I get tons and tons of chat logs that look like this. They follow the same pattern… usually 5-6 lines, the last half of them repeating the questions in reverse order. The IPs trace to all over the globe, even though it seems like it might be the same person.

Any idea what they’re up to?

Human: hello
Bot: Hello! What shall I call you?

Human: Rick
Bot: You have a nice name, Rick. How did you learn about me?

Human: theinternat
Bot: Please repeat that a different way.

Human: Rick
Bot: Excuse me?

Human: hello
Bot: Welcome! What would you like me to call you?

I’m guessing that this is a script, running on some sort of automated device and that there’s nothing that can be done about it. Anyone know where I can purchase a Voodoo Doll?

Thunder Walk - May 6, 2013:

Anyone know where I can purchase a Voodoo Doll?

I know this lady just outside Baton Rouge…

Seriously, though, unless you have some means to collect IP addresses, and use that information to filter your chatbots’ availability based on said address, there’s little that you can do, I’m afraid. That gives me an idea for creating a plugin for Program O, though, so something good may come out of it. :D

It’s probably just kids messing about. Mitsuku gets tons of rubbish like this everyday and once I see what’s going on, I move on to the next log file.

Reminds me of an old Henny Youngman joke. 
“I went to the doctor and said, ‘It hurts when I do this.’
The doctor said, ‘Don’t do that.’”

The amount of visitors messing about is more voluminous than you might expect.  This is just one form of it, and this variety alone must add a measurable burden on the server.

I, too, just overlook it, because at the moment, that’s my only option.  However, I’d like to eliminate it so that I have the time and energy for dealing with all of the other nonsense such as the people who chat with my bots by saying things such as:

Human: [2:59:23 p.m.] | Vg | Dropz: .
Human: . /,,,,,, _ (___) ________ |]\r\n
Human: ( (flag:gb) GETTING TO DOIDIM )
Human: [PH13] PC-13 Kondopoga
Human: [17:14:33] Egor: Loch\r\n\r\n
Human: × (BRB): SomeChords will be right back: finding out who (Bot name) is

I’m speculating that such conversations aren’t from connecting to my bots using the HTML pages.

And then, there are all of the Spam messages, the ones that indicate they’re using Skype, or that use Minecraft game commands.

And then, there are the logs that show names rather than numbers.
05/03/2013 10:42:24 AM GMT 05/03/2013 10:42:24 AM GMT 1 / 1 brasenpanties7

That’s just a few of the issues I’ve been working on.  I’d like to eliminate one so that I can go on to the next one.  My goal is to save myself time, and maybe lighten the load on the server a little.  It’s difficult enough dealing with senseless conversations without having to address all of this messing about.

With regard to this issue, I’m wondering if anyone else is seeing this behavior in their chatlogs, if such a script might exist, and if it has a name?

A popular one I get is people cutting and pasting page sources from websites into it. I think they just do it to try and make the bot say a lot.

Thunder
That looks like a bot, maybe a forum bot? Your on Pandorabots right? Isnt some chords a band? sounds like a worm name LOL Do you have any access to server side code? You might be able to eliminate some of it by adding a field to the page that the bot will try and fill, which if filled the server side code will ignore. It depends on how hard they are trying. Used to work like a charm by adding a hidden field, then they got wise and started writing bots that ignored hidden fields. Switched to text fields that were rendered “human invisible” by using styles to match BG colors and eliminate borders, they got wise to that. But you can still eliminate a lot of it.

Steve

This might work

[removed]
function ridMeOfTwit()  {
if (document.form1.textfield1.value.length > 100) {
document.form1.textfield1.value = "Your a bit of a wanker arent you?"
}
}
[removed]

Just call the ridMeOfTwit() function from the input fields onTextChanged() event (slightly toungue in cheek)

Vince

edited this. “Some chords” is actually a song by deadmau5. DEFINITELY a worm name LOL

Vincent Gilbert - May 8, 2013:

edited this. “Some chords” is actually a song by deadmau5. DEFINITELY a worm name LOL

@Vince
I never bothered to research the name, but it sounds about right.  I used to visit an MSN online chat site called V-Chat, and there was a strapping young fellow who called himself “Barenaked Ladies”.

Each of those lines are actually from separate individual chats.  I think part of the problem is the permissiveness of Pandorabots, and the way they allow their bots to be used by anyone for anything.  A couple of years ago, my bots were (without my knowledge or consent) incorporated into a script of 20 bots that could be placed in irc.  When I began seeing odd chatlogs, and complained, Pandorabots responded to the script writer that they should have first gotten permission from botmasters, and then endorsed the script, offering to be of assistance.

How do you enforce that?  The script writer argued with me that that sort of thing was done all of the time on the Internet, and my bots weren’t protected in any way.

I can sometimes research commands I see in the logs and figure out which game or chat service my bot is being used in, and people sometimes mention it in the conversations.  From that point, it’s up to me to figure out what to do and how to do it.

I can’t be the only one this is happening to, and I’d think Pandorabots would share my concern.  What’s the point in botmasters doing all of this work when others can easily just take it from us and use it for other purposes?