KarmaBot: Karma for Your Chat

In a chat of a hundred people there is always someone who helps everyone and someone who just posts nasty stuff. How do you tell them apart without an admin on permanent duty? KarmaBot does it with karma: members thank each other, and the bot counts the points and helps with simple moderation. 🧠

It was built for a chat about Python scripts, where karma tracking and order were needed. You can add it to other groups too. The bot has around 326 thousand users, and its source code is open on GitHub.

How karma goes up and down

The rule is easy. Reply to a message starting with "thanks" or a plus, and the author's karma rises. Start with a minus, and it drops.

One important detail: the weight of your vote depends on your own karma. The higher it is, the more you affect others. That way fresh accounts cannot quickly wipe out a respected member. 👍

Commands for members

• !top shows the chat's karma ranking.
• !me prints your own karma.
• !help explains which words change karma.
• !about gives details about the author and a link to the source code.
• !report sent as a reply to a message files a complaint to the moderators.

What moderators get

Admins have their own tools. The !warn command gives a warning to a rule breaker, while !info shows details about a user and the history of actions. Chat settings open through /settings.

The action history matters: when people argue about why someone was punished, you open the log instead of digging through old messages. The bot is described as a tool for karma and simple moderation with history. 📋

Adding it to your chat

1. Add the bot to the group and give it admin rights.
2. Open /settings and tune the options for your community.
3. Explain the rule to members: "thanks" raises karma, a minus lowers it.
4. After a couple of weeks check !top and see who became the backbone of the chat.

Pitfalls

Chat karma easily turns into a points game. If members start handing each other pluses only for the ranking, the system loses its meaning. Admins should watch for boosting and explain the rules in time.

Another point: most commands are throttled, and if you spam identical requests the bot will stay silent. That is flood protection, not a malfunction. ⏳

If the bot stops responding, check its admin rights in the group. For questions about how it works, the bot has a separate developer channel listed in its profile.

Who benefits

It works well for professional and topic communities where you want to highlight experts, for example programmer chats. For a small group of friends it is overkill, since common sense and a couple of rules are enough. 💬