FAQ's being delivered on IRC

Jamie Thingelstad (thingles)
Wed, 2 Nov 1994 13:16:15 -0600 (CST)

I have to question the usefulness in distributing documentation over
IRC via a bot. I think it makes more sense to tell them to go ``here''
to get the information (whether here is a gopherd, httpd, mail server
whatever).

Here are the issues:

* Usefulness. Bot's interface suck, they always well. Stupid ass
commands for getting a file, lame. The only way to get around it is
natural language parsing, which is overkill.

* Usefulness II. Once you've gotten the command to work, it scrolled
right off your screen and you'll never see it. Lame, DCC gets around
this, but why not just have it on an FTP server then.

* Content. IRC is bad for content, WWW is much better suited for the
need.

Of course, Leigh's idea of Homer noticing a URL in IRC and allowing
you to click on it and go to your favorite WWW browser would work with
that, but I reckon that's slated for Homer II.

-- 
= <A HREF="http://disserv.stu.umn.edu/~thingles/">  Jamie Thingelstad </A>
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= thingles@disserv.stu.umn.edu == AOL: Thingles == University of Minnesota