the value, it is to be deleted? Is there at least a formal way of suggesting that you add this information? Many of my friends thought it was a great idea and I am sure they will write to you and say the same if you wish. Thank youBoaznb (talk) 16:32, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Rather than cluttering up this user's page with our chat, I've responded to you (briefly) on your own talk page. I'd still encourage MER-C to add whatever thoughts or comments s/he may have, however. JohnInDC (talk) 16:57, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MER-C: I'm still waiting for your comments. Rather than just be shut out by you, I'd rather have a constructive conversation about how to best be an active contributor to the site. It almost seems to me though, that you've just pounced on this assumption that I'm a spammer and have chosen to ignore me. But if that were the case, I would just sign up for a new account and start over. I have to admit, I'm starting to get the impression that Wiki is just a "members only" clique that doesn't want "newbies." I had heard bad things about wiki editors but I really didn't believe it. Perhaps I am too much of a web idealist. I'll do a google search and find out if others have had a similar problem. Wikipedia is such an amazing site, it would be a shame to limit its potential by not being more open minded towards newcomers. Boaznb (talk) 04:31, 25 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The content of the site is only one part of the story (the WHAT). Two more important parts are HOW a link is added and by WHO. Unfortunately, systematic additions of links to a (set of related) website(s), especially by those who own the sites are extremely suspicious. It fits the profile of a link spammer.
There are plenty of ways in which you can contribute constructively, like expanding an article, fixing typos, removing spam, formatting articles, ..., without linking to your website. MER-C 05:31, 25 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OWN the site?? Who do you think I am? You know what? I changed my mind, or rather you changed it for me. I've tried to talk to you like a mature adult but I see that is impossible. I have better things to do with my time than deal with such arrogance and I'm really sick of the insults and allegations. If you want to use your super wiki powers to ban me for standing up for myself, than so be it. Personally, I think the power of being an editor has gone to your head. You think you know everything about everything but if you had an ounce of understanding of the financial world, you would have thanked me instead of attacking me. Shame on you. /posted by Boaznb (talk · contribs)/

See also User talk:192.114.4.36#Seekingalpha.com spam and likely sockpuppetry and Talk:Seeking Alpha#Spamming wikipedia articles. Thanks. -Colfer2 (talk) 14:53, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Tracking URL. MER-C 08:06, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Bollywood one

Didn't realise it was that extensive. Short on time today but feel free to nudge me if I don't take a good look at it tomorrow. Blocking named user worth it?

While I'm here this & this seem "connected". Cheers --Herby talk thyme 13:46, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, they are. TMS stands for the "Tablet Manufacturing Solutions" in "Casburt Tablet Manufacturing Solutions Ltd". There's no rush on the Bollywood spam and the named user is already blocked indef. MER-C 14:00, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Bollywood done. The tablet one I'd spotted the connection. More the fact that I'd expect other users/IP to place maybe given two accounts in a matter of days. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 19:20, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FP ?

Hi., i just noted that you promoted this image but neither does it have the bronze star nor is it listed in the FP gallery. Can you please take approp. action --192.8.222.82 (talk) 04:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks pretty featured to me. MER-C 04:36, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Apologies. I was looking at slightly different image. --192.8.222.82 (talk) 10:06, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

changes to Romney Marsh and New Romney pages external links

Hi, I added an external link to the new romney and romney marsh pages. The link was to my website which contains a lot of information on area and certainly isn't spam etc. The Romney Marsh page has had this link on for some time and many people click through from it and then spend time reading pages from the site. Just wondering why you removed the links? Aleaning (talk) 14:17, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi again,

just noticed your comment about me spamming. Please, I'm not a spammer. I use wikipedia and greatly value it. The links I've put up are all to my own site to help people interested in the area - I live there! - and contain a lot of information on the romney marshes and places of interest in region that I have and do spend a lot of time researching - hence the links on different pages of wikipedia. If I was a spammer, surely I'd just dump links everywhere but I'm not and the only pages I've added links to are those where I've got extra or related information on my site (the towns of the Marsh, smuggling etc). Obviously if this is spamming in someway I've misunderstood I appologize, but in which case can you point out why?

One thought, I do work from different places with different IP addresses. It could be that other people in these organisations are spamming and I'm being confused with these people. For this reason I've created a wiki user so I can be clearly identified and the edits can be seen to be genuine (aleaning).

Thanks. Andy Leaning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aleaning (talk • contribs) 15:06, 4 Jul 2008

The problem is that your behaviour of placing links where are removed by users and then placing them again is seen as highly disruptive. Doing so from IP addresses and then as a user merely compounds the view that you are attempting to promote a website. Generally Wikipedia does not require external links and it is not a webdirectory. In addition our conflict of interest policies prevent you from placing a link to a website that you have a connection with. Thanks --Herby talk thyme 15:40, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thankyou, that helps and I appreciate you taking time to reply. I appreciate Wikipedia isn't a link directory and have only linked from pages where I feel pages on my site contribute extra information (my site contains a lot of sys admin type stuff and I don't link to these pages from related wiki pages for example). I'd also missed the bit about linking back to a site I have a connection with, this makes things a lot clearer although I ask why my site has been chosen when many links on the same pages are obviously posted by their owners. I'll stop the linking and instead try to add the information to the wiki pages directly from now on - could you notify the other admins I'm not a spammer so I don't get blocked. Thank you again. Aleaning (talk) 16:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My methods are strongly biased towards multiple link additions, so that's why I caught you. There's probably a million undesirable links around, see e.g. [7] (and that's just one site). I pick them off when I see them and there are bots for reverting them, but they're not going away anytime soon.
And you won't be blocked if you don't spam (at least for spamming, anyway). MER-C 11:57, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Wikibirthday

I know MER-C your not really into accolades and recognition after all this time on the wiki but you deserve this from the entire Wikipedian community. For your hard work in keeping this place clean day in day out, no amount of words can describe the amount of work you have put in and i can only hope for the sake of Wikipedia you can keep it up for a long time yet. Hopefully next year at this time i will be saying you earnt that recognition by having the mop and bucket in your hands, i guess we can only hope:) Thanks and all the best. BTW whats your nick Spirit..Opportunity..?.. Monster Under Your Bed (talk) 10:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WP:HAU, Status, and you!

As you may know, the StatusBot responsible for maintaining the status of the Highly Active Users was taken offline. We now have a replacement in the Qui status system. This semi-automatic system will allow you to easily update your status page found at Special:Mypage/Status which the HAU page code is now designed to read from. If you are already using Qui (or a compatible system) - great! - no action is needed (other than remembering to update your status as necessary). If not, consider installing Qui. You can also manually update this status by changing the page text to online, offline, or busy. While it is not mandatory, the nature of HAU is that people are often seeking a quick answer from someone who is online and keeping our statuses up-to-date will assist with this. Note if you were previously using your /Status page as something other than a one-word status indicator, your HAU entry may have been set to "status=n" to correct display issues. Please clear this parameter if you change things to be "HAU compatible". Further questions can be raised at WT:HAU. This message was delivered by xenobot 23:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Zunil (crater)

Updated DYK query On 9 July, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Zunil (crater), which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 05:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. MER-C 10:25, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FP Question

Hi, Will you please take a look at Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/Polarlicht_2.jpg? The editor that closed the nomination drew a consensus from 9 supports and 6 opposes. That doesn't sound like a consensus to me (especially since the same picture already failed a nom previously). I sent the editor a message, but have not heard back. smooth0707 (talk) 19:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I really didn't know what to do with that nomination = no consensus. I suggest you ask on WT:FPC - I'm not willing to overturn without a few more voices. MER-C 05:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks for reverting the vandalism on my talk page, much appreciated. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 11:38, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

your removal of the Ishmael Jones/Human Factor book from CIA Further Reading

What is you reasoning for removing the Ishmael Jones/Human Factor book information from the CIA Further Reading entry? The book is in the identical genre as the other books listed under Further Reading, though it is more critical of the CIA. Are you a CIA employee? Wikipedia has already identified CIA employee servers altering wiki. I'd like to hear your reasoning before taking any action. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Geezer1942 (talk • contribs)

ZOMG it's a CIA conspiracy!!!11!!!!eleven!!sin(π/2)[citation needed] (Sorry I couldn't resist.) I removed it because all of your edits, and those of another account which is dodgy, consist of adding links to ishmaeljones.com, which advertises the book in question. That is viewed as spamming and the site fails our guideline on external links parts 5, 11 and 15. We're here to make an encyclopedia and not to promote someone's book, right? MER-C 13:18, 16 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reversion of minor edits

Hi, I've been warned of Disruptive editing. I had added a few suitable internal and external links with regard to Renewable Energy and related topics. I would like to know why exactly they have been reverted, and how to prevent "Spam Linking" by mistake. Thank you.Shoumyo.m (talk) 14:05, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The problem here is that all of your edits are inserting mentions of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (tracking link) and the related project reegle.info to various articles and that you persisted in doing so for nearly half an hour after my first warning. That fits the profile of a linkspammer. As for avoiding spamming, see Wikipedia:Spam#How not to be a spammer. MER-C 05:37, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sigh ..

Does it ever stop? Guess it doesn't .. maybe we should consider contacting a certain university? --Dirk Beetstra T C 13:48, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some data: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/nagarjuna.googlepages.com, no clue what the real link should be, as they don't work atm. --Dirk Beetstra T C 14:02, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We should definitely contact the uni, but after an hour of pretending to understand German I couldn't determine whether Christian Thomas Kohl is employed by them. For someone who spams himself across the internets, there is next to no biographical information on him.
The working URL is 0nagarjuna0.googlepages.com . MER-C 14:45, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

0nagarjuna0.googlepages.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

151.32.82.230 (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • blacklist hits • AbuseLog • what links to user page • COIBot • Spamcheck • count • block log • x-wiki • Edit filter search • WHOIS • RDNS • tracert • robtex.com • StopForumSpam • Google • AboutUs • Project HoneyPot) Resolves to Italy.

I poked around a bit more (even in Contempory Buddhism doi:10.1080/14639940701295328). I found was his home address, phone number and email address(es), which I won't reproduce here and this. I could not find a trace of him at either institution. MER-C 05:38, 22 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Permission for picture - Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images/2008 July 19

You posted details of a Tom Baker picture I recently uploaded on the page Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images/2008 July 19. I would ask you to look back to this page now, to see that the OTRS permission has been sent and received. I don't lie on my picture uploads. Perhaps you should learn to trust more in future, or at least have the courtesy of asking an uploader for more details.-- Seahamlass 23:09, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have access to the OTRS queue but everything looks OK from here. We have to be EXTREMELY vigilant on copyright issues to prevent copyvios ending up on the main page. Your assertion of a free license isn't plausible without the OTRS permission. MER-C 03:51, 22 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

teh borked?

Browser/screen resolution compatibility:

* POTD is teh borked at 800 x 600, and it isn't a panorama. MER-C 13:00, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Saw this comment about my proposal and was trying to figure out what you meant so I could fix it. ---Mangler13- (talk) 21:13, 22 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's leetspeak for broken (I needed a bit more linguistic variety). Essentially, POTD is too small and that causes the caption to squash against the side of the box in a rather undesirable manner. Adjust your screen resolution down to 800 x 600 and you'll see what I mean. MER-C 03:08, 23 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Adminship

Hey MER-C. I've wanted to ask you for some time - would you be interested in an adminship nomination? I'd be delighted to nominate you. You'd be fantastic with the tools! Ryan Postlethwaite 04:33, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not now. Not having the tools is usually only a minor inconvenience for me and the remedy is not worth the (time|stress|effort|risk). Also, I find myself rather distracted at the moment. Maybe later. MER-C 13:54, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

BL

See it's been deserted a bit! Any priorities? I'll try and get some done today. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 07:37, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd start from the bottom, because there's more likely to be ongoing problems there. MER-C 07:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WP:GO archiving broken

Please follow along at User_talk:Gimmetrow#WP:GO; I have long been the only person archiving that page, GimmeBot finally took it over (after a year-long search and much frustration from Raul), and now a wiki programming error has broken it. I'm considering no longer updating the page. If you don't mind, please keep responses at User talk:Gimmetrow, so we can keep the whole thing in one place. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:07, 27 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Along the River During the Qingming Festival

No, that picture is not already featured. The picture that you are talking about in an 18th century Qing Dynasty replica which is very different from the 12th century Song Dynasty original that I uploaded. Daniel Chiswick (talk) 02:39, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I was wrong. I thought the more recent one would have been much more similar. MER-C 07:01, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sparrow

There were 11 supports for the original, more than for most FP that get through. How is that no consensus? --Blechnic (talk) 06:58, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a vote, you should know that. Dschwen's comment is the reason why - I cannot bring myself to promote such a noisy picture without compensating resolution. MER-C 07:06, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I know it's not a vote. Why not just tell the nominator you won't promote a noisy image then, right away, instead of allowing the discussion to go on for so long knowing darn well you'd already nixed it? It's a waste of time for editors to have discussed it or commented or anything. --Blechnic (talk) 07:13, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The thing is, I was still largely uncertain what to do with the nomination until I made the decision today. And the nominator should have read WIAFP #1. MER-C 07:24, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look maybe

Here? Came across the user on Commons & it felt a little "promotional". Cheers --Herby talk thyme 07:13, 5 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There appears to be one or two spam pages here - Special:Deletedcontributions/Serenityweb1. MER-C 13:29, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ah - I can go look again at the Commons contribs :) Cheers --Herby talk thyme 13:54, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Request

Hi MER-C, may I make a request? I've just found out the conominator for this FPC wasn't informed of the promotion. Shoemaker's Holiday found the image and did the lion's share of the work on it. Now and then I conominate and it's a real morale-booster when you tell an editor they've made it. Thanks for all your help and please remember the hardworking conominators. :) Best regards, DurovaCharge! 07:15, 5 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done. MER-C 10:14, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FPC closures

Hi, may I request your assistance with closing some FPC discussions? We've got nominations left over from July. Best regards, DurovaCharge! 07:24, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I know. An unusually persistent cold has drained my energy, leaving me not up to it. I'll start clearing the backlog when I'm well again. MER-C 11:13, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks and feel better. :) DurovaCharge! 22:17, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hope the cold is better!

And if you have a moment is this notable enough? I think you will be a better judge of it than me. Personally it looks a little iffy but maybe I'm wrong. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 09:58, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. Having only 20 employees is a red flag and Google confirms the diagnosis. MER-C 10:04, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Appreciated. --Herby talk thyme 10:18, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

??:) Looks a bit adlike to me. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 12:58, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, but it's probably safe from deletion. MER-C 13:02, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ok that is two I've stuffed up today - time to stop for a bit I think:) Cheers --Herby talk thyme 13:17, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Info. Cheers --Herby talk thyme 17:51, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Masculine beauty

Don't worry about it =) Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 10:15, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My site has been listed as spam

Dear MER-C,

I am in processing in setting a travel guide relating to Thailand as sent in earlier messages. I thought I'll link a few articles from wiki to my site. I have read the spam linking policy on wiki. I agree with the policy as stated but you are incorrect in some way. Wiki states you may link external links to articles as long as they are useful and related to the source.

I think you should read the following links:

I thought I'll link this user guide site as it would be good information source for wiki readers and visitors to Thailand. As wiki administrators say along with the policy, linking to wiki articles is spamming. I would like my site to be removed from the spam list as it has been listed. I personally think that is unfair having it in the spam list when it is not. In return if you think so, I'll close my wiki account and stay away from it wiki as whole.

I have enjoyed using wiki but it is just upsetting in return how wiki admin and users have responded to me.

So please can you remove my site thailanddaddy.com from wiki and also send me instructions in how to close my account.

In wait to your response, I will also contact wiki head office and will take things further at a later date if we cannot resolve the issues.

I have sent this message to user Andy as well if you want to discuss things with that user relating to this issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A2ztech (talk • contribs)

I wouldn't do that if I were you - they will be just as non-plussed as we are. Your site is not listed on any of our blacklists, so you have nothing to worry about if you don't spam again. However, your contributions are very clearly spam, especially since you continued adding links after your first warning. We don't delete accounts for copyright reasons, but there are things you can do to "vanish" (see the link for details). MER-C 11:30, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Link is below where the site is listed as spam. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam#http://thailanddaddy.com

In the mean time, I'll continue the development of the thailanddaddy.com site and will look into it further to link articles related to Thailand to my site once the site has been completed fully.

I will also write a letter to Wikki once my site has been completed and let them approve of the content so it can be linked.

My contribution to [8], was not spam. It may look like spam to you as it was a link palced on a page. And it will be relevant once completed.

I'll request you to have my site link removed from the 'wiki project spam' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam

And not just that you also listed me as a spammer on the above link as well.

I personally think enough is enough, I will write a letter to wikki if this problem doesn't get resolved. If you need to contact me via number or email just ask so we can sort this out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A2ztech (talk • contribs)

You are a spammer and your contributions are spam because:
  1. You systematically added links to your site in contradiction of conflict of interest and external link guidelines
  2. You persisted in doing so after being told that your edits contravene these guidelines
  3. The site fails points 1, 11 and 13 of our list of links to avoid
  4. The vast majority of your contributions are related to the site
  5. You failed to demonstrate knowledge of what the word "references" means: [9] [10].
You want us to remove our records at WT:WPSPAM and yet you want to "link articles related to Thailand [...] once the site has been completed". Ummm, no. This is the very reason why we keep spam records - to stop repeat spammers. MER-C 11:54, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
MER-C, what when the site is completed, would you look at it to approve it and we will resolve this issue then to have it removed from the list. Is that ok.? You did say the site wasn't lised? —Preceding unsigned comment added by A2ztech (talk • contribs)
Yes, that's correct - the site is not blacklisted so Wikipedia's software won't prevent further additions of the link. Instead of contacting me, you should post on a relevant talk page (e.g. Talk:Thailand) when the time comes and people will discuss your site for inclusion. MER-C 13:12, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ok thanks, am glad we have come to some resolution.

Featured Picture notification templates

Hi, MER-C! I was just wondering - could you give me the link to the featured picture notification template? You know, the one beginning "Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted"? Just that I need to figure out something similar for featured sounds. I'm thinking a blue, to blend in with the green, but be visually distinct =) Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 16:29, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template:PromotedFPC and Template:UploadedFP. MER-C 09:47, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks!

FPC

Hey MER-C. Can you un-suspend Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/B-36 tracked gear, as a new version of the image is now available? Thanks, SpencerT♦C 00:52, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I was hoping I could forget about that one for a little longer. MER-C 07:50, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

External Links Deleted Unreasonably

Today I added some External Links to some Wiki pages on The Bahamas and they were deleted. The links I tried to add were to maps that I created myself and are the best maps of The Bahamas on Internet and my webspages are non-commercial. I developed these maps while working for The Bahamian Government.

I presume because I tried to add a map of Eleuthera to the Eleuthera page, a map of Andros to the Andros page etc. etc. that the Wiki computer thought that I was serially spamming.

Wikipedia should check out the External Links before it refuses to accept them. I would resent being black-listed for offering top quality material.

Peteloud (talk) 19:59, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You're not spamming, yet. I start calling people spammers when they ignore warnings to stop. Blacklisting is for persistent spammers, so you have nothing to worry about.
The problem here is that you are linking to your own site in violation of our conflict of interest guidelines. There are two things you can consider doing: 1) uploading the files to Wikimedia Commons (you should research the copyright provisions for the Bahamas government before you do this) and adding the maps to the articles or 2) suggest it on the talk page. If the content is worthwhile, people will agree with you and add it themselves. MER-C 10:26, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

. . . There are two things you can consider doing. . No, there are 3 things, and more, that I could do. I was giving Wiki top quality non-commercial links which added very relevant, important information, maps of the places. I had nothing to gain by giving you these links. If you don't want that information as external links then leave it scrubbed off. I certainly do not intend to give Wiki copyright of the maps by adding them in the main section of the page. Pete Loud

No, you don't have to reassign your copyright to Wikimedia - I know of nobody that has (and I work with Wikipedia's best photographers). What it does entail is placing your pics under a free license.
This page and our place for reporting spam are filled with countless examples of people adding external links to various articles for the purposes of self-promotion. So when someone comes along adding links to their own website, as you did, we are suspicious. As our conflict of interest guideline says, you should "avoid, or exercise great caution when [...]" adding links to your own site. There's nothing wrong with your site, it's just the way you added the links that looked a bit dodgy. MER-C 13:21, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MfD

I've taken the RfA to MfD. This is just a courtesy note. Best. Synergy 03:00, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm inviting your comment

Here (and also, if possible, here?)   Justmeherenow (  ) 05:46, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delist and replace closing procedure

Hi MER-C,

I went to close a Delist and Replace nom at FPC yesterday that had been hanging around for ages and was starting to annoy me.

Anyway, when I went to do so, I realised I'd never closed one before, and there weren't actually instructions for doing so. I think I did it all properly as a bit of an amalgam of the keep, delist, and FPC promotion guidelines, but you might just want to take a quick look to verify - see Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/delist/Joseph Albert - Ludwig und Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Tristan und Isolde, 1865e.jpg.

Then thought last night we could actually do with Replace instructions to go with the rest so that it's all set out for 'anyone' to follow. Have added them pretty much along the lines of what I did in the procedure; of course there's a bit of commonsense required as well, but guess that applies to all the closings. However thought I'd ask you to take a look at my new instructions and see if you think it rings pretty true - see Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/delistfooter.

Cheers, --jjron (talk) 08:15, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks fine to me, though the presence of the instructions doesn't guarantee anything... MER-C 12:45, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately true, though at least it provides for less excuses. --jjron (talk) 09:15, 21 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail

CTKohl is awake again .. just before I go on holidays. See my recent contris here and on meta, did not clean cross wiki, could you have a look (more info in the mail)? Thanks! --Dirk Beetstra T C 12:15, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks for reverting vandalism on the Main Page.II MusLiM HyBRiD II (talk) 12:41, 25 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

II MusLiM HyBRiD II (talk) has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy munching!

Spread the goodness of cookies by adding {{subst:Cookie}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Thanks for your spamblocking assistance

Thanks for your help here. -kotra (talk) 00:21, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, let me know if it happens again and I'll have the new domains blacklisted (the ones at the WikiProject Spam item are listed now). MER-C 09:19, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, will do. Haven't noticed any further linkspamming yet. -kotra (talk) 17:24, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Link spamming Bahamas pages

Hello MER-C

You were kind enough to assist with some link spamming that's occurred on some of the pages related to the Bahamas.

I recently saw some bulk link spamming being placed in various Bahamas pages and manually went through and deleted them while making reference to WP:EL. You can see what I've done by referring to my contributions [11]. As a result, the user in question left me some messages on my user page which you can see in the history page for my user page [12], after which I moved the message to my discussion page [13] and responded, as well, removed the additional link spam left in the original message behind.

I don't know if I handled the situation correctly and would like your opinion on whether I did the right thing, whether something more needs to be said to the user BigBlog, and if there's anything more I should do.

Thank you for your time and assistance. SurfsUp (talk) 20:05, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You've got the general idea, though you stated it in a roundabout way. You missed the main problem - the links were added systematically. I would have been a lot blunter, that particular user was warned about spamming before. As for communicating to the user see my crude tutorial for some hints. MER-C 12:55, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Now that you point it out, I did miss the "systematically" part. Thanks for that. Not sure about the "blunter" part. What would you have said / done? I always get a bit hung up on Wiki's policy about being nice and "talking" about things when it otherwise seems a link spammer is just playing dumb and knows exactly what they're doing. I considered in this particular case, given the past warnings, I should have contacted a higher authority and had the person dealt with in a more aggressive fashion, not to mention, find someone like you who has the tools to systematically remove all the link spam. But in this particular case, I decided it might be an opportune time to go through the various pages and clean house beyond just the spammer's links since I had seen other link spam on some of those pages from previous viewings which I've been meaning to do for a while. I visit the Bahamas regularly, hence my interest in the pages. Your page on how to deal with link spam is quite good and most helpful. I appreciate your pointing that out, as well, your time to assist. Thanks again! SurfsUp (talk) 18:26, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
By blunt, I mean not being afraid to speak the truth even though it might offend someone. Including rolling out the S-word. MER-C 12:33, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Main Page Redesign

MER-C... I was wondering if you could help me with my main page proposal. You've expressed concern with dead space and to be honest, I'm not quite sure how to fix it. Thanks much! Scottydude review 21:19, 30 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I strongly suspect the columns are slightly too big, there's only one box per "table" row instead of two. MER-C 02:48, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It should be fixed now. I'll make a note on the proposal page. Scottydude review 15:06, 1 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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