Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2006-06-26 A bot on a rampage

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Contents 1 Mediation Case: 2006-06-26 A bot on a rampage 1.1 Request Information 1.2 Mediator response 1.3 Compromise offers 1.4 Discussion

[edit] Mediation Case: 2006-06-26 A bot on a rampage

[edit] Request Information

Request made by: GPS Pilot 19:11, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Where is the issue taking place?

It seems to be talking place in categories that user "RobertG" doesn't like.

Who's involved?

RobertG and his bot, RobotG

What's going on?

RobotG has gone on a virtual rampage, removing hundreds of articles from categories. The categories end up with zero pages in them.

Effectively this has obliterated the categories, and the categories have not been through the usual "Categories for removal" discussion process. The bot's operator has unilaterally taken matters into his own hands.

The bot cannot possibly be qualified to determine whether an article should be removed from a category. I reverted one of its obviously incorrect removals, before I discovered that there are hundreds more.

How does the bot know which categories to decimate? I suspect that information is fed to it by RobertG.

You can see this bot's handiwork at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&limit=500&target=RobotG

What would you like to change about that?

This bot needs to be stopped, FAST. It's doing massive amounts of damage. Someone should probably build an anti-bot to revert all of RobotG's changes.

Would you prefer we work discreetly? If so, how can we reach you?

I don't care.

[edit] Mediator response

ok so I will take this as i think it may be a case of quick explanation / discussion by the users involved. I have posted a note on RobertG's talk page and hopefully he will be able to explain the situation. -- Tmorton166 (Errant Emote)  ^talk 21:29, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Compromise offers

[edit] Discussion

I dont know if this is a case for the cabal, much better to go to an admin or someone with the power to actually stop it (at least temporarily).

Have you tried talking to RobertG about it? -- Tmorton166 (Errant Emote)  ^talk 21:17, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

• Huge apologies if this isn't done, but my view on the case -- The removal that I think the editor is upset by is this which the user then reverted. As you can see from the deletion log this category was deleted and orphaned per Wikipedia policy, as you can see at the CSD page [1]. I'm not sure why the user is saying that it's being done against policy. If the user can show some specific diffs then perhaps this should be looked into, but as it is the user is simply mistaken that RobertG is acting unilaterally or outside policy. Mak (talk) 21:41, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, now I see that the category *has* been through the categories-for-deletion discussion process. My apologies for becoming alarmed by that ruthless bot. GPS Pilot 00:01, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

NP, would it be ok for me to close this discussion now? cheers  Tmorton166 (Errant Emote)  ^talk 07:20, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Just for completeness, and to show that the mediation process works, I am adding this comment to show that I have seen this mediation request. I gather from Mak's intervention and GPS Pilot's subsequent note that no action from me is necessary. I confirm that RobotG never carries out any category-related actions that are not a result of consensus at WP:CFD. --RobertG ♬ talk 09:29, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that Robert, I will now close this discussion. Thankyou to all the participants -- Tmorton166 (Errant Emote)  ^talk 09:30, 27 June 2006 (UTC)