Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/CSDCheckBot
Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic
Programming Language(s): Python and Pywikipedia
Function Overview: Notifies editors who have tagged a page for speedy deletion that was not deleted or was deleted for criteria differing from that for which they tagged it
Edit period(s): Continuously
Already has a bot flag (Y/N): N
Function Details: This bot was constructed in response to this bot request, which was made after this discussion. I've mostly coded it, and the implementation I went with is as follows: The bot follows the recent changes IRC feed and scans the edit summaries to find edits in which an editor is adding a CSD tag. It finds these by searching for the words "db, "CSD", etc. Upon finding such an edit, it checks the page to make sure that a tag was indeed added, and if it was it will add it to a list of articles it is following. It will follow the articles on this list until such time as the article is deleted or the article has had its tag removed for a reasonable amount of time (currently 10 minutes). It will note actions that remove the tag from the article, and actions that restore the tag to the article, and adds every editor who adds a tag to the page on a list. If the page was deleted, every editor who added a tag to the page for criteria that does not match the criteria under which the page was deleted will be added to the bot's list of editors to be warned. If the page is kept, every editor who added a tag to the page for any criteria will be added to the bot's list of editors to be warned. Any editor who has previously added a tag and later removes a tag will be removed from the aforementioned list, so editors who later revert themselves don't get warned. If the page is deleted under G7 (author request) no one gets warned as I see that as overriding other concerns. If the page is userfied or redirected, no one gets warned. If the page is deleted and the admin does not reference CSD criteria in the deletion summary no one gets warned. If an admin deletes a page and cites multiple criteria, editors who added a tag corresponding to any of the criteria in the admin's deletion reason will not be warned. If the last time the tag was removed from the page the edit summary includes "correct/good speedy/tag" indicating that the removing editor believed that the tagging was good but the page has been salvaged or some such no one gets warned. The bot will note whether or not the page was prodded or AFD'd if the tag was removed or if the size of the page has altered substantially, and will note this in its warning. Also, to catch edits adding a CSD tag that don't indicate what they're doing in their edit summary, the bot will scan pages in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion and add whatever pages in it that aren't already in its list to its list. Once every three hours, the bot will notify every editor on its list who has not tagged a page for speedy deletion for the past 20 minutes. If there were only one or two instances meriting a warning, the bot will give all appropriate details in the message on the editor's talkpage and not create a subpage. If there were more than two, then the bot will create a subpage, place the details of the incidents on the subpage, and link to the subpage from the message in the editor's talkpage. My thoughts for these subpages is that there will in fact only be one subpage: The bot will edit the subpage with the editor's info, place a permalink to that revision of the subpage in the message to the user, and then edit the subpage again for the next user. This way there won't be hundreds of extraneous single-use subpages in the bot's userspace, cluttering things up unnecessarily, there will be only one subpage. There will be, however, an opt-in option that will create a subpage in the user's own userspace. This subpage will contain a cumulative record of the user's CSD results from the time they opt in to the service. These subpages will be updated every three hours when the bot issues its notices. The primary service for the bot is currently intended to be opt-out. Opting out will require either putting your name on an opt-out list in the bot's userspace, or adding {{nobots}} or some proper construction of {{bots}} to their talkpage, which will get them added to the bot's userspace list automatically. Note that a user who has opted out through the use of a template would need to remove themselves from the bot's userspace list manually to opt back into the service; merely removing the template from their page would not suffice. My current reasoning as to why the bot would be justified as an opt-in as opposed to opt-out bot: Firstly, there are currently multiple bots that leave unsolicited talkpage messages, and their operation is not particularly opposed or resented from what I can see. They prompt some annoyed replies, yes, but the vast majority of it that I've seen came about as a result of a difficult to use or unavailable opt-out method. If someone can easily opt out of such messages they don't usually complain about it too much. In any case I suspect that most of the people who really don't like bots will already have a {{nobots}} template on their talkpage. Secondly this service is rather important: Not only to the integrity of Wikipedia and to our sometimes overtaxed admin corp, but to the editors themselves. New editors who add pages that are immediately tagged for CSD are unsurprisingly discouraged and annoyed, and incorrect tagging provokes such a response for no adequate reason. Better feedback to editors can only improve their accuracy, and that benefits everyone. Furthermore, as the AFD discussion reveals, any editor running for adminship who has had difficulty with CSD will almost certainly fail. Finally various admins mention in the discussions linked above that they gave a large number of notifications like these themselves, and that they never received an unduly negative response from editors they gave them to. (I realize there's a difference between a warning from an admin and a warning from a bot, but still.) Now, with regards to the warnings the bot will give: They aren't going to be phrased as "warnings" so much as notifications. The bot's accuracy simply can't be 100% because many times pages can be deleted for multiple reasons, and an admin could simply pick a different criteria than the tagger did. Furthermore pages could be substantially altered between the tagging and the tag removal or deletion, and the bot can't do anything except note this (and it won't even do that if the change is in substance not quantity). So these messages aren't intended to chastise or anything of the kind, this will be neutrally phrased feedback and nothing else.
I think that's everything, but I'm writing this late at night so I probably forgot some stuff. If anyone desires further information or clarification or something doesn't make sense please feel free to ask below. If anyone wants to see the code, I wouldn't mind, but keep in mind it's almost 600 lines of uncommented and probably difficult to follow code.