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This is a page for requesting work to be done by bots per the bot policy. This is an appropriate place to simply put ideas for bots. If you need a piece of software written for a specific article you may get a faster response time at the computer help desk. You might also check Wikipedia:Bot policy to see if the bot you are looking for already exists. There are also quite a few "frequently denied requests", for various reasons, such as a welcoming bot, as it would de-humanize the process, and an anti-vandalism bot, as several already exist. If you want to request a bot to populate a category for a wikiproject, please create a full list of categories to be used, as most bot operators who can complete this task will not go into all subcategories, as some members may be irrelevant to your project. Also note that if you are requesting that an operator change or add a function to an existing bot, you should ask on that editor's talkpage.

If you have a question about a certain bot, it should be directed to the bot owner's talk page or to the Bot Owners' Noticeboard. If a bot is acting improperly, a note about that should be posted to the owner's talk page, to the Administrators' Noticeboard, or to AIV, depending on severity (ongoing vandalism to AIV). A link to such a posting may be posted at the Bot Owners' Noticeboard.

Please add your bot requests to the bottom of this page.

If you are a bot operator and you complete a request, note what you did, and archive it. Requests that are no longer relevant should also be archived in a timely fashion.

See also: Wikipedia:Bot policy and Wikipedia:Bots/Frequently denied bots, to make sure your idea is not listed.

CSV/PRN conversion to Wikitable bot?

Hi. Are there any handy-dandy ways to convert tables in CSV or PRN (comma or tab-separated) into wikitable formatting? Also can Wikitables do any calculations, i.e. percentages? Reason I'm asking is complex census data on a large number of topics/towns. Pls reply on my talkpageSkookum1 (talk) 19:41, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of possibilities are listed at WP:EIW#Table. Regarding the second question, see Help:Calculation. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:45, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tagging PDFs

Images uploaded in the PDF format cannot be displayed in articles, and as a result the vast majority of PDFs hosted here need to be converted into another image format, converted into plain text into an article, or (if the PDF is unencyclopedic) tranwikied or deleted. The template {{BadPDF}} was created to notify people about this problem, but the vast majority of PDF files aren't tagged with it. If a bot could be programmed to add this template to all PDF files we currently have it would be great for people trying to fix this problem. There's an external tool here which can give a list of PDFs - there's about 1500. Hut 8.5 19:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How would we know it's a 'bad PDF'? You would need to show some sort of consensus first also. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 22:12, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
As PDFs can not be embedded in articles, and are thus unusable as either images or text, I believe the point is that all PDFs count as "bad". The name of the template is rather misleading in that regard.--Dycedarg ж 23:43, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I also agree that this isn't a very good idea, If you look through the list many of the pdf's are long reports and things containing many pages. To turn them into .png's would just be confusing. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 07:50, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The template does note that the PDF could be converted to plain text, moved to Wikisource or deleted rather than turned into a PNG. The template can always be renamed. There have been discussions here and here on what to do with PDFs. Hut 8.5 17:08, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Note, I decided to change it to just {{BadFormat}}, noting that it's text in a image or non-image format that could be expressed as plain text, and that can be done with more than just PDF. ViperSnake151 17:34, 5 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Doing... I have a brfa up for this at the moment. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 16:09, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

cites & reference in-line tags are way too frequently put before a comma or full stop.

Too often I see this[1]. <-- it looks ugly, it should look like this.[2] All we need is a bot that searches for: </ref>. removes the "." and looks for the <ref> that exists just before it, and places the "." in front of that. Many put extra spaces between the ref. also, so that needs to be accounted for, but I'm sure someone could come up with a bot to fix this, it is endemic to Wikipedia right now. 67.5.156.176 (talk) 07:42, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This applies to all punctuation, so something like 
re.sub('<ref([^/]*?)>(.*?)</ref>([.,;!?])','\3<ref\1>\2</ref>',text)
would work in python. I can't think off the top of my head where this would throw false positives (I've excluded all brackets and quotes, as these can be ambiguous). The issue would be finding these errors. They'd probably have to be found from a database dump. Ideally, it would be nice to have a continuously-running MOSbot to check RecentChanges for such simple and easily-fixed violations; when a new feature was added, we'd just have to search the most recent database dump for existing violations and fix them with a one-time script, and thereafter they'd be fixed in real-time. Happy‑melon 08:34, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not do this. I consider it more logical to put the reference immediately after the fact, and that usually means before the punctuation. See Wikipedia:Cite your sources#Ref tags and punctuation, which allows both styles. —AlanBarrett 17:38, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to recall that the MoS says you can put them before or after the punctuation, so long as it is consistent within an article. DuncanHill (talk) 17:40, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Doh! I should have read Alan's comment! DuncanHill (talk) 17:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well if the MoS allows both styles, then this is a fast-track to Special:Blockip. No thankyou! Happy‑melon 21:54, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Two things: 1) we've denied bot proposals for this before, and 2) the regexes to do this properly are a lot more complicated than the above. Gimmetrow 04:29, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
From a strictly academic perspective, how much more complicated? Where would this throw false positives? Happy‑melon 18:12, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Punctuation before and after, to start with.<ref>Something</ref>. Then named/reused refs. Then refs "stacked" back to back.<ref>Something</ref><ref name=two/>. Then spacing and line breaks. Then dealing with quotes of various forms. I have a set of regexes for these situations, but I still know some cases that cause problems. Real language doesn't usually fit nicely into a simple regex. Gimmetrow 21:49, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm... I think that the regex above would work for "named/reused refs", "stacked" refs, and properly skip instances of spacing/linebreaks. However, I have just noticed that it would throw a catastrophic false positive in a page that had an error at the end of a long paragraph (namely, that it would match everything from the first <ref> tag in that paragraph to the misplaced tag), so deploying this 'as-is' is definitely not a good idea :D. Happy‑melon 09:34, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm surprised to see one mention placing something "immediately after the fact" as meaning to jump in front of proper grammar by truncating the punctuation of the sentence structure. i.e. before the fact is finished. I think policy needs to be reviewed in this instance! The latter form I gave is clearly superior in looks and logical structure. 67.5.147.10 (talk) 10:23, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A bot to count pages in a category and update the count on a page to keep track of Adopt-a-user backlog

I would like a bot to count the pages in Category:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user and update Template:Adoption backlog/count with that number, daily, or a few times per day if possible. Thanks in advance, xenocidic (talk) 20:51, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Or, how about {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user}} = 26. :D Happy‑melon 21:09, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah ok you need to wait for the maintenance script to finish compiling the data table for en.wiki, but eventually it'll be a quick and easy way of doing this. Happy‑melon 21:10, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Cool, thanks for the suggestion! xenocidic (talk) 22:07, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a bot that can go through and automatically update all links to an article if the article has been renamed? I.E. such as changing all instances of Tessaiga to Tetsusaiga? Collectonian (talk) 00:33, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Redirect#Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:38, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, though that doesn't quite apply in this case as this was a case of straight name fixing and consensus to only use Tetsusaiga throughout all articles. One reason I'm curious is because Tetsusaiga is now tagged for merge, which would mean future double redirects, but someone already fixed them all, so guess its moot now. :P Collectonian (talk) 00:49, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Feasability question

This question is more or less related to Wikipedia:Highly Active Users. Would there be any way to arrange a "this user is online/offline" template an editor could put on presumably their user page which could automatically be adjusted when a user logged on, possibly with an accompanying category? Also, would it be possible, perhaps, for that same bot to indicate the activity status of the user in question on the above page? I know it's a complicated question, but it might be useful in the future. John Carter (talk) 01:31, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See User:StatusBot. It's inactive at the moment, but there's a duplicate available, and Soxred93 is trialing a clone. Happy‑melon 18:10, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note to potential attendees of a Wikipedia meetup

Looking for someone to run a bot to deliver the following note:

As someone who may live or work near Washington D.C., you may be interested - if you've not heard already - about the meetup scheduled for Saturday, May 17th, at Union Station. For details, please see Wikipedia:Meetup/DC 4.

And deliver it to editors listed in the following categories:

Thanks! -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:31, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Doing... I have a BRFA up for this at the moment. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 16:09, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can also help out with this, I'm already approved for this type of task. Me and Addshore have agreed to go 50/50 on this task. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 16:13, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to split it three ways (since there's three categories), MelonBot can do this too. Let me know if you'd like to share :D. Happy‑melon 18:09, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You shouldn't really do it by the cat's as there could be the same user in all 3 meaning he would get 3 messages. If I get any reply at all to this then i would be happy to do a 3 way split. Otherwise ill make the 2 lists for you two soon (today/tommorw) ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 06:29, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There probably is a certain amount of overlap, but I don't think it's a big deal if 10% of editors get two notes, and a couple get three - this is a one-time thing. I'll be happy to personally apologize if anyone does get upset. What I don't want to do is to have the process slowed down - a week advance notice about an event is cutting things about as close as possible without being totally pointless. (My fault, true, but that's where things are.) So yes, if it's easy to remove the duplication, please do so, but if it takes much work or will delay things, let's just get it done. (Thanks.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 17:43, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Doing... Category:Wikipedians in Virginia - seems this request is fairly time-critical. Have code to test for prior instances of the exact text above, so will try and avoid duplicates. Happy‑melon 18:06, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Done Category:Wikipedians in Virginia,  Doing... Category:Wikipedians in Maryland. Happy‑melon 18:16, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Done Category:Wikipedians in Maryland. How desperate are you to get your share? Because I'm on a roll now :D Happy‑melon 19:05, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well i had made some lists to go by to make sure noone gets the message twice but i guess thats pointless now. Lists I guess you might as well do them all now... ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 21:17, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Infact  Doing... i will do Category:Wikipedians in the District of Columbia now as i have 150 trial edits. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 21:42, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Done That should now be everyone in all of the cats done now. Glad we could help. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 21:49, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks muchly! -- John Broughton (♫♫) 15:09, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tagging images that need to be non-freed

Per this page at Commons, a bunch of images have been identified as copyright of Library and Archives Canada. LAC allows use of these images but they can't be hosted at Commons. This means they will need to be uploaded to each wiki where they're used and given FUR's (if I understand this correctly).

There are two areas where a bot could help:

  1. Upload the images to each affected wiki with their current contents. Not sure how GFDL works vis-a-vis the original uploader, I guess they would need a back-credit to the (soon-to-be-deleted) commons image. And in the case of en:wiki at least, they would need a modified {{KeepLocal}} so some other bot wouldn't detect the dupe and remove them.
  2. Deliver notices to the affected articles on each wiki so people there would know that uploads and appropriate rationales are needed. Ideally these would be in the appropriate language, but asking for an image-skilled, multi-wiki botop who also knows 20 languages might be pushing it a little far :)
  3. And in the case of en:wiki, the article notices wouldn't be required if the images were uploaded by bot, since we already have such effective mechanisms for requesting article FUR's.

The image list is here and I am still working on getting the exact usage info. These are all historical and valuable images, it would be a shame to see them just vanish from so many places, any help is appreciated. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 19:31, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please note that they can only be uploaded to wiki's with an Exemption Doctrine Policy. --Erwin85 (talk) 21:36, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that link! That will help me narrow down the list, in the event that someone steps forward. In any case, it's one for the bookmark section. Franamax (talk) 23:35, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reference formatting

Would it be possible to use a bot to change the references in such articles as Genomic_imprinting to the inline style, which allows easy flipping between the text and the references. ----Seans Potato Business 15:50, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not when the MoS, and a past ArbCom ruling, explicitly prohibit unilaterally changing from one reference format to another without prior consensus. For just one article, you would get a better, faster and more accurate result if you did it by hand. Happy‑melon 17:26, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Newsletter delivery Bot needed - Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels

Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Outreach/Newsletter May 2008 needs delivery to all members ASAP. Please see also Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Outreach#Newsletter for options on delivery.

Delivery to all user talk pages on Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Members, see Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Outreach#Instructions. Please contact if something remains unclear. feydey (talk) 20:31, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I got this. βcommand 22:44, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Done βcommand 22:51, 9 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It seems You missed some people again, see User_talk:Feydey#Novels WikiProject Newsletter. Could You please double check Your delivery settings, that it includes all the 280 members from Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Members? Also please add a heading when delivering, like: "The Novels WikiProject Newsletter - Issue XXIII - April 2008" (see here). feydey (talk) 05:49, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you would like me to finish the task, I can, my bot is approved to do that task. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 05:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome to complete the delivery, if You can figure how and why some members (like User talk:John Carter) got no delivery, while they are on the Members list. feydey (talk) 06:00, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can I get a list of people who have already received the newsletter? It's a relatively simple delivery to do. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 06:05, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

information Note: I'll need some clarification on the instructions, there is a list of people who want the newsletter, some who want a link, and some who don't want it at all, is that right? I'll need some clarification here before I can do the task. Thanks. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 06:25, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's right. Delivery to all user talk pages on Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Members (By default, we will provide a link to the current issue of the newsletter on your talk page when it comes out) except no delivery to these - Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Outreach#No delivery and full contents to these Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Outreach#Full contents and also just a link to these - Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Outreach#Link Only. Bcommand was unable to deliver to the people on the main list: Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Members (remember to deliver also to the Inactive members), so if You could just do that list (279 + 112 people)? See User_talk:Feydey#The Novels WikiProject Newsletter - Issue XXI - February 2008 for a previous delivery example. Many thanks, feydey (talk) 06:42, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a bit of an error, when I check using AWB, there are only 387 members on the member list. What would you like me to do about those who have received a newsletter already? Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 06:46, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If possible do not deliver to those who have received a newsletter already (I'd guess double posting is not that bad in this case). I hope You took the members list and removed the "no delivery" people - Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Outreach#No delivery. Then start delivery of the May newsletter link. feydey (talk) 06:54, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like the delivery is running smoothly. Thanks, feydey (talk) 08:18, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Done All newsletters and links sent. I've saved the config file for these too, so I can deliver these in future. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 08:34, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Genetics tagging

WikiProject Genetics is a new WikiProject. As of 00:41, 9 May 2008 (UTC),[1] User:John Bot tagged the talk pages of all the articles in Category:Genetics stubs with {{WikiProject Genetics|class=Stub|importance=Low|imageneeded=|imagedetails=|unref=|nested=}}. Now, for those article talk pages not already tagged with {{WikiProject Genetics}}, can you get a bot to tag the talk pages of all the articles in Category:Genetics and all of its sub categories with {{WikiProject Genetics|class=|importance=|imageneeded=|imagedetails=|unref=|nested=}}. Thanks. GregManninLB (talk) 05:58, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I can do this one. The whole category, I assume? Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 05:59, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hummm, on review I think I need confirmation on this from Madeleine Price Ball. I'll let you know. GregManninLB (talk) 06:09, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
User:John Bot Will do this again. I have the code ready for it anyway. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 14:02, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry I've been away. I think this is a good idea, much appreciated! Thank you! Madeleine ✉ ✍ 14:37, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Will begin Later today. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 15:22, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Doing... Starting now. Will do cat by cat because the Wikiproject is in this cat. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 19:31, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Genetics invitation

Could someone make a bot to post an invitation on the talk pages of Wikipedians interested in genetics? Liveste has created a nice invite template here that I think is appropriate: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Genetics/Invite. Thanks! Madeleine ✉ ✍ 14:49, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Doing... ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 15:21, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
 Done ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 15:35, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Put value from redirect into infobox

e.g. for the redirect UN/LOCODE:USNYC put in template the variable and value like this:
|un_locode = USNYC

UnLoCode (talk) 19:15, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Requested redirect migration

Could someone please migrate usages of the redirect {{self2}} to its target, {{self}}? There appears to be several thousand usages. The reason is that this license template is being broken when image pages transcluding it are transferred to the Commons, and the name of the author is being dropped. Kelly hi! 20:18, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I now have a BRFA up for this. ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 20:51, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Note: There are around 12,000 transclusions of {{self2}} to be changed to {{self}} ·Add§hore· Talk/Cont 20:54, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Um, how exactly is this breaking? Commons redirects template:self2 to template:self, too. Gimmetrow 16:46, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Reqphotoin

Template:Reqphotoin is used as, for example, {{Reqphotoin|France}} to populate Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in France. {{Reqphoto}} has an "in=" parameter that replaces the function of Template:Reqphotoin. Now, such requests are made as {{Reqphoto|in=France}} to populate Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in France. Could you please have a bot change the Reqphotoin tags listed here with Reqphoto? Basically, for example, {{Reqphotoin|France}}, {{Reqphotoin|San Francisco County, California}}, {{Reqphotoin|England|Germany|France}} would be changed by the bot to read {{Reqphoto|in=France}}, {{Reqphoto|in=San Francisco County, California}}, {{Reqphoto|in=England|in2=Germany|in3=France}}. Let's start with the simple situations and hope that takes care of most of the tags. Please change the tags that appear (1) exactly as {{Reqphotoin}} to {{Reqphoto}}, (2) exactly as {{Reqphotoin|}} to {{Reqphoto|in=}}. (3) For those having the pattern of a single location request, such as {{Reqphotoin|France}} and {{Reqphotoin|San Francisco County, California}}, please change them to {{Reqphoto|in=France}} and {{Reqphoto|in=San Francisco County, California}}. For now, skip the Reqphotoin templates having small=yes, those having two or more location requests (e.g. {{Reqphotoin|England|Germany|France}}), and those Reqphotoin tags using the not-so-well working "of" parameter. GregManninLB (talk) 06:19, 11 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

um, why? -- maelgwn - talk 12:45, 11 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template documentation bot

In my travels, I've noticed that there's a lot of infobox templates that have been created, but are hardly being used because they're so damn difficult to incorporate into an article. For instance, look at the current version of Infobox Dancer, compared to this old version. In the current version, there's some sample code that can be easily copy and pasted into an article, in the former you have to poke around the template code just to figure out what the fields are, as the main Template page only shows the compulsory fields. As a result, noone bothers. It would be great if someone could just send a bot round the infobox templates, just parsing out all the fields (within {{{ }}} brackets) in the template, deduplicating them, then writing them to a /doc page and transcluding it with {{template doc}}. A phase II version might be to layout subheadings where humans could fill in explanations of what the fields mean - {{Infobox Person}} and others do it with a table, {{Infobox Rugby Union biography}} does it with a straight list, I quite like the way {{Infobox Company}} does it with semi-headings. Is there a style guide for template pages? One thing that would be nice would be a demonstration of image format - it's never obvious whether you should use [[Image:image.jpg]] or [[Image:image.jpg|150px]] or just image.jpg, and if you used Image:Replace this image male.svg or Image:Replace this image butterfly.png in the sample code it would have the extra benefit of encouraging casual users to contribute images to Wikipedia. Plus infoboxes just look more "infoboxey" if they have an image, even a dummy image. I'm way too busy to do anything about this myself at the moment, but thought it might make a nice little project for someone? FlagSteward (talk) 14:48, 11 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Archive bot for Wikipedia:Editor review

There are two parts to archiving an editor review, and the order in which they are done is inconsequential.

  1. Link to the editor review page in Wikipedia:Editor review/Archive.
  2. Untransclude the editor review from the main editor review page.

Previously I have done both tasks myself. I've stopped doing it, and it's apparent that nobody else wants to do it either.

There are a couple of possibilities. One way is to place archive templates, which have not yet been created for this specific purpose, on an expired editor review page. Then a bot sees the archive templates and untranscludes the page and links to it in an archive list. This is similar to the process at Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets. It may be necessary in this scenario to switch to a "by month" format instead of the current "by username" format.

Another way is to have the bot automatically add a link to the archive in Wikipedia:Editor review/Archive as soon as the request is filed, or at a designated time thereafter, e.g. if the bot runs once a week. Then a human untranscludes the editor review page at his or her discretion. This might be better because it's a less drastic change from the current system.

I don't know whether bots can be programmed to archive pages based on the alphabetical order of a subpage title. In other words, will a bot know how to sort Wikipedia:Editor review/WikiMan53 before Wikipedia:Editor review/WikipedianProlific just based on the fact that M comes before p? If yes, that's probably what I want. If not, switching to archiving based on month of the request will preserve some archiving system without requiring undue human intervention. Shalom (Hello • Peace) 18:30, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

either way is doable it is possible to maintain the current method and if you want even archive by last edit timestamp, then sort them to the archive page. βcommand 2 18:40, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Betacommand. Right now the archive actually uses the first edit timestamp, i.e. when was the page created. I would think you could program that just as easily as the last edit timestamp. Hold off for now while I ask a couple of my friends if they think this is a good idea. Shalom (Hello • Peace) 03:48, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'd agree with Shalom, preferring alphabetical order but eschewing it if it's easier to program chronologically. I don't know a lot about programming (only a rudimentary knowledge of TI-BASIC), so it would be up to the programmer. bibliomaniac15 03:56, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I would prefer alphabetical but that doesn't really matter to me. What I do think is important, though, is that the reviews that get archived have a decent amount of reviewing; frequently I won't archive an old review if it only has a few lines. Of course the bot won't be able to tell when someone's gotten a lengthy review but it's all total crap, but having the bot will probably be worth it, and at least a length requirement would be a start. Would this be difficult? delldot talk 05:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
you tell me what you want and how, I can normally do it. βcommand 22:39, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(Unindent) I think the best way to do this is to create an archive template for editor reviews. That way, a human decides that the page should be archived, and the bot takes care of the rest - same as with WP:SSP. If someone wants me to modify one of the existing archive templates, I'll give it a try. Shalom (Hello • Peace) 02:30, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some type of GeoBot

Okay, may I please say this is a TOP PRIORITY. We have tens/hundreds of thousands of articles missing on places all over the world. Myself and User:Blofeld of SPECTRE have been working so hard to create these articles but a bot would really help. We could use Maplandia.com to create stubs like Simaw. Many thanks to whoever creates such a bot. I'm an Editorofthewiki[citation needed] 21:49, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well I've tried to propose something before where it can generate 10 articles a minute but nothing has been done. Articles such as Simaw are created using the same source and all that changes is the external link and the digits in the infobox. What is being done to burma and togo can be done to virtually any country in the world which doesn't have a full gazetteer and lord knows that many countries on here, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America only have 20 or so articles for osme of the countries whn potentially there could be several thousand even for each region of the country. Creating district templates like so is the best possible way to cover territory on here anywhere. Evne as the stubs are they are of value. The list of places for each district is listed in maplandia where it is copied to wikipedia. Then the articles are created with as little change as possible making it as efficient as possible. Such is the extreme simplicity of the procedure that I am certain a bot could be programmed to perform the task ten times faster as it is reading a repeated format each time. A Bot I believe can read the list of places on the site by region or district for eahc country and can read the coordinates on the site and copy them into the infoboxes as the articles are created. If wikipedia is to be serious about developing into the best reference site imaginable, then given that all populated settlements have claim to notability we should seriously be thinking about a way to be adding these articles on a daily basis. To be able to cover the world evenly and in a detailed way for each country would be an incredible strengthening of our encyclopedia and I know that we should start to be thinking seriously about making this possible. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ $1,000,000? 14:48, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If this can be done, it should be, and quickly - there's a ton of information out there that ought to be made available, and the sooner the better. It would be a tremendous boon to the project. --User:AlbertHerring Io son l'orecchio e tu la bocca: parla! 15:18, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Given the activity and nature of RamBot's work before this is definately possible particularly given the simplicity of the task. I see it as an essential foundation to cover the world properly and evenly on wikipedia and give a strong basis to build upon in which in my view I think it should have been done long before now. There is likely to be information out there on many countries which could be used to epxand them and I am convinvced more data and info will become available for the developing countries over time. What this encyclopedia needs is real world content and nothing can be more important that covering the world comprehenisively on wikipedia ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ $1,000,000? 16:09, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
give me month, (im very busy at the moment) and Ill look into it βcommand 2 16:28, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have some bad news for you. From http://www.maplandia.com/terms-of-use/:

Emphasis mine. Also from FAQ: "However you may not copy any part of our webiste under any cirucumstances" (sic). Using robots is forbidden, and I'm not even sure whether using mplandia as a source for creating articles manually is ok (using it for one article is fine, but using it systematically could be considered copying). The problem is not the names and coordinates, that comes from US military and is PD. The administrative hierarchies are a different story. I'm not sure if I have seen any other site with such detailed information, so I think that's their own doing. Correlating the geoname databases with administrative division data is not tricky, it's quite trivial in fact, but the GIS data for administrative divisions tends to be proprietary and (very) expensive. Certainly somebody who actually understand copyright (I don't) needs to take a look at this.

I still believe it's better to approach the governments directly and ask what information they have available. Wikipedia is now big and well known. Pretty much every country has statistical and/or map making agencies, as the countries need that kind of data for their internal planning. As a rule, they do not make such a data publicly available (one reason is the large size of such data sets, especially if they have been meshed into full GIS system). Potentially that data could be very detailed... – Sadalmelik ☎ 17:24, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

well yes but how do you suggest we get them onto here more efficiently then??? I don;t see how using coordinates from the webste is copying -the names and coordinates of the places are naturally public domain. I pretty certain the site is talking about copying their maps as it is "Maplandia". If anything it is google maps not maplandia. Ideally I would also stick to using official goverment sources if possible but the idea that the Burmese goverment is going to give an online website like wikipedia statistics and info on their 40,000 towns and villages is a highly improbable one ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ $1,000,000? 19:03, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
We are not copying any information from maplandia other than the coordinates, which are already present on a bunch of other websites such as Fallingrain.com. Besides, I'm sure they were talking about the maps and source codes, not coordinates. I'm an Editorofthewiki[citation needed] 19:51, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You are copying more. The names and coordinates come from US military and are not an issue – maplandia, fallingrain & co simply wrap this information in html. Personally I have always used GNS directly for coordinates without bothering with various gazetteers, but regardless where you get the names and coordinates they should be free (I have not seen any disclaimer about sources Maplandia is using, so I'm strictly speaking only assuming they are using GNS). What GNS does not include is the administrative hierarchy beyond first level. That appears to be work of Maplandia. Like I said in above, in principle it's quite trivial. You simply take the administrative boundaries, and check where the coordinates lie. As simple as that! But as far as I understand Maplandia have done it themselves, and is claiming copyright for it. From FAQ: The use of boundary data, regional directory data or any other part of our website's content outside the maplandia.com is prohibited. Also according to their FAQ they are not using freely available sources for administrative boundaries (whatever is freely available tends to be old, anyway). All I'm saying is that somebody who actually understands copyrights need to look at this site, before a bot is sent to crawl through it. I have certainly been wrong (too paranoid about copyright) about these issues before. I'm not sure who to ask, though... – Sadalmelik ☎ 21:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I think you are being very paranoid about this -- besides, they cannot claim copyright for material that is in the public domain. Their data comes from google maps, which has the exact same coordinates and is ot as paranoid. Besides, I never thoght that strings of numbers were copyrighted anyway, and the "content" that they are claiming copyright for is simply "so and so is located at..." etc. I'm sure there are many sorces available for this data, but the end result would be the same and I certainly don't see why we would have to sacrifice misinformation (writing the wrong coordinates) for copyright paranoi. Besides, in the .00001% chance that they decide to take us to court for an issue as unimportant as this, I guarantee 100% that we would win. I'm an Editorofthewiki[citation needed] 00:40, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well I've contacted the website and I'm waiting for a reply. Given the huge traffic on wikipedia an increased direction to that website would certainly not be a bad thing for it. In fact if I was the owner I pretty much want to increased as much traffic to my website as possible ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ $1,000,000? 11:52, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Assuming it is all legitimate for using it, I could probably sit down and write up a bot to do this task. Getting the bot approved might take a little time though - could you wait that long? Fritzpoll (talk) 14:14, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Replace IrelandProj with WkiProject Ireland

Please could someone replace all instances on article talk pages of {{Irelandproj}} with {{WikiProject Ireland}}. No parameters should be added or changed or removed, just a straightforward replace one template name with another on about 700 pages.

{{Irelandproj}} is a redirect to {{WikiProject Ireland}}, and it was used for tagging at a time when for some reason it existed as a near-clone; I redirected it some time last year.

I know that in general there is no need to bypass redirects, and that the practice is deprecated, However, this redirect is causing problems for WikiProject Ireland's article assessment drive. Several of us are using the User:Outriggr/metadatatest.js script, which not only allows rapid applications of assessment tags, it also displays on the article page the existing assessment, e.g. "Start/Low" or "GA/Mid". Unfortunately, the script doesn't parse redirects, so if it encounters the IrelandProj template it reports that the article has not been assessed using {{WikiProject Ireland}}. The wastes assesors time in adding a duplicate assessment, only to find that it was un-needed.

There replacement is a simple regex, and I would set by BHGbot to do it AWB except that my windows PC is ill, so I have no AWB.

This change has been discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ireland/Assessment#IrelandProj_template, where there is a consensus for the change. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 03:14, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My bot can handle that task. So, it's a simple find/replace, no? Also, I'll need the category to find the templates from, or I could do a What links here search in AWB, but a category would help. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 09:50, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No need to clarify. I've taken a look, should be a relatively simple task. Will take about 20 minutes for me to get started, then an hour or so to replace all the tags, depending on the talk page size. That OK with you? Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 09:53, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Doing... Will need to fix up the redirects, my bot is changing the transclusions. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 11:32, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Stuck. Having some issues replacing the class and importance bits, needs something with a regex, but I'm stuck on to what that is. Let me know, and I can do it with no issues (feels stupid) Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 11:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi steve, Thanks very much for doing this. As I think you guessed, the list is Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Irelandproj, filtered to include only article talk pages.
I think that the regex can be quite simple: s/\{\{Irelandproj/{{WikiProject Ireland/
Does that help? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 14:06, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, well, I'm trying to do a find/replace version, I was thinking something along the lines of find {{Irelandproj}} replace with {{Wikiproject Ireland}}, but needs a regex, so something like {{Irelandproj|class=|importance=}} replaces with {{Wikiproject Ireland|class=|importance=}}, but to keep the =class and =importance bit in. That bit needs a regex. I get kinda stuck when it comes to regexes. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 14:21, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

you guys are thinking too much, just find {{Irelandproj and replace it with >{{Wikiproject Ireland make it case insemsitive and non-regex. βcommand 2 14:38, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Isn't that what I suggested above? You are right that it's non-regex, but since the template name is case-sensitive, wouldn't it be best for the replacement to be case-sensitive? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 14:44, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The first character is case-insensitive, so it does make sense ({{Irelandproj}} works just as well as {{irelandproj}}). I usually do use regex, something like 
re.sub(r'(?i)\{\{\s*irelandproj\s*([\|\}])',r'{{WikiProject Ireland\1',text)
, just to catch instances where people have put whitespace in the template in wierd places (also stops the regex matching something like {{irelandprojecttemplate (entirely unrelated)}}). But in simple situations like this, non-regex works just as well and can be safer. Happy‑melon 14:50, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using AWB, and the suggestion BetaCommand is working like a charm. (smiles at Betacommand). Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 14:57, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, Betacommand knows what he's talking about. And it's working. Thanks. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 14:48, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like it's all done. Thanks Steve, that was great! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 15:47, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Done. And all errors are fixed. Steve Crossin (talk) (review) 16:49, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Need bulk text-replacement on about 85 asteroid articles

85-odd asteroid-related articles need minor text-replacement updates. Replace at Siding Spring in the course of the U.K. Schmidt-Caltech Asteroid Survey with at Siding Spring Observatory in the course of the U.K. Schmidt-Caltech Asteroid Survey and replace discovery_site = Siding Spring in the course of the U.K. Schmidt-Caltech Asteroid Survey with discovery_site = Siding Spring Observatory. Yes, I know this will leave a redlink, I was unable to find the topic in an article. See User talk:Davidwr/6227 Alanrubin for details.

 Doing...... CWii(Talk|Contribs) 00:28, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Bypassing redirects in templates

I would like a bot that fix redirects in templates. Generally we discourage fixing links to redirects that are not broken, but in templates a correct link is better since the direct link will display in bold (and not as a link), making it easier to navigate through a series of articles using the template. See WP:R#NOTBROKEN. I tried bypassing redirects links on football templates with AWB, but it was a pain doing this manually. A bot could be tried out on templates in the subcategories of Category:Football squad by nation templates. Rettetast (talk) 18:12, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ rhetorical reference.
  2. ^ rhetorical reference.
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