Bot policy/Implementation

The standard bot policy greatly simplifies and streamlines requests for bot status by creating an automatic process for the approval of bots requiring hundreds of accounts. On wikis that implement the procedure, it is no longer necessary to hold a community election for certain specific bot tasks, if the bot is already approved for that task on a number of wikis. Instead, the bot owner needs only to perform a test run with their bot on each wiki before asking stewards to set the bot flag.

However, the policy must be individually proposed and implemented on every wiki before it can be applied. This is a task easily done by mass-account bot operators, who are already copy and pasting the proposal message for their bot. Doing so greatly simplifies the process for other bot operators, and for themselves should they ever choose to run a separate bot for a different task.

Applies to new content wikis only which have been created after November 12, 2022 (see RFC). All other contents wikis created before that date need to go through the whole proposal procedure below.

On the local bot status request page (or a community discussion page if that doesn't exist), propose the policy with the following text:

If there is no objection after two weeks, follow the steps below.

• Check prerequisites:
  1. Ensure the proposal was placed on a prominent community discussion page; if not, move it to one and wait another two weeks. On small wikis, this is usually Project:Community_Portal, linked to in the sidebar. User talk pages or new pages do not qualify. (Talk:Main_Page usually doesn't qualify, unless it is linked to as explained in the next step.)
  2. Ensure the community discussion page and bot request page are easy to find. Add a link from Talk:Main_Page and Project:Community_Portal, like this:
     * '''en:''' This is the discussion page for "[[Main Page]]"; see also [[Project:Community Portal|community discussion]].
  3. Add a redirect from Project:Bot_policy on that wiki to the bot request page. The local request page should be the same page as community discussion, unless otherwise desired by the local community.
• Implement:
  1. Add the following line at the top of the local request page (if there are no active local bureaucrats):
     * '''en:''' Requests for the [[m:bot|bot]] flag should be made on this page. This wiki uses the [[m:bot policy|standard bot policy]], and allows [[m:bot policy#Global_bots|global bots]] and [[m:bot policy#Automatic_approval|automatic approval of certain types of bots]]. Other bots should apply below, and then [[m:Steward requests/Bot status|request access]] from a steward if there is no objection.
     If there are active local bureaucrats, add this instead:
     * '''en:''' Requests for the [[m:bot|bot]] flag should be made on this page. This wiki uses the [[m:bot policy|standard bot policy]], and allows [[m:bot policy#Global_bots|global bots]] and [[m:bot policy#Automatic_approval|automatic approval of certain types of bots]]. Other bots should apply below.
  2. Update the list below, as well as Template:Bot_policy.
  3. As a steward, add the wiki to the Global bots wikiset.
  4. Process local requests if any fit the policy and are ready.

The following wikis have implemented the policy (see Bot policy § Authorisation).

global bots (without policy)

The following wikis have opted in to global bots, but otherwise do not use the bot policy. They are not consulted on changes to the policy.

• als.wikipedia alswikipedia
• ar.wikiquote arwikiquote (policy, [1])
• bg.wikipedia bgwikipedia (policy, [2], allows automatic approval)
• da.wikipedia dawikipedia (policy)
• el.wikipedia elwikipedia (policy)
• en.wikibooks enwikibooks (policy, [3])
• en.wikinews enwikinews (policy, [4])
• en.wikipedia enwikipedia (policy, [5])
• fi.wikipedia fiwikipedia ([6])
• fy.wikibooks fywikibooks (policy)
• fy.wiktionary fywiktionary (policy, [7])
• he.wikipedia hewikipedia ([8])
• hr.wikipedia hrwikipedia (policy, discussion)
• ja.wikipedia jawikipedia ([9])
• la.wikipedia lawikipedia ([10])
• lb.wikipedia lbwikipedia ([11])
• mhr.wikipedia mhrwikipedia (policy, [12])
• ml.wikipedia mlwikipedia ([13])
• ml.wiktionary mlwiktionary ([14])
• ms.wikipedia mswikipedia ([15])
• no.wikipedia nowikipedia ([16])
• ru.wikipedia ruwikipedia ([17])
• sq.wikipedia sqwikipedia ([18])
• ss.wikipedia sswikipedia ([19])
• sv.wikipedia svwikipedia ([20])
• tr.wikipedia trwikipedia (policy)

The following projects have formally rejected the implementation of the global bot policy or opted-out at a later date.

• {{bot policy}}
• Global bots: members | wikis and rights | old log | new log

• Bot policy