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People say things like this, but the subs I frequent largely seem fine. I'm sure there are bad actors somewhere in there, but they don't seem prominent to me.

People say things like this, but the subs I frequent largely seem fine. I'm sure there are bad actors somewhere in there, but they don't seem prominent to me. > every single parenting/mom sub is inundated by formula companies. Okay, if it's every single one, show me all the formula company inundation in r/daddit. Should be easy if they're absolutely everywhere, like you say, right?

pixl97 3y ago
Look for reposts of the same topics and comments. Quite often the bots just look like contributors until you realize they've never had an original comment in their posting history. More often it seems they are involved in creating consensus and nudging votes up and down and in general making it more painful karma wise for those that don't toe the line. Not a daddit visitor, but it appears that formula is an uncommon discussion on that sub. Either it's not a popular topic, or it's being banned when it's too obvious.
- TulliusCicero 3y ago
  Okay, that poster making the claim was completely wrong then. Almost like they pulled their claim entirely out of their ass.
derbOac 3y ago
I felt that way until the other day. There was a post that got upvoted, seemed wholesome and innocuous, and then eventually someone pointed out it was borrowing material from an earlier post. So I go to check, and sure enough, the pattern of posts by the parent poster is very inhuman, to put it one way. Strings of reposts of the same thing to many many subs in a short period of time, over and over and over again. I wouldn't go so far as to say reddit has been taken over by bots but I've started to wonder more and more about it. I generally feel like things have subtly but noticably changed for the worse since the exodus but I can't name a replacement in general except for some topic specific forums here and there. On the bright side I do think the new UI has improved noticably. I still revert to the old site often but the new site is better than it used to be.
- Teever 3y ago
  Here's an example of a bot account that has an outsized influence on niche political subreddits: https://old.reddit.com/user/nimobo https://old.reddit.com/user/nimobo
- suby 3y ago
  This is an irrelevant tangent, but bots reposting content which previously was highly upvoted reminds me of exponential backoff in networking. The reposting serves as an automated way to maximally spread popular content to the widest range of website visitors, until the value of additional reposts diminishes and the bots reduce their reposting frequency on that item because it's no longer hitting the highs. It probably doesn't work out that way in practice since the karma farming bots may not be that sophisticated, but I think it's a cool idea at least.

pixl97 3y ago

Look for reposts of the same topics and comments. Quite often the bots just look like contributors until you realize they've never had an original comment in their posting history. More often it seems they are involved in creating consensus and nudging votes up and down and in general making it more painful karma wise for those that don't toe the line. Not a daddit visitor, but it appears that formula is an uncommon discussion on that sub. Either it's not a popular topic, or it's being banned when it's too obvious.

TulliusCicero 3y ago
Okay, that poster making the claim was completely wrong then. Almost like they pulled their claim entirely out of their ass.

derbOac 3y ago

I felt that way until the other day. There was a post that got upvoted, seemed wholesome and innocuous, and then eventually someone pointed out it was borrowing material from an earlier post. So I go to check, and sure enough, the pattern of posts by the parent poster is very inhuman, to put it one way. Strings of reposts of the same thing to many many subs in a short period of time, over and over and over again. I wouldn't go so far as to say reddit has been taken over by bots but I've started to wonder more and more about it. I generally feel like things have subtly but noticably changed for the worse since the exodus but I can't name a replacement in general except for some topic specific forums here and there. On the bright side I do think the new UI has improved noticably. I still revert to the old site often but the new site is better than it used to be.

Teever 3y ago
Here's an example of a bot account that has an outsized influence on niche political subreddits: https://old.reddit.com/user/nimobo https://old.reddit.com/user/nimobo
suby 3y ago
This is an irrelevant tangent, but bots reposting content which previously was highly upvoted reminds me of exponential backoff in networking. The reposting serves as an automated way to maximally spread popular content to the widest range of website visitors, until the value of additional reposts diminishes and the bots reduce their reposting frequency on that item because it's no longer hitting the highs. It probably doesn't work out that way in practice since the karma farming bots may not be that sophisticated, but I think it's a cool idea at least.