For the threads with the older one on the left: https://lemmy.world/post/14859950
(Thank you @Nelots@lemm.ee )
My understanding of how this works is that that left one is real accounts making real comments, at least in the majority.
Then when the link gets reposted, either by a bot or naturally, potentially depending on the title, the bots scrape the old comments and post them.
It’s content farming. And Reddit is probably okay with this.
The right one is the “real” accounts. Notice how the left one is newer and all the accounts have names ending with four digits, except where they aren’t copies from the right.
No, the left one is older and most the names in the right contain four numbers.
What’s going on here?
Maybe op updated the picture?
I did, because other people complained in another comment that it was confusing to not have the older thread on the left.
Anyway, it’s pretty obvious which one is which one
I saw this exact same style of bot account years ago on Tumblr. They always follow the same naming scheme: one word or two words combined and then a string of 4 digits. I bet if you go to any of their profiles, you’ll find like 4 comments that are all copied from old threads and a bunch of upvotes on completely random subs, possibly even all of them being on other bot accounts’ posts and comments.
The real question is whether they’re being used to fake activity on Reddit, sway public opinion by posting this sort of political slant, or will they later be used to advertise scams and this is just to make them seem legitimate.
Reddit probably omits bot accounts when it sells its data to AI companies
Doubt it, they are interwoven into almost any conversation with more than 70 comments.
It’s account farming. They make fake accounts look legitimate so they can use them to influence opinions on the site.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
I didn’t believe this when I first heard about it but it’s looking more true everyday
Yeah, even if we’re not quite “there” yet, it feels like we’re at least moving in that direction
I have a more realistic description of “Dead Internet Theory” that involves no conspiracy theories:
The Internet is becoming a monoculture, which is killing the vibrant, diverse, resilient, innovative space it used to be. Manifestos about a better way of life, and creative personal websites have been replaced with vapid social status posts in bland bootstrap layouts that double as data collection schemes. Technology that empowers people has been replaced with technology to restrict people. Bots masquerading as people is just the cherry on the sundae, the inevitable outcome of having created such a monoculture, a place where large orchards of content are so easy to pollute. The modern Internet ducking sucks, it has been ruined by people.
Reading the Wikipedia it seems quite unlikely, but then again maybe it’s also written by a bot.
As a human I think the Wikipedia article is correct. I’m not a bot (drinking water right now- bots cannot do this).
This gets posted all the time, and it’s frustrating that it lacks any nuance.
It’s just a spooky bedtime story… “imagine if everyone you talk to online is just a bot”
Yes a lot of online content is generated.
Yes it’s getting worse.
Yes there’s lots of bots.
However… you can choose where you spend your time online, and spend it with friends or likeminded people.
What I mean to say is, some communities on reddit are “mostly dead”, but you don’t have to go there.
I remember when the narwhal used to bacon only at midnight.
Now the narwhal is forced to bacon continuously.
This kills the narwhal.
They lost so many users they needed the “engagement” numbers for the IPO so they opened the flood gate. Now they are stuck with an issue they can’t fix without admitting the fraud.
How far does it have to go before investors start to care I wonder? I somehow doubt OP is the only person capable of perceiving and documenting this.
Never trust a default username
[adjective] [noun] [3-4 digits] is always a sign of bad news, on social media and Xbox Live
And here I thought making a default username looking one was a good idea…
Cutesy auto generated names are too useful for bots, the lazy, and fans of cutesy name combos.
Should have made defaults your approximate IP geolocation. I’m kidding of course for privacy reasons, but a little similar motivation to think about a better name during creation couldn’t hurt (looking at Reddit here).
Edit: but hey - maybe it’s not desirable for one to be able to distinguish users. I wonder… nah, Reddit would never… 😒
When you use “connect with Apple” it creates an account with a name constructed this way.
You can change it afterwards but no one does.
EDIT: Wait, is it the default Reddit way?
