MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist: Difference between revisions

===Request to whitelist tvrage.Com (The Sequel) ===

To whom it may concern,

My name is Roger and I represent TVRage.com, a non-profit informational website (we just add enough ads to get by) that was blacklisted from Wikipedia about 3 years ago. Since then, several attempts have been made to remove the site from the blacklist only once by us. However, these attempts were made in an unprofessional manner by people whom were not in any position to officially represent the site. I am the actual owner of TVRage, and I simply ask that you read through the points I'd like to make here and keep an open mind.

The original claims made 3 years ago (and actually, the same claims that are still being made despite the large amount of time that has passed) against TVRage to keep the blacklist can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki_talkpam-blacklist&oldid=178668854#www.tvrage.com

One of the first offenses listed against us is of "meatpuppeting". The person primarily responsible for this was a former member of TVRage named "JohnQ.Public", who at the time claimed to be the owner of the site. Let me just clear the air and say that JohnQ.Public was never an owner of TVRage. At the time he began making disruptions in the discussion boards at Wikipedia in our name, he was a high seated volunteer staff member. However, his actions never had the consent of the rest of the staff or myself. In fact, as soon as I became aware of his activities he was stripped of all his powers and removed as a member of the staff.

There are also claims of members other than JohnQ.Public "meatpuppeting". Keep in mind TVRage has over 50,000 members and over 2.5 million viewers a month, not to mention over 12 million API requests a day to share information. So, in my mind, to banish an entire web site for the actions of a few individuals acting on their own isn't a logical or fair decision at all.

The second offense listed against us is "Spam and AfD canvassing on TVRage.com". There are 5 forum topics that discussed Wikipedia having a TVRage.com page. Five topics, and they weren't even discussed by people who are staff. Should the site be responsible for topics posted that might or might not get TVRage banned at Wikipedia?

Another offense sometimes made against us is that we are a site filled with only copied or stolen material. Most people have gotten this idea from JohnQ.Public, who wrote a blog making these claims immediately after he was removed from his position as a staff member. I'm sure you can recognize the symptoms of a disgruntled employee. The fact of the matter is, any copied or stolen information that is found on TVRage is removed as soon as it is brought to our attention. Our volunteer editors work hours every day to make summaries and other information unique to TVRage. Quite frankly it's unfair to automatically brand their material in a negative way based on one person's false and jaded claims.

We would note that Wikipedia allow links to epguides.com. You even have a template for it. In the last few months, epguides has chosen to retreive half of its information from TVRage. It's not clear why you are allowing a link to site that relies on TVRage for 50% of its information, but don't allow linkage to TVRage. You can confirm this with the staff at epguides.com.

In the past, we have been told that if individual Wikipedia editors make the request, you might lift the blacklist on a case-by-case basis. The problem is, having us on a "blacklist" by its very nature creates a potentially prejudicial atmosphere. You're telling editors not to use TVRage by putting us on a "blacklist"... but at the same time that if they use us, they can remove the blacklist.

If there are any issues not covered above that we can address, please let us know so that we can address them. We are not interested in "flooding" Wikipedia with links. We don't believe this will happen, but if somehow it does, we are glad to work with any Wikipedia staff members to take action against TVRage members who abuse the procedure.

In conclusion, I simply ask that you review the points I've made here and seriously consider removing TVRage.com from the blacklist for the purpose of adding us as a link when appropriate. TVRage has unique information about shows retrieved from credits and extras from DVDs that are not on Wikipedia and other TV informational websites. In the last 2 years, TVRage has become the number #1 source for a lot of people and they share their information, just as Wikipedia does. We as a community genuinely feel that TVRage has a lot to offer, and we believe that we also have the evidence to back that up.

If you don't choose to lift the blacklist, fair enough. But we will continue to pursue this matter as TVRage continues to grow.

In any case, thank you for your time.