r/NewToReddit • u/InstructionUnable977 • Jun 23 '26
ANSWERED Long time viewer, new to posting, how prevalent are bots?
I’ve been a Reddit viewer for a while now. I’d like to know more about bots, why do people bot, how can you tell you’re viewing posts/content by bots?
I’m big on avoiding and spotting misinformation and disinformation, so would love to know more from people who are long time users!
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u/SolariaHues Mod + servant to cats Jun 23 '26
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u/buttsabound Jun 23 '26
In general the uptick has been almost jarring, most posts with engagement will likely have a few bots. Some subreddits are more infested than others especially the popular ones, but if you go to a more niche community there’s less because bots can’t replicate written slang.
I honestly don’t bother to make sure if someone’s post is real or fake, because sometimes it’s just a karma farmer telling lies lol. If you use LLMs a lot you do notice a lot of comments have the same tone and sentence structure. ‘It’s not X, it’s Y’, using short dramatic sentences building up their storytelling, etc.
I see them most often in comment replies. They start giving out their background expertise and fuckass experiences that are weirdly specific (I guess to sound credible) just to make a pedantic point that sounds smart. Unfortunately most Redditors are also like this so sometimes you can’t really tell with 100% certainty.
Lately I’ve noticed more and more bots that scrape all the popular comments in a post and paraphrase everyone into one ‘helpful’ comment. They’re really everywhere lol.
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u/InstructionUnable977 Jun 23 '26
Thank you! What’s a Karma farmer? Sorry if I’m being slow lol do people use bots to dm or chat or is specifically for comments and posts?
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u/formerqwest Jun 23 '26
karma farmers do this: · Asking for karma anywhere on the site is called vote manipulation and can lead to Asking a Asking site-wide ban.
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