this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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The Agora

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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by InEnduringGrowStrong to c/agora
 

English message:

As some of you may have noticed, there's an instance with 1.1M bots reposting reddit posts and comments accross communities in several other instances.  

I expect there are multiple valid opinions on the subject and this thread is meant to get a feeling of everyone's opinion on the situation. 

You might also want to read lemmy.ca's discussion on that here which is a pretty decent thread about the subject.  

Things that I think need to be pointed out:  

  • alien.top currently has 1.1M bots, only 6 of those are weekly users logging in. 
  • together they've made 1.59M comments accross a multitude of communities in other instances.
  • That project claims to be trying to get reddit users to switch to lemmy. 
  • They have a portal to allow reddit users to claim and take over their bot persona. 
  • alien.top has a single local community, the bots all post on different instances with copies of different subreddits.

I don't have an exhaustive list of such communities,  I haven't found an official one.  I'll post a fewfrom my personal blocklist in a comment below. 

And a note on the upcoming 0.19 release: 

  • the new user-level instance block feature will block all the communities of the blocked instances,  but will not block these users' posts or comments if they are done on another instance's community.  

My opinion isn't any more valid then anyone else's so I'll put it in a comment below.

Our users' input is welcomed.

What do you, dear users of sh.itjust.works, think about federation with them?

Thanks


Message français:

Comme certains d'entre vous l'ont peut-être remarqué, il y a une instance peuplée de 1,1M de bots qui copient ees posts et commentaires Reddit dans plein de communautés sur plusieurs autres instances.

Il y a plusieurs opinions sur le sujet et ce fil de discussion vise à prendre le pouls de l'opinion générale sur la situation.

Je vous suggères de lire la discussion chez lemmy.ca à ce sujet ici, discussion intéressante. 

Quelques points qui, selon moi, doivent être soulignés :

  • alien.top compte actuellement 1,1 million de robots, dont seulement 6 sont des utilisateurs hebdomadaires qui se login.
  • collectivement, ils ont déjà fait 1,59 million de commentaires dans une multitude de communautés dans différentes instances.
  • Ce projet proclame essayer de convertir des utilisateurs de Reddit à passer à Lemmy.
  • Il existe un portail pour permettre aux utilisateurs de Reddit de prendre contrôle de leur version bot.
  • alien.top a une seule communauté locale, les bots publient tous sur différentes instances, des copies de différents subreddits.

Je n'ai pas de liste exhaustive de ces communautés, à première vue, je n'en trouve pas une liste officielle.  Je mettrai dans un commentaire ci-dessous quelques communautés que j'ai bloqué au niveau personnel. 

Pour finir,  une note sur la version 0.19 de lemmy qui s'en vient :

  • La nouvelle fonctionnalité pour bloquer une instance au niveau d'un uutilisateur bloquera toutes les communautés d'une instance bloquée, mais ne bloquera pas les publications ou les commentaires de ces utilisateurs s'ils sont publiés dans une communauté d'une autre instance.

Mon opinion n'est pas meilleur qu'une autre et je mettrai plutôt dans un commentaire ci-bas.

Les commentaires de nos utilisateurs sont les bienvenus.

Que pensez-vous, cher utilisateurs de sh.itjust.works de la fédération avec eux?

Merci

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[–] clay_pidgin 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think that's right. The alien.top bots are only posting on their own communities, which you won't see if you block the instance in 0.19 or in your client. (many have had instance blocking for a while - I use Connect for Lemmy.)

[–] imaqtpie 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not exactly. He decided to set up a bunch of other instances like hardware.watch, soccer.forum, and level-up.zone, where he groups the botted communities based on topic. So you'd have to block those instances as well, if I'm not mistaken.

I personally have experienced no issues, because I don't browse /all and I'm not subscribed to any of the fake communities. But the decision to spread it across dozens of servers definitely makes it harder to defend, because it's not exactly trivial to avoid the botted content if you make a habit of browsing /all.

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I'm not even sure I got them all yet and I'm at 176 communities across 16 instances:

https://academy.garden/c/askastronomy
https://academy.garden/c/askscience
https://academy.garden/c/astrophysics
https://academy.garden/c/cosmology
https://academy.garden/c/datasets
https://academy.garden/c/machinelearning
https://blockchained.world/c/bat
https://blockchained.world/c/ethereum
https://blockchained.world/c/ipfs
https://blockchained.world/c/loopring
https://blockchained.world/c/polygon
https://blockchained.world/c/solana
https://blockchained.world/c/storj
https://blockchained.world/c/thegraph
https://communick.news/c/communick_news_network
https://communick.news/c/emacs
https://communick.news/c/fediverser_network
https://communick.news/c/humanscale
https://communick.news/c/lisp
https://communick.news/c/makers
https://communick.news/c/mastodon
https://communick.news/c/meta
https://gearhead.town/c/bikebuilders
https://gearhead.town/c/bmw
https://gearhead.town/c/cars
https://gearhead.town/c/easyriders
https://gearhead.town/c/electricvehicles
https://gearhead.town/c/mazda
https://gearhead.town/c/mechanic_advice
https://gearhead.town/c/mercedes
https://gearhead.town/c/motorcycleporn
https://gearhead.town/c/porsche
https://gearhead.town/c/toyota
https://hardware.watch/c/amd
https://hardware.watch/c/apple
https://hardware.watch/c/buildapc
https://hardware.watch/c/fairphone
https://hardware.watch/c/framework
https://hardware.watch/c/gadgets
https://hardware.watch/c/hardware
https://hardware.watch/c/intel
https://hardware.watch/c/laptops
https://hardware.watch/c/pcmods
https://hardware.watch/c/remarkable
https://hardware.watch/c/samsung
https://hardware.watch/c/steamdeck
https://hardware.watch/c/system76
https://healthy.community/c/fit_meals
https://healthy.community/c/meal_prep_sunday
https://healthy.community/c/paleo
https://healthy.community/c/running
https://level-up.zone/c/3ds
https://level-up.zone/c/atlus
https://level-up.zone/c/civ
https://level-up.zone/c/dota2
https://level-up.zone/c/falcom
https://level-up.zone/c/gaming
https://level-up.zone/c/leagueoflegends
https://level-up.zone/c/linuxgaming
https://level-up.zone/c/minecraft
https://level-up.zone/c/news
https://level-up.zone/c/overwatch
https://level-up.zone/c/rainbow6
https://metacritics.zone/c/90dayfiance
https://metacritics.zone/c/bojackhorseman
https://metacritics.zone/c/books
https://metacritics.zone/c/dailyshow
https://metacritics.zone/c/gakinotsukai
https://metacritics.zone/c/invincible
https://metacritics.zone/c/movies
https://metacritics.zone/c/southpark
https://metacritics.zone/c/tedlasso
https://nba.space/c/blazers
https://nba.space/c/bucks
https://nba.space/c/bulls
https://nba.space/c/cavaliers
https://nba.space/c/celtics
https://nba.space/c/clippers
https://nba.space/c/grizzlies
https://nba.space/c/hawks
https://nba.space/c/heat
https://nba.space/c/hornets
https://nba.space/c/jazz
https://nba.space/c/kings
https://nba.space/c/knicks
https://nba.space/c/lakers
https://nba.space/c/magic
https://nba.space/c/mavericks
https://nba.space/c/nba
https://nba.space/c/nets
https://nba.space/c/nuggets
https://nba.space/c/pacers
https://nba.space/c/pelicans
https://nba.space/c/pistons
https://nba.space/c/raptors
https://nba.space/c/rockets
https://nba.space/c/sixers
https://nba.space/c/spurs
https://nba.space/c/suns
https://nba.space/c/thunder
https://nba.space/c/timberwolves
https://nba.space/c/wizards
https://nfl.community/c/49ers
https://nfl.community/c/bears
https://nfl.community/c/bengals
https://nfl.community/c/bills
https://nfl.community/c/broncos
https://nfl.community/c/browns
https://nfl.community/c/buccaneers
https://nfl.community/c/cardinals
https://nfl.community/c/chargers
https://nfl.community/c/chiefs
https://nfl.community/c/colts
https://nfl.community/c/commanders
https://nfl.community/c/cowboys
https://nfl.community/c/dolphins
https://nfl.community/c/eagles
https://nfl.community/c/falcons
https://nfl.community/c/fantasyfootball
https://nfl.community/c/giants
https://nfl.community/c/jaguars
https://nfl.community/c/jets
https://nfl.community/c/lions
https://nfl.community/c/nfl
https://nfl.community/c/packers
https://nfl.community/c/panthers
https://nfl.community/c/patriots
https://nfl.community/c/raiders
https://nfl.community/c/rams
https://nfl.community/c/ravens
https://nfl.community/c/saints
https://nfl.community/c/seahawks
https://nfl.community/c/steelers
https://nfl.community/c/texans
https://nfl.community/c/titans
https://nfl.community/c/vikings
https://poweruser.forum/c/cubase
https://poweruser.forum/c/hugo
https://poweruser.forum/c/localllama
https://poweruser.forum/c/steamos
https://poweruser.forum/c/techsupport
https://selfhosted.forum/c/datahoarder
https://selfhosted.forum/c/docker
https://selfhosted.forum/c/homeautomation
https://selfhosted.forum/c/homelab
https://selfhosted.forum/c/homenetworking
https://selfhosted.forum/c/main
https://selfhosted.forum/c/meta
https://selfhosted.forum/c/portainer
https://selfhosted.forum/c/pro
https://selfhosted.forum/c/show
https://soccer.forum/c/ajax
https://soccer.forum/c/bundesliga
https://soccer.forum/c/corinthians
https://soccer.forum/c/fcbayern
https://soccer.forum/c/gunners
https://soccer.forum/c/main
https://soccer.forum/c/premierleague
https://soccer.forum/c/seriea
https://soccer.forum/c/talk
https://style.land/c/fragrance
https://style.land/c/makeup
https://style.land/c/makeupaddiction
https://style.land/c/malefashionadvice
https://style.land/c/mechanical_keyboards
https://style.land/c/nike
https://style.land/c/shoes
https://style.land/c/sneakers
https://style.land/c/streetwear
https://style.land/c/vans
https://style.land/c/watches
https://viewfinder.pro/c/itookapicture
https://viewfinder.pro/c/photography
https://viewfinder.pro/c/pixelfed

[–] imaqtpie 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Wow. It's really a misleading system because the average user wouldn't normally recognize that those are all related instances with bot content. If he had at least followed a consistent naming scheme, it'd seem more honest and easier to engage/disengage with.

That being said, I still genuinely believe that his motives are altruistic. He's just trying too hard to force growth when it's better to let it come organically for now.

It's a bit rash to go ahead and create 16 instances. Maybe trying a pilot instance and seeing how people like it first would have gone over better.