User talk:MER-C/archives/31

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Wiki-java HTML format bug
Hello MER-C,

thanks for your nice lightweight Java Framework.

I think I found some kind of bug. When I use the diff function on a revision some HTML parts at the beginning of each line will get stripped out.

The output looks like this:
 * td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Zeile 58:
 * td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Zeile 58:
 * r>
 * r>

instead of:
 * Zeile 58:
 * Zeile 58:
 * Zeile 58:

And could you please advice me how I could use the NEXT_REVISION, PREVIOUS_REVISION CURRENT_REVISION parameters? I don't know how to call the diff function with these methods.

Last but not least: You're using the following lines of code:
 * else if (oldid == PREVIOUS_REVISION)
 * out.write("&rvdiffto=previous");

I think the API wants a "prev" instead of "previous" here.

Regards, tony — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.1.92.9 (talk • contribs)


 * For the table problem, do you have a revid or two I can test with? I acknowledge the last two problems (the middle one requires an additional overload). I'm not on my development computer at the moment, but I likely will have a fix on this weekend. MER-C 15:40, 25 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your answer! It happened on all articles I tried - tried to compare the newest version with the previous one. Can't you reproduce it? Maybe it's an issue with the German Wikipedia "de.wikipedia.org" then (though this should be unlikely).
 * By overloading you mean that I should implement a new overloaded diff into your framework, which will accept "Wiki.PREVIOUS_REVISION" etc.? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.14.192.151 (talk • contribs)
 * Yeah. MER-C 12:19, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you able to reproduce my issue with diff? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.1.72.12 (talk • contribs)
 * Does r42 fix this problem? MER-C 05:42, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, it seems to work!
 * In your javadoc documentation you write that it will create sth like [] which isn't exactly true as it will only generate the difference table.
 * But I just have to figure out how to create a html file which will highlight the changes with green/yellow/red like on the orginial Wikipedia version difference page - which shouldn't be too hard. Thanks again! :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.12.244.245 (talk • contribs)

Question :)
The National Front of Afghanistan article has no copyvio but i. e. quotes the Front's Declaration, which is a rather long quote but meant for being widely published. Is it ok in such cases to use such long quotes? Best regards, JCAla (talk) 08:48, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Hmmm. What additional encyclopedic benefit does including the whole thing have over linking to it or quoting excerpts from it? MER-C 13:11, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

In the context of the current situation in Afghanistan the declaration has been described as a true meaningful step as it meant the reformation of the Northern Alliance, as well as constituting a first and powerful push for decentralization of Afghanistan. So the whole thing as such is rather important and good for the reader to have as a primary text. JCAla (talk) 16:49, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't see anything in principle that's wrong with it (see e.g. Birkenau concentration camp), especially since you've got an encyclopedic justification. Quotes of this length tend to be used sparingly. Be advised that this understanding has been built up from reading thousands of articles and not the Manual of Style! MER-C 06:13, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thank you very much! JCAla (talk) 08:53, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Contributor copyright investigations/PGPirate
I have completed the identification of copyvios at Contributor copyright investigations/PGPirate. It's been 2 weeks since he was notified of the investigation. What additional steps must be taken before these images can be deleted and the CCI closed?--GrapedApe (talk) 17:52, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid you're going to have to do a bit more legwork -- a mass nomination(s) of the suspect images at WP:PUF while linking to the CCI. It may help to divide them up logically by camera. Once the PUFs have closed and the images deleted (2 weeks), I'll close the CCI. MER-C 02:58, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
 * That's cool. Thanks.--GrapedApe (talk) 13:03, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Spam or not spam
This editor is adding dozens of links like this one -  - all by Walker,John -  to dozens of articles, thus far I've simply observed but they seem to be spam to me and I'm curious as to your opinion. Thanks...Modernist (talk) 17:11, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Hmmm. I see some edits that aren't adding links to artdesigncafe.com way back in the contribution survey, but the majority of edits are adding such links/references. It's definitely worth asking the editor about it. MER-C 02:50, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Bots?
We might get bots at CP again! I know the whole place would collapse if not for you. :) If you have anything to add, please do at my talk page. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 02:53, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

You gave me a fright!
This edit gave me a fright. Currently working on the bot and fetched that page, and saw the user name "dpmukBOT" in the retrieved text. Thought the bot had gone amok and started writing to the actual pages without my permission. It's currently set up so it shows me what it's about to write so that I can OK it (and so not be an illegal bot) and thought that it must've been writing it regardless. Oh well, the code seems to be working and what you did makes sense, so no harm done! Dpmuk (talk) 06:55, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Boo! I'll go through the backlog such that there are 10 CP items per day. This should clear the page in about 2-3 weeks. MER-C 07:09, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * On a related note - would you mind holding off doing your normal tidying up today? I'd like to give a bot a realistic run.  I'll set myself a reminder to make sure I do it around midnight. Dpmuk (talk) 07:46, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Okay. MER-C 08:38, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Could you take a look at User:DpmukBOT/tasks and comment if you feel there's anything you wish to add. And can I just thank you for all the tedious work you've done since VWBot went down. Hopefully we'll have a new bot soon. Dpmuk (talk) 03:09, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * No objections. If you would like commit access to my SVN repository, please email me using a Google account. MER-C 05:33, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi, sorry for taking a while to get back to you about this. What with RfA, working on the bot, BRFA, rewriting my user page etc. I've been a bit busy!  Anyway I thought I'd let you know where I was and get your thoughts on a couple of things.
 * As I wanted my bot to check for edit conflicts and assert it was logged in I created my own class that extended  and created some new edit functions.  These basically take a title, text and summary as before but then also take an object of type   and a   object.  The   object gives the time you started getting data so as to detect conflicts.  The   class controls edit options such as mark minor, mark bot and assert login.  Well, OK those are the only three it does at the moment but it obviously could be easily extended to cover other options.  This seemed to me a better solution than continuing to create edit functions with more and more inputs.  I'll e-mail you with a google account linked e-mail shortly and I'll also send you an url of where I've uploaded this new class (for privacy reasons I don't want to place the location on wiki).  If you like the idea I could merge it into   and upload it to the repository.
 * Would you also be happy to host the bot code in your repository? Would keep everything more centralised.  I'll also shortly send you a link to that class in case you fancy looking over it.
 * Cheers for creating, it certainly made my life easier! Dpmuk (talk) 05:13, 22 February 2012 (UTC)
 * A bit more. From looking at the bot code you're notice I'm not doing much in the way of error handling.  As I'm watching it run at the moment that's not much of a problem but I plan to get it to write errors to a file.  I'd also like it to write log messages to a file but have had no experience of using  .  Any advice.  You also have mail. Dpmuk (talk) 05:34, 22 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Commit access enabled. I think I will add a couple of boolean properties so that bots that want to mark their edits as minor or always use the bot flag can do so. The assertion can be added by overriding initVars (this is a documentation problem). There is an inbuilt way of doing this (checks cookies) but I'm not sure if it works. The Calendar parameter to detect edit conflicts is sensible, but it needs appropriate error handling. The (n)assert=X parameters are specific to mw:Extension:Assert Edit and hence shouldn't be merged. As for logging to a file, see and.
 * Notes to self:
 * lines 464: make this protected
 * fix documentation line 549
 * getPageInfo: add a start timestamp to return, edit:set start timestamp from getPageInfo, add Calendar parameter when getPageText is called. Handle edit conflicts properly, update extended documentation.
 * line 6288: deprecate (see point 1)
 * Add multipart post, convert edit</tt> to it (less overhead for large articles).
 * Delete <tt>org.wikipedia.bots.CPBot</tt>, alternatively you can commit over it (the whole lot will be moved to Wikimedia Labs if I get an account there).
 * MER-C 07:26, 22 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It's because I was somewhat expecting a reply like that that I didn't just ask for commit access and go madly committing. It was obvious that a) I may do things a bit different from you and b) I wasn't aware of all the ideas behind what you were doing, for example not wanting to have stuff that relied on mw:Extension:Assert Edit.  I also realise some of what I've done is a little hacky, partly because of not being sure how best to do things to keep in line with your ideas and partly to get something working as quick as I could while making sure the code was safe.  I know there are definitely more than a few things I want to refactor in the slightly longer term!
 * Had seen the java doc on logger although hadn't managed to stumble across FileLogger yet - will take a look. Cheers.
 * That's the quick reply as I'm about to go to bed. I'll reply more fully tomorrow. Dpmuk (talk) 07:38, 22 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry, didn't get a chance to look at this today - my wikipedia time got eaten up by working on copyviocore. I'll try and get to it tomorrow. Dpmuk (talk) 06:12, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Well that took longer than expected. When I'm coding a lot at work, and it's not going well, I'm not much in the mood for working on a bot in my free time as well!

At the moment when checking for edit conflicts I return a boolean as to whether it was successful or not. Were you thinking of throwing an error instead? The code I has checks for an editconflict error, I suppose it should also check for pagedeleted (I ignored this at the time as I'd be quite happy for the bot to error out if a page had been deleted as it shouldn't happen for what the bot is currently doing). Are there any others I've missed? I can have a stab at updating  for this or I'm happy to let you do it and continue to use my butchered version until you have.

As for the AssertEdit issue. Can I suggest you have a function along the lines of additionalEditOptions which add extra options to the API edit call and which can be overridden. In the edit function you'd then have a  somewhere. By default additionalEditOptions would return an empty string but could be overridden to return something else. Overriding  is an option but that limits it to fixing them for the whole session. Dpmuk (talk) 18:24, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Dpmuk, if you are searching for a good detailed, configurable file/console logger, take a look at Apache log4j. It's simple to use, a little complicated to configure though. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 21:29, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Did some fiddling to the above effects in r48. MER-C 05:34, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Right, finally had some time to look at this again. My plan, if it seems reasonable to you, is to create a class   that extends   so that it works with mw:Extension:Assert Edit.  I've largely implemented this this evening except you can only assert logged in.  It will obviously be trivial to extend it once I find time.
 * At the moment I'm still using a slightly butchered version of  to allow for edit conflict checking.  I could change the rest of my code so that it can deal with the normal   but if the plan is for someone to update   to allow for edit conflict checking this doesn't seem worthwhile as I may as well just wait for the new code.  I'm not expecting you to do the update any time soon, although obviously it will be nice if it is.  That said if I find myself with a spare couple couple of hours I'll have a look at it myself.
 * With that in mind I probably won't commit anything until a) I've sorted out  properly and b) the edit conflict thing is sorted.
 * I plan on running the bot with the new code (which also includes logging code) manually tomorrow and if all goes to plan set it up to run automatically on toolserver from the day after.
 * Does that all seem sensible to you? Dpmuk (talk) 05:06, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * FYI, I wrote WMFWiki.java as a place to dump all the WMF specific stuff. It may take a few weeks for me to do the edit conflict checking stuff, but it really depends on how lazy I am. MER-C 03:21, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Precious I

 * You're welcome; it's what I do on Wikipedia. Let me know when the CCI is finished and I'll close it. MER-C 10:27, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Looks done to me, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:36, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Closed. MER-C 02:55, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Wiki.java Bug?
Hi MER-C, hope you're well. I think I found a bug in Wiki.java involving getSectionText. When running the following program:

I should be getting a null edit, but instead, I get this. The program seems to replace instances of "<" and ">" with their HTML counterparts. Repeated runs of this program indicate that there is an issue with the amperstamp character as well:. - F ASTILY  (TALK) 06:32, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Line 1494: changing <tt>return text.substring(a, b);</tt> to <tt>return decode(text.substring(a, b));</tt> should do the trick. MER-C 09:03, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r46. MER-C 03:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Great! Thank you! Best,  F ASTILY  (TALK)  11:06, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Nice!
I appreciate your Monopoly and Bingo from the user page. May I suggest copying them into subpages as user essays, so they'd be more easily findable? --<sub style="border:1px solid #228B22;padding:1px;">Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; talk to me 18:15, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Done, see User:MER-C/Monopoly and User:MER-C/Bingo. MER-C 03:01, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Wiki.java enhancements
Hi. I see that all stuff that I asked have been implemented and new Wiki.java was merged into my project so gently, and all stuff worked, thank you so much!
 * I posted a small bug to svn (No 7 getFirstRevision throws StringIndexOutOfBoundsException ).
 * I also have one more request. I want to have a possibility to put comment in prepend function. Add 1 parameter or add 1 more overload,please, that would be suitable for me, thanks. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 19:41, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
 * See r48 (also should be a bit faster). MER-C 05:33, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much! I like it.
 * And I have a new req :). Wiki.java has a good prepend function but no append. And I need append. Sorry if I annoyed to you. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 19:04, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You can already do this using <tt>newSection(title, "", text, minor, bot)</tt> or <tt>edit(title, text, summary, -1)</tt> if you don't mind an extra <tt>\n\n</tt>. MER-C 12:16, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, yes. Thanks. ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 16:16, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

User:Themacor
I ran across this user via a report at WP:COIN. They have been adding an external link to a Serbian website to articles about football (soccer) players. The articles have external links to English websites that have the same and often more information which, as far as I know, means that the link shouldn't be included per WP:NONENGEL. I would simply revert the edit and issue a warning but the link has been added over 500 times in the user's history. It's been added 83 times today (last I checked).

I noticed that you had issued warning to the user in the past and they claim to have sent you an email in response. I submitted a report at Wikiproject Spam but I wanted to see if there's anything else I can/should do. Any suggestions? I don't usually deal with this level of spamming.  Ol Yeller21 <sup style="color:#827839;">Talktome  19:44, 6 March 2012 (UTC)


 * In the emails he sent me, he (indirectly) reveals his conflict of interest. It is true that this user has a vested interest in having this site linked on Wikipedia. Because this is based on private communication, I won't be going into this any further.


 * I've outlined my position on the edits of this user here. I agree with you that the links are likely to be WP:ELNO material. The WHOIS record contradicts a claim made in an email that this is the official statistics site for the Serbian league. I'd go for a dramaboard posting, the purpose of WT:WPSPAM is mainly the documentation of spam campaigns.


 * Unfortunately, I no longer have the patience for dealing with this user. Sorry. MER-C 04:06, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I appreciate your help and sympathize with your feelings for the user. Thanks again for the help.   Ol Yeller21  <sup style="color:#827839;">Talktome  15:12, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Thank you
Thanks for dealing with the copyright issue Re: Big Fish Games' hidden object articles, I've removed some more affiliate links from a few other articles. I'll try to keep an eye out on other BFG articles to make sure the affiliate links aren't being sprinkled all over. Someoneanother 00:35, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. As there are no remaining edits that need review, I have archived your request. I'm fully expecting the user to fade away over the next week or so, but it's best to keep an eye out for more crap. I note that User:Francis Jay Acosta had a similar problem in the past. MER-C 05:05, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Question: Get a Revision Comment
Hello,

thanks for your great Wiki.java framework. I have one question: Is there any way to get the "edit-comment" of a revision?

For your example URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=34349027

I'd like to get these line: "(remove deleted image)" which is the comment for the edit 34349027

Would help a lot!

Kind regards, Chris — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.229.101.93 (talk • contribs)
 * <tt>getRevision(34349027L).getSummary</tt> MER-C 02:46, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Works like a charm. Sorry that I missed that! You can delete this request. Chris — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.229.101.93 (talk • contribs)
 * I found a little "bug" here. You're removing the round brackets from the comment - which will fail for some entries.
 * Example: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IRAC&diff=prev&oldid=96232853
 * This will get cutted to "r2.7.1) (Bot: Ändere: en:IRAC (disambiguation)" instead of "(r2.7.1) Bot: Ändere: en:IRAC (disambiguation)". It doesn't matter and wouldn't be worth the effort I guess, just to let you know. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.229.101.93 (talk • contribs)
 * This isn't a bug -- that's what the edit summary actually is! The bot author has exploited the fact that the GUI always surrounds the edit summary with parentheses. MER-C 06:06, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Possible copyright violation @ Taxation in China
Hi, Would you be able to take a look at Taxation in the People's Republic of China? I haven't examined it closely, the but tone of writing and dearth of references leads me to suspect that much of the page may have been copied and pasted from elsewhere. Thanks. Homunculus (duihua) 07:51, 12 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Spot on: at least. MER-C 07:59, 12 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks. The editor who introduce the copyrighted materials appears to have been inactive for about five years, so it's pretty astonishing that this content has endured so long. Homunculus (duihua) 04:44, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

The editor who added the offending material to did the same at Education in the People's Republic of China. I've already removed much of it, though a good deal remains. Most appears to have copied from here. I'm becoming more bold in deleting copyright violations, but since you appear to be a veteran on this process, I just wanted to make sure that blanket removal of such content is considered appropriate protocol. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.Homunculus (duihua) 06:56, 18 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The content you removed comes from Library of Congress Country Studies, which are in the public domain and can be incorporated into Wikipedia. The real source for these is . MER-C 11:03, 18 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Great, thanks for looking into it.Homunculus (duihua) 15:31, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Revision.isbot
I think the isbot function isn't working currently, it's returning false for bots. Just to let you know. (Is this the right place to post this?) TonySkyy (talk) 00:47, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The bot flag is specific to the Recentchanges database table and can only be accessed through <tt>recentChanges</tt> and friends. FIXME: update documentation accordingly. MER-C 03:20, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the clarification. Some tools like WikiSense are able to detect the Bot status for older edits - just fyi.
 * I encountered another "bug" though - when using the Revision.diff funtion it will return the following html code for deleted lines (looks like an endcoding error):


 * instead of
 * instead of


 *  --TonySkyy (talk) 02:56, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I think these tools infer the bot status of a particular edit from the user has a bot flag. This is no longer a correct assumption because the API has discretionary bot flagging. The diff marker (I think it's an e[nm]-dash) is not supported by your development environment e.g. your console font does not support this character. To check, I displayed the diff content in a <tt>JOptionPane</tt>; it displayed correctly.


 * Oh, and thanks for the nice email. MER-C 04:16, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Wow how embarrassing - the workspace encoding wasn't set to UTF-8! It's 2012, they should finally change the default encoding to Unicode in Windows! And yes it is a "\u002D" character.--TonySkyy (talk) 00:14, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Closing CCIs
Hey. Would you perhaps have a checklist of sorts on what steps are taken when CCIs are closed? I'm going to see if I can knock off some more low-hanging fruit, but this way i can close the stuff once it's done instead of waiting around for someone else to do it. Wizardman Operation Big Bear 16:26, 18 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Blank the investigation with {{subst:cblank}}. I usually leave the background in place, but it's up to you whether to remove it.
 * Delist the investigation from Template:CCIlist and WP:CCI.
 * Add the investigation to Contributor copyright investigations/Archive.
 * Should be pretty straightforward. MER-C 02:19, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Bot problems
Any ideas: Wikipedia talk:Copyright problems? Dpmuk (talk) 02:02, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually I suspect it may be this: . Dpmuk (talk) 03:03, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Probably. It's only one server, so I'd just set maxlag to -1 (or whatever disables it) and plow ahead as usual. It's not the usual type of lag that hits contributions and watchlists as well. MER-C 03:43, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Xml escape codes in Revision.getXXX members (Wiki.java)
Hi. After r = wiki.get(First)Revision when I access r.getPage or r.getUser I'm getting this dummy escapes like &amp;#039; instead of '. I have to run it through my own removeEscape and sometimes I forget. I found that in your parseRevision function you run comment through decode. What about running "user" and "title" through decode too? That would be very good for me. Actually this also can break someone's code which puts these items in xml or html if such case exists. Oh :( ~ Нирваньчик ~ ⊤άλҟ 21:31, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
 * r50. MER-C 12:17, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Flag copyright
Hi MER-C! I need a copyright expert's insight on a deletion discussion at Commons. It's a tough one, and I'm not 100% confident in what I'm arguing, so it'd be a huge help if I could get an experienced user's insight. Note that I've also asked your colleagues Wizardman and MRG, so if you're too busy to take a look, not to worry! Regards, Osiris (talk) 00:36, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I see no reason to doubt the copyright information on the English Wikipedia SVG. MER-C 03:37, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, my feeling is to err on the safe side here. Thanks for your comment, is it okay if I quote you on the commons thread? Osiris (talk) 12:44, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Sure. MER-C 12:51, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

XSS vulnerability
One of your tools has an XSS vulnerability. (Cross-site scripting). <b style="color:#f90;font-family:Arial">πr2</b> (<i style="color:#0f3;font-family:Arial">t</i> • <i style="color:#03f;font-family:Arial">c</i>) 02:49, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Here's another: http://wikipediatools.appspot.com/spamarchivesearch.jsp?query=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28location.href%29%3B%3C%2Fscript%3E (note that this will open an alert window, but arbitrary JS could be inserted probably). <b style="color:#f90;font-family:Arial">πr2</b> (<i style="color:#0f3;font-family:Arial">t</i> • <i style="color:#03f;font-family:Arial">c</i>) 03:36, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Fixed and deployed. MER-C 11:33, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Reference to Wiki.java
Hello. I'm going to check out the code of my bot to online public repository (yes it is code.google.com). May I (as of GNU GPL) include wiki.java in my source code there? I will use GNU GPL for my code too. This will assure that future users of my code will compile with correct version of Wiki.java. (I also added a short notice in comments, but they can miss it). ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 21:24, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, as long as you abide by the GNU GPL v3. MER-C 02:46, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Considering a CCI
Hi. :) As I trust your judgment (obviously!) and you assess potential CCIs more often than anybody, I would really appreciate your input here. I haven't requested a CCI yet because, while the examples I'm seeing are pretty straightforward, they are also typically rather small.

Speaking of CCIs, I'm at a total loss as to what to do with the one for Wikiwatcher1. Should I ask somebody at WP:MCQ to decide? A Commons admin? I can see that there may be legitimate concerns with verification procedures, but I'm just loathe to open it up if there's not good reason. The process is (she said dryly) not as efficient as I'd like. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 23:04, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Responded there. As for Wikiwatcher1, I can't decide on whether to open it either. Passing the buck is the obvious way forward -- I'd go for MCQ first. MER-C 03:37, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I've decided based on his upload of a picture the Washington Post dates to 1979 as pre-1978. The source he used to get the image doesn't say anything about the date, and a search of "James Garner" + 1979 on Google images brought up the image as one of the first hits. :/ Can you do that magic thing you do to populate the image list? Contributor copyright investigations/Wikiwatcher1 --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:30, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Great to see that dealt with. FYI, you can do this too (should work for 99% of users). I'll see to Johnfos tomorrow. Don't forget those two users you want to look at. MER-C 13:14, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, yes. I forgot that the magic had been shared. :) Also appreciate the reminder about those two users. I did a mini-CCI on one this morning and opened up the other, after a check showed that there seem to be plenty more problems. I appreciate your opening John's CCI. I moved it to the date just to reduce the chance of it popping up on a google search of the name, since although the subpages are "noindexed" I'm not sure where people may link the subpage. I need to find somebody to help him with these issues. I wonder if I should ask at ANI?


 * By the way, Wikiwatcher1's defensive response to the James Garner infringement is telling, I think. :/ . Not much by way of "due diligence" there. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:07, 12 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Go you, with all the CCI stuff you're doing. :) I'm trying to catch up on the backlog at CP, but it doesn't help when little mini CCIs keep popping up. (Had one over the weekend, but am blocking the details. :) AIR, it was at least short.) And two prior CCIers blocked this morning! And the second one says he is a lawyer. Does he not get that he can't copy from MSNBC on Wikipedia or does he just not care? I tell you, I despair sometimes. :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:48, 24 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd say some combination of the latter, language barriers and intellectual laziness. Some things never change. Yawn. MER-C 13:00, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Wiki.java fixes
Hi,

First of all, thank you very much for this code, it's been very helpful for me. I am buiding a bunch of stuff on it, which I plan to eventually release.

A couple fixes:

Trying to access a wiki that requires login access ($wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false;) results in Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "l version="1.0"?><api servedby="newpublic"><error code="readapidenied" info="You need read permission to use this module"

Adding a try/catch around 6099 (current code) gets around this.

Also, it seems that recent mw api's don't use 'displaytitle' in info queries, and this causes an error, Title is included by default now.

Thanks!

Vid (talk)


 * Please provide a stack trace. Are you attempting to <tt>login</tt> first, then read the pages? (I can't test this, I don't have access to a suitable private wiki.)


 * As for display title, see . Although the GUI says "iPad", the name of the page (in the database, and via the API) is actually "IPad". MER-C 04:46, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi again, here's a stack track when trying to login to a closed wiki:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "l version="1.0"?> <error code="readapidenied" info="You need read permission to use this module"	at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:65)	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:481)	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:514)	at mediawiki.Wiki.getCurrentDatabaseLag(Wiki.java:1002)	at mediawiki.Wiki.fetch(Wiki.java:6098)	at mediawiki.Wiki.login(Wiki.java:880)	at org.zooid.mediawiki.app.WikiOverview.doWriteRowTemplates(WikiOverview.java:32)	at org.zooid.mediawiki.app.WikiOverview.main(WikiOverview.java:20)

I guess it's a chicken and egg, it wants to retrieve the lag time before logging in, but retrieving lag time requires being logged in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vid (talk • contribs)
 * Please try using SVN HEAD, this may have been fixed in r51. MER-C 01:49, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

A query regarding an image I would like to upload for inclusion in an article
Hi, I'd like your opinion regarding this image as I'd like to upload it for inclusion in Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song). Thanks in advance. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 23:04, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm presuming this image is non-free content. What is this image depicting? Why do you want to include it in the article? Is this an unacceptable use of non-free content? Is it reasonably possible to replace this image? You will need to answer these questions in order to give a fair use rationale. MER-C 02:23, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * This is a screenshot of the live performance of the song at the 2005 2006 MTV movie awards, with the band dressed in Star Wars costumes. I want to include it because it's a notable performance, which demonstrates the popularity of the song. It's a low resolution picture, so it doesn't look like unacceptable use. This performance is unique enough to be considered irreplaceable. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 17:18, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * You're saying the performance is notable... but it's not mentioned in the article (as far as I can tell). You will find that if you don't talk about it in the article, the image may be deemed "decorative" and be subject to deletion. Besides, don't the awards and chart performance sections demonstrate the popularity of the song, thus making the use of the image unnecessary? MER-C 06:06, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
 * According to these sources, notability could be established in the article – I've just added this. As for my point regarding popularity, the image of the band dressed as characters from one of the most popular film franchises in history... well, it's pretty obvious. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 18:31, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Fair enough. An observation: I briefly surveyed about 30 other song articles and only one of them had a similar use of non-free content. Ultimately though, the decision to include is one that you will have to make. MER-C 05:31, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for all your help. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 15:28, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Did I explain it well?
Turns out it was all about a single poster (which I uploaded twice, because first time I thought I just used a wrong license - it was pretty confusing). --Niemti (talk) 10:54, 18 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I declined the request due to lack of evidence. It's only one image, and you don't have a pattern of problematic uploads as far as I can tell. MER-C 11:21, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks! MER-C 06:19, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
 * And doing other things as well. Not to piggy-back on somebody else's barnstar, but you really do rock. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 09:13, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

User:KAVEBEAR/Kukona
Why did you place a copyright violation on my user space? I know it is a copyright violation that was why I deleted the article and moved the content to my user space.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 14:06, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Copyvios are not acceptable anywhere on Wikipedia. MER-C 02:55, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Wiki.java resolve redirects
Hello. I need badly a possibility of Wiki.getFirstRevision to resolve redirects. It's easy, according to just adding &redirects to query will do the job, I tested it. So, one more overload or function argument would be very welcome. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 20:30, 6 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The problem is that all action=query URL fetches support this, and I'd rather do this as a preference instead of 10 extra overloads. This will require some refactoring... (the current URL Strings are not suited for this). MER-C 10:11, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
 * r63 (may break something, please check). MER-C 11:28, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
 * You made this global. Yeah, agree, this is reasonable from Wiki.java framework point of view. Ok. Will need to test if this is not breaking anything else. But looks good, thanks! ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 12:17, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I forgot one line of code which breaks the entire thing. Fixed in r64. MER-C 12:27, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Making the Wikipedia Education Program Meeting better
Thanks for expressing interest in the Wikipedia Education Program Metrics and Activities Meeting. I'm investigating ways to make the meeting more effective, and I'd love to get feedback from you as to what we could do to improve the meeting. Please weigh in on the discussion there! -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk)

<div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, update your subscription &middot;  Distributed via Global message delivery, 01:15, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Hey
How about this year you consider doing this. :)--Hu12 (talk) 03:04, 8 June 2012 (UTC)
 * You shouldn't be surprised that the answer is still no. MER-C 12:35, 8 June 2012 (UTC)
 * no..not supprised.--Hu12 (talk) 14:47, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

Cardinal Langley School
As you will see I have undone the reference to a crime committed many years ago and which is in no way relevant AT ALL to the school becoming a comprehensive!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.45.222.192 (talk • contribs)
 * What exactly does this have to do with me? I have never edited the article in question. PROTIP: read User:MER-C/SmartQuestions before your block expires. MER-C 02:57, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, I see: the editor below forgot to replace one of the links when (s)he copied my talk page header. You still need to read my essay, though. MER-C 03:03, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Talk Page header
I took your talk page header, due to how awesome it is. Hope you don't mind :-D ♥ Solarra ♥  ♪ Talk ♪  ߷  ♀ Contribs ♀ 02:13, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't, but please replace all the links next time. MER-C 03:11, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Heads up! New message!
New message here: Talk:Michael_Madhusudan_Dutt --<span style="white-space:nowrap;text-shadow:#ED791A 0em 0em 0.8em,#F55220 -0.8em -0.8em 0.9em,#1D6B00 0.7em 0.7em 0.8em;"> Tito Dutta  ✉  08:14, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * a new reply in same page! --<span style="white-space:nowrap;text-shadow:#ED791A 0em 0em 0.8em,#F55220 -0.8em -0.8em 0.9em,#1D6B00 0.7em 0.7em 0.8em;"> Tito Dutta  ✉  09:18, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Still need reviews for the Wikipedia Education Program research project
Hey, MER-C! If you have some time to review the quality of some articles, we're using the results for a really important research project that will help shape the future of the US/Canada Education Program. For a few projects, we're on a pretty tight timeline and are really eager to have many more of these articles reviewed over the next week. However, we think it's most useful to come from experienced Wikipedia editors.

I have gone through each class to prioritize for various projects, and everyone on the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation would be extremely grateful if you could participate by reviewing a few articles ('pre' and 'post' versions). If we can rally a lot of editors to review one or two articles each day, we will be able to make the most use of this research for our tight timeline. As many of our Ambassadors have requested it, we are really eager to find out which classes have been successful according to the Wikipedian standard.

If you can spare some time, please check out these priority articles and give it a go. Even 1 or 2 a day would help immensely! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 02:15, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Copyright problems noticeboard split
I quite boldly split the noticeboard itself, previously at Copyright problems, to Copyright problems/Noticeboard. For a complete explanation, see Administrators' noticeboard/Archive237. Since you're one of the only listed clerks who appears to still handle those issues, I wanted to leave you a note. Let me know if you have any concerns, or if you want to berate me :) Thanks.  Equazcion  ( talk )  08:51, 16 Jun 2012 (UTC)
 * The move broke a bot which does the daily paperwork shuffle on that page. It's nothing major -- fixing it is rather trivial and I don't mind doing it manually in the meantime. MER-C 10:17, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Precious

 * You're welcome. MER-C 12:09, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

reverting your edit
Hi Mer-c, I reverted your edits, because XLSTAT provides Statistical packages and therefore it has a legitimate place in the pages : Comparison of statistical packages and List of statistical packages. Thank you, Regards, Christine14612 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Christine14612 (talk • contribs)
 * This company has a history of abusing Wikipedia for promotional means with various IP addresses and accounts with no other edits except to insert mentions of XLSTAT. Abuse of Wikipedia as a marketing medium is most certainly not "legitimate". Show me that you are editing Wikipedia to improve the encyclopedia, as opposed to merely promoting XLSTAT. MER-C 12:20, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Removing all content related to XLSTAT
Hi MER-C, I'm the founder of Addinsoft, the company that develops XLSTAT and have no plans to hide it, or do as many people who hypocrytically take fake names to add content to Wikipedia. We have been taken out of most threads where we were listed. I have no idea why, except the very basic reason that some people have infringed Wikipedia rules. While I totally agree with the Wikipedia rules (I know personnally one of the main founders), I do not see anyone in our company who would do that. We had a communication company working for us to whom we have asked to stop any action on Wikipedia that could be infringing Wikipedia rules. The user that wrote before this task is on contract for us and is simply verifying that the content is fair. If all statistical companies are listed, there is NO reason why we should not.

The limit of Wikipedia is that it is very easy if you want to get rid of a competitor, to act as if you were from that competitor. This might be what happened, although I do not want to be paranoiac.

Regarding for the contribution of free content on the web ... I have no lessons to receive. I have been publishing content on the net since 1994 (by that time it was on bulletin boards), providing people with free content. Furthermore: - Our software has a free version that includes all modules for 30 days - We give free licenses to students in countries where the cost of our software is too much for a student - Our website is full of free tutorials on how to use different methods that can be read by anymore, whether user or not - I contributed to several scientific articles on Wikipedia without using a login like the one I'm now using to show you I'm totally transparent.

And this is of course not on our page as this would not be objective :-)

Do not hesitate to discuss this further.

Take care,

TFahmy — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tfahmy (talk • contribs)


 * If all statistical companies are listed, there is NO reason why we should not.
 * Nobody is entitled to have a Wikipedia article, all must meet the notability guideline. Since anyone can create an article, you generally cannot use the existence of other articles as a justification to create another. Those removing mentions of XLSTAT (myself and Hu12) have edit histories on Wikipedia dating back many years which consist of stopping any self-promotional behavior. In your case, this consists of many accounts and IP addresses that have no other contributions to Wikipedia except inserting additions of XLSTAT. This behavior has been ongoing for years. Repeated placement of a company into Wikipedia constitutes promotion. Although you have made an effort to follow Conflict of interest, the guideline recommends to "avoid or exercise great caution when editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with" and "linking to the Wikipedia article, your own user subspace, or a website of your organization from other articles".


 * I can't help but notice User:Christine14612, who happens to show up at exactly the same time as you and fits in with the above behavioral pattern. Please explain. MER-C 04:26, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Expansion joint
I restored the link to the independent quality association which is comparable to EJMA but for fabric expansion joints. On another hand, the article itself is a propaganda page for US Bellows anyway. -- V-Li (talk) 10:14, 29 June 2012 (UTC)
 * That's a reasonable editorial decision. Please don't speculate on the identity of other editors. MER-C 12:09, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

CCI
Thank you for your input regarding the CCI request. I concur that I should go back through edits with a fine toothed comb and I will do so. I very much enjoy making meaningful contributions to Wikipedia and I'll work on not paraphrasing too closely (in a few instances there were full sentences copied, which will definitely need remediation). However, given the investigation request I feel a bit handcuffed about whether to even proceed given the penalty could include a ban or blank (which, as I'm sure you can understand, would likely damper my interest in the site). I'd like to request that you close the CCI request and let me proceed with cleaning things up. Many thanks.--YHoshua (talk) 18:35, 2 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Neither blocking nor presumptive removal are being considered at the moment. MER-C 03:36, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I got a start on fixing a number of issues, and in particular issues in Indiana Hoosiers football. I'm just hoping for some resolution because right now this CCI thing is hanging over my head.--YHoshua (talk) 13:22, 13 July 2012 (UTC)
 * One article is not enough: you need to clean multiple articles including ones where copying exists but has not yet been pointed out. Furthermore, the rewrite on Indiana Hoosiers football is not sufficient -- it's still a WP:Close paraphrase (I haven't checked the other sources). MER-C 02:36, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Thank you...
...for that. :) I'd have felt terrible if I'd have forgotten it! Sadly, it is clearly needed. :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:41, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah. I wish I had more free time too... MER-C 13:46, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

WP:Paidwatch
Can you please take a look at this if you are free to do so.ThanksPharaoh of the Wizards (talk) 00:59, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

ANI notice
See this:. The user failed to notify you. JoeSperrazza (talk) 00:45, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

juzztv - serfinaz
I noticed that LiWa3 was mentioning that a link to serfinaz.com was added, and that that was a redirect site to juzztv.com (AdSense pub-3132917916465494). I noticed that you back in 2010 suggested juzztv for blacklisting, so maybe you might want to revisit this one. --Dirk Beetstra T C 13:54, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Oh, it was COIBot:

<COIBot> Cannibal Holocaust http://tr.wikipedia.org/?diff=11470289 tr:User:Utku Tanrivere www.serfinaz.com/play/Gore_Clips/Cannibal_Holocaust (monitor) User is adding a redirectsite on domain juzztv.com matching on (global) blacklisted rule '\bjuzztv\.com\b'; (1/1)

Anyways - 'Gore Clips' attracted my attention in combination with the '(matching on (global) blacklisted rule' .. --Dirk Beetstra T  C 13:56, 11 July 2012 (UTC)




 * New stuff:


 * Spammers
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up
 * Spammer moved links up


 * Yep. MER-C 12:17, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

question
Dear MER-C, I am considering submitting a CCI report about a very active user, similar to this report would like to know if it is worth the time. I checked about six of their pages from around the same time (a few years ago) and they contain instances of what look to me like word-for-word copying. They have started very many Wikipedia pages. I looked but found no sign of copying in their recent work. Can I post what I found here to find out what you think? Сол-раз (talk) 23:46, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes. MER-C 02:18, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

"The area at the time was a small lake surrounded by gardens." "It is popular belief that these graves contain treasures." And much more in that one... etc. etc. From here
 * a)Ijnisinya

"The ancient mihrab is made of a white marble slab embedded in the floor and surrounded by red-colored stones and subsequently delimited by a low wall, that traditionally opened in the north to allow entrance" From here
 * b)Dome of the Prophet

"two concentric polygons, with pillars bound together by a wooden beam and supporting arcades." From here (I think the source is old enough to be Public Domain)
 * c)Dome of the Chain

"traces of the sacrifices are evident in the form of the lamb hides left on the balustrades to dry." From here
 * d)Feast of Saint George

"used as a folk remedy for rheumatism and infertility," "it is customary for mothers to bring their 40-day-old infants" From here
 * e)Hamam al-Sammara


 * Please, let me know what you think. Сол-раз (talk) 03:39, 18 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Most of those links are unreachable from here at the moment. That said, from what I have seen your concerns have merit. I suggest you raise this issue with the editor concerned, linking to Close paraphrase and providing WP:DUPDET links. MER-C 12:31, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Here is what I found with DUPDET, again please let me know what you think: Next, I think I will write to the editor. Thanks Сол-раз (talk) 15:23, 19 July 2012 (UTC)
 * a)
 * b)
 * c)Probably PD and page does not seem to work with DUPDET
 * d)
 * e)

Wrawby
Hi. Thanks for finding the copyvio that I temped in Throckenholt - I tried to find the source but you succeeded. Here is one, Wrawby, that I am a bit stumped on. It looks too good to be true, is unreffed and un-blue-linked, and written is a style that seems typical of a copypaste. I have found the same word for word [here], and seems an extract from The Village on the Hill: a glimpse of Victorian Wrawby, but it's difficult to know which is the chicken and which is the egg. The original mass paste is from 30 August 2008‎ by IP 82.178.143.85 - it was blanked on 14 March 2010‎ by IP 82.178.144.85, but this swiftly Bot reverted. It is probable that these two IPs are closely linked and that the IP got cold feet. I'd be grateful if you could apply your sleuthing lens - I think you will be better than me at finding if this is indeed copyvio. I have in the past been advised by an admin that if something has the appearance of copyvio and is totally unreffed, the assumption should be that it is, and is to be removed. But I'm a bit more cautious. Thanks. Acabashi (talk) 15:25, 21 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree that the text is suspicious, but I can't seem to find anything on this one. You can remove such text per WP:V anyway. If you're really not sure, then you can use copypaste -- someone will get to it eventually. MER-C 06:17, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Request for comment/User
Hi. I'm notifying everyone who took part in the discussion at Contributor copyright investigations/Wikiwatcher1, regardless of your position there, that I have co-signed with User:We hope at Requests for comment/Wikiwatcher1. Regardless of your position, your input would be most welcome so we can help to determine community consensus. Thank you. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 00:12, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Adding links to references
Is adding links in the references section of a particular page not allowed? For eg- If i add this link 'www.madaboutmoviez.com/2012/08/anurag-kashyap-auteur-demystified/' which is an informative piece on hindi film director Anurag Kashyap on Anurag Kashyap's wikipedia page, is it ok? I don't think it is spam as the link is very related to the subject of the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rasikruskin (talk • contribs)


 * Um, no. The References section is for references. It goes without saying that editors should choose the best resource for the statement that they wish to cite. With that in mind, let's have a look at the sources you're "referencing":

<MER-C> whatadded Rasikruskin <COIBot> 40 records; Domains added by rasikruskin: madaboutmoviez.com (40).


 * You've made 45 edits, and added 40 links to madaboutmoviez.com. It's quite clear why you're editing Wikipedia and that is completely unacceptable. MER-C 09:53, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

ok
if you reverted my edit - then remove whole sex portal from wikipedia. yes, and remove atheism portal also. They are same (sex=atheism, atheism=sex) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.94.23.50 (talk • contribs)
 * Wikipedia doesn't work that way and your reasoning is nonsensical. Your edit -- it was all about including the link to leafvibes.com, am I correct? PROTIP: read User:MER-C/SmartQuestions before replying. MER-C 13:29, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Seminyak...
Hello there. Was this an error? A touch phone fumble or something? If so, no problems - I do it too from time to tim. :)

But if not an error, I don't understand how this would fit into our WP:EL policy. hmm. cheers. --Merbabu (talk) 05:54, 10 August 2012 (UTC)


 * No, that edit was a very deliberate revert. Note the deceptive edit summary and vandalism used in order to sneak in the addition of the "pillowholiday.info" link. This user is a serial spammer and the inserted website has been blacklisted. Due to the way I remove spam (focus on spammers and spammed sites, not "here is a EL section full of spam, let's clean it up"), I generally ignore any other link(s) present. MER-C 07:50, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

WikiJava Bug: anon users
Hi there. I'm having some problems with the Wiki.userExists method:

* Determines whether a specific user exists. Should evaluate to false * for anons. *    *  @param username a username * @return whether the user exists * @throws IOException if a network error occurs * @since 0.05 */ public boolean userExists(String username) throws IOException {       username = URLEncoder.encode(username, "UTF-8"); return !fetch(query + "list=users&ususers=" + username, "userExists").contains("missing=\"\""); }

I assumed 'anon' users would be unregistered users with an IP address for their username, but this method still seems to return TRUE for these users. Apologies if I've misunderstood, or if it's an encoding problem at my end. Just would really appreciate a way to identify anon users, so thought I'd inquire just in case it's an easy bug to fix.

Thanks a lot for your help, and for WikiJava! KimRT (talk) 03:11, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r84. MER-C 12:31, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you! KimRT (talk) 14:58, 17 August 2012 (UTC)