purging Main Page cache

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Could the bot purge the cache of the Main Page after updating the FA number, so that the updated version appears immediately? Thanks, BanyanTree 17:22, 17 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Certainly. It now does so. --Jmax- 22:54, 17 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Problem?

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This page gets used in Template:TFAfooter, which gets used on the 'article of the day' pages, which get displayed on the Main page. Ergo, anything on this page gets displayed on the Main page. As such, I'd think that this page needs to be protected... but that would prevent the bot from updating it. Thoughts? --CBD 12:49, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Jumping in here, user subpages ending in ".js" may be edited only by the user and by admins, so it is, in effect, protected. (Try looking at User:Jmax-bot/FACount.js while logged out.) This was a bit of a hack as several Wikipedians at the requests for approval page said that they would not support sysopping the bot so it could edit a protected template, which was the original proposal. If the .js subpage workaround didn't emerge as an option that would allow a non-sysop bot to get a counter on the Main Page, the bot would be putting the numbers in more intuitively named pages in the template space or not be working at all. - BanyanTree 13:21, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply
Ah right, I'd forgotten about that aspect of .js pages. All ok then. --CBD 14:05, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Bot granted

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Your bot now has a flag! =Nichalp «Talk»= 17:29, 25 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Bot stopped

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The bot has stopped working for the second time this week. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Raul, doublechecking the 1207 ? It was 1198 when the bot stopped on the 29th, after Marskell removed four, and you added 5 on the 30th, 5 on the 31st - is it 1208, or did I miss one? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:26, 31 December 2006 (UTC)Reply
Yes, I made a mistake - 1208 is the correct count. Raul654 16:52, 31 December 2006 (UTC)Reply
Perhaps that Hoponpop69 removal was the confusion - that article (whose name I'm unable to type :-) was restated by Schutz as an invalid removal. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:00, 31 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Going again, looks good - thanks, Jmax. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:32, 31 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Bot error

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Two FAs were FARC'd on January 7: Saxophone and First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Marskell didn't remove them from WP:FA: LuciferMorgan did.[1] Although LuciferMorgan is not a whitelisted user, and no whitelisted user has yet edited, the count is showing a reduction of two (to 1203) since Lucifer's edit.[2] Is the whitelist working? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:57, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Sorry about that. I should've done it right away and then lost my access in the middle of archiving the FAR talk (the company pays, not me!).
As for the whitelist, I'm not sure what the deal is. The debug report is suggesting that it's still using my revision from four days ago,[3] but it's counting based on Lucifer's. Marskell 08:38, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
I was glad you missed one, Marskell (a rare event); it gave us a chance to test the bot whitelist :-) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:04, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Yes, there is an issue with the whitelist. I'll take a look at it shortly. -- Jmax- 21:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Pls check

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Hey, Jmax - the FA count has been at 1221 for several cycles, but the main page and WP:FA are still showing 1224. WP:FFA shows the correct number (320). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:48, 15 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

hmmm ... found the problem - someone changed it ... what do we do about this, and shouldn't it be protected? [4] I thought this was prevented by the whitelist ?? Does a revert correct it? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:53, 15 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
By the way, this is the second time I've run into an admin change which doesn't recognize WP:FFA - the reduction from 1224 to 1221 is due to the removal of Carlsbad Caverns, Libertarianism, and Sydney Riot - can we protect the number from admin changes? Also, since I'm not an admin, I don't know if I can revert back to the correct number, or how to correct it, so I'm leaving it alone. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:58, 15 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
The editor who changed it has now reverted, but I'd like to know if the whitelist is working, and how I can avoid bugging everyone each time this occurs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:10, 15 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Now I'm confused...

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Yesterday a user decided to close some FARs out of nowhere, delisting three FAs. Another non-whitelisted updated WP:FA with three removals. I reverted today, and noticed that the count had held at 1221, from my last edit. Great, methought--the whitelist is working. But looking at the debug after, it showed 1215, with some odd bouncing around over the last 24hrs. It just went back up to 1218 based on my last edit. But this doesn't agree with 1221 still showing on WP:FA... Any idea what's up? Marskell 13:24, 19 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

As far as I've been able to tell (sorry, traveling, and on slow dialup connection), the whitelist is not working, and I'm not sure it's ever been working. I am still keeping a daily manual tally - necesssary until we're sure the bot is fully functional. The correct count is now at 1218: the main page is wrong again. I'm not really sure anyone else is following this issue or even reading this page - Marskell, since I have limited access, maybe ping Banyan Tree ? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:33, 19 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
I've manually updated the count per Sandy's note above. Raul has looked over the code but he isn't running the bot. Only Jmax-, as far as I know, has access to this account, so a fix will have to wait until he returns. - BanyanTree 22:12, 19 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
My own manual count also showed 1218. It's now down to 1215 after recent removals. Should the bot go? Marskell 14:47, 20 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Note for manual tally; 10 FAs promoted Jan 20 - current count 1225. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Further confusion about the bot: in the last addition, Shyam Bihari (talk · contribs) manually updated the tally before the bot had a chance to run. Not sure why he's doing that - but it's adding another factor making it hard to know if the whitelist is working. I pinged him a few days ago about the bot, so not clear why he's still manually adjusting the number. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:13, 21 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Today's bot count is correct, but User:Jmax-bot/FACount.js is not correctly updating. Current FA count is 1223. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 08:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Bot is stalled

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Not running. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:21, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Missed a couple of hours - going again. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:24, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

This is a automated to all bot operators

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Please take a few moments and fill in the data for your bot on Wikipedia:Bots/Status Thank you Betacommand (talkcontribsBot) 19:35, 12 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Bot is stalled again

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The bot has been stalled for several days; current count after demotion of Igor Stravinsky is 1239 FAs and 342 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:20, 16 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

British East India Company demoted, 11 promoted on 17 Feb; 1249 FAs, 343 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 13:45, 17 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Oakland Cemetery, Marilyn Manson, Baseball and Flag of South Africa defeatured Feb 19 -4; Tally, 1245 FAs, 347 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Remove Carl Sagan, Tally 1244 FAs, 348 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Remove Battle of the Somme, 15 promoted; tally 1258 FAs, 349 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:50, 23 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Promoted six; tally 1264 FAs, 349 FFAs. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:17, 23 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
It's just silly to have the counts fully protected as a js page now that it is not on the Main Page. I have made redirects to Template:FA number and Template:FFA number to allow direct editing by non-admins. I can undo all this once the bot is up. - BanyanTree 02:20, 23 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
I'm traveling, with poor internet access, so I'm continuing to run the tally above. We're back where we feared we'd be when this idea was initiated; that is, the tally on one page, the articles on another, two pages to update. If the bot isn't going to be repaired soon, it might be wise to go back to where we started (tally kept manually on the FA and FFA pages by Raul, Joel and Marskell), which really wasn't a problem. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:17, 23 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Updated. I just realized that the FA count is part of the cascading protection of the Main Page that was recently implemented. The bot can no longer update the page, which is probably causing all sorts of errors with the bot. I am going to remove the number from the Main Page and replace it with more general 1200+. - BanyanTree 14:58, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Actually, that shouldn't be the case. Cascading protection was set up to specifically not 'cascade' onto .js pages to avoid problems like this. --CBD 18:41, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Death

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My bot died in a hard drive malfunction on Wednesday the 14th, February 2007. I currently do not have the time to re-create it; I may in the not-so-distant future. -- Jmax- 20:23, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

As a precaution, I asked you to send me the code for the bot in January, before we ever put it on the main page. I still have that source, if you want it back. Raul654 00:28, 21 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Please feel free to use that source as you will, I no longer have the time to fix or run the bot. Apologies -- Jmax- 07:23, 1 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

Automated message to bot owners

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As a result of discussion on the village pump and mailing list, bots are now allowed to edit up to 15 times per minute. The following is the new text regarding bot edit rates from Wikipedia:Bot Policy:

Until new bots are accepted they should wait 30-60 seconds between edits, so as to not clog the recent changes list and user watchlists. After being accepted and a bureaucrat has marked them as a bot, they can edit at a much faster pace. Bots doing non-urgent tasks should edit approximately once every ten seconds, while bots who would benefit from faster editing may edit approximately once every every four seconds.

Also, to eliminate the need to spam the bot talk pages, please add Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard to your watchlist. Future messages which affect bot owners will be posted there. Thank you. --Mets501 03:07, 22 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Status?

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Has there been a decision about what is going to happen with this bot? I've updated the count a few times, and GimmeBot picked up a mistake (mine, I believe, since it's now hard to know who's doing what, especially since I'm traveling). Having the count on a separate page from the articles was never a good idea; if the bot is not going to be fixed, can we decide if we're going to go back to the way this was before (the count kept on the FA and FFA pages) to eliminate mistakes? Or, if we're going to continue to keep manual tallies in individual files, I need to tell Joelr31 and Marskell. Or, if the bot is going to be fixed eventually, I guess I shouldn't worry about it. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:28, 26 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

I'm really unavailable at the moment; Please feel free to re-post your bot request. Raul has my (old, but somewhat functional) source code, if the new bot operator so wishes. (S)he will have to make some bugfixes, however. -- Jmax- 07:23, 1 March 2007 (UTC)Reply