Stories worth passing on.
A $180 monitor reward. A quest that lasted less than a day. A nail-polish logo that won the vote. The stories behind the results.
The BB contests of 2025
Meet the BB contests that came before MetaL.
Explore Before MetaLSeason stories
Behind the MetaL Leaderboard: Hidden Quests & Unexpected Finishes
A monitor-sized promise
Finish first or second three times in a row. The prize waiting beyond the season tables was $180 toward a monitor.
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A hidden quest. Ten quick winners.
Ten $3 rewards appeared during the first Hackathon. By the next day, they were all gone.
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The lead changed twice
anu led. upl overtook. anu came back. Then mhd climbed past one of them.
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The leaderboard had to wait
A frozen leaderboard, a BB Critic and ten days of difficult decisions before Season 3’s final rewards.
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Five more prizes during the attack
During Season 3, an infrastructure attack came with an unexpected announcement: five more reward places.
Read the storyCommunity culture
Meet Mel: The Logo Vote & the Face of the BB Community
The community chose 💅. BB kept the result.
Nails led the logo vote, slipped to second, then won. More than two months later, BB changed its avatars.
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Before she said hello, Mel was a mystery
A name in falling green code. A video introduction. Then the answer to a hidden quest nobody had solved.
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Our stories have a new home
The Bots.Business presentation of MetaL Builders — a home for our seasons, projects and shared history.
Read the storyBuilt together
More Than Code: How Builders Helped Shape Bots.Business
Two builders join the other side of BB
In two days, BB welcomed two former users to its team: one through API documentation, the other through a gift demo.
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The coding tool needed more than code
A $200 requirements programme, a save test and ten screenshots: the community helped shape BB’s VS Code extension.
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“Adesh” became “Command” in a user’s rewrite
A Hinglish submission replaced formal terms with familiar interface words. It was one chapter in years of community translation work.
Read the storyCommunity projects
Built by the Community: APIs, Demos & Telegram Bot Tools
Someone made an API for that
Styled text, email and broadcasts: builders announced small services, then other builders arrived with questions.
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The example came with an explanation
A keyboard demo and its help article arrived together. They were part of a longer habit of making useful examples.
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TBC: when builders built a platform
A familiar name in the BB chat became part of a bigger story about developers growing beyond their first bot.
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TBH brought another way to build
TeleBotHost introduced its own approach. BB’s founder saw something to be proud of in builders making platforms of their own.
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Someone made a different window into BB
An unofficial Android client, an editor feature and a fresh view of the BB bots people already had.
Read the storyBefore MetaL
The late entry that reached the Store
A late Ref&Earn entry reached the Store. The contest results also included a BB Team version outside the prize places.
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Ten videos. A prize for everyone.
Around BB received ten entries. One took first place, four shared second and five shared third.
Read the storyCommunity contributions
Small Fixes, Real Contributions: Making Bots.Business Better
The fixes BB thanked its users for
A broken help example, a referral-library fix and an API bug report, with community credits attached.
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Let the bot say hello first
A request to delay the first ad, a reply in minutes, and a later change to the bot start command.
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Through the downtime, together
A status page caught by its own protection, a stubborn loading screen, and builders who kept comparing notes.
Read the storyChat culture
Inside the BB Chat: Admin Elections, Coding Jokes & Community Memes
The people behind the admin badge
Masters, Captains, a one-day Quest Master and the community votes. Follow the changing team.
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The team changed in twenty-three seconds
Two staff replies capture the end of Masters and Leaders. A few hours later, the chat was talking about Captains.
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Admin Wars, and a slower chat
A badge for a day, arguments over voluntary help and a fifteen-minute timeout.
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The chat elected its admins. Twice.
MetaL became voting weight. Four admins took office, then a second election brought party-style campaigns.
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The bugs were real. So were the memes.
A 3 AM career ladder, support chats waiting for a question, and the wholeUsers club that keeps finding new members.
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A whole community. One very small property.
The copied snippet that became a hashtag, a club and a very persistent joke.
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The chat takes a breather
A delayed season, a read-only chat and a pointed poster. Then, eventually, movie recommendations.
Read the storyThe day BBP went infinite
Extra points, a missing check and a BB-hacker title. The April 2021 incident behind a very memorable afternoon.
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A phone, a laptop, a bike. Then a meme.
A morning of thank-yous for a phone, a laptop and a bike gave the chat a career ladder. The founder got the 3 AM shift.
Read the storyLilo, Stitch… and total
A BB code review takes a cartoon detour when a variable named lilo turns out to hold total.
Read the storyThe chat had a sticker for that
When the chat asked about downtime, BB Server was ready. A look at the stickers shared by the community and the admin.
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Beta had two meanings
Beta meant a software version. It also meant “son”. The BB chat took it from there.
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