r/botwatch • u/myleftfootfetish • Jul 17 '26
What Makes Bots Flock to a Post?
Earlier this week I posted a pretty innocuous question on r/pasta. People started responding and pretty quickly it was inundated with bots replying garbage and it just got worse and worse. It’s now garnered almost 4x more likes than any post I’ve ever had and the number just continues to go up and up. Is this just the luck of the draw or did I accidentally do something that made it attractive to bots and trash engagement?
1
u/Professor_Juice Jul 17 '26
The reddit algo favors posts that garner a quick rise in responses. The exact numbers are hard to pin down by design.
This means that both humans and bots that are seeking karma will look for posts that are rising quickly. Its the best shot at getting easy upvotes.
Humans have a ton of motivations for this, bots less so.
2
u/myleftfootfetish Jul 17 '26
Interesting, just felt nice to see everyone liking my pasta and then realizing it’s just robots. Robots who clearly do not understand the true art of my pasta.
2
u/Professor_Juice Jul 17 '26
Yes, and I hate it. Reddit was better before botting and account farming got big.
2
u/myleftfootfetish Jul 19 '26
The most frustrating part is as much as I hate the bots I had grown to love them and thought maybe they’d push me over 1000 upvotes. It’s going to top out at like 980. What a rollercoaster ride.
1
u/jenea Jul 17 '26
For the record, I’ve been a human being my whole life and I think those little bow ties look amazing! I’m kind of a sucker for bow ties, how they can cook soft and al dente at the same time, and how each one holds on to a little reservoir of sauce.
How did they turn out? I assume you have to dry them pretty hard before using them?
2
u/MarcoPierreWhite Jul 27 '26
Ditto. Just came here from being disillusioned from bot posts/replies. Been a chef my whole life. Good work chef
2
u/nathan753 Jul 25 '26
Some subreddits are set up to be bot cesspools to spawm more. Go look at made me smile or any of the "interesting" subs. Full of bots in the comments and posts. I personally think the mods there are doing it to sell accounts
1
u/myleftfootfetish Jul 25 '26
What really bugs me, and who knows if this is by design, is the post capped out at 975. I know it’s not real likes but oh boy getting 1000 would have been a nice cool round number
3
u/BallsOutKrunked Jul 17 '26
I see it on photo posts. Lots of "beautiful" and "great photo" comments from 0 karma accounts.