Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/AydoBot
- The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard. The result of the discussion was
Withdrawn by operator.
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Operator: Aydoh8 (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)
Time filed: 04:28, Sunday, October 19, 2025 (UTC)
Function overview: Replacing DMY formatted dates on articles with {{use MDY dates}} tags, and vice versa.
Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Supervised
Programming language(s): Python
Source code available:
Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):
Edit period(s): Daily
Estimated number of pages affected: Will check one page approximately every 3-5 seconds. If that page does include dates needing to be changed, it will take approximately 7 seconds (in testing) to complete before checking the next page.
Namespace(s): Mainspace
Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes
Function details: This bot will run through pages in mainspace. It will check the page for any {{use dmy dates}} or {{use mdy dates}} templates, and if exactly one of those is found, it will check for any dates (both in plaintext and in certain date templates) to ensure they are correctly formatted, otherwise it will correct them. I have conducted testing in the bot's userspace (see the bot's contribs) and have fixed any of the bugs discovered in testing. As a side note, I have added an exception for references to the January 6 United States Capitol attack by blocking the change of January 6 on any article to 6 January (may lead to false negatives but I would rather false negatives over false positives).
Discussion
[edit]This seems very liable to run into WP:CONTEXTBOT issues. How will your bot avoid editing direct quotes, things besides "January 6", and so on? Glancing at your linked code, it looks like it would even break links and filenames if they happen to contain something that resembles a month and year. Anomie⚔ 00:57, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
- Agreed. If I were this editor, I would plan to make at least 1,000 supervised edits at a reasonable pace using the intended script, checking each of the script's proposed changes before and after publishing. I think I would find that the script has some shortcomings. If you can address them, this bot process may be worth pursuing. Note that editing in this manner does not violate the bot policy, although you may find it tedious. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:51, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
Note that editing in this manner does not violate the bot policy
Agreed. It would fall under Wikipedia:Bot policy#Assisted editing guidelines, which has some useful information. Anomie⚔ 15:05, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
- Is there a specific reason you are using RandomPageGenerator? Using a generator that directly fetches pages transcluding these two templates would be more efficient, as the current method skips around 60 to 70 percent of pages without changes. Also, the nobots check in your code is unnecessary since Pywikibot by default already avoids editing pages with that template. – DreamRimmer ■ 03:49, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- {{Operator assistance needed}} Please answer the above questions that have been raised. Tenshi! (Talk page) 01:32, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
- I'm going to completely redo the page generation part of this task, so I will put this task on hold for now. I have a few others that I am working on. Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 04:36, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
On hold. For AnomieBOT. Tenshi! (Talk page) 15:15, 5 November 2025 (UTC)- {{Operator assistance needed}} Any update? – DreamRimmer ■ 13:31, 17 December 2025 (UTC)
- @DreamRimmer: I'm currently away so I don't have access to the bot. I'm probably not going to pursue this task since I don't think I can implement something that would be efficient enough to do this. Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 10:15, 18 December 2025 (UTC)
- @Aydoh8:Is this meant as a withdrawal? If the issue is only with the page generator, you could use the approach shown in the snippet below. Storing already processed pages in an external file should prevent the same pages from being reprocessed when you start a new run. If you still wish to withdraw, please let me know.
- @DreamRimmer: I'm currently away so I don't have access to the bot. I'm probably not going to pursue this task since I don't think I can implement something that would be efficient enough to do this. Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 10:15, 18 December 2025 (UTC)
- I'm going to completely redo the page generation part of this task, so I will put this task on hold for now. I have a few others that I am working on. Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 04:36, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
import pywikibot
from pywikibot import pagegenerators
import itertools
site = pywikibot.Site("wikipedia:en")
g1 = pagegenerators.SearchPageGenerator('hastemplate:"use dmy dates"', site=site, namespaces=[0])
g2 = pagegenerators.SearchPageGenerator('hastemplate:"use mdy dates"', site=site, namespaces=[0])
for page in itertools.chain(g1, g2):
print(page.title())
– DreamRimmer ■ 12:24, 18 December 2025 (UTC)
- @DreamRimmer: Thanks for that. I'm away on a trip so I won't be back at my (main) computer for almost two weeks. Once I do, I'll check it out and let you know. Just keep it on hold for now. I'm still trying to understand how page generators work. Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 12:31, 18 December 2025 (UTC)
- Poke. Primefac (talk) 21:17, 1 February 2026 (UTC)
- @Primefac I'm probably not going to pursue this since there would have to be way too many exceptions for it work reliably. I might make a derivative where it, rather than directly editing a page, adds the page to a queue page where it can be checked by a human (probably me), and if it is a false positive, the page can be added to a whitelist so that the bot won't flag that page again. I'll let you know when I've worked that out. Would I be able to do that in this BRfA or would I have to open a new one? Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 13:45, 2 February 2026 (UTC)
- Withdrawn by operator. If and when you get these issues sorted out, feel free to re-open this task (no need to file a new BRFA). Primefac (talk) 13:55, 2 February 2026 (UTC)
- @Primefac I'm probably not going to pursue this since there would have to be way too many exceptions for it work reliably. I might make a derivative where it, rather than directly editing a page, adds the page to a queue page where it can be checked by a human (probably me), and if it is a false positive, the page can be added to a whitelist so that the bot won't flag that page again. I'll let you know when I've worked that out. Would I be able to do that in this BRfA or would I have to open a new one? Aydoh8[what have I done now?] 13:45, 2 February 2026 (UTC)
- Poke. Primefac (talk) 21:17, 1 February 2026 (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 Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard.