User talk:A930913/Archives/2014/Apr

I don't or didn't think I posted this

<ref>Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. [{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p5255|pure_url=yes}} "The Replacements > Biography".] Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-02-03.</ref> I don't / didn't think I posted this. I can't find it in my postings and I don't know how to fix it, sorry. :)

When the bot detects that someone may have caused a bracket mismatch, it will list all mismatched brackets it detects, not just the ones caused by the edit. Huon (talk) 00:59, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Andhra Pradesh page error

Can you tell me on which topic or line is the error you have detected. Vin09 (talk) 06:11, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

@Vin09: Unfortunately ReferenceBot currently seems to have a bug that makes it list the wrong diff; the one which caused the unnamed parameter error is this one. In many cases you can find reference errors by skimming through the references section where they'll be highlighted in red. I have fixed those errors. Huon (talk) 08:18, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

stop writing on my talk page

Put me on a black list or something. RefBot has added hundreds of links to my talk page. Stop it.

(I don't mind bracketbot & the rest. they're useful) — kwami (talk) 00:31, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

RefBot was approved as exclusion-compliant. You should be able to add

{{bots|deny=ReferenceBot}}

to your talk page to stop it editing there. If this isn't successful, the bot may be blocked for not adhering to it's approved terms. –xeno^talk 03:38, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks

I am thankful to you and keep on guiding me.Rajsector3 (talk) 03:49, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Can I just leave a quick message to say that BracketBot is awesome?

Because it is. You rock. People like you make Wikipedia great. --FeldBum (talk) 17:01, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
	How may I barnstar thee? Let me count the ways. Anti-vandalism, Brilliant Idea, Good Humor, Tireless Contributor, and possibly even Defender of the Wiki seeing how you mitigate the fact that anybody can write anything about anybody! Do they have one for being just a darn nice stand-up fella? — Smuckola (Email) (Talk) 04:41, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

User message wording

It occurs to me that we quite often see strange entries on this talk page, addressed to BracketBot as the fount of all knowledge on anything Wikipedian. This may be in part to do with the user message, which says in part: "...if you have any questions, leave a message on my operator's talk page". This leaves it open not only to the type of questions you may be expecting, like "why did BracketBot pick up on my excellent brackets?" but to others, out to "who made the stars?"

Recall that almost everyone who edits makes slips with brackets - even *I* do - but especially newbies, and the BracketBot message may well be the one and only time that a user ever sees a message come up on their own talk page, ie that they ever get any personal feedback from Wikipedia. So it must look like their invite to ask any and all questions. I'd suggest considering tweaking the message to read something like: "...if you wish to respond to this message about bracket placement, please... and if you have any other query or comment about Wikipedia, you are welcome to contact our help desk at..." Just an idea: Noyster (talk), 19:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

@Noyster: It was originally to appease the bot haters as an inviting gesture, but I agree it has got a bit out of control. Technically it was brought in as part of the BRfA, and would technically need a consensus to change, but being bold would probably be fine unless someone complains. Frankly I haven't the time any more, but I did once want to change the messages and try find the one that resulted in the least queries/most fixes. If anyone wants to in good faith, I wouldn't mind, and if I did, I'd just say so. 930913(Congratulate) 22:06, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

As a frequent watcher of this page and someone very interested in the workings of ReferenceBot, I support any change to this wording that makes it clearer and links to the Help Desk. It won't entirely stop inexperienced editors from posting strange messages here, but it should reduce the strangeness somewhat. I hope.

Would it be reasonable to collaboratively draft a new message text, perhaps on a subpage of this one or at User:BracketBot/inform/sandbox, and then copy it to the live version? – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

William J. Cullerton article

Thanks for the attempt to help me correct the material (and many) errors concerning Bill Cullerton's WWII combat record.

Having said that, the 'rules' for first establishing my personal authority on this subject, as well as the confusing steps to cite as reference my recently published book on the history of the 355th FG caused me to abandon the effort.

Regards,

James W. (Bill) Marshall, author of "Angels, Bulldogs and Dragons -History of the 355th FG in WWII"; Champlin Press, Mesa, AZ 1984 and most recently "Our Might Always: The 355th FG in WWII - Volume I"; Schiffer Publications Ltd., Atglen PA, 2014.

Nobody is as well informed on the history of the 355th FG, 355th TFW and 355th FW from 1942 through current date. Drgondog (talk) 15:29, 23 April 2014 (UTC)Drgondog

@Drgondog: I'm sorry to hear that, but Wikipedia does not accept anybody's personal authority; all content must be based on reliable published sources. I'd gladly help with formatting the references, if that's the issue. Huon (talk) 16:52, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

I just noticed that your book isn't due until June. There is no way how our readers can verify what a not-yet-published book says. Thus citing it is premature. On an unrelated note, page numbers would have been nice so our readers don't have to read the entire volume to verify a certain fact. Huon (talk) 17:00, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Thank you!

I'm sorry for not replying (failed to notice), and thank you for pointing and I appreciate your help! Best Regards (User:Gamera1123) — Preceding undated comment added 15:16, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Don't worry about not replying; the bot itself is an automated program and does not expect a reply. Happy editing! Huon (talk) 23:36, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

List of Washington's Headquarters during the Revolutionary War

Thanks, BracketBot. I fixed both problems. -- BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 21:29, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

You're welcome, happy editing! Huon (talk) 22:36, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

BracketBot – Carlitos9305

thank you very much !! Hello, I'm Carlitos9305 you were right about the issue, I had sintaxys errors, and corrected the error in Comparison of TeX editors — Preceding undated comment added 20:57, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

You're welcome, thank you for fixing the issue! Huon (talk) 21:14, 29 April 2014 (UTC)