User talk:MZMcBride: Difference between revisions

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Regards, [[User:HaeB|HaeB]] ([[User talk:HaeB|talk]]) 06:12, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
Regards, [[User:HaeB|HaeB]] ([[User talk:HaeB|talk]]) 06:12, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
:Fixed (and replied on the talk page). --[[User:MZMcBride|MZMcBride]] ([[User talk:MZMcBride#top|talk]]) 06:19, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
:Fixed (and replied on the talk page). --[[User:MZMcBride|MZMcBride]] ([[User talk:MZMcBride#top|talk]]) 06:19, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
:By the way, you can incorporate the signature into the message. It doesn't have to be on its own line or anything. Nothing in the script even looks for a signature or anything like that. It is nice to include a timestamp, though, so that archive bots don't get confused. It might actually be preferable to link to "Global message delivery" instead of "EdwardsBot". Just a thought. --[[User:MZMcBride|MZMcBride]] ([[User talk:MZMcBride#top|talk]]) 06:25, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Revision as of 06:25, 5 September 2010


HIIIIII

Hello every budy this is Raghavendra Redy............... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.124.65.53 (talk) 18:52, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:56, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 19:10, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. APK whisper in my ear 20:46, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why are you so difficult to Facebook stalk? :-( --MZMcBride (talk) 21:00, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yours truly no longer uses Facespace or MyBook. APK whisper in my ear 21:01, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure Manhunt really counts as a substitute, sir. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:07, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
But TotalTop69 and JockstrapBoi have much more interesting profiles and pictures. APK whisper in my ear 22:53, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Watcher tool

Just curious what happened to your most excellent Watcher tool. It produces HTTP 500 when accessed.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); July 14, 2010; 18:14 (UTC)

No idea. I'll take a look in a couple hours. Until then it's time for a blamestorming session. (If you need help getting started, try here.) --MZMcBride (talk) 18:38, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I blame the mainstream media. APK whisper in my ear 18:50, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Turns out it's the Chinese who are to blame. No surprises there! --MZMcBride (talk) 18:54, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
USA! USA! USA! APK whisper in my ear 18:56, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The issue should be properly resolved now. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for looking into this!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); July 14, 2010; 21:25 (UTC)
Just came across this. A bit worrying how many centijimbos my talk has... Cheers for the handy tool! Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 13:52, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Most-watched pages by namespace (configuration) is pretty interesting, too. 8=========D --MZMcBride (talk) 03:51, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite what you wanted...

...but close enough for government work? [1]xenotalk 23:20, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Thanks, dude. --MZMcBride (talk) 23:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

More on red-linked images

Following on from here, Would you have any ideas regarding this? Carcharoth (talk) 11:49, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I took a look at this. It looks like it wouldn't be too difficult if you looked purely at the HTML before and after the page was changed. I think that'd be the simplest way to figure out if you had an increase in the number of red-linked files. Given two links, one like [[File:fojfdsiofjdsf.jpg]] and one like [[File:Foo.jpg]], the parsed wikitext would produce HTML that looks something like
<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Upload?wpDestFile=Fojfdsiofjdsf.jpg" class="new" title="File:Fojfdsiofjdsf.jpg">File:Fojfdsiofjdsf.jpg</a></p>
and
<a href="/wiki/File:Foo.jpg" class="image"><img alt="Foo.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Foo.jpg" width="300" height="197" /></a>
respectively. So you'd look for the number of instances of these two patterns in the old and new HTML, and see if there's an increase between the two values.
The catch is that the old_html variable (and less importantly, the old_text variable) are disabled in the AbuseFilter extension, supposedly due to performance issues (cf. bugzilla:23027). Without the old_html variable, I don't see a way to get the list you want. You could try asking someone like Prodego, though. He has an AbuseFilter fetish, as I remember. Or perhaps the technical village pump, though I imagine they'll just tell you what I'm telling you. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 21:27, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, thanks for that. At least I know now why some things can't be done. Any chance your database report could be refined to read people's minds and work out why images are redlinked? :-) Carcharoth (talk) 23:41, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Haha.

[2]... you knew it wouldn't last. :) I may have to revert myself later though.++Lar: t/c 11:55, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why must you rain on my parade? :-( --MZMcBride (talk) 03:50, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Brownie points with the vandalism patrollers. And because of the edit summary line opportunity. ++Lar: t/c 17:09, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It happened to me, too. Funny-once ;) Jack Merridew 04:29, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bouncing ideas

Someone made a good suggestion at [3]; would it be possible for (or rather - would the developers be willing to implement a feature for) the software to check if Category:Living persons is present on the article, and display {{blp}} as a pagenotice on the talk page if so? This would save an awful lot of (never-ending) bot work. –xenotalk 13:32, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there might be a bug about this already. I may have filed one, who can remember. When __HIDDENCAT__ was implemented, I asked Tim about the ability to categorize the talk page based on code in the subject-space page. That conversation is available here: http://toolserver.org/~mwbot/logs/%23mediawiki/20080221.txt (grep "hiddencat").
Personally, I don't see it as a particularly large burden to use a bot to do the taggings. A feature in MediaWiki is possible, though you have to consider whether you really always want the template at the top of the page (e.g., {{skiptotoc}}). And if not, if you want to provide a workaround.
There are other considerations to make as well. For example, having that BLP header (and a bunch of other similar headers) on every talk page causes most people to tune them out as noise. Mostly due to the fact that they are noise. As important as it is that everyone know that "Foo" is member to 25 WikiProjects.
You could probably implement something relatively easily and cheaply using JavaScript, similar to that horrible hack that's currently in place using &editintro= (this). I wouldn't really recommend further JavaScript hackery, though.
You're free to file a bug (after searching the existing bugs) for a feature request, but I wouldn't expect it to be acted on anytime soon. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:19, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My filing of the bug was contingent on you lerving the idea, and based on response, I think I'll just leave it for now. =] –xenotalk 18:23, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Having the functionality isn't a bad idea; I said as much in 2008. But it should be implemented in a way that's intelligent, flexible, and cheap. That was my point (somewhere in there). --MZMcBride (talk) 18:25, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A tall order! –xenotalk 18:37, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Intelligent and flexible? You know you're on Wikipedia, right? – iridescent 19:27, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I guess that's why it's vaporware. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:06, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Why did you delete my user page?SeanT (talk) 14:58, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You blanked the page and back in July 2008, that was taken as a request to delete (now g7 excepts userpages). Do you want me to restore it? –xenotalk 15:01, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think some consideration was also made regarding how long the account had been inactive. The theory being that someone who created and subsequently blanked a page and hadn't been back to edit in a few years likely didn't want the page still existing (and being mirrored, indexed, etc.). --MZMcBride (talk) 18:22, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK Thanks, that makes sense - I didn't realise it was blank. SeanT (talk) 14:39, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think that's a request for restoration? --MZMcBride (talk) 16:49, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I guess =) User can {{db-user}} if they decide they don't want it... –xenotalk 16:51, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks...

It's appreciated. SirFozzie (talk) 17:10, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

:-) --MZMcBride (talk) 17:12, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article alert bot

This is in regards to your request for a reminder to look for the code for User:ArticleAlertbot. All I know about the location of the code is that it might be on the tool server. The bot was coded by User:B. Wolterding and was maintained, at least for a while by User:Legoktm. I hope this helps but please let me know if you need some more specific info than this. --Kumioko (talk) 19:48, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the relevant files in /home/legoktm/ aren't readable. I've no idea where B. Wolterding's home directory is. At this point, I'd suggest BOTREQ to find someone to code a new bot (or just do it yourself). Hope that helps. --MZMcBride (talk) 22:17, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ok thanks, I unfortunately don't have the expertise to write this thing from scratch but at least we know we don't have the code for it. --Kumioko (talk) 12:42, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I suppose you could try e-mailing the authors as well (if you haven't already). They both probably have e-mail enabled. It's worth a shot. I'd offer to write the bot for you, but I still don't exactly understand what it did and I'm kind of busy. --MZMcBride (talk) 12:44, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciate that, I did try and EMAIL them but no reply yet. --Kumioko (talk) 12:50, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Template:Backtalk Set Sail For The Seven Seas 324° 7' 0" NET 21:36, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Another Talkback

Template:Backtalk Set Sail For The Seven Seas 326° 47' 15" NET 21:47, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you by placing a talkback. I'll remember not to do so in the future. Set Sail For The Seven Seas 339° 49' 0" NET 22:39, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No offense taken. It's the end of the week and I think I'm coming off a bit more bitchy than usual.
For what it's worth, I looked at your edit count and contribution record. You'd probably make a fine admin; God knows this site needs more admins who are proficient in templates. You'd get dinged right now for being completely inactive in May, but in a few months, it'd probably be fine. If you're into that kind of thing, anyway. --MZMcBride (talk) 22:43, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's definitely a possibility, as some of the tools could come in quite handy. However, as you said, I'd best wait a few more months and increase my edit count first. Thanks. Set Sail For The Seven Seas 192° 14' 45" NET 12:48, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Could you recheck this? Yes, Wikimedia logos are technically non-free, but are not treated as such (hosted on Commons, allowed in userspace, etc etc) and so do not need a rationale. J Milburn (talk) 14:12, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Also, would it be possible for you to give me a full list on the next update? I filtered the partial list so I could deal with the album covers en masse (see my sandbox) and it'd be great if I could get through them all. J Milburn (talk) 20:57, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm running the updated report now. I can do full results at some point. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:55, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Brilliant, thank you. Let me know when you have a full report I can work with. J Milburn (talk) 14:31, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Would a multi-page report work for this? --MZMcBride (talk) 18:46, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, that wouldn't be a problem, whatever works for you. J Milburn (talk) 12:24, 13 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ping? J Milburn (talk) 14:28, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the delay. I don't really want to rewrite this to be multi-page. The current report should be updating weekly. Is there a reason this isn't sufficient? Would a daily update work better? Is there too much noise? I'd much rather improve the report than overload it. --MZMcBride (talk) 03:56, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
All I was really wanting was a one-time post of all the pages- you could even just delete the page after it's posted and I'll work with it from the deletion log or something. However, a daily update wouldn't hurt as well, as long as it's no trouble. J Milburn (talk) 14:41, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I set it to update daily. As you process the results, it should output more and more new results until the pile is empty. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:36, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

bachirou

I'll add references when I get back from work tonight, so please don't add a deletion notice until tomorrow, if I've not done it! Salty1984 (talk) 06:49, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 12:52, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can you help me understand something?

Hello

I am relatively new to wikipedia and have made a few entries. I was going to do one on an author I like, but I see he had a page that has been deleted. So I don't want to make a faux paus.

My question is why was it deleted (you are the admin who deleted it so I am contacting you). The author is Chuck Easttom (a computer science author). He has 11 books done (I own 2). And I can find lots of references to him including 1. Over 6 pages of Google scholar references to him, so I assume he qualifies as an academic? 2. Between the 11 books and the media references to them (listed next) does he qualify as an author?

   http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/132624026.html
     One Page 15 of CompTIA Security+ Exam Cram (2nd Edition)those authors recomend one of his books  “…The
     two best general information security books we know of are Computer Security Fundamentals by Chuck 
     Easttom (Pearson 2005)” -http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Security-Exam-Cram-2nd/dp/078973804X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270653896&sr=1-1#reader_078973804X 
     http://www.planostar.com/articles/2010/03/25/news_update/708.txt

3. I found other 3rd party media references to him

    http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/aug/06/hackers_infiltrate_web_site/
    http://www.collin.edu/ce/spotlights/easttom.html
    http://home.mindspring.com/~grminer/cybersig/archive/03oct.htm
    http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_62766.shtml


But his article is in wikibin, so before I try to revive it, can you tell me what I am missing?

I see other author wiki articles about authors who seem to be less notable such as:

 Robert Slade who has written fewer books and his books get very bad reviews on Amazon
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Slade  (note: many sources for this author, are the authors own page)
 Dr. William Stallings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stallings  he is a great author, I have one of his books, but I don't see how he is more notable.

Can you educate me on this issue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Willbennett2007 (talkcontribs) 18:05, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You may want to review Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chuck Easttom. –xenotalk 18:11, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks xeno. However what I read was

'can't find anything on Mr. Easttom that wasn't written by the man himself. He appears to be on a crusade of self-promotion' And I just listed several sources that are NOT by that author, but third party media. And there are author entries (Like Robert Slade)where 1/2 the entries are from the authors web site? So I don't understand? I also saw 'No notability established at all.' When I actually find more third party references to this author than I do to several others that do have wikipedia articles. So again I don't understand.

Also other people commenting in the deletion conversation stated things like 'This Google search shows that he's written books that have been required for college classes. That puts him squarely within WP:Notability (academics) (per "4. The person's academic work has made a significant impact in the area of higher education, affecting a substantial number of academic institutions." and "12. Criterion 4 may be satisfied, for example, if the person has authored several books that are widely used as textbooks (or as a basis for a course) at multiple institutions of higher education.").' and 'A search of Google News does show him with a few news mentions—a definite plus.' and someone else actually stated 'I absolutely hate this kind of self-promotional puffery. Unfortunately, seems to meet WP:ACADEMIC #4 as shown by Dori. I have done some cleanup in the article, but more is needed, especially references to his books and to the fact that they are being used as course materials. Some more cutting and slashing may be needed, too.'

I do not wish to cause any stir. Obviously there is some reason this authors article was deleted but the others are OK. I am hoping one of you with more wiki experience than me could explain it to me. ~

Can you copy and paste the specific log action that indicates that this deletion was my doing? --MZMcBride (talk) 18:45, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
hello when I looked up the author I got the notice saying I could write an article but it had this:

If you are creating a new page with different content, please continue. If you are recreating a page similar to the previously deleted page, or are unsure, please first contact the deleting administrator using the information provided below.

   * 23:35, 24 February 2009 MZMcBride (talk | contribs) deleted "Easttom" ‎ (CSD G8: Chuck Easttom) .~

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Willbennett2007 (talkcontribs) 04:13, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MZMcBride deleted Easttom because it was a redirect to the article that was deleted via WP:AFD. If you think you can create a well-sourced article that shows how the individual meets our inclusion criteria and addresses the concerns raised at the AFD, you might start by creating one in your userspace. –xenotalk 13:02, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much both MZMcBride and Xeno for your guidence. I will try to make a well sourced article on the author. If its not too much trouble, hopefully you will check it out and help correct my errors? I am sure I will make several:) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.183.110.116 (talk) 15:27, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think the subject didn't want an article, for what it's worth. --MZMcBride (talk) 16:44, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As an addendum, in the future, please keep in mind the importance of brevity when posting talk page comments. I don't have an issue with long talk page posts in general, but only when necessary. In this case, it made the reply take longer than it normally would. Details are fine, but getting to the point is the key goal. It helps you and it helps me. --MZMcBride (talk) 06:50, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry I was trying to be thorough. My apologies. In any case I have the article up, you can search for 'Chuck Easttom'. I think I have properly sourced it and established notability, but I am certain the more experienced people in Wikipedia will find many errors that can be correctedWillbennett2007 (talk) 16:12, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note

Just dropping a note as you said. - Dwayne was here! 23:47, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... May I remind you that there is a situation you need to deal with? mono 01:13, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Div classes to another wiki

Hello, MZMcBride. I want to know how to add div classes to an interwiki. Specifically, the one I'm looking for is <div class="NavFrame collapsed"> to place on SimpleWiki but only <div class="NavFrame"> seems to be apparent there. The response I received from other users was to go to Mediawiki:Common.css, but it is protected. Is there any other way to add these div classes? :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 06:09, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not really sure what "add div classes to an interwiki" means. I think you mean you want to add the ability to collapse NavFrames by default? WP:NAVFRAME explains that collapsing uses JavaScript magic behind the class names. In order to make the magic work, you have to edit the global JavaScript pages. It can't be implemented on a per-page basis with special code. Hope that helps. --MZMcBride (talk) 06:12, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I see. However, what I really wanted was for the collapsed NavFrame to appear on any of the pages on Simple English Wikipedia. When I tried to use the <div class="NavFrame collapsed"> only the NavFrame part of the div was displayed, and the content remained "seen" rather than "hidden," like the example here. I thought that perhaps the Wikipedia lacked a div class to express the collapsed header, and that that was the reason that the div class was displayed without "collapsed." :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 06:40, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
To be clear, there are two distinct concepts here, both described in separate sections at Wikipedia:NavFrame. One is NavFrame divs. The other is collapsible tables. Both support selecting default collapse state, I think (it's been a while since I've looked closely at either). The code for both of these features is in MediaWiki:Common.js for the most part; some styling is done at MediaWiki:Common.css. Mind the difference in the extensions between those two pages. So if you wanted a similar feature at the Simple English Wikipedia, you'd edit the corresponding pages on that wiki (or have an admin do it for you). --MZMcBride (talk) 06:45, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, could we possibly have Wikipedia:Database reports/Unused non-free files changed so that it only includes image pages? It's picked up a load of category pages, userpages, Wikipedia pages and so on in the last run- not certain why, but I don't think they really belong there :) J Milburn (talk) 12:28, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Show me an example? --MZMcBride (talk) 15:32, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind, I see it. I wonder what the hell that's about. The configuration seems to indicate I'm specifying page_namespace = 6 in a few places.... Odd. --MZMcBride (talk) 15:35, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Well, fixed. I put a list of the non-files below. The categorization of these pages probably needs to be adjusted. --MZMcBride (talk) 01:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Extended content
+-----------+-----------------------------------+
| ns_name   | page_title                        |
+-----------+-----------------------------------+
| Category  | Album_covers                      | 
| User      | Ashishvats23                      | 
| Category  | Commercial_logos                  | 
| Wikipedia | Files_for_upload/January_2010     | 
| Category  | Non-free_historic_Wikipedia_files | 
| Category  | Non-free_musical_artist_logos     | 
| User talk | PericlesofAthens/Archive_7        | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_Mac_software       | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_Microsoft_Windows  | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_Windows_software   | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_films              | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_software           | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_television         | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_video_games        | 
| Category  | Screenshots_of_videos             | 
| Category  | Single_covers                     | 
| User      | Trisreed/Sandbox                  | 
| Wikipedia | WikiProject_Scouting/Templates    | 
+-----------+-----------------------------------+
18 rows in set (1.41 sec)

Batsignal

Ping – iridescent 23:02, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

toolserver-l ← is it really really mandatory? Can't I just subscribe to the announce list? –xenotalk 17:59, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bah, don't trust Meta. tswiki:Mailing lists is what you want. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:46, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Bruce! –xenotalk 19:49, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hitlerrrrrrrr

oh noes, did the WMF go too far for you? Not saying that they're Nazis, of course, but your proposal seems like a flop. fetch·comms 23:54, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder how many of the opposers have pressed "hide' or have installed a gadget or script to hide the banners. The issue is that the readership can't really say "hey, this is annoying" and the editors have been given the tools to easily make the problem go away for themselves. I'm not sure what any of this has to do with Hitler, though. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:28, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Your userpage quote. fetch·comms 00:41, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Post hoc, brah. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:59, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh well. fetch·comms 01:27, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There was a banner ad? You mean "Work at Wikipedia" wasn't a new way of cracking the whip at recalcitrant editors? Risker (talk) 02:01, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, I thought that was pretty rude. I already work here. Oh! They must mean work at wikipedia for money. –xenotalk 17:57, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed Dead

There's 2 references that confirm he is dead.Bllasae (talk) 22:46, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No there aren't. There are two references that say he might be. – iridescent 22:51, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You might want to let your troll friends know that I am responding to your query, and now I realize that you're just that person who wants every person on Wikipedia to be in the Possibly Alive category.Bllasae (talk) 22:52, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
And you might want to stop removing my posts. – iridescent 22:54, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Who are you? You're not MZMcBride.Therefore, I fail to see why you're in our conversation.Bllasae (talk) 23:13, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Who knows. iridescent might be MZMcBride. Stranger things have happened. Which two references confirm that he's dead? --MZMcBride (talk) 23:20, 3 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm

Y R U IN MAI WIKI? Reedy 13:46, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Addiction. :-( --MZMcBride (talk) 16:44, 4 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A job for you?

Since you are running in toolserver amybe you could program your bot to tag talk pages of the pages found in http://toolserver.org/~jarry/livingparam and http://toolserver.org/~jarry/livingparam3/ with {{WPBiography|living=yes}}?

Likewise talk pages of the pages found in http://toolserver.org/~jarry/livingparam2 should be marked with {{WPBiography|living=no}}.

It's better if we automatise this job. -- Magioladitis (talk) 12:48, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Category intersections can lead to misleading results sometimes. I'm not sure this is a task fit for automation. At some point Yobot tagged a lot of talk pages as living=yes and I'm still finding remnants of the mess. --MZMcBride (talk) 05:51, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think this mistake had nothing to do with the above cases. I apparently used the wrong task (lv=yes instead of liv=no) for people in dead categories. -- Magioladitis (talk) 06:39, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

True * 32

Wikipedia:Dump reports/Helium --MZMcBride (talk) 05:51, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, just in case you missed it, there is an oppurtunity to get a free dinner this Tuesday August 11 and a chance to meet and hang out talk about Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy and WP:GLAM/SI. Sorry that this is so late in the game, I was hoping the e-mail would be a better form of contact for active members (if you want to get on the e-mail list send me an User e-mail ). Hope that you can attend, User:Sadads (talk)12:32, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Categories

Hey, so I was just wondering if you knew of a simple way to get a list of the Wikipedia categories sorted by number of articles per category. Thanks. -Dfinzer (talk) 21:35, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you familiar with the Toolserver? Depending on what you need, you could request an account there or have someone with an account run the reports for you.

The issue you'll probably run into is that the category table's cat_pages field isn't always accurate (and I'm not sure how it deals with namespaces...). So if you want accurate counts, you'll probably have to run a subquery to count each category individually. This also brings the advantage that you can filter the count to certain namespaces, like only articles. Unfortunately, the categorylinks table (which you'd run the subquery on) is sort of perpetually fucked (see also: bugzilla:10667).

I don't know what your time constraints are, so it's a bit unclear whether you're asking me to generate such a list or if you want to try it on your own first. If you want me to do it, you'll have to give a few more details. Hope that helps. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:48, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's very helpful. It's not urgent at all; I was just wondering if something was out there already. The question came up because I compiled such a list for pages that were put under pending changes and wanted to see how that compared to categories on Wikipedia in general—but its nothing really too important for the analysis. I probably won't take the trouble to compile a list (this is the last week of my internship), and you certainly don't have to. In fact I can get most of the info I need from the Special:CategoryTree tool. Thanks for your help -Dfinzer (talk) 22:20, 9 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

To-do

Before I forget:

--MZMcBride (talk) 20:13, 12 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination for deletion of Template:NOINDEX

Template:NOINDEX has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)TCM☯ 18:43, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmph.

Wikidick measuring at its finest! Killiondude (talk) 05:47, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hahaaaaaa, I beat you, suck on that. --Closedmouth (talk) 11:41, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That just blew my mind. Why in the hell are 154 people watching my talk page? And there are lots of banned/blocked/retired users way higher up the list than little old me.
Anyway, what I really came to here to say was that I, like many others, would have liked to support you at RFA, but you have to know that trust takes time, and trust that has been broken takes a long time to mend. If you want to show a commitment to avoid the drama in the future, a good first step would be to politely withdraw your nomination as you would need an unprecedented turnaround to pass this time through anyway. Just some free advice to take or leave as you please. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:30, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As to talk page watchers, a lot of people will choose to watch a talk page when they leave a message or when observing interactions between other users. It's probably just built up over time. Throwaway85 (talk)
Well, after number 2, some people gave me grief for withdrawing early. I'm under no delusion about the final outcome. But watching some of the "thoughtful" neutrals (people too chicken-shit to outright oppose) is amusing enough to let it continue, at least for now. --MZMcBride (talk) 22:39, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've gotta agree with you somewhat there. I don't know why some people are so afraid to go ahead and admit they oppose, or add "moral support" when they obviously oppose the candidate. I suppose in the real world you see the same compromises between honesty and being nice, like if a woman asks you "does this make me look fat" we all know that there is only one correct answer and it is most definitely not "yes it does" but it's also not "I just can't decide, you are a bit pudgy looking in that and I don't really think you should wear it but I don't want to pile on and say you are fat." Beeblebrox (talk) 16:44, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

RfA answer

Thank you for your considered answer to my question. I am leaning towards supporting you, but I guess I'd just like a personal assurance that any further experiments that could prove controversial get at least a nominal run by the community. I think you do good work, and I think the project would benefit from your having the tools, but I don't want to get burned. Throwaway85 (talk) 03:23, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I will give you that assurance. I don't have any intention of participating in any further experiments, but in the off chance that one comes to mind (and "experiment" in this context would be more like a "trial run" of something, not a mad scientist type of thing), I would post to the appropriate places on-wiki first. --MZMcBride (talk) 03:29, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Good enough for me. Thanks. Throwaway85 (talk) 03:45, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your RfA has been closed

I regret to inform you that your RfA has been closed as unsuccessful per WP:NOTNOW. It is apparent from the overwhelming oppose opinions that now is not the right time for this request. I recommend taking the oppose opinions to heart and working to address the concerns raised there. Please let me know if you have any questions. ···日本穣? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WikiProject Japan! 05:21, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. --MZMcBride (talk) 05:26, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I got a good laugh out of that. Throwaway85 (talk) 05:48, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
So I see. ···日本穣? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WikiProject Japan! 05:35, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That seems fairly reactionary to me. I could timeline it, but you already know you went from "ambivalent" to "raaaaage" in a matter of minutes when you were reverted. I guess that speaks to something, don't you think? --MZMcBride (talk) 18:33, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not seeing where you're getting "raaage" from, but whatever. I really was ambivalent about it; didn't really care one way or the other. You reverting of the closure, however, showed me in black and white (and a few colors, on the log/history pages) that you really didn't care about following guidelines and policies, especially when it comes to doing what you want to do. So, here we are, damning the torpedoes and going full speed ahead, as requested. I hope you're having fun. :) ···日本穣? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WikiProject Japan! 04:09, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I can't say I really learned much from your attempted early closure. From what I've noticed about your editing habits, it seems to be a standard part of your M.O. Anyway, it's always a blast around here. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 19:53, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ANI Discussion

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. Access Denied talk contribs editor review 05:30, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Request related to possible edit filter

I would like a list of all pages in Category:WikiProject LGBT studies articles, where there are edits from the past couple months which the following is true about:

  1. The editor is either an account which is currently blocked, or an IP address which has been blocked since the edit (if possible, this should include range blocks)
  2. The edit content is either hidden (under WP:REVDEL), or resulted in a version which isn't part of Category:WikiProject LGBT studies articles.

Please send this to me by e-mail, don't post it on Wikipedia, per WP:DENY. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 16:12, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds fairly complex. Isn't this something that could be enabled in the AbuseFilter in a "dry run" mode instead? --MZMcBride (talk) 19:21, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I'm trying to find the records for the padst, in order to write a filter. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 19:26, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You may want to try WP:BOTREQ. I doubt I'll have much time to deal with anytime soon.
I imagine you'd go through each talk page, check the editors from the past three months, then run each through the API using &list=blocks&bkip= and whatever the equivalent is for block logs. Then you'd have to look at the page content for each edit, see if it's accessible (if not, it was revdeleted, if so, check it for the category or template code).
It's doable, but not in a database query, it requires a script. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:39, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

AutoPatrolled

Hi MZMcBride, I've recently removed the Autopatroller flag from someone who is still creating uBLs, and I was wondering if you'd help me find some more? There are bound to be a lot of false positives in this - vandals removing references, IPs turning dab pages and redirects into articles, as well as the uBLPs that turn out to be about bands, dead people or fictional characters or indeed that are referenced, so it might be safest to email me the list, but I'm looking for users with that flag who've created articles this year that have subsequently been tagged as uBLPs. A weekly run should pick up on the ones that get deleted/referenced. Do you think this is possible and if so would you be interested? ϢereSpielChequers 17:31, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just to make this clearer for me, you want:
Is that about right? If you have any current examples of this (so that I can check my results), that'd be helpful, too. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:18, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, yes I suppose for fairness I should also check out admins as they also have that as part of the mop, and its probably best to go for either tagged with {{unreferenced BLP}} or a sticky prod. I'll email you the example if that's OK. ϢereSpielChequers 11:08, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your RfA

Hello, MZ. May I ask why you want your RfA to remain open when it is pretty much all assured of failure? Thank you. -- Avi (talk) 17:36, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think he already said on the RfA's talk page... he wants to get to WP:100... possibly WP:119 so that he has the most opposes.---Balloonman NO! I'm Spartacus! 17:48, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Avi: In the real world, there are a lot of votes every year that have obvious (or seemingly obvious) outcomes. I don't think that makes it appropriate to truncate them at the whim of an individual. This vote is supposed to run for seven days. Unless there's some exigency that requires that that not happen or that I withdraw, seven days is how long it's going to run. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:23, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
For better or for worse, wikipedia is not the real world. My concern here is that the discussion in and of itself may be causing disruption. If there is a constructive reason for it to remain open, such as getting more constructive criticism, I am staunchly in favor of leaving it open despite the fait accompli of its eventual result (which you could see if you read the entire BN section). However, if the sole purpose is to gain "points" such as "Most opposed RfA", in my opinion, that does not serve to further the project, which should be the overriding issue for everything that is hosted on the wiki servers. Personally, I am going to leave my 'crat hat off now and not officially close it early, but I'd still suggest that we should all keep in mind if our actions and posts are for the encyclopedia's benefit or detriment. Thank you. -- Avi (talk) 18:36, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As long as people continue asking questions and voting, I think there can be a presumption that the encyclopedia is being served. If, for example, you look at the exchange between me and Throwaway85, you can see that some good progress is being made in some areas. Some much-needed clarifications are being made. And some much-misunderstood points are also coming to light. I think, on the whole, the RFA is still beneficial. (And, I really wouldn't use "hosted on the wiki servers" as a good argument when there is still cruft like secret pages allowed to sit around forever. ;-) ) --MZMcBride (talk) 18:41, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough regarding the RfA. As an aside, I've also always been against the "secret" and "fancruft" pages personally and have opined so at every request for comment that I have known about. -- Avi (talk) 18:53, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You've officially made WP:100 Throwaway85 (talk) 02:54, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Twice a member now, I think. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:44, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
At least two people are on three times . -- Avi (talk) 23:57, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, not counting notes after lists, it seems that there are 9 people on 3 times, and that is the maximum number as of now . -- Avi (talk) 02:17, 27 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

An idea for a later date

Given how useful the admin bit can be in regards to the development and testing of scripts and bots, you might want to consider asking permission to create a separate account solely for that purpose, and apply for adminship on that account with the express understanding that the tools will only be used to help you develop new tools for the wiki, and not to dish out blocks or the like. I get the feeling that, while there are undoubtedly those who simply don't like you and don't feel that you can be trusted, there are also a significant number of people who greatly appreciate the work you've done, but are uncomfortable with you acting as an administrator again. It might go a long way toward alleviating people's concerns were you to draw up a list of what that account would and would not be used for, and agree to abide by same. There's no guarantee that an RfA under these criteria would pass, but I think that, were you to start one in 3-6 months, you'd have a much better shot. Anyway, just something to consider. Throwaway85 (talk) 07:54, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I already have access to everything. It's just a matter of efficiency (and a matter of bureaucracy, I suppose) whether this account is in a particular user group. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:46, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Bribery could work too, or blackmail. Mr.Z-man 20:03, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations

The "support" in your RfA was at 35% the level of the opposes when it was first closed, but now it is at 45% of the opposes. It would be hilarious if the "supports" eventually overtook the opposes (even if it ends up being rejected). TheGoodLocust (talk) 07:56, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Edwards bot and interwiki Signpost subscriptsion

Hi, any chance you could contribute? diff. Tony (talk) 04:57, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I left a note with Pathoschild here. If he isn't interested in writing the bot, I'll write it. I already wrote most of it in my head a few days ago after Sage pinged me in an edit summary. --MZMcBride (talk) 07:38, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh thank you! This new functionality, I believe, is of immense significance in boosting the readership of The Signpost, and probably more importantly, of making the publication a new (but not the only) vehicle for interwiki collaborations. Tony (talk) 11:09, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I started work on this at m:Global message delivery. I'll hopefully finish it this week. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:51, 1 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, try to break it. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 23:16, 1 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Johnny Cash

Here's the Johnny Cash version [4] - probably would be a cool infobox by the way...Modernist (talk) 13:03, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, neat. :-) I went searching around for it a bit and discovered I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know, among other things. Pretty interesting. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:46, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi MZM. It has been about a month and a half since this particular database report was updated. Do you think you could update it? Thanks, NW (Talk) 13:08, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Running now. This should probably be automated.... --MZMcBride (talk) 18:44, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A3RO is still listed... can you configure it to leave out blocked users? Of course, it'll probably be moot if PC is disabled. fetch·comms 23:25, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

RfA closed

I have closed your RfA as unsuccessful. Regards, —Anonymous DissidentTalk 07:34, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, a nail-biter to the very end. --MZMcBride (talk) 20:27, 31 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Test subject 1

Test message 1. --EdwardsBot (talk) 23:00, 1 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Test subject 2

¡Test message 2! --EdwardsBot (talk) 23:12, 1 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

global delivery

Awesome! I imagine HaeB will be eager to try this out with the Signpost; can you add him to the access list?

The Original Barnstar
For paving the way for cross-project deliveries, I award MZMcBride this barnstar.--ragesoss (talk) 01:12, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is a great move. However, I'm a techno-dummy, so I asked Ohconfucius to try it. He has asked you a question about it here on my talk page. Thank you! Tony (talk) 02:48, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ragesoss: Thanks for the barnstar. :-) I added HaeB to the access list in this edit.
Tony1: I replied to Ohconfucius here. Clearly the instructions still need (a lot of) work. ;-) --MZMcBride (talk) 03:38, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot for making this reality! The format looks familiar. I'll try to integrate this into the existing Signpost publication process as seamlessly as possible (on other wikis, it is not possible to use the existing Signpost template, but I was already working on a system to automatically generate a copy+pastable content list of the current issue in various formats). Ohconfucius' help in operating the bot is very welcome.

I just tried to estimate how many Signpost copies EdwardsBot has delivered already (since October 2009) and arrived at around 45,000. Nice work! I will mention that number when we announce the new service in the Signpost.

Regards, HaeB (talk) 04:08, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I should point out that the global system was hacked up fairly quickly today and may have bugs. So you all probably want to test it a bit before using it in production mode (and updating documentation, etc.).
Regarding templates, I hope you're aware of Special:ExpandTemplates. It's probably what you want to make copy-pasteable content. It's what I'd use, at least.
And, yeah, EdwardsBot has been a busy bee. 55,325 live edits and 85 deleted edits at the moment. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 04:14, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No, this is mainly about non-wikitext formats such as for the RSS feed or mailing list announcements. And how would one use Special:ExpandTemplates to generate the issue content list for other wikis (e.g. this with wikilinks replaced by interwiki links to en:)? (My current plan is to extend the existing display options in Pretzels' Signpost template system, I recently wrote up some documentation for them).
My estimate was about the Signpost deliveries only (starting on 27 October 2009, when the spamlist had 986 entries, today it has 1077 - 45 weeks). Still, it seems we are the largest customer ;)
Regards, HaeB (talk) 04:47, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, links, right.... I guess you'd do a find/replace on those. Nasty. They say global templates are coming soon (where "soon" is anywhere between a month and a year). It was someone's Summer of Code project. The other parts (RSS and foundation-l posting) could be automated, but that would leave too little to do for the human editors. ;-) --MZMcBride (talk) 04:55, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, the Signpost says so (in this week's tech report) ;)
Yes, I prefer not to have a solution where the new issue is blogged/posted automatically (that should still be done by hand), but I want to avoid having to generate the HTML or mail text using - you name it - find and replace. Anyway, I shouldn't bother you with this further.
Thanks again for your work!
Regards, HaeB (talk) 05:40, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

←Ohconfucius and I bumbled through the process a couple of hours ago and sent off a cut and paste of the most recent SP talk-page message to the six addresses now listed at the target page. At another project, it yielded red links for everything—and reading above, it's clear that HaeB is the best one to organise an interwiki template for this purpose. In terms of inviting non-en.WP users to subscribe, it seems to be a relatively simple process of linking them to the [5] page and asking that they input their address in the given format. I have a few ideas for gently promulgating the existence of this functionality, when it's up and working. Tony (talk) 12:29, 2 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I did a successful test run with a hand-created page for the last Signpost. There is a (somewhat trivial but annoying) issue with the format of the target list, concerning user names with spaces, see m:Template talk:Target.

Regards, HaeB (talk) 06:12, 5 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed (and replied on the talk page). --MZMcBride (talk) 06:19, 5 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, you can incorporate the signature into the message. It doesn't have to be on its own line or anything. Nothing in the script even looks for a signature or anything like that. It is nice to include a timestamp, though, so that archive bots don't get confused. It might actually be preferable to link to "Global message delivery" instead of "EdwardsBot". Just a thought. --MZMcBride (talk) 06:25, 5 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]