Go backward to Things That Might Go Wrong
Go up to IRC In A Little More Detail
Bots: Little Mechanical Helpers
Because of all these potential problems with the way IRC works, and
because trusted channel operators can not be on their channel 24 hours
per day, some operators put up robots (or "bots" for short) to take
care of things for them. Well-behaved bots sit quietly on the channel
and monitor what is going on. If something happens that meets their set
of criteria for, say, a user to be kicked, the bot will try to kick the
user from the channel. For this reason, bots usually are give channel
ops. Bots generally are programs unto themselves and generally run on
machines that have constant Internet connections and can handle multiple
users, such as UNIX and VMS machines.
In addition to protecting the channel, many bots provide services such
as help to new users, or serving channel-related files over DCC. Some
bots even have their own mini-IRC network built in. This kind of bot is
generally referred to as a "Service Bot."
There is an increasing trend for people to run scripts on their personal
machines that respond to specific circumstances, such as the word
"roger" being said publicly in the channel. While these are really
just triggered responses in client scripts, many people (incorrectly)
call these "bots" since they act like service bots. Some of these
scripts can be quite complicated and could actually be considered real
bots.
Because computers are much faster at providing specific responses to
specific circumstances than people can type, many people build "War
Bots" which exploit some of the problems with IRC and IRC clients to
force people off IRC, kick everyone from a channel, and generally make
people's lives miserable. Since it's generally much more fun to make a
mess than to clean things up, there are many, many more war bots than
protection bots, and it is for this reason that most servers explicitly
state "no bots" on their login messages. (It is also the author's
opinion that this sort of constant offense/defense game playing is what
ruins IRC as a decent medium for communications.)
Copper is a service/protection bot. He runs a bot program called eggdrop which includes a scripting language that allows the bot owner
to extend the bot and add personality. Although Copper's original
purpose was to guard and protect the channel, he has grown into a kind
of channel pet, complete with silly antics.
Neale Pickett <zephyr@nmt.edu>
March 2, 1997