UESPWiki:Bots/Archived Proposals

HoodBot
 

As many of you know, I've been working on a replacement for HotnBOThered for quite some time now. At long last, I feel the bot is ready to start taking on jobs. While there's certainly a lot of development left to get it to the same point as HnB in terms of how quickly I can get common jobs running, all the basic necessities are there, already including many features that HnB lacks. This includes all of the requirements listed above. Because this is an entirely new bot, with almost no source code ported from the old one, our rules and Wikipedia's require that I get the new bot approved, so this is me doing that.

Some of the advantages of HoodBot over HnB include:
HoodBot is signficantly faster and better designed. No more reliance on an inelegant and rather buggy bot framework that I didn't design. The only code I'm using not written by myself or Microsoft is Json.NET, a framework so well known and professional that Microsoft is apparently planning on integrating it into their own code in the future.
Deeper integration of basic functionality. Basically, all of the requirements listed above, and some that aren't, are baked in at a very low level, allowing the bot jobs themselves to focus on what they need to do without me having to manually code a lot of things that aren't directly part of the job. This means faster development time for jobs. Even simple things like namespace restrictions were largely done manually in HnB. Now, violating the restrictions listed above (for jobs like link replacement, that should be allowed to edit user pages) is the more difficult task.
Much better speed control, increasing speed when the wiki can handle it, and decreasing speed when it's lagging. Talk page checks can also often be done inline with other requests, significantly cutting the number of requests made to the wiki.
HoodBot has many, many more wiki-related features, including e-mailing users, processing watchlists, integrating with MetaTemplate to look at saved variables, and virtually anything else that users can do. Most of the MediaWiki API is fully implemented in the bot and made easy to access, so things like loading all pages that transclude any page in Lore space, to use a recent example, takes only one or two lines of code, and the bot is already ready to start examining/editing the page data. Admin functions are also available should we ever develop a need for an admin bot.
Much more direct integration with a universal TES file reader that I'm currently developing as a separate project. Once done, the bot will have the ability to edit the wiki based on Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim/SSE data, largely agnostic as to which game it's actually dealing with. Assuming that TES6 follows the same basic principles as the previous games, integrating that will be relatively easy as well.
For more details, and a link to the source code on GitHub, head over to HoodBot's user page.

Okay, I think that's enough about HoodBot. Any questions? I know I focussed mostly on the technical aspects here, but if there are any specific questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know!  &ndash;       08:39, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

Support: Robin Hood obviously knows how to use a bot and with good judgment. Having more efficient and advanced functions available will be great for the wiki! &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 20:55, 17 February 2019 (UTC)
Support: Completely agree with Dillon, not much more to add. --Ilaro (talk) 20:12, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
Support: I'm down with this. It can do everything the current bot does and more. I don't see why we shouldn't approve it. MolagBallet (talk) 20:18, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
Support: I trust Robin's judgement, and if he thinks it's ready for use, then let's put it to use! --Enodoc (talk) 20:46, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

 

CyrusBot
For a while I've had a program that is able to read the wiki using the MediaWiki API for a few useful tasks. Creating excel sheets mostly, but also producing lists of pages based on their content or title. I recently added editing and moving functions to the bot and have tested them quite a bit on a local wiki I set up.

I wrote a summary of what the bot does on its user page. The most important features to note here are that it can preview any job and will stop if its talk page is edited. I've written it from scratch in Java without any framework and its core functions are bug-free as far as I can tell.

The main purpose of this bot is to share some of the load with HotnBOThered. I make a lot of bot requests through Discord, and all of them can be accomplished with CyrusBot. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 18:49, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Support: Dillon and I have had many chats in Discord about functions that his bot might need and the pros and cons of different implementations. This discussion has led me to feel confident that Dillon understands various issues like previewing jobs before actually running them, not flooding the server with requests, and not editing things that shouldn't be edited.

:On a side note, while previous bot discussions have been conducted like talk page discussions, that's largely because there have been so few of them and a lot of processes weren't in place at all. Now that we have a dedicated bot page and proposals/archived proposals, I'm doing this like we do all other nominations (i.e., admins, patrollers, etc.) and using a Support/Comment/Oppose format. If anyone sees any issues with this, by all means say so.  &ndash;       23:35, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Support —Legoless (talk) 23:33, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

Support --FioFioFio (talk) 18:27, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

Support Echo (talk) 19:31, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

 
Enobot (pywikibot)
I would like to propose Enobot, running the Pywikibot framework. This is a collection of pre-written bot scripts. Pywikibot is a bot that I have used before, primarily on Fable Wiki, to do a bunch of mundane and repetitive tasks. Unfortunately I cannot explain in detail how the bot works, as I did not write any of it myself, but I do know that it is written in Python and makes edits on a wiki using the MediaWiki API. A quick overview can be found here. One of the main reasons that I'm proposing this bot is so that I would have the opportunity to run a few mundane tasks like link updates without having to request a job for HnB. While pywikibot is not as extensive as HnB, it would provide an alternative option for anyone looking for certain jobs to be performed, all of which are documented so anyone looking for a job run would know what is possible.

It should also be noted that I have found no way to tell pywikibot to stop editing if its talk page is edited, so following on from this discussion, I would always be around when the bot is running, and given that I would be using only the existing scripts, the scope for it running wild is minimal.

Thanks, Enodoc (talk) 23:46, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

:I forgot to actually create the bot account. Here it is! . --Enodoc (talk) 13:03, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

:: More bots is a good thing, and Enodoc is clearly experienced with using this one. —Legoless (talk) 19:22, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

::: I have no issues with this at all. It'll be nice to have another bot to share the load with, and I trust Enodoc's judgement in using it completely.  &ndash;       19:45, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

::::I have only theoretical knowledge of bots, but as Pywikibot is used on Wikimedia Foundation projects and I trust Enodoc's judgement, experience and explanations, I also support the proposal. --Holomay (talk) 22:04, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

:::::1000000000% support. Please. Approve now. Jeancey (talk) 22:32, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

 

Wabbajack
 

Older Bots
 

HotnBOThered
 

RoBoT
 

NepheleBot