Wikipedia:Bot requests

For the policy on bot requirements, see WP:BOTREQUIRE.

This is a page for requesting tasks to be done by bots per the bot policy. This is an appropriate place to put ideas for uncontroversial bot tasks, to get early feedback on ideas for bot tasks (controversial or not), and to seek bot operators for bot tasks. Consensus-building discussions requiring large community input (such as request for comments) should normally be held at WP:VPPROP or other relevant pages (such as a WikiProject's talk page).

You can check the "Commonly Requested Bots" box above to see if a suitable bot already exists for the task you have in mind. If you have a question about a particular bot, contact the bot operator directly via their talk page or the bot's talk page. If a bot is acting improperly, follow the guidance outlined in WP:BOTISSUE. For broader issues and general discussion about bots, see the bot noticeboard.

Before making a request, please see the list of frequently denied bots, either because they are too complicated to program, or do not have consensus from the Wikipedia community. If you are requesting that a template (such as a WikiProject banner) is added to all pages in a particular category, please be careful to check the category tree for any unwanted subcategories. It is best to give a complete list of categories that should be worked through individually, rather than one category to be analyzed recursively (see example difference).

Alternatives to bot requests

• WP:AWBREQ, for simple tasks that involve a handful of articles and/or only needs to be done once (e.g. adding a category to a few articles).
• WP:URLREQ, for tasks involving changing or updating URLs to prevent link rot (specialized bots deal with this).
• WP:SQLREQ, for tasks which might be solved with an SQL query (e.g. compiling a list of articles according to certain criteria).
• WP:TEMPREQ, to request a new template written in wiki code or Lua.
• WP:SCRIPTREQ, to request a new user script. Many useful scripts already exist, see Wikipedia:User scripts/List.
• WP:CITEBOTREQ, to request a new feature for WP:Citation bot, a user-initiated bot that fixes citations.

Note to bot operators: The {{BOTREQ}} template can be used to give common responses, and make it easier to keep track of the task's current status. If you complete a request, note that you did with {{BOTREQ|done}}, and archive the request after a few days (WP:1CA is useful here).

---

Please add your bot requests to the bottom of this page.
Make a new request

#	Bot request	Status	💬	👥	🙋 Last editor	🕒 (UTC)	🤖 Last botop editor	🕒 (UTC)
1	Implementing the outcome of Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (television)#Follow-up RfC on TV season article titles	BRFA filed	18	9	Wikiwerner	2024-04-20 17:49	Primefac	2024-03-27 12:55
2	Auto-WP:NAVNOREDIRECT	Not a good task for a bot.	10	5	Wikiwerner	2024-04-28 12:22	Primefac	2024-03-13 18:37
3	NFL Draft move downcasing cleanup	BRFA filed	22	4	Bsoyka	2024-03-23 02:55	Primefac	2024-03-18 10:12
4	Bot to clean up wikiproject templates		8	2	Cocobb8	2024-03-24 15:05	GoingBatty	2024-03-23 19:12
5	Automatic NOGALLERY keyword for categories containing non-free files (again)		9	5	Wikiwerner	2024-05-15 18:43	Usernamekiran	2024-04-13 02:17
6	Automatically replace superscripts with sup and sub tags		5	3	Qwerfjkl	2024-04-06 19:54	Qwerfjkl	2024-04-06 19:54
7	Long-dash URL		1	1	GreenC	2024-04-08 22:16
8	Can we have an AIV feed a bot posts on IRC?		6	2	Lofty abyss	2024-04-29 10:29	Usernamekiran	2024-04-15 11:27
9	Bot to sync talk page redirects with their corresponding page		10	5	Anomie	2024-04-17 11:40	Anomie	2024-04-17 11:40
10	Bot to update match reports to cite template		3	2	Yoblyblob	2024-05-21 12:16	Mdann52	2024-05-21 09:03
11	Bot to mass tag California State University sports seasons		2	2	Primefac	2024-04-19 18:13	Primefac	2024-04-19 18:13
12	Football league infoboxes		7	4	Bagumba	2024-04-25 13:43	Primefac	2024-04-25 12:01
13	Clear Category:Unlinked Wikidata redirects		6	3	A smart kitten	2024-04-23 10:56	DreamRimmer	2024-04-21 03:28
14	Find linkrot with a specific pattern		7	3	GreenC	2024-05-01 16:20
15	Fixing stub tag placement on new articles	Not a good task for a bot.	4	3	Headbomb	2024-05-19 20:17	Headbomb	2024-05-19 20:17
16	User:RetractionBot, v2		3	3	Mdann52	2024-05-21 09:01	Mdann52	2024-05-21 09:01

Legend
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When exceptions occur, please check the setting first.

Project tagging bot

The people who have tagged articles in WP:CHIBOTCATS with {{WikiProject Chicago}} have mostly gone inactive, except for one admin who no longer tags. Are there any bots that tag by category? If not we need a new one.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 05:47, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I just got approval for one. What are you trying to do? Do you just want to tag as WPChicago or was that just an Example? --Kumioko (talk) 14:58, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes we need all the new articles in the cats listed at WP:CHIBOTCATS (but not their subcats) tagged with {{WikiProject Chicago}}. Auto rating unrated pages would be good. I.e., if a majority of other tags have a class=x, then fill that class in for Chicago.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 18:06, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I have a request sitting with DodoBot - User_talk:DodoBot/Requests#WP:UKROADS - if you'd like to steal that one away and do it, I'd be much obliged. All details there, but you could come back to me - if you feel like doing it - should you need to know more. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:04, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Ok. I am currently going through some for WPUS and Oklahoma asked for a couple hundred too so after that I'll start working with these unless someone grabs them first. IN the Chicago one may I suggest also adding WikiProject Illinois if its not there already. --Kumioko (talk) 18:59, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for UKRoads. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:13, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Just so you know, my bot, Hazard-Bot, is approved for such tasks.  Hazard-SJ  ㋡  23:47, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

If you'd like to steal UK Roads, I'm sure no-one would object. I'd just be fascinated to see it done ;) --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:50, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Please do Hazard. Got another 65000 in the que before I can do it. --Kumioko (talk) 00:07, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I started, but not sure if I will do them all at once. I'll finish at a later time if so.  Hazard-SJ  ㋡  00:41, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

So is Chicago in somebody's queue now?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 21:30, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Hazard-SJ (talk · contribs), can you handle this for me?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 05:17, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Are you watching here? I will ping your page.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 04:08, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I should be able to help with it in the next few days. Got a couple others in the hopper at the moment. --Kumioko (talk) 04:29, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry about the delay. I've started the UKROADS more than once and left it to run, but it seems an error prevented it from continuing. I believe I should make a page for these kinds of requests so it is easier to follow? I will continue working on UKROADS. If Chicago isn't done when I'm done, I'll attempt it too.  Hazard-SJ  ㋡  06:12, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Any estimate on when you will be done with UKROADS?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 18:06, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 18:26, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply. I did some more, but I was having some problems, hence this. I'll get back to it ASAP, hopefully. As for Chicago, that would be a longer hold.  Hazard-SJ  ㋡  03:54, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

I can probably do some on Chicago but I'm not sure my bot is authorized yet to do that type of task. I can do WikiProject Banner replacement but I think I need to request a separate one for tagging new articles to a project. Its a pretty straightforward request with plenty of precadent though so it should be pretty quick. --Kumioko (talk) 04:28, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Chicago tagging task

I submitted a BRFA to allow my bot to do this type of task but before I get started I got a couple questions about this one.

1. Can I remove the red linked categories from the above page so it doesn't conflict?
   • Yes.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 17:39, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
2. Does the project support all types of content classes (i.e. Category, template redirect, etc.)? If not which ones does it support.
   • Not really sure.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 17:39, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
3. Are you just looking for me to add the Chicago banner or do you want me to do assessment as well? If you do want me to do some assessment what projects do you want me to inherit the class from? --Kumioko (talk) 17:46, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
   • In the past I believe we inherited by majority. Can you do that? Just make sure not to automatically do subcategories.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 17:39, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick reply. I have to admit I don't know how to inherit by majority. I'm afraid that programming is above my level. What do you mean by not to automatically do subcategories? --Kumioko (talk) 17:45, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

The list at WP:CHIBOTCATS includes the categories that are associated with WP:CHICAGO. Some of the subcategories of those categories include things that are far afield from the project. I will wait for Hazard-SJ (talk · contribs).--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 00:12, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

No problem. --Kumioko (talk) 04:04, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Me sees.  Hazard-SJ  ㋡  07:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

What is the latest?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 16:21, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Any update?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 04:52, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

How about a Me dos?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 13:39, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I could help eventually but my bot is still awaiting the authorization to tag an article and even then it will be a bit limited. It can easily add the chicago banner but doing the assessments is a bit of a different story. As I mentioned above it can inherit the class from another project but my programmer skillz aren't enough to look for what class is most used. I usually just pick another project (usually one I have some faith in the class being correct like MILHIST, USRoads, NRHP and a few others) run through that and then pick the next one. Once I have gone through the more trustworthy ones then I can use the less reliable ones (like Biography for example). --Kumioko (talk) 20:02, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I am waiting for some reply from Hazard-SJ (talk · contribs). I am under the impression that he may be able to do more of what I want.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 04:35, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

This is one pain in the @$$ request.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 15:02, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

I got approval to do tagging but as I mentioned before I am still working on logic that does the assessments reliably. --Kumioko (talk) 15:55, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

The assessment is a big part of it. I am hoping that you stumble across GAs, FLs, and FAs and want to maximize the possibility of finding them.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 01:29, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry Im not going to be editing much anymore and the bot is shutdown. good luck. --Kumioko (talk) 01:32, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm waiting for someone who can run it with functionality.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 06:27, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Good luck, thats why I created my own bot because I got tired of waiting. --Kumioko (talk) 14:09, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Notification bot

I was wondering if there were a bot that would automatically place a notification at WikiProject talk pages when a new section is added to a discussion page. We have a collection of articles that do not have a current WikiProject, but logically belong to any of three other WikiProjects. One of the solutions is to make a working group, and post automatic notifications to the three WikiProjects when a new section is added, but we don't know if there's a bot that can do that. Anybody have any ideas? VanIsaac_WS^contribs 16:18, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Seriously, people. Is there a bot that will monitor a page and write a standard message to talk pages when a new section is added? It could also even be a simple bot that posts a message if there have been any edits during a 24 hour period. I'm looking for any help I can get here. Thanks. VanIsaac_WS^contribs 07:11, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Any thoughts or suggestion? VanIsaac_WS^contribs 09:15, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

What about a bot writing the most recent page history entry to your notification page once a day? Is not exaclty what you need, but...

If there is no reason to reject this task at all...?? Anybody? Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 21:33, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Welsh Mountain Peaks on cy

I've created around 700 articles on all the Welsh mountain peaks here. As you can see, only the OS has been included. Is there a bot which could add the corresponding geotag next to the OS, so that the peaks become visible on the top of the artricle using GeoGroupTemplate? Diolch, thanks. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 12:44, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure what you mean; could you do one sample edit? Thanks, — madman 18:50, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi madman! Done the first 3. Quite a job! Llywelyn2000 (talk) 04:05, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Too high a mountain? He. Don't worry; the problem was solved. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 01:38, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Adding RSS Feeds to Wikipedia

Is there any way to either add an RSS feed from an external page to Wikipedia or have a bot update a Wikipedia page from the external page? Allen (talk) 11:34, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm sure its possible, yes. Is it desirable? I think you need to tell us more; for which articles / what content would this be useful? What sources are you thinking of? --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:24, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

It's possible, but I don't think there are any bots doing this. Definitely not on a blanket basis, as each source's RSS content syntax is different. But, as above, this should be done on a case-by-case basis. —  HELLKNOWZ  TALK 12:40, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

If there was consensus for this task, it looks like it would fall within DrTrigonBot's scope. — madman 17:17, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I would like to add updates from my user page/list pages on Listal.

Just ask again if you need more clarification.

Allen (talk) 23:32, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I suggest that this is done via a javascript widget, which loads the content directly into the users browser without the need for continuous wikipedia edits. Stuartyeates (talk) 00:57, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

If that is true, do you know what "javascript widget" it would be? Allen (talk) 01:14, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

As mentioned by madman (tks for that! ;) this would be possible with DrTrigonBot (and is already done on - at least - 2 pages). The full answer is given at User talk:DrTrigon#Adding RSS Feeds to Wikipedia. Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 14:36, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Despite the 2 open points "If there was consensus for this task" (from madman) and "I suggest that this is done via a javascript widget" (from Stuartyeates) this can be considered as done from my point of view. Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 21:29, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

But I think this 2 open point have to discussed here and now!

@Stuartyeates: Do you have such a javascript widget? Are you able to write one? (or do you know someone able)

Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 10:49, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, can we get this resolved ASAP? I would like to get this done really soon. There is no deadline. I just want to see this done soon.

Also, can the updates have images or "piped links" (either one linked to the items' pages)? Yes, I know there is copyright violations and such to consider, but some of the links aren't totally clear as to what they mean.

Allen (talk) 11:16, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

What is it exactly that you want to do? Which external pages do you use, what articles do you update, where do you place the info, what info do you copy and how do you attribute it? How many pages are affected and have the relevant WikiProjects been notified? I don't think editors will lean one way or another unless there are more details here. And given this is on a BOTREQ page, BAG certainly needs more to go on. —  HELLKNOWZ  TALK 11:31, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Per comments on DrTrigon's talk page, N Not done. As Tbayer (WMF) pointed out, requested task is not appropriate for a bot (Wikipedia is not a social networking site, Amazon affiliate links are not appropriate, uploading copyrighted images is not acceptable). — madman 15:00, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

First, I made some new pages to populate with the feeds. So far, I have made User:Morriswa/Listal, which will be used for my Listal user page; User:Morriswa/Listal/Lists, which will be used for my Listal list page; and User:Morriswa/Listal/Favorite CDs, which will be used for my Listal list: "My Favorite CDs".

What else do you need to know?

I'm excited to get this started. THANKS!

Allen (talk) 01:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm finding User:Tbayer (WMF) arguments pretty persuasive, to be honest. Stuartyeates (talk) 02:03, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't see Tbayer (WMF)'s "arguments" above. Where they posted on another page? Allen (talk) 02:16, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

They were posted on DrTrigon's talk page, and you responded to them. I think there's some sort of a communication problem here. This is not an appropriate task for a bot and it will not be done. — madman 02:19, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I think this is getting too spread out; it should have been kept on one page.

I don't know why you say this "is not an appropriate task for a bot". DrTrigon actually started it before he was "forced" to stop it.

Is there any way that this can be done? Allen (talk) 02:31, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

It comes down to the policies at WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK and WP:NOTPROMOTION. These are policies which are unlikely to be changed in the foreseeable future. Stuartyeates (talk) 02:35, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Just to give you (Allen) a hint; from my point of view you have 3 options now:

1. switch from listal to another server/service that is open (like identi.ca or else) and provides what you want - if that exists
2. find a really good and persuasive way to assure you are the copyright owner of all the content you want to import and find an additional value for the whole wiki - I think this will be a hard one
3. just forget about this

Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 12:13, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Multiple Issues to Single Tag

There are a very large number of articles on the wiki that previously had the Multiple Issues template, but that have since had all but one of the issues resolved. I'm frequently responsible for them myself, since as I work through many outdated tags in a short time I often don't bother to reformat the template. The task of replacing it with the appropriate standalone tag is completely unambiguous and thus is ideally suited for a bot, but would be tedious and time-consuming for a human. -- LWG ^talk 14:56, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

BattyBot is doing a lot of work with Multiple Issues, and would be happy to investigate this tomorrow. GoingBatty (talk) 18:44, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

 Working - Part of AWB's general fixes are to remove {{Multiple issues}} if it has no parameters and convert it to the original template if it has only one parameter. I'm preparsing the list of 43,000+ articles that use Multiple issues now to see if there's a small number of articles that could be changed manually, or if a bot request should be filed. Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 19:59, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

BRFA filed -GoingBatty (talk) 00:28, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Doing... -GoingBatty (talk) 02:43, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Y Done - removed {{multiple issues}} from about 500 articles. GoingBatty (talk) 15:03, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Missing images for higher taxa

In many cases, a species will have a photo in its infobox, but the higher taxa to which the species belongs will not have photos in their infoboxes. I'm not sure how involved coding this bot would be, but it would be great to identify articles for higher taxa missing images that should be filled in from the images in the articles for the lower taxa. E.g. Rufous-crowned Antpitta vs. Pittasoma (old revision because I added the image earlier today). Thanks! Calliopejen1 (talk) 00:14, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikinews Importer Bot

This bot appears to have died. It's been suggested the operator's account is closed due to inactivity.

Can someone help establish if this is the case? Ideally with a view to getting the bot up-and-running again. I'm happy to look after a new account for the bot if need be (but, with the proviso I'd need to add some Python knowledge to my coding toolset were changes required). --Brian McNeil /^talk 14:24, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I just had a quick look at it but this (or something similar) should be possible to do with User:DrTrigonBot out of the box. Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 14:43, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Okay thanks very much DrTrigon (talk · contribs), please keep us posted? — Cirt (talk) 15:01, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Do not have that much time at the moment - could you e.g. give me an example? May be a page that was updated/imported by the old bot and I'll convert it to DrTrigonBot. Then we can talk about the result... ;) Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 16:03, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

1. n:Portal:Film/Wikipedia = sample source page
2. Portal:Film/Film news/Wikinews = sample output page

Thoughts? — Cirt (talk) 16:07, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Done. Will be updated daily. There are 2 minor differences; the date has another formatting and all links include the interwiki part 'wikinews:en:'. Both of them can be solved by template programming. Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 16:27, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Note the suggestion that the operator's account has been closed is incorrect; apparently, one of the toolserver machines is having issues. See WP:BON#Misza13's bots seem to be down. Anomie⚔ 17:09, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

@DrTrigon, with the update from Anomie, will your changes still be needed, or do we instead need to bug somebody about fixing the tool server machines, or both? — Cirt (talk) 17:11, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry I should have noticed this by myself. In your place I would do now:

1. revert changes of User:DrTrigon on Portal:Film/Film news/Wikinews
2. inform User talk:Misza13 about the problem and ask how to solve it
3. if no solution is found re-revert and use User:DrTrigonBot anyway (since it is there; and one central place for doing all kinds of substitutions in a general way ;)

...one strange thing is User:DrTrigonBot runs on the toolserver too - and still works... ;) But do not know why... Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 17:37, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

If you set up SGE jobs on the submit server as recommended, that's because it's submitting all jobs to willow since nightshade is down. Convenient. :) — madman 15:15, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah - meanwhile I got this by myself - but thanks a lot for the hint! I told Misza13 (by mail) to consider using SGE also, since that could improve it's bots stability... :) Greetings --DrTrigon (talk) 15:34, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

And what about that Toolserver issue??? — Cirt (talk) 21:51, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Don't worry about it; it's not an issue in this case as DrTrigon says he's got it. And anyone it is a problem for can just run their jobs on the other server, which has been up all this time. — madman 23:54, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

And what about Misza13 (talk · contribs) being inactive? — Cirt (talk) 00:00, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard#Misza13's bots seem to be down, Misza13 is running the bots manually on the server that's up for the time being (indeed it looks like Wikinews Importer Bot is currently running). — madman 00:38, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, it does appear to be working again. So thanks to all above! ;) Cheers, — Cirt (talk) 02:05, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

"this revision": a template and a bot to help with it

I frequently have a need to refer to the current revision of the article (eg., in GA reviews or dispute resolution procedures like WP:3O or WP:RFC). To do that I have to go to the "page history", copy down the link to the revision and re-format it into {{oldid}}. Some other editors instead just use wikilinking ([[]]), so to get the idea of how the article looked like back then one has to find the revision by hand.

My proposal is to create a template {{this revision|pagename}} which would display a normal wikilink ([[]]) until gets rewritten by Bot into {{oldid}}. If introduced and made known, this will save some considerable amount of editors' effort.

The algorithm for bot seems to be pretty clear:

1. starts on timer
2. gets the list of interclusions of {{this revision}}
3. for each item on the list:
   1. parses the arguments
   2. looks for the closest previous revision of the linked page
   3. retrieves oldid
   4. rewrites {{this revision}} with {{oldid}}
4. exists

Please leave me a {{talkback}} if you write to this thread. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 15:02, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

You really should just watch this page, instead of demanding that everyone leave you a talkback if they reply. I'll leave you a talkback this once, but in the future watch the page for further replies.

This would be a simple enough task for a bot, but I wonder whether it's really so hard to just use the "Permanent link" link in the "toolbox" section at the right of the page. In most browsers you shouldn't even have to click the link just to find the oldid, hovering the mouse over it should show the target URL in the browser's status bar and/or you can right-click it and choose "Copy link location" or the like. Anomie⚔ 17:16, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I have the sidebar disabled (with a screen resolution 1280x720 it occupies too much space). I turned it off via Special:Preferences, and I believe that some other editors did so a well. Furthermore, linking to current revision is not always the task, this template would have quite a lot of possible use cases. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 17:39, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

One can easily get the oldid easily from the history, as well. And if you didn't want to fiddle with the {{oldid}} parameters, you could simply link it like this. If you are using it on a talk page, {{Freeze}} may be the easiest for you. ^Avic_ennasis @ 08:45, 29 Shevat 5772 / 08:45, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I wasn't aware of this one. For most cases it is just what I needed. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 09:42, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Formatting citations and punctuation

Could we have a bot to clean up the way that citations are placed in relation to punctuation? I often find commas, periods, and other punctuation placed immediately after a </ref> or <ref name=> tag, when instead they belong immediately before a <ref> or <ref name=> tag. I expect that it would be easy to move all punctuation that immediately follows a citation (without a space) so that it's immediately before the citation, and this type of formatting (unlike things such as stub template placement relative to navboxes) is a substantial type of edit that really should be corrected. The same thing could be used for the {{GR}} series of templates (note that they always have parameters; you'll see GR|6 or GR|2 all over the place, but I can't remember ever seeing GR by itself), since they automatically produce references. Nyttend (talk) 01:42, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

One of AWB's general fixes is to put references after punctuation. As for {{GR}}, I added it to my AWB feature request. - GoingBatty (talk) 02:53, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

ilike.com

• ilike.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Spamcheck • MER-C X-wiki • gs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • meta • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.com

Ilike.com is a redirect site, redirecting to myspace, and immediately 'like'-ing the subject linked to. Such links utterly fail our goals of Wikipedia - that can NEVER be a reference, and external links are supposed to link to more information about a subject. Could I have a bot going through the existing links to ilike.com, and having them disabled (as soon they will start to annoy people when they get re-inserted after a vandalism edit - the site is blacklisted like all redirect sites). --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 13:15, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Note, that for readers who are not logged in to myspace (like me), the links do not even link to the site of the subject, but go to the myspace homepage. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 13:18, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

We could add this to bot link blacklist and remove these manually meanwhile. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 13:36, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Actually, scrap that. Some are actual references that need archival from when they were valid. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 13:59, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Except when I tried to submit an archived copy, I obviously linked to the original url, so it triggered the filter... for example: http://web.archive.org/web/20100505171214/http://www.ilike.com/artist/Serius+Jones/track/Warrior —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:10, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

One could start with those which are not references, everything in external links can be eradicated. Then maybe some references are left over, which need manual work. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 14:12, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

How would I add those if I trigger the link blacklist filter because archived url contains the original url? —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:13, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Add? They need to be removed. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 14:14, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

I meant add the archived url as in the example above, such as, http://web.archive.org/web/20100505171214/http://www.ilike.com/artist/Serius+Jones/track/Warrior. You can go to it to be taken to the original content. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:16, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Darn, missed that (sorry), and Darn, country firewall. How is the content of ilike.com/artist/Serius+Jones/track/Warrior different from http://web.archive.org/web/20100505171214/http://www.ilike.com/artist/Serius+Jones/track/Warrior? If they have the same content, also the archive.org link should go. Otherwise, MAYBE the myspace page itself is an option, or as a final solution - replace with - where ilike.com is bringing you, will not be a proper reference for the material. That may leave statements unreferenced, but that is what they now are basically as well. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 14:20, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Eh, do you mean that ilike.com used to contain good, proper info, but that it changed over recently? --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 14:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:23, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Hmm .. that ***** .. sorry, can't help you here at the moment, the country firewall seems to disallow me to go into any of the archive.com archives. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 14:25, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Looking at the pages at ilike.com shows a poor hit rate at archive.org, and when I look at many of them they are dynamic in content, eg. tour dates, and they display very poorly. Nothing in the 30-40 pp that I look at seems particularly authoritative.

Can we just nullify the urls by wrapping them in a comment and removing the http component, that at least allows some people to dig further if they so wish. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:44, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

We could just mark them all with {{dead link}}s. But, as you say, looking through the list, even the entries that are supposed to have an interview don't have it, rather a very generic misparsed content. Perhaps, they could just be removed after all. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:52, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) OK, I removed all the plain external links. Remaining ones are basically references with <ref> syntax and many with proper citeweb template. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 14:45, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Marked the rest with {{dead link|date=February 2012}}. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 11:26, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Attila Borhidi

Hi! There are a lot of links to Atilla Borhidi on enwiki, but the correct form of his name is Attila Borhidi (Hungarian botanist, see: hu:Borhidi Attila). It would be nice, if someone corrected it. There are a lot of links to the author abbreviation Borhidi too. Kontos (talk) 21:46, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

No need for a bot; I'll have this all sorted in a couple of minutes... Josh Parris

A couple of redirects (appropriately tagged) and a Google-translated stub later, problem solved. User:WildBot will eventually fix the misspellings; in the mean time, feel free to turn the stubbed bio into a proper article! Josh Parris 22:51, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! Kontos (talk) 08:50, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Village Pump

Village Pump needs a bot for one of the proposals. See the discussion for more. BCS (Talk) 02:49, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Hm, well, actually this would be a semi-automated task. I suppose if consensus supports this proposal, a bot could take action as directed by contributors, but I wonder whether it wouldn't be better for the contributors to take the actions themselves, with assistance. Maybe via a user script. I'll think about this one and play a little in my sandbox while discussion is ongoing. :) — madman 02:55, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I was thinking a bot because it would take less time. For example, a bot can edit twenty-four hours straight without because it doesn't need to sleep, unlike humans. Bots don't take wikibreaks or have lives besides editing. Also, concerns should be adressed at the Village Pump. BCS (Talk) 03:45, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

• BRFA filed at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/RscprinterBot 3. Rcsprinter (warn) (Contribs)
  (Not Rcs) 20:49, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Quite funny, I had this on my list of BRFA tasks before my bot got blocked. Along with adding Infoboxes to biographies that needed them and about 40 other tasks. Glad to see this one is getting taken up though. Good luck, I see this as being a drama magnet when people start complaining about the Short description not being accurate or something. --Kumioko (talk) 01:11, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Lists in infoboxes

The use of list templates ({{Plainlist}}; {{Flatlist}}; example edit) in infoboxes has proved uncontroversial; it improves their accessibility and web standards compliance, makes the content easier to edit (especially for longer lists), and makes the data more easily parsable. I'd like to work with a bot owner to look for cases where the conversion could be automated. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:49, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Old prod full template applier

In the past I have requested that a bot be designed to apply the {{Old prod full}} template to talk pages of articles that have been prod-tagged and then deprodded. This bot has never been built, although a couple programmers have said they would like to. Perhaps the technical difficulties could be overcome this year? Here are some of the technical problems that I have thought of or that have been mentioned before: 1) The detection of Prod and Prod-nn tags is difficult, because they are assigned to a category with a date that, perforce, always changes. 2) If an article is prodded and rapidly deprodded, is it hard to detect. 3) If an article was prodded, deleted and recreated, it requires a different sort of detection. Anyway, any takers? Abductive (reasoning) 15:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I have a few other tasks in line before this, but I've added it to my to-do list. Tim1357 ^talk 22:02, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Ridiculously over-exact coordinates detector

Many articles on geographic locations have coordinates that are given with far too many digits of "precision". In some cases, these coordinates are not even pointing to the correct location, and others (especially towns) point to some user's house or some other such shenanigans. (0.0001° is <11 m, 1″ is <31 m) Is it possible to built a bot that would list (not change) all articles with coordinates that are, say, 10 digits long or longer after a decimal point? Then once I deal with those, 9 digits and so forth? For a fuller discussion of the inanity of lengthy decimal coordinates see WP:Coordinates. Abductive (reasoning) 15:50, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Running now for usage over 11 decimals. Results will save here when the report finishes. Remember to set your browser's encoding to UTF8. The query I used is below. Tim1357 ^talk 22:21, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Query
SELECT page_title, el_to FROM page JOIN externallinks ON el_from = page_id WHERE el_to LIKE 'http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?%' AND el_to REGEXP 'params\=[0-9]+\.[0-9]{12}' AND page_namespace = 0;

The preponderance of recurring digits suggests rounding errors by a script; it would be good to deal with that at source. I've added a pointer to this discussion from WT:COORD and notified User:The_Anome, whose bot already deals with a number of coordinate-related tasks. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 01:04, 27 February 2012 (UTC)