Story of a voluntary Reddit bot writer

Programmer life, anyone? Image captured with my phone.
P/s: It's the code for the Reddit bot, but it's so common that I think there is no need trying to read it lmao

It's another afternoon, weeks ago. I was still trying to code my assignment project out while honing my (already superb) procrastination skills by using Discord at the same time...typical not-a-top-student's life, eh?

And the world is huge.

Another part of the world, someone started an initiative - a Dogecoin faucet on Reddit. They were super enthusiastic about it - and of course excited - and have plans - including a bot. Hence, one of them from the team asked in Reddit for help for a bot that automates stuff (automatic tipping commands, banning, etc). Some helpful people sent a sample code in Python that does the first part like immediately, but for some reason that won't work. It's either a logic error or something else, I can't remember. The guy started asking around in the Dogecoin Discord for help...and I am the person trying to help him out, using my super rusty Python skills and programming common sense. We almost got banned from the Discord server for spamming code messages in #general and other places...welp, code messages are irritating no matter where you send them, totally understandable lmao.

Yes, we've been spamming stuff like these for more than half an hour...in a non-coding Discord server :P

So due to my (somewhat?) helpful act, I got invited to their Discord server, and is somehow officially a part of their team, with the role "Botmaker". Of course, it's not the first time I get involved in an online project, if you count osu! beatmapping projects as actual online projects...yea. However, it is indeed my first time doing something code-related as a team with only online communication.

When you say online communication, I can go on a whole day saying how it is good, and also go on for another day for how bad it is. Yes, it is very convenient to be able to chat and meet people thousands of miles away with a delay of only a few hundred milliseconds, viewing graphs, laughing at cat GIFs, and waiting for videos to buffering together (3rd world issues, anyone?) and still be anonymous without the need of face reveals. However, the more you use something, the more you will learn about its limitations. No face reveals means no face reactions observable. You cannot view one's reactions in real time - hand gestures, emotion changes, etc. It is also wayyyy easier to cheat when using online communication methods (let's face it, we all experienced the times of saying "it's fine" just to prevent more questions, right?). Ah, don't get me wrong. No one is cheating in this case. Stay calm and read on.

So in the entire group, I guess I'm the only one code-literate. So basically I'm the only one capable of implementing new features and do bugfixes. Luckily the bot is not needed in an emergency manner as I actually got cramped with assignment deadlines when that happened. Hence, I literally abandoned the entire thing for one or two weeks (if this is an actual job, I'm already fired lmao). Thanks that the team is actually very understanding and allowed me to drag it. The traditional Chinese teachings said, "Don't leave debts over the year", but well, I have no choice.

Although I do have some working experience before, but that is mostly something more or less like "having some fun in my relative's office". This is slightly similar to those days, except that I have to deal with communication problems, which I'm...very bad in. Explaining instructions, asking for information, etc. People are also limited by their own timetables, making the work slightly harder to get accomplished. Sometimes a simple task is delayed for hours because of time constraints, and sometimes strange bugs are assumed because of misunderstanding and problems in information transfer. To be honest, it is sometimes frustrating. There are even memories of having unsolvable bugs because one of us that is testing the bot forgot to save the file before running, it's hilarious to think of but yes it happens.

Nevertheless, when we got a prototype up and running, the feeling is indeed great - imagine building a toilet up for a person that needs it desperately and see them enjoy using it, yes that's the feeling. Until now, there are still a few bugs to squash and timetables to tolerate, but I enjoy the process - the process of creating something to fit others' needs and the moment when we get something working as intended. It's also a very valuable experience, it's not like everyone has the chance to work voluntarily as an online team, learning how to communicate, and contributing skills to help others.

It feels like one of the big things I have done on the internet, excluding the other possible larger things I might do in the future...yea, who knows? Feel free to share your stories working with the online communities too!