Hello all,
Since we recently received several messages about tools unable to access the Query Service, I wanted to remind you about this email from Guillaume, and especially this part:
"As a reminder, any bot should use a user agent that allows to identify it: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User-Agent_policy."
If you're a tool builder and encountering issues with WDQS at the moment, please check that your tool is compliant with those guidelines.
Thanks for your understanding, Léa
---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Guillaume Lederrey glederrey@wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2019 at 19:53 Subject: [Wikidata] Overload of query.wikidata.org To: Discussion list for the Wikidata project. wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org
Hello all!
We are currently dealing with a bot overloading the Wikidata Query Service. This bot does not look actively malicious, but does create enough load to disrupt the service. As a stop gap measure, we had to deny access to all bots using python-request user agent.
As a reminder, any bot should use a user agent that allows to identify it [1]. If you have trouble accessing WDQS, please check that you are following those guidelines.
More information and a proper incident report will be communicated as soon as we are on top of things again.
Thanks for your understanding!
Guillaume
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User-Agent_policy