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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.

Taxobot 3

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Operator: Smith609 (talk · contribs)

Automatic or Manually assisted: Manually supervised by users

Programming language(s): PHP

Source code available: Will be available at Google Code, which currently hosts code for existing task (WP:BRFA#Taxobot 2).

Function overview: This function will help editors who wish to replace an existing {{taxobox}} with an {{automatic taxobox}} (see below).

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Template_talk:Taxobox#Usability. Note that this task will only be performed in cases where, at the editor's discretion, an automatic taxobox is beneficial.

Edit period(s): When explicitly triggered by an editor.

Estimated number of pages affected: One page per user activation.

Exclusion compliant (Y/N): Yes

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): No; approval subject to approval of Task 2.

Function details:

Template:Automatic taxobox is a template that removes the clutter from Template:Taxobox, automatically generating taxonomic information based on a series of templates that are invisible to the user, and will be generated by Taxobot if Task 2 is approved.

In some cases, it is already desirable to upgrade to an automatic taxobox. At present, this must be done by hand, which makes it easy to introduce mistakes.

If a user decides that the {{automatic taxobox}} template is appropriate for a page, the bot will present the user with a side-by-side comparison of the wikicode and output of the existing taxobox and the proposed replacement.

The bot will generate the replacement by removing redundant parameters (e.g. |phylum=) from the existing taxobox; re-naming other parameters (e.g. |genus_authority= → |authority=); and retaining others (e.g. |image=). It will also suggest improvements (e.g. by using the {{geological range}} template in the |fossil_range= parameter, if possible). The generated wikicode can be amended by the user, and the results previewed.

Once the editor has verified the results, the bot will replace the existing taxobox with the approved automatic taxobox.

The user will be asked to provide their username, which will be displayed in the bot's edit summary; only valid usernames will be allowed to use the tool. (This system works well at User:Citation bot and has been proposed in the other bot task request.)

I propose that during the initial testing period, only I (Smith609 (talk · contribs)) am authorised to activate the bot. Once the bot is operating as I expect, I suggest allowing other users to use the bot, with the output being scrutinized by myself (and the BRFA team?) during the trial period. During the trial period, this task will only operate on organisms for which an automatically-generated taxonomy already exists.

Discussion

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Approved for trial (20 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete.. Okay, let's see whether this is a pracitcal implementation; as you request, just yourself please at this moment in time :) – Jarry1250 [Who? Discuss.] 17:34, 16 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I'll get testing as soon as I'm free. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 05:52, 20 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Preliminary testing has begun. Comments welcome! Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 01:22, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Looks good so far; I'd like to voice a preference, however, that the bot ONLY applies taxonomies to taxa where the taxonomy templates have already been created by an editor. This will prevent the accidental complications of erratic, outdated, or simplified automatic taxonomy creation. Bob the Wikipedian (talk • contribs) 04:36, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Absolutely; that's all that the bot will do at this point. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 04:44, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • It makes sense, whilst the bot is at it, to perform a little basic tidyup; it thus converts pages to use Template:Fossil range where possible (it has an error-cathcher built in so that if the fossil range template generates an error, it won't be converted; here's an example); uses Template:Species list where conversion is straightforward; and adds missing authority information from the Global Names Database (example; see Patterson, D. J.; Cooper, J.; Kirk, P. M.; Pyle, R. L.; Remsen, D. P. (2010). "Names are key to the big new biology". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 25 (12): 686. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2010.09.004. / API). Since these are all associated with automating the taxobox they seem to fall within the scope of this task; I thought it best to mention them so that they don't slip under the radar. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 05:09, 26 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Trial complete. View 20 trial edits. The bot currently checks the parsed output of the taxobox template and only makes an edit if there's a 100% match in the HTML (with some permissiveness; e.g. if a link points to a different target). This should make it impossible for the bot to cause damage. I'll look at relaxing the match once consensus emerges as to whether the template should be rolled out more broadly. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 01:01, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Impressive! Biased approve. Bob the Wikipedian (talk • contribs) 03:13, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{BAGAssistanceNeeded}}

The output looks good and the edits are user-triggered, so there aren't any issues I see. The actual few comments on whether this should or should not be done at all is a little irrelevant as this is editor-triggered tool. By the same way editors could do this manually, just a lot more cumbersome. Anyway,  Approved. (Mandatory disclaimer: if in the future the community finds it unnecessary to do this, then obviously the approval is suspended.)

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.
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