User talk:Rich Farmbrough

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Minor issues

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{{Wikibreak}} William Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank [1] Wikipedia:Good article criteria [2]

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Re: Wikipedia:Database reports/Unlisted stub types

I like what you did with this report on the stub templates. Can it be updated? Can a similar report be run for the Categories? Finally, could these be automatically set to update, say, once a month? or even once a quarter? Dawynn (talk) 20:30, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it's pretty much what I planned, if they are going to be maintained. However it looked like there were other lists doing a similar job that had not been attended to for a significant period of time. Rich Farmbrough, 17:49, 8 December 2010 (UTC).

Note there is a report for "Uncategorized Stub types" too [[3]]. Rich Farmbrough, 05:24, 9 December 2010 (UTC).

Revive Wildbot?

A few folks would love to see someone revive and/or take over Wildbot. You've been mentioned a couple times: [4] [5] Up for it? --W☯W ^t/c 20:25, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Scotland (continued)

Hi. Thanks for that, I've sorted out Indonesian links. Now Scotland. Can you do the same thing with the maps in Category:Populated places in Inverness committee area and Category:Populated places in Sutherland? Once that's done I'll add the infoboxes to the remainder.♦ Dr. Blofeld 20:22, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Did I do this? I think so...Rich Farmbrough, 23:41, 29 April 2011 (UTC).

Wikilove guest post?

Dear Rich,

I am starting a blog about wikilove and the wiki nature. Not necessarily mediawiki or wikipedia, but with guest posts from wikipedians and others who clearly get and are inspired by it. (one of my favorite personal examples is someone who went around tagging everything with 2d barcodes that linked to a webpage where he would write about it... during the initial surge of enthusiasm about cellphone barcode-readers)

Would you be willing to write a guest post about something that has inspired you recently? It would be extra cool to have an additional post about things that inspire your bots ;-) I like to think of them holding secret meetings on the small language wikis, protected from rc patrollers by their bot flags...

Regards, –SJ+ 19:38, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Not feeling the Wikilove right now.... but I'll keep this in mind nonetheless. Rich Farmbrough, 17:54, 9 September 2011 (UTC).

SmackBot Source?

Dear Rich, I’d like to set up a scheme similar to Category:Wikipedia maintenance categories sorted by month at de.wikipedia, and I’ve gathered support for doing so[6]. Would you be ready to hand out the source of the sections of SmackBot that perform this task? I’ve read it is implemented in Perl and you think about moving to PyWikipediaBot. I’d also appreciate Python rather than Perl, and maybe – without making any promises yet – I might set up a similar Python bot you might use later in return – maybe I’d just adapt your code, in either case your source code would be helpful. Thanks & regards --dealerofsalvation 06:35, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I'll try to produce a presentable version of the code. Rich Farmbrough, 13:54, 7 April 2011 (UTC).

Page protection tag

Hi,

I know you've been adding dates to tags so I thought you might be able to help. I see that Brazil has been protected. I thought perhaps it was a long running dispute because I kept coming across it. The tag doesn't say when that was applied and I suspect that we need to date such tags so we can purge old ones.

Can you take a look at the tags on that page and see if we can apply dates to them? Lightmouse (talk) 14:57, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Hm, the bot doesn't have the rights to edit fully protected pages. I'll think on it. Rich Farmbrough, 00:41, 12 June 2011 (UTC).

AWB removing GOCE template

Hi. I'd like to find out why your use of AWB removes the GOCE template (e.g. at the bottom of this edit)? Thanks. GFHandel ♬  01:14, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Investigating. Rich Farmbrough, 11:11, 5 July 2011 (UTC).

I'm curious how this is going? I replaced the GOCE template removed by the above edit. If you need someone to help look at script, I'm more than happy to help. GFHandel ♬  00:23, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

I'm curious too. :) There was no obvious reason, I haven't had time to set up a test page, which is what I normally do. The fact that I left the thread here is to remind me. Rich Farmbrough, 11:43, 13 July 2011 (UTC).

Thanks for responding on my talk page, however could I request that we keep discussion here (as other editors interested in this issue are likely to come here for more information)? Your response on my talk page was "The answer is that AWB moved the GOCE template to the head of the talk page, and my script renamed it to {{WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors}}, its full name". The rename is okay I guess, but I believe it is important to (also?) keep the {{GOCE}} stamp in-line on the talk page as it better indicates the moment in time that the copy-edit occurred and gives other editors a chance to comment on the effects of the GOCE edit. The removal of the stamp risks leaving response edits hanging and out of context (as happened with the above edit). Giving the template its full name seems like a good thing to do, but what is the advantage of graphically moving the template away from its in-line location? I've requested further input on the GOCE talk page. Thanks. GFHandel ♬  23:06, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

It seems that AWB only removed it, it did not create any other GOCE template at the top. That template which you were saying it would be replaced with, is really only used for second or third copyedits. There is a short version of some commonly used GOCE templates here Chaosdruid (talk) 00:43, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

You know, I thought that it didn't create it at the top either, but if you search for the string "WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors" in the original edit, it is there (the highlighting syntax for added text in the diff doesn't seem effective in this case). GFHandel ♬  01:06, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes I am not 100% sure that moving it is the best thing, if not an AWB bug will need to be raised. However there is a date parameter for the template so it that should not be an issue. If it is in a section it will of course get archived, and not form part of the header, which I gather is the point - to show that a proper copy-edit has taken place. On a slight tangent maybe the "record" function should be part of {{Article history}}. Rich Farmbrough, 19:35, 15 July 2011 (UTC).

Need to update the documentation for the template. Rich Farmbrough, 01:28, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

{{Portal/taskforce}}

Hi Rich,

Was the above template just an aborted experiment? Was going to TfD it as unused and redundant, but not sure if it would be better incorporating it into the Wikibanner system (if that was what it was meant for). Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) - talk 15:39, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Hm, well according to me it would be better. The portal template is extremely widely used and has been simplified as far as possible, without splitting this version out. The banner guru MSGJ reverted the use of this in some {{WPBannerMeta}}'s sub-template, on the grounds I forget, and I was so worn out from drama over combining hundreds of portal templates into one (with many claiming that the world would implode, or that we were template fascists, or words to that effect) that I couldn't be bothered with it at the time. I still think it is the right thing, especially as both Portal and WPBannerMeta are so widely used. WPBannerMEta is, of course, insanely complex, and for me at least seems to take a good time to load, it is arguable that the saving from simplifying the task-force buttons is negligible. Nonetheless I still think it is worthwhile for the total package. Rich Farmbrough, 16:02, 14 July 2011 (UTC).

In that case I'll leave it for now. I agree that {{WPBannerMeta}} is seriously hairy, which is why I've never touched the code IIRC. I know the feeling as regards totally undue drama when it comes to template stuff. Let me know if there's any movement on this. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) - talk 21:29, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 13:01, 15 July 2011 (UTC).

Your bot breaks pseudocode

Hi! On Sieve of Eratosthenes. If you could advise me what tags to put around it, I'd be much obliged. Right now it has lines starting with blanks, empty lines must have a leading blank to be included. It seems your bot removes leading blanks on otherwise empty lines of text. Thanks! WillNess (talk) 20:45, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) You could put a non-breaking space on the right-hand end of those blank lines, like this:

--Redrose64 (talk) 21:24, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

 Done Might be worth looking at the bot code too, though. Rich Farmbrough, 22:16, 22 July 2011 (UTC).

Thanks a lot guys! Fixing bot would be great, there might be other ppl like me with similar problem. WillNess (talk) 10:24, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

--

Cleanup-laundry

Because of an editor raising some good questions on Template_talk:Cleanup-laundry#The_validity_of_this_template_is_disputed, I realised what always bother me in {{Cleanup-laundry}}. 1. The vagueness of the term. 2. The parallel existence of {{Cleanup-list}}. Could you clarify these two things for me? Or is a merge of "laundry" into "list" the best idea? Debresser (talk) 23:12, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

They are slightly different. One says that the list needs cleanup, the other that it should probably not be there. That is, though, probably a bad use of "laundry list", nonetheless there may be benefit form improving both templates per their discussion pages. Rich Farmbrough, 01:32, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

Buatan Silver Strip

Richard Farmbrough, in regard to this article, I cannot verify the sources:

• Peralta, Jesus T. "The Butuan palaeograph: ethnographic implications of an ancient script," in Archipelago 6:A-55 (1979): 31-33.
• Santos, Hector. "Artifacts with writing revisited" in Sulat sa Tansô, 2:5 (June 1995), 1.
• -----. "Other pre-Hispanic writing artifacts" in Sulat sa Tansô, 2:2 (February 1995), 1.
• -----. "The Butuan Silver Strip" in Sulat sa Tansô, 2:2 (February 1995), 3.

The last three are circular, in that the online version Sulat sa Tansô is on the same web site as the one linked reference on the article page. I cannot find any academic articles by Santos or Peralta in lexis/nexis, Jstor, Muse, or Google scholar, and only one passing mention of the strip in a hindustan times article that reprints a report from the Asian News International, apparently a wire service, in lexis/nexis. I cannot find a journal named Archipelago that treats this kind of topic. There's a book which google says contains the term, but there are only a few copies in libraries. I'm not sure it is notable, but I thought I'd run the issue by you. --Nuujinn (talk) 11:01, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

This sort of stuff is frustrating, I might be able to get a copy of the book from the Bodlian some time thins month, can you note the details here. Rich Farmbrough, 11:08, 3 August 2011 (UTC).

Also might be worth trying ot contact Peralta if he si still around, he may be able to sebd a copy of his article. Rich Farmbrough, 11:10, 3 August 2011 (UTC).

I'll see about Peralta, that's a good notion. A link from worldcat about the book, I'll put in an interlibrary loan, I might be able to get it from florida or georgetown. Thanks for the help, --Nuujinn (talk) 11:13, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

WikiHistories

Here are some relevant links regarding the WikiHistories project:

• WikiHistories fellowship
• The Russian Wikipedi history (English version)
• WikiHistories fellowship announcement
• Example of one of the individual stories

HTH,--Eloquence* 08:46, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Good Humor
	This is for creating the list of lists of lists. Brilliant work! :D Jon Harald Søby (talk) 15:40, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Nice, thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 22:44, 31 August 2011 (UTC).

Request for AWB Settings File

Hi, I see that you have written a couple of AWB settings files. I was wondering if you would be willing to write one for me. I would like to go through and clear the backlog on Category:Articles using Infobox musical artist with deprecated parameters, and I'm not quite sure how to make it split the birth date and place into two separate lines, as would be needed with this case. I tried using the settings file you wrote for birth and death dates, but it doesn't do what I'm looking for except fix special cases where the {{birth_date}} template had not been used in the first place. Would you be willing to try expanding the settings file to accommodate what I am looking to do here? Phuzion (talk) 05:53, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

I have looked at this, but I will need ot come back to it. Rich Farmbrough, 00:33, 17 August 2011 (UTC).

New template suggestion?

What's the best place to suggest and get checked User:Lexein/Template:Expand-barerefs, as part of the Expand- family of templates? It appears to be desirable, based on discussion at WP:ANI#Koavf, specifically WP:ANI#Not_so_arbitrary_break. --Lexein (talk) 23:40, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

I think there is something similar. I'll try to check. Rich Farmbrough, 22:40, 13 August 2011 (UTC).

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:DBK Works albums

Category:DBK Works albums, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:25, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

HIV/AIDS Project

Hi Rich, Isaac here how is the Project so far? I have talked with a few people in in WHO and I am awaiting their reply, Asaf from the foundation has also been here and is helping us out — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kipsizoo (talk • contribs) 16:36, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

That's great news. I put together a product diagram on paper and am hoping to produce a digital version tonight. Will let you know. Rich Farmbrough, 16:49, 18 August 2011 (UTC).

Mirrorbot

I just wanted to let you know that one of your bots was being mentioned again recently on the Bot requests page. Not sure if your still interested but thought I would let you know. --Kumioko (talk) 14:16, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! Rich Farmbrough, 00:25, 21 August 2011 (UTC).

Please read

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Sven Manguard Wha? 21:02, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Empty {{Merge}} templates

SmackBot should do something other than, or as well as, date {{Merge}} templates that do not mention where to merge to. I suggest it delete them and inform the editor that added the empty template that it has done so. (An example user notification.) I have also suggested the template emphasise it needs the parameter, mentioning this suggestion too. Mark Hurd (talk) 08:20, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

This discussion is taking place on Template_talk:Merge#Empty_.7B.7Btl.7CMerge.7D.7D. Debresser (talk) 16:23, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Page Music albums

Category:Page Music albums, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 00:23, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

Of course, it was deleted as there was no record company page. The record company page had been deleted (prod) for having only a single artist. This was demonstrably false according to the article. And so it goes. Doubtless the artists will be deleted for only being produced by non-notable labels, and their records will follow leaving nothing to go in the category. Rich Farmbrough, 18:57, 9 September 2011 (UTC).

And indeed the record articles had been deleted. Rich Farmbrough, 01:26, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

SmackBot

Hi Rich, SmackBot has been iconic and ecumenical, why change its name? Is there any chance he can go back to SmackBot? Thanks --Camilo Sanchez (talk) 01:14, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Hi Camilo, nice of you to say. There was some concern that SmackBot's name was unwelcoming to newbies. Not sure about that myself, but that was the reason for the change. If the community wanted the old name back... Rich Farmbrough, 14:13, 27 August 2011 (UTC).

I would like to move it back to SmackBot, is the process the same for bots? --Camilo Sanchez (talk) 23:58, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Because of the number of edits, the process simply requires me to swap the account it uses, and the "bot" authorisation to be changed. Maybe Village Pump might be a place to gain consensus, if anyone else thinks it matters? Rich Farmbrough, 00:05, 7 September 2011 (UTC).

People are too busy at the village. If you can move it back to its iconic name please. Thanks --Camilo Sanchez (talk) 04:39, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Although I sympathize, I'm not going to make the move back unless it's a community decision. Rich Farmbrough, 18:18, 9 September 2011 (UTC).

Wikipedia:Date formattings

Urged to formalise the project, I have just updated Wikipedia:Date formattings to incorporate what I do. I invite feedback and any amendments and changes to the project in the hope that we can expand the effort by recruiting some members. --Ohconfucius ^¡digame! 04:08, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Diacritics redirects

I haven't seen any pages categorized by smackbot with "Category:Redirects from titles with diacritics" since 2008.... am I just missing something? Pages like Novak Đoković had to be done by hand. I think the reverse of yours User:RjwilmsiBot goes through at least twice a month. Thanks. Fyunck(click) (talk) 22:52, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Hm yes, there's a number of tasks that need refreshing. Rich Farmbrough, 22:59, 8 September 2011 (UTC).

Does that mean this is something that will be added to the to-do list in the immediate future or something that will take some time? How often does this bot run to add a category like diacritic redirects? Fyunck(click) (talk) 23:12, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Basically a lot of this sort of thing was run off database dumps, so could be done with that sort of frequency. Database dumps died for a couple of years. However it's not that hard to catch up, if one has a recent dump, the September dump is, however giving me problems decompressing. Rich Farmbrough, 23:41, 8 September 2011 (UTC).

Looks like the uncompress is fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 18:08, 9 September 2011 (UTC).

Note that not all non-ASCII characters are diacritical. Per Category:Redirects from titles with diacritics only redirects that actually have diacritics and that target articles without diacritical titles should be given {{R from diacritics}}. Non-ASCII-titled redirects without diacritics that target ASCII-titled articles should be given {{R to ASCII}}. Specifically, æ, œ, ð, þ, ə, ʼ, ʻ, ı, and ß, and probably others, are not diacritical. So before you run SmackBot again it would be very nice if you could update it. Thanks! ☺ 155.33.149.25 (talk) 02:17, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

From SignPost

Approximately 3% of editors account for 85% of contributions to the project, according to the statistician, and participation among this group has declined "even more sharply" than the active registered userbase in toto.

Funny that. Rich Farmbrough, 16:22, 9 September 2011 (UTC).

To do

1. fix up broken archives  Done
2. import main todo list (or build a new one off-wiki)
3. fix the following minor edits

Sir Robert Peake

Needs sorting out.

Stephen Skinner

Birth and graduation dates need sourcing. Rich Farmbrough, 21:30, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

John Peel (huntsman)

Clumsy lead. Rich Farmbrough, 21:33, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

Thomas Skinner (Ceylon)

Tense problems. Rich Farmbrough, 21:36, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

Archibald Skirving

Needs refs and parentage. Rich Farmbrough, 21:41, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

• Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
• Michael Slattery (priest)
• Foulis Baronets
• Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin dob etc.
• Banastre Tarleton
• Thomas Pingo
• John Purchas

Oreb and Zeeb

Should reflect on the meaning and historicity of the names. Rich Farmbrough, 18:37, 11 September 2011 (UTC).

Acts_of_the_Apostles#Speeches

• Ced. Rich Farmbrough, 18:54, 11 September 2011 (UTC).
  
• Gospel of the Twelve link JM. Rich Farmbrough, 19:03, 11 September 2011 (UTC).
  

Dinah

Redlinked template

Mughrabi Gate ramp reconstruction (February 2007)

Repetition.

Daniel Avery

m. Alice Brwon, Bristol 1 s etc.. http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1870-1880_supp.pdf p. 425

• Mahmood Hussein Mattan - tidy up.
• Elymas expand

James Robertson (British Army officer)

• Needs sources.

William Roper (biographer)

• Birth year 1496

   Done – I corrected the birth year in the article to match the sources given.

• Also that "Biblical City" link if I can find it
• Template:Fr Site du Conseil général de Mayotte.
• Template:Fr Les communes de Mayotte sur le site de l'Insee

Bug bash

"Bug bash sounds similar to eat one's own dog food" - this needs to go. Rich Farmbrough, 10:46, 13 September 2011 (UTC).

 Not done Although this is straight-forward, I haven't done it—to "eating your own dog food is a fairly well-known concept in software development and it would probably be preferable to reword the section. —Sladen (talk) 11:34, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept. It is more of a public-relations principle, though, and the software development benefits are a side issue. It might be worth contrasting the two, from a SD POV, since dog-food seeks an ongoing long term benefit, whereas a bug bash is a "heroic" concept. Rich Farmbrough, 12:14, 13 September 2011 (UTC).

The Reader

"The warden expresses the disappointment of Hanna in her anger towards Michael for not communicating with Hanna in any way other than the audio tapes." We can do better than this. Rich Farmbrough, 10:51, 13 September 2011 (UTC).

• Ruth Franklin should be a redlink
• equally... as...

Bash shell

Keyboard shortcuts:

• Don't cap "Forward" etc.
• Don't Wikt to foreground, WP to Foreground process
• Possibly use a table

Synonyms : http://www.hypexr.org/bash_tutorial.php#emacs

Emacs

Don't cap Pinky.

 Done[7] —Sladen (talk) 11:29, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 12:14, 13 September 2011 (UTC).

Kinesis

Piezo not a proper noun.. sigh. Rich Farmbrough, 11:22, 13 September 2011 (UTC).

John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester

link first occurrence of Basing House, not the second

Continuous spontaneous ventilation

Spurious caps all over the place. And may be a good merge candidate. Rich Farmbrough, 00:15, 14 September 2011 (UTC).

Ceibal project

May need moving, certainly needs massive cleaning up. Rich Farmbrough, 00:21, 14 September 2011 (UTC).

Luigj Gurakuqi University Library

Replace body with

Luigj Gurakuqi University Library (Albanian: Biblioteka e Universitetit të Shkodrës “Luigj Gurakuqi”) is the library of the Luigj Gurakuqi University of Shkodra in Shkodër, Albania. It traces its history to the establishment of the Pedagogical Institute in 1957 with a stock of about 1000 books, mainly in Albanian. Today, this library has about 150,000 books.It includes a holding of thirty two rare volumes form the early part of the sixteenth century. The older stick is in the process of digitization to ensure longevity of the items, and improve advisability. The library runs exchanges with Albanian and foreign libraries.

Bibliography

• World Guide to Libraries, Thomson Gale, K. G. Saur.

Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso

1. $ - dollars
2. conversion
3. Caps
4. missing link around pipe?
5. PoV

William Wynne Ryland

1. dob
2. Last hanged at Tyburn
3. paper evidence

Other stuff

Unchallengeable take downs?

Rich, On the talk page for the proposed terms of use, you mention a takedown that is unchallengeable. While it's possible, I think it's more likely that it's a symptom of our bad communication about it or something (for which I would take responsibility). I don't think we have any that are unchallengeable right now. So, I want to write to ask if there's something I can clarify, or whether I'm missing something on my list? Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 01:14, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes, the matter has come up a couple of times, both on the Talk:Texas_Instruments_signing_key_controversy talk page of the article in question, and in the commentary to a recent (July) SignPost. The issue is that there only people who can issue a counter notice are the anonymous editors who originally posted the material. On most websites another person could post the material, wait for a challenge and respond to that. Here, since take-down has been implemented as an office action no one can repost the material without going against the office action (and in fact, even if they did, it would be removed by editors in support of the office action) therefore the material, which is freely published elsewhere, since the DMCA was challenged and the challenge not responded to, cannot be posted on Wikipedia. Effectively this makes Wikipedia the most censored forum for this information. Rich Farmbrough, 01:32, 11 September 2011 (UTC).

Interesting. My understanding from the legal team is that a DMCA takedown must be challenged by a party with legal standing, which would mean that it has to be someone who had posted the content. If we were to then suggest or passively allow someone else to post it, we would not be in full compliance. However, I'll confirm that. If that's the case, then we're in compliance with the regulations and others arguably are not. If it's an issue of interpretation, I'll find out why we're not more broad, but since Mr. Godwin structured those originally, I tend to think we're at the broadest level that he (and then Mr Brigham) felt was legally possible. But I'll get an answer and try to report back. Thanks for clarifying. Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 05:10, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

TB

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Talk:List of Michelin starred restaurants in the Netherlands.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Thanks Rich Farmbrough, 18:07, 10 September 2011 (UTC).

The Signpost: 12 September 2011

• News and notes: Foundation reports on research, Kenya trip, Mumbai Wikiconference; Canada, Hungary and Estonia; English Wikinews forked

• In the news: 9/11 coverage, Wikimedia hypothetically rebranded and Wikipedia golf 2.0

• WikiProject report: Politics in the Pacific: WikiProject Australian Politics

• Featured content: Wikipedians explain two new featured pictures

• Arbitration report: Ohconfucius sanctions removed, Cirt desysopped 6:5 and a call for CU/OS applications

• Technology report: What is: agile development? and new mobile site goes live

• Opinion essay: The Walrus and the Carpenter

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 00:21, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

New error?

Database error From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia View logs for this page A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

   (SQL query hidden)

from within function "Block::purgeExpired". Database returned error "1213: Deadlock found when trying to get lock; try restarting transaction (10.0.6.46)".

Database error debug/fix?

I noticed you were keeping a log of db errors - I just encountered one like your "new one" above. When you've encountered them, how long have they persisted? When logged in, I can't view User talk:Lexein - it times out after a minute and produces this message

"Database error - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was: (SQL query hidden) from within function "User::deleteNewtalk". Database returned error "1205: Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction (10.0.6.46)"."

The problem seems to have started after this last change to the talk page (as alerted by my talk page alert email). So I asked on IRC #wikipedia, and got the suggestion to try adding ?action=purge, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Lexein?action=purge still produces the timeout and error when I'm logged in. Interestingly, when I 'm logged out, there's no problem. If you have any suggestions for who to contact, please either email me or respond here on your talk page, since I can't conveniently see my talk page at all. --Lexein (talk) 14:48, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

• Update - problem cleared up after 20 minutes. Don't know if the purge had anything to do with it. --Lexein (talk) 15:08, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I had the same (or similar) error twice at the time you originally posted. Looks like it was failing to get a lock on the database table/row that clears the "You have new messages" flag. Rich Farmbrough, 16:39, 16 September 2011 (UTC).

Film lists

Hi there! I just came across Category:Film incomplete lists while looking for some tidying-up work. It looks as though you created the category; thus may I ask, how is this category different from Category:Incomplete film lists? I do see that there's a different list template used for each: {{Expand list}} or {{inc-film}} and maybe you can explain that to me as well. Before I start sorting, I want to be sure of what goes where. Thanks. Humbly, Pegship (talk) 23:08, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Hm yes, the purpose is the same. The idea is to have simpler templates (many need a subject field available, Notability, this one, In-universe and Expert are good examples) though there is some challenge as to what the field should be called. So we should merge these two categories. The easiest way is to use inc-film as a wrapper for Expand-list. Rich Farmbrough, 19:50, 17 September 2011 (UTC).

Okey dokey...what's a wrapper, and how shall I create one? Thanks for your reply. Pegship (talk) 23:14, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Suggestion for superscripts

I often see superscripts that looks like these:

The color may be blue ^[1] or orange.

It would be great if you could enhance your bot to move superscripted text to better locations:

The color may be blue^[1] or orange.

Mfwitten (talk) 19:37, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes this would be a generally useful fix I think. Rich Farmbrough, 17:37, 18 September 2011 (UTC).

((lang)) and ((cat handler))

Hello Rich Farmbrough. I created the {{cat handler}} template. Today I noticed that a year ago you were involved in trying to deploy {{cat handler}} in the {{lang}} template, but that it didn't work. After some testing and staring at all versions of the code I finally found the error: {{cat handler}} was not the problem, instead you guys placed the ending brackets in the wrong place. The discussion at {{lang}} has already been archived, but for future reference I left a message in the archive explaining what went wrong. See Template talk:Lang/Archive 2#Change categorization method.

--David Göthberg (talk) 17:27, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. In case of template difficulties, nine times out of ten it's the brackets! Rich Farmbrough, 17:37, 18 September 2011 (UTC).

And on an unrelated note: I just noticed it was you who fixed so {{sec link auto}} works with Wiktionary links. Thanks for fixing that while I was away. (I really still am on Wikivacation, but currently I am at home with a cold so I have time to do some editing again.) See Template talk:Sec link#Wrong capitalization for Wiktionary.

--David Göthberg (talk) 18:50, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Of course you are welcome. And it's a pleasure to work on some of the stunning template coding created around here. Rich Farmbrough, 19:12, 18 September 2011 (UTC).

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	For your work on Helpful Pixie Bot/Smackbot. I often forget to date tags, and so I always see the pixie's dating them, no pun intended. Happy editing! pluma Ø 04:46, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! Much appreciated! Rich Farmbrough, 12:48, 20 September 2011 (UTC).

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Because helpful machines deserve love too!!! :D MusicLover650 (talk) 22:49, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

A cup of tea for you!

Rich, with all your hard work I thought you may be in need of some refreshment ;-) Marek.69 talk 10:29, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

Please make helpful pixie a little less eager to be helpful

I appreciate what the bot does, but I have two complaints:

• Removing trailing blanks in markup: It's extremely annoying to see line after line in the diffs where the only difference is the (invisible) deletion of trailing blanks.
• Acting too quickly: It's extremely, extremely annoying to save a second round of copyediting on a given article, only to get an edit conflict with a bot that jumped in 5 minutes after my first save. Nothing the bot does is urgent. Why not wait 24 hours after the last edit before it acts? This would virtually eliminate the edit conflicts, plus reduce clutter in edit histories.

Thanks for taking a look at this. EEng (talk) 22:08, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

The first one seems to be forbidden by the editing restriction currently on the operator (prohibited from making cosmetic changes to wikicode that have no effect on the rendered page). The second is an excellent point (and is a request which has been made several times in the past if I recall correctly). I think it deserves a response from the operator. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:54, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

It's not. Being an AWB general fix it is permitted. Rich Farmbrough, 19:58, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

I'm not sure this is true. I just loaded up Margaret Truman (the version that EEng was working on before HPB came long) into the latest version AWB and it didn't want to change anything despite all the automatic changes being enabled. So this is not an "AWB general fix". Can you prevent this whitespace-tweaking from happening in the future? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:52, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

• As far as the first goes, trailing white-space is a form of pollution, without something cleaning it up it builds up as a type of cruft, the ideal place to remove it is during non-contentious maintenance edits. Ideally MediaWiki would strip it as part of the pre-save transform, but you can do your bit by removing it from pages you edit.
• I am happy to resolve this problem for EEng. I used to run the bot (then called SmackBot) under AWB in batch mode, initially weekly or monthly and then later daily - this was good because there was a window for other processes to date or remove the tags en-passant. Part of the great thing about the bot in those days was that it rolled so many fixes together with the dating, and people were happy by and large with that, a lot of SB's specific fixes got back-ported to AWB and of course AWB has a whole bunch more. Over the past year, I have been running a continuous perl bot, because it was the only way to deal with the new, more hostile, environment, and still benefit Wikipedia by a tiny fraction of the fixes that SmackBot (AWB) made. However I can wind back the time delay for any users who find SmackBot too fast.

Rich Farmbrough, 19:58, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

Could I suggest that you wait a full hour before dating any maintenance templates? This is a round figure, and a good compromise between EEng's suggested 24 hours and the immediate dating that currently happens. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:56, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

As long as it's at least an hour it's no big deal to me, but since the discussion continues let me repeat that, to the extent that articles often get bursts of edits on a single day, waiting longer reduces edit-history clutter as well as (when more than one editor is involved) confusion over who's done what. 24 is also a nice round number. And as for trailing blanks: if they stay forever... so what? EEng (talk) 22:18, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

THIS BOT SCREWED UP THE FORD FE ENGINE ARTICLE AND WILL NOT ALLOW ITSELF TO BE UNDONE

- It messed up the coding for the template at the bottom of the article, messed with, apparently, every line in the article. And when I tried to undo the damage it just redid it all again. And I'm not supposed to notice, or comment on that???? You delete any comments that point out the failings of this bot? I read a little about this bot, and even more at its apparent author's talk page, and this is not an unknown, or unidentified issue with this bot....SO WHY THE HECK IS IT ****STILL**** RUNNING?????? User:12.73.220.22 19:58, 18 September 2011

-

You are a little confused. Look at the rendered page before and after, nothing is messed up. Nor is every line affected. And no I don't delete anything. Rich Farmbrough, 19:28, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

-

you deleted this complaint fast enough.

you post an answer and then delete everything? Nice. You don't want to hear/see or deal with problems with this bot? If every line isn't affected, then why is every line highlighted in a differential before and after view? If you didn't mess up the template at the bottom, then why is there now a dead link in the center of it? If your bot doesn't do anything, why the heck does it exist? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.73.236.202 (talk) 15:49, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

• Nothing was deleted, merely archived. You had time to read my answer. If you had bothered to sign in I could have left it on your talk page, given that someone screwed up the page you left your message on.
• The reason "every line is shown" is that the diff doesn't show lines that are unchanged.
• There is a dead link because there has always been a dead link. There is no difference in rendering between:
  

{{Ford V8 engines}}

and

{{Ford_V8_engines}}

• I didn't say it did nothing I said it broke nothing. What it did is explained in the edit summary.

Rich Farmbrough, 16:05, 25 September 2011 (UTC).

Incidentally I'm not sure why you think "block" is a proper noun, perhaps you could explain that? Rich Farmbrough, 16:13, 25 September 2011 (UTC).

Use dmy

In this edit your bot again added the {{Use dmy dates}} template without any good reason. Actually, the writer of this book is American. As I have said before, the incidental usage of a dmy type date is not reason to add the template. Please stop your bot from adding this template automatically. And I am serious about this... Debresser (talk) 12:50, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

I see the bot is still making these errors ([8]). There has been time for this to be addressed as the operator has been online and making edits as well. And the bot does not seem to stop anymore when its talkpage is edited. So I am going to block the bot until this issue is resolved. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:48, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

[X] copied from User talk:Helpful Pixie Bot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 16:03, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

The talk page was set up as a redirect to my talk page. I am just too busy (and too annoyed at the situation) right now to make further comment. Rich Farmbrough, 15:57, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

It would be incredulous that you were not watching your bot's talk page ... and if it was on your watchlist I'm not quite sure how you could miss that many posts. Anyway no big problem, I can unblock when the issue is resolved. Question: why does editing the talk page not stop the bot? It might be a good idea to re-add this feature to avoid the need to block the bot in cases like this. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 18:00, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Because that was an AWB feature I used for years. All the AWB features have been wasted since it was decided that the bot could be blocked if it made a "non-render changing" edit, since AWB is not capable of distinguishing between rendering and non-rendering edits, and I had to recode everything in perl. You may think that it was a stupid, short sighted decision. I couldn't possibly comment. Rich Farmbrough, 19:22, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

Oh and I don't use the watchlist system. Incidentally: wikt:incredulous. Rich Farmbrough, 19:22, 23 September 2011 (UTC).

Rich, if you're too busy (your words) to care for your bots, then please don't run them. —Sladen (talk) 12:32, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

I'm not too busy to care for the bots, just too busy to care for every rules junkie that thinks rules are more important than the encyclopaedia. Rich Farmbrough, 13:18, 24 September 2011 (UTC).

This is all very well, but don't you agree that the bot should stop adding these templates on an automatic basis? I think I gave a very good reason, and a reply to the issue would be in order. Debresser (talk) 07:13, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Possibly a stupid question, but why shouldn't {{use dmy dates}} be added to articles that only use dmy dates? Jenks24 (talk) 22:36, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

In this edit [9] the article doesn't seem to have any dmy dates in it. One of the cleanup templates did, but the bot removed that at the same time it added the dmy tag. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:36, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

This one is another example, I think that the script caught the phrase "the set containing 3, 4, and 5 may be ..." and though that was a date. I don't think there are any dates at all in the article. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:39, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Good spotting, though since I will be removing that feature, a little late. :) Rich Farmbrough, 03:56, 26 September 2011 (UTC).

Feature disabled. Rich Farmbrough, 21:17, 3 October 2011 (UTC).

Excellent. Could you also disable the whitespace adjustment (as discussed in #Please make helpful pixie a little less eager to be helpful and as necessitated by certain editting restrictions) and add a 60 min waiting period as has been requested? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 10:37, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Sure why not? The bot will then do nothing, but that's what it's doing now. Consider it done for version p615. Rich Farmbrough, 10:57, 4 October 2011 (UTC).

Talkback II

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Redrose64's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

--Redrose64 (talk) 21:18, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 September 2011

• Opinion essay: The global mission, the image filter and the "German question"

• Recent research: Top female Wikipedians, reverted newbies, link spam, social influence on admin votes, Wikipedians' weekends, WikiSym previews

• News and notes: WMF strikes down enwiki consensus, academic journal partnerships, and eyebrows raised over minors editing porn-related content

• In the news: Sockpuppeting journalist recants, search dominance threatened, new novels replete with Wikipedia references

• WikiProject report: A project in overdrive: WikiProject Automobiles

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: "Broadly construed" explained, voting begins on Senkaku Islands case, invitation to comment on CU/OS candidates

• Technology report: 1.18 deployment on track, "mythical" Git migration scheduled, editor decline statistics improved

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 02:15, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Asdas

Can you unprotect the Asdas page and move Asdas, Yemen?♦ Dr. Blofeld 21:09, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Semi-protected template moved

I moved the ungrammatically name Template:Over detailed, which you'd semiprotected, to the grammatical name Template:Overly detailed, which has no such protection. The redir Template:Over-detailed, which is also grammatically correct, works too. — SMcCandlish Talk⇒ ʕ(^Õل^ō)ˀ Contribs. 20:54, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, cool. I thought protection moved with the page? Rich Farmbrough, 11:01, 1 October 2011 (UTC).

It does; see here. The timestamp and edit summary are the same as the page move. Since SMcCandlish isn't an admin, and thus couldn't have altered prot level manually, the fact that the prot log entry is in his name implies that the action must have been coupled to the page move process. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:22, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

E-mail notification

RF, I'm unsure if you check your e-mail regularly, so please be aware that I've sent our response to your message from last week. Sorry it took a little longer than our seven-day target to reply; I was meant to have sent it a few days ago, but was tardy. Regards, AGK [•] 19:30, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

WP:RFPP

Mind checking if this should be done? LikeLakers2 (talk | Sign my guestbook!) 20:02, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Please don't remove a large portion of text from a page without a reason, as you did here at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection with your sockpuppet. If the account is to be used as a WP:NAS dummy account, then at least put that in the edit summary. Thanks. LikeLakers2 (talk | Sign my guestbook!) 22:22, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Whoops. Rich Farmbrough, 22:38, 3 October 2011 (UTC).

User:Helpful Pixie Bot

First off, the bot is blocked, and has been since September 23.

Second, I can just imagine the bot frolicing through a garden (the garden being Wikipedia's location), looking like SmackBot, and waving to a few users occasionally. Not kidding, I can. :D LikeLakers2 (talk | Sign my guestbook!) 21:09, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Ok, I'm guessing you want your bot to stay blocked. LikeLakers2 (talk | Sign my guestbook!) 18:59, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Nope I'm waiting for MSGJ to unblock it... Rich Farmbrough, 19:11, 4 October 2011 (UTC).

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:JVC Records albums

Category:JVC Records albums, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:09, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Mystery

Please solve this mystery if you can...

On September 23rd, traffic to Portal:James Bond doubled, and has stayed at the new level since then. I can't figure out what happened.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Portal%3AJames_Bond

Traffic to Outline of James Bond stayed the same (though it was at the higher-level already), which leads me to suspect changes made somewhere in Wikipedia.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Outline%20of%20James_Bond

I'd like to find out what happened, in case it reveals helpful link placement tips that can double the traffic to outlines too!

I look forward to your reply on my talk page. The Transhumanist 23:24, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Help with "Article Reads Like News Release"

Hey - the Widener Law page has the "News Release" message at the top...I tried to format the page after the Temple Law and U. Penn Law pages. I think the content is neutral and comparable to information found on most college/university pages. Can I remove the "News Release" tag? (I know I physically can remove it, I just don't want to piss anybody off). If there is something you think should be changed/neutralized on the page, please let me know!

Thanks 98.235.125.61 (talk) 01:22, 6 October 2011 (UTC)