Create an IRC bot that can post archives from an OpenWorm IRC channel to gist

[slarson]

Ideally with the smallest footprint possible. A python script that could run on Google app engine could be ideal for this.

The purpose is to make IRC a more used environment for real time conversations in the project. The lack of an archive has become a roadblock to effective use of the medium because everyone who isn't logged in loses track of what has been said.

cc: @travs

[mwatts15]

Hi @slarson . Why a Gist? Free storage?

[slarson]

Yeah, that was the thinking. We've also done it before (manually) and it seemed to work well: https://gist.github.com/slarson/4126820

[travs]

I looked around and found a few potential solutions, the most promising of which I have started picking at.

This particular solution is simple (it logs to a file; just have to output to gist next) but is not compatible with Google's App Engine, since it requires the script to be run indefinitely, and App Engine doesn't seem to be designed for that.

Is there a cloud service that might allow this (ex: VPS), or should we try a different approach?

[slarson]

Cool! How about a t2.micro EC2 instance on AWS' free tier?

[slarson]

Alternatively, I have a Raspberry Pi server that is on the web enough that it is able to update a google spreadsheet via a python script running under a crontab job. We could see if it could maintain a socket connection too.

[kneuron]

You guys should check out slack ( https://slack.com) . Not sure how it scales for a project like OpenWorm re: pricing (free for unlimited users, but limited archive. Unlimited archive for a fee). It's like IRC if someone invented it in 2014, really feature rich, and for communication at least would be perfect for OpenWorm. On Sep 18, 2014 5:44 PM, "Stephen Larson" notifications@github.com wrote:

Alternatively, I have a Raspberry Pi server that is on the web enough that it is able to update a google spreadsheet via a python script running under a crontab job. We could see if it could maintain a socket connection too.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openworm/OpenWorm/issues/214#issuecomment-56123046.

[slarson]

@travs this is what we get for having a private communication about slack :)

@kneuron the funny thing is that Travis suggested this first but we are trying to avoid the pricing. Our criteria are:

• Free
• Public / open login (minimal account)
• Archive
• Multiplatform
• Easy to use

We've been thinking about

• Slack
• Hipchat
• IRC
• Google hangouts

And none has quite all the features

Sounds like Slack is many of those things too. We'll keep thinking about the final solution. THANK YOU for the suggestion!

[travs]

Haha @slarson, there has to be irony in that somewhere.

I think I may have found the solution for an ircbot, if we're going that route. Geared towards open source projects, it looks like you just register with these guys and they log your channel publicly (example). Not sure if there are any crazy terms since it's free, but it looks promising.

[slarson]

Thanks for pointing it out. I've just sent a request for adding

openworm. Fingers crossed!

On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 3:14 PM, Travis Jacobs notifications@github.com wrote:

Haha @slarson https://github.com/slarson, there has to be irony in that somewhere.

I think I may have found the solution https://botbot.me/ for an ircbot, if we're going that route. Geared towards open source projects, it looks like you just register with these guys and they log your channel publicly (example https://botbot.me/freenode/chef/). Not sure if there are any crazy terms since it's free, but it looks promising.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openworm/OpenWorm/issues/214#issuecomment-56314781.

[msasinski]

Over a year ago I've installed eggbot to monitor the #openworm channel. It does logging and announces new commits, and posts on the mailing list. I can push the log daily somewhere, just let me know where

[travs]

@msasinski Are you able to push the log into a gist? We're ready to implement this to monitor the IRC channel asap, since there is a revived interest in chatting about OpenWorm. There is also the question of uptime. Do you have access to server space or should we use something like google app engine to make the bot persistent?

[rgerkin]

I've used Gitter as part of the SageMathCloud project. It's a pretty slick integration of GitHub and chat, e.g. https://gitter.im/sagemath/cloud. For us, something like:
https://gitter.im/openworm, with appropriate project "rooms" as well. It supports markdown, @-style callouts, etc.

[slarson]

@rgerkin this looks pretty brilliant. We're testing this out. I've created one for the project-wide repo here: https://gitter.im/openworm/OpenWorm @tarelli maybe you want to experiment with this for Geppetto?

[slarson]

I think we'll close this for now. Looks like Gitter is the winner for this!