The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was Approved.

Operator: FR30799386 (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 17:58, Thursday, September 20, 2018 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Manual

Programming language(s): AutoWikiBrowser

Source code available: AWB

Function overview: This bot-task will try to remove all instances of the use of MiszaBot, MiszaBot I, MiszaBot II, MiszaBot III from the parameters of the template {{Auto archiving notice}} and replace them with Lowercase sigmabot III.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):

Edit period(s): (Irregular) As and when I get time to run the bot. I will try not to exceed a 15 edits/minute edit rate.

Estimated number of pages affected: ~4294 pages will be affected

Namespace(s):Talk: namespace

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): No

Function details: In most of the article talkpages, the manually set |bot= parameters of the template {{Auto archiving notice}} point to the long inactive set of MiszaBots namely MiszaBot, MiszaBot I, MiszaBot II, MiszaBot III. I will via this bot account (using AWB) try to make the notice point to the right bot, namely Lowercase sigmabot III. The logic used is outlined below :

• First all the pages transculding the template Auto archiving notice are extracted using the Make List function of AWB.
• These pages are then filtered to include only those in the Talk: namespace.
• The pages are then pre-parsed to remove those with \|bot *\= *Lowercase\ sigmabot\ III

* Finally, the pages are then checked for the strings = *MiszaBot(regex), MiszaBot I, MiszaBot II, MiszaBot III and then replaced with =Lowercase sigmabot III for the first and Lowercase sigmabot III for the rest.

• Find instances of \{\{([Aa]utoarchivalnotice|[Aa]utoarchive|[Aa]utoArchivingNotice|[Aa]utoarchivingnotice|[Aa]uto[ _]+archiving[ _]+notice)(.*?)\|bot\=( *)MiszaBot *I* and replace it with {{$1$2|bot=$3Lowercase sigmabot III

Additionally, each and every edit will be reviewed by the operator(me) via the AWB. Regards — fr ⁺ 17:58, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

• Ping to @Σ:, operator of User:lowercase sigmabot III for any comment. — xaosflux ^Talk 11:32, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

The bot is currently configured to run based on MiszaBot's template transclusions. I could, in theory, reconfigure it to use a new (as of yet nonexistent) template for lowercase sigmabot, but I intentionally did not do so to avoid making hundreds of thousands of needless edits to change a transclusion. I would not recommend proceeding further with this BRFA. →Σσς. (Sigma) 22:34, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

Whoops. I misread. As far as lowercase sigmabot's behaviour is concerned, this looks fine, I'll let the BAG decide what's best. →Σσς. (Sigma) 22:43, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

• ​ Not to ask the stupid question, but if you're doing it totally manually, why not just get an "AWB account"? Primefac (talk) 19:59, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Primefac The bot will edit pages that have extremely high number of watchers (For example : Talk:Mahabharata which has 622 watchers, 69 of which watch recent changes regularly). Since the (bot) flag will allow edits to be hidden from the watchers, I would prefer to use a bot account over a AWB account the edits of which cannot be hidden from the watch-list. Regards — fr ⁺ 10:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

While not in scope of this task, if expanding to user_talk: in a future task a bot flag will be critical to prevent 'new messages' alerts. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:54, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

• @FR30799386: is this solely in the "Talk:" namespace, or also in "talk namespaces" (e.g. user_talk, wikipedia_talk)? — xaosflux ^Talk 02:18, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Xaosflux In this bot request, Talk: does mean only those pages with the Talk: prefix (i.e. only those in ns:1). However, I have plans to extend the bot functionality to encompass the rest of the talk namespace in a later BRFA. A full list of all pages this bot is expected to edit can be found here — fr ⁺ 10:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Seems like a good task for a bot. All these references to Misza I/II/III Bot are likely confusing for newbies. -FASTILY 05:20, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

• xaosflux Would it be okay to add the bot to the AutoWikiBrowser check page, so that I can run some mock tests in my userspace ? — fr ⁺ 11:16, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

  @FR30799386: OK added to AWBCP, only own-user spaces should be used right now. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:07, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

• Xaosflux I have made the mock test in my userspace [diff]. I have also posted the revised RegEx (developed as result of the mock test) in the function details parameter of the request. Regards — fr ⁺ 15:57, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
• {{BAG assistance needed}} — fr ⁺ 08:16, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
• It has been around a week since the last BAG member edited this page. Are there any outstanding queries which I need to resolve ? Will it be possible to have a trail this ensuing week ? I am asking this because I will be chronically unavailable from 14th to 22th October. It would be good if I can finish the trail before that. — fr ⁺ 08:16, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

  I know that it's the 14th now, and I am sorry for the wait. I think this is an excellent task for a bot, and you've addressed everything brought forward. Let's see a good size trial to make sure everything works right, Approved for trial (250 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. SQL^{Query me!} 03:35, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

• @SQL: Trial complete.. I missed yesterdays bus so I got a little time off during which I finished the trial. I accidentally overshot the limit of 250 pages by ~seven pages as a result of my absentmindedness(I was looking at the diffs and forgot to loom at the counter regularly). Additionally, there was a two glitches while performing the trail both of which I think were adequately resolved:
• The edit summary was a truncated at the start of the trail. I changed the edit summary.
• The bot could not detect pages with | bot=(red spot indicates pattern which it failed to recognize). This occurred within the first five pages. I fixed the bot to recognize those particular patterns and have had not problems through out the rest of the trail.

. All pages edited can be found here.Thanks — fr ⁺ 11:11, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

• Comment: Aha, thanks for taking on my request! Or was that just a coincidence? :-) Anyhow, I noticed it on my watchlist at Talk:Apricot. In any case, try to keep in mind what I wrote there about other templates containing the term "MiszaBot" and the fact that the bot shouldn't edit beyond the first heading. Graham87 15:18, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

  Looking over the edits, it seems like the trial went pretty well. Looks like you've addressed any problems that came up during the trial run. SQL^{Query me!} 15:55, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

• Approved. SQL^{Query me!} 10:23, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.