User talk:MER-C/archives/56

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Endromis

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:EL foto, Eimar Kull - PILT6519 kasekirilased.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 11:13, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

One of many...

in a long string of UPE. TAXIDICAE💰 13:57, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Looks like they're related to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/UA85 possibly. TAXIDICAE💰 14:17, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Blocked, spam deleted. MER-C 17:57, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Also have a look at User:Butthunter spamming sane external links as knowndolly at carpenter ants Whpq (talk) 18:16, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

I filed an SPI already, this is likely all related to UA85. TAXIDICAE💰 18:25, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Only here for self promotion

This user @Dillanm Music is only here to promote themselves and their music career. Take a look at their talk page Celestina007 (talk) 19:36, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Already blocked. MER-C 17:57, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Bell Island (Franz Josef Land)

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Остров Белл и Убежище Эйры.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:53, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Allow Creation of 6 River Systems Page

Hello, it looks like 3 years ago 6 River Systems was deleted and locked due to being created by a sockpuppet. What would the process be to allow it to be created again? Thanks.

Briefaccuracy (talk) 15:46, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

What do you find interesting about this company and why do you think it merits a Wikipedia article? MER-C 17:54, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

Paid editor changing statement

Can you please take a look at this user Randfiskin who earlier disclose they were paid to create Draft:NVT Phybridge and working with wikieditorsforhire.com a company involved in paid Wikipedia editing for years and they claimed to have created over a thousand of pages, and after they were asked to stop editing on behalf of this company they are now changing their statement to get rid of it (please see their talk page). Definitely not assuming good faith and only here for promotional purposes. GSS ^💬 11:36, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

Also, as per off-wiki evidence, the company is owned by Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Rudra.shukla sockfarm. I'll send you the details shortly. GSS ^💬 11:49, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

Blocked. MER-C 14:19, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

Arjak Sangh

Randfiskin nominated my new article on A7 and G11 criteria for speedy delition. I am fully aware of policies and its my 27th article. Thanks for your recent steps. I think some of the users are only here to spoil work of others.Heba Aisha (talk) 15:42, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

UPE editor

UPE edit to Mia Kang and sandbox spam by Stangpa (talk · contribs) per off-wiki evidence, please email GSS for evidence. Navashahas5 (talk) 22:32, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

Blocked. MER-C 17:57, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Daphne mezereum

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Daphne mezereum flowers - Keila.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:27, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Rega (air rescue)

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:CH.SZ.Stoos Fronalpstock Sequence Rescue-Helicopter REGA 16K 16x9-R.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:32, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

YGM

Hello, MER-C/archives. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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YODADICAE👽 17:35, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Re: Question about why a particular page has been deleted or removed and what can be done as remedy

Re: Question about why the page "Mike Powell (Louisiana politician) has been deleted or is down off the site, and what can be done to fix or remedy?

Dear MER-C: Can you explain why the page called "Mike Powell (Louisiana politician)" has been deleted or no longer exists, and how it can be undeleted, fixed and/or restored? Thanks, Mpowell1234 (talk) 01:42, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

The page was created by an editor banned for massive and serial copyright violations. Major edits by said editors can be removed indiscriminately. Anyone can create a new article as long as it is in line with normal editorial policies.

If you are Mr. Powell, you should not be writing the article. See Wikipedia:Autobiography. MER-C 18:15, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Don't know that editor, but thanks for your explanation... Mpowell1234 (talk) 20:50, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Deletion review for Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

An editor has asked for a deletion review of Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland). Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 06:40, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

upe socking

User Stangpa has returned with years old account to complete the task at Mia Kang. Please see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Kiiyha. GSS ^💬 17:10, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

and they repeated the same edits please see [1]. GSS ^💬 02:14, 9 May 2021 (UTC)

Blocked. MER-C 09:52, 9 May 2021 (UTC)

Blocking of Lmmnhn

Hi
On 7 Sept 2020, you indefinitely blocked User:Lmmnhn [here], for copyright violation.

Over the years, Lmmnhn (who I don't know) has almost singlehandedly maintained the electoral (and much of the political) landscape of Hong Kong on Wikipedia. From the dust now gathering on all those pages, it's clear that the block is not being circumvented through another account, and Wikipedia appears to have lost a major and vital contributor.

I understand that copyright violation is not acceptable, and I don't know details of the offence, but it is hard to imagine that the loss of this tireless contributor (yeah, I gave him a barnstar for that) is the best outcome for all concerned.

Are there any ways back from this, supposing that he/she still has energy to put into the project? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Onanoff (talk • contribs)

They need to convince an uninvolved administrator through the unblock process that they understand and won't violate the copyright policy again. See User:Yunshui/decline copyvio for the questions that need to be answered. MER-C 18:11, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Need Assistance

I work in the IT department at Oak Hall School. We have had considerable problems with users vandalizing our page [and others] and as a result, our IP has been blocked. We have met with no success upon appeal. We have set our firewall to prevent anyone at the IP from editing pages except for the webmaster. We want to have the IP unblocked so the webmaster may monitor the site for accuracy of content and prevention of unauthorized editing as well as detection of users attempting to edit sites. Once we can determine who is attempting to vandalize pages, we will then block these users. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lcozart (talk • contribs)

Please email info-enwikimedia.org with your staff email address because we need to verify your identity. MER-C 16:27, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

Confirmed - ticket:2021051210008671. Cabayi (talk) 15:52, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Editors who are logged in to edit can still edit from that IP address as far as we are concerned. This is a sufficient hump to prevent casual vandalism, and, if the vandals are sufficiently motivated to register for Wikipedia, is also an opportunity for you to put in the appropriate monitoring and demonstrate to us that your process works (privately, via the above email address). Bear in mind that you do not own that Wikipedia article. MER-C 16:53, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Silver-washed fritillary

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Argynnis paphia Mitterbach 01.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 13:38, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

can you take a look

at this? It was previously a LogAntiLog target and I find it strange a relatively inactive less than 1000 edit user found this appropriate to move to mainspace. YODADICAE👽 14:46, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Also this is back now at another draft. YODADICAE👽 15:29, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

1: Rainee11!! is the one who moved this to mainspace. Blocked and quarantined. PEIsquirrel is a legitimate alternative account of Ivanvector.

2: Both accounts blocked. MER-C 18:25, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

It's a courtesy to ping editors when you're talking about them. I have 40,000-ish edits, actually, and the connection between my accounts is clearly labelled on both accounts' userpages. It was Rainee11!! who moved it from their sandbox to mainspace, and then moved it from the original location to an unnecessarily-disambiguated name (you should delete Julia Govor (music producer), it qualifies for WP:G8 and/or maybe WP:R3 but I won't bother tagging it). I saw the second move come up in recent changes and had a look, and I did notice the suspicious "new" creator and obvious end-run around WP:ACPERM, and I was going to move it to draft just as you did but the subject does appear at a glance to meet GNG, so instead I just moved it back to the undisambiguated title and cleaned it up a bit. I may work on the draft later, but I would have appreciated a notice. Ivanvector's squirrel (^trees/_nuts) 19:27, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Never mind that redirect, Smartse already got it. Ivanvector's squirrel (^trees/_nuts) 19:39, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Temporary undelete request

02:26, 11 April 2021 MER-C talk contribs deleted page Carolyn Pollan (Listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems for over seven days: Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2021 April 3) Tag: Twinkle (thank)

I looked at the cached version; it is a well-elaborated properly formatted article and for me it is hard to believe it was all cut-and-paste job. Indeed I tried to search three characteristic pieces of text (e.g., "She is a member of the Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith") and found no hits beyond wikipedia rip-offs. Also, I failed to find in Wikipedia any indications where it was copied from.

Can you please restore it in my user space so that I can look into its history whether there was anything salvageable. At the very least I can copy the categories and templates from it, Lembit Staan (talk) 07:32, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

No, because copyright violations cannot be restored. This article was created by a multiply-banned serial copyright violator and was removed in accordance with policy. MER-C 18:27, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

I see. Well, it looks like nobody cares about this bio. I noticed this page only because I am actively working with {{surname}} pages, and I saw her entry in Pollan page to go red and I minimally recreated her bio only because she was a "Woman in Red" with multiple incoming links. Thx for your update of the page. 18:59, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Alinss4 sockfarm

Regarding the Alinss4 sockfarm. There is off-wiki evidence that the same group did IDroid USA. - Bri.public (talk) 17:22, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

Jerry Huckaby

One of the articles deleted in the copyright clean up was Jerry Huckaby. Since he was a U.S. Representative, he seems to meet the notability criteria, so could an article about him without copyright violations be made?2601:241:300:B610:C01:E879:797A:AAE8 (talk) 22:15, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Any article on this subject which abides by normal editorial policies, including the copyright policy, will be judged on its merits. MER-C 17:40, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Northern flicker

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Flicker hole in CP (31848).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:54, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Lemon (2021)

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Lemon - whole and split.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:59, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

Mail Notice

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Celestina007 (talk) 13:24, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

wiki Herman Parret

Dear all, I have a question regarding Herman Parret's English wiki. I have drafted the Dutch one and someone else must have done the same for English and French. I see no financial interests in this and all the sources quoted are objective links from institutions and publishers. Herman Parret is a senior professor and well known in Belgium and France so why would someone delete the English wiki? This seems slightly problematic ... thanks, Vlad I. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vlad Ionescu1978 (talk • contribs) 08:06, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

The creator was a confirmed abusive sockpuppet: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Marek.kapicak/Archive evading a block at the time the article was submitted. MER-C 17:02, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

Iymen Chehade:

Hi! I have recently started working to update the Iymen Chehade page that was tagged "tag as spam:Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Marek.kapicak". I do believe that all POV, COI, and BLP standards have been updated, to the extent of my knowledge. What can I do to get this tag removed? Is there further information/support that should be provided? Thank you! TsunamiPrincess (talk) 18:53, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

I can partially downgrade the tag, but what's really needed here is review by someone who doesn't have a conflict of interest. I do not participate in such reviews, maybe ask at WP:COIN?MER-C 17:04, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Black-faced Woodswallow

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Black-faced Woodswallow 1 - Sturt National Park.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 21:47, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

Exploreandwrite's unfinished business

Look what's back. YODADICAE👽 13:31, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

They were blocked as part of today's suspicious article haul. MER-C 18:57, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Redcurrant

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Redcurrant (Ribes rubrum) fruits.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 18:41, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Cathodoluminescence

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Diamond (side view).png, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 18:44, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Paid Editor: Braindot4

Another Paid editor advertising his services: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~017f37ce3f82dc74c4

Examples shared on his profile: Sahiyo, Riddhi Sen. Last page created is ClearTax, another paid page that has been rejected multiple times. 213.230.100.199 (talk) 07:03, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Nat Simons tag and disclosure

Hi MER-C, I'm John and I'm a consultant for Nat Simons, reaching out to you about the tag you added on the Wikipedia page for Mr. Simons. I can see from this page that you're very busy and I respect your time, so I wanted to briefly make sure that you had seen the note that I left on the Nat Simons Talk page. I also wanted to reiterate the apology from Mr. Simons and disclosure of undisclosed activity by someone else who previously worked on his behalf. Based on the disclosure, does this resolve the tag and can it be removed? I am more than happy to help resolve any other issues. Thank you and Respectfully, EnvoyJT (talk) 10:13, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) Hi EnvoyJT. The page was written by a UPE spam farm; the tag can only be removed once the article has been thoroughly reviewed. Deltagammaz (talk · contribs) and Ezpeazylemon (talk · contribs) are unrelated to the tag – that's a different sockmaster. Could I also ask you to disclose the name of your consulting firm? The Terms of Use require that both the employer (in your case, probably the consulting firm) and the client be disclosed, see Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure#Meaning of "employer, client, and affiliation". Thanks. --Blablubbs|talk 11:39, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for the reply, User:Blablubbs and appreciate your engagement. I have no problem disclosing the name of the consulting firm -- Envoy Strategy Group. I own the firm and I am the sole proprietor. We would welcome the thorough review you mentioned and don't know if there is anything I can do to help facilitate but would be happy to do so. I both recognize and have acknowledged my connection to Mr. Simons and thus my inherent bias, but if I try and put on my journalist hat, the article and the sources seem pretty straight forward and accurate to me without much controversy. Nothing seems promotional, but I realize others can and may see it differently and I'm ok with that and ready to assist in any way that would be helpful. Thank you again for your time to look at this, we are trying to do this the right way and I do sincerely appreciate your help. Respectfully, EnvoyJT (talk) 15:50, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Buff-banded rail

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Buff-banded Rail 1 - Newington.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 19:39, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

ANI NOTICE

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Celestina007 (talk) 23:15, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam/Suspicious articles

Hello, MER-C,

I just came across one of these suspicious articles lists and it looks like you are responsible for putting them together. I was wondering what criteria you used to find articles or are all of these ones you came across during your admin tasks? It seems like you are the admin most familiar with covert paid editing which I don't seem to be very skilled at identifying it except when I see an article on a clearly non-notable individual or company with a lot of PR or self-published references. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:03, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

Emailed. MER-C 11:12, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

Issues with IHC article

Hi MER-C. I am hoping to get your advice regarding user TrueBio100 please. Their edit history suggests to me a COI regarding International Holding Company and they keep re-creating this article in mainspace after it was declined at AfC. Could you please suggest what to do in this situation? Regards, MrsSnoozyTurtle 12:25, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

If the G11 nomination fails, then it should be sent to AFD. MER-C 16:50, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

• Thanks for the advice, will do. (I didn't realise that someone else had tagged it for G11 around the same time as I posted the message above) MrsSnoozyTurtle 22:11, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/WikiProject Tropical cyclones

Hi MER-C, thanks for making the survey for Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/WikiProject Tropical cyclones! I wondered if there was a way to remove redirects and disambiguation pages from the survey; maybe there is a script for this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(P.S., I really like your Monopoly) — Berrely • ^Talk∕_Contribs 18:57, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

It's possible but I have too many things going on right now. MER-C 19:08, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

There's no hurry. Hope you're fine in real life. — Berrely • ^Talk∕_Contribs 19:09, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Anti-harassment Tool Proposal

Hi MER-C,

I'm a researcher for Wikimedia studying anti-harassment tools. My current focus is on improving Wikimail.

You've made several proposals on this topic over the past few years. At least one of your ideas seems to have been implemented (e-mail blacklist) but others are still outstanding (2-way email relay).

Would you be open to a 30 minute conversation about this topic? It could be by phone or video. I'd like to talk about the problems you've recognized with harassment on Wikipedia and the quality of the solutions. I'm hoping your feedback can help to guide future anti-harassment initiatives.

If you'd like to chat, just mark a time on this calendar link and I'll be in touch:
https://wikimail.youcanbook.me/

Hope to hear from you soon!

// jeff (design researcher) (talk) 22:49, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

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Celestina007 (talk) 23:16, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Brown-headed cowbird

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Brown headed cowbird female in JBWR (25487).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 20:02, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Flame robin

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Flame Robin male 1 - Jenolan Caves.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 20:05, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

Definitely NOTHERE sleeper account and possible UPE.

The user @James melbin has been a sleeper account for 4 years and made their very first edit today, see this, it was to submit an article which has been edited severally by the Nigerian UPE ring in bid to move the draft article to mainspace. I believe the sleeper account isn’t here to build an encyclopedia. Celestina007 (talk) 00:22, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Funny thing I have the subject of the article here trying to write an autobiography. Celestina007 (talk) 00:29, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

You've done the right thing and reported it to SPI. Let's see how that plays out. MER-C 08:53, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Hey

You blocked User:Cabotaloft and User:Bledsaw. I came across these accounts after following a thread and some CU links from Evelyn Mora and User:Blackie2020. I may have bitten off more than I can chew--there's a ton of accounts, all making similar promotional edits. Do you have any idea who these cats are, and whether there's an SPI? Ha, I'm serious: it's a lot of em, across numerous ranges, some of which already blocked. Drmies (talk) 01:52, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

• Aha! Great minds think alike. Drmies (talk) 01:58, 15 June 2021 (UTC)
• OK, the oldest account I found is User:RBTWI19-620827, which I'm about to block. I guess I should start an SPI as well. It's a lot of accounts. Drmies (talk) 02:12, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Nine years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:34, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

DEAR MER-C from REBECCA PETTY

Why did you delete my WIKI page?

There is no reason. You say copyright issues. If that is the case, then what is it? I didn't use copyrighted material. If, so why didn't you delete that instead of the entire page?????????

Rebecca Petty — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.206.3.145 (talk) 14:15, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Rebecca Petty: Going to Post Here Everyday Until I get some answers.

Reinstate my page. Your deleting is out of control. You just randomly delete anything you want. This is wrong!!!! BS on the copyright claim.

MER-C Deleting Conservative Legislators

I see now. I'm not the only conservative legislator you have deleted. Talk to you tomorrow.

@72.206.3.145: we do not tolerate harassment here. I'm looking into your question about the page's deletion, but if you post a message here again threatening to harass an editor to get your way, you will be blocked from editing. Please see our harassment policy and our no legal threats policy.

@MER-C: the copyvio detector doesn't work on deleted pages, but I had as much of a look as I can on the last revision before Rebecca Petty was deleted and couldn't identify any copyvio there, other than Wikipedia mirrors. It looks to me like the page was flagged because its creator was banned for massive copyvios, but it doesn't look to me like this specific page was ever actually investigated. Do you know any more about it? Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 14:54, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Being created by a serial copyright violator is sufficient grounds to delete the article, and the policy explicitly says investigation is not required. MER-C 17:25, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Sensible, we don't need to waste our time on serial violators, and evidently this is also largely an autobiography. But since the subject is clearly notable, I'm going to restore the article to draftspace and properly review. Have a look at Draft:Rebecca Petty if you like. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 12:06, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Patrolling Query

I am happy to improve my mistakes and learn if you can guide me. I am trying to do my best and review only good pages as per my history. Can you share the reason to remove my rights? Sonofstar (talk) 08:41, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Sonofstar, there is no reason why you cannot re-create the article through articles for creation in the draft namespace (i.e. Draft:Rebecca Petty). There you can have independent evaluation of the content. Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 08:48, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

User:Beetstra, What is my relation with Draft:Rebecca Petty?? I generally publish the page directly as I understand the guidelines. Please check this Sonofstar (talk) 08:54, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

@Sonofstar: meh, nothing, I somehow missed completely the section header. My apologies. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 08:57, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

I have looked through your edits and have found sufficient grounds to suspect that you should not have been granted them in the first place. MER-C 12:34, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Can you give me 2 example please. There might be some missunderstanding. Sonofstar (talk) 13:11, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

No, there isn't a misunderstanding. I shared the reason why I removed the permissions with the granting admin and they agreed with me. MER-C 17:30, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

I am not sure what you shared about me with user:Rosguill I can't find. while checking the edits properly, I got this User Right Log. Well, Imo can't be the reason for revoking my rights! This was supposed to be my first page, and I choose this because it is created by google employee and is in the list of the most downloaded apps in Wikipedia. Of course, I published this page and got it back in the draft with tags. Yup, first page I was not supposed to know the guidelines. Well, before few years Imo was popular in India also for video calling, now nobody uses it, so I thought to create it.

At that time I asked for the help on teahouse for the page and I got the answer that imo (software) page is already live and you should collab as my draft was much bigger. I contacted user:Audacity who created imo (software) to merge his page to mine, as I want to publish my first page but my request was childish so not accepted I guess. Then, I tried to merge my page into his, and later I suggested the best name imo.im to him, which was admin blocked in 2012. Please show some Mercy (MER-C) and don't be that hard on me, it's my request, or I appreciate it if you can share the reason properly. Sonofstar (talk) 23:31, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

MER-C drew my attention in an email to a pattern of edits that suggest that you may be editing for pay. The evidence was sufficiently compelling that I agreed that removing advanced permissons was appropriate. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 05:35, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

@Rosguill: The way I shared the reason for imo, I can share the reason for others also. There might be a misunderstanding but please share the page name. Sonofstar (talk) 05:45, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Sorry, we generally don't share details regarding suspected UPE cases because of the possibility that the information could be used to game the system. The best way for you to address our concerns and potentially receive advance permissions is to continue editing Wikipedia constructively for an extended period of time. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 17:09, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks User:Rosguill, I have no issue. There is a lot that I can contribute without advanced rights as of now. Thanks for the proper reply. Sonofstar (talk) 17:52, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

• Dear all, this user Sonofstar is a paid editor. His accounts were blocked in the past including Lalit20. I have sent the details to Wikimedia email id please check. They still have multiple accounts and can operate in different countries. User:Praxidicae please also check. Thanks42.106.216.95 (talk) 06:04, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

The email is at ticket:2021062110002372. Cabayi (talk) 06:18, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Copyvio question on file

Hi MER-C, I have a copyright related question about an file which I'm not comfortable assessing on my own. An article I'm reviewing for AfC had File:AnnieQ BuildSeries.jpg in its infobox. Now, the uploader clearly just took a screenshot and uploaded it locally. This seems to me to be a copyright violation. If this is the case, what CSD criterion is the correct one to use? Thank you and best, Modussiccandi (talk) 10:47, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Deleted under CSD F9 (blatant copyright infringement). MER-C 16:36, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Hi! Apowersoft stuff

Hello MER-C, Bbb23 told me you're busy with UPE, blacklist and stuff. I'm a sysop from fr-wp and really not fond of promotion, self-promotion, COI editing and UPE. I guess we can get along quite well!

Recently the account User:Juvenile85 created on en-wp several articles all related to Apowersoft products.

On fr-wp there was a bunch of users whose only interest was to write about Apowersoft or WANGXU TECHNOLOGY (HK) CO., LIMITED products: ApowerMirror, GitMind, LetsView, BeeCut, Apowersoft Bg Remover, etc. When a page was protected (because of notability guidelines) they used another typo to publish their stuff. When "BeeCut" was protected, they created "Beecut"; when "GitMind" was deleted, they created "Gitmind". When a link to their product was removed on fr:Carte mentale, another account came and included GitMind, and then another one, and so on.

As a result, last week the sysop on fr-wp decided to ban all the single-purpose accounts, blacklist the links to apowersoft products, and create a filter to block the names "apowersoft", "GitMind", "Beecut" etc. fr:Wikipédia:Bulletin des administrateurs/2021/Semaine 24#Apowersoft et ses fans CAOU. Accounts involed were:

• Manu Andria = ApowerMirror - BeeCut - Beecut
• NjaraParf = ApowerMirror - Gitmind
• Marinah25 = ApowerMirror - GitMind - Gitmind - LetsView
• Sallywu11 = GitMind - Apowersoft Effaceur de fond
• Arhenna = GitMind - Apowersoft Bg Remover - LetsView
• Louvatiana = BeeCut
• Antoine Russo = BeeCut
• Matthieu Bailleul Beecut
• MSophieX = ApowerMirror
• Johnnaharisson = GitMind
• Marine Leclerie = LetsView
• Cecile0913 = Apowersoft Effaceur de fond
• Amishaaaao = Gitmind (this one is not as blatant as the others, not blocked)

Besides, SPI found that NjaraParf = Marinah25 - SPI

Thought you might be interested in the information. Feel free to share with anyone. Best regards, - Bédévore ^{[knock knock]} 16:09, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

I blocked the remaining accounts that have edited here. I can't salt the articles until they are deleted; they don't seem to have been as persistent here as on fr.wp. MER-C 16:39, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Fine thanks! Besides... they're still busy, aren't they? m:Special:CentralAuth/Stevenjamessj. Found this dude with WD. Best regards, - Bédévore ^{[knock knock]} 16:42, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Please apply to have these accounts globally locked (at m:SRG). See Special:Permanentlink/1029723242. MER-C 16:49, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Done - first time I requested a mass block! https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steward_requests%2FGlobal&action=historysubmit&type=revision&diff=21624050&oldid=21624006 Regards, - Bédévore ^{[knock knock]} 17:10, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

@Bédévore: I redid your request per the instructions. You might check to make sure I didn't leave any of the accounts out when I was copying/pasting.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:39, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/File:Staring Down Hurricane Florence.jpg

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Staring Down Hurricane Florence.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 16:25, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Lychee fruit

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Lychee fruits and seed.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 18:45, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Yeo Kiat Seng

I see that you added the UPE template with this edit. I am not aware that the community has formulated guidelines on what is necessary to remove such a template. My supposition is that it was added when you realized the creation was carried out by an editor with substantial sock puppet issues. I think that's technically correct but potentially misleading. I don't recall whether you are a VTRS agent. If you are, you can read the relevant ticket: ticket:2021061110002033 It's fairly long and I can provide a summary if you are an agent. If not, I will request permission to share the relevant contents with you. My assessment is that there is a COI issue but not an undisclosed payments issue. I am inclined to remove the tag but will not do so without hearing from you.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:07, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

I recall a similar query at some point. There is reasonable grounds to suspect UPE based on the abusive sockpuppetry, but if it is just COI then you could downgrade the tag to COI but shouldn't remove it altoghether. MER-C 16:52, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

MER-C, I switched to COI. S Philbrick(Talk) 14:40, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Bala shark (2)

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Balantiocheilos melanopterus - Karlsruhe Zoo 02.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 16:23, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

WP:SALT protection of Kaseya

Hey there, I noticed you've protected Kaseya from being recreated after it's been spammed and AfD'd (justifiably so at the time, I'd say). There's an ongoing ransomware attack that centres on this company's software (similar in nature to the Solarwinds breach, in case you're familiar with it). Might this be cause to unprotect and allow this article to be created, or do I need to start a deletion review? I'd imagine by now a lot of people are looking for info about Kaseya and aren't finding much of it on Wikipedia. EditorInTheRye (talk) 09:37, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

I'd like to see how the spammers try to spin this one. Be careful what you wish for. MER-C 09:41, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

I think with the collective scrutiny of the infosec community, they're unlikely to get away with it this time, but I'll trust your judgement. Keep it under consideration? :-) EditorInTheRye (talk) 09:43, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

I unsalted it - the second sentence referred to the company's spammers, not you. MER-C 09:44, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

ah, I see, I shall try to pen a suitably non-spammy and neutral article later on unelss somebody beats me to it - thanks! :-) EditorInTheRye (talk) 09:46, 4 July 2021 (UTC)