As a mod I can answer the last part of your question: If it looks like a bot, smells like a bot, acts like a bot, guess what it is?; A duck.
And ducks get banned.
Just to clarify: Only the ones trying to pass as human. Utility bots (and ducks) are OK provided they are marked as such. Creating sockpuppet accounts for later use is not. While the boards I mod don’t explicitly have rules against bots, zero interaction repost bots hoping to farm some upvotes do not help the community.
As a mod I can answer the last part of your question: If it looks like a bot, smells like a bot, acts like a bot, guess what it is?; A duck.
And ducks get banned.
Just to clarify: Only the ones trying to pass as human. Utility bots (and ducks) are OK provided they are marked as such. Creating sockpuppet accounts for later use is not. While the boards I mod don’t explicitly have rules against bots, zero interaction repost bots hoping to farm some upvotes do not help the community.
Far too few utility ducks around here; marked or not!