How To Spot A Fake Profile Or A Bot

The patterns that give away scripted accounts, and what to do when you find one.

The short version

Be specific. Specificity is what makes a profile answerable, an opener replyable and a plan agreeable. Almost every problem in this area is a vagueness problem wearing a different hat.

In practice

One clear photo of your face beats five artful ones. One genuine question beats a paragraph of introduction. One concrete plan beats three weeks of texting. And one public venue with other people in it beats any amount of atmosphere on a first meeting.

The other half of this is patience. A quiet fortnight is not evidence about a platform, and the people posting about their results online are a tiny and self-selecting sample.

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