Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/Archive 12

message: i dont get the whole point of this
how do u become a "librarian"?Jmclark911 21:36, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: People ask questions, other people answer them. It's pretty informal. If you're fairly sure you know the answer to a question, go ahead and answer it. Just try not to spread too much misinformation. —Keenan Pepper 22:55, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

text: The point is to try and answer questions editors have that aren't answered in Wikipedia's articles. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME 22:56, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I forgot the most important part, you can of course ask questions too (: -- 172.161.201.81 23:00, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

text: Also, part of the function of the RD is to show people how to use Wikipedia. Many of the questions can be answered simply by providing a link to an appropriate article.--Shantavira 07:37, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In fact, further to that, I'd like to suggest the creation of a pretty template to politely inform the questioner that this is an encyclopedia and their question is answered at the relevant article, rather than a curt Q: "What is a dog?" A: "See dog." (That particular question really did come up a while back!).--Shantavira 13:02, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Technically, we're not supposed to handle questions like that. It is repeatedly stated on the front page and at the top of each desk that you should search first before asking your question. Saying RTFMLOOKITUPBITCH would be rude, so most users just save keystrokes and forward them to the article instead.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  13:44, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  refrence desk 

message: Ok. I saw what Shantavira recommended as an idea and I created a template that can answer many of the "See Dog" questions for us.
:
Produces
:
Look good? Alter it however is best, and I hope it will increase our productivity. — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)18:58, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I wanted this to be on the Reference Desk talk page, but somebody moved it, and I am guessing it belongs here instead. — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)22:46, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well here it is again. Sorry about having moved it without discussion.  --hydnjo talk 23:31, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea. Not sure if I'll use it, but it will help to eliminate super short comments that could be interpreted as "rude" to new users. Basically works along the same principles as an alternative to simply typing "nn" at AfD.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  00:59, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks Mac. It looks good, but I think the "please remember" is unnecessary and presumptive. The people this is aimed at quite possibly do not know that this is an encyclopedia. Where's the page to modify it?--Shantavira 07:50, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

text: Found it. Discussion continued at Template talk:Refq.--Shantavira 12:11, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Refq template

message: The table of contents is skipped for individual archive pages with less than 3 questions:
*Should we add it back in ?
*Is there a wiki format, like <TOC>, to force it to appear ? 
StuRat 14:30, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: __TOC__ forces the TOC to appear. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 14:57, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. StuRat 12:09, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  TOC in archive pages 

message: I created WP:REFDESK and suggest it be added to the shortcut box. WP:RD is shorter, but I think the other is memorable too, exemplified by there being a Wikipedia:Refdesk already. TransUtopian 14:29, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That seems like a redirect rather than a shortcut. But then maybe I'm splitting short-hairs.  --hydnjo talk 00:13, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Add shortcut 

message: I've just dumped the WP:RD/M from September 17 through September 27 into the archives as one heap just to help us "feel" how 'breezy' the /M feels this way. If enough (or even a few) of us feel that this is a significant navigational improvement (for /M from September 28 forward) then this experiment may motivate some of you RDers to pitch in and lend a hand with transcluding and archiving. If you poke around in the archives a bit you'll see how much organizational effort has gone into making the RD archives more useful than you would've imagined (and better than any other archive that I've seen around here). Let's not allow that excellent structure to wither from lack of input just because we don't have a bot right now. Also, lets not depend on the "usual suspects" to do it all for the rest of us. I'm doing my bit right now (date headers) and may be able to commit to more when things settle down here at home. But in the meantime, the sections are getting embarrassingly long and we shouldn't feel complacent about this "almost" front page.  --hydnjo talk 03:14, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hot damn! These pages do snap up purdy quick now.  :-)  --hydnjo talk 04:54, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: So basically you're just deleting several days worth of questions and pasting them directly into the archive? Without any navigation templates and without and indexes? Leaving the older archive pages red linking to non-existant future archives?--162.84.213.178 12:35, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with the sentiment, and 4 or 5 days probably is better than 7 for page loading purposes, but as long as you're going to move them to the monthly archive pages, do you think you could at least move each day to its correct page? rather than just "dumping" them on the monthly pages? I've sorted one of the desks, but I really don't have the time to do the other five--VectorPotentialRD NEEDS A BOT (-: 12:56, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Yes, I suppose I was making a point for illustration. I'll move it all back this morning usless somone else fixes it properly as VectorPotential has done for /H.  --hydnjo talk 13:18, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure restoring them is such a good idea either, since it puts nine days worth of questions back on one page--VectorPotentialRD NEEDS A BOT (-: 14:08, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've just restored the RD sections to the way that they were. My reason for the temporary "archive dump" was to call more attention to the "long" page problem and to demonstrate that shortening the time window rather than expanding the number of sections does resolve the current problem.  --hydnjo talk 14:32, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm almost done with all the catchup archiving, would you mind doing the indexing for the pages that are already archived? So far only /H and /S are indexed, even though /H through /M are archived--VectorPotentialRD NEEDS A BOT (-: 14:35, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Archive dump

message: I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but our old request got moved to archive months ago, so I made a new one (: VectorPotentialRD NEEDS A BOT (-: 13:02, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If you'd take a look at three of the really long threads above... well a few of us noticed. I was planning on revising the bot request to have it streamlined for the new interface, which is just about looking good enough to move ahead with now. Would you mind if I revised the request that you've put up now? Actually, how do you feel about the new layout?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  13:28, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't have any problems with you revising the request. I would have read the talk a bit more carefully, but to be fair, this page could use an archive too probably (: VectorPotentialRD NEEDS A BOT (-: 14:05, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've appended a revised bot request for the vertical layout.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:05, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Wikipedia:Bot_requests#WP:RD]] 

message: where can i get the archived questions of science reference desk dated 31st october 2005. this link just has questions till about 10th oct.nids(♂) 03:41, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hm...I didn't notice we were missing those questions. They would be in the page history, but I don't know of any tricks to jump to the time right when the archivals took place. --HappyCamper 04:05, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, found it. See this. Something happened between the archival I did, and the edits afterwards. --HappyCamper 04:06, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks.--nids(♂) 04:16, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  ref desk science oct 2005 

message: Well, I have been asking around, and we might have a potential bot. Can we try and come up with a list of things which the bot needs to do? As simple as possible. Dedicated developers are rare and valuable on Wikipedia, so it pays for us to write out exactly what it is we need. --HappyCamper 04:16, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: See reference desk bot request, or this for the old one. Wnerdabot will need a lot of work to customize it for RD, but that's great if Wnerda is willing to help us get our feet off the ground.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  06:39, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure how much effort is involved. We might have a bot next month, but this is uncertain. --HappyCamper 16:40, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have just recieved a notice from Canadian User:Martinp23, creator of User:MartinBot (Tawkerbot), saying that he'll give the bot a try. I'll keep in touch with him and see how things go.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:41, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, good. Keep us posted please. --HappyCamper 03:31, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Wow! I just didcovered this page now!  I'm not Canadian, but am English/British, and I only run MartinBot - didn't write it :) (but I do write and run User:AMABot) :) - with that out of the way, I'd like to say that I've been happy to help the RD with archiving, and to thank you all for giving me somethng to do (which broke two of my personal records: longest program and most quickly written :))(and I'll post in the section below from now ;)) Martinp23 18:27, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have no idea why I assumed you were Canadian. Sorry! I'm sure I saw something, but I can't find it now. Oh well, same difference. *cough*  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  23:17, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hehe - don't worry, I wasn't offended (actually... slightly bemused (based on my England infobox (User:Martinp23 :P)).  Ah well, the Canadians were pobably more insulted than me ;S.  Martinp23 23:28, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possible light at the end of the tunnel 

message: This strikes me as ageist in its inherent assumption that students, the majority of whom are children, will jump at the chance to push homework questions to Wikipedia volunteers. Personally, I think a less condescending and ageist phrasing would be something like "Assume responsibility", since not absolving responsibility is clearly the intent of the phrasing. 218.186.9.1 10:36, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That's a good point, but the problem is that it's difficult to tell a 10 year old to "assume responsibility" and have them understand what the hell you're talking about. We generally don't get many questions from mathematicians and scientists asking us to do their "work" for them, as they're usually at the age to realize that a certain amount of effort is expected of them. I think the whole "do your own homework" thing is just an indirect way to let people know that they can come here for homework help, as long as they're willing to do it themselves. A lot of people probably assume that homework is much too trivial for something like Wikipedia.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:37, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Although we do seem to get a disappointing number of secondary school and even tertiary education people asking for help with their homework without apparently doing any work for themselves. But in any case, I don't agree with the assumption. For me do your own homework is not so much assuming that students like to push homework questions BUT we are simply saying that we don't (and don't like) answering homework questions so don't bother to ask Nil Einne 11:01, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Do your own homework

message: Well, the RD looks like it needs a clean sweep. I'm going to wave my magical Wikipedian wand and archive at a slightly higher pace, perhaps leaving only 4 or 5 days of active questions. This is simply a band-aid solution of course. Please feel free to reinstate the questions if the thread is not closed, just like what we used to do. --HappyCamper 03:36, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Humanities desk done. Now, the wand needs to recharge, so hopefully, the clutter at the Science desk will be cleared by tomorrow. --HappyCamper 04:11, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Science desk done. The Mathematics desk is next. --HappyCamper 14:59, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Archivals 

message: Martin has been hard at work, and apparently is close to finishing the bot already. I'm just looking over everything he's done now, but you can see the edits the bot made at User:Freshgavin/Sandbox/Reference desk/Mathematics, and look for the same in archives. I think it's about time we put up a message on all the desks to get everyones opinion on the final changes.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:39, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This is his to-do list, and it doesn't look like there's much left to do.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:40, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

text: A "finished" bot is not a "running" bot. I'd rather we wait until we have the bot up and running first with the existing RD. That would give me a sense of security that at least we have something stable to fall back on. --HappyCamper 13:54, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well that's kind of the thing. He's already made the bot for the new system, and I'm more worried that people won't approve of it, and he'll be forced to rewrite a bunch of his code.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  13:57, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What new system are we talking about? --HappyCamper 14:09, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Has there been a consensus reached regarding a proposal to expand the number of RD sections?  --hydnjo talk 19:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I wish I knew why people are so eager to axe the mathamatics desk--172.163.149.162 19:32, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Who said we were axing the mathematics reference desk? That's Wikipedian news to me. --HappyCamper 20:56, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nevermind, I was just thrown by the new interface, it moved, but still exists, for some reason there seem to be even smaller, nested desks under each topic, I'm not sure what they're supposed to be for--172.166.213.97 21:08, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What new interface? What is all this new stuff?? As far as programming as concerned, Martin is a star. I'm sure it's pretty simple to just tweak things here and there to iron things out. I don't think we're getting a new reference desk for Christmas, just a new reference desk bot. --HappyCamper 21:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This new interface, all the way on the right, 15 seperate subheadings, of course that's probably all just placeholder right now, so I guess as long as the bot works, which it seems to, that's all that matters--172.150.76.135 00:44, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Happy Camper you're totally confusing me. Isn't that the interface we were talking about in talk space? Anyways, the current 15 desks was decided by about 6 or 7 users, and the way they're arranged under headings is simply to help organize them; it would be just as easy to put them in a single list. There have been a few users suggesting a Legal desk under humanities, not dissimilar to the health and medicine desk, which will eventually have a big warning at the top for questioners and answerers. A few desks like "Religion" and "Popular culture" might not be needed, but it's almost impossible to tell. This must be decided now, so I'm going to post a message across all of the desks to get everyone's attention and I hope I'm ready to handle the big swarm of negativity that I fear is inevitable.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  06:12, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, well, I haven't seen too much activity about that yet, so making the message more prominent might help. --HappyCamper 17:44, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the compliment HC *twinkles like a star* - but really, when I realised that anything could change at any time, I made the path to the archive and RD itself a variable, and the desk is already one.  This just means that I need to, in the first case, change one line of code to make it edit elsewhere.  In the latter case, I cans et it to edit any number of desks with any number of different names (hoepfully!).  I notice above that User:172.150.76.135 has expressed some concerns about some earlier edits - I think I've ironed out those bugs now, but would invite you to take a look at  after 0:00 UTC, to see how the bot is working) please report any problems :).  At the moment, the bot is taking pages from Freshgavin's user space, and putting them in the WP archive space (not the current one - its slightly different so no chance of a clash).  The bot is going through WP:BRFA now - when that's finished, I'll take steps to make the bot live - in the meantime, I'll continue testing (there may be a problem with the server I'm running it on - waiting for confirmation on tonight's test).  Martinp23 18:48, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Great stuff - from what I can tell, I think the bot is archiving correctly. Can we try something in Freshgavin's sandbox? Let's try cutting and pasting an entire desk over, and see what happens perhaps? --HappyCamper 22:28, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea - gives the bot a chance to archive more than one topic.  I'll copy/paste a different desk than the mathematics one, just for testing purposes (I'll do Miscellaneous).  On the WP:BRFA front, the bot has been approved for trails now, so it'll be at least a week until full approval.  Thanks - Martinp23 18:31, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Changed my mind - now doing Computers and technology desk (on Freshgavin's space).  See the bot contribs (after 00:00UTC tonight) for exactly what has happened Martinp23 18:49, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Ah, I see you were referring to the spaces. = Date = seems to be the standard across the board for dates, though there's an obvious tendancy for human editors to adopt the =Date= form. It would be best if the bot could recognize both, but since it will be adding all of the dates by itself, the only reason to do so would be to handle times when it isn't able to create the date correctly.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  21:43, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yep - the spaces.  I'll look at getting the bot to recognise both forms before it goes into full-scale editting (for tonight, at least, it'll do with spaces, as I've changed your sandbox to contain).  Martinp23 22:02, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Feedback - hey! Take a look at this: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Mathematics/October_2006 - the date label on the 13th seems to be archived incorrectly. Was a carrage return missed? Yes, thanks for making it deal with both forms. It will make the bot more robust. --HappyCamper 14:31, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks!  I noticed that yesterday, and I thought I'd fixed it, but obviously didn't use the right version of the program.  Thanks for reminding me! Martinp23 14:56, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi - just a progress report: The bot really messed up last night - in that it crashed.  This was because of some of my code not being written in that version of it (again!) - namely the code to make it accept both =title= and = title =.  I've fixed that now, but in the process of doing so, wiped the monthly archives.  I've fixed the bug that caused that as well (seems to be a tempremental one - doens't happen on server, but does on this PC).  To ensure some degree of continuity, I'm reverting the montly archives to yesterday, but don't be alarmed if you don't see last night's archive on them - it won't happen again! - I've implemented some fail-safes on it to  prevent anything like that ever happening.  Martinp23 20:20, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have a question...How does the bot edit the page? Does it edit the entire page, or just the sections one by one? Are you using some sort of regular expression to parse the text? --HappyCamper 00:57, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: OK - the bot edits the whole page at once, and parses it find the regex string " ?" + month + date + " ?".  The ?marks allow it to pick up the space, or lacktherof, in some headers.    Tonight, I'll use the new build of RefDeskBot to get some (hopefully) good results.  Martinp23 16:18, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Since the archives go into a different subpage, it's not really a big problem, but we can manually archive what's left to get them all on the same day, which should only take about an hour (assuming at least one of the few people that know how to archive is online). Just leave a message and it will get done; the headers are already complete. Then there would be no problem running the bot normally, and we wouldn't have to worry about the old archives anymore.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:19, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've created the placeholder archives page in the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives subpage, here, and so new archives will appear on the table from this template/page.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:36, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: OK - just give me the word when you're happy for the bot to start doing normal archives ;) Martinp23 08:36, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

text: OK, all pages archived up to October 16th; ready to go.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:31, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: RefDeskBot

message: I'm almost certain there is a template somewhere which helps with the dates. Um......where is it? :-) --HappyCamper 14:13, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There's also :Template:lmonth :Template:nmonth. Check my contributions if you're having problems finding the new pages, and also check the talk page for the new layout because I linked most of the stuff there.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  05:01, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Those are really just there to condense the date math, otherwise there'd be a page or so with of meta variables sprawled across the main template, there's also a dozen others that calculate the previous day, year, archive, etc.. I'm not sure how useful they are on their own--172.145.244.217 10:19, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Are you VectorPotential?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  11:55, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think VectorPotential is 71-247-243-173.  --hydnjo talk 14:41, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, right. So this is just, anonymous guy. OK.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  23:39, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually I am VectorPotential, this just isn't my computer--172.130.91.180 18:23, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  That special template 

message: Every question about Nazis turns into the holocaust did not happen yes it did no it didn't shut up you Jew, every question about homosexuals turns into you said homosexual I'm offended I'm just like you it's not a disease straight people are not normal what is normal anyway! Isn't this supposed to be for answering questions, not a giant soapbox for your opinion and how everyone else is wrong wrong wrong? Luigi30 (Taλk) 16:27, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yup, the RD is not a soapbox. Simple thing is to put *snip* as an edit summary, and simply remove the post if it gets really really bad. Just play it by ear. --HappyCamper 17:14, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I support that, as I've removed "useless" and "offensive" off-topic comments on a few occasions in the past.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  11:25, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: As an aside, that's just one reason why the reference desk is such a nice place on Wikipedia. We simply let people act like responsible people, and they will behave just like that. Generally, what works for the desks is measured common sense. --HappyCamper 22:26, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Indeed!  --hydnjo talk 23:50, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Whoa, that is not done. It's vandalism. Your offense is another's person's sharp insight. I would agree with marking off-topic, useless, offensive and joking answers as such, so people can choose to ignore them, but removing people's comments is just not done. Especially if the signature is removed, so the person who made the remark may never notice and can therefore not defend himself. By your own reasoning I should now remove your post, but by my own reasoning I shouldn't (alas :) ). DirkvdM 07:22, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: "Shut up you Jew" is not a sharp insight by any stretch of the English language, (we all understand what context it is being used in here), and I defend my right to remove comments that are easily classifiable as WP:PA or WP:Vandalism.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  09:17, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Soapbox

message: Well? It doesn't pertain to any policy or process on wikipedia, so why is it in the wikipedia namespace? The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 22:25, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it used to be way back when it was started, but it was soon moved here. Help pages are usually taken as WP policy, and are written by admins and sysops. RD is different, so I guess they put it in here to give it a more ambiguous presence.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  22:28, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: So then why don't we move it? The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 23:04, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: For the same reasons I just stated.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  23:11, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh. I don't think abiguity is a very good reason, it sounds like more of an excuse. But you are probably right about the reasoning behind the move. Aside from all of that, help pages don't explicity describe wikipedia, do they? They just....help people. Like this one. That's my idea. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 23:25, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Meh, never mind, you are probably right. For some reason I'm writing like a total ass today. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 23:26, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shouldn't the reference desk be in the Help namespace? 

message: ... that WP is a physical building like a library. And then imagine that one of the departments within the WP building is a place called the "Reference Desk" (RD). Folks who visit the building are allowed (even encouraged) to visit the RD and ask questions at the appropriate section of the RD (there are six sections). They've been told that the RD is the place to ask "factual" questions and to be careful about  things like:
*Be specific, 
*Include both a title and a question, 
*Be courteous, 
*Don't write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS,
*Do your own homework, 
*Be patient, 
*Do not include your e-mail address, 
*Edit your question for more discussion,
*Sign your question. Type --~~~~ at its end,
*Check back for updates, 
*Do not double post, 
*If requesting medical or legal advice, please consider asking a doctor or lawyer instead (but come back in a couple of weeks and we may have a legal and medical desk),
*Oh, and when you do come back in a couple of weeks there may be twelve to fifteen separate desks to choose from,
*And woe upon you if you ask ask at the wrong desk,
*and above all - DO NOT ASK A STUPID QUESTION.
All comfy now then, What is your question (and it better not be stupid)! Oh, and almost forgot, welcome to the Reference desk (unless of course you have a question which we deem to be stupid). 
hydnjo talk 05:36, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Imagine...

message: Okay, so I've been archiving a bit of the RD lately...I need a little help with creating the index of questions. See Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Mathematics/October 2006 for example. I haven't got to this yet. I felt it more important to shorten the active RD pages first, and then fiddle with the archives. --HappyCamper 20:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Catch up 

message: At the very least we can use  to remove posts by date, and dump them on the monthly archive pages. I realize there are several bots in progress right now, but there needs to be some way of keeping the page sizes down in the meantime. Other wise everything falls apart, for instance, the Humanities desk is currently 1.15 MegaBytes, not KB, but MB. Pages that can be measured in MB are in desperate need of temporary stop gap measures to keep them running--172.168.185.155 23:59, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The bot is ready. As soon as I have time to manually fully archive every page one last time (I'm at work now) Martin said he can start running it.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  00:13, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The point is that as of right now, it simply isn't being done, and the bot doesn't seem 100% yet. That means we could easily have another week of pages going over 1500 KB, which is really far too much, WP:SIZE puts the advised page size at no larger than 50 KB, compare that with 1.15 MB--172.168.185.155 00:15, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Btw, thank you for tackling the Humanities desk tonight, it really needed it, and I just did the Science desk, so I wasn't looking foward to doing another one --172.168.185.155 00:19, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi - the bot has been ready and woring for about a week now, but has been waiting on WP:BRFA (to get approved) and for the desks to be ready for archival.  I'm preparing the bot to do an archival run tonight right now, seeing as everything is in place.  Martinp23 09:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  If the bot still isn't ready I think it's time to call Werdnabot