User:Helpful Pixie Bot

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This user account facilitates a bot operated by Rich Farmbrough. It is not a sock puppet, but rather an automated or semi-automated account for making repetitive edits too tedious to do without automation. Admins: if this bot is malfunctioning or causing harm, please stop it using the big red button. If that doesn't work block it.

Flag status

• Local request 21 February 2006 for very fast editing here.
• Meta request 23:34, 3 March 2006 (UTC) here.
• Granted here.
• Meta de-flag request c. 19:37, 30 March 2006 (UTC) here.
• Granted 26 June 2006.

Approval status (as a bot)

• Using AWB notified 5 March 2006 here..
• As of 10:33, 26 March 2006 (UTC) a request for withdrawing approval from this bot was running at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approvals#SmackBot_and_AWB_operated_by_Rich_Farmbrough
• Approval request for recurrent task 1. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approvals#SmackBot Task Approval Approved.
• Approval request for recurrent task 2. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approvals#SmackBot Task Approval II Approved.
• Approval request for recurrent task 3. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approvals#SmackBot Task Approval III Approved.
• Approval request for one-off task 1. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approvals#SmackBot Task Approval IV Approved.
• Approval request for recurrent task 3a. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approvals#SmackBot Task Approval V Awaiting.

Tools

I use Firefox and AWB at the moment. I also use perl to scan database downloads. I will prepare lists of articles for other users when I can.

Tasks

Recurrent tasks

1. Correct "External link" to "External links" in articles with more than one external link.
2. Correct "Reference" to "References" in articles with more than one reference.
3. Correct "ISBN:" to ISBN to allow wikimagic to prevail.
   • Other minor improvements to layout of ISBN numbers to allow wikimagic to prevail.

Task queue

1. Remove unnecessary capitals from section headers - work on common errors.

   Most common 245 done once. - will probably become a recurring task

2. Fix section headers and templates in Pokemon arts.

   Not started.

3. Clean up piped links

   Stopped probably permanently. Might roll into other tasks.

Completed tasks

1. U.S. 2000 census articles into past tense.
2. Initial runs of recurrent tasks
3. Moved Saint Louis categories to St. Louis, and corrected links.
4. Remove unnecessary capitals from section headers - Most common 15 done.
5. Remove unnecessary capitals from section headers - second most common batch c. 230.
6. UK links direct to United Kingdom. Nazi to Nazism.
7. Pipe US to United States replace with U.S
8. Replace/pipe link Academy Award with Academy Awards
9. In days of the year replace first occurance of date with templated link, completed manually.
10. More Fix-ups in US Census articles
11. Remove spurious links to months of year and days of week.

Later

Work on bald heads, drugs, corporal punishment, fishing boats.....