Wikisource talk:Bot requests

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Hi,

Was it correct that I have put the template {{Done}} when done, or ought I have removed the titles from the list? --Zyephyrus (talk) 17:32, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

It is how I have done it, and through not knowing what else. The only other means would be to use {{closed}}. It would be nice to have a bot archive done jobs after a period of time, though we would need to get organised and be consistent. -- billinghurst (talk) 01:12, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Thoughts on persistent bot tasks

Starting to compile a list of tasks that we should be looking to run for general maintenance

• subst: conversion of diacritic, ligature, ... templates, eg. {{ae}} {{:a:}} ...
• deprecated templates to newer versions, eg. {{sisterlinks}} → {{plain sister}}

At a guess running them monthly(ish) is suitable. — billinghurst sDrewth 00:44, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Tasks a bot could undertake — per work basis

There has been some conversation on what sort of tasks might be considered to be run on a per work basis where there is some reflection that multiple contributors may have some variation in an approach. Sort of tasks that could be looked at follow. Noting that this would be a selected list of tasks that could be undertaken, not a mandated list of tasks to be taken. — billinghurst sDrewth 06:09, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

<list build>

• Conversion of forward and backward curly quotes to straight quotes

Conversion of single straight quotes to apostrophes?

But don't do anything with text in Greek where the initial character of a word may be a curly quote that represents the breathing required for a vowel or semi-vowel.

• Substitution of Diacritic templates
• Conversion of double hyphen (--) to mdash (—)

Conversion of hyphen(-) to ndash(–) in numeric ranges

• Expansion of short form of templates to long form of templates, eg. {{hws}} {{hyphenated word start}}, others may be {{c}}, {{rh}}

What is the benefit? Are short forms going to be deprecated? In the template page it still states: The abbreviated forms {{hws}} and {{hwe}} can also be used.

• ... to &hellip;
• Scan for and highlight (how? log?) instances of:

• unclosed block templates (e.g. {{block center/e}} count not matching that of {{block center/s}}. Similarly {{hws}}/{{hwe}}, {{lps}}/{{lpe}} etc.)

• (special case: malformed template invocations; Pages containing mismatched counts of "{" and "}"s.)

• make sure not to look inside <math> tags where there are likely to be unmatched braces

• mismatched table sentinels (i.e. "{|" count not matching "|}" count)
• wikicoding constructs which are otherwise harmless yet produce no net useful effects:

• lines ending with trailing blanks
• single new lines (outside of <poem> blocks) not following <br/>
• sequences of new lines unprotected by {{nop}} at end of individual Pages.

• lines with trailing hyphens

• At Page end indicates possible omitted {{hws}} or {{lps}}
• Other cases require manual inspection and correction:

• Unrejoined hyphenated word? (i.e. new line unnecessary and hyphen should be removed)
• Unrejoined non-hyphenated word? (i.e. new line unnecessary but hyphen should be retained)
• Start of quotation? (i.e. hyphen probably should be replaced with mdash)

• extra spaces between words/sentences
• Option to change or only identify for manual review.

Specific Suggestion Discussion

• Expansion of short form of templates to long form of templates.

• This has been previously discussed and all responses were positive (as I recall), the rationale being it is easy to type {{c}} and everyone wants to write it that way, but it is difficult for the uninitiated to grasp so converting to {{center}} is good. JeepdaySock (AKA, Jeepday) 10:45, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

• Pages containing mismatched counts of "{" and "}"s.

• In addition to the template issue, there is an formatting issues. I have seen many cases of "(" being OCRed as "{", while the trailing closing bracket is ")" JeepdaySock (AKA, Jeepday) 10:45, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

• make sure not to look inside <math> tags where there are likely to be unmatched braces —unsigned comment by MarkLSteadman (talk) .

• "Option to change or only identify for manual review."

• Personally I like the suggestion, but would not encourage use of any kind of unrestricted "change-without-review" operation:

• Some of the options being discussed here are rather "hairy" if made unmonitored. Some provision may have to be made to ensure watchlists etc. make any changes made by this kind of 'bot abundantly visible? MODCHK (talk) 19:13, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I recently patched - Index:Wisconsin Rapids directory (1921).djvu to mark missing pages, meaning that the text currently on pages 31 to 379 inclusive needs to be moved such that it instead runs from 39 inclusive. Given the number of pages, I was advised to ask here if there was a bot/AWB task that could peform a mass move to acomodate the new layout. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 07:58, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

You should put the request in the Wikisource:Bot_requests, following this as example: Wikisource:Bot_requests/Archives/2013#Bulk_page_moves_in_Index:Mystery_of_the_Yellow_Room_.28Grosset_Dunlap_1908.29.djvu--Mpaa (talk) 11:30, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

Subsections needed?

Do the "Unassigned" / "Assigned" subsections provide any benefit any more? Most tasks requested nowadays are ad hoc tasks, so they're usually actioned and then archived with little discussion etc. For how the page functions now they seem like a needless complication. But maybe I'm missing something?

@Mpaa: You're probably the one here who has done the most in the bot area. Do you have any thoughts on this? Xover (talk) 07:04, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

@Xover I agree to simplify. Mpaa (talk) 09:23, 3 September 2022 (UTC)