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Could someone program a bot that scans through articles, and tags articles which have had a significant reduction in content since the last edit as articles that have possibly been vandalised. The tag would also add them to a category, allowing humans to go through and see which ones have actually been vandalised, reverting as nessicary. This would be run daily, and would help to keep out vandals. --GW_Simulations 14:32, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

I was considering this today, maybe this is something for CryptoDerk's_Vandal_Fighter or a new tool. My ideas, in addition to the above. A tool that can help guesstimate the likelyhood that a edit is vandalism, the tool would use the above, i.e. remove of large parts of the article, adding of certain key words, i.e. work the same way as spam filter with a list of words that normally is used in vandlaism like "Rulez","shit","fuck","!!!!!" and so on,I'm sure we can make a better list and enhance that list as time goes by. The tool would also add to the vandlism likelyhood for not logged in users, maybe even check for new users, have a white list and black list and so on. It could also check for same/simmilar editis within a time persion that have been reverted. I do not think this bot should add a category to the articles, it is probably better to just add them to a page, with the vandalism likelyhood score next to it, but I'm not sure? The vandal fighters can remove form the page when verified. This would not be a editing bot so I do not think it need permission, it would only write to its 'home' page, but the discussion should probably be done here. Stefan 05:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Loked a bit in pywiki but can not find any function to get a historic page. Maybe as simple as using pagename&oldid=num but I have not tried. One more idea is that this bot should check for excessive use of UPPECASE character in the edit. Stefan 06:34, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Pywikipedia is capable of looking at the history of an article, and from there it's not a big step to get the historic version. --Orgullomoore 18:06, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

That is my guess also, BUT Pywikipedia is not very well documented, I can not find how to get a historic version, I will continue to look but I am to busy with work now to have any time, if you do know how to do it please gve me a hint. I can find how to look at the history, but that is basically scanning the history web page, that is not what I want, I just want to get the text of a historic version, and I can not find a function that does that, unless it is the standard get page function with a id in the name as I suggested above, I have still not tested that.

Also after thinking about the design a bit more I think that the only way to make this work is to have a active web site that does this, it will be updated in the background, you can have users that can tick off a artcile that they have confirmed that it is vandalism or not, but I do not have a site that I can do that on or the skill to make a web site like that. Thinking futher this really should be built into wikipedia, then it will be much more efficient, hum wonder how easy it would be to be allowed to add some code there .... I guess that is a new project, get the code and try to figure out how to add this functionallity and figure out how you get code added :-) Stefan 06:27, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Could it also be programmed to look for "Text Language"? --GW_Simulations 20:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm currently writing this bot. It uses a highly modified pymediawiki to both get the history and do reverts. It uses a pretty complex mechanism to determine if something is vandalism or not. It will hopfully be launched under the name User:tawkerbot2 joshbuddy^talk 18:33, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Per a (non) vote in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Illinois_State_Routes, we have a list of routes in List of Illinois State Routes that all have articles of the form Illinois State Route X (active and red links). All of them need to become of the form Illinois Route X. It amounts to about 150 pages, and about 300 links to these pages, but I don't know if a bot can touch the "what links here" pages to change the names of those pages. There's also a template that I will update to reflect the new name when the pages are moved. Thanks for your help! —Rob (talk) 12:00, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

This was done by User:SPUI and User:Freakofnurture, please disregard. —Rob (talk) 03:52, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Is it possible to get a bot to change all the links that point to US, meaning the country, to be changed to [[United States|U.S.]]. This would do two things, first it would make the link direct to the page for the United States. Secondly, it would change US to U.S. to fall in line with the standard set forth in the Manual of Style. And as long as the bot is in the article, could it change all other instances of US (exact match and case sensative, of course) to U.S.? It is usually the case that if an article references the United States in this way that the U.S. will be mentioned later in the article as well. Also, a similar function for a bot would be to change all instances of U.K. to UK which is that countries preferred abbreviation per the MoS. Dismas|^(talk) 01:47, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

That is possible, however fixes like this are normally taken to be better done in a semi-automated fashion. If you have someone willing to do the job... Fetofs ^Hello! 01:49, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

I will have a look at that. I might do this, using WP:AWB. I hope this is not controversial... --Ligulem 09:32, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I've done all links to US and U.K. (in namespace main). --Ligulem 12:48, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Hey! Cool! Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 02:24, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Could someone subst: Template:Warning used in User talk pages. Thank you. CG 17:19, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Consider it done. However, I've only subst'ed templates reffering to misconduct (empty ones don't count either). Fetofs ^Hello! 23:44, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

I added a category to a template Wikiproject Indian cinema after it was created and added to more than 100 articles. Is there anyway a bot can run through all articles using that template (what links here) and do a null edit on them. This is only way the category would refresh. - Ganeshk 09:18, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

A bot is already working on it - you may want to see this. --Gurubrahma 09:37, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

A lot of tedious disambiguation work could be done by a bot to replace
[[University of Texas]] at [[Austin]]
by
[[University of Texas]] at [[Austin, Texas | Austin]].

Consider it done. Rich Farmbrough 20:24 7 March 2006 (UTC).

There aren't any. Rich Farmbrough 23:07 7 March 2006 (UTC).

Thanks for looking. I think since I posted this request (quite a while ago but I forgot to sign it), someone else has changed all occurrences of [[University of Texas]] at [[Austin]] to [[University of Texas at Austin]]. Colonies Chris 23:23, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Recently, the infomovie box was changed. As a result hundreds of pages were affected. Images in the infobox used to have brackets around them, with Image: in front of it. Now it's built like this: batmanmovieposter.jpg with out anything around it. Could a bot be made to fix all pages that have it the old way? See Enduring Love for an example of how its messed up...

Aww...I feel really bad for Adraeus, who did it all (or a big part) by hand, poor kid.--Orgullomoore 10:19, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Don't feel bad. I only fixed those 200-or-so articles for polito-editorial reasons — to ensure the changes I made to the template remained and were improved upon. Adraeus 08:51, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Does anyone else feel the word "notion" is a bit POV? "Concept" is just the dry definition, but "notion" seems to imply skepticism. Thoughts? -MPD 14:42, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I think a human needs to decide in each case, thus a bot is not appropriate.--Commander Keane 14:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Sounds good. Now that we're approaching the 80%+ threshold (personal impression) of project completion, it will be interesting to see what final loose-ends projects will come into play. The last mile is always the hardest. - MPD 23:55, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I see on Wikipedia:Template messages/Maintenance that {{attention}} tags are supposed to go on each article's Talk page, but that "older uses have not yet been moved."

Would this be a useful bot to write? I am a capable programmer and am willing to take this on (though I have not yet had experience writing bots for Wikipedia). Tim Pierce 18:44, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

This doesn't make sense as the template says "More information may be available on the article's talk page." Rich Farmbrough 00:26 8 March 2006 (UTC).

I am trying to find ways to stop User:Gibraltarian. We've tried everything save one idea. He uses the IPs 212.120.224.0 to 212.120.231.255. I wrote a template at Template:Gibraltarian. It makes it clear under which circumstances that the IP could reasonably be considered to be G. If someone wants to make it clearer, go ahead. I would like a bot to put this template on the IP range that he uses. It would aid users. Right now, he's being warned several times before we're blocking him because non-admins especially are unaware of this guy's MO and his status (the arbcom is about to ratify the indefinite block). This is what I mean. He basically roamed free for half an hour until someone realized who it was. Here is the list of IPs he has used just to show that they are all in that range. Thanks. --Woohookitty^{(cat scratches)} 21:15, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

• Uncle G's 'bot is ready to prepend this to all talk pages for the IP address range 212.120.224.0/21, and I am awaiting word from the arbitration committee. Uncle G 18:10, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Thank you! Much appreciated! --Woohookitty^{(cat scratches)} 07:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
• Uncle G's 'bot has now completed this task. A handful of edits did not succeed, because of server problems. I'll go through the 'bot error log and fix these up by hand at some point. Uncle G 09:12, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Could someone touch the "What links here" for Template:User zodiac. I just need it done once. Thanks.--Commander Keane 22:52, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

In progress. —Cryptic (talk) 23:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

And complete. —Cryptic (talk) 00:00, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Absolutely awesome, cheers!--Commander Keane 00:11, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I just now came across someone (Karmafist) who has placed A LOT of un substituted welcome templates. Would it be possible for a bot to go through his contribs and fix all these? Or, better yet, could someone tell me how I could make one myself? -Mulder416 19:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I just ran a massive welcome subst job, it *should* be done -- Tawker 07:52, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

A new service for newbies has been created, they can now use {{helpme}} to get help (run by Boot Camp). The standard welcome messages have this new service listed (eg {{Welcome}} etc), but many editors have personal welcome messages (eg User:Sam_Spade/Welcome).

I'd like an analysis of the database dump to be done which finds as many of the these alternative welcome messages. A script would check for "Welcome" or "welcome" in the title of pages in the User namespace (or any other keyword you can think of). I would then go through the report and contact the owners of the alternative welcome templates. Can anyone do it?--Commander Keane 00:25, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Probably. I going to sleep now, I'll see what I can do in the morning. Martin 00:27, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

done. Martin 13:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Not a technical kind of person myself, but is it possible to create a bot to welcome new users? One that would put the welcome template on new user's talk pages? It would be a real benefit - I know a lot of users appreciate it. Obviously, a bot takes away the personal touch, but it would possibly save a lot of time as newbies would have links to help pages and guidelines as soon as they registered. Robdurbar 21:06, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I think it's been suggested and rejected a couple of times due to the fact that it would have to be huge scale and because it's extremely impersonal. Pegasus1138^{Talk | Contribs | Email} ---- 21:22, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

It's not just the personal touch, but having an experienced Wikipedian to talk to and ask questions of is far more important than links to policies (which you get every time you log in). I think manually is the only way to go. We could add some more welcome text to MediaWiki:Welcomecreation... Dmcdevit·t 21:25, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Ah well, I suppose... though the new 'help me' feature does kinda augment against the experienced wikipedian touch. Alternatively, the bot could provide a link to a list of Wikipedians - perhaps those who are currenlty in the welcoming committe - who are happy to deal with newbie's requests. Robdurbar 21:31, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I request that a bot goes over the Whatlinkshere for both these templates and removes them from any and all talk pages and user pages (where it shouldn't be to begin with, and likely is as the result of a move), so that the relevant categories Category:Articles actively undergoing a major edit and Category:Articles actively undergoing construction are useful once more. Especially the former consists for 90% of talk and user pages. >Radiant< 13:11, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

It would seem sensible at the same time to remove the first one from articles where there have been no edits for a set period of time and to give a warning when the second one is on an article that hasn't been touched for some time (e.g. an article reconstruction left half finished) Plugwash 21:06, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I have done the {{inuse}} --Ligulem 17:14, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

{{underconstruction}} is done --Ligulem 18:16, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Is there one? Pattersonc(Talk) 8:00 PM, Sunday; January 29 2006 (EST)

There is Weblinkchecker.py--Commander Keane 00:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I just created Template:Google video for Google video URLs, I'd like a bot to change any instances of these links:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7521044027821122670

to

{{Google video|ID|description}}

The ID is the number appearing after ?docid=, note that some links also contain a search term: &q=search+term . Also note that some Google video links link to a search result page, these should probably be ignored. Alternatively, I could settle for a list of articles with these links if anyone has got access to a database dump. -Obli (Talk) 22:42, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes...search terms ought to be excluded from all links to such places. — Ilyanep (Talk) 23:15, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

• I've realized that this task is a little bit too complex for bots, so I searched for the URLs instead and compacted them, they weren't that many... Obli (Talk) 23:32, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm requesting bot status (flag) for bot User:Sashato. This bot is active on sr: and hr: wikis. The only job will be adding interwiki links. I use pywikipediabot for this interwiki job. Thank you — SasaStefanovic • 18:07 1-01-2006

This page is to request a bot to do something for you. You need to paste this message at the bottom of Wikipedia talk:Bots. Also, when you do post there, please say what languages that you speak and which language Wikipedia's you will be woking on.--Commander Keane 21:15, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

This category has several projects sorted under W when they should be changed to be under the name of the project, i.e. Wikipedia:WikiProject Hong Kong should be under H. Could a bot go through the projects sorted under W and re-sort them?--Max Talk (add) 20:40, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Seems to be sorted. Fetofs ^Hello! 13:41, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Saint Louis, Missouri has become St. Louis, Missouri per consensus since it is the official and by far most widely used name for the city. However there are still hundreds of links to the old title on Wikipedia and it is very tedious to go through and fix them manually. This is a simple task for a bot to do -- can someone who is able take care of this? GT 04:02, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Consider it done. Rich Farmbrough 19:51 8 March 2006 (UTC).

Thanks! That's a lot better. What about changing Category:Saint Louis, Missouri and all its derivatives to the proper spellings? Is that doable? GT 11:58, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I'll have a look... Rich Farmbrough 15:18 11 March 2006 (UTC).

I've got nothing else for my bot to do right now, I'll run a whatlinkshere change on all of the pages. -- Tawker 06:53, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Think it's all done now. Rich Farmbrough 12:17 15 March 2006 (UTC).

From what I understand, "External links" at the bottom of an article should always be plural reguardless if there is only one external link. There are many articles that have "External link" or "External Link" (the L captialized). Could a bot be made to correct them all to read "External links"?Steve-O 17:40, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I did ~30,000 of these corrections with User:Bluebot a few weeks ago, it didnt add an s though because there is no agreement whether it should always be pluralised. My new semi-automatic editor also corrects this type of mistake (and many more!) so hopefully they will be eradicated soon. Martin 17:51, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

thanks for your response. I guess the pural is not always the case... Steve-O 17:55, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

If you are interested the External links guideline indicates the lack of consensus regarding the use of the plural.--Commander Keane 17:56, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I've been on a little crusade for a few weeks now to get the monthly news archives to start listing the days in forward chronological order (i.e. beginning March 1 and ending March 31). Why aren't they already in that order, you might ask? It's because these monthly archives are produced by moving the page Current events at the end of the month, and on Current events the newest events are placed at the top (which is appropriate there).

I've taken care of March and February of 2006 (see before and after for March if you're unclear on what I'm talking about). However, every other one between January 2002 and January 2006 (inclusive) is in reverse chronological order and needs fixed.

It appears the formatting on these pages has evolved over the years, complicating matters quite a bit. But if anyone feels like they can help out with this please do (or reply here if you want me to help out somehow). GT 07:05, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

This was completed manually :( — GT 14:03, 11 May 2006 (UTC)