Because i've been getting more spam in IM streams and noticed spam here It's been on my brain lately.

How much of it, do you think, is generated by people just looking for a way to make any money they can? How much is through clever bot scripting?

I swear, last night i had a ten minute discussion with what turned out to be a bot before it got to the pitch.

Sadly once the lead-in to the pitch started all conversation branching stopped.

You can tell me any phrase and I can reply with simple things like: "Indeed". "That's interesting", etc ... and you will have the feeling of a real conversation.

That's interesting

Point. Still, it beats the past experiance of sledgehammering right into the pitch.

Not by much, but it's still progress.