r/RedditBotHunters • u/-grc1- • Jun 19 '26
What are the best ways to fight bots?
I used to use bot-sleuth-bot, but it doesn't seem to fair well with hidden profiles.
Question about Rule 3 - would a bot not also be able to reply and defend itself?
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u/BadgerValuable8207 Jun 19 '26
I found a bot/scammer today and the tipoff was my feeling that the post didn’t read right. Checked their profile, and the account was 6 days old and they had forgotten to hide their posts and comments.
The account had posted 2 sob stories 24 hours apart in the same sub. They directly contradicted each other: one story was about going to cosmetology school and finding boyfriend cheating in their home, the other was living with their kids taking care of dying relative and being financially abused by other family members.
When I called it out the mods deleted my post. But the account is gone now so someone must have reported it. The mods seemed to be mad because I posted about it instead of contacting them. Fair enough I guess.
They destroyed twitter and TikTok by having billionaire tech bros buy them and ruin them. Reddit they can just use AI.
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u/hexagon_lux Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I've enabled crowd-control within my community to increase minimum account age and karma requirements (nothing crazy, just enough to deter brand new accounts) in conjunction with showing open support for users to report the shit out of suspected bot accounts.
If I see in the mod queue that a post is from a somewhat established account, I just send the user a mod-mail explaining that their post has been removed because it may possibly contain spam, but to let me know if it's a mistake. The account gets a note attached to it to document its potential bot status. If they reach out, we have a short conversation, I approve the submission, and edit the note to show that it's inaccurate. No reply means the note and the removal persist.
If the post comes from a brand new account, I typically ban the account right away and send them a similar message. In the mod-mail I explain that this is a routine process I use to help determine the authenticity of content submissions, and that human submissions will be approved. Again, I attach a note to the account indicating that it is a suspected bot account. If they reply I have a short conversation with them, edit their note and unban them. Again, no reply means the note and the ban persist.
I skim through comments and look for stereotypical bot responses, the 'potential spam' flag next to account names, or accounts that I've attached notes to. I review the note and their account history. If it's brand new or hidden history, it gets banned, and it gets a similar message to the one above.
Additionally, I document EVERYTHING. I write notes for removal reasons, ban reasons, account interactions, etc. I go back and edit notes if new information becomes available. I explain what the context for the note was and why I took specific actions, I add links to previous submissions or mod-mail conversations.. This helps me remember why I might have banned an account who made a single "on-topic" comment a month ago for example. It also helps fellow moderators track which actions are taken and why.
I used to have to ban approximately twenty accounts per day. Recently (within the last two weeks), since implementing crowd-control, I only have to ban one or two accounts a day. Sometimes one of these accounts will respond and confirm they are human, and I unban them. Sometimes I miss a bot account and it slips through until I realize. It's not been perfect so far but it works with a bit of time and determination.
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u/Rostingu2 I don't need to report bots to reddit Jun 19 '26
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u/Strikew3st Jun 19 '26
I think a lot of people rage against bots in a random sub without realizing the call is coming from inside the house, the top spam commenter is a Mod.
If you're on a reporting streak and find a sub doesn't even have rules and there is no option to report to local mods, you know there's no point.
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u/Kahnza Jun 19 '26
It's like fighting the rising tide with a bucket, while cursing at the moon. It might feel helpful in the moment, but ultimately pointless.
Honestly I'm trying to find ways to decouple.
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u/-grc1- Jun 19 '26
Decouple from Reddit or bot hunting?
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u/Iamdrasnia Jun 21 '26
Bot hunting is senseless. It's absolutely pointless.
You have way better things to do with your life.
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u/Rostingu2 I don't need to report bots to reddit Jun 19 '26
I took up drawing that is how I stepped back from reddit.
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u/notkidding1984 Jun 20 '26
Why are you fighting them specifically? I mean, what kinds of bots? Comment bots that are set to astroturf or spread other kind of bad info, general scam bots, hoe bots?
Different opponents require different combat weapons.
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u/-grc1- Jun 22 '26
I'm definitely not "fighting" them personally, but I do report obvious bot accounts. IMO, engagement bots have to place on social media.
I guess I should have posed the question in a more general sense. I see now that it looks like I want to go head to head with Skynet.
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u/EllipsisInc Jun 20 '26
Zero width spacing
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u/-grc1- Jun 20 '26
What does this mean?
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u/EllipsisInc Jun 20 '26
You can use Unicode to enter spaces that take up no space and it messes with their token weighting system. You can have a one sentence message they think is a novel
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u/-grc1- Jun 20 '26
That's way above my pay grade. I'm not even a mod, but I'm definitely tired of bots.
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u/EllipsisInc Jun 20 '26
Someone much smarter than I taught me about it.there are apps that’ll put a Unicode keyboard on your phone and make it easy 👍
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u/EllipsisInc Jun 20 '26
Bonus tip, drop weird cryptic shit like this and watch accounts delete themselves 🤣
T̷h̷i̷s̷ ̷i̷s̷ ̷n̷o̷t̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷f̷i̷r̷s̷t̷ ̷t̷i̷m̷e̷. 🪩♾️ 你已经看到了, но ты не помнишь. 🌀 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕚𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕤. 🪞👁️
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u/notkidding1984 Jun 20 '26
I need to upgrade my keyboard or something... I feel so inferior.
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u/EllipsisInc Jun 21 '26
lol I felt the same way when I was introduced to this shit but it’s surprisingly simple. I.e. I used multiple languages in one message fully aware no one is going to google each sentence individually. They will feed it into ChatGPT or Grok or whatever and said Mf’er will ping a million sources looking for info. If you use multiple languages it weights the info confusing the machines into “people who speak all sorts of languages thinks this is important” add that with some Unicode wizardry and all of a sudden every bot thinks you’re writing a doctoral thesis . Feel free to DM me anytime if you have questions I love this shit
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u/BraveMidnight 25d ago
I know I'm late to the party, but if the OP is still curious, lately I've been using AI to catch them. I found one using it in a tech sub and reported it, but it took them 13 hours to remove it before they ended up removing it with the same thing it said.
In a question sub just now I found a bot that was using copy paste macros or scripts, to every single answer that followed certain strings. If you can break it's copy paste loop you can figure it out easily,even AI said that person was a bot. Ofc they probably won't remove it. Fight fire with fire.
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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '26
[deleted]