User talk:THE PRESIDENT

Advice on starting to edit
My advice to new editors is that it is best to start by making small improvements to existing articles, rather than creating new articles. That way any mistakes you make will be small ones, and you won't have the discouraging experience of repeatedly seeing hours of work deleted. Gradually, you will get to learn how Wikipedia works, and after a while you will know enough about what is acceptable to be able to write whole new articles without fear that they will be deleted. Over the years I have found that editors who start by making small changes to existing articles and work up from there have a far better chance of having a successful time here than those who jump right into creating new articles from the start. I certainly wouldn't recommend a new editor jumping straight into Requested articles, as the whole point of that is for inexperienced editors to ask for help from those who do have experience, and therefore know what a new article should be like. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 23:01, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Blocked?

 * Note A check of this shows that you are not currently blocked. MarnetteD&#124;Talk 00:42, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Not only is this account not "currently" blocked, but it never has been blocked. So that we can help sort out what the problem is, can you say what made you think you were blocked? Is there perhaps a block on your IP address, or on another account you have used? The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 08:28, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * The error message that I see when attempting to edit any page except this page is Editing from THE PRESIDENT has been disabled by Elockid, expiring on 9 November 2017. I don't want to wait that long to edit. I'll ping to see if they can comment on the issue. President (talk) 19:21, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * You probably won't get much of a response since Elockid has not edited since July 2016. ~ GB fan 19:27, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * The comment was primarily directed at JamesBWatson, who asked the initial question. Although, on a side note, should the not around template or something similar be placed on Elockid's user page and/or talk page? President (talk) 19:32, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I also would seriously wonder how Elockid blocked me if he is potentially retired or semi-retired. I don't want to jump to negative conclusions, but the small possibility of a compromised admin account should be lightly considered. President (talk) 19:33, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, that is totally bewildering, both because there is no record of your account being blocked, and because there is no record of Elockid doing anything at all on Wikipedia (editing, blocking, or anything else) since 6 July 2016. And no, a compromised admin account is not the answer, as the block would still show up in Elockid's log if someone else had done it using that account. I can only assume that it is some sort of technical glitch, so I'll post a message at Village pump (technical) in the hope someone there can help. Is what you posted the complete message you see when trying to edit? If there is any more then it may help to post all of it, even if it doesn't look significant. Does it mention any other account, or an IP address? (If it mentions your IP address and you don't want to post it publicly you can email it to me in confidence. To do that you will need to enable email in your preferences, which you get to from the "preferences" link at the top of the page.)


 * It occurred to me that blocking you and then unblocking might possibly get rid of the spurious block. I have no technical reason to think it would work, but I have known similar actions to work in other situations, rather like switching off and on again electrical equipment that isn't working. However, that would mean you would no longer have a clean block log, so I wouldn't try that unless you gave me permission. I hope we can sort this out before too long. In the meanwhile I suggest waiting a few hours and then trying logging in again, to see if the problem has gone away on its own. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 19:44, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Okay, you're just making this up as you go along, aren't you? Your account is not, and has never been blocked. The web hosting range you're editing from is blocked, however, but it was blocked less than 24 hours ago by someone other than Elockid. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 19:52, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Okay, so I see that you're now using a web hosting range that did happen to be blocked by Elockid. A year and a half ago. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 19:55, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * What do you mean by "web hosting range"? President (talk) 19:57, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * The message you're seeing when you try to edit is this. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 20:02, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * No it isn't. President (talk) 20:04, 30 March 2017 (UTC)


 * I don't know what else to say. I was able to edit just fine when I first registered, and then all of sudden I was blocked. My initial reaction was that I had been blocked in response to the village pump discussion that I started and the incident with the RA article that was speedy deleted. However, that would've been a case of WP:NOTPUNISHMENT (and therefore also a case of WP:ADMINABUSE). JamesBWatson has said that my account is not blocked, so that idea is off the table. The block message that DoRD linked to is not the message I see when I try to edit. I also don't know what this "Digtal Ocean Webhost" discussion is all about. President (talk) 20:27, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
 * And why the hell has blocked me indefinitely? Is this the technical test that was mentioned above? President (talk) 20:29, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

You have done what at first appeared to be wasting my time, by getting me to spend considerable time and effort in trying to sort this out, as though you were a good faith editor caught in some strange mistaken block. However, it wasn't entirely a waste of time, as the outcome of my investigation is that I have discovered that this account is evading blocks on other accounts, probably the group of accounts arbitrarily referred to in Wikipedia as Orangemoody. Consequently, this account now really is blocked. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 20:32, 30 March 2017 (UTC)