This page contains details for a trial of "Cosmetic Bot Day", following an
RFC on the matter. The exact date for the trial is yet to be determined, but will likely be in early 2021.
Each bot will have a two-step approval process.
A regular
WP:BRFA (see the
approval process if you are unfamiliar with it), in which a technical review will occur (e.g. limited bot trial) as well as a preliminary check on whether or not the task is a good idea.
A larger trial during COSDAY itself. The exact terms of this trial is still under deliberation.
Following the COSDAY trial, there will be a period for comments during which the community can examine the results and decide how it wants to proceed.
WP:BOTREQUIRE and everything in
WP:BOTPOL still apply. The only thing that's different is that the restrictions from
WP:COSMETICBOT have been slightly been relaxed to allow for
mainly-cosmetic/cosmetic-only tasks to be done on COSDAY. In particular, for a bot to be approved, its operator should still demonstrate that it:
uses informative messages, appropriately worded, in any edit summaries or messages left for users
In practice that means
Filing a
WP:BRFA for new tasks and make a case for why the task meets the
threshold of usefulness. Then list the page
below in the New tasks subsection.
If you want a COSDAY trial of an existing cosmetic task from an already-approved BRFAs, then list the page
below in the Existing tasks subsection.
During their trial, edit summaries should specifically link to both the relevant BRFA and this Cosmetic Bot Day page (e.g. [[WP:Bots/Requests for approval/ExampleBot 1|ExampleBot 1]]: Standardizing [[Template:Foobar]] during [[WP:COSDAY|Cosmetic Bot Day]])
Dealing with COSDAY
If you find your watchlist explode on COSDAY, a few options exist for you to minimize disruption.
WP:HIDEBOTS – You can customize your watchlist to hide all bot edits, or to hide only those of specific bots. Hiding specific bots require a
WP:USERSCRIPT to be installed.
If you have comments on something, several options exist.
If a specific bot made a mistake, comment in the relevant BRFA if it is still open. If the BRFA is closed, follow
WP:BOTISSUE and contact the bot operator (normally on the bot's talk page).