[mb-users] Re: Policy regarding making automated edits (bots)

[Matt Perry]

Lauri Watts wrote:
> So my point of view: If the basic premise of the bot is sound, I doubt
> there's any reason to object.
I wonder if we should establish some method of peer review before we let 
people run bots.  I was also thinking that any bots should run under a 
separate user account just for the bot in case any changes need to be 
audited or removed.
> Adding 'latin' based on the script in the tracklistings can hardly go
> wrong, it's either latin or it's not, it's very binary.
That's what I was thinking.  This is the only thing that I was thinking 
of that could be fully automated.
> Guessing language is another can of worms though.
Indeed.  I've seen the language guess misidentify quite a few things.  
As far as setting the language, my idea was to write a script to 
generate a list of possible candidates for change and then present this 
list to the user in a way that makes review and approval easy.

For example, for all albums that have no language set, guess the 
language of the album tracks.  If it determines that it's English, add 
the album to the candidate list.  Then, use the list of candidates to 
present a review web page to the user.  The page should present a 
reasonable number of albums at a time and allow the user to open and 
close the track list, just as we do for reviewing Add Release edits 
now.  The user should then just be able to check a box to mark it as 
okay to change.  My goal in this is to minimize the number of mouse 
movements and clicks I have to make (because of RSI problems) and to 
speed up the amount of these type of edits I can make.

I have some other ideas on my wiki page under the heading "Automated 
data entry and review."  Ref: http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/MattPerry

Matt