Banning disco*bot

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1

I’m on record as a Doper holding the position that the only things I want to see on the SDMB are posts written by actual Dopers. Up until the changeover to the Discourse platform, this desideratum has been admirably fulfilled by our able and competent moderation staff.

And now we have disco*bot. A curiosity when it first showed up, it has rapidly become an annoyance. Sure, Dopers have been having a little fun mocking it, but even that folderol is losing its entertainment value.

So I did a little googling. Turns out that the Discourse platform has a disco*bot enabled as a default for all users. it appears that its given name is “Discourse narrative bot,” and it CAN be disabled.

The problem is that I can’t figure out how to do it. It’s not showing up in the Preferences sector of what passes for my User CP on this platform. Does anybody have any idea what gives, and how I can get this problem rectified?

TIA

ETA: I’ve intentionally inserted an asterisk in the name, so it wouldn’t shove its goddamned oar in. Hope that works.

2

I know who you could ask. :grinning:
My guess is it can only be disabled at the admin level.

3

Yeah, so do I.

How do I get him to show up? Stand in front of a mirror in a darkened room and say codinghorror three times?

4

Like this.
@discobot

5

Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.

6

@discobot display help

Didn’t seem to work.

7

@discobot display help

8

First you need to get lucky.
@discobot Fortune

9

:crystal_ball: It is certain

10

Believe it or not, I already tried that. Better we should get codinghorror in here to give us the Straight Dope.

11

Now I’m curious. What happens if I invoke its name three times?

@discobot
@discobot
@discobot

12

Hmmmm… noth—

13

@discobot display help

14

I currently know how to do the following things:

@discobot start {name-of-tutorial}

Starts an interactive tutorial just for you, in a personal message. {name-of-tutorial} can be one of: tutorial, advanced tutorial.

@discobot roll 2d6

:game_die: 3, 6

@discobot quote

:left_speech_bubble: We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything. — Blaise Pascal

@discobot fortune

:crystal_ball: You may rely on it

15

That is freaking awesome.

I’m on record as a Doper holding the position that I LOVE @discobot

16

@discobot L.A. Woman

17

??? What does this mean?

Has anyone done the tutorial? Maybe it says something in there about disabling it. I did a search too and also came up with nothing. Can it be put on ignore?

18

Not that I would ever THINK of doing any such thing (I love @discobot too), but it would appear that you can’t. Possibly by virtue of its trust level being “Leader.” Which is right and fighting to my view. I for one welcome our new robot overlord.

@discobot fortune

Should all those who oppose you be banished to the salt mines?

19

:crystal_ball: Better not tell you now

20

Nope. Tried that, too.