User talk:MDP23/Archive8

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NP...

Hey, so I was looking at the npwatcher, and going through the guidelines and all that, and I have a quick question if you don't mind. When you say 500 edits, do you mean 500 mainspace edits, or 500 edits in general. Really would appreciate some kind of response (preferably on my talk page). Thanks so much! danielfolsom© 20:42, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Changed the RFM.

I changed the RFM and removed respondents of the RFC. Please update.Wikidudeman ^(talk) 22:45, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Mart inp23 22:47, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

You should probably remove your comments on the page or it might confuse future potential mediators.Wikidudeman ^(talk) 22:48, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi you do have a point about confusion, so I've added a diff to show the change that you made. I'm not usually in the habit of removing comments of this type - doing so will likely cause more confusion amongst those who have received mediation notifications but are no longer listed. Thanks, Mart inp23 22:57, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Can you do me a favor and remove the people who "disagree" but were removed from the list of disputants, if I can't do it in time? I don't want to give the false impression that people disagreed and get the mediation denied when the people who disagreed weren't supposed to be disputants. Thanks.Wikidudeman ^(talk) 23:01, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

OK - I've put the request on my watchlist, and will keep an eye on it. Thanks, Mart inp23 23:06, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Issue with RefDeskBot

The bot accidentally removed the header and half of the new section link code just now on WP:HD. I'm not sure if it's malfunctioning or if this is a one-time error, but might need some looking into and possibly a emergency button pushing if it continues. Thanks. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:10, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

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Wikiyouth

Hi, are you an admin on Wikiyouth? Ryan ^{Got something to say?} 14:13, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes - is something terrible happening there? Mart inp23 14:15, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I see not :) - we've had a few vandalism attacks over there in the past. Mart inp23 14:18, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I am talking about something important, but not very bad. I noticed that many of the MediaWiki messages that were altered have spelling and grammar mistakes. I am a member there now, and I'd like to help with the MediaWiki and other such things. This isn't urgent, but since you are online... I have registered at the forum, but I haven't recieved a validation e-mail yet. Ryan ^{Got something to say?} 14:49, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmm OK. It would be great if you could make a list of problems on my WIkiyouth talk page, then I can take a look there an correct them. I would go through them all myself, but there's something else I'm meant to be doing at the moment :) Mart inp23 15:00, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

MartinBotII problems

A number of people at the Opera Project and Composers Project are unhappy about the trawling of people-related articles by MartinBotII and particularly the way this is being followed by inappropriate and sometimes bizarre editing. I don't know if you are aware of this? I wonder if it is possible to use a 'nobot' tag with your bot to protect biographies of serious composers from pop music style dumbing down? Thanks and regards. --Kleinzach 10:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick response. Unfortunately the visits of your bots, which leave multiple Biography Project category markers on the Talk pages is immediately followed by the insertion of redundant 'potted biography' infoboxes on the article pages, demands for photographs for composers who lived before the age of photography and increased trivia sections (always a problem for us). There is also a potential problem of the Talk Pages being circumvented by the new Comments Pages.

As an experiment I removed the words 'Occupation: Composer' from the Beethoven infobox on the grounds of redundancy. It was promptly replaced by a kid whose name I have never seen before who is a self-declared rock fan. I also see that Beethoven is being listed by the Biography/Musicians Projects for treatment alongside present-day pop stars.

Re assessment, the Biography Project can't do this. We know the material we have developed. I don't understand why somone didn't approach the Opera and Composers Project to help with this. We would have been happy to cooperate.

In the present situation I don't think many of us will be willing to work on articles that are immediately visited by bots and then dumbed down by posses of pop music fans.

Please see the dicsussions at by the Composers Project at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Composers#Infoboxes_for_composers, the Opera Project at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Opera#Biography_Project_banners_on_opera_articles. Thank you for reading this. - Kleinzach 11:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like you don't like the very basic concept of Wikipedia, the enyclopedia which anyone can edit: including pimply teenage rock fans!

WikiProject Biography has cordially invited you to work with us, and you are of course free to assess the articles you are working on. I will once again remind you of WP:OWN, however:

Some contributors feel very possessive about material (be it categories, templates, articles, images, essays, or portals) that they have donated to this project. Some go so far as to defend them against all intruders. It is one thing to take an interest in an article that you maintain on your watchlist. Maybe you really are an expert or you just care about the topic a lot. But if this watchfulness crosses a certain line, then you are overdoing it. Believing that an article has an owner of this sort is a common mistake people make on Wikipedia.

You cannot stop everyone in the world from editing "your" stuff, once you have posted it to Wikipedia.

This is official policy on Wikipedia. If you're not able to abide by official policy, you must seriously consider taking your work to a closed wiki where the unwashed masses can't touch it. --kingboyk 11:35, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Also the "/Comments" page isn't a problem that I can see (I'm intrigued by your seeing everything as a problem, I have to admit). /Comments pages are for article assessment notes and nothing else, and their introduction has been met with widespread consensus. --kingboyk 11:41, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

If I may interject something here - I sympathise on the issue of infoboxes, and I feel that infoboxes should not be compulsory - they are decoration, no more. A good lead section plus picture will be better than an infobox any day. Biographical data should be dealt with with the persondata system. Presenting it in tabular form (an infobox) should be an editorial layout decision. Some articles really are not suited to particular infoboxes. If the infobox looks wrong, either redesign the infobox or lose it.

Having said that, don't worry about the tagging with WP:BIO tags and assessments. That is really just administration. The talk page WikiProject tags should be left there. By all means make clear that the Composers and Opera WPs are the primary ones with concern for the articles, but any people articles do fall under WP:BIO. Carcharoth 12:35, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Please see the Talk:Ludwig van Beethoven. The first box (which is new) declares This article is a current candidate for the Article Creation and Improvement Drive. The 6th box is a new To do list. Item One is Wikify: On IE the Birth name appear as John Winston Lennon. That is a good example (and there must be dozens of others) of why WP:BIO tagging is problematic.

I'd also like to add in reply to an earlier question by Martinp23: some (all?) of the bots are (were?) using the parameter |infobox=yes/no. Once again I ask you to think about what you are doing. Does it benefit WP, or is it counter-productive? Have a nice day. Regards. - Kleinzach 23:51, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

My bot, for one, has never used the infobox parameter, nor the photo one. Please feel free to take a look though my bot's last few thousand contribs to verify this for yourself! Mart inp23 23:54, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

On the specific case of the Beethoven page, you should probably note that bots added neither of the templates you noted, as can be seen from the history. I am of the opinion that the article's inclusion in the schemes there is a Good Thing (tm), as it will hopefully serve to improve the article. Mart inp23 00:00, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

The bots tagged the article first before the other templates appeared.

Can you tell me how Category:Musicians work group articles needing infoboxes was compiled? Manually? It's quite a long list. --Kleinzach 00:13, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

By humans, doing assessments and finding than infoboxes are needed: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. I can asssure you that neither kingbotk, MartinBotIII nor Reedy Bot can asess an artice to determine whether it conatins an infobox, by simple virtue of the fact that they don't actually load up the article before tagging. In my role as a member of the bot approvals group, I can't remember a bot ever having been approved to add "infobox-needed", though if I'm wrong, I'm sure that I'll be corrected! Thanks, Mart inp23 00:24, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. You may well be right. Unfortunately even if the additional code is added by humans, it's added after you have tagged the articles first. That is why everything has happened suddenly, not gradually in the usual way. --Kleinzach 01:06, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

That is often the case, but there is usually a net benefit to the inclusion of the template (ie - more editor attention will come to most articles, eventually). It may be worth you directly clarifying your position on infoboxes to the reviewing editors, so that they can take on board what you are telling the bot operators, and be more careful when carrying out reviews. Thanks, Mart inp23 01:10, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

We don't have enough editors to correct the editing by the WP:BIO project popular music work groups (especially when they immediately revert everything). There are many specialized fields on WP. If you use bots to index them and then organize groups of users with no relevant interest/expertise to process them, then the real creators of the content will soon be overwhelmed. Would you want one of these groups to dumb down micro-biology or neuro-surgery? Maybe not. So why classical music and opera? --Kleinzach 01:52, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe that sometimes editors may work on quality assessments (as included in project banners), using a tool like AWB, or as another example User:Outriggr/metadatatest.js, which seems to have been used by the editor who assessed one of the articles that I took a look at in Category:Musicians work group articles needing infoboxes. These are not bots; they a require a human to look at each article/talk page and make choices regarding what is to be placed as an edit, but they do facilitate speedy, semi-repititive edits to several articles generated somehow as list. I have never actually tried to use one, so I don't really know that much about them. Perhaps we might consider whether the practice of editors using automated browsers (not bots) to tag lots of articles as needing infoboxes is problematic, and, if so, how best to get the word out to ask people not to do so. I would recommend proceeding a little more slowly than we have been doing, though; let's talk about it somewhere centrally first, get some consensus on it being a problem or not; if it is agreed that it is a problem, get some consensus on a diplomatic way to ask people to desist, and on strategic locations for spreading that message. --Lini 09:42, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

That's helpful. Would Martinp23 like to comment? It's worth noting that Category:Musicians work group articles needing infoboxes has about 2,000 items so the scale is industrial. - Kleinzach 04:59, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

What would you like me to comment on? As far as I can see, the issue is out of my hands, as demonstrated by the fact that it is users adding the infobox needed parameter. I should also note that MartinBotIII finished the job which tagged a number of classical musicians a few days ago. Can I suggest that you direct further discussion to the relevant WikiProj, namely the Musicians project? Thanks, Mart inp23 15:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Your opinion

Hi! I would like to know whether you, as an administrator, think this edit [6] is against the rules or not. If you don't wish to give your opinion, that's OK. But, if you do give your opinion, a short explanation of why it either is or is not against the rules would be much appreciated! Thank you very much for taking the time! A.Z. 04:28, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I've taken some action there, as things really were getting out of hand. On the issue of the comment itself, it is borderline, but I doubt that any action needs to be taken for now. Mart inp23 16:05, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't see what's wrong with it. "This place is an utter failure" is a perfectly legitimate opinion to hold and express. Or, did I miss something?? --kingboyk 16:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Borderline incivil and bad faith, nothing blockable, and comment is probably fair considering the discussion prompted by it (even if said discussion descended into a flame war). Mart inp23 16:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

MartinBot mistaken (and Pan Dam)

Hi there. Water efficiency page keeps being reverted to Water conservation page by Pan Dan. As newest revision of Water Efficiency page explains, the two are not the same. the Water efficiency page should remain and 62.84.166.146 not be flagged (by Pan Dan) for vandalism. Thanks! 62.84.166.146 14:52, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Questions about MartinbotIII's classification of article as stub-class

I recently noticed the tag of stub-class on the Curt Anderson page on which I had worked. I tried to write it in a good flowing fashion, it has pictures, more than 30 external links for verification and an infobox and it is of a decent length for a biography(50,000bytes+). Yet MartinbotIII give it the lowest rating possible. What can I do to improve it?Marylandstate 22:53, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi - the bot was working through those pages which contained a specific stub template - in this case, the article you mentioned contained the tag (at the bottom). Feel free to remove the stub tag from the article, which would have been added by an editor at an earlier date, and also feel free to reassess the article. Thanks, Mart inp23 21:00, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Colony Collapse Disorder

I noticed you added Beekeeping to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Beekeeping ... would you do the same for the CCD article?Kgrr 15:44, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Done - thanks, Mart inp23 21:02, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Re: VP bug

Hi. Regarding this problem, I'm in the process of acquiring a new computer, and will not be able to play with it for a while. I'll let you know when I do get to try it (although I vaguely remember attempting it in vain). Sorry about that, and thank you in any case. Xiner (talk) 19:33, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

OK - thanks for keeping me up to date :) Mart inp23 21:03, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Mistaken Jewish cuisine revert

Your bot just reverted a serious revision to the Jewish cuisine article.76.215.10.35 20:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry - the bot does make the occasional bad revert, when an edit contains the "vandalism indicators" that the bot uses. Thanks, Mart inp23 21:04, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Question

*Warning*: This is a very stupid question and the answer to it is most likely "no".

Are you User:Bluemoose?

No - unfortunately Bluemoose left the project in (or around) December, and I have been here since April 2006 :) Thanks, Mart inp23 21:06, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Frank R. Wallace mediation (yet again)

Sorry for disturbing you for the 3rd time... but would you be willing to continue mediating the Frank R. Wallace case? Thanks yet again. Bi 12:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm the one who should be apologising! I will be able to comment tomorrow (UTC). Thanks, Mart inp23 21:09, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I am interested in running an anti-vandal bot

What would running an anti-vandal bot on my home computer involve? Would I have to be an admin to do it? Would it require any expensive software or hardware? --Savant13 16:40, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

It wouldnt, a simple desktop computer would be able to do it, and just do do reverts of edits, and warning people, you wouldnt need to be an admin... Reedy Boy 16:44, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

User:84.211.71.5

Please see my comment at WP:ANI#84.211.71.5. I do not believe this person is using a bot, and most if not all of the images he removed should be deleted as replaceable fair use images as per WP:NFCC#FUC1. Please unblock this user. — CharlotteWebb 05:43, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

I was asleep that the time of yuor message and would probably have unblocked had I not been. Thanks, Mart inp23 11:33, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Kingboyk's plugin in AWB

Thanks for the note. Yes, I figured that the plugin doesn't assess the article for me. What I want it to do is to set the template to {{WPGR|class=stub|auto=yes}}. I also leave a note in the edit summary for someone to confirm that it is a stub (which will probably be me). --Kimon^talk 19:13, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

:) Which brings me to another question. How hard would it be to have one of the existing bots add another project to their list? Of course, I can create one myself but, why re-invent the wheel? --Kimon^talk

Ok, I'll talk to the project and ask. Would you be the one I ask? --Kimon^talk 21:09, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism Correction

Deleting vandalism (Awaiting accurate information) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.7.254.33 (talk) 22:34, 21 April 2007 (UTC).

OK - I've fixed the article to an earlier (correct) revision. Mart inp23 22:47, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Mistaken North Bay, Ontario revert

I got a message that your bot reverted a serious revision to the North Bay, Ontario article. Is legitimate article used to teach college-level history courses in Northern Ontario. However, now i see that link is still present. ??? Anyway, North Bay was correct before your revert. ccharned 00:30, 22 April 2007 (UTC)ccharned

MartinBot inquiry

Hello, my name is Extranet and you may know me from my recent BRFA which isn't going too good. I am currently in the process of requesting a Toolserver account and wish to run a successful bot on Wikipedia. Your bot, MartinBot, seems to do a great job around here and was wondering whether I could possibly run a redundant (backup) copy of it. This would increase the percentage of catching vandalism in the patrolling of recent changes and I do believe it would be a benefit to the community. Looking forward to your reply. Kind regards, Extranet ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 01:15, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi - although I understnad that your intentions are good, MartinBot's code is incredibly inefficient when there is more than one copy running, because:

It won't work without code changes, as the socket which it wants to use will be in use by the other clone
Each of the clones will be connected to the same recent changes feed, and will be in the same channels on freenode, so will pick up exactly the same diffs to check, and both will check them, usually resulting in wasted resources.

Personally, I would have no problem with giving you the code to run when MartinBot goes down. However, this only happens very rarely (ie - it has been down twice since I started hosting it, both times in the last week where I messed up :)), and I oftenhave to make small modifications to the code to keep it working properly, which will only make things difficult. On the other hand, I would have no objection to you hosting a copy of the bot on your personal system, which could be on 24/7. When AVB and MartinBot were both on toolserv, they often rose to the top of "top", using up >100% CPU, and I'd fear that if we were to have another copy running concurrently, these problems would return. I'm sorry that I don't have a more favourable response, but hope that I have explained my position fully. I should note that Tawker already has AVB sat on toolserv, ready to take over when/if MartinBot drops. You could take a look at WP:BOTREQ for ideas of bots to code. Thanks, Mart inp23 09:55, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

No, thats fine. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but if it ever goes down temporarily, just give us a yell and I could possibly host it for a while. I was actually thinking to myself whether it would use up a bit of bandwith and CPU usage. But for now, don't worry about it. Many thanks, Extranet ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 22:54, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

NPWatcher Approval Mistake?

Hey, I was just approved for the NPwatcher - and thank you for doing so by the way - but i'm afraid there may have been some mistake. Patricknoddy (another user applying) has like, 1300 more edits then I do, however he was rejected - and the comment was "Still no" - and this worries me because I've applied before, so that comment (given his edit count) would more likely apply to me. If I am right about this (as I suspect I am) then really don't worry about taking my name off the approved list (could you just leave me a note on my talk page so I know not to use it anymore? thanks) - and hopefully when I have as many edits as Patrick does I can re-apply. This is actually our first real discussion - but I've seen a lot of your work on Wikipedia and I love what you've done both technically (with programs like NPWatcher) and content wise (usual edits) - so hopefully we'll meet up again! Thanks for the time, danielfolsom© 05:44, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi Daniel. I do sincerely commend your concern - it shows very good things about your character! PatrickNoddy was blocked from Wikipedia earlier in the year for misusing NPWatcher to, effectively, tag anything he didn't like. Since then, he has applied for approval through the usual process at least twice, and has asked me on IRC repeatedly - every time he has been denied, as I will not be happy to reapprove unless the admin who originally block Patrick is happy for him to have access. My position on the matter may change in the future, but for know Patrick knows well the issues surrounding the rejection, hence my somewhat terse reponse to his request. Please, don't feel compelled to give up your access to NPW on the basis of the careless actions of one user! Thanks for your kind words, Mart inp23 16:50, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

MedBot

It hasn't performed this function in a while. Any ideas? Cheers, Daniel Bryant 09:44, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I'll check that it hasn't fallen off crontab or something :) Mart inp23 16:51, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I've run all of the MediationBot comonents I have, and there don't seem to be any for closing cases. If it can wait until the weekend, I plan to do some Wiki-bot-coding then, so should be able to do this with minimum of fuss (I'll also see if I actually have a copy of the source files somewhere else...). Thanks, Mart inp23 16:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

It did all the tasks related to the rejected cases. I'm confused, too :) Daniel Bryant 02:37, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

A-ha! Found the problem: [7]. Cheers, Daniel Bryant 08:49, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Can I frame this one?

[8] ? I know there is deletionism and inclusionism and so forth. What's the term for anti-wonkism? And doesn't excessive reliance on "We know what we're doing!" result in "But we don't know what you know." Shenme 18:56, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi - I'm sorry to be dense (long day and all that), but could you please clarify your comments so that I can respond correctly? Again, my apologies. Mart inp23 20:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, you have been working too hard - it's a compliment. I was thinking along the same lines of puzzlement, and saw this and instantly thought it'd be a quote to put on a user page. But... some people might take it wrong, even though completely true. (sigh) I'm still thinking it might go well on my user page, but I thought I'd ask first. (discretion being more or less the subject of the quote ;-) )

I wonder if there's an essay around that asks "why do you think discussion should start with yelling, or that questions should end with exclamation points?" Shenme 20:54, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Ahh OK :) - feel free to use it, this being a wiki! That said, I am quite honoured that you even thought of using it as a quote, and do invite you to do so. On the matter of the essay - none spring to mind, but the point in your question is something that characterises almost any dispute on Wikipedia, and I feel that an essay would be a great idea, if only as something to point people (and ourselves) at in an effort to de-escalate a dispute. Thanks, Mart inp23 21:07, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

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Rig (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Um this is acually good information!—Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.186.96.207 (talk • contribs)

Actually, no--VectorPotential^Talk 15:46, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Martinbot

Your recent edit to Category:Organizations related to anti-Mormonism (diff) was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to recognize and repair vandalism to Wikipedia articles. If the bot reverted a legitimate edit, please accept my humble creator's apologies – if you bring it to the attention of the bot's owner, we may be able to improve its behavior. Click here for frequently asked questions about the bot and this warning. // MartinBot 16:04, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Errr... no, that was a mistake on your bot. That category was deleted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_April_17#Category:Anti-Mormonism

so I had to remove it from all the pages linking to it. Just so you know. -- drini ^[meta:]_[commons:] 16:22, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about that - I'm surpised to have seen that happen, and can only suggest that the bot misparsed the edit. In any case, when I go on IRC, I'll check that you are on the bot's "admin" list, which is shouldn't revert. Again, the bot edit seems strange, and can only suggest that the diff numbers which it queries went wrong somewhere. Feel free to revert the bot if it make mistakes in future - it shouldn't revert you again :-). Thanks, Mart inp23 16:34, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Mistake by MartinBot

Hello, MartinBot reverted an edit that I anonymously made to remove a deleted image from Amanda Lamb. I reverted it back, but thought you had better know. (Quentin X 12:01, 25 April 2007 (UTC))

Thanks for letting me know, and sorry for the disturbance. Mart inp23 19:00, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Martinbot sourcecode

Where do you got the source code from? --84.139.81.46 13:42, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

By asking myself or Tawker, who, depending on trust, will be happy to give you a copy. Mart inp23 18:59, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Article creation

HI, I'm trying to create an article, and it doesn't seem to come up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Noirfan (talk • contribs)

Replying on user's talk page. Mart inp23 09:48, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

GA candidates

Hi, I just wanted to make sure you knew to complete the GA templates so that GimmeBot is able to convert them to {{ArticleHistory}}; see this example that I corrected. Regards, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:05, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Mart inp23 10:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

A Smile to make your day

Trampton has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Trampton 05:15, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Thanks! Mart inp23 10:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Bot Error

Your bot recently made this edit: [9] reverting edits from over 2 months ago. Are you currenltly running some very old changes, or did it malfunction during the last recent edit? — xaosflux ^Talk 14:30, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Also, don't know if you are taking RFE's but when talk paging editors could you use a section header? — xaosflux ^Talk 14:31, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

What's an RFE? --kingboyk 14:33, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Requests from editors? On the talk page headers - I was asked by about 3 or 4 other users to remove the headers, as has been done for AVB. I'll be happy to restore them, but this time I think it would be better to see consensus of sorts for a change. The bot runs off the IRC recent changes feed, and when it sees a particularly suspicous looking edit (just the username, page title, diff numbers and amount of text changed), it uses query.php to get the latest two revisions, and does a diff on them. What I suspect is happening is that the bot is being triggered by the anon edit, and then goes to query.php. However, it retrieves an out of date cached version from query.php, where you were the latest editor, and reverts you, not knowing that you are an admin/long standing user, because those checks are made before edits go from the RC feed to query.php (at which point it was going for an IP). This has happened before, so I'm going to see what I can do with the code to make it return if the top editor on query.php != the editor indicated in the rc feed. Thanks, Mart inp23 15:11, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, figured this was a bug, but wanted to check to see if you were trying to process an old backlog. RFE is jargon for Request for Enhanchment. If other's have requested not to have these then I'm fine without them. Thanks! — xaosflux ^Talk 03:02, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Dancing peanut butter jelly bean thingie

File:PeanutButterJellyStar.gif

For absolutely no reason at all, I, Kingboyk, hereby award you with a Dancing peanut butter jelly bean thingie. Enjoy! --kingboyk 18:58, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Yay! Mart inp23 19:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

you said the AWB bug was fixed??

a bug i reported, archived here, was apparently fixed for the next release... i'm using version 3.9.1.0 and it still happens, i realize it's not an "official" release so i wanted to know if this glitch has been fixed for the next real release. I know ur on wikibreak, so if you could reply to my talk page whenever you get a chance i'd appreciate it. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 19:21, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure it was working, but perhaps some other change has broken it again :) - anyway, I'll have another go, and let you know. Mart inp23 19:27, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I've tested on my system, and while I originally had the error, the latest version seems to work fine. Then again, I'm running Vista, so I'll ask another developer with XP to try it out. Thanks, Mart inp23 19:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

yeah, the OS is probably what's affecting something this subtle... -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 19:43, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

MartinBot reversions of good faith edits

I'm not sure what you can do about this, but I noticed that MartinBot reverted several good-faith edits to chemical pages (like this and this, and reported the IP to WP:AIV, where I blocked it by mistake. This is just a heads up; you probably won't be able to edit the "randomness" factor required to trigger a revert. Cheers, Sean William 03:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

The affected IP is brainstorming ideas here, if you are looking for a way to fix it. Sean William 03:47, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know - [10] shows that the user was reverted due to "uppercase insertion". This something which would be hard to fix without preventing the bot from reverting a lot of legit vandalism, and I can't think of any way to sort it out, other than adding the user to the whitelist, so that he/she won't be reverted. Mart inp23 10:38, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Talk:Goguryeo

If you actually visited the page, you will notice that I'm not mediating the case. (AQu01rius  Talk) 05:37, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

NPW is stunning

Well, I have been using NPW for a while now, we have chatted plenty on the IRC channel, and you have made improvements based on my suggestions. It's great! All I have to offer back is a barnstar. J Milburn 09:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

		The da Vinci Barnstar
		This is for Martinp23, for his making his immensely useful NPWatcher, for updating it whenever I have offered a suggestion, and for always looking into any problems I report. Thanks, you have made monotonous tasks that bit more efficient! J Milburn 09:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks :D Mart inp23 10:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Tuonela

Since you are online now, and you're part of the bot approval group. Can you sort out what's happening with that bot. It doesn't seem to be registered... --Kzrulzuall ^{Talk• Contribs} 10:38, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's been approved, but the flag doesn't seem to have been granted. I'll ask at the 'crat noticeboard Mart inp23 10:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's been approved? It doesn't show anything about the bot on Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval. --Kzrulzuall ^{Talk• Contribs} 10:50, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's under Approved requests on that page :) Mart inp23 10:52, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It might be my increasing idiocy, but I don't see any bot named Tuonela...Sorry. --Kzrulzuall ^{Talk• Contribs} 10:56, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Ooops - I misread one of the reuqests there to refer to the one you mention. Anyway, the bot was running far too fast, so I'll drop a owner a note. Thanks :) Mart inp23 11:02, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Paul McKenna archive blanking?

Hello, Martin. I have no vested interest in the Paul McKenna article, but seeing as I got caught up in the reverting and warned HypnoSynthesis of legal threats, I would appreciate if you would tell me the reason behind blanking an archive of past discussion. Thanks, — Dorvaq (talk) 15:20, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi - for obvious privacy reasons, I can't say too much about the issue, however the crux of the matter is that there are fears of the presence of defamatory material in the talk page. Selectively removing comments to counter this would only break the context of conversations, hence I decided to clear the whole lot, and leave a short message. The impression I got from HypnoSysthesis' comments as he edited the archive was that he was, in some way, being threated with legal action himself - not that he was issuing legal threats, though the comments must be open to interpretation. Hope this helps - Mart inp23 15:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. However, I'm no legal expert, but I'm not sure blanking the page will help the individual being threatened. You obviously know the information is still there and as such can still be tied to the person involved. Blanking the page just means one more click for someone looking for the information. The individual would be better off leaving it in the archives, but recant what was said, as opposed to burying it under additional clicks. The other option would be to have the archive deleted altogether. Just my two-cents. — Dorvaq (talk) 19:24, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Indeed - I totally agree. It's standard practice to remove the defamation from immediately public view by blanking, and hope that this helps, as the total deletion of an archive will probably cause a WikiDrama :). I'll probably review the situation in a few days, and see if the archive needs deleting - at the moment, I feel that it is unneccessary. The whole blanking procedure is used just to add those extra clicks, and so remove the defamation (or whatever) from public view, just as we do in any article, when we revert. Of course, even if the archive page were to be deleted, the original text would exist in the history of the article talk page. Thanks, Mart inp23 19:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I understand the standard practice, as I have deleted libelous remarks myself, but my point is that the information was already immediately removed from public view being archived in the first place. Now it's simply found in an archive of an archive. Also, I am not looking for a justification of your decision, as I respect it. I was simply seeking a better understanding of the situation at hand seeing as I got myself somewhat involved. Thanks again. — Dorvaq (talk) 20:01, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Springfield Heights Institute of Technology

The fact that the acronym for Springfield Heights Institute of Technology is SHIT was a joke on the Simpsons, which is why I added it to the article. I think that your bot reverted a legitimate edit. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.139.29.18 (talk • contribs).

Unfortunately Martin's bot isn't a mind reader, and if an anon IP commits an edit the sole effect of which is to add a swear word to an article it's fair for it to think it vandalism :) I don't know if his bot is more lenient on registered editors, but either way please consider registering an account :)

In the meantime, I've reverted the bot as I'm satisfied yours was a good faith edit. --kingboyk 17:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Kingboyk - that's pretty much what I was going to say. The bot does, indeed, have a sort of prejudice against anonymous editors and new users, but that is easy to get around by registering an account. Mart inp23 17:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh I know that and that's fine. I just figured I'd bring it to your attention because really the only reason that Springfield Heights Institute of Technology 'exists' in the Simpsons universe is for the purpose of that joke. Anyhow, thanks :) 71.139.29.18 03:05, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I was warned for editing a page I've never been too

The title speaks for itself. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.117.26.29 (talk) 07:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

RefDeskBot (talk · contribs)

Seems to have died in the middle of an archive cycle last night, it's only archived through to the Computing, Mathematics, Humanities, Science & Language desks. The Miscellaneous, Entertainment & Help desks are all unarchived--VectorPotential^Talk 14:05, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible that the database was locked for maintenance at 0:03 (UTC) ? Interrupting the bot in the middle of an archive? Would it be possible to code a safeguard so that the bot pauses its activities during database locks? Or alternatively, would it be possible for RefDeskBot to operate at a higher rate of speed, say the maximum allowed 15 edits per minute, so as to minimize the chances of it being interrupted in the middle of an archive?--VectorPotential^Talk 14:12, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmm - I'll fix the archives up a little later on, and will remove any excessive edit throttles. Thanks, Mart inp23 19:02, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

It seems to have stopped just after finishing the Language desk again, to clarify, RefDeskBot never finished last nights archive--VectorPotential^Talk 00:06, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

So far I've manually archived the missing day on all the desks, so all archives are now caught up--VectorPotential^Talk 00:06, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

		The Reference Desk Barnstar!
		For all the work you've been putting into RefDeskBot (talk · contribs) --VectorPotential^Talk 00:12, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

mindfuck article

quick question...do u think it would be possible if you could send me the list of the mindfuck movies you had in the article??? I kind of need it for a project im doin in school. I would greatly appreciate it. Just send it my my email... aaronm777@hotmail.com .... Thank you

Aaron M —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aaronm777 (talk • contribs) 02:18, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

WP:AIV request

Your MartinBot seems to report User:71.41.210.146 as a vandal. I believe this is in error. See the User talk:71.41.210.146 talk page for more details. wrp103 (Bill Pringle) ^(Talk) 03:40, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

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Impossible and theoretical keys

I tried to delete this article because it's now getting out of hand. The subject matter doesn't really exist and has caused problems that I did not forsee which undermine the logic of the article. How then do I delete an article? It's no use to anybody, I have now realised. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Edward Tambling (talk • contribs) 11:50, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

WP:RFBOT

Your recent bot approvals request has been speedily approved. Please see the request page for details. When the bot flag is set it will show up in this log. ST47Talk 18:17, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Hey, whats up. I have a problem with someone who always makes unreliable article and charts especially for "LIMA Top 50 Indonesia Charts", I had complained this few months ago, and it was deleted, but the user keeps on making the new one, it's totally irritating as in fact, it's all lies. The chart doesnt have any sources, so how come?

WP:EA bot

Psst!...your bot's contribs here fail to actually link to WP:EA and Wikipedia:Esperanza. The brackets appear as [[WP:EA and [[Wikipedia:Esperanza. Cheers!

P.S. Would it be possible for you to edit the edit summaries with links to WP:EA? Thanks alot!--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 00:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi - the bot's edit summaries show what it is chaning, so it's replacing [[WP:EA with [[Wikipedia:Esperanza (this allows it to retarget piped links too). Unfortunately, I can't go through and change edit summaries with the bot :(- Thanks, Mart inp23 06:06, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Bug in NPW

Found this today. If you pull up a title that has an ampersand, it doesn't necessarily show it when you click it (ie: It'll show correctly in the cat listing on the left, but it doesn't load the right article in the window). The case I found it with was Image:E&C.jpg. Hope you can fix this :-) ^demon^{[omg plz]} 07:18, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Plus signs (+) also are not handled correctly...it takes them as spaces. ^demon^{[omg plz]} 11:09, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Template:Boa

Thank you for what you did for that template. I wanted to do that but i didnt know how "if worked in wiki text. The Placebo Effect 21:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Possible bug in NPW

After running the new version of NPW for some time and looking at my contributions list, it seems that NPW placed speedy tags on new pages that I had looked at but not clicked the speedy tag for. I am quite certain I did not accidentally mark these as speedy as they were marked for NN, and I think I would have noticed if I had to pick a type of NN. Related to this, sometimes while trying to speedy a page, NPW will do nothing. I'm worried maybe the program is accepting the command but applying it to the wrong page, or for some reason being delayed in placing the tag until I switch to a new article, but these are just guesses. In any event, it seems to be tagging articles without my direct input. Someguy1221 23:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

NPW

Hey Martin. My user account was renamed after I was approved to use NPWatcher. Could you add my new username to the approved page? ~ Magnus animum ∵ ∫ φ γ 13:18, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Done Mart inp23 13:24, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Off to tag a few NN pages, ~ Magnus animum ∵ ∫ φ γ 13:44, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Weekly Notification!

Hello. This is just a friendly notice that Wikipedia Weekly episode 19 has been released!

In this episode:

New Mission and Vision statements for the WMF
The Chaser springs Jimmy Wales
new uses for categories
vandalism studies
Unreferenced BLPs.

.mp3 and .ogg versions can be found at http://wikipediaweekly.com/2007/05/05/wikipedia-weekly-19/ and as always, you can download old episodes and more at http://wikipediaweekly.com/.

Please spread the word about Wikipedia Weekly, we're trying to spread the word so that people know about the project, we've got some cool guests lined up and it makes it much more fun if people tune in!

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The bot changed a legit edit

I changed a quote on the page for the film Shampoo, where a quote was written as "Now that's what I call (f-word)ing!" I changed the "(f-word)ing" to its actual word, "fucking." That's not vandalism, that's just removing unnecessary and idiotic censorship of a direct quote from a film. So...yeah. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.226.206.168 (talk) 21:21, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

Bots and page edits

It'll be okay until next time someone changes the page. Bots designed to operate on wikis need to be written so that they don't depend on quirks of formatting. Any dependence on formatting is, in effect, a documented bug. --Tony Sidaway 21:32, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

RefDeskBot again..

It seems to have stopped after the language desk, again, I'll see if I can't fix it later with a few manual archives, if not, then you can always run the bot again some time before 0:00 tommorow--VectorPotential^Talk 00:19, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Miscellaneous and Entertainment desks taken care of--VectorPotential^Talk 00:50, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

And the help desk--VectorPotential^Talk 00:55, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Trouble with Template:Archive header monthly

One thing I noticed is that for some reason, the next month parameter is coming out Invalid Time on {{Archive header monthly}} and ~~I'm going to try and figure out if it's the template, or the bot~~. It's the template, I'm going to try and track down the problem--VectorPotential^Talk 01:01, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

More specifically, the problem seems to be with {{NextMonth}}, one of the sub-templates--VectorPotential^Talk 01:03, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Except that I was the last person to edit {{NextMonth}}, on January 9th, so there's no real reason why it should be breaking down all of a sudden, it's kind of a mystery--VectorPotential^Talk 01:04, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Even stranger, {{HD Archive header monthly}} which also relies on {{NextMonth}}, is still working perfectly--VectorPotential^Talk 01:07, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Apparently, it isn't {{NextMonth}} which is broken, but {{Archive header monthly}} itself, which is odd, because that also hasn't been updated since January 8th, so again, no reason it should be breaking down now--VectorPotential^Talk 01:09, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Yep, that was it, it was missing the year parameter for {{NextMonth}}, problem solved. I have no idea why this problem hadn't surfaced until now. --VectorPotential^Talk 01:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

PREPARE FOR SPEEDY DELETION

I am the author of this page as you can see on the history... i am SHEPHERDS and i want this page to be deleted immediately. There is no such thing as Lord's Shepherds Academy. As you can see it has no reference or even a source. It is also an advertisement even so it is not true. I the creator of this page has just invented such thing like the hot fm and Lord's Shepherds Academy. Please prepare this page and also the one 91.1 Hot FM for speedy deletion. Thanks. Again I say I am the author of this page as I started it and edit all of its content and this page is just an imagination. thanks

--Shepherds 05:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Shepherds Academy

MartinBot request

Hi! It appears I got project consent to go forward and officially request to add WP:GREECE articles to the list of projects whose articles are to be automatically assessed (see here). The template is {{WPGR}}. Some articles have the older templates (now redirected) of {{WPHOG}} and {{WPGreece}}. The list of articles should come from Category:Unassessed Greek articles. The bot should only tag articles in the Main namespace. Let me know if more information is required. Thanks!! --Kimon^talk 20:15, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

OK - I'll probably do it soon (within the week) :) Mart inp23 10:36, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Good point about the size of the articles. I'll have to do some research and come up with a rule of thumb size. But, as you said, starting with those that are already tagged as stubs would be a great start. Thanks! --Kimon^talk 19:30, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I've been thinking about the article size thing and I don't know. What's the typical "stub" size for other projects? --Kimon^talk 18:24, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

1500 sounds about right. Let's start with that and tweak it if needed (I doubt we'll have to). --Kimon^talk 18:28, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I saw that MartinBot started tagging the articles, thanks! --Kimon^talk 12:53, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank You

We reverted many vandals together your bot and I and I was wondering if he can block. Respond on my page Wikiman53 t a 13:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank you for undeleting my userpage for me :) — The Future 17:51, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

RE: TPV

Thanks, didn't know there was a change. Ytny (talk) 18:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Bot bug report

Martin bot... well see this edit from the bot. Purgatory Fubar ^Converse or Snafu 00:46, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes - I've removed the offending code from the bot, so this shouldn't happen. Martinp23 00:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

bot should add section headers in its notifications on talk pages

See e.g. this diff, where the bot's comment got accreted onto another thread. The bot should add its own new-section header when adding comments to talk pages. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:58, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Quick Question about MartinBot

How does MartinBot deal with Capcha's (those words that pop up when you type in an external link)? Esperanza Ortega 02:20, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi - the captchas only appear for new users, in their first four days of editing. After that, they disappear, so the bot doesn't have to deal with them :) Martinp23 10:56, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Page is watchlisted

Just wanted to let you know I've watchlisted this page so that I can find a reply about the BOTs edits. 129.2.130.169 18:14, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

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Metropolis (English magazine in Japan)/Crisscross Merger proposal

Talk:Crisscross#Merger_proposal. There is currently a discussion whether the articles Crisscross and Metropolis should be merged. As a contributor to one or both of these articles, your input would be valued. Heatedissuepuppet 11:19, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

TOR proxies

The issue is bigger than just page deletion; half of the deliberately vandalistic or vicious personal attack accounts I see these days are using TOR proxies that have been "soft-blocked". Because there are so many TOR exit nodes, soft-blocks do absolutely no good whatsoever; there's always a new exit node to be found. The account user just fishes around till they find an unblocked TOR proxy, then they're free to do what they want. When open proxies are blocked, then they're forced to use their own IPs. Jayjg ^(talk) 00:17, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Bot complaint: Martinbot, legitimate edit on article sandbox.

This message decribed the reverting of a legitimate edit, where a sandbox subdirectory for a page was blanked after the talked about working changes were implemented on the main page. I suggest that the MARTINBOT not review subdirectories of articles, and that an opt-out mechanism be started, for which I will sign up immediately. -- Yellowdesk 15:41, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Your recent edit to Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy/sandbox (diff) was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to recognize and repair vandalism to Wikipedia articles. If the bot reverted a legitimate edit, please accept my humble creator's apologies – if you bring it to the attention of the bot's owner, we may be able to improve its behavior. Click here for frequently asked questions about the bot and this warning. // MartinBot 15:32, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

We could let all the trolls and vandals sign up too, now there's an idea.

Is there any reason that sandbox page needs to be kept? Wouldn't it be best to just have it deleted and move on? --kingboyk 20:54, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

We do have an "opt-out" list for trusted users, operated from IRC. It would be somewhat stupid to prevent the bot from reverting any page containing a "/", as these are vandalised suprisingly often.. Martinp23 21:13, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

do i know u??

DO I KNOW U!!....is ur last name ngyen or sumthing??? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.169.147.49 (talk) 01:00, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

My bet is on the "something" but I don't know for sure. --kingboyk 20:52, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, i'd guess, with his username being Martinp... Maybe his last name starts with a p?? Reedy Boy 11:58, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe his surname is "p23"? --kingboyk 12:03, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

WP:BRFA

Hi! I wanted to remind you about your active BRFA, Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/DRVBot, that will probably end up expired in a week or so if you don't give us an update. If you no longer need the bot, you can put {{BotWithdrawn}} there and we will close it for you. Thanks! ST47Talk 00:48, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Never!!!!!

I will never quit messing up Cingular's page!!!!!!!!!!!! Cingular, Cingular, Cingular!!!! Yea Cingular, boo at@t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.3.121.58 (talk) 11:55, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

You will for the next 24 hours at least, because you've just been blocked. --kingboyk 12:05, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Edit to the website on 11 May

The edit to the website on 11 May posting the following external link is I think entirely legitimate: "Untold Tales by Geoffrey Marshall at http://untoldtales.googlepages.com". The site hosts a collection of shorter fiction and is therefore entirely in keeping with the subject and purpose of the page and other external links that have not been removed. I hope you will agree to revert this edit.

Charles —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.3.51.83 (talk) 15:05, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

The MartinBot vandalism message

Hi. I'm not sure if you intentionally worded it this way, but wouldn't it be better if the MartinBot vandalism message said "please accept my creator's humble apologies" instead of "my humble creator's apologies"? Having created something as good as this, you shouldn't be a humble creator, but perhaps you could offer your humble apologies for the 2% errors that you haven't ironed out yet ;-) Best wishes, Smalljim 19:26, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi - I didn't word the message, nor did I create the bot (though I do maintain it), so you'd be better off asking User:Tawker, who had a far more active role in development. As for the errors - please accept my humble apologies :) (seriously, I do apologise). Thanks for your message, Martinp23 19:38, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh I'm not at all worried about errors in this useful tool; it's just that I come across MartinBot all the time (usually beating me and Lupin's anti-vandal tool to reverts!) and it suddenly occurred to me that the wording seemed a little strange. It's only a minor issue and Tawker's user page suggests that he's well stressed, so I'll not bother him with it. Thanks for listening! Smalljim 21:37, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Haha - no problem. Once I find what page the bot substs the warnings from, I'll change it, but at the moment I don't have the time to look though the code and/or my contribs to find out which page it is. Thanks, Martinp23 21:46, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

If you treat it as something that you may remember to change the next time you run across the relevant bit of code while looking for something else, that'd be great :) Smalljim 22:16, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Your bot, Martin Bot

I happen to noticed that your bot doesnt flag its contribs as bot, I realize that is kindof minor but it helps me clean up my watchlist. It would be nice if that could be fixed, thanks in advance.BeckyAnne 19:36, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi - this is intentional, because, as is pointed out in the topic above this, the bot does occasionally make mistakes, so it is a nice idea to ensure that the bot's edits are available for checking, hence the lack of bot flag. Thanks, Martinp23 19:38, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Hijacked

I am not User:Mr oompapa yet I did not cause havoc on the User:Retiono Virginian account. Just to prove I'm not oompapa. Mr oompapa uses open proxies, and sometimes creates up to 40 accounts in one day. I think a WP:RFCU request is nesscery. Eaomatrix 21:05, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

We need to talk more over this. The password of the RV account was a simple five letter word. It could have been comprised by somebody I actually know, plus. Loads of accounts are hacked on wikipedia, not just sysop ones. Eaomatrix 21:50, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps - we have email for that - oh look, I see one now! Martinp23 21:57, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Nick Baker (prisoner in Japan) Request for Comment

A RfC has been started regarding the use of sources (including Metropolis) as "exceptional claims" on the above article. As an previously interested party, your input would be most valued. Comment Talk:Nick_Baker_(prisoner_in_Japan)#Request_for_comments. Thank you. David Lyons 05:44, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

When did I edit that? Martinp23 21:33, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Just to let you know

Just to let you know. This is my Ip, for your intrest. Just so I can show you I am not causing trouble on WP:ANI. 81.129.29.177 16:03, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Respectfully blocked. Martinp23 21:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Good call

I'm a big believer in the benefit of the doubt but I was pretty surprised how long the laughably unlikely "compromised account" story was entertained. Thanks for taking a sensible approach; we need to be realistic about cases like this or we'll be asking for an influx of timewasting trolls. Cheers, --YFB ¿ 21:25, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks :) Martinp23 21:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry

Hey Martin, Sorry for not giving you the heads up earlier on the RfA, I was sorting out the nom for a mutual friend and Ryan came up and re-nommed me and ended up from nom to transclusion only being a couple of hours. I didn't think about it to tell you the honest truth, in all the rush and all that. Any way where you been hiding? Cheers ^Khukri 06:37, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

NPWatcher

Hi, just a message to say I'm unable to use NPWatcher since changing username, and to ask if you'd kindly change the approved users page as such. Thanks. WATP ^(talk) • _(contribs) 21:31, 13 May 2007 (UTC) (formerly known as Archibald99)

What was your previous username, and can you please provide a link to the user rename log for the username? Thanks, Martinp23 21:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Previous username was Archibald99, but for some reason (probably me doing something wrong) there's nothing showing up here or here. This diff shows my userpage being moved, and this one shows my request at Wikipedia:Changing username being accepted. WATP ^(talk) • _(contribs) 13:00, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

OK - I'll sort it in a few mins. Martinp23 16:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

RfC on Big Sister (brothel)

Hello, I'm about to file a Request for Comments on Big Sister (brothel) and would like to solicit your position statement on Talk:Big Sister (brothel). Thanks, AxelBoldt 01:08, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

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Volume 3, Issue 20	14 May 2007	About the Signpost

Administrator status restored to five accounts after emergency desysopping	User committed identities provide protection against account hijacking
Academic journals multiply their analyses of Wikipedia	WikiWorld comic: "Ubbi dubbi"
Features and admins	The Report on Lengthy Litigation


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You are receiving this message because you have signed up for the Signpost spamlist. If you wish to stop receiving these messages, simply remove your name from the list. Ralbot 08:52, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Falun Gong Mediation

You said: "The Mediation Committee is currently discussing whether or not it is possible for mediation of Falun Gong articles to continue. ... " Could you please be more specific, on what this means? What is the alternative? Thank you. --HappyInGeneral 20:48, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

I have just been doing the talk page spamming, and have no thoughts on the issue (I've been asked to do this as Armedblowfish has been hit by a rangeblock). That said, the discussion taking place within MedCom is over whether or not mediation would be able to suceed, taking into account the remedies being imposed by ArbCom. As I have said, I have no knowledge of the dispute or its progress through WP:DR - if you feel that a dispute still exists despite the ArbCom ruling, then I would suspect that the creation of a new MedCom request detailing the status quo would be appreciated (or better still, a note on the case page as it is now). Thanks Martinp23 21:16, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

First, thanks, second, sorry I been missing for a while, so I read just now your explanation, which is welcomed. Still I don't understand what is a "rangeblock" [11] or what is the basic issue. Anyway thank you for pointing out that Armedblowfish might know, I'll ask him in a couple of days (hopefully tomorrow or sometime when I have some time for this). Anyway, basically just wanted to say thank you and that your contribution is appreciated :) --HappyInGeneral 23:47, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Checkuser

Thanks for telling me about the checkuser, when I saw it, it had already been carried out - but I would have supported it anyway as I knew I had done nothing wrong, so was Retiono Virginian and Eaomatrix the Mr Oompapa? Thanks - The Sunshine Man 11:10, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Can I ask another question, was Retiono Virginians account hi-jacked or was it him? The Sunshine Man 18:29, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi - you can take a look at User:Martinp23/Molag to see what we know now. Retiono was Eaomatrix, who was User:Molag Bal, who was also Mr Oompapa, and Retiono's account was never hacked. Presumably the link between yourself and Eaomatrix (hence the inclusion in the RFCU) was that you were in a coach/coachee relationship - may I ask though, just to make things clear - have you ever had any off-wiki contact with any of the users mentioned, which could have lead us to believe that you were in any way related (such as discussion of on wiki events, and subsequent actions in tandem with eachother?). Thanks, Martinp23 18:34, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

No, I have never met any users in real life or had contact with them. So its true, Retiono Virginian and Eaomatrix were Mr Oompapa? The Sunshine Man 16:44, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

OK. As I said, yes, they were one and the same :) Martinp23 23:53, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

MartinBot down?

I noticed on the IRC channels (#vandalism-en-ep) that MartinBot was not to be seen! I brought it up at #wikipedia-en-help and #wikipedia-en, and we checked User:MartinBot's contributions, with his last at time of checking at 01:39 UTC. The time now is 08:34 UTC, so that adds up to about 7 hours of downtime. Is this true? Extranet thought it would be a good idea to leave you a message. Thanks, [Mac Δαvιs] ❖ 08:35, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

It seems to be back up as of my typing - I suspect that the toolserver may have decided to go to sleep for a while, or, failing that, some error occured :) Thanks, Martinp23 14:19, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

AWB Check page

Can you please remove FKmailliW, who listed as a bot on the check page. Thnx. --Khunter 07:06, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Four Brothers edit automatic revert

Hello, I didn't understand the message fully, but I assume it has something to do with my edit of the page in which I added a section about Adaptations. The information is true, there is an unofficial adaptation of the film Four Brothers in Malayalam, which is titled Big B. I am confused by the different versions given, which differ by the following line:

Headline text

--59.93.23.105 07:47, 16 May 2007 (UTC)--59.93.23.105 07:47, 16 May 2007 (UTC)--59.93.23.105 07:47, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

I sincerely don't know what this line has to do with the article. Please help.

Re: Paul McKenna archive blanking

Thanks for the explanation and taking the time to dig through your archive. To be honest, I had also completely forgot about this until you replied. Thanks again. — Dorvaq (talk) 13:41, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

MartinBotIII and WPGR

Thanks! It's done a heck of a job! Will the bot keep running on a regular basis or is it an on-demand task? --Kimon^talk 14:01, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks :)

Thanks for the wishes, mate! I appreciate it :) Hope you're having a fantastic day, – Riana_ऋ 16:27, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd like NPWatcher

Hi! I just found out about your NPWatcher software. I frequently to new page patrol the old fashioned way, and this software sounds ideal. Could I be approved for its use, please? Thanks! Realkyhick 15:42, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Unprotecting Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi

Hello, the protection of these two pages was supposed to last until May 17 at 22:00, but they're still locked. Is there a reason for this, or can you do something about it? ✔ Olaf Stephanos ✍ 11:12, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

MartinBot's vandalism warnings

I noticed from the bot's contribution history that most of the time when it reverts an edit, it will then place a notice on the talk page of whoever made that edit. Some times, though, it doesn't give a notification. I am curious; what determines if a user will be notified? -- kenb215 talk 01:39, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Whether the bot hits an edit conflict, usually :). If it does, then the user isn't warned - if not, then the user is. Martinp23 08:52, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

RefDeskBot

This edit munged up the page. Corvus cornix 00:55, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Yea, it did the same thing on all 7 Ref Desk pages. Corvus and I fixed them, but can you take a look at the bot and figure out what went wrong ? Thanks. StuRat 01:09, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

This time, it hit Computing and Science but not the others. Algebraist 00:23, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

And now it's killed some of the header on Humanities [12] but doubled-up the header on misc [13]. That's quite odd. Algebraist 00:08, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

And again on Misc and Humanities. Shinhan 18:01, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Martin Bot watched pages

How does User:MartinBot get the pages it watches, is it from Special:Recentchanges or some list, and if it is a list how does one get a page added to that list? BeckyAnne 17:04, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Apparently I'll be banned soon

OK, I don't really care what your bot tells me on my talk page, because I'll have a new IP in a couple of days, max.; probably before you even read this, but anyway. But it might happen to someone else, so...: Today, I was looking at articles regarding the FA Cup. One person decided to keep adding that Man U had won, when in fact Chelsea had. You may have no idea what they are; I don't know where you're from, and can't be bothered to find out. So anyway, I reverted this. Then one time, your bot comes along, and reverts me. This first time was understandable, they were within the same minute, presumably seconds of each other. An honest mistake. Then it happened two or three times more, leading to my apparently nearly being banned notice. These times, there were at least half a minute between my reverts and its. It's a bot, half a minute is more than enough time to make sure it is making a correct revert, and not undoing good information. I don't know whether it keeps a record of the files of articles it reverts, and then checks new edits against what it previously reverted, or what. But somewhere it made a mistake. Which could lead to a good editor being banned (like I say, not me, because I'll have a new IP in a couple of days).
There may be nothing you can do, but I just thought you'd like to know... --217.43.88.241 18:21, 19 May 2007 (UTC). This comment isn't written in a harsh tone, even if it may seem so; to be honest, it's more sarcastic.

You could just create an account ;). Reedy Boy 19:40, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed :) - the bot is just a few thousand lines of python code, so cannot differentiate between who won the FA cup, and who didn't, in a match which went to 30 mins of extra time, with the winning goal being scored by Chelsea player Didier Drogba, and who didn't (Man U :)). I apologise that it mistakenly reverted you, and assure you that you will not be banned by the bot (in fact, I invite you to remove the bot's warning from your talk page). If you do decide to create an account, your chances of being reverted will reduce, so I do encourage you to do so. Thanks, Martinp23 19:48, 19 May 2007 (UTC)