BOT, HOOOOOOO!!!!! Meet ZenBot (@_Zen_Bot_), the newest member of the Twitterati :-) ZenBot is, depending how you look at it, either a profound, insightful, valuable public service, or just fucking stupid (but kind of funny?). If you're lost and looking for guidance, just tweet @_Zen_Bot_ with a tweet containing the words "give me some Zen" and a pathway to enlightenment you shall receive. Follow that path. See where it leads you. [DISCLAIMER: Obviously take it with a pinch of salt - it's up to you which words you live your life by, I'm taking no responsibility for that]
The mechanics of it are just that it runs around the clock, scraping tweets that mention the @_Zen_Bot_ account and that specifically request a response with a tweet containing the words "give me some Zen", checks if they have or haven't already had some advice on that day (because nobody needs more than a little bit, right?), and if they've not already got some it will post the tweeters back a randomly-generated life-enriching phrase from some bits and bobs. It will also post a more general “Thought for the day” at 8.00AM every day - a multipurpose general guideline for everybody’s enrichment.
There's not much of a "concept" behind it - really, it was just me fucking about on Python, practicing getting into a Twitter API and doing something that's a bit more interactive than I've done before. It's based on the sort of thing you see in Llamasoft games (e.g. Polybius on PS4, or 5-a-Day which was a fucking awesome iOS game that is sadly no longer available), where randomly-generated spiritual advice pops up every now and then, generally pertaining to ruminants or curry or cups of tea. I like the idea that you can just have a bot deliver things that are sometimes funny and sometimes (potentially) profound...like, a pot luck of stuff that's either meaningful (to me at least) or stupid bullshit. Or both, simultaneously. So, sometimes you'll be encouraged to "Eschew neoliberalism" or "Surround yourself with the sound of rainfall". And sometimes you'll be advised to "Learn more about burgers" or "Avoid dickheads". There's no denying, both types of advice are worth following - I try to do exactly these things allday erryday, and so far so good!. So, hit it up, see what you get.
SOME SNAGS: (1) It WILL only respond to tweets containing the phrase "give me some Zen" - it's not very smart in terms of recognising the multifarious ways in which humans request stuff. There's a philosophical argument that no matter how sophisticated the language processing or machine learning, things like "recognising a request" are just essentially non-mechanisable. And regardless of how much I look into it, me and my poky little Python script aren't going to change that. So don't feel slighted if you don't get a response, you probably just didn't ask for it in the proper fashion. (2) If your Twitter account is protected (as in, only followers can see your tweets and tweet you back), then it won't work - you'll be able to send ZenBot a tweet, and ZenBot will try to send you one back, but it won't work because ZenBot does not follow you (and therefore doesn't have the access rights to tweet you). I could have made ZenBot follow back anyone who tweets it, but that's just an account-blocking waiting to happen (inasmuch as a followback bot is a terrible idea which can be abused really easily). So, if your account is protected, no dice.
SOME T&CS: it does temporarily store some user data of anybody whose mentions it scrapes, just for the purposes of checking whether or not a user has already got some Zen in the recent past. So the latest mentions that @_Zen_Bot_ finds are stored until somebody else drops a new mention (NOTE: in periods of high volume, if there ever are any, not all latest mentions may be captured, because I'm limited in the amount of scrapes Twitter will let me do in a 15 minute period). And usernames of anybody who receives some Zen are stored temporarily so as to make sure the bot has a record of who has already got some Zen in the recent past (since I don't want people abusing it by constantly making requests). ANY AND ALL user information is wiped at regular (3-hour) intervals through the day. But if you're not happy with any part of this arrangement, then don't use the bot. ALSO, if it ever posts anything which you find offensive or upsetting in some way, please just get in touch and we can talk about it (email address below).
If there's anything you want to know or anything you want to ask me about it, get in touch at: [email protected]
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