Wikinews:Bots

This is an official policy on English Wikinews. It has wide acceptance and is considered a standard for all users to follow. Changes to this page must reflect consensus. If in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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Bot request archives 2006-2007 2008-2009 2010-2011 2012-2020 2021-present

Requests and votes Accreditation ARBCOM AWB Bots Functionaries Reviewer

Please read the policy before making a request for bot permission. See also Wikinews:Global bots.

I	Create a user account (while logged in to your normal account) and a user page for the bot On the bot userpage, add the {{TestBot}} template, which automatically adds the page to Category:Test bots. Then add the following mandatory information to the bot userpage: Operator: Who the creator/operator is and how they can best be contacted Tasks: Details of the bot's task or tasks Operation: Whether the bot is manually assisted or runs automatically When: When it operates (continuously, intermittently, or at specified intervals) Maximum edit rate: The bot's maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute) Language: The language and/or program that it is running
II	Create your bot request: Add your bot username in the box below and click the button. Complete the questions on the resulting page and save it. Remember that your bot will be allowed to operate only for those tasks that you have specified in your request. Add your bot request at the foot of the list here: Edit the following request list, adding the following text to the foot of the section (replacing "YourBotName" with your bot's username): {{Wikinews:Bots/Requests/YourBotName}}
III	Test run You could be asked to make a short test run with your bot account (10–20 edits usually) to allow other users to review your bot's tasks. Unauthorized test runs are not allowed.
IV	Waiting for approval. You now need to wait for community approval. The request must remain open for at least two weeks. A bureaucrat will close the request and will also grant a bot flag, where necessary. You can then change the {{TestBot}} template to a {{Bot}} on the bot userpage. Closed requests are moved to Wikinews:Bots/Archive.

Requests

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

MGA73bot (talk · contribs)

• Closed as Successful - apologies for the delay. The test edits are just what is needed for these files. Please also add the Image_info if missing. As for which categories to skip, please use your best judgement. Meta user-page is fine. [₂₄Cr][talk] 22:52, 22 October 2023 (UTC)

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Operator: User:MGA73

Bot tasks for which permission is being sought: See Wikinews:Water_cooler/assistance#Licenses_on_files_etc. for background information.

I plan to change {{printedition}} to {{Image info}} like this: Special:Diff/4734706

Personally I would perhaps skip Category:February 2006 because Category:February 1, 2006 is a category in Category:February 2006. But File:31January2007.pdf is caegorized in both the day category and the month category.

I can do other stuff too related to cleaning up in files. For example add {{Image info}} if no such template is added or remove Category:Files needing attention if the problem have been resolved.

Automatic or manually assisted: Manually Assisted

Edit type: One time run. Perhaps over several days if I do not have time to change everything in one long run.

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): 12 edits per minute.

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): Y

Programming language(s): Pywikipedia MGA73 (talk) 15:10, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Comments

I have bot flag on several wikis. For example Commons and Japanese wikipedia. I have done millions of edits. --MGA73 (talk) 15:10, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

@Bddpaux, Cromium, Gryllida: Hi! Could one of you have a look at this request? Is there anything I should do? --MGA73 (talk) 15:07, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

MGA73: The bot has only made eight edits here. To satisfy the letter of WN:Bots/Policy's requirement of 10-20 [bot] edits for demonstration purposes (I presume all of those must be local), can you have it make a few more? And what's the minimum edit rate like? The policy requires a maximum of Heavy Water (talk) 17:42, 18 August 2023 (UTC) 12 per minute, which you say is the your bot's maximum. I assume, as a global bot operator, you're aware of the practices in the "Best practices" section of the policy. But I don't understand your reasoning for why you would skip Category:February 2006. Could you explain that more, please? BTW, the edit you linked to above as an example of what the bot would do appears to have been to a now-deleted image. Heavy Water (talk) 15:50, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Heavy Water Thank you for your answer. I did a few more edits.

As for the minimum edits it is not easy to say because I monitor the edits as they happen. So it depends on if I'm distracted by something or not. The rule is that there should be a minimum of 5 seconds between each edit. That will result in a maximum of 12 edits per minute. But I'm open for other edit speeds if that is prefered.

As for skipping Category:February 2006. Yes the file I mentioned was deleted. But it is the same on all the other edits. On Special:Diff/4734707 for example it would be to skip Category:January 2006 because the file is also in Category:January 2006. On Commons there is a rule not put something in both a category and a subcategory of the same category (c:Commons:Categories#Over-categorization). I do not know if a similar rule/practice exist here. I just thought I wanted to ask before I put hundreds of files in categories.

Since I made this request I nominated 825 files for deletion (Wikinews:Deletion_requests#825_sxw-files). Depeding on that I can/will either skip edits on sxw-files, add a deletion template on those files or make the same edits as on the pdf-files. --MGA73 (talk) 16:53, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

I meant to say the policy sets a maximum of twelve per minute, and was only curious what your bot's minimum was, but omitted some words. We place an article in all relevant categories, even if it's already in parent categories (so it's easier for readers to find the latest news about a topic, instead of having to sift through subcategories), but I wasn't aware of any local convention for files. Looking at other month categories, like Category:February 2008, I see a lot of Print Edition files placed in those as well as in date categories. Heavy Water (talk) 17:42, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. In that case I will of course add the categories :-) --MGA73 (talk) 16:22, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Original discussion is now in Wikinews:Water_cooler/assistance/archives/2023/August. --MGA73 (talk) 14:24, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• Comment Bureaucrats are not active at the moment so I have asked on m:Steward_requests/Bot_status#Bot_status_requests if a steward can close this request. --MGA73 (talk) 14:59, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Gryllida has been fairly responsive in the past, and Cromium returns from time to time. (I note, though, step I of WN:BOTS implies a bot awaiting approval should have a local user page with {{TestBot}}.) Heavy Water (talk) 17:33, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

I can add if that is needed. But I hope my bot page on meta is acceptable instead. --MGA73 (talk) 13:32, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Votes

• Support: This needs done, and the operator is trusted and responsive (and patient, after a long wait with no progress on this request). Heavy Water (talk) 17:42, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Leaderbot (talk · contribs)

Operator: Leaderboard

Bot tasks for which permission is being sought: meta:Global reminder bot

Automatic or manually assisted: Automatic

Edit type: Daily in theory. However, I think the bot will almost never run on this wiki; however, I'm told that it is still good practice to request approval.

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): Maybe once per month at most?

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): N

Programming language(s): Python

Leaderboard (talk) 08:19, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Comments

• @Gryllida: is this something you could take a look at? Leaderboard (talk) 14:15, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

  On a small wiki I am worried this could be unnecessary as users would make token edits just to keep the access. Is there some evidence that notification, for example if done manually somewhere, improved things and re-engaged the contributor in editing regularly? Gryllida (talk) 13:00, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

  Hi @Gryllida Firstly, this only applies to temporary rights (i.e when you assign a right for a certain period) - it's not going to remind anyone whose rights are technically indefinite (i.e, it does not affect WN:PEP). This bot was launched only in August, so hard evidence is difficult to find; however, this bot was inspired by a case where a user with global rights was unable to help their community because they did not realise that their rights had expired. For a wiki like this (like most small wikis), it is expected to almost never post anything - so it will simply run silently. Does this answer your question? Leaderboard (talk) 13:05, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

  Yes thanks. Then maybe it is not needed here as no privileges expire automatically. I welcome someone pointing out a different point of view, I am rather neutral on this. Gryllida (talk) 13:12, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

• As I see this a bot flag is not needed. The bot will make very few edits. But I think it will be a good idea for Gryllida or someone else to close this request with a comment like "This bot is approved to do the task. No bot flag is needed." --MGA73 (talk) 15:56, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Flow cleanup bot (talk · contribs)

Operator: Pppery (t · c · b)

Bot tasks for which permission is being sought: Export Flow/LQT boards to wikitext

Automatic or manually assisted: Typically runs at first as one automatic/unsupervised run, and then a later set of automatic/supervised runs to clean up cases the original one punted on. Or at least that's how I did it on MediaWiki.org

Edit type: One-time run

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute):

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): Y

Programming language(s): Python

Code at https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/pppery/flow-export-with-history and https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/pppery/flow-topic-links-fix. I tend to make minor uncommitted changes to the code as I run into issues, some of which don't make it all the way to the repo.

This bot will also need admin permissions, and XML importer permissions (since it imports the Flow boards with revision history to allow comments to show up in users' contributions among other things). Bot and admin can be granted by local crats, XML importer on most wikis can be granted only by stewards. I'm assuming I only need to request bot rights, not file separate permissions for those other groups. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:21, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

Votes

• Strong Support - We urgently and definitely need this bot for the final process of moving away from LQT. WMF will probably only assist with converting to Flow, and Pppery has offered to help with converting Flow to wikitext. -- Asked42 (talk) 18:38, 17 October 2025 (UTC)
• Support Pinging @Gryllida and @Bddpaux, both of whom I've seen active recently and both are bureaucrats.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 00:25, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

  on it Gryllida 03:35, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

  hi @Pppery bot flag granted for a month. its duration was unspecified in the request but i assumed thats enough for the task, and then i will not need to come back to take it off, please let me know if you needed some other duration, thank you! Gryllida 03:37, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

  A month is fine in terms of duration (assuming the WMF actually runs their script then - I filed this beforehand because enwikinews is not known for doing things promptly), but I also need admin rights on the bot since my plan is to delete the Flow board to replace it with the wikitext version (and also XML importer because I use the import API to import content with history, but only the stewards can grant that). * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:40, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

Hi @* Pppery *

• 1. What their script. I thought flow can start to be used straight away.

  2. There are two halves of the task, conversion to wikitext and page deletion. I am thinking that you can do the conversion to wikitext without admin right; and there is possibly a tool to mass delete what needs to be deleted. Is there a namespace for it? It will be everything in 'Thread:' isn't it? I think Special:Nuke can do it (docs: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Nuke ); if that's what's needed, i can do it for you after the conversion to wikitext is finished. Please let me know if that's a reasonable approach.

Thanks, --Gryllida 19:00, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

@Gryllida: WMF will run its script to convert LQT pages to Flow, and this bot will then convert those Flow pages to wikitext. The bot will only suppose to run after WMF completes its conversion. --Asked42 (talk) Asked42 (talk) 19:02, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

also see Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals#Phase_2:_Converting_LQT_to_Flow. --Asked42 (talk) 19:03, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

Oh I thought if someone converts LQT to Flow, then there is nothing left to do. I am not well informed. Gryllida 19:17, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

I guess I could technically do the import to a separate subpage, and not require deleting anything, but I had thought the plan was to do an outright replacement of the LQT with the Flow and then with the wikitext, all leaving as few traces of the previous state as possible behind, which requires deleting both the Flow board and the "/LQT Archive 1" leftovers. I could have built the bot in a different way, I guess, to need fewer permissions, but I didn't expect this to be a problem. And, re Gryllida, Flow is also being deprecated and was only intended to be an intermediate state. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:48, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

Let me try to elaborate. As I understand the plan:

1. For every LQT board (with at least one thread on it), the WMF will run a script to convert that board to Flow. This script will.
   1. Move the existing page there to its current title + "/LQT Archive 1".
   2. Create a new Flow board at that title with the same content (and history) as the LQT thread it's replacing.
2. Once all of that is done, I plan to run my bot. It will, for every Flow board:
   1. Delete the "/LQT Archive 1" page (this part requires admin rights)
   2. Delete the Flow board created in the previous step (this part requires admin rights)
   3. Reconstruct the history of the board as if the entire discussion had been done in wikitext from the start
   4. Use (the API version of) special import to import that history to the wiki onto the title that the Flow board (and previously the LQT thread) used to be (this part require XML importer rights).
3. Then, once all of that is done, as a second pass it will find all pages linking to "Thread:" pages, and change them to link to the converted wikitext thread (as a minor cleanup matter).

I could do only steps 2.3 and 2.4, importing to a different title instead, and thus not need admin (but still need XML importer). I'll do that if you really want, but it seems like it foists additional technical work onto others for no clear reason. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:04, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

• Does LQT have an API? It might be easier to do this in one step. Leaderboard (talk) 15:04, 22 October 2025 (UTC)

  It does, and in fact the WMF's script to convert to Flow does use that API. But people have already written LQT->Flow and Flow->Wikitext converters whereas nobody has written a clean LQT->Wikitext converter directly. See also phab:T381906. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 15:36, 22 October 2025 (UTC)

  Thank you for your time and help with completing the conversion @Pppery. It seems, from the Phab comment that the conversion from LQT to Flow is mostly done. Does that mean you can now perform the final conversion? --Asked42 (talk) 09:06, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

  I'm still waiting for my bot to be granted admin (and XML importer which only the stewards can do) rights? * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:08, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

  Pinging @Gryllida. --Asked42 (talk) 16:27, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

  Permission granted. For 1 month. Please ping me if you finished earlier. Gryllida 11:42, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

  Confirming I've seen this. Will run the bot later today or tomorrow most likely. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:23, 21 November 2025 (UTC)