IRC Bots

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A Guide to the IRC Bots of #lojban (and #ckule)

You might think all ~120 logged on users of #lojban are watching you and/or participating in the conversation. You'd be wrong, because most of them are inactive. But also, there are a bunch of robots! Some of them are even helpful. Read on for more.

Lojban assistance

valsi
This is a bidirectional Lojban-English dictionary. It works from a dump of Jbovlaste, so it may not be completely up to date.
Run by donri (source).
You can invoke valsi in the channel by prefixing a message with "valsi ", or send a private message to the bot (with no prefix).
The content of the message is just a word. If it's a Lojban word, you'll get its definition. If it's an English word, you'll get a list of suggested translations.
Accepted options for Lojban word lookup: (you can give up to one option, in parentheses, e.g. "valsi lercu'aca'a (components)")
  • affix
Get the affix (rafsi) form of the word.
  • class
Get the selma'o (grammatical category) of the word.
  • type
Get the type (cmavo/gismu/lujvo/etc) of the word.
  • notes
Return the notes field of the definition (without this option it isn't shown).
  • cll
Get the link to the section of the CLL that discusses the word (not always accurate).
  • url
Get the link to Vlasisku's page for the word.
  • components
Break a lujvo into its component gismu (works on nonce lujvo).
  • rafsi
Treat the word as a rafsi for the purposes of the search (many cmavo are also rafsi of other words).
  • I don't see this option in the source, so maybe what's running is a slightly different version? Durka42 (talk)
  • You can also send queries in vlasisku's internal query language, like "valsi class:BAI" or "valsi affix:ka'i".
gerna
This is a grammar checker based on jbofi'e.
Run by donri (source, same as valsi).
You can invoke gerna in the channel by prefix a message with "gerna ", or send a private message to the bot (with no prefix).
The message is just a Lojban sentence. If it parses, you'll get the structure. If it doesn't parse or jbofi'e crashes, it will say "not grammatical" and try to show you which word broke the parse.
There are no options.
camxes, cipra
These are parser bots based on camxes. camxes parses regular Lojban while cipra has (most of?) the ELG implemented.
Who runs them? It must be different people since they are sometimes on at different times. Here is the source (based on camxes.js).
You send this bot a sentence by prefixing it with the bot's name and a colon (the colon is mandatory, unlike other bots), e.g. "camxes: coi".
Accepted options:
  • +s
Show the selma'o of each word.
  • -f
Don't show terminators.
  • -f+s (not +s-f)
Both of the above.

Other

sidju
This is an instance of the Phenny IRC bot.
Run by Tene (source).
Common commands (see the source for full documentation):
  • "sidju: tell <nick> <message>"
Delayed messaging service. Next time <nick> says something in the channel, sidju will relay the message. You can use * in the nick as a wildcard.
  • Google/Wikipedia search: ".g <query>" or ".wik <query>"
Searches and returns a link to the first result.
  • Link title lookup: ".title"
Opens the most recent link pasted in the channel, and retrieves its title.
xorban
Xorban is a parser bot for another logical language (you guessed it, called Xorban). It's actually the same bot as camxes and cipra but with a different grammar.
Run by selpa'i.
mensi, livla
These bots start talking when the channel is dead, so that there are no long stretches of time without Lojban being transmitted over the Internet.
Run by gleki (source).
livla repeats sentences from Tatoeba, while mensi has a list of canned replies.
If you catch any mistakes, you should probably tell someone, since it means a Lojban entry on Tatoeba is wrong.