User talk:ToBeFree

Please click here to add a new message!

Please note that you are currently not logged in.

This is not a general problem – you can leave a message anyway, but your IP address might change during the discussion, and I might end up talking to a wall. Creating an account does not require an e-mail address; all you need is a password and a name. You are not required to do this, but please consider creating an account before starting long-term interactions with other users. Thank you very much in advance.

Archives [megabytes]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Hi, a few months ago you banned user "StarryNightSky11". I've opened an investigation (Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/StarryNightSky11) as I'm certain he now uses a sock account. Can you please look into this? Thanks, Eem dik doun in toene (talk) 08:34, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Eem dik doun in toene, thank you very much for the well-written SPI request and the notification! Processing this case was unusually easy and led to quick confirmations. If I may nitpick, I only blocked – the term "banning" is mostly used when the community throws someone out by consensus. Such a ban can then only be removed by the community again. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 11:59, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No worries, thanks for handling it quickly! I indeed meant blocked, banning is a tat extreme:) Eem dik doun in toene (talk) 13:05, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:02, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there,

I know you're really busy, but please take a look at this discussion. I've changed my userboxes a couple days ago so some of the stuff there aren't the same anymore, but still. Is this showing respect to other editors and showing that they are here to build an encyclopedia? Thx.

I've also "think" that some of the userboxes were also the same from other users. What's it called when you copy userboxes from another user?

I would understand if Me Da Wikipedian does use this, for entertainment purposes .Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 23:20, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Myrealnamm, no worries and thanks for asking!

This is a bit tricky.

The following is an oversimplification and not legal advice. All Wikipedia pages including your user page are irrevocably freely licensed, and everyone including huge companies is legally allowed to copy, publish, even print and sell them without even asking for your permission, as long as your username is mentioned as the author or a link to the original page is provided. So even if I sold copies of your userpage (with a link to it at the bottom) to people who pay me hundreds of dollar for them, I would be allowed to do that, I wouldn't have to inform you about it and I would be allowed to keep the entire money. So from a copyright perspective, this is generally fine and a simple edit summary like "I copied this from User:Myrealnamm" would be sufficient attribution. I see no attribution in the page's history yet, but that's a small mistake that can be fixed. See also: WP:CWW.

Additionally, someone might argue that simply adding userboxes to a page isn't even sufficiently original enough to qualify for copyright protection at all (threshold of originality).

So in a nutshell, let's forget about copyright. Your first thoughts may have been about copyright and how this surely must be forbidden, but when the source is a Wikipedia page, it usually isn't. You published the content under a free license, and people doing things with the content you didn't intend to be done is quickly part of the experience.

However, we surely agree that copying someone else's user page isn't a nice thing to do. User pages represent you as a person on Wikipedia, and if someone copies your user page, that feels like they're copying your identity. Putting on a mask that looks like your face. Perhaps you're looking for the term "impersonation", perhaps just "laziness". While you have freely licensed your content, you're a member of a community that has agreed on civil interactions and excluding those who disrupt the peace. And a member of that community is behaving in a way that feels rather unfriendly. Even if there is no strict policy against their specific behavior (contrary to signature forgery), talking to them and informing them how their behavior makes you feel is important.

I think you did the right thing when you chose to talk to Me Da Wikipedian at [6]. You also already correctly note that it's probably not a copyright issue yet still understandably upsetting.

It may help to put this into perspective. Copying userboxes is a bit different than copying a long user-specific text. Copying userboxes and topicons is a bit different than copying a custom background like mine, perhaps. Most userboxes and topicons are made for being copied; they're templates, and templates are usually created for being transcluded by anyone who would like to use them.

The user is blocked and can't fix the attribution in the history of their user page at the moment. And please allow them to have a pause from Wikipedia instead of constantly getting notified about user/talk page edits. Ideally, just let the situation be as is. The user has been informed that copying user pages can upset their creators and currently can't continue doing so anyway.

Best regards,
~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:19, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, thanks for replying so fast! And yes, I knew there aren't copyright issues and all my work on this wiki is being published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL (It says so near the "Reply" button I'm seeing right now, and also the "Publish" buttons). It was just a little upsetting to see other users using my userboxes that I've used from my userpage (impersonation was what I was looking for).
Ok, I'll leave things as is, since the user is blocked for a while and can't do much. A break for them is really necessary . Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 00:43, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. :) Thanks! ~ ToBeFree (talk) 00:44, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]