The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. The result of the discussion was Approved.

Operator: Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia}

Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic

Programming Language(s): PHP, SxWiki classes

Function Overview: Generates lists of current and recently-closed AfD debates and AfD statistics. Possible expansion would keep AfDers up to date on debates they are involved in through subpages on user pages and talk page messages.

Edit period(s): Continuous (every 30 minutes)

Already has a bot flag (Y/N): N

Function Details: Bot maintains a database of current and closed AfDs that is used to generate lists and statistics. It gets a list of current AfDs every thirty minutes. It retrieves and parses new and closed AfDs, the nominated article, and the article's talk page. Expansion would leave a talk page message for nominators when their AfD is closed, and generate an up-to-date list of all the open and recently closed AfDs a user has participated in. These features would be by request only.

Discussion[edit]

This has been running for about a week now, and I didn't think it needed approval because it wasn't editing anything other than its own subpages - User:AfDStatBot/AfDStats and User:AfDStatBot/AfDStatsTotal. However, MacGyverMagic suggested that I get it approved anyway and thought about some expansions to make it more useful. I've formalized the expanded features, but they aren't implemented yet. I'd like to get the current bot approved, and perhaps have some discussion about the proposed features. For example, would it be better to give all nominators a talk page message when their AfDs are closed unless they opt-out, or should I keep it request-only? Thanks! Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia} 18:04, 9 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Updating the tables every 10 minutes seems rather excessive, especially if its going to be generating such lists for multiple people. Mr.Z-man 22:54, 10 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On average, an AfD is opened or closed every ten to fifteen minutes, which is why I set that time interval. And the personalized lists only update when each user participates a new AfD or when one of the AfDs they participated in closes. While it could theoretically update for each user every ten minutes, it most likely wouldn't. Even the most active AfDer right now, MGM, has only participated in about 10% of the open AfDs (58/559) and wouldn't get an update every ten minutes. I'll run some simulations with the ten most active AfDers over the next 24 hours, and I'll let you know how many times the bot would have edited had they requested userpage updates. Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia} 18:43, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My point is that 2 lists + updates every 10 minutes == 8640 edits every month to change a few numbers; that's over a hundred thousand edits per year. Such frequent updates should really be reserved for cases where up to the minute information really matters. As this is mainly just statistics, I don't see why User:AfDStatBot/AfDStatsTotal really needs more than 1 update per day, though once every couple hours would be fine. Mr.Z-man 22:54, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed 100% on User:AfDStatBot/AfDStatsTotal. In fact, I don't know what I was thinking when I made that a separate page. I'll move it to User:AfDStatBot/AfDStats. Does that same objection apply to User:AfDStatBot/AfDStats? Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia} 00:06, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm entirely confused here. If this is just for historical statistics, why on earth would it need to update so frequently? --MZMcBride (talk) 22:58, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It isn't primarily for historical statistics - AfDStatsTotal is, and I'm moving that to AfDStats because it is unnecessary to have it on a separate page. The problem is that there is no centralized page with an up-to-date list of all open and recently-closed AfDs, either together or separately. AfDs in general are indexed by their opening date, so you may have to look through 7 pages to get a list of all open and recently-closed AfDs. Lists of recently-closed AfDs are impossible to find by themselves in a single place, as they are stripped of a category when closed. For browsing open AfDs, the bonus of this page over Category:AfD debates is that it lets you sort by opening date and number of participants, which helps users quickly find the most recent or active AfDs. It needs to update so frequently because AfD moves so fast - although I think that 30 minutes or an hour would still work. I guess I didn't think that once every ten minutes would be that big of a resource issue - looks I was mistaken and I'm sorry for that. Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia} 00:06, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Update: First, I just changed this to run every 30 minutes, in response to concerns that 10 minutes is too often. I also did the simulations over a 48 hour period, seeing what would happen if I notified the 10 most active AfDers of their current AfDs. Checking every 10 minutes for updates, there were 234 simulated subpage updates for the 10 users, which is on average about one edit every 30 minutes for each highly active AfDer who signs up. There were times when a user would get an update every ten minutes five to ten times in a row, so I suspect changing the interval to 30 minutes will cut down on that significantly. Stu ^(aeiou)_{I'm Researching Wikipedia} 16:15, 14 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

•  Approved. ST47 (talk) 03:17, 6 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.