User talk:Willhanrahan

March 2010
Welcome to Wikipedia. The recent edit you made to Will Hanrahan has been reverted, as it appears to have removed content from the page without explanation. Use the sandbox for testing; if you believe the edit was constructive, please ensure that you provide an informative edit summary. You may also wish to read the introduction to editing. Thank you. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 10:39, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

The recent edit you made to the page Will Hanrahan has been reverted, as it removed all content from the page without explanation. Please do not do this, as it is considered vandalism; use the sandbox for testing. If you think the page should be deleted, see this page for instructions. Thank you. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 10:42, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Please do not vandalize pages, as you did with this edit to Will Hanrahan. If you continue to do so, you will be blocked from editing. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 10:43, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

This is the final warning that you are receiving  regarding your disruptive edits, such as this edit you made to Will Hanrahan. If you vandalize Wikipedia again, you will be blocked from editing without  further notice. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 10:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

for. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make constructive contributions. If you believe this block is unjustified, you may contest the block by adding the text  below, but you should read our guide to appealing blocks first.
 * If you are Will Hanrahan and are unhappy with the article about you, please see Biographies of living persons/Help for what you should do. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 11:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I see that the article had been vandalised: I have restored the last good version and semi-protected it for a short time so that new and unregistered users cannot edit it. If you have any problems with it in future, rather than edit the article yourself, your best course is probably to post a message at the Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 11:48, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Will Hanrahan
You might be interested in this. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 12:00, 18 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Ah, thanks for the heads-up on that situation John, i would have gotten back to you earlier if i wasn't busy with a couple other discussions. However, this made me think: Should the uw-delete user warnings contain a part for subjects of BLP pages? It makes no sense to add a custom text for every page blanker, and i doubt it is good PR - nor friendly for that matter - if we flat-out block the subject of an article. In those cases blankings are more understandable Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 12:53, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * A great many blankings are ordinary vandals, and I doubt if a high proportion are aggrieved article subjects. What might be worth considering, to save typing time when one suspects a "vandal" is the article subject, is a new template which says something like "If you are the article subject, please stop edit warring, we will be responsive to your concerns, state them on the article talk page, see WP:BLP/H for advice." As far as blocking goes, a short one may be the only way to prevent disruption in the short term, and as long as it is short, 1 or 3 hours rather than indef, and is accompanied by explanation, advice and corrective action, I don't think it's too unfriendly. JohnCD (talk) 20:36, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * That might indeed be a good idea. The vast majority will indeed be pure vandals, but for the couple of "Real" angry subjects that might be a good move. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 20:43, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The vandal in question seems to have managed to put in a derogatory reference to Will Hanrahan - again - but only when 'googling' the name. The article originally penned, I think, by a student many years ago and which is, broadly, fine has been returned on wikipedia NOT featuring the derogatory comment. Might I leave a message for the vandal in question? I have reported this as 'harassment' to the nearest police station to the address the vandals IP suggests the article was posted from. The WEB IP address has identified the permanent address in Birmingham used, which the police now have. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Willhanrahan (talk • contribs) 09:08, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Ehm, before going into more detail, i think i should point you to WP:NLT first. Stating you will take, or actually taking legal action against another editor is a blockable offense. I assume you might ask "Why is that rule in place?", so let me give a brief explanation: Wikipedia is an open encyclopedia read by millions and edited by millions, and opinions differ at time. Sometimes the subject of an article or other people closely involved will attempt to use legal threats in order to enforce their idea's. Since this creates an unworkable editing climate it is explicitly forbidden. Therefor, i would urge you not to take off-site legal actions, even if it is a vandal.


 * On a less serious note: Yes, if someone vandalizes an article you are free to leave a warning template on his or her talk page. Generally this means you select a the appropriate level warning and add one template for every offense. If the user is already at level 4, or past level 4 within a recent time after the last template you can report to IP to AIV to have the IP or username blocked from editing. For IP users the reasonable time would be 1-2 weeks or so, as IP ownership can be dynamic. For registered usernames i would suggest a month or more. Hope this helps, and with kind regards, Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 10:45, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

ANI Notice
Par standard procedure, i added a notice on the Administrator noticeboard of incidents regarding this problem. You may wish to comment over there as well as you see fit. Excirial ( Contact me, Contribs ) 11:12, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Your username, where to get help
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. :) After reading the administrators' noticeboard listing about these events, I wanted to come speak to you about several things.

First, I'm afraid that your username may not meet Wikipedia's username policy because it is the real name of a well-known person - see WP:REALNAME. If you are Will Hanrahan please confirm your identity by means of an email to info-en@wikimedia.org. If you are not Will Hanrahan, you might wish to file for a change of username, or you may simply create a new account and use that for editing.

I appreciate your helping disclose the vandalism done to Will Hanrahan, whether you are or are not he. :) I will add the article to my "watchlist" for a time, so I may be able to help detect if the vandalism returns. If it does, the article can be semi-protected for a short period of time or the contributor who adds it blocked from continuing to edit. See Protection policy and Blocking policy for our practices on both.

If perchance you are the subject of the article (or represent him), you may find Biographies of living persons/Help useful reading as well, as it contains a list of resources helpful in managing your biography. The Wikipedia community is very aware of the importance of maintaining accurate biographies, and if you communicate clearly any concerns you might encounter in an appropriate forum, the community will try to make sure that your article is written fairly in accordance with our biographies of living persons policy.

Thanks, and please let me know if you have any questions. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:37, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Although I have no reason to doubt your identity, I have taken your advice and contacted the webmaster through the Wikimedia Foundation OTRS system. Please, if you refer to that letter here, do not use my real name. Wikipedia's administrators are sometimes subjected to harassment as well, and I find it prudent to work under an obviously false username here (although I suppose it may not be obviously false in this day and age; I could be a rock star's child :)). When the matter is resolved, I will log the OTRS ticket number here that verifies the connection. The e-mail we receive will remain confidential, visible only to the members of the OTRS volunteer team. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 16:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for confirming your identity. I have logged that confirmation at your user page. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:27, 20 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I am happy to see that Google has caught up with the restored version. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 17:41, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Further vandalism
Sorry about that, though I am pleased to see that the watch was effective and Off2riorob corrected it within 10 minutes. I have "semi-protected" the article for six months, which means it cannot be edited by anonymous IPs or by new accounts (like that one) with less than 4 days and 10 edits. Off2riorob suggested indefinite semiprotection, but we are very reluctant to do that - policy suggests that temporary should be tried first, and even when indefinite is applied it should be lifted from time to time to see if it is still required. I have marked the six month date on the calendar and will watch carefully after it. I have also blocked that attacker, though it was probably a throwaway account. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 15:53, 16 April 2010 (UTC)