User talk:MER-C/archives/21

Thanks
Thanks for reverting the vandalism on my user page. =) -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 17:42, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

CSD for Cadence Resourcing
Hi! Not sure why you missed it, but for some reason you didn't post a csd notification on the author's talk page. I've done it for you. BTW, I agree that the article meets the requirements for speedit deletion. StephenBuxton (talk) 13:50, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't post CSD warnings for the reasons I elaborated here. Not only was that page an A3, it was also spam. MER-C 05:01, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Fair enough. I was about to post a spam csd notice when the edit conflict showed you got there first.  Race you to the next one! (grin).  Keep up the good work.  StephenBuxton (talk) 12:38, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank You
I just wanted to thank you for reversing the vandalism on Royal Canadian Mint Olympic Coins. As the creator of the page, I appreciate what you did. Maple Leaf (talk) 00:32, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

RFCU/IP
What's your opinion on the block length? I put 1 year, but really as a rule of a thumb. -- lucasbfr  talk 10:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * If I were an admin, I'd do exactly the same thing but with a different block summary. Obaid Azam Azmi is related to Fiorano Software only in their persistence. MER-C 10:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Ow crap, I went too fast. Thanks >< -- lucasbfr  talk 10:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

A Question for MER-C

 * ''The following discussion is archived. Please do not modify it.

Go to WP:ANI. MER-C 06:50, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi, May I please ask a question? Rocky2276 (talk) 17:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Hi, MER-C. It looks to me like the above user is a sockpuppet created by  to evade his block for edit warring. Take a look at Wfgh66's last contribs, and the creation date/time and contribs of Rocky2276. Seems pretty obvious. 200.80.32.170 (talk) 19:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi, is there a problem? Rocky2276 (talk) 19:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. MER-C 02:55, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * So, please explain, thanks. Wfgh66 (talk) 04:09, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You were blocked, you used a sockpuppet to evade the block. That is against policy. Spamming your own website is also strongly discouraged. MER-C 04:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi, my contributions to Wikipedia are systematically being deleted by 77.49.252.57. And by Wikipedia Administrator Versageek. Is there any reason for this? Can anyone kindly please offer me an explanation? I would be most grateful. And all references to information and source material to the priory-of-sion.com website that have been in the Wikipedia articles for a considerable period of time (ie, years) and were placed in those Wikipedia articles by former Wikipedia contributors as well as Wikipedia Administrators (ie, Loremaster, Paul Barlow, etc) are also being systematically culled and deleted. I admit that some references to the website were placed by me, but definitely not all of them. References to websites of a dubious and pseudo-historical nature, on the other hand, remain intact. Please can anyone here provide a rational explanation as to why myself, wfgh66, and material sources of information from the website in relation to relevant Wikipedia articles are being targetted and deleted? The website concerned is hardly "spam" as described by 77.49.252.57, having being used as a source of material and reference for many books published throughout the world (I can back this up) and by numerous television satellite documentaries (I can back this up), bearing in mind it contains a large amount of unique primary source documentation not found in published books. Thank you for any reply.Wfgh66 (talk) 05:10, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * And the deletions began long before the sockpuppet incident, I admit that's my mistake but that's a seperate issue unrelated to the deletions. Please can someone help me on this. Wfgh66 (talk) 05:11, 1 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Here, see, 77.49.252.57 is removing links to my website that were placed by others. You can verify this for yourself. respectfully,

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gérard_de_Sède&action=history Wfgh66 (talk) 06:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Additional comment
Hi MER-C,

I am a critical skeptic, my website is not a university website because the subject matter it covers is not found on the Educational curriculum. The website refers to a publishing phenomenon of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000 relating to the popularity of pseudo-history. I explore and investigate the facts behind the myths. I have inadvertently found myself in the bad books of Wikipedia. I could face a little more problems. All because I want to improve the factual content in Wikipedia articles. I apologise for the sockpuppet incident, that was my mistake to which I readily own up to. I find it regretful that my website could be added to the Wikipedia Spam List since it contains so much useful primary source material relating to the facts behind the myth of the Priory of Sion and Rennes-le-Chateau and that is why it has been referred to by countless authors and documentary makers. On the other hand, there are must be many dozens of Wikipedia articles that contain links to unreliable pseudo-historical websites that are used as sources of "factual information" and this problem seems to be completely overlooked. Respectfully Wfgh66 (talk) 07:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)


 * ''The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it.

Re:Gurapiranga Sunset comment
How do you remove the time stamp? -- Nadir D Steinmetz 11:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Discussion at Picture peer review/Guarapiranga sunset. MER-C 12:27, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Cheers
Thanks for getting that vandal on my userpage Astral (talk) 08:08, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Adminship
Interested?

-- A. B. (talk) 08:36, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Not really. MER-C 08:55, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

All changes reverted?
Before reverting back, did you have the time to check the changes I made to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_%28goddess%29 ? I find all the changes appropriate and would like you to visit the current external links in that article to see that most of them bring nothing for the user and should not be there. Feel free to delete this section after reading this, if you think your changes there were all good and the article version is now without a doubt better than with the changes I made. Radio86 (talk) 10:04, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I removed the two most questionable links, though that doesn't excuse you from promoting your own website. MER-C 12:25, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Copyright infringement on Carl Cestari article
The article about Carl Cestari is not a copyright violation. The copyright to his name extends to the illegal copying and selling of his videos and DVD's as clearly stated at the bottom of http://www.carlcestari.com/martialartsrank.html in red text. The former students of Carl Cestari myself and the webmaster of www.carlcestari.com are always happy to spread as much factual information about Carl on the web as possible. Since many others have spread false information where he has been concerned. Again, the background information about Carl and his martial art rankings are not copyrighted but are in fact a matter of public record and can be found on numerous websites across the internet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by LaurNavar (talk • contribs)
 * The site does not have any sort of a copyright notice on it therefore we must assume it's copyrighted, all rights reserved. See Copyrights. And besides, it probably won't make a good encyclopedia article anyway. MER-C 06:35, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Promotion of Image:Syrphidae poster.jpg to Featured Picture
I'm not sure why you promoted Image:Syrphidae poster.jpg to be a featured picture. Reading through, there doesn't seem to be anything close to a consensus. Kaldari (talk) 23:21, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah I agree with Kalidari. Although of course I'm biased, IMO there definetly isn't consensus - doesn't even pass the 2/3 supermajority test. --Fir0002 01:57, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

The last oppose is just a generic comment and hence was ignored. It does not address the picture in question. Here's another example - same user, same type of picture, same objection. I don't think lack of order is a significant issue as it was pointed out that there was a precise order. As for the selection, it was intended to give an overview of the family. That leaves the "core/underlying margin" (as in core inflation) somewhere between 66% and 75%.

If you think I've made an error, you must inform me within hours because I cannot do anything about it several days onward. How would it feel if I revoked one of your bronze stars without any warning whatsoever? MER-C 07:39, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Treatment of Newcomers
Hi MER-C:

On the evidence I see, I object to your reverting of the links that User:Singaporeano put into the Paris Hilton external links section.

The two links are definitely relevant to Paris Hilton.

I see you also reverted other links by the editor.

Maybe there is some factor I am not aware of in this situation, but I think the Please do not bite the newcomers policy applies here. Seems to me that removing most if not all the links placed by a new editor, here for only three days, is defying that policy.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 13:26, 5 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Systematic addition of external links is a sign of spamming (see point 5). Reverting all the link additions and handing out a warning (usually spam2) is standard practice when spamming is suspected.


 * Bear in mind that WP:BITE only applies to those who are here to make constructive contributions and that spammers aren't welcome on Wikipedia. MER-C 12:45, 6 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I know you have far more experience in this area than I. However, the links that Singaporeano put into the articles all look like clearly relevant links, not spam.  Wanderer57 (talk) 21:59, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Please can I get an answer on this? Wanderer57 (talk) 03:05, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The relevance of the links isn't the question. It's the intentions of the user. Spam in citations isn't a new concept. Sorry for the late reply, I seem to be suffering from wikibonk. MER-C 06:36, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Symptoms of depletion include general weakness, fatigue, and manifestations of hypoglycemia, such as dizziness and even hallucinations. Symptoms will not be relieved by short periods of rest. This condition is potentially dangerous and should be avoided.


 * Get well soon. Wanderer57 (talk) 20:45, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't be that concerned, it's only an analogy. MER-C 08:38, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Some of these analogies can be quite severe. Get plenty of metaphor. Wanderer57 (talk) 16:22, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

It is not the content of the links by the time it has got to this stage. Links to this site are repeatedly added despite the obvious community disapproval. The rationale for placing the links becomes quite secondary to the behaviour when wishes of Wikipedia is ignored. Contributions to wikipedia under Singaporeano consist entirely of adding external links to shanghaiist.com and is considered WP:Spam. Looking through those contributions as a whole, the all seem to be shanghaiist.com related only. Wikipedia is NOT a "repository of links" or a "vehicle for advertising". Is this person here to improve Wikipedia, or just to promote shanghaiist.com?--Hu12 (talk) 21:51, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks very much for the feedback, Hu12. You are the first one to tell me that links to the "Shanghaiist" site are an ongoing problem.  As I told MER-C, my remarks were based on the evidence I saw.  I saw a new editor (3 days here), posting relevant links in sections titled "External Links", and having all their links erased.  In terms of biting, the first message they got was a bot warning about an image, second was the "spam" message. (There is a welcome message at top of talk page only because I put it in later.)


 * In any case, I am learning a lot from this. Thank you.  Wanderer57 (talk) 22:44, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I understand your concern as you've explained. It can appear a bit like bite, but it realy wasn't. MER-C is excellent at what he does, and looking through you contribs you a fine editor. In this case, as in most cases - spam is defined not so much by the content of the site.. as by the behavior of the individuals adding the links.. In addition, typically all of the sites are owned by a single company or individual.. add these factors together - and the big picture shows someone who is using Wikipedia to promote their own interests. This is the essense of spamming.--Hu12 (talk) 00:45, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks to all the people involved here for assisting with my education. Wanderer57 (talk) 16:23, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Ping
Hi MER-C, Thought you might be interested in commenting here. Regards, --Fir0002 21:38, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Would you like to do the revert or shall I? (Pschemp changed the promoted edit) --Fir0002 22:11, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think you should, I've too many things to think about... MER-C 07:04, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
 * No worries - hope your workload eases up soon. :) --Fir0002 11:10, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

delisting nom question
Hi there. I followed the instructions for delisting a featured image, but it isn't showing up on the FP page. Have I done something wrong or does it have to be moved to that space by someone else? The nom is here. Any help appreciated! Matt Deres (talk) 02:24, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You should list it in the appropriate section on the FPC page, as you would do an ordinary nomination. I have done this. MER-C 12:08, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I've never nominated a picture (list or delist) before. I followed the delist instructions and when I got to the end and it didn't get onto the main page, I figured I'd just screwed up one of the steps somehow. I see now the section about transcluding. Matt Deres (talk) 21:14, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Featured sounds
I noticed that you have participated in Featured sound candidates in the past. There are now two candidates and the project appears to be abandoned. If you could look at the candidates and vote it would be appreciated. Zginder(talk) (Contrib) 00:49, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

The FP is NOT mine, I have NOT created it!
Hello.

You placed an FP notification on my page. It is for Image:Lone_House.jpg. In the notification you said that I have created this image. I want to make it clear that this is not the case. I also wrote this explicitly in my nomination as well as in one of my comments.

Just so you know! <^_^> --PureRumble (talk) 12:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Fixed accordingly. MER-C 12:50, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks very much for the holiday promotion. Best regards, Durova Charge! 05:35, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Apology
My anti-vandal software just misfired. I left a message on your page in error. Kind regards-- Cala braxthis (talk) 11:46, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * That's OK. :) MER-C 11:56, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

You're not getting it
The bot deleted everything on my talk except the warning it was placing - check that diff again. Samsara (talk • contribs) 13:53, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The reason I complain about things like this is because it will affect other people down the line. This warning had nothing to do with placing fpc specifically, I could have put anything else there and got the same warning. A dummy edit would have done it. So the only way to take something away from it is, yes, the bot has a bug that is now hopefully going to be fixed so future confusion caused by talk page deletions can be avoided. This is nothing terribly unusual, I've had to block other bots for similar mishaps in the past. And if you don't want people to place fpc, that should be made clear in the instructions (which it currently isn't). Only fixing problems will stop them from re-occurring. Samsara (talk • contribs) 12:13, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Confused
I saw you closed the feature picture nomination for the last judgment. I am a little confused. There was only one person that opposed it and three that supported it. What should have happened to get this to be featured picture status? Remember (talk) 23:51, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * FPC traditionally has a quorum of four in support to be promoted. Your nom didn't achieve this, despite the extra two days. There is consensus against the relisting of FPC noms to get more opinion as detailed here and further down that page. MER-C 06:56, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

RE: Image deletion
I see, I wasn't sure what was going on, as it was tagged for empty licence yet had a full licence, and was linked to a Featured Pic candidate page, I just thought it best to undelete for someone else to fix. Thanks for the heads up SGGH speak! 10:28, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

POTD notification
Hi MER-C

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture Image:Bouncing ball strobe edit.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on February 22, 2008. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2008-02-22.  howcheng  {chat} 17:56, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

U;nee article reversion
Thank you for the reversion on the U;nee article. I find it quite annoying that a group of people seem to want to eliminate the information about the "Altantuya scandal" without stating any logical reason for it to be removed. This is a recurring issue that needs to be addressed by someone in power if it continues. For now, all we can do is monitor and revert changes, like you have done.

I consider the article of major importance to me, as a fan of her work, and someone who personally knows the loss of someone to suicide. Any information about a person, good or bad, is immportant to knowing their existence.

Thank you, again, for the revert. It shows me that someone else out there DOES care that all information relating to her is kept in the article, no matter how distant from her music career it may be.

KurisuYamato (talk) 12:52, 17 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Nice to hear that. In the future you can revert such edits yourself as they qualify as vandalism (see "blanking" under "types of vandalism").

FYI
Wikipedia talk:Featured picture candidates. - auburn pilot   talk  20:03, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Completing the Square Image
I created this image and released it under GNU 1.2 when I uploaded it. Why have you deleted it? Honestly I don't really care enough to re-upload it since I already uploaded a better version (which is currently used in the article). I'm just a little annoyed. Mazemaster225 (talk) 11:07, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The version I saw did not have a license tag. I don't know what happened after that, see the red text at the top of this page. MER-C 11:40, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Dispatches workshop
Featured content dispatch workshop set up (shortcut WP:FCDW) to coordinate writing of weekly Dispatch on featured content for the WP:SIGNPOST. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 15:27, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Excellent. MER-C 11:56, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

POTD notification
Hi MER-C,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture Image:PIA08384.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on February 28, 2008. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2008-02-28.  howcheng  {chat} 17:53, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Lammergeier
Dear MER-C, do you know what happened to my Lammergeier which was nominated on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/February-2008 ? Is it featured ? Best regards --Richard Bartz (talk) 02:05, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Done. MER-C 07:57, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Removal of links to book-academy.co.uk added by User:88.107.126.110
I saw that you removed the links to book-academy.co.uk in various articles. I would humbly suggest that at least some of those links are helpful because they link to public domain works of the authors that are not found on better sites like CCEL. Do you object to me reinstating some of them? (Please reply here.) --Fl e x (talk/contribs) 14:48, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It turns out that another IP turned up adding links to the site two days ago, complete with "FREE download"s. I did some digging and found another IP. . It's textbook spam if you ask me (ignoring your advice about "FREE download" telegraphs their intentions) and that's why I removed it. As for the works themselves, you might find copies at Wikisource and/or Project Gutenberg. MER-C 05:05, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Candidate for delisting
Hi MER-C

Firstly a big thank you for all your tireless hard work closing FPC noms - I hope you know it's much appreciated.

In relation to the coconut shy image I nominated for delisting, is there a time-limit on these things? I've no vested interest in whether the image is delisted or not, but there have been a couple of votes to keep the image more than a fortnight after I nominated the image for delisting. I don't think there's a reason people's opinions shouldn't count only because of the passage of time, but there is usually a time-limit on these things.

Cheers, Pstuart84 Talk 18:10, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * By "about seven days", it really means whenever I get around to it. I'll do it in my next run, which may or may not be tomorrow. MER-C 11:44, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

BartholomewBud and links to the Wire
While looking at the Charles Gayle article (which I've edited in the past), I noticed that you'd removed BartholomewBud's link to a Wire interview. Indeed, looking at his overall edit history, he's added a lot of links to the Wire, maybe too many, but some of what I checked seems totally relevant and appropriate to me -- in particular, the links to interviews, I think, ought to be kept (the album reviews are less important). The Wire is the pre-eminent publication for free/avant-garde/whatever music, and a completely appropriate reference for the musicians I'm seeing in BB's edit history (Matthew Shipp, Diamanda Galas, et al.). If you're not familiar with it, think of it as the Time magazine of arty and difficult music. (They'd probably cringe at the analogy!) Anyway, all this is to say that I think it's a mistake to remove all of them in a slash-and-burn sort of way -- a more judicious approach is called for, I think, and I'll vouch for the appropriateness of many of those links -- though I certainly understand how BB's edits set off your spam radar. Goldenband (talk) 15:45, 29 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The primary concern when reverting spam are the intentions of the user concerned, not the relevance of the links or the quality of the information. See also the section above. Even Encyclopedia Britannica can be spammed. I've also seen massive citation spam. MER-C 09:11, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't doubt you've seen all manner of things! I assume, though, that BartholomewBud is a well-meaning Wire fan, and not attempting to spam on their behalf (i.e. to use Wikipedia for their benefit).  The Wire's niche is already well-carved out, and it's hardly in need of that kind of promotion.  In any event, I'm restoring the interview link in the Gayle article (and only that one), because I can vouch for its legitimacy/relevance and have edited that article before;  other editors can deal with/evaluate the other links as they so choose. Goldenband (talk) 00:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Some people spam Wikipedia without meaning to but these cases are in the minority (so it's silly to assume anything). I don't particularly care if you re-add the link. MER-C 11:12, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Credit where credit is due
Hi, the Bedouin woman FP was a conomination with Funkynusayri. Would you please give her an FP template too? I think she'd be tickled, and she did enough work to deserve it. Best regards, Durova Charge! 18:04, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Done. MER-C 12:34, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

RFA?
 Milk's Favorite Cookie would like to nominate you to become an administrator. Please visit Requests for adminship to see what this process entails, and then contact Milk's Favorite Cookie to accept or decline the nomination. A page for your nomination at Requests for adminship/ 3.
 * If you do accept (which I really hope you do), I will create the nomination page. Best Regards, -  Milk's   Favorite   Cookie  23:35, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * MER-C's demonstrated he'd be excellent at it..NUDGE--Hu12 (talk) 04:59, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind being an admin but I don't want to become one. Some of the crap that goes on at RFA would never pass muster at FPC (we wouldn't allow it). Not to mention pointless closed questions to which the answer can be found on WP:RFA itself, arbitrary standards and outcomes, failure to realise that I might be using a tabbed browser, quacking like a vote and an unwillingness to fix the aforementioned problems.

I've got some noms to close. MER-C 11:44, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Spam blacklist
Hi,

Please could you help. I have recently joined the Wikipedia community and after adding some, what I thought were relevent, links to articles, it seems as though the domain of these links has been added to your spam blacklist.

I felt that the technical articles shown on the linked pages might be relevent to the projects they were added to as the projects featured in the articles themselves are of a technical/engineering nature.

The site contains genuine technical information and resouces for some of the articles featured in Wikipedia. I note that another user attempted to add one of the links to another article and subsequently he has added it to the spam whitelist.

There is also the odd link to pages on www.bennettmg.co.uk, which other users have added as links to articles, which are now out of date. As the domain is blocked, I am unable to update these links to point to the correct place.

Please could you advise on how the domain www.bennettmg.co.uk can be removed from your spam blacklist?

I have re-read your policy on external links and I am now fully clear in terms of what is and isn't accepted on Wikipedia.

Respectfully,

L LisaInig Talk


 * . It turns out that the majority of the links were added by you, and some IPs whose sole contributions consist of adding the link. We generally don't unblacklist sites at the request of those who added links to them.


 * That said, I didn't blacklist the site. You should comment on the whitelisting request. MER-C 09:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your response MER-C. I'll respond the the whitelisting request as suggested. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. LisaInig (talk) 10:06, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Admin-ship
I've noticed you around COIN and always assumed you were an admin. But when I was checking the AWB list tonight I realized you weren't. You've done DYKs and featured content. You have a clean block record, more than enough experience in different anti-vandalism efforts, and 45,000 (exactly) edits. Its been over a year since your last RfA and I believe you've contributed contnet since then. Would you be interested in going up again?  MBisanz  talk 07:00, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See above. (P.S. You're using the wrong edit counter, it's more like 76,568 live + 29,127 deleted = 105,695 total). MER-C 07:44, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Apologies, I respect you decision. I was just very surprised when pruning the Awb list.  MBisanz  talk 07:51, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I join others in this possibly fruitless effort to persuade MER-C to reconsider. EdJohnston (talk) 02:15, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Sviatoslav Richter
i reverted your undo of my edits to Sviatoslav Richter, as per WP:LINKS: ...instead of linking to a commercial bookstore site, use the "ISBN" linking format, giving readers an opportunity to search a wide variety of free and non-free book sources... cheers. --emerson7 20:58, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See also WP:COIN. MER-C 12:18, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Heads Up
Hi MER-C,

I assume you'll be doing the closing, so just a heads-up on one of the noms.

I've been watching Mario1987's FPC noms for a while now and am concerned about potential vote-stacking, meatpuppetry, or socks.

Sathmar somehow conveniently turns up to Support all Mario's noms regardless of how far off the mark they are, typically very shortly after the nom, and while otherwise not being involved at FPC. See Carei Monument, Fog over Oaş Country, Romania, Military map of Romania, and for a role reversal, Blue-fronted Amazon for examples. He has done so again on Featured picture candidates/Morpho peleides.

Angelono2008 turned up to vote on Burebista head statue along with Sathmar, and has reappeared for Morpho peleides. Mariosamoa has now appeared out of nowhere to also support Morpho peleides.

Durova questioned Mario1987 about Mariosamoa on this on his talkpage here, and he has now hidden this discussion.

All smells pretty fishy to me. Cheers, --jjron (talk) 05:33, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Checkuser filed. I've put the butterfly on hold for the moment, it's quite remarkable that so many people missed the noise problems this image has. MER-C 06:15, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, thanks. Does it need to be added to the Requests for checkuser mainpage? One point - he denies 'knowing' Mariosamoa on Durova's talkpage, in the checkuser request you mentioned he denied knowing Sathmar, but they never mention Sathmar.
 * Also, didn't pick it before, but Medrano_man is another suspicious new voter - only contributions are 6 FPC votes in 10mins on 1 March; of course he Supports the butterfly. Also check the voting of all five accounts on Featured picture candidates/Ambrose Everett Burnside. Medrano man probably should be added to the checkuser, if you can do so.
 * Re the Butterfly itself, I hadn't opened it fullsize before, but wow it is noisy, and not very well focussed, not to mention the flash glare. Given all that, it's got amazing support! --jjron (talk) 09:44, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This diff on the RFCU talk page is concerning. And yes, someone is supposed to have listed the checkuser request by now. I'll do it. You can comment or add stuff to the checkuser request if you feel like it. MER-C 11:55, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I blocked Mariosamoa as it seems to be very obvious that it's either a sock or an impersonator. I'm a bit concerned with Mario1987's images though, that some may be copyvios. The camera data is inconsistent (different cameras, sometimes no data) and they seem to vary widely in quality. Sarah 11:45, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I noticed that Mario1987 has been blanking image warnings from his user talk page. Didn't want to suppose there was anything serious going on when I first noticed the double voting at one of my noms, since the image was obviously on its way to promotion anyway, but now that the checkuser has come in I share MER-C's concerns.  May I be of assistance?  Durova Charge! 01:21, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I think a ban from FPC is in order here. I'll go post on WP:AN to get the socks blocked and the ban put in place. I've struck/reverted the sockpuppets' votes from pending nominations. We also need people to review prior debates (back to about October) to see if the sockpuppetry affected any outcomes. MER-C 01:40, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Uploads
I'm going through the uploads to check for vaildity. Starting a list below. Durova Charge! 01:46, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Image:Mule Deer.jpg: Western North American species; editor claims to be from Romania. No visible metadata.
 * Image:Pugmug.jpg: Looks like a studio shot. No metadata.
 * Image:Scarlet Tanager.jpg: North American species. No metadata.
 * Image:Blue Morpho.jpg: Mesoamerican species. No metadata.
 * Image:Faidherbe5.jpg: Claims to own rights to the photo, but image is sourced to a Swedish photographer's website that claims full copyright. Image was shot in Senegal in 2005.
 * Image:Faidherbestamp.jpg: Posibly okay: postage stamp with source link provided (returns 404 error).
 * Image:PlanSaintLouis.jpg: Possibly legitimate fair use, but wrong fair use rationale. Claims to be a newspaper scan.  Actually comes from a website.  Posts what purports to be reprint permission in French, but no OTRS submission.
 * Image:Podul Faidherbe2.jpg: Unclear license. Source links returns a 404 error.  Editor claims this is public domain as 100+ years old.  The Commons license info page doesn't list a separate entry for Senegal.  Most former colonial countries have similar copyright laws to the former colonial power, which for France would be the artist's lifespan plus 70 years.  We have no way of knowing how old this postcard really is, much less whether the photographer died before or after 1938.  With this much murkiness I'm not going to dig further (to find out whether this specifically holds true for Senegal or not, etc.)
 * Image:PodulFaidherbe.jpg:Possibly legitimate. Valid source link to the Senegal national archives.  Spent a minute surfing the site (which was in French) looking for a licensing statement.  Didn't find it right away; could be worth investigating in more detail.
 * Image:VedereAerianSaint Louis.jpg:Probably legitimate. Google Earth with fair use rationale.
 * Bad fair use rationale. The image is used in Faidherbe Bridge, where it could be replaced with something from NASA World Wind. MER-C 02:23, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Image:Palatul administrativ sm.JPG:Legitimate. A location in Romania, metadata displays.  Probably a representative example of the editor's actual photographic skill.
 * Image:Sapanta 091.jpg:Legitimate. A location in Romania, same metadata.

Hope this doesn't amount to spamming your user talk space. I'll wait for advisement before continuing. Wanted to get a general sense of whether any of these uploads were legit and whether this editor is really from Romania. Durova Charge! 02:14, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I think all the images taken by a HP Photosmart camera are legit. Though I cannot see whether the deleted images were taken with these cameras or not. MER-C 02:23, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. I've tracked use of the hp photosmart 735 from 2003 to late 2007.  Also finding that quite a few of these uploads aren't used anywhere but the editor's own gallery.  Checking the full upload history.  I've copy/pasted this list there and have added 22 more questionable examples, with comments.  Durova Charge! 03:08, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Gone through the whole darn thing. Well into dozens now.  This fellow was using Wikipedia as his personal photo album.  Durova Charge! 03:39, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

FPC
Malachirality closed several FPC's and S/he missed to leave the template on my talk page. Can you take care of this? Thanks. - Milk's   Favorite   Cookie  18:54, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Never Mind. - Milk's   Favorite   Cookie  19:07, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you
Thank you for reverting vandalism done on my user page.Fieldmarhshal Miyagi (talk) 10:29, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

blacklisted link
Hi MER-C, could you please explain in a little more detail what you mean by "blacklisted link" and the reasoning you removed the link from the History_of_the_transistor article. I didn't add this link and have no attachment to it, but it seems like an ok external link to me... Thanks --Dspark76 (talk) 12:02, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See Administrators' noticeboard. Try reverting me, you'll find that you can't. MER-C 12:06, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Help please
Hi pleased to meet you. I'm in need of your help, the Jatt Sikh article is under heavy anon vandal attack (probably by User:Harrybabbar - a legendary vandal). Please can you semi protect it. Thankyou. --James smith2 (talk) 21:25, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I've seen much worse. Oh, and see the red text at the top of this page. You want requests for page protections instead. MER-C 07:47, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for fixing my user page
Thank you for reverting the vandalism to my user page. I really appreciate it. Mohummy (talk) 02:54, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

POTD notification
Hi MER-C,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture Image:Evstafiev-chechnya-prayer3.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on March 22, 2008. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2008-03-22.  howcheng  {chat} 16:58, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Rose Chafer
Hi MER-C, you seem to have missed finishing this one off when you archived it - Featured picture candidates/Rose Chafer. --jjron (talk) 05:49, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Will do tomorrow. MER-C 13:09, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

CSD tagging of Zmuci
Hello! you tagged Zmuci for CSD:A7, but I think it's in foreign language and needs to be tagged with notenglish first. -- S M S  Talk 11:23, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It's not even worth translating because it quacks like an unencyclopedic vanity page. The red flags are the date of birth, that the article was created by and use of photobucket images. There's also nothing of any substance whatsoever on Google. MER-C 11:33, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Hmmm! right. Thanks! -- S M S  Talk 12:13, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Sharktopus
What do you think about this article? Is it nonsense, or fictional?  Otolemur crassicaudatus  (talk) 12:24, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, the article is already deleted as nonsense.  Otolemur crassicaudatus  (talk) 12:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

PDF uploads
Thanks for that. There must be some way we can get more people to work on clearing that list. (If it's any consolation, the number of PDF deletions for the first half of March is 2-3 times what it was in previous months.) Hut 8.5 14:51, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

WP:UAA
When reporting accounts at WP:UAA, please use user-uaa, not userlinks. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 12:14, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't look at me, I use Twinkle for UAA. You might want to poke Azatoth directly about this, seeing as (s)he hasn't got around to it in the last three days. MER-C 12:27, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I thought Twinkle always mentions itself in edit summaries. This edit clearly doesn't. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 12:31, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I specifically disabled such mention by setting the summaryAd javascript variable to " " (line 12 of my monobook). MER-C 12:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you think being gay is offensive?
What's the problem with Dave being gay? --Damifb (talk) 12:33, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Nothing, but my experience on Wikipedia is that ~95% of the time, it's blatant immaturity of the schoolboy type. If you claim someone else (living, which seems to be the case) other than yourself is homosexual, then you'd need to reference it as per WP:BLP. MER-C 12:39, 23 March 2008 (UTC)


 * But what if Dave was the user himself? Then he would have been blocked for being gay! I'm concerned that sometimes we became discriminators for trying too much to avoid discrimination. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.--Damifb (talk) 12:46, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Not for being gay, but for having a username which looks like it's accusing someone else of it. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 06:36, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

March 31 dispatch
All yours, have fun: FCDW/March 31, 2008. Deadline is Mar 31 at 17:00 UTC, I'll watch and chip in as needed. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 03:03, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

My site added as a spam list and it's not my fault :(
Hi,

A huge fan of my site hamster-club.com kept posting my link on several pages which now wikipedia added it as one of the spams lists!

Can this be removed please? It's not fair that becuase of another person I have to pay for the consequences. I got to know who was the person who posted my site on several pages so he won't do it anymore, but it's not fair that my site www.hamster-club.com was removed from the hamsters page list since it could be of a very good reference for people who want to extent their knowledge on them.

Thanks in advance,

Kindest Regards Nadia Vella


 * Probably not, as the blacklist's primary purpose is to protect Wikimedia's projects instead of punishing site owners. The level of abuse here is remarkable: using an open proxy to spam (see No open proxies), blanking spam reports, use of multiple accounts and IP addresses, ignoring multiple spam warnings and ignoring the meaning of the word "references"..


 * That said, you may contest the blacklisting at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist, but my experience suggests you are not likely to succeed. MER-C 09:23, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok then, but that's really not fair. There are many such unrelevant sites that are not black listed and it is really not fair that I have to be black listed because of a small and immature fan. Very disappointed.

Nadia

Spammer sock puppet case
Hi MER-C. You previously have reported this user at WikiProject Spam, so I thought I would let you know I opened a case at Suspected sock puppets/Bri1039, in case you have anything to add. Thanks, -- Paul Erik (talk) (contribs) 03:32, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll get the links blacklisted. I've also put together an updated spam report at WT:WPSPAM. MER-C 07:08, 26 March 2008 (UTC)