Bots on BZP?

[BionicleBean]

I don't know who's making them, or why they're here, but there are (what i'm pretty sure are) bots on BZP now. I've seen them popping up, creating scam topics and supposedly selling Iphones. Have there been Bots before on the site? is there any way to get rid of them?

[Black Six]

Yes, unfortunately bots are a thing. Please report them when you see them. You can also reach out through our Discord server if we don't take it down quickly.

As for getting rid of them, the only way to do that is to make the registration process harder for real people too, so it's tricky to find that balance.

[Alexander123]

Also dont reply to the bot topics. The scammers will just see that their bot got feedback which will prompt them to send more bots.

[Valendale]

It's always been something that happens occasionally. Probably used to happen even more often when the forum was more popular.

[Chronicler06]

2 hours ago, Valendale said:

It's always been something that happens occasionally. Probably used to happen even more often when the forum was more popular.

I don't really recall such bots being really notable until relatively recently. My best guess for why that might have been the case is that more activity meant it was more likely to be reported more quickly and thus the issue was rarely seen for long. These days, however, activity is so low that these bot posts could last for hours before some finally comes along and notices those bots and then report them.

This is only my speculations, but it's the best possible answer I can come up with.

[Valendale]

2 hours ago, Chronicler06 said:

I don't really recall such bots being really notable until relatively recently. My best guess for why that might have been the case is that more activity meant it was more likely to be reported more quickly and thus the issue was rarely seen for long. These days, however, activity is so low that these bot posts could last for hours before some finally comes along and notices those bots and then report them.

This is only my speculations, but it's the best possible answer I can come up with.

Yeah I think that's how it was.

[Raph]

How do i understand if it is a bot? For example, how can i understand that the topic is started by a bot? I just never encountered one here.

[Nato G]

25 minutes ago, Raph said:

How do i understand if it is a bot? For example, how can i understand that the topic is started by a bot?

You'll know it if/when you see it.

It'll be completely off-topic, probably trying to sell something, possibly not even in English. 

[Raph]

2 hours ago, Nato G said:

You'll know it if/when you see it.

It'll be completely off-topic, probably trying to sell something, possibly not even in English. 

oh...ok.

[Chronicler06]

Most importantly, DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN THOSE BOTS POSTS! Chances are very likely that will result in a virus on your computer or some other tech nightmare that you certainly don't want to deal with.