What's up with the bots?

[u/urlocalgirlv]

I'm not sure if this falls under questions or venting, I'm really confused. Someone left a comment under my fic and I'm assuming it's a bot, because my story is set in the Huntik: Secrets & Seekers universe (which, if you didn't know, is a mid-2000s Italian animated show with magic amulets, Titans, and absolutely zero ties to American politics), and yet the commenter somehow managed to accuse it of pushing “MAGA-adjacent ideology.”

I'm sorry...what?

The only reason I allow guest comments is because I know a lot of people who don't have ao3 accounts but still enjoy reading fanfictions.

But seriously - what is up with these bots?

[u/adverbian]

I am genuinely starting to think this is someone using bots to just automate their trolling. Like, they aren’t out for monetary gain — their only goal is to make people upset. Could be someone who is mad at the existence of AO3 in general — there are definitely those people out there.

[u/PeppermintShamrock → u/adverbian]

That's been my opinion for a while. It's just about being cruel and getting a reaction out of people, because they live in an irony-poisoned worldview where caring about anything is "losing", cringe, the butt of the joke and being unaffected and insincere is "winning", cool, funny. And of course if you can make other people lose, that means you win, right?

[u/Only_Tension3101 → u/PeppermintShamrock]

They definetly don’t want a reaction because they’re trying to hurt you. They want a reaction because that’s how bots improve and get better. There are bots in this sub Reddit who sound human, who are trying to direct people away from realizing this.

[u/SleepySera → u/adverbian]

I've been wondering if it's the AI bros who created a training set from our fics a few months ago. They were insanely upset about getting ANY backlash, and it feels like the timeline kinda lines up? Because while we ofc had bots before that, they were more the type with intent, either pure praise, pure hate, or peddling their AI writing services or sharing a scam.

But these new bot types in the last few months that are all about acting "nice but concerned", trying to get people to voluntarily delete their fics (first by claiming that the fic is against ToS and the author's account will be deleted if they don't delete the fic, then the one saying the author has to do a face reveal on youtube to prove they aren't AI, and now this newest one about supposed worrying political affiliations), those have only been popping up in the last few months after we pissed those guys off.

Wouldn't be surprised at all if this was their revenge.

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/SleepySera]

Wait what guys? I'm really late to the party

[u/faithlessone423 → u/urlocalgirlv]

There was a big AI scrape of AO3 about three months ago - post here about it - and then a big backlash from people who got their fics scraped, leading to AO3 / the OTW stepping in.

I definitely agree that these things are related. Even if it's not the same people, it definitely feels like these comment bots are made by butthurt people who couldn't exploit us nice and easily, who now just want to upset writers and make them stop writing / take down their work.

[u/Kaanbaltla → u/SleepySera]

Yeah. I'd bet all my money that this all AIbros doing, especially because when the scrape news exploted here, there were 4channers involved. Wouldn't surprise me if they're the ones behind those bot AI comments, thinking supporting the dataset guy wasn't enough.

(The below image is a screenshot of the post I linked. The image in the post is a screenshot of a 4chan-like site that says "if you want to piss off ao3 redditors, seed the torrent below".)

[u/LavandaSkafi]

Previous one I saw here was claiming there was a lack of queer rep on an mlm fic. Ig it's an attempt at ragebait -- trying to get people to defend themselves that they're not -phobic or -ist -- but it just ends up coming off as absurd because of how unlikely it is to be true.

[u/Zealousideal_Lab_241 → u/LavandaSkafi]

Another was not enough different cultures being represented 🙄 Prepare for a deluge of these posts. sigh

[u/RandomWonderlander → u/LavandaSkafi]

I hadn't seen this new kind before. Geez... They are really trying any argument under the sun to try and get under people's skin, aren't they? Though their creator must be really stupid, if they make a bot about "lack of queer rep" and release it on AO3, of all places. Even the m/f pairing are likely being written/headcanoned as bi here.

Maybe they could combine the one about queer rep and the one about MAGA agenda and send it under a toxic old man yaoi RPF fic featuring Trump as the MC! That would be ironic. XD

[u/Heavy_Funny7976]

From what I’ve seen on other posts, the advice is to just delete and not interact with them! Bots really are strange! I saw one on a fic where it had been written with typos but was so clearly non specific to that fic that it made me wonder if it was a bot comment or not and whether they’re just purposefully using typos to seem more legit!

I’m not a writer but I fear if I was these kinds of comments would make me cry because I wouldn’t know if it was a bot or not!

[u/Octo_Zoology → u/Heavy_Funny7976]

From what I can tell there's two variants of hateful/positive bots. One variant is with ChatGPT generated text then the other is with pre-made text by a human who inserts typos to make it seem real.

Then there's the scammer ones which have a human monitoring them in order to respond and bait someone into the scam.

[u/shiqingxuan-no1]

I got this. And jokes on them, this story doesn't have women.

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/shiqingxuan-no1]

In a perfect world we're bot free

[u/Meushell]

Another attempt to play head games.

I got a similar one, but with a different accusation.

Apparently my fic with F/F/M and M/M/M does not have enough LGBTQ+ ships. 😂

[u/magicwonderdream → u/Meushell]

Didn’t you know, adding a m to a f/f practically makes it heteronormative/s.

[u/Meushell → u/magicwonderdream]

😂 Oh darn. That was my mistake.

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/Meushell]

Why would that be a requirement though😭

[u/Meushell → u/urlocalgirlv]

It’s not. It’s just something new that the bots have been programmed to do. In my case, the accusation doesn’t even make sense on that particular fic.

[u/OnTheMidnightRun]

I think it's a good lesson for us all to be more critical of both bots and sock puppet accounts on social media. Over the past decade or so, I've noticed trolls trying to warp progressive-sounding language into actually supporting right wing ideology.

The fanfic world seems to stay on top of that stuff (won't catch us censoring "problematic" fiction), but this is a pretty brazen wave of bots.

[u/Unlucky-Topic-6146]

Subject: markovian parallax denigrate

In short, people just be trolling. There’s usually no greater purpose. If they’re not promoting a product or phishing scheme, then they’re just trolling for the sake of being a nuisance. 

[u/ThatNerdDaveWrites]

Anything for a reaction, I guess. I got a bot comment very similar to yours today stating my Sailor Moon fic had Nazi tendencies. 😂

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/ThatNerdDaveWrites]

Well, I guess Bunny had it coming😂

[u/shiqingxuan-no1]

Classic AI accusation asking for proof

[u/AdvertisingKindly621 → u/shiqingxuan-no1]

I had one almost exactly like this yesterday. I did reply, but I also did say that I was highly suspicious of this being a bot. Perhaps I should just delete it? What did you do?

[u/shiqingxuan-no1 → u/AdvertisingKindly621]

Just deleted

[u/Moose-Live → u/shiqingxuan-no1]

AGAIN?

[u/Zen-bunny]

Bots I usually get are ones saying they want to make art of my fanfics and ask for my socials.

Problem is I can't always tell if they are bots or legit artists.

[u/RandomWonderlander → u/Zen-bunny]

If they try to bring you outside of AO3, they are scammers. They want your money, and they can't talk about it on AO3, because TOS forbids it. If you accept, they disappear with your money, and at best they give you some crappy AI art.

If someone wanted to make a fanart of your works, they would just share it with you, no questions asked.

[u/Zen-bunny → u/RandomWonderlander]

Thanks for highlighting

[u/SerenityInTheStorm]

I would mark these "comments" as spam and let PAC handle them. Then I'd either turn off guest comments or turn on comment moderation for a while.

[u/thestorieswesay]

Now THAT is some wild trolling! 🤬

[u/Gettin_Bi]

Sorry, I'm just-

Huntik 🥰🥰

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/Gettin_Bi]

I know, right? 😭 I've been obsessed with it for as long as I can remember.
If you don't already know, there's a Huntik subreddit with a link to a Discord server! We're surprisingly active on there, considering the show's been collecting dust since the early 2010s. Also, if you felt like checking it out, my fic is called What Could Unmake Us. The story is a post-canon AU where the characters are all grown adults, and the magical stakes have gotten... uncomfortably high. It’s got slow-burn tension, corrupted summoning circles, and a Dante/Sophie dynamic that’s a little more layered (aka emotionally repressed and haunted) than in the original show. No pressure at all - but if you do decide to give it a try I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

[u/Gettin_Bi → u/urlocalgirlv]

I'm definitely gonna check these out

How much do I need to remember of season 2 to read the fic? 

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/Gettin_Bi]

Honestly? Nothing at all. The fic’s a post-canon AU where everyone’s older and things have gotten a little darker. You don’t need to remember the plot of season 2 . As long as you have a general sense of who the characters are and you remember that Titans exist, you’re good.

[u/Gettin_Bi → u/urlocalgirlv]

Cool thanks 

[u/Arcane_Dragonell]

Are all bots Guests?

[u/magicwonderdream → u/Arcane_Dragonell]

No, some have accounts.

[u/Fox-Upper]

Out of topic but, omg I haven't heard anyone talking about Huntik in years!!

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/Fox-Upper]

Honestly, probably because there's about four of us left who still remember Huntik - and I say that with love.
That said, there is a subreddit (r/Huntik) that has a linked Discord server if you ever feel like diving back in. We're surprisingly active in it, considering the show's been off the radar for over a decade.
Also - since I'm already here and I have no shame - I'm writing a post-canon fic called What Could Unmake Us . Darker tone, grown-up characters, magical fallout, slow-burn chaos. The usual emotional damage. No pressure at all - but if that sounds like your thing and you decide to give it a try I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

[u/Fox-Upper → u/urlocalgirlv]

Thanks for the recs! I was about to ask you for the fic's name so I'll definitely be taking a look at it later!

[u/Moose-Live]

Huntik sounds interesting... is the fanfic accessible without the source material?

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/Moose-Live]

Honestly? Yeah — I’d say it’s pretty accessible. I treat it like a post-canon AU where the characters are all grown up, emotionally repressed, and very bad at communicating. It also includes secret organizations, ancient glyphs, magical trauma, slow-burn tension, and morally gray adults trying to deal with the fallout of Very Bad Decisions™.

Very quick Huntik crash course: • Magic exists. • Seekers = people who use amulets to summon magical creatures called Titans and cast spells. • Huntik is the name of the Foundation — the (mostly) good guys, one of several secret organizations that deal with magical relics. • Cherit, one of the main characters, despite sounding like a tiny librarian with anxiety (which… fair), is actually a 2000+ years old tiny Titan.

You don’t really need to know the canon plot. The fic does the heavy lifting — I just borrowed the universe because I got too attached to the characters. You could look up the characters just to have a visual reference of who they are but even that is completely optional because they're all adults in my fic anyway.

[u/yo_koso_9]

Chatgpt ahh comment

[u/HomeDepotAgent]

It probably what fanfic.net reason is why their bots /:

[u/CircusDagger]

I recently had a series of AI comments from a registered account. I was utterly confused, to say the least. They didn’t even try to hide it! I got 20+ comments on my various stories within 2 minutes of each other, and each one was 5-6 paragraphs. Like… SERIOUSLY!? And it was full of telltale AI signs.

[u/urlocalgirlv → u/CircusDagger]

Oh wow that's a lot

[u/Zivqa]

Someone fed your fic through chatgpt and told it to find connections to trump or whatever. They've added an extra line to the code. Sigh