14
\$\begingroup\$

This post announces the official beginning of a chatbot I've been working on called GolfEye.

Here's the chatroom that it posts in. This bot will monitor both Code Golf and Code Golf Meta. It will watch for new posts, and when it recieves a new post via the SE websocket, it posts the post in the chatroom.

It posts a message saying "New post - {title}!", a list of automatically detected triggers if any, and then oneboxes the post. Currently, these triggers are:

  • missing winning criterion
  • allcaps title
  • tag in title (ex. [code golf] ...)
  • label in title (ex. Code Golf: ...)
  • repeated characters in title (ex. Thiiiiis is a post!)
  • new user (asker's rep is 1 to 11 or 101 to 111)

If it detects a trigger, it pings me (@Doorknob) so I can fix it. (If you want to be added to the ping list, just tell me. :P)

It also pings me when a new meta post is posted. (Again, tell me if you want to be pinged for meta posts as well.)

screenshot example

It will also post the post in our "official" chatroom as of v1.0.2. As of v1.0.3, it only posts a scaled-down, no onebox, plain and single-line message consisting of "New (meta)? post! {link}", without the ping or anything. (With a title as of 1.0.3.1.) This way it creates almost no disturbance.

The code is open sourced. Essentially, it's a WebSocket to recieve posts and a POST request to send chat messages. The version that is open-sourced is v1.0.0.

\$\endgroup\$
8
  • \$\begingroup\$ here we go reputation! \$\endgroup\$
    – TheDoctor
    Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 23:39
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ @TheDoctor Umm, what do you mean by that? \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 23:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ Never mind. Does it check the winning criterion of meta posts? \$\endgroup\$
    – TheDoctor
    Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 23:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @TheDoctor No, of course not. :P \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 23:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice idea! Perhaps it could also check for questions that are too short (less than 100 characters, say?) or too long. \$\endgroup\$
    – r3mainer
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 9:24
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ If you trigger rep from 1 to 10, why not from 101 to 110? \$\endgroup\$
    – ProgramFOX
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 16:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ProgramFOX I don't know, they have more experience with Stack Exchange I guess :-P I'll change it when I get home \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 19:36
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ You could trigger for mismatched post and tags. Some posts say "shortest code wins", but are tagged code-challenge, or others say "most votes wins" but are tagged code-challenge, etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – Justin
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 4:50

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6
\$\begingroup\$

Please make it stop posting in the main chatroom. That's for chatting. People who want notification of changes can

  1. Choose to follow the bot's room.
  2. Subscribe to the corresponding RSS feed
  3. Leave an open tab showing the newest questions

That's 3 opt-in systems. There's no need for an opt-out* system on top.

* Not that it's really possible to opt out: hiding the messages from the bot leaves the "X hours later" text, doesn't prevent the bot from showing as the most recent activity in the room, and worst of all leaves replies to its messages which make no sense because they've lost their context.

\$\endgroup\$
6
  • \$\begingroup\$ From a chat message I just posted: "Meh, questions are so rare here that it's uncommon enough to not be a disturbance. And this way more people are aware of the bot in the first place. You can always ignore the bot if it bothers you too much. And I feel that encouraging people to review and evaluate posts as they are posted will be good for the site's health as a whole." \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 26, 2014 at 17:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you ignore the bot in the main chat without ignoring it everywhere? \$\endgroup\$
    – Geobits
    Commented Mar 26, 2014 at 17:43
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @Doorknob, the message that was in reply to has 3 stars, so it seems that at least 5 people would rather that bot not post in the main chat. If that's not already a majority of people who use that chat, it's very close. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 26, 2014 at 19:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Now it only posts a single line message in the main chatroom, which is much less noticable and can be ignored easily. \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 26, 2014 at 20:46
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @Doorknob, even if I ignore it, it still pollutes the "most recent message" in the list of chat rooms, preventing me from quickly checking whether there's anything new to catch up on. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Mar 27, 2014 at 11:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PeterTaylor That sounds more like a [bug] to post on meta.SO than a problem with the bot itself. \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Mar 27, 2014 at 12:28

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .