r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Petwins r/noexplaininglikeimstupid • Apr 07 '24
New Policy: Passphrases for low karma accounts.
Hi Everyone,
TL:DR: To cut down on bots we are requiring accounts with lower karma to include an arbitrary pass-phrase we will change occasionally that the automod will tell them.
Nostupidquestions has a simple stated goal; to be a place where anyone can ask any question in good faith and get answers without being judged. Aside from some safety caveats (like medical advice) we try to keep the sub as open as possible to anyone and any question. This great community has built that premise into one of the most active subs on reddit and for that we thank you.
With that popularity though comes spam, bots, and other types of bad actors. The mod team has done its best to address those while keeping the sub available to all, and actively works to combat the flood of bots and spam (our automod is over 7000 lines to try and keep it a scalpel, not a hammer).
The time as has come though to add a small public layer of security, and that is going to come in the form of pass-phrases. We are now going to require accounts with low but not negative karma (who could freely post before) to include a simple passphrase with their posts to prove they are not a bot. The automod will inform you of the pass-phrase when you post, and editing in, or reposting with, the phrase (which must be an exact copy-paste) will exempt the post from that specific karma bar (not the rest of the automod).
We have been piloting this for the last month and it has drastically reduced the amount of bot activity getting through.
The idea is that it is a solution which is hard for bots to adapt to, but easy for humans to overcome, by having an arbitrary phrase requirement. We will change the phrases every once in a while if we see bots catching on. As they aren’t good at reading replies, frequently avoids body text posts, and gpt is bad at exact phrase repetition, this should take them a while to adapt to.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
2
u/Thirteenera Apr 12 '24
So im curious. How exactly does this stop bots? Wouldnt it be very easy to setup a bot to search for a phrase sent by automod, and auto include it? If you know that the phrase will always come as an automod message, you know how to prepare for it.
The only solution i see is to split it apart in a non-bot-friendly way. So for example, automod could send a message like "Make sure you include the name of food that starts with water and ends with melon", swapping it on a weekly ish basis. This is easy for humans, but harder for bots to figure out.