Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/BahatiBot

BahatiBot

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Operator: Bahati11 (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 22:03, Friday, August 1, 2025 (UTC)

Function overview: Automatically welcomes new users with Template:Welcome graphical, assists users with basic help tasks, and fixes incorrect or missing interwiki links.

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): Python (Pywikibot)

Source code available: Will be made available on GitHub (link will be added)

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate):

Edit period(s): Regular operation depending on new user activity and maintenance needs

Estimated number of pages affected: Variable – estimated 50–100 per week

Namespace(s): User talk, Main, and Template

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes

Adminbot (Yes/No): No

Function details:

BahatiBot is a bot designed to improve user experience and perform helpful maintenance tasks. Its core functions include:

Automatically greeting newly registered users who make their first edit using Template:Welcome graphical.
Providing basic assistance and links to help resources on user talk pages.
Detecting and correcting missing or broken interwiki links using data from Wikidata.

All actions will comply with bot policy and avoid controversial edits. The bot will be carefully monitored and improved based on community feedback.

Discussion

Comment: I need to draw the approval group's attention to some concerns regarding this bot account and inconsistent statements made by its operator. While patrolling logs and recent changes, I noticed that automated edits were being made from the BahatiBot account, verified that it was operating without approval, and blocked it as a result. After responding to Bahati11 (the bot operator) on both my user talk page and in the ANI thread that was opened about this, it was brought to my attention that Bahati11 provided two completely different explanations regarding exactly what edits and tasks they intend use the bot account to perform. On the ANI discussion, Bahati11 stated that the bot account would be used to "[fix] common formatting and syntax errors" (diff). About a half hour later, they stated on my user talk page that the bot would be used to "automatically send welcome messages to new users to support their integration" (diff). This obviously has me a bit concerned, since Bahati11's explanation and intended use changed dramatically in that small span of time. I highly recommend caution and that we keep a very close eye on things if the group decides to allow any test any trial runs. Thanks - ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 22:51, 1 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Update: I was just made aware by ClaudineChionh with this message that this bot has been after the corresponding was declined. Bahati11 went ahead and ran the bot anyway despite knowing about the French Wikipedia's bot policy as well as that their approval request was declined. Running a bot after your request to do so was declined and after being told not to do so is concerning... ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:09, 3 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I came across one of their edits in my watchlist and saw the ANI thread...I highlight my ANI comment that every one of their "[fix] common formatting and syntax errors" edits was an incorrect edit. I think this editor needs to spend time building a substantial track record of correct edits of the type they wish for a bot prior to being granted a bot to do it. DMacks (talk) 02:42, 2 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Question for User:Bahati11: What does "Detecting and correcting missing or broken interwiki links using data from Wikidata." mean? Could you please give some specific examples of (broken) links it would detect and what replacement it would make for them? DMacks (talk) 02:45, 2 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I quite strongly suspect that this approval request was written using an LLM, it seems to match the style of language that ChatGPT creates. Regardless, the operator here is clearly not ready to be a bot operator, they are massively lacking in experience and understanding of policy. The edits this bot account did make consist of adding broken templates to their own sandbox [1] [2], some pointles cosmetic editing [3] [4] voilating the manual of style [5] and what appears to be a bit of vandalism - deleting every new line from a page is not "fixing a checkwiki error" [6] [7]. 86.23.87.130 (talk) 03:02, 2 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Their post in the ANI thread also smells like LLM. DMacks (talk) 03:15, 2 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]