User:PleaseStand/PsBot

This user subpage is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
If you want to revive discussion regarding the subject, you might try contacting the user in question or seeking broader input via a forum such as the village pump.

PsBot will be a bot to automatically place the {{talkback}} template on users' talk pages, on behalf of editors who add corresponding, special-purpose templates to the talk pages to be linked to.

Changelog

22:02, 29 March 2010 (UTC): Since originally posting this at the Village Pump, I have thought that perhaps it would be good to repurpose the template name {{

re}} to produce the text "@Example ", imitating Twitter

. This is reflected below along with other changes.

22:22, 30 March 2010 (UTC): The template name {{to}} is probably more intuitive, and has the advantage that it does not even exist at all.

17:59, 31 March 2010 (UTC): Method below updated to reflect this.

20:28, 31 March 2010 (UTC): Talkback is not that much bigger than talkbackiny, and has the advantage that it says how to remove it.

21:18, 31 March 2010 (UTC): Changed how the talkbacks subpage works.

Method

Every five minutes, a queue is filled from Category:User notification pending, added by {{to}} when bot=Y. Once the queue is filled, if the below process is not already running, then it will be started.

The process to handle each page in this category is as follows:

Set a flag, indicating that the queue is being emptied.
Remove the page from the front of the queue.
Check the page for a bot-exclusion tag. Skip the page if the tag excludes this bot (or all).
Locate all transclusions of the above-named templates. For each transclusion in which bot=Y:
1. Check if the username exists on Wikipedia. If not, skip.
2. Check the user's talk page for a bot-exclusion tag. Skip the page if the tag excludes this bot (or all).
  - A redirect at that page would cause the bot to go to the target username instead (e.g. if the account is an alternative account of its operator).
3. Find the section that the transclusion is in. Build a wikilink to that section.
4. Check the emergency shutoff page. To avoid disruption, the page should probably be ".js protected" so that only the bot operator or an administrator can edit it.
5. Post a talkback template on the user's talk page, referring back to the section, but not if there is already an identical one there.
  - If there are ten of these already, the sixth will link to the user talk subpage /Talkbacks, on which further talkback notices will be posted. Of course the bot will check for a bot exclusion template on that page also. Likewise with redirection.
  - The user can override the default, controlling how many talkbacks appear on his main talk page, using a template code. For example, he can set it to zero to avoid being bothered by the "New messages" banner but still receive bot-generated talkbacks.
6. Replace the transclusion with "{{to|Example}}", which will remove the page from the category. Don't actually save the page though until all transclusions have been processed.
If this was the last page in the queue, clear the flag.

Any questions, comments, or concerns?

Post them on the talk page.