User:Mira/Changing user pages
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If you are reading this page, it is likely that you were directed here by me, either directly, or as part of an edit summary in an edit done to a user page or userbox. This page is an attempt to explain my actions so that I don't have to repeat myself too often.
[edit] What I was doing
In the past, I moved a large number of userboxes to my user space in order to help implement the German userbox solution, mostly userboxes relating to users' sexuality. After these userboxes were moved, links to them had to be corrected to avoid the resulting redirects. Therefore, all pages (including user pages) which used the userbox had to be edited. These edits should have caused no visible change to the page.
[edit] Common questions and responses
[edit] My user page is mine! You can't edit it!
Actually, I can. Please review WP:USER and WP:OWN. All pages on Wikipedia are owned by the community, including user pages.
[edit] I had a note on my page asking that no one edit it!
I generally tried to respect these requests when I saw them. However, the sheer number of user pages I went through means that I often missed these notes. If I edited your user page in spite of your note, you have my apologies. And although you might be upset that I edited your page, I ask that you consider leaving my edit in place. If you revert my edit, it is likely that the userbox you were using will no longer display properly.
[edit] I would have changed it if you asked. Why didn't you leave a note on my talk page?
While it would have been more polite to leave a note requesting a change rather than making it myself, I was again limited because of the number of pages I edited. Leaving a note on each and every one of those pages was just not feasible.
[edit] Actually, you did leave a note on my page. Why didn't you just edit my page yourself?
If I left a note on your talk page, it is most likely because I was unable to edit your page properly. Usually, this was because your page was protected from editing. In some cases, this was because your page contained a link to a site which is on the Wikipedia spamlist. In still other cases, this was because you were using a non-standard form of Template:Babel or one of its variants, and I was unable to make the userbox display correctly without making changes to the display of your page.
Another possible reason for me leaving such a note was that you had reverted edits to your user page. Please note that if you do not update the link, it will likely go red, and your userbox will not display at all.
[edit] Why did you add that category to my page?
Many userboxes contain user categories. These categories have been controversial in and of themselves, and their use in userboxes has been even more so. To avoid controversy, I tend to remove categories from those userboxes I work on, and replace those categories on the individual user pages. There should have been no change in the display of your page.
[edit] Why was your edit marked as minor?
My user page and userbox edits were marked as minor at the request of another user. Edits marked as minor can be made invisible when viewing Special:Recentchanges. This cuts down on the clutter I produced when making those edits.
[edit] Why did you change my Babel box?
Template:Babel-X, Template:Babel-1, and all of the other Babel-? boxes have been deprecated; all of them simply redirect to Template:Babel. As long as I was fixing userbox redirects, I didn't think it would hurt to correct Babel box redirects as well. These changes should not have resulted in any change to the display of your page.
[edit] I'm not perfect
I do make mistakes from time to time. If I catch these mistakes myself, I revert them. If I don't catch them, please let me know on my talk page, and I will do my best to fix them.
(This page is modeled after stolen from User:Durin/Removal of fair use images.)
