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Ask HN: Who runs the spam bots? And why?

Mar 26, 2024 - news.ycombinator.com
The author discusses the persistent presence of chat bots on various internet platforms, from large social media sites to smaller, niche forums. They ponder about the entities behind these bots, their motives, and how they locate forums by crawling for software signatures. The author questions the profitability of such operations, especially in the case of verified LLM powered bots on Twitter, which seem to require significant investment.

The author also expresses confusion about why large social media platforms struggle to detect and ban these bots, citing Twitter's longstanding bot issue and Facebook's recent "love spell" bot problem. They compare this to gaming admins who ban cheaters in random waves to avoid revealing information. The author concludes by questioning the target audience and returns of these bot operations.

Key takeaways:

  • The author has noticed a consistent presence of chat bots on the internet, from large social media platforms to smaller, friends-only forums.
  • The author theorizes that these bots find forums by crawling for forum software signatures, similar to how they find vulnerabilities.
  • There is a question about the purpose and return on investment of these bots, especially considering the costs involved in running them, such as the verified LLM powered bots on Twitter.
  • The author also questions why large social media platforms struggle to find and ban these bots, citing examples of Twitter's long-standing bot problem and Facebook's 'love spell' bot issue.
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