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A '''bot''' is a piece of software that makes automated edits on a wiki and also helps human users to make semi-automated edits. Bots are most often used in short runs to make repetitive edits to many pages, such as moving a group of pages to a new category, fixing links to disambiguation pages, or to search for misspelled words and replace them with correct ones.
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A '''bot''' is a piece of software that makes automated edits on a community and also helps human users to make semi-automated edits. Bots are most often used to make repetitive edits to many pages, such as moving a group of pages to a new category, fixing links to disambiguation pages, or to search for misspelled words and replace them with correct ones.
   
 
==Bot flags==
 
==Bot flags==
As bots can make many edits during their run, their edits can overwhelm the [[Help:Recent changes|recent changes]] list, making it difficult to see and respond to edits by human users. For this reason, bots that have been tested and approved by a Wikia community can be given a '''bot flag''', a setting in the MediaWiki software that hides bot edits from the recent changes list. Bot edits can always be revealed by clicking "Show bots" in the Recent changes header.
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As bots can make many edits during their run, their edits can overwhelm the [[Help:Recent changes|recent changes]] list, making it difficult to see and respond to edits by human users. For this reason, bots that have been tested and approved by a community can be given a '''bot flag.''' A bot flag is a setting in the MediaWiki software that hides bot edits from the recent changes list. Bot edits can always be revealed by clicking "Show bots" in the Recent changes header. 
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[[File:Showbots.png|center|456px]]
   
==How can I flag a bot?==
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==How can I flag an account as a bot?==
To receive a bot flag, please [[Special:Contact|contact]] a member of the [[Help:Community Team|Community Team]] with a link to a public discussion showing that the community approves of the use and flagging of the bot.
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To receive a bot flag, please [[Special:Contact/general|contact]] a member of the [[Help:Community Team|Community Team]] to request it. Your request should include a link to a public discussion on your community or explicit permission from a bureaucrat, showing approval of the use and flagging of the bot.
   
 
==Important notes==
 
==Important notes==
Bots on Wikia must use a '''limited editing rate''' so that they don't overload the servers by opening and editing many pages in a very short time frame.
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Bots on Wikia must use a '''limited editing rate''' so that they don't overload Wikia's servers. For most bot programs, a rate throttle is built in, so you don't need to worry about this. However, if you find your bot making more than one edit per second, then it's time to slow it down.
   
The user page and user talk page for the bot should
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A bot account's User Profile and Talk Page should:
* clearly identify it as a bot,
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* Clearly identify the account as a bot
* link to its owner's user talk page for questions,
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* Link to its owner's user talk page for questions
* encourage users to have the bot blocked by an admin if its automated edits are causing damage to the wiki — the block can be lifted after the causes for the damaging edits are understood and fixed.
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* Encourage users to have the bot blocked by an admin if its automated edits are causing damage to the community — the block can be lifted after the causes for the damaging edits are understood and fixed.
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== Check Page ==
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[[wikipedia:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AutoWikiBrowser]] (AWB) makes use of a whitelist called a 'check page'. On Wikia, if this page exists locally on the community (in the format of [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage]]), the bot's username (or the username the bot will run on) will need to be on this checkpage in order to operate on the wikia. If the checkpage does not exist, there is no restriction and AWB can be run without requiring the whitelist. This is done to restrict unauthorized bot programs from being run on communities.
   
 
==Resources==
 
==Resources==
For more information on using and making bots, see [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AutoWikiBrowser]], [[metawikimedia:Pywikipediabot|Pywikipediabot]] or [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Creating a bot|Creating a bot]].
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For more information on using and making bots, see [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser|AutoWikiBrowser]], [[mw:Pywikipediabot|Pywikipediabot]] or [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Creating a bot|Creating a bot]].
   
Please visit [[Wikia:Forum:Index|the Central forums]] to find other bot users for help in using bots for specific tasks.
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Please visit {{#NewWindowLink:http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Forum|the Community Central Forum}} to find other bot users for help in using bots for specific tasks.
   
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==See also==
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* [[Help:Using AutoWikiBrowser|Using AutoWikiBrowser]]
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* [[Help:Recent Changes|Recent Changes]]
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* [[Help:User access levels|User access levels]]
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* [[w:c:pybot|Pywikipediabot Wiki]]
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==User blogs on bots==
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* {{#NewWindowLink:http://c.wikia.com/wiki/User blog:RansomTime/An Introduction to AutoWikiBrowser|User blog:RansomTime/An Introduction to AutoWikiBrowser}}
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* {{#NewWindowLink:http://c.wikia.com/wiki/User blog:RansomTime/An introduction to Pywikipediabot|User blog:RansomTime/An introduction to Pywikipediabot}}
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* {{#NewWindowLink:http://c.wikia.com/wiki/User blog:TyA/Pywikipedia|User blog:TyA/Pywikipedia}}
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==Further Help & Feedback==
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{{Help and feedback section}}
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[[ca:Ajuda:Bots]]
 
[[de:Hilfe:Bots]]
 
[[de:Hilfe:Bots]]
 
[[es:Ayuda:Bots]]
 
[[es:Ayuda:Bots]]
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[[fr:Aide:Robots]]
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[[it:Aiuto:Bot]]
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[[ja:ヘルプ:ボット]]
 
[[nl:Help:Bots]]
 
[[nl:Help:Bots]]
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[[pl:Pomoc:Boty]]
[[Category:Help|{{PAGENAME}}]]
 
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[[pt:Ajuda:Bots]]
[[Category:Administration help|{{PAGENAME}}]]
 
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[[ru:Справка:Боты]]
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[[zh:help:機器人]]
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[[Category:Help]]
 
[[Category:Administration help]]

Revision as of 22:19, 27 April 2016

A bot is a piece of software that makes automated edits on a community and also helps human users to make semi-automated edits. Bots are most often used to make repetitive edits to many pages, such as moving a group of pages to a new category, fixing links to disambiguation pages, or to search for misspelled words and replace them with correct ones.

Bot flags

As bots can make many edits during their run, their edits can overwhelm the recent changes list, making it difficult to see and respond to edits by human users. For this reason, bots that have been tested and approved by a community can be given a bot flag. A bot flag is a setting in the MediaWiki software that hides bot edits from the recent changes list. Bot edits can always be revealed by clicking "Show bots" in the Recent changes header. 

Showbots

How can I flag an account as a bot?

To receive a bot flag, please contact a member of the Community Team to request it. Your request should include a link to a public discussion on your community or explicit permission from a bureaucrat, showing approval of the use and flagging of the bot.

Important notes

Bots on Wikia must use a limited editing rate so that they don't overload Wikia's servers. For most bot programs, a rate throttle is built in, so you don't need to worry about this. However, if you find your bot making more than one edit per second, then it's time to slow it down.

A bot account's User Profile and Talk Page should:

  • Clearly identify the account as a bot
  • Link to its owner's user talk page for questions
  • Encourage users to have the bot blocked by an admin if its automated edits are causing damage to the community — the block can be lifted after the causes for the damaging edits are understood and fixed.

Check Page

AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) makes use of a whitelist called a 'check page'. On Wikia, if this page exists locally on the community (in the format of Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage), the bot's username (or the username the bot will run on) will need to be on this checkpage in order to operate on the wikia. If the checkpage does not exist, there is no restriction and AWB can be run without requiring the whitelist. This is done to restrict unauthorized bot programs from being run on communities.

Resources

For more information on using and making bots, see AutoWikiBrowser, Pywikipediabot or Creating a bot.

Please visit {{#NewWindowLink:http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Forum%7Cthe Community Central Forum}} to find other bot users for help in using bots for specific tasks.

See also

User blogs on bots

Further Help & Feedback