That sounds like a great idea.  Thank you.   (talk) 06:09, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 re: VfD bot assistant 
When you get to the actual closing process, I'm not sure I know what could be safely automated.  So many of the decisions require multiple steps.  But I may not be the right person to ask.  I tend to close only the oldest and therefore the most complex discussions.  I suspect that I see all the exceptions and lose sight of the commonalities among the majority of "simple" decisions.  I'll give it some thought, though.  

Am I correct in assuming that the bot would have to be run for each individual discussion thread?  If so, what parameters would have to be fed in?  How complex would it be to initiate the bot?  Would it be a different bot for "keep" decisions vs "delete" decisions?

The essential steps for a "keep" decision are:
 Close the discussion page ({{subst:vt}} and {{subst:vb}} - I suppose the top subst could be modified to allow for a parameter like {{subst:vt|reason}})
# Remove the VfD header from the page (which ''usually'' follows the naming convention of the VfD discussion page except for second nominations and related nominations discussed together
# Add a boilerplate comment to the article's Talk page with a link to the discussion.  I usually put the nomination date on the Talk page, but the closure date is probably close enough.

If the VfD discussion has the same name as the article, a simple "keep" decision might be automatable with a single parameter.  "Keep as merge", "transwiki", etc. would still require extra steps.

The essential steps for a "delete" decision are:
# Check the article's history to confirm that the deletion decision is in order
# Close the discussion page (as above but the reason is often much more detailed)
# Sometimes, check "what links here" and move or delete all those links
# Delete the page

I'm not sure I see how to automate that process.  There are too many variables.  I'll keep chewing on it, though.  Thanks again.  ~~~~