Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SvickBOT

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

Withdrawn by operator.

SvickBOT

Operator: Svick

Automatic or Manually assisted: automatic, unsupervised

Programming language(s): AWB

Source code available: AWB

Function overview: Remove left-to-right mark from redirects.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):

Edit period(s): One time run.

Estimated number of pages affected: 1010, listed at [1].

Exclusion compliant (Y/N): Yes.

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): No.

Function details: Some redirects contain left-to-right mark (U+200E), a non-printable character that is useless there. MediaWiki understands/ignores it, so this causes no problem for normal readers and editors, but didn't work for AWB users. This bug has been fixed, but such redirects still cause minor nuisance for AWB users (see Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Bugs/Archive 15#Endless cycle of loading and skipping) and could possibly cause problem for other bots and tools. So, I propose that I'll run a bot that will remove this character from redirects that contain it.

I would use AWB to perform this task, with simple replacement "\u200E" → "" and all other AWB options turned off.

The list of affected redirects was generated from a database dump and checked against the current revisions of the redirects.

Discussion

Why, exactly, is that character in articles to begin with? @harej 20:39, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure, but because the character is useful in texts that contain both left-to-right and right-to-left scripts, I suspect users who use right-to-left languages are inserting this character. Svick (talk) 21:18, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the task. I can perform it if you don't want the bot for further tasks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 20:47, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't care who does it. I guess it would be easier if you did it, because User:SvickBOT would first have to gain bot flag and then get permission to use AWB. Svick (talk) 21:18, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You have a whole bunch of good ideas for cleaning Wikipedia. Maybe it could be a good idea to have a bot account to help cleaning. I am also ok both ways. -- Magioladitis (talk) 21:43, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hm... I tried to do it with bot mode and doesn't work. It needs to be done manually. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:17, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You have to be on a bot account in order to user AWB in bot mode. At least, I think so. Tim1357 (talk) 22:40, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I used Yobot to try make the edits. It doesn't work. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:43, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, that should work them. Apparently AWB is having some trouble, Id suspect it to start working again soon. What kind of error message did it give you? Tim1357 (talk) 22:45, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I looked at the edits that Yobot made and they worked. Svick (talk) 23:13, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They were in manual mode. I think know we found a solution with Reedy. I 'll do a run. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:25, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I find manual edits faster. Consider adding this to WP:CHECKWIKI. -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:54, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I was crazy enough to do it by hand and use Yobot to bypass all RDiacr. Svick, recreate your list please to check for any left-overs. Thanks, Magioladitis (talk) 00:24, 22 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems there are none. Good work. Svick (talk) 01:07, 22 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Withdrawn by operator. The task has been done by Magioladitis. Svick (talk) 01:07, 22 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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.