User talk:Publius3

Hello Publius3! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. If you decide that you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some recommended guidelines to facilitate your involvement. Happy Editing! --Nishkid64 21:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC) Getting Started Wikipedia Tutorial How to edit a page The five pillars of Wikipedia Manual of Style Be bold in editing How to write a great article WikiProjects Getting your info out there Cite your sources Neutral Point of View Point of View Verifiability Uploading images Image use policy Getting more Wikipedia rules Policy Library Getting Help New contributors' help page Where to ask a question Help Desk Frequently Asked Questions Getting along Wikiquette Civility Sign your posts Wikipedians Conflict resolution Getting technical Cleaning up vandalism Pages needing attention Peer review Utilities Village pump

{{helpme}}

I have not done much editing and don't know how best to report vandalism, or how to report a possible 'bug' in the software. I'll explain the problem here. This is my first use of my Talk page so I suppose I may not be using it rightly, but I have to start somewhere.

The vandalism is to text I wrote on the Discussion page for the Missouri article. As can be seen from the History for the page, someone vandalized the text between

20:58, February 10, 2007 and  01:43, February 13, 2007 . 

Seemingly, the vandalism was committed from someone using IP address 75.6.252.242 .

The remarks in question had been added in December 2006. At some later date, apparently February 13 2007 if the history mechanism is on better footing than the text of the Discussion page itself, someone added the word 'dumb' to what I had written. But they managed to do so without having their name, or other identifying information, injected into the visible text on the Discussion page!

What appears at first glance to be a bug is this: someone has edited Discussion text that they had not themselves originated. For this to have been possible, there is either an implementation bug (if it is not intended to be possible for one person to edit another's remarks in a Discussion page); or, a design bug (if it is intended that the design and implementation make it possible for one person to anonymously, and without even causing an explicit local notation to be provided, showing that they had edited someone else's remarks.)

If Wikipedia intends that it be possible for people to edit other people's discussions in this manner, then there is no reason for anyone ever to believe that what they are reading on a discussion page, accurately represents what was written by the person whose name is associated with it! Hence, there would also be no reason to attempt to require identification of any kind on any Discussion page remarks, would there?!?

signed, a surprised publius3 !

What Missouri article? Please be more specific. Miranda 07:00, 14 June 2007 (UTC)