this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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So what are the Bots doing? Who created them and why? I don't understand the purpose of bots.
Currently nothing but once activated they may start spamming stuff everywhere. Owners can decide what gets upvotes and what gets downvotes which gives you a lot of power on a platform where downvotes/upvotes mean everything.
Still don't get it - someone makes a comment, bots upvote it so it gets seen by more people. Not really going to change the world.
Sure, but do you like ads that masquerade as posts? Because if you do then you'll love the delicious taste of Diet Coke, grab one today! (16900 upvotes)
Oh boy, I, for one, love the taste of Diet Coke, the perfect refreshing drink when you and your family watch my new movie, "Barbie", only in theaters July 21st.
Companies advertising on here through AMA's should also be prevented because it's just advertising
no diss I actually am super excited to watch anything with Ryan Gosling in it
He gets us.
They don't want to change the world. They want to let you know about hot singles in your area
I don't see what the problem is here...
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Yeah, but this can give you popularity and attention that people crave and it will be pretty damn useful in scamming others too.
It will change enough minds on enough issues that this can be both very profitable and very significant for those using this for some kind of benefit to themselves or their organization. This is not a small effect when doing this on a large social media site (which isn't Lemmy yet).
Many of them are doing nothing so far.
No doubt they are available for sale to some company or individual that wants to buy them wholesale and start spamming or astroturfing.
People wanting to sell them for $$ mostly. In some cases, people biding their time to use them for mass spam, social misdirection, opinion forming, etc.
In social media, a common and concerning use of them is to use them wholesale (comments, posts, and votes) to try and sway mass opinion on some issue to something the person responsible for the bots wants.