I think there has been general consensus that there are some offensive
plugins and that the bot should be held to the same level we expect
from a person, but noone (yet) has stepped up to volunteer to go
through all that's available and make an effort at cleaning things up.
 As we all know, things don't get done in Code4Lib without someone
doing the work.  Anyone want to step up and volunteer to go through
what's there and take a stab at it?  Even a first pass might advance
us to the next level of discussion... or a list of plugins in question
could be farmed out to individuals interested in making the changes?

Kevin (taking a step backwards)


On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 12:41 PM, Tim Donohue <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> FWIW, there are a few zoia commands I've noticed that could come across as
> sexist (especially if you see Zoia as being a "female" bot).
>
> I don't think they are used that frequently, but I have seen:
>
> @poledance (have zoia display a poledancer)
> @euph (have zoia respond in a euphemism)
>
> This isn't meant to spoil any of the fun of having zoia around. For the most
> part, I don't take offense to zoia. But, I do find zoia annoying / noisy
> (which is why I'm rarely in code4lib IRC). Though there are some useful /
> helpful zoia commands in there.
>
> I like Jon Gorman's suggestion of having a friendly, helpful bot and a
> wise-cracking one. That way, those of us annoyed by the ongoing
> wise-cracking can ignore it, while still having access to the helpful stuff.
> (And it may be easier to turn off the wise-cracking parts during the
> conference if desired.)
>
> - Tim
>
>
> On 1/18/2013 10:26 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>
>> Actually, I find the "playing" with Zoia itself offensive. As per my
>> response to my own message.
>>
>> It objectifies women. Treats them as play-things. Makes me very
>> uncomfortable. If we want to have an information bot, perhaps like the
>> one used by W3C which takes minutes for meetings (Zakim, I believe it
>> is), that seems reasonable. But to have a "play-thing" that is gendered
>> is a really, really bad idea. In fact, to have a "play-thing" of any
>> kind on the channel might not be a good idea. I know that some folks
>> find it fun, but it is akin to the locker-room shenanigans (at least as
>> I experience it), and it's a HUGE in-joke that makes it obvious to
>> anyone new that they aren't "in".
>>
>> kc