where is an OK place to experiment with bots?

maengd@sh.itjust.works to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 51 points –

I used code from a github repo to make a lemmy repost bot from a reddit sub.

I tested it out, it seemed OK. So I let it run over night.

When I got back I found out it had been posting the same thing over and over again every few minutes. The account was banned for spam. But in the meantime it was very annoying to people. Also, there are a bunch of posts that can't be removed because it's impossible to remove federated stuff.

Is there a responsible way to test this stuff?

I don't want to make spam, be annoying, etc. I feel bad about the spam bot.

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I think https://enterprise.lemmy.ml is specifically for testing. It's not typically federated with other instances, so it won't be a problem if your bot goes crazy again.

this page also mentions https://voyager.lemmy.ml/ and https://ds9.lemmy.ml/

voyager and ds9 are front ends for lemmy

Lemmy has an HTTP API for clients and frontends.

For others, see https://github.com/dbeley/awesome-lemmy

I don't think they help anything here. But thanks :)

edit: I can't tell what enterprise.lemmy.ml is for? anyone else?

Bots are clients that use the HTTP API

Voyager was set up to test the app, but that doesn't mean other clients can't use it.

Enterprise is full of random test communities that have many been populated by bots. I don't understand how something like https://enterprise.lemmy.ml/c/mels_test (to pick a random one) isn't useful for what you're trying to do.

These instances are specifically made for people testing code that interfaces with Lemmy. This includes front ends and bots.

You should not use any communities on real instances since people will see your testing on their local page.