The CBC newsbot is a bit of a spamma

Praxius

Praxius

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Dec 18, 2007
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I've noticed since the Newsbot came back to life that it seems to only focus on a couple of news reports.... say two in particular (The UN Security Council thing & the Miners in Chile)

I know it's just blindly doing its job, but isn't there a way to get the newsbot to somehow post related news articles within the threads it already created about the same topic, rather then spamming more threads about the same thing?

Or better yet.... somehow modify it to post a wider variety of news, rather then the same two or three things, or even make it avoid similar news reports it already posted for a day or two so that when it posts the news again, it at least had some time to have something actually new to report?

Just crossed my mind.
 
Andem

Andem

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Mar 24, 2002
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It's difficult to pick and choose what is posted by the bot, it's actually just taken from an RSS feed. I'm just going to merge some similar threads.
 
karrie

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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I'd be fine to see the bot disappear, but, I'd also like to remind members that the forum stagnates without new and interesting topics to discuss. I'd be happy to post a tutorial on how to open a new thread if certain members need one. ;)
 
Andem

Andem

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karrie said:
I'd be fine to see the bot disappear, but, I'd also like to remind members that the forum stagnates without new and interesting topics to discuss. I'd be happy to post a tutorial on how to open a new thread if certain members need one. ;)
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Good point. On that note, I'm working on something new which may make the place a little more lively.
 
Dexter Sinister

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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Andem said:
Don't get everyone's hopes up to something I cannot provide!!
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You can't maybe, but others could. Karrie seems to be suggesting she could (and I KNOW she could, I've seen her animated avatars), for instance, for a huge raise, but since any multiple of nothing is still nothing, I'd be prepared to offer her a 1000% raise...
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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May 29, 2007
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Praxius said:
I've noticed since the Newsbot came back to life that it seems to only focus on a couple of news reports.... say two in particular (The UN Security Council thing & the Miners in Chile)

I know it's just blindly doing its job, but isn't there a way to get the newsbot to somehow post related news articles within the threads it already created about the same topic, rather then spamming more threads about the same thing?

Or better yet.... somehow modify it to post a wider variety of news, rather then the same two or three things, or even make it avoid similar news reports it already posted for a day or two so that when it posts the news again, it at least had some time to have something actually new to report?

Just crossed my mind.
Click to expand...

To be fair, it's not like it's only the Newsbot that tends to post similar threads over and over again. How many Haiti threads did we have to merge? Or Middle East threads? Those are just two examples. I'm not attacking you Praxius, I just wanted to point out that we have some flesh-and-blood members that do the exact same thing that the Newsbot is accused of doing.;)
 
Praxius

Praxius

Mass'Debater
Dec 18, 2007
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Cliffy said:
Pole dancing! Ya!
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This is a forum.... in here we refer to it as "Poll Dancing" :p

shadowshiv said:
To be fair, it's not like it's only the Newsbot that tends to post similar threads over and over again. How many Haiti threads did we have to merge? Or Middle East threads? Those are just two examples. I'm not attacking you Praxius, I just wanted to point out that we have some flesh-and-blood members that do the exact same thing that the Newsbot is accused of doing.;)
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Oh I agree and it seems to have improved recently amongst members..... but the newsbot was posting sometimes two or three new threads about the same thing in a day, let alone posting a new thread just once each day.

Or maybe I'm just sensitive and think it's that bad :p

I think what made me notice and complain the most was the time a few days ago I saw back to back threads about the miners which each thread's creator was the bot..... now chances are a couple of those threads were a few days or weeks older then the newest, but regardless, there was multiple threads back to back talking about the same thing, which members were talking in each about the same thing.

I was just hoping that wasn't going to be a future trend.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

Dark Overlord
May 29, 2007
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Praxius said:
This is a forum.... in here we refer to it as "Poll Dancing" :p



Oh I agree and it seems to have improved recently amongst members..... but the newsbot was posting sometimes two or three new threads about the same thing in a day, let alone posting a new thread just once each day.

Or maybe I'm just sensitive and think it's that bad :p

I think what made me notice and complain the most was the time a few days ago I saw back to back threads about the miners which each thread's creator was the bot..... now chances are a couple of those threads were a few days or weeks older then the newest, but regardless, there was multiple threads back to back talking about the same thing, which members were talking in each about the same thing.

I was just hoping that wasn't going to be a future trend.
Click to expand...

You are just too sensitive, Praxius.------------------------->


LOL!

It is not as bad as it has been, but when Members create threads that are similar(or identical) in nature we just tend to merge them. That way nobody loses their posts and people don't have to pop into numerous threads to read the information.
 
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