#spam bot sighting

[happypeachsludgeflower]

And the award for Most Likely Account To Be A Virus goes to the batshit bot account I just found spammed all over my feed about an urgent Amazon hiring containing a super suspicious link (that we all know ain’t actually what it says it is) juxtaposed with it’s ever changing set of fandom tags.

Like, seriously, holy shit.

How many posts did this thing spit out all at once??

I clicked on the account because I figured I should probably report them or something and the entire blog was literally? just? that one post? a hundred times?? The bot had to have just mass dumped the same text with a different set of fandom tags.

And it was all so obviously a fake account that I was just.. mind boggled?? That someone went to that much effort to make the bot, be it for porn or a virus, and they DIDN’T EVEN TRY?? TO MAKE IT LOOK EVEN SLIGHTLY NORMAL??

There were sooo many posts. I scrolled a long time through them just giggling over the various tag set. Some of them had me rolling with laughter. One of them was tagged with furry porn 🤣

Like?? Why would anyone see a post about a hiring event tagged with furry porn and go, “That’s a real legit looking job!! I should apply!!”

And they were all posted at the exact same time. I’m wheezing. I have so many questions for the mastermind(s) behind this account.

First and fore-fucking-most, WHY WOULD YOU MAKE IT SO GLARINGLY OBVIOUS THAT ITS A FAKE ACCOUNT.

I’m not even going to bother asking why they made a spam bot in the first place—I probably don’t want to know—I would just (dis)respectfully like to know why anyone would think, “Yea this’ll work!” before unleashing that thing on the masses.

[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

[kneelb4kesha]

The spambots have been generating increasingly fantastic names this round, almost a shame to block them. Farewell, horny gnome who lives here

[jellycreamjammedart]

Siiiiiiiiiigh

Its been going on non-stop for several days now

[thechaosdragoness]

Shoutout to the only account who isn't a bot that's followed me this month, you're very much appreciated.

[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

[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... 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[abbee-normal]

I wanted you to be real so badly

[oneofthechaoskids]

THE BOTS ARE BACK. SHOOT TO KILL BOYS

[thatwillnotagewell]

My most popular post is a parody of tumblr bots. I made it several months ago. They have a new playbook now. I feel contractually obligated to redo my post.

Hi! My name is starsarebeautiful. I don’t post often, but as you can see from my profile picture, am am a hot woman. Or I like hot women. It’s unclear. I am an enigma. I am mysterious and brooding.

Wait! Don’t hit the block button. I’m a real person I have learned your costumes. I swe—

[angelwiththeblue-box]

update i will not block default blogs as long as u change ur pfp/title/header bc apparently tumblrs being annoying

FAIR WARNING IF YOURE FOLLOWING ME AND YOU HAVE A DEFAULT ICON AND NO HEADER OR BLOG TITLE I WILL BLOCK YOU IMMEDIATELY AND IF YOU ARE A REAL PERSON IM VERY SORRY

[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

[actual-changeling]

A small 'this is how you use tumblr' for the people that haven't been here very long. These are in no particular order, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them!

Since I probably did not mention a lot of things, you are welcome to add to this post with your own advice.

a) Reblog posts. if you like it, reblog it. even if you have zero followers and ESPECIALLY if it's art or writing of any kind. We will see the reblog in our notifications and that alone brings joy. One reblog can start a chain and push the post onto many people's dashes.

b) Tumblr is not a very functional website, if you want to survive without losing your mind, there are two things you need: xkit rewritten and dashboard unfucker. Play around with the settings until it is to your liking. Additionally, change to firefox if you haven't already and install ublock origin to get rid of ads, tracking etc.

c) If you go to your settings (account! not blog) you can find this under dashboard at the bottom. Turn off at the very least 'best stuff first' since that will fuck up your dash and not give you posts in chronological order.

The rest are a perfonal preference but it will keep your dash tidy and easy to control if you turn them off, too.

d) Apropos settings—get a profile picture, a header, write something human in your bio, anything. Otherwise people will assume you are a bot and block you on sight.

e) Blocking! Do it generously and whenever you want, this is how you keep whatever remains of your sanity. It's not a lethal offense, it is (usually) not even seen as rude or anything along those lines. You block people and they block you and everyone is happy.

f) Under account settings you will find this:

Just like with blocking, use both options to your heart's content.

g) Tumblr is not like other social media platforms, spam liking & reblogging and going three years deep into someone's account is NORMAL and encouraged. You can search a blog by post type, tags, or even go to the archive and scroll through the posts there.

h) Lastly—interaction. We already went over reblogging (I mean it, REBLOG), but there are also replies and asks. If you add something to someone else's post please behave like a kind human being and don't be an asshole; based on my experience, that's easier said than done. On top of that, the tags are ALSO used for communication, go unhinged, ramble, leave your thoughts, or simply use them for organisational purposes. Everyone loves a good insane tag wall.

An open inbox (either anonymously or with your blog attached) is to be used! Please send people asks if they have them active, use it like DMs or a comment section, use it to recommend something, ask questions, participate in an ask or prompt game—we love asks here.

(We do not like harassment in our inboxes, same rules as above.)

[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.

[nimchimpskyphd]

The amount of spam / bot accounts sharing anti-vax sentiment in the tags is frustrating. I'm blocking them all on sight. All the websites seem like a virus waiting to happen which is almost ironic. Reminder not to click on their links so that your devices aren't infected.

If you want, type the headline into a search engine but don't click on random links from people you don't know or trust.

[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!