William T. Mahan wrote:
Hi,
I'm relatively new to Wikipedia, but I've recently become interested in
helping to fix spelling errors in the English wiki. Using a database dump,
I put up a list of articles with commonly misspelled words in my user
space at [[User:Wmahan/Articles with commonly misspelled words]].
In an effort to go through this monstrous list more quickly, I made a
script that loads the edit page of an article from the list and fixes any
commonly misspelled words. It also displays a list of all words not found
in a spelling dictionary, and I can substitute from of a list of suggested
replacements with the click of a button. I review all changes before they
are submitted.
I asked for approval of this plan on [[Wikipedia_talk:Bots]], and it was
suggested that I mail this list. ...
Do others agree? I'm open to any suggestions about whether this idea is
worthwhile, possible improvements, etc. The script uses a web interface,
so I can make it available for people to examine if there is interest.
This issue comes up periodically, and always with good intention. It
always stirs apprehension over such things as British vs. American
spellings, or the ability to recognize when we really do want something
misspelled, or the handling of foreign words. Also I believe that there
are still aids to spell-checking in the maintenance pages.
Unfortunately, these features and our own search function have too long
been unaccesible.
Ec