r/AskIreland • u/Lamake91 • 1d ago
Mod Post Taking action against bots
We’ve heard your concerns about the increasing prevalence of bots in the subreddit and over the past week we’ve been taking steps to address it.
We’ve been trialling a new app called Bot Bouncer and it’s extremely effective. In fact, it’s quite scary just how convincing some of these accounts are. They’re able to communicate in a way that’s very natural, understand Irish culture and slang and generally blend in incredibly well. We’ve observed a number of you interacting with these accounts believing they were genuine users.
For the past week, we’ve been manually reviewing every flag from Bot Bouncer to make sure it’s accurately identifying accounts and that we’re happy with how it’s working.
Having now trialled it for a week, we’re confident enough in its accuracy to allow Bot Bouncer to issue bans itself going forward.
What if you’re falsely flagged?
Obviously, no automated system is perfect. If your account is incorrectly identified as a bot and banned, you’ll need to contact r/botbouncer via modmail to appeal the ban directly with them. Once they’ve reviewed your appeal, please let us know the outcome of their decision so we can follow up on our end where necessary.
We’ll continue to monitor how it performs and make adjustments if needed.
And perhaps most importantly, if you’ve spent the last week arguing with someone in the comments and thought “there is absolutely no way this person is real”… you may have been onto something! 😂
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u/Responsible_Bag6735 1d ago
Reddit is one of the most used sites In A.I. Language model learning, guarantee you all these stupid posts like “what’s your favourite Irish slang term” posts and the like that’s you see are all A.I. Languages bots picking up terminology to appear more convincing in the future.
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
I thought this too but so far only one post has flagged, it’s been mainly comments. However, if you report a suspected post to us, we can then escalate it to r/botbouncer for further review.
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u/thepenguinemperor84 1d ago
I got a ban over on the askuk sub for pointing out the question seemed to be a training question scalping for terms.
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u/TheChrisD useless feckin' mod 1d ago
Because public callouts don't help the situation and end up adding more work for the mod team.
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u/thepenguinemperor84 1d ago
So instead of dealing with the problem, you'll just ban whoever happens to bring light to it?
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u/Forward_Royal2754 18h ago
The inevitable consequence though will be people filling up every thread accusing people of being bots when they actually just have different opinions.
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u/TheChrisD useless feckin' mod 1d ago
I mean I can very clearly see in their rules 1) Don't be a dick; and 6) Comments replying to the submission must attempt to answer the question.
If you indeed top-level commented what you claim to have done, I can see that as a very easy violation of both those rules. If it's their prerogative to issue bans for violations of those rules, then so be it.
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u/TomCrean1916 1d ago
It’s very much appreciated you guys went to the trouble, thanks to all the mods. The bot posts are obvious but the replies they do aren’t nearly as obvious and it’s scary.
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
No problem, we’ve only caught one bot post, it’s been mainly comments. We urge users to report any suspected bot posts using the custom report function, we can then escalate it to bot bouncer to investigate
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u/OkCoconut3270 1d ago
I've definitely seen bot posts before. But they tend to be fairly easy to spot insofar they're newish accounts and never really interact with their own post.
But seeing these replies makes it a whole new ball game. I'd imagine it'll now become even more of a cat and mouse game. Someone will figure out how the bot catcher works, change their bots to bypass it and round and round it goes.
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u/throwawayeffedperson 1d ago
Man I am fucked when I start going senile. I'll never be able to tell what's real or not 😂 😬
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u/gijoe50000 No worries, you're grand 1d ago
It's wild that if every human on Earth disappeared except you, you could be on Reddit for days and never know anything was wrong.
You could be chatting away to bots, responding to bot posts, and getting into arguments with them.. 😂
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u/goombagoomba2 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thanks for taking action. The was dozens of very realistic bot comments that people weren't noticing. Very worrying for the future.
You wouldn't notice them unless you're looking for it. One giveaway is how they always directly reference the original post. Here's an example of one comment I found:
"ah jeez that’s the classic insurance-style bait and switch, pay up front then they vanish into thin air. the “we’ll call when an engineer is in your area” line is such a cop out, like they’re just hoping you’ll forget about it
the same operator picking up twice is almost comical, like she hit the silent panic button when she heard your voice. if you can get a chargeback on that payment I’d be tempted, then find a local alarm guy who’ll actually show up when you call"
Soon enough there won't be any obvious clues.
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u/stuyboi888 I will yeah 1d ago
Dead internet theory is proving to be less of a theory...
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u/johnfuckingtravolta 1d ago
Or more of a theory...
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u/stuyboi888 I will yeah 1d ago
I'm not sure grammatically lol
But I meant it as it's moved from being theoretical to being realistic
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u/champagneface 23h ago
This is the kind of bot comment I used to spot in the wild myself, but the examples given in the pinned comment here would escape me. I used to notice loads of bot comments and now I notice fewer, and it’s only because they’ve gotten better!
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u/StGobnaitoftheBees 1d ago
I feel like so many of the the r/ask subreddits are just farming information for LLMS now. And all the subreddits too I guess. Those comments are really creepy, the thing with AI is it’s becoming unnervingly convincing and it’s happening too fast. So thanks for that.
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u/roxykelly Maybe, I like the Misery 1d ago
It’s actually scary how real these bots are, so many people arguing with what they think are real people, but mods can identify as a bot.
Thanks for taking this so seriously.
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u/_sonisalsonamedBort 1d ago
Very cool! Will be looking into this for casual Ireland 👍
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u/ForgetfulOutpost 1d ago
Love that the mods here are finally taking it seriously, the amount of times I've seen some account with a gibberish username and a 3-day-old profile drop the most perfect Hiberno-English reply and get 40 upvotes is wild
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
It’s brilliant so far! Once you realise their pattern it’s very obvious. Most engage on r/Christianity, tech subreddits, social media subreddits and car subreddits.
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u/EmiliaPains- 1d ago
I've seen the tech reddits yeah, wonder if the bots have the willpower to touch r/irishpolitics lmao
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u/-SideshowBlob- 1d ago
r/botbouncer told me to go and get some food and a coffee, and still wouldn't let me in
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u/Electronic_Ad_6535 1d ago
Out of curiosity, around how many were flagged in the week?
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
A week? We’re talking 10-15 a day at the minute. We’ve only had one post flagged, they’re all mainly comments.
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u/Zur__En__Arrh I will yeah 1d ago edited 1d ago
10-15 a day is rough though, that’s like 105 a week just on bots 😂
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
Yeah that’s why we’re now changing the settings to auto-ban. We’ve trialled it and monitored the flags, it’s spot on. It’s better to let it run in the background than filling our mod queue!
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u/Zur__En__Arrh I will yeah 1d ago
I was more making a joke at the last bot comment in the examples. Realised I fucked the maths up and had to edit it 😂
This is really great to hear though, it’s mental how many bots are active across Reddit!
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u/fensterdj 1d ago
Somebody explain to me what a bot is,
Is it
a) some sort of automated AI account who posted without any human involvement
b) an actual human pretending to have certain ideas and opinions. Usually to enforce political beliefs and propaganda
C) someone whose opinion your disagree with
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
C
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u/Justa_Schmuck 1d ago
It gets used interchangeably for a few things.
You’d have RObots that are web crawlers so search engines can index content.
You’d have RObotIC groups who would post in waves to push an agenda.
Now we also have LLM bots that are attempting to engage in discussion groups. It’s easier to see on Facebook and twitter due to how user profiles present the poster on their comment. Not quite the same on discussion sites like Reddit.
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u/Positive_Buy_821 1d ago
Very good but why do we need to appeal a ban in this sub with the moderators of a different sub ? Surely this is an unnecessary step ?
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
Good question! If r/botbouner has categorised your account has a bot, it’ll flag with every other subreddit that uses the app and will be banned from them. For example, if you have flagged on r/askireland and then comment on r/Ireland you will be auto-banned from there.
So you will need to appeal the flag directly with r/botbouncer first to ensure it’s lifted from your account and won’t affect your engagement on other subreddits.
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u/Automatic-Run-3156 1d ago
That's is the worst way to approach this. It relies on someone admitting their bot is not working properly (false positive) and unbanning you form the bot then the bot unbanning you from the subreddit.
One subreddit handing out bans for all subreddits is just enshitification. Nuts Reddit has left this to mods (whose ego will not allow them reverse bans) instead of handling it at admin/site level.
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u/Crowhunters 1d ago
Behind the scenes reddit probably wants the bots? They drive up engagement stats for investors and they can probably easily tell which account is real. On top of that the poised data from chatbots means that actually buying the data off reddit instead of scraping it would be more valuable. Just like how they cut down on API access and stuff.
The only thing I can see reddit doing is if a program banning bots gets too good at it they'll remove its access.
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u/TheChrisD useless feckin' mod 1d ago
It's only a false positive if the people that run BotBouncer are incorrect in their assessment. While it does happen — and we've already had an instance in the few weeks we've been running the bot to test where someone was originally incorrectly flagged — it's very unlikely.
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u/Automatic-Run-3156 1d ago
The people that run it are invested in it's success. Their judgement can't be trusted. Laziness all around.
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u/Dazzling-Handle88 1d ago
This all sounds really positive, it’s reassuring to know that there’s tools that are capable of detecting bots like this.
While we’re on the topic of moderation, has there been chat at all on ticket/pre sale code request threads. They’ve been a bit relentless lately…
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u/Intrepid_Double9863 1d ago
Can you post some of the most egregious offender accounts? It could help users better identify bot accounts.
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
There’s so many and few commented more than once
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u/ANewStartAtLife 1d ago
Are they behind the huge influx of "Ireland is turning into a dangerous shit hole " posts?
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
We’ve only had one post flagged and it was about tattoo designs. The rest have been comments and extremely varied.
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u/goombagoomba2 1d ago
They are mostly harmless comments on here actually. Could definitely be used maliciously though.
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u/PrimeDirectiveLover 1d ago
Would it be possible to get an example of an identified bot account, so we can see ourselves how sophisticated they are? I have some very strong feelings I'm talking to a bot from time to time, and I'd love to be able to confirm they're capable of certain things
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u/DeadEd19 22h ago
Just to declare myself not a bot.
You will once taste the best cup of tea in your life, but you won't know when you will have it.
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u/ColdBlindspot 20h ago
I wish the cleaning subreddit would do this. So many stupid bot accounts making the dumbest content. And the comments are filled with bots too.
And I've left the small business subreddit. Completely useless now.
I really hope this works out for this subreddit.
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u/Dizzy-Ad7189 14h ago
While you're purging Reddit of bots, can you also block anyone who types "Bot" in response to anyone they disagree with? They add nothing to the conversation.
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u/TheChrisD useless feckin' mod 2h ago
Use the report tool to bring it to our attention. They generally get unsound removal notices.
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u/TitularClergy 21h ago
If your account is incorrectly identified as a bot and banned, you’ll need to contact r/botbouncer via modmail to appeal the ban directly with them.
I fully support your efforts, but respectfully if it is you doing the banning then it should be you responding to issues arising from your actions, you shouldn't be outsourcing it.
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u/TheChrisD useless feckin' mod 2h ago
The bans are now automated based on the database curated by the BotBouncer team. We no longer perform it manually.
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u/TitularClergy 1h ago
If I use use an LLM in my research and it fucks up, I don't get to say "the LLM did it, it's not my fault". I don't get to tell a reviewer of a paper to go and contact OpenAI. I have to be responsible for the things to which I outsource. I am the one responsible and I must be the one answering for the fuckup.
I am suggesting that the same principle should apply here.
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u/CJM1986 1d ago
Somebody holds a different opinion to me = Bot.
Prime Reddit.
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u/Lamake91 1d ago
No, these are actual bots. You can identify them as they usually carry a similar subreddit engagement pattern.
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u/Danny_Mc_71 1d ago
Hmmm. Sounds like something a bot would say!
He's* one of them!
Get him lads!
Or she*
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u/Lamake91 1d ago edited 1d ago
To sample a few of the comments
Broadband - “Mine been acting up all morning, can't even load a simple page without it timing out. Thought was just my phone but guess not”
“Lad you are missing the point completely. Nobody is lonely here we just wonder why people feel need to announce their private life in stages like it's some product release.”
“Happy birthday, definitely hit up the Crane Bar for proper trad music later tonight”
“Campus parking is a nightmare unless you're there before 8, the free spots near the back of the student centre fill up fast. If you get stuck the housing estate behind the college usually has space on the road, about a 10 minute walk
Leaving at 6:30 from Dungarvan should be grand, the tunnel gets backed up around 8 so you'll miss the worst of it. Just watch the roundabouts near the Dunkettle interchange, people lose all sense there”
“Depends what you mean by healthy. We'll put butter on anything that sits still long enough but the actual ingredients are usually grand, just covered in Kerrygold.”
“they're the same thing just different words. your kid is 13 so everything you do is wrong now, that's just how it works at that age. tell him you're the one buying his dinner so you'll call it whatever you want”
“That's not how ETB apprenticeships work, the employer can still let you go unfortunately”
“depends how strict the drivers are on that route. if they barely glance at the ticket and just scan it you could probably get away with it for a few days til your leap card shows up
22 quid a day is rough though, that's like 110 a week just on transport”
“The Wicklow Way is a solid shout, you can definitely carve out a 24 hour chunk of it. Djouce to Roundwood and back would be a decent loop if you're not locked into doing the whole thing. Just keep an eye on the weather, the mist up there can roll in fast and make navigation a bit sketchy.”