Abstract
Each day when the off-topic channel names change, the bot will post in that channel announcing what name the channel changed to.
Specification
The post itself should look something along the lines of:
Channel name changed to ot0-channel-name
Additional features
Lemon and I thought it might be fun to add some metrics to this post. Namely the of number times this channel name has been picked, and the name's creation date. A possible format for this might look like the following:
Channel name changed to ot0-channel-name. This named has been picked 42 times and was created on Jan 1st 1970.
For fun, a possible format in the case where the channel name in question has been picked for the first time could be something like:
Channel name changed to ot0-channel-name. This is the first time this channel has been picked! It was created on Jan 1st 1970.
I'm not married to the term "picked" however, or the overall wording in general. So if someone has suggestions for a better way to word it, make a comment on this issue.
Implementation details
It's worth discussing some of the details associated with adding metrics to this feature. The current random off-topic channel name system has been in place for a while, and thus historic data should be considered. Having all metrics start at 0 would be a last resort, as it would be much more fun to see what the historic metrics already look like.
Getting historic data for times channel was picked
Since we don't store logs, in order to get historic channel name changes, we need to poll the server audit logs. Thankfully discord supports this in their API, with the relevant discordpy docs here. Of course this part won't be part of the feature itself, as we only want to poll the logs once in order to get historic data so we can store it.
Getting creation times
This could be a little trickier assuming we don't already store this data. If it turns out that we don't already have this data, the only option might be to have an admin manually search the discord history for when a name was added to the database.
Rationale
For me, the best argument for adding this feature is to add context to conversations in off-topic channels discussing the current name of the channel. As of right now, if you search the history of off-topic channels, there is no way of knowing what the channel name was at the time unless someone in the conversation history explicitly says what it is. And since the channel names are jokes, if you're reading the channel history and see people joking about whatever the name was at the time, you miss out on the joke!
The other reason I would like to see this feature is for the metrics. The channel names changing randomly everyday makes for some potentially interesting data! And nothing is more fun than looking at data!
Motivation
A request for this feature was made in the #meta channel, but with a different rationale than what I've written above. Many argued against the validity of the original users rationale, and I agree with them. However since I had my own rationale, I decided I wanted the feature regardless and came up with the idea to add metrics after hearing about it.
Discussion
A few staff members are pretty neutral about adding this feature, with arguments along the lines of it being a useless feature, and potentially a waste of time. These concerns are valid and understandable; there are many more important issues to take care of, and easy issues like these always get picked up first. If you find yourself agreeing with these concerns, or have additional concerns of your own, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below.
Abstract
Each day when the off-topic channel names change, the bot will post in that channel announcing what name the channel changed to.
Specification
The post itself should look something along the lines of:
Additional features
Lemon and I thought it might be fun to add some metrics to this post. Namely the of number times this channel name has been picked, and the name's creation date. A possible format for this might look like the following:
For fun, a possible format in the case where the channel name in question has been picked for the first time could be something like:
I'm not married to the term "picked" however, or the overall wording in general. So if someone has suggestions for a better way to word it, make a comment on this issue.
Implementation details
It's worth discussing some of the details associated with adding metrics to this feature. The current random off-topic channel name system has been in place for a while, and thus historic data should be considered. Having all metrics start at 0 would be a last resort, as it would be much more fun to see what the historic metrics already look like.
Getting historic data for times channel was picked
Since we don't store logs, in order to get historic channel name changes, we need to poll the server audit logs. Thankfully discord supports this in their API, with the relevant discordpy docs here. Of course this part won't be part of the feature itself, as we only want to poll the logs once in order to get historic data so we can store it.
Getting creation times
This could be a little trickier assuming we don't already store this data. If it turns out that we don't already have this data, the only option might be to have an admin manually search the discord history for when a name was added to the database.
Rationale
For me, the best argument for adding this feature is to add context to conversations in off-topic channels discussing the current name of the channel. As of right now, if you search the history of off-topic channels, there is no way of knowing what the channel name was at the time unless someone in the conversation history explicitly says what it is. And since the channel names are jokes, if you're reading the channel history and see people joking about whatever the name was at the time, you miss out on the joke!
The other reason I would like to see this feature is for the metrics. The channel names changing randomly everyday makes for some potentially interesting data! And nothing is more fun than looking at data!
Motivation
A request for this feature was made in the
#metachannel, but with a different rationale than what I've written above. Many argued against the validity of the original users rationale, and I agree with them. However since I had my own rationale, I decided I wanted the feature regardless and came up with the idea to add metrics after hearing about it.Discussion
A few staff members are pretty neutral about adding this feature, with arguments along the lines of it being a useless feature, and potentially a waste of time. These concerns are valid and understandable; there are many more important issues to take care of, and easy issues like these always get picked up first. If you find yourself agreeing with these concerns, or have additional concerns of your own, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below.