[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.

johnefrancis,

option 3 is my choice

kuoushi,

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

jacous,

I vote block the account.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

I vote to ban the bot.

Seigest,
@Seigest@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve brought up the ethics of it elsewhere. Many of us are pissed reddit undeleted our content. Regardless of legality i belive we have a right to remove our content as we see fit. This bot is copying that content from reddit without consent of those who made it wich is just as bad. again though legal, it is still a dick move. If a reddit user had their content copied here and wanted to remove it we are demanding they build an account to do so, this is not a postive way to gain users. We came to lemmy because reddit was too unethical, need to maintain higher standard of ethicacy.

I’m voting to defederate.

jnj,

I do not think it’s fair to assume that everyone came to lemmy for the same reasons as you. I for one came because I didn’t like the decisions they were making, not because I had any strong feelings about the ethics of those decisions.

Seigest,
@Seigest@lemmy.ca avatar

My bad, You are right I should not have assumed that.

Knightfall,
@Knightfall@lemmy.ca avatar

Did lemmy.ca already defederate? I clicked the link to the link to block the bot it but it shows nothing there. Yet if I sign out, I can see it.

Shadow,
@Shadow@lemmy.ca avatar

Nope, that’s probably just lemmy being buggy.

If you scroll to the bottom of the page and click instances, you can search on that page for it

Knightfall,
@Knightfall@lemmy.ca avatar

Thanks. I tried again today on my desktop this time and managed to figure it out.

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.

Vex_Detrause,

I think option 3.

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.

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.

catastrophicblues,

I haven’t noticed it yet, but if you feel it’s a big enough problem, I’d say block the account for now. Defederating feels like a more serious punishment that I’d reserve for multiple bad actors.

techt,

My take from an outside perspective: banning the one account seems like the sensible approach toward the goal of sending a stern message to the creator and establishing an early precedent – one account is bad enough, imagine more. I think defederating should only be used if the creator doesn’t take the hint and creates another account.

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

I like to browse All as well and haven’t noticed that bot. If the issue is just with a single account, I think defederation seems unnecessary. Could you provide more information on the benefit for defederation versus banning the bot on Lemmy.ca? And I’m one of those people who prefer pledging defederation of Threads, so I support such a move depending on the situation.

EDIT: Correction, I checked my block list and that user account is in there. 😂

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.

Lexam,

I am pretty sure I have blocked it multiple times. It is utter spam.

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