User talk:Dispenser

Zoe Quinn

Hi Dispenser! Just as a quick heads up, according to WP:BLP we can't rely on public documents, such as police reports, to source content such as full names. With Quinn, she seems to want to keep her birth name private, and as it hasn't been widely published, it isn't something we can add. - Bilby (talk) 21:20, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I was a bit hesitant in posting it, but didn't see anything on the talk page nor history about it and the redirect... Anyway, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people) should at least link to WP:BLPPRIMARY. — Dispenser 21:43, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

That's a good point - I'll look into updating it. The talk page situation is difficult - there was discussion in the past, but portions have been redacted, making it difficult to find in the archives. - Bilby (talk) 22:04, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Ok I see them now. That talk page header is an mess, repeated 2x "Not a forum", incorrect box order, and repeated information. Maybe we should just delete {{talk header}}? It being used consistently incorrectly that it might be better to. — Dispenser 23:05, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

redlinks.py

Hello Dispenser, and best wishes for 2015!

Is there any chance that the most useful redlinks.py tool will work again someday on your homenet page? Place Clichy (talk) 13:40, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Great reflinks tool! Thanks and keep up the good work! Anoopkn (talk) 15:15, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Bookmarklets

Hi Dispenser, please would it be possible to update the bookmarklets? they don't work any more as their addresses to the toolserver. Tom B (talk) 21:16, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

Useractivity tool

Hey I noticed the user activity tool is all sorts of broken. Are there any plans for it to be fixed, or are there any good alternatives? Thanks! Error. EoRdE6^{(Come Talk to Me!)} 01:30, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

@EoRdE6: Should mention that the tools been back for a while. It still missing features like the timeline graph and watcher status between 10-30. And is slower since it has to use the API. — Dispenser 22:07, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Idea Lab

Hi there!

I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of expanding upon and formalizing the language of your idea at the Idea Lab in the hopes of preventing some contributors from turning away from your idea. If you don't like the changes, feel free to revert or amend them. - SweetNightmares 15:46, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

I think the idea has been quietly removed from the list for whatever reason. Maybe I'll make one along the lines of yours with some more neutral language and better structure if I can get to it in what little free time I have this week. - SweetNightmares 02:23, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Rdcheck

   I've noticed Rdcheck for probably a few years, and occasionally used it instead of the native facility, without noticing much reason for having a preference. But today i fixed the broken within-article link in the lead sent of Fluoxetine, and noticed the "No anchor or section" language that Rdcheck produced (not to mention your minimalist -- and IMO respect- and attention-worthy -- bitcoin solicitation). My guess is that your tool is telling me "no problem", but my casual attention to the difference between the 1000s from the native tool and yours's "36", "99", and (is that a count of something, or a condition code?) "372" left me curious and vaguely uneasy. Fixing any other links to the section is probably far less valuable than my fixing of the internal one, but i'm left pretty vague about whether there are lks to it from other articles.
--Jerzy•t 21:56, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

@Jerzy: The numbers at the bottom were the number of anchor points on the target page. Ultimately, uninteresting for most editors so I've removed them. 23:53, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

   Thanks for the reply; i still rely more on yr fine utility than the native one, and re-reading my query feels so familiar that i wonder if i didn't think about it again in the last month, tho i can't put my finger on my most recent usage. (Especially since "generic Prozac" sounds much less "fresh" to my mind than the absence of the count does. [shrug!]) And thanks again (more explicitly) for your tool work!
--Jerzy•t 04:23, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Reflinks errors

Hi Dispenser! I'm so glad that you've gotten Reflinks (and your other tools) back online! When I use Reflinks, I try to weed out the incorrect values before saving my edits, but other users aren't as meticulous. I have several bots that remove bad values in author and language parameters to clean these up. I would be happy to work with you to identify issues if you would be willing to update your tool. Please let me know if you're interested. Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 22:20, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Dispenser, I'd certainly concur with GoingBatty in this instance, as it would be much more preferable to help improve the code causing insertion of the weirdly-formated cites at the source. Or even perhaps just to internally highlight suspect-looking reflines in the user-interface somehow. Is there anything I/we can do to help in this case? I particularly have in mind the ones resulting in insertion of eg. "author=Posted by $abc on $date $time" (partial examples: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]…). —Sladen (talk) 00:57, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

"External tools: Show redirects only" tool broken

The tool listed from Special:WhatLinksHere is broken. It's linking to rdcheck.py . Will you make it work, or should we retire it? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:52, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

The server crashed as I was shuffling a few hundred gigabytes around and trying to use the spare partition on the Linux VM.  :-( — Dispenser 02:10, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Signpost publishing

Here's the code for the notify feature and here's the code for publishing. Before you do any work, though, I may have misrepresented the direness of the situation; Jarry fixed a minor bug 17 days ago, maybe he'll have time in the near future to restore it to working order...? I've queried Ed about the status of the script, hopefully we can get a clear answer on that topic, I just don't want you to have to go duck hunting if it ultimately proves unnecessary.

Other stuff, other stuff... See also: APerson, who was at the event and I hope can code up some other necessary bot tasks. Mr. Stradivarius is working on the index code, you can see it here: Module:Signpost. The index draft is here. The to-do for that particular initiative is at the bottom. ResMar 04:17, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

We still haven't heard back from him so you can go right on ahead! ResMar 16:26, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Can I use the code for the sig reminder now? If so, where do I copy it? Atsme☯Consult 00:02, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

It's very crude and mostly untested, but copy it into your common.js. I'd like the discussion to move towards implementing it site wide, since a common WMFer complain is that we don't have a autosigning system thus they get to reinvent the bulletin board (their 4th try). — Dispenser 00:15, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

I added the exact code you had up at the VP Tech, and it didn't work for me. It actually disabled my reviewer "Rater" and the symbol for my "online/offline status". So I deleted it from there, and added it to my vector.js and nothing happened there. It's supposed to give me a no sig message first, right? Atsme☯^Consult 02:46, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

The ~~~~ expanded into your signature because I forgot the parser did that. :-( — Dispenser 04:12, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Can it be fixed? Atsme☯^Consult 04:26, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

I think so — Dispenser 05:37, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

It works, it works!! One tiny caveat (that I don't mind giving up) is the status top code doesn't work anymore, but it probably doesn't have anything to do with the sig reminder. It already reminded me to sign twice now. It's a big time saver/edit saver for those of us with partsteimers.  :-) Atsme☯^Consult 17:41, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Question - it did not remind me to sign over on VP Tech, but it does on TP. Also, do I have to do a show preview first? Does it work just as good in vector.js as it would common.js? I think a show preview is needed first. Atsme☯^Consult 18:50, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Ok, one more time going through the steps - first show preview - now I add an edit summary...and now I save without sig. I'm back - it saved without the reminder. What could be causing the random hit and miss? Atsme☯^Consult 18:52, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

One last time because I'm probably a crappy best beta tester. I moved code back to common.js, did a test on my TP and It worked. I will now try it here. Finished my post - do a show preview....now add edit summary...darn it, it saved without the sig. Why did it work fine on my TP, but not here?

Hi!

I have a query on my talkpage (last post) which someone thinks you might be useful in resolving. Thanks :) Mattsnow81 (Talk) 06:02, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

question for you about Dabsolver

Please see "Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links#when Dabsolver shows "There are no disambiguation links", but there are some". I was posing a question to monthly competition participants. But at the end, I ask for a possible Dabsolver feature request, an extra report to be given, when Dabsolver finds no dablinks. Could you please take a look at it? (BTW, the Dabsolver tool remains awesome. In conjunction with the "Dablink" tool (by JaGa?) and the monthly and daily reports (by R'n'B ?), it is even more awesome.) cheers, --doncram 18:14, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

PDFbot

Hi. I wonder why PDFbot is not working anymore. Did you move it to WMFlabs servers? -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:59, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

I m suhel khan786 Suhel khan786 01:07, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Articles without images

Latvian Wikipedia

Ext	Articles	Images	Alts
tiff	33	53	0.0%
svg	10,604	33,343	0.5%
png	9,701	18,416	0.2%
jpg	33,442	59,346	0.3%
gif	1,727	2,988	0.1%
[null]	20,196

Hi! Somehow retaled to this one. Would it be possible to get those articles at Latvian Wikipedia, which don't have images at all? OK, by image I don't mean all those stub template's images, country flags' images etc. 99% of them are transluded from templates, so according to your post there (excluding indirect transcluded images), these wouldn't be counted. At Latvian Wikipedia, we have 62tk+ articles, so we are quite small. I suppose, it won't take way too much of your resources to list somewhere 30tk page titles (if we follow other Wikipedias, which have ≈50% articles without images). It would be nice, if you could use the latest available DB dump. If you decide to create such list, you can paste it here (simply the list). Wanted to write a DB report about it, but then understood, that I would have to take in consideration too much files. --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 16:39, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

You can actually do this yourself with AWB's Database scanner. Download AWB and your desired dump (decompress with 7Zip). Open it in the database scanner, check Regex in the Text tab and put \.(gif|jpe?g|png|svg|tiff?)\s*[<|}\]] into "Not contains:". The regex is simplified (trouble with LRMs) and leaving out DjVu, xcf, PDF, and videos formats. — Dispenser 19:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Works fine :) Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 21:14, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Redlinks tool

Hello Dispenser! I hope you had a good summer.

It seems that the very useful redlinks.py works for the English Wikipedia, however, it returns an error when using other versions of Wikipedia (I tried this and that). Do you plan to open other languages? Place Clichy (talk) 17:03, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

It took six weeks to partially import pagelinks, unless somebody is donating a 500 GB SSD I'm not doing it again. WMF may be reversing my Labs ban, so it might come at some future date. — Dispenser 19:29, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Auto Sign

Hi Dispenser, I saw your comments about use of javascript to implement autosigning on talkpages, and would really appreciate your input at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback#Please_reconsider_enabling_VE_in_Wikipedia_space, apparently the WMF thinks autosigning difficult. ϢereSpielChequers 16:21, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

False positive

Hi there. Thanks for all your hard work on corrections. Here's one false positive that you might want to ponder. I don't think it's a huge problem because the formulation isn't that common, but if AWB generates logs or something then I guess it might be worth a look just to make sure it didn't catch any others like this. Hope this helps, best wishes DBaK (talk) 08:45, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered: AWB should not make spelling corrections to words in italics. I made this edit (but forgot to change the automatically-generated edit summary) so AWB will not make that mistake again. GoingBatty (talk) 15:52, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Interesting, thank you very much! Cheers DBaK (talk) 22:01, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I missed it when reviewing the diff, probably should load the red-green/yellow diff style sheet into AWB next time. — Dispenser 22:25, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Access to the source for determining dead links

Hi. I was pointed in your direction when I was searching for ways to have my bot accurately detect a dead link. I created a new bot task for Cyberbot II which functions to preserve sources. One of the goals is to detect dead links and replace them with an archived version. It's currently disabled because it's not reliable enough, but I have heard high marks about this tool and was wondering if I could adapt the source for my bot.—^cyberpower_Chat:Offline 04:42, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

I'm surprised its so well regarded. The 2.0 rewrite which stores page text will significantly decrease the error rate over the 1.x URL keyword matching method. I'm not releasing source code since it was my first large scale project, messy, and might have copyvios. However, I did contribute my knowledge to pywikibot's reflinks for the soft-404s logic. — Dispenser 22:11, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Would you perhaps consider constructing an API for my bot to access. It would be a vital asset to the project and the bot for the job it's doing.—^cyberpower_{Chat:Limited Access} 02:36, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing my error

Sorry for not catching the weird errors I left on The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration. PKT(alk) 02:37, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Original Barnstar
		Thanks for all your efforts in getting Dabfix back up and running. I always found it an excellent script and I'm looking forward to using it again. Tassedethe (talk) 15:12, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

WikiMiniAtlas labels/updates

Hi Dispenser, the WikiMiniAtlas information page notes that the textual labels for the map are generated from a database by you. I was wondering, how often are they updated? Over the past 10 months or so since I started editing again, I have created several articles for physical features and places, and updated erroneous coordinates for several others. When might those new pages and updates be reflected in WMA? Not really a big deal, just curious. Thanks! Antepenultimate (talk) 20:47, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

@Dschwen: The data hasn't been updated since 2015-01-11 and make me a project member. — Dispenser 21:46, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Yay! Yes, of course. You are added to the wikiminiatlas service group on tools and the maps project. Let me know if you need anything else! --Dschwen 23:32, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Nothing works

None of your tools are working at the moment, as the server is presently inaccessible. Tvx1 13:08, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Dead links

Is it possible for this this to be done with "10. 2015." instead of "October 2015" (with both dots: "07. 2014.") since category itself should be in Serbian, not English? And is it possible for your tool to make the category (with __HIDDEN__ tag) after adding dead link template?--Obsuser (talk) 00:26, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

WikiconUSA

Thanks for attending WikiconUSA and for your involvement with our 404 links session. Good to meet the person behind the tools. -- 173.79.35.199 (talk) 12:31, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Revisiting dead site detection

Do you think you could provide a description of the heuristic you use to detect a dead site? It doesn't necessarily have to be code, you could give me an explanation of what it does. I'm asking you because you are well known for this type of checking.—^cyberpower_{Trick or Treat:Limited Access} 02:45, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

WikiMiniAtlas and WIWOSM

Hi Dispenser. Are you involved with the databases that get line and area features from WIWOSM into WikiMiniAtlas? As far as I can tell they have not been updated since early this year, but I can't find a status report to say if anyone is working on it, or if it is a failed/lapsed project that will never be done again. Thanks. --Scott Davis ^Talk 23:31, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Connecting to the iTunes Store

Hi Dispenser!

People who use User:Dispenser/Reflinks make edits like this one. The problem is that:

• "Connecting to the iTunes Store" should be "iTunes Store".
• "publisher=Itunes.apple.com" should be "publisher=itunes.apple.com" (the i in itunes should not be capitalized)

I have fixed a few of em but I am unable to change the script to avoid this problem from happening. Do you know what to do?

Thanks in advance, The Quixotic Potato (talk) 14:37, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @The Quixotic Potato: I suggest that |title= should be the actual title of the song/album/video, and |publisher= should be "iTunes Store". I hope that Dispenser can fix this, and I hope that you will inform the person who made the edit to be more careful when they use Reflinks. See also this request. GoingBatty (talk) 00:50, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Sounds like a good idea. The Reflinks tool is very useful and many people use it. I wrote that I "fixed a few of em" but that was a bit misleading, that link leads to a list of 289 edits. Informing all those people (I assume it wasn't just one person) is gonna cost a lot of time. I don't remember my Apple ID password and my browser sends me to http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/affiliates/download/ when I click on one of those links. I hate iTunes. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 10:39, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Checklinks, webpage titles

Could you maybe add some space between the webpage title, the (info) link, and the various graphical icons in the checklinks tool? It's nearly impossible to select the text using the mouse for copying/pasting. Or better yet, list the URL and title separately. Thanks. SharkD  Talk  19:09, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

Happy New Year Dispenser!

Happy New Year!

Dispenser,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Poepkop (talk) 16:27, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year 2016}} to user talk pages.

.

DabFix

Hi. I used your DabFix tool in preparing this edit, the edit summary for which links your old DabFix on the old ToolServer, which is 404 but helpfully suggests the tool's current URL. Thank you for the tool, but please fix that edit summary link.   — Jeff G. ツ (talk) 20:14, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

There is a similar issue with the link Dab solver in Note 1 at http://dispenser.homenet.org/~dispenser/view/Dab_solver.   — Jeff G. ツ (talk) 17:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

This is fault / intentional choice of Wikimedia Labs / Foundation. I've changed the warning to reflect this and added a skip checkbox. — Dispenser 02:15, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

WikiMiniAtlas questions again

Hi Dispenser. Thank you for the work you do on making Wikipedia a more interesting place.

My current questions relate to how the WikiMiniAtlas chooses which articles to highlight at various zoom levels. I asked at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiMiniAtlas#Data_priority_enquiry then realised the quote I used refers to your en: personality, so figure I should try to contact you here too.

Also, is the database updating at the moment? I found two articles that the MiniAtlas shows in the wrong place: Light Regional Council and Electoral district of Mitcham (South Australia). I fixed their coordinates last month when I noticed they were showing up in an area I was looking at, and neither of them belonged there, but they haven't moved yet.

Thanks again. --Scott Davis ^Talk 09:05, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

dschwen has responded and pointed out that WikiMiniAtlas is his work, just using your database. Thanks for your work on the underlying database, and sorry to bother you about something that isn't in your control. --Scott Davis ^Talk 11:30, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Edit summaries generated by your tools

Excellent meeting you! Loved your talk :) Wanted to take you up on that offer to give me a list of the default edit summaries generated by your tools, to be used in toollabs:musikanimal/nonautomated_edits. So far I have "Dab solver", "Dabfix" and "Reflinks". There's the "please help" and then summaries like this one, and whatever else I'm missing. Many thanks for your help. — MusikAnimal ^talk 01:37, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Also this one. Not sure if that was your tools — MusikAnimal ^talk 01:41, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Dab solver: ^(Disambiguated: |Unlinked: |Help needed: )\[\[|^Disambiguated \d+ links. If my commonsfixes library was used then \ using \[\[(tools:~dispenser/view/Dab_solver|WP:DABSOLVER)\|Dab solver\]\] was appended. Its programmed so the edit summary is never cut off even with multi-byte characters. Issues with detection: There is no way to prevent users from changing it and the tool is translated into 15 languages.

Those other edits were manual. Also, include DisamAssist to complete the disambiguation tool roster. — Dispenser 03:18, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Got it, thank you! But what about the please help summaries? I see it has your Tag. Is that Dab solver or Dabfix? — MusikAnimal ^talk 04:10, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Peer reviewer giving bad advice

See http://dispenser.homenet.org/~dispenser/view/Peer_reviewer#page:Diving_cylinder

Peer reviewer is recommending "Per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (numbers), there should be a non-breaking space -   between a number and the unit of measurement. For example, instead of 12 litre, use 12 litre, which when you are editing the page, should look like: 12 litre."

Compare this with the actual manual of style. No NBSP before unit names, only before symbols. Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Unit names and symbols: "a space appears between a numeric value and a unit name or symbol. In the case of unit symbols, &nbsp (or {{nowrap}}) should be used to prevent linebreak.")

This wasted a lot of my time yesterday, please fix so other people don't also waste their time. • • • Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 07:27, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

User:Pbsouthwood, I merely run the front-end and cannot alter the code, you'll need to contact an admin to remove the code. I'd very much like to find a new maintainer for Peer Reviewer with a good grasp on the Manual of Style and coding. Its a lot of work and in 5 years nobody's stepped up to the plate. — Dispenser 15:51, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

That is unfortunate. • • • Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 15:58, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

Dispenser, I am a software developer in RL and could possibly take it on. I would need to look at it first. Would you like to send me an email with a method for me to view it? Prhartcom (talk) 23:21, 12 March 2016 (UTC)

List of pipeline accidents in the United States in the 21st century

When I run Reflinks on List of pipeline accidents in the United States in the 21st century, it appears to work on 21 references, but then it does not get saved, and the history shows no changes at all. Why not? Is volume the problem? (there are 537 inline citations on this article.--DThomsen8 (talk) 14:32, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Dabfix error

Hello, this edit made by Tassedethe using Dabfix shouldn't have messed with the VIAF link. Graham87 10:03, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Reduced It'll look a lot more like a year range and include a hyphen before changing it. — Dispenser 13:33, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

File viewer de.wikipedia

Hi Dispenser, can you fix your pages (http://dispenser.homenet.org/~dispenser/view/File_viewer) for coord-dewiki.log and region check-dewiki.log again? So they can be re-WORKED regularly. Cheers --2003:4D:2C35:70A3:19E9:E8FF:6921:251D (talk) 08:08, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi, please can you activate the File viewer for dewiki? --80.145.214.246 (talk) 08:11, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

It works thanks --2003:4D:2C66:D643:7C45:9937:B74E:B794 (talk) 19:29, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Checklinks

Hi! Probably this one needs your attention. --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 08:26, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

HTTPS links

The links on the Dispenser site to Wikipedia pages should be https rather than http. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 01:56, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

Done. HTTPS available. — Dispenser 19:42, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Nice meeting you

It was nice meeting you last week in NYC. Just today I realized you wrote the reflinks tool. I use it all the time (as an editor). I also wanted to say thank you to the other gentlemen we were chatting with. He shared the work of Evan Amos and his excellent video game photography. Do you know his username? CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 14:34, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

@CKoerner (WMF): He goes under his real name, Evan-Amos, and posts updates to his Twitter — Dispenser 22:16, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Beautiful, thank you. You don't by chance know the person who was talking about Evan, do you? I believe he was also a local NYC Wikipedian. I'd like to say thanks to him as well. CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 19:48, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Oh sorry, unfortunately not. No memory for people and everything's been a blur this past month (lots of non-wiki stuff). — Dispenser 21:38, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Server down

The dispenser.homenet.org server seems to be down today. All requests time out. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 16:11, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

I called the ISP and remotely reset the modem and gave me its IPv6 address (No IPv4!). Since I'm out of the country until 10th, it'll be down until then. — Dispenser 18:28, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Back up. Their was brief (<1 sec) power failure which crashed the router. — Dispenser 13:06, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

DAB Challenge

For some reason, the DAB Challenge isn't updating. Example: Where Was I was all disambiguated but the dablink list still has it as 5 links. --MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 22:34, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Known issue, see T134203: enwiki_p replica on s1 is corrupted. — Dispenser 23:22, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Reflinks and redirects

I've just been complained at because of this edit which changed a section link to a redirect. Is there a way to stop this from happening without having to go through afterwards and unpick the unwanted changes? Is there some tweak that can be made to the software? I wasn't aware this was a problem, but Mlpearc seems to be quite bothered by it. This is Paul (talk) 23:24, 17 June 2016 (UTC)

A well deserved technical barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Hi, Dispenser. Congratulations on the approval of a $14,000 Individual Engagement Grant (IEG) for your proposed tools: Alt Text for Images. (side ping to Graham87, Corinne, Art Frick and Natalie.Desautels) {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 22:10, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

Congratulations, Dispenser!  – Corinne (talk) 13:29, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Reflinks crashes again

At least I think it has anyway. I'm getting a "This site can’t be reached" notice when I try to run it. This is Paul (talk) 20:34, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

Rdcheck

   Per my experience tonite (and every now and then) with your wonderful tool, you of course may have already thot this thru wikt:six ways from Sunday -- in which case i wouldn't think of looking for a reply! But FWIW, i find the alphabetical presentation quite helpful, and wonder if you've ever considered inserting into the list of Rdrs the canonical (i.e., article rather than Rdr) title, in alpha order but in a different style or color to clarify the difference? The advantage i conceive is that in using it, i almost never know or care which is the article name vs. just another Rdr, until it comes time to create the corresponding "missing" Rdr, at which point i paste it in from the top of the screen. In fact, i often look at the pattern of names and consider whether alternative names no one has (yet) used seem so natural in light of the existing ones that someone is bound create them. Distressingly often, i decide "yes", and break off to create a new one, which turns out to be especially appealing bcz, well, it's already the title of the article, and absent from the list of Rdrs to the article for the simple reason that we don't permit a name to redirect to itself, duh. The dummy copy of the Rdr's title neatly in its alpha order would nicely steer me away from (sometimes repeatedly) starting to create a Rdr from article's name to (itself) the article, which name looks like a neglected but perfectly logical variant spelling.
   In any case, many thanks for your tool, which is so much better than the built-in facility.
--Jerzy•t 10:22, 7 August 2016 (UTC)

@Jerzy: Took a while to understand, but I've added the page tile as a bold grayed out item when the main list is 6+ redirects. — Dispenser 19:56, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Spanish translation of "Altviewer"

Hi Dispenser,

I am interested in the Spanish translation of your tool, Altviewer. I am working on that but I would like to know where I have to send the translation or where I have to upload it. Very useful tool that everyone should have in its language, congratulations.

I await your answer. Thanks in advance!

Regards, Ivanhercaz | Discusión 01:21, 24 August 2016 (UTC)Please, ping me if you answer here.

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm NgYShung. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Thai Student Association in Malaysia, and have un-reviewed it again. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you. NgYShung ^huh? 09:36, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Input requested

Hi Dispenser. I'm in discussion with a user, Derek R Bullamore, over script-assisted edits that, as well as filling out bare urls, removes data from other urls, converting them into bare urls. He's taking the attitude that Reflinks causes him to do this, so it must be all right, or at least not his fault, and that it is unreasonable to ask him to clean up after himself. I would like if you could comment at User talk:Derek R Bullamore#Your script-assisted edits. Thanks in advance. Scolaire (talk) 16:22, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

R template index in article namespace

I'm confused by this edit you made to {{R template index}}. Why would that template ever be used in an article? nyuszika7h (talk) 13:26, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

When I type {{R from }} and click "Show preview below" (in WikEd), the template list is hidden. The entire reason why I created the template. — Dispenser 13:30, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Checking in

Hi Dispenser You are doing a whole lot of improvements of templates and stuff for WM NYC . Would you be interested in emailing off Wikipedia about some of the changes? I would like to be in the loop on these if possible, since I'm one of the people setting up and maintaining the event pages.... Let me know... My email is wpDOTusernameAT gm-- Erika aka BrillLyle (talk) 01:15, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

I'm only trying to setup my event and realized we were duplicating text so I made a few Template:Meetup/directions/. I also tried improving {{Meetup/signup}}. I'm pretty bad with email, so its best to reach me via IRC. — Dispenser 02:58, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

@Dispenser: I understand. There could be a lot of this type of stuff for some of the repeat venues. I am on IRC, will try to ping you. I'm on there as BrillLyle. -- Erika aka BrillLyle (talk) 03:16, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Acknowledge

Hi, could you please acknowledge my posts here: User_talk:Dispenser/Checklinks. -- GreenC 15:47, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

WebCite Integration

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post, but I keep getting the "WebCite IOError" when attempting to use the tool to archive. - Scarpy (talk) 22:04, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Rcats and Rdcheck

Hi! Is there any way to program Rdcheck so that it ignores links in redirect categories? The sheer number of some of them make it impossible to see other redirects (like shortcuts) to project pages. (Example) Thanks. — Gorthian (talk) 19:12, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Done. Rewritten to use the database, simplified message text, and improved Unicode support. — Dispenser 18:05, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Wow. That was quick, and useful. Thank you. (Side question: how could one use the regexp it now provides?) — Gorthian (talk) 21:46, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

It now says, "Get regex for AutoWikiBrowser". Better than before, hidden in an HTML comment. — Dispenser 20:00, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

@Dispenser and Gorthian: I'm not sure whether you've answered the other question so I'll ask again. How does one use the regex? — Wumbolo (talk) 11:05, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

@Wumbolo: You need to be more specific, but you'll have to enclose it with () like so: \{\{\s*([Ww]ikipedia:Disa...)(\s*\|[^{|}]*)*\s*\}\} — Dispenser 16:40, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

I've made some changes so it groups namespaces, but uses the perl non-capturing group (?:. — Dispenser 17:03, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

toolserver links

We still have many toolserver links through the wikis, and some would appear to use your old toolsever urls. From my checks they are using the interwiki map tools:. I have a ticket at phab:T150598 to which you may wish to express an opinion about managing the old redirect.

FWIW enWP is an absolute mess for toolserver links. :-/ — billinghurst sDrewth 04:22, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

I have subsequently found that you have a working redirect from toolserver, the first that I have found. Can we look to fix up any templates to use toollabs. Thanks, though the mess for toolserver still exists. — billinghurst sDrewth 05:37, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

Responded at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Plethora of Toolserver links exist; interwiki map cleanup, I don't use ToolLabs. — Dispenser 20:04, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Thank you Dispenser for creating and maintaining some of the best tools in the Wikiverse. Marek.69 talk 18:18, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Useractivity suggestion

Useractivity works great, but it doesn't know how to deal with a list of users using the template {{Mailing list member}} when it comes to removing the inactive. If this tool could be made to do that, that would make it useful for winnowing down mass mailing lists. Thank you for your consideration. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 11:09, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

question about Dab solver

I ran it on an article and I don't understand the results. Could you respond here on your user talkpage and explain the results to me? I ran it on Girls' Generation and the results were: this. I looked at the results and the Girls' Generation disambig link isn't incorrect, it actually makes sense so I am leaving that alone but then the second result...I can't figure that one out at all. If you could explain to me here what that result means it would be a big help. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 07:17, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Providing "(Chinese) mars coordinates" interface for Coordinates-related components?

Map data acquired in mainland China is often subject to certain distortions (Restrictions_on_geographic_data_in_China#Coordinate_systems; GCJ-02, BD-09, etc.) done for national security, yielding data with little usability on Wikipedia. Given that the reverse transformation methods are well-documented and are relatively easy to implement, what would be the best interface for providing such "to-WGS84" method to zhwiki users in mainland China? I have considered the following possibilities, but is not sure about which exactly to settle on.

1. Modify the module itself to add extra parameters. This approach itself brings concerns over e.g. original research, and it breaks down into two further possibilities:
   1. Handle everything in the module itself.
   2. PR geohack to add conversion methods, so the module essentially is only running its own conversion for display purposes.
2. Writing a gadget to do the conversion. But gadgets are not friendly to mobile editors. [update 02:49, 8 February 2017 (UTC): The prototype gadget is ready!]

The first idea was my initial idea on zhwiki, but back then it looked stunted by cwek's (well...) reply so I moved on to writing a quick gadget for a prototype. Since in retrospect it appears that many of cwek's objections are not as reasonable as they sounded (and I am getting tired of writing JS), I decided to step here to check how you think this issue should be handled.

--Artoria2e5 emits crap 20:07, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

Why the GCJ-02 or BD-09 is special? Why it need a conversion function in the Template:Coord? Template:Coord need a pure standard for coordinate,not a mess. All thing like this can been done on the webtool of toollab. --Cwek (talk) 00:52, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

@Cwek: please re-read solution 1.2. With a toollab change, the module still need to be modified to recognize this parameter, and to display sane (WGS-84-ish) coordinates. Without a conversion for sane display, your template output would be inconsistent as it may indicate either PRC-screwed or sane coordinates. Given that the module will be changed anyway, why not go for the quick and easy path that does not require a toolab hack? --Artoria2e5 contrib 02:46, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Regarding "specialness": these two coordinate systems are worthy of special consideration due to their widespread use for "legit" Chinese geographic data, and a lack of correction in "legit" sources. Their intentional screwedness (read the article!) also adds to their technical specialness. --Artoria2e5 contrib 02:54, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Also, why are you stressing so much on input consistency? If you want bot-parsable data from coord, try that hidden span.geo-nondefault > span > span.geo part in the rendered DOM tree. --Artoria2e5 contrib 02:59, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

You can provide a tool web service or a javascript gadget to fix that. Then Should we modify the core? And the users need to be teached, not be indulged. --Cwek (talk) 03:08, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

I have already written a JS gadget, but as mentioned in solution #2 it would be inaccessible to mobile users and "VE-friendly" editor users (solvable, but not now). And there is a JS Bin web version available too. The problem here is that I still can't agree with your "core" argument, as doing dirty heavylifting in Lua modules is a pretty common thing around. In the context of geohack, the Lua module is more like a middleman, a smarter replacement for various parser functions as opposed to the "core" of things. Regarding educating newcomers, let me remind you that the "Restriction" article does not have a Chinese version yet. --Artoria2e5 contrib 05:06, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Weird Checklinks bug?

When Checklinks is run against the article Spray-and-vac cleaning, it reports 6 dead links, but fails to automatically flag them into the Wikisource, for some unknown reason. I first encountered this glitch last month, and hoped it was a temporary problem that would be resolved. I just tried it again, with the same puzzling result. Somebody, please look into this odd behavior. If there is a better place to reprt this problem, please let me know. Reify-tech (talk) 19:59, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Maps - autodetails

done, will be deployed next week (train) :) --Yurik (talk) 06:30, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Checklinks retire?

Dispenser, it may be time to consider retiring Checklinks, at least until development can be restarted. The {{wayback}} has been merged to {{webarchive}} and Checklinks is not recognizing the new template and adding many dead links where they don't belong. This is disruptive and it's a lot harder to remove false-positive dead link tags then it is to add them. It's also adding dead links when links are not actually dead. My bot WaybackMedic is keeping logs of clean up work (that it can find) and it's fairly extensive. -- GreenC 14:11, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

• 73 added, 16 in error.
• 36 added, 18 in error
• 6 added, 4 in error.
• 56 added, 56 in error.
• 14 added, 9 in error.
• 15 added, 11 in error.
• 147 added, 147 in error

I would hate to see Checklinks go away, since it is useful. Can anybody suggest alternative tools that have its capabilities? Reify-tech (talk) 21:46, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Verify every dead link tag added by Checklinks. They are often inaccurate. See examples above. Also, dead links should be monitored over a long period of time as there can be short term outages. We have bot tools designed for this work. -- GreenC 20:50, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Please give more info on the alternative bot tools. Reify-tech (talk) 19:03, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Reify-tech. IABot. Follow login prompt then type in name of article and will process. It will check each link to see if it's dead, if dead it will replace with an archive link, or if none available replace with a {{dead link}} tag. Many other fixes. The changes are made automatically to the page using your account ID no need to cut and paste diffs. It is new as of today, any problems contact User talk:cyberpower678 or submit a bug report (one of the menu options). -- GreenC 18:13, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

@Green Cardamom: is the IABot working? When I go to the URL above I get the error "Failed to create a user log table to use. This table is vital for the operation of this interface. Exiting.." - Scarpy (talk) 15:41, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Link tool

Hello Dispenser, I've just inserted your link checker tool in the whole Italian Wikipedia. If you ever change the url structure or deactivate the tool, please kindly leave me a note (or to any other sysop there). :-) Thanks! --Lucas (talk) 06:38, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Dab solver defaulting as "minor edits"

Hello - something changed in Dab Solver recently such that the "This is a minor edit" checkbox is checked. It should not be - disambiguated links do not qualify as WP:Minor edits. Can somebody please change this back, to leave the minor edits box unchecked? Thanks in advance, PKT(alk) 13:37, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

@PKT: WP:Minor edit says "Adding or correcting wikilinks". Most editors when disambiguating default edits as minor—and forget to unset when using {{disambiguation needed}}. The current rules in Dab solver are: 1) Only update when the summary's changed 2) Mark as minor if the {{disambiguation needed}} tag has not been used. — Dispenser 13:53, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Is that rules for use or internal rules of the program? Seems it would be best to have the program just know to mark tags not minor. Hyperbolick (talk) 19:46, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Dab solver error

Hi dispenser. Just letting you know about this (erroneous) edit that I made using Dab solver recently, not sure if this is known about, but I can see that you made the same edit yourself today too ([9], [10] ) - not sure if these are the only examples of it happening, they probably aren't, but since it seems to be happening to more that just one person this might present itself as really quite problematic if people don't notice. Thanks in advance, — Iambic Pentameter _{(talk / contribs)} 08:27, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Fixed Thank you very much. It was a line of code missed on Monday when splitting loading into two parts: disambiguation link boxes and the save buttons. This was missed in testing bacause a setTimeout delay for the save hook and sys.stdout.flush() was not used allowing entire page chunks to be delivered at once—thus only breaking on large pages. I will fix the 17 pages affected by this today and the code has been reworked to be less error prone. — Dispenser 13:56, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing this, your work in developing these tools (especially Reflinks!) is much appreciated. Best, — Iambic Pentameter _{(talk / contribs)} 14:12, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for March 10

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Central China Railway, you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages Wuyi and Xinxing. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 10:33, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Dabfix error

Hello and thank you for your work on the wonderful Dabfix. It's suddenly stopped working for me with error 'Page' object has no attribute 'edittoken' on line 621 of wikipedia.py in put(self=Page('wikipedia:en', u'Den'), ...). Other pages give a similar error, and I can still edit pages manually. Any hints please? There should be a full trace in /home/dispenser/public_html/cgi-bin/tracebacks/dabfix_AttributeError_3676_tLLviM.html if that helps. This isn't urgent (at least not for me). Certes (talk) 21:57, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Fixed Sorry, left over debugging information from a bug that was hard to track down. — Dispenser 22:07, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for the prompt response. I can confirm it's now working for me too. Certes (talk) 22:44, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Fear (disambiguation)

Thank you for reverting my edit to Fear (disambiguation). I'm slightly confused how that was ever made in the first place, as I'm pretty sure I skipped to a new random DAB page for exactly that reason — that the tool's had made several mistakes, and I wasn't in the mood to trawl through them — but maybe I hit save accidentally. I shall be a little more careful in the future. TheDragonFire (talk) 00:27, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Dabsolver request

I have a thought. Would it be possible to add a setting by which dabsolver can only bring up pages with links that are not tagged with {{tn}} tags? Untagged links are likely to never have been checked at all, so the typical editor may not even know they link to a disambiguation page. They will either be quicker fixes than the ones that have been checked and tagged because the editor checking them couldn't figure it out, or tagging them will alert editors in the field to which the article relates that this fix needs to be made. Cheers! bd2412 T 02:00, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

There multiple tools for find disambiguation pages and Topic points already labels if the page has the {{dn}} tag. — Dispenser 05:14, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

I see, thanks. bd2412 T 00:22, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

On a topic of tertiary concern, I have initiated a discussion at Template talk:Disambiguation needed#Proposed addition of a parameter for topic areas. If this proposal is successful, it might be a worthwhile effort to tweak the Dabsolver so that links in a particular topic area that are tagged {{dn}} will either automatically or at the editor's initiative be tagged for the appropriate parameter, where there is one. Cheers! bd2412 T 15:03, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

April Fool's?

At least, I hope so. :-) --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:58, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

@R'n'B: What's wrong with people getting paid? It means better tools getting developed and maintained. One-offs have no longevity and WMF has weird troubles (e.g. my grant payment being delayed by 3-4 months) that we should entertain other mechanisms. — Dispenser 02:36, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

nothing, really, that's why there was the question, because it was something that could be reasonably expected to happen. i, myself, thought it to be serious. the main thing, is that the tools are widely relied upon, from peer reviewers, to GAN, even FAC. while reflinks has a decent alternative, and checklinks should really be more of a bot task, i'm not aware of alternative for the dablink tools. -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 03:38, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Gadget

Isn't this page for tools that can be enabled through "Preferences?" I believe that tool has been absent from preferences for a few years now. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 01:37, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Nope, Blackskin is listed MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition. Labeled in preferences as "Use a black background with green text on the Monobook skin" (Actually works on Vector too, troublesome really). — Dispenser 01:54, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Oh. Huh... There is no corresponding thing in my prefs. It goes:

SidebarTranslate: display sidebar language links in English
Vector classic typography (use only sans-serif in Vector skin)

Purged my cache. Windows 10, Google Chrome. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 02:15, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

You need to be using the Monobook skin apparently. The gadget definition needs to be updated. — Dispenser 02:26, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Ah. Thanks. I see it when I change to Monobook. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 02:33, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

@Mark Schierbecker: Blackskin now available for the vector skin. — Dispenser 11:27, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

What happened?

The setup no longer seems to exist where I can go straight from one Dabsolver page to the next by saving the last. It should always be like that, I would think. Hyperbolick (talk) 14:34, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Okay, I searched around a bit and found it in the Tasker. It was easier to find before. What about just a "task" like this for "all disambiguation links"? [11]

How about a Tasker for all pages with multiple links? Hyperbolick (talk) 14:46, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

The giant task with 26,000 article with bonus links was manually generated specifically to promote last month's contest. The query is probably one of my 91 unnamed text files. I'll look for it. In the meantime, Topic points has a button for making disambig lists from WikiProjects into tasks. — Dispenser 15:17, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

I've found the query again and made a similar task for April. — Dispenser 01:53, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Checklinks issue

Hi there, hoping for some help on an issue I'm facing. I have looked around for a solution, apologies if one's posted and I've missed it. When I run a check, I'm met with an unclickable button saying 'Save changes (disabled until fixed)'. Is this a known issue? Is it something specific to me? Am I able to do something my end to get it working again (I have regenerated an OAuth token). many thanks for your help and all you do! Rayman60 (talk) 18:18, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Hi, check this thread. -- GreenC 00:29, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

thank you for the update. Rayman60 (talk) 04:01, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Can we automatically have a monthly DPL bonus list task every month?

Hyperbolick (talk) 19:44, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Those SQL Wikidata queries

Hi, Dispenser! Finally got a chance to do my part of job. Doing this onwiki, not in chat, because... well, you probably understand. And those timezones. In this way, you can do it whenever you have time. Modified script is here.

• Tried to remember, that this is Python 2.X, not Python 3.X, which I have written in only.
• I have marked some places with ####Attention for your attention (they are the same trough the code) - will this construction introduce some error.
• second_run is basically the same as main_run, but uses el_index instead of el_to. fis and transfermarkt have their own functions, because of special needs :)
• Don't try to replace first_list and second one with SPARQL results. I have loosen formatter URLs to get better results.
• Oh, and one problem. I wanted to include also those articles that doesn't have Wikidata item yet. But LEFT JOIN doesn't work somehow. If you could fix it, then it would be cool to replace appropriate construction in all functions (to work both on pages with and without WD item).

I do hope that code doesn't contain any bugs.

P.S. Your script version (without if prop_title not in ("P2369", "P2574"): continue line) actually is pretty good idea. I currently don't have time to process all results, that it would produce, but... And the formatter_url isn't the same as used in Wikipedia, but that is only small number of properties. --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 16:30, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

DPL bot errors again

Hi, Dispenser. DPL bot is having "SxWiki" errors again that are causing the daily updates to fail. Unfortunately I have no idea what might be causing this. If you get a chance to look at it, it would be greatly appreciated. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 15:39, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

• I'm pretty sure I've identified the problem. The function find_user() in jason/dab_procs.php needs to be rewritten to use timestamps instead of revids, due to a recent change in MediaWiki API. However, I'm not sure when I'll have time to attempt to fix this. @JaGa: @Narky Blert: --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:32, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Village pump discussion about geohack

Dispenser, you may want to check this discussion about geohack. It's apparently not working right now.  К Ф Ƽ Ħ Speak 22:49, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

User:Dispenser/Checklinks

Hello Dispenser, is your tool not working anymore? I added it to the whole Italian Wiki some weeks ago. Is there any other tool (as easy to use as yours) with the same functions? Do you plan to put it online again? Please let me know, thanks. --Lucas (talk) 06:05, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

@Lucas: The dynamic DNS domain homenet.org has mysteriously gone down. I'll giving them until Friday (1 week) for them to fix it. In the meantime, I'm updated the toolserver.org redirect to point whereever the new domain is. — Dispenser 10:31, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Dispenser, I changed the global link on it.wiki with the redirected one. Hope a "stable" link will be up soon :). Please let me know if you have news. Thanks. --Lucas (talk) 12:38, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Ideas for new new DDNS hostname

If you're looking for a new DDNS hostname, I see eye.rs is listed. It has a certain mnemonic value for those used to perusing reliable sources. Certes (talk) 21:19, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Minor error from dab_solver.py

Message received from this page when editing List of football managers with most games with 20 fixes including Everton to Everton F.C.:

Please report: 
Redirect Pattern didn't for 
#REDIRECT[[Everton F.C.#Everton Giants|]]

Everything seems to have worked correctly, so I'm happy to ignore this if you are. Certes (talk) 22:45, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. I've corrected the regex to allow for empty labels. — Dispenser 02:09, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Save changes (disabled until fixed) button

What's broken that's causing this to be disabled? - Scarpy (talk) 16:34, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

A technical barnstar for you!

		The Technical Barnstar
		You've been awarded this barnstar for developing the tool that has finally enabled us to start tackling the tens of thousands of missing dab entries._ – Uanfala 17:44, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Dabfix SQL error

I'm getting an error from Dabfix on Stay Together:

Error: Redlink FullText search: ProgrammingError(1064, "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near ') AS redlink_fulltext_results\n\t\t\t\t\tWHERE FALSE OR (FALSE) AND CAST(rl_title AS C' at line 3", None)
['enwiki', 0, set([])]
Error: Routine redlinks() failed
ProgrammingError(1064, "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near ')\nAND pl_namespace = ?\n/* Content namespaces only */\nAND ref.page_namespace ' at line 58", None) 

Probably as a result, it's not suggesting that I add Stay Together (Noah Cyrus song) or other missing links. I've left the dab unchanged for now, in case it helps with diagnosis.

I'm also still seeing "Warning Redlinks Fulltext Table is out of date (12 Jul 2017)", though this isn't causing any obvious problems.

Thanks again for the useful tools, Certes (talk) 10:51, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Workaround @Certes: Apparently there were two separate disambiguation pages Stay Together and Stay Together (disambiguation). There's a rule to remove prefixes covered by another disambiguation page—in this case all of them. I've hacked around this. — Dispenser 01:58, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Thank you! I'm glad it's only going to affect a few pages. I'm having a look for similar cases, which sounds like a useful query, if it's not in there already. Certes (talk) 12:41, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

No other cases found. I suspect this is covered by Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Malplaced disambiguation pages#Duplicate disambiguation pages. Certes (talk) 21:06, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Old domain used in MoreMenus

Hey Dispenser,

If the dispenser.homenet.org domain is going to be down for much longer, do you reckon it would be worth redirecting the links to your tools in the "Tools" section of the MoreMenu gadget to the new link for now?

Regards, Dairy {talk} 08:48, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Seconded. The links work for me as I have your old domain and IP address in my local hosts file, but it would be nice if they worked for everyone else too! Certes (talk) 08:58, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Note: I just put a notice on the MoreMenu discussion page as well, in case nobody sees this. That was probably the better place to put this anyway. Regards, Dairy {talk} 01:00, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Problem now fixed anyway. Dairy {talk} 03:57, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

missing links is 404

Hi Dispenser. This link has been 404 for 24 hours or so: https://dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/view/File_viewer#dispenser:temp:logs:missing_entries.log

Thanks! Tassedethe (talk) 00:16, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

Oops! I went to the Reports page and found I had something different bookmarked. https://dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/view/File_viewer#log:missing_entries-enwiki.log is working. Tassedethe (talk) 01:58, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

dab link error when trying to grab watch list from other wiki:

see https://i.imgur.com/wBQGta7.png for screenshot for the error: https://i.imgur.com/wBQGta7.png C933103 (talk) 08:01, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

File viewer

Hello Dispenser, sorry for my bad English. Can you update the list again. Since 2017-11-02, there is no update for them. Cheers --2003:DE:3EB:D56:DDA0:3612:FDBE:A61A (talk) 18:05, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Automated Peer Reviewer

Hey, there. Are you still maintaining Automated Peer Reviewer? It is still linked from the Tools tab. Ping me back. Having fun! Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 03:42, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

@Checkingfax: It broke in April with a MediaWiki compatibility update and your the first person to report it. Which isn't surprising since it only has 135 hits per month (including bot traffic). I've fixed the loader to load the March 2016 version of the script, but the script has no maintainer and has not kept up with MoS updates since 2008. I think we should remove the links to it. — Dispenser 17:18, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi, Dispenser. It is a pretty cool tool. Not perfect, but helpful. What would it take to get it up to speed? Having fun! Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 22:55, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

It technically works now. My part was only in writing this wrapper, so somebody wasn't manually copying and pasting results. But here are what I'd change:

1. Use &withJS= to allow loading without needing to visit a third-party website which disables all AJAX code.
2. Refactor the code, remove the many globals and other problem with JSlint in "use strict"; mode
3. Replace custom AJAX with JQuery
4. Make function newIssue() for outputText_PR+="\n*... with {{PLURAL:}} support
5. Gut dead code and code related to the semi-automated PR
6. Consider rewriting the rules to use HTML input instead of wikitext.

It is an involved project. I'd expect 10-20 hours of work to fix it properly—Not including testing or bringing it up to current Manual of Style standards. — Dispenser 01:42, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Rdcheck broken

rdcheck.py has broken. If this is due to the elimination of user tables, maybe the external link in results of the WhatLinksHere needs to go. (And I'll have thoughts best not expressed here about whoever decided that this change was a good idea.) Thanks again for all the good work, Certes (talk) 18:57, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

Worked around Been sick and busy. Since a rewrite is needed again, the plan is to revert to API-only, since API + Database method worsened reliability (double the points of errors).

Today's Bug was Brought To You By: T180558: Add namespace names to database. — Dispenser 01:48, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the prompt response. That's now working for me again. Get well soon! Certes (talk) 12:22, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Dabfix error

Sorry, I broke the internet again. This time it's Dabfix on Powerhouse Films. Other pages are working fine, so this one's not at all urgent, but I thought you might want a report. If you can't reproduce the error, someone may have fixed a relevant bad link. SELECT command denied to user 'u2815'@'10.64.37.14' for table 'namespacename'; /home/dispenser/public_html/cgi-bin/tracebacks/dab_solver_PermissionsError_508_QylG0x.html contains the description of this error. Certes (talk) 01:09, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

This happening all the time now, and with other tools too (i.e. categorder.py). The log is at tracebacks/categorder_PermissionsError_122_qzn2Il.html in my instance. TheDragonFire (talk) 11:25, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

RegEx pedantry

I was using your (awesome!) Rdcheck today on {{WikiProject Trains}}, and specifically this regex:

[Tt]emplate:(?:[Tt]rainsWikiProject|[Tt]rainsWikiproject|TWP|[Ww]ikiProjectTrains|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+Rail|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+Railroads|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+Railways|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+Train|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+Trains|[Ww]ikiProject[ _]+trains|[Ww]ikiproject[ _]+Trains|[Ww]ikiproject[ _]+Trams|WPRAIL|WPTRAIN|WPTRAINS|[Ww]PTrains|[Ww]P[ _]+Rail|[Ww]P[ _]+Railways|WP[ _]+RR|[Ww]P[ _]+Trains|[Ww]P[ _]+trains).

The shorter, subordinate search strings should (ideally) come after their parent, i.e. WPTRAIN should come after WPTRAINS since WPTRAIN will be matched first for a page containing {{WPTRAINS}} (unless the regex contains the trailing code \s*[\|\}]). This can cause problems, since the user may code assuming that the entire template name has been completely consumed by the regex, when there will really be a trailing "s" remaining on the page.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  17:22, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Dab solver expanding templates

Dab solver seems to be expanding some templates. For example, User:Certes/rws is a simple test "article" which reads There's a station called {{rws|Coniston}} in England. When I use dab solver, the window shows the expansion There's a station called [[Coniston railway station|Coniston]] in England. and invites me to fix the resulting link to dab. I picked the right station from the list provided and the text changed to [[Coniston railway station (England)|Coniston]].

Is this the expected behaviour? There was no clue that the original text actually used {{rws}} and I'd have been better off changing it manually to {{rws|Coniston|England}}.

Ping: Redrose64. Previous discussion: User talk:Certes#Disambiguating Coniston. Certes (talk) 23:12, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Update: after checking thousands of good edits by many prolific editors, I finally found a similar case (ironically on a link I edited myself a few hours ago). So I don't think it's a problem with my configuration. Alerting PKT. Certes (talk) 00:09, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

@Redrose64: I've checked all of my history and everyone's recent changes (since Christmas) for misfiring station disambiguations. I only found six, so unless we find other relevant templates this looks like a minor issue. Courtesy ping: Jc86035, Onel5969 and R'n'B, whose edits I've amended. We may be able to go back further if we need to. Certes (talk) 01:29, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

@Certes: It was requested in 2012. The code is in i18n under ReplaceTemplates. Without it Dab solver (and I believe all other tools) would not find the link and it would have to be done by hand. The proper way the template should link to other target is to use |link= parameter, but that would be self-defeating for this typing aid template. If the link isn't changed Dab solver will revert back to the template form.

Additionally, User:Useddenim's addition of #ifexists: is unsettling as it creates phantom red links, consumes a limited resource, and makes it harder for reusers and people parsing the dumps. — Dispenser 04:52, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for that information. I see that the only other template likely to be affected is {{Sortname}}. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to check easily for edits where that's happened.

In my opinion, it would be better to not find the link and to leave it to be done by hand. If others disagree then a tick box to toggle that behaviour might be welcome. Ideally we'd get a warning "Not substituting template {{rws|Springfield}}" if and only if the substituted template would produce a link to dab, but I appreciate that this might require significant coding effort or even be impossible with the available APIs.

I still believe that Dab Solver is a wonderful tool which I'll continue to use whilst being aware of its limitations. I strive for perfection but if it helps me to fix 99 pages whilst making one slightly worse, that's still a big win. Certes (talk) 10:07, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

It's easy to find pages where [[1 (2 station)|1]] could be converted to {{rws|1|2}} using AWB: Scan a dump with \[\[([^{|}[\]<\n>]+) \(([^{|}[\]<\n>]+) station\)\|\1\]\] and replace with {{rws|$1|$2}} (6,812 articles as of the Jan 1, 2018 dump). This could be done for all pages or revisions touched by Dab solver. In the future the template could support a |link= parameter: {{rws|Coniston|link=Coniston railway station (England)}} which allows manually mucking with parameters.

However, there's the question if this template should be used. It is unsupported by Visual Editor. And I'm reminded of a question on {{NYSC}} pointing out the extra complexity didn't save all that much typing. At that time, a major bot run was just done to fix the template. {{Rws}} doesn't seem to have similar level of care. — Dispenser 13:57, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Bear in mind that unambiguous station names can become ambiguous if a new article is made on an identically named station in a different system. Any fix will need to be replicated for these links whenever such a change is made. bd2412 T 15:04, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Is there any support for using Dab Solver with a custom list of template expansions (in particular, with an empty list)? If not then I see that the tool has good internationalisation support and the template list is language specific. A workaround might be to edit in a fake language such as en2 which shares most of its configuration data with en but has an empty template list. (Just a thought; feel free to ignore if not appropriate.) Certes (talk) 15:23, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

If we can't change Dab Solver, would it be a good idea to tag edits where it has expanded templates? (We already have a tag for all use of the tool.) Alternatively, use an edit filter to log (not prevent) such edits, so we can go through them occasionally and fix any unintended template removal. It was fairly easy to find removals of rws etc. using SQL, but sortname removals are harder to search for. Certes (talk) 13:42, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Reflinks error

When I try to reach [12] or [13], I get:

"Hmmm...can’t reach this page Try this Make sure you’ve got the right web address: https://dispenser.info.tm Search for "https://dispenser.info.tm" on Bing Refresh the page Details" --Jax 0677 (talk) 21:05, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

dispenser.info.tm is also down for me. www.isitdownrightnow.com agrees. I don't think it's an HTTPS or DNS issue, as HTTP and the direct IP address also fail. Certes (talk) 22:24, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Power failure for the last day an a half. — Dispenser 03:01, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the update. I hope it's not causing you too many problems. Certes (talk) 03:28, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

March 2018

Hello. It appears your talk page is becoming quite lengthy and is in need of archiving. According to Wikipedia's user talk page guidelines; "Large talk pages become difficult to read, strain the limits of older browsers, and load slowly over slow internet connections. As a rule of thumb, archive closed discussions when a talk page exceeds 75 KB or has multiple resolved or stale discussions." - this talk page is 100.5 KB. See Help:Archiving a talk page for instructions on how to manually archive your talk page, or to arrange for automatic archiving using a bot. If you have any questions, place a {{help me}} notice on your talk page, or go to the help desk. Thank you. --Jax 0677 (talk) 21:06, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

For about three days I was unable to use the DAB tools. Today it works but it's slow.
–Vmavanti (talk) 20:31, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Power failure for 30 hours after a nor'easter. Then I still had the server in a power saving mode for a while. — Dispenser 03:26, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Mr reflinks

Hi dispenser I would request you to add a Marathi (Mr) version of User:Dispenser/Reflinks. Please assist us with the same. --✝iѵɛɳ२२४०^{†ลℓк †๏ мэ} 07:39, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Missing dab entries report

Hi, is there any easy way to update the report of missing dab entries? I've started using it lately, and about one out of every four dab pages that I've tried has turned out to have already been done. – Uanfala (talk) 00:20, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

If it helps [edit: others to decide what still needs attention], I've been using that list to fix dab pages with most missing entries (done 8+ missing; 7 in progress) and pages which formed a series with them (e.g. with Symphony No. 4 I did all the "Symphony No. n" pages). Certes (talk) 00:40, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Nope. Indexes added to temporary tables were used to cut run time from a projected 8+ hours to 30 minutes. And they've declined enabling TEMPORARY TABLES for reason that don't make sense. The arguments don't make sense as temporary table would have no need of being replicated and if limited to the InnoDB engine would unlikely block to cause replication drift. Bug tracking systems seem to bring out pricks. — Dispenser 01:08, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

I looked closer at the script and realized it could be written to collect the data and dump it to disk where then it could be load on to the user database server and then running the main query. I also significantly cleaned up the code and tested a mode for creating new needed disambiguation pages. — Dispenser 02:26, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

So, Uanfala, ¼ of 14,220 is 3,555 dab pages, you've made about 1,724 mainspace edit since December... You must be clicking the same links. Try the night mode (upper right), you might see visited links better. — Dispenser 03:18, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

I don't think it's that: I've only done a few dozen dabfix edits, and I did check the ones that did turn out to have already been done and they were done by other people. Were you expecting a smaller number of entries in the report? Probably the sample from which my 1/4 estimate came from was not representative. And maybe in the meantime a fair number of new articles have been created without a corresponding dab entry getting added. – Uanfala (talk) 03:33, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Yay! Well done! – Uanfala (talk) 03:33, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Another update, focused on biographies. Middle names, Honorifics, Junior/Senior, and Regnal number are removed for comparisons. This added 2,800 entries to the list and an emoji's (👤) been added to filter for people only entries. Probably will make Tassedethe happy. Dabfix has been upgraded to find Jr/Sr. — Dispenser 03:25, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Dispenser! Indeed that is very much appreciated. Tassedethe (talk) 14:01, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

RE this edit summary

Regarding your edit summary here - diff calling my action "nonsensical" - you restored a fake country, which was promoted here as part of a rather wide hoax. This location is in Ghana, which has subsumed Ashantiland.Icewhiz (talk) 06:57, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Article creation — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:204:560C:3E43:0:0:1E23:68B0 (talk) 12:55, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

About article creation

Hi can you give me a email for contact? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:204:560C:3E43:0:0:1E23:68B0 (talk) 13:00, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

I only work with disambiguation pages (which you overwrote). You may want to try asking at Wikipedia talk:Article creation. — Dispenser 14:00, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	For work on fixing disambiguation problems. Good stuff. In ictu oculi (talk) 07:15, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Template:Tooltip listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Template:Tooltip. Since you had some involvement with the Template:Tooltip redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. E to the Pi times i (talk | contribs) 04:25, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar
	For all your work with tools for improving disambiguation pages, especially your updates to the missing entries page. Thanks! Tassedethe (talk) 14:04, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

Unnecessary edit from a tool of yours

Hello, not sure which tool of yours did this, but this edit to Not Too Far Away by [[Vmavanti was completely useless, because {{RE}} redirects to {{reflis}}. Graham87 05:20, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Monthly tasker for all links

Now that there are consistently under 10,000 total links to address per month, I think it would make sense to just have a tasker each month for all remaining links. bd2412 T 19:54, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Can't edit/autoblock

Whenever I try to save an edit, I get the message "We lost something, try submitting again maybe? autoblocked: Your IP address has been blocked automatically, because it was used by a blocked user." Then an infodump. No idea what this means, but I can't edit.Vmavanti (talk) 04:53, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

I am having the same above issue. Could you have a look.WeAreAllHere _talk 05:53, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

@We are all here: See my reply to Vmavanti at User talk:Narky Blert#Can't edit. Yrs, Narky Blert (talk) 09:15, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

This user's request to have autoblock on their IP address lifted has been reviewed by an administrator, who accepted the request.

Dispenser (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

127.0.0.1 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)

---

Block message:

Autoblocked because IP address (69.142.160.183) was recently used via OAuth by "User:Monolithica". The reason given for Monolithica's block is: "{{checkuserblock-account}}".

• Blocking administrator: Bbb23 (talk • blocks)

---

Accept reason: See below. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 12:39, 8 April 2018 (UTC)

@Bbb23: I took a look at this autoblock and was confused. Dispenser has a lot of edits across a long time period with no evidence I can see of abuse. However, the block on Monolithica is a checkuser block, there is some non-trivial overlap in the edits (though not what I normally see for a sockpuppet account), and the IP address reverses to a cable modem. As such, I was uncomfortable lifting the autoblock in this case and leave it to your judgment. --Yamla (talk) 11:42, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

I felt confident that the autoblock could be lifted on Dispenser without harm and went ahead and did so. This user has no record of abuse and I find no reason to keep him autoblocked. I hope I didn't step on any toes, but I see a very low probability that I'm letting an LTA or an abusive sock puppet account back onto the project to unleash terror and disruption here :-) ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 11:50, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Bbb23 - If I dun goof'd and made a wrong decision here please let me know. Like I said, I don't want to step on any toes here. I just boiled it down to probability and common sense in this situation and I felt that unchaining Dispenser from this autoblock was the right thing to do. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 11:59, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

For the record, I was very tempted to lift the autoblock myself, but get a little cautious around checkuser evidence (as I don't have access to that evidence). I'm happy to see Dispenser is unblocked. If Oshwah was wrong (and I think that's unlikely), it's an easy fix. Dispenser has a long history of productive contributions so I think the odds are very low. Happy editing, Dispenser! --Yamla (talk) 12:01, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

It's not the first time that this sock has brought suspicion on a valued and innocent editor by emulating their behaviour. Certes (talk) 12:28, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

More explanation: Monolithica was editing via the OAuth interface. The package used (mwoauth) does not have IP forwarding capabilities because the designed platform masks IP addresses. So all of Monolithica's edits appeared to be coming from my server's IP address. Thus when he was autoblocked it blocked the OAuth interface for everyone else. — Dispenser 12:35, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on this, but most of what Dispenser says is correct. I don't believe the part about the IP address is accurate, though. I haven't run a check - and won't - on Dispenser, but I know that the geolocation of the IP at issue is not indicative of where Monolithica edits from, and I seriously doubt that it is for most of the affected users. In any event, the autoblock software doesn't distinguish between IPs, even though in this instance it affects a slew of innocent users unless they are IPBE. What I should probably do in the rare cases I see these IPs is lift the autoblock myself after I've blocked the user, but it's never bitten me before that I can recall, so it didn't occur to me. Sorry for all the inconvenience, and thanks to Yamla and Oshwah for dealing with it in my absence (occasionally I sleep).--Bbb23 (talk) 12:47, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

I've implemented X-Forwarded-For and verified its operation. Hopefully, this will prevent repeats of this incident. — Dispenser 16:28, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

I've disabled the unblock request as this seems to be resolved. I can't see the phab ticket. XFF will be useful for checkusers in the future, but TBH I'm not sure it will prevent a recurrence as XFF need to be recognised as trusted by Wikipedia (WP:XFF). MediaWiki:Autoblock whitelist might be another option if it happens much. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 12:39, 8 April 2018 (UTC)

Blackscreen gadget

There is a malfunction of the blackscreen gadget, which I understand you have recently made changes to. The VPT thread about it is here. DuncanHill (talk) 20:57, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

Empty column in missing_entries-enwiki.log

Hi Dispenser. In a few cases there are entries in the missing_entries-enwiki.log which have no link in the first column (Disambig). E.g. if you enter Massy into the 'Missing links' columns you get:

[blank] 4 👤 Hugh_Massy,_1st_Baron_Massy Hugh_Massy,_2nd_Baron_Massy Sir_Hugh_Massy,_1st_Baronet Sir_Hugh_Massy,_2nd_Baronet

Thanks. Tassedethe (talk) 15:26, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

This is intentional as there is no disambiguation page; it may require pages to be moved or adding hatnotes. — Dispenser 16:26, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, then that is even more useful! Tassedethe (talk) 19:37, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

I should highlight that the report left out Hugh_Massy because of an overly aggressive optimization removing articles already linked from any SIA/Dab. The list is too long at 15,000 anyway. — Dispenser 03:12, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

other language in GeoHack

Hi Dispenser, in GeoHack you can't change to other language, e.g. Berlin, 52.518611°N 13.408333°E / 52.518611; 13.408333 (Berlin). Can you fix it? --2003:DE:716:5A71:D4C2:3465:2BDE:80F2 (talk) 11:53, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

Wednesday April 25th, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly WikiWednesday evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery. We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda! After the main meeting, pizza and video games in the gallery. Wednesday April 25th WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street (note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our agenda, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Megs (talk)

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

Disambig fix list: strike through

Disambig fix list is currently unable to strike through titles which have been edited since its last run. For a few days it only did the striking through if I fooled the caching by adding &foo=bar to the URL, but now even that doesn't work. Certes (talk) 22:58, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

The ongoing replication lag is apparently due to normalization of users and IP addresses in the database. The "analytics" server replag varies, likely due to a round-robin DNS. But "web" has no secondary. — Dispenser 01:32, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

Today, Dab Solver is upset because someone has dropped its table s51290__dpl_p.all_dab_links. The fix lists are now blank. (Hardly surprising if they have no table to select from.) Thanks for the helpful explanation and all your good work. I realise that none of this is your fault. Certes (talk) 19:41, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

It may now be OK again? Disambiguation pages with links is now giving sensible reports, instead of "Nothing to fix here". (I spent all of 19 April ignoring that, trusting the bot's page finds, ignoring its lack of links, and eyeballing "What links here" on the bot-found pages to locate DAB problems. Plan B, been there before.) Narky Blert (talk) 01:56, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

Thank you. Yes, the tools have now started working again, including Dab Solver. It looks as if whoever borrowed our table has returned it. Everything seemed normal when I just fixed a random dab link. (The army discharged Sam; on closer inspection this turned out to be a surface-to-air missile). Certes (talk) 10:49, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

Script error

Hi Dispenser. This script is used by Wikipedia:WikiProject Sri Lanka to maintain its Active Members list, but it seems to be throwing up errors and basically just not working at all- the list on the main project page contains users that haven't made an edit for a good two years, and doesn't include editors that are currently engaged in editing. The script, I'm assuming (not being knowledgeable at all on programming and the like) seems to draw on this list.

Any chance you could take a look and let me know if this is fixable?- ක - (talk) 13:33, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

Python error

Sometimes, such as today, when I enter a URL or title (such as Varese Sarabande) in Commonfixes, I get list of error messages beginning with "type 'exceptions.UnicodeDecodeError' A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred." Is it something I'm doing? I haven't noticed why it happens on some articles and not others. At first I thought maybe length was a problem but I don't know. I thought I would let you know. This is on an old Mac version of Firefox (39.0.3) but I think it happens on the latest version in Windows, too. Thanks for your great work. It makes a big difference.
Vmavanti (talk) 20:34, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Fixed — Dispenser 03:26, 3 May 2018 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Food

Curd Rice

Hello! After the successful pilot program by Wikimedia India in 2015, Wiki Loves Food (WLF) is happening again in 2018 and this year, it's going International. To make this event a grand success, your direction is key. Please sign up here as a volunteer to bring all the world's food to Wikimedia. Danidamiobi (talk) 21:48, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

Red links on Chinese

RE: your comment "Don't be so quick to eliminating red links", it was DAB Fix that suggested I delete red links. Other than that, I was following Wikipedia rules about red links. Are you going to write articles about those places? If so, when? You are right that many of us dislike red links. I also dislike articles in bad English. I would like to see people become much more responsible and thoughtful when it comes to creating red links and linking in general. Not everything deserves an article in WP.
Vmavanti (talk) 17:52, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

There's an issue with the Manual of Style, it is written to give leeway to editors for removing self-biographies, "in jokes", and other crap. The initial implementation in Dabfix (and Database report) followed those rules to the letter, but meant removing useful information. E.g. Notable Russians with no apparent English sources, transwiki imports with existing red links, and historic buildings. It is no longer as aggressive and shows the diff that it was added, so you can judge if the edit was junk.

Specifically regarding towns and villages, we consider them inherently notable (WP:GEOLAND). — Dispenser 04:01, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

• My 2c: We have several active editors who are tirelessly writing articles for Chinese towns (User:Cncs wikipedia, User:Huangdan2060, User:Geographyinitiative and others?). The task is daunting, but they are working fast, and I'm sure they will get to Jinshi, Guangdong and Jinshi, Santai County eventually. I'm not so optimistic about Chinese villages though; I don't think Wikipedia will ever have articles for >1% of Chinese villages, and because they are so numerous (500,000?) the current practice is to not include them on disambiguation pages. Timmyshin (talk) 04:20, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

Yes, that makes sense.
Vmavanti (talk) 22:44, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

If I violate any policies about red links, please let me know. Some articles are birthed out of these red link labyrinths, like Wulipu. Geographyinitiative (talk) 06:17, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

Minor edits

In the upper right corner sign in, I have "Mark edits as minor by default" unchecked, but still when I edit it defaults to a minor edit. The minor edit box is always checked every time I edit unless I remember each time to uncheck it. This is a problem.
Vmavanti (talk) 22:42, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

For Dab solver: Correcting wikilinks is considered a minor edit. Many users were adding {{disambiguation needed}} without unchecking that box. So instead of berating editors about forgetting to check or uncheck a box, I just made it automatic. — Dispenser 04:08, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

So you are saying that Dabfix always defaults to minor edit? Someone got annoyed at me about this, claiming that not all corrections made with Dabfix should be called minor edits. When I use Dabfix, which is it? A major edit or a minor edit? And if "it depends" what does it depend on?
Vmavanti (talk) 02:42, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Hey, Dispenser, could you run that red link remover again?

A while back you ran some kind of script to remove entries from my lists of prehistoric life by state drafts. Unfortunately, someone had moved the List of the Paleozoic life of Utah to main space so it didn't get its red linked entries removed. Is there any chance you could work the same magic on that article that you did for the others? Abyssal (talk) 17:25, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

If you use the wp:VisualEditor it shows which links are red. It'll take you less time with that than me finding and rerunning the script. — Dispenser 10:32, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

May 23: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

Wednesday May 23, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan. We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery! Wednesday May 23 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street (note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 03:13, 23 May 2018 (UTC) P.S. You are also invited to Action = History: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for Asian American Literature on Sunday May 27!

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Cite news v. cite web

DAB Fix automatically changes "cite web" to "cite news". That's wrong. Any web site that is used as a source can use "cite web". "Cite news" is used for offline print publications. See cite web. The name itself suggests an obvious of looking at it: cite web for a web site, cite news for a newspaper. The word "news" can of course include many different kinds of sources other than newspapers. But the way I suggested seems the most obvious and logical.
Vmavanti (talk) 02:36, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Disable automatic adding Ref header and how to Translate Checklinks

Hello, Are there anyway to disable the automatic adding Ref header? And how to translate it into another language? I found it very useful. phjtieudoc 15:00, 1 June 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phjtieudoc (talk • contribs)

June 20: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (and Pratt Women Wikipedia Design this Saturday June 16)

Wednesday June 20, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday June 20 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street (note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 19:12, 14 June 2018 (UTC) P.S. You are also invited to Wikiproject Women Wikipedia Design @ Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Saturday, June 16!

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Tools missing

Someone has stolen your toolbox! https://dispenser.info.tm/ shows the Apache default page, and URLs under ~dispenser give a 404. (Also the https: certificate is missing, but I expect that's just a consequence of its directory disappearing.) Thanks again for all the great work. Please take it as a compliment that no one notices until it vanishes. Certes (talk) 11:45, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

dispenser@tools-bastion-03:~$ host info.tm
info.tm has address 0.0.0.0

Looks like another Afraid DDNS host might be dead :-(. Also, stop running Apache on your computer :-). I've redirected toolserver.org to my IP for the time being. — Dispenser 13:01, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Thursday July 12: Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon @ Jefferson Market Library

Thursday July 12, 5-8pm: Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon @ Jefferson Market Library

Wikimedia NYC invites you to attend a Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon on Thursday, July 12th at Jefferson Market Library! Wiki Loves Pride is a global campaign to expand and improve LGBT-related content across all Wikimedia projects, in all languages. We are holding this year's event in July in order to support folx who want to contribute a photograph they took at one of NYC's many Pride events or edit an article about something they learned this June. Not sure what to contribute? No problem! We will have a list of articles that need your help. Thursday July 12 Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon (RSVP on-wiki or at Eventbrite). 5:00pm - 8:00 pm at Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Ave --Megs (talk) 14:56, 10 July 2018 (UTC) P.S. You are also invited to the "picnic anyone can edit", the Great American Wiknic NYC @ Prospect Park, Sunday, July 29!

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Diff vs. previewing on Dabfix

Usually, editing with Dabfix.py and pressing "View changes" links to a diff-page on Wikipedia (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruno&action=submit&editintro=Template:XSS-editnotice).

Steps:

1. Run Dabfix.py on a random page
2. Wait a minute for the page to load
3. Press "View changes" at the bottom, under the Dabfix edit window
4. Be linked to Wikipedia

Before I got to a diff-page of the changes. Now I get a preview of the changes instead. Is this a change with MediaWiki, or with Dabfix? (t) Josve05a (c) 01:36, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

A new(ish) parameter <input value="1" name="wpUltimateParam" type="hidden"> in MediaWiki that serves as an anti-truncation check. — Dispenser 04:25, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

Sunday July 29: Annual Wiki-Picnic @ Prospect Park

Sunday July 29, 2-7pm: Annual Wiki-Picnic

You are invited to join us the "picnic anyone can edit" in Brooklyn's green Prospect Park, as part of the Great American Wiknic celebrations being held across the USA. Remember it's a wiki-picnic, which means potluck. Sunday July 29 Annual Wik-Picnic (RSVP) (also on meetup.com) 2–7pm - come by any time! Our reserved picnicking area is by Bartel-Pritchard Square entrance, located at Prospect Park West and 15th Street. The picnic will be held by the park's Bartel-Pritchard Square entrance immediately on the lawn to your right as you walk through the lovely lotus columns. Look for us by the Wikipedia / Wikimedia NYC banner! We hope to see you there! --Pharos (talk) 08:23, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

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Dab Solver gets Wikimedia server error

Dab Solver has been saying "Wikimedia server error. Please try again later." for the last couple of days. I think it affects all enwiki pages but here's the example I was trying: [14]. Certes (talk) 15:16, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

It's working again. Maybe I just misinterpreted "later". Certes (talk) 22:37, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

No there was an error. The clock was off by 18 minutes after I suspended the VM on Sunday to work on host machine Hardware issues. — Dispenser 10:12, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

The same error is now occurring again. Certes (talk) 00:07, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

...and we're back. I must learn to be more patient. Certes (talk) 10:15, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Message on Checklinks "Save" key can be misleading

The save key in the Checklinks program states  Save changes (disabled until fixed) . The Checklinks program is one used to fix references, so the label you've added can be misleading in that it suggests to the uninformed editor that they must "fix" the listed references before the key will activate. There should be no need to communicate the subordinating conjunction UNTIL to other editors when they are not the ones to bring about the conjunction's resolution — that is something only the tool's programmer can do. The nature of the tool itself — one that "fixes" reference problems — may continue to confuse editors convinced they need to fix all references UNTIL the grayed key activates, in which case, editors who come to the tool looking to save time may actually end up wasting it. I think this can be prevented if the key were to be re-worded to  Save changes (disabled) . Thank you for any help you can offer.  spintendo  01:41, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Dab solver API warnings

Dab solver have started to give API warnings. I guess it uses API features which have been deprecated. In the edit da:Special:Diff/9624536 I got these two warnings:

API warning: 
 Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api-announce> for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes. Use [[Special:ApiFeatureUsage]] to see usage of deprecated features by your application.
requestid: Café Hack (radioprogram)

API warning: 
 Because "rvslots" was not specified, a legacy format has been used for the output. This format is deprecated, and in the future the new format will always be used.
requestid: Café Hack (radioprogram)

--Dipsacus fullonum (talk) 13:12, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I am also getting similar warnings on enwiki. Certes (talk) 13:35, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

I've disabled warnings, since there seems to be no documentation on this.

@Anomie: What are rvslots? Why is there nothing on mediawiki.org? Nor on the mailing list. — Dispenser 01:13, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

More info in this post on wikitech-l. --Dipsacus fullonum (talk) 06:11, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

@Dispenser: Any update on this? [15] Peer Reviewer is throwing similar errors. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 11:14, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Any update? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 14:59, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Python errors 2

I'm getting those Python errors again when I try to run Commonfixes.
Vmavanti (talk) 23:03, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Can't login to dispenser due to Python error. This is on Firefox 61.0.2 and Mac OS 10.11.6

"Server error There was a script error --> --> A problem occurred in a Python script. /home/dispenser/public_html/cgi-bin/tracebacks/connect_OAuthException_120_NZ1wHH.html contains the description of this error."

Vmavanti (talk) 23:17, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

August 29: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

Wednesday August 29, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday August 29 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street (note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 23:51, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

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Geohack / Google Earth

Hi, not sure if you're the right person to ask but I've been a user of the Wikipedia Google Earth plugin for years, and in the past month it seems to have broken. This is the same across all PCs, it doesn't show an error message, just no articles pop up on the map. I came across your name as someone associated with Wikipedia World, which looked to be the source of the plugin (which can still be downloaded, not working, from the Google Earth link when clicking any coordinates. -mattbuck (Talk) 16:02, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

September 26: WikiWednesday Salon / Wikimedia NYC Annual Meeting

Wednesday September 26, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon / Wikimedia NYC Annual Meeting

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. This month will also feature on our agenda, upcoming editathons, the organization's Annual Meeting, and Chapter board elections - you can add yourself as a candidate. We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday September 26 WikiWednesday Salon / Wikimedia NYC Annual Meeting (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street (note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 20:42, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

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Errors again when using Common Fixes

Tried to use Common Fixes on a site and I got "<class 'wikipedia.ServerError'> A problem occurred in a Python script" and then a lot of code.
Vmavanti (talk) 23:07, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Can't login

Can't login to dispenser due to "Server error. A problem occurred in a Python script. /home/dispenser/public_html/cgi-bin/tracebacks/connect_OAuthException_120_O0v5aG.html contains the description of this error."Vmavanti (talk) 18:28, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Sun October 14: Open House New York Weekend Upload Party @ NYU ITP and Indigenous People's Justice Edit-a-thon @ Interference Archive

You are invited to join two events supported by the Wikimedia NYC community on Sunday October 14: Open House New York Weekend Upload Party @ NYU ITP 2:00pm - 6:00 pm at ITP, Tisch School of the Arts. New York University (721 Broadway, New York, NY) The photo competition is at many sites all weekend, this is just the concluding event Indigenous People's Justice Edit-a-thon @ Interference Archive 2:00 - 5:00pm at Interference Archive (314 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY) Note the new Park Slope location for Interference Archive Have a WikiWonderful Weekend! --Pharos (talk) 04:54, 11 October 2018 (UTC)

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October 24: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

October 24, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Triangle Arts Association in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday October 24 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Triangle Arts Association (Suite 317 & 318) at 20 Jay Street, Brooklyn (note this month we will be meeting in DUMBO, Brooklyn, not at Babycastles) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 01:28, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

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Sunday Oct 28: Wikidata Birthday Party

Sunday October 28: Wikidata Birthday Party

Wikidata, the newest project of the Wikimedia movement, went live on October 29, 2012. Please join Wikimedia New York City as we celebrate its sixth birthday at the Ace Hotel. There will be (optional) lightning talks, casual conversation, and, most importantly, CAKE! No experience with Wikidata? No problem. This event is open to all. Wikidata Birthday Party Date: Sunday October 28 Time: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location: Ace Hotel New York. 20 West 29th Street, Manhattan. RSVP: on Meetup.com or on Wikipedia Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues on Sunday!--Wikimedia New York City Team 15:32, 25 October 2018 (UTC) Bonus edit-a-thons on Saturday The day before the Wikiata Birthday, on Saturday, you are also welcome to join Archtober Wikipedia Edit-a-thon @ Bard Graduate Center or Black Lunch Table @ Magnum Foundation. Please RSVP to those pages if you plan on joining.

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User talk:Dispenser/Checklinks

Please see my question there, TIA. -Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 05:28, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, Dispenser. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, Dispenser. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

December 19: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

December 19, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan, near Columbus Circle. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday December 19 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus (South Lounge) at 113 W 60th Street, Manhattan (note this month we will be meeting in Manhattan, near Columbus Circle, not at Babycastles) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Wikimedia New York City Team 03:21, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

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Server error

Hello, and apologies again for only contacting you when the normally excellent service breaks. I'm getting a "server error" on Dab Solver and Dabfix (mwoauth-invalid-authori). Certes (talk) 00:43, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

January 13: Wikimedia NYC invites you to Wikipedia Day 2019

Sunday January 13: Wikipedia Day 2019 in NYC

You are invited to join us at Ace Hotel for Wikipedia Day 2019, a Wikipedia celebration and mini-conference as part of the project's global 18th birthday festivities. In addition to the party, the event features keynote presentations, panels, lightning talks, and, of course, open space sessions. And there will be cake. We also hope for the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. Sunday January 13 Wikipedia Day 2019 (RSVP at Eventbrite). 9:30AM - 6:00PM at Ace Hotel, 20 West 29th Street in Manhattan We especially encourage folks to add your 3-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Wikimedia New York City Team 20:34, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

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Python errors

Any idea why I periodically get Python errors when using Dabfix? This is in Firefox 64, MacOS 10.11.6
Vmavanti (talk) 03:54, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

"type 'exceptions.AttributeError'> Python 2.7.6" Wed Jan 9 03:50:24 2019 A problem occurred in a Python script.

Random Cleanup not random

Clicking "Random Cleanup" under Dabfix doesn't give random articles. It gives the same articles over and over again. Try it.
Vmavanti (talk) 02:08, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Checklinks non-functional again.

Is it possible that checklinks is currently not working? The save change button currently is disabled and appears as "Save changes (disabled until fixed)". What could be causing this?Tvx1 19:06, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

SUROBITSHASPERMANENTLYBLOCKED

Stop abusing me your harassing and threatening I'm reporting everything now tried of all BS on me I feel rapped and suicidal leave me alone — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1:B255:1FCC:18FA:BC0C:3BC6:D84 (talk) 10:29, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Feb 27 WikiWednesday Salon + Mar 2 MoMA Art+Feminism and beyond

February 27, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Metropolitan New York Library Council in Midtown Manhattan. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday February 27 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Metropolitan New York Library Council (8th floor) at 599 11th Avenue, Manhattan (note this month we will be meeting in Midtown Manhattan, not at Babycastles) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Wikimedia New York City Team 08:59, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
Saturday March 2: MoMA Art+Feminism Edit-a-thon
Art+Feminism’s sixth-annual MoMA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon will take place at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Education and Research Building, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 4 West 54 Street, on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. People of all gender identities and expressions are encouraged to attend. And on Sunday this weekend: March 3, 2019 Art+Feminism with Kickstarter & Black Lunch Table, Brooklyn, NY Stay tuned for other Art+Feminism and related edit-a-thons throughout the month!

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March 20: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC + March 23: Asian Art Archive/New York Public Library

March 20, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Metropolitan New York Library Council in Midtown Manhattan. Is there a project you'd like to share? A question you'd like answered? A Wiki* skill you'd like to learn? Let us know by adding it to the agenda. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities. Wednesday March 20 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Metropolitan New York Library Council (8th floor) at 599 11th Avenue, Manhattan (note this month we will be meeting in Midtown Manhattan, not at Babycastles) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! This month, optional post-meetup drinks afterward at 9pm!--Wikimedia New York City Team 18:46, 19 March 2019 (UTC)
Saturday March 23: Asian Art Archive/New York Public Library Art+Feminism Editathon
Organized by Asia Art Archive in America]and Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs of the New York Public Library and in collaboration with Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, the Art+Feminism: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Women in Art in Asia helps participants edit Wikipedia to create and improve articles about women artists and practitioners in and from Asia, including architects, designers, filmmakers, curators, and art historians. Books and research materials—as well as refreshments—will be provided. Also check out other Art+Feminism and related edit-a-thons throughout the month!

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Redirect checker is busted

See e.g. https://dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/rdcheck.py?page=Medknow_Publications Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 12:20, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

Confirmed. Dabfix is also down, and other dblbot tools work intermittently. It looks like a database issue. Certes (talk) 12:32, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

I noticed the same thing, how long would this take to be fixed?? Goveganplease (talk) 14:09, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

I'll have some time later today to diagnose the problem. — Dispenser 15:11, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Fixed The SSH server changed keys and the SSH Tunnel thought there was a man-in-the-middle attack, so it refused to connect. — Dispenser 17:06, 27 March 2019 (UTC)