Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/AutoWikiBrowser/Administrator instructions

AutoWikiBrowser (often abbreviated AWB) is a semi-automated MediaWiki editor. Access is granted by administrators by adding the users name to the check page.

Prerequisites

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In general, the user should:

  • Have over 250 non-automated mainspace edits or over 500 total mainspace edits
  • Have a strong understanding of the English language. One of AWB's most commonly used functions is correcting grammar and spelling
  • Be a reasonably experienced editor

Users who don't meet the above qualifications may still be granted access for a specific purpose, at the administrator's discretion.

Responding to requests

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Tools that may assist in evaluating the candidate's suitability:

Note if a request was recently declined for a given user/permission, a bot will comment with a link to that discussion. You may wish to ping the administrator who declined the previous request asking for their input before responding to the new request.

To grant AWB access, add the user to the CheckPage.

To respond to the request:

  • On the permissions page, mark the request as approved or denied using {{done}} or {{not done}}. Include any relevant rationale for the decision. If you are revoking a permission, use the template {{revoked}} which will archive as done. If the user has withdrawn their request, you can mark it as {{withdrawn}} which will archive as not done. For some permissions, there is a convenient template for canned responses, such as with Confirmed and Rollback.
  • 36 hours after the last comment was made (or whatever is specified in the config), a bot will automatically archive the request. You can force the bot to archive as soon as possible with the code {{User:MusikBot/archivenow}}


To override where the bot archives, use {{User:MusikBot/override|d}} for approved, or {{User:MusikBot/override|nd}} for denied. This will override any other {{done}} or {{not done}} templates, and make the bot ignore the user's rights.

To re-open a request, deactivate the resolution template using the code {{tl|template name}}, as with {{done}} or {{not done}}. Strikethroughs like <s>{{done}}</s> or other means to suppress the original resolution template will still be registered as resolved by the bot. Only deactivating or removing the template will work.

Archiving

All requests are archived at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Archive as approved or denied. This is done as a historical reference, namely so that admins can review previously declined requests.

N hours after the last comment was made on a request (as specified by the bot's config), the discussion is removed from that page and an entry containing a PermaLink to the discussion is added to the archives, noting the user and the permission. This archiving process is fully automated and should not be attempted manually.

Bot clerking

For convenience, the requests for permissions pages are clerked by MusikBot. See User:MusikBot/PermClerk for more information on the tasks and how to configure them.