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The word 'bot' is increasingly being used as an insult on social media
- PickledHotdog 2y agoYeah, in my experience it's typically used by people who can't counter your argument and people who seem likely to be fooled by actual bots. They're the same people, as it happens.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y agoNPC is the more appropriate term to insult people with. The NPCs are misprogrammed if they're using bot like that.
- 082349872349872 2y agoIf non-metabolic bots are using 'bot' with each other they should go ahead — it's their word, after all.
- richbell 2y ago"NPC" and "bot" used to have different meanings. It'd be interesting if the terms converged. I believe that "bot" gained popularity around 2012, specifically in reference to influence campaigns on Twitter. If you accused someone of being a Russian bot, you were saying that they a) were a shill, and b) possibly not even human, in the literal sense.
- herculity275 2y agoNoticed this in Georgian politics - paid shills and people whose behavior is indistinguishable from paid shills are increasingly referred to as "bots" with no presumption of being non-human.
- kbos87 2y agoI’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in the comments section on TikTok, and it gives me a tiny morsel of hope. It’s increasingly common to see people pointing out commenters that are likely either bots or users that are simply rage baiting. Yes it gets thrown around as an insult sometimes, but it’s often applied in situations where I think it’s correct too. It’s a tiny sign to me that discourse does shift and people are becoming more social media literate over time.
- lazide 2y agoI got called a bot once here on HN when I wrote a very detailed and informative post on what I think almost anyone could only call an insanely esoteric topic. I took it as a compliment, though I don’t think the poster intended it that way. I think they thought I was cheating/using chatGPT/literally a bot. Nope, just that kind of nerd.
- elpocko 2y agoRepost from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40635010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40635010
- tmnvix 2y agoI do get a bit of a kick out of the idea that there are bots out there accusing each other of being bots.
- barfbagginus 2y ago[flagged]
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago[dupe] More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40635010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40635010