Thread:Sannse/@comment-25337988-20150519025944/@comment-8-20150519160709

TheZombiemelon wrote:

I also was wondering; Why can't admins or bureaucrats give bot rights?

Unfortunately, many people don't understand the bot flag. As Joseph says, it doesn't make an account a bot, it just sticks a label on it saying that it is a bot (and gives a few special rights like not appearing on RC by default). You also need to actually get a bot, and learn to run it.

The first question I ask when someone writes to Special:Contact about this is "what type of bot do you have". And often they have an account with a bot name, and want the flag, but don't actually have a bot, or understand what they are and how to work them.

Being hidden on recent change is a big deal. If the person with the flagged account is not trustworthy, then they can do a lot of damage without most people seeing it (admins, you may want to set Recent Changes to show you bots by default). So we want to be sure the flag is being used only when necessary, and only when there is a community-approved real bot that is being run safely and effectively.