Wikibooks:Bots/Unstable

Bots are automated clients used to make repetitive edits to the wiki faster than a human would be able to perform.

The flood flag is a temporary user group administrators may use to replace temporary bot flags.

Neither bots nor the flood flag may ever be used to make controversial actions. This policy pertains to all bots, including those which do not have the bot flag.

Bots

Bots should be given their own separate account, and should not share an account with a human operator. This is so that, in an emergency, the bot can be blocked from making harmful edits without having to block the bot operator as well. Bots should be easily identifiable as a bot, by doing at least one of the following things:

• Having the word "Bot", or something else similar, in the username.
• Adding something such as "Automated" or "Bot edit" to every edit summary.
• Adding information on the bot account's user page which clearly indicated that the account is a bot account, who the owner is, and how to stop the bot from editing (such as a "block" link to be used directly by admins).

The capabilities of a bot, or a reasonably complete list of them, should be easily available on the bot's userpage, or on a page in the operators user space.

Bot operators are expected to be responsive to queries regarding their bots, especially where error reports are concerned. All edits made by the bot are the responsibility of the bot operator, and they will be expected to undo any damage caused by a malfunctioning or misdirected bot.

Bots must always make proper use of the edit summary, to indicate what kinds of edits are being made.

Common problems

See also: Edit assertions for bots

Bots must never contribute anonymously, and care should be taken to ensure that the bot does not accidentally log out during operation. If this occurs, the bot must cease editing. Bots contributing anonymously will be blocked on sight.

Wherever possible, a method of stopping the bot other than blocking it should be available - usually this is leaving a message on the bot's talk page, or editing a subpage in the bot's userspace. This is doubly important for fully-automated bots, because their owner may not be on hand to deal with problems immediately. Malfunctioning bots will be blocked as required to limit disruption to the wiki if their operator is not immediately available to stop the bot. Once the problem is fixed, the bot will be unblocked to resume normal operation.

Semi-automated bots

Bots which have each edit verified by a human, or are operated by a human interactively, are called semi-automated. AutoWikiBroswer is a common tool which is often operated in a semi-automated fashion (though it is capable of fully-automated operation). These bots should be flagged if they have a demonstrated ability to flush non-bot edits out of the recent changes feed, even if they do so only intermittently.

User scripts are not bots, and do not require approval or a bot flag. Semi-automated scripts which do not flood the list of recent changes do not need to be flagged. User scripts which are used to flood RC should be used with care; the flood flag may be used as required to limit disruption for those monitoring the wiki for disruption.

Fully-automated bots

Fully-automated bots do not have their edits verified by a human operator, and operate without supervision. Automated bots usually operate continuously, and should be approved before they go into operation. Make a request at WB:RFP to ensure that the planned task is acceptable to the community. Bots will be flagged based on their ability to flush non-bot edits from the recent changes feed.

Automated bots which edit intermittently and do not flood the list of recent changes do not need to be flagged.

Flood flag

Wikibooks administrators (who are trusted users already) may temporarily give themselves a "flood flag" when doing repetitive, non-controversial edits or actions to avoid flooding Special:RecentChanges and related pages. This is of benefit for RC patrollers and all other parties making use of that page.

Administrators, as users with an additional set of maintenance tools, may often need to make repetitive edits. Instead of finding a bureaucrat to temporarily add the bot flag to the user and remove it when the task is finished, administrators may add themselves to the flood group, and remove themselves when finished. Bureaucrats may additionally add and remove the group from other users.

When to use the flood flag

Administrators should use the flood flag to avoid flushing other edits and actions from the RecentChanges (RC) feed when doing similar, repetitive changes. Such actions must never be controversial, as using the flood flag decreases the amount of oversight they may receive. Abuse of the flood flag is treated as abuse of any other administrator tool would be. Examples of acceptable use would be deleting many spambot pages, or deleting a large number of pages after consensus has been achieved at Wikibooks:Votes for deletion or blocking many open proxies. Unacceptable uses include attempting to circumvent legitimate oversight of any controversial action, regardless of whether it is an administrator task or not. Bureaucrats may wish to use the flag when renaming indefinitely blocked accounts with inappropriate usernames.

In some cases, a bureaucrat may remove the flood flag to force an administrator's edits to appear in RC. This should be done in cases where the administrator has forgotten to remove it, or when the changes should be seen by default in RC.

The flood flag is set and removed using Special:UserRights.

Room for abuse?

One issue with the proposal as it stands is that there is room for abuse from administrators; if an administrator is making contentious edits or actions, he or she would be able to toggle the flood flag to prevent them from being seen or monitored from Recent Changes, which is the primary source at which new edits are displayed and observed.

However, it must be remembered the administrators are already trusted with the ability to delete pages, block users, view deleted material, place protections on pages, etc. In the end, this added functionality should not require more trust than that sysops are already given.

Granting the flood flag is logged, and shown in recent changes. Admins who abuse their admin rights (including the flood flag) should be sanctioned.

Flood flag or bot flag?

This is intended to replace requesting temporary bot flags from bureaucrats. Administrators who would otherwise request a temp bot flag may simply flag themselves using the flood group.

Cases where a permanent bot flag should be given remain the same - the administrator should create a secondary account and request a bot flag as normal. Only temporary bot flags are replaced with this flood flag.

Getting a bot flag

The bot flag is simply a technical measure to keep bot edits from flushing non-bot edits out of the recent changes feed. Therefore, the bot flag is no big deal. Bots which are capable of flushing non-bot edits out of the recent changes feed should be flagged, even if they do so only intermittently.

• Bot operators who anticipate that their bot will flush non-bot edits from the recent changes feed must request a bot flag, and throttle the bot to avoid doing so until the bot is flagged. Bots must not flood Special:RecentChanges while waiting for approval for a bot flag; edit at a low rate until the flag is applied.

• A request from the bot operator will be made on WB:RFP.

• In cases where the work of a patroller, rollbacker, admin or 'crat is hindered by a bot awaiting approval, they may request that the bot be flagged immediately.

• Only bureaucrats are able to grant or revoke the bot flag to a user account, and may do so at their discretion. Bureaucrats should seek community input when the bot's edits will have a major impact on the project, but bots performing minor tasks which are obviously of net benefit may be flagged immediately.
• If no significant opposition is voiced, and the bots performs a useful, non-controversial task with minimal errors, the bot will be flagged forthwith.

Unwanted bots

Bots which perform a task which is unwanted on this wiki will not be flagged (or, if the bot flag was already granted, will de-flagged). Operators who do not heed the wishes of the community in this respect will have their bot(s) blocked.

Current bots

These accounts are listed as bots. Some do not have the bot flag; flagged bots are listed here. Some bots operate on many wikis, however their edits are not flagged as bot edits on this wiki.

Bots available by request

These bots are active, and are available to perform edits upon request. Functionality is described on each bot's userpage.

• User:Wknight8111
• User:Mike's bot account
• User:tsca.bot

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