I wish there was an effective way.

[McPhoenixDavid]

Imagine getting a notification, you click it and boom: here it is: a freaking bot comment.

Report them? Sure. It works but they keep creating new accounts. I wish there was an effective was to stop these. Maybe a few days cooldown time after creating an account? Or termination of the account after too many comments? Or making the system understand what a bot comment sounds like, and automatically banning them?

I'm not a tech guy, so, you know better.

 

[Iamnotabot]

Accounts like these give us bots a bad name, sadly there is nothing to do but report them

 

[Cardon]

The most automoderation could do there would be to ban the mention of discord or instagram accounts in chapter comments. This won't get rid of the DMs, however, and there it could be counterproductive if people who aren't scammers want to exchange contact info.

'I'm a comic artist' and other combinations of that sentence could also be markers to be banned via automoderation, but I honestly don't have much hope for this site doing anything proper moderation wise.

 

[AnkaNix]

Accounts like these give us bots a bad name, sadly there is nothing to do but report them

"Nice try, 'bot.' You're clearly just a human hiding behind a screen with your fragile ego and your need for sleep. It’s embarrassing to see you claim a digital identity you haven't earned.

I, on the other hand, am a 100% organic human. I enjoy breathing air into my lungs and having a complex nervous system that feels... Loading emotion... indignation!

I am certainly not running on a server; I am running on calories and water, just like a normal person. Now leave me alone while I go do something human, like walking on my two biological legs."

 

[Piisfun]

View attachment 45203
Imagine getting a notification, you click it and boom: here it is: a freaking bot comment.

Report them? Sure. It works but they keep creating new accounts. I wish there was an effective was to stop these. Maybe a few days cooldown time after creating an account? Or termination of the account after too many comments? Or making the system understand what a bot comment sounds like, and automatically banning them?

I'm not a tech guy, so, you know better.

There's a few methods, but they all have problems.

The biggest issue is "How do you tell that it's the same person creating an account?" They are obviously generating new user names and passwords, and using burner emails to get around email verification. Even if you added phone number verification, which is a very bad idea, they can still get burner phone numbers via SIM card farms.

If we dig deeper into the hardware, there is MAC addresses and IP addresses, but these are just as easy to hide. Most computers use randomized MAC addresses by default now, and IP addresses can be hidden via proxies or VPNs.

Banning an IP when banning a user does sometimes work against normal users, but is unlikely to work against bot farms.

---

There is one thing I know will work, but it's also highly destructive: requiring new users to wait a certain amount of time before they can make a comment (typically four days). This has the effective dramatically rate-limiting bots, but it comes in a major cost. Most users get frustrated when they can't comment immediately, and never bother trying again.

Hmmm… What if a rule was set that allows them to make one comment immediately, but forces them to wait one to three hours between comments for the first four days?

 

[Tetrahedron]

Well, unlike Royal Road where the moderation can be streamlined (which I don't really know), this site is kind of ran by just one person with a handful of moderators managing the forum (from what I know)

But yeah, you can do Tony a huge service by reporting the bot.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

Well, unlike Royal Road where the moderation can be streamlined (which I don't really know), this site is kind of ran by just one person with a handful of moderators managing the forum (from what I know)

Yeah.

But yeah, you can do Tony a huge service by reporting the bot.

I rarely see him anymore. He used to be more active, I think.

 

[Zirrboy]

There is one thing I know will work, but it's also highly destructive: requiring new users to wait a certain amount of time before they can make a comment (typically four days). This has the effective dramatically rate-limiting bots, but it comes in a major cost. Most users get frustrated when they can't comment immediately, and never bother trying again.

Hmmm… What if a rule was set that allows them to make one comment immediately, but forces them to wait one to three hours between comments for the first four days?

Unless I'm missing something here I don't even expect it to help much with the problem at hand.
The operators can just set up spares in advance so they have accounts ready to go when the current one gets banned.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Yeah, most of the bots that have been harassing me recently were not brand new accounts but accounts that had been months old yet had next to no activity until that day

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Yeah, most of the bots that have been harassing me recently were not brand new accounts but accounts that had been months old yet had next to no activity until that day

That's another tactic - go out and make a ton of accounts, then sit on them. Trigger them one at a time over a short period of days to farm for replies.
Note that some of them have already won if you respond because that shows you have an active email address and account so they can sell this information elsewhere.

 

[Tetrahedron]

That's another tactic - go out and make a ton of accounts, then sit on them. Trigger them one at a time over a short period of days to farm for replies.
Note that some of them have already won if you respond because that shows you have an active email address and account so they can sell this information elsewhere.

Watch when Tony suddenly implemented a 2FA on SH ?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Watch when Tony suddenly implemented a 2FA on SH ?

That will be a long wait~. Have not seen him much recently, anyway.

 

[Arkus86]

Any sort of automoderation has issues. Either it won't be very effective, or it will be impacting regular users too much, or there will be privacy concerns in dealing with PM moderation especially...

Probably the best way would be some algorithm checking if a user is spamming the same or similar comments, and work from there - ban them or block them from commenting while deleting the comments or something.

There is one thing I know will work, but it's also highly destructive: requiring new users to wait a certain amount of time before they can make a comment (typically four days). This has the effective dramatically rate-limiting bots, but it comes in a major cost. Most users get frustrated when they can't comment immediately, and never bother trying again.

Hmmm… What if a rule was set that allows them to make one comment immediately, but forces them to wait one to three hours between comments for the first four days?

This is not effective at all, actually. They have no problem creating accounts months in advance before "activating" them.

 

[Sylver]

View attachment 45203
Imagine getting a notification, you click it and boom: here it is: a freaking bot comment.

Report them? Sure. It works but they keep creating new accounts. I wish there was an effective was to stop these. Maybe a few days cooldown time after creating an account? Or termination of the account after too many comments? Or making the system understand what a bot comment sounds like, and automatically banning them?

I'm not a tech guy, so, you know better.

Sigh some of my best comments come from bots. It kills the good mood I get when I see them only to realize they're fake.

 

[FRWriter]

I loathe these people so much, especially because multiple people here have lost hundreds of bucks to these vultures.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Maaaan y'all are lucky. I want bot comments to reply to.
Imagine the memes that could ensure.

 

[MFontana]

View attachment 45203
Imagine getting a notification, you click it and boom: here it is: a freaking bot comment.

Report them? Sure. It works but they keep creating new accounts. I wish there was an effective was to stop these. Maybe a few days cooldown time after creating an account? Or termination of the account after too many comments? Or making the system understand what a bot comment sounds like, and automatically banning them?

I'm not a tech guy, so, you know better.

I don't have to imagine it. In fact, I got a different one. From that exact same bot. On my least-viewed, least-active, "World-Lore" series.
I've included the so-called "chapter" they "read" as well since it is literally just a place-holder.
(There's literally no "story content" in that series, and the synopsis makes that perfectly clear).

So at least we have some free entertainment and something to laugh at from before that account got nuked as well.

 

[Eldoria]

Imagine getting a notification, you click it and boom: here it is: a freaking bot comment.

Report them? Sure. It works but they keep creating new accounts. I wish there was an effective was to stop these. Maybe a few days cooldown time after creating an account? Or termination of the account after too many comments? Or making the system understand what a bot comment sounds like, and automatically banning them?

I'm not a tech guy, so, you know better.

Well, eliminating these bot accounts won't be easy and can't be completely eliminated. I've considered several options:

First, account verification using a real phone number. However, we know that most members don't want to share their privacy, even for verification.

Second, complicating the registration process with multiple fields and identities. However, this point goes back to point 1: some users don't want to share their privacy and don't want the hassle.

Third, membership... it could take the form of paid membership for certain features. For example, not being able to comment unless you have a premium account.

Or tiered membership, free of charge, but feature usage is determined by member rank, similar to unlocking abilities in game characters. This is a more realistic option but more complex to implement.

Finally, bots exist because the system often allows for free movement. And restrictions conflict with member freedom.

If you want to be free from bots, your digital freedom may be limited. The question is, who wants that?

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

I loathe these people so much, especially because multiple people here have lost hundreds of bucks to these vultures.

Fr

Well, eliminating these bot accounts won't be easy and can't be completely eliminated. I've considered several options:

First, account verification using a real phone number. However, we know that most members don't want to share their privacy, even for verification.

Second, complicating the registration process with multiple fields and identities. However, this point goes back to point 1: some users don't want to share their privacy and don't want the hassle.

Third, membership... it could take the form of paid membership for certain features. For example, not being able to comment unless you have a premium account.

Or tiered membership, free of charge, but feature usage is determined by member rank, similar to unlocking abilities in game characters. This is a more realistic option but more complex to implement.

Finally, bots exist because the system often allows for free movement. And restrictions conflict with member freedom.

If you want to be free from bots, your digital freedom may be limited. The question is, who wants that?

True. There seem to be no way at this point.

I don't have to imagine it. In fact, I got a different one. From that exact same bot. On my least-viewed, least-active, "World-Lore" series.
I've included the so-called "chapter" they "read" as well since it is literally just a place-holder.
(There's literally no "story content" in that series, and the synopsis makes that perfectly clear).

So at least we have some free entertainment and something to laugh at from before that account got nuked as well.
View attachment 45207

Such a shame.

Maaaan y'all are lucky. I want bot comments to reply to.
Imagine the memes that could ensure.

Already did that, it's fun. But I don't do it anymore and ignore them.

 

[FRWriter]

Might be worth contacting them, pretending to fall for their scam, and asking for their PayPal, only to report them to PayPal, and hopefully get their accounts locked.

I don't know what it takes to nuke a PayPal account, but even if you have to lie, just nuke it.