User talk:Jack Merridew

• Archive 1

[edit] Unbanned

I'm pleased to tell you that per consensus at a discussion on the administrators' noticeboard, you have now been unbanned. You have been placed under the mentorship of me and Moreschi (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) and have been placed under the following editing restriction;

"Jack Merridew (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) is placed under a community editing restriction. He is required to use only one account and remain civil in all discussions. He must also refrain from interacting with White Cat (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) in any discussion on the project. Any uninvolved administrator may block him for an appropriate length of time should he break any of his restrictions."

I do hope you take this opportunity to go back to editing constructively and there are a number of users who have put their faith in you. Please don't let them down. Ryan Postlethwaite 11:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Terima kasih. By my timestamp, you posted this a minute before I sent you the last email. You will not be disappointed. Off to WP:AN to comment. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:05, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

{{Unblock}} -- I can't edit anything but my talk page. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:11, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Have you got an autoblock ID number? Email me the contents of what it says if you don't want to post information publicly. Ryan Postlethwaite 12:15, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

No autoblock number given; I've emailed what it does say. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:24, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Clean Slate

Welcome back David - it's nice to see you have been unblocked and can continue to help improve the project. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Eusebeus (talk) 12:51, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Terima kasih. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 14:37, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome back

Welcome back, Jack/David. I missed the discussion concerning your unblocking, but there is enough support for you that my arguments weren't needed. See you around- I know you already have a couple of more high profile admins than me helping you out, but, of course, you know where I am if I can help you with anything. J Milburn (talk) 17:18, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks; I'll certainly keep an eye out for you and welcome input on my doing here. Use 'David', Jack Merridew is a (notable) fictional character from the Lord of the Flies. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 07:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah, I knew I'd seen it somewhere before! Take care. J Milburn (talk) 22:22, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome back :) -- Ned Scott 07:59, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Terima kasih — Thanks. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 08:03, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bali

OK then, see what magic you can weave with this one. With your skills at English, formating and discourse you should be able to produce GAs and FAs fairly readily...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:56, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Ya that's on my list; I've been editing that page on and off for years. I took two of the pictures in the gallery and was the original uploader of the base-topography image from NASA that has had annotations added. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 07:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I'll help you. A lot of the groundwork is there so GA shouldn't be too far off which will be a good staging point. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 11:19, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

a guess: WP:GA? yup, and now watchlisted. I'll go read it now… While were talking Bali stuff, what do you think of Nyoman Rudana and Museum Rudana; the primary contributors, red links and anons, would appear to be flaks of a local politician pushing his museum and other businesses. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:36, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

My first impressions - certainly the text of the latter two articles is a little flowery and should be sobered a little. The critical issue is notability - a museum I feel is, especially if it gets a guernsey in Lonely Planet Bali or something. Really needs independent referencing. The case is a little less clear with the person, and here I guess your local skills of ascertaining reliability of local sources may help. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:35, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

eg. The museum article needs to focus on what it is and has rather than who is behind it. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:42, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

The term 'museum' is rather abused here. There are many such museums here and they all have associated galleries where you can buy stuff. There are many talented artists in Bali and there are a great many more Balinese who think they are among that group of talented artists. The running joke here is that there are a hundred paintings per tourist and the truth is that there are several hundred. The guy is a politician and is certainly notable (however, the article is a puff piece). I've looked at the histories of these articles and the primary contributers to them and they're obviously entirely focused on promoting this fellow and his businesses and images; i.e. I believe they're all one user who works for the big man. Ditto for the articles on id.wp. Also, this museum is not even in Ubud, it's in Peliatan, which is a few km over. Ubud is a notable tourist destination and many tourist focused businesses in the surrounding region attach themselves to the name. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 05:36, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Ahaaa. OK then, looks like Peliatan needs a stub first off, and the museum can be listed within that article, much like many churches, schools and some such which are not notable in themselves are listed in substantive suburb/village/town/district articles. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 07:12, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

There are thousands of such Banjars (and that link does not cover this usage) as Peliatan. It's like a suburb of Ubud — one of dozens — but the scale is smaller than you would think from the word 'suburb'. A Banjar is basically an association of the neighborhood married men and functions as the village government. They're small; walking distance. Peliatan these days is a nasty main road with tourist junk shops, with family compounds and rice fields behind the shops. Sure, It could have a stub, but there are a great many that warrant attention first; Penestanan comes to mind. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 07:24, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Again this is the systemic bias thing, Sydney has about 500 suburbs I think, almost all of which have stubs...Charing Cross, New South Wales is an infra- suburb (well, intersection really) of the same size, maybe 200 m x 200m or so...Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:40, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I agree that they should have stubby articles - as time permits. I don't think a spam effort should get Peliatan a stub ahead of others just due to their effort. Penestanan has been known as an art community since the 1930s. I've been cleaning-up the versions of these on id:wiki. id:Museum dan Galeri Seni Rudana id:Nyoman Rudana‎; they don't have a id:Peliatan or a id:Penestanan. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 08:50, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Talk page

Haha, thanks - I'm no technical wizard and I nicked most of my code off other people's pages. Thanks for the tip (and yes I do use IE most of the time - at work I have no choice!) Black Kite 14:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Your page doesn't look so good in modern browsers. You should put that code back or unprotect for a bit and allow me. You might also adopt the tweak I just made to your sig above. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 15:04, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] the email

On May April 25th, I sent the following to about a dozen editors; there were a few variations, but nothing much. Anyone is welcome to cross-post this to WP:AN.

Hi,

I have sent the AC a formal request to reduce the sanctions against me; I would expect it to hit WP:RFAR or WP:RFAC tomorrow or so.

Cheers,

David

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 17:30, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reblocked

I'm sorry Jack, but it seems many people were upset with my unblock of you so I've decided to reblock you for the time being, until this is properly discussed. Hopefully it will be sorted quickly and efficiently. Ryan Postlethwaite 20:14, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Understood, Ryan; you've got email. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:32, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

The community will never completely agree on something like this, but the way Wikipedia works right now, we don't have to wait for everyone to agree on most things. I believe this block is one of those things. As long as a reasonable number of people, with reasonable arguments, are supporting his unblock, then the consensus to block is gone. This nonsense that we need a consensus to unblock is just as absurd as the idea that AfDs should default to deletion with no-consensus. You'll never make everyone happy, but if you unblock Jack Merridew you'll likely improve the project. -- Ned Scott 06:54, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

It depends on how serious you think three years of socking and stalking is. I would have said consensus can reign on these issues, but apparently not. What if White Cat were a child? Would internet stalking of them be OK? This whole thing is turning on people's opinion of White Cat, not the seriousness of the situation. If someone un-redirected tons of pages or whatever, I'd still feel the same way. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 08:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Wikistalking is not the same as real life stalking. Neither are acceptable, but they're very different things. What we have here is a situation of mild harassment (still not acceptable) amplified by White Cat's extreme over reactions and fit throwing.

David has proven himself with this last account, and multiple editors in good standing not only agree, but have sworn to watch him and keep it that way. David has found a way to contribute constructively, and we all have a chance to move forward. -- Ned Scott 08:40, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

You might be right. I guess it just seems closer to real stalking to me because of the time frame. We all look at each other's contributions, but doing it for years seems different to me. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 08:57, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Stalking is what did Robert John Bardo did; not the same thing at all.

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:32, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Catchpole

Could use some backup; [4] [5] Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:57, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

See also [6]; pure WP:HA, IMHO. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 13:53, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Erm...well I was thinking this was on the cards, just wasn't sure who was going to get in first. (sigh) ...like other debates it will be a matter of finding sourcing, not so much fun when there is a time limit. If you find stuff, et me know and we can fix up. I' drop a note on WP:Indonesia. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:48, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Why did you do what you did?

There's probably an explanation provided somewhere, but what caused all this? If the reason is old news, please provide a link. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 10:04, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

A fair question. See the old cases; listed here. You will find key statements in the links at #a few oldIDs appended as background. There is also the extensive discussion here;

• Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Coolcat, Davenbelle and Stereotek/Proposed decision/Archive 1
• Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Coolcat, Davenbelle and Stereotek/Proposed decision

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:32, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] the appeal

Most of my email correspondence re an appeal was with Brad and Moreschi. I have had some email correspondence with a few others that was a bit more than the FYI email given above. There was no solicitation of an unblock in any of it other than a request to Brad that I be unblocked to participate in discussions on AC pages. The appeal I sent was;

[edit] Appeal of Sanctions re Jack Merridew

following sent to Brad, FT2, AC-list, Moreschi, and Jéské on 25 April '08

later forwarded to Ryan and a few others

In the weeks since I was blocked on en:wp, I have focused on other wikis. I have created a fair number of new accounts and documented my past accounts and those that are impersonators; I have successfully usurped some of the 'Jack Merridew' accounts that were created by whomever. See;

• m:User:Jack Merridew/Matrix
• m:User talk:Jack Merridew/Matrix

for a complete list of my accounts (impersonators are listed on the talk page).

It is my intent to put the multiple accounts, the evasions and past conflicts behind me. I have identified myself to Brad. I would like to return to editing under the supervision of a few mentors. I have suggested several admins who have agreed to this. I would also expect to be subject to terms of parole along the lines of;

• avoid White Cat and 'his' articles; this would obviously include the Oh My Goddess articles, Star Trek articles, &c. and AfDs and the like concerning them.
• generally avoid articles that White Cat has taken a significant interest in and any AfDs of same; anything 'gray' I would run by a mentor, first.
• avoid seeming to harass any editors - vandals excepted, of course.
• to continue to avoid articles concerning Turkey and Kurds.
• I will stick to one account per wiki; i.e. 'Jack Merridew' or some obvious variant such as 'JackMerridew TEMP' as I have been using for usurpations. I will maintain the matrix on meta.

I offer as a primary reason for granting a reduction in the sanctions against me the fact that I have made a great many good edits to this site and the view that blocks are preventative and not punitive. I believe that with the guidance of mentors and an adherence to terms such I've suggest above I can make many more good contributions to this project and avoid causing any conflicts such as were covered in the prior AC cases. While I expect that there are editors who will not agree that I have made many 'good' edits, I also believe that there are many who will support this view; interested editors are free to review the contributions.

I sincerely apologize for the prior block evasion, my failure to adhere to past rulings and my denials of my past accounts, and promise that this will not happen again.

While I believe that White Cat still demonstrates considerable bias on subjects such as the Armenian Genocide and Kurdistan, I also feel that monitoring his edits in those areas is now in good hands. Yesterday was the 93rd anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide and I looked at the current article in some detail; it is a far better article than it was in March of 2005 when I first paid it any attention. Similarly, the Kurdistan article has improved considerably.

I fully understand that no good can come of my involvement in such articles given the wiki-history. I wish to move on from these past issues and conflicts.

Sincerely,

Jack Merridew - a.k.a. David

[edit] a few oldIDs appended as background

following sent to Brad, FT2, and Moreschi on 27 April '08

Hi,

I'd like to offer a few old posts of mine that you folks'll likely have not seen. I've been reviewing a lot of the history.

• Statement by party 4, Davenbelle re User:Coolcat
• User:Coolcat's edits

Cheers,

David

posted to my talk page; User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:32, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] such articles

On the current WP:RFAR page, there is a proposal to topic ban Kww from a large range of topics and it would seem to by driven by this comment about 'such articles'. To just what articles is he referring? Well, if you look at his prior post to that thread is is fairly clear that he is referring to articles that aren't "notable and supported by real-world information" — indeed the broader issue being discussed in that thread is whether admittedly non-notable spinouts should get an exemption from WP:NOTE i.e. WP:INHERITED. The proposed topic ban is utterly unwarranted in Kww's case and one-sided in both Kww's and TTN's cases.

The most telling argument presented in that discussion is Jakew's re Pixelface's highly disruptive war to delete WP:NOT#PLOT; many editors of pop-culture prolefeed are editing against policy and are now seeking to replace WP:NOT#PLOT with WP:NOT#ENCYCLOPAEDIC.

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:38, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

• see also WP:SISYPEDIA

[edit] another Grawp sock

• ThirdLevelRanger (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)

  Went over to the IP check and posted it. Danke. -Jéské ^{(v^_^v E pluribus unum)} 18:47, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

  I see; that page is already on my watchlist. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 07:58, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

• Practically boasting that he's a sock; [7].
  Such a new user and he's seen my comment above… right…
  Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 15:36, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] a spammer

• Anyone feel like removing some link-spam? Special:Contributions/Kcramirez. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 08:06, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

  Done. I left in the info that may be of encyclopedic worth later on. – sgeureka ^t•c 09:01, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

  Terima kasih — Thank you in Bahasa Indonesia. The prose was reasonable, the links not. FYI, the emphasis in Ubud#accommodation section on boutique hotels and lack of budget lodging is entirely inaccurate. Not to worry; I'll clean it up later. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:11, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

• Here's another spammer; Special:Contributions/D5664
  • nb: Kcramirez's still at it; [8]

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:12, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] edit request

Would someone please copy

• m:User:Jack Merridew/Prologue

to

• User:Jack Merridew/Prologue

Terima kasih, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:48, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Here you go. – sgeureka ^t•c 13:10, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks again. I'll build you neat toys upon my return. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 13:19, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Takes alot to surprise me these days but this article sure did. Eusebeus has suggested it would be good for a collaboration. If you can find any free (US gov't?) or fair use images let us know... Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:06, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

(I should have put this on commons I guess...) Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:08, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Pacific oceanic gyres

Here's fine; I check this page most everyday. It's my home wiki, after all.

Killing a planet takes a lot of parallel strategies. First thing I noticed about that article is its no-mention of the kilometers-long fishing nets that have been lost and just keep on killing. Wouldn't it be ironic if all those polycarbonate baby bottles broke down and proved lethal to, say, all Plankton (whose article I notice is afflicted with a pop-culture blight).

I'll look about a bit and see if I can find anything interesting. You should read Oryx and Crake and its whole subplot about the game extinctathon; Blood and Roses, above, foreshadows it.

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 08:43, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

There's a related image here that's another version of Image:Oceanic gyres.png; It could probably be used with that same PD license as it's source; see this page. There are some others available at commons:Category:Oceanic gyres, notably (ha!), this one commons:Image:North Pacific Gyre.png.

Oh, and that first image is widely used; you might find interesting stuff on those pages.

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:08, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

I've uploaded the Pacific ocean close-up; at right. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:33, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

I contacted the copyrightholder of this image (here used on some blog) but heard nothing back. I am not sure, however, it is even a picture of the GP^2. Oryx and Crake indeed. Eusebeus (talk) 12:29, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

If it's usable, it illustrates the issue. Last fall, while at the beach for a few days, I noticed something floating along. At first I thought it was a jellyfish as it was see-through. It was a light bulb bobbing along. Glad you liked the book; The Handmaid's Tale, too. And see this. Gonna use the new gyres image (above)? Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:41, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps, yes. The article needs a major revamp top to bottom so we can see what fits. The image I found is not necessarily illustrative of the problem. If you have some content to add, let me know. I have access to the various environmental journals and will do a search to find out what's there in the scientific literature. There may be some stuff in the Japanese language journals as well. Eusebeus (talk) 12:54, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

See also; Friendly Floatees (and the stamps). Read the piece in The Independent. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 15:21, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Good find on the stamps. Those qualify for fair use? I assume so since stamps are public domain. Eusebeus (talk) 15:59, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

They're on commons and are PD; they've been through OTRS to establish their status. Note the div wrapper I used to present them 2-up; just tweak the 141px to get whatever look you like. I'll add a caption… Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 06:25, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Original Research can establish Notability?

• Priceless. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:56, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

  Not for long; fixed. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:26, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

  • another gem. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 09:59, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming of account on fr.wp

Your account Jack Merridew TEMP has been renamed to Jack Merridew on fr.wp. Regards, Blinking Spirit (talk) 06:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Merci. I've just acknowledged it there and see the talk on mt:Lar. User:Jack Merridew aka David 07:06, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Unblock for SUL purposes

I have notified the blocking admin of this request. --B (talk) 10:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

(Javanese): Matur nuwun (Thank you). Ryan is seven times zones away from me and we don't often edit at the same time. I'm sure he'll be agreeable to this. This will likely mean that the unblock will run on the order of 24 hours. Depending on how the SUL process goes, I may not actually need to make any edit at all here. See my matrix; many accounts to unify. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:11, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I just tested it and it appears that you actually only need to be unblocked long enough to hit the "Unify accounts" button. You can enter passwords for other accounts or work on other accounts while still being blocked here. Are you still around? If so, I'll go on and unblock you for 10 minutes or so so that you can do that. --B (talk) 11:32, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Yup; that's about what I expect. If you'll unblock, I'll do it immediately and reply here when done. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:40, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok ... you should be good to go. [9]. --B (talk) 11:44, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Got 33 accounts done; the other two (bs.wp and ml.wp) are not me, they're Grawp. Thanks. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:49, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok. I have reinstituted the previous block. You can probably usurp the other two accounts if they were vandalism-only. At meta, they are a bit more liberal about such things than we are. --B (talk) 11:51, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I've done more than half a dozen usurpations; just finished up on ru.wp a few hours ago. Know anyone that speaks Malayalam? ml:User:Jack Merridew is blocked as a vandal; bs:User:Jack Merridew is a sleeper (no edits yet). Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:59, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't know, but I find something strangely amusing about an account on the BS Wikipedia. --B (talk) 11:59, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Too true; see also: war:Main Page. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 12:07, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] I know you're bored with the forced inactivity...

nb: Wayang kulit^[1]

...but please refrain from making subtle innuendos (you can guess what I mean). It's just going to nip you in the butt in the future. Friendly advice. ;-) – sgeureka ^t•c 08:59, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I appreciate the input, and am always careful. I am, however, far from inactive; see for example, here. I'm 'Jack Merridew' on 56 projects and create more accounts every day thanks to SUL; my matrix. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 10:13, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

ok, I'm intrigued - what gives? Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 13:32, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Which part of that diff? The bit re recent changes? See Newspeak; the idea there was to make thoughtcrime impossible by redefining the language that people can think in; removing words as a means of limiting what it is possible to think. Rewriting a template and adjusting its meaning is profoundly unethical because the many editors who placed the template on articles at some point in the past had a specific intent in mind that was reflected by the then-current wording of the template. When someone later changes the wording of the template, they are in effect changing what the past editors said. Note that I later changed the link.

The other bit of that diff was just offering some spleen venting for the reading pleasure of passersby, which seemed to have led to a colour change of one of the links, as the cites show.

Ever read Saint-Exupéry?^[10] Or Mishima^[11]

Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 14:37, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

p.s. 61 projects now… 63…

[edit] rtl userpage layout

• ar:مستخدم:Jack Merridew

a variation on the implementation. Cheers, User:Jack Merridew aka David 11:55, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Indonesian wiki talk page pandemic released into the wild

Remember, back in the day… someone got the bright idea to use a <font> tag in their signature? This was soon followed by <big> and <sup>. Then folks went and found CSS styles and sigs got borders and backgrounds, too. The 'me'-generation had arrived. These developments were followed by refactoring and policy wars which failed to put a halt to the meretricious^[12] look of a lot of talk page posts. It did result in a 255 character limit on sigs to cap the markup clutter in edit windows, but the attention seeking sigs survived.

I have never used gaudy sigs; mostly I've just used a plain text user name link to my user page as there are plenty of ways for folks to find talk pages and contributions. I've switched to a new sig that doesn't use any color besides the usual link coloring but does use a bit of embedded markup; a few inline-block boxes — they're about positioning. I've not seen this technique used before on-wiki and hereby release it into the wild.

A few caveats; some of the styling may seem superfluous — and for your particular browser, it may be — but it's all there for a reason; browsers from the Pacific Northwest and Norway had issues with certain approaches; troubles with right:… and bottom:…, and position:absolute; in an inline-block. So, mess with the implementation at your peril. I would advise most to not mess with anything beyond margin-right:-…em; and left:-…em; based on any adjustments to the number of characters in the positioned text; adjust empirically in multiple browsers.

<span style="margin-right:-3.75em;white-space:nowrap">[[User:Jack Merridew]] <span style="display:inline-block;position:relative;left:-2.5em;top:.8em"><span style="line-height:.8em;font-size:.7em">aka [[User talk:Jack Merridew|David]]</span></span></span>

User:Jack Merridew aka David 08:35, 8 June 2008 (UTC)