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Salmon bots
Jun. 26th, 2008 10:45 amAn interesting phenomenon that I've touched the edge of recently: "Salmon" bots (or "Salmoning" / being "Salmoned")
Basically, someone with a bit of a tricksterish nature has written and is running a number of bots on AIM.
All of the bots' names are composed of two words, the latter always being Salmon (ie, InstantSalmon, LoyalSalmon, ForcefulSalmon, that sort of thing).
The bots contact two people whose usernames they have found (it looks like they screen-scrape them from LJ among other places), then they say the same thing to both parties, something that will start a conversation.
The bot then proceeds to relay any messages from one of the users to it, to the other user.
An example conversation (missing the opening line, sadly, as they took ages to reply and I closed the window):
( Read more... )
First-timers often get frustrated, confused and annoyed as they accuse each other of randomly contacting someone they don't know and starting a conversation with them. To make things more crazy, the bots do simple word replacement, to make it more difficult to identify each other and explain to first-timers what's happening. URLs can be replaced or munged, and significant words like "name", "username", "screen name", etc. So, by the time you both realise what's going on, it becomes quite difficult to explain / communicate!
Apparently, these bots are descended from a previous incarnation called "Hat" bots, and this community here is dedicated to their various exploits, and the swathe of confusion and bemusement they leave behind them.
A while back, it seems, the people behind the bots actually contacted![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
themissinghat, partially revealed themselves and mentioned a Salmon request page.
I'm torn between respect for the prankster value of this and annoyance at the awkwardness it's causing, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon :)
Vaguely related - I seem to be getting single messages from unknown AIM users, pertaining to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
legomymalfoy. The first said legomymalfoy wanted to ask how much for my child, the second (that I saved) read:
StabMichaelChen: dear deathboy, legomymalfoy is going to blow up the turkish parliament and kill abdullah gul the president of turkey for the liberation of her fellow child pornography traffickers
DeathBoy: So I hear. it is a sad day for us all.
- in both cases, they've not replied. Are random people messaging me to trash-talklegomymalfoy? - I mean, you don't need to, I don't think too much of them to begin with - or (much more amusingly), has someone written some kind of slanderbot?
Because if they haven't, I love the idea :)
Basically, someone with a bit of a tricksterish nature has written and is running a number of bots on AIM.
All of the bots' names are composed of two words, the latter always being Salmon (ie, InstantSalmon, LoyalSalmon, ForcefulSalmon, that sort of thing).
The bots contact two people whose usernames they have found (it looks like they screen-scrape them from LJ among other places), then they say the same thing to both parties, something that will start a conversation.
The bot then proceeds to relay any messages from one of the users to it, to the other user.
An example conversation (missing the opening line, sadly, as they took ages to reply and I closed the window):
( Read more... )
First-timers often get frustrated, confused and annoyed as they accuse each other of randomly contacting someone they don't know and starting a conversation with them. To make things more crazy, the bots do simple word replacement, to make it more difficult to identify each other and explain to first-timers what's happening. URLs can be replaced or munged, and significant words like "name", "username", "screen name", etc. So, by the time you both realise what's going on, it becomes quite difficult to explain / communicate!
Apparently, these bots are descended from a previous incarnation called "Hat" bots, and this community here is dedicated to their various exploits, and the swathe of confusion and bemusement they leave behind them.
A while back, it seems, the people behind the bots actually contacted
themissinghat, partially revealed themselves and mentioned a Salmon request page.I'm torn between respect for the prankster value of this and annoyance at the awkwardness it's causing, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon :)
Vaguely related - I seem to be getting single messages from unknown AIM users, pertaining to
legomymalfoy. The first said legomymalfoy wanted to ask how much for my child, the second (that I saved) read:StabMichaelChen: dear deathboy, legomymalfoy is going to blow up the turkish parliament and kill abdullah gul the president of turkey for the liberation of her fellow child pornography traffickers
DeathBoy: So I hear. it is a sad day for us all.
- in both cases, they've not replied. Are random people messaging me to trash-talk
legomymalfoy? - I mean, you don't need to, I don't think too much of them to begin with - or (much more amusingly), has someone written some kind of slanderbot?Because if they haven't, I love the idea :)
