Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 13:20, 22 June 2015

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• WP:BOTN
• WP:BON

Here we coordinate and discuss Misplaced Pages issues related to bots and other programs interacting with the MediaWiki software. Bot operators are the main users of this noticeboard, but even if you are not one, your comments will be welcome. Just make sure you are aware about our bot policy and know where to post your issue.

Do not post here if you came to

• discuss non-urgent bot issues, bugs and suggestions for improvement. Do that at the bot operator's talk page
• discuss urgent/major bot issues. Do that according to instructions at WP:BOTISSUE
• discuss general questions about the MediaWiki software and syntax. We have the village pump's technical section for that
• request approval for your new bot. Here is where you should do it
• request new functionality for bots. Share your ideas at the dedicated page

ClueBot III not archiving correctly

ClueBot III doesn't seem to be archiving correctly for some reason.

If you look at User talk: Jimbo Wales it is supposed to archive this page whenever a thread doesn't have a response for 24 hours, but it hasn't archived this page since 4 May. The only reason the page isn't 10 miles long by now is because myself and other editors have been manually archiving it. It's also not archiving @K6ka:'s talk page. There have been no response to the pings for the message left about this on ClueBot's talk page, I also tried emailing @Rich Smith: and have had no response. I'm not sure what to do next.--5 albert square (talk) 23:58, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

I've just heard back from Rich regarding this, apparently the WP:API changed leading to a ton of PHP errors. Hopefully be resolved soon!--5 albert square (talk) 00:19, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Breaking API changes are (supposed to be) announced to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list, which is reasonably low traffic. If something (in MediaWiki core particularly) broke that wasn't announced, I'd appreciate being told about it so I can either fix it or at least make sure it gets announced. I'd also be happy to talk about improvements to the API to make ClueBot better. See User:BJorsch (WMF) for contact info. BJorsch (WMF) (talk) 10:33, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

BTW, this change is coming up soon, and ClueBot III will probably be affected. The easy solution is to just add rawcontinue=1 to all action=query requests. BJorsch (WMF) (talk) 10:33, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

ClueBot III is not archiving properly again, it's missing out some user talk pages such as User talk: Jimbo Wales. Does anyone know why?--5 albert square (talk) 22:20, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Possibly related: failing to update count

This may be an unrelated recent issue, but for whatever reason, the bot also appears to be failing to update the page counts. This diff here is ClueBot III archiving a thread to archive222, but if you look at the code of the noticeboard in that revision, the current count is still at 187. This seems to be causing problems for the OneClickArchiver script. I believe Technical 13 recently forked the script to correct a similar problem, so I'm pinging him as well. ― Padenton|✉   23:16, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

• I know it's confusing, but I don't believe Cluebot has ever updated counters. I believe it has an internal database or it recalculates what the page should be every time. This is why Template:1CA has never directly supported archiving cluebot archived pages. It's on my to do list to make it compatible at some point. — {{U|Technical 13}} 00:25, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Question

There was a discussion on my talk page about potentially changing the output from the Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/DRN clerk bot task. Keeping in mind that there's a few editors who would like nothing better to brand me a bot operator out of control, I'm asking if making a change to the output from the bot task like this would invoke the requirement for a new BRFA. Thank you in advance. Hasteur (talk) 13:59, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

API BREAKING CHANGE: Default continuation mode for action=query will change at the end of this month

(Note: I'm copying this in full, because it looks important. HTH. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:40, 2 June 2015 (UTC) )

Post from https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-June/081931.html

As has been announced several times (most recently at https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-April/081559.html), the default continuation mode for action=query requests to api.php will be changing to be easier for new coders to use correctly.

The date is now set: we intend to merge the change to ride the deployment train at the end of June. That should be 1.26wmf12, to be deployed to test wikis on June 30, non-Wikipedias on July 1, and Wikipedias on July 2.

If your bot or script is receiving the warning about this upcoming change (as seen here https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages, for example), it's time to fix your code!

• The simple solution is to simply include the "rawcontinue" parameter with your request to continue receiving the raw continuation data (example https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages&rawcontinue=1). No other code changes should be necessary.
• Or you could update your code to use the simplified continuation documented at https://www.mediawiki.org/API:Query#Continuing_queries (example https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages&continue=), which is much easier for clients to implement correctly.

Either of the above solutions may be tested immediately, you'll know it works because you stop seeing the warning.

I've compiled a list of bots that have hit the deprecation warning more than 10000 times over the course of the week May 23–29. If you are responsible for any of these bots, please fix them. If you know who is, please make sure they've seen this notification. Thanks.

AAlertBot
AboHeidiBot
AbshirBot
Acebot
Ameenbot
ArnauBot
Beau.bot
Begemot-Bot
BeneBot*
BeriBot
BOT-Superzerocool
CalakBot
CamelBot
CandalBot
CategorizationBot
CatWatchBot
ClueBot_III
ClueBot_NG
CobainBot
CorenSearchBot
Cyberbot_I
Cyberbot_II
DanmicholoBot
DeltaQuadBot
Dexbot
Dibot
EdinBot
ElphiBot
ErfgoedBot
Faebot
Fatemibot
FawikiPatroller
HAL
HasteurBot
HerculeBot
Hexabot
HRoestBot
IluvatarBot
Invadibot
Irclogbot
Irfan-bot
Jimmy-abot
JYBot
Krdbot
Legobot
Lowercase_sigmabot_III
MahdiBot
MalarzBOT
MastiBot
Merge_bot
NaggoBot
NasirkhanBot
NirvanaBot
Obaid-bot
PatruBOT
PBot
Phe-bot
Rezabot
RMCD_bot
Shuaib-bot
SineBot
SteinsplitterBot
SvickBOT
TaxonBot
Theo's_Little_Bot
W2Bot
WLE-SpainBot
Xqbot
YaCBot
ZedlikBot
ZkBot
-- 
Brad Jorsch (Anomie)
Software Engineer
Wikimedia Foundation

(End of copy)

Thanks for that @Quiddity (WMF):, in order to prevent editors being notified numerous times, I thought I should post here and say that I've notified the owners of ClueBot NG and ClueBot III. One of them has acknowledged it.--5 albert square (talk) 17:06, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

SineBot's done. --slakr 23:16, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Bot editing whilst logged out

Whichever bot operates from 10.68.17.88 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) is currently editing whilst logged out (one of the bots that clerks AIV and UAA). I think it is HBC AIV helperbot, which hasn't edited since 5:44 this morning, but I'm not certain. @Chillum: as the owner of that bot. Lukeno94 (tell Luke off here) 18:30, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

It was User:HBC AIV helperbot11. I restarted it for the first time in a while since Chillum's instance seems to be temporarily dead, but on the first try it both failed to log in and failed to realize the bot assert was false. I updated the code and the issue appears to be resolved. —Darkwind (talk) 21:29, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

I am currently in between reliable internet connections. I hope to have my bot running in the next day or two. Chillum 19:28, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Help with getting a response from a bot operator

I have been leaving messages for User:Legoktm since January, and no response ... I have also tries sending emails, and no response. Any suggestions on what to do next? the thread in question is User talk:Legoktm#Duplicate parameter args (ping Magioladitis). Frietjes (talk) 19:00, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Frietjes I left them a message in IRC too. Let's wait. -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:03, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Frietjes as far as I understand and after the small discussion I had with Legoktm on IRC, the bot should not be working at all. Its code was written for Toolserver and now it works by some miracle. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:56, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Magioladitis, this doesn't explain why he cannot respond to comments on his talk page. Frietjes (talk) 13:30, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

@Magioladitis: Could you ask him about User talk:Legoktm/May 2015#Legobot not marking CHU/S requests as done, maybe someone else could update the code or take the task over if he has not time? –xeno 13:36, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

If someone wants to take over the bot or submit patches, that would be totally fine. At this point I really only have time for making sure it's still somewhat alive, which it is...

Frietjes, xeno. I was online in IRC the entire day. No replies. I also copied the questions posed above on the channel. If there is anything else I can do, please tell me. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:09, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, I turned off on-wiki notifications a while back. The indexer bot is pretty much running on magic smoke at this point, I actually thought I had turned it off. If you want to submit a patch or something, that would be great. Legoktm (talk) 18:40, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Legoktm, how do I submit a patch? I don't use IRC, and you don't read your email or talk page. Frietjes (talk) 19:09, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

on line 160 of change

elif param.startswith('mask='):

to

elif re.search('^mask*=',param):

which will make mask1=, mask2=, work as well as mask=. of course, I haven't tested this, so any python experts are more than welcome to correct this if I am wrong. Frietjes (talk) 19:18, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

@Frietjes: pull request done Mdann52 (talk) 19:44, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone who speaks this language: https://github.com/legoktm/harej-bots/blob/master/chu.php and can figure out why auto-marking is not being done at CHU/S and prepare a patch? Thanks! –xeno 19:56, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Quick query

Hi all,

If anyone runs a bot, or knows which bot, runs with the useragent "Reverter/2.0", can you get in contact with me via email ASAP please? Not that you are in any trouble, I'm just looking into something, and knowing this will make the job so much easier :) Thanks, Mdann52 (talk) 21:07, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

User:Citation bot

I've just blocked this bot for blanking numerous articles. The owner Smith609 does not seem to be around much. Next step? --NeilN 03:54, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

The owner sometimes responds to e-mail messages. It would be great if there were someone active who could take over this bot. I think Smith609 is too busy with real life. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:01, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

The code resides on Google Code, so the first task will be moving it, presumably to GitHub? I asked here for a relief operator years ago, to no avail. Given the importance of this bot to wp:V, perhaps it is something to which the WMF should dedicate some resources. LeadSongDog come howl! 01:30, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

I can have a look at this. I can't make any guarantees though. I'm suggesting this because I am working on a bot the works on archiving citations and rescuing dead links.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Cyberpower678 (talk • contribs) 01:59, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for looking into it. It's a high value activity, directly supporting wp:V, but has been in need of attention for a while now. The bot's talk page can be a busy place.LeadSongDog come howl! 13:19, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Fetching pages with cURL

My bot (user:Rick Bot) has been successfully fetching pages for years with cURL. As of about yesterday it apparently can't anymore. I'm not sure, but I suspect the issue might be the requirement that a custom user agent string be provided. Has this just recently started being enforced? Adding "Rick_Bot/1.0 (https://en.wikipedia.org/User:Rick_Bot)" as the user agent string doesn't seem to fix it. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:55, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Maybe the HTTPS-only change? What OS are you using? If it's an older version, you might not have the proper root certificate installed. Legoktm (talk) 17:07, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

It was the HTTPS-only change. Thanks! -- Rick Block (talk) 18:20, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

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