Fishsticks V1.17.5 Development Update

Greetings all,

So, for those of you that follow Fs’ development fairly closely, V17.5 has been underway for a couple of weeks now and I’ve been eager to get it done because of a few new (really just never finished actually) features. This is on top of a regular couple of suggestions from the CC community meeting or idea explosion I have every so often. So since I don’t do any update plan posts for non-major versions of Fishsticks, I figured that I’d keep the post flow moving by giving a small update on what is going on over here.

Before all that, however, I’d like to bring some attention to a new blog opened on CC’s website authored by me called the colorFul function(). CC’s website revamp has given them the ability to do all kinds of neat stuff and blogs are one of those things. Updates from Fishsticks posted here will likely end up over there (including this one, so this is going to read weird if you’re reading it from CC’s website) along with anything else that catches my fancy, but it’s all tech-related. If you’d like to take a gander at it, you may take this link to do so.

Moving on!

V17.5 includes a couple of new things that I had the idea for after the forums kind of fell out. Usually, the meeting plans are posted on the forums and we follow that as our guidelines as for what to talk about when the time comes. But since no one likes the forums anymore, I’ve opted to create something called the meeting docket. 17.5 will include a new !docket command that will take a few different parameters that will grant users the ability to add items to the meeting docket. At the time of the meeting, leaders can use it to review where the discussion will move to next. It will be cleared at the end of every meeting. Simple, quick and easy to use, and will be in the next update.

The next command addition planned for is a new staff command that will allow various messages that Fishsticks sends out to be edited. These messages in question are templated messages that up until now were hard-coded. Things like the welcome messages (known as the MOTD or Message of the Day) will be customizable so that should the need arise to change it, staff can do it without having to edit the actual Fs code to do so. The process is simple, run a short version of the command to get a copy of the current version, then run a slightly more detailed version to confirm the change. Verify that change with an emoji reaction. This process, at the moment only works with the welcome message, but will end with staff being able to edit any template message Fs can send including the Rules DM when users join for the first time, the Account registration DM, and the Discussion Den rules that must be agreed to before being able to chat in that channel.

The update includes a couple of new passive commands as well. At the time of writing this post, why (specific) and always watching (includes) have been added.

Finally, the last thing that 17.5 will include is the completion of the !bible command! I introduced this command in V15! Version 15. So long ago. Fishsticks has been approved by Crossway Publications, the owner of the ESV translation of the Bible to access their online API. Basically Fishsticks will be able to ask Crossway for a verse from the Bible and when he gets it, he’ll put it in the chat channel where the command was issued. I’ve been looking to get this thing implemented since, well, V15 but it just never worked out. V1.17.5 will include this fixed and working version of the Bible command. The planned syntax is as follows

!bible <book number> [book name] [chapter] [verse/verse range]

The book number is, well, the book number; such as 2 Samuel. It is not required as if there is no number specified, Fs will default to the first book. The book name is clearly the book of the bible to pull the verse from. The chapter is the chapter, and verse is the starting verse. If you specify a range, however, the verse starting with the first verse through all specified will be displayed.

More details will follow and of course, documentation can be found on the Fishticks command listing page on the LCARS Database.

Thanks for reading.