Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)

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I want all my edits reverted.

I know this will be completely ignored especially considering corporations who don’t care at all about user’s privacy like Google but I will say this anyway. I want all the edits I have made reverted. I want everything I have added onto Wikipedia removed.

I believe it is my right to privacy and just as people are allowed to add content to Wikipedia they should also be allowed to remove content they have added. 92.9.187.249 (talk) 22:11, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Whenever you edited Wikipedia in the past, you were informed in writing with each individual edit that you agree to our Terms of Use and agree to irrevocably release your text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License and GFDL. That was a legally binding agreement that you accepted with each edit. Accordingly, you have no such right and no basis for making this request. Cullen328 (talk) 22:18, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes. The good old terms and services trick. Well, I am not surprised. Well then, you continue editing Wikipedia if it makes you feel good but as for me well I am getting out of what I consider a digital rubbish can set on fire. With that being said safe travels fellow internet surfers. This is me finally signing off from this site once and for all! 92.9.187.249 (talk) 22:36, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is not a "trick". It is a legal agreement that you voluntarily entered into every time you made an edit, and it is essential to the success of the #7 website on earth, with page views exceeding ten billion per month. I hope that you find a hobby that will be more satisfying to you. Cullen328 (talk) 23:28, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not to minimize the licensing issue, but there's also a practical side to this. Let's say you created an article some time ago and over the ensuing years, multiple people continued to edit it. A good example from my own editing might be The Lincoln Project. I created it four years ago but at this point only 7% of the text is mine. Even assuming we wanted to revert everything I wrote, how could we possibly unravel that and leave anything coherent? RoySmith (talk) 23:35, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This being an IP address, we have no way of knowing who was editing from it when past edits were made. For all we know, the person making this request only just gained access to this IP address today, and is actually asking us to remove someone else's work. BD2412 T 01:09, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if the IP regrets not the edits, but the fact of not logging in (and thus exposing the IP address). I clicked through a handful of edits, and they seem to be quite ordinary, with no obvious privacy implications (e.g., punctuation fix). If hiding the IP address is what's actually wanted here, then it is conceivably possible that this could be accomplished somehow (e.g., Wikipedia:Revision deletion) without actually removing the content itself. WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:02, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that the IP was upset because of this filter action; OhNoitsJamie almost immediately implemented the IP's changes, but perhaps the IP did not notice this? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 04:21, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, revdelling 360 edits on someone's sayso is absurd. We shouldn't allow people to hide from the consequences of their actions like that. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 05:02, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is an interesting problem in that the inability to apply the 'right to disappear' might be a problem for EU editors. Reverting 360 edits is trivial compared to some 'right to disappear' actions needed; for instance, a person participating in a Clinical Trial asking that all information about them be removed from all databases - completely non-trivial, and completely doable via approved procedures at pharma companies. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 02:53, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Projects have always embraced the right to remember, for both technical and social reasons. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:15, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I also believe that you agreed to this. If you want everything reverted, why did you add it in the first place? I am agreeing to the following terms by sending this message:

By clicking "Reply", you agree to our Terms of Use and agree to irrevocably release your text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License and GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.

Which means that once it is put, you can't take it back, the word irrevocably in the legal terms is what is stopping you. Also, you have an IP address instead of an account, which means that again, you may be removing hundreds of people's work, and they might actually want that. Hellow Hellow i am here 16:51, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even when people agree to something, they sometimes come to regret it later. That's okay. They're stuck with (most of) it in this case, but it's okay for them to be sorry about their past decisions. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:25, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. If "irrevocably" wasn't in the legally binding contract, I would be on their side. However, it is, and so once you have added it it is too late to remove. Hellow Hellow i am here 17:40, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And while if a company has your personal information they must delete it at your request, you gave the Wikimedia Foundation no personal information, and instead research, or fixed typos. To follow up, it is ridiculously hard to undo your edits if someone already edited over your edits. Hellow Hellow i am here 16:54, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Finally, this IP address has created several articles, which would be deleted (the creation of an article is an edit) which means that every created article by this IP address would be deleted, which is something us Wikipedians won't accept. Hellow Hellow i am here 17:00, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The OP's request as originally worded violates Wikipedia's Terms of Use and would be pragmatically impossible to implement in general for reasons others have pointed out. But it is interesting to explore how far their request could accomplished, especially in light of the GDPR. There's a page at Mediawiki:GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and MediaWiki software that discusses some of the issues related to deleting a user's contributions and their IP addresses. A hyper-liberal interpretation of the GDPR and what private data means would make using Wikipedia impossible. For example, the OP's interpretation where all content they've added somehow involves their privacy is absurd: a typo fix in an article, for example, does not have anything to do with privacy and is not private data. WhatamIdoing's suggestion that their IP address be hidden in histories, etc., is reasonable and doable. But this redaction cannot reasonably for practical purposes extend to mere mentions of your IP address everywhere, for example, in comments by others. And the comments that we don't know if the same person made all the IP edits is a good one. Imagine if a handful of our most active editors decided to do what the OP wants, it would eviscerate Wikipedia. I am not versed in EU law but would surely hope the nature of collaborative websites are factored in to how the GDPR is interpreted by the courts and some technical common sense would prevail. Plus, I don't see how a GDPR right to disappear would overrule the legal agreement you made every time you made an edit. Without further clarification, we don't know what the OP wanted or why but it is an interesting topic to see how a "right to disappear" could actually be implemented and to what extent. Jason Quinn (talk) 13:11, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fortunately, most of the ambiguity around privacy of and ownership of IP addresses will go away when temporary accounts are rolled out on enwiki. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 18:51, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Surprising that no one has suggested starting by removing this one. —Tamfang (talk) 20:34, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry

Moved to Talk:John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry § Oscar Wilde card

— Preceding unsigned comment added by RoySmith (talk • contribs) 22:45, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WMF disclosure of editors' personal information

Activity at the WMF Village Pump has gone up considerably since this developed, but for those who don't usually check the page: there are ongoing discussions about the WMF's decision to hand over editors' personal information to an Indian court. These can be found at Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF)#The Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation situation and Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF)#Contacted by one of the editors. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 01:15, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Small mistake -- room for improvement

I suspect that this new ("Talk:" page) section: Talk:Leslie_Winkle#"Oops"_#REDIRECT:_its_destination_[anchor]_has_apparently_been_re-named
might get "little or no" attention unless someone sees it mentioned in a place like this.

((uh-oh ... IF the above "attempted" wikilink does not work, then ... maybe try this instead.))

By the way, perhaps that above-mentioned "Talk:" page section -- which is brand new, right now -- might be difficult to find, in the future ... if/when it has been archived.

(Perhaps even when using the link displayed as "this", where, besides those [ill-advised?] square brackets in the section name, having been "escaped" [in some way] by using "percent-5B" and "percent-5D", it also uses a full URL starting with "https" instead of a syntax involving "double" square brackets.)

If so, then this link to the DIFF listing might help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ALeslie_Winkle&diff=1255765446&oldid=1203561430

Thank you, and please forgive me if I chose the wrong place to add this "mention".

-- Mike Schwartz (talk) 16:20, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Schwartz, when a redirect isn't working correctly, just fix the target that it's pointing to. I've repaired Leslie Winkle. Schazjmd (talk) 16:47, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Schazjmd : Thank you. -- Mike Schwartz (talk) 17:04, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Schazjmd: It's not always that simple. "Just fixing the target" can be a real problem if someone reorganizes the target article and changes sections' titles. Been there, experienced that.

CiaPan (talk) 18:37, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Let me clarify what I meant: fix the target on the redirect page. If the redirect page is pointing to a section that has been renamed, change the wikilink on the redirect page to the new section name. Schazjmd (talk) 18:44, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fictional flag used in multiple places

This problem is not unique to the English-language Wikipedia, but I'm starting here because this is my native language. I'm bringing this to an explicit discussion here rather than just editing so that we can build an explicit consensus that I can then show the other Wikipedias.

Four en-wiki articles use File:Standard of the President of Syria.svg despite it being tagged on Commons as a fictional flag. I can think of no good reason it should remain in any of those articles, nor in any article in any Wikipedia. The articles are Flag of Syria, President of Syria, Gallery of head of state standards, and Battle of Darayya (November 2012–February 2013). It also shows up at Talk:Pan-Arab colors, which I presume is harmless. - Jmabel | Talk 01:23, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see a bot being viable that checks for flags (and maybe maps) tagged either as fictional (or frankly, with Commons:Template:Datasource needed) and strips them from articles. Remsense ‥ 论 01:26, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen this kind of thing in the past. I remember one user who created and uploaded to Commons dozens of fictional flags for provinces in various countries, and then added them to WP articles. Another user and I spent a fair amount of time documenting the flags were fictional and getting them deleted. (See Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Fictitious flags of municipalities of the Dominican Republic&diff=prev&oldid=353306231#Files in Category:Fictitious flags of municipalities of the Dominican Republic) fictional flags created for just one country.. Donald Albury 16:00, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think this is a more general case of Commons is not a reliable source. I often see people take images in commons completely at face value, including them in articles without any real source. Commons has very different rules than enwiki. They are mostly concerned with copyright and licensing, and (intentionally) make no attempt to verify that images are "real" or that the descriptions are factually correct. That's just not their job. But it is our job when we use one of their images in an enwiki article. RoySmith (talk) 16:21, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not exactly fictitious, but there was also the case of Flag of Vatican City#Incorrect version where we had an inaccurate flag for years which spread across the internet and out into the real world. the wub "?!" 17:14, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I belong to an organization which has a flag. The design is described in exquisite detail in our charter ("white stripe, whose width is one-sixth of the hoist", that kind of thing). I sat down one day and carefully drew an example in a drawing app, taking pains to get the geometry exactly as described. The charter (long) predates things like Pantone, but I did consult with a commercial artist to get their input on the correct RGB values to use for the colors and attempted to get all the people who produce material for us to use these "official" versions. Eventually I gave up and accepted that people will just copy-paste from whatever is handy. Now I just amuse myself by tracing the lineage of various bits of marketing material by which version of the flag they've got. But, yeah, we should do better than that. RoySmith (talk) 17:25, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]