Bot or Not is a new class project – designed to tell whether that Twitter feed is a person or a bot. I usually don’t care. If BBC uses a bot to send their headlines my way, it’s not a big deal. I want the headlines, and I’ll decide whether to click.
Real people may be more interesting than bots, but not always.
I checked @tcdailyplanet and the verdict was “probably a human, but with bot tendencies.” Hmmm. I know it’s a human. Humans, actually.
Next, @maryturck. Same verdict. Wait, I’m only probably a human?
I checked a couple of accounts that I follow. Some got “We think it is a human, but you just never know these days.” Hmm. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than “probably a human.”
What all of the accounts had in common, according to Bot or Not, were two things:
This account does not use dot at replies, which only humans do.
Well, yeah. I never heard of a “dot at reply” until I saw Bot or Not. I’m still not sure I know how to do it, or why.
This account posts a suspiciously high number of links.
Because I’m a news junkie? (And, of course, because @tcdailyplanet is a news operation?)
Oh, well. Maybe I can figure out some other way to be more human.
What a funny, but interesting tool. I think probably human is definitely OK – maybe it just means you’re a better speller and that is your bot tendency.
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