Chabadpedia:Bots

Here's the English translation of the provided Hebrew text:

Template:Bot/Start The bot program on Chabadpedia assists in performing maintenance operations that require changes to many pages on Chabadpedia by replacing text, thereby creating uniformity in the writing style of the articles for the reader's convenience.

The operation of a bot can be done by users with bot permissions and does not necessarily require programming knowledge. It is possible to run a bot written by the bot operator or an existing bot for general needs.

Guidelines for Operating a Bot

Before writing a replacement, it should be checked if it is useful at all, as sometimes it is better to perform the action manually. In addition, there is no reason to overload the server with edits that do not bring real benefit to the reader and unnecessarily fill the previous versions of the pages. The bot must be harmless - if the bot damaged the content of articles, it would have been better if it had not operated at all. A bot account will be a separate account from the main account and intended for this purpose only. In this account, it will place the template <nowiki>Template:Bot</nowiki>, which will serve as an emergency stop if necessary. For the operation of a bot for a new purpose, one should first consult the discussion board.

Attention

Before operating a bot, the following advantages and disadvantages should be examined:

Advantages:

A convenient and fast way to enter information from an existing database into Chabadpedia in a uniform template. Ability to perform large-scale technical corrections in a short time. :Disadvantages: A bot lacks the discretion of a human editor. In tasks that are not well-defined or require judgment, manual or semi-automatic editing should be preferred. Articles created by a bot will be fixed and will include only dry data. An incorrect replacement can damage a very large number of articles before it is detected and stopped.

Hiding Bot Activity on the Recent Changes Page

Many times, a bot makes changes to many articles, which fill a significant part of the recent changes page. To focus on human edits, it is possible to request the hiding of bot edits on the recent changes page and the watchlist (but be careful, because if a human edit preceded the bot edit, it will not be displayed).

External Links

Instructions for using the Replace Text extension on MediaWiki