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torquillI have been made aware of the phenomenon known as the "salmon bot".
It connects two random people on AIM by sending both of them the same random message (it just happened to me on Yahoo IM, so it's there too). The other user's visible handle belongs to the bot, and is made up of "[adjective]salmon". I got to talk to "shimmeringsalmon", for example. There are other fish bots with similar characteristics, such as Trout-bots and Coho-bots -- shimmeringsalmon told me my handle was "WhitelistedCoho".
So if you get a random IM from someone with a fish name, and they think you started the conversation, it's a fish bot at work. The Wikipedia entry linked to above has an opt-out command if it bugs you, how to poke the bot if you want, and more information on who is behind them.
I'm finding I don't mind so much now that I know what's going on. I'll try to explain it to the next person I get connected to, so that at least they understand (and can opt-out themselves).
It connects two random people on AIM by sending both of them the same random message (it just happened to me on Yahoo IM, so it's there too). The other user's visible handle belongs to the bot, and is made up of "[adjective]salmon". I got to talk to "shimmeringsalmon", for example. There are other fish bots with similar characteristics, such as Trout-bots and Coho-bots -- shimmeringsalmon told me my handle was "WhitelistedCoho".
So if you get a random IM from someone with a fish name, and they think you started the conversation, it's a fish bot at work. The Wikipedia entry linked to above has an opt-out command if it bugs you, how to poke the bot if you want, and more information on who is behind them.
I'm finding I don't mind so much now that I know what's going on. I'll try to explain it to the next person I get connected to, so that at least they understand (and can opt-out themselves).
