Synchbot

Synchbot is a maintenance service that creates, edits, or deletes your user pages across Wikimedia wikis. To request changes to your user pages on all wikis, see How do I make a request?. For more info about the bot, see the FAQs.

Synchbot is run on the first weekend of each month. Next scheduled run: 4–5 May 2024 (temporarily paused pending permission renewal).

Synchbot

Part of wikimedia-contrib
report a bug or suggestion

Requests

See previous requests.

Lucy Patterson (WMDE) (migrate to global user page)

request queued:

Lucy Patterson (WMDE) (global account · recent activity · user pages)

• go to User:Lucy Patterson (WMDE) on every wiki
• and delete the page.

request_user = 'Lucy Patterson (WMDE)',
request_titles = ['User:Lucy Patterson (WMDE)'],
request_action = lambda bot: bot.delete(),
skip_existing = False,
skip_new = True,
skip_unregistered = False,
skip_wikis = [],
only_wikis = [],
delete_summary = None,
edit_summary = None,

Lucy Patterson (WMDE) (talk) 15:04, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

Done for your Commons page:

The following log shows what the bot did on each wiki. You can click the columns to sort the log.

summary:

time	wiki	logged action
17:46	commons.wikimedia.org	marked for deletion (was 1723 bytes).
17:46	meta.wikimedia.org	skipped (cannot delete global user page).

The other pages are temporarily on hold; the global deleter group silently expired so I'll need to renew it first. —Pathoschild 17:58, 08 May 2024 (UTC)

Asheiou (migrate to global user page)

request queued:

Asheiou (global account · recent activity · user pages)

• go to User:Asheiou on every wiki (except on en.wikipedia, en.wikinews, commons)
• and delete the page.

request_user = 'Asheiou',
request_titles = ['User:Asheiou'],
request_action = lambda bot: bot.delete(),
skip_existing = False,
skip_new = True,
skip_unregistered = False,
skip_wikis = ['en.wikipedia', 'en.wikinews', 'commons'],
only_wikis = [],
delete_summary = None,
edit_summary = None,

> Asheiou (they/them • talk) 00:57, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

FAQs

How do I make a request?

Here's how to submit a Synchbot task. If you're not sure how to fill in the template, just choose one below and add a comment explaining what you want. There's no approval process; your request will be handled in the next batch! Make sure you watch this page in case of questions.

To migrate to your global user page (delete your local User pages):

1. Add this text at the bottom of the Requests section:

   ==={{subst:REVISIONUSER}} (migrate to global user page)===
   {{#invoke:synchbot|request
    |user          = {{subst:REVISIONUSER}}
    |action        = delete
    |title         = User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}
    |text          = 
    |skip wikis    =
    |skip existing = no
    |status        = <!-- don't change this line -->
   }}
   ~~~~

2. Optional: add a comment before ~~~~ or edit the template with any specifics (e.g. pages to skip).

To migrate to your global CSS and JavaScript pages (delete your local *.css and *.js pages):

1. Add this text at the bottom of the Requests section:

   ==={{subst:REVISIONUSER}} (migrate to global CSS/JS)===
   {{#invoke:synchbot|request
    |user          = {{subst:REVISIONUSER}}
    |action        = delete
    |title         = User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}/*.css, User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}/*.js
    |text          = 
    |skip wikis    = 
    |skip existing = no
    |status        = <!-- don't change this line -->
   }}
   Please delete all local CSS and JS pages. ~~~~

2. Optional: add a comment before ~~~~ or edit the template with any specifics (e.g. pages to skip).

For a custom request:

1. Add this text at the bottom of the Requests section:

   ==={{subst:REVISIONUSER}}===
   {{#invoke:synchbot|request
    |user          = {{subst:REVISIONUSER}}
    |action        = replace
    |title         = 
    |text          = 
    |skip wikis    = 
    |skip existing = yes
    |status        = <!-- don't change this line -->
   }}~~~~

2. Edit the template values:

   field	how to edit it
   user	The name of the user who owns the pages. The default is your current username.
   action	What you want the bot to do. This can be replace (overwrite pages with the new text), prepend (insert the new text at the top of the page), append (insert the new text at the bottom of the page), or delete (delete all pages).
   title	The title of the page you want edited on every wiki.
   text	The text you want placed on the edited pages. A few guidelines: Don't add categories or templates, because they probably don't exist on most wikis. Use interwiki links to link to a specific wiki (like [[m:Article]] for a page on Meta). Don't use interlanguage links (like [[en:Article]] instead of [[w:en:Article]]), unless you really want to link to a different wiki depending on the current project. For a user page, use something simple and informative. Most people provide a few sentences about themselves with a link to their main user page. Consider using your global user page instead.
   skip wikis	A list of wikis to skip (in addition to auto-skipped wikis). You can use a wildcard (like pt.* to skip all Portuguese wikis). The format doesn't really matter.
   skip existing	Whether to skip pages that already exist.

3. Watch this page in case I have questions. Otherwise it will be done soon! :)

How long will it take?

The 'next scheduled run' date at the top of the page shows when requests will be handled. All open requests are typically handled within one day of that date.

What can the bot do?

The bot can create, edit, or delete any of your user pages. It will edit almost all Wikimedia wikis (except private wikis, fishbowl wikis, and loginwiki).

It's very flexible and supports custom logic (e.g. edits which depend on the page size/history/content, prepending text, regex search & replace, etc). If you have a custom requirement, feel free to ask the bot operator whether it's possible.

What are the limitations?

The bot has a specific scope based on its global permission requests and local community expectations.

The bot will not...

• protect pages;
• rename pages;
• delete talk pages (unless you're the only editor);
• delete your main user page on Meta;
• delete pages on wikis where you have a block history;
• change pages outside the User or User talk namespaces.

There are also limits on specific wikis:

wiki	limitations
ar.wikipedia.org	Per request, the bot will place a speedy-delete template instead of deleting pages.
commons.wikimedia.org	Per request, the bot will place a speedy-delete template instead of deleting pages.
sv.wikipedia.org	Per request, the bot won't remove discussions on talk pages.

What is Synchbot?

Synchbot is a bot which makes an automated change to a specific page title on all matching wikis. It's been run by Pathoschild since 2008. The bot uses the global deleter and global editinterface permissions, and runs under a web of permissions, exceptions, and special cases negotiated with local communities.

Historically this was used to support global user pages from 2008 to 2015 (now part of global user pages), global CSS/JS from 2008 to 2014 (now available via your global.css or your global.js), and crosswiki account creation from 2009 to 2011 (now part of unified login). Now it's mainly used to delete local pages that are no longer needed due to the new global user page features.

See also

• Global user pages
• Related tools:
  • Krinkle's Global SUL creates your account on all wikis
  • MassMessage sends notifications to a list of users
  • Multilingual Templates and Modules project
• Related discussions:
  • 2014-08: request for global editinterface
  • 2014-09: request for global deleter
  • 2015-02: community consensus for bulk deletion of user pages
  • 2015-08: renew global editinterface
  • 2015-08: renew global delete
  • 2016-08: renew global editinterface and global delete
  • 2017-12: renew global editinterface and global delete
  • 2019-03: renew global editinterface and global delete
  • 2020-03: renew global editinterface and global delete
  • 2022-04: renew global editinterface and global delete
  • 2024-05: renew global editinterface and global delete
• Synchbot campaigns:
  • 2014–2016 global script migration