User talk:Mesmerus

A belated welcome!
Here's wishing you a belated welcome to Wikipedia, Mesmerus. I see that you've already been around a while and wanted to thank you for your contributions. Though you seem to have been successful in finding your way around, you may benefit from following some of the links below, which help editors get the most out of Wikipedia:
 * Introduction
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 * Help pages
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Also, when you post on talk pages you should sign your name using four tildes ( ~ ); that should automatically produce your username and the date after your post.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a message on, consult Questions, or place helpme on your talk page and ask your question there.

Again, welcome! EricSerge (talk) 14:12, 14 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks! ^_^ Yeah, I've had an account since '08 simply because I wanted to be able to contribute when I found some info that wasn't yet up on Wikipedia, but didn't want my IP plastered everywhere (for the general public). I am kind of familiar (especially by this point) with MediaWiki markups, but I abide by the phrase "Always happy to Elmer and be Elmered", and Wikipedia is no exception.
 * To be honest, back in '08 I didn't even know what a talk page was - I strictly just wanted to be able to contribute without plastering my IP to the public! XD
 * Thank you for the welcome, and those links are always a help - I used to have them as bookmarks I believe, but then I had a failure with my laptops's GPU and had to get a new one. No biggie though. :P
 * And thanks for the cookies, a good warm cookie is always excellent! :D Mesmerus (talk) 01:51, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Re: Silly Request!
Thanks a lot Mesmerus!!! Will do what you told me.. And about the pic, well I had no specific pic in my mind but it could be a jack in a box type pic or something else.. If ure making it then plz choose what you wish!! And thanks again !!!! The Wikimon (talk) 17:18, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Welcome to The Wikipedia Adventure!

 * Hi !  We're so happy you wanted to play to learn, as a friendly and fun way to get into our community and mission.  I think these links might be helpful to you as you get started.
 * The Wikipedia Adventure Start Page
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--

Hughleys logo
I uploaded a new version on the logo, it probably still needs some tweaking, but I manually re-draw most graphics through Inkscape. Youtube has some really good tutorials for the inkscape program. Let me know if you need any help. FOX 52 (talk) 03:45, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of File:The Hughleys.svg


A tag has been placed on File:The Hughleys.svg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F2 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 10:11, 12 December 2013 (UTC)


 * I am unable to find the CSD in question; File:The Hughleys.svg is still in use on other pages/articles, locally and globally. If the CSD in question is to remove the File entirely, please let me know how I can contest it (unless it has already gone through or been trashed, as I do not see the CSD notification on the page or talk page), as the file is still in use. If the CSD is only related to my backdated versions, and not the current version of the file, then I have no qualms with a CSD on them, as the current version is far superior than mine. Mesmerus (talk) 13:07, 12 December 2013 (UTC)


 * F2 means the file is on Commons. It means that a description page isn't needed locally anymore.Sfan00 IMG (talk) 13:13, 12 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Ah, I see - being that the data should be transcluded from the Commons description, that makes sense & explains why I do not see the CSD (it probably already went through, and what I'm seeing is the same, just mirrored info from Commons). Thanks for cleaning it up then! Mesmerus (talk) 13:17, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Ribbons
Hey, Mesmerus, I see you've been making Ribbons (which, obviously, I use) and I'm very appreciative. I'd just like to point you to the discussion at File talk:Article_Rescue_Ribbon_Shadowed.png. It seems that the colors are inconsistent with the older ribbons for the same 'star. But I really like the work you're doing. Achowat (talk) 08:26, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for the point - I actually only watch the pages on Wikimedia Commons, which is where I've been uploading them, so if you hadn't pointed, I'd have never known about that! As I said there as well, it was just an oversight, and I'll correct it when I next fire up GIMP to do some more! Thanks! Mesmerus (talk) 13:37, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * This is now fixed - thanks again for bringing that to my attention! :) Mesmerus (talk) 14:17, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * While I'm bringing things to your attention, I just thought I'd leave a note about your gallery. The American Dad logo is a non-free use image which shouldn't be kept in the User: namespace. I know, it did of sucks that we can't more easily demonstrate the files we upload when they're non-free. If you have any questions, throw me another Talkback. Achowat (talk) 20:17, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh yeah, I'd completely forgotten about that (can definitely agree that it sucks); I had intended on making that a Link, since I can't technically keep the picture there, as it's non-free fair use, but somewhere along the line forgot to go back and put that in - you'd think I'd have remembered when putting the ribbon logos in there! XD Thanks for the reminder! Mesmerus (talk) 03:42, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, we all lose our heads some time, no worries. I do really like the ribbons though. If you were looking to make some up that would definitely be put to good use, I could point you in the right direction (hint, not so subtle hint). Those two only exist as textured, and I much prefer the Shadowed style. Hell, there might even be something in it for you. Achowat (talk) 06:52, 19 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Aye, no offence in any sense taken; I do plan to do more as I've more free time (as I also prefer the shadowed ones the best), and am literally just working down the list, filling in where there's blanks. If I manage through it all at some point, I'll likely go back through and redo the ones that aren't the same size, shape, etc. (as I've noticed a few like that). Just started doing them in spare/free time I had, being that I consider myself decent (at a minimum) with GIMP/Inkscape! :) Mesmerus (talk) 02:12, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I got through a few more this evening (although I found I had to skip the Audio Barnstar Ribbon for now; I'll have to do that when I have a bit more time to do it by itself, as it'll take a bit more work to make it look cool), but also skipped ahead to do the two you specifically requested too. With any luck, I'll be able to chug on through all the ones on the page within a month; I'm mainly doing this because I noticed not one of the three types are 'complete' as it was, for all the ones listed on the page - some have only a mini, others have only a textured, and others have a mixture (though I don't think I've seen one with just a shadowed yet). And I happen to like the shadowed best as well, so I figured if I was gonna complete them for any one type (so they all matched upon completion), it should be that one. ;) Mesmerus (talk) 07:21, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I noticed that you moved the BoSox Ribbon up to WikiProject awards. I have a sandbox where I'm trying to fix the formatting of the whole Ribbon page. Thanks for making my job harder by adding new images during . Achowat (talk) 05:28, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, I wish I'd known that; your sandbox is much more organized than the live page; I could have been (and will going forward) used your sandbox instead of the live page (which would also mean I'd be filling the holes for you as well! XD Mesmerus (talk) 18:48, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!
XD Thanks, I appreciate the reassurance that I'm doing good! Will use the ribbon too, as I do just like them, but the barnstar is equally nice! :) Mesmerus (talk) 18:50, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Userbox check. Comment
I just created. It is my first userbox, would you please take a look at it when you have a chance to make sure I did not do anything stupid or break anything by accident? Thank you for your time. JBH (talk) 00:05, 14 January 2015 (UTC)


 * It looks good to me -- they're actually really simple; just a bit of CSS! I'm personally more fond of ones like you've done, which are simple and convey information clearly, but some others like them to be 'prettier' and (as I like to put it) more convoluted. The only thing extra that should be checked is the picture -- if the license doesn't allow for fair use, then it would be challenged (rightfully) later on. Being a ham myself, I'm fairly sure the MARS logo does allow for fair use under it's license, but they could have easily changed that -- I do not watch every license for everything _that_ closely. ;) Mesmerus (talk) 06:14, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you for checking. I used the logo from the MARS page here on Wikipedia and it has been released into the public domain. 73 JBH (talk) 16:17, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:American Dad Logo.svg
 Thanks for uploading File:American Dad Logo.svg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 10:00, 20 March 2017 (UTC)


 * It seems as though someone has made a better-looking vector image, and replaced the one I had created on the American Dad! page. Their image is better than mine, however I don't know why they chose to reupload it under a new name, upload it to only the English wiki (whereas I had uploaded mine to wiki commons) -- they would have been better off uploading a new image version to the commons page, and being done altogether (no relinking involved). The new (better) image can be found at File:American_dad_logo.svg; if you could please, merge it as a new version in the commons page since the English Wikipedia isn't the only one that likely draws from the current commons file. Thanks! Mesmerus (talk) 10:36, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

For adding so many ribbons to our collection

 * Hey, thanks! I like them better too. I started a few years back, but meatspace got in the way. I've finally carved time out to work on them again though -- its been bugging me ever since as I left it unfinished. I just hope Achowat gets a chance to see when I'm done; he was doing a redesign/cleanup of the page back when I was first working, and I'm sure he'd like to see the page when they're done. He and I were both in agreement that the shadowed/3D ones looked the nicest, sorta realistic.


 * Still, I do like the idea of the minis being converted to vectors -- I'm not sure the shadowed ones could so easily be converted though. Ease of use was the goal, and still is -- always bothered me how not one column actually has complete coverage; god forbid people to have to mix and match, that would look awful, unless they're all scaled down to 72px. Which is what many do now as a result. Hopefully, soon that won't have to be! Mesmerus (talk) 14:17, 24 April 2018 (UTC)


 * I also like the way you've used the supertext to link your duplicate awards; I've done similar, as its cleaner, and nicer looking. :) Mesmerus (talk) 14:50, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

Pinging
In case you're unaware of it, none of your 3 edits will have given a successful ping. The ping needs to be included in the same edit in which you sign your message. Details are at WP:Notifications. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:38, 28 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Ah, I was not -- I'm old enough to still prefer the talkback template, and have only recently learned of ping & the new notification system! Thanks for the heads up :) Sorta confusing to be honest; I'm still used to having pages on my watchlist just for the heads up through email, and forgetting to add the ping template constantly. Sorta feels like a half-done job; a more appropriate replacement would have been auto-pings based on replies to the same thread, but then the software would have to inspect the comments themselves, which I suppose trades for more CPU time. Mesmerus &#128236; &#128247; 21:01, 28 April 2018 (UTC)

September 2018
You have been blocked indefinitely from editing because it appears that you are not here to build an encyclopedia. If you think there are good reasons for being unblocked, please read the guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text below the block notice on your talk page:. Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 09:41, 29 September 2018 (UTC) PS See discussion at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:BrownHairedGirl&oldid=861696473#Please_refrain_from_blanking_userpages_because_of_bad_topicons/userboxes. Note that of your 997 edits at the time of the block, only 12 were to articles. Over half of your edits are to your own userpages, which is classic WP:NOTHERE conduct. You were asked to stop making drama over attempts to mitigate the damage caused inadvertently by your userpages, but instead you chose to demand that others clean up the problems caused by your wholly unproductive userpage. I am happy to help productive editors clean up inadvertent problems, but not to spend my time cleaning up after editors whose main interest is their own homepage. You have already made more edits in complaining about this than you have made to articles in the ten years since you created your account. -- Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 09:59, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

Comment by blocking admin

 * you asked for a fuller explanation of my actions, so here goes.
 * I was clearing the backlog in Special:WantedCategories. Per WP:REDNOT, a redlinked category is always an error; such category entries should be corrected or removed, or the cat created.
 * In this case I found that two of the categories were populated solely by the page User:Mesmerus. I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out which templates might be causing the problem, but found that there was such convoluted nest of templates that it could many take hours to unravel.   In cleaning up such categories, I have often noticed that the proliferation and complexity of userbox usage by an editor can correlate inversely with encyclopedic contribution, and when I examined Mesmerus's contribs I saw a very extreme example of that: only 12 mainspace edits in ten years, and over half of total edits were to their own nest of userpages.
 * So any effort I put into helping unravel that would not be helping a productive editor; it would be helping an editor whose prime focus is on his homepage to unravel the consequences of that WP:NOTHERE focus.
 * I therefore blanked the userpage, leaving Mesmerus to sort it out.
 * The subsequent comments by Mesmerus confirmed my hunch. Mesmerus demanded more of my time to unravel the consequences of their own homepage-making.
 * If an editor chooses to make no encyclopedic contribution we don't block them for that, so long as they do no harm. But when a non-contributing editor insists on making a drama out of the problems arising from their sole focus on homepage-making, then they become a net burden on the community.
 * I was saddened but unsurprised by Mesmerus's unblock request. Its prime focus is Mesmerus's determination to further my photo/design skills ... and their personal development is not about building an encyclopedia.  It's an assertion of WP:NOTHERE priority.
 * Similarly, Mesmerus's demand that clearly a non-partisan delegation needs to review this is extraordinary: an editor who doesn't build encyclopedic content wants a whole delegation to take to time to review whether they have been adequately facilitated? For real?
 * The underlying problem here was a v obscure but ultimately fairly simple technical issue which it turns out that Mesmerus did indeed know how to fix.   There are about a hundred new entries each day in Special:WantedCategories; keeping on top of them is a big job.  I always, as a matter of priority, devote some time to unravelling categories which actually help navigate articles, finding the correct category or creating a new one.  It often involves a whole missing chunk of category tree, and can take quite a chunk of time.  I do that because it benefits the encyclopedia.
 * However, there is no benefit to Wikipedia as a whole in assisting a non-productive editor in maintaining their homepage, so in such cases I take quicker steps: the shortest route to stop the page populating the redlinked category, which may be removing the cat entry, removing a malformed userbox, or in extremis blanking the page. (I v rarely blank; it is rarely needed,  But it rare to see quite such a convoluted userpage).
 * I would not strongly object to the unblocking of Mesmerus if they give an assurance that they will stop complaining about their bloated homepage being blanked when it causes problems which cannot be reasonably fixed in a short period of time by an experienced editor who lacks intimate knowledge of the homepage-makers's nested template logic.
 * But I wouldn't support it either. AGK, you and I have already each given Mesmerus more of our time today than Mesmerus has given to encyclopedic content in the ten years since their account was created.  What would en.wp gain by unblocking?  More homepage building?  En.wp does not exist to further annyone's design skills. - Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 20:51, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
 * PS note that Mesmerus invokes WP:NNH's section "Focusing on niche topic areas". However, it doesn't apply: Mesmerus works on their own userpages, which is not an encyclopedic topic area.
 * Nothing in WP:NNH suggests that building facily-formatted userpages out of complex nests of templates is an exemption to WP:NOTHERE. -- Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 22:24, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi, . Thank you for writing a detailed explanation.  Appreciate your time.


 * The appellant has made a number of helpful contributions, including to various internal messageboards. The relative merit of their totality as a contributor can indeed be debated, but they are an editor in some sense.  I would have treated their conduct as disruptive editing, and taken action that stopped the problem.  A short block would have been sufficient.  I think that doling out an indef was tantamount to treating the editor like a common vandal.  To me, they aren't one.


 * I think it is best, as you say, to extract an agreement to permanently desist from reverting back in the broken categories etc.  AGK  [•] 14:13, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I think that sounds like a good solution. We just need Mesmerus to take responsibility for sorting out any problems on their own userpages, whatever the cause of those probs.  I know that Mesmerus argues that the probs arose from the intersection of their page with changes elsewhere, but such things hapen routinely in a collaborative environment, and it is Mesmerus's responsibility to either do their own maintenance or simplify their pages so that others can do it easily. -- Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 16:03, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm rather saddened to hear this. Your decision to maintain the block, which you agree was well too far for the issue, has dissuaded me from contributing in the future; I have a normal job, as I'm sure you do, and when I do contribute (which you can see from multiple places, including the timepuch card wmflabs generates) it is when I have the time and energy to spare. Especially considering the blocking admin's attitude and lack of civility, in their belief that their time is worth more than mine, I don't see why I would continue to even try to aid a site or forum of any nature after being treated as such.
 * The issue on the table has been, this entire time, that there was not a single request for a fix given -- had there been, I would have been more than happy to. Instead, they blanked one page (out of a dozen that were producing the "error" in question, with no message left as to why. Given my local time, and seeing that my main userpage (not any of the subpages) was simply blanked, my thoughts were "oh, probably a vandal. Just AGF, revert and deal in the morning. This attitude of taking a flamethrower to deal with a dandelion in a neighbor's yard is completely ridiculous and had I simply been left a note on my talk page in the first place, I would have already been happy to deal with the issue at hand.
 * Even given the attitude and flamethrower approach, the issue was swiftly resolved as soon as I realized what the (uncommunicated) desire was. A request would have sorted the issue entirely, and none of this would have happened.
 * Now instead, I've had to spend multiple hours wasting *my* time (since the blocking admin seems to think their time is worth so much, I suppose I should as well), chasing what amounts to an admin abusing their powers because they didn't like a WP:CIVIL request to state the request/question on somebody's talk page before just blanking it.
 * I'm not opening another unblock request; you are more than welcome to look at my userspace; I'm already a member of WP:KIND, where most of my contributions are making the shadowed, textured ribbons (all of which I've contributed are also on my Gallery page, on the English site).
 * I'm unsure if this was simply missed or just ignored, based on only the blocking admin's word alone, but I'm rather disinterested in contributing further based on it. Power tripping administrators, issuing infinite bans because they were politely asked to state requests instead of blanking entire pages is not something I or any user should have to worry about, ever. This is what drives people away from any given site.
 * I've always taken responsibility for the issues on my own page; as I did when I realized what the actual "issue" was, that was requested. Nor did I ever "demand" that BrownHairedGirl fix it herself, as she claims. Her own talk page is evidence of it; I merely told her where/what the issue actually was, while I was fixing it, followed by an open statement that they found my userspace configuration strange.
 * Given you agreed outright that the infinite was way too much, and given that there was never a shift of responsibility (nor a belief that anybody else should be responsible for my userspace), I'm not missing anything for this unblock request. I'd appreciate it if you could deal with the issue here, and point me in the direction to lob a formal complaint about BrownHairedGirl in this regard, for dragging this on this much. Especially in my own userspace, not an article or a Wiki page, if I receive a notification on my phone, at 0530 local time (when there's a clock for my local time *on* the page being blanked), my response is going to be AGF/vandalism; if it is predated by a message on my talk page, I'll happily fix it when I'm awake and see the full message. Of course, if this was an actual category page, or article or some such, I would not even touch it at that late hour, and let it go until morning. My userspace is a slightly different matter (since most other people touching a user page other than their own ends up being vandalism in some sense anyway).
 * If that suffices for an agreement about an issue that was never contested in the first place, I'm more than happy to say I have no intentions of being disruptive nor make blind reverts when I have reason to think there is a legitimate reason for them.
 * However, I still would like to know where I can lob this issue, for posterity's sake, in case I ever see this amount of abuse of power happen again; there was no warning of any kind, and when I attempted to civilly ask what the problem was, I was met with a threat of a ban. Then, when saying I would not accept a blind threat of a ban, given my civility and no warning, and having been given one... well, if I'd not already been here for a long time, I would have simply thrown the entire thing in the bin and considered it not worth my time/effort. There are many people who have left for this similar reason (not because of admin abuse/improper banning, but because of this attitude being thrown at users). Especially given there's a userbox on my homepage identifying me as a member of WP:KIND, which also aligns with the majority of my global contributions, this is not only disappointing but completely illogical, almost to a humurours extent.
 * The entire issue, as I see it here, is a rouge admin blindly doing what they want, with narcissistic tendencies, simply because a minute to type a request is too much work for somebody as important as them -- blanking an entire page seems much more reasonable somehow. Mesmerus &#128236; &#128247; 20:19, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
 * a rouge admin blindly doing what they want. Sigh. An admin who had already devoted a wholly excessive amount of time to trying unsuccessfully to figure out which of the 48 templates and 32 modules transcluded on that version of your fancy userpage. The edit summary explained the problem, and gave you all the info you needed to fix it.
 * when I attempted to civilly ask what the problem was, I was met with a threat of a ban. Sigh.  I gave you a terse but civil response.  You were threatened with a block only when you replied to that civil response by claiming "vandalism". -- Brown Haired Girl (talk) • (contribs) 21:12, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Unblocked
Hi, Mesmerus. Your agreement was not quite in the form requested (a new unblock requested). It also came with rather a lot of content that makes me worried you are not hearing that. However, I trust the point about editing responsibly on your userpage is now understood. I have unblocked you.

To be clear, if you revert in the content again – or do something similar – then you may be blocked again. At that time it likely will be a long-term, indefinite block. I trust we need say no more about this for the time being.

Finally, regarding complaining about an administrator – there are a number of venues set out in Administrators. They are all either unsuitable because this incident has already been reviewed and resolved – or inappropriate because this is an isolated incident. For what it's worth, I would advise you against any further action. I think it would waste the community's time.

Regards, AGK  [•] 20:35, 1 October 2018 (UTC)