Throttle Down the DP ServBot?

[Nz17]

Right now the automated DP ServBot posts around four news stories per day. It checks Joystiq three times per day and Slashdot six times per day, only posting a new story if there are any. If that seems like too many auto-stories per day, we can lessen the amount. Thoughts?

[kedawa]

I just wish it was smart enough to link to the actual stories instead of Slashdot abstracts that link to said stories. Cut out the middleman.
Also, teach it to drop the weird formatting codes that mangle most of its posts.

[Gameguy]

There's way too many of those posts showing up. A lot of them just seem random or unnecessary, or the same stories are already posted by other members.

[BHvrd]

I say give him his own forum. That way he can go to town. :D

[Damaramu]

My vote is for deactivation. With all the members DP has, is the ServBot REALLY necessary?

Plus, it would allow for more forum user participation. "Hey, I can't wait to post this on the DP boards! Oh...the servbot beat me to it. Nevermind." :|

[dgdgagdae]

My vote is for deactivation. With all the members DP has, it the ServBot REALLY necessary?

Plus, it would allow for more forum user participation. "Hey, I can't wait to post this on the DP boards! Oh...the servbot beat me to it. Nevermind." :|

I agree with deactivation. I can go to joystiq and other related sites and read for myself, if that's what I want to do. Looking in the threads that the servbot starts, there usually isn't much discussion there.

[Shulamana]

Most ServBot threads I see I'm really not interested in at all.

[The 1 2 P]

My vote is for deactivation. With all the members DP has, it the ServBot REALLY necessary?

Plus, it would allow for more forum user participation. "Hey, I can't wait to post this on the DP boards! Oh...the servbot beat me to it. Nevermind." :|

Agreed. We need to officially retire the servbot.

[OldSchoolGamer]

OMG God YES PLEASE kill it, either I already know or I don't care, KILL SERVBOT WITH FIRE!!!!

[Gameguy]

What about altering the Servbot to just reply to existing threads with random thoughts every so often? I dislike the constant new threads being posted but it seems a shame to kill it completely as it's almost a DP tradition by this point.

[InsaneDavid]

Pull the plug, it really doesn't seem to get much discussion going.

[buzz_n64]

I like 1 out of every 6 threads the bot posts. Tone it down for sure, but keep it. Sure the forum will seem a little slower, but then it would be our own doing.

[badinsults]

If I wanted to read the crap that is on Slashdot or Joystiq, I would visit Slashdot and Joystiq. There is no need of crossposting here. If there is something someone wants to talk about, they should make a thread.

[NayusDante]

It seems to identify the gaming articles on Slashdot, but not so much Joystiq. Try limiting it to one site for a while and see how it does. I think he just needs a nudge in the right direction.

[Oobgarm]

I'd say we no longer require its services.

Out of the 474 posts I can access from the search function:

303 of them are zero reply threads
86 have 3 replies or less
13 have more than one page of discussion

I think it's pushing things off the first page too quickly, and I can say that even as a longtime member here, if it's not on the first page, I don't typically see it.

Playing the "I wonder if the Servbot beat me to it" game sucks.

[JSoup]

What about altering the Servbot to just reply to existing threads with random thoughts every so often?

This.

[TonyTheTiger]

What about altering the Servbot to just reply to existing threads with random thoughts every so often? I dislike the constant new threads being posted but it seems a shame to kill it completely as it's almost a DP tradition by this point.

What, like a fortune cookie or Confucius advice bot? This may have merit.

[skaar]

Let servbot ramble in its own subforum and let threads with merit get voted out of there into the main forum.

Occasionally it finds a gem.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'd say we no longer require its services.

Out of the 474 posts I can access from the search function:

303 of them are zero reply threads
86 have 3 replies or less
13 have more than one page of discussion

I think it's pushing things off the first page too quickly, and I can say that even as a longtime member here, if it's not on the first page, I don't typically see it.

Playing the "I wonder if the Servbot beat me to it" game sucks.

Those are good stats that are hard to argue with.

I vote to pull the plug or relegate him to a newsfeed only section of the site that doesn't affect user-generated threads.

[fergojisan]

Drop the DP Servbot into some warm chocolate puddin'

I SAID GOOD DAY

[JSoup]

Those are good stats that are hard to argue with.

I vote to pull the plug or relegate him to a newsfeed only section of the site that doesn't affect user-generated threads.

We could call it the DP ServBot Press Room. Maybe we can put a jaunty 6-bit press hat on him?

[Collector_Gaming]

put it in its own section. let it create its own news paper like weekly thread of interesting articles it finds. "Digital Press Times".

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/Manbean4/Picturesofspiderman.jpg

[Berserker]

It brings up some interesting topics, but I also think it relegates them to being more of a comment section than a discussion, because its point of origin is from outside of the forum, with no stake in it - encouraging us to react rather than interact. Part of the draw of forums is that they develop their own quirks, their own attitudes, their own identity. Disabling ServBot might foster more of that within Modern Gaming.

We could also sandbox it in its own forum as a few have suggested, but to me that seems like another level of fragmentation with minimal benefit. If anything I think we should trim away the excess and consolidate, and grow the community from that.

[Tupin]

I would also support getting rid of it, as I feel a topic generated by a real person would spur more discussion rather than one done by a bot. Like Oobgarm said, playing "beat the Servbot" sucks.

[Griking]

If the site had a dedicated and active news reporte I'd say to drop the ServBot but this site doesn't so my vote would be to keep it the way it is.

Not all of the stories that it reports on interests me but geez, is it really that hard to ignore a post that you aren't interested in?

[DigitalSpace]

Throwing in another vote in favor of retirement. I'll agree that it posts a gem every now and then, but with a community as large as DP, most modern gaming news worth discussing will eventually find its way here.

[JSoup]

Not all of the stories that it reports on interests me but geez, is it really that hard to ignore a post that you aren't interested in?

If there is any one thing this userbase can't do, it's ignore things that are better left ignored.

[jcalder8]

I think that the Bot serves a great purpose here. Just look at the Modern forum and you'll see that most new posts come from the Bot. If he were taken away then that would eliminate most of the new posts and pretty much kill the section.

[JSoup]

I think that the Bot serves a great purpose here. Just look at the Modern forum and you'll see that most new posts come from the Bot. If he were taken away then that would eliminate most of the new posts and pretty much kill the section.

Or, possibly, encourage people to post more. Mostly news stories, I'd assume. Eventually, someone will propose a bot to post all the news stories for us. It will be named Chaos, so people know they're stuck in a time-loop.

[Nz17]

I've throttled down the DP ServBot to only post at most two stories per day per feed. Let's see how everyone likes this lower setting. After a few days to get used to it, we'll revisit this topic to see what people's thoughts are then. :cheers:

[kedawa]

I think that the Bot serves a great purpose here. Just look at the Modern forum and you'll see that most new posts come from the Bot. If he were taken away then that would eliminate most of the new posts and pretty much kill the section.

Not really. It would eliminate a lot of new threads, but as others have pointed out, those threads have few if any posts in them.

[BHvrd]

Gotta admit the new setting seems perfect, not too much to flood, yet enough to spice it up a tad, alot better.

[SpaceHarrier]

So yeah... about that ServBot... :deadhorse:

[TonyTheTiger]

Karma's a bitch, huh?

[gepeto]

Well I know I am in the minority but I like the servbot. Imo it has some interesting news articles. It is like stop and pop news. One of the reasons I never posted to the servbots post is because it was the servbot. LOL

[Hwj_Chim]

I've throttled down the DP ServBot to only post at most two stories per day per feed. Let's see how everyone likes this lower setting. After a few days to get used to it, we'll revisit this topic to see what people's thoughts are then. :cheers:

As long as it does not flood anymore it should be good

[The 1 2 P]

Initially I wanted the Servbot gone because of the general lack of interest in the threads it posted. But after the last incident, where it could be banned and yet still post, I think we need to step up our plans to pull the plug.

[Berserker]

As one of the ones who tried banning him, that felt like a bit of a SkyNet moment for sure.

On the upside, we are now all duly informed that we can run apps from our cars' dashboards. (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?161714-Running-Apps-From-Your-Car-s-Dashboard-Slashdot)