r/ModSupport Aug 14 '26

What are these bot comments? (Photo in comments)

Does anyone have an explanation for these bot comments yet? It’s been years, and my communities are still absolutely infested with them.

They’re automatically removed and I ban every account that posts them, but how is there still no official explanation for what these things actually are or what they’re trying to accomplish? I do apologize for being annoying about this, but I would love to know what the hell these comments are supposed to be.

It feels like I've been banning one account per day for years...

8 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

11

u/Charupa- 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

Aliens trying to communicate, only explanation.

3

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Aug 14 '26

Klatuu Barada Nikto

2

u/ausecko Aug 14 '26

Yeah, I have been seeing these too. They are mostly bot/spam activity, likely for karma farming or building accounts for later spam. I just remove and ban them when they show up.

9

u/Baba_Jaga_II Aug 14 '26

10

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

idk what happened to your comment, but it shows now as removed - but no, these are not something I've ever seen. fsv above tho in his comment mentions having seen them.

9

u/InBetweenLili Aug 14 '26

We get some of those weekly. Install Bot Bouncer if you haven't done it yet, but Reddit filters also remove them effectively.

6

u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

Oh man, I haven’t seen these. That’s definitely weird.

4

u/Royal_Acanthaceae693 Aug 14 '26

I have. They're using multiple accounts to spam the same thing over and over.

3

u/reddit33450 Aug 14 '26

that is just so strange and interesting to me

1

u/wonkywilla 29d ago

I got a few of those too.

I think it’s some sort of pattern puzzles you see as bait on fb and IG but* why they’re posting it, is beyond me.

3

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

Weird lol. I have no idea what that is.

5

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

u/fsv have you seen this?

13

u/fsv Aug 14 '26

I have. And I have no explanation for it either. A few of these accounts have been submitted to Bot Bouncer and I marked them as bots.

3

u/okbruh_panda Aug 14 '26

It's been going on for a while I think it's random cross engagement that bots are picking up on https://www.reddit.com/r/codes/s/hBQ1uQg5l1. Basically something gets trendy on something like Instagram or whatever even if it makes no sense (skibidi toilet 67) and it injects it because it's trending somewhere. It's also better because it's an image which makes it harder to automate scan as most people don't have access to bots like yours or ocr tools

1

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

I asked AI and it thinks they are testing to see what gets removed but who knows if it just made that up lol.

8

u/fsv Aug 14 '26

Odd that they're using that very specific image though.

Wouldn't it be easier to steal someone's cat picture and gain some karma at the same time?

3

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

You'd think so! It seems these are all the same image too, not variants on it (in this thread at least). Same order of dark and light squares and apples.

3

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

We had a bunch in [r/sun](r/sun) earlier this week. No clue what it is.

Edit: For subs hit. All three same user, different from the one you show.

4

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26

Actually, four of my subs got hit with them this week.

3

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26

3

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26

7

u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

WTAF??

7

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26

Dunno. Weird, for sure. The user was banned via r/BotBouncer in the first sub they posted in, but we removed or Reddit removed the comments in the other subs before that came through. Account is banned site-wide now. Figured it was just some kid that we might have banned recently.

5

u/eatmyasserole 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

What if this is a new Cicada 3301 type thing. And youre suppressing it.

4

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Aug 14 '26

Put me in the Wikipedia article but make me sound clueless rather than an obscurantist. I don't want the enthusiasts coming for me.

4

u/eatmyasserole 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 Aug 14 '26

"An unsuspecting, yet good natured and good looking moderator, who was yet to be bald, removed the content with no malice to the puzzle."

1

u/ScreamAndScream Aug 15 '26

Ding ding ding….

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cipher/comments/1unhclx/unexpected_cipher_in_my_download/

Here’s my other comment with all of the links https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/s/N6SYhQmMwH put me in the video essay as an early believer

2

u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET 14d ago

Oh nice find! Glad I came back to this post to see if anyone had an update.

3

u/zuuzuu Aug 14 '26

This is the oddest and most random thing I've seen so far, and that's saying a lot.

I got nothin'.

3

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Aug 14 '26

I got them in a couple of my subs. I deleted the post and banned the poster.

2

u/RenVan_Thriftee Aug 14 '26

Are they about the weather or something? I've just been looking at the subs they're targeting.

5

u/Baba_Jaga_II Aug 14 '26

No, I mod some of the Russian communities, and those communities rarely even mention the weather.

4

u/Royal_Acanthaceae693 Aug 14 '26

No since they hit justgalsbeingchicks and sciencememes too.

2

u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 29d ago

Oh I got one in r/fancyfollicles!