Lots of 1-2-3 bot posts today?

[A930Rocket]

Have I not noticed it before? It seems like there are a lot of 1-2-3 post by bots on old threads.

[rwest]

I have noticed some in he last few weeks including some from what appears to be a poster who opened their account here many, many years ago? Maybe the bots have hijacked their account or have figured out how to change the date!

Why do they restart old threads instead of just responding to a current one? Maybe those threads were current when the bot planted their first seed?

[A930Rocket]

Yes, I looked at some, and they joined years ago. I clicked a quote on their post, to see if they had something hidden in their post, but didn’t see anything.

[rockfan4]

I think they - and for all I know, they might be a bot - search for a keyword in a title that sort of matches whatever crap link they're trying to promote at the time. You see the weird post today, no link to a shady site. 3 or 4 days later they come back and edit their post to add the link. I think another site I frequent locks posts after 24 hours or so, after that, no editing. Of course, that would be bad if you had a for sale post and you couldn't edit out things that sold, so maybe only for threads not in classified boards?

It might not be possible, but one idea would be to lock all threads with no new posts in 7 days, or 30 days, or 365 days. Or you could only add to them after you have 100, 500, 20,000 posts.

Or how about auto-moderation - 10 users cry "bot" on a post, and it gets deleted. Boy, wouldn't that make PARF fun?

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Have I not noticed it before? It seems like there are a lot of 1-2-3 post by bots on old threads.

Are you joking? This forum has been permeated by "fake users", bots, spammers, etc. for years and has been on steroids for about 4 months now.

I'm just about through here ...

Sorta sux

edited: There are lots of threads about this...

[Seahawk]

Please report to admin…not my area

[cabmandone]

What's the gain by bumping an old thread? I don't get the motivation behind it.

[berettafan]

I guess it's the part where a link is inserted? I dunno either. testing?

[Seahawk]

Until I get guidance from PP Admin, I have deleted some threads and let the OP know.

I am open to any suggestions, btw, since my tech ain't savvy.

[herr_oberst]

Something's going on. I'm not one to dwell on phantom conspiracies, but now that the election is over, I see contrarian views posted to comment sections that I suspect are bot-derived.

For one example, I enjoy "Pilot Debrief" on YouTube. The host dissects mostly GA plane crashes and offers theories on the why and wherefore. If the pilot in question has made obvious, glaring mistakes before and during the flight, the comment section will be chock full of criticism towards that pilot, but occasionally you get a "he seemed like a really cool guy" thrown in. One sentence, just like that. Just trolling, but often no follow up arguments. Like a fart in an elevator.

My theory is it's most likely done to add clicks to the algorithm, but in the above example, the owner of the channel seems pretty above-board, and unlikely to subscribe to a bot service to enhance his views and comment posts; maybe what we're noticing is a more invisible version of what we recently learned about "Honey"?

http://forum.level1techs.com/t/honey-browser-plugin-scam/222717

It doesn't explain why it would fish out old posts on an old-man car forum but maybe that's just an artifact of the AI, like those weird hands and feet you sometimes see on AI generated photos...

Just a theory. If it's happening for evil intent it'll be far too late for me to worry about because the damage will be done.

[stevej37]

In the last year or so, there have been many, but I never see them with links in their comments.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by stevej37

In the last year or so, there have been many, but I never see them with links in their comments.

Steve, that's the trick. They make a harmless post, then come back a few days later and edit it to include a link to a website.

I asked a bot why they do that, here's their answer -

The primary purpose of adding spam links to forum posts is to artificially boost the search engine ranking of a website by creating numerous backlinks to it from other online sources, often with the goal of driving more traffic to the linked site, usually for commercial reasons like selling products or services; essentially, they are trying to manipulate search engine algorithms to rank higher in search results without providing genuine value to the forum discussion.
Key points about spam links on forums:

SEO manipulation:
The main goal is to improve search engine optimization (SEO) by generating a large number of links pointing to the spammer's site, even if the links are irrelevant to the forum conversation.

Low-quality content:
Spam links often lead to websites with low-quality content or content that is not relevant to the forum topic.
Negative impact on forum quality:
Spam links can clutter forums, making it harder for users to find valuable information and negatively impacting the user experience.
Detection by moderators:
Forum moderators actively monitor for spam links and often remove them, sometimes even banning users who repeatedly engage in this practice.

That probably isn't going to format correctly.

Adding the link later gets around the moderator detection, as often by the time the link is added, the thread has fallen off the main page. I was going to point out a user doing this, but since the posts I can remember have been deleted, I can't show you an example.

The next time you see a weird, sort of out of place post by a user with a low post count, click on their name and select "view other posts by ". Then look at some of those posts, and they will often turn some of the words in their post into a hyperlink to a website (the letters turn blue instead of black). Hover over those and you'll see a link to a site that hopefully you never would want to click on.

Edit - Turbofan would be an example of a user who posts stuff, then comes back 3 - 4 days later and adds a link.
https://forums.pelicanparts.com/search.php?do=finduser&u=88928

[stevej37]

^^^ I'll try that next time. I can't remember the thread I saw and answered it by calling the bot a 'wisebot'....got no answer.
I think it was this last Saturday.

[wildthing]

These users (or bots) post to multiple threads, but only a few of them have links to product pages. Most likely to increase their rankings in search results, and/or get people to enter credit card numbers with no intention of shipping a product.

[KFC911]

I prefer Heavy Duty Reynolds wrap...

The bogus artificially high "active users" count of recent month is "code" driven, obviously being manipulated, and whether internal or externally driven, might be by design or who knows ???

The low count spammers/bots ....

Give me, Paxuzu, and a couple of other the capability, and I'll "ban" them and let someone else decide ...

I've been wrong once ....

The IDs & invisible links might be revived & added years later... old stuff ... now on steroids.

IT KEEPS OLD THREADS alive as real foks exit ... and activity on the revived threads is "good" for bidness.... who the hell knows ?

And why .... who cares... ???

But it sucks ....

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Please report to admin…not my area

They are probably busy ... and I mean that. Now with the fires, etc. this forum is not worth it right now.

Break time ...

[Eric at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by KC911

They are probably busy ... and I mean that. Now with the fires, etc. this forum is not worth it right now.

Break time ...

Not sure what else I can do, but i'm all ears. You can always PM me and I can share ideas with the rest of the team.

Besides the spam posts you see on the forum, every day I also get ~100 emails through the contact us for forum stuff which I have to sift through. Pain in the butt but it is what it is. That's besides the moderating of forum posts which the moderator team goes through a few times a day.

[KFC911]

Eric, I appreciate you efforts. Some of what I observe may be "by design" insofar as unusual activity in recent months ... is it?

These spambot thingys ... would you delegate "temp ban"/thread alerts to a few long time "early birds" that eat worms... PM'ing a mod has never worked.... for decades. Pazuzu, I and a couple of more could open a can of early-bot-whup-azz spray.

Go deal with your fires ..... seriously and best of luck.

This is just petty stuff ... don't pet the sweaty stuff either

[Eric at Pelican Parts]

Spammers and bot stuff by design? Definitely not, as we hate dealing with that stuff and it would make everybody's lives much easier if we didn't have that issue. If this was put in to make everyone's lives unpleasant, ya'll and me a like, i'd sure as heck like to speak to whoever did that.

I do remember one time where someone with an old account probably was hacked and posted something out of a blue. We did end up permabanning the account and the original member didn't contact us about their account being hacked, figured they moved on already. I believe one other instance one of the members did reach out and say their account may have been compromised so I reset their pw info for them.

If I do see a spam post with a link, those get permabanned by me right away.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by KC911

Give me, Paxuzu, and a couple of other the capability, and I'll "ban" them and let someone else decide ...

Wait just one stinkin' minute...don't be dragging me into your anti-spammer racism!




Getting spammers banned is a high point of my otherwise miserable and lonely life!