Enhance Bot Detection: Add Global & Former Bot Recognition

Hey guys! Today, let's dive into a crucial discussion about improving our bot detection capabilities. This article will focus on a proposed feature enhancement: adding the ability to identify global bots and former global bots. This is super important for maintaining the integrity of our wikis and ensuring that automated edits are properly reviewed. Let's break down the details and see why this is a game-changer.

The Need for Enhanced Bot Detection

Currently, our bot detection logic has a gap: it doesn't specifically recognize global bots or former global bots. So, what's the big deal? Well, global bots operate across multiple wikis, making their activities far-reaching. Accurately identifying these bots is essential for consistent and effective moderation. Similarly, former global bots, which may have previously held elevated permissions, require careful monitoring to ensure they're operating within current guidelines. By integrating this feature, we're closing a significant loophole in our system.

The primary benefit of this enhancement is providing a more accurate and complete assessment of automated edits. When the system can recognize global and former global bots, it improves the reliability of the pending changes review process. This means fewer unnoticed bot edits slipping through the cracks, and a more trustworthy editing environment for everyone. Plus, a robust bot detection system is crucial for maintaining community trust and preventing potential abuse or misuse of bot privileges. This is particularly important in larger wikis where the volume of edits can be overwhelming.

Imagine a scenario where a global bot is making edits across numerous wikis. Without proper detection, problematic edits could go unnoticed for extended periods, causing confusion and potentially damaging the wiki's content. By identifying these bots, we can proactively address any issues and ensure compliance with community standards. Furthermore, recognizing former global bots is vital to verify that their activities remain aligned with current policies, especially if their permissions have changed. This added layer of scrutiny helps to prevent unintentional or malicious actions. The ability to differentiate between various types of bots and user roles allows for more nuanced moderation strategies and better allocation of review resources. Basically, it’s about making our lives easier and keeping the wiki world a safer, more reliable place.

Technical Implementation: How We'll Do It

So, how do we actually make this happen? The plan involves modifying our existing bot detection logic in autoreview.py. The key is to query user group information from the Meta-Wiki database. For those not super techy, Meta-Wiki is like the central hub for Wikimedia projects, where global user rights are managed. By tapping into this database, we can identify users with global bot status. The good news is we already have a solid foundation to build on. We can leverage existing SQL query structures and adapt them to include Meta-Wiki data. Think of it as adding a new wing to a house – the foundation is there, we just need to construct the addition.

Here’s a simplified breakdown of the process:

1. Query Meta-Wiki: We'll use an SQL query to fetch user group information from the Meta-Wiki database. An example query is already available on Quarry, which is a tool for running database queries within the Wikimedia ecosystem. This gives us a head start and ensures we’re using efficient methods for data retrieval.
2. Fetch Site Parameter: To interact with Meta-Wiki, we need its site parameter. This can be easily obtained using pywikibot, a Python library commonly used for Wikimedia bot development. The command `site = pywikibot.Site(