First guy has a short history within one post five months ago, then 3 years prior. Second guy and third guy has a big gap 3-7 year gap in history then suddenly a lot of comments. So yea, bots.
Comment on A Completely Natural Conversation in the NYC Reddit
jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
What does the comment history look like on those accounts? I’m guessing when you pay for the spam package, they create fake comment histories for the bot accounts.
McTavern@lemmy.world 1 day ago
megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Often times the services have a fleet of accounts, they have them do reposts of old popular posts with titles and some content rephrased, then some of the rest of the fleet copies the top comments and rephrases those and posts them below.
This builds a history of realistic and semi popular looking posts in a way that is fairly easy to automate . Anyone who looks closely could potentially figure out a given account, or even cluster of accounts, is farmed, but it takes effort and time to prove it, more effort and time than it takes for them to spoil up another batch of bots.
frostysauce@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Don’t forget to add a typo in the title of the repost for extra engagement!
Sabata11792@ani.social 20 hours ago
They also buy active accounts with high karma and age. I got offered $100 in BTC for my account one time. I guess they did not look at how horny my comments were.
crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
The horny just adds credibility
Sergio@lemmy.world 1 day ago
fleet of accounts
I like the use of the term “fleet” in this context, bc it brings to mind the Battle of Midway but re-done with bots online.
Squorlple@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
It’s the word I originally used when bothunting on Reddit years ago but I switched to the term “botnet” since it seems more proper imo
Denjin@lemmings.world 21 hours ago
Who’s Yamamoto and Nimitz in this situation?
Sergio@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Well let’s see… first we gotta figure out the analogy:
- carriers = posts promoting a product
- carrier escorts = posts commenting on and upvoting the “carrier” post
- torpedos/dive-bombs = bot-delivered replies that disparage “carrier” posts. They “hit” if they get highly upvoted
- fighters = bots that downvote carrier-fleet posts and upvote torpedo/dive-bomb replies
- carrier “screen” fighters = bots that post attacks on enemy fighters and munitions
- carrier AA fire = bots that downvote attacks by enemy fighter bots
The analogy is still a little clumsy… are “carriers” posts, or are they the bots that make the posts? etc. But a Midway-like battle would involve a modest but strategically-positioned product-promoting community that is about to be surprised-attacked by a rival, who will make several posts disparaging the product. But the attack is identified through corporate espionage. The posts are hard to find, so the “fighters” have to search for them but ultimately they do, and after fierce up- and down-voting, the attacking posts are deeply downvoted.
Gigasser@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
I think it’s usually a bunch of posts on sports subreddita right? And then a few other things too.
can@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Image
Making sense tbh.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Report them for hate speech.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Ooh that’s a good one. Sounds legit.