• UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
    0·
    2 months ago

    We use manual approval for programming.dev accounts where there is a very simple instruction you must follow to be approved. The amount of spam that fails that test makes me concerned about the amount of bots from instances without any barriers for account creation.

    What happens on reddit (in regards to spam) will inevitably finds its way to ActivityPub link aggregators like lemmy.

    • Danterious@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      2 months ago

      Honestly I already believe that this has happened.

      My reason for thinking this is because of this:

      The spike that happened on October 2023 after the initial spike that happened due to the Reddit protests seems unnatural to me.

      Someone gave the explanation of the release of the mobile clients but even then I wouldn’t think it would lead to a spike equivalent to the initial one since it would mostly just be people using an account they already had instead of creating a new one.

      Like honestly if someone knows what event happened then that made so many new users join I’d appreciate it.

    • sparr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I am sad that the current generation of federated social media/networks still doesn’t have much, if any, implementation of web of trust functionality. I believe that’s the only solution to bots/AI/etc content in the future. Show me content from people/accounts/profiles I trust, and accounts they trust, etc. When I see spam or scams or other misbehavior, show me the trust chain connecting me to it so I can sever it at the appropriate level instead of having to block individual accounts. (e.g. “sorry mom, you’ve trusted too many political frauds, I’m going to stop trusting people you trust”)

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          0·
          2 months ago

          This concept reminds me of a certain browser extension that marks trans allies and transphobic accounts/websites using a user aggregate with thresholds that mark transphobes as red and trans allies as green.

      • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 months ago

        Yes! Web of trust is the only way. Everything else can be scammed. I am kinda wondering if it could be invites and if severing could be automated for social media. “We just banned a third person who came in on your invitations. Goodbye.”

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
        0·
        2 months ago

        I guess the question is how specifically you implement such a system, in this case for software like Lemmy. Should instances have a trust level with each other? Should you set a trust when you subscribe to a community? I’m not sure how you can make a solution that will be simple for users to use (and it needs to be simple for users, we can’t only have tech people on Lemmy).

        • sparr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          For the simplest users, my initial idea is just a binary “do you trust them?” for each person (aka “friends”) and non-person (aka “follow”), and maybe one global binary of “do you trust who they trust?” that defaults to yes. anything more complex than that can be optional.

          • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
            0·
            2 months ago

            But how does this work when you follow communities? Do you need to trust every single poster in a community?

            • sparr@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              2 months ago

              You’d see posts in a community/group/etc based on your trust of the community, unless you’ve explicitly de-trusted the poster or you trust someone who de-trusts them (and you haven’t broken that chain).

      • Blaze@reddthat.com
        0·
        2 months ago

        Definitely something that will emerge in the future once we’ll inevitable get bots here too

  • kevincox@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    I more and more think that the only way to manage online community is via invites. There are major downsides (difficulty of bootstrapping and reduced anonymity) but it gives a way to combat this. If a significant number of the users you have invited are bots you get your invite privileges revoked (or you get banned). It creates a chain of accountability and you can ban as high as necessary to severe the corrupted branch.

    • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      0·
      2 months ago

      This feels like implementing a certificate authority system for individual users I wonder if it is feasible to use of a web of trust that is less cumbersome and more resilient than the original GnuPG WoT, that could do the same thing. Instead of hierarchical introductions you have trusted users vouch for you not being a bot (one could even think about extending this to general rule abidance, turning it into a full on reputation system). It would feel pretty bad to loose an account, just because whoever invited you later also invited a bunch of bots/untrustworthy users

  • kameecoding@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    shit like this was happening before the exodus, you’d go into one thread then the other where it’s crossposted, and it’s the same comment, but with some dot, commas in weird places and it’s a reply to another comment and doesn’t really makes sense.

    oh and youtube comments are full of nonsensical AI convos that like recommend financial advisors, or coins to invest in, like bruh

  • Turious@leaf.danceEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Been happening a lot longer than you imagine. I stopped using Reddit when the third party apps got shut down. At least the last year of my time there was calling out repost bot accounts. Threads like that on smaller subs with week moderation were really common.

    Even on some better moderated subs, they got through.

    Reddit died for me a long time ago.

    • GrindingGears@lemmy.ca
      0·
      2 months ago

      I’ve been using reddit a bit the past couple weeks, it’s getting pretty dry in the fediverse, especially for local content. I got permabanned from our local Reddit communities thread over literally pretty much nothing about a year and a half ago, basically questioning a power mods opinion on something, and then after getting temp banned, asked what the heck like if you aren’t agreeing with me just respond with something, and then I got permabanned.

      Anyways I wrote them a kind note today asking to be unbanned, as it is a pretty big sub (343k users for a city of 1.5M), and a good source of information. Told them like look, I’m pretty boring and I can behave, like could you prevent me from having to create a new alt account and let’s let bygones be bygones?

      The response I got was really condescending, they banned me from mod mail, and basically it was just a really weird response. All they had to say was no, thanks, and I would have moved on with my day. I think some of the mods are suffering from some pretty serious mental health issues these days, if not a god complex in the slightest. Reddit is a really really unhealthy place, and thankfully those people reminded me of that. I quickly deleted the app from my phone, and I think I’m done for good this time. The fediverse may be drying up a bit, but at least most of the people on it can behave like adults.

        • GrindingGears@lemmy.ca
          0·
          2 months ago

          Yeah it was a momentary lack of judgement. I’m actually a bit embarrassed for myself that I wasted a few minutes of my day kindly asking people I already know are unreasonable weirdos to not be unreasonable weirdos for a moment. I had a laugh to myself about it last night afterwards, and now onwards we go!

        • BilboBargains@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 months ago

          That’s one of the few remaining options on Reddit. I heard from Holiday Fart Cruise that Facebook doesn’t permit alt accounts to exist for long.

          These platforms have their uses for local information, as a lurker, but interacting with them gets shittier by the day.

      • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 months ago

        Idk if it’s drying up just because it’s slower with responses. I think we’re just used to the reddit shitbots constantly responding to us on reddit. The slower pace is better because here, there’s actually people responding, not bots.

      • Blaze@reddthat.com
        0·
        2 months ago

        (343k users for a city of 1.5M),

        You can maybe try to create a community here? If a lot of people are on Reddit, you might get some on Lemmy as well

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Willing to bet there was an original that was functionally repurposed for duplication and bot farming. Who knows how many of these identical threads are floating around in other channels?

    • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      The 10 month ago one (on the right) looks like the original, it was a much more upvoted thread and has much less suspicious usernames

        • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
          0·
          2 months ago

          Same! The old one is on the left for me, how is that possible?

          Edit: Nevermind the poster just updated the post lmao

          • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            Yeah, this is still what I see

            probably some syncing issues because the post was from a different instance, if I click on the little fediverse button to view it from lemmy.blahaj.zone it shows them in the other order

    • Unyieldingly@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 months ago

      Yep Ukraine has taken out 100,000’s of bot farms, and all world powers have huge bot farms, ran by the Gov or trolls or both.