User talk:Baskaufs

Douglas Adams (Q42)

Hi, I came across this edit of yours and wonder whether it was an accident or you had a reason for it -- Dr.üsenfieber (talk) 22:44, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Hi Dr.üsenfieber, sorry about that - it was an accidental edit. As you can see from my recent edits on test.wikidata.org I've been running a lot of tests on a script to write to the API. The example pages for the API documentation like this one usually use Q42 in their examples, so that when you click on an example link and go to an example page, the entity is automatically filled in as Q42. The problem is that when navigating around, it is easy to end up at the API sandbox for the real Wikidata without noticing because that sandbox looks exactly the same as the one for test.wikidata.org. I typically make random test edits on the test.wikidata.org sandbox to get a look at the sample JSON that is sent to the API to use as a model. I apparently switched over to the real wikidata.org sandbox instead of the test.wikidata.org without noticing and made that edit using the default entity ID (Q42).

Thanks for catching and reverting the error. I'm sorry to have made the mistake. Baskaufs (talk) 01:34, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Help, Steve, I need more oil! VandyRobbie (talk) 20:19, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

your blog article about WD query from .js

		The Wikidata Barnstar
		Thank you for writing a great blog article about how to use Wikidata in applications. --99of9 (talk) 04:37, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Steve, I found your blog article and superhero example code very useful over the weekend while learning how to make a browser extension able to call Wikidata. By chance today I saw the same name on your WD bot and connected the dots. So I wanted to pass on my thanks. --99of9 (talk) 04:37, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

@99of9: Thanks, Toby! I'm really excited about your extension - I saw the video you posted and it's really cool. Baskaufs (talk) 17:58, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Steve. It's available now. Details are at Wikidata:Entity_Explosion. Let me know if you have any feedback. Thanks again! --99of9 (talk) 02:30, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for sharing, I will try it out Baskaufs (talk) 21:24, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

User:VanderBot

I noticed you have a bot that created Noah's Ark (Q111822039). Can you please get it approved at Wikidata:Requests for permissions/Bot? Multichill (talk) 18:10, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi Multichill. It's not really appropriate for me to apply for a bot flag since VanderBot isn't an autonomous bot. It's probably a misrepresentation to actually call it a bot since it is really just tool to assist uploading data to Wikidata from a spreadsheet similar to Quickstatements or OpenRefine. You can read more about the script at https://github.com/HeardLibrary/linked-data/blob/master/vanderbot/README.md where there are various links to training videos, blog posts, and a Semantic Web journal article about it. Currently, I'm using the tool create Wikidata items for Commons works that don't have them, and that are represented in the Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database. See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Art_in_the_Christian_Tradition_(ACT) for details. We have gone through a number of cycles of searching for Wikidata items that may already exist for the Commons works, including a variety of SPARQL queries, web scraping the tiny Wikidata flag links on the Commons page, and doing fuzzy string matching between the ACT artwork titles and Wikidata labels. We've also done human quality control on the spreadsheets prior to doing the uploads looking for suspect works. However, given the large number of works that we are trying to create Wikidata pages for, it is probably inevitable that we will create some duplicates that will have to be merged (like the one you referenced). That is unfortunate, but I can't think of more that we could do than we already have to avoid it. Steve Baskauf (Baskaufs) (talk) 18:29, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

According to our definition it's a bot, so please apply. Multichill (talk) 23:11, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

Hmm. Well it doesn't have a specific task, other than to generically create items, claims, or references. So I'm not sure how I would describe its task. The other thing is that there is some conflation between the VanderBot application and the VanderBot user account. When I personally use the application, I use it with the VanderBot user account to separate its edits from edits that I make manually using my baskaufs account. However, the code is openly available and I know that others are using it under their own account usernames, just like somebody would use Quickstatements or OpenRefine to do uploads through the API. So what actually am I getting permission for, the account or the application? Steve Baskauf (Baskaufs) (talk) 00:36, 6 May 2022 (UTC)

VanderBot faculty import

Dear Baskaufs,

has your bot deduplicated the personnel of Vanderbilt University? There are e.g. Richard M. Caprioli (Q86531379) and Richard M. Caprioli (Q106466628)!-- Schwebekastenjunge (talk) 21:45, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Hi User:Schwebekastenjunge. Thanks for your question! The VanderBot script doesn't operate autonomously, so it doesn't automatically make any changes. When I first created items for Vanderbilt researchers, I made a very strong effort to avoid creating duplicate records. Many automated bots don't do that. In the case you mentioned, I created Richard M. Caprioli Q86531379 on 27 Feb 2020 and the bot "Pi bot" created the duplicate item Richard Caprioli Q106466628 on 12 April 2021. Apparently it was not sophisticated enough to realized that there already was an item for that person. This happens periodically and when I discover such cases, I usually just merge them manually. Steve Baskauf (Baskaufs) (talk) 12:50, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Your tool docs are featured as an example in the new Tool Docs Guide!

Hello VanderBot maintainers, contributors, and fans! I wanted to let you know that I highlighted the VanderBot documentation as a shining example in the new Tool Docs guide that I just published. Thank you for creating lovely tool documentation that can serve as an example to help others create and improve tool docs :-) This guide was created as part of the Doc Your Tool project for the upcoming 2024 Hackathon. If you're interested, please join that project to work on or talk about tool documentation during the hackathon! TBurmeister (WMF) (talk) 16:56, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind words, User:TBurmeister (WMF)! It is nice to know that the extra effort required to include documentation is appreciated. Steve Baskauf (Baskaufs) (talk) 13:42, 17 April 2024 (UTC)