Warning: AO3 comment bot

[thisaintbc]

Hi all, there appears to be a comment bot working its way through due South fics in reverse chronological order. It starts off with a lengthy, praise-focused comment that uses words and phrases like "chaotic", "my heart", and "screaming" a lot - from the comments I've seen, it honestly sounds a lot like an attempt to mimic fangirl speak circa 2010 - and if the creator responds tries to get their email address or Discord handle. 

Although there was some initial uncertainty over whether this is a bot, as it is commenting with an AO3 account and appears to draw on specific details in the work, the account it was using as of yesterday (Rosie79) appears to be brand new, comments on a stretch of works one after the other within a short time span, doesn't leave kudos, and consistently refers to everything as a "chapter" even if it's a one-shot. It currently appears as if the bot can only process text.*

While I don't want to encourage anyone to go on a comments section witch hunt and end up reporting legitimate users who just happen to sound a little bit like a praise bot, I do want to remind everyone that you can report suspected bots via the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports link at the bottom of every AO3 page. If an account is otherwise blank, newly-created, and appears to be trying to get you to move to the internet equivalent of a secondary location, it may be worth considering reporting it.

*I did not do any of the digging or conferring that discovered this bot or its characteristics, but I've asked the folks who did to comment on the ds_c6d_bigbang version of this post with any information I may have missed.

Comments

[writedragon]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm guessing that because the bot uses an account/username, that having everything locked down to "users only doesn't help. I also have my comments locked for pre-approval. So dystopian.

[feroxargentea]

Unfortunately, no, having your fics archive-locked and comment moderation switched on does not stop the bot. I was pretty sure locked fics were stolen by AI anyway, but it’s depressing to see it in action.

[verushka70]

TYK for letting people know! (I also commented on your dSc6dBB post about it.)

The really weird thing is, only a few days ago, that same user left a simple 5 word comment on one of my fics - that was not at all bot-like. It must not have evolved enough yet, at that point.

Or else's it's a real person whose email &/or AO3 account credentials were hacked/spoofed and bot-ified, and the 5 word comment was before that happened. Strange.

[feroxargentea]

Hmm. Was it a very short fic? It's left one or two very short comments on non-text works with short text introductions, as it can only respond to text.

[verushka70]

I can't remember which fic it was for, now, unfortunately... And once I was alerted it was a bot, I deleted all rosie79 comments. But I think it was a shorter fic, yes. Not short like a drabble or snippet, though.

[grey853]

I've had this Rosie79 comment on several of my fics. It goes into very detailed comments on things that happen in the fic, so it's very sophisticated. It's not just some random, OMG so good kind of thing.

It's so sad and depressing to know that a comment like that is just AI.

[mekare]

Oh man this is so annoying! Thanks for the heads up (I recently had another bot with the same suer name format nameplusnumbers comment on my art, and praising my wonderful "writing")