User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2012 April

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This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Your opinion is needed

Hello Rich,

Sorry to be a nuisance I know you are very busy. If you have time, would you kindly check the following articles (below) to see whether the tags placed on them are still justifiable and if so how to improve them. I have re-edited the articles per the objections raised but the editor who put the tags has not contributed to English Wikipedia as a signed-in editor (going by their contribution history) for over a month. I am very close to the article because I originally created them so another opinion would be immensely appreciated. Thank you.

Regards

Tamsier (talk) 21:17, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A beer for you!

Thanks for your contribution to WP:BOTREQ! Chrisrus (talk) 04:36, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bot blocked

FYI, the Helpful Pixie Bot isn't allowed to edit as long as your main account is blocked. Since it was continuing to, I've procedurally blocked it for now. Should you be unblocked, Rich, please feel free to undo that block as well. Courcelles 06:09, 31 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

So people have claimed. Rich Farmbrough, 13:24, 31 March 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Britball cannot in Wikipedia

	The Britball of persistence against all odds
	And some of them are very odd. Rich Farmbrough, 02:12, 31 March 2012 (UTC).[reply] 02:12, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Template: . *

Edits by:

Kwamikagami at 04:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC).
Kwamikagami at 04:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Hellknowz at 11:16, 31 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:39, 27 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Kwamikagami at 04:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Kwamikagami at 04:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 04:20, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Template: . *

Edits by:

DePiep at 08:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Hellknowz at 11:16, 31 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:39, 27 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by DePiep at 08:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by DePiep at 08:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 08:31, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Template: . *

Edits by:

Kwamikagami at 23:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Hellknowz at 11:16, 31 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:39, 27 March 2012 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Kwamikagami at 23:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Kwamikagami at 23:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 00:48, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, that's a lot of edits

Still number 1, I see. And closing in on the 1,000,000 edit mark. The Transhumanist 05:25, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but blocked... one could hypothesise a link, between people who do very similar edits to me, and call for me to be blocked using Freudian analysis, but that would be unkind (if funny). Rich Farmbrough, 16:04, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Think of it as a change in routine, and a change of pace...

The block may be a blessing in disguise.

This may give editors who have had a hard time keeping your attention the opportunity to converse with you on a more meaningful level (i.e., not rushed).

Why would we want to?

Because you are an expert on many aspects of Wikipedia.

This vacation gives you valuable time to share your expertise and experience with other Wikipedians.

Personally, I have many questions for you... – The Transhumanist 03:55, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hey

I just took a look at your user page, to see if it provides any info on the types of questions you would be able to answer, and I noticed you're from London. Half my family tree lives around there.

I haven't been to London since 1997. Almost got killed jaywalking 3 times, due to looking the wrong way before crossing. I guess it's not "jaywalking" over there, because it's legal — for you it's just crossing the street. I think it's cool that you have the right to cross the street. Here we are subject to getting ticketed by the police if we cross anywhere other than at an intersection.

By the way, that you drive on the other side of the street over there makes it easy to spot foreigners. I noticed many of them looking the wrong way.

I also learned that clotted cream tea is not tea with clotted cream in it. :) The Transhumanist 04:46, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mm, worth going to Devon and Cornwall just for the cream teas. They are good elsewhere but that is the home of the cream tea. Rich Farmbrough, 16:15, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Incidentally the Magna Carta had a provision for access to the highway I believe. Other rights, of course, have been eroded massively over the last 20-30 years. Notably extra-territoriality, retroactive legislation, double jeopardy, right to silence, the rights of the second chamber and just about anything that might be construed as "fundamental" has been thrown to the wolves of political opportunism. The few that have been saved have been as much as a result of the political opportunism of the opposition of the day as principled resistance by backbenchers. Of course historically it was ever thus, but the extremism of recent events, considering that we are not in the straitened circumstances of previous eras, is telling. Rich Farmbrough, 16:49, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

What is the most advanced operation you've used AWB for?

And how did you do it? The Transhumanist 05:38, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, well I did use it for checksum calculations and ISBN hyphenation. Basically I wrote a perl program to write a program to write the rulebase.The hyphenation was just a large number of rules, but the calculations involved implementing a partial arithmetic parser in regular expressions, including full addition and multiplication tables modulo 11 (and possibly 10 as well). Rich Farmbrough, 16:03, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

What do your bots consist of?

I.e., what are they made of (what languages, programs, etc.)? The Transhumanist 05:01, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I use perl and AWB. For example the main bot runs on perl (because I was being blocked for using AWB), but if I have a one-off job it is often quicker to use AWB. Even there though I use perl to write some of the rules. Rich Farmbrough, 15:58, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Can AWB be used to remove redlinks from a list?

(For example, see: Outline of Mozambique)

How? The Transhumanist 05:44, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Kinda.

Use the list maker to make a list of "Links on page (redlinks only)".

Save the list to a text file.

Replace the carriage returns in the text file with "|". Copy the content.

Create a normal rule that replaces \[\[(<paste the contents here>)\]\] with $1

Run it against the page in question.

Rich Farmbrough, 16:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Do you have a perl script...

...that opens a file, does something to it, and then saves it under a new filename?

I need to see how that is done. The Transhumanist 05:51, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Er... so I think we covered this? Something like.

OPEN FILE, "<:utf-8" , "oldfile";
while (<FILE>){ $text .= $_}
CLOSE FILE

# do some stuff
$text =~ s/e/z/; #  replace e with z to even up letter usage across the universe a little

OPEN FILE, ">:utf-8" , "newfile";
print FILE $text;
CLOSE FILE

Rich Farmbrough, 16:08, 1 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Ultimate Spider-Woman

Excuse me, does anyone know how to download the image Ultimate Jessica Drew? It would be good on the second picture was visible on her face, in the plot of the Ultimate Spider-Man.--Shawnee Smith (talk) 12:12, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the image? You can probably right click on it and select "save image" depending on your browser. But you can't upload it to Wikipedia if it is not a "free" image (with a few exceptions) - this means anything that belongs to Marvel, DC etc. should probably not be used.

An exception is made for fair use images, these are typically limited to one per page, they must meet certain conditions, although comics pages I notice often have two, one to illustrate the comic, and one to illustrate the character the comic is named for.

Rich Farmbrough, 12:30, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I hate semicolons!

It took me over an hour to realize my script didn't work because a semicolon was missing from the end of a line. The Transhumanist 19:53, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If I had a shilling for every time I'd done that I'd be Rich! Rich Farmbrough, 20:19, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

And that, you are. – The Transhumanist 20:07, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How do I pull a file into a scalar?

I opened a file, and tried to define a variable to be the contents of the filehandle, like this:

open(LIST,      "list.txt") || die("can't open list.txt: $!");

$list = LIST;            #pull LIST into a scalar variable (doesn't work)

print "$list"            # to see if it worked, display contents of $list, which should be the file list.txt

But it just prints out the filehandle!

What am I doing wrong? The Transhumanist 19:53, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

<LIST>

this will pull the next record in scalar context. If you set the record separator appropriately you should get the whole file. (It's a special variable $/ and $\ are the input and output separators.)

It is not clear from what you've said how to use the record separators. What should the line look like? Like this...?

$list = $/<LIST>;$\            #pull LIST into a scalar variable using record separators (doesn't work)

I'm trying to be able to use the following line of code to search a file for a string. If it's in there, I want the program to run a subroutine. If it's not in there I want the program to run a different subroutine.

$list =~ m/stringcheckingfor/   #look for string in contents of list.txt

I'm kinda stuck. The Transhumanist 21:27, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, the angle brackets work, but it only prints out one line from the file. If what you meant was to put record separators in the file, then how do you search files without preprocessing every single file with the insertion of record separators? What if I want to search a file that's not a list and still be able to use the file for something else? The Transhumanist 22:22, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When perl reads the file, it uses \n or \r\n or \n\r as the file separator (depending on OS) - this is stored in the variable $/ . If you set $/ to the end of file marker (or some sting you will not encounter) I would expect it would read the whole file. Other methods are using binary mode, or reading a line at a time:

while (<FILE>) {$text .= $_}

Rich Farmbrough, 22:54, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I found something called "local" that seems to do the trick:

local $/;                # I don't know what this does, but it works.

open(LIST,      "list.txt") || die("can't open list.txt: $!");
$list = <LIST>;            #pull LIST into a scalar variable (doesn't work)
close(LIST);
print "$list"            # to see if it worked, display contents of $list, which should be the file list.txt

Though I'm not exactly sure why this works. The Transhumanist 23:18, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It works because it makes the value of "$/" undefined -- a value that can never occur in a file. The "local" keyword does this as a side effect of its main purpose (controlling variable scope); you can get the same effect by assigning "undef" to the global copy of "$/", as in "$/ = undef;". --Carnildo (talk) 01:44, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The disadvantage of futzing with global, of course, is that you (may) have to remember to reset it for the next file. And indeed this can be a problem with the local version too, see my example in the next section. Creating a new block purely to limit the scope of local $/ is probably nicer than what I did. Rich Farmbrough, 16:35, 4 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Checking each item from one list against another list

I have two lists. list1.txt and list2.txt.

local $/;                                # I don't know what local does
open(LIST1,      'list1.txt') || die("Can't read file 'list1.txt': [$!]\n");
open(LIST2,      "list2.txt") || die("Can't read file 'list2.txt': [$!]\n");

$list2 = <LIST2>;          #pull LIST2 into a scalar variable

while (<LIST1>){       # start while loop on the first list (angle brackets take next line of input)

# Search $list2 using the current line of input from LIST1 as the search string (I don't know how to do this yet without making the script fail to compile).  I plan to write two subroutines, one for true and one for false.
}

close(LIST1);
close(LIST2);

I can't believe I'm still in the file IO. I haven't even gotten to the guts of the program yet. Frustrating! The Transhumanist 00:28, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ok, local is creating a scoped version of $/ that is undefined. I haven't tried this but I suppose it works, and rather nicely in a way, since if you were using this in a block the default value of $/ would come back when you leave the block.

Now the problem you have is that you will slurp file 2 the same way you slurped file 1. So you need something like

local $/;                                # I don't know what local does
open(LIST1,      'list1.txt') || die("Can't read file 'list1.txt': [$!]\n");

$list2 = <LIST2>;          #pull LIST2 into a scalar variable
close(LIST2);#  close LIST 2 as early as we can
$/="\n"; # revert 

open(LIST2,      "list2.txt") || die("Can't read file 'list2.txt': [$!]\n");

while (<LIST1>){       # start while loop on the first list (angle brackets take next line of input)
   chomp; # Maybe?
   if ($list2 =~ /$_/){
       tru_sub();
   }
   else {
       false_sub();
   }
# Search $list2 using the current line of input from LIST1 as the search string (I don't know how to do this yet without making the script fail to compile).  I plan to write two subroutines, one for true and one for false.
}

close(LIST1);

ATB. Rich Farmbrough, 00:55, 3 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

With bare bones subroutines...

local $/;                                # I don't know what local does
open(LIST1,      'list1.txt') || die("Can't read file 'list1.txt': [$!]\n");

open(LIST2,      "list2.txt") || die("Can't read file 'list2.txt': [$!]\n");
$list2 = <LIST2>;          #pull LIST2 into a scalar variable
close(LIST2);#  close LIST 2 as early as we can
$/="\n"; # revert

while (<LIST1>){       # start while loop on the first list (angle brackets take next line of input)
   chomp; # Maybe? (seems to work OK)
   if ($list2 =~ /$_/){
       tru_sub();
   }
   else {
       false_sub();
   }
}

close(LIST1);
print "\n\n";
print "$list2";    # display contents of list2.txt (as a test)

sub tru_sub {
     print "$_";       # display it on the screen so you can see that it is working
     print "\n\n"
}

sub false_sub {
     print "This subroutine doesn't do anything yet (other than print this message)\n";
}

The print functions show that the program actually works.

Now I have the places to put the guts. Thank you!

By the way, what is this part of the program called, an IO skeleton? The Transhumanist 06:01, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome. I'm not sure if there's a name, as such, "skeleton" is certainly widely used. Rich Farmbrough, 16:38, 4 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Installing Wikipedia locally

Is Wikipedia downloadable?

Do you have it installed on your computer? The Transhumanist 01:02, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can download the content (see database dumps on my user page) and the software (www.mediawiki.org). I have both, but not the content loaded into the software. Rich Farmbrough, 01:21, 3 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Cool. What does loading the content into the software entail?

I'm thinking that testing programs on a local copy of Wikipedia could be useful. Having access off-line would also be nice (my Internet access is sporadic).

I'm curious as to what use the database dump is without having it loaded into MediaWiki. What do you use it for? The Transhumanist 06:14, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's XML so you can write perl to scan it very easily. Also AWB has facilities to scan it. It's useful for identifying problem articles, making reports, doing statistics and extracting data. Rich Farmbrough, 12:50, 3 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 02 April 2012

Interview: An introduction to movement roles

Arbitration analysis: Case review: TimidGuy ban appeal

News and notes: Berlin reforms to movement structures, Wikidata launches with fanfare, and Wikipedia's day of mischief

WikiProject report: The Signpost scoops The Signpost

Featured content: Snakes, misnamed chapels, and emptiness: featured content this week

Arbitration report: Race and intelligence review in third week, one open case

Technology report: Somewhere amongst the endless discussions about Gerrit lie details of hackathons, performance blips explained and more

Halo Burger

An editor has been trying to alter the founding year of Halo Burger which was founded in 1923. Period. Yes, the restaurant has changed over the years and was originally Kewpee, but Halo Burger considers its founding year to be 1923 as it says on its logo. Please monitor the Halo Burger article more closely. Thanks. Steelbeard1 (talk) 14:20, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Would love to help on this, currently can't. I do agree, though, that a logo is a perfectly valid source for a fouding year, though it would be better backed up with something else. Rich Farmbrough, 16:28, 4 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Toggling annotations

I'd like to be able to provide (to the entire world) the ability to look at Wikipedia outlines in more than one way.

One thing I'd like the user to be able to do is, with the press of a button, make the annotations disappear (to view a bare uncluttered list). And with another press of the button, reappear.

You mentioned CSS as a possibility. Can that be made to hide/show all of the annotations on the page, and just the annotations, at the same time? The annotations appear at the end of each entry, after an en dash.

I think it would be nicer to have it as a feature of the MediaWiki software or even the browser, so that the (annotations off) mode applies to all outlines being viewed, until reactivated. That way the user wouldn't have to press the toggle for each page.

What are the software development options for creating a toggle, and what would they entail? The Transhumanist 11:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's really into more CSS than I am used to dealing with. I should think this would involve reloading a CSS class with something set to hidden or not. Rich Farmbrough, 19:49, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I thought classes are defined and set on a css page, which would preclude toggling the state locally? Though worth looking into. Thanks for the tip. The Transhumanist 01:39, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As I say I am stunningly ignorant of these matters. Rich Farmbrough, 16:54, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Dispute resolution survey

Dispute Resolution – Survey Invite

Hello Rich Farmbrough/Archive. I am currently conducting a study on the dispute resolution processes on the English Wikipedia, in the hope that the results will help improve these processes in the future. Whether you have used dispute resolution a little or a lot, now we need to know about your experience. The survey takes around five minutes, and the information you provide will not be shared with third parties other than to assist in analyzing the results of the survey. No personally identifiable information will be released.

Please click HERE to participate.
Many thanks in advance for your comments and thoughts.

You are receiving this invitation because you have had some activity in dispute resolution over the past year. For more information, please see the associated research page. Steven Zhang ^{DR goes to Wikimania!} 12:11, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's not clear what "When did you last participate in the following dispute resolution processes as an assistant? * means. Nor is "What dispute resolution forums do you use, and how frequently do you utilise them?" Rich Farmbrough, 19:38, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Hey Rick. I've fixed the first one to clarify it's meaning. The second one has a clarifying comment below it. I'm not so sure how I can make it clearer, but would welcome suggestions. Steven Zhang ^{DR goes to Wikimania!} 04:16, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's the expression "use/utilise". I am fairly sure that I have commented on or in most types of dispute resolution, and been "subject" of three (AN, AN/I and ARBCom) - although these were not actions designed to resolve disputes, but to get the "plaintiff's" preferred outcome. I have posted new threads to AN or AN/I a couple of times, but they were not dispute related. Rich Farmbrough, 20:13, 11 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

How do you write a bot?

I don't even know what one looks like. The Transhumanist 16:20, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's hard to define a bot. The typical bot has three things it does

Read some stuff
Think about it
Write some stuff.

If, for example, you are simply stress testing, then it would only do 1. A daily reminder bot might only do 3. A capture bot might just read a page and save a copy locally.

But if you are talking a typical 1-2-3 bot that reads WP pages, thinks about them and writes back an edited version, you could do worse than use the MediaWiki::API module. In pseudo-perl it would look something like this.

use MediaWiki::API;

# some initialisation and logging in code
my $mw = MediaWiki::API->new(); 
$mw->{config}->{api_url} = 'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php';
$mw->login( {lgname="Sock-puppet", lgpassword => "drosswap" } ) || die  .....

# suppose we have a list of pages we made by some means...
open LIST, "<:utf8","list.txt";

while(<LIST>){ 
    $page=$_;
    my $ref= $mw->get_page ({title=>$page}); # reads the page and sets up the $ref structure
    my $timestamp = $ref->{timestamp};  # needed  to avoid (reduce) edit conflicts
    $text = $ref->{'*'};

    $text =~ s/e/q/gi; #replace e with q  throughout  

    $mw->edit({
         action        => 'edit',
         title         => $page,
         basetimestamp => $timestamp,
         test          => $text,
         summary       => "Q is better than E!"
    })
}
close LIST;

Perl resources

Can you recommend any good online Perl documentation that isn't perldoc? – The Transhumanist 16:38, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Er... depends what for. I am constantly looking up syntax on sites like Tizag. But if I actually want to understand something I prefer perlmonks - they can get a little Zen like sometimes. Some of the modules are simply not documented well enough. Rich Farmbrough, 19:08, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Following your recommendation, I Looked at Perlmonks in more depth and found their library of 200+ tutorials. This will be very helpful, to me and many others – I added the link to the Outline of Perl. Thank you. The Transhumanist 12:39, 8 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Tea Leaf - Issue Two

Hi! Welcome to the second edition of The Tea Leaf, the official newsletter of the Teahouse!

Teahouse celebrates one month of being open! This first month has drawn a lot of community interest to the Teahouse. Hosts & community members have been working with the project team to improve the project in many ways including creating scripts to make inviting easier, exploring mediation processes for troubling guests, and best practices regarding mentoring for new editors who visit the Teahouse.

First month metrics report an average of 30 new editors visiting the Teahouse each week. Approximately 30 new editors participate in the Teahouse each week, by way of asking questions and making guest profiles. An average of six new questions and four new profiles are made each day. We'd love to hear your ideas about how we can spread the word about the Teahouse to more new editors.
Teahouse has many regulars. Like any great teahouse, our Teahouse has a 61% return rate of guests, who come back to ask additional questions and to also help answer others' questions. Return guests cite the speedy response rate of hosts and the friendly, easy to understand responses by the hosts and other participants as the main reasons for coming back for another cup o' tea!
Early metrics on retention. It's still too early to draw conclusions about the Teahouse's impact on new editor retention, but, early data shows that 38% of new editors who participate at the Teahouse are still actively editing Wikipedia 2-4 weeks later, this is compared with 7% from a control group of uninvited new editors who showed similar first day editing activity. Additional metrics can be found on the Teahouse metrics page.
Nine new hosts welcomed to the Teahouse. Nine new hosts have been welcomed to the Teahouse during month one: Chicocvenancio, Cullen328, Hallows AG, Jeffwang, Mono, Tony1, Worm That Turned, Writ Keeper, and Nathan2055. Welcome to the Teahouse gang, folks!
Say hello to the new guests at the Teahouse. Take the time to welcome and get to know the latest guests at the Teahouse. Drop off some wikilove to these editors today, as being welcomed by experienced editors is a really nice way to make new editors feel welcome.

You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username here. -- Sarah (talk) 21:46, 5 April 2012 (UTC) [reply]

Answer questions that are key. Rich Farmbrough, 21:49, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Can AWB be run on a locally installed Wikipedia?

This could be useful for developing a set of pages offline. Can this be done? How fast do you think it would run? The Transhumanist 01:54, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It should run pretty fast, but not as fast as direct page access. Rich Farmbrough, 02:16, 6 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

What do you mean by "direct page access"? The Transhumanist 07:46, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Default variable in a nested While loop

In a perl script I'm writing, I have a While loop nested inside another While loop. What's the default variable for the current line in the nested loop? Is the default variable in the outer loop unaffected? The Transhumanist 01:33, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's the <> verb that populates the $_. $_ has global scope as far as I know. that's why one of the first things to do is often to assign it

while (<>) {
 my $title=$_;
 ....

This prevents "accidents" . Similarly it seem to be good practice to write

if (/([xyz])(abc)/){
     my $letter=$1;
     print "Found letter - $letter!\n";
}

instead of the simpler

if (/([xyz])(abc)/){
     print "Found letter - $1!\n";
}

so that if some other regex is used $letter will still have what we expect, while $1 can change in almost unexpected ways. Rich Farmbrough, 02:28, 6 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

But I still need the global value in $_ for the outer While loop. Will reassigning it in the inner loop interfere with that? The Transhumanist 04:37, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it will. That's why I prefer to put it in a named variable. In theory stuff like $_ should be super-optimized and extra copying operations are expensive, but it really depends so much on what you are doing with them, if you are scanning a file then the overhead of copying a variable once per line should be small compared with the cost of reading the file. Rich Farmbrough, 22:03, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Dispute resolution survey

Dispute Resolution – Survey Invite

Hello Rich Farmbrough/Archive. I am currently conducting a study on the dispute resolution processes on the English Wikipedia, in the hope that the results will help improve these processes in the future. Whether you have used dispute resolution a little or a lot, now we need to know about your experience. The survey takes around five minutes, and the information you provide will not be shared with third parties other than to assist in analyzing the results of the survey. No personally identifiable information will be released.

Please click HERE to participate.
Many thanks in advance for your comments and thoughts.

You are receiving this invitation because you have had some activity in dispute resolution over the past year. For more information, please see the associated research page. Steven Zhang ^{DR goes to Wikimania!} 01:43, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:Femto Bot

Rich, per Headbomb's and Newyorkbrad's responses at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Workshop#All bots indefinitely blocked, I'd like to unblock Femto Bot; I agree that it performs useful tasks and shouldn't be blocked for the sake of being blocked. However, would it be possible to suspend its task 0 ("Creating needed monthly clean up categories") for the duration of the case? Per Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#User:Femto Bot, it would appear that there are some technical problems with the task and I think it may fall within the scope of the concerns that instigated the case. If you would suspend that task, I'd be more comfortable with unblocking the bot and would do so first thing in the morning if possible. Cheers! — madman 03:27, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also, it looks like no one notified you of the existence of that ANI thread. Sigh...

— madman 03:39, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I found the thread anyway. There are not technical problems, the issues are around slight problems in migrating from one set of categories to the other, probably due to minor errors by the mover. A parallel move just occurred in the parent categories, and I was able to fix all the problems, I didn't mention them to the mover, because I thought I could simply catch any similar errors in when these were moved. I hadn't reckoned with the current foolishness. There should be no issues now. Rich Farmbrough, 02:32, 8 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Please let me know if/when you intend to suspend the task; I believe it would be irresponsible to unblock the bot while it's performing such a task, technical problems or no. Thanks, — madman 01:49, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

@Madman. I have suspended that task. I wanted to write the code to allow individual tasks to be suspended from a config page, but I can't do this in my current state of limbo. Rich Farmbrough, 02:48, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks for following up with me on this; as you've noticed, I'm more or less on Wikibreak due to medical/personal issues but I still usually do a better job of keeping up with my watchlist. I hate to vacillate on this after you've shown good faith by suspending the potentially controversial task, but I think I'm going to have to modify User:Femto Bot's block to expire on 23:21, 30 April 2012 (when Elen's block would have expired) rather than unblock it immediately. Having consulted with the blocking administrator and having read up on the ArbCom discussion, I think the discussion's escalated much more than I thought it would. While I'd have no hesitation normally to make such a unilateral decision and stand my ground whatever controversy may ensue, at the moment I'm too fatigued to engage in any potentially fast-paced and heated discussion; I'm sure you can empathize. I do hope to initiate discussion of the blocking policy when I come back, specifically "since the edits of a bot are considered to be, by extension, the edits of the editor responsible for the bot..." I don't think this is correct in all cases, specifically in the case of automated tasks which can run without input from their operator. I think there's an implicit assumption of bad faith in preemptive prevention of a bot account being used to disrupt the encyclopedia/evade blocks. I'm interested in hearing your opinion on this. Cheers, — madman 18:30, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. I agree with what you say, and also that there is a fundamental problem with using a blunt tool like blocking, especially when the absurd situation here is that the operator is actually not blocked, so the only valid reason for blocking the bot is the somewhat convoluted "because we can trust the operator not to fix any problems". Rich Farmbrough, 19:43, 23 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Well, I'm not sure that's the case, though the concern you cite is also valid; I think the justification here is that you are "de facto" blocked with an exemption for ArbCom pages. I'm not saying whether I agree or disagree with that, but in that view the bot's block should expire when Elen's block would have expired. — madman 19:56, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes of course, that is the trouble with chain logic. I just removed the George Orwell quote "a therefore can become a wherefore" from the top of this page, but the point applies here doubly. The argument has run in the past, not as a bad faith one, but as "since the operator is blocked they cannot fix any problems" regardless of the rights or wrongs of the block. Implicit was "the things you are blocked to stop you doing, do not include resolving any problems with the bot, this is just technical fallout". But I'm sure you got this anyway. It's not a big deal, either the ARBcom will resolve satisfactorily or it won't. In either case I need to do a lot more work on community consensus, to make things explicit for those that have the eyes to see but choose not to use them. I think John Vandenburg was correct when he suggested (by implication) I was "very 2007". Rich Farmbrough, 20:42, 23 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Cite DMPN

Template:Cite DMPN has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Crisco 1492 (talk) 07:51, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

the reason to keep this template is to maintain compatibility with Italian WP. But <meh>. Rich Farmbrough, 22:05, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

And so and so and so and so, it gets deleted with no discussion... Rich Farmbrough, 20:43, 23 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Your Arbitration evidence is too long

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. Thank you for your recent submission of evidence for the Rich Farmbrough Arbitration case. As you may be aware, the Arbitration Committee asks that users submitting evidence in cases adhere to limits regarding the length of their submissions. These limits, of User:HersfoldArbClerkBot/Length header/Words words and User:HersfoldArbClerkBot/Length header/Diffs diffs maximum, are in place to ensure that the Arbitration Committee receives only the most important information relevant to the case, and is able to determine an appropriate course of action in a reasonable amount of time. The evidence you have submitted currently exceeds at least one of these limits, and is presently at 716 words and 6 diffs. Please try to reduce the length of your submission to fit within these limits; this guide may be able to provide some help in doing so. If the length of your evidence is not reduced soon, it may be refactored or removed by a human clerk within a few days. Thank you! If you have any questions or concerns regarding the case, please contact the drafting Arbitrator or case clerk (listed on the case pages); if you have any questions or concerns about this bot, please contact the operator. On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 20:01, 7 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

`Amran

Quite a "village" eh.♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:04, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 April 2012

Arbitration analysis: Inside the Arbitration Committee Mailing List

Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Facilitator: Silver seren

News and notes: French language outreach, WikiTravel debate, and HighBeam reloaded

Discussion report: The future of pending changes

WikiProject report: The Butterflies and Moths of WikiProject Lepidoptera

Featured content: A few good sports: association football, rugby league, and the Olympics vie for medals

Arbitration report: Evidence submissions begin in Rich Farmbrough case, proposed decision in R&I Review

Technology report: MediaWiki 1.20wmf01 hits first WMF wiki, understanding 20% time, and why this report cannot yet be a draft

Your input requested

Please see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Astronomy#Articles_for_Redirect, where your expertese is requested. Thanks again for your help with that project. Chrisrus (talk) 12:18, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The items had the refs from JPL added. You can create the list, in theory, by doing a diff on the two lists. I will see if I can do this presently. I cannot comment at the project right now since I am "not allowed".... Rich Farmbrough, 02:48, 22 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Is that true? That is not good. Your not being able to answer questions there is disruptive to that project at a crucial juncture. Surely an exception can be made. Where may I register my concern? Chrisrus (talk) 03:53, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You could ask User:Elen of the Roads to consider formally unblocking me. Or indeed any admin can do it if they feel it appropriate (except me I suppose!). Rich Farmbrough, 04:05, 22 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I asked her on her talk page. Please do post the list diff, I don't have the chops to subtract one list from the other. When will you be unblocked? Chrisrus (talk) 03:49, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

She replied and so did I. I can't understand why an exception can't be made in this case. After all, who objects to allowing even serial killers to testify before a hearing if their testimony is called for. What they want is to generally understand the bot creation process, described in a general way. Also, there is the matter of the "JPL removed list", the list of the 363 asteroids that had a "reference" on the JPL Small-Body Database although the Harvard bot found none. I didn't understand when you said above "The items had the refs from JPL added". Please help a guy out, I don't know how to subtract one list from the other. Chrisrus (talk) 00:35, 24 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh well. Clearly this is not something she wants to be flexible about, though taking a month out of my life, for something which seems not to have been a problem, does seem verging on an abuse of power. Flexibility is not a noted Wikiepdian virtue.

The JPL references were added to the articles for the minor planets they related to. These are the articles

Rich Farmbrough, 01:57, 24 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Friendly notification regarding this week's Signpost

Hello. This is an automated message to tell you that, as it stands, you are set to be mentioned in this week's Arbitration Report (link). The report aims to inform readers of The Signpost about the proceedings of the Arbitration Committee in a non-partisan manner. Please review the draft article, and, if you have any concerns, feel free to leave them on the talkpage (transcluded in the Comments section directly below the main body of text), where they will be read by a member of the editorial team. Please only edit the article yourself in the case of grievous factual errors (making sure to note such changes in the comments section). Thank you. On behalf of The Signpost's editorial team, LivingBot (talk) 00:00, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nice, except of course I am not allowed to comment there. Rich Farmbrough, 17:03, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

cleanup of categories

See Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2012_April_17#Wikipedians_who_like_X. --Enric Naval (talk) 08:47, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can G7 those with only Lady Aleena in them. I would of course do it myself but I'm sure someone would cry foul, or possibly fowl. Rich Farmbrough, 17:02, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Please also be careful using expressions like "the author created them using an automated process" - this sort of thing, while technically (almost) correct, becomes "Rich runs unapproved bots on his account". Rich Farmbrough, 00:47, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Arbitration case

Relevant pages.

Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough
1. Statement by Hersfold
2. Statement by Fram
3. Statement by Elen of the Roads
4. Statement by Headbomb
Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Evidence
Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich_Farmbrough/Workshop
Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Proposed decision
Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough - blank
Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Evidence
Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich_Farmbrough/Workshop
Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Proposed decision

Note also that Signpost has twice (at least) reported on the case, and there is no effective right of reply due to the somewhat crazy "blocking" situation. Rich Farmbrough, 23:43, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

OK 2 am, the rest can wait.

Evidence Phase

Just a friendly reminder that the evidence phase has closed. If you would like to add evidence please speak to a clerk or one of the drafting arbs. Thanks, --Guerillero | My Talk 04:13, 18 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It would be an improvement to the process if it were made clear at what time each phase closes. I was under the impression that this phase would run until 2012/04/18T23:59:59Z. Rich Farmbrough, 15:35, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I was under the impression that it ended at 2012/04/18T00:00:00Z. --Guerillero | My Talk 17:37, 18 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

... I gathered...

Rich Farmbrough, 17:43, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Rich, I was under the same impression as you and raised the issue here as I suspect this goes beyond just your case. Anyone should feel free to move it to a more suitable froum for discussion if one exists as I'm not very up with the working of arbcom and where the best place to post my concern is. Dpmuk (talk) 18:16, 18 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Questions to the parties:

Your attention is requested here Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich_Farmbrough/Workshop#Questions_to_the_parties Thank you. Mlpearc (powwow) 05:45, 18 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ROFL

[This diff] is being cited as an example of my evility.... Rich Farmbrough, 15:32, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

New, inline 'update' template

Hi,

I've created {{Update-small}} (the name {{Update-inline}} being taken), which you might like to check over, please, and have your Bot recognise and date-stamp. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:24, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Update-inline has only a handful of namespace transclusions, which have been protected by AnomieBOT, you could consider using the "correct" name. Rich Farmbrough, 20:46, 23 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Nice new templates, I was searching for something like that recently and ended up using {{outofdate|section}} instead. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 00:12, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 April 2012

Investigative report: Spin doctors spin Jimmy's "bright line"

News and notes: Help-space revamp, WikiTravel RfC, and Justin Knapp scores a million edits

WikiProject report: Skeptics and Believers: WikiProject The X-Files

Featured content: A mirror (or seventeen) on this week's featured content

Arbitration report: Evidence submissions close in Rich Farmbrough case, vote on proposed decision in R&I Review

Technology report: Wikimedia Labs: soon to be at the cutting edge of MediaWiki development?

Unblock request

Extended content

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without good reason (see the blocking policy).

Rich Farmbrough/Archive (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

Request reason:

to delete g7 some categories that should not have been created

Decline reason:

You aren't blocked. If there are any autoblocks affecting your account, nobody will care if you clear them yourself. Reaper Eternal (talk) 01:37, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to make any further unblock requests, please read the guide to appealing blocks first, then use the {{unblock}} template again. If you make too many unconvincing or disruptive unblock requests, you may be prevented from editing this page until your block has expired. Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.

Rich Farmbrough, 00:51, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Why do I never explain stuff? I am unblocked to take part in an arbitration case, I am nominally blocked until 23:21, 30 April 2012. I am requesting either:

Permission from any admin to specifically G7 some categories, which will save them having to go through CfD.
Or a reduction of nominal block to time-served (terrible phrase).

Rich Farmbrough, 01:59, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

This user's unblock request has been reviewed by an administrator, who declined the request. Other administrators may also review this block, but should not override the decision without good reason (see the blocking policy).

Rich Farmbrough/Archive (block log • active blocks • global blocks • contribs • deleted contribs • filter log • creation log • change block settings • unblock • checkuser (log))

Request reason:

I am unblocked to take part in an arbitration case, I am nominally blocked until 23:21, 30 April 2012. I am requesting either: :* Permission from any admin to specifically G7 some categories, which will save them having to go through CfD. :* Or a reduction of nominal block to time-served (terrible phrase).

Decline reason:

You are not blocked. What you're asking for is permission to act outside of the current unblock conditions - and this is not the place to do that. The place to do it is with the person/group who IMPLEMENTED those conditions. There's no way that your block will be reduced to time-served. Ask those who were kind enough to unblock you if you're allowed to G7 some cat's. For God's sake, you are (were?) an admin - you know better (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 11:25, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to make any further unblock requests, please read the guide to appealing blocks first, then use the {{unblock}} template again. If you make too many unconvincing or disruptive unblock requests, you may be prevented from editing this page until your block has expired. Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked.

Hm, well everyone else refers to it as blocked. Silly me. Rich Farmbrough, 14:36, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

The script is eating the file!

I'm preparing to use AWB's external processing feature. I'm trying to write a script to read a text file, process it, and then save it. My sample text file is "test.txt" and contains "xxxxxx This is a test page. xxxxxx"

The problem is, my script erases the contents of the file! What I want this test script to do is a simple regex substitution.

open FILETEXT, ">test.txt" or die $!;
my $slurped = <FILETEXT>;
$slurped =~ s/This is a test page/This is a test page that passed its test/;
# print "$slurped";
print FILETEXT $slurped;
close (FILETEXT);

Instead of modified content, I find that the content has been completely erased. What is causing the problem? What will make this work right? The Transhumanist 10:40, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

P.S.: I'm using strawberry perl, per your recommendation.

Found something that works, sort of...

open FILETEXT, "test.txt";
my $slurped = <FILETEXT>;
$slurped =~ s/This is a test page/This is a test page that passed its test/;
print "$slurped";
close (FILETEXT);
open FILETEXT, ">test.txt";
print FILETEXT $slurped;
close (FILETEXT);

Thinking that I found a solution, I increased the file to 3 lines, to discover that this script only processes the first line of the file, and replaces the file with that one line.

How can I fix that? The Transhumanist 11:48, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, now it slurps

I expanded the opening to this:

local $/ = undef;
open FILETEXT, "test.txt";
binmode FILETEXT;

And it seems to work, but where did the new lines go?

I changed the regex string in the script and used AWB to pass a page to text.txt, and the substitution worked, but the diff in AWB revealed that the article was now one big block of run-together text.

How can I fix that?

I figured out how argument passing works a few days ago, so once I learn how to slurp without stripping the linefeeds, I'll be ready to write the real guts for my script! Eventually, I may be able to write the External processing section of the AWB manual. Though I plan to put in some miles on this feature first before I do so. The Transhumanist 13:11, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, not sure. It works standalone perhaps it's to do with the type of line feed. Rich Farmbrough, 14:45, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

{
  local $/ = undef;
  open FILETEXT, 'C:\AWB\test\test.txt';
  $slurped = <FILETEXT>;
  $slurped =~ s/This is a test page/This is a test page that passed its test/;
  print $slurped;
  close FILETEXT;
}

open ANSWER, ">:", 'C:\AWB\test\test.txt';
print ANSWER $slurped;
close ANSWER;

This works for me. Because you have redefined $/ you don't need to use binmode. Reading the file in binmode and writing it in text means that the line-feeds are being read in one way and written in another, I think.

Note that I put a block "{...}" around the reading section to keep undef $/ local, though this should not matter in this example. (The output record separator is $\.)

Note also I split the file name and the ">:" bit up - this is not required but is good practice, if you have variables in the file name, they are less dangerous if they can't be interpreted as a the file type thingy.

Rich Farmbrough, 15:30, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

OK, I took out binmode, and it works even better! Thank you.

I don't know what an "output record separator" is. Why and how would one refer to $\. in a program?

Also, what is the colon after the greater than sign for?

By the way, I ran into a problem with block delimiters...

When I used a block, leaving the second filehandle sequence outside the block, AWB no longer showed a diff. It showed a messsage that no changes were made.

That is, this works fine:

{
   local $/ = undef;
   open FILETEXT, "test.txt";
   # binmode FILETEXT;
   my $slurped = <FILETEXT>;
   #$slurped =~ s/This is a test page/This is a test page that passed its test/;
   $slurped =~ s/the/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/;      # test substitution so something shows up in AWB diffs
   print "$slurped";
   close (FILETEXT);
   open ANSWER, ">test.txt";
   print ANSWER $slurped;
   close (ANSWER);
}

But this does not work:

{
   local $/ = undef;
   open FILETEXT, "test.txt";
   # binmode FILETEXT;
   my $slurped = <FILETEXT>;
   #$slurped =~ s/This is a test page/This is a test page that passed its test/;
   $slurped =~ s/the/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/;      # test substitution so something shows up in AWB diffs
   print "$slurped";
   close (FILETEXT);
}

open ANSWER, ">test.txt";
print ANSWER $slurped;
close (ANSWER);

When using AWB with the above script, the contents of test.txt gets completely erased. So I used the dir command to see what happened, and the filename shows up, but with zero bytes. The Transhumanist 19:37, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes that's because "my" gives" $slurped a local scope. The : is probably not necessary, I have always used it since I went "three argument" on file opens. You probably also need to make sure that the file is opened utf-8 where the cliche is

">:utf8"

Rich Farmbrough, 21:19, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

If you set "$\" then it would be output after every "print" so for example:

{
   local $\ = "\n";
   print "to be or not to be";
   print "that is the question";
}

is the same as

print "to be or not to be\n";
print "that is the question\n";

Rich Farmbrough, 21:45, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Page stats information

Re: Wikipedia:Scripts/Perl scripts/Pagestats. Thank you for putting in a CC licence. I must read up LWP, when I have some spare time. It is interesting to see the style in which other people write scripts. I have not tested it, but it looks like it will work to me. It looks like it will print to screen totals cumulating after it has read a page and finally prints the grand total. It reeds the whole page just to see one line high up on the stats web page. What have you used it for? Snowman (talk) 12:11, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I requested it, and Rich kindly whipped it up. From time to time I need to check how many views per month the entire collection of Portal:Contents/Outlines are getting. Then I multiply that by 12 to get an annual figure. The outlines are currently pulling over 6 million page views per year in traffic. Not including cache views, of course. The Transhumanist 14:18, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Things that stayed too long - Jamal Al-Gashey

I thought of your "things that stayed too long" section when I made this edit. Nearly two years ago, someone added a picture of Jordanian author Jamal Naji to the article and claimed that it was suspected terrorist Jamal Al-Gashey. When I came across the article, needless to say I was more than a bit surprised that a person who believes that Mossad is still trying to kill him would have such a clear picture freely available. Not that mistaken identity has ever hurt anyone, right? Canadian Paul 19:34, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Good spot. And another reason for us to have a little humility about errors. Rich Farmbrough, 20:36, 26 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Amazingly someone mentioned this on the talk page in November 2011. I am of Rich Farmbrough, 20:48, 26 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Template:`{{Year in topic}}`

It doesn't look like this is being used, so I am going to send it to TfD. If there is a use for it, then we can obviously keep it. thank you. 64.216.106.24 (talk) 17:31, 27 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Template:User:Rich Farmbrough:Template:Category TOC exists

could you move this to your userspace? 64.216.106.24 (talk) 17:57, 27 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

From SignPost

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

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

Quote

User:Kotinski - for whom I have always had respect.

...find something more productive to do with my life than continually trying to present rational argument to people who aren't interested, in an environment where only the drama-mongers and edit-warriors are rewarded. ... I'm feeling a great sense of relief that I won't be spending tomorrow or the next day arguing with morons about trivia.

I know exactly what he means. The "real life" equivalent to how I feel, I suppose, would be an engineer who is working on various jobs and is constantly interrupted by a couple of guys with Home Depot tool-belts (and probably propeller caps) telling him the advantage of triangular slotted screws over hex drive, and occasionally emptying his boxes of screws in the gutter, replacing random screws with the preferred variety, and calling the police, saying "someone is vandalising safety structures with dodgy screws"... And the police believing them.

Rich Farmbrough, 22:55, 26 March 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Blocked

I have blocked you for a period of one month. Period is probably moot - the talk at AN is of opening a request for arbitration. If this happens, I expect you will be unblocked to participate.

The automated sockpuppet category creation is a truly monstrous failure of end-user (ie the community) testing. The community neither needs nor wants those categories - mostly if it needed them, it created them as it went along. You have succeeded in badging editors as socks/masters who were actually cleared, and you are connecting IPs with sockmasters, which is in breach of the privacy policy...not to mention that since the cases are older than Noah, the IPs are almost certainly being used by some poor innocent by now. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:34, 30 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That is a severe case of bollocks. The user pages are in the categories regardless of whether text sits at the ~~user~~category page. If the sock-tagging community is lackadasical in removing sock-tags, then that great big enormous huge carbuncle on their user page is the thing that is connecting the IPs with putative sockmasters in breach of hows-your-father. Good grief Charlie Brown! Rich Farmbrough, 23:45, 30 March 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I'm late to this thread, but I got to clean up one of these bot-generated Suspected Sockpuppets Of pages brought to my attention through an intermediary, who alerted me to the objections of a potentially litigious individual in California who found it with a Google search. I don't think I wear a propeller hat and I won't advise you about what kind of screws to use — but I know that you made a mess on this matter and I don't see a lot of contrition. Some engineers have to be kept out of the laboratory, otherwise society may well end up having an Ice-nine problem. I don't know if you're one of these or not, but I'm concerned, for sure. Carrite (talk) 19:00, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well contrition is a "nice to have", resolving the problem is what's needed. And of course blocking me is not a great way to achieve that. If everyone who had claimed this was a "monstrous" "defaming authors" and so forth really believed it was that bad, they would surely have put some effort into resolving the issue. It's a 10 minute job, if done bluntly, and a few hours if done carefully. They might even have said (in a nice way) "please fix this problem you created". The only person the "potentially litigious individual in California" can sue for creating the page is me - and arguably whoever prevents me from correcting any errors.

I am sorry that you've been involved in this. Unfortunately there's not a lot I can do since any attempt to resolve the issues will bring the wolf down on the fold, and moreover the Wikimedia servers are giving me gateway errors, preventing even simple investigation. However if you let me know what steps you took, it would be useful in case they need to be replicated. Right now I'm not seeing the any user pages you removed the template from, or the empty/deleted cats, but as I say the servers are playing me up. Rich Farmbrough, 19:47, 26 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Request for Arbitration filed

You are involved in a recently filed request for arbitration. Please review the request at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests#User:Rich Farmbrough and, if you wish to do so, enter your statement and any other material you wish to submit to the Arbitration Committee. Additionally, the following resources may be of use—

Thanks, Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 00:01, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've unblocked you so that you can participate in the aforementioned case. The Helpful One 00:06, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I think.... Rich Farmbrough, 00:27, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Talk about taking things personally. Rich Farmbrough, 03:39, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Rich, do not edit any page except WP:A/R/C and this talkpage. And, your statement is far longer than 500 words; please correct this. Thanks, AGK [•] 11:38, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Rich, your latest change to the statement contained a change in position (so far as I can gather) as well as a reduction in length. I'm not sure if this was precipitated by my note, but such a pointedly brief statement is unnecessary. My request was that you reduce the length of your statement, not that you give no account at all. If you prefer to retain your longer statement then please do so; I would rather the other arbitrators have a longer but full account than none at all. Regards, AGK [•] 13:06, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It was precipitated by your note. But it was based on the belief that I had merely stated my position about the substantive matter, rather than on whether there should be a hearing. Of course I like to think that if I were an Arbitrator I would say (as some did last time an attempt at an arb case was attempted) "Don't be absurd", so from that point of view, and from the point of view of the amount of work and time involved (remember we are all volunteers here) I don't want an arb case. However I am thoroughly sick and tired of Fram, and to a lesser extent CBM, and I asked for mutual interaction ban years ago. As Coren remarked, it is quite possible that "the time drain will be higher all told (by bouncing back to the AN boards again and again) until we settle the matter one way or the other". So resolving the issue now (i.e. in a few months... ) is probably preferable. Rich Farmbrough, 13:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I have restored my summary, since the presence of a pre-opening statement is useful, Rich Farmbrough, 14:29, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

When shit gets crazy...

... it's best to only edit manually, I've found. Strictly manually. When things settle down again, automation can be brought back in. Best of luck in the upcoming case. --MZMcBride (talk) 04:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 12:05, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

hi

Too bad about the block. If you're not careful, you might slip into 2nd place – Koavf only has a 100,000 edits to go to catch up! (Like I'm anyone to talk – I spend way too much time here.) — kwami (talk) 02:45, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well that would be cool, 100,000 more good edits would be a great contribution. Funnily enough I'm not currently blocked, since Arbfun is occurring - though I am instructed not to edit. The irony of trusting me not to edit when it suits, and yet physically blocking the account at other times is not lost on me. With a little luck it should resolve both the block and the ongoing history of harassment. Rich Farmbrough, 16:25, 4 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

New Arbcom Case

An arbitration case involving you has been opened, and is located at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough. Evidence that you wish the Arbitrators to consider should be added to the evidence sub-page, at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Evidence. Please add your evidence by April 18, 2012, which is when the evidence phase closes. You can contribute to the case workshop sub-page, Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough/Workshop. For a guide to the arbitration process, see Wikipedia:Arbitration/Guide to arbitration. For the Arbitration Committee, Guerillero | My Talk 19:02, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks I already bagsed top bunk. Rich Farmbrough, 23:19, 4 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

A Perl script library would be nice

You expressed interest in starting a library of Perl scripts.

You also mentioned Perl's usefulness for scanning the WP data dump.

Do you have any scripts for that? Example code for this would be extremely useful. They would give the rest of us an idea of what's possible. The Transhumanist 11:41, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In AWB, how does the External Program Processing work?

(I couldn't find any documentation on this). The Transhumanist 11:47, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't use this feature, though I played around with it once. Here's my set-up (possibly the default I don't know)

Program or script: perl

Arguments/Parameters: test.pl << test.txt >>test.txt

I/O file: test.txt

Presumably AWB saves the page to "test.txt" then runs "perl test.pl <<test.txt >> test.txt " (which might not work anyway) the reads text.txt into the page variable in AWB and carries on. Rich Farmbrough, 19:46, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

The traffic to this page

I'm impressed. You typically get just under 2,000 hits per month on your talk page. Last month it was almost 3,000. And this month so far there have been over 550 hits (in just 4 days).

You have an audience. You have readership!

You might consider that your page is a de facto (Wikipedia-related) blog page. Have you considered writing to your students here? Like posts on a blog. It's obvious that many people are interested in what you say and do. You have your very own venue. The Transhumanist 12:07, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there have been a lot of talk page stalkers (in the nice sense of the word) and a few in the not-so-nice. I don't think that this is necessarily a prime venue, for my ideas and thoughts, though I have created a few of the thousands of threads, see for example the two at the top of this page, the second sadly prophetic. I am also not really a blogger, although perhaps that is a failing I should work on. Rich Farmbrough, 14:53, 5 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Rather than philosophical or political threads, I was thinking more along the lines of the technical and practical, your sharing your expertise and methods. You are the most prolific editor and bot operator on Wikipedia. Power flows through your fingertips. It's wiki-lightning. Other editors are genuinely interested in how you do it, and the tools you use. Wikipedia lacks intelligible documentation in this area of endeavor. But you have wiki-skills that you have honed and fine-tuned for 8 years. There is nobody more qualified than you to mentor the Wikipedia community on how it's done. How to spot a widespread problem. How to fix it on thousands of pages. How to effectively apply power tools. AWB. Regex. Perl. Bots. And only you know what else. Teach us! There are hundreds of us who have reached the limit of what we can do manually. Show us how to automate. Help us transcend as you have. It'll be fun, for everyone. Besides, a little bird told me you have a month of free time on your hands. – The Transhumanist 16:02, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have neither transcended, nor sublimed, nor am I illuminated.

Rich Farmbrough, 22:10, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Yep, you're the epitome of the technologically evolved, speeding toward the technological singularity, despite not being a singularitarian. On the other hand, someone passed you on the editcountitis list. :( That one month block really sucks! The Transhumanist 14:39, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Friendly notification regarding this week's Signpost

Hello. This is an automated message to tell you that, as it stands, you are set to be mentioned in this week's Arbitration Report (link). The report aims to inform readers of The Signpost about the proceedings of the Arbitration Committee in a non-partisan manner. Please review the draft article, and, if you have any concerns, feel free to leave them on the talkpage (transcluded in the Comments section directly below the main body of text), where they will be read by a member of the editorial team. Please only edit the article yourself in the case of grievous factual errors (making sure to note such changes in the comments section). Thank you. On behalf of The Signpost's editorial team, LivingBot (talk) 00:00, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Perl WikiProject

I've started Wikipedia:WikiProject Perl, to give you something to do after your block is lifted. :) By the way, I've started its talk page off with our Perl-related threads. Those might be useful or interesting to someone. The Transhumanist 23:46, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. Rich Farmbrough, 22:10, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 09 April 2012

Wikidata: The next big thing? An interview with Wikidata

Interview: Funds, fiduciaries, and the Foundation: the complex dynamics of scaling

News and notes: Projects launched in Brazil and the Middle East as advisors sought for funds committee

WikiProject report: The Land of Steady Habits: WikiProject Connecticut

Featured content: Assassination, genocide, internment, murder, and crucifixion: the bloodiest of the week

Arbitration report: Arbitration evidence-limit motions, two open cases

Technology report: Next Wikimedia deployment already in the pipeline and details of recent performance improvements

I see they turned to you

I figured it was only a matter time till they turned their attention to you. The community is losing contributors at the cyclic rate. It seems as though the drama llamas are starting at the top of the list of editors with the most contributions and working down. You, Me(Kumioko), I see drama on Magioladitis's page, etc. Its truly sad to see what the place has devolved into. 71.163.243.232 (talk) 01:31, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Everyone involved is generally sensible, so they'll work it out. Rich lost his patience and pissed some people off. He'll get his patience back, and they'll get over it. It's human nature. The Transhumanist 05:23, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's certainly human nature. And it's true that I got a little irritated at years of low level sniping. However the rest of what you say is a little optimistic. See for example, User:Bishonen, User:Δ, User:Goldhat, User:Merovingian, User:Rlevse and many, many more. Rich Farmbrough, 22:44, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Jumping Jehosephat! I thought this was a [bad] joke. Let's figure out how to fix this -- the underlying issue, not any specific case. – SJ + 00:42, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What a number of editors have tried to do is defend specific editors (including a significant number who have leapt to my defence in various situations relating to this particular imbroglio) this has a tendency to create a polarised argument. Recognising this people do tread more carefully, leading to praising with faint damns and damning with faint praise - or token accpetance of some of the "other side's" arguments. Nonetheless the polarisation still occurs, and the discussions are often not helpful, often leading to more bad feeling and raking up previous issues.

What is needed is a method of actually defusing the emotion without becoming unfeeling. These are the twin banes of Wikipedian intercourse, firstly over-investing emotionally in a position, and secondly lack of ability to relate socially. There is no doubt, for example, that Wikipedia attracts, and is indeed dependent on folk with ASD, which gives rise to problems in itself - we have discussed this briefly on Jimbo's talk page a few months ago. The difficulty here is that it is a spectrum, some people will have no difficulties and will fit right in. Of course editors have all sorts of other "RL" issues which can affect them editing, and the basic principle which seemed to prevail in the "early days" of everyone being extremely relaxed and keeping rules to a minimum s was perhaps more forgiving.

There are of course other on-wiki issues that lead to us loosing valuable editors, I saw a few earlier today dating back to 2006, that I had no idea had left, one due to "real life" threats. (Some here.)

I do think that as a group we are not very good at putting ourselves in other peoples shoes. There are at least two threads on ANI currently where (one calling for a de-sysop, because of a mistaken block, one verging towards a block for misunderstanding process) which are hardly community building. Of course there is sanity, there are "people people", in amongst this. Unfortunately most of them burn out, become victims themselves, or simply move on to other things. Process oriented fora tend to draw process oriented people, and, sadly, a small coterie of more or less vindictive people.

Of course arbitration and mediation and all the other "..ations" are attempts to solve these issues. I think though that there are problems finding people of sufficient quality and with sufficient time available to deal with the case load. I think there are a few minor improvements to process that can be made, but we really need specialists in dispute resolution who understand (or are at least capable of understanding) the technicalities. Because if, as so often happens, we fail to address the underlying issues, then all the resolutions, bans, blocks and enforcement actions in the world are just a waste of time and effort.

I'm not sure what other positive suggestions I can make, and I have been thinking about these issues for several years, but I'm sure that with a willingness to move forward some kind of progress can be achieved.

Rich Farmbrough, 01:51, 22 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

YGM: WP article 'Edgar Steele' and WP editor "trojancowboy"

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

Gandsnut (talk) 20:17, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I had a look at this, but there's a limit on what I can do since, while I am technically not blocked, I am "legally" blocked. Rich Farmbrough, 22:48, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

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Thanks for helping make Wikipedia better. Enjoy your research! Cheers, Ocaasi^{t | c} 20:59, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A big thanks

RF, I want to give you a big thanks for all the effort you with your bots put into Wikipedia and say your work is invaluable. As you may know I've got your talk page watched and post here occasionally - mainly to ask a question. When I've had reason to check your work (normally as someone moaning at your talk page or ANI), I've always found your work to be most beneficial for the encyclopedia. You make a huge lot of edits and because of that the most expediant method is sometimes to make mass changes then correct exceptions afterward that is the most effective use of time, a situation I shared in real life for many years as a db admin. Many on Wikipedia look for near perfection in bot edits and moan and groan whenever they see something that is a little off, without any idea of the bigger picture for data cleansing. I hope you are not put off by the drama of those who don't understand. Your work here is invaluable and a dropoff or an absence of your work would leave big holes in the cleanness and quality of Wikipedia. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 00:14, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, nice to be appreciated. Rich Farmbrough, 17:06, 17 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

It's safe to say that in the present tense; the dropoff of your work has left gaps in the cleanliness and quality of the project. Of course, while they say "cleanliness is next to godliness", it is all too often in the eye of the beholder... – SJ + 01:50, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is that mixed metaphor a quote from me? Rings a lot of bells... Thanks for the message, regardless. Rich Farmbrough, 01:54, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I dunno

Is it all worth it? Rich Farmbrough, 18:35, 18 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Probably not. I just tripped over the Farmbrough AR thing via the Signpost and was pretty surprised. Is all that vitriol really about BOTS? Makes my head swim, since I've observed your edits for years and have never gleaned anything untoward in any of them. In my mind, you're an asset. But don't do anything rash; remember, "All of our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last." (M. Proust) Cheers, --Seduisant (talk) 01:11, 19 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's very true! I have no intention of scrambling passwords or "vandalising all of the Wikipedia", rest assured! Rich Farmbrough, 01:18, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Richball, the greatest of wikiballs

Take this portrait as my little gift and my regards to you, Rich. You are my hero, and I take inspiration from you - seriously!

And you inspire many other Wikipedians too, generations of them to come! GreyHood ^Talk 09:39, 19 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. Aussieball sends his regards to you too ;)

Also, you might like this cartoon. It is not meant as offense to anyone - I deeply respect all the editors involved. But the general situation is sad, and perhaps making a little fun of it could remind us all what we should be. This must be the most epic and romantic drama which I've seen on Wikipedia, and you've played the top role in there - I suppose it might be compared to those rare actors who play Hamlet. But the story may continue! Hope your case highlights for the people of Wikipedia what is the utter injustice and ridiculousness of barring good editors from editing and forcing them into time-consuming trials. Cheers and enjoy the fun of life! GreyHood ^Talk 10:04, 19 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hah! That made me laugh out loud! Rich Farmbrough, 01:18, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

I'm sad to hear that the dramafest continues, and that you're being hauled through Arbcom. Keep your chin up! --Ohconfucius ^¡digame! 09:55, 19 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but in fairness I supported the Arbcom in the hope that it would draw a line under all the nonsense. I still hope it will, though I am aware that previous Arbcom decisions (with different arbs) have been extremely wayward, and the leaked arbcom mailing list (not mentioned in Signpost) have not been wholly exculpatory. Rich Farmbrough, 01:18, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

@Greyhood; that cartoon is flippin' brilliant! Nicely done! I, too, laughed out loud! @Rich: Your optimism is seriously misplaced. Believing ArbCom will make a reasonable decision, not one motivated to obliterate the subject of the most heat, is a very Ponce de León-ian quest. There are windmills that need tilting at far more than a belief in ArbCom judicial purity. --Hammersoft (talk) 15:57, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, well I think ArbCom need to do the right thing occasionally, just to keep up appearances? But more seriously I do think they always do their best, and if that sometimes is palpably wrong to the rest of us, we need to keep up the feedback to improve the situation. I have already remarked on some astounding weaknesses of procedure (I am not a fan of procedure for its own sake as many will know - but where a quasi-legal environment has been set up, really I think the functionaries should implement their work with extreme scruple - Hersefold's bot will doubtless help with some of this.) and I intend to write up the experience for Signpost, purely as a party, not referring to the case in anyway, and hopefully it can be made more user friendly. Arbitration, in RL, is usually a voluntary affair, and is used to resolve cases where discussion, negotiation and mediation has failed (all absent here, but not in typical Arbcom cases). Also Arbitration in RL is far more tightly bound as to scope. Here anything goes which is both good and bad. Anyway, be that as it may, let us hope that in this case a positive way forward can be found. Rich Farmbrough, 00:45, 21 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Note on blocking

The blocking admin had said that she would block me for a day in the first instance. Instead she went for a month. I am now in a limbo where I should be unblocked and am unblocked but am "legally" blocked. If any admin would like to unblock me "legally" that would be very cool. Elen seems to think it's now down to Arbcom which is a serious misunderstanding. Rich Farmbrough, 01:54, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Evidence

I removed my evidence, my suggested remedies and my analysis of your evidence, since it's just a cat fight gone horribly wrong and wasn't resolved properly. Best of luck. Whenaxis (contribs) ^{DR goes to Wikimania!} 20:54, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I am interested in looking ate better ways to reduce and resolve disputes on Wikipedia (and elsewhere). Keep in touch. Rich Farmbrough, 21:09, 20 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

A big hullaballoo

Yikes Rich, I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the edits you've made to the encyclopedia as well (especially considering the very helpful work your bots have done.) I wasn't even aware of your newest ArbCom drama (and I'm not informed enough to comment on it), but I hope that you understand that there's no rivalry of any sort between you and me on my end. I have been overwhelmed by kind words and awards from across the globe, but I would hate for that to overshadow the good work that many, many Wikipedians have put into the project, yourself included. (cf.) I hope that all of issues you have with other editors get resolved swiftly and justly so that we can all get on with the bigger goal of freely spreading the world's knowledge. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 23:09, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's much appreciated, Justin. I have seen your work, and appreciate that too, and know that you have run up against some of the same problems I have. I'd have dropped by your talk page and offered congratulations if I were not "blocked" - it is a nice milestone. As you have succeeded in getting things done where I have become entangled in the mesh of process, I would like to invite you to join the Committee for getting things done. (And if friendly rivalry had spurred you on to achieve more that would be a great thing!) All the best. Rich Farmbrough, 00:28, 21 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

A beer for you!

Thanks for your help with the asteroid redirection process! Chrisrus (talk) 03:12, 24 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Most welcome! Rich Farmbrough, 02:11, 25 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Wikipedia 1.0

Hi, I'm a member of the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial Team which organizes offline releases of Wikipedia. We're trying to identify which members are still active, so we can start to work on our next general offline release, Version 0.9, being discussed here. Please add your comments to the discussion, and let us know here if you would like to be involved - perhaps in article cleanup, which you mentioned as your interest. Thanks! Walkerma (talk) 04:28, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE impressive!

Category:WikiProject Phineas and Ferb members

Category:WikiProject Phineas and Ferb members, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. Pichpich (talk) 19:26, 28 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

in perl script, regex not recognizing \n, $, /Z

I've been slurping a file, like this:

   open TEXTFILE, "text.txt";
   $content = <TEXTFILE>;                        # slurp text.txt into variable
   close(OUTLINE);

When I use regex to match or substitute in $content, the script simply does not recognize new line characters (\n) or the end of a line.

For example, this does not work:

   $content =~ s/\n\n/\n/;

What it going on? The Transhumanist 02:10, 29 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Found it:

   $content =~ s/\n\n/\n/m;

Didn't know about that. Tricky. The Transhumanist 02:40, 29 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You may want to consider

   $content =~ s/\n\n+/\n/mg;

this does 2,3,4, 5 etc. \n =in each subst, and the "g" means that it will do all the matches in the file, as a stand-alone s///.

Rich Farmbrough, 19:26, 29 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Your opinion is needed

A beer for you!

Bot blocked

Britball cannot in Wikipedia

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Helpful Pixie Bot 48

Wow, that's a lot of edits

Think of it as a change in routine, and a change of pace...

Hey

What is the most advanced operation you've used AWB for?

What do your bots consist of?

Can AWB be used to remove redlinks from a list?

Do you have a perl script...

Ultimate Spider-Woman

I hate semicolons!

How do I pull a file into a scalar?

Checking each item from one list against another list

With bare bones subroutines...

Installing Wikipedia locally

The Signpost: 02 April 2012

Halo Burger

Toggling annotations

Dispute resolution survey

How do you write a bot?

Perl resources

The Tea Leaf - Issue Two

Can AWB be run on a locally installed Wikipedia?

Default variable in a nested While loop

Dispute resolution survey

User:Femto Bot

Nomination for deletion of Template:Cite DMPN

Your Arbitration evidence is too long

`Amran

The Signpost: 16 April 2012

Your input requested

Friendly notification regarding this week's Signpost

cleanup of categories

Arbitration case

Evidence Phase

Questions to the parties:

ROFL

New, inline 'update' template

The Signpost: 23 April 2012

Unblock request

The script is eating the file!

Found something that works, sort of...

OK, now it slurps

Page stats information

Things that stayed too long - Jamal Al-Gashey

Template:{{Year in topic}}

Template:User:Rich Farmbrough:Template:Category TOC exists

From SignPost

Quote

Blocked

Request for Arbitration filed

When shit gets crazy...

hi

New Arbcom Case

A Perl script library would be nice

In AWB, how does the External Program Processing work?

The traffic to this page

Friendly notification regarding this week's Signpost

Perl WikiProject

The Signpost: 09 April 2012

I see they turned to you

YGM: WP article 'Edgar Steele' and WP editor "trojancowboy"

Your HighBeam account is ready!

A big thanks

I dunno

Note on blocking

Evidence

A big hullaballoo

A beer for you!

Wikipedia 1.0

GOCE impressive!

Category:WikiProject Phineas and Ferb members

in perl script, regex not recognizing \n, $, /Z

Template:`{{Year in topic}}`