User talk:HersfoldArbClerkBot

This user account is a bot operated by Hersfold (talk). It is used to make repetitive automated or semi-automated edits that would be extremely tedious to do manually, in accordance with the bot policy. The bot is currently inactive but retains the approval of the community.
Administrators: if this bot is malfunctioning or causing harm, please block it.

Attention: Editing this page will cause the bot to stop working. If this is your intention, then please do so. However, if you have a general comment for the bot's operator, please post your questions at User talk:Hersfold. Thank you. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:48, 1 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Signature test (manual edit)

HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 07:21, 1 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

stop

Stop again

stop Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:43, 8 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Shut down

stop running Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 20:29, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Shut down

Stop Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 18:15, 31 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Stop

Need to do some debugging Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 20:00, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Seems too buggy

See reports on owner's talk page. ASCIIn2Bme (talk) 11:13, 5 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Needs reprogramming

Stop running, you're not going any good anyway. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 13:37, 7 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Re-enabling bot for test runs. HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 04:24, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Disable again; issues with page protection mean the bot needs more work. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:42, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Shut down

Adding new module, reconfiguring how the existing code is set up. Shutting down for the time being since it's not doing anything now anyway. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:10, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Useless User:HersfoldArbClerkBot/LastRun edits

Hi,
since you're tweaking the bot anyhow, is it really necessary to maintain the timestamp of last bot run at User:HersfoldArbClerkBot/LastRun? As far as I can tell all this bot has done for the last three months is making ≈1000 edits to that page, nothing else.
If that time stamp is important, couldn't you just maintain that information on some publicly accessible page on the toolserver?
Cheers, Amalthea 09:54, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The purpose of the page is to provide a visible indication of what time the bot last reviewed the evidence pages (it's rigged to not make any other edits if it doesn't notice any changes to evidence), and thus assist with identification of errors. For the last three months it hasn't done anything else, but that's because we haven't had an open case for the last three months. Putting this on the Toolserver would make that more inconvenient; also, in light of the recent news that the Toolserver may be going unsupported by the end of the year, I'm very reluctant to put anything new on the site. I don't see it as terribly problematic anyway, quite honestly. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 14:35, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, but if it's only for you noticing whether it's stuck or not you could also have it write to a local log or send a mail in case of trouble? Or maybe even have it ask for help on your talk page (Anomie's bots do that).
I don't know, simple status updates like here seem a bit wasteful to me. But, the "necessity" from BOTPOL's "does not consume resources unnecessarily" is certainly a question of interpretation, so if you consider it useful enough I'll drop it. Amalthea 18:54, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If it completely fails to run or encounters an unexpected issue, I do get an email from the Toolserver. If it runs but fails to notice an evidence section or counts it wrong or whatever, that I likely won't notice unless I'm actively keeping up on the case (because the bot, doing what it's been told to do, won't realize there's a problem and so won't throw any errors). It also assists others in knowing when the bot last ran so they can know when to expect an updated word count, and don't pester me or inadvertently shut down the bot by posting here because the bot didn't examine their evidence immediately after it was posted. As for the policy line you point out, updating a single page within the bot's own userspace once every two hours barely uses any resources. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 19:18, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Manual edit - back online

Bot should be back on-line now. HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 18:34, 9 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why I shut down the bot

Sorry for doing this, but I reported a problem yesterday and there has been no response. The bot is delivering the same message every two hours at User talk:Rannpháirtí anaithnid. The only connection I have to this is I left an unrelated message for the user and ever since the page keeps popping up in my watchlist. I am assuming this is a bot malfunction, I cannot think why you would want to do this deliberately, but my apologies in advance if there is a good reason for it. Spinning Spark 10:31, 20 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, being retired I don't check my talk page any more, but I do get emailed whenever this page has a new message. But yes, you're right, it should only leave one warning per user per case. The bot is set up to not make any edits when it has new messages, so if you could unblock the bot I'll make sure to look into the problem this evening. It shouldn't make any further edits until I log into the bot's account directly. Thanks for reporting the problem. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 12:48, 20 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Manually editing as the bot just to note that I believe I've fixed this problem as well as another that one of the clerks noted and I've also re-introduced the edit throttle which seems to have vanished when I rewrote the framework recently. I'm testing now, and hopefully the bot will be back online shortly. HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 23:49, 20 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Stop again

Stop, still posting multiple warnings to the same user. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 15:26, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the problem had to do with the permissions of the file that tracks who's been warned for what cases; the bot wasn't able to update the file. Attempting to test again now. HersfoldArbClerkBOT^(talk) 15:35, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Stop

still posting duplicate warnings. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 23:55, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]