submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [M] to c/agora@sh.itjust.works
 

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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[–] [S] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

It will be in 0.19, but it will only block communities on that instance, not their users.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    The bots only post in their own communities, and not just random ones, no? It doesn't really seem like an issue if so. Block those instances, and then you won't interact with them at all?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.)

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 years 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

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years 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.

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  • Yes, with a caveat.
    The bots are on alien.top.
    The communities are spread out in multiple instances, which do seem dedicated to that purpose.
    0.19 would allow blocking of these instances as they come up, if you stay on top of it.

    The author conveniently sells a hosting service for such instances, so I guess that's how they plan to monetize this.
    Money aside, I'm not sure how I feel about that much centralization in the fediverse if that ever was to take off.
    Im probably biased, but so far their comments I've seen make me think of spez2.0

    Legally speaking, it's also a hornet's n'est.

    I think they paused it because several instances backlash, I guess we'll see.

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