The Student Room Group

I'm dropping behind in college because I constantly worry about non-important issues

I began at college a few weeks back, doing a BTEC in software design and IT development. I've been finding that, especially towards the end of the day, I've been unable to work because all I can think about are mthw things that worry me, and even then these are some of the stupidest things. These are the main things:

Firstly, on Wikipedia (well its sister Commons project, actually), you have the different image licenses, such as the Creative Commons variants and the Public Domain. On top of this, some images have additional restrictions, given in the form of a template, such as trademark rights (logos) and personality rights (photographs containing people), indicated by an orange warning icon on the image preview. While the site is pretty consistent at tagging photos with the trademark template, over half of photos containing people do not contain the personality rights template alongside them, possible because personality rights do not apply in some countries. I get very paranoid over whether a picture of a celebrity does or doesn't have this template tagged with it, even though there is really nothing to worry about, since I have no plan to reuse any of the photos, and seeing the template tagged alongside an image of a celebrity seems to give me a negative impression of them, even though this is nonsense since it's up to the users of Wikipedia to add the template, and in many cases personality rights would apply regardless of the template. I need a way of finding out whether each image does or doesn't contain the template, without actually clicking directly on the page or preview. Possible either through running a script to find if the template code/text is present on a particular URL (the image page) or by looking at the page history to see any sign of a user adding "{{Personality rights}}". Long term I need a way of refraining from clicking these images, and realising that the template is not a problem. I could also block access on my devices to the Commons servers, however this would just mess up Wikipedia and could be easily reverted.

I developed a method on Wikipedia about 3-4 years ago to find out if a page was semi protected, since I had a similar phobia back then, regarding which popular pages were and weren't protected. I type the page name into the special protection log page, then see from the log if it's protected. Works for me.

The second problem relates to being out and about, rather than something I worry about in class. You know those abrasive "UNDER 25?" posters you see in supermarkets and some pubs? I have a real phobia of seeing them. This phobia goes whenever I visit Scotland because the Challenge 25 policy is used everywhere there, but in England, where only some places use C25, I get a hugely unpleasant rush of grief whenever I see this poster, or something similar. I've never minded the C21 posters quite as much.

I really need to get rid of these problems, and others like them, because thinking about them just makes me really miserable at college. These phobias are all I can think about whenever I'm in lesson, and I need a way of just forgetting about them.
Reply 1
Original post by Anonymous
I began at college a few weeks back, doing a BTEC in software design and IT development. I've been finding that, especially towards the end of the day, I've been unable to work because all I can think about are mthw things that worry me, and even then these are some of the stupidest things. These are the main things:

Firstly, on Wikipedia (well its sister Commons project, actually), you have the different image licenses, such as the Creative Commons variants and the Public Domain. On top of this, some images have additional restrictions, given in the form of a template, such as trademark rights (logos) and personality rights (photographs containing people), indicated by an orange warning icon on the image preview. While the site is pretty consistent at tagging photos with the trademark template, over half of photos containing people do not contain the personality rights template alongside them, possible because personality rights do not apply in some countries. I get very paranoid over whether a picture of a celebrity does or doesn't have this template tagged with it, even though there is really nothing to worry about, since I have no plan to reuse any of the photos, and seeing the template tagged alongside an image of a celebrity seems to give me a negative impression of them, even though this is nonsense since it's up to the users of Wikipedia to add the template, and in many cases personality rights would apply regardless of the template. I need a way of finding out whether each image does or doesn't contain the template, without actually clicking directly on the page or preview. Possible either through running a script to find if the template code/text is present on a particular URL (the image page) or by looking at the page history to see any sign of a user adding "{{Personality rights}}". Long term I need a way of refraining from clicking these images, and realising that the template is not a problem. I could also block access on my devices to the Commons servers, however this would just mess up Wikipedia and could be easily reverted.

I developed a method on Wikipedia about 3-4 years ago to find out if a page was semi protected, since I had a similar phobia back then, regarding which popular pages were and weren't protected. I type the page name into the special protection log page, then see from the log if it's protected. Works for me.

The second problem relates to being out and about, rather than something I worry about in class. You know those abrasive "UNDER 25?" posters you see in supermarkets and some pubs? I have a real phobia of seeing them. This phobia goes whenever I visit Scotland because the Challenge 25 policy is used everywhere there, but in England, where only some places use C25, I get a hugely unpleasant rush of grief whenever I see this poster, or something similar. I've never minded the C21 posters quite as much.

I really need to get rid of these problems, and others like them, because thinking about them just makes me really miserable at college. These phobias are all I can think about whenever I'm in lesson, and I need a way of just forgetting about them.


I suggest you take a look at mind.org, sane and the nhs website for some info and advice on mh issues like anxiety. It really helped me work out what exactly I was feeling when I was struggling.
I also suggest you talk to your unis student support so they can help you out a bit and your doctor. I think therapy could be really helpful for you. Also you might like to look into something called DSA. It can help people with health issues in education in a variety of ways including allowances in exams, access yo uni counseling and support workers, help with finances and other stuff depending on thei condition. You may find that they can help you. :smile:
Reply 2
Okay, I've overcome the "personality rights phobia", by being able to search for images that contain the template through the Wikimedia Commons (where the images are hosted). However, after I discovered that method, my "semi-protection phobia" came back, and looking at the protection log method isn't currently working. If possible, I need a proxy (one of you) to look at the (English) Wikipedia page for each of these pages (as I enter them) and tell me which ones are not currently semi protected in a random order (sorry about it being so long). Please do not list the ones that are. I have included some that I already know whether or not they are protected in order to keep a balance. You can list pages that are currently move protected or which have been semi-protected before, so long as they are not at present. I will automatically assume any that you do not list to be presently semi protected.

Foo Fighters
Dave Grohl
Green Day
Primal Scream
Bobby Gillespie
Bob Mould
The Beatles
Grant Hart
The Kinks
James (band)
Radiohead
The Wonder Stuff
Metallica
Miles Hunt
U2
Bono
Oasis (band)
Coldplay
Richard Stallman
The Connells
Idlewild (band)
The Smashing Pumpkins
BBC
Hillary Clinton
British English
The Rolling Stones
Joy Division
American English
Blur (band)
R.E.M.
Placebo (band)
My Bloody Valentine
Dinosaur Jr.
The Replacements (band)
New Order (band)
Britney Spears
J Mascis
DeviantArt
Bristol
Bath, Somerset
Manchester
Fish (singer)
Theresa May
Liverpool
South Park
Asda
Walmart
Wire (band)
London
David Gedge
Glasgow
Tesco
Donald Trump
Sainsbury's
Family Guy
Whitbread
Edinburgh
South Park
Ubuntu
Channel 4
Belfast
Linux
Dublin
Derry
American Dad!
ITV
Minecraft
GIMP
Windows XP
Wikia

I will be very thankful if you could spend a few minutes checking :smile: and telling me the ones that are not currently semi protected. If a page is semi protected, you will see "view source" instead of "edit source" when logged out, and in most cases you will see a grey padlock at the top right of the page (ignore a green padlock; that's move protection only).
Reply 3
Some more to add onto the ones I mentioned above:

Sega
Liberal Democrats
Conservative Party (UK)
Labour Party (UK)
UK Independence Party
British National Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Waterboys

Please include or exclude these in the same response with the others.

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