Wikibooks:Requests for permissions/Darkbot

+Bot
A bot account I created to help with clean up tasks. The intent of this bot is to do the following:


 * Move every page in a book when a book is being renamed, such as all the Programming:Language books that need to be renamed.
 * Fix categories on pages and sort them.
 * Fix links on pages to point to directly to a page rather then through a redirect, when moved.
 * Fix double redirects or delete them.
 * Dewiki pages and adds log entries from import log to to transwiki log.
 * Delete unlicensed images.

--dark lama  19:16, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Discussion
 * Have you written this bot on your own? Have you tested it? Perhaps you should show us how it works by making some edits without bot flag. --Derbeth talk 20:16, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm less mistrustful of bots then Derbeth is, I too would like to see either the source code of the bot (if you wrote it yourself), or a controlled demonstration of it's abilities. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 03:09, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm willing to vote in support of this if we can see an example of it in use. Xania [[Image:Flag_of_Poland_2.svg|15px]]talk 14:23, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I know he has the unlicenced delete bot, which works quite well. Again, the bot would need the tools to do this under the flag.-- SB_Johnny | talk 14:34, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * In practice I see AWB can handle "delete" now and would be aware of my admin status if I or another admin were to run if manually on their own login -- Herby talk thyme 15:16, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I was just thinking that it would be nice if those were under a bot flag, to keep RC a bit cleaner (doesn't help with the IRC feed, of course). -- SB_Johnny | talk 17:01, 31 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Ok maybe my bot request was premature. I'm in the process of writing most of it. The only feature that can be demonstrated at this time is the image deletion feature, which as SB_Johnny has noted would require admin status too. Once its done, I'll gladly demonstrate the other features and show anyone the source code who wishes to see it. --dark [[Image:Yin yang.svg|12px]] lama 00:40, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
 * About the image deletion thing - there's been too much of that lately with little thought behind it. Automated deletion tools would only make that worse. See here for my beef with current image deletion activities. Webaware 01:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I think I should mention that the deletion of images while automate is pretty brain dead right now. It deletes images from a list created by hand, so for example have to add images from the images without a license category to the list before it will even delete it. Secondly because its what was wanted at the time, it will only delete images that have been properly delinked from pages, as is our policy. --dark [[Image:Yin yang.svg|12px]] lama 14:45, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Aha, manual automation - my favourite kind! In that case, I approve :) Webaware 01:46, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment I have written up a draft of a bots policy/guideline. I think that this is an issue that we as a community need to seriously discuss before we start creating too many bot accounts, or authorize bot accounts to use too much software (especially software with the potential to be highly distructive, like a deletion bot). The proposal is at Bots. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 23:58, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Votes
 * Support -- though of course it's going to need to be sysopped for the image deletion thing. -- SB_Johnny | talk 19:35, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose - deletion tasks IMHO should not be automated except under the most extreme circumstances. I am strongly against any admin-level bot, certainly with a special 'bot flag enabled.  If you are willing to take responsibility for the consequences of the 'bot actions, use it but don't have the special flag.  Admin tools should be used very sparingly unless a very widespread policy discussion has prompted a very huge need such as deletion of a specific group of image in a certain category.  And that should be a one-time use application.  I certainly could delete 500 images in less than a day without using a bot... as I've done in the past.  --Rob Horning 23:49, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Denied. This request has been stagnant for some time without enough support votes. I have drafted a proposal at Bots that we can use to help govern requests like this in the future with less uncertainty. Anybody interested is welcome to come take a look at that proposal. I will archive this discussion in a week. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 23:57, 25 February 2007 (UTC)