views:

122

answers:

2

I see there are many php (and other) frameworks for writing wikipedia bots, but isn't captcha a problem? Or bots don't have to solve it (but that sounds like there's no point to having captcha in the first place...)? Or maybe i can make my prog stop and let me fill captcha in?

+2  A: 

I wasn't aware that Wikipedia had any sort of captcha... captcha for what? Editing articles? I'm pretty sure they encourage maintenance bots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3ABots

emddudley
Captchas are occasionally shown if you're adding links to a lot of pages. (They can also be shown for account creation and if you have too many login attempts with the wrong password, but neither should affect a bot.)
Wooble
ah, so it's to prevent brute-force pass cracking rather than to stop bots?
Phil
+2  A: 

Properly-registered bots do not have to complete the captcha forms on Wikipedia. The user group rights page says that bots can, among other things:

Perform captcha triggering actions without having to go through the captcha (skipcaptcha)

You will need to get your bot account added to the bot group by a bureaucrat, and this usually takes place after acceptance by the Bot Approvals Group.

Good luck!

Tim