Why has the BOT deleted this Ontario category?

Question

15:41, 26 May 2018 WikiTree-3 (Talk | contribs) deleted "Category:Beaverton, Upper Canada" ‎ (BOT Maintainace)

Can the person who directed the BOT to do this please get in touch with me. I've been working on cleaning up Ontario's location categories and would really appreciate some consultation before the BOT is allowed loose to delete categories that should exist. And just as an aside, the word is Maintenance. Okay, I'm feeling a bit grumpy today — broke a crown, one in my mouth, not on my head.

Comments

I don't know who submitted the {{Delete Category}} but if it had no links in it, the delete happens the next time the bot runs. Categories with links get reviewed by the Cat. Project (I think 4 or 5 of us have the ability to approve the deletes.) If I see a number of them coming at once involving one area (project, location, etc) I usually reach out to the person who did the deleting or the project or something to check on it. I know someone was revamping Ontario, but I can't recall who it was. Sorry.

I'd love it if people put an explanation under the {{Delete Category}} or {{Rename Category}} template in the category edit box so that the deletion is explained (just a short who/why this is happening). It'd make our job much easier and keep collaboration running more smoothly.

And may your crown be soon repaired! What a pain!

---

Thanks so much, Natalie.

---

Natalie, Who can be seen from the Category history. Why should be noted.

---

Yes, but it was deleted in May and I am having trouble locating the delete log for this date.

---

See the answer at the end.

---

Nat, the idea of documenting who and why the bot was requested to delete or rename a category sounds like a good idea. It is currently contrary to the instructions at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Categorization#Deleting_categories which say to remove all content other than {{Delete Category}} or {{Rename Category|NewCategoryName}}. Does the bot still work if there is other text on the category page?

Can we update that instruction and give a gentle alert to the people who have read the current version and act on it without reading any updated version?

---

I updated the help page.

---

Thanks, Aleš.

---

Here is a follow-up post:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/654791/are-you-familiar-with-the-delete-category-template

---

Thank you.

Answer 1

If you want to see more about deleted category, you can check EditBOT log files.

http://www.softdata.si/wt/EditBot/

This is the log for that day

http://www.softdata.si/wt/EditBot/Categories%20201805/ChangeLog%2020180526%20224109.htm

And this is the Deletion info. 

Processing Category:  Beaverton,_Upper_Canada
Last Save: Rassinot-1, Thompson-9019, Thompson-9019, 

Renaming 0 profiles
Fr: Beaverton, Upper Canada
Deleting Category: Beaverton,_Upper_Canada Done.

You can see that Rassinot-1 deleted the category

Category was empty with no inbound links, members and parent category. Kind of impossible to find. It was probably found by Category error reports. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/DBE_Categories_Suggestions

Comments

I have a hard time looking for things in the EditBot log files for a specific date, but I don't need to do so very often. I'm happy that you can find things, Ales.

---

Yes, thanks. I followed the first link from the Maintenance Categories and ended up there. There is no date for 5/26 on the page, so I clicked dates after that trying to find 5/26/2018. I got lost in a bunch of other dates, I think.

---

Thanks, everyone. I see why it was deleted now and why it wasn't replaced. I jumped into this update on the Ontario location categories without learning some basics first. Lesson learned!

---

Most of the dates on WikiTree+ are in YYYYMMDD format. That way they are chronologically sorted.

Answer 2

Laurie, you’re allowed, in all three cases. In my case, it was lawn mower blades arriving that didn’t fit my rider as promised. Two and one half acres turning into a jungle. And, yes, misspelled words on this site drive me crazy, just like questions without ANY punctuation or capitalization.

Does the BOT really make decisions like this on its own? Deleting categories?

Comments

Thanks, Pip, that does make me feel better! And sorry about the blades. As for the BOT, Ales (apologies for the missing accent) told me that it doesn't act on its own. Someone directs it to do the deed, but I'm not sure how you find out who that person is.

---

I particularly can't stand people who misspell words like "capitalisation". 

---

Haha! Must be a Brit! On my desktop, I have Word recogniZIng the other spelling, which I usually use, even as an ol’ Southern boy. Also, honour, behaviour, etc. I just like the look of them.

---

You probably can no longer find out once the category is deleted, but as long as it is pending some people can see who set the cat for deletion.

I did tinker with Ontario categories with wrong separators (no space after comma or space before comma) but right now I restrict my misdeeds to cleaning up categories already set up for deletion. I don't think I touched the Upper Canada ones though; only those with "Ontario" in the category name.

In case it really was me, I'm sorry. Fortunately you can still re-create the category.

---

No worries, Isabelle. I should never post when facing dental work! And, yes, I can re-create the category. A lot of fuss over not much I'm afraid.

---

No, you were right, it's always better to get in touch when doing that sort of work. (and who would be happy to have to go to the dentist's?)

Answer 3

'Twas not I, but the question occurs to me whether there were any profiles in it. If not, I can see somebody deleting it, even if it's actually correct, because there are a whack of empty location categories (and possibly other kinds of categories too) which people have clearly put a lot of working into creating, but are kind of useless if they don't have any profiles in them.

Comments

P.S. I had a similar problem with people deleting the Victoria, Ontario category. Sure, there's nowhere called Victoria, Ontario now, but there was for a few years in the late 1800s. Then it got renamed to Bridgeburg, and eventually got merged into Fort Erie.

---

If there is a databox on a category, linking to the current place name category; or even explanatory text, it can help stave off the deleters.

---

Yikes, Greg, that means I've spent hours linking "useless" categories! The reason people haven't used the Ontario location categories in the past, I thought, was because they were so hard to find and so disorganized. The Upper Canada categories are particularly useful because they can provide connections between early settlers, who tended to intermarry. I've connected several Ontario families this way. To see categories deleted before I have a chance to do that is particularly disheartening.

---

One possible solution (that I've used a lot), is to do a WikiTree specific site search, for a place name. Then, add the new category to the appropriate profiles if any turn up.

So, for instance, in Google I can type :

site:www.wikitree.com/wiki/ tilt cove newfoundland

and then if anyone shows up for the appropriate years, categorise them. This has several benefits. It means the categories have some immediate use, and it lets people (the profile owners) know about categorization. Some (a few, too few) will start to use them, themselves.

---

This is exactly what I have been doing, Brad (I forgot to add that to the post above), but I haven't been able to add profiles to all the empty categories yet. I agree that this is a great way to let people know about categorization.

---

Well, perhaps "useless" was the wrong word. But people are already whining that there are too many categories. (Which makes no sense to me: it's not like there's some limit on the number of categories we can create, and that once we've used them all up we'll be stuck.)

Although, I suppose, to be fair, if somebody is trying to find out something by browsing categories rather than by running a search, then finding hordes of empty categories would be kind of frustrating to them.

In any case, in my own work on fixing Ontario/Canada West/Upper Canada categories, I only work on categories that already exist and are populated. Like, if I find a "City of Melonville, Ontario" category, I'll move all the profiles that I can to "Melonville, Ontario", then delete the old category. But if I find an empty category with the wrong name format, I'll just delete it and not create a new one. (Or at least, not until I find a profile that belongs in there.)

---

I think all the "City of" categories have been deleted now. I tried to produce an index on the Upper Canada, Canada West and Ontario main pages to help people find locations. It was the only way I could keep track of everything with all the districts, townships and counties. The Search function is not always reliable I find. At any rate, Greg, I'm ready to turn it all over to you again. I'm a little "categoried" out at this stage and, if you're still working on it, I won't feel that I'm abandoning ship with no one to carry on!

Answer 4

Back in June, on my ggggrampa+ , the category African Americans in the Civil War was removed . Guess because he's the only guy in the category.  It was restored I think by Paula J (luv her a bushel and ten pecks) and the profile was PPPed. 

I remember posting something about chopping the Bot up into little pieces and flushing them down the john

Comments

LOL. Thanks, Eddie. Tomorrow's another day.