[Theforum] IRC Bot - thepfy

A. Erickson amanda at gawow.com
Fri Dec 28 14:14:20 CST 2001


> > Kill the bots. 
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> 
> -1

Why not?
 
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> > To trust the bot you have to trust the maker(s) of the
> > bots. That's a whole other discussion. 
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> 
> precisely.  so, do we ban the makers of the bots as well?

No.

> people's perceptions of the room and the bots involved are 
> what are causing friction -- not the bots by themselves.  
> hell, thebot has been in #evolt for
> a year now and no one has had an issue with it.  

That's not true. I think people have had issues with it. I think people
have been pretty polite in letting it play itself out. Now that others
are registering their unhappiness or unease with the bots, I am too.

> eliza's 
> been there for a
> good six months or more (dean, correct me if i'm wrong) and 
> no one has complained.  martin wants to try one out and the 
> discussion flares up.  what if i wanted to learn how to make one?

Sorry -- my desire for no bots has nothing to do with Martin's bot.
Period. 

Eliza was saying things awhile back about me that made me uncomfortable.
I changed what it was saying. That doesn't mean that I am now
comfortable with the bots.

> no, this isn't about bots.  it's about personality conflicts 
> and misunderstandings of the medium (irc).

Bots confuse the issue. Who programmed what bot to say or do what?
That's the issue. It makes *me* uncomfortable. Remove the bots and that
amorphous problem is solved.

> banning the bots doesn't stop that.  the nasty graffiti will 
> continue until the personality conflicts and 
> misunderstandings are worked out.  

I don't really care. I have registered my feelings to kill the bots. I
am more comfortable dealing with personality conflicts one on one. I
don't like conflicts hiding behind perl scripts. 

> the only difference is 
> that the nastiness will only be shared with human users 
> present at the time and not taught to the bots to be 
> regurgitated later

Which seems more fair to me.

> (though there's no saying none of the 
> humans present won't regurgitate it later without prompting). 
>  at least the bots only "learn" or say things about people if 
> they're specifically addressed.  the same certainly can't be 
> said of human users.

Kill the bots.

- amanda





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