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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

#51
post #4

Maybe 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,…

Imagine talking with multiple people who think you scammed them. Someone with your name (almost) and avatar picture convinced them to send a hundred dollars for a PlayStation, and they only did so because they believed it was you. A month goes by and the PlayStation didn't show up - now they're trying to contact you to figure out what happened.

I think the creator has clearly spent a lot of time and effort building his community, and he is witnessing members of that community being hurt, but also his reputation is being directly attacked by the scammers to hurt his image with the very people of his community.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#52

Someone (YouTube) should just run a recurring ad campaign. Instead of traditional ads it's "Congratulations, you're one of today's lucky 10,000 and you're going to learn about bots and boundaries you should establish while on this platform." [0] The number could be scaled up. They could select out populations that seem 'with it' and bias it toward anyone who interacts with bot comments other than to report them. I'm…

I like the idea of using advertisements to progress technical literacy and reduce the proliferation of scams.

That's why I bought the domains LearnComputersFast.com, EasyComputerGuide.com, and BestComputerAdvice.com. Instead of pointing grandma towards sponsored content, dark patterns, and scammers wanting her credit card number, they would point to FOSS/OSHW/Linux content. Maybe that's not what people are really searching for, but maybe we should also live in a world where FOSS/OSHW/Linux is positioned as the mainstream.

Only problem is I don't know how to make websites.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#54
post #42

The only thing I can see that could possibly be done is to either remove commenting altogether, and remove that as a method for determining engagement with the video. Or to make it so that to comment requires full validation (either by restricting to individuals with Youtube Premium, or some cost to be able to comment) of the individual who is commenting so that automation of it is no longer feasible from a monetary…

And yet gmail spam filters work fine probably 98% of the time. Just implement that on comments.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#55
post #4

Maybe 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,…

If you have any kind of venue, lets say a restaurant or a shop, you don't want your customers be targetted by any kind of illicit activity even if it is not on your grounds, e.g. in front of your store. Even less you want anyone use your identity in committing fraud. It would't matter if you are not in any direct reponsibility for that. So I can very much understand his concerns.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#56
"It's not something that a human can combat, it's - it's a program!".

Remember this in the days to come.

And this bit also:

People worry that computers will get too smart and take over the world, but the real problem is that they’re too stupid and they’ve already taken over the world.

https://www.washington.edu/news/2015/09/17/a-q-a-with-pedro-...

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#57
post #4

Maybe 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,…

>> Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here.

Probably because he's not a callous bastard.

Don't worry, I'm not saying you're one, either. I suspect you just don't have his responsibilities. Like, hundreds of people who somehow hold you up in great esteem because of the stuff you create. That's a heavy burden and most people who aren't assholes will take it seriously.

Guy just shot up in my esteem five hundred levels.

(yeah yeah, I know M:tG doesn't have levels... :P)

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#58
post #43
post #42

The only thing I can see that could possibly be done is to either remove commenting altogether, and remove that as a method for determining engagement with the video. Or to make it so that to comment requires full validation (either by restricting to individuals with Youtube Premium, or some cost to be able to comment) of the individual who is commenting so that automation of it is no longer feasible from a monetary…

To continue a bit more, I have really tried to figure out if there is any way to deal with email spam that doesn't either ban anyone but incredibly trusted servers (And even then it fails horribly), or doesn't put some sort of cost on people sending emails (either time, effort or monetary.) I would rather have email be free and open, but I see the issues that arise from bad actors in that environment who have no real…

Charge an inbox entry fee. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20181023-people-pay-20-...

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#59
post #8

Can 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…

Yet YouTube will shut down entire channels if there's a whiff of copyright infringement.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#60

This is the "Tolarian Community College" (a play on words from the MtG card game). Without having to watch the video, this Youtuber does a lot of reviews and content on the game. During the course of reviews, he gets a lot of free merchandise. To that end, he then gives it freely to his subscribers. The problem: there's a deluge of bots that nearly-instantly post on comments and threads in Youtube that redirect unsus…

literally every public instagram post has a number of "first 5 people to DM me gets 5000 bucks!" with links
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