Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:52, 28 May 2005

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• Refining the administrator elections process
• Blocks for promotional activity outside of mainspace

JonGwynne - personal attack parole

User:JonGwynne is under a personal attack parole (Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/JonGwynne: If he makes any edits which are judged by an administrator to be personal attacks, then he shall be temp-banned for a short time of up to one week.). Despite this, he continues to be unpleasant, and has finally (I think) obviously gone too far: .

Therefore I request the sanctions be invoked. — Preceding unsigned comment added by William M. Connolley (talk • contribs) 19:58, 22 May 2005 (UTC) (Oops, sorry: I'll sign it: William M. Connolley 20:44, 22 May 2005 (UTC) but the time will be wrong).

I think the quote in question is Put simply, if you had the facts to support your views... you wouldn't have to be so rude. But I suppose I shouldn't expect anything different from someone who collects his paycheck as the result of the promulgation of a particular POV. People in that position tend to respond with hostility to those who they see as a threat to their POV. --JonGwynne 19:12, 22 May 2005 (UTC). Any comments on whether this is a critical or a personal attack? silsor 20:17, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

It's borderline. It's definitely "ad hominem", which is I think the spirit of the "no personal attacks" rule. On the other hand, it's not exactly foul cursing. Noel (talk) 20:36, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

And its not the only thing in that diff either (William M. Connolley 20:44, 22 May 2005 (UTC)).

I've had problems, too (e.g., . Nothing extreme, compared to what I've seen him capable of, but I think that someone should tweak his reins a little. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 21:53, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

user:ElKabong's personal attacks

Almost every edit this user is making is a personal attack against someone, frequently Zscout370, David Gerard and Tony Sidaway. Please could someone examine the evidence at Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/KaintheScion and block if they feel it warrants it. Thryduulf 16:17, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Thryduulf, those users have been persecuting and hounding not just me but another user who dared to point out that they were abusing their powers. ElKabong

Regardless of whether they have or have not, personal attacks are never acceptable. Thryduulf 16:38, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Rovoam and vandalism

Rovoam has been using a number of anon IPs to engage in vandalism. See the page history for Caucasian Albania for an example. I believe (given his apparent dedication and the specifics of the situation) that it may be time to engage the "authorities". By this I mean contact his ISP and/or file a report with the police (or FBI, or whoever covers "digital trespass"). Anyone concur? --Dante Alighieri | Talk 00:41, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

he is certainly annoying. I'm rolling him back every day on Urartu. Wouldn't mind if he was gone. dab (ᛏ) 12:15, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I'm on the verge of doing a /16 range block, so if anyone has a good alternative, let me know. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 18:48, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

I concur with you that a short-term range block would be beneficial in this case. What ISP he is using? Let's track this sucker and complain to its ISP (although my experience is that ISPs are usually quite lax about abuse reports nowadays). jni 19:04, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

I did it. /16 range block for 2 hours. Let's see what kind of fallout there is. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 19:01, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Seems not to be sufficient. Currently evading your block as 65.148.145.241 (talk · contribs) (blocked the /24 range for 2 hours) jni 19:15, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

209.7.219.21 may be Rovoam... That's based on the fact that I reverted the blanking of one talkpage that had a disclaimer about the IP being used by Rovoam, and this IP address blanked it again. However, I might be wrong, but I know for certain this is a vandal. I reverted changes to the Turkey article that changed it from an article about the country to an article about the animal (at least from what I looked at before reverting it back to the last version, It would help if I knew a bit about his pattern of vandalism. --Chanting Fox 07:37, 25 May 2005 (UTC) he has lots of geographically unrelated IPs, maybe trojaned boxes 209.7.219.21 (talk · contribs) is definitely Rovoam, right now. dab (ᛏ) 07:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

• I'm currently appear to be engaged in a revert war with another anon. IP being used by Rovoam The problem is every time I revert, the IP reverts it right back. I also saw something in the edit history in regard to the edits by the IP. In one or two cases, it had this edit summary: (chron.pl:auto revert). Any idea what that means, if anything? --Chanting Fox 08:52, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

• • This suggests that he's experimenting with use of a bot to perform malicious edits. The name suggests that he has this script to check at regular intervals for any edit on a given page of Misplaced Pages and to revert it. He could also be using a bot to select new IPs to post from as others become blocked. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 16:08, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

• I am putting regular disclaimers on all his known IPs, at least those which I notice. Please, see my contribution log if you want to track his anon IPs. Because of this person my whole activity in Misplaced Pages has been reduced to merely reverting his vandalisms and putting regular disclaimers.. After all that negative energy I receive every time I log into WP, see his vandalisms and revert them, I possess no more energy to make any other contribution to Misplaced Pages. I strongly support Dante's suggestion to contact his ISP and if necessary even the "authorities". --Tabib 09:32, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

User:William M. Connolley

User William M. Connolley was blocked for 24 hours for 3RR violation as shown here, and then proceeded to evade that block during the blocked time period by editing talk pages with this ip, which I believe is a direct violation of Misplaced Pages:Banning policy. — Cortonin | Talk 17:54, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

I don't think that Misplaced Pages:Banning policy has much to do with this situation, but this is a rather clear evasion of a block. I'm going to consider the last edit by his IP, at 09:27, 24 May 2005, to have reset the 24 hour block. Carbonite | Talk 18:26, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Presumably Cortonin meant to refer to Misplaced Pages:Blocking policy. User:Rdsmith4/Sig 18:50, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Javascript-based vandalism

I suppose the notice on Misplaced Pages:Recentchanges refers to User:Vandal high school!. Indeed he used the old trick of having a monobook.js that filled-in the content in the edit box and submitted the form upon the "onload" event. That does indeed speed up a vandal a bit, because any red link or other edit-link clicked or otherwise submitted fills or overwrites the target page automatically: no need to actually visit these pages and click the "Save page" button. Such JavaScript-assisted vandal attacks have occurred several times in the past few months, and they invariable used this scheme. How about doing something against this? I have experimented with an approach that disables all calls to the critical submit-function, but only if that function is called from within an "onload" handler. The code is here. I have tested this on Mozilla only, but if other JavaScript-savvy people could test it (and take a look at it and maybe improve it), we could add this code to our site-wide JavaScript file. If I got it right, that would effectively counter this vandal attack scheme. Lupo 11:34, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Ah, I was wondering what you were up to. I'm not sure we should be adding complexity for this though, as if we disable this method there are a million similar (and probably faster) methods to be used. Also, the vandals could just use greasemonkey if they really wanted to use javascript. See also wikitech-l discussion on this. --W(t) 11:42, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

I only just discovred how to use the .js (by copying and testing the vandals' scripts). I think they could be useful for non-vandals (monotonous tasks) and I'd be sad to see them blocked just as I discovered them. BrokenSegue 11:59, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Lupo's proposal is merely to disable hitting submit on page load. I don't think you want to do that without a bot flag anyway. Anything else would still be fine. By the way, Lupo: how would you handle things like timers that hit submit 1ms after page load and such? --W(t) 12:14, 2005 May 25 (UTC)

Dunno, haven't looked into it. I am well aware that starting to counteract common vandal tactics might lead to an arms race. My little experiment was designed only to put an end to this particular scheme. Let's deal with other tactics if and when they appear. Lupo 12:49, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

User:William M. Connolley

Temporary injunction violation on Greenhouse effect (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views). William M. Connolley (talk · contribs):

• Temporary Injunction: 22:44, 23 May 2005
• Revert: 15:12, 25 May 2005
• Talk comment: 15:15, 25 May 2005

Reported by: — Cortonin | Talk 16:42, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Comments:

• User:William M. Connolley violated the terms of the temporary injunction with the above revert labelled "Rv, as ever". According to the terms of the injunction, a revert should be backed up with reliable sources such as peer reviewed works, yet William M. Connolley's comment on the talk page did not provide any sources (and in particular no peer reviewed sources) for any component of his revert. The arbcom has requested that administrators treat a violation of this injunction as a violation of the 3RR. — Cortonin | Talk 16:42, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
• I'm actually not sure if such a thing should be reported here or over at 3RR. So perhaps after dealing with this, an administrator could let me know where the appropriate place to report an injunction violation of this sort would be. Thanks. — Cortonin | Talk 20:10, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
  • I'm not an administrator, but to me here (WP:AN/I seems the best place, rather than 3RR. I have reported similar things here in the past and action has been taken. Thryduulf 21:56, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

VfD archives

I'm looking for an old VfD for the stuff that has re-appeared at Fortress Blakeley. I know an article with this text has already been on VfD and got deleted, but can't find the old discussion because I don't remember neither the approximate time nor the page title. Related suspicious articles are at Blakeley Fortress and Hacienda Toscana. Also see Special:Undelete/Fort Blakeley. Can anyone find that old VfD discussion? Does anyone else remember this? Lupo 20:37, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Forget it, found it: Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Fort Bleakeley. Lupo 20:47, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

User:ElKabong

Are there any circumstances in which we're allowed to block for personal attacks? ElKabong (talk · contribs) has been leaving abusive messages for several editors on talk pages and by e-mail, but today left this on Talk:Islamofascism for a Muslim editor, which I feel crosses a line. Do the rules allow us to block for such an attack, say for 24 hours? He has used sockpuppets, engaged in revert wars, and has been blocked three times for 3RR, and while he's made some normal edits, most of his time here is spent fighting. SlimVirgin 21:56, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

We are not supposed to block for personal attacks, and if ElKabong were blocked for that reason, I'd probably unblock him—as annoying as he is, the limits on sysop authority ought to be respected. That said, unless he shapes up soon, I see an open-and-shut arbitration case in his immediate future. —Charles P. (Mirv) 22:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

we can block for personaly attacks if they are dissrupting wikipedia. It is probably not a good idea to do this very often though.Geni 23:13, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the input. I'd say he's doing it deliberately to disrupt, because he's having no other effect. He's had several admins and editors running around trying to sort out the various sockpuppet issues, revert the abuse, protect pages, block him for 3RR, deal with his abusive e-mailed denials etc. Before we can go to the arbcom, we'd have to do an RfC; it seems absurd to go through all that with a user as disruptive as this. I won't take it upon myself, however, to block him for this unless others support it.SlimVirgin 23:25, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

I did not see SlimVrigin's Talk:Islamofascism diff she cites above prior to commenting on this user's talk page. I would say, this (again) is clearly a breach of conduct and the user should be facing the Arbitration Committee for it. El_C 23:31, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

This is not the first personal attack he has made against me. He and his sockpuppets have made too many personal attacks to count, please see his RFC page for more information.Yuber 23:48, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Elkabong's editing now as Enviroknot (talk · contribs). This was a name he used when he e-mailed me. SlimVirgin 00:04, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

He has been more gentle in his editing with that sockpuppet. I fear, however, that he will be angered again as his edits were quickly reverted after being found false.Yuber 00:41, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, Enviroknot is the least abusive of the three so far, and the only one not to address me as a POV-pushing fascist in his e-mails, in which he called himself Cranston Snord (Enviroknot being the name in the e-mail address itself). They're like the id, ego, and superego. SlimVirgin 00:53, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps the user could be convinced to apologize and make amends? There is not always a need for punitive resolution. Everyking 15:30, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

LOL! Elkabong is the new Alberuni, but by all means, give it a go. SlimVirgin 15:48, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

User:Lupo and the VfD

Lupo (talk · contribs) deleted Fortress Blakeley on the premises that it was a hoax. I beleive this, but then, he proceeded to delete my article Hacienda Toscana which was about roughly the same topic but more accurate and based on fact, not fiction. The information in my aricle came from a book called "The Future of the Past" with ISBN 0-330-37534-2. He then said that the ISBN didnt exist because he didnt find it on Amazon.com, and gave me two other ISBNs without even checking my ISBN. Then he said that I wrote Fortress Blakeley and that I was responsible for it, and that I should be "pulling someone elses' legs". Then he deleted the articles on the presumption that it was a recreation of a former fake article. My article is real, however. Please help. Kaschner 22:27, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

• Hoaxer. Ignore. RickK 23:20, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

He then said that the ISBN didnt exist because he didnt find it on Amazon.com, and gave me two other ISBNs without even checking my ISBN. It not being on amazon means he checked it and found the book didn't exist. Mgm| 04:40, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

That ISBN (0-330-37534-2) is indeed a valid ISBN for The Future of the Past, so if Amazon doesn't have it, it's a bad way to check for valid ISBNs! - or perhaps someone mistyped something. (This of course, doesn't mean the information actually is in there....) - Nunh-huh 04:46, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Cool! I have my own entry here! May I just point out that I didn't delete the article. And I didn't mistype the ISBN; I only checked amazon.com. amazon.co.uk does know the ISBN. But it was a hoax all the same. If you're interested, check Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Fortress Blakeley, where all the pertinent links to the old VfD and the archive of this very page are given. Lupo 06:44, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but that proves that what Wellman (talk · contribs) wrote was a hoax. It doesn't prove that the short article taht I wrote was a hoax especially because I based it on fact. Prove to me that Hacienda Tosana was a hoax. Kaschner 12:41, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

As has been pointed out several times, the burden of proof is on you to show us verfiable sources, not for us to prove otherwise. --khaosworks 16:16, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

I gave you proof! Up there! What do you mean "The burden of proof is on you"? It's on you! I gave you the proof and you prov e to me that what I wrote is fake because I have proof! Buy the book if you dont believe. Stupid idiots. Kaschner 17:57, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

First of all, please read WP:NPA. The problem with a book is, as you say, you have to have it to know if the information giving it as a reference is valid and accurate. So it's verifiable, but not *readily* so. Master Thief Garrett 18:09, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, so it's verifiable, but why these guys delete my article along with the hoax? Kaschner 18:20, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Which chapter of "The Future of the Past" is your information taken from? Thanks, -Willmcw 20:20, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

I think it's 11. Wait I'll go check. Kaschner 20:49, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Please give us the page numbers too, while you're at it. Cheers, -Willmcw 05:41, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

Still waiting......20:37, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Anonymous editor at Apartheid

An anonymous editor at Apartheid is using dialup IPs and sockuppets to continually revert the Apartheid article. Jayjg 19:42, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

• As a point of interest, he's reverted 7 times using 2 IP addresses and 4 sockuppets. Jayjg 19:54, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

I suggest listing this at WP:RFPP and asking for temporary page protection as I don't think an IP block would work in this situation. Thryduulf 20:09, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Protected. If alternative solutions would be more effective, feel free to unprotect. --Michael Snow 20:48, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Impersonation of User:JarlaxleArtemis

• User:JarIaxIeArtemis
• User:JarIaxleArtemis
• User:JarlaxIeArtemis

Replaces one or both ells in the legit user's name with eyes. Please block. FreplySpang (talk) 03:37, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Done. User:CryptoDerk blocked two of them, I got the other. Noel (talk) 07:02, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Looks like another attack by the "DoppeIganger" vandal who is listed on Misplaced Pages:Vandalism in progress/Long term alerts. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 11:08, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Illegal page protection

Admin (violet/riga), who is involved in a dispute over BC/AD, BCE/CE, has protected List of kings of Persia. This page protection is contrary to the Misplaced Pages:Protection policy, which clearly states in its instructions on how to protect pages: "Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over."

Despite her protestations to the contrary, there can be little doubt of violet/riga's involvement in this dispute. For example, on the page in question, she reverted twice, both times to support a particular POV:

07:40, 2005 May 22 Violetriga (Reverted edits by Slrubenstein to last version by Violetriga)
07:25, 2005 May 22 Slrubenstein (Reverted edits by Violetriga to last version by SouthernComfort)
06:30, 2005 May 22 Violetriga (Reverted edits by SouthernComfort to last version by Jguk 

Violet/riga's POV is evident in this statement on the talk page: "This article originally used BC/AD and not BCE/CE. We do not have a policy to use BCE/CE and to change it from one to another is not really appropriate. I suggest people continue to discuss this rather than perpetuate a revert war. violet/riga (t) 14:39, 22 May 2005 (UTC)."

These pages have relied extensively on the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, which used BC/AD notation exclusively in that edition. (Interestingly, Britannica now uses BCE/CE in some of its articles). Use of BCE/CE is perfectly acceptable according to the Misplaced Pages: Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Eras and there is ample precedent for this (e.g., the series of articles on Taoism). Many of the pages on Persia are in dire need of clean-up. Several editors are working on this. One of these editors, SouthernComfort began to make the change to BCE/CE. This prompted Jguk (not an editor of these pages) to begin the revert war.

Despite the continued reverts on this and other Persian pages, discussion was, and is, occurring. There is no need whatsoever for the page protection. In fact, it is arbitrary and capricious. The problem stems from one user ( Jguk) who was the first to revert and has continued a campaign of reverts, supported by two admins: RickK (who has since relented) and violet/riga. All but one of the current authors of the pages on Persia (i.e., five out of six who have spoken), have indicated their agreement that the pages should use BCE/CE notation since these are non-Christian topics relating to a non-Christian region of the world.

I have made repeated requests to violet/riga to unprotect the page (see Talk: List of kings of Persia#Protecting this page is out of line). I request that the page be unprotected. We are sorting it out. Sunray 09:04, 2005 May 27 (UTC)

I've unprotected the page, as the original protection was indeed made in violation of policy. I doubt that I'll be the only watchful eye, so any signs of edit-warring should be studiously avoided. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:17, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Incidentally, I did point this out to v/r on the 3RR notice board yesterday. El_C 09:40, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

It wasn't a violation of policy - my contributions have been to settle the dispute and to compromise. If I see more reversions I will once again protect it. violet/riga (t) 09:41, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Further, I see the accusations of POV editting quite offensive considering the effort I've put in to resolve the issues and come up with an acceptable compromise. violet/riga (t) 09:42, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Looking at the history of the page, it seems that a number of editors wanted to use the BCE/CE system, while one editor (an admin) wanted to retain BC/AD; suddenly other editors appeared, at least two of them also admins), reverting changes to BCE/CE (sometimes referring to the BCE/CE form as "improper"), and then one of them protected the page. All that might be entirely innocent and above board, and the people who were involved might well have been unaware of how their actions would look to others — but it appeared unfair and a violation at least of the spirit if not the letter of policy, and no-one seems to have tried to dispel that appearance.

One editor? You count jguk, myself and violet/riga as one person? Please note that none of this mass reversion from BC/AD to BCE/CE occurred until after Slrubenstein's attempt to force his own personal view as policy, and lost that vote. Then the mass changing began, directly in the face of a lack of consensus vote. RickK 23:26, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure, incidentally, to which attempted compromise violet/riga refers; I haven't looked at every edit in detail, but there's no sign of compromise in the Talk page — vioet/riga simply seems to have insisted that the dates not be changed, and that use of BCE/CE is PoV (though I'm not sure what PoV that would be; one other editor involved in the reverts seems to think that the system was the invention of Marxists & "minimalists" , and there were other conspiracy theories being offered in all seriousness). The simple fact is that violet/riga weighed in on one side of the debate, making reverts, and then protected the page. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 10:02, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

As you say, you haven't looked in detail. My first talk page comment was "I suggest people continue to discuss this" and my reversions were to the original version of the dating scheme - which that was does not matter. Next you'll sayMisplaced Pages:Eras is not an attempt (by me!) at sorting out a compromise. violet/riga (t) 10:21, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

In other words you took sides. Of course, you took sides because you thought that you'd chosen the right side, in line with Misplaced Pages policy, but nothing that you did differed from any editor's becoming involved in a dispute. Suggesting that people discuss matters is fine, but doesn't count as significant "effort I've put in to resolve the issues and come up with an acceptable compromise". What you've done on Misplaced Pages:Eras doesn't affect the judgement as to what you did here; you can't build up credit for mediation on one page, and then spend it on another by revert-warring. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 10:53, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

One side wanted BC/AD, the other wanted BCE/CE. I don't mind either, and wanted the article back to a state before the edit war happened - one that was accepted by everyone there until people started to argue. Only then could the compromising begin and that was the only fair way. violet/riga (t) 11:04, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

But even if that was the side you took, it is still a side, is what I think what Mel is trying to get across. El_C 11:21, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

I more see it as the middle. I dunno, you try and help out. :/ violet/riga (t) 12:24, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Me? Frankly, I think I've done more than my fair share of helping out with the BC/E dispute (and it isn't as if I stopped, like 5 minutes ago), but I have never reverted anything to either AD/BC or BCE/CE. And, moreover, you still failed to explain (yesterday) why protecting was so urgent. We've been through this, but I recall not being entirely satisfied with your answers. El_C 12:39, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I can see why you misunderstood my meaning there. I didn't mean "you try and and help out", it was to be read as me getting aggrevated at being blasted for trying to help. To answer your question, the article was undergoing a major edit war - it had been reverted five times just in the 12 hours prior to me protecting it and it'd been going back and forth for five days. To me that is ridiculous, especially considering there was supposed to be ongoing discussions on the talk page and WP:Eras. Revert wars should not be allowed and are a waste of time - they were distracting from the discussions and were just annoying those involved. I protected it just before going to bed as I didn't want to wake up in the morning and see that it had gone on through the night. I'm quite happy with the present situation as the revert war seems to have ceased, at least for now:

The "revert war" on the Persian pages is now over and clearly the evidence from those pages is that there is no need for a change.

— Sunray, WP:Eras

I hope this at least partly explains it. violet/riga (t) 17:25, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Just to make sure the context is clear, the change referred to was a change in policy.

The revert war did not cease because of the page protection, IMO. Quite simply the casualties of this war became too high. A very thoughtful new contributor (SouthernComfort) was driven off and other regular editors of the pages on Persia were sorely taxed by the incessent reverts. It became absurd and everyone stopped, allowing Jguk to have his way in most of the articles. And that's the truth! Sunray 17:56, 2005 May 27 (UTC)

Sorry but I totally believe that the reverts would've continued had the page not been protected. "Everyone stopped" because they simply couldn't revert any more. I truly hope that SouthernComfort hasn't been "driven off", and that he will come back and continue his positive contributions. violet/riga (t) 09:46, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Posible threat of mass vandalism

Take a look at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (miscellaneous)#Preparations (now removed; see ) and Misplaced Pages:Village pump (miscellaneous)#Regarding Cipher. --cesarb 21:34, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

probably someone winding us up. If not we've delt with vandlebots before. We'll deal with them again in future.Geni 22:06, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

• Especially now we've got CryptoDerk's vandal fighter tool, I don't see how they're going to pull such a thing off. One of the IPs is already on my blacklist. Mgm| 23:09, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

What is CryptoDerk's vandal fighter tool? RickK 23:30, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

User:CryptoDerk/CDVF --SPUI (talk) 23:34, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

See here User:CryptoDerk/CDVF for info. -- Longhair | Talk 23:35, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Anybody interested in cryptanalyzing the Village Pump messages? Assuming they do mean something; I think the winding-up theory is likely, but OTOH, would someone creating a fake cipher bother to use all those non-ASCII characters, or leave the hints of a pattern, as well as unencrypted text, that are present? Nickptar 00:29, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

• We could ask User:Matt Crypto to shine his light on the case... Mgm| 00:35, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

• If it is a real code (and I really don't think it is). Then it isn't a monoalphabetic substitution cipher. with the amount of text avialible I doubt any other form of cypher would be crakerble.Geni 01:04, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

• Looks bogus and hex-based to me. Like this: ”OÛ؃ø«1øŠ²â?=š›. a@(RS)õ¯ÇSþõq·¢þõ7"Bö. Simply grab a hunk of binary from, say, a ZIP file (via Notepad), and randomly insert punctuation. hehehe... I'm assuming this is a bogus attack as it doesn't look like any programming language, but it could be they PGPed it before exchange or something... weird... However I'm no expert so it could be legit code for all I know... but I'm assuming it's just a joke. Master Thief Garrett 05:03, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Might be a joke or not, but there are some sleeping accounts (zero edits) that relate to this nonsense. See here. Is there any way to get a list of such zero-edit accounts, together with the time they were created? Still, I wouldn't get upset about all this. If something happens, we'll deal with it. Lupo 08:40, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

There have been threats by anons and users before to carry out massive distributed attacks using sophisticated bots or slave networks; usually its the people who feel most lonely who like to pretend they are part of a huge, potent organization. Phils 08:37, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

It's a real code. Monoalphabetic substitution combined with rotating shift (like the Enigma code but simpler). Let's see you crack that! Aquatic 09:29, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Critical Information on Jehovah's Witnesses

This article has been speedy deleted three times, twice after VfD debates. Now it has come back for the fourth time and I have nominated for speedy deletion this time around. User:Mike Rosoft wants some of it merged with the Jehovah's Witnesses article however, and I don't really know what to do. Merge and delete is not really allowed under GFDL, yet I see that the main JW article links to it. After that rant on the vfd debate I want to see the article go soon. Sjakkalle 08:53, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

• Give him a few dates to put it in Jehovah's Witnesses (that should satisfy GFDL) and delete it in a few days. If it's deleted earlier, we can send him a copy from the deletion log by email for personal use. Or perhaps he could keep a copy in his userspace? Mgm| 17:46, May 28, 2005 (UTC)
• Things have been solved I think. User:Mike Rosoft already redirected. Mgm| 17:48, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

User:CryptoDerk and page deletion of dispute resolution

17:01, 28 May 2005 CryptoDerk deleted "Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Uncle G" (vandalism)

Since when is deleting proper RfC pages OK He deleted the notice on RfC that it would be entered He deleted the notice to Uncle G on his talk page He deleted the RfC itself There is no dispute resolution if the dispute resolution gets deleted111 Can it be restored

I've deleted this again. The first supposed RfC started with a picture of Britney Spears. The second version, which I deleted, was a page complaining about the deletion, not an RfC at all. This user has been constantly vandalizing Uncle G's non-existent user page in some attempt to make a point related to the fact he doesn't like empty user pages. Angela. 18:37, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

• • You obviously did not read the first one It followed the example user template exactly and described the problem That should not have been deleted -- (63.124.175.186)

• User pages aren't mandatory and posting an RFC without even informing the subject is disruptive. Also, Britney Spears has got nothing to do with it. CryptoDerk was right to delete this. If you prefer blue-linked userpages, sign up and and give the example yourself. Mgm| 19:09, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

• • Is not that some kind of thing that a request for comment decides and not some delete happy admin And for that matter I did inform Uncle G and CryptoDerk deleted the notice111 -- (63.124.175.186)

On Uncle G's talk page you posted the following

Not having a user page disrupts:

• all talk pages with red links
• lists of most wanted pages
• the time administrators take repeatedly deleting your page

Not having a userpage doesn't disrupt. And here's why:

1. Redlinks only show a page doesn't exist. It would be more disruptive if he created nonsense to fill the page just to have one.
2. Userpages aren't included in the most wanted pages.
3. Deleting his userpage takes about 3 seconds. Solving disputes (which most of the time shouldn't have started anyway) takes far more time. Besides, admins aren't obliged to delete anything if they don't want to either. The whole project is on a voluntary basis.
4. Userpages are for personal information. Within the existing guidelines it's for Uncle G to use as he pleases. If he chooses not to take advantage of that, we can't force him.
   

-- Mgm| 19:31, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

1. This not notice being deleted by User:CryptoDerk http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=User_talk:Uncle_G&diff=14366892&oldid=14364937
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/Special:Wantedpages This not NUMBER TWO MOST WANTED PAGE that you claim does not show up in wanted pages
3. Does any of that validate deletion of proper formatted, described, notified dispute resolution

• So, I may have been wrong about it not being included in most wanted pages. But I still don't see how not having a userpage is such a big problem. Posting a header with a link to the RFC isn't enough. The first step is dispute resolution is talking with the user himself and I can't find any such discussion by the IP who posted that link. Mgm| 20:52, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

User:66.176.193.185

This anon has put my email address (which he shouldn't have) here. I am unhappy about this, and about the user in general, who is also RexJudicata (talk · contribs) aka Agwiii (talk · contribs) SqueakBox 18:08, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

You mean Agwiii (talk · contribs), right? --cesarb 18:19, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

I do. he's been doing a bit on his RexJudicata home page, and I know 66.176.193.185 is his IP address from the contribs, and the parallel activity with REX today, SqueakBox 18:23, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

What he is also doing is described in this edit summary any comments, please email them to me at scuiquifox@gmail.com, ie he is impersonating me using my email address. Bizarre, but typical of this user, SqueakBox 18:48, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

• It's your privacy on the line. Feel free to remove the @ and dots to stop spiders or remove your email adress entirely. If it's really yours (I haven't checked) he's got no right to publish it on the wiki. Mgm| 19:01, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

I have removed it. It is my current email address facilitated to receive messages through wikipedia. I dislike the impersonation bit, and will continue keeping a close eye on this editor, who has a history of accusing me of cyberstalking and vandalism, promising to see me deported to Florida (where this IP address is located). There is an inactive Rfc against him for his sockpuppetry, and if he continues editing maaliciously I will revive it, SqueakBox 19:53, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Offtopic.com

I've lifted the vandal protection I put on this article yesterday. so it gets the chance to be edited before the VFD closes and maybe change a few votes. However, I'm probably offline in about 3 to 5 hours. Could anyone else keep an eye on the article too? Mgm| 18:58, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

• I'm on the job (as well as others, I'm sure). Phils 20:30, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

it's on my watchlist now too, SqueakBox 20:34, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

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