When a user connects to chat, I would suggest that a message be added in the chatbox saying something along the lines of:
“Welcome to EterRNA! Please read the community guidelines before you start chatting and posting around the site (or to get a quick refresher), and type .linkbot to see the commands you can use in chat”
I think this would be a great idea! Sometimes when new players start to chat, they don’t know the code of conduct. This could help eliminate that.
I think new players should have to read and agree to fellow the code of conduct before having access to chat. We need a Terms & Conditions Popup or page.
Should happen on account creation IMO. But yeah, that would be cool, and is pretty highly visible.
Yes we asked for on account creation too, But not sure what happened with that idea.
Besides trollers every once in a while, have we really had that much of a problem with chat ethics? I would say, yeah, sure, put one in, but IMHO this is just extra unneeded work. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Terms and Conditions apply to things like software. I don’t know about you guys, but I never had to read and agree to some “Code of Conduct” before entering a bar or a restaurant.
A chat room is a social space, and people are supposed to have mastered a simple skill when they go to such places: manners. If they haven’t and start being disruptive, they get kicked out, and that’s it. It is not the place of a restaurant manager to teach manners to customers, and I don’t think it is our place to do so with players either.
Trolls will ignore the “rules” on purpose, and you may even motivate them by presenting a set of rules, because they will feel more strongly the satisfaction of having broken them. Turbulent kids are a different problem, but all the same, I honestly believe it is not our job to teach them proper social behavior.
Disclaimer: above opinions are mine and and mine alone.
That’s a valid point jmf. I have noticed that Foldit and EyeWire have one though, (Foldit’s being a disclaimer that chat is public, and EyeWire’s being more informational). I personally think it would be ncie to have a little welcome message mentioning rules and the fact we have a bot, but that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a high priority.
IRC has the concept of a MOTD, not sure if that could be used easily.
I think you have a good point, though personally (as I stated above) there are more things that would be helpful to include than just code of conduct (mentioning the existance of the bot would be cool for new users I’d think, especially if DictionaryBot’s functionality ever gets put into LinkBot).
As for the bot, we actually don’t have one. Linkbot is run by hoglahoo, not by EteRNA.
Sloppy terminology on my part. I said ‘we’ in the general sense of the community, being that it’s available, helpful, and (fairly) widely used. Might not be a horrible idea to actually make an official chatbot (though might not be the best use of resources right now, perhaps seeing if someone like Hoglahoo could create source and then EteRNA can host?).
I don’t think his code is “hostable” on a Linux machine, which is all we have. And even if we solve that, there’s the matter of the IP (will Hoglahoo make it open source?) and the matter of maintaining the resource (code, updates, activity, feature requests, etc). At this point, I don’t think EteRNA has enough cycles to invest into this. There’s just too much going on already.
That’s fair, just something I thought I’d bring up, as it could potentially be useful. Another thing to stick in the “nice for the future” bin. 
“Terms and Conditions apply to things like software. I don’t know about you guys, but I never had to read and agree to some “Code of Conduct” before entering a bar or a restaurant.”
True most people my not read the “Terms of Entry” , But bar/restaurant must have the “Terms of Entry” be clearly visible to, and legible by, persons entering the premises or land. (Here)
Jmf - Yes it has been an issue.
@mat747: and you truly think, that blasting the link to the face of the 99% of the people who respect the rules without even knowing them, specially at every single connection, while the other 1% will totally ignore them anyway, is going to help ?
@mat747: and I’m sure it makes such a whole lot of a difference… I’m convinced, 3 years old babies, blind people and Russian tourists (who can’t read English) find it very helpful…
Yes
Not being able to read the sign does not exempt them from the Term of Entry.
You do. I don’t.