Friends,
As I am sure that most of y'all know, the "bot division" in Forgotten Scans has always been an organization that largely depended on one, or at most two, active and interested staff members in order to make any improvement or breakthrough in "bot technology".
Bot division is... the department in Forgotten Scans responsible for the continuous operation, maintenance of, and expansion of the "bots"
Bots are... programs that interact with users in our various chatrooms. As of right now, bots have been active in IRC and Chatango. "Interactions" are usually text feedback based on commands or specific keywords.
Bot technology is...any type of code, platform, or system for operating the operation of the bots. Bot technology is usually improved when breakthroughs are made in the code itself.
The current status of the bot division... can be best described as "inactive". No work is currently being done in that division.
As of right now the only bots operating are the Kittybot, Racbot, and Selebot, and little-to-no-progress has been made in changing anything about their internal or external operation.
Because of Radioactivekitty's retirement I must now explain to future members of the Bot Division what I had hoped would be "generation 3" of the bots.
Generation 1: The Original KittyBot Platform
The original KittyBot Platform is still in use. It relies on python and a piece of chatango library code known as "ch.py"
The original KittyBot Platform is also the foundation for the Racbot and Selebot.
The code has been said to be "crappy", "hacked together", "inefficient and completely broken", however, it still functions.
However, despite it working, some believe that it will continue to do so. The ch.py code connects to chatango servers in a way that is deprecated and there is the good chance that Chatango will end support for the "socket server connection method" since the new html5 clients are becoming mainstream. Once the socket servers are shut down ch.py will no longer function. Ch.py cannot be fixed and a new method must be created for the bots to function.
Generation 2: Enter "Hubot
Hubot is the basis for the "new Kittybot" and it was engineered by the Github team for their office facility to have a resident bot to do things for them. The Hubot is public and is extremely popular with many geeks, however, the Hubot's "scripts" or "modules" must be written in coffeescript or javascript, and the API is confusing to most. The bot does function, and it is versatile, but it is foreign to most other people who have worked on bots. Many people become frustrated with it. The Generation 2 KittyBot debuted on (and only functions on) IRC since there is no way for it to connect to Chatango.
The Gen 2 bot can operate on other networks, via a method of "adapters" which can connect the bot to most communications platforms.
A side note...
A note should now describe our current situation.
Our current situation is one that has been created due to a general lack of time, expertise, or willingness to put forth the necessary resources to fix or change the way the bots operate.
FoS-Scans is multi-network and our bots are designed to only operate on one network at a time.
The IRC bot (the Generation 2 bot) was taken offline due to the cost of having it hosted in the cloud and because it had some glitches which take time and effort fix, neither of which Radioactivekitty alone can spend to fix them. The IRC bot could be hosted by Radioacitvekitty but RK needs to find a way for changes to be made before it can return to the FoS - Scans channel.
Aside from the IRC bot issues, the Kittybot on Chatango (as well as the other bots) merely "exist for the sake of existing", as in, they aren't being worked on, there is no way they can be improved right now, and they aren't going to go offline anyway since RK is hosting them. They are static. They will remain online until they have to go offline for one reason or another. But for now, they operate.
There are a number of networks and things that can be done for Generation 3
Generation 3 is planned to be something that will change things in some very big ways...
"Central", as I like to call it, would be the core of the bot. The core would consist of...
The "multiverse" is the term that I like to call all of the various ways of interacting with the Gen 3 bot.
The current situation calls for a presence on:
That's all, for now, to those out there reading this, I know what you're thinking: this is cool, but it sounds like a lot of work! Precisely, and while I value the merit in working on such awesome things, I've had my own journey in the bot world complete, spending a year working on these things. I still have learned a lot, and I value the creations I have helped to bring to life, however, as of right now I've hit a brick wall.
It's 1:33 am, goodnight~
As I am sure that most of y'all know, the "bot division" in Forgotten Scans has always been an organization that largely depended on one, or at most two, active and interested staff members in order to make any improvement or breakthrough in "bot technology".
Bot division is... the department in Forgotten Scans responsible for the continuous operation, maintenance of, and expansion of the "bots"
Bots are... programs that interact with users in our various chatrooms. As of right now, bots have been active in IRC and Chatango. "Interactions" are usually text feedback based on commands or specific keywords.
Bot technology is...any type of code, platform, or system for operating the operation of the bots. Bot technology is usually improved when breakthroughs are made in the code itself.
The current status of the bot division... can be best described as "inactive". No work is currently being done in that division.
As of right now the only bots operating are the Kittybot, Racbot, and Selebot, and little-to-no-progress has been made in changing anything about their internal or external operation.
Because of Radioactivekitty's retirement I must now explain to future members of the Bot Division what I had hoped would be "generation 3" of the bots.
Generation 1: The Original KittyBot Platform
The original KittyBot Platform is still in use. It relies on python and a piece of chatango library code known as "ch.py"
The original KittyBot Platform is also the foundation for the Racbot and Selebot.
The code has been said to be "crappy", "hacked together", "inefficient and completely broken", however, it still functions.
However, despite it working, some believe that it will continue to do so. The ch.py code connects to chatango servers in a way that is deprecated and there is the good chance that Chatango will end support for the "socket server connection method" since the new html5 clients are becoming mainstream. Once the socket servers are shut down ch.py will no longer function. Ch.py cannot be fixed and a new method must be created for the bots to function.
Generation 2: Enter "Hubot
Hubot is the basis for the "new Kittybot" and it was engineered by the Github team for their office facility to have a resident bot to do things for them. The Hubot is public and is extremely popular with many geeks, however, the Hubot's "scripts" or "modules" must be written in coffeescript or javascript, and the API is confusing to most. The bot does function, and it is versatile, but it is foreign to most other people who have worked on bots. Many people become frustrated with it. The Generation 2 KittyBot debuted on (and only functions on) IRC since there is no way for it to connect to Chatango.
The Gen 2 bot can operate on other networks, via a method of "adapters" which can connect the bot to most communications platforms.
A side note...
A note should now describe our current situation.
Our current situation is one that has been created due to a general lack of time, expertise, or willingness to put forth the necessary resources to fix or change the way the bots operate.
FoS-Scans is multi-network and our bots are designed to only operate on one network at a time.
The IRC bot (the Generation 2 bot) was taken offline due to the cost of having it hosted in the cloud and because it had some glitches which take time and effort fix, neither of which Radioactivekitty alone can spend to fix them. The IRC bot could be hosted by Radioacitvekitty but RK needs to find a way for changes to be made before it can return to the FoS - Scans channel.
Aside from the IRC bot issues, the Kittybot on Chatango (as well as the other bots) merely "exist for the sake of existing", as in, they aren't being worked on, there is no way they can be improved right now, and they aren't going to go offline anyway since RK is hosting them. They are static. They will remain online until they have to go offline for one reason or another. But for now, they operate.
There are a number of networks and things that can be done for Generation 3
Generation 3 is planned to be something that will change things in some very big ways...
- In order to unify the networks, we must have a "central system"
"Central", as I like to call it, would be the core of the bot. The core would consist of...
- A main database for persistent data, mainly, "user accounts", like a general registry for "multiverse usage" (more on that later)
- All plugins/modules/scripts for global actions in the multiverse (basically it would call any given plugin/module/script regardless of where the user was)
- It would function centrally, with everything else as a peripheral (in other words, it would be the main component for the system, but since everything else functioned as an extension, it would be crash-independent in the event once facet of the system broke)
- Central would be considered an entity in and of itself, therefore all other functionality would be dealt with independently, allowing for other modules to be upgraded/repaired while keeping Central operational
The "multiverse" is the term that I like to call all of the various ways of interacting with the Gen 3 bot.
The current situation calls for a presence on:
- Chatango
- IRC
- Our private Minetest server
- Via a web browser (web interface)
- With plugins on... The main website fos-scans.com and the reader for easy access and statistics, etc
It's 1:33 am, goodnight~