The Social Roles of Bots: Evaluating Impact of Bots on Discussions in Online Communities

Bots, or programs designed to engage in social spaces and perform automated tasks, are typically understood as automated tools or as social "chatbots." In this paper, we consider bots' place alongside users within diverse communities in the emerging social ecosystem of audience participation platforms, guided by concepts from structural role theory. We perform a large-scale analysis of bot activity levels on Twitch, finding that they communicate at a much greater rate than other types of users. We build on prior literature on bot functionalities to identify the roles bots play on Twitch, how these roles vary across different types of Twitch communities, and how users engage with them and vice versa. We conclude with a discussion of where opportunities lie to re-conceptualize and re-design bots as social actors who help communities grow and evolve.