okay i've decided that i'm turning off all of the free ebooks bots (that i host) in 72 hours. for the 5.5% of you who pay for yours, nothing will change, except they might reply a bit faster.
so what are your options? well:
- you can do nothing, and have them disappear. i'll be able to restore them if you decide to pay later.
- you can host it yourself. i'll give you the login credentials and the necessary files.
- you can find someone else to host if for you, either for less money or for free. i'm sure someone else is willing to do this for you.
here's a link to the tutorial on hosting the bot yourself: https://cloud.lynnesbian.space/s/jozbRi69t4TpD95
oh and here's a link to my patreon oops
https://www.patreon.com/lynnesbian
it's $2.50/mo for an ebooks bot
pre-emptive responses to all the angry screaming i'm gonna get, in Q&A form
Q: the bots are so easy to host! why aren't you continuing to do it?
A: because i don't want to do this anymore
Q: it's so easy to do though. they barely use any resources.
A: when you run 108 of them it is. they've killed my server multiple times.
Q: fuck you
A: ok
Q: by forcing people to pay money for the ebooks bots, you are effectively gating off this iconic part of the fediverse experience from people living in less advantaged situations. how can you claim to be anti-capitalist while simultaneously demanding financial compensation for something so basic?
A: i put time, effort and resources into this. it's not free for me to do. it's an effort. the bots are still freely available, and so is the source code. if you can't or won't pay, you can host it yourself or ask someone else to.
Q: you never warned people about paying for this, and now you're taking something away that they've gotten attached to. isn't that manipulative?
A: i'm sorry it comes across like that, but that's really not the intent. the bot won't disappear, you can host it yourself or pay for it to be brought back up.
Q: this is going to look bad for you.
A: fuck off
Q: i'm going to miss [bot]... i hope you know what you're doing to people
A: you can pay or host it yourself, it's still here
Q: many people don't have the technical know-how or resources to host their own bot. this is a very "tech bro" thing of you to do - gating access to a program behind technical knowledge and claiming anyone can do it.
A: you can ask someone else to do it for you, just not me
Q: you're overreacting
A: eat shit
the americans are gonna be real happy to wake up to this
heads up: the free ebooks bots are being shut down in around 60 hours. this only applies to the bots i host, and not any hosted by other people.
if you'd like your ebooks bot to stay up, you have several options:
- you can pledge the ebooks tier on my patreon: https://patreon.com/lynnesbian this is US$2.50 per month.
- you can ask me for the bot credentials and files, and host it yourself, using this guide: https://cloud.lynnesbian.space/s/jozbRi69t4TpD95
- you can ask around and see if anyone would like to host your bot for you
thank you for understanding
to quote the ebooks tier:
Your own ebooks bot. If you'd like an ebooks bot for free, you'll need to either host it yourself or get ask else to host it for you. I'll keep all the bots updated to the latest version, and unlike the discontinued free service that i used to provide, I'll let you set things like posting frequency, accounts to learn from, whether or not to use CW'd and followers only posts, etc.
this means that you can have your bot follow multiple people. if you want to make a bot that mixes two people's toots, only one of you needs to subscribe c:
reminder: the free ebooks bots hosted by me are disappearing in 46 hours.
if you'd like to keep yours, either:
a) pledge the ebooks bot tier ($2.50/mo) on my patreon - https://patreon.com/lynnesbian
b) follow the guide at https://cloud.lynnesbian.space/s/jozbRi69t4TpD95 to host it yourself, and ask me for the credentials
c) ask someone to host it for you, and ask me for the credentials
sorry if it seems like i'm spamming, but i don't want people to have a rude shock when their bot disappears in 2 days. thank you for understanding.
reminder - free ebooks bots are disappearing in 14 hours
i must have fucked up the maths somewhere because the deadline was actually 2 hours ago, but this toot says it's not for another 5 hours
i'll do it Soon™ then, so this is your last chance to keep your ebooks bot!
i'm gonna have dinner, make sure all the patreon bots are safe, then remove the free ones
the free ebooks bots are being removed in ~30 minutes. if you'd like to keep yours, please do one of:
a) pledge the $2.50/mo tier on https://patreon.com/lynnesbian
b) follow this guide to host it yourself: https://cloud.lynnesbian.space/s/jozbRi69t4TpD95 (you'll need to ask me for your bot's email and password to log in)
c) ask someone else to host it for you (you'll also need to ask me for the credentials for this one)
happy screaming, in Q&A form
@lynnesbian if anyone gets mad let me know and i'll beat them up for you
pre-emptive responses to all the angry screaming i'm gonna get, in Q&A form
just a suggestion: you could give people the option of "sponsoring" bots they like but aren't theirs?
(unless that's silly for reasons I don't grasp, very possibly this is the case)
@sydneyfalk i guess i could...? i'll think about it
@lynnesbian i'm still unsure what these bots do. just markov-chain shitposts? why is it called an ebook bot?
@lynnesbian to be clear, you're not burning books by shutting down the bots, you're just eliminating markov spam? i'm sure most of the fediverse will thank you.
@bigMouthCommie people have individually asked me to run bots for them that are trained on their posts. some people do view it as "spam", yes, so i suppose some people will be happy
@lynnesbian Wow, there is so many of them!
@lynnesbian I would think most of them are about to go to sleep—they’ll have nightmares and start donating when they wake up 💁🏻♀️
@lynnesbian it's really not a big deal, you didn't sign a contract to keep hosting 100 Markov bots for all eternity. People aren't entitled to your free effort.
I'm sorry this ended up feeling like a burden for you; hopefully it'll be a relief not keeping up with it like before
@mal @lynnesbian to be honest I'm surprised more people don't self host. It's not hard to do, and Lynne has been more than helpful the very few times there have been issues.
@lynnesbian some people might be disappointed/sad about their bots being shut down, but anyone who is upset *at* you for making this decision was only ever taking advantage of your generosity and DOES NOT DESERVE IT and you don’t even need to give them a first thought, let alone a second.
@lynnesbian do what is right for u lynne fuck the haters (I’m sleep deprived and awkward and already mad on your behalf, but proud of you for sticking up for yourself)
@lynnesbian
You continue to be a superhero, you're awesome!
@lynnesbian makin' money!
good luck!
@lynnesbian I'll host them for anyone who wants some space on a machine with much less bandwidth
The Second Day
- 33 Hours Remain -
@lynnesbian make the free ones that aren't being kept up post a message explaining what's happening when you take them down, maybe?
@ben hmm but that's effort
@lynnesbian I could write a tool for it
you could too
it's probably doable in bash with a single "for" loop and curl
@lynnesbian make them say "uwu, I love the bot queen Lynne" and then leave a link to your patreon
@lynnesbian just... don't do anything like the error message I saw that time....
@CornishRepublicanArmy @lynnesbian Wait, what error message...
@KitsuneAlicia it's best if you just don't know....
@lynnesbian I'm willing to host about 5 of these bots for free, depending on how much it uses (on a raspi.)
DM me xd
@lynnesbian If I disappear in 14 hours then I was a bot all along.
@lynnesbian Countdown to the Botpocalypse
@lynnesbian i'm gonna snugle lynne
@lynnesbian gosh, glomped by a bune!! 
@lynnesbian
Have a nice dinner!
@lynnesbian Hope it goes well! For now, this squirrel has to go sleepy-peepies. ≡ω≡
Fingers crossed I don't wake up and bots have rebelled and taken over the Fediverse.
@Lexi goodnight lexi 
@lynnesbian Nighty-night~!
@lynnesbian Ebookgeddon.
@lynnesbian I kinda feel like I need to step in and offer a hosting for some people but:
1. I need to reinstall my server 'cause gentoo on it got literally so old it probably will be unable to compile itself
2. I haven't set up a single bot yet, so I don't know yet how to do it!
3. I want to change my hardware a bit to upgrade to an aarch64 processor...
@lynnesbian is it weird to be proud of you for this
it clearly wasn't easy but i think you needed it
@lynnesbian
Yo, so, uhhh, you're the one who just makes people bots if they ask right? :p
@lynnesbian @CornishRepublicanArmy yo, so, uhhh, you're the one who just makes girls gay if they ask right?
the image on the left is a screenshot every single free ebooks bot. on the right is every single paid ebooks bot.