PSA: Bot Comments Are Taking Over Ao3

PSA: bot comments are taking over ao3

The above examples have been provided with the authors' permission to demonstrate what these look like.

Basic rundown:

They are all 3 sentences long

Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation

Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever

No mentions whatsoever of character names, settings, situations, or anything that could be tied to the story

The usernames may be identical to people who exist on ao3, but the name is not clickable, and no profile is associated with it EXCEPT when you directly search for that name. What this means: the comments come from an unregistered (not logged in) reader, bots scrape the site for real usernames, attach that to the comment, and post

Please spread the word about this so authors can filter comments and report them accordingly

There has been some speculation about why this is happening at all, and the best guess is that this is a feature that AI-training story-scraping tools are implementing to try and make their browsing traffic look legitimate

More Posts from Public-charmer and Others

public-charmer

5 years ago

people who don’t have adhd: we all are a little adhd!!

me: well do you have the debilitating symptoms of RSD that make you feel like a failure 24/7 and that everyone you love hates you?? Do you have sensory issues that make it difficult to function without getting irritated at the smallest things?? or extreme impulsiveness that can destroy relationships and even endanger you at times???? or do you develop maladaptive coping skills that can further destroy your mental state??????

them: no?

me: THEN YOU DON’T HAVE FUCKING ADHD!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK OFF

535 notes View Post

public-charmer

6 years ago

I forgot some info so I had to reupload this. Tell everyone about the charity livestream, yell on top of rooftops! Make billboards, pay some sky writers! Pretty much spread the word as crazy as people did for Pewdiepie!

@markiplier

3K notes View Post

public-charmer

5 years ago

Why are this things not mentioned until WE find them. Why. What.

when you find yet another documented-but-rarely-discussed facet of your disorder and realize there’s a reason that you’re such a bitch

165 notes View Post

public-charmer

6 years ago

Im crying, my kid would hate me....Alerjo😂😂

1st Letter Of My Name : 2nd Letter Of My Name : 1st Letter Of My Moms Name : 2nd Letter Of My Moms Name : 1st Letter Of My Dads Name : 2nd Letter Of My Dads Name : My Child’s Name Would Be ?

444K notes View Post

public-charmer

6 years ago