Retweet Bots

@SheikahMemories

Update: As of March 14, 2023, Twitter has cut off the free API access I was using for these bots. For now, the accounts are still there with the existing retweets, but I cannot connect my scripts to them anymore.  I don't anticipate that this will change any time soon.

Here are the Twitter retweet bots I run:

They each monitor Twitter for tweets about a particular video game (or group of games), and retweet the incoming tweets that meet its criteria.

The idea is to create a feed of interesting game-specific screenshots and commentary, so you can enjoy the community experience of the game through the sharing of others.

A few restrictions I put in place:

  • It will usually only retweet tweets sent from the console's native share feature.
  • It will only retweet tweets that have the game's hashtag or keyword.  If you don't include the term I'm searching for, my bot will not see it.  For most games, the hashtag is there automatically unless you delete it, but for some, you will need to add it (or use the right keyword).
  • It will only retweet tweets that are in English (according to Twitter's reckoning).
    • The single-language restriction helps create a mutually-intelligible community.
  • It will only retweet tweets that have additional text beyond the automated game-specific and console hashtags.  Say something about your picture or video capture!  Make it interesting.  
    • I did this mostly as a quality filter, and to keep the quantity of retweets down, and increase the quality of retweeted tweets.
  • In order to avoid hitting Twitter's rate limits, if the account is tweeting above a certain frequency, it will automatically throttle down the percentage of tweets it retweets.  When the rate of incoming tweets goes back down, it will throttle the percentage back up.  There is also a cool-down time after a tweet has been retweeted before another one will be considered.
    • If you want to bypass this throttling, you can follow the account.  It refreshes its followers list every half hour or so, and if it knows you follow it, it will retweet you regardless of the throttling.
If you want to drink from the firehose and see everything posted about a particular game, there's no need for a bot.  Just search Twitter for the game's hashtag.

Twitter has restricted the number of accounts that can be verified with a single phone number, so from time to time, I will be re-purposing old accounts for new games.

Migrated account names:
  • YonderOverThere -> WindFishDreams (2019-03-29)
  • MarioTennisACE -> MarioMakerMade (2019-06-18)
  • XenobladeChron2 -> CryptOfHyrule (2019-06-18)
  • ToadTracker -> AssassinsCamera (2019-06-18)
  • Okami8Amaterasu -> PoketMonSnap (2019-07-17)
  • CryptOfHyrule -> GooigiesMansion (2019-09-06)
  • EightTravelers -> SwitchWitcher (2019-09-06) 
  • CelesteSwitch -> CrossingCritter (2020-02-19) 
  • StarlinkSwitch -> PikminPictures (2020-09-30) 
  • MetroidPrimePic -> MetroidvaniaPic (2020-09-30)
  • GoldPageCollect -> NSOExpensivePak (2021-10-26)
  • MarioMakerMade -> N/A (2021-11-03)
  • GooigiesMansion -> HuntedMonster (2021-11-30)
The old screenshots are still in the account histories.

3 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 24, 2018 at 10:23 AM

    Would you consider making a Yonder one?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. burndiveMay 24, 2018 at 12:00 PM

      Certainly! Check out https://twitter.com/YonderOverThere.

      Delete
  2. UnknownSeptember 3, 2018 at 1:10 AM

    I was wondering if you'd like to make one for Paladins and Stardew Valley.

    ReplyDelete

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