

Ask HN: What kind of spam/SEO gaming is this? - drewcrawford

Link to the account (requires login): http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000838258266&#38;sk=wall<p>Some screenshots (in case you don't want to log in):
http://imgur.com/a/wGuVN<p>There's literally thousands and thousands of posts.  They don't actually make any sense, but they're spot-on grammatically, and a lot of WWII-era jargon. Google turns up nothing except people wondering what she is saying.<p>So what's going on here?  Spies communicating?  Some type of spam/SEO gaming?  Rabbit hole for an ARG?  Testing some kind of FB bot software?<p>I can't work out who would be incentivized to create this and what sort of purpose it could serve.
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jfruh
The comments that "Karin" is leaving on her own status updates strike me
(caveat: I am not a mental health professional, though my parents both are!)
as fairly classic paranoid (like, actually diagnosably paranoid) talk.
Delusions of persecution via secret networks operating within complicated
bureaucracies, interspersed with violent imagery, is pretty much what
paranoids spend their time thinking about. 500 years ago they probably would
have given you an elaborate description about all the different kinds of
demons in hell; now it's all about the CIA and the Bilderberg Group or (in
this case) international academia.

Anyway, long story short, my guess is that this isn't spam/CEO gaming at all,
but a mentally ill human being. I'm frankly surprised there aren't a lot more
Facebook/Twitter accounts like this.

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cleverjake
She is a paranoid schizophrenic

[http://chanarchive.org/content/1_b/331156470/1306721998799.p...](http://chanarchive.org/content/1_b/331156470/1306721998799.png)

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drewcrawford
Oh. I was hoping for an explanation quite a bit less sad.

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zalew
when in doubt - 4chan to the rescue

but seriously - very sad. notice she must spend _all days_ talking to herself
on facebook.

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cleverjake
if you dig through the various 4chan archives, youll see people actually found
her home and went to verify its her. Legion really is everywhere.

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base
<http://chanarchive.org/4chan/x/11079>

"Look at this entry on May 23rd:

Francesca is now a leading figure in the art world and regularly participates
in the major biennales by commissioning new works of contemporary art through
her foundation called Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary which she founded in
2002 in Vienna Austria.[1] and has built up her own art collection with over
four hundred pieces of contemporary video and digital art.[3] The website of
the foundation is www.tba21.org. TBA21 has an exhibition space in a historical
palace on Himmelpfortgasse 13, in Vienna. It exhibits works from the
collection in thematic exhibitions twice a year. The Foundation also organises
exhibitions of its collection world wide.

'Video and digital art' That's a bingo! Its an art piece."

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bendmorris
I have no idea, but how could this possibly be "SEO gaming?" There aren't even
any links. What would they be promoting?

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hellotoby
When I see stuff like this I immediately think of an ARG (Alternate Reality
Gaming).

Check out <http://www.argn.com/> for more info on ARGs.

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zalew
wow, the posts are nothing compared to the comments! and there are thousands
of them

I was betting on a fb test account for spam-bots, but I googled she also has a
yt account <http://www.youtube.com/user/refbatch> which is even more creepy
than her fb.

first for me it was obvious that's a bot, now I see the very short intervals
in the conversation do not make the content impossible to be human generated,
still OP's question is valid: what the hell is it???

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zeeone
Wow! This is horrifying! It looks like the video from "The Ring"...

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zalew
yeah, creepy as hell. if it was a facebook api gaming bot, why on earth they
would make a wierd yt account?

unless it's some kind of viral.. a very creepy viral...

oh, and I like the 'spies communicating' theory

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Anon84
Facebook based turing test?

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jhherren
Looks like a Markov chain text generator.

