User:NepheleBot

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

Jump to: navigation, search

This account is a bot account run by Nephele to do basic, repetitive maintenance tasks.

If at any time you notice this account making edits that look unusual or you don't understand, post a message on the bot account's talk page; the bot will stop editing if its talk page is modified.


Current Status: Inactive. Last task was #Convert Maplinks, finished at 1:25 am PDT July 7.
View bot activity


Contents

[edit] Purpose of the Bot

This account has been set up to do basic tasks (like fixing links, adding categories, or creating redirects) in cases where lots of pages need to be updated. A program run on my machine (not on the UESP server) will log in using this account and automatically edit the pages that need to be modified. The bot will primarily be used to make changes to formatting, style, and wikicode. In general, the bot will not make any edits that significantly alter the content (i.e., displayed text) of a page. Basic numbers and statistics (such as ID codes retrieved from the construction set) that are displayed in tables or infoboxes are the only content that will be altered by the bot.

To prevent these edits from flooding recent changes, the account has been given bot status. In other words, none of the edits made by NepheleBot will show up on the Recent changes page unless the "Show bots" option is selected. The bot's edits will always show up in all other places where edits are listed (e.g., history of a page, user contributions, watchlists, etc.)

The bot does not have any administrative privileges; the only difference from a regular account is that its edits are not shown on the recent changes page.

[edit] Bot Tasks

This account will be used to do multiple different tasks, one at a time. So one day it might update a set of links, the next day it might add categories to a set of pages. In general, the tasks done by the bot will be limited to ones that:

  • Modify the wiki markup, but not the written content of the article. The types of edits that will be done include:
    • Updating links if a page is moved or split into separate articles
    • Adding or changing an article's categories
    • Creating redirect pages
    • Changing template parameters in articles if the template has been modified
    • Modifying parameters in an infobox using data extracted from the construction set
  • Involve a lot of pages (e.g., 50 or more)
  • Can be easily automated (i.e., will require less of my time to set it up using a bot than to just do it manually)

All future bot tasks will be proposed on the bot talk page and will be open for community discussion. New tasks will only be started at least one week after first being proposed. Anyone who has concerns about a proposed task is free to voice their concerns on the talk page, in which case the task will not be implemented unless the concerns can be addressed. Some Ongoing Tasks have been identified, for which it is assumed that the tasks have already been vetted by the community. Therefore new specific examples of these ongoing tasks do not necessarily require a one week approval period.

Also, all editors are welcome to propose tasks that they think NepheleBot could be used for. The tasks would have to meet the listed requirements, I'll have to confirm that I think the task is feasible, and the task would have to go through the same one week open-for-discussion period. But if you're facing doing a really boring edit to many pages, feel free to ask whether NepheleBot could do it instead.

I (as Nephele, not NepheleBot) will post information on this page about any active task before starting it. That edit will show up in recent changes and provide other editors with some notification that the bot is about to be active. Also, if an editor notices bot activity, this page should provide an explanation of what the bot is up to (in addition, of course, to the edit summary provided with each bot edit).

[edit] Bot Control

This account is not a bot that will be running continously on the server. Rather, there will be a program on my machine that will be run only when there is a specific task that needs to be done. The programs will be written using perl; I'm using the LWP and Perlwikipedia modules to create a core library of functions that incorporate various controls on the program's operations. The controls that are in place to prevent the bot from running amok include:

  • The bot will not be run during periods with heavy server traffic (currently defined as noon-9pm PDT weekends and 3pm-9pm PDT weekdays).
  • The bot will make at most one edit every 10 seconds.
  • The bot will stop if any errors retrieving pages indicate that the server is too busy.
  • No edits will ever be made to user pages, user talk pages, or template pages.
  • No edits will be made by the program unless it is logged in.
  • If the page User Talk:NepheleBot is edited by anybody, the bot will stop running. It may make at most one more edit, because it may not be told about the change to the talk page until after it has posted an edit. (Skeptical editors are free to test this feature and reassure themselves that it really does work... if so, just be sure to make it clear that it was just a test so I don't spend too long searching for a non-existent problem)
  • The bot checks each edit to make sure there was no edit conflict. If there was, it waits one minute, re-reads the page and then tries to make the edit to the updated page (if it is still necessary).

[edit] See Also

[edit] Completed Tasks

This section will list, in reverse chronological order, all the tasks done by the bot including details on when the task was done.

[edit] Oblivion Ingredient Links

Task: Replace existing links of the form [[Oblivion:Ingredients#Foo|Foo]] with links to the new individual ingredient pages (script name: ingredient_links).

  • 28 May 2007, 04:45-05:21 GMT: 18 pages done while testing bot features
  • 31 May 2007, 04:24-04:46 GMT: 28 pages edited. Task completed

[edit] Main Namespace Links

Task: Add leading colon to all links to articles in the main namespace, e.g., [[:Main Page]] instead of [[Main Page]] (script name:main_namespace_links).

  • 31 May 2007, 04:56-05:46 GMT: 104 pages edited. Task completed

[edit] Create Redirects

Task: Add shortcut redirects for lots of pages, starting with the Oblivion namespace (script name:create_redirects).

  • 1 June 2007, 05:19-06:37 GMT: 421 Oblivion pages created or edited (all creatures and magical stones; unique and leveled magical items). Task manually stopped
  • 1 June 2007, 15:33-17:10 GMT: 508 Oblivion pages created or edited (staves, powers, mod items, scrolls, generic magic weapons). Task manually stopped
  • 2 June 2007, 04:19-07:00 GMT: 894 Oblivion pages created or edited; all identified Oblivion redirects have been created
  • 27 July 2007, 05:51-06:35 GMT: 237 Shivering Isles pages created or edited (ingredients, creatures, armor, apparel)
  • 28 July 2007, 06:01-06:38 GMT: 200 Shivering Isles pages created or edited (weapons)
  • 8 November 2007, 05:02-07:28 GMT: 517 Morrowind pages created or edited (non-relevant NPCS, first set)
  • 11 November 2007, 05:03-05:41 GMT: 60 Oblivion pages created or edited (Oblivion Flora)
  • 16 November 2007, 07:39-11:58 GMT: 916 Morrowind and Tamriel pages created or edited (MW leveled lists, Tamriel gods, people, places, flora, creatures, dictionary)
  • 5 January 2008, 02:32 GMT to 6 January 06:14 GMT: 189 Oblivion pages (weapons, armor) created or edited; 1479 Morrowind non-relevant NPCs created or edited
  • 9 January 2008, 07:18-08:54 GMT: 340 Tes3Mod pages created or edited (Tes3Mod commands)
  • 15 January 2008, 17:50-18:37 GMT: 142 Bloodmoon and Tribunal pages created or edited (weapons, clothing, and armor)
  • 26 January 2008, 03:46-06:42 GMT : 627 Morrowind pages created (clothing and armor)
  • 29 January 2008, 03:50-05:35 GMT: 414 Morrowind pages created (weapons)
  • 1 March 2008, 07:15-07:34 GMT: 53 Oblivion item pages updated following minor page reorganization

[edit] Obsolete /Directions Pages

Task: Incorporate information from /Directions subpages into Oblivion place pages and propose deletion (script name:obsolete_directions).

  • 28 July 2007, 18:42-21:02 GMT: 242 pages edited. Task completed

[edit] Obsolete Quests/ Pages

Task: Fix all remaining links to quests/ redirect pages and propose deletion (script name:obsolete_quests).

  • 29 July 2007, 08:18-09:51 GMT. 270 pages edited (Oblivion, Morrowind, and Redguard namespaces). Task completed

[edit] Ingredients Link Templates

Task: The templates Template:MW Ingredients Link, Template:TR Ingredients Link, Template:BM Ingredients Link, Template:Oblivion Ingredients Link, and Template:Shivering Ingredients Link aren't needed now that all the ingredients have their own articles. Replace all uses of each of these templates with direct links to the relevant article (script name: ingredient_link_templates).

  • 13 September 2007, 05:59-07:20 GMT. 139 pages edited. Task completed

[edit] Ingredient Icons

Task: Rename the parameter |image= to |icon= on all pages using Template:Ingredient Summary that are still in the old format (script name: ingredient_icons).

  • 13 September 2007, 07:27-07:52 GMT. 108 pages edited. Task completed

[edit] Tamriel Books

Task: Reorganize all of the Tamriel books, as described at UESPWiki:Community Portal#Reorganizing Tamriel Books (script name: tamriel_books).

  • 13 September 2007, 19:45-23:00 GMT. 10 books done (91 pages edited, 29 pages moved), all in debug mode. Just getting my feet wet...
  • 14 September 2007, 04:02-23:12 GMT. 305 books done (2440 pages edited, 701 pages moved). A-M complete, except for multi-volume books.
  • 4 November, 2007, 22:12 GMT. Job finished. (Need to piece together statistics for all the stages of the job...)

[edit] Update Links

Task: Ongoing task to update links when articles are moved or new redirects are created to replace existing links (script name: updating_links).

  • 18 November, 2007 06:58 GMT - 19 November 07:53 GMT. 787(?) pages done. Links updated include Oblivion:Journal_Entries_Notes, Oblivion:Journal_Entry_Notes, Template:Oblivion_Spell_Effect, Morrowind:Leveled_List redirects, Category:Morrowind-Creatures, Category:Bloodmoon-Creatures, and Category:Tribunal-Creatures.
  • 10 January, 2008, 19:22-20:39 GMT. 153 pages done. Links to Template:Oblivion_Effect_Entry replaced with links to individual effect pages.
  • 23 January, 2008, 06:57-16:50 GMT. 1204 pages done. Links to namespace-specific versions of Template:Stub, Template:NeedsImage, Template:Cleanup, Template:Wip, and Template:Peer review all replaced with generic template.
  • 1 March, 2008, 18:35-19:42 GMT. 184 pages done. OPRP cleanup tags updated with better task description.
  • 15 March 03:01 GMT to 18 March 11:11 GMT. 71 pages done. Oblivion item links changed to use Oblivion item redirects.
  • 5 July 15:48 GMT to 6 July 05:25 GMT. 605 pages done. Templates changed from "Tamriel" names to "Lore" names.

[edit] Unused Redirects

Task: Propose deletion for pages listed at Category:Unused Redirects (script name: prod_pages).

  • 9 January, 2008, 21:34-22:18 GMT. 34 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] Adding NPC RefIDs

Task: Adding RefID and BaseID info to NPC Summary infobox on all Oblivion and Shivering Isles NPC pages. See Oblivion NPC IDs. (script name: add_npc_refids)

  • 19 January, 2008, 03:39-07:55 GMT. 910 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] MW Trainers

Task: Fix skills listed for all Morrowind trainers to match skill list provided by CS hints; also checked that each trainer is listed on correct skill trainer pages. (script name: mw_trainers)

  • 20 January, 2008, 06:55-08:15 GMT. 87 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] Delete namesp

Task: Delete redundant |namesp= parameters from NPC Summary templates. (script name: delete_namesp)

  • 25 January, 2008, 05:22-06:27 GMT. 187 pages edited. Job finished (at least what can be done by bot).

[edit] Delete Maplinks

Task: Delete unnecessary maplinks from Oblivion /Description subpages. (script name: delete_maplinks)

  • 30 January, 2008, 05:21-07:00 GMT. 269 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] Delete Table Formatting

Task: Delete unnecessary table formatting commands. (script name: delete_table_formatting)

  • 31 January, 2008, 04:16-05:00 GMT. 122 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] Tamriel Categories

Task: Move categories from Tamriel to Lore; see UESPWiki:Namespace Move Project (script name: tam_categories)

  • 4 July 16:35 GMT to 5 July 12:51 GMT. 2482 pages edited. Job finished.

[edit] Convert Maplinks

Task: Convert maplinks from URLs to Map Link template (script name: maplinks)

  • 7 July 06:14-07:25 GMT. 104 pages edited. Job finished.
Retrieved from "http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User:NepheleBot"
Sponsored Links
Personal tools