Frequently Asked Questions

This small guide is intended to clarify the behavior of pywikipedia bots.

In this guide, it is assumed that the bot has modified a page xx:PageX, and you want to know the reason of this edit.

Please, look for the case you find more suitable.

Can you navigate the interwiki links from xx:PageX and after following successive links reach a different page xx:PageX2 in the same language? If this is the case, see #Interwiki conflicts.

Did it remove an interwiki link between xx:PageX and yy:PageY?
- Is xx:PageX or yy:PageY a disambiguation page? If this is the case, see #Disambiguation pages
- Is xx:PageX in and different namespace from yy:PageY (e.g. xx:News and yy:Portal:News)? If this is the case, see #Different namespaces
- Is yy:PageY empty, deleted, or it was during the bot's execution? If this is the case, see #Empty pages

Did it add an interwiki link between xx:PageX and yy:PageY? Is there any other page, for example zz:PageZ, linking to xx:PageX? If this is the case, see #Links from other languages

Did it revert an edit at xx:PageX? Is xx:PageX a page modified very often (several times per hour) or too large (it shows a warning because of the size)? If this is the case, see #Concurrent edits

Any other case, see #Contact the operator

Interwiki conflicts

An interwiki conflict is produced when it is possible to reach a page by only using interwiki links starting from a different page in the same wiki.

For example,

en:Sombrero links to es:Sombrero

es:Sombrero links to en:Hat

In this case, it is possible to start in en:Sombrero and use interwiki links to get to en:Hat, which is different from en:Sombrero.

To solve this conflict we need to remove the interwiki link from en:Sombrero to es:Sombrero, because the first one refers to a particular case of the second one. The interwiki link from es:Sombrero to en:Hat is correct because they refer to the same topic.

Unlike common updates, solving interwiki conflicts usually requires manual execution and depends on the operator's expertise. If you think that a bot has made a wrong edit while fixing an interwiki conflict, please see #Contact the operator.

Disambiguation pages

Disambiguation pages are not articles themselves. They are pages of the form:

pagename may refer to:

article 1
article 2

...

For example,

en:Mercury (disambiguation) could contain a list like the following:

Let us see an example. Let us suppose that xx and zz are languages spoken by small communities with almost no speakers in common.

Some editor adds this interwiki link:

xx:Ethanol links to yy:Alcohol (disambiguation)

Another editor adds:

zz:Methanol links to yy:Alcohol (disambiguation)

If a bot unifies articles with disambiguation pages, the result is:

xx:Ethanol links to zz:Methanol

Thus, someone speaking xx in a country speaking zz could think that something is Ethanol when actually is Methanol.

Please note that an article xx:PageX with an interwiki link to a disambiguation page yy:PageY would be wrong.

The right interwiki link would probably be one of the articles referred from yy:PageY.

The same happens if xx:PageX is a disambiguation and yy:PageY is an article.

It could happen that xx:PageX and yy:PageY are apparently disambiguation pages, but one is interpreted as a common article. This happens when the template used for marking a disambiguation page is not declared in MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage, either at xx or at yy .

Different namespaces

Namespaces are used to distinguish the encyclopedia itself from pages for other uses. For example, the pages:

en:Bots (main namespace)
en:Talk:Bots (main talk namespace)
en:Wikipedia:Bots (redirect at Wikipedia namespace)
en:Wikipedia talk:Bots (redirect at Wikipedia talk namespace)
en:Category:Bots (category namespace)
en:Template:Bots (template namespace)
en:Template talk:Bots (template talk namespace)

are all pages with the same page name "Bots" but different namespace.

Please note that in the general case, a page linking to different namespace would be wrong.

In some cases, different namespaces from different languages are used with the same purpose. If the bot has removed an interwiki link between equivalent pages (e.g., xx:News and yy:Portal:News), please see #Contact the operator.

Empty pages

Empty pages are pages without any content. In practice, empty pages are processed as deleted pages, and the links pointing to them are removed.

Please, note that interwiki links to empty or deleted pages are wrong.

Links from other languages

If no interwiki conflict is found, the bot processes all the interwiki links from all the referred pages. That means that it is enough that one interwiki link from yy:PageY links to xx:PageX for adding an interwiki link to xx:PageX in all the set.

Let us see an example:

x1:PageX1 links to

[[x2:PageX2]],

[[x3:PageX3]]

x2:PageX2 links to

[[x1:PageX1]]

x3:PageX3 does not link to anyone

If the bot runs on x2:PageX2, it adds:

at x2:PageX2 a link to x3:PageX3

at x3:PageX3 a link to x1:PageX1

at x3:PageX3 a link to x2:PageX2.

Please note that every wrong interwiki link must be removed from all the other pages.

Concurrent edits

From the moment that the bot starts its operation to the moment when it effectively makes the edit, there is a small gap. If someone makes an edit during this gap, the bot will ignore this edit, because it did not have this information when it started the operation. The effect is seen as a revert, that is, the bot seems to be reverting someone's edit.

Even this problem is quite uncommon, it could be found in some very active or very large pages.

Contact the operator

If the particular case does not fit on any of the previous cases, or you find the explanation incomplete, please contact the bot's operator, quoting the diff where the edit was made.

Thank you very much.

Usator:Synthebot/faq