CZ:Bots

As of September 2009, Citizendium does not have any official policy on running scripts or bots by means of the Python wikipedia robot framework, as explained here, though they have been run on occasion, and more frequently in recent months.

This page is intended to help draft such a policy. Feel free to rearrange or comment as you see fit. For background, see these two discussions in the Citizendium Forum.

Contact during the drafting phase: Daniel Mietchen

The main points the policy should address:

1. we need more than one Citizen to administer this - we all have real-life obligations, but someone who took the time to write a bot script should be able to receive prompt reaction
2. no bot run without bot account (however, we need a clear procedure how to apply for these accounts), though one could think of a solution in which any bot is allowed to be run from a user account if its application has been properly filed but received no opposing reaction within a week
3. one script per bot account (except for some well-defined minor jobs maybe that could be performed by a maintenance bot or even from some user accounts).
4. source code has to be posted on CZ before application for the corresponding bot account.
5. Bots should be run such that they can be undone by an existing bot, the command for which would have to be specified upon application. For scripts, this is probably too much to demand, so they should be limited in scope.
6. the bot approval should include a statement on the traffic volume and scope of the bot.
7. turning user-run bot jobs into cron jobs should be a valid option for well-tested scripts, but this would require involvement of someone who actually has access to the servers.