We live in an age with an increasing number of bots that are able to alert you of new content online. I have one such bot set up to alert me whenever there are tweets containing the phrase “Chicago Croquet”. When such a tweet appears, my bot sends me an email to let me know.
Today my “Chicago Croquet” bot found a tweet, so I got an email alert. Croquet in January? Ooook. Curiously, I click through to the tweet.
The resulting tweet was from my @backyardcroquet account! That twitter account is also a bot. It’s set up to search for eBay auctions featuring vintage ads featuring croquet. Whenever this twitter bot finds an auction fitting this descriptioin, it automatically tweets to the @backyardcroquet twitter account.
Thus, one of my bots alerted met to another one of my bot’s activities. It’s like I’m in this circular world with bots talking about bots. Sounds strange? It kinda is. But in this case, the result is actually really interesting! Check out this ad they found:
It’s a tabletop game for croquet made by a Chicago company in 1958. Incredible!
And wouldn’t you know it, five months ago, another one of my bots found another a flyer for the same table! The bot posted this image to my backyardcroquet website:
These bots are great. Keep up the good work, guys. (although if you look at the @backyardcroquet account, and the backyardcroquet.com there’s a lot–A LOT–of junk on there. I gotta whip those guys into shape.
I’d love to play a game on this table-top croquet.