How should we handle inactive bots and keep bots on Wikipedia more organised. Started: 10:20 6 June 2013 UTC ·addshore· talk to me! 10:22, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
This request for comment draft has started from a recent discussion that was originally on the village pump here.
A similar proposal was also posted at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Archive_73#Proposal:_Remove_bot_flag_from_inactive_bots a few years ago.
Throughout most of the MediaWiki software regarding any form of feeds, such as Special:RecentChanges and Special:Watchlist, edits under the bot flag are automatically hidden from view. Compromised bot accounts, with perhaps some malicious code accidentally inserted into their system, would most likely be able to surreptitiously damage several Wikipedia articles en masse without any administrators aware. Without the bot flag, any bots that could possibly be compromised would have their edits visually seen in RecentChanges, and sysops monitoring the page can more easily spot the pattern, block on sight and revert any potential damage dealt to articles the bot had edited. If bot operators choose to restart their bot, they can easily do it via the Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval process again.