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There are a few user accounts here on Poal that obviously have implemented some level of scripting or automation to facilitate certain actions. Some of these users have created scripts to vote brigade or to do targeted down voting. Automation scripts rarely behave like a real person and to the trained eye and access to raw logs these things are easy to spot. Our admins flag users with the suspicious behavior label in these ways.

But there are other users who are also implementing automation for more benign ends. It is clear to me that there are a few Up Vote Bots that will up-vote everything in /all/new. It is also obvious that there are a few auto-post bots that are auto generating content.

In the very early days of the site (think back to when the logo was still a piece of rebar), I was super motivated to help make Poal better place and I looked into the Poal API to do things like creating a invidio or bitchute youtube-auto-mirror bot. I was also tempted to build a Voat re-post bot that would mirror posts from the subs I moded/owned on Voat before I left there for good. In the end I opted for real organic content and I abandoned these thoughts... mostly because of the total lack of API documentation. I will admit that in a moment of frustration I created a proof of concept bot that ran though the UI, not the API. All the bot did was upvote a list of posts I gave it and I only ran it once or twice. My intention at the time was to help make Poal better.

I carry no guilt for what I did... telling a bot to up vote a list of posts using your own account is basically the same as just up voting them by hand. My intentions were pure and my actions were just... but where is the line? I look at things like and I see a sub which is 100% bot generated. Every few days logs on and posts a series of posts exactly 1 min apart from each other and makes a single one-sentence comment on each post. Every 60 seconds... sometime for over a dozen of posts. Is this appropriate? Is the general Poal community OK with this? I look at u/ANFrance's behavior and I don't have a real problem... nothing but adding content. But where is the line? When does this go too far?

There are a few user accounts here on Poal that obviously have implemented some level of scripting or automation to facilitate certain actions. Some of these users have created scripts to vote brigade or to do targeted down voting. Automation scripts rarely behave like a real person and to the trained eye and access to raw logs these things are easy to spot. Our admins flag users with the suspicious behavior label in these ways. But there are other users who are also implementing automation for more benign ends. It is clear to me that there are a few Up Vote Bots that will up-vote everything in /all/new. It is also obvious that there are a few auto-post bots that are auto generating content. In the very early days of the site (think back to when the logo was still a piece of rebar), I was super motivated to help make Poal better place and I looked into the Poal API to do things like creating a invidio or bitchute youtube-auto-mirror bot. I was also tempted to build a Voat re-post bot that would mirror posts from the subs I moded/owned on Voat before I left there for good. In the end I opted for real organic content and I abandoned these thoughts... mostly because of the total lack of API documentation. I will admit that in a moment of frustration I created a proof of concept bot that ran though the UI, not the API. All the bot did was upvote a list of posts I gave it and I only ran it once or twice. My intention at the time was to help make Poal better. I carry no guilt for what I did... telling a bot to up vote a list of posts using your own account is basically the same as just up voting them by hand. My intentions were pure and my actions were just... but where is the line? I look at things like [/s/France](https://poal.co/s/France) and I see a sub which is 100% bot generated. Every few days [u/ANFrance](https://poal.co/u/ANFrance) logs on and posts a series of posts exactly 1 min apart from each other and makes a single one-sentence comment on each post. Every 60 seconds... sometime for over a dozen of posts. Is this appropriate? Is the general Poal community OK with this? I look at u/ANFrance's behavior and I don't have a real problem... nothing but adding content. But where is the line? When does this go too far?

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt (edited )

there really is no vote manipulation going on. rarely do i see people downvote brigade. Ive been a victim twice (not by a bot tho), and was taken care of almost immediately. (not speaking for them) the admins take that shit very seriously. poal updates instantly

there is posting scripts. but the person is sitting right there. they just collect links that they read and let it rip. it doesn't bother me. It would only bother me if they didn't actually read the content. And, quite honestly i could personally flood poal if i wanted too, zero bots.... but naw.

Up Vote Bots that will up-vote everything in /all/new

there is a few users that are always here, like myself that skim thru and upvote. I always browse /new and many others do too.

i dont think that is bot generated. he always posts at the same time of day... see above.

idk, PM aou or pmyb2 if you found something, i sure they will get back to you

[–] • 1 pt

i dont think that is bot generated.

It is without a doubt Bot generated. A human may be directing it but the fact that the posts come in is robotic fashion every 60 seconds is hard to miss. I'm not saying I have a problem with or ... so far the account seems to be a good actor. What I am saying is that the admins slap the 'suspicious behavior' tag on people who use down vote bots and we all agree that is bad behavior... but we have never really talked about "good bots" as a community and I think we should. We need to decide what we think is cool and what is not and make sure the community understands the rules the Admins want to see.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

like i said, there is i know an automation script and stuff for posting... I dont really care about that as long as they are reviewing the content and are being genuine about what they are posting. I belive is doing that, it could be an alt of someone here, dont know.

What I am saying is that the admins slap the 'suspicious behavior' tag on people who use down vote bots

again you can't brigade here, which is a good thing

[–] • 0 pt

We need a more refined opinion of what is acceptable. So in your opinion a posting bot cannot be abused? I think the cointelpro handbook shows us that the best forum manipulation tools are the one that appear to be good behavior. Forum sliding is the strategic deployment of posting bots.