User talk:BoxCrawler/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

Scope

This is a most useful bot but its scope is too narrow. Many schools are not in Category:WikiProject Schools. Can it be asked to crawl around the subcategories of Category:Schools, please? TerriersFan 01:55, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

What would it do on such pages? I wrote it specifically to use {{WPSchools}} so it was only open to pages using that template. I'd be happy to discuss it with you, please put further discussion on my talk page. Adam McCormick 02:06, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Errors

See "Talk:Exhall Grange School", and "Talk:Ash Green School" and many other pages. The bot duplicates parameters. Suggest review or stop its action. Snowman (talk) 22:14, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

These concerns are being handled Adam McCormick (talk) 00:14, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Referred to Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive367#BoxCrawler at 23:04, 11 February 2008 -- Snowman (talk) 10:58, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Updates

BoxCrawler is in the process of being updated to fix a slight defect and add some functionality. Feel free to let me know if there are any issues (besides parameter duplication) and i will be happy to correct them. Adam McCormick (talk) 04:11, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Useless edits.

Can you have the bot avoid useless edits like this one: [1]. Thanks. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 13:05, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

The bot is just correcting the lack of uniformity among the templates. They're not useless, it's assuring that issues like the complaint which began the bot update do not happen again by fixing all inconsistencies. Adam McCormick (talk) 06:11, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect Template Placement

Template:Newinfobox should be added onto talk pages and not article pages. As listed on the templates page Template:Newinfobox/doc#Usage which it hasn't been doing as can been seen here User Contribs Page. Peachey88 ^{(Talk Page | Contribs)} 02:11, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry when the bot was written the placement was correct, it will be fixed for the next run. Adam McCormick (talk) 06:09, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Mansfield Middle School

Would you mind rating? Shapiros10 (talk) 13:21, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Replied on User's Talk Page Adam McCormick (talk) 00:44, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

April 25 Run

Donwside Abbey v Downside school for schools infobox

This bot has added a schools infobox needed parameter to the talk page of Downside Abbey. I would suggest this is inappropriate as the article is mostly about the Abbey & the schools box is appropriately on Downside School which is attached to the Abbey.— Rod ^talk 11:30, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Probably because the Downside Abbey was in category: Category:Secondary schools in England -- I've tidied up (as it seemed an incorrect categorisation) -- Ratarsed (talk) 12:53, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Temporarily blocked

I've temporarily blocked the bot as it appears, following a report to WP:ANI, that it's malfunctioning. _GB^T/C 12:37, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The report is here, for info. _GB^T/C 12:40, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for blocking the bot. I misunderstood which category was being requested, I've corrected the problem. Once again, thanks. Adam McCormick (talk) 01:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

26 April 2008 Run

Bot is broken, so it is blocked

BoxCrawler is broken again, so I have blocked it: see this edit, in which the bot added a tag to an article which was already tagged, using a redirect to the project's template. Since this is the second time in the last few days that this bot has malfunctioned on some fairly basic issue, I have blocked it indefinitely.

As usual, an indefinite block is not an infinite block, and the block may be lifted if admins are satisfied that the problem has been fixed.

In the meantime, it is the bot-owner's responsibility to fix any problems caused by the bots malfunctioning (see WP:BOT). --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:16, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Note, the bot also added a WPSCHOOLS banner to Talk:Education in Northern Ireland. Was this intentional? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:21, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

I have also left a note at WT:BRFA#BoxCrawler. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:34, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for stopping the bot but I think it was an overreaction. First, Education in Northern Ireland is in a category of schools articles, so nothing about tagging it is even slightly out of line. Second, just because the bot wasn't set up to pick out one specific shortcut does not mean the bot is malfunctioning, it works exactly as approved, and the only real changes have been in direct response to comments left for me. The block was unnecessary, a simple note on my talk page would have fixed the "problem." It's not a big deal and has been fixed. I'll also note that neither of these were "malfunctions," in both cases the bot worked flawlessly (The fault was mine the previous time), detecting this specific shortcut is an enhancement. Adam McCormick (talk) 05:40, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

And just noticing, that particular redirect couldn't have been part of the bot's programming as you created the redirect in February, long after the lion's share of the bot's programming was written. Adam McCormick (talk)

I didn't block because of Education in Northern Ireland; I merely asked whether that was intentionally tagged. I can see reasons why it should be and also why it might nit be, and just queried whether than was intentional.

And as per my reply on my talk page, checking for redirects is crucial to any wikiproject banner bot. Anyone can create a redirect at any time, and I'm surprised that you say the "the bot worked flawlessly" when by your own description it relied on the false assumption that the list of redirects to Template:WPSchools would remain static. It doesn't take long to check for new redirects periodically, or even before each bot run. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 13:29, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

As the operator has fixed the problem, I've unblocked. It should be noted that blocking for a single edit is an overreaction. This was not equivalent to the case the previous day. A message to the bot operator would have been sufficient. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:13, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

In reply to JLaTondre, blocks are preventive, not punitive. There are about 90 redirects using Template:WPSCHOOLS, and if the bot could double-tag one such talk page, there was every reason to expect that it would double-tag the rest. I didn't block because of the one edit which had been made, I blocked because of the other 90 it which it appeared likely to make if it continued without being fixed. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 13:20, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Only responding at Wikipedia talk:Bots/Requests for approval as no need for two overlapping conversations. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:14, 27 April 2008 (UTC)