Role: mother of robots
June 8, 2015 6:18 PM Subscribe
"Four Twitter bots I've made over the past few months. @man_products: products for men, @lady_products: products for ladies, @likeuberbut, a terrible startup idea generator and @medrobot, which reminds you to take your medications." From Mefi's own NoraReed (previously), via MetaFilter Projects
A few more notes from the creator:
A few more notes from the creator:
"@lady_products is made with cheap bots done quick; the other three use Google Spreadsheets.
"There is no relationship between @likeuberbut and @uberbotfor; they are a result of something like uber, but for synchronicity between mefites."
I dunno. "Like Facebook, but for bodily fluids" has a certain amount of resonance.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:43 PM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:43 PM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
Like Grindr, but for beer
This is a thing I totally want to exist.
posted by Zalzidrax at 6:43 PM on June 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
This is a thing I totally want to exist.
posted by Zalzidrax at 6:43 PM on June 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
i love these bots
posted by The Whelk at 6:45 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 6:45 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
Huh. Surprisingly possible to do this myself. Truly, we live in an age of wonders.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:47 PM on June 8, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:47 PM on June 8, 2015
Things like this on Twitter stress me out. Like my brain is so bothered by strings of words that don't make sense that it sends up really loud alarms that are stressful to experience.
posted by bleep at 6:49 PM on June 8, 2015
posted by bleep at 6:49 PM on June 8, 2015
Shameless plug for @FuturePoetry. I posted a version of this to MeFi Projects years ago, and recently turned it into a Twitter bot using Python (tweepy).
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:50 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:50 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
I am thinking I need to either learn to program more so I can do more with these bots or find a collaborator to figure out the programmy bits, but for making things that generate stuff from lists it is actually SUPER simple to figure this stuff out. Cheap bots done quick is WONDERFUL; there's a visual editor for Tracery that can really help. It'll even color code your stuff for you so you can figure out what words are being grabbed from what lists and do live previews of the stuff you're generating.
I'm still working out some kinks in ladybot and figuring out exactly where I want to draw the line for things that don't totally parse, sentence-wise; it's the first one I did in CBDQ. I keep meaning to put something together with CBDQ to make one for orcwanker, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
posted by NoraReed at 6:55 PM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
I'm still working out some kinks in ladybot and figuring out exactly where I want to draw the line for things that don't totally parse, sentence-wise; it's the first one I did in CBDQ. I keep meaning to put something together with CBDQ to make one for orcwanker, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
posted by NoraReed at 6:55 PM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
Nora - I was going to say you had a new Twitter follower, but then I realized I already followed you, so sorry.
posted by Samizdata at 7:01 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Samizdata at 7:01 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
as seen in Martha Stewart Living: lipstick: it's time, teeth
This is a totally accurate description of my experience with lipstick.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:50 PM on June 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
This is a totally accurate description of my experience with lipstick.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:50 PM on June 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
Luxuriate in breakfast!
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:52 PM on June 8, 2015
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:52 PM on June 8, 2015
I would like to luxuriate with a Crystal Slap Chop, but I don't know where to buy one. Sooooo disappointed now. This makes me want to start a company that makes As-Seen-on-TV-style products for the rich and famous. Like diamond and ruby encusted bloomin' onion makers or platinum Rotatos.
posted by i feel possessed at 7:58 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by i feel possessed at 7:58 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
i should clearly make one for luxury products
posted by NoraReed at 8:00 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by NoraReed at 8:00 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
This google spreadsheet twitter bot tutorial is highly relevant to my interests. Perhaps this is the year I finally figure out how to (ab)use Twitter!
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:03 PM on June 8, 2015
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:03 PM on June 8, 2015
The spreadsheet one is pretty great but I do highly recommend using CBDQ instead. It's a bit harder to figure out the programming part, but I actually found implementing it as an app to be kind of a pain in the ass. (He's updated the spreadsheet since I last used it, so it might be easier now.) It's also really nice to have the flexibility that CBDQ offers, and Tracery's visual editor makes up for its 1.0ness in how easy it is to figure it out and the examples it shows you. (Seriously, Tracery is cool enough that it probably deserves its own FPP.)
posted by NoraReed at 8:09 PM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by NoraReed at 8:09 PM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
"My favorite twitter bot from NoraReed is the one that tells me when the space station is passing over Albuquerque..."
There are many bots on that station.
posted by clavdivs at 9:42 PM on June 8, 2015
There are many bots on that station.
posted by clavdivs at 9:42 PM on June 8, 2015
Last time I played with Twitter bots I set up one that checks the RSS feeds of the journals I am most interested in, and a few times a day tweets the title of a randomly-chosen new paper. I really like it, but now I want to add more journals and I can't for the love of god remember what I used to set it up. It would have been some 3rd-party service rather than coded from scratch, but I can't find any obvious one in my email "account confirmation" stuff.
Gah. Little Twitterbot, abandoned in the wild.
posted by lollusc at 9:45 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
Gah. Little Twitterbot, abandoned in the wild.
posted by lollusc at 9:45 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
If you log into the bot's Twitter account, you should be able to see what applications you've certified under applications in the settings menu.
I'd completely forgotten I made the ISS bot; I threw that together in like 15 minutes with IFTTT, and it's super easy to do that yourself if you want that. (You can also set it up to ping you on your phone whenever it's overhead, or post to a bunch of different services.)
posted by NoraReed at 10:00 PM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'd completely forgotten I made the ISS bot; I threw that together in like 15 minutes with IFTTT, and it's super easy to do that yourself if you want that. (You can also set it up to ping you on your phone whenever it's overhead, or post to a bunch of different services.)
posted by NoraReed at 10:00 PM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Like Fox News, but for news" is actually a great idea.
posted by not_on_display at 10:22 PM on June 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 10:22 PM on June 8, 2015 [6 favorites]
I'd completely forgotten I made the ISS bot [...]
What? OMG you are awesome.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:25 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
What? OMG you are awesome.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:25 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh my word, I am having so much fun with that Cheap Bots Done Quick, thank you so much! I am setting up an NPC dialogue generator using their nightvale template and oh wow I might be up late tonight.
posted by drinkyclown at 10:32 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by drinkyclown at 10:32 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
@likeuberbot:
Like Fox News, but for news
Genius.
posted by Dext at 11:35 PM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
Like Fox News, but for news
Genius.
posted by Dext at 11:35 PM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
If you log into the bot's Twitter account, you should be able to see what applications you've certified under applications in the settings menu.
Ha ha, so cute that you think I remember log-in details. It's almost like I wasn't drunk when I made it.
... So after a password reset, I can't find an applications tab in the settings anywhere. And the link to "how to review connected applications" in the Twitter website goes to a 404 page. I guess they've changed something?
posted by lollusc at 5:48 AM on June 9, 2015
Ha ha, so cute that you think I remember log-in details. It's almost like I wasn't drunk when I made it.
... So after a password reset, I can't find an applications tab in the settings anywhere. And the link to "how to review connected applications" in the Twitter website goes to a 404 page. I guess they've changed something?
posted by lollusc at 5:48 AM on June 9, 2015
I've wanted to make a fake celebrity birthday bot that generates random (and wrong) birthday messages and tweets them to celebrities. Like "Cher was born on this day in Coldwater Creek, Ohio. Happy Birthday, @cher!" Looks like I could do it pretty easily with that Google Spreadsheets link.
posted by slogger at 6:13 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by slogger at 6:13 AM on June 9, 2015
@smockbot: like smock smock smock but for pantsfish.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:44 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 6:44 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I made @dungeon_junk a few days ago with CBDQ - it's a bot that generates mostly-useless Dungeons & Dragons-ish loot.
CBDQ is pretty cool - since it's all done in a browser, it's handy to be able to go back and add new bits when I think of them.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:26 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
CBDQ is pretty cool - since it's all done in a browser, it's handy to be able to go back and add new bits when I think of them.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:26 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Like Uber, but.." is the "Yeaaah baby!!!" joke of people 28 and younger.
posted by sideshow at 11:04 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by sideshow at 11:04 AM on June 9, 2015
Blart font fersho smock pantos pants for the fish of Zort shimmied, DO!
posted by clavdivs at 3:59 PM on June 9, 2015
posted by clavdivs at 3:59 PM on June 9, 2015
Ah, I love @likeuberbot.
Making bots is pretty sweet. I've used tweepy (after some major python setup headaches - I am not a programmer) to make two bots so far, @seriousgame_txt and just last night my new baby @litpatches_txt. It's ridiculously easy to make bots that just generate from lists and you can do so much with that. I wish there were more tutorials on more complex bots, like scraping the web for text/images on the fly instead of having to seed the lists by hand.
@lollusc
It's hard to navigate to the right place unless you know where to look. Go to https://apps.twitter.com/ and sign in with your bot to see what shows up.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 4:06 PM on June 9, 2015
Making bots is pretty sweet. I've used tweepy (after some major python setup headaches - I am not a programmer) to make two bots so far, @seriousgame_txt and just last night my new baby @litpatches_txt. It's ridiculously easy to make bots that just generate from lists and you can do so much with that. I wish there were more tutorials on more complex bots, like scraping the web for text/images on the fly instead of having to seed the lists by hand.
@lollusc
It's hard to navigate to the right place unless you know where to look. Go to https://apps.twitter.com/ and sign in with your bot to see what shows up.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 4:06 PM on June 9, 2015
i made one for luxury products
capitalism is really easy to make fun of
posted by NoraReed at 6:48 PM on June 9, 2015
capitalism is really easy to make fun of
posted by NoraReed at 6:48 PM on June 9, 2015
It's hard to navigate to the right place unless you know where to look. Go to https://apps.twitter.com/ and sign in with your bot to see what shows up.
Thanks! But, "you currently don't have any apps."
I think it's pretty clear what has happened. The bot has freed itself from the shackles of app connection and become sentient. It is actually reading those RSS feeds by choice now. I think I have to accept I no longer have control over it.
posted by lollusc at 7:19 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thanks! But, "you currently don't have any apps."
I think it's pretty clear what has happened. The bot has freed itself from the shackles of app connection and become sentient. It is actually reading those RSS feeds by choice now. I think I have to accept I no longer have control over it.
posted by lollusc at 7:19 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
All of those luxury products seems completely realistic and plausible.
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yep. In fact I had some elegant orthopedic wine just last night!
posted by taz at 12:28 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by taz at 12:28 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Like metafilter, but for neckbeards
This bot is reading reviews.
posted by paulash at 2:17 PM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
This bot is reading reviews.
posted by paulash at 2:17 PM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
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Mmmmmm games.
posted by Hazelsmrf at 6:30 PM on June 8, 2015