Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Worldbot

Worldbot

 * The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

 MBisanz  talk 03:51, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Operator: The Transhumanist

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic (supervised)

Programming Language(s): Python, MacroExpress Script, or AutoHotKey Script

Function Summary: Insert population and area figures to country-based lists of basic topics.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): One-time (there are 247 pages in the set).

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

Function Details: Worldbot will copy population and area figures off of the infobox of each country article and paste them into the appropriate fields in the corresponding list of basic x topics for each country (where "x" is the country's name).

Discussion
The pages to be changed are in the Wikipedia namespace, as drafts under WikiProject Lists of basic topics/Draft, so changing them will not affect the encyclopedia (article space) in any way (i.e., will be fairly safe).

I recently submitted a nearly identical proposal, specifying a different programming language, but mentioned that I didn't have a programmer for it yet. Approval was denied, without any explanation, which forced me to guess that it was because there was no programmer on standby. I'll be programming this bot in the macroscript language of MacroExpress or AutoHotKey, unless a friend of mine becomes available to program it in Python.

The feedback provided last time was useless (no feedback, just "denied"). So I'm back, because I've carefully read the instructions (again), and I'm following them. It would be very helpful, if whoever is in charge here summarily dismisses this proposal as he or she did last time, to please explain why.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Transhumanist 22:48, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I have a question. Somewhere in the instructions it mentioned that bots working in user space don't require approval. So drafts could be moved to userspace and worked on there, right? It seems senselessly bureaucratic to force me to do that extra step (247 moves will be a royal pain), but if that's what it takes to be able to get this job done, then I'll be (less than) happy to do so.

The Transhumanist 22:56, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Comment - I haven't created the bot page yet, because last time the bot page I created was almost immediately blocked by someone, which had the effect of blocking me (and an entire library) for 24 hours. The Transhumanist 23:09, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Comment - I have no idea why the heading isn't transcluding properly. I've tried everything I could think of to fix it. Never ran into this glitch before. The Transhumanist 23:29, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
 * You removed (or didn't copy, if you created this page by copy-paste rather than the input box at BRFA) the category line from the top of the page, which results in the "==" not being at the beginning of the line when this page is transcluded by BRFA. Anomie⚔ 00:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Why is this necessary? How does such data help such lists? =Nichalp  «Talk»=  16:22, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * The lead section of each page answers your question well: "The following topic outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to x" (where x is the name of a country).  The Transhumanist  23:41, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Question: How long does this process take? It's been over 2 weeks! I could have had this chore done by hand by now. The Transhumanist 23:47, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Attention: Have started doing this task by hand. Please make a decision about the bot soon, to save at least some time on this task. Thank you. The Transhumanist 23:21, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm curious --> List of basic country topics. My concern is the usefulness of such bots and those articles. Is there a WikiProject discussion that handles country-articles of this nature? What is the scope of addition to such lists, and are such meta lists useful? Why would you want to add the population details to a loosely-defined list page, when the population details belong to the article itself? =Nichalp   «Talk»=  18:28, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

❌ I therefore suggest you run your bot without a flag with a delay of 10 seconds between each edit. =Nichalp  «Talk»=  08:53, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) I don't see the usefulness of flagging this bot. The bot edits a low-priority list page, that does not qualify as an article.
 * 2) These edits should be vetted by humans, so hiding it from Recent Changes is not desirable.
 * 3) Area-based figures are unlikely to change. Population figures change usually every decade (official census) and estimates. The estimated figures change once a year. Assuming that are 250 articles to be edited, the work load is not to great. 250 updates per year, not too high IMO.


 * As I see it this bot is for editing 247 pages with data from 247 other pages. That is a small enough run that it probably does not require a bot flag or a separate bot account. I'm going to close this req out in a day or so unless someone says I am reading it wrong.  MBisanz  talk 05:13, 18 October 2008 (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.