The Spam Folder: April 2025
Spring has sprung, and so has the spam — but luckily, we’ve got some of the sharpest spam catchers in the game.
Please link any spam you spot right here.
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Not spam but blatant AI hallucination:
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Yes, there is a lot of them, certainly the same person. The only idea I have is, that the mentioned error code has a special meaning? I wonder why people do that, it's a shame about the time. They post the same AI-generated techno blabla and vote each other. Here are some more: 4717098, 4718101, 4717094 and more.
@vauweh those errors are made up by their AI tool. The upvotes are suspect too given we don’t like to upvote AI answers.
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This looks like a spam voting ring. Some are posting spam phone numbers in their answers (not picked up by the iRobot) and the others are upvoting it
A lot of the users joined at nearly the same time but there are a few that joined some weeks earlier, but it is very unusual that they all upvoted some of the same answers at nearly the same time.
4697023 4697025 4698713 4698718 4717094 4717097 4717098 4717103 4718059 4718088 4718101
Have fun ;-)
Cheers
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@jayeff, what a spam haul! I think I got them all. Thanks for all the effort in rounding these up.
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@krisrodriguez This is spam? Or just advertisement?
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idk if this is spam, but i found an in-progress huawei guide in the iphone category
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Likely misplaced in error - happens all the time on the user authored guides. We fix it by changing the device it's tied to. I've fixed it (for now). See if it progresses into more.
@nick - Nope just a nonsensical guide start!
@krisrodriguez - Can you pull it?
@danj To be fair I do give the benefit of doubt until I can properly make sure within reason. AI garbage and spam? That’s the exception.
@nick - How is that the case here? iPhone HUAWEIu Replacement is just a nonsensical title and there’s nothing else here.
@krisrodriguez I agree with @nick on this one. The author may just still be working on it. There is absolutely no harm in leaving it for now. No reason to go full DOGE on it just yet!
@tqd thanks for pointing it out :-)
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@krisrodriguez Please ban 4099598, waits some years and posts pure nonsense.
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@vauweh All done :)
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https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/schmidtfran... someone is advertising their business by using a guide.
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https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Nothing_Ea... its just a duplicate page
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https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/8965...
Not spam yet but someone to monitor for a bit.
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@nick, thank you for being proactive. I'll keep an eye too. Please let me know if you spot anything suspicious before I do.
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https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Edit/Minec... a product like this doesn't exist, except for the minecraft switch lite, which would fall under the normal switch lite.
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@tdq, thank you for catching this. Let me connect with the Community member to ask about why they created the page.
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https://www.ifixit.com/User/About/451771...
AI answers without disclosure and without any edits. See here:
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/8968...
Here is the issue: as @oldturkey03 and others say it doesn't know much of anything. The key thing I do having the MS631 SM (Sharp edition and the actual Lexmark one): while vague the permanent count is potentially resettable. I don't know how and in practice it tends to survive resets so it's very hard (if not nearly impossible) to actually reset. But in theory it may be doable - it just seems to wipe out the visible meter more often then not it seems - the permanent is not user accessible. While it is technically right about being used I was trying to gauge it by look and the meter. I have seen a 288 page discrepancy on my MS621 with 15.7k pages before so it likes to drift and is nearly impossible to erase. I didn't implicitly include this because of AI Answers being a problem but heavily hinted towards it in the hope someone with a human response and the Sharp manual sees it.
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/8799...
This one is just a hallucination.
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/8850...
May be right. But it isn't edited so it's hard to say which holds up and what doesn't.
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@nick totally agree on the AI part as well as the content of the AI answer. Since it is not SPAM, how about we have the community vote on removing one of those as Off-Topic? The other answer received an upvote as well as acceptance by the OP. I feel obliged to leave it alone but to just comment on it to point out that it is AI generated.
@oldturkey03 My issue is the lack of accounting for some of the info I gave here. I refuse to accept an AI slop response out of principle. AI doesn't have the SM nor knew about the gaps from running a 621 with a higher one. Sure AI knew I took a chance but I included that and the price of a new screen. So 1+1=2.
If we weren't operating on AI Answers I'd probably be more willing to mention I had the SM and what I know from it. My other issue is it makes people think that someone has it so their robot who doesn't know the way to tell the actual usage looks elsewhere leaving me with a bad AI answer killing the question.
F it, here's the excerpt:
Permanent page count
This setting displays the total number of pages printed in mono and color. After all the print tests are completed, this value resets to zero.
1 Enter the Diagnostics menu, and then touch Printer Setup. 2 View the permanent page count.
THERE IS NOTHING HERE TO INDICATE THE NEEDED PATTERN SO NOBODY HIDES THESE RESETS CORRECTLY!
@oldturkey03 The other issue is the AI didn't even pick up the missing packing material on a new drum unit LMAO. Like come on I'm basically saying "this is used I just need an estimate to see how much actual use is on it", not AI slop. I'm just asking for a baseline from someone who can better gauge given I know how to tell by the thousands, not hundreds. Literally the trifecta of AI trips: usage, corporate supply program discount on supplies, very clear use. The fact AI didn't get it is absurd.
@nick AI is only as good as it's training. The issues you mentioned would require a "what if or else" thinking and this AI may not be there.....yet!
@oldturkey03 If it ever gets there. Maybe I'm cynical on AI with advanced matters, but the answers are always bad.
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https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/2550....
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/2550...
https://www.ifixit.com/User/4741679/Swat...
Now the unedited AI posters are using decrepit questions to bury their slop to build an answer record. I didn’t want to do it but I had to mark the post they used to post their slop as unanswerable to prevent more as it isn’t the first time there are spammy looking answers. Just the first one I caught. I’ll skim it later and mark any bonus AI nonsense
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@nick. Thanks for flagging this—and for taking action in the moment. Marking the post as unanswerable was the right call, and I appreciate your judgment here. I’ve reviewed the activity and gone ahead and banned the account.
Really grateful for your continued effort to help keep the forum clean and useful. This kind of misuse of AI content is something we’re actively working to prevent, and your attention to detail makes a big difference.
Let me know if you come across anything else that feels off.
@krisrodriguez I've gotten to the point with my own questions I intentionally mix info up that can help an AI tool out into odd places so I can quickly tell. Kinda sad it came down to it. I didn't want it to come to it but it did.
Frankly the reason I marked it as unanswerable is it's been answered and it was getting to the age where someone looking to quickly rack up answers like this will use them as a way to evade detection.
@nick, I get that—and honestly, that’s a clever way to spot the AI stuff.
It is a bit of a bummer that it’s come to this, but I think there’s a bright side too. Just like AI tools are getting more advanced, we’re also getting better at spotting and filtering out the misuse.
Hopefully down the road, it won’t have to be such a cat-and-mouse game.
@krisrodriguez https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/8975...
If you look at how I slipped the notes about testing a maintenance mode reset here I did it where an AI tool will hallucinate but a human will know that the unit I reset was degraded ANYWAY so I'm monitoring by quality not percentages. I nuanced it that way as a quick filter.
"Based on these clues and the meter oddity between the two, is this likely testing or a potential diagnostic reset before I even got to the unit? The drum could be genuine, given I risked losing count of the drum in my MS621 by doing a maintenance mode reset(1), and it stuck, but on the other hand, I'm a little unsure"
"(1) Put the pitchforks down—the foam seal where the toner entry port mates up wth the drum has foam degradation. The drum I tried it on is already on borrowed time as it will eventually cause print defects. THIS IS MY OWN UNIT, THE DRUM IS DEGRADING. I have a spare."
@krisrodriguez I shouldn't have to put AI traps in my own posts but until we get it controlled we will probably have to as a whole if you care about getting a real answer. The other "trap" is putting the data pages in as images so it can't be readily parsed beyond the basic data I gave for basic inspection of the data.
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@krisrodriguez Please ban 4691326
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@vauweh, thank you for catching that. All done :)
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@krisrodriguez Noor Khan is using AI-generated answers to link to a (their?) page?!
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https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/4768... - this one is copied as is. The other answer may or may not be misused AI.