WeatherWiz
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The comment bots are now posting random content to get to the FP and gain points. I assume to make them look legitimate.
Do not be fooled by these. 6 random letters followed by two numbers. And most of them were created in May, between the 8th and the 19th.
This one may be one of the first accounts of this wave, since it does not strictly follow the 6 letter 2 number scheme.
Do not give these accounts your upvotes. Be cautious when scrolling and always make sure you’re commenting or upvoting a real account.
Lugh314159
I can't even not get fooled by a Micheal Cera pic, I'm not going to be able to parse bot naming conventions.
RickHalcyon
I don’t really want to put work into Upvoting besides “did I like this?”
loxiabun
Down vote everything.
lildude52ca
.. is this why i had someone reply to one of my comments saying i was pure evil and i would upvote someones death? they thought i was a bot?
styxthetrashbandit
Why do you think imgur makes usernames tiny and way up high on posts? Why do you think they aren't immediately blocking these bots?
Do you think these bots can comment and post but not upvote?
I don't have time to police someone else's app. We can't outpace out time or out click bots. Just hang out, report pages you think are fake, and use the app or not.
WeatherWiz
Well the usernames being small have been a thing for years. Even before MediaLabs bought Imgur out.
styxthetrashbandit
It was more or less rhetorical questions. That it's marketing. And it's imgur doing it itself or allowing it. MediaLabs is a marketing and digital advertising agency. You are scrolling through a billboard highway. Slowly being run like a casino or Mobile game (science is becoming interchangable). Things to bring you to attention are being reduced and moved aside and things to captivate and pull you into the content and dialogue are being emphasized.
eronth
Gotta aggressively downvote low effort.
DangerBaer
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1N2M3cnR1ajR1ZDBic29vaGlxZGI4d3dyM2NvbW92NXJ6YTl4MnpiaSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/2CcKiHPDsJqVi/200w.webp
manaray007
[ * looks at user name * ] Wait am I a bot?
WeatherWiz
youtinybrainedwipersofotherpeoplesbottoms
Thanks for this post. You've called out at least one of my posts when I inadvertently included an AI item in a dump. I'm older and I'm just not used to looking for it. I actually forget. But the feeling I get when I get suckered is reminding me to reverse search everything I plan to post now.
Anyhoo, (told you I was old!) thanks for the post. And thanks for being polite when I screw up. A lot of people aren't!
+1
WeatherWiz
Of course!! It’s hard to recognize every AI thing. Sometimes things seem like AI and they’re not. So it’s def hard sometimes.
EroticZombiePants
I'm a Front Pager. If I'm seeing them, it means a bunch of people already fell for it.
WellThatsJustWhatWeCallPillowTalkBaby
I always look at comments. That is the real giveaway. I already had downvoted and posted a bot comment on the faucet one.
WeatherWiz
One of these posts that had 500 upvotes only had one person say it was a fake/AI account. There were several people who commented and thought this was real.
DutchBoeremeisie
I am one of those people who suffer from "username blindness", but it's definitely something I'm going to have to start paying attention to.
Oddly enough, got chewed out by users for pointing out a bot, when their post hit FP (I pointed it out while it was in usersub, still). So I'm glad others in usersub are also trying to keep them in check.
NotSomoneElse68
You must have been there in the before times - when through constant trickery we all learn to check the username.
SlydFox
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aG85MW1obzduZDVhZWFxZmZpeGR6amdxbWpjNnpyaTMzcWdyaTAxOSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/f43Lq4O7JAGoU/200w.webp
yesdearmetoo
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aTFncWNrcDljczdjbWo5MzM0eHltM3VjeWV3aXRoYzQ5dXNmZ2EyaCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/uwiENJuUIEAdQdGLKI/200w.webp
lildude52ca
. . . what am i missing here?
WeatherWiz
Imgur has been infiltrated by AI bots that comment generic shit and can post images and random videos as well. Reports of over 200 of these bots
theyallwenttoMexico
Now 'they' know we've broken the code. uh-oh
draconicus
I'm suspicious of any new account
bbmwilson2
That's ok, I rarely upvote.
Why, well I don't want history to repeat itself.
Goatfer
My guess is the current owners are trying to fake engagement to sell more ads.
13579rocket
I’ve been called a bot a few times because of my username. Sorry for being lazy!
JAPONfan
It's been like 10 years. Everyone including your grandma know that less than 10 letter plus some numbers is bot. Its so obvious even elon knew it before buying twitter. And yet here we are.
Jerz77
serleth
New people arrive in the world every day. Which means new people figure out places to go on the internet every day, encounter their first bot every day, etc etc.
Everyone including your grandma knows this, but here we are.
JAPONfan
I have my username since 1996. Johnsmith1966 is good for your worke email
serleth
Jfc your myopia is astounding.
Might come to you at a surprise but not everybody has the same experiences, education or thought processes as you do.
Condescending twatwomble.
JAPONfan
Cool you know a person who choose random letters and numbers for their nick.
serleth
Yeah dude because unlike you I hold a broader social network than my mom.
Dlaw25
Glad it's not four letters and two numbers.
Noahbalboa82
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1dXc5ZWMwanR1ZjI4eDF6bDd6dnRmemhnenFtczhjcmJweHFtMnU2cCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/ANbD1CCdA3iI8/200w.webp
acme64
We're cooked
cousteau
Yeah I noticed the first two. Not sure if the third one counts for the reason you point out. What I still don't know is if these are bots with malicious intent, or released by B.D. to give the impression that this site is busier than it is.
DutchBoeremeisie
Not necessarily BD - I think it is part of the enshittification of the internet (eventual malicious intent not discounted). For instance, compare:
/gallery/this-is-too-much-i-wanna-get-cat-QKT6QrF
https://wT6QrF">https://imgur.com/gallery/this-is-too-mu">ww.re">T6QrF">https://imgur.com/gallery/this-is-too-much-i-wanna-get-cat-QKT6QrF
https://www.reddit.com/r/CatsBeingAdorable/comments/1tqxolo/this_is_too_much_i_wanna_get_a_cat/
https://x.com/PowerfulAuraX/status/2060566387727478921
bots copying bots copying bots, regurgitating posts for clicks
WeatherWiz
Well even if it’s not them, they are doing nothing about it. Which means they don’t care and think it’s fine. Which is still just as bad as them purposely behind these bots.
DutchBoeremeisie
They've been fine with worse crap for a long time. So, yes, agreed.
cousteau
The dog was funny tho.
cattlegrazer82
So funny. I upvoted twice.
BrokenAnimal
I don't think the people who downvoted you realized what 'upvoted twice' meant. ;)
cattlegrazer82
It would appear not :-/
WeatherWiz
Probably no malicious intent. I can’t say this is strictly BD. But it would not shock me that they are trying to funnel in these accounts for that purpose. They started with the comments and now they’re posting.
cousteau
I reported a whole bunch of 'em a while ago, when they went apeshit commenting everywhere. If they're BD's, I'm probably in some list now 😂
WeatherWiz
And yet they are still all here. Which further adds to the proof that this is accepted by them at least. Honestly, the only thing we can do to give them no power is downvote and block the accounts. If we let them thrive, they will become established accounts.
cousteau
Maybe they just haven't been reported enough. I think you need a number of reports for BD to do something (something = automatically banning. It's all automated I think.) So let's keep reporting, it may work.
jtwood
I never upvote posts 🤷♂️
fubizdaddie
Then you don't matter in this conversation, thanks for not bothering to join it
jtwood
I also don’t downvote posts
I only engage through comments, like this
IIXRandomXII
It's like you guys didn't live through the Cera guy where you learned to check usernames constantly. Someone else should take up the mantle.
markymark89
Those were the days, when this platform wasn’t garbage.
MisterLemons
Remember when imgur was funny? Remember when it was about sharing pictures instead of narratives?
Pepperidge farm remembers...
knotwingknot
I think I have well over 300 blocked accounts at this point, and I know it's going to have to ramp up as the AI models get more sophisticated. I hope there isn't a limit to blocks - if there is, I will certainly find it within the year.
MisterLemons
I've got some bad news: it's 1000 unique accounts and then the list breaks. After that you'll start seeing accounts you know you've blocked as the dam breaks.
WeatherWiz
I have war flashbacks to being tricked by cera guy.
akafluffy
I went out of my way not to check usernames so I'd get a delightful little Cera surprise
TheWombatStrikesAgain
Sadly, Anewrohrschachtestofyourparentshavingsexeveryday just couldn't handle the pressure of daily posting.
haki23
What about 4 letter 2 number?
Some of us are old and use the old naming conventions...
WeatherWiz
Nah you’re cool. And it’s not just the name. If you look at their profile, you will notice they sometimes have weird and generic descriptions. And they swerve created in May. You’re an OG I see, so you are fine!
IrvingSchwinglepuck
May 5 through May 19 (2026) creation date is a tell tale sign.
aducksayswhat
It's really hard to say it's not some form of astroturfing, building up reputation on a fresh account with generic mediocre/reposted content, whether to have activity for the site now (because who doesn't like looking at mediocre content) or to use that reputation number as a 'member of the imgur community' to add some weight behind posting other types of content later.
aducksayswhat
The annoying things are they're so successful in spite of how easy their activity is to automate, and that they get past any signal to noise ratio because the site is dying.
WeatherWiz
What bothers me is what you mentioned: it’s a dying site and Imgur (MediaLab, aka Business Daddy) is doing nothing. Like I just want it to all end vs a slow death.
eronth
My tinfoil theory is that they're making it easy to see the bots now so that they can activate actually sophisticated bots later that we completely miss due to not having the obvious hallmarks.
aducksayswhat
That's another thing that annoys me, that it causes the occasional "you're an AI" reservoir dogs standoff because someone possibly uses one of the tell-tale signs of generated content, even though the models were trained on humans originated stuff in the first place. Add to that some people are all too trigger-happy to use any means to dismiss/knock down anything they don't like, as though the internet wasn't toxic enough.
eronth
Art is some of the craziest stuff. I've seen people claim "no human would make that mistake, it must be AI"... meanwhile it's exactly the kind of mistake I can and do make.
bekkayya
ai is literally trained on all the mistakes humans make. same problem with "non mistakes" (anything it outputs correctly is happenstance) in that the reason chatgpt "sounds like that" is because Indian universities teach to talk like that and they were heavily scraped so now they're fucked over too
triptolemus510
seems like a lot of effort for near zero gain. what's the point?
aducksayswhat
The first two that come to mind is political posting and "oh look at this cool thing" fake organic advertising
triptolemus510
Thanks. Yeah, I think you're correct about "organic advertising". I've been baited by those before.
bekkayya
surely we're too small a community for that to be profitable now lol. probably imgur astroturfing the site in general to sell it again
aducksayswhat
The thing is with most automation once you've figured out how to do it once, the cost of doing it a zillion times drops a lot, especially when you're talking about computers talking to computers. Even humans following a template can probably do a spam post in about 10s and move onto the next site to spam.
bekkayya
its possible
wadatahmydamie
So they’re OctopusSevenTwo then?
WeatherWiz
Oh I forgot about that account. I don’t think that account spammed comments though with generic slop right? They just reposted content.
wadatahmydamie
Yeah, it was a bot before generative AI was a thing
I know they’re not around any more because it used to be that even mentioning them being a spammer would get your comment deleted inside of 30 seconds.
I don’t honestly mind bot accounts that have limited purpose and clearly identify themselves. Like that account that would post the most popular thing from the prior year
WeatherWiz
Those bots were whatever. They actually put effort into them. And it’s fine. These are just AI slop that posts and comments the most generic shit. And it’s also like over 200 of them apparently that were created in May of this year!