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<form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button">
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CONTENTS

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 * (Top)
 * 1 History
 * 2 Bot policy
 * 3 Bot Approvals Group
 * 4 How to create a bot
 * 5 Dealing with bot issues
 * 6 How to hide a specific bot from your watchlist
 * 7 How to hide AWB edits from your watchlist
 * 8 How to stop specific bots from editing the article
 * 9 Examples
 * 10 See also

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Automated programs on Wikipedia



"WP:B" redirects here. For other uses, see WP:B (disambiguation).
"WP:BOT" redirects here. For other uses, see WP:BOT (disambiguation).
 * Wikipedia programming

 * Bots
 * Extensions
 * Gadgets
 * User scripts
   * List
   * Ranking
   * Requests
   * Guide
   * Other scripts
   * Newsletter
 * Tools

 * Overview
   * Dictionary
 * Bot policy
 * Bot Approvals Group
   * Guide
 * Noticeboard
 * Newsletter

 * Bot Requests
 * Requests for Approval
   * Adminbots
 * {{BAG Tools}}
 * Creating a Bot
 * List of bots
   * Activity monitor
   * Status report
 * History
 * Types

Wikipedia information page
This is an information page.

It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to
explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or
practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcuts
 * WP:BOT
 * WP:BOTS

This page in a nutshell: On Wikipedia, bots are computer-controlled user
accounts performing various tasks in order to maintain the encyclopedia. Bots
are used for many purposes, for instance, removing obvious vandalism and
archiving talk pages. All bots must be approved by a special group before they
are put into use.

A physical robot (right)

A bot (a common nickname for software robot) is an automated tool that carries
out repetitive and mundane tasks to maintain the 61,373,790 pages of the English
Wikipedia. Bots are able to make edits very rapidly, but can disrupt Wikipedia
if they are incorrectly designed or operated. For these reasons, a bot policy
has been developed.

There are currently 2,710 bot tasks approved for use on the English Wikipedia;
however, not all approved tasks involve actively carrying out edits. Bots will
leave messages on user talk pages if the action that the bot has carried out is
of interest to that editor. Some bots can be excluded from leaving these
messages by using the {{bots}} tags. There are 213 exclusion-compliant bots,
which are listed in this category. There are 298 bots flagged with the "bot"
flag right now (and over 400 former bots). There is also a range of tools that
allow semi-automated editing of large numbers of articles.


HISTORY

Main page: Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots

Bots have been used in the past to create large numbers of articles that were
uploaded to Wikipedia within a short timeframe. Some technical problems were
experienced and this led to the formulation of a bot policy, as well as a
restriction on the automated, large-scale, creation of articles.


BOT POLICY

Main page: Wikipedia:Bot policy

Wikipedia policy requires that bots be harmless and useful, have approval, use
separate user accounts, and be operated responsibly.


BOT APPROVALS GROUP

Main page: Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group

The Bot Approvals Group (BAG) supervises and approves all bot-related activity
from a technical and quality-control perspective on behalf of the English
Wikipedia community. On the English Wikipedia, the right to flag a bot is
limited to bureaucrats.

Running an automated bot on a separate account requires approval, which may be
requested at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval.


HOW TO CREATE A BOT

Main page: Help:Creating a bot

Some programming experience generally is needed to create a bot, and knowledge
of regular expressions is useful for many editing tasks. However, some of the
more user-friendly tools, such as AutoWikiBrowser or JavaScript Wiki Browser,
can be used for some tasks.

The Chicken Scheme, Common Lisp, Haskell, Java, Microsoft .NET, Perl, PHP,
Python, and Ruby programming languages all have libraries available for creating
bots. Pywikibot is a commonly used Python package developed specifically for
creating MediaWiki bots.


DEALING WITH BOT ISSUES

Main page: Wikipedia:Bot policy § Dealing with issues

If you have noticed a problem with a bot, have a complaint, or have a suggestion
to make, you should contact the bot operator directly via their user talk page
(or via the bot account's talk page). Bot operators are expected to be
responsive to the community's concerns and suggestions, but please assume good
faith and don't panic. Bugs and mistakes happen, and we're all here to build an
encyclopedia.

If the bot is causing a significant problem, or the bot operator has not
responded and the bot is still causing issues, several mechanisms are available
to prevent further disruption. Many bots provide a stop button or means to
disable the problematic task on their bot user page. This should be tried first,
followed by a discussion of the issue with the bot operator. If no such
mechanism is available (or if urgent action is needed), leave a message at the
administrators' noticeboard requesting a block for a malfunctioning bot. Per the
noticeboard's guideline, you are required to notify the bot operator of the
discussion taking place at the noticeboard.

If you are concerned that a bot is operating outside the established consensus
for its task, discuss the issue with the bot operator first, or try other forms
of dispute resolution (BAG members can act as neutral mediators on such
matters). If you are concerned that a bot no longer has consensus for its task,
you may formally appeal or ask for re-examination of a bot's approval.


HOW TO HIDE A SPECIFIC BOT FROM YOUR WATCHLIST


Shortcuts
 * WP:HIDEBOT
 * WP:HIDEBOTS

While it is easy to hide all bots from your watchlist, there is no way of hiding
specific bots through user preferences or default watchlist settings. However,
it is possible with a user script by following these steps.

Main steps

 1. Go to your Special:MyPage/common.js page (or your Special:MyPage/skin.js),
    and add the following line (diff):
    importScript('User:UncleDouggie/smart_watchlist.js'); // Backlink:
    [[User:UncleDouggie/smart_watchlist]]
 2. Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rc, check both the 'Group changes
    by page in recent changes and watchlist' and 'Use non-JavaScript interface'
    boxes, and click 'Save'.
 3. Remember to bypass your browser's cache.
 4. Go to your watchlist. There should be a box with several options. Tick the
    'Enable hide user buttons' box. This will let you hide specific bots (and
    users) from your watchlist. Note: You might want to untick the 'Enable hide
    user buttons' box after you ignore a bot to ensure that you don't
    accidentally click 'hide user' when browsing your watchlist.

Optional steps

 1. If you find the 'Enable hide user buttons' box annoying, go to your
    Special:MyPage/common.css page (or Special:MyPage/skin.css) and add the
    following line (diff): #SmartWatchlistOptions {display:none !important;}
 2. Remember to bypass your browser's cache.
 3. If you want to show the box again, for example to reset your ignore list, go
    to your Special:MyPage/common.css page and remove the line you added in
    optional step #1 (remembering to again bypass your browser's cache). Redoing
    optional steps #1 and #2 will hide the box again.

While you are completely free to ignore any bots (or users) you want, it is a
good idea to only ignore bots with well-defined tasks, which you trust to not
make any mistakes.


HOW TO HIDE AWB EDITS FROM YOUR WATCHLIST


Shortcut
 * WP:HIDEAWB

There is no way of hiding AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) edits through user preferences
or default watchlist settings. However, it is possible with a user script by
following these steps:

Steps

 1. Go to your Special:MyPage/common.js page (or your Special:MyPage/skin.js),
    and add the following two lines (diff):
    
    importScript( 'User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB.js' ); // Backlink: [[User:Evad37/Watchlist-hideAWB]]
    var awbHiddenByDefault = true;
    

 2. Bypass your browser's cache.

Any edit with "AWB" in its edit summary will now default to hidden for you. You
may reveal them by clicking on the "show AWB" tab at the top of your watchlist
(next to "Special page" for Monobook skin, or in the "More" dropdown for Vector
skin).

Notes:

 * If you leave out var awbHiddenByDefault = true;, AWB edits will be shown by
   default, but you will have the option of hiding AWB edits by clicking on the
   "hide AWB" tab at the top of your watchlist.
 * While you are completely free to ignore AWB edits, remember that many of them
   will contain substantial changes from human editors, not just minor edits
   from bots or meatbots.
 * When hiding edits with a script, earlier edits can be forced to appear. Using
   the Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent preference
   option is necessary to see other non-hidden watchlist hits for a page.


HOW TO STOP SPECIFIC BOTS FROM EDITING THE ARTICLE

Main page: Template:Bots

It's rare that a mainspace article needs to not be edited by a specific bot. No
article needs to stop all bots from editing, since antivandal bots such as
ClueBot NG need to be able to edit all mainspace articles. The template {{bots}}
can stop a bot from editing an article under the rare circumstance it's needed.


EXAMPLES

Some examples of bots are:

 * User:AAlertBot – delivering article alerts to WikiProjects about ongoing
   discussions.
 * User:AnomieBOT – large variety of tasks, most well known for adding dates to
   amboxes.
 * User:ClueBot NG – reverts possible vandalism.
 * User:Citation bot – Adds PMIDs, ISBNs, etc. to pages.
 * User:CommonsDelinker – removes links to files deleted at Wikimedia Commons
   due to policy infractions.
 * User:DatBot – patrols the edit filters and resizes non-free images.
 * User:DumbBOT – often removes protection templates from recently unprotected
   pages.
 * User:InternetArchiveBot – retrieves archived copies of dead links.
 * User:ListeriaBot – Experimental bot by Magnus Manske. It generates and
   updates lists on Wikipedia.
 * User:Lowercase sigmabot III – archives talk pages.
 * User:ST47ProxyBot – automatically blocks proxies due to the local policy
   against open proxies.
 * User:SineBot – signs comments left on talk pages.
 * User:WP 1.0 bot – works with the Version 1.0 Editorial Team.


SEE ALSO

Articles

 * Internet bot
 * Wikipedia bots

Categories

 * Wikipedia bots
 * Wikipedia bot requests for approval

Meta

 * meta:bot
 * meta:Bot policy
 * meta:Countervandalism Network/Bots

Barnstar

 * {{The Bot Creator Barnstar|put your message here. ~~~~}} – Awarded to an
   editor for creating a bot.
 * {{Bot operator's barnstar|put your message here. ~~~~}} – Bot operator's
   barnstar, Coders need love too.

Userbox and top icon

 * {{User bot owner}} – a userbox template to indicate you own and run a bot.
 * {{Bot topicon}} – a top icon template to indicate you have own and run a bot
   – adds a category to page automatically.


 * v
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Automated and semi-automated editing tools
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 * See also: Category:Wikipedia how-to
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   Further navigation at: Help pages
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Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Bots&oldid=1240234440"
Categories:
 * Wikipedia information pages
 * Wikipedia bots
 * Wikipedia user access levels

Hidden categories:
 * Wikipedia semi-protected project pages
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