Template talk:WikiProject banner shell/Cleanup project

Cleanup list

The SatyrBot cleanup list is the regularly-updated list of Talk pages which are in need of the Shell.

Instructions for WikiFairy-ing this list

SatyrBot builds this list automatically every week. It is a list of articles that have more than three WikiProject banners on the article talk page.

If there are more than three banners, talk pages can become quite cluttered. This template aims to reduce that clutter while still maintaining a visible project presence on the page.

To help with this ongoing effort, simply visit one of the talk pages listed.

1. Edit the talk page and collect the project banners together (leaving banners like {{WP1.0}} or {{talkheader}} separate)
2. Add this line before the project banners:

{{WikiProjectBannerShell |1=

5. Add a final }} after the collected project banners
6. Remove your completed page from this list

If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a note and I'll do what I can to help.

{{WikiProjectBanners}} vs. {{WikiProjectBannerShell}}

As I was alerted on my talk page that some of the articles listed here already had been discussed and that the consensus was not to change {{WikiProjectBanners}} to {{WikiProjectBannerShell}}, I am no longer converting articles listed that already have {{WikiProjectBanners}}; I'm just striking them out. Do you feel it's possible to get consensus regarding these two templates? I'm inclined to be bold and convert them, but I'd like to know if I'm reviving old complaints. Perhaps it should be brought up again at the Village Pump?

Thanks, — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 16:43, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's no consensus on which should be used - or even whether or not it's okay to replace one with the other.
It's been brought up at the Village Pump, with no consensus: [1]
Personally, I'm no longer converting form Banners to BannerShell either. I was considering telling the bot to ignore pages that have the WikiProjectBanners template. Seems that's a whole different project :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 22:18, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, no need to strike them - just delete 'em. -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 04:01, 17 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ooh, update! And yeah, it might indeed be helpful if the bot ignored paged with {{WikiProjectBanners}}. — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 13:13, 17 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeh, it updates weekly. I've instructed the bot to remove those with WikiProjectBanners on its next run. -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 14:38, 17 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 14:22, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Two FYI's

FYI #1: I've just gone through a bunch of banners that weren't in the Category:WikiProject banners. The bot used that category to determine which ones were "nesting-compliant", so the fact that I added 49 banners means this next week's bot run (on Wed) may be a bit heavy.

FYI #2: If you run across an article that the bot says has 4 banners, yet the article has 5 (or more), that means either a) there's a banner without the nesting coding, or b) there's a banner that's got the code, but isn't in cat:WikiProject banners (see #1) - please fix or leave a note here.

Thanks! -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 01:42, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hold on just a freakin' minute!

[2] So now a bot is creating this list and a bot is emptying it? I'm going home! :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 05:48, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, no, no. He's doing the same WikiGnoming I used to do. Just after I got blocked for doing it, I was told by the unblocking admin that I had to keep my edit rate down to four edits/minute or file a procedural BRFA. So I filed a BRFA. That was the 50-edit "trial period" (never mind that I've done this for weeks).

The process is still manually assisted, as it has been. I don't believe an automatic bot can do this correctly, for many reasons, and I don't think it should be attempted. Cheers! — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 06:15, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeh - If I could get the bot to do it, I would. But I can't figure out the regexp :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 06:31, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, my bookmarklet uses multiple regexes. But the main problem is 1.) You have to make sure all the WikiProject banners are adjacent to each other (This is unfortunately often not the case. Sometimes they're not even in section 0 but in a special "Templates" section.) 2.) You have to review the results of each edit to check for blank spaces and non-compliant banners and use {{BannerShell}} to nest them. A bot could detect non-compliant banners but cannot add the {{BannerShell}} template -- it's impossible to figure out what the topic of the WikiProject is based on the name of the template. It could see what categories the WikiProject banner is that begin with 'WikiProject', but all of this has the potential to fail. I find it easier to use a semi-automated tool that takes me about five seconds per edit than to create the bot and test it extensively. A human's just better sometimes. :) — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 07:04, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What semi-automated tool? Copying |nested=yes and writing edit summary are the biggest time wasters for me. Although, if I did that I'd also have to ask for Bot approval and create the bot account. If only I had 500 mainspace edits same thing could probably be done with AWB. Shinhan 06:25, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

One I made myself, and I already have bot approval for this task. I'm not familiar with AWB; I prefer homegrown solutions. — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 03:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No bot today!

Sorry, boys and girls, MadmanBot's busy today, so he won't be helping all of you out in emptying the list. Apologies! :)

— Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 17:59, 14 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MadmanBot Task Request

All contributors involved in reduction of this project's backlog are urged to review the most recent task request I have submitted to the BAG for approval. Any questions, comments, or criticism of the bot's methods are invited. If this task is approved, it could go a long way towards keeping the backlog small and manageable. The task request is transcluded below.

Thanks! — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 03:15, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This task has been approved by the BAG and hopefully, tonight, it will/it has reduced a lot of backlog (though not all of it; currently, it skips pages it doesn't feel it's equipped to handle). MadmanBot's list will update sometime tomorrow, and I dare say SatyrBot's will as well. — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 03:54, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ugh. I speak too soon. It got through the Fs, then the computer restarted automatically to apply updates. Since this task's in development, it's not on my dedicated server. Sigh... — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 14:03, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The first bot run is complete. — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 22:56, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wooo! I'm so proud[3]. The change was (-28,663), which I've never seen before. :P — Madman bum and angel (talk – desk) 17:09, 2 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]