VFD Bot's gotten confused by Daylight Savings Time; it's updating things an hour ahead of schedule. —Korath (Talk) 23:44, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

Not sure if this has to do with DST, but VFD Bot jumped the gun adding April 5th's links at only 08:00 of April 4th UTC. —Markaci 2005-04-4 T 08:46 Z

One last wrinkle - Instead of creating the new day's subpage at 23:00 UTC, it's adding a second "this day is over" comment to the previous day's subpage. [1]. —Korath (Talk) 04:22, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Moved to User:Kurando-san/FPC -- AllyUnion (talk) 09:09, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Never mind, I can do images manually. Could you put them all on the left, so I'll only need to change half of them? Mgm|^(talk) 12:20, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

About a month ago, you closed Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Israel Israelsson Näslund III as delete, but neither deleted the article nor marked it {{pending deletion}}. Could you clarify its status? —Korath (Talk) 00:47, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)

What does "header enforcement" mean? PaulHammond 20:43, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the speedy answer to my question. PaulHammond 12:02, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

Hi there! I'm sure the templates in question are harmless, but I believe there are more generic templates that would do the job. Templates for "Leap year starting on tuesday" or "30-day month starting on friday" (with parametrization for which month and year it is) have the advantage of being reusable for each and every year in the Gregorian calendar, obviating the need for hundreds of templates for each individual month and year therein. IMHO, of course, and I'd be happy to discuss it. Radiant_* 09:17, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

• Okay, a quadruple nested template is very wrong. However, wouldn't it be easy to make {{YearStartingMonday|1950}} and {{MonthStartingTuesday|1988|august}} or something like that? Neither requires nesting. Usage is simple once you know how, and could easily be explained on the talk page. Radiant_* 09:58, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
  • If you feel that the template is likely to be vandalized, the obvious solution is to protect it, that's what protect is for. Note that having a (small group of) generic templates would allow for easier changes to the lot of them if such is ever found useful by WikiLayout. I know that space on WikiPedia isn't really an issue, but organization of information is important. And that includes centralizing partial redundancies. Radiant_* 09:58, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

I would be happy to look at your bot code. But some caveats, I don't use the pywikipediabot framework, I don't even know much about it. Also, I haven't programmed in PERL in a LONG time. I have written my own framework in C# and all of my bots use that.

If you could be a bit more specific about your problem, is it just not posting the data back to the server after retrieving it? Which of these three steps (or all of them) are causing you trouble?

1. Leave three blocks of "...that" on Template talk:Did you know
2. Move all other blocks of "...that" to Wikipedia:Recent additions
3. Move oldest blocks on Wikipedia:Recent additions to an archive page if Wikipedia:Recent additions exceeds 50 "...that" lines.

Kevin Rector 14:43, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

I looked over your code, and I'm sorry, I don't think I'm going to be able to help you. I just don't know enough about Perl. I could write a bot to do the work faster than I could fix your bot code. Again, I'm sorry. Kevin Rector (talk) 21:24, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

I'm glad to hear that you got it working. It's like that so often eh, step back for a while and it all comes crystal clear. Usually at work when I'm having trouble getting something to work I'll go outside and walk once around my building, when I get back I can usually fix the problem within a minute or two.

Also, if you would comment the code, I would be interested in looking over it. Kevin Rector (talk) 13:48, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

In November 2003, there was a VfD debate over Sunset High School (Portland). The debate was archived under Talk:Sunset High School (Portland). What to do with the article is still being contested and has been recently re-nominated for VfD at Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Sunset High School (Portland).

I am writing to you because you have participated in such debates before. There still does not exist a wikipedia policy (as far as i can tell) over what to do in regards to articles about specific U.S. public school. My hope is that a real consensus can come out of the debate, and a real policy can take shape. Take part if you are so willing. Kingturtle 02:18, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Can you add the Wikipedia:Introduction page to Sandbot's list of enforced headers every 30 min - the first 2 lines should be preserved - what is under them doesn't really matter. Thx in adv Trödel|talk 22:32, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Saw that you were testing - thanks for the quick response - hope your mvoe goes well Trödel|talk 15:38, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Because of your work with the Chicago article I'd like you to take a look at it if you have the time & desire. It is currently up for Peer Review (see Chicago Talk) and I would enjoy hearing your feedback to help us all guide the growth of this article. Jasenlee 01:19, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

I did a quick pass and it looks like the bot edits are okay, but I'll have to have a closer look to be sure. I did comment out a possible copyvio, which was included in the archiving. Can comment tags affect the process? Mgm|^(talk) 17:53, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

• How come there's items on Recent additions that haven't been removed from the list on the talk page? Wouldn't they be included again with the next use of the bot? I think running the bot once a month is enough for now. Mgm|^(talk) 19:53, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

do this? Just curious :) -Frazzydee|✍ 22:52, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah. The unfortunate side effect of processing a page. The time that it takes for Sandbot to get a page and process it has a lag time of about a minute or so. Therefore, when it attempts to re-enforce the existing header, the page in its cache is stale. I'm thinking a way to revert that. -- AllyUnion (talk) 23:05, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for your response. I don't know too much about bots, but why would it take a minute? It seems like a pretty unintensive job to me. -Frazzydee|✍ 23:10, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah... I found the problem... The lag time is due to the fact that it gets two pages in a row. I moved it, so that it will attempt to process and post immediately. Hopefully, the bot won't run into that problem again. -- AllyUnion (talk) 23:12, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ey oop AllyUnion lad - you wrote:

The substub has been protected for the purpose against vandalism, since many pages use this stub, it should not be changed frequently anyway.'

In line with suggestions at WP:WSS, I was going to reduce the size of the text on the template by using the "small" function . It's a minor change, but it would affect a template that's currently on about 4100 articles... what do you think? Have a look at {{India-geo-stub}} to see how it might look. Grutness|^hello? 08:06, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi there! On Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Restructuring, the suggestion was made to split CfD into one page per day, and transclude these into the main page (just like is done on VfD, except that VfD goes one step further and also uses sub-pages for each individual nomination). This suggestion seems to have met consensus. Since (iirc) you wrote the VfD-bot, could you please do something similar for CfD?

This bot should (daily) create a new page Categories for deletion/Log/-date-, redirect Categories for deletion/Log/Today to the most recent one, and add a transclusion on the WP:CFD main page (and if possible an 'add new section to /today/' link).

As a side point, would you consider having your bot create a WP:VFD/Log/Yesterday link every day? (and ditto for CFD) I would think it useful since the 'today' page gets new nominations all the time, and the 'yesterday' page would be stable and votable.

Yours, Radiant_* 09:43, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

Is there a particular format of the new day pages? Just the date or what? Do you want the bot to close each day as well on CfD? I'll do something similiar, but you'll have to be more specific to your request. -- AllyUnion (talk) 10:02, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And the /Log/Yesterday page... I'll get started on that. -- AllyUnion (talk) 10:03, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The /Log/Yesterday script has been written. You should see it update the next UTC day. -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:03, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Wow that was quick ;) - the format can be very simply, see WP:CFD for an example, but basically it's just a level-1 header with the date. A hidden tag stating to add new nominations to the top would be nice (for some reason new votes are added to the top rather than the bottom on CfD; similarly the CfD main page has newer dates on top). It would be nice if the bot also closed each day when a new day starts. The process should mimic VfD's as much as possible, for consistency's sake. Radiant_* 10:07, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

  You caught me when I was editing. Any HTML comments? And do you have a cute name for the bot? (I prefer to run separate accounts for bots if they are active only in a specific area. That way, the contributions list is much cleaner for someone to look at what the bot is doing... rather than looking at a mess of tasks on one single bot.) -- AllyUnion (talk) 10:11, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • Not sure what you mean with HTML comments. I could think of lots of cute names :), but for clarity's sake something like CfDaemon would be best, I guess. Separate accounts are a good idea.

    An HTML comment is something between <!-- and -->. When placed on an HTML page, that text is hidden from view. -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:02, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

    • Okay. Referring to WP:CFD and Wikipedia:Categories for deletion policies would be appropriate. Radiant_* 11:06, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

    So each new day will have something like, ==Date==\n<!-- Please add the newest nominations to the top -->\n\n<!-- Please add the newest nominations to the top --> (\n = newline). When the day closes, it will add: <!-- Please do not add new nominations to this page, as this CFD has concluded. Put any new nominations to the current day page instead. Thank you for your cooperation. --> -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:13, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

    • Sounds cool. By the way, how about adding, on both the daily VfD and CfD logs, a

link to the main WP:VFD or WP:CFD

• • • There is one already underneath the title. If you want to make any changes, you can do so in the VFD Header template. -- AllyUnion (talk) 13:09, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• • By the way, something else occured to me... would it be possible (and desirable) to auto-change the Template:Vfd and Template:Cfd daily? VfD links to 'WP:VFD/pagename' but might also provide a link to 'WP:VFD/Log/Today' (maybe even opening that page in edit mode). CfD links to 'WP:CFD#pagename' but should link to 'WP:CFD/Log/-date-' (hm, this may be a tough one unless it's subst'ed). Hope that made sense. Radiant_* 10:50, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

    As for auto-changing the templates... I suggest you draw consensus on that first, by placing it on the appropriate template's talk page(s), notify a few users, place it on the Wikipedia talk:Votes for deletion, Wikipedia talk:Categories for deletion and Wikipedia talk:Bots. -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:02, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

    • Yes, of course, but my first question is if it would be possible. Radiant_* 11:06, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

• • • • for the bot's name, how about DeleCate - the CfD bot (from Deleting Category debates)? Thryduulf 11:05, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

        I have something far better creative in mind now. I will call it NekoDaemon. Neko is the Japanese word for "Cat". Daemon is the suggestion from Radiant!... -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:17, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

        No good can come from cat-themed automatons. Ever. Trust me on this. --iMb~Meow 11:39, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

        Gah. Where do you people crawl from? It's like you all keep on eye on my talk page... What, you're afraid of a distant Japanese cousin, IMeowbot? -- AllyUnion (talk) 11:49, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

        Oh, you happened to leave a copy of the above on a talk page where some minor wikidrama is happening, so I figured I'd wander over and instill a bit of paranoia. --iMb~Meow 12:00, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

   /^\_(>o<)
  |         |
  | O  .  O |
   \_______/  --Niao!

"The Atlas Award For Raking the Sandbox Clean may be awarded to those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in fishing disgusting and unwanted items from the Wikipedia sandbox. The Atlas award is named after Charles Atlas and is taken from his 'they kicked sand in my face' advertisement, and is in no way merely a masculine image. It is a symbol of self-empowerment. Charles Atlas was once a self-styled 98-pound weakling, and through his own diligence and effort, became a very succesful businessman and body builder. And his business empire began with the ad that this image is from."

Seriously, through your work with Sandbot you have practically made the Atlas Award redundant. This is a good thing. Thanks. -- FP 14:23, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again for the work on this - I have one small request - could you remove the {{Please leave this line alone (sandbox heading)}} and comment as I think having two sets of comments is confusing on this page. Have a good day - and I fully support the award above "Mr. Atlas" Trödel|talk 15:49, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again - I'll keep an eye on it - and hopefully will be able to be less vigilant as a result of your awesome bot. Trödel|talk 21:51, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I left a reply on your bot's FPC page. --brian0918™ 21:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I added your pic. It looks like ed_g2s messed up. Did you see any others that were forgotten? --brian0918™ 22:51, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This isn't exactly related to archiving, but it seems like it would be a simple, but useful thing to implement. I've found that several articles on people are located at the page with their middle initial, instead of the full name, but there is no redirect page for the full name. It would be nice to have all of these redirect pages created, making it a lot easier to find people's names for linking. The pseudocode might be:

1. Find all pages with a name in the format of [[* %. *]], where % would be any letter in the alphabet, and each * would be the first and last name, of any length. Remove from this list any pages that are redirects or disambigs (could determine disambiguation by seeing if it contains {{disambig}} and/or if it links to at least one other page with a name of the format [[* *]] or [[* $ *]], where the first and last * are the first and last names, and the $ is a word longer than 1 character that has the same first letter as the middle initial.
2. Go to each of the pages, and for each, save the first name and last name, and look in the article for the middle name (the word between the first and last name which begins with the same letter as %). Then you can make the url for the page where the redirect should be.
3. Check to see if the page exists, and if it doesn't, make it a redirect to the previous page.

I think this should be it. --brian0918™ 03:21, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)