[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.

CaptainFlintlockFinn,

I’ve already blocked it. Maybe a PSA explaining how to do that?

whoisearth,

Option 4. Ask the Lemmy developers to provide mandatory flagging on bots so users can know who made the bot and why so they can make an educated decision and also enable them to then ban it on an individual basis if required.

If the bot is doing things to impact performance, or break Canadian law than the lemmy.ca instance gets the last call.

SirAramis,

I think the bot account is already flagged as one, and going to its profile shows you it has been made to crosspost from Reddit. I guess it makes sense to ban it at a per-user level because some users might like to see content cross posted from there.

whoisearth,

There should be governance around bot creation given the impact they can have. You shouldn’t stop their creation but they should have clear ownership to a user otherwise what’s stopping someone making a CP bot and running it out of North Korea or some shit?

We are all in on an experiment right now. Rules need to exist and they need to be enforced.

jadero,

I think that the active participation of members is how we get strong communities. One way to be an active participant is to take responsibility for what you want to see. If you don’t like the bot, block it.

This is analogous to walking out of a movie you dislike rather than calling for it to be banned.

As far as I can tell, it’s not breaking any terms of service or policy. That doesn’t mean that terms of service and policy can’t be modified, but that should be done only to address general principles, not specific cases. (Although it may be that a specific case makes obvious the need for change.)

thayer,

As others have said, de-federation should really be the last resort for the most egregious of actions. The bot serves a well-intended purpose, even if it’s something I would never use.

What if the bot was hosted at .ml or .world? Would de-federation even be on the table?

My vote would be to leave it up to the users for now, though I don’t fully understand what, if any, performance impact the bot account might have on other instances. Is traffic from that instance excessive? If performance was a factor, then at most I would vote to ban the bot account until the platform has more options to manage such things.

Chathtiu, (edited )

I’m from lemmy.world. What is this bot you’re talking about? I haven’t had the misfortune of running into it. What makes it spam?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your helpful answers! Based on the responses below, I believe you should definitely defederate.

TruckBC,

@bot, it posts links to Reddit posts in corresponding communities on lemmit.online. 99% of it’s posts get no engagement.

Unless you’re browning all instances sorted by new, you would never notice it’s activity.

Chathtiu,

Thank you. That sounds highly annoying.

Xanvial,

It usually only show up in New Because no one upvoting it

Chathtiu,

Thank you!

Spectator,
@Spectator@lemmy.world avatar

You don’t see anything from the bot because lemmy.world already defederated from lemmit.online.

Chathtiu,

Talk about unexpected privileges. Thanks for your answer.

SlovenianSocket,
@SlovenianSocket@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m of the opinion that any account or instance that is dedicated to reposting Reddit content is spam.

SirAramis,

Here’s a link to their FAQ in case anyone is interested

Bo7a,

Defed for sure. If it provided a valuable service, some communities would have made it an official bot by now and I don’t see that happening anywhere.

johnefrancis,

option 3 is my choice

kuoushi,

My vote is to let users decide whether to block the bot or not.

ono, (edited )

I wondered if there were many people on lemmit.online whose valuable contributions to the community would be cut off if we defederated, so I went over there and found this instance description:

A Reddit to Lemmy crossposting instance.

In other words, the whole place is a reddit copypasta bot. So banning the bot would be effectively the same as defederating from the instance, wouldn’t it?

I prefer the way posts here feel more curated than on reddit, so to me, that bot is mostly just generating noise. But I can understand that some people who rely on social media for news and such might be more likely to spend time here if they can get all the posts in one place. So I’m voting to leave it up to the users. Blocking a single bot for myself is easy.

If it was putting problematic load on the server, though, I think I would consider it spam and vote to defederate.

Xeelee,
@Xeelee@kbin.social avatar

Agreed. I need a Reddit repost bot like I need a hole in the head. Which means I really don't need it, in case anyone is wondering.

Kushia,
@Kushia@lemmy.ml avatar

I was browsing though that instance and realized I haven’t seen a blatenly fake and terrible post in weeks when I came across one that was titled along the lines of “I love the smell of my vagnina after my boyfriend cums in me”.

Holy crap the posting quality on Reddit nose dived over the years and I didn’t notice.

Kushia,
@Kushia@lemmy.ml avatar

On the plus side they’re quite open and honest about what exactly they’re doing. Its just up to people to decide if they want it or not.

GreatBlueHeron,

I agree that defederating and banning the bot are effectively the same. Defederating seems a bit cleaner to me, so that’s what I voted for.

If people really want the content they can still go directly to the instance and get it. I know that seems to go against the grain of the fediverse and I’m still struggling with that.

jacous,

I vote block the account.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

I vote to ban the bot.

Vex_Detrause,

I think option 3.

Arghblarg,
@Arghblarg@lemmy.ca avatar

I had already commented on this post few days ago with my concerns about this bot. I feel it hinders the proper movement of users from rexxit by artificially keeping activity and attention tethered to the old site, discouraging the creation of (and participation in) new communities here.

I vote we de-federate from it and ignore it as much as possible.

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