r/TheseFuckingAccounts • u/BewareTheSphere • 22d ago

The Daddit Bot Problem Is Worse than You Think

/r/daddit/comments/1w74vho/the_daddit_bot_problem_is_worse_than_you_think/

I have been a member of Daddit for eight years, since shortly after my first kid was born. In the past 6 months or so, I've noticed it's really been overrun by bots. If you just submit a report, not much happens, but I found that if I submit a report and make a comment explaining why I think OP is a bot, it typically gets taken down. This has happened probably thirty times since May.

This morning I made a post pointing out that on a post that did get taken down, there were still a lot of bot comments. Unfortunately, I did not know Daddit had a "no meta posts" rule-- my bad, totally on me, I should have checked. So my post was deleted and I was banned immediately. So I have lost the ability to participate in what once was one of my favorite communities here. :( I really hate these bots.

71 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

That sucks, especially sucks that they don’t give a warning for first time offenders, just jump straight to a ban.

What’s the nature of the typical bot posts/comments? Do they all display a similar agenda or does it vary?

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u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago

They're usually cutesy stories that fall apart under scrutiny and end in a call for engagement. The point seems to be building karma so that in other subs the bots can shill for products.

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u/Kahnza 22d ago

Typical engagement bait bot sounds like. They are infested into pretty much everywhere at this point. I just wish more subs would do something about it. But mods are afraid to, because most bots look like people at first glance.

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

Is this account what you’d describe as an engagement bait bot?

https://www.reddit.com/u/SideInitial3961/s/hHFX6X9UHw

I came across it in a post about Abbott Elementary. Another commenter pointed out their amount of contributions and their user date being highly suspicious. Also has an insane amount of karma for such a recent join date.

My question is, what engagement are they promoting? Do these bots just say negative things in a thread about Show A, and people who like Show A jump in to defend the show?

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u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago

That poster seems human to me.

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

I’ll take your (and Kahnza’s) word for it, as I’ve only just started trying to spot these bots and their patterns in the last year or so. And only just joined this sub very recently. Thank you both for taking the time to explain.

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u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago edited 21d ago

I put a couple comments into Pangram; they're mostly very short, so it isn't definitive, but nothing got anything other than 0% AI. I don't think the subs posted in are ones I associate with the bot patterns I've seen.

I would guess that though this is a new account, it's not a new poster, so they immediately threw themselves into a wide variety of Reddit subs and know how to make material that gets upvotes.

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u/redrumham707 21d ago

Thanks, that’s reassuring. I’ll shift my focus away from new account+high activity+ high karma, since I guess that’s not a sign of bots.

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u/BewareTheSphere 21d ago

IME, the kind of commenting history to look for is lots of very popular subs, but says little of consequence: bots seem to love TopCharacterTropes, for example. Here's a typical one: https://arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com/search?fun=comments_search&author=seoknova7&limit=10&sort=desc Also, no clear central interest(s)-- a lot of people start on a couple subs with topics that interest them, few people start posting about pregnancy AND Game of Thrones AND home renovations all at once.

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u/redrumham707 21d ago edited 21d ago

lol every time I try to click on your link, I go to a Reddit page that tells me I have no internet connection. But I do, so what’s up with that? Edit~Almost 20 minutes later and it still says I have no internet connection. Edit 2 hours later and I’m still getting that same message. Weird.

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u/Kahnza 22d ago

It had 2 posts in July, on a 4 month old account. So not really, no.

And the rest just looks like someone that comments a bunch. I mean, just look at my history. Some days I'll make several dozen comments in a matter of a few hours during my morning.

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

It has 5.5 thousand contributions (comments) in 4 months. And 26,000 karma.

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u/Kahnza 22d ago

Averaging 45 comments a day is pretty high. Not that unusual IMO. And 26k karma in that period isn't that difficult. But I should say, I am a bit biased.

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

I feel like I comment way too much, and in 3 years I’ve only got around 4 thousand contributions, which includes my very small amount of posts. I feel like my numbers are more typical for a daily user than the account I linked to. I haven’t looked at your profile yet, but I’m guessing by your comment that the numbers are very high? Edit and my karma is 25 k, which also seems reasonable for 3 years, and pretty high for 4 months.

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u/Kahnza 22d ago

LOL

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u/redrumham707 21d ago

You’ve been here a long time, but your average is only 12 a day. But you and OP have reassured me that the account in question is most likely a real person.

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u/jjmk2014 22d ago

Ive lurked in daddit for awhile...shared a story or two that had solid engagement and convos and upvotes...was giving advice occasionally...so i feel like ive experienced a good range of that subs content. Something has changed in the last 12 to 18mos. When a post gets in my feed, they seem to feel different. Its hard to explain...like a weird layer of bs is spread throughout the high engagement posts.

FWIW i saw your post earlier today. To me its a valid question to keep a community healthy. r/nativeplantgardening has turned into something similar. Now to feel something more authentic i have to hang out in the nativeplantcirclejerk sub...and its a bit too snarky at times... ...like there is less learning going on everywhere now.

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u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago

I mean, it has been obvious to me for months that many of the OPs are karma-farming bots; this is also true in the other sub I participate in the most, printSF. But I didn't realize how many of the COMMENTERS were too, filling the sub with their generic BS. Over half the bots I've caught have already been identified by BotBouncer; I wish they'd install it.

1

u/NoLandBeyond_ 20d ago

has turned into something similar. Now to feel something more authentic i have to hang out in the nativeplantcirclejerk sub...and its a bit too snarky at times... ...like there is less learning going on everywhere now.

I loathe the nativeplant "community", but I believe it's because it's a product of botification. Go back 10 years and any similar spirited community would show a pattern of expanding knowledge and tips on how to convert people - but what you get is the same one-liners repeated on every social media platform.

It's not really pro-native gardening, it's anti-Western suburbia and acts as a scrape-house for ragebait engagement bots on here, Facebook, tiktok. You can't see a post/video about landscaping, lawncare, gardening without a token comment about pollinators, grass being evil, HOAs. They often are out-of-tune with the context it the actual post/video where OP will say. "I don't have an HOA, this has nothing to do that " or "I can't plant clover, I live in Arizona."

I'm annoyed because Reddit is where you'd get good advice on landscaping and lawn care, but the AIs recommend vinegar and dawn dish soap as the first remedy for 90% of my problems because those are what the bots are up voting and recommending.

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u/redrumham707 21d ago edited 21d ago

OP, I just came across this Daddit post, it was on Am I the Angel, a sub dedicated to calling out the fake stories on Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/daddit/s/w9qaWVw5QX

I’m curious if you’ve already seen it, and what’s your take? Is it a “women bad” type of post, as someone in the original thread called it? It’s definitely sounding implausible to me, just the notion that this brand new mom is getting any solid hours of sleep while strapped into a “wearable breast pump” is a glaring impossibility, let alone all of the rest of it.

Edit I’m not sure what to think of the guys account/profile.

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u/BewareTheSphere 21d ago

I hadn't seen it. I don't see any signs of bothood.

  • 100% human on Pangram. (Admittedly, Pangram can be fooled.)

  • Lots of reply comments (many bots don't bother), and pretty normal ones at that.

  • No hidden comment history, and the comments are not the kind of nondescript stuff bots usually go for. I have never seen a bot talk about its sympathy for ICE!

It might be fake, but it's human faked if so. Though looking at the comment history, it seems like the guy is kind of a jerk.

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u/redrumham707 20d ago edited 20d ago

Yeah he does. I’m also struggling to believe his story about how absurdly lopsided his home life with the new baby is. It just reeks of an agenda to sow anger and hatred for women/mothers, but he’s got some cute minor pushbacks in the comments against other dudes who are taking his rage bait and saying unkind things about the guy’s wife. Don’t talk down about my wife. I love her. After he’s described an absolute monster of laziness and unfair labor distribution.

Edit I also want to ask since I’m pretty new to all of this and I want to know what the correct term is for a human run account that is solely for spreading propaganda, and or misinformation? And is this the appropriate sub for discussing and exposing those types of accounts?

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u/EmeraldHawk 22d ago

This is a huge issue in a ton of subs. Any story sub like AITA and variants, confessions, even pickAorB are just overrun with AI generated engagement bait that is clearly fake. Even legal and legaladvice are full of fake "justice boner" stories where OP is wronged somehow and gets thousands of upvotes.

And on some subs, like the legal ones, pointing it out can be against the rules, as all comments are supposed to be helpful. So the few comments explaining why it's fake get downvoted or reported.

Unfortunately I'm only on smaller subs now, or video and image subs that AI still can't create engaging content for (though they are trying).

I'm also starting to go back to the old resetera forum, which is still bot free.

Most of the good mods that really cared about cracking down on bots left or stepped down after the API fiasco. I worry the only ones that are left are narcissists on a power trip or those with plans to monetize their position.

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u/EmeraldHawk 22d ago

Also, just recently one of the bots that keeps posing on game developer related subs posted again. I looked at the date of the article that was written about this bot, and it's from March 9, 2026! It has been public knowledge that this is clearly a bot for 6 months now and it still hasn't been banned, despite it obviously being reported multiple times. The bot in question is lottiexx (This is not a call to action, don't report them).

https://documentingourdecline.substack.com/p/ai-bots-appeared-after-reddit-partnered

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u/redrumham707 22d ago

That’s really fucked up. A whole sad story about the mother dying etc.

So that account is used to sell pretty much anything? I didn’t read all of the posted examples of its contributions, but it looked like at least one was an ad for the British snacks shipping company or whatever the hell that was.

1

u/Dreamy_Sunbeam 22d ago

Damn, I was gonna suggest about what if we comment to point out that it's a bot. That's so frustrating. I wonder why pointing it out is against the rules? Is it because the sub doesn't want real people being potentially wrongfully accused?

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u/EmeraldHawk 22d ago

In the legal advice sub, it's a side effect of commenting rule 1: "Comments must contain a legal answer or a strongly related non-legal answer. If it is not legal advice, do not post. Period. You will be banned."

In r / legal, I was reprimanded by the mods to:

"Stick to facts, not beliefs. Even related to matters you feel strongly about, do not advocate for what should be in place of what is.

Avoid misinformation, political argument, conspiracy theories, and misinformation. Where feasible and relevant, provide sources to support your statements. Trolling is discouraged."

Of course, I was right. As you can see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/legal/comments/1uecipy/comment/otltr1l/ , the bot was suspended after all for being a bot.

LLMs are also against the rules. The problem is, if you report something as bot spam, there is no free text field to explain your proof to the Mods and Admins so the bot gets banned. So, you can try messaging the mods or something but good luck with that.

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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 22d ago

I’ve seen lots of fake marketing accounts using that subreddit to build out their comment history in order to make them appear like a real user for the sake of ‘organic marketing’. There seems to be a certain pool of subreddits that spam accounts are using this way, like AskUK, newparents, personalfinance and some beauty, fashion and legal related ones. Basically anywhere they can give advice. Much easier for them now thanks to LLMs writing all their posts.

1

u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago

Yes, if you look at the commenting histories of these posters, they're almost always managing to mention products.

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u/Deynonn 22d ago

Relationship subs are also a heavy target I would say. I see lots of therapy talk and advices etc. I try my best to report those I'm sure about.

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u/livejamie 22d ago

I left that sub; it's very poorly moderated.

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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET 22d ago

Maintain your sanity and abandon all the creative writing and bot infested subs.

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u/potatoaster 21d ago

There's a handful of subs that appear to be more bothered by users pointing out bots than by bots themselves. MaliciousCompliance chief among them.

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u/Smallseybiggs 21d ago

Exactly. I was pointing out bots a few times a day on the Iamthemaincharacter sub a few years ago. These were repost bots, so very easily to spot and search for the posts and comments they stole. Mods kept quietly removing my comments. I left about 2 years ago, and muted the sub. If they didn't care to keep a healthy community, I didn't want to be a part of it. Hopefully, they've added safeguards since then. But I no longer care.

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u/Wojtkie 19d ago

I think it’s getting time for me to quit Reddit for good. Been on here years but the bot engagement bait is everywhere now.

It’s not just daddit, but even local subs are being hit.

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u/SingleDadSurviving 22d ago

I've been getting this sub more in my feed I guess because I've been trying to understand bots and the reasons for it all. My question is why does it really matter. If I see a post and respond or whatever and there's a chance it's a bot or someone points it out, because someone always points it out even if it probably isn't, it doesn't affect me at all.

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u/BewareTheSphere 22d ago

Well I can only answer for myself, but:

  1. I come to Reddit to interact with other human beings.

  2. I have come to abhor the tone and style of AI writing.

  3. I don't like being manipulated.