The rules for bots # Bots should be clearly prompted by a command # Bots that always post without human intervention are noisy and are often unwanted.
Bots should not act in a community without mods from that community being contacted first # Moderators should not have to chase down the bots being used in their community, it should be opt-in. Just ask, be nice.
Bots should minimize the space they take with their messages # A bot’s response should be a small as possible to avoid taking space that could be used by people.
How so?
People really more scan than read and such a small comment would get missed very often.
I get what you’re getting at there, but I don’t think it would necessarily be an issue. I think that if you were to put the summary itself under the spoiler and nothing else, it would be reasonable to provide a couple more lines to explain the bot. I’d think that even with a couple of extra lines of copy it would take less real estate most of the time than if the bot continued to just provide the summary and two lines.
I’m also recalling that AutoTLDR on Reddit had some extra bits like an FAQ and providing extended summaries. Links to that stuff might also help to balance your visibility. I think the bulk of your screen real estate comes from the summary, so this content would be less of an issue in comparison.
Although I do like the idea of having some other information outside of the spoiler, I’m of the opinion that bots should distinguish themselves with the bot flag, and no more. The message should introduce the content, rather than the bot itself, and information about the bot should go in the bot’s bio.
Admittedly, I agree with you in making the footprint leaner if it can be helped. The Lemmy UI and best practices working with that would ideally handle flagging the bot and let people make informed decisions from there.
I was trying to strike a balance between keeping it lean and keeping it visible. @rikudou’s concern was that spoiler folding would lead to people missing the bot as they scanned through the comments. At least with how Lemmy UI currently is, I have to concede that I think they have a point. Last I checked on the default Lemmy UI theme at least, the Bot flag is relatively easy to miss scanning through comments. Moderator and Administrator icons are already relatively low-key, but the Bot flag currently uses the more discrete body text color and no outlining. I didn’t even know bots had a name flag until you pointed it out.
It’s a delicate balance between keeping the comment reasonably slim but also reasonably visible. I think I was trying to come up with a solution that works with the limitations as-is, but your recommendation is definitely what we ought to go with in the long-term if we can make it happen. It seems to me like it would be better to solve a fair chunk of this through the UI itself rather than bulking up the copy.
I think adding 🤖 makes it stand out enough that even while skimming, I’d stop to look at what that is. Honestly this proposed format seems great, since it’s short but stands out, and I can “opt-into” reading the tl;dr by clicking the spoiler.
I understand your point.
So, is there some kind of verdict? I’m not sure what’s there to do now.
I’m not sure…maybe the other admins are thinking things over.