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This is a message board for coordinating and discussing bot-related issues on Wikipedia (also including other programs interacting with the MediaWiki software). Although its target audience is bot owners, any user is welcome to leave a message or join the discussion here. This is not the place for requests for bot approvals or requesting that tasks be done by a bot. It is also not the place for general questions about the MediaWiki software (such as the use of templates, etc.), which have generally a best chance of being answered at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical).
Contents
You may need to restart your bots twice
Hi everyone,
Ops is planning a major data center migration during the week of 21 March. From the POV of a bot owner, there are two major effects:
- Your bot will not be able to edit for approximately 15 to 30 minutes at the start and end of the main action, on Tuesday, 22 March or Thursday, 24 March. [1]
- Some bots may need to be re-started after the read-only window ends.
This is being announced in m:Tech/News and through the wikitech-l mailing list. phab:T124671 seems to be the central task. You can follow those for further updates (or {{ping}} me). Please share this information with other projects and bot owners.
- ^ The exact time has not been chosen yet, but my guess is approximately 07:00 UTC. Also, as with all tricky operations, it may be postponed for safety's sake; in that case, the next probable time window is the third week of April.
— Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:28, 10 March 2016 (UTC)
- I'm a little confused as to why the bot needs to be restarted. Won't the API simply return an error during the period, or do we have to deal with bad session data again?—cyberpowerChat:Limited Access 17:14, 10 March 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the API will return an error. But some bots are a little brittle about this, and the error may not be the same one that we "usually" see (read-only mode isn't the same as the 'blue screen of death'). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:15, 10 March 2016 (UTC)
Postponed until mid-April
Ops has just postponed this until the week of 18 April. Some backend services will migrate to codfw during the week of 04 April (maybe on the Thursday?). If your bot might rely on RESTbase, Parsoid, or other things like that, then {{ping}} me and I'll see if I can find a list.
I hope that everyone survived the five-minute test yesterday with no problems. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:41, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Legobot error: Good article nominations
As documented at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations#Legobot error?, we've positively identified a bug in the Legobot code that is supposed to pass good articles. The bug is: If a reviewer passes an article as GA and places the passed {{GA}} template immediately above an earlier placed {{failedGA}} template from an earlier review, the bot will become confused by the presence of both templates and will fail the GA rather than pass it. It happened again today at Talk:Gene Roddenberry. It happens nearly every day. When it happens, the successful nominator receives notice that the article failed instead of passed, and the GA icon is not placed on the article; it must be manually placed. A possibly separate bug: Sometimes the GANotice template is not placed on the nominators talk page at all. Pinging Legoktm; can you please help us. Side note: We're also wondering if you can help us add a few subtopics as documented at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations#RfC: Subcategories on GAN page. Thank-you. Prhartcom (talk) 22:28, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
- I did notice a delay with the notification of the nominator when Aucanquilcha was passed: Spinningspark closed the GA nomination as successful 16th November 2015 but the bot informed me on 2 January 2016. Wonder if these issues may be linked.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 10:56, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
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- The errors continue to occur, causing both incorrect edit summaries and incorrect posts to user talk pages. Is this kind of delay in responding to a report here typical? Legoktm (Legobot), it would help a great deal if we knew about how long a fix of this bug is likely to take. Thank you for your attention to this matter. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:48, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
Rotten Tomatoes subtemplates
Theo's Little Bot (run by Theopolisme) has been recreating some of the subtemplates that were slated for deletion in this TfD. It's just been recreating them as an error. The bot owner hasn't edited for a few months, but is anyone able to disable only this task? It seems unreasonable to monitor the bot for when it decides to recreate one of these. Example: Template:Rotten_Tomatoes_score/0118688. ~ RobTalk 15:07, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
- Template:Rotten Tomatoes score/1300854 as well. The bot only seems to be recreating the error pages, namely pages that will never be used anyways. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 22:37, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
- I don't believe it's possible to disable one of a bot's tasks without blocking the bot entirely. I ran into this issue several months ago; the solution is to template-editor-salt them – see my rather brief protection log. – wbm1058 (talk) 22:49, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
- If an admin could take a look at Theo's Little Bot's recent contributions and delete/salt the newly recreated Rotten Tomatoes subtemplates, that would be helpful. There are couple dozen of them all created with an error today. ~ RobTalk 23:11, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
- This bot has been blocked for creating pages against community consensus. Any admin may unblock this bot after the operator has repaired it. — xaosflux Talk 23:16, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
- FYI, the bot is also having issues with another one of it's tasks, resizing images. See User talk:Theo's Little Bot#Task 1. Elisfkc (talk) 03:59, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- That's a different problem. The Rotten Tomatoes problem is that the bot makes edits it's no longer supposed to do, which is problematic and lead to a block of the bot. The problem you mention is that the bot sometimes doesn't make edits it's supposed to do, which is less problematic (a backlog is generated, but it isn't as disruptive for the project and isn't a reason for a block). It would be nice if the bot operator could fix both problems, but only the Rotten Tomatoes problem needs to be fixed in order to unblock the bot. --Stefan2 (talk) 10:09, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- True, but it's something else that needs to be fixed with that bot. If there is an old version of the bot's code, maybe that will fix both issues. Elisfkc (talk) 15:52, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- Problem 1 (Rotten Tomatoes) is fixed if the bot operator removes a line from a cronjob (or whatever job scheduler the operator uses for this purpose). Problem 2 (file size reductions) is fixed if the bot operator corrects a bug in one of the bot's scripts. However, the problems can only be fixed by the bot operator, and the problem is that he isn't responding. --Stefan2 (talk) 21:29, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- True, but it's something else that needs to be fixed with that bot. If there is an old version of the bot's code, maybe that will fix both issues. Elisfkc (talk) 15:52, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- That's a different problem. The Rotten Tomatoes problem is that the bot makes edits it's no longer supposed to do, which is problematic and lead to a block of the bot. The problem you mention is that the bot sometimes doesn't make edits it's supposed to do, which is less problematic (a backlog is generated, but it isn't as disruptive for the project and isn't a reason for a block). It would be nice if the bot operator could fix both problems, but only the Rotten Tomatoes problem needs to be fixed in order to unblock the bot. --Stefan2 (talk) 10:09, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: I emailed Theo and he said the offending task has been disabled and the bot can be unblocked. I'll leave that decision up to your discretion. --Closedmouth (talk) 09:30, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
- Closedmouth Thank you for the update, I am unblocking as I trust your message. — xaosflux Talk 13:31, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
Hazard Bot
Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Hazard-Bot 33
How did this get approval without site-wide consensus such as from Village Pump? All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 20:07, 21 March 2016 (UTC).
- See Wikipedia:Research help/Proposal#Project steps. VPT is in step 7. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:13, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
- Cart. Horse. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 11:17, 22 March 2016 (UTC).
- Cart. Horse. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 11:17, 22 March 2016 (UTC).
- This approval really was quite premature. The template being placed on pages was outright nominated for deletion recently and it reached a "no consensus" outcome with significant support for deletion. There's not even a clear consensus that this template should exist on the project at all, let alone be added to thousands of articles. See the TfD itself. I have a strong feeling this process is going to leave everyone annoyed. Editors have invested large amounts of time into this proposal, botwork, reversion of the botwork, etc. before bothering to check if the community at large is ok with this. Why isn't this link just placed on the left sidebar for all articles? ~ RobTalk 02:18, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- I agreed to a small (100 edit) trial - just to have something tangible but easily removable to demonstrate to the community what was being attempted., The_Earwig was there other pages besides the ones link that led to ramping this up to 10000 pages? — xaosflux Talk 02:55, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- @Xaosflux: Just to be clear, I wasn't blaming you, Earwig, or anyone else handling approvals. I'm sorry if my message gave that impression. I'm hoping this can just be remembered as a sanity check for the future. Consensus developed in small groups really isn't sufficient when we're talking about basically adding something to MOS:LAYOUT. ~ RobTalk 03:09, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- Well, I mostly hate it, but that's beside the point. The idea here was a relatively small and short trial to get some attention and data, because we had basically twenty users expressing support, no opposition, and one neutral in the pre-bot discussions. The 100-edit trial passed with no real catastrophe and was too small to get wider attention. It's not dangerous and it can easily be blanked if notable opposition came about. My hope was to generate discussion, which has happened. — Earwig talk 03:40, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
- There was and is opposition, going back to 18 December last year [[1]]. And advice from User:Green Cardamom that they believe it would be healthy to voice other points of view outside those immediate parties who this is benefiting. And advice to take it to VP, which was ignored.
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- But the "easily blanked" was reverted. Oh well.
- I raised the matter at VP(Proposals) and there is consensus to blank the template, until a VP proposal passes to utilise it more.
- All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 00:39, 1 April 2016 (UTC).
User:AlexNewArtBot/ArchitectureSearchResult
This bot is causing spam to fill up "what links here". For example a new page created by me Columbjohn which has very little to do with architecture now has dozens of links to user pages due to this bot. Have never seen anything like it since 2010. Seems a totally useless bot to me, can it be stopped? I note the user has already been blocked. Thanks.(Lobsterthermidor (talk) 21:35, 1 April 2016 (UTC))
- @Lobsterthermidor: That page is updated by User:InceptionBot which I operate. The "what links here" stuff will disappear about 14 days after an article is created. --Bamyers99 (talk) 22:51, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
- Good! Thanks.(Lobsterthermidor (talk) 08:43, 2 April 2016 (UTC))
Incorrect category creations
(crossposted from User talk:DumbBOT) This bot is incorrectly taking some categories by misposting some templates, see Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 5 April 2016 and Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 6 April 2016 for examples. It seems to be limited to the "files with no copyright tag" categories. It looks like the bot creator is no longer active but perhaps another editor can help resolve this problem. Liz Read! Talk! 15:18, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
- Hopefully this isn't another Rotten Tomatoes (see above) situation where a botop has left but left their bots running. — xaosflux Talk 15:57, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
- Template:Images with no copyright tag subcategory starter was deleted following Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2013 March 5. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:29, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
- Based on that TfD and this AN discussion, this bot likely needs to be blocked until the botop returns. Other botops can adopt any useful tasks in the meantime/indefinitely. ~ RobTalk 16:42, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
- Template:Images with no copyright tag subcategory starter was deleted following Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2013 March 5. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:29, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
One per day among 50 useful edits, some of which are important to the project. Maybe it would be beneficial for some bot-ops to start work to adopt the two remaining tasks (creation of daily subpages and removing protection templates from unprotected articles). In the meantime, an admin could preemptively salt Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 8 April 2016 through Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 30 April 2016 to buy us development time. ~ RobTalk 00:14, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
BTW, there is also some discussion of these issues at the bot's talk page. Speedy deleting isn't enough, as Dumbbot will live up to its name and recreate the categories later. So, any creation protection also needs to apply to categories that have already been speedy deleted, at least until the date on the category has passed. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 00:25, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Related, the bot will also need to be modified to stop creating possibly unfree files categories, as we're trying to merge that to files for discussion. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 00:27, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- It may be worth noting that Cyberpower678 once volunteered to take over this bot, especially considering that the bot's operator, Tizio, has frequent long periods of inactivity. Steel1943 (talk) 00:45, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- It would be nice to have access to the source code, because I don't have much time at current to write a whole new bot to cover these tasks.—cyberpowerChat:Online 00:52, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- @Xaosflux: I don't intend creation protection as a permanent thing. I intend it temporarily until we can get this sorted out. If we can get dumbbot to stop, then we can drop the protection. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 01:42, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
From User_talk:DumbBOT
@Tizio: WP:PUF has now been closed. Could you please have DumbBOT stop creating daily subcategories of Category:Wikipedia possibly unfree files? GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 23:33, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
- @GeoffreyT2000: Hopefully, Tizio responds to this soon, but I would not be confident in that; Tizio's last edit was over 8 months ago. Steel1943 (talk) 00:19, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
- @GeoffreyT2000:@Steel1943:@Plastikspork: Would deleting Template:Possibly unfree files subcategory starter stop the creation of the categories? There was a TFD for a similar discussion back in 2013. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 03:31, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
Forgot a ping, so adding it now: @Nyttend:. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 22:34, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
- I guess not. Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 9 April 2016 seems to answer that question. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 05:12, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
- Maybe removing the entry from the table on User:DumbBOT/CatCreate? Oiyarbepsy (talk) 05:17, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
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- I've just removed "Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of DATE". Let's see whether this helps. Some time ago, I added a no-longer-used category to the title blacklist, because we'd deleted the category tree but couldn't otherwise stop DumbBOT from creating it; the bot's not an admin, so the blacklist works well. If removing the line from CatCreate works, we can just remove the PUF line as well; if not, we can just blacklist the titles. It's not like newbies are going to be doing good-faith creations of categories with these names, and the experienced user who's just out-of-date will know how to discover what's going on if he's blacklisted from creating such a category. Nyttend (talk) 22:45, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
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- @Nyttend: That didn't work: DumbBOT reverted your edit. Steel1943 (talk) 23:52, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
- Even worse, it re-created the bogus categories. Category:Wikipedia files with no copyright tag as of 10 April 2016 as an example. Will nominate for speedy again, this time requesting creation protection. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 00:13, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
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- Self-reverted the protection and removal. The bot couldn't create the "no copyright tag" categories until a few weeks ago, when the blacklist entry was removed; I'm not clear why. Nyttend (talk) 00:37, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- It's on the blacklist talk page: "OK, I've removed this - we expect bots to edit constructively and not depend on the title blacklist, if it misbehaves it can be shut down.". That's why. I kinda agree with Xaosflux, a title blacklist is the lamest possible hack rather than a real fix. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 01:30, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
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- I'm ready to block this bot tomorrow if the operator continues to be absent - making project hacks around the malfunctioning bot is not our responsibility. Nyttend, I won't cry wheel if you revert that titleblack list - but lack of operator attention is not tolerable. — xaosflux Talk 01:32, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
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- What's going to cause more of a problem: a bot creating a few extra categories, or not having a lot of these maintenance categories and other basic project pages? Until another operator's ready to have a bot perform the same tasks, or until DumbBOT starts doing things that are actual problems, its actions are doing more good than harm, and a block will do more harm than good. Those bad actions are, indeed, significantly outpaced by good actions, so unless you're going to create all those pages manually, a block will require a lot more work on someone else's part. At the moment, the project hack is the simplest way to prevent this problem without losing the benefits of the bot's far-more-numerous good edits, so it ought to be used until someone's gotten a replacement bot up and running. Once we have someone ready to take over DumbBOT's functions, block away, but as Cyberpower doesn't have the time to write it all anew and nobody else has chimed in at WP:BON (unless I missed something), we shouldn't do anything yet. Nyttend (talk) 01:42, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
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- @Xaosflux: I have to agree with Nyttend's aforementioned temporary solution until this bot is under control or someone else (such as Cyberpower678, as mentioned above) either takes over this bot or creates a new bot that performs all of the numerous functions that DumbBOT has. (However, the blacklisting of PUF daily categories should probably be delayed for a moment until Twinkle is updated to have PUF removed. (Adding This, that and the other to this ping since they help manage Twinkle.) Steel1943 (talk) 02:01, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
I'll hold off on blocks while this discussion continues - but we have a core issue that needs to be resolved: bot operators are personally accountable for all actions made by their bots, and this operator is absent. — xaosflux Talk 02:13, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
[End text copied from the bot's talk page]
- @Xaosflux: I totally agree with the issue. I think we may need to propose some sort of new policy which requires that a bot's operator have a certain amount of activity within a certain amount of time (such as what happens with administrators after a certain amount of time), such as emailing a "bot-operator-verifier" team once a week or so to confirm that they are still watching Wikipedia in case their bot needs assistance. And maybe, if there is proof of their inactivity, then the bot would either be blocked, or the bot's code turned over to someone else to start a new bot, the latter only applying in cases where the bot being blocked would break more than it would help (as shown here). If we have to store the bot's code with a specific team, maybe they would need to have their identity confirmed (such as what is done with WP:OVERSIGHT) so there is accountability for seeing the code. Steel1943 (talk) 02:22, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Once a week is way too frequent, but I do agree there should be requirements for operator activity. My recommendation would be one edit in the last six months, with a month of warning (by talk page and email) before a block. That's an intentionally low bar, but if an editor is paying enough attention to remember to make their one edit, then they'll probably respond if prodded on talk/email to do so. ~ RobTalk 02:25, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- I don't think we need them to proactively prove they are live, so long as they are required to re actively reply to requests within a reasonable period (up to a week from either their or their bot's last edit?) — xaosflux Talk 02:29, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- @Xaosflux: I think the issue is that we're always behind if we just react to inactive operators. If we have a month where we know they have to respond or be blocked, other operators can start preparing to take over their bot's duties. It's a significant advantage to be able to do that in an environment where the bot isn't already broken and actively editing in error (or worse, not working entirely). ~ RobTalk 02:33, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) @Xaosflux: If that idea means that it requires that a week pass after an edit from the bot and its operator, then this would not apply to DumbBOT's situation since the bot is still actively editing. I would just apply this time requirement to the operator since bots will run or not (especially if it is blocked) regardless of operator participation. (And yes BU Rob13, a week is probably too frequent for my idea; I, was more or less, trying to start a conversation here that may result in a new, and seemingly necessary, new bot/operator accountability policy.) Steel1943 (talk) 02:36, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- I don't think we need them to proactively prove they are live, so long as they are required to re actively reply to requests within a reasonable period (up to a week from either their or their bot's last edit?) — xaosflux Talk 02:29, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- [double edit conflict] Take that to WP:VP/Pr, and I'll heartily support the general idea, although I agree with BU Rob13 that activity requirements should be less. The only reason I'm opposed to blocking DumbBOT right now is that it's doing a ton of good work, without interruption and without error. It's the perfect bot task, running basically as an add-on to the Mediawiki software by creating stuff that would be done automatically by the site software if that were possible. And yes, the operator isn't responsive, and that's a problem that the bot policy ought to cover (I didn't see it in a quick run-through of the policy), but this is a perfect WP:IAR situation, in which we don't stop the bot until its functions have been redundified (new word?) by someone else. Nyttend (talk) 02:31, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Once a week is way too frequent, but I do agree there should be requirements for operator activity. My recommendation would be one edit in the last six months, with a month of warning (by talk page and email) before a block. That's an intentionally low bar, but if an editor is paying enough attention to remember to make their one edit, then they'll probably respond if prodded on talk/email to do so. ~ RobTalk 02:25, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Public code
The mess above suggests to me that we need to change bot policy as follows: No bot will be approved unless its code is publicly posted, on-wiki. If the code is removed or not current, the bot must stop until its posted. We currently have a malfunctioning bot, and an editor who would be willing to fix the code, but not to rewrite the whole thing. Requiring public code would prevent this problem for future bots. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 05:02, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- What about AWB bots and other such things? I understand the sentiment here, but I'm not sure whether this requirement would result in less bot ops. Some people don't like to their code to be open source. ~ RobTalk 05:05, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Right. It may be better to have the code only accessible by a select group of editors who are identified by the foundation (such as WP:OVERSIGHT currently is). That way, any code where its author has not authorized it to be "open source" can hold someone responsible if the code gets leaked ... with the exception of extreme cases where it is specifically has to be used by a new bot to replace their own? Steel1943 (talk) 05:20, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- AWB itself isn't a bot; it's a program that is under supervision of several active users. Individual AWB bots can post their AWB configuration files in an appropriate location - this would allow for any necessary debugging or cloning of the bot when necessary. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 05:29, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Right. It may be better to have the code only accessible by a select group of editors who are identified by the foundation (such as WP:OVERSIGHT currently is). That way, any code where its author has not authorized it to be "open source" can hold someone responsible if the code gets leaked ... with the exception of extreme cases where it is specifically has to be used by a new bot to replace their own? Steel1943 (talk) 05:20, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
Now wait one minute? Isn't a huge part of the Wiki-mission to encourage open-source content? How are we encouraging open-source content by allowing close-source code to run our software? Oiyarbepsy (talk) 05:26, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- The encyclopedic content is open-source; some of the bots aren't - but their not part of Wikipedia, they only help maintain it. And many bots have BEANS issues, just as some of the edit filters are hidden from public view. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 05:29, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Right. Sometimes bot code has good reason to NOT be open source. For example, ProcseeBot's proxy-finding code could be used for malicious purposes on other sites. (This exact example used to be mentioned at Wikipedia:Creating_a_bot#Open-source_bots, until it was removed as part of a unilateral overhaul of the page. Additionally, Oiyarbepsy proposes to require the code to be posted "on-wiki", which many bot operators, even those that currently open-source their bot code elsewhere, would object to; doing so would automatically cause the code to be licensed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, which might not be compatible with the license(s) of other code they may be using. Also, Creative Commons itself explicitly recommends against applying its licenses to software. jcgoble3 (talk) 05:32, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- I can say that I would not post the configuration files of my AWB bot on-wiki for exactly that reason. I have no objection to the regex I write being licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0, but I don't care to monitor the licensing status of AWB itself. I much prefer a requirement of activity (discussed in the section above) over a requirement of open source. ~ RobTalk 05:45, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- I second Od Mishehu's and Jcgoble3's concerns. WP:BEANS, and CC recommends not using CC licenses for software. Also, if a bot uses code that licensed under a licence that is not compatible with CC-BY-SA 3.0, it cannot be posted on wiki. — JJMC89 (T·C) 06:20, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- I myself am open source, but object to onwiki. If that were ever a requirement, I wouldn't be a botop. License issue aside, wikis, are no substitute for code repos, and the maintainability of updating individual files, for multi-file bots is ridiculously tedious, and would require a bot to do for you.—cyberpowerChat:Offline 07:04, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- Right. Sometimes bot code has good reason to NOT be open source. For example, ProcseeBot's proxy-finding code could be used for malicious purposes on other sites. (This exact example used to be mentioned at Wikipedia:Creating_a_bot#Open-source_bots, until it was removed as part of a unilateral overhaul of the page. Additionally, Oiyarbepsy proposes to require the code to be posted "on-wiki", which many bot operators, even those that currently open-source their bot code elsewhere, would object to; doing so would automatically cause the code to be licensed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, which might not be compatible with the license(s) of other code they may be using. Also, Creative Commons itself explicitly recommends against applying its licenses to software. jcgoble3 (talk) 05:32, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
- What we are missing is why this is a headache - bots are supposed to help an editor do something boring and repetitive - but the worry is that other editors have come to depend on one editor (via their bot) to do something - if these tasks are so important we need to fund a community tool server to run these as a group - with open code. — xaosflux Talk 11:24, 11 April 2016 (UTC)