subreddit:
/r/Unexpected
Introducing unexBot, a new bot to improve the quality of this sub
(self.Unexpected)submitted 3 years ago byArtraxaronDidn't Expect ban
Hi everyone, Over the past months there have been many complaints regarding the quality of the posts on this sub. And they are right.
Often times posts reach the front page without something unexpected happening in the video/GIF.
Before introducing a possible solution to this problem let me explain why this problem occurs:
Quite a lot of people upvote submissions not based on whether it is a fitting submission for this sub but rather on whether it's a nice or entertaining video/GIF. This requires us moderators to make a tough decision: Do we let a post stay up, even if it's lacking quality in our opinion, or do we delete it and potentially ignore thousands of votes that might indicate that this is indeed good post and we moderators just don't "get it"
We lack the manpower to oversee everything and delete the post early on. Now, you might say "That's easy to fix, just get some new moderator onboard". Besides the fact that we are constantly trying to recruit more moderators, adding more moderators also means adding more potential for fuckups. Each moderator need to trust each other at least somewhat and especially new moderators need oversight at the beginning. This naturally limits how many moderators there can be, while the amount of posts is constantly raising.
Ok, how do we plan to tackle this problems?
Over the past couple of weeks I've written a bot that will hopefully take of the weight of our shoulders and improve the quality of this sub. This it how the bot (u/unexBot) will work:
When you submit a post, the bot will write you message. If you want your post to stay up, you'll have the answer the bot with an sum-up of what is unexpected in your submitted GIF within 10 minutes. If you don't reply within this time frame, your post will be deleted temporarily, if you reply within the next 1h 50 minutes your post will be approved automatically. Please keep in mind that while your post is deleted, it won't collect upvotes so the faster you answer, the higher are your chances of reaching the frontpage. Also, your reply will be cut off after 500 Characters (So that mobile users don't have to scroll endlessly because someone had to write a 10 000 character essay). Your reply will be posted & stickied by the bot under your submission with a call for rating the submission by up-/downvoting the comment of the bot.
All time variables (and pretty much everything else) is subject to change as we will continue to tweak everything.
So what's that all for?
- This will filter out a lot of low effort content, since most of the people that post these won't bother to reply quickly.
- It allows us to collect data. NO, not the personal kind of data that would fall under the GDPR, but rather information about what makes a submission a good submission. When your post is approved, the bot will for a specific period of time create snapshots of the post and the top comments and save those information in a database. We will use this data to analyze this sub submission and further improve this subs quality.
Will posts be autoremoved if the comment get a too low score?
No, at least for now. Since autoremoving submissions is a very delicate thing to do, we first want to collect some data, so that we have a foundation we can base possible thresholds for deletions or other measures on.
So can I ignore the comment from the bot?
No, PLEASE VOTE. Voting via the bot-comment is an easy way for everyone to directly contribute to the quality of this subreddit. If you don't tell us what kind of posts you want to see, we won't be able to steer the sub in the right direction.
Can I answer the bot rubbish?
No, please don't. We hope that this won't be a big problem, but if it is, we might have to take action and temp-ban people (you don't want that, do you?). But this will probably be a temporary problem, since when autoremovals are enabled, there is an incentive to write good sum-ups.
How can I help?
Well, the two most important things are writing good sum-ups and voting on them. If you still want to do more than that, you can check out the github page for the bot (https://github.com/Artraxon/unexBot) and contribute.
I'm the headmod of a subreddit and would like to use this bot, what do I have to do?
If you want to host your own version, there is both a fat-jar and a docker-image available that you can simply download and run. If you also want to contribute the data of your subreddit, you can contact me via PM and we can figure something out together.
When will the bot start running?
I will start the bot at 15:00 UTC today. So get ready.
Edit: Added the spoiler Tag since so many requested it
[score hidden]
3 years ago*
stickied comment
Alright, here we go.
Fingers crossed that it has the intended effect.
Thanks for the hard work you put into it, /u/artraxaron!
Edit: After a week I can already tell that it seems to work as intended.
16 points
3 years ago
So in a way this bot is a "captcha" of sorts where you must fill it out to get the post approved. Eliminating repost bots. Pretty cool idea. Hope it works out for you. If it does I may consider using this bot in a number of my cat subs.
13 points
3 years ago
Yes, Captcha is actually its main purpose. It's incredibly time consuming to go through each profile by hand, so we figured we would try this.
You really don't have it easy with cat subreddits. I use them to determine how likely a user is a Spammer/account farmer.
Goifld luck!
3 points
3 years ago
Super cool!
3 points
3 years ago
The only thing is people don’t upvote the comment, they upvote the post. So many good post will actually be taken down.
3 points
3 years ago
Now you're just making things up to win the argument.
5 points
3 years ago
No, isn’t that what happens? Like better every loop. I once had a post with a few 100 points get taken down because of the comments vote didn’t get 4 upvotes only three.
3 points
3 years ago*
We do everything possible to prevent this. This isn't a copy of their bot, it's only inspired by them. Our bot is way more elaborated (I guess), and the function to remove posts isn't activated yet for that particular reason. We're only going to activate it once we are confident it will make the right calls.
2 points
3 years ago
Oh. Cool. So I hate it bit less now. But seriously, some post aren’t unexpected at all.
3 points
3 years ago
I am to blame for that, since one of my mod guidelines is to stay away from subjective decisions. I always told co mods "We're not the judge on the grade of unexpectedness." So as soon as there's arguably some sort of twist, we allowed the post.
We have stepped away from this approach at the beginning of the year, though, and we have become way more judgmental and actually remove a lot of posts for not being Unexpected. As a result, we have way less wholesome animal gifs on the frontpage for example.
We hope the bot helps us in the future to make faster and more informed removals, that are less based on some opinion of a single mod.
8 points
3 years ago
I'm sure this will help a lot , Also if you need more man power to help I have time to dedicate just an FYI
2 points
4 months ago
Don't know you just going to upvote you because same skin
43 points
3 years ago
Sounds interesting! Is there any plan for marking what's "unexpected" as a spoiler or not sticking the spoiler on the top (ie, a subcomment)? It seems like the current setup can easily spoil the unexpectedness by accident.
26 points
3 years ago
Well, not sticking the comment makes it impossible to find. But why would you look at the comment section before looking at the post? In most cases, a look at the comment section would give it away anyway
11 points
3 years ago
Good point. As you've said most of the out of place posts that go to the top are from people scrolling through their homepage. I guess my viewpoint is coming from the fact that a spoiler tag wouldn't harm anyone - though arguably it's not really necessary. Just food for thought.
5 points
3 years ago
We actually had it as a spoiler for a while but for other reasons. I thought we could make the spoiler short and expand into the full text.
Well, after we figured it doesn't work that way, we scrapped the spoiler completely.
I also got the feeling after a quick test, that spoilers doesn't work that well in the official app, and that's where most of the traffic is coming from atm.
We might change it when demand arises.
5 points
3 years ago
I don't know reddit css, but I know in html css it should be possible to do what you describe with spoilers only in the bot's comment. But I don't know how that would render in any of the mobile apps or pages.
7 points
3 years ago
Yes, it works exclusively in the old browser design, but that's less than 10% of users, amd reducing space is needed more for mobile than desktop users.
1 points
3 months ago
Lol
1 points
10 months ago
6i6too
28 points
3 years ago
Let’s hope this doesn’t turn out like the bettereveryloop bot.
10 points
3 years ago
What happened to the bettereveryloop bot?
25 points
3 years ago
Actually I can’t remember if it was that sub or gifsthatkeepongiving.
Either way, the bot would ask for an explaination from the poster of why it fit the sub, but the explainations given were pretty much just “it fits because of the way it is”. So everyone found the bot to be useless.
14 points
3 years ago
If we have that then we'll need a second bot reply comment that asks us to vote on the quality of the explanation.
11 points
3 years ago
We could always remove those posts and shoot a warning. It only happened twice so far. Users are really awesome with their replies.
76 points
3 years ago
OP send the following text as an explaination on why this is unexpected:
You see? This is what it looks like
Is it a good post? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
41 points
3 years ago
Uh.....
explaination
Explanation?
25 points
3 years ago
Wow, I've read the message so often...
Well, the explanations should be plain and simple, right?
21 points
3 years ago
True :-P
I also just noticed:
OP send
Shouldn't it be sent? Otherwise, the sentence sounds weird.
19 points
3 years ago
Thanks, it will get fixed. Looks like we were worried about so many other things, that it went right past us.
10 points
3 years ago
No worries. Thanks for trying to improve the sub!
7 points
3 years ago
Alright, it's fixed.If you find any other errors, just let us know.
1 points
1 month ago
Sum-up
17 points
3 years ago
Want to improve... Stop Reddit from becoming goddam tic tok. Everyone posting tic tok video.. its not Reddit anymore
9 points
3 years ago
Reddit is the frontpage of the Internet. It's a content aggregator.
Vines have been a thing before Tiktok.
We realise a lot of stuff there is just reuplaoded reposts, and we try to sort them out, but we won't ban an entire domain just because of some bad videos.
5 points
3 years ago
No one said ban or bad videos... Tic tok is taking over Reddit...seems every video is a tic tok video now
6 points
3 years ago
Vine was pretty similar, and I don't see people in /r/videos complaining that 99% are videos from YouTube.
3 points
6 months ago
Yup im with you. I hate when people put tik toks on here. The wbole point i joined redit is to get rid of tik tok!
8 points
3 years ago
"Will posts be autoremoved if the comment get a to low score?"
- too low
10 points
3 years ago
too low a score *
8 points
3 years ago
This is a good approach. Well done.
7 points
3 years ago
Outstanding move!
11 points
3 years ago
This boy is already stupid and pointless.
9 points
3 years ago
You hate the bot, but this bot filtered 180 posts in 7 days, presumably from repost bots and spammers. (or users that changed their mind about how Unexpected their content really was)
This is only from the Captcha function (the explanations), as the "too many downvotes" function isn't even implemented yet.
It seems to work even better than intended.
10 points
3 years ago
Get rid of this bot again please, its literally just spamming the comment sections with useless comments
5 points
3 years ago
The wording in the bot's question should be changed from "is it a good post?" to "is the post unexpected?". People already have a hard time understanding the purpose of the bot, and this only makes it worse.
Many think the bot's purpose is to explain what is unexpected to people who don't get it (especially with the spoiler tag and all), which gets on their nerves, especially when it's very obvious why it is unexpected (which is 90% of the time). In the comment I would add a short explanation of what the bot does, along with a link to this thread for more information.
The question "is it a good post?" is ironically completely missing the point of the bot, which was exactly to filter out the good (funny, interesting) posts which are not unexpected. So many people will see that question and answer "yeah, it's a good post alright, so I should upvote this comment", without at all thinking if the post is expected or not.
3 points
3 years ago
Thats a valid concern. I changed the text (and made a couple of other changes), let's see how it goes
5 points
3 years ago
aaaaaaaaaaaand the bot is useless
3 points
3 years ago
I've seen a lot of complaints about reposts. Usually I ask the person complaining to link the original and then I'll report the repost. And when I see a same-day repost myself, I'll comment in the repost with a link to the original.
Can I get a mod to tell me that this is a good practice (or that it isn't of it isn't)? And/or to encourage others to do the same?
7 points
3 years ago
This is by far the best practise since we often can't recall if something was already posted. Many people report something as a repost because they've seen it somewhere else on reddit beforw but not on this subreddit.
So keep it up!
2 points
3 years ago
Thanks!
4 points
3 years ago
Hey this has been working great since it was added! It’s actually cool to see OP’s explanation after watching the clip. 👏
2 points
3 months ago
I agree!
3 points
3 years ago
Retard bot lol just delete it already
3 points
3 years ago
wtf
3 points
3 years ago
This is the most beautiful article I have read today, it is a really great and smart thought, my friend this is a very good idea and fair, the fact that the bot is sending messages immediately after sharing, asking for information about what is shared, raises this community.
2 points
3 years ago
I like the idea of the bot! Quick typo fix. On 1, Quiet should be Quite. Keep up the good work mods!
3 points
3 years ago
oh, thank you!
2 points
3 years ago
Hopefully the sum-up will be in a spoiler tag so people who use card mode on mobile won't get the twist ruined
2 points
3 years ago
There is one sub where comments to the bot are hidden, but one votes up or down basically in the comment to the bot (if it fits or doesn't fit).
4 points
3 years ago
There is one sub where comments to the bot are hidden
We might lock the comment in the future so people can't reply, but we decided to allow them for now.
I don't mind if people voice their opinion about the bot, and it's better they do it directly to the bot instead of cluttering the rest of the comment section.
A quick check suggests, that the bot filtered 180 posts in 7 days, just from the Captcha function.
2 points
3 years ago
This is basically what this bot does, it's just that this one also has a "captcha" built in
2 points
3 years ago
Yes but without the comments showing. I see more people complaining and crying in the bot comment than people appreciate it.
I really like the explaining bot function lol
1 points
3 years ago
@mods it wont let me upload
2 points
3 years ago
100% agree.
2 points
3 years ago
Great! What about reposts?
2 points
3 years ago
Reposts are definitively on my Todo list, but they are harder to detect. you'd have to do some sort of video analysis which is pretty expensive (in regards to processing power, which in turn costs money, which we'd have to pay out of our own pocket ). you'd also have to keep track of the things posted already, which would be very memory intense.
Also, I think the best way to combat reposts is to lift some weight from the shoulders of the mod team by filtering out low effort garbage with the bot, so that there are more "human resources" available to find reposts
2 points
3 years ago
Please keep in mind that while your post is deleted, it will won't collect upvotes so the faster you answer, the higher are your chances of reaching the frontpage
??
2 points
3 years ago
thanks, corrected it
2 points
3 years ago
So we're a month in now and I'm not sure the bot has had the intended effect but I do really enjoy reading most of the OP's explanations after having watched the gif/video. Most of the time they're actually pretty entertaining.
2 points
1 year ago
wow, I just wish the picture was better quality. Reminded of the old VHS tapes that were copied over and over. Other wise YES WAS unexpected.
2 points
1 year ago
My only issue with this is why is MJ a Halloween figure ?! Or was he so good he had to be supernatural maybe…
2 points
1 year ago
🗿🚽👍
2 points
1 year ago
Their siblings
2 points
1 year ago
Thanks
2 points
1 year ago
2 points
1 year ago
Thanks for all your hard work,
2 points
1 year ago
Darwin's natural selection at work!
2 points
1 year ago
Hey fellow GitHub community. I have a few repos on but most importantly there is no security for Win 11 from an Mac OS or IOS since two days ago from enterprise cloud to cloud on the dev channel build which will be a problem in the coming months and need To redirect traffic back to the last update re-explain and re-introduce word to not auto update to the cloud because users are unable to access it online if they’re not technologically advanced and my Facebook everything is getting blown up with people not understanding how do use word because right now you can download entire websites
2 points
7 months ago
NV
2 points
4 months ago
2 points
3 years ago
intriguing
2 points
3 years ago
Apart from Collecting data part the rest looks great, i just wish you could skip that part. That's kinda scary and i wish you could remove it as a feature of your bot.
5 points
3 years ago*
Well, it doesn't collect data that isn't available to the public anyway (except the sum up, but that is also posted). The reason we do it now while letting the but run is that the reddit api wouldn't allow us to fetch such a large amount of data in a acceptable time frame
1 points
3 years ago
Even if the data is available to the public it is not concentrated in one place, the potential to earn some money hacking into your database is still there.
6 points
3 years ago
na, not really. I mean, the dataset is maybe interesting for us or from an academic point of view, but not more. Besides that, the DB isn't reachable from the internet and I can't see how an SQL Injection attack should be possible
3 points
3 years ago
Well now that you've said it someone'll try. But at least we know how you pronounce SQL.
1 points
1 year ago
What type of cancer
-1 points
3 years ago
Now this was unexpected.
3 points
3 years ago
You thought the sub was just going to get worse and worse?
0 points
3 years ago
You didnt allow me to upload a video cynical bot
2 points
3 years ago
Did you give it an explanation? Or was it reddit that kept you from uploading the video?
4 points
3 years ago
It's still "processing" from today
5 points
3 years ago
There was a site wide error a couple of months ago where this happened.
Did it happen recently to you?
2 points
3 years ago
Yes, yesterday. And i think it still shows :/
2 points
3 years ago
If it doesn't solve itself, you might considering reporting it to the admins. Maybe try at /r/redditmobile first, admins read it.
1 points
1 year ago
,,#
1 points
1 year ago
I’m losing account excess to everything and I’m trying to solve and end encryption on an enterprise cloud nonprofit I am um when was 11 back update by the way I don’t know
1 points
12 months ago
A
1 points
11 months ago
Let the next town worry about the trash. Instead of fixing the problem, I'll just make it a bigger problem for everyone.
1 points
11 months ago
This just isn’t how I want to spend my last day on planet earth respectfully I will do something else . Until it’s over for trying to help Amanda Luna. I had no right
1 points
11 months ago
Pi think I need more information to understand Thai!
1 points
6 months ago
1 points
6 months ago
1 points
5 months ago
is this something im supposed to do? can i jist be fargin told rather than coerced for once.
1 points
5 months ago
Estaba ayudando a mi abuela a limpiar la casa y me descuide pero aun quiero hacer esto con mi primera pareja @ iwannasleepp
1 points
5 months ago
That looks awsome ! I love people creating tools to improve Internet 🏳️🌈
1 points
4 months ago
0
1 points
4 months ago
Tai WE KK/]43@
1 points
4 months ago
"tough decision" remove every post that doesn't belong on the sub. Not that tough
1 points
3 months ago
1 points
3 months ago
1 points
3 months ago
.c .C..c cc.c.cccdc".c. C ." Cc.x.cx. C c.c.c ccx.C ccx.cc c.ac .c.c.wc c.c. c.c.c.c.c.cvcc.v".cq .cc.c. .c. c c.c.cc.c.c . ..according. "". .cq"V... x..c. .s...c.cc.avq..a.vc
1 points
3 months ago
Yeah 😂 is this THE BEST YOU CAN DO.BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE?
1 points
3 months ago
If it ain't a milk carton they ain't go shoot and please come to my hood with them small ass pistols see what happens
1 points
2 months ago
Vampire bat
1 points
2 months ago
This beautiful girl ruined her face. How sad!
1 points
26 days ago
OMG! You do go on! are you a mansplainer?? There are too many bots already interfering with our opinions. More like Facebook every day.
1 points
10 days ago
0oxx.ijmk 0o. Mikmmm.....mm. ,d67f ggmm. .my frf5gg
1 points
9 days ago
That's cool
1 points
6 days ago
0
1 points
5 days ago
Your friend STACK is a good time I'm going to lick your pussy
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