User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2009 March

Previous · Index · Next

SmackBot file date

Hi Rich! SmackBot has dated File:WikiProject_Remembrance_Logo.png as October 2006 here. Why? The file was created and uploaded in May 2006, the page was only edited once, in August 2008, so I can't see where it got October 2006 from. Thanks! ➲ redvers ^{see my arsenal} 11:52, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Or I could just scroll up, that's fine too :o) I'll correct the date myself. ➲ redvers ^{see my arsenal} 11:54, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Grin. Rich Farmbrough, 11:54 1 March 2009 (UTC).

Stub tag underneath templates

Hi Rich. I've noticed your bot has been tampering with a lot of my articles where I've tidely tacked the templates onto the bottom of the articles and nestled the stub templates on top. I'm not the only one who has complained about your bot making the bottom template untidy. I gather that the stub template always goes at the bottom of articles but in my view it should go at the bottom of the text NOT foot plates. PLease can you do something about this. Dr. Blofeld ^{White cat} 19:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes it places them right at the end, http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Stub#How_to_mark_an_article_as_a_stub applies, "By convention this is placed at the end of the article, after the External links section, any navigation templates, and the category tags, so that the stub category will appear last" this is historically how it has been done and the position is coded as part of WP:AWB's general fixes. By all means look for a change in the guidelines or take it up at WP:AWB. Rich Farmbrough, 19:55 1 March 2009 (UTC).

Mmm I'm not happy with that one, especially in stub articles it makes the article look a mess if there is a one liner and then a templates stuck half way in the articles and a big gap underneath because of the stub tag. For instance see Thoại Sơn District. Now compare it with Càng Long District. Dr. Blofeld ^{White cat} 19:57, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The big gap is partly due to the layout of the stub template, partly to the nav-box and partly to the usual 2 blank lines above the stub-stack. See how it looks now, especially with the navbox open. Also remember that the navbox is part of the apparatus of the article, the stub template is supposed to be transient. Rich Farmbrough, 20:16 1 March 2009 (UTC).

I guess. It wouldn't look so bad if the articles were fleshed out a little bit but when the gap is bigger than the length of the article it is not a good sight. A shame that few arr developing these articles. SOmebody has to do it. Dr. Blofeld ^{White cat} 20:31, 1 March 2009 (UTC) Best thing is to keep the template open at least for the time being. Looks better if the template is open not closed. Dr. Blofeld ^{White cat} 20:39, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Question (re listas)

Hi! (It's been quite a while since our last interaction.)
Of no great importance, but regarding this edit, if my understanding of "listas" is correct, (and it's entirely possible that my understanding is NOT correct), its main use is to treat the page (in certain circumstances) as though its name is as specified in the "listas". If that is indeed the case, then what's the advantage achieved by "listas" with the same name as the page?
Signed: Easily confused from Adelaide. (Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 01:11, 2 March 2009 (UTC))

There is a category of biography articles without "listas" - this is meant to be used to patrol, clearly nearly all biography articles need a listas, adding it to those which strictly speaking could do without (maybe 2%) will help make maintenance feasible. Rich Farmbrough, 10:05 2 March 2009 (UTC).

How simple and sensible! (aka "What a good idea!") Thanks, Pdfpdf (talk) 10:35, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia Signpost — 2 March 2009

This week, the Wikipedia Signpost published volume 5, issue 9, which includes these articles:

• Books extension enabled
• News and notes: Stewards, Wikimania bids, and more
• Wikipedia in the news: Wikipedia's role in journalism, Smarter Wikipedia, Skittles
• Dispatches: WikiProject Ships Featured topic and Good topics
• Wikiproject report: WikiProject Norse History and Culture
• Discussion report: Discussion Reports And Miscellaneous Articulations
• Features and admins: Approved this week
• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
• Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Delievered by SoxBot II (talk) at 08:36, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

No content in Category:Uncategorized stubs from February 2009

Hello, this is a message from an automated bot. A tag has been placed on Category:Uncategorized stubs from February 2009, by another Wikipedia user, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. The tag claims that it should be speedily deleted because Category:Uncategorized stubs from February 2009 has been empty for at least four days, and its only content has been links to parent categories. (CSD C1).

To contest the tagging and request that administrators wait before possibly deleting Category:Uncategorized stubs from February 2009, please affix the template {{hangon}} to the page, and put a note on its talk page. If the article has already been deleted, see the advice and instructions at WP:WMD. Feel free to contact the bot operator if you have any questions about this or any problems with this bot, bearing in mind that this bot is only informing you of the nomination for speedy deletion; it does not perform any nominations or deletions itself. To see the user who deleted the page, click here CSDWarnBot (talk) 20:30, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot

Hello, Why have you edited the ChoiceOdds article as the site looks terrible. The layout has completed changed and the font is a different size from the original. What was the purpose behind your changes? What was you hoping to achieve?

Can you amend the changes? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.178.217.17 (talk) 11:18, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

The page was laid out with html instead of wikimarkup, fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 15:18 4 March 2009 (UTC).

Consider quoting listas

Hi,

I often see your Add listas parameter in my watchlist. Can you please put listas in quotes: Add "listas" parameter? It will make it more readable.

Thanks in advance. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 14:57, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

DoneRich Farmbrough, 15:17 4 March 2009 (UTC).

CfD nomination of Category:Articles containing English language text

I have nominated Category:Articles containing English language text (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at the discussion page. Thank you. –Dream out loud (talk) 15:16, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Pause date bot?

Hi Rich Farmbrough, could you pause your bot until Commonshelper is fixed? A lot of images end up wrong at Commons because you're bot added a date to the template. Which templates do you plan on changing btw? multichill (talk) 22:02, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your note. SmackBot was dating PD-user Pd-Self and PD-user-retouched based on information from the content of the page, or the current month, but I've now switched over to use purely metadata from the API indicating when it was categorised. Tell me how this may be causing a problem and what commonshelper is. Rich Farmbrough, 22:45 2 March 2009 (UTC).

Commonshelper is a tool for moving images from Wikipedia to Wikimedia Commons. The takes the original info/licence and uses this to construct the new info. See for example this category for images moved from enwp to Commons. The bot converts "{{Self||GFDL|cc-by-sa-3.0}}" to "{{Self|author=[[:en:User:<uploader>|<uploader>]] at [http://wiki.riteme.site en.wikipedia]|GFDL|cc-by-sa-3.0}}" and "{{PD-Self}}" to "{{PD-user-w|en|wikipedia|<uploader>}}". The {{PD-self}} conversion doesn't work (yet) when you add a date. I asked the guy who runs the tool if he could fix it, but didn't get a response yet. multichill (talk) 17:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot repeated edits replacing "unreferenced section" templates

In "Jesus wept", SmackBot took out a pipe, changing {{unreferenced|section|date=December 2008}} to {{Unreferencedsection|date=December 2008}} and then came back again two days later to insert a space, {{Unreferenced section|date=December 2008}}. Can you set it to skip one edit? You may of course have fixed this already. RSVP here. - Fayenatic (talk) 13:57, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this is an "order effect" and easily fixed. Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 14:20 4 March 2009 (UTC).

SmackBot

Hello, I'm a Belgian from Liège, I was reading the page of Wikipédia about belgium, and I'm surprided because I don't see "Pierre Marcolini" and "Galler" the better Belgian Chocolat in the liste of belgian chocolat, the problem is that I can't change, could you do it please?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ozalittle (talk • contribs) 14:45, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot

Hi, your bot removed the orphan tag from the article JEDMICS. Only one page links to this article - is this behaviour intended? --Pgallert (talk) 17:58, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Probably not, I am turning off tagging for now for a number of reasons. Rich Farmbrough, 15:17 8 March 2009 (UTC).

Lamit Company

I saw your comment and I rewrote the article. Can you please remove the discussion box? Regards, Vasile Crist —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.85.57.219 (talk) 00:39, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

vandalism help

A user called Ellipi is vandalising Turkish related articles. This can be seen clearly in Turkmeneli article. The article is suppose to be about the area where Iraqi Turkmen are concentrated, but the user keep refuse them as a race, and label Turkmeneli something nationalists have made up, and other unsources propaganda. Now I try to revert but I get this error: The edit could not be undone due to conflicting intermediate edits. I have sources that can improve the article, but I need the article to be the way it was, that is :(cur) (prev) 01:33, 1 March 2009 Eeekster (talk | contribs) m (775 bytes) (remove blogspot link) (undo)

I have come to know the user Ellipi is very stubborn and keep having revert wars, that's why I'm cautious. Please help. --Bunifa88 (talk) 23:02, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Edits

Do you ever worry that your large number of edits may crash the server? TeH nOmInAtOr (talk) 13:02, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 15:16 8 March 2009 (UTC).

Jersey's Talking

Greetings, Rich Farmbrough,

I am writing to you request your insights regarding how to provide additional validation of "Jersey's Talking," a TV program that was broadcast for years on News 12 New Jersey. The challenges: 1. Though a primetime program for years, "Jersey's Talking" was eventually canceled (as is common with all TV shows), and News 12 New Jersey subsequently removed any mention of it from their website or elsewhere. 2. In addition, at this point in history, the program is cited/mentioned only sparsely on the websites of former guests

However ... this program exists in the minds of many people who followed the program [in New Jersey, New York, and California (namely, Los Angeles)], and I continue to receive requests from viewers who ask that the show be noted on Wikipedia. My qualifications to present this entry are: 1. I am a former print journalism student 2. I spent several years as a paid, full-time journalist for news organizations in New Jersey 3. I personally produced the program from the beginning to the middle of its run, and am therefore a primary resource regarding it's inception, development, and previous guests).

Those who require a cultural footnote regarding this TV show (whether they be viewers, publicists, former guests, or current television programmers) will be corrected my knowledge of: 1. The proper name of the program 2. Former guests 3. The host 4. The program's duration in time

Please let me know what more I can provide to maintain the existence of this article, since Wikipedia is the last bastion of such entries.

Sincerely, --Notablenews (talk) 03:39, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 21:48 8 March 2009 (UTC).

AfD: Cristina Schultz

I'm hoping to get more discussion about a proposal to delete Cristina Schultz. I'm giving this message to all registered users who have contributed to Cristina Schultz or its talk page, except for some with no WP contributions in the last four months, and one WP:SPA with no talk page. Johnuniq (talk) 07:29, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Template talk:Unreferenced section

Hi, would you mind expanding a little on your comment on Template talk:Unreferenced section? We had quite a long discussion on that page which resulted in the change. Reverting it without even an edit summary doesn't help us to understand what was wrong. Thanks, — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:02, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 15:08 9 March 2009 (UTC).

Wikipedia Signpost — 9 March 2009

This week, the Wikipedia Signpost published volume 5, issue 10, which includes these articles:

• News and notes: Commons, conferences, and more
• Wikipedia in the news: Politics, more politics, and more
• Dispatches: 100 Featured sounds milestone
• Wikiproject report: WikiProject Christianity
• Discussion report: Discussion Reports And Miscellaneous Articulations
• Features and admins: Approved this week
• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
• Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Delivered by §hepBot (Disable) at 00:35, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Remainder/Modulus

Sorry to butt in on this (gosh I am getting popular) isn't % pretty much undefined behavior for negative numbers? Well not undefined-- I think it has to be well-defined but the definition need not be the same on every platform (and sheesh programming against four platforms is a PITA). I was just looking at the new IEEE-754 spec for floating point today, lucky me, makes me feel old I remember the 1985 one, but of course that is FP and doesn't cover it as such.

SimonTrew (talk) 01:42, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

What?

Sorry about the dup. there I knew you would catch it so left it. I dunno either. I have been editing rather esoteric articles on computing and your name cropped up. Sorry about that. I am still just getting used to this business, not sure how one goes about chatting out of band.

No worries (I hope) I am confused too. But hopefully my confusion is making Wikipedia better!

SimonTrew (talk) 02:09, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Smackbot mistake Austin E. Knowlton Foundation

It deleted the orphan tag with only one real item linking in. Austin E. Knowlton Foundation

Please fix, as it must look for 3 items that link there, not 3 non-list articles. speednat (talk) 22:11, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Tagger turned of until fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 17:35 18 March 2009 (UTC).

Page created by SmackBot up for deletion

It looks like SmackBot created 1984 (album) (disambiguation) , which has been nominated for deletion. Deletion seems correct in this case as having two parenthetical disambiguators is ugly and confusing in my opinion. Is SmackBot creating pages like these deliberately or was this an error? Note as a separate line of enquiry on this issue, I've put a note at WT:WPDAB#Strange page created by SmackBot to determine what members of the DAB project think about such pages, as I may very well be out-of-step with consensus in my views. Thanks, --Rogerb67 (talk) 23:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

The articleissues template

Hi, on the Integrated business planning I used the wrong tag {{articleissues}} in stead of {{article issues}}.

Now SmackBot removed the tag, see here, instead of correction it.

Maybe this was your intention, maybe not. I just wanted to let you know. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 23:43, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

TY investigating. Rich Farmbrough, 10:33 12 March 2009 (UTC).

OK tested (User:Rich Farmbrough/temp12) and currently working. Rich Farmbrough, 04:19 14 March 2009 (UTC).

Smackbot omitted brace

I just noticed an edit that made a change and removed one of the template closing braces (twice). Changes were (result has '}' rather than '}}'):

• {{Advert|date=2009-02-15}} → {{Advert|date=February 2009}
• {{fact|date=2009-02-15}} → {{Fact|date=February 2009}

An anon editor fixed one, and I fixed the other. This is just FYI. Johnuniq (talk) 06:50, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

TY investigatign. Rich Farmbrough, 10:33 12 March 2009 (UTC).

OK I tested this at User:Rich Farmbrough/temp11 and it seems to be fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 04:15 14 March 2009 (UTC).

SmackBot issue

Dodgy diff: [1]. Fixed some things properly but also broke some wikilinks. It appears to have been trying to remove links pointing to the page it's already at, which is right, but didn't quite do it right. Cheers! AllynJ (talk | contribs) 15:10, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot makes a number of changes that are available to all WP:AWB bots - in general these provide a number of non-controversial minor improvements.

The issue you raise is related to these, I have left, or will leave, a message about your concerns on the WP:AWB pages.

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 12:34 13 March 2009 (UTC).

Small query re: SmackBot edit

Hello Rich. If you have a moment, could you look at (or explain) why SmackBot removed {{uncat}} here? Doesn't make sense to me. Thanks. CIreland (talk) 13:05, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

There is a bug in the WP:AWB tagger, I've turned it off. Rich Farmbrough, 13:56 14 March 2009 (UTC).

Stub Category

I was not aware about that. Shall take care in future edits. Paalappoo (talk) 13:57, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Expand tags

Hi, I just noticed this edit. Does SmackBot still does this job? If not, could it be turned on again. :) Garion96 (talk) 23:28, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Just done a run of these. Rich Farmbrough, 17:36 18 March 2009 (UTC).

JEDMICS again

Hi, your bot removed the orphan tag from the article JEDMICS. Only one page links to this article - is this behaviour intended? --Pgallert (talk) 17:58, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Probably not, I am turning off tagging for now for a number of reasons. Rich Farmbrough, 15:17 8 March 2009 (UTC).

Does "probably" mean you don't know what exactly the bot is supposed to be doing? 8-) Anyway, it did it again. Just to let you know. --Pgallert (talk) 13:58, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra

Why is SmackBot removing {{expand}} from stub articles? They obviously need to be expanded, especially this one... - CobaltBlueTony™ _talk 18:09, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot capitalization

This edit by SmackBot seems kind of silly. Even more so when you realize SmackBot came back and removed the tag entirely an hour and a half later. --Pascal⁶⁶⁶ 19:05, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 17:36 18 March 2009 (UTC).

Changes to a "cite book" date

I have a {{cite book}} here where among other things the bot changed

< | date = 01-01-05

-

> | date = January 01-05

1. I don't think there's a reliable way for a machine to determine what the date is for 01-01-05 as we don't know if it's Y-M-D or D-M-Y and don't know if it's 1901, 1905, 2001, or 2005. Thus it seems better for the bot to add a comment "Unable to parse this date" and perhaps a link to how to better enter the date. An alternative would be to correct the date using a "best guess" but to also add a commenting that SmackBot saw "01-01-05" and decoded this as "January 01-05" so that someone looking at this far down the line will know why there's a "January 01-05" in the article.
2. The help for the date cit book field says Full date of publication edition being referenced, in the same format as the main text of the article. Must not be wikilinked. How does SmackBot determine the format of the date for the main text? The article itself has no dates though there's a template that includes "|date=January 2009".

--Marc Kupper|talk 23:06, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

In general SB should leave cite-books alone so the questions shouldn't arise. As you say dates of this format are generally indecipherable anyway. I will look into the reason it wanted to change the date and try to persuade it not to. It is probably a bit of generic code that fixes spelling errors in month names - and has included 01 as a "spelling error" for January. Rich Farmbrough, 09:24 17 March 2009 (UTC).

Wikipedia Signpost — 16 March 2009

Unsubscribe · Single-page · Full edition »

  — 16 March 2009

• News and notes: License update, Commons cartoons, films milestone, and more
• Wikipedia in the news: Manufactured scandal, Wikipedia assignments, and more
• Dispatches: New FAC and FAR appointments
• Discussion report: Discussion Reports And Miscellaneous Articulations
• Features and admins: Approved this week
• Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Delivered by §hepBot (Disable) at 23:43, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Out of band chatting/Smackbot

Thanks for the advice about referring to articles or pages rather than assuming the other person knows-- it is kinda bleeding obvious in a way, but when you are on an article or whatever and have seen that someone else has made a recent edit etc I kinda assume they would link it up.

This assumption is quite patently false, but I am sure it will reoccur from time to time in the future, so let me apologise in advance if it happens to be you! We seem to have overlapping interests but not excessively: a couple of others I wonder sometimes if they are stalking me :) seems every time I make a change they are there.

Best wishes and keep up the good work! SimonTrew (talk) 18:59, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

BTW I like Smackbot saves a lot of gruesome work. "Let the machine do the work" I forget what article that is in, but my grandfather used to say "Let the tool do the job" which is much the same thing. I often put just and stuff in articles and let Smacbot fill them in-- is that considered OK? I don't know what its schedule is or whatever, I tend to edit when I think no-one is watching (i.e. cos it is very geographically specific and they'll all be asleep, or just because the article is incredibly dull and has had no discussion etc) SimonTrew (talk) 19:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Interest in Web 3.0

I saw on its deletion log that you had restored the Web 3.0 article back in 2006 (which keeps getting deleted). In my user space I am leisurely brainstorming ways to get the article to stick around. If you are interested in helping, or know anyone who might be interested in helping...the help would be greatly appreciated. --...but what do you think? ~B F^izz _(talk) 07:45, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I cannot remeber why I restored the article, though I must have had a good reason. However the article was quite extensive and has been useryfied here. Rich Farmbrough, 09:51 18 March 2009 (UTC).

Thanks for the tip! --...but what do you think? ~B F^izz _(talk) 16:53, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Solarmer Energy, Inc.

I have referenced the information on the Solarmer article. Please verify. Solarmer (talk) 16:55, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Moving {{redirect}} out of section

Smackbot is moving said template to the very top of the page. In this case I don't think that's desireable because the redirect leads to that section. Is there a guideline that says the template should be at the top? If not, could you make the bot stop that particular action? (Maybe you could let it check if the redirect wears a {{R to list entry}} tag?) Regards, -- Goodraise (talk) 00:26, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding listas= that repeats article title

Out of curiosity, what is the reason for adding "|listas = Philitas of Cos" to Talk:Philitas of Cos? I had thought that when the article title was already sorted properly, there was no need for listas=. Eubulides (talk) 00:30, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

There is a category of biography articles without "listas" - this is meant to be used to patrol, clearly nearly all biography articles need a listas, adding it to those which strictly speaking could do without (maybe 2%) will help make maintenance feasible. Rich Farmbrough, 10:05 2 March 2009 (UTC).

Table

Smackbot made the first line ({| border="0" cellpadding="4") of a table within an image at Time zone#Skewing of zones a continuation of the caption without a break. Apparently all tables must begin on a new line or the wiki software doesn't recognize it as a valid table. I've fixed this but be forewarned. — Joe Kress (talk) 03:38, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Why does smackbot reorder references?

E.g. here. At times, the order might not matter, but in general, I find ordering useful. For example, if one sentence contains two facts that should be sourced, the first reference should source the first fact. There might also be other cases in which one does want the order preserved (order by date or relevance). Having a bot order all these by, what I guess, is alphabetic, messes all that up. --Xeeron (talk) 10:39, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot makes a number of changes that are available to all WP:AWB bots - in general these provide a number of non-controversial minor improvements.

The issue you raise is related to these, I have left, or will leave, a message about your concerns on the WP:AWB pages. I would think it would make sense to numerically order the footnotes, if another order is relevant they should probably be dispersed through the sentence.

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 15:15 21 March 2009 (UTC).

Sharai parda

Can you create this article, mark it as patrolled, and delete it immediately? There is a bug with the newpage patrol backlog listing that prevents anyone from marking it as patrolled, yet it populates the list of articles to patrol.

Normally, the procedure in such a situation would be to create the article with a {{g6}} tag, but in this case the article has been protected against recreation. -- Blanchardb -^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}- timed 00:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. Rich Farmbrough, 14:41 23 March 2009 (UTC).

{{Recently revised}}

Could you somehow implement a "date=" parameter in this template so Smackbot can do its magic?Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 13:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. Rich Farmbrough, 18:17 23 March 2009 (UTC).

Biography articles without living parameter

Hi. Can you please exclude talk pages of non-articles from Category:Biography articles without living parameter in WPBiography template as you did with listas? -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:22, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

 Done Rich Farmbrough, 16:44 25 March 2009 (UTC).

Wikipedia Signpost: 23 March 2009

• From the editor: Reviewing books for the Signpost
• Special report: Abuse Filter is enabled
• News and notes: Flaggedrevs, copyright project, fundraising reports, and more
• Wikipedia in the news: Alternatives, IWF threats, and more
• Features and admins: Approved this week
• Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe

Delievered by SoxBot II (talk) at 04:29, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Historic smackbot problem

Rather late now, but I've just found this. You may wish to investigate the bots actions - I'll attempt to fix the problem with the article itself. —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 15:52, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot makes a number of changes that are available to all WP:AWB bots - in general these provide a number of non-controversial minor improvements.

The issue you raise is related to these, and has already been fixed by the developers of WP:AWB.

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 16:43 25 March 2009 (UTC).

Ok - thanks. —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 17:07, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot and maintenance tags with nested templates

SmackBot's recent edit to HD 80606 broke the maintenance tag. Seems to have incorrectly inserted the date in a nested template. [2] Icalanise (talk) 19:02, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot bug

Hi Rich. Please see this edit by SmackBot. I think there is some kind of bug related to the fixing of references' date, because the date 2006-01-03 for this reference was correct and March 2009 is not. Beagel (talk) 16:57, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

• Please ask the bot to justify this edit. At the time there were zero useful incoming links and just one outgoing link. — RHaworth (Talk | contribs) 07:57, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

SmackBot bug

This edit was not helpful; it changed a template instead of adding a piped date field. -LtNOWIS (talk) 07:59, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks fixed . Rich Farmbrough, 17:09 29 March 2009 (UTC).

Tag in articles

• This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

When the a tag like this is placed on article and it says that unsourced material may be challenged and removed by such a date, who decides to delete it or to keep it. I have seen many articles with a date a year old. --Juliaaltagracia (talk) 00:42, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

It is not "by" that date, the date is when the tag was added (roughly and in general) - and any editor can remove unsourced material if they think its the right thing to do. There are categories by date (preferences, Misc, show hidden categories) to help clear these up - ideally by sourcing the data, but if necessary by removing it. See WP:BACKLOG for more details. Rich Farmbrough, 01:44 30 March 2009 (UTC).

• Thank you.--Juliaaltagracia (talk) 01:50, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Queen of Swords

• I have been the main editor of QoS since about September last year when this show was first shown in the UK seven years after cancellation. As for the cancellation section, I only wrote the last line from a youtube note. This show's only info comes from Anthony de Longis website, archives of the defunct QoS website and the French DVD compared with the broadcast american version. For any show to be cancelled is probably poor ratings to costs and this was a very expensive show to produce compared to other Fireworks productions ie La Femme Nikita, Adventure Inc etc. I think this Cancelled section could be removed as I do not think we will ever get a definitve answer. I have looked but to no avail.
• As for Trivia sections, I know some editors are not so keen and I could move my entries re the horses to "production notes" and the bit about "Avenging Angel to the opening statement( I never wrote that piece). Let me know, I have complied with other editors requests to keep this article going as they want itREVUpminster (talk) 07:13, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 09:48 30 March 2009 (UTC).

I have removed the cancellation section because of the above and items in the trivia section moved elsewhere in articleREVUpminster (talk) 10:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Help

Appreciate your help in the past on Lichtenstein Medal. Can you help columnate American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame - I tried to copy what you did and failed miserably.Wikited (talk) 00:14, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. You're a great help and appreciated.Wikited (talk) 11:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

By whom broken

See Template talk:By whom.Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 08:15, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Casablanca directive

This edit altered date formats which were part of a name of a book. --PBS (talk) 13:58, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Template:By whom

It looked as if you logged out after doing this, so I went to ANI first to get a quick reaction from an admin. See Talk:List of common misconceptions#Weasel Tags and WP:ANI#Important template broken and protected. --Hans Adler (talk) 15:55, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I've simply reverted the edit, to get back to the unbroken state. I haven't a hope in hell of fixing your fix, as templates are a total black art to me. Hope that's OK! Tonywalton ^Talk 16:09, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course. Revert first then worry later is the order of the day with templates. Rich Farmbrough, 16:30 31 March 2009 (UTC).

Wikipedia Signpost: 30 March 2009

• From the editor: Follow the Signpost with RSS and Twitter
• Special report: Community weighs license update
• News and notes: End of Encarta, flagged revisions poll, new image donation, and more
• Wikipedia in the news: Censorship, social media in schools, and more
• Discussion report: Discussion Reports And Miscellaneous Articulations
• Features and admins: Approved this week
• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
• Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe

Delievered by SoxBot II (talk) at 20:28, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

TOC help question

Rich, I'm ask this here because you seem to know about template coding from our interactions in the past. I have a question regarding Template:TOClimit: Would it be possible to add a toggle to the TOClimit template itself that turns the limit off? (Or is there another TOC template that does both?) I use the TOC primarily to see the organization of an article I am editing, especially a longer one, at a glance. A set limit prevents that, but a toggle to show the full TOC would be a nice option. Another editor has been adding the TOClimit to many aircraft articles, and it's use is a bone of contention between us. WIth a toggle, I'd have no objection to its use at all, but as of now, there's no way to see full TOC when the limiter is used. If you aren't able to help me directly, do you know of someone who can? (I asked on the Template talk:TOClimit page, but got no response from anyone who could make the changes.) Thanks. - Thanks. - BillCJ (talk) 10:05, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Bubble tea!

-download | sign! has given you a bubble tea! Bubble teas promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a bubble tea, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy drinking!

Spread the bubbliness of bubble teas by adding {{subst:bubble tea}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message!

Thank you. Rich Farmbrough, 09:47 30 March 2009 (UTC).

Quick question

Hi, Rich! Recently, I've seen an influx of edits such as this one by you. Could you, please, explain its purpose? Thanks!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:21, March 23, 2009 (UTC)

There is a category of biography articles without "listas" - this is meant to be used to patrol, clearly nearly all biography articles need a listas, adding it to those which strictly speaking could do without (maybe 2%) will help make maintenance feasible. Rich Farmbrough, 16:45 25 March 2009 (UTC).

Problems with article for Antonio Munoz

Hi! I am totally lost! I don't know how to wikify my article and then submit it for publishing. Here is the link: http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Antonio_Mu%C3%B1oz_(actor)&oldid=280330011

Thanks for your help!

I have done some work on it. Rich Farmbrough, 17:17 29 March 2009 (UTC).