4 Bot-Like Behaviors on Medium

We know that bots are trained to act like humans, but what about the humans who act like bots?

No boring introduction. Let’s just cut straight to it!

1] Using multiple tabs to “maximize engagement”

A while ago, I got into a public dispute with someone who I believed was a clap-and-runner. I found them highlighting the same passage I did from several articles written by other people in a matter of one minute.

When I outed this person, somebody else (which I suspected of being a double account of the said individual) defended them by claiming they’re just using multiple tabs to “maximize engagement.”

In other words, what they were doing was opening two or three tabs at once with three different Medium stories written by different people.

Then, they would turn on the audio function on one story (tab 1) and let it run in the background while reading another story (tab 2). That way, they would cover and engage with more stories in a limited period of time.

In their defense, they said it works and the people would get paid for their engagement, which is what they thought was the most important thing.

Following that logic, they believed they did nothing wrong, and I got upset for no reason since they were generating me money.

Of course, I told them I wanted no part in that since I consider it something that Medium would regard as foul play.

2] Reading several stories in a row for just 30 seconds

As you might know, the system records a read on an article if someone stays on the page for at least 30 seconds.

Given this situation, I am convinced that there were people who were looking to either game the system or fake engagement with other people for read-to-read benefits with minimum effort on their part.

That minimum effort could involve staying on someone’s page for just 30 seconds while pretending to read the full article. That way, just like in point #1, these people would also be looking to “maximize engagement.”

The irony here is that the more transparent Medium is regarding how things work, the more people could use that information to game the system. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

The same logic can be applied to AI writers. One time, someone sent an AI-generated article to my pub. Just because he brushed it up a bit by hand, he thought I would not notice.

I told them I would reject it because we don’t accept AI articles. He got defensive and demanded I point out what made me support that claim.

“Why should I tell you? Just so you can learn to trick me better next time?”

Speaking of AI…

3] AI-writing + using the audio function

I kept telling people that my distrust for these AI writers who engage a lot with other writers stems from the following logic: if they don’t have the time to write their own articles, how would they have the time to actually read other people’s articles for real?

Most likely, all they do is open someone’s story and let the audio run in their headphones (without actually listening) while they’re watching TV, drinking with some friends, or God knows what else that is completely unrelated.

I’ve been saying this all along: AI writers have the highest chance of being among those who take part in gaming the system!

4] Spamming emojis in the comment section

I know that sometimes it’s very hard to comment something on a piece (particularly on poetry), so some people choose to either comment something light and short or not comment at all.

Also, the impression I get is that when someone likes you but doesn’t agree with what you say in your story, they will avoid commenting just to be safe. That way, they will neither agree nor confront you over the issue.

But that’s something else. What I want to point out is that there are some people who post a string of emoji comments on every story they come across.

Maybe that’s due to the two reasons I mentioned above or other considerations I cannot think of right now. Who knows? But one thing’s for sure: That’s both spammy and shady AF!