Last modified: 2010-07-28 20:12:54 UTC
From time to time, the wikimedia servers will decide that a CAPTCHA is required to log in from toolserver hosts such as nightshade.toolserver.org. Once this happens, bots on the toolserver can no longer log in until the CAPTCHA requirement is (automatically) lifted. But there is nothing an individual bot maintainer can do to resolve the problem except turn off their bot and wait. One solution would be to exempt toolserver hosts from the CAPTCHA, but that may not be the most desirable solution for various reasons. Maybe there's a better fix? This is a tracking bug for possible solutions.
The ConfirmEdit extension has a $wgCaptchaWhitelistIP setting, so globally exempting the toolserver on WMF wikis would be trivial to do.
Shouldn't it already be avoided once it's logged in (assuming the bot is autoconfirmed)?
If the bot is already logged in, and does not need to log in again, things should be fine for it. But if the bot runs from a cron job, for example, and logs in each time it runs, then being autoconfirmed does not help. Also, because there are lots of bots all trying to log in at once, manually solving the captcha and logging in by hand is not a sure fix, like it would be on a home computer. If some other bot tries to log in without the captcha before it is removed, the captcha system will engage again.
Marking as critical, this is a major issue that is preventing multiple bots from logging in.
$wgCaptchaWhitelistIP = array( '91.198.174.0/24' ); # toolserver (bug 23982) Synced by Tim a few minutes ago. This resolves the specific current issue, but as this is a tracking bug, it should remain open until a proper fix is implemented.
It was a proper fix.
Still appears to be an issue. After verifying that everything is still correct, I am getting WrongPass and Throttled errors.
PEBCAK
