Board Thread:Wiki Discussion/@comment-1370845-20141107202502

Hello. I have come to talk about a pretty important issue with the community: the use of the IRC logs.

IRC logs all of our discussions due to a bot, Infobot. This is a bot entirely beyond our control, and we have a single power when it comes to dealing with it: to outright remove it. I would like to voice my concerns and express why I think Infobot has only negative impacts on the community and causes multiple issues.

Let's begin with the first, infobot exposes our behaviour and keeps it up forever. And I do not think this is the kind of thing we want for our community. Not only does it allow gossip to spread among other useless drama, it also makes a public record of us we can never be rid of. I know I hate looking at old logs, for certain, and want them mostly taken down, but it's not just that. Several users have voiced concerns about how our behaviour is made public, and how it can cause offense easily. These are available to be viewed by literally anyone.

It creates a sense of both paranoia and fear. The IRC log watchers among you know what it feels like to look back at old logs and have people talk about you behind your back. The rest, who don't know about IRC logs and/or don't like them, probably don't like the knowledge that you're being "watched". This does not create a sense of community or freedom. It just tightens things and makes them much worse.

Thirdly, Infobot's functions are frequently used for spam. Things like "~kick x", "~test" and such are fun the first few times, but grow old very quickly. They are used by many users for no purpose other than to spam the channel with the same old, tired, and boring jokes. Aside from that, it is possible to code our own bot to replace that, but also to place our own cap on the bot, so it does not spam the channel, but keeps your old, fun functions if you so desire. However, I oppose them existing at all.

Finally, aside from those functions, in general, it serves no practical purpose that we could not replicate. I am sure I, or more likely Morgoth, could code an IRC bot that logs the channel without reliance on Infobot, and we would definitely not make it public.

For the record, I do not oppose IRC logs, I oppose public IRC logs. They create a sense of paranoia, disruption, and are the frequent cause of arguments, as well as being only detrimental to the Wiki's community. I support the removal of Infobot from the channel. If you really want to keep its other functions, then fine. If you 'really want to log the IRC, there is nothing stopping you from getting a client which logs IRC discussions automatically, from having a BNC setup (the way that Ose, Morgoth and I never leave the channel; Angrybirds never leaves the channel but he uses an inefficient method which involves no BNC) or any sort. But public IRC logs are only detrimental to our Wiki.

Discuss. 