Difference between revisions of "ABotUs"

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)

How to make changes to the bot

This section was formerly added by Scott, though I kept reverting it as unneeded. I'm therefore restoring it and answering it.

There is absolutely no reason why staff should be making system changes to the bot. I find it offensive that since I'm the owner of the bot, any member of staff would want to completely circumvent me and make arbitrary changes. The bot sits on a shell account with almost a gigabyte of very valuable information (both work-related and personal websites and other bots that I'm operating) and nobody will get access to that, period, especially not anyone I don't know and trust.

There is no way I can "abuse" my status as bot owner. The bot isn't opped and it's not in any position of power/privilege in the channel and that's just not how I do things.

The bot is very well-programmed and there's no reason it should "go haywire" and I shouldn't be in the IRC channel solely to babysit it. If there's something wrong with it, let me know - if you don't want to let me know, ask someone else to let me know. If it goes completely crazy, just ban it and tell me what it did and I will fix it. No, there's no way to fix it yourself and that will not be changing anytime in the future.

If you want me to make any changes, they must be discussed through me and there must be a consensus made by all staff (at least all staff who use IRC often). I will absolutely not be making any arbitrary changes just because one member of staff doesn't like a feature (especially not a feature which a majority of staff like). I will absolutely not be undoing any collective decisions (without another collective decision), period.

To make myself perfectly clear, if you are the only one to object/disagree with any function or script, that implies that the majority have agreed with it.

If you don't like the bot, ignore it (according to Scott, others have) - other staff obviously do like it, or I would not have created it in the first place. I created the bot to help in the channel and it does exactly that.

The other answer I can give is: Making changes to the bot is not as simple as you may think. Eggdrop bots are modular; that is, there are scripts (using TCL) which give it certain functions (Google is a script, weather is a script, all the above functions use their own scripts). If you want the bot to do something, check EggHelp.org for existing scripts, maybe someone already had the same idea. If you can't find it there, learn TCL and write a script yourself, then submit it to me (and I will poll the staff to ask if they want that feature). Learning by doing is the best way.

I personally find the question offensive, but I've answered it to the best of my ability.

I'm extremely firm on this issue and my mind will not be changed. Nathan ^(talk) 04:55, 1 September 2007 (PDT)