#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.
#feature #updates #announcement
HAL has just been updated with a new feature and some other relevant changes and updates.
——
Telegram provides the ability to toggle certain features in group chats, such as stickers, GIFs, and media. However, it’s very broad, and doesn't cover the specific needs of each group.
HAL now has the ability for group admins to add a level of precision and lock a wide range of things that may not be desired in their group. This includes things like private invite links, public chat links, @mentions, #hashtags, $CASHTAGS, and many more. You can see the entire list of and toggle chat locks by sending /chatlocks in DM with @thisishalbot. For more details on what each chat lock is for, send /chatlocktypes.
When a chat lock is turned on and a member sends something covered by that lock, then HAL will respond with a self-destructing message, informing the member that their message was deleted and why.
Deprecation Notice: The /deleteprivateinvitelinks command will continue to work, however it has been marked as deprecated and will be removed in a future release. We highly recommend turning off the deletion of private invite links (/deleteprivateinvitelinks off) and using the applicable chat lock instead.
PS: If you’re using Rose alongside HAL, and you've got locks enabled in Rose, please don't enable them in HAL as well. No point in having two bots deleting the same message…
——
This is slated to be HAL’s paid tier that will offer more functionality to groups when HAL exits beta.
Primarily, HAL is an antispam bot. However, like with all bots that intend to eventually run at scale, HAL costs money and time to maintain. At the moment, this cost is low, but it will most certainly rise as and when HAL needs to scale up to meet the demand of more groups over time.
To manage this, some of the big bots run on donations, whilst others are paid-only or run on freemium model. HAL will be taking the freemium approach, where its antispam system will be free for everyone, always, and specialised chat management features will form part of HAL+ when we reach General Availability (GA) and exit the private beta.
For now, while we’re in private beta, all features will remain free.
Our /help menu has been updated to show a [+] symbol on some menu buttons, indicating that the underlying feature will form part of HAL+ when it launches. At the time of writing this, our Comment Moderation and Chat Locks features fall under HAL+.
How much will it cost? We don’t know yet – we’ll figure it out once all features have been developed and running in the groups that currently use HAL.
When will it launch? When we're ready to exit beta and be generally-available to everyone.
If you have any preliminary questions about HAL+, please feel free to ask them in @halsupport, or by replying to this post.
——
– Our /help menu is now context-aware, and you can jump into any section of the help menu by sending “/help keyword” in DM with HAL. For example, sending “/help antispam” will take you straight to the Antispam help menu. Also, sending any /help command in a group chat will provide you with a button you can use to view the menu in private, so as to not clutter up your group chat.
– We’ve added limits to the Dedupe feature. By default, the dedupe window is 1 hour, and this could previously be set to any amount of time greater than 1 minute. With this release, the smallest window is 5 minutes, and the largest is 48 hours. We don’t imagine any more than that will be needed by any group.
– HAL now has basic support for Topics. When sending a command to HAL in a topic, HAL will now respond to you in that topic, as you’d expect it to.
——
As always, if you need help using HAL, feel free to drop us a note in @halsupport, but please check the /help menu first! 😉
HAL has just been updated with a new feature and some other relevant changes and updates.
——
Chat LocksTelegram provides the ability to toggle certain features in group chats, such as stickers, GIFs, and media. However, it’s very broad, and doesn't cover the specific needs of each group.
HAL now has the ability for group admins to add a level of precision and lock a wide range of things that may not be desired in their group. This includes things like private invite links, public chat links, @mentions, #hashtags, $CASHTAGS, and many more. You can see the entire list of and toggle chat locks by sending /chatlocks in DM with @thisishalbot. For more details on what each chat lock is for, send /chatlocktypes.
When a chat lock is turned on and a member sends something covered by that lock, then HAL will respond with a self-destructing message, informing the member that their message was deleted and why.
Deprecation Notice: The /deleteprivateinvitelinks command will continue to work, however it has been marked as deprecated and will be removed in a future release. We highly recommend turning off the deletion of private invite links (/deleteprivateinvitelinks off) and using the applicable chat lock instead.
PS: If you’re using Rose alongside HAL, and you've got locks enabled in Rose, please don't enable them in HAL as well. No point in having two bots deleting the same message…
——
Announcing our Paid Tier: HAL+This is slated to be HAL’s paid tier that will offer more functionality to groups when HAL exits beta.
Primarily, HAL is an antispam bot. However, like with all bots that intend to eventually run at scale, HAL costs money and time to maintain. At the moment, this cost is low, but it will most certainly rise as and when HAL needs to scale up to meet the demand of more groups over time.
To manage this, some of the big bots run on donations, whilst others are paid-only or run on freemium model. HAL will be taking the freemium approach, where its antispam system will be free for everyone, always, and specialised chat management features will form part of HAL+ when we reach General Availability (GA) and exit the private beta.
For now, while we’re in private beta, all features will remain free.
Our /help menu has been updated to show a [+] symbol on some menu buttons, indicating that the underlying feature will form part of HAL+ when it launches. At the time of writing this, our Comment Moderation and Chat Locks features fall under HAL+.
How much will it cost? We don’t know yet – we’ll figure it out once all features have been developed and running in the groups that currently use HAL.
When will it launch? When we're ready to exit beta and be generally-available to everyone.
If you have any preliminary questions about HAL+, please feel free to ask them in @halsupport, or by replying to this post.
——
Other Changes and Updates– Our /help menu is now context-aware, and you can jump into any section of the help menu by sending “/help keyword” in DM with HAL. For example, sending “/help antispam” will take you straight to the Antispam help menu. Also, sending any /help command in a group chat will provide you with a button you can use to view the menu in private, so as to not clutter up your group chat.
– We’ve added limits to the Dedupe feature. By default, the dedupe window is 1 hour, and this could previously be set to any amount of time greater than 1 minute. With this release, the smallest window is 5 minutes, and the largest is 48 hours. We don’t imagine any more than that will be needed by any group.
– HAL now has basic support for Topics. When sending a command to HAL in a topic, HAL will now respond to you in that topic, as you’d expect it to.
——
As always, if you need help using HAL, feel free to drop us a note in @halsupport, but please check the /help menu first! 😉
#update
HAL has been updated to function only in groups where it has the required permissions it needs to do its job.
Going forward, if a group has disabled either the “Delete Messages” or “Ban Members” permissions, then the bot will not perform its functions in that group.
HAL has been updated to function only in groups where it has the required permissions it needs to do its job.
Going forward, if a group has disabled either the “Delete Messages” or “Ban Members” permissions, then the bot will not perform its functions in that group.
Some thoughts about Telegram’s “Aggressive Filtering”
https://telescope.ac/hal/thoughts-on-telegrams-aggressive-filtering
TL;DR: Telegram's new anti-spam system leaves some serious questions unanswered and, for this reason, we question its processes and cannot safely recommend its use. Whilst we admire the effort on Telegram's part, we believe they need to provide more information to users about how it works and how it guarantees user privacy.
https://telescope.ac/hal/thoughts-on-telegrams-aggressive-filtering
TL;DR: Telegram's new anti-spam system leaves some serious questions unanswered and, for this reason, we question its processes and cannot safely recommend its use. Whilst we admire the effort on Telegram's part, we believe they need to provide more information to users about how it works and how it guarantees user privacy.
HAL went down for a bit. It’s been rebooted and is playing catchup. It might be unresponsive while it does this.
Updates (latest first)
2 Feb
30 Jan
29 Jan
Incident - 29 Jan
(times in UTC)
2 Feb
05:30: The underlying issue has been identified, and is largely out of our control. Pending some testing, we’re going to be moving HAL to a new server in the coming days. This will result in some downtime, which will be communicated ahead of time.30 Jan
15:34: Commands should be responsive now, but may fail from time to time. Getting there.14:30: Some commands may be unresponsive. We're still investigating. Spam detection continues to work.29 Jan
13:52: HAL is currently running, but may encounter issues from time to time. When this happens, it will try and self-recover and catch up on its own.12:05: Service may be intermittent. We’re working on it.11:56: Back up and running.Incident - 29 Jan
11:18: HAL is down again. Spam will need to be deleted manually until the issue is resolved.(times in UTC)
🕔 Scheduled Downtime — Server Upgrade
HAL will be inaccessible for a short while tomorrow, 5 Feb, from approx.05:00 06:30 UTC, while it gets moved to a new server. The process should take around 30 minutes, though if something goes wrong, it could be a little longer.
When HAL goes live on the new server, it will attempt to catch up on everything it missed during the migration.
HAL will be inaccessible for a short while tomorrow, 5 Feb, from approx.
When HAL goes live on the new server, it will attempt to catch up on everything it missed during the migration.
HAL Updates
🕔 Scheduled Downtime — Server Upgrade HAL will be inaccessible for a short while tomorrow, 5 Feb, from approx. 05:00 06:30 UTC, while it gets moved to a new server. The process should take around 30 minutes, though if something goes wrong, it could be a little…
Downtime has been re-scheduled for 06:30 UTC (in ~30 minutes).
HAL Updates
🕔 Scheduled Downtime — Server Upgrade HAL will be inaccessible for a short while tomorrow, 5 Feb, from approx. 05:00 06:30 UTC, while it gets moved to a new server. The process should take around 30 minutes, though if something goes wrong, it could be a little…
Server migration is complete, and HAL is now running smoothly in its new home. We’ll keep an eye on things, and please let us know in @halsupport if you encounter any problems.
HAL is currently offline due to an issue with a recent update. Working on getting this resolved.
HAL Updates
HAL is currently offline due to an issue with a recent update. Working on getting this resolved.
The issue has been resolved, and HAL is now operating normally.
However, the database needed to be rolled back to the most recent backup, which was created ~18 hours ago. The missing data will be restored in due course.
Due to the nature of the issue, HAL was not able to fully catch-up on missed spam, which will need to be removed by group admins using the /hban command.
However, the database needed to be rolled back to the most recent backup, which was created ~18 hours ago. The missing data will be restored in due course.
Due to the nature of the issue, HAL was not able to fully catch-up on missed spam, which will need to be removed by group admins using the /hban command.
HAL now has a Rose Federation
We’ve created a Rose Federation for HAL, primarily to serve as a backup for those nasty times when HAL is down (which we we do our level-best to prevent).
Whilst anyone can join or subscribe to this Federation without installing HAL, it should be noted that this will only prevent known spammers from joining. Groups that do this will not benefit from HAL’s active spam-fighting capabilities. As such, we recommend that groups only use this federation as a backup.
Chat owners that make use of @MissRose_bot in their groups are welcome to join the HAL Federation using the following command:
If you are already part of a Federation, then you can subscribe instead, using the
We also recommend enabling quiet mode, so as to not bloat your chat with ban messages. To do this, send
Please note that we do not provide support for groups that only make use of the Federation. Support is only for those that use @thisishalbot.
⧉ Learn more about Rose Federations
We’ve created a Rose Federation for HAL, primarily to serve as a backup for those nasty times when HAL is down (which we we do our level-best to prevent).
Whilst anyone can join or subscribe to this Federation without installing HAL, it should be noted that this will only prevent known spammers from joining. Groups that do this will not benefit from HAL’s active spam-fighting capabilities. As such, we recommend that groups only use this federation as a backup.
Chat owners that make use of @MissRose_bot in their groups are welcome to join the HAL Federation using the following command:
/joinfed 43fb2bbc-e29b-4093-be43-b7a0afd84557If you are already part of a Federation, then you can subscribe instead, using the
/subfed command with the same Federation ID (federation owners only).We also recommend enabling quiet mode, so as to not bloat your chat with ban messages. To do this, send
/quietfed yes to your group.Please note that we do not provide support for groups that only make use of the Federation. Support is only for those that use @thisishalbot.
⧉ Learn more about Rose Federations
HAL is going offline shortly for a minor server upgrade. Downtime won’t be long, and it’ll catch up on anything it missed when it comes back online.