Wikinews:Requests for permissions/Administrator/MerlLinkBot

MerlLinkBot
[ Express your view on this user ] (comments) Nominated on 23:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

– user:Merlissimo wants to run this bot to fix about 124 deadlinks to the cbc website (cbc changed how its site is organized. For example http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/01/18/bcrain050118.html now is at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/01/18/bcrain050118.html). I think this is a really good idea. For this to happen it will need temporary admin rights (and bot rights) to do its thing on archived pages. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Regex is  http://www.cbc.ca/story(?:view/[a-zA-Z]*)?/([a-z]*)/(national|international)/(\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2})(?:/[a-zA-Z]*)?/(.*) 
 * new URL is  http://www.cbc.ca/$1/story/$3/$4 , but also the topic ($1) has changed in some cases (science can now be health or technology, other topics (e.g.business) have changed to news, etc.).
 * I started to bot in debug mode and posted the log to User:MerlLinkBot/Log (148 links). How the bot works can be read at Bots/Archive_2. Merlissimo (talk) 15:40, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

General comments
RfAs for this user: 
 * Links for MerlLinkBot:

''Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review their contributions before commenting. Unhelpful comments or votes may be removed at any time.''

Discussion

 * See talk page.
 * Bot-style edits are not that difficult to do; I'd have finished this collection in less time than this vote has taken. (124 edits? c'mon! easy enough to do in a couple days.) -  Amgine | t 14:12, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Support

 * 1) Bawolff ☺☻ 23:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) but I think we should have an editprotected right for bots. Diego Grez return fire 23:26, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 3) admin, but not botflag. Just run it nice 'n' slow. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account)  /alt-talk &bull; main talk 05:11, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 4) per Brian. Please run at about one edit per minute, so they can be checked, which seems reasonable. — Mike  moral  ♪♫  05:21, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 5) * I'd meant even slower than that; but, ... -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk &bull; main talk 05:29, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Then what did you have in mind? — Mike moral  ♪♫  05:33, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * , with a note to Mike that I think Brian wanted it run slowly enough to avoid flooding RC. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 15:46, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) No worries - I assume the flag will be removed after the 124 edits are complete? --  Sken   my talk 16:38, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) Just temporary, of course.  — fetch · comms   02:09, 7 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 3) &mdash; Great idea. Those deadlinks in our old stories are disheartening. Gopher65talk 02:30, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 4) a bot from Bawolff approves as it is not likely to precision-bomb Red Cross ambulances --Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 18:53, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * This bot is not of Bawolff btw. Diego Grez return fire 18:54, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I thought it was an Apache Longbow with the 30mm chaingun in Baghdad? &lt;/clue&gt; -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 19:00, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I really should pay more attention. Still, Bawolff and Brian McNeil, both of whom have much experience in the IT world are in favour; therefore my support stands. --Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 13:57, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) I'm good with it. --Patrick M (TUFKAAP)  (talk) 06:45, 23 August 2010 (UTC)