Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/QEDKbot

QEDKbot

• (BRFA
• Approved BRFAs
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Operator: QEDK (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 17:04, Saturday, February 8, 2020 (UTC)

Function overview: Deleting and nominating empty categories under WP:CSD#C1.

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): Python (mostly Pywikibot and mwAPI)

Source code available: Not yet, will release on GitHub once deployed

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): See Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/AnkitAWB 2, a previous version of this task run using AWB but tagged for deletion instead of deleting. Test runs were succesful, with one out of all nominated categories not being deleted (not due to a bot error). Advertised on WP:AN: WP:AN#Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/QEDKbot

Edit period(s): Twice a day

Estimated number of pages affected: ~90k (<140k) (excludes hiddencats and includes all other categories with 0 members, even category redirects and possibly empty categories)

Namespace(s): Categories

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes

Adminbot (Yes/No): Yes

Function details:
General:

• The bot will go over all categories with no members.
  • If the category does not exist, it will skip the page (this is necessary due to a lag in DB replicas).
    • If it exists, it will check that the category has 0 members.

Tagging:

• If the category is a category redirect, it will check for backlinks.
  • If it has a talkpage and 1 backlink or if it has no talkpage and 0 backlinks, it adds the category Category:Empty categories with no backlinks, which can be assessed for CSD#G6 by other editors. A lot of these cat-redirects of these nature are implausible typos (which if in the article namespace would be eligible for R3) or meant for utility where this is none.
• If the category is tagged with {{Db-c1}}, {{Possibly empty category}}, {{Disambiguation category}} or its redirecting templates, it will skip the page.
• If the category is not any of the above, it will nominate it for deletion under CSD#C1.

Deletion:

• It will check the Category:Empty categories awaiting deletion category.
• If the latest revision is from 7 days ago, and does not meet any above criteria (of being possibly empty or a redirect category), it will delete the page.

If possible, I'd like a split trial where we nominate a fixed number of categories and delete a fixed number of categories.

Discussion

•  Note: This bot appears to have edited since this BRFA was filed. Bots may not edit outside their own or their operator's userspace unless approved or approved for trial. AnomieBOT⚡ 18:40, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
• @QEDK: Does "nominate it for deletion" mean nominate it for WP:CFD? Also note what the bot above me said. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 18:47, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

  @Jo-Jo Eumerus: No, the bot will nominate it for CSD#C1. Apologies for the error above, all reverted now, and logging in userspace only. --qedk (t 桜 c) 18:49, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

• Preliminary testing here: User:QEDKbot/Catlog, looks good to me. Once, the deletion bit is set up, will log that too. --qedk (t 桜 c) 12:19, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
• Category redirects are not eligible for C1. Where is the community approval for this task as required by WP:ADMINBOT? — JJMC89 (T·C) 21:02, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

  @JJMC89: It does not nominate any redirect, disambiguation, CSD-nominated or non-empty category for deletion - only sorts them into a tracking category and nominates the rest for deletion which would meet C1. --qedk (t 桜 c) 21:14, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

  Either way, posted to AN. --qedk (t 桜 c) 21:20, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

  I know it doesn't, but you say the purpose of the tracking category is for assess[ment] for CSD#C1 by other editors. Assessment for C1 isn't needed since they are never eligible for C1. — JJMC89 (T·C) 21:33, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

  @JJMC89: All category redirects aren't useful and can be deleted under G6 (if not C1), that's also what the {{Category redirect}} template says. --qedk (t 桜 c) 21:39, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

  Assessment of category redirects should be done through WP:RFD, like all redirects. If there is a consensus that G6 can be applied to delete category redirects, please post a link to the discussion. C1 does not apply as category redirects are not categories, empty or otherwise. WP:G8 can apply if the target has been deleted. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 16:24, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  I'm unsure what you're talking about, category redirects are categories, even if they are soft redirects to other categories. Assessment of all pages in the category namespace are done through WP:CFD, this is also evidenced from a lot of these category redirects which have backlinks to CFD (none to RFD afaik), where they were discussed and redirected in lieu of deletion. WP:CATRED is a subsection of CfD. --qedk (t 桜 c) 16:36, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  Also, regarding the last bot run for categories, a lot of them were deleted under C1 or G6. G6 applies for all technical deletions or uncontroversial maintanence tasks, thus including deleting category redirects that are not useful. --qedk (t 桜 c) 16:40, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  Well, they do come up at WP:RFD from time to time. Probably getting off-topic to your bot now, but (IMO) G6 shouldn't be used where another criterion applies. "Category redirects that are not useful" seems like a subjective criterion to me (who determines they're not useful?) but a redirect that points to a deleted page already qualifies for G8 deletion, that's what I meant. More specifically, a redirect that points at an empty category would be deleted (G8) when the category is deleted (C1), so determining the redirect's utility is a moot point. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 17:36, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  Well, it would still be administrator discretion, the bot does not delete or tag for CSD, any category redirects, it is true that there's multiple routes it could go to. --qedk (t 桜 c) 19:19, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

• I am aware of many maintenance categories which are tagged as such but not as {{empty category}} (in fact, one of which I removed from a page recently at [1]), as the already-provided category templates communicate mostly duplicate information. --Izno (talk) 04:15, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  From preliminary testing, such categories are mostly not empty and should otherwise be eligible under C1? --qedk (t 桜 c) 05:48, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

• I didn't see it from the task list you posted at AN, but will your bot disregard maintenance categories that are intended to be empty? Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 16:24, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  @Ivanvector: As far as I am aware, maintanence categories that can be empty at a given time are tagged with {{Possibly empty category}}, so the bot will skip all of them. --qedk (t 桜 c) 16:30, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  Perfect. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 17:36, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

• Question: what will happen when an editor adds an article to the category after the category has been added to Category:Empty categories awaiting deletion? Marcocapelle (talk) 22:53, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

  @Marcocapelle: Even after the list is fetched via the API, the bot performs two checks for each category: 1) "does the page exist?" 2) "does the category have no members?", failing either of which, the bot simply skips doing any action on the page. --qedk (t 桜 c) 07:57, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

• Ok thanks. Then I have no objection. Marcocapelle (talk) 17:40, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

• See User:QEDKbot/Deletion catlog for an overview of the other function. --qedk (t 桜 c) 19:28, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

• I'm currently the admin who deals with empty categories the most frequently (that is, every day) and UnitedStatesian is the primary editor who tags empty categories for deletion. The current system works fine and it's unclear to me how this bot would assist the daily work that we do. I don't see what problem this is solving. Does this bot conflict with BernsteinBot that is run by MZMcBride that we currently rely on? I don't know why MZMcBride is not included in this discussion or any of the editors and admins who work with categories, especially empty categories.

The primary problem we currently have is maintenance categories (normally categories organized by day) that do not appear on the Empty Category list because they are now excluded. This was a decision made by MZMcBride that I don't agree with but without this exclusion, empty categories for future dates were appearing on the list. Now, it is much more time-consuming for me and other admins to go through these maintenance categories, category by category, looking for empty categories from days that have passed. In general, we have a problem with categories tagged G6 that don't appear in deletion categories. This has been brought up on the Technical Village Pump multiple times and we've been told that WMF has been working on this issue for years but it is a low priority. if you could resolve this problem, your bot would be a welcome addition. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 04:08, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

• @Liz: The bot does not even edit in the same namespace as BernsteinBot, so I doubt a conflict would occur (unsure what kind of conflict you're referring to, I'm guessing the kind where they edit in the same areas)? BernsteinBot pulls a very specific set of empty categories for database reports, mine does not, it pulls all categories which have no members, checks if they exist and have no members and filters them in if they do not have any backlinks. Now, coming to deletion, the bot automatically determines when the cats were included and filters them out if they do not meet C1 criteria, that bot also automatically detects if the category meets the said C1 criteria and deletes them after an appropriate amount of time passes, every aspect is automated. This bot does not use database reports, but rather fetches all categories with 0 members via the API, this includes the maintanence categories you stated above, however if said maintanence categories are tagged with {{Pec}}, it will skip it, since that bot cannot determine if it should be a maintanence category that should exist. Now, coming to the final aspect, there is a new tracking category which is Category:Empty categories with no backlinks, this category is basically to track categories that basically have no utility and now editors can choose to trawl through them and identify categories no longer needed and tag/delete them. --qedk (t 桜 c) 10:15, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

• @Maxim: Could you reflag this bot for purposes of testing (and because I don't want to flood RecentChanges), I requested a self-removal (with no issues), so I hope it's not an issue now. But, just for the sake of confirmation, this bot will only edit in its own userspace, so you needn't be worried about fallout. --qedk (t 桜 c) 10:22, 14 February 2020 (UTC)