It's fascinating to monitor the migratory paths of bots as they adopt new calls, new plumage, and seek new safe havens to nest in.
https://zirk.us/directory?order=new&local=true
https://zirk.us/@geraldperez
https://zirk.us/@Karl_Wolfe
https://zirk.us/@apabyja
https://zirk.us/@Braden_Newman
https://zirk.us/@Deon_Frazier
Bots are of course attracted to electric vehicles as they provide free, abundant power sources
https://electroverse.tech/directory?local=true&order=new
https://electroverse.tech/@Ydaluv
https://electroverse.tech/@Uqige_Yxu
https://electroverse.tech/@concepcion_thiel
https://electroverse.tech/@jocelynsullivan
https://electroverse.tech/@ugiz
Not all bots come from Russia! Some make their homes in places like Brasil, known for its broad range of complex biomes; a natural habitat for bots.
https://organica.social/directory?order=new&local=true
https://organica.social/@ykadete
https://organica.social/@Christy_Graham
https://organica.social/@austin_taylor
https://organica.social/@kaketitu
https://organica.social/@RuvifOsi
Bots are naturally attuned to radio signals, so it's no surprise they find comfort in radio-based French nesting grounds.
https://social.roadfm.fr/directory?local=true&order=new
https://social.roadfm.fr/@HamYzi
https://social.roadfm.fr/@ansley_goodwin
https://social.roadfm.fr/@fizuh_axon
https://social.roadfm.fr/@Gillian_Williamson
https://social.roadfm.fr/@omazyx
Have YOU seen a flock of bots in the wild? Your Fediverse service provider is probably interested - let them know!
Last season we tracked 1,804 bots, and unlike endangered species, they are proliferating, always finding new grounds to start building their nests.
If you are an avid Bot Watcher, you can track last season's migratory patterns here:
The new season starting in April is underway, and we've already tracked over 300 new bots!
But we can't do it alone, we need Bot Watchers everywhere to report their sightings!
Bots will often move into abandoned nests, reusing the creature comforts and creating large families in unmonitored areas.
https://todon.ploud.fr/explore
https://todon.ploud.fr/@ezomo
https://todon.ploud.fr/@asiso_ipyzi
https://todon.ploud.fr/@bryanadavies
https://todon.ploud.fr/@BradyJohnston
https://todon.ploud.fr/@Melody_Walsh
Abandoned nest monitoring is conducted by IFTAS, each one lovingly geolocated and labelled at https://about.iftas.org/library/iftas-abandoned-and-unmanaged-domain-list/
Bot watchers are sending in their observations, and flocks of bots have been spotted nesting all around the world!
Today's sightings:
mastoturk.org
organica.social
zirk.us
mstdn.social
electroverse.tech
todon.ploud.fr
mastodon.lithium03.info
social.roadfm.fr
technodon.org
social.datalabour.com
social.tsst.net
Germany is seeing a large migration of bots looking for nesting grounds, especially in Ruhr, more to come!
Would you like to take up #BotWatching as a hobby? Identifying bots includes observing their avataral plumage and their distinct mating calls, like "Visual FoxPro practitioner mixing Comic Book Collecting and camera-enabled" or "Moved into Surveyor after years of hands-on BMX across Ethiopia"
You can find bot watching observatories all around the world, here's a few.
https://organica.social/directory?local=true&order=new
https://mastoturk.org/directory?local=true&order=new
https://ruhr.social/directory?local=true&order=new
Don't forget to record your observations!
@jaz thanks, I hate it.
Do we need a different word for fake accounts that generate misinformation, and useful automated accounts that provide services, information or entertainment?
Asking for a friend who makes the second.
@jaz that's good!
I think that Fediverse people are sophisticated enough to know the difference between @userboxes or @levelbot and a disinformation campaign, even if we call them both "bots".
@jorijn most of them share MX records, you can set those domains to be forbidden or flagged at account creation.
You could also set up a simple script to forward the IP, email (webhook account.created) to a reputation API, many have free tiers, and have it send you a DM or a chat message to check the account.
I use IPQS, I auto-freeze any account with a high score, and send medium-high scores to the moderator chat room for review.
https://about.iftas.org/library/url-domain-and-ip-reputation-resources/
@jaz ah thanks. I have a n8n pipeline which checks various heuristics, and limits/suspends based on a score. It works pretty well, with near-zero false-positives (<2%).
What are the MX records, if you want to share?
jaz 
Evan Prodromou
Jorijn Schrijvershof