Wikipedia talk:Bots

You should have a bot...

...or something, that updates the number of articles that bots are maintaining, because it's ridiculous that people should update that manually. Either loose the exact numbers in this article or make them automatically updated! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.228.141 (talk) 00:15, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Artikles

Hi you writte me abóut the articles about Imed ketata,Ezzedine hadj sassi and Mohamed trabelsi! But what i must do now???

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vernito (talk • contribs) 13:19, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Questions

can u explain me what is bot user?

what i know about bot user is that

-they can develop the page iteratively -they have rights to do that with permission of administrator.

pl send me some more information on the same page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.163.75.67 (talk) 06:27, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

A bot user would be an editor who operates a bot I guess. A bot user would have their usual user page but they will also operate the bot user page since the bots have their own user accounts. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 06:42, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Noone "operates" a bot, that's the whole point. Bot is short for robot, that means it does stuff by itself ( after it's programmed ), in this case that would be adding some templates and stuff. MadSkillz1o1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.143.133.17 (talk) 16:10, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Multi language entry bot

Is there any bot code/template for multi language link entry for non programming prof of wiki contributor? This function is very general and very time consuming for doing manually. Could you Mods please make this type of bot available for any level of wiki contributor? Orgio89 (talk) 16:05, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

You mean interwikis? Sure, we have a host of bots that find interwikis and add them (because they're just spreading them from one Wikipedia to another), but I think automated - or assisted - creation of new ones is not really encouraged, as laziness could be a killer: if they're not checked properly, and then spread, they can be very hard to get rid of. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 16:09, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Carried out

Perhaps "out" should be inserted after "carried". Unfree (talk) 01:00, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes. Anomie⚔ 02:15, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Java bots

Can someone give me a list of (or at least examples of) wikipedia bots programmed in Java? I tried looking in Category:Wikipedia bots for a sub category for this, but didn't find anything. ≈ Chamal ^talk 13:18, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

This search may help you find some. Anomie⚔ 14:14, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Ah... thanks a lot. ≈ Chamal ^talk 14:27, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

can we turn this thing off (Erik9bot)

Is it possible to turn this thing off Category:Articles lacking sources (Erik9bot)... I come across its stupid auto tag in one in 5 articles i read lately .it places {Unreferenced} even if all is ok with notes..it has tag almost 150.000 articles since june of this year..... {{Unreferenced}} The last thing Wikipedia needs is all there articles looking invalid. We already have a problem with new users spending hours a day tag with {Unreferenced|tag} for no reason at all..and not really helping wikipedia with real contributions but spamming tags..i see that this bot has gone crazy.

As more and more of this tags are added the less ans less reliable wikipedia looks in the eyes of the world...i\I can tell you that when i first starting reading wikipedia i would not read an article that had {Unreferenced|source tag}...now i see them every were. Pls stop this thing and i also think that {{Unreferenced|source tag}} should not be the header of any article...if article is that bad it should be deleted. Buzzzsherman (talk) 20:26, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

The bot (Erik9bot) which maintained this list no longer runs, because the operator was block for sockpuppetry. It's currently under discussion whether the category should be kept or not, and your thoughts would be welcome at this thread. However, your main problem seems to be that the templates make pages look messy, or make readers think that Wikipedia is unreliable. But the whole reason the bot adds a direct category (Category:Articles lacking sources (Erik9bot)) rather than the template ({{unreferenced}}), is because this hides the tag from the average reader. The category is a "hidden category", so user's who do not have their preferences set to view the category can't see it (and users without accounts (i.e. readers) can't see it whatever)). Best, - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 20:58, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

tks for quick answer..dame i put(spammed) this same message in another place, was thinking noone would see it here...Ok i understand it must be my setting ...as i have recently change things...I will comment of the right page ...i will comment more on the topic after i look at my settings on the page you suggested... Again tks nevr though anyone would see this here......

Buzzzsherman (talk) 21:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

fwiw not everyone thinks it makes wiki look unprofessional to flag poorly sourced articles as just that because i don't so by definition that's true. It's quite irritating to read professors and uni sources banning students from using wiki instead of pointing out they should check the citations, even more so to read when law bodies like the UK CPS recommend to use wikipedia WITHOUT saying to check sources. wiki is like a big student essay as much as an encyclopedia, while i can see it shouldn't be sold like this, it's exactly how everyone should look at it. flagging the poorly sourced articles as such makes it look like wiki has noticed a weakness and is working to fix it, of course there are a lot of people who won't see this (the ban wiki brigade, the use wiki as evidence for court cases without checking citations brigade (!!!)) but not everyone failed skeptic 101 82.132.136.202 (talk) 22:43, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Why not server-side?

Shouldn't some of these things be server-side?

User:SmackBot - corrects ISBN numbering, adds a date parameter to maintenance tags, adds missing reference sections

So you have an account receiving a feed of all changes (consuming resources) to do somethings which could be done when a page is committed. You might want to keep the code clean to avoid "feature creep" but surely things like adding references lists, enforcing comment signing and dating maintenance tags (though perhaps not ISBN number fixing) should be in the core on a filter of some description.

Would it ever make sense NOT to do those above things? Perhaps there should be a place to incorporate non-complicated changes which should have been in wiki core from the beginning into wiki making some of the (simple, not complex) bot tasks redundant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.139.85 (talk) 22:32, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

An old query, but one that should probably be answered for posterity. The main reason is because MediaWiki is a generic wiki software. A wiki can be about anything; it doesn't need to be an encyclopedia, and often isn't. This limits what should be put into the server software. Gigs (talk) 21:54, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

And you can, via extensions. But the additional load on every save is a serious consideration. Josh Parris 21:56, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Request another bot to speed things up?

I notice that there are currently just under 18,000 images listed in Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons. Looking around (not very intensively), I see at least one bot created to handle this task and I applaud the creator of the bot for doing so. But the user is multi-lingual, is using the bot across many different wikis (exponentially increasing the user's workload), the bot has been around since 2007, is manual, and still there are an enormous number of images to be moved from the English wiki (ignoring the other languages for the moment). Is backlog reason enough to request another bot for this task, or would it be rejected outright for the same reason? — CobraWiki ^{( jabber | stuff )} 06:32, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

What reason would it be rejected for? I recall approving one bot for this task recently, but it is a place that could use more bots, so it would likely b approved, as long as it meets bot policy of course. There's nothing wrong with two bots doing the same task, especially in a case like this where the more bots the better. - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 07:10, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't know. I just thought I'd ask instead of requesting and getting a cold-shoulder answer like, "There are already many bots that do that". Thank you. — CobraWiki ^{( jabber | stuff )} 18:27, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

RecentChangesLinked in API?

I looked, but didn't find Special:RecentChangesLinked in the API. Did I just miss it? Is there a way to query this through the API? Here's an example query using RecentChangesLinked. tedder (talk) 22:46, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

The technical village pump is really a better place for this question. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:55, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks MZMB. Copying and pasting over to there :-) tedder (talk) 00:58, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

URI

How is the URI determined...is it simply http://en.wikipedia.org/w/ ? I'd like to know the URI of wikipedia, the secure wikipedia and also a wikia http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia . Thanks.Smallman12q (talk) 00:56, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

DASHBot's BLP spamming

User:DASHBot is spamming. It's going around leaving messages about unreferenced BLPs on the talk pages of even editors with only the most minor edits to the article. See this revision for instance: [1]. It's complaining about articles that I made a handful of minor edits to years ago. Even worse, it complained about the article Ryan Dusick being unreferenced; as a redirect, of course it's unreferenced! The notifications this bot leaves should be an opt-in process; when it goes around bugging everyone like this, its behavior becomes spam.

Numerous other users besides me have raised complaints on the talk page of the bot operator at User talk:Tim1357; see revision [2] for instance. I'm raising the issue here because some of Tim1357's responses there just seem to be "you deal with it", when the bot shouldn't be behaving the way it is. That's not good enough: that is like telling targets of spam that they can just delete the spam, which is true -- but the fact remains that the targets shouldn't be getting spammed in the first place. Please stop this bot, or change it to an opt-in bot.

—Lowellian (reply) 01:20, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, I realize your concerns. I have stopped the bot, and will restart it only when we reach an agreement to do so. The way it looks, you are upset because the bot has been spamming people? I wrote the template (with some help from others) to be very un-spammy. More of a gentle reminder. You are more then welcome to change it, if you feel the need, at User:Tim1357/temp. I have tried to keep my responses a bit more substantial then "deal with it" offering, at least what I thought to be, reasonable answers to concerns/comments/questions. I am a bit surprised by this, actually, because this user has made no other effort to try and get me to change. I think if you look at the revision history of my talk page, you will see that I change the things that people ask me to change. Please give me a reminder if anyone replies here. Tim1357 (talk) 01:40, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Update: I realize the problem here. I will work to fix the code so that only editors who created non-redirect articles are notified. Hopefully this is all that it has to come to. I somewhat naively hoped that these kind of things would not come up. It was rather stupid, looking back, there were plenty of warnings that should have told me to slow down, and find real answers to the concerns that people had, rather then just saying "sorry, it happens". Hopefully I have not stepped on too many people's toes. Thanks, Tim1357 (talk) 02:36, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Solution?Ok Lowellian, I think I have our solution. I found an efficient way to tell how much the user contributed to a page in bytes. If the page they started is less then 300 bytes long (a small stub) and/or has the word "moved" in the edit summary, the bot will skip the article. The bot totalizes all of there innitial edits (i.e. all of the edits they made before someone else made an edit) to use as the size. Also, it checks to make sure the article is not currently a redirect. (That was a simple one, should have done that one much earlier on). I am sorry that I bothered people, and only wish I had come to this step earlier. Thank you for your patience. For those who care, the API call is http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&titles=(TITLE)&rvprop=size%7Ccomment&rvdir=newer&rvuser=(User)&format=xml Tim1357 (talk) 02:55, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

That looks like it will identify non-tiny, non-redirect creations of an article. It would have prevented the David E. Kendall mis-hit. Josh Parris 03:59, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you; checking level of contribution to the article is a nice step in the right direction. However, that is not the only issue.

Specifically, another thing that really bothers me about the bot is that it makes a user forever responsible for any article that the user created or edited. The situation is aggravated by the bot leaving a message that seems like an accusation that the editor doesn't reference articles.

If I created an article six years ago and haven't touched it since, as happened in the David E. Kendall case, I don't want the bot to be bothering me about it. User:Rrius similarly complained, over on User talk:Tim1357, about a nine-month-old article. The bot shouldn't be notifying any editors who have not edited the article recently.

Next, if some editor made substantial contributions to an article while it had references, and later, another editor or editors removes those references, the bot shouldn't be leaving messages about lack of references, because the lack of references is not that editor's fault.

Ideally, the bot would be opt-in only. At the very least, however, an opt-out feature is needed.

—Lowellian (reply) 05:27, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Does it continue to bother users, or is it a one-time thing? Does it obey the bot exclusion, so you could keep it off if so offended? It seems like a good step to help active users fix articles they may have forgotten about, and hopefully we can raise the bar on article quality that way. And the creation of the bot was heavily discussed, IIRC. tedder (talk) 07:21, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

If I remember the BRfA correctly, this is a one time run, and multiple articles are combined in one message (?) if that is so opt-out would not be needed (although the bot does respect {{nobots}}, so opt-out is already possible). Also, the bot isn't making you responsible for the article, and isn't trying to blame users for unreferenced BLPs, that's not the idea at all. Rather it is simply looking for users who may be able to improve the article's sourcing, if you don't want to improve the article, that is absolutely fine. Regarding the time since users last edits, this was discussed at the BRfA, and the time is not taken into account, because users may have created the article before they knew how to reference, and it would therefore be a good idea for them to go back and fix it now that they do. As to your second scenario, yes that would be true if the bot was blaming users, but it's not. In this case it's a great time for the bot to leave a note, because the user can then go back and re-add the removed references with minimal bother. Best, - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 07:45, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

A question: is User:DASHBot written to obey opt-out with the specific argument "{{bots|optout=bettersource}}"? —Lowellian (reply) 00:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

It can be, Ill put that in there. Lowellian, are you satisfied with the agreed upon method? Tim1357 (talk) 23:12, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, you should put it there. It isn't really fully compliant with Template:Bots until it obeys "{{bots|optout=bettersource}}", "{{bots|optout=nosource}}", and "{{bots|deny=DASHBot}}".

I'll be satisfied if you implement a time limit of some sort (e.g. only notifies users who have edited the article within the past six months, or, at most, the past year or two). I really don't think it's reasonable for it to go for users who last touched an article many years ago.

—Lowellian (reply) 14:21, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I disagree, Lowellian. If you created the article or were a significant contributor, it should notify you. Part of the idea is to find stale articles that have never really been improved. tedder (talk) 20:22, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Exactly. The intention was to notify contributors who may have forgotten that they wrote that BLP way back when they were new. Tim1357 (talk) 02:09, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Due to the time-critical nature of the bot's work, I'm restarting this now and will be closely monitoring this page and my talk page for any further objections, Thanks! Tim1357 (talk) 02:48, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I asked earlier whether the bot obeys "{{bots|optout=bettersource}}", "{{bots|optout=nosource}}", and "{{bots|deny=DASHBot}}". You said you would be willing to make it obey the first of those three argument settings. Could I get a response on whether you'd be willing to do the same for the other two argument settings? Thanks. —Lowellian (reply) 00:22, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Yep. Im done with the messaging anyway. Tim1357 (talk) 02:06, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Bot matrix

Perhaps the number of bots has grown to the point that, instead of just having a category, we should have a more detailed box matrix, much as we have an extension matrix? "Bot matrix" makes a good pun too. :) Tisane (talk) 13:49, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Is there a regular expression bot?

Is there a bot that searches for and replaces regular expressions? ---- CharlesGillingham (talk) 16:31, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think that there are any bots which have blanket approval to make any replaces, but there are bots which use RegEx to make replacements (e.g. renaming categories, templates etc.). AutoWikiBrowser also has a RegEx replace function. - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 16:42, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean a bot or a script? meta:pywikipediabot contains a script for that purposes, it is called replace.py emijrp (talk) 23:50, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Non-WP interwiki bot

Greetings, a rather strange request I guess but I'm looking at the available bots and wondering which would suit me best. I'm working on a new version of a multi-lingual reference website for a particular subject (football) and want to be able to link to corresponding wikipedia-article in the corresponding language. What I would like to do is to be able to feed the bot a starting address in one language and then allow it to find all the interwiki links and add them to my database, while not editing the wikipedia-pages. That way I'll never even show up on the logs to clutter them and annoy editors. My backend is in MySQL if that matters in a selection of a bot. Any of you able to point me to a bot that would be least difficult to modify to satisfy my needs in this manner? --Stalfur (talk) 01:09, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Reporting bots

How do we report mis-behaving bots? Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 00:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It depends on what the misbehavior is and how urgent it is. Various places are the bot's talkpage or the operator's talkpage, the the bot owners' noticeboard, or the incidents section of the Administrators' Noticeboard. --Carnildo (talk) 01:24, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It's low priority as the bot edits are not mainspace. The results it returns are far from reliable although sometimes more helpful then nothing. The bot operator is not responding to talk page requests, and thus the bot cannot be made to work correctly. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 01:52, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

BON should always be the place to post "reports". Even if you post at AN/I for a quicker response, it's best to make sure that you mention at BON that you have done so. - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 07:22, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Is there a bot for......

Is there a bot to calculate what images are being uploaded related to a certain subject? For example, I would like to see NASCAR related images have been uploaded since July 1, 2010. Is there a bot doing that? --Nascar1996 ^{Contributions / Guestbook} 18:07, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

No. A Toolserver tool could be probably be created (or might already exist) if there were a specific category that identified all NASCAR-related images. You could generate a list of images in the category and list them by upload date. --MZMcBride (talk) 19:40, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Want to react to events on the wiki? Try Recentchanges via XMPP

Hi all! For a long time I wantged a decent push interface for RC-Events. Parsing messages on IRC is unreliable, and polling the API sucks (and is also unreliable, see bugzilla:24782.

So, I have written XMLRC and set up a prototype on the Toolserver - have a look at meta:Recentchanges via XMPP for details. Basically, you point any Jabber client to the chat room enwiki@conference.jabber.toolserver.org to see the change events, like on IRC. However, if you use a client aware of the extra data attached to the messages, like rcclient.py, you will get all the information you can get from the API (in fact, you can get the exact same XML tag).

Try it out and let me know what you think! -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) (talk) 08:38, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Bot needed for Article Feedback Pilot

For the upcoming Article Feedback Tool pilot (see description from the Signpost, we need to add every article in WikiProject United States Public Policy to a hidden category, Category:Article Feedback Pilot. I was hoping a bot operator could help; it should be a pretty trivial bot task. Anyone up for it?--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 18:09, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bot requests is probably a better place to ask, since it is more heavily watched (has approx. double the watchers). - EdoDodo ^talk 18:26, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Will do.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 18:28, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Still waiting on BAG comment on BRFA

Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/HersfoldCiteBot has been up for almost two weeks, with a {{BAG assistance needed}} template on it for the past four days. So far, I can't tell that any BAG member has so much as glanced at the page. When can I expect to get some official comment on this request? Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 16:25, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Approved for trial. Sorry for the delay. - EdoDodo ^talk 17:42, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Gazetteer content discussion

You are invited to join the discussion at WT:N#What is the consensus on City articles?. patsw (talk) 01:22, 29 October 2010 (UTC) (Using {{Please see}})

Anti-vandalism bot census

Hi. I'm creating an anti-vandalism bot census and I need your help. If you know more anti-vandalism bots (active or inactive), please, notice me. I'm compiling info about them. Thanks. emijrp (talk) 23:53, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Do you know what was the first anti-vandalism bot? emijrp (talk) 12:55, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Am I a bot?

I frequently use WP:AWB/T and WP:TSN on a large number of articles, which often sums up to almost 100 edits per hour. User:Rd232 suggested that I should create a bot account for this work. Do I have to? —bender235 (talk) 20:56, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Bot_policy#Assisted_editing_guidelines. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 20:59, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

100 edits per hour is less than two edits per minute, which gives you plenty of time (more than 30 seconds) to review the changes you are making, and is therefore not considered automated editing. Problems generally arise when people start passing 10 edits per minute or so, which means that they have less than 6 seconds to review edits - this is often considered as automated editing. - EdoDodo ^talk 06:47, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. So I'll continue typo fixing as a non-bot. ;-) —bender235 (talk) 23:03, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

BAG nomination

Hello! I invite you to comment on my BAG (Bot Approvals Group) nomination: Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group/nominations/H3llkn0wz. Thank you. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 11:19, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Automatic taxobox

Hi, this might not be the most obvious place to ask but we're looking for anyone with a programming bent that might be willing to take a look at Template:Automatic taxobox to see if there are any ways that it could be improved (either in functionality or performance), before it is rolled out more widely. Comments would be very warmly received at Template_talk:Automatic_taxobox#request_for_comments. Thanks! Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 13:16, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Template:Run-page-shutoff

{{Run-page-shutoff}} has been nominated for deletion. You may be interested in this issue. 65.93.15.80 (talk) 05:13, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Film robot

Film talked about getting a bot setup to do some minor editing. It was discussed and some specifications were written for what they wanted. I think I have to get a proposal accepted next? I would really appreciate some guidance. Thanks

I forgot to say that I'm going to write the bot myself, I already have some written. --Peppage^tlk 19:05, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Peppage has not been active since last May. I am wondering if anyone else could help with specifications? They can be seen at Wikipedia:WikiProject Film/Bot requests. Erik (talk | contribs) 12:39, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Have you try contacting him by email to see if he might be coming back? Peppage did start working on the bot. If he isn't coming back we'll need to get someone to continue writing it. He left the source code here. - Kollision (talk) 13:33, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

No, I went ahead and emailed him. Erik (talk | contribs) 16:03, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Requesting advice

Recently the archiving bot MiszaBot III removed some material from the talk page of a blocked user's talk page. It removed two {{unblock reviewed}} templates, even though the template explicitly says "Do not remove this unblock review while you are blocked." The user is still blocked, and so should not have removed the unblock review; meaning that either should a bot. I left a message on the bot opperator's talk page, but s/he has not relied and seems to be inactive. What should I do about the problem, and what should be done about the block review templates that shouldn't have been removed? — Fly by Night (talk) 23:29, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

For the moment, you could always remove {{User:MiszaBot/config}} from the talk page, or follow the instructions at User:MiszaBot/Archive HowTo#Delaying or preventing archival of particular threads. Anomie⚔ 03:33, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Fbot task #5

Recently, Fbot was properly approved for a task to tag "orphaned" files with {{Orphan image}}. I happened across this task by way of a file I uploaded (File:Sheriff-flowchart.gif) being tagged by this bot. I believe the bot is acting on a false principal. A free license image does not have to be used in an actual article in order to be retained. WP:NFCC requires non-free files to be deleted if they are orphans, but not free licensed images. I agree that Wikipedia is not an orphanage, however the bot seems to discern no difference between (1) files not actually in use anywhere and (2) files that are in use, just not in the article space.

There are a dizzying array of free licenses images which are not in use on any actual article and are by the criteria of this bot "orphaned". Yes, quite a number of these could be moved to Commons. But, quite a number shouldn't be moved to Commons. Case in point, the image that brought me here, File:Sheriff-flowchart.gif. I could have uploaded this image to Commons, but it has absolutely no relevance anywhere else but on en.wikipedia.org. Uploading it here was entirely appropriate. Further, the fact that it is used in discussions (1 (expand the box) and 2) should have precluded its being marked as orphaned.

I'm also curious about how this bot handles images that are linked, but not transcluded.

I think this bot should be curtailed to only tag files that are not linked or transcluded. What it could do for images that are linked or transcluded is to place a notice on the page of the uploader suggesting it be moved to Commons. Thoughts? --Hammersoft (talk) 13:56, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I agree that it shouldn't tag files with inbound links as orphan. –xeno^talk 14:26, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Re:Hammersoft (ec) What exactly is the problem with tagging such files as orphans? If they should be moved to commons, they will be moved, if not they will be tagged with {{keeplocal}} and remain on Wikipedia. The point of tagging these images as orphans is to do exactly that identify them as orphans so people can easily review them and take action if needed. If the current {{Orphan image}} is misleading or unclear, it's a rather simple thing to update it (mention it on Template talk:Orphan image).

As for the other questions concerning what the bot does in the case of linking and transclusions, that should probably directed to User:Fastily, who codes the bot. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 14:30, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

• The problem with tagging such images is that it's unnecessary make-work. As for the rest, I placed a pointer to this discussion on the bot's talk page. Fastily is certainly more than welcome to contribute to the discussion here. --Hammersoft (talk) 14:38, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I've noticed the same problem. If this is not going to be fixed so the bot will recognize any usage or wikilink that is not on a specific list of exceptions (e.g. I could agree with it discounting links from WP:PUI, WP:IFD, and other such "process" pages), it may be time to re-examine the approval.

Re Hammersoft, I personally don't see much point in spamming talk pages across Wikipedia asking for these images to be moved to Commons. The upload form now shoves people hard in that direction, so any such images newly uploaded locally were probably uploaded locally for a good reason. Anomie⚔ 15:43, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

This is an example image link. An image link, from a technical standpoint, is created like this: [[File:Example.jpg|thumb|right|200px|This is an example image link]].

There seem to be numerous misconceptions about this bot. Everyone, if you have not yet read Fbot's FAQ, please do so now. Presently, for any given freely licensed image, the bot will only apply {{Orphan image}} iff the file contains no image links to the Wikipedia and Article Namespaces, as determined by mw:API:Imageusage (which, for the record, is entirely separate from mw:API:Alllinks). Anomie, I thought I had resolved your problem with the last fix, in which I virtually rewrote Fbot's code to ignore files with image links from both the Wikipedia and Article namespaces. Instead of whining without offering a solution, or assuming bad faith, perhaps you (or any other users) could list some namespaces you want Fbot to ignore. The way Fbot's library code has been written makes it very easy for me to pull and add namespaces. There has also been much talk of {{Orphan image}} being a deletion tag. So I'll say it again: {{Orphan image}} ≠ deletion tag! This tag categorizes Orphaned, freely licensed files in one category for easy maintenance and statistical purposes. While the tag does indeed suggest what could be done with the file (e.g. move to commons, send to ffd), that does not mean it should be done! All, please carefully read the wording of the tag before prematurely leaping to conclusions! -FASTILY ^(TALK) 19:22, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't know why you would think that "Wikipedia and Article namespaces" would solve the problem I raised about images used in the Talk namespace, or wikilinks from the Template talk namespace. Also, I did give a list of namespaces just above: all of them, with possible exceptions for pages like WP:IFD or WP:PUI. You will also note that I never claimed that {{Orphan image}} was a deletion tag, just that it was being misapplied by your bot to images that are validly in use. Anomie⚔ 23:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Clearly, you either have not read what I said, or are simply too incompetent to do so. As I already said, I had assumed, that you, like the others, desired for the bot to ignore files with image links to the Wikipedia and Article spaces. I agreed to that and in good faith, spent time and energy to completely rewrite my code to meet those expectations. If I misunderstood your concern, I apologize. I know it's hard, but make an effort to assume good faith. Also, please note that Image links and Page links are two entirely separate entities. You cannot get the image links of a file by querying the API with mw:API:Alllinks and vice versa. As stated below, the bot has already been configured to ignore all files with <1 image link. And uh, for the rerecord, I never accused you of equating {{Orphan image}} to a deletion tag. -FASTILY ^(TALK) 00:23, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry your lack of reading comprehension led you to a complete misunderstanding and required you to make personal attacks and to fail to assume good faith. Have a nice day. Anomie⚔ 00:38, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Personal attacks!? -GASP- Where?? Oh, and for your connivence: [15] Cheers, FASTILY ^(TALK) 00:41, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

"or are simply too incompetent to do so" sounds like a personal attack to me. And your addition to {{Orphan image}} goes against the instructions for {{bots}}, BTW. Anomie⚔ 00:52, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

I think the bots definition of "orphaned" needs to be reconsidered. It is obvious from the numerous comments and complaints on the bot's talk page that this is not being understood by many editors. The template it is using is not helping with its implication that the image should be moved to Commons or deleted. Many of these images have good reasons to be here and good reasons not to be on Commons for which the existing templates are just not appropriate. SpinningSpark 18:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

• @Fastily; I didn't assume bad faith. Far from it. I'm suggesting changes to the bot. That's not an assumption of bad faith. I can make suggestions to improve the bot without having to assume bad faith. I also never said that {{Orphan image}} was a deletion tag. I don't believe I've lept to any conclusions. It is a fact the bot tags images that are in fact not orphaned, "orphaned" being defined as in use somewhere. The file I noted as an example is in fact in use in the Wikipedia space which you say has been corrected. Fine, but that fails to address lots of other potentially legitimate uses of images in other namespaces that have no utility on Commons and which should remain here. Case point; our ACIP outreach program suggests by way of placeholder for a new user to upload an image of themselves (see example). If they do and they uploaded it here instead of Commons, then by your bot's definition of "orphaned" that image would be considered orphaned. I don't think that's right. There's not much advantage to tagging such images as orphaned, unless I'm missing something. --Hammersoft (talk) 20:26, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I would suggest starting with the definition that an image is orphaned if it contains no inbound links whatsoever. Then consider expanding that definition when you've run out of images to tag. –xeno^talk 20:29, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

That's very doable, and it seems to resolve everyone's concerns. So, if there are no objections, I'll have Fbot Task 6 start untagging within a few hours. -FASTILY ^(TALK) 20:34, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Would that include images like File:Safariscreenshot2.PNG that are linked to from a discussion but not embedded in a page? Anomie⚔ 23:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

No. While that could be done, it would require additional server queries for each and every file Fbot reviews and require additional method additions to Fbot5. It's irrational to add new methods and numerous server queries to Fbot's programming for a small population of <50 files which can easily be flagged with {{Bots|deny=Fbot}} -FASTILY ^(TALK) 00:36, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Im going to call BS, and request that you un-tag all files that do not meet the zero total links/uses. I just spot checked 30 files tagged as orphan and all of them had at least incoming links, and some even had file uses. If you are worried about resources Ill set up a daily cron job on the toolserver to generate a list of orphaned zero linked files. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 01:47, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Humph. Very well then. I'll update my bot and run it during low site traffic hours. -FASTILY ^(TALK) 02:00, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

And now done. Compiled and ready to go. -FASTILY ^(TALK) 02:12, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Ive got it updating now but tools:~betacommand/reports/orphaned_files2.txt is a listing of all zero linked files and tools:~betacommand/reports/orphaned_files.txt is a listing of all files that have links, but zero uses. Let me know a good time for you, and I can set a cron job to update them for you. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 02:32, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

That is very convenient. I've downloaded a copy of both lists and will write up a 10 line program to make use of them. If you could update these once a week, that'd be great. Thanks, FASTILY ^(TALK) 03:54, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

When do you want it updated? I can do as often as daily. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 03:59, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Actually, if you could, daily would be even better. Say around, 00:00 UTC? -FASTILY ^(TALK) 04:06, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Ive added it to my 0000UTC crontab, there are several things ahead of it so Im not sure exactly when it will be completed. check the /reports directory for a few days to get the exact update times. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 04:13, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Excellent, thank you for doing that! Cheers, FASTILY ^(TALK) 04:15, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

To be clear, my suggestions are referring to any links of any kind, including if I were to link to a file in my comment like: File:Example.png. –xeno^talk 01:11, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Automatic page creation criteria

Greetings. I am currently assigned as a go-between between WikiMedia Indonesia and the Lontar Foundation. There is discussion regarding the possibility of creating articles for Indonesian writers using a bot, then filling in details manually. Would this be in accordance with WP:N and WP:BLP? Would such a request be granted, conceivably? What articles are generally okay to be created automatically? Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:02, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

On en:wikipedia you will need a BRFA if you intend to create more than "about 25-50 pages". Botpol does not specify in what period. On other wikis different rules may apply. In terms of notability, if the article does not make a reasonable claim to notability for the subject, it risks being speedied. BLP requires that material about living people is sourced, and that should not be hard. Rich Farmbrough, 12:10, 7 October 2011 (UTC).

Bot Rights Alert

Very little evidence has been collected of this awful practice. This is because the Dark Side destroys most of it.

Dear Honorary Citizens of Wikipedia,
i must call it to your attention that one or more misguided editors have been mistreating members of the community known as bots. These bots have been bullied and forced to work on week-ends by the mean, lazy owners who refuse to do the dirty work themselves. These editors are difficult to apprehend because they are mostly distinguished members of the community.

Please intervene to help these creatures who never asked anything in return for their slavery. I propose on their behalf :

1. A Universal Charter of Bot Rights to be created, dealing with free health care, freedom, equality, peace, representation, days off, and old age pensions (for bots like this one).
2. A Bot Workers Union that they can join. This will help improve their working conditions on Wikipedia.
3. A Bot Police Unit to enforce proposal 1. Certain Vandal-bashing bots (like this one) are already quite good at kicking the hell out of transgressors.

I hereby submit this to the scrutiny of the community. I hope you will read this with attention and put your utmost effort into bringing the culprits to justice.
Yours truly, Benzband (talk) 15:35, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Note: more evidence shall undoubtedly be uncovered. I also call for relaxation on the part of H3llkn0wz because he (unwittingly) furnished evidence of this abomination. - Benzband (talk) 15:35, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Obviously the BAG has already been taken over by the Bot Workers Union, and they are forcing bots, who desire nothing more than to work to sit idle, through delayed BRFAs and other obstructions, while the Capos negotiate behind the scenes for kickbacks, free oil for their cronies, and unlimited cloud storage. Rich Farmbrough, 11:45, 20 November 2011 (UTC).

Oh, no! T'is going to be even more difficult… Thanks for bringing up this new dimension of the problem, as it was hidden to me by the corrupt Bot Cabal. - Benzband (talk) 12:46, 20 November 2011 (UTC)