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: Rich Farmbrough

Automatic or Manually assisted: Automatic

Programming language(s): AWB

Source code available: AWB

Function overview: replace start dates and end dates in certain templates with ((Start date)) and ((End date))

Edit period(s): One time run, in sections for different templates , with possible tidy up runs in future

Estimated number of pages affected: 120,000

Exclusion compliant (Y/N): Y

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

Function details: Bot will replace start date and end dates with templates that emit the microformat data. This is similar to the Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot XII List of known templates affected can be found here.

Discussion[edit]

• Support This is a long-standing request, by me, in order to activate the hCalendar microformats embedded within various templates. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:51, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment With this many pages to be impacted, is there a community discussion about this? I'm not sure I understand the significance of the change, but I don't think that's as important as there being community support for this. SmackBot's operator appears to be generally responsive to discussing bot operation with the community, so I don't see any real concerns, other than knowing that this is a community-driven task. --68.127.233.138 (talk) 05:08, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • There is already community consensus to add microformats to infoboxes, with the number of instances around seven figures (for hCard, hProduct and hCalendar - for the latter, to which this job applies, see Category:Templates generating hCalendars). This bot job is simply speeding up the final tenth part of the change, without which the already-added microformats are incomplete. There is no visual difference, and the template implemented are already very widely used. As Rich says, this is similar to the Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/SmackBot XII, which was speedily approved, then executed without dissent. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 11:19, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
•  Approved. – Looks good to me. Experienced bot operator, this task doesn't affect how the articles appear to the readers and does make the articles more useful, and consensus has existed for some time. — madman bum and angel 19:03, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]