Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/AWB - mass spelling fix

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was

Denied.

AWB - mass spelling fix

Operator: Bazonka (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 13:33, Sunday, November 1, 2015 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Manual

Programming language(s): AutoWikiBrowser

Source code available: n/a, these are manual edits using AWB (raising here as advised, per WP:BOTASSIST)

Function overview: Mass spelling corrections from "licenced" to "licensed", and "licencing" to "licensing", in line with MOS:S.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#User:Bazonka and spelling changes

Edit period(s): Irregular

Estimated number of pages affected: Unsure, but there are possibly a few hundred left. Note that about 1700 edits have already been made prior to authorisation. I was not aware of the requirement for this authorisation per WP:BOTASSIST and have been advised to come here before continuing.

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): n/a - it's not really a bot

Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): n/a

Function details: Mass manual editing of incorrect spellings of "licenced"/"licencing" (per MOS:S) using AWB. I may possibly use this tool for other spellings too.

Discussion

Comment This particular spelling change is not part of AWB's typo fixes - it is a user's find/replace rules. I don't understand why @SpinningSpark: requested that Bazonka submit a bot request to make manual spelling fixes. GoingBatty (talk) 18:28, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Comment by requester. User:Mike Peel also suggested (off-wiki) that it might be a good idea to come here, simply due to the number of quick edits I'm making (although the bulk of them are probably done by now). I'll happily carry on if you think it's not necessary. Thanks, Bazonka (talk) 20:06, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Bazonka: Can I further suggest registering an account like User:Bazonkabot for this purpose? If it is just a few hundred left, then it might not be worth creating a bot account for this purpose, though - it depends on whether this is something you'll be regularly checking back on and continuing to fix in the future, or if there are other changes you want to take the same approach to fixing in the future. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:33, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Peel: Are you suggesting that everyone who uses AWB (or any other tool) should create a bot account for their manual changes, or is there something different about Bazonka's edits? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 21:04, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I don't understand either why SpinningSpark asked you to come here. Standard manual AWB, since it requires a human to check every edit, does not require approval. A BRFA would be necessary if you wanted to run an AWB bot, which makes automated changes without human intervention. Bots for spelling fixes are almost always denied per WP:SPELLBOT since human review is required for things like quotes. At any rate: WT:SPELLING is the right place to gain consensus for this change, manual or not. Denied. — Earwig ^talk 21:07, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.

@GoingBatty: No, I'm not suggesting that, but the scale of the edits that Bazonka made using AWB (the 1700 number mentioned above) was apparently sufficient for someone to raise it as an issue at AN/I, so I'm trying to be helpful and provide some advice about how to best go about this sort of en-masse change. :-) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 21:13, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all. I'm just going to carry on making the edits manually. Bazonka (talk) 21:20, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]