User:Shadowbot/FAQ
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[edit] The Shadowbot FAQ
1. What is Shadowbot?
- Shadowbot is an automated program which tries to remove spam links inserted into Wikipedia. It is written in Perl, and its developer is Shadow1.
2. How does it work?
- Shadowbot listens to output from Linkwatcher, an IRC bot written by Eagle 101, which scans the Recent changes log for links. If a link matches a rule in a built-in blacklist, it sends the edit to Shadowbot for reversion and such.
3. Has it ever screwed up?
- Yes it has. But, as with all computer programs, it isn't perfect. If it accidentally reverts you, simply revert it. Shadowbot should realize that it's already reverted you on that article and not remove your changes.
4. What do I do if it does screw up?
- Please leave a message on either Shadow1's talk page or Shadowbot's talk page, leaving a link to the diff where the bot reverted. Shadow1 should get in contact with you soon to try to sort out the issue.
- Also, simply revert the reversion. Shadowbot is, by default, programmed to not revert you twice, and should leave you alone. However, persistent spammers may cause Shadow1 to put Shadowbot into angry mode, where it will revert as many times as necessary.
5. This thing sounds cool! How can I help?
- Well, for starters, join the #wikipedia-en-spam and #wikipedia-spam-t channels on Freenode. There, you can suggest new blacklist rules, help Shadow1 and Eagle 101 with bot development, and help revert spam!
6. Why does Shadowbot screw up in the first place?
- Mostly because of anti-vandalism efforts that accidentally re-insert spam links, but also due to incorrectly-written regex rules. That, and Shadow1 isn't the best Perl programmer in existence.
7. What sort of links are reverted by Shadowbot?
- A full list of links that Shadowbot will revert can be found at User:Shadowbot/Blacklist.
8. Technical specs?
- Shadowbot is written in Perl and uses modified code from perlwikipedia to edit and retrieve information from Wikipedia. It uses the Net::IRC module to communicate with Freenode. It uses MySQL for its database. Alternatively, you can view its source code here.
