User talk:HJ Mitchell

Hello and welcome to my talk page! If you have a question, ask me. If I know the answer, I'll tell you; if I don't, I'll find out (or one of my talk-page stalkers might know!), then we'll both have learnt something!

Admins: If one of my admin actions is clearly a mistake or is actively harming the encyclopaedia, please reverse it. Don't wait for me if I'm not around or the case is obvious.

A list of archives of this talk page is here. Those in Roman numerals come first chronologically

This talk page is archived regularly by a bot so I can focus on the freshest discussions. If your thread was archived but you had more to say, feel free to rescue it from the archive.

Nominations now open for the WikiProject Military history newcomer of the year and military historian of the year

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i would like to vote for others as the clerk Amogelang22 (talk) 18:22, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Block

Dear Mr Mitchell,

I don't know you and I'm pretty sure you don't know me.

I have never edited Wikipedia in my life yet I see that you have blocked me. If this is true, and I suppose it must be, can you explain your action? I am nonplussed. I'm not used to this method of communication and I can't give you an email address, so unsure how I can read your reply.

Yours sincerely,

John Clinch Johnclinch (talk) 15:54, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

@Johnclinch That you managed to post this is evidence that your account is not blocked. My guess is that you share a connection with someone else who has caused us problems. As long as you're logged in, most blocks won't affect you. Even if you do see a block message, you can still read Wikipedia as blocks only apply to editing. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:01, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

Harry, the CU log shows Jpgordon looked into this a little while ago. Drmies (talk) 15:12, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, it's exactly an anon block that OP complained about. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 15:20, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

On AfD

Coming from the ACE discussions of your musings, although I am not running for ArbCom, I'll say that I do not think AfDs are votes. Sometimes, they can seem like one, with editors coming down hard on either the delete or keep sides, but those are rare. Often, I see several editors proposing different solutions (delete, redirect, merge, keep, and many others), or debating the finer points of sourcing and notability guidelines, and the AfD really is a discussion. Those are the best AfDs. But they're probably also a pain for closers, since there isn't always a "majority" in favor of one solution. The only reason I add a bolded "vote" before my comments at all is to help the closer skim the discussion.

RfAs, on the other hand, are votes. Toadspike [Talk] 15:56, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

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ip vandal

Hello, i assume you struck two BLP violation edits that 69.11.41.241 made. There is a third edit [1] that is basically the same as the two struck ones—blindlynx 23:10, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

@Blindlynx thanks, that one's gone as well now. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you!—blindlynx 01:53, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Teahouse question about WP:PERM

Hi HJ Mitchell. I came across WP:THQ#Question on why this happened at the Teahouse and for some reason the OP restored their request even though it had been archived by a bot earlier that same day. The bot has already tagged it again. It seems a bit odd that the OP would re-add a request that had already been declined and archived almost a month and a half ago. Anyway, since you're active on that noticeboard, perhaps you could try to help the OP at the Teahouse and explain what happened (if you yourself understand what happened). It seems like the OP's re-adding of the request was just a misunderstanding on their part, but I'm not too familiar with how the PERM stuff works. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:18, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@Marchjuly I'm not really sure what happened there to be honest. @Ahecht: made the edit. It looks like they edited an old version of the page or possibly edit-conflicted with the archiving bot. I'm certain there was no malicious intent. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 12:52, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@Marchjuly I replied over at Teahouse, but I'm as confused as you are as to what I did. I must've somehow gotten on an old revision of the page and edited it, but no idea how I got there without realizing it. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:07, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@Ahecht: No worries from me. I'm sure whatever happened didn't happen out of malice towards the OP or anyone else and was just mistake. I'm not sure why the OP felt they couldn't ask you directly about but that's probably something you could ask the OP about if you really want to know. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:08, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@HJ Mitchell. Thanks for helping to sort this out. I've been editing for a long time and never had much of a need for these kinds of rights; so, I don't really understand all of the details of how they work. Since you did grant the TH OP's request, I defer to your judgment; however, the fact that they felt unable to discuss this with Ahecht (apparently not due to anything Ahecht has done) is kind of a red flag to me. Someone requesting one of these "advanced" permissions should be willing/confident enough to discuss things with others. The "notice" at the top of the OP's user talk page seems benign perhaps but it could also be a concern. This user seems to be doing lots of good things in patrolling for vandalism/non-constructive edits, and is placing lots of warnings on the user talk pages of others. It's great when someone decides to do that, but it also invariably can lead to confrontational and contentious discussions. Someone stating they "can be very sensitive to certain things posted" on their user talk page is one thing, but for the same person to also post they "don't feel very comfortable" discussing things on another user's talk page, even when they know that person to be an admin, at a place like the Teahouse could mean they might've chosen the wrong areas to try to help out in. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@Marchjuly Meh, pending-changes reviewer is probably the one you (one) can do the least harm with and the one least likely to get you into confrontational situations. You just review pending edits on pending-protected articles and accept them if they're not vandalism. We give it out pretty liberally. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 22:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Understand and thanks for clarifying. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:02, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

That's like three in a row

Normally I just thank when I go to block and see someone is already blocked, but there's been a few in a row now and that deserves a real message. Thanks! ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:49, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Admin's Barnstar
		For taking care of the vandalism here. Nice job! Though I suppose User:Pickersgill-Cunliffe deserves this too... 😉 JeffSpaceman (talk) 14:37, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

HJ Mitchell's Long-Lost Cousin

Plz tell your cuz I said hi. Drmies (talk) 00:51, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Ha! I wonder if that's related to the next entry in the cu log, the one with the interesting username. Did you find anything interesting? I'm on mobile and I hate CU'ing from a phone. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 00:55, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. I'm getting this quote from Curly Howard. I won't lie, it was absolutely hilarious to see that name appear. Like really, I can't stop laughing. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 00:58, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

IP socks

Hi, it is regarding unsourced edits by possible IP-socks of this IP that you blocked yesterday. They have been making similar edits like the blocked one, including the change of census figures [2] [3] [4]. I'd like to request page protection [5]. Thanks. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 17:22, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I put a month of semiprotection on Diphu. EdJohnston (talk) 17:49, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Your passion for history and learning is inspiring!

LukeEverhardt (talk) 20:56, 24 November 2024 (UTC)