User talk:AnomieBOT

Anomie is still around, mostly to maintain AnomieBOT. But after the WMF proved that office politics are more important to them than seemingly anything else, and otherwise generally seem more concerned with their own image than substance, Anomie is not engaging in technical work on MediaWiki.

Despite T360488 asking them not to, Toolforge admins have gone ahead and broken AnomieBOT's scripts. Keeping things running properly will likely require manual intervention until they fix that or give me a usable workaround.

Live status for all AnomieBOT tasks is available at Toolforge.

Regarding the OrphanReferenceFixer and TagDater, please note:

AnomieBOT is not an anti-vandal bot, so complaints about AnomieBOT "hiding" or not reverting vandalism are out of place here.
- AnomieBOT's current strategy is "wait 10 minutes to an hour or so to let ClueBot, VoABotII, other anti-vandal bots, or RC Patrollers fix the vandalism". I am open to specific suggestions on detecting vandalism, but keep in mind that the false positive rate of any method must be near zero to be useful.
AnomieBOT honors {{inuse}}; please use it if you have excessive edit conflicts.
If the reference errors or undated tags were caused by vandalism, just revert AnomieBOT's edits along with the vandal's. AnomieBOT will not be offended.
If AnomieBOT made a mistake in correcting a reference error or dating a tag, please correct the error by hand and report the URL of the problem diff below. Don't just revert the bot without fixing the error, or AnomieBOT is likely to "fix" it again in the same broken way before I get a chance to fix the bug.
If you have a problem with T11790, please take the issue up there. You will be having the problem with more than just AnomieBOT's edits.

Thank you.

	Regarding deletions, please note:
If you are here because you think AnomieBOT III deleted an article, please check again. AnomieBOT III deletes redirects when someone else deletes the article the redirect pointed to, and you almost certainly want to talk to that person instead.

	Regarding {{old AfD multi}}, please note:
If you are here because AnomieBOT added {{old AfD multi}} to an article when the old AfD was about a different person with the same name, just remove it. The bot has no way to tell whether it's the same person or a different one.

Archives

Index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13, 14

This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by .

Request

At some point every month almost without fail, Special:WantedCategories gets hit with at least one redlinked "Wikipedia Today's featured article nominations from Month YYYY" for the current month; the sole apparent exception to this was September, but that was just a temporary delay as Category:Wikipedia Today's featured article nominations from September 2024 showed up on the latest run of that report instead of mid-September, which means I may still get hit with an October category before the end of the month. Essentially, the category doesn't happen right away the moment a featured article request is made, and instead comes to happen when somebody clerking the FA nominations queue tags it with the submission date at closure, which is why it doesn't typically show up at WantedCategories until mid-month.

So, given that it's a category that's routinely expected to exist each month, I previously asked at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests if the people working on that project could just automatically create the category themselves at the start of the month instead of leaving it to become my job to deal with a non-empty redlink — but the only person who replied to me professed not to know what I was talking about as they had never heard of such categories before, and the discussion has now been archived without further action.

So instead I wanted to ask if AnomieBOT could have "Wikipedia Today's featured article nominations from [upcoming month]" added to the list of monthly maintenance categories it automatically creates at each end-of-month rollover? If this is done, it should be created with the {{Tracking category}} tag on it so that it doesn't get deleted prematurely for being empty. Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 18:00, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page watcher) I didn't know about the thread at WT:TFAR, which I have unarchived to Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests#Categories and replied there. Hopefully some of these people may then understand the issue a bit better. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:16, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I mentioned that category back in Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 214#c-Anomie-20240729001000-Bearcat-20240728150400, but no one seemed too interested back then. Looks like, if this would go ahead, some logic in Template:Monthly clean-up category/core would need adjusting to handle the apostrophe output by {{PAGENAME}}, and/or we'd need to decide whether {{Monthly maintenance category}} is really appropriate for the categories. Anomie ⚔ 03:15, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AnomieBOT III

Hello, Anomie,

AnomieBOT III hasn't issued a report in quite a few hours even though there have been broken redirects to report. Can you "reboot" the bot or whatever is called for? Thanks. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:08, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like something on Toolforge took out all of AnomieBOT's tasks. Restarted. Thanks for the ping! Anomie ⚔ 23:32, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, thank you for the fix, Anomie! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 03:07, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Histor of Peru-Poland relations

I'm really confused here. This redirect was in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as dependent on a non-existent page, but the only edit in the page's history was more than two years ago, when the bot created it. Apparently something changed recently, or it would have been deleted as soon as it was created. Anomie, do you want this redirect to be deleted? It's not a G8 candidate because its target exists, but I can G7 it if you wish. Nyttend (talk) 20:30, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) the bot uses a template that automatically asks for deletion if the corresponding page with an en-dash doesn't exist. Histor of Peru–Poland relations was deleted by ThadeusOfNazereth, so the bot is now requesting its own redirect be deleted to follow. I wouldn't have done the deletion that started this chain, but I can see why thadeus did and don't blame him. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:59, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So when I viewed the page history of that redirect, it showed up as being created less than an hour ago, which is the main reason I deleted it under R3. I assume now that that's because of the move - Am I correct in thinking that I should have checked the target and fixed the double-redirect instead? ThadeusOfNazereth(he/him)^{Talk to Me!} 21:10, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, when deleting a redirect from a move you should check where it was moved to - that's how "recently created" is defined in R3. Your deletion might be justified under the "obviously created in error" part of G6, but I generally prefer to use that rule only when the creator has acknowledged their own error since I can't read people's minds. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 22:39, 7 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As Pppery noted, the {{User:AnomieBOT/Auto-G8}} template automatically submits the redirect for G8 if the intended target is a redlink. The theory there is that it's extremely likely that any reason for deleting the target (Histor of Peru–Poland relations) would apply to the bot-created redirect as well, in this case that it's an implausible typo. Note this isn't the only place where we have pages that automatically submit themselves for deletion under certain conditions; {{Monthly clean-up category}}, for example, does the same thing when the category is empty and the date is in the past. 13:00, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

Error

Hi, this edit looks pretty bad. Can you avoid substituting Template:WikiProject Musicians while there is a TfD notice on it? I guess there is some cleanup needed here ... — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:48, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like you already found that Special:Diff/1257835842 is how to handle that. Anomie ⚔ 13:45, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I did. Is there an easy way to find any other pages this was substituted on? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 13:56, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Searching the bot's contribs for edit summaries mentioning "WikiProject Musicians" since the TFM was added. I already did that via the bot's logfiles; there was only one other which I've reverted. Anomie ⚔ 14:05, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay that's reassuring, thank you — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 14:07, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

California county categories

Hi Anomie, it looks like the bot is set to add counties for California geocoordinate requests (example). However, these subcategories were deleted as no longer needed earlier this year, as the backlog has been reduced to almost nothing. Could you adjust the bot so that it just leaves the articles in Category:California articles missing geocoordinate data and doesn't add counties? Many thanks, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 07:06, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Pi.1415926535: I think you're talking to the wrong bot operator. That edit is by The Anomebot2, not AnomieBOT. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 07:09, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ack, sorry about that! Pi.1415926535 (talk) 07:34, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Several tasks seem to have crashed and need a restart

* Pppery * _{it has begun...} 22:26, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like Toolforge is having a bunch of problems at the moment. I think I'll have to leave restarting things for later. Anomie ⚔ 04:12, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Restarted now. Hopefully it stays up. Anomie ⚔ 12:28, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page watcher) @Pppery: See e.g. phab:T380827. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:31, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Change POTD deletion reason

Could AnomieBOT III's POTD deletion task be changed from deleting under G6 to deleting under the new T5 criterion? Thanks. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 02:42, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Whee. Anomie ⚔ 03:35, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rescuing orphaned ref bug

It seems Anomie is attempting to rescue references that are already defined on a page, particularly for {{ref RFC}} in my case. See Special:Diff/1262786510, Special:Diff/1262784337, Special:Diff/1262784450, Special:Diff/1262786349 for a few (check the live page for the error). Tule-hog (talk) 00:00, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not the bot's fault. It did that edit while {{Ref RFC}} was vandalized. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 00:09, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Quick spot, I should have checked. Would it be possible to mass revert any Anomie changes on the template pages from the last day? It hasn't affected all of them but it's enough that if its easily automatable... Tule-hog (talk) 00:17, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The bot is named AnomieBOT, Anomie is me the human. Automating the reverts would have been more work than just opening the edits in tabs and undoing them, which I've done. Anomie ⚔ 00:48, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TagDater: [BRFA55] Possible broken wrapper template Template:Citatoin needed - fixed

The page Template:Citatoin needed is transcluded in other pages and appears to consist of nothing but an invocation of a template that should be dated but isn't. Please fix it (most likely by adding |date={{{date|}}} to the dated template invocation), or fix me. When you have fixed this issue, please change the section title (e.g. append " - Fixed") or remove this section completely. I will repost the notice if the page is still broken or is re-broken. Thanks! AnomieBOT ⚡ 17:31, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Jonesey95: Perhaps easier to fix this by turning it into a redirect, like Template:Ciation needed and Template:Citaiton needed? -- John of Reading (talk) 17:45, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In my experience, redirects like that have been deleted as not needed, simply because people come along and fix them so that bots and scripts can recognize the canonical form. Once they are fixed, it looks like nobody needs them. It's a misguided version of WP:FAIT, and I find it frustrating, as someone who cleans up Wikipedia:Database reports/Transclusions of non-existent templates and other reports. This FAIT deletion has happened most often with foreign-language template redirects; maybe typo redirects are treated differently. I seem to remember at least one {{reflist}} typo redirect being deleted even though it was a common typo on the report.

I think the bot should subst this template instead of adding a date to it, so that the canonical version of the template remains. But if a redirect page will be left alone to work properly, and the bot knows what to do with it, a redirect is fine with me. What I don't want is for this useful page to be deleted entirely. Maybe Anomie can provide more insight as to the best process. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:56, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See RFD:Relfist for an example of what I am trying to avoid. There have been more. See also Template:Realist, which I created as a subst-only template after this TFD. I don't know why the bot is warning us about {{Citatoin needed}} but not about {{Realist}}, which I think that I set up the same way. I am hopeful that insight and a best practice will be forthcoming. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:00, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The task that is complaining here is TagDater, about a wrapper template to a template that requires a date. {{reflist}} doesn't require a date so the bot doesn't complain. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:14, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I added <includeonly>...</includeonly> tags to the template page. Maybe that will appease the bot? Interestingly, 20 minutes after leaving the above message, the bot successfully substed the template with the canonical name, then waited another twenty minutes and added a date parameter. This was exactly the outcome I was hoping for, minus the message above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:17, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed it for you by doing exactly what the bot suggested. Although IMO a redirect would be better here, if this really is a common typo and people are deleting it anyway then that seems like something that should be discussed rather than hacked around like this. Anomie ⚔ 23:32, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

FFD closure

Hi, I deleted File:Jordan Wharf, Guimaras mango monument (Jordan, Guimaras; 01-25-2023).jpg almost 24 hours ago, but its discussion on the FFD log page remains open. The bot still seems to be running, so I'm wondering what happened in this case. ✗plicit 23:58, 23 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that the ; in the section title was confusing the bot, it only supports entities for ", ', =, and & that people might commonly use. Now that I've fixed that, the bot should auto-close the section next time it runs. If people commonly use unnecessary entities like that, let me know which ones and I'll teach the bot about them. Anomie ⚔ 13:39, 24 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looking in the {{ffd2}}, it looks like that was produced by running the title through {{BASEPAGENAME}}. I've taught the bot to recognize additional entities that may currently be produced by that. Anomie ⚔ 14:16, 24 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]