Editing User talk:JohnHawkinson

Yes, I'm barmar on SE. I'm pretty sure I've seen you there, too. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:29, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

==ip comments==
Hi. Speaking as a totally different IP to the one that you just had to deal with, there's really usually no point creating an IP's User Talk page to communicate with them [...snipthe rest of my blather...] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.160|172.71.242.160]] 11:26, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

:I don't know why you think that there's no point. Some people have a stable IP, some people don't. Those that do will be shown the talk page automatically by MediaWiki. And others monitor [[Special:RecentChanges]], as this IP editor may have (and as you did). And furthermore, the talk page was linked from [[:User talk:Barmar]] in the thread the IP user was using. So for all those reasons, it sure seems to have a point to me. Thanks anyhow. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 02:00, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

:: Unfortunately, nobody has a 'stable IP'. It's essentially whatever Cloudflare gateway one happens to be routed through, which is perhaps geographically grouped but otherwise semi-randomised within that group. I can't guarantee that this message will sign as 172.71.242.160 (I would heavily bet against it!), probably not within 172.71.242/8 (rare!), 172.71/16 is not likely, 172/24 is more like it (''maybe'' .69-to-71-ish?), but landing off of the 172s (subranges of the 141s and 162s are always a reasonable side-bet) can happen even between one submission and an ''immediate'' "whoops, I forgot to sign" re-edit mere seconds later.
:: Conversely, I've replied to a prior IP's chat, before, and ''had the exact same'' anon-IP. Likely they were also in the UK, possibly even on the same ISP, but as even geolocation on my non-proxied IP (direct via such a "where am I?" site) often places me at one or other major UK city often hundreds of miles away, Cloudflare can't really help in either keeping 'me' constant or reliably separating 'us' from each other.
:: For those that monitor the changes, there is no advantage to creating an insta-out-of-date User Talk page, above any other manner of passing a note. This is in part a peculiarity of the way this Wiki is set up. There are plenty of discussions on these lines sitting in the Admin pages or random spots such as these. I've seen a few (and commented in some) over the years and ''until''/unless either a configuration tweak (to immediately unproxy every IP reported) or perhaps a full update is attempted, one cannot even usefully say that those who have a stable IP at their end will ever have a (differently) stable IP reported at wikiside.
:: (And actually more casual IP users will already not know to check "User Talk:<wh.at.ev.er>", ''or'' think to check the history/diffs for the response to their great big* boots creating great big muddy footprints all over the place and needing cleaning up. Some ''named users'' don't seem to know to check the usual places.) * - British phrase is often "Size nine boots", but I'm guessing you'd use an idiom that, at best, used US shoe sizing, whatever that equivalent is. And I wear 9s (9½s, maybe, sometimes even 10s, depends upon fit), so perhaps that's no longer suitable as "a big boot size".
:: Anyway, I wonder what IP this'll show as? Just done a Preview, and it says 172.70.90.93 (ha, nearly guessed 172.70.whatever, before I decided to actually test it!) but now let's see what an actual Saved reply will say, about one minute later... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.222|172.69.43.222]] 12:44, 19 April 2024 (UTC) (( PS, if this has helped, or especially if it has not, I still think you're best to unclutter this small diversion from your userspace :p ))