GuildWiki talk:Bots

I don't think this is necessary, really. Only RT and Dr ishmael have authorized bots, and they are a) both sysops and b) both much more knowledgable than I am. 23:04, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Even so, if GuildWiki was to get more bots, this my actaully come in handy :o) -- Shadowphoenix  23:05, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think this is such a bad idea. It would also be useful if botting becomes a GuildWiki fad lol. Anyway, it would be helpful to have tips on when you shold be using a bot and when its okay to clutter RC because they have to be manual editting, and I think we should have even less tolerance of non-flagged accounts than what is mentioned here. I dont know about anyone else, but RC patrol is my primary way of keeping an eye on things. Its much harder when RC gets flooded with bot tasks. Also, I think it would be useful to make it mandatory to post the scripts for bot tasks that use one just in case we need to reverse the bot actions and the owner disappears. I'm not sure if you can export the AWB settings for non-scripted tasks but having that data would be good too. &mdash;♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 23:45, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It is a draft so add your ideas if u feel they are appropraite :) -- Shadowphoenix  23:49, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Ishy's ideas:
 * Not all bots require script+framework - mine will be running self-contained Perl scripts, unless you count the Perlwikipedia module as the framework in that case. I wasn't sure how to reword this, so I left it alone.
 * I'd still like to restrict bots to flagged bot accounts. This may just be my job training speaking, but I worry for what might happen if we allow just anyone to run bots here.  We've recently seen how easily a non-bot user can disrupt the wiki by creating a large number of articles.  Yes, it would be easy enough to have another bot revert unapproved bot edits, but preventing something before it happens is better than having to do damage control afterwards.
 * I don't like the bit about bots stopping due to talkpage edits. This means that any malicious (or even unknowing) user could disrupt the bot just by posting on its talkpage.  That leaves "the big red button" that RT and I stole from Fyrenbot, which I think would be enough considering how active our current admins are.
 * Jedi's idea for when (not) to use a bot is good. There are many tasks, such as spellchecking, image license tagging, image deletion, etc. that require some subjective judgment, and therefore could not be performed by a fully automated bot.  I'll go ahead and write up a section for this.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 04:39, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * The talk page security measure is made incase something was to happen when no admins are online, it is made so that reg. users can stop the bot if it is needed; however, I can see how this could be misused, I still think it should be added. -- Shadowphoenix  04:44, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm on 14 hours a day or so, and RT is on the rest of the time. No problem. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 04:53, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

What good is the bot list here?
There is a list of active bots on Bot_tasks. Duplicating that list here serves no purpose. Therefore, I expanded teh stub that was here to make a list of all flagged bot accounts. This is handy, because you can see at a glance who is currently flagged as bot, and it is better than the system generated list, because at the same glance you can see the owners and quickly click on the contributions, i.e. the same useful format that the list of active bots on Bot_tasks has. The information in the list as I wrote it is correct, it is on-topic here, it is not available elsewhere in this form, it has some use to some people (for me, for one). I'd like to see a good reason to delete it. And if you have this reason, I suspect it'll cover getting rid of the list altogether. Gah, how I hate fighting against wasting info. mendel 06:16, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * When I created the proposal I wanted to have all flagged bots added there for reference purposes. So I would like all flagged bot accounts to be listed, not just active ones.  -- Shadowphoenix  13:39, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * A policy which, chances are, isnt going to go through tbh.. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 13:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * You know this how? -- Shadowphoenix  14:03, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm psychic. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:04, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Deleting and remaking.
We're still using GFDL content. This needs deleting and a total rewrite imo. Discussions can go here &mdash; Warw/Wick 14:05, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * It doesn't matter how much we reword it, its based on GWW's article on it. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:05, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Warwick, stop I can handle this. -- Shadowphoenix  14:07, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Evidently you can't, because when you copy and pasted this over you had no idea about the fact that it was breaching copyright licensing... &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:09, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I was not as aware as I am now, but you are starting to piss me off. I will re-write it myself, I can handle writing a policy.  I do not need discussion on it.  -- Shadowphoenix  14:11, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * A badly spelt policy imo. Well, I'll be there to clean up the spelling, unless you plan on using a spelling mistake corrector. Yes, I'm sure you can handle writing a policy. Anyone can. But a good one? Hmm.. And anyway, you said "I can have a similar one written out soon". Thats exactly the problem. We dont want a similar one, because it would still, in technicality, be breaking the GDFL licensing, since if its similar you would have used that one as a base. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:13, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * You do know that insulting me does not help your stance very much don't you. I will make sure that I leave no work for you, would not want you to have to work to hard.  Now go off to trolling someone else, I have work to do.  (fyi, I have written a good policy proposal a few times.  My best one would be archiving, but I decided to move it to the help section of GWW instead of it being a policy or guideline.)  -- Shadowphoenix  14:21, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Tbh, you know I'm a troll, and telling me that you're getting pissed off is pretty much troll-baiting. So we'll be waiting a few hours for this page to be edited then. Till then, could an admin delete this page because its currently breaking licensing? Thanks. :) &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:23, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * mm, didnt mean to remove my comment there, and I dont know how I did it. Oh well. SF, you're allowed to remove your own comments. Get over it. Afaik you've been allowed to for a long while. You're just not allowed to change other peoples comments. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 14:26, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

No bots on unflagged accounts?

 * I suggested the following for the motivation paragraph:
 * There is no policy that forbids the running of bots from regular user accounts. Using a special "flagged" bot account keeps the bot edits out of the default view of the recent changes lag and thus makes it easier for people reading that log. For this reason every bot user is strongly encouraged to only run bots from a bot flagged account.
 * This should be put (back) in to some extent, with maybe just the first sentence changed, because it explains what a flag on a bot flag does and why it is useful to have one.
 * But actually I am still arguing for the first sentence to stay, for the following reasons:
 * Further down the policy restricts unflagged bots to 20 edits per day and requires 100 edits to be shown for a flag to be granted, this implies that bots can run from unflagged accounts.
 * A ban on bots is not enforceable.
 * I see no policy that makes sense to forbid them, if there's a problem with the bot edits you can ban the user for them, if there isn't, where's your cause for the ban? AGF!
 * And I can't imagine a user who goes to the trouble to code and run a beneficial bot who won't have it flagged when it is nicely suggested to him/her, so no policy is needed. mendel 15:26, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

UGH!
I have said this before, I will say it again: This needs TOTAL rewrite, not just a tad of different wording here, an extra paragraph there. &mdash; Warw/Wick 15:30, 28 May 2008 (UTC)