this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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Just checked out the hot sort on Reddit and nearly half of the posts were created by bots. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Gullible@sh.itjust.works to c/reddit@lemmy.world
38 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Needed a pickling mix recipe I remembered only vaguely, but before I navigated to the community that held it, I noticed how horrifically botted the front page was. I did a cursory account check of the posts on the top sort and found that nearly half of the front page was comprised of bot posts or bot boosted accounts. Which is, under no uncertain terms, horrific.

Lemmy has its issues, but how someone could see this toxic landfill and choose to plant their flag there, I don’t understand. Glad to be amongst the people who cannot tolerate this.

top 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 38 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I have no doubt it’s mostly bots these days, but you can’t reply upon usernames as the evidence. For years before I left Reddit I used default generated usernames such as these to post anonymously.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It’s account age, percentage of high karma posts, and AI callouts in their most recent post that I looked for. I think the bottom of my pic has an autogen that seemed human on first glance.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What's an ai callout? I looked up snack samurai based on you underlining them above and didn't see anything odd other than the account was 1month old.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

1 month, many back to back incredibly high karma posts on samurai. Boofing bleach might be able to help them Scrape by.

AI callouts, as in accusations by users, which I corroborated to the best of my personal ability, of being an AI managed account.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

High Karma sounds like a bot army. I see a smaller version on Lemmy where some users, no matter how deep in a thread, always get 4 upvotes instantly.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

If you know the lemmy users’ names, you can check for yourself whether they’re voting themselves up. Lemvotes.org. No hiding it here.

Edit: unless they’re .ml. .ml blocked the instance responsible for this

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Bot armies aren't users directly voting themselves. It's a bunch of random IPs that are owned or paid to vote.

How does Lemvotes show if you upvoted yourself? I just looked at it and it doesn't even show the IP of the voter which would cover the easiest abuse (multiple accounts on the same PC).

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It doesn’t show any info of that sort, just account vote histories to reference. People here generally aren’t careful enough to hide it well.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

voting themselves up. Lemvotes.org. No hiding it here.

Are you saying there's a way to upvote yourself multiple times from your own account? Because Reddit doesn't allow that at all.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Not as far as I know, no. Just multiple accounts, same as most websites.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Then how does Lemmyvotes show self upvoting? The accounts that upvote could be followers.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You’d have to follow up with each individual account. If you’re asking for something non-heuristic, that’s a conversation for the devs

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Then I'm really confused by your first reply:

" Lemvotes.org. No hiding it here. "

Bots seem to be just as hidden on Lemmy as reddit.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There are possibly AIs automating the callouts in comments too since they grow statistically more probable.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

The idea of chatbots calling out chatbots just makes me want to burn everything down.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago

I just left, I'd say 60-70% bots

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world -1 points 4 days ago

true - i think there are less russian bots on lemmy now the userbase is so low

i guess the russian bots will ramp up again for the us elections

[–] ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You know moderators use bots to generate posts and vote up or down replies ? The karma points required to post on most subreddits are so high only the mods can post. And the moderators on Lemmy do the same, only they can only lock out users from their own sub. Reddit auto-generates user names when using Gmail or an Android phone.

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago

I'm not making a statement that Reddit isn't mostly bots. I'm just saying auto-generated names isn't proof enough that there are.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If you think that’s fun, wait till you see that a large amount of content on Lemmy currently is just one guy reposting things using a browser extension.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They’re at least human, if they are who I think they are.

[–] REDACTED@infosec.pub 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But people behind those reddit bots are human too

[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Unless they're Dal......exterminate exterminate! oh God no please.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

Here lies tiral, exterminated by dalmatians RIP

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

Not in my book.

[–] chrash0@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

the front page of Reddit has been brainrot garbage since before LLMs were invented, IMO. the good part of Reddit has always been the niche communities

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Honestly, I still regularly participate in some of them, mostly mechanical keyboard, sports, and local stuff.

If I want to shitpost or grumble or discuss new-to-me stuff with real people then I do it here, but for niche interests that are poorly represented here but hit a critical mass there, while staying small enough to avoid front-page attention or (god-forbid) becoming a default sub, Reddit still has some value. Old with RES and "Dystopia for Reddit" are still hanging on by the skin of their teeth, so that makes the experience itself less awful.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

wait how do we know these accounts are bots?

I left because I felt like everyone I talked to was just trying to create anger engagement, or was just using Reddit as a source to vent their rage virtually, anything I said I would get bombarded by putrid hateful responses, so I'm here now and people are pretty darn nice, even if we don't always agree.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This shouldn't surprise you, Reddit announce its partnership with an AI company like 2 years ago.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Surprised? That’s not the right word. “Disgusted” is closer. It’s like going to the grocery and seeing someone smoking meth at the bus stop across the way. It’s not surprising in the least, but by Jove does it sadden me. Particularly when half of the stop is filled with people smoking meth.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Well, look, I wouldn't go to hexbear and take a screenshot and be all like "DID YOU GUYS KNOW ITS FULL OF TANKIES?!"

Of course its full of Tankies. That's what it's for.

[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I left because it became obvious that literally every other post on every cute animal subreddit was a fake dead pet post written by a bot. Any subreddit with animals, all the animals were dead. Just like Reddit.

[–] cleverusernametry@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (3 children)

How did you figure out they are bots?

Lemmy has its issues

Thats an understatement. I'd love nothing more than to ditch reddit and use Lemmy but every single time I come here, I'm flabbergasted by how bad the content is. Its like 100% ragebait - like every single person here is 13 year old who just hit puberty and hates the world

[–] King@literature.cafe 1 points 2 days ago

From what I can tell, lemmy users tend to be more open to discussion and on most things a lot less echo chambery.

In reddit going against the grain gets you downvoted or banned by an overzealous mod.

At least on lemmy people mostly will give you a counterargument, or at worst ignore you.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

That describes every uncatered online community that I’ve ever been in. And there have been a lot. The Reddit screenshot is 2/15 politics rage, and I just checked our unfiltered active sort, which held 4/20. I don’t see much difference, besides having humans rather than bots.

Gotta block negative communities and people, and subscribe to the mentally beneficial places here, same as nearly everywhere else on the internet pre-algorithms.

New, high point total accounts are nearly always bots.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

then leave. bye

[–] KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

It's good to know u/iamaslut is not a bot at least.