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Xinbenlv_bot Source Code is a bot operated by m::User:Xinbenlv. It's currently applying for approval to operate in multiple languages. You can find its contributions here Special:CentralAuth/Xinbenlv_bot.


Bot Status

Bot Status of on Each Wikipedia
Language Lang Code Botflag Application Botflag Status Approving Admin Template for Message Number of Notified Number of Fixed Number of Validated
Français FR fr:Application Officially Approved fr:Utilisateur:Litlok Template 3000 109 7
русский RU ru:Application Officially Approved ru:User:Vladimir Solovjev Template 3 0 0
日本語 JA ja:Application Officially Approved jp:User:ぱたごん Template 100 0 0
Deutsche DE de:Application, de:HD:Personendaten Officially Approved de:Benutzer:Septembermorgen Template 60 3 0
中文 ZH zh:Application Approved for Trial zh:User:ShiZhao(trial) Template 100 0 0
Italiano IT it:Application Approved for Trial (default) N/A Template 100 0 0
English EN en:Application Approved for Trial en:Headbomb Template 30 0 0
Español ES es:Application Request temp withdrawn. Approved for Trial es:User:Leoncastro(trial) Template 0 0 0

Task 1: Notifications for Birthday Inconsistency

The first task for this bot is to notify inconsistency of birthdays. It rely on a public available dataset WikiLoop Datasets to obtain inconsistencies of birthdays found on Wikipedia across different local Wikipedia pages.

For example:

Therefore, there are inconsistencies.

The bot then write a notification on the Talk(Discussion) page of the subject, to notify the authors of the page so that they can look up the references and sources to back up the birthdays or fix them

Frequent Asked Questions

Q. Does the bot fix the dates directly? Why or Why not?

No. The bot doesn't edit the page directly. The bot only notifies editor and let human editors decide how to fix the dates. The reason is as bot we only know there are inconsistency. Fixing inconsistency is non-trivial - one should rely on checking sources before making a judgement.

Q. Why are there birthday inconsistencies, which date is correct?

It depends. When there are multiple birthdays on Wikipedia, it can be any of the following cases, or a combination.

  • 0. Reference is not available, so the birthday correctness is unverifiable

Solution: delete the birthday if no reliable source is available.

  • 1. There are editor typos causing the error

Solution: Look up the reference and fix the typo.

  • 2. One or more of the sources are unreliable.

Solution: Remove the unreliable sources and its date

  • 3. Multiple reliable sources disagree with each other.

Solution: This means different people hold different opinions, and according to Neutral Point of Views, Wikipedia should keep and cite all different opinions if backed by reliable sources.

Q. Is XXX language Wikipedia always correct, when contradicting another YYY language Wikipedia?

There are local communities raise their concerns about "Why do we consider XXX(some more active) Wikipedia data correct? Is it just because it comes from XXX Wikipedia so it's more trustworthy than my local language of YYY Wikipedia?" To that question, our position is that we don't assume any particular language Wikipedia are better than any one else. We believe these kind of inconsistencies should be checked by each individual local communities and let them make their own judgement. We just raise the awareness of such problems.

Q. What about if there are many vandal edits, will this trigger to many false positive?

In response to

Our notification is not real time, instead we release daily snapshot. Therefore, if an vandal edit is added and reverted quickly, we will not notify people. Only for those vandal edits that stay over a day (technically cross the time point where we take the daily snapshot), will be notify. Therefore, it's actually a good chance for us to help notify editors for the vandal that was not found and thus stayed for long, b now they can get fixed. Xinbenlv bot (talk) 20:16, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

Q. Should this be put in a maintenance template over the article page, or as a section of the discussion page?

In response to

There are pros and cons for each. The maintenance template is good for batch clean up and after that it's taken down, and and have higher visibility. Putting in the discussion page can allow people to document detailed source checking, thought processes and debate. We believe putting it as a discussion page is better in this case. If for larger visibility, we can add a maintenance template in addition to discussion page notificaiton, but at this moment we will only do discussion page.

Q. If you put it in discussion page, will many people see it?

In response to

Yes, there are existing examples where we have seen authors found the problem and come in to resolve the inconsitencies.

Q. If people all use Wikidata, wouldn't this inconsistency be solved already?

In response to:

If every local wiki agrees to use Wikidata, that's possible. The biggest challenge is that different community trust different sources differently, and thus they might lean towards calling one value of the inconsistency more reliable than another.

What it does

It reads a public-available datasets and notify on Talk/Discussion pages for the article that the subject (a person) has conflicting birthdays on different wikis.