I have been thinking about this for a few days, discussing it with a few members of the community, and have decided to place it's fate in the hands of the the entire community.

Once upon a time it occurred to me that it might be neat to have an informational 'bot' in the chatterbox. Something that would provide general information such as:

• Current time
• last time a particuar user was seen on the site
• general site statistics
• brief help with the various topics relating to the use of the site and more
• and whever else that could be though up and be usefull

I don't imagine that it should post to the chatterbox, but rather respond directly back to a user's /msg to it via another /msg.

Unfortunately I can also see potential for abuse of such a thing, and am hesitant to "open pandora's box" so to speak. I won't go into alot of detail here, but if it were to run at the mouth, it could be annoying to say the least. (this is definitely not my intent tho)

So what I am asking here is, do you think this is a bad/good idea, what would/might make it a good idea, where should it's limits begin/end, and what sorts of things would you like to see something of this nature do if it were allowed/wanted?

Thanks ahead for the input.

BTW, the following linked discussion is slightly related.
A Chatterbox Archive

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