Board Thread:Bot requests/@comment-188432-20140814150528

I of course want to help you guys in the post-merge period to clean up the wiki with occasional bot runs. However, it's really important, I feel, to make sure that all parties involved agree to a bot run before it is made. Therefore, I'm going to reserve a part of every Wednesday, beginning with the 20th August, to perform bot runs on this wikia.

What a bot can do
In case you're unfamiliar with bots, here are some of the things they can do:
 * replace text on a page that conforms to a certain pattern. If you see a pattern, the bot can, too!
 * check for copyright violations. The bot is pretty good at being able to tell when copy has been stolen from other places, and can then flag it for human review.
 * change, rename, or delete category names
 * batch delete pages in any namespace, which obviously includes pictures. If you flag pages with a category like category:delete me, the bot can then delete all of that category's contents super quick.
 * batch protect/unprotect pages. Let's say you want to protect a range of templates from editing by IP editors. Bots can easily do that.
 * a variety of menial tasks. If you can see something that is annoying, but is an obvious pattern on pages, just ask and I'll see about developing a custom approach for you.

The rules of play
Here are some parameters, designed to ensure the bot plans are adequately discussed.


 * Bot requests must be at least 5 days old; no sneaking a request across on a Tuesday night, people!
 * The bot runs in Hawaiian Standard Time, as I do. As you know, I'm American, and I find that a good time zone for interacting with Europeans. Why? In the summer, it's exactly day for night for most of the continent west of Russia, and almost day for night for Britain. No complicated math; just switch PM for AM. When it's noon 1 July in Holland, it's midnight 1 July in Hawaii. (Obviously, that means it's 11 hours off British Summer Time.)
 * If I am unable to make a Wednesday "date" with you guys because of urgent work commitments, I will make every effort to tell you that I won't be able to make it.
 * On Tuesday nights I will perform a review of the bot requests and give an indication of which, in my view, have been agreed by the community — and therefore which are being completed within the next 24 hours.
 * For the first week only, bot requests may be approved with only three days notice (that is, as long as they're in by Sunday), so long as everyone seems to have agreed to it.
 * Please start a unique thread for each bot request. 