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.
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…
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?
Notifying users about mirrored posts and comments is planned, but not implemented yet
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.
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)
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.
I know, I addressed the manual messaging by saying
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.
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?
The key feature is the login with the automatic subscription to the corresponding communities, not the automated mirroring of the posts.
okay, I guess I see what problems you’re trying to solve, but I don’t see how it really does them that well.
These communities on Lemmy are unlikely to take off since they’re not building true engagement. Signing up to Lemmy with my reddit credentials and automatically being enrolled in a bunch of Lemmy communities that are not really active isn’t really better than just signing up to Lemmy normally, which is not very difficult. I wouldn’t post a question in any of these bot-filled communities on Lemmy because it’s unlikely anyone would see it as it would be covered up by 50 automatic posts from reddit before anyone even saw it.
I don’t see the lemmy content as spam, just that like other reddit-autoposters, it’s a strange form of a 3rd party reddit client. I do browse by All>New because that’s how I can discover new communities and keep my feed fresh, given Lemmy’s limited activity at the moment. However, pretty sure that reddit and many members would see messaging people unsolicited and promoting another site as spam.
I am tracking some data, and I can tell you there are “fediversed” communities (the ones with mirrored content) growing in organic activity even when Lemmy usage is overall dropping.
I know, I wish people could take 3 minutes of their time to acquire some minimal tech literacy, but the truth is that the majority of social media users simply don’t care enough about it to make the switch.
There is already some mechanisms on fediverser software to add rate-limiting of mirrored posts. Meaning that I could set it up to post at most N posts per hour (or per day). But be honest: is there a number that is low enough for you to think that posting is worthwhile, or maybe it’s just you not feeling comfortable to take initiative and post in a place where you haven’t “seen” other peers?
And there will be just as many (if not more) people that are willing to ditch reddit, but are not aware of any other alternative.
Marketing should not be such an ugly word. If we really believe that the Fediverse is a better and healthier alternative to the existing social media landscape, why can’t we do a little bit of evangelizing?