Spamming is always cost vs. cost.
Fuzzing the votes like this is cheap for reddit, but makes it more expensive for the spammer.
The best spam-filter is tricked by a hand-crafted, personalized email that is well-targeted. However, the cost of these are insane compared to mailing the same thing to hundrets or thousands of users. So anything any spam-filter ever does is making spamming less lucrative for the spammer, and fuzzing does that.
Re:View Counting at Reddit
by jessriedel on Saturday May 27, 2017 @05:26PM
(#14432046)
Ok but multiplying a spammer's cost by 100 (or 3) isn't useless.
But you're multiplying it by some number for every single comment/reply. Spammers work through large numbers... make each one a little bit harder, and it adds up.
Re:View Counting at Reddit
by jessriedel on Monday May 29, 2017 @08:57AM
(#14438858)
I think you're agreeing with me :)
They always fuzz equally relative to the actual score.
So, instead of monitoring once from another browser, you monitor from 100 browsers, and calculate the average before and after your bot votes.