Purge.  It'll get rid of most of the abuse.  I'm not sure why you're even bothering with bots, as I see no reason they can't vouch/complain if they've played someone.  I am sure that, with no purge, you are just continuing the abuse of RepBot.

--
don

Actually I see no reason they CAN vouch/complain if they've played anyone.

The only reasonable explanation for letting bots to do that is to enable them to compain about bot-droppers as a means to punish these abusers, right?

But the point is that Patti has developed a new plan to punish them by docking 15 rating pts. Actually yesterday she announced docking of 5700 rating pts from bot-droppers. So they are getting punished by server adminstrator, and a very painfull one, thus no need to let bots to overdo it.

Also I do think that letting bots vouch/compain gives geissenpeter an extra-advantage in implementing his obnoxiois plans to abuse FIBS and settle the score with his dissidents. Actually when inim applied the no-bot-vouch/complaint rule, my reputation rose about 15000 pts which was caused by gBOTs' complaints.

Thus, yes, I think bots should not have a right to vouch/complaint.

Regards

My first choice is to completely throw away the database and start from scratch.  This is largely because I hate the idea of having "mixed meaning" for data.

I'm OK with limiting the database to only complaints and vouches where the players can be documented as having played each other since 1992.

I see no reason at all that bots shouldn't be allowed to vouch and complain like any other user.  If nothing else, there's no "I'm a bot" flag on FIBS.

Monday, June 09 11:52:22 CEST   ( Mon Jun  9 09:52:22 2008 UTC )
> t repbot l donzbot
** You tell RepBotNG: l donzbot
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complainers: abi, bassplayer, Biggles_two, Botox, brl, Buso, dfisher, dick*, doombot, harzard____, Honeygirl_ll, I_NEVER_LOSE_III, isthisme, jajalamaprataprik, jasonj
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complainers (cont'd): klinger, lambda_phage, MadGreek, MattsDad, McGrill, neljen, NIHILIST, Norlan, Rina, sackofjaweea, schindler, Slipshod, virgo, Zorba
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouchers: anakin, conman, crueger, diane, gilesashton, griff, HiRoller, hypno, Johnny_Boy, karmapa, kenzo, Macgammon, maria, markhz, Mary_in_Florida
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouchers (cont'd): Mort, nielsrock, OpenWheel, Ral, Shuggie_II, Sly, taylor, texan, Wallenstein
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints: <kdc>, _scardy_, bassesmor*, bbque, benzion, bigdani, boxcar, brl, Buso, cajuna, callipygian, celera, cmh, DameDicker_VI, deanlikeafrenchman
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints (cont'd): dick*, dloreg, Dodgy, dorndle, eeniemeenie, Feklhr, fokkus, fresh, gammon_gangsta, gaucho, gnaisse, gold_eagle, Greg, harzard____, hinkali
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints (cont'd): Hockey_Nite, hydra, igor, jajalamaprataprik, janana, jasonj, JeffK, juancho, Kalewu, KaySettes, kenb, Klaus_Bergmann, larrym, LAX_TO_TLV, leveler
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints (cont'd): linx, Ludvigsson, lynchpfc, macky, MadMatt, melzi, mradica, nerino, NIHolympic*, off_in_the_shower, oguil, ours, paymahn, PeterOZanne, phs
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints (cont'd): pipi, PLevy, rastaman, Ray, retrovertigo, rit, sackofjaweea, safety_matches, scribblehead, Sinatra, Slipshod, Sly, Speedypete, suz, tart
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's complaints (cont'd): taylor, telnet, theprez, Tino, tonibarjau, warbenleo, weedshower, xinloi, zakasax
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches: ace, acumen, adambulldog, ade, adhock, aleko, alisima, alterboy, amarganth, AMETHYST, anakin, apc, Argine, Arneb, austin
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): Bach, Backwoods, baghira, BANQUE, bardancer, bassplayer, bat, bertie, Biggles_two, blackstar, Bobber, bonehead, Bonobo, BSinclair, bthax*
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): Chench, chk, Chris, cococaro, colonial, conman, cordero, DadoHead, deljs, diane, dicing_queen, don, donzaemon, doombot, dosenwurst
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): duracell, Ebenezer, elagace, erkani, evilomlap, fibsy, fooey, franlou, fri, funny, ganjaman, ggworld, ghoozis, gilesashton, Gjean
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): gnomysTwo, Godzilla, GrandKiller, Guera, HARINCOZ, HATTER, helemanu, hypno, hypnosa, ibt, Iceborg, informix, insomnia, isthisme, jcnotanewbie
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): JeanLouis, jechu, jemdh, Johnny_Boy, Jojo, jokirk, jozeval, juanz, jussi, KATO, KDP, kenzo, kinetic, ladymara, lego
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): lene, LeSinge, LinkMasterJoe, LynnL, Macgammon, mad_jack, MadGreek, Mafalda, magowiz, maison, marti, Mary_in_Florida, mau, maxilex, mefistofeles
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): meganmarshall, mibaleaba, mirager, mjt, MMQ, mocca, moose, Mort, MVH, myndlis, nailer, nielsrock, Nondas, Norlan, notverylucky
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): numb, okamoto, onlyonepointers, OpenWheel, Patrixia, Pickaroon, Ramses, reaper, resh_lakish, revans, Rick, rod, rolldice*, roller, roton
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): rtheo, RubberLass, Ryobi, samirah, scardy, Schigolch, schindler, scuba, secos, Sequit, seventy_one, sexmachine, Shaggy, Shuggie_II, sidie
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): silent_greek, silfides, skunk, slickhorse, slowhand, sonnenblume*, spielberg, stork_one, SuperNovice, svrstp, texan, TheGens, thekla, thenonsequitur, threem
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): Tide, tjking, trotteur, tucsonAZ, vales*, vegasvic, verystripeyzebra, vrstud, Wallenstein, webrunner, Wizzard_of_Ozz*, wunbungtung, XCal, xkont, yannis
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot's vouches (cont'd): YinYangMan*, Znodd, Zonker
>
RepBotNG says: donzbot has 89 saved games.
>
RepBotNG says: Note: donzbot is a bot.
>
>
> t repbot l gBOT
** You tell RepBotNG: l gBOT
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's complainers: Alcibiades, Aldus, alef, BeautifulDice, bertinibu, bigben, burper, cassandra, Cosmo, frittenforke, Gioconda, gnubee, greenone, ibharry, inim
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's complainers (cont'd): jodvm, lemaraudeur, manxcat, McGrill, Merlin, nuttydude, PersianLord, primetime, RiceKrispies, rinit, secos, shadowcaster, Sinderbox, sombra, sunsplash
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's complainers (cont'd): truckergirl, twin, vegasvic
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's vouchers: Aulus, betterstart, BigTop, boog, ciccione, eMMe, FatElvis, Giggles, griff, javahypist, karmapa, marksist, Mary_in_Florida, mickeymouse*, mon_mon
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's vouchers (cont'd): Monoecus, nauthiz, nOOb, Pareto, PEIDER, Pepsi, planitzen, QuintacolumnistA, rossa, Schichtwechsel, Slee, sokobi, tenor, TROjanHORse, uzalla
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT's vouchers (cont'd): voucher, Wetterhexe, whynot, yorkes, zax
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT has no complaints.
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT has no vouches.
>
RepBotNG says: gBOT has 40 saved games.
>
RepBotNG says: Note: gBOT is a bot.
>


Seems that donzbot has more vouches and complaints than all the gBOTs together ever had.

Let me say this before anything, my personal attitude towards opinionated bots is the same as that of the character Laura Roslin in "Battlestar Galactica (2004)", 'Throw the thing out of the air lock!'.

However, the result of the query


yields 1164 "bot" opinions even after purging gbot* and bonehead before, which had about 450 opinions.

The respective "bots" are: bluebot, BotBuster, bothofus, botkiller, Botox, bot_named_sue, bot_named_sue_II, bot_named_sue_III, bot_named_sue_IV, donzbot, donzbot_II, donzbot_III, donzbot_IV, doombot, douchebot, fembot, i_hate_bots, lobot, MortsBot, NiceRollerBot, PlayBot, PlayBotBunny, roBOTron, sobotta, tdbot, tingeltangelbot, twinkybot.

Boomslang's bots (PlayBot, PlayBotBunny) cast 151 opinions, donzaemon's (bot_named_sue_X, donzbot*) cast 816 opinions, which makes indeed donzaemon the busiest bot opinion caster. And of course many of the hits aren't really bots.

This research convinced me, bots will be allowed to have opinions. I prefered it the other way, but I see that this policy creates a lot of maintainance work which isn't worth the gain, and probably never will catch all cases anyway. But there is a price for that, likely a lot of the gbot's 10K abuse will remain in the DB, because many players have played a gbot at least once.

Dropping a Bot is as bad as dropping a human player imho.  They should be allowed to complain if they're dropped.   

socksey



"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other." - Voltaire (1764)

I would simply like to be assured that those many players who would like to VOUCH MOOKIE are given every opportunity to do so.  This is no time to deny people their rights.

Mookie

  

socksey



It was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished. -Thoreau

One more optimization was done, I have dropped all users from the "users" table who are not having an opinion about anybody, and about whom nobody has any opinion. The table size was significantly reduced, with no impact on user visible output.

The benefit of this is that the round-robin GC for expired user now rotates over a significantly reduced set, and by this will detect expired users twice as fast. Also less "whois" load is produced on FIBS for users nobody is interested in anyway. I'll probably add this to the GC code so it takes place automatically from time to time.