Wikinews:Water cooler/assistance/archives/2013/September

What bots might be available for category work?

I have a number of tasks in mind where manual categorisation is not needed. There will be many more, no doubt, but at present the list is;

1. Everything in Cat:Nuclear proliferation should be in Cat:Nuclear weapons
2. Everything in Cat:Nuclear medicine should be in Cat:Health
3. Everything in Cat:Nuclear accidents should be in Cat:Disasters and accidents
4. Everything in Cat:Nuclear power should be in Cat:Energy
5. Everything in the nuclear subcats (Cat:Nuclear medicine, Cat:Nuclear weapons, Cat:Nuclear waste and reprocessing and Cat:Nuclear accidents) should be in the new nuclear parent cat: Cat:Nuclear technology
6. Everything in Cat:Nuclear technology should be in Cat:Science and technology
7. Everything in Cat:Nuclear weapons, Cat:Chemical weapons, and Cat:Biological weapons should be in Cat:Weapons of mass destruction
8. Everything in Cat:Weapons of mass destruction should be in Cat:military

This is a task for a robot if ever there was one. What bots are around nowadays? I've been away a year and haven't a clue what my options are. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 00:21, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Some time back, I implemented a system of templates on en.wb that automatically adds books to an automatically maintained hierarchy of shadow categories. It's really a rather cool system (if I do say so myself :-), but seems like it couldn't be adapted for en.wn because it depends on some special circumstances there that don't apply here.

In "short": There's a hierarchy of subjects, with root b:Subject:Books by subject. Each book's main page has a template {{subjects|...}} that names a few subjects in which to list the book. Each Subject:S has a corresponding Category:S of books to be listed there, and the subject page Subject:S uses a DPL to show all books listed under S. But there is also a hidden "shadow category", Category:S/all books, of all books that are listed under S or any descendant of S. So that you can also produce a DPL of books in S-or-any-descendant, or a DPL of books in some descendant of S (but not in S). The {{subjects|...}} template, when told to list the book under subject:S, adds the book to category:S and also to the all-books categories of S and all ancestors of S. How does it know what the ancestors of S are? It asks the subject pages, by transcluding them as templates and passsing parameters to them — which works because the subject pages are fully protected and of a very rigid format.

The two nifty tricks there are, having shadow categories, and automatically populating them. I keep wondering whether either of those tricks would somehow be useful here, but each time I wonder, I eventually admit I can't see any way for it to not be just plain messy. --Pi zero (talk) 01:48, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps w:WP:AutoWikiBrowser would be of use here. If a page is located in Category:Nuclear proliferation, then a user could append Category:Nuclear weapons relatively quickly and easily. AWB should work on Wikinews. —Mikemoral♪♫ 06:12, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

• I've used AWB here previously - has that "Gotta use MSIE" infection issue. Otherwise quite well-put together.
• NewsieBot is on-hold for now; but, unless the API has been 'excessively hacked', most of the functions we'd need are there such that little would be required to do well-defined, regular, tasks. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 12:39, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Tony Benn video interview

{{flag}}

It's not every day we get the chance to interview someone once-described as "The Most Dangerous Man in Britain". This will be filmed (at a resolution to give Commoners headaches); and I will document much of the process of doing the video editing.

Tony Benn was interviewed for Wikinews, back in 2009 (by phone, from Brussels). My background research was far, far less than as-of now. I have (under embargo) audio from Tony's Q&A at the Edinburgh Fringe (please flag that you want access to said).

The key point to note is: Tony Benn: Will and Testament (2013) is one of the main newsworthy points for this interview. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 12:36, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Category:Tony Benn. --Pi zero (talk) 15:36, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

• Thanks! --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:38, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Microgrant request

• See here, and expect an influx of curious Wikimedia UK folks. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:38, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

North Korea article

I have an article ready, where two people are interviewees, I am just wondering whether anyone can suggest any follow-up questions that I can ask about this topic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23981001. The questions replies have been recieved for are:

1. Did the North Korean state invite you or did you make a request to visit Mount Paektu?
2. Do the North Korean scientists have complicated scientific equipment for use? Or did you have to bring your own from the UK?
3. An eruption of Mount Paektu would have consequences for many countries, do you think that the North Koreans recognise this?

Can anyone suggest any others please as I am struggling? And the specialists being interviewed are Dr. James Hammond and Dr. Clive Oppenheimer. --Computron (talk) 09:39, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Support to Ukrainian NGO

Hello, people!
I want to create an article for en.wikinews.org about struggle of NGOs in Ukraine for their work against a govermental draft law: International Day of charity in Ukraine: Experts urged the parliament to prevent "murder" of charity. In uk.wikinews this article placed on the Main Page: uk:У Міжнародний день благодійництва рятують галузь від недолугих ініціатив уряду. But my english is very bad :(

I prepare some materials on this topic and run google-translation. You can find it here - document open for editing :) So if somebody has time and inspiration, please, help me to improve this text! Thank you for attention!--Fed4ev (talk) 14:02, 10 September 2013 (UTC)