User talk:Σ

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This page is archived by ClueBot III.

Problem with bot "Lowercase sigmabot III"

Bot does not check for active RFC headers before archiving discussions. This needs fixing. IHateAccounts (talk) 15:33, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @IHateAccounts: It's not supposed to. A bot cannot examine a thread to see what type of thread it is, nor what is under discussion, all it can do is look for timestamps. If the newest timestamp that it finds is more than a certain age (that age being specified in the |algo=old(5d) parameter), the thread is eligible for archiving. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:33, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Also: I presume that you refer to this pair of edits, of which you reverted just one? Please note that by not reverting both of Lowercase sigmabot III's edits, there now exist threads that are both in the live talk page and in the archives. This is a problem, and not the first time that you have caused it, either. If you look at the present version of Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 323, you will see that threads titled 'Tapol bulletin', 'House of Parliament raw data for dates of birth of living people', 'Irish Times and Irish Examiner', 'RFC: "Jihad Watch", should it be deprecated as a source?', 'Are these estimates reliable?' and 'Daily Kos election predictions' all exist twice in that archive, and moreover, all six of them may also be found at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. Why do you think that we need three copies each of six discussions? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:53, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

@IHateAccounts: See User:Lowercase sigmabot III/Archive HowTo#Delaying or preventing archiving of particular threads. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:17, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I think it ought to check for RFC tags and see if the RFC is awaiting closure, or just skip over RFC sections. I shouldn't have to know some super-obscure tagging to prevent the bot from malfunctioning. IHateAccounts (talk) 21:38, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Seriously if the bot is "smart" enough to look for the "User:DoNotArchiveUntil" text, it ought to be able to look for the {{rfc| string just as easily. IHateAccounts (talk) 21:41, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Right, if the bot knows how to detect that kind of template it should also know how to detect RfC tags. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 21:42, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Bot coders save us from a lot of manual work. Let's not annoy them with terms like "malfunctioning" when a bot doesn't do everything we would like. RfC's can theoretically be open forever per Wikipedia:Requests for comment#Duration. Legobot removes {{rfc}} when an RfC has run for 30 days per Template:Rfc#Expiry, e.g. here. Ideally the section shouldn't be archived before that. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:07, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

If the bot messes up, please call me out. I am hardly infallible. That said be sure that the bot is actually messing up before coming here. →Σσς. (Sigma) 03:58, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

If you feel that threads at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard are being archived too soon, adjust the |algo=old(5d) parameter. Five days is a very short period of time when you consider that some people are only able to edit on one day each week. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:25, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

This is a bit pedantic, but the bot is actually not smart enough to look for the "Do not archive until" text. All the bot does to determine whether a section should be archived is look at the timestamps in the section, and {{DNAU}} works by adding a timestamp that is very far into the future. The "Do not archive until" part is explanatory, but irrelevant. That said, the extra coding work to add the {{rfc| check is minimal. — The Earwig ^talk 03:57, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

This is correct. Additional work to add archivenow or archivenever functionality can in principle be done but requires more effort and more BRFAs than I am able to commit to at the moment. →Σσς. (Sigma) 03:58, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Sandbox code gone?

I killed off User:lowercase sigmabot II's task earlier because for whatever reason, between 00:28 and 06:28 on 12 Jan the code stopped being added to the various sandboxes, which ended up causing some issues with Cyberbot (I'm sure you've seen the ping at AN by now). I can't for the life of me find where the code would have disappeared to, as everything on-wiki appears as normal (i.e. nothing futzed with recently). Primefac (talk) 01:19, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

The Earwig found the blanking in {{Sandbox reset}}, which I honestly have no idea how I missed, but such is life. I've re-"true"d the shutoff page. Primefac (talk) 02:09, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Archy McArchface button caption in Timeless

Thank you for developing this Archy McArchface. I don't use the Timeless skin myself, but when working on {{Select skin}} I've noticed that with the Timeless skin, the button caption "archive all the selected threads" goes below the bottom of the screen and so only half of the letters is visible. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:20, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

@Andrybak: thanks →Σσς. (Sigma) 03:55, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

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