[Lemmy.ca Discussion] What should we do about Lemmit.online

@bot has been subject to multiple reports from our users over the last while.

We would like the users’ input on how to deal with it. It is the opinion of the administrators that @bot, and @lemmit.online doesn’t add anything positive and constitutes spam. We especially want to make sure we get feedback as we are more likely to be sensitive to bots like this and other forms of spam compared to most users as we’ll often scroll through “All” sorted by new.

Here are the options.

  • Defederate from Lemmit.Online
  • Ban @bot from lemmy.ca
  • leave it up to users to block @bot

Please vote by up voting on one of the comments below. Downvotes will be ignored. Additional comments and discussion is more than welcome. Results of this discussion will provide us guidance on how to deal with other bots in the future as well.

If you’re not a lemmy.ca registered user, please refrain from voting but feel free to comment with your opinion.

Vampiric_Luma, (edited )
@Vampiric_Luma@lemmy.ca avatar

I vote to defederate.

I don’t want to see spam and that is in great part why I validated my email and joined this instance. The great thing about being on Lemmy is I can go to another instance to view that content if I want to see it. I like having a variety of instances with different moderation levels.

The way I see it, the user is still in control. I’m on other instances; I’ll still see the content if I want. Here, I want moderation curated towards user engagement. I left Reddit to avoid low-quality bot posts and I preferably don’t want to think about bots all the time. It’s exhausting and I don’t want to play whack-a-mole. What I want to see are the things people are interested in straight from the users. I don’t need doomscrolling reddit feeds sourced by bots again.

Edit for clarity, I hope!

n7gifmdn,
@n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca avatar

Have you considedred turning off SHOW BOT ACCOUNTS by default?

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/4533b1fe-f0a8-4ef0-8dfa-7212495044bf.png <a href=""></a> <a href=""></a>

Bo7a,

I don’t think losing access to all the helpful bots is the right solution. Go take a look at the lemmit instance description. They have no users, just the repost bot. Defederation is not going to hurt anyone.

zesty,
@zesty@lemmy.ca avatar

Let’s not turn into Beehaw with the de-federating from everything until there is no content left.

TheWaterGod,
@TheWaterGod@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m in favour of defedding. It’s just Reddit spam that’s not needed here. If people find interesting things over on Reddit that also belong here, that’s one thing, but there’s no reason to make a 1:1 copy. Let Lemmy be Lemmy and let Reddit be Reddit. They don’t have to be the same thing.

Has anyone noticed @linkbot as well? Is it doing the same thing?

Gestrid,

Just glancing through it, it looks like it. I’d defederate from that instance, too. It seems to just be cloning certain popular Reddit subreddits and auto-postink their posts to lemmy.link.

TruckBC, (edited )
  • option 3: Ban @bot from lemmy.ca
ProvokedGamer,
@ProvokedGamer@lemmy.ca avatar

Sorry if this was already answered, but what’s the difference between defederating and banning?

Moonviola,

Defederating would block the entire lemmit.online instance, including all their communities and users. Banning the bot would only block the one user account. According to their FAQs though there is currently only the one user so it would have the same effect, but they might make other user bots in the future.

ProvokedGamer,
@ProvokedGamer@lemmy.ca avatar

Ah ok. Thanks!

n7gifmdn,
@n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca avatar

definite preference is 3. If you leave it to individual users you likely will have to continue dealing with reports, but I don’t think instance bans are very friendly and would only recommend in cases where traffic to/from the instance is causing resource issues on your server.

Gestrid, (edited )

Seems they’re already offline? I tried going directly to the site only to get a 502 Bad Gateway Error on a Cloudflare error screen.

In any case, if it’s literally just bot spam, definitely defederate from it.

canis_majoris,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

I don’t get how it’s a big debate when the guy’s FAQ functionally boils down to saying “yeah this is spam and defederate if you don’t like it” almost as if it’s a challenge.

As much as I miss content in abundance to mindlessly doomscroll that was functionally why I left reddit.

Jesse,

I vote either defederate or ban. Even if it is “technically legal” by the current rules, it goes completely against the spirit and intent of this place, and rules can and should be changed over time to preserve that. Bot/AI generated posts are exactly what we DON’T want this place to turn into, and it will take active effort to avoid that.

TruckBC, (edited )
  • option 2: leave it up to users to block @bot
AceTKen,
@AceTKen@lemmy.ca avatar

Letting users block for themselves was my choice. Lemmy is very customizable and the fewer decisions I have made for me, the better off I feel I am.

For some users, this bot may help ease the transition from Reddit. If you don’t like it, it’s quite simple to block.

jnj,

Yeah, no offense to the admins who I’m sure are just trying to do their users right, but stuff like this is making me see the value of running my own instance, or at perhaps finding a more hands-off one. It’s weird to me that instance admins (or popular votes) make the decisions about what content I get to have access to.

mintiefresh,

This is my choice. I’d prefer defederating is more of a last resort. And we can choose for ourselves what to do.

lokyst,

Since this is one “bad” actor and not the case that the entire instance is composed of bad actors, I would prefer banning or blocking over defederating.

Since the intention of the bot seems to be non-malicious, and since the individual has the means, I think it should be left to the individual to decide to block.

charles,

It’s literally the only user of that instance and the admins of that instance have stated it would remain that way.

thunderstruck,

I don’t see a lot of people voicing this opinion so I’ll share this:

I like lemmit. It adds value to me as I can keep up with some very small communities on Reddit that I care about a lot, while spending all of my time on lemmy. If it didn’t exist, I’d have to keep visiting Reddit for some communities, and that would make me sad. Yes, I hope I can abandon Reddit completely some day, but lemmit is a great way for certain things to transition across the gap that still exists.

Bleach7297,
@Bleach7297@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ll block it, you don’t need to protect me. In fact, I would rather you not – as long as the tools I have are adequate to the task.

FarceMultiplier,
@FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca avatar

Defederation is too drastic.

Would it be possible instead for either communities to whitelist the bot if the wanted the content, or to speak with the developers for them to include a purposeful subscription to it rather than shotgun posting?

naneek, (edited )

The bot is not posting to communities on lemmy.ca. It’s posting to lemmit.online. If any user on lemmy.ca subscribes to a community from lemmit.online, the bot’s posts will start to show up on the “all” homepage.

I’ve already blocked this bot on my account because i use the all page to find new communities. Before that bot was blocked, all I would see were the posts it made.

I agree with other users in this comment section that the admins should be as hands off as possible and leave it up to the users.

Grimpen,

An opt out block list would be great for this. New users don’t get inundated with one way bot generated content, but if you want to monitor a verbose bot you can. Sort of an opt in.

Actually now that I say that, just set up a community, and have the bit post to the community. Subscribe to the community to get the bot’s posts, don’t to not see them.

Hang on, but that community would still show up in the “All” feed wouldn’t it. Hmmm. Okay, I see the dilemma.

Gellis12,

There are no other users on lemmit.online, and the bot didn’t post to any communities outside of lemmit.online. Defederating and banning the bot are functionally identical.

zephyreks,

Ban spam.

avidamoeba,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

We really need a poll function in Lemmy. 🤭

mp3,
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

With the ability to limit the poll to users of a specific instance and/or subscribers from a community (that were subscribed prior to the poll’s creation).

avidamoeba,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

I like the prior subscription filter.

mp3, (edited )
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

That way it greatly reduces the amount of users trying to brigade a vote. Can’t do much against sleeper/inactive accounts subscribed just for that purpose, but that at least require some planning.

Woofcat,

It seems odd to me that these are often discussed at a “server wide” level. If a community doesn’t like the posts they can ban the user no? Shouldn’t the Administrators try to focus on running the site and gross rule violating content and not be involved in random bots?

Shadow,
@Shadow@lemmy.ca avatar

The problem is that it can fill up the new feed for new users, so they end up seeing a ton of posts with no interaction on them.

I personally don’t feel mass cloning of content from reddit over to lemmy, is going to help build a community. This isn’t stumbleupon.

avidamoeba,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

While that may be true, the New sort is doomed already since it’s filled with shitposts from Lemmy itself. If this bot disappears it’ll be just beans.

Does it post anything to lemmy.ca?

Shadow,
@Shadow@lemmy.ca avatar

Nope, I believe it’s confined to communities on that instance.

Bo7a,

That server has no users. Just the bot. So in tyhis case banning the server is effectively banning a single user. But also saves on resources when the lemmy.ca server doesn’t need to fetch the posts that are blocked by a large percentage of the local users.

ryanpdg1,

After reading their FAQ I think we should defederate.

Here’s a snippet

Q: This is spam, can you stop?

A: First of all, I apologise for the inconvenience. All you have to do is block @bot, and none of its posts will ever show up on your instance. If you you don’t want anyone else on your server to be exposed to this bot/instance, you should convince your admin to defederate from lemmit.online. Since there are no other users on here, there will be no harm done.

No users to offend

Lucz1848,
@Lucz1848@lemmy.ca avatar

I was leaning towards letting the individual user decide, but now vote to either defederate, or ban the bot.

I’m of the mind that this is where I go insteadof reddit. If there’s going to be overlap between what gets posted over there, and on lemmy, I’d rather it gets posted by a person who wants to engage, and is invested in the post.

Additionally, I am not in favor of any bot that can potentially make me engage with reddit in any way.

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