RIP to the Best Bots on Twitter

> Yeah, free API is being abused badly right now by bot scammers & opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so easy to spin up 100k bots to do bad things.

>Just ~$100/month for API access with ID verification will clean things up greatly.

If eliminating spam bots is the goal, a fairly nominal fee would likely suffice. $50/yr? That would be $5 million for the 100K spam bots.

$1200 per year or more is punitive

"Hi All, I regret to announce you all that this bot will stop working on 9th of February (Next week) due to new Twitter's API policy. I have no intention on paying Twitter for basic API usage."

"You can continue to follow the bot on Mastodon: https://botsin.space/@possumeveryhour "

Recent events, including the freezing of API-accessed Twitter accounts in Japan that Anglophone news services didn't catch, and the disabling of Movetodon about half a day later, indicate that things will be happening sooner than the 9th.

* https://mastodonapp.uk/@networker_365/109799045552029402

Clearly it is working and the free-loader bots are now crying; and they should cry and just pay for it. Just like there are little to no bots on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Bot problem solved and job done.