If the new forum software succeeds, I think one of the best features possible would be a bot. This bot should do some important tasks:
- Assist in auctions. A topic in the auctions section can be put to bot control by the thread starter. The owner sets some parameters, and all posters below must comply with the rules. The bot periodically maintains a list of highest bidders.
- Keep topics clean and on-topic. If the tone of a topic goes too negative, with an increasing amount of insulting or offensive words, or a rapid decrease in post length, or a rapid increase in quote pyramid size, or any other measurable indicator of topic "dirtyness", the bot steps in and reminds users to be clean. It should also report overly offensive posts.
- Help newbies. After anyone posts a new topic, the bot should search for fuzzy matches or keywords in the forum. If one or multiple of significant relevance is found, the bot may post a post containing links to the old topics.
- Perform basic moderation. If a post is a complete duplicate of the previous post, or contains 3 letters or less, it can be assumed that the post was useless and the bot should delete it and send a PM to the user which created the post. If a post looks like a spam-bot, the bot reports (not deletes) the post to the moderators.
- Post news. News from respected news sites such as Bitcoinmedia is reposted by the bot, which also provides a list of similar news stories if applicable.
- Update speculation. The bot provides the latest updates when giant swings occur, with detailed information in the posts. When requested, the bot replys with bitcoincharts.com, bitcoinica, or other chart website charts in a thread (e.g. "Can someone post the 3-month SMA?", etc.).
There are obviously many, many other purposes for such a bot, and those are only suggestions.
If you are not able to moderate your own posts then you are too simple to communicate in the company of intelligent people. Conversely, if postings by others cause you so much distress that you need an automated system to make it comfortable for you, then you are too lazy to communicate with informed people, and should be banned for your ignorance.
By the numbers-
Auctions. They are a massive waste of effort and a pointless exercise. They are only posted by a limited cadre of hardcore spammers. Who gives a damn, and why should anyone lift a finger to enable a single damn thing for their commercial waste of my time.
Dirtiness- (note the spelling!) How juvenile. You want an automated system to clean up offensive posts? WTF? FTW! Your offensive is my gentle caution, which set of rules will the bot use? If I tell you this is a stupid idea is that offensive, or do I have to go to this is a really f*cking stupid idea?
Help newbies- what you are proposing is automatic necro-thread management. Sure, just what a forum needs, every n00b will trigger every topic that is long dead and gone coming back to the top of the rotation. That is so far beyond stupid it belies description, and it is completely antithetical to the concept of a dynamic forum that grows over time. If a n00b needs to find an old topic, there is a lovely search box ^^ that they can use for that purpose. If they can't figure that out they are probably so stupid they require a bot to remind them to wipe their asses.
Basic moderation- that's just absurd. You would replace +1 with a mandatory statement, and have a set of rules decide what is worth leaving up? With auto-abuse of the OP service added for good measure. You must live in a very, very bleak world that needs such domination just to be able to communicate.
Post news- oh goody! Now served pure and continuous spam from those sites that YOU determine are respected. What if I like to get my news from nunsinbondage.org or solidcoinblowsmonkeys.com? Would those be respected? Would the majority of users need to have automatic posts from them force-fed to them?
Update speculation- you are clearly the laziest sod in creation. You need a bot to go and find information that sits at your fingertips and package it before spoon feeding it to you? What if I corrupt that bot and feed you erroneous sell signals and destroy your fortune? What if I give you wild swing news when there isn't any? You and the rest of the brain-dead lemmings would take action only to whine and ask for a bot to recover your lost wealth the next morning.
First, thanks for actually responding with a useful post.
I disagree that certain posts, especially ones which are 3 characters or less, can be useful. Most often, these are simply spam "+1" or "-1" posts, which achieve nothing. If the OP wished to allow users to make that choice, they would have made a poll instead.
Dirtiness is purely subjective, as you state. However, certain words are nearly in English unambuigiously offencive. The phrases GTFO, STFU, or their full forms are rarely if ever used in contructive arguments, and if found in short posts is almost certainly offencive. Such a bot would not delete the posts in question, but rather remind the users that the topic is not a flame-war.
If posts become progressively shorter, this is a good indication that the tone of the thread has become more negative. The bot suggests to place more thought into those posts, but does not interfere with the actual conversation.
Most people in this forum will admit they have not exactly been friendly to newbies. My first post to this forum was completely ignored, even though I had already poured in hours of research into finding a solution. A bot will be able to at least list posts which may have some relevance, and can encourage the forum members to be friendlier with their responses.
As for posting news, how is a bot doing it any different from a human?
And as for updating speculation, the speculation forum goes abuzz whenever a spike or swing occurs. A bot will be able to detect and report this in real time. Other than increased overhead, I don't see a problem with this approach.
Finally, I did read this part:
No.
Remember that these are just suggestions, and bots can be useful in thousands of additional ways.
