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Resolved Bot Added to IRC

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Wes

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Due to 1) lack of available moderators during off-hours, and 2) consistent disregard for the the channel rules in the the #StarArmy channel, the OP lists has been supplemented with a bot operated by SorceryNet and assigned to our channel. Currently its functions are:
  • Curb profanity and hate speech (gives warning kicks, bans on the 3rd kick)
The list of bad words is pretty short:
  • F-word, S-word, P and C-words for female anatomy, homophobic slurs, and some sexual acts and porn sites.
Please help make the channel a better place by not using the words described above. This is also a good chance for you to re-read the channel rules. The bot and/or chanserv will automatically send the link to the rules to you as soon as you enter the channel so there is no excuse for not knowing them. Note that the bot does not mean a change in the rules; they have not changed, they are just being enforced more reliably.

EDIT: I'm adding a new rule: Don't attempt to "test" the bot. If you have a question about the bot's operation, please post it in the admin forum.
 
Wes said:
Note that the bot does not mean a change in the rules; they have not changed, they are just being enforced more reliably.
Click to expand...

You mean like how members got banned for saying "shitake mushrooms?" I don't disagree with it protecting against spam, but the overwhelming response to this has been negative. The bot doesn't have the ability to think critically like moderators and just serves to antagonize current members.
 
The bot is set to kick a couple times before banning to avoid accidentally banning someone for confusing words like the example you gave (it's spelled shiitake, by the way). #StarArmy will still have regular moderators who can kick, ban, and unban users as required. If someone is banned for an honest mistake of the bot being overeager (although 3 times seems unlikely), a mod will be able to undo the ban. If you follow the channel rules, the bot is unlikely to make its presence known.
 
So howabout me being one kick away from being banned because there was no disclosure of what the bot viewed as being a violation of it's capslock rules? Will acronyms such as S.H.I.E.L.D be a kickable offense? What about the DIoN acronym for the Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia, which is apparently a mixture of uppercase and lower case letters that, as Kyle mentioned, the bot may possibly recognize as a way for spammers to get their message out?
 
The parameters of CAPS kicks are posts 10 characters are more where caps are more than 25% of the post. Caps are kicks only, not bans.
 
so basically, we can no longer type sentences in caps. would have been nice to know that BEFORE i got kicked for saying hi to Gallant.
 
Yep. Considering not going into #Stararmy now due to the bot. This is an idea gone terribly bad. It's understandable you don't like cursewords and what not. And it is also understandable people slip up from time to time. We're human, it's to be expected. But bringing a bot into it is just begging for people to spare the rod and go full blown tourettes to spite your doing it. I can already back up Kampfer's claims of members not being happy with this. I myself am more than livid over it. And would wholeheartedly ask you reconsider taking this any further before people just up and turn the bot into a joke, or as a visual manifestation of the lack of trust between the Administration and playerbase.
 
I've disabled kicking for caps due to feedback.
 
How about some more feedback. You are driving people away with this Wes. This is a fact, there are people already not going to #stararmy because of the bot. I suspect that last thing you want is people not going to the site channel.
 
Again, the bot only enforces a portion the existing rules. It blocks 12 words (see the list here). If a user can't control himself enough to avoid profanity rules we've had in place for years now, he is probably part of the problem that required the bot to be assigned in the first place and doesn't belong in the #StarArmy channel anyway. Essentially, the bot warns with kicks and will ban people who consistently violate the channel rules (and thus deserve a ban), and that's a good thing. It's effective, it's impartial, it's consistent, and it's online even when actual mods are asleep, which is a big deal to me. My school situation has kept me out of channel more than I've liked this month and I've often been the only OP in there.
 
Yeah, the bot is a terrible idea in and of itself. Hell, people curse Wes, it's in the RP and a lot of times it has a justifiable purpose, I'm pretty sure you're likely to A: lose members, and B: lose donations if people think that their donations are going to making the chat and the RP more and more censored and troublesome for everyone.
 
The channel is an OOC one, not an RP one. Excessive profanity in OOC threads is not allowed on the forum, either. The bot is a free service from sorcery.net and is not donation-supported.
 
Wes, you're sticking to your guns, but this strikes me as one of several bad decisions you've made lately.

It started with the XenForo move. I don't browse the site for content anymore because even on the lightest skin meant for mobile devices, just scrolling down a thread causes no small amounts of chugging, starts and stops (and that's with me having a good gaming machine at that). I do most of my RP offsite now, and post just when I feel I really have to.

It's growing the same with the IRC channel too. Why bother to dwell in a place that's over-moderated to have discussions? I already hop in mostly to talk to individuals, but if #StarArmy is too much trouble to hang out in, I'm sure we can make some other place.

You're putting your foot down, but all you're encouraging from your longer-standing members is to find go-arounds. Normally, beggars wouldn't be choosy, but most of us are really too clever to be beggars.

Ever since late 2013, you've made this community hub take turns into less user-friendly directions. I'm kind of wondering when this trend will stop.
 
The move the the new forum software has been a great success and most people here like it. I'm sorry to hear that your computer has issues with it. This isn't really the thread for that though. As for the bot, I want it to be more useful and do more beneficial stuff for the channel (like posting that links lead to), but this is a start and even though it only blocks a handful of words, it's helped a lot with moderation when there are little or no OPs online.
 
Wes said:
I've often been the only OP in there.
Click to expand...
Not to be the nitpicking nancy, but I'm going to nitpick. You see, I'm on pretty much from dawn to dusk, and by my measure, Kyle and Doshii are on pretty consistently if not all the time.

In any event, having a bot is a waste of time. The only times our language really matters is when a newbie comes around, and when that happens we don't really slip up in our presentation. But, even when a newbie ISN'T around, we're good enough about our chat that we don't usually merit anything so drastic as an all-seeing eye constantly.
 
With the exception of dealing with spammers, having the bot also deal with cursing is something I am against. The reason is because people curse for various reasons, not all of which are done just to anger people, but sometimes people do it when they are angry or it becomes a slip of the tongue. The bots original intent, that I had hoped to use it for, was to allow it to serve as an informational source for newbies who come into the chat as well as dealing with the occasional spammers we get.

That is why, Wes, that I had requested the ability to configure the bot. Most channels that use a bot, do not use it for enforcing rules, but rather they leave those up to the human operators (a human is more capable of understanding the differences between a curse done out of anger, and one done out of insult, a bot can't do that)
 
This dictatorial approach is really not to my liking. We are adults, not children. The sheer lack of personal respect is really pushing me and many others away.
 
I don't feel like droning on with a speech.

I am an adult.

The disrespect of my personal rights is too much.

Being treated like a child is too much.

I will not be in the Main SARP IRC chat any more.

If you need to contact me message me on this site or try pinging me on IRC.
 
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