µo«H¤H¡G goblins (ºëÆF)    ¬ÝªO¡Girc
¤é´Á¡G Sat Nov 26 07:22:49 1994
¼ÐÃD¡G ¡¸BOTS and their usefulness (or lack therof)¡¸


[ Article crossposted from alt.irc ]
[ Author was Chuck Cochems ]
[ Posted on 11 Jun 1994 21:10:30 -0500 ]

I have seen much on the subject of bots.  Many people don't like them, 
others do.  I think bots can be ranked in terms of legitimacy.  The rank 
would go something like this, from most defensable to least.

1) DCC bot.  does NO direct harm.  DCC bots aren't bad, only the files 
they distribute can be good or bad.

2) Protection bots.  Something on a fast server to protect you from 
getting deopped on a channel you are a regular of.  These can also do 
kicks for channel floods.  Pretty defensible.

3) Channel holding bots.  People should be there keeping the ops instead, 
but in a number of situations (many invonving channels that start with 
w!) they really are needed.

4) Any bot of the above types that netsplits in.  Netsplits can come in 
handy when a channel becomes opless (and was not intended to be!)  
Netsplits can be used for good (saving an opless channel) or evil (taking 
over a channel).

5) Nick collide bots.  There is less good that can be done with a nick 
collide, but there is at least one scenario where a nick collide is the 
BEST thing to do!  If you have a rogue IRC process that purports to be 
already killed but isn't, then it's best to nick collide it if it has 
flood protection (and you forgot to give your script a kill password).

6) Clonebots:  What's the purpose of a clonebot?  What legitimate use do 
they have?  None!  They are just used to flood people and do other 
annoying things.

7) Floodbots:  Flooding is bad.  Any situation where people could claim 
that it is morally defensible to flood can be handled by a nick collide 
instead.  

8)  Combination of 7 and 6 above.  Real bad.  A bunch of bots flooding 
people is simply something no one should be able to do.

I think that about covers it..

-- 
zaphod@camelot.bradley.edu
"Just think the world is in your hand."  -- Culture Beat
(have you figured out I like Culture Beat yet?)

.