Forum:Bot flag request
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
We've never used bots on this wikia before, to my knowledge, so I'm a little unsure of the correct procedure for getting a bot flag. However, user:Sulfur, whose endless patience has allowed me to get a bot up and running, has suggested a procedure from MemAlpha. Basically, a bot will make a number of tiny little changes all at once, and will clog up the recent edits summary page unless it's given a special bot flag. It's not terribly egregious behavior, but most people would like to just look at the "significant" edits made in the last day or few hours. The suggestion is, however, that getting this bot flag set is not just a matter of me making a request to an admin, but rather one that comes through consensus. The theory, I gather, goes that some people might actually want to easily see the edits that a bot makes, without having to change their user settings to allow bot-mods to be visible. So, my bot is User:CzechBot and it's going to be doing a variety of things. I'm not entirely sure what, yet, but it'll be vital to making any new invoxen changes (such as converting [[image:whatever.jpg|300px]] into just whatever.jpg, or for mass movement of categories, or perhaps mass categorization of images by episode/serial, or the mass changing of prefixes. There will likely be instances of hundreds, if not thousands, of changes being made within a very short period of time. "Real", substantive changes to the wiki will get buried in recent edits. But the bot will be happily making all those tiny little changes that no-one really wants to make, but we all know need to happen. So, vote below whether you want to see the changes in recent edits or not. Thanks CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 02:49, March 5, 2010 (UTC)
Yes, I do want to see what CzechBot is up to
- I'm placing my vote here (for now). As the actions the bot performs may be of note (and require discussion) within the wiki. A lot of little changes can drastically effect the wiki more so than the big ones. --Tangerineduel 12:49, March 21, 2010 (UTC)
No, I'd rather focus on the big changes made to the wikia
- Better to word it as approving a bot flag, not seeing things in the RC. I would also suggest that once you hit about 50-100 edits with the bot, that you put it on hold until a decision is made here. -- sulfur 03:11, March 5, 2010 (UTC)
- All I can see in Recent Changes in these made by CzechBot. It is really annoying. and Tangerineduel, you can;t see all what czechBot does because it goes onto multiple pages of Recent Changes. ☆The Solar Dragon (Talk - Contribs.)☆ 15:59, May 29, 2010 (UTC)
- Agreed. But it would be nice if there were a way to tell people how to turn off the "ignore bots" option right at the top of the "Activity feed" page. That was one of the biggest complaints with bots on Wikipedia years ago--that people didn't know how to change the flag back and forth unless they asked. Can we get a new line of text added under the title or something? --Falcotron 20:59, May 29, 2010 (UTC)
