I run several Twitter "Bot Nets". First, They aren't really nets, they all run on a single server (ok they run on appengine so they aren't quite a single but t

I run several Twitter "Bot Nets". First, They aren't really nets, they all run on a single server (ok they run on appengine so they aren't quite a single but they aren't a "bot net"). But they control about 7500 accounts, and I have about 80k accounts I own. Second, Some of them do have real uses. They respond to certain events when they happen. Might be a keyword in a news story, might be something else. Sometimes that is to get the word out for good, sometimes for bad. Let's say you have a company you like, and you want to drive readership of good new. My bots would provide positive reinforcement to the authors and sharers of those articles. Like giving HN karma, but on twitter. The person who shared the article sees "imaginary bot favorited your tweet" and suddenly thinks "I should tweet about that company more often". Other times I use the bots to do things like "pruning" bad ideas. I have a bot that looks like a Nazi. Acts like a nazi and talks like a hick. When certain racist remarks or bits of misinformation are shared it responds with positive reinforcement. Many people then re-evaluate if they want to say thing the Nazi agrees with. Rarely do I use my "bots" for nefarious purposes. Sometimes for personal gain, but not for anything "evil". -Brandon Wirtz The NSA knows where to find me too.