this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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The bot takeover continues apace. After testing their strat on a smaller sub, they now have a post in the top 10 of /r/all (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by theinternetftw@lemmy.world to c/reddit@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just checked in on the subreddit mentioned in this post. It's still getting bot posts in the same style, which get upvoted accordingly and commented on with the vast majority not noticing or caring that it's slop. Mods still out to lunch.

Likewise, there's now a post on /r/all (seen using old.reddit, the only way to get to it now) at #10 and climbing with the same style but targeting povertyfinance, a bigger sub (one with a pinned message claiming to be a "heavily moderated subreddit"). If you look at the users, you can see the details of how they create a couple comments in random subs until one of those comments get several dozen upvotes, then go for the viral post. All accounts make a move around 8 days after creation. And it's working, no problem.

Two bot profiles that just reached this point for comparison/posterity:

https://imgur.com/a/6bz8XxI

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[–] in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social 29 points 2 months ago (3 children)

They're here and on Mastodon too.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 24 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Sometimes people respond with contextually sensible words, but its almost like they didn't actually read what I said, just the topic of what I said.

I have been chalking it up to international userbase and possible translation issues, but maybe I'm encountering some bots? I would say its about 1/10 of my responses is kind of... Off?

[–] in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is also my anecdotal experience as well. Which sucks, because I'm autistic so I get accused of being a bot all the time...🙃

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I used to use bullet points in a lot of my posts. Been accused of being a bot for that reason.

A bot wouldn't have my bad spelling thank you very much!

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, if you put too much thought into formatting and structure, you get labeled a bot now.

This isn’t going to be good for society in the long run.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Listen buddy, after Covid the brain just never quite got back into the groove on online conversations for some of us. I feel very called out, lol.

There are a lot of bots, but some of us are legit just a little damaged.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

LOL

considering my biggest loss from Reddit was Cannabis communities, I can relate to the brain damaged perspective.

(I do not think cannabis causes brain damage, but I have been known to say some dumb shit while stoned).

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I tend to leave long rambling comments in replies after smoking a bowl sometimes

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I made this comment on a post the other day, and I got this reply. I've read and reread it multiple times but I still can't figure out what the hell they're trying to say.

Now after reading your and OP's comments, I'm wondering if I've also been replied to by a bot.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 3 points 2 months ago

yeah NGL the double quotation has me super confused in their first line, I think this is a pretty good example of what I am talking about and I appreciate you bring it to the thread.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The USA abandoned and betrayed its Afghani translators.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

oh wow, the subject matter is not funny at all, but the joke is... Goddamn got me here.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago

tbh i think ive done this a few times now, scrolling lemmy half asleep. hopefully my non-native sounding english can show i'm a human though lol

[–] WhiteRabbit@lemmy.today 4 points 2 months ago

They get plenty of traction too.

[–] Swaus01@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

They're here?

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm getting suspicious of the relationship posts here. They follow a lot of the algorithm trends that take off on reddit, and I think some instances don't screen on sign up for people looking to set up a bot

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I know people like to hate on piefeds "Attitude" % on users, but you can clearly see on piefed if a user is mass down-voting posts, if they are new, if they have been flagged by other instances as bots/spam/etc.... it helps with finding red flags on accounts that just popped into existence.

I always get suspicious of accounts with firstsecondword123 because this is the fediverse, you dont need to post-pend numbers if you dont want to. Just make your own instance or something. But you see a lot of bots that do that, mostly on the big social media sites.

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

that's a pretty good defense of it. I'll probably end up getting a piefed, even though that attitude thing creeped me out

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 3 points 2 months ago

It works more often than not. I think it just needs to be revamped into something other than "attitude" as the verbiage. Its more nuanced than that....but I have no idea what is the correct "way" of saying it. It helps so much though in day to day posting and commenting. It essentially helps me find out if someone is a bot/troll/of just someone with an unfortunate wrong opinion lol.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 months ago

all the relationship ones on reddit are AI/ fake. its so preposterous sounding its not believable.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Something very similar: the python community is being overrun by AI bots:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/1s7gw20/the_amount_of_ai_generated_project_showcases_here/

Its happening to pypi as well: https://old.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/1sek3gq/i_published_my_first_pypi_package_few_ago_copycat/

AI is taking over posts and people are having issues finding out if things are real or not on reddit and other sites.

[–] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

“ All accounts make a move around 8 days after creation. And it’s working, no problem.”

That's probably a result of a lot of subs prohibiting comments from accounts less than seven days old.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Mods: "That's it... I'm making it so they have to be 9 days old now... And permabanning the first commenter I get from the announcement. Fuck yeah, now I'm modding!" Cracks open a Fresca

[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Meta^2

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

If you use an app that pays Reddit for api access, that app can still show /all/

[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, they mostly show up at the subs with the most traffic, and of course, farm their way up before the account could be sold. Doesn't help that Spezzit actively wants users to "curate" their profiles, so making it more difficult to investigate whether the account is a bot or not.