WikiEN-l February 2003

wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org

57 participants
159 discussions

bizarre vandalism
by daniwo59＠aol.com 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Someone has been replacing articles with bizarre texts. <A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&target=13…">138.245.220.134</A> replaced [[Wikipedia:Always fill summary field]] with information on the Christian view of long hair, while <A HREF="http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&target=13…">130.104.227.101</A> replaced [[Wikipedia:About]] with an essay on truth. Keep an eye out for similar changes. Danny

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The MIT vandal is back
by Anthere 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: [WikiEN-l] The MIT vandal is back
by sannse＠delphiforums.com 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Jonathan Wrote: >>The information is not misogynistic, it is true. Labelling this >>person a vandal does a disservice to the Wikipedia. The content is irrelevant here. If this is our MIT vandal, then he caused hours of work for mav and others with numerous random text deletions and malicious changes under numerous user names. Since then he has returned to make other deletions and changes, and promised to keep vandalising articles until Wikipedia is completely unusable. *That's* the vandalism in question, not the "annoying edits" on the woman page (and others). If the information he is added is relevant, a neutral party can add it back at a later date. (I'm leaving out my own views on the information he is adding because, as I said, that's not relevant to the question of whether he should be allowed to edit here). sannse

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empty album pages, years in MTV and KROQ, Baha Men...
by Tucci 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

I just banned an anonymous user who had created many of the track-listing only album pages, future-releases on 2003 in music, plus list of years in KROQ, a fact-free article on the Baha Men and, most recently, list of years in MTV and related pages. See User talk:64.175.250.205 for the sordid details of the MTV stuff, which was what made me finally do it. I hesitated because he has entered true and relevant information, it just takes me three times as long to fix it than it took him to write it. Plus, the Baha Men thing scared me, because I would never have bothered to check the facts if somebody hadn't pointed out that the article said they formed in 1987 and 1988 -- a quick trip to allmusic shows they released their debut in 1979, and that many of the other facts were simply wrong as well. Maybe the ban should be lifted in a day or two, as he has at least discovered talk pages. Anyway, I just wanted to make a note here on the mailing list since I'm normally opposed to banning users who have made valuable edits in the past. Tokerboy __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com

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FYI - sysops
by Brion Vibber 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

I accidentally nuked the sysop list on the English Wikipedia thanks to an SQL typo; I think I've got everyone put back, but I may have missed one or two. So if you're a sysop and suddenly notice that you're, well, not anymore, it's nothing personal -- just give a shout and you'll be restored. -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

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trying hard to do a list right
by Tom Parmenter 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Tokerboy and I are having a conversation about a list of songwriters. He started with [[List of songwriters/temp]]. I made some comments on the talk page and then started [[List of songwriters/temp2]] with further talk page discussion. I followed the idea we had discussed here of using other people's lists as the basis of a Wikipedia list. I'm not really wild about either the first idea, list the top 12 in each genre, nor the second idea, use the lists from Songwriter Halls of Fame, because they are so long. Even if you aren't interested in songwriters, the issue is a recurring one and hard to solve, so maybe you'd like to chime in. Ortolan88 Tom Parmenter

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on why I am changing my name
by Tucci 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

I am posting this to explain why I am changing my user name from Tokerboy to TUF-KAT. I was asked via e-mail if, as a completely voluntary request, I would consider changing my name. I had already decided to do so, of my own volition, if somebody asked. I would be lying if I said I didn't choose this name partially out of a desire to ruffle certain feathers. However unjust it is, such a name will be perceived as unprofessional by academics and reporters and other people whom Wikipedia should want to impress with its professionalism. In my daily life, I do not hide the fact that I smoke weed on a daily basis because I regard it as my inalienable right that no law can supersede, and because without it I have no doubt that I would be either dead or homeless and alcoholic right now. I have experienced discrimination as a result; I find this deplorable, but I am willing to accept it in order to make those of my tastes gradually fit into mainstream society. I have the right to do this, to bring discrimination upon myself, but I do not have the right to force the same upon Ed Poor or Zoe or Ortolan or RK or Mav or the anonymous users that contribute to the Wikipedia, and by subjecting the project to unfair discrimination, I am doing just that. The best way to accomplish my goal is to write neutral, concise and informative articles at [[cannabis]], [[medical marijuana]] and the [[War on Drugs]], and, if Wikipedia is perceived as professional, the information therein will be trusted and the truth, that marijuana and all drugs should be legalized, will prevail, as the truth always does. In conclusion, I am offering a prize of 3.5 points added to your [[Coolness Quotient]] if you can guess why I chose TUF-KAT and I hope that this decision will not raise a ruckus, a brouhaha nor shenanigans of any sort. I do this of my own volition, because it is the right thing to do. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: A suicide note on the Wikipedia?????
by Daniel Mayer 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

On Saturday 15 February 2003 01:34 pm, wikien-l-request(a)wikipedia.org wrote: > I agree with Daniel on this one. We should have acted faster. As for > me, when I saw it, it was already a few hours old and I assumed that > something had been done, or it was too late. In retrospect, I would > have acted differently. > > So, what's the proper course of action in a case like this? I mean, > who should one call? The police in that town? > > --Jimbo Well in this case we did exactly the right thing but about two hours later than we should have. Like I said before, when we see something that looks like a suicide letter it is our moral obligation to track down the IP and inform the local authorities - we shouldn't waste much time at all debating whether or not the thing is legit (finding that out is the job of the cops). Everying crystallized once I asked if somebody had called the cops. So asking this question on the relevant talk page and then having a volunteer call the correct authorities is probably the best route. I made the mistake of emailing the school's webmaster (of all people) as my first action - which was dumb since it was 2 AM in Connecticut at the time. Hm. This might be one reason to forget my complex "hide the IP from sysops but allow them to block logged-in users" idea. It might be best to simply make this information readily available to sysops for cases like this (mouse-over text with the IP address is all that would be needed). -- Daniel Mayer (aka mav) WikiKarma Added a bunch of events to [[February 8]]; updated all the year pages and many of the other articles linked from that page.

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Asimov-still POV
by Bridget 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Asimov began contributing stories to science fiction magazines in 1939; his short story "Nightfall" (1941) is described in Bewildering Stories, issue 8, as one of "the most famous science-fiction stories of all time" [1], and is thought by many to be the finest science fiction short story ever written. The article currently reads as above, the latter part "and is thought by many to be the finest science fiction short story ever written." needs to either be removed or credited to some source. We can all think of several science-fiction stories which instantly qualify for "and is thought by many to be the finest science fiction short story ever written" My personal vote would be for "Cold Equations" and Im sure "many" agree with me that Cold Equations is the best science-fiction short story ever written. Im sure many feel that "You See But Do Not Observe" is the best science-fiction short story, as Im sure many feel that something by Stephen King might qualify. Perhaps it was Ray Bradbury that wrote the best science fiction short story, or was it Jules Verne or perhaps MaryJanice Davidson or Raylan Conley?? The article remains POV as it contains a POV statement which has been given no source. In the Erwin Rommel article I could say, "Erwin Rommel is considered to be the greatest general ever". So are Mannstein, Patton, Caeasar, Napoleon, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Montgomery, etc etc etc. The earlier version was even more POV: Asimov began contributing stories to science fiction magazines in 1939; his most famous single story is "Nightfall" (1941). Is not, "Bewildering Stories, issue 8" enough? Do we need to say, "Not only does Bewildering Stories issue 8 argue that Nightfall is ONE of the greatest, but be assured, by wikipedia and our ardent NPOV, that Nightfall is considered by many to actually be THE greatest science fiction short story EVER. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day

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Suicide note: appropriate response
by Jesse Alter 17 Feb '03

17 Feb '03

Sure, there was a delay before an action was made, but I think that the action was fairly swift. The extreme opposite is the case of [[Brandon Vedas]] whose suicide was encouraged. I agree with what has already been said: that the IP addresses of posters should be available to sysops, and that if someone's life ever appears to be in danger, an effort should be taken to contact the police as near to the endangered as possible, as soon as possible. Consider this a success. Someone's life was in danger, and action was taken quickly enough that they could receive local attention to protect their life.

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WikiEN-l February 2003