User talk:HJ Mitchell

Hello and welcome to my talk page! If you have a question, ask me. If I know the answer, I'll tell you; if I don't, I'll find out (or one of my talk-page stalkers might know!), then we'll both have learnt something!

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Nomination of Old Wolverton Road Bridge for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Old Wolverton Road Bridge is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Old Wolverton Road Bridge until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

Cheerio, Mattdaviesfsic. About me; Talk to me. Farewell fellow editor... 00:29, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The 'airport vandal' is back: requesting second rangeblock for 5.55.0.0/16

Hi HJ Mitchell,

Last year in November you blocked the IP range 5.55.0.0/16 for one year, due to persistent disruption mostly on airport-related articles. This IP user is dubbed the 'airport vandal' by an editor that regularly deals with edits from this pest.

Fast forward to today, the one-year-long /16 rangeblock has now expired, and unfortunately it appears this same person is back to making the same kind of disruption to airport-related articles again, right after the block expiration, e.g. diff 1, diff 2, diff 3. I think it needs another rangeblock.

Regards, — AP 499D25 (talk) 06:11, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@AP 499D25 that's some remarkable persistence! I've put a longer block on the range. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 12:33, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen worse but yeah, 1 year, that's quite some dedication! Anyways thanks, and I'm sure @The Banner (the user constantly dealing with this LTA's edits) appreciates it too! — AP 499D25 (talk) 13:27, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate your concern. An AIV-report for this and a second range went stale, so I resubmitted it. To be true, as far as I can see things have quieted down a bit. I guess 5.55 is their home connection so the block has been inconvenient (what we intend). The Banner talk 13:49, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail!

Hello, HJ Mitchell. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 15:50, 14 November 2024 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

v/r - Seawolf35 ^T--C 15:50, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Could you block this sock IP?

Hi HJ Mitchell, I'm posting this here because you came up as a recently active administrator. If you have the time, could you please block the IP range 2405:4803:C7A6:2D20:E862:FF5:0:0/64, as they are an obvious sock of MYSKaoi and 2012An(4thwm1), who was recently blocked here? Happily888 (talk) 12:34, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Happily888 Blocked for a week. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 12:38, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Happily888 (talk) 12:43, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just gotta say

Your byline musing is getting absolutely savaged. I almost feel like that was a plant to give people an easy option and to show they read your musings column. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 17:54, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I probably should have seen that coming. But the musings aren't there because everyone will agree with them (if that were the case they'd just be policy!) and I'm much more interested in how people make their case and defend it than in whether they agree with me. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:59, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I kind of expected more people to foam at the mouth at the characterisation of ArbCom as a governing body... HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 21:29, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, maybe people won't consider them a governing body when they can't cut entire topics off from non-EC editors, make new rules out of whole cloth, and place irreversible no-public-reason blocks. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:48, 15 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think the irreversible blocks are possibly one of the least controversial things we do—they're rare (I think the number we've done this year can be counted on one hand) and generally people understand that there's a very good reason for it but we can't tell them what it is. And I think most people are glad they don't have to make those sorts of decisions. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:23, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Nominations now open for the WikiProject Military history newcomer of the year and military historian of the year

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i would like to vote for others as the clerk Amogelang22 (talk) 18:22, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Block

Dear Mr Mitchell,

I don't know you and I'm pretty sure you don't know me.

I have never edited Wikipedia in my life yet I see that you have blocked me. If this is true, and I suppose it must be, can you explain your action? I am nonplussed. I'm not used to this method of communication and I can't give you an email address, so unsure how I can read your reply.

Yours sincerely,

John Clinch Johnclinch (talk) 15:54, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Johnclinch That you managed to post this is evidence that your account is not blocked. My guess is that you share a connection with someone else who has caused us problems. As long as you're logged in, most blocks won't affect you. Even if you do see a block message, you can still read Wikipedia as blocks only apply to editing. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:01, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Harry, the CU log shows Jpgordon looked into this a little while ago. Drmies (talk) 15:12, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, it's exactly an anon block that OP complained about. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 15:20, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

what exactly is a "community" position?

I don't necessarily disagree with your edit, but I think the intent was that admins and BAG memebers are selected by the community, whereas membership for non-arbs on the fucntionaries team is entirely under the control of the committee. That's my read anyway. I agree the term is at best undefined. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 00:15, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Just Step Sideways I think I see what it was getting at but it didn't define the term, as you say, and it implied that functionaries belonged to a second, unspecified group. The important distinction is that functionaries are bound by the ANPDP and their roles involve private information. I think the old version could also have been read that functionaries are somehow superior to admins/'crats/BAG (not sure why the last one is relevant?) when in fact we all take on the roles that interest us. Always good to hear from you. Best, HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:34, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Diddy

HJ, does Dark1618 = P.diddysucks? I already noticed that Dark1618 was a strange new user, but hadn't seen anything so disruptive until their last edit to Talk:Sean Combs, which was preceded just a couple days ago by a similar edit by P.diddysucks (P.diddysucks's edits were much worse and their username is a red flag). FWIW, the two users also edit on the same mobile platform.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:35, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Bbb23 magic 8-ball says no. Different continents. I suppose it's to be expected with subjects who are in the news. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:53, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, HJ. I took the liberty of correcting my typos in my original post.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:57, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On AfD

Coming from the ACE discussions of your musings, although I am not running for ArbCom, I'll say that I do not think AfDs are votes. Sometimes, they can seem like one, with editors coming down hard on either the delete or keep sides, but those are rare. Often, I see several editors proposing different solutions (delete, redirect, merge, keep, and many others), or debating the finer points of sourcing and notability guidelines, and the AfD really is a discussion. Those are the best AfDs. But they're probably also a pain for closers, since there isn't always a "majority" in favor of one solution. The only reason I add a bolded "vote" before my comments at all is to help the closer skim the discussion.

RfAs, on the other hand, are votes. Toadspike [Talk] 15:56, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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ip vandal

Hello, i assume you struck two BLP violation edits that 69.11.41.241 made. There is a third edit [1] that is basically the same as the two struck ones—blindlynx 23:10, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Blindlynx thanks, that one's gone as well now. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you!—blindlynx 01:53, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Teahouse question about WP:PERM

Hi HJ Mitchell. I came across WP:THQ#Question on why this happened at the Teahouse and for some reason the OP restored their request even though it had been archived by a bot earlier that same day. The bot has already tagged it again. It seems a bit odd that the OP would re-add a request that had already been declined and archived almost a month and a half ago. Anyway, since you're active on that noticeboard, perhaps you could try to help the OP at the Teahouse and explain what happened (if you yourself understand what happened). It seems like the OP's re-adding of the request was just a misunderstanding on their part, but I'm not too familiar with how the PERM stuff works. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:18, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly I'm not really sure what happened there to be honest. @Ahecht: made the edit. It looks like they edited an old version of the page or possibly edit-conflicted with the archiving bot. I'm certain there was no malicious intent. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 12:52, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly I replied over at Teahouse, but I'm as confused as you are as to what I did. I must've somehow gotten on an old revision of the page and edited it, but no idea how I got there without realizing it. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:07, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Ahecht: No worries from me. I'm sure whatever happened didn't happen out of malice towards the OP or anyone else and was just mistake. I'm not sure why the OP felt they couldn't ask you directly about but that's probably something you could ask the OP about if you really want to know. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:08, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@HJ Mitchell. Thanks for helping to sort this out. I've been editing for a long time and never had much of a need for these kinds of rights; so, I don't really understand all of the details of how they work. Since you did grant the TH OP's request, I defer to your judgment; however, the fact that they felt unable to discuss this with Ahecht (apparently not due to anything Ahecht has done) is kind of a red flag to me. Someone requesting one of these "advanced" permissions should be willing/confident enough to discuss things with others. The "notice" at the top of the OP's user talk page seems benign perhaps but it could also be a concern. This user seems to be doing lots of good things in patrolling for vandalism/non-constructive edits, and is placing lots of warnings on the user talk pages of others. It's great when someone decides to do that, but it also invariably can lead to confrontational and contentious discussions. Someone stating they "can be very sensitive to certain things posted" on their user talk page is one thing, but for the same person to also post they "don't feel very comfortable" discussing things on another user's talk page, even when they know that person to be an admin, at a place like the Teahouse could mean they might've chosen the wrong areas to try to help out in. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly Meh, pending-changes reviewer is probably the one you (one) can do the least harm with and the one least likely to get you into confrontational situations. You just review pending edits on pending-protected articles and accept them if they're not vandalism. We give it out pretty liberally. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 22:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Understand and thanks for clarifying. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:02, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's like three in a row

Normally I just thank when I go to block and see someone is already blocked, but there's been a few in a row now and that deserves a real message. Thanks! ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:49, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

		The Admin's Barnstar
		For taking care of the vandalism here. Nice job! Though I suppose User:Pickersgill-Cunliffe deserves this too... 😉 JeffSpaceman (talk) 14:37, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

HJ Mitchell's Long-Lost Cousin

Plz tell your cuz I said hi. Drmies (talk) 00:51, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ha! I wonder if that's related to the next entry in the cu log, the one with the interesting username. Did you find anything interesting? I'm on mobile and I hate CU'ing from a phone. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:55, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page watcher) Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. I'm getting this quote from Curly Howard. I won't lie, it was absolutely hilarious to see that name appear. Like really, I can't stop laughing. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 00:58, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]