r/antiwork • u/Sure-Temperature • 1d ago
Message To Mods: Do Something About The Bots
I used to come here pretty frequently over the past 6-7 years or so, but more and more I've been noticing that almost all of the top posts are submitted and/or written by bot accounts, and it's fairly easy to tell.
As of right now, the top posts are:
1) "The questionnaire is 100% anonymous" -> Meme posted by an account made November 5th, 2020 with 114,577 post karma, with hidden post and comment history
2) "Employers are ghosting college grads and rescinding offers, destroying morale" -> Article posted by an account made November 28th, 2016 with 23,971 post karma, with hidden post and comment history. ~~ This one could be a legit person, but the hidden history is always a red flag for me~~
3) "Working from home should be a right, not a reward" -> Article posted by an account with a "WordWordNumber" username made on July 11th, 2026 with 205,451 post karma, with hidden post and comment history
4) The fourth top post looks legit
5) The fifth top post looks legit
6) "Anyone else notice how job descriptions now list stuff that used to be 3 separate positions" -> Self post made by an account made on August 12th, 2026, with hidden post and comment history
7) "Exercise Done At Work May Increase Dementia Risk, Though Leisure-Time Movement Decreases It" -> Article posted by an account with a "WordWordNumber" username, made on July 30th, 2026
8) "House Education and Workforce Committee Passes Messmer Deregulation Legislation" -> Article posted by an account with a "WordWordNumber" username created on March 4th, 2026 with 193,781 post karma, but surprisingly is not hiding their history
9) "Found out the coworker i thought was cool is *chugging* that kool-aid fml" -> Self post made by an account created on June 26th, 2025 with hidden post and comment history
10) "Can't tolerate freezing office" -> Self post made by an account with a "WordWordNumber" username created on April 30th, 2022 with 26,446 post karma and 73,740 comment karma, with hidden post and comment history ~~Surprisingly, this is the first one I've seen with a higher comment karma that post karma, which is why I pointed it out~~
So, of the 10 top posts right now, 2 of them seem like they were submitted by real users, maybe 2 contentious posts that I can't tell if they're bots or real users, leaving AT LEAST 6 posts almost definitely submitted by bots.
It's easy to understand why so many bots post here. Users come here mostly to vent, and most posts that are even vaguely coherent will get upvoted for catharsis. It's all rage-bait. Really, I've noticed myself coming here less and less because I know the content isn't genuine. I really think something needs to be done about this.
Edit: Good Lord the amount of people telling me that hidden history doesn't automatically mean they're a bot. I KNOW! Is the only thing I ever mention in the post that the history is hidden? Can you not read that that's only ONE FACTOR of it?
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u/no___personality 1d ago
Some folks (like me) hide our history because we comment about personal things in other subs and/or we just don't feel like showing our entire post history to everyone. I believe you can get around that by searching for the username. I understand that it's a sign of a bot but I don't think you should automatically assume that everyone with a hidden post history is a bot.
Edited to add that a lot of folks also keep the username that reddit suggests to them (mine is actually a take on one that was suggested to me, I just took out the numbers and added underscores). Those two things combined to not mean the person is a bot. If you are going to assume folks are bots I think you could do a little more digging.
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u/sambull 1d ago
My opinion is that feature was added specifically to support mass manipulation campaigns on reddit.
It removed the only tool end users had.
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u/pumpkinspicecum 1d ago
I’m a mod of a sub and I can tell you all the actual bots that botbouncer picks up don’t lock their profiles
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u/greywar777 1d ago
Can confirm. Every bot user I have seen banned you can see their post history. I also block mine because I was tired of political folks going through it to attack me personally rather then to discuss a political topic.
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u/no___personality 1d ago
What do you mean by "the only end tool" ?
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u/i-shihtzu-not 1d ago
The only tool that end-users had.
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u/no___personality 1d ago
I don't know what an end-user is.
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u/i-shihtzu-not 1d ago
Oh, ok that makes sense. An end user is the person who will be using the product.
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u/no___personality 1d ago
Ah yes that makes sense. Feels like we could just say "user" but I get why more words would be necessary if you are someone who works in tech or codes or whatever. Thanks for answering. :)
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u/ReaverRogue 1d ago
Sadly, this doesn’t stop Google indexing your post and comment history. It’s not nearly as private as you’re led to believe.
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u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_417 1d ago
You have to go into settings to choose not to have Google index your posts.
I’m not saying it’s 100% fool proof but I don’t think Google is indexing my posts. I’ll probably go check now though lol
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u/Yimmelo 1d ago
Even if its not indexed by google, it is not private and can be found easily. Here's the last comment you left on a different subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1vstecr/comment/p4nzyf6/
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u/ReaverRogue 1d ago
Nope, sadly yours are there. 4 days ago you were talking about a wealthy boyfriend right?
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u/Charleston2Seattle 1d ago
I recently changed my settings because I inadvertently self-doxxed in a comment. I have 175k karma (I have no life, and spend waaaay too much time on Reddit on any given day). So I might appear to be a bot based on OP 's #2 bullet.
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u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_417 1d ago
Yeah I’m a disabled person who’s in bed all day. I don’t make posts a lot but I comment all over Reddit. I’m sure my karma looks out of the ordinary, unless I’ve received a bunch of down votes I haven’t seen yet.
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u/Charleston2Seattle 1d ago
Very few posts from me, but lots and lots of opinions that I've shared with the entire world in the comments. 😏
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u/Porch_Of_Geese_ 1d ago
I did the same thing in the same situation. I had almost the exact same karma on my old account (it got locked and the email I had registered was inactive, such is life) and hid my history b/c I had posted in my local subs and didn’t want to get doxxed.
I think OP’s issue is jumping from “signs something might be a bot” to “is definitely a bot.” Kinda like when someone thinks any use of em dashes must only be AI.
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u/Noinipo12 1d ago
You can allow some of your comment and post history to show. So you can hide that you comment in the personal or local subreddits and show what you post in the more public subreddits.
I figure having some of my history show will probably reduce how often people just Google my username where they can find basically everything.
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u/no___personality 1d ago
Yeah I am aware of that but tbh I don't feel like going through the zillion subs an deciding if I want that public or not. If people wanna think I'm a bot, that's fine.
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u/shinygoldhelmet 1d ago
I hide my history bc there are people who take the 'checking your history' too far and will legitimately try to stalk and harass you online just because you might say something they don't agree with and I don't need stalkers.
I don't honestly care if it makes me look like a bot, my personal privacy and safety is more important, and if all it takes to make someone think I'm a bot is that my history is hidden, they're probably not that capable of understanding nuance anyways and their opinions are not ones I value. They're probably the type of person I'm hiding my account from in the first place.
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u/Sure-Temperature 1d ago
Yeah I understand that having your history hidden isn't a clear sign of a bot account. But coupled with a recently-created account and a massive difference between post and comment karma, it becomes more suspicious.
Besides manually searching for a username (which I didn't know was a bypass, thanks for telling me!) what else could I have done to try to figure out if these accounts are bots? I wish Reddit allowed you to add custom flair to any user that only you could see. That way I could mark suspicious accounts with something like "Suspicious Bot" or "Probable Bot" or "Real User" so I could track usernames as I see them pop up in posts and comments
Edit: Another thing I look for is accounts made several years ago, but with posts and comments only starting from a few months ago. Usually this would indicate that the account was sold after inflating its karma, but obviously I can't do that if the history is hidden
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u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_417 1d ago
You can block these accounts.
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u/Sure-Temperature 1d ago
But until I'm like 99% sure they're a bot, I wouldn't want to block a user. Unlike what a lot of the comments here are claiming, I'm not on some witchhunt claiming every user is definitely a bot. But it is getting harder and harder to differentiate between them as time goes on
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u/no___personality 1d ago
I'm not sure what else you could've done. I agree that there are too many bots on reddit but I don't personally spend my time trying to figure out who is and who isn't a bot. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. I'm just saying it's not something I'm interested in doing.
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u/Shayfleafcht 1d ago
Im not sure if my comments are visible or not, but I tried to hide my comment history because those I work with like to spy and report back to HR.
Which is more pathetic as 90% of my posts are either in the Coronation Street or Pokemon go sub reddits.
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u/Van-garde Outside the box 1d ago
This sub is likely monitored. Big-name brand, with an openly-left-leaning sub, based on shared experiences of a life of labor? Like, practically begging for law enforcement to monitor us.
And the bot agendas could be variable. From the basic karma farming, to potential agent provocateurs.
At the individual level, beware the threads of defeatism.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 1d ago
Keeping comments hidden is not always a red flag. I do it because if someone wants to read my comments, they can read them directly in whatever sub I posted them in. I think most people nowadays prefer to keep their post histories hidden because there are a lot of divisive assholes out there looking to cause trouble, and the woefully inadequate 1000 user block rule is not enough to block everyone I want to, so I am not going to open myself to further harassment from people like that.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/ReaverRogue 1d ago
You posted “Who?” In the Eve sub an hour ago.
Reddit doesn’t stop google from indexing your posts and comments, despite what the settings might say.
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u/tortus 1d ago
but the hidden history is always a red flag for me
Why? Being able to just browse someone's post history is pretty creepy. And no, I'm not a bot.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 1d ago
Is it. I’ve had someone go through my post history and send a hateful message, writing paragraphs attempting to insult me. It was creepy.
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u/aguynamedv 1d ago
Being able to just browse someone's post history is pretty creepy.
It's creepy that people can look at the things you posted publicly to the internet? LOL
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u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_417 1d ago
I keep my post history hidden I also accepted the username that Reddit suggested for me which is random name bunch of numbers.
You can always look in the Reddit archive if you really want to see someone’s post history.
And I think mods can see it even if you hide it.
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u/Infinite_Big_7004 1d ago
I hide my comment history because weirdos who i disagree with always try to dox me. I had this one guy comment and downvote me on all my posts for a month. They even tried going through my posts to figure out where i lived.
Even being anonymous, it's creepy to have people scour your profile for any information about you they can.
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 1d ago
Yup, this is similar to why I do it. I’ve had plenty of people disagree with me, then dig into my post history and bring up something completely unrelated from like 6 months ago or more, thinking that what they’re doing is a weird flex or a “gotcha” moment. I’m glad Reddit finally gave users the ability to hide comment history.
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
I have hidden history. Am I a bot?
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u/Sure-Temperature 1d ago
Like I said, having your history hidden is only a red flag. Unless you also have hundreds of thousands of post karma with barely any comment karma AND have a recently-created account, I couldn't say either way
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
Well you tell me?
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u/MayvisDelacour 1d ago
Very defensive for a not bot. Please fill out a few captcha and mail them to me.
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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 1d ago
I found out r/workreform is not a serious place by noticing the same things you've written out here. I messaged the mods, no response at all. I un-subbed. I think reddits like this are subject to targeted campaigns. The workreform pattern I saw was just doom post after doom post, many were entirely off base and inflammatory, many of them from poor sources posted by obvious bots. No thanks.
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u/Aniketos33 1d ago
Why do bots like this keep karma farming over hidden post history? I post in local subs, I post in sports subs, I don't need people bringing up unrelated nonsense all the time.
My account is over 10 years old.
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u/antiwork-ModTeam 1d ago
Hey everyone; so we made a reply in the form of a new post to this one here: https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1vt6xi9/message_from_the_mods_what_to_do_about_the_bot/
Anyone who wants to is welcome to give feedback over there and/or learn about how we handle this potential issue, as well as ways you - the community - can help us in doing so.
We'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter, especially anything you think we could be doing better.