lovinglinux
April 29th, 2010, 10:36 PM
Following the philosophy behind the ubuntu-bug tool and due to an increasing demand for social network integration, Ubuntu developers decided to include two command-line tools in Lucid Lynx, that will be a huge success. They are ubuntu-rant and ubuntu-praise. These tools allow to easily post the user opinion about the new Ubuntu release at ubuntuforums.org.
The man pages of both applications reveals some interesting details about how they work under the hood:
...ubuntu-rant and ubuntu-praise rely on a customized Google algorithm, that fetches hundreds of thousands of rants and praises posted on the forums since Warty Warthog, in order to dynamically build the message body, so the user don't even need to type the message. They also apply special filters based on the most popular thread tags from the corresponding Testing and Discussion forum and also from the release notes, in order ensure the rants and praises are relevant to the current release.
It seems that they had plans to use a Yahoo algorithm, but the complains about this decision made ubuntu-rant run in an infinite loop, so they decided to go back to Google algorithm.
Using these tools is pretty easy, but they do offer some level of customization. For example, there are some popular switches that the user can add to the commands:
--silly-issues
fetches only issues that can be easily solved by the user, like for example the decision to change the default Firefox search engine to Yahoo
--controversial-title
generates an automatic title that will guarantee a lot of visibility
--burn-into-flames
this option add some special comments to the message body that will guarantee an ever-lasting flame war. It is recommended to be used in conjunction with --disable-moderator.
--disable-moderator
prevents the thread from being locked, allowing the user to post whatever he wants without fear of a moderator closing the thread as soon as it reaches the forum. It also prevent the user from receiving forum infractions
--force-sub-forum
this prevents a moderator from moving the thread to the Testimonials sub-forum, allowing the user to post wherever he/she wants
--prevent-merge
allows to create any number of similar threads, even if they are posted just a couple of minutes apart. The forum merging features are forcibly turned off, so the moderators can't do anything about it
--allow-recurring
prevent the thread from being moved to the recurring discussions sub-forum
--bash-dev, --praise-dev
include some random bashing/praising comments about the developers
--bash-corp, --praise-corp
include some random bashing/praising comments about Canonical
--bash-mark, --praise-mark
include some random bashing/praising comments about Mark Shuttleworth
--bash-everyone, --praise-everyone
include some random bashing/praising comments about someone related to Ubuntu, Linux and FLOSS
--ripping-off-ms
add some comments saying Linux is ripping off ideas from Microsoft
--ripping-off-unix
add some comments saying Microsoft is the one ripping off ideas
--spread-fud
include some classic FUD comments
--reveal-conspiracy
include some crazy theories about hidden agendas and corporate conspiracies
--enable-trolling
starts the thread in troll mode
--gnome-shell-good, --gnome-shell-bad, --gnome-shell-ugly,
include random comments about gnome-shell
--bump-every
bump the thread on regular intervals
That's it. Have fun :)
The man pages of both applications reveals some interesting details about how they work under the hood:
...ubuntu-rant and ubuntu-praise rely on a customized Google algorithm, that fetches hundreds of thousands of rants and praises posted on the forums since Warty Warthog, in order to dynamically build the message body, so the user don't even need to type the message. They also apply special filters based on the most popular thread tags from the corresponding Testing and Discussion forum and also from the release notes, in order ensure the rants and praises are relevant to the current release.
It seems that they had plans to use a Yahoo algorithm, but the complains about this decision made ubuntu-rant run in an infinite loop, so they decided to go back to Google algorithm.
Using these tools is pretty easy, but they do offer some level of customization. For example, there are some popular switches that the user can add to the commands:
--silly-issues
fetches only issues that can be easily solved by the user, like for example the decision to change the default Firefox search engine to Yahoo
--controversial-title
generates an automatic title that will guarantee a lot of visibility
--burn-into-flames
this option add some special comments to the message body that will guarantee an ever-lasting flame war. It is recommended to be used in conjunction with --disable-moderator.
--disable-moderator
prevents the thread from being locked, allowing the user to post whatever he wants without fear of a moderator closing the thread as soon as it reaches the forum. It also prevent the user from receiving forum infractions
--force-sub-forum
this prevents a moderator from moving the thread to the Testimonials sub-forum, allowing the user to post wherever he/she wants
--prevent-merge
allows to create any number of similar threads, even if they are posted just a couple of minutes apart. The forum merging features are forcibly turned off, so the moderators can't do anything about it
--allow-recurring
prevent the thread from being moved to the recurring discussions sub-forum
--bash-dev, --praise-dev
include some random bashing/praising comments about the developers
--bash-corp, --praise-corp
include some random bashing/praising comments about Canonical
--bash-mark, --praise-mark
include some random bashing/praising comments about Mark Shuttleworth
--bash-everyone, --praise-everyone
include some random bashing/praising comments about someone related to Ubuntu, Linux and FLOSS
--ripping-off-ms
add some comments saying Linux is ripping off ideas from Microsoft
--ripping-off-unix
add some comments saying Microsoft is the one ripping off ideas
--spread-fud
include some classic FUD comments
--reveal-conspiracy
include some crazy theories about hidden agendas and corporate conspiracies
--enable-trolling
starts the thread in troll mode
--gnome-shell-good, --gnome-shell-bad, --gnome-shell-ugly,
include random comments about gnome-shell
--bump-every
bump the thread on regular intervals
That's it. Have fun :)