I’ve dealt with this particular bot problem as a mod. Noticing the pattern early on was easy because they always had posts on TEMU subreddits. Now that those subs are banned, it’s harder.
Comment length. Their comments are always less than two lines long.
Tone. They always contain at least one exclamation point, and tend to have a tone that I’d say is “cheery to the point it’s offputting.”
Context. Reading them, a lot of the time you’ll ask “did they even read what they’re replying to?” The comment seems related, but directly misses the main point.
History. Look at the rest of their comments. If more than one ends in two emojis, they’re definitely part of this particular bot network.
As for point #3…a lot of people on reddit have poor reading comprehension.
Okay, or maybe they’re bots, but FFS, how do you tell the difference? A lot of people have short attention spans. (See the prevalence of TLDR.) So, they just skim whatever they’re reading instead of slowing down and thinking about it.
You used commas, capitalization, and periods here. Therefore you are a bot exposing yourself!
I don’t usually drop punctuation unless I’m on text message or Discord. Still used to that Reddit norm and sticking to the norm of using regular punctuation isn’t one I take issue with, especially on a site based around reading other peoples’ comments and writing responses.
I’ve dealt with this particular bot problem as a mod. Noticing the pattern early on was easy because they always had posts on TEMU subreddits. Now that those subs are banned, it’s harder.
Comment length. Their comments are always less than two lines long.
Tone. They always contain at least one exclamation point, and tend to have a tone that I’d say is “cheery to the point it’s offputting.”
Context. Reading them, a lot of the time you’ll ask “did they even read what they’re replying to?” The comment seems related, but directly misses the main point.
History. Look at the rest of their comments. If more than one ends in two emojis, they’re definitely part of this particular bot network.
what is a TEMU subreddit?
A subreddit about TEMU.
As for point #3…a lot of people on reddit have poor reading comprehension.
Okay, or maybe they’re bots, but FFS, how do you tell the difference? A lot of people have short attention spans. (See the prevalence of TLDR.) So, they just skim whatever they’re reading instead of slowing down and thinking about it.
Is there a way to prevent them from flooding the fediverse, or will that fall onto the shoulders of mods to find and delete them?
They can defederate from hexbear. But that’s up to each instance individually.
Also punctuation and usage of commas, apostrophes etc. Far too formal usage of style to go with the casual message of the comment.
You used commas, capitalization, and periods here. Therefore you are a bot exposing yourself!
I don’t usually drop punctuation unless I’m on text message or Discord. Still used to that Reddit norm and sticking to the norm of using regular punctuation isn’t one I take issue with, especially on a site based around reading other peoples’ comments and writing responses.
To be fair, a lot of people also use proper spelling and punctuation.
This just gives away they’re not a human from the hood.