Increased Bot Activity

Author: Mall
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Total: 18
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#1
Mall
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"Unfortunately we're being targeted by more bots. It's now too many to keep up with banning before they make posts.
Thankfully, bots mostly just create accounts and never make posts. So there's no expectation of the forums being overrun.
The main ways bots are spotted are as follows:
1) Reports dashboard.
2) Suspicious username as most recent poster in thread.
3) Suspicious username and/or profile avatar in members list.
When spotting a bot post, please just report it and continue on with your day.
Please do not make direct replies (it effectively hides them behind you).
If continuing the thread past them, please ensure you've reported them."

I failed to see the issue from this announcement.

What is supposed to be the so called problem here?

#2
Best.Korea
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Bots usually do spamming or post ads.
#3
Best.Korea
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Recently, one bot recommended me AI in German.

I asked "why would I want it in German" but never got a response.
#4
Statichead
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weird I havent seen any bots at all.
I saw one guy with an AI generated pfp but i dont think that was a bot
#5
WyIted
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@Statichead
weird I havent seen any bots at all.
I saw one guy with an AI generated pfp but i dont think that was a bot
Why isn't everyone's pfp ai generated? 

You can make it more custom and it costs less than commissioning an artist to make your pfp
#6
ebuc
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@Mall
..."  Botflies, also known as warble flies, heel flies, and gadflies, are a family of flies known as the Oestridae.

...Their larvae are internal parasites of mammals, some species growing in the host's flesh and others within the gut. Dermatobia hominis is the only species of botfly known to parasitize humans routinely, though other species of flies cause myiasis in humans.
General
...A botfly,[1] also written bot fly,[2] bott fly[3] or bot-fly[4] in various combinations, is any fly in the family Oestridae "...
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#7
Mall
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@Best.Korea
So, what's the problem with that?
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#8
Mall
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@ebuc
???
#9
Mharman
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@Mall
Botflies.
#10
Statichead
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@WyIted
I guess it's up to preference. I prefer to have a more cohesive pfp while also supporting a small artist.
#11
RationalMadman
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@Statichead
My current pfp is AI generated. You'd struggle to get an artist to make the similar vibe better.

I know this because I used to be very good at finding images and tweaking them instead but AI art is now at a level where I can make this pfp with ease and the only hard part is removing that bit behind his head sticking out or to make his robes different (or make a sword more involved realistically)
#12
RationalMadman
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@ebuc
Sometimes you are funny as fuck btw
#13
ebuc
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Sometimes you are funny as fuck btw
To Rational Man

Aw shucks.  Funny as -e-buck.
By the sea side,
casting stones on to the beach,
chasing away the bot-flies, from my dream castles in the sand.

Ebuc fades off, into the distant event horizon of life,
swarming with bots, in the jungle beyond the living.
#14
Barney
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@Mall
I failed to see the issue from this announcement.

What is supposed to be the so called problem here?
Bots are most often used for evil, and have ruined many websites with their spam and scams.
#15
Barney
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@Statichead
weird I havent seen any bots at all.
That's most likely because we are still on top of banning any which create forum posts; along with deleting said posts. 
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#16
Mall
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@Barney
"Bots are most often used for evil, and have ruined many websites with their spam and scams."

Ok what are examples of this that has happened on this site or affected this site?

Did somebody click on something that got scammed or what?

Note: anything requesting personal or payment information on this site, RED FLAG.

I trust everyone would have this duly noted.
#17
Barney
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@Mall
Ok what are examples of this that has happened on this site or affected this site?
Since we delete them, there isn't remaining evidence of their impact.

If curious what it looks like without moderation, our sister site had almost all threads being created by spambots, and the rest overrun by them: https://web.archive.org/web/20220522142012/https://www.debate.org/forums/debate.org/

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#18
Mall
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@Barney
So what was their impact?