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    Why some (unsourced) BLPs are a huge problem.

    We have been lucky that we didn't have a second Seigenthaler incident. For a year and a half, from 26 July 2008 until today, we had an article claiming that someone who in reality is a University professor, former Italian Minister and former President of Sicily (as evidenced by the interwiki and by a Google search) was in fact a "flashy mobster" who "was imprisoned in 1999 at the age of 53, for: narcotics trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, several counts of murder in the first degree & several counts of assault on an officer." Fram (talk) 08:33, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    ...and the article was...?
    Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 08:50, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The revisions have been deleted; publicising the name of the article helps nobody. REDVERSSay NO to Commons bullying 08:52, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You can easily check it in my editing history (my log of deletions will help as well), but for BLP privacy sake, I'ld rather not put the name here. Yes, I realise that that makes this a bit awkward... Fram (talk) 08:57, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Look... If you're going to bring something to a noticeboard, it needs to be useful in some way. Informative - there's a problem we didn't know about, etc. Alerting - do something about this. Those sorts of things.
    Posting the equivalent of "Elvis is still dead" is not useful. Yes, we know there are problem BLPs out there. We weren't given any useful information here - no article to check the edit history on, to see if editors are still around who contributed to this mess, to cross-check other articles they were involved in. No information to better inform future decisions on either operational response or policy decisions.
    I would accept "other admins / arbs / whoever have already done those other reviews, all taken care of". But in that case... why put any mention on AN at all?
    Putting something here is asking for attention. Don't do that if you don't want attention...
    Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 09:01, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It's a wake up call, a notice that despite the claims of some people in e.g. the BLP RfC or other pages, there are a number of very serious, long term BLP violations on (unsourced) BLP pages which could harm those people seriously (the article in question has been spread over many, many WP copies, with the result that any English language search for his name gives rather bad publicity), and could harm Wikipedia seriously as well (our reputation didn't really get a boost from the Seigenthaler incident). Furthermore, anyone can very easily find which article this is about, so people can check whether I handled this delicate situation correctly and whether any further action (oversight, rounding up of every involved editor, ...) is necessary. Fram (talk) 09:08, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I'd like to reinterate (once and only once more) that this is a curious approach to and goal in posting something to a noticeboard, and that it was not perhaps entirely useful. Georgewilliamherbert (talk) 09:15, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    And the discussion caused by your objection to it is even less useful.--Scott Mac (Doc) 09:33, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    *sigh* - the edits have been undeleted now and suppressed per policy. You can see who made the edits but not the edits themselves, thankfully. That article was an utter disgrace - Alison 09:47, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Well done everybody, and it is a bit of a worry that this survived for so long. Nick-D (talk) 10:25, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I have no doubt that that vandalized BLP was not an isolated instance, but its not about having a few sources cited. The reason we don't have a second Seigenthaler incident is because the press won't cover every wikivandal case. Its not exciting to be "second" in the news about such things, aside from an occasional "wikipedia reported XX was dead for 10 minutes today". To the extent the general public knows anything about wikipedia, they know that anyone can edit it, and thus sometimes its wrong. But the root of the problem is not whether an article has a few sources or not--its about vandals who wish to deface a page. One day when I checked out what Wikipedia Review was, I became aware of a trio of articles repeatedly vandalized by a troll for over 2 years, where he asserted (with different usernames or IPs every few months) that one person was not a person at all but a pseudonym of the other. This started happening in mid-2007, and was last vandalized earlier this month. The articles are Chris Gore, My Big Fat Independent Movie, and Philip Zlotorynski (the last of which currently redirects to the movie article as a protective move). These articles were not unsourced BLPs -- they had some sources cited, and the blatant vandalism was slipped in, and overlooked despite other editors stopping by from time to time (like one editor suggesting that the two BLPS be merged if they were the same person, oblivious to the fake claim). Sample diffs for Zlotorynski:[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Since I am watching the articles now, and have berated the loser vandal, I suspect the problem will be controlled (but now that admins will read this, feel free to ban him). So, while unsourced BLPs are the bogeyman of the day, I have had trouble finding any link between BLPs that are sourced and whether they become a vandalism target. The vast majority of BLPs, sourced or otherwise, are uncontentious. Though, if BLPs could not be edited by IP editors or unconfirmed users, this case may have not happened.--Milowent (talk) 14:16, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I was under the impression that 'xyz was a former President of Sicily' is now considered just as much of a BLP violation as 'xyz was a flashy mobster'. Yet all you have done here is replace one unreffed BLP with another. So, per BLP, somebody delete the professor's article, and then someone can replace it with a sourced article about the mobster of this name, who actually lived in the 19th Century. MickMacNee (talk) 15:16, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      • No, its still a BLP violation, but negative material that is provably false is much greater of a violation. Mr.Z-man 15:59, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      • The sort of vandalism claimed here is not he dangerous kind, for such edits will be very quickly spotted. The people advocating strong action on unsourced BLPs have been generally highlighting the danger of the less watched and unnoticed articles, where vandalism can stay for a very long while. I'm not sure either is as much of a problem as the potential for damage to people in what are ostensibly non BLP articles. There are a great many many problems, and the attitude that all usourced statements are harmful prevents a focus on the true problem areas. Given our basic principles of editing this is hardly surprising. Given them, I'd say we had a rather low lever of vandalism, and I think a number of outsiders have commented that we are among the best sites in attention to removing them. The reason we have a very low level is because of the great number of editors, and the true solution to the problem is to encourage new people to become active, which is not done by deleting articles. (In the meanwhile, the existing ones will need to work a little more carefully and perhaps a little harder.) DGG ( talk ) 17:00, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    For a year and a half, from 26 July 2008 until today, we had an article claiming that someone who in reality is a University professor, former Italian Minister and former President of Sicily (as evidenced by the interwiki and by a Google search) was in fact a "flashy mobster" who "was imprisoned in 1999 at the age of 53, for: narcotics trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, several counts of murder in the first degree & several counts of assault on an officer. - is that what you mean by being spotted quickly? Guy (Help!) 18:23, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Well unless people actually check the sources to see if they're true or unwarped, it won't help, as many entrenched users use fake sources etc. And people are reluctant to make a stand against entrenched editors, especially when a lot of the pov pushers are part of an ethnic/religious bloc YellowMonkey (vote in the Southern Stars and White Ferns supermodel photo poll) 04:39, 19 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    • I am not going to defend BLP violations, but are we sure it is vandalism?
    I cannot see the deleted edits. However, the Italian corresponding article is weakly sourced but enough to confirm that the guy has indeed a criminal record as being involved with Mafia, even if dissimilar in the details from the one cited above, and he has indeed been involved in that at the age of 53. See here for example if you can read Italian -the source is one of the main Italian newspapers; I am happy to provide a translation if needed. (The thing is complicated by the subject having the same surname of a notable Italian mobster -with whom he is involved in the events leading to the arrest, making the whole thing a bit convoluted). --Cyclopiatalk 00:14, 20 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Also, see [7]. Again, the details do not fit with what Fram says it was in the article, but the situation is much less clear-cut than it seems. Again, happy to provide translation if needed. --Cyclopiatalk 00:23, 20 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Cyclopia is right. The guy was "presidente della Regione siciliana", and was also arrested as a mobster; he was also addressed as "professore", which doesn't necessarily mean he was a university prof. Did you think their mafia has no political connections?! Surely references are good, but there seems to be no contradiction here between the two statuses. Reminds me of a recent similar case in Romania, but I forgot the name of the guy. Pcap ping 02:24, 20 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No, they are not the same person - the problem is there are two separate Giuseppe Provenzano's. One is a 19th century Sicilian mobster (see [http://www.onewal.com/w-proven.html this link). The other one is a former President of Sicily who was in office from 1996-1998 (see Politics of Sicily). Unfortunately their names both linked to the same article, which apparently contained both the mobster bio and the President's bio scrambled into one. They need to be disambiged and separated into 2 different articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.136.35.108 (talk) 08:00, 20 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    There are two different Giuseppe Provenzano. But the professor (who was a university professor indeed) we're talking about was also arrested or otherwise implicated for strong suspects Mafia connections, due also to turncoat's confessions, and not in the 19th century but few years ago. An excerpt from one of the refs above "Ma l' incarico di "curatore" dei patrimoni del boss di Corleone - è la rivelazione di Francesco Di Carlo - sarebbe stato affidato poi a Giuseppe Provenzano, eletto deputato regionale in Forza Italia il 16 giugno scorso e diventato presidente della Regione. Il pentito Di Carlo avrebbe raccontato di conoscere queste vicende "per averlo appreso personalmente" da Totò Riina e da Bernardo Brusca. I due boss sostenevano - sempre secondo Di Carlo - che il professore Giuseppe Provenzano, commercialista, docente alla facoltà di Economia e commercio dell' università di Palermo, un tempo anche perito del tribunale, avrebbe fatto quadruplicare i capitali di Binnu." ("But the responsibility of managing the belongings of the Corleone boss -that's the revelation of [turncoat] Francesco Di Carlo - has been delegated then to Giuseppe Provenzato, elected as a deputy in Forza Italia 16th of June and became president of Region [of Sicily]. Turncoat Di Carlo explained he knew about this for "having personally learned" from Totò Riina and Bernardo Brusca. The two bosses claimed -according to Di Carlo- that professor Giuseppe Provenzano, accountant, lecturer at the Economy and Commerce faculty of Palermo University and even assessor to the Palermo court, would have made the fortunes of Binnu quadruplicate") --Cyclopiatalk 13:25, 20 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    He was arrested for suspected mafia connections, he was not convicted for murder and so on, and didn't die in prison last year (as the article also claimed). Some vandal used the bio of the 19th century mobster, and pasted it on the current professor/politician. That minor parts of it were correct does not mean that it is somewhat better. Was the professor ever convicted? Fram (talk) 20:23, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Don't know. Don't take me wrong, you were absolutely right in removing such unsourced information, being it true or not. I was only presenting such info here because, being unable to see the edits, I wasn't able to decide if they referred to the real arrests or not of the subject. --Cyclopiatalk 22:27, 21 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No problem. The article did not refer to the actual allegations of links with the mafia, but only linked the actual 19th century mobster facts with the current politician (using his date of birth and so on). Fram (talk) 08:59, 22 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Well, with my trez kewl Admin powerz I can see some of the edit history of this article, & it appears that the material Fram is using to argue that unsourced biographical articles on living people is a problem was added by an editor using an anon IP address. Ignoring the possibility of a mistake made in good faith here (it appears both persons with the same name were arrested for being alleged Mafia members), since this derogatory information was added by an anonymous editor, then we should ban anonymous edits from Wikipedia! (Oh wait -- that's one of those perennial proposals which will never be accepted.) Then the unsourced controversial information remained -- despite the fact over half a dozen people editted the page -- for over a year & ahalf until Fram came along. (Maybe we ought to sanction all of those editors for failing to remove this information. That's not a perennial proposal -- yet.) I'm not saying that we shouldn't keep such unsourced information out of Wikipedia, but that WP:BLP is rapidly becoming one of those slogans -- like "Think of the children!" -- which will lead us to cures that are worse than the illnesses. -- llywrch (talk) 19:33, 23 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How does who added the material have any relevance on this discussion? No one has argued for any of your strawmen here. Fram (talk) 08:17, 24 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Who added the material is not the issue; I don't know why you would think it is, unless you fail to recognize & understand sarcasm. The issue is that derogatory material was added, & the fact this biographical article about a living person was unsourced is irrelevant to how the derogatory material got there. Putting sources on the article would have been as ineffectual as banning anons from editting or punishing editors for not removing derogatory material. This instance does not justify the claim you made in the header of this thread. You made an error in logic here. (I can't believe I need to explain what I was saying in this post; maybe I should start using more words of a single syllable or less.) -- llywrch (talk) 23:39, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The claim I made in the header: "Why some (unsourced) BLPs are a huge problem." This article is a BLP, right? And it was indicative of a huge problem, namely that we can have content that is so negative that it needs to be oversighted hanging around for a year and a half. So I hope you do agree that some BLPs are a huge problem. And in this case it was an unsourced one, hence the (unsourced) in brackets. If it had been sourced, people could have more easily checked it (certainly if it had been an online source: just a click and you can see for yourself). With an unsourced article, you have to make more of an effort to check it, or just believe the contents as they are. But anyway, my header focused on the BLP problem, and added the unsourced because this was an unsourced article. I have not made an error in logic, and it appears that your opposition against the unsourced BLP RfC has blinded you here. I agree that if you would use words of less than one syllable in this discussion, it might be a bit more constructive (and would have been archived already). Fram (talk) 08:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No blindness on my part. Unsuitable information is added to Wikipedia as we write this, not only to biographical articles on living people, but to articles on dead people & to articles on various useful subjects. The original concept of Wikipedia was that many eyes would be sufficient to keep this unsuitable material out. Sadly, over half a dozen people editted that article & never thought to remove this unsuitable material -- which means either we accept that this situation is the best the Wikipedia model can do -- proprietary reference works have the same problem, yet fail to respond to mistakes as quickly as Wikipedia has done -- or we openly admit that the "many eyes" concept isn't good enough & stop calling Wikipedia "the encyclopedia anyone can edit." Because the BLP policy is being invoked more & more frequently to overrule any process of discussion, thus becoming a nuclear option that will eventually be used by someone in a way that will destroy Wikipedia -- just like an exchange of nuclear weapons. -- llywrch (talk) 06:45, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Community ban proposal for Jack "Red Hood" Napier


    Community ban proposal: JI Hawkins

    The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


    I'm proposing a community ban for JI Hawkins (talk · contribs), aka the "Sanders vandal", for severe disruption and to support AIV reporting of any new sockpuppets.

    Since about November, JI Hawkins has been acting as if under a compulsion (The D&D kind, not the dict-def) to alert people to a nonexistent government conspiracy ripped out of a bad X-Files script (which, ironically, is one of his common targets), concerning alien colonization, 2012 (I assume the end of the Mayan calendar specifically), Colonel Sanders, the Men in Black, Adam Sandler, and faked deaths. He has been socking extensively since then, and standard methods are proving very difficult to use because he is evading every single hardblock and hardrangeblock placed upon him to stem his disruption (largely because he's abusing Research in Motion's BlackBerry ranges). There currently exists a filter to try and check his progress, but this, like the rangeblocks, is consistently dodged by him. He presently has a section at WP:LTA. I haven't attempted an abuse report yet because WP:ABUSE is in eternal limbo. —Jeremy (v^_^v Boribori!) 05:10, 23 February 2010 (UTC) NOTE) A sock of this user posted here. —Jeremy (v^_^v Boribori!) 06:14, 23 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Links to Confirmed socks and Suspected socks. Ncmvocalist (talk) 05:14, 23 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict × 2) Support as one of the involved parties that has been tracking this individual for some time. It has been extremely disruptive, not supportive of our goal of building an encyclopedia, and obvious that the individual understands that his edits are not constructive due to his efforts at evading the filter that has been put in place. --Shirik (Questions or Comments?) 05:15, 23 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It's unsurprisingly obvious that none of you have opposed the ban on JI Hawkins, so I'm closing it. Minimac (talk) 21:24, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

    Can someone review this? It appears that Ivan guillen (talk · contribs) and Yves Ga (talk · contribs) are closely related, since they've only edited one thing, and that is a userspace draft, for user Yves Ga, or its direct copy by user Ivan guillen.

    I think it is possible that it could just be a new user changing their username by making a second account, so it may not be sockpuppetry, but it just looks odd.

    70.29.210.242 (talk) 11:19, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Block review?

    Previous discussion: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive592#MisterWiki. Again.

    MisterWiki (talk · contribs · count · logs · block log · lu · rfas · rfb · arb · rfc · lta · sockssuspected) was blocked for a period of 10 years (later altered to indef) around a month and a half ago. I am not questioning the original block, but I am hoping that the community will see fit to allow MisterWiki back. It is my sincere belief, having been in email contact with him, that he has learnt his lesson and is willing to come back and resume his good quality contributions to the mainspace. He has apologised (more than once) for the comment which precipitated the block and struck it out. The Following is a statement from MisterWiki:

    Please, my sincere apologies to the admin I offended and the rest of the community of Wikipedia because of that unexplained situation I did in mid-January. I promise that if I comeback here, I'll go back to build articles, specially to Pichilemu, an article that I hope sometime will be a FA, and to get Modern Talking to GA. It was really an idiotic thing to say that you, a jewish admin, were nazi. I know it is very offensive. My great-grandfather itself was killed in Germany because he was jewish, in the World War II. I really need to comeback, it is the best thing I've ever found on the net, and a space to show everybody my knowledge. Again, my apologies. --MW talk contribs 17:28, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[1]

    I am more than willing to mentor MisterWiki and will take personal responsibility if the community sees fit to unblock him. If probation or restrictions of some kind are deemed necessary, MisterWiki and I are willing to cooperate with any conditions that gain consensus. I apologise for the tl;dr and thank you for taking the time to read this. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 18:22, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I was the blocking admin, implementing what seemed to be clear consensus. I feel that MW is genuine here. It may be that he should be made to wait a little longer per WP:OFFER, but I would currently be willing to see him unblocked. I base this on my interactions with MisterWiki on Wikinews, where he went after being banned here. He was perfectly friendly towards me and held no grudge; what's more, while he has had problems getting his articles past our deadlines due to hid non-perfect English, he is damn well trying. See Wikinews:User talk:MisterWiki and his contributions, where he has two articles to his name but has tried to get several more published (stale articles are eventually deleted if they aren't published on Wikinews, which can't have been nice). Of course, here there is no WP:DEADLINE so it would be an easier environment. He's keen to contribute, and has become a regular in #Wikinews on Freenode where he is quite pleasant to people and clearly trying to be useful. I say yes. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 18:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    • I'm fairly strong with my view on removing troublemakers. My main wiki - WN - has a blocking policy where admins can hit a disruptive user straight away, and that is generally how it's done. I was recently chastised for getting it wrong here with a block length in excess of what the community felt was appropriate. If I'm saying a user can come back, I'm not doing it lightly. Partly, I am trusting HJ to try and keep the guy on the straight and narrow. I still have concerns about it being so damn soon, but if not now then at some point, yes. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 19:09, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Hells to the no. The problems were far greater than "calling another user a Nazi", involving immaturity amongst other things, and the fact that MisterWiki doesn't seem to recognise this is indicative of said immaturity. If he's useful on wikinews, fine! He can be useful on wikinews. And when he's demonstrated 6 months of useful work on a sister-project, maybe we can discuss allowing him back. Welcoming him back with open arms after little or no evidence that he's changed and matured simply demonstrates to blocked users that a block is more a day off then a formal suspension. Ironholds (talk) 19:56, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • That sounds like a reasonable deal, Iron. I believe something similar was said at the time of the block, actually. HJ, you seem confidant you can mentor MisterWiki. Would you be willing to come accross and help him there? Learning curve is steep but not insurmountable, and we're a friendly bunch. If not, we're doing fine with him and you may not have time to add another project to your workload, but given your willingness to help out I thought I'd throw that out there. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 20:01, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • It's similar to Durova's standard offer, really. I'm not saying "contribute for 6 months and we'll welcome him back", but if he demonstrates maturity and usefulness elsewhere, then I don't see why there's any theoretical problem to refuse him. Until that point, however, I remain opposed to any unblock. Ironholds (talk) 20:14, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'm keen to agree with Ironholds; we need a bit more time. If MW contributes constructively and with maturity on a sister wiki for a few months, I'll support the unblock, but not right now. Airplaneman talk 21:40, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • @Sandman, yes, I'd be willing to do what I can to help out on WN. I've contributed there before. The pace is a bit slower there so it could make for a nice break. I am confident I can mentor him because, at the end of the day, I genuinely believe he means well- I've no tolerance whatsoever for trolls and vandals (and I've encountered my fair share) but I think MW would benefit greatly from having someone to bounce ideas off- he is, after all, a good mainspace contributor, but perhaps needs to think things through. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 22:04, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'm also with the "wait" crowd here. It has not been too long since MW's block, and I would like to see a little more time to ensure that he won't return to the behavior he was blocked for. (X! · talk)  · @971  ·  22:17, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I agree, it's too soon. When someone gets blocked as a result of prolonged debate at ANI, it's usually a waste to even consider unblocking them for at least a few months. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • He'll need to promise not to recreate his one-man Wikiproject on Modern Talking for the third time. He is however, only young (still at high school), so it may well be more likely that the sharp lesson has taught him than with an older person. Give him another couple of months on Wikinews working with HJ Mitchell and review the situation, as he does have the capacity to be a useful editor. Elen of the Roads (talk) 18:07, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Heads up

    Attempt at paid editing: http://www.freelancer.com/projects/621555.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.211.75.45 (talk) 21:10, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Paid for by "Polarflamemusic" website, awarded to a freelancer.com user named "earwen86". Jujutacular T · C 21:23, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, someone can keep an eye on it, I guess. ···日本穣? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:25, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    User:Earwen1986 and their attempt. βcommand 21:27, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, at least they are working in their userspace and not starting off with something like that in mainspace. ···日本穣? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:38, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Admin needed to close discussion

    Could we please have a completely uninvolved admin review the discussion at Talk:Johnny_Weir#Wording_adjusted_per_archived_discussion and close it if you agree that consensus has been achieved, and that the edit which has been made to the article was appropriate. By "completely uninvolved" I mean, ideally, someone who has never edited the article, or participated in any discussion regarding it. Many thanks. Wine Guy~Talk 21:21, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Why do you need an admin to close the discussion? All the editors who frequent the discussion seem satisfied with the wording.--RegentsPark (talk) 23:36, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I believe it is appropriate to close the current discussion without prejudice to the topic being discussed further in the future. The current thread has come full circle; a problem was presented and discussed, proposals were made, and one proposal gained support and has been implemented. The reason that I ask for an uninvolved admin to close the thread is that there have been recent closings/archivals/deletions of threads by people who have been involved in the discussions they close, and this has caused further problems. It is also my understanding that in most cases it is best for an uninvolved party to close a discussion. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, or if this request is somehow inappropriate. Wine Guy~Talk 00:15, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Under normal circumstances I would absolutely agree, but discussions surrounding this article the past several days don't really fall into the category of "normal circumstances". It should be fine as is though, thanks for the reply. Wine Guy~Talk 02:36, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • And it was closed by... Benjiboi, who is one of the most involved. Which was a good reason for having an uninvolved admin do it. Guy (Help!) 08:30, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Indeed. This was exactly why I brought it here in the first place. Everyone, editors and admins alike, who has been involved on that talk page has been involved in discussion of article content either in the thread closed by Benjiboi, or in other related threads. IMHO, it may have been more productive to simply close the discussion per my request, rather than question my motives for making the request; but c'est la vie. Wine Guy~Talk 19:31, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Edit notices

    Request for assistance I tried to add an edit notice to George Orwell bibliography, but found out that only administrators can do this. I would like to suggest that an admin either 1.) add an edit notice to this article of {{British-English-editnotice}}, 2.) add this edit notice to every article that has {{British English}}, or 3.) investigate if {{British-English-editnotice}} can somehow be automatically created as an edit notice for any article that has {{British English}} (or another such English language variation template.) —Justin (koavf)TCM17:13, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

     Done I think you can request this with {{editprotected}} at the talkpage (someone please correct me if this is in error). - 2/0 (cont.) 18:17, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I hadn't realized this was an admin-only thing, it was just switched on one day and I guess I figured everybody could do it... Beeblebrox (talk) 18:19, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I assume that the rationale is somewhere along the lines that they are high profile vandalism targets or they should not be added without talkpage consensus or some other good reason. Anyone can create an editnotice in their own userspace, though. I think we have had the ability to create /Edit notice or something like that for a while, but they recently made it much more user friendly (thanks, developers!). - 2/0 (cont.) 18:35, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    May I request a similar edit notice for U2? It has undergone similar attempts to switch from British to American English in the past. I'm a bit leery about trying to use {{editprotected}} in case that's the incorrect way of going about it. Cheers, MelicansMatkin (talk, contributions) 18:50, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Using {{editprotected}} is in fact the best way to go about it, really. Also, note that account creators (for whatever reason) can also do this along with administrators. --Shirik (Questions or Comments?) 20:58, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    To Be Redirected

    This Following Article is to be Redirected as soon as possible (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_AFC) to the following Article (#REDIRECT [[38]]) Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.71.66.206 (talk) 17:50, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    • When you go to edit this page a big fat notice opens up that says "This noticeboard is for issues affecting administrators generally - announcements, notifications, information, and other matters of general administrator interest." This isn't any of those. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:16, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

     Done For future reference, you can use the WP:RM for making such move requests, or ask for help about such procedures at WP:Help. Abecedare (talk) 19:14, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I tried to close this requested move looking at both the discussion and policies. A few editors are trying to force this move, based on the film being the primary topic. To ensure that it was the primary topic, I did quite a few searches on the internet (attempting to leave out Wikipedia entries, of course) and I came to the conclusion that the ratio of pages out there was around 60:40 film:book. I did not see this as a significantly clear lead (maybe I was wrong...), so I declined the move. That caused much complaining, both on the talk page and my talk page, and one of those editors reverted the close without telling me. I explained my point, and then left it for some other admin to try and close. User:Anthony Appleyard then closed it with "no consensus", and also got much complaining, so he reverted the closure himself. Now the article is sitting there waiting for a third admin to run the gauntlet.  Ronhjones  (Talk) 22:28, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    User page text copied

    A recent User page, created by User:MrRohanM on 26 January 2010 has the opening text copy pasted from my Userpage, including the Babel tower and the Barnstars! The design format however is not mine original, rather a standard one. Are there any wiki rules that cater to this situation?!! If yes, please guide/intervene. Thanks! --Ekabhishektalk 08:26, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The user has been recently blocked for ignoring copyvio notices too. It is definitely a mis-representation of himself, especially indicating years of work on articles and displaying barnstars from established editors! Here is another complaint raised by an editor. prashanthns (talk) 09:17, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Yep, I presented the barnstar to Ekabhishek, not MRohan. AshLin (talk) 13:59, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Material here is released by you per the GFDL guidelines. I will however leave him a note about this discussion and about the false use of barnstars awarded to others. JodyB talk 14:02, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Just as a followup, I left a note asking him to remove the false Barnstars. I removed the one from User:AshLin referenced above. JodyB talk 14:14, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I went ahead and removed them all as they were misleading. I've run into users like this before who have copied a user's page, which resulted in 7 users being errniously added to a project. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 20:33, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Cat's for Speedy Deletion

    Did I miss a discussion somewhere? There's a crapload of cat's under CSD right now ... (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 15:34, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Arabic Wikipedia

    • Hello,

    Again, Abnima, who's apparently an admin in the Arabic wiki, is deleting, reverting valuable resources, in the criticism section, applying abusively his point of view. I hope, someone will check this issue, [[39]]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by النول (talkcontribs) 16:20, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    • Or, put another way, you insist on rewriting the article to include a badly spelled "Arabic Wikipedia is teh suck", leading to the obvious conclusion that you've been in trouble there for POV-pushing. Guy (Help!) 17:21, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Another angle, POV pushing, as criticism. you can judge the links instead, and also, correct paragraphs included before, in the AraBic Waykipedia, for I'm not an English Guy!. (i never said it sucked too) --النول (talk) 19:04, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The creation of this page is simply insulting. A few articles that were not sufficiently paraphrased in sections does not invalidate my work on this project, which was always done to the best of my ability and always in good faith. Frankly, this is ridiculous, and I respectfully ask that it be removed immediately. Concerns with any article I have written or edited may be directed to my talk page and addressed there. I am working on rewriting problem articles, but doing so mainly off of Wikipedia to avoid unnecessary drama. FlyingToaster 21:38, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    CCI is a great way for us to help you address the copyright issues. It is not intended to be insulting; we are simply helping out. Theleftorium 21:47, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict)I'm heavily involved with CCI, though I've had nothing to do with this one. But it seems that one of the SCV contributors found current problems in seven of your articles: Irish School of Ecumenics, Canal City Hakata ([40]), Ars inveniendi ([41]), Irving Morrow ([42]), Morgan "Bill" Evans ([43], [44]), Uterine orgasm ([45]), Parastichy ([46]). Having only just seen this CCI, I have not evaluated these. In addition, a good many more were located earlier, as discussed at your talk page. The purpose of a CCI is to aid in evaluating for copyright problems when a contributor has been shown to have placed copyrighted content outside of policy in multiple articles. Even if your doing so was inadvertent, I believe this has been true for you. Is there any reason why your edits should not be subjected to review by others to ensure that they are properly cleaned? (I do see, though, that the list of contributions includes reverts. I'll see about replacing it if the page remains.) This CCI is one of two dozen currently open and is by no means suggestive of bad faith. At this point, AGF specifically discusses that policy and copyright here. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 21:49, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (ec)It seems that it was filed correctly, at the appropriate page, and accepted per guidelines. I do not see there is any reason for removing it. I also do not think that you have the authority to propose a different way of dealing with the situation. You can either proceed in your own methodology of correcting the problems, or you can join the others within an established process. LessHeard vanU (talk) 21:54, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I am more than happy for others to review my work if they wish, but I feel an entire project page on the matter is both punitive and unnecessary. Phrases such as If contributors have been shown to have a history of extensive copyright violation, it may be assumed without further evidence that all of their major contributions are copyright violations, and they may be removed indiscriminately are not applied to editors to whom good faith is being assumed. Editors' dedication to article cleanup and copyright law is laudable - I am objecting to this method and not the work. I'm requesting that since very few articles are insufficiently paraphrased, and the substantive body of my work is not a problem, you let me fix what needs to be fixed on my own, as I have been doing offline. FlyingToaster 21:58, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]