Commons:Bots/Requests

Shortcut: COM:BRFA

If you want to run a bot on Commons, you must get permission first. To do so, file a request following the instructions below.

Please read Commons:Bots before making a request for bot permission.

I	Create a user account (while logged in to your normal account) and user page for the bot On the bot's userpage, add {{bot}}, which automatically adds the page to Category:Commons bots. Then add the following information to the bot's userpage (all this is mandatory): Operator: Who the creator/operator is and how they can best be contacted Tasks: Details of the bot's task or tasks Operation: Whether the bot is manually assisted or runs automatically When: When it operates (continuously, intermittently, or at specified intervals) Maximum edit rate: The bot's maximum edit rate (eg edits per minute) Language: The language and/or program that it is running
II	Create your bot request: Replace "YourBotName" with your bot's username in the box below and click the button. Complete the questions on the resulting page and save it. Remember that your bot will be allowed to operate only for those tasks that you have specified in your request. Add your bot request to the list here: Edit the following request list, adding the following text to the top of the appropriate section (replacing "YourBotName" with your bot's name): {{Commons:Bots/Requests/YourBotName}}
III	Test run Make a short test run with your bot account (30-50 edits/uploads) to allow other users to review your bot's tasks.
IV	Waiting for approval. You now need to wait for community approval. A bureaucrat will close the request and will also grant a bot flag, where necessary. Closed requests are moved to Commons:Bots/Archive.

Archives List all Requests Requests by closing date

Requests made on this page are automatically transcluded in Commons:Requests and votes for wider comment.

Requests for permission to run a botEdit

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Before making a bot request, please read the new version of the Commons:Bots page. Read Commons:Bots#Information on bots and make sure you have added the required details to the bot's page. A good example can be found here.

When complete, pages listed here should be archived to Commons:Bots/Archive.

Any user may comment on the merits of the request to run a bot. Please give reasons, as that makes it easier for the closing bureaucrat. Read Commons:Bots before commenting.

UsuallyNonviolentBot (talk · contribs)Edit

Operator: Jc86035 (talk · contributions · Number of edits · recent activity · block log · User rights log · uploads · Global account information)

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: Creation of categories

Automatic or manually assisted: Automatic

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): One-time runs

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): 12/min

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): Y

Programming language(s): AWB

Jc86035 (talk) 13:39, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

DiscussionEdit

• Which categories exactly? Please make test run. --EugeneZelenko (talk) 13:57, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
  • @EugeneZelenko: Anything under Category:BSicon, broadly, although almost all of the edits will be in the "other colors" BSicon categories, since there are 31 sets of categories which should be identical except for the colour set. I may also use the account to edit categories to replace {{BS-color/category}} or manually added categories with {{Tl}}, which I am writing to automatically add categories and other information. I cannot make the test run with the bot account since it does not have the AWB flag, but I will create some semi-automatically using my regular account. Jc86035 (talk) 14:12, 22 September 2017 (UTC)
• 40 test edits (on my main account). Almost every edit will be the same. Jc86035 (talk) 16:23, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

• As this is one off, I'd do it on the main account unless the total number of edits is tens of thousands. A bot flag feels a bit of an overkill. --Fæ (talk) 18:14, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

AliciaFagervingWMSE-bot (talk · contribs)Edit

Operator: Alicia Fagerving (WMSE) (talk · contributions · Number of edits · recent activity · block log · User rights log · uploads · Global account information)

Uploading freely licensed images from (primarily GLAM) collaborations with Wikimedia Sverige.

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: Image uploads

Automatic or manually assisted: Automatic

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): One run per batch.

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): ~ 3/min

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): Y

Programming language(s): Python / pywikibot

The particular task the bot account will be used for is uploading freely licensed images from the Swedish National Heritage Board. This will be a continuation of the most recent upload by AndreCostaWMSE-bot, using the same codebase and category structure, incl. maintenance categories.

Alicia Fagerving (WMSE) (talk) 11:59, 27 June 2017 (UTC)

DiscussionEdit

• Is there a reason why this is better than creating a generic WMSE upload account which can be run by WMSE on defined projects? As an observation, you don't need a bot flag on an upload account like this. --Fæ (talk) 12:04, 27 June 2017 (UTC)

As for the bot flag, it's necessary for the account to be able to upload files via url, as opposed to from the local machine. We also prefer to use separate accounts to make it clearer who's responsible for specific tasks. Since institutional accounts are discouraged on some wikis anyway, we've decided to stick to one account per person. --Alicia Fagerving (WMSE) (talk) 15:12, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Agreed that institutional accounts remain controversial (though they do exist), however having a bot flag makes no difference to uploading via URL as far as I'm aware. So if the concern is that the person doing the uploads needs to be accountable, then you can just use your existing WMSE account. There may be a good case to use a separate account if you want to run the uploads as a distinct project and there are going to be a lot of images (like 10,000+), but even then, there is no special benefit in having a bot flag, you can just create the account and start using it. --Fæ (talk) 17:04, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

You need upload_by_url permission to do so, and it's restricted to image reviewers, bots, and admins. Guanaco (talk) 21:53, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, my mistake. I vaguely recall a discussion early in the year about relaxing the restriction. It does seem slightly arbitrary considering there are few restrictions on upload tools that do the same thing by proxy. --Fæ (talk) 06:49, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

• Bot flag set, please make some test edits for final approval. --Krd 06:33, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

  @Alicia Fagerving (WMSE): ? --Krd 13:35, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

---

Closing as stale as there was no answer and no test edits. --Krd 16:47, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Reopened on request. --Krd 08:50, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

@Krd: Thank you! I've uploaded some files to Category:Media contributed by RAÄ: 2017-09. They follow the same structure as our previous batch, Category:Media contributed by RAÄ: 2017-06. Do you know if it's possible to disable the Small jpeg's uploaded by users with low editcount filter? Some of our files get caught in it.--Alicia Fagerving (WMSE) (talk) 09:17, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Looks good to me. --Krd 09:23, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Cewbot 4 (talk · contribs)Edit

Operator: Kanashimi (talk · contributions · Number of edits · recent activity · block log · User rights log · uploads · Global account information)

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: Cleanup Panoramio files needing categories

Automatic or manually assisted: automatic

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): weekly

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): 12 per minute

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): No

Programming language(s): cleanup_Panoramio_files_needing_categories.js

Kanashimi (talk) 15:06, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

DiscussionEdit

• Please do some test edits. --Krd 02:43, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

@Krd:I have do some test edits. Please check if they are OK. Thank you. --Kanashimi (talk) 08:07, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Looks OK for me, but will be also good idia to replace Panoramio_upload_bot with Panoramio upload bot. --EugeneZelenko (talk) 13:54, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Surely I will do. --Kanashimi (talk) 15:25, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

• Does it exclude maintenance categories from consideration? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 15:15, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

@Zhuyifei1999: I exclude only bot edits and /Panoramio|Unidentified|Taken with/i now (see the source for detail). Are there any list of maintenance categories? --Kanashimi (talk) 15:25, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Categories marked with __HIDDENCAT__ are almost always maintenance / user categories. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 15:34, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Fixed Thank you. I will exclude categories marked with __HIDDENCAT__. --Kanashimi (talk) 15:39, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Convert category tags to templates?Edit

@Kanashimi, Krd, Shizhao: Files are categorized to these maintenance categories through a simple category tag e.g.
[[Category:Photos from Panoramio needing categories as of 2017-07-15]]
If we convert the category tags to the standard template {{Uncategorized}} (the template can be a bit adapted by new parameters), categorization tools as Hot-Cat and Cat-a-lot can manage them immediately when the image is categorized and the needless delay of the maintenance tag can be avoided. Is it possible to transform the maintenance-category tags by a bot? And Panoramio upload bot can be also changed to use the template tag instead the direct category tag. --ŠJů (talk) 19:49, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

It is OK to do the things. --Kanashimi (talk) 09:51, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Sadly I cannot follow. Can you please elaborate in different words? Thank you. --Krd 07:14, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for your attention on this task. I can convert the category tags to the standard template {{Uncategorized}}, but since more than one week passed and no one reply to the idea, I don't know if this part have reached a consensus. Maybe I should just clean the categories. --Kanashimi (talk) 09:30, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Oudabot (talk · contribs)Edit

Operator: Mohamed Ouda (talk · contributions · Number of edits · recent activity · block log · User rights log · uploads · Global account information)

Bot's tasks for which permission is being sought: Sending messsages to talk pages of users who will contribute in Wiki Loves Africa Contest Automatic or manually assisted: automatic

Edit type (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): continuous

Maximum edit rate (e.g. edits per minute): 10

Bot flag requested: (Y/N): yes (I already have the bot flag on Arabic Wikipedia)

Programming language(s): python Mohamed Ouda (talk) 17:03, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

DiscussionEdit

Mass posting should remain the responsibility of the poster, so an operator would still need to sign and may as well run the script directly. Is there a reason why the existing MassMessage would not be used? --Fæ (talk) 07:29, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

OK , Please Fæ can I have access to use MassMessage --Mohamed Ouda (talk) 08:44, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

The MassMessage interface is available for admins only, but your can prepare your message and ask any admin to send it. Please see e.g. Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments/Documentation/Send a mass message for short instructions. --Krd 06:59, 20 September 2017 (UTC)