Forum:Bot flag

Hello all,

I get the feeling that I'm flooding the recent changes list with bot edits, although I set it up to work at a very limited pace. I think I'm not the only one that's bothered.

The solution is to flag the bot. Its edits would be marked with a "b" (just as minor edits are marked "m"); this way, people could hide them and watch only the human-made edits. (Of course it is possible to show them as well!)

To obtain a flag, an admin here must contact the Wikia Community Team using this form, providing "a link to a public discussion showing that the community approves of the use and flagging of the bot". There is not much detail, and I don't really know how to do it, so let's just try it that way:

A bot is a program that acts as a normal user (i.e. connects, make edits, explore lists etc.), but is able to do repetitive tasks without any effort.. For example, to rename a category, it retrieves all of its elements, and for each one, replaces  by   in the text. This task is very simple and repetitive for a human, and therefore tedious; it is thus a task typically fitting for a bot.
 * Pros of using a bot: relieves editors of long and boring tasks and allows them to concentrate on important and interesting ones.
 * Cons of using a bot: if it messes things up, it can be on a wider scale than usual vandals. However:
 * It is unlikely. Every function is properly tested before being processed.
 * There is an emergency button, accessible to all editors, that stops the bot in case he drives crazy.
 * Anyway, it is easy for a bot to make massive reverts, so this is not even a real concern.


 * Pros of flagging a bot: frees the recent changes list from massive, similar bot edits. It can thus run much faster without bothering anyone.
 * Cons of flagging a bot: there is probably less editors that check from time to time whether it runs correctly.

Details about the bot concerned here:
 * Bot: PX-Bot
 * Role: Various wide-scale little changes
 * Current Operations: Setting up the new color scheme template system imagined by Ruxax (creation of ~150 color scheme template pages, and modification of all articles using a box template)
 * Successfully Achieved Operations: Renaming the seven "... Villains" categories into "... Antagonists"
 * Contrib List: Special:Contributions/PX-Bot
 * Emergency Stop: on the user page

Please state whether you approve the use of the bot, and if yes, whether you approve its flagging!

sff9 (talk) 22:57, February 21, 2011 (UTC)

Discussion
Could you explain (in a few words) what a bot precisely does and what the pro's and con's are? Jinbe 01:33, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * You're right, sorry, I added a little detail above. sff9 (talk) 02:23, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

I think the bot's great. I'm not 100% sure about the color scheme one? I don't really know how it works. Well, whatever, as long as it doesn't mess with anything I guess? I actually like seeing the progression of the bot, so I don't mind it showing up. If it bothers a bunch of people though I don't mind flagging.
 * As for the color schemes, maybe you'll get the idea by looking at Ruxax's and my talk pages. I'll try to explain it better later!
 * As for the flag, anyway you could choose to show bot edits by default, there would be no difference for you. sff9 (talk) 02:23, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

Flagging sounds like a pretty good idea. Also, seeing the success of PX-bot, I guess another bot is fine. I don't really know how it goes, but just make sure all the programming goes correctly and all will be fine. 01:49, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * Not sure I got what you meant by "another bot"? sff9 (talk) 02:23, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

The bot seems good, but only one is enough. I also edit on another wiki with a bot, and he also warns users when they do something wrong (like double-editing the same page/section). And yes, it would be really good to mark an edit for bot. GMTails 02:08, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

Alright, I've sent a message to Wikia staff to flag it. :)