As has been announced several times (most recently at https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-April/081559.html), the default continuation mode for action=query requests to api.php will be changing to be easier for new coders to use correctly.
*The date is now set:* we intend to merge the change to ride the deployment train at the end of June. That should be 1.26wmf12, to be deployed to test wikis on June 30, non-Wikipedias on July 1, and Wikipedias on July 2.
If your bot or script is receiving the warning about this upcoming change (as seen here https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages, for example), it's time to fix your code!
- The simple solution is to simply include the "rawcontinue" parameter with your request to continue receiving the raw continuation data ( example https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages&rawcontinue=1). No other code changes should be necessary. - Or you could update your code to use the simplified continuation documented at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Query#Continuing_queries (example https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=allpages&continue=), which is much easier for clients to implement correctly.
Either of the above solutions may be tested immediately, you'll know it works because you stop seeing the warning.
I've compiled a list of bots that have hit the deprecation warning more than 10000 times over the course of the week May 23–29. If you are responsible for any of these bots, please fix them. If you know who is, please make sure they've seen this notification. Thanks.
AAlertBot AboHeidiBot AbshirBot Acebot Ameenbot ArnauBot Beau.bot Begemot-Bot BeneBot* BeriBot BOT-Superzerocool CalakBot CamelBot CandalBot CategorizationBot CatWatchBot ClueBot_III ClueBot_NG CobainBot CorenSearchBot Cyberbot_I Cyberbot_II DanmicholoBot DeltaQuadBot Dexbot Dibot EdinBot ElphiBot ErfgoedBot Faebot Fatemibot FawikiPatroller HAL HasteurBot HerculeBot Hexabot HRoestBot IluvatarBot Invadibot Irclogbot Irfan-bot Jimmy-abot JYBot Krdbot Legobot Lowercase_sigmabot_III MahdiBot MalarzBOT MastiBot Merge_bot NaggoBot NasirkhanBot NirvanaBot Obaid-bot PatruBOT PBot Phe-bot Rezabot RMCD_bot Shuaib-bot SineBot SteinsplitterBot SvickBOT TaxonBot Theo's_Little_Bot W2Bot WLE-SpainBot Xqbot YaCBot ZedlikBot ZkBot