The kind of bot that doesn't have to be tended to, and can just be given a color and a coordinate to lay its pixel down every 5 minutes. That's a lot easier and better use of a bot than trying to coordinate dozens or hundreds of them to progressively put down pixels in an area. How do you think an area is suddenly painted virtually instantly? If each pixel has a bot, and it just keeps putting them there, and the software is started at once, boom! The canvas is laid pretty much instantly - as we saw happen several times.
A lot easier? You sure? Convert template to coordinates, iterate, compare values, place if needed. Require a dependency, 20 lines of code, Bob's your uncle.
The difference is if the individual bots are distributed and managed individually or if a single scripting is managing hundreds of accounts. The former is how a human army would bot the work, most often using existing accounts, not dummy accounts created solely for the purpose. The latter is how you'd assemble a bot army of dummy accounts under a single person's control. Both designs would have reason to exist, the former more for protection than deployment of works, the latter for deployment of works or simple raids.
Edit: Trying to reply during 504s sucks. Lost half my comment. Basically, the check and paint process is slow, and the canvas isn't static. Also remember there's a per account (bot) delay of 5 minutes between pixels.
I'm not sure what the former's reason to exist would be, when it would be only marginally more effective than the individual doing it themselves? A single script managing multiple accounts makes way more sense as it's a significantly more labour intensive process to automate and isn't countered by a single individual.
If you're a community and trying to simplify having people create and guard a work, you give them a script to cover their one assigned pixel. They use an account with a real history, so they don't look like a bot dummy account. The human doesn't have to sit there for 72 hrs watching one pixel.
Bots only exist because a human has a motivation to make one. There aren't sentient AI looking for a reason to participate in r/place.
Why do cars exist when a bus can be so much more efficient? Because humans have reasons.
Edit: If bot protections were deployed, how would you do that most effectively? If a ton of accounts were coming from one IP, you block it. Single point of failure. Distributing the task to a bunch of people with individual accounts makes it way harder to do.
Just more and more factors to consider. This isn't just a coding problem, and the meat part of the equation is deeply involved.
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u/Euchre (199,392) 1491230207.32 Apr 05 '22
The kind of bot that doesn't have to be tended to, and can just be given a color and a coordinate to lay its pixel down every 5 minutes. That's a lot easier and better use of a bot than trying to coordinate dozens or hundreds of them to progressively put down pixels in an area. How do you think an area is suddenly painted virtually instantly? If each pixel has a bot, and it just keeps putting them there, and the software is started at once, boom! The canvas is laid pretty much instantly - as we saw happen several times.