User talk:A930913/Archives/2013/Nov

Unwelcome bot welcomes
Is BracketBot welcoming new users now? I think it might be best if that task were left up to humans who can assess the substantive merits of one another's edits. In this case, broken syntax was the least of problems with the IP's only edit. Rivertorch (talk) 19:28, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Per the [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approval/BracketBot&diff=550732539&oldid=550731592 BRFA], since the first trial, BracketBot has welcomed on any new page it has created. It is assumed better to welcome vandals than not welcome newbies who make genuine mistakes. 930913(Congratulate) 20:26, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Boo hiss. I think I understand the principle, but it's beyond me why we'd think anyone would want to be welcomed by a bot in the first place. Thanks for your prompt and informative reply, however, and for your good work in creating BracketBot. Rivertorch (talk) 03:44, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Unmatched parentheses
Thank you, BracketBot.

It doesn't always work. You have to consider context and even understand the material&#151;not only semantically but also, in fact, pragmatically.

Consider the following snippet of C code (I'm not saying that this is a wonderful comment in the line, but it might be appropriate for, say, someone sending a message to his subordinate):

*p++ = 'e';   /* deleted extraneous '(' and its buddy */

As you can see, the parentheses are "mismatched," but they really aren't.


 * That's why the bot doesn't even attempt to fix the issues itself but notifies a human. There are dozens of types of possible false positives, and "a comment within a snippet of C code" is rather uncommon in the Wikipedia context. If you know of a way to significantly reduce the number of false positives without building something that can pass a Turing test, I'm sure A930913 would be open to suggestions. Huon (talk) 22:10, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Talkback
Hi A930913. Thank you for writing BracketBot.

Cheers! —Unforgettableid (talk) 21:46, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Angle brackets
Hallo, I wonder what proportion of problems with unmatched ">" or "<" are when the characters are used as greater/less than? Might it help if the bot checked whether the next character (possibly after a space) is a digit, and ignored cases where it was so? I wondered if it might reduce false positives at cost of only a very few missed real cases. I imagine the symbols get used in tables etc quite a bit. Or are they deprecated in WP:MOSNUM? .... no, quick check shows they are listed under MOSNUM but there is no mention of their use or non-use in tables etc. Just a thought. Pam D  11:29, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

WP:RFBOT
Your recent bot approvals request has been approved. Please see the request page for details. Josh Parris 22:41, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Improving the help desk posts
Congratulations on the new RefBot, it seems to be working well!

Here's a suggestion for the "Ask for help" links that the bot places on user talk pages. Could you arrange for the help desk section heading "Referencing errors on " to be followed by ? That would save time for the volunteers at the help desk. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:41, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Could I, I would. The technical limitation imposed by the mediawiki software only allow me to pass the page in the title, not the content (unless someone knows a way round it.) At best, I could link the page in the header, though I recall this being frowned upon. Just a note, much of ReferenceBot is using templates, so that anyone with the technical competence can edit them. It might be worth asking at technical for ideas. 930913(Congratulate) 11:43, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Looking around the API, I get as far as bugzilla:12853, logged in 2008. So I won't hold my breath waiting for this one! -- John of Reading (talk) 13:24, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

BracketBot – LittleHarryLoyd
Go ahead and fix it for me...I am unable to reach that page for some reason. Thank you.

....Loyd Little — Preceding unsigned comment added by LittleHarryLoyd (talk • contribs) 19:14, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Looks like you already fixed the War novel article. Happy editing!  GoingBatty (talk) 00:54, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Zoltán Meszlényi
I did not understand, what is wrong with article. If you can, let you help, that the article shall be good. Thank you very much. --Stebunik (talk) 22:40, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * - I removed the extra parenthesis from the article. Happy editing!  GoingBatty (talk) 01:02, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Javier Clemente - Error detected
Hi there BB, AL from Portugal "here",

thanks for the tip, glitch fixed, nice teamwork. Thanks again! --AL (talk) 02:26, 19 November 2013 (UTC)


 * You're welcome, thank you for fixing it! Huon (talk) 23:17, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Gareth Chilcott
Whoa, that was quick you little rascal. But thanks and an early Happy Christmas to you. Richard Avery (talk) 11:09, 20 November 2013 (UTC)


 * You're welcome, happy editing! Huon (talk) 20:12, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Tagalog loanword
example? thanks. Akuindo (talk) 12:28, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * true: .....
 * false:.....


 * I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but you have removed the surplus parentheses. Huon (talk) 00:04, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Bracket in for example. "Listing of work of Henry Gouzien
Hi again. Think the penny has dropped. For some reason I have always put a "]" after link and before explanation as to source etc. Realise this is wrong and what you were telling me was wrong. I will now correct. " " Many thanks

Weglinde (talk) 08:15, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

In use tag?
Hi BracketBot, You perform a great service by ensuring that brackets are appropriately paired! I'm wondering, though, but I catch most of these myself about the time that you're posting on my talk page - and a final sweep of AWB would pick up any miss-pairings. I'm wondering: Does your Bot ignore articles that are Template:In use while I'm in the midst of editing, but would pick them up after I've finished editing an article and removed the in use tag?

Thanks a bunch!-- CaroleHenson  ( talk ) 17:24, 28 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I expect that would require all-new functionality; the bot would have to deal not just with single revisions but with the page history. I'm not sure that's worth the effort. Huon (talk) 19:13, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok. I was just wondering. Thanks for the response!-- CaroleHenson  ( talk ) 22:08, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Unpaired brackets
Hi

You recently picked me up on the use of brackets. I had no "[" at the start of a link but an "]" at the end. I have removed the "]" to correct. Just for my information when added a link should one use "[" and "]" or is it okay to have no brackets. In other words do you recommend "[" and "]". Many thanks.

I would also appreciate your help on another matter.

I created the piece- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listing_of_the_work_of_Ernest_Henri_Dubois-Sculptor but it would be better to have called it "Ernest Henri Dubois". Would you change this for me.

I am most grateful for your help and advice

Weglinde (talk) 08:52, 30 November 2013 (UTC)


 * See Help:Links. When you don't just want the external link, but also a description of what you link to, you need a pair of square brackets:  will look like this: Dieppe
 * For references it's probably better not to use external links directly but to make use of citation templates such as cite web to automatically format the reference.
 * As an unrelated aside, most of the article's current sources mention Dubois only in passing, and Wikipedia does not consider itself or its foreign-language sisters reliable. Huon (talk) 09:44, 30 November 2013 (UTC)