User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2010 January

Stephen Day the musician page
Hello

I am wondering if you can help us with the Stephen Day musician page that keeps getting replaced by the Stephen Day politician page. How do we categorize the two as different so that one doesn't replace the other?Shmi222 (talk) 18:25, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
 * well you don;t cut and paste move Stephen Day (musician) over Stephen Day for s start. Rich Farmbrough, 22:43, 29 December 2009 (UTC).
 * I saw this on your talk page, so I created Stephen Day (disambiguation).--Toddy1 (talk) 07:15, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Your input is requested
Please see Category_talk:Pages_containing_cite_templates_with_deprecated_parameters. Debresser (talk) 13:52, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Test templates
I don't understand what kind of template is populating Category:TestTemplates. Could you please explain that to me? Debresser (talk) 23:55, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Should be Category:User page notices about inappropriate edits maybe. Rich Farmbrough, 13:29, 2 January 2010 (UTC).

Suggestion
What I did was submit a fairly open-ended BRFA. See Bots/Requests for approval/Xenobot 6, for example.

Function Overview: Find and replace jobs

Edit period(s): Occasionally (when consensus exists for a job)

Then, when a user presents me with a find & replace job that has consensus, I can run it under this task without having to make a new BRFA. That's what I would suggest you do. –xenotalk 18:26, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks sound. Rich Farmbrough, 19:02, 31 December 2009 (UTC).
 * I also think this is a good idea. There's some apparent beefing about something you do, but in general your edits are useful, appropriate to a bot, and backed by consensus through MOS or something. You also generally communicate with members of the community when they have problems with your edits. All this spells: sure, bot okay and flag. Some BAG members don't like lots of edits that show up in logs that are not substantive changes to the article. Other editors, myself in this batch, don't like untidiness in articles. Cleaning up, standardizing is worthwhile, and it should be done by bots according to MOS, imo. Have a little patience (don't mention glass houses in response, it will be ignored). -- IP69.226.103.13   |   Talk about me.   21:04, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

You're brilliant
Really. Deceptively simple, yet fabulous. :) Now that I'm catching up a bit from the Christmas backlog, I just wanted to let you know how much I have appreciated your help with that. Sometimes looking for assistance on Wikipedia can get a wee bit frustrating. Thank you for taking my question seriously and helping me out. I am grateful. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 22:09, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, you make me blush, you are most welcome. Rich Farmbrough, 22:31, 1 January 2010 (UTC).

Please help about that pharagraph
"However, the evidence for this once popular view is slim. It is more likely that the name refers to the place of his birth, ‘Ebrā, where the old road east of Malatya towards Kharput (modern Elazığ) and Amid (modern Diyarbakır) crossed the Euphrates.[2]"  (BAR EBROYO)

Could you please give me some knowlegde about that paragraph. Everybody says that he is from malatya but according to that pharagraph he is from Elazığ. It is very important for us. Please tell me where did you read that and how can we learn more about that subject. Regards...

saratanoglu@superonline.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.233.108.125 (talk) 11:40, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Date conversions
I've been away from WP for a while. What's happening with User:Pigsonthewing/to-do, please? Andy Mabbett (User: Pigsonthewing ); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 14:52, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Thankyou
I'd like the thankyou for your impressive edits you made in 2009. Wherever I look you've made some contribution towards formatting, consistency and cosmetics all over the encyclopedia. even if the subject is not to your fascination. Keep up the good work in 2010 and haope you have a happy new year. Best regards. Dr. Blofeld       White cat 19:47, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * +1 --MZMcBride (talk) 20:06, 31 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Same here. And less opposition... Debresser (talk) 20:15, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * A cup o java for your fine edits. Coffee // have a cup  // ark  // 23:00, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Ohconfucius congratulates Rich for his approach to hard problems without the sticky solution ;-) Ohconfucius  ¡digame! 02:35, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
 * +1 Rjwilmsi  00:00, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, that's much appreciated all. Nice start to the new year. Rich Farmbrough, 02:54, 1 January 2010 (UTC).

Template:Cleanup-remainder
You're absolutely right; in the deletion discussion, the template's purpose was completely missed. I hope that we can determine which articles the template was removed from. —David Levy 14:25, 2 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Even though because of the changes you made to the template I now understand its purpose, I still think that it should remain merge with Cleanup. If it is used for articles with lists, just use Cleanup-list. Debresser (talk) 18:10, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

FYI
Please see Template_talk:Cite_book, where a discussion is starting, which is closely related to the idea you mentioned of deprecating month and year. There seem to be repercursions to that. Debresser (talk) 18:04, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Kissle
Hi Rich. I went through the recent changes looking for an admin online, and you're it. I was wondering if you could add me to the list of users who may use the application Kissle. Tim Song is on vacation and can't at the moment, and asked that any requests be forwarded to another admin. Thanks, ~Super Hamster  Talk Contribs 00:56, 3 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I will, thanks for your assistance. ~Super Hamster  Talk Contribs 01:53, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Dates
Hi, Rich Farmbrough

I noticed that you often removed date from articles, which formats dates according to Manual of Style and per user Preferences. I'm curious to know why. Is there something wrong with it? Fleet Command (talk) 12:39, 1 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Well there's some confusion about what this template does:
 * Formats dates - Yes - if they are parseable by the PHP time function
 * according to MoS - Maybe - depends what parameters it is given and where it is used
 * and according to user preferences - No - It does not do this and it would be a bad thing if it did.


 * So in articles the template is redundant or misleading - for example (using less curlies for speed) {date|12 July 2009}   is the same as "12 July 2009" and the same as {date|12 July 2009|dmy}.  However {date|12 July 2009|mdy} would be rendered as "July 12, 2009" which is what I am replacing it with.


 * Rich Farmbrough, 12:46, 1 January 2010 (UTC).


 * Oh the template has another use to give today's date, this is good coding, but not a great interface. Rich Farmbrough, 12:48, 1 January 2010 (UTC).


 * I see. So, why MDY? Is DMY rejected by manual of style? And by the way, do you know anything about undefined? Oh, and I saw in several instances you've added mf=yes to start date and age in infoboxes but the template has no such parameter. What is that? Fleet Command (talk) 13:11, 1 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The date format used in any given article is determined predominantly by the nationality of its subject, and by usage issues. It's not that dmy is no good, but probably that it was inappropriate for the article in question - you did not give an example. As for undefined, it is used only in a small handful of articles (if any), and was a recent attempt at autoformatting by certain programmers, despite the fact that its use (and autoformatting) does not appear to have consensus backing. Ohconfucius  ¡digame! 13:25, 1 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I asked because until now I used DMY or yyyy-mm-dd throughout all Wikipedia, both enclosed in date. I had previously read in Help pages that formats dates per user preferences. Must have been a mistake which is corrected soon after I read it; unfortunate me! Once or twice, I run stumbled upon Rich edits wherein he had undid  and added mf parameters to infoboxes. When I did, I cursed buggy automated scripts under my breath and undid his edits. But then, I encounter edits that could have not been automated. So I asked. Now, it is clarified.


 * As for the subject, I mostly edit computer-related articles, mostly internationally-famous topics. (E.g. Microsoft Office, Paint.NET, Pixel aspect ratio, Cryptography, Microsoft Security Essentials, etc.) The subject is the whole world. So, according to Calendar date, I should use DMY, shouldn't I? Fleet Command (talk) 18:07, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Ah I wasn't clear:
 * {date|12 July 2009|mdy} I replace with "July 12, 2009"
 * {date|12 July 2009|dmy} I replace with "12 July 2009"

In other words I am not changing the appearance of the date.


 * And I assume you convert 12 July 2009 into 12 July 2009, right?

The #formatdate function? See Magic_words "there is considerable opposition to use of this function"

mf=y - this makes it clear that the choice of format is explicitly made not merely the default. I added df to "Birth date" and "death date and age" some years ago, maybe a better solution could have been found, but that propagated to the various templates of that ilk. Rich Farmbrough, 13:33, 1 January 2010 (UTC).


 * I checked Birth date and Death date source codes. Yes, they had a df parameter specified in them. But Start date and age has not mf parameters in its source code.


 * Anyways thanks, Rich. Fleet Command (talk) 18:07, 1 January 2010 (UTC)


 * You are welcome; to clarify the clarification "mf=y" is a message to editors not to the system. Rich Farmbrough, 20:06, 1 January 2010 (UTC).

Could you please explain me your substitutions of the date template? I've looked at Template:Date and I have found no problem at all. - Esteban Zissou (talk) 13:47, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
 * In a nutshell the template has no useful function on an article page (except to display the current date and there are better ways to do that).  Rich Farmbrough, 13:51, 2 January 2010 (UTC).
 * Fair enough, keep an eye out for where it might not be appropriate to put in a hard-coded date. For example, this edit where ' dmy ' was in use to show the current date.  Agreed with the second point, perhaps there is a better way (what is it?), but changing it from the current date to hard-coded can be easy to miss for quite some time. Cander0000 (talk) 01:12, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes that is true, conversely or ...
 * And even an alias such as {Today's date} (for example) would be good. But better not to call a fairly complex template for a fairly lightweight job.  How about Today (dmy) Today (mdy)? Rich Farmbrough, 01:20, 3 January 2010 (UTC).
 * Exactly, because of bad practice, it's going to be case by case. Today (dmy) is a much better choice when a dynamic date is needed.  For that matter, it would be clearer to use dmy, to achieve a particular formatting of the current date, rather than assuming leaving the first parameter blank would return the current date.Cander0000 (talk) 18:51, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Petter Adolf Karsten
Hi Rich, some weeks ago you added the exact dates of his birth and death to the English Wikipedia. To you have a source for it? By the way at the time Karsten lived, Finnland was part of the Russian Empire, do you know if the dates are referring to the Julian or Gregorian Calendar?? --Hagen Graebner (talk) 15:59, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
 * No I don't think I did. Rich Farmbrough, 18:12, 3 January 2010 (UTC).
 * You are right, it was done by an IP - question has to be left open....Sorry, --Hagen Graebner (talk) 19:03, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Celan, Heidegger, Master from Germany
I wrote you a message only to realize you weren't the appropriate individual. Terribly sorry about that!

91.39.4.135 (talk) 20:25, 4 January 2010 (UTC) 91.39.4.135 (talk) 20:09, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Multiply copies of a file
Hello Rich, thanks for your time. I searched for Mir-Hossein Mousavi's signature and actually found four same signatures in two formats: one in jpg and other three in svg format. It seems like the uploader has uploaded three of those in English Wikipedia and one in Commons. Since IUP clearly states that public domain images including signatures in svg formats are preferred, I believe the one in Commons should be kept and the other three should be deleted per Criteria_for_speedy_deletion. The files mentioned above are:


 * File:Mir Hossein Mousavi signature.svg (in Commons)


 * File:Mir-Hossein Mousavi signature.svg


 * File:Mir-Hossein Mousavi's signature.svg


 * File:Mir Hossein Mousavi signature.jpg

JuventiniFan (talk) 12:40, 5 January 2010 (UTC)


 * OK I got rid of one under f1 speedy criteria, I'll look at the others in a sec. You can tag them with Db-f8 of course. Rich Farmbrough, 15:56, 5 January 2010 (UTC).

Vandal
Somebody vandalise Sporting Clube da Praia_ please block him his ip adress is 188.2.111.58 !!!! thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.189.219.231 (talk) 15:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC) or protect page from vandalisam please —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.189.219.231 (talk) 15:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Question
Is there a template to turn all capitalised letter to uncapitalised? Something like -> abcdef? Debresser (talk) 13:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I made one once...
 * It still exists? Debresser (talk) 15:51, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * You can use abcdef .. abcdef Rich Farmbrough, 17:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC).
 * Thank you. Debresser (talk) 21:35, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Cascade-protected items
I believe I've figured out how to have an editable lead. See WT:CASC. You are receiving this message due to the banner at the top of the talk page. If you don't want such messages, remove yourself from the banner. Thanks,  Thin boy  00  @234, i.e. 04:36, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

I'd like your input.
Hey rich Bots/Requests for approval/FrescoBot 2 SmackBot came up in that BRFA, and I was wondering if you could answer some of our questions. — [ Unsigned .]
 * Rich Farmbrough, 03:53, 7 January 2010 (UTC).

What have I started, wish I had bot help for this task
I have noticed (particularly in the article Where the Wild Things Are) that some editors are formatting citations in slightly odd ways. They are using the author parameter and writing "Farmbrough, Rich" rather than "Rich Farmbrough" or writing | first = Rich | last = Farmbrough and using the available parameters. Maybe this is more complicated than it seems but perhaps you would consider checking the author field and if it contains a comma then split it into first and last parameters? Thanks for your consideration. -- Horkana (talk) 16:18, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The problem is poeple may put "author = Smith, Jones" ... Rich Farmbrough, 18:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC).


 * You mean coauthors? I suppose that would be difficult to check, having them in separate fields though might be still be an improvement, even if it is still wrong in another way. I'll have to write my own bot someday, it would probably save time a lot of time in the long run. Thanks anyhow. -- Horkana (talk) 21:57, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not saying it can't or shouldn't be done. Simply trying to identify what the problems might be.  Another might be Far East names, where the family name comes first. This might be a good reason to deprecate "first" and "last" - the main point of them is to allow Harvard refs to be generated automatically. Rich Farmbrough, 09:29, 7 January 2010 (UTC).

Year error
Rich can you use AWB to fix the year errors I made like this. The communes I've added population data to date....From now on they should be correct...  Dr. Blofeld       White cat 19:45, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * In hand. Rich Farmbrough, 18:54, 6 January 2010 (UTC).

Remember?
Remember telling me that ArbCom is "horrendous"? Well, I am on it. See Arbitration/Requests/Case. Not that I think that I should be there, or even this case in general. Nor am I worried too much as to its outcome. Anyway. Debresser (talk) 00:10, 6 January 2010 (UTC)


 * How is SmackBot? Running? I haven't seen any fixes connected with references so far this year. Debresser (talk) 08:38, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Or with dateformat and access-date, for that matter. Debresser (talk) 18:34, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Need a new BRFA for that. Rich Farmbrough, 18:47, 6 January 2010 (UTC).
 * Anything I can do to help? BTW, if there are more parameters, then we should do all of them together. I personally feel this is enough. Debresser (talk) 19:44, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Wait a sec. you mean a new whatever for the reffixes also? Debresser (talk) 19:54, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * No the refs are fine. I killed the last BRFA because we had essentially finished the process manually while it languished. Rich Farmbrough, 20:11, 6 January 2010 (UTC).

Debresser (talk) 15:50, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Where did access-date come from?
 * I saw a lot of times that the date was of format (month day year), not {month day, year). I don't know why. Can that be a mistake made when fixing?
 * I am finishing all non-main namespace pages soon.
 * Are you going to file a new BRFA?

Falling rain
Are you still up for removing falling rain links from wikipedia. Perhaps semi automated we can remove any bad referenced figures. Perhaps the way to do it would be to remove the external links first using AWB and then sort those which are referenced to falling rain afterwards. Its just we need to remove all of the links to that site before delisting.. Dr. Blofeld       White cat 15:10, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * External links may be worth removing, then we can consider referncing the other information elsewhere. Rich Farmbrough, 17:50, 6 January 2010 (UTC).

The Wikipedia Signpost: 1 January 2010
Read this Signpost in full &middot; Single-page &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; EdwardsBot (talk) 23:50, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Possible move
Would you mind looking at two comments I posted at the medicine project at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Medicine. Would you be willing to share your opinion/move that page? ---kilbad (talk) 04:44, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Bangladesh International School, English Section, Riyadh
Hi, can you please put the citations in the article Bangladesh International School, English Section, Riyadh properly. I ve provided some references but I dont know how to do the cite thing properly. Thanks in advance. Aceleo (talk • contribs) 13:10, 07 January 2010 (UTC)

Fact v. Citation Needed?
Hi, Rich - I see that you changed some Fact tags that I had added to Citation Needed tags in the Dolphin Encounters‎ article. Both of these display as "Citation Needed" in the article, so I wondered if the Citation Needed tag is the preferable choice? It's just that I can remember how to spell Fact but sometimes screw up with citation. :) Thanks. Bob98133 (talk) 15:48, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot adding 'date=' to Article issues tag
This change (particularly, changing 'article=yes' to to 'article=January 2010' and adding a free-floating date parameter) seems to be contrary to the specifications for the Article issues template. Cnilep (talk) 23:05, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * SmackBot goes for simplicity. The template has a date parameter which supports the "expert" parameter. SB sets this regardless. Possibly this would have been removed by AWB general fixes where unneeded, but those are disabled as there are objections (to the principles, not to the actual edits).  The section and article parameters again can take any value. I have updated the documentation to reflect this. Rich Farmbrough, 23:44, 8 January 2010 (UTC).

Unreferenced BLPs
Hello Rich Farmbrough! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot alerting you that 9 of the articles that you created  are tagged as Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to ensure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. if you were to bring these articles up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the articles are adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the list:

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 23:43, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Henry Fambrough -
 * 2) Charles Fambrough -
 * 3) Christopher Curwen -
 * 4) Colin McColl -
 * 5) Martin Furnival Jones -
 * 6) Patrick Walker -
 * 7) Kemal Monteno -
 * 8) Greg Cook (comics) -
 * 9) May (singer) -

Thanks!
Rich, this is in appreciation for your magnificent work on cleaning up the date mess with scripts/bots. It's a fine achievement. Thank you. Tony  (talk)  11:30, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Certainly beginning to see the resemblance of this to English Wikipedia. Ohconfucius  ¡digame! 13:47, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot dating issues
I noticed a couple issues in today's bot edits. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 14:06, 9 January 2010 (UTC)


 * This edit changed the date parameter of a cite journal template.
 * This edit  added a date to a stub template.
 * This edit left behind '}}}'.
 * I do not know why this edit changed November 2009 to January 2010.
 * This edit put two date= parameters on the same tag.
 * This edit made the infobox inconsistent with itself, changing Feb. but not Oct.
 * This edit removed the day from the date in a cite news call.


 * I am going to stop the bot on its talk page, but not block it. The errors in cite templates are a serious problem. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 15:31, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry about that; the diff is. I didn't think it was serious enough to stop the bot, but it made me scratch my head. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 18:38, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your contribution !!!
Thanks for helping me out with my article Bangladesh International School, English Section, Riyadh. Aceleo (talk • contribs) 21:21, 09 January 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot
This relatively old edit caused a citation error, is that fixed? Sole Soul (talk) 22:45, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Re WikiProject_Medicine/Dermatology_task_force/Required_pages
I have slowly crawling the above list and creating redirects. Often times, there are articles already present but redlinks due to difference in British verses American English. As a result, in addition to creating redirects when possible, I have added a footnote discussing these differences in spelling (see List_of_cutaneous_conditions). I am estimating that within the next month we can bluelink the entire list. ---kilbad (talk) 22:11, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, I am done with the list. I am going to archive it if you are ok with that? ---kilbad (talk) 01:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Category:Film articles using deprecated parameters
Could SmackBot run a it more in there? I think it was you that gave me a code that I can remove deprecated parameters (in fact delete lines having specific strings using Regex) but it was somewhere lost for ever. Could you write me something similar? -- Magioladitis (talk) 01:24, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

use dmy dates
There is a new discussion going on at Template talk:Dmy‎, and I though you might have some views on the subject. Ohconfucius ¡digame! 02:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Alexander Schukoff
You should wait for others to write an article about subjects in which you are personally involved, as you did at Alexander Schukoff. This applies to articles about you, your achievements, your band, your business, your publications, your website, your relatives, and any other possible conflict of interest.

Creating an article about yourself is strongly discouraged. If you create such an article, it might be listed on articles for deletion. Deletion is not certain, but many feel strongly that you should not start articles about yourself. This is because independent creation encourages independent validation of both significance and verifiability. All edits to articles must conform to No original research, Neutral point of view, and Verifiability.

If you are not "notable" under Wikipedia guidelines, creating an article about yourself may violate the policy that Wikipedia is not a personal webspace provider and would thus qualify for speedy deletion. If your achievements, etc., are verifiable and genuinely notable, and thus suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia, someone else will probably create an article about you sooner or later. (See Wikipedians with articles.) Thank you. --bender235 (talk) 13:27, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

AfD nomination of Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association
An editor has nominated Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, an article which you have created or worked on, for deletion. We appreciate your contributions, but the nominator doesn't believe that the article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion and has explained why in his/her nomination (see also "What Wikipedia is not").

Your opinions on whether the article meets inclusion criteria and what should be done with the article are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Articles for deletion/Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ).

You may also edit the article during the discussion to address the nominator's concerns but should not remove the articles for deletion template from the top of the article; such removal will not end the deletion debate. Thank you. - Eastmain (talk) 02:54, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Your valued feedback is needed

 * Archive Rich Farmbrough, 23:50, 11 January 2010 (UTC).

Smackbot unlinking words in headings
The bot did this with the "New Yorkistan" heading here. I don't know if this is a good idea. I know links in headings are supposed to be avoided but it seems better to have one than to have no link in the article at all.Prezbo (talk) 08:56, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Per WP:MOSHEAD "Section names should not normally contain links, especially ones that link only part of the heading; they will cause accessibility problems.". You can add something like "Main article" or "See also" under the header. It's much better than having a link in the header. -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:33, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Like I said above, I know there shouldn't be links in the header, but when when there's no other link in the article--which was the case with the article I linked to--it seems better than nothing.Prezbo (talk) 09:37, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * This feature was recently added in AWB. Maybe you could start a discussion in Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser. I think the feature is useful for manual edits but maybe you have a point for bot edits where non of main nor seealso is added. Let's hear what the other think as well. -- Magioladitis (talk) 10:19, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, would you mind explaining the connection between this bot and AWB? I don't have a problem with people doing this manually.Prezbo (talk) 10:32, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * SmackBot uses WP:AWB. -- Magioladitis (talk) 13:44, 11 January 2010 (UTC)


 * 1) To some extent this is moot as I have been forced to turn of GFs.
 * 2) An advantage to having an automated method of doing this sort of stuff is that humans tend to "let it slide".  Just food for thought.


 * Rich Farmbrough, 19:42, 11 January 2010 (UTC).

Smackbot: a suggestion
Hi,

Just a suggestion. Smackbot recently edited Nilpotent operator to update a "Category:Articles lacking sources (Erik9bot)" tag to an "Unreferenced" tag. However, the date it gave was December 2009 (when it edited the page), not July 2009 (when the old category tag was put in). Perhaps it would be helpful if the code was updated so that it inserts a date that reflects the original tagging, not the replacement tagging. I changed it manually in this case. :-)

Tcnuk (talk) 11:19, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I backdated many that I changed manually, but there was too much drama over the dating of the bulk to do anything intelligent with them, so they went in the December category. They have all been done now. Rich Farmbrough, 19:39, 11 January 2010 (UTC).

G.W. Peck
You recently tagged the G. W. Peck article as a "biography". But G. W. Peck is a "fictional mathematician". See Talk:G. W. Peck  Jwesley 78 14:23, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks: Rich Farmbrough, 19:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot regex went wrong
This went wrong. Unfortunatly I noticed this after I transfered a bunch of images to Commons. Could you please apply the fix to the images in commons:Category:Files_moved_from_en.wikipedia_to_Commons_requiring_review_as_of_11_January_2010 too? multichill (talk) 22:43, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

MItr is an article not a advertisement
I have fulfilled whatever said by wikipedia people, first they were emphasizing on its reliable source, to fulfill their demand some good reliable sources has been included but still they are considering for deletion

Its a information that this platform is providing, why it is different from others and Its like a new experience for software engineers they can get something out of it. Its not a advertisement. Please look it into it once more. it has gone through many phases its size has been reduces from its normal to half. It is having capability that it is supporting other plaforms which were found rare in earlier platforms.Company's name has been included once (wherever necessary). so i don't think its a advertisement. Thankyou--Nandssiib (talk) 07:11, 12 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nandssiib (talk • contribs) 07:09, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 11 January 2010
Read this Signpost in full &middot; Single-page &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; EdwardsBot (talk) 09:12, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

More date issues
Diffs from today's run. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 02:17, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Here, the bot changes a date from July 2009 to January 2010 . The date parameter is included twice there; that's because SmackBot added a duplicate back in July.
 * Similar issue at Calgary
 * Removed a comma from a date in a reference, but left a comma in a different part of the same reference (footnote #194).

Smackbot's edit summaries
Rich,

Smackbot's edit summaries end in "build 391:,". It seems a little peculiar. Is that intended behaviour? - Richard Cavell (talk) 05:59, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ask USer:CBM. Rich Farmbrough, 06:06, 13 January 2010 (UTC).

Your user talk page title
Another thing: The title of this page is "Use Rich Farmbrough" on my machine (Firefox 3.5.7 on OS X). This is because of a DISPLAYTITLE template in the source. Is that what you intended? - Richard Cavell (talk) 06:02, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
 * yes. Rich Farmbrough, 06:36, 13 January 2010 (UTC).

Reply
I assume that you had something to do with the Article Issues posted on the Cube News 1 page. I replied in the talk quite a while ago, but nothing has happened. Hence, I am writing to whoever might be able to do something. dmelliott 14:44, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Orphan tagger in AWB
As of AWB counts the number of incoming links to the article and its redirects excluding the number of redirects i.e. tagging is 99% safe. Only problem the number of incoming dab links but this was the big issue. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:32, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Excellent work, sadly SmackBot is not allowed to use the tagger. Rich Farmbrough, 06:07, 13 January 2010 (UTC).

Here you are: http://toolserver.org/~awb/snapshots/AutoWikiBrowser5001_rev6037.zip -- Magioladitis (talk) 16:10, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

AfD nomination of 1hourflex
An article that you have been involved in editing, 1hourflex, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Articles for deletion/. Thank you.Please contact me if you're unsure why you received this message. Dbratland (talk) 00:04, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Comment at Templates_for_deletion/Log/2009_August_17
Sorry for digging up an old discussion but what do you mean This provides the flexibility that BirthDeathAge was supposed to, and it works. How is this template broken or in flexible? Gnevin (talk) 00:50, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

homosexual v. gay
Just wanted to call to your attention the preferred use of "gay and lesbian" over "homosexual". This is in regard to your changes to the Madeline Davis entry. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS:IDENTITY#IdentitySee and http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gays-anatomy/200810/the-terms-homosexual-and-the-n-word. Thanks--Aichikawa (talk) 19:21, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I have no idea which part of the MoS you are talking about, or which change toi the article. Please add talk page comments at the end of talk pages, and use diffs. Rich Farmbrough, 08:25, 15 January 2010 (UTC).

FYI re auto=yes
FYI "auto=yes" is not a notation that a banner was added automatically, it should only be used when automatically assessing as "stub" because the article page had a stub template. This came up here. Cheers, –xenotalk 13:31, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, noted.Rich Farmbrough, 08:25, 15 January 2010 (UTC).

Sandbox
Hi. I was looking at File:Pepper's.jpg and I noticed that you are currently using it in your user-space at User:Rich Farmbrough/temp62. Unfortunately as the file is a non-free image it shouldn't really be used in user-space. There also appear to be a number of other non-free files used on the page. Would you mind removing them from your sandbox, or at least commenting them out until you are finished? Regards. Road Wizard (talk) 01:42, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I deleted the page, however I don't think that copies of main-space pages should be an issue. The reasons are obvious. Rich Farmbrough, 19:31, 16 January 2010 (UTC).
 * Thanks for removing the problem, however I don't think there are any obvious reasons. The image was loaded under a fair-use claim and there was no fair use rationale for use in your user-space. Therefore it was in breach of Wikipedia policy and guidelines and possibly in breach of US copyright law.
 * If it was just a temporary page used for a few hours before reinsertion into the main article then it would probably not be a problem; any breach would be corrected long before it became a legal problem. However if I recall the history of the deleted page correctly it had been a month since the last edit, suggesting a more permanent breach.
 * If you think an exemption should be made for sandbox copies of articles you may wish to suggest an amendment to the existing policies and guidelines. Regards. Road Wizard (talk) 19:52, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, mirrors of WP or mirrors WP pages, or WP history are considered legal - many versions of the same actual page. The only difference is that the page is labelled "USer:" that is not going to be a legal issue. As to the policy, legality is the prime reason for it, bright-line demarcation maybe the reason for simply saying "user space" - I do think an exception should be made but I don't want to suggest an amendment. Rich Farmbrough, 03:13, 17 January 2010 (UTC).

Thanks anyway
Gnevin (talk) 19:07, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

California County Route S1
It appears you put a tag on the page County Route S1 (California). This action has been reverted, for this template does not exist. <font color="HHII9900">Pzoxicuvybtnrm  03:33, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Kuru, Nigeria
Nigerian towns need a huge cleanup..... Removing falling rain rmeoving spam etc. Nigeria "is like the Pakistan of Africa on wikipedia". Dr. Blofeld       White cat 20:30, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Oh silent one, can you add svg maps like this to the amphoe of Chiang Mai Province. You just need to switch png with svg....  Dr. Blofeld       White cat 16:44, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

New proposal
Rich Hi :) If you find time, do comment on the new proposal I've suggested here. Thanks '' ▒ Wirεłεşş ▒ Fidεłitұ ▒ Ćłâşş ▒ Θnε ▒ <sub style="font-size: 60%">―Œ <sup style="margin-left:-3ex"> ♣Łεâvε Ξ мεşşâgε♣  04:32, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 18 January 2010
<div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Read this Signpost in full &middot; Single-page &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; EdwardsBot (talk) 15:19, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Dates in non-article space
I posted at Bot Requests, but the request/discussion seemed to be bogged down with some esoteric and rather surreal discussion. Anyway, can I enlist your help with the work to be done in delinking these?


 * File (e.g. File:Futurama_ep51.jpg)
 * Category (e.g. Category:Decimal coins of Ireland)
 * Portal (e.g. Portal:Apple_Inc./News)

As an aside, I notice that some portal space is posted by bots, which automatically post linked dates. I tried removing the links on a couple of occasions, but the bot restored them in the next edit as if it was programmed to link dates. Ohconfucius ¡digame! 17:41, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Regarding dermatology-related content
My main focus continues to be the Bolognia push; however, if you can generate any other lists of required derm stubs/redirects, I would be willing to work on them as well? ---kilbad (talk) 18:44, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Infobox Hungarian settlement
I noticed you did some work on Template:Infobox Hungarian settlement. I did some work on it and the documentation page, related with references. I checked that it is working well. I think I found an elegant solution.

In addition I found a problem with this template, see Template_talk:Infobox_Hungarian_settlement. Perhaps you can easily solve it. Debresser (talk) 00:06, 20 January 2010 (UTC)


 * An edit by Plastikspork made it a little better, but I think the best idea would be to somehow not have the link to the files at all, if they don't exist. Debresser (talk) 03:19, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ha! I was thinking the same thing. See my subsequent edit. Plastikspork <sub style="font-size: 60%">―Œ <sup style="margin-left:-3ex">(talk) 03:21, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Nice fix. Thanks. Debresser (talk) 14:45, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot
I have checked with the Scout Association, PRC on the Woodbadge issue. Seems like it is confirmed that the Woodbadge Training Scheme indeed was released by the WOSM APR approved by Abdullah Rasheed the WOSM APR Rigional Director. There was communication email between the association & the Regional office. Feel free to advice if you need anything. Thanks.

Regards, Tsa-prc
 * Archive Rich Farmbrough, 21:38, 20 January 2010 (UTC).

Nomination for deletion of Template:Museum key
Template:Museum key has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Plastikspork <sub style="font-size: 60%">―Œ <sup style="margin-left:-3ex">(talk) 21:16, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

SmackBot you did a great thing!
I am glad that the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_for_Children has been fixed and all that could be taken with offense were removed. I had attempted to edit the article and became upset and offended by some of it's previous errors and phrasing of which I personally found unnecessary and offensive to me. Thus I left the article as it was, due to personal offense taken. Thanks so much for that much needed help. --Ladybrainbypass (talk) 14:40, 21 January 2010 (UTC)--Ladybrainbypass (talk) 14:42, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Fix and substitution detection
I noticed you didn't answer detection of incorrect substitution to maintenance templates that use Fix like Dead link, Dubious, or Citation broken. Is that on purpose?

What happened with Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template? Did the bureaucracy get to you? I also didn't do any wikignoming these past week-and-a-half because of that ArbCom case I'm involved with. It is really unsetteling to be falsely accused, not to mention unappreciated. Debresser (talk) 14:00, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

BTW, since all maintenance templates use either DMCA or Fix, I wondered if it wouldn't be easier to build the detection into just these two templates? Or is that impossible? Debresser (talk) 14:01, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Question
It is found in the article under Representation:
 * "Levis Fine Art represents a number of Elaine de Kooning's heirs and has an comprehensive collection of her lifetime works."

In my opinion 'Representation' belongs to a gallery guide but not to Wikipedia. What do you think? (Salmon1 (talk) 19:47, 21 January 2010 (UTC))

Lovers Electric
Hi Rich, sorry to trouble you. There's a band, Lovers Electric, whose photo I'm uploading now to Commons. I looked at the article history to see whose toes I'll be stepping on this time if I decide (as usual) to be bold, and fix any wording, wikification lapses or missing things, and saw that whomever the username is they call themselves Lovers Electric, which makes me assume it's either the band or their publicist. I very much remember the headaches with Josh Klinghoffer's publicity people last time he was to embark on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't feel qualified to put the template that someone closely related to the band may be making edits for this page. Would you take a look? Also, I had a very nice email from a D.J. called "Redbeard" who has a global radio interview program called In the Studio with Redbeard. For some reason, after some chatting back and forth, he took a look at their page. I'm not sure what format it should take, and he wanted to update some now erroneous facts, but found he was blocked from "all but text at the bottom of the page". The next email revealed the entire recording studio's ISP was banned. I advised him to register, and to let people know he was the subject of the article, and promised I'd tell an Admin. here so they know he's just trying to keep it up to date and nothing promotional or whatnot. (He did a kickass interview with Pete Townshend about The Who's Tommy anniversary.. but that's beside the point.) Will it be OK for Redbeard to edit just to keep up to date if I keep an eye out for Peacock stuff? Will you handle the questionable Lovers Electric thing? Thanks.--Leahtwosaints (talk) 23:19, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Response to a response
Did you not edit Madeline Davis, changing some words from homosexual to gay? That's what my comment to you (now erased) was about.--Aichikawa (talk) 17:54, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * No I don't think so. Rich Farmbrough, 10:17, 24 January 2010 (UTC).

Moving pages
When you move page which have talk archives (as you did here), you should check for bot templates on the talk page and ensure they still work.--Oneiros (talk) 19:40, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Uh... well I see what happened. And I will look out for this. But really the syntax needs to be re-locatable, for there is no guarantee that a page with an archive template has any archives, for example. Rich Farmbrough, 10:14, 24 January 2010 (UTC).

Ping
Rich, I've emailed you. Tony  (talk)  05:11, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Pong. Answering. Rich Farmbrough, 16:27, 24 January 2010 (UTC).

User:Blocking administrator
Please register the account. :P (It's showing up at .) --MZMcBride (talk) 17:43, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Sadly it won't let me as it has the word "admin" in it. Rich Farmbrough, 10:12, 24 January 2010 (UTC).
 * If you went to [ Special:UserLogin] while logged in to your admin account, you'd have had some additional rights. For example, admins automatically override titleblacklist entries, and have the option to override spoofing checks. I had checked MediaWiki:Titleblacklist and found no entry, but I missed to check the global one, Title blacklist, so I just created it myself. Anyway, it's created. Amalthea  14:05, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
 * OK thanks. Rich Farmbrough, 16:20, 24 January 2010 (UTC).

Fix and substitution detection
I noticed you didn't answer detection of incorrect substitution to maintenance templates that use Fix like Dead link, Dubious, or Citation broken. Is that on purpose?
 * I haven't been on much so I haven;t really thought about the first point. but it should be easy enough to treat them the same as the Ambox tempaltes

BTW, since all maintenance templates use either DMCA or Fix, I wondered if it wouldn't be easier to build the detection into just these two templates? Or is that impossible?
 * The acttual tempaltes need to have the code in, so that it gets substed. There may be a slight eleganceavailabe.

What happened with Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template? Did the bureaucracy get to you?
 * Not as such. I took a big first run,once the problems were resolved and those are the first dealt with. Then the run staled a few times.

I also didn't do any wikignoming these past week-and-a-half because of that ArbCom case I'm involved with. It is really unsettling to be falsely accused, not to mention unappreciated. Debresser (talk)
 * Arbcom is a problem as well as a solution. Rich Farmbrough, 20:06, 24 January 2010 (UTC).

Surrey Marshe
Regarding this edit, what difference does it make which order the references are in? I'm just curious if there's some fine point of the guidelines that I've missed. Thanks, Dismas |(talk) 06:28, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
 * It's just numerical order. Rich Farmbrough, 06:34, 25 January 2010 (UTC).

SmackBot
Ne shume komente e diskutime te personave qe kane pasur pozicione te larta ne hierarkine shteterore,kan folur e flasin ende se Z.Sali Berisha kane qene e eshte nje agjent potencial i U.D.B se serbe. E vertete...?????? S'me besohet kurre. As qe mund te imagjinohet...!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.106.2.94 (talk) 19:56, 22 January 2010 (UTC)


 * in re 2007 South Asian floods: sorry, somehow must've missed something there. --G-41614 (talk) 10:23, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Sara Roy
Hello. I'm not sure why, but SmackBot keeps mucking up the formatting of Sara Roy. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 20:48, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost: 25 January 2010
<div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Read this Signpost in full &middot; Single-page &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; EdwardsBot (talk) 04:30, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Considering a few new categories
I am considering adding a few more dermatology-related categories. I have posted a thread at: Talk:List_of_cutaneous_conditions. Could I get your feedback regarding this issue? ---kilbad (talk) 01:53, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

New template
A template that we didn't have yet is Template:Examples. Debresser (talk) 21:30, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

AfD nomination of List of basic geography topics
An editor has nominated one or more articles which you have created or worked on, for deletion. The nominated article is List of basic geography topics. We appreciate your contributions, but the nominator doesn't believe that the article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion and has explained why in his/her nomination (see also Notability and "What Wikipedia is not").

Your opinions on whether the article meets inclusion criteria and what should be done with the article are welcome; please participate in the discussion(s) by adding your comments to Articles for deletion/List of basic geography topics. Please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ).

You may also edit the article during the discussion to improve it but should not remove the articles for deletion template from the top of the article; such removal will not end the deletion debate.

Please note: This is an automatic notification by a bot. I have nothing to do with this article or the deletion nomination, and can't do anything about it. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 01:05, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

what are you doing whith your user name on revision history kilcummin when you are making no comments. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.146.140 (talk) 14:48, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Deleting DAB pages?
Rich, under what circumstances, and by what method, are DAB pages deleted? The question is not academic, or a matter of curiosity, rather, I believe the Blue Valentine (disambiguation) page is in need of deletion. One link, as you can see is red, which may or may not have an article in the near future. Either way, a dablink at the top of each article would be sufficient. A DAB page with two links is unnecessary. I was simply planning on reverting the page move, but decided against it. I would like your advice here. Thanks. ---<font face="Georgia"> RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive' 16:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The user converted the article with its history into a dab - that's not on no matter what. And you are right, WP:2DAB means no disambig page is necessary. Once there is an article on the film, add a hat to Blue Valentine. –<b style="font-family:verdana; color:black;">xeno</b><sup style="color:black;">talk 16:07, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, keeping history stright is important. Obviously as 2DAB says the dab page these dabs are harmless, and like redirects should not be deleted if they just aren't useful - but that's not an issue hrere. Rich Farmbrough, 05:24, 29 January 2010 (UTC).

Problem with edit
I reported what I thought was an AWB bug on the appropriate page, and was told it was due to an edit of yours rather than AWB:

Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs

Best wishes, Pol098 (talk) 16:42, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, thanks, that is I hope complete, and I am aware now that longevity pages need avoiding. Rich Farmbrough, 19:37, 28 January 2010 (UTC).

Help Nominate me?
Hey can you help promote me to an Beaurucat? (OMGstrings (talk) 02:09, 29 January 2010 (UTC))

Hi Rich
Hi Rich. The last time I proposed a policy change, your comments were valuable. Thanks for that. If you find time, do drop in again at the village pump here to give your views on a new category of established users I've proposed. Thanks '' ▒ Wirεłεşş ▒ Fidεłitұ ▒ Ćłâşş ▒ Θnε ▒ <sub style="font-size: 60%">―Œ <sup style="margin-left:-3ex"> ♣Łεâvε Ξ мεşşâgε♣  13:37, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Template:City-region
What do you think about the template, and this proposal? Ohconfucius ¡digame! 05:28, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you
Richard, Thank you for helping with the Adriano Espaillat article.

69.203.119.66 (talk) 06:12, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

re AWB Unicode bug
Re your AWB Unicode bug it seems like a rare error, we can convert to spaces if found, or do nothing. Which do you think? Thanks Rjwilmsi  14:36, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Talkback
I left a reply to you at my talk page, to try to keep things in one place. I will copy to BON if you want, but presumably you came here specifically to talk it with me not at BON. All I say here is that I have no problem with SB or you, just a very specific problem. I am sorry it was stopped.

I have been away from WP for a while IRL so I am sorry if my delay in replying seems like ignorance. I will do everything I can to help you get genfixes sorted out, which I have no prioblem with SB doing. I know you and SB do great work here, and it is kinda minor this, a rather side issue, I didn't want and didn't ask for it to stop genfixes. I never stopped this bot at all during this debate, or asked for it to be. I will do everything I can to say so to admin or whatever who stopped it for that, I haven't read up why, but this specifically is NOT genfixes and it should have genfixes I think, which everyone knows and loves so well. So I defintely support you to get genfixes back. Si Trew (talk) 17:47, 30 January 2010 (UTC)