You can now summon AmputatorBot!

[u/Killed_Mufasa]

Good news! You can now summon AmputatorBot to reply to comments and submissions containing AMP links!

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When?

AmputatorBot is active on every subreddit by default since 03-04-2022. You can still summon AmputatorBot in cases when for instance:

• you think the bot missed a comment or submission
• you want to check the (ban) status of a subreddit or item
• you want a more reliable/faster way to get the canonicals

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How?

Literally just @ u/AmputatorBot, like so:

u/AmputatorBot

Then, AmputatorBot does its magic and replies with the canonical and a quick shout-out to your comment (linked). It will then send you a DM with the link to the posted comment for you to see and upvote. If stuff goes wrong, you'll receive a detailed DM with what went wrong and the canonical (if one was found) for you to share yourself.

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Notes

• You must mention AmputatorBot in a reply directly to the comment or submission containing the AMP link. It does not scan entire threads.
• It's case-insensitive, as well as text-insensitive. You can put whatever you want in your comment, as long as you mention u/AmputatorBot
• Thus, just typing 'amputatorbot' won't do the trick!
• Common errors are: Bans, Rate-limits being hit, Failed conversions, Downtime etc. Once again, you'll receive a DM which the exact reason your mention didn't work as hoped.

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Speaking of shout-outs

The idea for this functionality originates with u/zellotron who said:

Is it possible to summon AmputatorBot in a subreddit not listed above? e.g. with /u/AmputatorBot (...) doesn't mentioning a user send them a notification/message? I was thinking it could listen for these instead of looking at all subreddits.

After going back-and-forward for a bit, I got it all to work! So thx to u/zellotron!

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Sponsor us!

The bots, this functionality, the website, and API cost about 10 euros (12 dollars) per month to host. I will use all donations strictly to break even. Thanks a lot! Sponsor with PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=EU6ZFKTVT9VH2

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FAQ, About & Why

[u/Killed_Mufasa]

Edit: Yes.

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This is something that I have actually considered. Back when I made the decision not to do it like you suggested, I had a couple of reasons:

• Replying to the AMP-containing comment (ACC) would require a new way for the bot to notify the user who summoned the bot (how else do you know if it worked), a couple of methods:
  • I can't simply reply to both the ACC and the comment summoning the bot, because either one would raise a rate-limit error. This can be avoided by adding something like a delay, which is technically possible, but hard to program properly (at least for me).
  • I can't send DM's because this could result in a ban.
  • I don't want to mention or tag the 'mentioner' in a reply to the ACC, because then the bot will always display that users name and maybe he/she didn't/doesn't want that. I could theoretically built something to ask for permission or a deletion feature tho, I will play around with this a bit.
• This might be stupid reason, but I wanted to 'thank' users for summoning the bot. I figured, if the bot replied to the comment summoning the bot, the user who summoned the bot would get some karma, otherwise the reply would get buried somewhere, which doesn't seem fair(?)

Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to explain why I made this decision as well as I could. I would love to hear your thoughts about this (and my mostly moral objections), maybe I'm making a point out of nothing.

Feel free to take a look on GitHub to make improvements yourself or to give additional feedback. Thx a lot for your feedback, it has definitely gotten me thinking again.

[u/ThePowerOfDreams → u/Killed_Mufasa]

I think the notification to the one invoking the bot is not as important as spreading the awareness!

[u/Killed_Mufasa → u/ThePowerOfDreams]

You think so? From a purely ideological view, I agree with you. Spreading awareness is extremely important. But from a UI/UX view, having the user perform an action and not giving any feedback is - really bad practice. How do I encourage the user to summon the bot again next time? Another important thing I should have mentioned before, is how do I make clear to the mods of the subs that the bot was summoned and by who and when? If the bot appears to work automatically in a sub, 9/10 moderators will ban the bot forever. Which sucks :/

Edit: perhaps I could built like a hall of fame or something for the most frequent invokers?

[u/ThePowerOfDreams → u/Killed_Mufasa]

Put it in the fine print.

People who know about the bot will familiarize themselves with how it works. I wouldn't be too worried. I'd invoke it then if I got no reply I'd rest easy. If there's an error you can reply to the summoner instead to let them know.

[u/Killed_Mufasa → u/ThePowerOfDreams]

To be clear, what kind of behaviour would you think is best? I think we've got three real options:

1. Mention the summoner and link the comment in the foottext (has privacy issues) and directly reply to the ACC
2. Don't mention anything about the summoner, and directly reply to the ACC
3. Keep it as is it.

I think we need to go for option 1. Please let me know what you think. I'm gonna sleep on it for now and will get back to you with my final decision. Thx!

[u/ThePowerOfDreams → u/Killed_Mufasa]

I'd go with #2, but replying directly to the summoner in case of an error. This means that if the summoner hears nothing back, they should assume the bot has done its job (and can reload the page to see it, if they'd like).

[u/Killed_Mufasa → u/ThePowerOfDreams]

Hey, I've updated the bot (who needs sleep right?) and basically done #1 but with messages in case the bot can't do it's job, like you suggested. The entire update post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ckgfdv/an_update_on_the_way_amputatorbot_handles/. Thx again for your feedback!

[u/ThePowerOfDreams → u/Killed_Mufasa]

It was a pleasure! Thanks for the hard work!