[dchuk]

This would actually be a great (albeit ethically dubious growth hack) way to leverage LLMs…wire up a script that can create some amount of user accounts, then have them talk to each other in comments or forum threads that are started around various seed keywords.

[mandmandam]

I have little doubt that this has been happening widely since like, at least 2016.

They'll be getting better at it and harder to spot now though.

[nonethewiser]

With a sophisticated “good bye” post when the bot service is scaled down after organic growth.

[bookofjoe]

Maybe this is why my website's page views have gone from around 500/day to 1,000 in the past month.

[nonethewiser]

I agree this has probably already been happening, but it would be an interesting project nonetheless.

It would also be interesting to make a forum that’s completely upfront about it. Just make it a feature. Make them post on a realistic schedule to keep the forums idling. Ultimately not that useful but it would be interesting to play with.

Or make it a game. Make some persona for someone that is an expert in something and a prick. The game is to argue with them and convince enough of the other accounts that you’re right.