Anti-bots filter
The anti-bots filter is only available for Twitter contests. It's a free feature automatically enabled by default in every contest made on Pickaw that you can't disable because who wants to make a bot win?
This filter prevents automated accounts to win in any contest.
But what's an automated account? That's what we will explain here! 🤖
A bot is a robot, or at least, someone that is automating its Twitter account without having to do anything manually (it could be a partial or full automation).
This automation is allowed by Twitter while they're respecting the Automation Rules because it's part of the Twitter API. With the Twitter API they can automatically randomly tweet, retweet/like specific tweets (with specific keywords we can target contests, news...), and much more other allowed action.
In any other case, automating an account isn't a bad thing. But in our domain, participating in contests through an action that can be automated, we think that it's unfair because people having the skills to automate their accounts will always have more chances to win.
Also, most of the contest organizers doesn't want to let an automated account win, because most of the time these accounts are only interested by the prizes and not the organizer. So we decided to filter these accounts to give everyone the same chance to win, with an actual manual action, for fairness.
We have 2 checks in the anti-bots filter:
First check: we verify if the retweet has been made through a whitelisted official or third-party client, for example Twitter for iOS, Twitter for Android, Twitter Web App, Twitterrific... So it means that all other apps created by developers for their own use or other non-third-party clients are not whitelisted and the retweet will be invalid because we presume of a potential automation (and it's almost always the case).
Second check: we verify if the account is not in our list of blacklisted accounts. Some people automating their accounts successfully bypassed the first check (it's very hard to do so and requires advanced development skills, but it's possible), or have dozens or hundreds of multi-accounts retweeting contests everyday, that's why we identified them and added them to our blacklist.
It means that while an account is not automating its actions, it will pass the anti-bots filter.
If you want to filter accounts doing a lot of contests, take a look at the anti-contestants filter.
This filter prevents automated accounts to win in any contest.
But what's an automated account? That's what we will explain here! 🤖
What is a bot at Pickaw?
A bot is a robot, or at least, someone that is automating its Twitter account without having to do anything manually (it could be a partial or full automation).
This automation is allowed by Twitter while they're respecting the Automation Rules because it's part of the Twitter API. With the Twitter API they can automatically randomly tweet, retweet/like specific tweets (with specific keywords we can target contests, news...), and much more other allowed action.
Why do we filter them?
In any other case, automating an account isn't a bad thing. But in our domain, participating in contests through an action that can be automated, we think that it's unfair because people having the skills to automate their accounts will always have more chances to win.
Also, most of the contest organizers doesn't want to let an automated account win, because most of the time these accounts are only interested by the prizes and not the organizer. So we decided to filter these accounts to give everyone the same chance to win, with an actual manual action, for fairness.
How do we filter them?
We have 2 checks in the anti-bots filter:
First check: we verify if the retweet has been made through a whitelisted official or third-party client, for example Twitter for iOS, Twitter for Android, Twitter Web App, Twitterrific... So it means that all other apps created by developers for their own use or other non-third-party clients are not whitelisted and the retweet will be invalid because we presume of a potential automation (and it's almost always the case).
Second check: we verify if the account is not in our list of blacklisted accounts. Some people automating their accounts successfully bypassed the first check (it's very hard to do so and requires advanced development skills, but it's possible), or have dozens or hundreds of multi-accounts retweeting contests everyday, that's why we identified them and added them to our blacklist.
It means that while an account is not automating its actions, it will pass the anti-bots filter.
If you want to filter accounts doing a lot of contests, take a look at the anti-contestants filter.
Updated on: 05/03/2022
Thank you!