Alien Top
alien.top

I do not want to block all bots. I only want to block bots from specific instance. More specifically, the @alien.top instance is using most, if not all, bot accounts with random usernames. It uses that instance to post in communities of other instances. I thought about blocking other instances. But the main issue lies with random bot accounts from @alien.top. And I cannot block individually by usernames.

What shall I do to block posts posted by random bot accounts of @alien.top instance?

Update

I looked up potentially affiliated sites connected to that instance and found these.

https://level-up.zone/ (@communick, high post rate)
https://gearhead.town/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://viewfinder.pro/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://netheads.online/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://healthy.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://sfw.community/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://blockchained.world/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://matchpoint.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://poweruser.forum/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hi-fi.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://expats.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://nba.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://athletic.center/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://style.land/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://metacritics.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://academy.garden/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://foodie.rehab/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://indiehackers.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hardware.watch/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://nfl.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)

The instances may be hours to two months old and are run by the same admin. Some have high post rate, while others have no post yet. The ones with posts are all using @alien.top’s random bot accounts. I suspect this problem will amplify.

Update2

Blocking by instance is finally working. I blocked @alien.top and @hardware.watch. Consider this issue resolved.

  • @[email protected]English
    -4•1 year ago

    I agree with pretty much everything but:

    it’s sort of wasting people’s effort on lemmy and not creating true engagement

    Even if we don’t have two-way communication, having the content mirrored has two purposes:

    • it allows lurkers to move away from reddit and browse here.

    • it works as a prompt for conversation between “organic” subscribers.

    I will add a comment to every post though (similar to how AutoModerator does) to indicate that is a mirrored comment and with general instructions on how to interact with the bots and some links to describe the project.

    • @zeppoEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Great, I think as my and other people’s experience illustrates it has been a bit confusing so far, being unexplained. The byline will help a lot, I think.

      Sure, it’s useful as it is as long as people check into their Lemmy accounts. I suppose I would if I signed up and was aware there might be replies waiting for me on Lemmy in addition to Reddit.

      • @[email protected]English
        -4•1 year ago

        So, a comment like this one will be sent on every mirrored post. The only issue I see with this approach is that there is no way to pin a comment to the top of the thread…

        • @zeppoEnglish
          3•1 year ago

          That’s cool, I think that will help explain it. I didn’t realize the accounts for people on reddit were being created on lemmy automatically though. Do the reddit users even know it’s happening?

            • @zeppoEnglish
              2•1 year ago

              It kind of changes things if accounts are automatically made and the user on reddit has no idea. From earlier discussion I thought you were saying these posts were from people who explicitly went to alien.top and signed up. But it turns out no, the content is automatically duplicated and the user on reddit has no idea this is happening - so it IS largely a waste of time to try to respond to them as they’re unlikely to ever read it.

              The suggestion I’ve seen you make elsewhere for Lemmy users to message people on reddit and invite them to Lemmy is rather unrealistic, and I’m pretty sure reddit would tolerate this being automated for about 1 day after they found out about it. Reddit isn’t going to let you scrape the site and autospam members (in their view) to support what’s essentially an unauthorized 3rd party client that replaces the core function of their site.

              • @[email protected]English
                1•1 year ago

                If the content being posted had a real person behind it from the beginning, then it would be one less reason to treat the whole thing as “spam”, wouldn’t it?

                It should be simple to discern: users from alien.top that have not claimed their account there are marked as bots. Once an user from reddit claims their account, they are then unflagged as bots and none of their content gets automatically mirrored (because once they claim their account, they control the password and there is no way for my service to post on their behalf)

                and I’m pretty sure reddit would tolerate this being automated for about 1 day

                I am not even saying it has to be automated. At the moment, I’m actually suggesting people to go do what I am doing and writing DMs on reddit to tell the original poster about the mirrored link and to let them know that they can get more answers on Lemmy.

                • @zeppoEnglish
                  1•1 year ago

                  I know, I addressed the manual messaging by saying

                  The suggestion I’ve seen you make elsewhere for Lemmy users to message people on reddit and invite them to Lemmy is rather unrealistic

                  One problem is the communities aren’t very engaging for people on Lemmy since it’s this huge list of posts with no responses and no guarantee the original poster will ever see your helpful response.

                  So… it’s not automatically mirrored after they sign up on Lemmy? I thought that was a key feature.

                  • @[email protected]English
                    1•1 year ago

                    invite them to Lemmy is rather unrealistic

                    Why? During the summer, at the height of the protest, I was taking 15 minutes every day and sending 10-20 DMs to people on the emacs community. For better or worse, I think around 40 people responded positively.

                    Why couldn’t a fraction of us do something similar? Specially that now we all could leverage the fact that fediverser provides a really easy way to migrate?

                    So… it’s not automatically mirrored after they sign up on Lemmy? I thought that was a key feature.

                    The key feature is the login with the automatic subscription to the corresponding communities, not the automated mirroring of the posts.