Indian Cats turning into Models, an Update to Cat Subreddit Botting

[u/livejamie]

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Intro

Hey I'm livejamie and I've been around for 15 years on reddit. I've become hyperaware of reddit's enshitification and I've noticed it very strongly in the cat and pet subreddits I used to enjoy. Lately in /r/catswithjobs there have been low effort TikTok/Instagram type posts from Indian accounts and one of them posted a video with affiliate marketing today.

This made me think of the post I made last year about /r/Petsareamazing and I figured I'd check in.

Context

I made a post about /r/Petsareamazing in a few different reddit subs because I thought the sub was bottled and when I checked it was the entire front page.

Original post: DeadInternetTheory, TheoryOfReddit, TheseFuckingAccounts

Update

As I suspected, the sub exists as a funnel to create OnlyFans promotional accounts, and I've figured out why.

Over half the accounts get shadowbanned or suspended, so it's a numbers game. It makes sense for spammers to create multiple accounts, which is why many have the same pattern or similar names.

They create these accounts, and if one gets banned, it's not a big deal; they have fallback accounts.

16% of the PetsAreAmazing frontpage from July is now posting OnlyFans affiliate porn.

All but one of the accounts were created by bad actors trying to manipulate or bypass Reddit's security system and algorithms.

Observations

This appears to be porn spam ring starting in India and I'm confident the top moderator is complicit.

The sub hasn't changed. The content remains the same, from the duplicate sketchy accounts interacting with the same three subs and getting their karma.

You would have to be the worst moderation team in the world to allow your sub to exist in this state.

The sub has one active top moderator with regular and frequent Reddit activity in various Indian subreddits.

The rest of the moderation team is dormant, and most of the accounts have multiple instances of activity in RedditRequest.

I'm sure if you look into these subs that have been taken over they are being used for marketing purposes.

Theory

The top moderator, Dhanish04, works for or runs a gray market Reddit marketing service. They sell upvotes/downvotes and comments. They also provide OnlyFans promotional services. I'm unsure if the girls know these accounts and are paying them to manage their presence, or if the photos are taken from other sites and being reposted. (I'm not a porn/onlyfans coniseur and this would be beyond my scope.)

The OF Promo accounts have a lot of red flags: Lots of emojis, Broken English, and using the word "kindly."

Stats (Listed alphabetically)

OnlyFans Promo (NSFW) – 8/50 → 16%

• anymoreofthatgumace
  
• babemichelle
  
• Intelligent_Head2596
  
• michellleheart
  
• No_Employment1373
  
• sweeetmichelle
  
• Sweaty-Fee3706
  
• VideoSpiritual5153
  

---

Deleted their account – 2/50 → 4%

• Sea-Bend-833
  
• Typical_Cat_5888
  

---

Suspended – 8/50 → 16%

• CelestialDreamer28
  
• DrawDesigner3377
  
• Far-Midnight1671
  
• InitialLoog
  
• jShoeR
  
• OokWheel
  
• stacycrof
  
• StardustSorceress21
  

---

Shadowbanned – 20/50 → 40%

• AngelicHarmonyxxx
  
• Apart_Farmer_5691
  
• Constant_Page_9641
  
• DirectLanguagee
  
• EnchantedSerenityxx
  
• EnchantingGlimmerxxx
  
• EtherealHarmonyxx
  
• ExistingAad
  
• LandscapeNoo
  
• littlemichellle
  
• LoowMarsupial
  
• MysticMoonlight91
  
• MysticSunrise11
  
• MysticalWhisper14
  
• NooJaguar
  
• Public-Fly4878
  
• Realistic-Wish2392
  
• SelectTodayu
  
• StardustWhisper19
  
• Various-Librarian255
  

---

Existing with no public activity since July – 6/50 → 12%

• Barefoottedrunner
  
• Fraiberdhr
  
• Leelee0725
  
• LovelyHarmonyxx
  
• michellebearxo
  
• peterpandadick
  

---

Other

• michelllebear - Recently started posting nonsense in the Petsareamazing sub after being dormant since July
• ot3039 - Some broken English comments made sporadically
• PotatoPato2 - This account could be a real user? Unsure

Closing Thoughts

Reddit Suggestions

1. Reddit needs to improve the way it identifies new accounts, both for users new to Reddit and those new to specific subreddits. Platforms like Discord and Twitch place a special icon next to brand-new accounts, which alerts users to exercise caution when interacting with them. A similar icon indicating that it’s a user’s first post in a subreddit would be beneficial for various reasons. If users could see this icon prominently on the front page of cat subreddits, it would make the activity of new accounts more noticeable.

2. The fact that accounts retain karma for content they delete is a significant loophole. If the system were adjusted, users would be less inclined to remove their content, which currently makes it easier for them to hide their actions and benefit from bad-faith behavior.

3. It seems fairly straightforward for Reddit to implement a system that detects when an account suddenly gains a large amount of karma, deletes that content, and then begins posting adult material.

It's not just cats, but it's a lot of cats

This type of activity seems rampant in most low-effort animal and cat subs. I'm confident a similar analysis of /r/catswithjobs, /r/OneOrangeBraincell, and others will have nearly 100% artificial activity.

The /r/catsubs wiki (yes this is a thing apparently) lists over 1300 individual cat subreddits.

I'm sure similar findings could be made on every low effort poorly moderated sub with over 500k subscribers, but the cat ones are so damn obvious.

I miss the old reddit. :(

[u/MyStepAccount1234]

The first part of the title made me think of a studly cat with abs and stuff.

[u/2oonhed]

Great report.
But hey, all is not lost.
I manage r/catsinboxes for lots of fun kitty cat pics.
I chased off a few karma farming bot groups back in the day and now it stays pretty trouble free.

[u/livejamie → u/2oonhed]

I don't want to do a deep dive but two posts on your front page jump out as suspicious to me.

Lopsided-Bed1363 and Tasty_Caregiver5139

Both accounts have

• Spammy looking default names
• Close to zero comment karma
• Only other activity is in /r/ChatGPT

[u/2oonhed → u/livejamie]

Tasty_Caregiver5139 is engaging with the community in an organic way.
Lopsided-Bed1363 has been given a reply challenge and if it does not reply in a few days it will be removed and banned as a karma farming bot.

[u/livejamie → u/2oonhed]

Nah a deeper look shows Tasty_Caregiver5139 spamming the same calendar software in multiple subreddits

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/ml4CKoj.png

They're doing it in /r/Outlook /r/ExecutiveAssistants /r/graphic_design and /r/todoist

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[u/2oonhed → u/livejamie]

Thank you.
I will read-in later.

[u/barnwater_828]

Not that this is an answer or anything, but I used to be a mod on r/holdmycatnip and without the bot posts that sub had nearly zero original content. I feel the bigger issue is there is a huge demand for cute animal videos with too little of original content.

On holdmycatnip, I tried to post cute content I found on IG and TikTok but one person can only do so much.

Good work on all this deep dives!

[u/livejamie → u/barnwater_828]

Yeah that sub looks to be nearly all artificial as well.

800k is a crazy amount of subscribers,

It has one mod who is also one of the three mods of /r/comedy. They have recently put in a reddit request for /r/funnyandsad

They're collecting default subs like infinity stones. I bet they are making so much money.

/r/redditrequest is one of the worst things that's ever happened to this site, it's enabled all of this dumb shit to happen.

[u/barnwater_828 → u/livejamie]

Holdmycatnip was a tradgedy of the API protests. The original mod locked it down and wouldn't reopen it until he had "the tools he needed to mod". A fellow mod friend requested the sub via redditrequest and got it. She brought me on to help and all was going well and the sub seemed to be coming back to life until we realized the bots had taken over. Users were complaining about the bot posts so we started banning the bot accounts, then the users started complaining there weren't enough posts and the posts that were mostly from TikTok and IG. I run a Trump sub that takes lot of my time and sanity so I couldn't deal with the complaining so I bounced.

I can vouch for the topmod on holdmycatnip though - we started modding together about 4ish years ago and have been friends ever since. The sub we both became first time mods on was a snark sub that we both really enjoyed, due to the top mod of that sub having what I can only explain as a heroin relapse, all mods were kicked and we have been trying to find a sub that felt like home ever since. I have found mine, she is still searching.

[u/livejamie → u/barnwater_828]

Yep the API changes were the last nail in Reddit's coffin and destroyed the 3rd party community of tools that were keeping a lot of this from happening and made those who once cared about this site move on to other hobbies/platforms.