User talk:Shubinator/Archive 56

DYKbot down
Hi there Shubs. Just letting you know that the bot failed to fire again. Cheers, Gatoclass (talk) 01:12, 22 January 2020 (UTC)
 * DYKUpdateBot didn't do its thing at at 00:00 UTC, but DYKHousekeepingBot was still up at that point, since it ran at 00:08 UTC. So it looks like we only need the main bot to be awakened from its beauty sleep, and hopefully before 12:00, when it next needs to run. Thanks! BlueMoonset (talk) 01:23, 22 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Woke up DYKUpdateBot, it's back in action :) Thanks both for letting me know! Shubinator (talk) 10:07, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Both bots are down this time. DYKUpdateBot's last edits was at 12:03 UTC, DYKHousekeepingBot at 13:34 UTC. As best I can tell, DYKHousekeepingBot should have fired again at 14:34 (a nom was approved at 14:06), but didn't, and hasn't since. Thanks for getting them going again! BlueMoonset (talk) 01:29, 27 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Both bots back online, thanks for letting me know! Shubinator (talk) 17:20, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

February untranscluded DYK nominations list
Shubinator, when you get the chance, it would be great to have a new list of untranscluded nominations. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 00:19, 6 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Sure! Untranscluded noms:
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Shift-and-persist model
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Murder of Susan Smith
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Ffestiniog Railway Milk Bottle Sleepers
 * Template:Did you know nominations/1997 Ardabil earthquake
 * Template:Did you know nominations/React (The Pussycat Dolls song)
 * Shubinator (talk) 03:09, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

DYKupdate bot corrupted MiszaBot archive config
In this edit on Talk:Stephenie Meyer, DYKUpdateBot inexplicably corrupted wiki markup for MiszaBot's archive config by inserting content in the middle of a template. Please debug. Elizium23 (talk) 04:30, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Oh, there's an explanation: there was an extra template close right before it, which probably messed up the bot's internal counter, since an extra pair of closing braces aren't supposed to be there. But software should guard against editor error when it happens, so I'd imagine Shubinator will be adding extra checking to prevent this from happening again. BlueMoonset (talk) 18:03, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Both bots down
DYKUpdateBot failed to run at 00:00 UTC, and DYKHousekeepingBot had failed a few hours before. Please start them again as soon as you can. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 00:31, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Just a note that a manual update has been done for tonight, so there's no chance of a collision between a manual updater and the bot once you get it started again. Hope all is well with you. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:19, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I've started up both bots again, thanks for letting me know! Shubinator (talk) 07:18, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Count of DYK Hooks page error
Shubinator, I have a vague memory of this happening back in 2016: when DYKHousekeepingBot creates the Count page, it thinks February 29 is a bad date, so it gives it the pink background reserved for dates outside the "current" dates, even though it is current.

What I can't remember is whether the date will stay pink while it remains current until it isn't current any more, or if it will get the proper white background once March 1 is posted. In any event, is this something you have time to address in the bot code, or should it be dropped until next leap year? I'll leave it to you. BlueMoonset (talk) 06:38, 29 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Good memory! Looks like this bug resolves itself once March 1st is posted :) I dug into this a bit, and after a while of poking around I can't repro the bug on my computer. Maybe the bug is specific to *nix operating systems? Without a solid repro it's tough to figure out what's causing the issue, so it'll remain an open bug for now. Shubinator (talk) 04:20, 1 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Yup, it's a one-day bug. Not sure you want to wait four years for it to reproduce again and have to be around that day... Maybe we could call it a feature: it highlights leap day while it's in progress, but then stops when the new month starts. Heh. BlueMoonset (talk) 06:21, 1 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Shubinator, it looks like the bug also extends to putting February 29 back under the pink background. It stayed white an extra day, and only this evening turned pink along with March 1. (The night before, when March 8 appeared first appeared, February 29 remained white.) So whatever's causing it, it's because February 29 is not understood by the bot. Maybe the code or subroutine can't handle leap years though it thinks it should? February is always thought to have 28 days regardless? BlueMoonset (talk) 05:28, 9 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Good news, I figured out the bug and a fix! The date/time parsing API assumed the year 1970 if a year wasn't provided, and 1970 wasn't a leap year, which confused the bot. Explicitly adding the current year to the string before parsing fixes the issue :) Bot updated with the fix, we'll see if I remember to double-check the fix worked in four years... Shubinator (talk) 16:58, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

March untranscluded DYK nominations list
Shubinator, as hard it is to believe, it's been over five weeks since the last time you created a list for me. When you get the chance, it would be great to have a new list. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 17:08, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Sure, here you go! Untranscluded noms:
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Station Squabble
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Kuvandyk corridor
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Jennifer Li (Neuroscientist)
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Douglas McGregor
 * Shubinator (talk) 17:07, 14 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I've started work on them, and hope to have all four cleared shortly. (One is already up for speedy deletion, and I expect another to follow in 24 hours.) BlueMoonset (talk) 06:36, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

DTKUpdateBot down – April 1, 2020
DTKUpdateBot down - did not update the April 1 batch. — Maile (talk) 00:07, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Shubinator, while DYKUpdateBot is down, playing an ill-timed April Fools' Day joke, DYKHousekeepingBot was less playful and ran at 00:13, so it's just the main bot that's having problems. A manual update was done of the main page at 00:15, so we're set for today; I'm hoping you'll stop by before too long and get DYKUpdateBot running again. Many thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:02, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
 * DYKUpdateBot remains down; the manual update was done for April 2, and I'm hoping you stop by soon to get that bot running! Hope all is well with you. BlueMoonset (talk) 03:12, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Back up and running :) with more details at WT:DYK. Thanks for letting me know! Shubinator (talk) 03:19, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Anomaly
The bot failed to notify a user about an untranscluded nomination from March 26: Template:Did you know nominations/St Augustine's Church, Wrangthorn. (It was transcluded today, after I notified the nominator.) It was nominated at the same moment as the bot was issuing a notification to another user; could that have confused the bot? M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:10, 4 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Looks like the nominator's talk page has a bots template suppressing bot messages which is why DYKHousekeepingBot didn't post to their talk page. Hope you're doing well! Shubinator (talk) 01:36, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * D'oh! I'm embarrassed that I missed such a simple answer. Sorry to have bothered you. I'm fine, and I hope you are too.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:34, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * No worries :) Shubinator (talk) 02:44, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

DYK check script hanging
Hello! I'm trying to run the DYKcheck script on Qibla, but it seems to be hanging midway without giving the result. Do you know what's wrong with it? HaEr48 (talk) 02:50, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Looks like the mathvariant stuff in the HTML was throwing off the script, that's the stuff showing up as Φ, Δ, and ∠ in the article. I've fixed the script with Special:Diff/950077769, try again :) Might need to bypass your browser cache to pull down the fix. Shubinator (talk) 03:34, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you, it works :) HaEr48 (talk) 11:58, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

DyK notices and DYKUpdateBot
So, I have [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Evrik#Did_you_know? 29 DyKs], but looking at DyK notices shows only 14. Is there a way to maunally update the report? --evrik (talk) 03:48, 11 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Hm I don't know much about that website, looks like it was created by Betacommand aka User:Δ. Try reaching out to them, that said, the user was banned a while ago and isn't active. Shubinator (talk) 15:41, 11 April 2020 (UTC)
 * The tool is actually based on a suggestion I made in January 2012. It checks DYKUpdateBot's edits to your talk page, so any DYK notices you received which were not placed by the bot are not counted, including any before the bot began taking care of it in February 2010 or other times when the bot was down. (Another possible issue would be if you archive your talk page with the deprecated "move" method.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:17, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

How will adding a Queue 7 and a Prep 7 affect the bot?
Shubinator, there's talk at WT:DYK about adding a new queue and a new prep, so we'd have seven of each in total.

My obvious concern is how DYKUpdateBot handles updating the queues. If it calls something like Did you know/Queue/LocalUpdateTimes/QueueCalculator to figure out which queue is next in line after the one just promoted, then if that template is modified ("mod 6" becomes "mod 7"), your bot keeps chugging along and makes the correct update. If the bot has its own code for making this determination, we'll need to time things with you (assuming we go ahead) so that an updated bot can be rolled out at the same time as the new Queue 7 and Prep 7 pages go live.

The last time we had a change, it was adding Prep 5 and Prep 6—we'd previously only had four preps along with the six queues—and I was the one who created the pages and updated (almost all of) the templates, but it didn't affect either of your bots. This time it would, so I want to be sure you're in the know right away, and can let us know what coordination will be necessary.

Thank you very much! BlueMoonset (talk) 02:30, 15 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads up! Another prep area wouldn't affect the bots, as you guessed, another queue does. It's a straightforward change in DYKUpdateBot's code. The main place it's used is to reset the next queue # from 6 to 1, so best if we could pull off the change when queue 1 is next up. Shubinator (talk) 03:20, 15 April 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm very glad I asked! But wouldn't it better to do the change at a different time entirely, when the bot is changing from 2 to 3 or 4 to 5 or something like that? That would give us a window of a couple of days to restart the bot when it doesn't matter, and then the bot is ready when queue 6 comes around and it's time to go to queue 7, and then from queue 7 to queue 1. (If something goes wrong, we can get an admin to manually change the next queue number to 7 if it skips to 1.) Or is there something I'm missing here? (It wouldn't be the first time!)
 * Also, we'll need to mesh with your schedule. If this takes fire, we may want to add the new prep and queue on Sunday, after we cycle through at least to queue 1 (which has special occasion hooks in it). Would that be too soon? We're also thinking about going to two sets a day, which would mean we'd be at queue 6 again as early as Tuesday noon. If this is too soon for you, we can hold off until you can be ready. Please let me know how things look for you. BlueMoonset (talk) 03:48, 15 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Yeah as long as we're at least a day or two away from the next queue reset to 1, that should give us a big enough window. Sunday works for me! Shubinator (talk) 04:26, 15 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Shubinator, the proposal to go to seven queues and preps seems to have foundered on a lack of sufficient interest from prep builders and queue promoters alike, so please put this off to the side. If we run into too many times that queues and/or preps are filled and people want to work, it may resurface. So it's Sunday, but I have no work for you to do. I'll keep you informed. In the meantime, the switch from one set per day to two sets per day has just been made. And, to change the subject, how about a new list of untranscluded DYK nominations when you next get the chance. It would be much appreciated. Thanks, and I hope all is well with you. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:32, 19 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. And sure!

Untranscluded noms: Shubinator (talk) 16:22, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Battlefield Archaeology
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Zvika Frank
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Kirby (series)
 * Thank you very much! It was a smaller list than I expected. All three have been closed, as they also weren't eligible (no edits at all or the tiniest of expansions), so I've struck them. BlueMoonset (talk) 13:43, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

DYK check odd results
I ran the tool on Estuaries of Texas, which was created March 20, 2020. It achieved GA status on April 14, 2020. DYK Check says this about the GA: "Article was promoted to Good Article status on December 31, 1969". The tool must have done one of those Star Trek maneuvers, with a backwards slingshot around the sun. — Maile (talk) 02:05, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I just checked the article and DYKcheck is telling me April 14, 2020, like it ought. It sounds like Maile was the victim of one of those Unix time errors where the execution lost the time information, supplied the default of "0" (January 1, 1970), and then went backward a day from there somehow. Odd, though amusing... BlueMoonset (talk) 19:08, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Haha, yeah, one of the funnier bugs we've seen in a while. Weirdly enough it looks like a Google Chrome bug! Just punching in  into the Google Chrome JavaScript console yields a JavaScript Date object with April 1st. Almost like Google's pulling an April Fools prank on us. Anyways, leveraging the Date string constructor avoids the bug, so I've switched DYKcheck over to that codepath with Special:Diff/951444118, Maile take it for a spin :) And BlueMoonset, if you could check it still works for you, that would convince me we haven't traded one bug for another. Shubinator (talk) 05:55, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm happy to report that I'm still getting April 14, 2020. So no issues on my end. BlueMoonset (talk) 21:03, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Nice! Shubinator (talk) 06:29, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

DYKUpdateBot
Hi! Got a pretty good one for you today. Apparently salted user talk pages crash the bot and prevent it adding UpdatedDYK to any of the remaining user talk pages, according to the Toolforge logs. Enterprisey (talk!) 04:18, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Good to know, thank you! Where are the toolforge logs? Shubinator (talk) 06:30, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I found the DYKUpdateBot ones on the tools.wmflabs.org server at /data/project/dykbot/Bots/UpdateBotOutput.txt. Enterprisey (talk!) 08:20, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Ah yeah that's the normal bot output logs :) Shubinator (talk) 16:20, 19 April 2020 (UTC)

Placement of
Hey Shubinator. I have noticed that DYKUpdateBot, when placing, always puts it after any WikiProject banners and other notices. WP:TALKORDER suggests that article history templates come above these (see points 8 and 9). Although that is not a policy or guideline, it does represent an established best practice, and so I would submit that the automated bot handling the DYK process should fall in line with this, if technically possible. Would you agree and is a change to the bot, in your opinion, needed?  Rcsprinter123    (reason)  20:58, 4 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah consistent placement would be great. At a technical angle, the code for placing the template correctly relative to the other templates would be quite ugly and buggy, and could result in much worse placement. The current code is essentially "after the last template before the first section" which is much simpler. Shubinator (talk) 01:30, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

DYKUpdateBot blocked
Проводник — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.20.202.123 (talk) 06:22, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Adding a Queue 7 and a Prep 7 is likely in the fairly near future
Shubinator, I wanted to give you a heads up that there are a trio of proposals currently under consideration on the DYK talk page, and one is the one we discussed a while ago, WT:DYK. It appears that it will pass, and whenever the discussions are closed (they will have been open seven days on Wednesday), it seems likely that people will want to move quickly. I'll be sure to point out again that we need to coordinate with you, since DYKUpdateBot needs to be revised to handle the switch from the next queue being Queue 7 from Queue 6, and then from Queue 7 to Queue 1, and we don't want to add the 7s to our rotation before you're ready to do so with yours.

Thinking ahead, how much lead time do you need to revise the code and deploy it, and will you be around the second half of this week into the weekend and possibly the following week? I'd like to coordinate this so it's convenient for you and for everyone else, yet at the same time I can't predict when the discussions will close. Thanks again for your assistance and your patience. BlueMoonset (talk) 22:58, 18 May 2020 (UTC)


 * ~One day lead time should be enough :) And yeah, I'll be around later in the week and into the weekend. Shubinator (talk) 02:49, 19 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Well, the weekend is ending and still no action. Will you be around this week and weekend? And, as long as I'm asking questions, do you think you might be able to run a new version of the untranscluded noms list for me? It's been over a month. Thanks for everything! BlueMoonset (talk) 17:18, 25 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I'll be around :) And sure! Untranscluded noms:
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Acid rain: Soil Acidification
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Archaeobiology
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Physiological Properties of Gingerols
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Watermelon steak
 * Template:Did you know nominations/John Warren Davis (college president)
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Davido
 * Happy Memorial Day! Shubinator (talk) 23:55, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Please help on the nomination
Hello, thank you first of all for letting me know of the incomplete nomination for DYK. I have performed the steps as suggested by you. I would be highly grateful if you can see if I have done it right this time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Did_you_know_nominations/We_Are_One_(global_collaboration_song) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aanuarif (talk • contribs) 11:18, 31 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Almost, Aanuarif. It's supposed to go under the date when the article was created or expansion began. I moved it to the correct date. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:25, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for the response and your help! Highly grateful 😊 Aanuarif (talk) 23:10, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

Prep 7 is now live; Queue 7 needs to wait
Shubinator, I'm happy to report that Prep 7 has just gone live—the proposals at WT:DYK were closed a few hours ago, and this one was given the green light to proceed.

Right now, Queue 5 is the next one to be promoted, and will go at midnight UTC June 5. Queue 6 will follow at noon UTC on June 5. We don't want any changes until after both of these have been promoted, because we want the reset to be from Queue 6 to Queue 1. Am I correct in assuming that once Template:Did you know/Queue/Next is reset back to 1 (which happens at the end of the DYKUpdateBot run promoting Queue 6), we'll then be ready to make all the necessary changes to add Queue 7 into the mix?

As far as I know, that involves you updating DYKUpdateBot so it goes from Queue 6 to Queue 7 to Queue 1 rather than from Queue 6 to Queue 1. I believe there is also a change that will need to be made at the same time to User:DYKUpdateBot/REMOVE THIS LINE—the switch statement at the end currently has six queues and will need to add a seventh. (Will it cause a problem to be in Queue 7 when the switch statement doesn't offer that queue? Or does it have something to do with the bot's operation, and changing it before the Friday noon update will cause problems?)

So, in summary, changing DYKUpdateBot itself before the June 5 noon run will be a problem; you'll know when the /REMOVE THIS LINE code can be safely updated.

Thank you very much, and I hope this isn't too inconvenient for you. It'll be great to get this done! BlueMoonset (talk) 19:17, 4 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Sounds good! Yes, we want to make the change after the reset to queue 1. I'll try to make the change to DYKUpdateBot ~this time tomorrow!


 * As for non-bot-related things, at a glance:
 * Template:Did you know/Queue/LocalUpdateTimes/QueueCalculator: "mod 6" should be changed to "mod 7"
 * Template:Did you know/Queue/LocalUpdateTimes: 7th row should be added
 * Template:DYKqueuenav: add queue 7
 * User:DYKUpdateBot/REMOVE THIS LINE: add Queue 7 to the switch statement - this is relatively minor, not doing this won't break anything, looks like it's just adding the lock icon the upper right
 * Shubinator (talk) 02:53, 5 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Shubinator, thanks for double-checking those: I'd fortunately had those all on my list, along with the Queue page itself, but didn't have everything: it turned out that I needed to create a T:DYK/Q7 redirect to be used by Template:Did you know/Queue/LocalUpdateTimes so that the table could find Queue 7 (it uses these indirect links for the queue column in the table). It's always something. (And we may discover other changes in the days and weeks ahead; there must be something in the documentation somewhere.)
 * I've made all the changes you listed above, plus the others—we're live with Queue 7. That means we're ready for you to make the requisite change to DYKUpdateBot at your next opportunity. Thanks again! BlueMoonset (talk) 14:23, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Updated DYKUpdateBot for 7 queues, Special:Diff/960994449. The next time we update past queue 6, the bot should increment to 7. Shubinator (talk) 02:12, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:03, 6 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Weird to think it's been a decade, time flies! Shubinator (talk) 19:44, 6 June 2020 (UTC)