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I already saw some of my questions being tweeted on the RPG Stack Exchange Twitter account.

At first, I though Q&A were put on Twitter when someone, like a moderator, find it good and interesting.

When I started to read other's question's edit, I also saw these "tweeted notification" and sometimes give a look at the tweeter to find good Q&A to read.

Only recently I noticed that Q&A are posted every 3 hours, so it's obviously a bot doing it (I guess the mods are busy enough to not have to use Buffer and other tools that let you schedule tweets).

As a software developer, I'm pretty curious about how the bot chooses which Q&A is going to be tweeted, what's the algorithm behind it (maybe it's just the most viewed last 3 hours and that's all).

Does anyone know?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Here's a related question about this exact bot (by someone who didn't know it existed at the time). And a basically identical question from MSE, the overall network meta: How does the twitter bot work? \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast Mod
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 7:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ @V2Blast Yup, that is pretty much the only question in meta about this bot. Sadly, nothing useful for my curiosity in this one :/ Looks like this poor forgotten bot is a background worker (dev joke I guess). \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 8:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ I edited in another link to a question on MSE that you may find to be of use. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast Mod
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 8:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ @V2Blast Oh, it's exactly what I was looking for, thank you. So this Q&A is kind of a dupe? Should I delete it or make an answer linking the other question? \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 8:21
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'd suggest writing an answer citing/quoting that information, if you feel it answers your question :) \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast Mod
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 8:23

1 Answer 1

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Thanks To @V2Blast ♦ comment, I found an answer to my question in this MSE Q&A about the twitter bot.

In the accepted answer, it is told based on this answer (link-ception) that the twitter bot use an algorithm to determine which Q&A is "hot" (don't know if it is the same as the one used to determine Hot Network Questions).

This algorithm calculation is based on views in a short time period (and maybe other points).

Additionally, there are some restrictions that may prevent a "hot" Q&A to be tweeted :

  • The score of the Question has to be more or equal to 11
  • The Question must not have any close vote (probably same for flag2)
  • The Q&A can be tweeted even if there's a close vote (again, maybe same for flag) on the Question if there is a bounty for this Q&A3.

I guess there might be more restrictions, but that is all I managed to find.

1 : @Nick Craver ♦ announced this limit has been set from here

2 : In this answer, @Nick Craver ♦ announces that Question with close vote will not be tweeted anymore. It is asked in comment for the flag case, but he didn't reply to it.

3 : In this same answer, @Nick Craver ♦ indicate that Question with bounty have survived enough time to get a bounty, so even a close vote might not be a problem here.

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