Posting FAQ excerpts

[adeak]

I suggest a feature that allows posting recurring FAQ-like information. I mostly have "please indent your code in chat by ..." in mind, which is a naturally (re-)occuring event in python, and cumbersome and noisy for humans to do.

[kms70847]

Do you mean rabbit should post these tips periodically, not necessarily in response to any one person? Or rabbit should post these tips when it detects that someone has made a poorly-indented message? The latter is much cooler but also much harder to implement.

Along similar lines, I'd like an auto-responder for people saying "Can I ask a question?" Or "anyone in here know Django?"

[Ffisegydd]

+1 if the bot answers "No." to "Can I ask a question?"

[kms70847]

One possible drawback of autoresponses is that clueless newbies might not notice it's a robot and start pinging it for technical assistance. Historically, we've had a lot of instances of people incessantly pinging the first person that talked to them, regardless of whether they expressed an actual interest in helping.

[adeak]

@kms70847 definitely not periodically. I meant something like a command that room owners can give, making rabbit post the necessary bit of information. Typing !indent or something similar is much simpler to do, and rabbit can do the heavy lifting. Of course, an automatic response triggered by messages containing python code with indentation errors would be the obvious way.

[adeak]

As for newbies harrassing rabbit with their messages: I believe the bunny posting feature is enough for that...

[idjaw]

If the bot answers, it can answer back pinging the user and explicitly saying. Do not respond, I'm a bot. (but granted, some people might think it's a joke and answer anyway) I think overall it's unavoidable if a bot responds and some people ping them. If it gets minimal over time, then success?