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Old dusty archives
Modern clean archives


I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. Barack Obama

Our text should arise as a summary of the reliable sources, rather than editors first deciding what they want to say and then looking for sources. Agricolae

I am open to recall, using Whpq's wording from their RfA:
"if editors I trust and respect are telling me I should not be an admin, then I would voluntarily resign as an administrator."


Talk page archiving

Am i being more-than-usually dim, or did you not get around to telling anyone just where you put the threads you archived? DuncanHill (talk) 11:29, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, or have they got misplaced by subsequent moves? DuncanHill (talk) 11:32, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Subsequent move. Here is where I placed them: Talk:Kingston_upon_Hull/Archive_4. I'll take a look into the move, see if I can sort it out. SilkTork (talk) 11:43, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Move was done today: [1]. SilkTork (talk) 11:44, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I just asked for it to be unmoved at WP:RMT. DuncanHill (talk) 11:46, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I've already restored the name, and left the mover a note. SilkTork (talk) 11:51, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April songs

April songs
my story today

I loved to see Marian Anderson and her story of protest against discrimination by singing on Easter Sunday 9 April 1939 on the Main page on Easter Sunday 9 April. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:35, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Gerda. SilkTork (talk) 14:08, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
My story today, Messiah (Handel), was my first dip into the FA ocean, thanks to great colleagues. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:29, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Music holds a special place for me. I very briefly (and very badly) played drums in a temporary local band. At the moment I'm listening to the Small Faces debut album: Small Faces (1966 album). I didn't see the Small Faces play live, but I did see Steve Marriot fronting Humble Pie at Hyde Park in 1971 (I'm in the crowd on the inside cover for Humble Pie's Rockin' The Fillmore. I believe I'm also on the inside cover of a Grand Funk Railroad album, from the same concert). And I saw the rest of the band twice, when as The Faces they backed Rod Stewart at Weeley Festival, and later at the Hemel Hempstead Pavilion (where Stewart pulled me up on stage with him to sing "Maggie May" arm in arm - a very precious memory indeed!) SilkTork (talk) 14:04, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for sharing, that sounds really special. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:18, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Today is the 80th birthday of John Eliot Gardiner. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:43, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Cool. I briefly knew the conductor Raoul Lay in Marseille, when his daughter was dating my wife's nephew. Good man. We ran the Old Port of Marseille race together a good few years ago. I don't think we have an article on him. Not quite sure how notable he is. SilkTork (talk) 07:47, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's not too difficult, - all but two of my choral conductors have an article in English. You just need 2 reliable sources, and better a review among them than the typical bios that get printed in program notes. Gardiner, however, will be as famous as can be, conducting before the coronation. I wondered about the spike in vies a few days ago but that explained it. (forgot to sign) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:59, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I found these - what do you think Gerda? [2], [3], [4], [5]. There are other things, but they are either mentions of the short time with Malta, databases, or notices of albums or performances, but nothing in depth on Raoul (outside of Malta). It appears to me that the only (Wikipedia) noteworthy thing he did was briefly lead Malta, and then leave. And that was really only noteworthy in Malta. SilkTork (talk) 15:04, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Quick comment: the only RS of those is #2, saying that he was already sacked when he left - which makes me think that we do him perhaps no favour making that more public. - I just started an article on a young promising singer, about whom I found only good news, including that people laughed loud which isn't yet in the article. He impressed me greatly in the last-mentioned Britten pieces, and only writing this made me realise that I had seen him before (Carmen, Salome, Midsummer) but medium roles. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:42, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
We agree. I had no knowledge of the Malta incident, and it doesn't read well. The other stuff is not notable. SilkTork (talk) 18:32, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
yesterday's story was around Messiaen, and I got no protest, - perhaps the ice age is going to end? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:41, 28 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You may remember Lobsterthermidor

After protracted discussions you indef blocked him in Feb 2021 - see his talk page. It's now evident that he only stayed away until August that year, when he resumed editing as 212.104.155.43 (talk · contribs · WHOIS), an IP that he'd previously used occasionally when not logged in (see here, for example). Apart from that the duck test amply proves identity - compare the latest edits here (related to Beverston, Berkeley and Gloucestershire) with those on Commons, where he has continued his prolific editing; and this mini-rant compared to what he said in his post-block apologia. Sigh.  —Smalljim  13:13, 10 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank for that Smalljim - I'm not one for blocking accounts merely because they are returning blocked users. For me, if the user is now editing productively and usefully, then let them continue. However, after glancing through contributions I see they are continuing to bloat articles with the same trivial and off-topic data they were cautioned for under their previous account: [6], as such I have blocked the account. I note that they had for some years been using that account alongside their registered account without declaring it - though, as your link shows, they were not actually hiding it either. SilkTork (talk) 15:45, 10 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
True, he never tried to hide that IP address and readily admitted edits were made when he failed to log in. It's a shame it's taken so long to notice its renaissance (he's stayed away from anything that would have been on my watchlist). Over 1,400 edits! Thanks are due to Belle Fast for spotting it and querying it with me this morning. Anyway thank you for your measured response and action. Best wishes  —Smalljim  22:27, 10 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, he's tended to be a low level nuisance - someone who doesn't really stand out, and whose contributions need thinking about to spot that they are unhelpful, so doesn't really get much attention. I note that his IP talk page is full of notices of mostly minor concern. Nothing that is really going to grab most people's attention enough to look further, so well done to Belle Fast for spotting that this was a problematic user. SilkTork (talk) 08:20, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Ingenuity

Hey, just wanted to let you know that this is still showing as open on the main RFA page.   ArcAngel   (talk) 17:04, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The new admin took care of it: [7] :-) SilkTork (talk) 18:00, 15 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sockpuppet Email

I don't really check my Wikipedia email and haven't for a while, since I kept getting spammed by this one guy (and therefore gave up on opening any of them because he wouldn't stop incessantly sending me spam), but I finally checked and realized he's emailed me from at least five different sockpuppets of a banned account. His email is andy-academia@hotmail.com and every single account emailed from that same email, the newest account being Melvin Jansen. I replied to his newest email and requested that he stop emailing me, but I thought a CheckUser should know. Bill Williams 15:37, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

He sent me emails from the accounts Dur Godiva, Noha Erssam, Rohitikarma, CPH Eagle, Melvin Mor, and Brian Arps (those are the ones I see after looking through my email). I only opened a few from Dur Govida and responded thinking he was just some normal user, but once he started spamming me I just ignored all his emails. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all of those accounts were sockpuppets of the same person. Bill Williams 15:44, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry to hear about your problems Bill. I'll discuss this with you by email. SilkTork (talk) 17:55, 16 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Understood, thanks for letting me know. Bill Williams 01:57, 18 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

May songs

May songs
my story today

10 years ago OTD, I received a lovely barnstar. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:26, 17 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

my story today is that 300 years ago today, Bach became Thomaskantor, with BWV 75, writing music history. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:30, 30 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Deadnaming

I'd like to respond to this post of yours. Just so you know, referring to a transgender person by their former name is considered one of the most offensive things you can say to us, even if you aknowledge the name change, as you did. I'm sure you didn't mean anything bad by it, and I otherwise agree with your comment. Just some advice on how to put it. ^_^ -- Maddy from Celeste (WAVEDASH) 07:15, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Hardly deadnaming, Manning was very well known, and still is, by both his pretransition and her posttransition names. A bit of an over reaction Maddy. - Roxy the dog 07:23, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]