Part I - in which our heroic editor confronts the demons of strife and conflict
On the virtues of IGNORE
Some time in the 1990s, Internet Relay Chat was the rage. On a wild, wild internet it was the wild, wild
west. Still is to some people. The catbox was loosely modelled on an IRC channel, to which it bears some significant similarities but with which it also has substantial differences. But that's for another day or node. The fundamental principles of the chatterbox actually resemble very early IRC more than they resemble contemporary IRC. You have one server and one or more clients. Unless you use one of the dedicated clients, E2
handles all of the client functions for you. Let's talk about one of the most important functions of a client.
"Without ignore the client is not within the Tao of Chatting."
Thus spake gnarfer (Ove Ruben R Olsen) in the "Tao of IRC" (1994), a document well worth reading for anyone developing or managing chat applications of any sort. The need for an ignore function was detected very early on, probably as soon as IRC became less of an ad-hoc proof of concept and more of an organised, free to use social environment.
The catbox does not exist outside the Tao of Chat. The yin and yang flow and mingle as freely as they did anywhere and anytime. The yang wants to know everything and not miss a beat. The yin is assured that all is well and that what is missed is missed for a reason. Even the catbox archive is just yin in the service of yang. It absorbs and does not act but exists for those too wired to miss a beat.
Due to my position I can /ignore less than I would like to /ignore because I need to be on top of things and that includes being aware of some of the more distasteful goings-on. However, I highly recommend it for the userbase in general. What you don't see can't bug you. We've had an IGNORE function for as long as I can remember. We have a grand total of 475 active ignores. This includes fled users ignoring, fled users being ignored, and usergroups being ignored, which leaves precious few for active users to be using on active users. It's enough to make one conclude that some people would rather pick a fight than ignore people whose presence or opinion irks them. Even the infamous amnesiac had very few ignores against him despite all the rage that he generated and fostered. It's obvious that /ignore is woefully underused.
Let me take gnarfer's words and adapt them:
"Without ignore the luser* is not within the Tao of Chatting."
E2 provides the functionality. All it takes is your will. Use /ignore.
*No reflection on the userbase; the term is in character with the text of
the Tao
Part II - in which our heroic editor confronts (his own inner) daemons of the software kind
On automata
Create good automata, and the IRC will hail you and you will gain fame and fortune. Create bad
automata and people will start to hate you, and finally you will be /KILLed to eternal damnation" --The Tao of IRC
I should know. I killed myriads in my day armed with a lethal array of O: lines and bandoliers full of K:
lines (and waaaaay too much time on my hands). I know my chat bots. If anyone remembers bot-writer Robey Pointer from those days on IRC, he was a martyr in the service of automation and I was a pharisee. Poor guy. Anyway. I no longer have a beef with chatbot writers but it takes a bit more than a Mechanical Turk to impress me.
E2 is no stranger to the world of automation. We used to have automaus, who was a legend in his day. We
still have Cool Man Eddie. Donginger seems to be all the rage these days and is a more traditional IRC-like bot. Nota and I used to run one that talked a bit like him on IRC circa 1996 in my secret life as a (com)bot-running hypocrite. Do I like him? I'm not sure. I think I'm still wired to go into destroy mode when
something looks like an eggdrop.
Donginger has been compared to CowbotNeal, who, for those whose memory or presence on E2 doesn't stretch far back enough, is an IRC bot on #e. The comparison is unavoidable since all chatbots look alike to the casual observer but the similarities end there. A few months ago I removed the remaining nodes with the insider lore of CowbotNeal because deletions had fragmented it over time, most of it was poorly written, and the divorce of E2 and #e has been complete and total for years. May he have many happy days automating on Slashnet but he is no longer relevant to E2 so a node with his eggdrop-standard set of commands as they existed in 2000 is pointless.
The administration's official position on the use of bots in the catbox is one of neutrality. Unless we feel a pressing need to establish a policy on the subject (which will probably be the first time some twit decides to test our limits), there will be none. Personally I think that one bot at a time is quite enough so, as long as there is some sort of automaton prowling the catbox, I'd suggest that anyone wishing to write or run one wait their turn and/or coordinate with others who share their interest. Not that I perceive a need for user-run automata in the first place. Bots will be held to at least the same standard as any other client as far as their catbox activity goes.
Part III - in which a Hero even more heroic than our heroic editor appears on a white unicorn to banish the demons and lead us to Reason amidst the sound of fanfares and marimbas
E2contact has been in the works for a few months now. TheDeadGuy has been given a mandate from High Above, though what that will do to a guy recovering from a messiah complex I do not know. His group will take charge of the issues that he describes. They will be the go-to people for "people" problems and will have the authority to do the needful as the need arises without being second-guessed by other staffers or users. The rationale behind this is that we've been lacking a proper support structure for users and staff alike outside the narrow confines of noding technique. The plan is to put the staff with the best track record and training in handling discord and personal problems in charge of precisely what they're good at dealing with, and what many of us are not. If you've met my bedside manner, you'll understand why I'm as pleased as anyone to be able to hand off some situations to a qualified and clearly defined group with a definite scope and purpose.
Read on for more...