"It seems to me I can create accounts and ask off-the-wall questions in such a way that not even the most astute long-term member would question. "
Tsk, tsk ski.
to even SUGGEST such a thing…lol!
Sounds like someone has thrown down the gauntlet… 
Game on??
I’m getting out the popcorn!
You are another oldtimer, @menloparkmim! You gotta be a team player!!
Ok, ok! Talk me into it!
watch out ski!!!
Count me in. But I want a stipend.
I can write like a teen, btw.
And while we’re at it, how about reopening and resurrecting the “Sinners Alley” thread? It was a great and classic thread to pull up to the virtual bar, share a virtual drink, and laugh, complain or whine about the day’s events.
^^ GREAT idea!!
???
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/62644-sinners-alley-happy-hour-p880.html
Wow- the Sinners Alley Happy Hour thread ran from spring of 2005 to fall of 2013! What a classic!
It’s been my experience that the overwhelming majority of bot signups do not make any posts. Among those that do post, some bot posts are obvious, such as spam posts or posts that appear to have nothing to do with the forum content. You can confirm whether it is a bot post by doing a Google search on a sentence from the post. Bot posts may return hundreds or even thousands of Google hits, showing the same post made on many other forums.
Other more advanced bots are less obvious. They may make unique posts based on keywords from other posts on scraping content from the forum. These posts may appear to be nonsense. For example, I’ve seen bots that directly repeat sentences from multiple other posts and combine those sentences in a way that doesn’t make sense. The scraped posts may be selected based on thread popularity or a low user number.
I’m sure there are also bots that are too advanced for me to easily recognize. With advancements in AI, there will become a point where it is near impossible to distinguish post content from an advanced bot and a low quality, real poster.
Thanks, @Data10. So what is the purpose of these spammer bots?
Bots that are directly posting spam links are often on an affiliate commission. They get paid if someone signs up from their link or in some cases clicks through the link.
Other bot purposes are not as obvious. For example, I mentioned that it was my experience that the majority of bots never posted. Maybe the goal was signing up and not posting, such as someone selling forum accounts? Maybe the bot script attempted to post and failed due to not being programmed for the particular forum posting structure? Maybe they simply made a lot of forum accounts because they could, without any financial motivation? Maybe they are used for hacking attempts? I had to auto IP ban an entire country because the bot sign-ups were out of control to the point of impacting server load. It was a country known for hacking US websites.
Oh wow, @Data10.
The ad spam is always pretty obvious. That said— no one paid us to push those microwave egg cookers!!
@lookingforward, go on then. I’d like to see a sample of your teen writing. I dare ya.
@skieurope or others… On the mobile site, Is it possible to search in an existing sub without using the official search and having to scroll endlessly to choose the sub? On the old site there was a “search this subforum” option. This is driving me crazy. Example, if I’m in the Northeastern sub and want to search for “orientation” - is the only option the magnifying glass search and endless scrolling for the college name?
It’s summer, and I’m on vacation. Normally I spend LOTS of time here.
But not this summer.
I keep coming back for a few minutes. I’m not able to find anything that interests me. So I leave, then try again later. At some point soon I’m going to stop trying.
Maybe it’s the new format. Maybe it’s the loss of people who wrote things that interested me as a result of the new format. I don’t know. And, to be honest, it doesn’t really matter.
It’s a shame. I’ve really enjoyed spending time here in the past, and I still have one more child to get through the college admissions process. But it’s simply not as useful, not as appealing as in the past. I’ll try a few more times, then chalk it up to changing times and fade out.
I keep coming back. Apparently learned helplessness has set in. Perhaps this is what the powers that be were counting on all along.
Any way the font can be black and not dark blue? And thicker?
I know there used to be a “shadow site” of CC for a long time. People on it would bash CC users and moderators. They thought it was amusing and cool to mock CC. Does it still exist?