Wikipedia:Bot requests
| Commonly Requested Bots |  |
This is a page for requesting tasks to be done by bots per the bot policy. This is an appropriate place to put ideas for uncontroversial bot tasks, to get early feedback on ideas for bot tasks (controversial or not), and to seek bot operators for bot tasks. Consensus-building discussions requiring large community input (such as request for comments) should normally be held at WP:VPPROP or other relevant pages (such as a WikiProject's talk page).
You can check the "Commonly Requested Bots" box above to see if a suitable bot already exists for the task you have in mind. If you have a question about a particular bot, contact the bot operator directly via their talk page or the bot's talk page. If a bot is acting improperly, follow the guidance outlined in WP:BOTISSUE. For broader issues and general discussion about bots, see the bot noticeboard.
Before making a request, please see the list of frequently denied bots, either because they are too complicated to program, or do not have consensus from the Wikipedia community. If you are requesting that a template (such as a WikiProject banner) is added to all pages in a particular category, please be careful to check the category tree for any unwanted subcategories. It is best to give a complete list of categories that should be worked through individually, rather than one category to be analyzed recursively (see example difference).
Alternatives to bot requests
- WP:AWBREQ, for simple tasks that involve a handful of articles and/or only needs to be done once (e.g. adding a category to a few articles).
- WP:URLREQ, for tasks involving changing or updating URLs to prevent link rot (specialized bots deal with this).
- WP:USURPREQ, for reporting a domain be usurped eg.
|url-status=usurped - WP:SQLREQ, for tasks which might be solved with an SQL query (e.g. compiling a list of articles according to certain criteria).
- WP:TEMPREQ, to request a new template written in wiki code or Lua.
- WP:SCRIPTREQ, to request a new user script. Many useful scripts already exist, see Wikipedia:User scripts/List.
- WP:CITEBOTREQ, to request a new feature for WP:Citation bot, a user-initiated bot that fixes citations.
Note to bot operators: The {{BOTREQ}} template can be used to give common responses, and make it easier to keep track of the task's current status. If you complete a request, note that you did with {{BOTREQ|done}}, and archive the request after a few days (WP:1CA is useful here).
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Mass-removal of WikiProject categories added directly in wikicode to talk pages
[edit]I'm not sure I'm exactly in the right place here, but due to the number of articles involved, I thought this was the least bad place to post. It's just come to my attention that there are well over 4,000 talk pages that have the text Category:WikiProject Ice Hockey articles in their wikitext, which I would like to have removed by a bot/script. It's my understanding that categories (especially WikiProject categories) are never added to talk pages directly, but rather through templates, because they can easily get swamped by other wikitext added below them or get lost in archives like what happened at Talk:Arizona Coyotes/Archive 1. I'll notify Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ice Hockey and User talk:Buffalkill, as this user appears to be responsible for quite a few of these. Thanks for any assistance. Graham87 (talk) 13:37, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- This would be a very simple bot run. I'd be happy to run this once consensus is established. phuzion (talk) 13:44, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks. I also notified Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council for completeness. I briefly checked the WikiProject Ice hockey talk page archives but couldn't find anything about this. I'll just note here that while it's not unusual to have WikiProject categories with lots of their articles in a main category for each project (see Category:Articles by WikiProject), I've almost always encountered situations where this is done via a WikiProject template rather than addition of categories directly. Graham87 (talk) 14:06, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Looking at a few and they had {{WikiProject Ice Hockey}} as well as the wikicode category. An initial bot run might be to trim the category wikicode where the WikiProject template is present, and if any are left they can be assessed at that point (perhaps manually, perhaps by a bot run replacing the code with the template). CMD (talk) 14:07, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Agree with the task. I think the wikicode can just be removed from the page, without the need for any manual processing — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:21, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Re those without the ice hockey WikiProject template: those can be filtered out using the hastemplate search keyword like so; all of the remainder (at time of writing) are in Category:Women's ice hockey task force articles. Those too can be filtered out with incategory and I've just dealt with those that I could find manually (see my relevant contribs). Graham87 (talk) 15:38, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- I think will just use all members of the category, and skip any that do not have the WikiProject template. No need for an insource search. phuzion (talk) 18:10, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- I saw the note at WT:COUNCIL. Graham is correct that these categories should be supplied by the WikiProject banner template and not added manually. If there's something wrong with the templates (such that it's not properly emitting the ordinary categories), then those templates should be fixed. Anyone who needs help with fixing one of those templates should ask at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:43, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Agreed, but a more direct way to address a problem in a template is on its talk page with {{edit template-protected}} (or similar technical request if they are not protected). the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:10, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
BRFA filed phuzion (talk) 00:49, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
- Bot run is underway! phuzion (talk) 23:01, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
Done - This was completed a few weeks ago. phuzion (talk) 18:27, 14 July 2026 (UTC)
- Bot run is underway! phuzion (talk) 23:01, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
B-bot suggestion/request.
[edit]Would someone enhance B-bot so the Orphaned non-free image notice grabs the Article the NFUR indicates the image was used on and mentions/links to it from within the notice? Original author is inactive. RememberOrwell (talk) 21:55, 8 June 2026 (UTC)
- Likely the only person who can do so is User:B, who you already asked. Anomie⚔ 22:39, 8 June 2026 (UTC)
Fix to USDA links that have predictably changed URLs
[edit]I noticed a fair number of plants that have external links to a USDA plant database in an old format that now links to an error page. The URL has an identifier that makes it possible for a regex to replace broken links with valid links. Here are some examples:
Wiki page: Arctostaphylos nevadensis Old URL: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ARNE Valid URL: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/ARNE
Wiki page: Agave utahensis Old URL: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=AGUT Valid URL: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/AGUT
Wiki page: Acmispon glaber Old URL: https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LOSC2 Valid URL: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/LOSC2
A search-and-replace seems like something a bot should do, but I have no idea how to find which pages need it. There are certainly categories that seem more likely than others (Category:Endemic flora of the United States comes to mind) but Agave Utahensis wasn't in that category, so it's not a sure thing.
Here's a python regex that seems like it would work for detecting the bad links:
https://plants(?:\.sc\.egov)?\.usda\.gov/java/profile\?symbol=([A-Z1-9]+)
Literal match for most of it, with a non-capturing group for '.sc.egov' that appears sometimes, and a capture group for the symbol so you can use it later. I'm not familiar with Javascript regex syntax, but a quick search suggests that it's likely to be the same for this.
Here's a test I did in python to see if it was plausible:
Extended content |
|---|
import re
def main():
test_urls = ["https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ARNE",
"https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=AGUT",
"https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LOSC2",
"https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/ARNE"] # should not match this one
# (?:\.sc\.egov)? is a non-capturing group to match the .sc.egov that doesnt't always appear
pattern = re.compile(r'https://plants(?:\.sc\.egov)?\.usda\.gov/java/profile\?symbol=([A-Z1-9]+)')
for url in test_urls:
match = pattern.match(url)
if match:
print(match.group(0), "\t", "https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/" + match.group(1))
main() |
~2026-34986-55 (talk) 22:45, 13 June 2026 (UTC)
- ~2026-34986-55, WP:URLREQ is the place for URL change requests. — Qwerfjkltalk 12:52, 14 June 2026 (UTC)
SimpleObjects-BOT: replacing archive .is/archive .today links with their archive.org ones (and more!)
[edit]Ah, what another cute and lovely time to create another account with my Wikimedia signature name, "SimpleObjects", and the most important part of the signature: a personalized "-9ei"!
I was finding out this yesterday. So here's the story: filter 1,402. (see also Special:Permalink/1339742649#Archive.is Warning on addition). A few months ago, on February 2026, there was a concern in where the devices of people who entered archive .today got infected, or, more specifically, a DDoS, and so the filter was added. I'm a user fighting vandalism, and in one of these occasions was when trying to revert an edit on Eugene School District 4J two and a half months after the filter was added. The user had blanked content part of what contained archive .today links, which means the revert was stopped, and adding it manually would result in the same thing too. Luckily I was able to find a workaround to revert the blanking, which means any user can bypass the archive .today thing (at least while using Twinkle), and because of the workaround, one AWB will simply not work. Oh yeah, Wikipedia also no longer renders archive .today-archived links. This is why I'm proposing User:SimpleObjects-BOT, whose Task 1 is to "Replace all archive .is/ .today links". There are nearly 370,000 or 380,000 archive .today cites in encyclopedic articles, and so I must take justice. Just exclude the Wikipedia namespace, please...
How will the bot work for Task 1, then? Well, it has to access web.archive.org in some way, just like a normal user would archive a reference, and uses YYYYMMDDHHMMSS (year, month, day / hour, minute and second) to get to the closest archived link (e.g. an archive .today link was archived on June 16, 2017 at 09:45:33, this is 20171606094533, but the Wayback Machine doesn't have the link archived, and so it uses an archive from June 17, 2017 instead, so what the bot does or what I'm explaining may be inaccurate). If web.archive.org doesn't have the link archived, well archive.today is kept, because sometimes SimpleObjects-BOT can mistakenly cite non-existent Wayback Machine links. Then, here's the tasty part from filter 1,402: pattern := "(?i)\barcihve(?:\.(?:closed\.social|fo|is|li|md|ph|today|vn)\b|iya74codqgiixo33q62qlrqtkgmcitqx5u2oeqnmn5bpcbiyd\.onion)/\w+";. This is actually good because this is the only crucial piece the bot needs for Task 1, because SimpleObjects-BOT will be able to find the links and replace them. Here's one example of an archive .today link so the bot can test: http
Two other things I have in mind for SimpleObjects-BOT: (Task 2): fixing citation errors and (Task 3): fixing non-infobox templates. Are these two and the archive .today task possible? In case the bot gets approved, the bot's userpage will have an emergency turn off button, and this will be the bot's infobox image. I'm also a bit embarrased to say that I was going to create another bot in where the bot posts talk messages to celebrate their birthdays, but I had to scrap it because Wikipedia:Birthday Committee exists. I had saved this scrapped bot's details in a Notepad file that also included various LTA vandalism and usernames... silly me!
Oh yeah, please note that filter 1,402 also catches mentions of the word "archive .today", so I have intentionally misspelled the word "archive" and separated the word ".today" to avoid triggering the filter. – SimpleObjects-9ei 🏖️/☀️/🥵 (🌎 CentralAuth) 22:57, 13 June 2026 (UTC)
- I started working on a bot for some of the problem. Please lend your support at Wikipedia talk:Archive.today guidance#c-Dw31415-20260606205500-Wrap standalone, blacklisted link Dw31415 (talk) 01:18, 14 June 2026 (UTC)
- One thing: because of this lengthy request, which bot should this go to, SimpleObjects-BOT or your unreleased bot, given that now there will be an approved bot that can handle this problem? Bot's edit summary on Task 1 (a.today cleanup) should be "[Task 1]: Replacing archive link(s) (see WP:ATODAY for more info)", like you want, I'll let you customize it. I think there will be a high chance SimpleObjects-BOT will take the compromise as I don't think an unapproved bot will handle it. – SimpleObjects-9ei 🏖️/☀️/🥵 (🌎 CentralAuth) 01:34, 14 June 2026 (UTC)
- I’m having a little trouble understanding. I intend to keep working on it and submit an approval request soon. I’m happy to divide and conquer if that’s what makes sense. Dw31415 (talk) 02:22, 14 June 2026 (UTC)
- One thing: because of this lengthy request, which bot should this go to, SimpleObjects-BOT or your unreleased bot, given that now there will be an approved bot that can handle this problem? Bot's edit summary on Task 1 (a.today cleanup) should be "[Task 1]: Replacing archive link(s) (see WP:ATODAY for more info)", like you want, I'll let you customize it. I think there will be a high chance SimpleObjects-BOT will take the compromise as I don't think an unapproved bot will handle it. – SimpleObjects-9ei 🏖️/☀️/🥵 (🌎 CentralAuth) 01:34, 14 June 2026 (UTC)
Replace dead mojim.com external links with mojimlyrics.com (~100 articles)
[edit]mojim.com (魔鏡歌詞網) was a major Chinese/Japanese/English lyrics site that shut down in 2024. Its archive has been recovered and relaunched at mojimlyrics.com. Approximately 133 English Wikipedia articles contain external links to mojim.com that now return 404. All replacement URLs below have been verified live at mojimlyrics.com.
Request: Replace old mojim.com links with mojimlyrics.com equivalents per the table below. The URL structure maps cleanly (e.g. mojim.com/twh102460.htm → mojimlyrics.com/artist/102460; mojim.com/twy104149x4x7.htm → mojimlyrics.com/song/10414900040007).
Edit summary to use: Replace defunct mojim.com link with mojimlyrics.com successor (verified live)
Domains to replace: mojim.com, tw.mojim.com, httpwww.mojim.com — all http:// and https:// variants.
Replacement table
[edit]~2026-35133-34 (talk) 19:38, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
- ~2026-35133-34, WP:URLREQ is the appropriate place for url change requests. — Qwerfjkltalk 14:47, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
Request better suited for WP:URLREQ. (for the record/bot). Primefac (talk) 12:43, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
Moving PAM discussions into AfD
[edit]Context: since the March RfC, the historical PAM process is no longer used. Merge discussions are now held at AfD instead. But some people might not be aware of this and continue to open PAM requests (see WP:MERGEREQ).
Is it a good idea to have a bot automatically move discussions into AfD? (or at the least, notify or put a notice on the discussion.)
I am not sure if Merge bot can be modified to make this happen, or an entirely new bot created. (or the idea is just bad in the first place). Jacksonvil (alt) (talk) (contribs) (Main account) 01:51, 18 June 2026 (UTC)
- It's not a bad idea, but the better idea would be editing the PAM page to make it a lot more obvious that the process has ended (which I will be doing as soon as I finish eating). Folk will figure it out when there is nowhere to put merge noms. Primefac (talk) 12:50, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
- I would also note that "I want to merge A into B" is a perfectly normal thing to expect someone to do on an article's talk page, so they might even know that PAM existed. I'm not heavily invested in the process but I don't think we should be mandating that all merge discussions go through AFD. Primefac (talk) 13:36, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
- It (may) be a better idea to have a notice pop up when trying to use the {{Merge to}} or {{Merge}} tags to strongly encourage the editor to use AfD. And I agree that it's fair enough for editors to assume and afd should not be mandated Jacksonvil (alt) (talk) (contribs) (Main account) 05:19, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
- I would also note that "I want to merge A into B" is a perfectly normal thing to expect someone to do on an article's talk page, so they might even know that PAM existed. I'm not heavily invested in the process but I don't think we should be mandating that all merge discussions go through AFD. Primefac (talk) 13:36, 20 June 2026 (UTC)
- Heya, note that all of this this is already being handled by the PAM maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Implementing the PAM–AfD merge. You're welcome to participate if you wish. The plan we are currently following is at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/to do.In short (and this is a very condensed summary), talk page discussions become formal PAM discussion once any editor places any of the {{PAM templates}} on the article pointing to the discussion, so we have decided to turn these templates into AfD templates. For example, {{merge to}} will be an auto-substituted wrapper of {{AfD/dated}}. If an AfD discussion is not provided or the discussion page doesn't exist, it will display an error. You can see how the new templates will look at their various testcases subpages.We are waiting for the backlog to be cleared to implement these changes. In the meantime, we're manually moving all new PAM discussions to AfD. There are only a few new PAM discussion every week (created by editors who are accustomed to the old system), and they've been declining. Due to the way PAM was structured, a bot could never do this automatically, and there's no need: the templates will explain to the editors what they need to do. FaviFake (talk) 10:23, 22 June 2026 (UTC)
Bot to remove historical "begins" dates from airport destination lists
[edit]When new routes are added to airport destination tables, the starting date for said route is added if it's in the future - eg. [[Sabiha Gökçen International Airport|Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen]] (begins {{date|2026-6-5}}) or [[Tirana International Airport|Tirana]] (begins 9 June 2026) (both examples taken from Chișinău International Airport (since removed)). It's a normal maintenance task to remove these dates once they have passed, so you are left with only the link, comma (if present) and the following reference (if there is one). I've tried using templates which substitute the text with null after the date has passed, but trying to persuade thousands of airport editors to use them is impossible... so we're left with the mishmash of plain text/partially templated formats we have today.
Ideally, this routine maintenance task could be automated, so that dates in these destination lists (always within an {{Airport destination list}}, or its redirect {{Airport-dest-list}} template) which have passed or are today are removed.
Note - the above copied from a post at WP:AWB/TASKS, where I initially asked for assistance and was directed here. Danners430 tweaks made 08:19, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Just for context on why a bot is desirable here... this is the volume of edits being made. It's currently 9:30 where I am, and these are the edits on my watchlist from this morning alone where the sole purpose is the removal of one of these dates... Note that not all are today's or yesterday's date, which is just an indicator that these often get missed, and they remain in lists for sometimes months when they should be removed. Danners430 tweaks made 08:28, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Processed 4,667 pages and fixed 22. I checked all possible date formats, and these were the only pages that needed fixing. – DreamRimmer ■ 11:32, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- It's possible most of them have already been caught - it's more the fact that this is a daily task that needs doing, I feel like although it's small in the grand scheme of things, it's almost ideal for a bot Danners430 tweaks made 11:50, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Yep, doing some quick regex searches it does look like the majority of the old ones (with two exceptions) have been blatted by a combination of the previous AWB run done when I asked the question at AWB/TASKS, and your run just now, so at least we're at "base zero" now. As I say though, I do still think it would be useful - if it's something that could run on a daily basis, and remove these dates, it would lessen the manual maintenance effort required Danners430 tweaks made 12:34, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Nevermind, I was very much wrong! Davgrx7646 is actively removing more dates as we speak...! Danners430 tweaks made 12:53, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Processed 4,667 pages and fixed 22. I checked all possible date formats, and these were the only pages that needed fixing. – DreamRimmer ■ 11:32, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Should these dates be removed even if service hasn’t begun? I ask because one of the questions that helps determine if a bot can do the job is whether human judgment is required. Dw31415 (talk) 11:22, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- I think the answer is yes and no - if the service has been cancelled, the entire entry (link, start date and ref) will be removed by an editor... and that will be done regardless if it gets cancelled before the start date, or after. Removing the date also, in my opinion, won't prevent that from happening Danners430 tweaks made 11:51, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Ideally this would be done by humans, who would confirm that the scheduled start has actually occurred (and either delete the entry if the route is cancelled, or adjust the date if the start is postponed) but in practice I don't think that removing the start date automatically will do any harm. If anything, given that the editors who habitually update these destination lists almost certainly have the airport pages on their watchlists, seeing the bot's edit is likely to serve as a reminder for them to check whether service has actually started. Perhaps the question we should be asking is how often routes that have been announced as starting on a given date actually get cancelled or deferred at the last minute? (hopefully routes whose cancellation or deferral is announced in advance would be noticed and dealt with by humans before the proposed bot comes into action). Rosbif73 (talk) 15:52, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- I don't have hard and fast figures, but I only see a route get removed from a destination table, having never started as announced, once or twice a week at absolute most... which is a drop in the water compared to how many do actually start as planned. And as you say, the human editors will still be there, and indeed the regular watchlist updates will act as a reminder Danners430 tweaks made 17:37, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- Just a quick note, because I forgot - "begins" isn't always the word used... sometimes it's "resumes", where a route previously operated and is being reinstated. Why? I have no idea... but I'm not arguing! Danners430 tweaks made 17:50, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
- I can provide a Python script for this that you can run on PAWS every few days. It will remove any begins/resumes dates that have already passed. – DreamRimmer ■ 12:01, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- That could work - I’ve just never used PAWS before… but wouldn’t this make more sense to be run as a bot task? I’d even be happy to assist in maintaining, although my experience in programming is amateur at best Danners430 tweaks made 16:59, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- Any updates? Danners430 tweaks made 18:14, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- That could work - I’ve just never used PAWS before… but wouldn’t this make more sense to be run as a bot task? I’d even be happy to assist in maintaining, although my experience in programming is amateur at best Danners430 tweaks made 16:59, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- I can provide a Python script for this that you can run on PAWS every few days. It will remove any begins/resumes dates that have already passed. – DreamRimmer ■ 12:01, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- Sorry to be a pest, does anyone have any updates on this? Danners430 tweaks made 09:54, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- @Vanderwaalforces: You want to take this? I can give you the code. – DreamRimmer ■ 10:38, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- @DreamRimmer Okay, let’s see. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 11:19, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- @Vanderwaalforces: You want to take this? I can give you the code. – DreamRimmer ■ 10:38, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Bot to enforce WP:ANCHORSUBST
[edit]We should have a bot that finds section headings containing an unsubstituted {{Anchor}} call and substitute them. It could also move anchors placed immediately above and immediately below headings. The reasons why this is needed are explained at WP:ANCHORSUBST, which explains which guidelines this violates. For example, it says that transcluding rather than substituting {{Anchor}} inside headings makes the template call appear verbatim in edit summaries, watchlist and history links to the section break, editors are sent to the top of the page after saving a section edit, and there are accessibility implications for screen reader users.
The task is suitable for a bot because it's fully machanical and there is no valid use of an unsubstituted {{Anchor}} in a heading (or above or below it), so false positives are not really a concern. FaviFake (talk) 11:01, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- An edge case would be something like A template within or immediately before a section seems unambiguous, absent some sort of GIGO like someone deleting "This is the second paragraph of the section." without deleting its anchor. Anomie⚔ 12:56, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
== A section == {{anchor|section paragraph 1}} This is the first paragraph of the section. {{anchor|section paragraph 2}} This is the second paragraph of the section.
- Adding documentation for convenience
== {{Anchor|Transcluded anchor}} Basic format ==- Any idea how prevalent this is? Dw31415 (talk) 14:02, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Immensely, in my experience. Just as the one above and below the heading. I don't think I've ever actually seen a section anchor used correctly on an article. FaviFake (talk) 20:58, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Here are 4,000 articles using span-tag anchors. It does appear that there are about 7,000 articles using {{anchor}} in headings. A limited-scope bot may be useful. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:20, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- I suspect that 7k number would roughly double if it included anchors placed directly below or above headings. FaviFake (talk) 22:24, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Which it should not do and does not need to do, as explained above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:15, 29 June 2026 (UTC)
- It looks more like ~5k pages not 7k (your search was turning up things like
|density={{anchor...) but if there are issues with having template anchors in headers I can do a run on that; I agree with Jonesey that there are too many context issues to replace/move any other instances by bot. Primefac (talk) 14:20, 29 June 2026 (UTC)
- I suspect that 7k number would roughly double if it included anchors placed directly below or above headings. FaviFake (talk) 22:24, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Here are 4,000 articles using span-tag anchors. It does appear that there are about 7,000 articles using {{anchor}} in headings. A limited-scope bot may be useful. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:20, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Immensely, in my experience. Just as the one above and below the heading. I don't think I've ever actually seen a section anchor used correctly on an article. FaviFake (talk) 20:58, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
IPA symbol
[edit]A bot going through the instances of {{IPA|sh}}, {{IPA|sr}}, {{IPA|hr}}, {{IPA|bs}} and {{IPA|cnr}} still using the symbol ‹ʋ› in order to replace it with ‹v›, in accordance with the related IPA key – Help:IPA/Serbo-Croatian – which hasn’t listed ‹ʋ› for three years now. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 15:04, 29 June 2026 (UTC)
- I only see a few usages of any of those in articlespace, can you link to a few examples so I can get a better idea of what the request entails? phuzion (talk) 16:22, 30 June 2026 (UTC)
- The instances are all categorized under Category:Pages with Serbo-Croatian IPA and subcats. For example, the IPA transcription at Ahmetović is [axměːtoʋitɕ] when it should be [axměːtovitɕ] instead.
Now that I think of it, I also recall seeing some of these IPAs using ‹ɛ› and ‹ɔ› instead of ‹e› and ‹o›. Might be worth including. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 18:47, 30 June 2026 (UTC)- Maybe Module:IPA can be modified to have a config page for valid symbols per language and then add invalid usages to an error category. Gonnym (talk) 06:06, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
- That’s also a valid alternative if it’s feasible. A similar thing is implemented for some languages on Wiktionary. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 06:39, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
- @IvanScrooge98: I would be willing to write some code and run it via User:PharyngealBOT. Would you still be interested in solving this problem with a bot, or would you rather someone rewrite Module:IPA's code? – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 21:59, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- @PharyngealImplosive7: Looks like there's a BRFA up already. I'll mark this as BRFA filed Tenshi! (Talk page) 22:03, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- Oh, I didn't see that BRFA
Facepalm . I guess that means this conversation is moot then – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- Btw, I had also expanded the request with ‹ɛ› to ‹e› and ‹ɔ› to ‹o›, but this wasn’t listed there. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 22:10, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- The BRFA does mention that it flags vowel changing edits for manual review – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 22:12, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- Btw, I had also expanded the request with ‹ɛ› to ‹e› and ‹ɔ› to ‹o›, but this wasn’t listed there. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 22:10, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- Oh, I didn't see that BRFA
- Thanks a lot! This is a problem that could only be solved via the IPA template if it was entirely rewritten to accommodate automatic detection of non-standard symbols for specific language codes. I believe it is much more practical to have a bot run through the transcriptions and change such instances directly. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 22:04, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- @PharyngealImplosive7: Looks like there's a BRFA up already. I'll mark this as
- @IvanScrooge98: I would be willing to write some code and run it via User:PharyngealBOT. Would you still be interested in solving this problem with a bot, or would you rather someone rewrite Module:IPA's code? – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 21:59, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
- That’s also a valid alternative if it’s feasible. A similar thing is implemented for some languages on Wiktionary. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 06:39, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
- Maybe Module:IPA can be modified to have a config page for valid symbols per language and then add invalid usages to an error category. Gonnym (talk) 06:06, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
- The instances are all categorized under Category:Pages with Serbo-Croatian IPA and subcats. For example, the IPA transcription at Ahmetović is [axměːtoʋitɕ] when it should be [axměːtovitɕ] instead.
UK Council Election Pages
[edit]There is no universal canonical source of truth for UK council election and by-election results. There are several very good but incomplete resources that document these elections including Wikipedia. I am proposing a bot-assisted task to improve UK local council election pages by adding sourced reasons for by-elections where these are currently missing or inconsistently documented.
Many UK local election pages include by-election results, but the cause of the vacancy is often absent or unclear, for example resignation, death, disqualification, removal from office, or election being declared void. I have recently made some manual edits of this kind, for example:2024 Warrington Borough Council election (Diff ~1363388510) 2023 Tendring District Council election (Diff 1363327868)
The proposed bot would not infer or invent reasons. It would only add a cause where a reliable source clearly supports it.
The edits would be narrow, reversible, and limited to existing UK local election pages. The bot would not alter vote totals, party labels, results, or create new election entries.
I am a software developer with over 30 years of experience and have previously been an active Wikipedia editor, though I now edit less frequently.
To this end I have created the account User:JACEsquireCouncilBot.
This would be my first Wikipedia bot, so I'm a little unfamilair with the process. JAC Esquire (talk) 12:46, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hi @JAC Esquire, thanks for your interest in creating a bot for Wikipedia. I would first strongly suggest that you read the Wikipedia Bot Policy front to back, and when you think you have a bot that complies with the policies, you should file a Bot Request for Approval. phuzion (talk) 13:18, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- OK. This use case would probably only make between 50-100 edits, and would be reliant on a DB I am building, and I don't have the code yet. So maybe I'll defer this. JAC Esquire (talk) 14:35, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- Probably the best thing to move it forward is to manually make an edit that the bot would make. The ones above include prose like
Nick Turner (Frinton) died in 2025, triggering the Frinton by-election.
will probably face resistance. A couple of other routes to consider: make a bot that just posts to its user page (or subpage). Or make a browser utility that helps perform human editing. Dw31415 (talk) 15:25, 10 July 2026 (UTC)- Post to user page where you could then copy/paste manually into the article. (Don’t use an LLM for that). Dw31415 (talk) 15:26, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- "..." will probably face resistance. Why's that? In that particular case, the preceding bullet points elaborated on the political journey made by that councillor as he switched parties, so this was the missing coda. The contextualised by-election detail was further down. Different prose. The prose is from my DB.
- "Or make a browser utility that helps perform human editing". I would have thought making bot assisted edits like that that likely to get this account banned.
- "a bot that just posts to its user page (or subpage)". Can't see the point of that. I can paste from my own DB browser UI. Maybe that was the kind of tool you were referring to ^.
- I'm still scoping the size of the issue. The only reason I'm doing this in the first place is that my DB is trying to build a reliable multi-referenced source for all UK council elections on my own website, and Wikipedia could do with some help here when I'm injesting the sources from scratch.
- Thanks guys. JAC Esquire (talk) 16:13, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:ASSISTED and essay Wikipedia:Robotic editing Dw31415 (talk) 16:27, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- And see https://fixarchive.toolforge.org/ for example (and please fix some AT links to try it JK). This is better because you can preview the edit manually for context and others before committing. Dw31415 (talk) 16:30, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- OK. That's kind of where I'm heading right now. Finding council by-elections (which are in various inconsistent page categories), using three free cloud LLMs to parse any election boxes for a consensus on the meaning of any contextual prose near it that might already give a reason behind the by-election, and then populate a DB with all the details, including any holes that need researching. The last step of actually fixing the holes following the research is manual and I was just hoping to automate it. I didnt know about toolforge hosting. Cheers. JAC Esquire (talk) 16:58, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- Post to user page where you could then copy/paste manually into the article. (Don’t use an LLM for that). Dw31415 (talk) 15:26, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
Top 25 Report
[edit]Previously a bot added a Top 25 Report template to all articles talk pages that appeared in the Top 25 Report list. For a while this have not happened. Maybe we could fix that. BabbaQ (talk) 21:16, 15 July 2026 (UTC)
- Looks like @CapsuleBot. Have you tried the talk page for the bot or the operator? See Talk:Saltburn (film) (Diff ~1197328057) Dw31415 (talk) 21:30, 15 July 2026 (UTC)
- I see that was just a trial and did not go through with approval. Was there another bot more recently? Dw31415 (talk) 21:52, 15 July 2026 (UTC)
- A Jan 2025 was a human Talk:Jimmy Carter (Diff ~1269782167) Dw31415 (talk) 22:56, 15 July 2026 (UTC)
- @BabbaQ: Is this still needed? Happy to help if it is. One of my bots can handle it. – DreamRimmer ■ 13:24, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
- @DukeOfDelTaco: I noticed you updated the top 25 tags. Any thoughts on a bot doing it? Dw31415 (talk) 14:08, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
- If you could fix it, that would be appreciated. Thank you!BabbaQ (talk) 14:19, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
- BRFA filed – DreamRimmer ■ 09:44, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- If you could fix it, that would be appreciated. Thank you!BabbaQ (talk) 14:19, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
- @DukeOfDelTaco: I noticed you updated the top 25 tags. Any thoughts on a bot doing it? Dw31415 (talk) 14:08, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
I want to make my first bot.
[edit]The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Its going to be The most advanced bot, using machine learning to to make great edits, and possibly create pages! Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 16:25, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- Can it solve world hunger after? See Help:Creating a bot. DatGuyTalkContribs 17:28, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- It could create a dyson sphere after! or with enough time, A simulation of the entire universe! Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 17:57, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- I mean technically a Wikipedia bot with a basic ml algorithm is plausible. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 18:29, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- If im being serious. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 18:29, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- I mean technically a Wikipedia bot with a basic ml algorithm is plausible. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 18:29, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- It could create a dyson sphere after! or with enough time, A simulation of the entire universe! Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 17:57, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- Such a bot would not be likely to be approved. See WP:BOTPOL, Wikipedia:Writing articles with large language models, and WP:EPAI. phuzion (talk) 02:37, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- Don't worry, it will just be a bot that has a simple ml algorithm, like a upgraded version of one of those page creating/editing bots. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 21:20, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- The most simple version would just be another one of those bots that fix typos and stuff, but with an added Machine learning to check spelling. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 21:21, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- We don't have typo fixing bots, largely because it's a CONTEXT issue. Primefac (talk) 21:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- Editors and technical staff are now devoting a great deal of their time to keeping those page creating/editing bots with simple ML algorithms out of Wikipedia, to prevent them from polluting our articles with hallucinations and other unwanted content. Certes (talk) 22:51, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hmm, I see, How about a bot that creates articles and refines them without a Machine learning algorithms? Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 00:15, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- Per WP:MASSCREATE you would need consensus from the community to create a bot like that. Given that in the last few years we have deleted (literally) thousands of articles created by bots and/or people using scripts to do basically the same thing, you'd need to make a very convincing argument. Primefac (talk) 10:52, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hmm, I see, How about a bot that creates articles and refines them without a Machine learning algorithms? Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 00:15, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- The most simple version would just be another one of those bots that fix typos and stuff, but with an added Machine learning to check spelling. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 21:21, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
- Don't worry, it will just be a bot that has a simple ml algorithm, like a upgraded version of one of those page creating/editing bots. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 21:20, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
I want to make a much simpler bot.
[edit]The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
I request to make just a regular bot that Fixes Typos. That's it. Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 17:20, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- Wikiguythatlikesbiology, if you want to make a bot, make a bot; this page is for people who don't have the skills/time/ability to make a bot and want someone else to make it for them. As far as making a bot goes, see the advice given to you in #I want to make my first bot. above. Primefac (talk) 17:30, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- Thank you so much! Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 20:37, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- But how do i make one? Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 20:37, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
- Thank you so much! Wikiguythatlikesbiology (talk) 20:37, 19 July 2026 (UTC)
Aesthetic Bot
[edit]need flag for user:Aesthetic Bot Aesthetic of me (talk) 09:09, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
- In that case you need to file a BRFA, but like the last time your bot was denied I think unless you have a very specific issue that needs solving, you might run into difficulties. Primefac (talk) 09:14, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
- Also, their posting this here suggests they're still not ready to be a bot operator. Anomie⚔ 11:41, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Tagging Esculenta's creations with Template:AI-generated
[edit]Hi, see the AINB report and cleanup page, would it be possible to have a bot tag all of Esculenta's LLM-generated creations with {{AI-generated}}? Judging by the change in speed of creations (see XTools), I'd suggest 15 March 2023 as the date they started using LLMs, meaning everything after that point (ie. after Platygramme lueckingii) would need to be WP:LLMPRODed. That however needs to be done manually because the articles need to be checked for "significant contributions" from other editors, and because there's around 2320 of them, it's highly unlikely anyone will get round to doing them anytime even remotely soon (esp. because of the large workload at AINB). In the meantime I think it'd be best to tag them all with {{AI-generated}}, if only to make readers aware of the potential/likely issues. Suggested edit would be to add the following to the first line of the articles:
{{AI-generated |{{subst:DATE}} |reason=See [[Wikipedia:AI noticeboard/Archive 7#Esculenta and GAs]] and [[Wikipedia:AI noticeboard/User:Esculenta]]}}
Thanks, Kowal2701 (talk, contribs) 13:46, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- I'm afraid, but is there any discussion showing support for this mass action? – DreamRimmer ■ 14:20, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- There hasn't been, but I can notify WP:AINB and WP:BOTN of this request or start a separate discussion seeking support? Kowal2701 (talk, contribs) 14:32, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- I’ve been thinking about making a bot to help with AI clean up but agree it needs broader discussion, probably starting at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) or (proposal if you’re ready to concretely propose something (like tagging every edit in a date range) (talk page stalker) Dw31415 (talk) 17:35, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- There hasn't been, but I can notify WP:AINB and WP:BOTN of this request or start a separate discussion seeking support? Kowal2701 (talk, contribs) 14:32, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
"Alma mater" to "Education" in infoboxes
[edit]The parameters Alma mater and Education have existed together in biographical infoboxes for years, but their distinction was ill-defined at best. Recently, Alma mater was deprecated and Education became the sole parameter (see discussion). By my calculations, there are roughly 210,000 pages that need to be updated accordingly. Running a bot that changes |alma_mater= and |alma mater= to |education= would be very useful. Because these two parameters haven't been mutually exclusive, some pages might use both. In those cases, manual editing will be necessary. But that can be handled after a bot has swept through all the other pages. Woko Sapien (talk) 15:20, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- Per WP:APPNOTE, I'm pinging Phil Bridger, Nigel Ish, Myceteae, and Zackmann08, who participated in the original conversation on this matter. Feel free to add any points I may have missed here. Woko Sapien (talk) 15:28, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- I think Primefac already has an approved bot to work with infobox parameters. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:51, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks for the tip! Woko Sapien (talk) 18:03, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- I do, and I am. Primefac (talk) 21:23, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks for the tip! Woko Sapien (talk) 18:03, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- This proposal sounds good to me. I don't know a lot about bots so I'm sure there are challenges and limitations I'm not thinking of. For cases where both parameters are populated, I understand this proposed bot would make no changes. These should be left for human review, so that is good. There must be thousands of articles that use both. Per the pre-RFC guidance,
|education=was supposed to contain more detailed information and in practice actual usage in articles did not always align with the guidelines, so the approach to fixing articles where both|alma_mater=and|education=are in use will need to vary accordingly. —Myceteae🍄🟫 (talk) 17:35, 27 July 2026 (UTC)- Nothing to add at the moment, but happy to help if my assistance is needed! Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 23:17, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
- I think Primefac already has an approved bot to work with infobox parameters. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:51, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Mass correction of "species/animals are unrelated" shorthand
[edit]Description of task: Please run a semi-automated script (AWB) or bot task to locate biology and animal articles that use the phrases "animals are entirely unrelated," "species are unrelated," or "unrelated species" when describing separate evolutionary lineages. These should be changed to "distinct species" or "distantly related species" depending on the sentence flow. Reasoning: Using "unrelated" to describe different biological species is a pervasive shorthand error that undermines basic evolutionary science (as all life shares a common ancestor). An encyclopedia should maintain strict phylogenetic standards. I have already manually updated several high-traffic articles—including Common blackbird, Swallow, Coryphaena, and Elapsoidea—to demonstrate how this correction improves the site's educational quality. However, there are too many legacy articles left for a human to fix alone. ~2026-38730-08 (talk) 13:43, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Even if there is consensus for this (is there?), this seems like a WP:CONTEXTBOT issue. Anomie⚔ 14:15, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
Sorting Films
[edit]Hello! I've been working on a project to sort Category:United States National Film Registry films by the year they were inducted into the registry. For an example, see Category:United States National Film Registry films inducted in 1989. It's turining out to be wayyyy bigger of a project than i can handle, and it would probably be relatively simple to make a bot to do it (although i also know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how to make bots). There's a good chart over at www.loc.gov that sorts everything by the year inducted, but it's an absolutely monumental task to sort the whole 500 on the list "by hand." If there's anything more I need to do to help, please let me know. Commandant Quacks-a-lot (talk) 21:10, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Seems like a pretty simple task. Just parse a list of films and their years from the loc's list and check each of the article title's against it, appending "in XXXX" to category Category:United States National Film Registry films as it appears. With the somewhat small number of pages, it might be able to be a manual/semi-automatic run, but I'm not sure if that would still require the full approval process. FlammablePizza (talk) 21:39, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Made a csv file of titles and induction years here based on the LOC site. FlammablePizza (talk) 21:46, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- That looks like a bit more than 500, probably in the range of filing a BRFA. Tenshi! (Talk page) 21:47, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Sorry, what does "parse" mean? I'm a complete ameteur at anything bot-related. Commandant Quacks-a-lot (talk) 21:52, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- It generally means reading data from a source, that frequently has complex formatting, such as a website. Here, I meant reading the list from the website and converting it into a somewhat less complicated format for a bot to read (like just a plain file of text separated by commas). FlammablePizza (talk) 21:56, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Ah, okay. What bot should i use to run through the list? Commandant Quacks-a-lot (talk) 22:13, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- No bots have been approved yet. I have developed a script for it though, you can see a list of all changes it will make here. It is 707 articles affected, so it definitely will need a BRFA. Just need to get the BRFA filed and it will likely be a few weeks until the bot is approved (if any other bot-ops want to take over, feel free to do so; I know some of you have a lot more trust/experience in the process). FlammablePizza (talk) 23:09, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- BRFA filed. I'll run it if it gets approved and let you know. FlammablePizza (talk) 00:05, 6 August 2026 (UTC)
- ooh, okay, thanks so much! Commandant Quacks-a-lot (talk) 01:24, 6 August 2026 (UTC)
- Ah, okay. What bot should i use to run through the list? Commandant Quacks-a-lot (talk) 22:13, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- It generally means reading data from a source, that frequently has complex formatting, such as a website. Here, I meant reading the list from the website and converting it into a somewhat less complicated format for a bot to read (like just a plain file of text separated by commas). FlammablePizza (talk) 21:56, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Made a csv file of titles and induction years here based on the LOC site. FlammablePizza (talk) 21:46, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikitable alignment: obsolete HTML
[edit]I was recently informed that "table markup align= is obsolete HTML. You are encouraged to change align=left to style="text-align:left". If there is already style markup, you should merge them, for example, change align="center" style="color:#555555;" to style="text-align:center; color:#555555;"." Is there an existing bot that can update these? Ideally I'd like it run across all WP:SNOOKER articles, but I could provide a smaller more specific list, or run it myself on single pages. I hope this is enough info; please let me know if not. Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 15:42, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- BennyOnTheLoose, I suggest asking on Wikipedia talk:Linter; but there almost always seems to be WP:CONTEXTBOT issues with fixing linter errors at scale. — Qwerfjkltalk 18:14, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- I wouldn't see any context issues here with obsolete HTML tags, but I note that this is not reported as a lint error, which makes searches the only option for finding these. Tenshi! (Talk page) 18:18, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- In some cases, it might be possible to remove all the inline alignment in the table cells and use Template:Table alignment in the table headers. -- WOSlinker (talk) 19:51, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- I wouldn't see any context issues here with obsolete HTML tags, but I note that this is not reported as a lint error, which makes searches the only option for finding these. Tenshi! (Talk page) 18:18, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
- This might be a little pedantic, but it isn't "obsolete" in terms of it doesn't report any tracked lint errors for obsolete tags on the reports at this time, but it certainly is "depreciated" where there have been noted issues stated with it. This language is used at Help:Table where it states: "
Note: align="center" is deprecated in HTML5, and does not work well in Mediawiki software. For example, it will not override the left alignment of tables via class=wikitable.
" - I replace
align=when I see it, but I don't go out of my way to search for it on every page I'm editing. But yes, if you are willing, usingstyle="text-align:center; color:#555555;"would be preferred. Zinnober9 (talk) 22:01, 5 August 2026 (UTC)
Null edits?
[edit]Is there any bot that can just smash through a bunch of pages doing null edits?
The situation is that a badly formatted recent edit to {{Non-free book cover}} caused an absolute explosion of redlinked categories on the latest run of Special:WantedCategories, with almost 1,200 redlinks representing almost six times the usual number, because it caused the invocations of the template to start treating code that was intended as a sortkey, not as a category, as new categories.
The edit has been reverted and the redlinked categories are no longer appearing on the pages themselves — but the implicated categories aren't emptying out or leaving the redlinked category report, so that as of right now there are still over 1,000 redlinked categories on the report, which is further interfering with the process of finding and fixing the redlinked categories that weren't caused by that one template edit.
So is there any bot that can just do a quick one-off run through the categories on Special:WantedCategories, null-editing their contents to clear the ones that don't need an editor's direct attention? (The nulls would have to be to the individual pages that are appearing in the categories, not to the categories themselves.) Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 15:56, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- There weren't that many API requests, so I just did it without a BRFA. – DreamRimmer ■ 16:43, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks much Bearcat (talk) 17:14, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Just as an answer to the question (for next time?) there exists User:ProcBot/PurgeList. Primefac (talk) 22:09, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- This purge task has been broken for quite a while now. Most of ProcBot's other tasks have also been stopped for a long time. – DreamRimmer ■ 01:19, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- Oh, fair enough; last I checked it was still running, but I will say it's been a minute. Primefac (talk) 13:02, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- This purge task has been broken for quite a while now. Most of ProcBot's other tasks have also been stopped for a long time. – DreamRimmer ■ 01:19, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- Just as an answer to the question (for next time?) there exists User:ProcBot/PurgeList. Primefac (talk) 22:09, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks much Bearcat (talk) 17:14, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
Bot that informs you when someone translates your article
[edit]Can someone make a bot that informs the article creator that their article has been translated/?
This is how it would work;
- Whenever the Wikipedia portion of a wikidata item is updated with a new language version, the bot would check who created each language version of the article already linked in wikidata, and add a message to their talk page informing them
Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:07, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- I love seeing my articles get translated, but wish I didnt have to individually check them all to see if one has been Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:14, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- Izno on discord suggested that the creator also get an echo notification Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:15, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) I'd like to see a consensus for such a bot to notify anyone when their article is translated, alternatively it could be an opt-in thing for editors? Tenshi! (Talk page) 17:17, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- I dont think we need consensus for it, it happens so infrequently I doubt it'd be a bother (maybe editors could choose to opt-out instead of an opt-in)
- though im a complete newbie here so may be wrong
- Where would I go to get consensus for this? Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:19, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- VPR is a good general page to get consensus. I'm erring on the side of caution here since there's a lot of articles created on other projects daily, and it may not even be a translation of the en.wp article. Tenshi! (Talk page) 17:29, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, other projects have articles created daily, however they may not have an enwiki version, and theres millions of articles to pick from, so its unlikely one person will get a lot of pings, if that is your concern
- I dont think it being a direct translation of the enwiki article is important at all, just that the topic has coverage in another article now Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:35, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- Done See here Froglord (Finnfrog99) (talk) 17:48, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- VPR is a good general page to get consensus. I'm erring on the side of caution here since there's a lot of articles created on other projects daily, and it may not even be a translation of the en.wp article. Tenshi! (Talk page) 17:29, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
Request for bot to check and remove stale orphan templates
[edit]As someone who very frequently de-orphans articles, it makes me mildly irritated and disappointed when I de-orphan an article, only to check "what links here" and find out that it was never an orphan at all. Now, my request is to make a bot that scrapes through orphaned articles listed in Category:Orphaned articles (why does the hyperlink not work for that?), see if they are actually orphans, and if they are not, remove the orphan template. I understand that this isn't a very "high-priority" issue, but it would definitely come in handy. I also don't know if there are any bots that already do this, or have the capability of doing it, so notify me if so. I am a programmer (not a very good one...), but I haven't dealt with bots, and don't really want to, as knowing how slow I learn, I would probably take multiple weeks just to get a prototype working. Hence this request. With kind regards, Blint (talk) 11:58, 13 August 2026 (UTC)
- Do you have an estimate of how many pages, and how often this is? It might be better to be handled as a Database report if it's a small amount, as that's what was done for {{Dead end}} here. Tenshi! (Talk page) 12:07, 13 August 2026 (UTC)
- I went ahead and manually scanned through 100 orphans from August (thanks @Zinnober9 for teaching me how to hyperlink categories!) and checked which ones have wrong orphan templates, I'll go ahead and crunch the numbers for you.
- There was an average of 1.1 orphans per 10 articles, with 0.4 per 10 having more than one article linking to them. Over the total orphan count of 52,994 as of August 13th 2026 7:01 PM Hungary time, that would be ~4,817 false positives. Quite a lot! So yeah, there's your answer. With kind regards, Blint (talk) 17:02, 13 August 2026 (UTC)
Coding... Tenshi! (Talk page) 17:05, 13 August 2026 (UTC)
- In my wise wisdom, I forgot to check whether a bot is doing this beforehand before writing code. JL-Bot is approved and active, though it seems that they're omitting articles either because of links in templates or because the bot will only remove if there is more than three links. Tenshi! (Talk page) 23:30, 13 August 2026 (UTC)
- Note the preceding colon for the category links: Category:Orphaned articles Dw31415 (talk) 02:24, 14 August 2026 (UTC)