The spam bots are getting smarter

Edit: Sorry that this looks like a mess, I have no clue how to format this right on mobile.

OK, so I just noticed something very strange about a latest thing that just sprung out.

I was reading new posts on the New music thread (2018), and the last comment there cought my view:

Uh, weird. New account with 5 posts that wrote an out of place comment about Kingdom Hearts. "Maybe he posted it in the wrong thread?" I thought to myself.

So I checked out his profile to see what's the deal with this guy and this is what I see:

4 different activities:

1. A legitimate looking post that's a reply to a previous post about a Kingdom Hearts mini game.

2. Again with a KH related one, but with no connection to the thread.

3. This is the weirdest one to me - another real post about the song Synthetic Life and a little joke about the infamous song we all know, Lockdown.

4. A new thread with just gibberish in it.

At this point I'm confused. Is this a real person at all? It's like a mixed bag of real posts and something you would see out of a bot. Also, all of the posts are made within minutes of each other, something a bot would do.

I then refresh the main forum page and see this:

Now this... This I know. The same thing that has been going on for ages here and keeps filling the entire first page with unreadable spam.

Now is when I'm not sure what to think anymore. Was this really a bot all along? That Synthetic Life post has a reference to a Giant Bomb meme that only dudes who are following the site would know, so it looked like it came from a real person, but all the rest are doubtful. Maybe bot tech is in a state I didn't know was even possible yet.

Or maybe I'm just loosing my mind here, who knows?

I feel like they just copy posts from other legitimate real users or something. I also saw a few users (100% bots) with similar behaviour above, so you're not going crazy. Bot tech is definitely advanced nowadays, you can feed a bot some words or create algorithms to make something coherent, but I think in this case they just copy older posts from legit users. Just report them, mods will surely check it out.

Honestly, something needs to be done, I love browsing the GB forums but it has been really annoying for the past couple of months. Maybe give users the right to create new threads only after they have 20 or some set number of posts. That would at least partially limit the spam with new threads (wouldn't limit spam with posts tho).

July 29th: This Synthetic Life bots become self-aware and begin to learn at a geometric rate.

Just checked! Googled some posts you showed as examples and that post about Synthetic Life is 100% copied word for word from another post made by a legit user with 5000+ posts on their account, the Gummi ship one is also copied word for word from a legit user with 600+ posts and premium member, so I was right, the bots just copy old posts!

Yeah it's usely around this time the spam starts University of X and a bucnh of Korean or Chinese tried to report those guys as soon as i see them but i am guessing it's 4 in the morning in America isn't gonna help.

I guess those bot guys found a neat language algorithm to ruin our forums. I wonder if they can restrict these bots from posting stuff now they need to post 10 comments and they could ruin the forums with Spam. Maybe if you put like a cooldown period on when your allowed to make a new thread with a new account would help ? just bouncing some thoughts.

@mattgiersoni: Yeah you're right, they are copy pasted posts. Guess bots have some ways to go before they go full sentient on our asses.

Are there other forums targeted by these chinese bots? I've never seen this kind of bots outside of Giant Bomb.

Welp, so much for the smarter bots...

i think you summoned them

@wrw11199910: God damn it...

I just wish they'd mix up the times of the spamming. I'm in the UK and this heavily impacts my morning ability to find a distraction from work without looking like I am distracted from work.

Let's hope they don't figure out how to open doors

This synthetic life is an autobiography, performed by Mother.

*Does this unit have a soul?*
*No. It has only synthetic life*
*Bots stars dabbing*

Our destiny wasn’t to defeat the spambots but to survive them..

@zsse55: lol

yo real talk: anyone that prefers 'synthetic life' to 'lockdown' clearly doesn't have a soul.

I say we killem all!! The only good bot is a dead bot

*would you like to know more?*