User talk:Shubinator/Archive 24

You forgot to give me credit for 1877 U. S. Patent Office fire
DYKUpdateBot (talk | contribs)‎ (Article appeared on DYK on 3 January 2012, adding dyktalk) You gave it to my two co-contributors, but apparently I've been overlooked. Please help. 7&amp;6=thirteen (☎) 16:22, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
 * As the bot claimed The username '7&amp;#38;6&amp;#61;thirteen' is invalid, I've issued the credit. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:08, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Don't bother making the template happy, at the end of the day it's the bot that should read the username and article title correctly. Currently the bot doesn't attempt to "unescape" any HTML encoding found in the username (so if you escape characters in the username, the bot won't parse correctly). Shubinator (talk) 00:57, 9 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I tweaked the bot credit parsing code a few hours ago, and as a result the bot is more in line with how the template will parse its own parameters. So now you (or whoever cleans up the template) have a few options (see the wikitext for the first): 1), 2)  , or 3)  . In general, if the template is happy, the bot will be happy. What worked before:   will no longer work. Shubinator (talk) 14:00, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Wow, you've been busy here since your return from your travels. Thanks for all of your hard work. It's great to now have something which works on the queue pages and for the bot. The escaping is done by NewDYKnomination, so unless someone figures out how to do this automatically, it'll have to be taken care of manually, which is fine since it's not a frequent problem. I'll add it to my regular DYK gnome routine. Note, however, that option 1, in which the "=" is replaced with "&amp;#61;", does not fully work; click on "give":
 * M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:15, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * No problem :) Glancing at the NewDYKnomination code, it doesn't look like the template does anything special with substitution, which means it's the subst itself that's doing it. Huh, it looks like the URL is escaping the escaped HTML on option 1, which leads to gibberish (since the other end only unescapes once)...yeah, best to go with option 2 or 3. Shubinator (talk) 20:36, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * No problem :) Glancing at the NewDYKnomination code, it doesn't look like the template does anything special with substitution, which means it's the subst itself that's doing it. Huh, it looks like the URL is escaping the escaped HTML on option 1, which leads to gibberish (since the other end only unescapes once)...yeah, best to go with option 2 or 3. Shubinator (talk) 20:36, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Your input is needed on the SOPA initiative
Hi Shubinator,

You are receiving this message either because you expressed an opinion about the proposed SOPA blackout before full blackout and soft blackout were adequately differentiated, or because you expressed general support without specifying a preference. Please ensure that your voice is heard by clarifying your position accordingly.

Thank you.

Message delivered as per request on ANI. -- The  Helpful  Bot  16:42, 14 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Done. Shubinator (talk) 23:39, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Please design/implement some solution for the DYK bot to stop updating during the SOPA blackout (5:00 UTC 18 Jan - 5:00 UTC 19 Jan) and recover after that. We can surely do something to the queue, so that the bot will not update it for technical reasons (rmv --hooks-- line,　etc.), but I don't know other technical details which may actually logout the bot during the blackout. Materialscientist (talk) 04:19, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Replied on WT:DYK. No need to panic, I'll take care of it :) Shubinator (talk) 06:06, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I am rather curious about the technical details of the blackout (i.e. what other bot-wise damage to expect after it's over). Haven't see anything yet (though haven't looked much either :-). Materialscientist (talk) 06:11, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The only postings I've seen is this. I'll go post on the Bot owners' noticeboard... Shubinator (talk) 06:15, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

DYK talk date parameter
I've edited DYK talk such that the whole date can be entered as one parameter so we can write e.g.

instead of

(of course,

would also work). J IM ptalk·cont 23:45, 19 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Interesting. Are you suggesting the bot should use the single-parameter date format? Shubinator (talk) 01:28, 20 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, it seems simpler (of course, it is only a pipe vs a space but ...). J IM ptalk·cont 16:45, 20 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I'll leave the bot as-is for now. There's nearly no benefit to changing how the bot does things, plus the old templates (that have already been placed) aren't going to be switched to this format. Shubinator (talk) 20:43, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

00:00 20 January 2012 (UTC) update
FYI, DYKUpdateBot did not perform the 00:00 20 January 2012 (UTC) update and provided nothing at User:DYKUpdateBot/Errors indicating a problem preventing the update. I known that there were some database problems around 16:00 or 17:00 on the 19th that affected both the English and French Wikipedias, so connectivity issues may have confused it. Based upon past performance the bot's normal recovery code should have it back by the 08:00 update. If you get a chance, please check the bot to insure no other issues. --Allen3 talk 00:42, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Looks like willow (the Toolserver server that hosts both bots) was rebooted, since the two bot processes aren't running and there's nothing in the logs that would suggest the bot ran into something unusual. I've started up both bots again. Thanks for the notice! Shubinator (talk) 01:27, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Unusual activity by DYKHousekeepingBot
FYI,

Not sure what it means but during its 15:30 3 February 2012 update DYKHousekeepingBot essentially blanked the contents of Did you know/DYK hook count. Time for two subsequent updates has passed and the bot has not self corrected, so this does not appear to be a transient communications issue. When you get a chance please take a look to see if this is an issue on the toolserver or if some type of formatting error has been inserted at Template talk:Did you know, or one if its transcluded subpages, that is causing this unusual behavior. --Allen3 talk 16:41, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The bot is producing the correct output on my machine. If it doesn't update at 17:30 UTC I'll restart the bot on Toolserver. Shubinator (talk) 17:29, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
 * That worked. I'm puzzled as to what caused the issue, especially since I couldn't see it in action... Shubinator (talk) 17:32, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Edits to America in the King Years
Hi - Could you stop back over at the talk page for this article? I don't understand the rationale for at least one of your edits. KConWiki (talk) 20:33, 4 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Replied there. Shubinator (talk) 02:46, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

White Horse Pagoda, Dunhuang
Thank you so much for pointing out that my self-nomination of this article was incomplete. I have tried to follow the guidelines properly and hope they are now complete. Sincerely, John Hill (talk) 22:22, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * No problem :) The nomination looks fairly complete; a reviewer should stop by within the next week or two. Shubinator (talk) 03:26, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview
Dear Shubinator,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community HERE, were it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:
 * Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
 * Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
 * All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
 * All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
 * The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 05:50, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

DYKUpdateBot
was posting odd errors, perhaps due to server problems, and failed to update around 8am UTC on 12 February. Materialscientist (talk) 08:50, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yep, looks like connectivity issues, but worse than usual. DYKUpdateBot auto-recovered and I've restarted DYKHousekeepingBot. Thanks! Shubinator (talk) 15:30, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Same problem around 8am UTC on 14 February. I notice the servers are not doing well these days, especially around this time and a few hours later. Materialscientist (talk) 08:46, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * This time it looks like the servers themselves were rebooted. Odd. Anyways, I've (re)started both bots. Shubinator (talk) 14:42, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I saw in my watchlist that Orlady has updated manually, i.e., the bot missed the update around 16:00 17 Feb. Materialscientist (talk) 23:31, 17 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Toolserver was going through hardware maintenance, so they probably rebooted willow again. Both bots back online. Shubinator (talk) 07:31, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The bot did not complete the update of 8am UTC on 3 March. I known the recent wikimedia update crippled (not completely crashed) some scripts and templates. Please check what you can. Materialscientist (talk) 08:50, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Happy Valentine's Day!
Wilhelmina Will (talk) 10:39, 14 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Scrumptious! Shubinator (talk) 14:42, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview
Dear Shubinator,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community HERE, where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:
 * Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
 * Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
 * All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
 * All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
 * The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 07:26, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Young June Sah --Yjune.sah (talk) 20:34, 15 February 2012 (UTC)