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"Misplaced Pages's articles are no place for strong views. Or rather, we feel about strong views the way that a natural history museum feels about tigers. We admire them and want our visitors to see how fierce and clever they are, so we stuff them and mount them for close inspection. We put up all sorts of carefully worded signs to get people to appreciate them as much as we do. But however much we adore tigers, a live tiger loose in the museum is seen as an urgent problem." --WP:TIGER

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Only 993,056,363 articles left until our billionth article!

We are only 993,056,363 articles away from our 1,000,000,000th article... --Guy Macon

Depiction of Wikimedia Foundation destroying Misplaced Pages with Visual Editor, Flow, and Mobile App

--Guy Macon

Calvin discovers Misplaced Pages

• "A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction into a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day." -- Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes. --Guy Macon

Another chart

Page views for this talk page over the last year
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. Detailed traffic statistics

--Guy Macon

Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet

"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time." --Neil Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
--Guy Macon

Just because you have some money, that doesn't mean that you have to spend it.

Updated essay: see new "2016-2017 update" information near the bottom.

User:Guy Macon/Just because you have some money, that doesn't mean that you have to spend it.

--Guy Macon

The most important page on Misplaced Pages

User:Guy Macon/On the Diameter of the Sewer cover in front of Greg L’s house‎ --Guy Macon

"...It looks like Misplaced Pages is really pulling out all the stops in their latest appeal to their users..."

Donations Needed: Misplaced Pages Has Posted An Appeal Asking For One Night Of Physical Intimacy From Each User --Guy Macon

Misplaced Pages Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence

"The Revolution's main adversaries were the patriots and the people from Braveheart," said speaker Tim Capodice, who has edited hundreds of Misplaced Pages entries on subjects as diverse as Euclidian geometry and Ratfucking. "The patriots, being a rag-tag group of misfits, almost lost on several occasions. But after a string of military antics and a convoluted scheme involving chicken feathers and an inflatable woman, the British were eventually defeated despite a last-minute surge, by a score of 89–87."
--Guy Macon

Misplaced Pages: DNA edition

• Startup packs all 16GB of Misplaced Pages onto DNA strands to demonstrate new storage tech --Guy Macon (talk) 14:42, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Captcha

Hi Guy, thank you for raising the captcha issue. I had been aware that there was a problem, what I hadn't realised was just how long the Foundation have known about it and done nothing. It's a really important issue - until it is fixed the "Encyclopaedia anyone can edit" claim rings rather hollow. My sister is a senior executive at a major educational organisation which has a blind board member. Anything they do to support him in his role, they do for any of their staff and students who need it. Why? well, of course they wish to avoid legal problems, and they wish to attract the very best, regardless of disability, but it's also a matter of behaving with basic decency. All the best, DuncanHill (talk) 20:00, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Raystorm's response here. DuncanHill (talk) 21:47, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Guy (pinging because it's an old thread), thanks for raising the Captcha/blind accessibility issue; I learned of it at User talk:Doc James#13 years. It's infuriating to read the account of it. I suppose this would never rouse the level of interest as the ongoing WMF ban issue, but do you suppose an independent project page somewhere to follow all developments would be worthwhile, as opposed to scattered fragments on Talk pages here and there, which eventually get archived? Not sure how I could help, but if you think of a way, let me know. Mathglot (talk) 05:11, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Hey, just thought of one way, maybe: do you know anybody at Signpost? How could we get this into the next issue? Surely that couldn't hurt? Mathglot (talk) 05:13, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

WMF Financial Transparency

Have asked folks from WMF Finance dept. to answer your queries, Let's see ..... ∯WBG 09:32, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! Links: --Guy Macon (talk) 19:36, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Have emailed them too at the same time, asking them (or someone else, who is in charge of the affairs) to kindly attend the queries.

So far, no reply. ∯WBG 14:20, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Have replied over email. Since there's absolutely nothing, which can be rationally expected to be minimally private information and I'm (thus) copy-pasting the reply for your convenience:-

Hello Winged Blades of Godric and <redacted> (CC'd),

Thanks for your message. Our practice is to provide information about the Foundation’s budget and the work that is being funded at our Annual Plan pages and Medium-term plan pages, which is the most important work informing expenditures. You can find information about previous years and see how the budget has changed over time. I have linked to those and additional pages, below.

The information specifically referenced in the thread that you linked to (GuyMacon's questions) was shared with the Audit Committee and the Board at the time the expenses were incurred, in line with our procedures for governance and reporting. You can view board meeting minutes and board meeting materials on meta.

We have also been pointed to this discussion about the possibility of 10 followup questions. Keeping in mind our ethical, legal, and time limitations, we would be interested in hearing a little bit more about what had you in mind.

Best,

James

Links:

• https://meta.wikimedia.org/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan  

• https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/

• https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/2018-annual-report/financials-leadership/

• https://meta.wikimedia.org/Wikimedia_Foundation_reports/Financial/Audits/2017-2018_-_frequently_asked_questions

CC:-Kudpung. ~ Winged Blades 06:42, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Please send James the following reply, saying it is from me:

START OF PROPOSED EMAIL FROM GUY MACON

I have searched your email to Winged Blades of Godric dated and titled and carefully searched every link you provided.

I could not find the answer to my question (see copy of question below).

You ask "we would be interested in hearing a little bit more about what had you in mind" What I have in mind is that you either answer the question I asked, tell me who can answer the question I asked, of just tell me straight up that the WMF refuses to answer the question I asked.

Here, once again, is my question:

• Some here have, quite reasonably, asked "where does the money I donate to the Misplaced Pages Foundation go?" Well, about two and a half million a year goes to buy computer equipment and office furniture.

That's roughly twelve thousand dollars per employee. The report says "The estimated useful life of furniture is five years, while the estimated useful lives of computer equipment and software are three years." so multiply that twelve thousand by three or more -- and we all know that at least some employees will be able to keep using a PC or a desk longer than that.

I would really like to see an itemized list of exactly what computer equipment and office furniture was purchased with the $2,690,659 spent in 2012 and the $2,475,158 spent in 2013. Verifying that those purchases were reasonable and fiscally prudent would go a long way towards giving me confidence that the rest of the money was also spent wisely.

If I can't get an itemized list of where the money was spent, could I at the very least get a breakdown as to how much was spent on computer equipment and how much was spent on office furniture? It wouldn't be an actual answer to my question, but it would at least allow me to either ask a question about computer equipment or ask a question about office furniture instead of repeatedly asking the same question about computer equipment and office furniture.

A little bit of financial transparency would go a long way here. -- Guy Macon

END OF PROPOSED EMAIL FROM GUY MACON

Getting back to my ongoing discussion with Winged Blades of Godric (in other words, not part of the question I want asked in the email), WBG, in your opinion does the above email answer the question I asked?

Also, concerning the claim "The information specifically referenced in the thread that you linked to (GuyMacon's questions) was shared with the Audit Committee and the Board at the time the expenses were incurred, in line with our procedures for governance and reporting. You can view board meeting minutes and board meeting materials on meta", does anyone reading this believe that back in 2013 they predicted the question I would ask years later and gave the Audit Committee or the Board an itemized list of exactly what computer equipment and office furniture was purchased with the $2,690,659 spent in 2012 and the $2,475,158 spent in 2013.? Or did they simply give them a copy of ? --Guy Macon (talk) 14:44, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

User:Winged Blades of Godric It has been a month. Did they ever respond to that email? --Guy Macon (talk) 02:39, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

Reasoning

"Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired: for, in the course of things, men always grow vicious, before they become unbelievers..." --Jonathan Swift ( 1721)

In modern language that would be

"You cannot reason people out of something they were not reasoned into. They will viciously attack you instead of abandoning their beliefs".

--Guy Macon (talk) 12:59, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Captcha

In case you haven't seen this yet: I just noticed a few pages that were posted recently on Mediawikiwiki: A description of the WMF Captcha Initiative (which specifically mentions the problems the current Captcha system causes for the visually-impaired) and the notes from a meeting yesterday by the Captcha working group. It looks like they're finally taking the Captcha problems seriously. --Yair rand (talk) 23:12, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

The good news: They appear to be finally working on it.

The bad news: after me asking pretty much everywhere nobody at the WMF thought that I should be notified. Instead I only found out about it when when a sharp-eyed minion ... henchman ... co-conspirator ... cabal member ... fellow editor noticed it.

So what was that again about the WMF working closely with the community and keeping us informed? :(   --Guy Macon (talk) 02:45, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

We have been discriminating against blind people for 13 years, so why not go for 14? --Guy Macon (talk) 05:02, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Well, at least they had a meeting... a month ago. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:06, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

If you are watching this page, I could use your help.

Because of some ongoing health issues, I have been forced to limit how much time I spend editing Misplaced Pages. One of my essays (WP:YWAB) is becoming popular, so I am asking for help in fixing obvious problems in some of the pages that essay links to. In particular, I would ask for help improving:

• Holocaust studies
• Mendelian inheritance
• Cargo aircraft
• Venipuncture
• Water treatment

...so that they no longer need cleanup templates at the top.

Any help with these or any other pages I link to in my essay would be very much appreciated. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:06, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

• Best wishes for health. Hyperbolick (talk) 05:26, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
• Sorry I can't be of assistance at this time but echoing Hyperbolick's sentiment. Nil Einne (talk) 22:44, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
  • Thanks to both of you. It means a lot to log on to Misplaced Pages and find that somebody cares. --Guy Macon (talk) 23:27, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

File mover granted

Hello Guy Macon. Your account has been granted the "filemover" user right, either following a request for it or due to a clear need for the ability to move files. Please take a moment to review Misplaced Pages:File mover for more information on this user right and under what circumstances it is okay to move files. When you move a file please remember to update any links to the new name as well! If you do not want the file mover right anymore, just let me know, and I'll remove it. Thank you, and happy editing! Kevin (aka L235 · t · c) 20:05, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! I will endeavor to use my new powers wisely... BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!! --Guy Macon (talk) 20:42, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Rooting for Team Blue and against Team Red

Hey there. I would like to ask you a question, which you're free to ignore or not answer, but I think it would help me to understand your perspective better.

I have asked homeopathy fans a version of this question for years: what would convince you that you're wrong about homeopathy? The answer is usually of the form "this miracle cure would have to have not happened" - effective insulation from falsification. The scientific method grew out of the replacement of philosophical truth by empirical fact. It was held for centuries that heavy bodies fall faster than lighter ones, even after experiments proved this not to be true, because the rhetoric of Aristotle was accorded to be superior.

So, from everything I have seen of you, you live in the real world. Where, for you, is the line? What is "too far"? Do you believe that the impeachment inquiry is justified at this point? Do you accept that there is a difference in kind between the conservative media bubble and partisan-liberal sources, as documented in Network Propaganda? Guy (help!) 10:31, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

What would convince me that I was wrong about homeopathy would be multiple double blind and replicatable clinical trials showing that a 500C or 500CK Homeopathic solution has an effect on humans that pure distilled water does not. If they could do that, I think we would both become homeopathy supporters. But of course they can't do that.

(For my other henchmen talk page watchers, 500C and 500CK doesn't refer to temperature in Celsius or Kelvin as one might expect but rather two different ways of diluting something, both of which pretty much have the same end result. Let's look at CK. The Korsakovian method dilutes the base substance at the rate of 1 part of the previous dilution with 99 parts of solvent. For water soluble materials the solvent is pure distilled water. Other substances might use pure ethanol as the solvent. So, remove 99% of the "Mother Tincture" and replace it with the same volume of the solvent. "Succuss" it (fancy word for "shake vigorously"). The result is called 1CK. Take the 1CK and dilute it again at 99:1. That's 2CK. Do that 498 more times and you get 500CK, otherwise known as "100% pure distilled water without a single molecule of the original substance left".)

You could do the pretty much the same thing same with your claims about Team Blue (We already agree about Team Red). Show me how when Team Red gets into power (congressional or presidential) we invade other countries but when Team Blue takes over we withdraw. Show me how when Team Red gets into power federal spending and/or federal debt goes up but when Team Blue takes over it goes down. Show me how when Team Red gets into power the NSA starts listening in on my cell phone but when Team Blue takes over they stop. Show me how when Team Red gets into power the wealthy can buy whatever laws and regulations they want but when Team Blue takes over they can't. Show me how when Team Red gets into power cops get to steal your stuff without charging you with a crime but when Team Blue takes over they are forced to stop doing that. Show me how when Team Red gets into power a person (plus a bunch of innocent bystanders) outside of any war zone can be killed by a drone strike with no chance to contest the kill order in a court of law but when Team Blue takes over that stops happening.

Or you can keep focusing in on how the previous Team Blue president did all of these evil things with a smooth, college educated demeanor and really seemed like a nice guy while his replacement is doing the exact same evil things with the demeanor of a reality show star and while really seeming like a thug. Go ahead and do that. I will agree about the demeanor and about the thuggery. But at least be honest and admit that you are unable to show me any of the things I ask about in the paragraph above this one. --Guy Macon (talk) 16:32, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

It doesn't look like I am going to get any response about the many ways Team Blue and Team Red are the same, so here is an area where they are way different:

Death knell or $1 million idea? Trump’s campaign tries to turn gaffes into gold.

Key quote:

"Both episodes underscore the way Trump’s 2020 operation is using the most controversial moments of his presidency to electrify his base, reinforce his brand as the disrupter in chief and assure voters that — despite his incumbency — he’s as much a political outsider now as he was when he first ran for office 4½ years ago. With exactly one year to go until Election Day 2020, the tactic is one team Trump plans to employ as much as possible, primarily, it says, because it cannot be replicated. 'These are the things that only the Trump campaign can do because of who our candidate is,' a senior campaign official said. 'What would be the death knell for any other candidate is often a $1 million idea for us,' another declared, adding they have 'a candidate who loves rallies, loves campaigning and loves using Twitter, so there are plenty of opportunities for us to take what might be politically incorrect and capitalize on it.' "

As someone who favors neither team, I find this to be an interesting strategy. Of course those who would rather jump into a volcano than vote Trump will say that it can never work, but it seems to have worked last time... Another interesting question; what kind of Democratic candidate would be best at beating this strategy? A radical firebrand who talks about socialism and taking away assault rifles by force, or a solid, reliable (and boring) candidate with slightly left-of-center positions that are more likely to attract independents?

Not that it matters. No matter who wins, we will get more wars, more spending, more debt, more surveillance, and further increases in the power of the Presidency at the expense of Congress. In the last election, the only candidate who wanted to stop the wars (Rand Paul) got single digit support, This election the only candidate who wants to stop the wars (Tulsi Gabbard) is getting single digit support. And the parties that want to stop the wars (Green, Libertarian) regularly get -- you guessed it -- single digit support. Clearly the American voters want us to be at war forever.

Despite Vow to End 'Endless Wars,' Here’s Where About 200,000 Troops Remain. --Guy Macon (talk) 00:45, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

My edit were not for promotion of my website or any other blog

Hey,

Thank for sharing your insights. However, all the contributions made by me were genuine and not for any promotional purpose. In the blade eagle 3d page, I cited its professional website. On the https page, I cited the source which only talks about https history. I found that link after an intensive search. On the URL redirection page, I cited the source which comes on top of the google search engine for that particular inquiry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rubygoel41 (talk • contribs) 09:26, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Please note that the message I posted on the Rubygoel41 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) talk page was...

Thanks for contributing to Misplaced Pages. However, do not use unreliable sources such as blogs, your own website, websites and publications with a poor reputation for checking the facts or with no editorial oversight, expressing views that are widely acknowledged as extremist, that are promotional in nature, or that rely heavily on rumors and personal opinions, as one of Misplaced Pages's core policies is that contributions must be verifiable through reliable sources, preferably using inline citations. Thanks! P.S. If you need further help, you can look at Help:Contents/Editing Misplaced Pages, or ask at the Teahouse. Thank you.

...and not...

Hello, and welcome to Misplaced Pages. While we appreciate that you enjoy using Misplaced Pages, please note that Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia and not a place for blogging or promotion. So please do not try to use Misplaced Pages to promote yourself or your family, band, product, or company. The subjects of our articles have to meet certain notability requirements and be written from a neutral point of view. Off-topic material may be deleted at any time, even if it's on your user page. We're sorry if this message has discouraged you from editing here, but the ultimate goal of this website is to build an encyclopedia. Thank you.

In other words, the links were not reliable sources. I didn't say they were promotional.

It may be that Rubygoel41 was warned about promotional editing under another username. I find it unlikely that a new user would be such an expert on formatting Misplaced Pages pages. --Guy Macon (talk) 16:21, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Advice

Hi Guy. I was thinking of becoming a pedophile Nazi bed-wetter cabal leader and wondered if you had any advice? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:34, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

I doubt that either of us meet the strict entrance requirements for that group. However, being labelled a pedophile Nazi bed-wetter cabal leader is easy. Just publish something like my WP:YWAB essay.

BTW, There Is No Cabal (TINC). We discussed this at the last Cabal meeting, and everyone agreed that There Is No Cabal. An announcement was made in Cabalist: The Official Newsletter of The Cabal making it clear that There Is No Cabal. The words "There Is No Cabal" are in ten-foot letters on the side of the 42-story International Cabal Headquarters, and an announcement that There Is No Cabal is shown at the start of every program on The Cabal Network. If that doesn't convince people that There Is No Cabal, I don't know what will. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:44, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Phew! what a relief. I guess there's also no truth in the despicable rumour that Misplaced Pages has another nickname. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:05, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

For my loyal minions sycophants fanbois fanpersons talk page stalkers, the post the above refers to is at -Guy Macon (talk) 15:52, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

News & Reliability

Thank you. The comparison made me smile. I look forward to proposing Fred and The FFN for inclusion at WP:RSP in just under 5 months from now. - Ryk72 10:57, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! For my loyal henchmen henchpersons talk page stalkers talk page watchers, the post the above refers to is at -Guy Macon (talk) 15:41, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

Hey! I subscribe to the Frostbite Falls. Roxy, the dog. Esq. wooF 15:48, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

True

. I have never been especially good at coping with people whose response to losing an argument is to carry on with the same rejected assertions as if it never happened at all. Guy (help!) 14:50, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

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