Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/ShabzarBot


 * The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Symbol delete vote.svg Denied.

ShabzarBot
Operator: Shabzar

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Semi-automatic

Programming Language(s): Uses Perl

Function Summary: This bot looks out for external links containing the words "gambling" or "pornography" and removes the links. The removal is based on an off-site list stored on another server. The bot also adds a series of warning templates to vandals userpages and reverts vandalism on the following pages: Chicken, Snowman, Vauxhall Cavalier, China, Wi-fi, Adolf Hitler, Boxing, Japan, Danielle Lloyd, Shilpa Shetty. More pages will be added to the off-site link that contains the page listing.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run):daily

Edit rate requested: 14 edits per minute

Already has a bot flag (Y/N):n

Function Details: This bot will look out for pageblanking or replacing page with... summaries on Chicken, Snowman, Vauxhall Cavalier, China, Wi-Fi, Adolf Hitler, Japan, Danielle Lloyd and Shilpa Shetty. This is based on an off-site regexp. It knows what vandalism is, "blanking the page" or "replacing page with...". Edit warring is NOT recognised. It also removes all links listed at User:ShabzarBot/WebLinks too. Please add new links as you see fit, and the bot will remove them if they are not relevant to the article.

Discussion
How is vandalism detected? How do you avoid false positives? How do you avoid edit warring? ST47 Talk 18:14, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Wait... does this bot plan to remove existing links, or is it just keeping watch out for new links? If its the latter, then I should refer you to User:Shadowbot. Also I'm not all that thrilled with the idea of a bot of this nature running at 14 edits per minute, as that implies we need to flag the bot... not something I think should happen. ——  Eagle 101 Need help? 18:34, 11 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The list of links are listed at User:ShabzarBot/WebLinks - formatted using the pre- tags. As for vandalism, it detects any usage of "Blanked the page" or "Replacing page with X" - and the bot was not written by me, but a friend. The articles listed are the ONLY ones it can edit so far - but more will be added. --Shabzar 23:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
 * OK. Talk to User:Shadow1 about the link removals, the rest of that looks good. Are you using the Perlwikipedia framework? ST47 Talk 00:07, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
 * So wait a minute, its a counter vandalism bot that is restricted to a subset of pages? (The link stuff should be able to be handled by shadowbot... And don't we have martinbot... ). I'm a bit confused about what exactly its going to do different... ——  Eagle 101 Need help? 04:08, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Could you please fill in the function details section above? I'd like to know how the bot discovers edits, what alogrithms it uses, which safety measures are in place, and reasons for your various choices. Thanks, Martinp23 13:37, 13 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment by uninvolved admin: The submitter,, has just been autoblocked for using the same IP as the vandal . It's maybe also worth noting that she has a grand total of about a dozen contributions. Sandstein 05:51, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * It's all cool now, Sandstein. I'm just editing from various public PCs, being on the move recently... --Shabzar 10:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Can we see some source code, perhaps posted to a user subpage? --ST47 Talk 10:37, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I havent got the source code, I didn't write this bot, someone else did. But this bot should have a trial. --Shabzar 11:38, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I really don't like the sound of running a closed-sourced bot written by others... seems like a problem waiting to happen. -Halo 15:39, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It's written in Perl. Perl is interpreted at runtime. If you don't have the code, how do you intend to run it? --ST47 Talk 18:44, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
 * ST47 is correct - you must have the source code in order to run it (it's interpreted). Is the person who wrote it for you going to run it, and if possible, could you request the source code? I don't like the sound of this... Tim.bounceback( review me! 22:04, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

No evidence is forthcoming that this user is trusted by the community - the task is controversial and there are even some sockpuppetry concerns, on top of which the requesting user would appear to have no idea (based on the source code issue). My gut feeling is that, were we to approve for trial, we would get absolutely spotless results, would give a bot flag, and then get some abuse, with the name excluded from recent changes on account if it being a bot. Hence, Martinp23 18:10, 16 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.