User talk:MER-C/archives/33

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You may want to have a look
Heads up: MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist ... user is using an IP for a similar request on meta. Both declined, but there may be more socks active in that stuff (Lauriesomething). --Dirk Beetstra T C 15:13, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Kenneth G. McLeod is a weird little article... smells like paid advocacy. I'll keep an eye out. MER-C 04:06, 3 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Checkusered and blocked. MER-C 12:43, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Thad J. Jakubowski-copyright
Hi-I started the article about Thad J. Jakubowski who was a Roman Catholic bishop. I prefer starting articles as stubs and let other editors developed the articles. I also take into account possible copyright violations that may happen. If you reduced the article back to the stub I started that would resolved the copyright violation of the article. Many thanks-RFD (talk) 11:44, 11 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. The purpose of the blanking was to get someone to double check seeing that I recently opened a contributor copyright investigation on the relevant user. MER-C 11:53, 11 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks!-RFD (talk) 12:09, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Wardrobe Trends Fashion (WTF)
How do you want to handle Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Wardrobe Trends Fashion (WTF)? It's been on hold since July 19 and that part of the SPI has been archived. The primary editor's block log is clean. davidwr/ (talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail)  21:44, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I'll throw this back into the review queue. Be careful, the submission looks like it's paid for. MER-C 02:42, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/RfC Reviewer permission
You are invited to join the discussion at WikiProject Articles for creation/RfC Reviewer permission. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 08:32, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

wiki java lib
Did the recent updates to the login system caused the wiki java lib to crash when trying to log in? --McZusatz (talk) 21:45, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
 * No, it shouldn't. Next time, please test the latest SVN revision before posting here. MER-C 02:43, 8 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hmm, Fastily also says that the changes to the login system caused the crash. Furthermore I can confirm that the latest 'stable' version is broken [0.27 (r100)] https://code.google.com/p/wiki-java/ . Could you update the 'stable' version to the working one, please? --McZusatz (talk) 20:27, 8 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. MER-C 11:11, 9 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thx! =) --McZusatz (talk) 17:26, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Hello, I added 2 issues (actually 1, the second is code proposal) at, will you check them? ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 14:16, 14 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I've committed the patch (with some modifications). I'll think about the logging later. MER-C 05:15, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you! You even added me as an author) so sweet of you) BTW, do you know any way to receive email notifications when new revisions come? Looks like google code doesn't support this. Oh. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 22:45, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I believe the "star this project" in the left sidebar serves this purpose. There are also RSS feeds in the same place. MER-C 03:01, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I use RSS feed now. As for "stars", they don't work. But I received an email about an issue, which I created, that it was fixed. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 20:30, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Btw did you see this: Google Code will not support creating new downloads starting January 15th, 2014? It's time to upload zips unless it's late. Or it's already late. I can't upload. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 20:30, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

New issue
Hello Mer-C! issue 34 needs to solve ASAP. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 21:13, 2 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for fix. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 20:38, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Finally I subscribed Wiki-java RSS feed to blogtrottr.com service and receive email notifications now. So, now I see all) ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 13:56, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Recent deletion of Northbrook Public Library information
Hi MER-C, I appreciate you wanting to keep copyrighted information off of Wikipedia, but the information deleted was posted for the library by a library staff person who has permission to use it. I thought that the content had been changed significantly enough from the last time it had been tagged, for it to be acceptable. I'll go back and look again at the guidelines. Thanks, Northbrookrobbins — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robbinsnorthbrook (talk • contribs)


 * You can prove this by emailing permissions-en@undefinedwikimedia.org. The page Donating copyrighted materials has more information on this process. The decision to actually include the content is an editorial one, therefore it must comply with our content policies -- verifiability, neutrality and no original research --- in order to be used. An "about us" page is not encyclopedic content.


 * Also, shared accounts are not allowed. MER-C 05:46, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

CCI update
Such a small one, yet such a pain to get through. Glad it's done. Wizardman 03:03, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Cut and paste moves

 * Ah, thank you. Your help is appreciated.
 * (Psychonaut25 - 13375p34k / C0n7r1b5 03:53 AM EST, 27 September 2013 (UTC))

Copyvio on Lurgan College
Hello, I detected a copyvio on Lurgan College, but I did not report the problem on Copyright problems because I did not understand what I have to do (and currently no time to try to understand really...). So could you do what is needed? Thanks in advance. Pamputt (talk) 13:58, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
 * You need to substitute the copyvio template i.e. and follow the instructions in the bottom right of the template. It literally takes 30 seconds. MER-C 03:21, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Pamputt (talk) 07:57, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks
For your help with removing copyvio by Satya1992 - I'm beginning to think we should block indefinitely as soon as we find any copyvio until they can prove it won't happen again. We waste so much time fixing it. Makes me quite angry at times. Dougweller (talk) 16:10, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Absolutely. I find that many users ending up at CCI are so ridiculously non-communicative that the banhammer is the only way to get the point across. Thank you for flushing out many of this user's edits. CCI closed. MER-C 03:10, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Request for comment
As you previously  participated in  related discussions you  are invited to comment  at the discussion  at  WikiProject Articles for creation/RfC for AfC reviewer permission criteria. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 03:34, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Ban Appeal of AKonanykhin
Hi. Since you contributed to the discussion resulting in the ban of Wikiexperts, you may want to consider the CEO's appeal at AN. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 17:17, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

Suspected copyright violations
I read in Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship that WP:SCV is an area that might be in need of additional support, and locking at some of the edit histories, this seems to be the case. As a result, I made a couple of edits to Suspected copyright violations/2013-11-03. Please let me know if I did something wrong or if this is not an area that I should be editing with my current experience or access. Thanks! -   t  u coxn \ talk 23:53, 3 November 2013 (UTC)
 * What you have done is fine. MER-C 08:56, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Wiki.java regression
Hello. Your work with the framework have been making me so happy always, but now I'm disapponted. Wiki-java is becoming inconvenient more and more and buggy too. Instead of String resolveRedirect(String title) and boolean exists(String title) I see something obscure like HashMap exists(String[] titles). And how should I use that? And why should I run 100 lines of code, optimized for 10000 titles, but I don't have 10000 titles, I have 1 only (may be I'll use it with 10000 in the future but currently I do not).
 * Also, why this code which removes duplicates needed? I can remove them (if I need) before calling Wiki-java.
 * Also, do you make/run any test-cases when developing?
 * exists is broken. Try it with "xyi" page name. It returns empty hashset. If absennes of item would mean "does not exist" you wouldn't return HashMap you would return Set.
 * exists is broken for pages with '&' or something like that in title. You forgot URLEncoder.encode
 * may be ResolveRedirects has the same problems, I didn't check it.

I checked rev log. You fixed other bugs, and updated with new MediaWiki specs. This is good, but now I have a high risk of breaking when refreshing Wiki-java. At least some wrapper like the next one would be nice and the same for resolveRedirect but a method, really optimized for 1 item only would be even better.~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 00:53, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * The previous implementation was broken because of issue 39. I have two options: the one I have taken, or reordering the input array and padding with null. In hindsight, I should have taken the second. I cannot optimize for a single title only because, essentially, and  versus |Test (see also mw:API:Quick start guide). I'n fixing this now.


 * I have tests, but seeing as wikis get edited... unit testing is difficult or impossible. MER-C 09:44, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * r161 fixes issue 39 properly. Tired coding == drunk coding... MER-C 10:52, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the fix. I'm also tired (coding both at work and at home). CatScan seems to be dying currently (and wasn't very well before), so I have to move my bot to which has differences from Catscan, but faster and more flexible and more powerful. And what I observed is that Catscan2 refuses to serve requests with standard "java" useragent. And from your link I went further and found this by the way : very interesting, I'll make something like this. And you can do that in Wiki-java too. ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 18:21, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Use setUserAgent("Blah") and URLConnection.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Blah"). MER-C 03:13, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

HTML entities in Wiki.java
Hi,

I contact you because I have seen [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Projet:Mod%C3%A8le/Syst%C3%A8me_Country&diff=prev&oldid=98064297 this edit] made by a java tool that relies on Wiki.java (commons:Commons:GlobalReplace), in which entities were decoded.

This java tool only does getPageText, a simple replace operation and edit, so I looked into the underlying library and found something strange.

In Wiki.java, getPageText(String title) returns "decode(temp)". Shouldn't it return "temp" instead? I don't think decoding entities is needed here, because temp contains an HTML entity only if it is already in the wikitext (action=raw does not do some additional encoding).

Orlodrim (talk) 23:30, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Fixed. MER-C 11:53, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Orlodrim (talk) 19:15, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Question about deleted page
I recently created an article without realizing that much the information already existed on the individual's website. When I realized the information existed elsewhere, I immediately contacted the individual, but in the meantime the page (which was still in draft form - not submitted) was deleted (I believe by you?). The individual to whom this Wikipedia page was to be about has since contacted Wikipedia with a note that they agree to publish that work under the free license "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported" and GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Wikipedia has responded back accepting this - I have copies of both emails. Is it possible to reinstate the page? I am very concerned about the threat of my account being deleted. This was not a case of intentional plagiarism. There was another user who took issue with references being included for NY Times articles written by the subject of the article, so of course, I would remove that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Toni_Bentley&action=edit&redlink=1 PeriscopeUP wiki (talk) 18:52, 7 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Absolutely not. Copying (even unintentionally) a promotional biography into Wikipedia is wholly unacceptable. Your username matches a SEO firm which promises to "Generate Traffic With Social Media". Covert advertising is not welcome here. MER-C 03:09, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

New RFC on draft namespace
Hello,

As one of the participants in the previous related discussion, you are requested to comment on the RFC on creating a new Draft namespace at the Village Pump.

Thank you, TheOriginalSoni (talk) 19:46, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you

 * If anybody ever deserved an "admin" barnstar, I think it's you. I've long considered you the backbone of our operation. But I didn't want to muddy the waters. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:59, 16 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! MER-C 12:25, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Adminship
Talking of admin barnstars, are you interested in running for adminship? I see that Wizardman asked you back in March, but six months is a long time on Wikipedia. :) If you had the tools I get the feeling that we would be about twice as effective at cleaning up spam and copyvio; we could really do with your help here. I know RfA can be full of nonsense, but it will only be a week of nonsense (and only about an hour a day, at that). Would you be willing to give it a go? I'll write you up a corker of a nomination statement if so. — Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 10:23, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I can't promise you a corker, but I would certainly give you an enthusiastic co-nom, if you wanted, and a support if you did not. Just for the record. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:25, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree that my lack of tools is somewhat of a hindrance (especially now that the spam blacklist is dead), but not now. Please ask me again in a month's time. MER-C 11:26, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok, I'll hold you to that. :) — Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 11:50, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm back. :) So, how are you feeling about RfA now that you've had a few weeks to mull it over? It hasn't quite been a month, but now would be a good time to run if you don't want to wait until January. Last year there were a few opposes against people who ran during the Christmas/New Year period, so you should probably time your run so that it doesn't coincide with either of those. Any thoughts as to a date that you would like to start? Best — Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 10:43, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... alright then. I don't particularly mind too much whether this is now or in early January. (This will be my third RFA, the previous two being over six years ago). MER-C 12:55, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the delay in replying, and glad to hear you're ready to take the plunge! I'll go and write you a nomination statement now. (Also, I knew about the other two RfAs - that's usually one of the first things that I check when thinking about nominating someone.) — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 08:10, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi again. Would you be willing to opt in to X!'s Edit Counter? I'm just sitting down now to write your nomination statement, but there are a lot of edits to sift through, and I suspect that my task will be a lot easier with your full edit analysis in front of me. That, and people at RfA like candidates to have opted in to the edit counter - see History2007's RfA for where this has been a topic of debate before. — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 10:17, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. MER-C 10:31, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. :) — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 10:54, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Ok, your nomination statement is now up at Requests for adminship/MER-C 3. Seeing as this is your third time you probably know the drill, but next you need to sign to show your acceptance of the nomination and answer the three mandatory questions. Also, if you want to find a co-nominator then now is the time to do it. Perhaps Moonriddengirl would still be interested? Let me know if you have any questions, and drop me a note when you're ready and I can kick things off for you. Best — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 13:47, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I am, indeed, if that's okay with User:MER-C. :) I have just flown back from a trip, but can put up my statement within a few days. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:52, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Sure. MER-C 02:52, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok, so it is decided. :) We have left the timing a little late after all - if we started the RfA today, it would finish on Christmas Eve - so I think we should wait until after Christmas to start things off. Starting it after the New Year would be the safest, but I think we can probably get away with the week after Christmas if you would prefer. Which would you like to do? — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 04:12, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * And also, let me know if I missed any content work of yours that you would like to be highlighted. I didn't find that much, but then 170,000 edits is a lot to sift through. :) — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 04:15, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Early January is looking to be the most optimum time. I don't want to sneak in under the radar, so to speak. I'll answer the questions in
 * From recollection, I have uploaded one featured picture and have a small handful of DYKs (they should be mentioned on the previous nomination, along with Tooting (crater)). MER-C 07:05, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Well I would offer to co-nom but it seems you have more than enough already - and I suspect they know you better than me. Dpmuk (talk) 00:43, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Threw in mine, or at least an intention of doing one. Once we hit too many people will oppose for that, so yeah as long as people know who wants to nom then we should be alright. Wizardman  02:45, 18 December 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not territorial - I want what's best for you and your RFA, so I'm happy to co-nom or strongly support. Whichever. :) While I may fiddle with it further, this is my statement: User:Moonriddengirl/sandbox. I'm not going to put it into your RFA until I know what role you'd like me in. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 20:09, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I would like you to conom. MER-C 05:28, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Done. :) User:Wizardman, to you, and we can go whenever MER-C is ready. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:41, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I see that Moonriddengirl has used "he" in her co-nom. MER-C, is that official? I don't like to use singular "they" if I can get away with it. — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 14:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid I default to it unless told otherwise (or unless something strongly suggests otherwise). I have just never gotten the hang of "they". :/ --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:27, 1 January 2014 (UTC)
 * My nom's added, so whenever MER-C's ready to take the plunge. Wizardman  20:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)


 * And we are live! MER-C 11:54, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Got reminded of this ..
See MediaWiki_talk:Spam-whitelist .. when the campaigning is of such a scale, they tend to be slow in stopping - do you mind to check whether that was really the end of it back in 2008? --Dirk Beetstra T C 11:40, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
 * No COIBot? I can't really tell... but this -- dotcominfoway.com/internet-marketing/search-engine-marketing -- is a very good reason to keep those domains blacklisted.


 * P.S. Why are the linkwatchers, COIBot and XLinkBot so unstable recently? MER-C 12:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Timesharing and tools-problems :-) .. I have to move the databases (.. again ..), work on getting things compatible (missing libraries on some of the instances), but have no time :-(.  Sorry, you'll have to do it the old way for now.  --Dirk Beetstra T  C 12:18, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Done...again
--Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:10, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

Agora
I know, tools are a bit down, and I don't have too much time for it either .. but mind looking at User_talk:A._B. (A. B. seems to be out already for quite some time). I have the feeling that they are around spamming and promoting (there are other questionable edits around). --Dirk Beetstra T C 08:09, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I spotchecked a couple of not blacklisted domains and found nothing. There's something about this user that seems very suspicious. MER-C 11:07, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I saw that one as well (I noted that they created Agora Financial), and I ran into an edit by a third person who used a maimed link to one of the blacklisted sites as a reference, and later removed it (I un-maimed it, and it is indeed on their servers) - I should note that that editor added something to a page, that was removed by a single-edit editor (as if they were trying to hide something), and then re-instated by the former, issuing a warning .. which is somewhat confusing.
 * I also noted that quite some of the articles regarding this have a high incidence of editors without created userpage (see Special:Contributions/Kurt_Manov, Special:Contributions/Thatonegooy64, Special:Contributions/PrincessDianna, Special:Contributions/Billbonner (this one from Agora??!!??), Special:Contributions/Internationalliving (Dôh!), Special:Contributions/186.188.218.164 (<- that one links up Bill Bonner and International Living as well), Special:Contributions/Moralambiguity (I also get very suspicious by editors who do 2 edits 5 years apart: Special:Contributions/Yrekabakery, Yep, Stansberry & Associates is a partner of Agora, Inc. ..), and pages have not added the external link (see the independently recreated Stansberry & Associates, obviously since it is blacklisted) and some others are very narrow in their subjects (as Amsterdad you mentioned and Glycernin). Then there is Special:Contributions/Binibro, who lately is more interested in subjects related to Agora.
 * Also note that Stansberry & Associates, which states "In 2013 The company is still pushing [14] their reports, such as Special Report #1, The Free Silver Loophole. The advertisement rambles on for 40 minutes with the promise and hasn't revealed the magic words." ..
 * Fishy? --Dirk Beetstra T  C 13:22, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, and Glycernin did create Agora, Inc.. --Dirk Beetstra T  C 13:27, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, they're still at it, except it appears they have called in paid advocates to do their spamming for them. Keep this stuff on the blacklist and give anyone who asks for whitelisting detailed scrutiny, even if they look like an established Wikipedian (this is what you should be looking for). MER-C 03:18, 28 November 2013 (UTC)
 * .. wonders what would think about this in light of the paid advocate / paid editor discussion ..  --Dirk Beetstra T  C 06:57, 28 November 2013 (UTC)
 * The history of Les Belles Lettres, which precipitated on of the requests for whitelisting is also a SPA-heaven, including creation by an SPA. Sigh.  --Dirk Beetstra T  C 07:31, 28 November 2013 (UTC)
 * And I don't have time to go after all of them. I think an SPI would be helpful on the recent ones, taking out other hiding socks and their edits and maybe blocking some of the underlying IPs.  --Dirk Beetstra T  C 07:33, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam for a report. --Dirk Beetstra T C 12:54, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Wiki.java release policy
Hello. I think that we should discuss wiki.java releases. Actually it doesn't have any releases except label "Latest stable version: 0.28 (r148)". I'm observing that Mediawiki from version to version makes some changes which makes some API functions not compatible with previous versions. So, one day Mediawiki issues release, we find some feature in Wiki-java is broken, we fix it, and what is result? Old versions of Wiki.java (those which we call "stable") are not compatible with latest Mediawiki. New versions of Wiki.java are not yet stable becauze not all bugs found, also, they are incompatible with older Mediawiki. Imagine some guy wants to use Wiki.java for non-Wikipedia web-site, where Mediawiki has some older version - he will don't know which revision of Wiki.java to take. And he won't find any hints anywhere on code.google.com. Also this "Latest stable version: 0.28 (r148)" doesn't have sense. For Mediawiki v1.A it is stable, for Mediawiki v1.B it is not stable. So, let us find those last particular revisions, when Wiki.java was stabilized and not yet new API changes were implemented, and make tags for them in tags folder. What do you think about? ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 16:08, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
 * That's a good idea. FYI, the current approach is compatibility with "whatever is running on Wikipedia right now", which is not the same as a MediaWiki release. MER-C 07:25, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

CCI
Hi, I just saw this edit. Just wanted to let you know that I already started addressing copyright concerns in here, here and here.--Kazemita1 (talk) 18:21, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Noted. Please note any copyright problems you address (but don't remove the diffs yet so that we can double check) on the CCI page. This is not necessary for the latter two pages as the original copyvios do not appear in the CCI. Thanks for cooperating -- this will mean the CCI is over faster. MER-C 05:10, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Nautanki - copyvio
Please excuse me contacting you. I saw you name as a copyright violation clerk - if you are not an appropriate person perhaps you can pass this on or point me in the right direction.

The article Nautanki seems to be entirely based on a PhD thesis by Devendra Sharma, who is also mentioned in the article as a participant (which itself raises some issues, but not significant here). A major contributor to the article is User:Devnautanki (same person??) who has no other Wikipedia edits. Large chunks of the text are direct word-for-word copies from this website by the same Devendra Sharma, which is linked in the article. The website is marked as "Devendra Sharma © 2013 All Rights Reserved". This seems to be a conflict with Wikipedia's policy. I have deleted the relevant material from our article. Each section of the article ends with "Source: Devendra Sharma, Ph.D.", so I suspect that the rest of it may also have the same problem; specifically, my suspicion is that the Wikipedia article is a direct copy of Sharma's PhD thesis, but it is impossible to find out because the link to this is dead. Of course, it may be that the website is a copy of Wikipedia, but then the coyright notice there creates a problem.

I'd be grateful if you could look into this (or, as I said, pass it on). Emeraude (talk) 11:20, 10 December 2013 (UTC)


 * The rest of the content was copied from http://www.devnautanki.com/about_history.html. It is probably the same author but I would recommend confirmation through OTRS. That said, a PhD thesis is, by definition, unsuitable for Wikipedia. I've reverted the prose to remove User:Devnautanki's additions. MER-C 13:12, 10 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Many thanks. Emeraude (talk) 10:53, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks! MER-C 09:46, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

dh-electronics.com
Hello MER-C

Today I was a little bit astonished because my contribution from last week was deleted by yourself.

Could you please explain, why did you delete it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pe wiki editor (talk • contribs)
 * I don't see how the external link supplements our encyclopedic content. Wikipedia is not a tool for search engine optimization. MER-C 09:46, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Aetheling1125
Hi MER-C - can you explain what happens now, what this process is and where it is at. It is mysterious to say the least. What does that list you have generated say? Aetheling1125 23:20, 12 December 2013 (UTC)


 * The purpose of the CCI is to review all of your major edits (which is what the list of) for copyright problems. I don't know how long this will take -- the number of users who do this regularly can be counted on your hands. You can help move things along by pointing out what you have copied, where it came from and fixing those problems (please don't remove the diffs so that we can check you are doing it correctly).


 * On an unrelated note, you are expected to include a link to your user, user talk or contributions page in your signature. MER-C 01:38, 13 December 2013 (UTC)


 * On the first point, I have not copied. On the few instances where there is duplication I am confident its down to simple mistakes or back-copying. Any such instances will be a tiny minority of the contributions I have made. As for the second point, and as I said before, Wikipedia is too complicated and I don't know how to add a link to my user/user talk contributions page. How do I do it? 11:37, 14 December 2013 (UTC)


 * You copied an entire paragraph in this edit from the source you cited. This edit is also an obvious copy. These two instances aren't mentioned in the nomination and indicate that further examination of your edits is warranted.
 * >I don't know how to add a link to my user/user talk contributions page
 * See WP:CUSTOMSIG. MER-C 12:56, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

A problem of your wiki-java
I want to use the "getPageText" method to get a raw code of a page which exists,but it returns the empty string.The "getRenderedText" method is OK,But I confuse what is wrong of the "getPageText" method. PS.I decompiled your classfile and interested that It's not all method based on the "api.php" interface.——Cwek (talk) 02:43, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * What exactly did you do (as in, post a short test case) and which version are you using? MER-C 08:57, 18 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Today I try again and found that If I execute the "login" method at first,the "getPageText" method won't work(return a empty string).
 * The version is 0.27r122.I think that it's a problem of china's block(From May,The Https connection from China will be blocked,and The login connection uses https connection.But I heard that China is exempt from The login connection using https.And The index.php sometimes will be blocked but the api.php mostly is fine.).

--Cwek (talk) 01:24, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Yep, that will be your problem. Have you tried changing https -> http in <tt>initVars</tt>? You will need to edit the source file -- overriding leads to some potentially nasty bugs. MER-C 04:22, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Why do you use such an old Wiki.java? The login function there is broken (outdated) several months ago, use the later version 0.28 or 0.29, ~r150 and later (the newer the better). ~ Nirvanchik ~ ⊤άλҟ 08:39, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I am sorry,I download it from and didn't see the newest one.I try it.Thank you.--Cwek (talk) 00:41, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
 * PS.I have a older version--0.26r80.--Cwek (talk) 00:41, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Uploading using Wiki.java
Hi, I'm currently trying to write a bot to batch-upload files from an external source to Commons, but I always get an exception which I can't explain.

The line where the exception happens in my code is: commons.upload(new File("file.jpg"), filename, finalDesc, "uploaded semi-automatically"); I initialize "commons" as follows (I'm currently still testing on test.wikipedia because I don't want to do tests directly on Commons; it also happens on eo.wikipedia (where I have sysop rights so I can delete my tests myself) so it shouldn't be due to the beta version on test.wikipedia): commons = new Wiki("test.wikipedia.org"); commons.setThrottle(5000); commons.login("Darkweasel94", password); where password is a String. The following is what I get (the stuff after "uploading:" is, of course, printed by my code, not Wiki.java): Dez 19, 2013 9:11:49 AM Wiki login Information: Fetching URL https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?maxlag=5&format=xml&action=login Dez 19, 2013 9:11:51 AM Wiki login Information: Fetching URL https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?maxlag=5&format=xml&action=login Dez 19, 2013 9:11:51 AM Wiki getUserInfo Information: Fetching URL https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?maxlag=5&format=xml&action=query&list=users&usprop=editcount%7Cgroups%7Crights%7Cemailable%7Cblockinfo%7Cgender%7Cregistration&ususers=Darkweasel94 Dez 19, 2013 9:11:51 AM Wiki login Information: [test.wikipedia.org] Successfully logged in as Darkweasel94, highLimit = false uploading: http://www.bahnbilder.de/1200/torino--turin-atm-sl-745497.jpg (feel free to delete from test.wikipedia) Dez 19, 2013 9:11:52 AM Wiki namespace Information: Fetching URL https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?maxlag=5&format=xml&action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=namespaces Dez 19, 2013 9:11:52 AM Wiki namespace Information: [test.wikipedia.org] Successfully retrieved namespace list (34 namespaces) Dez 19, 2013 9:11:52 AM Wiki getPageInfo Information: Fetching URL https://test.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?maxlag=5&format=xml&action=query&prop=info&intoken=edit%7Cwatch&inprop=protection%7Cdisplaytitle%7Cwatchers&titles=File%3Atorino--turin-atm-sl-745497.jpg Dez 19, 2013 9:11:53 AM Wiki getPageInfo Information: [test.wikipedia.org] Successfully retrieved page info for Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at org.wikipedia.Wiki.checkRights(Wiki.java:6448) at org.wikipedia.Wiki.upload(Wiki.java:3171) at bahnbilderparser.upload(bahnbilderparser.java:56) at bahnbilderparser.getImage(bahnbilderparser.java:37) at bahnbilderparser.main(bahnbilderparser.java:26) I use the 0.29 version from svn, where these line numbers appear to correspond to reading the edit token, but I cannot tell what the problem is. Thank you in advance for your help. darkweasel94 (talk) 08:19, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Never mind, I just found out what the problem was. It is necessary to ensure that the first letter of the target file name is upper case. Thank you for writing this awesome library! darkweasel94 (talk) 08:23, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * This is a bug, because <tt>getPageInfo</tt> shouldn't return null. I'll have a look at this shortly. MER-C 09:30, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r178. MER-C 05:10, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

wiki-java lib
Hello, I reported an issue. I don't know how to modify my message there so I put it here :

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Apply the function on "" and "parm1"

What is the expected output?

What do you see instead?

{{name2

What version of the product are you using?

0.29

On what operating system?

Ubuntu 13.04

I haven't tested it with {{name|param=display Title}} but I guess it will return instead of [[title|display Title . Cordially. Hunsu (talk) 13:41, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Patch committed. MER-C 05:38, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Sorry I haven't made comments. I have found a problem with the function getTemplateParam when the template is like this :

{{name|param1=value\n|param2=value}}

Normally it will return value\n for param1 but it return value. The Java trim function remove also \n at the end of String. Cordially. Hunsu (talk) 17:21, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

Glad Tidings and all that ...
FWiW Bzuk (talk) 20:17, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
 * And a happy new year to you as well. MER-C 04:34, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks! MER-C 04:56, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Early Congratulations!
I do not recall any RfA reaching over 100 positive votes with only one negative vote (and that from a quite questionable !voter).! Collect (talk) 15:33, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for Wiki.java
In case you're curious to see another example of using your API: de:Benutzer:DealerBot/Source. --dealerofsalvation 08:37, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

You are now an administrator
Congratulations, I have just closed your RfA as successful and made you an administrator. Take a look at the administrators' how-to guide and the administrators' reading list if you haven't read those already. Also, the practice exercises at the new admin school may be useful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch on my talk page. <strong style="font-variant:small-caps">WJBscribe (talk) 12:15, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congrats! (You now need to change the header of your talk page :-) And 157 to nil must be some kind of a record, me thinks! Cheers! --Randykitty (talk) 12:44, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Boy, that was close! Don't scare me like that! :) In all seriousness, it's about time, and I'm glad to see that we all agreed on that. If you have any questions ever about anything, you know I'll do my best to help you. Congratulations, and thank you once again for everything you have done for Wikipedia and especially for copyright cleanup over the years. I'm delighted that next time I want to give you an admin's barnstar I can do so. :D --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:49, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I hope you take some advice from a fellow admin: adding '.' to the blacklist will buy you some time to make more friends, and also time clear out the spam blacklist logs. Congrats!  --Dirk Beetstra T  C 12:56, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congrats and welcome on board! Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 13:23, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! It was only a few years too late. ;) All the best with your new tools! — <span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 15:33, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Well done. When you get bored of scrabbling round for the right block message, there is a nifty script that some kind person put in my monobook.  Ϣere Spiel  Chequers  15:36, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I've been working CSD for many years, and have seen your name there too often to count. Of all those times, I don't believe I've ever had to decline a single one of your nominations. Glad you can push the button yourself now, it'll save the rest of us some work! Seraphimblade Talk to me 15:42, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! I'd hoped to find time to check out at least a bit of your work before piling-on support... but unfortunately I ran out of time (the weather's been too good today to be stuck inside on the computer). Cheers anyway. I'm sure you'll do a great job! -- Trevj (talk · contribs) 16:20, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! You can now delete pages, block users, etc., which you said you couldn't do in your humorous talk page header. Epicgenius (talk) 17:02, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Welcome to the admin lounge, and good luck! Yunshui 雲 ‍ 水  19:07, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congrats! ///Euro Car  GT  22:17, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congratulations. I'm glad it RFA went so smoothly for you! As others have pointed out, you should change the header on your talk page. Mkdw talk 02:58, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! Glad to see you finally with the fancy extra buttons. Don't go crazy and burn out though! =) -- Gogo Dodo (talk) 05:01, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Congrats! It's about time!  upstate NYer  05:11, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Yo folks-- can someone get this admin a t-shirt?! I, JethroBT  drop me a line 07:15, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I think  I  handed out the last  one that  was in  stock unless someone knows of some still  lying  around somewhere. I  believe that due to  the low demand they've not been reordered  Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 12:22, 12 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Yay!!  MBisanz  talk 19:25, 12 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Well done and good luck with the mop! You'll need to change your header to your talk page now!  Brookie :) { - he's in the building somewhere!}  (Whisper...) 09:11, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Precious! The top of your talk shows a nice sense of irony, saying that you are not an administrator ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:23, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks to everybody who supported my RFA! In particular, I would like to thank my three nominators -- Mr. Stradivarius, Moonriddengirl and Wizardman -- for their nominations. In fact, I am rather surprised at how well things went.

It's off to work. MER-C 11:41, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Slightly delayed but congratulations. Dpmuk (talk) 02:08, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Would you review my permanent block?
Hi, MER-C. I'm looking for a previously uninvolved administrator to review my permanent block and to consider unblocking. In May 2012, without warning or discussion, Timotheus Canens permanently blocked me for sockpuppetry but I didn't do it. I never did it and there has never been any evidence I did. His silence and status as "sock puppet investigator" led people to suppose he had secret evidence or something. I was unable to get it overturned. Blocking of a common editor almost always defers nearly unlimitedly to the administrator.

I edited Wikipedia for five or six years under a single prior account. Never so much as warned. Didn't even know what Arbcom or WP:AN/ANI were. Privacy concerns (think online harassment) made me realize my account was vulnerable, so I switched to a new one: Colton Cosmic. Never going back. I was 100% honest about it from my first edit as Colton Cosmic:. Does that sound like a sock to you? When I appealed to Arbcom, Wormthatturned called it "an unlikely story." But why in the world, in my first edit, before I ever ran into trouble with Timotheus or anyone, would I make up and type something like that if it were not true?

Anyhow, I come to you just because I happened to notice your successful RFA. I have been accused before of trying to take advantage of newbie admins, but I figure you are a grown-up that can read policy and understand right and wrong. Excuse my IP block evasion at your page, but my email function was cut off and I don't really have any other option.

They tell me I must first admit to my wrongdoing and pledge to behave better. But I didn't sock. I would have to lie to admit to socking. If you want me to acknowledge what I myself see as my own faults, it is true my civility (WP:CIV) has not been good enough. I acknowledged this long ago and have pledged to do better. I will not stand for being verbally abused though. I have learned to try not to overreact when someone is uncivil to me, so I've improved in that sense. Anyhow, if you are willing to take a look at it, unblock me merely at my talkpage, and I will answer all questions (and criticisms) there. Colton Cosmic.


 * Colton Cosmic has asked you to review his block - now you're really an admin! Yunshui 雲 &zwj; 水  15:44, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Why don't you steer him or her in the right direction, oh my good will wisher? Colton Cosmic.
 * I'm sure MER-C is quite capable of reviewing your history and making an independent decision. I'm equally sure that the decision will be the same one that every admin of whom you have made this request has arrived at. You have already been told what you need to do if you wish to be unblocked - ceasing these requests is one element of that. Yunshui 雲 &zwj; 水  15:54, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Well you're right on one count, and wrong on three counts. You're right that MER-C should be allowed to independently review it at his or her discretion as a Wikipedia administrator. You're wrong that every administrator I've asked has the same decision, see Nihonjoe for example . You're wrong that I've been "told what I need to do," everyone says something different. And you're wrong to make these arguments against me, and then block my IP so I can't answer them. Colton Cosmic.

New proposals at Pending changes/Request for Comment 2014
Hello. Several new proposals have been submitted at Pending changes/Request for Comment 2014 since you last commented on it. You are invited to return to comment on the new proposals. Jackmcbarn (talk) 01:14, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Wiki.java
Hello,

I've been attempting to get Wiki.java downloaded, but I am insure where it should go once I have downloaded it. Apparently it's supposed to be added to the classpath? I can't figure out how that's done. Thanks, --Jakob (talk) 13:36, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi, I'm not MER-C but I hope they won't mind me trying to answer your question :) You need to know that Wiki.java is source code, but whatever is getting added to some classpath needs to be compiled code. The most primitive way is to create within some base directory a directory structure org/wikipedia, according to the package statement in Wiki.java, place Wiki.java inside of it, and compile it by calling <tt>javac org/wikipedia/Wiki.java</tt> (resp. use backslashes if you are on Windows). Then you get a Wiki.class and some related classes, and when you call java from your base directory, Wiki.class will automatically be inside your class path. Seems you need some more introduction to Java, try to get some on-line or on paper, just hope to have given you some basic clues to get started. --dealerofsalvation 19:02, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Seconded. I strongly recommend you also read this. MER-C 04:50, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Featherston, New Zealand
I think you deleted one more paragraph than you needed to in this article. The para on the Japanese POW camp has been in the article for many years, and I could not see any major similarity between its text and that of the Te Ara source for the copyvio you deleted.- gadfium 19:49, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Looking at this again, I agree with you. MER-C 04:28, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Sincere Question
I received the following communication from you recently:

Stop icon This is your only warning; if you use Wikipedia for soapboxing, promotion or advertising again, as you did at User:Bfpage/Village of the Arts, you may be blocked from editing without further notice. MER-C 05:11, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

I'm not even questioning your decision. I guess I don't understand what the message means. It looks as if some spamming artist uploaded his or her art work in an inappropriate way. I have no advertisements, promoting of myself or advertising that I aware of. Can you help me to understand what I did wrong so I don't do it again?

bpage (talk) 16:16, 31 January 2014 (UTC)


 * This is what I found on that page (before I deleted it):


 * Additionally, you usually cannot copy and paste from external websites into Wikipedia. MER-C 03:21, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Dear mer-c,

I did not write/author the text you deleted and cannot figure out how or who inserted it or how it was attributed to me. I never write in first person. You were absolutely right in deleting what you did. My latest edit was followed by a few insertions of an anonymous user who was obviously trying to promote his/her business, but I did not author the text you deleted. If I had found text before you did, I would have deleted it, too.

Sincerely,

bpage (talk) 03:04, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * This is the entire deleted history of that page:
 * (del/undel) (diff) 12:33, 29 November 2010 . . Bfpage (talk | contribs | block) m (4,188 bytes)
 * (del/undel) (diff) 12:30, 29 November 2010 . . Bfpage (talk | contribs | block) m (3,809 bytes) (more editing and a link)
 * (del/undel) (diff) 12:25, 29 November 2010 . . Bfpage (talk | contribs | block) (3,490 bytes) (more info and more editing)
 * (del/undel) (diff) 12:20, 29 November 2010 . . Bfpage (talk | contribs | block) m (3,363 bytes) (pasted copy from Village web page prior to editing and refining)
 * The quoted text is in all of these deleted revisions. Here's you posting that content into mainspace (see the last paragraph) and here's you removing the deletion warning for that article. It looks like you have something to hide. MER-C 09:21, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Dear MER-C,

Thank you for your continued patience, time and willingness to dialogue with me concerning these issues.

First, I was unaware that removing a deletion warning is 'not allowed' or something that administrators frown upon. I will gladly revert the warning back onto my talk page. I have been trying to get up to speed on policies and guidelines but it seems that my learning curve is shallow at times. I apologize and defer to you on this point.

Secondly, regarding your initial contact with me - I mistakenly thought that your warning to me on 1/27/14 was about the article itself at this time (1/27/14). I thought your warning had to do with my most recent edits to the article and not something that I wrote four years ago. I didn't understand that I was being warned about something I did that happened that long ago. I still don't remember writing what I did, but of course I undoubtedly did write it four years ago and that is what the editing logs show.

I have long since corrected the article itself after realizing that I had violated the wikipedia guidelines about plagarism and self-promotion and (mistakenly) thought once the corrections were made that the issue was resolved.

Four years ago I was a relatively newcomer and not completely familiar with all of the policies, guidelines, and community standards of Wikipedia when I started editing. Please know that my edits and comments are made in good faith. I am one of those people trying to help the project, not hurt it. Please know know that I wish to resolve any disputes amicably. I don't even have an agenda.

And lastly, I am saddened that you may think that I have something to hide. Please continue to assume that all my communications to you are in good faith.

Respectfully, bpage (talk) 19:16, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Removing deletion warnings is OK, but it is suspicious in light of what you wrote above. I've seen users do this in order to evade scrutiny and/or delay admin action. That said, this appears not the case here. I don't think there is anything more to say apart from the obvious. Happy editing. MER-C 05:06, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

request times out inmediatly
I tried to test find links to sms4smile.in

But I got "Request timed out" in one second, two at most. It shouldn't time out so quickly?? --Enric Naval (talk) 13:02, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Stack trace:

GET /linksearch.jsp?link=sms4smile.in java.lang.NullPointerException at org.wikipedia.servlets.XWikiLinksearch.doGet(XWikiLinksearch.java:201) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
 * This is a bug, not a timeout. I'll look at this shortly. MER-C 13:10, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed in r185 and deployed. MER-C 04:35, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

CCI update
It's a recent one and a small one, but, hey, one down is one down. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 00:55, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Wiki.java again
I've been using the code I found here for my bot work. Strangely, there seems to be an error in logging in: Feb 2, 2014 9:03:40 PM Wiki getCurrentDatabaseLag INFO: [en.wikipedia.org] Current database replication lag is 0 seconds. Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -21 at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1937) at Wiki.login(Wiki.java:881) at Test.main(Wiki.java:6070) Java Result: 1

I've had a look online for anything about this, but there doesn't seem to be anything. I'm not really seeing where the error is (note that I've been using part of the "example code" in the documentation for this test (lines 40-59), and obviously substituting "ExampleBot" with "Jakebot" and password with Jakebot's password). Is this something I'm doing wrong or is there an error somewhere? --Jakob (talk) 02:49, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I moved the code to a SVN repository at least a year ago. Use the latest stable version (and if that doesn't work, let me know). MER-C 02:57, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Wiki lib
Hi, I have used your lib for my bot. I have added some functionality to Wiki.java and ParseUtils.java. You can get the code here. In wiki.java you have created readObject(ObjectInputStream) and readObject(ObjectInputStream) but never used them. Can you tell me what are you planing to do with these methods. For my bot I use these two functions to login to Wikipedia (using the Wiki object saved before). My question : I'm doing the right thing? Cordially. Hunsu (talk) 11:05, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
 * They implement serialization but you should not call them directly. This article will help to explain what's going on. MER-C 11:37, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes I know what does the two functions. My question: does the object that will be created today by login function will be the same as the object created a month ago? The login function take long time (4~5 seconds in my case). The benefit of using these two functions is when we debug we are don't wait 5 seconds every time we launch our program. Hunsu (talk) 13:14, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
 * No, because the serialization is incomplete. This is a bug, left over from when I had some more transient variables. I don't think I need to have custom serialization anymore. The like of the serial object is limited by expiring cookies (about 30 days). MER-C 13:27, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Bug in the function getCategoryMembers
The function doesn't work with this category in the French Wikipedia. The problem is that the function normalize convert the category name (Catégorie:Wikipédia:ébauche Suisse) to Catégorie:Wikipédia:Ébauche Suisse. Hunsu (talk) 17:39, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Works for me. What version are you using? MER-C 03:49, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm using the latest version (0.30). How do you call the function? I call the function like that :

Hunsu (talk) 11:17, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I see where the problem is now. This is an easy fix:


 * I'll commit this tomorrow. MER-C 12:18, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
 * No it doesn't work. The function use this url instead of this url. The problem is the function normalize that rename the category name from Wikipédia:ébauche Suisse to Wikipédia:Ébauche Suisse. Hunsu (talk) 13:09, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I meant <tt>normalize("Category:" + name)</tt>. Derp. MER-C 13:17, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
 * This, and the serialization issue were fixed in r188. MER-C 04:05, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * It remains just to correct the functions in ParseUtils.java. You can take the ones I have made. I have also added a function in Wiki.java that return the title of an article in an another version of Wikipedia if you're interested. Hunsu (talk) 14:25, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Please post a patch on the issue tracker so I can see exactly what you have changed. MER-C 03:52, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

I have posted the ParseUtils.java file I use for my bot. Now the parameters parsed from a template are stored in a LinkedHashMap so its easy to add, change, rename and remove. The only problem is when the given template is like :

(the parameter param appears twice)

What we should do in this case? Hunsu (talk) 10:50, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki selects the rightmost of duplicated parameters, so we'll go for that. MER-C 12:04, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Committed. I changed a couple of things -- cleaner logic, Arrays.fill. I suggest writing a bunch of unit tests for ParseUtils in test/org/wikiutils/ParseUtilsTest.java to catch bugs and stop regressions with a few clicks. MER-C 05:50, 14 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I will do it when I will have some time. I'm not an experienced programmers and I never used JUnits. I have tested all the functionality I have added. My bot manipulate all the time templates so I was able to detect many bugs and correct them. Hunsu (talk) 09:57, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

User:Rayeearls/sandbox
How can you be a monitor when on you user page you clearly plagiarize monopoly a patent protected and copyrighted game? Who is reporting you for this practice? You send me a warning to stop my activities on soapbox. Soapbox is a tool designed to practice editing before you post something onto Wikipedia. It is my understanding that soapbox items never get posted. Please explain clarify that my "practice post" either did or did NOT get posted to Wikipedia. If it was not posted, then stay the hell out of my business. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rayeearls (talk • contribs)


 * The purpose of "your" sandbox -- it's a sandbox, not a soapbox -- is to practise improving the encyclopedia, not polluting it with promotional garbage. Please tell me why I should not revoke your editing privileges for abusing Wikipedia as a marketing medium. MER-C 03:10, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thank you. MER-C 10:45, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Java client
Hi! I would like to call some unimplemented json API calls in Java. Which package or framework do you recommend from mw:API:Client code? I'm novice in Java. Thanks, --JulesWinnfield-hu (talk) 17:45, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
 * What exactly do you want to do? MER-C 02:58, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I would like to load data to Wikidata with Java. --JulesWinnfield-hu (talk) 12:56, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't know much about JWBF, so I can't speak for them. I have implemented my framework such that everything you need is in that one file, it is the least complex of the four frameworks. I suggest writing something that logs in and edits your own userspace, then stepping through things with an IDE debugger to understand what's going on (I prefer XML because as you will find out, parsing it is relatively straightforward). MER-C 13:12, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you. --JulesWinnfield-hu (talk) 13:31, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

User:Rajeshmsharma
Hi MER-C. is ignoring my warning and reinserting external links I had removed to his own video, which he'd posted in an apparent conflict of interest. I don't want to edit war and need to go offline now anyway. Since you issued a final warning over a year ago, I'm bringing it to your attention. Thanks! Rivertorch (talk) 19:17, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Blocked as a spam-only account. MER-C 04:04, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Re: Deletion Kolkata Riverfront Beautification Project
I would request you to kindly recheck, if the whole article Kolkata Riverfront Beautification Project had copyright problems. As per my understanding, only few paras had copyright issues, the article could have been restored by removing the disputed text. I would request you to restore the page, as the article had substantial non-infringing materials which were contributed by multiple users. Amartyabag  TALK2ME  06:51, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The rest of the article (barring the projects list which I don't trust because it was added by the same editor who copied the content in the first place) was copied from http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1418320. I suggest you start from scratch. MER-C 07:00, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Is it possible to userify the article to my userspace. Amartyabag   TALK2ME  06:09, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * No. Copyvios are prohibited everywhere on Wikipedia. MER-C 06:16, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Is it possible to mail it to my email id? Amartyabag   TALK2ME  08:05, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes and no -- I'll send you a skeleton but the copyvio content stays deleted (and there's no point, you can just get it at the sources). Besides, the article was blatantly unencyclopedic and needed to be rewritten anyway. MER-C 08:33, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * That will work. Amartyabag   TALK2ME  09:44, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help. Amartyabag   TALK2ME  10:10, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Qpswiki1
Hi MER-C; would you mind commenting on this user's unblock request, please? See also User talk:Mrclb20. Cheers, Yunshui 雲 ‍ 水  11:13, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The deleted page was not only blatantly unencyclopedic, it was also a copyvio from . The editor claims to be an academic; he should have known better. I don't believe a word he has said. MER-C 12:23, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Revised page that was previously deleted for Edward Farhi
Hello. I am the Administrator for the Center for Theoretical Physics and I am trying to generate a page for the Center's Director and noted physicist Edward Farhi. We were declined before because Wiki thought that that content of what we initially sent too closely resembled a copyrighted piece of bio on Eddie that he had submitted himself to the radio show he was on. We have re-worked it and hopefully it is now suitable for posting. Thank you for your assistance. Best wishes, Scott Morley, MIT.

I post the proposed new page below.

[snip]

Bshop999 (talk) 18:06, 20 February 2014 (UTC)


 * It's not even remotely acceptable -- it still plagiarizes (you claim to work at MIT, you really should know better!) from various already-existing biographies. Furthermore, it is also completely unsourced and promotional.


 * This, however, is symptomatic of a more pressing concern -- your utter ignorance and/or contempt for Wikipedia's mission. Do you seriously think you can pass off a promotional biography as an encyclopedia article? MER-C 04:57, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

bug in random function
Before returning the title we must decode the result, otherwise the function return wrong titles (titles that contain entity references). Hunsu (talk) 22:34, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed. MER-C 06:21, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

help
hi my friend. could you please paraphrase this text:

In political life, there is a responsibility for a man's own sector. For that he is of course fully responsible. But beyond that there is a collective responsibility when he has been one of the leaders. Who else is to be held responsible for the course of events, if not the closest associates around the Chief of State?Alborzagros (talk) 06:19, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I could, but what exactly does this have to do with me or Wikipedia? MER-C 06:25, 22 February 2014 (UTC)


 * In Persian wikipedia there is a dispute about translation on thia text in order to get the article Albert Speer as featured article. thanks if you paraphrase that. Alborzagros (talk) 06:56, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
 * It's a quote from Inside the Third Reich, so you should read the book to get context. Crudely, he says that (1) People are responsible for their own actions and (2) if someone leads a group, that person is responsible for the group's actions. MER-C 07:32, 22 February 2014 (UTC)


 * thank you. Alborzagros (talk) 07:40, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Suspected net.kook in userspace
Hello MER-C! I noticed your excellent cleanup work in MfD. Thanks for taking time to remove some of the weird cruft from nooks and crannies of Wikipedia. We seem to have similar interests when it comes to deleting rubbish. When seeking more fake articles and other troublesome content, I came upon these contributions to our encyclopedia: Special:Contributions/Kuantan and Special:Contributions/Pmomentum What is your opinion, should these go as one or two groups as a group nomination to MfD or what should be done here? I know some basic physics and this looks more or less crackpot fringe theories than anything real ("Quarks and Electrons as a standing wave magnetic monopoles" etc.). jni (delete)<sub style="margin-left:-7.5ex;">...just not interested 16:57, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
 * My "rule of thumb" is that if they are the same person or content, then you can bundle them. User:Kuantan/Quintessence (momentum) and User:Pmomentum/sqrt Planck momentum are identical, so I think one MFD for the entire lot will suffice. I agree that the material is fringe at best, but is more likely not even wrong. MER-C 06:55, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I'll do a group nomination of this Planck momemtum stuff soonish. I have put a "pre-list" of possible MfD nominations for home-made theories of everything etc. at User:Jni/User space review, feel free to investigate these if interested. I'll contact Wikiproject Physics or someone who can evaluate the fringeness of these drafts as one of my recent nominations - I did a bunch yesterday - has been challenged by the non-contributor user maintaining a suspected fringe draft article in his userspace. jni (delete)<sub style="margin-left:-7.5ex;">...just not interested 07:23, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I can evaluate some of these when they are nominated, but not those related to modern theoretical physics. MER-C 09:57, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Contributing to Wiki.java
For contributing to Wiki.java, are there any specific conditions to be met or tests to be run before submitting a patch to you? Specifically, would you be inclined to accept the following types of patches: Sounds good or bad?
 * add Java 5 generics for type safety and easier refactoring
 * separate the fetch method into a part that produces a stream and a part that consumes the stream. Thus callers may use the first part and consume the stream line-by-line or byte-by-byte if they want to spare themselves from having the whole response in memory at one time
 * replace all the manual XML parsing to using the javax.xml.stream package (aka StAX). This is included in Java 6 so this will not elevate the requirements to callers.

Apropos Wiki.java: Eclipse's null pointer access detection facility has reported the following suspicious code: referring to svn revision 189: Line 6455 and 6458 inevitably produce a NullPointerException at <tt>line.contains(...)</tt> should this expression ever be evaluated, i. e. the part of the condition before the "&&" turns true, as <tt>line</tt> can only be null when exiting the loop at 6455 to 6449. I won't figure out what behavior you or the contributor of these lines expected, but I'm pretty sure this part of the code won't work as expected and it should be reviewed.

--dealerofsalvation 17:11, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
 * From top to bottom:
 * Patches, please.
 * I'm not sure why I should do this, please elaborate.
 * I deliberately do not use the JDK XML parsers (at the time I wrote the first parsing loops neither XML API was suitable) and now that almost everything is optimized I don't see the need to.
 * Fixed (will be committed with the next batch of changes). MER-C 12:54, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The Generics thing, I assume you mean by #1. OK, I didn't take a real close look at the warnings before and now I see that without changing the public API there's no real point in doing anything about them. By changing the public API I mean making getPageInfo, getUserInfo, getFileMetadata etc. return a structured object, similar to the Revision inner class, instead of returning hashmaps of String keys and general objects. Is it an option to deprecate these kind of methods and introduce new ones? Guess you are aware that caller-side Code like <tt>info.getTimestamp</tt> would be in many respects better than <tt>(Calendar)info.get("timestamp")</tt>.
 * Well, anyone who extends Wiki.java can make a custom URL that might produce megabytes of result, pass that URL to fetch, and it might suffice to walk through the result top to bottom instead of having the whole result string in memory at once.
 * IMHO because the current implementation is dependent on the specific way MediaWiki builds XML, be it on where it inserts whitespace and linebreaks, be it on anything else I might not foresee – XML has lots of flexibility. With a real XML parser Wiki.java would be on the safe side if MediaWiki decides to change anything about the output XML format. Guess by the time you were implementing you were aware of the SAX and DOM APIs, and yes they are pretty cumbersome resp. memory-intensive. StAX, as introduced in Java 6, in a way eliminates disadvantages of both. The caller actively parses through the stream, instead of having to implement a callback interface, but the caller can just move forward, not backward, so the library doesn't need to have the complete document in memory at once. But, yes, changing to a parser library would definitely be a risk, that's mainly why I was asking for tests :) Alternatively we might wait for built-in JSON support in Java SE and switch to JSON return format so it really pays to switch …
 * --dealerofsalvation 18:41, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
 * "getPageInfo" -- yes, "getUserInfo" -- yes, "getFileMetadata" -- maybe (EXIF?).
 * "make a custom URL that might produce megabytes of result"... well they shouldn't be doing that, and this is how I discourage it. This is also difficult to implement in practise -- the MW API's XML doesn't contain line breaks unless it has to.
 * XML: It's an API, they can't change things without causing major inconvenience. The API hasn't changed much in seven years, the XML is simple and there is no DTD. If the JDK had a not shit JSON parsing library, then it is probably a good idea to use that instead. MER-C 12:39, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Concerning getXXXInfo, ok, I'll do, it's just probably going to take me a couple of weeks as I have lots of other things to do. For now, my request is answered. Thanks. --dealerofsalvation 06:16, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

User:FanpagesILoveMoney/sandbox
Hi.

User:FanpagesILoveMoney/sandbox has popped up. The names in the contestant table seem to tickle my memory as possibly being similar to the now deleted User:Mam&Pop/sandbox. I can't see deleted content. Could you have peek as we may have multi-accounting going on? Thanks. -- Whpq (talk) 11:42, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The first season is identical, the second is completely different. I think an SPI is in order. MER-C 12:37, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. A report has been filed. -- Whpq (talk) 04:48, 27 February 2014 (UTC)