(bots#9) Bot Information + comments + questions

[nympholept]

See all bot posts: Cyrillic russians serial adding friend friending livejournal bot random auto spider
Do not link directly to this post, link to the tag above. If you have been linked directly to this post, tell the person to fix their link.
I've just split this post out from the bot-report post which has reached 109 comments

Comments

[deltachild]

Thank you so much :)

Why they're after us.

[meowwl]

It's my guess that since stuff that is f-locked is not normally visible to search engines, that these bots are taking those private posts and putting them somewhere that they can be searched by anyone, including advertisers, bosses, ex-es, and other nosy sorts.

LJ needs a "Deny friend" option like Yahoo messenger has, or some way to get rid of this plague of bots permanently.

Re: Why they're after us.

[meowwl]

Ack, typo demons!
"since stuff that is f-locked is not normally visible to search engines" should be "since stuff that isn't F-locked is still not normally...."

Also, it's gotta be some kind of data mining...at least I hope that's it, and not some kind of viral payload in the links or pics!

This is what I get for posting with a cat on my lap emitting sleep rays!

Re: Why they're after us.

[shikou_mori]

I second this for sure. It's stupid that this friendship is a one-way street without our consent.

[freefloat]

Thank you! I reported the two bots who added me, and within a week they were suspended and gone.

Question: a new one has now added me, but its journal already appears suspended. Is there anything I need to do, or was that already being suspended before it added me?

[nympholept]

No, once they're suspended there's nothing more you can do. :)

I guess there's a just lot of people reporting them now!

(either that, or the fix for the "adding while suspended" problem hasn't taken effect yet!)

[thismaz]

I followed that link to http://www.livejournal.com/inbox/?view=befriended Thank you for that. I didn't know that facility existed. Good to see that all the bots that have friended me have been deleted. I'm thinking I have you to thank for that, as well.
I saw some advice, somewhere, not to click on the name, to see who they were. Do you know if doing that will confirm my LJ as an active one? I do get friended occassionally by people who are legitimate lurkers, so I wouldn't want to report one of them to LJ abuse.
Thank you again, for the really informative posts.

[nympholept]

You're welcome :)

Luckily, just viewing their journal won't tell them which journal you came from.

Theoretically, they may have a counter on their page that will give them your IP, but they won't be able to associate it with your journal.
Again theoretically, if you comment, the could get your IP and associate that with your journal.

But in reality, there's not too much someone can do with just an IP these days anyway.

It's probably good advice not to comment, because that will definitely show them you're active.

[thismaz]

Thanks again. I did that and as a result just reported another to LJ abuse. I'll do that in future, instead of ignoring them, now I know what they are.

[aoi_aka]

I wish I'd found you before I made my abuse report. I always thought that we as users couldn't really complain about people friending us because that's how LJ works. I got fed up and reported one. I gave them my life story (one of the people I mentioned in my report, a friend, replied to my post saying that they were uncomfortable when I mentioned them and their wittle community *pout*) and hoped something would happen. Then hachou (who's an angel) directed me to you!

The last bot that friended me got their account suspended. That's the second I've seen in my inbox (I already use that feature) with their name crossed out. The one I mentioned in the report still has an open account and they've defriended me. But now that I've read your other posts and this one, I wonder just what they took from me. In any case, thank you for all the hard work!

[nympholept]

I'm glad I left that message with hachou about it!

No problem :)