Well What Do You All Think.......

[webrunner]

mrbond, most of the solutions that have been offered actually don't solve the problems that I'm talking about.

Maybe not, but as far as i'm concerned it's worth a try. Killing the bot is always an option but why take such hard measures as a start?

As i said, i am willing to open up a mailbox. You can even set up a mailrule in your email client that if the message or subject contains the word "repbot" it is forwarded to that mailbox. Or even (and you can do that now) create an autorespond that points to this forum. All easy stuff any system- or webadmin should do (i host several websites and i have a lot of this automated reply stuff configured).

This is a first step to take some load off your shoulders. That still leaves the other problems, i know. Is there anyone that is able and willing to change some code of repbot? Maybe, for instance, it is fairly easy to create an IP-check (people be vouched from the same IP address twice). That is not an airtight solution but it makes cheating a hell of a lot more difficult then it is now.

Also, isn't it possible to automate some of the cleaning up you have to do by shell scripting?

My message is: Patti, why not take this one step at a time and see where it gets us?
A lot of (partial) solutions have been suggested. Why not give them a try? They might just work. If the problems you are talking about are still there you can always pull the plug.

Asides from that, i think you will recieve a lot more mail of people whining when you pull the plug on repbot in the short term, so that is not really a quick solution either.

Patti, as much is i appreciate all the work you are putting in to it (and believe me, i know it is a lot of work), i get the feeling that you are looking for a quick solution.

There is only one quick solution to your problem as far as i can see it... Kill Fibs, kill the fibs.com domain move on... This of course is not something we all want. Maybe it is time to get some help in administrating Fibs to take some load off your shoulders?

Since i don't have a lot of time and too much projects already i cannot offer you much. But i am willing to offer some time. Maybe i can do some of the email answering?

Another idea jumps up. We could set up an email address that posts directly to this forum. That way we can all see what kind of stuff you are getting and help if people are asking legitimate questions.

OK.. this post is way too long and has too much information. Maybe someone can comment on all this....

[diane]

If all of this is done simultaneously with removing the 'ask' command and replacing it with 'freinds' as the only option - it should stop all this from happening (albeit we cant then use the feature to keep droppers out of tourneys - but thats a small price).  There wil be no advantage to making nicks to ruin a rep - and therefore no system cleanups to do - well, connected to repbot that is.

These are two simple and immediate steps - lets do them now - Patti gave it until the end of March to be cleaned up - this could remove enough trouble that maybe she will tolerate its presence into the future.  

As Patti said -

"Yes, I think it should stay and I'm willing to write code so that Patti doesn't have to spend as much time dealing with its problems."

There is no code to be written here- just some tweaking - but it could make a real difference- if we stop waiting for Patti to agree - and do it - there is every chance she might forget repbot was ever much of a hassle.

[adamosad]

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