User talk:MER-C/archives/30

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Bots
Hi, MER-C. :) I have to sadly conclude that Verno is no longer available to us. :( I have received no responses to my last couple of e-mails. I'm hoping that this is because he has happily settled into a new life on the low-technology island of his dreams. But I'm here because I want to ask for a new bot to take over some of what Verno's bot did, and I wanted to see what we need doin' before I do that.

Obviously, we need User:VWBot tasks to be taken up by something else. Do you know of anything else? (I'm going to ask NortyNort to stop by here as well. :)) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 19:32, 7 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Aside from making me a cup of coffee in the morning, two other bots that are down were identified here. DumbBOT and Zorglbot created new days at WP:CP and added the SCV templates, etc. This is being done manually now. If I think of any other duties that would be helpful, I will drop by here again.--NortyNort (Holla) 03:14, 8 August 2011 (UTC)


 * It's conceptually very easy but I don't have the resources to run this kind of bot (need an always on computer with cron). If you can get the source code off Verno and give it to someone who can run a bot, that would solve our problems. MER-C 04:03, 8 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Alas, I have not gotten a response from Verno in some time. :/ I really just wanted to be sure I knew everything we needed from a bot before seeing if I can round up somebody to make us one. It sounds like we just need something to replace what we had, then, insofar as possible. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:41, 9 August 2011 (UTC)


 * There's a list of tasks on User:VWBot; the ones we're missing that are easily replaceable are 1, 3, 5 and 9. MER-C 13:23, 9 August 2011 (UTC)


 * First post from me in ages, thanks to trying to write my PhD thesis, but anyway have some possible useful input here. In answer to the "always on" problem then I suggest getting a toolserver account.  If Verno's uncontactable then I think we're going to have a problem getting the source code as according to his bot requests it's not publicly available.  I'm sure I can create a bot to do the tasks, the problem is I won't be able to even start making one until the end of the month when I hand in my thesis so it would be best is we see if someone else is more immediately available. Dpmuk (talk) 14:48, 9 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The toolserver does not have a Java runtime, so that's not an option. I can write the code, I just need someone to run it. MER-C 01:32, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Just logged onto my toolserver account and it appears to have a java runtime to me (at least on willow). Am I missing something?  Dpmuk (talk) 17:07, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Oh hey, it does. (This isn't particularly obvious from the toolserver wiki). I hacked up some code today but it needs some polishing before BRFA, etc. I think the fastest way is for me to give you a JAR to run. MER-C 07:50, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I was writing my bot request when I noticed this conversation had continued. :) MER-C, are you going to be able to write a bot for us, or do I need to ask still? I don't know from Java runtime and etc., so I don't know if the Bot is still needed. :D --Moonriddengirl (talk) 16:15, 21 August 2011 (UTC)


 * . It's still rough around the edges (hence the filename Blah) and is totally untested. Oh, and the contribution surveyor is fried. I don't know if it is generic Toolserver suckiness or if the tool is actually broken. MER-C 03:47, 22 August 2011 (UTC)
 * (It was the toolserver.) MER-C 13:25, 22 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Note to self. MER-C 13:09, 24 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay. :) Just let me know if you need somebody to agitate, and I'll take on that challenge. :D Meanwhile, I've just found another CCI, one that I suspect we would have been able to uncover earlier if Corensearchbot were still going. Oi. :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:15, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Possible Bug Report and Feature Request
Hi MER-C. Hope you're well. I've been working a great deal with Wiki.java, and I really feel I must compliment you for your excellent bot framework. If it helps, I believe I have discovered a bug you may be interested in. does not appear to support certain unicode characters. Take the following code:

The expected output is: User:Fastily/AäáãǣėƐħóöūü The actual output is: User:Fastily/A???????????

If it's not a bug or if I'm missing something, sorry for wasting your time.

I also have a feature request I was hoping you could implement: ? I tried implementing such a method myself, but after doing some research, I found I did not have the technical expertise to do it. In all honesty, I am a total noob programmer who started learning java not but a few months ago. I remember you told me you hadn't implemented any sysop functions because you weren't an admin. If you're willing, I'd be more than happy to help you test this method and compile whatever resources you may need. If you're not interested, it's okay, no pressure. This method would be a huge help to me in an upcoming bot I hope to write. Please consider. All the best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 05:42, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * On Windows the command line font does not support Unicode. Instead of printing to System.out, could you please create a dialog box and screencap it? As for deleting, it's the easiest of the sysop actions to add. MER-C 11:47, 10 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Works for me in Netbeans, so the issue is probably some variant of what I mentioned above. Deletion was added in r26. MER-C 05:01, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Now that I look at it, I think it may be a non-issue. Just got it to work.  I'm running Mac Snow Lepord using the Terminal command line.   Thanks for looking into it though! If it helps with, I wrote a mostly functional delete method at User:Fastily/delete.java (i.e. deletes any pages passed in with the specified reason, but doesn't really log anything).  Guess you were right, it wasn't that difficult to implement.  Regards,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 04:57, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Re:Spam
Hi, I have explained to Surajt88, there was no deliberate intention and apologies if I got it wrong, I saw the hotcorsets.co.uk links and noticed there is no further contribution or mention of hotcorsets.co.uk. All I did was exactly what they and others have done, yet these links have not been removed so I assumed it OK to add to it. I would be grateful if you can let me know what I have done different to the person who added hotcorsets.co.uk? I have noticed there is also no mention of Symington Corsets, only a single mention under Market Harborough. Please can you advise if it would be OK for me to write a contibution on them, as I am already authoring some work on them? Many thanks, Andrew 19:56, 11 August 2011 (UTC) Andy-Thom 19:57, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The conduct of whoever added hotcorsets.co.uk is irrelevant -- it is your abuse of Wikipedia for promotional purposes that is the issue here.


 * If your article on Symington Corsets is going to be similar to this then don't bother. MER-C 03:28, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

I get your point, I have never contributed to Wiki before, so I used the format from the contibutions like IBM and Accenture. I can see how this comes across as commercial spam - so am deleting the corsetique bit i'm writing from the sandbox. With regards to the work on Symington Corsets, again I will create something, and will place it in the sandbox first. When ready, I will ask for your help and views before we make it public. Once again, apoligies for how I may have come across, I now understand it would have been prudent to have got to know things better first. I'm not sure exactly how this works but others that I came across that you may want to look into are links for: Curvelining Garment C & S Constructions Wasp Creations These seem to be commercial spam also. If I see any other suspects, I'll let you know. Thanks for your help.

Andrew Andy-Thom 11:47, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Could you please post the domain names here so that I can run them through the database tomorrow to check for systematic spamming? You are free, of course, to remove the links if they do not comply with the WP:ELNO in the meantime. MER-C 14:04, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

refspam
Hello, when you remove refs, you should add citation needed to those removed ones, now there is new data without any sources thx -- >Typ932 T&middot;C 08:36, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

delete
Hi MER-C, I tried testing out Wiki.java's new delete method with the call: I received the following terminal output when running the program: Aug 16, 2011 1:24:31 PM Wiki getPageInfo INFO: [en.wikipedia.org] Successfully retrieved page info for Category:Disputed non-free Wikipedia files as of 8 August 2011. Aug 16, 2011 1:24:32 PM Wiki delete WARNING: [en.wikipedia.org] Exception: MediaWiki error, response was   Retrying.... Aug 16, 2011 1:24:32 PM Wiki getPageInfo INFO: [en.wikipedia.org] Successfully retrieved page info for Category:Disputed non-free Wikipedia files as of 8 August 2011. Aug 16, 2011 1:24:32 PM org.wikipedia.Wiki delete INFO: Page "Category:Disputed non-free Wikipedia files as of 8 August 2011" does not exist. I ran the program twice, and obtained the same result: the page was deleted, but without a reason (See log). The deletions at 20:21 and 20:24 were made by the aforementioned method call. - F ASTILY  (TALK) 21:37, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
 * On a side note, I found that wiki.login(username, password) does not accept any of the following characters in passwords: {'!', '@', '#', '$', "%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')', '/', '-', '+'}, ect. When  you have time, could you look into it?  Thanks for everything you've done so far!  All the best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 21:40, 16 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Line 966: change out.write(username); to out.write(URLEncoder.encode(username), "UTF-8");
 * Line 968: change out.write(password); to out.write(URLEncoder.encode(password), "UTF-8");
 * Line 1888: change <tt>buffer.append("&summary=");</tt> to <tt>buffer.append("&reason=");</tt>
 * That should fix both problems. MER-C 02:54, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I think you meant
 * 966: <tt>out.write(username);</tt> to <tt>out.write(URLEncoder.encode(username, "UTF-8"));</tt>
 * 968 <tt>out.write(password);</tt> to <tt>out.write(URLEncoder.encode(new String(password), "UTF-8"));</tt>
 * Aside from that, no problems. Thanks again for all your help!  Best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 04:52, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Sorry to bother you again. Between lines 6280 and 6281, you may want to add

The API doesn't return a standard "success" message after properly deleting a page so the delete method was retrying deletion despite a successful deletion. This code will fix the issue. Regards.  F ASTILY  (TALK) 19:45, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Fixed. MER-C 03:43, 22 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Great, thanks! - F ASTILY  (TALK) 23:51, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

A brownie for you!

 * Om, nom, nom... burp. Thanks. MER-C 06:48, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Fake article
Someone turned up quite a few of these at Talk:International Biographical Centre - may need a group deletion. Dougweller (talk) 11:09, 27 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Ah, looks like you already know! That's a start anyway. Dougweller (talk) 11:10, 27 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I had a look, beyond the first two the signal to noise ratio (um, okay) drops significantly to be not really worthwhile. MER-C 12:09, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Outreach
Did you see my comments at the Village Pump? I'll repeat them here: Has anyone checked to see how many of these accounts turn out to be vandalism accounts? I know I've found several. One big problem for me is that nothing is put on their talk page. Normally we hope new users will get a talk page welcome message. Looking at the timing of one I just blocked, the user page message was added before their first edit. But when they edited, they will not have seen any banner telling them they had a user page, right? But if there had been a talk page message tailored towards new users, the new message banner would have flashed up when they edited. And when I say tailored towards new users, I mean something that kindly and tactfully says what are constructive edits and what are not, and maybe even gently says non-constructive edits lead to editing priveleges being withdrawn. Does this make any sense to you? Dougweller (talk) 06:00, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I will refrain from posting this at the Village [PD]ump because I have a feeling this won't go down particularly well. It makes sense to automatically whack a welcome template on the talk page of new users coming through this process but I have a strong feeling your idea will be forgotten about, ignored and/or shunted down the priority list in favour of other inane, and in some cases downright stupid ideas. (Aren't we supposed to have a WYSIWYG editor by last year now?) Furthermore, these seems to be a little community resistance to automated welcomes. MER-C 08:36, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Marshallsumter CCI
I opposed a CCI earlier saying it'd be simpler to delete if there were any copyvios, but at that time I didn't realize the impact on existing articles. Can you check the section "Existing article contributions" under the ANI report and comment. Many of the sources used require some access to the journals so it's not something that's easily identified. cheers. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  09:19, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Talk of CCI handling

 * This is just preliminary conversation, but, of course, I thought you might like to be a part of it. We're talking about ways to streamline the CCI process to make sure that listings don't languish forever. I think we'd need to VP it before implementation, but input from those who are most familiar with them could be helpful. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:59, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Bug Report
Hi MER-C, hope you're well. I think I may have found a bug in Wiki.java. When running the following code: the program throws a MalformedURLException. - F ASTILY  (TALK) 00:55, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Does the stack trace point to line 2909? MER-C 11:17, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, it does:

Fastily:Fbot $ java getImageTest Sep 25, 2011 5:45:33 PM Wiki getCurrentDatabaseLag INFO: [en.wikipedia.org] Current database replication lag is 0 seconds. Exception in thread "main" java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: l version= at java.net.URL. (URL.java:567) at java.net.URL. (URL.java:464) at java.net.URL. (URL.java:413) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.getImage(Wiki.java:2909) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.getImage(Wiki.java:2871) at getImageTest.main(getImageTest.java:11)
 * - F ASTILY  (TALK) 00:46, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r31. MER-C 06:47, 27 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Great! Thank you! :) - F ASTILY  (TALK) 07:30, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

DePuy external links
Hi there,

I added a new external link to the DePuy company entry and I see you reverted it back shortly afterwards. May I ask why? I work for Johnson & Johnson (owners of DePuy) and the site I added is the OFFICIAL DePuy surgeon education site for the company. While DePuy.com is the official corporate site, www.do-surgery.com is a very important resource for our customer base.

I just read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ELNO#Official_links about linking to official company websites and this website appears to comply with both requirements:

1.   The linked content is controlled by the subject (organization or individual person) of the Wikipedia article. 2.   The linked content primarily covers the area for which the subject of the article is notable.

Furthermore, it states that 'More than one official link should be provided only when the additional links provide the reader with unique content and are not prominently linked from other official websites'. I believe in this instance this is true.

Additionally, and importantly, there is another statement 'In other situations, it may be appropriate to provide more than one link, such as when a business has one website for the corporate headquarters and another for consumer information'. This is most definitely true.

As I believe that this list is legitimate under the 'official links' requirements set out above, would you mind if I reinstate it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jnjmedical (talk • contribs)


 * Not quite. If you continued reading, you would have noticed the heading "Minimize the number of links". It is apparent that to view content beyond the front page requires registration and is hence useless for the vast majority of Wikipedia readers (see links to avoid #6, #7). There are other things too: the link description was totally uninformative, suggests the site consists of user-generated content and makes no obvious connection with the article contents. (Yes, I should have been a bit more careful but in hindsight with the conflict of interest, it's always best to discuss.)


 * Hi there. Thanks for responding. I did notice that section on minimising links but thought two external links for a company the size of DePuy was not unreasonable. To only allow 1 link to our corporate site when we have dedicated sites for our primary customer base seems a little harsh. I admit that the name 'do-surgery' does not relate specifically to DePuy. I am happy to rename it to something more appropriate e.g. Official DePuy Surgeon eLearning website. Although the site does require registration (due to this website being dedicated to our surgeon customer base and the content inappropriate to consumers), it states that the points you refer to under 'Links normally to be avoided' apply only to sites that are NOT official pages of the article's subject (this is stated in the introduction of the page section). In this instance, the external linking site IS an official page specific to the subject of the article. jjmc-ds


 * That's reasonable. I'm about to disappear until tomorrow so feel free to reinsert the link with an appropriate description. When you do so, use the edit summary to link to this discussion (this helps prevent others from reverting). By the way, would you happen to know about any reputable, independent articles and/or the website (not just reprints of press releases or advertisements masquerading as articles)? These can be used as references in WP's article. MER-C 13:31, 28 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi there. I have contacted one of my colleagues to try and obtain references. Do-Surgery won an award back in 2009 and I am trying to locate details of this. I'll let you know if I find anything. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jjmc-ds (talk • contribs)
 * Acknowledged; thanks for the effort. MER-C 13:12, 4 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Furthermore, I suggest you get a new username before you are blocked. MER-C 09:37, 28 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you for pointing out the potential issues with my username. I was unaware that such policies exist. I have updated it to something more appropriate jjmc-ds

CCI update
--Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:22, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, by the way, I've added a not very elegant workaround to the name display issues in CCI-closed. It adds the name of the contributor parenthetically after the link to the number. It'll serve for now, I suppose. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:22, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Yay squared! I'll remember that. I've got a couple favo(u)rs regarding outstanding


 * Mwhite148: Please nominate the concerned images on Commons for deletion. I don't contribute there any more except for spam removal as the problems there are much worse then en.wp.
 * Jacobisq: I think the copying here is too trivial for a CCI, but I would appreciate a second opinion.


 * Thanks. (I'll clear out the remaining requests on Saturday.) MER-C 13:09, 6 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Will do as soon as I catch up on my talk page. :) (I'm taking this morning to catch up on this kind of thing.) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:11, 6 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Re:Mwhite148, will do, but I want to talk to a Commons admin about it first. I'm watching for one to pop up on Gchat. :)


 * I'm finding it hard to make a call on Jacobisq. It's great that he put his content into quotation marks, but his work is not transformative. In a lot of places, he's just lifted the text to create a kind of quilt of other people's words. :( For example, the lead of Fixation (psychology):
 * Fixation: 'concept originated by Sigmund Freud (1905a) to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits'.[1] Subsequently '"Fixation" acquired a broader connotation. With the development of theory of libidinal stages...the term came to mean a persistent attachment, not only to the specific instinctual aims of a particular era, but, instead, to the entire complex of self and object relation'[2] at that time.
 * It seems like there are five original words in that paragraph: Fixation...subsequently...at that time. Wow, this is a mess. I'm just not sure right now the best way to organize cleanup of it. Let's leave this one open a bit longer while I think about it and perhaps broach the subject with the contributor. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:53, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I've left the fellow a note here. This seems to me to a bit akin to somebody uploading a lot of content under NFC where some of the material may not conform. I'll try to keep an eye out and see what he says. Hopefully he'll be willing and able to work on this one himself. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:14, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
 * And just closed Contributor copyright investigations/FlyingToaster. Is today some kind of record? Dare I hope that a few more will get knocked off? :D --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:34, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep forgetting to tell you; there's Commons:Commons:Deletion requests/UK Election Maps by Mwhite148. I was advised to bring it up at the village pump on Commons and per feedback there, Derrick listed it for deletion request. :) --User:Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:28, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for doing that. Now the interminable wait begins... MER-C 05:43, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/Caiyad Phahad
Would you reply to my comment at Articles for deletion/Caiyad Phahad regarding userfication? Thank you, Cunard (talk) 06:19, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Would you reply at the AfD regarding the GFDL-violating, WP:FAKEARTICLE-violating copy-and-paste of the article to User:Phoenix B 1of3/Caiyad Phahad? Thanks, Cunard (talk) 03:47, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
 * The userpage draft was redirected, so this issue is moot for the time being. MER-C 09:20, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Wiki.java...again
Hi MER-C. Hope you're well. Sorry to bother you again, but I seem to be having an issue with Wiki.java again. As of today, I am having issues with <tt>getCategoryMembers</tt> and <tt>login</tt>. When I run a program which calls either of these two methods, it intermittently crashes with the following stack: INFO: [en.wikipedia.org] Successfully retrieved contents of Category:Candidates for speedy deletion (50 items). Exception in thread "main" java.io.IOException: Not in GZIP format at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream.readHeader(GZIPInputStream.java:143) at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream. (GZIPInputStream.java:58) at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream. (GZIPInputStream.java:67) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.fetch(Wiki.java:6181) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.getCategoryMembers(Wiki.java:4014) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.getCategoryMembers(Wiki.java:3985) at TestCategory.main(TestCategory.java:13) Fastily:Fbot $ I'm hoping that this is only a temporary issue caused by the update to mediawiki 1.8, but it may be something worth looking into. I've appended some code below which currently attains the aforementioned results. Thank you for your time. Best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 03:55, 11 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Me too(tm). I agree, something with mediawiki 1.18 that is causing gzip or login to fail. tedder (talk) 04:41, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Confirmed as a MediaWiki/Wikimedia problem. Filed as bug 31603. MER-C 09:17, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Urgent
Hi MER-C. See Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_October_17 where someone has nominated both Template:Article-cv and Template:Article-cv2 for deletion. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 10:03, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Oh, my
I don't know if I can stand it. :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:07, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * How... pathetic. On the upside, we might be able to extract some Signpost publicity/editor education out of this. We need it, given the flood of copyvios resulting from the slow motion trainwreck that is the India Education Program. MER-C 12:26, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that would be great. Meanwhile, I've found copyvios from this guy in another article, and I think we are certainly headed to CCI. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:39, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Opened: Contributor copyright investigations/SasiSasi. MER-C 12:58, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks
I'm glad you going to the office hours yesterday. :) It was past my bedtime, but I was hoping that some of us would manage to go. Nice to see you and Risker there asking necessary questions. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 10:16, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi again. I've left a question at m:Talk:Wikimedia Foundation - India Programs/Education Program that I hope you can answer. They're talking about getting some of the online ambassadors from the US to help with cleanup, and I'm hoping to avoid redundant labor at the CCI. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:19, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
 * See Contributor copyright investigations/Indian Education Program for what I have in mind. MER-C 13:16, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Sock?
User:Ljaic edits are like the previous groups. Bolding the percentages in epidemiology. Adding refs in the headings. Adding refs that are blogs. . Thoughts? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 13:03, 22 October 2011 (UTC)
 * This appears to be different. Notice the journal's initials match the username. I can't access the journal's website (404 all URLs) so I can't really tell whether this is related to that other bunch. Whois is inconclusive. MER-C 08:19, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

About Marist2015
If this user is your concern, try one of noticeboards in Noticeboard links. --Gh87 (talk) 19:44, 24 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Copyright problems is listed on that template. 718smiley.svg. I'd rather have a copyright specialist handle it and it's not particularly urgent. MER-C 02:01, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Wiki java enhancements
Thank you for this nifty easy-to-use framework. First I wanted to make a ticket but then I realized that I wanted a lot of tickets. So I decided to ask here. Is it possible to do anything of this: where bot flag is given by users. All this stuff I had to do in my bot (NirvanaBot). Thanks. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 09:19, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
 * make private members protected
 * change logger.log and logger.logp to log logp so that users could redefine logging (I use log4j) (ok this is unnecessary, cause wiki java is stable and I disable logging for it)
 * new function public String getNamespace(int namespace) throws IOException, which is like old getNamespace but per contra
 * this is unlikely you do this, but


 * I can't guarantee these will be implemented before mid November due to real life. Some notes on how I'll go about doing this (for later):
 * Private members that can be made protected: checkRights, setCookies, logurl. Anything else is either of not much use or breaks encapsulation.
 * Reversing namespace cache: if (namespaces.containsValue(namespace integer)) iterate over namespaces.entrySet to find it.
 * Bot flags: the API does support the discretionary use of bot flags (parameter bot=true), so this should be trivial.
 * Thanks for the suggestions. MER-C 12:08, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Done: r32. MER-C 12:14, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Wow, so fast! Thanks!
 * But you left  and I (my bot) can't make edits without "bot" flag because user.isA("bot") returns true always for my bot. What would be more desireable is this:

So, change will not break code of other users, because edit(/*no bot argument*/) and prepend would work the same as in r31. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 12:17, 11 November 2011 (UTC) Hm, well, this is just thoughts after watching code. I didn't check r32/r33 yet. I'll check when come home. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 12:17, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Not only edit but all editing functions should be in two versions (with/without bot argument). And after that full flexibility will be riched. :) ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 12:21, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Try updating to r34 and deleting the two lines <tt>if (user.isA("bot")) \n buffer.append("&bot=1");</tt>. I will change the default to match the GUI, but the API default is no bot flag unless you want to use it. I could add an additional overload.
 * "All editing functions should" have optional bot flagging: the MediaWiki API doesn't allow me to do that. MER-C 13:14, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Okay. Thank u 4 support. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 13:56, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

CCI update
--Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:11, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

wiki.java
Hi, I am trying to use your java framework to make a tool for uploading images.

The login with my account-pw in commons is okay, the retrieving page info is positive, but when the upload starts I receive a bad token - invalid token error

MediaWiki error, response was <?xml version="1.0"?> <error code="badtoken" info="Invalid token" />.

Any ideas Michiel1972 (talk) 22:30, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
 * This is a known problem. I removed the old upload because that was broken too. I'll take another look at it after my exams (3 weeks), now that there's an example on mw:API:Upload. MER-C 12:53, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok, I tried to debug, changed several things, and finally it works (upload to commons succeeded). I just changed your code so wpEditToken contains ONLY the token without the +\ suffix. Then in the upload method I added/changed some lines:

<tt>
 * out.writeBytes("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"token\"\r\n");
 * out.writeBytes("Content-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\n");
 * out.writeBytes(URLEncoder.encode(wpEditToken, "UTF-8")+"+"+"\\"); </tt>

</tt>


 * So I guess the +\ should not be url-encoded in the multi-part text. Michiel1972 (talk) 21:18, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Wow! That's really counterintuitive -- every other POST is URLEncoded. I'm going to fiddle around with this a bit more before committing a fix as I think there may be a few issues with UTF-8 support in upload filenames and comments. Thanks for fixing this year(s) old bug! MER-C 01:38, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Committed in r33. MER-C 03:03, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

FYI: I use the slightly changed "login" & "pageInfo" & "upload"-code in an Android app to upload pictures to Commons by mobile phone. (github repos). Michiel1972 (talk) 22:57, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Noted. MER-C 06:21, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

IEP clean up
Hi. If you are working  on  IEP  clean up, for easy  checking  and follow up  of students and their articles, please see:

IEP student and article lists and how to use them

If you are not  working  on  this clean  up,  please pass this message along  to  anyone you  know who is. Thanks, --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 13:21, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Yay! I fixed two errors in your student list and deleted most duplicates (don't worry, this only took a few minutes of thought and a couple of lines of Mathematica code). And for some good news: I have unanticipated free time this weekend, so I may start work on my contribution surveyor then. MER-C 13:40, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Wiki.java - Bug in Search
Hi, first thanks for your Wiki.java wrapper, really convenient :) However it seems you rely on a beahviour in your search method that is not longer given:

(around line 3735, I have edited the file quite a bit)

// if this is the last page of results then there is no sroffset parameter if ( !line.contains("sroffset=\""))               done = true;

at least on the german wikipedia even the last page will have a sroffset, leading to an infinite loop. Not sure how to fix that though, I hardcoded a maxPages limit to stop the search but that is not the best option I guess... Best, Andre --137.226.59.101 (talk) 09:39, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * That's odd. On en.wp it works as expected: ; the same query on the German Wikipedia. Not only that, but de.wp's search has problems with returning the search results -- compare . I don't know what's going on with MediaWiki, so I've posted about this problem at WP:VPT. MER-C 11:45, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Filed bug 32256. MER-C 05:20, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This problem has been partially fixed and deployed. MER-C 03:01, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Great, thanks! (I just created my account, the IP was me) MrAGo (talk) 09:43, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

Advice on whether a CCI or other action is needed
I have deleted two articles created by User:Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) as copyright violations:
 * August Howard:


 * Job Male:

Further research found not immediately such obvious copyright violations as these two very recent examples, but a lot of articles that had longer copyrighted quotes than actual content, and what little text the articles had stayed very close to the copyrighted sources, e.g.
 * William P. MacCracken, Jr. ("a flight instructor during World War I. He also served on the Chicago Aero Commission" vs. "a flight instructor during World War I, MacCracken also served on the Chicago Aero Commission")
 * Benjamin Franklin Turner, Sr. ("the director of parks and public improvements. He was first elected to the governing body for a term of four years on May 12, 1931" vs. "the director of parks and public improvements. He was elected to the governing body for a term of four years on May 12th, 1931")
 * 1985 California listeriosis outbreak in cheese ("There were 48 or 52 deaths, including 19 stillbirths and 10 infant deaths." vs "there were 47 deaths, including 19 stillbirths and 10 infant deaths." and "Alta Dena supplied the raw milk to Jalisco to make the soft Mexican-style cheese" vs. "Alta-Dena, the largest dairy in California, supplied the raw milk to Jalisco to make the soft Mexican-style cheese,")
 * 1985 United States salmonellosis outbreak ("At least 16,284 persons were infected, all but 1,059 of them from Illinois. The others were in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin." vs. "At least 16,284 persons are known victims of the outbreak, all but 1,059 of them from Illinois. The others lived in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin." and "was a contributing factor in the deaths of four, possibly five, others." vs. "was a contributing factor in the deaths of four, possibly five, others.")
 * Miriam Barnert Hebrew Free School ("The school offered instruction in biblical and post-biblical Jewish history." vs. "The school offered instruction in biblical and post-biblical history")

Richard Arthur Norton is one of our most prolific editors, with over 100,000 mainspace edits, and this sample is only taken from articles he created, ignoring the many articles he expanded completely. What is the best way to proceed here? A CCI investigation? An ANI report? An RfC (seems useless in this case)? All advice is welcome. (As this is a preliminary request, I haven't contacted Norton about this post: I have commented on the two deleted copyright violations on his talk page though. If you would prefer to have his input from the start, you are free to contact him or may ask me to do so of course). Fram (talk) 15:06, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I have now notified him of this section anyway, after he requested userfication of the two deleted articles at my talk page. Fram (talk) 15:36, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Richard is already the subject of a CCI: Contributor copyright investigations/20100822. It has not included his text, but quite obviously needs to. Richard should know better than this; he has certainly been told before. See . I do not hold out any hope that I can speak to him reasonably on this subject. When his CCI was opened, I tried very hard to be patient with him, as I was aware that he felt he had been harassed by User:TreasuryTag (who first brought up the issue of copyright problems with Richard's images but did not necessarily go about evaluating them in the most diplomatic fashion), but I have found Richard completely unapproachable. I don't know the best approach here, honestly, to avoid losing him as an editor altogether. There is a lot of value he can contribute, if he is only willing to work within our copyright policies. --Moonriddengirl (talk)18:22, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Apparently, the only concern of Richard Arthur Norton was to have the two deleted pages restored as soon as possible; he hasn't otherwise reacted. This doesn't indicate any understanding of the seriousness of copyright concerns, nor much willingness to solve this (unless threatened by deletion). Being prolific is good, but doesn't excuse other editing concerns. I'm in doubt whether to take this to WP:AN (to address the behaviour) and/or to take this to CCI (to address the actual problematic articles). Perhaps a CCI first to note the extent of the problem, and then, depending on the extent of it and on the reaction and collaboration by Richard Arthur Norton, an AN? Fram (talk) 10:46, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * That would meet my experiences with Richard. I'm not sure if it's best to generate a second CCI specifically for text since the first page is already so messy, but I will look into the extensiveness of this and then let you know what I find. If the situation is as serious as it appears it may be, we may need to take this to AN. :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:58, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * is a blatant copyright violation from . MER-C 11:59, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Yikes. :/ I think we do need to put this on a separate page; perhaps linking one to the other. Can you run the contributor survey, or would you like me to? I can certainly get it going as a background process if you're busy. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:06, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Either way, I'm setting up the page at Contributor copyright investigations/20111108. Unless you're ahead of me, in which case i'll delete it. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:10, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The contribution surveyor is already done. Unfortunately, this is about the upper limit of what the contribution surveyor can take and I'm waiting for it to download the thing as wikitext. MER-C 12:12, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you both. I've added the CCI page to my watchlist. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know. Fram (talk) 12:28, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

I've listed the CCI on the template and in the CCI list. I've also notified Richard that it is open. I'll try to put some time into this over the next few days or at least the weekend. I think it's important that we figure out soon how widespread the issue is. Fram, if you want to keep an eye out, Richard may or may not want to discuss this. In respect to his prior CCI, he had a tendency not to respond to notes, but although he didn't tell us so he was evidently quite upset and confused about the way the process works. That may be the case here as well, but if so hopefully he will let us know sooner. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:36, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * It looks very widespread, I hate to say. It is clear that his 2006 edits have this problem, and that his recent edits have the same problem, but also something like Mabel Garrison from July 2010 is taken almost literally from Groves (e.g. "She sang Rosina with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1926 and later took part in a series of Baroque operas under Werner Josten in Northampton, Massachusetts, which included the American premiere, in English, of George Frideric Handell's Serse in 1928 and Rodelinda in 1931" vs. "After her final Lucia at the Metropolitan in 1921, Garrison performed extensively in Europe for several years. She sang Rosina with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1926 and later took part in a series of Baroque operas under Werner Josten in Northampton, Massachusetts, which included the American premières (in English) of G.F. Handel's Serse (1928) and Rodelinda (1931).") If someone with so many edits has made so many copyright violations, I don't think there is anything left but taking this to WP:AN. Fram (talk) 13:58, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree that it doesn't look good. :/ I've blanked that particular article. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:24, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

I have started a discussion about these edits at WP:AN. Fram (talk) 08:29, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Hidden text in disambiguations
A strange habit seemed to be to include hidden text in disambiguation pages, with the results from some search engine. See e.g. his edits to General Smith or McGhee. In both cases, the hidden text is still present. It clearly has to go, it has no lasting function on these pages, but is it a copyright violation or not? It certainly is very sloppy editing... Fram (talk) 08:40, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
 * (this article is now blanked, as the rest is a close paraphrase). MER-C 08:51, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Feedback Dashboard task force
Hi MER-C,

Since you were a part of the WikiGuides project, I thought I'd give you a heads-up about a new way you can help/mentor newbies on en.wiki: we've recently released a feature called the Feedback Dashboard, a queue that updates in real time with feedback and editing questions from new registered contributors who have attempted to make at least one edit. Steven Walling and I are putting together a task force for experienced Wikipedians who might be interested in monitoring the queue and responding to the feedback: details are here at Feedback Dashboard. Please sign up if you're interested in helping out! Thanks, Maryana (WMF) (talk) 22:03, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I have been opposed to the MoodBar from the getgo, so that's a no. I have very little patience for semi-literate, clueless n00bs and MoodBar does nothing to help those using it in this respect. MER-C 12:07, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

IEP needs some input
Hi MER-C. Could you comment here at the IEP talk page? There seems to be a lot of confusion about the CCI. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 22:26, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Talkback
Any input? Codrin.B (talk) 02:30, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

/* References */
2 links in personal injury section are not present Rebeccanolen13 (talk) 07:57, 16 November 2011 (UTC)


 * So? Wikipedia is not to be used for promotional search engine optimization. Do you know what the term "references" means and why there's a section for them? PROTIP: Like Wikipedia, it's not for SEO.
 * Please read this essay before replying. MER-C 08:23, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

Combined Maritime Forces, CTF-150, CTF-151
Hi

I'm the public affairs officer for Combined Maritime Forces and would like to update the above pages but when I did got a warning message from you.

Please advise.

Lt GH Turner RN — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.132.224.130 (talk • contribs)
 * Are you talking about these warnings? If so, you should forget about it -- five years is a really long time on the internet.


 * Going forward regarding Combined Maritime Forces, I recommend you skim this page -- editors in situations like yourself often bump into problems, especially when adding substantial amounts of content. MER-C 07:08, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Request for Time: India Education Program Learnings
Hi. I'm writing to request a favor. The India Education Program pilot is concluding in Pune, India. It has been extraordinarily challenging and a series of learnings have emerged from the pilot that we intend to take on board to inform the way forward. I had promised an honest, open and comprehensive review. There are multiple ways that we are trying to collate and distill these learnings. One of these is that the Foundation has commissioned a study to do in depth interviews with a wide variety of folks who were directly or indirectly involved in the pilot. The include discussions with students, Ambassadors, faculty as well as members of the global community such as yourself. I thought it would be really particularly useful if we could get your views. You have been involved in the project (albeit not as part of the formal project structure.) I thank you for your involvement. You have made some interesting and insightful comments in the discussions you have participated in. Would you be willing and available for the person working on this study so that she can get your feedback and suggestions and comments? If so, would you let me know on my talk page? Do also let me know how I can have her reach out to you. Many thanks in advance. Hisham (talk) 10:00, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Wiki.java Bug Report
Hi MER-C. Hope you're well. I believe I have found 2 bugs in Wiki.java.

The first has to do with <tt>.getImageHistory(String title)</tt>. Any parameter that contains a space character crashes the program. This is exemplified in the below:

The second bug is with <tt>.userExists(String username)</tt>. It returns true for any input:

Could you please look into these? Thanks in advance. Best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 03:09, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The first one can be fixed by urlencoding the title (line 3149). The second one should already be fixed in r36. MER-C 04:07, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r37. MER-C 05:04, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Great! Thank you so much :) Cheers,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 05:30, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the bot framework

 * You're welcome! It's nice to see it proven capable of more than the various hacks I use it for. MER-C 12:55, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

December Metrics and Activities Meeting
Thanks for your interest in the Wikipedia Education Program's Metrics and Activities Meeting. We're attempting to schedule the next meeting, and we'd like to get your input on days and times that you'd be available. If you're interested in joining us, please fill out this Doodle. We look forward to talking with you then. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 19:07, 1 December 2011 (UTC)
 * It looks like the most number of people will be able to make it on Tuesday, December 20 at 16:00 UTC. Please visit Wikipedia Education Program Metrics and Activities Meeting for instructions on joining and time zone conversions. Hope to talk with you then! -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 22:24, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Pune analysis plan
Hi! As you were very active in discussions about the India Education Program's Pune pilot, I wanted to draw your attention to India_Education_Program/Analysis, a page that documents our analysis plan for the next few months. I encourage you to join the discussion if you have any thoughts. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 23:04, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Chip formation
Please check the history before deleting this article as a copyvio. In August, before IEP, it was a clean stub and should be returned to that state, not just deleted. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:59, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
 * That will happen when the WP:CP listing is dealt with if nobody rewrites or clarifies the copyright status of the blanked content. I don't know if any of the content is salvageable and I don't particularly want to waste too much time finding out. MER-C 12:03, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Come to think of it, reverting is a better idea. The history will be nuked when the CP listing is closed. MER-C 12:22, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

IEP CCI
Hi there. Two questions for you. First, would it be alright if I participated in the investigation in my normal Wikipedia capacity, or would you like to check over my work like any other OA? Second, it seems like the students from my class are missing from the CCI list. I'm not sure why and I'm not sure whether you're the person to inform or what I ought do about it. Apologies for going MIA; to say that my life has been insane over the past month would be a disservice to the concept of insanity. Danger High voltage! 23:11, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't know. How much experience with copyvio cleanup have you had prior to the IEP?
 * The students you listed are missing from the CCI list because they weren't in the list I borrowed from User:Manishearth. I'll add them to the CCI listing when I can. Note to self: add User:Abhishek santosh sharma and User:Pallaviagarwal90 as well. MER-C 02:22, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I've done some work closing PUFs and FFDs and such and I look through the contribs of the spam accounts I spend time on and delete their copyvios. But I've never done anything too large scale. Danger High voltage! 03:48, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't mind you participating as a community member (Bilby does, but he has CCI experience) but I'd be careful about marking things as having no copyvio. If you're uncomfortable, you can always stick to the images, clean out the entire edit(s) and/or ask someone else to check. Be sure to hand out the ShouldBeSVGs and other image cleanup templates -- unfortunately Inkscape is a foreign concept for the students. MER-C 06:04, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * CCI updated. MER-C 10:58, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Pune Pilot Review: Interview Questions
Hi MER-C, Thanks for agreeing to participate in the Pune Pilot Project Review.

Here are the core questions: 1. Do you support the goals of:
 * a) attracting new, quality contributions to Wikipedia?
 * b) attracting demographically diverse contributors to Wikipedia?

2. What is/are your role/roles on Wikipedia? 3. How did you come to know about the India Education Program (IEP) and the Pune Pilot Project? 4. What is the best, most efficient way for Wikipedians and Wikimedia Foundation to communicate about such programs, given the diversity of roles in these programs? 5. How many hours did you spend working on the IEP and the Pune Pilot Project? 6. What recommendations do you have to improve the overall impact of the IEP and similar programs on the global Wikipedia community? 7. More generally, what recommendations do you have to improve the IEP going forward? 8. What is the best way to find qualified Online Ambassadors for the IEP and similar programs going forward? 9. What role would you like to play in the IEP going forward, if any? 10. Please provide any additional information that you think I should have.

In advance, thank you for your time. Please feel free to take until the end of the week to answer the questions.I value your input. Toryread (talk) 04:59, 5 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the interview; I'll try to be as honest (and therefore blunt) as possible.


 * a) Yes. Quality is essential.
 * b) Mostly. However, my experience teaches me that there are certain regions to avoid as they are disproportionally responsible for the amount of crap that gets added to Wikipedia. India is one of them; in fact, I believe India is either the number one or number two source of garbage.
 * 1) I participate mostly in copyright violation ("copyvio") cleanup and anti-spam work. I clerk at Contributor copyright investigations ("CCI"), that is I decide whether or not the edits of a contributor needs systematic investigation for copyvios (and possibly presumptive removal). I also maintain a bot library.
 * 2) I got sucked in via this CCI request.
 * 3) Post at highly read forums such as Administrators' noticeboard, the appropriate Village pump and Requests for comment. Ensure that important stuff is mentioned in the Signpost.
 * 4) At least 15 (with more to come).
 * 5) Where to start... The WMF should:
 * 6) Consult with the community before, during and after the project. This means posting and responding to community concerns in highly visible fora. Things like this are unacceptable. Do not undertake echo chamber "consultation" on obscure mailing lists and quasi-fishbowl wikis which nobody reads on any frequent basis. Do not post dense walls of text. Do not spew bullshit.
 * 7) Do not treat the community with disrespect. Ignoring the local community of editors is unacceptable.
 * 8) Undertake disciplinary action against the WMF staff responsible for the program for negligence/incompetence that seriously compromised the integrity of the encyclopedia both reputationally and legally, failing to consult with the community and causing significant wastage of donor money. They work for an non-profit organization that runs a site that is highly community orientated. This is part of the job description! To that extent, if the same problems occur in the next IEP (or any other education program) those responsible should be fired.
 * 9) Ensure that the concerned WMF staff get volunteer accounts and attain on-wiki experience. Not just fixing a few typos, but actually wading in the sewers shovelling crap and/or helping to building quality content.
 * 10) Ensure that students are subject to disciplinary action if they engage in wholesale plagiarism and copyvios, just like they should be for any other assignment. Continually stress this in classes.
 * 11) Acknowledge that in most cases, support from the Wikipedia community is the limiting resource. Do not expand programs beyond what the community can handle. In fact, we're already past that point. In the case of the IEP, maybe a 80% haircut in student numbers (90% if the below suggestion is not followed). For the USEP, maybe a 25% reduction.
 * 12) Urge that professors make Wikipedia editing assignments voluntary.
 * 13) Encourage professors to contribute to Wikipedia and become established editors before the program starts. Those that are willing to put in the effort should be prioritized. We are not here to do their marking for them.
 * 14) Establish transparency and accountability, providing clear channels of communication that can be used when things go wrong.
 * 15) Provide a machine readable, accurate and comprehensive list of all students. I shouldn't have to ask for one, let alone twice.
 * 16) Ensure that students are capable computer users, have clue, demonstrate English language competency and have access to the necessary software. Students uploading images and inserting them into articles without even looking at them is inexcusable.
 * 17) Don't hire more OAs and CAs, but better [OC]As. Monitor and examine their edits when selecting [OC]As and throughout training. Previous Wikipedia experience on application and summarily rejecting/firing anyone who has added a copyvio to Wikipedia or advocating violation of community policy are both musts. If there are changes in [OC]As, update the documentation accordingly.
 * 18) Minimize [OC]A to student ratio, this should be no more than 10 students/CA and 30(?) students/OA. Have a few in reserve if any of them stop editing, resign or get dismissed. If the Foundation can't find the [OC]As, then turn the students away.
 * 19) Encourage the selection of articles that are less well developed. Crappy text dumps into featured articles shouldn't happen.
 * 20) Require professors, CAs and students should STFW (search the ... wiki) before choosing topics and starting articles. Articles being redirected because those involved couldn't capitalize a title properly is ridiculous.
 * 21) Open a request for comment about the program 1.5 months or so before starting it. If the community do not support the WMF undertaking the program, do not undertake it. (This will likely happen anyway, but if the community does this for the Foundation it will not look good.)
 * 22) Urge students/CAs/professors to think about whether a topic belongs in an encyclopedia before writing the article. If a topic is unencyclopedic, the article should not be created.
 * 23) If there's a extensive copyvio or quality problem (I will do everything I can to stop this from happening) don't request other OAs to clean up as though you're throwing muck at a wall and hoping it will stick. "I told Annie Lin [...] in the beginning that we just needed to do a CCI, but she didn't listen to me." (User:Calliopejen) Don't bullshit  (see 6.1) about coordinating cleanup, then fail to follow through.
 * 24) Give concrete start and end dates. No extensions (and if there are, update the pages accordingly). The rather undead nature of the program in November served only to inhibit the cleanup progress.
 * 25) Propagate the improvements made to the GEP as a whole. If the same problems occur in another subprogram of the GEP, the Foundation should expect arbitration to stop that subprogram; there are no excuses.
 * 26) Stagger completion dates throughout the semester so the inevitable last minute scrambles from different classes don't constructively interfere.
 * 27) Read Pilot experiment. Note where it refers to the experiment being " small scale " and acknowledge that 800 students is not small scale. (This point has been addressed to some extent; I'm just including it for completeness.)
 * 28) Kill it and focus outreach efforts elsewhere. If this is not possible, see question 6.
 * 29) Recruit them from the pool of established editors in the Wikipedia community. If the Foundation can't find enough established editors, stop expanding the program.
 * 30) Given that I specialize in cleaning up copyvios, none whatsoever.
 * 31) Sure. A couple of warnings to the Foundation:
 * 32) *The IEP has massively reduced community patience and confidence in the Global Education Program. I believe they are looking for radical changes, not incremental improvements. If the same mistakes are repeated or the copyvios flood in, expect arbitration to stop future IEPs.
 * 33) *Some of the points under question 6 I consider mandatory for the next IEP to go ahead: 6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12, 6.13, 6.15, 6.17, 6.19, 6.20. Failure to deliver on any of these will result in undesirable consequences, up to arbitration.
 * If you want a vision of the future, imagine an Indian student copy-pasting content onto Wikipedia -- forever (paraphrased from George Orwell). MER-C 12:50, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, this is all very useful. I look forward to getting the rest of your input. FYI, I'm going completely dark from now through 12 December, 23:00 UTC. No phone, no internet, no computer.Toryread (talk) 18:44, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your thoughtful responses to the review questions.Toryread (talk) 18:38, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Contributor copyright investigations/Indian Education Program
Hey MER-C, thanks for taking care of the logistics. I thought I'd try and help out a bit, but I'm not very good at reading instructions. ; Good luck, Sisyphus, Drmies (talk) 18:43, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Cyber-bullying copyvio claim
I watch Cyber-bullying and noticed that it had a Copyviocore added. I did an analysis of two pieces of copied text, and it appears that Wikipedia is the source (see Talk:Cyber-bullying). I'm not sure where to record the fact that I did the analysis, so I'm hoping you might have a look and possibly resolve the case. Thanks. Johnuniq (talk) 02:42, 8 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I had a look into this and found the article was not listed on Copyright problems. This I have remedied (5 days left until it can be picked off by an admin) with a note to your post on the talk page.
 * To establish copying from Wikipedia, you need to show that WP has the content before the alleged copyvio source. It isn't sufficient to show that content has been in Wikipedia for a long time; five year old copyvios are more common than you think. MER-C 02:55, 8 December 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, thanks, although my diffs show a lot more than the age of the text at Wikipedia. I just added some more info, but there is no rush and whenever someone gets a chance, I think they will see that Wikipedia was the source. Johnuniq (talk) 03:59, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Pakistani TV copyvio
Hey,

Thanks for your help with Contributor copyright investigations/Shariq r82. I've noticed that there's an older user who has also been copying and pasting material on Pakistani TV shows. This is User:Joinzaheer and he has not edited since March. I've removed material from three articles he created: Aashti, Baityaan and Noor Pur Ki Rani. Is there a way to add this user to the CCI for Shariq r82? Would you recommend creating a new CCI?

Thanks, GabrielF (talk) 23:43, 11 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Added. MER-C 01:02, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Problem Logging In
Hi MER-C. Hope you're well. I'm having trouble logging in with Wiki.java. It worked fine earlier today, but now it crashes with a StringOutOfBoundsException whenever <tt>login</tt> is called: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -21 at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1937) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.login(Wiki.java:903) at LGTest.main(LGTest.java:11)

I suspect that there may be something wrong with the mediawiki API. When you have time, could you please look into this? Thanks,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 02:15, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
 * The breakage is caused by Special:Userlogin redirecting to the mobile site intermittently. (I scrape login tokens from there as getting them through the API is more cumbersome.) I don't have time to bug the devs at the moment. MER-C 02:32, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
 * /: I see. Well, I hope they fix it soon... I miss my bots.... Best,  F ASTILY  (TALK) 04:07, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
 * And...everything seems to be working again. How strange :o - F ASTILY  (TALK) 05:59, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Administrators' noticeboard
Hi MER-C. You participated in Administrators' noticeboard/Archive228, in which a one-month topic ban on creating new articles and making page moves was imposed on. The closing admin has asked for community input about whether to remove the topic ban or make it indefinite at Administrators' noticeboard. Cunard (talk) 08:58, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Season's tidings!
FWiW Bzuk (talk) 02:41, 25 December 2011 (UTC).
 * And a merry Christmas to you as well! (You shouldn't use left-aligned images on talk pages, they break indentation as demonstrated here). MER-C 02:49, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Marton Varo
Hi MER-C,

I noticed you have blanked the entire article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marton_Varo ... as noted on the Talk page, permission to grant usage of materials being contested have been emailed (now twice) to permissions-en@undefinedwikimedia.org with the latter email sent on 12/28/11 9:22 AM PT. Please see that this erroneous deletion is reversed and that content is restored on the wiki ASAP.

Thank you for your prompt action. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marthistory (talk • contribs)
 * I don't have access to the permissions-en email queue, so I can't help you any further. The article was blanked in accordance with procedure and listed on a Wikipedia page manned by volunteers who have access to the queue. The people who have access to this mailing address are also volunteers. It is due for processing tomorrow, but it will be longer due to a backlog. Please be patient, especially since we're in the Christmas/New Year void. MER-C 03:15, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

copyvio of itself
You said : Bot FAIL -- page a copyvio of itself?

You may wish to see this — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sphilbrick (talk • contribs)
 * I am aware of this problem, though I don't believe that was the cause. I noticed that all cases involved either a ' or a " and the corresponding character entity references <tt>&amp;#039;</tt> and <tt>&amp;quot;</tt>. I've reported this issue, but as I did so on Christmas Day I think it might have been ignored. MER-C 03:01, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

RE: CCI request and Syed Mir Muhammad Quli Musavi
Please comment section of see http://mullasadra.blogspot.com/2011/09/scholarship-in-sayyid-family-in-avadh-i.html. Blog owner has given express permission to use the content for WP articles. If it is not sufficient please let me know I'll try my best to be complient. BTW I was not aware of Berne Convention and it's clauses but my ignorance is my fault and I am ready to fix any and all issues caused due to my ignorance of Copyright policies. If any tutorial/course is available I'll like to undertake it.-- Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haider t c s 12:06, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Reply. MER-C 13:37, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

January meeting
The hunt for the best time for our January edition of the Wikipedia Education Program Metrics and Activities Meeting is underway. If you're interested in joining us, please fill out your availability on this Doodle by Monday, January 16, so we can schedule the meeting. Thanks! -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 23:01, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry for that
Sorry for that accidental warning - first day using STiki after switching from Huggle. :P  -  down  load  ׀  talk  05:00, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * What warning? (Looks at page history)... oh. That's OK. MER-C 13:08, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Copyright problems board: clerk application
Hi. :) Would you mind weighing in at Wikipedia_talk:Copyright_problems/Clerks? --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:35, 16 January 2012 (UTC)