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Revision as of 10:15, 5 July 2020 editGuy Macon (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, File movers, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers59,290 edits I have no idea what this person is on about. I have never even heard of that Wiki before this. Undid revision 966142507 by 2A01:119F:317:EA00:2D6C:9E5C:B5BF:A8EC (talk)Tag: Undo← Previous edit Revision as of 14:10, 5 July 2020 edit undo2a01:119f:31b:5d00:7107:fc20:3b3f:febc (talk) You have heard of this wiki before. Remember? https://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=User_talk%3AGuy_Macon&type=revision&diff=880304458&oldid=880304213Tag: UndoNext edit →
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--] (]) 07:26, 5 July 2020 (UTC) --] (]) 07:26, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

== Unicode Subsets wiki ==

Unicode Subsets wiki is at https://unicodesubsets.miraheze.org/Welcome_to_Wikicode_Subsets and you don't dare vandalize the wiki ever again. ] (]) 09:37, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Revision as of 14:10, 5 July 2020

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Oil Painting of Civil War Battle of Spottsylvania
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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 993,062,041 articles left until our billionth article!

We are only 993,062,041 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

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

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)

Message from guy's wife

A dash of colour. Guy, you are in our thoughts. El_C 21:31, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

guy had a heart attack cardiac arrest tuesday. No need to cancel anything. Final update later. --Guy Macon (talk) 20:25, 8 March 2020

I hope you get well very soon! Have some imaginary grapes to speed your recovery. Don’t forget, there are drain covers needing measuring and calibrating but they can wait for you. -Green Giant (talk) 00:33, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Guy is back!

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you haven't seen it yet, looks like Guy Macon is back! Guy recently edited the talk page of their RfA. Glad to see you back Guy Macon. Steel1943 (talk) 08:17, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

May I say, as an official medical editor, (doc James told me so on my talk page!!), that recovery is more important than Misplaced Pages. Roxy, the PROD. . wooF 08:28, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

A beer for you!

Thanks for participating in the Signpost Interview! I look forward to its publication. --Puddleglum (How's my driving?) 23:27, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
ditto Smallbones(smalltalk) 03:02, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

A beer for you!

Thanks for adding citations for the Tara Reade story. Adamwashere (talk) 19:14, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Barnstar of Diligence
As someone who has regularly followed your work, I just wanted to express my appreciation for the fact that very little escapes your eagle eye. It's a shame that cesspit of a forum they call RfA treated you the way it did, and if ever you make a fresh attempt for the tools I will certainly come out of retirement to support your bid for the bit as best I can. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 05:39, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
Kudpung กุดผึ้ง, the problem that I ran to address (too few admins doing too much work in some critical areas, which often leads to burnout) still exists, so I might consider trying again in December -- we should be over the pandemic by then.
Alas, if you want to win a vote you need to act at least a little bit like a (spit!) politician.
What I would need is help from you and other supporters during the RfA. Specifically;
  • If someone comes up with a valid objection, ask me about it in a neutral way along the lines of "how do you respond to the criticism about that time you climbed the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man?" to give me a chance to apologize, make it clear that I now know that it was wrong to do that, and that it can't happen again now that I have replaced my Spiderman costume with a Deadpool costume.
  • If someone comes up with a bullshit objection, respond with a counterargument along the lines of "Guy saying those mean things about The Daily Mail are not, as you claim, WP:NPA violations."
The key is not to whitewash any valid objections, but to give a measured response to objections that have nothing to do with being qualified to be a Misplaced Pages administrator.
So, is anyone reading this willing to help me, or should I just forget about it? --Guy Macon (talk) 11:28, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
So you get to answer the sensible questions sensibly, and we get to sit on the trolls? Sounds a fair division of labour; I'm up for some of that. Go for it. —— SN 54129 12:01, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Dropping Dead

At Arbcom I reflexively type Drop dead, ~~~~. E Eng 13:38, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
Speaking as someone who recently dropped dead (no pulse for a couple of minutes) I give it Zero Stars: Do Not Recommend.  :)   --Guy Macon (talk) 16:07, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
Before you dropped dead, and after I voted, I unwatched your RfA as everything wot is rong and horrid with wikipedia. should I read the Signpost article to get up to speed on what happened at the Rfa? Oh, and I'm very happy you are back, etc. Best, -Roxy, the PROD. . wooF 16:29, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Need help tracing down an original author

How are your Googling skills? I am looking for the earliest source for the famous "pipe specification" so that the author can get credit.

One early source is Bulk Water Pipelines By Tim Burstall (1997)

...but (1995) appears to be earlier.

START OF QUOTE FROM BULK WATER PIPELINES

Pipes: purchase and work specifications

1. All pipes is to be made of a long hole surrounded by metal or plastic.

2. All pipe is to be hollow throughout the entire length. Do not use holes of different lengths than the pipe.

3. The ID (inside diameter) of all pipes must not exceed the OD (outside diameter), otherwise the hole will be on the outside.

4. It is desirable that the hole in the pipe be the same diameter for the entire length, otherwise the contents of the pipe will get thinner in the smaller part of the pipe,

5. All pipe is to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam or other stuff can be put in at a later date if required.

6. All pipe should be supplied without rust; this can be more readily applied at the job site. Note: Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipes. This should be cheaper as it is usually old stock.

7. All pipe over 500ft (153m) in length should have the words "long pipe" clearly painted on each side and end, so that the contractor will know it is a long pipe.

8. Pipe over 2 miles (3.2km) in length must have the words "longer pipe" painted in the middle, so the contractor will not have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether or not it is a long pipe or not.

9. All pipe over 6in (150mm) in diameter must have the words "large pipe" painted on it, so the contractor will not mistake it for small pipe.

10. Pipes that are threaded on both ends should have either right hand or left hand threads. Do not mix the threads, otherwise the coupling is screwed on to one pipe as it is unscrewed from the other pipe. This could cause the pipe to be disconnected and then leak.

11. Pipes that are to have flanges must have then at both ends. Flanges must have holes for the bolts that are quite separate from the big hole in the middle.

12. When joining two pipes together with flanges, it is necessary to have flanges of the same size, otherwise the bolts will not fit into the holes and the pipes will not stay together, causing a likely leak.

13. When ordering 90 degree, 45 degree, or 30 degree elbows, be sure to specify left hand or right hand - otherwise you will end up going the wrong way and the required 180 degree elbows are an added cost.

14. When ordering pipe, be sure to specify to your vendor whether you want level, uphill or downhill pipe. If you use downhill pipe for going uphill, the contents will flow the wrong way.

15. Check if the pipe pipe includes ready made leaks. If not, these may be added during the construction process. Most pipes leak from the inside out but do not be surprised if the occasional one leaks from the outside in. In some instances where leaks are not desirable, to check if the pipe is working, it may be possible to use both types of leaks together, to offset each other.

END OF QUOTE FROM BULK WATER PIPELINES

DISCUSSION:

It is doubtful that this originated with Burstall. Compared to other humorous material widely posted on the Internet, the copies of the pipe spec have a large number of inconsequential wording variations (pipe vs. pipes, must vs shall vs. should) that strongly suggest something that was hand copied, faxed, or mimeographed multiple times.

I found a copy of a USENET post from "1987 to 1989" at with some interesting variations. I could not determine the date it was posted.

Another interesting variation can be found by googling "Scottish Regiments in the Army use Army pipes in unusual ways" (with the quotes). I found one example from 1998:

There are a fair number of additional jokes added to various copies, possibly suggesting someone retyping from a poor-quality fax.

Some examples (Try putting quotes around them and googling):

  • All pipe is to be of the very best quality, preferably tubular or pipular.
  • All pipes shorter than 1/8 in are very uneconomical in use, requiring many joints. They are generally known as washers.
  • Joints in pipes for piping water must be water-tight. Those pipes for compressed air, however, need only be air-tight.
  • All pipe is to be free of any covering such as mud, tar, barnacles or any form of manure before putting up, otherwise it will make lumps under the paint.
  • All pipe closures are to be open on one end.
  • All pipe fittings are to be made of the same stuff as the pipe.
  • Pipe specified as "Straight Pipe" shall not have fittings within its length, otherwise it becomes "Crooked Pipe."
  • Lengths of pipes may be welded or soldered together. This method is not recommended for concrete or earthenware pipes.
  • Other commodities are often confused with pipes. These include: Conduit, Tube, Tunnel and Drain. Use only genuine pipes.
  • All acid-proof pipe is to made of acid-proof metal.
  • Gaskets are to be made of metal, rubber, plastic, paper, or some kind of goop - do not use cow or sheep manure. It cracks when it gets dry.
  • All completed piping lines must go somewhere and connect to something. The fitter is required to verify this before turnover.

--Guy Macon (talk) 17:10, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

What article is this for?  I'm not sure how the Internet Archive decides when to capture pages, but the earliest capture of the 1980s joke is from 1999. . Kolya Butternut (talk) 15:53, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
The USENET jokes were published as The Internet Joke Book in 1995. Check out the editor, Brad Templeton. It looks like he published the jokes annually, but I only see as far back as the 1989 volume. Kolya Butternut (talk) 17:03, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine, September 1992, page 51.. Kolya Butternut (talk) 17:48, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
Note that Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine is published in Ontario, and Brad Templeton went to the University of Waterloo.  Kolya Butternut (talk) 17:59, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
Great detective work! Thanks! --Guy Macon (talk) 19:03, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
October 1986 magazine! The Australian ham radio operator is the earliest I've found. Kolya Butternut (talk) 23:44, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
This suggests the joke is from before 1963. Kolya Butternut (talk) 00:55, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
It's probably satirizing engineering bulletins like this from 1896: "1.2.64...All pipes...should be larger when their length is great". But the joke perhaps spread among Australian ships by radio while they were laying pipelines, and then once it was published in Amateur Radio magazine in 1986 some Australian might have read it and posted it on the internet. Kolya Butternut (talk) 03:52, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Warm wishes

Hello Guy,

For some reason, I did not notice your RfA, and was unaware of your cardiac arrest until I read The Signpost interview. I apologize for not commenting until now. I am so sorry you went through such a harrowing experience and very happy that you are recovering. Your written description of your ordeal was moving and informative. For what its worth, my father survived two similar incidents before dying of cancer, but he was never able to speak frankly about what he experienced. I thought of him wistfully as I read your powerful account. I wish you good health in the months and years to come. Cullen Let's discuss it 17:19, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Best wishes ..

.. for a continuing recovery.

The Signpost article made me aware of WP:YWAB, which states the undeniable truth, but in an unusually clear way. It's remarkable that some people disapprove of such statements (for another example, see the David Nutt article and grep "Jacqui Smith"). Maproom (talk) 07:53, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Balls

Dryer balls of course. -Roxy the elfin dog . wooF 13:37, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Damn, good job I checked again. BALLS. -Roxy the elfin dog . wooF 14:37, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
(Smile). Please note that WP:YWAB says
I wasn't aware of dryer balls before, but a Dryer ball is not the same thing as a Laundry ball.
Now that I have looked at it, I will edit and improve the dryer ball article, which sucks. It doesn't mention the main claim, which isn't softening but rather faster drying because clothes clump together less -- even though the Popular Mechanics source talks about it. Also, that PM source concluded "difficult to detect a noticeable difference other than increased noise" rather than "unable to find any beneficial effects" and mentions that the the director of home appliances and cleaning products at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute recommends inserting a foreign object into the drum when drying products made of down. Also, the article doesn't doesn't mention using a tennis ball or an old sneaker rather than buying dryer balls. Pretty sad for an article with 52 revisions by 40 editors since it was created in 2008.  :(
Related: did you notice my question at Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Science#Mothballs? Have you ever smelled mothballs? If so, I have one question for you: how did you get their little legs apart? --Guy Macon (talk) 17:23, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
^_^ Talk 📧 22:33, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
I'm one of those 40 editors! The Popular Mechanics article didn't even test wool dyer balls. It looks like professional research will take some work to find. Kolya Butternut (talk) 23:59, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

s. urls

Hi Guy-the url you removed here is only for spam tracking, so that the user's talk page will show up in spam link searches. It's useful if someone tries to respam the link months later; we can see that previous users already tried to spam it, at which point we have a good argument for blacklisting. I suppose these link reports accomplish the same thing, but I see no harm in adding an additional level of tracking, at least to named user pages. OhNoitsJamie 15:42, 23 June 2020 (UTC)

Ah. I thought it was some sort of typo. I usually do a URL search and remove any other spams when reporting a spammer, so the evidence of respamming would be useful for me as well. (Note to self: when spamming, wait until Ohnoitsjamie puts up an s. url, them make it a valid URL to my spam.) (Good thing spammers are mostly idiots who aren't smart enough to take advantage of this...) I have a suggestion: if you use https://spam.example.com instead of https://s.example.com the purpose of the bogus URL will be more obvious. --Guy Macon (talk) 17:55, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
You know, it's funny...I used to use "spam" instead of "s", but I noticed others using "s" so I thought maybe there was some convention I should be following. Point taken, I'll go back to "spam" or "spamtracking" for clarity. OhNoitsJamie 17:57, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
I am going to attempt to get consensus an agreed-upon convention. It would be a small improvement but small improvements add up. See Misplaced Pages:Help desk#Spam tracking URLs for my starting point. --Guy Macon (talk) 00:45, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

link!tracker.testingwikipedialinksearch1.com

link!tracker.testingwikipedialinksearch1.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Misplaced Pages: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

This is a test to see if Misplaced Pages's link search gets confused by the "!" in the above URL. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:49, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

linktracker.testingwikipedialinksearch2.com

linktracker.testingwikipedialinksearch2.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Misplaced Pages: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

This is a test to see if Misplaced Pages's link search works without an "!" in the above URL. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:49, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

A minor gesture of protest: W?F

As a minor gesture of protest against the Wikimedia foundation's decision to rebrand itself with Misplaced Pages's good name, until they back down I choose to call them "the "W?F".

Feel free to assume that this stands for "WMF", "WPF", or "WTF".

I call on those who oppose the rebranding to start using "W?F".

"We should have been clearer: a rebrand will happen. This has already been decided by the Board." -- Heather Walls, head of the Communications department at the Wikimedia Foundation and executive sponsor of the Brand project.

Sometimes it is the small things that tip the scales. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:40, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree. There is also an RFC about the proposed rebranding, which I have just opposed. Bishonen | tålk 19:32, 2 July 2020 (UTC).
Good idea, I can finally imagine I've had a 14-year WWF run instead of just pretending to imagine, brother! InedibleHulk (talk) 08:48, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

I shouldn't laugh

I know I shouldn't. It is bad and wrong of me to laugh. But this left me with coffee all over my keyboard. Guy (help!) 08:57, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

@JzG: I'm not familiar with the "Misplaced Pages Song" in question, but, given the context, I choose to assume that it's the Internet-infamous Pokémon Go Song but with the main lyric replaced with "I edit Misplaced Pages E V E R Y DAY", the other lyrics replaced with something vaguely relevant, and that it's on a ten hour loop. Nathan2055 20:28, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
I'm an editor and I'm O.K.
I type all night and I sleep all day
He's an editor and he's O.K.
He types all night and he sleeps all day
I revert spam, I add new cites
From the Times or the BBC
On Wednesdays I check spelling
And then post an RfD
He reverts spam, he adds new cites
From the Times or the BBC
On Wednesdays he checks spelling
And then posts an RfD.
He's an editor and heeee's O.K...
He types all night and he sleeeeps allll daaay!
--Guy Macon (talk) 21:03, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Thread in The Signpost

Hi, I just left a comment about the rebranding, and consider the process as one more straw. Also, I refactored your last statement on the talk page to conform with the other comments. I think the conversation is still too short to fork it. You are welcome to revert—I will save my pitchfork for when we storm the castle—I actually know where to find the proper type. — Neonorange (Phil) 23:34, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

You (and any other good-faith editor) are free to edit anything I write. No need to ask permission; I can always revert if I object. --Guy Macon (talk) 23:37, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for the thanks. The traditional pre-industrial age pitchfork had three wooden prongs. I will make do with an early 20th pitchfork with four steel tines. Does W?F select for tone-deafness? Well, back to my polemics—I so seldom get a chance in Misplaced Pages. — Neonorange (Phil) 23:45, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

Two more Bitcoin related AfD's

I have nominated these for deletion, the one about Amir is already there for a few days, but nobody seems to have an opinion yet. If you like you can leave yours:

I thank you in advance for your input!

--Ysangkok (talk) 07:26, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Unicode Subsets wiki

Unicode Subsets wiki is at https://unicodesubsets.miraheze.org/Welcome_to_Wikicode_Subsets and you don't dare vandalize the wiki ever again. 2A01:119F:317:EA00:2D6C:9E5C:B5BF:A8EC (talk) 09:37, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

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