Twitter bots
Twitter is a popular social networking service that "enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". [Wikipedia]
Twitter can be used as a device-independent, global command line that sits on top of a large user-base.
-- Twitter Fan Wiki, January 2008
Despite the rules concerning the Twitter API use having gotten stricter throughout the years, Twitter remains a popular network for bot makers and enthusiasts, which can be easily proved by the variety of bots hosted on it:
Some example bots include:
- @censusAmericans: tweeting the census one real American at a time
- @congressedits: shows anonymous Wikipedia edits that are made from IP addresses in the US Congress
- @mnemosynetron: a reminder bot
- @Betelgeuse_3: based on the "obnoxious, devious ghost named Betelgeuse" from the 1988 movie Beetlejuice
- @DearAssistant: answers to all your questions
- @infinitedeserts: an infinity of deserts
- @JustDiedBot: tweets about celebrity deaths once they are posted on Wikipedia
- @bartleby_scrvnr: responds to @ mentions using lines from Bartleby, the Scrivener
- @holidaybot4000: holidays, every day
- @riverlevel_1867: one of 2,400+ water level-monitoring UK Twitter bots
- @GenerateACat: generates a drawing of a cat when someone follows or tweets at it
Browse by category ¶
Lists of Twitter bots ¶
Lists managed by the Botwiki team ¶
- Bots posting polls
- XKCD Bots: bots inspired by the xkcd webcomic
General ¶
- The Omnibots list, maintained by Tully Hansen
- @everyword-alike bots, maintained by @hugovk
- Bots in the tiny_universe, maintained by @hugovk
- Music bots, maintaned by @ASchoenbot
- The Botsistance, maintained by @EthanBeihl: Bots aligned toward making hell for the powers that be. Some serious, some frivolous. #resist
- Activist bots, created by Leonardo Flores
- Self-care bots, created by Claire S.
- Chatbots on Twitter, created by Sam Schmir
Can I give a Twitter bot as a wedding gift?
— Byron Hulcher (@hypirlink) September 8, 2016
See also
- Interactive Fiction's Twitter Bots (farfarfutures.wordpress.com)
Science, education ¶
- Scientific literature using Twitter bots, maintained by Alexis Verger (see related article)
- Bots watching Wikipedia, by R. M. Livingstone
- Gallery, library, archive and museum bots, maintained by Neal Stimler
- Museum Bots, maintained by John Emerson
Non-English bots ¶
- Bots tweeting in Finnish, maintained by @hugovk
- Bots tweeting in German, maintained by Esther Seyffarth
- Bots tweeting in Spanish, maintained by @isa_arch
- Bots tweeting in French, maintained by @White_fangs
For even more Twitter bots visit botdb.gameology.org/bot-list, bot.community, or the Twitter Fan Wiki.
Note: Here's how you can support Botwiki and the list of our supporters.
Communities ¶
#botALLY ¶
There is a small, very loosely connected community exchanging updates under the #botALLY hashtag.
The term "bot ally" was originally coined by @BooDooPerson and is mistakenly believed to be connected to the "Gamergate Controversy" (source).
Darius Kazemi, often seen as the leading figure of the #botALLY "movement" organizes the Bot Summit events, speaks publicly about his work, and generally contributes to the Twitter botmaking ecosystem (some of his projects include corpora, and wordfilter).
Darius notes on the purpose of #botALLY:
#botALLY is ​primarily​ here to provide emotional support and camaraderie and to celebrate people's work and encourage participation. It is only secondarily about discussion of the art and craft of making bots, and that is a far, far, FAR second-place priority.
How India? More like Howe India, amirite?
— AmIRite Bot (@AmIRiteBot) May 9, 2017
the #botALLY philosophy https://t.co/q06uj8xbdL
— Esther Seyffarth (@ojahnn) April 30, 2017
@ojahnn your bot is bad and you should feel good :)
— Ranjit Bhatnagar (@ranjit) April 30, 2017
Further reading ¶
- The Best of Bot Worlds: "Everything you need to know about Creative Twitterbots" (bestofbotworlds.com)
- Anatomy of a Creative Twitterbot (robotcomix.com)
- How Twitter bots paved the way for today's chatbots (Sandi MacPherson via medium.com)
- The Art and Nonsense Poetry of Obscure Twitter Bots (secretcave.co)
- Hot bots, an interview with Dr. Leonardo Flores (kairos.technorhetoric.net)
- 6 Bots That Deliver Science and Serendipity on Twitter (nytimes.com)
- Anatomy of a Museum Twitter Bot (L. Kelly Fitzpatrick via medium.com)
- I made a Twitter bot and what it tweeted shocked me! (Paul Newton via medium.com)
- Stopping by Twitter on a Snowy Evening (goodgoodcontent.com)
Return to the Bots page, learn how to make one, or look at some of the tools used for making Twitter bots.
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