User talk:Mr.Z-man/Archive 6

Database locking issues

  Hopefully these help! :D (Going back to beat up on the CentralAuth tool now, the db hates me...) ~Kylu (u|t) 02:19, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Hyacinth Chen Nursing School

I was about to tag this but paused. Is it non-notable? -WarthogDemon 02:26, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Chris Mounsey

You deleted Chris mounsey[1], but Chris Mounsey is still there. I think this is because someone changed "mounsey" to "Mounsey" during the AfD. Could you please delete Chris Mounsey as well? Thank you. Qworty (talk) 21:20, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Request for proposing that you request a proposal for requesting proposals.

Excellent timing, by the way. — Coren (talk) 00:17, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Conflicts in Ming Dynasty

Hi, Mr.Z-man. Could you please have a look at the article Ming Dynasty? I pasted a map, ming_1443.png, drawn by Sinomap Press, ISBN 7503103841. However there are some guys who don't agree with the position of Tibet in the map, even though I cited plenty of sources to prove that Tibet was in Ming China at that period. The discussion is in deadlock at present, I beg you to make a judgment in the article, please just stay neutral! Thanks!--LaGrandefr (talk) 11:05, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Administrators don't pass judgments and I'm a little too busy to get involved with a mediation. You should try dispute resolution if you can't come to a consensus. Mr.Z-man 17:11, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Awarding Barnstar

  The Barnstar of Good Humor
Aprils fools day was a blast. Loads of users lightened up to have good old fashion fun. I want to thank you for taking part in editing this page in particular and even though I may not know you, embrace the same talk pages, or even edit with you in the near future, I'd like to award you this Barnstar for making Wikipedia a fun environment in which to contribute. Until next year. :) SynergeticMaggot (talk) 13:05, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

How do i create a Wikipedia page for my company?

Please help me to create a wiki page for my company, Aztecsoft.

For more info about our company, please visit, http://www.aztecsoft.com/

Also, take a look at our awards page, http://www.aztecsoft.com/advantage_aztecsoft/our_successes/awards/. We have won so many awards and the recent one was the "Pink Slip" award, from Times of India.

There are many of our competitors who have a page in Wikipedia, but if we try to create a page, it is not happening. So, we need to your guidance to create a page in Wikipedia.org.

Pratheepraj (talk) 09:06, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

You really shouldn't write about your own company. Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against it. I would suggest requesting it on the requested articles list and if it is notable, someone will create it eventually. I would suggest this site instead where you are encouraged to write about yourself. Mr.Z-man 17:39, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
Mr.Z-Man, Thank you, I have requested for it and will try to create a page in http://www.mywikibiz.com/ Pratheepraj (talk) 06:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

RE: Speedy closeof AFD

Mr. Z-Man,

I see you closed the AFD on Deaths_in_2008. I'm curious about that. The list (it's a list and not an article) appears violate both WP:NOT#DIR and WP:NOT#MEM. Wouldn't policy trump consensus , rather than the other way around ? F.U.R hurts Wikipedia 18:46, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

No, policy not proscriptive. Except for the rules on copyright and foundation issues like NPOV, consensus almost always trumps policy. I would suggest you review the policy you cited as well. WP:NOT#MEMORIAL is to prevent articles that only serve as memorial. This was a list, it wasn't memorializing anything. I don't see how NOT#DIRECTORY applies at all, unless you consider every list to be a violation of it. Mr.Z-man 20:10, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Re

I thought the images were not representative images of the railway stations. But it was my mistake not to use edit summary and I did not understand by doing so I will be accused of "vandalism". I have self-reverted my edits. So can you bring the twinkle back. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 21:50, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

So what should I do now? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 21:55, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Help requested

Hello, since you are an adminstrator who has previously given advice to User:Otolemur crassicaudatus about inappropriate tagging, can I ask you to take a look at his actions on Peterloo Massacre (which I have been involved in), in particular a section about eyewitness testimony? I and at least one other editor believe he tagged inappropriately without explanation and without prior discussion on the talk page with experienced editors who had already reached a consensus about the section's relevance and inclusion. I posted a message about this, along with another editor, on the editor's talk page (now deleted by him) and got in reply a note directing me to WP:CIVIL and WP:HARASSMENT which I believe was inappropriate, as I pointed out in a response both on my talk page and on the editor's talk page. I should point out that this is not the first time I and others have disagreed with his overly-zealous tagging of articles: one recent one also on an article I have an interest in (Smallthorne) led to him making a totally inappropriate edit summary which I took to WP:Wikiquette alerts which he then apologized about. I feel there may be a greater problem emerging, and I hope he can be counselled to amend his overly-zealous tagging to prevent it getting worse.  DDStretch  (talk) 00:16, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

As an extra complaint, I see his edit summary when he removed my message about removing the tag is described as "trolling". I take great exception to this, and feel that some action is probably needed to prevent similar issues arising: a look through his talk page history is illuminating here.  DDStretch  (talk) 00:21, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

refTools script

It seems it is adding the year as 3908. Is it supposed to do that?   jj137 (talk) 00:38, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, that's odd, its always worked correctly for me. Anyway, I changed the date function to one that should hopefully work better. Mr.Z-man 01:22, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
OK, it seems to work fine now.   jj137 (talk) 03:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Quitting...

Hello. you don't know me, but I have decided to quit Wikipedia, and to make sure I don't come back on, I am asking you to ban my account. Thank you. Javascap (talk) 18:52, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

We're sorry to hear you're leaving. While we can't ban you, you are welcome to use WikiBreak Enforcer to stop you from logging in. GlassCobra 18:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

My RFA has closed

My RFA that you weighed in on earlier has closed as no consensus to promote, at a final tally of 120/47/13. I thank you for your feedback and comments there, and I'm going to be considering all the various advice and comments presented. I might end up at RFA again some day, or not. If you see me there again in the future, perhaps you might consider a Support !vote. If not, not, and no hard feelings. The pen is still mightier than the mop! See you around, and thanks again. Lawrence § t/e 18:19, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

  The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
For signing Majorly's userpage Being a great buddy IRC Phoenix-wiki 21:01, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

My RfA...

Thank you...
...for your participation in my RFA, which closed with 85 supports, 2 neutrals and 1 oppose. I'm extremely grateful for all the the kind comments from so many brilliant Wikipedians I've come to respect and admire, as well as many others I've not yet had the pleasure of working with, and I'll do my best to put my shiny new mop and bucket to good use! Once again, thank you (for the cheatsheet too...) ;)
EyeSerenetalk 16:38, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Reply

I asked a question that would help me. I see what you mean though, and I intend to ask questions that would help others decide wheater to vote support, oppose, or nuetral from now on.--Ryan (talk) 23:30, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

My Sandbox

What made you think this was "temporary" or unused, please? --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 04:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Ohh..look a shiny!

  WikiMedal for Janitorial Services
For all your great work clearing at the backlog at CAT:TEMP, I Tiptoety award you this really shiny thing! Tiptoety talk 04:53, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

You are Marked for Assassination by Igor Berger

See: http://www.londonfetishscene.com/wipi/index.php/User:Igorberger#BuzzKill (or were, apparently the Inquisitor pardoned you) and... Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#User:Igorberger_harrassment

Thought you should know. Life.temp (talk) 09:20, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

User talk:Hockeyalltheway25

I noticed you deleted this as a temporary user page earlier today (it's on my watchlist because I originally reported him as vandalism-only, so I've been keeping an eye on him). I just thought you should know that his indef. block was reversed after he apologized, so there should have been no need to delete his talk page. If you could restore it so the history would be intact, that would be lovely. Gromlakh (talk) 13:56, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I altered your block

Hi, I undid your block of User:Ikilledyourmom and redid it as a hard block. I am not sure if you meant to make this a soft block, but with a name like that we really don't want them creating another account. I hope this is not controversial to you. (1 == 2)Until 22:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Nope, no problem. Mr.Z-man 22:07, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
With a name like that he should be in jail. (This is intended to be a Joke) – ThatWikiGuy (talk|Where am I co-king?) 22:57, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

User: Toldasidw

I noticed you deleted a BV by user:Toldasidw. The exact same antihellenic BV accompanied by warez ads was perpetrated by him yesterday. All his posts are BV's and ads to dubious sites. Would it be possible that he be banned. On a long term basis? Thanks.Xenovatis (talk) 21:50, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what you are talking about. user:Toldasidw is a sockpuppet of the banned User:Grawp. Mr.Z-man 21:56, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
Blocked indef.[2] Thanks.Xenovatis (talk) 22:03, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Request to block 205.155.207.3

You blocked user 205.155.207.3 a few months ago. in recent days they/him/her has been performing acts of vandilism. I'm not entirely sure how to block a user or request to block a user, but you seem to have blocked him/her/them a few months ago so I imagine you could do it again. Danshil (talk) 20:38, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Re-blocked. In the future, such reports should be made on WP:AIV. Mr.Z-man 22:58, 16 April 2008 (UTC)


js help

Hi, can you write a script so I can have a button in my tool bar, which when pressed places this in the edit form;

== Happy Birthday! ==

{{subst:Happy Birthday}}

and places Happy Birthday! in the edit summery? Thanks. – ThatWikiGuy (talk|Where am I co-king?) 22:49, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

function happybirthdaybutton() {
  if (mwCustomEditButtons && document.getElementById('toolbar')) {
    button = document.createElement('a');
    button.href = "javascript:HappyBirthday()";
    button.title = "Birthday";
    buttonimage = document.createElement('img');
    buttonimage.src = "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Button_smiley_face_smile.png";
    buttonimage.alt = "Birthday";
    button.appendChild(buttonimage);
    document.getElementById('toolbar').appendChild(button);
  }
}
function HappyBirthday() {
  document.getElementById('wpSummary').value = "Happy Birthday!"
  HBstring = '==Happy Birthday!==\n'+
    '{{subs'+'t:Happy Birthday}} ~~'+'~~';

  insertTags(HBstring, '', '');
}
hookEvent("load", happybirthdaybutton);
That should do it. Mr.Z-man 23:18, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. I'm guessing your good a js script. – ThatWikiGuy (talk|Co-kingship) 23:28, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

refTools problem

Figured out that the problem I was having at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Random updating of my own sig? was related to refTools. Giving you a heads up.

Additional information I failed to provide before: Safari 3.0.4 on Mac OSX 10.5.2. Unverified on my 3.0.11 version under OSX 10.4 at home, but this issue *just* popped up this morning. EVula // talk // // 20:42, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I suck at wikibreaks too

I suck so much at taking wikibreaks, I almost always fail. (1 == 2)Until 02:18, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

For your userpage...

I have been digging around, and I found this in the attic.

 
This editor is a Veteran Editor III, and is entitled to display this Silver Editor Star.


Seems your able to display it. :) Hope there is room on your userpage. Best, NonvocalScream (talk) 00:58, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Reference error checking

refTools is a really great tool. What we could really use is a tool to check for broken refs. I think the major problem I see is when a ref is not properly closed and article text appears in the references section. --— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 14:57, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

FlaggedRevs

Hi, I saw your work at Wikipedia:FlaggedRevs fact sheet, and just wanted to point you towards my request at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions#Documentation update?, in case you could help. Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 19:17, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Backlog at Category:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user

I'm not sure if your this good but...

...can you create a third party watchlist?

Like I could add pages in, have multiple watchlists.

Maybe I could have variables like;

  • notify - Shows a message, that doesn't disappear until you visit the page in question, when the page is edited
  • email - get email when the page is edited
  • list - which list it goes in

Maybe it could be like a tab (replaces watch/unwatch) and opens up like a twinkle/friendly like window? Would love to hear from you. I use greasemonkey and firefox, so... – ThatWikiGuy (talk | life | The all seeing eye) 20:05, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

You can create a semi-watchlist by creating a page like User:ThatWikiGuy/watchlist, add links to any page you want to watch, then see the changes with Special:RecentChangesLinked/User:ThatWikiGuy/watchlist. What you want would be fairly difficult, and probably impossible with javascript. You could probably do all but the email notification in Javascript, but it wouldn't be the kind of script I could write in a few minutes. For email notification, you'll need a bot watching the live RC feed on IRC. I think there are some implementations of this in Python or Perl, but I wouldn't know where to find them, User:ST47 or User:SQL may know. Mr.Z-man 23:10, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
OK, scraping the email notification, do you think we could work on it? The thing I want the most is the my watchlist link to be changed to a pull down menu (custonizable) and the notify - Shows a message, that doesn't disappear until you visit the page in question, when the page is edited. Do you think we could do that? Using the Special:RecentChangesLinked? – ThatWikiGuy (talk | life | "I got my eye on you") 23:21, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Oh, and it could be like a tab (replaces watch/unwatch) and a pulldown menu for the Watch this page radio button on the edit forms, if thats posssible. – ThatWikiGuy (talk | life | "I got my eye on you") 23:24, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Notification with Javascript would be pretty difficult as well. You may want to ask on WP:US/R for a button to add a link to your watchlist page, that might actually be do-able. Mr.Z-man 23:29, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Grawp

I think they're all fixed now. —Wknight94 (talk) 02:54, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Prince Jam Kamal Khan?

I had just finished declining speedy and trying to add a little more context. Are you sure you mean A1?--Kubigula (talk) 05:22, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

The context didn't seem significantly more than in the first revision, but I've undeleted it as you feel you can improve it. Mr.Z-man 05:25, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Cheers. I'll probably play with it a little. I think it's over the A1 hurdle, though I don't know if the guy is actually notable or not.--Kubigula (talk) 05:40, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Cite book template

Why did you remove the "in" from before the "editor" field in the {{cite book}} template? Pages which entries that I've converted to use the template now look odd. Besides, a consensus hadn't been reached in the template's talk page. This seems too arbitrary without the implementation of all the other change requests that would make this an appropriate move. Please revert! -- alexgieg (talk) 15:47, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I removed it because it looked really strange whenever you provided an editor. I don't think any normal citation format (MLA, APA, etc) puts an "in" before the editors' names. I've reverted for now, but I'd appreciate if you could point me to some cases where this looks remotely correct. Mr.Z-man 19:41, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the revert. As for its usage, it's for when you have an anthology made of chapters each by a different authors, and you want to specify that the author/chapter you're specifying is "in" that other author's work.
Now, the template's talk discussion, Template talk:Cite_book#template error: editor, is precisely about the fact that in many cases people are using this field for other purposes, such as when the whole book is by one author alone, but its edited by someone else. In these cases sure, the "in" word doesn't make sense. Some suggestions have been made to solve this, such as adding an "editor2=" field to contemplate these cases, or some other way to distinguish when it's an anthology, a critical edition or something else. No consensus has been reached however.
My take is that the whole template requires a lot more brainstorming, then a rewrite from the ground up. But the way things are, people who are relying on it for documenting anthologies, as is my case, expect the "in" to be there. If it disappeared a lot of manual work, maybe even a bot, would be required to place it back where it's expected to be. -- alexgieg (talk) 22:17, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

New Project

Myself and several other editors have been compiling a list of very active editors who would likely be available to help new editors in the event they have questions or concerns. As the list grew and the table became more detailed, it was determined that the best way to complete the table was to ask each potential candidate to fill in their own information, if they so desire. This list is sorted geographically in order to provide a better estimate as to whether the listed editor is likely to be active.

If you consider yourself a very active Wikipedian who is willing to help newcomers, please either complete your information in the table or add your entry. If you do not want to be on the list, either remove your name or just disregard this message and your entry will be removed within 48 hours. The table can be found at User:Useight/Highly Active, as it has yet to have been moved into the Wikipedia namespace. Thank you for your help. Useight (talk) 04:53, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Question

I was wondering why you deleted Moulton's userpage [3]. FeloniousMonk (talk) 01:32, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

The user was indefinitely blocked and there was no significant content or history that seemed to be worth keeping. The {{indef}} template categorized it into CAT:TEMP and it was deleted as part of a semi-regular purge of the pages in that category. Mr.Z-man 01:38, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply. I'm restoring the page with another template and links to the discussion for his ban since he's now recruiting meat puppets offsite. FeloniousMonk (talk) 05:17, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

User:Mr.Z-man/movereverttest.js

I found this script of yours recently while looking through the noticeboard discussions. I haven't manage to get it to work however. I've been testing it in userspace by using my alternate account to move the page after I create it. Is the script glitchy with Firefox or something? Appreciate your help :)...¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 04:03, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Yep its a Firefox problem. I just tested the script in IE and it worked beautifully! Hope it wouldn't be too pushy of me to beg you to make it Firefox compatible :P...¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 04:12, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
It should work fine in FF, FF3 at least. Also, I wouldn't use User:Mr.Z-man/movereverttest.js just yet. I've only tested it twice and it didn't work so well the last time (it deleted pages before trying to move them) and I haven't tested it at all since my last change. User:Mr.Z-man/moverevert.js should be more stable. Mr.Z-man 05:21, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
Seems you spotted the problem. I installed the beta of Firefox 3 and it worked fine. I hadn't gone for FF3 because I don't like installing betas of software. I am too afraid of the kinks that might come with it. But hey, installing your script encouraged me to install an update that wasn't so bad after all and provided me a powerful tool to stop vandal page movers in their tracks ;). Thanks!¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 06:48, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
  Guess I'll have to get FF3 too then. - Rjd0060 (talk) 14:47, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Autoconfirmed Poll

When the page was split from the VP, I wasn't certain where to place your thoughts, and so added them to the talk page. Please feel free to either move them to where you wish, or further comment, or whatever. - jc37 23:19, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Rfb participation thanks

Hello, Mr.Z..

I wanted to personally thank you for taking part in the project-wide discussions regarding my candidacy for bureaucratship. After bureaucratic discussion, the bureaucrats decided that there was sufficient significant and varied opposition to my candidacy, and thus no consensus to promote. Although personally disappointed, I both understand and respect their decision, especially in light of historical conservatism the project has had when selecting its bureaucrats. If you have any further suggestions or comments as to how you think I could help the project, please let me know. Once again, thank you for your support, and best of luck at WT:BAG! -- Avi (talk) 18:10, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

cite book revert

hello. i was just wondering why you reverted your removal of the 'in' within thre {{cite book}} editor field. i've been trying to get rid of that quirk for more than a year. --emerson7 15:41, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

See the section about this a few sections above. I plan to take a look at it to see if there is any easy way to fix it, eventually. Mr.Z-man 17:57, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Restore my user talk page

When I am (inevitably) promoted I will enjoy the privilege of viewing deleted talk page hilarity, but I presently lack such power. In the meantime, please restore my talk page to its rightful state. Thanks, The Fat Man Who Left but Returned a Short While Later (talk) 02:18, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that was really, really fast. Thanks.--The Fat Man Who Left but Returned a Short While Later (talk) 02:21, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to BAG!

It appears your BAG nom succeeded! Please see User:SQL/How_to_close_a_BRFA before trying to close a BRFA. I'm always available if you need anything! SQLQuery me! 21:06, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

WP:HAU

Hello again. The Highly Active Users project has gone through a complete revamping per popular demand. We believe this new format will make it easier for new editors to find assistance. However, with the new format, I must again ask you to verify your information on this page. I attempted to translate the data from the old version to the new, but with the extensive changes, I may have made some errors. Thanks again. Useight (talk) 04:26, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello

Since you're the creator of the grawp category, can you post the Mfd for me? thanks Jek Tono Porkins (talk) 13:04, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Um... why? Mr.Z-man 03:24, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
Because he's Johnny the Vandal and he's fears the competition, that's why - Alison 10:40, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

The Revert All Script

Hey Mr.Z-man, your revert all script no longer works in any browser I try it in :(. The tab no longer exists whether I try it in IE or Firefox. Any clue how to fix it?¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 08:10, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

I haven't changed anything, it may be caused by a change to MediaWiki, I'll poke at it tomorrow. Mr.Z-man 08:19, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
It still seems to work for me, are you using FF3? If so, is there anything in the error console? (Actually, I'd be interested to know what the error in FF2 is as well) Mr.Z-man 08:28, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm using FF3...I just can't figure it out. I tried IE as well.¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 08:29, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
I'll give you a screenshot of my error console, wait one moment.¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 08:31, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Here's a screenshot of my error console: screenshot.¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 08:35, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the problem is with User:Alex Smotrov/logpage.js. JavaScript tends to be annoying like that, if one script has an error, it kills everything else. Also, since that script seems to remove the (revert) links from the move log entries, the moverevert script may not work even if the logpage script is working correctly. Mr.Z-man 08:46, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
You...are...amazing. Fixed.¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 08:47, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Becoming an admin

I was wondering if you could nominate me to become an Admin. because I looked at the nominees and I saw that the people who were nominated didn't nominate themselves and I feel kinda silly nominating myself when all these other people nominated other people. So I was wondering if you could reccommend me to become an Admin. Thanks! --Chrismaster1 (talk) 19:38, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

IP Block

I appreciate the IP block you just made on User:72.60.206.166. I'd respectfully ask you also take a look at User:70.9.172.36, which seems to be the new IP blocked user User:Hdayejr has hopped onto to continue his attacks and vandalism. Thanks! Dayewalker (talk) 04:10, 25 May 2008 (UTC) You forgot to mention your 3RR of WHIO TV...but the ANI board is taking care of that right now. See you in 31 hours. 68.29.220.26 (talk) 04:14, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Also User:68.29.220.26 is the new Hdayejr. And since I know he'll check back here, edits of blocked users are to be reverted as per wikipedia policy. WP:3RR does not apply, and certainly wouldn't in cases of obvious IP hopping, such as User:Hdayejr is doing with his multiple IP socks.
Any help you could extend, Mr.Z-man, would be truly appreciated. Thank you for your time. Dayewalker (talk) 04:17, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
Thank you very much for stepping in and helping with this one. Everyone involved with these articles (or that user) thanks you also, I'm sure. Dayewalker (talk) 04:26, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
No problem :) Mr.Z-man 04:31, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Discussion of sighted versions

Thanks for your comment at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions/Sighted versions. Now I'm confused: maybe I shouldn't have put the note redirecting discussion to Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions because discussion of the wording of the page Wikipedia:Flagged revisions/Sighted versions should perhaps still be at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions/Sighted versions. On the other hand, discussion of the wording of that page would essentially be discussion of how sighted versions would work, which would essentially duplicate discussion that's happening at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions. Actually, I don't like the wording of Wikipedia:Flagged revisions/Sighted versions because it states that sighted versions means that un-logged-in users will see something different from what logged-in users see, which is not necessarily true – it depends on what parameters are set. But now that I've redirected the discussion elsewhere I don't know where if anywhere I could make that comment; perhaps discussion of the wording of Wikipedia:Flagged revisions/Sighted versions should now happen at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions. What do you think? Coppertwig (talk) 19:56, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

User Contribs

Thanks for the speedy reply on the Help Desk. BTW, your email is not working. Any chance of getting the last 5000 of my edits as a XML file? I need to search my edit summaries to prove a point to another editor. Cheers. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 09:12, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

JavaScript

Hi, can you teach me some (wikipedia) javascript?

Also can I have a list of variables/element of wikipedia that you know (sidebar...)?

ThatWikiGuy (talk) 19:46, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

I've learned most of what I know from reading other scripts and a few tutorials. The links on Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts are helpful, especially the Guide and Techniques, or the Tutorial if you're just getting started. W3schools javascript tutorial is also helpful. Most of the variables and elements you can find fairly easy in the HTML source of the pages. Variables available to Javascript are near the top of the page source (the "wg" variables) and elements like the sidebar and tabs are on the bottom of the page source. If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask. There's also an IRC channel (though not incredibly active), #mediawiki-scripts for writing Javascript for MediaWiki wikis, including Wikipedia. Mr.Z-man 20:43, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
Cool thank you! – ThatWikiGuy (talk) 13:59, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

New article wizard?

Hey Zman, per this discussion, did you at some point create a wizard to help with new article creation? If not you, do you know if anyone else did? I/we could swear we've seen this somewhere, but darn if I can find it anymore. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 04:05, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Maybe your looking for Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/FritzpollBot‎ MBisanz talk 04:02, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
I did, its only partially finished and I haven't worked on it in months. Its now at WP:WIZARD. You're more than welcome to take over. Mr.Z-man 04:07, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
Oww, I just hate those friendly offers to hand over the work :) Did you hit a particular roadblock, or just lose interest? Certainly I think such a wizard could help both the newcomers and the NPP's, there's frustration and incomprehension on one side, and reflexive actions on the other. I'm thinking it could be combined with a page-creation restriction for new editors and maybe a wizardly way of diverting into a uspace page with a notice to WP:AFC. However I have absolutely no experience with the aspects of MediaWiki that might help with that (although I know how to ban myself from my localhost/wiki :). If you want to revive the idea, let me know and I'll help where I can, and learn more in the process. Thanks for the response! Franamax (talk) 04:32, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
The full list of pages to date is here. I never really planned to integrate it too mch into MediaWiki, but implementing as an optional things into the interface would be pretty easy, it mostly just needs completion of all the pieces. It basically works like this:
  1. Wikipedia:Article wizard is either transcluded in, moved to, or linked to the interface messages seen when creating a new article.
  2. The user clicks on the link based on what type of article they want to write, say a biography.
  3. The user reads through the quick explanation of writing a biography, puts the article title in the box on the bottom...
  4. The user is taken to an edit window with Wikipedia:Article wizard/biography/preload already in the edit window and Wikipedia:Article wizard/biography/intro directly above the editbox.
The basic format of the system is already done, it just needs some polishing of what's already done and expansion for more categories of articles. You could probably just copy and paste the existing parts into the pages that need creation (ie. Wikipedia:Article wizard/place, Wikipedia:Article wizard/place/preload, Wikipedia:Article wizard/place/intro). Some of the editing tips are generic and can be the same in all of them, others are specific based on the type of article. I came up with the idea a few months ago when there were plans to reenable anon editing, but that never happened and I lost most of my motivation. Mr.Z-man 04:54, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
OK thanks, I'll take that all under advisement. It's too bad you lost motivation, what you were trying to do is directly related to the whole CSD/NPP thing, they are just dealing with red-names who waited a whole four days 'til they try the same thing an anon would do, ie. make a new article. A lot of those people want to make articles about "my friend is teh gay" but some of them care, and can possibly be roped in to the wiki-addiction. I'll look over your stuff... Franamax (talk) 05:37, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Quick Question

Do you know if it's possible to add a section to my watchlist instead of an entire article? I was "watching" Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) and didn't care to read about all the other proposals.-- Wiki11790  talk  06:50, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

No, you can only watchlist whole pages. Mr.Z-man 06:52, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

My deleted page

I think I accidentally tagged User:RyRy5/Welcome for deletion with db-author. Could you restore it? It was a mistake. Thanks. --RyRy5 (talk) 06:49, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. Regards, RyRy5 (talk) 01:14, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Deletion of page "shaahin moahejri"

Hi dear freind

I asked this question from ""MZMcBride"": "Hi I'm shaahin mohajeri , and i found that you have deleted my page because of this role CSDr1 , can you tell me why , my dear freind? Acousticsoftombak (talk) 03:55, 27 May 2008 (UTC)" And he answered me as below: "The deletion reason "csd r1" indicates that the page was speedily deleted as a broken redirect. The page Shaahin mohajeri pointed to was Shaahin Mohajeri, which was deleted by another administrator (User:Mr.Z-man). Cheers. --MZMcBride (talk) 15:46, 27 May 2008 (UTC)" can you explain me about this problem , This is your kind.Acousticsoftombak (talk) 09:19, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

It was deleted last November after being tagged for proposed deletion. Since any deletion through this system can be overturned on a request, I have undeleted it. The original reason for deletion was that it did not make any claim to the notability of the subject. Mr.Z-man 18:29, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Prince Caspian

Hello. Earlier, you reverted a vandal who moved Prince Caspian to Princess Caspian, and then deleted the Princess Caspian pages. However, I noticed that you forgot to move Talk:Princess Caspian back to Talk:Prince Caspian before you deleted it so that Talk:Prince Caspian still redirects to the deleted Talk:Princess Caspian page. Since I don't have admin powers, do you think you can get that page back? Thanks, – Psyche825 (talk) 04:32, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Defender of the Wiki barnstar

  The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
Thank you for keeping Wikipedia free and clear of spam bots. RFerreira (talk) 18:25, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

...for fixing the one I missed there (in the move log). Dinner just got done, had to run... Antandrus (talk) 01:00, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Article recovery

hi i need this article to be reoverd and sent to me thanks alot article:Pbx software —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulyb (talkcontribs) 08:41, 19 May 2008 (UTC)


Thank you for the information on how to officially request that the LoJack freq info be removed. I am new to Wikipedia editing and did not realize it was so formal or that people would be so concerned about what appears to be a minor change. Not having the freq info listed on a popular web site is more to protect a cop buff with a scanner from locating a car and amateur car thieves from having easy access to the info then keeping it from professional car thieves. I sent in a request and will respect what the outcome is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Summitrt (talkcontribs) 01:38, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

small problem with rollbackSummary

I tried to use this summary "reverting changes with no consensus, please seeWikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Television_Stations#Massive_template_change", please what I got is this. Notice that the tool eats everything after ]] --Enric Naval (talk) 23:46, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Fixed, it wasn't encoding it for use in a URL, so the # killed it. Mr.Z-man 04:09, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Cool, thanks :) --Enric Naval (talk) 03:21, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Refinement

I've formulated a new proposal at User:Fritzpoll/Refinement - take a look and comment on its talk page, please - I want some feedbakc before re-entering the lair! Fritzpoll (talk) 12:01, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

RE: Village Pump

Your response has been replied to in regards to a new namespace proposal.  Atyndall93 | talk  07:43, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

And again  Atyndall93 | talk  05:23, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
The page is on my watchlist, you don't have to alert me every time you reply :) Mr.Z-man 05:42, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Your help please...

Could you please userify Barbara Olshansky, its history and talk page to User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/Review/Barbara Olshansky?

Thanks! Geo Swan (talk) 19:26, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Done. --MZMcBride (talk) 20:01, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Your opinion please...

Thanks for userifying Barbara Olshansky.

I think I am going to request WP:DRV for Barbara Olshansky.

I know, since I made changes to User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/Review/Barbara Olshansky, and it is a substantially different article than it was when it was deleted, anyone who wanted to see it deleted should feel obliged to nominate it for {{afd}}.

But, I am wondering whether I have to take the step of asking for DRV because I have had experience with administrators who have felt free to delete newer versions of once-deleted articles, no matter how improved the new version is.

What do you think?

Cheers! Geo Swan (talk) 15:45, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

The original deletion was made using the WP:PROD system, so a DRV would be unnecessary even if you didn't make any changes. It wouldn't fit any speedy deletion criteria and the WP:PROD has already been overturned, so for it to be deleted again an AFD would be required. Mr.Z-man 16:22, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks. I moved it back to article space. Geo Swan (talk) 20:25, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Usurped username 1

What just happened? Thanks. Beam 04:48, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

User:Grawp. Mr.Z-man 04:50, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

What method did you use to determine Usurped was a sock? Thanks. Beam 05:12, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

The blatant page move vandalism... Mr.Z-man 05:14, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok, sorry for bothering you. I was just asking so I could learn. Thanks again. Beam 05:55, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

2008 Sichuan earthquake

Hi. Thanks for move-protecting the page but is the protection permanent? It should be. I thought it had been protected before with no expiry date but why have Grawp vandals been targeting it as recently as today? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU) 17:40, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

I didn't set an expiration date. Mr.Z-man 17:42, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Template:Editedsince

Can I have a tab, that when pressed, edits the page (User namespace only) and adds {{editedsince|date=DATE}}, and asks for the date manually. via var? via popupbox? Thank You. – TWG 07:11, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

 
Hello, Mr.Z-man. You have new messages at ThatWikiGuy's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Trujillo

I think the page needs to be balanced with the controversies, perhaps you can edit them to make them more due / suitable for the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbmoodb (talkcontribs) 14:52, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

User:Wikifactsright

Could you please explain why you deleted the talk page of User:Wikifactsright?--Matilda talk 20:23, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

The user was indefinitely blocked, no one had edited the talk page since the beginning of April, and there didn't seem to be any content worth keeping. Would you like it undeleted? Mr.Z-man 00:06, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Please see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive390#Serious and Continuous Wikipedia Policy Breach of BLP and Other Policy Amounting to Vandalism and Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Zeumic as to why I do not believe it is appropriate that this talk page be deleted with its warnings etc. Potential socks of this user have appeared again at the article talk page. I would doubt that even Wikipedia:Right to vanish applies - I would have thought this would be one of the exceptions given the user's blocklog I note from your own log you are deleting an awful lot of user talk pages. I appreciate the pages you are deleting are within Category:Temporary Wikipedian userpages however the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:User_page#Proposal_to_not_delete_talk_pages_for_all_indef_users does not seem to have been resolved.--Matilda talk 00:09, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I've undeleted the page. Note that I can't spend the time to search ANI archives and RFCU pages for evidence of sockpuppetry for every page. If there's nothing on the page that suggests why it should be kept, it will probably be deleted. If there was a sockpuppet tag on the page, or anything else containing {{do not delete}} it would have been removed from the category on one of the daily runnings of my bot. Mr.Z-man 00:16, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Ah - thanks - I will tag it accordingly. Regards --Matilda talk 00:17, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
    • I have just undeleted the other sock's talk page. I will tag both for the sockpuppet / checkuser case but I note there was a mention of legal threats. The subject of the article is making legal threats against a number of editors (me included). I think that legal threats is something that is a persistent issue - not temporary. Could your bot detect mention of legal threats as a reason for keeping the page? See User talk:Zeumic for what I mean. (If you want the sordid details with this case as opposed to the general principle - The current (off-wiki threats are mentioned at Wikipedia:AWNB#Geoffrey_Edelsten and can be viewed at http://www.geoffreyedelsten.com/The-Life-and-Times-of-Prof-Dr-Geoffrey-Edelsten.pdf (see page 18) ) Regards --Matilda talk 00:27, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Talk:Charlotte Badger

You deleted this talk page last October because its associated article did not exist. It is there now; could you please restore the talk page? Thanks! The ''Gorgeous Girl''!!! (talk) 22:12, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

The content of the only revision was just gibberish, that won't be necessary. Mr.Z-man 22:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Ah, understood. Thanks anyway! The ''Gorgeous Girl''!!! (talk) 22:29, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Newbie SOS

1) I had an article speedy-deleted, and as I understand it you are one of the people who is willing to send copies of deleted articles back to the writers. Would it be possible for you to do this for me? (article was on Eric enderton).

2) I hear that there is a way to create a sort of "personal sandbox," or "sub-user page" for rough drafts of articles, but I can't figure out how to do this. Are there instructions you can direct me to?

Thank you! Scooge (talk) 01:25, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and moved the article directly into a user subpage for you, User:Scooge/Eric Enderton. You can see directions at Wikipedia:Subpages. Mr.Z-man 02:01, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! (Um . . . I think I can thank you here. Maybe I'm supposed to thank you at my talk page. I SWEAR, I'm a slow learner around here.) Anyway--thanks!Scooge (talk) 02:08, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Deletion log tab

Thanks. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 22:55, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Question

In regards to this edit, should I have removed the BLP violation from the AfD? I commented on WillyJulia's "reasonsing", but didn't know if it would screw up the AfD process for that article if I removed it. (I'm asking in case something like this happens in the future) Thanks. APK PRAISE JEEBUS 19:00, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

While the debate is running it would probably be more annoying then helpful, and I considered just removing the nomination reason, but thought it would be too odd. Mr.Z-man 23:02, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
Ok, thanks. APK PRAISE JEEBUS 06:57, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

RFA

I applied for an WP:RFA and the discussion ended after just 90 minutes at a vote of 0-12-1, which, after I read some of the lists of failed candidacies, I realise is one of the worst showings ever. I seriously want to learn from this experience and re-apply for RFA some time. What should I do? JeanLatore (talk) 22:36, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

The best thing you can do is to wait a few months and do things that opposers may have suggested you do. You may also be interested in admin coaching. Mr.Z-man 22:58, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Template:Articleissues

Good idea protecting it. But now I can't edit it and I was making many edits in this template. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:25, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Its used on over 4500 pages and due to caching, template vandalism often lasts in articles longer than normal vandalism. You can create a sandbox subpage for the template and use {{editprotected}} to get changes made. Mr.Z-man 02:59, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Re: Lists of basic topics

I've replied to your post at WP:VPR.

The Transhumanist    20:24, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Assistance request

I was wondering if you could help me on two things -

  1. The closure of an outstanding CfD for categories I created, where it was decided they should be renamed to reflect WP:1.0
  2. An {{editprotect}} here to implement the new categories for our project. Thanks! JohnnyMrNinja 23:32, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Issue with TinucherianBot in Project Banner Tagging for WP:FOOD

Thank you for expressing your concerns on the recent issue Issue with TinucherianBot in Project Banner Tagging for WP:FOOD . I have make some comments at Wikipedia_talk:Bots/Requests_for_approval#TinucherianBot and I am leaving this note just for your information -- TinuCherian (Wanna Talk?) - 08:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

A discussion

An important discussion on " Should WikiProjects get prior approval of other WikiProjects (Descendant or Related or any ) to tag articles that overlaps their scope ? " is open here . We welcome you to participate and give your valuable opinions. You are receiving this note since I thought you may be interested in this disussion. -- TinuCherian (Wanna Talk?) - , member of WikiProject Council. 13:07, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Frank West

I noticed that this page was marked for deletion back in March in relation to the discussion on characters from the "Dark Rising" video game. I have re-done the page, which is now dedicated to the 19th century major league baseball player of the same name. If possible, can this page be un-marked? Dewelar (talk) 17:44, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Oops...should be "Dead Rising", not "Dark Rising"...Dewelar (talk) 18:05, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you mean, it doesn't seem to be marked for deletion. If it was I would hope someone would have gotten to it since March. Mr.Z-man 20:32, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
This may be my misunderstanding. I thought the Frank West article was covered under the "Characters and Story of Dead Rising" AfD. The article was previously a simple redirect to the Dead Rising page Dead Rising#Frank West, so hopefully my coopting the page won't be problematic.Dewelar (talk) 20:40, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
As long as the page is about something totally different, it doesn't matter. Mr.Z-man 20:41, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Protection of Olympics templates

I question why you've recently protected, seemingly without reason, several Olympics templates to the point where only administrators can edit them. Most of the editors at WP:OLY do not have the privileges to edit fully protected pages, so we would kindly request that you at least minimize the protect level. Thanks in advance! Jared (t)  23:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Ditto for Template:PeruProjectBanner and Template:PeruTasks, used by WP:PERU. What's the point of such level of protection? --Victor12 (talk) 23:52, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
These templates all have several thousand transclusions (listed on Special:MostLinkedTemplates, hence the "Heavily used template" in the protection summary...) I've downgraded the protection on those to semi-protection. A fairly shocking number of our most heavily used templates are not protected at all (and probably not very watched either), a significant vandalism risk. Since these templates are not used in articles, the risk is lessened, so semi-protection should be fine for them. Mr.Z-man 00:02, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Thanks both for your understanding, and your will to make this project a better place! Jared (t)  00:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Template:Mammal

Could you lower this to semi-protected, too. We haven't had any issues and need to maintain it every now and again, see the protection log. Thanks. --Tombstone (talk) 00:13, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

  Done Mr.Z-man 00:16, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Museums template

Not requesting unprotection because I understand why it's needed but I have a question. Do you have any objection to my occasionally turning it down to semi for fixes? I ask primarily because I'm template stupid and of the two who regularly fix it for me one isn't an admin and the other edits frequently from his (I think) public account which isn't an admin. Theoretically they could show me what changes need to be done and I could do but I think a fair amount of the fixes are trial and error and I have no problem dropping it to semi to let them play. Thoughts on that? TravellingCarithe Busy Bee 01:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Feel free. Mr.Z-man 21:25, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

{{S-rail/lines}}

Hi, could you change this template protection status to semi-protect? It's a list meant for editors to add in new rail lines parameters and would be extremely inconvenient if it were fully protected. You may wish to see {{S-line}} or {{S-rail}} for more details. :) - oahiyeel talk 04:32, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Already done, though that one poses a bit of a risk... Mr.Z-man 21:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Protection of Template:WikiProject Anime and manga

Hi Mr.Z-man,

Please downgrade the protection level on the above mentioned template to semi, as we are currently discussing and implementing changes on it per discussions on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anime and manga. At least the following changes are still due:

  • Adding an importance parameter. For use in assessing importance for cleanup.
  • Adding a "needs TLC parameter. For use in identifying major cleanup projects. (Refer to Wikipedia:WikiProject Anime and manga/Cleanup task force).
  • Other changes has not yet been discussed, but are likely.

The template is watchlisted by 'at least two editors, probably three.

G.A.S 04:45, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Already done. Mr.Z-man 21:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Template:Infobox road

I regularly make improvements to this template, and would appreciate if it were unprotected. Thank you. --NE2 12:04, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

  Not done This is used in nearly 10000 articles, unprotecting it poses a security risk. You can ask at WP:RFPP Mr.Z-man 21:40, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

On preemptive protection of templates

Hi,

I left a note at User talk:Wknight94#Thanks on this issue too. The avril troll has led to a spate of admins mass-protecting templates, in many cases preemptively. To put it mildly, this is a huge pain in the ass for non-admins who work in templatespace. While there's a policy that heavily transcluded templates may be fully protected to prevent vandalism like this, I think if there's going to be a mass effort to preemptively protect all heavily-used templates then this should be discussed first. It's going to seriously impact my productivity if I have to request editprotected every time I make corrections to an infobox, something I do on a daily basis. I didn't see anything about mass preemption on ANI. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:34, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

This isn't just the Avril troll (though it could be the same person with a different M.O.), template vandalism is far worse than normal vandalism. Not only are changes to templates less patrolled, but vandalism to a meta-templates, which many of the ones on the most-used template list are can take a long time to even find once its noticed. Also, due to caching, if the vandalism isn't reverted quickly it could still be seen by unregistered users even after its reverted. While templates used in talk pages and outside of articles aren't as much of a risk, a template used in 5000+ articles should be protected. Template:Infobox Single is used in 23000 articles and was only semiprotected. If someone wants to downgrade my protection, I won't complain, but if its used in articles, I won't do it unless there is a pressing need. Mr.Z-man 21:39, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
And again, the problem isn't necessarily the rationale, it's the extreme escalation of what was previously taken to be an acceptable solution in specific circumstances into a hard policy seemingly without discussion. Changes to templatespace are going to be far less patrolled if non-admins give up on it because the barrier to editing is too high. It's worrying that the Avril troll seems to have kicked off such a trend without any public discussion of the policy. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 23:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Before doing this, I wrote up a quick python script to check the list of the most used templates to see which ones weren't already protected, I expected to find a handful, instead I found dozens. As I've said above, I have no problem with other people unprotecting these. I did this with no special authority nor as an attempt to create a "hard policy." I saw what appeared to be a significant security hole and decided to remedy it. As far as I can tell, changes to templatespace are already fairly unpatrolled, else this vandalism would be reverted before it ended up in hundreds of articles with people scrambling to figure out which template or meta-template was vandalized. Mr.Z-man 00:10, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
To add in, I support Mr.Z's actions, templates used on thousands of pages should be edited carefully both due to the performance issues of changing a widely used template and the issue of fixing vandalism. For instance it takes 3-4 days to undo the vandalism from a single quickly reverted edit to a template used on 57,000 pages. In the past template "experts" who need the tools to edit protected pages have found warm reception at RFA, you might contact User:Davidgothberg as I think the direction the site is moving in is to limit potential damage to places with preemptive protection. MBisanz talk 00:56, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
Okay, okay, I get the rationale - but could someone, like, go and update WP:PROT to indicate that this is not a "may" but a "will"? Preferably with an explicit transclusion threshold over which one can expect a template to be protected? Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 08:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
Did you read my last comment? I'm not trying to change policy here. What a few people decide to do does not make a policy and that is not my intention. If people want to change the policy, I would probably support it, but I really could care less. As I said, I have no problem with other people overturning the protections, but I'm not going to do it myself if the only reasons are procedural. Mr.Z-man 17:34, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

CSD

What were CSD A4, A6 and A8? And would it be possible to have a CSD for "Substantial copy of other Wikipedia page" e.g. {{db-g13}} or {{db-substcopy}}? Rdbrewster 15:52, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

You can see the old ones in this old revision of the page. A6 and A8 became G10 and G12 and A4 was merged into A3. There was also an A9 for a while, but this was removed but it doesn't seem to have lasted long enough to get a placeholder. You can propose new CSD criteria on the talk page. Mr.Z-man 17:51, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Main page discussion

Greetings. I am not going to revert your revert. But I'd like you to know my opinion that the main page resdesign discussion was interrupted by the effort to centralize and coordinate. I'd suggest retaining the comments links. It would have been a nice thing to do. —SusanLesch (talk) 20:26, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

See my comment on the talk page about this, Wikipedia talk:2008 main page redesign proposal#Refactoring. Having the talk page links in addition to the central discussion might be helpful where there is already a discussion on the talk page, but if we divert all discussion to dozens of separate talk pages, we'll never see any sort of resolution and comparison of different designs will be near impossible. Ideally, we'll stop accepting new designs at some point soon and focus on creating one or 2 "final designs" to put against the current page in a poll. Mr.Z-man 20:32, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
Maybe you'll join the discussion--if your expectations are to "stop accepting new designs at some point soon" others might like to know that. I haven't read everything but so far comments were this might take a month. P.S. Your suggestion of "a few weeks" from 6 July works out to about 27 July or the following week. —SusanLesch (talk) 21:02, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

{{Convert/rand}}

Please unprotect {{convert/rand}} for the time being. There is some trouble shooting that needs to be done. JIMp talk·cont 00:26, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

  Done, but as this one is used in articles, it should be protected. Mr.Z-man 00:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Yes, it should be once fixed, thanks. JIMp talk·cont 00:32, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Looks like the problem might have been fixed. Please put the protection back on. JIMp talk·cont 00:54, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
I fixed the big problem by reverting to the old version but now I notice that the small problem that the reverted edit had patched up is showing it's ugly head again. I'm going to have to ask for unprotection again. JIMp talk·cont 05:54, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Military Unit

Hi, I wanted to let you know that some of the parameters aren't displaying properly for this template. I noticed when you use the parameter for helicopters, the banner for aircraft flown doesn't display or you may get a red link (attack helicopter parameter) Shinerunner (talk) 20:21, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I didn't change anything in the template, all I did was protect it. Kirill Lokshin made some changes a few months ago, you may want to ask him. Mr.Z-man 23:38, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

do you mind if I use part of your monobook.js?

I was talking to dragonfly6-7 on IRC tonight about new page patrol and he suggested that you have a good tool that helps with the task.

I wanted to check with you first to make sure that it would be ok for me to copy the top part of your monobook.js to add to my own page... this would be the code from the start of the page up until the comment line as follows

// End autopatrolling

if you dont mind me using this, do you have any advice on things that may go wrong or things to be careful for? I am trying to get involved in helping out with the New Pages patrolling. Thanks in advance %%-SYKKO-%% (talk to me) 03:52, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I have tested and taken a closer look at the code which confirmed something I was wondering, which brings me to a new request. can you point me in the right direction to add the patrol link to the list of New Articles for quick patrolling? If not, that's ok I have gotten much quicker at doing patrol by going into each article anyway but I figured there are some that you can tell before you even go into them that they are ok. Think ya would be willing to help me out? I would very much appreciate it! %%-SYKKO-%% (talk to me) 19:11, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

You'll need User:Mr.Z-man/patrollinks for the links. I haven't really tested the autopatrol script heavily. There's a chance it only works in FF3. There's no confirmation step or anything, or even something to say when its done. Once you click the tab, it will click all the patrol links on the page (you have to sort Special:NewPages by user to make it useful). If you have a slow internet connection or your computer doesn't have much memory, I would recommend not doing it on huge groups of pages at a time. Also, the "end autopatolling" comment was in the wrong place. I moved it to the correct location. Mr.Z-man 22:28, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
Thanks! that's got it working, thanks for your help. I am on FF3, ram is so-so but internet is plenty fast enough. I prefer to refresh here and there anyway. I appreciate the help %%-SYKKO-%% (talk to me) 22:39, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Request to undelete user talk page

Hi. Could you please undelete User talk:Defendersofwildlife? I posted something on this page a while back. I'm having a discussion with someone from this organization and I need to see what I wrote before. I don't remember anything particularly sensitive on this page, but if you have some reason to not undelete it, could you please userfy it for me or email me the contents instead? Thanks! Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 02:51, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

  Done Mr.Z-man 20:55, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

{{WikiProject Oregon collab}}

I see you edit protected this template. As the person who created the template and the person who updates it, how exactly am I supposed to update it each week? I could track down an admin each time, but that seems a little, well, retarded. How about a semi-protect so only non-auto confirmed users are prevented from editing the template, or if possible make it so only those with rollback rights can? In the meantime, please replace the current two with:

Thank you. Aboutmovies (talk) 11:23, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

I reduced the level to semi-protect. This template is monitored closely by a number of admins and frequent editors in WP:ORE, full protection is more than needed. -Pete (talk) 19:57, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

WPIN Template

Hello, you recently protected the Project Template for WP:WPIN. I am one of the primary editors in the project as of late and have been doing most of the assessments on new articles. I have been tweaking it lately to recognize different parameters and all are working except the "class=image" "class=Image" parameter, could either fix that problem or unprotect, or make it semi-portected it so that I may? Thank you. Charles Edward 03:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi again. Could you please address my request above. Thanks. Either unprotect the page so I may make the adjustments or please make them for me. There are no admins in our project that can make this change. Thanks Charles Edward 19:17, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
I set the protection level of Template:WikiProject Indiana to semi-protected several days ago. Mr.Z-man 22:15, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
Thank you! Charles Edward 01:07, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

{{WikiProject Computing}}

Hi Mr.Z-man, I saw that you have made 'full protection' to {{WikiProject Computing}} , which I am significantly contributing to. I havent seen any vandalism attempts till now on this template.It will be gr8 if you could reduce the level to semi-protection, or else I will have to run behind you for every updates:) . Thanks in advance -- Tinu Cherian - 12:16, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

  Done Mr.Z-man 22:17, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
Thanks :) -- Tinu Cherian - 04:29, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Regarding your oppose on my RfA

Hi. I'm just asking for clarification over your oppose on my recent RfA as you said that WP:N has nothing to do with original sources, peer-review or neutrality.

Your original comment was: "Q12 shows a major misunderstanding of WP:N, notability has nothing to do with originality, peer review, or neutrality. If I had to guess, I'd say the user confused WP:Notability with WP:Reliable sources."

Question 12 stated: "Notability, in regards to Wikipedia, is the worthiness of an item to be included within an article, based upon several factors. These factors include whether or not the item is original, or whether it is peer-reviewed or referenced to other articles. The item must be verifiable and must also be as neutral as possible. A good example of a notable source would be, for example, a medical article published upon a large site that is reviewed by a large number of physicians. A bad example could be a site published on a free-hosting service, written originally by the author of the site and not verified elsewhere."

Now, according to the guidelines for WP:N (particularly WP:GNG) the first two statements say the following:

  1. ""Significant coverage" means that sources address the subject directly in detail, and no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than trivial but may be less than exclusive."
  2. ""Reliable" means sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of notability, per the reliable source guideline. Sources may encompass published works in all forms and media. Availability of secondary sources covering the subject is a good test for notability."
  3. ""Sources," defined on Wikipedia as secondary sources, provide the most objective evidence of notability. The number and nature of reliable sources needed varies depending on the depth of coverage and quality of the sources. Multiple sources are generally preferred."
  4. ""Independent of the subject" excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject including (but not limited to): self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject, autobiographies, press releases, etc."
  5. ""Presumed" means that substantive coverage in reliable sources establishes a presumption, not a guarantee, of notability. Editors may reach a consensus that although a topic meets this criterion, it is not suitable for inclusion. For example, it may violate what Wikipedia is not."

This seems to go against your idea that WP:N has nothing to do with reliable sources or originality? It's further backed up by the statement: "If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be notable."

Any clarification you could provide would be a great help. Thanks. —CycloneNimrodTalk? 08:42, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

I never said it didn't have anything to do with reliable sources. It has everything to do with reliable sources, but your answer didn't even contain the word "reliable." I didn't want to go into too much detail on the RFA itself, but since you asked...
Notability, in regards to Wikipedia, is the worthiness of an item to be included
This part is actually correct.
within an article,
No, notability has to do with the subject of an article. If something is non-notable, it can possibly be merged into an article about something that is. An article about a band may include sections about their albums even if the albums themselves are not at all notable.
based upon several factors. These factors include whether or not the item is original
I don't see why originality has anything to do with it. Something that is new and original, as opposed to something ordinary may be more likely to get coverage in sources, but that's about it.
or whether it is peer-reviewed
A peer-reviewed article is probably a good source, but not even close to a requirement for notability.
or referenced to other articles.
Huh? You mean like journal articles? Again, its a sign of a high quality source, but all you need for notability is a couple newspaper articles.
The item must be verifiable
Verifiability is the threshold for inclusion, and somewhat related to notability.
and must also be as neutral as possible
Its perfectly possible to write a completely biased article about a perfectly notable subject, and vice versa. NPOV is barely related to notability. The only real connection is that a heavily biased source (like a press released) can't be used to establish notability.
A good example of a notable source would be
A notable source? Sources don't have to be notable, subjects do.
for example, a medical article published upon a large site that is reviewed by a large number of physicians
A very reliable source that could certainly prove a subject notable, yes, but far beyond what notability requires. The article itself may or may not be notable, though the site probably is.
A bad example could be a site published on a free-hosting service, written originally by the author of the site and not verified elsewhere
Yes, a very bad source that could not be used to establish notability, but has nothing to do with the subject of the article. If someone creates a website like that, and the New York Times runs a full story on it, the website is probably notable, even though it can't be used as a source except about itself.
Basically, the question was about what makes a subject notable, and you answered it with what makes a source reliable. Mr.Z-man 17:08, 19 July 2008 (UTC)