Zoia or the Code4Lib IRC bot

What is Zoia?

Zoia is the Code4Lib IRC (Internet-relay-chat) bot.

Where did it get its name?

It was named after the famous librarian, Zoia Horn, who is considered to be the first librarian ever to be jailed for refusing to divulge information that violated her belief in intellectual freedom.

What does it do?

The Zoia bot provides commentary, insight, support and diversions to participants on the Code4LIB IRC channel. Documentation is sparse, incomplete, outdated, and occasionally only in the code of the bot's plugins themselves. You can interact with Zoia by using commands in the channel. Bot commands are preceded with an at-sign ('@'). Some examples are on the http://code4lib.org/irc/faq main Code4Lib IRC FAQ page and more are listed below to get you started.

If you want to see a list of plugins, you can ask Zoia directly:

@list

<zoia> Acronym, Admin, Amazon, Anagram, Anonymous, ArtisanalIntegers, Assorted, Astro, AudioScrobbler, Babelfish, Band, Blame, Calais, Cast, Channel, ChannelLogger, Config, CyborgName, DBpedia, Debian, Delicious, Dict, Disclaimer, Disemvowel, Dunno, Eef, Etymology, FOAF, Filter, Fireworks, Fixit, Games, GasPrices, Gender, GeoIP, Git, Google, Greeter, Helpers, Herald, IPTools, Insult, Internet, IsItDown, Karma, Kombat, (2 more messages)

@more

<zoia> LCSH, Later, Levenshtein, LibraryThing, Linux, Lisppaste, Lolcat, Lolz, LoveHate, MARC, Math, Misc, Motivate, NACO, Nadsat, Nickometer, OCLC, Oblique, OpenDict, Owner, PDPC, Pinky, Pirate, Poll, Praise, Presidents, Quote, Reply, Sarge, Scrabble, Seen, Services, Sing, SocialGraph, StackEx, Stopwords, Tantrum, Todo, Traffic, Translators, TrueTrue, Twitter, TwitterSnarfer, URL, Uberblic, UnglueIt, Unicode, Unix, (1 more message)

Note -- if you are experimenting and learning about commands, it is a good idea to send private messages to Zoia directly (using /msg zoia [command]) rather than directly in channel (e.g. @[command]). Unless, that is, you want everyone to watch you experimenting.

Each plugin has zero or more commands that it can perform. The @list command is also used to see what commands are available in a plugin:

@list Lolz

<zoia> lolz

So the Lolz plugin has one command: lolz To see how to run the command, use @help

@help lolz

<zoia> (lolz <phrase>) -- Translates English into Lolcat using http://speaklolcat.com/

To run the command, precede it with an at-sign ('@') in the channel:

@lolz

<zoia> OH HAI THAR

Registering with Zoia

Certain commands (for instance, tweet) will only work if you have registered your IRC nickname with Zoia. To do that, first send Zoia a Register command:

/msg zoia register ''[IRC_nickname]'' ''[password]''

After that, any time you are on the Code4Lib channel and want to use a command that requires registration, first send Zoia the Identify command:

/msg zoia identify ''[IRC_nickname]'' ''[password]''

Examples of Bot Commands

• @whoami

pmurray:  @whoami
zoia: pmurray

• @helpers List people who have self-identified as willing to be able to assist with IRC

pberry: @helpers
zoia: List of active #code4lib helpers (@help helpers for details): anarchivist, gsf, mbklein, mistym, rsinger, ruebot

• @help Show whatever help is built into a bot's plugin

Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes this is not.

mistym: @help register
zoia: (register <name> <password>) -- Registers <name> with the given password <password> and the current hostmask of the person registering. You shouldn't register twice; if you're not recognized as a user but you've already registered, use the hostmask add command to add another hostmask to your already-registered user, or use the identify command to identify just for a session. This command (and all other commands (1 more message)
mistym: @more
@more
zoia: that include a password) must be sent to the bot privately, not in a channel.

• @coffee

ruebot: @coffee pberry
zoia brews and pours a cup of Guatemala El Diamante, and sends it sliding down the bar to pberry

• @naf Search the national authority file

bohyunkim: @naf kazantzakis
zoia: bohyunkim: [2 matches] [1] Kazantzakis, Nikos, 1883-1957 <http://errol.oclc.org/laf/n79-100889.html>; [2] Kazantzakis, Helen <http://errol.oclc.org/laf/n82-70274.html>

• @marc Look up MARC tags

bohyunkim: @marc 245
zoia: bohyunkim: The title and statement of responsibility area of the bibliographic description of a work. [a,b,c,f,g,h,k,n,p,s,6,8]

• @tweet Send a tweet from the bot4lib Twitter account

Requires Zoia identification/registration.

edsu: @tweet please Hammerism don't hurt 'em
zoia: edsu: The operation succeeded.

• @karma Gives Karma stats

awead: @karma
zoia: awead: Highest karma: "mbklein" (529), "mistym" (365), and "edsu" (341).  Lowest karma: "iii" (-102), "rhel" (-45), and "contentdm" (-22).  You (awead) are ranked 23 out of 1885.

Give someone/something karma with ++ anywhere in a line

joes: props to edsu++ for the nodejs++ Wikipedia edits page

Take away someone/something's karma with -- anywhere in a line

frankn: congress-- 

• @quote Get or add quotes

emorgan: @quote random
zoia: emorgan: Quote #421: "< edsu> heartlessdicatoators4lib" (added by gsf at 04:51 PM, September 20, 2006)

gsf: @quote add <mjgiarlo> the goal, IMO, is to avoid being a technocracy and also to avoid being a null-tech oligarchy.
zoia: gsf: The operation succeeded. Quote #255 added.

Command also has change, cited, derp, get, random, raw, remove, search, and stats.

• @praise Give random props

mistym: @praise the end of the all-day meetings
zoia: radiation has made the end of the all-day meetings an enemy of civilization

Command also has add, change, get, remove, search, and stats.

• @insult Give random insults

bohyunkim: @insult z39.50
zoia: z39.50: You are nothing but a ruttish half-mouthful of clouted urine.

Command also has add, change, get, remove, search, and stats.

• @blame It wasn't you, so what was the problem?

When adding a blame string, include the string '$who' -- it will serve as a placeholder for the input string.

mistym: @blame add Pray sir, if I input the wrong commands, will $who output the right results?
zoia: mistym: The operation succeeded.  Blame #161 added.

mistym: @blame 161 [someone]
zoia: Pray sir, if I input the wrong commands, will egspoony output the right results?

Command also has add, change, get, remove, search, and stats.

• @sing Display lyrics from lyricsmania.com

Usage: sing artist [: title] [: * | line | pattern]

frankn: @sing bon jovi : wanted dead or alive
zoia: I'd drive all night  / Just to get back home  / I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride  / I'm wanted dead or alive

• @ana Return an anagram of the input

jtgorman: @ana learning is fun
zoia: jtgorman: Gainful sinner

• @hussein' Like @ana, but appends the string 'hussein' before anagramming

mistym: @hussein learning is fun
zoia: mistym: Huge flair in sunniness

Inside joke?

• @redact Randomly redact parts of the input

pmurray: @redact [quote random]
zoia: pmurray: Quote #2385: "<wgibson> ██████ financial crisis? It was the industries *█████████*. █████████ financial instruments, like ██████ ██████ drawings..." (█████ by edsu at 06:50 AM, August 29, ████)

• @etym Get the etymology of a word

bohyunkim: @etym guest
zoia: bohyunkim: 'Old English gæst, giest (Anglian gest) "guest; enemy; stranger," the common notion being "stranger," from Proto-Germanic *gastiz (cf. Old Frisian jest, Dutch gast, German Gast, Gothic gasts "guest," originally "stranger"), from PIE root *ghosti- "strange" (cf. Latin hostis "enemy," hospes "host" -- from *hosti-potis "host, guest," originally "lord of strangers" -- Greek xenos "guest, host, stranger;" Old (1 more message)

Stacking Commands

It is possible to have the output of one command be the input of another using square brackets. The results can be occasionally quite entertaining:

pmurray: @mccainize [obamit [canuck [scalia [quote raw]]]]
zoia: pmurray: My friends, Look, zedoia's the 'closest' thing I get to regular human contact at wourk, eh?

(You can @help the individual commands to see what each is adding along the way.)

List of Plug-ins

• To see this, private message Zoia with @list (and @more):

Acronym, Admin, Amazon, Anagram, Anonymous, ArtisanalIntegers, Assorted, Astro, AudioScrobbler, Babelfish, Band, Blame, Calais, Cast, Channel, ChannelLogger, Config, CyborgName, DBpedia, Debian, Delicious, Dict, Disclaimer, Disemvowel, Dunno, Eef, Etymology, FOAF, Filter, Fireworks, Fixit, Games, GasPrices, Gender, GeoIP, Git, Google, Greeter, Helpers, Herald, IPTools, Insult, Internet, IsItDown, Karma, Kombat, LCSH, Later, Levenshtein, LibraryThing, Linux, Lisppaste, Lolcat, Lolz, LoveHate, MARC, Math, Misc, Motivate, NACO, Nadsat, Nickometer, OCLC, Oblique, OpenDict, Owner, PDPC, Pinky, Pirate, Poll, Praise, Presidents, Quote, Reply, Sarge, Scrabble, Seen, Services, Sing, SocialGraph, StackEx, Stopwords, Tantrum, Todo, Traffic, Translators, TrueTrue, Twitter, TwitterSnarfer, URL, Uberblic, UnglueIt, Unicode, Unix, UrbanDict, User, WOTD, Web2, Webopedia, Wikileaks, WoGroFuBiCo, Wolfram, WordCount, WordStats, WrestlingName, Wunderground, Yelp, Yum, Zalgo, Zen, and Zillow

Other Tidbits

• To see available commands in each plugin, private message Zoia like this:

@list UrbanDict

zoia: urbandict

@list Band

zoia: band and oldband

@list Dunno

zoia: add, change, get, remove, search, and stats

• To see what a command in a plugin does, private message Zoia like this:

@help search

zoia: (search <word>) -- Searches for <word> in the current configuration variables.

• Also find #code4lib helpers by private msg-ing Zoia:

@helpers #code4lib

zoia: List of active #code4lib helpers (@help helpers for details): anarchivist, gsf, mbklein, mistym, rsinger, ruebot

How to hack it

Zoia's plugin code is on GitHub: https://github.com/code4lib/supybot-plugins You can modify existing plugins (git clone and submit a pull request, or ask in the IRC channel if there's someone who can add you to the repo). You can also create new plugins. Hey look, documentation. Hacking zoia is fun!