Twitter bots - would you?

cootuk

Reading articles about twitter comps, one regular winner keeps cropping up who wins more than average, along with allegations of using a bot.

It seems simple enough.
Buy a Twitter account that has several thousand followers so you appear near the top of retweet listings.
Set up a bot to retweet "win" postings that would include competitions.
Manage it slightly so you don't get banned for too frequent retweets.
Watch the wins roll in.

I guess most wins will be makeup, shampoo, tatty jewellery, DVDs, books etc, but there must also be a good sprinkling of TVs and PS4 etc

Would you be tempted to set up a twitter bot?
I guess if only winning anything is your aim, then a bot does most of it for you, especially if you are DM'd any win.
You don't even need to claim things you don't want.

Or is there a more ethical side where there's the thrill of the chase, yet odds stacked heavily against you? - especially as you might filter out many comps as unwanted.

It might make an interesting experiment to see success rates between a human and a bot. But then would you just let the bot run and keep picking up the wins you want?

Marg2k8

I would not have the faintest idea how to do any of it, so the question does not arise.

sydroo

As far as I'm concerned, bots are unfair, unethical, plain old cheating and should be barred from entering/winning twitter competitions as it's a third party entry which wouldn't be allowed in most other web based competitions.

Vickimichelle

sax11 wrote: »

yes i would - but i wouldnt buy one

but they are quite fiddly to set up and i dont have the time but it is cheating and im presuming the OP in on about @M4ttr1987 who RT's any old crap - which is why i follow him and C&P, RT is stuff so he's disqualified

Me too. :rotfl:

SuzieTheCat

I honestly couldn't be bothered! :rotfl:

Also I am only into these kind of cheetahs !

[IMG]http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/<a href=http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/KathleenBywaters/media/slide8_zpse680e184.jpg.html target=_blank rel=nofollow>[/img]

JessicAhh

I would never use a bot that automatically retweeted comps, although I would use an account that had lots of followers already to save the inconvenience of having to unfollow people so frequently :rotfl:

But, nah, bots are cheating...

emiai

It is also suggested that RTing people may actually increase their chances of winning, (similar to searching them, favouriting them, and following them - as some companies pick winners based on 'high' influence factor, as discussed in Di Cokes article) that maybe why - with all the attention that comes with the accusations that cheating brings, certain 'twitter compers/bloggers' who been accused of having questionable methods go on to win so much.

I have never seen any evidence that RTing someone can purposely disqualify them, I cant see how this is even possible.
Rting someone's company based competition retweet - does not UN-Retweet their entry, it simply notifies them you have Rted the same tweet as them - which is a valid RT method.

gaz40k

I don't personally see how it is that big a step up from the sites where you one click to follow/RT anyway. I mean sure you have to physically have to enter them as opposed to running a bot but neither are likely to be what the promoter had in mind when starting the comp is it?

Maybe this is just the next evolution and everyone will be running bots in a couple of years?

jazright

No way seen so many people get away with so many prizes its unfair.

gizmobenny

gaz40k wrote: »

I don't personally see how it is that big a step up from the sites where you one click to follow/RT anyway. I mean sure you have to physically have to enter them as opposed to running a bot but neither are likely to be what the promoter had in mind when starting the comp is it?

Maybe this is just the next evolution and everyone will be running bots in a couple of years?

I certainly hope not, because companies would just stop running competitions if they realised they were only being interacted with by robots.

jungleted_2

jazright wrote: »

Everyone is saying about that guys he is all over fb and twitter and still wins

Is he on FB???? What name is he using? Need to block him ASAP. Bloke is a complete a**e