User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2008 August

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How can I upload images?

Hi, I need to upload to some of the articles I started, but still I cannot do that? Could you tell me why and how can I do that please? Dhammika98 (talk) 12:09, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

What happens when you click "upload file" ?Rich Farmbrough, 17:03 28 July 2008 (GMT).

Your bot sucks. It keeps trying to say articles are similar when in fact they are very different. Fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.52.69 (talk) 07:00, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Link added

Greetings. As per your 2006 request (in the talk page about today's total solar eclipse), I have added a link to the definition of central eclipse in the article. CielProfond (talk) 07:41, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Invitation to Wikipedia meetup in London

Wikimedia UK logo

Date: 13:00 onwards, Sunday 10 August 2008

Venue: Penderel's Oak pub, Holborn WC1 map

More information: Wikipedia:Meetup/London 12

Hello,

I noticed that you have listed yourself as a Wikipedian in London, so I thought you might like to come to one of our monthly social meetups. The next one is going to be on Sunday 10 August, which might well be rather short notice, but if you can't come this time, we try to have one every second Sunday of the month.

If you haven't been before, these meetups are mainly casual social events for Wikipedia enthusiasts in which we chat about Wikipedia and any other topics we fancy. It's a great way to meet some very keen Wikipedians, but we'd also love for you to come along if you're interested in finding out more about Wikipedia, other Wikimedia projects, or other collaborative wiki projects too.

The location is a pub that is quite quiet and family friendly on a Sunday lunchtime, so hopefully younger Wikipedians will also feel welcome and safe. Alcohol consumption is certainly not required!

Although the meetups are popular, many UK-based editors still don't know about them. It would be great to welcome some fresh faces, so I hope you can come along.

Yours,

James F. (talk) 09:27, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Please forgive the slightly impersonal mass-invite!

Brian Fox: Biography and other info...

I'm trying to understand the criteria for removing biographical information. For example, why is the biographical information for one open source advocate and programmer relevant, while the biographical information for another is not?

Brianjfox (talk) 14:08, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

There are some guidelines for notability, but you have to be a little more explicit. Rich Farmbrough, 03:39 9 August 2008 (GMT).

about the things you said about my talk page

Which are article are you referring to? --Ramu50 (talk) 18:31, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Error edit with SmackBot: VC template detection

Diff 2Aug08 Bot detected Template:VCT as a Verify Credibility template instance. 75.132.192.205 (talk) 02:34, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed. Rich Farmbrough, 11:20 10 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot

You're bot is undoing my hard work (here) over and over again. When I write an article, I format it properly. What I have done is set it like: [[Human|Humans]] to display the word "Humans" while linking to the article "Human." It continuously reverts my edits to format it as such: [[Human]]s. The result is a half-hyperlinked word. CindyAbout/T/P/C/ 02:28, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Humans - Humans they both display and link the same way. Rich Farmbrough, 02:42 11 August 2008 (GMT).

Also SB has only edited that article once, not "over and over" . Rich Farmbrough, 02:47 11 August 2008 (GMT).

Another thing that stayed to long

Added something to your list. Cheers, Face 08:12, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Paleo article

Hi Rich. Is this article, namely Paleo, a self-advert ? Bests. --- (Bob) Wikiklrsc (talk) 23:16, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

probably.Rich Farmbrough, 21:08 10 August 2008 (GMT).

Thanks, Rich, for your help. Trust you're having a brilliant summer. Cheers. -- (Bob) Wikiklrsc (talk) 22:44, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

A proposal

At Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Change_DATE_from_monthname_year_to_year-month a proposal is raised to change the DATE template. It will may affect the working of your bot. Is the proposal a way to go? Nsaa (talk) 20:12, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot

Re: [1]: Why does the bot move the stub tag below the language links? The stub tag is temporary and is most relevant to the text of the article, and should not be lost below other meta-information. I would prefer it to go right below the text, otherwise it fails some of its purpose, but regardless above the category tags is normal. Could you set the bot not to move stub tags? —Centrx→talk • 16:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't, it puts it after the cats and before the langs. After the cats because the stub category is less important from a readers perspective than the real cats. Rich Farmbrough, 21:02 10 August 2008 (GMT).

Sorry, that is what I meant: The stub tag is relevant to the text and belongs near it. The tag might even be best above any "External links" or "Reference" section. Unfortunately, the category is mixed up with the text of the tag; and, in general, people are wrongly going so far as to alphabetize category links rather than order them by relevance. —Centrx→talk • 23:44, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

There have been extensive discussions on all these matters. There is sense in "all maint tags the the end" or "all maint tags the the top" or even "all maint tags the the talk page". However the status quo is as described, except for the alphabetisation of cats which I had not heard of. Rich Farmbrough, 01:09 13 August 2008 (GMT).

What happened to what I wrote?

Do you have any involvement with "Orval Hobart Mowrer"? If so, can you tell me what the unverified content is? ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rose bartram (talk • contribs) 20:52, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

No none. Rich Farmbrough, 01:02 13 August 2008 (GMT).

Is SmackBot's calendar confused?

I saw several SmackBot edits today that are using May for the current month instead of August.[2][3][4] [5]   — Chris Capoccia ^T⁄_C 07:30, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Here's another one [6] Edgepedia (talk) 08:22, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Came here to say the same thing. Seems the bot is broken. Or, perhaps just confused. —Slipgrid (talk) 12:27, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes.. I recovered the hard drive with the "latest" SB code yesterday, and forgot to change the month. Realised when I woke up this morning! Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 13:23 13 August 2008 (GMT).

Constructive editing? (Smackbot)

Surely this is pointless? Clutters the edit history? Punkmorten (talk) 13:23, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes I'm on it, fixed thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 13:45 13 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot edit warring with TestEditBot

Fortunately it's a low key edit war. They haven't gotten to calling each other names, or making nasty comments on each other's user talk pages. :-) Still, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harper%27s_Bazaar&action=history . I'll drop a similar note on the other bot maintainer's page - can the two of you straighten it out, please? --GRuban (talk) 20:38, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot and splitting

Thanks for the date parameter on the split tags. A great help for maintenance. Cheers. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 00:44, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Vinny Pop is back

And self-promoting on wikipedia again. Not flogging the Beatles Last Memento anymore but a piece of his own: Make a Friend Out of Me which involves a duet between him and er.... a whale. Oh and there's another here: Halley's Comet (song)

DavidFarmbrough (talk) 13:59, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

template:Fact

Thanks for the friendly notice about parameters for this template, which I do find quite useful. I have looked at the documentation once or twice, and somehow didn't understand the parameter calls. Perhaps I'll do a little copyediting there - cheers, Easchiff(talk) 15:52, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

What is the intention of...

You just made some date fix changes on the manga page (or your bot did), which leads to a question I've never seen answered to my satisfaction. The issue is so strange that it might warrant being included in your "Things that stayed too long" page. Thus -- and it's only one example of many:

Reference #63 in the Manga article arises from the following text:

The influence of manga on international cartooning has grown considerably in the last two decades.

So we click on the October 22 link. Among a large number of other things, we get:

▪ 202 BC - Hannibal Barca, leader of the Carthaginians, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus in the Battle of Zama.

▪ 362 - The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.

▪ 794 - Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).

I admit that I did not read the entire list, but only gazed and skimmed. I didn't find anything about manga or about Daniel Pink or about the Manga Industrial Complex. So, my question, why link this particular example of "October 22" to the list of Hannibal, mysterious fires, and Emperor Kanmu?

Unfortunately, Wikipedia has its fill of people who don't like it when their ways are questioned. I hope that you're not one of them. I question the value and intention of linking the manga article to a list of really quite varied but irrelevant events that happened on October 22. And I can assure you that October 22 has no special relevance to manga.

I don't have the time to tilt at windmills and remove all these date links. But they have no meaning to, and convey no information about, the topic of the article.

So why is the date linked to an irrelevant list?

Timothy Perper (talk) 16:35, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

When a date includes a day and month, user formatting preferences ("my preferences" "Date and time") will be invoked by linking it, e.g. [[10 April]] can show as either April 10 or 10 April, and hence should almost always be linked. Any associated year should also be linked viz: 10 April 1962 because the software can display this as 1962-04-10 for those who have their date preferences set to ISO. In due course a feature may be added to MediaWiki allow a different syntax from linking to do this. Rich Farmbrough, 16:39 14 August 2008 (GMT).

Since you haven't answered my question, I've moved the discussion to the manga talk page. Please be assured that I will make every effort to be civil and courteous, but I think the question should be answered. Timothy Perper (talk) 16:50, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Template:COI

Hi. I agree with the protection of this template, however cascading protection prevents editing of the documentation which is transcluded onto it. There are only two relevant transclusions and they are already fully protected. Would you mind removing the cascade? Thanks. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 16:02, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

of course Rich Farmbrough, 17:10 16 August 2008 (GMT).

hey

you rock. your things that stayed too long always make me laugh when i look at them.--Priorburst0 (talk) 01:59, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 23:23 20 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot

This user seems to be alright . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.142.89.25 (talk) 02:53, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Ray Harries

Thanks for the corrections. I want to change the title to Raymond Harries, as that is his full name, do you how? Dapi89 (talk) 16:36, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Use the move tab, but I have done it. Rich Farmbrough, 23:22 20 August 2008 (GMT).

Great Is My Country

Hey Rich, I unfortunately have to disagree with your move there. Per WP:CAPS, titled works should have article titles in all uppercase with the exception of coordinating conjunctions and short prepositions. Since "Is" is a verb, and "My" is an adjective, they both should remain in uppercase, as per convention. (This is usually pretty consistent across all of the grammar books as well, such as Strunk/White and UChicago, IIRC.) Thanks, Girolamo Savonarola (talk) 20:07, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes of course you are right. Rich Farmbrough, 23:22 20 August 2008 (GMT).

Many thanks! Girolamo Savonarola (talk) 02:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Language Links

I recently found your SmackBot disarrayed Language Links in article Dream of the Red Chamber (Problem Details) . The zh-classical: and ja: is replaced in a wrong place. Can you help fix this problem? 百家姓之四 討論 (Discussion) 03:41, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

They are replaced according to a sort order agreed on, rather than the order of the abbreviations, for example ja sorts as something like "nihon", you can discuss this at the WP:AWB pages if you like. Rich Farmbrough, 16:02 22 August 2008 (GMT).

Your bot

Hello, Mr Farmbrough. You do realise you bit has the highest edit count for a non admin or sysop. You are aware, arn't you?--Andrzejestrować Zajaczajkowski Plecaxpiwórserafinowiczaświadzenie Poświadczyxwiadectwo-Bjornovich talk Special:Contributions/contribs 22:16, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 22:24 22 August 2008 (GMT).

Signpost updated for July 28, August 9, 11 and 18, 2008.

Sorry I haven't been sending this over the past few weeks. Ralbot (talk) 05:47, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost Weekly Delivery

Volume 4, Issue 31	28 July 2008	About the Signpost

Wikimania 2008 wrap-up	WikiWorld: "Terry Gross"
News and notes: Unblocked in China	Dispatches: Find reliable sources online
WikiProject Report: Military history	Features and admins
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News	The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Volume 4, Issue 32	9 August 2008	About the Signpost

Anthrax suspect reportedly edit-warred on Wikipedia	WikiWorld: "Fall Out Boy"
Dispatches: Style guide and policy changes, July	WikiProject Report: WikiProject New York State routes
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Study: Wikipedia's growth may indicate unlimited potential	Board of Trustees fills Nominating Committee for new members
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Volume 4, Issue 34	18 August 2008	About the Signpost

From the editor: Help wanted
WikiWorld: "Cashew"	Dispatches: Choosing Today's Featured Article
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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 (talk) 05:47, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot

A little unusual: [7] is a bit weird as it included Category:Living persons to the article although the article also has Category:1929 deaths. Is this a bug? x42bn6 Talk Mess 08:41, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it is anyway, nbut it was in cat 1929 births .Rich Farmbrough, 15:56 22 August 2008 (GMT).

Oops, I didn't read that properly. x42bn6 Talk Mess 20:40, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot

Hey - can you have a wlook at this article on "WikiJob". Linking to the domain www.wikijob.co.uk is blacklisted, although I would ahve thought this article needs a link to the website in question.86.0.221.59 (talk) 15:15, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot tagging

Hi Rich,

would you please give your balanced opinion on the tagging that your Smackbot added to the "References in popular culture" section of the Tetragrammaton article ? I'm talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tetragrammaton&oldid=206376574

I'm not well enough versed in Wikipedia culture to assess this situation. I started this section with a few entries, and I was satisfied to see various new contributions. By April 2008, it had become an intriguing list of a handful of references from all sides of popular culture.

At that moment, your Smackbot recommended avoiding such a trivia list. I can understand the imperative of not using Wikipedia as a free database of random shopping lists and cheat sheets ; on the other hand, I would think that a section like "References in popular culture", occurring in many articles, will always be of a somewhat diverse nature. What is the rule of thumb here ... ?

Unrelated to your Smackbot's intervention, somebody removed the section altogether some time later. I think on erroneous grounds, and I regret the loss of what I felt was interesting information, but I won't start debating it on the article's talk page, until your bot's guideline can be confirmed or revoked. After all, it might prove to have been a good thing that the bot's opinion was put into action.

Incidentally, this article seems controversy-prone and has a vivid history of edit wars. This one item is just the least of its worries. Even when you would agree that the section did belong in there like it once existed, I'm a bit timid about raking up the mud in that cesspool. Perhaps I should call in an editor or an arbitrator or something, but I doubt that I'm motivated that much.

Walter —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bokske (talk • contribs) 21:13, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot does not generally add tags, but merely dates those that are already there. Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 22:38 23 August 2008 (GMT).

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tetragrammaton&diff=prev&oldid=206376574)

Gee, excuse me so much ... twice. First for falsely attributing the trivia list tagging to your SmackBot, and second for not signing my message, a beginner's error that I can't seem to shake off.

I'll try to take up the trivia list tagging with the original author of that change. Bokske (talk) 19:29, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Not a problem! Both happen all the time. Rich Farmbrough, 19:31 24 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot: august vs August

Hi, just a note about SmackBot regarding [8] and [9]; "August" needs to have a capital "a" otherwise it doesn't categorise properly and the page ends up in Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template. It's no big deal as I'm keeping an eye on the category and fixing anything that shows up there but I just thought you would like to know. ~ AmeIiorate _{U T C} @ 04:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes I'm aware of this slight limitation, however SB will fix this in the next pass. Incidentally it does fix most of the invalid date category members, which I am quite proud of.. Rich Farmbrough, 04:10 25 August 2008 (GMT).

Format of BR elements

Sorry, I seem to have found another chore for SmackBot. Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 15:59, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Sailormoon Sectstub

That was a section expander for a wiki-project that was recently brought up to latest code. There was a vote on it a while back and we were allowed to keep it. Please put votes up for these things before doing them. Lego3400: The Sage of Time (talk) 04:05, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Please also see the discussion we've opened up at WT:SM about the future of this template, and feel free to participate. -Malkinann (talk) 07:11, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 07:22 29 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot

SmackBot incorrectly removed underscores from links to dynamic_cast from the Comparison of programming languages (object-oriented programming) article. .--Btx40 (talk) 15:14, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot digging into personal userspace

Is this really necessary? Sometimes (as in my case) a userspace page remains as a shapshot of a historical version of the page (an edit sandbox as at the moment when the article was first released to public space). The bot tagged its "expand" boilerplates with August 2008 while in fact it was February 2007. I admit that leaving those boilerplates active was misleading but the bot shouldn't have been there! Regards, NVO (talk) 09:34, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

There is a reason, which is simply this: the pages are a member of a maintenance category. Many of the templates have been made smarter to ignore userspace, or have some special setting such as "category =" (which I'm not too keen on, I would prefer something like "nocat=y"). Anyway the basic idea is these "undated" categories should be empty, an the dated ones worked through, and user space fits in with this even if "working through" simply means someone removing, altering or fixing at source the tags. I'll have a quick look at {{expand}} later if I get time. Rich Farmbrough, 12:16 28 August 2008 (GMT).

Template:Lang

Your edits at Template:Lang broke some links on the bottom of the main page. I don't have time to look at what's going on, so I just reverted them. --- RockMFR 19:54, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Template:Wikipedialang uses Template:Lang within links - these break if they contain categories. For example, [[foo|bar[[Category:Contents]]]] won't do what you think it would do. --- RockMFR 20:31, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

List of planetary bodies

Hi! Your bot continiously breaks this table: List of planetary bodies. Please stop.--Dojarca (talk) 06:48, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your note. I fixed the table so it should be good in future. Note that ALL CAPS CASE IS NOT USED in Wikipedia, and I have my doubts about the vertical headers, they are probably not accessible to screen readers, apart from anything else. Rich Farmbrough, 07:26 29 August 2008 (GMT).

Accessibility fixed (somewhat). Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 21:44, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Template:ISO 639 name ht

A tag has been placed on Template:ISO 639 name ht, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to have no meaningful content or history, and the text is unsalvageably incoherent. If the page you created was a test, please use the sandbox for any other experiments you would like to do. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions about this.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on [[ Talk:Template:ISO 639 name ht|the talk page]] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. frogger3140 (talk) 21:23, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Language name templates

To avoid future confusion, I suggest adding all templates like {{ISO 639 name tel}} to a category, say Category:Language name templates with an explanatory paragraph on the category page.

Regards, Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 21:37, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes I'll do something like this with AWB once they are all done. Rich Farmbrough, 21:39 29 August 2008 (GMT).

But pressing whatlinks here seems elementary. :) Rich Farmbrough, 21:43 29 August 2008 (GMT).

Speedy deletion of Template:ISO 639 name lu

A tag has been placed on Template:ISO 639 name lu requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section T3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is a deprecated or orphaned template. After seven days, if it is still unused and the speedy deletion tag has not been removed, the template will be deleted.

If the template is intended to be substituted, please feel free to remove the speedy deletion tag and please consider putting a note on the template's page indicating that it is substituted so as to avoid any future mistakes (<noinclude>{{transclusionless}}</noinclude>).

Thanks. --Vianello (talk) 23:23, 29 August 2008 (UTC) Vianello (talk) 23:23, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Template:ISO 639 name lu

A tag has been placed on Template:ISO 639 name lu, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to have no meaningful content or history, and the text is unsalvageably incoherent. If the page you created was a test, please use the sandbox for any other experiments you would like to do. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions about this.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on [[ Talk:Template:ISO 639 name lu|the talk page]] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Vianello (talk) 23:31, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Template:ISO 639 name msa

Thank you for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test worked, and the page that you created has been or soon will be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on [[ Talk:Template:ISO 639 name msa|the talk page]] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Boss Big (talk) 00:08, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry 'bout that!

I didn't realize that was actually supposed to... well, be anything. You know what I mean. Try to look at it from my perspective there. ;) Sorry about the spam though! - Vianello (talk) 03:29, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Hey you!

Remember me? :) I've got something for smackbot! User:SQL/Reflist/1. I've re-written my software, and, gone back to analyzing references, if you're interested in a run, I've got about 7500 of them to work :) (The e-mail I sent you, had 30,000 that were not checked against the live wiki.... So, go ahead and disregard that :) SQL^{Query me!} 04:35, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

{{Lifetime}} and PData

The PersonData project states that PD comes before categories. I would take the template {{Lifetime}} to be akin to categories, hence coming so PD precedes LT. I am wondering why SmackBot is going through and reversing the order. It seems unnecessary, and trivial. -- billinghurst (talk) 15:07, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot makes a number of changes that are available to all WP:AWB bots - in general these provide a number of non-controversial minor improvements.

The issue you raise is related to these, and has been already fixed by the AWB developers, but not yet released to all AWB users.

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 15:31 30 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot

Hi. SmackBot just added a reference section and reflist to Bianco (surname). It's harmless, but in this case also pointless. Is there a reason? SamuelTheGhost (talk) 21:36, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the infobox was broken Rich Farmbrough, 22:20 30 August 2008 (GMT).

SmackBot - broken ref lists

Hi, you might want to take a look at: [10], [11] and [12]. It seems that if there's a maintenance template right before where the reflist should go, SmackBot doesn't handle it right. Thanks, ~ AmeIiorate _{U T C} @ 02:29, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Oxford Wikimania 2010 and Wikimedia UK v2.0

Hi there Rich Farmbrough,

As a regularly contributing UK Wikipedian, we were wondering if you wanted to contribute to the Oxford bid to host the 2010 Wikimania conference. Please see here for details of how to get involved, we need all the help we can get if we are to put in a compelling bid.

We are also in the process of forming a new UK Wikimedia chapter to replace the soon to be folded old one. If you are interested in helping shape our plans, showing your support or becoming a future member or board member, please head over to the Wikimedia UK v2.0 page and let us know. We plan on holding an election in the next month to find the initial board, who will oversee the process of founding the company and accepting membership applications. They will then call an AGM to formally elect a new board who after obtaining charitable status will start the fund raising, promotion and active support for the UK Wikimedian community for which the chapter is being founded.

You may also wish to attend the next London meet-up if you are located near London at which both of these issues will be discussed. If you can't attend this meetup, you may want to watch Wikipedia:Meetup, for updates on future meets.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Thanks for reading.

·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 08:17, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

On a different note but I will add this to the same section. Smack bot has a function of adding ref lists to articles that have the ef tag but no current ref list. I was wondering if you would be willing to share the code for this part of the bot so that I can try to develop it for another use. ·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 12:07, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

More date-template tasks for SmackBot

I don't know if you fancy tackling these:

• Wikipedia:Botreq#Convert founded dates to template
• Wikipedia:Botreq#Convert release dates to template

or whether you add them to SmackBot's tasks at some point in the future, once the bulk of the changes have been made by another bot?

Thanks. Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 23:11, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

No probs. Note that MoS is moving to not linking dates. Sigh. Rich Farmbrough, 23:16 24 August 2008 (GMT).

Thank you. At least having dates templates will make future policy reversals easier to implement! Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 23:19, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Not wishing to nag, but any idea when that might start, please? I'm adding to the lists on the Botreq page, but wouldn't want to do so after you'd fired up the bot. Would it be better to note additions here? Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 14:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Nudge ;-) Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 17:05, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

BC redirects

From what I saw, these redirects you are creating are to themselves.  Blanchardb -^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}- timed 17:49, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Correct, read the edit coment :) Rich Farmbrough, 17:50 31 August 2008 (GMT).

Sorry. :-0 It's just that with Huggle the edit summary is not displayed for new pages. -- Blanchardb -^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}- timed 17:53, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

SmackBot on Balinor Buckhannah

The bot added a second reference section...it's not that big of a deal, but it might be a bad line of code or something? Just thought that I'd let you know. Sorry for the inconvenience...(see this edit.) the_ed17 23:31, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed.Rich Farmbrough, 12:31 1 September 2008 (GMT).