Ask HN: Is it possible to make a successful social network that bans bots? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it possible to make a successful social network that bans bots?

3 pointsCM302 comments

Or any sort of automated access/third party tools in general?

Because I've noticed in the last few years that pretty much every major site and service now seems to be open to users using bots and third party tools for them. Twitter allows them, as well as sharing things like blocklists. Reddit allows them, with stuff like automoderator and gimmicky responder bots being commonplace there. And pretty much every chat system has them too, with Discord and Slack being notable examples.

But is it possible to run a successful social site without that? I know that in the past, a lot of sites and forums banned users that tried using third party tools and services and often severely limited the amount of accounts you could have in general.

So could that still work nowadays, for a site that isn't simply for a small community/about a very specialised subject?

Or do social media sites need bots and a developer API in general in order to succeed?

>'But is it possible to run a successful social site without that?'

Yes. Snapchat pretty much has been successful in operating with a private API and banning bots and users who use third party apps or tweaks to access its service (They actually have a DRM vendor to do this for them).

But I find it very interesting how long they can fortify their API from external parties whilst competing with other social media companies who support third-party devs.

>'Twitter allows them'

In part Twitter is successful because it allows bots. They make a huge percentage of their userbase. If they cracked down on them, they'd wipe out millions of 'users' and their value would go down.

It also depends on the kind of bots you mean, spam bots should definitely be stopped. But allowing users to post through a bot or an api is great but only for big sites, if you have people automatically posting on a small site it kills user engagement.

> 'is it possible to run a successful social site without that'

It definitely is, the number one reason most social sites fail is that they try to micro-manage their users and the owners think the site will run itself.

Bots and third party tools have a place but only when you have a decent sized site and active community, but they're not necessary.

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