User:VoxBot

This user is a bot controlled by KrIsMa (talk | contribs). It is a legitimate alternate account used for speedily making large amounts of edits in place of a human. If it has been malfunctioning, please comment on the developer's talk page.

VoxBot

Name	VoxBot
Task(s)	Typo fixing, Clean-up
Status	Active (periodically), Not active
Programming language	C#
Edit process	Fully-Automatic, Semi-Automatic
Introduced in	January 1, 2014
Other information	Activates when host computer is on

Note:

This bot is not active, but turns on periodically.

Area	Usage	Decision	Percent	Comment	Status
Auto tagging	Auto tags articles	Conditional Pass	78%	Some errors with the stub tag, undefined tags	Reference only
General Fixes	Tagging, and capitalization	Pass	93%	4 functions disabled.	On
Unicoding	Sets entities into unicode	Pass	97%	Works perfectly, however, no use	Off
Find and replace	Finds, then replaces words	Pass	98%	Works perfectly	On
Typo fixing	Changes repeated, or typos	Pass	92%	Spelling mistakes have to be in a database	On
Multiple Wiki Link Removal	Removes multiple wiki links on the same page	Pass	87%	In fully auto mode, can pose a risk	On
Uncategorized check	Checks a page for categorization	Pass	92%	Misses template categories	On
Syntax check	Finds unclosed brackets	Conditional Pass	80%	Double brackets confuse the check, confused with > and < scratch blocks	Reference only
Title To Heading check	Checks for underlined word in body, from header	Pass	100%	Performs perfectly	On
Wrong Section check	Checks reference, and see also headers for location	Pass	97%	Somewhat limited	On
Bot boundaries	Checks pages for tag {{NOBOTS}} tag, and {{BOTS}} and if necessary, skips page	Pass	96%	Rare bugs encountered	On
First Heading check	Checks for first line/heading	Pass	100%	Performs perfectly	On
General Heading check	Checks for "See also" "See Also" and others	Pass	89%	Request to turn off	Off
Multiple DEFAULTSORT tags	Finds multiple DEFAULTSORT tags on one page	Pass	98%	Never used	On

Documentation

Edits in namespaces
Contributions
Edits: 4,399
This bot turns on when the host's computer is on. This bot, therefore, does not activate for 12 hours a day.

Note:

The bot will also not turn on when the host's desktop computer is off. The server is in the owner's computer.

The bot applies general fixes to the wiki. VoxBot has an edit delay of 6 seconds. The bot will find an error on the wiki, and wait 6 seconds before saving the edit. Edit delay times are negotiable.

Turn off

This bot does make occasional mistakes. If it does, talk to the owner first. If the edits are semi-edited, then the owner probably knows the errors caused. To turn off this bot, add a topic to this page. The bot will take up to 5 minutes to fully stop.

Warning:

The bot should only be blocked when the edit summary says "FULLY_AUTOMATIC"

Otherwise, to turn off the bot immediately, block it. This should only be done as a last resort; to turn off the bot temporarily, add a topic to this page After shutting-down the bot or turning it off, leave a message on the owner's talk page.

Invalid edits

If the bot performs invalid edits, revert the edit and notify the owner immediately. This is to prevent undesired edits in its future.

Edit process

A Semi-Automatic bot relies on its owner to check for errors. This bot needs to be activated by the owner to finds errors, and refers back to its owner for verification. However, this bot can be turned into a fully-automatic bot. The current edit-process is highlighted in the info box. Most likely, the bot is semi-automatic, preventing the bot from editing wrong and saving it automatically. The automatic edit threshold on this bot is two edits.

Edit Summary

Due to the nature of this bot, most edit byte changes are negative. Bot edits are marked either b or mb. If it is mb, it means that the edit is a minor one, and the edit is made by a bot. If it is only b, then the edit is not marked as a minor edit, and a bot hade the edit. Either way, "b" will be shown on every edit the bot makes on main pages.

Contact the owner

After editing the bot's settings, such as its usergroup, please contact the owner on his talk page. This is to make sure that unnecessary changes were not made, and the bot is still working flawlessly.

Other Facts

• The bot's first edit is here.
• Made the 80000th edit, shortening links on its General Fixes run.
• Made the 82000th edit, linking the word project.
• Made the 82500th edit, removing links to redirects.
• Made the 85000th edit, shortening links on its General Fixes run.

Activity

The bot turns inactive when:

• All pages in the wiki has been cleaned

This may not be the case, as there are 24,936 pages in the wiki, and only about 1/20 of the pages have been processed. The bot also turns inactive when:

• The owner leaves the wiki
• There are no more general fixes only on the wiki
• User request

Note:

Inactive not to be confused with Off. Inactive is when the bot shutdowns, and Off means when the bot is not editing.

Task

This bot cleans up the wiki, and also detects typos. For example, I am the the cat would be turned into I am the cat. Wiki links get shortened considerably to reduce bytes. [[Sprite|sprite]] turns into [[sprite]]. Multiple Wiki Links get removed. Multiple Wiki Links are words in articles that get linked to a same page again. An instance of this is if a page has the word "Scratcher" in it two times, and are both linked to the same article. This bot will remove other any links after the first instance of the linked word. The bot will not, however, remove Multiple Wiki Links if:

• One link is in an info box, and the other is in the main article
• One link is in the main article, and the other is in the "See Also" section

Some other task this bot executes are:

• Detects ambiguous citation dates
• Detects Disambiguation tags with ref tags
• Checks the order of sections
• Detects pages with no category
• Finds headers with wikilinks
• Finds invalid citation parameters
• Finds links with double pipes (||)
• Finds links with no target
• Checks page word count with stub tags in them
• Finds pages that start with headings
• Finds unbalanced brackets
• Finds unclosed tags
• Finds unformatted references
• Unicodes whole pages
• Find and replaces words
• Auto tags a page with appropriate tags (stub)
• Append or prepend text

Note:

Dead link removal has been removed due to technical limitations.

Modes

This bot works in six main modes:

• typo fixing only
• general wiki clean-up only
• removing multiple wiki links only
• typo fixing and general wiki clean-up
• typo fixing and multiple wiki link removal
• general wiki clean-up and multiple wiki links removal

There are two rarely used modes:

• Unicoding entire pages
• Finding and replacing words in an article

(or used as combinations)

Manual Modes

This bot can give information about the scratch wiki. If anyone comments on the bot's User Based Bot Function page, the bot will reply to you on the same page. Just ask a question!

Note:

The page is looked at periodically. Then, a request is made to comment on the user's talk page. Thus, there will be a delay, sometimes long, before a reply is made.

Edit Steps

The bot links words to pages by (assuming n is the word you want to link):

1. Find all pages on the wiki with the word n on it
2. Extract pages with #REDIRECT on them
3. Extract the namespaces "User", "File", "Template"
4. Extract page n itself
5. Fix links that link to redirects of n (Preliminary Stage)
6. Extract pages that already have words linked to n already (by [[n]], [[n|ns]])
7. Link the first instance of n that is not in {{ }}, or in [[ ]] (Principal Stage)

The bot removes links to redirects by:

1. Creates a replacement for the redirect (for example, [[Sixty-Second Rule|60 Second Rule]] turns into [[Sixty-Second Rule]], but [[Scratcher|User]] turns into [[Scratcher|User]] (notice how it is case sensitive)
2. Lists all pages that link to the redirect
3. Fixes link using the replacement

Hiding edits from the bot

If you need to hide the edits of the bot, change the settings from the Recent Changes, from "Show Bots" to "Hide Bots". Bots hidden from sight in recent changes. This bot makes a page-full of edits a day. Hiding bot edits is strongly recommended. However, by default, bot edits are hidden. If seen in the recent changes tab, chances are that bot edits are being shown. Use the link above to hide bot edits.

Note:

Bot edits are hidden, by default.

Creation

The creation of VoxBot was very spontaneous, it started out with zero knowledge of making a bot, until blob8108 showed him his MediaWiki API client, which was how the creation process started. Although I (User:KrIsMa) wrote the scripts used in the bot, I used blob8108's API as a reference. Therefore, I give him lots of credits in the making of this bot.

Thought process

It took me a long time to think of that a bot on this wiki should do. I was flipping back and forth around two ideas, general wiki cleanup, or signing unsigned comments. Finally, I thought of one idea, general wiki cleanup. I thought that I could make it so it would look through all the pages, and find errors, like Multiple Wiki Links, which I always see. I scripted some of the bot, and finally made something I like. The first bot test was made by my main account.

Testing

Testing was mainly done on my main account. The first bot edit here changed all a characters to b, and d characters to e. It passed. After that, lots more sections of the bot were tested. It consisted of testing all the main functions of the bot, from unicoding to more popular edit modes, like typo fixing. All of the areas passed. Some areas passed conditionally, and most are only used for reference. More information on the testing areas can be found in the wiki table on the top of the page.

Note:

Testing passed. However, the bot may change slightly and do undesired edits. Turn off the bot, in that case.

Known Bugs

Description:

Edit Summary links to red links

Status: Resolved

Solution:

Description:

Random pages not working

Status: Resolved

Solution:

Note:

Bugged functions are turned off. If bug functions turn on, stop the bot.