User talk:ListasBot/Archives/2009/June

Random message for ListasBot
Just testing out WikiBiff 0.2.
 * And another one. Matt (talk) 23:47, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Special characters?
I thought ListasBot was also removing special characters. Wasn't it? Check this one. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It's one of ListasBot 1's functions, and I have ListasBot 1 turned off at the moment (just running ListasBot 2/5). Matt (talk) 20:35, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Your bot
Removed something that I was editing on my talk page (thinking it was a biography of living persons), but really I was just formatting links to an extant article in a place I could easily manage. Now I have to do the whole thing over again. Next time leave a message if your bot has issues and allow me 24 hours to deal with the problem before you destroy a morning's worth of work. Dopeyword (talk) 22:46, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, can you provide me with an example of what you're talking about? Matt (talk) 23:15, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Comments
On [ Talk:Amelia Earhart], you removed a useful comment. Could you please look into this? TIA. —Ms2ger (talk) 13:27, 19 June 2009 (UTC)
 * HTML comments inside of templates are problematic at best for a bot to handle, but the short story is that it was removed because it was technically part of the "nested=yes" parameter, something ListasBot is designed to remove. Matt (talk) 15:19, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Redirects of WPBiography
Can you please add in your general fixes the replacement redirects of WPBiography with the original template? For example bio -> WPBiography. KingbotK plgin used to do that, but it seems it's broken now. Thanks, Magioladitis (talk) 09:55, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Is it really necessary? Wouldn't that fall under WP:NOTBROKEN?  Matt (talk) 18:11, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * These days it would be very useful. Check this bug. Moreover, we could do this change only if there is something more to do. WP:NOTBROKEN is mainly referring to pipes and keys. -- Magioladitis (talk) 11:58, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Otto Frederick Hunziker
On 21 June 09, ListasBot applied fixes to templates related to the Otto Frederick Hunziker article, removing "nested" and "needs-persondata" parameters from various WikiProject templates and adding "collapsed=yes|1=" parameters to the WPB template. In the comments, ListasBot asks, "Did I get it wrong?" My comments and questions are as follows. I hope this helps.--Rpclod (talk) 13:06, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Collapsed parameter added to WPB template. When I review the template page for WPB (WikiProjectBanners), I do not find a collapsed parameter.  Comments added by ListasBot to its edit suggest that ListasBot focuses on "WPBiography and WPBS templates".  The  template page for WPBS (WikiProjectBannerShell) does list a collapsed parameter.  Should the collapsed parameter really be used with the WPB template?  That is, is there a mistaken assumption that WPB – as opposed to WPBS – banner templates should contain the collapsed parameter?)
 * "collapsed" isn't specifically documented as a parameter to, but if you look at the source code, calls  and passes the collapsed parameter (or "yes" if collapsed is not specified).  Therefore, it is a little redundant, but still valid.  Matt (talk) 17:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) 1= parameter added to WPB template. I am unsure what function the implicitly numbered and null parameter 1= is performing.  However as this parameter is listed on the WPS template page, I assume that it is correct.
 * "1=" specifically tells the template where the banners start, and should be included in all circumstances. The wiki code usually does OK without it, but other bot operators told me that it breaks their bots, so that was added in to help them out.  Matt (talk) 17:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Nested parameter removed from 3 banner templates. I do not find the nested parameter listed for the WPFarm,  WPBiography, or  ChicagoWikiProject Wikiproject banner templates.  I don't know whether the nested parameter was removed from the templates or whether the persons who originally added these templates erred in adding this parameter.  However, removal appears to be correct.
 * "nested" was a parameter that was passed to (the template that most all WikiProject banners are derived from) that explicitly told the banner whether or not it was inside of a banner shell, such as .  However, people have figured out how to automatically tell a banner whether or not it is inside of a banner shell, and when that happened, it rendered the "nested" parameter obsolete.  So, as a cleanup item, this parameter gets removed wherever it is found.  Matt (talk) 17:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Needs-persondata parameter removed from WPBiography banner template. The WPBiography template page states: "needs-persondata: Answer yes if the article needs persondata, otherwise remove this line."  The article has persondata, so removal of the needs-persondata parameter is correct.
 * There are several parameters where the documentation for says "set this to yes or remove this line", and that's exactly what the bot does.  "needs-persondata" wasn't set to yes, so it got removed.  Matt (talk) 17:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback. Matt (talk) 17:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Speaking personally, I don't think the bot should be adding a  parameter to WPBS. Isn't the whole point of WPBS that it is not collapsed whereas WPB is? – ukexpat (talk) 00:29, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Got me. From my point of view, the difference is that banners inside of a WPB aren't collapsible at all, where as banners inside of a WPBS are (and usually are collapsed by default).  The decision was made to add "collapsed=yes" in cases where the number of banners inside the shell was getting to be unruly -- I believe six was the number we decided upon.  Matt (talk) 01:00, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Matt, who are "we"? – ukexpat (talk) 01:14, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * See Bots/Requests for approval/ListasBot 5 (specifically, this edit). Happy-melon was the one who requested the change.  He's apparently done some work on the WPB and WPBS templates, and he specifically asked for this action to be applied to WPB's, with the hope that some day, WPB and WPBS could be merged into one template.  I guess I misread it and applied it equally to both templates instead of just WPB.  However, given what the intent was, I feel that adding it to both templates is justified.  Matt (talk) 01:27, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Mistake(?) on Mark McClelland
The bot did an edit on this page here. (please check manually what edit it made, I don't know how to link it.) It removed the infobox part, as it now has one, but re-arranged the pic part, but it now has a pic. Shouldn't it remove that tag as well? Suede67 (talk) 15:02, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The bot doesn't check to see whether or not the page has a photo or an infobox. A lot of the parameters to WPBiography have instructions in the documentation that say "set this to yes or remove this line", and that's what the bot did -- "needs-infobox" was set to no, so it removed it.  As for "needs-photo", it simply rearranged all the parameters so that they match the order described in WPBiography's documentation, and needs-photo was the only one that needed to move.  Matt (talk) 17:06, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I see, thanks for your reply. Suede67 (talk) 04:00, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Double Trouble
It seems to me that the update at Talk:John J. Miller (author) was sucessful, but the bot might have usefully removed the duplicate Bio template. Where there are two or more identical templates, it might be useful if the bot could get rid of the duplicates. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 08:48, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Erm...look at the version right before the bot made its edit. If you're talking about the blp notice showing up twice, it's because someone specifically put the blp template on the page, and WPBiography transcluded blp because "living" was set to yes.  Matt (talk) 17:05, 25 June 2009 (UTC)