Del Rion (del_rion) wrote,
Del Rion
del_rion

Bot accounts

It's been an interesting day so far.

Now, this problem has been around for a while now, and still I from time to time see someone on my flist wondering about this.
Who are these strange people randomly adding me?!

Answer: Bots

Today alone, I have already got 9 friend requests. And it's only 2pm.

Now, it is very easy to report a bot. You can get right to the link when hovering over the icon before the username (or, use this link, provided by kit84).

Here, I thought to compile a list of ways to recognize a bot (ones I've discovered; I could be wrong or miss something).

So, the most usual ways of spotting a bot:
  • The name makes no sense. It's just a jumbled mess of letters.
  • The journal is a plus account (they mostly are, for some reason).
  • The user doesn't mark their year of birth.
  • There are no userpics, or just one or two of them.
  • The user has no interests listed.
  • The user isn't part of any communities - although sometimes the default LJ comms.
  • There is no profile information, OR: if the profile is in English, run it through Google etc. search. Chances are it is copied from another user! [In those cases, I always report both the bot and the stolen userinfo].
  • There are no entries in the journal, or just a few. In some cases, I have seen many entries, but they are mostly or always in Russian, and from some you can clearly see they have been copied from somewhere else.
  • If you look at the user's friend list, you can possible see some of your mutual friends in there (I believe they go through flists or communities while adding).
  • A bot has no mutual friends.

    • Those were just off the top of my head. Feel free to add stuff in the comments, and I'll add them to the list ^^
    Tags: .random.
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