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December 21

Cannot access Science Museum Collection online

When I try to go to https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/ I get "403 ERROR The request could not be satisfied. Request blocked. We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner. If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation. Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront)"

Is it blocked for everybody? Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 14:43, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is really bizarre. I've been having the above problem for a few days. As I posted the above I also emailed the Science Museum. Within a couple of minutes I was able to access the site! I've only had the automatic email "we'll get back to you someday" reply. DuncanHill (talk) 14:47, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I got this error a couple of days ago, and I'm still getting it. Just to be sure, I clicked the 'Collection' link on the main SMG webpage. Instant 403, no delay while it waited for a non-existent reply or anything. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 15:25, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just had a reply, telling me to update my browser, clear cookies, delete history, the boilerplate website problem reply. But for me the problem cleared without doing any of that. It was almost immediately after emailing the info@ sciencemuseum . ac . uk address that it cleared. Suggest you try the same! DuncanHill (talk) 15:38, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that worked for me. Thank you. Now I need to remember why I needed it... -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 16:04, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

IP and identification

Premise: question for information purposes only! Second premise: there is an app for iOS and Android that allows you to connect to WiFi networks all over the world. Question: if someone uses this app to insult or make baseless accusations, can it be traced back to the device? And with the device data, to the owner (for example ip>mac address associated with the ip>sim number associated with the mac address>data of the sim owner)? —~2025-42184-79 (talk) 20:55, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

Different entities will have different parts of this information. The Wifi and firewall operator will have the mac / port/ IP pairing in their logs. A phone manufacture will have mac/device information. A telephone company will have phone number /sim information. Companies you register with like Google will have a phone number and device info, and location info. For a minor offence, no one will bother putting all this information together. But if a serious crime is perpetrated, the police will gather information to assemble the whole picture. Political parties and intelligence agencies will be collecting information and could well know who you are when you abuse someone with your phone, but only if you are of sufficient interest to them will you be targeted for individual action. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:38, 21 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

December 22

Facebook support for unjust sanctions

For reasons I do not understand, it seems that Facebook has marked me as a spammer. Now almost all of my postings in groups require admin approval as potential spam, which of course causes most of them to be lost forever. Facebook does not give support for problems like these. Is there any way I can contact them meaningfully? --KnightMove (talk) 16:50, 22 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I used Facebook's automated monitoring for an anecdote. I had to study it. The automated service can classify a user as a spammer. It doesn't require human oversight. It is automated. It is usually triggered when someone's account is compromised and used to spam Facebook with posts. The true owner doesn't realize that happened and wonder how they became a spammer. But, sometimes, the user is the actual spammer. Regardless, step 1 is to change your password and make sure you have 2-factor authentication set up. Then, use the help center to request a review. It is a semi-automated service. Usually, you will get an auto-reply and nothing else. It is possible a human will check your request and do something. Then, there is an oversight committee you can appeal to, but they won't accept your complaint. They handle other things. They get to choose which complaints to review and focus only on extremely weird and controversial things. Finally, there is a lot of confusion about the roles involved. The question is: Why doesn't Facebook treat their customers better? If you aren't paying Facebook, you are not a customer. You are a content creator and behavior model used as data points for the actual customers. ~2025-42594-02 (talk) 12:37, 24 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

December 26

Blocked by Cloudflare

When trying to access the page "Will of Elizabeth Barnard, Shakespeare's granddaughter and his last surviving descendant: original copy" on the website Shakespeare Documented, linked to from the Wikipedia article Shakespeare coat of arms, I get this message from Cloudflare: "Sorry, you have been blocked / You are unable to access folger.edu ... This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data." It also tells me how I can resolve the issue: "You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up". Other links on that page to Shakespeare Documented give the same reaction. So I think this is the message I should send: "Dear site owner, please unblock me. A Sorry you have been blocked page came up when I was trying to access your site. For your information, what I was doing when the message came up was, I was trying to access your site." Now who should I send it to? Who is the site owner and how can they be reached? More seriously, is anything known about what might trigger such an excessive display of security? ‑‑Lambiam 11:00, 26 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have just browsed successfully to that URL (from UK, no VPN, Chrome on Windows 11). At the foot of the page, it states: "FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT SHAKESPEAREDOCUMENTED@FOLGER.EDU". On other pages at folger.edu, the email address webmaster@folger.edu is given for various subscription and privacy issues. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 16:47, 26 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Lambiam For your last question: it's up to the web developer who configured Cloudflare's firewall most probably - nothing you can control directly and nothing you did wrong. Many administrators (or their managers) decide on overzealous policies. You can suggest that to them in the email and give them your IP address which might help them diagnose the issue (if you are comfortable associating your IP address with your email and identity).

What I usually do is not bother with that, and use workarounds such as: a different VPN or the Internet Archive or archive.today -- or even put the page into Google Translate, which sometimes gets past the block. Another possible workaround without contacting the web admin is to change your own IP address, which might not work even if you manage to do that (because you might be blocked based on the subnet or autonomous system of the ISP). How to change your IP address (and whether it's possible) depends completely on your ISP. For me, mine changes if I change my router's MAC address (be careful) and restart the router & cable modem. Komonzia (talk) 09:16, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. If the block can be based on nothing I did, but solely the IP address, Cloudflare's "The action you just performed" is not only uninformative but downright misleading. ‑‑Lambiam 10:19, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

December 30

Can I turn off the sound in one window and not others?

If I am trying to listen to music, it is annoying if I get an ad that has sound. Recently I encountered an advertiser that will not allow the ad to be removed and uses a fake button to turn off the sound, which opens a new tab as if I have clicked on the ad but does nothing for the sound. I don't want to turn off the sound entirely because online is the only way to listen to music I like. Actual radio stations don't care about people with my musical taste.

I have complained to the web site that has the ads and they blame someone else (whose method of contact won't work for me). I have contacted the advertiser who says contact the people who are in charge of the ads on the site.

At least one web site won't allow me to use ad blockers. I can't just turn the ad blocker off for them. I mean if I try to do that, the web site knows the ad blocker is there and still won't allow me to use the site.

I would ask this on a Microsoft site but that site recently changed to the point I can't ask questions, and when I somehow got a question posted, I got no response.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:06, 30 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've not used Windows in a while, but you can do this by app. IIRC you right click the volume icon, and click something like "Open Volume Mixer" which gives you a mixer for each app. I'm pretty sure this opens Windows Settings (if so, I think there's a Winaero Tweaker mod to replace the mixer with the by-app mixer).

Also, what website are we talking about here? What browser? thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 02:41, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Edge, but I don't use apps.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:34, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Vchimpanzee The volume mixer suggestion would work (I'm very sure Windows 11 still has a per-app volume mixer but there are also custom tools like EarTrumpet). But I prefer muting the individual tabs in the browser because, like you, I often have something else playing. In Firefox I use an extension called "Disable HTML5 Autoplay". The only downsides I've had with that is it interferes with Cloudflare's CAPTCHAs (because autoplay is one heuristic that the CAPTCHA uses), and it breaks some menus on websites. But it's very easy to turn the extension off for affected sites.

Firefox also allows me to mute particular tabs if I right click on the tab and click "mute tab". Komonzia (talk) 09:25, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Firefox has a built-in setting for that: Settings → Privacy and security → scroll to permissions: autoplay. You can block autoplay of audio only or both audio and video. It's good enough for me. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:58, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

To add to this, basically every major browser has a hidden autoplay setting. Like on Firefox and forks (e.g. Zen, Librewolf), there is a setting called Autoplay which I've set to "Block Audio and Video". thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 20:03, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I can't just turn the ad blocker off for them. I mean if I try to do that, the web site knows the ad blocker is there and still won't allow me to use the site. What do you mean? You can definitely turn off the adblocker for one website, the website won't know it's there. Websites cannot snoop into browser internals. thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 20:04, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Can the order be changed of what displays when I right click?

At a library I go to, if I right click, I get a list of options including "Open in new tab} (which I don't want), "Open in new window" (which I do) and "open in split screen" (which I don't want and accidentally did, and when I asked for help, no one could figure out how to make the screen normal again). The problem is that split screen appears before new window (at home split screen comes below new window, which it is supposed to) The library somehow figured out how to fix this, even after the person I asked for help said it couldn't be. Now another library has this order. I meant to ask someone to see about getting this fixed. And if I do, I need to know what to tell them.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:10, 30 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Can you tell us what the platform is (Windows 10? macOS?) en which app this refers to (Edge? Chrome?). ‑‑Lambiam 00:31, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not at that library now but it is Windows with Chrome.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:40, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 1

Whatsapp for Apple Watch

How to delete Whatsapp messages on Apple Watch? ~2026-9217 (talk) 11:38, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @~2026-9217,

Do you mean the app itself from the Apple Watch or just individual messages? The former is very easy to do, but I'm not sure the latter can be done. However, I don't use it so someone else can probably help me here. thetechie@enwiki:~$ she/they | talk | contributions 20:05, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]