PlateBot lets you add late plates through text messages! It was created specifically for MOSAIC Co-op in Evanston, IL by Alex K.
PlateBot utilizes Twilio to process and send text messages. If you're a developer and are curious how PlateBot was made, check it out on Github.
PlateBot will only add late plates for numbers it recognizes, so be sure to create an account so it recognizes you. You can do that using the big green button at the top of the page. Phone numbers have to be 11 digits, including the leading 1 and an area code. For example: 1-222-333-3334
Once you have your account set up, you'll be able to text commands to the special PlateBot number, which I am scared to put on this website, so ask a fellow co-oper what it is!
When you text PlateBot, it will always send a confirmation text, whether the plate was added or not. If you do not receive a confirmation text, something went wrong, and you should add your late plate the old fashioned way.
PlateBot understands a lot of commands. To add a late plate for today text:
you can also specify the day you want, so for today it would be:
to add a late plate for tomorrow, use:
to add a late plate for a week from Friday, text:
to add a late plate for April 15th, text:
...getting it? In fact, PlateBot uses some snazzy Natural Language Processing to understand any date query you throw at it! So go nuts!! If you give it something it doesn't understand it'll let you know. And if you make a mistake or PlateBot misinterprets your query, you can easily undo it, which brings us too...
If you make a mistake, you can easily undo your most recent addition.
Just text:Technically, you can use any of the following commands to undo your late plate:
If you forget if you've added a late plate, or want to make sure a request went through, you can check your status for the day.
Text:Status will tell you if a have a late plate for today only. There is currently no way to view all upcoming late plates
The following are valid status commands:
As a cook, you'll want to quickly get tonight's late plates so you can see how many there are and prepare them. You can do this with the 'fetch' command
Text:Fetch will tell you all the late plates for your house for the night! Very handy.
The following are valid fetch commands:
If you forget how to use PlateBot on the go, you can ask for help. Unfortunately, the command 'help' won't work because of some legal complications...but you can use 'halp'
Text:All of the following are valid help commands:
...and that's it! If something goes wrong, or you have a suggestion to make PlateBot better, please lemme know with the feedback form.