User talk:Miranda

Fark

Hey there Real - this is Faethe (Rhonda). I am leaving a message so I know how to get hold of you again! Thank you!Faethe 22:39, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. Miranda 22:51, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there - Miranda - someone is going about defacing my page with stuff here on wikipedia.

This is really nuts :( I am writing this article and trying to be very careful about my sources. I will post it here unedited so you can tell me your opinion. Thank you!Faethe 01:42, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have taken care of this incident with your userpage. Go ahead and write the article, and post it here on my user talk, and I can see what I can do. Miranda 03:37, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for getting me straight again :) Just another note: Here is a link to another article pertaining to some of the practices on Fark that is scheduled for deletion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Shadowban

The admin in this case is also a user at fark.com

No, I'm not. Used to be a top 40 submitter, ~170 links or so, but that's long since been superseded, and I rarely visit nowadays. I'm just interested in seeing material added here be notable and verifiable. --Steve (Stephen) talk 03:12, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I don;t know if that is a conflict of interest or not.

I will finish up with the article tomorrow :)

Rhonda - — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faethe (talk • contribs)

Will look at the AFD soon. Just get back to me tomorrow. I guess, since you are a former member of Fark, that wouldn't be a conflict of interest. Miranda 04:22, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The page will probably get deleted because of original research and not having reliable sources. Unless there are reliable sources in the article and in your commentary, the article would probably stay deleted. Miranda 04:36, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Miranda - I have been ooking into this and do have an outside source which is willing to publish an article on this - p2pnet.net. At this point I am still compiling stuff so it reads well. The best thing to do would be (I think) for me to post a criticism on the fark article then reference the shadowban article from there. The thing is both things are related, and they were related until someone changed the fark entry by deleting 'items in the fark filter'. Typing Bannination.com and posting this as a comment will result in the entry being shadowbanned - only visible to the user and not to the rest of the community. It's easy to test if you are a member of fark.com.

My profile is still up on fark but I no longer consider myself a member and will not post there again. If it helps me, I will delete it now. Thank you so much for your advice. I really don't know what I am doing. I am still typing, will hopefully have an outline with references by the end of the day. Thank you! RhondaFaethe 20:23, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi again Miranda! This is what I have worked up so far as a criticism:

Criticism

On April 25th 2007, at 5:00 PM EST Fark.com modified it's format which was met with mixed results. This was exacerbated by an Admin's remark insisting that users 'get over it' [8]. As a result, some users fled into or started other communities [27]. The most commonly reasons stated for this were:

1. Users felt alienated by the new design [9] and the change in posting rules [11].

2. Users felt alienated by the increased level of moderation..

An example of one individual who was banned as a result of this increased level of moderation is former fark user, mytwocents [28], who was banned and subsequently had her blog's [29] ip address blocked by Fark for reasons that were never made clear. Many other users that either criticized or started new sites [27] that featured criticism of Fark were also subsequently banned.

Like most public forums, Fark has the means to suspend a user's account [30] should circumstances warrant it. One form of banning is the "shadow ban" [31] . There is no official term for this form of banning. It is not mentioned anywhere in Fark's FAQ [32]. Evidence of this has been collected through screencaps and user testimony [33]. When an account has been shadow banned, any posts submitted by the user are invisible to the rest of the community. Only the banned user can see their own posts. Because the user can see their own postings appear in a thread, the user continues to post under the assumption that his or her posts are visible. The shadow banned user is not informed that he/she has been banned from Fark and may continue to post for months before finding out [33].

Examples of Fark's undisclosed site management techniques have been documented as far back as 2004 [34]. A Fark sales rep solicited “highly placed links to his sites in return for several hundred dollars” [34] to Jason Calacanis [35] “publisher of several rival Weblogs, Inc. blogs” [34]. According to a statement on Calacanis' weblog he felt he would “never trust Fark again” [36]. After the incident was reported on Wired News [34], Calacanis noted on his blog that users on Fark who posted concerns about Fark's representatives tactics had their accounts “turned off” [37].

27 Http://www.bannination.com

28 User Mytwocents profile http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/users.pl?login=mytwocents

29 User Mytwocents Blog http://www.thespinzone.com/mytwocents.php

30 Fark.com Posting Guidelines http://www.fark.com/farq/posting.shtml#What_are_the_posting_rules.3F

31 Ratf*cker's guide to shadowbanning http://ergh.org/farkdeceit/others/

32 http://www.fark.com/farq/

33 User BloodyNose's screencaps http://ergh.org/farkdeceit/bloodynose/

34 Wired News “Fark Sells Out: France Surrenders” 8/06/2004 http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/08/64472

35 Joseph Calacanis http://www.calacanis.com/

36 Calacanis.com “Fark.com sells their editorial, and the loyalty of their users.” http://www.calacanis.com/2004/08/02/fark-com-sells-their-editorial-and-the-loyalty-of-their-users/

37 Calacanis.com “Final Thoughts on Fark.com” http://www.calacanis.com/2004/08/06/final-thoughts-on-fark-com/

I also posted this on my talk page. Some of the earlier footnotes were based on what was posted in the original fark article which has since been altered by someone so I will have to redo them. The part of about users feeling alienated was deleted yesterday, as well as most of the text on the fark article about 'fark redesign'. Thank you! RhondaFaethe 01:57, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I am unsure about this. You might want to ask on the Fark.com website. However, with these links, you are using some neutral and unneutral POV and some unreliable sources. The best thing is to post this on the talk page of the article to see what others think. Miranda 21:19, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I will look at this tomorrow, but you need to contact Alison first of your proposal. Miranda 01:56, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Alison - I went ahead and edited the Shadowban page to reflect more sources. This was my entry in case it gets vandalized by tommorow:

The weird-news-aggregation community website Fark employs the practice; community backlash against this and other practices by administrators and/or moderators spawned the creation of a similar website called banniNation, which attempts to avoid such methods.

Another way to shadow ban someone is to use the Global ignore feature included with vBulletin community forum software. According to vBulletin's website, "This feature Global ignore user aka 'Tachy goes to Coventry' - when enabled all posts by the specified user will be ignored/unseen by other members. Automatically added to the all users ignore lists." [1] . vBulletin forum administrators use Global ignore to hide posts from disruptive users who may otherwise react publicly to being banned, or create legal issues for other users of the website. An example of this is found on The Admin Zone[2]. In response to a question concerning the moderation of a user creating legal issues for an animal care forum, an administrator posted "My 2 cents: Disable her account or put her on global ignore. To me the issue isn't this kid, but your community. Is this the best thing for your community letting her posts, her story, her odd status...take over your community that you spend so much time and effort keeping up and running and civil?"[3].

Discussions concerning the Global ignore feature in vBulletin go back as far as August of 2000[4]. The use of this feature was viewed as a way to alienate a user from the rest of the community by causing the least amount of disruption. In a forum post, vBullletin member Sharg states that “Global ingore is really great. Even if you want to keep your database out of trash wluke. Cause by time the ingored user will get sick of posting and being ignored by eveybody so he will simply leave the board then once he leave you can delete all his posts.”[5].

On WebmasterWorld[6] on January 3, 2006 a discussion thread was started concerning the Washington Post turning off comments during an ongoing discussion. Forum member HughMungus offered this advice on Global ignore:

...instead of deleting accounts or banning people, you trick the bad apples such that they think they can still post and they see their posts with everybody else's posts, but in fact they're the only ones who can see their posts.[7]

When applied to public forums, Global ignore is used as a tool to moderate discussions by 'shadowing' disruptive users. In the case of Fark, 'shadowbanning' has been used to mask contributory comments due to their content[8]. It has also been applied to members of the subscription service Totalfark without their knowledge[9]. This would appear to conflict with a members expectation of open participation in “TotalFark discussions,” which are submitted links not meant to be greenlighted, but rather commented on and discussed by TotalFark members only”. [10]

Faethe 05:02, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This should not be included because it has content from message boards, which are unreliable sources. Miranda 21:19, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which one? Also - this is a forum related issue. I think it would qualify under the wikiproject internet culture? The sources I quote with the shadowban article vBulletin is based on a software packages inclusion of a feature that enables moderators to mask user comments without the users knowlege. The quotes I gathered go towards the reasoning administrators and users have for employing Global ignore. There are alo multiple instances of the term 'shadowban' used in other communities which I also intend to include.

In the case of fark - I'm not quoting any forums. That's a wired news article being sites in that, as well as the subject of the article. Ratf"ckers page is a compilation of screencaps and testimony from former users of fark who have had various forms of moderation leveled at them. An article is also being published over at p2pnet.net concerning this. That's an independent publication that does not have ties to any of the parties mentioned. Alison has not gotten back to me yet, either. Faethe 02:39, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, Faethe, just leave a message on the article's talk page since Fark.com is a controversial article to some. But, to me, some of the sources that you are using are not reliable. Miranda 23:45, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you :) Thank you for the criticism, too. I will go back over it again before I do that for sure -Faethe 13:29, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Guts & Bolts

Hi there, I was looking at the article for The History Channel and corrected a date for a show called Guts & Bolts. I noticed that there was no article for this show and was about to look into how to create one, but then I thought that I may not be the best person to do this as I had something to do with that program and, thus, may not be able to be completely neutral. You seem to be a trustworthy person to ask, so, here I am asking if I should write something up or not.AleBrewer 01:01, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, if the show exists, is notable as well. Also, the article must have reliable sources. - Miranda 01:04, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As notable as most series, IMHO; there just seems to be a lot of red that could be fleshed out. Thank you - I started off here on the wrong foot and didn't want to take another misstep! AleBrewer 01:24, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can make your own sandbox, shown here, User:AleBrewer/sandbox, to help you save your changes to the article. Miranda 01:59, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to the admin noticeboard and write my statement. Take care.TheRingess (talk) 01:56, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hola

Hola, Miranda? Como estas? Estoy bien, pero cansada porque mi perro es... RUFFY. Y tu? Estoy espernzad tienes un buena dia. Quires chicle? En un barnstar? :). --Endo(Exo) 02:00, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Estoy muy cansada, ahora. Pues, estoy mirando NBA en ABC con Tony Parker (ay, papi!) y LeBron James. Y, estoy hablando con IRC ahora...en #wikipedia y #trivia. Creo que ir a mi cama...a la hora. Gracias y espero que tenga un dia fabuloso! Miranda 02:20, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kurów

So I haven't this article on e.g. Brasilian (dialect of Portuguese), Jamtlandic, Hawaiian, Bengal, Tibetan, Chichewa, Shona, Gilaki, Bishnupiya, Xhosa, Zulu, Rwanda, Fijian, Sotho, Singalese, Samoan, Khmer or Oromo. Full list on Polish is here. Pietras1988 ^TALK 08:18, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to look at this page to find the languages to contact users who speak the languages natively. ~~However, I will form a request on Meta tomorrow for this article to be translated.~~ Miranda 08:38, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but I can't do Meta right now. Too busy. Miranda 23:47, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Bot

Yes but how do I create one (what are the steps)? I've already looked at WP:BOTS Superball53 t 20:17, 8 June 2007 (UTC) PS: Please respond on my talk[reply]

Sorry, but you are indef. blocked for being a sockpuppet of a banned user, Bugman94. Miranda 21:11, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IRC Channel

Hey. Could you invite me in to the CU/clerk IRC as "GrooveDog"? Thanks. GrooveDog 21:04, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Done on IRC. Miranda 21:14, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Greek umbrella organizations

I think I have to agree with User:Justinm1978 in this diff of yours. NPHC is not a fraternity itself, just a coalition of them. —Scouter Sig 05:20, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NPHC is a coalition (i.e. umbrella) of social organizations. NPHC is not a trade association. Miranda 05:51, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

AIV report

Hello :-) May I kindly ask why you recently reported 82.1.164.137 to AIV, the user stopped vandalising at 12:35 and you made the report approximately fifteen minutes ago after the vandal had long stopped, may I kindly ask why you reported them? Kindest Regards --The Sunshine Man 13:21, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

First, the user is blocked because of blatant vandalism. And, second I saw the article on my watchlist later, because I was doing something. Third, the IP vandalized 10 minutes after the prior vandalism, which warrants a block, because the user was actively vandalizing. Miranda 13:23, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but if you look at their contribs they stopped vandalism at 12:35 and you reported them about 20 minutes ago, that is approaching two hours of non-vandalism. The Sunshine Man 13:29, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think something is wrong with your browser. Because, first 1.) The server's time is offset 1 hour behind due to UTC and Daylight Savings Time. 2.) When I reverted, the user vandalized again. I am assuming good faith, but please look at all of the evidence before asking questions concerning WP:AIV and reporting vandals. Thanks! Miranda 13:34, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I suppose he was vandalising, ever since the clocks changed its been really confusing with the times being different but I thought it appeared correct in the USA. Cheers --The Sunshine Man 13:38, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your recent usurpation

Congratulations on your new username, Miranda. Hope you like it. E ^talk 22:30, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Miranda 06:51, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Australia Ad

Hi, I saw your Australia ad for that WikiProject. However, the ad encompasses the seal, which is under copyright. Because, of this fact, I am going to make a new banner for this project. Miranda 23:05, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Miranda, thanks for notifying me. I was not aware that the seal was under copyright, it wasn't made clear on the image description page. Thanks for the heads up, –Se bi ~ 08:27, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Medicine project banner

Thank you for your note on the Medicine Wikiproject's talk page. It'd be a great help for us as we always have to struggle to find more participants. This is the only and biggest problem of the whole medicine section in Wikipedia. So if you could create a banner, it'd be awesome.

My suggestions:

use the caduceus logo or something similar
blue color, similar to the color of the portal would be great as well

Thanks in advance! Ps: I loved this banner. :)

NCurse _work 15:50, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Done Enjoy! Miranda 04:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

bunch of things

a) if you don't mind, I'm going to steal your talk page design for my upcoming userpage layout change. b) I've got a couple of ad requests if you don't mind. the WP:CLIMB project, which I started, and the WP:MILHIST project of which I'm a member and has a HUGE membership. c) Uh. That's it. Thanks. ⇒ SWATJester ^{Denny Crane.} 18:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I am probably going to change my userpage design in a couple of weeks, too. But, just CC-BY-SA the design, okay? ~~I will probably get the ads done by this week.~~ Miranda 19:01, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This project is on hold until I find a SVG/PNG/GIF of toy soldiers and a mountain. Miranda 05:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Etihad Airways Controversy

I'm amazed at you repeatedly reinstating the Controversy issue section in the Etihad airlines article every time its deleted, despite staing the reason why its removed, how is it relevant to the airline article in any manner? to any one with common sense that bit of information has absolutely nothing to do with the airline as a company directly, the whole idea of the Etihad Airways article on wikipedia is to post information about the airline as a company/business and keep updating it plus include occassional trivia such as first flight, new interiors, new services or whatever other developments take place in the company or if it does something unique business wise or something histortic, not incidents that place in dealing with passenegers or lost baggage or someone taking a leak in First class infront of everyone, what is the site heading to, Wikitabloid? the point I am making is that its just an incident that happened and is definitely not of any encyclopedia value, as I said it would have been different if the Controversy issue dealt with something of the airline related to its business strategy where it was harming the interests of other airlines where it would have been accused of getting unecessary state subsidies and offering cheap fares luring passenegers away from other carriers, or if it had orderd its crew to dress in Islamic clothing, or stopped hiring women or started serving pork on baord, but to discuss incidents related to drunken passengers, or lost luggage etc. in the main article by creating a section for it is plain stupid.

I ask you what next to add to article on wikipedia, pilot caught making out in toilet during flight with passenger? are these things worth any mention in an encylopedia, this incident cannot even be considered airline trivia to be worthy of being in an encylopedia, that bit of information is plain crap and to me it seems its been added with malicious intent by someone with a petty mind trying to make the airline appear at fault, however since its of no value being here and thats why its best deleted, and thats why I have been repatedly removing it.

Please note I keep using the word encyclopedia it might help ring a bell to remind you what an encyclopedia is supposed to be. Dont aim to become the online trailer trash version of the encyclopedia of the 21st century. Let it be what an encyclopedia is meant to be and as we have known it, just that now its online and editable by anyone, but dont be accepting to trash inputs due to some bias and keep reverting those edites if they have been removed with a logical explanation.

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.209.94.10 (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia is not censored and Wikipedia must have a neutral point of view. Miranda 19:25, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lucy Ball

Excuse me. why did you leave me that warning message. 172.145.196.111 22:52, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Per this. Ms. Ball has been dead for more than ten years. Miranda 22:54, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You did not have to be rude. That edit was done by accident. 172.145.196.111 22:56, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No it wasn't. You have vandalized the article numerous amounts of times today. See this, this, and this. Do it again and I will report you to WP:AIV. Miranda 22:57, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Harly vandalism. i was under the impression that she was still alive. I apologize...so much for the presumption of innocence; real good way to make new editors feel welcome....172.145.196.111 23:03, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You didn't think it might be a good idea to check before going up against the consensus? --Agamemnon2 23:05, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Ads

Thanks for crating the WP: AUS ad for us. It was quite stressful to campaign for that. Thanks Harrison-HB4026 01:29, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A big thanks and well done from me. Nice job on the ad. E ^talk 04:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much for the compliments. Miranda 04:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion of Images

Miranda, i accept that a majority of the images on my user page were copy righted have ever is not, it orianally had a copy right image one it but now it does not, i did discusss the copy right on the media copy right questions page and solved it.Ω§|Blacksmith2 08:06, 11 June 2007 (UTC) please see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions#Logo of my site, oh and how quick is speedy deletion,can we bump this 22 hours forward, its getting late. Ω§|Blacksmith2 08:14, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The image is solely the ownership of EA Games and is copyrighted, rather you slash, scratch, crop, paste, render, paint it, black it out, etc. This means, 1.) You can not use this image on your userpage 2.) You cannot upload modified copyrighted images, and claim them as your own to release it to the public domain. This is known as a copyright violation, and can warrant a block. The Wikimedia Foundation can get sued by EA Sports for modifying a copyrighted image, a risk that many editors such as myself aren't willing to take. Also, I contributed to that discussion and provided links as well to EA Sport. Cheers. Miranda 08:28, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Miranda, I think your response above is verging on WP:BITE...Anyways, I stand by the advice I gave Blacksmith and will continue to defend it. nadav (talk) 08:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, it is following the rules. I am posting this on WP:ANI. Miranda 08:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ANI? Has there been vandalism? This just a question we can reason out, no? nadav (talk) 08:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

(reduce indent) The administrator's noticeboard is not only for vandalism, but is for other issues as well. Miranda 08:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I know that, but I am trying to understand why you think this needs urgent administrator involvement. If you really think so then please do. But I am surprised. nadav (talk) 08:39, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ok can i upload temporary blank images to replace the current ones, and create my owns, images to the effect of the current ones, mainly being either just stylish text or an image of my own creation and delete the speedy deletion pieces?Ω§|Blacksmith2 08:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC) p.s thank you for your conflict edit! oh another edit conflict! and again![reply]

First, the best thing to do is wait for an administrator to delete the image. Second, make/create an image, as long as this is not copyrighted by any company separately of the copyrighted image. I am posting on ANI about deleting the image, which answers Nadav1's question above. Miranda 08:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

can i second the deletion, have triedf to replace them, ended up distorting them.wait no , its blanked the ones i did,Ω§|Blacksmith2 08:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, I am making a thread on ANI, now. Miranda 09:07, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I hope you saw my suggestion?[1] Also, I am confused by your edit summary..Is the "!" a negation sign, or does it mean I'm doubly a troll? nadav (talk) 09:25, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

First, I started a thread on WP:ANI about the incident, shown here.

Second, I hit the enter button by accident. I meant, "respond to user" instead of troll, because I was thinking of something else at the time. And, third, yes != -. Miranda 09:39, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

right is getting late for me now, excuse me if i dont reply.Ω§|Blacksmith2 09:30, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

p.s is my other image ok, on User:Blacksmith2/Works in progress

I can't see the image because the page is blank. Miranda 09:39, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

typo, fixed

No, it's not okay to use on your userpage. The image is copyrighted. Miranda 09:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

surly i have some rights to the image, after all maxis/ea didnt make/take it.i take it a link is allowedΩ§|Blacksmith2 09:46, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's a copyrighted image of a game. Linking is okay, but copyrighted images cannot be allowed in userspace. Only free use images can. Miranda 09:54, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

well the question is.../ is a link allowed!!!Ω§|Blacksmith2 10:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC) sorry tiredΩ§|Blacksmith2 10:07, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]