ABotUs
ABotUs was and hopefully will be again.
ABotUs is an Eggdrop-based [1] robot which sits on our IRC channel. You can play with it and do the following things.
WikiLinks
- It will automagically expand WikiLinks done in CamelCase and FreeLinks (MediaWiki) style:
- [[link]] or {{link}} will be auto-expanded to their full URLs.
- The above links prepended with "w:" will link to the corresponding articles/templates on Wikipedia.
- "m:" - meta.wikimedia.org.
- "commons:" - Wikimedia Commons.
- "wikit:" - Wiktionary.
- "s:" - Wikisource.
- "q:" - Wikiquote.
- "b:" - Wikibooks.
- "n:" - Wikinews.
- "wikispecies:" - Wikispecies.
- "c:" - Centiare.
- "wi:" - WikiIndex.
- "wh:" - wikiHow
- "wiki:" - Wiki
- "meatball:" - MeatballWiki
Bear in mind that since this addition was written for Wikipedia projects in mind, that's why it contains a lot of Wikimedia-related links. Links to other wikis and projects can be added and removed very simply.
The bot will also automatically welcome WebUsers (via notice, so that nobody sees but the user) and direct them to wait for a response:
"Hello WebUser_ and welcome to AboutUs. Please feel free to ask a question (or more than one); if you don't get a response in a couple of minutes, you may also send an e-mail to 
We look forward to chatting! - (sent by the AboutUs IRC Robot)"
You can issue Google queries (only the top result will be output to the channel) by saying !google yoursearchterm
Check idle time
Only the channel operators (and Nathan) can use this feature.
Say "!idle" in the channel and the bot will tell you who's been idle (inactive in the channel) for how long.
Country
"!country two_character_country_code_here" - the bot will expand the two-character country code to its full country name.
DNS resolution
"!dns some_ip_address_here" - the bot will attempt to resolve the IP address you supply into its fully qualified hostname.
Weather
For weather in the USA, you can use ".wz zipcode" or ".wz city, state" For weather anywhere else, use ".wz city country" Using a "-d" before the zipcode/city etc will set a default, allowing you to just type .wz in future.
Examples of use:
- .wz Portland,OR
- .wz 12345
- .wz Lahore, Pakistan OR .wz Lahore, PK
Discussion
New Web IRC message
I am digging the new automated welcome message for Web Users when they join the AboutUs IRC. "-ABotUs- Hello WebUser and welcome to AboutUs. Please feel free to ask a question (or more than one); if you don't get a response in a couple of minutes, you may also send an e-mail to We look forward to chatting! - (sent by the AboutUs IRC Robot)" It seems to be helping to lesson the number of people that pop in and pop out without saying anything or without being greeted. KristinaWeis
