User talk:Iridescent

The arbitration committee "assuming good faith" with an editor.

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William Etty

Congratulations on the bio passing FAC. It's certainly a model for similar articles to follow. Still working up the courage to ask Eric re VvG. Think I'll have to be shameless with this one. Ceoil (talk) 16:49, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

Mlle Rachel

:Thanks—I'm not sure it's actually that useful a model for biographies, as usually the preference is to hive off as much as possible into subpages to keep the main bio at a reasonable size. This is something of a special case, as I thought it made more sense for readers to see his progression from "last of the 18th century English School" to "first of the Pre-Raphaelites" (and arguably "first of the Impressionists" as well; if Mlle Rachel were attributed as a early work by Van Gogh nobody would blink). ‑ Iridescent 15:39, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

a special case in more ways than you might think ;) I was thinking more structurally, but first of the Pre-Raphaelites is interesting, given his bastardisation of the romantic sweep, or one could argue taking it to its logical conclusion while staying within the confines of academic painting. Perhaps. Your on your own though with "first of the Impressionists", and be prepared to fight on the beaches, and in the fields and in the streets... The colours and patterns in the dress of Mlle Rachel are certainly very forward thinking and modern, but the modelling (and pose) is 15th c, ie deliberately trad ar (note i think that's a good thing and believe painting went to hell in a handbag around 1915). Ceoil (talk) 17:17, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

Givendale Church

The Fishponds, Givendale

"First of the Pre-Raphaelites" isn't really all that out-there; there's a brief note about it in the last section of the bio. The original PRB, especially Millais, were huge fans of his idea of combining romanticism and realism, and of using the bright Venetian palette to paint non-Venetian topics. Unfortunately for his reputation, most of his well known stuff in later years was neo-Romantic hackwork to pay the bills, while his experimental proto-impressionist work like the Givendale paintings languished in his flat. Plus, he had the bad luck to die in 1849, just as the whole Magic Realism thing was starting to get off the ground. ‑ Iridescent 19:24, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

• This is certainly one of the best articles I have read in a long while. You've done a fantastic job, thank you. Cassianto^Talk 16:07, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

• Thanks! The ironic thing is that I don't particularly like much of Etty's work, and find a lot of it absolutely awful, but I do think his is an important story that tends to get left out of the "official" narrative of English art history. ‑ Iridescent 13:36, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

• I must agree with that. What's even more ironic, I find, is that the more popular the person is in their professional life, the duller they are in their private one. Cassianto^Talk 15:55, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

• Do you mean, popular among their friends, or popular with audiences? If the latter, I'm not sure it necessarily applies to painters (although in my experience it certainly applies to musicians); a lot of the crowd-pulling names like Picasso, Van Gogh, Rossetti and Dali had decidedly unusual personal lives (and that's before we get to Dadd or Caravaggio). The problem in Etty's case is that he was so shy, he rarely socialised so he doesn't appear in other people's memoirs or contemporary gossip columns, and thus we don't know much about his personal life other than what's in his surviving personal correspondence. ‑ Iridescent 11:44, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Some stroopwafels for you!

for comment at Public Art of Barcelona. the tagspam continues, (he should have used the cleanup-translation tag.) i'm afraid they are training a new generation of NPP templaters, maybe we should divert the humans toward collaboration, that is if there are any left. cheers Duckduckstop (talk) 18:33, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I have a particular dislike of tag-bombers who don't explain what they think the issue is and don't even make a token effort to fix it themselves. By all means tag sections you think are problematic if you think there's a genuine issue and don't feel you can fix it yourself, but explain what the issue is and why you're not doing it yourself. Looking at his contributions, it looks to be someone who's just discovered automated tools and is over-enthusiastically machine-gunning them to spray drive-by tags, reverts and messages. In my experience, people like this generally settle down after a couple of weeks of their own accord, and calling them out on their actions just makes them angry or upset as they genuinely think they're being helpful. ‑ Iridescent 15:44, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

it's perpetual september. i see some idea labs projects to notify them to check and clear their old tags, wonder how that will go? it's the same old dictation version of collaboration. doesn't improve the place much. we should be training the spammers to take up teahouse, but it's too far from the first person shooter mentality. Duckduckstop (talk) 20:34, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Shaking my head

Hi. Someone just pointed out to me that we have a Seedfeeder article. I just skimmed Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Seedfeeder and I'm shaking my head so hard at the whole situation. I honestly can't say I'm very surprised by the outcome, but boy is it disappointing. How can we really have such an awful article that relies primarily on Cracked.com, Gawker, the Huffington Post? Bleh. --MZMcBride (talk) 03:14, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

There's all kind of weird shit in Category:Wikipedia and its subcategories. Getting articles about Wikipeople deleted is virtually impossible since if it's positive, all their hanger-on turn up to demand it be kept, and if it's negative then everyone with whom they've ever argued turns up to demand The Truth Not Be Silenced. I imagine at some point that nutty guy who keeps creating biographies of everyone he bumps into will get around to doing everyone, since Emily Temple-Wood appears to have set the notability bar spectacularly low. I'm mildly astonished Newyorkbrad is still red. ‑ Iridescent 21:40, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

(adding) Regarding the Seedfeeder AFD, don't look at the keep arguments, look at who was making the keep arguments. AGF has a limit; this was an organized exercise in chain-yanking, presumably by whatever remains of WR. ‑ Iridescent 21:43, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I only see one WO regular in that AfD (which I missed at the time). As for an article about me, if anyone tries to create Newyorkbrad, I'm going to test everyone's memories by redirecting it straight to clown. Newyorkbrad (talk) 21:49, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

See, I avoided that by picking a name that already had an article... dare I mention Arbitration Committee? Shaking my head too at the 'Seedfeeder' article (I was a bit dopey and thought it was about a birdseed feeder). On the other hand, I did get to Adelir Antônio de Carli (via the Keilana AfD and 'Lawnchair Larry' article) so that is something. I'd forgotten how awful-and-funny-at-the-same-time some of those Darwin Awards were. Carcharoth (talk) 23:52, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

;-) --MZMcBride (talk) 00:01, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Yes, of course. I learned a number of years ago that getting Wikipedia-related articles deleted is nearly impossible.[*] I just hadn't realized until this week that we now have articles on Seedfeeder and Emily Temple-Wood. I'm not sure we have found the floor of our notability standards yet, but given that someone recently (and somewhat pointedly) started creating Wikidata items about non-notable Wikimedians, I guess we're still in a race to the bottom.

For what it's worth, I'm certainly capable of noticing the cabal when it shows up to drop keep votes on an AFD! :-) I'm not sure this particular group is from WR or WO, I'm more inclined to think this group was homegrown. Though who knows. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:01, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

[*] I also apparently learned how to spell "Gerard" at some point between then and now, heh.

I honestly don't believe from now until the end of time there will be any Wikipedia volunteers that will achieve celebrity in the English-speaking world—those were the days. If anyone fancies taking on the "keep, it exists" brigade, 1Lib1Ref, Justin Knapp and Lsjbot are if anything less notable than Kevin Gorman (Wikipedian), which is actually red once more. (No personal attacks and all that, but what kind of whacko writes a biography of a Wikipedia bot?) ‑ Iridescent 08:48, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

In some ways it's just a matter of titling. If someone were to write an article about how anti-vandalism programs have changed English Wikipedia (a topic that you actually once called my attention to), it wouldn't matter much if the article were called English Wikipedia anti-vandalism software or Cluebot, although calling the latter "a biography of a bot" might sound catchier. Newyorkbrad (talk) 14:54, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

No doubt there would be edit wars regarding the ethnicity and religion of the bot. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 15:05, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Bots are supposedly A Good Thing, as they counter systemic bias by ensuring that a significant portion of Wikipedia edits aren't made by "young, white, male nerds". (A description which, FWIW, I'm not sure applies to a single Wikipedia editor I've ever met; if any group is over-represented among those editors who actually do the heavy lifting, it's people in their 50s and 60s, disproportionately often with beards. In my experience, the younger editors tend not to be particularly nerdy; the nerd contingent are primarily the aging hippies who've bought into the "free in both senses of the word" ideal.)

I attach a photograph of the person responsible for the claim that Wikipedia is overrun by "young, white, male nerds", for the general edification of the readership.

@NYB, I'd find an article on English Wikipedia anti-vandalism software an equally pointless exercise in navel-gazing, although looking at the "keep, it exists" brigade lining up at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Art+Feminism I've no doubt someone will create it at some point. ‑ Iridescent 16:15, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

@MZM, regarding the race to the bottom in terms of notability, looking at WP:AFD I get the distinct impression that the ARSholes have succeeded in their campaign of attrition, and most of those who used to make arguments in support of deletion have given up and moved elsewhere, in much the same way that those who made arguments in opposition at RFA have generally been hounded off. On a skim over the current deletion debates, I can't see a single one where anyone is willing to stand up and argue with the "but it exists" voters. ‑ Iridescent 16:23, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

I've run into this sentiment with my MFD to have the user pages weighing in opinions on Jimmy Wales' beard (whether or not he should have one) deleted. It seemed to strike a sentimental chord and oldtimers came out to argue the pages should be kept. What seemed funny in 2005 I guess is still humorous to some editors. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:40, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

(unindent) Yeah... I... we really have an article on 1Lib1Ref? What is wrong with us? Fighting "but it exists"-type arguments on Wikipedia has been too difficult for too long now. I could have sworn we got rid of ARS; I guess I must've just been hoping we had. At some point, we really do need to find a way to tighten the notability standards and delete or merge these articles. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:07, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

After replying here, I realized that Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Emily Temple-Wood had recently been created. The least I can do is support the reasonable editors there. Even if these types of articles are ultimately kept, it's important to stand with those trying to keep Wikipedia free of unencyclopedic content. --MZMcBride (talk) 04:43, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

@MZMcBride I've said my piece there, not that I imagine it will do the slightest good; the "but it exists" posse are out in strength on this one, and while there are a couple of AFD-closing admins with the strength of character to weigh the arguments and do what they feel is right rather than just count heads, one of them is DGG who will presumably have to recuse from this one, and the other hasn't been very active lately. ARS suffered something of a setback when it transpired that a number of their members were the same person, but their spirit still lives on.

@Liz Some (emphasis on some) of those old "joke" pages are important artefacts of Wikipedia's early history. I'm aware you were researching the history of Wikipedia through old Signposts and Arb cases, but that doesn't give a complete picture; back in the Arbitrary Committee days (c. 2004–08) when editors were literally being kicked off Wikipedia for not showing sufficient respect to Jimbo's cronies, it was jokes that helped stop the fragile sense of community spirit collapsing altogether. WP:Wikispeak reads like a historical curiosity now, but when we wrote it a lot of the euphemisms documented were direct from experience. (If you really want a venture into the backwaters of Wiki-history, MZM and I can walk you through the history of WP:BRC.)

@NYB, "Carcharoth, FloNight, Newyorkbrad and Wizardman are like the internet's supreme court, only their robes are bathrobes" was on national television, if that's any help in starting your BLP. Since apparently "has a connection of some kind to Wikipedia and has been mentioned in the press in any context whatsoever" is our new notability criterion, there shouldn't be any trouble getting it kept ‑ Iridescent 08:50, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the perspective, Iridescent. I can read old arbcom cases and Signposts issues but it doesn't fully convey the zeitgeist of the times. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 11:02, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

• <stares nostalgically at the BRC pics> .. wow - some of them were SOOO young back then. — Ched :  ?  11:59, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Speaking of an NYB BLP (which I definitely don't believe I am notable enough for) ... My Significant Other and her son once created a very nice little Ira Matetsky article, which they intended as a friendly surprise for me. Instead, the article was construed as harassing me; it was immediately deleted, and her brand-new account was indeffed without warning. This took place just a few months after I was "outed" and there were libelous postings about me, and it's completely understandable that an administrator assumed this was more of the same sort of nonsense, but my GF was not pleased and swore off Wikipedia forever. Every once in awhile I tell her I'm going to unblock her account so she can edit again, and her response is always "don't you dare!"

I wasn't around from 2004 to mid-2006, but by the end of 2006 I was following ArbCom's work very closely (I was a clerk in 2007 and an arbitrator in 2008), and I don't believe I can recall "editors [who] were literally being kicked off Wikipedia for not showing sufficient respect to Jimbo's cronies." I am sure you have specific people in mind and I'm quite curious who that is, although I understand that on-wiki might not (or might) be the best place to talk about it. And I'm doubly curious about bathrobe background; I always thought that was just a silly play page where people went to take a break of sorts, but I now gather there was more to it than that. Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 14:52, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

An Illustrated History of the Bathrobe Wars. All these images (plus numerous others which have since been deleted) were at some point the lead image for Bathrobe.

I can think of plenty of examples without trying very hard (remember, I was the arb who originally handled Peter Damian's unblock request); does the phrase "speaks German in a similar way" bring back any memories? When you first joined Arbcom it must have still been sweeping up the messes left by David Gerard and Raul. I imagine one of the old WR hands is probably keeping a scoreboard somewhere. (My memory isn't what it used to be, but I have a vague recollection that someone was once blocked for calling one of Jimbo's hangers-on "sycophantic".)

I think that may have been me. I was certainly blocked for using that word anyway. Eric Corbett 23:19, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

The BRC grew out of a reaction to a spectacular edit war over whether the lead illustration to Bathrobe should feature someone wearing the bathrobe or the bathrobe on a hanger, and if so which image would be appropriate; people started posting photographs of themselves in bathrobes as potential compromises, and it grew out of that. (In true Wikipedia style, the article went through seven different lead images all of which were edit-warred off again, before eventually settling on a photograph of an 1850s Swedish nightdress, of which the only thing it was in common with a present-day bathrobe is both being made of cloth. The original talkpage discussion from the time ought to be the first page if anyone ever writes a proper history of Wikipedia.)

Despite the stupidity, the BRC was arguably the closest thing Wikipedia's ever had to a genuine cabal with the exception of the EEML and GGTF; despite the goofiness, it was remarkably well-organized and at one point had pretty much everyone of any consequence outside the WMF and Arbcom bunkers signed up as members. (What you see on-wiki doesn't do it justice; following this incident most of the history was deleted.) Back in WP:BADSITE days when just being registered at WR was enough to have people calling for a block, it was pretty much the only place where admins, regular editors and blocked nonpersons could meet on equal terms, and because it had Lara acting as gatekeeper it was never overrun by either cranks or enthusiastic newbies in the way these things tend to be. (Before anyone at WR/WO gets all excited, I'm not aware of any abuse or breach of policy that was ever orchestrated on it.) Pinging Lara if she's still around, given that I'm discussing her pet.

@Liz, if it's still up and running the best guide to the zeitgeist of the time would probably be the Wikipedia Review archive, provided you bear in mind that (a) WR had more than its fair share of lunatics, and (b) Selina has been accused of editing other users' archived posts.

And @Ched, yes I agree at how young everyone was. Coffee in particular looked about eight years old. ‑ Iridescent 19:01, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Iridescent, I've tried looking around WR for years. For a long time, you couldn't look at anything unless you signed in as a member and since the site was inactive, there was no one to okay new members so the content was inaccessible. For some reason now, you can do some searches on the forum but I believe there were also articles and those are not available any more. And there are other Wikipedia-related criticism sites from that era that, somehow, were removed from the Wayback Machine (the notice says This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine...I wonder what the story behind that decision was).

I don't go to WO very often but it's interesting that posting there used to be grounds to oppose an admin or arbitration candidate. Now, there are not only blocked editors who post there but also active editors, admins and even arbitrators. I sometimes wonder if the individuals who created the site are happy at how it has become mainstream and no longer automatically considered a bad site. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:40, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

I don't know anything about an image battle over the bathrobe article. The BRC started after Nick achieved admin and posted a pic of himself in that brown robe with a thumbs up. The_Undertow thought it was funny, so after he earned adminship, he took a pic of himself in a bathrobe with two thumbs up to mock Nick. Riana soon after called the two of them the Bathrobe Cabal in a humorous talk page thread, if I recall. Later, TU nominated me for adminship, and some time after I was awarded it I posted a pic of myself in a bathrobe. Thus began the official BRC. I created pages and such along with an IRC channel. It was originally for new admins, but then we opened up to everyone. Membership really skyrocketed after we stopped requiring images. We had members of every rank and all major groups. Maybe 50 total. Some significantly more active in our social shenanigans than others. Good times. Indubitably (Lara) 20:48, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Haha that actually gave me a good chuckle iridescent; if only I had been 8 at the time... Funnily enough, I think there isn't a single other person -including the wondrous founders - who the BRC had as much of a real life impact on as it did for me. Who would have thought that such a random thing could literally save someone's life. — Coffee // have a cup // beans // 16:04, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

@Lara Huh, strange; obviously, you know best when and where you set it up, but that was certainly my memory of the sequence. That edit war definitely happened, since one only has to look at the edit history of Bathrobe circa 2007–08 to see the_undertow, Giggy etc duking it out with all-comers.

@Coffee, I know, I was there. Don't underestimate the effect the BRC had in stopping Wikipedia disintegrating back then, either, and the knock-on effect that had on other people's lives, at least indirectly; it did a powerful job in reminding people that there were real people behind those silly usernames. (A lesson certain people have never learned.)

@Liz, don't confuse Wikipediocracy, or WR in its later incarnations under Somey's control, with WR in its early days. Way-back-when, it was more akin to Encyclopedia Dramatica than to present-day Wikipediocracy; while there were some decent people about—IIRC mainly old Usenet sweats who understood how to tell the difference between trolling for effect and genuine crazy—they were considerably outnumbered by semicoherent lunatics, single-issue obsessives, creepy weirdos explaining their theories about who they thought were CIA agents and why, saloon-bar-bore types explaining why Veropedia/MyWikiBiz/Citizendium/Encyc was going to grind Wikipedia into the dust Any Day Now, and Ottava Rima explaining at very great length why whoever he happened to have had an argument with most recently was a sexual deviant. If you do want their old blog archive, I imagine any of Alison, Somey, Selina or Greg would be able to point them out to you if they still exist anywhere, but I can't imagine you're missing anything of value; if you want a feel of what Wikipedia was like during the Wild West days, you're better off reading [nonnotablenatterings.blogspot.com Kelly Martin's blog]. ‑ Iridescent 18:09, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

Much of the old off-wiki content I have come across concern disputes about specific editors/admins, most of whom no longer edit so they are ancient history since old grudges among inactive editors aren't very interesting. I think what interests me most are complaints that seem perennial, that existed 10 years ago, 5 years ago and which you'll find editors starting discussions about this year on the Village Pump.

One of the perennial sources of discontent is the arbitration committee...I've gone through over 4,000 Signpost articles (and I didn't read them all), old cases at AE and ANI as well as archived talk pages and I've never come across a time when arbcom wasn't generally criticized. The committee is either accused of overreaching or of not being active enough in addressing problems that exist. They do too much and they do too little. And it's always the wrong decision. I've come to the conclusion that despite the changing roster of arbitrators, anyone who serves on the committee has to accept that there will always be editors that are unhappy with the committee's performance. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:55, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

It stands to reason that a body whose role consists in large part of handing out sanctions is going to be criticised. And WR/WO has served as a debriefing ground for blocked/banned/sanctioned editors time and time again. It is worth knowing, however, the backgrounds of many of the old hands there. It's essential for understanding some of the long term issues and opinions that folks disguise as 'neutral' or 'uninvolved'. I found some of the arbcom decisions and actions questionable at best, which led me to run in 2008. Before that I'd been happy enough content editing for 2 years without giving drama pages much thought. Don't forget, some folks may have new accounts and keep on going too. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:56, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

The social aspect can't be underestimated, although the benefit/problem ratio/relationship can be fluid - remember esperanza....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:56, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Well, yes and no. The nature of the job means there will always be people who aren't happy, since by definition you're telling large numbers of people things they don't want to hear, but there have certainly been qualitative differences between the various iterations of the committee. In the early days, Arbcom tended to operate as a wiki-extermination squad, was extremely trigger-happy,* and because it was appointed rather than elected had a tendency to act as Jimmy Wales's personal Inquisition; the Arbcom of the late 2000s took itself Very Very Seriously and saw itself as some kind of Wikipedia ruling council (if you haven't already, look at WP:ACPD and the RFC that killed it); 2011 onwards had a committee which saw itself as a supreme court and was extremely reluctant to take on cases or to do anything which might be contentious; the last two iterations have been unusually inept and indecisive, and seen a tendency towards grandstanding by individual committee members which never used to happen.

So each version has had its problems, but the problems haven't been the same throughout. I believe, although I obviously don't have the current figures, that the volume of incoming emails has dropped hugely in recent years; in my day it wasn't unusual to spend two or three hours just reading the incoming messages. (That "644 new messages" screen capture isn't manipulated in any way.) Assuming that's the case—and with the committee smaller now so there's less time reading fifteen people's opinion on every issue—that's going to have a knock-on effect on how things are dealt with. ‑ Iridescent 21:13, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

*NYB can confirm that "block whoever looks like the biggest bozo, see if the problem stops, and if it doesn't then repeat" is an actual quote from an arb of that time.

Doesn't sound much like "arbitration" as the word is understood in the wider world. Maybe ArbCom ought to be renamed the Star Chamber? Eric Corbett 23:19, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

Depends—there are some real-world examples of "Arbitration Committee" as a synonym for "final court from which there is no appeal"; the Court of Arbitration for Sport is one which springs to mind, and the USA has the legal concept of binding consumer arbitration (which I imagine is where Jimmy got the idea). "Disciplinary Tribunal" would probably be a more apt description for its current function, but I doubt there'd be much desire to change it if only because of the number of policy pages which would have to be rewritten to reflect the new name. Remember that when it was originally set up, Wikipedia was a much smaller place—3775 registered editors, 262 active editors, 176,000 articles of which 3⁄4 were less than 2kb long—so what Jimmy envisaged was a smoke-filled room in which people engaged in disputes could be dragged to thrash out a compromise. FWIW, if you look at the original founding document, it was intended to be "The Wikiquette Committee", and to have a bicameral structure with a "lower house" mediating disputes and encouraging people to calm down and resolve their differences, but without the authority to actually enforce anything, and a separate "upper house" to dish out blocks and bans; the former became WP:MEDCAB and eventually faded away into irrelevance, leaving the latter as a de facto supreme court. ‑ Iridescent 15:14, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

I must be a nerdy arbitration clerk because I find your assessment of generations of arbcom fascinating. I was stunned to look back years ago and see that some committees dealt with 100+ cases/year rather than the 10-20 cases/year that is typical for the past few years. I hope at some point, some intrepid author interviews editors who have been around 10+ years who can offer some perspective on the evolution of the Wikipedia community. It wouldn't be a best-seller but I'd buy a copy! There hasn't been much work done on online communities that have lasted 10 or more years. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:40, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Peter Damian was planning to do something like that at one point but I don't know if anything ever came of it. Andrew Lih wrote a (by all accounts awful) book on the history of Wikipedia, as well, plus there was a movie which was apparently terrible. It would be very hard to write a neutral account of Wikipedia's early years, as so many of the driving factors were personal grudges, often based on allegations which it would be libellous to repeat. (Some of Wikipedia's key schisms originally stemmed from "was a Wikipedia admin an MI5 agent on a mission to frame Libya for terrorist incidents?" and "does one arbcom's members have sex with animals?"; good luck getting people on both sides to cooperate with a neutral summary of those accusations and others like them, but without mentioning them one can't explain some of the apparently erratic turns Wikipedia took circa 2006–10.) ‑ Iridescent 09:13, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

For the last few years, traffic on arbcom-l has indeed been down ~60% from the historical peak (though I didn't look at the various other lists). But 2011 was already down ~40% from max. I don't know how anyone in 2009 could hear themselves think. Opabinia regalis (talk) 06:30, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Many of the 2009 committee are still with us (Carcharoth, Casliber, Coren, John Vanderberg, NYB, Risker, Roger Davies, Wizardman). You could ask. ‑ Iridescent 15:14, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Oh dear. I may have been responsible for some of that noise in 2009... I'm really here to ask Iridescent about London-wide visibility of a particular prominent landmark, so I'll do that and not worry about my ears burning here. :-) Carcharoth (talk) 21:53, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Being in an Australian time zone sucked as much of the traffic in 2009 came when I was asleep. I'd set my alarm for an hour earlier and try to wade though emails before breakfast but (by necessity) after strong coffee....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 23:27, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

2009 alums can make fun of us newbies who have time to do things like make graphs of email traffic instead of reading it ;) The 18-arb era really does jump out, though. Opabinia regalis (talk) 03:47, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Rewinding for a moment. I had forgotten about that battle over the bathrobe lead image. So the BRC formed officially in December 2008 and that happened a couple of months later. Indubitably (Lara) 15:13, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

What exactly does each citation support?

Hi. About a year ago I mentioned Template:Ref supports2, a little template you can wrap around a citation to tell the reader what text a citation supports. I notice you tried it in the last citation, first paragraph here. The issue of "What exactly does each citation support?" has come up twice in the last few days - User:Magnus Manske mentioned it on Wikimedia-l here and User:LeadSongDog brought it up here on Meta. I seem to recall you're supportive of the idea of making it clear to the reader just what is supported by what, but were unimpressed by the bloat this particular solution added to the edit box.

I'm going to try to get the WMF to take this on as a goal in their next annual plan - a draft of which is to be released on April 1. If you're interested, I'll point you to the discussion when it begins. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 02:01, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

I support the principle, but I suspect it will only really be workable if and when Wikipedia goes entirely to Visual Editor and direct Wikitext editing is deprecated (or at least discouraged), which given the WMF's track record on major projects will be some time in the 27th century. If I were designing Wikipedia nowadays from scratch, every time a reference was added the user would be prompted to click the start and finish of the section(s) the citation supports, and then the reference would be stored in a separate database and the tags generated automagically at the correct locations. However, this is not going to happen, and as long as we are expecting new users to work in Wikitext—which is daunting at the best of times—it's not fair to present them with huge gobbets of markup in the edit window which will be totally incomprehensible to those not already familiar with the template. (Yes, I know we do this already, as anyone who's ever tried to edit a section within a WP:LDR-format page can testify, but we at least usually try to make the markup vaguely relate to what the reader will see.) ‑ Iridescent 18:15, 18 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes, this is for Visual Editor - for the day when editors choose to use it for all editing tasks; when no one but the occasional developer fixing a bug needs to look at wiki markup.

Actually, it might have one place in today's Wikipedia. There are a few articles that have a peer-/expert-reviewed version in their history, like this version of Dengue fever. That version could have massively complex source code because no one's going to be editing the code in that one version. I'm managing the expert review of Parkinson's disease just now. Once we have an agreed version of that, I could include the "ref supports2" feature in just that, reviewed, version - and remove ref supports2 for the subsequent "live", editable versions. Then, the readers of that one expert-endorsed version in the article's history would not only (a) know they can rely on what they're reading (as much as they can rely on a strong WP:RS, and more than they can rely on the current, editable version) but would also (b) know just which citation supports what text. Sorry. Just thinking out loud here. Thanks again for your thoughts. ---Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 07:36, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

It would probably make more sense to have the peer-reviewed versions in a separate namespace rather than just in the history, even though there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who remember Veropedia and Citizendium, and to whom the idea of a separate non-editable version of a page is anathema. ‑ Iridescent 06:56, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

I agree ... especially with the last bit. So, one thing at a time. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 15:12, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Visibility of The Shard around London

Bit of a strange question, but would you have any ideas on where in London (or outside) you would get the furthest-away or best views of The Shard? I know you can famously see St Paul's from Richmond Park (see protected view), but am not sure how far away you would be able to see The Shard from. I'm asking because I've known for a while that it is possible to see The Shard from Brentford, from the road on the north side of the Thames near Lot's Ait (harking back to the Thames crossings theme, do the footbridges to the Thames aits count - I am now wondering how many of Islands in the River Thames have bridges...). The distance as the crow flies, which I got from Google Maps, is 9.14 miles (14.70 kilometres). I am not sure of the respective elevations above sea level of the base and top of The Shard and the ground I was standing on (it is more visible when you are on the top deck of a bus), but for an observer on flat ground the horizon is about 4.7 kilometres away. I am not sure how much of The Shard should be visible at a distance of 14.7 kilometres (is West London at a higher elevation than further downstream - it must be because the river flows in that direction, but by how much?). I presume I am seeing only the top part of the building peeping up over the horizon. Maybe this would be a suitable mathematics exam question? :-) OK, the horizon from the top of The Shard (310 metres high) is 62.85 kilometres, but from that distance on flat land you would only see the tip on the horizon - turning the question around, from a distance of 14.7 kilometres, the height of the building that would just be visible on the horizon would be 17 metres. So you would be able to see a lot of the building even from 14.7 kilometres away. Now I just need to find the respective elevations above sea level - Wikipedia is letting me down here... [The Shard is 16 metres above sea level - I may need to use an accurate GPS device to measure the elevation in the other location]. The horizon as seen from the top of The Shard would be a fair distance away. But within London, buildings would obscure the view much of the time unless up on a hill or high area (or indeed most of North London, which looks down on South London quite literally). I should maybe take a picture to illustrate the view and how much of The Shard is visible (there being no leaves on the trees also helps, as does the initial view being along the river which flows due east on the bend crossed by Kew Bridge, removing the chance for nearby buildings to obstruct the view). Carcharoth (talk) 22:13, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

The exercise isn't a simple matter of horizons, as it also depends on the geography in between and the height of the observer; to the northwest you won't see it anywhere past Hampstead as the Northern Heights will block the view. Without doing any thing as common as "research", I'd assume the most distant place from which it's visible (on a very clear day) would be Southend (it's definitely visible from parts of Southend) or possibly the top of a hill in the South Downs; looking at it from the west or north your view of it is probably going to be obscured by the City. If you want to cheat, open Google Earth, set your location as London Bridge station and your viewpoint as 280m (the Shard is 309m, but you need enough to be visible to be recognisable), and anything you can see from there will be able to see the top of the Shard. This diagram purports to show the most distant points from which it's visible in each direction given the alignment of the hills, but I don't believe for an instant that it's actually visible from Southampton or Brighton, unless one's on the roof of a tower block. ‑ Iridescent 08:58, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. The link to that diagram is particularly useful, even if probably inaccurate (they should show the hills). I knew there had to be something like that out there. Didn't know you could set mid-air elevations with Google Earth, but again I suspected that in this day and age it would be possible (I still remember how exciting it was to be able to zoom over the surface of the Moon and Mars when that all got put online properly). Being high up another tall building definitely helps, but is cheating IMO. I suspect from the right angles I should be able to see the City behind the Shard as well, but by the time I started travelling in the Brentford area, I think The Shard was already obscuring the view. Also, the outline of The Shard is just so much more recognisable and unmistakable when you see it. Would you know of a good online resource showing accurate elevations in a way that can be zoomed around on - does Google Earth do that? Interesting that the view along the valley of the Thames stretches as far as Reading. Carcharoth (talk) 10:14, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Such things certainly exist; the connection I'm on at the moment is too slow to test on Google Earth, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't. You might also want to ask at the videogame project, since this must be the basic principle by which flight simulators operate. ‑ Iridescent 06:58, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

@Carcharoth OK, this is do-able in Google; you need to install the actual Google Earth program (not just the browser plug-in). Open it up and tick "status bar" in the View menu. Type "The Shard" in the search box, and turn your scroll wheel to zoom in until the "eye alt" figure is 300m. (The view will go kind of weird, as that puts you inside the building which the software doesn't like.) Then, holding down the ctrl key, drag the main display window downwards until the horizon is level. Still holding ctrl, dragging left and right will rotate your viewpoint around this fixed point. It works better if you go into Tools-Options and check "Use high quality terrain". Bear in mind that because you're forcing it to calculate and render the position of every building in one of the world's largest cities, it will drain laptop batteries and hoover up data allowance.

You can also do this in reverse, by going to places on the map, zooming in to ground level, and then ctrl-dragging to pan up to the horizon to see what's visible. In practice, you're limited by the resolution of your monitor as there comes a point when the Shard is less than 1 pixel width so doesn't show up; after a bit of experimentation the most distant point from which it's recognisable seems to be just east of Tilbury. ‑ Iridescent 10:59, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

Google Earth has a viewshed tool which allows you to calucate that kind of thing. Nev1 (talk) 19:03, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

Huh, have they started giving Pro away free now? They used to charge £300 a year to use it. Yes, that's what you're after, although if your computer isn't top-end be prepared for it to slow to a snails pace. ‑ Iridescent 19:41, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

About a year ago they made the Pro version free. Not sure why, and it doesn't seemed to have been widely publicised. It does require a bit of patience if your computer is a getting on (mine has developed a loud whirring sound) and it doesn't *always* take buildings into account depending how good the coverage is but it's a handy tool. Nev1 (talk) 20:24, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

At a guess, they were making minimal profit from it, they needed to conduct the high-detail mapping regardless for the use of the autonomous vehicle division, and making it available for free gets the PR message out that Google actually does useful things and isn't just an organised crime syndicate masquerading as a tech company.

The more I think about it, the more unlikely the idea that's it's visible from Southampton or Cambridge, even with a clear line of sight, becomes; at that kind of distance, making out the outline of even the largest building is going to be impossible through atmospheric haze (consider how difficult it is to make out detals on the ground from an aircraft, which are usually only 7–8 miles above the ground at most). Check out this view from the top of Sca Fell; even things the size of the Welsh mountains look tiny and indistinct at that distance, and while the Shard is tall it's not particularly wide. I strongly suspect that anyone claiming to see the Shard from Brighton, Cambridge etc is actually seeing a distant church spire on the horizon. ‑ Iridescent 11:55, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

• @Carcharoth: You can see the Shard from the hills at Northala Fields because I've seen it myself when the air is clear. Other high ground in NW London like Harrow Hill would give a good view too. Another way of checking the viewpoint from the Shard itself is to look at the Gigapixel panorama which shows ranges of distant hills forming the horizon. These will be high ground like the Chilterns. Andrew D. (talk) 17:47, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for all the replies. It has been interesting finding out what tools are possible to look into this and where to go for possible long-distance views. Will try and get a picture of The Shard from Brentford before the leaves come out on the trees... Carcharoth (talk) 00:08, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

The Shard, seen from Brentford

An update on this. I took the photo, discovering that the glass on the windows of London buses is terrible for taking photos through, but confirming that I wasn't imagining things (if you zoom in, the shape of the top of the building is unmistakeable). I also discovered that there are categories on Commons for 'remote views of...', which is useful in this case: Category:Remote views of the Shard London Bridge. My picture is easily the worse one in there, but browsing through that category, I wonder whether Brentford is the record for the furthest distance photo of The Shard in there? Maybe Andrew should take a photo from Northala Fields? I'll ping him and Nev1 as well in case they are no longer following this page. Carcharoth (talk) 23:03, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

There's a nice shot of the Shard from Guildford on Flickr, but unfortunately it's all-rights-reserved. That's the furthest for which I can find photographic evidence (marginally further than Southend as the crow flies). There ought to be a direct line of sight from the hills around Tring, which I suspect will be the longest distance at which it's anything more than a blur on the horizon, but I suspect the general haze will make it invisible in practice on all but the clearest days. (It would probably be easier at night, as the red beacon on top should be easier to spot than one building among dozens, but I don't propose to go climbing the Chilterns at midnight to test the theory.)

The meridian laser

On reflection, the London landmark visible from furthest away is almost certainly not the Shard, but the meridian laser at Greenwich. Provided you're standing on the meridian line, it's visible from many miles away. They say at least 36 miles with the naked eye and 60 miles with binoculars, which I can easily believe; it's certainly very bright from Waltham Abbey at night. ‑ Iridescent 04:13, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Possible Wikipedia Return

I'm thinking of returning to Wikipedia this summer to work on the Michael Jackson related articles. I hope you've been well. Any major changes at Wikipedia since 2009? — R² 22:46, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Huh, this page really is a 2007 reunion this week, isn't it? Nice to hear from you again. I'm probably not the best person to ask, as I've been barely active for the past five years. In general, some of the names have changed but most of the issues seem to be the same as when you left; the only major change has been that the obsession with "civility" (in the American, not the rest-of-the-world sense) is stronger than it used to be. With specific regards to Michael Jackson, I keep it watchlisted but haven't seen anything major take place on it, although it obviously gets a lot of minor edits. User:Dr. Blofeld might be the best one to talk to as he recently wrote Frank Sinatra, which is probably the article most comparable to MJ in terms of career and impact. ‑ Iridescent 07:04, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Welcome back! I thought that Jackson was already an FA! Yes, the "obsession with civility" has grown to ridiculous levels in the last few years...♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:18, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

He is, but the version which passed FAC doesn't have much resemblance to the current article (understandably, given that he died since then), and there are also all the songs and siblings to consider. I thought you're probably better placed than I to advise on what it's like handling high-volume pop culture articles, which have unique challenges in the "anyone can edit" environment. My articles tend to be on more obscure topics, and while some of them come with their own challenges (The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate is a magnet for idiots who get attracted by the title), they don't compare with the issue of keeping well-intentioned fans and people wanting to include potentially libellous criminal allegations that come with someone like Jackson or Sinatra. ‑ Iridescent 01:37, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Andrew de Burgh

Can you please tell me why you deleted this page? This person has several references and produced, directed, wrote and acted in a film on Rotten Tomatoes with a rare 100% score. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andysidley (talk • contribs) 21:38, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

Andysidley, it was deleted for the same reason it was deleted last time; because of the unanimous consensus to delete it; while it may be interesting to you that you "live in Los Angeles and support the soccer team Liverpool F.C. and am passionate about the eradication of world poverty and are a 1st Dan Black Belt in Shotokan Karate and enjoy playing videogames and watching soccer", it's not something appropriate for an academic project. Wikipedia isn't LinkedIn or Facebook, and is not an appropriate place to post your autobiography. The "several references" claim is misleading, since virtually none of them were appropriate for Wikipedia; many of the references didn't even mention you (this one for instance), while the others were largely a mix of user-generated sites and adverts, neither of which are usable on Wikipedia except in very specific circumstances which don't apply here. For a topic to warrant coverage on Wikipedia, you don't need to demonstrate that you consider it important, you need to demonstrate that other significant media sources consider it important. If you want to contest the deletion, go to WP:DRV and follow the instructions there, but I'll warn you that an appeal is unlikely to be successful in this case unless you can demonstrate significant coverage of yourself in multiple independent reliable sources. Also pinging Mark Arsten for input, who deleted this the first time around. ‑ Iridescent 23:07, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

The last time I checked, people were allowed to have a 'snippet' about them in their personal life section. How do Starburst Magazine and Dread Central, both of which have Wikipedia pages themselves, not count when they mention me several times in their reviews of my film:

http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/latest-reviews-of-movies/14029-just-one-drink-short-review http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/155270/just-one-drink-2016/

Other significant media sources 'clearly' see me as important. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andysidley (talk • contribs) 23:29, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

This is an academic project, not Myspace circa 2000; you can have "a snippet about yourself" on your userpage if you so wish, within reason, but Wikipedia articles are not an advertising portal for the article subject to promote themselves. To reiterate what I said above, there was unanimous consensus that your autobiography was inappropriate—and if you know anything about Wikipedia, you'll know a unanimous consensus on anything is virtually unheard of. If Mark had closed that debate any way other than delete, people would quite rightly be complaining that he'd abused his authority. If you do still feel you're an appropriate topic for coverage, I very strongly advise you to read Wikipedia:Autobiography carefully, and to consider drafting the article in a userspace subpage and asking other uninvolved editors to review it before sending it live. ‑ Iridescent 00:06, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

AFD

Hi Iridescent, Thanks for deleting the AFD, Would there be any chance you could kindly delete this, this, this, this, this and this please?,
I'm not sure if my reasons are valid in terms of CSD but either way IMHO these are all now disruptive now that April Fools Day's been & gone,
Thanks (and a belated Happy Fools Day! :) ) , –Davey2010^Talk 23:10, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Done, and an extremely strongly worded warning issued to the user in question. ‑ Iridescent 23:21, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Brilliant thank you :) –Davey2010^Talk 23:49, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Sorry to bother you yet again - The talkpages will need deleting aswell 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

Sorry I didn't realize he was stupid enough to contest them!, Thanks again for your help - It's extremely appreciated, –Davey2010^Talk 23:55, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Done, although preserving this one (admins only) here as a reminder should he be stupid enough to try to contest any of this. It's practically a Wikipedia rule that every year there's always someone who thinks that because it's April 1 it gives them the right to go on a vandalism spree. ‑ Iridescent 00:15, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

It's absolutely ridiculous, I've already had to close some morons MFD_vandalism spree which have been deleted by Floq,There's a difference between having a bit of a laugh/banter and being a total moron!, Anyway ranting on here!, Thanks again for your help & cleanup - much appreciated, Thanks, –Davey2010^Talk 01:29, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Oh Yeah, and screw you too, Davey. editorEهեইдအ😎 21:22, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Grow up lad. –Davey2010^Talk 00:48, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

April Fools

OK. I'll do the right thing next time. it's my fault for not reading that rules for fools page beforehand and I apologize for my disruptive behavior. But one thing, how would you start a April Fools AFD "only in userspace"? editorEهեইдအ😎 23:44, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

You wouldn't start an April Fools AFD, and as per my warning if you pull any more stunts like this I'm blocking you; you're damned lucky you weren't indeffed for replying to a legitimate request to stop with Go fuck yourself, you assholes. Do you realise how much work it is to clean up the trail of crap vandals like you leave behind? As well as deleting the pages, it also means manually fixing the AFD log and reverting your spurious warnings on talkpages (which will still confuse and upset editors, since there's no way to stop them getting the "new message" notification but there won't be a new message on their talkpage), and undoing the deletion notifications on the articles themselves, all of which will have been seen by dozens of readers, the majority of whom are either in countries where April Fools Day isn't observed or where the UTC time difference means it's not April 1 so won't have a clue what's going on. ‑ Iridescent 00:26, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

You know what, on second though, you don't deserve any of my respect. "crap vandals"? Hahahahahahaha yeah right, I'm sure a "crap vandal" would INTEND to ruin an article unlike someone who only intended to make April Fools AFD jokes, and that's it, but, whatever. Let me just say that you are one of the most frustrating users I have ever had to deal with in my near 4-year history of editing Wikipedia, even more frustrating than User:AldezD who tried to remove useful, cited information from the Judith Barsi for bullshit reasonings of WP:NOTMEMORIAL, people wanting to oppose the Talk:Griggs House article because it's too long even though it really isn't if you read it, and idiots who call actual reliable interviews of people "self-published sources". You, as well as a few other users, should have just left all this harmless "crap vandal" things alone. Hope you enjoy yourself, END OF DISCUSSION! editorEهեইдအ😎 00:47, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

The only reason I found out about this discussion and the editor's recent activity is that I was alerted to this thread when he tagged me in it. I support ANI or indef based upon the above reply and the WP:GRUDGE user has for editing that took place three years ago. (see Talk:Judith Barsi#Recent edits and WP:NOTMEMORIAL) The user engages in WP:DE, gets called out and then backtracks ("OK. I'll do the right thing next time. it's my fault..." above and "Okay, I can get maybe...was dumb to do" from Talk:Judith Barsi). Based upon those comments above, profanity included in the rv to his own talk page and the April Fool's AFD activity, is this editor competent? AldezD (talk) 22:04, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

@AldezD, I haven't looked into the history in any depth, but this looks to me more less like someone being intentionally disruptive/tendentious, and more like a very young editor who doesn't understand Wikipedia's internal culture, and getting frustrated and lashing out when it's pointed out that "ignore all rules" isn't synonymous with "you can do whatever you feel like without consequences". That pattern of behavior can still eventually lead to the boot, of course, as this guy just learned, but it's not a clear-cut block-on-sight, since a lot of editors start off with this mindset, and then grow into productive and non-disruptive contributors. Given that he (I think we can safely assume this one is a he) has just posted the ravings in this section and the one above on one of the most watched pages on the wiki, there will presumably be enough extra eyes on him now that he's unlikely to fly off the handle again, and if he does then there will be a number of people considerably more trigger-happy than me watching him.

Regarding the profanity issue, my attitude is that swearing in the heat of the moment just falls under general snappiness and shouldn't be sanctionable, unless it's clearly intended as part of a pattern aimed at intimidating other users (in which case the issue is the attempt at intimidation rather than the language used). (Out of curiosity, and now that this incident and the others mentioned are stale enough that no action is going to be taken regardless, User:HighInBC would you have considered the above outburst actionable, leaving aside "Go fuck yourself, you assholes" which obviously was?) "Offensive language" is a nebulous concept that's proved impossible to define in the context of a global project encompassing editors from multiple cultures, one of our current arbs was recently ranting like a toddler who's just discovered that using naughty words makes mommy and daddy pay attention over at the Signpost, and the world didn't come to an end. To my mind, rather than trying to define "civility" or "offensiveness", the questions to ask are "are you intentionally trying to upset people?" and "once told a particular action is upsetting people, are you continuing to perform that action without being able to justify its necessity?", neither of which I would say apply here. ‑ Iridescent 04:21, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

About my cremation category

I didn't realise that cremation is actually more common when I think. I just assumed all my life that burial was more common because it's traditional in some places and cremation has only been in my home country (Ireland) since 1982. I don't know what the rates of cremation are in Ireland, but I didn't know how common it is in the countries you mention. I only added in the category because it already existed on Simple English Wikipedia and I thought it might put a little more knowledge on the encyclopedia. I can understand why some people think it might be irrelevant or informal, but I think it has a right to be on Wikipedia. Even Find A Grave, which explicitly states burial on a grave profile, now accepts cremation.

Lembowman (talk) 10:18, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

References

This is not a conversation for my talk page; I have no control over the outcome, and you need to go to the deletion discussion and make any arguments you want to make there. (Your argument that smaller grave plots mean more space for future interments is a misunderstanding of how burials work, by the way; unless the estate of the deceased has paid for a perpetual plot, or the deceased is a public figure or war hero whose grave is serving as their memorial, the grave will typically be reused after a while. Even within strict Christian traditions, once the flesh has decayed the bones become fair game to be dug up and treated in some very peculiar ways.) The cremation rate in (southern) Ireland is about 15%; it's lower than the rest of Europe because the only functioning crematoria are in Dublin and Cork meaning a large swathe of the country is out of range, because the RCC still has some influence and disapproves of the practice, and because a lower population density means little pressure on burial space.

Findagrave isn't something you should be taking as an authority on anything. It's a user-generated website, to which anyone can contribute, and which has considerably less fact-checking even than Wikipedia. To repeat the same point yet again, the reason FAG "accepts cremations" is that the majority of people are cremated and burials are becoming ever-less-common in the Western world; particularly in high-population-density countries like the UK and Japan, you'll be quite hard-pressed to find a non-Muslim public figure from the last few decades who wasn't cremated. ‑ Iridescent 13:31, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

That's a bit extreme - I've watched quite a few coffins go down over "the last few decades", & most major politicians still seem to be, never mind the royals - no cremation for Diana or the Queen Mother. Central London is perhaps different, but then you have to go the suburbs to get cremated anyway. The RCC no longer "disapproves" of cremation, since a few decades ago, but it did before that. I've always found it interesting that early medieval Ireland (and British Celtic areas) noticeably resisted the early medieval craze for body part relics (itself a rather late arrival to ancient Christianity). All the big "Celtic Christianity" relics and reliquaries relate to personal possessions that had regular physical contact - books, bells, staffs, at least one belt (Moylough Belt Shrine, Nat Mus Ireland, 8th Century), anticipating the way modern museums and collectors treat those of historical figures. The Tibetans are rather like that, too. Johnbod (talk) 14:13, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

@Johnbod The above was an addendum to my comment at Category talk:People who were cremated to which this section is a reply, where I explained that the cremation/burial ratio in the UK is about 3:1 (e.g. 75% of the deceased are cremated), which is easy enough to source; the premise for the creation of Category:People who were cremated was that it was necessary to help break the stereotypes that all people are buried after they die and that cremation is uncommon, which is clearly not true in any part of the western world other than a few fundamentalist pockets in the US and a few specialist fields such as Commonwealth War Graves. (I wrote London Necropolis Company; you can safely assume that I know more than I ever wanted to about the changing attitude to cremation in the West, the near-collapse of the burial industry as an unexpected consequence of the Cremation Act 1902, and the post-war salvation of the industry through mass immigration from cultures which disapproved of it.) I disagree about "most major politicians"; of the recent PMs who weren't posh enough to have family graves like Macmillan and Douglas-Hume, only Harold Wilson was buried; Heath, Callaghan and Thatcher, none of whom were exactly free-thinking radicals, were all cremated, while the Kremlin Wall has the ashes of so many dignitaries in it, it's a wonder the thing hasn't collapsed. US Presidents are invariably buried rather than cremated, but that's because their mausolea invariably become secular pilgrimage sites.

Having to trek out to the suburbs in Britain is a matter of custom and practice (and of where the early 20th century funeral railway lines ran), rather than legislation. Provided there's no environmental impact (burning mercury fillings, plutonium-fuelled pacemakers etc) and enough of a surrounding structure that there's no realistic possibility of outraging public decency, there's nothing in law to stop you building a crematorium in your potting shed provided you can persuade the council to grant planning permission (relevant case law).

Is the lack of relics in Celtic Christianity an artifact of their not keeping relics, or just that the RCC and the Reformation between them did a better job between them at destroying the shrines? The existence of barrow mounds implies that there was a tradition of veneration of the body in the British Isles going well back into prehistory. Veneration of objects which were believed to have had contact with holy figures dates back at least to Acts 19:11–12 in Christianity and before that back into prehistory, as all the assorted Swords of Achilles, Aaron's Rods and the like knocking around the Greco-Roman world testify (I've been intending for about a decade to do something about the woeful state of Palladion), and certainly wasn't limited to the Celtic Church. ‑ Iridescent 21:48, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

They don't seem to have kept body-part relics, perhaps because they were out of touch during the period (roughly 450-650) when they came into fashion in the Western church (probably as saints buried outside cities were dug up to keep the remains from barbarian desecration). I split off Palladium (protective image) (after a little tussle on the talk page) some years ago, but these are a rather different thing. Try getting planning permission for a crematorium in the burbs - or rather don't. The traffic implications alone would doom it. Johnbod (talk) 13:19, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

There are a surprising number of urban crematoria in Britain (although you wouldn't know it from Wikipedia's sparse coverage of the topic), generally strung out along railway lines in what was wasteland or existing cemeteries at the time of the 1902 Act; the City of London, Manor Park and East London crematoria in Newham are probably the best known, but you also have Craigton in Glasgow, Warriston and Seafield in Leith, a whole cluster of crematoria in Tyneside, Yardley and Robin Hood in Brum, the Golders Green—Saint Marylebone—Islington & Camden—Hendon—West London string of crematoria along the old Necropolis Railway lines from King's Cross, Hither Green, Honor Oak and Lewisham in south London… The limiting factors are more property values at the time (hence the shortage of crematoria in Manchester which persists to this day), "were the neighbours at the time the things were built important enough to have their complaints heard?" (no peasants spreading their oiky ashes in Bath or Cambridge, thank you very much) and "was there a road or railway nearby to transport the coffins and mourners?" than any particular urban/rural bias; as with everything that generates smoke there's also a bias against building to the west of well-to-do areas. Carcharoth might have more thoughts on the topic. Category:Crematoria in the United Kingdom is embarrassingly empty at present if you disregard its bizarre subcat Category:Golders Green Crematorium, but after the hassle of dealing with LNC I'm not wildly keen to touch cemetery articles again, especially given the general apparent lack of interest in the topic among readers. ‑ Iridescent 15:44, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Yes, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Death seems as quiet as .... Johnbod (talk) 17:25, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

I never really got the point of WikiProject Death. A project to deal with funeral customs and monuments sounds reasonable, but their "any article which mentions someone dying" means a hopelessly vague sweep ranging from 1740 Batavia massacre to Tomb of Antipope John XXIII to List of posthumous number ones on the UK Singles Chart, which doesn't seem of any use to anybody. ‑ Iridescent 19:23, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Not much to say on crematoria. Graveyards and cemeteries (with legible gravestones and people with history) are far more interesting. On the Death WikiProject, I remember that popping up on my watchlist at the time it was populating its scope. A bit wide, yes, but not too bad. Regarding memorials (my real interest), there is Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Military memorials and cemeteries task force, but am not sure there is anything on memorials and monuments (and funeral customs) more generally. The closest would be something like Wikipedia:WikiProject Public Art, which does have task forces, but geographical ones rather than thematic ones. On the topic of death, someone has had fun with the Death & Taxes disambiguation page. Carcharoth (talk) 07:42, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Mortonhall

Some crematoria and columbaria are quite interesting, particularly those which were designed in the hope of bringing some awe into proceedings, rather than just being a municipal shed or a mock-Victorian chapel with a chimney attached. Mortonhall in particular is something of a high point of 1960s British architecture (and one of the few places, along with its near twin Coventry Cathedral, where the "the intentional ugliness will force people to contemplate the purpose of the building" strand of brutalism actually works), and the columbarium at City of London does a very good job at condensing the atmosphere of a late-Victorian cemetery into a single building. ‑ Iridescent 13:05, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Interesting. Well, quite interesting... I got distracted by poking around those categories and finding Template:Cemeteries, crematoria and memorials in Richmond upon Thames. The creator of that template created a lot of the articles there, and I (as someone who knows the area well) am pleased that the articles were created. A small part of me is sad though that some articles I had considered creating (but never did) have now been done, and that some articles I thought it would not be possible to write an article on, have had an article created anyway (proving me wrong). (There is probably a 'law' of Wikipedia in there somewhere, along the lines of 'If you dither about creating an article, someone else will eventually create it instead'). I do like Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton. That is a hidden gem I'd never heard of before. Carcharoth (talk) 13:51, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Liliana Crociati de Szaszak (and her dog Sabu)

I like that—I have a soft spot for anyone whose grave makes an effort to stand out without resorting to bombastic columns or giant angels. As I've mentioned previously on occasion, my personal favourite (albeit not in London) is the Tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak, which (per my comments about Mortonhall Crematorium and Coventry Cathedral above) is so remarkably out-of-place among the usual dignified elegance that it's virtually impossible to walk past without stopping to look, which is surely the primary purpose of a memorial. I also have a soft spot for long-forgotten Victorians whose graves confidently predict that they will live forever through their works ([1], [2], [3]).

The best inscription (as opposed to best monument) in London is surely Susanna Barford in Southwark Cathedral. ‑ Iridescent 05:21, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Proposing a new userright

Hi Iridescent, just want to confirm that, if I propose a new userright here, I would need to do it at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy), is that correct? FYI, a draft of my proposal is currently here. This proposed right came to me after reading the talk page to RFA, responding in the "Please come forward" section, and reverting (because I think my contributions didn't help). Anyway, let me know. — Andy W. (talk · contrib) 23:31, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Scratch that. I'm starting to think this doesn't really have a chance to go through. Feel free to let me know if you did have other thoughts, but I'm not expecting a reply anymore at this point. Anyway, cheers. — Andy W. (talk · contrib) 00:27, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

I don't think it would have a chance, as it would mean a major revision of Wikipedia policy. Wikipedia policy has always been that blocking is preferable to protection as greatly inconveniencing one user is better than marginally inconveniencing a large number (Wikipedia:Protection policy is explicit that semi-protection is for when blocking individual users is not a feasible option), but creating a group with the ability to protect but not block would inevitably lead to a surge in protections even in cases where it's just one editor causing problems and everyone else editing the page is getting along fine.

If you want to go down the unbundling route, you'd be much better off looking at a "restricted blocker" userright which only has the ability to block newly-registered accounts and only for a few hours maximum. This is the only "limited sysop" proposal I can imagine that has a chance of being accepted, although there are certainly valid arguments to be made against it; the most obvious one that springs to mind is that it would come to be seen as a stepping-stone to "full" adminship, thus discouraging those who want admin rights for non-vandal-fighting reasons and further encouraging the generally-undesirable characters who want to play cop.

Bear in mind that despite the general complaints about the state of RFA, pretty much every hierarchical alternative has at some point been discussed in depth and it's been concluded that the result would be even worse than the existing flat setup. Most of the proposals are linked at Wikipedia:Perennial proposals#Hierarchical structures; Kudpung can point you towards the detailed discussions, if you're interested. ‑ Iridescent 11:08, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

I think it would be a good idea to bring WereSpielChequers into this discussion because IIRC he has been advocating some form of unubundling the blocking right for some specific cases of vandalism. I'm not sure that it would improve our campaign against vandalism and I'm not sure if it would greatly unburden our active admins, particularly those who watch AIV which seems to enjoy a fairly rapid response, but if such a proposal were well crafted, I believe I would support it. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 01:15, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

There are various tests as to what makes a sensible unbundling. The most basic include "Are there a bunch of editors out there who could make good use of this tool but who are currently unlikely to pass RFA?", "Can this be done without creating extra work for our remaining admins?" and "Does it make sense to have this tool and not the other admin ones such as delete?". Protection is rare compared to blocking and deletion and as Iridescent points out if you unbundle it you are liable to have an increase in protection. There is one right that I think we could and should unbundle; Block newbie. There are a number of vandalfighters whose AIV reports show they are ready to block vandals and perhaps spammers, but unless they have some content contributions the community won't trust them with the power to block logged in members of the community. Unbundling a block unblock tool that didn't work on IP ranges or registered accounts with more than say 100 edits would allow our vandalfighters the tool they need and are ready for, but reserve blocking of the regulars to full admins. It has been discussed and rejected more than once, and I suspect it will take a little more debate before we get consensus. Assuming the number of admins continues to fall we will at some stage need to do this in order to keep the site functioning smoothly. Where I disagree with Iridescent is that I wouldn't restrict the lengths of the block, we should only give users this right if we trust them to indef block vandalism only accounts. ϢereSpielChequers 11:27, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

RfC History of South America

Hi Iridescent, you may wish to comment. Kind regards -- Marek.69 ^talk 04:01, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

I'll have a look, although it might take a bit as the two versions are both long. Also pinging User:RexxS who might be interested in this (or know other people who are), as this isn't really an RFC on the history of South America per se, but on broader issues of accessibility in relation to long articles and topic outlines. ‑ Iridescent 04:20, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Ariel

re: "legal status of Ariel" I pretty sure you weren't talking about the font - but I wasn't sure if I should choose from this page, or this page. <smiles> ... hope you are well. — Ched :  ?  00:19, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Neither; this page which probably causes more hassle than any other page on Wikipedia, as the I-P editwarriors on both sides generally see it as the point on which they won't compromise, and will target anything with even the vaguest connection. Check (for instance) the recent history of Mobile, Alabama, which has a single passing mention of the place. ‑ Iridescent 04:20, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

How Wikipedia Works, part 94

Arbcom is currently launching a full case regarding an (admittedly policy-violating) April Fools joke, which was probably seen by less than fifty people. Meanwhile, the Main Page with an average of 16,000,000 views per day, is currently graced by:

• Did you know ... that Welshmen are sometimes called sheep shaggers? [4]

For some reason, Britannica has neglected to follow Wikipedia's lead in this instance. ‑ Iridescent 16:42, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Just gonna leave this here... Opabinia regalis (talk) 21:08, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

I'm more amazed that anything in the Signpost managed to get pageviews in triple figures (although I assume when the figures are updated, the fleecy bleaters will overtake it shortly). Presumably most of that 4000 hits on the case is actually accounted for by 15 arbs and 25 participants each refreshing the page periodically over the day to see if each fresh comment was something they needed to reply to, but still impressive (although just to put that in perspective).

I know you're not allowed to comment on cases etc etc etc but you do realize you've just signed up to make a decision with which nobody involved can possibly come out of with any credit, when you could have just passed a "all of you, stop being idiots" motion and halted it in its tracks, right? ‑ Iridescent 21:36, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Permanent solution to the Gamergate problem, if you want one: get all those involved to nominate their favourite sources; blank the page and either hire a professional writer or commission a bunch of WP regulars with no interest in the subject to go through the sources and put together a balanced article; lock the article and its talkpage, topic-ban anyone who's ever been involved with it from ever using the word "gamergate" on-wiki, and insist that changes can only be made to it by WMF employees acting in an official capacity and any suggestions need to be submitted privately to the WMF. "The encyclopedia anyone can edit" is not going to fall apart just because it has one page where anyone can't, and this is a topic about which 99.99% of readers could not give a shit—at least other controversies like Israel, Crimea and bathrobes were of actual significance to those not directly involved in them. You're welcome. ‑ Iridescent 21:36, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

And you're right, shagging even beat fucking. That's the only other thing I could think of in the signpost that might have had recent, decent traffic. (Alternate interpretation: we put the words "sheep shaggers" in front of over 16 million people, and only 7k clicked?)

You know it is just no fair taunting one of the people who voted to decline ;)

As for gamergate, I was thinking an edit filter that catches any gamergate-related post by the topic's frequent fliers and replaces the entire content of said post with giant pictures of ants. Opabinia regalis (talk) 06:31, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Ping

Did you get my ping re: this? I never know whether to trust those things. SarahSV ^(talk) 22:02, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

@SarahSV Yes, but I don't think I've anything useful to add that I haven't already said. Per my comment at the case request, this is essentially an ethical question rather than a policy question, and I don't feel Arbcom is qualified—or, in most cases, has the authority—to be making ethical judgements on behalf of the rest of Wikipedia. (I don't think anyone, except a few True Believers, seriously contends that Gamaliel wasn't in breach of policy, so the question is one of whether Wikipedia has a concept of de minimis, whether good service in one area allows one to bank get-out-of-jail-free cards, and whether "the balance of my mind was disturbed" is a legitimate defense.) By accepting this as a case rather than a motion coupled with a "Gamaliel, resign one of your two positions as trying to do both is inappropriate and clearly burning you out" back-channel nudge, Arbcom has painted itself into a corner where inaction will lead to legitimate complaints that Arbcom are giving special treatment to their buddy (especially coming so soon after the Yngvadottir and Kevin Gorman cases, both of whom were thrown under the bus for less), but if they take any action they not only come across as compassionless (and potentially generate a fresh batch of "Wikipedia is blaming the victim!" headlines from lazy journalists who can't be bothered to look at the full picture*), but are heading into the uncharted waters of a contested impeachment, since I don't see how the committee could function with one of its members under active sanctions imposed by the others. ‑ Iridescent 08:47, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

*You wouldn't know it from some of the commentary, but this is not a case about either harassment or gamergate; this is a case about whether it is appropriate for a "Donald Trump threatens to sue Wikipedia" spoof headline to be preserved in the Signpost archive and about whether Signpost staff have an exemption from the usual rules on editwarring and discussion.

Since you were foolish enough to show you're online

Warning or block needed. [5] EEng 20:35, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

The IP has been stupid enough to take you to ANI now, so easier to let the WP:ROPE play out; the more people involved, the less likely he (it's invariably a he) is to complain that due process wasn't followed. ‑ Iridescent 20:38, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Another edit

No big deal, but I really never thought this was overlink. I thought it would be a helpful link but this is not something I harness with the same passion as the "e-mail" issue. I see I received the discretionary warning for what I did however, looks like someone desperately wishes me to be blocked. Henry Mazzer (talk) 21:45, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

You seriously believe our readers are unlikely to know what "American" means? It's pretty much the canonical example of everyday words understood by most readers in context.

Again, I can't emphasize enough how strongly I advise you to familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's key policies and guidelines, particularly WP:ENGVAR and the assorted subpages of WP:MOS (even though reading them is a soul-sapping exercise) before you continue your self-proclaimed "crusade" against what you consider bad grammar. (Quite aside from your obsession with hyphens, I also note your other self-declared crusade against the alleged error of the split infinitive, which even style guides as crusty as Fowler's concede is now legitimate in written English.) Cleaning up genuine errors is always welcome—and lord knows, we have enough to go round—but demanding the rest of the world conform to your particular set of arbitrary rules (exemplified by the ridiculous tantrum here) is never likely to end well.

Bear in mind that Wikipedia is written in multiple variants of English, and you need an extremely good reason to change between them. Even if "e-mail" were the preferred spelling in British English (which it isn't—even the OED, which is hardly at the cutting edge, prefers the unhyphenated "email", while the Guardian style guide uses "email" exclusively and doesn't even allow the hyphenated version as a variant), that still wouldn't permit you to change articles written in American, Canadian, Australian etc English unless you could demonstrate a clear consensus that the hyphenated version was preferred in that variety.

As an aside, Wikipedia's policy of assuming good faith means I'll take you at your word that the accounts are unconnected, but if the account which is consistently active at the same times as you, has the same edit style as you, and popped up on a discussion it had never visited before to support you is connected with you, I strongly advise you to drop one or the other of the two accounts. ‑ Iridescent 22:23, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

I take your point on ENGVAR, but just to let you know that the OED is far from being a prescriptive grammar. It is of a descriptive nature and it concedes in many departments where purists continue to insist on a certain usage. But then I too am a purist, and if language belongs to everybody then who am I to sit back and allow society to dictate. As for other accounts, I don't have any and for all I know, the other guy may not even be in the same part of the world as me. There is always technical evidence if someone wishes to check and I am fine with that. Henry Mazzer (talk) 23:20, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I love the fact that the OP, in what you call (quite rightly) his "tantrum", writes

E-mail should have a hyphen and this article should be moved permanently to Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy, it is poor English to leave out the hyphens in such important words.

Too bad the OP isn't as passionate about comma splices as he/she is about reactionary hyphens. EEng 22:55, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Uh, oh. Trouble brewing. EEng 23:03, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

No trouble brewing, and to answer your point, rules on commas are down to the discretion of the writer and not usually prescribed to be in one place. The passage one writes needs to be as the speaker would enunciate it. Henry Mazzer (talk) 23:20, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

You seem to be thinking of serial commas and so on. If you honestly think that a comma splice is ever acceptable in formal writing, except in the most self-consciously deliberate use, you've lost your grip. EEng 00:34, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Summary comments are informal, short talk messages are informal (sic). I know how to use the comma in formal writing. Henry Mazzer (talk) 04:55, 18 April 2016 (UTC)