As we see more and more bots on Lemmy World every day, it’s about time we publish a set of rules for bots and bot-owners.

So here goes:

  • Bots shall not be used for any kind of advertising.

  • The bot accounts must be clearly marked as a bot. Both in the bio and by marking the account as a bot.

  • The owner of the bot and contact details must be mentioned in the bot’s bio.

  • Bots are only allowed to post in communities they have the explicit permission from the community’s owners to do so.

  • Bots from other instances that post in Lemmy World communities must follow the same rules.

  • Bots shall not just be posting Reddit content.

  • Bots shall not be “spammy”, as in multiple posts per minute.

  • Breaking any of these rules will result in a ban for the Bot and, if required, its owner.

  • Commands must use the bots mention as prefix, and not a text prefix like !help

These rules will be updated when needed.

  • deweydecibel
    14•1 year ago

    Bots can not be used for any kind of advertising.

    I’d clarify that a bit more. Seems some people think there’s a lot of grey area there between what constitutes an ad and “self-promoting” something.

    • @SheeEttin
      17•1 year ago

      If you’re using a bot to promote your stuff, that’s spam.

      • @suth
        7•1 year ago

        So far the only bots I’ve seen have felt very spammy. One example is the piped bot which may have a good cause, but I don’t think we need a comment every single time there’s a youtube link mentioned.

    • @boeman
      1•1 year ago

      Is it self promoting when it’s a bot doing it?