User:Nixeagle/Sandbox/4

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shortcuts:
WP:B/RFA
WP:BRFA
WP:RFBOT

If you want to run a bot on the English wikipedia, you must first get it approved. To do so, add a request below. Rather than running your own bot, it may be a good idea to ask someone else to run one for you at Bot requests. Admin: When bot is approved or disapproved, you can use {{subst:debate top}} and {{subst:debate bottom}} to encapsulate finished discussions.

[edit] Current policy on running bots

Before running a bot, you must get approval on this page. State below precisely what the bot will do. Observe discussion and await authorization from the comunity. After approval you may run the bot for a short period so it can be monitored. After the trial, the bot will be evaluated from someone in the approvals group and you may ask that the user be marked as a bot by a Bureaucrat.

Again, please DO NOT start running your bot without following these instructions.

I
Creating a user page for the bot describing its functions.

please state the following:

  1. Describe the bot's purpose, language it uses, what program(s) it uses (pywikipedia framework, etc).
  2. Describe whether it is manually assisted or automatically scheduled to run.
  3. The period, if any, we should expect it to run.
  4. Describe who the maintainer is.
  5. Add the bot's user page to Category:Wikipedia bots (By adding {{bot|your user name}} to the bots user page)
II
Listing your bot here.

please state the following:

  1. Whether the bot is manually assisted (run by a human) or automatic scheduled to run
  2. The period, if any, we should expect it to run
  3. What language or program it is running
  4. The purpose of your bot
    • Why do you need it?
    • Is it important enough for Wikipedia to allow your bot?
III
Waiting for approval.
  1. When naming your bot, please make sure that it does not look exactly like your username, and that a person can immediately determine that it is a bot. One common way is to name the bot as your username + "bot".
  2. Sysops should block bots, without hesitation, if they are unapproved, doing something the operator didn't say they would do, messing up articles or editing too rapidly.
  3. The operator should be at, or logged into, the machine the bot is running on to terminate it if necessary during the debugging phase, or the bot is liable to be blocked without notice.
  4. If you are planning to use a "spider", recursive wget, or similar software to get a local copy of wikipedia, please download the database dumps instead.
  5. Dynamic loading of Wikipedia pages may also be unacceptable. Please see Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks.
  6. Operators should separate their edits from their bot. This means that you should not be logged in as your bot replying to people. Questions or concerns can be addressed at bot's talk page or the operator's talk page, but the one who is responsible for replying is the operator not the bot.

The burden of proof is on the bot-maker to demonstrate the following:

  1. The bot is harmless
  2. The bot is useful
  3. The bot is not a server hog
  4. The bot has been approved

Note that according to Wikipedia:Categorization of people certain types of person categories should not be filled/emptied using a bot. Before adding sensitive categories to articles by bot, the input should be manually checked article by article, rather than uploaded from an existing list in Wikipedia.

In the assistance to prove the bot is harmless and useful, a trial period may be asked to demonstrate the bot. Complaints made about the bot during the trial period requires the bot to be immediately stopped, and the issue should be resolved below the application. If the trial period passes with no problems, then a bot flag may be requested from a Bureaucrat.

Contents