Wikibooks talk:Bots

Is there a list
Is there a list of account that have the bot flag on, available to the common Wikibookian ? --Panic 02:31, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Special:Log/makebot lists all bot flag changes Special:Listusers can list current bot flags. For accounts available for mass edit requests, try Category:Wikibookians who are bots (Although I think they have all the same accounts. There's no central place for requests for help with (semi-)automated edits, save WB:SL, so far as I know. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 04:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Txs for the info. --Panic 12:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Votes and/or discussion
- The only change I'd make is to clarify the sysop bot section. If I use AWB under Mike.lifeguard to do deletions without a flag is that ok? I think it should be - if I wanted a bot flag for those deletions, it'd need the extra discussion and approval at WB:RFA, but without the flag they're subject to the full scrutiny of normal deletions, so the tool used shouldn't matter. If the actions were to be "hidden" by a bot flag, then some prior discussion would be in order. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 04:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I think you need a bot account that has been through RfA to take "admin" actions using a bot (I seem to recall being told that running a bot on an existing admin account was not ok). -- Herby talk thyme 12:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That's my impression too - that using a bot for admin actions under an existing admin account isn't ok. But I think it should be - if the account is not bot-flagged (since the changes would be subject to the same scrutiny as any of your other admin actions). – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 14:40, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * For what I remember of discussions on the problem, is that all bot action without the bot flag do appear in the changes log. So the main objection is not the use but the length or periodicity of the bot's actions, some admins do use scripts (that's a kind of bot), so the remaining problem is not to clutter the logs and keep a low number on errors. --Panic 23:31, 16 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm of the impression that using an automated admin script is perfectly fine. In fact, I suspect (although cannot prove and refuse to make any such allegations) that certain users are already using such a script. Common tasks that would benefit from automation include mass-deletions (such as images, or books with large numbers of pages that have been VfD'd) or open proxy blocking (blocking large ranges at once). If you run such a script and dont tell anybody, what would be the difference from how things are now? If anything, we should encourage people to announce what tools they are using, so those tools can be opened to public scrutiny and reliability tests. I would say I am generally against giving such an admin-bot a flag, just because we do want all admin tasks to be easily viewable and verifiable. In fact, in lieu of a policy stating that such admin-scripts cannot be used, I would say that such tools should be cultivated and encouraged. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:06, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Comment Is this proposal still running? If not what about a merge or coming to a consensus with the unstable branch... --Panic (talk) 05:16, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I will rename the thread to only discussion and leave it running as there was no announcement of a vote and no one seems willing to support what seems an adoption proposal (since the objective of the vote can only be implied). --Panic (talk) 00:33, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

One small issue
I really like the current text of the proposal as-is. It's simple and really gets across the point that the bot flag is really not a big deal. One small point I noticed (and I still this proposal anyway) is that it's a little bit unclear about where the bot flag comes from. It says no real vote is required, but does that mean, as I think it should, that granting and revoking the bot flag is done at the discretion of bureaucrats only. It's a small issue, really, so I still support this. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 23:14, 21 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Why not let admins give and revoke the bot flag like we do now with the patrol and rollback flag? Would take some load off bureaucrats. --dark lama  01:39, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, that decision hasn't really borne any fruit - we still have only a handful of patrollers/rollbackers. Given admins may flag themselves for temp jobs, I don't see the need to make it an admin-settable bit. As well, bots can actually do damage; I'd like to think our bureaucrats are trusted to protect the community from such mishaps.
 * As well, can we try to keep conversation in one place? I chose WB:AA since it had the background info there. It'll be easier for everyone to see and evaluate what's going on with respect to the proposal if things are consolidated. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 03:53, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I guess I didn't answer Andrew's question. Yes, the intent is that bureaucrats will simply grant the flag in uncontroversial cases. For cases which aren't obviously good or bad, the community should consider the request. Recall that I'm proposing the unstable version, not this one. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 03:58, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Draft of the unstable branch is up for approval as policy
The process is taking place here Policies and guidelines/Vote/Bots. The proposed text for adoption is the October 24 2008, as a policy, motion started by User:Mike.lifeguard. --Panic (talk) 18:02, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Global bots
This policy says nothing about whether global bots are automatically approved or even whether global bots are allowed at all. (I suspect the community would be against it due to past apprehensions about interwiki linking, but this should be clarified). See Bot policy for the relevant details that need to be addressed. -- Adrignola talk contribs 04:37, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Important: maintenance operation on September 1st
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The Wikimedia Foundation will be testing its secondary data centre. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic to the secondary data centre on Tuesday, September 1st 2020.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

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 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, September 1st. The test will start at 14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 19:30 IST, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday September 2).
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it.  If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal.  Then you should be able to save your edit.  But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * There will be code freezes for the week of September 1st, 2020. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. Please share this information with your community. User:Trizek (WMF) (talk) 10:30, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Important: maintenance operation on October 27
This is a reminder of a message already sent to your wiki.

On Tuesday, October 27 2020, all wikis will be in read-only mode for a short period of time.

You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, October 27. The test will start at 14:00 UTC (14:00 WET, 15:00 CET, 10:00 EDT, 19:30 IST, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 03:00 NZDT on Wednesday October 28).

Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. This may have an impact on some bots work.

Know more about this operation.

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Server switch
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The Wikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.


 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, 29 June 2021. The test will start at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PDT, 10:00 EDT, 15:00 WEST/BST, 16:00 CEST, 19:30 IST, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday 30 June).
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it.  If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal.  Then you should be able to save your edit.  But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * There will be code freezes for the week of June 28. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. Please share this information with your community. SGrabarczuk (WMF) 01:23, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

Server switch
Read this message in another language •

The Wikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic back to the primary data center on Tuesday, 14 September 2021.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.


 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, 14 September 2021. The test will start at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PDT, 10:00 EDT, 15:00 WEST/BST, 16:00 CEST, 19:30 IST, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday, 15 September).
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. Please share this information with your community. SGrabarczuk (WMF)  01:10, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Bots need to upgrade to Pywikibot 6.6.1
Dear bot operators, bots running Pywikibot must upgrade to version 6.6.1 otherwise they will break when deprecated API parameters are removed. If you have any questions or need help in upgrading, please reach out using one of the Pywikibot communication channels.

Thanks, Legoktm (talk) 18:02, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Your wiki will be in read only soon


Read this message in another language •

The Wikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on . The test will start at .

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.


 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on.
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
 * GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. Please share this information with your community. 

Trizek (WMF) (m:User talk:Trizek (WMF)) 21:24, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Your wiki will be in read-only soon


Read this message in another language •

The Wikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on . The test will start at .

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.


 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on.
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
 * GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. Please share this information with your community. 

MediaWiki message delivery 01:21, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Your wiki will be in read-only soon
<section begin="server-switch"/>

Read this message in another language •

The Wikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on . The test will start at .

Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.


 * You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on.
 * If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:


 * Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
 * We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
 * GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. Please share this information with your community. <section end="server-switch"/>

Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 09:30, 15 September 2023 (UTC)