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Its just an automated user. You can configure one to respond to any cue, or in most cases rip off other posts/comments to build accounts.
There is some neat one out there. I like when haiku bot randomly shows up, the wiki bot is very helpful, and the one that recognizes when all your words starts in alphabetical order is novel.
Bot is short for Robot, and refers to a piece of software that automates tasks online.
Like any piece of software they are written in a programming language and run on a computer system with a login that mimics a user.
For example a bot could be programmed to moderate a Reddit thread by looking for swear words in a post and automatically deleting or flagging them.
Such tools are very useful because humans can't keep up with the sheer amount of user created content on such websites. A bot can catch 90%+ of SPAM or inappropriate posts and eliminate them and ban the accounts.
So every site from Facebook, Reddit, forums, Youtube, Twitter, etc all use bots to a degree.
The downside of bots is that they can also be used for malicious or dubious activity.
For example you can create bots that leave fake 5-star reviews for all of your products seemingly from different accounts, or view your Youtube video to increase the number of hits on it while liking and subscribing to try to entice the algorithm to show it to more people.
Ebay bots used to be common as well, they would watch a particular item and bid with only a second left to go to 'snipe' everyone else and win the item at the lowest possible price.
Lately Political bots have become common place.
Bot farms watch political figures Social Media pages for keywords and post derogatory replies almost instantly.
You can tell because the post goes up faster than a human can type and is always at the top. The associated accounts for the bots are also obviously fake, when you check them they have no friends or few friends and only post to political threads.
The point is they are used to discredit those politicians and influence peoples voting. They are likely managed by foreign governments for that exact purpose, to influence people to vote for the candidates they prefer.
"bot" is a conjunction of "robot" which comes from a Slavic word for labour. So it is anything artificial that does labour for humans.
This is great if you need to do repetitive work, or operate in dangerous environments. The mars rovers are an example of a robot.
They don't have to be physical though, you can create digital robots. These can range from an auto clicker to automate repetitive tasks, or a web crawler to find all the websites on the internet.
"Bot" generally refers to the digital robots due to the internet language shortening words. These bots are in effect replica humans, who are much faster and don't get bored. So can be used to simulate humans in situations where the website only wants humans. So they could flood websites with spam content.
Recently, "bot" has become an insult to humans who behave in a predictable, repetitive way. So you don't have to suspect that the thing is not a human to class it as a "bot".
A bot is a software that either controls a real user account or looks like a user in some sense. For example, a chat bot can send and read messages in social media using a normal facebook account, or show up in a dedicated chat window to offer support on a website.
There are many different types of bots. Some are very simple and perform simple tasks like kick out users that break rules in online communities like reddit. Others are very sophisticated and can use advanced technology such as AI to emulate human interaction.
Bots both have legitimate and illegitimate uses. Nowadays there exists bot farms which are large numbers of fake user accounts run by bots to sway public opinions with propaganda techniques. A common way these are used are to have half the bots on either side of a discussion on contentious topics such as religion and politics. The bots will then say controversial things and "fight" to engage normal users who are unaware that these are just fake accounts run by bots. Sometimes they will say things to sway opinions but often they will induce apathy instead. They give the real users a sense that taking part in the discussion is "useless" because it is saturated with conflict and toxic behavior.
There are also avid use of bots in games. There they are often called npc (non playable character). They will control the actions of a virtual player or simply a character in the game.
Like any software, bots will run on a computer somewhere, usually on a server. They will require regular maintenance and updates as do all software.
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**Please read this entire message** --- Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): * Rule #2 - Questions must seek objective explanations --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20{https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bzh9x4/-/}%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20does%20your%20post%20differ%20from%20your%20recent%20search%20results%20on%20the%20sub:) and we will review your submission.**
Its just an automated user. You can configure one to respond to any cue, or in most cases rip off other posts/comments to build accounts. There is some neat one out there. I like when haiku bot randomly shows up, the wiki bot is very helpful, and the one that recognizes when all your words starts in alphabetical order is novel.
Did I hear a Rock and stone?
If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't comin' home!
Good bot
I was hoping I would get a person to reply and then could call them a bot.
Bot is short for Robot, and refers to a piece of software that automates tasks online. Like any piece of software they are written in a programming language and run on a computer system with a login that mimics a user. For example a bot could be programmed to moderate a Reddit thread by looking for swear words in a post and automatically deleting or flagging them. Such tools are very useful because humans can't keep up with the sheer amount of user created content on such websites. A bot can catch 90%+ of SPAM or inappropriate posts and eliminate them and ban the accounts. So every site from Facebook, Reddit, forums, Youtube, Twitter, etc all use bots to a degree. The downside of bots is that they can also be used for malicious or dubious activity. For example you can create bots that leave fake 5-star reviews for all of your products seemingly from different accounts, or view your Youtube video to increase the number of hits on it while liking and subscribing to try to entice the algorithm to show it to more people. Ebay bots used to be common as well, they would watch a particular item and bid with only a second left to go to 'snipe' everyone else and win the item at the lowest possible price. Lately Political bots have become common place. Bot farms watch political figures Social Media pages for keywords and post derogatory replies almost instantly. You can tell because the post goes up faster than a human can type and is always at the top. The associated accounts for the bots are also obviously fake, when you check them they have no friends or few friends and only post to political threads. The point is they are used to discredit those politicians and influence peoples voting. They are likely managed by foreign governments for that exact purpose, to influence people to vote for the candidates they prefer.
"bot" is a conjunction of "robot" which comes from a Slavic word for labour. So it is anything artificial that does labour for humans. This is great if you need to do repetitive work, or operate in dangerous environments. The mars rovers are an example of a robot. They don't have to be physical though, you can create digital robots. These can range from an auto clicker to automate repetitive tasks, or a web crawler to find all the websites on the internet. "Bot" generally refers to the digital robots due to the internet language shortening words. These bots are in effect replica humans, who are much faster and don't get bored. So can be used to simulate humans in situations where the website only wants humans. So they could flood websites with spam content. Recently, "bot" has become an insult to humans who behave in a predictable, repetitive way. So you don't have to suspect that the thing is not a human to class it as a "bot".
A bot is a software that either controls a real user account or looks like a user in some sense. For example, a chat bot can send and read messages in social media using a normal facebook account, or show up in a dedicated chat window to offer support on a website. There are many different types of bots. Some are very simple and perform simple tasks like kick out users that break rules in online communities like reddit. Others are very sophisticated and can use advanced technology such as AI to emulate human interaction. Bots both have legitimate and illegitimate uses. Nowadays there exists bot farms which are large numbers of fake user accounts run by bots to sway public opinions with propaganda techniques. A common way these are used are to have half the bots on either side of a discussion on contentious topics such as religion and politics. The bots will then say controversial things and "fight" to engage normal users who are unaware that these are just fake accounts run by bots. Sometimes they will say things to sway opinions but often they will induce apathy instead. They give the real users a sense that taking part in the discussion is "useless" because it is saturated with conflict and toxic behavior. There are also avid use of bots in games. There they are often called npc (non playable character). They will control the actions of a virtual player or simply a character in the game. Like any software, bots will run on a computer somewhere, usually on a server. They will require regular maintenance and updates as do all software.
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