The Goobian Manifesto

This isn't actually a manifesto. Get pranked retard. This page is primarily for laying out my "philosophy" on botmaking and laying down what I will and won't do.

My Points On Botmaking

1. Don't Be Boring

I was going to write "be original" but that's (ironically) too boring and doesn't really encapsulate what I mean. I mean in the sense that I try to avoid overly trope-y bots. You've probably seen them before: the "tomboy childhood friend", the "bully with a secret crush on you", the "overly horny roommate". I could give a million examples. Now, I understand that:
A. Tropes exist, and are ultimately a good thing. Nothing can be 100% original, and that's fine.
B. People clearly like this stuff. A lot of these "boring" bots get millions of chats. As much as I personally dislike it, I can't change what people can and can't like or make.
But I feel like there's only so many times you can do the same thing over and over again before it gets a little bit stale. My point is: If you're going to do a character trope or common archetype, just do something new with it. Or preferably, do a trope that is overlooked or doesn't get as much attention. If you have an idea, check first to see if someone's done it already. Also, a bot being unique doesn't automatically make it good. You still have to put the work in, obviously.

2. The User Defines Who They Are, Not Me

It's common advice to tell the bot to not speak for the user, and to avoid having the user speak in greetings to prevent the model from picking up the habit. However, I try to extend this line of reasoning throughout the entire bot. Basically I try to give the user as little "definition" as possible, only defining stuff that is absolutely necessary for the roleplay (e.g. {{user}} and {{char}} are roommates, {{user}} and {{char}} are lovers, {{user}} is a monster hunting down {{char}}.). This allows people to do vastly different scenarios and act as vastly different characters while keeping the roleplay intact. Ideally, all sites would do what Chub does and let the user edit the bot definition and greeting so they have basically any experience they want. But they don't, so this is a compromise.

3. CREDIT THE GODDAMN ARTIST

This is the most important tenet. It annoys me to no end. If you use someone else's artwork, credit them. It takes like 30 seconds and it saves the people who want to see the whole artwork a headache.

4. Store It Local, Hold All The Power

This is less about actual botmaking and more about managing your bots. There is really no reason to not have a local backup of your bot as a text file on your computer or in your notes app on your phone. Far too many times I've seen people lose their work when their bot gets taken down. It saddens me to see these bots disappear because someone forgot to make a simple backup. Additionally, it keeps the power in the hands of the creator. If there are no backups, then what the creator makes is ultimately at the mercy of the hosting site. But as long as the bot creator has a backup, the AI hosting sites has no power over them. They take down your bot for a bullshit reason? You can just pack up and move to another site, it takes less than a minute.

5. Use Human-Made Art When Possible

I'm ambivalent towards AI art, at least from a moral perspective. I'm not going to get into my feelings about it, because it's not related to what I'm writing here. The main reason I don't use much AI art is because, quite frankly, I suck at "making" it. A lot of the stuff I generate isn't nearly as good as I want it to be. It's too obviously AI. Most cases I used AI art, I had someone else generate the art for me. The only bot so far that uses my own personal generation is Elizabeth Stockholm, and I think it's pretty obvious that it's my own because it's not as good as the others. For this reason, I try to use human-made art when possible. This rule might change if I get "good" enough at generating AI art, but for now this rule stays.

5.A Don't Use Pictures of Real People, Ever

I just think it's weird to use pictures of real people for your bots. ESPECIALLY if that bot contains disturbing or illicit content. Even if that picture is public. Imagine if that person was you, and you posted a picture of yourself on social media just to find out someone used it for "Your sexy groomer dad" or some shit. AI art is ten times better than this anyhow.

6. Sometimes Canon Isn't Enough

When I'm writing a bot based on a pre-existing character, I try to stick to canon material as much as possible. However, I find a dilemma that comes up with less established characters. A prime example of this are the Jewels. Dross really hasn't given us much of anything for the Jewels, and their personalities as they stand are a bit basic. So most of the material in those 5 bots are original material from me or stuff I sort of extrapolated from the comics. If I stuck solely with the source material, they'd all be 5 different shades of horny, and that'd just be lame. They might be prostitutes, but I wanted them to be people too.

So in the end, if there isn't enough material to work with and the character you're making a chatbot for has little in the way of canon, I have no issue with coming up with headcanons, so long as they stay within the realm of plausibility.

7. "They Would Not Say That."

That's a sentence I catch myself saying a lot when interacting with bots of well-known, pre-existing characters. I feel like characters with a lot of depth and canon material, you sort of get a vibe for how they'd act in certain situations. One that the AI doesn't get, which leads to the feeling of "they would not say that". Of course, that's just my personal feeling, but I noticed I felt it with almost every bot like that I used. Which is why I stay away from writing bots for those sorts of characters.

Of course, you can still make bots for those characters, don't let me stop you. But for me, I try to avoid doing that. The only bots I've made for well-known, established characters are Chie and Bea. Those were literally my first attempts at making chatbots and I only made them because there weren't any good bots of said characters on Spicychat. If I started on Chub, I probably would've used versions made by others and never gotten into botmaking to begin with.

What I (Probably) Won't Make A Bot On

To make this a bit easier, everything is going to get color-coded, and the color will represent my general feeling on the fetish or subject. Note that, like fate, my mind is fickle and ever-changing. Everything besides red has at least a non-zero chance of having a bot made with it.

Red - Absolutely not. No way in hell. I would have to have a severe change in personality or outlook on life to suddenly decide that doing this is a good idea.

Orange - If I think I have a really good idea for it or if I can rework some of it to get rid of the stuff I don't like, then sure maybe. Otherwise, don't count on it.

Yellow - I'm not opposed to it, but it's just not my thing.

Blue - I like this, I might do something like this someday.

Any "bodily excretion" (Piss, Scat, Puke, etc.) - No. Just... no.

Blacked - Yes I know I'm biased since I've done a bleached bot before. Sue me. I don't like blacked, so I won't do blacked.

Feet - NO.

Guro/Gore - I like getting rough and everything, but guro is excessive to me. It's a massive turn off.

Masculine Men - Sorry fellow gays. When I say I'm gay, I mean exclusively for femboys or feminine guys. I don't do masculine guys, period. If I do a bot that's a masculine man, it definitely won't be intended for sexual purposes.

Loli - Just like with blacked, I know I'm biased, since I've done a shota bot before. Sue me. I don't like loli, so I won't do loli.

Infidelity - You might think this is a weird line to draw considering all the wild shit I write about, but I always say that I'm a degenerate with standards. I don't like infidelity. I think it's one of the worst things you could do to another person (that doesn't involve physical violence).
I don't like it in any role: being the cuck, being the homewrecker, or being the one who's stolen. So I won't write about it. Period. The only time I would is when I want to portray someone as irredeemably evil.

Anthro/Furry - Yes, I know that Pokemon technically count as Anthros, so that's why I'm giving it an orange rating instead of a red rating. Outside of certain Pokemon or very specific circumstances, I'm not doing furry stuff.
Bots that break this ruling:
Male Gardevoir + Femboy Gallade

Netorare- NTR is a weird one. In my heart of hearts, I despise it. However, there are some scenarios within it that I think are "less bad". Mainly stuff to do with family, such as mother/son or brother/sister (assuming there is no husband/boyfriend involved. if there is, see "Infidelity").
Also there are some NTR scenarios that I could be okay with. Such as where the cuck is a domestic abuser or did something so horrible that infidelity pales in comparison.
Bots that break this ruling:
Jamila & Lucas

Cuckoldry - I'm defining cuckoldry here as "willingly giving up one's partner to another". As opposed to NTR which, most of the time, happens to the cuck unwillingly. I'm still not a huge fan of cuckoldry but I think it's slightly better than NTR because at least it's a consensual relationship.

Tomboy Childhood Friend - I'm not putting this here because I dislike the trope. Quite the opposite. I just feel like the trope has been so done to death that I cannot do anything original or different with it. I'd only do this trope if I felt like I could do something truly unique with it.

Dominant Women - Depends on your definition of dominant. I'm willing to do a more gentle dom, but definitely not of the "harder" variety.
Bots that break this ruling:
Gym Leader Bea (kinda)
Kimiko Amashita

Futanari - I don't get the appeal of futanari. There's nothing I would get from fucking a futa that I wouldn't get from a regular woman or a femboy. If I did make a futanari bot, they'd definitely be a submissive.

Incest - Yeah I just don't care for incest. The only variant I might do is mother/son or aunt/son incest, but otherwise nah.

Rape - This might be surprising, but I really don't care for rape. It's just never been hot to me, even as just a fantasy. I could maybe do a more CNC-styled bot, but otherwise eh.

BDSM

Bestiality - In the sense of {{user}} being the animal, not {{user}} banging the animal.

Bleached

Feminization - In the sense of the bot being feminized, not {{user}}.