8 votes

A novel example of namespace clashing in competition between bots

Discuss: namespace clashes expose and ensure instabilities in user-side solutions to interface problems.

Case in point -- the RemindMeBot, which will send a timed reminder message to anyone who calls it in a reddit comment with the phrase "RemindMe!", has been cloned and iterated upon by another bot, Kzreminderbot, which responds to the exact same trigger phrase. Both bots reply to the comment threads where they are summoned. Kzreminderbot has slightly more diverse features, including email/text notification, but the interesting thing here (I think) is the impotence of the response from the creator of RemindMeBot, who has added a link in their comment replies to send annoyed feedback to the second bot.

We talk occasionally about the scramble for usernames on new services, but this is an slightly novel example of the cascading hierarchies of website design. A feature which reddit lacked is added by a bot, but that bot is too provisional to cover the hole which it was meant to fill.

2 comments

  1. [2]
    skybrian
    Link
    It seems like the user should be controlling this? Maybe bots should be like browser extensions where they don't work unless you install them? But I guess that would take the fun out of it.

    It seems like the user should be controlling this? Maybe bots should be like browser extensions where they don't work unless you install them? But I guess that would take the fun out of it.

    1. Qis
      Link Parent
      Well, yeah, though I'm not sure what your mean by "the fun". Notification and reminder configuration definitely could be a feature of the website itself, or an extension. RemindMeBot was already...

      Well, yeah, though I'm not sure what your mean by "the fun". Notification and reminder configuration definitely could be a feature of the website itself, or an extension. RemindMeBot was already designed to behave as sort of a parasite.

      1 vote