@[email protected] 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 @[email protected], 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 @[email protected] from lemmy.ca
- leave it up to users to block @[email protected]
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.
Ban the bot.
Automated reposts that don’t get any interaction in the comments are just spam.
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.
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.
My bad, You are right I should not have assumed that.
My vote is to let users decide whether to block the bot or not.
I just noticed you added comments for voting.
Unfortunately that doesn’t work too well because the comments aren’t sticked and some options become less visible.
I think a straw poll would have been the better choice, despite you being unable to track votes from only our instance.
- option 1: Defederate from Lemmit.Online
Option 2 is cool in regards to letting users decide… Option 3 is my second choice that said.
That said I ultimately agree with option 1. An instance dedicated to just regurgitating content from another user-generated site is just not a good thing. There is 0 value to those posts on Lemmy, instance wide imo.
There is 0 way to interact with the posts in a meaningful way and they just fill up ‘new’ with crap from somewhere else.
I don’t like the nuclear option of defederation, but I really just see that instance as a hindrence to the existence and natural growth on Lemmy.
I already actively scroll past the obvious reddit reports, and that’s all that instance brings to the table. I’m usually hesitant about defederating but in this case it seems to be the best choice if we don’t want this content around, and they even encourage it if that’s how we feel.
Defederate all the way
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.
Reading the FAQ I have changed my mind to defederate.
Yeah after reading their instance sidebar, I’m changing my vote to option 1.
I agree with option 1. Lemmy is not Reddit and it should not be a Reddit copycat. These types of bots have no place in Lemmy and we need to deferate with instances that promote these kind of bots.
I originally felt that option 2 would be the best since it would give us the most freedom and power.
However there is another important perspective. If there was a spammer in a community, then a solution isn’t just to “not look”, since it negatively affects other members of the community who might look. It’s our responsibility to make the community better (obviously there is some subjectivity to that).
Another point is that bandwidth is not free. This is a choice that clutters up the community and lessens the ability for others to communicate.
Finally there is no loss of information. If people want Reddit posts they can go there.
I also changed to option 1.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I vote for the user block option.
I’m not a part of this instance, but I wish mine would defederate from lemmit.online. It is definitely spam in my opinion. I’ve blocked the bot for now.
I’d like to know what the benefit is if your instance defederated when you’ve already blocked the bot. You’re already not seeing the content anymore.
Honestly, not that much for me now. But it would improve the user experience for newer people joining the instance. Also if more instances defederate it may lead to the admin of that one shutting it down, or at least changing it to not be a Reddit spam bot instance.
We’ll share this post with other instance admins once there’s a bit more discussion, and maybe seeing this will get the ball rolling for other instances to have similar discussions.
Option 3, user bans.
196 is also spam but we’re not banning that.
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. 😂
I’m of the opinion that any account or instance that is dedicated to reposting Reddit content is spam.
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?
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.
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?
Nope, I believe it’s confined to communities on that instance.
Personally I’m not a fan of automated content scrapers posting on Lemmy in general. I like to see what other people picked out and found interesting, even if they are reposting other sites. I’ve already blocked the bot user, but imo we should give that Reddit bot the
ban hammer.I think it simply makes sense to leave it up to users to block this if they don’t like it. This approach allows for folks to achieve what they want without forcing this decision onto others.
