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User talk:Rich Farmbrough

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Quote of the day

Like a dose of belladonna, I could cry but I don't wanna, and the dream's lost on me. Blondie, The Dream's Lost on Me

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Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib

Good tigings to you from a believer in One Creator of the Heavens and the Earth!

i see that you have edited the page Ali_ibn_Abi_Talib on Misplaced Pages, i must say to you that in Islam it is not allowed to put nor draw nor see the picture of a man

i strongly encourage you o remove the picture from the page of Ali_ibn_Abi_Talib

if you have any queries or questions on that please e-mail me asap, my email is saken_k@hotmail.com

With warmest regards, Saken ibn Amankeldi

Hello Saken. I am aware of this interpretation of Islam, also prohibitions on depicting any living thing, or indeed depictions at all. I had brought this matter up already, when we were discussing Image Filters, but was told that I was being foolish.
I suggest you investigate your browser settings and turn off "images".
All the best, Rich Farmbrough, 16:32, 16 May 2012 (UTC).

How many categories are there?

(Not including redirects). The Transhumanist 11:34, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

A lot! It depends partly on whether you include empty categories and red-linked categories. There are approximately 15,419 soft redirected categories. I'll have a look at the stats by namespace later. Rich Farmbrough, 17:07, 26 April 2012 (UTC).
Unfortunately we don't have a dump for all page titles, only all main-space titles which currently runs at about 9.3 million. Rich Farmbrough, 11:35, 28 April 2012 (UTC).
Namespace Count
Main 9,375,576
Talk 4,540,406
User 1,457,343
User talk 7,775,605
Misplaced Pages 721,450
Misplaced Pages talk 144,174
File 810,359
File talk 138,924
MediaWiki 1,608
MediaWiki talk 937
Template 424,551
Template talk 177,834
Help 956
Help talk 463
Category 852,775
Category talk 587,880
Portal 109,930
Portal talk 25,669
Book 3,113
Book talk 2,904
Total 27,152,457
Articles become less important over time

Basically a tad over 1/3 of Misplaced Pages is actual article pages, and more than half of those are redirects. Rich Farmbrough, 21:35, 16 May 2012 (UTC).

At User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 99#How can I find this out?, User:Fram reported "850,875 categories on the English Misplaced Pages" at 12:43, 5 March 2012.
Wavelength (talk) 23:51, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Here is a graphical representation of the change of emphasis as the encyclopedia has grown. The namespaces are numbered from the bottom. Rich Farmbrough, 01:12, 17 May 2012 (UTC).

Where is the legend to interpret the colors?
Wavelength (talk) 01:34, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
  • I don't know that we need one. All we need to know is the bottom solid blue is articles. Less than 40% of the project is actual articles. We're here to write articles. We have absolutely no other reason for being here. That's it. Yet, almost 2/3rds of the project is non-articles. In the corporate world, this would be called corporate bloat. Virtually by definition, it's heinously inefficient, top-heavy, failure prone, and severely handicapped in terms of progress. Nicely done graphic Rich! --Hammersoft (talk) 13:47, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
Per Misplaced Pages:Namespace, the colored bands in order from the bottom are:
0 = Main (blue)
1 = Talk (green)
2 = User (red)
3 = User talk (light blue)
4 = Misplaced Pages (purple)
5 = Misplaced Pages talk (brown)
I am not convinced that the large number of non-article pages are evidence of bloat. According to Misplaced Pages:Wikipedians, there are 16.8 million named accounts. Yet the above chart (and table) shows there are 7.8 million user talk pages. So fewer than half the registered accounts have a user talk. Also, if there were one talk page per article, the green and blue areas would be the same width. To justify 'bloat' you would probably want to count edits rather than pages. - EdJohnston (talk) 14:17, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
That would be worthwhile,as would looking at size and splitting out redirects, dabs and stubs. Rich Farmbrough, 14:24, 17 May 2012 (UTC).
Thanks. My first effort in marrying Octave and Perl (and a tiny bit of The Gimp). A key would be nice, but would be a fair amount of work, even as a separate plot. I think there is more work needed on the main plot before that. Rich Farmbrough, 14:24, 17 May 2012 (UTC).
The percentage share of the namespaces measured in bytes.

The same general trends, user talk is the growth area, the big difference here is Misplaced Pages and Misplaced Pages talk - substantial, and the category and template namespaces become very small components. Rich Farmbrough, 18:17, 17 May 2012 (UTC).

Teahouse talkbacks

Hey Rich! Thanks for helping out at the Teahouse. Just an FYI, we created a lovely little talkback template that is Teahouse specific. You can find a link to it here. It's pretty valuable when letting folks know that you answered their question, since not everyone watches the Teahouse question page. Thanks again for all your contributions - Teahouse and beyond! Sarah (talk) 19:40, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, nice template. I made some suggestions on the templates talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 20:08, 6 May 2012 (UTC).(Using some automation)


Some baklava for you!

Thanks for helping me improve Generation time Trashbird1240 (talk) 14:41, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

If WP bans you its a case of them shooting themselves in the foot. I really mean that.

...William 20:00, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! Rich Farmbrough, 22:17, 14 May 2012 (UTC).

Women's History redux

Do you have time to do some adjusting at User:AlexNewArtBot/WomensHistory? It's better, but still needs to be narrowed. And most of the articles this time don't seem to be about women.Maile66 (talk) 23:11, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 May 2012

Misplaced Pages:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Rich Farmbrough - "Closed"?

An arbitration case regarding Rich Farmbrough has now closed and the final decision is viewable at the link above.

The following remedies have been enacted:

  1. Rich Farmbrough (talk · contribs) is indefinitely prohibited from using any automation whatsoever on Misplaced Pages. For the purposes of this remedy, any edits that reasonably appear to be automated shall be assumed to be so.
  2. Rich Farmbrough's administrator status is revoked. At any time after the closing of this case, Rich Farmbrough may request that his administrator status be restored by filing a request for adminship.
  3. Elen of the Roads (talk · contribs) is reminded that an administrator who is a party to an arbitration case should not block another editor (or their bot) who is a party to the same case.

For the Arbitration Committee,

--Guerillero | My Talk 19:27, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Truly a sad day on Misplaced Pages. I for one am truly disappointed at this decision. Good luck Rich regardless of whether you decide to stay and edit or not. Kumioko (talk) 19:33, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
If at some point you are brave/stupid enough to Rfa again I'd support your candidacy. Nobody Ent 19:48, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Sorry, Rich. At least you're not banned. I will support your RfA sometime in the future.—cyberpower Online 19:49, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Sorry to hear this. Dsp13 (talk) 20:52, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Although I believe you've badly misused automation, I'd support your RfA. I really can't think of anything disruptive you've done with the mop, except possibly (temporarily) breaking the vast majority of article tagging templates. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 21:09, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Yeah, count me in too. — kwami (talk) 21:24, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
Agree with the above. This is a shame. :( Acalamari 22:28, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
It's not heartening to be part of project whose highest body is malfunctioning to the extent that Arbcom is so obviously doing. On the brighter side Richard it's clear you're not the problem but an Arbcom that would be out of depth in a puddle. Obviously would support your RfA anytime. Regards, SunCreator 22:51, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
I would support an RfA as well, though I caution that standing for RfA any time before at least six months has passed will almost certainly not succeed. --Hammersoft (talk) 00:58, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
This is a very black moment in Misplaced Pages. The community has broken Misplaced Pages. --Dirk Beetstra 03:49, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure I would say "community" in this context, but more that a highly vocal bully-like minority within our community stood upon its pulpit and hoodwinked a marginally larger portion of the community into somehow believing that Rich Farmbrough had somehow truly done something horribly evil.

    Anyone who had made tens of thousands of edits is always going to have a few edits that someone, somewhere won't agree with or like, just as they will have also made a number of edits that someone else will really, really like. It is the balance that is important here, and it seems that a minority within the community seems to think that everything must be perfect and be in accordance with their own personal preferences.

    Any edits that certain people don't like will always become a major focus during any sort of community discussion or ArbCom case simply because every editor has at some point attracted the attention of someone who doesn't like something they've done, and what better way to "get back at" someone then try to dig up any dirt they can find during such a discussion? This often results in collateral damage to other parts of the project however when such individuals take things even further.

    My own message to the larger community is thus: Take what a highly vocal minority within our community has to say with a grain of salt, but do not ignore them entirely, otherwise they will grow even louder and their party will gain even more dissenters. --Tothwolf (talk) 05:09, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

  • Rich .. to be honest- I don't know enough to say what is right or wrong here. What I do know is that you have dedicated a lot of time and heart to the project; and I personally do appreciate that very much. I can't imagine how difficult it was to endure an AC case, but you do have my sympathies, as well as my appreciation for all you have done (and hopefully will do in the future) for the project. All my best. — Ched :  ?  04:36, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
  • It's closed unless we re-open. This case should be re-opened again but this time the committee should be instructed to give appropriate weight to testimony from RF supporters. A full investigation into the other side of the coin, his achievements and important ongoing activities, should be presented. Have them weigh the both sides properly before a final decision is made. Re-open the case and let supporters be heard in full this time. Save PixieBot! Chrisrus (talk) 23:03, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
Many thanks for all the support. Rich Farmbrough, 16:37, 16 May 2012 (UTC).
  • I too would support an RFA if Rich should decide to re-run, and this is coming from someone who tries to avoid RFA like the plague.

    Clearly quite a number of people have absolutely no idea what it takes to make regular expressions and substitutions work. I give it two to three weeks tops before the backlog piles up and questions begin to arise as to "What happened to Helpful Pixie Bot and Femto Bot?" and "How do we now handle all the housekeeping work that these two bots previously took care of?"

    I personally see this similarly to what would happen if we were to shut down ClueBot.

    While there have been edits Rich has made that I've not agreed with, Rich appears to have always had Misplaced Pages's best interests in mind when he made changes, and I do not feel that this was considered at all during his ArbCom case. It would have been far far different if Rich had a history of attempting to cause problems, was a known troll, vandal, etc, but this is far from the case.

    From my own point of view, it was clearly wrong of ArbCom to go full-out and heavy handed sanction a long term valued contributor who has been instrumental in standardizing and automating so many tedious and pain-in-the-ass tasks as Rich has. The very idea that Rich should be indefinitely banned from using any sort of automation is simply absurd. It could also be that ArbCom doesn't really know what all Rich has done for us here on the English Misplaced Pages since so much of his work has involved changes to things that work behind the scenes, yet have a very widely felt effect. For that fact, perhaps a large portion of the community doesn't know either.

    The way I see it, Misplaced Pages is just about at a fork in the road. Many of the people with the technical know-how and knowledge of how and why things work the way they work have become disillusioned with the direction the English Misplaced Pages has been heading. Many of these individuals have left or slowed down in terms of their contributions, and/or have ended up sanctioned like Rich has. If things continue in this direction, the English Misplaced Pages is going to find itself without the technical backing that has allowed it to grow in the first place, and it's growth will stop and/or it will begin to regress (we are already beginning to see signs of both such scenarios).

    From that point, if people don't decide to step up and work towards changing these trends, one or two things will ultimately happen. The first is that Misplaced Pages will begin to be seen as irrelevant in the eyes of the general public. The other is that those technical minded individuals who have felt alienated will organize, possibly leading to either a fracture within the community or even a new form of "Misplaced Pages" that will make the current "Misplaced Pages" entirely irrelevant and obsolete.

    For those who don't think what has happened to Rich here can't happen to you or really has little long term impact on Misplaced Pages itself, think again. --Tothwolf (talk) 05:18, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

You would have my support at RfA as well. A dark day for Misplaced Pages.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 09:34, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

A cold one

You need this more than I do – Lionel 05:37, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Jovan Despotović

Thanks for the comments. I checked and it is these ISBN numbers are in the publications.--Despotović (talk) 14:02, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

I am grateful for improving the text and for cleanup article to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. It is obvious that English is not my first language and that for any help are welcome because of all necessary changes by some editors which are modifying the article.--Despotović (talk) 20:13, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

It's My Birthday

My B'day Cake
Hi!! Today is my b'day and I though of sharing this sweet gift with you!! Arnesh(২০১২) 16:09, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the Women's History New Articles

The We Couldn't-A-Done-It-Without-Ya Award
Thanks for stepping up to the plate and helping get this off the ground. Good luck with that you have on your shoulders right now. Maile66 (talk) 17:14, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

The procedure was a success, but the patient died

I'm glad you're still here It's a silly accident that you and I have been mentioned in the same breath a lot lately and the two of us have hardly interacted in the past, but once I found out about your ArbCom issues I started to pay attention. Everyone on the English-language Misplaced Pages has benefited from your work and although it might be prudent for you to have a break in your administrator and bot-running responsibilities, you have doubtlessly been a real asset to the project and I'm glad that the members of ArbCom did not see fit to block or ban you outright. This tacitly acknowledges that your years of service have made this a better encyclopedia and I think that's inarguable, irrespective of any further issues with your methods or style.

I look forward to the time when you've proven to all your accusers and interlocutors that you're a responsible user, having made irrefutably good edits for several months, then apply again at RfA, make new bot requests, and get back to doing what you've been doing but without any associated drama.

For what it's worth, I'd like to ask you to reconsider whether or not you want someone else to run or curate User:Helpful Pixie Bot and User:Femto Bot.

By the way, welcome to the club (2,308 edits ago.) —Justin (koavf)TCM21:23, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! I had forgotten that was going to happen. Rich Farmbrough, 01:21, 17 May 2012 (UTC).
I've already asked Rich about that but I think he is having a tough time thinking about this.—cyberpower Online 01:27, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
I can't blame him. I would be wrestling with it too frankly. Kumioko (talk) 01:35, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Resilient Barnstar
You are handling this situation very well. Don't let this get you down. —cyberpower Online 21:41, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

The arbfail award.

The Arbfail Award
For being one of the most helpful (former) bot-ops, and then fucked by Arbcom, I award you the Arbfail award.

Frood! What did I break now? 23:13, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Seconded. You are the only one who took up my translation-template-linking bot task after multiple requests, and now the bot is dead. :( Thanks for at least generating the links for the ones that existed previously... I'll have to figure out what to do going forward. Calliopejen1 (talk) 21:16, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
Same here. It does seem like the people who go out of their way to help others are the first in line to face the firing squad. Viriditas (talk) 21:29, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

The Torch and Pitchfork award.

PitchforkTorch The Torch and pitchfork Award
As someone who has also been pursued by the mob (in this case also sometimes referred to as "the Community" and/or "Arbcom") I present you with this time honored Torch and Pitchfork award.
A torch and pitchfork, tools traditionally wielded by large groups on a Witch hunt or those attempting to get rid of an editor they don't like, have been used for centuries. Whether pursuing an Evil wizard, mad scientist or Bot operator, the mob ends up coming after the good guys, for one reason or another, eventually (like if we are providing aid to a Renegade Wikipedian). In these cases the best defense is to Shame The Mob. The next time Arbcom or the community mob comes after a Wikipedian, just do what any Wiki-hero would do...give a speech, and the mob is ashamed. Dejected, they turn and leave.
--Kumioko (talk) 23:56, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Congrats on making the millionaires club

I also just wanted to say congrats on making the millionaires club. Only 2 editors in the history of Misplaced Pages have hit a million edits, you being the second. Kumioko (talk) 01:28, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

support

I found out on reddit that you had your privileges taken. I wasn't aware of the situation. Anyway, you have my support, so if there is anything I can do to help you, let me know. Be well. Greg Bard (talk) 02:08, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Oh I made it to reddit. Shame it wasn't about something good. Thanks for your support, Greg. Rich Farmbrough, 13:39, 17 May 2012 (UTC).
No good deed goes unpunished. Here is the link to the Reddit discussion. Be well, Greg Bard (talk) 16:22, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Category:Think Fast! Records albums

Category:Think Fast! Records albums, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)TCM04:21, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

After recent times...

Are you going to stay with us? Wether you have your tools and bots or not, you're still a valuable asset to this project. I hope you stay. MrLittleIrish 13:16, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

I am still editing, because I still use Misplaced Pages, so I still see things that need fixing. What I have been able to contribute in the past, where there is a shortfall, is template wrangling, automation, and having the patience to fix long runs of pages, together with, I hope, a little insight into how things can be arranged to improve over the longer term without breaking stuff now. So all that has been removed, and one of the arbitrators has protected 7,000 more templates, effectively removing them from the area where I can contribute. Rich Farmbrough, 13:45, 17 May 2012 (UTC).
That's great to hear. I look forward to working with you on the project in the future. And, even if you do not wish to, I will support your RfA if you choose to run again. Again, you are a valued asset to this project. Keep up the good (even if manual) work :) MrLittleIrish 14:02, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
Wait, what is this about protecting 7000 templates? Someone did that unilaterally? There was a huge ANI about something like that a year or two ago, that I did a lot of work to clean up, so it's not good if someone did that again. Re RFA: I can't !vote but I'm fine with your staying on as an admin / becoming one again, as I said in the arb case. I have a much different view than yours about the proper role of automation on Misplaced Pages, but I respect your dedication. 66.127.55.46 (talk) 04:34, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

mass creation of stubs with errors

Hi Rich, you were involved in this conversation a few months ago, so may be you want to take a look at the updates: http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#.27Jaguar.2FSandbox.2F3.27_edits Azylber (talk) 15:38, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
For being only the second ever person to get to a million edits, especially under the circumstances. Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 18:47, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Heads up

I see you've been given the rollbacker userright, but I would advise you not to use it (just asked at the AC talk page and apparently that counts as automation). On a more important note, hope the decision hasn't hit you too hard – btw, your self-control is amazing, if it were me I think I would have absolutely lost it at some of the arbs who clearly hadn't even bothered to read all the information. Best, Jenks24 (talk) 22:23, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

CfD confusion

Please see here I think you mixed up two separate CfDs. —Justin (koavf)TCM01:00, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Humour

Shakespearean Tales

I happened across this in the archives! —Sladen (talk) 11:11, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

∏==Editing bug or error==

Bug number: System: human Component: Blocks: Blocked by:
Resolution: {{#switch: |fixed= Fixed |not a bug= Not a bug |closed=Closed |outdated=Outdated ||pending=pending

Hi! I noticed an apparent bug with one or some of your recent edits:

Example(s)

Explanation

24.104.128.202 (talk) 13:02, 18 May 2012 (UTC) nsdunwudnquind qn

User talk:Rich Farmbrough Add topic