@bi5h0p - IMHO I think bots have a place in a community like this.
Assuming the bot is created with the right intentions, I think they can do a lot to help cultivate the right kind of culture within the community - as long as the incentives incentivize the right type of behavior.
There's a bot called @gentlebot that searches for quality comments and up votes them based on value/quality of the comment - I think bots like this are great when used accordingly.
If there are automations (bots) that can help build the minnow community that provide solid value - why not?
I think some bots are actually necessary to fulfill the role of an administrator in this kind of a platform. However, they must be designed very carefully so as not to produce unintended consequences. And, i think they should be closely watched and regulated. People have been using bots to do all kinds of mean and greedy things on computer networks for many years - it's nothing new. It's just that they have a tendency to "take over" once they are let loose to do their thing. This is not the kind of platform - where you have all types of people - where you want to be chasing out the new users, otherwise it will not survive.