I know that some users block bots because they consider them annoying, be it repost posts or features bots such as tldr or piped. Having the bot labelled as such prevents the daily threads from being viewed by users who might be interested.

I had that reasoning in the past, but had the bot banned for not complying with the instance guidelines.

I thus open this thread to see what could be done to solve this issue. Could there be exceptions to the bot labelling guidelines in this kind of cases?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] justlookingfordragon 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A bot is a bot and should be marked as such. No exceptions.

As an alternative, the devs could add the option to whitelist specific bots, so people can first "block all bots" and then make an exception specifically for yours - IF they want to see it, of course. But unmarking a bot just because you want to show it to people who specifically do NOT want to see any bots? That defeats the entire purpose of blocking them in the first place.

[–] Bl4ze 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

How would it be different if Lemmy allowed scheduled post creation in the platform itself? It seems more like a workaround to a feature missing than the bot reposts people usually complain about.

The fact that the daily post isn't that interesting, I get it, it's not for everyone, but it doesn't really have anything to do with it being done by a bot.

Edit: The issues I'm trying to solve is mostly people unaware of the bot, potentially interested in the daily thread (because after all, why not) and not seeing it due to them blocking them all. So, it's not showing content to people who don't want to see it, it's showing it to people who might be interested.

[–] raoulraoul 2 points 1 year ago

The fact that the daily post isn't that interesting, I get it, it's not for everyone, but it doesn't really have anything to do with it being done by a bot.

Then apparently you don't get it. It's a bot, preprogrammed bits of code to do drudgework (or worse) like reminders and repetitive posting. Some users aren't interested in reminders, repetitive posts or bot posting in general and all your exuberance and enthusiasm won't change that. Me personally, I'm glad the label exists, used honestly of course, as I'm not usually fond of bot posts, such as that summarizer nor the YouTube redirector.

Stupid as it may be at times, I like human interaction.

🤝

[–] justlookingfordragon 1 points 1 year ago

How would it be different if Lemmy allowed scheduled post creation in the platform itself?

It wouldn't be different. Still annoying useless spam, still something I would immediatly block. It doesn't matter much whether it is a bot, a person copypasting the same thing daily, or something different entirely - it is daily spam that a lot of people simply do not want to deal with, and blocking bots gets rid of a lot of this stuff easily.

The METHOD with which the spam is posted is not the issue here, and finding a different way to automate spam is not the solution. Un-marking bots like these would only result in the necessity to manually add bot accounts to a block list to get rid of them again, but it would not magically make people interested in the spam in question just because it is shoved down their throats in a different manner.

Seriously, if you're only trying to make the bot visible to users who specifically, definitely, actively WANT to see it, then a customizable whitelist is the best option. That way, the "I don't want ANY bot spam" people aren't forced to deal with random exceptions, and the people who want to see the bot for whatever reason would be able to.

...mostly people unaware of the bot, potentially interested in the daily thread (because after all, why not) and not seeing it due to them blocking them all.

Stickied intro post in the community. "Hey just so you know, we have a bot asking you how you're doing every single day, and I'd like you to participate, so please uncheck the bot-block-box in your settings, thank you very much."

Tadah, now people will be aware about the bot and can opt-in IF they want to, without annoying the rest of the Fediverse in the process.