Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/TomBot


 * The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was

TomBot
Operator:

Time filed: 14:28, Saturday, June 17, 2017 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): AWB

Source code available: AWB

Function overview: Add to single-redirect-template #REDIRECT pages.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Template:Redirect category shell/doc says it's based on a proposal, but that proposal is from 2008. The template is extensively used and appears to already have general consensus. might be able to assist with more information here if needed?

Edit period(s): Periodic, maybe once/month.

Estimated number of pages affected: ~3,000,000

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes

Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): No

Function details:
 * 1) Standardizes the   line to remove leading whitespace, intervening colons, and force a single space before the wikilink.
 * 2) Standardizes Redirect category shell from its aliases. Not relevant here
 * 3) Adds (if needed) a blank line between the #REDIRECT and Redirect category shell.
 * 4) Standardizes 71 redirect templates from all of their aliases (not all  s were included because it would have taken a very long time to write the rules for all aliases of all  s, so, instead, see next function).
 * 5) Standardizes all remaining  s' aliases which do not start with   to their parent, to make all following regex & rules easier to manage, debug, less complicated, and faster.
 * 6) Capitalizes the first   in.
 * 7) Removes , so as to eliminate duplication with Redirect category shell, which automatically detects & responds to protection levels. (Protection templates are part of the 71 that get their aliases converted to their parent, making this regex, for example, much simpler.)
 * 8) Wraps the  -template on the redirect with Redirect category shell iif Redirect category shell DNE. Pages with Redirect category shell or its aliases don't make it onto the edit-list, but, just in case, they are also automatically skipped (in case someone added Redirect category shell between the last database scan and my attempted edit).
 * 9) Adds (if needed) a blank line between the close of Redirect category shell and  or category.
 * 10) Adds (if needed) 2 blank lines between the last category and first interwiki (they're still out there).

Discussion
A lot of those edits go against WP:COSMETICBOT/WP:NOTBROKEN. They're certainly fine if the bot does something else, but on their own it's not enough to warrant an edit. Items 7 and 8 seem enough to warrant an edit, however. I'd need examples of items 4 and 5 to know exactly what you're referring to. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 15:15, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * None of these edits happen if #8 doesn't happen (maybe I should've put that at the top), i.e. the page is skipped if it's not a redirect, or if it is a redirect and already contains Redirect category shell or its aliases. I figured that if I'm going to go through a boatload of pages, I might as well clean the rest of it up.
 * Here is an example edit of #4 & #5.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:33, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah I see, then yes the task should be fine then. Let's wait on the VPR discussion to see what the consensus is on this, but I don't foresee many issues. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 16:41, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Given the size of this task, this really needs consensus. Please start a discussion at one of the village pumps. ~ Rob 13 Talk 15:49, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Discussion started.  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:07, 17 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Can you do 5 of these (just use your editor account) and placed the diffs below - having clear examples helps explain what the edits will be to more people. — xaosflux  Talk 19:25, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Sure -, , , , .  ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:42, 17 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I agree with here - to make millions of edits that have the basic reader impact of drawing a rectangle around a page they would have already been redirected from will need a very clear consensus to let this run. —  xaosflux  Talk 00:12, 19 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Community consensus for this type of work was not established, see Special:PermaLink/789559794. — xaosflux  Talk 12:01, 8 July 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.