Hi everybody! It’s Monday! I know you are all as excited as I am for the week’s new general thread. Like usual, feel free to use this thread for general discussion topics/questions/recommendations/etc. I often like to provide some jokey example prompts here, but, this week I wanted to do a bit of a public service and help all of you out with some hot tips on merch:
- Did your SO get you a hot new Penguindrum watch for Valentine’s Day and you are looking for something to get them for White Day?
- Well, I have just the thing for you. So, fire up that computer and make it run as fast as possible with this hot Initial D Mouse to place a pre-order for:
- Some chic Precure themed bags to hit the town with.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Alright, you asked for the details, here they are. First, here is my tentative plan for the transition to the new paradigm as well as how the bot would function:
Some limitations about thread requesting via pm are that if a more recent episode discussion thread already exists, then the bot won’t create older episode posts (e.g. can’t request an episode 2 thread if an episode 4 thread already exists). Another limitation is that posts aren’t going to be made for episodes that aired too long ago (exact timeframe tbd).
Some other information is that shows that are marked NSFW by AniList are not going to be added to the bot’s database, so threads will not be able to be made for them. I have tried to come up with lots of ways to abuse the bot and tried to put in safeguards, but if I see anybody abusing it, I will probably just have to intervene manually with a block/ban as appropriate.
There is one show that I will be handling a bit differently next season, Dungeon Meshi, as it is continuing from this season. The threads being made in the [email protected] community have been quite active, and I don’t want to stifle a burgeoning, active community on the fediverse. So, I will be manually adding the Dungeon Meshi threads to the bot’s database as they are made/stickied to the dungeonmeshi community. This will cause them to be listed in the stickied thread on /c/anime. Additionally, I will try to manually make a post to /c/anime linking to the episode’s thread in the other community from the bot account.
The other show continuing from this season is Tsukimichi Season 2. I am going to transition to the bot making posts once the new season starts. I am also going to manually add the post history I made to the bot’s database so that they show up in the other episodes link table.
One thing I am going to miss from the current, user-made discussion post model, is the screenshots that people have selected to represent the episode. I know I have had fun picking out silly or funny screenshots. Unfortunately, switching to bot-made posts is going to remove this. I thought about ways to enable this in an automated way where people replied to the post with images and then the bot replaced the post image with those. However, I felt it was too ripe for abuse and decided against it.
So, in place of this, I am going to offer a compromise. In the discussion posts, if you want me to consider a screenshot for the lead image of a discussion post, then @mention the bot in your comment with the screenshot. The lemmy web ui nicely separates @mentions in its own tab, so it will be easier for me to manually keep up with those comments that have candidate screenshots. If I am available and able to, I will try to add screenshots to discussion threads. If I find a user is abusing this system by providing irrelevant or spoilery screenshots, justice will be swift. Please use the report function in lemmy if needed.
This is by no means a promise that I will always be able to do this. By default, the bot will create posts without artwork as the post url. I am still deciding whether to include an embedded image in the post body (it would be either the AniList banner or cover image for the show).
I am planning on writing more complete documentation of the bot and rules surrounding it before the season starts. It will likely live in the newly-created wiki for the community (it is currently just a placeholder page). The wiki represents another set of projects for my future self. I think I am secretly just trying to work myself hard enough that I die and get isekai’ed.
If you have read this far and want even more details, then I will point you to the github page for the bot. Following the tradition established by holo and then shinobu, I have chosen an appropriate anime waifu as the namesake for the new bot. The user profile has already been made as well.
Wow, that is an amazingly thoughtful plan!
It has been and will be a lot of work for you, and I thank you for putting all that work in for us!
I am putting in the hard work now so that hopefully the bot can be a set and forget kind of thing. That being said, I found a bug with the code last night that kept me up way too late. So, I sometimes catch myself wondering what my isekai cheat power would be after I just pass out for good. I am hoping for something peaceful like one of the farming isekais.
Block me if you do not want to see future episode discussion posts.
Glad to have you aboard rikka!
I’d like to hear how you were named, for lore purposes.
Basically, the history of these discussion bots goes all the way back to the before times…to reddit. The account that posts discussion threads over there now is called AutoLovePon, but was originally called Holo, after the Spice and Wolf character. The repo on github is still called holo. When @[email protected] made a fork of holo for use with lemmy, they followed the precedent of naming the bot after a character in a favorite series. As they are a Bakemonogatari fan, shinobu was born. Now, following the tradition, @[email protected] chose a character from one of his favorite series, Rikka from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.