Mastodon NotifyBot

NotifyBot helps you keep track of topics on Mastodon that are important to you, but are associated with hashtags that are used only occasionally. With NotifyBot, you can subscribe to the hashtags you care about. The bot will watch for posts to these hashtags and send you a direct message when new posts appear.

Tip: NotifyBot is most useful for infrequently updated hashtags. If you're interested in popular hashtags, it's better to check those directly.

Who Can Use NotifyBot

NotifyBot is under active development, with limited availability for testing.

The following people are invited to try it out:

• Members of pdx.social
• People interested in #pdxFedi
• Friends of Courtney (the bot admin)

We're targeting wider availability once the bot stabilizes.

How to Get Started

1. Follow NotifyBot: Search for @NotifyBot@pdx.social and request to follow. Your follow request will be reviewed by a human.

2. Once approved: Create subscriptions to hashtags by sending direct messages to the bot account. See the full list of commands the bot understands.

3. Get notified: When someone posts with one of your subscribed hashtags, the bot will send you a direct message.

How It Works

• The bot monitors your subscribed hashtags across the Fediverse.
• When new posts appear, the bot sends you a notification via DM.
• To avoid overloading you, the bot won't DM you more than once every 6 hours per hashtag.
• Each notification includes a link to view recent posts for that hashtag. Clicking this link also resets the notification timer, so you'll get immediate updates for the next post.

Known Limitations

• Mastodon app users -- this utility works best for people who read Mastodon via web. The experience may be less delightful if you use an app.
• The bot is still in development, so occasional downtime and outages are expected.
• Posts that occur during outages won't generate notifications.

The current issue queue is here: https://codeberg.org/crosenthal/mastodon-notifier-service/src/branch/main/TO_DO.md

Current Status

NotifyBot is in limited availability testing.

This project is open source and is available here: https://codeberg.org/crosenthal/mastodon-notifier-service

Questions?

The author of this bot is Courtney Rosenthal. You can contact her by email at cr@crosenthal.com or on Mastodon at @courtney@pdx.social.

Your questions, suggestions, and feedback are welcome!