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:
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Bots shall not be used for any kind of advertising.
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The bot accounts must be clearly marked as a bot. Both in the bio and by marking the account as a bot.
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The owner of the bot and contact details must be mentioned in the bot’s bio.
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Bots are only allowed to post in communities they have the explicit permission from the community’s owners to do so.
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Bots from other instances that post in Lemmy World communities must follow the same rules.
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Bots shall not just be posting Reddit content.
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Bots shall not be “spammy”, as in multiple posts per minute.
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Breaking any of these rules will result in a ban for the Bot and, if required, its owner.
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Commands must use the bots mention as prefix, and not a text prefix like !help
These rules will be updated when needed.
I think we should prioritize useful bots over funny bots. Funny bots are fine if they comment on rare occasions, like the one that tells you when all the words on your comment are in alphabetical order. Also, having bots that react to specific commands is better imo.
One of my favorite reddit bots was mlbcompare. You’d input two (or more) baseball player names and it would compare stats. There were a bunch of other parameters you could feed it; 1st season, specific years, games on Tuesdays, etc. Very niche, but very cool
My favorite bot wasn’t a bot but was some guy who would comment “and my axe!”. I believe they were known as novelty accounts way back when.
Like hell in a cell guy!
TheBenShapiroBot was funnier than the vast, vast majority of reddit.
I never saw this one. What type of things did it say?
Would give a Ben Shapiro quote that’s absolutely asinine when someone would mention his name (in subs the bot was allowed)
A compilation just for you:
I’m a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: covid, novel, civil rights, feminism, etc.
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I particularly enjoyed when the various gnu/linux explainer bots would interact with each other, or when people get fooled by the Petrosian bot on anarchy chess
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Are Bots certainly dumb enough for good helpful instruments?
I need to test this alphabetical bot. Never heard of it.