Ask HN: How to Deal with Bot Accounts
I am asking because I literally do not not understand how to deal with the avalanche of automated statements that pass the Turing Test, which was my previous bulwark against bots.
I have been "realizing", in quotes because I cannot prove it, that an increasing number of accounts I have been interacting with on this forum appears to be bots.
examples.
@selectively
an account 59 days old and with -8 karma at the time I posted this.
Made an inflammatory comment here
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46468482
Made an incoherent, rage baiting response further down here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46470140
had hallmarks of an LLM like using rareish grammatical marks correctly, and when called out, was flagged immediately.
I suspect the flagging was other bots abusing the flagging system on this site which hides posts, for good or ill
>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46460521
This was the last comment I responded to in this chain. I legitimately mixed up the two accounts, because they were both similar random spellings and pushing the same narrative.
This account didnt respond to that claim and continued on making more claims. The account was made post widespread LLM access
Here is another thread from an account I suspect is a bot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330323
I called this out, other seemingly human posters agreed, and this suspected bot did not react and then moved onto other threads after this one got flagged
My hypothesis is that organizations using bots are flooding this site with noise. When the response is positive they do nothing about it. When the response is negative they use their bot army to hit the flag button and remove their comments from view, which means they have zero consequences from trying to push the most heinous shit possible when they can make it invisible the second they decide the crowd doesnt like it.
What is the appropriate response to this behavior?