9 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
9 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Troll bots, and other interesting questions

by wayfarer
8 replies
So is it just me, or are there an unusual number of robots on the forums? Or maybe they're not robots, I can't be sure.

Usually robots ask which programming language is best. This is sure to get lots of argument and discussions going. Unfortunately these arguments always end up the same, pages of one or two sentence options with not much substance. But the OP's signature gets displayed nicely at the top, right? Sometimes maybe they're human, but I'm just saying.

Don't we have something more interesting to be saying?
#bots #interesting #questions #troll
  • Profile picture of the author Baadier Sydow
    I think they are robots because the first response is normally shortly afterwards
    Signature
    Baadier Sydow
    Budget Furniture

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6842067].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
      Originally Posted by Baadier Sydow View Post

      I think they are robots because the first response is normally shortly afterwards
      Maybe they're mixed with paid to post people. It's a cottage industry.
      Signature
      I build web things, server things. I help build the startup Veenome. | Remote Programming Jobs
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6842079].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
        Yep. I've noticed this happening a LOT lately. Especially in this section of the forum. They're usually pretty easy to spot, as most of their posts are generic one-liners (many of which use bad English, and make little or no sense). And their "join date" is almost always within the past month.

        One trick I see from time to time is they will scrape legitimate posts from other forums, and paste them here, so that their posts look legitimate (a quick Google search of part of their post wrapped in quotes will reveal this). And then a bunch of people will reply to the thread thinking they are helping out a new Warrior... but the bot will never reply back to the thread, of course!

        All you can do is report them and hope they get nuked.

        If I owned a forum like this, I'd require a minimum number of posts and "thanks" before any new members were allowed to display their sigs or links in their profile. I think that would cut down on a lot of the nonsense.
        Signature

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844054].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
          Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

          One trick I see from time to time is they will scrape legitimate posts from other forums, and paste them here, so that their posts look legitimate (a quick Google search of part of their post wrapped in quotes will reveal this). And then a bunch of people will reply to the thread thinking they are helping out a new Warrior... but the bot will never reply back to the thread, of course!
          Yep, I've noticed that too. I always report it if I see it.
          Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

          If I owned a forum like this, I'd require a minimum number of posts and "thanks" before any new members were allowed to display their sigs or links in their profile. I think that would cut down on a lot of the nonsense.
          I tend to agree. But the counter-side of that is, if you require that they have a higher post count, or thanks, or whatever, the policy could be the catalyst for a greater amount of junk posting by new members, attempting to qualify for the signature.
          Signature
          I build web things, server things. I help build the startup Veenome. | Remote Programming Jobs
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844206].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
            Originally Posted by wayfarer View Post

            I tend to agree. But the counter-side of that is, if you require that they have a higher post count, or thanks, or whatever, the policy could be the catalyst for a greater amount of junk posting by new members, attempting to qualify for the signature.
            The way I would set it up is new members wouldn't be allowed to have links in their sig/profile until they receive x number of thanks from somewhat seasoned members (those who have been here a little while, and have at least x number of thanks & posts themselves). Of course that wouldn't be totally foolproof, but I think it would drastically reduce the number of spam posts.

            Regardless, anti-spam techniques have been discussed here for several years, so for whatever reason, the powers that be must not think that it's too big of an issue to put extra measures like this in place.
            Signature

            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844465].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
              Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

              The way I would set it up is new members wouldn't be allowed to have links in their sig/profile until they receive x number of thanks from somewhat seasoned members (those who have been here a little while, and have at least x number of thanks & posts themselves). Of course that wouldn't be totally foolproof, but I think it would drastically reduce the number of spam posts.
              Yeah, I thought about that too. That would take some extra customizations though, since there's probably not a plugin to do that with the "thanks" plugin. I don't know much about vBulletin though, outside of some moderation I've done on another forum.
              Signature
              I build web things, server things. I help build the startup Veenome. | Remote Programming Jobs
              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844495].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tweakr
    I like Brandon's idea. I know at other forums like sitepoint for example; they require you to be a member for at least 90 days and have at least 15 posts (I believe) before you can even make a signature.

    It makes a forum much nicer to use without all the (same) spam all the time.

    I would like to see something like this happen here to.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844185].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
    Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

    One trick I see from time to time is they will scrape legitimate posts from other forums, and paste them here, so that their posts look legitimate (a quick Google search of part of their post wrapped in quotes will reveal this). And then a bunch of people will reply to the thread thinking they are helping out a new Warrior... but the bot will never reply back to the thread, of course!
    Yep, I've noticed that too. I always report it if I see it.
    Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

    If I owned a forum like this, I'd require a minimum number of posts and "thanks" before any new members were allowed to display their sigs or links in their profile. I think that would cut down on a lot of the nonsense.
    I tend to agree. But the counter-side of that is, if you require that they have a higher post count, or thanks, or whatever, the policy could be the catalyst for a greater amount of junk posting by new members, attempting to qualify for the signature.
    Signature
    I build web things, server things. I help build the startup Veenome. | Remote Programming Jobs
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844210].message }}

Trending Topics