This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rich Farmbrough (talk | contribs) at 17:50, 31 December 2009 (→SmackBot still moving some maint. tags down into sections). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 17:50, 31 December 2009 by Rich Farmbrough (talk | contribs) (→SmackBot still moving some maint. tags down into sections)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Note: 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 can't (borked watchlist among other reasons) watch your talk page (sorry), so reply here. R.F.
Englebert
hi Richard, i have an editing questioned on the page for Engelbert, 8th Duke of Arenberg , an so called editor, yopie is going around round pages on Misplaced Pages removing links without due process of discussion, in most cases he has not written or contributed to the articles in question but seems to be policing the links on these pages can he do this, and is this right, and i have not contributed my myself concerning these links or articles they have been put there by the contributors in question, please would you reply to this as i find it quite amazing that certain editors seem to have the powers to overwrite anyone a bit of a dictatorship rather than a democracy, regards henry mcdowall. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.181.128.17 (talk) 14:17, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
FAQ
Please feel free to read my FAQ. R.F.
Full ArQuive
Alternatively browse my Talk Archive Index. R.F.
Work
If you are looking for what to do, there are a few Cfd templates that are waiting for your attention. Debresser (talk) 16:14, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
So far there is less than 700 articles there. I can't believe that is all. I fixed all non-mainspace entries. Debresser (talk) 20:24, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
- I picked up a whole bunch when we did the last run. But it will probably grow. Rich Farmbrough, 05:51, 25 December 2009 (UTC).
- It did. Over 7,600 now. Don't forget the other namespaces, talk and user. And the Cfd templates. Really overdue. Debresser (talk) 16:22, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
- Well project is iover time for picing up ieces. Rich Farmbrough, 16:16, 28 December 2009 (UTC).
- Were you drunk when you wrote this? Or did you stay up late for a midnight mass? Debresser (talk) 15:38, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- Well project is iover time for picing up ieces. Rich Farmbrough, 16:16, 28 December 2009 (UTC).
- It did. Over 7,600 now. Don't forget the other namespaces, talk and user. And the Cfd templates. Really overdue. Debresser (talk) 16:22, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
Suggestion
Hi, Rick. Do you think it would be possible to format date automatically by using {{date}} template, while de-linking dates by bot? Beagel (talk) 05:50, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
- Yes, but it would also be possible to simply format the date in a desired format. Rich Farmbrough, 09:35, 28 December 2009 (UTC).
- Thank you for your response. Yes, it is always possible to do this manually. However, I understand that the issue of formatting dates is still controversial and there is no consensus about doing this. Therefore, please consider may question just as an idea, which was a little bit premature. Beagel (talk) 16:53, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
Delinking dates in year articles
A recent edit to 1610s in England was:
- 18:26, 24 December 2009 SmackBot (talk | contribs) m (15,983 bytes) (Delink dates (WP:MOSUNLINKDATES) using Project:AWB) (undo)
- why unlink the dates here, and not in 1610?
- (I don't actually care about date linking, just curious about anomolies) --Brunnian (talk) 17:04, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for the speedy reply - but articles like 1610s in England appear indistinguishable from the year articles to me. So shouldn't they be treated the same?--Brunnian (talk) 17:12, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
Accessdate removed: . AWB error? -- Jeandré (talk), 2009-12-29t12:25z
- well spotted! Look a few lines down and you will see another identical accessdate though. Rich Farmbrough, 12:52, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
SmackBot
حبيبتى يوليا.. العالم كله يعر فانى احبك. العالم كله يعرف قدرنا وانسانيتنا وقدراتنا ومحبتنا وصدقنا.. كيف نخشى ان نكون هكذا . ولماذا يعطلنا المجرمين بتلك السخافات المدمرة للحياة لماذا لم يحتمو باشياء نافعة للحياه.. هذا هو الفارق بيننا وبينهم هم كازبون ونحن نيتنا يصدقها العمل هم يريدون الدمار ونحن نحب العمال . هم يتأمرون على البشر ونحن نحب الخير للجميع بالحق هم يريدون اخذ ما ليس من حقهم ونحن نطالب بشرعية حقوقنا ومالى وحياتى وقلبى ليس لعبة الابالسة ليس لهؤلاء الحمقى الذين لم تصل عقولهم الى جزء من تفكيرنا لانهم محدودين فى الفكر بجرائمهم ونحن ورائنا اشياء كثيرة نافعة.. نحن نعرف غايتنا وهم لا يعرفون ان نهايتهم بتشبثهم فيما يجرموه نحن نعرف طريق الحياة وهم سلكو طريق الهلاك. نحن نريد الامان للشعوب وهم يريدون الخوف والغدر لهم نحن نريد المشاعر الحقيقية للانسانية وهم يشوشون ويخيلون ويعزبون ويضلون لانهم شياطين الارض اعداء البشر. نحن لا نهاب فى الحق لومة لائم وهم يخشون قول الحقيقة لانها الحياة التى لا يريدونها للعالم .. انهم يريدون طمس كل شىء وتزوير كل شىء والنهب على حسابات كل شىء انهم يقتلون الحياة ويقتلون انفسهم دون ان يشعرو لانهم اعتادو هذا الدمار والكزب من اجل ما يسرقوه لانهم اعتادو على ان يكونو وجوه باقنعة وليس على حقيقة الذات بما هم مكلفون به من مسؤلية. انهم مجموعة فيروسات لعينة ولابد من ايقاذهم ووقف جرائمهم . ونحن يجب ان نفتخر بما نصدى له وما نقوم به لاننا صادقين فى الحياة ونحب الخير وسننهتظر ماذا سيكون الغد بازن الله فيما اشير اليه وندعوهم بعدم اللعب بالموت لانهم اصبحو مكشوفين امام اعين العالم وانى منتظر بدء اتخاذ اجراءات السفر لاكون ببلدى اكرانيا ومعى ماطلبته من ثرواتى حتى نقوم بدورنا فى الحياة دون ازى الشياطين وفى حال غير ذلك فلا يلومون الا انفسهم. حسين امين —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.239.9.190 (talk) 18:18, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
SmackBot
يوليا .. شاهدت على البروفيل الخاص بكى بعض المقططفات الثقافية وطبعا انا اعرف جيدا تلك المحاورات وايضا اعرف جيدا انكى يعجبك الثقافة الاصيلة للشعوب المختلفة. ونحن معا فى ذلك وارى من خلال مشاهدتى بعض الاشياء الدالة على انها لم تكن جائت بالصدفة ولا يهمنا ذلك فهذه مواقع عامة ونحن من نختار فيها ما يعجبنا. ولكن يجب عليهم عدم التدخل فى شئوننا الخاصة وايضا يجب عليهم خروجى من دائرة تلصصهم التى نعرف جيدا اهدافها واذا كنت اخشى عليكى من اى شىء ليس معناه انى اخيفك من شىء لانى اعرفك قوة تفكيرك فى التعامل واعرف انكى رائدة فى ذلك وانا الان فى اليوتيب الصينى وقلبى ينبض معك متمنيا لقياكى فى اقرب وقت ممكن لاننا لنا اهدافنا فى الحياة ويجب ان نبدائها كما نرى. وعلى جميع المسئوليين ان يثبتو للعالم حقيقة هويتهم واهدافهم بما يفعلوه لاننا من الممكن ان نواجه كل متسلط بما يرتكبه ونحدد المسؤلية على من يرتكبون الجرائم ونستطيع ان نجعلهم فى وضع بمستوى تفكيرهم كما شاهدو فى بعض المشاهد المختلفة من الثقافات وايضا نستطيع ان نكون اكثر قوة فى التاثر الذى يخشونه وعليهم ان ينسحبو من حياتنا ويكونو غير معطلين لنا وعليهم ان يكفو عن ارهاب العقول حتى لا تاتى الرياح بما لا يشتهون وعليهم ان يعرفو ان عملية الرصد لاستهداف البشر فاشلة لانهم فى عقلى هم المرصودون رغم تشويشهم وازاهم . وعليهم ايضا ان يعرفو ان عواقب الاستهتار بتلك الجرائم مدمرة كما يدمرون فى الحياة. وان لم يستيقظو فالايام المقبلة ستثبت من المدركون ومن السكرانين فى غيابات جرمهم. والى ان نلتقى لكى منى قبلة حب خالصة من اى اسائة لكيدهم . لانهم يخشون من هوانا النقى المشروع واهدافنا الطموحة بالعدالة التى يفتقدوها وبحقائق الحياة الجميلة التى يريدون تقبيحها بافعالهم وغيهم.. ونحن نثق فى نجاح نهجنا لانه القيمة الحقيقية فى الحياة التى ستصبح لها طعم ولون ومعنى غصب عن انفسهم الشريرة. ومن راحتيا الى اكرانيا العظمى قبلة حب ايضا ولكل مثقافينا وقادتنا وابنائنا واطفالنا والى كل كأئن حى فى الحياة التى يريدو تدميرها. احبك وفى شوق للقائنا الطيب . المعطر بما تحبه الشعوب والطموح بما يتمناه الشباب والكبار حتى تامن الشعوب مكر وخطر المجرميين الكونيين. وحتى تعرف البشرية طريق امنها. حسين امين. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.239.9.190 (talk) 19:59, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
- Hm. Rich Farmbrough, 21:19, 28 December 2009 (UTC).
- I translated this using Google translate, but the result was garbled (Google often translates Western European languages well). — Joe Kress (talk) 00:16, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- It is a communique signed by a Hussein Amin (IP is from Egypt) and addressed to someone named Yulia. Here are some of the more intelligible fragments from online translators:
"Yulia: ... they should not interfere in our private... which we know is a good target... and if you are afraid of anything does not mean that I should avoid something I know is proper... force your mind to deal with it... we are together in that, I think... these are public sites... and all officials at the... that... to the world the truth of their identity and their objectives... because we could face... define the responsibility of those who commit crimes, and we can make them in the level of planning... also, we can be more powerful in emotion, that they fear they have to... our lives... and they have to... thinking about terrorism... the monitoring process to target human beings, because they failed in my opinion... They should also have consequences for their destructive lifestyle... the next days will prove... because of their guilt.... Because they fear being enslaved... clean the project... our ambitious objectives, which include justice and the realities of a truly beautiful life, though they want their wicked deeds and transgressions. We trust in the success of our approach, because it will bring true value to life with taste and colour and meaning, though they choose evil for themselves.... to Ukraine... love... to all our leaders and sons and children... including young people and adults so safe... and the risk of deception... human safety.... - Hussein Amin."
- This could be totally inocuous, but if I were you, I would ask an actual Arabic speaking person to translate this right away. Qwertyunicode (talk) 01:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- It is a communique signed by a Hussein Amin (IP is from Egypt) and addressed to someone named Yulia. Here are some of the more intelligible fragments from online translators:
- I translated this using Google translate, but the result was garbled (Google often translates Western European languages well). — Joe Kress (talk) 00:16, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
His talk page is easier to understand when translated using Google. He is at a conference in Ukraine, and he very much admires the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko. So that is who Yulia is.--Toddy1 (talk) 02:36, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
...at which point, whatever smattering of Arabic I had acquired deserted me, except for one particular phrase, which I am sure related to the requirements for sealing a head gasket on a MK II Ford Cortina... Rich Farmbrough, 20:34, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
SmackBot EchoStar edit indicates trouble
As mentioned on User talk:SmackBot, this edit apparently by SmackBot destroyed date information in a table in the EchoStar article. I'm concerned SmackBot could have done damage to other articles as well! Could you check into it? Thanks! (sdsds - talk) 22:47, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
Y Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 09:41, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
User B. Fairbairn
Hi, need your help. I registered to Misplaced Pages having witnessed the user B. Fairbairn constant removal of Time references in many pages. I have Spielberg page on my watchlist as the user appears to be on a mission to edit out Time. On a sidenote, he makes agitating comments purely to stir...example, 10 June 2009, on the United States page on Broadway theatre, text below the image stated "host to many popular shows"... and he added "and some unpopular ones".. and in his reason for edit stated.."Being a realist here".
Having only been an observer on Misplaced Pages, i was prompted to register having seen this users work. Thanks for you assitance. XRyanPerryX (talk) 07:40, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Version numbers that look like dates
Hi, I reverted this edit of yours; I think you might have mistaken a software package version (shown with dashes instead of dots in filenames, etc) as a date. Cheers, --Kjoonlee 14:01, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
- thanks for that. Rich Farmbrough, 21:32, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
I'd like your input.
Hey rich Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval/FrescoBot 2 SmackBot came up in that BRFA, and I was wondering if you could answer some of our questions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tim1357 (talk • contribs)
Stephen Day the musician page
Hello
I am wondering if you can help us with the Stephen Day musician page that keeps getting replaced by the Stephen Day politician page. How do we categorize the two as different so that one doesn't replace the other?Shmi222 (talk) 18:25, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
- well you don;t cut and paste move Stephen Day (musician) over Stephen Day for s start. Rich Farmbrough, 22:43, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
January 0
In January 0, Smackbot mutilates one date ] --> ] while still linking it (March 0 is up for deletion, on which I have no opinion, but it is a related nonstandard date) and delinks a See also entry for another nonstandard date, February 30, which is a standard article. Ephemeris is another article which lists January 0 and March 0 in See also. I'm not sure of the relevance for March 0 in Ephemeris, but January 0 is definitely relevant. — Joe Kress (talk) 19:40, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
- Yes this is (was) a bug. Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 22:30, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
Are you calling both changes bugs, that is, "March 0" to March " as well as unlinking a date in See also, where every entry must be linked?
- Yes, but bugs of different natures. I am done with that particular piece of software nonetheless there may be useful things that can be done. Rich Farmbrough, 14:45, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
Blocking SmackBot - stub tags
I am blocking SmackBot again, as it is removing stub tags without authorization. E.g. . Please disable this feature, and I will unblock. — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:40, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Reformatting references
As I scanned the recent contribs, I found more instances where SmackBot has reformatted references. Before I unblock, I want a way to tell for certain that this feature has been disabled, for example a revision number in the edit summary. There is no reason that this should still be happening after so many blocks, and I would like this to be the last one. — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:58, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
- Rafael Caldera
- Brazil
- Brāhmī script
- Blackfeet
- Bacillus thuringiensis
- American Airlines Flight 331
- Gävle goat
- Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel Remix Edition
- I think you will find that these articles all used named refs. Rich Farmbrough, 10:37, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
- There's no way for your bot to tell that the use of named refs was intentional. If someone adds a named ref to an article that didn't have them before, and nobody else corrects it immediately, that doesn't mean it is OK to convert all the other refs to named refs without thought.
- Like I said, because this has been such a chronic issue, I am looking for a way to tell with certainty that this feature has been disabled before I unblock the bot, so that we can move on to other things. — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:02, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- Oh my word. Rich Farmbrough, 13:03, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
- Like I said, because this has been such a chronic issue, I am looking for a way to tell with certainty that this feature has been disabled before I unblock the bot, so that we can move on to other things. — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:02, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
HTML comment bug
The SmackBot parser doesn't seem to recognize HTML comments: . — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:59, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
The Misplaced Pages Signpost: 28 December 2009
- News and notes: Flagged revisions petitions, image donations, brief news
- Discussion report: Discussion Reports and Miscellaneous Articulations
- Features and admins: Approved this week
SmackBot
the bot is changing the valid |date={{Date|2009-12-23|mdy}} to the invalid |date=December 2009|mdy}} in this diff. —Chris Capoccia ⁄C 04:56, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- That is a little odd, thanks for telling me. Rich Farmbrough, 13:30, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
Wine
Oh geeze, I almost got worked up over the wine article. I saw someone reverted your edits and I though to myself "I know Rich would never vandalize, what the hell is up with the reverting." I was about to go off on whoever it was when I saw you reverted yourself. False alarm.--v/r - TP 13:28, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- <Smile.> Have a great New Year. Rich Farmbrough, 13:30, 30 December 2009 (UTC). 13:30, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
William Waterhouse
Do I have to understand the latest history of William Waterhouse? Looks strange! Please answer here, I will check. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:43, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
- No you can ignore it... it should be unchanged, for now. I will return and make the correct change later. Rich Farmbrough, 13:46, 30 December 2009 (UTC).
Test templates
I don't understand what kind of template is populating Category:TestTemplates. Could you please explain that to me? Debresser (talk) 23:55, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
Cfd templates
I have speedied (i.e. nominated for speedy deletion) 12 pages in connection with Cfd templatesas I announced in User_talk:Rich_Farmbrough/Archive/2009Dec#DMC_-_repeated_request. If that gets done, I'll speedy Template:Cfx/sandbox as well. Debresser (talk) 00:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Could you copy {{Cfd}}, {{Cfr}}, {{Cfm}} from Template:Cfx/sandbox (and then delete the sandbox)? That's all that is left. Debresser (talk) 12:04, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
If you have the time...
Hey Rich. I know you often generously generate lists for users who request them. I was hoping that you could make me a list of all articles that link to a [[Misplaced Pages:Books or [[Misplaced Pages talk:Books. This might be better suited for an SQL query, I don't know. Tell me if it is too much. Some regex:
\*?Misplaced Pages(*?talk|)*?\:*?Books
Thats python regex and Im not too good. I dunno if that helps. Tim1357 (talk) 01:32, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Also, if you have any idea, as I know your good with regex: How do I match the contents of a template ({{Foo}} for example) even if they have templates inside it. Example:
{{Foo | parameter 1 = bar | parameter 2 = {{template}} | parameter 3 = lolipop }} Thanks! Tim1357 (talk) 02:31, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- there is probably a a better way of doing this but I use something like {{(Foo *\|(|{{*}})*)}}. This allows on level of nested templates, it is easily extended to n, but it does slow AWB down in certain cases, you may find python handles it better. Certainly where I was using it intensively I have planned to write a perl parser instead. Rich Farmbrough, 11:12, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
AfD nomination of Langley Flying School
An article that you have been involved in editing, Langley Flying School, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Langley Flying School. Thank you.
Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message. Ahunt (talk) 02:13, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
SmackBot
Would you consider ordering SmackBot to exclude the date pages (January 1, January 2, etc.) and the year pages (2009, 2008, etc.) from its WP:MOSUNLINKDATES edits? These are pages about dates and links to other date pages are relevant to the article's content. Thanks. -- Mufka 02:19, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Much as I dislike links to dates, this is correct, see Misplaced Pages:Linking#Chronological_items. Debresser (talk) 06:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- It is done with that. Rich Farmbrough, 09:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- It hasn't touched any of those four pages. But thanks for the note. Rich Farmbrough, 09:15, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- And in fairness they are not about the date, they are about stuff that happened in that year, or on that date. Unlike, say, Tuesday which is about Tuesday. Rich Farmbrough, 11:37, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Just for clarification, it has touched August 20, March 7, January 5 so I figured it would ultimately hit them all. -- Mufka 11:54, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- And in fairness they are not about the date, they are about stuff that happened in that year, or on that date. Unlike, say, Tuesday which is about Tuesday. Rich Farmbrough, 11:37, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
JamshidAwal
Hi there I believe you have disputed the neutrality my article about hon.Ali Mirzad. I agree with your findings and did the necessary edits . please remove your Dispute Stamp at your earliest convenience. thank you --JamshidAwal (talk) 08:17, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- I think you want someone else here: . Rich Farmbrough, 16:54, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
SmackBot substituting wrong template
The bot is apparently turning {{lede}} (lead too short) into its opposite: --Father Goose (talk) 10:24, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks. They were confused with LEDE - I have made the two templates mean the same. Rich Farmbrough, 11:26, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
Capitalisation of article titles
You recently moved the article Ngaio Railway Station to Ngaio railway station presumably for compliance with WP:CAPS. This article, along with all other articles on New Zealand railway stations, is within the scope of the WikiProject NZR. This project has a manual of style which provides the following guidelines on naming such articles:
Article titles should be "Place-Name Railway Station", as in Wellington Railway Station. An exception is the Britomart Transport Centre.
Please desist from renaming any articles in this scope in this way until such a change can be discussed by the project. With hundreds of articles named in this fashion and within the scope of this project such a change would be a significant undertaking. – Matthew25187 (talk) 11:45, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Renaming a few hundred articles should be easy enough. But it's not something I am in a hurry to do. Rich Farmbrough, 11:47, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
Why do you run bot tasks with your main account?
I've seen you do this on a very regular basis: running very large-scale tasks (often cosmetic changes that shouldn't done with AWB) on a bot-scale from your main account. You should not be doing automated edits from this account as you are circumventing proper procedures for approval for bot tasks. –xeno 16:31, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- I do a lot of stuff manually that should be automated because the BRFA process is glacial. Rich Farmbrough, 16:33, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Oh and because of botophobes. Rich Farmbrough, 16:34, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Neither of the above is an appropriate justification to bypass the procedures that are in place. I don't really think running a task just to deprecate a parameter is necessary. If it's deprecated, the wikicode calling it is null. Your change is thus just a waste of an edit.
- And you say "manually" but I somewhat doubt that - have you really been sitting in front of your PC for the last three hours clicking save for each edit? –xeno 16:36, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Oh and because of botophobes. Rich Farmbrough, 16:34, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
Sigh. Except that people copy the cliché to other articles. And we want to keep the category virtually empty, for maintenance reasons. And the wikicode was passing the parameter to another template which was ignoring it, basically code cruft. Rich Farmbrough, 16:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- So request a bot approval to run the task. You're flooding recent changes running without a flag. See also: WP:AWB#Rules of use. –xeno 16:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
Inefficient editing
Making three edits to change {{date|XXXX-YY-ZZ}} to a hard-coded date seems particularly inefficient. If there is approval for this task, surely someone could write a smarter bot to do it in a single edit. –xeno 16:55, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- It would work in a single pass if mediwiki wasn't broken. Rich Farmbrough, 16:57, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Or you wrote a custom bot in py to do it. I think an advanced find&replace matrix in AWB could also do it. Either way, Why not file at WP:BOTREQ if you don't have the inclination or know-how to do it efficiently? –xeno 16:59, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Using find and replace is a waste of human resource. I did that with lifetime, and it was needlessly complex, this is a significantly more convoluted template, and relies on the behaviour of PHP functions. The best way to imitate a software function is to use it. Rich Farmbrough, 17:04, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- A custom py or perl script could do this very easily. Why not ask User:Anomie to write one? –xeno 17:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Using find and replace is a waste of human resource. I did that with lifetime, and it was needlessly complex, this is a significantly more convoluted template, and relies on the behaviour of PHP functions. The best way to imitate a software function is to use it. Rich Farmbrough, 17:04, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Or you wrote a custom bot in py to do it. I think an advanced find&replace matrix in AWB could also do it. Either way, Why not file at WP:BOTREQ if you don't have the inclination or know-how to do it efficiently? –xeno 16:59, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
SmackBot still moving some maint. tags down into sections
I hate to pile on here, but once again (I'm not actually sure it ever stopped), SmackBot is imposing a preference as to where certain tags go (top of article vs. within a section) -- such as the {{inline}}, which it moves into the references section, rather than leaving at the top . Again, this is a matter of preference.
I know "it's AWB's fault" and not yours, but I think you need to fix it anyway. If you can't, then we need to start a centralized discussion to determine the fate of SmackBot. As was once suggested, it might be time to make AWB's general fixes into a bot of its own, so that all its various tasks that get added constantly can be subject to BAG approval.
Thank you. Equazcion 16:57, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- Yes, indeed, really needs someone to steer this through. Rich Farmbrough, 16:59, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- If we're in agreement about the general fixes becoming a standalone bot, I'll begin a discussion about it soon. I'm not sure where yet, but I'll post a link here once I figure it out. Equazcion 17:04, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- I started a discussion on the AWB talk page I thnk, but I sisn;t have time to follow up. Also mentioned it on a recent BRFA. And of course we are talking about a "vritual bot" here? Rich Farmbrough, 17:09, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- If we're in agreement about the general fixes becoming a standalone bot, I'll begin a discussion about it soon. I'm not sure where yet, but I'll post a link here once I figure it out. Equazcion 17:04, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- I'm starting something at village pump technical. It's not up yet but should be soon, once I can get the wording right. I seem to recall we've tried doing this at AWB's talk page but it barely received any attention. I don't know what you mean about a virtual bot. Equazcion 17:21, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- Sounds like an excellent idea. Ohconfucius 17:26, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- In that the BAG approval would be for all AWB based bots provided they were doing an approved task at the same time, rather than for some User:AWBGenFixesBot. Rich Farmbrough, 17:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
- Either-or. I don't see why we need more than one bot performing the general fixes (I'm also not entirely opposed to it). User:AWBGenFixesBot might be the simplest way to go in my mind though. I'll present both options in my proposal. Equazcion 17:31, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- I'm starting something at village pump technical. It's not up yet but should be soon, once I can get the wording right. I seem to recall we've tried doing this at AWB's talk page but it barely received any attention. I don't know what you mean about a virtual bot. Equazcion 17:21, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical)#Perform AWB's general fixes from a dedicated standalone bot -- Discussion started, feel free to comment. Equazcion 17:47, 31 Dec 2009 (UTC)
- GF's have been turned down as a a task before. They should be a background task that just happens when the bot edits the page for any reason. Rich Farmbrough, 17:50, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
Need help
I see some articles for the third consequetive day in Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template. What happened? Do you need some help? It would be nice to start a new month with an empty category. Debresser (talk) 17:33, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
- Oh blocked by CBM again. Rich Farmbrough, 17:48, 31 December 2009 (UTC). 17:48, 31 December 2009 (UTC)