This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TreyGeek (talk | contribs) at 02:56, 6 February 2013 (→MMABot v3.0 Task Proposals and Notes: Update with tonight's progress.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 02:56, 6 February 2013 by TreyGeek (talk | contribs) (→MMABot v3.0 Task Proposals and Notes: Update with tonight's progress.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | This user account is a bot that uses Java, operated by TreyGeek (talk). It is used to make repetitive automated or semi-automated edits that would be extremely tedious to do manually, in accordance with the bot policy. The bot is approved and currently active – the relevant request for approval can be seen here. Administrators: if this bot is malfunctioning or causing harm, please block it. |
 Archives |
MMABot v2.0 Discussions
Question about an edit
Why is the bot, in edits like this, adding underscores into the names of events? EdChem (talk) 13:30, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
- If you look closely the bot is not adding underscores. Rather it is removing a renamed event as per WP:MMA guidelines: "use ] instead of ], use ] instead of ]." --TreyGeek (talk) 15:43, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
- I appreciate your response, but I suggest that the effect of the bot edit is to take a link that does not have underscores and replace it with one that does, which is hardly an improvement. I bet the MMA guidelines don't say to include underscores in event names. Further, if you look closely, you'll find that the changes were not altering the event name but were actually highlighting directions to the appropriate sections of a wikipage. The notion that an event name in a table is somehow better for having a hash mark (#) to show the wikipage section as if it were part of the event name, plus the inclusion of underscores, is questionable at best. I suggest that bot edits such as this, whilst no doubt well-intentioned, do not represent improvements to the encyclopedia. EdChem (talk) 01:22, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
- Do you have something constructive to offer? The bot is programmed to remove renamed event links by removing any text after the pipe in a wiki-link. You are the first person to complain about this behavior. What would you like to see the bot (or me) do in these rare cases where the event's article title is poorly constructed in the MMA record table. If you can provide a specific example of the original text and the final text, that would be much appreciated. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:36, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
- I'm sorry to hear you find my posts unconstructive, I thought pointing out a case where the bot is making a link arguably worse would be a useful contribution. I didn't suggest how to change the bot as I know little about programming, but if you want some suggestions, I'll try. Firstly, in a case like ], changing it to ], as the bot did, does not follow the guidelines you describe. Changing to ] would be more appropriate. Secondly, if the bot must remove anything after the pipe link, it should also remove any underscores in the page link, for purely aesthetic reasons. Thirdly, if the link contains a # to direct to a section of a page, don't remove everything after the pipe because the actual redirect target should not be used as the name. My concern is simply that the original link M-1 Challenge XXIII: Grishin vs. Guram, or the alternative M-1 Challenge XXIII are both superior to the link 2011 M-1 Challenge Season#M-1_Challenge_XXIII:_Grishin_vs._Guram which the bot left. I hope you find this comment clear and constructive as I really am trying to be helpful. EdChem (talk) 12:04, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
- I understand what you are saying. The difficulty as I see it is fixing the renamed event links as per the WP:MMA guidelines and catching or dealing with the rare cases of the M-1 Challenge Seasons (of which they exist for 2009-2011). I'm not sure there are any other set of events with the same situation. I cannot do the renaming you propose ("M-1 Challenge XXIII"), it would be impossible to know in advance what the renamed link should be and to get it right everytime. So, I think the options are:
- Remove the renamed portion of the link and if any underscores exist in the article link, convert them to spaces. (Thus the link would be 2011 M-1 Challenge Season#M-1 Challenge XXIII: Grishin vs. Guram.)
- Remove the renamed portion of the link and try to detect if a hashmark (#) exists in the article link. If there is one, remove everything after the hashmark. (The link would be 2011 M-1 Challenge Season.)
- Try to detect if there is a hashmark (#) exists in the article link. If it does, skip it. (Thus leaving the link as M-1 Challenge XXIII: Grishin vs. Guram (]).)
- Is there an option you'd prefer to see happen? --TreyGeek (talk) 04:22, 7 December 2011 (UTC)
- I understand what you are saying. The difficulty as I see it is fixing the renamed event links as per the WP:MMA guidelines and catching or dealing with the rare cases of the M-1 Challenge Seasons (of which they exist for 2009-2011). I'm not sure there are any other set of events with the same situation. I cannot do the renaming you propose ("M-1 Challenge XXIII"), it would be impossible to know in advance what the renamed link should be and to get it right everytime. So, I think the options are:
- I'm sorry to hear you find my posts unconstructive, I thought pointing out a case where the bot is making a link arguably worse would be a useful contribution. I didn't suggest how to change the bot as I know little about programming, but if you want some suggestions, I'll try. Firstly, in a case like ], changing it to ], as the bot did, does not follow the guidelines you describe. Changing to ] would be more appropriate. Secondly, if the bot must remove anything after the pipe link, it should also remove any underscores in the page link, for purely aesthetic reasons. Thirdly, if the link contains a # to direct to a section of a page, don't remove everything after the pipe because the actual redirect target should not be used as the name. My concern is simply that the original link M-1 Challenge XXIII: Grishin vs. Guram, or the alternative M-1 Challenge XXIII are both superior to the link 2011 M-1 Challenge Season#M-1_Challenge_XXIII:_Grishin_vs._Guram which the bot left. I hope you find this comment clear and constructive as I really am trying to be helpful. EdChem (talk) 12:04, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
- Do you have something constructive to offer? The bot is programmed to remove renamed event links by removing any text after the pipe in a wiki-link. You are the first person to complain about this behavior. What would you like to see the bot (or me) do in these rare cases where the event's article title is poorly constructed in the MMA record table. If you can provide a specific example of the original text and the final text, that would be much appreciated. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:36, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
- I appreciate your response, but I suggest that the effect of the bot edit is to take a link that does not have underscores and replace it with one that does, which is hardly an improvement. I bet the MMA guidelines don't say to include underscores in event names. Further, if you look closely, you'll find that the changes were not altering the event name but were actually highlighting directions to the appropriate sections of a wikipage. The notion that an event name in a table is somehow better for having a hash mark (#) to show the wikipage section as if it were part of the event name, plus the inclusion of underscores, is questionable at best. I suggest that bot edits such as this, whilst no doubt well-intentioned, do not represent improvements to the encyclopedia. EdChem (talk) 01:22, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
Since there was never a final answer on how MMABot should handle this situation I've left this discussion on the talk page. Input is welcome from anyone. --TreyGeek (talk) 22:11, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
- Option 1 would be my preference. It eliminates the renamed link to comply with the MMA Wikiproject's guidelines and allows the user to see which omnibus article the event is in. --TreyGeek (talk) 18:49, 31 December 2012 (UTC)
MMABot v3.0 Task Proposals and Notes
This section, and its subsections, will discuss possible tasks for MMABot v3.0 and notes regarding the overall function of this version of the bot. MMABot v3.0 tasks will be performed separately from v2.0 (and v1.0) tasks. MMABot v3.0 is focused on standardizing results in MMA event articles.
- Justification for v3.0
A discussion within the MMA WikiProject resulted in a consensus to use a standard table for displaying results in MMA event articles. MMABot counted 590 MMA event articles through Category:Years in mixed martial arts. There already exists a number of different formats for displaying event results and standardizing the formats across all nearly 600 articles is difficult to accomplish manually, even by a team of editors. This version of the bot will serve to simplify the tasks of this standardization where it is able to do so.
Notes
This section serves as a temporary holding place for notes as I try to determine if v3.0 is really possible. Comments from others are welcome.
- Section Headers: Of the 579 event articles examined by MMABot 83% (480) of them have a Results header (==Results== or == Results ==). About 3% (22) of the event articles have a third level results header (===Results===). This can help identify where the event results begin and where MMABot should start its work.
- {{MMAevent}} Template and Wikitables: Seven articles already make use of the MMAevent template. Seven more articles use the same format, but don't use the template (these can be converted to use the templates by MMABot). Six articles use wikitables with the same headers as 2012 in Super Fight League which should easily convertable. Nine articles use wikitables with the same headers as The Ultimate Fighter: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson Finale which would be easily convertable. This leaves about 550 articles with potentially text based, but still somewhat structured, results (or some other format I didn't notice).
- A list of articles categorized based on the above groupings can be found at User:MMABot/Event article list.
Handling of flags in results
I honestly do not know how MMABot should handle this case, so feedback is highly desired. I see two options:
- Do not include flags following edits: When MMABot edits an article to adjust or reformat event results, it will not include flags in the final results. This would comply with Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mixed_martial_arts/Archive_8#RFC_on_WP:MMA.27s_use_of_Flag_Icons_in_relation_to_MOS:FLAGthe most recent RfC at the MMA WikiProject and some interpretations of MOS:FLAG.
- Include flags where they exist: When MMABot edits an article to adjust or reformat event results, it will include any existing flags in the final results. This would leave the bot relatively neutral in a controversial situation.
Personally, unless there is an clear reason to choose option 1, I'll probably do development with option 2 in mind. It will allow MMABot the versatility to include flags should that be allowed in the future. Should flags not be desired, I should be able to adjust MMABot to simply not perform the task of moving flags over. Again, other opinions are welcome. --TreyGeek (talk) 01:55, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
Done I created a separate function that removes flagicons from the results. Should there be a desire to keep the existing flagicons, I can easily cause this function to exit early without touching flagicons. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:06, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
Event articles already using the new templates
When MMABot encounters an MMA event article that already makes use of the {{MMAevent}} templates it will check that bouts in the table are using the bout template (soon to be coming). If not, it will convert the table rows to use the bout templates. --TreyGeek (talk) 01:55, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
Event articles with correct table format, but not the template
When MMABot encounters an MMA event article that has the correct table format but isn't using the {{MMAevent}} templates, it remove the formatting and insert the template in its place. It will also convert the table rows to use the bout templates. --TreyGeek (talk) 01:55, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
Event articles with tables, but not correct format
When MMABot encounters an MMA event article that puts the results in a table format, but in the incorrect format, it will attempt to reformat the table using the {{MMAevent}} and bout templates. --TreyGeek (talk) 01:55, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
Doing... Or at least trying. I figure this is a good place to start without jumping in the deep end (dealing with textual results). --TreyGeek (talk) 02:09, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
Partly done Sorta. This works for what I refer to as "SFL style" event tables and with the results table being the first table in the article. I will need to do some adjustments to handle multiple result tables in an article and having wikitables that are not results tables. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:07, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
- Done for "SFL style" event tables. It handles multiple results tables in a single article, such as omnibus articles. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:06, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
Not done Handle the "TUF style" style results tables. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:06, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
- Done for "TUF style" events tables. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:56, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
Event articles in textual form
When MMABot encounters an MMA event article that puts the results in a textual format (most often the case, it will attempt to reformat the results using the {{MMAevent}} and bout templates. --TreyGeek (talk) 01:55, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
- Doing... The initial implementation is done and works with the first article I've tried it on in the sandbox. Will need to do more tests on textual articles because there will be corner cases that need to be worked out. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:37, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
- Done I've tested the bot on a number of different articles with textual formats. It is either parsing and converting the events just fine or throwing me a warning it can't handle one part or another of the results and aborting the edit run. --TreyGeek (talk) 04:32, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
List of skipped articles
If MMABot skips an article because it cannot perform the correct operations on it (for whatever reason) it should, at minimum, notify the operator with a console message. It may also edit an article in it's user space (ie MMABot/Events_skipped) or in the MMA WikiProject space with a list of those articles it skips. More details and implementation of this task will be left for last. --TreyGeek (talk) 19:14, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
- Not done I'm electing to make this a manual process on my own. MMABot will skip certain articles and notify me in the console it runs in. Based upon MMA WikiProject participants I'll compile a list of articles it skips (and possibly a reason why) in a special section on this talk page. After the edit run is completed, I'll manually edit those articles to fix them. Others are welcome to monitor this talk page and manually fix those articles as well. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:56, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
Put bouts in 'correct' order
After constructing the results table with the new templates, MMABot will attempt to put the bouts in the 'correct' order. Specifically, the main event will be at the top of the table and the opening bout will be at the bottom. In general, it will either already be in this order or the table will be in reversed order (main event at the bottom, in which MMABot will flip the order of the table). In the event MMABot cannot tell which order the table is in (likely to happen on single card events), then it will display a message to the operator who will either manually verify/edit the article or who will place the article on a list for others to verify/edit later. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:45, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
- Doing... This works for events with a 'two' card layout (main and preliminary). I won't mark this completed until more testing is done. --TreyGeek (talk) 02:07, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
C Works on three card layouts where one card is clearly marked "main". Will continue to watch the behavior as I do more testing for the tasks above. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:37, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
Strip coloring templates from tables
Some existing results tables include {{yes2}}, {{no2}}, {{draw}}, and {{nocontest}} templates to color in cells of the table. This is unneeded and/or unwanted in the new style tables. MMABot should strip these templates from the results. --03:06, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
- Done Just as with flagicons, this is handled in its own function that can be easily aborted without changes. I don't think it would be desirable to do so since so few tables utilize these templates. --TreyGeek (talk) 03:06, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
Delink non-existant articles
MMABot will check in the results table each wikilink (usually for fighters) to verify an article exists. If an article does not exist (IOW, it's a red-link), MMABot will remove the wikilink. --TreyGeek (talk) 05:50, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
- Done Just as with the ancillary functions above, this is handled in its own function that can be easily aborted. This task would generally comply with MMABot v2.0, task 7 in delinking red-linked fighters and events in individual fighter record tables. --TreyGeek (talk) 05:50, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
Methods to lower-case
Method details, text inside parenthesis, as per MOS:CAPS and WP:MMA will be converted to lower-case. This task would comply with MMABot v1.0, task 2. --TreyGeek (talk) 04:32, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
- Done With certain exceptions that I am aware of (such as proper nouns and athletic commission abbreviation) the text in between parentheses will be converted to lower case. --TreyGeek (talk) 04:32, 2 February 2013 (UTC)