Who's Gerald?
Gerald is a Slack bot that I made for the UW Astrograds slack workspace. He hangs around trying to make your life easier/occasionally make you laugh with his shenanigans. I designed him for fun but I hope he can actually be useful too 🙃
What can Gerald do?
Gerald's been working hard to expand his skillset and currently he'll interact with you in Slack in three main ways
Scheduled tasks
Every morning Gerald will tick a couple of items off his todo list
any_new_publications - First, Gerald will peruse the arXiv at a leisurely pace, disregarding every paper he sees unless he finds a UW astrograd in the author list.
When this happens he'll get all excited and announce the paper to everyone in the workspace!
is_it_a_birthday - Then he'll check his calendar and see whether today is someone's birthday. If he realises that it is then he'll wish them happy birthday and
give the person a birthday GIF, how thoughtful.
whinetime_workflow - Finally, if he notices it is Monday he'll first groan internally (because Mondays) and then pick the next grad in his randomly ordered list to host whinetime this week.
He'll send that person a message in the whinetime channel and let them select the day/time/location (or let them give up the job for this week). After the host has set up the
logistics Gerald will announce to everyone what the plan is and send automated reminders as the day gets closer.
Actions & Responses after @Gerald mentions
Gerald is always at your beck and call. Simply write @Gerald and then say something to him or give him a task and he'll get right to it. Additionally, you can send him
a direct message instead and then you can use all of these same commands without even needing to mention him. Here's a list of things you can ask him or get him to do
upcoming_birthdays - Keywords: next, birthday - Gerald can tell you whose birthday is next, as well as how far away it is
@Gerald, whose birthday is next?
Who has the next birthday @Gerald?
query_birthdays - Keywords: when, birthday - Gerald can tell you when someone's birthday is, just ask him!
@Gerald, when is @Tom Wagg's birthday?
Do you know when my birthday is @Gerald?
list_birthdays - Keywords: all, everyone, birthday - Get Gerald to send you a list of all of the birthdays that he knows (plus names of people who he knows but doesn't know their birthday yet)
@Gerald could you tell me all of the birthdays you know?
When are everyone's birthdays @Gerald?
happy_birthday - Keywords: happy birthday - Wish Gerald a happy birthday! He'll probably make fun of you if it isn't actually his birthday though
Happy birthday @Gerald!!
hosting_query - Keywords: when, whinetime - Ask Gerald when you're next hosting whinetime
@Gerald, when am I next hosting whinetime?
recent_papers - Keywords: recent, latest, paper(s) - Request that Gerald find the latest n papers from any user or for yourself
@Gerald show me @Tom Wagg's latest paper!
Could you get me the 3 most recent papers from @Gabrielle Suissa please @Gerald?
@Gerald, let's see my most recent paper!
iq_test - Keywords: smart, intelligent, brain, you, your - Ask Gerald how smart he is and he'll give you some snarky reply
@Gerald how smart are you?
How big is your brain @Gerald?
miscellaneous - You can also just say some things to Gerald or ask him questions, here are some examples but there are others not listed here too
I love you @Gerald
Who made you @Gerald?
@Gerald, how old are you?
@Gerald, check this out, we should celebrate!
Automatic reactions & responses
Gerald will also listen to any messages that are sent in channels that you invite him to and then respond or react to some of them. Here are a list of things that may elicit some sort of response or reaction from Gerald but there are more that aren't included here
I live for Tom Quinn's laugh
You deserve to be BONKed after that message @TomWagg
Don't panic but I think Gerald might be listening to us...
Nevermind, definitely PANIC
new_emojis - One last thing that Gerald likes to keep an eye on is emojis. Every time there's a new emoji he'll immediately let everyone know and encourage them to use it.
Gerald doesn't know my birthday/can't find my papers
Not to worry, Gerald's information probably just needs updating. Just send me a message with your birthday/ADS query and I'll get him working for you.
I wish that Gerald would ______
Send me a message, I'd love to see if it's possible, teaching Gerald is fun!!
What if I notice a problem with Gerald's brain?
Please let me know! Or even better, create an issue on Gerald's GitHub repo!