Wikinews:Bots/Archive 2

ZacharyBot: Moving old comment pages
I've set up ZacharyBot to move the old comment pages (Talk: /Comments) to the comment namespace. I'll run this tonight (~5:00 UTC) if there are no objections. —Zachary talk 22:06, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I never ran this. I'll probably do it tonight (Jan 24 ~ 5:00 UTC) —Zach<b style="color:#0e448d">a</b><b style="color:#1c55b5">ry</b> talk 17:39, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I ran this on Jan 25 instead. It went through 587 pages starting at 07:22 UTC and ending 10:18 UTC, at a rate of ~ 4 pages/min. The pages moved can be seen here. (→ Zachary ) 20:36, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

user:Bawolff_bot
Bawolff bot is updating template:Popular articles again, now using domas's stats as a source. Uses a very similiar system to the previous system, just a different data source. I will update its userpage accordingly sometime soonish. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:26, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Can this be modified to exclude the main page, special pages, and portals? --Brian McNeil / talk 09:14, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I think it is important that this bot also create a list of the five most popular articles in the last hour such that this could be listed on the main page, or included in infoboxes such as Wikinews Today infobox. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:11, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
 * See also . --Melancholie (talk) 00:05, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Request flag for User:Computer

 * Operator: User:White Cat (Commons:User:White Cat)
 * Bot name: Computer
 * Tasks: Interwiki linking, double redirect fixing, commons delinking (for cases where commonsdelinker fails)
 * Bot has a flag on wikimedia (meta,commons) wikipedia (ar, az, de, en, es, et, fr, is, ja, ku, nn, no, ru, sr, tr, uz, simple...) Full list: m:User:White Cat
 * -- Cat chi? 21:57, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I saw this bot do a run this morning and it seemed to be "doing the right thing" --Brian McNeil / talk 17:45, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Vote struck, bot has not continued operation to further build trust with edits visible. --Brian McNeil / talk 22:13, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
 * If I run the bot without a bot flag someone would just block it for it. -- Cat chi? 15:01, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * No, the bot would be allowed to run unless it went out of control. --Brian McNeil / talk 15:51, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'd be happy to see this bot given the flag. I've got no doubts that White Cat can be trusted to be responsible based upon his experience elsewhere. Any bots which run without flags risk getting blocked if they edit at too high a rate. Adambro - (talk) 16:00, 30 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Bot flag granted --Cspurrier - (talk) 19:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Request flag for User:JAnDbot

 * Operator: User:JAn Dudík (cs:User:JAn Dudík)
 * Bot name: JAnDbot
 * Tasks: Interwiki linking from cs:wikinews using pywikipedia framework.
 * Bot has a flag on cs:wikinews and on 150+ wikipedias
 * JAn Dudík (talk) 10:55, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Comments

 * Could you create a userpage for the bot explaining a little bit about what it does please. Adambro (talk) 11:47, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
 * The bot has been temporarily blocked by Markie after it was observed removing interwiki links. --SVTCobra 12:47, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Userpage created, now will not remove non-existing links. JAn Dudík (talk) 13:20, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Userpage does not seem to explain what the bot does. --SVTCobra 13:38, 29 May 2008 (UTC)


 * My block (after Markie's) has expired now. The bot was flooding recent changes and it seems to have been suspended. I'd seen it delete an interwiki prior to Markie blocking it, I did not see that behaviour again. I generally support what the bot appears to be set up to do. --Brian McNeil / talk 08:59, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Userpage does need more details. A quick bullet-point functional spec of what it sets out to do would be ideal. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:00, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Votes

 * tentative pending bot userpage update and addition of big red switch (the template to block). --Brian McNeil / talk 09:01, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
 * until it can be confirmed that this bot will stop removing valid interwiki links. Anonymous101  19:10, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Can you provide an example where this bot removed a valid link. It is best to document such allegations. --SVTCobra 23:26, 5 June 2008 (UTC)


 * bot is defective. --Brian McNeil / talk 13:31, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikinews Importer bot
To set up a mobile phone version of wikinews (similar to http://en.wap.wikipedia.org ) We need a version of the main page that has no DPL's or templates. I believe using the wikinews importer bot (its the bot that syndicates our headlines to certain places on wikipedia) to copy out a DPL of latest published to a specific page (probably Main Page/Simple Main Page/mobile, or portal:Mobile). Please see also WN:WC, old archived discussion on wc and 14755. bot specifics (note: this is off the top of my head. i think its right, but remember its me saying it, so if anything is incorrect its my fault).

Bawolff ☺☻ 20:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Operator: w:user:Misza13
 * botName: no username registered yet
 * programming language: python (pywikipediabot). source
 * task. Copying a DPL (like Portal:Current events/Wikipedia) to a static page
 * Would probably need bot flag


 * Are there any statistics for the use of Wikipedia both the normal format and the mobile format, assessed from mobile devices? Adambro (talk) 21:03, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Not publicly available that i am aware of. I could ask around. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:07, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * What I do know is that according to alexa, of all trafic going to something.wikipedia.org, 52% goes to en.wikipedia.org, less then (most likely much less then) 1% goes to the mobile gateway (based on how little it is advertised, that is not suprising.) Bawolff ☺☻ 21:23, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * But no mobile phones have the Alexa toolbar so less those stats exclude access through mobiles. Anonymous101 (talk) 06:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point, so we really have no idea. I would still geuss it is much much less then the normal english wikipedia though. Nonetheless I still think its useful especially considering that it really would take very little effort to maintain (bot does everything, we have to do essentially nothing). Bawolff ☺☻ 05:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Umm, I'm going to be away from computers for about a month. If this does achieve concensuss, can someone make sure: So that we can get the mobile portal working. Thanks. Bawolff ☺☻ 11:29, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Appropriate pages are set up (pick the name for the page - aka Main Page/mobile)
 * Notify w:user:Misza13 (see my last message as well)
 * Update 14755

Comments

 * - I think this bot should have a different name so as not to get confused with w:User:Wikinews Importer Bot. Cirt (talk) 06:25, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Votes

 * Wikinews for mobile phones would be useful Anonymous101 (talk) 06:22, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --+Deprifry+ 15:35, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
 * NO CONSENSUS --Brian McNeil / talk 12:47, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Request flag for User:KalspringBot

 * Operator: User:Kalspring
 * Bot name: KalspringBot
 * Tasks: Informing users of pages tagged for speedy deletion, removing linkspam, informing users that they have listed spam on pages.
 * Bot does not appear on any other Wikimedia project, though was tested on another non-Wikimedia wiki (private testing one). --Kalspring (talk) 13:48, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Comments

 * The bot is fixed for now. However, it can run as a sysop/bot combination too, actually deleting pages if need be. The bot works similar to w:User:RedirectCleanupBot although it doesn't clean up redirects. I've done a few tests at the private wiki, and the problems are ironed out now, so it should work properly on here. --Kalspring (talk) 13:29, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I would like to see a description of how it makes its determinations. What critera is being used? Since the last run of this bot was faulty, could you make a very limited run, so we can see what it does, before granting a flag? Permitting it to delete pages seems dangerous since we do not know what it looks for (and it would need admin status). --SVTCobra 23:16, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Kalspring, the bot operator has been indefinitely blocked by me for vandalism (possible compromised account). ~�Anonymous101talk
 * was itself blocked previously by . Cirt (talk) 10:05, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Votes

 * - Bot tagged an article as patent nonsense that was clearly not "patent nonsense". (See the next diff )Cirt (talk) 20:46, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm somewhat unsure why these discussions about bots have turned into votes. There is clearly a problem with the bot as Cirt notes, when this is addressed then another test run can be conducted and we can discuss this further. Obviously a bureaucrat isn't going to grant a bot flag until this problem is addressed so any "oppose" votes are unnecessary. Adambro (talk) 20:59, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point, changed it to a comment. Cirt (talk) 21:17, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * The sections about listing bots, discussing new bots, and seeking approval for bot-flags seem to have become overlapping. IMO bot-flags should be voted on. This page needs some housekeeping. --SVTCobra 22:27, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I had meant good point about the particular problem which could be resolved, not that we should not have a voting system which is certainly appropriate. I agree this page needs housekeeping/cleanup, there is lots of old stuff here that could be cleared away and/or acted upon. Cirt (talk) 22:31, 12 August 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, any further comments?? --Kalspring (talk) 10:26, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
 * see above in the Comments section --SVTCobra 00:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * IRC serves notification purpose, apparently abandoned concept anyway. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:40, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * - After a month of no further discussion, I am closing this request. It may be reopened in the future. --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 11:38, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Request flag for MelancholieBot
Hereby, I request a bot flag for my bot. Rewrite and strip down of my existing scripts is finished; now it updates Template:Popular_articles hourly, thus it should be hidden from RC; furthermore it would be handy if that account would sight automatically (through having bot flag). See also Bots and User_talk:Bawolff --- Best regards, Melancholie (talk) 23:11, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Comments
Current configuration: Only published/breaking news linked on Main_Page; redirects are summed up. --Melancholie (talk) 00:07, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Votes

 * support, support, support. :) Awesome work, thank you for doing this. Cirt (talk) 23:16, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Great bot, no problems so far, and a needed task. Similair to existing approved bot, so task should be fine. TheFearow (userpage) 05:29, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Doesn't seem to be causing any problems. -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 05:40, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * yay! --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 11:25, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * . preferred if scripts controlling bot were publically available. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * seems to be doing the job on an hourly basis. Has anyone checked if the stats are accurate? --SVTCobra 13:43, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I compared them against the stats published by domas a while back (of which the stats are taken from), and they are consistant. Domas stats are from the squid logs (I believe) and should be accurate, but i have no way of verifying them. In addition they record all hits, including web spiders, bots, etc, so one hit does not equal one real page view (and one person will often generate many hits) A good percentage of the hits are most likely not real people. The stats are also split on redirects (each redirect is counted as a separate page, so people visiting the pages will be split). The hit count should definitly not be relied upon as an absolute number, more as a vague idea for comparing with other pages. It tells us relative popularities, not definitive this many people looked at page x Bawolff ☺☻ 02:45, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's absolutely right! See it as a rather useful gimmick, not a reliable counter (no single visit(or) counter out there is 100% reliable ;-) --Melancholie (talk) 18:07, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Redirects are summed up now! Making top 5 more accurate :-) --- Greetings, Melancholie (talk) 07:48, 22 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I like seeing this bot's updates. It doesn't flood RC and it is interesting to be reminded it has performed an update. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:50, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ - Bot Status Granted --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 16:23, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Request flag bot BOT-Superzerocool
Hi, I'm Superzerocool from es.wikinews (and es.wikipedia). I request a bot flag to BOT-Superzerocool in en.wikinews, to make interwikies autonomous in the three projects that have my bot (es, pt, en?). In es and pt, the bot have bot flag (and sysop flag) to make the changes. In the bot's user page you can see the actual status and where is present. Thanks Superzerocool (sysop at es.wikinews and wikipedia) 04:17, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds fine, but you may wish to coordinate with other interwiki bots (we have ~3 now). Note: If you want admin privs here for the bot, you need to do that as a separate request at WN:A. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:19, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Maybe I'm just missing it, but I don't see any of these interwiki bots linking anything. All the interwiki links to other languages (as far as I see) are made manually. Is something not working or am I blind? --SVTCobra 05:52, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Although such bots edits do not appear on the recent changes unless you specificly enable it, I too notice that I have not seen these bots either (with exception to the calander bot), and i am often reading the irc rc which does include bot edits. Bawolff ☺☻ 20:38, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I realize that RC hides bot edits (at least flagged ones). I am basing this on actually looking at the articles and the "in other languages" and where those links come from. They seem to be manually done. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that news headlines are far longer and aren't easily translated as the typical one-word encyclopedia article. --SVTCobra 01:15, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I think these bots just make sure that the interwiki links match (so if an article has an interwiki to fr, and the fr has one to spanish, it'd make sure each article links to all of them), so length shouldn't really matter.

I have observed some of BOT-Superzerocool's linking and it seems to be functioning as described, adding links to equivalent and Portugese articles. Keep in mind, I don't know much about bots. All I know is this one made a mess of my "watch list" because it doesn't have a flag. --SVTCobra 02:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
 * According to bot stats, this was a very active bot in november (last time those stats were updated), so it actually does do stuff. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I still make some test over en.wn. BOT-Superzerocool 14:51, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * this wikis have many articles to interwikis update :S... I starting from pt / es and this wiki have many articles locked (obvious, because policy) but they doesn't updated interwikis... :S BOT-Superzerocool 15:47, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * same as FWN. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 09:58, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * And the bot, has the flag or not?
 * Bot flag granted --Cspurrier - (talk) 19:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps too late but this bot is removing valid interwiki links like Íngrid Betancourt a été libérée because there was a simple accent missing. It needs to be modified to correct the accents and not break the links. For the example I am talking about, see history of article Íngrid Betancourt and others rescued, says Colombia. --SVTCobra 02:10, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
 * What I am talking about is best illustrated with this diff. Cheers, --SVTCobra 02:19, 16 July 2008 (UTC)


 * No interwiki bots until one comprehensive bot is implemented. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:43, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Tentative at least until the accent issue is resolved. Durova (talk) 00:36, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Request bot flag for Alexbot
Alexbot is a cross-language and cross-project pywikipedia bot script by Alex S.H. Lin.It will run interwiki and double redirect fix script.These two works will not run in the same time.This is the first bot request in Wikinews project, by now I got zh and ja bot account, but no flag yet. I will make account in other wikinews projects, request bot flag and run these scripts.--Alex S.H. Lin 12:49, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Pleas be specific about how your bot is special. It looks like there is an interwiki bot above, and Zacharybot seems to do double redirects. You say cross-project but I don't see anything in your list that is cross-project, only cross-language, so what exactly cross-project would it do? Bawolff ☺☻ 02:34, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm developing cross-project script now.(planning page)I will test this script in zhwikinews and zhwikipedia.By now,it will run interwiki, from zh or ja(I have jawikinews bot flag)--Alex S.H. Lin 17:00, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I request the bot flag for Alexbot:
 * Operator:zh:User:Alexsh
 * Programming Language:Pywikipedia SVN
 * Functions:Interwiki(+autonomous) and double redirect fix
 * Other languages:zh, ja.

--Alex S.H. Lin 19:16, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Alexbot has benefited jawikinews for half a year. The project and the operator has a good relation: addressed problems were fixed immediately. Hope enwikinews benefits from this service too. --Aphaia - (talk) 03:06, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Bot flag granted --Cspurrier - (talk) 19:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
 * THIS BOT HAS BEEN INDEF BLOCKED
 * No botblock template, flagged a userpage for speedy deletion, double redirects now handled by MediaWiki, general opposition to interwiki bots that are not comprehensive in their coverage. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:46, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Request flag for User:JAnDbot

 * Operator: User:JAn Dudík (cs:w:User:JAn Dudík)
 * Bot name: JAnDbot
 * Tasks: Interwiki linking using pywikipedia.
 * Bot: global bot
 * Bot is working aproximately once per month from cs.wikinews doing interwiki on articles and categories. Now I know, I could not remove links to non existing categories, which was problem with my first request.
 * JAn Dudík (talk) 13:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)


 * approved to run. If no issues I will flag it Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 05:05, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Votes

 * Although I don't like the idea of having multiple bots to do a single task (interwiki), it does not appear we'll have a single bot to do it anytime soon. And we've certainly made you go through all the hoops ;). Bawolff ☺☻ 21:54, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * per . Cirt (talk) 23:45, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * no issues here. --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 18:56, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Bot does not have the BotBlock template on userpage. Withdrawing vote until this is rectified. --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 18:59, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and added the template. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">♪ Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse ♪  19:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * ...fair enough! --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif">  Sken   my talk 19:04, 4 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Seems to be working well, no objections. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">♪ Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse ♪  18:57, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

✅ - Bot flag Granted. Bot requires a second RFP for Editor status in order to easily edit mainspace pages. --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 19:05, 4 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I went ahead and gave the bot editor status. Now that it's been approved, there really isn't much point in going through WN:FR/RFP. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">♪ Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse ♪  19:11, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Reverted - URM Comment pasted: Bot was granted Bot flag, not editor flag. Unless I am mistaken, there is no policy that states bots get automatic editor rights, and humans have to go through the RFP process, so why not robots? --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 19:13, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Oops, my apologies. I wasn't aware of that. I'd better read up on policy. Sorry, <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">♪ Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse ♪  19:15, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * No worries! --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 19:17, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, since we're going to go through with the RFP, I went ahead and nominated it at: WN:FR/RFP. Input is welcome. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">♪ Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse ♪  19:20, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Request flag for User:XeBot

 * Operator: User:Orango
 * Bot name: XeBot
 * Tasks: Pywikipedia Framework (Interwiki.py)
 * Bot: ar, fr.
 * I need a flag for my bot for working in interwiki links --Orango (talk) 14:23, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Votes

 * The bot seems to be functioning well, from what I can see. <font color="#CC7722" face="Papyrus">♪Tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Papyrus">di <font color="green" face="papyrus">Valse ♪  14:39, 2 April 2009 (UTC)
 * per Tempodivalse - no worries here! --<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif"> Sken   my talk 18:57, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅ has been flagged Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 21:55, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Request flag for User:VolkovBot
Hi! This interwiki bot owned by w:ru:User:Volkov has a global bot flag and is active on many wikimedia projects. Please grant a bot flag locally to avoid flooding recent changes. In case of any issue the bot owner can be reached at Russian wikipedia. Thanks. --Volkov (talk) 00:00, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Comments

 * This bot doesn't seem to have a local account, see the listuser log. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse  00:05, 9 April 2009 (UTC) Bot now exists locally. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse  13:49, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Votes

 * Bot seems to be working well, from what I can see from edits on the Russian Wikipedia. No objections. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse  02:49, 10 April 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ flagged Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 22:04, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Request flag for GrondinBot
I request the interwiki bot flag for this bot owned by Grondin who is sysop and bureaucrat in french Wikinews. This bot creates, changes or removes interwiki links. It uses pywikipedia features. --Bertrand GRONDIN (talk) 13:19, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks.
 * Operator : Grondin (Grondin, sysop and bureaucrat in french wikinews)
 * Bot name: GrondinBot (Python; Pywikipedia SVN)
 * Tasks: Interwiki linking
 * Bot has bot flag in : pl, it, sv, fr, sr, cs, fi, he, pt, pt wikinews projects.

Some edits in italian wikinews : --Bertrand GRONDIN (talk) 19:21, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

These are the edits in the projects where it's granted : --Bertrand GRONDIN (talk) 15:55, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Contributions sur fr
 * Contributions sur pl
 * Contributions sur it
 * Contributions sur sv
 * Contributions sur sr
 * Contributions sur cs
 * Contributions sur de
 * Contributions sur nl
 * Contributions sur ar
 * Contributions sur fi
 * Contributions sur he
 * Contributions sur pt

Votes

 * Bot seems to be working well, from the Italian Wikinews contributions. No objections. <font color="#CC7722" face="Georgia">tempo <font color="#00008B" face="Georgia">di <font color="green" face="Georgia">valse  19:26, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

✅ been over seven days with no objection. Seems to be safe and has been flagged on other projects Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 22:00, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

User:MerlLinkBot
Operator: Merlissimo

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: The bot replaces urls that have to be changed. This can be only a domain change or a more complex page structure change on a website. Links are dectected with the help of the api (and not with regex) and are only replaced if the webserver of the new url returns a 200-status-response for that new resource. If a page it protected the bot will report it to the talk page.

Automatic or Manually Assisted: supervised (with test run before)

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): when links have to be changed ;-)

Maximum edit rate (eg edits per minute): 4 epm

Programming Language(s): Java (Framework written by myself - long time usage in dewiki with two bots)

Already has a bot flag : dewp, enwp, other

Previous diskussion: Water_cooler/assistance

2nd Task: Sometimes Interwikis on request

Discussion User:MerlLinkBot
How should the bot report links on talk pages. My proposal whould be: At the moment my bot has queued 4 links which should by replaced for this wiki. I'll do a test run when there is consensus about the template to use. Merlissimo (talk) 10:40, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I added Interwiki as 2nd task, because sometimes i am ask to synchronize some interwikis per human request (done with pywikibediabot). So the tasks the botflag is granted for would be the same tasks on all wm project and i have not to differ ;-). Merlissimo (talk) 11:06, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Can you give examples of other sites that have undergone similar changes? I think the template is good to go if it gets run through to pick 20 or so articles out the archive where it can help. --Brian McNeil / talk 11:45, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I have done some few edits with the bot. At the moment my db has only whithouse pages returning 404, but there are many more. There are many 301 responses from whitehouse. Sometimes the redirect is useful, but often it points to a very general page which does not have the same content and so have to be replaced. I am testing my bot a the moment if my scheme to distinguish these cases is correct. So more edits will follow when the replacement module works correct for the 301 cases. Merlissimo (talk) 12:44, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok some more edits done. On some last edits the bot signed multiple times on talk pages. But that is fixed now. There are 73 pages concerned with outdated whithehouse links (=60 still not reported). So there will be a lot of admin work. Merlissimo (talk) 15:01, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Votes

 * Seems to work well, and it is useful. No objections. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  20:23, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I feel that giving this bot temporary admin privs (or we could bug the devs to make new user group editprotected) to do its work should be brought up on WN:RFP, as automatic replacement is much more fun than 6 billion edit protected page requests. Bawolff ☺☻ 20:54, 10 August 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ It's been two and a half months without any objections, and the bot is flagged on other large wikis, so I think this is safe. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  23:09, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Millbot-VoA and Millbot-SETimes
These two bots, and, do the importing of copyleft news. I've granted them the flood flag for now, but really they should get the full bot flag. I expect this to be uncontroversial, but if there are concerns with these bots, now's the time to raise them. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:47, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

votes/comments
I seem to recall that for one subject which never even made it into mainspace as far as I recall (the update on data on the HIV/AIDS vaccine) the VOABot imported three articles. The very same day I also marked another two or three imported articles as dupes. --Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 15:19, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
 * granting both the bot flag. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  13:48, 2 November 2009 (UTC) Changed to . See below.
 * I'm unsure if mass importing is a good thing. but what do i know. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:30, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * SGN seems to have blocked both of these bots as "broken". <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  22:38, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Reason -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 22:39, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's what i suspected. I couldn't figure out why the imported news list was always so long, even after mass deletions. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  22:40, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Verily -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 22:45, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * for now. We need to figure out a better way of dealing with all these articles.  Take a quick look at User:Millbot-VoA/chronology/October-2009, there are 459 articles imported.  Of that I count 29 blue links.  6% article retention.  -- Shakata Ga Nai  ^_^ 22:45, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Pleased to note that there is now some opposition to this apart from me. Since there was little when discussed on WC I had been going to abstain and let this run. No, I don't like mass importation. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:29, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Changed from an initial support. Having copied articles manually from VOA for the last few days after the bot broke down, I've realised that it actually requires less effort than automated importing. When doing it manually, you only create an article that you want to work on, and choose a good title from the start. However, with automated importing, you have to search through long lists of stale articles to find what you want, downstyle the article title, fix the spacing bugs the bot made, etc., not to mention the large effort needed to regularly mass-delete articles that have become stale or are dupes, etc. It's quite uneconomical and inefficient. I'm no longer sure that mass importation is the best approach to copying PD articles, but I won't oppose either. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  20:41, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
 * - Far more efficient to simply manually copy and paste if you're going to do it at all. – Juliancolton  &#124; Talk 21:50, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

I am testing my bot putting interwikis. I am monitoring the editions. I use the pywikipediabot. --Ezarate (talk) 20:16, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

votes/comment

 * Bot has made a few edits and seems to work okay. It's been flagged on large projects such as es.wikipedia, I think it's safe to grant the flag. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  01:39, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 12:36, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 12:36, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ Been a week with no objections, bot's flagged at other large wikis, I think this is safe. <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  19:05, 13 November 2009 (UTC)