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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by WhatamIdoing (talk | contribs) at 01:27, 16 January 2017 (→Could your bot tag some articles for me?: Thank you!). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


TfD closures

Hi, Earwig. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for helping out with closures of pending TfD discussions. In an ideal world, we would have a pool of 5 to 10 administrators who closed TfDs on a regular basis so that we could spread the burden around. If you have any admin buddies who might be interested in closing 5 to 10 TfDs per week, please let me know, and I will be glad to help recruit them to the cause. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 04:23, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that, glad to help. Sadly, most of my admin friends are no longer active. I think a more useful version of User:Doug/closetfd.js would be very nice to have, since I find myself doing the same sort of work repeatedly in simpler cases (checking/removing navbox transclusions, deleting talkpages/redirects/subpages, etc) – and I was surprised when I started that Twinkle has no template-delinking function like it has for page links. Perhaps such a tool would encourage more admins to help out? I would work on it myself, but lack of time is an issue. — Earwig talk 04:36, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, Earwig, I suggest you mention your issues to administrator User:Opabinia regalis (another recent recruit to TfD closings), and to template editor User:Alakzi. Alakzi is one of our star coders, and no doubt will have some insights into how the "Doug" TfD closing script might be improved. Cheers. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 04:46, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Last I heard, Alakzi would "look into" it, which was about a week ago. Well, we'll see. I'm willing to give it a shot in a month or so if nothing happens in the meantime. — Earwig talk 04:59, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, his services are popular now. I liked it better when I had him mostly to myself, but I'm told that template editor envy is not flattering on me. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 05:10, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ha, I'll look into cloning ;)
Agreed, all Doug's script does is stop you from making a typo adding the templates. Automating the tedium would be useful. I've been vaguely thinking of adapting the closeafd.js script, but haven't had the right combination of time and motivation (and it'd have to be a rare combination to make me think 'yes, javascript sounds like fun today'), so I'd be quite pleased if someone else did it! Opabinia regalis (talk) 07:51, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I, too, happen to be quite averse to JavaScript, so if somebody else were to take the initiative... Alakzi (talk) 08:05, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oy, I guess I'll start working on that, then. @Alakzi and Opabinia regalis: can we come up with a concrete list of improvements? — Earwig talk 08:16, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Offer to choose between "keep", "delete", "merge", and "do not merge"; automatically mark as a NAC for non-admins; remove {{Tfd}} and Tfm from the template when kept or not merged, else replace with {{Being deleted}}, enclosed in <noinclude>...</noinclude>; and tag with {{Tfd end}} on the talk page. Alakzi (talk) 08:25, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Right. Would a mass-orphan or substitution function (invoked separately) be a good idea or too risky? It would only handle clear cases. Also, the option to move to the holding cell would be useful. Hmm, I have an idea how this could work. — Earwig talk 08:40, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
OK, but what would make a clear case? The HC option is a good idea. Alakzi (talk) 09:03, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure how to strictly define it yet – will see when I get to that point, since the other stuff will come first. Also, a relisting option would be simple and useful. That should be enough to start working on it. — Earwig talk 17:37, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for taking this on, Earwig :) In addition to Alakzi's list, checking for redirects and subpages would be useful. Oh, when the page reloaded after my edit I saw you already said that above. Never mind me, I need more coffee. Opabinia regalis (talk) 19:27, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just an update – progress has been slow but steady due to various real-life things. The main interface and much of the functionality is complete. I hope to finish the first version before next week. — Earwig talk 07:43, 18 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Another update: alas, I'm not able to get back to working on the script yet, given the start of classes and a few other RL things. Tentatively suggesting a workable version by the middle of next week. — Earwig talk 00:11, 25 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Another bump. Some good progress, but a general lack of time to work on it. Will continue to keep people posted. — Earwig talk 02:29, 16 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]


ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, The Earwig. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 November 2016

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

BBC 12-hour Editathon - large influx of new pages & drafts expected

AfC Reviewers are asked to be especially on the look out 08:00-20:00 UTC (that's local London time - check your USA and AUS times) on Thursday 8 December for new pages. The BBC together with Wikimedia UK is holding a large 12-hour editathon. Many new articles and drafts are expected. See BBC 100 Women 2016: How to join our edit-a-thon. Follow also on #100womenwiki, and please, don't bite the newbies :) (user:Kudpung for NPR. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:02, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WP:BAG

Just curious, are you still active in the WP:BAG? --Zackmann08 (Talk to me/What I been doing) 20:48, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

In general yes, at the moment no since I've been busy with real-life work. — Earwig talk 21:14, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 December 2016

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:04, 22 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Merry, merry!

From the icy Canajian north; to you and yours! FWiW Bzuk (talk) 20:54, 25 December 2016 (UTC) [reply]

Question

Your copyvio bot is great, but it doesn't recognize quotes. Is there anything you can do about that? JerrySa1 (talk) 20:04, 28 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@JerrySa1: You mean ignore quoted text? It's a difficult problem, though I am aware of it. Sometimes you want to include quotes in the result because they can still be subject to copyright, and a large enough body of quotes is usually a bad sign in an article. My recommendation is to always manually review the result and ignore small amounts of quotes if they don't influence your decision. — Earwig talk 22:10, 28 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Good, just wanted to make sure you were aware. JerrySa1 (talk) 01:06, 29 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Copyvio Detector bug

Hello! First, thanks for creating this excellent tool, Copyvio Detector!

I think there is a small bug in the tool though. It concerns Estonian Wikipedia. Setting Site value to 'et (eesti)' and choosing some random article in Estonian Wikipedia, let's say Eesti, this error message appears: "The given page doesn't seem to exist: Eesti". Looking closely, the weblink in the message is https://tet.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eesti. Meaning that somewhere in the code 'et.wikipedia.org' has become 'tet.wikipedia.org'. In short: the tool does not work with etwiki. Could you please look into this? Thanks! Cumbril (talk) 14:42, 30 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Cumbril: Thanks for letting me know about this. A strange issue! I've fixed it. — Earwig talk 19:05, 30 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year The Earwig!

Happy New Year!
Hello The Earwig:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve the encyclopedia for Wikipedia's readers, and have a happy and enjoyable New Year! Cheers, JustBerry (talk) 00:35, 1 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]



Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:The Earwig}} to user talk pages with a friendly message.
Thank you. — Earwig talk 02:53, 1 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Could your bot tag some articles for me?

Magic invocation
env/bin/earwigbot -t wikiproject_tagger earwigbot --update --banner "WikiProject Medicine" --category "Unknown-importance medicine articles" --only-with "WikiProject Biography" --append "importance=low,society=yes" --autoassess "stub,start" --summary "Updating banner for [[WP:WPMED|WPMED]] biography per [[Special:Permalink/760128925#Could your bot tag some articles for me.3F|request]]" --nocreate

{{WPMED}} is on ~2,200 pages without an |importance= parameter at the moment. Could your bot (a) figure out if the subject is a person (living or dead) and (b) if so, set |importance=low and |society=yes in the WikiProject banner? The list of articles is at Category:Unknown-importance medicine articles.

I don't need it to catch every single instance; if it could just reduce the size of the list, that would be helpful. Also, if it's easy/code already exists, then I'd be happy to have these biographies inherit |class=Stub and |class=Start assessments. Please {{ping}} me and let me know if you think this is feasible. Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:47, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Working on it... — Earwig talk 07:06, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@WhatamIdoing: Okay, I ran it. Edits are here, and the category dropped to 1,691 items. Not a huge change, but it's something. If you ever want me to run this in the future, link me here so I remember the magic invocation (above). — Earwig talk 12:17, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! That's 500 items that I don't have to manually tag, which is really a huge difference for me. Thank you so much! WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:27, 16 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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