Tachyony: Created page with "{{Short description|Automated programs on Wikipedia}} {{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}{{Pp-move-indef}} {{Redirect|WP:B||Wikipedia:Bureaucrats|and|Wikipedia:Blocking policy|and|Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy|and|Wikipedia:Be bold|and|Wikipedia:Backlog|and|Wikipedia:Content assessment/B-Class criteria}} {{Redirect|WP:BOT||Wikipedia:Bot policy|and|WP:BOVT{{!}}WikiProject British Overseas Territories|and|Wikipedia:Wikimedia Foundation#Board of Trustees}} {{Wikipedia pro..."

2021-12-04T15:44:25Z

Created page with "{{Short description|Automated programs on Wikipedia}} {{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}{{Pp-move-indef}} {{Redirect|WP:B||Wikipedia:Bureaucrats|and|Wikipedia:Blocking policy|and|Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy|and|Wikipedia:Be bold|and|Wikipedia:Backlog|and|Wikipedia:Content assessment/B-Class criteria}} {{Redirect|WP:BOT||Wikipedia:Bot policy|and|WP:BOVT{{!}}WikiProject British Overseas Territories|and|Wikipedia:Wikimedia Foundation#Board of Trustees}} {{Wikipedia pro..."

New page

{{Short description|Automated programs on Wikipedia}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}{{Pp-move-indef}}
{{Redirect|WP:B||Wikipedia:Bureaucrats|and|Wikipedia:Blocking policy|and|Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy|and|Wikipedia:Be bold|and|Wikipedia:Backlog|and|Wikipedia:Content assessment/B-Class criteria}}
{{Redirect|WP:BOT||Wikipedia:Bot policy|and|WP:BOVT{{!}}WikiProject British Overseas Territories|and|Wikipedia:Wikimedia Foundation#Board of Trustees}}
{{Wikipedia programs}}
{{Botnav}}
{{Information page|WP:BOT|WP:BOTS}}

{{nutshell|On Wikipedia, [[Software agent|bots]] are computer-controlled user accounts performing various tasks in order to maintain the encyclopedia. Bots are used for many purposes, for instance removing obvious vandalism and archiving talk pages. All bots must be [[Wikipedia:Bot policy|approved]] by [[Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group|a special group]] before they are put into use.}}

[[File:Enon robot.jpg|thumb|alt=A man is shaking hands with a bot|A physical robot (''right'')]]
A '''bot''' (a common nickname for [[Software agent|software robot]]) is an automated tool that carries out repetitive and mundane tasks to maintain the [[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}]] pages of the English Wikipedia. Bots are able to make edits very rapidly, but can disrupt Wikipedia if they are incorrectly designed or operated. For these reasons, a [[Wikipedia:Bot policy|bot policy]] has been developed.

There are currently {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Approved Wikipedia bot requests for approval}} [[:Category:Approved Wikipedia bot requests for approval|bot tasks approved for use]] on the English Wikipedia; however, not all approved tasks involve actively carrying out edits. Bots will leave messages on user talk pages if the action that the bot has carried out is of interest to that editor. Some bots can be excluded from leaving these messages by using the {{tl|bots}} tags. There are {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Wikipedia bots which are exclusion compliant}} exclusion-compliant bots, which are listed in [[:Category:Wikipedia bots which are exclusion compliant|this category]]. There are [[Special:ListUsers/bot|{{NUMBERINGROUP:bot}}]] bots flagged with the "bot" flag right now (and over 400 [[Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits/Unflagged bots|former bots]]). There is also a range of [[Wikipedia:Tools/Editing tools#Semi-auto edit bots|tools]] that allow semi-automated editing of large numbers of articles.

==History==
{{main|Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots}}
Bots have been used in the past to create large numbers of articles that were uploaded to Wikipedia within a short timeframe. Some technical problems were experienced and this led to the formulation of a bot policy, as well as a [[WP:MASSCREATION|restriction]] on the automated, large-scale, creation of articles.

==Bot policy==
{{main|Wikipedia:Bot policy}}
Wikipedia policy requires that bots be harmless and useful, have approval, use separate user accounts, and be operated responsibly.

==Bot Approvals Group==
{{main|Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group}}
The Bot Approvals Group (BAG) supervises and approves all bot-related activity from a technical and quality-control perspective on behalf of the English Wikipedia community. On the English Wikipedia, the right to [[Wikipedia:Bureaucrats#Bot flags|flag]] a bot is limited to [[Wikipedia:bureaucrats|bureaucrats]].

Running an automated bot on a separate account requires approval, which may be requested at [[Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval]].

==How to create a bot==
{{main|Help:Creating a bot}}
Some programming experience generally is needed to create a bot, and knowledge of [[regular expression]]s is useful for many editing tasks. However, some of the more user-friendly tools, such as [[WP:AutoWikiBrowser|AutoWikiBrowser]] or [[WP:JWB|JavaScript Wiki Browser]], can be used for some tasks.

[[Chicken (Scheme implementation)|The Chicken Scheme]], Common Lisp, Haskell, Java, Microsoft .NET, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby programming languages all have libraries available for creating bots. [[mw:Manual:Pywikibot|Pywikibot]] is a commonly used Python package developed specifically for creating MediaWiki bots.

== Dealing with bot issues ==
{{Main|Wikipedia:Bot policy#Dealing with issues}}

{{trim|{{#section-h:Wikipedia:Bot policy|Minor malfunctions, complaints, and improvements}}}}

{{trim|{{#section-h:Wikipedia:Bot policy|Major malfunctions and complaints}}}}

==How to hide a specific bot from your watchlist==
{{Shortcut|WP:HIDEBOT|WP:HIDEBOTS}}
While it is easy to [[Help:Watchlist#Options|hide all bots from your watchlist]], there is no way of hiding specific bots through user preferences or default watchlist settings. However, it is possible with a [[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts|user script]] by following these simple steps.

'''Main steps'''
# Go to your [[Special:MyPage/common.js]] page (or your [[Special:MyPage/skin.js]]), and add the following line ([[Special:Diff/487287533|diff]]):
#:<syntaxhighlight lang=JS inline>importScript('User:UncleDouggie/smart_watchlist.js'); // Backlink: [[User:UncleDouggie/smart_watchlist]]</syntaxhighlight>
# Remember to [[Wikipedia:Bypass your cache|bypass your browser's cache]].
# Go to your watchlist. There should be a box with several options. Tick the 'Enable hide user buttons' box. This will let you hide specific bots (and users) from your watchlist.
#: '''Note:''' You might want to untick the 'Enable hide user buttons' box after you ignore a bot to ensure that you don't accidentally click 'hide user' when browsing your watchlist.
'''Optional steps'''
# If you find the 'Enable hide user buttons' box annoying, go to your [[Special:MyPage/common.css]] page (or [[Special:MyPage/skin.css]]) and add the following line ([[Special:Diff/487288182|diff]]):
#:<syntaxhighlight lang=CSS inline>#SmartWatchlistOptions {display:none ! important;}</syntaxhighlight>
# Remember to [[Wikipedia:Bypass your cache|bypass your browser's cache]].
# If you want to show the box again, for example to reset your ignore list, go to your [[Special:MyPage/common.css]] page and remove the line you added in optional step #1 (remembering to again [[Wikipedia:Bypass your cache|bypass your browser's cache]]). Redoing optional steps #1 and #2 will hide the box again.

While you are completely free to ignore any bots (or users) you want, it is a good idea to only ignore bots with well-defined tasks, which you trust to not make any mistakes.

==How to hide AWB edits from your watchlist==
{{Shortcut|WP:HIDEAWB}}
There is no way of hiding [[Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AutoWikiBrowser]] (AWB) edits through user preferences or default watchlist settings. However, it is possible with a [[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts|user script]] by following these steps:

'''Steps'''
# Go to your [[Special:MyPage/common.js]] page (or your [[Special:MyPage/skin.js]]), and add the following two lines ([[Special:Diff/767295027|diff]]):
#: <syntaxhighlight lang=JS>importScript( 'User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB.js' ); // Backlink: [[User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB]]
var awbHiddenByDefault = true;</syntaxhighlight>
# [[Wikipedia:Bypass your cache|Bypass your browser's cache]].
Any edit with "AWB" in its edit summary will now default to hidden for you. You may reveal them by clicking on the "show AWB" tab at the top of your watchlist (next to "Special page" for Monobook skin, or in the "More" dropdown for Vector skin).

'''Notes:'''
*If you leave out <syntaxhighlight lang=JS inline>var awbHiddenByDefault = true;</syntaxhighlight>, AWB edits will be shown by default, but you will have the option of hiding AWB edits by clicking on the "hide AWB" tab at the top of your watchlist.
*While you are completely free to ignore AWB edits, remember that many of them will contain substantial changes from human editors, not just [[WP:MINOR|minor edits]] from bots or [[WP:MEATBOT|meatbots]].
*When hiding edits with a script, earlier edits can be forced to appear. Using the <code>Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent</code> [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-watchlist|preference]] option is necessary to see other non-hidden watchlist hits for a page.

==How to stop specific bots from editing the article==
{{Main|Template:Bots}}
It's rare that a mainspace article needs to not be edited by a specific bot. No article needs to stop all bots from editing, since antivandal bots such as [[User:ClueBot NG|ClueBot NG]] need to be able to edit all mainspace articles. The template {{tl|bots}} can stop a bot from editing an article under the rare circumstance it's needed.

== Examples ==

Some examples of bots are:
* [[User:AAlertBot]] – delivering [[WP:AALERTS|article alerts]] to WikiProjects about ongoing discussions.
* [[User:AnomieBOT]] – large variety of tasks, most well known for adding dates to amboxes.
* [[User:ClueBot NG]] – reverts possible [[WP:VAN|vandalism]].
* [[User:Citation bot]] – Adds PMIDs, ISBNs, etc to pages.
* [[User:CommonsDelinker]] – removes links to files deleted at [[Wikimedia Commons]] due to policy infractions.
* [[User:DatBot]] – patrols the edit filters and resizes non-free images.
* [[User:DumbBOT]] – often removes protection templates from recently unprotected pages.
* [[User:InternetArchiveBot]] – retrieves archived copies of dead links.
* [[User:ListeriaBot]] – Experimental bot by [[User:Magnus Manske|Magnus Manske]]. It generates and updates lists on Wikipedia.
* [[User:Lowercase sigmabot III]] – archives talk pages.
* [[User:ProcseeBot]] – automatically blocks proxies due to the local policy against [[WP:PROXY|open proxies]].
* [[User:SineBot]] – signs comments left on talk pages.
* [[User:WP 1.0 bot]] – works with the [[WP:1|Version 1.0 Editorial Team]].

==See also==

'''Articles'''
* [[Internet bot]]
* [[Wikipedia bots]]

'''Categories'''
* [[:Category:Wikipedia bots|Wikipedia bots]]
* [[:Category:Wikipedia bot requests for approval|Wikipedia bot requests for approval]]

'''Meta'''
* [[meta:bot]]
* [[meta:Bot policy]]
* [[meta:Countervandalism Network/Bots]]

'''Barnstar'''
* {{tlx|The Bot Creator Barnstar|put your message here. <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>}} – Awarded to an editor for creating a bot.
* {{tlx|Bot operator's barnstar|put your message here. <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>}} – Bot operator's barnstar, Coders need love too.

'''Userbox and top icon'''
* {{tl|User bot owner|Botname}} – a [[Wikipedia:Userboxes|userbox]] template to indicate you own and run a bot.
* {{tl|Bot topicon}} – a [[Template:Top icon|top icon]] template to indicate you have own and run a bot – adds a category to page automatically.

{{Automated editing}}

{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}

[[Category:Wikipedia bots|Wikipedia bots]]
[[Category:Wikipedia user access levels]]

Wikipedia:Bots - Revision history