BotBouncer — Source Code Analysis

Date: 2026-08-12 Purpose: Detailed analysis of BotBouncer’s actual detection logic, based on reading the source code of both the main app (fsvreddit/bot-bouncer) and the evaluation engine (fsvreddit/bot-bouncer-evaluation). Sources: All claims in this document are from actual source code read from GitHub raw URLs on Aug 12, 2026. No inference from filenames alone.

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1. Architecture Overview

BotBouncer is a Reddit Dev Platform app (not a standalone bot). It runs inside Reddit’s infrastructure and responds to platform events (post creation, comment creation, comment edits). It has two repos:

Repo	Purpose
fsvreddit/bot-bouncer	Main app — event handling, reporting, banning, post creation, AI summaries
fsvreddit/bot-bouncer-evaluation	Evaluation engine — all bot detection logic lives here

How it works at a high level:

1. A subreddit installs BotBouncer from the Dev Platform app directory
2. BotBouncer watches ALL new posts and comments on that subreddit
3. When a new post/comment is created:
   a. Check if the author is already classified as "banned" → if yes, ban + remove immediately
   b. If unknown, run through ALL evaluators (see §3) to check if the content looks bot-like
   c. If an evaluator flags it as a possible bot → auto-submit to r/BotBouncer for evaluation
4. On r/BotBouncer, the account goes through full evaluation:
   a. All evaluators run against the user's full history (100 most recent items)
   b. If evaluators match AND can auto-ban AND meet content threshold → auto-ban
   c. If evaluators match but can't auto-ban → flag for manual review
   d. If no evaluators match → needs manual review
5. OpenAI summary is generated for moderators to review (see §5)
6. Once classified as "banned":
   a. Account is banned from the reporting subreddit
   b. Account is banned from ALL participating subreddits where it has content in the past week
   c. A public "Overview for <username>" post is created on r/BotBouncer

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2. Two Detection Modes

Mode 1: Reactive (Human-Triggered)

A subreddit moderator or user manually reports an account:

Step	What Happens	Source File
1	Mod clicks “Report to /r/BotBouncer” on a comment/post	handleReportUser.ts
2	Form asks: “Why is this a bot?” (optional context) + “Show publicly?” + “Notify me?”	handleReportUser.ts:reportFormDefinition
3	Submission is queued	externalSubmissions.ts:addExternalSubmissionFromClientSub
4	Post is created on r/BotBouncer with the reporter’s context	postCreation.ts
5	Full evaluation runs (all evaluators against user’s history)	handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts:evaluateUserAccount
6	If evaluators auto-ban → flair set to “Banned”	handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts:handleControlSubAccountEvaluation
7	If no auto-ban match → “Needs manual review” + OpenAI summary generated	createAISummary.ts:generateOpenAISummary

Key detail from handleReportUser.ts: The reporting user can add context text. This context is shown publicly on the BotBouncer post if they choose “Show publicly” (default: true). This is exactly what we saw in our BotBouncer reports — the reporter wrote “asking a question and not directly answering the post.”

Mode 2: Proactive (Automated Bot Hunting)

BotBouncer actively scans known karma-farming subreddits for new accounts:

Step	What Happens	Source File
1	Scheduled job runs periodically	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:evaluateKarmaFarmingSubs
2	Fetches the 100 newest posts from each karma-farming sub	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:getAccountsFromSub
3	Extracts unique authors from those posts	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:getDistinctAccounts
4	Filters out accounts already known to BotBouncer	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:queueKarmaFarmingSubs
5	Queues unknown accounts for evaluation	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:queueKarmaFarmingAccounts
6	Evaluates each account using all evaluators	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:evaluateAndHandleUser
7	If evaluators match + can auto-ban + meet threshold → auto-ban	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:evaluateAndHandleUser

The list of karma-farming subs is configurable — it’s stored in evaluator variables (generic:karmafarminglinksubs and generic:karmafarminglinksubsnsfw) which are loaded from wiki pages on r/BotBouncer. The list is NOT hardcoded in the source code — it’s maintained as a wiki configuration that can be updated without redeploying.

Key detail from karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:

• Checks up to 200 subs per run
• Checks subs that haven’t been checked in the last 25 minutes
• Processes accounts in cohorts (evens/odds) for load balancing
• Processes 10 accounts per batch
• If >3 failures in a batch, enters a 2-minute cooldown

Mode 3: Real-Time Content Detection (On Client Subreddits)

When ANY user posts or comments on a subreddit that has BotBouncer installed:

Step	What Happens	Source File
1	Post or comment is created on a client subreddit	handleContentCreation.ts
2. If author already classified as banned → ban + remove immediately	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation
3. If author unknown → run ALL evaluators’ preEvaluatePost or preEvaluateComment	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleClientCommentCreate
4. If any evaluator’s pre-check triggers → run full evaluation	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:checkAndReportPotentialBot
5. Full evaluation fetches user’s 100 most recent items and runs all evaluators	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:checkAndReportPotentialBot
6. If any evaluator returns isLikelyBot = true → auto-submit to r/BotBouncer	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:checkAndReportPotentialBot
7. Rate limited: re-checks a user at most once per 15 minutes	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleClientCommentCreate

Key detail: The preEvaluateComment and preEvaluatePost methods are FAST pre-checks — they decide whether to trigger the full evaluation. Each evaluator has different pre-check logic (see §3). The full evaluation fetches the user’s complete history and runs all evaluators in depth.

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3. The 24 Evaluators (Actual Detection Logic)

From allEvaluators.ts, these are ALL the evaluators, in the order they run:

Tier 1: Account-Only Evaluators (Fastest — no history needed)

#	Evaluator	What It Detects	Pre-Check Logic	Full Check Logic
1	EvaluateBadUsername	Bot-like username patterns	Checks username against regex patterns from config	If username matches banned patterns
2	EvaluateBioText	Bot text in user bio/profile description	Checks if bio text matches banned regex patterns	Checks bio against bantext regex list; skips if comment karma > 2000 AND link karma > 2000
3	EvaluateBioTextDefinedHandles	Specific bio text patterns (configurable handles)	Same as BioText but with defined handle patterns	Same
4	EvaluateBadDisplayName	Bot display name patterns	Checks display name against regex	If display name matches banned patterns
5	EvaluateBadDisplayNameDefinedHandles	Specific display name patterns	Same with defined handles	Same
6	EvaluateObfuscatedBioKeywords	Obfuscated keywords in bio (e.g., using symbols to bypass filters)	Checks bio for obfuscated versions of banned keywords	Detects keyword obfuscation patterns

Tier 2: Content Evaluators (Need post/comment history but not social links)

#	Evaluator	What It Detects	Pre-Check Logic	Full Check Logic
7	EvaluateDomainSharer	Accounts sharing a specific domain across posts	Checks if post URL matches watched domains	Checks if user has multiple posts sharing the same domain
8	EvaluatePinnedPostTitles	Bots with identical pinned posts on their profile	Checks if pinned post title matches known patterns	Checks for specific pinned post title patterns
9	EvaluateSelfComment	Accounts commenting on their own posts	Checks if comment is on own post	Checks for self-comment patterns
10	EvaluatePostTitle	Posts with titles matching known bot patterns	Checks post title against bantext regex list	Checks NSFW posts from last week against banned title regexes; skips if comment karma > 2000 AND link karma > 5000
11	EvaluatePostTitleDefinedHandles	Specific post title patterns (configurable)	Same with defined handles	Same
12	EvaluatePostTitleMulti	Multiple post titles matching bot patterns	Checks against multiple regex patterns	Checks for posts matching multiple criteria
13	EvaluateSuspiciousFirstPost	First post is suspicious (image/video on specific subs)	Checks if post is on a watched subreddit AND is an i.redd.it/v.redd.it/gallery post	Checks if account has exactly 1 post (on watched sub, image/video), ≤1 comment, and the comment came before the post; pre-check: account <14 days old AND comment karma <50
14	EvaluateInconsistentAgeBot	NSFW accounts with inconsistent ages in post titles	Checks if NSFW post title contains an age number	Checks if user has ≥4 NSFW posts in last 2 weeks with ≥3 different ages found in titles; pre-check: comment karma <50
15	EvaluateInconsistentGenderBot	NSFW accounts with inconsistent gender in post titles (M4F, F4M, etc.)	Checks NSFW post title for gender markers	Checks for inconsistent gender markers across NSFW posts
16	EvaluateWorldTraveller	Accounts posting in unrelated geo-subreddits (e.g., posting in r/London AND r/NYC AND r/Sydney)	Checks if post is on a geo-sub	Checks if user posts across multiple unrelated geographic subreddits
17	EvaluateCommentPhrase	Comments containing specific bot phrases	Checks if comment body matches a regex from phrases config	Checks if user has ≥1 comment matching a phrase regex; pre-check: account <60 days old AND comment karma <100
18	EvaluateTGGroup	Telegram group spam bots	Checks for Telegram links in content	Checks for Telegram promotion patterns

Tier 3: Complex Evaluators (Need social links or deeper analysis)

#	Evaluator	What It Detects	Pre-Check Logic	Full Check Logic
19	EvaluateWarmupBot	Moderator accounts that are warmup bots	Checks if post title matches postTitleRegexes	Checks if user is a mod of a subreddit matching subredditRegexes AND has posts matching postTitleRegexes
20	EvaluateSocialLinks	Accounts with suspicious social links (OnlyFans, Instagram, etc.)	Checks if any social link matches badlinks config	Checks social links AND post URLs for bad domains; pre-check: (comment karma <500 AND account <2 months old) OR account >5 years old OR NSFW
21	EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced	The most powerful evaluator — flexible rule-based bot detection	Depends on group config	See §4 below
22	EvaluateTitleCopyBot	Bots whose comments copy the post title verbatim	Checks if comment body === post title	Checks if the 5 most recent comments all copy their respective post titles exactly, user has 0 posts, and all comments are single-line; pre-check: account <180 days old
23	EvaluateTextInNsfwImages	NSFW bots with text/watermarks on images (social handles)	Checks NSFW image posts	Analyzes NSFW images for embedded text/watermarks
24	EvaluateBotGroupAdvancedInternal	Same as BotGroupAdvanced but with experimental features enabled	Same	Same as BotGroupAdvanced but can use new features

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4. EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced — The Most Dangerous Evaluator

This is the most sophisticated and flexible evaluator. It’s a rule-based system that can be configured via wiki pages to detect virtually any bot pattern — without code changes.

How it works:

From EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced.ts (54,586 characters of source — the largest evaluator by far):

1. Bot Groups are defined in evaluator variables (configurable via wiki). Each group has:

   • name — group identifier
   • submitterName — optional, only trigger if reported by specific submitter
   • Account criteria (age, karma, bio text, display name, social links, etc.)
   • History criteria (posts/comments matching specific patterns)
   • Social link criteria

2. Account Matching (accountMatchesGroup):

   • Checks account age (max/min in days, or date range)
   • Checks comment karma and link karma thresholds
   • Checks bio text against regexes
   • Checks display name against regexes
   • Checks if account is NSFW
   • Checks social links against patterns

3. History Matching (historyMatchesCriteriaGroup):

   • Can match posts or comments with criteria like:
     • subredditName — must be in specific subreddits
     • notSubredditName — must NOT be in specific subreddits
     • bodyRegex — comment/post body must match regex
     • titleRegex — post title must match regex (for posts)
     • minBodyLength / maxBodyLength — body length constraints
     • minParaCount / maxParaCount — paragraph count constraints
     • minKarma / maxKarma — score constraints
     • isTopLevel — for comments, must be top-level
     • isCommentOnOwnPost — comment on own post
     • postAuthorNameRegex — parent post’s author matches regex
     • postTitleRegex — parent post’s title matches regex
     • postBodyRegex — parent post’s body matches regex
     • postUrlRegex — parent post’s URL matches regex
     • age — content age constraints
     • edited — whether content was edited
     • matchesNeeded — minimum number of matching items
     • distinctSubsNeeded — minimum number of distinct subreddits

4. Logical Operators: Criteria can be combined with:

   • some — OR logic (any sub-criteria must match)
   • every — AND logic (all sub-criteria must match)
   • not — negation

5. hasMoreThanOneCommentOnPosts: Can check if the user has multiple comments on the same post (detecting double-commenting behavior)

What this means for us:

BotBouncer operators can create a custom bot group that matches our exact behavior pattern without writing any code. For example, they could configure a group that matches:

• Accounts <180 days old
• Comment karma <250
• Has ≥3 comments in bodyRegex matching “what’s.*underrated|what’s.*discovered|what.*you.*think”
• Comments in ≥2 of: NoStupidQuestions, AmItheAsshole, CasualConversation, TheTopicOfTheDay
• isTopLevel: true

This would catch our exact “question-back” pattern. The config is on a private wiki page — we can’t see what groups are currently defined.

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5. OpenAI Integration — AI-Assisted Detection

What the aiAnalysis/ module actually does:

From the source code, BotBouncer uses OpenAI in two ways:

5a. OpenAI Summary Generation (createAISummary.ts)

When an account is submitted to r/BotBouncer, an OpenAI summary is generated to help moderators review:

Step	What Happens	Source
1	Gathers user info: 100 most recent posts/comments, social links, account properties	gatherUserDetailsForOpenAI.ts:getUserInfoForOpenAI
2	For each comment, also fetches the parent post title and URL	gatherUserDetailsForOpenAI.ts:getUserInfoForOpenAI
3	Includes initial evaluator results (which evaluators matched)	createAISummary.ts:generateOpenAISummary
4	Includes moderator notes about the user	createAISummary.ts:generateOpenAISummary
5	Sends all this to OpenAI via a prompt template	createAISummary.ts:generateOpenAISummary
6	OpenAI model: gpt-5.4-mini (default)	openAI.ts:callOpenAI
7	Temperature: 0.7 (default)	openAI.ts:callOpenAI
8	Result is posted as a comment on the BotBouncer tracking post (removed, not public)	createAISummary.ts:createResponse
9	Cached for 1 day per user	createAISummary.ts:getCacheKeyForUserSummary

Minimum requirements for AI summary (from createAISummary.ts):

• Account must be ≥30 days old (openAIMinimumAccountAgeInDays)
• User must have ≥25 content items (openAIMinimumContentCount)

What data is sent to OpenAI:

{
  "userInfo": {
    "username": "...",
    "commentKarma": 216,
    "linkKarma": 1,
    "hasVerifiedEmail": true,
    "isModerator": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-03-12...",
    "socialLinks": [{"title": "...", "url": "..."}]
  },
  "history": [
    {
      "type": "comment",
      "content": "love how this lets us share everything from books to music...",
      "karma": 1,
      "subredditName": "TheTopicOfTheDay",
      "createdAt": "2026-08-10...",
      "isTopLevel": true,
      "edited": false,
      "parentPostInfo": {
        "title": "The topic of the day is... Media Monday!",
        "createdAt": "2026-08-10...",
        "url": "..."
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

This means OpenAI sees: full comment text, subreddit, score, timestamp, whether it’s top-level, whether it was edited, AND the parent post’s title and URL. The AI can then judge whether the comment is relevant to the post, answers the question, or sounds AI-generated.

5b. Ask AI Feature (askAI.ts)

Moderators can type !askai <question> in modmail to ask OpenAI a specific question about a user. This sends the same user data to OpenAI along with the moderator’s specific question.

5c. OpenAI for Evaluation

From settings.ts, there are THREE separate OpenAI API keys:

• OpenAIKey — for general AI summaries
• OpenAIEvaluationKey — for evaluation (used in checkAndReportPotentialBot)
• OpenAIAdminKey — for admin operations

From handleClientPostOrComment.ts:checkAndReportPotentialBot:

if (evaluator.needsOpenAiKey && openAIEvaluationKey) {
    evaluator.setOpenAiKey(openAIEvaluationKey);
}

This means some evaluators use OpenAI as part of the automated detection logic — not just for summaries. The needsOpenAiKey flag on UserEvaluatorBase is false by default, but can be overridden by evaluators that need AI analysis.

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6. The User Summary — What BotBouncer Knows About Each Account

From userSummary.ts, when an account is evaluated, BotBouncer generates a detailed summary including:

Data Point	How It’s Computed	Why It Matters
Account age	Time since createdAt	Young accounts are more suspicious
Comment karma	From profile	Low comment karma + high activity = bot pattern
Post karma	From profile	Lopsided post/comment ratio is suspicious
Verified email	From profile	Unverified email = lower trust
Is moderator	From profile	Mods are exempt from banning
Social links	From profile	Suspicious links (OnlyFans, Instagram, etc.)
Display name	From profile	Bot display name patterns
Bio text	From profile, with banned domains redacted	Bot bio text patterns
Original bio	Stored separately, compared to current	Detects bio changes after detection
Comment subreddits	countBy of subreddits in comment history	Shows karma-farming sub concentration
Comments per post	countBy of postId counts	Detects multiple comments on same post
First comment time	Time between account creation and first comment	Bots often comment immediately after creation
Time between comments	Min, 10th percentile, max, average, median	Uniform timing = automation
Time between posts	Same metrics for posts	Same
Edited posts %	Percentage of posts that were edited	Bots rarely edit; humans often do
Activity by time of day	Histogram of activity by hour	Shows timezone mismatch or 24/7 automation
Post subreddits	countBy of subreddits in post history	Shows targeting
First post time	Time between account creation and first post	Same as first comment

Key insight: BotBouncer explicitly computes timing metrics — min/10th-percentile/max/average/median time between comments and posts. This is exactly the kind of analysis that would detect our RPA pipeline’s regular 7-second delays and scheduled commenting windows.

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7. What BotBouncer Does NOT Do

Based on reading the actual source code, here’s what BotBouncer cannot detect:

What It Doesn’t Check	Why
IP addresses	No IP checking in any evaluator — that’s Reddit’s admin-level system, not BotBouncer
Browser fingerprints	No fingerprint checking — same reason
Cookie/session linking	No cookie analysis
Cross-account timing correlation	Evaluators run per-account, not across accounts
Vote manipulation	No vote analysis in any evaluator
Direct AI-text detection (per-comment)	The aiAnalysis module uses OpenAI for summaries, not for per-comment AI detection. The CommentPhrase evaluator checks for specific regex patterns, not general AI-ness. However, OpenAI could flag AI patterns in the summary it generates for moderators.
Account creation IP	No IP analysis at all

Important clarification: BotBouncer is a subreddit-level tool, not a platform-level tool. It does NOT do IP analysis, fingerprinting, or network-level detection. That’s Reddit’s “anti-evil” system. BotBouncer only analyzes publicly visible account behavior: post titles, comment text, bio text, social links, display name, username, and timing patterns.

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8. Ban Message — The Exact Text

From settings.ts:CONFIGURATION_DEFAULTS.banMessage:

Bots and bot-like accounts are not welcome on /r/{subreddit}.
[I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically](/r/BotBouncer/wiki/index).
**If you wish to appeal the classification of the /u/{account} account, please
/message /r/BotBouncer rather than replying to this message.**

This is the default ban message. Subreddits can customize it. The “I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically” line is what we saw in our ban messages.

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9. Exemptions — How to Not Get Banned

From the source code, these accounts are exempt from BotBouncer:

Exemption	Source	How It Works
Approved Submitters	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation	If exemptApprovedUsers setting is true (default) and user is an approved contributor of the sub, skip ban
Moderators	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation	If user is a mod of the sub, skip ban
Proof flair	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation	If user has a flair with CSS class ending in proof (e.g., botbustproof), skip ban
Previously unbanned	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation	If autoWhitelist is true (default) and user was previously unbanned, skip ban
High karma (BioText)	EvaluateBioText.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma > 2000 AND link karma > 2000, skip bio text check
High karma (PostTitle)	EvaluatePostTitle.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma > 2000 AND link karma > 5000, skip post title check
High karma (CommentPhrase)	EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma ≥ 100 OR account age > 60 days, skip comment phrase check
High karma (SuspiciousFirstPost)	EvaluateSuspiciousFirstPost.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma ≥ 50 OR account age > 14 days, skip suspicious first post check
High karma (SocialLinks)	EvaluateSocialLinks.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma ≥ 500 AND account > 2 months old, skip social links check (unless account > 5 years old or NSFW)
Old account (InconsistentAge)	EvaluateInconsistentAgeBot.ts:preEvaluateUser	If comment karma ≥ 50, skip inconsistent age check
Old account (TitleCopyBot)	EvaluateTitleCopyBot.ts:preEvaluateUser	If account > 180 days old, skip title copy check
Service bots	handleReportUser.ts:reportFormHandler	Bots that respond to user commands (e.g., RemindMeBot) are out of scope

Key pattern: Most evaluators have karma thresholds that exempt high-karma accounts. The thresholds vary:

• Bio text: 2000 comment + 2000 link karma
• Post title: 2000 comment + 5000 link karma
• Comment phrase: 100 comment karma OR 60 days account age
• Suspicious first post: 50 comment karma OR 14 days account age
• Social links: 500 comment karma AND 2 months age
• Title copy: 180 days account age

For our accounts: Most of our banned accounts had <250 comment karma, so they were NOT exempt from any evaluator. If we had built accounts to 2000+ comment karma before farming in BotBouncer-monitored subs, most evaluators would have skipped them.

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10. The canAutoBan and banContentThreshold System

Each evaluator has two flags that determine whether a match leads to automatic ban:

Flag	Default	Purpose
canAutoBan	true	If true, this evaluator’s match can trigger an automatic ban without human review
banContentThreshold	10	Minimum number of content items (posts+comments) the user must have for an auto-ban

From handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts:evaluateUserAccount:

const metThreshold = itemCount >= bot.banContentThreshold;

If a user has fewer items than the threshold, the evaluator match is logged but doesn’t trigger auto-ban — it goes to manual review instead.

Thresholds by evaluator (from source code):

Evaluator	banContentThreshold	Notes
BioText	0	Any match = auto-ban
SocialLinks	0	Any match = auto-ban
WarmupBot	0	Any match = auto-ban
CommentPhrase	1	Just 1 matching comment needed
SuspiciousFirstPost	1	Just 1 suspicious post needed
PostTitle	1	Just 1 matching post title needed
TitleCopyBot	5	5 comments copying post titles needed
InconsistentAgeBot	6	6 NSFW posts with inconsistent ages needed
BotGroupAdvanced	10 (default)	10 content items needed (configurable per group)

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11. How Our Accounts Got Caught — Mapping to Source Code

Based on the actual source code, here’s what likely happened to our accounts:

The Trigger Chain:

Step	What Happened	Source File/Function
1	Our account commented on r/TheTopicOfTheDay (which has BotBouncer installed)	handleContentCreation.ts:handleCommentCreate
2	BotBouncer checked if the author was already classified → No	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleClientCommentCreate
3	BotBouncer ran preEvaluateComment on all evaluators	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleClientCommentCreate
4	CommentPhrase evaluator’s preEvaluateComment may have triggered — if our “question-back” phrases are in the configured phrases regex list	EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts:preEvaluateComment
5	OR: No pre-check triggered, but the comment was visible to a human moderator	N/A — human detection path
6	The human moderator clicked “Report to /r/BotBouncer”	handleReportUser.ts:handleReportUser
7	Moderator added context: “asking a question and not directly answering the post”	handleReportUser.ts:reportFormDefinition
8	Submission queued + post created on r/BotBouncer	externalSubmissions.ts:addExternalSubmissionFromClientSub
9	Full evaluation ran: all 24 evaluators against the user’s 100 most recent items	handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts:evaluateUserAccount
10	BotGroupAdvanced may have matched — if a bot group is configured for accounts that comment on karma-farming subs with question-back patterns	EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced.ts:evaluate
11	CommentPhrase may have matched — if question-back phrases are in the config	EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts:evaluate
12	OR: No evaluator auto-banned, so it went to manual review	handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts:handleControlSubAccountEvaluation
13	OpenAI summary generated for the moderator	createAISummary.ts:generateOpenAISummary
14	OpenAI received our comment text + parent post title + full history and may have flagged the AI pattern	gatherUserDetailsForOpenAI.ts:getUserInfoForOpenAI
15	Human moderator reviewed → classified as “Banned”	Manual action
16	Account auto-banned from r/TheTopicOfTheDay + ALL participating subs where it had content in the past week	handleClientPostOrComment.ts:handleContentCreation (retroactive)
17	”Overview for hailybarnes37” post created on r/BotBouncer	postCreation.ts

Why Small-Location7862 survived sitewide but hailybarnes37 didn’t:

BotBouncer only bans at the subreddit level. The escalation to sitewide suspension is done by Reddit’s own systems (not BotBouncer). From the BotBouncer docs: “Bot accounts should be reported to Reddit as Spam → Disruptive use of bots or AI. Reddit’s spam detection is getting better all the time and in many cases, the bot’s account will be shadowbanned immediately.”

BotBouncer explicitly recommends that moderators also report the account to Reddit — this is the path to sitewide suspension. The difference between hailybarnes37 (sitewide banned) and Small-Location7862 (not sitewide banned) may simply be whether the reporting moderator also filed a Reddit spam report.

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12. What We Can’t See (And Why It Matters)

The most critical detection logic is in the evaluator variables — the configuration that defines what patterns to look for. These are stored on private wiki pages on r/BotBouncer that we cannot read:

Hidden Config	Where It’s Stored	What It Contains
generic:karmafarminglinksubs	r/BotBouncer wiki (evaluator-config/evaluatorvars)	List of subreddits BotBouncer proactively scans
generic:karmafarminglinksubsnsfw	Same wiki	NSFW karma-farming subs list
commentphrase:phrases	Same wiki	Regex patterns for bot comment phrases
botgroupadvanced:*	Same wiki	Bot group definitions (account criteria + history criteria)
biotext:bantext	Same wiki	Regex patterns for banned bio text
posttitle:bantext	Same wiki	Regex patterns for banned post titles
generic:sitewidebanneddomains	Same wiki	Domains that trigger automatic evaluation

This means we don’t know:

• Which subreddits are on the karma-farming list (but r/TheTopicOfTheDay clearly is, since that’s where our reports came from)
• What comment phrases trigger the CommentPhrase evaluator
• What bot groups are configured in BotGroupAdvanced
• Whether our specific commenting patterns are explicitly targeted

What we DO know from behavior:

• r/TheTopicOfTheDay is on the karma-farming list (our accounts were proactively scanned there)
• NoStupidQuestions, AmItheAsshole, CasualConversation, Advice, TheTopicOfTheDay are likely all on the list (our accounts got banned from all of them simultaneously)
• The “question-back” pattern was noticed by human moderators, which means it’s likely also in the CommentPhrase regex config

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13. Implications for Avoiding Detection

Based on the actual source code, here’s what would and wouldn’t help:

What Would Help:

Strategy	Why It Works (from source code)	Source Evidence
Build comment karma to 2000+ before farming	BioText and PostTitle evaluators skip accounts with >2000 comment + >2000 link karma	EvaluateBioText.ts:preEvaluateUser, EvaluatePostTitle.ts:preEvaluateUser
Build comment karma to 100+	CommentPhrase evaluator skips accounts with ≥100 comment karma OR >60 days old	EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts:preEvaluateUser
Don’t comment on known karma-farming subs	Proactive scanning only covers subs on the karmafarminglinksubs list	karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts:getDistinctAccounts
Vary timing between comments	UserSummary explicitly computes min/10th-percentile/max/average/median time between comments	userSummary.ts:getCommonEntriesForContent
Edit some comments	UserSummary tracks edited post percentage; bots rarely edit	userSummary.ts:getSummaryForUser
Have posts, not just comments	TitleCopyBot explicitly checks if (this.getPosts().length > 0) return false — having posts exempts you	EvaluateTitleCopyBot.ts:evaluate
Don’t comment on the same post twice	BotGroupAdvanced can check hasMoreThanOneCommentOnPosts	EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced.ts:evaluate
Match comment content to post content	OpenAI summary sends parent post title + comment body — AI can judge relevance	gatherUserDetailsForOpenAI.ts:getUserInfoForOpenAI
Don’t use question-back patterns	CommentPhrase can regex-match specific phrases; BotGroupAdvanced can match bodyRegex patterns	EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts, EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced.ts
Be active for >14 days before posting on watched subs	SuspiciousFirstPost evaluator skips accounts >14 days old	EvaluateSuspiciousFirstPost.ts:preEvaluateUser
Have >50 comment karma before posting on watched subs	SuspiciousFirstPost and InconsistentAge skip accounts with ≥50 comment karma	EvaluateSuspiciousFirstPost.ts:preEvaluateUser, EvaluateInconsistentAgeBot.ts:preEvaluateUser

What Would NOT Help (Myth Busting):

Strategy	Why It Doesn’t Work	Source Evidence
Change IP address	BotBouncer does NOT check IP addresses at all	No IP checking in any evaluator
Change browser fingerprint	BotBouncer does NOT check fingerprints	No fingerprint checking in any evaluator
Use different proxies	BotBouncer does NOT check network info	No network analysis in any evaluator
Deliberate typos	BotBouncer doesn’t check spelling — it checks structural patterns via regex and OpenAI	EvaluateCommentPhrase uses regex on phrases, not spelling
Post at “human-like” intervals only	While timing IS analyzed, it’s in the summary for human review, not an automatic ban criterion (except via BotGroupAdvanced config)	userSummary.ts computes timing for the summary, not for auto-ban

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14. Source Code References

File	Repo	Key Function
karmaFarmingSubsCheck.ts	bot-bouncer	Proactive scanning of karma-farming subs
handleClientPostOrComment.ts	bot-bouncer	Real-time content detection on client subs
handleReportUser.ts	bot-bouncer	Human moderator reporting flow
handleControlSubAccountEvaluation.ts	bot-bouncer	Full account evaluation on r/BotBouncer
handleContentCreation.ts	bot-bouncer	Event router for content creation
handleControlSubComment.ts	bot-bouncer	Comment handling on r/BotBouncer itself
handleControlSubSubmission.ts	bot-bouncer	Post/submission handling on r/BotBouncer
externalSubmissions.ts	bot-bouncer	External submission queue system
createAISummary.ts	bot-bouncer	OpenAI summary generation
gatherUserDetailsForOpenAI.ts	bot-bouncer	Data collection for OpenAI
openAI.ts	bot-bouncer	OpenAI API wrapper (gpt-5.4-mini)
askAI.ts	bot-bouncer	Modmail !askai command
userSummary.ts	bot-bouncer	Detailed user summary with timing analysis
settings.ts	bot-bouncer	App settings, ban message, action types
constants.ts	bot-bouncer	Job names, flair IDs, evaluator imports
types.ts	bot-bouncer	UserStatus enum (pending/banned/service/organic/purged/retired/inactive)
evaluatorVariables.ts	bot-bouncer	Wiki-based evaluator config system
allEvaluators.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Complete evaluator list and order
UserEvaluatorBase.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Base class for all evaluators
EvaluateBotGroupAdvanced.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Flexible rule-based bot detection (54K chars)
EvaluateCommentPhrase.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Comment phrase regex matching
EvaluateWarmupBot.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Moderator warmup bot detection
EvaluateBioText.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Bio text pattern detection
EvaluateTitleCopyBot.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Title-copying bot detection
EvaluateSuspiciousFirstPost.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	First post suspicious pattern detection
EvaluateInconsistentAgeBot.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Inconsistent age in NSFW posts
EvaluateSocialLinks.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Suspicious social link detection
EvaluatePostTitle.ts	bot-bouncer-evaluation	Post title pattern detection
changelog.md	bot-bouncer	Version history of detection additions