User talk:Aly89/Archive 1

RE:Green Bay Packers
Heh, you asked a lot of questions, so I will answer with bullet points :)
 * In football, the NFL has a yearly draft (see NFL Draft). The draft is broken up into "rounds," with usually 32 picks per round, with around 7 (it has changed over the years) rounds per draft.  So in the "|DraftedYear=YEAR" the YEAR value would be the year that the player entered into the draft.  In the "|DraftedRound=ROUND" the ROUND value would be an integer between 1 and 12 (I think 12 was the most rounds ever in a draft) and in the "|DraftedPick=PICK" the PICK value would the overall pick numbers (the PICK number is sequential and rolls over for each round, so say there are 7 rounds and 32 picks each, the total numbers of PICKs per round would be 224 overall picks).
 * The above values can be found on the Pro Football Reference site. If you click the link, we can make this an example.  On the page for Brett Favre, there is a line on that page that says Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2nd round (33rd overall) of the 1991 Draft.  So the underlined values (which I underlined) would fill in the above values.  This should be the same for every player, unless they did not participate in a draft (in which there will be no line there), in which case the above values in the template can just be left empty.
 * I don't know about the whole naming issue. One problem I foresee is the mix-up of names from those sites to what I have.  A solution I thought of is if the bot could not find the right name, then it could just go on to the next name and file those on a certain page, where I could manually find the right pages so that the bot could then be directed to the right destination.
 * The date of deaths are not listed, which stinks. I haven't found any place where this info is listed, which is why I am categorizing each page in Category:Year of death missing.
 * Yes, most of the players will have played for another team, which is something I figured I would just review by hand. If the bot could somehow find out which teams the player has played for and which years, and somehow fill out that parameter in the table, that would be great.  Or, you could just find which teams the person has player for, and then categorize the article in the proper team category.  (i.e. A Green Bay Packers player would be in Category:Green Bay Packers players, an Oakland Raiders players would be in Category:Oakland Raiders players, and so on)
 * Regarding the positions, if you just want to copy and paste the position info, that would be just fine. Most of these sports sites list every position the guy played, where we usually just list the position the person played the most at.  So that would just be my judgment call.
 * The bot wouldn't have to be worried about any part of the actual body of the article except formatting the references. I would write out the body of the paragraphs from the info in the infobox.
 * Basically, I just want the brunt work done by the bot. My process is cumbersome.  I have to open up the intended Wikipedia article page, then the three sources, and then I have to read and input all the values, and then format the references, and then finally save the page.  It usually takes me about 10 minutes to get it right.  So hopefully I would cut this down, which would makes things a lot more manageable.  If you want to see an example of an article I made with my template, please see Bert Askson.  Lastly, I am an administrator here, so although I don't have much technical know-how when it comes to programming, I do have a fairly large amount of know-how when it comes to Wikipedia and Wiki-markup, so if you have any questions, please do feel free to ask (even if it has nothing to do with this project).  Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions :)  Cheers,  « Gonzo fan2007  ''(talk)  @ 01:19, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
 * WOW. Simply wow.  You are amazing! :)
 * I do see some areas for improvement, so let me know if these are possible:
 * The link for pro-football reference goes to here http://www.pro-football-reference.com/player_search.cgi?search=Alex+Urban while the direct link is here http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/U/UrbaAl20.htm Is it possible to make the link go directly to the page, instead of through the search function?
 * The link for Packers.com goes here: http://pack-man.com which isnt affiliated with Packers.com, the link for Urban would be http://www.packers.com/history/all_time_roster/player/urban_alex_1941-45/
 * The code for the database football that goes in the infobox is found at the end of the url (i.e. that code is found after the = in the url, thus URBANALE01 is found at the end of http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=URBANALE01 if that makes things any easier)
 * Is there anyway that "GNB (Green Bay Packers)" can be replaced with Green Bay Packers?
 * This one could be hard, the college section links to South Carolina, is there anyway to extract the full university name and link to it. Thus South Carolina would become South Carolina (look at the coding to see the difference).
 * Here's another tricky one, the example you gave me was someone who has only played for the Packers. Is there anyway, if the player has played for more than one team, that the bot could add that.  So let's say he played for the Packers from 1913-1914, but also played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1915.  Is there a way that the bot could add this to the infobox?  So the code in the box would be   and  .  Just a thought.
 * In the Persondata table at the very bottom, can you make the name format "Urban, Alex" instead of "Alex Urban"?
 * Other than that, things look amazing. I am sure that there would be crazy little bugs but it looks good.
 * Again, I want to thank you so much. This is beyond my wildest dreams.  If there is any questions or help I can provide, please let me know!  Thanks again :) Cheers,  « Gonzo fan2007  ''(talk)  @ 03:29, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Haha, I was really wondering what Pac-Man was :)
 * Yeah, just linking to Green Bay Packers would be fine.
 * Cool, it would be nice to have the complete timeline.
 * Yeah for long names you are correct. That also goes for the defaultsort template, where the very last name should be first, and then the rest of the name goes next.
 * We don't need any info from Packers.com, just the link. All it does is verify he played for the Packers.
 * Let me know if I can answer anymore questions or clear anything else up. I again want to thank you!  You are the best!  Feel free to e-mail me if it makes things any easier!  I'm also off to bed!  Have a great night!  « Gonzo fan2007  ''(talk)  @ 04:00, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't even worry about weight or height. It's not really important for past players.
 * If you want text to be viewed on a page exactly the same way it is viewed in edit mode, just wrap the text around these tags    So it would look like this: (just a handy tip)

Text Text Text Text Text
 * Haha, sorry about Packers.com :/
 * It doesn't need to code to a category (but it would be nice, and caffeine is a really great substance =D
 * Dashes should be – s, so it would be 1991–2007
 * The nice thing about any bugs is the process would be slow enough and we would be placing the articles in user space instead of the mainspace, so we should be able to fix anything that comes up and the problem shouldnt go rampent through all the articles
 * You did the draft values perfectly!! :)
 * Yeah, I think the link should be Gulfport, Mississippi, but a redirect is fine, whatever is easier.
 * Please, please take your time. I'm in no rush, and your doing most of the work :/ so don't feel like we are in a time crunch.  You don't have to work yourself to death :(
 * Here's 4 names for you Reggie White, Ahman Green, James Lofton, Jan Stenerud Let me know if you need a player with a specific type of difference (like playing for multiple teams, not playing for a period of time, etc)
 * Again, I want to thank you. I'm like, basically in love with you ;)  Have a good day!  « Gonzo fan2007  ''(talk)  @ 19:08, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It is nice to know how it works. I understand some parts of coding, mostly just terminology and "what" the code does, I am clueless though on "how" to code, etc.
 * In regards to the college name, most college pages are their full names, such as Arizona State University. But on most pages on-wiki, at least when it comes to sports, the "university" part is left out because it is usually a given.  So instead of Arizona State University, can the code recognize the "university" part and create a link as the following: Arizona State which creates Arizona State.  If not, that isn't hard to do by hand :)
 * Ah, I love having all the teams in the text, so that feature is definitely a keeper!
 * I am glad about the categories!!
 * The link to Ahman Green on the Packers website is here. I don't know how the bot goes searching through the Packers website, but manually I go here, type in "Ahman Green" which takes me here.  I then click on the link.  Don't know if that helps at all?
 * Yeah, there are probably going to be some that have the same names. I figured, as you said, that if the bot has an error (such as not finding a key word, such as "Green Bay Packers" (or something like that) that the bot would then stop and go to the next "same-named" players page.
 * Ehh, per the Bot Policy, you should have a separate account. But this request isn't controversial, as most of the work goes on off-wiki, and the bot will not edit the mainspace, and lastly there will be a lot of human oversight (i.e. it cant go crazy unless we miss something, which wont happen...hopefully :)  But, if you plan on continuing doing bot-work here, it would definitely benefit you to create a separate account just for your bot.  Really the only naming convention for the account is to make it known it is a bot-account.  So User:AlyBot or some derivative of that would work out just fine!  When you do make a new account, just put  on the user page and you are set.  If you ever want to do tasks that are fully automated, or where you will be heavily editing the encyclopedia, you should get your bot flagged as a registered bot through the WP:RBA process.  I would definitely read up on WP:BOT.  I can explain this process a lot farther, but I'm in class right now.  So let me know if you want more info on anything.
 * Other than that, things sound really good! I am sure you want to "clean-up" your code (idk, bot owners always say this :P  but if you wanted we could start off with a few articles and just go slowly and work through any bugs that may occur.  Just let me know what you want to do!  « Gonzo fan2007  ''(talk)  @ 19:18, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Haha, coding sounds a lot like editing Wikipedia sometimes ;)
 * I think that university is the only one needed filtered out. I would keep "college" though, colleges like Boston College need the "college" part.
 * I'm glad those links helped!
 * About the errors, just do whatever is easier. If you just want to flag it, and then give me the list of ambiguous names, I could just manually find the right url for you.
 * Hahaha, yeah policies tend to be very long, but just remember, if you use common sense, you can just ignore all rules. ;)
 * Haha you programmers are all perfectionists aren't you?? :)
 * I dont know if you have seen this yet, or if it would help but: Creating a bot.
 * On Wikipedia, accounts can have different flags that give the accounts different rights or abilities. +sysop makes the account a WP:SYSOP, +crat makes the account a WP:CRAT, etc (see Special:ListGroupRights for all the different flags]].  For a bot account, the flag is +bot.  The main thing this allows is for all of the bots' edits to not show up in Special:RecentChanges.  This greatly helps out because a lot of bots make upwards of 12 edits a minute.  So if there is a certain task that you have fully or semi-automated, where there will be many edits in short amounts of time, then you do need to get the flag for the account and the process approved by WP:RBA (dont worry, you are definitely knowledgeable enough that this process would be easy for you).  The thing is though, your bot will not be making that many edits, nor will it make them that fast.  Lastly, the fact that for this request it wont be editing the mainspace, means there really isnt a danger.  You do not need to get this process approved.  What usually happens is an editor will get the +bot for the request, and then will have a new WP:RBA for each new major request.  Lastly, if the request isn't controversial (i.e. no one will object to it) you really dont need to get it approved.  I can assure you that you dont need your bot approved for this request.  It is of course up to you, but in the end it will just be process just for the sake of process. <font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 01:55, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh brother, well I have unblocked. As long as you aren't editing out of your user space, than there is absolutely no policy being broken.  I gave the blocking admin a note to help avoid this in the future.  Don't worry, when I created an bot account a while ago (when I thought I would learn programming) it got blocked within minutes  :/  In any case, I guess it is just better to go through an WP:RBA whenever the bot is finished.  Sometimes admins are a little trigger-happy, sorry bout that :( <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 03:26, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Heh, I am not a angry person over the internet either, I probably overreacted a little bit, but it just hit one of those nerves, you know? And don't worry, no reputation lost!  :) Well things should be ok now, I guess just make sure to only edit your user space :P  I did make specific note on the bots' user page, so hopefully things will be fine.  See we have a page WP:UAA, where editors can report user names against policy (WP:U).  There is a bot who patrols the new users log, and automatically flags some user names, which is what happened to your bot, which led to the block.
 * That is a truly awesome idea with the number of pages to do! Just do whatever you feel works the best!  I trust you!
 * And um, I am the one who is in-debt with your help!! :) And focus on your term exams, don't be losing grades cuz of me! <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 03:52, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Hahahaha :/ yeah I took "Aly" as a female name, my bad! =D Have a good night Mr. Aly89! <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 04:04, 1 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Everything sounds great! Remember, things dont need to be perfect, we will be working slowly so any weird things we run into can easily be fixed.  I think removing all the "universities" you stated works great, if anything else slips in we can work it into the code.  And no problem about the unblock, actually after reading through the policy, you didnt break any rules ;) Oh and remember, dont forget your studies!!  Have a good night. <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 01:55, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, out of curiousity, what language is the bot written in? <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007 ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 02:36, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Naw, that was fine. Constructive criticism is always nice, although it seems one user doesn't really understand things. <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 22:37, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Haha sorry :/ I can see how my reply above would be a little cryptic! Yeah, when you have been here for a while (not just admins) all the different areas just blend together, you really got to be a good investigator sometimes!  Have a good weekend! <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 01:17, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Wow, you said a lot :) Ill try to answer everything.  I am glad (and amazed) the bot is ready for some trials!  Yes your edit summaries are perfectly fine.  They are probably more specific than whats even needed :)  Adding the fullname to the text is great!  I definitely suggest keeping that feature.  Yes, if it is easy to add the fullname to the Persondata template that would be great (and yes, LastName, FirstName).  It is very, very easy to get the pages deleted, since I am an WP:ADMIN :)  Yes if you want to start testing, that is perfectly fine with me.  Let's start low with 3 pages and then we'll move on from there.  In regards to the timestamp comment, I am not sure I fully understand, but I would say do whatever is easiest for you!  Just let me know whenever you are ready and we can figure this thing out!  Thanks a lot, have a good night! <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 07:32, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Just a quick note, I did one Al Cannava. Some quick things I noticed, use –, not &mdash; .  I believe the one I did was the one you said didnt have a database football page.  The problem was his page was listed under a different name (Tony Cannava, his full name is Anthony L. Cannava).  Other than that, things look good.  I found out that I am going to have to just copy and paste the info to the main space.  I had planned to move the pages to the main space, so that the original contributions of the bot would still be there, but when a page is moved, all the edits are moved, so if someone were to look at the contribs of your bot, it would appear that your bot is creating pages in the main space, which wouldn't be good.  Also, your edit summaries are amazing, they are more detailed than most bot owners, so you're fine there.  I'll try and finish them all today, but it may be tomorrow (I have to study for a mid-term today), but when I do I'll give you a more detailed response. <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 18:17, 5 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Ok, all are done A. D. Williams, Aaron Hayden, Ace Loomis, Adolph Bieberstein, Adolph Kliebhan, and Al Cannava. Other than the dash issue, I really don't see any improvements that would be worth the work to fix.  It seriously would only save me seconds, if that.  I would say, if you want, let's go with 10 and see how that works out. <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 21:17, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Naw, there's no need for a BRFA. And don't worry about the ten, just get to them whenever you can. <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 21:51, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for helping out on my talk page while I was gone! I should be back now, although I still will have decreased activity for a little while.  I had a crappy week :(  But things are good now.  I'll get to work on the ten pages within the next few days.  Thanks again!  Cheers, <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 20:13, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
 * (haha I got your message while writing this one) Yeah, I have my midterms last week and this week, fun stuff :/ But things are better on my end, and yeah I'll get to those pages after my last midterm.  Oh I gave you rollback, which just gives you the ability to quickly revert vandalism.  You may want to give WP:ROLL a quick skim, but mostly just remember to only use it for blatantly nonproductive edits, such as vandalism and nonsense.  You should see the difference on the user contributions page and the history page of an article.  Instead of (undo), you should see (rollback | undo) on the history page, and you should see [ rollback ] on the contribs page.  Enjoy your first set of tools!  Feel free to ask any questions.  Cheers, <font face="Harlow Solid Italic"><font size="2px" color="teal"> « Gonzo fan2007  ''<font color="#191970">(talk)  @ 01:52, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

AlyBot block
After an alert was posted at WP:UAA, I blocked the bot indefinitely. Per bot policy, you need to have approval from the bot approvals group before running a bot on the English Wikipedia. Daniel Case (talk) 02:29, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Break
Hey Aly89, I just wanted to let you know, I am taking a break from Wikipedia. Just too many things to focus on right now, and not enough time. I do apologize, and I hope that when I am back we can get to work! :) I should be back in December/January, if you need to contact me, feel free to send me an email.  Thanks.  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  16:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Hey
Hey Aly89! So I just wanted to let you know I'm back from my break. If you feel like starting up our project again, Im ready :) « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  02:17, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Awesome! I completed one and should finish the rest tomorrow.  I also updated the player list.  In regards to the edit, that is actually better, so if you could change the code to have it the way he made it, that would be good.  If there is anything else, just let me know.  Ill get back to you when I finish those that are ready.  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  02:56, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
 * So I totally forgot tonight is New Years Eve, so I won't be finishing them until tomorrow. And don't worry about that edit, I fixed it.  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  22:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Finished! Oh, Albin Collins is "Rip Collins" on database football.  Alcender Jackson appears to not have a database football page (probably because he is a very recent player), although he does have a page on pro football reference.  I can just do this one by hand later.  So how bout this run we do 20?  Then I can work on them for a few days at my own pace.  Hope all is well!  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  04:40, 2 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Ive finished those 20, ready for the next batch! « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  02:46, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Haha, yeah I saw you were running it and figured I would knock some out tonight :) And I had a lot of time on my hands today, I just got back from a skiing trip, and I am sore all over, so I just laid around and watched TV all day (and was on the 'pedia).  And yeah I saw the changes, they definitely help out!!!  Nice work!  And I've actually gotten pretty efficient and quick at making these articles (or I may be running a secret, highly advanced bot ;)  Yeah, Ill run through the list for you.  Have a great night!  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  05:09, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Haha, ok I won't worry about the failed pages. No don't burn yourself out either, ok? :)  « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  05:10, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅ bring on some more! :) « Gonzo fan2007   (talk)  @  20:57, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Hey, I just wanted to apologize. I am going to have to cut our project short. Lately, I have lost interest in the project and just have so many more pressing needs at this time. I may be back in the summer, but I'm not sure. I just wanted to thank you for everything you did, you really did an amazing job. I wish the best for you. « Gonzo fan2007  (talk)  @  04:28, 5 February 2009 (UTC)