http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1032918


in reply to Strange message in chatterbox

G'day McA,

A bit of a blast from the past, but I just had exactly the same problem and discussed possible causes with Corion on the CB:

[kcott] I got this message in CB: "root says root just sends automa +ted notices, but you tried to reply "" to it." ... [kcott] It's been noted before: Strange message in chatterbox ... [kcott] I was working in Nodes to consider at the time (if that mat +ters). .... [kcott] I assume I've just clicked the wrong button or link. Does a +nyone have any ideas what might have caused this? I'd like to avoid a + repetition. [Corion] Maybe you tried to /msg root with one or more spaces afte +r root, or something like that? [Corion] Yep. Whenever you /msg root the check doesn't even look at + whether you're actually trying to say something :) [Corion] /msg root [Corion] Hmmm. I must be misreading the code in message because my +attempts at saying nothing elicit no reply... [Corion] Ah - code comprehension error. You need to have a message +from root, and you need to reply to it. Then, even if you say nothing +, you'll get that message. [Corion] At least that's my current reading of message. Later I mig +ht get a different reading, in a more sonore voice. [kcott] Thanks for the follow-up Corion. I just tried to look at my + nodes Nodes You Wrote and got: "kcott has no writeups, it seems.Serv +er Error (Error ID 8658203b6489)". Possibly not something I did? [kcott]: We got a little out-of-sync there (my last response followed +your "Hmmm... " line. I did have a message from 'root' (about a reply + to a node) which I deleted - probably just miskeyed/clicked somethin +g ... phone call ...

Anyway, I obviously got interrupted there; however, it seems to me that this raises a few questions:

If this is the normal and expected behaviour, then maybe a doco "gotcha" additon — I'm thinking along similar lines to this in Chatterbox FAQ:

  • /msg username text

    ... At some point in your travels here, you will probably type "/msh" or forget the "/msg" altogether and the whole world will see your message. ...

-- Ken