After writing a simple script using the Twitter API, I got the urge to make a simple Reddit bot. I've thought about doing one for years, but didn't have a ground breaking idea. I determined that it'd be fun to make one, even if it's useless as can be. A random idea popped into my mind and I ran with it.
In the past I've noticed that I overuse "I mean". It's how I often begin internet replies and even occasionally use it in conversation. A lot of the time it's just a stall which is pretty useless in text form. Also, in most occasions there is a better alternative. This is what I based the bot on.
Build
I found a simple guide to base my code off of. The main change I made was to prevent the bot from replying to itself. Also, banned it from posting from a few subs, which I later learned was pointless.
Coming up with a message for the bot to post took some pondering. I considered some very short and useless lines, but ultimately wanted something somewhat interesting while maintaining the bot's absurdity. The message I elected is as follows:
"I mean"
Did you know?
Depending on its position in a sentence or cluster thereof, I mean can be used as a clarifying statement, a conversational stall, or a slightly apologetic amplifier. Rarely used in formal written communication, but common as a conversational particle in 21st-century American English.
As a colloquial expression, I mean is recorded in the written record as early as 1892, used in dialogue to sound like speech.
Bot in the Wild
When I ran it, I was extremely surprised by how common "I mean" was across the site. The bot was replying to multiple comments nearly every time it ran (every 5 seconds). After running for a bit, it started getting timed out. I temporarily remedied this by confirming my email and farming a few upvotes so I didn't have zero karma. Another surprise was how many people replied back while knowing it was a bot. It was confirmation that people were seeing the posts, but on the negative side a lot of people were replying because they were irrationally annoyed by the I mean Bot.
Demise
After running a short few hours spread over 2 days, the downvotes were triumphant and the bot was no longer able to post more than once every few minutes. Also, a large chunk of subreddits appear to auto-ban bots not approved by the moderators. I shut it down for good. Fortunately, there was still a lot of data to review.
Replies
It received so many negative reactions. It sort of made me feel bad even though I know it shouldn't.
I manually replied to a few of the negative comments for fun.
I considered saying something along the lines of, "What'd you just say to me you little shit?", but I imagined my bot more conciliatory than that.
I was genuinely excited when I found positive responses.
Some had...mixed reactions
I mean, I agree, but does it affect you that much to have it exist?
Many people thought they were clever and replied to the bot's comments with another comment containing "I mean". Hilarious 🙄.
Stats
Subreddits that liked the bot most:
- /r/MyChemicalRomance | 53
- /r/Silmarillionmemes | 19
- /r/PoliticalCompassMemes | 19
Subreddits that disliked the bot most:
- /r/pcmasterrace | -50
- /r/Competitiveoverwatch | -21
- /r/rupaulsdragrace | -20
/r/MyChemicalRomance being the most supportive was unexpected to say the least, but a big shout out to that community. Several meme subs were in the top, including /r/HistoryMemes. This makes a lot of sense considering the bot is basically a meme. The subs that downvoted most are not very surprising. They aren't places I'd really want to visit very often.
Reddit's sentiment was overwhelmingly negative. The bot currently has -100 karma, which I believe is the negative cap. However, this doesn't reflect in the Good bot/Bad bot score. For those unaware, there is a Reddit bot (B0tRank) that records peoples ratings of bots. To rate a bot, users reply "Good bot" or "Bad bot" and the stats are saved to a website. I mean bot ended with 5 "Good" votes and 6 "Bad" votes, currently ranked 2,355.
Conclusion
This project was more entertaining than I expected. I planned on just learning a bit about the Reddit API, but ended with somewhat of a social experiment. I learned some people, and certain subreddits in general, either really hate bots, or just dislike their conversational stalls being called out. It was also funny to see some people get so upset over something that's easily ignored. I'm glad I didn't put more effort into making the bot more complex as that would have been pointless with how it got bombed with downvotes and banned. It's clear after this that you're better off making a bot that targets one or a set of subreddits for a specific purpose rather than one for Reddit as a whole. There's a small chance I end up making a second bot for some other purpose, but it's more likely I use the API to only ingest data. I think there are a lot of use cases for all the data Reddit provides.