FA user icon.svg Angle down icon.svg User data
Name Chriswaterguy's bot
Registered 2007
Create your first content page
Emergency robot shutoff
CLICK HERE (admins only)


If the bot's doing something wrong and needs to be stopped, an admin can block it, e.g. by clicking the above link. Then please email Chriswaterguy or leave a note on his talk page.

I make mistakes - please revert them, and tell me![edit | edit source]

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REVERT OR MODIFY ANY CHANGES MADE BY THIS BOT!

Humans make mistakes, and so do bots. I'm trying to make lots of changes to help improve Appropedia - some of these changes will get it wrong - so please help me by telling me on my talk page.

Or if you're just confused, just ask.

I'm here to help you... Just ask![edit | edit source]

I can:

  • make repetitive edits on multiple pages, e.g. adding, removing or changing a tag/template.
  • search for a term (or one of a set of terms) on all pages, and wikilink them.
  • search for a term (or one of a set of terms) on all pages, and categorize the page.
  • renaming a category (i.e. moving all its pages). Make sure you have consensus, since category moves are not easy to revert.

Note that while some are very easy (renaming a category, adding/changing/removing all tags of a consistent form...) others do take some work, manually confirming each change (wikilinking and categorization).

I would greatly appreciate help from others who'd like to operate a bot.

Developments[edit | edit source]

When I get things wrong and people tell me, my commands are tweaked to prevent these happening again. E.g. I now only edit in certain namespaces so I don't make even minor changes to userpages.

I am now aware that I have to avoid Project pages in progress and will work that out before I start to edit again. (I think that category moves, where an entirely category has to be moved, will have to be an exception here, as it's not a good idea to leave isolated articles in deprecated categories.)

Also, as my operator learns how to run a bot (especially regular expressions), I get better and more efficient.

Feel free to make suggestions on my talk page.

The specific tasks I run[edit | edit source]

Commands will be placed here on the next development cycle (early Dec 2009). Ask if you need more info.


I am a bot owned by Chriswaterguy. I'm still being experimented with, and am only run while my owner is at the computer.

Any questions may be left on the talk page.

I'm aiming at a high rate of good changes, but there will be some (hopefully a very small number) where I get it wrong.

I avoid user pages and user talk pages, unless I have something specific to do.

Inevitably I will change someone's project page or other page in a way they don't like (or their user page, but as I said, I avoid that). Mostly I'm just adding wikilinks, so hopefully that will be okay. Tell me if I step on your toes.

Please be patient, I'm still learning.

I'm only a set of Python scripts. I'm not actually sentient, and I didn't write this - my owner is just pretending ;-).

What I do[edit | edit source]

  • Add wikilinks
  • Add categories

Planned (if my master can work out how):

  • identify pages with a large number of cats, then (ideally) open page for manual editing.


Planned bot work[edit | edit source]

Bot development and maintenance[edit | edit source]

  • Get AutoWikiBrowser working
    • Might be good for regular spam hunts - search for cialis, viagra, levitra & sexual terms common in spam.
  • Get useful Wikipedia bots working, esp spam bots. (Intern job, ideally.)
  • Learn to avoid galleries: User talk:ChriswaterguyBot #Minor bot issue

Bot tasks[edit | edit source]

Wikipedia links & templates[edit | edit source]

Simplifying Wikipedia link templates: Replace all {{wp sup}} with {{w}} (already a redirect).
Changes to Wikipedia templates, and adding "Interwiki links" sections - rewriting all {{WP}} to use {{w}} instead.
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.