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How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 11:52 pm
by ttulog
I just noticed this when I was looking at the "Who is online" page, and it confuses me. How can a bot reply to a message?
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Re: How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 12:24 am
by citronleaf
Didn't you hear that 2/3 of Facebook accounts are bots, mostly trolling one another?
But yeah, that is interesting... I knew that bots "read" posts but did not know they were trying to actually post here!
Re: How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 12:25 am
by Zorijer
Maybe it's just recording the reply page for the search.
Re: How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 3:09 am
by Moonee
I've used the who's online page a few times in the past and I've even seen bots accessing the User Control Panel
Edit: Nevermind, they are technically still users (even if the account isn't used by a human) so ig it's not surprising they can access the User CP
Re: How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 11:48 pm
by mimzy
In this case the bot apparentlly just hit the reply button. Of course a bot can reply if it can pass the challenge and register an account. We've seen some replies by spambots.
The accounts of Bing, Googlebot and DuckDuckBot are just pseudo accounts with limited permissions and certainly without posting permission. Those bots are explicitly allowed, so we won't drop out of search engines.
Re: How can a bot reply to a message?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 11:52 pm
by ttulog
mimzy wrote: Mon Oct 27, 2025 11:48 pm
In this case the bot apparentlly just hit the reply button. Of course a bot can reply if it can pass the challenge and register an account. We've seen some replies by spambots.
The accounts of Bing, Googlebot and DuckDuckBot are just pseudo accounts with limited permissions and certainly without posting permission. Those bots are explicitly allowed, so we won't drop out of search engines.
Thanks for clearing that up!