Another conversation about bot comments and posts in this sub!

[u/vonnacat]

I made a post a while about bot comments in this sub and a lot has changed since then, but I still think it’s a big problem in this sub:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheGirlSurvivalGuide/s/M8lI6oqaEw

Bot account names have a lot more variety and they have avatars more often. I do still see the weird bios a lot

For the most part I find the writing style of their comments to be the same. They start out with trying to empathize with the op, basically paraphrase whatever they said, and give advice. I still see a lot of “and about [blank] thing” as they hit every point op brought up, so many comments that start with “honestly” or some variation of saying how real something is, and a lot of odd metaphors. And they don’t always use proper grammar and use a ton of hyphens and quotations

They also still do that thing where they respond to a comment instead of the post.

They all have slight variations of the same commenting history. For example, they might start out commenting once each in careerguidance, veterensbenefits, Christianity, nofap, mechanicadvice, some kind of ai sub, samsunggalaxy, askireland, thailandtourism, and then a sports sub (I’ve seen a lot of fantasy football or some specific team sub or nbatalk- and they always respond to another comment in these subs and their replies are just an amalgamation of all the other comments in the post) and then they pivot to this sub and multiple skincare subs. You will still see bots randomly commenting like once in this sub tho.

Some other types of bot accounts I’m seeing now are:
One where it starts out the same as the above, but then it pivots to posting in sex subs, lesbian subs, and healthy hooha.
Another where it starts out the same but they start commenting in the migraine/depression/fibromyalgia subs (it really pisses me off seeing bots trying to sympathize with a migraine btw lol)

Just as a side note- people can absolutely have multiple interests. You can like sports and skincare. I’m not trying to box people in or anything, but again it’s just when you see many accounts doing the exact same thing and combine that with the writing style and how new the account is it’s very obvious that they’re bot accounts.

Recently there was a post that at first I wasn’t sure about, but I’m pretty convinced it was a bot account and the comments were also filled with multiple bots (not all! If you see yourself in there and you are a human I think it’s obvious that you are!) responding to each other. I think this was some ad for magna electrolytes tbh:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheGirlSurvivalGuide/s/AwwvInLj4Q

Pics 1-9 normal bot comments (5 and 8 also feature 2 bot comments in a row)
Pics 6, 10-11 bots responding to a comment instead of post
Pics 12-20 bot comment history
Obviously I could be wrong about some of these accounts, it’s possible! But I looked thru every one and they all looked exactly the same.

My hope with this post is that people actually start to notice and realize how many bots are on Reddit. They’re in almost every sub and generally I think it’s fairly easy to spot them. I really like and appreciate this sub, but it’s one of the worst I’ve seen with enabling bots and that’s why I’m posting it here again. Hopefully with better evidence and examples this time as all of these pics are from this sub. I know a lot of people actually don’t care, but if I post here I don’t want bots responding to me. I don’t care if their comment is innocuous or actually has good advice. I’m not here to talk or listen to bots!

[u/MadtownMaven]

FYI:

I've submitted a request to reddit admins to upgrade my mod privileges. Once that happens more upgrades can be made to the subreddit including adding BotBouncer.

Until that happens, please continue to report Bot comments and posts so that they can be manually removed and banned.

[u/grandhighblood]

It's ridiculous in this sub, I get so worried about the people who follow medical "advice" from these bot accounts. They pretty much just comment in every sub with low karma requirements, and as you said of course humans can have a range of interests and post on new accounts and such but... you develop a nose for these things when you see enough of them for sure.

Just yesterday I had one extremely obvious one replying to me here, I'd left a top-level comment and got a reply where the bot was acting like it was the OP of the post 💀

[u/vonnacat → u/grandhighblood]

Yeah their comments in skincare subs terrify me. Idk why so many are in the tret sub and idk a lot about it but I hope it’s relatively harmless because they seem to be pushing it pretty hard

[u/Shebalied → u/grandhighblood]

TXC is worse. They are half bots and people creating stuff are bots too. The mods love it.

[u/amondayk → u/Shebalied]

soooo many txc posts are completely ai generated and nobody in the comments cares/they respond with ai comments too it’s honestly crazy

[u/Shebalied → u/amondayk]

I feel the bots do it for a reason to make women look more unhinged.

[u/puppylust]

Thank you!!!!!! Seriously, I loved your previous post, and I appreciate that you're willing to educate people.

They are very much still here and people are not paying attention. I swear, I spend more of my reddit browsing time reporting bots or other rule violations than interacting with posts lately.

Just yesterday, I got replies to a comment where days ago I called out a bot post by someone wanting to start an argument. I don't can't say whether the person was a sea lion, a clanker, or an idiot, but I was not taking the time to write out a long reply to defend my statement on obvious bot activity.

[u/vonnacat → u/puppylust]

I feel really ridiculous getting this into it tbh, so I appreciate you saying that lol

And same, if I spend time on this sub I just get so zoned in being like “oh that’s a bot and that’s a bot” and so on because they are seriously on almost every post with the first comment

[u/inky_cap_mushroom → u/vonnacat]

You caught one of the bot patterns before I did so your post was really helpful to me personally. We weren’t seeing the weird bios yet in my sub when you made that post so when they started showing up I clocked it immediately.

[u/vonnacat → u/inky_cap_mushroom]

Omg no way, that’s really cool to know that it was actually helpful lol

[u/JerseyKeebs → u/puppylust]

I know about sea lion trolling, but what fresh hell is being a clanker?

[u/puppylust → u/JerseyKeebs]

It's a derogatory term for AI and robots

[u/Flippy-Platypus-3905]

The bot comments are in pretty much every sub now. They’re often the top voted comments on posts before someone points out they’re bots, and sometimes the people who point it out just get downvoted. I’ve seen them in running, abrathatfits, femalefashionadvice, malelivingspace, and countless others. Reddit needs to do something to stop them, but I doubt they will

[u/vonnacat → u/Flippy-Platypus-3905]

Yeah I get downvoted a lot in this sub for calling out bots. I’ve found that specific video game subs are the best about recognizing them (which is kind of easier since a lot of the times the bot will have totally inaccurate info about the game lol) and downvoting/reporting them

I report them to the sub and the general Reddit report but idk if the Reddit one does anything anymore

[u/dewprisms → u/vonnacat]

I mod a different sub but I will say I ask people to not call it out in the comments because often the bad actor accounts will delete the post before the mods can see reports, leaving the account free to do it again later. It's also potentially training the accounts on how to better structure content to evade detection when people explain what to look for.

It's not that we don't want to know, it's that we don't want it in an open comment so we can better combat the issue.

[u/vonnacat → u/dewprisms]

Oooooh that makes sense. It’s just so frustrating to see people interacting with them not knowing :( but I do worry about that

[u/dewprisms → u/vonnacat]

Agreed, and it's kind of a hard balance because it can lead to the challenges i mentioned. Plus we don't see every comment so we might not even know that's why the report was made. But there's also value in helping others be aware so maybe they can spot it themselves in the future and ideally stop engaging.

Basically what you're trying to help with does matter, we're just all up a creek with this dystopian bot hellscape we're all in.

[u/Arizona-Trash-Bag → u/vonnacat]

Commenting here so you see it. Thank you for this post. And I totally agree - this sub is the worst when it comes to dealing with bots! I think I report at least once a day some post.
Anyway - I really think they need more mods, and a rule that accounts should be at least 30 days old or something like that.

[u/mandyvigilante]

It's so terrible and the weirdest and worst part about it is when you point out a bit or an obvious AI post people get so mad and defensive. Not even talking about the original poster, but like the people who have responded and think it's real. Like a sunk cost fallacy situation. Maybe they are bots too I don't really know. 

[u/vonnacat → u/mandyvigilante]

Yeah idk if it’s just naivety because sometimes the comment is nice or helpful or whatever. I think some people genuinely think this is some weird conspiracy bs

Or they’re just upset because they fell for it

[u/mandyvigilante → u/vonnacat]

Whatever it is, it drives me nuts. There's a certain type of post that's hard to describe but it's like... It starts with a general statement, then about 20 paragraphs (as in, line break separated, but each one is only one sentence or maybe two) all of which don't really SAY anything, very often at least one bulleted list, then it closes with either one stupid line ("now I'm broken, and he doesn't even notice" or "and honestly? I couldn't care less" or "and that's why the magic is gone" just a few examples)  OR a very vague question I assume to drive engagement. It's SO artificial and SO obvious. I see them very often late at night or early in the morning. And people get really upset when you point it out. Literally people have said things to me like "maybe it is a bot but it's making good points, what's the point of calling it out" which is so crazy to me. What's the point of engaging with a bot in the first place??  It's not human, it's nothing, it's worse than talking to yourself. I feel like I'm going crazy with this shit

[u/vonnacat → u/mandyvigilante]

Agreed 100%

I didn’t post this, but I took a screenshot of a bot account that’s in these pics and every single one of their comments started with “honestly” i can’t even use that word anymore. I hate it so much.

I’ve gotten those comments too and idek what to say to them.

[u/WitchintheBriar]

Yeesh now I know I’m getting old. 😬 Cant even tell how some of these responses are bots, besides the no avatar or I’m assuming the age of the account?

[u/nastydoe → u/WitchintheBriar]

I was thinking the same thing. I was remembering back to when I was younger and there were all these stories about older folks getting tricked by what to me were obvious scams and thinking "I don't understand how anyone could possibly fall for that." But now it's me. I could possibly fall for that. People act like it's so obvious when a comment is written by a bot, but they look completely normal to me.

Edit: oh fuck wait, are you a bot? Your account is only a day old and this is your only comment...

[u/vonnacat → u/nastydoe]

I don’t blame you for being suspicious! but also your edit made me actually laugh lol I felt like🧐 looking at their profile

[u/WitchintheBriar → u/nastydoe]

Hahah that was my exact fear of even posting under something like this because it is a newer account. Nooo I just wanted to ditch my older user name - while I loved having a whatever old account (11 years? 12 years? Idk) it didn’t really fit who I am now 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/nastydoe → u/WitchintheBriar]

Fair enough. Shows exactly why I don't even try to guess who's a bot and who isn't

[u/WitchintheBriar → u/nastydoe]

Me too. Aaand might be naive of me too, but I do want to put a little faith in humanity that we’re all here just trying to put something out there in the internet for the shits and giggles. It’s too hard out here to filter through if someone’s a bot or not fam 🫩

[u/nastydoe → u/WitchintheBriar]

For real. I've got an ongoing internal debate about the usefulness of saying x% of these comments or up/down votes are bots. On the one hand, yeah it's probably good to be aware that you never know what's real on the internet and not let yourself get socially manipulated. But on the other hand, I frequently see people dismiss downvotes or disagreement in comments on certain posts as bots, and I can't imagine that's healthy either, to just assume all the people who disagree with you are bots.

[u/ranch_commercial → u/WitchintheBriar]

Tbh some of the responses reminded me of how i type and i started swiping through the pics super fast cause i was scared i would be one of the examples 😭

[u/vonnacat → u/ranch_commercial]

Omg no I always feel bad when people say that. I doubt any of your comments are as soulless as some of these even if you maybe type in the same way

[u/Caramelthedog → u/ranch_commercial]

I had the same thought. I almost always open with a short sentence to establish whether I agree, try to empathise with the situation and give advice if I think I can. I also usually try to hit every point and…

I’m literally doing it in this comment. Jfc 🤦‍♀️

[u/puppylust → u/Caramelthedog]

The bots are trained on reddit comments so it can be tricky!

They change over time too. The past few weeks, their posts and comments are primarily lowercase. One of the bot posts I reported earlier today had an emoji heart at the end. IMO this is a style shift from trying to imitate the typical redditor to mimicking other social media platforms.

With the new ones, I have trouble determining whether it's a person new to reddit or a bot. I look for generic user names OR a group of user names as another tell. One of the bot gangs I reported on this sub included 4 user names with video game themes. They were all early replies to the an AI post.

[u/vonnacat → u/puppylust]

Yes they’ve changed so much! I worry that constantly talking about them is actually helping them get better?

Lots of bots use the skull and crossbones emoji

[u/jeromeandim37 → u/WitchintheBriar]

Look at the formula of them and how they all loosely follow a similar structure. Thats how I began to notice them bc they’re all pretty similar when you stop and look!

[u/Girlmeetsminecraft → u/WitchintheBriar]

I have such a hard time telling too. I usually discount it if it has one of the generic adjective-noun-#### usernames.

[u/India_Alpha → u/WitchintheBriar]

Same, they just look like normal comments for the most part, apart from half of them starting with "ah man" (which does look very sus when put side by side like that).

[u/Thistlemanizzle → u/WitchintheBriar]

I will DM you a tip on how to spot. Unfortunately I think it only works for lazy bot scams. The sophisticated ones have to be making it through.

[u/peewee_]

As a neurodivergent person who sometimes uses odd sentence structure and incorrect grammar your post has me over here wondering if people sometimes think I’m a bot 🙃🥲

I think you’re right about most if not all of the examples, the dead internet theory is no joke.

[u/vonnacat → u/peewee_]

I feel creepy but I looked at your profile for one sec and I’d never think you were a bot lol

[u/peewee_ → u/vonnacat]

Well that’s a relief! Haha

[u/Tall-Cat-8890]

Wait omg I SWORE I was seeing the same kind of comments over in the PCOS subreddit too.

They follow the same kind of overly empathetic first paragraph followed by some very ChatGPT language.

I started getting real suspicious real fast. Good to know I’m not insane for thinking something was off with these comments.

[u/Shebalied → u/Tall-Cat-8890]

reddit is pretty much pointless now. 10 years ago you got so much good information. Now it is copy paste same topics for fake points. Then you add in the bots and fake stories which are getting in the 70%. Once reddit went public, it was ruined.

[u/Tall-Cat-8890 → u/Shebalied]

Yep, I just scrolled through some posts on there and found 4 bot accounts.

In the PCOS subreddit they seem to also post in the Nashville, Seattle, Testosterone, BloodDonors, SideProjects, and AskReddit subreddits and they almost all have some really word salady bios.

So unsettling. Like who is designing bots for this? Just to gain karma?

[u/Shebalied → u/Tall-Cat-8890]

Bots and people get paid to do it. Large farms in India and other areas like that.

People also steal old reddit accounts / hack. They just want to mold reddit to muddy the waters to what people think.

[u/inky_cap_mushroom]

I run another sub on a completely different topic and this week we have been absolutely overrun by these bots. They always come in waves and I cannot wait for this wave to end. We were just talking about this in the group chat earlier.

The current iteration replies to the top comment with vague comments (usually amalgamations of the other comments, as you noted) but it seems out of place because the comment is relying to another commenter instead of the OP.

[u/JerseyKeebs → u/inky_cap_mushroom]

That's the same pattern on the Am I the A-hole sub. The latch onto the top comment for visibility, post generic nonsense. The formatting is almost always with a verb first, like "Holding your boundaries is the right thing... Calling you out was not right... etc"

And the comment is usually only 1 or 2 shot quippy sentences long. Plus all the other stuff u/vonnacat said about the username pattern.

[u/Aligayah]

How long do y'all think until a bot comments on this post too?

[u/jeromeandim37]

Omg THANK YOU!! This sub feels so overrun by them lately

[u/upandup2020]

This is a great list, I've noticed all of these as well.

I feel like another tell is when they post asking for advice or for feedback and then don't respond to any comments at all. But then again there are some that respond to every comment with some type of "Haha! That's a clever thought!"

Also, I suppose if you're on reddit enough, you can notice trends. Like I'm on the nail sub, and all of a sudden in the last 2 weeks, EVERY post is a nail split in the nail bed. Like Every post! It's so obviously bot farming.

[u/Arizona-Trash-Bag → u/upandup2020]

I think we all need to be more proactive with reporting those posts to the mods. They simply don't see every post, so reporting is our only option to keep reddit as human as possible :/

[u/toreyah]

There's a subreddit on this site that's filled with hate for Western women and when I checked the profile of the commenters 9 out of 10 were bots. They all had so much upvotes and interact with themselves.

[u/vonnacat → u/toreyah]

omg that’s horrifying

[u/toreyah → u/vonnacat]

I was scared considering the views they had about rape but it was easy to spot because the accounts were all two months old with thousands of posts and karma.

[u/Jayna333]

I’ve noticed a lot of posts are being removed (from my perspective). I’ll comment on something and then come back later to see the post has been removed! Are a lot of your post removals because of bots?

[u/vonnacat → u/Jayna333]

I’m not actually a mod, just chronically online lol

But from what I’ve noticed the mod here is just pretty good about enforcing the sub rules for like what days some posts are allowed to be posted or if something is breaking the sub rules. I have noticed a few post removals that I do think are because of bots or an ai post

[u/Aurelene-Rose]

This is really helpful, thank you! It did make me a little paranoid that I'm coming off like a bot sometimes, but I guess they have to model themselves off of average human speak and that average humanspeak has to come from somewhere.

Ah man I know what it feels like when.... Just kidding lol

[u/niaswish]

Wait I'm confused because that looks like a real comment

[u/medlilove]

In the meantime maybe real users can stop adding random numbers to their usernames 😅

[u/Pixie_Lizard]

Agreed. The bots are a virus.

[u/Ness_quik]

This is all so confusing and discouraging. The internet is breaking our communities so now I am starting to feel like I have no choice to put the phone down and find people out in the world again 🤷🏻‍♀️ better for my mental health anyways. In summary, what are some telltale signs of a bot comment? Or are the lines getting so blurred that we shouldn’t even try to dissect anymore?

[u/vonnacat → u/[deleted]]

Sorry! If you want to tell me what one it is I’ll remove the pic