User talk:MER-C/archives/36

2015 already

Hi MER-C. No frills - just a quiet ‘’all the best’’ to you for 2015 and I hope you’ll continue to be around on Wikipedia for a long time to come. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 15:40, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

I hope you’ll continue to be around on Wikipedia for a long time to come

Couldn't have said it better myself. Happy new year to you as well. MER-C 08:40, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Dear MER-C/archives,
HAPPY NEW YEAR Hoping 2015 will be a great year for you! Thank you for your contributions!
From a fellow editor,
--FWiW Bzuk (talk)

This message promotes WikiLove. Originally created by Nahnah4 (see "invisible note").

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Bzuk (talk • contribs) 20:40, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Mediawiki-Japi

Happy new Year 2015 MER-C!

Could you please look into https://github.com/WolfgangFahl/Mediawiki-Japi/issues/3? It would be great if you'd comment on the issue or get in touch with me personally to find out how we can collaborate. Thx. --WolfgangFahl (talk) 17:44, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

I don't see anything I can do to help, except to complete my test suites. The unit test class (along with WikiTests.java, which is a bunch of stuff that I must observe happening for now) defines a set of behaviours that are correct. There is only one correct result, how that result is obtained is mostly irrelevant. My framework may or may not pass these tests. Furthermore, there is no need for a wrapper class -- it is going to be a lot faster to checkout the SVN into a different directory and tell your IDE where everything is, and it is trivial to port those tests to a different implementation. MER-C 08:16, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Thankx for looking into this

https://github.com/WolfgangFahl/Mediawiki-Japi/blob/master/src/main/java/org/wikipedia/Wiki.java has a slightly modified version of your code - basically it adds prot support and does not call init in the constructor. I have now added your unit tests and its possible to switch the implementations using guice. I'll try to keep the Mediawiki-Japi code in sync with your code to assure compatibility while I am working on completing the API functionality. --WolfgangFahl (talk) 05:29, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Your deletion of "Guard ring" on January 24, 2014

I was about to create this page when I was warned that a page of the same name had been deleted already and that I should contact you. From the note, it appears that the article was deleted for copyright problems. Was there any reason, other than copyright, that the article was deleted? Is there any reason that I should not create the article, assuming I follow Wikipedia guidelines?Constant314 (talk) 21:30, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

No and no. MER-C 05:04, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Air Lazur

Can you, please, undelete Air Lazur page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mashine1984 (talk • contribs)

No. An "about us" page is not an encyclopedia article, and I will revoke your editing privileges if you make another attempt to pass it off as one. MER-C 09:10, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

I don't understand what do you mean. Please, explain. Please, check if now it's OK. I've made the page once again without the About us.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mashine1984 (talk • contribs)

I don't understand what do you mean

You shouldn't be editing until you do. I do not tolerate any failure (or refusal) to understand the purpose of Wikipedia. And no, the new page is not OK but for a different reason -- it has insufficient detail for a reader to determine what the article is about. MER-C 10:10, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Speedy Deletion

Hi I received this message below:

This page has been deleted. The deletion and move log for the page are provided below for reference.

07:23, 7 January 2015 MER-C (talk | contribs) deleted page Allen L. Ellison (Multiple reasons: speedy deletion criteria A7, G11. Also copied from http://ellisonforcongress.com/full-biography/)

After reading it, I proceeded with reading possible reasons why a page would be deleted. I now have some ideas why. I am requesting that it be placed back so that I can continue to upload the rest of the contents to it. Allen L. Ellison is a public figure and American Politician who is running for United States Congress. He has made history as a first African American to accomplish monumental milestones in several fields on national and international levels. The public will benefit tremendously from having access to information about him.

In the near future, he will be running for President of the United States and one could see how this is Encyclopedia worthy content. Please give me the chance to finish the content without deletion. Please let me know what needs to be done. As I am new to editing in this format.

Thank you in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheCampaign (talk • contribs)

one could see how this is Encyclopedia worthy content

A campaign biography -- encyclopedia worthy? Please. Let me guess... you're editing Wikipedia to further his election campaign? MER-C 06:01, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi MER-C, I understand were you are coming from. However, Allen L. Ellison has accomplished a great deal in a very short time frame and if allowed to publish without deletion, a more comprehensive biography can completed. Just need the chance to finish writing without interruption. It's more than a campaign. Allen is a history maker and will continue doing so while inspiring a nation of people. Only a portion of the bio came from the congressional campaign site. Allen has made history in the fields of sports entertainment and is currently working to reshape policy in foreign affairs. The start of his bio mirrors that of any United States Congressman already on Wikipedia. To become registered as a United States Congressional candidate is a huge undertaking in and of itself. The process goes through various federal and states agencies. Candidates are processed in a way much different from any other political races. Financial disclosures are extensive, donors have to be reported and one is essentially upon federal filings become a public figure and is placed on a course to one of the highest offices in the world. Yes, it's encyclopedia worthy which is why so many articles are written on the subject every day. Please allow me to continue writing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheCampaign (talk • contribs)

• It is also clearly advertising, which is not allowed on Wikipedia. See WP:SPAM and WP:NPOV. Even your comment above, talking about how Mr. Ellison will be "inspiring a nation", is advertising. NawlinWiki (talk) 02:39, 9 January 2015 (UTC) (talk page stalker)

Wouldn't any content be considered advertising under the definition that you interpret. How does one distinguish between advertising and educating? Can the content be simply educating the public about who he is as opposed to advertising. Advertising would be to solicit and there is no soliciting or propositioning here. Also, the language above is not the published article it's a conversation between you and I.

Help me to understand what it would take to get the content published. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheCampaign (talk • contribs)

you're editing Wikipedia to further his election campaign?

I'm going to take your responses as a yes. Is there any reason why your editing privileges should not be revoked in light of this inference? MER-C 03:11, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

So you ask me a question and then turn around an answer for me. I guess that make you the judge, jury and the executioner huh? Thank you for professionalism.TheCampaign (talk) 03:32, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Administrators are users trusted with access to certain tools on the English Wikipedia. They are expected to observe a high standard of conduct, to use the tools fairly, and never to use them to gain advantage in a dispute. Is there any reason why yours should not be revoked?TheCampaign (talk) 03:32, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

I have left TheCampaign a message. -- Hoary (talk) 05:39, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. MER-C 10:23, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

Derwin Pereira's entry

Hi. Two weeks ago I have submitted an un-deletion of Derwin Pereira's entry on the main deletion page. This is the discussion regrading the deletion: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_undeletion&oldid=prev&diff=640368398 As part of it I was told to prepare a draft on Derwin's page and ask you to unprotect it so that the draft can be moved to the main encyclopedia. I have published it on the draft page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Derwin_Pereira?venotify=created Is there anything else I need to do?

Thanks Mollmichaella (talk) 09:37, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I, too, am a little skeptical. Two questions: Is there any sourced criticism of Pereira, and is there any reason why you have not contributed to the Indonesian Wikipedia? MER-C 12:00, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

User:Gtalkbd block

I see that you blocked User:Gtalkbd after I declined his advertising contribution. Do you have reason to believe the user has done this before? If not, it seems harsh to block after a single attempt. I no longer see a contributions list (I don't know much about blocks but it seems to wipe out a lot of info), but I probably looked at the page history and user contributions and would have seen if this appeared to be a pattern. I don't recall that it did. Thanks, LaMona (talk) 18:07, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

it seems harsh to block.

Nope. You are being far too lenient:

His username violates the username policy.

First person spam pages are almost always "contributed" in bad faith -- any legitimate newbie would taken the two seconds to realise that an encyclopedia is not a place to promote a business (no need to refer to policy pages here, it's obvious). These pages are deleted on sight.

Put both these facts together and you have a user who is flagrantly and shamelessly abusing Wikipedia to promote his employer/business. This behaviour is not tolerated and such blocks are extremely common. MER-C 02:37, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Articles_for_creation#COI_submitters_are_people_too....mostly ??? Seems to take a different view. Should we discuss there? LaMona (talk) 14:30, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

There is a difference between making a good faith effort to write an article and having it end up somewhat promotional and outright abuse of Wikipedia for promotional purposes. A first person spam page or a repurposing of a promotional bio/about us page is not a genuine effort to improve the encyclopedia. Editors who aren't here to improve Wikipedia shouldn't be editing. This is what I deal with.

Also, further down that page is this discussion. I fully agree with what the OP is saying. MER-C 04:26, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

User:Elijahadmire

I didn't notice the previous copyright issues until you brought them up. Now that I see that he has no reason to remain here, so if you want to indef him be my guest. (I'll hold off since he'll just whine that I'm hounding him or some bs if I do it) Wizardman 02:32, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

I'll give him a little time to explain why he shouldn't be blocked at the ANI thread... if he doesn't I'll block him tomorrow. MER-C 05:57, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Silicom Connectivity Solutions

Please help me understand why you deleted my page and how can I make a company profile for Silicom Connectivity Solutions without violating copyrights as you wrote.

Best Regards

Nadia — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nadia hoffman (talk • contribs)

You need not look further than the top left hand corner of any Wikipedia page. MER-C 13:28, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Edit filter request

Hi MER-C, just wondering if you had time to look through the edits caught by the edit filter I set up for Wikipedia:Edit_filter/Requested#Plot_summary_copyvios to check if a sufficient number are copyvios for the filter to be worth continuing. Thanks, Sam Walton (talk) 11:16, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Replied there. MER-C 12:20, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Profanity in user talk pages

I know that Wikipedia is not censored in relations to articles, but I strongly suggest you refrain from using profanity in responding to new editors and unblock requests. See your response on user talk:Dlvseomadlvf. Sabada130 (talk) 11:44, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Don't worry, I only hurl abuse at spammers who blatantly lie in their unblock requests. (There is more to this user than what you see on that talk page). MER-C 13:40, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

RfC - Helper Script access

An RfC has been opened at RfC to physically restrict access to the Helper Script. You are invited to comment. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 16:40, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Deletion of draft page

Hi

I have begun setting up a Wikipedia page, based on a page from the www.maisondeslandes.co.uk site. The web-site history page has been deleted and it was the intention to place the content on a wiki page with a link on the site.

When the wiki page was checked it found the old web-site history page which presumably was still cached. I intended to leave it for a few days and then revisit and check again

I cannot do this as the wiki page has been deleted.

Is it possible to reinstate the wiki page whilst I carry on developing it?

Regards

Stewart JESXH (talk) 20:39, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

No. Are you violating Wikipedia's Terms of Use? MER-C 05:25, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

spam attack

MER-C, please keep an eye with me on the spam-blacklist log - we seem to be under attack by spambots. I am unable to tell whether the whole set is related or not. Most are now blocked, but the relentlessness seems to suggest that they will find other ways in .. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 06:45, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Spam_blacklist_hammering_through_spambots - it continues with 1000s of hits a day. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 05:27, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

Draft Article has been deleted

Hi there,

Can my draft article please be reinstated, it was merely a draft as the save option suggests. This was by no means my article submission. The structure is rather misleading and had it been made renamed to something more appropriate (perhaps rename the "draft article" to "publicly scrutinized & deletable") I would have worked on my article via an alternative method. I would just like really like to retrieve the work I have already done. Then I will only save it when it is of higher quality and ready to be reviewed.

Draft:Symbio_Networks

Thanks,

Nelly — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.213.191.72 (talk • contribs)

No. Passing off a promotional "about us" page as an encyclopedia article, even if merely a draft, is strictly prohibited. MER-C 00:31, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

ENC

You beat me to the button at Blackstone, but I've added my bit as well. Just looked at your ENC page - like it! (Have corrected a typo while there - anyone's free to correct my occasional typo so long as it wasn't a deliberate misspelling, and since I started on Wikipedia I get all twitchy on other sites when I can't correct things...) Peridon (talk) 11:51, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I got sick of being Captain Obvious long before I became an admin... then realized that WP:ENC was toned down to not have the required impact. Hence this page. MER-C 12:46, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

That's why I never use Level 1 warnings. I start at Level 2. I've been thinking of doing a refer-to page instead of typing things out all the time. Peridon (talk) 13:03, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Ditto, and I am a heavy user of 4im warnings for the same reason. As for the FAQ page, I highly recommend you write one. Some of these editors are being paid by the hour to essentially abuse the encyclopedia so you shouldn't let them waste your time. MER-C 13:21, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Wiki-java

Hi. I have been working on a content-generation robot written in Java on top of your Wiki.java for the Romanian Wikipedia. Although I'm not a big fan of Maven, I found it a useful tool to quickly start up a project and gather dependencies, so I used it in my project. I used Wiki.java by checking out the sources from https://code.google.com/p/wiki-java/ and including them in my IDE as a project-dependency. However, in order to develop a consistent build process my project, I also needed Wiki.java to be a maven artifact, so I created a pom.xml for it, so that it builds the common part (Wiki.java and the tools) into a jar file. I was thinking maybe there are others like me who could use it. Would you like to have it in the wiki-java code base?- Andrei (talk) 09:50, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

I don't use Maven, but tell me where it goes, check it for any paths that are specific to your filesystem and submit a patch and I'll commit it. MER-C 10:50, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Here it is. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to change its type, so it's still labeled as a Defect, even though it isn't.- Andrei (talk) 11:41, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Done in r217. I hope I put it in the right place. MER-C 12:30, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

It's perfect, thanks!- Andrei (talk) 14:13, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

By the way, Google code is closing down this year. Are there any plans to move wiki-java somewhere else?- Andrei (talk) 07:40, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I'll get around to it soonish. As for the destination, it will likely be Github. MER-C 07:44, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Your deletion of draft article Ian Jacobs

Dear MER-C

You deleted an article I created about Draft:Ian Jacobs for ‎(G12: Unambiguous copyright infringement: https://www.unsw.edu.au/about-us/president-and-vice-chancellor/biography , also not suitable for the encyclopaedia).

However, I realised that I could apply for the free license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported and GNU Free Documentation License to assist with the copyright infringement. I requested this from 'permissions-en@wikimedia.org' before I realised the page had been deleted. Two questions, if the page has been deleted will my request still be reviewed and if this is approved will this address the issue?

In regards to ‘not suitable for the encyclopaedia’ could you please give some more detail on this statement?

Please reconsider the deletion.

Thank you

LucyHunt (talk) 00:23, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

The purpose of Prof Jacobs' official biography is to promote him and the university, right? MER-C 02:13, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

I can remove the citation to the University’s web page and instead cite his job role that is listed on the University's Wikipedia page if that is appropriate. It was used as a citation to indicate his position at the University. LucyHunt (talk) 00:23, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

You're missing the point. You'll need to rewrite the content from scratch to be an encyclopedia article. MER-C 02:32, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Comment regarding copyright concern raised in ARE

@MER-C and Hut 8.5: can you tak a look at copyright concerns raised in this ARE?--AmritasyaPutra^T 10:58, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. --AmritasyaPutra^T 14:04, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

See your email. Bladesmulti (talk) 03:37, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

No less than three uninvolved administrators disagree with you. I think you should move on. MER-C 03:48, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

I had seen the logging to actual board later, your summary clarified a little when you mentioned the problem with checking edits. Bladesmulti (talk) 03:59, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

SMPTE cleanup

Talk:Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers#Copyright problem removed - I think you hit my unrelated redirect template for SMP/E in this cleanup. Not R (talk) 21:56, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

User:Mitesh Sanghvi

Wouldn't this (and many others) qualify for a U5 speedy? I'm just asking out of curiosity, MFD is not exactly my area of expertise. But the combination of CV/social media content and no significant edits would seem to me like a clear speedy. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 21:00, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

For some silly reason, CV stuff is exempt from CSD unless it is promotional enough for a spam deletion. MER-C 06:33, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

True, that does look very much like a full-fledged CV. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 20:43, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Removing valuable content from articles

Hi, Recently you reverted all my changes made to many of the articles. These changes had added significant value to the article in terms of information. If you feel some link associated with the article is spam, you can definitely remove it, but this is supposed to be done in a non robotic way, you must read the content before deleting it.

People are spending time to fix articles, and you are reverting them blindly. You have introduced spelling and grammatical mistakes back to the articles where i had made changes. You have vandalized articles.

About the links - Links I added were just the reference to the original article, I read the wiki spam policy and those links can not be considered spam according to them. Also, they provided useful information. You must discuss on the Discussion page or use tags like - {{Cleanup-spam}}, {{Advert}} before removing them like a superhero. You have totally over reacted on valuable content. I want to undo your changes, let me know what you think about this here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jyoti281085 (talk • contribs)

Is there any particular reason why you have added references to only fipzip.com? In addition, edits like this, if deliberate, are blatant deception. If you continue to act in such a manner, engage in personal attacks or add "references" to fipzip.com your editing privileges will be revoked without further warning. MER-C 12:15, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I use many other sites and not only this site for gathering information and reading. I used fipzip on wiki for citation for a simple reason that fipzip adheres to wiki no spam policy like - It is a no profit organization, used by product companies to do product press releases, no advertisement, because press releases are done by companies i feel its a good source of authentic information. And i don't think Wikipedia or fipzip are dependent on me for traffic. I am new to wiki, and when i fixed the spelling in the article you mentioned, i thought i must attach the reference of the press release(My bad). It will be a fruitful and informative discussion if you can let me know how fipzip is spam? you are admin, you can revoke my rights anytime you want. This may be my last edit on wiki, you will get thousands of volunteers better than me. I am thrilled to see real spam link is there in article but press release reference has been removed by you here.

Help needed at CFD

It would be nice if you could help deal with the backlog at WP:Categories for Discussion - it goes back to December. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 20:37, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I closed a small bunch. MER-C 12:39, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Sharda TV

Hi MER-C, I've noticed some users adding links to ShardaTV.com to a few articles. [1][2][3][4] It's not an epidemic or anything, but I don't see any clear relationship between this website and the subjects--that is, it looks to me like a giant copyright violation. I'm curious what your take on it is since you have more experience. Any thoughts about how I should treat this? Remove and ignore, or should I open a request at the spam blacklist? Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 17:02, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

This is fairly normal for subcontinental TV show/film articles. Revert and warn and leave a broken tracking link (http://spam.example.com) in the warning to facilitate any future spam investigation. MER-C 07:04, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Will do, thanks. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 17:04, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

George Reich

George Reich is back, already! 220 of ^Borg 16:05, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have sent this to Bbb23, but yeah, 'George' was deleted by you, been recreated, deleted by Bbb23 and come back again! 220 of ^Borg 16:11, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

I may just give up and play a nice game of WIKIOPOLY instead! 220 of ^Borg 16:24, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

It was recreated twice after I deleted it, each time deleted by Diannaa, and then salted by Diannaa.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:36, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I saw that. Persistent little ... whatever. (AGF) Thank you Dianaa! 220 of ^Borg 16:53, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Bugs in Wiki.java

Hi! I've found a bug in your wiki framework. Method calendarToTimestamp() is working wrong: when I tried to get edits made after some data, I got nothing (empty list). I wrote a correction but I haven't tested it well--Dreikhem (talk) 10:48, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Please post a test case. MER-C 11:15, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Case of what?(sorry for not understanding)--Dreikhem (talk) 15:09, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

See [5] (or [6], whichever you prefer). MER-C 00:04, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I've seen it already but I don't understand what you want to be posted. Example of wrong work or smth else?--Dreikhem (talk) 05:50, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I want a minimal test case that demonstrates what the problem is, the result you expected from running the test case and what you actually got -- see this example. MER-C 06:16, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

Ghana circus

Hi! Thanks for opening this, let's hope it'll be fairly quick. I'm a little concerned that he is still free to edit, in view of the extent of the problems. I brought it up here, but the good doctor declined it. So I thought I'd ask what you think? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 14:16, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Wizardman got to him before I did. MER-C 04:08, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Unproper deletion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Engineers

No proper reason of deletion. The description is PUBLIC and was even GIVEN by the developers themselves, with who I speak daily on Skype as I'm working as a moderator for them. Also, every single game got their wikipedia pages, why would YOU delete that one precisely ? No proper reason given. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.134.131.93 (talk • contribs)

Please enlighten me as to how cribbing the game's "about" page is consistent with the purpose of Wikipedia. MER-C 12:20, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Enlight me about how else do you want to describe a game better than how the devs did it and ASKED ME to post it that way ? Uh ? (Personal attack removed) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DarkGhost121 (talk • contribs)

The purpose of the content on the developer's website is to promote their games. I should not have to tell you that Wikipedia content must not be promotional. If you continue refusing to understand this or make further personal attacks, your editing privileges will be revoked. MER-C 07:36, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

COI related article nominated for deletion

Hi MER-C,

There is a new essay on the subject of COI that I recently nominated for deletion. There is a lot of back and forth going on as you might imagine, and I thought it might be helpful to ask some editors with a historical interest in the area to give their input.

Just to be clear, you are not being canvassed based on my perceptions of what your views are. I am asking for input from the top 10 contributors to the COI Noticeboard, expecting that some expertise and interest might be found here.

Thanks in advance for your input, if you feel able and willing to participate. Formerly 98 ^{talk|contribs|COI statement} 22:55, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Copyright

In replying to your message ,I realy don't understands whch article I have violated its copyright? Can you explain further please as soon as possible .(Raafat (talk) 16:12, 5 April 2015 (UTC))

I need explanation why you delete the above articleas , it is my own work whch I translated from the arabic language , I am one of the editors of the site www.copticmedical.com for last 10 years where you find most my translated articles and some of it already in wikpedia English for several years ,so can you kindly restore my article and ask 1st befor jumping into the deleation process,thanks (Raafat (talk) 22:39, 5 April 2015 (UTC))

The copyright of the above is mine as I am the translator of the article and the editor of www.copticmedical.com (Raafat (talk) 22:45, 5 April 2015 (UTC))

I translated from the arabic language

Translated from the Arabic Wikipedia or some other article in Arabic? If it's from the Arabic Wikipedia, you should place {{Translated page}} on the talk page, and attribute the translated Wikipedia article on copticmedical.com as required by Wikipedia's Terms of Use (see section 7g and WP:CC-BY-SA). If you wrote the original Arabic article, see Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials -- I recommend you go through the email route, because they will have the same questions as I do and your answers should be on the record. If neither, then it is likely to be a copyright violation.

As for the deletion "surprise", let me quote the big warning box that appeared on the article immediately after it was created:

If substantial content is duplicated, unless evidence is provided to the contrary ... editors will assume that this text is a copyright violation, and will soon delete the copy.

or the post notifying you of this on your talk page that appeared at the same time:

If substantial content is duplicated and it is not public domain or available under a compatible license, it will be deleted.

You continued to edit that page for one and a half hours without addressing this concern. Our copyright policy states that it is your responsibility to demonstrate you are able import the content you did into Wikipedia. There is no evidence on http://copticmedical.com/dr-ibrahim-mansour/ that the content can be imported into Wikipedia or that you are the author of it. I'm going to retract the final warning for now, but you will need to address my concerns before I restore the article. MER-C 04:31, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Recruitment for Wikipedian Interview

Hello MER-C,

We’d like to invite you to participate in a study that aims to explore how WikiProject members coordinate activities of distributed group members to complete project goals. We are specifically seeking to talk to people who have been active in at least one WikiProject in their time in Wikipedia. Compensation will be provided to each participant in the form of a $10 Amazon gift card.

The purpose of this study is to better understanding the coordination practices of Wikipedians active within WikiProjects, and to explore the potential for tool-mediated coordination to improve those practices. Interviews will be semi-structured, and should last between 45-60 minutes. If you decide to participate, we will schedule an appointment for the online chat session. During the appointment you will be asked some basic questions about your experience interacting in WikiProjects, how that process has worked for you in the past and what ideas you might have to improve the future.

You must be over 18 years old, speak English, and you must currently be or have been at one time an active member of a WikiProject. The interview can be conducted over an audio chatting channel such as Skype or Google Hangouts, or via an instant messaging client. If you have questions about the research or are interested in participating, please contact Michael Gilbert at (206) 354-3741 or by email at mdg@uw.edu.

We cannot guarantee the confidentiality of information sent by email.

Link to Research Page: m:Research:Means_and_methods_of_coordination_in_WikiProjects

Deletion of the page for The Main Street America Group

Hello MER-C,

This is with reference to deletion of the page User:N82.ashwin/themainstreetamericagroup.

I can assure you that there was no content that violated any copyrights. I created the page out of personal interests and had prior approvals from the company management of The Main Street America Group.

If there is any content that is not suitable for posting on a page, kindly let me know and I will not include it.

Thank you, AN — Preceding unsigned comment added by N82.ashwin (talk • contribs)

Passing off the company's "about us" page as encyclopedic content is contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia and unacceptable. You need to start from scratch. MER-C 12:03, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for the advice. Will start over.

Draft:XTM International

Hello, I would like to know how do you define promotional? I am trying to rewrite this article and before doing this I would like to ask you which part I should change from my previous one. I am taking inspiration from what it is already done by other companies... removing any points of views or preferences, all ambiguous sentences, just writing the facts and the important parts. Many thanks for your help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikolaj Lauer (talk • contribs)

I define promotional as you being here exclusively to abuse Wikipedia to market this company. It goes without saying that I (or anyone else) will not assist you in any way whatsoever. If you continue to engage in promotional editing your editing privileges will be revoked. MER-C 12:00, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

OK I don't want to reply at your comment honestly but I seriously would like to add some informations about xtm to wikipedia. For this reason I am searching for your help to write this article in the right way. I believe that wikipedia is the greatest encyclopaedia and it should have all the informations possible. Also I agree with you and the wikipedia policy about the promotional text. For this reason I wanted to rewrite the article but your attitude is scaring more than helpful. So could you help in suggesting something or not? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikolaj Lauer (talk • contribs)

If you are the same person as User:Marketing XTM then I consider your creation of any article regarding XTM International as an abuse of Wikipedia for marketing purposes regardless of content. Our no-promotion policy is as much about intention as it is content. MER-C 08:40, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

POTD notification

POTD

Hi Mer-C,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on May 7, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-05-07. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:15, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	For having the guts to block spam accounts. Thanks Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:49, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Just another day at the office. Thanks! MER-C 13:17, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

You may enjoy ..

• User:Beetstra/Gadget-WikiProject-Spam-Handler.js
• User:Beetstra/Gadget-Spam-blacklist-Handler.js
• User:Beetstra/Gadget-XLinkBot-Revertlist-Handler.js

You can enable them in your .js - admin only.

They are both still in beta-mode, and I am tweaking more on it (I also have User:Beetstra/Gadget-COIBot-Report-Handler.js - I will do development on these and leaving the suggested three roughly as is for the moment), but what I tested with them works. I'd be delighted if you could give them a try and see whether there are errors to resolve. Cheers. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 12:28, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

I'll try the WPSPAM one for a while. MER-C 13:08, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

Cheers. I'm not a JavaScript programmer, I do this by general programming knowledge and seeing what happens - if you see obvious mistakes, or know why certain things behave oddly, please inform me, all help is appreciated. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 13:15, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

Unfinished business

Hi, MER-C! Thanks for closing out Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2015 March 26. However, I've screwed up there – I should have left a note to say that User:SiloniSam/Carborundum Universal Ltd/Temp and User talk:SiloniSam/Carborundum Universal Ltd/Temp are no longer required (the COI user is working on Draft:Carborundum Universal). Can those go in the round file as housekeeping or something? Thanks, Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 12:13, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Deleted. MER-C 13:20, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Populate list

Hey, MER-C. :) Can you please provide the list of files for Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/83d40m? (I'm not yet sure if it merits a listing of text, as I've had trouble finding extensive samples of copying.) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 21:08, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Done. In the future, you can generate these yourself. MER-C 06:21, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Oh, cool! Thanks. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 11:25, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Account NASDNG Blocked

Hello MER-C,

This is with reference to blocking of the page details of account below:

   Username: NASDNG
   Registered: 09:33, 11 February 2015 (2 months ago)
   Total editcount: 5
   Number of attached accounts: 3

Reason:

Blocked indefinitely. (account creation blocked) Reason: {{uw-spamublock}}

I created the page out of company interests and had prior approvals from the company management of NASD Plc. (Redacted)

I am currently working with all department and our compliance team to ensure that all content I am going to upload on our Wikipedia page is accurate and approved.

Please I would appreciate if you can enable the above username for me to start work on the page.

Warm Regards, Pius Odiahi Senior IT Officer

NASD Plc (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.184.185.188 (talk • contribs)

No. I -- or any other volunteer Wikipedia editor -- am not here to assist you in abusing Wikipedia to promote your employer. MER-C 11:34, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Your auto-cull thing

Hey, User:MER-C. Can you do your auto-cull thing on Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/20100114? Or point me to the tool that does it? I'm trying to work on that one a bit (even though it takes HOURS to go through one article), and it would be awesome to have the trivia removed. Also, what's your auto-cull level? I've tried setting the CCI tool to an appropriate level lately, but I'm not sure the level you're using. I've kind of wavered between 400 and 500. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 18:26, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

I'll do this tomorrow. The tool is offline only, with the source code available here. What it does is scan diffs for addition of more than nine words of text, excluding wiki markup. There has been only one false negative so far (and yes, it was a copyvio). MER-C 11:39, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

Almost everything that can be programmatically removed is already gone. Also this method is particularly blind to song lyrics and poetry, so I check every addition more than 500 bytes. MER-C 13:22, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

I thank you for the effort anyway. :) That one's an absolute bear, but I want to put some damage in it, now that we've got folks like User:Justlettersandnumbers and User:Crow helping out so wonderfully in other areas of copyright cleanup. Five years is long enough. I'd like to finish it up before it hits six. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 13:32, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

If you can find a simple way to describe some of the trivial stuff that makes it through, I'm all ears. Becoming an admin is in some ways a curse -- the crap takes me longer to get rid of, but it is a net timesaver for the community. MER-C 13:48, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Category discussion

The result of this discussion that you closed has become subject of debate in this new discussion. Could you please check? Marcocapelle (talk) 16:50, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi, just dropping by with a big thank you for joining in the fun at CFD. – Fayenatic London 18:03, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Deleted category must be restored

Hallo, I just see that you just deleted the Category:Knights of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation. This category must be restored, since l`Ordine dell`Annunziata was until the establishment of the Italian Republic the most important Order of the Duchy of Savoy, the Kingdom of Sardinia and finally the Kingdom of Italy. It was for Italy the equivalent of the Order of the Garter for the UK. The order was established in the middle ages, and his recipients (named cousins of the king) gained a special relationship with the Savoia dynasty. The assignment (or non assignment) of the order had often a deep political meaning (see for the first case Grandi who use the honour to see the kıng during the plot against Mussolini, for the second Goering, who had to fight for years to get it). Finally I must say that was astonished about the level of the "discussion" which led to the deletion, which showed that none of the participants had the slightest idea about the subject of the discussion. To let you understand better what it has been done, I am thinking to propose the deletion of the Category:Knights of the Garter, using the same rationale that brought to delete this category. Thanks, Alex2006 (talk) 12:39, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

You've had the best part of a week to oppose that deletion at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 23#A few award categories, but you did not. The consensus was clear, and thus I can't restore the category. MER-C 13:07, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, but I am not spending my time on Wikipedia reading Categories for deletion. :-) I noticed the deletion only when 4 articles on my watch list showed it. The consensus was clear, and you did what you should have done in this case, but the consensus was based on nothing. Unfortunately here we had clearly a problem of (lack of) competence...What can be done in these cases? Alex2006 (talk) 15:36, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm afraid you'll have to accept the outcome -- there is a venue for appealing deletion discussions but it is not CFD round 2. MER-C 05:01, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I saw it, it is not what I need. Well, I think that the only way is recreate the category, watch it and the next time that someone with no competence about italian history tries to delete it, explain to him why it is important. Alex2006 (talk) 06:54, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

You can't do that either. MER-C 07:33, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

I see. Then I will try with Wikipedia:Deletion review, although this is not optimal. Thanks for your explanation anyway. Alex2006 (talk) 09:22, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Century related categories

I hadn't noticed the 3 umbrella deletion discussions on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 22 regarding birth and death categories, but I would like to ask you to reconsider. The main reason is that these categories are part of a system of categories, which is year-based. Add to that that there was only one supporting editor. I think that in view of the lack of discussion and the fact that these categories are part of a category tree, the result should have been a relist. However that may be, at this point I'd like you to reconsider. Please note that I also disagree with Peterkingiron's argument that for many of the articles in these categories the year is only a guess, and even if that were true it wouldn't matter. Debresser (talk) 07:47, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't see the lack of participation to be a problem -- two is sufficient. Given what I had in front of me, I think anything but delete is outside admin discretion. Maybe I should have left it for a couple more days, but it's too late now -- the closures have already been actioned. MER-C 13:29, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Those action influenced only a limited number of pages, and can be undone. What should be my course of action, if I'd like to see this undone? There is such a thing as a second nomination for deletion, but how to ask for undeletion? Debresser (talk) 14:02, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

You can try Wikipedia:Deletion review, but it should not to be used if you merely disagree with the outcome of the debate. Reverting a category deletion is a lot more tedious than an article deletion. MER-C 12:57, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

That is precisely why I asked you for a course of action, because I know that deletion review is not for disagreeing. Being that people are terribly bureaucratic over there, I don't think that my arguments will help much, even though I think they are pretty strong. I could, of course, recreate the categories and add them to the articles, since there aren't that many of them. That too is likely to lead to some summary deletion. What would you suggest? Debresser (talk) 13:10, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I don't think there is anything left to do except accept the outcome, unfortunately. MER-C 13:41, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I do not want to do so, both because I disagree with this specific outcome, and also because I think that some review procedure should be available. Please see Wikipedia_talk:Categories_for_discussion#Advice, where I asked this question from the folks at WP:CFD. Debresser (talk) 14:16, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi Debresser, I only just noticed your request at WT:CFD. The three discussions that you refer to are part of a major exercise that Marcocapelle (talk · contribs) and others have been working on, upmerging small categories for years BC, Antiquity and Middle Ages: births, deaths, establishments, disestablishments, architecture, states and territories, bridges... Some of the other discussions have had more participation, and from what I recall there has been a pretty solid consensus to amalgamate them all. So although there wasn't much participation in these specific CfDs, IMHO the outcome is sound. If you wish to review it, I suggest doing so at WT:YEARS with a message at WT:WPBIO and WT:CAT. – Fayenatic London 20:30, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

My mistake

I just found out that I've made a nasty mistake with this nomination. The archdukes of Austria shouldn't have been plainly deleted, instead they should have been merged to Category:Austrian princes. The latter category is pretty underpopulated now, after deletion of what was (presumably) its main child category. If needed I can correct my mistake manually, but I wonder if you know perhaps a more efficient way of dealing with this problem? Marcocapelle (talk) 20:24, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I can't think of anything other than the obvious. MER-C 12:56, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

Improving pages

Hello :) I am Ina and I have a lot of information for poker players and poker game. I am very interested in the field since a lot of years.. I've been thinking of improving Wikipedia pages with latest poker news..but all was deleted. I don't do spam or bad things, I just want to put in my knowledge. Can you please, tell me why this seems not really possible? — Preceding unsigned comment added by InaGG8 (talk • contribs) 13:35, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

All of your edits (except this one) involve adding links to rankinghero.com. Why? Please also explain why you made these edits, which only replaced an existing reference with a link to the aforementioned site. MER-C 13:48, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Decentnil

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Decentnil. Thanks. ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 22:19, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Copyright protection of the Algerian and Angolan anthems

Wait a minute? There is a copyright law surrounding the lyrics of the Algerian and Angolan anthems? 174.113.217.132 (talk) 23:12, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

The authors in both cases are still alive so they are -- like everything else -- copyrighted by whoever wrote the songs. MER-C 08:57, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Possible return of user you blocked for copyright violations

You may want to take a look at edits by Habibian2013. His edits resemble the copy-and-paste edits (at most changing a few words compared to the source) by another user that you blocked in March: User:Haffy881. In some cases editing the exact same articles, too. Both mainly edit articles related to wildlife from Pakistan, soccer and pornstars; typically with an edit summary that says "added information", "added behavior" or another "added..." variant. Except leopard shark where he only added a taxobox (no copyvio), every single edit I checked by "new" user Habibian2013 was copyvio in the form of copy-and-paste:

• Sind krait (www.wildlifeofpakistan.com/ReptilesofPakistan/krait.htm)
• African scops owl (www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Otus&species=senegalensis)
• Grey-headed parakeet (www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=1533)
• Slaty-headed parakeet (www.parrots.org/index.php/encyclopedia/profile/slaty_headed_parakeet/ and www.birdchannel.com/bird-species/profiles/slaty-headed-parakeet-2.aspx)
• Chiltan ibex (www.scirecordbook.org/chiltan-wild-goat/)
• Nanorana vicina (www.iucnredlist.org/details/58443/0)
• Balochistan forest dormouse (www.iucnredlist.org/details/40767/0)
• Alashan wapiti (www.scirecordbook.org/alashan-wapiti/)
• Black capuchin (www.arkive.org/black-horned-capuchin/cebus-nigritus/)
• White-footed saki (planetofthemonkeys.com/white-footed-saki/)
  

These were the only I checked, but the pattern seems clear. Note that I only reverted the first (Sind krait). This was before I realised the full extent of this matter. All the remaining copyvio remains. I do not have the time to deal with his many edits and am unsure of how to deal with the possible return of a blocked user. Regards, 62.107.223.12 (talk) 16:38, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Wow, even the exact same copyvios. Blocked and reverted. MER-C 03:46, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, it's appreciated. 62.107.223.12 (talk) 11:43, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Question regarding CfD close of yours

Hi. Regarding the close you did earlier today for Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 June 13#Hillary Clinton, how exactly did you arrive at your rationale for moving one in particular, Category:Books by Hillary Rodham Clinton‎? This was the one that several editors singled out as possibly different from the others, since all five of her books have been published under the name "Hillary Rodham Clinton" and none under "Hillary Clinton". There were five in favor of moving this category (kennethaw88, Marcocapelle, Jenks24, Snuggums, John Pack Lambert) and four opposed (Anythingyouwant, Wasted Time R, Tvoz, Neutrality) and one neutral (GregKaye). Of course I'm involved, but a !vote of 5–4–1 hardly feels like a consensus to me. Thanks. Wasted Time R (talk) 21:09, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

There is a long standing consensus, not limited to this subject, (e.g. WP:C2D) to name categories after their respective articles. The oppose reasons, while noted, are insufficient to make an exception and I don't find them to be particularly persuasive. I have no objections to a redirect. MER-C 12:56, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Category:Vietnamese men

Hi. As an admin onwiki at the moment, can you close out this CFD; I have decided to withdraw the nomination after an endless stalemate (see [7]). Thanks, Quis separabit? 02:36, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Never mind, taken care of. Thanks, anyway. Quis separabit? 04:33, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

User unblocked - courtesy note

Hi MER-C. This is just a courtesy note to let you know that I have unblocked Dineshsanil as a result of an unblock request filed via UTRS. He has agreed not to write about himself or his company again (although I've granted an exception to allow him to list it at WP:RA if he wishes) and I've made it very clear that any hint of promotional editing in the future will be met with an immediate reblocking. I've not required a change of username, since it appears that Dinesh Sashil is in fact his real name. Thought you'd like to know. All the best, Yunshui ^雲_水 07:20, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

Catriona

Hi, I've never made a wikipedia page before. I have permission from Catriona McKenzie to make her entry. I also designed the page www.catrionamckenzie.com.

I tried to reference her links in the entry. Is there something I can correct to reinstate her page?

Thank you! MJ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daisymwarrior (talk • contribs) 16:10, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Catriona's official biography is not an encyclopedia article -- it was written with the intent of promoting her. It shows (e.g. "A highly experienced television drama director, her work includes acclaimed series"). You need to start from scratch, and (if necessary) declare your financial conflict of interest as required by the Terms of Use. MER-C 02:57, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

Category:Scientists whose names are used in physical constants

User:Peterkingiron made the point that this category should be listified before deletion. Can you explain why this was not done? SpinningSpark 17:33, 6 July 2015 (UTC) Ah, apologies, the list article already exists. SpinningSpark 18:19, 6 July 2015 (UTC)