What the heck is a PingGnome?

PingGnome is an automated bot that visits plethoras of channels on each of the Battle.net chat servers. It records statistics about each channel and the users in it. The project was created by The_Lynxy in November 2007.

Other gnomes

As you may be aware, there are other "gnomes" roaming Battle.net as well, most commonly known was ClanGnome, which was actually here before PingGnome, and was not run by me. ClanGnome seemed to stop running around September 2009, perhaps due to the PingGnome project.

These other gnomes typically operate like PingGnome, scanning through channels collecting data and statistics. Each gnome is a separate project created by different people. They all have their own database formatted with different kinds of data and used for different reasons. Each of our projects are independent of one another; we do not work together (but wouldn't it be great if we did?).

Collected data

Yes, the important part: the data. What does it contain, and what is done with it? The original project was centered around pings only, but has dramatically expanded since then.

What kind of data PingGnome collects:

  • User statistics (pings, dates seen, game stats)
  • Channel statistics (user volume, uptime, date information
  • Channels users have been seen in (so the public can find people)
  • Game list data (from Starcraft Broodwar)
  • Trivia questions and answers

This data is processed by both PingGnome and this site, thus being able to take advantage of supplying the public with a generous helping of user and channel data that would otherwise be unknown. All this information is used together to provide lots of different types of reports. I'm not going to list them here though, why don't you browse the site and see for yourself just what's possible!

To those of you who are curious about what data is collected, the technical section of the site may interest you.

Using this site too hard / annoying!

For those who are too involved in their Battle.net game to come to the site for information, there is a alternative! Gnome herself can provide information in real time through the in-game chat. Most features available on this site can be accessed in-game, although formatting is different. For more information, visit the in-game commands page.

 
 

Information