Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks

This page is for tasks that involve changing the same code in multiple articles. This is a great fit for editors with AutoWikiBrowser permissions.

Please note that Bot requests sometimes has one-time tasks which can be done easily using AWB. For modifying URLs see WP:URLREQ.

See also WikiProject Check Wikipedia.

WikiProject Weather
I'm requesting someone with AWB experience to run the editor on the entirety of Category:WikiProject Weather articles. There are countless (thousands?) of references that use with the |agency= parameter, which breaks the citation. |agency= needs to changed to |author=. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 03:20, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
 * It looks like many of these "agency" parameters are used with "cite report" template calls, and that "publisher" may be a better alternative parameter name than "author" in such cases, unless already used. The "agency" parameter is valid with other templates such as "cite news". —ADavidB 04:59, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, and in our circumstance, publisher is already used. Here is an example of the types of citations that are causing this issue. This is a report on an individual tornado. The data is collected by the local National Weather Service office (which we have historically/erroneously listed as the agency=). It is published, however, on the National Centers for Environmental Information website (which we have historically listed as the publisher=). We have struggled with the proper way to format these references. It would probably be simplest to just exchange agency= for author=. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 05:48, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Agreed, on further examination. My AWB usage remains somewhat basic and I encourage others to take on this task. —ADavidB 05:56, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I don't think awb request or a sledge hammerapproach is appropriate here at this time. Imstead i think it would be more appropiate to look at theae references properly, have a project discussion on how to cite them better or get the agency parameter added to cite report.06:30, 21 April 2024 (UTC) Jason Rees (talk) 06:30, 21 April 2024 (UTC)

I disagree with. I think this is a great usage of AWB, as it will correct the thousands of references in one quick action. ♫ Hurricanehink ( talk ) 21:19, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

I endorse the request here, though I would clarify the scope of what's requested. Specifically, there is widespread use of cite report misusing the parameter specifically for references linking to the Storm Events Database hosted by the National Centers for Environmental Information. In some cases, NCEI is erroneously listed as the agency. In other cases, a weather forecast office of the National Weather Service is erroneously listed as the agency. In either case, the agency parameter should be removed for all cite report in the aforementioned project category that point to https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/ and its subpages (as linked previously). If the was listed as a forecast office (something of the form National Weather Service Office in Memphis, Tennessee, though National Weather Service* may be a reasonable catch-all), then it should be listed as the. If necessary, should be amended/appended to the citation template. TheAustinMan (Talk ⬩ Edits) 15:04, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Bumping this discussion since we are still looking for someone to fulfill this request. There are thousands of broken references currently scattered across the WikiProject, so we would greatly appreciate swift assistance if anyone is available. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 06:18, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I was hesitant to take on another reference task, if you are still looking for someone in a day or two I can get to it. Geardona (talk to me?) 11:10, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Seeing as no-one else has taken this on, consider me . Geardona (talk to me?) 01:50, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I am struggling to fully understand the request, I have looked through the category randomly, and haven't found anything really sounding like what you are describing. Is it possible for one of you to manually make an example edit? Geardona (talk to me?) 00:43, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The vast majority of broken references will be on tornado list pages, but they're scattered all throughout the category. The May 2019 list (and all list pages like that) are a great example of the issue we're facing. In all of these references, the local NWS office is listed as the agency. Since that is the wrong parameter to be using/because agency= is deprecated in the cite report template, agency= needs to be changed to author= in all cases where a local NWS office is listed. Please refer to TheAustinMan's comment for how this applies more broadly. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 01:43, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * There are 325 pages using the cite report template with agency parameter that need fixing. I can do it, but since Geardona is up for the task, I'm leaving it to them. Geardona, could you please find instances of  in these pages and replace them with  . There may be more pages that use the cite report template with agency parameter. We can find and fix them once these 325 pages are fixed.Thank you. – DreamRimmer (talk) 13:06, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @Wxtrackercody, I made an example edit here. Could you please check it? – DreamRimmer (talk) 13:15, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * This is exactly what we are looking for. :) wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 19:56, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I read the documentation for the Storm Data website, which is published by NOAA. The documentation is here. Storm Data aggregate information from many sources, including first person, media, WFOs etc.. they then re-publish the aggregate results in Storm Data. As such, the author is technically Storm Data, but this is also the work, so there would be no author listed. Normally on Wikipedia we only list the author to help readers find and verify a citation. Since the citation is to Storm Data, that is all that is needed ie. Storm Data. Everything else is extraneous and not what the citation system was mean to do. It looks like trying to re-create sub-elements of the Storm Data database within the CS1|2 system. Another way to say this, it is citing two sources in a single citation: the Storm Data citation, and also citing the WFO and/or whatever other sources used by Storm Data. It's a sign of a problem. --  Green  C  20:33, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not an expert in referencing. I would just point out that the local NWS offices are responsible for submitting the NCEI entries. Whether the tornado was reported by someone out and about, evident on radar, or found in a damage survey after the fact, the local offices are singularly responsible for confirming the tornadoes and then finalizing them to send over to NCEI for Storm Data. I'm not sure if that changes your point here. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 21:42, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm having a hard time understanding the Storm Data report page because there is no apparent unique identifier (for the report). There is a code in the URL but that could be a website software code that could change. In these cases the URL itself is the key. But that is fragile, because they will in the future abandon this system and make a new one that may not have a 1:1 conversion eg. no redirects. So assuming the current Storm Data site is defunded or changed, they make a new system without redirects - a common scenario for government sites. How would you track down the report at the new site. Going by title only "Kentucky Even Report: EF1 Tornado" is not enough. The citation would probably need to contain the event date at least, to remain verifiable for the long term.
 * It could look like this:
 * Depending how many Storm Data links there are it might benefit from a custom template.-- Green  C  01:16, 3 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the response. For now, I'd like the agency= to author= request to be processed simply so we can remedy the thousands of broken references. After that, I will refer the project back to what you said so we can figure out a more suitable way to cite them moving forward. wxtrackercody (talk · contributions) 18:22, 3 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Seeing no objection to this much more limited scope, I will work on this tomorrow. Geardona (talk to me?) 03:16, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I see that Geardona has not edited for past two weeks, so I am doing it. – DreamRimmer (talk) 13:08, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Crap, sorry, I forgot about this. Really sorry y’all. Geardona (talk to me?) 21:29, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Is this not a case where it's easier to change the template to support the parameter, rather than remove it completely? Mdann52 (talk) 17:16, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Is this not a case where it's easier to change the template to support the parameter, rather than remove it completely? Mdann52 (talk) 17:16, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Tagging of many quality and importance categories that are improperly categorized
Please add the correct header to all pages in Category:WikiProject assessment categories needing attention that have properly formed names and whose only content is a manual inclusion to that category. Compare Category:FA-Class Andhra Pradesh articles, Category:Mid-importance Andhra Pradesh articles, and Category:FA-Class Andhra Pradesh articles of Mid-importance. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 23:39, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Mass CfD/S listing
Please tag the following 44 pages I've mass-listed at WP:CFDS: –LaundryPizza<b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 23:51, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Category:High-importance B-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:B-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance C-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:C-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance List-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:List-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:High-importance Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles of High-importance
 * Category:Low-importance B-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:B-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance C-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:C-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance List-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:List-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance Redirect-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Redirect-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Low-importance Unassessed amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Unassessed amphibian and reptile articles of Low-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance B-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:B-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance C-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:C-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FL-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance List-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:List-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:Mid-importance Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Mid-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Disambig-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Disambig-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Draft-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Draft-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance File-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:File-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance FM-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FM-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance NA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:NA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Portal-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Portal-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Project-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Project-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:NA-importance Template-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Template-Class amphibian and reptile articles of NA-importance
 * Category:Top-importance B-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:B-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Top-importance
 * Category:Top-importance C-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:C-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Top-importance
 * Category:Top-importance FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:FA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Top-importance
 * Category:Top-importance GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:GA-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Top-importance
 * Category:Top-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Top-importance
 * Category:Unknown-importance Disambig-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Disambig-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Unknown-importance
 * Category:Unknown-importance Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Start-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Unknown-importance
 * Category:Unknown-importance Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Stub-Class amphibian and reptile articles of Unknown-importance
 * Category:Unknown-importance Unassessed amphibian and reptile articles to Category:Unassessed amphibian and reptile articles of Unknown-importance
 * What is it you want them tagged with? There appear to be multiple criteria for requesting a rename, and you haven't specified one. VanIsaac, GHTVcont<sub style="margin-left:-3.5ex"> WpWS 01:10, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
 * They all use the same tag. –<b style="color:#77b">Laundry</b><b style="color:#fb0">Pizza</b><b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d  c̄ ) 20:03, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The rename rationale is already on CFDS per C2C. –<b style="color:#77b">Laundry</b><b style="color:#fb0">Pizza</b><b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 20:07, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
 * LaundryPizza03, you could use User:Qwerfjkl/scripts/massCFDS.<span id="Qwerfjkl:1719145286395:WikipediaFTTCLNAutoWikiBrowser/Tasks" class="FTTCmt"> — Qwerfjkl  talk  12:21, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
 * That would be a useful script, but I can't do that here because I needed to specify "NOBOTS". Implementation requires the closer to edit a template. –<b style="color:#77b">Laundry</b><b style="color:#fb0">Pizza</b><b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 20:06, 23 June 2024 (UTC)
 * LaundryPizza03, well, you could always just edit it afterwards.<span id="Qwerfjkl:1719174596321:WikipediaFTTCLNAutoWikiBrowser/Tasks" class="FTTCmt"> — Qwerfjkl  talk  20:29, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

use of "a oceanic" in some climate sections of articles
Recently I have noticed that many articles about places mistakenly use "a oceanic climate" instead of "an oceanic climate" when referring to an areas Köppen climate classification within their climate sections. I think this happens most frequently with french places, but that could just be since they are more like to have an oceanic climate. some examples of pages with this issue include Colombes, Saint-Maurice-aux-Forges, and Palaminy. When searching for the phrase "a oceanic" I get 240 or so results (however some of those might not be from the same issue). Gaismagorm (talk) 16:37, 26 June 2024 (UTC)


 * actually, withdrawn, I got this Gaismagorm (talk) 16:46, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

About 4,200 pages with WP:CIRCULAR issues
Hi, for those who may be interested, I've posted the list of pages at User:Dawnseeker2000/Sandbox 3. I've been using some borrowed scripts to help keep the list from growing too much, but it's been at the 4,200 level for the last couple of years. This is about articles that have references that refer to Wikipedia articles, and the first four here will remove those references and the fifth one removes the template, if present.

Dawnseeker2000 05:46, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I don't think this is a good place to post a task like this, since it's not exactly suited for "easy" removal, and some may treat it like it is just that simple. Ideally, the circular link is followed, and replaced with an actual ref after doing a bit of reading & confirming. Failing that, the circular refs should be replaced with citation needed instead, and not just removed (unless there are additional supporting refs).  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:16, 10 July 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I thought I would "test the waters" and see what transpired. I don't mind working through these occasionally (probably manually) and placing the citation needed template. Thanks Dawnseeker, for the list. Neils51 (talk) 12:44, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Might just be me, but a lot of times I see a "reference" which should have been a wikilink instead (e.g. ) and might actually have a reference further down the way. Primefac (talk) 19:54, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Mass null edits in a maintenance category
All of the member categories Category:Wikipedia non-empty soft redirected categories need to be purged or null-edited to update, as all but one are empty. –<b style="color:#77b">Laundry</b><b style="color:#fb0">Pizza</b><b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 00:54, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I ran a null edit script over the lot of them, should all be updated. Mdann52 (talk) 04:58, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
 * What script, if it was different from AWB/JWB? –<b style="color:#77b">Laundry</b><b style="color:#fb0">Pizza</b><b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 05:39, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Just a quick PWB script I used. AWB won't neatly do null edits in bot mode so needs spamming the save button in my experience, PWB makes null editing simple. Mdann52 (talk) 19:37, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Eh, if I need a bunch of null edits, I'll go manual on my own AWB account; no point in accidentally having a bot edit if for some reason it decides to actually save a change. Primefac (talk) 20:09, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
 * For null editing a category, I find User:Ahecht/Scripts/refresh usually does the trick.<span id="Qwerfjkl:1720818548031:WikipediaFTTCLNAutoWikiBrowser/Tasks" class="FTTCmt"> — Qwerfjkl  talk  21:09, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Around 230 misattributed author name parameters to remove
Hi! Can someone with AWB permissions have a quick go through the articles returned by a search for insource:"last Company first Rand McNally"?These citations appear mostly to support claims of 1925 populations in United States populated places, from Rand McNally's 1925 Premier Atlas of the World etc. The citations do already correctly contain Rand McNally & Company, and the source provides no other attribution, so the bogus Company and Rand McNally and parameters can simply be removed.Thanks in advance, Folly Mox (talk) 13:29, 14 July 2024 (UTC)


 * @Folly Mox, seems reasonable. I'm it. – <b style="color:black; font-family: Tahoma">DreamRimmer</b> (talk) 14:16, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
 * @Folly Mox, I can see the author parameter when I export this citation, and it also lists Rand McNally and Company as a contributor, so should this really be removed? – <b style="color:black; font-family: Tahoma">DreamRimmer</b> (talk) 14:42, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Attributing authorship to the entire company isn't an unreasonable proposition, although it does feel duplicative to the publisher field. If we wanted to retain corporate authorship attribution, then the substitution would be INS undefined.This is something of an editorial choice: I do see people citing sources where the publisher and corporate author are identical. As mentioned, it feels duplicative to me, but it's not an invalid approach. Having said that, google books is not a particularly accurate arbiter of what kind of attribution is necessary for Wikipedia (for example, their edited volumes never attribute chapter authorship in metadata, their periodicals don't have volume and issue information in metadata, etc).In any regard, thanks for any fix you do perform. This is a lot of articles to go through by hand. Folly Mox (talk) 14:53, 14 July 2024 (UTC)
 * @Folly Mox ✅ – <b style="color:black; font-family: Tahoma">DreamRimmer</b> (talk) 09:23, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you! 🙏🏽 Folly Mox (talk) 00:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
 * In the event that this sort of request turns up again, H:CS1 says at :
 * When using author avoid citations like, unless the article is on a field in which the majority of professional journals covering that field use such a citation style.
 * I think that H:CS1 can be interpreted to cover cases where  or Rand McNally & Company unnecessarily duplicate Rand McNally & Company.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:57, 18 July 2024 (UTC)