User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2007 November

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Another run-through for demographics sections
As you probably remember, US place articles' demographics sections place metric units before imperial units — for example, Tombstone reads "The population density was 135.0/km² (349.8/mi²).". User:MJCdetroit and I have agreed that this doesn't go well with the Manual of Style's directions regarding imperial and metric measurements. Since SmackBot was the last bot to update US place articles' demographics sections ("Simplify where possible &/or add state link, United States., map ref template, & or 00.00% .&/or other minor fixes using AWB"), could you please seek approval to have it go through these sections and switch the imperial and the metric measurements? Nyttend 15:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * By the way, since you say that you'll reply on my talk page: would you please copy the reply to MJCdetroit's talk page as well? Thanks!  Nyttend 15:26, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I will look at this. There were some other changes requested after the last run too. Rich Farmbrough, 15:27 26 October 2007 (GMT).
 * It is more than just simply switching the unit order. Square mile should be spelled out and not abbreviated.  If for some reason it is abbreviated we should use "sq mi" and not "mi²".  See the diff here&mdash;MJCdetroit 16:33, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * And this should also apply to the geography section as well. &mdash;MJCdetroit 16:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

SmackBot sorting
Please don't have your bot add defaultsort on presumed surnames in cases like this: The article had intentionally been sorted by first name in a category and a user had even left a comment explaining this. A bot should not override that. Also, what's with the year delinking? Haukur 23:10, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, could you please have the bot leave more precise edit summaries? It says "Date/fix the maintenance tags or gen fixes" a lot. When all it's doing is dating maintenance tags I know the edit is completely trivial and I don't need to check it. But if there are actually some "gen fixes" that's something I might want to take a look at. Haukur 23:13, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Get smackbot ready :)
Heya! Something went wrong with the enwiki dump last month it seems, so, I haven't posted a new reflist in a bit (that, and, well... being made an admin last month sorta prolly distracted me :P). Anyhow, I lost my main squid here last week (was where my most recent bot code was stored), so, I'm trying to hack out an older version, to what I had. (New DB dump got posted today, I'll have it in it's 3GB Glory here shortly) I was wondering, when I post the new list, can you poke over it, and make sure that I re-addressed all the issues that we'd corrected before? (IIRC, the only version of my bot that I have, is a way earlier version.) Hopefully, I'll have a list for you within 48 hours, one way or another. SQL(Query Me!) 07:18, 23 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Not as of yet :( I lost my bot framework too, and it's proving annoying to rewrite to far... SQL Query me! 14:12, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Tags (computer program) notability
SmackBot marked my brand new article on Tags as possibly not meeting the notability guidelines. I'm open for discussion on that subject, although I think the article can't be much better. In any case, I doubt whether this is the kind of job you should trust to a bot. Julian Gong 11:35, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * User Cyfal kindly replied. Rich Farmbrough, 20:19 28 October 2007 (GMT).

Another run-through for demographics sections
As you probably remember, US place articles' demographics sections place metric units before imperial units — for example, Tombstone reads "The population density was 135.0/km² (349.8/mi²).". User:MJCdetroit and I have agreed that this doesn't go well with the Manual of Style's directions regarding imperial and metric measurements. Since SmackBot was the last bot to update US place articles' demographics sections ("Simplify where possible &/or add state link, United States., map ref template, & or 00.00% .&/or other minor fixes using AWB"), could you please seek approval to have it go through these sections and switch the imperial and the metric measurements? Nyttend 15:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * By the way, since you say that you'll reply on my talk page: would you please copy the reply to MJCdetroit's talk page as well? Thanks!  Nyttend 15:26, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I will look at this. There were some other changes requested after the last run too. Rich Farmbrough, 15:27 26 October 2007 (GMT).
 * It is more than just simply switching the unit order. Square mile should be spelled out and not abbreviated.  If for some reason it is abbreviated we should use "sq mi" and not "mi²".  See the diff here&mdash;MJCdetroit 16:33, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * And this should also apply to the geography section as well. &mdash;MJCdetroit 16:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

SmackBot
 While directly linking to images may not be good practice, moving them to the bottom of the article doesn't do much good either... 82.139.85.94 11:54, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
 * This appears to be an {[WP:AWB]] bug, I have notified the devs. I currently have the "general fixes" option turned off, so this should not happen - it is an extremely rare circumstance anyway. Many thanks for letting me know. Rich Farmbrough, 20:16 28 October 2007 (GMT).

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SmackBot
to bob burn drummer, come back to lafayette,la see you c.k. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.80.110.195 (talk) 23:45, August 29, 2007 (UTC)
 * please archive. Rich Farmbrough, 12:32 30 October 2007 (GMT).

Bot mimicking user edits?
Recently a "new" user placed tags on a difficult technical audio related subject (Audio mastering) asking for references, citations, violation of NPV etc, etc. Another editor came in, deleted them and dismissed it as unnecessary. Then, your bot shows up today mimicking the same tagging user actions and tags all over again the article {see diff at Audio mastering). My problem is that if your bot engages in reverting deleted tags by other users, then, its usefulness is outweighed by the damage is creating at WP. Was this just a mere coincidence? Jrod2 18:26, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * If you look at the edit again, yyou'll see that is not what was happening. Rich Farmbrough, 17:03 28 October 2007 (GMT).
 * So, are you saying that it was a coincidence this bot shows up to tag this article, even though it never did it before?  OK, explain this clear example where the same user comes to another article to place another cleanup tag, a disagreeing editor deletes it and your bot comes back to restore the tag.  and . IMHO, your bot is out of order by restoring deleted tags and it needs to be fixed or shut down immediately.Jrod2 19:16, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Please look carefully at the three diffs you cite. One is by Quiest, the other two do not introduce (or reintroduce) tags, merely date them. Rich Farmbrough, 20:14 28 October 2007 (GMT).
 * OK, It comes to place a date. It seems to me that is coming when somebody adds a tag, correct? Jrod2 20:33, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's exactly right. Generally within a couple of days. Rich Farmbrough, 09:54 30 October 2007 (GMT).

SmackBOT
You rock!
 * Thanks! Rich Farmbrough, 10:06 30 October 2007 (GMT).

Removing spaces from unrelated templates
Hi Rich, I appreciate SmackBot a lot, but unfortunately it has been removing whitespace from my beautifully lined-up templates; that is, templates unrelated to what the bot fixes up. For example. Please reply on my talk page if at all. Cheers, Colin MacLaurin 18:37, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for telling me. I can fix this. Incidentally SB aligned all the Infobox Album templates a while back, I was thinking about making a generic solution for this - non-trivial though.  Rich Farmbrough, 09:53 30 October 2007 (GMT).

What's triggering this
Hey there, hi there, ho and yo! Long time no see!  What's triggering this kind of removal by Smackbot? A section maintenance tag which goes missing is no longer either drawing the eye, nor adding to the to-do list of the category. (It's probably nicked me on a couple of other pages "underconstruction", hence avoiding it's mindless repetition is of great interest! ) Is there a "Smackbot ignore this page" template I can add? Be well! // Fra nkB 14:19, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Found your mention of nobots, but with my spelling, would be nice to allow some of the other bots do their thing. Need a {nosmackme I don't like pain} tag! Let me know if you do one up! // Fra nkB 14:26, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
 * read this and you will know what to do... I will need to ensure SB obeys the tag, AWB supports it but I'm not sure quite how smart it is. The reason for removal is unknown, I would guess it is interpreted as a stub tag, but I have AWB's  "General Fixes" turned off at the moment, so it should leave those alone. Rich Farmbrough'', 14:36 31 October 2007 (GMT).


 * OK - { {bots|deny= } } it is! (Now you can go on about being banned in Boston at cocktail parties!) It used to be a distinction of sorts!&mdash;though in this case...?  and thanks! // Fra nkB 14:50, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * LOL, thanks! But your airline seems to have misobserved the inuse tag... (no harm, no foul, though&mdash;you've got me chuckling still!) and I need all the help I can get with formal formatting and spellings! So tanks, tahnks, thnaks, errrr, you no! // Fra nkB 21:13, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

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Casanova's Homecoming
Casanova's Homecoming was tagged as unreferenced, evidently by the bot. In the case of works of fiction, a publisher is usually sufficient; this article already had a discography. best, Sparafucil 08:33, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
 * No, Brownhaired Girl tagged the article. And if it seems excessive, have a look a the talk page, one of the two unsourced dates in the article was wrong. Rich Farmbrough, 08:54 1 November 2007 (GMT).

SNePS and intensiona
SNePS uses intensional[ity] correctly, it would appear. Rich Farmbrough, 15:23 31 October 2007 (GMT).
 * See also "Harry McNish" a quote is changed apparently. Rich Farmbrough, 15:25 31 October 2007 (GMT).


 * Oops. Thanks for that. I'm going to remove intensional(ity) from my bot for now. It looks like it's a bit too problematic. Cheers, CmdrObot 21:28, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

SmackBot sorting
Please don't have your bot add defaultsort on presumed surnames in cases like this: The article had intentionally been sorted by first name in a category and a user had even left a comment explaining this. A bot should not override that. Also, what's with the year delinking? Haukur 23:10, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Also, could you please have the bot leave more precise edit summaries? It says "Date/fix the maintenance tags or gen fixes" a lot. When all it's doing is dating maintenance tags I know the edit is completely trivial and I don't need to check it. But if there are actually some "gen fixes" that's something I might want to take a look at. Haukur 23:13, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Lets not archive this yet, bots. Rich Farmbrough, 18:18 3 November 2007 (GMT).

Ezhava article
The article is currently protected and found that you have been making some changes. I would like you to look into this diff which has happened by the edit of User:Vivin(That version got protected). If you go in detail you can find that most of good face of the article has lost(eg descriptions About famous warriors or sections like Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker, Warriors Of Northern Ballads, Kuroolli Chekon etc ) and tactically keeping the bad face like Trading, Toddy Tapping, Brewing Arrack sections. The main article editors are not against keeping this bad face but should also keep good face of the community. thatnks in advance. cheersTulu war


 * Can't really get into this one,not enough subject knowledge. Rich Farmbrough, 22:23 4 November 2007 (GMT).

aboy one article that ypu could help me with
Hi! First I would really thank wikipedia and, foremost, the people that make it going - people like you. I come from a village in Herzegovina, and throughout this century it has vittnesed many atrosities. So I desided to make a page about it, on wikipedia. Among the thing that I wrote is the genocide aginst the serbs in 1941, in Prebilovci. And on the title I used genocide - a user named rijeka, from croatia, has just removed that bit.

600 women and children from my village, were in 1941 slaughtered and thrown into pits near surmanci, the place were virgin mary is said to have apeared. I wrote abut this -- and rijeca removed that bit. Maby he just doesn't want people nowing about it -- that virgin maty apears to some vroats near were they cilled serbs during a genocide.

I've also created a page valled Prebilovci Massacre, and because of that, he claims, has removed a great bit of my article on Prebilovci. Among that article, he has removed of what happended in 1991, the bodies of thoose who were massacred in 1941 were blown up by a bomb.

I just think this is unfair. I see it this way: that's he's missusing his power on wikipedia. Chek it put yourself, then contact me and say what do you think.

Yours Very Thruly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WebsterMasters (talk • contribs) 15:01, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Please respect the role of British English in Wikipedia
British English articles should have dates in the format day-month-[no comma]-year. Please do not convert dates in British English articles into American format. Thank you. Mowsbury 22:26, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Changing to
SmackBot often does good work and I've many times had cause to thank it. However...

The documentation for Template:Reflist states "there is no consensus that small font size should always be used for all references", while Citation templates states "Because they are optional, editors should not change articles from one [citation] style to another without consensus". This issue of font size particularly affects people with visual impairments who may well be able to see the regular wiki font size but struggle with smaller sizes. We're talking disability discrimination and all that. Unless you can show good cause, please stop performing this unnecessary edit. -Arb. 22:05, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes I've just noticed this myself. I am a proponent of using the standard font size for references. So once again  I have to turn off "general fixes". Rich Farmbrough, 22:19 4 November 2007 (GMT).
 * Thanks for the prompt reaction. To further my education, can you give a pointer to an explanation of what "general fixes" are. -Arb. 16:55, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Removal of a wiki stub...
Your bot has removed my from this article...  Is this a bug, or is that an obsolete one? Mugunth 12:49, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The article is not really a stub any more. Perhaps you want expand-section. Rich Farmbrough, 15:02 11 November 2007 (GMT).

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A thank-you to SmackBot
Next time your bot goes back to the workshop for a grease and oil change, could possibly please pass on a thank-you to SmackBot for these changes? They were much appreciated! --Shirt58 11:34, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

1,000,000 edits
Your bot is near to 1,000,000 edits. Congratulations. --Emijrp 14:10, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Goodness! How did you happen to spot this? It joins Cydebot in a very small group. Thanks for letting me know. Rich Farmbrough, 15:52 15 November 2007 (GMT).

London Gazette etc
Don't know what I was doing on Ian Cundy, somehow typed cite web instead of LondonGazette when I was sorting it out the other day. With the list, thinking about it it may make more sense to move it to a subpage of the template (talk). I'll leave it where it is for now though. Long-term, might be an idea to check for new ones every month or so. If possible, it would be worth excluding London Gazette, Belfast Gazette and Edinburgh Gazette as they legitametly link to the home pages, rather tan to issues of the relevant gazettes. Thanks again for your assistance. David Underdown 17:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

"See also main article" problem
While reviewing James I of England, following a discussion on the talk page, I discovered that a note that had previously addressed the issue being discussed on the talk page had been removed by this bot. See here for the diff. I've now restored the note, but could you try and fix it so the bot doesn't do that again? Not sure how many other articles it may have done this to - can you find out? Carcharoth 12:06, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, this was a rather horrible AWB bug that is fixed now. It may be possible to download a full history file and do a scan, but last time I looked the db dumps were unavailable. Rich Farmbrough, 21:22 16 November 2007 (GMT).

SmackBot is moving stub messages below categories.
At the bot moved the stub message below the categories, yet in the default skin the stub note is shown above the categories. Please change the bot to stop doing this. -- Jeandré, 2007-11-16t20:32z
 * This is the correct behaviour. The reason is to put the stub categories att the end of the list of categories. Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 21:24 16 November 2007 (GMT).

Your feature request
Hi Rich, your input is needed at WP:AWB/FR. MaxS em(Han shot first!) 13:18, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Image in Chris Hawkins article
Hi Rich. I would like your attention or guidance in this matter. I wrote most of the Chris Hawkins article, and seeded it. Chris is a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music, etc. I got this headshot image from his management company and publicity company in London. I was told it was part of publicity kits. I thought that was "fair use". I don't have access to any other pictures. Someone is now disputing its " fair use " and wants to delete the image ( Image:Chawkins.jpg ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Chawkins.jpg. I know you're away but might you help or advise in this matter ? Many thanks. --- (Bob) Wikiklrsc (talk) 02:03, 18 November 2007 (UTC) talk

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Lebanese Independence Day
Rich! Just popping by to wish you a lovely Lebanese Independence Day! Love, Yeanold Viskersenn (talk) 16:49, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Many thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 10:26 23 November 2007 (GMT).