Category talk:Pages where archive parameter is not a subpage

Things to look out for when fixing pages in this category

I've started fixing some pages in this category. It seems that most mismatches are caused by page moves. One thing I'd like to tell other editors to watch out for, is to make sure that there's no archive subpages left at the old title. If there are, please move them to the new title. --rchard2scout (talk) 10:07, 4 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

St. Louis

Simple question:

Why is/was not this page in the category?

[1]

CapnZapp (talk) 19:46, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@CapnZapp: The former revision [2] displays the category. The talk page had been edited since the template started adding the category so I can think of no reason it would have been missing from the category before your edit, except if one of the earlier templates temporarily had a bad edit which deactivated the following code. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:21, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Work to empty out category

Whoa. Well over 2000 entries?

Is this category useful? It wasn't very long since it was created, but with over 2000 entries, what is the purpose? Is anyone actively maintaining it?

CapnZapp (talk) 19:48, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@CapnZapp: The errors have accumulated over more than a decade and are probably made at a slow rate. There were originally more than 2700 pages so there is some progress. I don't know maintainers but some will probably do it at some time, e.g. after spotting the category on a talk page and deciding to fix more than that page. As you may know, users can enable "Show hidden categories" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. The category is not on articles so maybe it shouldn't be hidden. I created the category but did very little to promote it, and I haven't worked on emptying it. Maybe I will one day. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:41, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've been working on it on and off (see my last ~1500 contributions). I went alphabetically, so I did most pages from "1 cent euro coin" to "Constellation". In the last 1.5 months since I've started working on that, I think I've seen about 3 or 4 new pages come up at the top of the list. All of those came from page moves where the archive setting wasn't updated. So I think that once the category is emptied, it should be very little work to keep up with it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rchard2scout (talk • contribs)

@CapnZapp: Thanks. I don't know your workflow but maybe User:PrimeHunter/Bad archive parameters can help. I know it has some misformatted entries. "Old subpages" is based on an assumption that the page was moved from the title in the archive parameter. You may also like User:BrandonXLF/GreenRedirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:28, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going out on a limb and assume you're thanking User:Rchard2scout, not me. CapnZapp (talk) 12:51, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I have now used {{unsigned}} on his post. Maybe he has been fixing so many archive parameters on talk pages that he forgot you usually have to sign there. Thanks Rchard2scout. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:40, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, sorry, I can't believe I forgot to sign. I don't think that "Bad archive parameters" page fits in my workflow, but I might check it out some more soon. I have installed GreenRedirects, let's see how useful that is. --rchard2scout (talk) 14:32, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Almost completely empty

Well, it's just about done. Right now, there's only three pages left in this category:

User talk:Sprinting faster: Alt of Rcsprinter123, I've asked them about what they want to do with it. ( Done rchard2scout (talk) 13:01, 8 September 2021 (UTC))[reply]
User talk:Toon05/Archive 1: Protected by Toon05, who has since been desysopped for inactivity and only made 4 edits since 2015. I've asked them to ask for it to be unprotected, but if they don't come back, I'll put in an edit request/request for unprotection in a week or so.
Update: Request for unprotection denied, so I've put in an edit request. --rchard2scout (talk) 08:34, 17 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Done --rchard2scout (talk) 08:10, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
User:Whiskers75/vector.css: User CSS page, so only editable by interface admins (but deletable by admins). I've asked them to remove it, but the user has only made a couple edits in 2010-2013, so I'm not expecting them to come back. I'll throw {{db-g6}} on the talk page in a week. ( Done rchard2scout (talk) 23:50, 13 September 2021 (UTC))[reply]

Any new pages that show up in this category are usually the result of article moves. That does mean that they don't show up in your watchlist if you're watching this category (see T267337), so people will have to monitor this category manually. --rchard2scout (talk) 09:41, 8 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Thanks a lot for all the work. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The last one is done now, which means that for the first time, the category is now completely empty! --rchard2scout (talk) 08:10, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Bot automatically fixes archive value

In July 2022, Aidan9382-Bot was approved at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Aidan9382-Bot 2 to automatically fix disallowed archive values. An issue with old archives still located under the old name is discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Page moves without moving archives (permanent link). PrimeHunter (talk) 20:49, 30 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]