Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 3

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Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4 Archive 5 → Archive 10

Where do the stubs go?

In this diff, AWB had the stub go under the category. I believe the "standard" is to have the category at the end, followed only by the interlanguage links. So, does AWB put the stub at the very bottom on purpose, or is it a bug? Thanks. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 03:56, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

PS Note that User:Encephalon stated that it is the AWB framework which put the link at the bottom, rather than the user. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 03:58, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Just thought I'd mention that I've confirmed that this is something AWB does, probably as part of its general fixes function. If you run AWB now, generate a list from a "Google Wikipedia" search of "irrotational vector field", check the general fixes box, and "start the process", AWB brings up one proposed change only for the above stub: moving the stub link two spaces below the category links. It does seem to me that changing this so that the cat links always go right to the bottom is harmless; certainly it lends a uniformity of sorts, as in full articles the cats are placed at the bottom as well. Regards ENCEPHALON 04:21, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I just tried that change in AWB to do just that and tested it on that article. It works, and sorts the way you are talking about. But, I'd like to talk to Bluemoose to see if there is a specific reason that stubs are currently put under categories (WP:MoS?)
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-02-25 05:07Z
Update: Sorting is correct except for (apparently) undocumented sorting of inter-wiki and FA (see below)


I've done some research on IRC and by searching and it seems that this issue isn't documented in any "here's the exact way to do it" sort of way although it seems to be "known" as standard by those who answered my questions.

What I've found is this:

  • Stub notices should be after Categories so they show up at the end of the category lists.
  • Interwiki bots are programmed to put language after the above.
  • Featured article goes at the very bottom (see Wikipedia_talk:Featured_articles))

I've submitted code changes to reflect the above. (stub after category instead of stub last)

—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-02-25 08:00Z
The new order makes no sense. Wikipedia:Persondata says that person data should go where it was already (before cats). And the stub template clearly is better where AWB put it, e.g. on Irrotational vector field, before AWB moved it the stub was joined on to the body of the text, I specifically made it so it doesnt join stubs onto the text because people have complained about that. And the de facto standard place to put Link FA templates is just before the interwikis (the comment on the featureed article talk page says "bottom" but only as opposed to the top of the page). Martin 11:13, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the information. That does make a lot of sense.
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-02-25 20:02Z


OK, the stub should not be joined to text. But I still think stubs should be before categories, at least that's how things are in most articles have seen. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 17:03, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Stubs should definitely go after the categories. Stubs are an editorial feature and categories are a reader feature. Readers out number editors by a huge margin and they are the people we are here to serve. Osomec 22:41, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Minor bug regarding "loss of session data"

I just noticed that if you get a "uneable to process due to loss of session data" (or whatever it says) message, AWB will remove the page from the list and move on as if the save had been sucessfull. The correct behaviour in this case would be to restart the edit as if a server error had ocured. --Sherool (talk) 12:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

good point. Martin 12:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

A couple of List related wishes

Would it be possible to have AWB generate a list based on File links on image pages too? That would be usefull. Currently I'm copy and pasting them into a text editor, using a macro to "wikify" them, save as a text file and then import the text file, wich works, but it's a bit of work, would be nice to just input a Image: page name and have AWB automaticaly pick up all pages the image is used on. Also a "remove duplicates" option would be nice. After copy and pasting file links for a dozen or so images I was left with quite a few duplicates, wich I ended up having to use Excell to filter out. --Sherool (talk) 19:39, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Find/replace feature request

I would be wonderful to be able to import/export the find/replace list (or at the very least copy/paste it). Since the list is wiped every time the program closes, doing large tasks is extremely cumbersome. - Emt147 Burninate! 23:26, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Just save it, with the save option in the "File" menu. Martin 23:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
Oh, I didn't realize it saved the find/replace list as well... I was actually about to check out the settings file. :) Thanks! - Emt147 Burninate! 23:30, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Within-section editing

It would be great to specify AWB to only make edits within a certain subsection of a page. (e.g. reformatting aircraft specs is cumbersome since many of the formatting elements (bold, lists, etc.) are present elsewhere on the page). - Emt147 Burninate! 23:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I am now getting the 'You are not enabled to use this' error

I have logged in and out and cleared my cache several times, but I still keep on getting the "You are not enabled to use this" message, even though I am on the list (the very, very last one on the list). Please note that I have not used the AWB for more than two weeks and thus previously had the older version that is now disabled (1.96). I have also uploaded and tried every version that is currently enabled, but still no luck. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 17:16, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

ok, silly bug, should work now. Martin 17:48, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

'Make list from category' not working correctly

When trying to make a list of Category:Living people every seventeenth and eighteenth item are in the format 

 # [[Category:Living people&until=Adams%2C+Marilyn+McCord%22+originalTitle%3D%22Category%3ALiving+people">previous 200</A>) (<A Category:Living people]]
 # [[Category:Living people&until=Agee%2C+Philip%22+originalTitle%3D%22Category%3ALiving+people" originalTitle="Category:Living people">previous 200</A>) (<A]]

On the other hand, when trying to make a list of Category:Lists it only adds me one empty item to the list! Clearly the category is not empty, though... --ZeroOne 22:11, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Can you make sure you have the newest version, those categories work for me. thanks Martin 22:22, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
The about screen says the version is 1.9.9.0, IE version 6.0.2900.2802, Windows version 5.1, .NET version 2.0.50727.42. --ZeroOne 22:59, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
After upgrading to 2.0.0.0, it still doesn't work. :/ --ZeroOne 16:12, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
It works for me, and for other people, so I dont really know what the problem is, I'll think about it. Martin 16:42, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

It may well be a Internet/Windows CACHE issue. Try this, open Internet Explorer, TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS, click DELETE FILES, select ALL OFFLINE CONTENT, and OK. Then, select the button below CLEAR HISTORY and YES.

Then, go ahead and try loading those categories again. If it works, you may consider changing SETTINGS (next to that DELETE FILES button mentioned above) and select CHECK FOR NEWER VERSION OF STORED PAGES EVERY VISIT TO PAGE.

—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-02-28 06:19Z
It wasn't a cache issue, but the newest update, 2.0.7.0, fixed it! :) --ZeroOne 21:38, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Category:The Beatles singles

I am running 2.0.0.0 from an Win XP machine, IE 6.0 (not my primary browser). Trying to build a list from this cat, I get but a single entry of the form "#[[ ]]". I tried clearing my cache. I made sure IE can access the page OK. I can use AWB to perform edits OK. Any ideas what might be going on? Thanks! ++Lar: t/c 07:14, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

That category loads fine for me, try version 2.0.2.0 Martin 08:46, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Tried it. Now I get nothing at all instead of one dummy empty entry. To be sure it's not a clueshortage issue, I should type in "The Beatles singles" into the category name box, not lead with "Category:" and not use underscores, right? I tried it for another category ("Cats") and also get nothing... Thanks for your support, great tool! ++Lar: t/c 15:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Now fixed. See Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser#Blank_lists Thanks for your support! ++Lar: t/c 19:35, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Stop using this to substitute templates

Please read through Wikipedia talk:Template substitution and Wikipedia talk:Avoid using meta-templates before deciding to substitute every template in sight. Blanket substitution of everything is (arguably) very harmful. The server load argument in favor of substitution, for instance, has been refuted by Wikipedia's lead developer. Think about it. Is using a psuedo-bot to edit hundreds of articles without adding any content really of benefit to the servers?

It's certainly ok or beneficial to substitute some things, but before you decide to do it, keep in mind that substitution is effectively permanent, and in many cases clutters up markup, making it more difficult for newcomers to edit, with marginal or no benefit. Keep an eye on the list of templates that should always be substituted, as it changes every day. — Omegatron 00:22, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Why don't you ask the people doing it? they probably don't read this page. Martin 00:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
I've started to. — Omegatron 00:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

What links here?

I can get the make list from What links here to work for some terms, for example Tree. But most, such as Test, Oscar Women's rights (disambiguation) generate no list. Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong? I type Oscar into the "What links to" box under the box where I selected "What links here". I then press "Make list". The number of articles display(number next to the "Make list" button) changes to 1, but no article names appear in the list. What is wrong?

Prodego talk 13:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Clearing your internet explorer cache has solved this problem for some people. Martin 13:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, that fixed it. Prodego talk 13:41, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Two Things

1) Lets think about archiving agian. This page is getting long

2) There is a minor error in the code. The error is in the Main.cs file.

private void CaseWasLoad()
{
this.Text = "AutoWikiBrower - " + webBrowser2.DocumentTitle.ToString().Replace(" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia", "");

Should be..

private void CaseWasLoad()
{
this.Text = "AutoWikiBrowser - " + webBrowser2.DocumentTitle.ToString().Replace(" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia", "");

Nothing major, just a spelling error. I noticed it when I was using it. (don't remember under witch ID it was....) Just to save you the work, I found the mistake for you. (I really could not figure any other way to tell you... as this would make for a really weird bug report):-)Eagle (talk) (desk) 03:44, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

P.S. Please tell us where to put this for now on... I don't want to get an ID on source forge unless I really have to!!!Eagle (talk) (desk) 03:44, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Just a note: non-account "anon" is allowed for the sourceforge autowikibrowser bug tracking system. A wikipedian name can optionally be added to the text of the bug report.
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-03-03 13:23Z

Inserting line breaks using AWB

Is it possible to insert line breaks (carriage returns) using the Find/Replace function in AWB? I've tried &#13 in the "Replace with" field but no luck.

Along the same lines, I would love to have a more functional parser instead of the simple find/replace tool. At the very least, it would be nice to be able to modify text using wildcards, e.g. find all words beginning with lower-case "a" and replace them with uppercase "A" (a* to A*).

- Emt147 Burninate! 04:22, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Carriage returns are represented by \r\n as for a more functional parser, it supports multiple regular expressions, and it doesnt get more functional than that. Martin 09:34, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
\r\n does not insert a carriage return during Find/Replace -- it inserts "\r\n". Here's what I meant with the parser: I'm converting aircraft specs to a template format. I have a spec like wingspan: 50 ft (15.2 m) that I need to convert to two lines: span main=50 ft and span alt=15.2 m. I can't even get AWB to insert span main= and span alt= on two separate lines, not to mention getting it to divide the 50 ft (15.2 m) into two separate entities appropriately place on separate lines (I can write regular expressions to find them but the Replace part of find/replace is rather limited in its ability). Or am I missing something? Thanks! - Emt147 Burninate! 19:43, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
  • What I'm looking for is the equivalent of s/ (substitute operator in perl/sed) with the ability to use parentheses to memorize and recall parts of text. Right now, the "regular expression" checkbox appears to apply only to the "Find" but not to the "Replace" part of the Find/Replace table. - Emt147 Burninate! 19:50, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
The problem was that \r\n was being interpreted literally, I have fixed this now in version 2.0.2.0, which i will release tomorrow, otherwise it functions just as any regex should. Martin 22:02, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Problem in get source section

I don't know whether it's TurtleCVS or Sourceforge but one or the other (or both) will not except a blank password so the directions as written do not work. Pegasus1138Talk | Contribs | Email ---- 21:34, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Confirmed. anon-access seems broken. It worked once as described, but not at the moment. I will see if I find something out about that. --Adrian Buehlmann 22:07, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Sourceforge has changed its description for anon-access at http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=158332, but that doesn't work for me neither. The http CVS source browser at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/autowikibrowser is also broken at the moment (I get a page reading "Proxy Error"). Seems like they do have some problems. Let's wait and see. If you have an urgent need to get the sources at the moment, send me an email (address is on my userpage) with your email address, I'll send you the sources in a zip file. --Adrian Buehlmann 22:25, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Confiremed, problems still continueing, I left a message on the sorgeforge main:help forum for this project as well. Eagle (talk) (desk) 22:55, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
anonymous access is working for me at this time using the instructions from the parent page of this one. I just tried it with tortoise. I don't normally use tortoise, so I can't troubleshoot problems but if you still can't get access, you can alternatively download the zipped daily backup and work with the source code that way. If you are using Windows, you'll need an archive program like Winrar that can handle .bz2 files to decompress it.
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-03-04 07:22Z
Confirmed. Anon-CVS access works again for me as described at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser#Getting the sources. This seems to have been a technical problem on Sorceforge server. Issue solved. --Adrian Buehlmann 09:05, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Registration request

I do not have more than 500 edits, however I'm working actively on disambiguation project and I'd like to use this bot to make it a bit easier. Mahanchian 22:20, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

problem loading settings

Basically any find/replace line having ="*", &, or # throws errors on loading a settings .xml. I'll be able to get more information when I'm back at my windows box, but in the meantime - any ideas? Happens with IE6 and 7, .NET 2.0 is updated, and User:emt147 seems to be using the same file without problems. Thanks in advance. ericg ✈ 02:58, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

No idea, but I posted an updated settings file in the same location. Be sure to copy and paste the source and not what Wikipedia displays - Emt147 Burninate! 03:55, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
What error do you actually get? Martin 09:10, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I wasn't copying the source; I feel like a twit. It's working now. For reference, the error was revolving around xml parsing of lines beginning with "2", "#", or "&". ericg ✈ 15:55, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

new AWB user

I am a new user. Earlier this week, I was able to use it several times. Now, when I try to obtain a list of articles by entering a (valid) category, all I obtain is a box that says 'check page failed to load'. What do I do now? Thanks Hmains 04:40, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

The servers were probably down. Martin 09:08, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
I've had the same experience, recently. I think what the message means is that the page Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage could not be accessed by the program (when you start the program, it checks to see if you are logged in to WP, whether you are listed on the above page as a registered user, and whether the version of the program you're using is the latest enabled version, as stated on that page). If for whatever reason the page cannot be accessed (for example as Martin says if the server was down), I imagine that error message is displayed. —Encephalon 09:21, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
No such luck. Same error message, repeatedly yesterday and today. Part of the problem must be that the AWB install instructions are incomlete. No mention made that after Netframe work is downloaded, it must be unzipped; same with AWB. Even after unzipping both, and being logged on to WP in another session, still same error msg. Thanks Hmains 23:03, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
I've used AWB by running from the ZIP. Rich Farmbrough 11:43 19 March 2006 (UTC).

Cite.php

Martin (and other resident geniuses ;-)),

I was wondering if you know of a method to draw up, in AWB, a list of articles that utilize the new cite.php extension? I have tried google wikipedia, but that's very unsatisfactory. Regards —Encephalon 09:24, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I have to admit that I know nothing about the cite extension, am I correct in saying that an article that contains <ref> uses the cite extension? If so then it is easy to scan the data dump for it. Martin 12:10, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
You can read all about cite.php here: m:Cite/Cite.php. It basically uses <ref name=> and <references/>. Can you tell me how to scan the data dump for it? Thanks —Encephalon 14:23, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
You can scan the database dump with another tool I made, see User:Bluemoose/DataBaseSearchTool, bear in mind that < and > are represented by &lt; and &gt; in the xml dump. I am going to get the newest dump when it is ready, I can do the scan for you if you want. Martin 14:33, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Ok, cool! I'm a pretty clueless newbie myself where many technical matters are concerned, so bags you do it ;-) —Encephalon 14:49, 4 March 2006 (UTC) PS. I've been meaning to give you a barnstar for all the unbelievable work you've done with AWB et al, but when I went to your page I saw that that would be a distinctly unoriginal thing to do :-). However, I want you to know that a lot of folks are very appreciative of your work here; this is sometimes left unsaid, when it shouldn't be. So I'm saying it. THANKS, Martin. —Encephalon 14:49, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
That's really kind, thanks a lot! I'm downloading the datadump now, so I'll look for <references/> and see what happens. Martin 16:00, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Regex revisited

Am I doing something wrong or is AWB using Regex only for Find and not for Replace? I'm especially wondering about the memory (parenthesis).

For example, when I run the following on B-32 Dominator:

  • Find: \**\s*\'*[Ww]ingspan\:*\'*\:*\s(.*)\s\((\w.*)\b\)
  • Replace with: \|wingspan main=\1\r\n\|wingspan alt=\2

It finds the correct string but instead of recalling \1 and \2 from parentheses, it literally inserts \1 and \2. Is this related to the literal interpretation of \r\n or is AWB incapable of performing this operation altogether.

Thanks! - Emt147 Burninate! 17:51, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

AWB is fully capable of all regex functions, there was a slight problem mentioned about in interpreting \r\n literally in the replace field, that is fixed now in 2.0.2.0, as for interpreting \1 and \2 literally, that is because that is incorrect regex syntax, what you should use is $1 and $2. Martin 18:08, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
That's not Perl syntax then, is it? (at least when I used to write it Perl years ago it was \1 not $1). Thanks for your help! - Emt147 Burninate! 18:14, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
See Perl regular expression examples, it is perl syntax as well. Martin 18:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Okay, so I'm badly out of date on this. :) Thanks for your help and patience! - Emt147 Burninate! 21:24, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

You can't enter < or > into an xml file, it is reserved, entering it into the find box and saving works so just use that. thanks Martin 21:26, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
*Yes, I figured out that whole bit as I was writing this post. I got it all working now, it's fantastic. Thanks for all your help! - Emt147 Burninate! 21:58, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Happy to help! Martin 22:11, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

WinFX

Martin - I remember you commenting once about waiting for the next WinFX beta. It looks like a beta was released on 21 Feb 2006. You can download it here. I'm not sure if it has spellcheck, but you can check to see if it does. Thanks. --M@thwiz2020 18:29, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

According to this page beta 2 is expected to have the spell checking enabled. thanks Martin 18:57, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

"According to Microsoft"?

"According to Microsoft, regular expressions are handled much as in Perl 5."

So Microsoft has actually commented on this Wikipedia tool???! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.129.152.189 (talk • contribs) .
They commented on their own implementation of reular expressions in c#. Martin 17:39, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
I was also amused by this piece of copy. I dont see how it belongs in the intro for AutoWikiBrowser, as the previous sentance has already indicated that it supports regex; those familiar with sed & awk KNOW no two implementations of regexen are fully (copy&paste) compatible. I suggest writing this as: ... (either simple or Perl Compatible Regular_expressions). -- Jayvdb 06:06, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Bugs

A while ago I was having issues with editing one article, then the second would bug out. Now when I try to open AWB I get the error message when I try to do anything, "Check page failed to load." Any ideas what to do? I'm using version 1.9.8.0, IE version 6.0.2900.2838, Windows version 5.1, .NET version 2.0.50727.42. Thanks! Staxringold 23:55, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Get the newest version (2.0.3.0) and try clearing your cache, also make sure you can access the checkpage from your normal Internet Explorer. Martin 00:02, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
That fixed the start-up error, but now I'm getting the old one. When you have a list of more than one article to fix, what do you do to move onto the next article after fixing and saving changes to the first? Currently whatever I try I get a long list of errors. Staxringold 00:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
What errors do you get? Martin 00:57, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
When I save the article successfully the process simply stops. Then if I hit stop and start again I get:
System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IHTMLDocument2.Open(String mimeExtension, Object name, Object features, Object replace)
at System.Windows.Forms.HtmlDocument.OpenNew(Boolean replaceInHistory)
at AutoWikiBrowser.MainForm.Start()
at AutoWikiBrowser.MainForm.btnStart_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
Sorry for the bugs.. :p Staxringold 01:18, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Ok, thanks, it seems that the web browser causes problems for some people, I'll try and sort something out. Martin 10:27, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Blank lists

I haven't used it in a couple of weeks and it appears that any of the 2.x versions will not make list from "category" or "what links here". Both "links on page" and "user contributions" produce a list. I tried this both at home and work computers with the same results. Any suggestions? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:42, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser#Category:The_Beatles_singles. Same problem for me. it's not happening for Martin, apparently. So some sleuthing into differences may be appropriate. Any ideas on what stuff matters? version of .net framework? Browser? OS? which skin we use? ideas? ++Lar: t/c 11:59, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
AWB reports - AWB version 2.0.3.0, IE 6.0.2900.2802, Windows 5.1 and .NET 2.0.50727.42. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
It's fine for most people, still a very annoying problem though. I really need to be able to see the html it is looking at, i'll make a version that records it. Martin 12:21, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
AWB reports - AWB version 2.0.2.0, IE 6.0.2900.2802, Windows 5.1 and .NET 2.0.50727.42. ... (but it was happening on 2.0.0.0 as well.. I'll upgrade again when a HTML dumping version is available. Thanks for the support. (disregard comments about firefox version above, not relevant) ++Lar: t/c 13:01, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
I just uploaded a version (2.0.4.0) that offers to dump the html in the textbox if the category loaded 1 or less results, please copy and save this html into a file and email it to me, martinrichards23 at gmail dot com thanks Martin 13:21, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
  • You both may want to try blanking your custom monobook.js files, run internet explorer, CTRL-F5 on a wikipedia page, start up AWB, and then do an AWB import of What Links Here on some pages that you haven't tried before (to avoid previous problems saved in cache mucking up this troubleshooting).
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (talk) 2006-03-07 13:41Z

ok, I think I have fixed it now, try 2.0.5.0 it won't work for "what links here" yet though, I just want to make sure it works first. thanks for the email CBW. Martin 14:27, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I tried That Guy, From That Show! suggestion on 2.0.4.0 by removing the last edits to the monobook.js and it worked on the "What Links Here" once and only once. I then tried 2.0.5.0 and still got nothing. I then blanked the monobook.js and both of the latest versions work. Thanks guys. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 14:52, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Having just restored and deleted the monobook.js it's something in there that causes the problem. A blank monobook and everything in AWB works fine. Thanks again. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 14:58, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Blank my monobook.js? Ack. That price may be too high, I can't live without that stuff... (it is true that it includes stuff from a bazillion different people). I can do it to help debug if it's necessary but it's not a long term plan. ++Lar: t/c 15:10, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

ok, this time I am really sure i've fixed it, I simulated the problem myself, thanks to TGFTS's suggestion that monobook.js was the problem. Martin 16:43, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Great. That's seems to have have fixed the problem even with the monobooj.js loaded as well. Thanks again. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 18:09, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
I confirm, it's fixed for me as well. Thanks VERY much! ++Lar: t/c 19:33, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Where do the stubs go? Part 2

AWB moves stub templates to the bottom (after interwiki links). This seems like a good idea, because, presumably the stub template will be removed RSN. (The only guideline I could find was Wikipedia:Stub near the bottom of the article.) Also it seems to insert two blank lines, or at least not allow for one already present. Rich Farmbrough 15:09 7 March 2006 (UTC).

If the stub tag includes a picture a single (or no) blank line sometimes causes problems or an odd look. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:13, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Ah... Rich Farmbrough 19:49 7 March 2006 (UTC).

Curiosity

The patent is for a device that lifts [[boat|boats]] over [[shoal|shoals]].

became

The patent is for a device that lifts [[boat|boats]] over [[shoal]]s.

not

The patent is for a device that lifts [[boat]]s over [[shoal]]s.

Rich Farmbrough 19:52 7 March 2006 (UTC).

It does, maybe the example you saw had different capitalisations, such as [[Boat|boats]], which would not be changed, although it could be. Martin 20:23, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I should have provided the diff.
Here's another 'oddity' diff. In this case I don't know if AWB is right or wrong in its changes, but I think it may be taking a slight liberty. (After checking I've just moved this article from Idoc to IDoc.) Rich Farmbrough 20:38 7 March 2006 (UTC).
It assumed the title of the article was correct, but I didnt think it did even that any more, what verison are you using? Martin 20:48, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
That was 2.0.2.0. Rich Farmbrough 21:37 7 March 2006 (UTC).
Ok, that has been changed since then, also, I narrowed down the [[boat|boats]] problem, will be fixed in next release, thanks Martin 21:47, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Very well done indeed! RF.
One more for you v 2.0.7.0 diff.
[[Image:Neptune.jpg|thumb|275px|right|[[Neptune]] on [[August 25]] [[1989]]]]
becomes
[[Image:Neptune.jpg|thumb|275px|right|[[Neptune]] on [[August 25]] 1989]]
Regards Rich Farmbrough 23:05 7 March 2006 (UTC).
Yes, that is correct the link it removed was a self reference. Martin 23:10, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Oh ys, silly me. Rich Farmbrough 23:33 7 March 2006 (UTC).

Feature requests

Auto-load at background

Currently, AWB loads a page, then the changes and then stops. What I'd like to see it do is to keep loading the other pages in the list. It would save them in some cache where from they would be immediately available after the current page has been saved. Of course modem users or users paying per transferred data might want to uncheck this option but it would greatly improve the editing speed for broadband users. --ZeroOne 21:52, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

This would require a complete redesign, therefore is not going to happen. Martin 22:16, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Access to page title

Currently I cannot figure a way to extract words from the page title. This would be crucial, however, if I was to use AWB to assist in setting category sort keys. There are dozens of categories where articles should have but do not have category sort keys. I've been working through Category:Lists and its subcategories manually now. Allowing regexes to access the titles somehow would be sufficient. --ZeroOne 21:52, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Do you mean allow the find and replace regexes access to the page title? if so then it could achieved reasonably easily. Martin 22:16, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Yes, so that the results of those regexes could be carried to the article content. Something to make, for example, the title List of mathematics related topics into the string Mathematics related topics that could be used as a sort key. Also might need to convert Firstname Lastname into Lastname, Firstname. --ZeroOne 22:57, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
But you would never need to put a category key List of mathematics related topics in that article, as articles are sorted by their name by default, also note that their is an option that guesses the birth and death categories, this guesses the category keys as well. Martin 23:02, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
No, but I need to put Mathematics related topics in that article, with the "List of" part removed, as otherwise it will be sorted by "L", which in the category Lists is a rather common first letter. --ZeroOne 12:08, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Stop-button

Feature request: a button to stop loading whatever list it currently is loading. --ZeroOne 22:58, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

The current stop button does this. Martin 23:12, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
The current Stop button is on the third tab, which is not always visible, particularly if the first thing you do is load up the list: maybe the Stop button could be moved somewhere which is always visible. Also, will the code which enables/disables various buttons need adjusting to make sure that the Stop button is always enabled when it can be used to halt something? HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 14:18, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
I was talking about a button to stop the Make list -command. The button would appear next to Add/Remove/Clear. --ZeroOne 20:00, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Namespace filtering

I know you can filter out non main namespace articles from the list, but it would be nice if this could be extended to allow you to choose namespaces to filter out. When pruning links to disambig pages, you generally don't want to edit any talk pages, but still edit image, category, portal and project pages if there are any. BigBlueFish 18:49, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Line numbering

Sometimes AWB makes a mistake, such as when wikisyntax square brackets are mixed with contextual ones. It's easy to identify these from the diffs, but with long articles it can be tough finding where it is. Since the diffs state the line number, line numbering down the side of the edit box like an IDE or a "go to line..." button would greatly simplify this task. BigBlueFish 18:49, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Feature request and query

What does it mean when the bot-timer flashes red?

Would it be possible to have the update dependent on user specified changes? I like to do as many of AWB's fixes rolled into my changes, but I know people will "have a go" at me if "invisible" changes are all that happens. I already set "Skip articles with no changes". Cheers, Rich Farmbrough 23:32 7 March 2006 (UTC).

The red flash is just to remind you that it is going to save automatically, I'm not sure what you mean in the second part, if you mean only to make a save if a specific change has been made, then use the skip if contains/skip is doesn't contain functions to avoid saving when the change waasnt there to make. Martin 23:36, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
My (current) changes are more complex than that - but a useful point anyway. I'm changing miscapitalised headers e.g. "Partial Filmography" to "Partial filmography" - I have a table of some 230 common mistakes as regex replacements. If the reason for identifying the article has since changed, I could end up just deleting a blank line - no big deal, but people object, bless 'em. Rich Farmbrough 00:16 8 March 2006 (UTC).
Bluemoose - A code suggestion that I tried but it didn't seem to work for me, maybe you can get it to work now: When the page first loads, before it's parsed, save it to string oldArticleText. After it is parsed, save the wikisource of the page to newArticleText. Then, do a regex replace to both strings to replace "\r\n" with "" (nothing). If the two match (if one string equals the other) then the only differences are blank lines and skip the article instead.
Now I know that there is a new option to remove excess lines that can be unchecked - however, when AWB sorts the stubs, categories, etc., it also sometimes adds or removes a line as its only change so such a feature would still be useful sometimes. --M@thwiz2020 00:24, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


Couple more queries

(These have been spotted by editors, and brought to my attention.)

  • The airtemp template for specs requires the use of </li> and <li> tags to properly format specs not included in the template.

Rich Farmbrough 13:16 8 March 2006 (UTC).

The second 2 problems have been dealt with, and will be in the next release (2.0.8.0, probably later today), the first is difficult, because it is a totally non-standard way of referencing. Martin 13:23, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
Very cool - the first brought up another problem that might affect us - if we change from External Links to External links, will we break section links ? (People don't use them much, but they are used.) Rich Farmbrough 16:40 8 March 2006 (UTC).
Just to confirm - section links are case sensitive, and of course they are singular/plural sensitive! Rich Farmbrough 17:21 8 March 2006 (UTC).

Whitespace in headings and bullet lists

In this edit, AWB removed the spaces in the section headings and after each "*" (bullet point). I feel like those spaces help the readability of the article source... and they're presence doesn't affect how the page renders. Please don't change them. -- Netoholic @ 17:49, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Agree with Netoholic. Further to his point, editing is also easier because those spaces make precise selection easier. I would also point out that other list syntax (* # : ;) suffers the same problem: AWB should actually add a space after a combination of these at the start of a paragraph. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 22:39, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
That's true, it is much easier to select text if there's a space between them. I think spaces also help with eye strain, and when you're trying to see how many levels of indent there is. Having AWB add spaces would be a nice feature. -- Netoholic @ 23:14, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Maybe I'll change the "remove excess whitespace" feature to "fix whitespace", not that I imagine people use this feature that much anyway. Martin 23:18, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Self-reference and bolding PAGENAME

Got V 2.0.8.0, thanks.

Two little problems, on pages like August 8 we have had the title self linked, because it displays the right way round according to the user's preferences. Of course AWB cleverly unlinks it...

Secondly on pages with "otheruses" it can bold the title in another link breaking it.

All the best, Rich Farmbrough 23:06 8 March 2006 (UTC).

P.S. Who said programming is almost all about exceptions? Rich Farmbrough 23:07 8 March 2006 (UTC).

2.0.9.0 should fix the bolding issue. thanks Martin 23:32, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Porting with mono?

Any chance this app will be ported to Linux and OSX using mono? Htaccess 18:54, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Well I'm certainly not going to attempt it, I suspect it would also be extremely difficult, as the program makes much use of the web browser control also used by internet explorer. Martin 23:26, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Placement of year of birth (and death) categories

I have been told by User:Ian Pitchford that the reason he has been shifting year of birth categories to the top of the selection of categories with this piece of software is that it is a feature of the software (and that makes it official Wikipedia policy in his opinion). Reading the project page, I think he may well be mistaken, but could the software be reviewed in any case please to ensure that this doesn't happen en masse? I don't think it is even possible to make any sort of sensible case that years of birth and death are the most important or useful categories for a person, so they should not go at the top of the list. The most relevant categories should come first, eg for a President of France, it would be category:Presidents of France, not Category:1837 births or category:1902 deaths. Thank you. Osomec 22:39, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

This would likely be the "Alpha sort categories" option, so any category which began with a digit would likely suffer the same fate. As to whether the birth/death categories are most relevant for a person, simple logic would indicate that these would be the categories most likely to be common to all biographical articles; it would therefore make sense that they appeared in the same place for each article, which implies sorting them to the head of the list. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 22:43, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Why does being common make them the most important? That just makes absolutely zero sense to me. Osomec 22:56, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Why don't you look at the articles in Category:Presidents of France, birth / death categories first clearly is the de facto standard. Martin 22:47, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps that is because people have been using this piece of software? The whole idea of putting them in alphabetical order is ridiculous and this software totally distorts the editorial effort. People put great effort into sorting categories in the way that will be most useful for the reader, but your software allows all this effort to be casually wiped out without a thought or a care. But reversing it again is then more effort. Whether you are right or wrong, this feature is iniquitious and it should be removed. It stands to reason that the people on here are users of this software, so may support this absurd approach even if the majority of users are actually opposed to it. Osomec 22:55, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
You are wrong, I can prove you are wrong, just look at the histories of those articles, clearly people have been putting editorial effort into sorting categories with birth/death cats first. You are acting against common practice. Martin 23:00, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Either way building it into automated software loads things against people who want things in a different order. I am yet to see any reasons for this bizarre preference. Do you have any? Osomec 00:05, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Yes, it is the de facto standard. Plus, from a more technical point of view, being in alphabetical order makes it easier to find a category, means that category order will appear more similar between different articles, and isnt susceptible to people re-ordering to give different ones a higher priority. I think these reasons are all individually more important than the reason you give, and common practice across Wikipedia evidently agrees. Martin 00:19, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
  • This is a style issue, not a technical issue. Alphabetical category links do not make a category easier to locate unless you already know the name of the category you want to find. There is no accepted standard in Wikipedia's Manual of Style and any de facto standard is disputable. It would be helpful if the AutoWikiBrowser did not encourage users to make sweeping changes to article style without consensus on what should be preferred. The best order of category links usually depends on the subject at hand. Consistency or "technical issues" should not trump common sense or the judgment of the editors working on individual subjects. There is more discussion about this at Wikipedia talk:Categorization#Recommended order for Category links. --Dystopos 17:58, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
    • Hmm, I've always put birth and death categories at the top, long before AWB and I can't rely say I've ever seen a biographical article where the birth and death categories where not the first (though granted I've mostly just seen stubs that only have one or two categories anyway), it does seem to be a very strong de facto standard. As for general alphabetising I'm more iffy. Grouping by relevance and importnace does have some merit. Makes sense to have "novelist" and "sience fiction writer" close together and not have "revolutionaries" or whatever between them. --Sherool (talk) 22:07, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

2 minor bugs

I checked through the archive but I can't see if this was reported before but I would be surprised if nobody else spotted it. When making a list from a category that has over 200 entries (e.g. Category:Airports in Ontario) it drops the first entry from the second page. I should have got Orilla/Lake St John Water Aerodrome but it was missing.

Second, when you save the list to a text file articles with accents like Alma (Rivière La Grande Décharge) Water Aerodrome turn out as Alma (Rivière La Grande Décharge) Water Aerodrome.

Ignore that. It loads back fine from the text file. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:36, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm using version 2.0.9.0 and I just noticed the last version listed on the Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser is 2.0.8.0. Thanks Martin. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 09:59, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

It works fine for me, does anyone else have this problem? Martin 12:30, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
I just tried Category:Communities in Ontario. It should have 537 in the list but gives 535. On the first 200 it gets everything. On the second 200 it drops the first article (Fenelon Falls, Ontario). On the last 200 it drops the second article (Portland, Ontario) but gets the first (Port Weller, Ontario). In all cases it picks up the subcategories. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:06, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Big Brother UK series 6

I've compiled the newest sources and loaded these settings. AWB shows me the diff with correctly replaced templates on Big Brother UK series 6. When I click on save, AWB moves on and it looks as if it had saved. But when I look at the article it is not saved. I see no error message. I have made thousands of edits with AWB but I have never seen such a behaviour. I also have done a few hundred edits today (GMT+1) without problems. What the hell is going on here? This is repeatable on that article with these settings. --Adrian Buehlmann 17:02, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

The spam filter appears to be blocking all edits to that page, it must have some spammy link on it. This is unrelated to AWB. Martin 17:33, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Martin. You're right. I should have tried a manual edit before posting here. Apologies. But this makes me thinking: What about (yet) another button "next" (don't beat me :-) and a "auto next" mode? If "auto next" mode is off, AWB would wait until the user has seen and checked the page after the save. The user could acknowledge the move to the next article with a click on "next". "auto next" would be enabled by default (current behaviour). Instead of having a new button, we could rename the "Ignore" button to "next" and reuse that button. The current "auto mode" (bot mode = automatic save after timer) would also imply "auto next". --Adrian Buehlmann 18:09, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Redirects

Was wondering if anyone knew this: I'm working mainly with the Olympics, and there are a bunch of pages with event results, which have lots and lots of athlete names. Many of these have special characters with accents, but for the most part, the links on the results pages do not. So I'll have lists,

where this redirects right to this
Anja Parson Anja Pärson
Franzi Aufdenblatten Fränzi Aufdenblatten

And the thing is, I'd like to change the name on the result page, so that it's more accurate. Is there any way of doing this currently with AWB? tiZom(2¢) 06:22, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Requesting permission to use

howdy, I have my 500 edits(by a few:))and would like to use this software to edit wikipedia. gracias. Nmpenguin 15:24, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Three minor issues

From most to least (perhaps)

  1. Deleteing excess spaces should skip lines beginning with a blank - to avoid changing this to this.
  2. Bolding the first mention, even in a link, seems to have come back here.
  3. Here the first two "sup2"s get converted, the next two not.

Best wishes, Rich Farmbrough 20:11 12 March 2006 (UTC).

  1. Removal of excess blank space does what it says it will do, that page should be formatted properly with a table, or just not be used with the blank space removal.
  2. Bolding works fine for me on that article, maybe you have an older version?
  3. It only converts URL/HTML entities automatically when they are in links, because sometimes people prefer URL/HTML. Use the option in the context menu to convert anything else you want to.

thanks Martin 20:20, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

  1. I agree that that page should have a table, but leading blanks are used extensively in place of <pre> - rightly or wrongly.
  2. Version 2.0.9.0
  3. OIC. Why does it do it in links?

Regards, Rich Farmbrough 21:08 12 March 2006 (UTC).

It didnt remove the leading blanks, the problem was due to the large quantities of spaces used for formatting, but either way, awb is not meant to be automatic or perfect, and that option is not enabled by default either. Try version 2.1.0.0, 2.0.9.0 should have been fine, indeed it was for me on that example. Martin 21:16, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm on V2.1.0.0 now. I generally have Excess white space off, which is a shame, but it annoys some people. I suppose I should really download the free Csharp and get hacking, but it will muck up my paid for c++. Rich Farmbrough 00:36 17 March 2006 (UTC).

Permission to come aboard

I have had 500 edits[1] and would like to use AWB. DarrenRay 08:31, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

You should list your name on Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage instead. --PS2pcGAMER (talk) 09:10, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Sorting Categories Alphabetically

There is no consensus that I am aware of for sorting categories alphabetically. There is a discussion about this at Wikipedia talk:Categorization. Unless someone can point to where this has been discussed previously, I would like to add a comment on the AutoWikiBrowser page requesting that this feature NOT be used unless there is some discussion first. Thanks. -- Samuel Wantman 01:12, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Could this be an option? I have use for having the info sorted alpha in some cases... Thanks! ++Lar: t/c 02:35, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
Alphabetical sorting is an option, off by default. Martin 09:45, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
If keeping the feature, noting that it should not be used without discussing the changes on the article talk page would be helpful. --Dystopos 18:01, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I has a problem

I have downloaded .NET framework, but if i click on the AutoWikiBrowser icon, i get a message that says ".NET Framework Initialization Error To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .Net Framework: v2.0.50727 Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate versions of the .Net Framework.". What is wrong? --Off! 17:35, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

That is the message you get when the framework is not istalled. Martin 23:44, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

IS it me?

  • Battle of Kwajalein with all options off, apart from a simple replace string, AWB wants to change tiny red dash (looks like a blank in hte source and the page) to what looks like a blank. I had one or two others that looked similar. V 2.1.0.0 Rich Farmbrough 00:33 17 March 2006 (UTC).
Here's one USS Plaice (SS-390) same tiny character between "diesel" and "engine".Rich Farmbrough 00:38 17 March 2006 (UTC).
Possibly have one here > <? Rich Farmbrough 00:40 17 March 2006 (UTC).

Possible problem

Replacing %20 with a true space in external links breaks wikimarkup. Cleanup functions should probably not substitute %xx expansions in external link URLs with the underlying character. Kelly Martin (talk) 14:24, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

This will only happen when you unicodify the whole article, it will be fixed anyway in next release. Martin 16:08, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Major Bug

I often use AWB, but ever since the loss of contrib links in diff pages, it has brought up Just-In-Time Debugging. This happens basically for everything such as making lists and going through processes. This has, in effect, stopped be been able to use AWB. Computerjoe's talk 18:21, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

It's still working for me (version 2.1.3.0). Are you using an older version? -- JLaTondre 18:28, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm running that version. Perhaps could it be a userscript? Computerjoe's talk 18:38, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
Yes, that would be my guess. Especially since you state "ever since the loss of contrib links in diff pages" as I haven't noticed a change. For example, diffing your page still shows "JLaTondre (Talk | contribs)" and "Computerjoe (Talk | contribs)" for me (if that's the contrib links you're talking about). I'd suggest disabling your scripts and putting them back on at a time to find the culprit. Rather painfull, but should let you isolate it. -- JLaTondre 19:00, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
The fix is visible here. Computerjoe's talk 19:53, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
This did not fix it. Computerjoe's talk 20:41, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Minor Edit Flag Issue

I was making some minor edits when I came across a page that required some more extensive changes. I unchecked "Mark all as minor" and saved, but the edit was still marked as minor. I double checked that the option was unchecked. It appears (I'm guessing more than anything else as I didn't comprehensively test) that the input form is only updated on a page load and not when the option is toggled? Thanks. -- JLaTondre 18:25, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Go to Special:Preferences and then click on "Editing" at the top. If "Mark all edits minor by default" is checked, then all edits made using the AWB will also be minor, regardless of AWB settings. --M@thwiz2020 20:52, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
No, I don't use that setting. -- JLaTondre 21:29, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

version for Mac OS

Howdy, I was wondering if a future version would be released for the Tiger OS, I have limited access to Windows based machines and thus would be awfully appreciative of use on a Mac. thanks. Nmpenguin 15:32, 19 March 2006 (UTC)


Talk from checkpage

Temporary Removal

I've temporarily removed User:Pegasus1138 from the list. I need time to evaluate his edits. All I can say is, he made a questionable edit to Apple Records discography which said "AWB assisted cleanup" but which was actually a destubbing; and has a whole batch of these see e.g. [2]. He's recently been reverted for a Popups edit here [3]. I suspect it may be a case of "have new toys, will play with them". --kingboyk 03:52, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Rules of use

  1. Check every edit before you save it. -- he's clearly not doing that, as many of his edits are just additions and removals of spaces
  2. Don't edit too fast, consider opening a bot account if you are regularly making more than a few edits a minute. -- 03:55, 10 March 2006 hit 12 pages
  3. Don't do anything controversial with it. -- obviously not or I wouldn't have found him and complained
  4. Avoid making extremely minor edits such as adding or removing a single space or replacing an underscore in a template call with a space. -- he's hitting save at every page he meets, useful change or not.

--kingboyk 04:01, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I've restored his (her) privileges but would ask for an eye to be kept and if there's any controversy in the future for him to be removed the list. --kingboyk 04:20, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

2.0.9.0

Strangely I got kicked off with 2.0.9.0. I've upgraded to 2.1.0.0 so it is not a problem for me - but odd. Rich Farmbrough 17:42 14 March 2006 (UTC).

Sorted

I've sorted the user names to make it easier for humans. Note that user:Cyrillic A is not User:A which is why he's at the end of the list. Rich Farmbrough 18:01 14 March 2006 (UTC).


Request

I had a request for registration, but receieved no response and I'm off the request list and not on the list of users allowed. Why didn't anyone leave me a note about what happened? Chris M. 02:34, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

  • From the Requests instructions above:
As a rule of thumb, users with less than 500 edits in the article namespace will not be added to the list, you will not be notified when/if you are added simply to reduce bureaucracy.
With only 63 article edits, you wouldn't have been approved. --Maelwys 11:44, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
My point was that I'd like to use it for a project with Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Computer and video games (See "Talk page template"), which requires me to edit Talk pages by adding this template. So you won't see it in my main listing. The AWB was pointed out to a member of the cvg wp that "the new version of AWB works great for this exact task". Which means editing talk page. Clearly those need to be taken into account. It was made for this purpose, so why is policy (and "rule of thumb" policy at that) stopping someone from helping out a project that needs people to help them out? Of course I realize the signifigance of the edit count in order to keep vandals from using it negativly. But I'm fairly sure I would be able to finish off a large portion of this project if I had this tool. I am going to request the members there to make a comment here about it. Chris M. 22:30, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
To append, I just kicked off a little project (may end up just being a personal one) on Wikipedia talk:TLAs from AAA to DZZ which is something else that would be much easier with AWB. I already did 47 edits with this, and if need be I will do these manually til I hit 500 if need be, but it really seems pointless to everyone involved to wait til then. Chris M. 22:54, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
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