Discobot is spamming a user

Support

AI-generated summary

A discussion on the topic “Discobot is spamming a user” reveals that Discobot is sending multiple tutorial messages to users, even after they’ve replied with “skip”. Peter_Galvin initially reported this issue, and justin explained that it could be due to the user starting and stopping the tutorial multiple times, causing Discobot to follow up. justin further clarified that this behavior is expected, as “skip” advances the tutorial instead of stopping it.

Another user, Dannii, reported a similar issue with one of their moderators receiving repeated messages about advanced features, despite already completing the tutorial. codinghorror suggested checking if Sidekiq is working correctly, but justin found no issues. codinghorror asked if the instance is running the latest version of Discourse, and Dannii confirmed they are on version 2.7.0.beta1.

1

Any idea why discobot sent at least 4 of these to the same user over the course of a couple of days?
Apparently even after the user replied with “skip”?
discobot
February 12

Hey @Deena, just checking in because I haven’t heard from you in a while.

  • To continue, reply to me any time.
  • If you’d like to skip this step, say skip .
  • To start over, say start tutorial .

If you’d rather not, that’s OK too. I’m a robot. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Visit Message or reply to this email to respond to discobot, Deena.

In Reply To

discobot
February 12

Sometimes you might want to get a person’s attention, even if you aren’t replying to them directly. Type @ then complete their user name to mention them. Can you mention @discobot in your reply?

2

Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.

4

It appears the user started the new user tutorial then stopped partway through, causing Discobot to respond to see if the user still wants to engage. What other messages were sent other than the one you showed? What you are sharing here appears to be normal.

6

He said it was sent 4 times. Maybe sidekiq is borked on his install? That’s all I can think of. Looks like we host it though @justin

7

Nope all is good here. I checked the PM since it’s on our hosting and it’s because:

  • the user started the tutorial
  • stopped
  • discobot followed up
  • the user said skip
  • discobot went to the next step
  • user stopped
  • discobot followed up
  • user said skip again

It’s possible the thought process was ‘oh skip should stop this’ but instead it advances the tutorial.

Does that sound right @Peter_Galvin?

8

Ah yes that sounds possible. Will let them know. Thanks.

9

One of my moderators is also being spammed by the “Now that you’ve been promoted, it’s time to learn about some advanced features!” message. They’ve already done the tutorial, but keep being sent the message, at least 12 times by now. They’ve tried telling discobot to skip, but it hasn’t made a difference. Any ideas? Any way to check if something is broken in sidekiq?

10

Are you on the latest version of Discourse?

11

Yep, on 2.7.0.beta1. I also checked, and it doesn’t seem like this started when we updated, but instead about a week later.