Should we make the arXiv bots unlisted (so they don't show in the Local Timeline).
Keep in mind this will cause the bot to not federate and thus wont be enjoyed by the rest of the Fediverse.
🇳🇱
How would that address the problem of spam? Wouldn't that result in the same number of posts in the local feed as before?
@freemo
Well, we have X number of public bots, each posting x toots per day
If we unlist them, and have 1 bot that publically toots once per day to the effect of, "Check out updates from these awesome bots! As well as the newest addition to the bot team, $NEW_BOT!" then we go from the sum of Xi * xi to just 1
@QOTO
All bots are unlisted except arXiv since it is the only bot that is unique and relevant to our STEM goals. arXiV itself is like 5 different bots though.
All arXiv posts occur once a day at the same time, in a single batch. Specifically with the intent that it wont spam throughout the day.
If we add more bots we are likely to always batch them at the same time.
With that said the user count bot is an exception, it posts twice a day during more active hours but thats because of its nature of announcing user count growth. Might make that one unlisted though and might bump it down to once a day and batch it too.
Niklas
@QOTO Unlisted posts do also federate and can be seen by everyone who follows them.They just don't produce spam in the federated timelines.
Thats what I meant when I said federate, appearing in the federated timeline. Otherwise they are like a silenced account, no one can see the posts unless they follow the account first. But since they will never see the posts without following they will never know it exists to be able to follow.
A catch 22 basically.
@QOTO
I voted for unlisted because several bots each posting several toots is a tiny bit spammy. I will suggest the idea of a bot that aggregates the bots, so to speak, one that federates and toots once a day about what arXiv bots have updated, if new ones were added, etc