THC Science

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Missing[edit]

Hi. You are now listed as missing. Should you ever return or choose not to be listed, you are welcome to remove your name. Chris Troutman (talk) 20:36, 28 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Chris troutman, and anyone else who comes across this note. Thanks very much for your concern about me, and for continuing to hold the fort on the wiki.

It's obviously been a very long time since I last edited, and having had a lot of activity on-wiki prior to that for some months, I recognise fully that having disappeared so suddenly was potentially worrying and concerning. Whilst editing Wikipedia is, of course, in theory not something one should have to make a specific hours commitment to, in practice I ought to have been more attentive to it since, or at least sent a message explaining where things were. I'm sorry for any stress or upset I've caused anyone.

For so long as Yapperbot continues to work, I will try and continue to maintain it (in particular, I've recently received an email about having to migrate to a newer version of the Toolforge host it's currently on) - but I can't promise to be dedicating a huge amount of time to it. I might well end up having time to edit again at some point in the future, and can certainly see myself making occasional small edits, but I don't think it'll happen in the near future unfortunately.

If anyone is interested in the personal "lore" as to why I suddenly disappeared, I've written it up below - but I imagine it won't be of interest to many people! A particular thank you also should go out to @Sdkb and ProcrastinatingReader: I've seen both of you have said some lovely things about me in my absence, and thanks as well to Proc for picking up the Yapperbot Uncurrenter task - I had no idea that that had even stopped working, to be honest!

Where did Naypta go? (The Lore)

In 2020, during the first wave of the COVID pandemic, A levels and GCSE exams in the UK were cancelled due to students being unable to safely sit them. At the time, I was a final year A level student, and had taken up Wikipedia editing during the lockdown as a way to continue my studies and keep expanding my knowledge before coming to university. My intention at the time was very much to continue editing into university.

The cancellation of the exams, however, led to the 2020 UK GCSE and A-Level grading controversy, in which Ofqual, the Government agency in the UK responsible for setting qualifications, developed an algorithm for determining what grades a student "would have got" had they sat the exams. Unfortunately for all of us, this algorithm was not only ill-thought-through, but patently biased and dangerous. So much so that, at the start of August 2020, I realised that it would need challenging, and began to use my time to do just that. My edits stopped because, working with the legal nonprofit Foxglove, I was setting out to challenge the algorithm in the courts, which eventually got some fair media coverage (perhaps making me qualify as a WP:BLP1E!)

We ultimately didn't have to go through with the court process in full as the Government U-turned of its own accord a matter of hours before we were due to file our case formally in the courts, but the events still turned a lot of what I was doing in the rest of my life upside down, and effectively dominated the next couple of months of my life. By the point that the fallout from that was over, another COVID wave was striking the UK, and I knew I wanted to do something more to help respond to it - so I began volunteering with St John Ambulance, the UK's first aid charity and volunteer health reserve, where I'm still giving pretty much all my volunteering time at the moment in both a clinical and a management role.

All of those things put together really didn't leave a lot of time for Wikipedia, and every day that passed I found it more difficult to write this explanation of what had happened - it didn't occur to me to do so at all for a couple of months, but beyond that it kept feeling as though it were too late! That probably sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth :) Also, if you're reading this all the way to the end, thank you, but you evidently find me a lot more interesting than I do!

With hugs, and with another heartfelt apology for my sudden disappearance: Naypta ☺ | ✉ talk page | 23:33, 5 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I hope you are okay. —usernamekiran (talk) 18:20, 9 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I miss you Chris. I hate being at my dads. 2600:100E:A101:A79C:51C4:DC60:D9F5:DB92 (talk) 04:35, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure how I missed this note, but I just thought of you recently while looking into current events templating stuff, and came here to find this. It's cool to know what you've been up to, and while I hope you find time to return to Wikipedia-ing in the future, it sounds like you've been doing important work, and it's good to know that you are well! I recently undertook a project making holiday greetings for Wikipedians with personal AI artworks, and I have an extra after one recipient declined their card, so I'd like to give it to you (below). Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 00:41, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A new year's greeting[edit]

❄️ Happy holidays! ❄️

Hi Naypta! I'd like to wish you a splendid solstice season as we enter 2024. Here is an artwork, made individually for you, to celebrate. :) Take care, and thanks for all you've done to make Wikipedia better!

Cheers,
{{u|Sdkb}} ^talk

Solstice Celebration for Naypta, 2023, DALL·E 3.

(View full series)

Note: The vibes are winter solsticey. If you're in the southern hemisphere, oops, apologies.

{{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 00:41, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Slowing down WP:FRS[edit]

We have been talking at Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment#FRS bot speed about slowing down Yapperbot to once a day (it's currently once an hour). I've been assuming that this would be an easy change for you to make. If you have a few minutes sometime, would you please do that? Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:30, 23 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like reasonable request. If I adopt the tool, I will look into fixing that. --David Tornheim (talk) 08:35, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yapperbot RfC messages[edit]

Hi,

For some reason I've stopped getting RfC notifications even though my username is still at Wikipedia:Feedback request service. I have no idea why.

Kind Regards, TarnishedPath^talk 08:02, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) Yapperbot has been down entirely since December. This is a known issue. It's odd that you didn't get a mass message from WhatamIdoing pointing out this fact, though. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 14:45, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks muchly @Pppery. Since I didn't receive the mass message, is there any other information you can point me in the direction of? TarnishedPath^talk 14:55, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You can still watchlist the RfC list (i.e Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Biographies to be notified of all RfCs on your watchlist). Otherwise no. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 15:10, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I guess that helps, given the one linked me was usually the most RfCs I ended up receiving notifications for anyway. TarnishedPath^talk 15:16, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Pppery, I sent the mass message only to people in a single list at Wikipedia:Feedback request service, because I didn't want to risk duplicate messages to people who were subscribed to multiple categories. I figured that would cover most of the core community (if you factor in the people watching their pages), and I was hoping that it would only be a temporary problem. However, I haven't heard of anyone trying to write a new bot (and AIUI the need is more like "write a new one" than "restart it" or "fix this one little bug").

We may have to find a different approach entirely (e.g., weekly delivery of new RFCs via MassMessage) and eventually send this to the m:Community Wishlist. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:33, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yapperbot is down, we're thinking about forking[edit]

Hello friend. Just a courtesy note to let you know that your bot has been down for a couple months, and we are thinking about forking it. If you are around to either fix the bot or help us with forking it, it could really expedite the process. The discussion is at User talk:Yapperbot#Down since mid-December?. I hope you are doing well in life and with all your charity work! –Novem Linguae (talk) 02:48, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Novem Linguae, WhatamIdoing, Legoktm, Pppery. I have created the various accounts required for adopting Yapperbot (with Novem Linguae). I am about to file the official request. However, there are steps that apparently need to be completed first per [1]:

A tool is considered abandoned and eligible for adoption by an interested maintainer when:

1. Any of the following conditions are met:

1. The tool must have been nonfunctional (no webservice/offline) for 14 days.

Obviously met since it was down for 2 months.

2. The current tool maintainer(s) must not have been active in any Wikimedia project for 28 days.

I know Naypta has not edited since April 2022 here on Wikipedia. I looked in all the other projects here, and the last edit seems to be this one in 5 May 2023, so that seems to be covered.

2. The current tool maintainer(s) must be notified via talk page post on Wikitech, and their home wiki (if known), and email (if available).

Have these all been done? Obviously the Wiki talk page is done here, but I am not sure about any attempted contact using Wikitech or email, other than the request that the tool be migrated. Would that be sufficient notification on Wikitech? Should I put a notice here?

3. The current tool maintainer(s) must not object to the addition within 14 days from their notification.

I think it is safe to say there is no objection so far.

Please let me know if you need me to do any of the additional notifications (e.g. Wikitech and/or email) before making the adoption request, or whether the additional notifications have sufficiently been done and if there is a record somewhere of it.

--David Tornheim (talk) 08:24, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think 1a is met since the bot started editing again. However we still qualify under 1b. I would recommend doing the step 2 notifications from scratch, yourself, at your convenience. –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:11, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know much about the bot requirements, but I'm very glad to see that the bot started working again two days ago. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:42, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All 3 notifications Done. 14-day clock started. --David Tornheim (talk) 22:36, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Notification Re Yapperbot -- possible adoption[edit]

Naypta: This is your official notification per Abandoned Tool Policy that because:

(1) Yapperbot was inactive for approximately two months from December 19, 2023 through February 20, 2023.[2]

(2) You have not been active on any Wikimedia project for over 28 days.[3] The last edit we have recorded is 5 May 2023.

That, unless you respond within 14 days, your maintenance for the tool Yapperbot may be put up for adoption by a new maintainer(s). Please let us know if you object to such an adoption and can resume maintenance of the tool. --David Tornheim (talk) 22:20, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yapperbot RfC - no requests[edit]

Hi, I've been on a couple lists on Wikipedia:Feedback request service for five-ish months and still haven't received any notices about RfCs. I do see that there have been some issues of late, but based on my browsing of other users' talk pages it seems to be up and running - I've poked in on others on my lists and everybody else has gotten at least 2 or 3 notices on their talk page in the last couple months, when I haven't had even my first. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks! Wow Mollu (talk) 13:53, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Wow Mollu: I believe the problem is that the bot only sends out 5 to 15 notifications for each RfC. I am signed up to get 30, and I often get only 1 or 2 per month. I had alerted Naypta that I considered this a problem back in 2020 when he initially released the code. (See also [4][5]) He was not that interested in addressing the problem, basically saying that this is a volunteer project and "labor of love" so the standards are low, and someone else could take it over if they wanted a better functionality. I believe Legobot maximized the notifications with this code. I am in the process of filing for adoption. I intend to address this problem to restore back the frequency to the way Legobot did, so that more editors get RfC notifications. However, I will first fully acquaint myself with the code as it is right now--getting close. You can always look at the Yapperbot contribs to see what the current RfC notifications that are going out. IMHO, you can't really change your settings to increase the probability of getting notifications above about 1 to 2 per month. --David Tornheim (talk) 10:13, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi David, thanks for your tips and background, that makes a lot of sense. It seemed odd after 5 months still not to see one, but when you’re working with random odds statistical outliers do exist! In any case, I just got my first notification a couple days ago. I wish you luck with the adoption process, I think the notification system is really great – RfCs are definitely something that pulls me back into editing mode after lulls, and more volume would be great. Wow Mollu (talk) 14:31, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]