In T364393#9783360, @Xqt wrote:

@Masti: I assumed the -start:! tested it on several wikis but didn’t run into this issue. I made a patch and both server errors should lead to retry loops.

I still think this has something to do with the database conversion of MW 1.43: some api requests are very lame or fails with timeout or server error.

In T364393#9782642, @Xqt wrote:

@Masti: What was your pagegenerator option when running your script?

I increased the timeout to 120s but it crashed again with same error.

I will test and come back with the answer. Unfortunately it is not easy replicated so one have to wait till it happens.

Those bots are autoconfirmed. .admin bot has even an admin flag

the problem is not on pywikibot side but rather on Wikidata side. Wikidata API is not able to handle the traffic.

$ python pwb.py version
Pywikibot: [https] r-pywikibot-core (4fa5b0e, g8760, 2017/11/26, 04:52:51, OUTDATED)
Release version: 3.0-dev
requests version: 2.12.5

cacerts: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  certificate test: ok

Python: 2.7.12 (default, Sep 29 2017, 01:47:51)
[GCC 5.4.0]

I have found the real reason for the error which was a not catched wrong entry in the delete log.
That makes the task invalid

<StewardBot> Masti changed user rights for Luensu1959@lijwiki from sysop to sysop with the following comment: [[Special:Permalink/16996278]]

one option could be to add -nogroup or simmilar option to skip any changes to existing reference groups and not to goup existing refs. This is a kind of cosmetic changes to refs and the bot shoul d be able to skip it.

patch 341699 submitted https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/341699/

using BotPasswords also does not help.

List created

error also happens when I open diff links from irc.wikimedia.org Recent changes channels. Reverting from such diff also invokes confirmation button