|
Title: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: eternalgloom on June 28, 2016, 06:24:42 PM I came across this thread in Bitcoin Discussion, made by a member who has equal amount of activity and posts, and I was wondering if this is the work of a bot or not.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1528244.0 User: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=528686 As you can see, the thread has just one line of text and IMO threads like this are just spam. Looking at the post history of the user in question, I would assume he's just a bot that gains activity for the account. I'm curious to see what you guys think of this, since no-one except me has mentioned anything about it in the thread itself. Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: actmyname on June 28, 2016, 06:43:13 PM Probably not a bot but someone just account farming. Although the posts seem random as hell, I don't think that it's the work of a bot.
SOME replies do have a little bit of relevance to the thread. (Though I do see a lot of these ^^ posts, they don't seem automated) If it were a bot, there wouldn't be the gap in posts between its most recent one (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1528244.msg15376188#msg15376188), the one before (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1338499.msg14574512#msg14574512), and the one after (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1380011.msg14036707#msg14036707). Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: eternalgloom on June 28, 2016, 06:51:53 PM Yeah, looking at his entire post history, and I'm now thinking it's probably not a bot. The first page of his post history made me think it was a bot though.
But why start a thread with just one line of text and not giving any additional info, it just baffles me. I would report threads like this, but I'd probably be in the wrong to do so in this case, or not? Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: actmyname on June 28, 2016, 06:58:01 PM Yeah, looking at his entire post history, and I'm now thinking it's probably not a bot. The first page of his post history made me think it was a bot though. Don't stop at reporting the thread. (I would agree with this) Report the user as well, as you have done so here. I'm going to go ahead and start reporting all of his posts from the first page. But why start a thread with just one line of text and not giving any additional info, it just baffles me. I would report threads like this, but I'd probably be in the wrong to do so in this case, or not? I think I've found that the ^^ posts by him are his way of "deleting" content? Perhaps instead of deleting the post he only edited it. Check this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1320736.msg13496492#msg13496492). And this one. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1305807.msg13373107#msg13373107) In fact, yes, Check ]url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314050.0]this thread[/url] as well. I think he just edits out the original post and some subsequent posts for whatever reason. And hey, I found you! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314050.msg13466925#msg13466925) After going through some analysis, I find that a lot of those "^^" threads are his attempts at creating some sort of website but finding that there were criticism and some problems. Perhaps then he wanted to rid himself of those posts? Apart from that, his regular posts are garbage. Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: Lauda on June 28, 2016, 07:01:23 PM You know, the best course of action (when you find someone suspicious) is to either report them using the Report-to-moderator function or reporting them directly to a moderator (via PM) for evaluation. Users keep opening threads about this kind of users, even though it isn't something special (as we've dealt with a lot of these cases).
The thread is pretty much useless and a quick analysis of the user shows that their posts are of no value. I thank you for finding the user. I will push this case to someone who can handle it. ~Lauda Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: eternalgloom on June 28, 2016, 07:01:37 PM Yeah, looking at his entire post history, and I'm now thinking it's probably not a bot. The first page of his post history made me think it was a bot though. Don't stop at reporting the thread. (I would agree with this) Report the user as well, as you have done so here. I'm going to go ahead and start reporting all of his posts from the first page. But why start a thread with just one line of text and not giving any additional info, it just baffles me. I would report threads like this, but I'd probably be in the wrong to do so in this case, or not? I think I've found that the ^^ posts by him are his way of "deleting" content? Perhaps instead of deleting the post he only edited it. Check this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1320736.msg13496492#msg13496492). And this one. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1305807.msg13373107#msg13373107) In fact, yes, Check ]url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314050.0]this thread[/url] as well. I think he just edits out the original post and some subsequent posts for whatever reason. And hey, I found you! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314050.msg13466925#msg13466925) After going through some analysis, I find that a lot of those "^^" threads are his attempts at creating some sort of website but finding that there were criticism and some problems. Perhaps then he wanted to rid himself of those posts? Apart from that, his regular posts are garbage. Haha, that's just too funny, he probably removed his website because of my comment :) **Edit: You know, the best course of action (when you find someone suspicious) is to either report them using the Report-to-moderator function or reporting them directly to a moderator (via PM) for evaluation. Users keep opening threads about this kind of users, even though it isn't something special (as we've dealt with a lot of these cases). Yeah I agree with this and I wouldn't normally start a thread in the Meta section about it, but I've been seeing many of these threads and just found it very weird that most of the people participating in the thread don't just call the user out. But yeah, signature spammers probably like threads like this, so it's no surprise. The thread is pretty much useless and a quick analysis of the user shows that their posts are of no value. I thank you for finding the user. I will push this case to someone who can handle it. ~Lauda Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: Lauda on June 28, 2016, 07:07:08 PM Yeah I agree with this and I wouldn't normally start a thread in the Meta section about it, but I've been seeing many of these threads and just found it very weird that most of the people participating in the thread don't just call the user out. Here's what you should consider: Why would signature spammers harm the ground that they're using to farm up their post count? It's possibly that some of the senior members have noticed it and reported it, but it just hasn't been handled yet. Title: Re: Useless thread, possibly made by a bot to gain activity, your thoughts? Post by: tommorisonwebdesign on June 28, 2016, 07:16:21 PM i just wanted to point out that it's almost impossible to participate in a constructive manner to threads like this. if the who thread is off topic spam, there is little context to reply to. I would think CAPtCHAs would be enough to stop the spam, but as pointed out earlier this is probably not a bot but an account farmer. As difficult as the situation is, (at the moment at least) there isn't much that can be done. it is getting harder and harder to post on-topic, sensical posts, especially when the topics being created is spam to begin with.
|