Greetings!

Here is the 4th issue of the Bots Newsletter (formerly the BAG Newsletter). You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.

Highlights for this newsletter include:

BAG

BU Rob13 and Cyberpower678 are now members of the BAG (see RfBAG/BU Rob13 and RfBAG/Cyberpower678 3). BU Rob13 and Cyberpower678 are both administrators; the former operates BU RoBOT which does a plethora of tasks, while the latter operates Cyberbot I (which replaces old bots), Cyberbot II (which does many different things), and InternetArchiveBot which combats link rot. Welcome to the BAG!

BRFAs

We currently have 12 open bot requests at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval, and could use your help processing!

Discussions

• Efforts at WP:CHECKWIKI to identify cosmetic fixes are still ongoing.
• The RFC on COSMETICBOT has concluded with "a clear consensus exists to adopt the proposed language". The new wording is now live.
• The venue for bot appeals and reexaminations has been changed from WP:BRFA to WP:BOTN (see discussion)
• The Wikipedia:Bot owner's noticeboard is now the Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard (see discussion).

New things

• A historical correction was made to WP:BOTPOL (see discussion).
• WP:HIDEBOTS now mentions how to hide all bots from your watchlist, not only specific bots.
• The phabricator ticket T162685 is now closed, and we now have the "#Bots-Framework" tag, so issues related to bot frameworks can be tracked.
• Wikibits.js has been removed (see discussion).
• 21 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion).
• WP:BOTISSUE has been updated to mention that BAG members can act as neutral mediators in bot-related disputes.
• WP:INTERWIKIBOT has been updated to reflect the post-February 2013 practice of putting interwiki links on Wikidata, rather than on Wikipedia (see discussion).

Upcoming

• HTML Tidy will be phased out in June 2018, or possibly earlier. This may affect some bots (see FAQ).

Wikimania

Wikimania 2017 is happening in Montreal, during 9–13 August. If you plan to attend, or give a talk, let us know!

Thank you! edited by: Headbomb ~~~

(You can subscribe or unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding or removing your name from this list.)