With the start of the new season and the growth of this community, I thought it worthwhile to create a guide for how episode discussion posts work. The short version is as follows:
- All episode discussion posts must be created by the community bot, @rikka@ani.social.
- To request a post be made for a recently aired episode, you can private message the bot following these instructions.
- To browse older shows’ discussion threads, you can check out the wiki where they are all indexed.
Now, if you are curious, I have tried to answer questions about the bot and episode post process I have gotten in the past as well as areas that I thought might be either interesting or provide more clarity to users.
Why restrict episode discussions to bot-made posts?
In past surveys of this community, there is a sizeable portion of the community that is not interested in episode discussion threads and felt that it cluttered up the community. By consolidating all the episode discussion threads to a single bot user, it allows these users to simply block that bot and proceed to use the community in a much more suitable way for them.
Why didn't rikka make a post about XYZ episode?
I have tried to explain the process by which rikka makes episode discussion posts over on the wiki. The short version is that I manually mark shows as having discussions enabled by asking the community what they are planning on watching. Then, as the season goes on, if people stop commenting in the threads for a show, then rikka will stop making posts for that show. At any time, users can request a thread for a disabled show by private messaging the bot. I went and made a hopefully helpful flowchart (full resolution):
An episode aired, but rikka won't let me request it!
If you watch an episode of something immediately as it airs/releases, then it is possible that you simply beat rikka. She has a 60 minute delay from the airtime before she is allowed to create a post for an episode. This is to allow for members of the community to have some time to watch the episode before a post is made. This delay was not present in earlier versions of rikka, and it would often cause confusion from users as an episode might show up on different streaming services at slightly different times, leading to non-relevant discussions about whether something was out yet or not.
If you are past the 60 minute delay, then it is possible that rikka is messed up for some reaon. Let me know! rikka should give some output in her message back to you. That would be useful to provide to me to help me figure out what the issue might be.
Technically speaking, how does rikka work?
rikka is written in python and you can peruse the source code here! She uses the AniList api to get all the info about episode airtimes, show information, related links, and artwork.
If you are wondering about the logistics of running rikka or the infrastructure, then it is all run from a VPS. I have a set of bash scripts that run different modules of rikka as well as handle things like updating the wiki when episode posts are made. These are then scheduled via cron. I am happy to answer more questions in the comments or by message if you have them. I also wrote more info in the github README here.
Can rikka make a post about a movie?
Yes! Though, this use case is probably not going to come up very often. Movies typically come out in Japan first and then take quite a while before they make their way around to a global release. rikka currently only makes posts about things as they air or that have aired in the recent past. So, movies are unlikely to reach most users of this community in a timely enough fashion for rikka to still be monitoring them.
If this is something desired by the community, I can manually make posts for movies later, when the global release happens or for some other reason. This is something I have thought about doing before, like a community movie night or something. Let me know if you have ideas!
Can rikka make posts for a community rewatch of an older show?
Not yet. I have thought about this use case for rikka and have an idea of how to implement it. However, I think automating a rewatch kind of defeats the purpose a bit. Even on the /r/anime subreddit, rewatch threads are created by the user that is hosting the rewatch instead of the subreddit’s bot. If this community wants this, then it is possible, but I would want to see a demand or need for it before devoting time to implementing the functionality.
Who/what is a rikka and why is that the name of the bot?
There is a bit of a tradition in the anime post-making bot space of naming the bot after one of your favorite characters. Previous bots have been named after Holo (Spice and Wolf) and Shinobu (Monogatari). So, I chose Rikka Takanashi from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.
I have a question that you haven't addressed
Let me know! You can reach me in a number of different ways:
- Post a comment in this thread
- Send me a message on lemmy
- Reach out to me on matrix (link in my lemmy profile if you are logged in)
- Reach out to me on the !lightnovels@ani.social discord (linked in their sidebar)
Thanks everybody and I hope you have fun discussing this coming season of shows!
I plan on letting this post stay pinned for at least a couple days as the season gets going. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here. I do just want to draw people’s attention to the flow chart I made for this post as it took me way longer to make than I thought it would.
Wow, someone who actually follows conventions for flowcharts: ellipsoids for terminal nodes, diamonds for decision nodes and boxes for other intermediate nodes.
I often have to make figures that end up in regulatory filings submitted to the FDA and EMA for work. So, I am a big fan of sticking to conventions when it comes to these kinds of things. Straying often just means that the agencies ask questions that get you the wrong kind of noticed by everybody else on the team.
How does one know if a show has been manually enabled?
I manually enable any shows that people mention wanting to check out in the general discussion thread previewing the upcoming season. Fall’s thread can be found here.
You can always check to see if the bot has a show enabled on this wiki page (in the top section of enabled shows), which is automatically kept up to date. If you would like a show to be marked enabled that has yet to have an episode air, then you can always reach out to me as well.
Sounds good, thanks!