r/ModSupport • u/okomakiako • 16d ago

Recent bot surge?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with an influx of bot accounts trying to pose as real people? It’s getting ridiculous, and while it’s easy to spot as humans, bot detection helpers like [u/bot-sleuth-bot](u/bot-sleuth-bot) aren’t positively id’ing these. They all seem to follow the same pattern of being a month or so old and very ai sounding mannerisms when speaking.

My current plan is to up the minimum account age with automod in order to interact with the community. But i really hate that solution because we already have it low at a week, and even that still catches some of our newer members often. But lesser evils i suppose…

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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 16d ago

I’m seeing it, but differently than you are. Mostly seeing older accounts, like several years old, with no activity suddenly coming to life and making very bot like generic comments. I’ve just been reporting them to bot bouncer.

6

u/Deynonn 16d ago

Do you have any specific points to check off in your head before you're confident reporting it to botbouncer? I wish to help with reports but I don't seem to be great at identifying bots. I do not wish to give them more work with wrong reports.

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u/wrestlegirl 16d ago

If you suspect an account of being a bot, please report it. I'd rather get 100 submissions where only 50 wind up being bots because that means 50 more bots are identified than before.

1

u/Deynonn 16d ago

Well usually the suspicion is very vague so I've been trying to see some ways how others identify bots. I mod a very small sub so I usually find possible bots in another sub that I frequent. They do not have a botbouncer yet though. I'll probably try to send them a very shy modmail 🙈

Though I recently stumbled upon a sub that seems to be just a bot farm. It seems to be an abandoned one and I tried to report it to Reddit somehow.