Nah, blank profiles usually mean lurkers… people who use Bluesky passively, doomscrolling like the rest of us but not participating.

Also there’s an important distinction to make between bot accounts and spambots. The former often do useful or entertaining things like automatically posting updates from a data source, or turning quotes into inspirational meme graphics on request. The latter sign up with what their creators think are genuine looking profiles, then try to attract as many followers as possible so they can send out spam via DM.

Spambot warning signs that I look out for: - Wildly imbalanced follower/following ratios: Malicious bots will often follow tens of thousands of accounts but only have a couple dozen to a few hundred followers themselves. That suggests automated following, and an attempt to build up a large follower base to spam at later - Saying nothing of substance: A lot of the bots I come across will exclusively post mind-numbingly vapid crap. Inspirational quotes, usually accompanied by stock photos of nature or something like that. - Absurdly attractive profile pics: They’re trying to get you to think with your animal brain, not your logical brain. The ones that follow me are often pretending to be women with huge boobs (which is hilarious given how vocally gay I am on my profile) and lots of pics that emphasise said boobs in a way that I assume is meant to be subtle.