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I 've been working with WikiProject banners for a while. First step in order to create a good function for working with WikiProject banners is that we can easily identify them. Recently I noticed that more people are working on that. Check Category:WikiProject banners with non-standard names and Wikipedia:Banner standardisation/data maintained by xeno and WOSlinker. I think almost all banners can be moved to WikiProject xxx scheme. Exception for me is WPBiography (with 600k+ transclusions and it will be a huge mistake to move it) and some others highly visible templates. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:16, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well we eschew camel case everywhere else, and the capitalisation is not following the standard for everything except portals and projects. Thing is even if we moved WPBiography with 600k transclusions, it doesn't mean we need to rename every use proactively, the redirect will be cached and cost next to nothing in page rendering. A couple of listas runs and 10% would be moved. Those active in the project could have a little javascript to change the template name on pages they edit - in five years, unless we dump the whole project infrastructure by then, which is not impossible, I bet most of them would have been moved. Rich Farmbrough, 21:40, 21 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Better leave WPBiography as is. It's well known with this name. -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:40, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't have a strong opinion about it but you might want to leave WPMILHIST as well. Its another one that hits a lot of articles and is well known. --Kumioko (talk) 13:06, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be more careful when moving these templates? Some of those that you have moved today rely on /class and/or /importance subpages which have not been moved over, causing the templates to break. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 18:49, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. Do I need to revist any? Rich Farmbrough, 19:24, 22 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
All class and importance pages sorted. Rich Farmbrough, 19:54, 22 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
If this is more disruptive editing, perhaps this needs to stop right now until Wikiprojects can be alerted, and consensus can be taken. This is what yesterday's discussion was about. I did not see widespread support over a time period of months for what was happening. It is only fair and common courtesy that concerned Wikiprojects have a chance to voice their concerns and opinions. Should I alert some Wikiprojects that I work with? Where is the consensus for this action? What are the results of this action? ----Steve Quinn (talk) 19:25, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No it's not disruptive, mainly it concerned inactive wikiprojects. Rich Farmbrough, 19:54, 22 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
It's also not quite what was discussed yesterday (at least not if we're thinking of the same discussion). Yesterday, Magioladitis was bypassing redirects for templates that had already been moved to another location. This is about Rich moving templates to a normalized/standard form, see wp:standardize for more information on this. –xenotalk 19:56, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OK thanks for the information. ----Steve Quinn (talk) 20:02, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I apologize for my alarmed response, above. ----Steve Quinn (talk) 23:59, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Proably would be better as task forces? Rich Farmbrough, 18:45, 23 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
That was my thought. Set it up as a task force in the main template and then convert the others into wrappers. –xenotalk 18:47, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FYI, I have reverted your move of Template:WPAFC-admin->Template:WikiProject Articles for Creation. The problem is that we have a separate template at Template:WikiProject Articles for creation and it would be too confusing to have separate templates with different capitalisations. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:45, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks I saw that, and agree - one of my bugbears is templates that differ by capitalisation only. Rich Farmbrough, 22:22, 26 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]

This is incredible! Thank you. Are you planning to update it now that most of them have been standardized? [I'm also curious how you generated that list] –xenotalk 04:06, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I will update it when they are done. I use some pre-API perl that generates redirect consolidation for SmackBot - doing it manually became infeasible some time ago. Rich Farmbrough, 22:14, 26 July 2010 (UTC).[reply]
I'm planning on commencing another shelling run sometime soon, so an update would be greatly appreciated =) –xenotalk 00:34, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Will do soonish. Incidentally re the above see Wikipedia:Templates with names differing only in capitalization. Rich Farmbrough, 14:18, 1 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot

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I don't understand this system. I have started several small articles as a consequence of correcting an error in one other and discovering place names mentioned did not link. All the information I have added is within my personal knowledge and the articles I have started can be easily verified however I do not have the time or the expertise so to do it. Having started the articles it is my hope that those with better knowledge and/or time will add to them and make even better links than have been done already to articles about other places in Essex. If those articles are automatically removed even the small correct information I have provided will not be available to researchers from afar who will even now currently be assisted by the links I have provided. The article I amended was Messing Maypole Mill and the ones I started were Salcott cum Virley, Inworth, Layer Marney and Great Wigborough which is adjacent to Little Wigborough at which point I gave up!Stranger on the shore (talk) 08:43, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 14:08, 1 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Speedy deletion of Template:Fact-now

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A tag has been placed on Template:Fact-now 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. Axem Titanium (talk) 10:57, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Since it's a subst: template (albeit one I don't like) I have removed the speedy notice. Rich Farmbrough, 19:50, 2 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot and infobox road

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Two edits screwed up the display of the infobox, [1] and [2]. In the former, it broke the display of the auxiliary route information, and in both cases it reverted the color of the infobox headers to the default blue from the US/Canadian green. Can you please, please, PLEASE program SmackBot to ignore |country=USA in the {{infobox road}} code. Consensus in revamping the template over a month ago was to use the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes for each country because as that article states so well, "they allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the two-letter alpha-2 codes." That way we would only need to set up support for one code for each country in the new subtemplates instead of creating redirects for each of the 6 or so subtemplates for each country from multiple input values. In the past we had users inputing various different abbreviations and even full country names. Now, please, this is the third time I've asked you, but |country=USA is the correct coding for this template and it should not be changed. Such automatic bot changes are starting to smack of unintentional vandalism when I have to fix articles to clear them back out of the error categories. Imzadi 1979 → 11:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes sure I'll take care of it. Rich Farmbrough, 11:44, 2 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Thanks. Imzadi 1979 → 18:16, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Meonstoke

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Hi. I have expanded the article on Meonstoke. However, as I am new to this game, I thought I’d contact people who have contributed to the article as it now stands before I change it. My proposed version is on my user talk page. If you are interested, I’d welcome any comment, changes, suggestions. Thanks Gramorak (talk) gramorak 12:00, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nudge

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Rich, Can I just give you a nudge on this request for piped ISO dates, please? Cheers, Ohconfucius ¡digame! 18:34, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia Signpost: 2 August 2010

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Smackbot

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Hey, Smackbot is making a mistake with the multiple issues tag, see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_International_School_Boston&action=historysubmit&diff=376782940&oldid=376775787 . It should be "unreferenced=August 2010", not "unreferenced date=August 2010"... Maashatra11 (talk) 18:43, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 19:43, 3 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Infobox standarisation

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I am trying to standarise Infoboxes based on the entries of Infobox person and Infobox officeholder which have the most of transclusions. I made a list in User:Magioladitis/Sandbox.

First aim should be that all infoboxes support birth_date / death_date even in addition to the already existing parameter.

Standarisation will enable us to use this fields for adding human categories via AWB. -- Magioladitis (talk) 00:42, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm all in favour of standardisation but we don't need to force all of them to use the same field names – AWB already has "yearofbirth", "dateofbirth", "born", "birth date", "birthdate", "birth_date", "birth". Rjwilmsi 15:46, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Also space is preferable to _, as used in template names, categories, files, etc. Rich Farmbrough, 15:56, 3 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Another idea I would be then to see which ones are not needed, if any. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:21, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot and DEFAULTSORT

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I am puzzling over a minor edit to DEFAULTSORT on a page here. The bot changed: 

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as International Phenomenon}}

to: 

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy As International Phenomenon}}

I don't see that this edit achieves anything. (Also, if I change it back, will SmackBot fight me?) Please respond here. HairyWombat 04:33, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This edit capitalised a letter in the title. This is exactly what it was supposed to happen. First letters of all words must be capitalised in DEFAULTSORT. -- Magioladitis (talk) 08:20, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Changing the capitalization of the sixth word in anything as an aid to sorting is a little bit overly rigorous especially when there are so many articles that lack any value for {{DEFAULTSORT}} but need one. Quibbling over the change may indicate a deeper problem. Just saying. JimCubb (talk) 15:54, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sure but since it is happening at the same time as another edit, I wouldn't feel inclined to ask the developers to put an arbitrary cut-off at any particular point. And of course HHGTTG is one compound noun. Rich Farmbrough, 16:01, 4 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
SmackBot will only "fight" you if it happens to visit the page again. The question is, why would you want to put it back? It only affects the sort order, not how the name is displayed in categories. Rich Farmbrough, 16:01, 4 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
I wasn't aware of the requirement that the first letter of each word be capitalized. Nice one, SmackBot. HairyWombat 16:15, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Onuphrius

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hi,

i was wondering about the change in the meaning of the name since the previous meaning was there for a long time.... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Onuphrius&action=historysubmit&diff=367939566&oldid=334310491

thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Onoufrios d (talk • contribs) 17:17, 7 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The editor that made the change commented on the talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Onuphrius#Beautiful_Rabbit. Rich Farmbrough, 18:10, 7 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Regular expression question

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If, in AWB in my Advanced find and replace, I want to find out in the "if" if an article with Infobox book contained the phrase variable and input "country = United States" how would I write that in regex? Regex is blowing my mind right now, don't really understand how it works. Sadads (talk) 06:13, 8 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

\bcountry\s*=\s*\[\[United +States\]\] would probably cover what you want, maybe \|\s*country\s*=\s*\[\[United +States\]\] which avoids stuff like "second county =" but will need to be tested to check behaviour when split across lines. Rich Farmbrough, 14:18, 8 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Thank you very much, we are currently trying to populate the subcategories of American novels, and the best way I can figure to find actual populate it would to find all the novels which have country as United States and add them to the main category then sort them out from there. That is huge help, I think I can read that and should be able to duplicate the same idea in the future.Sadads (talk) 14:25, 8 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

RE: Template talk:Request photo#Best name for this template/these templates

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You have edited a protects page without consolation or notification. Could you please undo this move and return to original {{reqphoto}} name until a consensus has been reached.--Traveler100 (talk) 05:27, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I thought there was general agreement that Template:image requested was the most appropriate. In which case, shall we just move it there rather than reverting, having another discussion and then moving it there? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:56, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes please make the move to the consensus name. Rich Farmbrough, 12:03, 10 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The Wikipedia Signpost: 9 August 2010

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trevor guthrie

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hi , this is trevor guthrie.... not sure if you are the one to talk to, but i want this whole page completely revamped. we can skype an talk about it if you are able to fix it. thankyou 

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.229.32.33 (talk) 23:27, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

hi , this is trevor guthrie.... please contact me to talk about my page....we can skype over webcam

oh yeah, sorry, we can start with an old email to contact me.

trevgdogg (at) aol.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.229.32.33 (talk) 23:31, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Trevor, Best thing you can do for the page is upload a public domain picture of yourself. Any other information you think should be included can be mentioned on the talk page Talk:Trevor Guthrie. If possible include a reference to a third party source. Rich Farmbrough, 10:55, 7 August 2010 (

thankyou for your response. i am not interested in uploading a picture of myself on wikipedia. the problemr Rich, is that the so called facts about me are written by fans dont realy have the facts.I dont like people writing things about be that are not true or inaccurate. they are just assumed correct. this is starting to cause problems for my career as well as my personal life. and i dont like discussing it here because everyone can read this. this is why i suggested we talk via email. sincerely Trevor Guthrie

trevgdogg@aol.com

  • I think it would be most helpful if you give us the weblinks to articles from established journalists or writers (or you could send scans of press articles to Rich) which have the correct facts. That would enable us to ensure that correct information is used in your biography. We can certainly remove anything which is not properly sourced, as is our requirement. Ohconfucius ¡digame! 09:07, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Appropriate move ?

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Would you mind looking into this set of actions that appears to switch redirects with the actual title of the page here. The title in question is Wikipedia:IPA/Introduction. No rationale was supplied, but this would probably not make sense anyway.---- Steve Quinn (talk) 17:56, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Moved from user page.

Sorry about that. I thought I was on the talk page. ---- Steve Quinn (talk) 17:56, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't make sense, generally we prefer full words, keystroke saving abbreviations can be redirects. Rich Farmbrough, 10:51, 11 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Is MetaDataSorter needed for category namespace?

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For this bug report I disabled MetaDataSorter for the category namespace. Is that any loss of functionality? Rjwilmsi 08:57, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes a little. I don't do much in category namespace, so it's probably not a big deal for me. However removing leading blank lines as one of the last steps (media wiki removes up to 1 leading blank line every save) either of GFs or MetaDataSorter might be purer. Rich Farmbrough, 10:50, 11 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot edit question

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Hi, I don't understand why in this edit SmackBot replaced a correctly piped link (to avoid a redirect). What is the reason for this (just curious)? --Crusio (talk) 11:45, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's just a simplification, no redirects are involved in either version - both go directly to [via] peer-review (the first letter is automatically capitalized on en.wiki). It is part of the general fixes of AWB. Rich Farmbrough, 16:13, 11 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Ah, I see now, the original was peer-reviewed, not peer-reviewed as I thought (I missed the dash earlier). The latter avoids a redirect, correct? --Crusio (talk) 16:42, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes correct. Rich Farmbrough, 21:21, 11 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The Judd School

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Hi there. I'm not sure how bots work (whether you tell them which articles to edit, or they do them automatically?), but the bot has helped insert ref names to The Judd School in the past, and I was hoping you (or the bot!?) could do it again? Tom (talk) 23:01, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Rich Farmbrough, 17
42, 13 August 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot

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Thank you for your comments on the Bulgarka Nature Park article - I have added links to the article from a number of other, related articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Robertsullivan1973 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Second Life residents

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Category:Second Life residents, 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. Robofish (talk) 15:11, 13 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Kelly Hoppe Notability question

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I've lately been building infoboses for musicians' work group articles missing them in my spare time in the evenings since it doesn't require a ton of thinking to fill out whatever you find in the article and stick it in the box. Lately, I'm finding lots of articles like: Kelly Hoppe. Usually they have no references, perhaps three unsupported sentences, etc. Am I crazy? Cause my first response is not friendly to that article. No wonder people think the level of editing in Wikipedia is a laugh. --Leahtwosaints (talk) 23:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, Rich, didn't see the links to other establshed articles. But it does seem like far too many "articles" are started and left with only a few lines of text, and abandoned, esp. in the jazz group. --Leahtwosaints (talk) 02:55, 15 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sometimes I feel that way, but on the other hand even the small amount of information might be of use. Also for less notable people three sentences might be appropriate. Rich Farmbrough, 16:21, 15 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:PAGES WITH INCORRECT FORMATTING TEMPLATES USE

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Category:PAGES WITH INCORRECT FORMATTING TEMPLATES USE, 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☯ 01:36, 16 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Au Pair (film)

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Hello from Spain, could you write the article Au Pair (film) in spanish wikipedia, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.125.198.106 (talk) 16:37, 16 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately I know little Spanish, and less about the film. Rich Farmbrough, 21:04, 16 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 16 August 2010

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SmackBot

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I am not sure that I know how to use this item. In your article on Knob Creek Church of Christ, you had some very interesting points. This church and the people mentioned in your article are my family. You talked about two daughters of John Simon Foy. I do not question you information, I have known only the two boys, William and James, William is my family. Could you tell me where you got your information, I have been looking for that for some time. Hilton Royster hroyster@bellsouth.net

The information was added by an anonymous contributor here.
SmackBot just does a little tidying up. Rich Farmbrough, 15:31, 18 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Template:WPMILHIST

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A question about templates and regex at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Military_history#Task_force_parameters_for_the_Milhist_banner would you mind taking a look?Sadads (talk) 14:35, 19 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Confusing note

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Sorry You posted on my talk, but I don't understand what you wrote. I'm sure that I'm just being too dense here, but what is it you want? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 23:06, 19 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I saw several of them, but not all of them maybe. Thanks. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:38, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot adds date to infobox template

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I am curious why the bot is adding date parameters to infoboxes that do not have a date parameter such as in this edit, I thought that it was only supposed to add dates to maintenance templates? Thanks. Keith D (talk) 21:46, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Because the template {{Infobox weather}} (which isn't really an infobox) did have a date parameter, see the talk page of the template and edit history, and will again. It needs it because of the way that the template author wants to force a "citation needed" notice if no reference is given. The Fb.xxx.footer templates work in a similar way (and are just as big a headache). Rich Farmbrough, 21:52, 20 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot

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Concerning this diff. Is there a reason why Smackbot is changing the dead-link date? Surely the earliest date is of interest, not the latest. The earliest date allows you to determine something other than when smackbot last saw the field. User A1 (talk) 00:10, 21 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes the earliest date is best. The templates shouldn't have two date fields, I guess that is what confused the bot. (In turn this is casued by an earlier bug back in 2009, which I thought I had cleaned up after.)Rich Farmbrough, 01:21, 21 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

You wrongly categorised my sandbox

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Re this edit - there were several template subst: tests going on, which you have broken. First, the parameters to {{citation/core}} are mostly of the form |Surname1= etc., which you altered to |surname1= etc - unlike template names, parameter names are not case-insensitive on first letter. Second, those subst'd templates had several categories within {{#if: ... }} tests, the tests when resolved meant that the page was not placed in those categories - but you moved them outside the tests, collecting them at the bottom, so the page now incorrectly shows in five categories which it shouldn't be in, and wasn't in before. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:35, 21 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I skipped the rest of your sandboxes, thought I'd aborted that one. If you are testing templates it's not really a userspace draft, though and shouldn't be categorised as such. Rich Farmbrough, 20:42, 21 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Alright what is the equivalent to {{userspace draft}} which is permitted on any kind of sandbox, regardless of what I happen to be doing in there? --Redrose64 (talk) 20:53, 21 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Do you need one? {{User page construction}} is an option, or {{Userpage}}, depending wht you want it to display. Rich Farmbrough, 21:03, 21 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Sandbox issues

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Looks like your bot's (or you specifically) are editing many users sandbox pages, including mine. [[3]]. Whether you think you're helping or not, you should always ask first before barging in on someone else's work in progress. Ljmajer (talk) 19:51, 21 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is all "someone else's work in progress". Your sandboxes are either userspace drafts or they are not, if they are they are intended for article space and can have problems (however minor) corrected. Rich Farmbrough, 20:47, 21 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Amarna/Execration texts

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The following discussion may interest you: Execration_text_places --Sreifa (talk) 04:56, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Don't process pages undergoing major edits?

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Can you modify your bot so it won't make changes to a page that has the GOCEinuse template on it? That would prevent it from making changes while a major copy-edit is under way, resulting in edit conflicts and duplicated effort... Macwhiz (talk) 21:22, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Rich—you got me as to why GOCE uses their own, "I just work here" :) I will add {{inuse}} to avoid the bots, thanks. Macwhiz (talk) 21:35, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Collaborative news on quippd

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Hey, I noticed that you had recently edited the Pakistan Floods article, and I hoped that you could help out on another collaborative community edited project.

I run quippd, a collaboratively edited social news site, which mixes elements of Wikis, social networking, and social news sites. You can get some more information about what we are doing at: http://quippd.com/about/intro

Basically, we want to get good coverage on news stories, collaboratively edited, like Wikipedia. We are trying to take the ideas of WikiFactCheck -- to make news less biased and speedier (unlike something like Wikinews).

I hope you check us out -- and feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

--Yoasif (talk) 00:39, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot

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How do I put thumbnail in an article? I tried to put a thumbnail in "Paramjit Kaur Sirhind", but was unsuccessful. Sukhmani1978 (talk) 10:47, 23 August 2010 (UTC)Sukhmani1978Sukhmani1978 (talk) 10:47, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Full details are at Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. Rich Farmbrough, 13:10, 23 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

date tags for maintenance templates

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Rich,

What do I need to do for Smackbot (or any other bot, for that matter) to add dates to the templates {{dmy}}, {{mdy}}, {{EngvarB}}, {{EngvarOx}} - in the way it's done for {{citation needed}}? Are changes required to the templates themselves, or is it up to you to program these into the bot? --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 07:58, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have to tell it the templates, however to draw it's attention to the articles in question there will need to be a category structure, such that undated templates sit in a first level sub-cat of Category:Wikipedia_maintenance_categories_sorted_by_month. Note that it will also canonicalise the template names, so moving them to the clearest names before starting is a Good Thing. (I would recommend "Use British English" etc.) Rich Farmbrough, 14:35, 20 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Great. To make a start, I have now created the category. Do I need to create the entire category's tree structure, or will the bot take care of that? The difference between the traditional use of such tagging and what I am envisaging is that the tag will remain permanent, its time stamp will change with each update/bot run. Presumably, I will have to insert something similar to this ({{Fix}}) in the template to get the category populated? --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:43, 21 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot please give me one call

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  • Caption1
    Caption1
  • Caption2
    Caption2
checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 07:01, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot vs Britt Allcroft

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You may be interested in this one... SmackBot has just labelled Britt Allcroft as a 2010 birth! (See this edit).

Now, historically, people have often added birth dates for Ms Allcroft, but I have trawled many internet sites and no news article that I have found has given any indication of her age, less still her DoB. (So I have to keep reverting these edits.) Obviously your bot's edit is not quite along the same lines, but I thought you ought to know the background...

EdJogg (talk) 23:11, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, it is clearly picking up the date from the "Citation needed" template. I will raise a bug with the AWB team. Rich Farmbrough, 23:16, 23 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

IMDB vs Imdb

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Small matter: I'm baffled by changes of {{Imdb name}} to {{IMDB name}}, e.g. here (SmackBot) or here (Rich Farmbrough). The former is the proper name of that template, the latter a REDIRECT. I've never seen a bot or you change a template invocation to a REDIRECT, only the other way round. What's the reasoning here? TIMWTK -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 02:17, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I had, at some point in the past, intended to move the template at some point, and added the preferred name to the "tidy up" list. Normally this does nothing until and unless the template is moved, since there are no redirects to a redirect (or non-existent template) however in this case sine it's juts a change of case they are picked up. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Incidentally SmackBot is picking up a lot of biographies while the Category:BLP articles lacking sources is sorting itself out. Rich Farmbrough, 06:57, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

International child abduction in Brazil

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I'm concerned at some of the sections that have been removed from this article on the grounds that they are not notable. I would be grateful if this page could be protected - particularly given Cybermud's recent actions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dikaiosynenemesis (talk • contribs) 07:40, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cybermud is now vandalising this page. The latest edit was something he had ever even referred to or mentioned before. Please take steps to protect this page from further vandalism by Cybermud. I fully agree, and have said so many times, that changes are needed but there is an extreme amount of nit-picking and unwarranted criticism of some of the content. I have already stated that the Nazi comments are a disgrace and are taking this too far, but the case studies are solidly sourced and need to be respected. Dikaiosynenemesis (talk) 12:25, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Whitespacing lines suggested

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Hi Rich, I noticed that, at least in this edit, SmackBot has been removing blank whitespacing lines between the == External links == section header and the first item residing within it. I'd suggest that, given the availability of server memory at costs orders of magnitudes lower than even 10 years ago, it makes better sense for SmackBot to ensure there are blank lines after all section and subsection headers, as a service to those editors working with small monitors. For those with large monitors, the blank whitespaced lines makes no real difference, but for those with eensy-teensy monitors, of which there are undoubtedly plenty worldwide, that extra blank line allows a better grasp of the material being edited, and would, IMHO, allow more accurate, error-free editing (no, I can't cite anything to support that -just my gut intuition and past user experience!). For the vary same reasons, I tend to add an extra blank line between the various groupings of extraneous article data at the very bottom, e.g.: two blank lines between External Links and the Category section and the interwiki links section, etc...; additionally extra blank spaces between the section header indicators and their titles looks way less cluttered, eg: ==Cluttered== vs. == Less cluttered == .

In any event keep up the good works, only 3M edits seems kind'a low, eh? Best: HarryZilber (talk) 14:11, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I agree memory costs are irrelevant, and indeed SmackBot/AWB do add white space (including before the category block, but only one line, and two before stub templates for formatting reasons) as well as remove it. As a small monitor user myself I often have only a dozen or less lines to edit in (and more people are using mobile devices now so there is probably much company) and I find the opposite of what you say. The figures for article space which I last collected on 22 June are:
   * Spaces in header 2,246,272
   * No spaces in header 10,398,391

   * Blank line after header 1,417,076
   * No blank line after header 10,713,717
indicating preference for less white space after and within headers (I did not check blank lines before headers but I would estimate over 99%). Nonetheless SmackBot does not currently make these changes on a regular basis, I suspect that the one you noticed is due to the list following. I will check further. Thanks for your note. Rich Farmbrough, 15:24, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Recent edits

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Why did you do this edit? 117Avenue (talk) 04:33, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've noticed a similar edit and I'd like this explained as well; is the purpose of the date to determine the order with which articles tagged with such style templates are visited by the bot? It looks meaningless at first glance.
As does the addition of {{DEFAULTSORT:Palace Of Westminster}} to the article Palace of Westminster. If I had to guess I'd say that capital and small letters are ordered differently and the template counters this effect, but I really don't know. Waltham, The Duke of 11:26, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Dating tags: yes exactly so, I tend to start dating tags as soon as I am aware there is a significant possibility they will need it in the future - this is to reduce the "bulge" that usually occurs once we make a tag part of the system proper. Generally it will only happen if the page is being edited for some other reason. The purpose of dating these particular tags is slightly different, the proposal being that they will be checked for compliance and the tag updated, however the principle still applies. See above for the note from User:Ohconfucius and his talk page about both these tags.
  2. Again you are spot on about DEFAULTSORT, the articles still lists with the same name in categories, but sorts case insensitively.
Rich Farmbrough, 13:06, 23 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Thank you for your clear and prompt reply, Mr Farmbrough. I wonder whether a comment somewhere (an invisible one by the template in the article, or something in the template's documentation) would be appropriate; I'm sure a few other editors will think along the same lines as I have and remove the template in good faith, and one might want to try and prevent that from happening. Waltham, The Duke of 23:05, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Welcome back, Your Grace. Thank you for your advice. I have now added an explanatory note to the templates. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:45, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That is excellent, Ohconfucius. It feels great to be back; let's see for how long it will be this time—this Real Life thing is very demanding. Waltham, The Duke of 11:50, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SmackBot and redirects

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Howdy. I was wondering why your bot made this edit? It appeared to be a valid redirect of a template. The edit seemed kinda pointless. Also, doesn't this redirect guideline apply as well? If there is something here I'm missing, I apologize.--Rockfang (talk) 18:03, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes you are correct, generally SmackBot will avoid making edits like that unless there is a more substantive change happening at the same time. However there are a number of reason (User:Rich Farmbrough/FAQ#Known reasons for SmackBot visiting an article it can't fix) why it may visit articles and make only less substantive changes. At the moment there is a fair amount of category lag mainly around Category:BLP articles lacking sources which is currently getting dispersed into dated subcats. As far as fixing redirects, templates are slightly different in that we want to encourage people to use the correct names (or short cuts) to make the whole editing process simpler - example infoboxes, you can, due to the work of many editors over the past year or so, be pretty sure that you will find "Infobox roller coaster" is the canonical name, not Infobox-RollerCoaster or any of the dozens of other styles that have been used (including Foo Infobox). However as a newbie editor you will see many different styles in articles, and will a.) be left trying to guess the correct name and b.) if you make a new infobox, probably use something, let us say, odd. Therefore while most of us that have the opportunity will not make edits specifically to bypass template redirects, we are pretty keen on them being bypassed en passant (if that's not a tautology) - provided they are not bypassed to "old style" names which we wouldn't create these days (runtogetherwords, excessive-or-over-hyphenation, camelCase, abbr o. 2 mny Wds adn Strange CAPITALZATION). Rich Farmbrough, 18:24, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Smackbot default sort

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Not sure why smackbot is setting defaultsort to titlename? - isn't that the default anyway? seems like an unnecessary addition.Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:41, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that is the default, however in categories "RENFE" would sort before "Random", whereas "Renfe" sorts after. The name will still display as "RENFE" in the cats of course. Rich Farmbrough, 19:00, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
It may be useful to set the defaultsort on the other articles in Category:Diesel locomotives of Spain as well. -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:12, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ahead of you there. <chuckle> Rich Farmbrough, 19:15, 24 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Ah, didn't see that, thanks, understand now.Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:22, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
more in Category:RENFE high speed trains Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:25, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Categories

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I seek your advice on what should be a category. There is much more written about what should be an article.

I do not seek your vote for or against a category, just some insight on what is a category.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2010_August_23&diff=prev&oldid=380768883 for details.

There are certain funny things about Wikipedia. The link above gives a practical reason. However, sometimes bureaucratic reasons win discussions. I seek not to win a discussion but I seek discussion to confirm that my ideas are valid and not some crazy idea. Suomi Finland 2009 (talk) 19:27, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 August 2010

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user:Rich Farmbrough/temp61

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I hate to be a bother, but did you ever generate a final list of bypasses for the WikiProject banners? I'm about to commence another shelling task, and I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel. Thanks! –xenotalk 13:04, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

orphan tag removed from solidarity (australia) page

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hi. i noticed the orphan tag has been removed from the Solidarity (Australia) page. but the majority of the article has no links whatsoever to any other wikipedia articles. apart from the intro (which i authored) it still seems like it needs a lot of work if it is not just intended to be an advertisement for the organisation.

cheers. Marxwasright (talk) 15:42, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes , the tag you need is "Wikify", I have added it. Orphan is about lack of articles linking to the page in question. Rich Farmbrough, 19:02, 25 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Now commons

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Hi! If you think it is worth moving to get it in two words why small "c" in "Template:Now commons"? The name is Wikimedia Commons so the template should be "Now Wikimedia Commons" or "Now Commons". Or perhaps "This media is now available on Wikimedia Commons".

Further more bots uses the term "NowCommons" - have you filed a request to fix the bot scripts. --MGA73 (talk) 17:55, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Quite right, of course it's capital C. Changed and left notes for Multichill and .. um you. Rich Farmbrough, 22:43, 25 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Minor Problems with Weather Box

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Please fix the following. otherwise, great, and very logical, work!

  1. all instances of Hum (for humidity): please replace with "humidity"
  2. all instances of scprecip (green colour for precipitation): please replace with "precipitation colour"

Thank you. I am watching your page, so need to reply on mine. ---何献龙4993 (talk) 22:54, 27 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for spotting that. Rich Farmbrough, 23:05, 27 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
 Done Rich Farmbrough, 14:45, 28 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

WikiCup

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You are the #1 Wikipedian, so I recommend the WikiCup to you. Us441(talk) (contribs) 23:11, 27 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Most kind. Rich Farmbrough, 14:00, 28 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Civil parishes in England

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Hi Rich, Civil parishes in England, an article you have contributed to, has been reassessed to C class from Start class. Apparently many people watch and/or visit this page as an alternative to the broader Civil parishes article. I've quickly scanned it for needing a possible copy edit, but it already looks reasonably good to me. However, I did feel it just needs a little attention such as adding more inline refs. It's not tagged or anything, but if you can help ut with a source or two, it would be much appreciated. Perhaps from your other work on geography articles, you will know where to look, and we will be able to promote it to 'B'.Kudpung (talk) 12:54, 28 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

AfD nomination of International child abduction in Brazil

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An article that you have been involved in editing, International child abduction in Brazil, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/International child abduction in Brazil. Thank you.

Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message.

Archive:Rich Farmbrough, 12:57, 29 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Replied

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See User talk:Ucucha#Cosmetic only changes. Ucucha 13:02, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

IMDB vs Imdb (2)

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You recently moved {{Imdb name}} to {{IMDB name}}. Do you intend to move {{Imdb title}} to {{IMDB title}} as well? (Small beer: you are aware that they style themselves IMDb?) -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 13:41, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes and yes. Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 14:37, 29 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Done with dermatology-related ICD-9 redirect and article creation

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Thank you again for generating the ICD listing of dermatology related conditions. Do you have any other sources you can draw upon to generate another listing I can manually crawl? ---kilbad (talk) 19:16, 27 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thry this.. User:Rich_Farmbrough/temp78. Rich Farmbrough, 00:44, 31 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]
Thank you. Perhaps you could move this list to a subpage of WP:DERM:MA? ---kilbad (talk) 00:49, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

thanks

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Thank you for assisting in helping make my sources fit the wiki format on the Fawad Siddiqui actor article. As you can probably tell I'm not up to speed on it all. But the page was missing a lot of information that is out there and had a few little things wrong that I wanted to try and correct. That before it started to get attacked by people who obsess over the format with no regard whatsoever for the accuracy of the information and clearly weren't even reading the edits. There is no such city as Plainsfield, IN. It's Plainfield. Anyway, it just annoys me. Thank you for being nice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.148.146.39 (talk) 19:50, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome. Rich Farmbrough, 04:05, 31 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Peter Foster

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Thanks for working on Peter Foster - the article needs all the maintenance it can get.Autarch (talk) 20:23, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome. Rich Farmbrough, 04:05, 31 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

List of Israeli music artists

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Thanks for that. Hopefully someone will create some of those missing article, I'm sure there are dozens more articles about Israeli musicians that HeWiki has and we're missing. Hopefully they are created. Cheers, Ynhockey (Talk) 22:12, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome. Rich Farmbrough, 04:06, 31 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

SmackBot doing {{Use dmy dates}} automatically?

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When did SmackBot start applying the dmy tag automatically?

I don't really mind, just curious as it conflicts with the documentation at {{Use dmy dates}} (which I fixed) and also {{Use mdy dates}}, particularly "Bearing in mind the possibility of erroneous tagging if done by bot". It could also conflict with {{Use ymd dates}} if it were consistent with the other two. I'm happy to clean this up if you can point me to where it's approved or explained.

I'm sorry if I've missed where this is mentioned (I've searched User:SmackBot and User:Rich Farmbrough/Talk Archive Index). twilsonb (talk) 03:30, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

checkY Answered on user's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 03:38, 31 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The Signpost: 30 August 2010

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