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Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Report is back up and running. I put a link at the top of WP:GAN. Not sure how else to get the word out. Can we get a notice in WP:POST. I will drop them a note.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 21:19, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I hadn't noticed until I saw the message here, so now I know it works (Yay!). As for beyond this tough to say. I guess the people high in the on hold backlog will notice it's working by my poking them :P Wizardman 18:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If the StatisticianBot is also updating the Backlog template, can the "If you review one of these articles, please remove it from the list and add the next oldest." be removed? -maclean (talk) 23:03, 29 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This statement was there when the list was being bot-updated before, and IMO, it should be retained. The bot actually adds the ten oldest articles to the list (five visible and five hidden), so as people review articles throughout the day, they can remove the article they reviewed and replace it with one of the hidden articles. It makes it so that more of the oldest noms are getting seen, and if we have an especially busy day, the list doesn't dwindle to nothing with none of the oldest noms being seen at the top. Dana boomer (talk) 23:08, 29 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, the statement should stay as per Dana boomer. Jezhotwells (talk) 23:28, 29 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bot didn't update today. :/ Wizardman 14:27, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The bot code has reached maturity, and all major issues have been addressed. Anything more to do before we start considering implementation? @harej 21:28, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well I'm not clear what Implementation involves. You perhaps aught to start off by stating what "implementation" will involve and what changes nominators and reviewers will see and have to do. Pyrotec (talk) 21:46, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Implementation involves WP:GAN being generated automatically: it means reviewers and nominators will no longer have to edit this page; one less job to do. See my request below (post ec) for comments from reviewers. Geometry guy 22:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all your work, harej. I encourage reviewers (and other interested editors) to watchlist User:RFC_bot/Sandbox_2 for a while and compare it (minus headers etc.) to the GAN page. Current activity should be mirrored there, although older reviews may not be reflected so accurately.

The automation of the GAN page has the potential to save a lot of work for nominators and reviewers; as the aim is to serve those who contribute so much to GA, comments and suggestions from regular reviewers would be particularly helpful. Geometry guy 22:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that many articles have the wrong subtopic listed in their GAN template parameter, resulting in them being listed in the wrong section on the page. This is most notable in articles that have no subtopic listed, as the articles end up in the "Miscellaneous" section. The parameters on the currently affected articles should be fixed, and nominators made aware of this issue for future nominations, before the bot goes live. Also, how often does the bot run? It appears from the history as if it's running once an hour - is there a way we could make this more frequent? Say every half hour or every 15 minutes? Third, what will the bot do in situations such as Talk:Hurricane Caroline (1975)/GA1? An editor has started the page, but not as the reviewer, rather simply as a commenter. From the look of the bot page, the bot reads this as the initiating editor being the main reviewer, and so lists the article as under review on the GAN page. This will make it so that (in general) no other reviewer looks at the article (thinking that it is under review) and so the article sits on the listing for much longer than it otherwise would have. I don't think the hurricane article is an isolated incident, either, because the same general principle is happening at Talk:United Arab Emirates/GA1. I think the bot needs a bit more tweaking before it's ready for the main page.Dana boomer (talk) 22:26, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WOW great work ....now more time spent on articles and not GA page edit....you are my hero!!! Buzzzsherman (talk) 22:33, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As for the bot not recognizing when review pages are started just to comment, two quick points: (1) when a reviewer starts and then quits a review the same problem exists, and (2) I think the editor doing either of these things will have to modify the template somehow to tell the bot this, and this will require instructions somewhere, and so can't really be corrected before we implement the bot. Diderot's dreams (talk) 16:09, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The same problem exists in the current system; someone will mark the page on-review and then they end up disappearing. Under both systems you can leave a note stating that the reviewer is MIA (in the automated system, via the note parameter in {{GA nominee}} that allows people to leave notes). Now, I could get really fancy and have the bot check the age of the latest comment, then leave the appropriate message on the GAN listing. (Something like This review has not received any comments in two weeks). Such a feature would serve as conspicuous warnings of review abandonment and is far more feasible under an automated system. @harej 17:29, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am not referring to abandoning a review without notice, I mean the reviewer quits by saying "I can't finish this" on the review page and removes that the "I am reviewing" ({{GAReview}}) template at GAN.

For abandoned reviews without notice, I think the bot leaving a warning notice at GAN is a good idea. Diderot's dreams (talk) 15:28, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think the former would end up becoming the latter, though the reviewer should leave in a note that s/he's given up on the review. That would be more explicit in inviting new reviewers. @harej 17:07, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And as you can see on User:RFC bot/Sandbox 2, such a notice is now in effect. @harej 03:46, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Great. But I disagree that a properly quitted review is not going to be picked up by another reviewer under the current system, because the "I am reviewing" tag is removed at GAN and the article looks open for review like any one that hasn't been touched yet. And once a new reviewer goes to the article talk page, they probably will investigate the discrepency they see by reading the review page and see that the reviewer quit.

It certainly would be a good idea for the old reviewer in this case to use the note parameter to leave a note on the template, but remember that you recently added the that parameter to the template. It isn't used much because reviewers don't know about it, including me until you told me. Like most editors, I don't read template documentation. So, like I said, explicit instructions for these cases need to be given in the GAN instructions or on the template. Well, at least in the new automated system. No sense changing instructions in the old system since we're not going to be using it much longer. Diderot's dreams (talk) 10:56, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have made the appropriate changes to my draft of the modified GAN guidelines. @harej 02:31, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect dates being used

• Hang on! The bot is using incorrect paramaters for the nomination date. Appears to reading the start of review date. At the top of Theastre, Film, Drama are 5 articles without nomination dates, similar in other sections. Comparison of WP:GAN and User:RFC bot/Sandbox 2 show a number of inconsistencies. Interseting idea but needs more work. Jezhotwells (talk) 15:04, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't see what you mean by incorrect parameters for the nomination date. The nomination date is the date as signed in the {{GA nominee}} template and the bot reflects that. Likewise, the review date is the date listed beneath the main listing, as determined from the review page. @harej 15:57, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Well if you look at an artcile I have under review at present, Al Williamson (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views): WP:GAN shows it having been nominated 20 August, the bot as 24 October (timed at one hour after I started the review!!); Scrubs (TV series) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - GAN 7 August, bot 9 September; Some of these are caused by the changes to the template which effectivel re-nominated articles by adding false nomination dates; Aiden Ford (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) actually nominated 1 October, shown in the bot list without nomination details. Just compare the two lists, GAn and bot generated. There are more than twenty errors. Jezhotwells (talk) 17:50, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
      • This is very weird. Now that I have some free time, I am going to investigate. @harej 17:07, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
        • The Al Williamson example has nothing to do with my bot, and the Aiden Ford example is caused by a non-standard timestamp. Non-standard timestamps usually don't occur, as most people do {{subst:GAN}}, which uses a proper timestamp. @harej 03:51, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
        • I have fixed nominations wherever I could. The case was largely older nominations that did not transition well for some reason. @harej 04:51, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
          • The Al Williamson example does make sense, but I'm not certain whether the logic of the various bots/templates has been defined to fully commodate the process in use. The article was nominated on 22:20, 20 August 2009 (UTC), so that date stamp is shown on the article's talkpage. The reviewer then put the article On hold at 19:10, 24 October 2009 (UTC). The template states Recommendations have been left on the review page, and editors have seven days to address these issues. Improvements made in this period will influence the reviewer's decision whether or not to list the article as a good article, but the 22:20, 20 August 2009 (UTC) date stamp is to some extent irrelevant, as the starting date for the seven-day period was 19:10, 24 October 2009 (UTC). The date stamp was then changed to 19:10, 24 October 2009 (UTC); which seems reasonable. In conclusion: the existing lists can accommodate an article being place On Hold, I suspect that your bot and/or the templates may need to commodate two date stamps: a nomination date stamp and, where appropriate, a Hold date stamp. Pyrotec (talk) 12:55, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
            • Agreed, I had previously been in the habit of putting a new timestamp in when I placed an artcile on hold as that seemed teh right course of action. If there could be a new place to put the on hold time stamp that would be good. Jezhotwells (talk) 14:13, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
              • Is there a need for a new parameter? Assuming that people even adhere to the seven day limit of GAN holds, can't it just be counted up from the timestamp where the reviewer initially signed his/her name? (The bot could even augment the on-hold statement on the GAN list with "Issues in the article should be rectified by date"). @harej 21:22, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
              • Furthermore, Wikipedia:Good article nominations/guidelines says nothing about a 7 day period for GAN holds before the article fails. @harej 02:41, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• I said nothing about failing them after 7 days. How many GA reviews have you done and how long have you been doing them? Pyrotec (talk) 15:24, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• If you care to look at Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Report there is a bot-created list, it includes holds over seven days; and some considerably extend beyond seven days. Replying to one of your questions, there is no reason why the Hold date and the review date should be the same; and if you consider date stamps they will be different. Your working list at User:RFC bot/Sandbox 2 does list hold dates as does Wikipedia:Good article nominations. It was just not obvious to me whether they were generated in the same way. If you look at Talk:Washington State Route 506, that article was put On hold yesterday (7th) and the date was not changed on the article's talk page. Both User:RFC bot/Sandbox 2 and Wikipedia:Good article nominations are in agreement for this review. You have been editing the GA nominee template and the instructions on the nomination page as well as creating the bot. I would have assumed that you knew what you are doing. Pyrotec (talk) 15:55, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

While we're at it

Are there any more requested features? @harej 21:22, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if my comment got missed above (although part of it was later restated by another editor and somewhat discussed), so I'm going to repost the pertinent part here: It seems that many articles have the wrong subtopic listed in their GAN template parameter, resulting in them being listed in the wrong section on the page. This is most notable in articles that have no subtopic listed, as the articles end up in the "Miscellaneous" section. The parameters on the currently affected articles should be fixed, and nominators made aware of this issue for future nominations, before the bot goes live. Also, how often does the bot run? It appears from the history as if it's running once an hour - is there a way we could make this more frequent? Say every half hour or every 15 minutes? Dana boomer (talk) 17:02, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This script often used in GA/FA reviews needs adoption by an active user or a WikiProject. Please see my comments here for a centralized discussion. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 21:44, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I reviewed Robert Novak for GA and placed it on hold. However, it appears that the nominator, User:The Squicks, retired a couple of days ago. Do I fail it, since the concerns likely won't be addressed? Nikkimaria (talk) 03:53, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would do that. If there was someone who still cared about the article, they could take over as the nominator. In the meantime, fail the nomination. @harej 04:05, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If it only needs smaller tweaks and the like, ask the appropriate wikiprojects or people he works with and see if they'll pick up the slack (i had this sam issue once with a footy article, they all pitched in). If it's more source-based issues that the nom would need to look at then just fail it. Wizardman 05:22, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

His retirement seems rather abrupt (so he could come out of retirement just as abruptly). He still has several nomination here, one as recent as Oct 30 What is done with the other nominations? maclean (talk) 06:06, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We've had abrupt retirements and returns within the tropical cyclone project in the past. It might just be best to let them all run their course, in case the person returns. Thegreatdr (talk) 06:09, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree - give him some time to change his mind. In my experience most people that explicitly retire come back soon after. People that are actually going away for good do so more quietly and gradually. --Tango (talk) 21:52, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

With the agreement of the primary editor on an article, Battle of Bita Paka, I have removed the nomination. He did not nominate it; rather, it was nominated by someone User:XavierGreen who had contributed very little to it. The nominator was unable or unwilling to make the substantive changes; the primary editor User:Anotherclown is unable to do it right now. nothing of substance, and it was not ready to go. I removed it from the list with note in the action field. and I'll take the parameter off the talk page. Hope this doesn't mess up any reporting.... Auntieruth55 (talk) 23:43, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]