User:Bkell: Difference between revisions
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Hello there, I'm a dumbass. I mark peoples images for deletion for the most stupidest reasons. kkty. |
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{{administrator}} |
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{{Babel|en|es-2|cs-2|wikipedia/Administrator}} |
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I am '''Brian Kell''', originally from [[Nebraska]] and currently a graduate student in [[mathematics]] at [[Carnegie Mellon University]]. I joined [[Wikipedia]] on 29 November 2003, when I made [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Superph%C3%A9nix&diff=1841739&oldid=1841218 my first edit], a few minor corrections to [[Superphénix]]. Since then it has become a habit of mine to edit Wikipedia articles whenever I'm [[procrastination|putting off]] something useful. I reached 10,000 edits on 9 August 2006, according to [http://tools.wikimedia.de/~essjay/edit_count/Count.php Essjay's edit counter]; to celebrate the occasion, my 10,000th edit was [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Superph%C3%A9nix&diff=68701628&oldid=62176251 a few minor corrections to Superphénix]. A little over a year later, on 26 November 2007, I [[Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Bkell|became an administrator]]. |
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My largest [[Special:Contributions/Bkell|contributions]] to Wikipedia articles to date are the article about [[indigo dye]], which I rewrote once long ago, and the [[list of solar system objects by mass]], which I began. Most of my edits to articles are minor spelling or grammatical tweaks that I do in passing. I spend a lot of time in the image namespace, trying to deal with the chaos that reigns there. I have [[User:Bkell/Images|uploaded some images]] of my own, which anyone may use however they like, as outlined [[#Licensing|below]]. |
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Wikipedians I know in real life include [[User:Benplowman|Benplowman]], [[User:Clayness|Clayness]], [[User:CodyEbberson|CodyEbberson]], [[User:Colby|Colby]], [[User:Hschimke|Hschimke]], [[User:Jhofker|Jhofker]], [[User:Makuro|Makuro]], [[User:Mbeerman|Mbeerman]], [[User:Mkjanssen|Mkjanssen]], [[User:Stack|Stack]], [[User:Stolee|Stolee]], [[User:Swid|Swid]], [[User:W00tfest99|W00tfest99]], [[User:Wgunther|Wgunther]], and [[User:Wnorton|Wnorton]]. |
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==Intellectual property== |
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Licensing hassles annoy me, so I release, abandon, renounce, relinquish, waive, and otherwise disavow all exclusive rights to all my textual contributions on Wikipedia in all languages. I similarly release all exclusive rights that I hold to any images or other non-textual contributions that I upload to Wikipedia in any language. Be aware, however, that some of my images may be derivative works of images by others; in such cases I can only release any exclusive rights that I myself hold. I have tried to indicate in [[User:Bkell/Images|my image gallery]] when one of my images is a derivative work of a previous image. |
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Any person or entity may freely use, reproduce, distribute, or modify, for commercial or non-commercial use, with or without attribution, anything I wrote or uploaded to Wikipedia to which I have released my exclusive rights. (Ideally I would just release everything into the [[public domain]], but I guess [[Wikipedia:Granting work into the public domain|I can't do that]]. It is unnecessarily difficult to give up rights you don't want.) |
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As a [[corollary]], if you want to license anything to which I have given up my exclusive rights (if, say, you need a license for some technical legal reason), you may do so under whatever license you want, so long as it does not claim to give you any exclusive rights. Pick one that suits your needs; the [[GNU Free Documentation License|GFDL]] is an example. If you need me to officially "agree", [[Special:Emailuser/Bkell|send me an e-mail]], or post on my [[User talk:Bkell|talk page]]. [[Wikipedia talk:Proposal to expand WP:CSD/Proposal VI (Requested deletion)#Author's right of deletion|Apparently]] it is established law that a license cannot be made irrevocable without consideration, which means that if you don't trust me and you want to be absolutely sure I don't revoke this entirely-free-use license in the future, you should send me a dollar. ;-) |
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{{User Publicdomain}} |
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==Know thine image formats== |
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A big personal annoyance for me is images in [[JPEG]] format that should be [[PNG]]s or [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]]s. Things like maps and diagrams should ideally be SVGs if possible, or else PNGs, but never JPEGs (unless they were scanned from a hard copy, in which case PNG still isn't a bad idea). |
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There is a [[:Category:Images with inappropriate JPEG compression|category for images with inappropriate JPEG compression]]. If you have some graphics software and want to help, please do so. |
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==My opinions== |
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I tend to be a perfectionist and an idealist, rather than a pragmatist or a realist. |
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I think that [[copyright]] protection in the United States lasts far too long; something like the 28 years granted by the [[Copyright Act of 1909]] is much more reasonable than the current span of the life of the author plus 70 years. The ultimate purpose of copyright, according to the [[United States Constitution]], is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". After a point, prolonging copyright protection actually hampers this progress, as authors are not free to create derivative works of copyrighted material, and many creative works will be forgotten or lost before they enter the public domain. |
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I believe that the English Wikipedia should not allow [[Wikipedia:Fair use|fair-use]] images. Many images on Wikipedia for which fair use is claimed are [[:Category:Logos|logos]], and I don't think logos add anything to articles, certainly not enough to justify a fair-use claim. Some fair-use images, like certain album covers or screenshots of video games that illustrate unique characteristics, might improve articles significantly, it is true. On the whole, though, the rampant abuse of fair-use tags outweighs the advantages of allowing them. The fair-use tags just invite people to take images from Web pages indiscriminately and claim fair use—not to mention the inevitable and interminable debates about what uses are "fair" and what uses cross the blurry legal line into copyright infringement. Wikipedia is meant to be a freely usable and freely editable encyclopedia, and fair-use images are entirely contradictory to that goal, even those fair-use images which significantly improve articles. |
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For this reason, I have decided that I will no longer make any fair-use claims for images on Wikipedia. Fair use is a gray murky area in copyright law, and I do not want to make any claims that could easily be brought into question in the future. If you think that this is too extreme, you can [[User talk:Bkell|talk to me]] about it. After all, there are supposed to be [[Wikipedia:No binding decisions|no binding decisions]] here. |
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Whenever I get really frustrated with Wikipedia, I remind myself that Wikipedia is a long-range project, and that it doesn't have to be perfect today. I think this makes me an [[meta:Eventualism|optimistic eventualist]]. |
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==Wikipedia flaws== |
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Wikipedia isn't perfect. Things I don't like about Wikipedia include the following. |
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*'''Drama and endless debate.''' I generally avoid places like [[Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents]], [[Wikipedia:Requests for adminship]], and [[Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style]] because of the politics and [[WP:DRAMA|drama]] and interminable arguing about the same old issues that often seems to have no real resolution. I don't even particularly feel attracted to the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject|WikiProject]]s. So usually I just quietly do small little uncontroversial edits by myself. Is this antisocial? Perhaps. But avoiding these situations helps me to stay [[WP:CALM|calm]], [[WP:FANATIC|unfanatical]], and [[WP:DGAF|detached]], which keeps my stress level low. |
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*'''Undetected hoaxes and vandalism.''' I find obviously untrue statements in Wikipedia uncomfortably often. More disturbingly, upon investigation I find that many of these statements have been included in Wikipedia for months without anyone questioning them. See [[User:Bkell/Long-lasting vandalism]] for examples. |
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*'''Image names include the format.''' From the point of view of the author of a Wikipedia article, it doesn't matter if the map of Europe they want to use is a JPEG or a GIF or a PNG or an SVG; they should just be able to say <nowiki>[[Image:Map of Europe]]</nowiki> and let the software figure out what format it is. This would also solve the massive inconvenience of replacing an image in one format with an image in a different format. As it stands now, apparently the extension doesn't have to match the file type anyway; I've seen several PNGs with a .jpg extension, for example. This is MediaZilla bug [[bugzilla:4421|4421]]. |
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*'''Wikimedia Commons is clumsy.''' There is no way for a Commons resource to be multilingual, even though a major reason for the existence of the Commons is so that Wikipedias in different languages can share the same image base. There don't appear to be good guidelines for when images should be put in an article and when they should be put in a category instead. Finally, images on Commons can be shadowed by images of the same name on a specific-language Wikipedia (MediaZilla bug [[bugzilla:2717|2717]]). |
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==Other stuff== |
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Places I would like to visit someday include [[Siberia]], [[Prague]], [[Iceland]], and [[Two Ocean Pass]]. |
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==Userboxes== |
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I find many [[Wikipedia:Userboxes|userboxes]] to be frivolous and irrelevant. Things like "This user eats pizza" are pretty pointless; the most meaningless is probably {{[[Template:User wikipedia|User wikipedia]]}}, which says "This user is a member of Wikipedia". Hence, this section contains only userboxes that place me in categories that might help other Wikipedians to find me if they need someone with a specific skill or background. |
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{{User BASIC-3}} |
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{{user batch-3}} |
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{{user c-3}} |
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{{user html-3}} |
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{{user java-3}} |
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{{user js-2}} |
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{{user mathematician}} |
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{{user pas}} |
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{{user perl-3}} |
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{{user:ZeroOne/Userboxes/php-2}} |
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{{user re-4}} |
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{{user xml}} |
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{{user xhtml-3}} |
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<br clear="all" /> |
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==Bookmarks== |
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*[[Gallery of national flags]] |
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*[[List of chemistry topics]] |
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*[[List of compounds]] |
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*[[List of geography topics]] |
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*[[List of linguistic topics]] |
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*[[List of mathematical topics]] |
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*[[List of reference tables]] |
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*[[:Category:Candidates for speedy deletion]] |
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*[[:Category:Fair use image replacement request]] |
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*[[commons:User:Bkell|Me at the Commons]] |
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*[[meta:User:Bkell|Me at Meta]] |
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*[[m:MediaWiki User's Guide: Editing overview|MediaWiki User's Guide: Editing overview]] |
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*[[m:MediaWiki User's Guide: Using tables|MediaWiki User's Guide: Using tables]] |
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*[[Special:Random/Image]] |
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*[[User:Bkell/fud-yoink]] |
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*[[User:Bkell/furup]] |
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*[[User:Bkell/furup2]] |
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*[[User:Bkell/Sandbox]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Extended image syntax]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Image copyright tags]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Image source files]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Maps]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Reference desk]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Removal of fair use images]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Ta_bu_shi_da_yu_2#Outside view by Steve Summit]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Template messages]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Veganism parable]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Chemicals]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts]] |
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==Notes to self== |
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*[[:Image:Clark logo.bmp]] |
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*[[:Image:Badwolfwebsite.jpg]] |
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*[[:Image:Babylon hibiscus thumb.jpg]] |
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*[[:Image:1000002856.jpg]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Image use policy#Recommended software]] |
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*[[Rank Insignia of the Galactic Empire]] |
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*[[:Image:Alliance of the New Citizen logo.bmp]] |
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*[[:Image:Tokyo.pdf]] |
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*[[Median cut algorithm]] |
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*[[:Image:O'Neil Promo 17a.jpg]] |
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==External link== |
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*[http://www.zifyoip.com/ Zif Yoip] — my home page |
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[[Category:Wikipedia administrators open to recall|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedian computer scientists|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: University of Nebraska-Lincoln|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedians in Nebraska|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedians interested in law|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedians interested in linguistics|Bkell]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedians interested in physics|Bkell]] |
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[[af:Gebruiker:Bkell]] |
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[[ang:User:Bkell]] |
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[[ar:مستخدم:Bkell]] |
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[[bg:Потребител:Bkell]] |
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[[bs:Korisnik:Bkell]] |
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[[ca:Usuari:Bkell]] |
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[[chr:User:Bkell]] |
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[[cs:Wikipedista:Bkell]] |
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[[cv:Хутшăнакан:Bkell]] |
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[[cy:Defnyddiwr:Bkell]] |
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[[da:Bruger:Bkell]] |
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[[de:Benutzer:Bkell]] |
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[[el:Χρήστης:Bkell]] |
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[[eo:Vikipediisto:Bkell]] |
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[[es:Usuario:Bkell]] |
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[[et:Kasutaja:Bkell]] |
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[[eu:Lankide:Bkell]] |
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[[fa:کاربر:Bkell]] |
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[[fi:Käyttäjä:Bkell]] |
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[[fr:Utilisateur:Bkell]] |
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[[gl:User:Bkell]] |
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[[he:משתמש:Bkell]] |
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[[hi:सदस्य:Bkell]] |
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[[hif:User:Bkell]] |
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[[hr:Suradnik:Bkell]] |
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[[hu:User:Bkell]] |
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[[hy:Մասնակից:Bkell]] |
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[[id:Pengguna:Bkell]] |
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[[io:User:Bkell]] |
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[[is:Notandi:Bkell]] |
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[[it:Utente:Bkell]] |
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[[ja:利用者:Bkell]] |
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[[jbo:User:Bkell]] |
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[[ka:მომხმარებელი:Bkell]] |
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[[ko:사용자:Bkell]] |
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[[la:Usor:Bkell]] |
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[[lb:User:Bkell]] |
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[[lmo:User:Bkell]] |
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[[lt:Naudotojas:Bkell]] |
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[[mk:Корисник:Bkell]] |
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[[ms:Pengguna:Bkell]] |
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[[nap:Utente:Bkell]] |
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[[new:छ्येलेमि:Bkell]] |
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[[nl:Gebruiker:Bkell]] |
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[[nn:Brukar:Bkell]] |
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[[no:Bruker:Bkell]] |
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[[oc:Utilisator:Bkell]] |
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[[pl:Wikipedysta:Bkell]] |
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[[pt:Usuário:Bkell]] |
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[[qu:Ruraq:Bkell]] |
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[[ro:Utilizator:Bkell]] |
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[[ru:Участник:Bkell]] |
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[[sco:User:Bkell]] |
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[[simple:User:Bkell]] |
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[[sk:Redaktor:Bkell]] |
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[[sl:Uporabnik:Bkell]] |
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[[sq:Përdoruesi:Bkell]] |
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[[sr:Корисник:Bkell]] |
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[[sv:Användare:Bkell]] |
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[[th:ผู้ใช้:Bkell]] |
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[[tr:Kullanıcı:Bkell]] |
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[[uk:Користувач:Bkell]] |
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[[vi:Thành viên:Bkell]] |
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[[vo:Geban:Bkell]] |
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[[zh:User:Bkell]] |
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Revision as of 01:51, 9 December 2010
Hello there, I'm a dumbass. I mark peoples images for deletion for the most stupidest reasons. kkty.