4 ms·

Easiest way I've found to spot bots on Twitter is username patterns where both the handle and display name are similar or the same with 1 or 2 words (often a fi

Easiest way I've found to spot bots on Twitter is username patterns where both the handle and display name are similar or the same with 1 or 2 words (often a first and last name) and a random number. For example JohnDoe127474. For a more realistic example: I just went to the first trending semi-poltical topic and this was the first bottish account I found (the tweet itself is pretty benign): https://twitter.com/Elsie43733196/status/1235724530716377088?s=19 https://twitter.com/Elsie43733196/status/1235724530716377088...

ceejayoz 7y ago
It's such an oddly obvious tell. I'm left wondering if it's like the advance fee scams; making it blindly obvious means you only attract the truly gullible, limiting the amount of skeptical followers who'd reply publicly to your bullshit tweets.
- knzhou 7y ago
  It's the default username style.
tomatotomato37 7y ago
Talking semi-seriously here, but I wonder if the next evolution in bot accounts would be using name and avatars generated from KnowYourMeme content in order to defeat casual verification
learnstats2 7y ago
This is the automated handle style that Twitter gives you if you don't specify or if your first choice is not available and you click through without realising this. So that can also apply to naïve users.
dhosek 7y ago
There's one real person in my Twitter environment (I don't follow him, but we follow and interact with a lot of the same people so the algorithm shows me his tweets a fair amount) who has a handle something like John415141. I think he chose that handle ironically.
Spooky23 7y ago
It's the same problem EBay had 20 years ago. User growth is always a KPI that people care about, so there's a bias to not get aggressive about purging fake accounts. Being aggressive will also flag unsophisticated real people as well.
lukey_q 7y ago
I'm curious what you think makes this particular account a bot? To me it looks like someone who might not be particularly tech savvy who signed up for Twitter to find out about and discuss the ongoing global pandemic, which I guess you could call a "semi-political topic". To me it looks like Twitter's attempts to reach out to people who aren't already constantly online might occasionally work, which could result in a screen name or behavior that seems "strange" to people who are already very familiar with the platform
faiz7412 7y ago
I'm now wondering if people would think my twitter profile is a bot and report me because the handle has numbers representing my name in leetcode.
vangelis 7y ago
Congrats, you've found someone who accepted the autogenerated username!
- brewdad 7y ago
  Is someone who accepts to automated username likely to be contributing anything of value? Human or bot, block and move on seems the best strategy.
catalogia 7y ago
Most of the "normal" people I know IRL have usernames like that.

ceejayoz 7y ago

It's such an oddly obvious tell. I'm left wondering if it's like the advance fee scams; making it blindly obvious means you only attract the truly gullible, limiting the amount of skeptical followers who'd reply publicly to your bullshit tweets.

knzhou 7y ago
It's the default username style.

tomatotomato37 7y ago

Talking semi-seriously here, but I wonder if the next evolution in bot accounts would be using name and avatars generated from KnowYourMeme content in order to defeat casual verification

learnstats2 7y ago

This is the automated handle style that Twitter gives you if you don't specify or if your first choice is not available and you click through without realising this. So that can also apply to naïve users.

dhosek 7y ago

There's one real person in my Twitter environment (I don't follow him, but we follow and interact with a lot of the same people so the algorithm shows me his tweets a fair amount) who has a handle something like John415141. I think he chose that handle ironically.

Spooky23 7y ago

It's the same problem EBay had 20 years ago. User growth is always a KPI that people care about, so there's a bias to not get aggressive about purging fake accounts. Being aggressive will also flag unsophisticated real people as well.

lukey_q 7y ago

I'm curious what you think makes this particular account a bot? To me it looks like someone who might not be particularly tech savvy who signed up for Twitter to find out about and discuss the ongoing global pandemic, which I guess you could call a "semi-political topic". To me it looks like Twitter's attempts to reach out to people who aren't already constantly online might occasionally work, which could result in a screen name or behavior that seems "strange" to people who are already very familiar with the platform

faiz7412 7y ago

I'm now wondering if people would think my twitter profile is a bot and report me because the handle has numbers representing my name in leetcode.

vangelis 7y ago

Congrats, you've found someone who accepted the autogenerated username!

brewdad 7y ago
Is someone who accepts to automated username likely to be contributing anything of value? Human or bot, block and move on seems the best strategy.

catalogia 7y ago

Most of the "normal" people I know IRL have usernames like that.