User talk:Bluemoose/archive9

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/archive1
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I might reply here or on your page, I'm a bit crazy like that.

Hey Bluemoose, Thanks for the welcome. I took another look at the article. I think it is important to note in the utility section that something is only a good if it increases YOUR utility upon consumption, and thus there are no universal goods or bads. Some goods are only good some of the time!

)

George (haha whoops, wrong spot, please delete after you read it)

Contents

[edit] Happy Spring celebration / Easter (as your preferences and beliefs dictate)

Here's hoping that if the bunny leaves you any beans they're this kind! ++Lar: t/c 15:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Here's hoping that if the bunny leaves you any beans they're this kind! ++Lar: t/c 15:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] New feature for AWB

Hi :-) Good job done with AWB. I left this message for you on souceforge; [1] --Joanjoc 19:45, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks ! --Joanjoc 22:23, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bluebot bug

This edit by User:Bluebot is kind of wrong. At line 71, it took the <noinclude> from around a category link, thus adding the article to a category it shouldn't be in. (Of course, the category shouldn't have been there in the first place!) Cheers, User:dbenbenn 20:51, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

ok, thanks for pointing that out. Martin 20:55, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
Actually, never mind. I got <noinclude> and <includeonly> confused. The article was already in the cat before Bluebot came along. Sorry. User:dbenbenn 21:07, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] For all the changes and fixes you do...

...Thanks! Syrthiss 14:15, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

OOO I didn't know that the auto was working yet. That will indeed help. Thanks even more! Syrthiss 16:45, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Javascript

First of all, shouldn't you make your find-and-replace case insensitive? You could also add another prompt for case sensitivity. Back to the code, though, try this - it should work:

m = ArticleText.match(/\\[\\[([^[]*?)\\|([^[]*?)\\]\\]/, g);
for (var i = 0; i < m.length; i++)
{
  //do some code
  n = m[i].toString();
}

Note, though, that javascript is different in this way: each instance is m[i], not. For example, the first line in the for loop should read:

n = m[i].toString();

instead of:

n = m.toString();

Let me know if this doesn't work. And please tell me when you're script is done, so I can test it out! --M@thwiz2020 19:40, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Martin, I tried testing your script by adding it to my monobook but I don't even see the tabs (replace, whitespace) come up. Do you know what's happening? I already ctrl+F5'd, so that's not the problem. --M@thwiz2020 20:19, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


Excellent, I've fiddled around with it a bit, and it works as desired, thanks! As you may have guessed I am totally new to JS so i may take a while to get the actual link simplifyer working properly. I think the problem is that you have linked 'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Martin/monobook.js/replacetab.js' whereas you should have added Bluemoose rather than Martin (probably my fault for always signing as Martin ;-) Also, is there a program that you use to help generate the JS? or do you just experiment in the monobook? thanks again Martin 20:26, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Oh, thanks for catching that. What I do is, in Firefox, I click on Tools > Javascript Console and I can play a bit with code there to see what happens. Other than that, I just test it in monobook. --M@thwiz2020 20:29, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Ah yes, the console is useful, also, I have just found that dreamweaver is a fairly decent JScript IDE, although I guess I am too used to the ultra cool visual studio IDE. p.s. feel free to experiment in User:Bluemoose/monobook.js/replacetab.js. Martin 21:01, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
I just committed to CVS. I (a) added [[Dog|dog]] --> [[dog]] simplification and refactored the rest of the simplification so that the function now takes up only about half as much space as it used to. I also added the 4th function and the better, refactored code to your js script. --M@thwiz2020 22:50, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Have you ever heard of editcountitis? I call my condition watchlistitis. I checked my watchlist, saw you edited the script, looked at your changes, saw the move, and immediately started editing it.
I was going to propose adding the bad-link fixer, but now that you're calling it a formatter, maybe it's better not to. (Otherwise, I could be accused of making an AWB semi-bot sub w/o the disclaimer at the end of the edit summary.) --M@thwiz2020 23:03, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Okay, javascript's equivalent of URLDecode() seems to be escape(). However, since I don't know what URLDecode is supposed to do, just try escaping strings in Firefox's javascript console and see if it has the right effect. As for HTMLDecode, javascript has no equivalent. You have to write your own really long script - like this. Ouch. --M@thwiz2020 16:47, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Approvals group

Just wanted to let you know that I have removed references to the approvals group from both the main bots page and the approvals page. See Wikipedia Talk:Bots for my reasoning. Pegasus1138Talk | Contribs | Email ---- 00:31, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thought you should know

User:Avillia has made an AWB that does not need authentication. ILovEPlankton 06:18, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Big problem. See the bottom of my talk page and the bottom of Plankton's talk page. Well, this was doomed to happen eventually. I think that if the site doesn't remove Avillia's software or if Avillia reposts it somewhere else, we might be able to block him. (Think about it: add a clause to the semi-bot proposal that states that any misuse of semi-bots can lead to a block, then quickly ratify the guideline.) --M@thwiz2020 16:24, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
his versoin doesn't work yet he says on his user page he is in the process of updating it. and also to let you know if you don't quit the AWB and you change the approved version the old one will still work. ILovEPlankton 16:37, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Great minds? Or an advanced telepathic connection between all Homo sapien sapiens that only the highly intellectual can detect? No, wait, that's the same thing...
Take a look at WP:BLOCK#Users who exhaust the community's patience. I think that this policy would apply in this situation (although it is only to be used if Avillia is uncooperative, of course). --M@thwiz2020 16:40, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Which of User:Avillia's edits were bad? --Ligulem 16:49, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
We never said any of his edit were bad. ILovEPlankton 17:21, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
(S)he didn't edit with the hacked AWB. All (s)he did was make the software, which, in itself, is an offence. --M@thwiz2020 17:23, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Sorry. But I don't think this is an offence. AWB is open source and there is no restriction of client software for editing Wikipedia. AWB is not a bot, as long as it is not used like a bot. The only thing that Avillia has to do is to publish the sourcecode, otherwise this would be a breach of the GPL license. Please bear in mind that open source software projects can fork quickly. Also, sometimes blocking users achieves quite the opposite of what the blocker intended. So please be careful. And think twice. --Ligulem 17:34, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, but I do, I think it is an offence to create an that will be used for vandalism. It specifically says All editing done with it must be within Wikipedia policy and guidelines. and i believe anybody that uses that will most likely use it to vandalize wikipedia. ILovEPlankton 17:52, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I dont think you understand, he is making a version available that anybody could use, including vandals. While probably not in breach of any policy as it is such a specific issue, it is certainly in breach of common sense. Plus GPL has nothing to do with Wikipedia policy. Martin 17:53, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
With due respect, I have understood that he makes available an AWB exe to the public (I have seen the link and the download page), which breaks the GPL if he doesn't publish the modified sources. And it is correct that the GPL has nothing to do with wikipedia policy. I'm just wondering how you want to hinder what happenend. I'm sorry to disagree with you on this, as I highly respect you. I see that this is a delicate thing. But if you think this correctly to its end, you will come to the conclusion that the registration page system does have some flaws that I believe cannot be corrected by threatening/issuing blocks. And with due respect, who defines common sense? --Ligulem 18:11, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Commonsense is not to make this software available to everybody, sure anyone could change the source how they want, but someone capable of that could easily make their own vandal software anyway. Martin 18:14, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Assuming that anyone who uses a changed AWB, even an AWB that does not honor the check page, is assuming bad faith. Martin, you are not responsible for what people do with AWB. Everyone is responsible on his own for what he/she does with his/her edits on this wiki. And everyone is entitled to use whatever client software she/he chooses. That's how this wiki works. If I assume good faith of Avillia, which I have no evidence to assume the contrary, I come to the conclusion that he doesn't agree with the registration system of the original AWB and of the exe's you are providing. So he is doing a different exe. That's all. Martin, you are not responisble for that exe and you do not need to try to stop its spreading. This is pointless. Assuming that he wants to make his changed AWB available for vandals is assuming bad faith either. I know I have opened another wormbox with my disagreement here. At least, I hope you are assuming my good faith. --Ligulem 18:48, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
At the top of the AboutBox.cs file, it says "Copyright (C) 2006 Martin Richards". Hence, re-publishing/changing the source code is a violation of this copyright, is it not? --M@thwiz2020 18:40, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
No. Read the license of AWB. Sorry if I am a nitpicker. But there are some facts here that can't be argued away, even if they are unwelcome and unwanted or unexpected. --Ligulem 18:48, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
This is not a legal issue, regardless of what license the source code has, he should not be redistributing software that could used to harm the encyclopedia. Martin 18:53, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
I did not say it is a legal issue. To the contrary. I wrote to Mathwiz that it is none. As long as everybody is abiding by the rules and policies and the spirit of wikipedia he/she may use whatever client software she/he wishes. It doesn't matter that this software might be used for vandalism. As long as there isn't any vandalism done, we have no reason to block anybody. --Ligulem 19:16, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
(conflict) What part are you referring to? I just read this in the license:
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether

gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and

(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

It sounds to me like anyone can view the code, but the code can still be copyrighted. And copyrighted code, I believe, cannot be replicated. --M@thwiz2020 18:56, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
The GPL works the same way as the GFDL, which you agree to whenever you save your edits here. This does not touch the copyright of your edit. But it doesn't hinder others to modify and republish what you wrote however they want, as long as they comply with the GFDL, which allows exactly that and you have agreed on. --Ligulem 19:21, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Licencing the source under the GNU General Public Licence means I as the user have the right to modify and redistribute as I see fit. In addition, I am distributing the source code on request. (I'm allowed to require a request, although I can't turn one down. I have to require it until I patch up some issues with SF CVS.).

That being said, I'm actually moving on the fence right now. It is true that my beliefs are that there should be no hinderance to the use of these tools; That a new vandal would not know about AWB, and a later vandal with the interest could easily modify AWB to remove the check, just as I have. I also believe that this hinderance is against the spirit of the GPL, a philosophical spirit I very much so endorse, and I do believe that the approval processes for things like this can be subject to extreme bias. (Do you think I would get approved to any of the projects I've been tooling with right now?)

I do not appreciate the agressive attitudes everyone involved has had in regards to my attempts to modify and my sucesses in modifying these programs.

Until I make a decision one way or another in the next day or two (at most), I'm keeping the link up. If you wish to try and get a Community Patience WP:Block, go ahead and try. If you want to get a ArbCom ruling saying I can't distribute the software, go ahead and try. That's all I got to say. --Avillia 20:18, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

No, you would not be approved to any of the projects you've been "tooling with" (178 in main is below my limit) because (IMO) you lack the experience with Wikipedia to understand the harm that your actions in modifying these tools could potentially cause to the Wikipedia project. Your hostility toward the developers and your blatant sabotage of the AWB tool will likely discourage others from trusting you in the future, and the only way to regain that trust is to take down the link and admit that you made a mistake. If the link is still up within a couple of days, I suggest that this be brought before the ArbCom--what (s)he's doing may be legal, but Wikipedia doesn't have to put up with it. I'd also suggest that removing authentication from GPL apps be amended to the Semi-bots proposal or included in another proposal, and I feel that if an individual creates a tool/modification that is potentially harmful to the site, any editor should have the right to take down the links to that tool until community consensus can be reached as to whether to allow/disallow the tool to be public on WP. It shouldn't be the other way around. AmiDaniel (Talk) 21:20, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Avillia, I understand that you are upset by warnings about blocks. As I didn't see every detail of the interactions with participants in this issue, I cannot give a full assessment whether everybody was right in saying this or that. I know that sometimes people on this wiki are a bit too fast in threatening with blocks, this comes partway because there are a lot of vandals that admins deal with. You do not qualify as a vandal :-). Please, I ask you not to get too heated about things like that. Although you are correct, there is consensus here on this wiki - and this wiki is consensus driven - that providing an unrestricted AWB exe poses some needless risks, that vandals can abuse your exe. At least, we can admit that it makes it easier for vandals to provide an unlimited exe. But, please, don't go on a crusade on that matter. What makes you believe you couldn't be allowed to contribute to AWB? BTW I do not agree that what you did qualifies as being banned from contributing to AWB (I mean on the code level). I also see no problem in putting you on the check page. But please, everybody calm down. Stop threatening with blocks, and Avillia, please take down your exe and start talking to me what you would like to change on AWB. I'm an AWB developer too (though I contributed only some small tweaks). Please note that it was a great move by Bluemoose to put his AWB source under GPL. Please bear that in mind. Let's not nedlessly spoil that in another futile wiki-battle. --Ligulem 22:47, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unstubby stubs

Hi Martin,

Thanks for making the unstubby stubs list. I wasn't sure if the list drilled down to stub subcategories, so I made an outline of some related categories. When you have some "free time," would you mind adding these to User:Bluemoose/Unstubby stubs? Thanks. :-) Rfrisbietalk 20:52, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks!

Thank you so, so much! --M@thwiz2020 21:10, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re. your comment on my talk page

See User talk:Locke Cole#Semi-bot cabal

Don't exagerate "frustration", I suppose persuing the Semi-bot proposal would still be the course of action leading to least frustration for the wikipedia community as a whole. --Francis Schonken 10:33, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

...funny. I'll keep it in mind for the terminology I'll use when reporting about the widespread abuse of semi-bot technology. No need for that currently. Sorry. Thanks for supporting the run it's course approach. --Francis Schonken 10:58, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formatter

After meticulously scouring, editing, and testing the formatter, I think I've (almost) perfected the bad link fixer! The only mistake it makes User:Mathwiz2020/sandbox is that [[Image:Blank.jpg|frame|[http://www.test.com]]] incorrectly becomes [[Image:Blank.jpg|frame|[http://www.test.com]], although the code required to fix this problem (which I did use at some point) only makes other mistakes in the long run, so it is best just to leave this up to the user to fix. (Surprisingly, internal links at the end of an image only get messed up if they're incorrect to begin with, I think.) --M@thwiz2020 00:52, 25 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Hello once apon a time you made this post on this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:213.243.185.219

"Be careful

You have editted a number of pages, changing numbers, deleting text, adding other text/numbers, without providing any references for your information, please do not do this, also, do not delete text from talk pages. Martin - The non-blue non-moose 21:12, 22 August 2005 (UTC)"

The user in question has not stopped doing that and has contiuned I have made a request here number 7.18 Kurt Leyman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Long_term_abuse

If you could go there and look at what I have posted and then look at what you posted on the users talk page, and combine these 2 facts then maybe these acts of vandalism can stop (Deng 21:31, 25 April 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Re: AWB update problems

When I go to update my AWB (because it is out of date, as it says when I try to make edits with it), the sourceforge site's only recent version posted it 2.3 something, and according to the site on WP, there is up to version 2.5.something. I'm just curious as to why the new version is not available for download since the old one won't work. It's like I'm stuck somewhere in the middle...I can't use the previous version, but can't get the newer one. Could you please look at this. Thank you. → J@red  22:22, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

The newest version on sourceforge is 2.501, this is the only enabled verion at present, as can be seen here. Martin 22:30, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image talk:Autofellatio.jpg/March 22 IfD on DRV

Someone has questioned your deletion of this page. Kotepho 01:36, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Testament

Could you have a look at this article's history? I've reverted severl times in the belief that it's just vandalism but I'm starting to have second thoughts. One reason for thinking it's vandalism is edits like this where the editer puts in "...ministries after Jesus retired to office work. It's a sequel to the third Gospel." The problem is that the editor comes in with a different IP every time so they can't really be warned. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 08:41, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

How odd, it doesnt entirely look like vandalism, but there isnt much to do other than keep rolling it back, if it carries on for much longer we could consider a range block, that might be a little harsh at the moment though. I'll keep an eye on it as well. Martin 08:54, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, Martin. I also thought about semi-protection to try and get the editor to discuss things. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 09:07, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
On further inspection I see this has been going for 2 weeks now, so I doubt it will stop soon, semi-protecting would seem like a good move, normally persistent users/vandals move on to the talk page, so maybe we could start communicating with him/her. Martin 09:20, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Hi there, I've just finally managed to upload a new version of the .NET Bot Framework. It now has support for getting the links to a particular article, using the Editor.GetLinksToArticle(string Article) function. All functions are properly documented using XML documentation. Many of you had issues with opening the ZIP file - these issues have now been properly resolved. The new version can be found at the usual URL. Thanks, Werdnabot (DNBF)/T\C on behalf of Werdna648 [[User talk:Werdna648|T] /C\@ 02:25, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] .NET Bot Framework Update 1

Hi there, I've just finally managed to upload a new version of the .NET Bot Framework. It now has support for getting the links to a particular article, using the Editor.GetLinksToArticle(string Article) function. All functions are properly documented using XML documentation. Many of you had issues with opening the ZIP file - these issues have now been properly resolved. The new version can be found at the usual URL. Thanks, Werdnabot (DNBF)/T\C on behalf of Werdna648 T/C\@ 02:39, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] regex

i was wondering, as i've seen you offer it before, if it would be possible to run a regex for me? i've tried downloading the dump myself, but i have a problem unpacking it (namely, unfortunately, bad RAM). the part where you might be hesitant is that it is a fairly large regex, consisting of lots of misspellings (exampl|exampel|etc.). the part where i might encourage you is when you could think about how short in comparison it is to run that regex when you think about how long it will be for me to AWB the whole text-file list you get from the dump. ;)

so anyways, could you please run a regex for me, possibly? :) JoeSmack Talk 06:48, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Sure, no problem, let me know what the regex is. Martin 08:14, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Here is the regex. Taking the wikisource instead of a copy from the prima facie article is best methinks. Non-case sensitive please, and who knows, it may need more than the standard 30,000 result limit. Much, much appreciated Martin. JoeSmack Talk 15:53, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
The regex gets lots of false positives, I think the reason is it is match "thier" for example, this means any word that contains this will be a match, and when you consider all the obscure names and foreign words its easy to imagine that this will will match lots it isnt meant to. To resolve this I would add more spaces, or a better would be to specify the word boundry, e.g. "\bthier\b". Martin 16:17, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, i bet 'thier' brings up stuff like 'healthier' a lot. I forgot how on-the-ball the database dump searcher tool is. Soooo, it should be like so? I've included most variations so I don't have to rely on the variablness of a query like "refer" to turn up "referring" and "refferred". JoeSmack Talk 17:18, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
P.S. oooh, will that exclude non-case sensitiveness if i throw in those boundaries too?
It looks fine now, I'll be busy for the weekend though, so it might be a day or 2 now. thanks. Martin 17:23, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Noooo problem. Thanks for the regex run + tips for effectiveness. JoeSmack Talk 18:11, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Just had a quick look, it is still matching way to much stuff, I think possibly because there are some correct spellings in there, such as "writer" and "writing". Martin 21:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Gah! You know it figures, the THREE xmls i did by memory, i did wrong. writer and writing (that should be writting and writter) should be the only two, i promise. here is the fixed regex, if it is still needed. it has also been simplfied by the mathwizz. my sincerest apologies. JoeSmack Talk 23:03, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

For a basic one word matching expression, I would use \s\bfoobar\b\s instead of \bfoobar\b as it is a bit more conservative about what it will try to match.

For example \befect\b will match http://efect.someplace.org/ which is not something a person is likely to want to do when searching for spelling errors.

—-- That Guy, From That Show! (esperanza) 2006-05-01 07:37

[edit] Cat-keyer

Okay, I've made it so it adds a button ([[) to the end of the editing toolbar (if you have it enabled). If you select the last word of a category (or the whole thing except for the braces), then it will correctly add either the name or, if there are no spaces, just the title of the page. Some bugs: if no text is selected, it pastes Category:People|key, but I can't get it to paste the opening and closing braces, too. I just utilized a MediaWiki javascript function because I was too lazy to copy and paste it, but if you really want it to function better (e.g., prompting cat names if nothing is selected, not readding key if there's already a key, automatically adding key to all categories without a key, etc.) then I can just paste the MediaWiki code into your script and that should work. --M@thwiz2020 20:49, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Great, thanks a lot, I'll have a look further when I've got more time, will be v. useful for the uncategorised good articles project. Martin 21:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A favor please

Hello friend, do you remember me? In the month of September 2005, your vote had made me an administrator. we all know that the life here is exciting and full of challenges. I would request you to please spare fem moments for me, and favor me with your comments and suggestions (here please) on my performance as a wikipedian. Let us continue to build the Better than the Best global encyclopedia. Thank you and regards. --Bhadani 10:05, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formatter debugged!

After having some really bizarre experiences with certain regexes, I've finally gotten the formatter completely debugged! You can run it at User:Mathwiz2020/sandbox to see it's full functionality. Just one question - do you want the formatter to change [[Test|Tested]] to [[Test]]ed? Rich Farmbrough wrote a regex that does just that and I can easily implement it. --M@thwiz2020 21:01, 29 April 2006 (UTC)</nowiki>

Okay, I had to change Rich's regexes a bit but they're now working really well! You can test them out in the top two paragraphs of my sandbox. --M@thwiz2020 21:38, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
Try refreshing (control + F5). When I run it on my sandbox, it doesn't change [[Test|Test''ed'']] at all. --M@thwiz2020 21:56, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
Oh, I thought you meanted it moved two single quotes (italics) outside but you meant one double quote. Well, I fixed it now so that it only moves word characters outside of the link, since the wiki-software seems to only link word characters. I also re-added the image fixer because, as far as I can tell, it does not cause any problems. If you see a problem, list it on my sandbox and I'll try to debug it. Thanks! --M@thwiz2020 20:59, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
Two to-do items: (1) Fix image fixer greediness. (2) Add look-ahead/behind so that it doesn't mess up the refs as it does on Bill Gates. I'll do them tomorrow, probably. --M@thwiz2020 21:35, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB shortcut keys

Martin - There's another way to do shortcut keys. On line 840 of Main.Designer.cs, for example, btnStart's text is "S&tart the process". The ampersand means that alt+t will click the start button. You don't need any of the code you just added, because most buttons already have shortcuts! Alt-A is "add", alt-r is remove, alt-c is clear, alt-t is start, alt-i is ignore, and alt-s is save. In addition, alt-f is file and alt-h is help. There are no shortcuts for stop, preview, show changes, and find or menus list and general. --M@thwiz2020 21:01, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

The alt + key shortcuts interfere with the webBrowser control, which is why I added the new control + key type, I don't know why the alt + key ones are enabled at the moment, I think maybe Adrian added them at some point. Martin 21:09, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Message from Mohammad Gani

Hello Martin. Not knowing how to contact you, I put the message here. I read about No Original Research and now understand why Wikipedia is reluctant to allow original research. Thanks.Gani 01:45, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles participants

I did lotsa duty on the EB 1911 project, which seems to have been 'botted into the background (lots of articles which are still raw 1911 have been reduced to something generic). Every time I sign onto one of these projects, the subject pages get vaporized over copyvio issues. And now all my annotations on 1911 are also vaporized, with the deletion of the pages themselves. Sigh.

The pages are too long. No more than 100 topics per if you want annotations. I do do research, and love to point in the right direction, making sometimes inspired guesses. But is this another project that gets nullified?

And Tony Sidaway is probably going to block me forever. Another sigh. --FourthAve 09:36, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB

Hello. I was wondering if you could add me to the list of enabled members of AWB. I'm dying to try out the software, but I've been held back for two days now, as I'm still in the request list. Care to help me out? Please? thunderboltza.k.a.Deepu Joseph |TALK 10:47, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

That was fast! Thanks. thunderboltza.k.a.Deepu Joseph |TALK 11:03, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB removal

My edit did NOT only affect whitespace - it also unicodified several other sections of the page, which you can see by scrolling further down the diff. I've requested re-addition to the list of authorised users. Cynical 07:38, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Just to let you know that it was me who removed my name from the list of AWB requests - I no longer need adding to the list as I finally got round to downloading the source and building a check-free version. Cynical 14:59, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
Why does everyone seem intent on building a check free version? ILovEPlankton 17:06, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
From my experience, the overwhelming majority do it so that they can mention it at various times. I don't know what this accomplishes, but that's what I've personally observed.
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (esperanza) 2006-05-04 02:44
You may want to consider putting in some sort of trip mechanism that would replace the edit summary with "Using an illegal modification of AWB! Tell me to stop!" or something to that effect. It wouldn't be too difficult to embed a couple simple and inconspicuous routines that less experienced "programmers" wouldn't be able to notice. It sure does seem a lot easier and less likely to inspire dispute to just go through the standard CheckUser process--I just don't get it; I'd guess, as TGFTS said, they must do it just to brag. AmiDaniel (Talk) 02:55, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
There is nothing illegal about modifying AWB. AWB is licensed under the GPL and therefore I can modify it in any way I like. The reason I modified it is that I can make edits more efficiently (and therefore make better use of the limited time I have available to devote to WP at the moment) with AWB than without, and that it was quicker to download the programming software and remove the check itself than wait to [possibly not] get back on the check page. On the 'secret routines' part, if that happened then several of the people who have made a 'check free' version could simply release it (as allowed by the GPL) and therefore the possibility of AWB vandalism would increase, not decrease, because instead of modifiers having to download the source code and do the modifications themselves (well, there's nothing to brag about here, it is pretty simple, but I suppose the effort involved in downloading + installing all the necessary stuff might deter people), they would already have a check-free version available for instant download. Cynical 09:11, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Modified AWB subpage

The reason I have the subpage is that I do not want people to think that I am using the real AWB without being on the checkpage, and that there is therefore some sort of flaw in AWB's security. The subpage doesn't supply the de-checked version (either as an executable or as source), nor does it tell people what they need to change in order to remove the checks, so I don't see how it presents any greater threat than the WP:AWB page telling people that the source code is freely available.

I will avoid changing 'piped' redirect links e.g. changing [[Dundee University|bla bla bla]] to [[University of Dundee|bla bla bla]] (I've taken another look at WP:REDIRECT, and discovered that this isn't a good idea). However I plan to continue correcting article text to refer to the subject's actual name e.g. changing '[[Dundee University]]' to 'the [[University of Dundee]]', since doing so improves the accuracy of Wikipedia articles (in the same way that an article would not refer to the 'Scottish Parliament' when it meant the 'Parliament of Scotland').

Thanks again for pointing out the redirects thing Cynical 17:48, 3 May 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Thanks

For sorting minor formatting on Blantyre Celtic - just wanted to know have you developed software to automatically do this? (bit of a newbie at Wiki!!) Ianguy 13:12, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

That was done manually, but I have a piece of software that does other stuff semi-automatically, WP:AWB. Martin 13:57, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] wiki dump searcher / regex stuff

hi there martin. i just replaced my RAM so i am able to unpack the dump (finally) and i wanted to make my regex (have to look at the wikisource) skip anything in comments like so:

  < !--NOTE: Copy everything below here. Remember to remove unneccessary sections-- >

notice how unnecessary is misspelled. anywho, mathwiz is away from a computer until monday, so I asked a regex fourm and gave a suggestion. i tried to scan it in the wiki dump searcher tool you got, and something interesting happens; it returns an error with parsing ('unrecognized grouping construct') - when i hit scan it actually changes the regex in the beginning from (eeer, looks like you have to look at the wikisource to see this, for obvious reasons). even though it is its 'equivalent', i believe this makes the regex no longer a recognizable regex, and it trips an error. what do you think? maybe its the regex suggestion too, do you know of a better way to get it to ignore commented text? JoeSmack Talk 16:01, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, the reason is that < is a reserved character in XML, and instances of it are changed to the html equivalent when the database is written, hence I also change it to the html equivalent when seaching the database. Now the problem is that [^<>] doesn't want to match < or >, but I don't know how you make it so it doesnt match &lt; &gt;, it must be possible though. Martin 16:23, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
Is there simply another way to make a regex ignore commented out text? skipping any article with comments would certainly turn away a lot of good results... JoeSmack Talk 18:57, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
Good point, I've uploaded a new version with a new option. Martin 19:36, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
AWESOME! Thanks Martin! JoeSmack Talk 00:56, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
Would it be possible to ignore other examples of text - I find that file names (of images etc.) give me problems. Come to think of it, as I understand things, file names work whether there are spaces or underscores between words - replacing all spaces in such filenames with underscores would also fix the problem. Gaius Cornelius 07:36, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
Ok, I'll have a look later, should be fairly easy. Martin 08:04, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
That would be an excellent option in the software. But, there are many cases where having a list of those exceptions handy would be very useful. For example, when I see a wrongly spelled image name yet the link works, I write down the name for later investigation so that I can correct the image name and the pages that link to it. Having datadumper generate (or append to) a file with the image/link/comment ignored article names would be very useful. I'm not sure what would be the easiest way to implement it would be but off of the top of my head it could be a file called "ignored" with the regular expression text at the top of each new appended section.
Or, maybe this would be more practical: A checkbox that is for ignoring comments/image/file names and a checkbox for the opposite so that a report only about problem image/link/file names could be generated in the same way as other reports.
—-- That Guy, From That Show! (esperanza) 2006-05-05 14:55
These are good suggestions, one problem is that it is very easy to make the search inefficient, and it will suddenly take many times longer to complete, though that may not be the case here. I have been try to add this software as a project to sourceforge, but the mechanism for doing so was broken. When it is on you can see the code for yourself, it is relatively simple. thanks Martin 15:47, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
Speed may be less critical than you think. I use your tool and about 20 perl scripts to scan database dumps. They all take roughly the same time to run. Rich Farmbrough 19:49 10 May 2006 (UTC).

[edit] the new regex

hi martin; it should pick up a lot less because of the 'no comment' option now, and i also removed a typo that is also a semi-common spanish word. you're probably right about the spaces, but i don't think a ton of those words fall before commas/periods, but i hadn't thought about it either. how much is a lot less? JoeSmack Talk 15:44, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

you know, i don't want you to have to run the regex again as it takes so long; whatever it gave is probably more than enough for me to work through for now. :) JoeSmack Talk 16:02, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
1000 actually seems low, considering the last had about 9000, and i stopped at 3000 as the commented out text got to me. the word 'offical' alone should have about 1000. interesting. as for an 'ignore' function in AWB it would be *very* useful, and as long as it didn't slow down performance. 'kick ass' even... ;) JoeSmack Talk 16:31, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
Martin, where is the log file for the ignored articles stored? It'd be good to be able to move/change it if i was doing different searches for different things. I didn't see it in the folder with the app when i 'ignored' an article. JoeSmack Talk 05:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
I did enable it (Add to ignored log file) and there is no file in the same directory. I sorta figured thats how it should work too... JoeSmack Talk 15:14, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
Found it! It isn't saved in the same folder as the executable but the same as the settings file you load (which for me right now is in /wiki tools/settings/typo fixing bot 1.11). JoeSmack Talk 15:50, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
...and actually, there is one in the folder with the typo list i loaded (/wiki tools/DumpSearches) as well...it is the one i seem to be adding to. However, the other log with the settings file certainly has ignored results from the same comb of typos that don't appear on the other log file. maybe it has to do with if i loaded the settings file and then the typo list or the list and then the settings file....JoeSmack Talk 16:02, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
...confirmed. it appears in the folder you load the settings from, or conversly the folder you load the text file from, which ever you did last. JoeSmack Talk 16:09, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blackhawk Museum

Hello, just wanted to let you know that the Blackhawk Museum article has been listed as a possible copyvio. Thanks. --Geopgeop 13:58, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Ok, did you want me to delete it or something? Martin 14:03, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Saints Wikiproject

I noted that you have been contributing to articles about saints. I invite you to join the WikiProject Saints.

You are invited to participate in Saints WikiProject, a project dedicated to developing and improving articles about saints. We are currently discussing prospects for the project. Your input would be greatly appreciated!



Thanks! --evrik 16:11, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dead-end pages

Dear Sir, I notice you were the last one to update Wikipedia:Dead-end pages, and it's beginning to look a little long in the tooth right now: most of the pages there have been picked over and triaged already. At any rate, I was wondering what process you used to generate that list... did you follow the procedure given at User:Topbanana/Reports/Scripts/Create Link Analysis Database? I tried to follow through that this-afternoon, and failed. It seems hideously complicated, and I have no experience with SQL. Any suggestions would be most helpful! Thank you for your time! Fake User 02:44, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I use my own software to directly scan the xml file, I'll update it when there is a fresh data dump. thanks Martin 09:03, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
No, thank you! Fake User 09:29, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] good job adding the last few features

hey martin. just wanted to let you know, kick ass job on the flashing task bar feature, as well as the scroll-down-a-bit one. doing sometimes thousands of spelling corrections a day, these two little features help out a whole lot. thanks. :) JoeSmack Talk 14:36, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

whoop, and P.S. - just noticed the menu option to "Enable button to log false poitives" is missing an 's'.  ;) JoeSmack Talk 14:57, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Joe! That Guy helpfully dug out the code to make the bar flash. Martin 15:41, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Whee. Cry. And I'm trying to get the newest sources from sourceforge without luck (dev access). I keep getting network errors for a few days now ("PuTTY Fatal Error: Network Error: Connection reset by peer"). The strange thing is I'm getting the submit emails of Martin's submits. --Ligulem 15:29, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks for the message about the new settings. It's exactly as you wrote! Everything fine now. --Ligulem 15:52, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. I got the newest sources, but compilation failed. I get

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(2071,9): error MSB3172:
Unable to read manifest 'Properties\app.manifest'. Could not find file '<path snipped>\src\Properties\app.manifest'.
Done building project "AutoWikiBrowser.csproj" -- FAILED.

I do have some déja vu feelings though, but I can't remember what it was. --Ligulem 16:22, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Just got your new submit. Now it compiles. Thanks! --Ligulem 16:54, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edit Summary using AWB

Looks like you forgot to use the Edit Summary using AWB

I noticed in This Edit there is no Edit summary and The edit changes a lot of White space so i assume it was done Using AWB. Just letting you know That little check box is not pressed in case this is unintentional. I usually like to know before I view an edit if it was made using AWB.--E-Bod 21:24, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

It wasn't made with AWB, all AWB edits always have the "using AWB" tag. Martin 23:08, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Did you copy and pase the edit from AWB. Don't Tell me you (By hand) did that whitespace edit. Did you? PS. If you add enough Text (or spaces) you can push the using AWB past the maximum chariters for an edit summary. I did it by axitent (Alternative rock Disambiguation link repair - You can help! & clean up (Remove Excess White Space) and added stub tag using [[Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AW)--E-Bod 23:40, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Actually if youu could change the edit summary form "using [[Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]]" to "using [[WP:AWB|AWB]]" It could save Precious. If you are a Developer.--E-Bod 23:40, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
I really didn't use AWB at all, changing the tag would make it use a redirect. Martin 08:00, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AutoWikiBrowser approval

I noticed that you removed my name from requests for registration. Although editing in FireFox is fun, your program seems (from what I can see) to make a lot of the simple formatting and such intuitive, and I would greatly appreciate it if you added me to the project. Crazynas 23:19, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sailfin Molly

Thanks for the pointers, it was my first article and your edits are very helpful, especially the headings ref. →ΣcoPhreekΔ 14:15, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

No problem! thanks Martin 14:19, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uncategorized Categories

Hi, would you happen to know who I could ask about rebuilding the uncategorized categories list?

This one User:Bluemoose/Uncategorised good articles is also about done for as well ...

Is it something a non-admin can do? -- ProveIt (talk) 02:47, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

As it is a special page I suspect only a developer can update it. That said, when I next update my list, I could do an uncategorised categories version as well. Martin 08:39, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Actually, that page was updated just a few hours after your message, spooky. Martin 09:36, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB on Commons etc? (Perennial question?)

Hello Martin,
First, my 2p/2€ contribution to the plaudits for AWB: Thanks for a fine piece of work – I look forward to its continuing development!
Second, I imagine it's been asked before – in which case simply redirect me to the answer/discussion/etc – otherwise: Is it possible to use AWB with Wikimedia Commons or other (Wikimedia) wikis?  'Twould be most helpful in my ongoing efforts to sort out the maps uploaded to the Commons...
Thanks and best wishes, David Kernow 16:49, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I have done a bit of work to make it work better on other language wikipedias and wiktionary. I suspect it wouldn't be too difficult to enable it for the commons as well, but I don't have the time to fully maintain all the functionality for all projects. I'll look into adding basic support though. thanks Martin 18:00, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your reply, Martin. Where/what would be the best place to keep on my watchlist so I know if/when you add such functionality?  Yours, David 03:13, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Robot

I want to have a robot named Babylon5 and here is the tasks of my robot:

  • Make Category
  • Raplace a letter with another
  • Make redirect
  • Interwiki (Especially Farsi language)
  • Disambiguation pages

Before I read that I must request it, So What should I do??? --MehranVB 12:30, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Concerned...

Hi Martin,

(From Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser#Querying category/stub order apparently used by AWB as default:)
I have outlined the reasons for the ordering, I think they are perfectly sensible, the fact that the stub tag message appears before the categories is of little importance. Stub tags are of least importance by virtue of common sense. Martin 18:32, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm responding to the above here as (a) I'm concerned by the nature of your message; and (b) hopefully here is a little more private.

I have outlined the reasons for the ordering...

If I've understood correctly, your reason is that "Categories are normally sorted by importance, putting the stub first puts the least important category first."  Please correct me if I'm mistaken. If not, this reads as particularly POV; is there any consensus for it?  Alternatively, perhaps this behaviour by AWB should be made optional...?

...the fact that the stub tag message appears before the categories is of little importance. Stub tags are of least importance by virtue of common sense.

Again, I feel I ought to indicate that these statements read as particularly POV; I'm not convinced they represent a consensus view. I admire the work you've put into AWB, but its inflexible behaviour as regards stubs/category ordering seems at odds with the rest of the project; at odds with the functionality on offer to the user...?  Perhaps all the "Apply general fixes" options should be made tickbox-optional, on, say, a tab sitting between the "Set options" and "More options" tabs...?  I'd offer to code this myself, except I have only a rusty knowledge of a few outdated languages.
Yours, David Kernow 19:28, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Stub categories are maintenance categories, they are less important - sorting by importance is important to a lot of people.
I agree that sorting by importance is important to a lot of people. I'm concerned as to who or where that judgement is being made and whether or not it's consensual.
Not acting on your whim does not mean my behaviour is inflexible. Martin 20:44, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry if you perceive my concern as a whim. I also apologise if what I have written suggests that you rather than AWB is – as regards stub/category ordering and other "Apply general fixes" items – inflexible. It's because AWB is otherwise a flexible and useful tool that this "all-or-none of these predecided fixes" seems contrary to the program's character. Please consider making them optional. Thank you, David Kernow 23:38, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
...Okay, I'm going to try using [[Category:...]]s then {{X-stub}}s; I guess I just became comfortable with the reverse order for the reasons I gave (mimics displayed page, seems ubiquitous). However, I believe providing the option not to work this way (or other ways dictated whenever "Apply general fixes" ticked) befits AWB's configurability, so will suggest and try to encourage development of the extra tab sheet described above at sourceforge.net.
Yours, David 00:35, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Hi David, I have considered having options selectively enabled/disabled, but (for the more interesting ones at least) it can be a bit problematic, as some functions rely on the fact that others have already done their business. Martin 08:32, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Understood. If it were to be tried, I suppose the C# equivalent of "IF this and that [and...] not selected/performed, THEN show alert and move on [as desired action not possible]" would be needed for such functions. Yours, David 11:33, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Yes, but it could become quite complicated. The way this particular part works is to remove all the interwiki links/categories/stubs etc. then filter them then add them back on at the end, so you can't really selectively not move the stub tag, as it has to be removed then added back. It is however very easy to change the order that the various bits are added back, in fact the overly long and complicated function to do it all returns a string that is made as follows:
ArticleText += strMetadata + strDisambig + strCategories + strLinkFA + strInterwikis + strStub;
So you can see that it is easy to change the order. Martin 11:53, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB coding: Main.Designer.cs

Hi Martin. Sorry for fiddleing with Main.Designer.cs. I'm wondering why my VisualStudio changed so many lines - I only added two labels (BTW the diff got too large for mailman to accept. The change email was thus held back for review by the list-admin due to exceeding a 40kb limit :/). Is there a setting somewhere that might be odd on my side? On another note: don't hesitate to tell me if I'm too bold in hacking on AWB! --Ligulem 15:20, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

I am getting the same thing, I assume their diff engine is screwing up. Don't worry about being bold! (though just out of curiousity, why would you ever want to disable the autoscroll function?) Martin 15:36, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I use to minimze AWB while it walks through my list (if I do sparse lists and/or have to do some real-live work concurrently). When AWB flashes its taskbar entry (nice feature!), I click on it. But with the new autoscroll function I have to manually scroll the window because there is some odd offset if I use it like this. When AWB is always in the foreground (or I believe at least not minimized), the new auto scrolling feature works fine for me. No clue what this is causing. I was exploring the app/user settings when that scroll thing was starting to nag me and then thought, gah, I just disable that scroll feature for me with an app setting as an exercise :-). Next step was then to do the default setting for lang/project. --Ligulem 17:45, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hold It!!!

Easy there, big fella! What's the big idea with restocking Wikipedia:Dead-end pages so soon??? Just when I feel like some progress is being made, you come in with both barrels, and unleash another stack! I'm trying to breathe here!!!

Couldn't you have waited till the list had been whittled down a wee bit more, before reloading/unloading? You're killin' me here! :P --Folajimi 01:20, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
I was asked to, plus many of the ones on there before were done, and just needed to be removed. Martin 08:19, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the update. Its probably better to have more frequent updates than to wait until the list is empty, otherwise we'll be faced with an absolutely massive list. At least this way the list never gets too big. RicDod 20:04, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unanswered question

Sorry, I still left you a question at Wikipedia talk:Bots#Bobblewik is at it again (80 edits in 30 minutes):

[...] there have been some problems with [sysop] reverts in that they overwrote intermediate edits (what's the technical state of affairs on that?)

Just a reminder, I'd be interested to know the answer. --Francis Schonken 14:29, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Again, I'm kinda relying on you to get this sorted ASAP, see Wikipedia talk:Bots#Bobblewik is at it again (80 edits in 30 minutes).
You don't *have* to do anything of course (which would be quite preposterous to ask in wikipedia context), I'm just asking from one wikipedian to another. You have the most appropriate tools. I haven't. And time will only make this more complex. tx. --Francis Schonken 15:11, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ducttapeguy

Good riddance. Femto 11:07, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

;-) Martin 09:26, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mumpsvax

I didn't realize that was a style guideline. Thanks for making the edits. I am particularly happy to recognize that the wiki software highlights the 's', anyway. Heathhunnicutt 02:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

No problem. Martin 09:26, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB

Why do you "believe" that I dont need to use the software? If I did not need to use it then I would not have signed up for it. Perhaps if someone makes a wrong edit on Wikipedia you might believe he does not need to contribute to it but this is just bullying tactic and I believe your action is very unfair. --K a s h Talk | email 15:06, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

You were making many edits that just removed a few spaces or newlines, this is unnecessary. Martin 15:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I realize that now but this does not mean I don't need to use it in future. I may need it a lot since I just started Wikipedia:WikiProject Iranian cinema --K a s h Talk | email 15:09, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
Alright then forget it, I am obviously wasting my time with you --K a s h Talk | email 09:52, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SamckBot

Hi Martin, Can you have a quick look at this request for task approval?

Many thanks,
Rich Farmbrough 11:07 25 May 2006 (UTC).


[edit] DatabaseSearchTool source

Hi Martin, I like your database searching tool and use it often. I was wondering if you had posted the source anywhere so I could make some modifications for a template sorting project I am doing. If not, perhaps you could email it to me. Thanks for the great program, --CapitalR 17:46, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Category:Pages that do not link to anything

Go ahead and delete, but I can't, 'cuz I'm not and admin at the moment.-- The ikiroid  21:20, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edit summary

Well spotted. Rich Farmbrough 15:35 28 May 2006 (UTC).

[edit] new AWB

bravo on the new extra space for viewing diffs. huge huge help for us spell checking bots. huge. thanks much. :) JoeSmack Talk 16:40, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Untagged stubs

Hi; what criteria were you using to produce your lists of untagged stubs? In particular, exactly what length cut-off? Thanks. Alai 23:47, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Normally over 8000 characters, but if I remember correctly the current list is different as it is for a specific stub group that I did on request for someone. Martin 09:47, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
I meant this list, as was, i.e. the "too short and untagged" one (rather than the "tagged and too long" one). Alai 15:04, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
Whoops, thats me answering questions when too tired, criteria is under 350 characters and doesn't contain any other tags. Martin 16:28, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
OK, thanks. Tags being any other template inclusion at all? (Or categories, either?) Alai 17:05, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
Yup, any tag at all, I don't think adding multiple tags to pages achieves much, categories are not taken into account. Martin 17:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
True, but templates may not be maintenance-related at all, that's what I was thinking. That's probably not very likely for very short articles, though, I suppose... Alai 18:10, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Minor Edits

Whoops, yeah, sorry, I saw the whitespace note, but somehow missed the syub moving. I'll keep an eye on that. -Mask 10:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anorexia refs

Hi Bluemoose,

Thanks very much for changing the references in the anorexia article to the new style. Couple of things... Do you have something that does this automatically? Also, it seems to have broken a couple of them (see bottom of reference list), is there a way of preventing this? Thanks!

- Vaughan 11:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the link. Very useful tool. I think the problem was that the references had a hard carraige return in them, so they weren't caught by the ref processor. All fixed now though. Many thanks!.
- Vaughan 11:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] International Gay Rodeo Association

I just stumbled upon this and I'm wondering why exactly you deleted/protected this? Your reason was "'IGRAhttp://www.igra.com' (and the only contributor was 'Austinfidel'". Just because only one person contributed to an article is probably not good enough of a reason to delete an article. And there are 14,200 Google results for the phrase alone so I think it's "notable" enough. Or is there another reason that this was deleted? Thanks. Scottmso 12:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

A user kept uploading a junk article, I was forced to protect it to stop this, I have unprotected it now as the user has probably found a different website to vandalise. As for the reason "'IGRAhttp://www.igra.com' (and the only contributor was 'Austinfidel'" that is an automatically generated summary. Martin 13:39, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deleted talk archive/orphan

Just a heads up that the Talk:Tonality 01 deleted was a talk archive. I restored it and moved it to Talk:Tonality/Archive 1. Thanks. Hyacinth 07:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blanking

Sorry about that I've never seen it happen before. The message was just to thank you for the tip on the dump searcher. It works fine. Were you going to put the delted messages back? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 08:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh right, thanks, let me know if it could be improved. hhhhmmm how bizarre, I thought I had restored the messages, it looks like it there is something wrong with my talk page, looking at where is choked I think I know what it is, I'll fix it now. Martin 08:28, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I've left a message at the Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Martin 08:44, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A potential job for Mr. Bot

Hi Martin - Long time no talk. I hope that all is well. Things for me are busy, but good. There are a lot of standardization things in the poker articles, and folks at Wikipedia:WikiProject Poker are working to develop some standards. I suggested that once we reached consensus we might get bluebot to make the changes for us. Would this be possible? If so, what would be the easiest way for us to give you the list of "transform x into y"s? Thanks! --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 04:40, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi Kevin, just dump a list here of what needs to be done and where, and I'll see what I can do. thanks Martin 09:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Great! Thanks a lot. We're still hammering out the details, but we should have something ready in the next week or so. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 17:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Denys Rayner vandalised

Dear Blue Moose. You have assisted me in the past. I have found that an article on Denys Rayner has twice been blanked out with obscene words. i have read the Revert Guide. Can you check that i have followed procedure and is there anything else I can do to prevent this in future? Sibadd 17:50, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Martin. Just needed the reassurance. It rather tookme by surprise, but it was good toread the Vandal article on Wiki and realise how normal this kind of thing is and how realtively easy it it to revert. trouble is that the if you go to User talk:64.12.116.9 you find it seems to be used by many. Sibadd 18:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Template to Talk pages

Many thanks for your bots actions in adding architecture templates to talk pages. Yes please, we'd be very grateful if you would add them to sub and sub-sub-sub-sub categories too.--Mcginnly 22:28, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] White Ensign

Hi: Information please; bluebot has replaced all the White Ensigns on my Victorian Naval articles with Naval Ensigns. No problem, of course; editing is everyone's right and privilege. But I can't see any difference, so please, just for my personal education, what is the difference?--Anthony.bradbury 17:15, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure, I did it on request (see Wikipedia_talk:Bots#Quick_request), I believe it was either to standardise the names of the images or to use a higher quality one (or both). thanks Martin 18:04, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
OK, whatever. But it still looks identical to me and I have asked Nightstallion why he asked for it. I have, of course, left it undisturbed--Anthony.bradbury 21:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I know it's a trivial point, and that the flag looks the same either way. Nightstallion has answered my question; he says that "naval ensign" is the correct form, in which statement he is absolutely wrong, and I have told him so. It doesn't matter that much, and as I say the graphic is the same, but I note that your bot made the alterations merely on the request of this one user. If I, also a registered user, asked you to use your bot to change them all back, what would you do? Please note that I am not actually asking you to do it.--Anthony.bradbury 21:32, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I would only change them again if agreement was reached, also note that my bot only changed 3 of the flags, I think the others were done manually. Martin 21:38, 6 June 2006
My watchlist shows that your bot changed seventeen flags. As I say, they still look the same and I have made no attempt to revert them; it would be both childish and against the spirit of Wiki. I was just questioning the principle.--Anthony.bradbury 23:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
I meant 3 different flags (British, french and japanese), it did 100s of each one. Martin 08:46, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with AWB

Hi! I have tried to use AWB but it tells me that I'm not enabled. At the same time, my name is written on the list. --Eleassar my talk 23:41, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Make sure you have the newest version, and try clearing your internet explorer cache. Martin 08:57, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Thanks for showing me how to use Regular expressions. It worked.--E-Bod 01:03, 6 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] White Space

Please stop making edits that only change whitespace like this Martin 19:34, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

An adjustment may be needed to the AutoWikiBrowser. If offered the correction - as it involved no textual abuse I accepted the change. There are many such incidents where the AWB tidies up unwanted white space. Hmmmmm. SilkTork 19:47, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
No, you need to adjust how you use it, just click ignore rather than save. Martin 19:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WP:DEP

Hello! When you get a chance, could you kindly provide a new dump of dead-end pages? Thanks! --cholmes75 (chit chat) 15:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB and Wikisource

Hey Martin, would it be possible to include WikiSource in the Wiki's list, I know we have en.wp and en.wt but theres a few jobs that could use AWB and I really don't feel like fighting with pywikipedia :o. Thanks in advance -- Tawker 03:35, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll see what I can do. Martin 08:48, 8 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] AWB and Wikisource

Hey Martin, would it be possible to include WikiSource in the Wiki's list, I know we have en.wp and en.wt but theres a few jobs that could use AWB and I really don't feel like fighting with pywikipedia :o. Thanks in advance -- Tawker 03:35, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll see what I can do. Martin 08:48, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Section "Probably missing cat due to vandalism"

That was a great idea! Only one of them didn't lost categories because of vandalism. And kind of scary also, that sometimes vandalism can be undetected for so long.

Btw, did Bluebot ever managed to do put those date articles in a category? I totally forgot I asked you one time about it. Garion96 (talk) 18:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I find them particularly depressing, as often the vandalism is quite old, and has since been edited in. I didnt get around to doing the categorising, there was some technical problem that I can't quite recall, I'll re-assess it though, as my software has since been significantly improved. Martin 18:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Update: Yes I will be able to do it. thanks Martin 18:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
It was depressing yes. Although I did saw some articles (very) slowly getting back to normal. So an article does heal itself in time. (I hope). Good news on those date articles. Garion96 (talk) 19:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bot status

Hi, I don't know how the bot approval goes here, but my request has been on the approval page for a week, with no 'oppose' votes. I'd like to run my bot since there are quite a few interwikis which need adding from several Wikipedia's related to Dutch. Alvast bedankt! Servien 18:55, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi, only Bureaucrats can give it bot status, I am not one. thanks Martin 18:58, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Misedit by Bluebot

Bluebot broke a page with this edit. -- BenRG 22:14, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, that was a while ago, and couldnt happen again. thanks. Martin 22:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bluemoose/old temp pages

I recently browsed again through that list. Would it perhaps be handy to have a temp or temp articles category for those? And then delete them when they haven't been edited for six months or so, or would that be overcategorization? Since I also saw some on User:Bluemoose/Uncategorised good articles. Also, Good job on those date articles. Garion96 (talk) 01:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Ideally a category for temp pages would be nice, as long as it doesnt require too much effort. Martin 08:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Months

Hi Martin I have put a "skip if doesn't contain" condition on. Rgds, Rich Farmbrough 10:32 13 June 2006 (GMT).

Great, thanks Martin 11:35, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB

Err... I hate to be a bother, but can you check the AWB request page please (WP:AWB/CP). I am eager to get fixing but nobody is moving the names. Thanks. Onco_p53 10:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AWB

Please remove my admin status on the AWB sourceforge project. Thanks. --Ligulem 11:30, 14 June 2006 (UTC)