User talk:Subpagination Bot/Task 1

Comments:

• Note that the old subpage templates are of the form subpagesN, not subpagesNN.

--Larry Sanger 10:45, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Oops, I was confused after all. "If none of these conditions are met" you say. --Larry Sanger 10:55, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Well, I've looked it over as exhaustively as I'm going to, and it looks excellent. One reservation is that the script doesn't simply scoop up the checklist data, but actually processes and reorganizes it. This is probably a good idea, but I am concerned about parsing in that case. Will it handle different styles of indentation? What about capitalization? Maybe some people have messed with that--I don't know if template attributes are case-sensitive, but if not... --Larry Sanger 11:03, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

It should handle all indentation styles correctly. Everything is case sensitive, except the first letter of the name of the template, so you can write "{{checklist …" or "{{Checklist …". Both are recognized. But you are right that this parsing should be done with a great deal of care. I added a test that all template attribute should be recognized and that none should be repeated, to make sure that any pages where the checklist cannot be parsed is skipped. -- Jitse Niesen 07:58, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

Hi Jitse, I just checked through your test run samples and everything looks OK. It is good that you reordered the content of the checklist and put the cat1-3 fields lower. That will help the constables a lot, in the future, since it will allow them to cleanly cut and paste the "cat1 to date" fields directly into the {{approval}} template that lives on the approval page (part of the current approval process developed by Matt to improve and simplify record keeping). Nice job. Chris Day (talk) 15:50, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Jitse, Chris--is there anything else that needs to be done before we run the bot? I don't think so. Why don't we do it beginning, say, 11 PM Eastern/4 AM GMT, which seems to be usually a fairly slow time. Let's do announce this on Citizendium-L and the notice board first, though, so people don't freak out.  :-) --Larry Sanger 09:26, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

I think it could be useful to have a separate account for these edits. If that account is flagged as belonging to a bot, then the edits do not show up on Special:Recentchanges (unless they are explicitly requested). It would also give a possibility to stop the bot if necessary: constables can just block the account. 4 AM GMT is 2 PM local time for me, so I can babysit the bot for a couple of hours which would be good. -- Jitse Niesen 21:32, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

That would be fine. What name do you want for the bot? --Larry Sanger 21:33, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

"Subpagination bot" will do. Or call it "Jitse Niesen's bot" in line with the real names policy; that also says who's responsible. -- Jitse Niesen 23:19, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

Just a quick thought. Have you tested the bot on pages that have either {{subpages9}} or {{subpages4}} templates? Or are we going to do that switch manually? Chris Day (talk) 10:14, 18 September 2007 (CDT)

As currently written, the bot skips pages with either {{subpages9}} or {{subpages4}}, that is, it leaves them unchanged. The reason for that is that I wanted to define the task for the bot as narrowly as possible (there was also some discussion on the forum that we leave some pages using the old templates). Anyway, it will be very easy to change subpages4/9 to subpages later. There is a standard program for replacing one template with another, which I can run at any time it is required. -- Jitse Niesen 22:09, 18 September 2007 (CDT)

One more thought, will it be ignoring approved articles? I just converted Dog into a subpage format and it was a different experience to converting a regular article. For example, transfering approval info to the approval subpage as well as ensuring the approving editor/s are added to the metadata template. Chris Day (talk) 23:26, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

It skips any protected pages, which can only be edited by constables. All approved pages should be protected, so the bot will also skip approved pages. -- Jitse Niesen 03:12, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

Hi Jitse, i just changed the "dialect" parameter in the metadata box to "variant". Can you make sure this is reflected in the text that the bot writes onto the new metadata pages. Also will it be possible for the bot to correct the metadata templates that have already been corrected created ? Thanks Chris Day (talk) 08:26, 21 September 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the warning; this is now taken into account. -- Jitse Niesen 00:36, 22 September 2007 (CDT)

Great, I was informed that variant is the correct terminology. It makes sense to change this as soon as possible. Just out of interest, how easy will it be to add parameters to the metadata template in the future? Should we be trying to update it like mad before you run the bot, or are you willing and able to run a maintenance bot now and again? Chris Day (talk) 00:45, 22 September 2007 (CDT)

It should be easy to add parameters to the template. And yes, I intend to run the bot occasionally when issues come up. I think it's better to consider carefully what parameters should be added to the metadata template.

Actually, I'd like to start the whole process in a couple of days, if that's okay with you. I'll also ask Larry. -- Jitse Niesen 01:28, 22 September 2007 (CDT)

In that case any addition can be done at a later date. I agree it is better to consider additions with care. I have no problems with running it now. I think we have covered as many eventualities as possible. Chris Day (talk) 02:18, 22 September 2007 (CDT)