Fun With Twitter Bots

I’d love to see more of Digital Humanities scholars somehow working Twitter bots into their research. Or at least just having some fun with them.

For example, new media scholar and Twitter user @samplereality codes various bots in a literary fashion, asking them to follow various commands that mimic famous authors, poems, or songs.

Here are a couple bots based off of William Carlos Williams:

I have eaten the ones that were in the handbook Forgive me they were buttery so stringed and so raw

— This Is Just to Say (@JustToSayBot) December 16, 2013

so much depends upon a smug ass comeback patched with mute pontiff beside the staid ruins

— So Much Depends Upon (@DependsUponBot) December 16, 2013

And here is one based off of a mashup of Walt Whitman and people who tweet #fml:

Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and sick the night before a huge final. #fml #thissucks #ugh 😣😩😠

— Walt FML Whitman (@WhitmanFML) December 16, 2013

As we can see, the work of scholars like @samplereality could be incorporated into DH studies. A Voyant analysis of all the tweets the bot produces, or of the replies people tweet?

In fact, one of my new “projects” stemming out of this class is to make a Twitter bot of my own! I will let you know how it goes.

Here are some more links for info on Twitter bots:
The Rise of Twitter Bots: The New Yorker
All of @samplereality’s bots