Filed under: Developer, Internet, Productivity
If you’re an IRC user, then you know the only thing more annoying than seeing the same comment repeated in rapid succession by four different people is seeing it repeated in rapid succession by 24 different people. The more members there are in an IRC channel, the more likely it is that someone just joining will ask a question that was asked moments before their arrival. Add to that the number of people “LOL”ing “+1″ing each other and the signal-to noise ratio quickly becomes deafening.
In an attempt to cease the madness, Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame) and his friend zigdon have coded a rather awesome little bot and named it ROBOT9000. It’s designed — get this — to mute the messaging capability of anyone who states anything that’s already been stated in the channel within the past two years (boy, those xkcd guys mean business.).
Randall and zig are still tweaking the code but you can snag the initial version if you want to try it out in your own channel. They’ve also set up an IRC testing channel if you want to just play around with the bot. Just don’t state “hi all” when you log in. You’ve been warned.
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