Forum:Bot edits

Hi everybody, it's quite some time that I regularly see users doing repetitive maintenance work or clearly using bots program to do them. If you want to do so, please make a bot account or ask to temporary flag yours, I can do it with the consensus of an admin. You are flooding the recent changes and that's something to be avoided in a wiki. Thanks.

Discussion
The edits come from a script that's been added recently that allows for the faster renaming of images. And while it is spamming the feed a bit, there's still been some hiccups in its use though (some through faults of the script and some through faults of the users). For now at least, I personally would like to keep the edits visible, and once the issues have been taken care of then we can hide the edits. 21:51, September 13, 2013 (UTC)

That doesn't make any sense, there is an option to display bot edits in the RC, so if you want to check the others' edits, use it. Normal users shouldn't be flooded with those edits.

I'd say it's quite easy to scroll through them and see actual edits, so I don't think it's needed. 22:28, September 13, 2013 (UTC)

It's not if you do more the 200 edits in one go because it will exceed my edits number limit in the RC. With 250 edits the last edit I see is from 6 hours ago. With 500 I don't even see a whole day of wiki activity and most of the edits I see are bot ones. It's MORE easy for you guys to just ask for a bot flag like everybody do. Staff can give admins the power to flag bots, so you either make a bot account and use it or ask an admin to flag temporary your account.

As JSD said, it's a script that still has problems. It's better for all of them to be viewed so we can see if it works properly most of the time. 00:42, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

Nobody would check each of those edits except for the team of users who is doing that kind of job, and there is an option for doing that (show bot edits). If you are using AWB you should just check you edits yourself and if you aren't and the script is not safe, more reason to not do that volume of edits at once.

It isn't AWB. Check out the script here. 01:21, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

"Additionally, this script is considered semi-automated editing. Do not use this script without first reviewing your wiki's policies regarding automated editing and obtaining necessary approvals and/or user rights." - from w:c:dev:FileUsageAuto-update. Hence please just bot yourself and check your own edits.

Does this wiki have a policy? Staw asked User:Yatanogarasu to put it into the wiki wide .js, and he did, so I'd see that as admin approval. 02:32, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

It doesn't like many other things, that's the point. It's normal wiki-etiquette to do so. The fact that he added it in the common js doesn't say anything on how you are using now. Is that too much to asking for using a bot flag, you know, to make bot edits? That's what bot flag are for. Sff9 or roranoa made their bot account, so i don't see why you people shouldn't (and as I already say, you can just bot yourself for a limited time if you don't like making a new account).

Personally, I don't want to view the edits through the RC, but rather the wiki activity, since it shows the image that's added, as well as if it's been added to the broken file links category. It's just easier to track that way for me. Also, the amount of images that will be renamed will lessen over time (the category for them has already been emptied). The wiki's seen larger bouts of image edits before and survived, I don't see it a huge problem with it. 03:59, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

Levi that's just a script that saved us TONS OF HOURS. And now the category is empty so we're done edit whoring for the time being. And all of us have marked our edits minor so if you want to check the wiki activity for vandalism, just hide the minor edits. It's easy enough. 05:13, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

@JSD: who said that you have to use RC from now on? If you have to check your script, YOU check it and avoid flooding everybody else wiki activity. @SHL: who said that you cannot use it? It doesn't matter if you are done now, this kind of flooding happens from time to time. If you are planning to edit a lot of page in a short time, you use a bot. That's easy enough. I don't understand why it's so strange for you to do something that's supposed to be common sense, just because we don't have any kind of rule. Sff9, roranoa and even me made bots, I don't see why you shouldn't do it too or simply bot yourself when needed. What you guys are saying it's just as if someone has a super loud stereo and when the neighborhood complains for the noise, he answer him "just cover your ears". It's not him who should cover his ears, you either decrease the volume or use headphones.

Simply cause I'm not using a bot but a script from dev wiki. I don't even know how on earth to use a bot >_> 14:00, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

I totally agree with Levi,.. but I also agree with everyone else here >_> .. so the best solution i can suggest is to edit the JS script ourselves to hide those edits from WA(._.) --

Goa ahead, since you suggested it *giggles* :D. If it's ok with the author of course. But I honestly don't get why this forum even exists. WE ARE NOT USING BOTS. 14:13, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

@SHL: a bot it's just a type of account, it's not "anything you use". It's used to hide edits from the RC or Wiki Activity to avoid flooding them, so whenever someone plans to do a lot of repetitive edits (like you are doing) he either make a bot account (if he plans to use regularly) or temporary flag his account itself. It doesn't matter how you do those edits, if by a script, using python or AWB, you can even do it manually, but if you are doing a LOT of repetitive edits, you use a bot account. Even in the script page it's explicitly said "Additionally, this script is considered semi-automated editing. Do not use this script without first reviewing your wiki's policies regarding automated editing and obtaining necessary approvals and/or user rights.". What you are using is no different then using any other "bot script", hence you should flag your account when you are doing that. @RORA: If can be add an option to flag the edits as bot ones to the script, that would solve the issue (it will simply do what I'm asking here). Also keep in mind that anyone is able to use that script even for vandalism, for this reason I don't think it should have been added globally on the wiki, but locally on the users' pages.

Ok, personally if I plan to mass rename I'll ask you to give me a bot flag. And no, it can't be used for vandalism cause only users with the movefile right have access to it. Which means admins, rollbacks, vstf, helpers and staff can use that script. These are all trusted users who obviously will not use it to vandalize. 14:48, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

I've asked staff to give the admins here the power to flag bot themselves, hence any admin could do that. Also, as far I understand only admins can use that script, are you sure rollbacks can? Anyway it's good to know there is a restriction.


 * Yes Levi,they can we asked staff to give rbs such an ability--

As per Forum:Image Renames rollbacks were given the ability to rename images and not leave redirects when renaming pages. 15:06, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

Good, but still, when you use it you should use a bot flag.

Staff did it, now admins are able to flag bots.

Alright, thanks for letting us know! 15:47, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

Levi I noticed that now sysops can give rollback to people. I tested to bot flag on me and I got the option to remove my rollback even though before I didn't have such ability. 15:57, September 14, 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes staw Admins can now -Remove groups: Bots, rollback and Chat moderators--

Well, since rollbacks do all the image work, shouldn't they be able to change the bot right too? We can't bother the admins 5 times per day to get temp bot rights, let alone remove them. I believe that it's reasonable enough to have this right but of course to use it only to ourselves. 16:35, September 14, 2013 (UTC)

If you can't bother, just make a bot account like PX-Bot (meaning: just make another account which you will use to make these changes), that's what it's usually done. I don't know if it's possible to let rollbacker to flag accounts as bots, but I'm honestly against it. It's out of their role and it would make them too important. Just ask admins or me, and plan when you want to make these changes.


 * btw, since when you became admin?