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The state of reddit (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 year ago by Parsani@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Log off of reddit, your just talking to bots lol

https://reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/s/2arHLwdwhI

all 42 comments

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[-] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 84 points 1 year ago

Normally I'm skeptical of "Reddit is full of bots" claims because Occam's Razor tells me it's probably just a bunch of wealthy white techbros having wealthy white techbro opinions

But exact comment chains being posted verbatim months later is incredibly damning

[-] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 46 points 1 year ago

The internet is dead

(exept hexbear)

[-] Parsani@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago

It's a bit surreal to see tbh

[-] LiberalScratcher@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

A couple of years ago the Navy bought an ad campaign which included them streaming on twitch everyday. They always had a few thousand viewers which I thought was bullshit especially because there were only 10 or so people chatting. After watching the chat for about 30 minutes the same 10 chatters had the exact same things to say again. 30 minutes later it happened again.

I was going to document it, but by the time I decided to people like y’all came in and started spamming things like “What’s your favorite war crime????” and it became way to chaotic to prove it.

[-] laziestflagellant@hexbear.net 71 points 1 year ago

we are past dead internet theory. we are rapidly approaching necromorph internet theory

[-] laziestflagellant@hexbear.net 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

UPDATE: Just got a DM from the bots on reddit: "MAKE US WHOLE"

I figure that either means they want to incorporate my brain into their biomechanical large language model, or else they made a typo trying to ask for a specific kind of art commission.

Either way I think that's a good sign for me to log off

[-] shath@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

make but hole

[-] emizeko@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago

long live the new flesh

[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 53 points 1 year ago

10mo ago same-picture 1hr ago.

[-] flan@hexbear.net 41 points 1 year ago

this is basically every post in the default subs. In some cases bots will also recycle comments from imgur and other places

[-] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago

At first glance this looks terrifying, as if they've created bots to emulate discourse and inflate content/engagement/numbers for whatever reason.

Reading through it all, though, all the accounts on the left side (the newer post) have two English words, usually separated by underscores, and 3-4 numbers on the end. Including the OP. So it looks like it's just a coordinated bot army that reposts all content and then replicates all the old comments, character for character.

[-] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago

This is the default reddit suggested username generation. The bot accounts literally just accepted whatever reddit suggested.

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

And all the bot accounts were created on the same day, August 3rd 2023. And their only activity is in this post.

[-] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 37 points 1 year ago

why did i instinctively read the comments in the link you posted lol

Death to America

[-] showmustgo@hexbear.net 31 points 1 year ago

Hello I'm Word_Word_1234 and I'm a real person

[-] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

Ha ha same here!

[-] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Illegally? Didn't the people vote for it when they (supposedly) elected him?

[-] Parsani@hexbear.net 27 points 1 year ago

He did go about doing it in the worst way which opened it up to a challenge in court.

[-] charly4994@hexbear.net 28 points 1 year ago

Honestly didn't believe it so I went and looked and found both threads. Really fucking wild to just see it so brazen.

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

Good choice of avatar

[-] Ascend910@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago

Can someone please explain it to me, I don't get it :(

[-] Parsani@hexbear.net 63 points 1 year ago

The right is the original post, with a selection of comments from 10 months ago. The left is a repost of the same image 5 hours ago with a bunch of bots reposting the same comments from 10 months ago.

[-] ratboy@hexbear.net 33 points 1 year ago

That is so weird!!! What's the point, does it increase revenue for reddit or something because engagement?

[-] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Advertisers buy the accounts, and use them to shill products. You know those posts where some product is being highlighted or is even just visible, someone comes along and asks what it is, and then someone links it? It's so they can do that. Maybe even have a few sock puppets to talk about how much they like it. If these were all fresh accounts, the scheme is easy to see through. If you look through their post history and instead find a 5 year old account, with hundreds of comments (good comments, upvoted comments), you or anyone else is less likely to think it's an advertisement. It just looks like a normal user.

And reddit doesn't care, because it's more content for the real users to browse, and to show off for an investor.

[-] ratboy@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

That's so fucking weird. I know there are bot accounts, especially with how many beautiful women seem to want my hot hot body on there or whatever, but to have them become so convincing with a huge post history is creepy as fuck. Wonder how many bots I've talked to

[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 24 points 1 year ago

so-far "Valuation"

[-] Currently_on_Nitrous@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago

Astroturfing or advertising. They can generate a bunch of medium to high karma accounts with genuine looking post history, then sign a deal with an advertising firm or lobby group to make posts on their behalf. They'll steal a bunch of posts like OP's then start posting stuff like "Biden is actually the most progressive president" and fill the comment section with some propaganda. This site sells a range of services.

[-] Ascend910@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago

reddit moment

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 24 points 1 year ago

The left column is all bots. You can tell because their usernames are all [word][word][numbers]. But notice how two usernames on the right column fit the same exact pattern. There's a good chance they are bots as well.

[-] Ascend910@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Does it mean there are only bots left on Reddit?

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

A tonne of activity there is definitely bot. It's almost impossible to tell without getting side by side like this though.

[-] gunter@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Left, like left of the center of the image, or left by the hand of god?

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago

It is incredibly easy to create Reddit bots, I know some first and second year programming students who did it for a university assignment

[-] Melonius@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What percent of the upvotes on the dead link repost are bots or just average reading allergic redditors?

[-] betelgeuse@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

Reddit is just 30 people talking to about 2 million bots. The bots are trying to accumulate enough karma so the account is valuable to advertisers. Reddit gets engagement so they don't care. Advertisers get high-clout "real people" accounts. And the techno-scavengers make a few hundred dollars or a few thousand per year.