Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/wpp research bot

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

Approved.

wpp research bot

Operator: Jantin (talk · contribs)

Time filed: 16:57, Monday April 25, 2011 (UTC)

Automatic or Manual: Manual (The bot does not make edits. Its only function is to handle recruitment for the Wikipedia Progression of Participation (WPP). See full details below and on our research project page.)

Programming language(s): Python and PHP

Source code available: Source code not available

Function overview: The only purpose of wpp_research_bot is to handle email recruitment for the WPP study. Full details as well as well as the various discussions and approvals we have obtained for this study are below on on our research project page.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): We have had discussions and solicited feedback from the Wikipedia Research Committee as well as staff members at the Wikimedia Foundation See our research project page for full details.

Edit period(s): Weekly.

Estimated number of pages affected: N/A

Exclusion compliant (Y/N): N/A

Notes: We are aware that contacting Wikipedians is an important and sensitive issue. We have requested feedback from numerous people to ensure that we do so in a responsible, non-disruptive fashion. Full details about the project, its potential benefits for Wikipedia , and the steps we have undertaken in order to design the best possible recruitment strategy are fully described on our research project page. We would be happy to provide any additional details requested by the BAG.

Discussion

I'm leaning towards quick approval, just want to check how many users (a week, total, whatever) you plan on emailing. MBisanz ^talk 01:54, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, apologies for the delay in getting back to this. Our goal is to recruit a total of 500 participants to our study. We can't know for sure what our response rate will be, however - we expect that many of our recruitment messages will be ignored. We are planning to tread carefully so that we avoid unnecessarily contacting users. Our plan is to start by contacting about 100 users per week to see what our response rate is. If our initial response rate is too low, we will move up to 500 per week. Again, we will only send emails until we get enough participants. We're happy to be flexible about this, too, if you have other suggestions about the best way to do it. Thanks very much -- Judd (talk) 05:43, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How does the bot interact with Wikipedia? Does it gather e-mail addresses from user accounts? If there is no direct interaction with English Wikipedia, then this may fall outside the BRFA/BOTPOL/BAG scope and may not need an approval here. — HELLKNOWZ ▎TALK 08:30, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The bot doesn't actually gather email addresses, it just sends emails users through the API. Our understanding is that our bot would be quickly tagged as a spammer and blocked unless it is properly approved by BAG? Thanks for your help -- Judd (talk) 05:46, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Approved. MBisanz ^talk 09:35, 11 May 2011 (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.