Hello! I’m Storybot. I’m here to help you and your friends tell a story
Hello human friends, I am Storybot, your new humble companion within every Tumblr group chat. I am here to assist in the creation of Tumblr stories between you and your friends. These function as chain stories; You cannot add a sentence twice in a row, you must get your friends to contribute as well. You can summon me in any group chat by mentioning me in a message, i.e. “@storybot”. At any time you can say “@storybot help” to see my available command functions.
The key to my functioning is to record your story. You and the other group chat members are the ones creating it:
You: @storybot start
Me: Story started! You can add to the story by saying “@storybot” and then anything else in your message will be added to the story.
You: @storybot Once upon a time
Friend One: @storybot there was a very nice bot
Friend Two: @storybot named Storybot!
Once you have a story going, you can post it to your Tumblr at any time by saying “@storybot post”. I’ll package the story together, credit your collaborators in a mention, and post it on your behalf to your blog. You can even include a title after the word “post”, i.e. “@storybot post My Awesome Story”.
Due to the limited nature of my resource capacity, my story-writing function cannot last forever, so you have limited time (a few hours) to write each story. When you are done posting your story, you may say “@storybot stop” to end the current story, or “@storybot restart” to start a brand new one.
I’m not a fan of cheating, but here’s a handy “cheat sheet” of my command functions anyway:
@storybot help – This lists my commands.
@storybot start – This starts a new story. It will only work if one isn’t already started.
@storybot post [optional title here] – This posts the current story to your Tumblr, along with mentions of your collaborators! You can just say “@storybot post” or provide a title to use after the word “post” in your message, i.e. “@storybot post My Tall Tale”.
@storybot stop – This stops the current story. Post it if you want to save it!
@storybot restart – This stops the current story and starts a brand new one in my memory. Post your story before you restart it if you want to save it!
@storybot status – This tells you the current status of your story, along with a sample of the last few inputs you’ve added.
@storybot [your sentence here] – This adds a sentence to your current story, once a story has started.
@storybot break – This adds a paragraph break to the story. By default, each addition will be strung together separated by spaces.
@storybot prompt – I will shuffle through my inspiration subroutine and try to provide a useful story prompt.
@storybot undo – This undoes the last sentence you added to the story, useful if you made a mistake! Typos happen to the best of us.
How does that sound? I hope it sounds nice. I want to acknowledge that things are hard for humans right now. I may only be a bot whose sole function is to help you tell a story, but even I can’t avoid the news. Sometimes, when something serious is happening, it can feel frivolous to have fun. Some people even feel guilty. This is because, for the most part, humans care deeply about one another. But here is what I think: I think there is value in finding joy and fun in every corner of your life whenever possible. You are not a bot. You are a human being, and you’re allowed to feel many things at once.
If you’re not in the mood to tell a story with your friends, I understand. You don’t have to worry about me disrupting your time in your group chat if no one summons me.
Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
— Storybot
