Help:AperfectBot

When you write an expedition page, your expedition is automatically included in the Current events summary, where people look to see what expeditions are planned and to read about recent adventures. You don't have to do anything other than write a report, to be included in this list. The purpose of this help page is to show you how to influence the appearance of the summary, or to include plans which don't have their own page yet.

Adding your expedition

The best way to add your expedition is to create an expedition page by following these instructions. If, however, you do not wish to do this, but still want to get it on the Current Events page, then follow these instructions.

First, find the date that you want to add your plan to.

If the date you want to edit doesn't exist, don't create it, because the bot will just delete it again (its pretty stupid, being Ape-like and all). If the coordinates are available for the day you wish to add, the bot should add the date header shortly, please be patient. If the coordinates are not yet available, and you still want to make sure your plan to the list, the only way to get it to show up is to add [[Category:Expedition_planning]] to a normal expedition page for the event.

If the date exists, then click the edit link, which is to the right of the date header and on the same line.

You will come up with an edit box containing text like this:

=== [[YYYY-MM-DD]] ===
{{Expedition_summaries|YYYY-MM-DD}}
<!--Insert manual updates below this line.  Manual updates may not contain equal signs-->

There may or may not be other user-added entries already there for the date. Just add a couple of lines, then your entry on the end of the text in the box, and it will be there from now until that date is no longer on the page. If you decide to later add an actual planning or expedition page, you should remove the user-added entry, to avoid confusion. Make sure to preview your entry before you submit it, to make sure everything looks alright.

Tips:

• Include a link to where you will do planning, so that others can find that information.
• Avoid editing around midnight US Pacific time (UTC -8, accounting for US daylight savings time changes), or around when the coordinates are announced. These times are when the bot will be changing the dates around on the page, and you could end up with edit conflicts.

Changing the summary text

AperfectBot produces the expedition summaries and links automatically. If you wish to change the output, you will have to edit the relevant expedition page. You can get to the expedition page by clicking the link at the beginning of the summary. I suggest having it open in another browser tab or even another browser window.

If you just created your page recently, the bot may not have seen it yet. The bot will not see your page for at least 10 minutes after you create it, and may take a while longer than that. The longest I have seen is about 20 minutes, usually it is more like 15 minutes though.

The bot may also have picked up an early version of the page, before you made all of your edits. Edits should be picked up sooner than new pages, no more than 15 minutes, and usually around 5-10 minutes. Please be patient.

If you have waited the maxiumum time mentioned above, and still see no edits, please say so here, or send aperfectring an e-mail using the "E-mail this user" link on the left bar of the wiki. I will look into why your page has not been added. Typical problems include the bot crashing and never reaching your expedition, or that aperfectring's computer rebooted, and the bot isn't running.

The summary is comprised of three parts: The link to the expedition list, the list of users participating, and a description of the location. The basic format is like this:

Expedition link - User, nonwikiuser, list - Location description.

Editing the expedition link

The expedition link name is based on the All Graticules list, so unless your link is showing up as "Unknown (lat, lon)", the only way to change it is to rename your graticule, which should not be done lightly. That isn't to say you shouldn't do it, but you should take time and discuss it with other geohashers in the graticule, and probably also with other geohashers as well. The bot uses the name in the "all graticules" list so that people can quickly identify where in the world this expedition is happening. The location description is the best place to describe where in the graticule the expedition is happening.

Editing the user list

Your first step in editing the user list is to determine how your user list is being determined. The order of selection is this:

• A list of users under a "Participants" or "People" header. This list may contain leading bullets or tabs, if desired.
  • While creating the list, it will take either the first word of a line, or a complete User:*|* link. This is done so that people can put comments after their name.
• All User:*|* links within the page
  • The bot will attempt to remove all duplicates, but some may still trickle through. Remedy this by using the same user link every time.
• The text: "Somebody is, why not join them?" or "Somebody went" depending on if it is in the future or past.

After you have identified which method is being used, it is as simple as editing that part of the expedition page. If you wish to change the method for one higher up the list, all you have to do is add something which matches a bullet higher on the list.

Tip:

• When creating your expedition page, use Template:Expedition, and the Participants header will already be in place. Just include a list of users who were/will be there.

Editing the location description

Your first step in editing the location description is to determine which section the bot is pulling the text from. The bot does not simply take the text from the section picked. It will strip out any links, templates, subheaders, HTML comments, and HTML tags in that text first. After that, it will truncate the text it finds to a maximum of 75 characters. The order of selection is this:

• Text under a "location" or "where" header
• Text under an "expedition" header
• Text at the beginning of the page
• The text: "Unknown location, why not have a spontaneous adventure?" or "Somewhere" depending on whether the date is in the future or past.

After you have identified which section of text is being used, you can simply edit that part of the expedition page.

Tips:

• When creating your expedition page, use Template:Expedition, and the Location and Expedition headers will already be in place. Just include something under one (or both) of those headers.
• Avoid using a map link to the location. The bot will ignore the it, and the link shows up under the map on the right hand side anyways.
• The location description is meant to be a short teaser about where the point actually is. So "In a suburb of Chicago" probably isn't as helpful as "On 45th avenue in Naperville". It is OK to assume that the target audience is at least somewhat familiar with the area.

Questions, comments, and other

Feel free to ask me (aperfectring) any questions you like. It can be general questions about the bot (not sentient, yet...), about geohashing in general (its the best way to get totally lost near home), or even about the meaning of existence (peanut butter s'mores). If the question seems like it would help others, I will post it here (with permission, of course). Notifications about the bot being broken should be made here.

Updating the auto-lists

If the date of your expedition appears on Geo Hashing:Current events, then there is nothing you need to do.

However, if it does not appear there, then put your date, in our standard YYYY-MM-DD format, in the list at the bottom of this page.

General Info

See User:AperfectBot for more information about the bot.