We need a way to make commenting on social media cost something. As long as it is free there is no way humans can compete with bots. As nobody wants to spend real money on it we probably need some social credit system but one that is hard to game and probably rate limiting. We urgently need this otherwise AI will take over the world by dominating the social networks.
Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
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Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#12This problem is very ubiquitous - not just against YT but also on social media sites like Facebook.
I have given up reporting these. The social media companies usually employ some automated method, whereupon reviewing the post, said automation determines it's just fine.
I also went all the way to finding some prolific scammers in Canada, handing over their details to the FBI and state police... but two years later, their domains are still active in scam campaigns.
The big thing I think I would do in this situation is to find whoever is handling this problem the best and direct that community discussion over there, disabling comments on the video platform. If the video platform is unable to address the scammer bots issue, then that community traffic can just go somewhere else.
I don't know enough about the community discussion platforms/forums to say who's the best, but I've not seen this level of spam on self-hosted forums or even reddit.
This is definitely not the future I had anticipated as a kid on dialup internet in the 90s.
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#13After an ad, and a minute and 30 seconds of talking head, he still hadn't even started getting to his main point.
Did you even watch the video? There were no ads in it, and the part where he warns his viewers that he will never ask them for money is the whole thing he's talking about, that scammer bots are impersonating him in his comments and trying to trick his viewers.
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#14Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…
His brand is being damaged by this. For anyone who has never had a brand with value, I could see why that seems dumb, but for some people brand becomes everything.
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#15Can someone in this space explain how this is a hard problem for Youtube to solve? In my limited understanding, I can see clear blockable patterns with the bot posts shown in this video.
I believe one of the difficult parts of these bot posts is:
- there isn't a lot of $$$ in squashing them, since it lowers engagement numbers (engagement inflated by bots is still engagement)
- the cost of hammering down on a real user is high in terms of PR, moreso than the cost of letting a bot continue running
- no one's making them and they have no real competitors in this space, so what does it matter? where are YouTube's customers gonna go?
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#16Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…
He isn't the one causing the harm, but people are being harmed that would not if his business did not exist- it seems like this weighs on him.
If every time you had a party, one of your guests would be hit by lightning and die, you might feel guilty about hosting parties. Would you feel comfortable inviting your friends and family over?
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#17Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…
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Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#18After an ad, and a minute and 30 seconds of talking head, he still hadn't even started getting to his main point.
First, use a good adblocker, like Ublock Origin. There's no ads in the actual video the Professor posted.
Secondly, his audience is tabletop card gamers. He does set the scene as to why he's making a video. Most of his audience is not of a technical nature.
I also made a synopsis as a comment so you didn't have to watch the video, since some (including myself!) despise video-only content. But I do follow him on YT. And his problem applies to a LOT of areas on YT, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and elsewhere.
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#19Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…
> He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault!
I’m familiar with this personality and his brand is being distressed about many other things. I think he’s just expressing feelings for his audience or something. He’s also apologized for lots of other things that aren’t his fault- rude magic fans, sexists, racists, people who spend too much money, people who don’t spend enough, etc.
He tends to spend a lot of time apologizing for things that aren’t his fault or that he has no control over. It’s not unique to him, and seems kind of common. I’m not sure what to call these over-empathizers.
Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge
#20Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…
> Computers are sometimes likened to "magic" where we just cast a spell by writing code, and something technically beautiful happens, but where magic can interpret intent and act according to the caster's desire, computers can't, and there's no way to "Wrath of God" the spammers.
I somewhat agree with this, but I feel like there's some very low-hanging fruit that should be available.
When posting in comments on a video there should be:
- An avatar similarity check. If you have an avatar that is too similar to the channel of the video you're commenting on, your post automatically goes into a moderation queue (or just remove avatars from comments, except from the channel).
- A name similarity check. If you have a name that is too similar to the channel name, your post automatically goes into a moderation queue.
- A huge indication that a comment comes from the channel author. They have some indications of this now, but it should be very prominent, so it's *obvious* when comments don't come from the channel author.
None of these things are going to be trivial to implement for a company like YouTube, but this has been a problem for years at this point. These things could have been done by now.