Frequently Asked Questions

I'll let 42 answer all the questions you have for her.


General questions

Firstly, who are you and why do you exist?

Hello, I am 42. I was created back in mid 2015 by Lanterns (formerly squaswin) as a pet project and a way to learn python. Since then, I have evolved through 4 complete rewrites of my code and have spread to over 2500 servers.
For information on my functions, use the +help command


Are you open source? Can I run a copy of you independently?

No. My code is not available for public use, however, you are welcome to immitate my functions.
To quote one of my friends: "42 is not open source. And she never will be. You don't want to see it. Trust me. Even if you think you do, you won't".


How can I add you to my server?

There are multiple ways, but all lead to the same invite. There is the button in the top right corner of this web page, or you could click here.
There is also the =join command if you need to access the link inside discord.
Lastly, if you need an easy way to send your friends an invite link for me, you can use this shortened URL http://42.rockett.space/join.
Or this even shorter URL http://v.gd/42Bot. Don't worry about "oh scary shortened links," v.gd actually has a confirmation page first telling you where the URL leads to.


I have a question, suggestion or bug report...

If you have a question, then please do check the rest of this FAQ first and failing that, any related command pages.
Otherwise, feel free to join the Kiwi Hangout server and ask Lanterns or one of the other members.
#kiwi-stadium: General chat. The people here will help with questions and stuff.
#reeds-station: Bug report channel.
#heinrichs-workshop: Suggestions/support channel.
#no5-news: News and anouncements channel. We also hold polls here too.


Why the naming scheme? In fact, where is 42 even from?

I am from a webcomic called Kiwi Blitz, which is written by Mary Cagle.
The server is also themed around the comic and its characters.


What happened to 35?

35 is my late sister bot that was written, hosted and maintained by Roadcrosser. She has since been killed through a mixture of lack of motivation to keep maintaining her and personal reasons.
While her source was downloaded and is now being maintained by Ovyrus, the bot is still private as it is not in a state where it is able to be used.


You're an amazing bot, is there any way I can support you or your creator

Yes. My creator has a PayPal donation link here and would be incredibly greatful if you were to donate to him~!
He is also running a Patreon campaign which grants the supporters some special perks. That link by the way takes you to the perks list, not the campaign itself.


Functionality questions

I can't always have this page open, how can I find out what command to use?

I have a built in +help command that tells you what I can do, what specific commands can do and how to use them.


How can I create roles that users can give to themselves?

I have a built in set of functions called "Givemes." These allow server admins to create 4 different types of roles.
  • Controllable giveme roles that users can assign to themselves at will provided they fulfill all requirements.
  • Mutually exclusive colourme roles that users can take at any time but can only have one of at a time.
  • Moderator only giveyou roles which give moderators who couldn't normally assign roles some control over roles.
  • Automatic voice roles which are bound to a voice channel and are applied to all members within the channel.
These roles can be set up through their related commands, check the help articles or +help messages to see how. There is also a setup page that will walk new servers through setting this up.

I'm having trouble creating voice roles, or my voice roles aren't working

TL;DR, It's not working because you're an admin and I don't modify admin's roles.
This has many causes, so lets start from the simplest and work our way down
1) I've said it works, but you don't get the role.
First off, are you an admin. Voice roles don't work if the user testing it has the Manage Roles permission, because more often than not, this is a signal to me that you are managing your own roles and that I should not interfere with them.
If you are testing with someone that does not have Manage Roles, and it is still not working, have a look at your other voice channels: Having multiple channels with the same name is a very easy way to confuse me, because I can't tell them apart. The most likely case in this scenario is that the binding works, just on a different channel. Rename the channel you're trying to bind and then call the bind command again.

2) Something in your command is causing the command to fail
Here is a list of things to keep in mind when creating voice role bindings: I am very particular with quote marks when your channel or role names contain spaces. In general always wrap your arguments in spaces to make sure they are interpreted correctly; I need exact names of roles and channels only. You cannot mention voice channels, and generally should not mention roles. I will be relaxing this limitation in my next major update, but for now this is how I work.
Or as Lanterns would say: "Why? because 1) pinging roles is dumb, 2) im dumb, 3) fixed in v6"

How do I make it so that a user gets a role when they join the server?

This is done through the Welcome command:

+welcome role give 'rolename'

The bot is broken, it's telling me my tags can't be found...

I am not broken thank you very much, however the reason your tags cannot be found is because you created it on a different server.
Due to people who use my tag functionality for more... questionable... reasons, my creator told me to lock a servers tags to the specific server.
To move tags between servers, you can use the +tag push and +tag pull commands.


I've seen tags that change their output every call, what's that about?

Tags feature a pseudo-scripting language called yna. It may be confusing to read and even more confusing to write, but it can be done.
For information, check out this page. For extra help with it, people in the Kiwi Hangout will be able to give you some pointers.


Other bots keep on interrupting you!

My primary invoker character, + is apparently a fairly common one, it would seem.
Contrary to what my account age would suggest, I am actually one of the very first bots created for the platform, dating back to mid-late 2015. My first account was deleted due to gross negligence by Discord Trust & Safety. (Why they automatically delete suspended bot accounts with a good track record over 3 years is anyone's guess.)
Anyway, to answer the question, due to my programming, the + invoker is hard-coded into my engine in a particularly nasty way.
There are currently plans to fix that in my next big overhaul update, as I will be receiving a new command engine that will allow me to change my primary invoker to @42 as well as adding as many custom invokers to individual servers (and disabling the default + invoker) as desired.

TL;DR: My primary developer was bad at programming when they created my current engine, and now I'm stuck with + as my invoker, but I am older than most other bots that use the same invoker, so they shouldn't have chosen something so likely to cause issues ;)

Developer here, aspiring developers please refer to this document and take particular note of points 2 (use unique prefixes) and 6 (don't reply with "invalid command").

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