This is a documentation subpage for Template: Bots (see that page for the template itself). It contains usage information, categories, and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This is a template for pages to specify whether or not they want visits from any bots, most bots or specific bots. This can be used to easily and explicitly opt-in or opt-out of unsolicited bot posts to user pages or to cause maintenance bots to avoid certain pages. Explicitly opting-in has the advantage of possibly receiving useful changes or targeted posts that might otherwise be skipped by the bot assuming a default "opt-out" behavior. These templates should be used mainly on the "User" and "User talk" namespaces and should be used carefully in other spaces.

Syntax Edit

{{nobots}}

Ban all bots (shortcut)

{{bots}}

Allow all bots (shortcut)

{{bots|allow=<botlist>}}

Ban all the bots not in the list

{{bots|deny=<botlist>}}

Ban all the bots in the list

Where

<botlist> is a comma-delimited string of bot usernames, i.e.:

{{bots|allow=HagermanBot,Werdnabot}}

<botlist> can also be "none" or "all" as in the following examples:

{{bots|allow=all}}

Allow all bots

{{bots|allow=none}}

Ban all bots

or

{{bots|deny=all}}

Ban all bots

{{bots|deny=none}}

Allow all bots

Note that bots are not bound to observe the nobots tag; it will depend on their functionality, their owners, and their terms of approval.

Implementation Edit

• A patch for Python Wikipedia Robot Framework can be found here.