Halfway through the article, I couldn't help thinking - "If she can't convince her co-workers to turn off a bot she finds offensive, the place is caustic".

This isn't really solving anything. The only difference between this and a well-deserved "fuck you" to the co-workers is it's done in a polite and clever way. It's a smart move, because it makes her look good and anyone who complains look like a sore loser (reversing the situation).

It's annoying that the situation exists, but at least she's handling it well.

Yes. An example was posted here in the last few weeks - there's a startup whose name I can't remember that plans meetups of three men and three women. They had a serious problem with cancellations, which was solved by requiring the canceller to record a voicemail to be played to the other people. Cancellations fell off 80% or more. (I'm sorry, I can't remember more specifics - anyone have the link?)

Obviously, it has - for the male participants of IRC chat which found bot "jokes" funny. They have a social bondage now. That's how I saw it.

Technology, in and of itself, is not a solution. But technology enables us to communicate to broader audiences and in more sophisticated ways, and that can enable individual people to find solutions that didn't previously exist.

Sure, in much the same ways as such problems are solved in real life: if you can't get somebody to behave, he's thrown out. That's /kickban on IRC, for example.