Requests for comment/Extract global bot policy to own page

This is a subpage; for more information, see the Requests for comments page.

Here I propose:

Extract Bot_policy#Global_bots and Bot_policy#Removal_of_global_bot_status to a dedicated page (named Global bot policy), since it is the only part of page that is a policy;
Demote Bot policy and merge useful parts of it to Bot, then redirect the page there. Having it as a policy may give local community a false impression that this rules over local policies, which is not true.

Reasons: The current Bot policy is a mess - it contains multiple sections, some are truly global policies, some are good practices but does not alter or override local policies, some are just informational, some duplicates other pages and some are outdated (have not been revised for many years) and no longer in line with current practice:

Extended content

Bot account - "no human editor should be granted a bot flag" is not fully true. Not every wiki has a flood group so it is common that admins or stewards use bot group temporary (example).
Global bots and Removal of global bot status - the only parts of page that are real policy.
Automatic approval - Already proposed for removal two times. Just get rid of them (existing bots are unaffected).
Community consensus - "If there is no local community and the above does not apply, the bot must operate without a bot flag or not at all." is not a practice: in recent years steward did (and are able to) hand out bot flags in their own discretion.
Unacceptable usage - The second point is ancient and mostly succeeded by wmf:Policy:API usage guidelines. The third point is also ancient (comparing with w:Wikipedia:Bot_policy#Context-sensitive_changes which allow spellchecking bots in some cases).
Name - Not a policy, so we can move it to Bot.
Edit throttle and peak hours - Out of date completely. Many bots in many wikis run much faster.
Supervision - For Meta-Wiki, we already have Meta:Bots#Malfunctioning. There are no need to have a global policy for that.

Note: many wikis, including Meta, adapted a "standard bot policy". Since this RFC plans to demote it, any wiki with only "standard bot policy" should be treated as no longer having a formal bot policy. In comparison, there is no "standard admin policy" - if a wiki do not have a policy for admin, MVR is applied, but it is not a policy by itself.--GZWDer (talk) 14:02, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The general bot policy provides a framework for those looking to run bots on projects without communities. These would be local bots on those projects, not global bots. So I see there would still be utility in having this be the default policy still. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:29, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"general bot policy provides a framework", but many part no longer represents the current practice. What's worse is many wikis have outdated copies of the "standard bot policy". I instead think we should add informative info to Bot. GZWDer (talk) 14:46, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support * Pppery * _{it has begun} 02:54, 28 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The policies also need to be reworked. Leaderboard (talk) 05:47, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support Indeed needed for global bots. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 15:40, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support extract global bot policy from Bot_policy to own page Global bot_policy (currently a redirect). Also extract or just drop Bot_policy#Best_practices that is NOT a policy. Where is the local bot policy of "meta" ? Taylor 49 (talk) 14:39, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support --dring sim 08:07, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support per the reasons provided by GZWDer. This should be an improvement and make the bot policy more clear.GothicGolem29 (Talk) 04:37, 23 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support per above. Codename Noreste (talk • contribs) 17:10, 27 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

After considering the above, I support extracting the global bot policy to its own policy page, but I oppose demoting the bot policy and moving that to Bot. Regarding that page, it's an information page, and Meta:Bots is a local Meta-Wiki policy. The bot policy is not a truly global policy (all projects), but a cross-project policy (all users). Alternatively, under Extended content, why not revise the section links to see if we can remove them from the current bot policy? Should we also revise that the bot policy won't alter or override any local bot policies on projects? Codename Noreste (talk • contribs) 00:38, 2 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging GZWDer to my reply/proposal above. Codename Noreste (talk • contribs) 00:42, 2 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Codename Noreste: But many sections are considered outdated (e.g. 12 edits/minute rule, "no human editor should be granted a bot flag" for wikis with no flood flag, etc). Also for many wikis, the "local bot policies" is just a copy of some old version of this page and therefore contain more outdated practice. What's more an issue of currently Bot policy is it conflates normative (prescriptive) and informative content. GZWDer (talk) 13:24, 2 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

In that case, if we revise the bot policy, maybe we should consider sending a MassMessage to all wikis. Codename Noreste (talk • contribs) 15:14, 8 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]