I happened to notice today (for the first time in over 2 years, gee I'm observant) that there is such a thing as a Bot account on TDF. See this image:
This surprised me, given that section 9 of the code of conduct (COC) specifies:
9. Automated downloads, viruses or malicious code
No use of automated download programs (bots, web harvesters, etc). Such programs affect the performance of our server by making too many concurrent requests. No postings containing viruses or malicious code.
So I assume that one or more of these things is going on here:
1. I don't understand the COC correctly
2. These bots don't download, and instead do something else that doesn't violate the COC
3. This is a security issue / COC violation that should be reported
4. These bots are run by the forum admins, and normal users cannot create bots (this seems very likely, I just googled those bots and they are both SEO related)
Assuming that these bots are legit and allowed, then I'm actually pretty excited! I'm a software developer with experience writing bots, so I'm curious to know what I could do with that on TDF.
Can anyone give me more information about these bot accounts, what kinds of things they do, and how someone can set one up?
Apologies if this is already clearly documented, but I searched around and didn't come up with much.
Thanks!
P.s. is this forum ever looking for coding freelancers/volunteers? I have over 10 years of professional software development experience including PHP, JavaScript, and lots of other web technologies. Admins, PM me if you want to chat!