User:MediationBot1



MediationBot
is an automated Wikipedia bot utilized by the Mediation Committee to perform case management and other tasks as needed. As an official project of the Mediation Committee, MediationBot is only utilized for official Mediation Committee business.

Notifications
Phase 1.0

MediationBot has the capacity to do mass notifications; this functionality is used primarily for notifying all Committee members of announcements via their talk page. It can also be used for notifying all parties to large cases where necessary. This function is ancillary to the primary case-management tasks.

Opening cases
Phase 2.0

MediationBot's first task is opening cases on Requests for mediation. At regular intervals, the bot scans all pages listed on the pending case list for Accepted case. When the template is found, MediationBot does the following:
 * 1) Removes the case's listing (cases are transcluded) from Requests_for_mediation/Pending.
 * 2) Changes the category from Category:Mediation Committee pending cases to Category:Mediation Committee current cases.
 * 3) Adds an entry to the open tasks list in the "Unassigned" section.
 * 4) Notifies all listed parties of the acceptance.

This portion of the code runs at 15 minutes past the hour every four hours: 0:15, 4:15, 8:15, 12:15, 16:15, & 20:15 UTC.

Pending case listings
Phase 2.5

MediationBot watches Category:Mediation Committee pending cases for any case that isn't listed on Requests for mediation/Pending; cases created with the inputbox on RfM are automatically added to the category. Due to incorrect listings, which break the other functions of MediationBot, parties are no longer to list cases on the pending page themselves; MediationBot will do all listings automatically.

This phase of the code runs every 15 minutes, at 5, 20, 35, & 50 minutes after the hour, to decrease the load from all the other bots that run at 0 and 30 minutes.

Committee nomination listings
Phase 2.65

MediationBot watches Category:Mediation Committee Nominations/Pending for any nomination that isn't listed on Mediation Committee/Current Nominations; nominations created with the inputbox on the Committee page are automatically added to the category. Due to incorrect listings, which break the other functions of MediationBot, parties are no longer to list cases on the pending page themselves; MediationBot will do all listings automatically.

This phase of the code runs at the same time as the Phase 2.5 code.

Talk page archival
Phase 2.75

MediationBot automatically archives Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation and Wikipedia talk:Mediation Committee; any section where the last timestamp is older than 7 days is automatically archived. Archiving takes place automatically at 00:15 UTC each day. Many thanks go to Misza13 for writing the code for this section.

Closing rejected cases
Phase 3.0

In the same manner that MediationBot opens cases on Requests for mediation, it can also close rejected cases. At regular intervals, the bot scans all pages listed on the pending case list for Rejected case. When the template is found, MediationBot does the following:
 * 1) Removes the case's listing (cases are transcluded) from Requests_for_mediation/Pending.
 * 2) Changes the category from Category:Mediation Committee pending cases to Category:Mediation Committee rejected cases.
 * 3) Adds an entry to the rejected case list.
 * 4) Notifies all listed parties of the rejection.
 * 5) Subst:'s the contents of the case page into the current rejected case archive.

As the contents of the case page has been subst:'d into the archive at the time the bot runs, the pages can be deleted in order to keep the subspace of RfM clean. Such pages are generally deleted after seven days, giving the parties ample time to view any comments on the page without the need to check the archives. An administrator (usually the Chair) handles the deletions: MediationBot does not have delete capability.

This portion of the code runs at 15 minutes past the hour every four hours: 0:15, 4:15, 8:15, 12:15, 16:15, & 20:15 UTC.

Additional tasks
Additional functionality may be added to the bot as determined by the Committee; envisioned future uses include automatic notification to all parties when a case's status changes (assigned/closed/reopened/etc.), automatic closing/archiving of stale cases, and automatic archival/delisting/party notification for rejected cases.

Cold case closure
Phase 4.0

MediationBot will scan Category:Mediation Committee current cases to determine potential "cold cases." Where a case hasn't had any edit to it within two weeks, it will notify the Chairman and the parties that it believes the case to be inactive, and request a status update via a subst:'d notice. It will also mark the page with  , which will include the case in Category:Mediation Committee potential cold cases.

The bot will also scan Category:Mediation Committee potential cold cases, and will archive as stale any case that has been in the category for more than two weeks. It will add   to the top of the page, and remove it from all categories. The page will then be listed in the current archive.

Any case that is closed and archived as stale will have the parties and the Committee Chair notified of the closure.

Estimated time of arrival: As time permits.

Credits
The Mediation Committee expresses sincere thanks to Tangotango and Misza13 for their work in bringing MediationBot online.

Tangotango is responsible first and foremost for coding the case management functions to the Committee's specifications. Additionally, Tangotango has assisted in prepping the bot framework, and continues to help with developing new fuctions.

Misza13 is responsible for helping to setup the pywikipedia bot framework and for providing the mass-notification coding.

Additional thanks to Pgk for helping with necessary setup tasks.

Status
Phases 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, 2.75, and 3.0 are complete; Phase 4.0 is in the development stage, and ideas are being considered for other tasks/phases.


 * For the Mediation Committee, Essjay ( Talk )  19:25, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


 * After Essjay's departure from Wikipedia, the bot was moved to a new account (User:MediationBot1). Mart inp23 18:43, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Addition phases, adapting of current phases and other re-writes are currently being commissioned by the Committee. Suggestions and assistance is appreciated, and can be directed at any Member.


 * For the Mediation Committee, Anthøny  14:01, 30 July 2007 (UTC)