AskReddit is over run by bots
AskReddit is over run by bots
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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.
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.
What’s the aim? What do they use the accounts for once they’ve acquired the karma, which I am assume is the goal.
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.
Possibly vote manipulation as well, I mean where else would the sites to buy upvotes and downvotes get those voter accounts.
Advertising or scams usually. A high amount of posts, comments, and karma makes an account look trustworthy.
Thanks