User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2011 January

United States records in masters athletics

Since you have taken it upon yourself to rename the article, you obviously have administrative rights. Could you also place a redirect on this article as "American records in masters athletics"? That is a likely word substitution. Trackinfo (talk) 07:24, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I beleive move is still open to any confirmed user. Also creating redirects, however, 'tis done. Rich Farmbrough, 11:26, 20 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

AWB

I am trying to get AWB's external processing started and use a perl script. How to I get a pl script to process a wiki page? Snowman (talk) 18:06, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Set program or script to "perl", then choose suitable name for the file, I chose test.txt, then set up the command line arguments, again in my case "test.pl < test.txt > test.txt". Exactly how it works is dependent on your script, for example you could call a batch file which deals with calling perl and file renaming. I'm not sure I ever used the system in anger though. Rich Farmbrough, 18:49, 24 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Using that style, then I presume that a file named "test.txt" is needed and a pl named "test.pl" is needed. Will this get the article lines into an array in a working pl script? I presume that I would need to write the processed file to the "test.txt" file, or can it be a different output file? Snowman (talk) 23:51, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

my $soursefile;
$soursefile="test.txt";
# print "$soursefile\n";
open FILETEXT, "$soursefile";
@soursefile = <FILETEXT>;
close (FILESTEXT);

That looks good to me. No need to quote the variable. I haven't used the file label in an array context my self but I believe it works. (Source is spelled with a "c" by the way.)

Yes the output file needs to be the same, you can simply overwrite the input file, or do re-naming jiggery-pokery. Rich Farmbrough, 00:36, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Thank you. With only one file to use, the file name could have been written in directly. Using an array means that the page is divided into portions with line ends at the end, which I see are "/012" on my Windows system. I usually open and the close a file a soon as possible, but that usually means reopening the file later. It wrote to the file and I see that the changes are shown on the diff screen in AWB. Snowman (talk) 18:14, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way of passing the file/image name or page name to the script? Snowman (talk) 20:49, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes use the "prepend" function in AWB and add %%title%%, then strip this off in the perl. Rich Farmbrough, 15:08, 28 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

I had already tried that, but it does not work. I think that the external script sees the file before AWB, or at least before AWB prepends the page name. Reedy wrote something at Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser#External_processing, but I do not understand C#. Do you have any other ideas. Snowman (talk) 23:59, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's an order effect. Solution is, depending on number of pages, 2 pass or feature request. Rich Farmbrough, 06:51, 30 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Actually I'll put the FR in anyway. Rich Farmbrough, 06:52, 30 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 43

Template: . *

Edits by:

Rich Farmbrough at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).

Never edited by BAG.
Last edit by me at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Rich Farmbrough at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 13:23, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 36

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 16:42, 3 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 16:42, 3 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 17:14, 15 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 16:42, 3 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 16:42, 3 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 17:00, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 39

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 16:40, 3 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 16:40, 3 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 18:57, 1 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 16:40, 3 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 16:40, 3 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 17:00, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 40

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EdoDodo at 11:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by EdoDodo at 11:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 19:41, 1 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by EdoDodo at 11:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by EdoDodo at 11:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:14, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ISO_639_name_XXX templates

Howdy. Posting this here as you seem to be (or have been) the main creator of the ISO_639_name_XX templates - please do let me know if there's somewhere more relevant I've overlooked.

As part of an unrelated task I've generated a list of attempts to transclude missing templates starting 'ISO_639_name_'. We've around 3100 of them, ranging from the most popular Template:ISO_639_name_zh-Hani (422 attempted transclusions) down to 320 or so templates with only one attempted translcusion. The former and a few dozne like it represent either missing templates or a misunderstanding of thier purpose while the latter are probably mostly typos.

Would the details of these links be useful to you or anyone else ? - TB (talk) 13:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 17:44, 8 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

BAGBot: Your bot request SmackBot 40

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 11:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 11:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 11:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 11:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:20, 12 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 37

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Edits by:

Rich Farmbrough at 17:48, 10 October 2010 (UTC).
H3llkn0wz at 10:32, 11 October 2010 (UTC).
Rich Farmbrough at 14:29, 13 October 2010 (UTC).
H3llkn0wz at 14:49, 13 October 2010 (UTC).
Rich Farmbrough at 15:22, 13 October 2010 (UTC).
Rich Farmbrough at 14:30, 13 October 2010 (UTC).
MBisanz at 23:55, 14 October 2010 (UTC).
Rich Farmbrough at 18:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 18:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:20, 12 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 19:41, 1 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:20, 12 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 16:15, 12 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 16:15, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 03:55, 17 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 16:15, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 16:15, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 16:50, 12 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

London Wikimedia Fundraiser

Good evening! This is a friendly message from Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry, inviting you to the London Wikimedia Fundraising party on 19th December 2010, in approximately one week. This party is being held at an artistic London venue with room for approximately 300 people, and is being funded by Ed Saperia, a non-Wikipedian who has a reputation for holding exclusive events all over London. This year, he wants to help Wikipedia, and is subsidising a charity event for us. We're keen to get as many Wikimedians coming as possible, and we already have approximately 200 guests, including members of the press, and some mystery guests! More details can be found at http://twiki.riteme.site/wiki/London - expect an Eigenharp, a mulled wine hot tub, a free hog roast, a haybale amphitheatre and more. If you're interested in coming - and we'd love to have you - please go to the ten.wikipedia page and follow the link to the Facebook event. Signing up on Facebook will add you to the party guestlist. Entry fee is a heavily subsidised £5 and entry is restricted to over 18s. It promises to be a 10th birthday party to remember! If you have any questions, please email me at chasemewiki at gmail.com.

Hope we'll see you there, (and apologies for the talk page spam) - Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (talk) 23:48, 12 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 42

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Edits by:

Jarry1250 at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 16:59, 14 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Jarry1250 at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 20:06, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 December 2010

News and notes: Wikipedia articles expert-reviewed by Encyclopedia of Life, and more

In the news: Confusion about Wikileaks continues, Wikipedia vs. Britannica in India, and more

Rencontres Wikimédia: Wikimedia and the cultural sector: two days of talks in Paris.

WikiProject report: WikiProject Algae

Features and admins: The best of the week

Election report: The community has spoken

Arbitration report: Requested amendment re Pseudoscience case

Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 01:40, 14 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FemtoBot 6 project task

I would like to add Wikipedia:WikiProject Algae and Wikipedia:WikiProject Veterinary Medicine to this bot's project updates. How do I go about this? --Kleopatra (talk) 03:18, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Added. Rich Farmbrough, 09:46, 27 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Rich Farmbrough, 10:15, 27 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Could you also add Wikipedia:WikiProject United States please. This seems fairly close to what I had asked about above. --Kumioko (talk) 14:06, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, good. I thought it was close but not close enough. Rich Farmbrough, 15:06, 27 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Here. Rich Farmbrough, 15:13, 27 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks, Rich. --Kleopatra (talk) 15:47, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes thanks. This is a big help. Would it be possible to do it for talk pages as well? --Kumioko (talk) 17:28, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Uh. I suppose so... Rich Farmbrough, 17:42, 27 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Done. Here. Rich Farmbrough, 09:20, 9 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

I would like to request the same for Wikipedia:WikiProject Hospitals and Wikipedia:WikiProject Dams. Thanks Rich! Ng.j (talk) 16:55, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here.
And here. Rich Farmbrough, 06:41, 15 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Many thanks! Ng.j (talk) 12:02, 18 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 41

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Edits by:

H3llkn0wz at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 13:41, 5 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by H3llkn0wz at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:54, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 42

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Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 16:59, 14 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 12:55, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Half price's talk page.
Message added 13:10, 20 December 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

List of elections in year

Howdy. Handy lists, but it looks like your bot picked up quite a few election articles in user-space. I've unlinked them for now on the assumption that this wasn't your intention. - TB (talk) 19:00, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, there is still more to, but I got blocked over them, which rather dampened my enthusiasm. Rich Farmbrough, 18:57, 21 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Blocked user's name change request

Hi! Just wanted to ask a clarifying question - the user you unblocked, User:ICIWORLD, had requested a name change in the unblock template to Hojuhanguk. Were you (or someone else) going to go ahead and do that, or does he/she need to file a request at WP:CHU? Thanks!

-- Joren (talk) 19:45, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes they should request at CHU. Rich Farmbrough, 19:52, 20 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 20 December 2010

News and notes: Article Alerts back from the dead, plus news in brief

In the news: Faulty story urges for advertising on Wikipedia; brief news

Image donation: Christmas gift to Commons from the State Library of Queensland

Discussion report: Should leaked documents be cited on Wikipedia?

WikiProject report: Majestic Titans

Features and admins: The best of the week

Arbitration report: Motion passed in R&I case; ban appeals, amendment requests, and more

Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 02:46, 21 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 38

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Edits by:

H3llkn0wz at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 19:12, 14 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by H3llkn0wz at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 14:22, 21 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at [[User talk:Trackinfo (talk) 21:35, 21 December 2010 (UTC)|User talk:Trackinfo (talk) 21:35, 21 December 2010 (UTC)]].[reply]
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 37

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Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 18:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 11:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:24, 22 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 38

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Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 19:12, 14 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 13:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:24, 22 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot

William J. Mann - putting a colon in front of template names, breaking templates. Yworo (talk) 19:07, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

thanks, fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 22:45, 29 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

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Edits by:

Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 04:23, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

response to a SmackBot edit that seems to need a response

Dear Richard Farmbrough,

It seems to me that the recent SmackBot edit of Extremal principles in non-equilibrium thermodynamics is partly the work of a real person as well as of a robot; I have to say I don't really understand this bot process, and perhaps I am misinterpreting things.

Howsoever. The edit complains: "This article is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2010)"

The subject matter here is conceptually difficult, and there are no simple answers that I have found by reading the literature within the scope of my admittedly limited ability.

The subject matter here attracts writing from people who think they understand it, but are really putting a point of view that I think is one of the many pseudo-scientific '-isms'. The serious experts, regrettably, don't write here, because they are publishing elsewhere. I regret that I cannot write a crisp dogmatic exposition of the subject; indeed I have my doubts that there are many who could do so. So far as I understand, the acronym Wiki stands for "what I know is". If I could write something more "encyclopaedic", I would do so, but that would make me a serious expert and I would probably not be writing in the Wikipedia on this subject. I have simply tried to assemble and summarize the most expert opinions I can find. I think it just a little over the top for a bot to complain that I am writing a "personal reflection or essay", and to demand a "cleanup". If, by some other means than such a bot tag, you can find a real expert to improve the article, I will be glad. But I fear that this bot tag is more likely to be read by pseudo-experts as an open invitation to write their points of view, than to be effective in persuading a real expert to do a real cleanup. It can be very tiresome to deal with pseudo-experts, who are often very convinced that they have "the answer", but in fact don't really even understand the problem. Therefore I would like to respectfully ask you to remove the bot tag, because I don't envisage it actually leading to a better article, and indeed I envisage that it might do more harm than good.Chjoaygame (talk) 00:03, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Actually, all smackbot did was add the date to the template. This link compares smackbot's edit with the one right before (this is called a diff). The tag {{essay}} was already there. It was added by a human user in this edit. If you contact them, I'm sure they would be happy to explain their reasoning. I hope this helps! --- cymru.lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 00:11, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for this helpful advice.Chjoaygame (talk) 03:49, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bishop's Stopford

Hi, I see you have been tweaking this article again but you still haven't cited a source for the bit about "forgiveness" vs. caning and in particular the ceremony of the two pairs of shorts. A year or two ago you told me you would get round to this. As it stands, it reads like original research. -- Alarics (talk) 09:57, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done Rich Farmbrough, 10:10, 31 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot

Thanks for flagging up uncited claim. I have rewritten until/unless I can get a citation 89.240.199.232 (talk) 18:15, 31 December 2010 (UTC)![reply]

Thank you. Likely SmackBot merely dated the tag, though. Rich Farmbrough, 13:03, 1 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

BAGBot: Your bot request Mirror Bot

Someone has marked Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Mirror Bot as needing your input. Please visit that page to reply to the requests. Thanks! AnomieBOT ⚡ 04:12, 2 January 2011 (UTC) To opt out of these notifications, place {{bots|optout=operatorassistanceneeded}} anywhere on this page.[reply]

Steven Schmidt

A suggestion has been made that your recent edit to Sarah Palin be moved to Public image of Sarah Palin. Please consider the move and your participation in the discussion at Talk:Sarah Palin#Steven Schmidt. Buster Seven Talk 18:39, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"SharpevilleNo"?

Hi Rich - is this a mistake, or is there something I've missed in the discussion? Shouldn't this simply have been moved to Sharpeville? Grutness...wha? 05:17, 28 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes absolutely. For some reason text is getting entered in fields after the caret has been moved elsewhere. A new form of lag I suppose. Rich Farmbrough, 08:27, 29 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Happy, happy

Happy New Year, and all the best to you and yours! (from warm Cuba) Bzuk (talk) 15:45, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Joy joy! It's cold here but we had fireworks too! Rich Farmbrough, 16:04, 1 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

BAGBot: Your bot request Femto Bot 4

Someone has marked Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4 as needing your input. Please visit that page to reply to the requests. Thanks! AnomieBOT ⚡ 04:19, 2 January 2011 (UTC) To opt out of these notifications, place {{bots|optout=operatorassistanceneeded}} anywhere on this page.[reply]

Void albums

Just curious... You placed a {{hangon}} tag on Category:Void albums - did you mean to? Did you have some reason that category should be kept? Thanks! -- SatyrTN (talk / contribs) 00:17, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 02:49, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Footnotes

Portal

"perhaps you would do the featured wildlife section?" Huh? Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 19:50, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What about it? I still have no clue what you're trying to say because you're not giving me any context. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 19:55, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FYI

I think you might want to see Template_talk:!#Edit_request_from_Cymru.lass.2C_28_December_2010. Debresser (talk) 05:02, 29 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Template talk:!.
Message added 04:26, 30 December 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

And again. (Thank you

--- cymru.lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 18:08, 30 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Templates {{Today (mdy)}} and {{Today (dmy)}} reversed?

Hi Rich. I was thinking about using the above templates which you wrote, but they seem reversed. {{Today (mdy)}} gives 2 January 2011 (live template here: November 20, 2024), and {{Today (dmy)}} gives January 2, 2011 (live template here: 20 November 2024). As I understand it, 'mdy' format should put the month first, see Template:Use mdy dates. I'm happy to reverse them, but thought I'd check with you first. CuriousEric^Talk 23:11, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hah! Well spotted! .... Rich Farmbrough, 17:15, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Fixed,I simply made them redirects to each other. Rich Farmbrough, 17:22, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

They look good now, thanks. CuriousEric^Talk 05:26, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: {{BAG assistance needed}}. *

Edits by:

H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:42, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by H3llkn0wz at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:23, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Li Ang

You added ^{[self-published source?]} to this article. The reference is to an original article. I am not the author and the wikipedia article was not written by the same person. I think this article might be lifted from the article I cited. My point is my citation is to a bonafide article and any prob is with the wiki text. Mark^Dask 17:46, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot does not generally add tags, but merely dates those that are already there. Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 17:49, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

ooh right - I'm learning - thanks. Mark^Dask 18:10, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2011 January 3.
Message added 02:34, 4 January 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

A question about stub templates

I have an idea for a consolidation of the stub templates relating to US and I wanted to solicit your opinion first. What I would like to do is make it so that we use a central template as a base and then use parameter to denote the substub so to speak. For example if we say that {{US-stub}} is the main stub template and then we make a parameter for Biography then we could eliminate that {{US-bio-stub}} template. I know this makes the logic a bit more complicated and makes the template a little more complicated to use but I think in the end it would simplify the use of the several hundred stub templates that are in use for the US related articles. I also want to clarify that I know that we cannot consolidate 400 templates into 1 but there are about 30 that relate just to high level US so I think if even some are consolidated it will be an improvement. --Kumioko (talk) 21:00, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support the idea, but probably not a good idea to do it just for US articles. I think the whole system would be more manageable if parameters were fed to a single template, e.g. {{stub|US}} or {{stub|US-bio}}. By the way, you might be interested in Template:Multiple stub which has been listed at SfD. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:38, 26 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hm well, I have considered the fundamental question "separate templates v.s parameters" many times. In this case I am not convinced the case for moving to parameters has been made

The cognitive load is the same, whether you have {Stub|US|biog}, {Stub-US|biog} or {US-biog-stub}
The stub-sorters are basically a team of 3 to 4 people, PamD, Grutness, Her Pegship and one other. They know the stub templates intimately.
The stub templates are reasonably consistent, we should not have an enclave of inconsistency.

There are possibilities, using a permutation template and a translation structure (and given that stubs are de-facto small) it might be possible to create a stub template that allowed a hand-full of keywords and categorized accordingly. This would however create a lot of problems too. Rich Farmbrough, 18:56, 27 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Thank you for the detailed reply. I am rather on the fence with it myself. On the one hand it seems unnecessary to have over 200 templates related to US stubs but on the other I also know that it would have downsides as well. I guess I will have to think on this and some more research into how big (or not big) the issue is. thanks again. --Kumioko (talk) 19:27, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:BASEPAGENAME

Template:BASEPAGENAME has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. cymru.lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 06:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Expand section section

section parameter in expand section :) -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:44, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. Very old version. This should not happen anymore since the template is being deleted. Rich Farmbrough, 14:47, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

There should be no Expand|section anymore since I replaced them all. I reported it just for your information. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:49, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your AWB changes to US State are being redirected

I patrol all communities in Iowa and I just checked the edits you are changing to US state when it should be U.S. state. Just letting you know. --RifeIdeas Talk 02:37, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 02:50, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

(ec) The authoritative Chicago MoS has reversed its previous insistence on U dot S dot, and has now banned them. Some titles retain the dots and will take years to catch up, no doubt. Please see this thread. Tony (talk) 02:51, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to but in here but was this change from U.S. to US addressed somewhere like the village pump (policy) maybe. I know that the Chicago MoS is a respected standard but I see no reason why we on WP Have to follow it and I also prefer the use of U.S. When I reviewed the Discussion on the MOS page linked to above it appeared as though it garnered only minimal activity and I would hardly consider that a concensus. Before we go spending thousands or millions of edits changing these from one to the other, likely only to have it change again when the update the manual again in 3 or 4 years, perhaps we should discuss it a little more...Any thoughts? --Kumioko (talk) 03:27, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am a Wiki newbie and am just learning so I have no opinion. But thanks for the threads I read, I have learned a little more.--RifeIdeas Talk 03:34, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We value (almost) all contributions on this talk page! Rich Farmbrough, 03:43, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Yes, this is a second order decision, I have not moved the article itself. I merely chose a redirect as a preferable target to either the article or the old target, to link "state" to. The reasoning is on RifeIdeas talk page. Since this is a piped link the page display is not affected, merely a little overhead traversing the redirect. The belief is that the article will move some time in the next few years. Of course the Moores Law hypothesis might suggest that it's better to wait for it to move if it later than X months^{[US State 1]}, and change the then redirect, however WP is very resistant to allowing redirect updates, due to some basic mis-understandings. Rich Farmbrough, 03:43, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Im sorry Im still confused, where was the consensus that we should start changing all these? I still think this is something that should be discussed first. --Kumioko (talk) 05:47, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not changing U.S. to US. Rich Farmbrough, 06:05, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

No, you are adding a piped link to a redirect to hundreds or thousands of pages, when you could just as easily have used the piped link to the correct page instead. For someone so busy eliminating redirects, it seems a bit strange to use one, since it has no benefit and a clear disadvantage. Fram (talk) 15:29, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DRV

I opened a DRV here on the Sarah Palin thing for you. The restoring was out of line, but instead of starting a wheel war I'm just throwing it here. Wizardman _{Operation Big Bear} 03:05, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Didn't seem worth a DRV to me. Rich Farmbrough, 03:22, 25 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Define what falls under the responsibilities of the Bot Approval group

I created a discussion at Define what falls under the responsibilities of the Bot Approval group regarding some of the comments made here so we can put a stop to this nonsense once and for all. --Kumioko (talk) 01:49, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 40

Template: A user has requested the attention of the operator. Once the operator has seen this message and replied, please deactivate this tag. (user notified). *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 19:41, 1 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Jarry1250 at 11:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:25, 22 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 41

Template: {{BAG assistance needed}}. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 13:41, 5 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 12:25, 19 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 11:25, 22 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of {{Expand}}

Most instances I've found are replaceable with {{expand-section}} or {{incomplete}} so that's what I'm doing. I'm not zapping it unless the article doesn't seem to have any readily obvious need for expansion. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 13:31, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I didn't suppose you were zapping them. The template was TfD'd in April, overturned on DRV. Rich Farmbrough, 13:53, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Hint: Don't use templates in section headers, as it makes them inaccessible through the default edit summaries. Hey Mid (contribs) 13:59, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note

Not sure what you meant to do. --Muhandes (talk) 19:39, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've got to wonder to... how are you running that search? With or with out respect to template? - J Greb (talk) 01:11, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a little bug crept into the regex. Need to smarten those rules a little in other ways too, meanwhile I'll turn them off. Rich Farmbrough, 09:33, 5 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: A user has requested the attention of a member of the Bot Approvals Group. Once assistance has been rendered, please deactivate this tag by replacing it with {{t|BAG assistance needed}}. . *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:05, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 23:19, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 23:57, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion nomination of Template:$1$2

Please refrain from introducing inappropriate pages, such as Template:$1$2, to Wikipedia. Doing so is not in accordance with our policies. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hang on}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion, or "db", tag; if no such tag exists, then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hang-on tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. — This, that, and the other (talk) 00:47, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ZOMG! Rich Farmbrough, 09:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

My apologies, Rich. I should have at least turned off the notification (in Twinkle), and probably not specified the CSD as "pure vandalism". You see, I didn't realise you were the creator. — This, that, and the other (talk) 09:33, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Like is say, no worries, brought a smile to my face, and the template is better gone. Rich Farmbrough, 09:35, 5 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Robert S. Wood

Hello! I am trying to correct/amend the Robert S. Wood page where you left two notes about phrases that needed clarification. The first was a quote calling The Global War Games "the largest gaming series in U.S. history." That was part of a larger description of Wood's responsibilities all linked to a reference, but to clarify I added an additional link to that reference right after the statement. Is that enough? (The description was a direct quote.) The second was to the phrase, "all U.S. Armed Forces Senior Service Schools," where you ask if that is the same as military service academies. The answer is no: the academies are undergraduate (West Point, Annapolis, etc), whereas "senior" is the term used (in the reference but also in general) for post-graduate military schools, like the Army, Navy, Air Force colleges of "command and general staff" and "war colleges." Unfortunately there is not one wiki phrase to incorporate them all like there is for the undergraduate schools -- although I guess I could try to create a page for "U.S. Military Senior Service Schools. For now, though, would it be enough to add the same reference to this phrase again or to explain in parenthesis what I just explained here? It is a description readily understood by most people familiar with military education, which is why it was used that way in the speaker's bio from which I "lifted" those words -- but I understand if you are saying that it should be readily understandable even by people unfamiliar with the military. Is that what you are saying? I would like to get this right, so with this additional info I've added here, perhaps you could either tell me what good phrasing might be, or feel free to add it yourself? In any event, I thank you for helping to make this a better article!! NearTheZoo (talk) 20:24, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to bother you again, but I'm still trying to deal with the critiques of the Robert S. Wood article. If I understand the edits now (hope I do - but apologize if I don't!), you are the editor who added the "peacock" banner. Is that right? If so, could you either reconsider and take it down or let me know what specific facts you consider unverified or unverifiable? I think that every fact or quote in the entire article comes directly from another referenced source that I found by googling his name. Appreciate the help! NearTheZoo (talk) 23:57, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

STOP - Employee Assistance Programs 3 x "dubious-discuss" tags

Hi,

Re: Employee assistance program and section "Workplace Bullying & In-House EAP Concerns"

On Jan 3 you inserted 3 [dubious – discuss] tags in my edit "Workplace Bullying & In-House EAP Concerns" section. I've place the references to support my tagged edits on the discussion page as requested.

Please review and please consider removing them.

Thanks,

Albertoarmstrong (talk) 22:10, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

[X] copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 22:31, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

These edits by User:Cknoepke insert the dubious tags. But looks like you have already discussed with him. Rich Farmbrough, 00:44, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

STOP

In the article Special relativity, SmackBot changed "v_0" to "v 0" inside a <math> (in-line TeX, not display). This changed a correct formula to an incorrect one in the second modified paragraph. See this diff. JRSpriggs (talk) 06:15, 6 January 2011 (UTC) [X] copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 06:21, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 11:39, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Fixed build 602, releasing build now. Rich Farmbrough, 11:42, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Smack bot complaint

Hi Rich, please stop using Smackbot for changes such as this - it's an utterly worthless edit and a complete waste of server time. I have my own preferences for how to format refs in articles where I'm the principal contributor, and it doesn't match up with your preferences - in this case I don't space "=", but I do place a space before "|" as that usually produces sensible wrapping for me when editing refs. It wouldn't matter so much if Smackbot did this for every parameter, but to do it just for the 'date' parameter, while leaving the others in my preferred style is just plain odd. --RexxS (talk) 00:55, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That is slightly odd, I tend to not put spaces around the date "=" I thought, I'll have to look at this in more detail. Rich Farmbrough, 04:13, 5 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks, Rich, much appreciated. Cheers --RexxS (talk) 14:10, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: A user has requested the attention of a member of the Bot Approvals Group. Once assistance has been rendered, please deactivate this tag by replacing it with {{t|BAG assistance needed}}. . *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:05, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 10:12, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:55, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Empty section

Cool. How do you do it? I would like to add this to AWB's code. -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:56, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here's the regexs as typo rules - they are a bit ad-hoc.

<Typo word="<enter a name>" find="([^=])(=====)\s*(\n)+\s*{{expand( section[^}]*}})\s*\n+(={2,5}[^=])" replace="$1$2$3{{Empty$4$3$5" />
<Typo word="<enter a name>" find="([^=])(====)\s*(\n)+\s*{{expand( section[^}]*}})\s*\n+(={2,4}[^=])" replace="$1$2$3{{Empty$4$3$5" />
<Typo word="<enter a name>" find="([^=])(==)\s*(\n)+\s*{{expand( section[^}]*}})\s*\n+(={2,3}[^=])" replace="$1$2$3{{Empty$4$3$5" />
<Typo word="<enter a name>" find="([^=])(==)\s*(\n)+\s*{{expand( section[^}]*}})\s*\n+(==[^=])" replace="$1$2$3{{Empty$4$3$5" />

They fail on header depths greater than 5, and on last sections, and on sections that are empty of content but have other tags.

Rich Farmbrough, 11:01, 5 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks! -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:21, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For truly empty sections

([^=]={5})\s*(\n)+(={2,5}[^=])

$1$2{{Empty section|date=January 2011}}$2$2$3

rpt for 4,3,2

Rich Farmbrough, 21:16, 9 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Request for comment

I have proposed the renaming of a category, and wanted to know if you would consider commenting on the proposed renaming over at that link. ---My Core Competency is Competency (talk) 04:43, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

dmy

Just noticed your AWB edit to Fetlar that included the hidden cat "Use dmy dates from January 2011". I have looked at this cat and its parent and I can't make much sense out of it. Is the implication is that in some unspecified time period a bot may run that changes the dates? Yrs, perplexed. Ben Mac Dui 10:32, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The implication in the wording of the category certainly is that, maybe on a yearly basis, the articles would be automatically reviewed. What would happen if apparently out-of-spec date formats were found is un-discussed as far as I know. Options would include

producing a report (which needn't be annual)
talk page notes
clean up tag
auto fixing

or a combination. Rich Farmbrough, 11:29, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Seems a shade odd. I don't know if you intentionally added the cat or AWB just did it automatically, but I can't see the benefit in listing an article with dmy usage, when this is perfectly acceptable. "After being tagged, usually manually, and bearing in mind article evolution, a bot can be sent around to clean up formatting" says the parent cat.

1) Do you have any idea where the discussion to create the cat is?

2) I can't think of a good reason to keep the cat at Fetlar if, by accident or some mysterious process, it results in a bot changing things that don't need changed.

Any further intelligence gratefully received. Ben Mac Dui 13:28, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 13:55, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

chlry cole

chrly cole Iam victoria leader from victoria leader —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.180.251 (talk) 19:05, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

well, that's nice. Rich Farmbrough, 20:23, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

"Funs" Victoria Leader seems to think that "chrly cole" is reading her comments. I think we should block this person. Anemone Projectors 20:26, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Storm surge globalization tag

I've made attempts to make the article less US-centered, including an example of a European storm in the lead. Let me know if this is sufficient for the tag's removal. Thegreatdr (talk) 14:15, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick response. The TC project folk get a little edit happy when significant events transpire in real time, which is probably why all that 2005-2008 US-centered information got in there in the first place. Thegreatdr (talk) 14:23, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome. It's an interesting project. Rich Farmbrough, 14:26, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Roman pipe

Hi. You suppressed interwiki link between it:Fistula acquaria and fr:Tuyau en plomb romain. Some people and bot are fighting to shrink this article, against opinion of membres of fr:projet Rome antique. For myself, i understand french and italian, if italian article is shorter than french, the topic is the same. So interwiki link is pertinent. Regards 92.145.183.148 (talk) 07:51, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

fr:Tuyau en plomb romain is a redirect to fr:Inscription sur tuyau en plomb romain. The former would be a great interwiki for it:Fistula acquaria, the latter is not. Rich Farmbrough, 11:32, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

I understand there is some disagreement about the name/content for the French article. How you split the subject matter is open to question, and I'm sure you (at fr:wp) will resolve it one way or another. However the interwikis should be:

on the one hand, and

on the other. Clearly these are different subjects. Best wishes. Rich Farmbrough, 13:43, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Translate bot

Not sure what this bot's purpose is (you're probably just staking your claim) but if it's purpose were to translate other foreign language articles, all content generated would be deleted under db-a2. I think the purpose of that deletion policy is to prevent the translators from being overworked but I've been told that db-a2 even applies to translated content. Marcus Qwertyus 07:55, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hah, I created a one line stub in it:wp and it was deleted as auto translated. Thanks for the heads up. It won't be doing bad translations. Rich Farmbrough, 15:28, 9 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Db-a2 applies to untranslated articles. Rich Farmbrough, 15:40, 9 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Estelle Desanges albums

Category:Estelle Desanges albums, which you created, has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. 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. Fences&Windows 21:06, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Louise Camuto

HI I saw that you said a citation is needed for Louise Camuto's education. I work for her and know for a fact that she attended these schools. It is listed as well on her personal linkedin profile. What will suffice as a source for this since there is not going to be any website to confirm this??--65.51.232.210 (talk) 16:48, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi 65.51.232.210,

Rich Farmbrough wasn't actually the one who tagged your article as needing sources -- a bot (an automated program that performs necessary but dull changes automatically) that he runs put date markers on citation tags that I had added to the article. Essentially you will need references that meet Wikipedia's standards for sources. This is seen as particularly important in the case of an article such as Louise Camuto, because it is a biography of a living person. However, I'm afraid that a linkedin page won't be sufficient.

I know Wikipedia's policies and formatting conventions can be a bit daunting (and indeed annoying), so if you've got any queries, please just ask here on my talk page.

Thanks Arthur Holland (talk) 17:13, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Smackbot suddenly too prompt

First let me give a long-overdue thanks for all of smackbot's important work. But... has something changed to cause it to do what it does more quickly after an article has been human-edited? All of a sudden I find that, after making one edit, if I make another edit to the same article soon after I get an edit conflict against Smackbot's addition of datestamps and so on e.g. see January 6 in [1]. I don't remember this happening before, and it's very annoying. Could Smackbot to wait some fixed period before acting, to avoid this? I don't know if 5 minutes, or 5 hours, would be more appropriate. Thanks. EEng (talk) 14:50, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hm it runs more frequently now, but I can build in a specific delay. Rich Farmbrough, 14:52, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

What do you plan to use for the delay? Anomie ⚔ 17:01, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Also, AWB has an option to skip pages tagged with {{inuse}}, dunno if Smackbot uses it? - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 15:33, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you remember it's running in perl now not AWB - all that good stuff goes to waste. Rich Farmbrough, 15:49, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Inuse added in build p603. Rich Farmbrough, 15:52, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks, checking for inuse is good, but I don't think it's enough. It's common to make a series of changes to the same article one right after the other, without adding inuse. (On the Morison article I happened to have added inuse, but only because I feared controversy and I wanted peoplet to see the end result before the battle begins). Why not just wait, say, 15 or 60 minutes? For complicated edits, adding cites and so on, I might easily go 15+ minutes between starting the edit and saving, so I'd prefer 60 minutes. Not knowing all the things Smackbot does, I don't know how much of the benefit of what it does is lost by delaying a longer vs shorter time -- certainly the datestamping of need-cite tags and so on doesn't suffer by a delay. Also, notice that by waiting, fewer resources are wasted by Smackbot scanning and re-scanning the same article, and change histories are less cluttered with repeated Smackbot entries. EEng (talk) 17:51, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I must admit I'm curious to see the code (for my own edification). Is it publicly available anywhere? Anomie ⚔ 17:01, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest that 10 minutes from the last update be sufficient. --Kumioko (talk) 18:37, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I disagree for the reason already stated: it's easy for an edit to take over 10 minutes. In fact, if the rule is (say) 10 minutes, then if you save a change, spend 5 minutes reading over the new version, then spend 6 minutes editing, that's 11 minutes from the last human edit, and you'll be 1 minutes behind Smackbot, thus getting an edit conflict. This is a new phenomenon and maybe I'm over-worrying, but if the problem continues I'll need to ask: what's lost by having the bot wait a generous amount of time? But let's wait and see. EEng (talk) 19:13, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I would also vote for at least ten minutes before SmackBot intervenes. --Ohconfucius ^¡digame! 08:28, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would not embarrass myself by letting Anomie see my un-packaged un-OOC hackish perl. Rich Farmbrough, 02:26, 7 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

I'm not oriented to that object. One method might be to run it through the Phlotsenbaulmer transducer first, making the pointy anagrams seem less amalgamized. Of course, that assumes it's not overloaded! EEng (talk) 15:10, 7 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Are you still creating those new albums categories by script? Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 22:17, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No. I am working on the misnamed categories, which is very tricky, I have done about 40 or 50. Many follow the Geen Ween mould, or the band has the name of some other entity, therefore should probably get a (band) dab in the name. Mama Cass is at Cass Elliot which is not really WP:COMMON NAME, so the cat is probably better where it is. Analogous questions for obscure DJ XYZ vs Jo Doe, Jr. I suppose we just have to assume the article is named correctly. Rich Farmbrough, 22:24, 16th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Proposed deletion of Dorsami Naidu

The article Dorsami Naidu has been proposed for deletion because under Wikipedia policy, all biographies of living persons created after March 18, 2010, must have at least one source that directly supports material in the article.

If you created the article, please don't take offense. Instead, consider improving the article. For help on inserting references, see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners or ask at Wikipedia:Help desk. Once you have provided at least one reliable source, you may remove the {{prod blp}} tag. Please do not remove the tag unless the article is sourced. If you cannot provide such a source within ten days, the article may be deleted, but you can request that it be undeleted when you are ready to add one. Mhiji 02:32, 16 January 2011 (UTC) [X] copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 02:35, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Femto Bot still creating categories with "specifically-marked"

Hi Rich, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Femto Bot (talk · contribs) continues to create Category:Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from December 2010 and Category:Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from January 2011 with the dash between "specifically" and "marked", despite the categories being renamed to omit the hyphen. Any chance you can get the bot stop creating the hyphened versions? They can't be populated anyhow. — ξ ^xplicit 07:49, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the category type was on a list, from which I happened to remove it a few days ago. Rich Farmbrough, 19:37, 10 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Località

That category I've proposed for deletion was, in practice, empty. The only 3 or 4 (random?) articles categozied over there, on it.wiki were categorized as frazioni. The term località (locality), as for my studies and experiences travelling in Italy, suddenly may refer (apart from a general term used for places, zones, fields) to some very little rural villages (frazioni) composed by few scattered farms and suddenly considered simply as a group of houses. Another thing: Sometimes it happens that some municipalities decide (per municipal statute) to refer to their frazioni as località or contrade (wards, divisions). Italian law regarding hamlets is not so strictly defined as (for example) the ones in Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, or in almost all the countries of the former Yugoslavia. So, for example, a category for localities on it.wiki does not exists and (if I've well understood) it has been decided to categorize all of them simply as frazioni, also to avoid a possible confusing over-categorization. The term frazione is also, in colloquial Italian language, the most popular and largely diffused word to refer to this kind of populated places. That category, i repeat, had only 3 or 4 articles reguarding frazioni categorized in that way on it.wp. So they were not properly under their correct category (i've controlled the correspondant Italian articles: categories and notes were clear about it) and that's the reason because the cat località of Italy remained empty. I can also suppose that it may be not so simple to make a defined (and national) categorization about this different subjects, but if possible it could be a good thing, IMHO. If you will decide to start this structuring, i could help: feel free to do it, of course :-) . By now I don't remember to have found articles about a proper località. I hope to have done a good explanation of that situation. Best of regards and good work. --Dэя-Бøяg 16:35, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

thanks for the clear reply. There does seem to be a project for these small places it:Discussioni progetto:Amministrazioni/Frazioni e località italiane, certainly they use the same infobox for both, but I'll take your word for the rest. I'm not about to start a frazioni e località project, it might interest User:Dr Blofeld though. Rich Farmbrough, 16:50, 17th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Frazioni are notable in my view and we should have an article on every one in Italy eventually but priority with Italy really is to expand the comune articles...♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:42, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Categories nominated for speedy deletion

Hello. You may be interested to note that User:Mhiji has taken an interest to nominating every category in Category:Empty categories for speedy deletion, regardless of whether the category was just created or not. He has nominated several categories you created, including Category:Compost Records albums. McLerristarr | Mclay1 06:42, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, I apologize for the extra work but I had removed some of the album artist and label categories, first because I had to fix some spellings or otherwise (Category:Candelight Records albums for example), doing it out of process because I thought it was a simple correction and didn't realize there was a process to follow. But then, I noticed many of the label categories were for labels that don't have articles, and I removed the categories (again out of process and I apologize) thinking that red-linked record labels weren't supposed to have categories since they don't have verified notability. I did just change an album you added into Category:Recall albums and changed it to Category:Recall Records albums, so that one's empty now. --Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars (talk) 19:15, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a problem. I created most of these when I did a scan of categories that had something in them, but did not exist, and saw that many were album categories. I deleted the two bad cats. The remaining few I will investigate Rich Farmbrough, 19:41, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Hi again. I moved the contents from Category:Def American albums, which you just created, because Category:Def American Recordings albums already exists. May I check others you've created in this manner and correct them if necessary? That means some may be emptied out of process but I won't remove album label categories from album articles just because the label itself doesn't have an article like I was doing. It will just be for corrections (misspellings, full/actual label name, other existing label category). You'll know which ones I've cleared once they start populating Category:Empty categories. --Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars (talk) 17:44, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would be delighted. It's not an out of process emptying if its a spelling mistake or misnomer. If you keep a note of the ones you empty I'll delete them. Also might be worth watchlisting them in case I re-create them. The other piece of maintenance is to update the infobox with the full label name. Nice to see Category:Candlelight Records albums with a few in it now. I'll do a bunch more album articles later. Rich Farmbrough, 18:05, 12 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot sticking in stuff on its own in Scientific opinion on climate change‎‎

In Scientific opinion on climate change‎‎SmackBot is reinstating a citation needed that an editor removed. I removed it and SmackBot again reinstated it. Dmcq (talk) 18:20, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oops sorry I didn't go back far enough. Dmcq (talk) 18:22, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, no problem. It is getting a worryingly smart and opinionated over scientific matters. Rich Farmbrough, 18:24, 12 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

DMY Tag

What is the use dmy dates tag for? I've noticed your placement of this tag on several pages I watch. I don't know what it is, or what edits I could make to resolve an issue. All dates on the page are in date, month, year format to my knowledge. Thanks. --Powerten (talk) 18:55, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not an issue tag - hence it is invisible - it simply records usage. As time goes by dmy pages can pick up mdy dates and vice versa. If they are tagged it's easy to see when this happens. The same applies to "Use American English"and "Use British English". Rich Farmbrough, 19:06, 12 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

QI20DE - QI20DX

None as of January 2011.

Or to make the structure into a list - which is better in some ways:

QI20 Mammals
- QI20D Ferret
  - QI20DA Inactivated viral vaccines
  - QI20DB Inactivated bacterial vaccines (including mycoplasma, toxoid and chlamydia)
  - QI20DC Inactivated bacterial vaccines and antisera
  - QI20DD Live viral vaccines
    - QI20DD01 Ferret distemper virus
  - QI20DE Live bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DF Live bacterial and viral vaccines
  - QI20DG Live and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DH Live and inactivated viral vaccines
  - QI20DI Live viral and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DJ Live and inactivated viral and bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DK Inactivated viral and live bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DL Inactivated viral and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DM Antisera, immunoglobulin preparations, and antitoxins
  - QI20DN Live parasitic vaccines
  - QI20DO Inactivated parasitic vaccines
  - QI20DP Live fungal vaccines
  - QI20DQ Inactivated fungal vaccines
  - QI20DR In vivo diagnostic preparations
  - QI20DS Allergens
  - QI20DT Colostrum preparations and substitutes
  - QI20DU Other live vaccines
  - QI20DV Other inactivated vaccines
  - QI20DX Other immunologicals

Rich Farmbrough, 19:31, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

At first sight, I like the collapsed version best. The disadvantage with the list is that it isn't consistent with the other ATC and ATCvet pages. Right now, ATCvet code QI20 looks a bit psychedelic. I can almost see "None as of January 2011" written on a chalkboard.

And a ferret is a carnivoran, not a rodent. --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 20:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I knew I'd regret saying rodent without checking... Rich Farmbrough, 20:13, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
20:13, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Empty sections on ATCvet code QIxx

Hi! The sections you marked as empty in ATCvet code QI02‎ to ATCvet code QI20 (10 pages altogether) are meant to be empty. These sections of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System for veterinary medicinal products are (currently) empty, so there is nothing to add to our lists. Any problem if I revert you? And what can I do to prevent such edits in future? Thanks, ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 09:51, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What about adding "Currently empty" to each one of them? Better use italics too. This will help to distinguish between "empty on purpose" from "empty because it needs expansion". -- Magioladitis (talk)

Do you think it improves understandability (for humans, not bots) to have "Currently empty" or the like in each subsection instead of just the main sections? --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 14:39, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Putting it on the main sections is probably best for humans. I'm not sure the value of listing codes for things that don't exist. It is also a shame that no-one cares if ferrets get mycoplasma, which is a nasty disease for such a sweet rodent. I have set that page to "None as of Janaury 2011." what do you think? It would also be possible to collapse empty sections thus:

QI20D Ferret

QI20AC - QI20DC

None as of January 2011.

QI20DD Live viral vaccines

QI20DD01 Ferret distemper virus

QI20DE - QI20DX

None as of January 2011.

Or to make the structure into a list - which is better in some ways:

QI20 Mammals
- QI20D Ferret
  - QI20DA Inactivated viral vaccines
  - QI20DB Inactivated bacterial vaccines (including mycoplasma, toxoid and chlamydia)
  - QI20DC Inactivated bacterial vaccines and antisera
  - QI20DD Live viral vaccines
    - QI20DD01 Ferret distemper virus
  - QI20DE Live bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DF Live bacterial and viral vaccines
  - QI20DG Live and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DH Live and inactivated viral vaccines
  - QI20DI Live viral and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DJ Live and inactivated viral and bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DK Inactivated viral and live bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DL Inactivated viral and inactivated bacterial vaccines
  - QI20DM Antisera, immunoglobulin preparations, and antitoxins
  - QI20DN Live parasitic vaccines
  - QI20DO Inactivated parasitic vaccines
  - QI20DP Live fungal vaccines
  - QI20DQ Inactivated fungal vaccines
  - QI20DR In vivo diagnostic preparations
  - QI20DS Allergens
  - QI20DT Colostrum preparations and substitutes
  - QI20DU Other live vaccines
  - QI20DV Other inactivated vaccines
  - QI20DX Other immunologicals

Rich Farmbrough, 19:31, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

At first sight, I like the collapsed version best. The disadvantage with the list is that it isn't consistent with the other ATC and ATCvet pages. Right now, ATCvet code QI20 looks a bit psychedelic. I can almost see "None as of January 2011" written on a chalkboard.

And a ferret is a carnivoran, not a rodent. --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 20:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I knew I'd regret saying rodent without checking... Rich Farmbrough, 20:13, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
20:13, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

smackbot failing..

annomiebot is catching it. didnt even dateit in fact.(Lihaas (talk) 07:38, 15 January 2011 (UTC)).[reply]

Thanks I knew, but i have now fixed it. Rich Farmbrough, 14:07, 15 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot

Hi Rich. Femto Bot is recreating empty category pages: Category:Unreferenced BLPs from December 2006, Category:Unreviewed new articles created via the Article Wizard from December 2009, Category:Articles to be split from January 2009 - this is the second time, I deleted this already earlier today. SilkTork *^YES! 22:55, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, someone categorized something into them. Would be good to list an example in the summary field I suppose. Rich Farmbrough, 23:06, 15th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

SmackBot: blanking a page

Here SmackBot seems to have been doing much more than dating my {{source?}} addition. The page was fully blanked! L.tak (talk) 22:47, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

FYI

You might be interested in Template_talk:Lead_rewrite#Deleting_The_Categories_It_Is_Linking_To_Directly_And_Replacing_With_Category:Lead_section_needing_rewrite_Or_Something_Along_Those_Lines.3F.. Debresser (talk) 17:27, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Now that the dice has been thrown. Shouldn't Template:Context be renamed to Template:Lead missing context or something along those lines? And I don't understand Template:No definition, which should be merged with Template:Context, probably. What do you think? Debresser (talk) 17:59, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Rich? Debresser (talk) 19:09, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well the rename makes sense, but I would expect people will still type "Context". Definition - is not exactly the same. "Foo is bar with a baz." is a definition, but there is no context. For example "Foo is a group with self-inversion." could be mathematical or sociological. The def lacking is scarcely used though. Rich Farmbrough, 19:22, 16th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

I think we should wait a little till the fuzz calms down and then just remove those superfluous categories, rename this template, and merge No definition with Context. Although you are right about the difference, of course, but they are very close IMHO. I really think the rename makes sense, because when I see Context, I think it is an inline template. Until I read it, I didn't know it is a lead template. Debresser (talk) 19:32, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, are you aware of Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion#Template:Inadequate_lead? Debresser (talk) 18:01, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This one is still waiting for your commentary. Debresser (talk) 19:09, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'll take a look. Rich Farmbrough, 19:22, 16th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

In addition, this editor seems pretty well-versed in Wikipedia rules. Although he has made some strange moves as well. In this context this edit is suspicious. What do you say? Debresser (talk) 19:14, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Last question answered in this edit. Debresser (talk) 20:32, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Test templates

I request That The Test templates To not redict to the User Talk Messages. That is only because it says the "Old Grid can Be found here", so it will just lead to the same page, and if we remove the redirect, than the Wikipedians can see them easier.

OK I moved the historical documents to a sub page and linked to them. Rich Farmbrough, 22:43, 15th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

CfD

Since you commented on 'Modern American Weapons' at CfD, the proposal has been modified somewhat. I thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to take another look at the modified proposal. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 23:07, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 43

Template: Trial complete.. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Tim1357 at 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 14:59, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Smackbot 2010-12-25

Seasons greetings. Smackbot wandered across my Watchlist:

Please try to keep the diff noise down[2][3][4]; this helps others editors to review faster
Converting to one underscore and one space[5], (?)
For [6] et al, Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Template redirects#Rule format states that "The first-letter case of the redirect is kept in the new template name"—according to this rule, the recapitalisations that have been performed in these edits are not from the upstream AWB, so are likely to be addition(s) added by the bot operator (yourself), in which case this would be a violation of Wikipedia:Editing restrictions#Rich Farmbrough. Please avoid adjusting the capitalisation, it causes unnecessary diff noise and does not have consensus.

Thank you. —Sladen (talk) 07:50, 25 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 December 2010

Ambassadors: Wikipedia Ambassador Program growing, adjusting

News and notes: Director of Technical Operations hired; South Korean mayor sues; brief news

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Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 13:10, 28 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Smackbot

The bot is a little too active at the moment, its often times given edit conflicts today. can we slow down its work?(Lihaas (talk) 20:57, 30 December 2010 (UTC)).[reply]

I'll tweak. Rich Farmbrough, 22:12, 30 December 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot removed an underline within math unexpectedly

Why on earthh did Smackbot remove an underline in sqrt(a_1) within math tags in the following edit [7], see the change for line 67. Dmcq (talk) 20:32, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Short answer, it's a bug. Long answer.. is too long. Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 20:35, 1 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

BAGBot: Your bot request SmackBot 37

Someone has marked Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 37 as needing your input. Please visit that page to reply to the requests. Thanks! AnomieBOT ⚡ 04:12, 2 January 2011 (UTC) To opt out of these notifications, place {{bots|optout=operatorassistanceneeded}} anywhere on this page.[reply]

I just noticed these and decided to take a look to learn the process since my own bot request is pending and I find myself somewhat shocked at the times. Does it normally take 2 and 3 months for a bot request to be approved? --Kumioko (talk) 04:37, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well there are two new baggers, who have speed the whole thing up, trouble is a lot of momentum is lost. I find a problem code up a solution in relatively short order (minutes to days) and then submit a BRFA. By the time it's approved I have probably forgotten about most of it, sometimes someone else has fixed it, and my work is wasted... every-time there's ructions BAG says they will be more responsive. I have thought of joining BAG myself, but I don't want that responsibility - maybe I should bite the bullet - if the community would have me. Rich Farmbrough, 09:45, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Problem is that you still won't be able to approve your own bots. --Ohconfucius ^¡digame! 17:32, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

True but he could Deny, approve or review others which would free them up to do the same to his. --Kumioko (talk) 17:56, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes exactly. Rich Farmbrough, 17:14, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Why?

Today Smackbot said that it dated the {{originalresearch}} tag on Pahlavi Dynasty whereas multiple changes were made to the article. The biggest change was the change from {{Wikicommons}} to {{:Commons}}. The former created a little box that indicated that material relating to the article is available on WikiCommons. The latter dropped the entire contents of Commons in to the article. That edit was reverted by an unregistered editor and Smackbot came along later in the day and redid it. I found it because a DEFAULTSORT conflict was generated.

I am certain that this change was unintentional but why did Smackbot do it and how can you insure that it does not happen again? JimCubb (talk) 18:39, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure that it's related to removing "template:" from the template name internally, and ":" being a special character. I have escaped the : which should fix it. Rich Farmbrough, 20:14, 6 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

smackbot missed something that anomiebot caught. [8](Lihaas (talk) 05:52, 8 January 2011 (UTC)).[reply]

It misses loads, because I had to dump the old coding and re-write from scratch (if there's a build number beginning with "p" it's the perl version). But I didn't know it would miss that. Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 11:25, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Level 2 and 3 headline format

Smackbot changes Level 2 and 3 Headline text from the right to the wrong format. Right is == Level 2 ==, wrong is ==Level 2== by default. To know what format is right you click on the "A" button in the icon row above the text window, this produces == Level 2 ==. Please fix this quickly, in long lists such as the linked Global spread of the printing press such sweeping changes can be annoying. Regards Gun Powder Ma (talk) 11:20, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't do that anymore (for months), but it's not wrong. It's preferred by many people, and is used much more than the spaced version. Rich Farmbrough, 15:24, 9 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Empty categories

Category:Empty categories, which you created, has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. 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. — Train2104 (talk • contribs • count) 22:24, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Should the tags for nominating categories to be renamed be purple in stead of pink?

Feel free to participate in the discussion at Template talk:Cfd all#Should the tags for nominating categories to be renamed be purple in stead of pink?. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 08:30, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot

Hi. Re my previous concern about Smackbot's over-promptness in adding datestamps and so on: this is beginning to really annoy me. Within seconds of an edit, it's in there modifying the article, so that my subsequent attempt to edit hits an edit conflict. Can you please add a substantial delay before Smackbot acts? I would recommend 60 minutes. I don't see what is lost by having it wait a bit. EEng (talk) 19:56, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It (the perl version) shouldn't edit before at least 15 minutes. I'll increase it to 25. AWB which is run intermittently, maybe a few times a day, has no concept of age. Rich Farmbrough, 19:58, 10 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Ok looks like this wasn't working. Will investigate. Rich Farmbrough, 20:10, 10 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

I'm guessing you looked at [9]? EEng (talk) 20:50, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes indeed. Rich Farmbrough, 20:51, 10 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

are AWB "fixes" to articles necessary?

Why bother making edits such as this one in which there is nothing actually wrong with the article? As discussed at Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups/About fixing redirects and elsewhere, the encyclopedia gains nothing and may well be worse off for making such changes, especially if nothing else in the article needed to be changed. Alansohn (talk) 01:55, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is not a redirect fix. Political divisions of the United States is not a good target to link "state" to, when US state is a available. On a separate note the page you refer to is horrendous shibboleth trotted out from time to time, in inappropriate contexts, and which builds arguments on performance based on a 2006 email list posting, then says performance is not an issue anyway (which in this context I agree with). Rich Farmbrough, 02:01, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

OK, but how is Wikipedia better off for the change, and why not use the correct link of U.S. state as a replacement, given that you're taking the time to make a change? The infobox uses the link Political divisions of the United States to make it as generic as possible, so that it is correct whether it's a state or any other variation of territory. Why change something that is barely technically broken to "fix" it to a link that's a redirect? Alansohn (talk) 02:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Because there is a long term movement in WP towards US and away from U.S., it it my opinion that this article will be moved some time in the next few years, making the US title the better target. Possibly I could leave this until the 2010 Census figures come out and pick it up at the same time. Rich Farmbrough, 02:21, 11 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 10 January 2011

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In the news: Anniversary coverage begins; Wikipedia as new layer of information authority; inclusionist project

WikiProject report: Her Majesty's Waterways

Features and admins: Featured topic of the year

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Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 05:41, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WP:ANI notification

I have started a discussion about your category creations at WP:ANI#Automated creation of incorrect categories, with the suggestion of an edit restriction. Fram (talk) 10:13, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

<sigh> Rich Farmbrough, 12:08, 13 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot

Business transaction performance

Can you please explain your comment on citations? Are there four there insufficient? How many would be sufficient? thanks Charleyrich (talk) 22:04, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is User:Kuru who requested citations. Rgds, Rich Farmbrough, 22:16, 13 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Helping Estonian Wikipedia

Thank you very much for agreeing to help.

So if it is possible, then add to the end of the page "<noinclude>[[Kategooria:Riigi andmete mallid|{{PAGENAME}}]]</noinclude>" to these templates and "<noinclude>[[Kategooria:Valitud sündmused mallid|{{PAGENAME}}]]</noinclude>" to these templates. Pelmeen10 (talk) 22:10, 14 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done Rich Farmbrough, 01:46, 15 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Font size and references

Hi. I replied at Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(accessibility)#Small_fonts. Yours, Dodoïste (talk) 10:30, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 13:44, 16th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Persondata

Duplicated entries. -- Magioladitis (talk) 14:32, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

TY. Rich Farmbrough, 14:39, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 43

Template: Approved for trial (50 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Tim1357 at 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 09:57, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Tim1357 at 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 03:13, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Editing restriction

Aren't you, under your Wikipedia:Editing restrictions, prohibited from making bot edits like [10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16] (all made within five minutes about a quarter ago)? Fram (talk) 14:01, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Continues, [17] and [18]. Fram (talk) 14:25, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your timestamp

Hello! Just a question: Is your personalized signature compatible with archiver bots (such as MiszaBot, ClueBot, etc)? Hey Mid (contribs) 15:27, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Depends how smart they are I suppose. Certainly Sine-Bot hasn't jumped in. Rich Farmbrough, 15:33, 18th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Is it worth taking the risk then? Though most threads have at least one or two "valid" timestamps, so it's not much of a problem. Hey Mid (contribs) 15:37, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

According to its user page, SineBot normally ignores editors with more than 800 edits on the assumption that they should know better. I doubt the archival bots recognize any date format for signatures other than the standard. Anomie ⚔ 17:25, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you're right – users who've been active here for a while don't have their unsigned posts automatically timestamped by SineBot. Hey Mid (contribs) 18:16, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:County routes in Erie County, New York (129–160)

Template:County routes in Erie County, New York (129–160) has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. — This, that, and the other (talk) 01:33, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Distinguish the

Template:Distinguish the has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at [[Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/{{subst:#time:Y F j|-0 days}}#Template:Distinguish the|the entry on the Templates for discussion page]]. -DePiep (talk) 15:30, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A lot of duplicate albums categories

I'm finding an awful lot of duplicate categories that you've recently created.

You created Category:Ice T albums; pre-existing Category:Ice-T albums
You created Category:2Pac albums; pre-existing Category:Tupac Shakur albums
You created Category:Warner Brothers albums; pre-existing Category:Warner Bros. Records albums

and so on. I realise you are probably doing this through some sort of mechanical process, but really I think we need to a be a bit more careful in avoiding duplicates. These duplicate categories are even being placed on articles where the pre-existing one already exists, as with Rhyme Pays, which had Category:Ice-T albums and Category:Ice T albums on it. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 09:46, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your note. I started out addressing specific labels, where the process works reasonably well. Clearly a more generic approach will require more generic safeguards. Rich Farmbrough, 15:47, 13 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Portal/Images/Wikipedia essays

Template:Portal/Images/Wikipedia essays has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Mhiji 21:40, 12 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All-inclusive categories

Whatever happened with trying to get rid of all-inclusive categories? Debresser (talk) 17:40, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sabotaged by Fram who insists that they are "useful". Rich Farmbrough, 23:26, 17th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Where was the discussion? Debresser (talk) 23:35, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Rich Farmbrough, 01:50, 18th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Please comment

Please comment on Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2011_January_17#Category:Wikipedia_introduction_cleanup. Debresser (talk) 16:29, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And on Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_January_17#Template:No_definition. Debresser (talk) 23:01, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And on Template_talk:R_from_other_template#Mistake. Debresser (talk) 23:45, 17 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Minor slip- big problems

Accidents happen. During your clean up of Kingston Mill, Stockport you changed the word Mill to ill in the Infobox template. This then orphaned the NFC image,. File:Kingston Mill, Stockport 0004.png‎ and the deletionistas at NFC tagged the image for destruction within 48 hours.See Wikipedia talk:Non-free content for the ongoing debate as to all the issues there that affect anyone that is documenting defunct companies. I have reverted the M and will follow the trail back to revert the tag. Thanks for your your other efforts though.--ClemRutter (talk) 09:34, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I have wondered about the wisdom of deleting orphaned fair use images. Thanks for your note. Rich Farmbrough, 13:53, 18th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Recent edits

Please respond to Fram's recent post on your talk page about current Smackbot editing. Rd232 ^talk 15:02, 18 January 2011 (UTC) [X] copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 15:05, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cough cough. The {{citation needed}} redirect is at least on the AWB template list, but it still should not be done without a substantive other change. The infobox isn't even on the list. FFS, if you can't sort this out, sooner or later you're going to lose the right to make any AWB edits which aren't pre-approved specific simple tasks (like the unref removal above, Smackbot 43) - do you want that? Rd232 ^talk 17:07, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Officeholder is to subtle for the AWB template list I believe. Rich Farmbrough, 00:27, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Request

I made some moves and changes, as discussed in Template_talk:R_from_other_template#Mistake. There are 55 out of the more than 800 templates in Category:Redirects from warning templates that are protected. Could you edit them, please. This is an example of the most common edit I made. Debresser (talk) 15:19, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot! Debresser (talk) 15:49, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

On addition I noticed Category:Redirects to template from non-template namespace which has a empty cat notice, but as far as I understand, no template sorts therein, not even Template:R from other template which is mentioned specifically on the category page. So perhaps you could delete it? Debresser (talk) 15:31, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This could be seen as a clean-up category, I see no problem with it existing. Rich Farmbrough, 15:33, 18th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

The reason it shouldn't exist is that it will never be populated. Debresser (talk) 15:45, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I nominated it for deletion here. Just thought it would be fair to let you state your opposition there as well. Debresser (talk) 19:37, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please also see Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2011_January_18#Template:R_from_other_template. Debresser (talk) 15:48, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Smackbot errors

this introduced a second references section, and still didn't fix the problem. This needs a references section, but despite the edit summary none was added. This produced a double references section header. This didn't solve the problem either. This adds the incorrect date parameters. As does this one. These are from checking the latest 25 edits only. Please stop. Fram (talk) 19:59, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Not again... Hey Mid (contribs) 20:01, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oh yes, this again. Despite this listing of problems, Smackbot has made the exact same errors again, like here (unsubstituted date parameters) and here, where the same edit was done for the third time. The first two times were reversed by Debresser, Rich Farmbrough corrected his own third edit. But the ones from my previous post are not corrected, and as evidenced new problems are added to it. Fram (talk) 22:37, 18 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

U-Vistract---a little help

re U-Vistract I am new to writing articles, and I would appreciate a little more guidance. You ask for more reference. I listed 23. You don't think that is enough? Are there specific parts that you feel are deficient? Thx Camdoc2001 (talk) 02:52, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Copied to appropriate place. Rich Farmbrough, 02:57, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Also:

Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 02:57, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Template:Lfpfr

Please check the new id is worked. Carlos Henrique id isn't Carlos-Henrique. Matthew_hk t c 14:31, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, interesting, problem fixed, template improved, I think the page needs moving though? Rich Farmbrough, 15:48, 13 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Edit notice at Colony High School (Alaska)

Rich, how would you feel about this combined notice:

Attention!

The community has placed this article on article probation as specified at here. Any addition of content that is not properly sourced, does not conform to Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, or is defamatory will be promptly removed. In addition, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia should you persist in such actions.

Do not add the names of minors who are not independently' notable to this page.

--EdJohnston (talk) 17:23, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ed, I don't have a fish in this race. But if I edited an article about a school, and the words "Sarah Palin" appeared in an edit notice, I would immediately assume that her child attended the school.

How about:

Attention!

The community has placed this article on article probation as specified at here. Any addition of content that is not properly sourced, does not conform to Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, or is defamatory will be promptly removed. In addition, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia should you persist in such actions.

Do not add the names of minors who are not independently' notable to this page.

Rich Farmbrough, 17:35, 16th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Did I edit both copies? Rich Farmbrough, 12:21, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: Trial complete.. *

Edits by:

Rich Farmbrough at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Xeno at 15:16, 2 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Rich Farmbrough at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 21:44, 21 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 22:23, 21 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 43

Template: A user has requested the attention of a member of the Bot Approvals Group. Once assistance has been rendered, please deactivate this tag by replacing it with {{t|BAG assistance needed}}. . *

Edits by:

Never edited by BAG.
Last edit by me at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 13:22, 1 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 09:57, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:07, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Respond eh? See voo play? :p

Hi Rich. You may want to comment at this discussion. Actually, it would be great if you could. :) œ ^™ 19:41, 24 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Commented. Will attempt to revisit later. Rich Farmbrough, 22:40, 25 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Infoboxes

Did you see my reply above? --Kudpung (talk) 22:57, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No , I hadn't noticed that the Oz box had gone because that whole section on the schools main page is a template of some kind and I don't know how it got there in the first place, so no changes show on my watchlist. My main problem is still how to automate the change over of the near 500 pages here. --Kudpung (talk) 23:20, 1 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ANI

You might want to pop back to this discussion as there's still some questions that users have about what you are doing. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 04:37, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Mirror Bot

Template: A user has requested the attention of the operator. Once the operator has seen this message and replied, please deactivate this tag. (user notified). *

Edits by:

Mr.Z-man at 04:08, 2 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:08, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 18:13, 12 December 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Mr.Z-man at 04:08, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Mr.Z-man at 04:08, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 04:23, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 37

Template: A user has requested the attention of the operator. Once the operator has seen this message and replied, please deactivate this tag. (user notified). *

Edits by:

Mr.Z-man at 04:10, 2 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:10, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 18:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Mr.Z-man at 04:10, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Mr.Z-man at 04:10, 2 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 04:23, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 3 January 2011

2010 in review: Review of the year

News and notes: Record fundraiser celebrated and debated; Board-appointed Trustees; brief news

In the news: Fundraising success media coverage; brief news

WikiProject report: Where are they now? Redux

Features and admins: Featured sound choice of the year

Arbitration report: Motion proposed in W/B – Judea and Samaria case

Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 01:05, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 41

Template: A user has requested the attention of a member of the Bot Approvals Group. Once assistance has been rendered, please deactivate this tag by replacing it with {{t|BAG assistance needed}}. . *

Edits by:

Rich Farmbrough at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 13:03, 28 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Rich Farmbrough at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:07, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 42

Template: A user has requested the attention of a member of the Bot Approvals Group. Once assistance has been rendered, please deactivate this tag by replacing it with {{t|BAG assistance needed}}. . *

Edits by:

Rich Farmbrough at 10:02, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Rich Farmbrough at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 13:01, 28 November 2010 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:02, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by Rich Farmbrough at 10:02, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 09:56, 4 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:07, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Femto Bot 4

Template: {{BAG assistance needed}}. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by Mr.Z-man at 04:13, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:05, 2 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 10:12, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by Rich Farmbrough at 11:04, 3 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 23:19, 4 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Stamford

Are you going to work on this? It's outside my range so I don't think I could help you any. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 06:14, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I'm still getting to grips with the template. Rich Farmbrough, 11:33, 8 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Happy tenth!

File:Verre de whisky.jpg

Happy 10th anniversary of Wikipedia!

Perseus, Son of Zeus has bought you a whisky! Sharing a whisky is a great way to bond with other editors after a day of hard work. Spread the WikiLove by buying someone else a whisky, whether it be someone with whom you have collaborated or had disagreements. Enjoy!

Spread the good cheer and camaraderie by adding {{subst:User:HJ Mitchell/WikiScotch}} to their talk page with a friendly message. Message received at 18:54, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

--Perseus, Son of Zeus 18:54, 15 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Happy 10th

File:Verre de whisky.jpg

Happy 10th anniversary of Wikipedia!

Hey Bzuk (contribs) has bought you a whisky! Sharing a whisky is a great way to bond with other editors after a day of hard work. Spread the WikiLove by buying someone else a whisky, whether it be someone with whom you have collaborated or had disagreements. Enjoy!

What goes around, comes around. Spread the good cheer and camaraderie by adding {{subst:User:HJ Mitchell/WikiScotch}} to their talk page with a friendly message. Bzuk (talk) 15:23, 16 January 2011 (UTC) [reply]

Priority for 18 Jan

Clean the talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 02:47, 18th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Strange category name

What does Category:Albums category uses with invalid parameters actually mean? A category for those categories which use the template "albums", but with invalid parameters? Wouldn't "Category:Albums template used with invalid parameters" be a better name? Fram (talk) 14:01, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It means the category whose listing contains links to pages which use the "Albums category" template on the English Wikipedia but use it with invalid parameters. These are uses of the template, and hence "Albums category" uses - they have an invalid parameter. Maybe we could call it Category:"Albums category" uses with invalid parameters if we were really anal about the naming of relatively insignificant back end templates. The name you suggest is singular, but even "Category:Albums templates used with invalid parameters" would refer to a category of templates, not a category of pages (which happen to be almost certainly categories). Rich Farmbrough, 17:17, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Funnily enough this is explained clearly in the documentation for the template:

Uses of the template with invalid type are listed at Category:Albums category uses with invalid parameters under T.

Which raises the more interesting question, why you wanted to raise the matter when the answer is obvious?

Rich Farmbrough, 17:21, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs#Authentical plugin?

Yes, it is still there. I suggest we continue this on our talk pages(or you can add me in Runescape, as i also seen you on the rswiki) so do you know what to do to fix it?Joeytje50 (talk) 20:39, 3 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, i am on the list, as the error for Joeytje50(not on list) is "Joeytje50 is not enabled to do this" while the error for Bot50(on list) gets the error "The password you provided is incorrect. (an authentication plugin rather than MediaWiki itself rejected the password)" And i asked Cook Me Plox, and i talked about it on the irc, and he doesn't know what the problem is.Joeytje50 (talk) 20:53, 3 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm.. what to do with this? Needs some tech attention at Wikia I guess. Rich Farmbrough, 10:19, 18 November 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Years pages

Greetings! Your name came up in a discussion at Template_talk:Unreferenced#Internal_References. The suggestion was that one of your minion bots might be helpful in cleaning up bannerspam on the years, decades, centuries pages. How would you feel about that?--Robert EA Harvey (talk) 21:30, 31 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Still at BRFA. Rich Farmbrough, 12:10, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Speedy deletion nomination of The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (1973)

You may also wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

A tag has been placed on The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (1973), requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is a very short article that does not provide sufficient context to identify its subject. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. If you plan to expand the article, you can request that administrators wait a while for you to add contextual material. To do this, affix the template {{hang on}} to the article and state your intention on the article's talk page. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. USchick (talk) 19:03, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion nomination of The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Export & Technology (Combined) (1966)

A tag has been placed on The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Export & Technology (Combined) (1966), requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is a very short article providing no content to the reader. Please note that external links, "See also" section, book reference, category tag, template tag, interwiki link, rephrasing of the title, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article don't count as content. Moreover, please add more verifiable sources, not only 3rd party sources. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content. You may wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles - see the Article Wizard.

Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. If you plan to expand the article, you can request that administrators wait a while for you to add contextual material. To do this, affix the template {{hangon}} to the page and state your intention on the article's talk page. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. USchick (talk) 06:49, 21 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have nominated 100 or so articles in the Category:Queen's Awards for Enterprise for deletion as well. Fram (talk) 11:16, 21 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Of course the prod reason is wrong. Rich Farmbrough, 23:15, 22nd day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Speedy deletion nomination of Denys Wortman

You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.
If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.

A tag has been placed on Denys Wortman requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because the article, which appears to be about a real person, individual animal(s), an organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content, does not indicate how or why the subject of the article is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable.

If you think that you can assert the notability of the subject, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hang on}} at the top of the article, immediately below the speedy deletion ({{db-...}}) tag (if no such tag exists, the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate), and providing your reasons for contesting on the article's talk page, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. You may freely add information to the article that would confirm the subject's notability under Wikipedia guidelines.

You may want to read the guidelines for specific types of articles: biographies, websites, bands, or companies. USchick (talk) 23:59, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The previous warning was an opportunity for you to fix the article, not an opportunity for you to delete the tag. USchick (talk) 00:00, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Random Smiley Award

For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award.
(Explanation and Disclaimer)

♠TomasBat 02:14, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Cheering at 2:14 in the morning! Rich Farmbrough, 02:15, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Proposed deletion of Denys Wortman

The article Denys Wortman has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Wikipedia:Notability (people)

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. USchick (talk) 20:53, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

LGBT articles of Brazil

Hello! Brazilian people love U.S. citizens. Many flights from TX, CA, FL, NY, and GE to Brazil exists. You are very welcome. In FEBRUARY, in the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil will be aproved the *SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN BRAZIL* ([19]), and the pages LGBT rights in Brazil and Recognition of same-sex unions in Brazil need of you. Because will generate a heavy traffic on these pages, and we need you to help in the English spelling of these pages, you understand me? Please help me. Hentzer (talk) 23:00, 23 January 2011 (UTC) [X] copied from User talk:SmackBot by Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 02:37, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

LGBT articles of Brazil

Thanks! You are a great person! Help me, and read interest facts of Brazilian LGBT. Hentzer (talk) 08:00, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Queen's Award

Please undelete The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Export & Technology (Combined) (1966). — Rich Farmbrough (talk · contribs) [via e-mail]

I am confused: why use e-mail like some newbie spammer for a matter which should be on a user talk page? Given the current AfD discussion and the fact that it was empty, I see absolutely no reason to re-instate it at this stage. You have my permission to re-create it when you actually have some content for it. But I suggest you reflect on whether it is a worthwhile exercise - I looked at The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (2005) and was very inclined to propose it for deletion as listcruft - 2 blue links out of 41 is not very promising. — RHaworth (talk · contribs) 15:38, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The business coverage in Wikipedia is very poor, with the exception of software and Internet companies. Even there, where a takeover has occurred I have seen pages being deleted and replaced with the words "In 2002 Mega Corp acquired Target Inc." in an acquisitors article. Also of course there is considerable variation in the names for business articles, since larger businesses are usually groups with subsidiaries, trading styles, brand names, divisions, and so forth. Rich Farmbrough, 17:35, 24th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

You Blog

I noticed your blog page. Im not sure if I should/can add to it, so I'll ask here. Unless sidelined to other WP activities, I usually do Random Article editing;commas, spelling, recasting, replace redundancy, etc. Reading your blog I realized how buzy an editor like you must be with all your interests, etc. Is there some simple mindless task that I could perform to assist you? (Emphasis on the simple) 40 years ago, I worked in a building as a Night Superintendant. The house carpenter worked at night, on his own time, creating beautiful dressers, etc. on consignment. I was his unpaid assistant and learned invaluable, life-long lessons in the Art of Carpentry. Maybe the same can happen for me at WP. Buster Seven Talk 19:30, 27 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

January 2011

You have been blocked from editing for a period of 72 hours for abuse of editing privileges. Once the block has expired, you're welcome to make useful contributions. If you would like to be unblocked, you may appeal this block by adding the text {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. Rd232 ^talk 20:11, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

After you failed to respond at all to a recent notice of Smackbot issues, I've bumbled by to look at Smackbot's last 10 edits, and find 2 edits that are whitespace only [20] [21], 1 [22] which replaces a redirect not even on the AWB redirect list, without substantive other changes, and 1 [23] which isn't done carefully enough to notice a duplication of template redirects (both being replaced). After everything that's happened, this is just unacceptable. Rd232 ^talk 20:15, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your link 15 is manually corrected by me. I don't recall anything saying that I should remove duplicate templates, although I have a BRFA into do just that. Rich Farmbrough, 20:18, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

The white space edit are due to AnomieBot getting there first. The AnomieBOT task was created as a response to previous blocking. Rich Farmbrough, 20:23, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

AWB Rule 1: Check every edit before you save it. AWB Rule 4: Avoid making insignificant or inconsequential edits such as only adding or removing some white space.... I'm tired of your excuses and playing the victim; man up and take responsibility for your actions. Rd232 ^talk 20:30, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think I do. There is, however, an old adage, "If it ain't broke don't fix it". While I think there are limitations to that particular saying, it is born our of experience. Rich Farmbrough, 20:43, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

AWB Rule 1 doesn't really apply to bot accounts does it? - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 22:49, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It applies to AWB use on any account. Per AWB Rule 2, separate accounts for AWB use are encouraged. Rd232 ^talk 23:08, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also the edit to Fitness boot camp does create a substantive change.Rich Farmbrough, 20:31, 19th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

which is? Rd232 ^talk 21:00, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at the last edits before the block, there is also the introduction of an empty references section to a template[24], the addition of a duplicate "name" parameter to the persondata (it now has an empty "NAME" and an incorrectly capitalized name in "name")[25], and the introduction of unsubstituted date parameters (despite the fact that this was raised on this talk page in the last few days)[26][27]. Thta's quite a high percentage and diversity of errors. Fram (talk) 08:07, 20 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have anything else to say, Rich, either here or at the ANI thread (the block expires 8pm this evening, or you can comment here). Rd232 ^talk 13:52, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is in the nature of the references fixing that I follow up with a manual clean up. Nothing wrong with that. It is a process. Some of the suggestions made are plain wrong, some are valid, some are trivial. I find this scatter gun approach un-collegial. Rich Farmbrough, 02:45, 23rd day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Here is some analysis of recent edits. Rich Farmbrough, 20:06, 23rd day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

I've unblocked Smackbot. Watch those error rates. Rd232 ^talk 21:14, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

TY. Rich Farmbrough, 21:16, 24th day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Strange templates

What are Template:WMCSBM2 and Template:WMCSBM3? Do you still require them? Thanks, — This, that, and the other (talk) 10:49, 23 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They relate to "Wikipedia:List of empty monthly maintenance categories". 2 produces a list of categories which are sometimes crated in error. 3 is fro creating new categories. I'll put some documentation on them,. Rich Farmbrough, 16:24, 23rd day of January in the year 2011 (UTC).

Speedy deletion nomination of The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (1973)

If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.
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A tag has been placed on The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (1973) requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an article with no content whatsoever, or whose contents consist only of external links, a "See also" section, book references, category tags, template tags, interwiki links, a rephrasing of the title, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hang on}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion, or "db", tag; if no such tag exists, then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hang-on tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. — RHaworth (talk · contribs) 01:45, 25 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Thanks for the chance to learn. But I caution you that I may be less that adept at even the basic tool use, etc. (see above Disney cartoon). I'm pretty good at following examples so...if I can see how you do "whatever", it should work. As long as, early-on, we keep it simple. Buster Seven Talk 17:50, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at Queens Award pages. Probably still need work...but did I get close? Also, please check out editor:Fram's question at the bottom of my talk. Im gonna go back to export and delete tech items....Buster Seven Talk 21:58, 24 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm gonna hold off for now. Seems like a game of table tennis is happening. Let me know the outcome. No prob, I Don't want to get sent to the Principals office. Buster Seven Talk 08:47, 25 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

4,558,302 listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect 4,558,302. Since you had some involvement with the 4,558,302 redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). Fram (talk) 11:45, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese wooden donkey listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Chinese wooden donkey. Since you had some involvement with the Chinese wooden donkey redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). Fram (talk) 12:06, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Caterpillar Club

You are in Edit history as an editor on this article. It has been multiply tagged for improvement as an alternative to being recommended for deletion. This is a request for editorial intervention to improve this article. Please help if possible.

Georgejdorner (talk) 17:29, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Rfd speedy

Template:Rfd speedy has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. — This, that, and the other (talk) 04:43, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:Category also

Template:Category also has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. WOSlinker (talk) 18:50, 27 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Expand

I don't know what happened to them. I don't remember how I encountered the situation; all I know is that I decided to check to see whether there were any subpages remaining, so I undeleted it, checked for subpages, and re-deleted it. Nyttend (talk) 02:41, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Status update: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot 41

Template: Approved for trial (7 days). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. *

Edits by:

Last edit by BAGGER was by H3llkn0wz at 10:24, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by me at 10:14, 4 January 2011 (UTC).
Last edit by anyone was by [[User:|User:]] at 15:25, 12 January 2011 (UTC).
Bottom edit was by MBisanz at 10:02, 28 January 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Femto Bot, (possibly the smallest bot in the world) 10:04, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Better wikify code

I advice you to update to latest snapshot. Tagger excludes categories from word/character counting giving more accurate wikify tags.

Btw, I still don't understand why you replace upper case parameters from Persondata with lowercase messing the order. -- Magioladitis (talk) 02:28, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Cite error: There are <ref group=US State> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=US State}} template (see the help page).

[US State 1]