Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Deonbot

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was

Request Expired.

Deonbot

Operator: Deon

Automatic or Manually assisted: Automatic (supervised)

Programming language(s): AutoWikiBrowser

Source code available: N/A

Function overview: Works for Spotlight to deliver notices/newsletter etc to members.

Edit period(s): Weekly.

Estimated number of pages affected: ~20 User_talk pages per week. Possibly go up as membership goes up.

Exclusion compliant (Y/N): No, as this will impede the ability of the member to receive updates from the group. If the user does not want to receive the notices, then they should consider not placing their name on the Newsletter list.

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

Function details: The bot user account will be used by me (User:Deon) to leave membership notices and deliver newsletters to the talk pages of the users involved in the project. The user account will edit automatically with AWB, under full supervision of Deon. Diffs look like this [1], [2], [3], etc.

Discussion

Personally I think there should be some way to be part of the project, but not receive the message, especially since it seems you have a user who doesn't want the messages. Would it be possible to create a bot subpage, where users can add their names, and the bot won't send messages to those users? Other than that, this looks good to me - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 09:21, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That was the small exception, to 'advertise' the project. There are pages for subscriptions ([4]) and in future we won't contact anyone else. This was a one-of 'test run' to see how the notifications would work. Thanks for the reply, — Deon ^talk_{I'm BACK!} 11:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is confusing on the project page, to me as someone stopping by, "Please add your name to the list below. Users will be notified of upcoming projects and successful work, on their talk page." I think people want to list their names as members of a project, but may not want to be notified by bot. I understand you've considered this and designed the bot to operate that way, so no problem with the bot, but how the project works and the bot relationship should be consistently stated everywhere. For that reason this is more a project point than a comment about the bot. --69.226.103.13 (talk) 16:39, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Another possibility is to have a project Subscription subpage. The user list is for people who want to list themselves as part of the group, and the Subscription subpage is where the bot gets the list of people to distribute to. MacMed^talk _stalk 20:35, 22 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Either an opt-in or an opt-out would be fine. –xeno^talk 20:43, 22 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, so how about we have a list of all the recent contributors, and a 'Do Not Call' list and we contact people once to let them know what they were working on was part of the project, and an opportunity to join and work on more articles - and they can choose whether they want to join (and receive the newsletter instead of the notice) or not to be notified again in future articles (if coincidentally they happen to edit another article at the same time it is in the spotlight? Sounds good? :) — Deon ^talk 11:03, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Probably covers about 87% of the people.... It's fine, imo, as long as you're considering options for how people want to be contacted, as you appear to be doing, also as you appear to be discussing the issue with the community. That's my opinion. --69.226.103.13 (talk) 05:51, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As long as you have an opt-in or opt-out, you might as well be exclusion compliant. Are you sure AWB isn't exclusion compliant by default? — madman bum and angel 21:04, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah good point. For bot accounts, it probably is, yes. — Deon ^talk 02:29, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Stipulating that a visible and operable opt-out mechanism is present in all messages, this task is otherwise self-explanatory.

Approved for trial (20 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. — madman bum and angel 22:54, 31 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks madman! — Deon ^talk 10:53, 2 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Since you are approved for trial I have requested access to AWB for the bot (as it doesn't appear to currently have that as a bot). - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 07:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{BAGAssistanceNeeded}} Deon has taken a wikibreak for an indeterminate length, see his userpage. Having last edited on the second of August, this request appears to have expired, and should be closed. He may reopen it when he returns, preferably with a trial immediately available. The Earwig (Talk | Contribs) 20:35, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Request Expired. Sorry, but gotta agree with Earwig here. At the moment this is just cluttering up WP:BRFA. Please feel free to re-open this (ask me if you need help) when you get back. Best, - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 00:50, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.