We have GOT to do something about these bots....

Ok, so I've been here almost two months now. And I'm a frequent commenter. What I have noticed is that almost every single comment I make gets exactly 1 downvote. Regardless of where, regardless of content. Doesn't matter what I say. I could say "Puppies are snuggly!" and it would get one downvote.

This leads me to believe there's a bot (or maybe a series of bots) who go around and make sure everything gets downvotes. I don't see the point of that.

Look, sometimes I make comments that people ACTUALLY don't agree with. I made a joke comment about trump and biden being young unheard of up and comers in the political world that haven't reached drinking age yet. I thought it was funny, but last I checked it had more downvotes than upvotes. Ok, fair enough. That joke bombed. I'll take the L on that one.

But to downvote everything across the board? It's hard to tell when my material is just barely landing, or just barely not landing........as opposed to now assuming the downvote is a bot and I can't trust the negitive reaction.

So, maybe this post could serve as a brainstorm session for how to combat this very minor problem. I'm not a techie with any knowledge of how bots operate, let alone how to stop them. But I'm sure others on this forum do. So lets hash this thing out!

MBM ,

You're getting a lot of downvotes in this thread, are people trying to be funny or am I missing something

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

I think they're trying to be funny. I've also noticed a mild uptick in downvotes overall. Used to be 1 downvote per comment. Now it's like 2-3 per comment, but it's not consistant. So I'm thinking that'll die off when they get bored. It doesn't feel like automatic bot downvote style.

Gnugit ,

Here is a thread from my instance discussing the problem: https://aussie.zone/comment/9484368

MrKaplan Mod ,
@MrKaplan@lemmy.world avatar

looking at your recent comments from the last 3 days, many of your comments don't have any downvotes. am I missing something?

Pronell ,

Have they lost their mind?

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

Here's a good example.

https://lemmy.world/comment/10869251

Posted on a post that was last commented on 26 days ago. I post that comment, and now within 2 minutes, downvote. Another different comment in the same topic, same thing, within 5 minutes.

Lemmeenym ,

I would assume "on the ropes" was a reference to Andre being a wrestler. Don't think it was meant to be about his death.

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

He made it sound like it was a dark joke that he was appologizing for. To my knowledge Andre didn't get involved in anything dark. So death is the first thing that comes to mind for me. I probably am wrong, because either way I still don't get why the joke would be funny in either case.

MrKaplan Mod ,
@MrKaplan@lemmy.world avatar

this doesn't seem to be targeted against you, just someone not liking the comment. some people order their feed by e.g. active, so such cases will show up quickly.

Gnugit ,

Since the new update some instances are counting votes at zero.

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

I'm not sure how you see the upvotes/downvotes, but on my UI I see in the upper right, the total calculated votes. But in the lower left I see Upvotes, and Downvotes individually. Plus when I post, my upvoting my own comment is automatic.

afk_strats ,

Are you sure you're not just on someone's bad side? Why do you suspect this is bots?

Today ,

Someone commented the other day that they thought their ex was following then and down voting every comment. I do sometimes see posts or comments with one downvote and wonder why.

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

Because it's so consistant. Exactly one downvote on most of my comments within minutes of it being posted. I could see if I were on someones bad side, and they did this for like a week........this has been since day 1 of me being here, and it's almost every comment.

The ONLY thing I could think of that would piss someone off to stalk a profile like that, is if someone who uses and loves linux is THAT upset that I don't understand linux. But the consistancy of it is just........I can't imagine this is human. It's just been going on for so long, on too many posts, and almost immediately after posting a comment. You'd think they'd give up if it were a human.

afk_strats ,

I went through your comment history and I think you pass the vibe check, as in, there's no reason someone should down vote by default. I think something is up but a bot targeting a random account seems weird. Which client do you use?

Lost_My_Mind OP ,

Mostly my phone. I just use the samsung browser and go to the site directly. No app. Right now I'm on my tablet. Same concept, samsung tablet. Samsung browser.

Oddly enough, I can't use my PC at home. Firefox just will not load Lemmy, and I don't know why. It loads parts of it......but the bulk of the page is just an endless spinny circle.

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