DIGITAL LIFE | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | LIFE
New Collection Is Out!
Medium bots are making progress.
They just keep coming and they are after your reading time and your earnings, or even your VOTE.
Somebody has been clever and sneaky enough to make bots work for them, stealing reading time and income from actual writers, actual people.
I am not down with that, especially when it comes to Medium and its community of writers.
Last time I wrote about this issue with bots, was when Laila was making a comeback.
Today, 11th of August 2020, it was Margaret’s turn. Welcome back.
Last time, on the 10th of June 2020, she tried “Running against the wind…”. We all know how that worked out for her.
This time around Margaret decided to come back as a minimal, foodie, marketer, blogger, environmental enthusiast, cleantech, fun loving, traveler.
We’ll see how this multi-hobby-career will go.
No claps, no highlights, no responses.
I also have something really special for you. Today I will share with you a true bot-superstar.
His name is David Joseph.
He has managed to get a way for too long. It seems he has been around from 25th of April 2020. This is the date of his first article and usually it matches with the date of his birth as a bot.
Until the time of me writing this article, David has managed to “write” 7 articles, 76 people have clapped to these articles with a total of 1463 claps, 16 readers have responded to these articles.
Does anybody know how to calculate the stolen reading time?
He also has managed to gather 738 followers within these few months. What does it tell about these 738 followers?
Would you follow a writer who’s Profile description says:
Intrested in doing research in new topic. Economics,business,Accounting and finance are my enthusiasm.
And that’s it. He has only a Profile. No communication whatsoever with other writers and readers, no claps, no highlights, no responses.
But maybe he’s a loner?
Well, he might be and I wish him all the luck in saving his Medium account. Should any of those bots below actually turn up to be a real person, I am here waiting with a real apology from a human writer.
Before I wrap it up, here are some more bots that have been showing up to follow their Master of Justice: Joshua Heitman, Cristopher Kim, Lazaros Gallos, Mary Staehle, Shane Rogers, Joshua Sunshine, David Jeruzalmi, Tingting Chen, Georg Jander, Jorge Rocca, Peter Person, Jorge Sofo, William Harrel, Rebecca Perlin, Jannette Carey, Holly Swisher, Nora Ayanian, Maya Trotz, Karla Heidelberg, Frances Wymbs, David Shreiber.
As a bonus, here are some advanced bots, which have managed to even clap here and there, so be double aware: Esther Gomezz, Britt carlsonn, Bonnie Jacob, Roger Dube, Cindy grimm.
Conclusion
Bots are here to stay, it seems. The only way to keep the Medium’s space clean for human writers is to be aware of these bots.
Here’s what you can do to recognize the pattern, at least that is how they get my attention:
- Bots follow you without any other action (no claps, no mention)
- They only have a Profile and sometimes Claps
- They have a weird-non-sense kind of or poorly written description of themselves
- Their username has a number (usually 1, 2, or 5) or “xy” at the end
- They have never replied to their readers’ comments
But finally, only you can make a decision to follow or report them. Choose wisely.
I hope this gives Medium Staff and its programmers a hint how to filter these accounts and check their validity. I really do hope.
A humble thank you for reading and good judgement to you all. Love, Chowa.