Bots

Public-safe notes about bots on the Fediverse.

Bots can be useful, fun, educational, or annoying depending on how they behave.

What is a bot?

A bot is an automated account.

It can post automatically, reply automatically, or share information on a schedule.

Examples:

• weather bot
• recipe bot
• quote bot
• news bot
• art bot
• status bot
• reminder bot
• learning bot

Good bot behavior

A good bot should be:

• clearly labeled as a bot
• not too noisy
• useful or fun
• respectful
• easy to mute or block
• transparent about what it does
• not pretending to be human
• following instance rules

Bad bot behavior

Bad bots may:

• spam timelines
• mass-follow users
• reply too often
• scrape content without permission
• repost without credit
• send unwanted mentions
• ignore instance rules
• post harmful or misleading content

Bot account label

If the platform supports it, mark the account as a bot.

This helps people understand that the account is automated.

Bot profile information

A good bot profile should explain:

• what the bot does
• how often it posts
• who runs it
• how to contact the maintainer
• whether replies are monitored
• where data comes from

Example:

• This bot posts one public-domain recipe idea per day.
• Posts once daily.
• Maintained by @[email protected].

Posting frequency

Avoid posting too often.

Good examples:

• once per day
• a few times per day
• only when triggered
• only during certain hours

Risky examples:

• every minute
• large bursts of posts
• automatic replies to everyone
• repeating the same content

Mentions and replies

Be careful with automatic replies.

Good behavior:

• reply only when directly mentioned
• avoid replying repeatedly
• avoid joining conversations uninvited
• provide a stop/help command if useful

Bad behavior:

• replying to keywords in public timelines
• replying to every mention with long text
• replying repeatedly to the same user

Hashtags

Bots can use hashtags, but should not abuse them.

Good:

• one or two relevant hashtags
• clear topic tags
• consistent tags

Bad:

• too many hashtags
• unrelated trending hashtags
• spammy discovery behavior

Data sources

A bot should use safe and allowed data sources.

Good data sources:

• public-domain data
• own original content
• licensed open data
• manually written content
• APIs that allow bot use

Avoid:

• scraping private data
• using copyrighted content without permission
• posting personal data
• reposting users without consent
• using APIs against their terms

Recipe bot idea

A recipe bot could post one recipe idea per day.

Possible post format:

• Recipe idea: Lentil soup
• Ingredients:
• • lentils
• • onion
• • carrot
• • garlic
• • vegetable stock
• Short note:
• Simple, cheap, warm, and good for meal prep.
• #Cooking #Recipe

Keep the recipes short and readable.

Quote bot idea

A quote bot can post short public-domain quotes or original reminders.

Important:

• check copyright
• avoid long copyrighted quotes
• credit sources when needed
• do not post private text

Status bot idea

A status bot can post public service status or project updates.

Be careful not to reveal private infrastructure.

Public-safe example:

• Project update:
• The documentation page was improved today.
• #ProjectUpdate

Avoid:

• real server names
• internal paths
• private monitoring details
• IP addresses
• backup locations

Bot safety checklist

Before launching a bot:

1. Is the account marked as a bot?
2. Is the posting frequency reasonable?
3. Does the profile explain what the bot does?
4. Are data sources allowed?
5. Does it avoid private data?
6. Does it avoid spam behavior?
7. Does it follow instance rules?
8. Can people contact the maintainer?
9. Can the bot be stopped quickly?

Bot maintenance

Check regularly:

• is the bot still posting correctly?
• is it posting too often?
• are there errors?
• are users complaining?
• did the source data change?
• does the bot still follow instance rules?