Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/VWF bot 7

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard. The result of the discussion was

Denied.

VWF bot 7

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

Time filed: 16:45, Wednesday, February 4, 2026 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: automatic

Programming language(s):

Source code available:

Function overview: The bot adds milestone list links to international caps and international goals numbers in {{Infobox football biography}} for association football players who appear on established milestone lists. The bot links unlinked numeric values only when they meet list thresholds and preserves existing player-specific list links. The bot also adds the relevant lists to the article's See also section if missing.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Wikipedia:Bot_requests#Infobox_links_to_football_statistics

Edit period(s): One-time run (may be repeated if additional affected pages are identified)

Estimated number of pages affected: Articles transcluded with {{Infobox football biography}} for players listed on the following pages:

List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps

List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals

List of women's footballers with 100 or more international caps

List of women's footballers with 100 or more international goals

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): Yes

Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): Yes

Function details: The bot is to operate as follows:

Processes the four milestone lists sequentially.
Extracts player article titles from the relevant section of each list using list-specific parsing logic.
Opens each player article and locates {{Infobox football biography}}.
Identifies the correct |nationalteam#= parameter by detecting wikilinks ending in "national football team" or "national soccer team".
Locates the corresponding |nationalcaps#= or |nationalgoals#= parameter with the same index.
If the numeric value meets the list threshold and is not already wikilinked:
- For caps, links the number to the appropriate list section anchor.
- For goals, prefers an existing player-specific list (e.g. "List of international goals scored by X") if present; otherwise links to the relevant milestone list section.
Only the numeric portion is wikilinked; any accompanying references, templates, or formatting are preserved.
Existing links are not modified.
Adds the relevant list to the article's See also section, if missing. If there's no See also section, creates one with the relevant lists as entries.
Fully protected pages, edit conflicts, and save errors are safely skipped without interrupting the run.

Discussion

FWIW, I have tested it and it works well, see contributions. —Vanderwaalforces (talk) 08:23, 5 February 2026 (UTC) [reply]

Small side tangent about bot editing

I find it problematic that you have just decided to run an edit trial without actually getting approval first. Primefac (talk) 21:53, 7 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Primefac Oh no, pardon me. I honestly usually use testwiki, at least for other of my approved tasks. I never knew it is entirely prohibited to run a (somewhat) test edit to the point that it is viewed as problematic. I tried it because I saw somewhere someone else was able to do same, can't remember where I saw that. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 22:00, 7 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

WP:EXEMPTBOT has the restrictions on unapproved editing, which includes small-scale test edits in sandboxes and/or user pages, which is likely where you saw the other edits happening. I'm not necessarily saying that these tests edits will invalidate or otherwise taint the BRFA, just that I was rather surprised to see you making them with the bot account. Primefac (talk) 22:23, 7 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

For sure. I def have to stick to using my testwiki, lol. Many thanks. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 22:26, 7 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Primefac Able to take a look and let's give it a try? Vanderwaalforces (talk) 08:00, 12 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Other than the person requesting this, is there an interest in performing this task? I would hazard a guess there are some WikiProjects (and some editors) who would find these sorts of links either unnecessary or too much of an WP:EGG issue. Has the Football WikiProject given any indication of support for this? Primefac (talk) 18:27, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Courtesy ping @BasicWriting:

I really thought of this, but the idea looks reasonable to me. BW, would you mind notifying Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football? Vanderwaalforces (talk) 18:41, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I have dropped a quick note on the WP Football talk page at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Football#Bot_proposal:_linking_milestone_caps/goals_lists. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 19:00, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

These links have been present before on some of the most viewed articles of the project, the ones for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for some time, and I have added them to articles such as Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Buffon or Iker Casillas without any pushback, hence I have considered this action to be relevant.

I don't think the WP:EGG issue applies when it becomes an actual rule for players above a certain threshold to include the link (but it could be argued that doing so for the goals statistics in the infobox could violate that rule and hence we should only edit the caps ones). BasicWriting (talk) 19:00, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Oops @BasicWriting looks like we almost conflicted our edits, see mine just above yours. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 19:23, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Denied. There is consensus against proceeding with this task in its current form, as editors raised concerns that infobox linking is unnecessary and potentially MOS:EASTEREGG-style. – DreamRimmer ■ 16:20, 28 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard.