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Have you ever noticed an account on here labelled "Automated" or "Bot"?

It means the account is a bot, operating automatically without a human doing the posting.

This might sound odd, but there are many useful and entertaining #bots, for example posting sports results or weather bulletins or public domain art. Other bots run interactive games of chess or D&D campaigns or text adventures.

Find out more at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/why-are-some-accounts-marked-bot-on-mastodon/

...and some good bots to follow:

➡️ https://fedi.directory/tag/bots/

Why are some accounts marked “Automated” on Mastodon? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Dec 9, 2023 at 8:48pmWeb
Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 9, 2023
p.s. If you want a specific example, this is a fun bot for fans of pop culture: @vs_everyone
Show threadmichealtheratz Dec 10, 2023
:clap:
Show threadAnopkaDec 9, 2023
@feditips There is even the Mastodon server botsin.space that is dedicated to host such bots.
Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 9, 2023

@anopka

Yeah, some nice bots on botsin.space!

Show threadVirginia MurrDec 9, 2023

@feditips

A bit of extra advice from someone who researched fake nets (including bots) for years ... usually the good/helpful bots will have the bot creator identified in the account's bio. (Sometimes with links to their other accounts/work.)

Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 9, 2023

@VirginiaMurr

Ahaa, thank you!

Is it correct to say bad bots probably wouldn't label themselves "automated"?

Show threadVirginia MurrDec 9, 2023

@feditips

Yep. I have no problem at all with what you posted 🤟

Just wanted to add an extra tip (from experience) for the more cautious folks ... like me.

Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 9, 2023

@VirginiaMurr

Glad to hear from voice of experience! 👍

Show thread💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱Dec 9, 2023
@feditips
Very handy are the ones which boost hashtag related content, since you can't follow accounts and hashtags in the same list, but you can follow bots and other accounts in the same list.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormDec 9, 2023

@feditips

It may be worth noting that even if it is a bot account, the person that set it up may actually read replies. Usually not what one would expect, but you never know.

Show threadSylkeweb Testing The FediverseDec 10, 2023
@feditips I’m running an account that is not really a bot account on Friendica. There you can’t set it to being an “automated account” in the settings but I made it a so called ‘news account’. It shows up as Automated Account on Mastodon. 🤷🏼 In this case that’s at least half true (I automatically republish items from an RSS feed and also manually add posts), but in other cases news accounts might be totally manual work, so I don’t really understand why Mastodon is doing that.
Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 10, 2023

@Sylkeweb

I think the "news account" label on Friendica is intended for automated RSS streams?

Is there some reason a non-automated account would use it? (Genuine question!)

Show threadSylkeweb Testing The FediverseDec 11, 2023
@feditips I had a small conversation with the usually well informed server admin but he couldn’t shed much light either and agreed with me that a news account doesn’t necessarily have to be an automated account. I think this is one of those cases where different services have made use of the sometimes not very specific AP protocol in different ways.
I don’t think it’s intended to be used with RSS as a rule, there is no such specification on the settings page. I chose it as I post news articles.
Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 11, 2023

@Sylkeweb

I'm pretty sure it's meant to label accounts with linked RSS, as they are often called "news feeds"? That's why RSS readers are often called "news readers".

One of Friendica's best features is its ability to easily link any RSS feed to an account 👍

Show threadFediTips has moved!Dec 11, 2023

@Sylkeweb

It is pretty unclear though, yeah  

Maybe Friendica should change the label to "RSS account" or something? But then they would have problems because some use Atom feeds etc.

Show threadSylkeweb Testing The FediverseDec 11, 2023
@feditips I think it’s just the kind of ambiguity we have to expect and live with in the Fediverse. 😅