Appropedia:Bot tasks: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:46, 26 December 2010

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Agreed bot tasks

Uncontroversial or agreed-upon tasks should be listed here:

Routine bot tasks

Actual commands are in bold.

Most are currently performed by ChriswaterguyBot, but may be performed by any bot. Use appropriate care.

fix double-redirects: python redirect.py double (brovse the outputs for anything odd, and manually fix anything that needs fixing.)
delete broken redirects: python redirect.py broken (Requires adminship. Be extra careful)
fix format of redirects to categories:
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml -nocase "#REDIRECT [[Category:" "#REDIRECT [[:Category:"
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml -nocase "#REDIRECT[[Category:" "#REDIRECT [[:Category:"
add "|{{PAGENAME}}" to category tags, for pages not in the main or category namespaces.

Occasional

Correcting capitalization of headers, e.g. See Also to See also:
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml "== See Also" "== See also"
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml "==See Also" "== See also"
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml "== External Links" "== External links"
- python replace.py -xml:currentdump.xml "==External Links" "== External links"

Suggested bot tasks

Wikilinking
Adding categories - look for text strings, to help identify pages for categorization.
common spelling errors
- Adapt a bot from Wikipedia?
Tagging pages with apparent non-compliant capitalization
- Maintain a list (possibly a hidden category) of checked pages that have good reasons for not complying,
Cancel this task, or replace these with updated templates? --Chriswaterguy 05:46, 26 December 2010 (UTC)place these templates on every topic page, if not there already:Reply[reply]

Change header ==Footnotes and references== to ==Notes==. (==References== is a different kind of section - see Wikipedia links at the bottom of Template:Notes.)
Move categories to a new category name. A bot owner will run the changes periodically. (If you need it done soon, leave a message at User talk:ChriswaterguyBot). List categories below with links (from... to...) :
Every page with Category:Green living but without Category:Sustainability should be added to Category:Sustainability (but checked one-by-one. This is assuming that green living should be treated differently from other subcategories of sustainability, that it overlaps a lot. (Sustainability is more serious, perhaps - green living suggests a more specific readership.) Don't know if that makes sense... --Chriswaterguy 14:05, 20 November 2009 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Fix improperly closed ref tags, which cause the bottom part of pages not to display. Is it possible to detect when a <ref> is followed by another <ref>, rather than by a </ref>, or by neither? (Maybe Wikipedia:User:SmackBot does this - it fixes certain ref errors.)

Notes:

Be sensitive to variations in spelling - some people don't like it if their spellings are "corrected" from American to British forms, or vice-versa. - (Can we use a dictionary that accepts both/all regional spellings?)
replace [[User:Singkong2005|Singkong2005]] (now known as [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]]) with [[User:Singkong2005|Singkong2005]] (now known as [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]]) ''<small>a.k.a. [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]]'' Done.

Simple search and replace

Replace:

~~[[laptop: with [[OLPC:~~

Useful bots

Other bots we could use:

Wikipedia:User:SmackBot - fixes refs. Seems to be a bunch of tools operated by a user. We could ask how s/he fixes refs.
AutoWikiBrowser

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 ==Suggested bot tasks==
-* '''''Hold on''' with this task - I'm working on new templates... --[[User:Chriswaterguy|Chriswaterguy]] 04:43, 15 November 2009 (UTC).'' place these templates on every topic page, if not there already:
-:*{{tl|Browsetopic}}
+* Wikilinking
-:*{{tl|Createnewpage}}
+* Adding categories - look for text strings, to help identify pages for categorization.
-:*{{tl|Putinthiscategory}}
+* common spelling errors
-* every page with but without should be added to (but checked one-by-one. This is assuming that [[green living]] should be treated differently from other subcategories of sustainability, that it overlaps a lot. (Sustainability is more serious, perhaps - green living suggests a more specific readership.) Don't know if that makes sense... --[[User:Chriswaterguy|Chriswaterguy]] 14:05, 20 November 2009 (UTC)
-*Look for text strings in articles which are the same as topic and location category names. The first occurrence of this string in each article should generally be wikilinked. (I suggest a policy of using simple links, which will then be redirected, e.g. <nowiki>[[Cambodia]], not [[:Category:Cambodia|Cambodia]]</nowiki>. This makes it less confusing for newbies wanting to learn from the editing. It also makes updating simpler if a category name is ever changed. --[[User:Chriswaterguy|Chriswaterguy]] &middot; <small>[[User talk:Chriswaterguy|talk]]</small> 19:26, 28 February 2007 (PST))
-*As above, but look for text strings, to help identify pages for categorization. E.g. Look for articles about cohousing but without the text <nowiki>"[[Category:Cohousing", and add [[Category:Cohousing]] (or replace [[Category:Intentional communities]] with the sharper category [[Category:Cohousing]], as appropriate - this is better but requires more thought & work for each category.)</nowiki>
-*common spelling errorserrors
 ** Adapt a bot from Wikipedia?
-** Be sensitive to variations in spelling - some people don't like it if their spellings are "corrected" from American to British forms, or vice-versa. - (Can we use a dictionary that accepts both/all regional spellings?)
+* Tagging pages with apparent non-compliant capitalization
+** Maintain a list (possibly a hidden category) of checked pages that have good reasons for not complying,
+* Cancel this task, or replace these with updated templates? --[[User:Chriswaterguy|Chriswaterguy]] 05:46, 26 December 2010 (UTC)''place these templates on every topic page, if not there already:''
+:*''{{tl|Browsetopic}}''
+:*''{{tl|Createnewpage}}''
+:*''{{tl|Putinthiscategory}}''
+* Change header ==Footnotes and references== to ==Notes==. (==References== is a different kind of section - see Wikipedia links at the bottom of [[Template:Notes]].)
+* Move categories to a new category name. A bot owner will run the changes periodically. (If you need it done soon, leave a message at [[User talk:ChriswaterguyBot]]). List categories below with links (from... to...) :
+**
+* Every page with [[:Category:Green living]] but without [[:Category:Sustainability]] should be added to [[:Category:Sustainability]] (but checked one-by-one. This is assuming that [[green living]] should be treated differently from other subcategories of sustainability, that it overlaps a lot. (Sustainability is more serious, perhaps - green living suggests a more specific readership.) Don't know if that makes sense... --[[User:Chriswaterguy|Chriswaterguy]] 14:05, 20 November 2009 (UTC)
+* Fix improperly closed ref tags, which cause the bottom part of pages not to display. Is it possible to detect when a <nowiki><ref> is followed by another <ref>, rather than by a </ref></nowiki>, or by neither? (Maybe [[Wikipedia:User:SmackBot]] does this - it fixes certain ref errors.)
+'''Notes''':
+* Be sensitive to variations in spelling - some people don't like it if their spellings are "corrected" from American to British forms, or vice-versa. - (Can we use a dictionary that accepts both/all regional spellings?)
 *<s>replace '''<nowiki>[[User:Singkong2005|Singkong2005]] (now known as [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]])</nowiki>''' with '''<nowiki>[[User:Singkong2005|Singkong2005]] (now known as [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]])  ''<small>a.k.a. [[User:Chriswaterguy| Chriswaterguy]]''</nowiki>'''</s> Done.
-*Tagging pages with apparent non-compliant capitalization
-**Maintain a list (possibly a category) of checked non-compliers.
-*Change header ==Footnotes and references== to ==Notes==. (==References== is a different kind of section - see WP links at the bottom of {{tl|notes}}.)
-*Move the following categories, changing tags in all articles in the category. (Note to bot owner(s): Perhaps it's easier to let the list build up, or else just do it at regular intervals):
-*Fix improperly closed ref tags, which cause the bottom part of pages not to display. Is it possible to detect when a <nowiki><ref> is followed by another <ref>, rather than by a </ref></nowiki>, or by neither? (Maybe [[Wikipedia:User:SmackBot]] does this - it fixes certain ref errors.)
-*Bots could help with one aspect of our topic/category dilemma:
-** If we go with topic categories, having category redirects will often be essential (due to old links from various places on the internet). However, we don't want people to put anything in these categories. The desired long term solution is that MediaWiki displays these in a way to indicate that they are not appropriate categories (like redlinks) while still allowing the pages to function as redirects.
-** A medium term solution, which we're using, is  to the redirect issue is that we allow category redirects, using a special template. This would include <s>a regular redirect tag, as well as </s>an explanatory note for those who view it directly. A bot could be run as a [[#Routine bot tasks|routine bot task]] <s>at least once a week on every page displaying this template. It detects whether there are pages in the category, and goes to those pages and fixes the category tag to display the target category. (It will output a log file of changes, so these moves can be checked by a human.)</s> Every few months the old category redirect pages can be deleted. However, they are only deleted if they are quite old in case people follow old links. This fixes the single main problem with category redirects.
-*Check if page title is a Wikipedia page title and add the <nowiki>{{Wikipedia}}</nowiki> template automatically. - (Note: This would have the downside of linking to a lot of Wikipedia disambiguation pages, or to pages which are wrong for our purposes. - We might want to make the bot write to a listing of "Pages tagged by Wikipedia bot", so that a human could check its recent work and disambiguate or correct links as desired.)
-* Replace <nowiki>{{Wikipedia}} with {{Wikipedia|page name}}</nowiki> - to prevent the target changing when a page or text is moved. However, the ''subst:'' doesn't work in <nowiki>{{wikipedia|subst:{{PAGENAME}}}}</nowiki> so 2 or more replacement steps are needed.
-** This might work:
-**#<nowiki>{{Wikipedia}} -->  WikipediaTemplateTag|{{subst:PAGENAME}}WikipediaTemplateEndTag</nowiki>  ''Note that outside mainspace this has to be modified to <nowiki>{{subst:NAMESPACE}}:{{subst:PAGENAME}}</nowiki>''
-**#<nowiki>WikipediaTemplateTag --> {{Wikipedia</nowiki>
-**#<nowiki>WikipediaTemplateEndTag  --> }}</nowiki>
-**Then {{tl|Wikipedia}} can be deleted & {{tl|Wikipedia p}} can be moved to {{tl|Wikipedia}}
-**Replace <nowiki>[[Category:Foo]] with [[Category:Foo|{{PAGENAME}}]]</nowiki> in namespaces other than mainspace.
 == Simple search and replace ==