SourceWatch:RefConverterBot

The RefConverterBot will be adapted and developed from Cyde Weys's ref converter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cyde/Ref_converter.

Features

 * It will run autonomously.
 * It will handle "traditional" SourceWatch style referencing. This consists of a plain numbered link in the body of the article, e.g. and a corresponding citation in the External Links section. The vast majority of SW articles still use this referencing style. Very few SW articles use the note/ref templates (which are what Cyde Weys's converter will convert)
 * It will check for and flag up links to Yahoo news stories (which go dead very quickly, and so are not suitable for long-term referencing purposes).
 * It will run slowly. If it converts one article every 3 minutes, it'll take about a month to do the whole wiki. That's slow enough for human users to keep an eye on what it's doing.
 * Panic button. There will be a "control page" on the wiki where any SW admin can pause the bot simply by putting some suitable text (eg. "OFF").

Getting this right is more important than getting it running soon. We won't run it until it's very thoroughly tested.