#and bots are blocked and reported on sight

[stars-and-darkness]

[fanfictionjumbler]

The Bot Situation AKA the Tumblr Hydra

Ok, I'm pretty sure we're all aware of the bot situation right now- heck I might be getting more bot notifications as I'm writing this. Blocking and reporting one bot only brings a few more some time later- like cutting the head off the hydra and two more heads coming back.

But, it is getting real bad. As in like straight explicit content- the p*rn bot blogs actual have p*rn, little videos that I have thankfully only seen the top sliver of when I go to the blog to go on my hydra-head block report routine. But sometimes that top sliver does not spare you from seeing what you don't want to see. They all seem to be reblogs originating from a deactivated account, basically them carrying on the will of their banned brethren. Plus these ones leave NOTES (thankfully only likes) on posts, which makes me so glad that I do most of my original content on a side blog and this one is mostly reblogs, so the false hope notes sting less there.

The bots still have some of the basic Google search for "attractive woman" design schemes and just having the first girl name the dart landed on as their name and blog description, so easy to pluck out the bots. But still the frustrating parts:

Even if I stay scrolled up at the top, I still may get a glimpse in that one still visible sliver of some unsavory explicit that personally makes me squick (and from what I'm gathering is unlabelled so minors who really shouldn't be seeing this might be getting exposed to this posting, which is a SERIOUS PROBLEM).

I have to report them TWICE, once for being explicit and once the usual bot report. Sometimes a bit pesky on mobile since it doesn't have the report form that lets you report and block in one act. With those, even though you can report and block in any order, I feel like I always have to block them first so I don't have to see that one sliver of the explicit stuff.

Also, if you leave spam notes like these unchecked, sometimes you'll get them in a big enough batch that you'll get the "and (insert number) others" condensing, which means you'll have a whole little list to comb through.

As you can probably tell from how long I rambled on, I'm tired.

EDIT:

First note on this post was a BOT

[darth-memes]

OK, I just reblogged a riddiculus amount of your posts and am a bit embaressed right now, but... Congrats for beeing the funniest blog on this site, i guess😂!

Oh thank god you wrote this ask because I'm having major problems with bots and I was about to block you.

And... Thanks for the compliment!! Don't be embarassed. I love when people just reblog and like in mass. It means that they like the memes and I'm not laughing alone like a mad woman. So do it as many times as you like (and anyone on this site would love it).

[endreal]

.

[emyn-arnens]

I've had an influx of empty blogs following me the past couple weeks, so please, if you are a legit blog (and I think some are) and don't want to be blocked and reported as a bot, add an icon/header/blog title/reblog some posts. It's very hard to tell empty but legit blogs from bots, especially because this wave of bots seems to be upping their game by using fandom urls.

[theultimateultimateweapon]

Is anyone else getting a bunch of blank blogs with normal looking usernames following them?

They don't look like spam bots right away but they don't like or reblog anything so I'd rather be safe than sorry

[onpyre]

at this point i want a private blog option like ig because it would genuinely be simpler to approve new followers than go out of my way to block all the bots :\

[mewtwoandme]

AI had so much potential to be a great aid tool for artists, and that's all it should've been used as. But of course, like anything, there will be people who abuse a good thing, turning it into something that is now despised by the artist community and for good reason. I'm going to be a bit more harsh with my words. You're not a real artist if you use AI to create, you AI bros are a fucking joke and a mockery to the people like us who actually pick up a brush/pencil/digital pen, and put in the work and effort to create something original and authentic.

You're lazy

Typing prompts into a generator doesn't require skill. Pure laziness. Period. Between AI bros and now bots running a muck, and seeing my friends' work being stolen and run through ai generators. I ain't being so lenient anymore, I'm over it. Same goes for me, anyone who supports AI and believe generated images are "art." Leave. Unfollow me cause you are not welcome. Out! Out! Out!

Every time I report a bot another one appears and now they’re also posting stolen art fed through an Ai generator, the same one taken right off my deviantart

Fuck AI generating pictures, AI is not art, AI is garbage and theft and anyone who believes it is art can unfollow me right now because I will only speak more unkindly about AI from here on out

[westernstarofthenorth]

For the likely 1.000th time- if you're a spambot- or adult content-profile, DO NOT FOLLOW ME !! ZERO interest and you will get reported and blocked !!!! (Those who sometimes post halfnaked ladies and so, i'm okay with, i just ignore it- but profiles who's nothing but PORN SITES: STAY THE F*** AWAY !!!! Same goes for non-puplic profiles, if I can't see your posts or archive, i'll assume you're a bot and BLOCK. Don't waste your time, all 3 categories !!! Tired of this... 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[theneongreen]

Yeah, I don't think these are new users. They're just incognito bots. Between the weird influx of followers with no reblogs/posts within 24 hours that dont change their profile pic and this message.....imma block it

[pyr0peyt]

God where the actual fuck are these bots coming from

[imustbenuts]

🙃 jfc we have a audio blasting bot swarm problem on this hellsite.

hi person who is seeing this post by searching for your tag of choice. have u seen the above shitheads and tried to report on sight bc they were blasting some video with autoplay? is your search now not working?

native tumblr blocking is breaking your endless scrolling search. apparently too much posts being excluded from the load results in the load failing, so if you reported and blocked these guys, thats whats causing it. 2nd post im making for those who might not have seen my 1st post due to the aforementioned reasons.

heres how to get the functionality back until tumblr mods gets off their ass to cleaning up the mess on desktop.

get firefox with any adblock that allows for custom blacklist/filters. im using firefox with Ublock Origin. so get this if nothing else.

go into the settings of your adblock plugin and slap the following line in the blacklist/filter. it will kill any dailymotion embedded videos too btw. remember to hit Apply Changes or Save or whatever equivalent thats present in your adblock.

https://geo.dailymotion.com/

so something like this:

now all the botted videos will be broken and unable to load. no more audio blasting. but it will look like this:

make sure the bots are unblocked so the search function actually works. again, too much blocking somehow breaks this hellsite's search bar.

tagging the relevant affected tags these bots are using. in the meantime, Report spam and/or bot but dont block. like this to preserve functionality:

uhhh feel free to spread this and queue it from time to time ig. maybe if we mass report hard enough tumblr mods will actually step the fuck up

...eventually

[creature-wizard]

Signs you might be dealing with a bot or troll trying to interfere with the US presidential election

Default PFP. Not everyone who has a default PFP is a bot or troll, and a few bots/trolls actually do have custom PFPs, but enough bots/trolls have default PFPs that it's always worth looking for additional signs you're dealing with a bot/troll when you see one.

(If you're a real honest-go-goodness Tumblr blogger and you have a default PFP, then I strongly recommend you change it because many people will block you on sight.)

Default colors/layout. Again, bots and trolls don't usually put a lot of effort into customizing their blogs. Some of them fiddle around with the basic settings, but they're very unlikely to upload custom graphics and put too much effort into customizing the colors. Same as above, not everyone who has a default blog theme is a bot or troll, but enough of them do that it's worth looking for other signs of suspicious activity.

Soundbitey content. Bots/trolls don't really engage with the content of the posts they interact with. They post very generic soundbitey responses, like "You have Trump Derangement Syndrome. See a therapist," "Fuck you, I'm not voting for Genocide Joe/Kamala the Cop," "America is run by lobbies. Voting is a scam," or "Republicans and Democrats both hate us, that's why I'm voting third party." Basically, if it sounds like a regurgitated line, you may be dealing with a bot or a troll.

Lack of personal content. Bot/troll blogs may have only one post, or might just have a bunch of reblogs with nothing of substances added to them. I'm going to point out here that I've also been seeing blogs do this with pro-Biden/pro-Harris content, so I'm not sure that all of these blogs are necessarily trying to interfere with the election, or if they're trying to get attention so they can try and advertise something else down the line. Some of these blogs also post or like porn, so I suspect a lot of them are actually pornbots trying to capitalize on politics.

Here's some examples of replies from bot/troll accounts:

whodathydro is a great example of an extremely obvious bot/troll. When we go to their blog, we can see that it hasn't been customized in any way, and there's not even a single post on it.

I've also got screencaps of one-post blogs over here that you can check out. (The first one has actually gussied up their blog a little, but it clearly hasn't been used in any way an genuine blogger would use their blog - no personal content, no engagement, nothing.)

So yeah, there ya go; if you see blogs like this they are probably trolls or bots; happy reporting and blocking!

[cinematics06]

We used to rule the tag

Posts would come when we gave the word

Now in the morning we report

Bots taking the tag we used to own

We used to pull the strings

Bots didn’t want to sell us things

Listen as the posts all said

We’re all happy no bots to be dead

One minute we owned the ground

Next the bots were all around

And I discovered when I took a look

All there was is medicine and some handbooks

So hit that report button so you can fight

Block every bot that’s in sight

Be a savior, the sword and shield

We’re gonna get back our field

For some reason I can’t explain

Once they came it wasn’t

Wasn’t a constant nag

But that was when we ruled the tag

[mcytblrsexymen]

Surviving on Tumblr

You need a tumblr account to vote, and we highly recommend you add a description/blog title and profile picture as you set up your blog, as we are experiencing a wave of spam bots lately. People will block and report accounts that look like bots on sight, and if your blog is too generic, you run the risk of having your account deleted.

If you are just here to vote, that's fine! Thank you for participating!

If you want to stick around, welcome! Posts will show up on your dash chronologically as they are posted by blogs you follow, and you can venture into tags to find posts to reblog and blogs to follow. Disclaimer: Tumblr is not polite society. If you choose to venture into tags, you may see people talking about Your Guy(tm) in ways that would be weird or disrespectful to say where Your Guy(tm) could see it. That's why we say it on Tumblr instead. You do not need to defend Your Guy(tm)'s honor here, as this is not a place of honor. If Your Guy(tm) is on Tumblr, Your Guy(tm) has either figured out how to engage with Tumblr weirdness to Your Guy(tm)'s own degree of comfort or will do so very soon.

[dont-leafmealone]

some etiquette tips for quotev migrants

If you enjoy a post (piece of art, text post, writing, gifset, etc) interact however you would have on quotev!

Reblogging is like reposting an activity, but with a permanent link to op, and you can add your own thoughts in the tags or on the post itself. Very nifty. It's that little 🔄 symbol at the bottom.

Likes are a good short-form validation, and also a way to save posts so you can find them again later.

Comments are good for sharing your thoughts without having the post on your account for whatever reason.

Tags are optional, but useful for both organization and extra commentary that will stay on your blog (unless someone likes your tags. Then they may copy/screenshot and add to the post, or copy them in their own tags.)

if you trigger tag something, don't censor the trigger. That will only make it harder for people who have that tag blocked to avoid it.

"Copying is ok" rules for tags don't apply to art; art is to be reblogged, not copy-pasted, unless given permission from the artist. It's also polite to credit an artist if you use their art for a header/pfp, and/or ask beforehand!

That said, gifs are free game pretty much, since they have built-in credit to whoever uploaded them.

When posting images it's helpful to use the alt text feature to add a description, or add one in the body of the post below or above the picture, since A; it's helpful for those who use screen readers, and B; sometimes pictures don't load and the description is sometimes vital to tell what the heck's going on, screenreader or no.

Ask boxes are for things you don't mind being publicly viewed; messages are for private discussions.

Anonymous asks are optional, meaning some people may have them turned off. Anon hate is unfortunately common and many people opt to avoid it.

Block and report bots on sight. Report for spam/bot violations; even if they're an nsfw bot, reporting for sexual content won't do anything to get rid of them. Bots are pretty recognizable when you know what to look for, as their blog will either be blank/have a insta model pfp and generic URL, or...be full of untagged porn.

Bots come in waves; there'll be a lot at once, then they'll die off to a handful, then eventually come back. It's a neverending battle!

You can block tags to avoid seeing content you don't like. To do this you go into "account" in the settings menu, and type whatever you wanna block in the content filters section.

Turn on timestamps! That way you can know if info is outdated, or just in general have a time frame for when something was made.

Block rather than argue. You'll be happier in the long run. Hell, even if someone just kinda gets on your nerves or yucks your yum, but especially if it's serious, since reporting does next to nothing and arguing just won't change someone who's stuck in their ways, and it's not your job to fix everyone who's wrong. Block their account and if you want, block their name on the filtered content. Chances are they won't even know or care so don't worry that it's rude.

Most of all, have fun!

That's all I can think of for now. My askbox is open if there are any questions!