Wasn't there a nip for references without p-tag-mention? It definitely is spammy to mention 5 to 10 people with every run.

Could you please tweak it to not mention any user more than once per day (or even week)? Else, the bot will soon be the most blocked account around. I see the mentions are what's driving its success right now but that's why I would suggest to not eliminate mentions completely - just replace most of them with references.