Keywords

Keywords match on submission titles, URLs, and comment bodies. They do not match on posters' usernames.

Special characters will try to match literally, including spaces and punctuation. F5Bot does not currently support fuzzy matching or Regex.

Matches are not case-sensitive.

See here for a full list of which sites are searched.

Matching Special Symbols

If you enter a match phrase such as *fish, then it will literally only match when it finds *fish. That is, it will not match unless an asterisk is found. It will not match starfish, red fish, or even just fish.

This applies to all symbols. If you use commas, periods, single-quotes, double-quotes, etc, then only expect a match when those symbols are actually found!

Boolean Logic

Boolean logic is not currently supported. Any phrases entered will be matched only exactly as they are entered.

If you enter the match phrase fish and chips, then it will only match the complete phrase fish and chips. It will not match fish chips, or fishchips, or fish sticks and chips.

If you enter the match phrase fish not chips, then it will literally only match when it finds fish not chips. It will not match on fish.

Matching Only Whole Words

Example:

If "Whole word only?" is checked, then F5Bot will only match on whole words. The above example matches:

yes check mark Matchesno x mark Does Not Match
  • What some thing?
  • What thing?
  • thing thing
  • Want something?
  • What thingy?
  • thingthing

If "Whole word only?" is unchecked, then every example above matches.

Flags

Example:
Search all sites except Reddit.

Flags are a new feature still under testing. They can allow you to filter out results that you may not be interested in.

You can use multiple flags by adding spaces between them.

Example:

The above example will only check Reddit, but it will also skip links that contain "/r/python/" or "/r/ruby/". In practice, this means that it will skip the Python and Ruby subreddits.

Currently implemented flags are:

no-redditWill not return results from Reddit.
no-hackernewsWill not return results from Hacker News.
no-lobstersWill not return results from Lobsters.
only-redditWill only return results from Reddit.
only-hackernewsWill only return results from Hacker News.
only-lobstersWill only return results from Lobsters.
no-commentsWill not return comments (only returns posts).
no-postsWill not return site posts (only returns comments).
no-url=XXXWill not return hits with URLs containing XXX.
only-url=XXXWill only return hits with URLs containing XXX.
allow-nsfwShow posts marked NSFW by Reddit.

If multiple `only-` flags are used, then it is considered a match even if only one of them matches. If multiple `no-` flags are used, then a match is rejected if even one of those flags matches.