Comment and troll bots exist do exist

It has been recently brought to my attention to someone who actually designs and sells automated comment bots to use on reddit and apparently they are a big hit.

Now that I am aware I can better spot the bots. Unfortunately I did not get to pick his brain about the nature of the bots but they apparently are good enough to get death threats from angry bloggers and redditors.

Hopefully some of fellow ATSers who know more about comment and troll bots that have apparently infested sites like reddit.

a reply to: jrod

I think we've had a few here, but sometimes it's hard to tell a bot from some kid just dic**ng around. We usually see a wave of trolls around school vacation, spring break, Christmas, etc. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see a new wave come through soon.

a reply to: DAVID64

Here is a good start to the art of trolling and troll bots:




I do believe that the intent of comment bots on popular sites like reddit is to manipulate public opinion. When the comments are flooded with a certain view point, the layperson is more likely to agree with the apparent more popular opinion without doing any actual research.

They exist and some threads here prove it!

The only thing worse than a paid troll/shrill
is one who does it for free.

We don't exist. There's nothing to see here.
Say, did anyone catch the latest episode of [/popular television show/]?

a reply to: pfishy
This is not another shill thread, that had been addressed here many times.

This thread is to make others aware of automated comment bloggers that are common on sites like reddit.

Flooding the comments section with a certain view point in order to manufacture a consensus is the apparent goal, different than trolling a topic.

a reply to: jrod

Sorry if my attempt at humor was ill-advised.
And actually, I have seen these types of bots on Reddit, and many other forum and chan sites. They do seem to be geared toward opinion engineering.

a reply to: pfishy
My bad, I meant to reply to the post above yours.

I think you are right, they want to make their opinion seem like the most popular one.

With election season gearing up, you can bet that comment bots will be used to make it seem like a candidate is more popular than he/she really is.
Next time I run into my friend who makes these bots, I will really try to pick his brain on the nature of the bots and who are his biggest customers. It will be awhile though, as I am on a sail.
I will try to update this thread occasionally when I have more information available.

a reply to: jrod

Thank you for bringing this to our attention!!!

Wouldn't it be great if we all (ATS members) learned how to spot these things well enough to ignore them instead of wasting pages and pages of threads trying to talk 'sense' into them?


star and flag for you

a reply to: lostgirl
There are a few things I have noticed that makes me suspect a bot. Timing is one, however the programmers have realized this is a red flag and have taken steps so a good bot will no longer instantly post everytime it's user name is referenced. Excessive quoting and copy and pasting can be clue that the poster may just be an algorithm.