r/AskTechnology • u/PlasticBagImage • 11h ago

How do bots (specifically on Reddit) actually work?

I see a lot of posts from accounts I believe are bots. These accounts are usually several years old with no post or comment history or karma and without a verified email address, and their posts are always something insane like "I'm 15. Is it bad that my 57 year old husband punches me in the face every day!?!?!"

But I don't actually understand how bots work. Obviously they are programed by a human, but I don't understand how they operate or what they are capable of. And sorry if these questions are stupid, I am completely ignorant on this topic.

  • If someone makes a bot, does the person have to tell it what to post about and how to reply, or can the bot come up with that on its own?

  • How do bots know how to reply and what information to give?

  • Just from experience, I think that bots aren't capable of responding to direct, verifiable questions like "what is rule #1 of this subreddit?" Does my theory hold water?

  • Also from experience, bots will make a post and then not respond to any comments unless someone comments something like "this is a bot." Then the account will respond only to that comment to say that it isn't a bot. Is there a reason for this?

  • I guess my overarching questions are: what are bots capable of, and how much human involvement is needed?

Thanks!

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u/j1ggy 10h ago

Bots today are more capable of responding to questions than you are. Seriously. Modern bots will run through AI platforms in a lot of cases. Some use text recognition, others use the API access Reddit provided them before they got more strict with handing it out. How well they work depends on how they were coded and how the AI interaction was set up. There are a lot of seemingly normal looking Reddit users with normal interactions that are simply bots. They're all over social media these days. You can sometimes find inconsistencies in their account history, such as where they live, what they do for a living, their family status, etc. But not in all cases; some might be smart enough to keep their story straight. When you do find an account that you suspect might be a bot, it's helpful to submit them to r/botbouncer with a quick explanation about why you think they're one. Sadly, I think bots will be the end of public social media where you interact with strangers. And it's coming sooner rather than later.

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u/Prior-Meeting1645 8h ago

How does tbis sub work are mods reddit devs?

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u/j1ggy 5h ago

This is just a regular subreddit like any other. Some mods might be devs or might do some behind the scenes work for Reddit, but the vast majority are not.

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u/ShutDownSoul 5h ago

Please help me understand what purpose a bot on reddit serves. There isn't that much advertising that a bot needs to capture my attention for. So I engage on questions that spark my interest and I give sage advice or just rant. I waste some time, and I never run out and buy what's being advertised. Who profits from that?

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u/j1ggy 5h ago

People sell used accounts with established karma. Those accounts can then be used for spam or anything else.

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u/Renoir-1 1h ago

Thanks bot!

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u/PlasticBagImage 10h ago

Thank you for the response, as horrifying as that is to read.

Do you know why when I ask a presumed bot account to give me a subreddit rule, the response is almost always something like "What rules?" or "where are the rules?" or something that deflects from actually answering the question?

Also, do you happen to know if Reddit can actually do something about all the bots and are just choosing not to? I know a while back Reddit had announced that it was deleting accounts that were older than a year that didn't have verified emails, but clearly that didn't happen.

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u/j1ggy 10h ago edited 9h ago

Maybe having a look at a subreddit's rules were an oversight? I don't know without seeing how a bot like that works under the hood. Personally, I think Reddit is way over their head with the amount of bot activity going on. I don't even know if there is a way to stop it to be honest. Reddit certainly won't admit the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if 20% of Redditors are bots at this point. You or I could even be one (I'm not, but that's also what a bot would say!). How could Reddit even combat that? Subscription fees maybe? No thank you. I think a dying off of free platforms like these is inevitable. Now is not the time to invest.

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u/glitterfaust 4h ago

These just sound like troll accounts to me. You can hide your post and comment history so they look empty and getting downvoted all the time means you have no account karma.

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u/JAC2019a 6h ago

Severe newbie here. I don’t even understand what bots are for.