When Your Medium Haters Are Likely Bots or Scammers
A story I posted a few weeks ago, which barely got any traction at the time, suddenly has a bunch of comments. Comments are great, but when I get a whole bunch on an older story at the same time, my curiosity gets the better of me. Needless to say, I headed over to check out what was going on. Right off the bat, I could tell that something was off.
😖
Instead of genuine engagement, the comments were riddled with similar phrases and tone, almost like a script on repeat. There were only four comments, but they were pretty much the same, like “I respectfully disagree…” and “I couldn’t disagree more…” (twice).
After reading each one, there seemed to be a pattern. Either one overly enthusiastic person was leaving the same comments on repeat, or, more likely, this was the work of bots. The comments popped up in rapid succession, and their profiles seemed suspiciously new and very similar.
The mix of generic words, and the strange timing are all tell-tale signs of automated engagement or a ChatGPT rewrite, perhaps from the same person with multiple accounts.
