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The AIM FishBot Phenomenon
When you were a kid and discovered the joys of call waiting and connecting calls, did you ever prank call two different people by dialing them both, connecting them together, and then simply listening in as they accused each other of calling? Hilarity usually ensued, as either they eventually came to the conclusion that they had been tricked, or one or the other got angry and slammed down their phone…
Today I was the victim of the digital equivalent, something called “Project Upstream;” a (harmless) bot system using AOL Instant Messenger that contacts two random people to engage in a completely random conversation. According to their website they are “an organization dedicated to promoting social ideals through the use of exciting new technology.
Project Upstream’s most well-known service is our swarm of robotic fish, which spontaneously connects AIM users to each other.”
What is a fish bot?
The friendly AIM bots have a countless number of screennames and have been seen as any of: (something)Salmon, (something)Trout, and (something)Coho. The opening message or “icebreaker” from these screennames varies, and the user screennames contacted appear to be gathered from LiveJournal, deviantART, Twitter, Xanga, and Digg. Messages sent may be altered in some way, such as being changed to piratespeak, old English, or changed to rainbow-colored fonts. The feeling you get when you receive that random IM is quite like being RickRoll’d.
Becoming a Victim:
BisexualCoho, (finding out later his name was Vince) was the person I was randomly connected with. I had been receiving these utterly strange messages from him [his bot] for a week now. I finally got tired of it:
Apparently, my screen name was in fact WoolenCoho.
Project Upstream is similar to, and may have taken its idea from, an AIM bot called “TheGreatHatsby.” TheGreatHatsby instigated AIM conversations by retrieving lists of recent LiveJournal posts and getting the AIM screen names of their authors. The bot would send a message such as “I say, old bean, have you seen my hat?” to two AIM screen names using its own screen name and forwarded any messages sent in reply to the other user. Thus anyone who was not aware of the trick would assume that the other person originally sent them the message.
After following links and reading about this it seems that many people are actually upset, even angered, by these lil’ robot fish. I found it hilarious. I assume they got my screenname through Twitter (though my Digg name is the same as well), and figuring out that the other person didn’t contact me was funny. In this age of digital separation, where our computers are our conduit to, and protective screen from, the real world, a little random connectivity is a welcome change. Was it confusing? Of course! But these little opportunities should not be a problem for us, they should be an opportunity to expand our worlds, even if by meeting just one person we would never have met otherwise.
To the people crying about how bad this is; quit your bitching. You can now opt-out of this by sending $optout to any of the fish bots. To Project Upstream; bravo to you for injecting a little chaos into our insular lives. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
You can request your very own Fishbot here.
Or read a journal dedicated to Salmon, Coho and Trout bot victims: The Missing Hat
Related Posts
Just got one that said:
AuspiciousCoho:
Greetings! I know this is hard to believe, but I’m you – from the future. I bear important news.
I got the same thing as you Kyle, from SoldoutCoho
Yeah I just got the “I’m you from the future” message from a ‘HomelessCoho’. Does that mean that I will be homeless in the future?
This was pretty freaky. I recently switched from AIM to a multiclient program and dusted off a YIM account I haven’t used in at least 5 years. Anyway, sure enough I got a weird IM conversation, luckily I googled the name and got here.
Anyway, I think it probably scrapes your LJ, twitter etc. info for a IM name, and forces you into a conversation once you post. The guy I was talking to had just made a twitter entry, and I myself made a LJ entry.
Makes sense, since if you’ve just tweeted or made a LJ entry, you’re obviously at your computer, so this prevents it from IMing an idle screenname, leaving its owner to return hours later to some angry gut.
some angry guy^ I mean
I can see how this can be a great social and psychological cultural experiment. However in my case and perhaps by coincidence (or not) I received a message that went too far. “you know, some guys just can’t hold their arsenic.” Isolated that’s a freaky message from a stranger at 11:50pm. But 2 yeasr ago I was poisened, got into a car accident, lost my pregnancy, and was in a hospital for a month from severe head trauma. Followed later by sharpened sawed off nails pushed into my tires, and someone attempting to start my car on fire (they apperntly didn’t know I was off from work and my employee with the same model parked in my spot- car was savagable bc one of my awesome employees noticed the fire in time..)
There’s a link to get your own/ use your own bot thus i question the innocent nature of this “project.”
Understandably I’m unerved by my ” supposid bot” I’m all for an innocent random mind expanding chat, but please I warn you don’t let down your gaurd. And to think.. This crazy stuff is occuring in the “safest town in America” so it’s been ranked. These bots are easy to hack jack sooo b careful with the info you give out.
[sorry 4 spelling errors iPod spell chk doesn't work very well thru this HTML site, hard to type]
I’ve gotten these before and they always seem to quote hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy! weird… but now me and the person that were pranked are friends on aim and talk regularly funny huh?
lol i just got an IM from one…
AudaciousCoho (12:25:16 PM): New rule: when people use the word “creeper”, I castrate them. Brutally.
TAYLOR OATH (12:25:27 PM): k them have fun with that
AudaciousCoho (12:26:13 PM): are you a robot?
i blocked it and sent it as a spam thing lmao stupid things
This is WAY helpful.
Explains so much.
Thank you.
that totally just happened to me.. poor person i totally treated him like a total creep
I googled the screenname that IMed me instantly, so I was able to find this out immediately because of this post. Thanks!
I totally just got one right now and i just wrote ?
and he was like who is this you message me first…I blocked it and even changed my setting on aim…i didn’t think it was funny because i thought it was some crazy person. and the only reason why i got aim was to keep in touch with my BFF who insisted making one
ok.. so this is how i feel about it… i think that Project Upstream should give some sort of hint that its a random conversation…. when this hit me i was angry as hell… but then, like everyone else on here, i googled the sn and realized it was a game, and i loved it… ended up talking for an hour.. trying to decipher my crazy fish’ language… but if i hadnt known, i woulda been super pissed. as it is, i cant wait to get botted again=)
Hahahaha. I got this today. I spent most of the conversation figuring it out. There are loads more at http://community.livejournal.com/themissinghat/ if anyone is interested.
Thanks for clearing this up!!
AIM IM with CoalescentCoho4/27/09 4:05 PM
sooo
how did you get this?
4:13 PM
how did I get what?
my aim?
if you even know who i am
I got a random text. It said I want to discuss balsa wood with you. RIGHT NOW.
er, not text, IM.
and no, i don’t know who you are.
ok?
then ik someone has my password
lol. possibly. I don’t have any desire to do anything with Balsa wood, lol.
cause i have no clue on who u are either
lol
well, nice to meet you coalescent coho. lol
wtf is balsa wood anyway lol
a soft wood that is usually used to make doll house furniture.
im a wat?
I didn’t say you were anything.
ok?
lol
Ok. I figured it out. Go here: http://nixiepixel.com/blog/index.php/aim-fish-bot-help
that’s HOW we connected. I have your screen name as Coalescent Coho.
Good ole AOL.
maybe thats y i have msn
and I have mac messenger, but if you use the AOL service, the fishbot can bite ya.
im a pc user
lol. My REAL screen name is CulturalEnigma
well my screen name is pyrotvfun
What does it say mine is?
pyrotvfun huh? loll.
odd.
ensigncoho
i burned a tv and i found it fun
if you click that link, it will explain. EnsignCoho??? HAHAHAHAHAH
Beam me up scotty.
huh?
ensign, reminds me of star trek
aaa
but really, that link I sent, ther’es a REALLY funny exchange betwen the writer and the wother person.
all i can say is i use msn aim skype yahoo all the time
more msn though
lol.
just so I know, you’re not under 18 are you?
ik i noticed
do i sound it?
im being sarcastic
since I can’t actually “hear” you. I have a kid 19, and not sure I’d want him chatting with random ppl.
im 18
aaaa
ic
lol. I’m reading this exchange it’s hilarious.
hmmm im thinking youtube
youtube?
thats the only other place where my screen name is public besides facebook
i have a youtube acount
no no no
a bot got us.
oh
did you read that link?
yup
my side says your screenname is Coalescent Coho.
I’ts from “project upstream”
i have no clue on what the word means
lol
have you ever gotten a wierd message from ensign coho before?
nope this is the first
lol. I’ve gotten 10 from your “made up” screenname.
and my other screen name id never had this happen b4
lol. AHHHH TWITTER.
you have twitter?
THATS where my screenname got “got”
yep.
same here
same real screenname, culturalenigma
what’s yours?
pyrotvfun
there.
e-mail
I followed you.
i have windows live mail thats where it sends my stuff to
odd
how long have you had ur twitter?
can i add ur name on the list of joy?
quite a while, why?
list of joy????
buddy list
ah HAHAAHAH yes. Real name as I said, culturalenigma
Haha. Today I got a message from AlternativeCoho. My away message is a pic of me in a mini skirt, and my away was talking about how short my shorts were. First thing Coho says? You aren’t a female. Lmao! I thought I tucked my nuts really well! LOL jk. Maybe they should come up with better conversation starters, cuz I almost cursed out a complete stranger. And the last time I got a message (from ImpactedCoho) it asked me about the scent of my vagina. LOL WTF?!
This is so funny! I was so confused.
I seriously can’t stop laughing about this, what a funny idea. Mine came from illiteratecoho
sadly the the prank was no fun at all… this is all that the person had to say:
“Do you want to have sex?”
“Will you let me suck your dick?”
does this tell us the sad state of our society?
I just got a convo started “Let’s adopt IPv6 together!”
Made for… not much of a convo
I just got one this morning like 5 minutes ago and googled the screen name and here I am…boy its amazing what you can google…OMG
ConflictingCoho (9:54:14 AM): You seem to be leaking coolant at an alarming rate.
Kassie me (9:54:23 AM): wtf?!
Kassie me (10:02:07 AM): I just bought my car
ConflictingCoho (10:03:01 AM): Queer
Kassie me (10:03:24 AM): Let me tell you something, I am in no way a Queer, I like dick too much.
ConflictingCoho (10:03:53 AM): Ur a robot
Kassie me (10:03:47 AM): Thankuverymuch….how the hell you gone randomly IM me and call me a queer
ConflictingCoho (10:04:13 AM): Cuz ur not realm
Kassie me (10:04:07 AM): And accuse me of being a robot? The guilt must lie with you
Wow glad I found this page. Thanks for the info. I have so far been contacted by 2 COHO’s. And I must say they’re opening line is the most random. And when I IM them back it’s like I’m the crazy one.. I encountered OldSchoolCoho & BorkedCoho.
Lol, when I first received a fishbot IM, I thought it was a virus. This is a new computer, so I thought the other IMer had it. the other was pretty rude, so I got kinda impatient xD It was so great, I saved the convo~
Hi ta ki 318 (12:17:50 PM): Okay, I just read about the fishbot thing, alright? Apparently it’s just a prank kind of thing. It’s harmless.
ProtestingCoho (12:18:26 PM): omgg
ProtestingCoho (12:18:32 PM): u got iissues
ProtestingCoho (12:18:36 PM): ok
Hi ta ki 318 (12:18:36 PM): Oh really?
ProtestingCoho (12:18:42 PM): omg
Hi ta ki 318 (12:18:47 PM): I could say the same thing; all you’re doing is panicking and saying ‘wtf omg’
ProtestingCoho (12:19:37 PM): you’ve juzt waisted 5 whole minutes of my life .. r u happy ???
Hi ta ki 318 (12:19:44 PM): Oh, no! Five minutes! D:
Hi ta ki 318 (12:19:58 PM): You’re not going to die in an hour, lighten up.
Thanks for the info, I opted out.
OMG! it was the weirdest shit ever,
my dude asked this
“Zombies Attack! they’re attacking from everywhere! you only get one weapon! what do you chose?”
mine was slowmovingcoho.
and it was so weird.
i would send my convo but
it was on aim form my phone
These aren’t exactly harmless.
Whoever had my phone number previously had apparently set up AIM SMS forwarding. I have been getting SMS messages from various cohos for the last few months, sometimes in the middle of the night, getting whacked for $0.20 each time.
I was about to cancel SMS service on my line to stop it, which I didn’t want to do because while I almost never use SMS I do have friends and family who send messages sometimes.
Before I subjected myself to the joys of cell phone carrier customer service to block SMS I decided I’d google around a bit. After an hour or so I’d figured it out and how to stop it (I hope).
If anyone else is stuck getting these things on your phone you can text a blank message to 265022 to disable IM forwarding. At least I hope that will do the trick, AOL’s IM Forwarding faq says it should.
All in all I’m out a couple of bucks in fees, a couple of middle-of-the-night wakeups for me and my wife and an hour or so of my time to figure out how to stop it for something I never signed up for in any way (I haven’t used AIM in over 6 years!).
I am not amused.
Feel free to spam them back by emailing them at projectupstream@gmail.com
Thanks for the info.. I was wondering what that was (and why I was being asked about a magnifying glass)
Thank goodness you included the opt out instructions. I was getting annoyed at having those interrupt me when I’m trying to get work done.
I was confused at first. This is neat.
You know, though, I got it in YIM… not AIM… thats weird.
I got a message from EchoingCoho saying, “Catholics are fine eatin’.” And when I replied with “?” that person got a message from FlossedCoho (me?) about suicide prevention. And I got this in iChat but I guess it doesn’t matter.
This thing is awesome, once I googled it and figured out on here what it was!
thank you so much x i was scared my pw was compromised x
HighLevelCoho told me my mom gave him the swine flu… wth! Lol
Mine was a cry for help from a suicidal person….
I agree that the project is kind of cool, but should probably have some better introductions. Today, I got “Hey, I know this is weird, but I don’t know who else to turn to. I’m thinking about. . .you know. . .ending it all. Can we talk?” –Not exactly the light-hearted conversation starter, is it?
As soon as I was IM’d by a “PastebinnedCoho,” I google’d it and found this site. Thanks to whoever took the time to explain it all!
Surprise aside, it actually turned out to be very interesting: We both had the same first name and were a year apart – though on opposite sides of the country. Plus, we both spoke in full sentences. Good first experience.
Do you know this person? Report IM Spam
ControlledCoho: Let’s adopt IPv6 together!
dramatic x star: ?
ControlledCoho: exactly…
dramatic x star: Who is this?
ControlledCoho: you messaged me 1st, so you tell me, you sent me some Fun fact thing…
dramatic x star: i did? i dont talk to any one on here.. so i dont think that was me.
ControlledCoho: well, it was sent to my phone and I just replied to it… sorry for any confusion…
dramatic x star: really strange.. what was it?
ControlledCoho: this is what I got… RE: SolderedCoho: Fun fact: most straight men would rather be lesbians.(You can reply to this message)
dramatic x star: pretty funny, but i never wrote that lol
ControlledCoho: that’s why I wrote back ummm…. ok….?
dramatic x star: lol you see, i saw ; ControlledCoho: Let’s adopt IPv6 together!
ControlledCoho: works for me…
dramatic x star: random
ControlledCoho: very much so… just got it, looked @ my phone and said who the… what the…?
dramatic x star: Well, guess its your lucky day then!
ControlledCoho: if it was then Drag Me To Hell would’ve been a good movie…
dramatic x star: Not my scene!
ControlledCoho: shouldn’t be anybody’s…
dramatic x star:
Today I was the victim of the digital equivalent, something called “Project Upstream;” a (harmless) bot system using AOL Instant Messenger that contacts two random people to engage in a completely random conversation. According to their website they are “an organization dedicated to promoting social ideals through the use of exciting new technology.
Project Upstream’s most well-known service is our swarm of robotic fish, which spontaneously connects AIM users to each other.”
dramatic x star: Thats what just happened to us
ControlledCoho: and the randomness has gone to a terrrible movie…
dramatic x star: Lol. Im reading up on these bots. what does it show my SN as?
ControlledCoho: SolderedCoho
dramatic x star: it shows yours as controlledcoho
dramatic x star: http://nixiepixel.com/blog/index.php/aim-fish-bot-help
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
am i the only one to find this HILARIOUS?!
That’s crazy. I’ve been getting these damn things for about a year now. I never knew who they were from or searched for the usernames. Then I randomly run across this post while checking out your site. Now all is clear. Got to love the interwebs.
i was wondering who sent me that message. i got a message from “prudentCoho” asking me “Do you fear death” …that’s a weird way to start up a conversation i thought
I edited my screen name and just put “mari”. This just happened. Thanks for your post.
>>>>
JoyfulCoho (4:24:08 AM): Im not a bot
Mari (4:24:21 AM): $optout
JoyfulCoho (4:24:21 AM): OPERATOR: Are you sure you want to opt-out? If you do, you will *never* be contacted again on the account “mari”. There is *no way* to opt back in and undo this.
If you are sure, type “$optout 817D”. Remember, this is permanent and irreversible!
Mari (4:24:55 AM): goodbye
Mari (4:24:59 AM): $optout 817D
JoyfulCoho (4:25:00 AM): OPERATOR: You have opted out. The accout “mari” will *never* be contacted again. Good bye!
Got this twice. The second, I made a friend. So those fishbotty’s do some good.
I got fooled by this project once too! It’s pretty crazy. I also just got one just a second ago pretending to be Billy Mays.
haha. My conversation starter to the other party was “Hey, I know this is weird, but I don’t know who else to turn to. I’m thinking about. . .you know. . .ending it all. Can we talk?”
and the one i received was
RipenedCoho: “Zombies attack! They’re attacking from everywhere! You only get one weapon! What do you chose?”
confused and irritated, i replied “your ugly face to scare them away” lol. Eventually we both caught on and he shared this site with me as a form of proof he wasn’t some annoying kid. haha. What a concept!
So, its apparently not just on AIM anymore. Got one on yahoo.
“That message you sent me is uncalled for. My brother killing himself had nothing to do with my mother’s terrible parenting.”
This happened to me today
It would have been fun except when I asked who they were
they threatened to tell the cops and I was like “WTF??”
I’m happy to know what this was now ^-^
thanks for putting this on.
that’s funny, mine kept telling me how my brother supposedly IMd him about suiciding. cause another person supposedly got an IM from another Coho…i was freaking out, but I’m just confuzzled now
I just had an interesting experience with a FishBot. It’s going to take me a little while to verify it (and understandably, she was squeamish about giving out her info), but I’m reasonably sure that a FishBot connected Demi Lovato (Camp Rock/toured with the Jonas Brothers, I think? Yeah, her. I actually had to Google her, because the name was familiar but not that familiar.) and I earlier. Nice enough girl. If you read this, Demi, or person doing an OK job of impersonating Demi (I gave her the URL of this article), use the opt-out instructions for the bot, and don’t be a stranger! =)
OMG you are the best for bringing that to the light
Reminds me of the good ole days when aim was still version 1 and version 2, and I was running the admin hack wreaking some proper havoc on the innocent.