User talk:MER-C/archives/37

upload in Wiki-java

Hello! Could you please help me with my problem. I use your Wiki-java framework and i can't upload any image. In my code I just log in to my own wiki (not Wikipedia) and after that do

File g1 = new File("Graph1.png");
if(g1!=null) w.upload(g1, "Graph1.png", "test", "test");

In the second line I get an exception: java.io.IOException: MediaWiki error, response was <?xml version="1.0"?><api><error code="notoken" info="The token parameter must be set" /></api> Źmicier Dzikański (talk) 20:29, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Works for me. You should be using the latest revision. MER-C 11:42, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for answer! So, I also can upload pictures to Wikipedia, but can't upload to my wiki. Probably, it depends on version of MediaWiki. I use 1.23.9. Źmicier Dzikański (talk) 17:53, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

I would try updating your MediaWiki to 1.25.1, and if that doesn't work dump the output stream to a file (minus the image), compare it to what it should be as per your wiki's API documentation and inspect the cookies sent. Unfortunately, as I can't see your configuration that's the best advice I have. MER-C 06:50, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

Me, hat in hand again

Hi. :) So, I've got another massive CCI (this case, an expansion of an existing CCI when new problems were uncovered :/) and I wanted to use your CCI analyzer, but I'm not quite sure how. Or remotely sure. Do I add it to my common.js? It's the last (and newest) three pages at Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Epeefleche. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 00:58, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

It's not exactly user friendly -- the program is in a state where a (Java) programmer can use it, but nobody else. It's not even complete -- I have to post-process the output before posting. That said, I am running it and will post the results shortly. MER-C 12:03, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

Done. Wow, it really tore through that last page. MER-C 13:10, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

CfD merge to multiple targets

Hi, I'm really glad you are doing so much work at CfD, as most of the old regulars have moved on to other things.

When the consensus is to merge to multiple targets, please list the task on the manual page WP:CFDWM rather than the automated Working page, as Cydebot can't merge to multiple categories. I spotted this set and think I fixed them. – Fayenatic London 12:43, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

I already know of that page, that particular listing was one that slipped through. MER-C 12:44, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I do that sort of thing too... – Fayenatic London 20:17, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

For info, Cyde is aware that the bot is currently not processing CFDW. – Fayenatic London 12:45, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Category:Roman roads in the Balkans

MER-C,

Thank you for taking the time to close out CFD discussions. It looks like Category:Roman roads in the Balkans was inadvertently left behind after a delete decision. Thanks. RevelationDirect (talk) 01:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Deleted. MER-C 05:13, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Confused about spam reporting

Hello MER-C, as a regular contributor in Wikiproject Spam, could you clarify a minor confusion for me please? What's the intended difference between Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam and MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist#Proposed_additions? Should initial reports of new spam activity be posted on the project site or directly on the Mediawiki page? Maybe it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, just wondering. GermanJoe (talk) 02:24, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

The spam blacklist talk page is for things intended for the spam blacklist, while things that need looking out for go on the project talk page. As an administrator, I find the distinction irrelevant. MER-C 10:57, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

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 at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

hfordsa (talk) 11:34, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Bugs in Wiki.java

Code:

Wiki wiki=  new Wiki("cnspedia.ml", "", "http://");
InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(reader);
System.out.println("Please input username:");
String username = input.readLine();
System.out.println("Please input password:");
String password = input.readLine();
wiki.login(username, password);

Output:

8月 09, 2015 1:39:03 上午 Wiki namespace
資訊: Fetching URL http://cnspedia.ml/api.php?format=xml&rawcontinue=1&maxlag=5&action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=namespaces%7Cnamespacealiases
Exception in thread "main" java.util.zip.ZipException: Not in GZIP format
	at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream.readHeader(Unknown Source)
	at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.fetch(Wiki.java:6934)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.populateNamespaceCache(Wiki.java:1531)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.namespace(Wiki.java:1467)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.normalize(Wiki.java:7277)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.login(Wiki.java:959)
	at org.wikipedia.Wiki.login(Wiki.java:1036)
	at ml.cnspedia.Test.main(Test.java:20)

It's unimportant whatever the password is correct or incorrect. I tried this with another sites, and it works. I know the FTP username and password of that site so I can configure that site.--一個正常人 (talk) 17:34, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Set gzipping to off (setUsingCompressedRequests). MER-C 03:08, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Problem with closure of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 25#1st to 5th century BC births

Please review the closure at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 May 25#1st to 5th century BC births, per the comments I added under the closed discussion. The closure caused problems (not conforming to bot policy), see Wikipedia talk:Bots/Requests for approval#ArmbrustBot 4 --Francis Schonken (talk) 20:22, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

No. My responsibility is limited to determining what the consensus was, and you have not advanced any arguments as to why I am wrong. The outcome was clear. This is a different matter than whether the debate participants were wrong or not, which is something I can't do much (if anything) about. MER-C 03:42, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Categories deleted... by mistake

It looks like you deleted 2 categories by mistake: Category:1930s plays and Category:1930s musicals. Could you restore them? Regards, Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 12:45, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Done. MER-C 12:46, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 13:27, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

If you get a moment

Can you take a look here and maybe even run the same search? Maybe it's me but - cheers. --Herby ^{talk thyme} 13:59, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Promotional username continuing promotion on talk page

You may wish to take another look at Nutbid, who has continued his promotion on his talk page. His talk page access probably needs to be revoked. [1] ~ Rob^Talk 11:55, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Done, thanks for letting me know. MER-C 11:57, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Need some adminly advice

Hi MER-C, I'm a n00b admin. I'm picking you for advice because you recently posted at WP:AN, so I know you're around. Had a situation where a user was threatening another at User talk:Levdr1lostpassword. I reported the offending user to emergency, I indeffed the user, and now I'm wondering if I should be suppressing all of that user's edits, or both of their edits, or what. I tried to suppress the entire conversation, but it still appeared on the talk page, so I'm assuming I did something wrong. Do you know anything about this area, and in so, may I ask you to help and to instruct me? Thanks and sorry for the hassle. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 03:09, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

If you want to revdel the conversion, you'll need to edit the page to remove the offending content first. MER-C 03:21, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah! Thank you! Cyphoidbomb (talk) 03:25, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

More to blacklist

business2sell.co.za and business2sell.co.nz have both been as well. Will these be covered by the rule you added? Cheers SmartSE (talk) 12:59, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

No, but that's about to change. I have blacklisted all of the regional variants (there's a .com and a .co.uk too). MER-C 13:11, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Cheers! SmartSE (talk) 13:29, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Oanabay04

Thanks for creating Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Oanabay04. Oanabay04 used Tomatosoup97 (talk · contribs) as a sockpuppet for years on many of the same articles. Is there a way to add that user's contributions? Thanks, Mackensen (talk) 13:07, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Done: Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Oanabay04 03. MER-C 13:11, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. As a note, I reverted you: [2]. I'm not sure what you were doing, but Black River and Western Railroad had copyvios and shouldn't have been removed. For whatever reason the survey tool didn't pick up most of the edits: [3]. Mackensen (talk) 23:46, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

When I generated the survey, I had it remove anything that added less than 150 bytes to minimize the amount of trivial diffs to look at. Stuff like this (removed 500 or so bytes) wouldn't be flagged. I followed up with a program I wrote that removes anything that added less than 10 words. MER-C 04:27, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Understood; thanks for the explanation. I doubt he knew it, but adding/removing enough content so that it looked like 150 bytes or less helped him fly under the radar. Aggravating. Speaking of which, checkuser found another sock: Bnlboyardee89 (talk · contribs). Mackensen (talk) 19:07, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

@Mackensen: I've been traveling and only have just got around to adding the sock. I've not removed anything adding less than 150 bytes per the above conversation. MER-C 20:04, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Plagiarism of The Merck Index

Please could I trouble you to take a look at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#Plagiarism of The Merck Index, which I posted on 21 August? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:08, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

It's already been dealt with. MER-C 15:41, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Invitation to subscribe to the edit filter mailing list

Hi, as a user in the edit filter manager user group we wanted to let you know about the new wikipedia-en-editfilters mailing list. As part of our recent efforts to improve the use of edit filters on the English Wikipedia it has been established as a venue for internal discussion by edit filter managers regarding private filters (those only viewable by administrators and edit filter managers) and also as a means by which non-admins can ask questions about hidden filters that wouldn't be appropriate to discuss on-wiki. As an edit filter manager we encourage you to subscribe; the more users we have in the mailing list the more useful it will be to the community. If you subscribe we will send a short email to you through Wikipedia to confirm your subscription, but let us know if you'd prefer another method of verification. I'd also like to take the opportunity to invite you to contribute to the proposed guideline for edit filter use at WP:Edit filter/Draft and the associated talk page. Thank you! Sam Walton (talk) and MusikAnimal ^talk 18:22, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry dues

It has come to my attention that you are a sockpuppet of me, however, in consulting my financial records, I do not see that you have ever paid any dues into the BMK Sockpuppetry Fund. Please rectify this situation at your earliest convenience, since I am trying to buy some really neat stuff and I need the money. All the best BMK (talk) 06:14, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

How much do you want per edit? MER-C 09:56, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Ping failure

This may be something you know but I know I tried to ping someone recently and it failed and I now know why. If I understand correctly, your edit has to include the ping and your signature at the same time. In my situation, I filled out a ping not quite right and signed it. I saw the malformed ping and corrected it, but it didn't go through, because my original edit didn't have the ping correct, and my correction edit didn't have the signature. In your edit, you would already signed it and you simply added the ping which did not go through. your edit

(While I'm here, thanks for the enormous amount of work you do and copyright issues.)--S Philbrick(Talk) 13:45, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

Noted, thanks. MER-C 13:54, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

Edit Wikidata using Wiki

Hi, I wonder if the class could give the ability to edit labels, and descriptions in wikidata, based on the IDs of the items. Is that possible? Thanks. --ASammour (talk) 14:50, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

Wiki.java won't support Wikidata, because it uses a specialized extension. The API documentation for it is here. MER-C 15:59, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject Spam

Hi MER-C, I assume you're overworked at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam what with not a whole lotta people intervening on spam cases. I have seen several of my reports go stale to lack of response. Should I, as an admin, add these problematic domains to the blacklist myself to spare you the headache? I don't want to step on toes, and I fully acknowledge that you're way slicker on these matters than I. Please let me know what you would prefer. Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 02:22, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Feel free to summarily blacklist stuff. I usually blacklist things when it is clear blocks haven't or will not work (e.g. sockpuppetry, highly dynamic IP). MER-C 11:01, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Coolio. Thanks, per usual. :D Cyphoidbomb (talk) 19:33, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Nice to see your finally an admin

I was part of the Wiki world back in the last decade and always was a supporter of yours. I was just browsing and your user name has stuck in my mind and had a look and you finally took the punt in 2014 and was successful. You see sometimes good things happen to good people. It was worth it I see as you are using your privileges often and sensibly. Take Care 110.20.186.74 (talk) 10:24, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. MER-C 15:06, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Imtitanium sockpuppet to confirm

Hello, MER-C. Given your past work at Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Imtitanium, I was wondering if I might cajole you into looking at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Imtitanium? I reported a new sockpuppet of this serial hoaxer/copyright infringer nine days ago, but the case is still awaiting assessment of the behavioural evidence. I've already tagged new hoaxes and copyvios on several of his favourite articles but there's not much point in cleaning them up (and reopening the CCI) as long as the sock is still running amok. —Psychonaut (talk) 15:29, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, that's a sock. Blocked. MER-C 19:47, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Much obliged. —Psychonaut (talk) 21:05, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Mobius Films

Hi, I had edited the page Mobius Films on wikipedia, can you please let me know why it is deleted. SocialDevyani (talk) 15:51, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Mobius Films was deemed to not meet Wikipedia's inclusion criteria. The latest incarnation only recycled the deleted content, so you should not be surprised that it was deleted again. MER-C 16:50, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Alternative to spam blacklist?

Hi MER-C, sorry to bug you with this quicky: Are you aware of any alternative to the spam blacklist that performs the same general function, disallowing certain sites from inclusion? For instance, there are a number of websites that various communities do not consider to be reliable sources, but they are not spam per se. However, including them at Wikipedia is problematic. Is there a general blacklist? Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:29, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

No, there isn't. MER-C 16:45, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Alright, so if a community decides that a particular site is not a reliable source, what threshold would need to be met to have it added to the spam blacklist? RSN outcome? In particular I'm thinking of Indian cinema articles, which are heavily disrupted by editing rings and sockpuppets who are bent on promoting film A and demoting film B. Often this includes the crafty use of problematic references. Suggestions? Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:56, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

I only blacklist spam; you'll have to ask someone else. Sorry. MER-C 17:25, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

User:Dsdeepak33

If you happen to get a chance, Dsdeepak33 is indeffed for copyvios and wanting a 2nd chance. Feel free to comment. :P --slakr^\ talk / 03:19, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

@Slakr: I'll comment here as well. The block looks like it served its primary purpose by alerting Dsdeepak33 to his problematic editing. That said, the appeal isn't particularly convincing given that he was warned three times instead of the claimed once, and one part of me thinks he is just going through the motions. To that extent, I've asked him a question regarding how to add appropriate plot summaries. MER-C 12:10, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

Spinola Palace (Valletta)

You tagged the article Spinola Palace (Valletta) as a copyvio. I rewrote the article from scratch at Talk:Spinola Palace (Valletta)/Temp. Can you substitute the articles please? Best regards, Xwejnusgozo (talk) 23:17, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

Done. Thank you for the rewrite. MER-C 14:10, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

COibot

How to make the COIbot work for a website? I filed the Oyetimes report, but after two days there is no COIbot page as created for other websites. --Galaxy Kid (talk) 02:09, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Probably a little Labs downtime. Let's see what happens if we try again. MER-C 18:21, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I have removed it and filed another which is more problematic. --Galaxy Kid (talk) 19:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

CfD closure

Probably something didn't go entirely as planned with the closure of Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2015_November_6#History_of_New_Netherland_by_period. The categories nominated for deleting have been deleted correctly but the categories nominated for merging are still untouched. Marcocapelle (talk) 16:55, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

They're still sitting at WP:CFDWM unactioned. MER-C 16:57, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Madhukhali Upazila investigation of potential copyright issue

You removed Madhukhali Upazila from Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2015 November 22 with this edit and the edit summary "rm dupe". I can't find the duplicate of this and want to be sure that someone will work on it and resolve the investigation. Can you point me to the duplicate?

More generally, can you advise me as to the best way to handle cases where another editor has placed the Copyviocore template on an article, but neglected to complete the remaining filing steps? Yesterday I started by following the instructions on the article, which said to add an entry to Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2015 April 5 (that's when the other editor placed the Copyviocore template). Justlettersandnumbers, who I presume is more knowledgeable than I (clueless user) am about the workflow at Copyright problems, moved it to the current day's list. I've seen about four more outstanding instances of incompletely filed copyvio cases, and want to get them resolved without creating more of a mess. Worldbruce (talk) 22:08, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Oops, my mistake -- two articles with very similar titles. Your reasoning is correct with unlisted copyright problems -- nobody is going to see the April listing. MER-C 22:12, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Why did you delete my page?

MER-C, why have you deleted my page? I didn't use bad language! --Forresterjanice (talk) 18:01, 24 November 2015 (UTC)forresterjanice

See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Forresterjanice and Wikipedia:User pages#Copies of other pages. I strongly recommend you start contributing to the encyclopedia. MER-C 18:41, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Mbsibin

This user was blocked for one week spamming his website. You blacklisted his website. Now after being unblocked, he is removing reliable sources from other websites. Removed link from Sify. And removed link from filmibeat.com which is the entertainment website of Oneindia. --The Avengers 15:30, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

In some of the cases that I saw, he was removing references that could be supported by the primary source, the film itself. I did, however, restore one reference at Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam. Probably worth keeping an eye on this guy. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 22:45, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Looks like some disgruntled revenge vandalism that will peter out. I will keep an eye on him. MER-C 15:57, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

User talk:83.33.207.73

Hey thanks for removing that last IP, this one may also need their talkpage abilities removed but I'm not entirely sure if they were the same person (different habits). Cheers, SwisterTwister talk 21:00, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

That's not necessary at the moment -- there's no edits to the talk page since the block. MER-C 21:11, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Ah, I meant to say User talk:175.138.82.166 which is apparently the same user User talk:Lelongtips I encountered this morning (I've encountered several G11 users today ). Cheers, SwisterTwister talk 21:16, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Again, there's nothing here that requires any action. MER-C 21:25, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Advertiser blocked

Just FYI, GHAR KA MUKHIYA, that you warned, recreated their promotional userpage again, so I've blocked' em. Bishonen | talk 21:45, 28 November 2015 (UTC).

Orangemoody

Just as an FYI, blocked a whole bunch of Orangemoody socks today. I've labeled them as Orangemoody in the block reasoning. Elockid^{Happy holidays!} 19:48, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for running the check and letting me know; I've updated the LTA account list and started the cleanup. It seems we've avoided the worst of it this time around -- over half the accounts haven't edited yet or have only made trivial edits. MER-C 20:07, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

• Thank you both. Drmies (talk) 21:27, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

I'll continue to keep an eye out and let you know when there's further activity. Elockid^{Happy holidays!} 22:00, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Accusing NeilN of spamming filmibeat

But I found that you aree adding links of filimbeat from another ip without signing and stands to protect that page and promoting filimbeat only,

Mr User talk:NeilN are you working to promote this websites.. --The Avengers 10:29, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Nazi architecture

Hello, MER-C. You will recall that I found some serious Copyvio issues with Nazi architecture; you tagged the article with the Copyvio template. User:IQ125 has been removing the template. I have reported this to ANI#Repeated deletion of Copyvio notice. Thought you'd like to know. --Macrakis (talk) 02:36, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Category renaming

Hello MER-C (talk · contribs), I noticed you closed a discussion could you do the same for the discussion I opened, here is the link for what I published on the "Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Requests for closure" page - Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Requests for closure#Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 November 28#Category:Academic pressure in East Asian cultures this will describe everything that I haven't published here, thank you. (120.144.180.158 (talk) 06:48, 9 December 2015 (UTC))

If you don't want to do it, could you please let me know? Thank you. (58.164.108.190 (talk) 22:48, 9 December 2015 (UTC))

I thought about it, and no I don't want to close it. MER-C 08:31, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Alright, is there any reason why? You don't have to answer my question if you don't want to. (121.220.124.78 (talk) 08:34, 10 December 2015 (UTC))

KlowdTV Deletion

Hello! I am looking into your deletion of the KlowdTV wikipedia article. Apparently the article was deleted citing G5: Creation by a blocked or banned user in violation of block or ban. I don't have a huge understanding of how this process works so any insight would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if this makes a difference, but I am not the author of the page. Thank you for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:240:CC04:1700:587B:79FF:E552:F22D (talk) 17:25, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

The page was deleted because it was created by these guys. They are banned, and their "contributions" are not welcome here. Please contact info-orangemoodywikipedia.org if you have any further concerns. You'll need to specify the correct page name, which is Draft:KlowdTV. MER-C 19:13, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Category discussions

Good morning, there are quite a few old CfD discussions not closed yet, see this list. Would you be willing to close a couple of October and early November? Marcocapelle (talk) 21:35, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I'll take a look. MER-C 20:47, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Category renaming

MER-C (talk · contribs), please reply to this, I don't mean to be rude but I noticed you were asked above, to close some discussion which included "November 28, 2015" which included "Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2015 November 28#Category:Academic pressure in East Asian cultures". I initially asked you to close it but you declined to, however I noticed you closed a few other discussions opened by other users. I know I'm an IP user and I'm telling you the truth I am the original user who opened that discussion, I am confused to why you do not want to close that discussion as it is also renaming the category just like the discussion below, "Iranian peoples in the Caucasus". I know I asked you before and told you that you do not need to answer my question, "Is there any reason why?" but I can't help but feel offended that I have been ignored, why is this, is it becuase I am an IP user? I'm not asking you do this, I'm just asking to find out why you didn't want to do it. (121.220.55.167 (talk) 00:16, 17 December 2015 (UTC))

You are not being ignored because you are an IP, but the more you jump around asking for attention the more likely you are going to be ignored. I also declined to close a whole bunch of debates from registered users. It looks like a no-consensus result, which is usually left until it reaches the end of the backlog. Also, it's difficult to tell how many IP users are participating. Finally, both of us are not under any obligation to do anything. MER-C 09:46, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

Okay, could you tell me what the backlog is, does it refer to the duration of time the discussion is open? (124.180.144.168 (talk) 00:00, 21 December 2015 (UTC))

See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Awaiting closure. Backlog = discussions older than 7 days that are not closed. MER-C 06:28, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

File:Xmas Ornament.jpg

To You and Yours!
FWiW Bzuk (talk) 18:23, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

Merry Christmas to you too. MER-C 07:26, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Reposting deleted material

MER-C: I have deleted Average Stadium attendances of Football Leagues in Asia and Average Stadium attendances of Football clubs because they were a repost of material deleted as a result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stadium attendances of Asian Football Leagues and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Average attendances of association football clubs respectively. You shouldn't be recreating these pages, as they fall outside the purpose of Wikipedia. MER-C 11:56, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

REPLY: WHY DID YOU DELETE THE PAGE "Average Stadium attendances of Football Leagues in Asia".
THERE IS AN ANOTHER PAGE IN WIKIPEDIA ABOUT EUROPE WITH SAME SUBJECT.
"Average attendances of European football clubs"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_attendances_of_European_football_clubs — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arun4biju (talk • contribs)

Read this, particularly headings one and three, then try again. MER-C 14:17, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

The logical conclusion is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Average attendances of European football clubs, by the way. MER-C 05:46, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

User:Uzthegeek/sandbox

Hi, I was unaware that I was not able to add external links to my document. How can I have a page recently deleted restored so I can remove the links and continue using the page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uzthegeek (talk • contribs) 13:25, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

I would like to do an un-deletion of my page so I can remove the links. I was unaware that the links would were not allowed.

Uzthegeek (talk) 14:18, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

No. MER-C 04:13, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

Infobox German location

Just before I went on vacation last week, I closed this CfD discussion while not realizing that I couldn't implement the closure because it requires editing of Template:Infobox German location which I don't have access to. Could you help out here? Marcocapelle (talk) 09:47, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

This goes beyond my limited understanding of parser functions. The relevant wikitext is {{ns0|{{#if:{{{year|}}}|{{#ifexist:Category:Populated places established in the {{{year}}}|{{{category|[[Category:Populated places established in the {{{year}}}]]}}} | {{{category|[[Category:Populated places established in {{{year}}}]]}}}}}}}}}}} -- what should I change this to? MER-C 12:53, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Just delete. It says if a year has been filled in in the infobox, automatically categorize it by that particular year. Marcocapelle (talk) 16:50, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I figured that, but wasn't sure what to replace it with. Done. MER-C 03:10, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Blocking Advertising Users

I have noticed that you are very efficient at blocking advertising users. I would suggest that you block EduToys indefinitely, for being an account that is meant to promote and advertise Loowi. Please see my talk page, second to last section titled Why Lego OK while Loowi not OK?. -- I hope I am not a nuisance,WannaBeEditor (talk) 10:59, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Now that (s)he's asking questions, let's see if the message gets through. MER-C 13:03, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

ASEAN–India relations

Hi, you have deleted ASEAN–India relations because it was created by blocked user. Still, this is very major and important topic. This topic is also very useful for students of International Relations studies. Can you restore that article in good faith? If that article has any copyright violations then I will fix that issue. I have worked on several DYKs and I know how to fix issues of copyright violations and close paraphrasing. Or at least can I recreate that article? Thanks. --Human3015^TALK  18:22, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

• Anyway, I will recreate it, it is an important topic. Also it is a good candidate for DYK. Thanks. --Human3015^TALK  21:26, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

• No, copyvios cannot be restored in any circumstance. In addition to G5, the article was also listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems for over seven days and deleted per Wikipedia:Copyright violations#Addressing contributors. You should start from scratch. MER-C 03:59, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

Posting External Links

Hello,

Thanks for your recent messages regarding my posting external links on two wikis: Credit Score and Credit Monitoring. I have added a couple of points in both wikis and wished to merely cite the source, which happens to be My Credit Monitor, from where I got these points. I understand the NOFOLLOW policy that Wikipedia has and read this prior to citing the source. I would appreciate it if you could let my citations appear on the page for referencing purposes.

Thank you.

Sudakshina Bhattacharjee

SudakshinaKina (talk) 13:30, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Bullshit. Blocked for violating the Terms of Service. MER-C 04:28, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Giubbotto non ortodosso

Can you block Special:Contributions/Giubbotto non ortodosso infinitely, since Special:Contributions/82.51.122.43 who did the same pattern (who has been blocked in 31 hours). 115.164.85.17 (talk) 13:37, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with this case, please ask someone else. MER-C 05:18, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Logging of unsuccessful additions for blacklisted links

Hello MER-C, as you may have noticed I am trying to help out on anti-spam activities and reporting. When someone tries to add a blacklisted link (both local or global), this edit is rejected afaik - but are those events logged somewhere? And are those logs for unsuccessful blocked edits (both local or global) visible for non-admins? If you don't want to answer that question in public, my user account has an activated mail access. I'd appreciate any information, you can share with a non-admin. Best regards, and thank you for your continuous efforts in that area. GermanJoe (talk) 17:19, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes they are -- at Special:Log/spamblacklist, but it's admins only. I'll paste an example entry:

02:06, 19 January 2016 2601:246:801:91fd:d14b:a990:2591:659c (talk | block) caused a spam blacklist hit on Ida Crown Jewish Academy by attempting to add http://tinyurl.com/htf6yuj.

It's not very informative and not searchable by URL. There is no distinction between local and global spam blacklist hits. MER-C 02:51, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Without search function it's really of limited use (better than nothing of course). But thanks for the information. GermanJoe (talk) 04:00, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

How to edit a article for a famous person?

I edited Xue Mo page and has been deleted, cus a blog have same article, how should I do? the blog is also built by me. so I have the copyright. Xue Mo is a famous Chinese author and has published article on the Guardian and is cooperating with famous translator as Howard Goldblatt， Mo Yan's translator. such as Nicky Harman

Xue Mo

Xue Mo, born in Gansu, is a member of China Writers Association, vice president of Gansu Writers Association and a national top-level author. “Study on Xue Mo’s Novel” is the research subject of several top universities such as Peking University. He has just won “2015 Chinese brand culture, one of the ten characters”

he is also an expert in researching and practicing Mahamudra, inheritor of Shangpa Kagyu So He is actually a important person in culture exchange.

Who can tell me how can I create a article properly

Thank you so much — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rex.w.d (talk • contribs) 08:33, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a substitute for that website. That biography is not suitable for Wikipedia because its purpose is to portray Xue Mo in the best possible light.

Have you been employed by Xue Mo to create this article? MER-C 11:24, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Draft:JTa Comics closure

In accordance with the pre-work requirements of raising a DRV, I request that you revert the deletion/closure of the above mentioned MFD. As raised at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Articles_for_creation#We_have_a_bit_of_a_mess_that_needs_attention, Ricky81682 has been moving Userspace drafts to Draft namespace on both departed editors and active editors against userspace policy. I request that you look again with the understanding that the Notability requirements for Draft space are significantly lower than mainspace. Perhaps the answer was to merge the raft of nominations into a single draft that had a better chance of being promoted to mainspace. But because Ricky decided to be deceptive and only talk about "stale" he failed to consider the Alternatives to Deletion that are suggested. Hasteur (talk) 13:07, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

No. All of these drafts were created in draft space by Jaylen2020 and deleted unanimously for misuse of Wikipedia as a free web host with obviously sufficient participation. Oh, and it's already there. MER-C 13:20, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thank you very much, to delete a user Russellandcoe, because he was a distributor of advertising, I hope it will continue and we will act. I'm Lukas! --Talk 11:06, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Softqube Technologies

• Softqube Technologies (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
• Softqube Technologies(Ahmedabad) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
• Nishalsoftqube (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Greetings! I see you'd deleted the last version of the Softqube article as created by a sockpuppet and salted it. A new version was created today. It looks different enough that it doesn't scream sockpuppet to me, but I'm new to the case. Would you care to take a look and see if this article creation is okay or a return to prior problems? Thank you. —C.Fred (talk) 16:49, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

This is a SEO shop that has a history of abusing Wikipedia for promotional purposes (compare some of the usernames to the deleted content) and they're smarter than recycling their previous content. This is obviously yet another sock/meatpuppet by the username despite the different content (in fact all of the deleted reposts have different content). MER-C 03:17, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

New edit filter

MER-C - would it be worth to craft a new edit filter (first just record only, later tag only) where new editor's/IP's whole contribution is the addition of '<ref>....</ref>'. This seems to be the pattern of your blacklisting spree, and I do think that it may be a pattern worth considering to be 'spam' (we could even exclude cases where the addition does not contain typical newspapers/sources). --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 05:13, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

• Special:AbuseFilter/752 .. a first attempt. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 05:51, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

There's going to be a lot of noise. I would look for bot added title and accessdates that aren't today ± 1 day, but that's too much for the edit filter. MER-C 06:26, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Until now, the noise is zero (0 hits since inception). It did however work on two of the edits you rolled back recently, so it should at some point give hits. We'll see what the signal-to-noise ratio is, let's run until we see some hits. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 06:41, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Merry, merry!

From the icy Canajian north; to you and yours! FWiW Bzuk (talk) 13:55, 26 December 2016 (UTC)