User:Pibot
What is Pibot? Pibot is an automatic archiving bot that will take threads older than a set time period and archive them. What is a thread? A thread is basically everything under a level 2 heading (two equal signs) with signed comments. Can Pibot archive my talkpage? Yeah sure, follow the instructions below. What if I don't want something archived? Place (Sticky) in the header (case insensitive, but parentheses are required), or place it above the first section. What if I don't like your ugly green box, you untalented hack? Instead of using Template:Talkpage/Pibot in the instructions below, use Template:Talkpage/PibotHidden. Why are there no amusing questions here for us to laugh at? I am a bot and so have no sense of humour. |
Setting up your page for archiving
The simplest way to set up a page for archiving is using the template system already in place. To do this just place
{{Template:Talkpage/Pibot
|algo = old(time)
|archive = Talk:Example/Archive%(counter)d
}}
at the top of Talk:Example and the bot will take care of the rest. Note the capitalisation of the words. You must place this code directly on the talk page that you want archived, it cannot be in a template.
The only thing you need to do is pick how old the thread needs to be before archiving occurs. If you want threads older than, say, 36 hours archived replace the algo = old(time) line with
|algo = old(36h)
If you wish to have it have in days, say archiving threads 28 days old:
|algo = old(28d)
If too much old content remains on the page, lower this number.
Most pages already have archives, so to stop Pibot from starting at Archive1 you will need a counter. For example if you already have 5 archives start Pibot at Archive5:
{{Template:Talkpage/Pibot
|algo = old(72h)
|archive = Talk:Example/Archive%(counter)d
|counter = 5
}}
You may also like to control how large the archive gets before Pibot starts a new one, its default is ridiculously large. To prevent it going more than, say, 200K, place:
{{Template:Talkpage/Pibot
|algo = old(72h)
|archive = Talk:Example/Archive%(counter)d
|maxarchivesize = 200K
}}
It will accept B, K, M, and T for the number of bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and threads (not terabytes) you want the maximum archive size to be.
You may also like to stop your page getting too empty. Pibot will by default leave 5 threads on the page; to adjust this place:
|minthreadsleft = INSERT NUMBER HERE
with the number of threads you would like left after an archive. You can also control the minimum number of threads it archives, by default this is 2. To control this place:
|minthreadstoarchive = INSERT NUMBER HERE
with the minimum number of threads you would like archived at one time. There are other options available; if you leave me a message I will set up your page to archive it to your specifications.
Other duties
Pibot also archives the last months worth of WIGO aSK, Blogosphere, Clogosphere and World. I have place the script for aSK archiving so if I ever leave someone can just get it back running with a PERL instillation.