FPCBot stopped working (2024-03-10)

Hi,

The FPCBot is not working. Can you please look at it ? Thanks -- Yann (talk) 09:36, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

PS: Please archive your talk page. Thanks, Yann (talk) 09:38, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Commons photographers: next virtual meeting on April 13, 2024

Dear member of the Commons Photographers User Group,

I'm inviting you to our next virtual meeting on Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 9.00 UTC ( start time in your timezone (via zoneStamp!) (expected duration for 2 hrs). The primary agenda of this gathering will revolve around discussions regarding the Movement Charter. Your valuable input and participation in these discussions would be highly appreciated. If you're interested in attending, please sign up on this page: Virtual Meeting on April 13, 2024.

I hope you're having a great time taking photos and I'm looking forward to seeing you.

All the best, -- Suyash Dwivedi (talk) 10:35, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

FPCBot stopped working

Hi,

The FPCBot is not working. Can you please look at it ? Thanks -- Yann (talk) 18:53, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

@Yann: I don't see a problem. Can you take another look and let me know what the issue is more specifically? Thanks -- KTC (talk) 21:03, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi KTC, we had some problems with it today - it missed its usual sweeps at 05:00 UTC and 13:00 UTC and another user had to close several nominations manually according to the five day rule. Perhaps something on the FPC page has thrown it off somehow. Cmao20 (talk) 17:28, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

I've manually removed and handled delist nomination Commons:Featured picture candidates/removal/File:Fringilla coelebs chaffinch male edit2.jpg, this should get bot operations in motion. Best, MZaplotnik^(talk) 09:44, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

The 2024/10/06 21:00 UTC run started and processed a few noms but then terminated halfway through processing Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Morning view of the pond at Oizumi Ryokuchi, September 2024 - 0644.jpg. I've manually finished off that one so we'll see what happens with the next one at 05:00 today. BigDom (talk) 02:43, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

The 05:00 had an issue again, but the 13:00 has just run successfully, so hopefully we're back to normal now. BigDom (talk) 14:14, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Again

Hi, KTC, please could you take a look at Commons talk:Featured picture candidates#Bot notification... again and see if you can help? Best regards -- Basile Morin (talk) 01:55, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

@Basile Morin: Done. -- KTC (talk) 12:16, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

Your most memorable shot of 2024

Happy New Year! As always at the beginning of the new year, I'm inviting you to share your most memorable shot of the past year. Which of your photos stood out in 2024? Which image created special memories that you'd like to share with others? On behalf of the Commons Photographers User Group I wish you, your family, and your friends all the best for 2025. Warmly, --Ailura (talk) 18:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

FPCBot code changes

Hello Katie, because I do not know whether the ping works or not: I have left a short notice for you and Daniel78 (and possibly other FPCBot maintainers) on Daniel’s talk page. All the best, – Aristeas (talk) 09:19, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

FPCBot stopped working (2025-07-21)

Hello KTC (and everybody who may be concerned), FPCBot stopped its usual duties last evening at 21:00 UTC while processing this nomination. Maybe this is related to my last changes to the bot code – if yes, I am very sorry. I will look into this and try to run the bot program locally from my computer. Maybe I face the same error – then I can analyse it and fix it. If the bot program runs correctly for me, the problem is probably not related to my code changes, then I will come back to you and ask you to give the bot the little push it seems to need from time to time. Sorry for any inconveniences and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 07:23, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Update 1: Hem, this is a bit odd. If I run the bot program (in exactly the same version as on GitHub and, presumably, also on the labs server) locally on my machine, there are no problems. FPCBot stopped on this nomination after step 3 of the parking procedure; this could be a hint that there is a problem with step 4, i.e. in the method Candidate.addToCurrentMonth(). And indeed I have changed the code of that method yesterday. But for me the program gracefully continues with step 4 and shows not the slightest hint to a problem neither in step 4 nor after it. I have processed three more reviewed nominations the same way and everything seems to work perfectly. Looking again at my last changes to the code and running some lint tools on it, I cannot spot any issues or fragile constructs. So maybe it was just an coincidence that FPCBot stopped after step 3 of the parking procedure last night … it’s the first time that it did stop since I started to work on the bot code.

I hope that the bot will run again normally today at 13:00 UTC. If it stops again after step 3 of the parking procedure, we know that there is indeed a problem. Of course I can just revert my last change to the code of the bot, but that will only be a workaround, not a solution; we must find out what is the problem. It would be incredibly helpful if you could – only if and when you find time – find out two things (I still have neither access to the labs server nor even an idea how I could get access: I can’t even spot a hint where to apply for an account):

1. We know that the servers pulls nightly the newest version of the FPCBot code from GitHub – but when exactly? Does this happen before the 21:00 UTC run of the bot or after it? (If it happens after it, my latest changes to the bot code cannot be the reason that the bot stopped at 21:00 UTC.)
2. There must be log files and especially an error log for FPCBot on the server. I need to get the last entries from that log – if I could just read them, I would very probably know immediately what went wrong and how to fix it. So it would be great if you could copy me the last log/error entries from FPCBot, or find somebody who has access to them and could send them to me.

Thank you very much, sorry for the inconveniences and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 10:05, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Update 2: Well, now we know it for sure – at 13:00 UTC, FPCBot has stopped again after step 3 of the parking procedure. So there is very probably a problem with step 4, i.e. with the method Candidate.addToCurrentMonth(). But I still can neither reproduce the problem nor find any possible issues in the code. I could just revert my latest changes to the code, but that would be a lost chance. We need to understand what exactly is not working, only then we can be sure to avoid the same error in the future.

Therefore I propose the following for now. I have handled the closing and parking of all open nominations by running the bot program myself (without any problems), so the FPC page is up-to-date. I can repeat that this evening, tomorrow etc., so there are no inconveniences for the FPC nominators and voters – the FPC procedure works normally, just that I handle it with my copy of the code. This gives us time to look into this issue and (hopefully) to gain valuable insights. As written above, if you could try to get access to the error log and to send me the last entries, this would be incredibly helpful. At the same time I have tried to go a step further and deployed a feature which I wanted to commit later – namely to enable the bot to post error messages to the FPC talk page. If this feature works on the server as well as it works for me locally (it should), we will get a stack trace for the problem in the parking procedure. This is another chance for me to fully understand that issue. I hope that either the one or the other solution – getting the error log or posting the stack trace – will work so that I can soon debug and fix the problem. Sorry for the inconveniences and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 16:17, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi Aristeas,

@@ -145,0 +146 @@ ***

+ File:Akelei Blüte Red Hobbit. stacking-20250503-RM-164944.jpg ***
 ***
@@ -149 +149,0 @@ ***
- File:Pollen cone on a Ponderosa pine in Tuntorp, Brastad, Sweden.jpg ***

Sleeping for 4.2 seconds, 2025-07-22 13:01:40
Page [[Commons:Featured pictures, list]] saved
@@ -60,0 +61 @@ ***
+ File:Akelei Blüte Red Hobbit. stacking-20250503-RM-164944.jpg|Akelei Blüte Red Hobbit. stacking-20250503-RM-164944 ***

Sleeping for 9.1 seconds, 2025-07-22 13:01:45
Page [[Commons:Featured pictures/Plants/Ranunculales]] saved
@@ -11,0 +12,2 @@ ***
+ {{Assessments|featured=1}} ***
+ ***

Sleeping for 9.0 seconds, 2025-07-22 13:01:55
Page [[File:Akelei Blüte Red Hobbit. stacking-20250503-RM-164944.jpg]] saved
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 2187, in <module>
    main()
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 2168, in main
    checkCandidates(Candidate.park, candidates_page, delist=False)
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 1692, in checkCandidates
    check(candidate)
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 1317, in park
    self.handlePassedCandidate(verified_result)
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 1415, in handlePassedCandidate
    self.addToCurrentMonth(files)
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 1020, in addToCurrentMonth
    new_text = old_text.replace(
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: str.replace() takes no keyword arguments
CRITICAL: Exiting due to uncaught exception TypeError: str.replace() takes no keyword arguments

-- KTC (talk) 16:49, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Hello KTC, thank you so much! This is great help – now it’s easy-peasy to fix the issue! Well, sometimes the answer to complicated problems is very simple. Obviously the server is running an older version of Python. Using str.replace(old, new, count) with count=... as a keyword argument is supported only since Python 3.13 (reference). But I did not notice this because the documentation mentions count=... like a keyword argument, and similar functions like re.sub() even require us to use count=... as a keyword argument (reference). Sorry, thank you and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 17:28, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi Aristeas, it's entirely possible the server has newer version of Python available, but (as I understand it) the bot runs a local version of Python, which I think is 3.11 currently. Upgrading it is an whole ordeal with me having to look up all relevant instructions. I have only really done that when things break and I have no choice. I'll have a look at upgrading the environment in the near future and let you know when it's completed. -- KTC (talk) 17:47, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi KTC, thank you very much for this additional piece of information. It is very helpful for me. Of course it would be great if you could upgrade the Python version some day; I am testing the bot code with the latest Python version (3.13) and can assure you that FPCBot will run well with that version. But there is no need to hurry; just do this when you find some free time. For now I am already very happy to know that the server runs Python 3.11. This will (hopefully) help me to avoid any similar mistakes.

If you find the time to upgrade Python, you could also check which Pywikibot version is used by the server to run FPCBot. It’s possible that the server uses an old Pywikibot version, too. Now the newer Pywikibot versions contain some useful improvements and substantial changes which can make an important difference. Therefore it would be brilliant if you could upgrade Pywikibot to one of the last versions (10.x), too.

For now, the issue should be fixed with this commit which makes the code again backward compatible with older Python versions. So as soon as the server pulls the latest version of the code from GitHub, FPCBot should run smoothly. Thank you again for your fast help and sorry for my mistake! All the best, – Aristeas (talk) 17:57, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi Aristeas, I've manually pull an update on the bot code and then tried to run it on an out of hour run and it failed. Can you check your commit adding stack trace? I see

From https://github.com/Zitrax/FPCBot

   0a28bb8..8b8839e master -> origin/master
  File "/data/project/fpcbot/fpcbot/fpc.py", line 1429
    )
    ^
SyntaxError: f-string expression part cannot include a backslash

-- KTC (talk) 18:30, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much, KTC, for noticing this, and sorry for the additional effort and trouble. Alas, this is yet another tiny but nasty difference between Python versions: older versions like 3.11 were very restrictive in the allowed contents of {...} expressions in f-strings, while the same code runs without any problems under 3.13. At the same time, I have found that formatting a stack trace works better with <pre>...</pre>. Both issues are fixed now. I hope FPCBot will now work gracefully again …

I have considered going back to Python 3.11 myself to avoid such discrepancies between my testing environment and the server environment, but that would have the disadvantage that I would not get the deprecation warnings added in Python 3.12 and 3.13 – which are many and often very important, and to write future-proof code I need these warnings. So for now I must just try to write code which works from 3.11 to 3.13. Today we stumbled over two serious incompatibilities (sorry again!), I hope this will help me to avoid any further problems of this kind. Thank you again and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 19:58, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

A new noticeboard for permission requests from external sources

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:38, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

Commons Photographers User Group Virtual Meeting, October 2025

Hello KTC!

You are receiving this message because you are one of our esteemed members of the Commons Photographers User Group.

You are invited to the next virtual meeting of the Commons Photographers User Group! This is a great opportunity to connect, discuss important updates, and plan for the future of our group. Please register for the event using the link below!

Agenda:

1.   Welcome and CPUG Updates
2.   Upcoming Election
3.   Commons Conference
4.   Community Updates
5.   Other topics

Information on temporary account IP viewer rights

Hello KTC,

On November 12, temporary accounts will be enabled on Commons. The IP of unregistered users will then be hidden for most users. You, as a patroller or license reviewer, are eligible to request the new temporary account IP viewer right, if you need it to continue fighting vandalism and abuse on Commons. If you want to request the right, please file the request here. Please be aware that you also have to accept the Wikimedia Access to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy in your preferences. For more information about temporary accounts, look at the project page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:33, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Commons Photographers User Group: Board Elections 2025

Dear member of the Commons Photographers User Group,

the 2025 board election is starting soon.

The timeline for the 2025 election will be

• November 25 – December 2: Applications for the election committee
• December 2 – December 15: Vote for election committee (if necessary)
• December 16: Election committee starts work
• December 20 – January 4: Nomination phase for candidacies
• January 5 – January 11: Elections
• January 15: Results announced

In the first step we ask you to be part of the election committe. Please add your name on the Election Page.

We are very much looking forward to hearing from you. Please use this talk page for your thoughts.

All the best

--Ailura (talk) for the CPUG board

Commons Photographers User Group: Board Elections 2025/2

Dear member of the Commons Photographers User Group,

thank you for your interest in our board election.

This week we ask you to vote for the election committe.

Please support up to three candidates on the Election Page by December 16th, 00:00 UTC.

We are very much looking forward to hearing from you. Please use this talk page for your thoughts.

All the best

--Ailura (talk) for the CPUG board

Happy holidays!

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴
	Merry Christmas and a happy new year! ✴ Aristeas (talk) 16:18, 22 December 2025 (UTC)
✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

Your Most Memorable Shot Submission!

Hello KTC!

As we step into a new year, we’re happy to invite you to take part in “Your Most Memorable Shot 2025.”

Since 2018, photographers from across the Wikimedia community have come together at the beginning of each year to share the photographs that meant the most to them over the past twelve months. Now in its eighth iteration, this tradition continues to be a space for reflection, storytelling, and celebrating meaningful moments through photography.

Whether you are a member of the Commons Photographers User Group or not, you are warmly welcome to participate and invite others too. Every image carries a story, and your perspective helps enrich this collective showcase.

Whenever you’re ready, please select your most cherished photograph from 2025 and share it on the designated page.

The deadline for submissions is 28 February 2026, so we hope you’ll join us before then.

We look forward to discovering the moments that made your year memorable and to continuing this wonderful tradition together.

Warm regards, -- Suyash Dwivedi (💬) 22:36, 4 January 2026 (UTC) (CPUG)

Dropping the ‘set-nominated FPs sometimes fail to show thumbnails’ notice

Hello KTC,

in the last years, every new chronological archive page for featured pictures started with the {{FPArchiveChrono}} template; FPCBot has added it whenever it did create a new page. I think we can drop that template now because it is no longer needed and rather a little bit irritating.

1. The template states ‘that set-nominated FPs sometimes fail to show thumbnails’, and explains how to add an entry for a set nomination to a chronological archive page. In the past the bot did not add a thumbnail for a set nomination if it was not able to extract the names of the nominated images from the wikitext of the nomination (this happened easily if there was just the slightest variation in the formatting of the <gallery> element in the nomination). In the last summer I have improved the code which extracts the names of the nominated images, so that it is both more tolerant against formatting variations and more stable. Since these changes FPCBot has never failed to add an entry or a thumbnail for a set nomination. In November and December, I have made some further modifications; now the bot does not process and park a nomination when it cannot find the nominated image(s), but reports the problem on the FPC talk page and ignores the nomination until the problem is fixed. This means: it cannot happen anymore that the bot parks a nomination without adding an entry to the chronological archive page.
2. The template also contains a short explanation of how to add an entry for a set nomination. That explanation is also available in Commons:FPC#Closing a featured picture nomination, and easier to understand there (because of the context), so we do not need to repeat it in the header of every archive page.

Therefore I think we better do without that template now, starting with January 2026. I have removed it from the chronological archive page for January and will remove the code from FPCBot which adds the template.

I hope this is OK. All the best, – Aristeas (talk) 09:17, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Commons Photographers User Group: Board Elections 2026

Dear KTC,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group.

The Election Committee is pleased to announce that the Board Elections 2026 have officially commenced.

Election timeline

• February 1–15: Nomination phase
• February 21–25: Community Q&A and candidate engagement
• February 26 – March 7: Voting period
• March 15: Results announced

Full details are available at: Commons Photographers User Group/Board Elections 2026

All eligible members are encouraged to participate in the election, including standing as candidates.

If you wish to run, please add your name and candidate statement on the nomination page during the nomination period.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out:' If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list

We look forward to your participation.

—CPUG Election Committee 04:58, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Nomination Extended

The nomination deadline has been extended to: 19 February 2026, 23:59 (UTC)

Eligible members (joined on or before 1 November 2025 with 100+ meaningful Commons contributions) are invited to nominate themselves.

How to nominate

• Go to the Candidates page
• Create your subpage
• Add your statement

Links

• Election page
• Nomination page

We encourage broad participation from the community.

Election Committee, Commons Photographers User Group - 17:36, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Voting Now Open

Dear KTC,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group and are included in the eligible voter list.

The Election Committee is pleased to invite you to vote in the Board Elections 2026.

• Voting period: 00:00, 26 February 2026 – 23:59, 7 March 2026 (UTC)
• Ballot: Go to the voting server

Full details about the candidates are available at: Candidates Overview

All eligible members are strongly encouraged to participate in the election.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out: If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list.

We look forward to your participation.

— CPUG Election Committee - 10:38, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Voting Closing Soon

Dear KTC,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group and are included in the eligible voter list.

The Election Committee is pleased to invite you to vote in the Board Elections 2026.

• Voting deadline: 7 March 2026 23:59 (UTC)
• Ballot: Go to the voting server

Full details about the candidates are available at: Candidates Overview

All eligible members are strongly encouraged to participate in the election.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out: If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list.

We look forward to your participation.

— CPUG Election Committee - 09:58, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

Final Reminder: CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Voting Closing Tomorrow

Dear KTC,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group and are included in the eligible voter list.

The Election Committee would like to remind you that voting in the Board Elections 2026 will close tomorrow.

If you have not voted yet, please cast your vote as soon as possible.

• Voting deadline: 7 March 2026 23:59 (UTC)
• Ballot: Go to the voting server

Full details about the candidates are available at: Candidates Overview

All eligible members are strongly encouraged to participate in the election.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out: If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list.

We look forward to your participation.

— CPUG Election Committee - 04:36, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

FPCBot problem (2026-03-21)

Hello KTC,

this morning FPCBot processed the nominations as usual, but suddenly stopped during the processing of this nomination at 05:04 (UTC), 21 March 2026. I’m not sure but it’s possible that this was a serious error. The problem is: I cannot reconstruct the issue with my test copy of the code, it works perfectly fine with that nomination. Could you please take a look at the log file, copy the lines around 05:04 (UTC), 21 March 2026 and post them here? That would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 08:18, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Hi Aristeas, given you noticed my edit to Commons talk:Featured picture candidates, I assume you see what the issue was. Please have the bot use {{Tl}} as appropriate. Thanks :-) -- KTC (talk) 17:40, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your edit, KTC, but that wasn’t the same error. The {{Tl}} issue belongs to a problem reported by the bot on 13:03, 10 March 2026. But that issue is already fixed (commit), it was about the effect of the {{Bots}} template, not about escaping that template with {{Tl}}. Here we have a new problem which happened only today, 05:04 (UTC), 21 March 2026. I will teach the bot to properly use {{Tl}} as appropriate, too, but AFAICS the new problem is not related to the {{Tl}} issue. So it would be great if you could take a look at the log for today, around 05:04 (UTC) … Thank you and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 17:48, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Hi Aristeas, the problem was that on 10 March the bot encountered the issue on BetacommandBot user talk page where there was a nobot template which resulted in it posting on CT:FPC asking for help. However, it posted that message without escaping the nobot templates. So what resulted was that CT:FPC page itself was transcluding the nobot template. So when it encountered the issue on Hatt Dam nomination earlier today and wanted to asked for help on CT:FPC, it couldn't edit the page. When it can't edit the page, it tries to post to CT:FPC to ask for help which it can't, so .... Exception within exception. -- KTC (talk) 17:56, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Ah, OK, now I got it. Sorry, and thank you for your patience with me, the old donkey! ;–) I suspected a problem with circular exceptions, of course, but searched for the reason elsewhere. OK, so the unescaped {{Bots}} is indeed the very core of the problem, and escaping it with {{Tl}} will fix this. I will commit a fix for this issue in a few minutes. – This is also a Pywikibot issue; Pywikibot uses wikitext for most of its exception messages, so it should better escape any templates it mentions in the messages with {{Tl}}. I will probably file a bug report for Pywikibot in the next days. Thank you again and all the best, – Aristeas (talk) 18:10, 21 March 2026 (UTC)