User talk: Tom.Reding

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This...should...do it! *crash*

Barnstar The Original Barnstar This barnstar is awarded to everyone who - whatever their opinion - contributed to the discussion about Wikipedia and SOPA. Thank you for being a part of the discussion. Presented by the Wikimedia Foundation, January 21, 2012. A barnstar for you! The Technical Barnstar Congratulations, Tom.Reding, you've recently made your 1,000th edit to articles on English Wikipedia! Thank you for all the great DAB work you've been doing recently, and for all your contributions to the encyclopedia. Keep it up! :) Maryana (WMF) (talk) 23:17, 16 April 2012 (UTC) A barnstar for you! Working Wikipedian's Barnstar For your incredible WikiGnoming over the past few months. I am in awe. A2soup (talk) 23:25, 22 February 2015 (UTC) Thank you! :)   ~ Tom.Reding & his 200-some-odd lines of regex (talk ⋅contribs ⋅dgaf)  02:03, 23 February 2015 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar You have nearly single-handedly eliminated the minor planet notability problem, which had stood for seven years before you decided to tackle it, because nobody wanted to do the massive amount of work required. If this doesn't deserve a barnstar, I'm not sure what does. StringTheory11 (t • c) 17:49, 3 May 2015 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar For dealing with the minor planet clusterfuck as efficiently as you have! Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 04:13, 1 February 2016 (UTC) There's nothing quite like cleaning up a good, 'ol-fashioned clusterfuck. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  04:17, 1 February 2016 (UTC) BTW, this isn't just for the recent banner tagging, but for the shear amount of effort involved in cleaning up the mess for the past year or so. Possibly longer. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 00:27, 2 February 2016 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Technical Barnstar thanks for helping me with the search codes! Jennica✿ / talk 20:10, 9 April 2017 (UTC) Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors! please help translate this message into your local language via meta The 2016 Cure Award In 2016 you were one of the top ~200 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs. Thanks again :-) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 18:08, 3 May 2017 (UTC) Barnstar awarded The Redirect Barnstar Your diligent work in the area of redirect categorization and improvement is duly recognized and greatly appreciated. You are truly one of the unsung heroes of Wikipedia, and we hope you continue to enjoy your improvement of this awesome encyclopedia! On behalf of your fellow editors—and the millions of readers of our work—I sincerely thank you for your contributions that have improved the encyclopedia for everyone. Senator2029 “Talk” 08:33, 8 June 2017 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Editor's Barnstar Thank you very much for helping and editing the Joe Campos Torres article, your assistance put a BIG SMILE on my face! Vwanweb (talk) 16:53, 31 December 2017 (UTC) My pleasure; that was a satisfying edit :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:56, 31 December 2017 (UTC) Another barnstar for you! The Bio-star In recognition of your recent contributions to the Life Sciences on en:Wikipedia, analyzing and helping to improve the quality of articles, based on scientific data. Your efforts demonstrate tremendous potential into enhancing the scientific accuracy of The Free Encyclopedia. I am tremendously appreciative of your efforts, especially on the preliminary Taxonomic analysis. ~ Mellis (talk) 23:48, 31 December 2017 (UTC) Editor of the Week Editor of the Week Your ongoing efforts to improve the encyclopedia have not gone unnoticed: You have been selected as Editor of the Week in recognition of your constant positive demeanor. Thank you for the great contributions! (courtesy of the Wikipedia Editor Retention Project) User:Buster7 submitted the following nomination for Editor of the Week: I am always on the lookout for potential Editor of the Week candidates, for editors that fly under the radar, whose efforts are unknown except to a few. They don't make a splash, they don't emit a 'notice me' kind of behavior; they just quietly tackle the hard jobs. Tom.Reding is that kind of editor. A while back he "thanked me" via the Thanks Notification for awarding the Editor of the Week to a fellow editor. So, I looked into him and found an editor that does many important WP improving things. He is a working editor (535,847 live and undeleted edits) that fixes, populates, corrects, standardizes, cleans, parses, tries, peruses, adds, formats, listens, expands, updates, corrects, creates, assigns and (my favorite) "consistifies". A member of Wikiproject Astronomy and Wikiproject Tree of Life, he has recently been granted the page mover user right. He provides a human eye and understanding to "bot" problems that arise. In the area of redirect categorization he willingly puts his head together with other editors to work toward solution. A deserving recipient. You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week: {{User:UBX/EoTWBox}} Project Med Foundation Tom.Reding   Editor of the Week for the week beginning January 28, 2018 Quietly tackles the hard jobs. 536000 live and undeleted edits. A page mover. Understands "bot" problems. A deserving recipient. Recognized for work in redirect categorization Notable work(s) Wikiproject Astronomy and Wikiproject Tree of Life Submit a nomination Thanks again for your efforts! ―Buster7 ☎ 20:38, 28 January 2018 (UTC) ! XD <3 TY!   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:56, 28 January 2018 (UTC) The AWB Barnster The AWB Barnster Fixing many depreciated syntax on infobox images. Iggy (Swan) 22:14, 12 February 2018 (UTC) A barnstar for you! Olympic Barnstar For your excellent work in getting the bot up and running to tag biographies for the Olympic Wiki Project. Thank you! Lugnuts Fire Walk with Me 10:00, 17 March 2018 (UTC) Thanks, my pleasure :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:04, 17 March 2018 (UTC) Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors! please help translate this message into your local language via meta The 2016 Cure Award In 2016 you were one of the top ~200 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs. Thanks again :-) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 18:08, 3 May 2017 (UTC) Congrats on joining the million edit club! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar Congratulations on being the seventh editor on the English Wikipedia to do over a million non-bot edits! ϢereSpielChequers 12:14, 17 May 2018 (UTC) Thanks! I never thought I'd do so much, but I just keep finding things to fix/improve :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:12, 17 May 2018 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Space Barnstar For your astronomic contributions! For taking up so much space! With apologies for the puns, Ira Leviton (talk) 20:17, 8 June 2018 (UTC) A Dobos torte for you! 7&6=thirteen (☎) has given you a Dobos torte to enjoy! Seven layers of fun because you deserve it. To give a Dobos torte and spread the WikiLove, just place {{subst:Dobos Torte}} on someone else's talkpage, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 16:09, 15 October 2018 (UTC) You have used your gifts well, Padawan Bringing order out of chaos OCD. It's not an affliction. It is a gift, and is part of the job description for being a Wikipedia editor. See WP:wikiholic. "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Takes one to know one. Best regards. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 16:36, 15 October 2018 (UTC) 7&6=thirteen, thank you :) And I really should take the test, but I can't be bothered while editing...perhaps that is or should be one of the questions??   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:49, 15 October 2018 (UTC) Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors! The 2018 Cure Award In 2018 you were one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs. Thanks again :-) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 17:41, 28 January 2019 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Original Barnstar Jobe well done when it comes to the article on Prof. Helmut Veith (1971-2016). Terrenus (talk) 14:48, 26 November 2019 (UTC) Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors! please help translate this message into your local language via meta The 2019 Cure Award In 2019 you were one of the top ~300 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a thematic organization whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs. Thanks again :-) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 18:35, 5 March 2020 (UTC) A barnstar for your efforts The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar Thank you for your continued service adding to Wikipedia throughout 2020. - Cdjp1 (talk) 14:01, 20 January 2021 (UTC) :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:40, 20 January 2021 (UTC) Precious astronomy gnome Thank you for quality gnomish work on a large scale, making {{authority control}} available, creating redirects and talk pages, for writing and maintaining astronomy-related articles and categories such as Abell 665 and Category:Discoveries by Carl W. Hergenrother, - Tom, user conceived with a sploof in 2009, you are an awesome Wikipedian! You are recipient no. 2523 of Precious, a prize of QAI. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:49, 29 January 2021 (UTC) @Gerda Arendt: thank you very much, I'm honored :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  21:32, 29 January 2021 (UTC) I hope you don't mind that it's the prize of the cabal of the outcast ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:35, 29 January 2021 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Bot Creator Barnstar For putting your OCD to good use when you created Tom.Bot. Scorpions13256 (talk) 23:27, 13 February 2021 (UTC) I see we both have OCD. I had no choice but to give you this barnstar. Scorpions13256 (talk) 23:27, 13 February 2021 (UTC) Thank you, comrade.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  04:21, 14 February 2021 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Original Barnstar thank you for all your help here. Paulhus15 (talk) 09:59, 1 March 2021 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Original Barnstar Just a barnstar for you! Your userboxes were fascinating and you seem like a really interesting person. I also somehow see you on every page I edit. Thanks for the contributions you have made! Hhzhang2345 Hhzhang2345 (talk) 16:16, 12 March 2021 (UTC) A Barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar Thank you for helping edit Wikipedia and make the encyclopedia a better place for others. Thank you and keep up the good work. --ThanosYourGod (talk) 22:08, 12 March 2021 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar Thanks a lot for adding authority control to so many articles Paradise Chronicle (talk) 23:13, 5 April 2021 (UTC) For improving Navseasoncats What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar …or rather, what a succession of brilliant improvements you have made to {{Navseasoncats}}! – Fayenatic London 19:58, 16 October 2021 (UTC) Barn! The Working Man's Barnstar For your tireless work in repetitive and laborious tasks. Cheers! Thinker78 (talk) 04:33, 31 January 2024 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Space Barnstar I just wanted to say "thank you" for picking up the torch of updating the list of minor planets! (And I hope Rfassbind is doing fine too off WP!) Double sharp (talk) 08:44, 24 February 2024 (UTC) Thank you Double sharp! (and thanks for the reminder for the latest big batch :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:54, 24 February 2024 (UTC) Another barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar Congratulations on becoming the fourth-ranked editor by number of edits. I know exactly how difficult that is! BD2412 T 15:52, 11 April 2024 (UTC) A barnstar for you! The Tireless Contributor Barnstar Congratulations for reaching three million edits! GTrang (talk) 03:52, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

wikiproject biography living parameter

Can you explain why you removed living=yes in special:diff/1247255838? According to the documentation at Template:WikiProject Biography the living parameter is required. –jacobolus (t) 16:59, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

|blp= has migrated to {{WikiProject banner shell}}; see Template:WikiProject banner shell#Parameters and various discussions on the template & module talk pages.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  17:04, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

It might be better to make this an AWB general fix, since every WikiProject Bio started off with a living= and listas= parameter. It's really not worth the time and effort to remove a million or so such params. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 22:05, 25 September 2024 (UTC).

They've largely already been moved, with what's left being mostly matching params in Bio & WPBS with mis/matching values, or on inappropriate pages like Category:13th-century religious leaders.

GenFixes definitely needs updating - T358963 open from March 2024.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:35, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm tempted to get into C# programming once more. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 19:09, 27 September 2024 (UTC).

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Congratulations on crossing three million edits! No doubt a massive accomplishment. Best wishes. Red Director (talk) 21:34, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Auto patrol?

Hey there! I think you might want to consider applying for autopatrol, especially with the amount of pages you'll be creating using AWB. Having it would definitely reduce backlog. Thanks! Sincerely, Guessitsavis (she/they) (Talk) 18:46, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

@Guessitsavis: I unsuccessfully applied for autopatrol twice actually, once in 2011 and again December 2023. I'm on the Redirect autopatrol list, so that's something, at least.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:57, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Rats. Well, worth a try! Sincerely, Guessitsavis (she/they) (Talk) 19:07, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Third time's the charm?   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  17:00, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Redirect reviews

Hello Tom.Reding, since Danny's redirect autopatrol bot is down, I am going through your redirects and marking them as reviewed. As there are over 1,200 redirects, you will receive a lot of review notifications, so I just wanted to apologise in advance for the notification flood! – DreamRimmer (talk) 09:15, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Tom, you redirected to anchors in most/all of these. I checked a few and those anchors didn't exist. You'll have to either create them or remove the section from the redirect target. -MPGuy2824 (talk) 10:33, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

@MPGuy2824: that is the standard format, probably to help future-proof. Please discuss any large scale changes @ WP:AWB/Tasks#Long list of isotope redirects.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:43, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Need quick assessment *Ranjit Singh

Straightforwardly, Hey may LubanaPB02 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) have been recently involved in the manipulation and extreme case of vandalism in a well planned organised manner can you please try to revert his latest edit specifically on Ranjit Singh thanks in advance if your received my message!! Bold 14.192.211.11 (talk) 21:07, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

"Corrected Discovery Information" from wgsbn bulletins question

Heya, I've seen you around minor planets articles (especially the creation of new minor planet list articles), and thought I'd give this a shot: I wondered if it would be possible to somehow autoedit the corrections into the articles that the minor planets are featured in. Because recently I've been adding new minor planet names into the list of named minor planets articles (from the website https://www.wgsbn-iau.org/), and the bulletins (from volume 4, #7 onwards from what I've seen) also contain "corrected discovery information", which is also corrected on the MPC and JPL websites (the most recent bulletin has thirteen pages worth of corrections!). So I was wondering if somehow auto doing it was possible or whether it would have to be done manually. Appreciate the work you've done btw! Procyon117 (talk) 02:14, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

@Procyon117: I mostly focus on updating the LoMPs & MoMPs since they are structured lists/data. Updating articles is a different story, since there is context to consider, freeform user input to work around, and irregularities from article to article. It's doable, but relatively slow & tedious, even with help.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:09, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

Yeah I thought something like that. I'll probably do it manually then, although it shouldn't be too bad anyway since it's only a relatively recent thing anyway. I don't mind doing tedious stuff anyway after all. Procyon117 (talk) 13:20, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

Autopatrolled granted

Hi Tom.Reding, I just wanted to let you know that I have added the autopatrolled user right to your account. This means that pages you create will automatically be marked as 'reviewed', and no longer appear in the new pages feed. Autopatrolled is assigned to prolific creators of articles, where those articles do not require further review, and may have been requested on your behalf by someone else. It doesn't affect how you edit; it is used only to manage the workload of new page patrollers.

Since the articles you create will no longer be systematically reviewed by other editors, it is important that you maintain the high standard you have achieved so far in all your future creations. Please also try to remember to add relevant WikiProject templates, stub tags, categories, and incoming links to them, if you aren't already in the habit; user scripts such as Rater and StubSorter can help with this. As you have already shown that you have a strong grasp of Wikipedia's core content policies, you might also consider volunteering to become a new page patroller yourself, helping to uphold the project's standards and encourage other good faith article writers.

Feel free to leave me a message if you have any questions. Happy editing! – Joe (talk) 12:16, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you!   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:20, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

Have a pint.

For all your hard work! Babysharkboss2!! (Trout me, pull the trigger.) 13:19, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

^{though logically that mug has a tad less then a pint according to my extensive research.Babysharkboss2!! (Trout me, pull the trigger.) 13:30, 4 October 2024 (UTC)}

Enjoyed & appreciated either way :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:25, 4 October 2024 (UTC)

R to anchor

Why did you remove {{R to anchor}} on pages like Special:Diff/1250364962 and (many) others? That rcat should still apply. 1234qwer1234qwer4 15:09, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

I used {{R to list entry}} for |-id=Tantalum-183m2, {{R to anchor}} for {{Anchor}}, and {{R to list entry}}{{R to anchor}} for {{Anchor}} in wikitables. Please discuss here if any issues.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:20, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

@1234qwer1234qwer4: you're right, I did not see the |id= in {{R to anchor}}...I'll restore.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:31, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

 Restored all 104 (and made the conditions much more obvious in the /doc).   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  22:37, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! 1234qwer1234qwer4 23:18, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

AWB guidebook/cheatsheet ?

Hey @Tom.Reding,

I have seen that you are very active at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks. You seem to have a lot of experience with AWB related changes and fixing. I am interested in learning more and doing a lot of AWB work to help the wiki. Do you have any specific resource, apart from the user manual, to learn about using AWB to the fullest? Thanks for any help! Bunnypranav (talk) 10:46, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

To get the most out of AWB, I found that learning how to use custom modules, C# 4.0, and regular expressions were the most important things (fortunately, I had previous experience with C, C++, and grep). On-wiki resources like those are a good place to start, but I often find myself at dotnetperls or stackoverflow after googling to find specifics on how to manipulate dictionaries, lists, and other aspects of C#.

System.IO.File.ReadAllText() & Tools.WriteTextFileAbsolutePath() are quite useful for processing large amounts of data in C#.

Tools.GetHTML() for HTML scraping in C#.

Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Order of procedures is useful for combining custom module code with WP:GenFixes, typo fixes, and find & replace rules.

Reading other people's code, especially from very experienced programmers, is very useful. Some bot operators at WP:BRFA will provide their source code (I usually do).

Knowing what the final result should be is just as important as knowing how to do it, so I often refer to MOS:ORDER, WP:TALKORDER, and the documentation of whatever templates I'm working on/with, but that'll depend on the areas you choose to work on.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:32, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick and detailed response. Do you know any list of useful custom module, on wiki or not, like Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Custom Modules, but more extensive. Bunnypranav (talk) 13:25, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Also, can you recommend so intermediate level task to do using AWB. I have already tried some CheckWiki error fixing, and new page cleanup. Bunnypranav (talk) 13:29, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

I do not, but I just googled "AWB custom module examples" and found c:User:JarektBot/AWB Modules, which seems to have more examples than the en.wiki version.

"Intermediate level" is fairly subjective, so I would suggest doing something just outside of your comfort zone, whatever that may be.

There is an "intermediate" task you can do that will pay dividends in the future, one that I wish I had done much earlier on in my wiki-career. It doesn't involve editing per se, but will aid you in almost any area you wish to edit (it won't help as much if your sole interest is, say, typo fixing, delinting, categorization, etc.). Create a custom module that uses this API call to output every redirect to {{WikiProject banner shell}} (or whatever template you want) to a file. Bonus points if the redirects in that file are in regex format and able to be directly copy & pasted into another custom module without compilation errors. Maybe that's more advanced than intermediate...but, regardless, worthwhile to do once you're able.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:19, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Got it. Last question, any editing tasks that you would suggest once the beginner tasks (cleanup, typos, tagging) are tried and experienced? Bunnypranav (talk) 10:29, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps adding/removing parameters from templates, particularly infoboxes, which can be tricky due to whitespace management, nested templates, and freeform user input.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:12, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate your support and guidance towards learner editors.

If possible, I would request you to participate and put a comment at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Check Wiki error fixing AWB Bot. Thanks again. Bunnypranav (talk) 15:41, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Humble Penpal Request

Good Day Tom.Reding

I have a most heinous and troublesome curiosity for information, however due to the limited notion of our time, we are often forced to choose. As such I have forced my self upon a most pragmatic path. As such, I came to the logical conclusion that the wikipedians with the most number of edits would possibly have a large category of horizontal thinking information, ie multidisciplinarianism. I would be most appreciative of having the opportunity to engage with you. PS I though "User communicates only in userboxes" meant there was a text box, so I read your entire expanded profile looking for it. My humanity is indeed lost

Best, Artorius de Avalon Artorius de Avalon (talk) 04:21, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Well, I did start as a monodisciplinarian, as I think many do, but am definitely now a multi. As I so half-jokingly implied via userboxen, I'm not one for conversation, but if you have a question you feel I'm particularly well-suited for, then ask away. Otherwise, the WP:Teahouse is a better place to start, as it's filled with multiple multidisciplinarians eager to help new (and experienced) editors.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:46, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Im specifically interested in the optimization and procedural development of 3rd world ie developing nations which I hope would tickle your fancy Artorius de Avalon (talk) 04:01, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Ratings of minor planet redirects

Hello, Tom. You appear to be the person setting up the redirects for all of the "Meanings of minor planet names: ######–#####" talk pages. On the WP:AST article ratings chart, historically we're having all redirects assigned an importance of 'na', whereas you are giving them a 'low' rating. The WikiProject Astronomy project has never rated 'redirects' for importance. I would appreciate it if you could set the importance to 'na'. Also, the banner shell should have the 'class' left blank since it is automatically given a 'redirect' class. That way, if it is ever set to an article, it will stand out on the chart. Thank you. Praemonitus (talk) 16:18, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I rated them at creation, and maybe a followup after. I don't think I did anything/much after Talk:Meanings of minor-planet names#Rating partial MoMP lists & redirects though, since I saw you working at it so I just left it alone. Also, many were made before {{WikiProject banner shell}} enacted WP:PIQA changes (and after, but before I knew about them). I can update them as you suggest.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:43, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Unnecessary talk pages

Hello, Tom,

Once again, you are creating unnecessary talk pages for pages that were deleted weeks or months ago. If you are using some editing tool to find these pages, please adjust it. Here is the current list:

• Template talk:List of sovereign states strapline
• Category talk:Attack on Titan episode lists
• Category talk:Fast & Furious lists
• Category talk:LGBT studies redlink lists
• Category talk:List of Office Bearers of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and Harveian Orations
• Category talk:List of intercommunalities in France
• Category talk:Lists of Numbers (TV series) episodes
• Category talk:Lists of acts of the Verkhovna Rada

If you click on most of these links you'll see the original date of their deletion and the second deletion which happened today. This seems to keep happening, I think this is the 4th message I've left you about this. Please do not create orphaned talk pages that just require an admin to clean up. Thank you for adjusting your parameters of your search tool. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:38, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm sorry! I frequently switch between page creation mode & page update mode, and every now and then forget to change this setting.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  20:24, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

Banner shells

Re here, for a single banner, I didn't think we were adding shells? Sdkb ^talk 14:31, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Indeed we are - see Category:WikiProject banners without banner shells   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:43, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Was there a discussion that led to consensus to do so? Sdkb ^talk 14:53, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes:

1. Template talk:WikiProject banner shell/Archive 10#single banners and the shell
2. Template talk:WikiProject banner shell/Archive 11#Category:WikiProject banners without banner shells
3. Template talk:WikiProject banner shell/Archive 11#Use of banner shell in pages with only one project template

~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:17, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Banners

Hey, you don't really need to do this as there is a bot that goes over these categories on a daily or semi-daily bases. Gonnym (talk) 13:26, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

The bot doesn't carefully add relevant WikiProjects, and last I checked doesn't perform some cleanup tasks outside mainspace despite being requested to. It is good at dealing with most mainspace exceptions though, which we're all very grateful for. I can try to avoid pages that I think it will handle well.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

If you encounter cleanup tasks that it doesn't perform outside mainspace, please let me know. I try and track issues with the bot and report them to User:Kanashimi so it gets better each cycle. Gonnym (talk) 13:46, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

If there's anything the robots aren't doing, or are doing wrong, you can let me know. Thank you. Kanashimi (talk) 22:26, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

class=Template   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:18, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

Trailing blp   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:01, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Making Des Moines and Lincoln, Nebraska userboxes

I wanna create userboxes on Des Moines, Iowa and Lincoln, Nebraska but don’t know how to do that. Can somebody please help me with such userboxes? Angela Kate Maureen Pears 15:56, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

You can look at and adapt User:UBX/from New York, for example. If you need more help please ask at the WP:Teahouse.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:59, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Category renames

Just a reminder that even if you're proposing a category for a speedy renaming, you can't go around preemptively moving content into the proposed new name before the renaming has been completed — redlinked categories are a problem that other people have to invest time into cleaning up, and it causes the existing category to become empty (and thus potentially vulnerable to deletion instead of renaming) prematurely. So even if you are proposing a category for renaming, you can't go around adjusting the template's category-generating code before the renaming is completed, the way you recently did with a bunch of "Alternative Views" and "Irish Republicanism" project categories: the necessary template changes will be performed by the closer of the discussion as part of the process of closing it, but the content has to stay in the existing categories until the category moves have actually been completed. Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 14:46, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Understood. I made those changes while modifying the speedy tags to their eventual destination, and figured I might as well update the rest of the page. I'll let the process play out in the future.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:55, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

blpo and activepol

Hi Tom, could you find pages which are using |blp=yes (or |living=yes) with |activepol=yes with a view to replacing both with |blp=activepol?

And |blp=no (or |living=no) with |blpo=yes, which will be replaced by |blp=other.

Do we need a tracking category or can we find by searching? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 17:50, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

On it.

A tracking cat will be helpful to more easily find & address the exceptions that no doubt exist.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  17:57, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

Category:Pages using WikiProject banner shell with unknown parameters. Activepol sorted under "A", blpo sorted under "B" — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:06, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

 Done! The remaining 106 all have conflicting activepol/blp values and need manual review, with a few new pages still trickling in.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  00:39, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Nice. I will look over the remaining ones, but I don't think they conflict because Category:Pages with conflicting living parameter is generally empty — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:41, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

The conflict comes from a param in WPBio vs a param in WPBS (ex). If both were in WPBS, then they would populate Category:Pages with conflicting living parameter. I'll be working on moving |activepol= from WPBio to WPBS soon.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:51, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I cleared out the category yesterday and now it's full again — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:53, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

I'll go through it ~twice a day. Based on the current population of 145 pages (small sample size), ~55% of them have conflicts, which is much higher than the ~3% during the initial clearing.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:26, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

top: Category:Stub-Class articles with conflicting quality ratings: -Stub, keep Start)

Just out of interest, in what approx % of these do you keep the stub rating? It seems close to 0 for the ones on my watchlist. I suppose its useful work, though I wonder who looks at these ratings at all. Johnbod (talk) 03:44, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

A lot... >80% will probably keep their stub rating, but I'm not working on them at the moment.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

I suspect "start" will be correct in the majority of cases, because articles generally go from stub to start rather than the other way round. So the start-class is usually the more up-to-date rating — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:54, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Virus by year

Tom - Category:Viruses described in 2003 has {{Category described in year}}, which puts it in Category:Animals described in 2003. Viruses are not animals. Better to sort them into Species by year. I don't know how to fix this. (Applies to all "V by year" cats, not just 2003.) - UtherSRG (talk) 12:52, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Ah, {{Category described in year}} defaults to animals unless otherwise specified in Module:Category described in year/config. I can do that soon.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:58, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Ah! Just need to add a section like for Archaea? I'll give it a try... - UtherSRG (talk) 13:10, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I got it! :) Little things that make me happy... - UtherSRG (talk) 13:13, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Congrats on being the first editor to add a new block to the config! (I've tried to entice others to do that, but no dice) It makes me happy to see people using/expanding it as intended :)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:21, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Yay! Mutual joy! :) - UtherSRG (talk) 13:24, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

---

@UtherSRG: you might be interested in Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 December 8#Category:Viruses described in 1892.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:59, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Thanks for clearing Category:Pages with redundant living parameter! It means a lot! OpalYosutebito (talk) 14:13, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Losjuglares

Hello, you can open the query to delete this article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Juglares_del_Dexas. since the article fails on WP:GNG. 190.219.102.114 (talk) 15:29, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

remove_unnecessary_parameters pattern question

In User:Cewbot/log/20200122/configuration#remove_unnecessary_parameters do you think the bot can use a pattern like ^(?![Nn][Oo]?).* for parameters like |category=? Gonnym (talk) 10:50, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

I'd be careful when using .*, and instead use [^{}\|]* just in case. The leading ^ may or may not work, so I think the safest bet would be ^$|(?![Nn][Oo]?)[^{}\|]+. For |category= specifically, since yes is the only relevant value, I'd use ^$|(?![Yy][Ee]?[Ss]?)[^{}\|]+.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:17, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

I think I'm missing something, isn't |category=no the only valid value? Gonnym (talk) 13:46, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Whoops...yes, you're right. I was stuck in category mode where people often mistakenly set |category=yes, and I mistakenly thought it was valid elsewhere.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:01, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

smiley award!

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

Ame ★ (talk) 19:05, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

:)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:06, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Cosmetic edits

Your edits seem to be purely cosmetic and are flooding the watchlist. Please indicate why they aren't cosmetic-only, or else stop making them. Fram (talk) 18:09, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

See User talk:Kanashimi/Archive 1#Category:Pages with redundant living parameter   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:11, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

You could mark them as "minor", which keeps them off my watchlist at least. Johnbod (talk) 18:29, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes, they're all marked as minor.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:34, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

these were not ones from that category though, all you did was move the parameter from one position to another, producing the exact same input. Fram (talk) 18:42, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm talking about this and the many similar edits you made. Fram (talk) 18:45, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

See User talk:Kanashimi/Archive 1#Category:Pages with redundant living parameter, it's related.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:48, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

That discussion gives me no explanation as to why you made these edits. Please don't use AWB to make any further such edits. Fram (talk) 18:54, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Edits like this and this seem to violate the AWB rules for the same reason (cosmetic only, no change in output or categories). Fram (talk) 14:42, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Category:Pages using WikiProject banner shell with unknown parameters   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:45, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

That's more than 400,000 pages. Please use a bot for this. Or change bannershell back to again accept these alternatives, as these weren't errors in the past . Fram (talk) 14:48, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

To quote your own justification...

..."[it] should not be removed from talk pages simply because it is there". And yet... you do so anyway? This is mostly a snarky comment (I definitely don't care enough to revert) but if you're going to rationalise with a template's /doc, probably shouldn't cherry-pick the section you're linking to ;-) Primefac (talk) 12:29, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

The /doc was boldly changed a few hours ago.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:47, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Fair enough! Primefac (talk) 23:09, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Wikiproject Anthroponymy

Hi, I know you're busy a lot with talk pages and banner shells. I noticed that a lot of pages in 'Category:Human name disambiguation pages' only have a 'WikiProject Disambiguation' and not the 'Wikiproject Anthroponymy' such as Talk:Zhang Hui for example. This might be a nice AWB task for the future. Coldbolt (talk) 21:08, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

@Coldbolt: it seems not, per this revert by Bagumba.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  18:52, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

I see. There are then about 10,000 pages that have Wikiproject Anthroponymy misassigned in the banner shell. Not because of you, but even prior to that. Just because people tend to associate a full name with anthroponymy and not because of the project's scope. Coldbolt (talk) 10:11, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Yes. The project's focus is on given names and surnames, not on disambiguating combinations of the two. —Bagumba (talk) 12:17, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Wikispecies BRFA

Heya just a heads up As you put in the BRFA on wikispecies I decided to set your local confirmed and autopatrol flags there so as to avoid a mass population of the unpatrolled list. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) ^talk 17:33, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

LOMP for 740001-756999

Sorry if I am too impatient (I am sometimes lol), but will you soon be starting work on the LOMP for 740001-756999 minor planets? I see that the MPC numbered a batch of more minor planets.

Thanks very much for clarifying,

Elios Peredhel Elios Peredhel (talk) 06:48, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for creating the lists! Elios Peredhel (talk) 02:01, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

So they have, thanks!   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 

Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi

I have to ask, WP:WikiProject Anthroponymy why??? Best Alexandermcnabb (talk) 15:52, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Because that's what it is.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:56, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't see the sense in this either. I asked (about Henry Matson Waite) over at the WP:WikiProject Anthroponymy talk page, and someone there said it was appropriate. But I can't see the logic in it. And now you have changed that one to WP:Biography instead. I don't think that makes any sense either - it's just a disambiguation page. Why would any other project have any real interest in it? There's literally nothing on the page except the links and short descriptions. Why pad their lists of pages to look after with pages they have no real interest in? I'd leave it at just WP:Disambiguation. Brianyoumans (talk) 00:46, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out that discussion.

Templates which contain links to biographies are tagged with {{WP Bio}}, and categories of templates which contain links to biographies are also tagged with {{WP Bio}}, so I don't see why a dab would be treated differently.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  00:57, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Eh, I guess I can see how a template which links to biographies would be of interest to the Biography project. It is something the people who write biographies might have written and would be interested in maintaining. Hmmm. Maybe I've talked myself into justifying the link to WP:Biography, since you could make the same argument about biography disambiguation pages. However, I don't see the reason for tagging these things for WP:Anthroponymy. These are articles about people, not about their names. Brianyoumans (talk) 01:36, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll need to get more confirmation from them before adding it.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  01:47, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

listas name order

Hi Tom.Reding, I see you're making a large number of edits to "listas" in talk pages. Please be aware that in some cases, like Li Haonan (Special:Diff/1263488337) or Chen Shiyuan (Special:Diff/1263490915), the order is the opposite of what you entered. If you're setting listas, I think one thing you should be looking for is to check for consistency with the sort key of the mainspace page. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure what is the point of this system of manually setting talk page "listas" to non-default values, yet requiring separate maintenance from mainspace sort keys. Adumbrativus (talk) 04:52, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, I've been trying to control for Eastern name order by ignoring names that begin with X, Y, Z, or if the main page mentions any country listed in that section or its demonym. Checking for existing sortkey consistency is a great suggestion.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:09, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

 All fixed to match   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:06, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Admin noticeboard discussion

See WP:ANI#Creating the need to make 400,000 unnecessary edits. Fram (talk) 14:57, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

Hello there! Vestrian24Bio (TALK) wishes you & yours the very best of the season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,
Festivus (for the rest of us!) or even the Saturnalia,
here's hoping your holiday time is wonderful and
- especially -

that the New Year will be an improvement on the old.
CHEERS!

12:47, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Vestrian24Bio (TALK) 12:47, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Template:Title number

I tried using it in a category with an apostrophe in it and it pulls a number from the apostrophe. See Wikipedia:Help desk#Wierdness with template:Title number. Could you take a look? I'm not sure how many people would be viewing the talk page for the template.Naraht (talk) 16:07, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

{{Title number}} uses {{BASEPAGENAME}}, so any # beyond a title's / is ignored. FWIW, {{Title number|page=User:Naraht/John's Foo season 4 contestants}} returns 4, which is to say that the |page= parameter is not constrained in the same way as {{BASEPAGENAME}}, but I don't think it's necessarily worth changing the code around |page= for though.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:51, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

The change from BASEPAGENAME is simply for the examples which I had to put into Userspace, the difference between it working and not working is whether there is an apostrophe. If you look at Category:RuPaul's Drag Race season 11 contestants (for example) and remove the work around that I had to do (Putting page={{#titleparts:{{BASEPAGENAME}}}}), it comes out as 39 regardless of what season it is because the apostrophe comes out as a &#39 which gets taken as the first number (with 11 becoming the second).Naraht (talk) 17:28, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

 Done. Thanks, that was a much better example.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:09, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. I'll remove the work arounds when I have a chance. I don't know if asking on the talk page for the template would have been better. I would *not* have tried to be bold, while I saw that the work around could be trusted, I *really* don't trust myself with changes for templates other than infoboxes.Naraht (talk) 19:16, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

You can also submit an edit request via {{Edit template-protected}} on the template/module talk.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:32, 23 December 2024 (UTC)