The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Approved.

Operator: Lightmouse (talk)

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic

Programming Language(s): AWB or monobook script

Function Summary: Janitorial edits mainly to units and dates.

Edit period(s) (e.g. Continuous, daily, one time run): Continuous

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): Yes

Function Details: The previous approval is at: Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Lightbot. I would like to build on the existing permission and:

• Use automatic running where required - I believe that I have very good quality control for this
• Make it explicit that the categories of date fragments to be delinked includes solitary years.
• Make it explicit that where I say 'units', I will be making formatting changes and adding unit conversions. This is an important task and a higher rate of false positives is, unfortunately, inherent in additions when compared with removals. I will be making a great deal more effort to reduce the rate.

The bot has done over 140,000 edits. I believe that the success rate is very good and the false positive rate very low. I have made many changes in response to feedback. I have learned more about bot running (this being my first) to supplement my existing knowledge of manual and script assisted edits.

Discussion[edit]

Approved for trial (10 edits). Please provide a link to the relevant contributions and/or diffs when the trial is complete. -- Tawker (talk) 18:41, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This bot was recently blocked for making changes to text in quotes and other issues (changing direct titles, etc.). Have these issues been addressed? --MZMcBride (talk) 06:30, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I cannot guarantee a zero false positive rate for that issue but there will be a great reduction in the false positive rate. Lightmouse (talk) 08:19, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Trial complete. Lightmouse (talk) 16:38, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can you do this task (adding non-breaking spaces between numbers and their units) at the same time? It would seem to fit. For instance, in this edit you change...

| dimensions = 70 [[metre|m]]

...to...

| dimensions = 70 m

...but it would be better to change it to...

| dimensions = 70 m

All the best, – Quadell ^(talk) 13:42, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Technically, it should be easy. However, I prefer to see fewer instances of nbsp in the raw text, not more. I know that I am in the minority on this. I hope that declining such a task will not count against the approval Lightbot. Lightmouse (talk) 16:39, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

 Approved. Not a problem. – Quadell ^(talk) 18:43, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.