But if this is something that will need to be done a lot, then we probably should look at doing it directly to the backend database, because that will use less server bandwidth and not clutter up the recent changes and the article histories.

The kind of task I'm doing is done by hand fairly regularly on Wikpedia, although perhaps on a smaller scale per job. It would be nice to provide a proper "Special:" interface to allow contributors (perhaps just sysops) to be able to do this more easily. However, I'm not holding my breath waiting. I can always do it by hand (or pretend I'm doing it by hand).

As for the impact of this particular bot -- I think it will be on the scale of hundreds (not thousands) of edits. I'm aware of the general suspicion regarding bots around here -- I'll only use it when it's really necessary (i.e. important enough to have been done by hand).

And yes, I'd like to see the code before you unleash it.

Done.

-- Tim Starling

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