Talk:Thunderf00t

This article was nominated for deletion. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination:

no consensus, August 29, 2018, see discussion.
delete, May 31 2012, see discussion.

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Biography: Science and Academia

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group (assessed as Low-importance).

YouTube Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject YouTube, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of YouTube and related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.YouTubeWikipedia:WikiProject YouTubeTemplate:WikiProject YouTubeYouTube

Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject YouTube To-do:

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : see list.
Assess : Apply the assessment scale on Unknown-importance YouTube articles + Unassessed YouTube articles
Cleanup : See cleanup listing
Maintain : This WikiProject
Stubs : Category:Stub-Class YouTube articles
Other :
- Substitute {{WikiProject YouTube/Invite Members}} on user talk pages
- Check out edit requests on Talk:List of YouTubers

Skepticism Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skepticism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science, pseudoscience, pseudohistory and skepticism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkepticismWikipedia:WikiProject SkepticismTemplate:WikiProject SkepticismSkepticism
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Internet culture Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet culture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of internet culture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Internet cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Internet cultureTemplate:WikiProject Internet cultureInternet culture

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Internet culture To-do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : View all requested internet culture articles
Expand : Pick an article from here or here
Photo : Category:Internet culture articles needing images
Stubs : All stubs are located here
Other : Category:Internet self-classification codes (!?); Try to get YouTube to FA; Tag all articles you find with {{WikiProject Internet culture}}
- See also Category:Internet culture articles needing attention

Archives

Archive 1

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by when more than 1 section is present.

Picture

Screen grab from 2011
Portrait from 2003

What picture should be use for the infobox. We have the current one from 2011 but User:Philmason thunderf00t uploaded File:PHIL.jpg from 2003 as the picture. I am starting the discussion here to decide which one should be used. Personally I think the 2011 one is a better fit as its a more neutral setting. The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 08:28, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Im a little confused by all this. The original reason for the revert by CofE was 'conflict of interest'.

When I mentioned that providing my own photo was hardly a conflict of interest, the goal posts move to 'but the bad image we have deliberately chosen to be unflattering from a screengrab of video in 2011 is better because its more recent'. The ONLY way the current image could be obtained is by watching the 2011 video and taking an unflattering screenshot. It is hard to call this 'neutral'

These sound like moving goal posts from someone who is not arguing/ editing in good faith.

The article covers several subjects of my phd. The photo should maybe reflect this rather than a poor picture of me on vacation in 2011. Philmason thunderf00t (talk) 08:57, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure about the conflict of interest and we do tend to respect the wishes of the subject in biographies of living people. Per WP:BLPIMAGE, it could be out of context if it is a holiday screenshot and disparaging if purposely taken from a bad sequence in the video. I will restore the phd photo for now and can discuss alternatives here. We can choose from three photos I see in c:Category:Phil Mason. I find the phd photo File:PHIL.jpg to be a little hard to decipher the face, not really an ideal portrait, but it is excellent quality overall. The gown is distracting but I guess it really shouts phd. file:PhilMason2011.png makes it easier to identify the subject, but its quality has been questioned by the subject (personally I think it looks fine but I've never seen him before). It may be highly relevant though as I believe it is a screenshot from a Youtube video and Youtube is a major thing the subject is known for. But the subject says it is them on vacation, so relevance is low. About File:Thunderf00t.jpg I don't know how useful it is, seems to be a holiday pic. Seems to me that the best option would be a screenshot of a Youtube video where the subject is doing the thing they are famous on Youtube for, talking about solar panel roads for example. That screenshot should be a great portrait, not a poor representation. Also we could consider running with two photos. Commander Keane (talk) 09:47, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @Commander Keane: for the neutral opinion. I do agree I think that a screenshot from one of his Youtube videos would probably be best as I too think the robe picture is a bit distracting for the infobox pic (I have to admit, I honestly thought it was a Carolean style portrait at first glance). I have no issue with it being included in the body of the article for his academic career as well as a separate infobox image from his Youtube career as I would say that is probably what he's better known for. The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 18:09, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For a youtuber who in spite of very limited knowledge mansplains topics of which he is demonstrably ignorant I find the both pompous and clownish portrait to be just perfect. With this comment I will self-impose a topic ban on this biography and let myself out. Lklundin (talk) 18:55, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Commander Keane i think the original picture was exactly that! something representative (years ago now). I dont know who 'updated' the photo to something obviously deliberately bad, but I figured let the trolls have their fun! I certainly never expected anyone to defend the trolling picture as 'neutral'

@The C of E God Save the King! if you want a picture from my youtube, almost all of my stuff is off camera, so why not just use my avatar? That would actually be more representative of youtube.

else you can use the image from my google scholar account, seems more fitting given half the article is about my scholarly work. I dont find it distracting at all.

https://scholar.google.cz/citations?user=NubQZmsAAAAJ&hl=en&citsig=ADIE8skU9OgS7nUYF54fA5AbG-LP Philmason thunderf00t (talk) 19:00, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree as well. While the two pictures have their ups and downs, we should consider creatinh a new image which represents the subject doing what they are most well known for (YT), with better qualities and perhaps a better expression, as file:PhilMason2011.png may fall under a "situation[s] where the subject did not expect to be photographed." Yes I am a nerd -XCBRO172 (How could you tell?) 07:51, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@XCBRO172: I think we'll need to look for any of his other videos that are released under CC (wasn't the series he did about VenomFangX released under CC?), since free alternatives exist I don't think we can make a Fair Use case for just screenshotting any one. This Flickr one may have been good if it weren't copyrighted. The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 14:01, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Although I didn't originally think of copyright, we should definitely choose something under CC. I'm not an expert on Thunderf00t's videos so I can't really help beyond here except for my opinion. Yes I am a nerd -XCBRO172 (How could you tell?) 15:23, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As someone who just had this page watchlisted checking for possible vandalism, I don't see anything wrong with the graduation photo. And Philmason thunderf00t, while we have you, do you see anything that is factually inaccurate about the article's contents? If so, best to post here rather than edit it directly, and we can try to investigate and amend. ChessFiends (talk) 21:17, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@MagicatthemovieS: I saw your edit related to the picture, would you like to provide your input into the lede photo choice here? The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 14:10, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I prefer a more recent photo that captures what Mason looked like during his YouTube career. MagicatthemovieS (talk) 16:31, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Beyond that, I've never seen anyone's graduation photo used as a Wiki photo. Seems biased, like we are saying you better believe everything he says, he's sooo smart! MagicatthemovieS (talk) 20:04, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Using a decades-old graduation photo is so over-the-top it's unflattering in a completely different way from the screengrab. Both photos are bad choices, and neither of them are good representations of his appearance. The third option on Commons isn't any better. We are not required to include a photo at all. Grayfell (talk) 21:35, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That is a good point @Grayfell:. As you saw above, I was not in favour of using the robe photo either. So would you think it best to remove them from the lede too @MagicatthemovieS:? The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 12:59, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I still prefer the more recent photo. I don't know how to do a screenshot. If it's possible, someone could screenshot one of Mason's more recent uploads. MagicatthemovieS (talk) 14:01, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think Wikipedia:Non-free content is useful here, so it would likely have to be uploaded to Commons. At a glance it doesn't look like his video are uploaded with a compatible license, but I didn't look that hard. Commons:Licensing may be helpful. Grayfell (talk) 20:16, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

RE "I prefer a more recent photo that captures what Mason looked like during his YouTube career."

an interesting opinion seeing as I basically never appear in my youtube videos

see above "we do tend to respect the wishes of the subject in biographies of living people."

I think the phd photo is fine. 109.81.175.76 (talk) 20:48, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well, Mr. Foot (if that actually is you and not an imposter), you do appear in your YouTube videos SOMETIMES so the photo of you without the cap & gown is more relevant than the one with it. MagicatthemovieS (talk) 20:59, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have no way of telling if this is the actual Mason but even if it is, I don't think Mr. Mason should be bossing around Wikipedia. MagicatthemovieS (talk) 21:00, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is not about 'bossing around.' He is merely pointing at WP:BLPIMAGE: we should not use picture taken on "situation[s] where the subject did not expect to be photographed." A screenshot taken from a video is precisely that. I do prefer the holiday picture, or otherwise the graduation one. The best thing would be some new official picture of the university, but everything is better than the 2011 smirk, if I may put it that way. Regards, Jeff5102 (talk) 21:51, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]