How to Make a Twitter Bot in 1 Hour or Less€¦ · Bots are data driven Bots today operate on much...
41
How to Make a Twitter Bot in 1 Hour or Less Élika Ortega Cultures, Societies and Global Studies NULab [email protected] @elikaortega
Transcript of How to Make a Twitter Bot in 1 Hour or Less€¦ · Bots are data driven Bots today operate on much...
HowtoMakeaTwitterBotin1HourorLess
Élika OrtegaCultures,SocietiesandGlobalStudies
@elikaortega
WhatisaTwitterBot?
• AutomatedTwitteraccount,• Spam,• Propaganda,• SoftwareapplicationthatpostscontenttoTwitter,automaticallyeitheronascheduleorrespondingtospecificconditions,• GenreofElectronicLiterature
Potential
"everyfigureofspeech...andpracticallyeverylinguisticstructure...everyworkofliterature,everywriter’sbodyofwork,everyliterarymovement,nationalliterature...everydatastream...Socialinteractions,conversations,callsandresponses,platform-defined interactions(retweets,favorites,andsoon)areallreadytobecodifiedintoalgorithmsandexploredviabot."
(LeonardoFlores"I❤Bots")
Botsareprocedural
Abot’scontentisautomaticallygeneratedwithouthumanintervention,usingasetofpredeterminedrulesandprocedures.
AllisonParrish“Bots:ADefinitionandSomeHistoricalThreads.”
Botsareuncreative(unoriginal)
Writingthatconcernsitselfwithcategorizing,remixing,andre-enactingpre-existingtextualartifacts.Uncreativewritingisproducednotthrough“inspiration,”butbyapproachinganexistingtextandre-readingit,drawingoutsomethingnewandunexpectedintheprocess.
AllisonParrish“Bots:ADefinitionandSomeHistoricalThreads.”
Botsaredatadriven
Botstodayoperateonmuchmoredataandusemuchmoresophisticatedstatisticaltechniquesthanwereavailableto20th-centurywritersthatusedproceduraltechniques.
Contemporarybotmakers regularlymakeuseoflargecorpora,andinparticularthecorpusofTwitteritself.
AllisonParrish“Bots:ADefinitionandSomeHistoricalThreads.”
Botsaregraffiti
Thecharacteristicofbotsthatdistinguishesthemmostreadilyfromotherkindsofpoetryandartisthattheyareinterventionsinapublicspace.
AllisonParrish“Bots:ADefinitionandSomeHistoricalThreads.”
TullyHansen's"TaxonomyofTwitterBots"
WhyTwitterbots?
• Trolls• Tooshorttosayanythingmeaningful• Deformationoflanguage• Currentpoliticalclimate
Authorialresponsibility
@HaikuD2byJohnBurger
@pentametron byRanjitBhatnagar
@TwoHeadlines yDariusKazemi
@infinitedesserts by@getdizzzy
@tiny_star_fields bykatierose
@StudiesBot byMarkSample
@ClearCongress byZachWhalen
@everyword byA.Parrish
@NRA_Tally byMarkSample
@DroptheIbot byPatrickHogan andJorgeRivas
Dotheymakesense?
• Partofthepointofbotsistomakesense(notjustlinguisticsense)outofwhattheygenerate• Remediatedynamicsofcut-up andexperimentalart• Resistancemightcomefromimpersonating– Twitterbotsunlikemostotherartworksco-existwithusinapublicspace
Let’smakeabot!Inlessthanonehour…
Abot“lives”onaserverbut“works”onTwitter
Ourtools:
• Tracery-- http://www.brightspiral.com/tracery• Texteditor• Corporahttps://github.com/dariusk/corpora/tree/master/data• CheapBotsDoneQuick– http://cheapbotsdonequick.com• Twitteraccountdedicatedtobot
Firstwebuildthebot
Thewemakeittweet
1.Traceryhttp://www.brightspiral.com/tracery/
• InterfacethatcreatesandstructurestheJSONfile• Traceryhasembeddedthegenerativeenginethatrecombinesthevalues includedineach“symbol”
1.Traceryhttp://www.brightspiral.com/tracery/
• “origin”isreservedforthebot’sstructure• #___#indicatesrandomizedcontentfromsymbols• Therestisconstant,includingspaces
JSONfile(JavaScriptObjectNotation)
• human-readabletext• dataobjectsconsistingofattribute–valuepairs• highlystructured(commas,quotationmarks,brackets)
JSONfile(JavaScriptObjectNotation)
• human-readabletext• dataobjectsconsistingofattribute–valuepairs• highlystructured(commas,quotationmarks,brackets)
Thesamecontent
Differentcombinations
Experimentaddingwordsandbuildingmorecomplexsentences
Traceryisnotaworkspace,onceyouhaveaworkingidea,copythe.json outputandcontinueinyourtexteditor
Usethecorporaavailablehttps://github.com/dariusk/corpora/tree/master/data
Matchpizzatoppingsandkindsofbeers
A #topping#pizzagoesgreatwith#beer#.
Afewusefulmodifiers
Puttheseattheendofsymbolswithadotseparatingthem:
• 's'forplural,• 'ed'forpasttense,• 'capitalize'and'capitalizeAll',• '.a'toadda/aninfront
'animal.s.capitalize'willmakeananimalpluralandcapitalizeit‘pizzatoppings.a’willputa/aninfrontofit
Moreadvancedoptionscanbefoundhere:http://www.crystalcodepalace.com/traceryTut.html
2.Aworkingidea(proofofconcept)onTracery• OnTracerytogglethetabtoseetheJSONoutput• Copyandpasteittoyourtexteditor(it’llbeeasiertospoterrorsthereandaddmorevalues/data)• Thisisthe“body”ofyourbotandit’sreadytomovetotheserver
3.DedicatedTwitteraccount
• You’llneedanemail.Irecommendusingonespecificforyourbotlikemynewbot@gmail.com
• You’llneedtosignuptoTwitterwiththataccount,pickahandleandanameforyourbot.
• Verificationmightbeneededtoo
4.LogintoCheapBotsDoneQuick
• Onceloggedintoyournewbotaccountgotocheapbotsdonequick.com andclickonsigninwithTwitter
5.“Move”yourbotthere
• Onceloggedin,copypasteyourJSONoutputinthewindow
• Ifsomethingisn’tworking,you’llgetanerrormessageatthebottomindicatingtheline#(thisiseasiertofixonyourtexteditor)
• Ifeverythingisworkingyouonlyneedtosetthefrequencyforyourbottotweet,andclickonTWEET.Don’tforgettosavethechanges.
Responses
• NewfeaturesinCheapBotsDoneQuickallowyoutosetupresponseswhensomeonetweetsatyourbot
• Itusesthesamegrammar
HappyTweeting!
