Wikipedia:Bot requests

For the policy on bot requirements, see WP:BOTREQUIRE.

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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Please add your bot requests to the bottom of this page.
Make a new request

#	Bot request	Status	💬	👥	🙋 Last editor	🕒 (UTC)	🤖 Last botop editor	🕒 (UTC)
1	Bot to remove template from articles it doesn't belong on?		4	4	Wikiwerner	2024-09-28 17:28	Primefac	2024-07-24 20:15
2	Removing redundant FURs on file pages		5	3	Wikiwerner	2024-09-28 17:28	Anomie	2024-08-09 14:15
3	Regularly removing coords missing if coordinates are present	BRFA filed	11	2	Usernamekiran	2024-09-07 13:19	Usernamekiran	2024-09-07 13:19
4	de-AMP bot	BRFA filed	13	7	Usernamekiran	2024-09-24 16:04	Usernamekiran	2024-09-24 16:04
5	Articles about years: redirects and categories	BRFA filed	7	3	DreamRimmer	2024-09-16 01:18	DreamRimmer	2024-09-16 01:18
6	WikiProject ratings change	BRFA filed	3	2	DreamRimmer	2024-09-15 11:43	DreamRimmer	2024-09-15 11:43
7	QIDs in Infobox person/Wikidata	BRFA filed	11	4	Tom.Reding	2024-10-06 14:23	Tom.Reding	2024-10-06 14:23
8	Remove outdated "Image requested" templates		3	2	7804j	2024-09-21 11:26	DreamRimmer	2024-09-19 18:53
9	"Was" in TV articles		5	3	Primefac	2024-09-29 19:34	Primefac	2024-09-29 19:34
10	Films by director	done	9	4	Usernamekiran	2024-10-03 13:30	Usernamekiran	2024-10-03 13:30
11	altering certain tags on protected pages?		10	5	Primefac	2024-10-20 14:47	Primefac	2024-10-20 14:47
12	Request for Bot to Remove ARWU_NU Parameter from Articles Using Infobox US University Ranking Template		4	2	Primefac	2024-10-13 12:50	Primefac	2024-10-13 12:50
13	Removal of two external link templates per TfD result		6	4	Primefac	2024-10-14 13:48	Primefac	2024-10-14 13:48
14	Replace merged WikiProject template with parent project + parameter	Done	7	3	Primefac	2024-10-21 10:04	Primefac	2024-10-21 10:04
15	Bot Request to Add Vezina Trophy Winners Navbox to Relevant Player Pages		3	3	Primefac	2024-10-19 12:23	Primefac	2024-10-19 12:23
16	Replace standalone BLP templates	Done	7	3	MSGJ	2024-10-30 19:37	Tom.Reding	2024-10-29 16:04
17	Assess set index and WikiProject Lists based on category as lists		19	5	Mrfoogles	2024-11-06 16:17	Tom.Reding	2024-11-02 15:53

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In the last day
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More than one month
Manual settings
When exceptions occur, please check the setting first.

Bypassing redirects in templates

I would like a bot that fix redirects in templates. Generally we discourage fixing links to redirects that are not broken, but in templates a correct link is better since the direct link will display in bold (and not as a link), making it easier to navigate through a series of articles using the template. See WP:R#NOTBROKEN. I tried bypassing redirects links on football templates with AWB, but it was a pain doing this manually. A bot could be tried out on templates in the subcategories of Category:Football squad by nation templates. Rettetast (talk) 18:12, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

I would be willing to take a look at this, but my bot is still in the process of being developed, and it may be a while before it's completed/approved. --T-rex 22:02, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I have coded out a technique to do this. Just need to finish some testing and get approval to move on. --T-rex 17:15, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Great. Rettetast (talk) 17:43, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Sorry this is taking so long. I have it all set up, and am just one button click from having it all done, but BAG has apparently slowed to a crawl since I've last dealt with them. I'll do this as soon as possible. --T-rex 02:50, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Special:Lonelypages patrol

Hi, I'd like to request that a bot patrol Special:Lonelypages whenever it is updated. This bot would go through each article, check if it met the orphan criteria, and, if so, tag it with {{orphan}}.--Aervanath's signature is boring 17:41, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

This is already done, but if the bot that usally does this isn't working let me know. I could do this. CWii 2_{(Talk|Contribs)} 17:51, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

My bot User:Addbot already does this and it still runs whenever I see that the list has been updated. I ran it today also so I don't think there is a need for another bot to do this also. ·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 18:02, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, then. Glad to find out that this already being taken care of. Is there a list of bots and their tasks somewhere, so I don't make a redundant request again? It says at the beginning of this page that there is a list on WP:Bot policy but I couldn't find it.--Aervanath's signature is boring 18:12, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

I think Wikipedia:Bots/Status would be the one you are looking for (its not very updated as it says) ·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 18:14, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

User:SoxBot has just started with the tasks once more. Soxred 93 04:32, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

(computer game) & (arcade game) => (video game)

It'd be real nice if someone were to make a bot to move all the Title (computer game) and (arcade game) to Title (video game) to reflect naming conventions. Ideally it would also handle (computer/arcade game series), (YYYY computer/arcade game) and (computer gaming). If an article or a redirect to another article exists at (video game) it would do nothing; if the target is a redirect to the article in question, it would move over. It should only move articles with ( ), avoiding titles like WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game. Also, if it could grab any (videogame) titles, that'd be great too, as that's not a real word. JohnnyMrNinja 12:41, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Possible - those are some complicated heuristics to analyse to determine whether a page should be moved or not. If someone could assemble a list of pages that needed to be moved, then a bot could do the actual page moves with very minimal difficulty. Happy‑melon 18:51, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I would be willing to both assemble the list of pages and perform the moves when I get back from my trip, as I've been doing similar things recently. It'd also have to wait until after I'm done with my bot's current mass-renaming task though. I would guess I could put up the BRFA and get things rolling in about two weeks, barring anything else cropping up. If anyone wants to do it before I'm available feel free.--Dycedarg ж 19:03, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I'll have a go at generating the list, when I'm done I'll put it up for scrutiny. RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 19:37, May 27, 2008 (UTC)

Page is here, some of the search terms ['arcade game series' for example] didn't throw up anything. RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 19:57, May 27, 2008 (UTC)

If you need need a bot to run through that list, I can do it. Just let me know. -- Cobi^(t|c|b) 09:00, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Feel free, if you have a bot ready, go for it! Feel free to delete the page when you're done. RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 09:26, May 29, 2008 (UTC)

Are "computer game" and "video game" synonymous? What about text-based computer games? Pseudomonas_(talk) 10:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Get rid of error

Hi, could a bot change all instances of the awful spelling error (currently redirect from misspelling) shot putt? It's written shot put. Thanks, Punkmorten (talk) 08:55, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Note: this is not a Spell-checking bot, it is a redirect repairer. Punkmorten (talk) 08:58, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Fixing redirects is usually frowned on due to the server load involved in fixing them outweighing the load involved in parsing them, but fixing spelling errors is a different thing. I could do this with AWB, anyone want to generate a page list, or shall I do it? RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 09:34, May 29, 2008 (UTC)

This specific fix (Shot putt --> Shot put) could/should be added to the AWB typo fixer (if it isn't already). dihydrogen monoxide (H₂O) 09:43, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

136 uses at the moment. Seems to have been part of a pattern for certain articles. Is this perhaps a legitimate optional spelling [1]? Gimmetrow 09:44, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

I've seen it spelt both ways; possible an Am-En/Gb-En difference (in which case it shouldn't be fixed). RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 09:50, May 29, 2008 (UTC)

Found it in an old source (page 278 for instance). Gimmetrow 09:56, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

BarkBot

I was wondering if someone could program b=my bot, BarkBot for me! Please reply on my talk page.-- Barkjon  17:42, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid our usual response to requests like this is to say that if you don't know enough about computer programming to be able to write the bot yourself, then you're not going to be able to maintain it or fix any mistakes it makes; consequently, bot-operators rarely write new scripts for use by non-bot-operators. If you want to get into writing and running bots on wikipedia, you'll need to teach yourself enough of a programming language to be able to write the scripts yourself. I'd highly recommend pywiki, a really helpful framework using python. Python is a doddle to pick up if you've got any previous experience with other programming languages, and is fairly intuitive even for a complete beginner. I suggest you have a look. Happy‑melon 19:05, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

The other point is that any task performed by a bot has to be approved by the Bot Approvals Group - see WP:BRFA for how that all works. You can't just set up a bot willy-nilly - in fact, should we have a bot patrolling new user creation, to keep an eye out for usernames ending in -bot or -Bot, to notify their Talk page that they need to go to BRFA? FlagSteward (talk) 16:24, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Flags in football biographies

Could a bot help me finding incorrect use of {{flagicon}} in football biographies. Per consensus at WP:FOOTY the flags should not be included inside the infobox like her. Could a bot help making a list of the articles with this error, or if the operator dare, make a bot that remove the flags? Rettetast (talk) 00:11, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Sure, I could do both! I'll see what I can do. CWii_{(Talk|Contribs)} 13:32, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Template documentation talk redirects

Per Wikipedia:Template documentation#How to create a documentation subpage, the talk pages of template documentation should be redirected to the talk page of the associated template to keep discussion centralized. Would it be possible to have a bot automatically go through and create these redirects? There are a couple of minor complications that spring to mind - if the doc talk page already exists, the contents need to be moved to the redirect target. Also, if the talk page of the template does not yet exist, I think we have an adminbot out there somewhere that deletes redirects with no target. We would want an exception in this case to keep these redirects from being deleted. Kelly ^hi! 15:34, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Kelly asked me to come here and comment, probably since I have created and documented many templates. Talk page redirects saves a lot of trouble. Centralising the discussions for a template and its /doc page, or even a set of templates saves a lot of time. It is very annoying and a waste of valuable template programmer time to have to answer the same question over and over again at different talk pages.

And I too have been repetedly "harassed" by some admins that first delete the empty talk page of the template (sometimes even if it wasn't technically empty since it had a notice box telling about the other pages redirecting to it), then they delete the redirects from the /doc talk page and from the sister templates' talk pages stating that they are redirects to a "non-existant target". Problem is that moving a discussion to the central talk page after it has been started on the wrong talk page is much more work than pre-emptively creating the redirects.

This has led to that I nowadays spend time filling the main talk page with anything just so that it won't be deleted and the redirects to it won't then be deleted due to having "no target". Having to fake talk page content like that doesn't feel good, but the current practises by some admins means it is the most efficient option available for me. Since faking some content takes much less time than later having to move a discussion from the wrong talk page.

So I very much would like that a bot automatically add redirects from the /doc talk pages to the templates' talk pages. There are several options what the bot could do if the target talk page is empty: The easiest is probably to simply redirect anyway, another option is to put a notice box on the target talk page telling that "The talk page of the /doc page redirects here." thus making it so the target exists and then redirect to it.

If the /doc talk page already has content I usually move its sections to the template's talk page with an added sentence at the top of each moved section: "This sections was moved here from the /doc talk page.". If that is too complicated for the bot then simply leave those pages alone and human editors will probably handle it.

--David Göthberg (talk) 16:27, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I assume Kelly brought this up now due to the automated mass deletion of redirected /doc talk pages that was done recently by one admin. See section Bot to mass-revert a specific list of deletions below about that. (Sorry if my comment above was cranky, I was in a bad mood since I had just spent some hours manually restoring some of those deleted talk pages.)

--David Göthberg (talk) 15:07, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

For your future enjoyment, DG: {{central}}. Happy‑melon 15:21, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Happy-melon: Oh, that template is lovely. I responded about it on its talk page. --David Göthberg (talk) 16:17, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I strongly oppose an idea like this. It seems to be an unnecessary use of redirects. Why not use a JavaScript solution instead? --MZMcBride (talk) 00:30, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

TOYA / TOYP recipients

There are articles and lists on the Ten Outstanding Young Americans award and on The Outstanding Young Persons of the World award. After taking the time to add links for each recipient and their country manually to the TOYP list, can someone help add links to the TOYA list? I'm still learning the appropriate formatting for each page.

Also, at some point, one dream is to have every Wiki article on a past honoree may have a link to the TOYA or TOYP article or list.

Not sure if either of these requests are the jobs of bots or semi-bots or inappropriate requests...Dagordon01 (talk) 21:14, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

WP:CHICAGO bot assistance needed

A few weeks ago I made the same request below and curiously someone attempted to help using AWB. That is not what I want. I need a bot to run every few days. It seems User:SatyrTN and his bot User:SatyrBot are no longer active. WP:CHICAGO needs articles in WP:CHIBOTCATS tagged with {{WikiProject Chicago}}. It would also be helpful if the bot autostubbed talk pages that have templates from other projects with class=stub. I think his bot also tagged newly found articles with FA, FL, and GA parameters and added them to class when it added the template. Satyr is not responding to either wiki messages or email regarding so we can not start with his old code.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 07:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I'll see what I can do. As for running it every few days is something that at this time due to school I cannot do. Weekly perhaps? CWii_{(Talk|Contribs)} 13:26, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Category:Fooian football clubs

Is there any chance that someone could create a bot that would move all "Fooian football clubs" categories (which can be found in Category:Football (soccer) clubs) to Category:Football (soccer) clubs by country? I have started the process off by doing all of the As and Bs manually, but to do the rest from C to Z is a bit too much to do manually, so a bot would be perfect. – PeeJay 10:03, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

This could be done relatively easily with AWB, but you might want to point to an established consensus first. dihydrogen monoxide (H₂O) 10:13, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I can probably get you one of those. I should also add to the request that each category should be sorted by the name of the country, rather than the demonym used in the category's name. – PeeJay 10:17, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

That would be a bit more difficult to do with AWB (or at least, with my skills), though it probably could be done with something more complex. If you can point to some agreement amongst Soccer/Football editors that the cats should be the way you're asking for them, it should be a good start. dihydrogen monoxide (H₂O) 10:24, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I've created a discussion at WP:FOOTY requesting consensus on this matter. – PeeJay 10:25, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

My only worry is that I won't get (m)any replies to the discussion topic, due to the fact that no one at WP:FOOTY seems to care that much about the organisation of their sub-categories. I'm fairly sure I can guarantee there will be no opposition to the move, however. – PeeJay 12:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

IF and when you get the consensus let me know. I could do it with python. CWii_{(Talk|Contribs)} 13:23, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, after 10 hours, I currently have two users (including myself) in support of the move, and none opposed. – PeeJay 20:59, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Bot to mass-revert a specific list of deletions

We need a bot to mass-revert a few hundred deletions. See this AN/I discussion for details. Before firing off the bot, please post a notice in the ANI thread that you have such a bot, then wait 12-24 hours for objections. I don't anticipate any but given the history of this incident, it's better to go slow than jump the gun. Note - the AN/I thread will probably spill over into archives in the next day or so. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 14:48, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Hey,not saying that I can / will make this but just got a quick question, Is it only those deletions listed on that page you linked to or all of his deletions or more than those 100? If it is all then there are at least 10000 :> ·Add§hore· ^Talk/_Cont 16:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

It looks like he did two runs of (orphaned talk page redirect) deletions recently: One on May 31-June 1, another ending on May 10. I haven't checked older ones. The deletions using other edit summaries can stand for now. We only need reversions for the 5/31-6/1 run for now. Hold off on undoing anything older until it's discussed. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 16:35, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

From what I gather from the discussions, only a small portion of the several thousand redirect talk page deletions were contested. It seems like manual restoration of the contested ones would be a far better option than simply restoring all of them via a bot. VegaDark (talk) 00:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It's not practical for us to manually go through them all and make sure there are no errors, especially considering some of the concerned users are not admins and have no access to deleted versions. -- Ned Scott 00:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

At the very least we should undelete any talk page redirect with "archive" in the title. A redirect from a moved talk page archive should not be deleted, and a ton of those redirects were. -- Ned Scott 00:47, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

From what I understand, if an admin were to restore this particular type of deletion, it would be well over 100,000 restorations, possibly more than 150,000. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm. Restoration of the redirects which were clearly improper to delete, even if the redirects are not helpful, seems appropriate, even if it is more than 150,000. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 00:35, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

User:ST47 has volunteered to run a bot to restore the "6307 deletions" he's identified. I asked him to wait half a day to see if anyone objects. He can also restore the "4859 from May 10, 1812 from Apr 12, and 13943 from Apr 7" similar deletions if the community wants it. I say go for it, but what do you guys say? Let him know over on WP:ANI. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 01:18, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I would have to find an inordinate amount of self-restraint to stop myself from blocking ST47 if he were to restore over 100,000 pages. --MZMcBride (talk) 04:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Ironic, isn't it? -- Ned Scott 06:06, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

This is probably the easiest way to undelete the redirects that shouldn't have been deleted. There doesn't seem to be any great cost incurred if in doing so we undelete the others as well; even if they are not actually helpful, they are completely harmless. Christopher Parham (talk) 06:03, 3 June 2008 (UTC)