Pmxbot responds to @here pings like a direct mention.

[jaraco]

Using pmxbot in IRC mode to connect to Slack via their IRC gateway, we find that pmxbot responds to @here pings as if they were direct mentions to pmxbot.

These mentions trigger the rand_bot behavior (30% of the time).

That command is set to only occur in unlogged channels, but when we moved to Slack, we stopped using pmxbot for logging and now all channels are unlogged, which dramatically expanded the scope of these responses.

Some people like myself find these occasional, random messages funny and interesting. Others find them annoying or offensive.

Is there a solution?

[jaraco]

After upgrading the bot and enabling the debug logs, I see this in our logs when sending a @here ping:

I was mentioned in #sandbox: @here [cc: pmxbot]

So it seems Slack is injecting [cc: pmxbot] after @here, and that's what's triggering the responses to @here.

[jaraco]

Given this is a Slack issue and appears not to be relevant except on the IRC Gateway and since they've dropped support for the gateway, this issue is now invalid.