What's with all the strange one-liner replies getting posted?

[itsjustasprain]

I was wondering about all the weird one-liner replies (such as "Yes. I think the same as you.") that keep popping up on the boards and decided to do a little further digging. These turn out to be some kind of semi-automatic junk posts put up by newbie or throwaway accounts for the most part.

To see them, pick any short reply that seems weird, disjointed or out of place (such as "We don't have to do this, but it's helpful advice."), and do the following:

1. Plug it into the Community search field at the top of the screen, putting it within double quotes: "We don't have to do this, but it's helpful advice."
2. When the Results page comes up, change the Sorted By: order from Best Match to Date (descending Down Arrow).
3. Click on the Advanced heading, and change the View results by from Topics to Specific Posts.

That will give you a detailed list of all the throwaway accounts currently using that post. It's weird and puzzling at the same time. There is nothing to be gained by any of it.

Other current randomly generated posts:

• "How exactly was this negative unwarranted?" (This one was out of context everywhere that I found it.)
• "Exactly right. Thanks for answering."
• "Thank you for the helpful and encouraging insight. Appreciated very much."
• "They're probably referring to ebay's Worldwide Shipping Program."
• "Thanks for answering."
• "I am not sure what you are talking about."
• "We don't have to do this, but it's helpful advice."
• "Yes. I think the same as you."
• "This was the wrong thing to do, and you can report the seller for this."

If you then pick any of the accounts that posted a comment above and look at their other replies, you will find more one-liners from the same collection being posted elsewhere. (I found one case this morning where the same poster used two of them in the same thread, just four replies apart.)

All I can guess here is that foreign users (not necessarily the Sri Lanka bunch, but ones that do not seem to know the English language) are being given a list of "sample" comments from somewhere, from which they can post their choice, but so many of the posted replies are so wildly out of context for what's being discussed that I cannot see the point of it at all. Just to collect badges?

[soh.maryl]

US-registered doesn't always mean US-located, I believe. 

[mam98031]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

US-registered doesn't always mean US-located, I believe. 

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That is true, it doesn't.  But even with that, I still don't see the purpose of these couple of dozen posting IDs obviously controlled by the same person or just a couple of people as the statements are all too similar between threads.

[downunder-61]

Some one is telling Sri Lankan sellers is  that badges earned here will assist in the ability to sell later on - so they are posting to get 'helpfuls' against the posts.

A lot of times they will C&P a regular responders post and use it on another thread to get more helpfuls.

Some may now just be peeved because their accounts have been locked because Paypal is slowing being shut down in Sri Lanka, so sellers that were getting away with using it illegally are no longer able to do so.

They will show as US registered as they can not register in Sri Lanka, some change their address to Sri Lanka later, lately they don't seem to be bothering to do that

[downunder-61]

As to the other click bait posts, no idea why people would come here for sport to make up stories of online businesses that don't think eBay is safe enough, or how much money they have to give away because filing a claim is too time consuming, but I guess people just get bored

[mr_lincoln]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

Some one is telling Sri Lankan sellers is  that badges earned here will assist in the ability to sell later on - so they are posting to get 'helpfuls' against the posts.

A lot of times they will C&P a regular responders post and use it on another thread to get more helpfuls.

Some may now just be peeved because their accounts have been locked because Paypal is slowing being shut down in Sri Lanka, so sellers that were getting away with using it illegally are no longer able to do so.

They will show as US registered as they can not register in Sri Lanka, some change their address to Sri Lanka later, lately they don't seem to be bothering to do that

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@downunder-61   I am very careful NOT to support those IDs ...

[mam98031]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

Some one is telling Sri Lankan sellers is  that badges earned here will assist in the ability to sell later on - so they are posting to get 'helpfuls' against the posts.

A lot of times they will C&P a regular responders post and use it on another thread to get more helpfuls.

Some may now just be peeved because their accounts have been locked because Paypal is slowing being shut down in Sri Lanka, so sellers that were getting away with using it illegally are no longer able to do so.

They will show as US registered as they can not register in Sri Lanka, some change their address to Sri Lanka later, lately they don't seem to be bothering to do that

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I understand that, but I'm not so sure that is what is happening here.  Maybe it is, but I'm just not sold on this idea.  I certainly could be wrong.

[downunder-61]

Well, this is a new one - I just got a PM from a one liner 2 day old account

Could not make any sense of it, maybe they are just feeling their way around the forum's?

[mam98031]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

Well, this is a new one - I just got a PM from a one liner 2 day old account

Could not make any sense of it, maybe they are just feeling their way around the forum's?

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Now that is curious.  Too bad you couldn't figure it out.  Could have been very interesting.

[mr_lincoln]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

Well, this is a new one - I just got a PM from a one liner 2 day old account

Could not make any sense of it, maybe they are just feeling their way around the forum's?

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@downunder-61   I've been tempted to PM a few of them ... one in particular slapped down a one liner on a thread that had absolutely nothing at all to do with the thread, nothing. 

[downunder-61]

I thought I might get in trouble if I posted it.

It just said 'Not the right time hey"   no context, nothing and I could'nt find any post of theirs I had replied to that would have prompted a PM - who knew?

[kensgiftshop]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I may have missed something.  But what benefit do Sir Lanka members get from posting on the Community?

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They have been told if they post a lot here, it'll help their chances of selling here.

For some reason they think posting here is like getting feedback

[mam98031]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

I may have missed something.  But what benefit do Sir Lanka members get from posting on the Community?

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They have been told if they post a lot here, it'll help their chances of selling here.

For some reason they think posting here is like getting feedback

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That part I've come to understand.  But all these posts we have been talking about are by US sellers. 

[tev4all]

['m not sure calling them "sellers" is the right word. Most are just new members.   

[mam98031]

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@tev4all wrote:

['m not sure calling them "sellers" is the right word. Most are just new members.   

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Thank you.  I'm not sure it matters whether they are buyers or sellers or both.  How they have set up their accounts we can't see, so it is anyone's guess.

[readabouthorses]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@tev4all wrote:

['m not sure calling them "sellers" is the right word. Most are just new members.   

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Thank you.  I'm not sure it matters whether they are buyers or sellers or both.  How they have set up their accounts we can't see, so it is anyone's guess.

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Back when we were getting all those ladies of the night postings that showed up overnight and took over multiple pages of many boards every morning I tried setting up a User ID that would not be used for buying or selling. It only took a few minutes, never asked me for any information and assumed since I was registering on ebay . com that I was located in the US. It never asked for anything other than my name and an email address and boom ... I had another account that I could use to post on the boards with no verified information.

I wonder if that is what these one-liners are ... just accounts for playing the game with no intention of ever being a buyer or a seller? I still think it is a game ... how many posts can you make, how many likes can you get and give, how many badges can you collect.