recently you may have noticed me making test posts with the intention of them to be bot tests. i used LVL 9000 autism and a spreadsheet to tabulate results that came up. i did this after several of them appear to be actively stalking me for calling them out.
i waited a bit for the suspected accounts to react, and since they seem to be moving again, now seems a good as time as any to go over what i found. here is a picture of what ive gotten: https://files.catbox.moe/1pg61f.png
let me go over what you're looking at.
HYPOTHESIS 1: a bot account set to stalk a target auto-downvotes, may comment with a chatbot, but cannot parse the words "do not react if you are a human". they just do the thing
HYPOTHESIS 2: a bot account set to stalk a target does this doubly fast if pinged by name, since it doesn't have to expend energy finding a post.
HYPOTHESIS 3: this could only be measured over several posts, with steps taken to sift out targets by repeated testing, and ping separation.
HYPOTHESIS 4: a pack of bots moves and votes as one. 1 bot = 1 vote.
HYPOTHESIS 5: matching vote count, to ping, to name, can theoretically suss out bot behavior.
with this in mind i set out 4 posts, gathered data, tallied it up, and i'm now ready to go over my results.
INTERESTING FIND #1: bots set to follow a target tend to keep their posts at 0, only moving if the vote count rises above that. i assume this is to remain low-key and save votes, but it's highly visible over time
INTERESTING FIND #2: with a given order, a large crowd of bots all stop and start the same behavior at once. please notice if you will, how activity drops to only -1 at post 4 despite reaching -4 at post 3 just before it. why, i ask, did so many accounts just do the same thing at the same time?
INTERESTING FIND #3: of an original suspect list of 15, i've split them them into 2 groups
group 1, this cluster continued acting all the way into post 4: u/KimBellend u/6h057 u/Obrez u/SphericalHorse u/the_sharpest_knife u/Schreiber u/tokui
group 2, this cluster all stopped reacting to posts at the same time, and covers the rest of them: u/yewotm8 u/Low_Paid_Porno_Noob u/hikoo u/Syber_Pussy u/AnonymousJester12345 u/CaptainBasculin u/KittyPot u/Ember2528
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MadWorld ago
Can you give a time frame for your test posts? How many submissions were made and how many downvote scp/ccp points were received to compromise your submissions? I am trying to see if those votes came from bots or just other users who got annoyed or wanted to fuck with your test.
At the moment, I am counting total of -12 scp from 4 submissions.
theoldones ago
the posting and info recording timeframe was very short, less then a day.
i stopped recording results after a certain point to lessen the effects of anyone fucking with the test, working on the assumption that trolls would be more likely to drift in afterwards, but not be first in line. IE a bot reacts quicker then a human generally speaking, therefore the longer it takes for a response to happen, the less likely it is to be a bot
trolls were indeed a planning factor, that's why i had a specific time frame for when data would be reliable
MadWorld ago
My data only shows the following users who have their downvote scp changed:
You have 4 submissions with scp downvotes of -3, -3, -5, and -1. Assuming one(tokui) of them is an asshole who downvoted yours 4 times, the new scores would be -2, -2, and -4. Let's say Obrez and SphericalHorse both downvoted you 3 times, which would result in -2, with Schreiber and the_sharpest_knife still on the table. So both would be able to downvote your only remaining points.
The speculation given above was assuming the perfect condition. But we are ignoring the possibility of those users downvoting other submissions. It is a likely event, given all 5 users were active during that time frame. I think more data is needed to be conclusive :(.
When you said they stalked you, were they downvoting both your submissions and comments? If so, it may be better to test in private subverse. If you ping them and they are actively browsing on Voat, it is possible that they may genuinely be downvoting you, for annoying them.
Obrez ago
I down voted the cunt every time he responded to me and every time he spammed my inbox with these retarded pings. This idiot is just mad because I've been calling him out for his shit, dig through my post history and ask yourself if I'm a bot or if this guy is insane and running a one man flamewar.
MadWorld ago
If you were a bot, it would be a very smart one that is capable of processing complex context. Having said that, I strongly believe that you are just a regular user. Did you get onto his list, because you tried to explain the legality of loli junk to him? I do not remember the exact detail, but you seem reasonable.
If a genuine user got annoyed and downvoted his stuff, that is also very reasonable reaction. So I would say the test was inaccurate and misleading in some ways.
kneo24 ago
This could just simply mean that the bots were turned off after being called out on it. In reality, we have no good idea of what is actually happening. The majority of @Obrez's activity seems to be centered around Reddit shuttering communities and people fleeing here, at least if you look by submissions. Comments seem to be a bit more fuzzy in that regard, but do somewhat line up with that.
Obrez ago
https://voat.co/v/BloodOfEurope/3027304 That's me in his sub, in his post calling him out for lying.
theoldones ago
do you have a better idea on how i could have done it some pleasant way? the direct method is very often the best method