Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard

Bots noticeboard

Here we coordinate and discuss Wikipedia issues related to bots and other programs interacting with the MediaWiki software. Bot operators are the main users of this noticeboard, but even if you are not one, your comments will be welcome. Just make sure you are aware about our bot policy and know where to post your issue. Do not post here if you came to discuss non-urgent bot issues, bugs and suggestions for improvement. Do that at the bot operator's talk page discuss urgent/major bot issues. Do that according to instructions at WP:BOTISSUE discuss general questions about the MediaWiki software and syntax. We have the village pump's technical section for that request approval for your new bot. Here is where you should do it request new functionality for bots. Share your ideas at the dedicated page

Bad edits by a double-redirect-fixing bot

My relevant contribution history

Xqbot was speedily approved to resolve double redirects using m:redirect.py way back in December 2009.

I reported a problem to operator Xqt in April 2020, and again in June 2020 (and September 2020).

They responded by opening phab:T254839 which is currently "Open, In Progress, High" – it's been over three years, and still not resolved. Though it seems there was progress in September?

I just cleaned up twenty bad Xqbot edits caused by this bug (somebody mass-moved a whole lot of redirects)

not articles – well, the SUBJECTSPACE pages were articles, but their talk were {{R from avoided double redirect}}s to an {{R from remote talk page}}

I noticed that EmausBot was also working these double-redirects, without having the same problem with them (e.g., DIFF)

EmausBot was approved in December 2010 – to use the standard script redirect.py !

What puzzles me is why I can't recall ever seeing EmausBot make this error? Is that bot just incredibly lucky, or is it configured differently, in a way that avoids making bad edits like that? wbm1058 (talk) 20:37, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Toolforge Grid Engine shutting down

Bot operators operating on the Toolforge Grid Engine may need to read this thread and the pages linked from it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:17, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Various bots creating User_talk:xxxx pages (for language wikipedias I have not registered to)?

e.g. I've got notifications, just an hour apart around "Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:02:53 +0100" for following creation of user talk pages for username `Mnalis` that I use on (English and Croatian) wikipedia sites:

• https://id.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pembicaraan_Pengguna:Mnalis&oldid=prev&diff=24941964
• https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Discussioni_utente:Mnalis&oldid=prev&diff=136754188

I didn't ever create (to the best on my knowledge; I don't even speak the languages) accounts on it.wikipedia.org nor id.wikipedia.org; so I am quite puzzled why two different bots, in such a close temporal proximity, would create such user talk pages (with "welcome" messages if mechanical translator got it right?) and send me notification email to my e-mail address (which I use for English & Croatian wikipedias)? How would they even know my e-mail if I have not created account there?

Has anyone noticed that behaviour, and where should I inquire/report it if not here? (I'd like to avoid creating accounts on those it/id wikipedias just to comment on bot page). Thanks, Mnalis (talk) 02:03, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

I think this happens when someone copies an article that you created (or maybe just contributed to) over to another language's Wikipedia. Your username is listed in the history, and somehow you are credited with a contribution, even though it doesn't show in your contributions list on that Wikipedia. Their "welcome all new contributors" bot then leaves you a note. Someone else may have more details, but I'm pretty sure it's harmless. If you don't get a response here, the editors at WP:VPT will know. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Nope, that's about it. Izno (talk) 02:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

It looks like your premise above doesn't match the logs. For example, on idwiki, you have an account that was created the day before that message: w:id:special:redirect/logid/17332019. This can happen if you access any resource from that project (such as even following a link, getting some preview, etc) while you are logged in - your global account is automatically created. Then they have a welcomebot that goes off the new user log. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:02, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

See all your SUL attachments here: Special:CentralAuth/Mnalis. — xaosflux ^Talk 16:03, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

I defer to Xaosflux's explanation, since mine was just a guess, and I couldn't explain the lack of entries in Contributions. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:31, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, that seems indeed to be the case. Looking at my browser history, it seems I've opened one English wikipedia page, and then tried to see it in several random languages (too see if their names made more sense than English one). And that seems to have created half a dozen accounts on random language wikipedias, and triggered several bot-welcome messages. So, mystery solved (although, I do not see why an account should be auto-created if user is only doing read-only accesses? In fact, it seems like a privacy issue, that now anybody can see which language-wikipedia users visits, without any forewarning to the user [much less confirmation] that such read-only access is going to create account and publicly visible trail) Mnalis (talk) 02:07, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

@Mnalis that behavior has been debated for over 10 years (see phab:T21161). The CONS are sort of what you said, the PROS are that if you try to edit there you are less likely to accidently edit logged out and share your IP. This is especially useful for projects like wikidata and commonswiki. — xaosflux ^Talk 02:14, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

@Mnalis: Your account was created after WP:SUL went live (May 2008). This means that you automatically have accounts at several WMF wikis, you don't need to create any of them manually. As noted above, they are listed at Special:CentralAuth/Mnalis; the "attached on" column shows when they were created, and from this you can see that fifteen were created within half an hour of you registering, others at various subsequent dates. If any WMF wiki is not listed there, the simple action of visiting any page on that wiki will normally attach your account, and in some cases, the attachment will trigger a welcome bot. There is an open task somewhere to discourage, even forbid, such welcome bots. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:11, 8 December 2023 (UTC)

There's unfortunately nothing enwiki can do to stop this. There is a proposed policy at meta:Welcoming policy that would prohibit welcoming users who have never edited, but it never got off the ground. I'm not sure what the process is for a global policy RFC, but maybe it's time for one? This is an endless source of confusion. I've even seen people wonder if their account was hacked because of this. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 22:28, 8 December 2023 (UTC)

Is BRFA backlogged ...

or is the normal state of things? I'm seeing requests standing for weeks on end without comment by a member of BAG. Is there a shortage of active BAG members? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:37, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Oh my. I've been taking a bit of a step back from Wikipedia duties recently due to real life getting in the way, and BRFA has been one of them. I think your assessment may be correct. Primefac (talk) 12:40, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

There is a very healthy-looking list at Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group#Member list but I suspect more than half of them are actually inactive now. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:44, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

Bogus fixes by User:AnomieBOT

This bot continues to place bogus referenences and call them "fixes". Is it really not possible to make it stop doing so? I've used this Noticeboard before to report about a dozen cases. Most recently, I found edit , where the bot resurrected a reference from four years ago (before the pandemic) to cite something about sentiment towards Chinese Canadians because of the pandemic. The bot just guesses about how to replace references that have gone missing, and guesses wrong often enough that it is disruptive and damaging. -- Mikeblas (talk) 04:40, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

@Mikeblas, you're trending into WP:IDHT behavior. You need to drop the stick. Izno (talk) 04:43, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

I concur. Unless there is a solution, new issue, or other problem that has arisen since the previous discussion, this discussion is unlikely to produce a new outcome. Primefac (talk) 08:39, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

Personally I'd say he's well past WP:IDHT by this point. I've said before and I'll say again, I'll consider useful feedback and suggestions but not continued complaints from this user that the bot is generically "disruptive and damaging". Regarding the specific edit raised here, it would make sense for the bot to not rescue VE's ":0"-style refs that are too old, which I'll arbitrarily define as "the reference was removed over a year ago". Anomie⚔ 15:02, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

See WP:BOTISSUE. Specifically raise issues with Anomie Bot at User talk:AnomieBOT. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 04:44, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

The linked diff was to an edit made by Jut008, not by a bot. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:16, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

Pretty clearly just a mislick given the subsequent diff, but yeah wrong venue. Folly Mox (talk) 05:25, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

Not the wrong venue necessarily; while the bot operator is usually the first port of call, Mike has raised this concern before (see here) and is thus justified in posting here. Primefac (talk) 08:25, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

I shouldn't have opined without knowing the full context, so struck. I also rescued the references. Not sure what the solution is here though. I see people who rely on this task to rescue named refs when they remove the defined one but leave the remainder, which is certainly bad practice. I'm also not certain what behaviour of the Visual Editor will just allow people to insert empty undefined named references, possibly artifacts of copypastes, and also thought the number one community tech wishlist proposal last year was to stop naming them these meaningless index numbers. Folly Mox (talk) 15:14, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

Question

Can a bot make this kind of changes to multiple pages?

• Before: {{abcd|ᚠ|ᚡ|ᚢ |ᚣ|ᚤ|ᚥ|ᚦ| ᚧ|ᚨ|ᚩ}}, {{abcd|Ꭰ|Ꭱ|Ꭲ|Ꭳ|Ꭴ}}
• After: ᚠᚡᚢ ᚣᚤᚥᚦ ᚧᚨᚩ, {{abcd|Ꭰ|Ꭱ|Ꭲ|Ꭳ|Ꭴ}}

That is,

1. Check if Template:abcd only contains [ ]?[ᚠ-ᛸ][ ]? in each parameter.
2. If so, remove Template:abcd and |, but retain the text entered as parameters (including spaces).
3. If not (= if Template:abcd contains characters other than [ ]?[ᚠ-ᛸ][ ]?), leave it as-is.

172.58.208.108 (talk) 19:19, 16 December 2023 (UTC)