Post Promoter JavaScript Voting Bot - Updates over the past month

I can't believe it's been a month since my last contribution post about updates to the Post Promoter voting bot software! There have been a lot of updates and new features added in that time and I've been so busy that it's hard to find time to post about them. But I have some time tonight, so get comfortable because it's going to be a long one!

Backup Mode

Anyone who has run any important software services knows you should always run a backup. All of the top Steem witnesses have backup servers (at least I hope...) and the same should be true of the big voting bots.

So to that end I have added a new setting in the config.json file called "backup_mode". If this is set to true then the bot software will run and follow the account history and keep track of accepted bids and all of that, but it will not actually broadcast any transactions. That means it won't vote, it won't refund, it won't comment, etc.

The point of this, as the setting name implies, is to allow bot owners to run a backup version of their bot if they wish. This way if the main bot server goes down for any reason, you can just switch the backup server out of backup mode and it takes over right where the original server left off.

Resteem Option

Some bot owners requested that their bots automatically resteem posts that have a bid over a specified amount. I have added the following setting to support that:

"min_resteem": 2, // If a bid is sent for this amount or more then the bot will resteem the post

In the example above any bids that come in for 2 SBD/STEEM or more, the bot will automatically resteem those posts.

Bid and Delegation Confirmation Messages

It is now possible to have the bot respond with a 0.001 SBD/STEEM transfer memo to let the sender of a bid know that the bid was processed and accepted by the bot. Additionally bots that pay out earnings to delegators can be set to respond with a 0.001 SBD transfer memo when a new delegation comes in to let the delegator know their delegation was accepted and processed and that they will start receiving payouts in the next withdrawal period.

You can set one or both of these by adding the following properties to the "transfer_memos" object in the config.json file:

"transfer_memos": {
...
  "bid_confirmation": "Your bid is confirmed. You will receive your vote when the bot reaches 100% voting power. Thank you!",
  "delegation": "Thank you for your delegation of {tag} SP! You will start to receive payouts after the next withdrawal."
}

Auto withdraw liquid STEEM post rewards

There is a setting called "post_rewards_withdrawal_account" in which you can specify an account to automatically send any liquid post rewards to. So if the bot owner makes some posts from the bot account or people upvote the bot's comments, then when those rewards are paid out the liquid, non-SP portion of the rewards can be automatically transferred out so they don't get included in the auto-withdrawal of the bot's earnings.

When I initially implemented the feature I assumed that liquid post payouts were always in SBD, but I didn't consider that if the debt ratio went over 2% - as it has just done recently - that liquid STEEM rewards would be paid out as well.

So now the bot software has been updated to withdraw liquid STEEM rewards as well as SBD to the "post_rewards_withdrawal_account" if one is specified.

Ability to set a beneficiary for SP in the bot account

When the software is set to pay to delegators, it splits the specified portion of the payouts among the delegators based on the amount of SP they have each delegated, but it didn't take into account any SP directly in the bot account. So if the bot account had any SP in it that wasn't delegated out somewhere else, then the earnings attributable to that SP would be split up among the other delegators.

Now you can specify a beneficiary account who should receive the payout for the SP in the bot account by using the "overrides" property in the "$delegators" account object in the "auto_withdrawal" section of the config file:

"accounts": [
      {
        "name": "$delegators",
        "stake": 8000,
        "overrides": [
          { "name": "bot_account_name", "beneficiary": "beneficiary_account" }
        ]
      },

In the example above, the name of the bot account is specified as an override which tells the software to pay out the specified portion of earnings based on the SP in the bot account to the account listed as the beneficiary. This way bot owners can now get their share of the payout for the SP in the bot account and don't have to constantly power it down or delegate it out.

Thanks for your support!

There's been a few more updates, but it's getting late here and this post is already quite long enough, so I'll leave those for next time! If you're curious you can always check the list of commits on the GitHub repo. As always I want to also thank everyone who has helped and supported me in creating this software. Please stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!

Links to relevant commits:

Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors