User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2010 June

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regex for floruit AWB FR

I'm hoping you've got a regex for the floruit AWB FR that I can put in the genfixes. Thanks Rjwilmsi 12:48, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

 Done Rich Farmbrough, 12:58, 1 June 2010 (UTC).

Tamil films

Hi can you add this to the rest of the Tamil films 1942-present I think for these lists it looks bare without a side bar. Shortly I'll make one for Bengali cinema. SO if you could quickly add them using AWB this would be agreat help. \Yes also Bengali see this, If you could de clutter the bottom templatesd somwhat and add this side plate this would be great. Dr. Blofeld White cat 14:42, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Don't worry the side bar is used in all of the film articles like British films of 1969 etc... It is normal.. Dr. Blofeld White cat 14:59, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah that's the problem with Indian films is lack of credible sources. Most are fan blogs. Even Bollywood films you have a hard time finding decent sources, Even for 2000s films. So imagine trying to write an article about a 1946 Malayalam film...Somehow I managed to concoct Joymati and Indramalati which are Assamese! But only becayse they were the pioneering films.. Dr. Blofeld White cat 15:06, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Cheers. That was fast! Dr. Blofeld White cat 15:23, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 31 May 2010

TYA

Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2010 June 2 Debresser (talk) 09:49, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:List of U.S. state portals

I think we should all aspire to Not that bad. --Buaidh (talk) 18:35, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

It could always look worse. --Buaidh (talk) 18:51, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Articles containing explicitly cited English language text

Category:Articles containing explicitly cited English language text, which you created, has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:06, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

New template

I found a new maintenance template, Template:Opinion Debresser (talk) 11:38, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

TY added to SB's list. Rich Farmbrough, 12:58, 1 June 2010 (UTC).
Do you think it should be added to any maintenance categories? Debresser (talk) 09:50, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
NPOV? Rich Farmbrough, 13:46, 2 June 2010 (UTC).
Or Category:Articles with minor POV problems. Debresser (talk) 21:15, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
Sure, either. Rich Farmbrough, 13:44, 4 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot, period hunter?

Hi, Rich. I'm more or less completely bot-ignorant, so let me begin by asking for a fool's pardon if what I'm suggesting is not feasible. I've noticed that many references in WP articles have duplicated periods, one before the ref tag and then a superfluous one after it (Macropsia#Epilepsy (note 20) and Macropsia#Viruses (note 24) are a couple of examples I've left uncorrected so you can see what I mean). Is deleting the extra period a task that might be added to SmackBot's chore list?

Similarly, in a stupefyingly large number of cases, ref tags are placed before punctuation rather than after it, where MOS:PAIC recommends they be placed. Superfluous spaces before punctuation marks are another abundant eyesore. Are these potential SmackBot-y tasks? Perhaps the consumption of resources outweighs the benefits of large numbers of trivial changes, but as a reader I find that poor copyediting damages my impression of an article's credibility, whereas even seemingly trivial improvements, if they contribute to an article's professional appearance, can considerably enhance it. Cheers. -- Rrburke (talk) 15:51, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

The first case could be usefully added to general fixes for WP:AWB (which is the program behind SmackBot almost all the time), the second has, I think been turned down, for the case where one wants to ref a phrase or word, rather than the whole sentence. Rich Farmbrough, 19:58, 3 June 2010 (UTC).
Thanks. I've asked for permission to use AWB so I'll have at least a faint idea what I'm talking about before submitting a feature request. To clarify: when only a word or phrase (occuring at the end of a sentence) is being reffed, the ref is to be placed prior to the period? -- Rrburke (talk) 13:43, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
I put a feature req in anyway. That's what I understand, although I could support an argument that the level of granularity for references is not a good thing. but we are talking perhaps of stuff like " Large planets include Uranus[1], Saturn[2] and Jupiter[3]." Rich Farmbrough, 13:48, 4 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot ISBN code

Hi. Have you released your code for checking ISBNs for good hyphenation, good checksum, and assignment of language/publisher code (or could you, pretty please)? Thanks much. (You can reply only here.)—msh210℠ 17:49, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Some of it was released: the hypenation code is here but is for an old version of AWB. The checksumming code will need re-creating, it was lost in a disk crash I think. Rich Farmbrough, 19:51, 3 June 2010 (UTC).
Ah, the hyphenation was the one I wanted least. Oh, well. Thanks much, anyway.—msh210℠ 15:12, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

NYHC

I noticed you had a sub-page dealing with New York Hardcore and thought you might find this quote from Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags interesting (and hopefully not offensive):

The one obvious difference between way back in the day and now days is back then we didn't have the internet and shit like that, so now word travels faster and shit is able to spread quicker. Back then you really had to know what was up, you had to go and find out for yourself. Now you can google it, or even better Wikipedia it so you can make sure to get all your facts wrong.[1]

--Supertouch (talk) 21:39, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Portals

Since you seem to be the point man on this portal cleanup endeavor I thought I would let you know that I think I have completed the portal cleanup for the following portals: American Civil War, United States Army, United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. I can't say I did every one but I think between the 2 of us we covered most of them. I am currently working on United States Airforce and then I will work on World War I, World War II and Coast guard. Not necessarily in that order. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like me to look at. --Kumioko (talk) 18:11, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

That should keep you busy! Great stuff. Rich Farmbrough, 18:13, 4 June 2010 (UTC).
Yep, I got about 2200 pages left for the Air Force so itll take me a couple days. Im not as fast as you. --Kumioko (talk) 18:26, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot

Dear Mr. Farmbrough,

You put an "orphan" tag to the contribution "Ivan Samylovskii". This contribution was kindly formatted by your colleagues "Chase me ladies, I am the Cavalry" upon a request. My understanding was that this biography will be hosted by one of the Wikipedia Projects, and I hoped that the biography would be published under WikiProject Biography, and was puzzled to see the "orphan" tag. I added all reasonable and meaningful links to other Wikipedia article and will be very grateful if you could please take of the "orphan" tag. If you could kindly advise on whether there is anything I could/should do to have this biography with "WikiProject Biography" tag, please kindly let me know. All my apologies if I did something wrong, I am very new to Wikipedia and my only concern is to have Samylovskii's biography in the best possible format and in the most appropriate project.

I have noticed the biography is linked to "Soviet diplomats" page, but unfortunately, it is misplaced, and there is no way I can change it and place under the letter "S" by family name(to move it from the letter "I" where it is now since Ivan is the first name).

I would highly appreciate if you respond me. Look forward to hearing from you. The administrator mentioned above has all my contact details. Yours sincerely, ERASWK (talk) 19:29, 5 June 2010 (UTC) ERASWK

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 08:15, 6 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

Hello, I have personally had multiple seizures induced by Hydrogen sulfide remaining in a medicinal Hash Called budder,

This hash is very rare and there have been 0 studies on it and its effects etc.

I have only my experiences and the experiences of 3 other patients who had seizures after smoking budder.

I edited the budder wiki a long time ago to add these as possible side effects to WARN PEOPLE OUT THERE that this is NOT A SAFE DRUG

Yet i find i have had to re-edit it maybe 20 times to combat against People who make/sell it, People who think im an idiot and have no idea what im talking about, And wikipedia mods who claim my research is unreferenced.

Your bot has been making edits on that page although its quite difficult for me to make out what he removed and what others have i have a couple questions.

Is there any way for me to setup a bot that re-posts the information i know to be true, As to inform the other possible victims of this drug of the dangers?

And could you possibly have your bot stop removing my section of the wiki if he is doing so?

I really appreciate your time, If people like you didnt exist the internet could be a terrible place filled with l33tspeak, gramatical errors, and false claims everywhere ;-)

Thanks again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budder —Preceding unsigned comment added by NotAlright (talk • contribs) 21:23, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 18:19, 6 June 2010 (UTC).

AWB issue?

Not sure if this was an AWB issue (and thus should be reported there) or something else, but something definitely went wrong with this edit. - TexasAndroid (talk) 15:19, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. It's a kinda known issue where the API seems to serve an empty page once in many thousands of pages. AWB threw an error for that page (correctly) but I somehow managed to save it anyway. Rich Farmbrough, 15:22, 4 June 2010 (UTC).

AWB wrecked this article’s formatting with English-language_editions_of_The_Hobbit&diff=366408369&oldid=349577059. The formatting of the article is idiosyncratic and perhaps ought to be structured some other way, but I don’t know how to fix it, and clearly AWB doesn’t, either! ;^) Strebe (talk) 19:35, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure this article used to be more extensive with illustrations. Thanks for the not I will make the changes using Firefox. Rich Farmbrough, 19:41, 6 June 2010 (UTC).

A question from us...

Hello dear Rich,

A few months ago we have included an important insurance software company in Wikipedia, see this page: IDIT_I.D.I._Technologies

We would really appreciate to know why Wikipedia sais that this page is written like an advertisement, as we would like to fix it.

We appreciate your help. Thanks a lot! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.179.40.11 (talk) 13:20, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

It looks OK to me as it stands, I made a few minor improvements. Rich Farmbrough, 18:07, 6 June 2010 (UTC).

Portal moving when portals have named arguments

Rich, I'm not clear on how {{portal box}} supports multiple portals coming with named arguments (for doing the AWB portal merging FR). Can you put an example in the documentation as your portal settings link is a dead link? Thanks Rjwilmsi 13:23, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 18:08, 6 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot and portal fixes

[2] -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:52, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

That was quick! -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:00, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

One more comment: I would like that you comment on Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests#Succession table. If Headbomb os right we have to replace start box with s-start instead of only capitalising as you did [3]. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:00, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Be aware: New genfixes bug

Wrong removal of small tag. Problem in FixSmallTags in FixSyntax procedure in Parsers. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:19, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Line Breaks

The Smackbot is going around and adding a slash to the line breaks (i.e. turning <br> into <br />). But, based on a conversation I had awhile ago with the Line Break people (see here), it should not have the slash included...though it is ok to have, the correct way is without the slash.  BIGNOLE  (Contact me) 01:29, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for bursting in uninvited here, but no, the correct way is <br />, not <br>, <br/>, </br>, or some other form. <br> is acceptable in normal HTML, but Wikipedia is supposed to be based on XHTML, according to the top of every Wikipedia page: "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> ", and XHTML only allows <br />. Sorafune +1 01:43, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
NP, I had already replied on Bignole's talk. Rich Farmbrough, 01:50, 7 June 2010 (UTC).
Ah, I see. Well either way, I might as well retract my comment. Sorafune +1 03:27, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
Not at all, it's all good stuff. Rich Farmbrough, 07:56, 7 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot - Bad bot edit

Here. Have fun. - TexasAndroid (talk) 15:55, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes, lots of... Rich Farmbrough, 16:00, 7 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot removing orphan tags to aggressively?

E.g. on Canopy clustering algorithm, SmackBot removed the orphan tag. However, the article is only linked from User:, WP: namespaces and "List of ..." pages. Cophenetic correlation is another example of a barely-reachable article, where SmackBot removed the just added orphan tag immediately. Maybe you should not count "List of ..." pages when considering removing the orphan tag? IMHO these articles needs to be linked better, and should thus keep the orphan tag. --Chire (talk) 09:35, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

This is an AWB function, I will investigate if it includes "List of". Rich Farmbrough, 09:53, 6 June 2010 (UTC).
"List of" is counted like any other mainspace page. Wikipedia:Orphan#Criteria has no mention of "List of" being special. Rjwilmsi 13:25, 6 June 2010 (UTC)
This criteria was removed (rightly) in July last year - things like Bulbophyllum abbreviatum are unlikely to ever have links except form lists. Nonetheless I would consider not counting them for purposes of removing orphan tags. What do you think? Rich Farmbrough, 18:22, 6 June 2010 (UTC).
I'd also set the auto-remove threshold higher than the auto-add threshold. There are situations where you have three isolated articles that link to each other. By the formal definition, they all have two "true" incoming links and thus are not orphans. But actually they are not reachable, since the links are a clique (graph theory). So how about adding orphan tags only for "strong" orphans, while automatically removing orphan tags only on pages that have more than say 3 incoming links from "strong" pages, and leaving the other "orphan" tags for human editors to decide? By too strongly auto-editing orphan tags via the bot they somewhat lose their use for human editors, IMHO. But I'm rather new to Wikipedia. --Chire (talk) 08:46, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
There is a switch to only add for zero incoming article links - I use that. In terms of disconnected parts of the graph, the overhead in loading articles is too great to even make a small exploration of the surrounding nodes, however you can grab a database dump (remembering that this is a directed graph) and do graphical analysis on that to find orphan groups (sub-graphs with no incoming links). I suspect there wouldn't be any - sweeping statement I know - or at worst a few that could be quickly fixed, but it would be good to know for sure. Rich Farmbrough, 08:53, 7 June 2010 (UTC).
Incidentally node colouring is the way to go if you do, but you probably know that. Rich Farmbrough, 08:54, 7 June 2010 (UTC).
Yeah, I don't expect SmackBot to check for cliques. I just wanted to note that e.g. an editor might have added an "orphan" tag because the page is part of such a clique, but the editor isn't sure where to add appropriate links. SmackBot would remove the orphan tag again, because he just sees there are enough incoming links. --Chire (talk) 08:52, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Ha - so you do exist!

Just spotted you on Hilbert space ;-) Stephen B Streater (talk) 19:32, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot

I love you SmackBot! :D Faceless Enemy (talk) 03:37, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot's tin heart is warmed. Rich Farmbrough, 09:47, 8 June 2010 (UTC).

Portal link broken by SmackBot

I just wanted to point out that the following edit: "FIx up portal template" actually broken the portal template link. Please take these type of cases into consideration for future edits. --dbolton (talk) 04:17, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Resolved (including past cases). Rich Farmbrough, 09:48, 8 June 2010 (UTC).

Lady Gaga

[4], [5] = did not seem to work. Thoughts? -- Cirt (talk) 06:00, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

User:MSGJ has fixed. Just casing. Rich Farmbrough, 09:46, 8 June 2010 (UTC).
Okay, thanks! -- Cirt (talk) 23:14, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox shopping mall

Hi. I've added the only two special paramters to infoobox building so this template is OK for merging. There are four people in support on the talk page including Plastikspork who didn't comment. Can you use AWB to go through what link here to the mall template and replace with Infobox building? This way maps can be added to the infoboxes and the standard parameters added. Dr. Blofeld White cat 14:54, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

If you compare here you'll see how these can be replaced. Really though the number of stores, number of anchors and parking should go further up in the Template:Infobox shopping mall. If you can account for the name variation perhaps you could create a wrapper template and use AWB to replace them or whatever way you do it. Dr. Blofeld White cat 15:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

That's because a wrapper template needs to be made and the template able to accomodate for both parameter names, like you;ve done previously. Once that is done the templates can be switched. It should have far more parameters than the example you gave like this. They can be filled out by other people over time. Probably some of the engineering sections and "antenna" could be taken out though. Dr. Blofeld White cat 21:41, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah looking at templates tired is never a good idea! Always best to look at them with a clear head. Dr. Blofeld White cat 21:45, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Removing anti-italicizing marks from {{cite web}} templates

Hi, as can be seen in this edit, SmackBot is removing anti-italicizing marks in the work= parameters of my templates. In a discussion I held on that template's talk page, Template_talk:Cite_web#.22Work.22_vs_.22Publisher.22_parameters, I was wondering why the work= parameter had to be italicized when it was clearly used for websites. Most websites are not published journals and should not be italicized. I'm going to revert the bot's edits, but I won't stop the bot. I'd like your input. Thank you. – Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies 19:40, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the fixes! – Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies 21:21, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Low-Pass Filter (Electronics) Article

Hello,

I am not a wikipedia member, but I noticed an error on the Low Pass Filter article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-pass_filter) and have fixed the vandalism I found, but I don't know if any is present in other parts of the article. Also, I assume you have some way of blocking IP addresses so vandals can't just go back and vandalize whatever they want, so if you could block the vandal, that would be great.

Sorry if this isn't the 'official' way of fixing articles or whatever, but you happened to be the last actual member of wikipedia to do anything to the article, so I thought you could help.

Thanks, Josh —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.117.21.76 (talk) 19:46, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing it. Yes we can and do block but we tend do warn first. Rich Farmbrough, 20:29, 8 June 2010 (UTC).

330th Bombardment Group

Thank you for you assistance with my 330th Bombardment Group page!

Cheers,(B29bomber (talk) 20:15, 8 June 2010 (UTC))

Index of ?-related articles

It is inappropriate to add a Template:Empty section box to the alphabetical index articles. Virtually all of these articles have letter sections for which there are no existing articles. It is very misleading to ask editors to add information to these sections. Could you remove these templates with SmackBot. Thanks, Buaidh (talk) 22:29, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, fixing now. Rich Farmbrough, 22:39, 8 June 2010 (UTC).
Done. You can actually make a TOC that works using one of the compact TOC templates - and call the top section "other" rather than an incorrect 0-9. There is also a {{Center}} if you wish to use it. Rich Farmbrough, 23:03, 8 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot is misbehaving

SmackBot is being used to convert appropriate Wikitext like:

{{portal|Scotland|Flag of Scotland.svg{{!}}border|size=x22px}}{{Scotland WPbox}}{{Scotland NB}}

into gibberish like:

{{Portal|Scotland}}border|size=x22px}}{{Scotland WPbox}}{{Scotland NB}}

Could you please see who is doing this and ask them to restore the original Wikitext. Thanks, Buaidh (talk) 22:40, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Empty sections

I noticed that you removed a lot of Empty section tags. Do you think we have to modify the auto-tagger somehow? -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:32, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Well, it's a moot point. Skip one character headings sounds sensible. But if those sections are empty, and it's not reasonable to ask for entries, then maybe there should be no section, or maybe P-Q rather than P and an empty Q? But of course either play merry hell with Compact TOCs - I'm sure I've addressed this before somewhere - maybe it was one of my own pages which don't matter so much. Rich Farmbrough, 23:36, 8 June 2010 (UTC).
I confess that I have also been deleting empty sections manually as well. Although I did stop after the conversation on the AWB feature request. --Kumioko (talk) 23:38, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

We could omit 1-letter headers. The tagger can't help on lists a lot anyway. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:54, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I think its the way to go. Also [0-9 –—-]+ for years. If the page is mature, the empty sections should be pulled out, subject to the problems mentioned above. Rich Farmbrough, 23:58, 8 June 2010 (UTC).

Kumioko

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Kumioko's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Oh ok I would have thought at least a couple hundred thousand. On a seperate note I have noticed a number of articles with multiple Commons cat links. I have been manually changing them to Commons cat multi but that might be an edit that could be added to AWB and or Smackbot in the future.--Kumioko (talk) 00:21, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 7 June 2010

Hamburg portal

I've found another portal box that you could convert. {{Hamburg portal}} -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:53, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Here's another - {{WPEssayportal}} -- WOSlinker (talk) 22:39, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 22:42, 9 June 2010 (UTC).

Revision to Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri articles

I noticed that you have revised either Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire.

I intend to revise those articles following the Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Article guidelines. There are more details on the discussion pages of those articles. I'd be interested in any comments you have. It would be best if your comments were on the discussion pages of the two articles.

Thank you.

Vyeh (talk) 03:58, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot

«₯»« b nepali is the one of the most recognise able contry whhere the people living with cooperative thinking »À —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.171.240.110 (talk) 08:20, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Fantastic! Rich Farmbrough, 08:33, 10 June 2010 (UTC).

Template:Portal

Is your addition of Category:Templates with transitional syntax to Template:Portal intended as preparation for eliminating the named parameters, eliminating the positional parameters, or merely an act of terrorism? Yours aye, Buaidh (talk) 22:07, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

The first of the three. Rich Farmbrough, 10:20, 11 June 2010 (UTC).
Is there a consensus that the named parameters should be eliminated? Named parameters are generally considered more flexible than positional parameters. If a template has more than five positional parameters, it is pretty hard to tell which position is which. --Buaidh (talk) 13:06, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Odd behaviour by SmackBot

Hi Rich. I'm wondering why SmackBot removed the <small> formatting in this edit. I've fixed it, but I thought you might like to know. Regards. DH85868993 (talk) 08:41, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Looks like it's a regression of a known AWB bug. Rich Farmbrough, 10:21, 11 June 2010 (UTC).

Maybe you could help in this one

User_talk:Magioladitis#Follow-up_on_to_my_commons_cat_multi_question_on_the_AWB_FR_page. We need to simplify/merge stuff. -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:18, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Title

I give up. Why is your user name on this page's title misspelled?--Bbb23 (talk) 00:06, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

It's the display title code at the top. Hard to do anything fun with it, because as an anti vandalism measure it can only omit letters or change formatting. Rich Farmbrough, 02:12, 14 June 2010 (UTC).

Question

Good evening good sir! I wanted to ask you about the ongoing conversations regarding the commons templates. I left a comment/question in Mag's talk page and I was wondering if you were going to take a stab at fixing the coding or if you were under the impression I was doing it, which I am willing to try, but I am not very good with. --Kumioko (talk) 00:20, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes I will probably have a look at it. But it's hard to know what to include, also on the one had removing redundancy is good, but creating monstrous templates is bad. Rich Farmbrough, 02:12, 14 June 2010 (UTC).

Volley

I have seen that you edited some volleyball articles. Some players articles, most of them looks outdated. I would like to improve players by country. Could you please choose a country to contribute with? Please take a look on Yekaterina Gamova, Hélia Souza, Serena Ortolani and Kenia Carcaces for a model to follow. Please can you please improve some volleyball players with infobox and some addons? References are very important. Let me know. Oscar987 22:08, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Redirects to Citation needed etc.

Rich, when SmackBot changes {{fact}}, {{cn}} etc. into {{Citation needed|date=June 2010}}, does it work from all existing redirects to that template, or just a list which you have set up? I'm asking because a lot of new redirects seem to have been created in the last few days, see Template talk:Unreferenced#Redirects, and the user concerned has also amended several redirects (some of which he created, and some which already existed) to point to different templates. Some of them have pointed to {{citation needed}} at some point, see here. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:18, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't necessarily want you to do a new build ahead of schedule; the thing is, there is a possibility that some of these redirects (new or existing) may have been used by people who believed that they had one effect, but the effect has been changed. The user in question attempted to alter WP:MYSPACE from Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a blog, webspace provider, social networking, or memorial site to Wikipedia:Facebook, which is a huge difference of meaning. This particular case isn't a template, but it's a redirect which was altered without thought for the consequences (it has since been reverted). I don't want to see collateral damage by, say {{citation needed}} popping up in places where {{unreferenced}} was intended - or vice versa. BTW, I'm watching this page, because I like to keep threads in one place. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:34, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia templates

Rich, either my computer is messing up, or there's a serious problem with all the templates that just occured. Somebody's messing around with this! Please fix ASAP! Thanks. Best, --Discographer (talk) 23:34, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

The problem is, is that somebody removed (hide)/(show) from the upper right-hand corner of the actual template template. See my talk page for example, as I've always kept them closed, not opened, as they now appear. This drastically affects the group templete box to, as you will see (well, as you would know, since you're the template expert)! Best, --Discographer (talk) 06:06, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
Hello. I encounter the same problem as mentioned by the editor above, however, this is when I use new features. When I use old features, it does not do this. --Astrodia (talk) 19:31, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, one for WP:VP/T. Rich Farmbrough, 19:33, 15 June 2010 (UTC).

This may explain the problem and provide a solution. Rich Farmbrough, 19:38, 15 June 2010 (UTC).

Hi Rich, again. Thanks for responding back to me! I clicked on that link you mentioned, and couldn't find anything there. Interesting, that I'm not the only one with this problem. I'll have to try the old way again, but I've been doing this the new way since the last time I talked to you, and I had no template problems (hide/show) until last night! I'm going to bring this up on that link you gave me. Thanks Rich, as always! Best, --Discographer (talk) 20:34, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
How do I clear the cache (I don't even know what a cache is? Oh, God, that must be pretty bad!) Best, --Discographer (talk) 20:38, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
Depending on the exact issue, see WP:PURGE or WP:BYPASS. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:45, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
It worked! I pushed the "Ctrl" key and pressed the "F5" key, and now it's restored! It is now fixed. I'm so happy! Thanks Rich, and thanks Redrose, I have to remember this. Best, --Discographer (talk) 21:06, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 14 June 2010

Re:User talk pages

Sorry, it is necessary for this purpose, I may only have to stop here when I'm finally done with it. 84.86.199.99 (talk) 16:59, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

WP:PCQ

Hi Rich,
I've dumped some more candidates into WP:PCQ. Since you've notified the talk pages of the last batch, would you do the same for those? Won't hurt, even though most of the concerns we got as feedback weren't actually coming from the article watchers I think.
If not I'll ask someone else, or do it myself tomorrow. :)
Cheers, Amalthea 22:47, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Wrong edit summary. :) Amalthea 23:50, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
If I had a pound for every time I have done that.... Rich Farmbrough, 23:53, 16 June 2010 (UTC). 23:53, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Ulysses S. Grant Pending Changes

Hi Rich. In the USG article I am attempting to change the USG Civil War segment. The current Civil War segment on the USG article is to be transferred to a separate article, since it has outgrown this article. Having a separate article on USG and the Civil War will allow room for expansion. The rewrite on the Civil War section is only done to condense the USG article, not to make any drastic changes or cause edit wars. Rjensen approved. I have put the summary in the Talk page to get input and I am allowing others to review the USG Civil War summary and make comments. I have gotten valuable help on the edits. The summary in the talk page includes information on the Battle of North Anna and Lee's dysentary during the Overland Campaign. The purpose is to make the USG bio article stream line and give separate articles to longer life topics. A separate article can also be done on USG's world tour. Articles on his Presidency and Presidential scandals have already been done. The 150 Anniversary of the Civil War is coming up and it has been mention that a separate article on USG's civil war carreer would be good. {Cmguy777 (talk) 02:28, 17 June 2010 (UTC)}

SmackBot

Hi! smackbot. I am an adminn from hindi wikipedia. i observed that you made a very big contribution to make vaarta shirshak(talk pages). so we all give thank to you. but why you have stopped your bot now. please come in hindi wikipedia at some small intervals so that all talk pages may get form. I think mr gunjan verma there had already talked to you about this. so I request you to do your bot activity.regards--mayurkumar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.242.100.137 (talk) 06:14, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Baseball lists

Just wondering if there was some sort of discussion as to why the lists of baseball jargon were moved to "Glossary of baseball". Thanks. — KV5 • Talk • 11:42, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 12:07, 17 June 2010 (UTC).

Portalpar template

I wanted to let you know I have finished going through the articles that linked to portalpar. There are still about 5 that pop up but I can't figure out why but the other 4500+ are done. Now I am working on WWI and WWI portals. Ill let you know when I am done. --Kumioko (talk) 16:33, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

I noticed that too with what transcludes here. everytime I run it I get a few more. --Kumioko (talk) 16:39, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Underground stock

Hi Rich. Could you please have another look at your last edit to this template? I don't understand what your change was supposed to do. The infobox now always shows a weight value of "date= May 2010".

Cheers -- EdJogg (talk) 15:13, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

 Done -- Thank you. -- EdJogg (talk) 19:14, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Hoxne Hoard

You might be interested in this project Wikipedia:GLAM/BM/Hoxne_challenge... Are you a "FA Kinda guy"? Witty Lama 19:01, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot

In this edit of Portal:Mars, SmackBot misunderstands the syntax. Iceblock (talk) 19:29, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed already, but I found another page affected (out of 30,000 checked) so thanks for the note. Rich Farmbrough, 09:42, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

Hey, the citation you left (House of Hair with Dee Snider) saying that Blackie Lawless was born in Staten Island, that doesn't actually say that he was born there, it only says that he was raised there. In an interview that I found on Youtube, Blackie said that he was born in the kitchen of the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles California. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.120.163.23 (talk) 22:13, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 09:43, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

Rich, I am a descendent of Lt. Col. Stephen Moulton. The information you have looks correct. I have much more on his genealogy if you think the entry deserves more.

Where did you get this picture and why do you know it is him?

Kirk Moulton bwsept@fast.net —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.241.122 (talk) 02:02, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Details on the picture are at File:Stephen Moulton 33.GIF (Granted permission by Floyd NY County Clerk). The author of the article and uploader of the picture is User:HMS INDEFATIGABLE who was active for a few days in 2007, creating also Brent Brandon. My edits to the article are minor, technical, grammatical or cosmetic. By all means add significant information, if possible quoting a reference. Rich Farmbrough, 09:37, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

Removal of spacing

Hi there - I just had a look at this edit and noticed that your fixes, particularly the removal of ndash from the bottom infoboxes, have caused years to display like 1909- 1910 instead of 1909 - 1910. It's occurred on a few Premier pages... and who knows how many others. Is there an easy way you can think to fix it? Timeshift (talk) 02:26, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

If you look at the previous version of the page you will see it is exactly the same. Rich Farmbrough, 09:40, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

Help on a task

Maybe you could help me with User_talk:Magioladitis#Yobot_bug.3F? I have limited access to network till Monday. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:53, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your help with this task. 24.44.14.186 (talk) 16:08, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

subst pagename in Gutenburg template

Hi, you recently made an edit to Monmouth Rebellion which added subst pagename to a Template = Gutenberg|no=9504. I don't understand what it was supposed to do but doesn't seem to have worked - if you look at ref 24 it includes {{Subst:PAGENAME}} at Project Gutenberg which I don't think should be there.— Rod talk 13:14, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 17:47, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

The few other recent Smackbot edits I've looked at seem fine, but this edit to DDT broke the formating in most of the references. It's been reverted. Yilloslime TC 16:06, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

That is very odd, thanks for letting me know. Rich Farmbrough, 16:08, 19 June 2010 (UTC). 16:08, 19 June 2010 (UTC)
This is a side effect of the template redirect {{...}} which I still have to deal with. I have been wasting time on other matters, unfortunately. Rich Farmbrough, 17:48, 19 June 2010 (UTC).

Thanks

Thanks for the clean up at Talk:Shakespeare authorship question/sandbox draft2‎ deeply appreciated. Any criticisms of the quality of the page also would be most welcome. Best regards Nishidani (talk) 11:13, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

And thanks for the explanation. At first I thought it messed up the ref formatting and reverted, but after you did it again I discovered that I had tested the only cite without a ref. I did remove the "Untitled" title, though, to restore the page view. Tom Reedy (talk) 13:23, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Cite template cap

I'm using Cite from My Preferences option. It writes in "cite" not "Cite". So what? --Chris.urs-o (talk) 13:07, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Articles needing chemical formulas progress

Template:Articles needing chemical formulas progress has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Svick (talk) 20:51, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot and Template:Infobox road

In this edit, SmackBot broke {{infobox road}} by changing "country=USA" to "country=US". The infobox uses the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for countries, and that means "USA" is the correct parameter value for the United States. – TMF 01:27, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

This too. [6] --Rschen7754 01:34, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
OK, thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 01:35, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
US should now work fine. Rich Farmbrough, 01:37, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
You're missing the point, we want your bot to stop changing USA to US in {{infobox road}}. --Rschen7754 01:39, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
Yes I understand that. However making the template easier and safer to use is a good thing. Rich Farmbrough, 01:41, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
I don't understand this comment at all. The template doc page explicitly states to use the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for the country parameter, with a link to said codes; doesn't get much easier than that. As for "safer"...I'm at a loss for words. There's nothing unsafe with how the infobox or its subtemplates are coded. – TMF 02:05, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
Principle of least astonishment. Rich Farmbrough, 06:32, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
Still not following. In my opinion and of the opinion of the others who have commented here, your bot's change is a solution in search of a problem. – TMF 06:52, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
Two different questions, re HCI it is best not to assume people read the documentation, if the do "the obvious thing" it should work, if they do something very odd it should fail gracefully. This isn't always possible, especially with the limits on template programming.
As far as the bot is concerned there is a long standing WP MoS for using US rather than USA, (and, apart from sporting pages for using alpha2). For that reason making the change from USA to US in most templates, where it is treated purely as a string is a Good Thing™. However it is pretty minor so there's no problem turning it off. Rich Farmbrough, 07:06, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
Reg-exs changed. Rich Farmbrough, 01:44, 21 June 2010 (UTC).
(edit conflict)Making it easier is one thing, breaking it is another. I don't know what making it safer requires or does. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 01:46, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
A moments more thought than I gave it. Done. Rich Farmbrough, 01:53, 21 June 2010 (UTC).

List of tallest buildings in Springfield, Missouri

I was expanding the List of tallest buildings in Springfield, Missouri, and while I was doing that, your bot came along and caused an edit conflict (not to mention that it seems that I am always on the wrong side of an edit conflict). I didn't want to lose my changes so I saved them and now the whole article is screwed up, and I have no idea how to fix it. Would you be able to help? Thanks. Zonafan39 (talk) 04:44, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

I was able to fix the error, don't worry about it, the article is fine now. Zonafan39 (talk) 05:13, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

WPBS

Check User_talk:Xeno#WPBS. Maybe we need your help. -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:30, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Requiem (Mozart)

[7] "to this day" = "until today". not clear? cheers ;-) --FordPrefect42 (talk) 10:27, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Okay, got that. Good point. Cheers --FordPrefect42 (talk) 10:42, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Unit-attn

Template:Unit-attn has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Axem Titanium (talk) 12:13, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Template:zh-hk

Re your revert of User:Gzyeah, can you comment at Template talk:Language icon#zh-hk vs. yue? I don't understand these language codes very well, but something seems to be wrong here. Thanks, cab (talk) 01:18, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Sig migration

Hey, I was wondering if anything else happened with the migration you mentioned awhile back[8] If possible, would love it if it could be done throughout my archives, if nothing else, to make it less easy to connect the dots (though if it could also be done in my FA/GA stuff that would rock). -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 03:55, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I did about 500 pages that needed editing for other reasons, but I saw some negative comments at WP:BOTREQ. However your archives seem unexceptional: I did a blanket replace, also did my pages. Rich Farmbrough, 15:22, 22 June 2010 (UTC).
Ah...sorry, about that, I thought the discussion had died there and hadn't seen the last replies. Do appreciate your doing the archives though. :-) -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 15:42, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

AWB help

Thanks It's actually a little unlikely that I'll get to use that rule between me finishing off all the good articles and the bot request, but I might be able to apply that in the future. Thanks again. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 15:57, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 21 June 2010

Question

Hey Rich,, regarding this,

How am I supposed to implement this if the template is not amended? I had placed the non-English ones at WP:CFDS to rename them as well to match. Good Ol’factory (talk) 23:46, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I saw the discussion at Template_talk:Lang#Names_of_categories. As I said there I think I'll just change the CFD close. Thx, Good Ol’factory (talk) 23:53, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
Excellent. Rich Farmbrough, 23:54, 22 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

Hi, how can i change the title on the new template. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xeex (talk • contribs) 12:34, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Request

Could you please check what happened to Template:New page and its talkpage and protection settings. Look slike a rogue admin to me. Debresser (talk) 12:49, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Page was only semi-protected. Rich Farmbrough, 14:53, 23 June 2010 (UTC).
Xeev moved it to Moldavian Identity card and edited it, VW reverted and moved it back. Rich Farmbrough, 14:55, 23 June 2010 (UTC).

Robert Wadlow repeat vandalism

As I am not on Wiki as often as I once was, thought I should draw someone's attention to this, and saw your name in the edits, and remembered previous contact. Hopefully that is not onerous. I came upon it accidentally, settling a debate, and noted it had previously been messed with on the 21st. Respect. Seasalt (talk) 12:46, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Problem with edits from a while back - NL infobox import (pulled from May archive)

See [9].. See the caption display? |250px|none|alt=|Location of Absdale]] - Please investigate. –xenotalk 22:12, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I see you fixed that one article, but this occurs on all the NL infobox imports that you conducted with Smackbot, such as 't Nopeind and 't Veld. Please correct all the articles. –xenotalk 19:17, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
Cydebot fixed it I think, but I have now done the others as far as I can see. Rich Farmbrough, 07:29, 25 June 2010 (UTC).

Fic depercated paramter in cite tempalte (and GFs) using AWB

Might want to run a spell checker on your edit summary :-) ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 20:34, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Please be careful

We warn newbies not to refactor other people's talk page comments. I have undone this edit because it completely misses the point about why those particular parameters have been used. Further, the bug which I described here still exists, so please don't replace |year=, or month/year, with |date=, unless a day is also present. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:25, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Empty Category:User-created public domain images

Hi Rich Farmbrough, you seem to have a bot to timestamp the files in Category:User-created public domain images. Could you give it some extra botsnacks and fire it up to empty out the category? Please reply here, my watchlist works ;-) multichill (talk) 21:24, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

TB

Hello, Rich Farmbrough. You have new messages at Sadads's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Archive me. Rich Farmbrough, 17:13, 30 June 2010 (UTC).

Dummy section to test link with HTML comment in

Rich Farmbrough, 17:13, 30 June 2010 (UTC).

Programming issue with Pending changes

It was just pointed out at WT:Pending changes#Some_positive_feedback that the edit page still says "When you click Save, your changes will immediately become visible to everyone" even when Level 1 or Level 2 protection is in place. Thought you might like to have this minor glitch reported to whoever is doing the programming work for WP:PEND. Thanks Rich. ... Kenosis (talk) 19:39, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 28 June 2010

Smackbot issue

Hello Rich, Smackbot in this edit changed the capitalization of a section, but the capitalization is part of a proper noun and thus should not be changed. Regards, -- Jeff3000 (talk) 00:17, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks I have fixed that. Rich Farmbrough, 07:31, 30 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot Allowable upper case in section heading

In Alexander Mitchell Palmer you changed the heading "Attorney General" to "Attorney general", which is wrong. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 02:22, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Similarly, "Prime Minister" should always be capitalised, but the bot changed it in Feleti Sevele.-gadfium 06:42, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the notes, we don't capitalise titles of rank unless they are used in conjunctions with the name of the person, or the entity to which they apply.MoS Rich Farmbrough, 09:06, 30 June 2010 (UTC).
That is incorrect. "Attorney General", "Prime Minister", "Speaker of the House" are all correct when used as titles. Beyond My Ken (talk) 15:03, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Removal of "small" tags

I agree with most of this edit, but why remove <small> tags? They help readability by indicating levels of importance in text.  HWV258.  04:52, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

I had this logged as an AWB bug, but it looks as if the text in galleries, in Monobook, is already small. Using small tags would result in even smaller text which is not good for accessibility. I have added this example to my bug report however. Rich Farmbrough, 05:09, 30 June 2010 (UTC).

Stub removal

I noted that in this edit SmackBot removed stub tags. Removing a stub tag should be the result of a specific human evaluation of the article; what criteria is SmackBot using to remove stubs? Beyond My Ken (talk) 15:01, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

AWB removes stub tags from pages over a certain size, using a weighted algorithm that values pure text more than lists, for example. It is extremely conservative, and widely accepted, although occasionally there are queries. Generally if an article is long enough to have its stub tag removed it is not a stub, although it may still need expansion. It is normal to either expand the article or tag it with {{Expand}} if this is the case. Rich Farmbrough, 16:56, 30 June 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot - The Band/The band

Rich, I can understand why the program would do it, but SmackBot shouldn't have lower-cased the name of the musical group The Band to The band in Robbie Robertson's article. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 15:15, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

Hm, that's a good one. There were 136 occurrences of "The Band" as a stand alone title, nonetheless I think I will simply have to allow them to remain in future, since the methods for marking something as an exception, such as {{Sic}} aren't really appropriate for headers, the alternative is to use a white-list, which has its own drawbacks but might be worth considering. Rich Farmbrough, 15:35, 30 June 2010 (UTC).
I presume the bot will scan the page again sometime? Maybe a version of {{Sic}} (or another template) that places a comment string the bot would recognize? Probably an outlier case, but there are probably one or two other such cases! Or even a commented template like the one I just put on the heading here? --John (User:Jwy/talk) 16:14, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
Yes it would get hit when the next database dump is complete, which is RSN (real soon now). Anything between the == delimiters can affect the section link, but HTML comments shouldn't and would be a great fix if it works. Rich Farmbrough, 16:39, 30 June 2010 (UTC).
I'll restore one of the other hits on Robbie's article to detect the scan hit it and try the commented sic on the heading. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 17:02, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
OK the links still work fine with the HTML comment, and I don't think there are accessibility issues (which is the other area where "funny" headers cause problems) so it looks great. I can force SB to run against that page after the current run is complete. Rich Farmbrough, 17:15, 30 June 2010 (UTC).
This is fine from the bot's point of view. Rich Farmbrough, 20:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC).
Cool. Good to know its an option. I'll leave it up to you whether you want to recommend it in other situations. Nice working with you. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 22:37, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
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