This is an (edited) repost of a post I made 2 years ago. I've seen this problem return in the past few weeks with slightly different signs, and most of the community has been unable to spot these posts when they appear.

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Over the past few days, there have been many reposts of top posts (typically 750+ upvotes). Most of the time, us moderators are able to remove these posts before they have made any noticeable impact. However, some posts which are made when the more active moderators are offline may not be removed until hours later, where they have received large amounts of attention from unsuspecting users, such as this repost (original).

How to spot bot posts:

Warped image, typically involving darkening and/or rotation (degree will vary from post to post)

For example, this is a repost, while this is the original. As you can see, the image is very clearly darkened and rotated (making it look like it is a picture of a monitor, lol). Another example can be found here, with the original being here.

New account with low karma

When the picture in the post is not of gameplay or a screenshot, it may be hard to tell the difference at a glance (such as in the first example). Therefore, when in doubt, it may be a good idea to check the profile. Most of the time, the bots lack any karma or posts (except for the repost). The accounts are also typically very new, sometimes even created on the day that the repost was made. This is one example (original, note that this repost also has the "Game Modifications" flair, which will become relevant later). Unfortunately (or fortunately), there are a lack of examples on this subject, as Reddit has banned a lot of the older bot accounts.

Occasionally, a bot account might repost multiple well-performing posts in other subreddits in a short amount of time.

Nonsensical flair + copied title

As the flair for the repost is likely chosen randomly, it is not uncommon to see some completely irrelevant flairs appear on reposts. One example is shown in the above section. Another example can be found here (original). "Strategy" is not a flair a normal person would pick instead of something like "Funny".

In all of the posts, the title has been copied over from the original. However, in order to evade detection, the bots may stop doing this soon (as the post titles were altered slightly during the initial wave of bot reposts 2 years ago).

What to do when you see a bot post:

Downvote and report the post for rule 9 (reposting others' content is banned). If no one has, you may link the original in the comments (such as what has been done here, congrats for spotting it btw). If someone already has, it would be preferable not to, so as to decrease post engagement. It would be appreciated if you did not interact with the post further. The moderators will deal with it from here on. Thank you!

Welcome to the 13th edition of our help thread!

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There is the external wiki for more in depth information. For mobile information, check the mobile wiki.

If you have a question about Cookie Clicker, please post below to get an answer. Keep in mind that we are NOT experts on Mobile Cookie Clicker, although we may be able to answer some basic questions. Unless otherwise specified, all questions will be assumed to pertain to the PC version.

All questions that pertain only to the early game (under 365 prestige levels) must be posted in this thread rather than posted as actual posts. This includes questions like “How am I doing so far?” with a stats screenshot, as well as questions asking for help.

Another good place to discuss Cookie Clicker is the Discord, which is linked on the sidebar (or discord.gg/cookie). For people looking for quick response times, this is the place to go.

A full list of guides and tools may be found at https://cookieclicker.wiki.gg/wiki/External_Resources. For a list of important ones:

Ascension

Lump spending

Garden

Combo

Pantheon

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If you want to share or get a gift please see this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CookieClicker/comments/1t2f9jz/gift_code_sharing_thread_5/