User talk:Crazycomputers/WatchlistBot

Report a bug If you've noticed errant behavior from WatchlistBot, please use the following form to create a template bug report. Describe in detail the behavior you witnessed and what you expected to happen instead. If possible, include the commit identifier for the version of the bot you are using. Use the "about" command or the web interface to obtain this identifier.

Request a feature I'm always looking for ways to improve WatchlistBot. Use the following form to create a template feature request, and then describe the feature you would like added. Note that I cannot implement every suggestion, but I will give full consideration to each request.

Wiktionary pages starting with a lower-case letter cannot be watched

 Resolved

WLB currently capitalizes the first letter of every article name, even on Wiktionary. This makes it impossible to watch an article on Wiktionary when it begins with a lower-case letter. --Chris (talk) 21:24, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Can Watchlistbot watch several projects or languages at once?

Resolved

I see there are variables that can be set to change the language and project in Watchlistbot. My question is whether I can watch different projects with the same account? Right now I want to watch some users on Commons, but I don't know if Watchlistbot is capable of this bifurcated sensing or if I have to select one set of variables and go with it. Elizium23 (talk) 08:34, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, you absolutely can watch pages on multiple projects. The variables only affect your default project -- that is, when you tell the bot "watch article Foo" it will assign that watchlist entry the project and language in your variables. Changing your variables will not affect any articles you are currently watching, it will only affect how the bot handles unqualified names that you enter from then on.

To qualify a name and thereby override the variables, specify the language and wiki in curly braces immediately before the article/user/network. For example, "watch article {simple.wikipedia}Foo" will watch the Foo article on Simple Wikipedia. Commons is a bit special in that there are no languages, so its prefix is "{commons.wikimedia}".

The bot will give you an error if you try to watch an article on a project that doesn't exist, so if your command works you can be sure that the bot will report changes. Note that when you list one of your watchlists ("list articles" for example) it will display the language and project for each entry.

Let me know if you need any more information on this feature. --Chris (talk) 19:04, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Timed watchlist entries

ω Awaiting consideration

As per IRC, I suggest if possible to have the ability to set a time after which a watchlist entry expires and is automatically removed. Very useful with user entries, where you want to keep track of it for maybe 2-3 hours or maybe 6, but not forever. Snowolf ^{How can I help?}

Recording time when adding an item

 Resolved: This information is now tracked and displayed from the web interface only. --Chris (talk) 16:24, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

It would be nice to have the bot write the time of when a page/user was watchlisted, data would be then displayed thru the web interface. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 03:41, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Shortcuts

 Resolved: list/watch/unwatch all now allow partial specification of the second parameter. --Chris (talk) 19:16, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I suggest having some one-letter aliases for the most common commands, it would really help me immensely. I propose something on these lines

l    list
w    watch
w u  watch user
w a  watch article
u    unwatch
u u  unwatch user
u a  unwatch article

It would really help a looooot. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 04:03, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

For the commands themselves (list, watch, unwatch) you only need to specify enough of the command to make it unique from other commands. So "l" will already work for list, since no other command starts with "l". "wa" will work for watch since no other command starts with "wa", etc.

For the arguments to watch/unwatch, I will consider adding a similar completion feature. --Chris (talk) 21:08, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

How to stop a wiki stalker

I believe that I am being stalked by someone on Wikipedia via the use of your bot. This is extremely irritating and is also very stange and weird behavior on the part of this person. What can be done? Albert14nx05y (talk) 10:18, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't think anyone is using my bot to stalk you...

watchlistbot=# select * from watchlist_editor where editor = 'Albert14nx05y';
 user | language | project | editor | comment | date_added_str | enabled
------+----------+---------+--------+---------+----------------+---------
(0 rows)

--Chris (talk) 23:38, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

502 Bad Gateway error from nginx

 Resolved

Whenever I try to access the web interface, I get a 502 Bad Gateway error from nginx. —Darkwind (talk) 07:19, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

The web worker process died and I didn't notice. :( I've restarted it, everything should be good now. Thanks for the report. --Chris (talk) 20:16, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Happened again. Same error. —Darkwind (talk) 07:03, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

@Crazycomputers: Still down. —Darkwind (talk) 22:45, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Should be back up. There's a configuration issue that keeps it from automatically starting when the server reboots. --Chris (talk) 14:39, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Happened again. alreedy noted here. --Elvey^(t•c) 14:21, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Do entries expire?

Do added entries expire at some point? I've noticed articles I've added in the past have dropped off the list. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 22:17, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

No, entries should not expire. There has been a feature request to add an expiry date, but this is not currently implemented. Nothing should be removed from your lists unless you explicitly request it. --Chris (talk) 20:22, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Hmm... Right now there's only two articles on my watchlist and one of those I just re-added after it disappeared. I know I had more. Would it help if I kept track and alerted you if an entry disappears again? --NeilN ^{talk to me} 20:41, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes, that would be helpful. I should be able to look at the logs to see what happened when. --Chris (talk) 04:16, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

No alerts

I've set up a watchlist, but I'm getting no alerts at all. Why might that be? Logs do show changes since I set up the alerts.--Elvey^(t•c) 19:54, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

parsing

I tried setting up a broad alert for testing with "network add 73.162/16" and noticed it's not parsed as one would expect; the result was

The network "73.0.0.162/16" has been added to your en.wikipedia watchlist.

Also, it doesn't seem to be possible to monitor IPv6 ranges.

--Elvey^(t•c) 19:54, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Add template space

ω Awaiting consideration

Hey, any chance you can extend the bot to cover template space? And I can't tell you how much easier this bot makes it to pick up long term abusers. So helpful! --NeilN ^{talk to me} 00:45, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

@NeilN: Sorry it's been years since you posted this and I'm just getting around to this project again. (There is a rewrite underway, by the way!) Can you elaborate on what you mean by "extend the bot to cover template space?" This should already be supported; asking the bot to watch Template:Unsigned would watch {{unsigned}} for example. --Chris (talk) 03:58, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

Watchlist bot seems to be down.

 New:

Found in commit f87a9d76e2d948319c0e50a3d859b3f5bb294a94

Tired sending it a message with both web clients and with desktop clients and it dosnt say anything and shows as offline. LakesideMiners^{Come Talk To Me!} 15:40, 21 December 2021 (UTC)