This page is almost certainly not the page you at looking for. It should only be used to discuss the content of Wikipedia:Bots. For other matters, try: Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard to discuss general bot-related issues. Wikipedia talk:Bot policy to discuss bot policy specifically. Wikipedia:Bot requests to request that someone write a bot to do something. Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval to ask for permission to run a bot.

First, can anyone tell me which bot it is that goes around replacing potentially confusing template shortcuts in mainspace with actual template names (e.g. replaces ((cn|...)) with ((citation needed|...))?

Second, where is this stuff listed? I.e., how can I answer this question for myself? There are a lot of bot-related talk pages, that all have notices basically saying "this is probably not the talk page you want", but this is also obviously not a question that needs bots-noticeboard attention.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  00:28, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

There is no bot that replaces template shortcuts, as it is a cosmetic edit. AWB has a list of shortcuts that it will replace when genfixes are on, so if you see bots making those changes, chances are good it's an AWB-run bot using genfixes.

As to your second question... it isn't? Honestly, the various bot talk pages get so little action I think I'm going to propose we redirect everything (except maybe WT:BOTPOL) to WP:BOTN. Primefac (talk) 00:47, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

User:AnomieBOT expands them (and also dates them, so it's not a cosmetic task). Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 00:50, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Right, AnomieBOT wouldn't expand ((cn|date=February 2020)) because it is dated. Primefac (talk) 00:51, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

AnomieBOT doesn't expand maintenance templates, it only dates. SmackBot/Helpful Pixie Bot used to do both, and I think there were a few others at various times too. AnomieBOT has on occasion expanded WikiProject templates when making other changes to them, as the names there were more in need of standardization. Anomie⚔ 13:34, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

iirc I proposed that last year. I continue to support it, if you want to propose it. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 03:59, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This question is fine for the bot noticeboard, and other talk pages wouldn't help you answer it yourself any more than this would. What you'd need would be a list of all current and past bot tasks, which I don't recall anyone ever maintaining. You could try searching subpages of Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval for relevant keywords, although this sort of cosmetic thing is reasonably likely to not be mentioned (particularly in ones from a decade or so ago). Anomie⚔ 13:34, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

We do have such a list, incidentally, though the bot that maintains it is currently not active. In re-reading that BRFA, though, it's only tracking scheduled tasks and not one-offs like mine. Primefac (talk) 13:52, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like that one never got out of the testing stage. There have been attempts at various points, but the maintenance has always been the problem. Anomie⚔ 13:59, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

While we may have "only hundreds" of current bots, many of them have lots of tasks - we're probably approaching 1000 approved tasks (some of which are very generic tasks) - a central index of all of these would be nice, but labor intensive to make. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:09, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't too difficult to maintain, every time a BRFA is approved, the operator or approver could add an entry for it in the central index. As to how to start the central index with the data for tasks approved thus far, this could be scriptable. Use the RecentChanges or EventStreams API to listen to all bot edits being made; use some heuristics on the edit summary to tell apart different tasks. Dump the bot usernames and edit summaries they used in a table – that should give a good picture of all bot editing taking place. Something good to begin with. – SD0001 (talk) 11:18, 21 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]