What is HAL?Currently in private beta, HAL (@thisishalbot) is an anti-spam bot that uses federation partners and expression filters to fight spam. It also has an anti-duplication feature, and has the ability to block instant-replies to channel posts — 100% of the time, those are spam. HAL can clean service messages and bot commands, too. It is configurable to a certain degree, with more features and configurability coming later down the line.
Is HAL free?In private and public betas, yes, HAL will be free. Additionally, HAL’s anti-spam feature will always be free. Later down the line, HAL may acquire some group management features, and we may choose to charge for that. However, it’s early days. Lots of work to still do, and lots to think about.
If you would like to join the private beta, drop us a note in the support group and we’ll take it from there.
Can HAL be white-labelled?No. At least, not yet. We haven’t really thought about it. However, HAL may well introduce a REST API that can be used by custom bots to check for spammers. Portions of the API would be free, others would be paid, but we haven’t given it much thought yet.
Where can I get help using HAL?First, check the
/help menu in a private chat with the bot. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then you can reach out in the support group.I’ve been banned by HAL unfairly. How do I get unbanned?You can send your appeal to the support group and an admin will assist you, subject to any procedures outlined there.
Support Group: @halsupport
#bugfix
When using a ban command in a channel discussion thread without replying to a comment in that thread, HAL will no longer ban the channel and delete auto-forwarded channel-posts for the past 48-hours. This was more of an oversight than it was a bug – Telegram works in strange ways. 🤷♂️
When using a ban command in a channel discussion thread without replying to a comment in that thread, HAL will no longer ban the channel and delete auto-forwarded channel-posts for the past 48-hours. This was more of an oversight than it was a bug – Telegram works in strange ways. 🤷♂️
#internals
HAL now has baked-in rate-limiting to help keep server resources available when under load. Also, for cluster actions (such as active banning), outbound request throttling has been activated.
Update: this internal change may be adjusted from time to time so we can find a nice balance between performance and prevention of flood-waits from Telegram’s servers.
HAL now has baked-in rate-limiting to help keep server resources available when under load. Also, for cluster actions (such as active banning), outbound request throttling has been activated.
Update: this internal change may be adjusted from time to time so we can find a nice balance between performance and prevention of flood-waits from Telegram’s servers.
#feature
Comment moderation has been added to HAL. Available settings are
Note: this feature may move to HAL Premium as a paid feature
Comment moderation has been added to HAL. Available settings are
off, light, moderate and heavy. See “Moderation” in /help for more information.Note: this feature may move to HAL Premium as a paid feature
#feature
The ability to delete private links in messages is now available. To use it, send /deleteprivateinvitelinks
Note: Though unconfirmed, this feature may move to a “locks” feature in the future, and that feature may only be available to HAL Premium.
The ability to delete private links in messages is now available. To use it, send /deleteprivateinvitelinks
on to your group, or a connected DM with HAL. See the “Antispam” section in /help to learn more.Note: Though unconfirmed, this feature may move to a “locks” feature in the future, and that feature may only be available to HAL Premium.
#update
HAL will no longer ban users who were banned by SpamWatch for spam-adding members to groups. Our simple rule is that we only ban for actual spam posted in a group, or for impersonation/unsolicited messages. These bans have resulted in false-positives on genuine users who had no intent on truly spamming.
HAL will no longer ban users who were banned by SpamWatch for spam-adding members to groups. Our simple rule is that we only ban for actual spam posted in a group, or for impersonation/unsolicited messages. These bans have resulted in false-positives on genuine users who had no intent on truly spamming.
⚠️ #incident
One of our federation partners, CAS, is currently unreachable by HAL. Due to a bug, this has unfortunately caused HAL to fall over and not process any messages.
We’ve found the bug and fixed it, so messages should still at least be subject to analysis through the filtering system, however CAS bans currently have no effect.
We’ll post another update here once we’ve heard back from CAS, or once it comes back online.
One of our federation partners, CAS, is currently unreachable by HAL. Due to a bug, this has unfortunately caused HAL to fall over and not process any messages.
We’ve found the bug and fixed it, so messages should still at least be subject to analysis through the filtering system, however CAS bans currently have no effect.
We’ll post another update here once we’ve heard back from CAS, or once it comes back online.
HAL Updates pinned «⚠️ #incident One of our federation partners, CAS, is currently unreachable by HAL. Due to a bug, this has unfortunately caused HAL to fall over and not process any messages. We’ve found the bug and fixed it, so messages should still at least be subject to…»
✅ #incident resolved at ~09:20 UTC
The CAS API is now back online, so HAL will continue to check for CAS bans on all new messages.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
The CAS API is now back online, so HAL will continue to check for CAS bans on all new messages.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
⚠️ #incident
SpamWatch went down several times for system updates, and once it came back online, we noticed that all SpamWatch checks were resulting in false-positives, which banned several users globally in error. These users have been unbanned, and SpamWatch ban-checking has been disabled while we investigate.
SpamWatch went down several times for system updates, and once it came back online, we noticed that all SpamWatch checks were resulting in false-positives, which banned several users globally in error. These users have been unbanned, and SpamWatch ban-checking has been disabled while we investigate.
⚠️ #incident – SpamWatch unavailable
Started: 2022-10-03T15:00:28.078Z
SpamWatch appears to be down. https://status.spamwat.ch/ is currently reporting a response timeout. HAL is currently ignoring these errors and running all other anti-spam pipelines, including CAS and the filtering system.
We’ll monitor an advise when it’s back up and running.
Started: 2022-10-03T15:00:28.078Z
SpamWatch appears to be down. https://status.spamwat.ch/ is currently reporting a response timeout. HAL is currently ignoring these errors and running all other anti-spam pipelines, including CAS and the filtering system.
We’ll monitor an advise when it’s back up and running.
#bugfix
HAL was being a little bug, deleting stickers that were not part of sticker-sets (i.e., regular stickers), regardless of whether or not they were known to be spammy.
It’s been updated, and won’t do this anymore.
HAL was being a little bug, deleting stickers that were not part of sticker-sets (i.e., regular stickers), regardless of whether or not they were known to be spammy.
It’s been updated, and won’t do this anymore.
#update #bugfix
Recently, we became aware of an issue surrounding anonymous admins being unable to activate HAL in their groups, and also being unable to use Connections to configure their groups in private chat with the bot. Unfortunately, HAL was not storing administrator information properly, and so anonymous admins could not always be detected, specifically when it comes to bot administration and group setup.
This has been corrected – HAL will now store this information correctly, and will automatically update it in the background regularly.
If you encounter any issues related to anonymous administrator accounts, please reach out to @halsupport for assistance.
Recently, we became aware of an issue surrounding anonymous admins being unable to activate HAL in their groups, and also being unable to use Connections to configure their groups in private chat with the bot. Unfortunately, HAL was not storing administrator information properly, and so anonymous admins could not always be detected, specifically when it comes to bot administration and group setup.
This has been corrected – HAL will now store this information correctly, and will automatically update it in the background regularly.
If you encounter any issues related to anonymous administrator accounts, please reach out to @halsupport for assistance.
#updates
– To avoid confusion and avoid being so anti-everything, we’ve renamed ‘antidupe’ to ‘dedupe’, as in ‘de-duplicate’.
– The /help menu has been updated to be a little more friendly on phones – it doesn’t show menu items in columns anymore.
– To avoid confusion and avoid being so anti-everything, we’ve renamed ‘antidupe’ to ‘dedupe’, as in ‘de-duplicate’.
– The /help menu has been updated to be a little more friendly on phones – it doesn’t show menu items in columns anymore.
#update
The /info command has been renamed to /me. Its functionality remains the same (see “Misc” in the /help menu for info).
The /info command has been renamed to /me. Its functionality remains the same (see “Misc” in the /help menu for info).
#notice
Telegram recently released a new feature called Topics, which allows groups to be broken up into multiple threads, much like an online forum. The implementation of this feature is far from perfect, and there are downsides when it comes to bots.
HAL may not work properly in groups that use Topics. For example, it may not reply to commands, and it may not delete messages where /hban is concerned. However, background tasks that do not require the bot to send messages (such as a ban-action) may continue to work.
Due to the limitations, however, we do not recommend using HAL in a group that has Topics enabled.
Whilst we believe Telegram dropped the ball on this one (it is a breaking change that even the big bots like Rose and Combot are still preparing fixes for), HAL isn’t currently being used in any groups that use Topics. Most of them are connected to channels, which prevents them from enabling Topics. As such, a fix is not going to be rolled out just yet. It is on the todo list, though…
Telegram recently released a new feature called Topics, which allows groups to be broken up into multiple threads, much like an online forum. The implementation of this feature is far from perfect, and there are downsides when it comes to bots.
HAL may not work properly in groups that use Topics. For example, it may not reply to commands, and it may not delete messages where /hban is concerned. However, background tasks that do not require the bot to send messages (such as a ban-action) may continue to work.
Due to the limitations, however, we do not recommend using HAL in a group that has Topics enabled.
Whilst we believe Telegram dropped the ball on this one (it is a breaking change that even the big bots like Rose and Combot are still preparing fixes for), HAL isn’t currently being used in any groups that use Topics. Most of them are connected to channels, which prevents them from enabling Topics. As such, a fix is not going to be rolled out just yet. It is on the todo list, though…
⚠️ #incident – HAL is currently down for everyone. It’s under investigation and will come back online soon.
Update 04:50 UTC: Combot Antispam (CAS) is also unreachable – their domain is not resolving. This is likely part of the problem.
Update 04:53 UTC: HAL has been rebooted and is currently playing catch-up where it can. There is no guarantee that this will succeed, but it’s being monitored.
Update 04:58 UTC: HAL is still catching up on messages it missed. Spam is being removed, and spammers are being banned.
Update 04:50 UTC: Combot Antispam (CAS) is also unreachable – their domain is not resolving. This is likely part of the problem.
Update 04:53 UTC: HAL has been rebooted and is currently playing catch-up where it can. There is no guarantee that this will succeed, but it’s being monitored.
Update 04:58 UTC: HAL is still catching up on messages it missed. Spam is being removed, and spammers are being banned.
✅ #incident resolved at 05:04 UTC
HAL is back up and running, and responding to commands. We may need to reboot a few more times while we make some adjustments.
Additionally, CAS is currently unreachable, and HAL is silently ignoring this. The fact that it is down is likely what caused this downtime. Their domain cannot be reached at all, and this was producing a very large amount of errors. To circumvent, HAL is silently ignoring the issue until such time as it comes back online.
We’ll continue to monitor and keep you posted.
Update 05:53 UTC: CAS is aware of the issue on their end and will resolve in due course. No ETA announced. Some spam may seep through while their system is inaccessible. The rest of HAL’s antispam system is working normally.
Update 17:07 UTC: Unfortunately CAS is still down. HAL is catching a large amount of spam, nonetheless. We’re not sure when CAS will become available again, but hopefully it’ll be in the next 24 hours.
Update 05:39 UTC, 17 Nov: CAS is back online.
HAL is back up and running, and responding to commands. We may need to reboot a few more times while we make some adjustments.
Additionally, CAS is currently unreachable, and HAL is silently ignoring this. The fact that it is down is likely what caused this downtime. Their domain cannot be reached at all, and this was producing a very large amount of errors. To circumvent, HAL is silently ignoring the issue until such time as it comes back online.
We’ll continue to monitor and keep you posted.
Update 05:53 UTC: CAS is aware of the issue on their end and will resolve in due course. No ETA announced. Some spam may seep through while their system is inaccessible. The rest of HAL’s antispam system is working normally.
Update 17:07 UTC: Unfortunately CAS is still down. HAL is catching a large amount of spam, nonetheless. We’re not sure when CAS will become available again, but hopefully it’ll be in the next 24 hours.
Update 05:39 UTC, 17 Nov: CAS is back online.