User:UnitBot/False positives
UnitBot is a bot to fix the false precision introduced by overzealous unit conversions (e.g. 50 meters = 164.041995 feet). This page describes what to do if you encounter a false positive made by UnitBot.
What is a false positive?
[edit]A false positive is if UnitBot gets confused, and makes an edit which damages, rather than improves an article. There are two possible types:
- UnitBot interpreting some random fragment of text as a unit conversion, and thus "fixing" something that was never a conversion in the first place. This is highly unlikely, and should never happen.
- UnitBot correctly identifying and rounding down a unit conversion, but doing so in a case where the high precision of the unit conversion was completely justified. For example, "1 foot is equal to 30.48 cm". This is more likely than the first type of error, but should still never happen.
Before assuming that a false positive of the 2nd type has been made, please consider the following points:
- Was the accuracy of the original conversion really justified? For example, if a page originally read "parts of the lake are 1000 ft (305 m) deep", and UnitBot rounded 305 m off to 300 m, were those extra 5 m really necessary? It may be true that 305 m is closer to 1000 ft than 300 m is, but this can be misleading. A figure of 305 m implies that the true value is between 304.5 m and 305.5 m, which requires the original value to be accurate to within 2 feet. Unless the original measurement really was that accurate, a converted value of 305 m is not just overzealous, but plain wrong, as it implies exactitude that isn't substantiated by the original source. Any reader who naturally "thinks" in metres, will see this supposedly precise figure, and be misinformed by the article.
- The unit conversion may have been made in the opposite direction to that implied by the text. For example "it weighs 10.886 kg (24 lb)" may seem like a reasonable conversion, as both digits in 24 lb are completely justified by the preceding number. However 24 lb matches this number a bit too well, indicating that 24 lb is the original number, and that 10.886 kg is the conversion. UnitBot is capable of detecting these backwards conversions, and so may sometimes make corrections that seem a little strange at first glance.
- Is your objection to an edit a matter of factual accuracy, or just a matter of taste? If you can see why UnitBot made an edit, but liked the page as it was, it's probably better to just revert the edit, rather than reporting it as an error.
Reporting false positives
[edit]To report and incident, please provide the diff of the edit, note the type of false positive, and send a message to Hyperdeath.
Blocking UnitBot
[edit]Inserting the command:
- {{bots|deny=UnitBot}}
into a page will instruct UnitBot to not edit that page.