Digital paranoia.
Or: Aieee! The Bots are after me!
Lemme 'splain.
On another minor platform I post things of no particular interest or value (much like here). That site rolls up stats of views. Who cares, right? So one I posted the other day suddenly ran up to 50. Never had that much 'engagement' before, and it's not real because there's no messages or comments.
This morning I went to look at other posts on the site, and there were the new views on that post of mine and one that came later: 66 and 87 respectively. Like, what the hell? There's only one possible explanation: bots.
For some reason AI agent bots have latched on to my 'work' and are scraping it to learn. Jokes on them; y'all ain't gonna learn nothin' from what I post: not squiddle! There's no great revelation of facts or style, only the meandering words of an old man.
But it's still disturbing to think such activity goes on, and not only all around you but directly involving you.
Well I have no plans to change; this dog is too old for any new tricks.