Bulk Update Request or BUR is a mechanism to perform multiple aliases and implications in a single request. Users can write a script, and a Moderator is able to approve or disapprove the request. You can request a BUR in the menu over the Forum page, or clicking here.

Available actions

The current actions possible are:

• alias: Creates a new alias (every single time a tag is added, it is automatically replaced by something else).
• imply: Creates a new implication (every single time a tag is added, another is added together automatically);
• unalias: Removes an existing alias.
• unimply: Removes an existing implication.
• update: Replaces every single use of a tag with another, only for the time of the request.
• category: Changes the category of a tag.

Syntax

The syntax of a BUR looks like this:

unalias aaa -> bbb
unimply aaa -> bbb
alias aaa -> bbb
imply aaa -> bbb
update aaa -> bbb
category tag_name -> category_name

Note that whitespace is not ignored--you must have one space between each token.

Warning messages

A BUR can give warning messages depending on already existing requests. An example is:

# has blocking transitive relationships, cannot be applied through bur

These errors can appear on new implications or aliases, and means the target of them is already involved in some older requests. For this to work, the previous requests would need to be rejected first.

When the BUR refuses to submit because of an error, you can simply remove the lines causing the issue, and put them in the forum post, requesting a staff member to perform it after the BUR runs.

Forum topic

BURs should be reviewed on the forum, and making a BUR automatically makes a forum post. Use the "Forum topic (optional)" field if your request is already being discussed in the forum, or to group related BURs together.
For example, to create a post in the Call a ♠ a Spade (Suit Symbols BUR) thread, you would copy the number at the end of the thread's url (in this case, 30502) and put it in the "Forum topic (optional)" field when you submit your BUR.

Order of operations

BURs do not have a defined order of operations. That is, don't do this:

update football_(ball) -> gridiron_ball
alias football_(ball) -> football_(ball)_(disambiguation)

There is no way to be sure that the mass update would apply before the alias. If these operations run in the wrong order, you might clobber the gridiron_ball tag, or just not update any tags at all.
Therefore, to do sequential operations, submit two separate requests, and an admin will perform them in the appropriate order.