User:TwinsMetsFan/County by County/FAQ

Some questions that have been frequently asked (or ones that I feel that could be in the future) regarding the County by County (CBC) program:

Setup

 * Q: What's all this about DOS and UNIX? Aren't all text files the same?
 * A: Text files generated using a PC and a Mac use different line endings by default (see Newline). Since I run the program on a PC, I need the files to use PC-style line endings. If you make the lists using Windows, there's no need to worry about the format - the default format is the right one in this case. On Mac, the default format (UNIX or more correctly LF, as described in the linked article) doesn't include line breaks that a PC can recognize, which requires me to convert the files from UNIX to a format readable by a PC. If you're using a Mac to compile the files, please save it in a format that has line breaks (CR+LF, again as described in the linked article).


 * Q: Do you want the county name in the county file? How does the program figure out which county these routes belong to?
 * A: No; in fact, if you include it, it will result in errors. The first line of the county's text file must be the first article that belongs to that county. There is no need to include the county name anywhere in the file because the program will pull the county name from the name of the text file itself.


 * Q: When I replace commas and en dashes in the article titles with pound signs, should I keep any spaces surrounding the comma or en dash in the file name?
 * A: Yes. The pound signs must be a one-for-one replacement, meaning the comma and the comma only is replaced with two pound signs. Likewise, the en dash and only the en dash is replaced with three pound signs. If you remove the spaces, the program will not find the route and will generate an error report (see below).


 * Q: Custom reports? Description? I just want the basics! What should I put?
 * A: Exactly that. In your description, just note you want the standard report (a table breaking down each county's quality and a list of GA+ articles in each county). You can then leave the custom reports field blank.


 * Q: What do you mean when you say my files have errors? I followed all of the instructions!
 * A: Even if you follow all of the instructions, there still might be issues with your county lists. You might have added trailing spaces to an article's name. You may have forgotten to include some of the project's articles in any of the counties. And you might have missed one or two commas and en dashes, which need to be replaced with pound signs so the program can correctly process the lists. Any and all of these will result in the program generating a list of errors, and I will not generate a report unless those errors are fixed. If they are minor, like the trailing spaces, I'll just fix them myself and run the program. But if they're major - such as five or more missing articles - I will e-mail you the error report, from where you can fix them and resend the files.

Results

 * Q: The articles aren't sorted correctly in the by-county reports. How can that be fixed?
 * A: The articles are listed in the reports in the order that they were listed in the file. By default, I don't change how the lists are sorted when I receive them. The responsibility for making sure the articles are correctly sorted falls to the editor who compiled the lists.


 * Q: The statistics for haven't been updated in months. When will you update them again?
 * A: By default, never. I will not update the CBC statistics unless I'm asked to by an editor from that state. If you want to have the statistics for your state updated, make a request under the update section on the main CBC page.