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AskReddit is over run by bots
AskReddit is over run by bots
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170 comments
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It's remarkable, the questions that aren't from bots are completely indistinguishable.
It's all low quality engagement bait, and all these questions were on the front page of askreddit a hundred times with slight variations.-
They're indistinguishable because they're copied from top-voted posts that are a few years old (title, text, and image if applicable). It's guaranteed to produce a post that fits the community and gets a lot of engagement, so it's a cheap and effective way to mature a bot account. Once you start looking for it, it's everywhere, and Reddit admins don't care.
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Have you ever noticed those low effort reposts also getting the same top 10 comments as the original? It's slop all the way down.
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What’s the aim? What do they use the accounts for once they’ve acquired the karma, which I am assume is the goal.
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I'm speculating, but my guesses are:
- Gathering enough karma to post on subreddits that have a minimum threshold.
- Getting enough post and comment history to pass a casual inspection, either by human moderators or spam filters.
- Maturing the account to the point where it can be sold to another shady company.
- Generally having a lot of bot accounts ready, just in case.
Once mature, it's usually used for spam or astroturfing. There is a noticeable uptick around big elections, wars, etc.
I saw one repost-bot that metastisized into the most vile porn-spam-bot you can imagine, but they're usually more subtle than that.
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Possibly vote manipulation as well, I mean where else would the sites to buy upvotes and downvotes get those voter accounts.
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Advertising or scams usually. A high amount of posts, comments, and karma makes an account look trustworthy.
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Thanks
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170 comments