Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/TonyBot

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Speedily Approved. —freak(talk) 12:31, May. 4, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TonyBot

tasks • contribs • count • sul • logs • page moves • block user • block log • flag log • flag bot

Operator: Tony Sidaway

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Manually assisted, supervised

Programming Language(s): Chicken Scheme

Function Summary: Functional programming language query interface to Wikipedia for general use.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): Daily, at discretion of operator

Edit rate requested: 1 edit per minute.

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): N

Function Details: This bot will provide an experimental lisp-like functional programming interface to information about Wikipedia pages, edits, and users. The aim is to make it easy for users to produce lists of information they need to maintain Wikipedia. An example, unions and intersections of categories could be produced by a suitable query. Another query could be used to compile statistics about edit rates to a set of pages in a category. The bot will apply code execution heuristics to guard against over-use of the wiki and production of excessive amounts of output. All output will be in TonyBot's userspace, and communication with registered users will be via pages in their userspace, with an option to send copies of the results to the user's verified Wikipedia email address. More details at User talk:TonyBot.

[edit] Discussion

Very interesting. Am I correct in my interpretation that this doesn't edit outside of User talk? ST47Talk 23:08, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

User space or user talk will be the whole of its scope of editing. Whilst in principle the bot could operate off-wiki using email or http, the decision to use the wiki for communication is primarily to keep the query mechanism, and the nature of the queries, transparent. The query mechanism could in principle be used for the purposes of stalking another person's edits, for instance, and if this ever happens the community should be able to detect this and express its opinion on the appropriateness of the queries in the light of the project's aims. Even results that are sent in email will also be written on the wiki for this reason. --Tony Sidaway 07:24, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Will this use live data or a database dump? If it uses live data, what source does it obtain it from (screenscraping, query.php, or api.php)? --ais523 11:52, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Live data, although a database interface may be contemplated if the technical problems with English Wikipedia on the tool server are ever fixed. api.php will be used where possible, though some features not implemented yet through api.php may need to be provided by, at worst, screen scraping. --Tony Sidaway 12:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes yes please! I've long thought this sort of thing should be a function that MediaWiki should come up with. Not sure if I have to be in the Bot Approvals Guild^TM for my input to count, but this looks pretty sweet. Milto LOL pia 17:47, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Of course your input counts - /me thinks we need a prominient notice atop WP:BRFA *telling* people to join in :) Martinp23 18:05, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

For the bot - when a name is added to the list of users using the interface (if I've interpreted it correctly), will the bot check that the user who added the name actually owns the added name? What I'm thinking is that, without this, it would be quite easy for the service to be abused. Martinp23 18:05, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it will be a requirement that the user in question should have performed the edit to add himself. The bot will have to be intelligent about this, accepting disjoint sequences of edits to allow for tweaks, but it will detect apparent attempts to fake applications for membership and report them to the operator. The bot will also refuse to write outside the userspace and the talk page of the registered user, and it will refuse to use the userpage or talk page as the communication page. The talk page may be used to notify the user of successful application and perhaps, at the user's option, successful completion of a query. --Tony Sidaway 02:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

What are we waiting on, go ahead and let this one go :) —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 03:03, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.