Reduce friction on search bots via a new channel type dedicated to bots "BotChannel"

[RealAlphabet]

Background

Many Discord bots display information publicly, such as profile messages.

Others are dedicated to search and systematically display ephemeral messages dedicated to and personalized for the user. These ephemeral messages are generally based on the user's profile, language or search query.

In my previous suggestion, I suggested an internationalization system for bot embeds. This was mainly motivated by the possibility of internalizing the static welcome, presentation and server rules embeds.

Issue

Most search robots use the Discord form system. Forms require too much friction, which impacts the user experience in search-dedicated use cases.

Today, "slash" commands enable auto-completion, but this is not enough to reduce friction, as it is too limited for complex searches.

Proposal

I'd like to propose a new type of text channel, dedicated to Discord bots. This would enable server creators to create a chat room dedicated exclusively to a single bot.

This ephemeral chatroom has several special features.

• It is bound to a bot.
• It cannot contain any messages that are not sent by the linked bot.
• It is unique for each user, as it is ephemeral by default (without highlighting messages as if they were deletable).
• Writing to this room does not send a message, but executes a command or action on the bot associated with the room.
• All messages sent by the bot in it are ephemeral by default.

In addition to the drop-down list for linking a bot in the channel settings, it would be possible to choose between two distinct modes.

Command mode (default)

The user can only execute bot commands in the chat room.

Search mode

The user could no longer execute a command in the lounge, but could write a query to the bot. Practical for search bots or chatbots, and reduces friction to a minimum. Search will have to support the same auto-completion mechanism for Slash Command parameters.

As a bonus, it would be really useful to be able to ensure that when the user views the room, an interaction is immediately sent to the bot so that the bot can display a personalized message to the user.

There are a lot of new things to do, the possibility for bots to display buttons in the search bar directly when the user has to make a choice, etc...

Advantages

• Reducing the number of interactions needed to achieve the result.
• A better user experience with far less friction for search bots and chatbots.
• Possibility of internationalizing and customizing embeds for static or user-dedicated channels.

Disadvantages

For users, none, but advantages.
As far as the Discord infrastructure is concerned, I don't see any additional cost in the long term. However, it is true that it will add work for the developers who will have to maintain this new feature.

Alternatives considered

• The possibility for bots to configure from the dashboard developer that it is a chatbot and modify the layout of DMs with the bot.
  • But it should be done with the ability to redirect the user to the bot's DMs when they click a button, if the user ever comes from a server.
• Use forums, but they're too limited for big search robots.

[ftilly]

This sounds very similar to some features that already exist.

[RealAlphabet]

Quote them. Forums are too limited.

[ftilly]

how are they too limited exactly?

[RealAlphabet]

how are they too limited exactly?

It's necessary to understand the needs mentioned, as well as the alternatives considered, to understand how this feature serves a different purpose from the features already offered by discord.

The forums and functionality proposed here serve two very distinct purposes that are not interchangeable. Here we're talking about search bots and the need to improve accessibility and user experience when using modal in a search context.

Imagine a bot that references a list of topics related to a particular theme. This bot would have to create a forum on each server where it is and create a post for each topic referenced on the bot so that users can benefit from the accessibility and searchability of forums.

This is absolutely unviable for a search bot that references thousands of different contents and subjects.

Some will argue that Discord is not a search engine and that search bots could simply invite users to access a search web page rather than integrate search into Discord. However, given the direction Discord has chosen to take with bots, I don't think Discord's philosophy is to prevent these bots from integrating content and search with the application.

The idea here is to improve the user experience and accessibility for people with motor difficulties. The more interaction required to reach an action, the more these people are penalized.

Some would say that it's the bots' responsibility to develop their system in such a way as to make it as ergonomic as possible. I agree, but no one can get around Discord's limitations. You can find the least worst alternative, but no good integrated solution exists here.

Even in the case of private threads and channels, this is still too limited. In fact, for private threads, the server must have the necessary level of boosts.

To improve this, private channels can be used, but what if the server reaches the maximum number of channels? What's more, staff don't necessarily want to see an endless list of channels dedicated to search.

[ftilly]

Without even reading that giant block of text I can already tell that there are very few use cases that are actually feasible and not malicious. The chances of this actually being implemented are zero because this is such an esoteric suggestion.

[RealAlphabet]

I'm curious to know on what basis you judge that the use of this feature would necessarily be malicious?

How can you claim that by starting your first sentence with the statement that you didn't take the time to read the explanations.

There are already less ergonomic alternatives that are used by more than 1/3 of bots on discord (based on app discovery). Are you going to say that all these bots, including the Soundcloud and Netflix bots, are malicious? Midjourney too?

Your answer makes no sense. Instead of being judgmental, explain why it wouldn't be a good idea, why you're skeptical, or offer an alternative.

[LikeLakers2]

What about server moderators? Depending on the bot's features, it may be a good idea to let moderators see what users are doing with the bot. For example, if a bot stores a string that can be retrieved later, and the bot has not implemented a method of notifying server moderators that this string was added, people may use that to add stuff that's against the server rules or Discord's TOS.

[RealAlphabet]

Unless I misunderstood, this is off topic.

Users can already use bot commands via slash commands without moderators being able to see the commands they have executed (if the response is ephemeral). Fortunately for the privacy of users elsewhere.

Unless the bot displays a public message containing the data that the user transmitted to it via your server, this transmitted data does not concern your server. Data sent to bots is no longer subject to Discord's usage policies but to the usage policies of the bot you transferred it to. Here in your example, a string. So how does this relate to you?

[LikeLakers2]

Users can already use bot commands via slash commands without moderators being able to see the commands they have executed (if the response is ephemeral).

But you propose that messages in this channel type are ephemeral by default - meaning that messages that should be non-ephemeral may end up being ephemeral anyways if the bot isn't expecting this channel type. That can cause a whole load of problems, including problems with server moderation, as well as difficulties in figuring out what pieces of data need to be moderated by the bot owners.

[ftilly]

I believe that at this point most human moderators can be replaced with discord automod, thus negating any moderation concerns.

[TwilightZebby]

I believe that at this point most human moderators can be replaced with discord automod, thus negating any moderation concerns.

AutoMod doesn't catch everything. Automated Moderation tools, including with 3rd party Bots, are never going to be a 100% replacement for human, manual, moderation.

Thus, it's always best to have human moderators as a just in case.