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Request

Dear MERC-C, If you could spare some time, would mind doing some checking at the Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/S710? I would be very grateful. I personally do not think that these articles present any problems, but I am the author, you know, who would say such things. Greetings S711 (talk) 20:33, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, I don't have oodles of spare time like I used to. To put it into context -- there are about 85000 articles in the CCI backlog, of which less than 0.5% are yours and I can count the number of volunteers at CCI on one hand. It'll get done... eventually. That said, I'll take a look the next time I work at CCI. MER-C 13:49, 24 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Question

I have been on vacation and busy with a big trial in the past month, and thus unable to edit Wikipedia with typical frequency. Upon returning I noticed you had "accepted" something here: [1] What does that mean and how do I proceed to wrap things up and bring it to a close?--YHoshua (talk) 01:41, 27 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Accepted means the opening of the CCI. I did this because the "behind the scenes" option isn't practical with low activity. Whether you choose to help out at the CCI is up to you but if you attempt to but do not sufficiently address the concerns you will only make everyone's job harder. The limiting factor is the availability of other editors (whether this is checking you've cleared the copyvio out or removing copying altogether) and there's not much you can do about that. MER-C 11:51, 27 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Neat trick

I noticed your sig trick at this edit. Very clever, I may have to borrow that. LeadSongDog come howl! 20:00, 29 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nice work

on S710. I've been away from that one, will try to return soon.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 12:56, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I agree that this should be a priority (S710 is getting a little impatient, see above). Unfortunately I just opened a 1500 article CCI today (plus my tools broke). MER-C 13:48, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Link search tool

Hello, I filed a couple of requests for improvement of your crosswiki linksearch tool, which is so useful. [2][3] --Nemo 09:53, 6 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Contributor_copyright_investigations/Instructions

Hi MER-C. I had read what the clerks have to do regarding the issues and I think that I can help around. Still, if there are any flaws in my editing, can you point them out as I was hoping to request my name on the talk page. Thank you. TheSpecialUser TSU 00:51, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What experience do you have with dealing with copyvios? MER-C 06:16, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
As MER-C says, whileit's nice to see the enthusiasm, there's really little involved in clerking, and what we need are people actually tackling the copyright investigations. I haven't seen you at any of them yet. If there's any you want to tackle but aren't sure where to start, let me know and I can guide you through. Wizardman Operation Big Bear 17:55, 26 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

i want to update the version only in Adobe InDesign wiki page.

Hi, MER-C,

this link is already on wiki page, i didn't add any link in wiki page. i want to update only version of IndicPlus. you can check my contribs.

Thanks Pushpendra

Response: [4]. MER-C 12:30, 24 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CCI: I can help if ...

Hi. Thanks for creating the Olivarries CCI page. On it, in reply to my "it's a problem if Wikipedia is expected to host simple tabulations", you said, "That would make it ineligible for copyright." Does that mean that simple tabulations (in this case, of people elected in local elections) are always ineligible for copyright protection? If that is the case I'd be able to place {{n}} against 48 of the articles in the CCI, subject to quite quick checks that I'm willing to carry out. Please would you confirm my understanding?

Also, what I really meant was that it might be a problem for Wikipedia if we are expected to host the results of local and regional elections. So I'm considering sending those 48 articles to AFD. Not a trivial task, so I'm hoping for a second opinion. Would you please take a quick look at, say, this one, which is a case in point. I think it comes up against at least WP:TRANSIENT, as well as guidelines like WP:RECENT and WP:NPS. I'm happy to do the spade work, but would appreciate advice first. Thanks. --Stfg (talk) 11:45, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The relevant concept is the threshold of originality. I don't see how reproduction of simple facts can be eligible for copyright; it is how it is presented, if sufficiently original, that matters. As for whether the articles should exist in the first place, I can offer you this observation --- articles about local government around my city only talk about mayors. The detail seems a bit excessive to me; that's what the council website is for. MER-C 12:02, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, that's what I needed. --Stfg (talk) 12:49, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(←) I've done that. I would also be able to go through articles with names of the form X, Ubay and X, Ubay, Bohol quite quickly, as I know the main source of copyvio when it occurs in these, and the absence of permission has been established. But I need to understand something before I do: I would be able to delete text copied from that source and put {{cclean}} on the talk page. I would also be able to make best efforts to check that there's no more CV, by means of source spotchecks and googling for suspicious phrases. My question is: are these best efforts sufficient to check off entries, or is something more needed? Rgds, --Stfg (talk) 15:16, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

>[A]re these best efforts sufficient to check off entries?
Yes. MER-C 09:26, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CCI clerk request

Wikipedia talk:Contributor copyright investigations#Clerking. For obvious reasons, I think, your input there would be invaluable. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 10:20, 31 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Refspam

I noticed you warned a user about refspamming Clixie; it seems User talk:94.168.216.36 is a big fan too. — Pretzels Hii! 12:51, 18 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am already aware of this IP address and will continue to monitor the domain for further spamming. Thanks for the notification anyway. MER-C 13:09, 18 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

hi Merc-c

Dear, MER-C

i on behalf of sglivebet.com are trully sorry for the incovenience my staff are causing you. i assure you that we will stop spamming or editing script which is not suppose to be.

on the other hand can we place put our website at sbobet external link representing as sbobet agent. we here are supermaster agent for sbobet and casino.sbobet. Or maybe may we make our own wiki profile?

thank you for the attention and sorry for the trouble.

Regards, SGLIVEBET.com

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.178.109.6 (talk • contribs)

can we place put our website at sbobet
No.
our own wiki profile?
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. An entry in an encyclopedia is called an article. You're thinking of a corporate profile like the one on your own website, which is an appropriate dumping ground for the promotional crap that you'll likely be passing off as an encyclopedia article.
Read User:MER-C/SmartQuestions before you even think about replying. MER-C 05:49, 20 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For the unheralded work you do...

A Tshirt!
I thought that you deserved something a bit extra for all of the amazing work you've done for the project.
I've nominated you for a gift from the Wikimedia Foundation!

-- Gogo Dodo (talk) 05:34, 20 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! MER-C 13:20, 20 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mobileye

Hi

I recently updated the Wiki page associated with the company I work for "Mobileye" the changes I made were addition of our websites in other languages links to our social media pages and removal of old and no longer valid info such as an VP which is no longer employed by us.

I then noticed ,y page was reverted to its former condition and all the updates I had made were removed, I received a link to contact you with this regard.

I must admit I am new to using Wiki however all the info I updated was simply company info and not promotional

I would appreciate it if you would explain the issue to me and perhaps return my added info to the page.


Sincerely

Daniel Rosenfeld Online Marketing Manager Mobileye daniel.rosenfeld@mobileye.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikimobileye (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It goes without saying that any form of "Online Marketing" or promotional search engine optimization is absolutely prohibited. Your excessive use of external links has no encyclopedic purpose and hence is clearly promotional SEO. Your company has abused Wikipedia for promotion for at least 2 years. Do not restore the promotional content otherwise your editing privileges will likely be revoked. MER-C 23:57, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]


I see, I added links as I was under the impression that it is what I was supposed to do, meaning based on what I read, My intention is strictly to make sure that WIKI has the correct info about our company and that it is up to date. most of the links I added were to our websites, is that not allowed? or were you refereeing to the YouTube links? we have many promotional outlets, Wiki is not one of them, we simply want to be accurately represented. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.74.97.128 (talk • contribs)

Adding external links inline to the text is pure spam (no conceivable encyclopedic purpose, stinks of SEO) and is inexcusable. Also, articles typically contain about 1 official link; any more also stinks of SEO.MER-C 08:52, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I understand your concern, however in this case you are mistaking lack of knowledge with malicious intent. We have no need for WIKI for SEO, but as a Wiki page about Mobileye it should have the correct information and the company itself is the best source, this is a page about our company, it only makes sense that we would place our info their and want to make sure its accurate. If I am not supposed to add links to YouTube that I can understand however we have over 7 websites in different languages that's the main thing I wanted to add. I can see you are passionate about keeping wiki spam free, and I think that's great, but that is not at all what I was doing. ( at least not intentionally) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikimobileye (talk • contribs)

however in this case you are mistaking lack of knowledge with malicious intent.
Duck test. When I see someone add an in-text link, 99.9% of the time they are spamming.
the company itself is the best source
No, it is not. I'm sure you're familiar with PR bullshit...
I suggest you draft a neutral article somewhere, including any criticism, and referenced to articles with significant coverage of the company in independent reliable sources (see WP:42) and present it for review at WP:COIN. MER-C 11:58, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Template:FPCArchiveBar

I had an idea for simlifying this, that also makes it good for the next 6 years. (This length is arbitrary). =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:27, 1 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good. MER-C 11:44, 1 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CCI update

Another one done! Hope all is going well with you. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:14, 2 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

--Wizardman 17:33, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CCI process documentation

Thank you for your recent contact regarding collaborating on improving the documentation of the CCI process. Thank you for pointing out some errors in recent edits. I was not aware of the CCI process until recently. Reviewing the documentation on the process, I believe it could be clearer. I look forward to working with you further on this.

>You are probably already aware that I reverted a edit to the above page stating that "this is mostly wrong".

You know, speaking for myself, that's a edit summary I don't ever see myself supplying. I tend to try to preserve the right part.

>I'm inclined to revert every one of your edits...

My understanding is that reverting edits solely on the basis of who made them is discouraged. What is your understanding? Thanks.

>I hope you realise that this ... annoys those who will be working on your CCI

My understanding is that those who work on CCis will do so within wp copyright policy. If this is not correct, please expand. Thanks. Hugh (talk) 04:35, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Season's tidings!

To you and yours, Have a Merry ______ (fill in the blank) and Happy New Year! FWiW Bzuk (talk) 01:04, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And to you to. MER-C 08:21, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Adding spam links

Dear MER-C

I would like to inform you that I have not added any spam on Wikipedia. I added *Canadian Payroll Tax Calculator site on external links sections of various pages because I believe ankray’s Canadian Payroll Tax Calculator is helpful to Canadian business community. Ankray provides it’s Calculator free to it’s users. I had no intention to spam Wikipedia pages. You can verify the calculator by visiting *Canadian Payroll Tax Calculator. If you have further question, please do not hesitate to write to me.

Regards, Hardeep— Hardeep saini (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic. The preceding unsigned comment was added at 23:41, 28 December 2012‎ (UTC).[reply]

Google Analytics ID: UA-33552434 - (Track - Report - reverseinternet.com • Meta: Track - Report)
Other accounts;
--Hu12 (talk) 02:04, 29 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
>I added [the links] because I believe [they are] helpful to [the] Canadian business community
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Our audience is of a general nature. Most of your links have only tangential relevance to the page matter and hence should not be linked. Furthermore, your contribution history consists of adding links to ankray.com; why haven't you edited other articles? Wikipedia is not a vehicle for promotional search engine optimization. MER-C 10:17, 29 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]


Re: Adding one external link and copy additions

Hi MER-C,


Thank you for upholding the integrity of Wikipedia, I am sure you spend a lot if time and effort on this. I have only posted a few times to wikipedia and am learning as I go. I just learned that I should not cite multiple times from the same website. Would one or two cites be ok from the same website?


I noticed that on the pregnancy wiki page there are some entries that are citing the same website multiple times and was wondering how this is allowed? Cite examples are below:

  • 43. ^ 3D Pregnancy (Image from gestational age of 6 weeks). Retrieved 2007-08-28. A rotatable 3D version of this photo is available here, and a sketch is available here.
  • 44. ^ 3D Pregnancy (Image from gestational age of 10 weeks). Retrieved 2007-08-28. A rotatable 3D version of this photo is available here, and a sketch is available here.
  • 45. ^ 3D Pregnancy (Image from gestational age of 20 weeks). Retrieved 2007-08-28. A rotatable 3D version of this photo is available here, and a sketch is available here.
  • 46. ^ 3D Pregnancy (Image from gestational age of 40 weeks). Retrieved 2007-08-28. A rotatable 3D version of this photo is available here, and a sketch is available here.


In each cite there are two links to the website denoted with the hyperlink "here" -- why is this allowed?


My edits to the pregnancy page filled in gaps in the content and added useful pertinent information that improved the article. I spent a lot of time adding and feel really upset right now about the work I did to help others being deleted. How can I add to this article without it getting reverted?


I added the reference because I used this site during my recent pregnancy and it is a wonderful site that is very clear, organised and the only site I have ever found that has real embryo/fetus images for every week of pregnancy. Every other site has artistic renditions which are not very helpful. I was planning to add a few of these images to the wiki page because they are amazing and helpful for couples to see what stage their baby is in. Would this be allowed?


I read over the external link guidelines and the link i added would be helpful to anyone that is looking for information about pregnancy. In the guidelines it states:


"Sites that contain neutral and accurate material that is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject and cannot be integrated into the Wikipedia article due to copyright issues,[3] amount of detail (such as professional athlete statistics, movie or television credits, interview transcripts, or online textbooks), or other reasons. "


I feel this site is worth sharing with other because it is helpful and unlike the many others I have searched throughout my pregnancy.


I look forward to being a member of the wiki family and want to learn what is allowed. My goal is to improve the content and share useful information with the world.


Thanks, Pullingin — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pullingin (talk • contribs)

How is this site a medical reliable source? MER-C 07:36, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

CCI update

At long last, arguably the most tiresome copyright case I've worked on is done! A much better feeling when those big ones get taken down, I must say. --Wizardman 00:39, 12 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki-Java

Just a quick note to say that I am going to be trying to switch all of my current PHP and Python bot tasks to Java and I will be using wiki-java. SVN access would be great! Especially if there are any bugs or fixes I come accross! ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 23:07, 18 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please email me with a Google account username. MER-C 01:48, 19 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Email sent. Just downloading eclipse now :) Have been using net beans up until now. ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 02:15, 19 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Done. (I use Netbeans also, but haven't committed the build files. You will need a Java servlet implementation if you want to play around with my tools, otherwise there are no external dependencies.) MER-C 04:50, 19 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I thought there was some sort of fancy project management part of eclipse holding the project together :) Just read this. The only file I really want/need is this ? ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 05:17, 19 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The wiki is provided by Google.
The only file I really want/need is this?
Need, yes. Want? Maybe. Fastily has put together some things that you may find useful, see the package org.fbot. MER-C 06:35, 19 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I hope you like my first addition. If I don't comment the way you like e.t.c then just let me know :) ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 18:43, 20 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Page p = new Page("Star Wars: The Old Republic");
System.out.println(p.getNamespace()); // should return ""
System.out.println(p.getName()); // should return "Star Wars: The Old Republic"

Reverting as both unnecessary (p.getNamespace() and p.getNamespaceno() are both one liners and p.getName() is implemented in FbotParse) and wrong. More to come later... MER-C 14:54, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply] 

// this looks breakable...
name = name.replaceAll("^Category:","");
...
if(member.startsWith("Category:"))

bsh % deWiki = new Wiki("de.wikipedia.org");
bsh % temp = deWiki.getCategoryMembers("Kategorie:Wikipedia:Schnelllöschen");
bsh % System.out.println(temp.length); // usually not zero...
bsh % temp = deWiki.getCategoryMembers("Category:Wikipedia:URV", true);
bsh % System.out.println(temp.length); // should return 32 as of last count, returns 27

The former is a good idea, but I have users on other language wikis... 

if(id.equals("cm") && sb.toString().contains("14%7C") == false)

Plausible, but buggy. A raw API request demonstrates that this will fail if cmcontinue contains a "14|" (1/256 chance). 

ArrayList<String> members = new ArrayList<>();
ArrayList<String> submembers = new ArrayList<>();

The default size for an ArrayList is 10. This is not a good idea for the vast majority of categories. Also, the second list is unnecessary. I also compile with -source=1.6 for Google App Engine. 

public synchronized void login(String username, String password) throws IOException, FailedLoginException;

This is a bad idea because it seems to encourage storing passwords as plain text (are you doing this?). A char[] is obtained from JPasswordField. Besides, it is trivial to convert one to the other.

I'm going to oppose your nomination for BAG because of the issues you introduced in r115. You will be reviewing code, and you should be able to spot these things. I'm thinking of reverting r114 as well due to the bugs it introduces. MER-C 10:04, 22 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I will reply there ·Add§hore· Talk To Me! 14:42, 22 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Character encoding

Hi,
the file you get from the contribution surveyor is encoded in UTF-8, but it seems your text editor is interpreting it as some Mac OS encoding which is causing encoding errors.
Cheers, Amalthea 08:56, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Stupid Macs (should have seen this coming). Noted, thanks. MER-C 10:35, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Blacklisted references

When removing <ref>s using blacklisted links, as you did in this edit and this edit, please be sure not to leave orphaned refs behind (e.g. these and these). An easy way to check is to see if the page ends up in the hidden category Category:Pages with broken reference names after your edit. Thanks! Anomie⚔ 16:16, 3 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And I thought I got them all. Thanks for letting me know, I will try to be more careful. MER-C 06:21, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

IMI International Hotel Management Institute

We have just rewritten our website. I am communications officer at IMI. The Wikepedia was out of date and was written by an ex employee. I updated the site with the new information but wrote it too much like an advert. I changed where it was too advertorial but now it says there are copywrite issues because I used the same terminology I used on the website. I wrote them both so the information was not copied. How do I solve the problems on the site. How can I clear the copywrite problems.

Many thanks for any help you can give on this

Best regards

Rachel Staal — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.207.253.194 (talk • contribs)

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the article is nuked -- what's there isn't particularly encyclopedic. What's on your website stays on your website, regardless of who owns the copyright. I suggest you post a rewrite at Talk:International Hotel Management Institute Switzerland/Temp and get it reviewed at the conflict of interest noticeboard for neutrality/sourcing/etc. PROTIP: reading good articles on similar subjects, such as Thayer School of Engineering, gives you a good idea of what you should (ex|in)clude. MER-C 11:10, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Robertsch55

Hi MER-C! The above CCI came up as complete, so I thought I'd give closing it a shot. Hopefully I've done things correctly - it has been moved to the archive list, marked as complete, courtesy blanked and dated. I saw, as is so often the case, that you did a lot of the checks, so other than wanting to thank you myself, I thought you might also want to hear the good news. Not to mention let me know if I need to change how I closed anything. :) - Bilby (talk) 12:44, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome. Just one thing: you forgot to delist the investigation from Template:CCIlist, which I've done for you. If you're lazy (like me), you can always use Template:CCI update. MER-C 13:20, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks - I'll make sure to check there next time around. :) - Bilby (talk) 13:28, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

CCI update

--Wizardman 04:34, 8 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

--Wizardman 03:00, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why did you remove my link?

Just kidding.

The Working Man's Barnstar
For your top-notch anti-spam work. It's a frustrating area to work in and your consistent efforts are very much appreciated. James086Talk 14:48, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! MER-C 07:27, 10 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RAN case at ArbCom

Hello. Apologies for not having brought you into the loop sooner with regards to a proposed modification of editing restrictions for Richard Arthur Norton, whose case you've worked on at CCI. This is a brief heads-up that I've dropped your name in my evidence related to his case at ArbCom. While this document is not yet final, I expect it will remain. LINK. Thank you for your work on the case. best, —Tim /// Carrite (talk) 21:36, 9 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Noted. MER-C 03:05, 10 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is from Softnyx Office

I'd like to ask why was the article reverted? Please do cite the reason before reverting it so we can revise it. Thanks Softnyx (talk) 09:44, 11 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Disregard it, i saw it. Thanks Softnyx (talk) 09:48, 11 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Is there an active Contributor Copyright Investigation of me underway, or not?

Hello, User:MER-C.

Five days ago you publicly (and with me and all of the people that I know who watch my Wikipedia editing unfold on a daily basis, it is very public) informed me that I was the target of a Wikipedia "CCI" investigation, and publicly told another Wikipedia editor to initiate a checkuser inquiry as well. I publicly responded to both the CCI and multiple-account questions you raised immediately. Then you cited what you referred to as a "blatant" (your emphasis) "copyvio" and I responded to that charge publicly as well. And then nothing has happened. I cannot tell if this has even been accepted as an actual investigation, or whether it has been rejected, resolved, or anything. I consider this a fairly serious matter to be publicly accused of something, publicly respond to the charges, and then just have to endure the whole matter hanging unresolved. Plus, the articles about David Shipley, Adam Cohen and Lawrence Downes remain needlessly unaccessible to the general public. Mr. Shipley does not even work for The New York Times any longer, and other editors made numerous edits to the BLP article about him, as well as the articles about Mr. Cohen and Mr. Downes long after whatever initial wording I may have employed when beginning those articles nearly six years ago. I would really appreciate some notation being made of the status, progress, or resolution of this matter being made publicly on the page where the matter was initiated and is still fully documented:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Contributor_copyright_investigations

Thank you, and look forward to your response. No barometer of intelligence (talk) 05:05, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I've been busy with other things. I've opened the investigation. We will not consider sanctions unless the problem persists. (By the way, I was only referring to copyvio, not sockpuppetry). MER-C 11:52, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the update. I understand "busy with other things" all to well. I have been busy continuing to edit Wikipedia (in addition to "IRL" activities) since you first informed me of the "CCI," but didn't want to go on editing indefinitely feeling like there was some sort of cloud of suspicion hanging over my edits. I will track the progress of the investigation on the page you provided the link to above. Best wishes. No barometer of intelligence (talk) 18:37, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Swindridgemuir

Hello, I was wondering sir why you were removing sections. I write a lot on S1 articles and you are removing parts that I have re-used. I hold the copyright if I wrote the S1 article - is that right? My name is attached - in English. Should I be citing myself. Any clarification will be gratefully appreciated. Best wishes. Rosser Gruffydd 10:53, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Right. I think the best way to clear this up is to add (1) a copyleft notice or (2) a note on your profile at S1 that you also edit Wikipedia under this username.
As an aside, your signature does not comply with the relevant guideline -- it lacks a link to your user (talk) page. MER-C 12:08, 4 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Article Feedback deployment

Hey MER-C; I'm dropping you this note because you've used the article feedback tool in the last month or so. On Thursday and Friday the tool will be down for a major deployment; it should be up by Saturday, failing anything going wrong, and by Monday if something does :). Thanks, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 23:30, 13 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, MER-C. You have new messages at Adamjones342's talk page.
Message added 13:55, 14 March 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

You gave this editor a one final warning in 2011 not to spam Wikipedia. Well he's back. ...William 13:55, 14 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Noted, thanks. I think this is at a too low level for anybody to be bothered doing anything about it... MER-C 10:38, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual

Six years ago, you PRODded this, and it was deleted. Undeletion has been requested at WP:REFUND, so per WP:DEL#Proposed deletion I have restored it, and now notify you in case you wish to consider AfD. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 23:49, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Noted, thanks. I'll give the IP some time to find some sources. MER-C 11:06, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Adminship?

Hi. I know you've been asked this many times over the years and I understand why you wouldn't want to do it, but have you given thought to another RfA? You having the tools with all the copyright and spam work you do would actually help the encyclopedia a great deal. Wizardman 04:09, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the offer. Yes, I have thought about it... and my position is unchanged. RFA is Wikipedia's Camelot -- a silly place to be avoided. MER-C 13:10, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

3D Golf Course Planners

Hi MER-C, Recently you marked several of my external links to "3D Golf Course Planner at ProVisualizer" as spam. Please could you explain your reasoning a bit more clearly. As a former England Boys and Somerset county golfer, I thought I was adding something really useful. I have seen lots of other links to golf course guides and terrain maps, etc, which seem to be allowed, so I don't understand why you decided to block the links that I added. Thanks for your time, SomersetSimon (talk) 13:56, 8 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The site is a link to be avoided because it uses rich media (#8). Also:
$ whois provisualizer.com
Creation date: 01 Jan 2013 17:49:00
It is suspicious that a new user shows up whose only edits consist of adding links to a site that's three months old. Wikipedia is not to be used for promotional purposes. MER-C 12:31, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi MER-C, Thanks for your response. I understand the first point about rich media (not all devices/browsers can handle it), although I think it's maybe a bit of a "lowest common denominator" policy that could limit the usefulness of Wikipedia a bit. Regarding the second point, my only edits are links to provisualizer because (a) golf is my only area of expertise, and (b) that site has inspired me to start playing again after a 10-year break and I wanted to share it with others. If you still believe my links are inappropriate then I accept your decision and I will look for an alternative home, but I hope you will reconsider. Thanks again, SomersetSimon (talk) 13:43, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. From an experienced golfer's point of view, I also believe that the links I added give Wikipedia users significant additional insight into the golf course layout that is not available from the existing content of the Wikipedia pages, so I strongly believe the links are justified, and I think 99%+ of golfers would surely agree. Regards, SomersetSimon (talk) 13:58, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're forgetting that Wikipedia is read globally, including places with awful internet connections (like here). You could ask another experienced editor (which you can find here), but once they look at your edit history they probably will come to the same conclusion. It's content that matters (because Wikipedia is not a web directory); I'm sure there are plenty of crappy articles on UK golf courses you can improve. MER-C 12:51, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Appspot

I noticed your application on google appsot. How does your app connect to the wikipedia database for queries? I'm waiting to get approved on toolserver, but DaB appears to be idle.  little green rosetta(talk)
central scrutinizer  18:30, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The MediaWiki API, via this framework which is mostly my code. The App Engine documentation is here. Pay close attention to the quotas --- there are some things you can't do on App Engine that can be done on the Toolserver. MER-C 05:08, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to join the Darius Dhlomo Drive

Hello. You are invited to join Darius Dhlomo Drive, a project which aims to cleanup and resolve one of the oldest copyright investigations on the sire. We hope that you will join and help to clean what's left of the copyright violations. You are getting this invitation because you have helped out previously, and I am inviting you back to hopefully wrap this up. Wizardman 01:44, 14 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

User:Tonyfuchs1019 CCI request

Now blocked and reviewer removed. Was thinking of doing this yesterday but run out of time to review properly before deciding on a block. Dpmuk (talk) 17:12, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This Month in Education: May 2013



Headlines

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If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, update your subscription · Distributed via Global message delivery, 17:01, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Revisiting a denied CCI request

I've started a discussion at WP:ANI about a user which you previously declined to open a CCI for. You can leave a comment at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Copyright_violations_by_User:Danish_Expert. TDL (talk) 19:57, 15 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have now answered with a full reply to TDL at the page. In short he is over-reacting and exaggerating his claims, to make a storm out of a small wind. My own sense of this situation is, that there is absolutely no need to open up a CCI on the reported grounds. I find it very inappropriate that TDL throw in a lot of previously solved issues that no longer are issues, and mixes it up with some new claimed copyright-violation examples he is concerned about. Example 1+3 should never have been reported, as it was solved at my own initiative before he submitted his complaint. Example 2 was a minor issue, which I have addressed today. Example 4+5 contain so minor identical phrase parts when comparing with the source, that it does not in the opinion of me and Heracletus constitute a copyright-violation (at least not, after I today for example 4 have further minimized the amount of identical words in this disputed line phrase). I will appreciate if you have time to post your comment to my reply at the Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard, about how you asses the situation, and how you suggest we should proceed. Best regards, Danish Expert (talk) 10:24, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
As I said, I'll wait until the user conduct issues are settled before deciding whether to do anything. I suggest you read what Moonriddengirl has to say. MER-C 11:24, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Altered speedy deletion rationale: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Devil Dog Arms

Hello MER-C. I am just letting you know that I deleted Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Devil Dog Arms, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, under a different criterion from the one you provided, which doesn't fit the page in question. Thank you. GedUK  11:52, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Revert on a change made on 16 May 2013 on .NET Reflector

Hello there. I'd like to ask you why the change on this article [5] made on 16 May 2013 at 10:48 by 82.103.64.57 was reverted (I believe the times are local, mine timezone is GMT +3)? The change was adding another program to the list of dotPeek, CodeReflect and ILSpy, having similar functionality in the context of the article as the aforementioned ones. The download and usage require no payment whatsoever from the user, so I do consider this "free alternative". Please share with me your concerns about completing the list in this manner. --NpoCnaH40 (talk) 11:25, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply] 

$ whois 82.103.64.57
inetnum:        82.103.64.0 - 82.103.64.255
netname:        TELERIK
descr:          Telerik Corp.
This company has a sordid history of abusing Wikipedia for promotion. Thanks for bumping me on this issue; I will now request this domain to be put on the spam blacklist. MER-C 11:48, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot move articles, but all permissions are in place

Hi, MER-C.

I am using 0.27 (after having failed on 0.26) and MediaWiki 1.17.0 and I find that Wiki.java cannot move pages. I get "javax.security.auth.login.CredentialNotFoundException: Permission denied: cannot move pages." The account I am using for access has this permission. I note by using the debugger that the getUserInfo() call thinks the account has no rights whatsoever. This clearly cannot be, as alternative uses of the code on the same account can edit pages (a right that is off by default on my site).

wiki.login("myaccount", "my password".toCharArray()); // this works
wiki.edit("Sample page", "this is the text", "summary"); // this works
wiki.move("Sample page", "New sample page", "comment"); // this does not

I see a number of optimizations within getUserInfo()... I wonder is there a bug and that there might be some call I can make to force the permissions to actually load properly? Ideas? DulcetTone (talk) 19:45, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if this is the issue? My call to getUserInfo() is yielding the following text inside the response to the fetch:

<?xml version="1.0"?><api><warnings><users xml:space="preserve">Unrecognized value for parameter 'usprop': rights</users></warnings><query><users><user name="myaccount" editcount="19146" emailable="" gender="unknown"><groups><g>*</g><g>user</g><g>autoconfirmed</g><g>bot</g><g>editor</g></groups></user></users></query></api>

Did a literal parameter name within the API change at some point? Is there a permission I must grant my Wiki to permit rights to be queried? DulcetTone (talk) 20:09, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed. Your wiki documentation shows this parameter *should* exist, I have no idea why it does not. I suggest updating MediaWiki to the latest version to overwrite whatever bad stuff might be happening in includes/api , which you should do anyway because 1.17 is no longer supported by the devs. MER-C 03:53, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Altered speedy deletion rationale: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Born To Tailor

Hello MER-C. I am just letting you know that I deleted Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Born To Tailor, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, under a different criterion from the one you provided, which doesn't fit the page in question. Thank you. GedUK  11:44, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RfA

Thanks for the congratulations. I figure as a reward it is time for me to finish off the Racepacket CCI. :) - Bilby (talk) 15:27, 2 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Faizanali.007

It's done. Drmies (talk) 20:52, 2 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Closed. Thanks for helping out. MER-C 04:07, 3 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Blantant copyvios at CCI

Hi! In one of the CCI requests I've filed, the copyvios are mostly contained to new articles created by the user and the articles have no or few edits by other users (e.g. Gunna (film) where the plot is copied from [6]). Should I remove the relevant sections from these articles before an admin/clerk takes a look at the case? With the sections removed, the problem could probably be fixed without opening a full scale investigation (but I would still need help if that is the way to go). Thanks, jonkerz ♠talk 10:45, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You should be removing copyvios when you see them. I can use the page history when evaluating requests instead. I'll look at these tomorrow. MER-C 11:13, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Great, I removed all I could find. jonkerz ♠talk 12:12, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Precious again

cleanup
Thank you for fighting spam, vandalism and rubbish with understanding for the Game of Teh Dramaz, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (25 February 2009, 7 June 2010)!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:43, 16 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A year ago, you were the 155th recipient of my PumpkinSky Prize, repeated in br'erly style, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:26, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! MER-C 12:33, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Altered speedy deletion rationale: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Domeo

Hello MER-C. I am just letting you know that I deleted Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Domeo, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, under a different criterion from the one you provided, which doesn't fit the page in question. Thank you. GedUK  14:15, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Conversation about CP

Hi. :) There's some talk at Wikipedia_talk:Copyright_problems#Wikipedia:Suspected_copyright_violations about how to handle the backlog at WP:CP. I've been thinking lately that separating out some of the workflows might help, and your input there would be most welcome. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:01, 17 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

CCI - Interested in volunteering

I'm interested in volunteering as a non-admin clerk at CCI. There are still many open cases (some from over three years ago), and I have plenty of free time on my hands, so I feel like I could really make a difference there. You're probably the best person to ask for assistance and advice on what I should do if I want to help out in cleaning up copyright violations. Should I demonstrate elsewhere that I understand copyright policy before taking up CCI (eg. WP:CP)? What sort of experience would people be looking for in a prospective clerk? How do I best prepare myself for the role?

Thanks for your time. :-) Kurtis (talk) 08:57, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

>Should I demonstrate elsewhere that I understand copyright policy before taking up CCI
Yes. You do not need to be a clerk to clean up copyright problems, though. There are three ways you can help out without being a clerk:
1) Rewriting articles at WP:CP, but only if they are worth salvaging. An admin will move them into place... eventually (you should bug Moonriddengirl or Wizardman to periodically do this). Clerks can close listings that do not need admin intervention.
2) Clearing items at CCI. Beware -- some CCIs are easy (recent and/or blatant copying, sockpuppets) while others are ludicrously hard (translation vios, non-print sources, partially rewritten, old). Each CCI plays out differently -- you will figure out which diffs are more likely to be copyvios. Here I evaluate CCI requests (by checking random diffs, so it's the same stuff) and sometimes open surprise CCIs as I patrol ANI and SCV.
3) There's a limited supply at WP:SCV until someone gives Madmanbot a kick. These are usually easy.
Any of these are sufficient preparation for clerkship -- post at WT:CP when you're ready. MER-C 09:42, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! That's actually all I really needed to know, specifically that I don't need to be a clerk in order to handle CCI or CP. Just a couple more questions while we're on the subject:
1) What do you mean by "translation vios, non-print sources, partially rewritten, old"? Is it safe to assume that "partially rewritten" means the same as close paraphrasing and "translation vios" are copyright violations that stem from non-English sources? What's a "non-print source"? How does someone check through these?
2) What do you mean by "an admin will move them into place"? I'm confused by that. Are you referring to moving a page over a redirect? Deleting an article? Rev-deletions?
That's all I'd like to know. Thanks again for your response! :-)
1) "translation vio" = translation of a copyrighted non-English source. I meant "print source" instead of "non-print source" and you can, for some books, check via Google Books. A partially rewritten copyvio typically results from an editor unknowningly copyediting a copyvio and is functionally a close paraphrase.
2) "Are you referring to moving a page over a redirect?" Replace the redirect with the copyvio article and you have the idea. Revision deletion is used when the copyvio does not extend throughout the page history. MER-C 06:51, 20 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
All right, thanks! :-) Kurtis (talk) 07:22, 20 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Need some advice on a user with multiple copyvio additions

Hi, I was working on Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2013 June 6 and looked at Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. I had to remove the entire history section as copyvio from [7], added with this edit. I then started checking the user's other edits. Trinidad and Tobago Television had extensive copyvio from [8] introduced with this edit. At that point I simply reverted to the version of the article before the user started editing it. A quick check of Gayelle showed the same user had added copyvio from at least one source [9] with this edit. (They also added a properly attributed quote, which is probably too lengthy to pass NFCC.) Ditto Trinidad Broadcasting Company with copyvio from [10] added with this edit. In the case of the latter 2 articles, should I just revert to the versions before they started editing them on the presumption that there may even more than the bits I found? I suspect there is. Or does it it need a CCI? Seems a bit of a palaver for two articles. Voceditenore (talk) 08:20, 21 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I generated a contribution survey of this user, it only has 7 articles (see below). In these cases, I just dump the survey in a convenient place (e.g. as a reply to a CCI request) without opening a CCI. MER-C 10:21, 21 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This report generated by Contribution Surveyor at 2013-07-21T10:04:59+00:00 in 0.02 sec.

Thanks for the survey, but where is the convenient place to dump this? I'm not sure I follow you. Is it supposed to go somewhere at CP so others can work on it? If so, where? I've already detected and removed the very obvious copyvio in Trinidad and Tobago Guardian and Trinidad and Tobago Television. I know that Gayelle and Trinidad Broadcasting Company have at least some copyvio, but may have more with random sentences copied into various parts of the article and possibly from several sources making it very laborious to detect and remove all of it. I don't have the time to do this myself at the moment. Voceditenore (talk) 15:05, 22 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Anywhere will do... including here --- I don't mind being hit with the NON-ZERO RED NUMBER OF DOOM. I've seen them on WP:CCI, in user sandboxes, on user talk pages and once on WP:CP itself. To guarantee it gets looked at, I've placed it at Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2013 June 6. MER-C 12:43, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Request to take part in a survey

Hi there. I would very much appreciate it if you could spend ~2 minutes and take a short survey - a project trying to understand why the most active Wikipedia contributors (such as yourself) may reduce their activity, or retire. I sent you an email with details, if you did not get it please send me a wikiemail, so that I can send you an email with the survey questions. I would very much appreciate your cooperation, as you are among the most active Wikipedia editors who show a pattern of reduced activity, and thus your response would be extremely valuable. Thanks! --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 12:41, 22 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, MER-C/archives. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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.

Hi MER-C

We are not trying to SPAM wiki, I got a lot of information from wiki why should we spam it?? we are combined amway and network21 in one site so people will get the information about what is the real benefit to do amway business using network21 system. That the information that we want other to know about that because to many people think amway is scam because they don't know what they don't know. I know that link from wiki will not doing anything with search engine, I don't know why you guys take off that link. I don't understand why you think we are spammer? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stjong (talk • contribs)

It is clear from your edits that you are here to promote networkbusinessglobal.com. Wikipedia is not a means of promoting your own website. MER-C 03:21, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion declined: User:Mrdpanesar/Recarta IT Limited

Hello MER-C. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of User:Mrdpanesar/Recarta IT Limited, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: It's a userspace draft. Give it some time. Thank you. GedUK  12:29, 26 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

spam addition removal request

Hi - I got in to a bit of a spat with a user named mrollie who kept removing a link that had been on a page for years. You then added the site to a spam section which to be frank is a little extreme and not exactly fair. Can I ask that you edit that page and remove it please? I'll happily go away and leave you guys to it - spamming wikipedia is not my intention at all, I just simply wanted to maintain a link that was relevant and had been there for years. Thanks (NotMrOllie (talk) 12:47, 31 July 2013 (UTC))[reply]

>been there for years
The link was removed because it does not meet the external link guideline. Your edit warring (as 109.148.133.69), not discussing with MrOllie (you found my talk page, you should be able to find his) and choice of username constitutes typical spammer behaviour. MER-C 12:59, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

>typical behaviour

I was annoyed with the guy, I read what he had said to others and decided not to bother. I just didn't understand what his issue was outside of making someone's life a little poorer unnecessarily. I'm fine with the link removal, I'm just not happy with being on a spam reporting page when from my perspective I wasn't spamming anything, more warring with an individual who seemed intent on removing a link for no huge reason. Hence my request to remove my references fromt hat spam page please as I won't be adding anymore, you have my word on that.

(NotMrOllie (talk) 13:08, 31 July 2013 (UTC))[reply]

Fine, although if I catch you adding that link again it's straight to the blacklist. I've blanked the report. MER-C 13:12, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Fine. Thanks, it's appreciated. (NotMrOllie (talk) 13:14, 31 July 2013 (UTC))[reply]

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