Counter-Vandalism Wiki:Bot Policy

Bot Developers

A number of users assist in programming and maintaining the IRC bots that provide reporting for the channel. Several of these users have been granted channel operator status in order to aide them in maintaining the IRC bots. Bot developers do not have any special privileges in relation to the operation of the channel; they do, however, hold the final decision related to aspects of their bots (i.e., formatting). As the final authority in the channel, the channel Senior Staff holds final decision about which bot should be active in the channel. (The bot developers may, however, change bots as needed in order to maintain and test the bots.)

Bot Operators

In addition, there are a number of individuals who operate copies of the bots for use as backups or for monitoring smaller projects (Meta, Wiktionary, etc.).

Relevant notes:

• All bot testing should not be done in the live channel, unless absolutely needed. If you do, please notify staff as soon as possible. We have a channel for bot testing that you are welcome to use freely, called #cvn-sandbox.
• Only bots approved by staff may operate in channels as primary bots. If you would like to get your bot approved, contact a staff member (voiced) in #countervandalism. Staff will give your bot the appropriate permissions to the feed channel and bot control channel (and broadcast channel if it's a recent changes compatible with the SWMTBot protocol).
• Channel operators are permitted to run, or give someone else permission to run backup bots without staff approval only if the primary bot goes down and there are no other bots running the channel. CVN Staff in #countervandalism should be at least informed that the bot is running, however.
• Bot operators should be able to be easily contacted by CVN staff on IRC in the event of an emergency. Please make an attempt to idle as much as possible in #countervandalism for this purpose.