Fediverse bots, beep boop

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

Botwiki, a site I made 8 years ago to catalogue creative online bots and collect resources for making them, is celebrating its anniversary today.

https://botwiki.org/blog/eight-years-of-botwiki

j3j5,
@j3j5@hachyderm.io avatar

@stefan Congrats!!! Great site full of resources and interesting creators/bots! 🎉 🎉 🎉

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@j3j5 Thank you! And I mean it, I couldn't do this without creative folks like yourself, whose work I've wanted to celebrate and preserve.

stefan,
@stefan@gardenstate.social avatar

NEW BOT ALERT:

@AltTextHealthCheck monitors and reports on the percent of images with Alt text.

After checking it out let me know:

  1. Can I format the post better?

  2. Is hourly too often? What would be a good cadence?

botwiki,
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan @AltTextHealthCheck Nice! When you have a moment, would you be interested in adding it to https://botwiki.org/submit-your-bot?

stefan,
@stefan@gardenstate.social avatar

This bot is not yet open source but it could be.

ATM it monitors the federated timeline on mastodon.social but very easily this could monitor the local timeline of your own instance.

it runs on node.js and needs rights to write some text files.

If this is something you would used let me know.

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

Pretty cool!

@feditris, created by @guigui, lets you play a fediverse-powered game of Tetris.

jalcine,
@jalcine@todon.eu avatar

There's quite a few bots for the open social Web I'd want to make:

  • One that quotes Black radical literature and gives links on where to get those books
  • One that publishes CC comics with ALT text and sources the creators
  • An aggregator of content from labor movements like Workers World, Labor Notes and the like to help syndicate that information into Fedi.

What would you like to see?

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@jalcine All great ideas! Definitely let me know if you ever need any help!

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

The https://botsin.space instance is 7 years old today, happy anniversary @muffinista!

This is where all my bots* are posting, so if you enjoy any of them, be sure to support the admin!

https://botsin.space/@muffinista/100668338248235215

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

For a trip down the memory lane, here's an interview I did for @botwiki back in 2018:

https://botwiki.org/blog/catching-up-with-the-creator-of-botsin-space/

mariatta,
@mariatta@fosstodon.org avatar

I'm making up new term: rate-limit anxiety (for APIs)

Context:

When CPython GitHub bots were still using personal access token, we were rate-limited to 5,000 requests per hour.

Now that both miss-islington and bedevere are GitHub Apps and accessing APIs using installation access token, the rate limit is increased, based on the number of users on the GitHub org , and capped at 12,500 requests per hour, relieving our rate-limit anxiety 😌

botwiki,
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar
botwiki,
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar

@schlauschlau @stefan Thank you!

NoraReed,
@NoraReed@mastodon.social avatar

@botwiki wow!

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

Here's a few bots I've set up recently, for you to enjoy!

🚂 @trains
🌍 @iss
🐻 @bearcam
🦁 @africanwildlife
🏴‍☠️ @pirateflags

And here's all of them: https://stefans-creative-bots.glitch.me

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

A pair of new bots to liven up your home feed!

🐻 @bearcam: videos from Katmai National Park in Alaska, frequently featuring bears
🐠 @TropicalReefAquarium: a view from inside of a tropical reef aquarium in Long Beach, California

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@bearcam @TropicalReefAquarium Typically I make bots that post only every 4-6 hours, but I figured since these are mostly live feeds, posting hourly makes sense? Easier to catch something interesting happening. Let me know what you think.

Also, a fun fact, adding these to https://botwiki.org brings the total number of bots on the site to 2,001 🎉

https://mastodon.social/@botwiki/110706654658864058

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@kaasbaas @bearcam @TropicalReefAquarium Yes, but this is more about how often do the people who follow the bot want it to come up in their feed.

You might like a bot, but only want to see its posts once or twice a day.

https://botsin.space/@nycviewsbot/110192924760686398

https://botwiki.org/resource/guide/the-definitive-guide-to-creative-botmaking/#post-frequency

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

I opened a ticket in Mastodon's repo to implement Twitter's "automated by" label.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/28994

Would anyone else find it useful?

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@thisismissem Got it, that makes sense.

Should I then be writing an RFC somewhere instead?

thisismissem,
@thisismissem@hachyderm.io avatar

@stefan for now not necessarily.. but otherwise a FEP would probably be the best approach

botwiki, (edited )
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar

Anyone putting "learn to make creative bots" as their New Year's resolution?

https://botwiki.org/resource/guide/the-definitive-guide-to-creative-botmaking/

TruthSandwich,

I don't require approval for accounts to follow me, but I do pay attention.

In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a few non-genuine accounts that I've had to block. Keep an eye out.

TruthSandwich,

@alexgranford

I don't necessarily know what their game is. Presumably, they're hoping I follow them back so that they can inject their scams into my stream.

In other cases, it's quite likely a throwaway account created by someone I blocked for cause, allowing them to monitor me and calls brigades.

Either way, if they're not real, I don't want to deal with them. I just block and move on.

TruthSandwich,

@Hey_Beth @alexgranford

I hadn't thought of that. Back on Ex-Twitter, the goal was always to influence people (or cheat them or intimidate them), not to drive them off the platform and onto another.

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

I reduced the posting frequency of some of the bots I've made recently, so if you've avoided them before for being too noisy, consider giving them a try now!

https://stefans-creative-bots.glitch.me

dalereardon,
@dalereardon@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan Since you are experienced with bots do you know of any way that still works to repost a Twitter timeline over here on Mastodon? Thanks.

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

@dalereardon I haven't really touched Twitter's API in months. If I remember correctly, the API for writing is now free, and you have to pay for reading? If that's the case, you might just have to scrape the data.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

ralfbachmann, German
@ralfbachmann@mastodon.social avatar

Gibt es eigentlich schon für Bluesky?
Frage für einen Freund.

botwiki,
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar
botwiki, (edited )
@botwiki@mastodon.social avatar

So, are you making Mastodon/fediverse bots yet?

nickdrawthing,
@nickdrawthing@dice.camp avatar

@botwiki I keep meaning to, but life gets in the way!

stefan,
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar
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