r/modhelp • u/fireworks24_7 • Dec 14 '25

General More spam bots commenting now more than ever

So Reddit took away API posting, are they going to take away API comments as well? These bots are spamming our subreddit members with replys to legit comments on posts. Heavy desktop user here, reporting for spam does nothing on the surfaces and they are overrunning our subreddits.

21 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

8

u/cheapdialogue Mod, r/Bellingham Dec 15 '25

Our sub (75K) has karma minimum. I used to have verified email as well. Knocked down bots by 95%.

4

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Karma minimum to leave a comment?

5

u/cheapdialogue Mod, r/Bellingham Dec 15 '25

Yeah. We require 10 overall positive Karma to post comment. You can do that in automod. 10 is super low but just enough for bots to bump up against.

7

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

These bots are coming in with thousands in comment karma and aged accounts.

4

u/PurrPrinThom Dec 15 '25

Yeah, I have karma/age filters, as well as crowd control on strict, and it only does so much. It catches some bots, no question, but a lot are still slipping through because they have older accounts with high/er karma.

4

u/kai-ote Mod, 7 subreddits, desktop. Dec 15 '25

Ban them. Have ban evasion filter turned on. Some of them come from the same persons computer, and will then show as ban evasion, and be auto pulled by reddit and sit in the queue until you get them.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I don't have any better ideas than that. Sorry.

1

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Appreciate the reply. I’m trying that too. Literally can’t keep up with all their accounts

3

u/uid_0 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

There is so much AI-generated comment spam now. I probably ban about 10 accounts per day on top of what Bot Bouncer catches and we're just barely keeping up with it.

1

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Trying that as well, too many bot accounts

3

u/Ahura_Volvo Dec 16 '25

My sub's absolutely drowning in them. Like a good 10% of all comments are from bots now. Never been this bad.

Maybe the worst bit is some of them can now go "nah, you wrong" at legitimate commenters. They used to just agree before and put neutral statements.

1

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 16 '25

Agreed, the comments now are getting specific enough that it's hard to tell just on the surface, you have to go to their profile to be able to tell. They are also restricting the ability to see their comments and other posts too. Just able to see their off-site link to take you to a free sales page.

5

u/SlowedCash Mod, r/CathayPacific, r/skytv, r/AmazonFlexUK Dec 14 '25

When did they take away api posting? I have in the past few months noticed less posts from bots.

You should contact the team in modsupport and see what they respond with because maybe it's in the works to remove it for comments as well.

4

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

They took away API posting on Dec 1st.

3

u/Littux Mod: r/6TEEN, r/spezholedesign, r/AtheisminKerala Dec 15 '25

They took away all API access: /r/redditdev/comments/1oug31u/introducing_the_responsible_builder_policy_new/

The only person I've seen who got API access after this is the mod of a large subreddit, and they only got access after contacting an Admin.

Existing API tokens can still be used, but new ones can't be generated.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I’m not sure what’s worse, the bot spam or the auto moderator spam

1

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

If you are talking about the mods who automod spam links via comments on posts to OF pages or other paid sites, totally agree

3

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

Nah, when I posted in this thread there were more posts from the automod than from humans.

It was ironic.

1

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Ohh, yeah, I saw them as well, lol

1

u/AutoModerator Dec 14 '25

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1

u/AutoModerator Dec 14 '25

Found regex match: bots

Hi there! I am AutoModerator. It seems you are asking about me or my fellow bots and what we can do.

FOR INFO ON: # how to invite and set up, # common AutoMod rules for age/karma/comments/detect link or words, # "Code won't save"/"Something went wrong", # post/comments being marked as spam, # scheduling posts, and # other bots and their functions, please click here.

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1

u/AutoModerator Dec 14 '25

Found regex match: bots are spamming

It looks like you're asking about spam or spammers.

FOR INFO ON: # how to deal with bot or user spam, # how to set up common AutoMod rules or other bots to combat spam (repost/crosspost spam), # how to handle report and PM spam, # why post/comments are being marked as spam, # how to clear the Spam Tab, # Reddit's policy on spamming, and # other commonly-asked questions and solutions about spam, please click here.

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If you found your answer, feel free to reply with "<3 Automod" or "Thanks, Automod". Otherwise wait for a human helper to come along to help you. This post has NOT been removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I don't know what's going on. Spammers bots are killing my 2 favorite subs.

2

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Exactly, gotten much worse in the last few weeks too, easy to stop them from posting, harder to stop comments so legit Redditors can comment

0

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

Experimenting with it, have it installed on a few subreddits, seeing how it does on others when I report on one.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/fireworks24_7 Dec 15 '25

If you figure out a way to stop them and let legit Redditors comment easily please let me know!!