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Revision as of 05:16, 24 October 2010 editRich Farmbrough (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers, Template editors1,725,264 edits →There is no consensus for "ucfirst" as a standard for template calls← Previous edit Revision as of 05:20, 24 October 2010 edit undoRich Farmbrough (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers, Template editors1,725,264 edits →There is no consensus for "ucfirst" as a standard for template callsNext edit →
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I will request both you and your bot to be blocked if you continue making these changes without first gaining consensus for them. You are a valuable contributor, but you cannot simply "plow on ahead" with controversial changes without first gathering consensus after good faith objections are raised. –]] 03:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC) I will request both you and your bot to be blocked if you continue making these changes without first gaining consensus for them. You are a valuable contributor, but you cannot simply "plow on ahead" with controversial changes without first gathering consensus after good faith objections are raised. –]] 03:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
:There is no controversy here. Nothing to see, keep walking. '']&nbsp;]'', 05:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC).<br /> :There is no controversy here. Nothing to see, keep walking. '']&nbsp;]'', 05:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC).<br />
;:Of course if BRFA B 35 was signed off I could at least upgrade my AWB per the previous section. '']&nbsp;]'', 05:20, 24 October 2010 (UTC).<br />

Revision as of 05:20, 24 October 2010

User:SmackBot main backlog
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Total 45831
I will generally answer on your talk page (and usually copy here), and look for your responses here. If you see my answer here and it's not on your talk page, I'm either not happy with it (haven't finished writing it), or I forgot to copy it over. However I don't use my watch-list much, as I am not in the habit of it, so best to reply here. R.F.


Femto's Box
Th 3
Ed 5
Ms 7
Links
FAQ
Talk Archive Index
follow my (broken) blog


Nudges

Burma

Only thing I spotted from the run the other day was that you left in the leader title -mayor so it now comes up with a { } error. Can you ensure they are removed like this?♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:17, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, can be resolved soon I hope. Rich Farmbrough, 09:55, 30 September 2010 (UTC).

OK don't forget!♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:53, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

The error is fixed: the status quo will at least inform that the leader is a mayor, and encourage naming of names. Rich Farmbrough, 17:23, 2 October 2010 (UTC).


About bots and categories - clarify request

Conversation

I brought this up at wp:ani but it's not that relevant. (Fine details of sort are important, but not my main point, I think we can live with any alphabetical ordering - especially when cat contents tend to group similar items anyway..). The issue is that your bot (and others?) appears to be acting only on recent or new pages (based on experience). It would be reassuring to know that this bot or another bot is applying the changes systematically starting at Aardvark and working up to Xylophone..

Does the bot do that ?, and if not can there be one please (I think I explained why at Misplaced Pages:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Minor_technical_question). Just mark this section "done" if the issue is definately already addressed, and a solution exists and has been implemented. Thanks.Sf5xeplus (talk) 16:21, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Well - yes and no. I have a BRFA for diacritics in biographies, and I have done all those pages. I did have a plan to do exactly what you suggest - and not just for diacritics - and for the excellent reason that starting at Aardvark means not breaking any ordering as you go through (if I remember correctly) but there was one extremely vociferous critic that sapped the energy out of the whole thing - believe it or not you can't change a space on WP without someone objecting - possibly me! However: what would be possible, if a little hard, would be to do it on a category by category basis: automatically identifying categories where an "out of order" (lets call it an O3) occurs and correcting all members. And of course setting default sorts for pages with diacritics only would also probably be acceptable. Rich Farmbrough, 16:39, 1 October 2010 (UTC).
ok thanks. I'll be back (or get Yobot to fix it) if a similar problem occurs; now I've mentioned the probably of that becomes infinitely unlikely. Problem not resolved, but probably solved.
As for systematic bot A to Z diacritic work - maybe wait a bit and suggest again. I can supply +1 !vote.Sf5xeplus (talk) 17:00, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Italic titles

Conversation

Back in July you were a model of efficiency using AWB to strip out {{Italic title}}. Just curious - not to seem demanding, I hope - would your technical abilities and/or old-school industry be sufficient to the job of restoring those templates where removed, in the wake of this discussion? Wareh (talk) 01:59, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Was it as recently as July? And I can't remember being very thorough about it although I try.
Not to restore, specifically (although it wouldn't be that hard), but to install for, for example, all ships, novels or whatever the consensus is.
Incidentally it would have been good to have been involved in the discussion - you may have missed that I was replacing or proposing, at one point (maybe back in 2009), more specific templates - I forget the names but effectively {{Novel title}} or similar. This allows policy to flip-flop without having to edit a zillion articles. I was also installing "Italic title" (I proposed a specific name for that I think) on taxon pages, the temptation of projects to build the formatting into infoboxes is very large - I see the ships are going down that channel? - but misguided because 1. not all articles will have the infobox 2. it then becomes very difficult to use the infobox without italics 3. it is not clear from the page source how an "effect" is achieved - newbarrier. Rich Farmbrough, 07:27, 3 October 2010 (UTC).
Topic specific templates also allow automatic processing of standard exceptions for example "HMS Midgard" instead of "HMS Midgard" if that is needed. Rich Farmbrough, 07:52, 3 October 2010 (UTC).
The connection to you only just occurred to me as I manually changed a couple of articles on books whose italic titles you had removed. I'm sorry if this news of the discussions was not timely (and I did in fact know nothing about your previous template proposals), but I hope even this belated information about the change in policy may be useful in the hands of someone who clearly knows a lot about templates, automatic processes, etc. I take it you are suggesting that {{Italic title}} could perhaps be routinely added according to categories, e.g. Category:Books by date. The problem is that even "books" is too narrow: Category:Works by author and Category:Works by date are really only slightly too broad, but they include a lot of non-"books" (by WP category) whose titles should be italicized in running text. Most everything in Category:Ancient Greek works by author and Category:Philosophical works by author (areas near and dear to me) should be italicized, but I suspect many of them are not categorized as WP "books." So, if more specific templates were to be developed, I'd suggest that {{Novel title}} is way too narrow: even {{Book title}} has coverage issues for the relevant range of works.
You've already lost me with some of the technical issues you raise, but book titles (more or less) are where I'd really love to see automated changes in equal or greater volume to the previous italic-removals. Do you see a good chance of achieving that?
Here's what may be the most practical idea I can come up with. If the article title appears in the lead '''''Like this''''', isn't that the best criterion for applying {{Italic title}} (or DISPLAYTITLE for longer titles that break that template)? This seems to me to apply perfectly the new policy at WP:AT, which is simply, "Use italics when italics would be used in running text."
If you think that's a useful avenue, perhaps you can take it to WP:AT or the appropriate technical forum where such things get implemented? Or I can at your suggestion: but I am very inexperienced on the technical side. Wareh (talk) 15:01, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
  • No criticism was intended. Yes I miss lots of discussions, and end up "sighing" some of the time - but I really couldn't keep up with them all anyway - this one seems to have come to an acceptable conclusion, although I'm not sure I agree with it, I have always found this issue tricky, and, of course non-critical (unlike invisible capitals in template names <joke />).
  • The ' ' ' ' ' idea is great - cuts to the chase - in would include ' ' too, since that probably means that the bolding was forgotten.
  • It would probably be suitable for a WP:BRFA - I have a bit of a backlog there right now.
Rich Farmbrough, 15:18, 3 October 2010 (UTC).
I'm glad that sounds useful--it really only occurred to me in the course of replying to you here. So does "backlog" mean you think you'll pursue that eventually, or would it make more sense for me to go to somewhere like WP:BOTREQ, and if so, with or without stopping by Misplaced Pages talk:Article titles first? (The policy at WP:AT is plain enough, but I don't want to step on any toes in initiating action on that scale.) Sorry if this is asking for too much hand-holding, but I'm only slowly learning the ropes of all this behind-the-scenes work. Wareh (talk) 15:47, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
No it's fine, I'll get a BRFA in presently. I'm just trying to streamline the way I deal with it - although the average response time of the BAG is long. Rich Farmbrough, 16:06, 3 October 2010 (UTC).
I'll drop you a note when it's there, and you can mention it at other venues to gain input. Rich Farmbrough, 16:07, 3 October 2010 (UTC).
Thanks. You are a true Misplaced Pages public servant! Wareh (talk) 13:57, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Railway

Conversation

Hi, did you correct those Burmese infobox errors afterwards? Can you move all of the Gare de... in Category:Railway stations in France categories to ...... railway station. There is consensus to do so at WP:Trains. They should be in english.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:34, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

E.g Gare de Colmar should be Colmar railway station.♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:35, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

See #Burma .. let me know. Yes that's not hard, when I get back about 5pm I'll get on to it.
category:Paris Métro should not be a sub cat of Paris railway stations as this puts rolling stock into a station category. Rich Farmbrough, 13:03, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
Gare Aero d'Montparnasse

OK Gare de, Gare du and Gare d' I take it are fine to move, how about:

? Rich Farmbrough, 13:08, 6 October 2010 (UTC).

Mmm I'd go with:

List here. Rich Farmbrough, 17:57, 6 October 2010 (UTC).

Hang on a moment - I'm new to this but can't find the consensus for change described above. (Yes I tend to favour the Gare de .. title obviously.)
Don't look at Category:Railway stations in Germany either :) . Lot's of stuff like Mannheim Hauptbahnhof.
Particularly there is an objection to things like Gare d'Avignon TGV are in fairly common use in English, as are others. I'm worried that if you bot this it will make a mess eg consider Gare du Nord.Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:16, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Look on the talk page - specifically Manheim Hauptbahnhof and Gare du Nord are mentioned as exceptions. I don't think even if I was "botting it" I could affect the BBC pages... Or perhaps you mean the content of pages? There is no intent to do a search and replace (As far as I know.) Rich Farmbrough, 18:31, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
Yes funny - I linked to the BBC to show an example of common usage.Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:38, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
I'd also suggest (can that be demand) that the ones moved be moved back. This Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Trains#Railway_stations discussion hasn't really established a consensus for such a big change. Also despite being an English word too, I don't feel that 'maritime' is the correct English translation, possibly 'marine' is better, but fundamentally its usage is specific to the name - a literal translation probably won't make much sense. Although not English the French names satisfy Misplaced Pages:Article_titles#Deciding_an_article_title, especially recognisability. This definitely seems to have been an error in your judgement in honesty.Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:27, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Of course you can Revert (using "undo" - not roll-back if you have that) - then go and Discuss - its part of the BRD cycle, although with a month elapsed form the discussion, it's not that bold. Just drop me a note to let me know which bits if any you revert - or if you wish discuss then revert if necessary. Rich Farmbrough, 19:05, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
I might have but as I'm not objecting to the other changes they exceptions with "Maritime" would seem out of place. There seems to be a few examples in english of the usage that's been proposed/changed ("xxx maritime station"), I'm not sure if "xxx harbour station" or "xxx port station" is better or worse. Must do more research before acting.Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:16, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Note Just to make it clear - I've changed my position (on naming) from object to neutral - you can ignore the above.Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:50, 6 October 2010 (UTC) (Thanks for the note: RF.)

Will try to get back to this today or tomorrow. Rich Farmbrough, 11:52, 8 October 2010 (UTC).

More

Anyway far be it for me to stand in the way of progress - if the station name is simply "gare de xxx" then I don't object to "xxx station" etc. I'm not sure about the ones with "maritime" in.

However you did get the capitalisation wrong, its railway station (lower case) eg King's Cross station. (ok so some USA stations use Railroad Station with caps, but that's for another day). Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:51, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes that is what was suggested, and normally I love WP's "down" style, and regularly take Dr Blofeld out the back and threaten him with his own sharks for using capitals in things like "Splurgle District". However thinking about it for a moment will reveal that it is not that simple. If the name is "Gare d'" then Station is part of the name. Though I argue elsewhere that, for example Kingston University is also Kingston university, so "downing" is a fairly safe operation, where as "upping" is not (Manchester universities <> Manchester Universities for example), in this case I think the cap is justified. I am open to persuasion however, more: if you can get consensus from WP T on either style I will go with that quite happily . I would indeed personally prefer just "Station" or "station", since to my ear "Railway" is the default. Other varieties of English, however, may vary. Rich Farmbrough, 19:01, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
Category:Railway stations in Belgium could be an example of precedence - 1/2 of it speaks French of a sort (or maybe that's wrong too). As an additional capitalisation of gare is not always done (except at the beginning of a sentence) eg , also http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=+site:www.lemonde.fr+le+monde+gare Le Monde uses lower case if not leading a sentence. eg No idea what the official French ministry of spelling and culture position is on this controversy.Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:13, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
That's interesting. I am, sadly, an expert in neither Walloon (as I remarked earlier today, funnily enough) or railway stations, although there is a fascination about abandoned underground stations that probably speaks to either a deep character flaw, or to much "Quatermass" as a child. (Hobbs End I think? OR was that the good Doctor?) The place for discussion is is most likely the WikiProject. You can cut and paste this wholesale if you wish. Rich Farmbrough, 19:18, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
Or maybe I should take your opinion, my doubts, and the talk page suggestion as consensus for lower case? IDK. I'l think on't. Rich Farmbrough, 19:19, 6 October 2010 (UTC).
I've left a note at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Trains#Capitalisation_of_french_railway_stations and on Blofeld's page too. I can let you know (though I've suggested others post here since I'm fairly certain this is a non-controversial thing already decided). I can let you know. the reason I'm hassling you about this is because I'm under the impression that you have 'thousands' of station articles to name change..? maybe that's not the caseSf5xeplus (talk) 19:34, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. It's about 400 - see the list I mentioned. I was planning on creating redirects to the Gare du Nord articles - an of course anyone could move back specific items. Oh and yes, re: Le Monde, French capitalisation differs from ours for proper nouns (e.g. Académie française) but that's about as far as my knowledge takes me. Rich Farmbrough, 19:49, 6 October 2010 (UTC).

There seemed to be no objection to moving the pages to lower casing e.g Rouen railway station. These really should be moved as Gare means nothing to most non French speakers. I personally prefer the Railway Station capitalised but consensus at WP:Trains seems to be lower casing. "railway" station is necessary as "station could refer to bus station, tram/cable car station or even a scientific research station.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:41, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the notes, will try to get back to this today or tomorrow. Rich Farmbrough, 11:52, 8 October 2010 (UTC).

Printworthy

Conversation

It occurs to me that any redirect that is categorised (Misplaced Pages:Categorizing redirects) excluding those which only have categories which are subcats of Category:Misplaced Pages redirects should always be printworthy redirects (Template:R printworthy)..

Any chance of a bot for that?? Sf5xeplus (talk) 14:05, 9 October 2010 (UTC):

Yes, but probably better to either ensure Category:Unprintworthy redirects is in the appropriate redirect templates, and the rest would be printworthy by default? Rich Farmbrough, 14:08, 9 October 2010 (UTC).
Maybe - in an earlier life I might have created various unprintable redirects (spelling and caps variations) that I haven't got on a watchlist and don't remember.. I haven't done that for years since I learnt better.
Following on with the logic - a bot could "printworthy" all mainspace categorised redirects, and "not-printworthy" all other redirects not already having "printworthy". A few printworthy redirects might get missed but that's a user problem.. The final sauce would be to have a bot to tag "printworthy" any "unprintworthy" redirects if they are subsequently categorised in the 'mainspace'.
That would categorise all redirects, with only minor printworthy omissions - the omissions could be manually caught by categorising with "bot categorised unprintworthy" - giving a much more easily human-checked list of possible bot errors. Once done maintenance should be minimal.. Hope springs eternal.Sf5xeplus (talk) 14:28, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
Yes I think there is something to that. I just changed 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rob Zombie to unprintworthy, it was the second one I looked at - and quite bottable. Rich Farmbrough, 14:51, 9 October 2010 (UTC).

Hyphenating adjectival use of units

Conversation

Hi, Just a suggestion that this could be done using the -adj switch in the Convert template. Cavrdg (talk) 07:08, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Echoing what Cavrdg said, and also noting that per WP:MOSNUM and the Convert template, the parenthetical item does not take a hyphen. But for example, for your edit at Interstate 185 (Georgia), instead of
49.30-mile (79.34-km)
you could have typed
{{convert|49.30|mi|km|adj=on}}
which would have produced the output
49.30-mile (79.34 km)
Not only would this make things easier for you, but it would also make everything flow better within the current MOS and any future changes via the template. —C.Fred (talk) 13:23, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
Yes it's certainly an idea. I have mentioned at Mosnum. By the way I (any TP stalkers) improved pixiedust and will now be using it a lot.
 The convert template is not magic pixie dust
Rich Farmbrough, 13:44, 10 October 2010 (UTC).

In thr last couple of days you seem to have resumed using your main account for automated editing. Please stop, get approval for this process and use a separate account for this. Thanks — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 17:15, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

It is not the speed of the editing which identifies them as bot-like, but the scale of the task. You were blocked for performing non-approved bot tasks on your main account, and you are still continuing to do so. This will likely lead to another block of your main account. Will you please stop and go to BRFA? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:35, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
Have you visited BRFA recently? Rich Farmbrough, 09:07, 11 October 2010 (UTC).


Database scan

I don't know if it's easy but I would like to have an idea of how many articles that transclude {{Infobox officeholder}} or one of its 150+ redirects have |honorific-prefix= with <br> (or its variations) and how many don't.

Check Template_talk:Infobox_officeholder#honorific-prefix. Is it possible that you make a database scan for me? Thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:00, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes it should be easy. Rich Farmbrough, 11:00, 12 October 2010 (UTC).
Delayed by a slight diversion. Rich Farmbrough, 11:24, 12 October 2010 (UTC).
Found 6 with just a break. Rich Farmbrough, 16:57, 12 October 2010 (UTC).
It was about 4384, as far as I could tell. Rich Farmbrough, 02:12, 16 October 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot duplicate tags feature request

Sorry if this is not the place to leave this, but this is mostly a feature request I think. In this diff, it would be nice if SmackBot would notice that there are duplicate tags and remove the duplicated tags. Would this be easy to implement? Devourer09 (t·c) 16:25, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure how hard it would be, it depends on scope, I suspect that the main difficulty would be dividing the list up into remove and don't remove, dfor example, multiple Expand section, or multiple Citation needed tags are legitimate (but not adjoining). Simpler might be to limit it to tag knots, in which case it would be fairly easy. I'll submit a BRFA. Rich Farmbrough, 16:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC).
BRFA submitted and in trial. Rich Farmbrough, 02:12, 16 October 2010 (UTC).

Date fixing

User:SmackBot main backlog
(refresh)
Total 45831

Is SmackBot still patrolling Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template? It currently has 550 page in it. --Pascal 18:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Sigh. Yes, it is patrolling it, SmackBot has a back log right now awaiting BRFA. The size of the backlog is in the box to the right. Currently the lack of BRFA means 600,000 wasted page-views a month, next month that would be 1.2 million (a ten thousandth of all WP's page-views) and I would have to stop fixing the 40 or 50 articles a day I can now. However I'm sure that won't happen. Rich Farmbrough, 18:38, 12 October 2010 (UTC).
(Probably double those numbers.) Rich Farmbrough, 20:10, 12 October 2010 (UTC).

Got a trail run , so half are are fixed. From the peak of 660. Rich Farmbrough, 16:25, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
--

possible bug

First, thanks for all of the good work SmackBot does. I think I have encountered a bug, though, related to Template:Dead link. See this edit. It looks like the bot is having trouble substituting the date. Cheers! Novaseminary (talk) 21:45, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for those kind words. Yes you are quite right. This is a known bug due to a change (reduction) in what SmackBot does and I am waiting for a BRFA to be approved which will allow me to fix this. Rich Farmbrough, 21:52, 12 October 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

SmackBot is destroying my ability to manage my watchlist by clogging the database with trivial substitutions of the unsigned template. The argument for substituting that template is weak in any case. Forcing database edits merely for the purpose of that one substitution is counterproductive. Please pull that out of the list of SmackBot triggers. Rossami (talk) 00:24, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Examples:
Yes I can see the problem. It was a bit of a catchup, and should not happen again. Incidentally you can tell your watchlist to ignore bot edits if you choose. Rich Farmbrough, 11:03, 13 October 2010 (UTC).
What is the rationale for substituting this template, and please could you link to the relevant BRFA? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:42, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
It's supposed to be substed. The BRFA will take some finding as I am rebuilding the task list on SBs page. Rich Farmbrough, 00:49, 23 October 2010 (UTC).


Dated templates please

When you have a moment please extract SmackBot's list of dated templates and add them to Misplaced Pages:AutoWikiBrowser/Dated_templates#Mainspace_rules, or post them to a sandbox and I'll reformat. Thanks Rjwilmsi 11:08, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, sure. Rich Farmbrough, 16:17, 14 October 2010 (UTC).


Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases

Hi! Upon the request of another editor, I listed Category:Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases and its subcategories for speedy renaming (for a minor punctuation fix). I have a feeling that one of your bots (SmackBot, maybe?) may be checking this category occasionally or regularly to add a date parameter, and so I wanted to give you a "heads up" so that you would not be caught by surprise if a change is made. If I was wrong, then sorry for the bother. Cheers! : ) -- Black Falcon 06:43, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes it does, but the renaming won't bother it. I'll look, though, because the sub-cats need renaming too. Rich Farmbrough, 16:06, 17 October 2010 (UTC).
I listed the subcats too, as well as Category:Monthly clean up category (Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases) counter. Thanks, -- Black Falcon 00:10, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
Once the templates are sorted, which I have done, the rest happens by itself, pretty much. Rich Farmbrough, 02:03, 18 October 2010 (UTC).
Thank you! I see that the new categories were created by Femto Bot and have started populating.
By the way ... Wavelength, the editor who noticed the hyphenation issue, also has pointed out about 80 counter categories which use "clean up" (verb phrase) instead of "cleanup" (noun adjunct); see here for details. I know that the categories are populated via {{Monthly clean up category}} (and its ~100 subpages), so could it (or they) be edited to make that change?

For example, Category:Monthly clean up category (Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases) counter → Category:Monthly cleanup category (Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases) counter

I know that it would be simple enough to move the template and its subpages (by checking the "Move subpages" box), but I do not know whether that would: (a) be sufficient to rename the categories, and (b) break something else. -- Black Falcon 05:47, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
Clean up is better, "cleaning up" would be better still. Or "needing a clean-up". However these categories are only looked at by templates (they enable the counts of items in a category to be adjusted by the number of sub-categories), not even by bots, so I really wouldn't worry about the names: they could by XYZZY001 - in fact, such a name would be better in some ways -- this all stems from supermarkets "clean-up on aisle 2". Rich Farmbrough, 12:23, 18 October 2010 (UTC).
Alright, then. Thanks for your help with renaming the "ly" categories. : ) Cheers, -- Black Falcon 18:29, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

---

SmackBot

http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=American_Crow&diff=140825854&oldid=135073655

I am looking for the name of the photographer. I think the URL above is an edit where you inserted the current American Crow image.

Steve Zaslaw zaslaw@charter.net —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.140.159.226 (talk) 06:47, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Close: it is User:Mdf that is making that change. Rich Farmbrough, 02:35, 18 October 2010 (UTC).


Talkback: Template talk:Citation needed

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Template talk:Citation needed.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

— SpikeToronto 07:48, 18 October 2010 (UTC)


SmackBot & Gurnee mills

On the entry for Gurnee Mills, the bot tried to add a date for a dl template, but ended up with more templates instead of the actual month and year. "{{Dead link|date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}}" I manually updated it. Andyross (talk) 23:02, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, known bug, awaiting bot approvals to implement fix. Rich Farmbrough, 23:32, 18 October 2010 (UTC).
If I configure FixSyntax() to replace |date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}} when within ref tags will that work for your AWB usage? I'm not 100% happy to circumvent the MediaWiki bug, but it doesn't seem likely it will be fixed soon. Rjwilmsi 07:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, but no. I am using "check after" to look for the subst:string - normally I replace it using a rule but if I manually brought that rule back without the main dating rules I would be saving "without dating a tag" too often. Rich Farmbrough, 13:07, 19 October 2010 (UTC).
rev 7314 I've added that logic anyway, since the problem might occur for other AWB users, so it's there if you would like to make use of it. Rjwilmsi 11:00, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Uh, well it was something I asked for, and given the MW bug is good, but right now it would mean SB making zero edits instead of a very few. Rich Farmbrough, 00:49, 23 October 2010 (UTC).

WP:ANI note

A discussion concerning your edits has been started at WP:ANI#Admin tools misuse by Rich Farmbrough. Fram (talk) 14:50, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Too kind of you. Rich Farmbrough, 00:49, 23 October 2010 (UTC).

No title

{{Wikibreak}}


Status update: Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 36

Template: Approved for trial (50 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. *

Edits by:

  1. MBisanz at 23:54, 14 October 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by MBisanz at 23:54, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 23:35, 10 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by MBisanz at 23:54, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by MBisanz at 23:54, 14 October 2010 (UTC).

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 23:43, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


Status update: Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: Approved for trial (7 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. *

Edits by:

  1. Kingpin13 at 12:01, 21 October 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by MBisanz at 23:53, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 23:24, 10 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Kingpin13 at 12:01, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Kingpin13 at 12:01, 21 October 2010 (UTC).

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:09, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Status update: Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 6

Template: . *

Edits by:

  1. Kingpin13 at 12:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Kingpin13 at 12:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 11:54, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Kingpin13 at 12:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Kingpin13 at 12:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC).

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:09, 21 October 2010 (UTC)


WikiBack

But not really editing juts trying to clear the decks a bit. Rich Farmbrough, 00:01, 22 October 2010 (UTC).

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Xeno's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

---

Re: ANI

What I meant was that it wasn't enough for you to stop making disruptive edits. You were just recently brought to AN/I and we would have thought that that AN/I case was sufficient to stop you from making further controversial edits without consultation with the community. I believe that you do have good and sincere intentions behind most of your edits, but you needing multiple warning within a short period is overstretching the limit. Bejinhan talks 02:48, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for that explanation. Like I said, I do believe that you have good intentions, but you not wanting to answer calls for explanation leaves a lot to be desired. That being said, regarding Roux's bloc history, two wrongs do not make a right. Bejinhan talks 03:25, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

RF again?! Sheesh, as if being sent to ANI barely three weeks ago wasn't enough, your response Uh well I haven't really edited since then.. So after that last time, you didn't really edit and on your return there is this.--Crossmr (talk) 07:31, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Dates

When you're not too busy dealing with that time sump ANI, there are a bunch of articles in this category and through (for example, all the subjects on List of colonial governors of Massachusetts), many of which are in mdy or a mixture of dmy/mdy dates, which could do with being aligned to dmy dates per WP:TIES. You can probably tag them all {{EngvarB}} while you are at it. Thanks, --Ohconfucius 08:29, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Status update: Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: Approved for trial (7 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by MBisanz at 23:53, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 23:24, 10 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by ] at 12:01, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Kingpin13 at 10:28, 22 October 2010 (UTC).

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:37, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Status update: Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 6

Template: Speedily Approved.. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Kingpin13 at 12:06, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 16:09, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by ] at 16:09, 21 October 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Kingpin13 at 10:25, 22 October 2010 (UTC).

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:37, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Aberdaron

Hi, the only obstacle stopping this current GA candidate from GA i think is the references. But isn't there a bot which can fill out the references with cite web |url|title=|publisher=|accessdate=? If so can you arrange it to sort out the references?♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:47, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Can you reply? I could have sworn there was a reference bot.♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:45, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Perseus, Son of Zeus

Hi! For your information, I AM Perseus, Son of Zeus's IP address, if you look at the top of the talk page. Could you make my account's user page back to normal? Thanks! 173.49.140.141 (talk) 21:03, 22 October 2010 (UTC) ---

Re: Hawaii watchlist

Thanks for updating the watchlist. Any idea what FemtoBot is doing? It just deleted the update. Viriditas (talk) 21:41, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Robot rebellion I think. Rich Farmbrough, 22:54, 22 October 2010 (UTC).


Dated maintenance categories

Hi! Since you deal with templates and categories alot I figured you would be a good person to ask. Would it be possible to take an undated maintenance category (specifically Category:Copied and pasted articles and sections populated by {{Copypaste}}) and alter it so that it uses monthly subcats and takes a date parameter (and is preferably looked after by SmackBot like most/all? other dated maintenance templates)? VernoWhitney (talk) 22:39, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes pretty easy. Rich Farmbrough, 22:42, 22 October 2010 (UTC).
Tis done. Rich Farmbrough, 22:54, 22 October 2010 (UTC).
Thanks a bunch! VernoWhitney (talk) 11:38, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Woot

SmakcBot backlog down to 9999! Off out imminently. Waves to Cambridge mob. <Fx; door slams. Grams: Up and over, Cage's 4:31> Rich Farmbrough, 11:27, 23 October 2010 (UTC).


Smacking the bot's botty

Take a look at the result of this: distinctly uglier than it had been before! -- Hoary (talk) 11:48, 23 October 2010 (UTC)


copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:53, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
Yes thanks, known bug. Caused by a MediaWiki bug. Corrected normally by SmackBot on the fly but since SmackBot is under interdiction for changing {{silicate-mineral-stub}} to {{Silicate-mineral-stub}} needs me to clean up after manually. Rich Farmbrough, 11:55, 23 October 2010 (UTC).

Template:Imdb

Any chance SmackBot can replace uses of {{imdb}} with {{IMDb name}}? This only needs to be done in passing rather than en masse, but it's not ideal for an ambiguous template redirect to have so many transclusions. PC78 (talk) 16:19, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

You can add any template redirects you think must be bypassed in Misplaced Pages:AutoWikiBrowser/Template_redirects. I added this one in Misplaced Pages:AutoWikiBrowser/Template_redirects#Other_templates. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:40, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
Thanks! PC78 (talk) 18:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
Yes I was doing so, however SmackBot got blocked for changing case so these are currently dropped. Rich Farmbrough, 20:50, 23 October 2010 (UTC).

US places

Hi Rich. Many of the US place articles are in a mess. In particular many contain ugly lists of schools. Maybe you could run a bot to convert education section where a * is located to replace it with a , and convert to prose. The biggest issue with most of the articles is the poor formatting and short ugly sections with long lists and little prose. Also the Rambot data is now ten years out of date. I'd have thought there would be another census this year. Rambot should update with new data. If not then somebody else whould run a bot to update it. We talked about India and Pakistan settlements on wikipedia generally being a pigsty, seriously most of the American place articles are as bad and are in desperate need of a serious cleanup. Basically its areas which are open to a high number of IPs and traffic and things are added sporadically without knowing how to reference/write encyclopedia articles. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:24, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Something like this.♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:45, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Not sure I oppose the bulleted list. The 2010 census data will doubtless take some time to emerge -0 I haven;t checked the site for a while. Rich Farmbrough, 20:51, 23 October 2010 (UTC).


Edits to Theorem

This edit :

  • Did not date any maintenance tags
  • Capitalized templates, although I thought SmackBot had stopped doing that
  • Added a DMY tag, although there is no reason I see that this article has any national ties

An edit that claims to date maintenance tags, but does not, must not be saved. The maintenance tag dating task is all about dating tags, not about doing other things. There is no reason that the bot should even be looking at this article for the task of dating maintenance tags. — Carl (CBM · talk) 00:52, 24 October 2010 (UTC) copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 00:53, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 01:03, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
    • Due to SmackBot being partially broken as noted.
    • No it doesn't.
    • Bug, provisionally fixed.
Rich Farmbrough, 01:03, 24 October 2010 (UTC).

References section added more than once

This one is similar, but for the references section. It was already present in the article, but SmackBot saved the edit anyway (and did not fix the problem) . — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:21, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Not priority

This is a cumulative diff of several consecutive smackbot edits . — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:25, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

flag Critical

Edit to Formal language

This edit has the edit summary "General fixes: using AWB (special CBM restricted version)". AWB should not be used to make only general fixes; that is a violation of the AWB terms of use. However, the actual edit appears to be dating maintenance tags, which is a bot task for SmackBot. Bot tasks should not be run under the maintainer's main account, only under the bot account. That's the purpose of bot accounts to begin with. — Carl (CBM · talk) 00:54, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Ah so that means once I have an approval for a bot to do something it is verboten to me? Rich Farmbrough, 01:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
That's the point of getting bot approval, yes. It's not appropriate for bot operators to run bot tasks on their main accounts. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:20, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
Oh. So SineBot's operator is forbidden from signing his posts? Rich Farmbrough, 01:22, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
He/she would certainly not be permitted to run SineBot under his/her own account with a different edit summary. However, I have never seen that issue with SineBot, while I have seen you run SmackBot tasks under your main account before. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:28, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
So exactly what is it that you object to here? I will offer you a choice:
  1. That is it the same ruleset.
  2. That I am doing things that SmackBot is approved to do.
  3. That I am using AWB to do them.
  4. Something else.
Rich Farmbrough, 01:41, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
I object to bot operators running their bot tasks on their main account. That certainly includes running AWB under your main account "using the same ruleset" as SmackBot, just as it would include me having one of my bots log in as CBM instead of itself. This includes both the "date tags" and "add refs section" tasks, of course. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:56, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
Why do you object? Rich Farmbrough, 02:57, 24 October 2010 (UTC).

Stop - ref section breakage

In addition to this edit which should not be saved I have posted several serious errors to the operator's talk page. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:30, 24 October 2010 (UTC) copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 01:38, 24 October 2010 (UTC)


Please update to the latest SVN

Please update SmackBot to the latest SVN of AWB which no longers makes unnecessary capitalization changes. Thanks, –xeno 02:39, 24 October 2010 (UTC) copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 02:53, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

There is no consensus for "ucfirst" as a standard for template calls

I will request both you and your bot to be blocked if you continue making these changes without first gaining consensus for them. You are a valuable contributor, but you cannot simply "plow on ahead" with controversial changes without first gathering consensus after good faith objections are raised. –xeno 03:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

There is no controversy here. Nothing to see, keep walking. Rich Farmbrough, 05:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
Of course if BRFA B 35 was signed off I could at least upgrade my AWB per the previous section. Rich Farmbrough, 05
20, 24 October 2010 (UTC).