On Jul 11, 2014 1:08 AM, "Bináris" <wikiposta@gmail.com> wrote:
> If it turns out that a user identification is really an expectation,

Well, not identification exactly. But it should be unique per bot and offer a way to contact the operator. (not just identify the operator; a single operator may operate both misbehaving and compliant bots)

It's beyond a doubt that this is part of the guidelines.

If you don't comply and you're causing problems then you may find your IP blocked from *reading* (or maybe just writing to) the wikis. Imagine if that IP is the toolserver? (I know it's dead, pretend it's 2012 for a second)

If you have a good UA string then roots can block narrowly just the problem and not everyone else on your server and also can initiate contact with the operator to get the bot fixed. Instead of waiting for the operator to find the roots and ask why the bot is blocked.

Also, if the bot is somehow logged out, the bot/operator should still be identified in UA string.

> then urlencoding or base64 may be a good solution for non-ASCII names. However, in this case there is still a point that it is only expected in Foundation's wikis and not neccessary in other MW installations.And once any personal data is not neccessary, it is not desirable and reasonable.

What exactly is the objection to bots using unique UA strings?

> So we should then introduce a WMF switch in user-config.py for each account the bot uses and personalize the UA only for those accounts where this switch is on.

IMO, it should have nothing to do with which wiki you're using. If users want to turn it off for a given wiki, fine. Default to enabled.

-Jeremy