Tips I Use to Identify Bot Accounts

Image from denofgeek.com
While working in my WARPATH post ( https://steemit.com/steem/@torquewrench1969/on-the-warpath), I came up with a few simple and fairly reliable ways to identify bot accounts.

While bots are not necessarily bad, they are easily abused by people looking for easy financial or social gain.

I personally believe that all bots should be publicly named (votebot734, SBDaggregator185, etc.) to allow us REAL HUMANS decide on our own how we wish to interact with them.

And NO!! I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FROG FART IF THE BOT CAN PASS A TURING TEST!

All images have had account names edited out.

When evaluating for "botishness", I use a point system. If an account scores more than 5 points, further examination is in order. 10 points should be flagged immediately, in my humble opinion.

Anyway, onto the identifiers:

1: Abnormal REP for the number of followers/posts.

While it may be possible for someone to have a rep of 34 while only making two posts,having only nine followers and following no one, it's VERY abnormal.

I would give a score of 3 or 4 on this account.

2: Abnormally low view to vote count when a post WITHOUT an image has been made

Sometimes you'll see a pattern like this when memes are posted, but without an image, it's definitely a strike against.

I'd give this account 2 points.

3: No graphics or pix posted at all.
When there are no graphics used in any posts, comments, replies or in the base account setup, it's very odd to say the least.

I would give an account with no graphics 2 points.

4: Sequential postings in extremely dissimilar languages.

This would be 4 to 5 points.

5: Posts in non-English translate into gibberish when using Google Translate.

This needs FLAGGED IMMEDIATELY! 10 points!!!

6: Drastic changes in posting styles.

Notice how older posts went from English with images to non-English with no images.

I'd give this account 3 points.

7: Non-sensical tags
![Bot 4 - final.jpg] ()

While not definitive, I'd give it 3 points.

8: Low payout, hundreds of upvotes, few comments, few views.

While this can theoretically happen, it's quite odd to say the least.

OVERALL TEST EXAMPLE:

REP/Followers/Following/Posts ratios all out of wack!-- 4 Points
4 posts in four different languages--------------------------4 Points
Major change in posting styles -------------------------------3 Points
No graphics or images in recent post or account----------3 Points
Low payout, high up votes, low views, low comments--6 points minimum!

Well, anything over 10 is probably a bot or an abusive account.

The last post of the account is gibberish when translated and the tags are completely nonsensical, both of which are valid reasons to flag a bot.

Once you have flagged a bogus post, look at the accounts of those "users" who have up voted that posting. Odds are, the majority of those are also bots, but they need to be checked before flagging.

I hope this helps anyone who wishes to write up a bot-hunting bot!