Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group/Guide



Welcome BAG Members (and people interested in the inner workings of the BAG)! This is a small guide for common BAG-related tasks and duties, and how to best perform them. It also includes a few other useful resources.

Guide to BRFAs
BAG members are expected to use sound judgement and take the full situation and background of every BRFA into account. Precedent can be used to inform judgment, but should never be used as a hammer. Each BRFA requires BAG members to determine both the technical soundness of the proposed bot, and ensure that the requested task has consensus. The more contentious a task, the higher the burden of demonstrating consensus. Non-controversial and technically straightforward tasks may be approved after short trials, while more contentious and technically complex tasks may require formal and well-advertised RFCs accompanied by long trial periods. Typical places to hold such discussions are at the Village Pump, or a relevant WikiProject, but other locations may be suitable as well depending on the nature of the bot task. When in doubt, ask for more community input.

If consensus has been demonstrated, is likely to form, or can reasonably be presumed, BAG members have the discretion to allow the proposed bot to undergo trial to judge its technical soundness. Trials can also be used to help determine consensus if relevant communities have been notified, but failed to engage in dialogue after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed. Bot trials exist so the community has a chance to review a proposed bot's behaviour, suggest improvements, voice opposition, point out issues, discuss the scope of its task, and to break silence. Once technical soundness and consensus are satisfied, bot tasks can be approved. If a new bot requires a bot flag, a bureaucrat will apply the flag after the BRFA is added to Bots/Requests for approval/Approved.

Typically, a BAG member will oversee a BRFA from trial to closure, and invite (or mandate) involvement from the community. Other BAG members will often participate and comment during the BRFA to give their opinions on various matters, but defer to the trial-granter for closure. This is not an official rule, but more of a recognition that whoever approves a bot for trial is usually more familiar with the background of the task, and has implicitly agreed to review the bot's edit and follow up on any issues raised during the trial. If a BAG member is unable to finish the review, or is unsure on how to proceed, they should leave a note at WT:BAG so others can help.

To ensure the impartial reviews of BRFAs, BAG members should not oversee the process for their own bots, or in other BRFAs where impartiality would be compromised. Such involved BAG members can still participate and comment on the task, however.

Trials
This is a general overview of the broad categories of trials that are typically granted by BAG members. These do not not constitute 'official types', and when exactly a 'short' trial becomes a 'long' trial is best left to philosophers. In practice, BAG members simply state the specific length and conditions of a trial (Approved for trial, 50 edits), rather than the trial type (Approved for a short trial) with the BotTrial/BotExtendedTrial templates.

Additional conditions on trials can always be specified. In particular, a BRFA with multiple subtasks should demonstrate technical soundness and consensus for all subtasks during the trial. BAG members may require the trial to have a specific number of edits for each substask, or require a trial with enough edits that each substask is demonstrated.

Closures
Once a BRFA has run its course, BAG members should close it in one of the following manners. See Bot Top/Bot Bottom and User:SQL/How to close a BRFA for the technical details.

Bot-focused
These pages are directly related to BAG's mandate, and every active BAG member should watch them.

Bot-related
These pages sometimes have issues related to BAG's mandate, or of interest to the bot community. If you notice something bot-related in need of attention from the BAG and/or bot operators, please post a notice at WT:BAG and/or WP:BON. While BAG duties differ from Administrator duties, members are expected to give advice on bot-related matters and to help mediate situations.