A'gon joke...

@thecarpathian + 1

I do not understand the term "bots" when referring to Audiogon message entries.

Is it referencing humans who physically type responses or questions based on a need to disturb things?

or

Is it talking about machines or digital software that is programmed to make up questions or answers which may be relevant or may just be antagonistic for whatever reason?

How can any entry be proven to be either of the above?

It’s what some are calling these generic questions from brand spanking new members coming out of nowhere. The questions always seem to stir debate or require lots of advice as they’re lacking in specificity.

The responses can be detailed and thorough but the OP seems to just vanish from the thread. Check out the members start date and you’ll see. So we call them bots.

All the best,
Nonoise

The term bot comes from social media when automated scripts would run to pollute a discussion, especially based on keywords. It has been expanded to mean insincere participation in a discussion threads, especially from commercial or government funded message farms.  There's a huge amount of research on this related to Twitter if you are interested.  Google "twitter misinformation bots" and I'm sure you'll find lots of it. 

It is difficult for us end-users to prove anything about bots and their behavior, especially on individual posts, unless it’s glaringly obvious, like "I found a place that lets you print free money and I wanted to share the URL with you..."

Observing the forums over time however you can get a good sense of the shift to bot-ness.