Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Shadowbot

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Approved.

Operator: Shadow1

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic

Programming Language(s): Perl

Function Summary: Shadowbot will perform the automated reversion of spam links inserted into Wikipedia articles.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): Continuous

Edit rate requested: 10 per hour

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): N

Function Details: Shadowbot will be reverting edits containing links that have been marked as spam by an IRC bot written by Eagle 101, which is running at #wikipedia-spam. This blacklist, while user-contributed, is mirrored across both bots and I have to approve any links that are to be inserted into Shadowbot's blacklist. Once Shadowbot has reverted an edit (unless someone else has already edited or if Shadowbot already reverted the user, in which case it won't revert), it leaves a message on the talkpage of the user who added the link, advising them that the edit they made was reverted, and an explanation of what to do if the bot made a mistake.

Discussion

Just an extra note to say, Shadowbot gets its input by checking the output from Eagle_101's bot. A little segment that was missed out above. --Sagaciousuk ^(talk) 00:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and Shadowbot also double-checks to make sure that the blacklist link is actually contained in the article, just as a last safety-check, among other safeguards. Shadow1 (talk) 01:17, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ten per hour is remarkably low -- you resource-hog, you :) Is that an "amortised" estimate, or is it really to be throttled to that low a rate? (Just for the sake of complete clarity.) Alai 11:13, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's based on the current level of blacklisted links being added to pages - which would then be reverted by Shadowbot. At the moment, the blacklist only has a few items on it (further items like 'Myspace' need further discussion later on) so not as many pages are being earmarked. Most things are currently Red listed, that is, highlighted red on the #wikipedia-spam channel for the 'spam busters' to check out and revert manually if it's warranted. Shadowbot's purpose is to revert things which have been listed as 'Spam 99.99% of the time'. We expect the revert rate to increase later on - as we expand the blacklist to catch more obvious spam. --Sagaciousuk ^(talk) 12:45, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Currently, from my logs, I'm looking at around 7-8 fake-reverts (what it would do if it was allowed to revert) per hour, but we only have about 15 items on the spam blacklist at this point. However, the word about our project is getting out, and in the future, I think that things like the spam blacklist will only be used for long-term spamming, and that short-term, intermittent bursts of spam links can be taken to Shadowbot rather than waiting for a Meta admin to add something to the blacklist. Shadow1 (talk) 12:53, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, that's fair enough. For clarity I think you should also add the maximum rate edits are being throttled to, lest there be confusion later about what it's "approved" to do. (Granted it's very unlikely to be blocked for making 11 edits an hour, but...) Alai 19:10, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Personally, I have no problems with letting this run loose whatsoever, without a bot flag as per the fashion on AntiVandalBot. Yet it fly :) -- Tawker 19:36, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ok. Flying! Shadow1 (talk) 19:43, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Approved; the bot shall run without a flag. I've already spend a lot of time talking about this on IRC too. Voice-of-All 17:15, 19 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.