Some of you have reached out to us about an increase in bots posting on our sub and we've noticed it too. Several of you have been very helpful by reporting these comments to us so that we can remove them and we really appreciate this. However, we're getting so many of these reports that its clogging up our modqueue and taking longer for us to review/approve post from new users, situations of potential harrassement, rule violations, etc.

To help us combat this, we are asking for your help in dealing with bots to preseve the integrity of this community. If you see a comment that looks suspiciously like a bot, report it. But please do NOT select "breaks r/exjw rules" as you would for most items. Instead, please do the following:

  1. Select Report
  2. On the next page, Select Spam.
  3. On the next page, Select Disruptive use of bots or AI.
  4. On the next page, you have the option to add a description (if you wish) and next select Done and finally Submit.

Our hope is that, if you help us report these comments to Reddit, they help identify the source(s) of the bots and ban them to prevent future spam.

Thank you so much for your help!!!

EDIT: And for any who might be inclined to think the org is responsible and attacking our sub, we have no reason to think that is case. The majority of these spambots post either positive or random, nonsensical, completely out of context, messages, and the account post history usually shows their focus is not just on our sub.

  • šŸ«” I have noticed it too. Thanks for the workflow!

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  • I've also been going to the profile page and reporting the account itself under the same spam/ai option... Hopefully that helps Reddit filter them out.

    What I've noticed about the bot comments so far:
    - usually cheerfully encouraging, with an emoji.
    - often have that ChatGPT-esue "This..? More like that!" style.
    - accounts are under two months old (so far).
    - comment history includes multiple comments with character repeats - that's the biggest tell-tale. Not just letters, but also spaces... For example, they might spell "for example" as "for r examplple". I've only reported a comment or account as spam/ai if that user had a new account with multiple comments in their history with these repeats, because that's a specific tactic spam accounts can use to copy-paste stuff while bypassing automatic filters. (And it's pretty unlikely a real human would make those particular typos.)
    - simple and shallow, or illogical; clicking on comments that seemed more "complex" usually shows they're inaccurate, or weirdly impersonating the OP while getting details mixed up.
    - also, for whatever reason, a bunch of them mention the word "track" at random. Comments like "Track me? I'm already there!" Or other unrelated nonsense.

    They seem to pop up more in popular threads, and I only started noticing them when we had more activity here around the AGM, so hopefully they go away soon.... especially if they're getting reported and not getting upvotes.

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    I downvote them, red flag them as Bots, and then report them.

    I am a sub ā€œcop.ā€

    And the only thing I ā€œHATEā€ more than Bots are Watchtower Apologists.

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    šŸ„‚
    I was commenting "bot" under them for a while, but I don't want to give them the bonus engagement by replying šŸ¤£

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    This is true, but just so you know - my keyboard auto-types words for me at times, which give me those stupid errors in my spelling. Iā€™m not a bot either lol. Itā€™s like it tries to finish my sentences, and ends up making typos. Only sometimes though, not always.

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  • Thanks for clarifying the borg isn't behind these bots. That would've been my first guess too šŸ˜…

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    Me too! We really give far too much credit to the organizationā€¦

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    So thatā€™s not Steven Lett in the picture then?

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    Are these the prostitutes i was warned about?

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    With real prostitutes you'd at least receive something in exchange for your money.

    Though Christianity only started warning against the oldest profession bc slandering's easier than competing against sacred prostitutes. šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

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  • thanks for the instructions, i was not sure what to do with them.

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  • Droids! And Bots!

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    They kinda sound like their own cult... Impervious to logic. Weirdly upbeat. Keep popping up. Strangely repetitive. Kinda odd... šŸ¤£

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    Maybe they are JWsā€¦šŸ¤£

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    That's the spirit! āœØ

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  • Thank you! That seems much more proactive than just the down votes I was giving them. Appreciate y'all!

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  • ok. thank you.

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  • Thank you for these instructions - I will keep an eye out for this.

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  • Hey there, thanks for your work, Iā€™ve been trying to post music Iā€™ve made for the community but it seems like itā€™s being blocked. I utilized AI for the production but I wrote the lyrics and I really think you all will enjoy. Is there a reason they arenā€™t allowed?

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    Iā€™ve had the same issue! Also for some reason Reddit never allows me to post an image of a poster for an investigative documentary thatā€™s all about the child sexual abuse within the religion, and how the GB responds to it. If you figure out the music thing, please let me know how you pull it off šŸ˜

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