Or better.. forward them to this forum, it is made for repbot support. 

repbot at fibs would tie RepBot too closely to FIBS.  Besides, it's not really any different from contacting the owner directly via email... it just adds a layer to it.   And forwarding complaints here doesn't meet the needs of being able to contact the owner directly unless he happens to be reading the forum.

How would you use information from a RepBot that didn't have complaint functions?  What would the numbers mean?  And wouldn't people still have an incentive to create sock puppets to boost their rating?

If people don't look at the whois information on RepBot, I can't imagine they'll notice it at a place that's completely disconnected from the bot.

And you're missing the bigger point, which is that I have to do a lot of cleanup work from people who abuse FIBS just to game RepBot.  Until that loophole is closed, as I first requested in February 2005, the rest of the discussion is completely irrelevant.

Right now the issues that prevent RepBot from being allowed back onto FIBS are:

- RepBot must somehow close the anyone-can-voice-an-opinion-about-anyone issue that encourages ganging up and creating sock puppets
- RepBot needs to be much more assertive about informing people that I have nothing to do with it (and clients need to pass this through)
- RepBot needs to pass along the descriptive text about what savedgames numbers mean (and clients need to pass this through as well)

I've proposed one solution for that first issue, and I'm certainly open to hearing other workable suggestions.

Does anyone find those requirements unreasonable?


Oh, yes.  The reason that I require a working email address for every bot is very simple:  I want to be able to contact the bot's owner directly if there are any problems with the bot, and I want every FIBS user to have a simple way to do the same thing.  I've personally used this information twice in the past month alone, once to give RepBot notice, and once to inform don of a bug I discovered in mudPY.  I know others have used it in the past to contact bot owners to report bugs.

Is whois really not built into FIBS clients?  That's... wow, just wow.

However, that's also a really strong argument for bots being much more proactive about stating their ownership.  If the message shows up on the user's screen unsolicited, it might be seen.  If it happens often enough, it might even be remembered.  If the user can't find the bot's address, they probably also can't find the bot's support page.


If so, then it will apparently be impractical for RepBot to remain.

I honestly think I've been perfectly reasonable here.  I've asked for three years (!) for problems to be addressed, and nothing has happened.  I contacted the owner and gave him a reasonable deadline for fixing the problems, or for at least giving me a plan for fixing the problems.   (In other words, if he'd said, "Here's what I'm going to do, but I won't be able to finish it before July", I would have been cool with that.)

i want repbot back. why not banning the 10k-club instead?
if this is not possible i want my accounts deleted. i am Ramses and UncleScrooge on fibs.
thanks

Please, can you tell me which command I have to use to see ones number of save games?
Thanks.

These are not unreasonable issues.  I think that mudPY addresses the easy ones (after a little indexing error where I was sending that info to the askee instead of the asker, sorry).

Patti's TimeBot provides all that is needed for a more reasonable dataBase of complaints and vouches. 

My ISP kills all background processes at 2AM my time.  For that reason mudPY is a static bot, and doesn't even experiment with extracting info from consecutive updates of saved games.  It would be pretty easy for me to create a reputation bot that would satisfy all of Patti's requirements, but I don't see the point without a permanent home for it.  Also, I only ever used the saved game info provided by RepBot.

The material for the solution is out there, RepBot lovers.  Quite simple to do.  Put up or shut up!

--
don

Will somebody with the skills, resources, and access PLEASE fix this problem!  I'm 0 for 3, so all I can do is whine. 

With repbot gone, I can no longer play strangers at fibs.  Mudpy is helpful, but it's not enough information, and the command line takes too long (as a previous poster discussed). 

We need a vouching system, period.  Patti's suggestions are perfectly reasonable, so will somebody please DO SOMETHING, gosh dang it! 

FIBS SUCKS WITHOUT REPBOT!  With repbot, I can play anytime, because I can play strangers.  Without repbot, I can only play when people I know are logged in.  Right now, no one I know is logged in, so here I am at fibsboard, complaining about repbot! 

Hey, if Patti gets more emails complaining about repbot's absence than she does about repbot's problems........  Nah, let's not go there. 

Thank you Patti, I know this will work out eventually.   

I've only been dropped when I started playing on Fibs. Repbot wasn't any help then it was other way round. I was dropped because Repbot. I got bad reputation because I didn't want to chat or some other guy just complained me because I was too lucky. After that no one would play me because I was newcomer with bad rep. The only opponents I got were rating manipulator or droppers who didn't care about my bad reputation. After that I stopped playing in Fibs. I can only guess how many people have experienced the same thing.

But I tried again with new nick after couple of months on other sites. This time I tried to play the popularity contest and begged for vouches. For a long time it was like walking on thin ice. I mainly playd with low rating and low experienced players so my few vouches could ruined with just one complain. And sometimes Fibs just kicked me out (which it still does) and I didn't get back until my opponent had left and complained me. But finally I got my reputation to level that I don't have to care about Repbot any more. To me it was only obstacle for playing and I'm happy to see it out from Fibs.

What I mean is, I'm unwilling to play unknown people without the information repbot provides.  I have been dropped and/or treated rudely several times (over the 4 years I've been here) -- ALWAYS when repbot was down, or when I didn't bother to pay attention to the rep score. 

OK, repbot's gone, and maybe something will replace it, and maybe not.  I guess I'll be "rolling the dice" on unknown players, and Patti's criteria suggestions are helpful. 

But my plea remains -- will someone with skills/resources/access please create a bot that meets Patti's perfectly reasonable requirements?  If you must vouch or complain within, say, 2 days of playing a game (or partial game), problem solved!  I think it would be wise, though, to allow someone to withdraw a vouch or a complaint at any time. 

"Bones"