ChatBot Posters...two in two days. Should we just ignore them?

[chris13]

Of course I cant prove anyone is purely using Chatbot to post but yesterday it was noted that someone was almost certainly using ChatGPT to post long 'helpful-like' posts that are highly suspected to be Bot generated responses. 

They stood out as brand new profiles with ONLY a handful of responses exclusively posting in ways that fit this pattern.

Should we engage them? Ignore them? Report them?

I dont wish to violate any policies but I am wondering what others think and I would guess there are no actual policies on the subject. They are as amusing as they are annoying, and many users may engage with them though their postings are far from helpful. 

For now I will ignore them, but I have identified TWO in two days which suggests they may continue.

They seem to like me. I'm flattered.

[chris13]

I looked closer at todays 'Bot Poster' (I wont name them here, I reported them just now.)

They very carefully linked a word like 'Support' in their postings. Each of these links went offsite to inappropriate at best, suspicious at worst locations. 

One to 'bestbabyheadphones dot com' /urlxyz

The other to 'couplesmatchingunderwear dot com' /urlxyz

Be on the lookout for new users posting ChatBot content containing links that may either be joke URLs or something more nefarious.

[shipscript]

@chris13  has pointed out that these posts have carefully hidden links to spam sites. These posts (or at least the links) should be reported to the moderators for removal.

[pburn]

This is not a new phenomenon--it's been going on for ages. No need to start a thread about it--just report the thread/post to the moderation team for removal like the rest of us have been doing forever.

[shipscript]

@pburn 

These are not like the posts of ages gone by. The posts are well written (I recognize them as ChatGPT), and do actually answer the questions at a help-page level (from whence they were extracted), but they don't get into the weeds of knowledge exhibited by seasoned posters. In  some cases, the A.I. did such a nice job that I would recommend simply stripping any links, but allowing the content to remain.

[pburn]

@shipscript 

There have been scores upon scores of these kinds of posts ("hiding" an off-site link in the apparently "informative" post) for ages. I've reported so many, I've lost count--and they go back months and months. I'm surprised you haven't noticed them before. Maybe they don't ever get posted on the Seller Tools board, but they appear on this board all the time. Nothing new.

[chris13]

@pburn  I am genuinely glad to have your input and the experience from your time here. I dont have the same history to draw upon so the thread was to answer my questions about the topic. It's a bit tricky here to ask questions about moderator involvement while following the rules as stated in policy guidelines.

Is there a better way I missed to get answers for my questions rather than posting? 

I tried to form my post to include specific questions rather than a heads up or statement of action, but of course perception is always in the hands of the reader.

Thanks for any sincere advice you can provide.

[pburn]

Again, my suggestion is to report these kinds of posts to the moderation team for removal. They are clearly violations of the Community Guidelines.

Not everything one encounters on the Community discussion boards needs to be "exposed" or "investigated" or resolved by other  members. Sometimes spam is just spam. Report it and move on.

Members can also contact moderators via the Community's private messaging system if it seems posting would violate the Community Guidelines.

[lacemaker3]

@chris13,

They used to copy one of the previous replies, or paraphrase one. Often they will resurrect an old thread, that has already been resolved, which is quite disruptive to the community. Now they use ChatGPT. Either way, it is plagiarism and should not be allowed.

Posting links to off-eBay websites is advertising the websites, which is against the community guidelines.

If you report them for Spam, advertising, and for posting an off-eBay link that is probably malicious or malware, then they are usually removed promptly. I think that's the best way to respond.

An example:

[lacemaker3]

My mistake. My post showed a screenshot of the original message 9 on this thread, which was an example of the spam/advertising posts that @chris13 was discussing, which violate the community guidelines. That was because the screenshot inadvertently showed the user ID that had posted the spam.

Here is the image of the post, without naming-and-shaming the spammer. This is such a perfect example of the ChatBot genre of advertising/marketing posts, which the moderators should be removing proactively, before they can disrupt the community, and put members at risk of malware.