FWIW, there are a few zoia commands I've noticed that could come across as sexist (especially if you see Zoia as being a "female" bot).

I don't think they are used that frequently, but I have seen:

@poledance (have zoia display a poledancer)
@euph (have zoia respond in a euphemism)

This isn't meant to spoil any of the fun of having zoia around. For the most part, I don't take offense to zoia. But, I do find zoia annoying / noisy (which is why I'm rarely in code4lib IRC). Though there are some useful / helpful zoia commands in there.

I like Jon Gorman's suggestion of having a friendly, helpful bot and a wise-cracking one. That way, those of us annoyed by the ongoing wise-cracking can ignore it, while still having access to the helpful stuff. (And it may be easier to turn off the wise-cracking parts during the conference if desired.)

- Tim

On 1/18/2013 10:26 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:
Actually, I find the "playing" with Zoia itself offensive. As per my
response to my own message.

It objectifies women. Treats them as play-things. Makes me very
uncomfortable. If we want to have an information bot, perhaps like the
one used by W3C which takes minutes for meetings (Zakim, I believe it
is), that seems reasonable. But to have a "play-thing" that is gendered
is a really, really bad idea. In fact, to have a "play-thing" of any
kind on the channel might not be a good idea. I know that some folks
find it fun, but it is akin to the locker-room shenanigans (at least as
I experience it), and it's a HUGE in-joke that makes it obvious to
anyone new that they aren't "in".

kc

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