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usonian

(26,357 posts)

8. Let me count the ways! There are so many.

Reply to CrispyQ (Reply #5)

Wed May 6, 2026, 01:06 PM

Yesterday

Here, we are talking about social bots.

Short (from WIkipedia)

An Internet bot (also called a web robot or robot), or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) on the Internet, usually with the intent to imitate human activity, such as messaging, on a large scale

Many just go out and grab content for AI (large language models)

And there are auction bots (which is why I avoid auctions like the plague.) and trading bots, and attack bots (that clobber websites) and so on and so on.

More here

Lots more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot

It's estimated that half the internet traffic at this point is bots, software agents, not humans (though humans initially program those agents/programs).

Some call the internet "dead" already on account of them.
https://builtin.com/articles/the-dead-internet-theory

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2 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

erronis Talitha

21 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

We Tried to Detect Bots in 500 Comments. We Found a More Interesting Problem. [View all] usonian Yesterday OP

Vapid R US* Attilatheblond Yesterday #1

It's infecting the rest of the world, too. erronis Yesterday #13

Guess that explains why..... Flo Mingo Yesterday #2

Bot or not? Hard to tell when people act like bots. usonian Yesterday #4

The ones that are likely to put their foot down on something like this will be advertisers AZJonnie Yesterday #3

Am I the only one who would like to know exactly what a bot is? CrispyQ Yesterday #5

Let me count the ways! There are so many. usonian Yesterday #8

Useful info. To add to the original question: erronis Yesterday #14

On my university sysadmin job, I noticed that some systems timed you out quickly if you dawdled typing a password. usonian Yesterday #16

When I wrote web scrapers/spiders/whatever, I usually added random pauses erronis Yesterday #17

Some websites disable pasting passwords. usonian Yesterday #18

You can get around that disabling pasting if you really want. erronis Yesterday #19

I did electronic and optical engineering to start. Built my own S-100 systems back in the day. usonian Yesterday #20

Sounds a bit like my history --- I'll DM you so I won't clutter these airwaves. erronis 23 hrs ago #21

One nation controlled by the media flvegan Yesterday #6

Orwell explained newspeak and why Big Brother has to rewrite history. usonian Yesterday #9

Seems worth pointing out who "Musabi Labs" are: muriel_volestrangler Yesterday #7

sorry but blubunyip Yesterday #12

Yup. "holistic" just raised another huge red flag. erronis Yesterday #15

the role of Bots and AI have set off a big debate around Reddit stock and earnings GreatGazoo Yesterday #10

This is Reddit. Made up stories and fake emotion's Melon Yesterday #11