Best way to detect a bot?

[Cyndalie]

What's the best way to detect posting bots you often suspect on boards?

I suck at it. Before I met ModF in person I thought he was a bot LOL In phoenix those were my first words to him.."modf? I thought you were a bot!" aaahhahahaha (Sorry man)

So how can you tell the broken english one liner mofo's from the real bots?

Inquiring minds....

[Relentless]

Broken english 1 liner mofos are somewhat on topic... no, wait that isn't true most of the time either.


Watch battlestar galactica, there is a good chance we are all bots... including you Cyn.



What's the best way to detect posting bots you often suspect on boards?

I suck at it. Before I met ModF in person I thought he was a bot LOL In phoenix those were my first words to him.."modf? I thought you were a bot!" aaahhahahaha (Sorry man)

So how can you tell the broken english one liner mofo's from the real bots?

Inquiring minds....

[Cyndalie]

I'm a bot gone wild!

[student4ever]

that's a tough one, there are some pretty smart bots out there... The easy ones are usually no brainers and almost anybody can spot them, but then, there are the others.

In general, I try to kick them in the knee. If my toe gets hurt, they're a bot...
:scram:

[beckie]

Congrats to the winners!

[beckie]

Oh sorry... trying to configure my post bot. :scram:

[12clicks]

What's the best way to detect posting bots you often suspect on boards?

I suck at it. Before I met ModF in person I thought he was a bot LOL In phoenix those were my first words to him.."modf? I thought you were a bot!" aaahhahahaha (Sorry man)

So how can you tell the broken english one liner mofo's from the real bots?

Inquiring minds....

he's no post bot, he's a sig whore.:knight:

[Cyndalie]

Oh sorry... trying to configure my post bot. :scram:

This thread needs pics!
http://web.media.mit.edu/~nanako/nanako-acg/robot/c-bot.gif

[Relentless]

Oh sorry... trying to configure my post bot. :scram:

hahahaha that was funny!

[TheLegacy]

problem i see is that most bots are first manually entered - so it is hard to detect right from the start. Unless we can develop a way to realize 3rd party connections - or when a bot is detected the board can block or in chris's case, make it extremely annoying to get into the board

bots today are extremely clever and hard to detect until after a few posts when a moderator/board admin realizes or confronts in a private msg as to what or who is behind the poster.

the best we can do now is think, that if it looks like spam then move it to another folder and send a msg - if they persist after a time without answering any direct msg's then it is a bot. Besides, after a while you learn who the real characters are in this industry and usually can filter out the obvious. If your truly in doubt and you blocked someone after a time of spaming, if they contact you directly inquiring as to why - you can assess whether they are actually sending bots are just really annoying posters.

[Cyndalie]

Suspected bot posts:

Very interesting pictures:)
Very interesting video.
Intresting article.
Interesting avatar.
I hope you will get some good deal.
I can`t believe what i read.This is insane.
Looking good to me,interesting pictures.
Interesting video,this guy`s are funny.
Nice picture, this girl looking hot.

Posted by one user on another board in the past 24 hours. Not I have nothing against the harmless commentary and think all posters should be welcome, my only point here is - is this a smart script or a person with limited english skills looking to fit contribute anything or any comment to a discussion.

I'll show another example from a different board, and again, I'm not picking on anyone nor do I have a problem with who/why/why they are posting. I think posting is what boards are all about, but it can be frustrating to understand if it's real or what..


That is awesome......:)
I'll check it out....
I have the bad weather.......:)
He is good.....:)
She is awesome
I have no pic..... lol
That is good for u...
Welcome......lol

Every post is a one liner, 90% have "..." in them, and the same words are used over and over. Just seems suspect. Then you have people who are proven to not be bots that are similar in posting style but respond when addressed and such so I get so confused.

[TheLegacy]

chris is the best to answer this I feel - but outside of checking their IP or connection - you really can't outside of logging all their comments then determining from that search whether its a bot or not.

if a pattern is found such as you say, then a temporary ban may be in order to see if they voice their displeasure. then again, you can simply ban anything that has a reference to LC and you'll be fine LOL

[Cyndalie]

Naw, I find them mostly harmless, and wouldnt ban them if they were behaving. I mostly see what I suspect are bots on boards the pay posters or give rewards anyway. My point was more about how can you tell, over the ethics of bot posting.

[SmokingDawn]

Just follow wildgirls posts and you will pick it up quickly...lol

[beckie]

Don't forget the sig whores - they usually have the same posts as well. It cracks me up when they only post in contest threads and actually win. How many times are they pressing the refresh button to post again? :laughout:

[student4ever]

especially when you're talking about one liner posts, you'll likely not figure out if it's a bot without other information like IP, any header data you can grab, referrer, etc...

From what I've read about bots, they tend to mix things up so the only thing that may be consistent for a basic bot could be the IP. The referrer and other data would change where an actual surfer it's more likely to remain the same since most people use one browser for most of their surfing and don't change their settings often.