Discord Approval Bot

This is a Discord bot originally designed for DEMOC.HORSE - a democratically moderated Mastodon instance.

It allows chosen moderators/admins to create Approval Requests which may then be voted on (Approve / Disapprove) by moderators and admins, and will print a message once a majority approval/disapproval has been reached.

The general settings of the bot such as the admin/moderator lists, and whether to show which persons voted or not - can be controlled through slash commands such as /add_moderator, /remove_moderator, /add_admin, /remove_admin, and /show_votes

Features

Bot Administrator list - only admins can add/remove moderators and admins to the bot (Users with Server Administrator privilege have admin powers by default, regardless of whether they're on the list or not)
Bot Moderator list - moderators can create approval requests, and vote on them
Show / Hide Votes - Admins can turn on or off showing votes. When /show_votes is enabled, when a moderator votes on an approval, a public message is printed in the same channel saying XXX#1234 has approved the poll or XXX#1234 has disapproved the poll
Settings adjustable via slash commands - Admins can add/remove admins/moderators, as well as toggle showing votes - using slash commands
Settings stored in YAML file - Settings are persistent, they're saved in a YAML file on the server in config.yml
Approval Voting - Moderators and Admins can run /approval to create an approval request, which both mods/admins can vote on.
- Majority Alert - When the approval or disapproval count is above 50% of the bot moderator count, the bot will print a message stating that a majority (dis)approval has been reached, and that the action requiring approval can (not) be taken.

License

ApprovalBot is released under the GNU AGPL 3.0 - see the LICENSE file for more info.

Install

We assume you already know how to register a Discord bot account and invite it using the OAUTH2 URL generator.

Since it just uses slash commands, it should only require the "bot" permission.

The bot requires Python 3.7 minimum - Python 3.8 or newer is recommended.

To actually install the bot on an Ubuntu/Debian-based system:

# First, become root (sudo su -) if you're not already.
sudo su -
# Make sure you have Python and Pip installed, as well as Pipenv
apt update
apt install python3 python3-pip
pip3 install -U pipenv

# Create a user for the bot
adduser --gecos "" --disabled-password approvalbot

# Login as the user, then clone the repo
su - approvalbot
git clone https://github.com/Someguy123/approvalbot.git

# Enter the code folder
cd approvalbot

# Copy the example .env file, and enter your bot token + server ID(s)
cp example.env .env
nano .env      # Or use vim or another editor if you prefer

# generate the pipenv environment + install deps
./run.sh install

# Start the bot and test that it works - it may take a minute for the commands to become available
# on your server after you've invited it
./run.sh start

# Once you've confirmed the bot is working okay, you can install the service
# Exit the approvalbot user, you'll need to be root to run the service installer
exit
# Enter the approvalbot folder as root
cd /home/approvalbot/approvalbot
# Run this command which will automatically install the service, enable it, and start it
./run.sh service

# Check that the service is working
systemctl status approvalbot

Commands

/approval <action> <post> <reason> - Request an approval vote by moderators for a given post/user
- action is the action you want to take on the post/user, e.g. delete, warn, content warning, ban, etc.
- post is a link to the post/user in question
- reason is the reason you think action is necessary for this post/user
/add_moderator <user> - Add a moderator to the bot's moderator list. Must be either a server admin, or in the bot's admin list to run this command.
/remove_moderator <user> - Remove a moderator from the bot's moderator list. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/remove_moderator_raw <user_string> - Remove an moderator from the bot's moderator list with a plain string user (e.g. John#1234). This is to allow you to remove moderators who have left the server, as /remove_moderator expects a valid user. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/list_moderators - List all moderators in the bot's moderator list. Must be a server/bot admin or bot moderator to use this command.
/add_admin <user> - Add an admin to the bot's admin list. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/remove_admin <user> - Remove an admin from the bot's admin list. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/remove_admin_raw <user_string> - Remove an admin from the bot's admin list with a plain string user (e.g. John#1234). This is to allow you to remove admins who have left the server, as /remove_admin expects a valid user. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/list_admins - List all admins in the bot's admin list. Must be a server/bot admin or bot moderator to use this command.
/show_votes <true/false> - Enable or disable showing moderator/admin vote choices publicly. Must be a server/bot admin to run this command.
/ping - Pings the bot, the bot will return Pong! (XXX.XXXms) with the detected latency - used to quickly test if the bot is working properly