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Welcome to my talk page!
Note: I prefer to keep discussions unfragmented. If you leave me a message here, I will respond to it here as an effort to keep the entire conversation in one place. Unless you request otherwise, I will ping you so that you know I have responded. By the same token, if I leave a comment on your talk page, please respond to it there.

Thank you!

ACP Writer's question[edit]

"However, with all due respect, you are not answering my questions: do you have a conflict of interest? Are you a paid editor? HouseBlaster (he/him) 00:48, 30 May 2024 (UTC)"[reply]

To answer your questions:

Do I have conflict of interest?

No, I believe I do not have any conflict of interest as I have no close affiliation with the company. I am not related, employed or invested in that company.

Am I a paid editor?

Yes, I work for a company which they hired to create a wiki article about them. Despite this, I told them specifically that wikipedia articles (based on my readings) are not something they can control as anyone may edit it.

As for changing the username I do not see any options offered to accomplish. Please see below a snip of my Preferences Page.

ACP Writer (talk) 12:08, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Hi @ACP Writer: weirdly enough, you can't change your username through your preferences. See Wikipedia:Changing username for instructions. Cremastra (talk) 17:18, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@ACP Writer: Thank you Cremastra explaining how to rename your account; their advice is correct. I will let you follow those directions before proceeding further, though I will note that being paid to edit is inherently a conflict of interest. HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:05, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Purpose of Wikipedia:
"Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by presenting information on all branches of knowledge. Hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, it consists of freely editable content, whose articles also have numerous links to guide readers towards more information."
If the purpose can be achieved with an article that was written, why should it matter if the person was paid or not to write it? Having such an article deleted even if it did conform with Wikipedia's purpose seems... wrong. So with you or anyone's help, I am hoping it is still possible to get it up there.
Anyway, I submitted the request for name change. ACP Writer (talk) 07:18, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@ACP Writer: paid editors have a really hard time maintaining a neutral point of view. For instance, the draft article you created contained lines like Using the same booking platform, travelers receive the convenience of booking rail and bus tickets in conjunction with flights, making it easy for travelers to connect from one mode of transportation to another. This is too promotional: we don't describe things as convenient or easy.

Anyhow, while we are waiting for a rename, we need to make sure AccessRail qualifies for an article on Wikipedia. We call this "notability", which is a bit of a misnomer: it has absolutely nothing to do with "fame" or "importance", and everything to do with coverage it has received in reliable sources. You can read the guideline at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), and you should read the entirety of the "primary criteria" section. Once you have done so, please provide a list of three or four sources which demonstrate notability. HouseBlaster (he/they) 00:12, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi HouseBlaster. I've modified the article taking out the adjectives you mentioned and eliminated the last paragraph mentioning benefits to other companies. What remains is what you see below, would you please see if it is better and may be acceptable for Wikipedia. Thanks.
AccesRail, a division of ACP Rail International, markets and distributes international travel through flights, trains and buses through major airline global distribution systems (GDS(), travel agents, airlines and online platforms.
This company created a platform that provides the travelers the option of booking rail, bus and flight tickets together in one place. [1]
AccesRail Historical events:
2014-01-21: AccesRail signs agreement with Trenitalia to makes its train tickets available on the sales platforms to major airlines of the world. [1]
2020-08-18: Railway tickets becomes available through Etihad Airways [9], [10]
... (more historical events) LFTSOS (talk) 15:51, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@LFTSOS that is better, but you need to respond to the second paragraph of what I wrote before I can assist you further. HouseBlaster (he/they) 16:29, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats[edit]

Congrats for a successful RfA. Take it easy and use the tools wisely. Ask plenty of questions; all of the existing admins will only be too happy to give advice. Welcome to the team. Schwede66 01:10, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! HouseBlaster (he/they) 02:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Felicitations!

-Ad Orientem (talk) 02:06, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm about to leave for my vacation, but I wanted to stop by here first to say congratulations! I hope your adminship goes well. QuicoleJR (talk) 09:55, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question from GHeavenRubberBandMan (04:44, 28 June 2024)[edit]

Hello HouseBlaster.

GHeavenRubberBandMan here. You know that little information box at the top right of every article? How do I adjust the image to take up the width of that box? Do I use the full-sized image or the thumbnail? What px value do I use?

Why doesn't the Image Size field affect anything?

I have lots of questions, but that's a good starting point.

Thank you! --GHeavenRubberBandMan (talk) 04:44, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have responded at your talk page. HouseBlaster (he/they) 21:16, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-27[edit]

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

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  • One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Mandailing (w:btm:) [6]

Problems

  • Editors can once again click on links within the visual editor's citation-preview, thanks to a bug fix by the Editing Team. [7]

Future changes

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:57, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 July 2024[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:38, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much[edit]

For your recent edits re the GH to HG categories,

Hello, HouseBlaster. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

JarrahTree 01:52, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Replied. HouseBlaster (he/they) 01:59, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you ! JarrahTree 02:01, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024[edit]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:58, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That CFD[edit]

See [8] an editor that shouldn't be on the CFD page, how did they even get there I wonder? Also their talk page and [9] Doug Weller talk 10:54, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Doug Weller no idea... they are also here. Hopefully the latest messages at the talk page are enough? HouseBlaster (he/they) 00:10, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hopefully. Doug Weller talk 07:26, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-28[edit]

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • A problem with the color of the talkpage tabs always showing as blue, even for non-existent pages which should have been red, affecting the Vector 2022 skin, has been fixed.

Future changes

  • The Trust and Safety Product team wants to introduce temporary accounts with as little disruption to tools and workflows as possible. Volunteer developers, including gadget and user-script maintainers, are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. The team has created documentation explaining how to do the update. Learn more.

Tech News survey

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MediaWiki message delivery 21:29, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question from Crissi708 on Vogue (cigarette) (14:51, 9 July 2024)[edit]

Hello my question is why do vogue not make menthol infusion cards like Rizla and Swan I currently use Rizla to try to make my vogue cigs menthol but they’re just not as smooth as the original vogue menthe I used to be able to buy until they banned them everywhere. --Crissi708 (talk) 14:51, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Crissi708, I am here to answer questions about editing Wikipedia, not about how to get cigarettes. Though I would very much encourage you to watch this video from Kurzgesagt. HouseBlaster (he/they) 20:49, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question from Lahsim Niasoh (15:17, 9 July 2024)[edit]

How to write romanized text in wikipedia? please help --Lahsim Niasoh (talk) 15:17, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Lahsim Niasoh I am not sure what you mean. Would you be able to give me an example? HouseBlaster (he/they) 20:54, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I understand it now (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sheikh_Hasina&diff=prev&oldid=1233569908), Thanks for your reply. Lahsim Niasoh (talk) 21:02, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Cat[edit]

I was looking at the merge discussion for {{Cat}} and saw your note about about {{Category link/core}} saving expensive processing. Is this due to width-first evaluation of the top template resulting in fewer/no calls to the expensive function in the sub-template? Or did I misunderstand? — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 16:57, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@GhostInTheMachine it is even more simple than that. Certain parser functions are considered WP:EXPENSIVE (i.e., computationally intensive) and therefore there is a limit of 500 "expensive" calls on any given page. {{PAGESINCAT:FOO}} is one such expensive parser function, and calling it multiple times counts as multiple expensive function calls. We can't declare a variable on a page, so to get around this we call a new "helper template" (think of calling a helper function/method in coding) with the desired "variable" as an input. It helps for the same reason you use variable to avoid calling the same function on the same inputs more than once. Cheers, HouseBlaster (he/they) 22:21, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
OK, so other way around. Evaluate the expensive function once in the parent template and pass it to the child as a template parameter so that the child can use the value multiple times — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 22:29, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@GhostInTheMachine: Exactly. You put it much more eloquently than I did :) HouseBlaster (he/they) 22:30, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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