Operator: Urban Versis 32 ( talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)
Time filed: 18:17, Saturday, July 15, 2023 ( UTC)
Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: supervised
Programming language(s): Python (Pywikibot)
Source code available: Main repository for UrbanBot's code Source code file for task
Function overview: UrbanBot's task is to mass-add short descriptions to pages that don't have one.
Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Original discussion at village pump Wikidata discussion for bot task
Edit period(s): Runs whenever the bot operator runs the script
Estimated number of pages affected: Any page lacking a short description may be edited by UrbanBot. This is not to say it will try to add short descriptions to every page lacking one.
Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes
Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): No
Function details: 1. The bot operator will first enter a category name from the English Wikipedia. This category will be used to group pages lacking a short description which will all have the same short description added to them.
2. The bot operator will enter the short description to be added to the pages in the Wikipedia category.
3. The code will check the short description entered to ensure that it does not exceed the character limit.
4. The bot will follow through these steps for each page:
4a. The bot will check if the page already has a short description or a template-applied short description.
4b. If the Wikipedia page does not already have a short description, the bot will write the short description specified by the bot operator in step 2 into the item.
4c. The bot will loop through to the next page in the category and run all steps in step 4 again until every page has been scanned.
5. The bot will output statistics on the number of pages scanned, number edited, etc.
Note: The bot was originally submitted at Wikidata and was designed to edit Wikidata per this village pump discussion, but upon reviewing the Wikiproject Short Descriptions page and receiving feedback and information at Wikidata it's evident that for the intended task the bot should be based at Wikipedia and edit Wikipedia short descriptions rather than Wikidata descriptions.
Note 2: Running the bot through limited testing for the code.
In step 1 or step 4a, how does the bot determine if there is a short description that has been assigned by a template? Will the bot apply manual short descriptions to override template-based SDs? If so, why, or under what conditions? – Jonesey95 ( talk) 03:25, 17 July 2023 (UTC) reply
According to Wikipedia:WikiProject Short descriptions § State of the project there are over 1 million pages that are lacking shortdescs. Are you seriously saying (based on the "supervised" nature of this task) that you and your bot are going to add 1 million shortdescs? Primefac ( talk) 16:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC) reply
Denied. If such a task is to be run, it would need to be supervised pre-edit. There are a lot of irregularities in Wikipedia's category tree so I will look at the edit history of the bot and make sure each article is a Linux distro
doesn't sound like a great idea. You would probably want to restructure the task so that the bot shows a proposed diff for each page on the command line and prompts approval from the operator. In such a case, it would be considered "semi-automation" and so edits can be done via main account, or a dedicated alt account. No bot approval is required.
If there are indeed some categories in which all pages have been checked and fit a single short description, please file a BRFA limiting the scope to those categories specifically. – SD0001 ( talk) 14:18, 12 October 2023 (UTC) reply
Operator: Urban Versis 32 ( talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)
Time filed: 18:17, Saturday, July 15, 2023 ( UTC)
Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: supervised
Programming language(s): Python (Pywikibot)
Source code available: Main repository for UrbanBot's code Source code file for task
Function overview: UrbanBot's task is to mass-add short descriptions to pages that don't have one.
Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Original discussion at village pump Wikidata discussion for bot task
Edit period(s): Runs whenever the bot operator runs the script
Estimated number of pages affected: Any page lacking a short description may be edited by UrbanBot. This is not to say it will try to add short descriptions to every page lacking one.
Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes
Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): No
Function details: 1. The bot operator will first enter a category name from the English Wikipedia. This category will be used to group pages lacking a short description which will all have the same short description added to them.
2. The bot operator will enter the short description to be added to the pages in the Wikipedia category.
3. The code will check the short description entered to ensure that it does not exceed the character limit.
4. The bot will follow through these steps for each page:
4a. The bot will check if the page already has a short description or a template-applied short description.
4b. If the Wikipedia page does not already have a short description, the bot will write the short description specified by the bot operator in step 2 into the item.
4c. The bot will loop through to the next page in the category and run all steps in step 4 again until every page has been scanned.
5. The bot will output statistics on the number of pages scanned, number edited, etc.
Note: The bot was originally submitted at Wikidata and was designed to edit Wikidata per this village pump discussion, but upon reviewing the Wikiproject Short Descriptions page and receiving feedback and information at Wikidata it's evident that for the intended task the bot should be based at Wikipedia and edit Wikipedia short descriptions rather than Wikidata descriptions.
Note 2: Running the bot through limited testing for the code.
In step 1 or step 4a, how does the bot determine if there is a short description that has been assigned by a template? Will the bot apply manual short descriptions to override template-based SDs? If so, why, or under what conditions? – Jonesey95 ( talk) 03:25, 17 July 2023 (UTC) reply
According to Wikipedia:WikiProject Short descriptions § State of the project there are over 1 million pages that are lacking shortdescs. Are you seriously saying (based on the "supervised" nature of this task) that you and your bot are going to add 1 million shortdescs? Primefac ( talk) 16:09, 6 August 2023 (UTC) reply
Denied. If such a task is to be run, it would need to be supervised pre-edit. There are a lot of irregularities in Wikipedia's category tree so I will look at the edit history of the bot and make sure each article is a Linux distro
doesn't sound like a great idea. You would probably want to restructure the task so that the bot shows a proposed diff for each page on the command line and prompts approval from the operator. In such a case, it would be considered "semi-automation" and so edits can be done via main account, or a dedicated alt account. No bot approval is required.
If there are indeed some categories in which all pages have been checked and fit a single short description, please file a BRFA limiting the scope to those categories specifically. – SD0001 ( talk) 14:18, 12 October 2023 (UTC) reply