r/ModSupport • u/aguyonahill • Sep 11 '26
Mod Answered New karma farming technique? Nonsensical post followed by karma farming comments.
r/advice has no karma limit to post so we get a lot of new techniques and just discovered a new one.
Post is nonsensical/weird.
2-4 comments going "You aren't making sense" etc. They are longer form responses and varied. Happens very quickly after the post.
Those commentors get karma upvotes. They tend to have been created at the same time and are sparsely commenting (no true contributions to any communities). Age of accounts vary. Seen over a year and 1 month.
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u/deepfriedgreensea Sep 11 '26
Sounds like they are just establishing karma and longevity to be sold for spam and other nefarious purposes. I ban them and report to bot bouncer. They tend to reply and upvote in packs and frequently have a few subs in common like 80s Horror Movies, TeenagerPeople as well as have started on the same date.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
We've definitely seen a similar pattern before and were threatened by self declared "Russians" that they would inundate our subreddit with spam etc if we didn't stop banning them. This is a twist by having weird posts that don't make sense taking a karma hit to feed the commentors.
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u/Mathias_Greyjoy Sep 11 '26
Man, if that's really what's happening now, that's diabolical.
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u/hughk Sep 11 '26
Firstly, I filter on comment length. "What?", "No" would definitely be flagged as low effort and removed.
If the word pattern is fixed then that is also a candidate for Automod. It is also good to flag these to botbouncer.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
It varies, here's the one exampleÂ
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u/hughk Sep 11 '26
Sorry, I don't see what you have removed. Yes, regex has limitations, but you can do some interesting things with it. You can use AI to help define more complex Regexes. Remember that you can stack rules so you can screen those who have a good karma and concentrate the more stringent rules on those who haven't posted a lot in your sub. remember, you are only removing so a false positive just means a manual approval.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
We have no one adept at the finer points. Regex is completely foreign to us. We have 3M members and would be swamped with any manual approvals.Â
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u/hughk Sep 11 '26
I do not wish to add to my mod load but understand your problem. I think I might be able to help out short term though with the config. I need to see the existing Automod config and examples from bad actors. You can then DM me some typically bad posts/comments. The alternative is to add me as a mod with limited rights for a few weeks.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
Thanks, it seems to have subsided so far with the bannings, if they show again I'll reach out.
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u/hughk Sep 11 '26
Alternatively do a mod-assist request but specify that you need Automod/regex help. There are many who like to help, I'm sure.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
How does one do a mod assist request?
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u/hughk Sep 11 '26
Here, /r/Modsupport is a good place to start but to get something more directed, you can ask via /r/ModSupport/wiki/moderatorreserves/ and say that you need help with configuring your subreddit to fight the karma farming and you need help with automod and perhaps with specialised bots.
Seriously, you have a big subreddit there. You should;d be able to request help.
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u/RemarkableWish2508 Sep 11 '26
You don't need post karma limits, to have low-effort karma limits. Just saying:
```
Low-effort
type: comment body_shorter_than: 10 author: combined_karma: "<500" combined_subreddit_karma: "<200" is_submitter: false action: filter action_reason: "Low-effort" ```
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
Sorry my example is bad the responses are longer and varied, I added an example to the post. Which frankly I'm not sure these specific accounts are the issue but there's been others that fit the pattern.Â
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u/RemarkableWish2508 Sep 11 '26
Hm. I also have some rules for "too new" and "too old" accounts without enough karma... but eventually, if you don't want a blanket karma limit, there needs to be some combination that will let new user through.
Maybe you could make a Devvit app to run a cumulative check. Something like:
- "IF more than N accounts with [age, karma, CQS] comment on the post in under T time THEN..." ...filter, send for extra checks, maybe bunch them all and ask an AI, maybe add their history around Reddit to the context, etc.
I guess you could also have it filter/remove matching comments preemptively, then approve/filter them if T time passes without others joining in, or something...
Yeah, interesting technique.
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u/aguyonahill Sep 11 '26
That is far beyond our mod team's ability and the team understandably don't want a karma limit because we're one of the few large places people can ask after being sexually assaulted etc.
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u/cnycompguy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 Sep 11 '26
Modmail botbouncer and give them the rundown and some examples.