Difference between revisions of "ABotUs"

ABotUs is no longer available.

ABotUs is an Eggdrop-based [1] robot which sits on our IRC channel. You can play with it and do the following things.

WikiLinks

• It will automagically expand WikiLinks done in CamelCase and FreeLinks (MediaWiki) style:
  • [[link]] or {{link}} will be auto-expanded to their full URLs.
  • The above links prepended with "w:" will link to the corresponding articles/templates on Wikipedia.
  • "m:" - meta.wikimedia.org.
  • "commons:" - Wikimedia Commons.
  • "wikit:" - Wiktionary.
  • "s:" - Wikisource.
  • "q:" - Wikiquote.
  • "b:" - Wikibooks.
  • "n:" - Wikinews.
  • "wikispecies:" - Wikispecies.
  • "c:" - Centiare.
  • "wi:" - WikiIndex.
  • "wh:" - wikiHow
  • "wiki:" - Wiki
  • "meatball:" - MeatballWiki

Bear in mind that since this addition was written for Wikipedia projects in mind, that's why it contains a lot of Wikimedia-related links. Links to other wikis and projects can be added and removed very simply.

The bot will also automatically welcome WebUsers (via notice, so that nobody sees but the user) and direct them to wait for a response:

"Hello WebUser_ and welcome to AboutUs. Please feel free to ask a question (or more than one); if you don't get a response in a couple of minutes, you may also send an e-mail to We look forward to chatting! - (sent by the AboutUs IRC Robot)"

This was added by Nathan (and wording corrected by Ray) after Nathan's slight annoyance at users who join and don't wait around for a response. This (hopefully) encourages some users to wait a while for us to notice they've asked a question.

Google

You can issue Google queries (only the top result will be output to the channel) by saying !google yoursearchterm

Check idle time

Only the channel operators (and Nathan) can use this feature.

Say "!idle" in the channel and the bot will tell you who's been idle (inactive in the channel) for how long.

Country

"!country two_character_country_code_here" - the bot will expand the two-character country code to its full country name.

DNS resolution

"!dns some_ip_address_here" - the bot will attempt to resolve the IP address you supply into its fully qualified hostname.

If there is a feature you think would be handy, please talk to ABotUs' owner, Nathan

Weather

For weather in the USA, you can use ".wz zipcode" or ".wz city, state" For weather anywhere else, use ".wz city country" Using a "-d" before the zipcode/city etc will set a default, allowing you to just type .wz in future.

Examples of use:

• .wz Portland,OR
• .wz 12345
• .wz Lahore, Pakistan OR .wz Lahore, PK

Discussion

New Web IRC message

I am digging the new automated welcome message for Web Users when they join the AboutUs IRC. "-ABotUs- Hello WebUser and welcome to AboutUs. Please feel free to ask a question (or more than one); if you don't get a response in a couple of minutes, you may also send an e-mail to We look forward to chatting! - (sent by the AboutUs IRC Robot)" It seems to be helping to lesson the number of people that pop in and pop out without saying anything or without being greeted. KristinaWeis

That's what my goal was. Ted and I were thinking of combining the two messages (the one ChanServ sends and the one ABotUs sends) but the trouble with that is that it hits all users. The bot is smart enough to only message those people with 'Web' in their nick but ChanServ isn't. Nathan ^(talk) / 22:03, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Channels

If anyone would like ABotUs in any other AboutUs-related channels, please let me know, that's pretty easy to do. Nathan ^(talk) 15:00, 14 September 2007 (PDT)

Would be great to have ABotUs in #AboutUsCommunity. Thanks! TedErnst | talk 12:11, 16 September 2007 (PDT)

Consider it done. Nathan ^(talk) 12:45, 16 September 2007 (PDT)