Ok, imagine this, you are on reddit (say, a slow hobby focused subreddit), everybody there is nice and knowledgeable, and one day, the mods there announced that since there is not enough “content” on the sub, they are going to use a bot to repost content from 9gag in order to “bolster engagement” and “grow the community”.
How would you feel about that?
If you feel upset and grossed out, you’re exactly right.
I don’t think there is a single non-spam subreddit where that kind of behavior would be tolerated without being called out for blatant mod abuse. No community in the world would ever tolerate automated reposting from another website, not reddit, not 4chan, not any forums of any size, even 9gag, I repeat, BLOODY 9GAG, was tired of being called out for reddit reposting and started making original content.
So why exactly should this kind of behavior be tolerated here?
Now, I’m sure some mods here did it with good intentions, but again, the road to the hell that is modern reddit is PAVED with good intentions. Content for the sake of content is bad, and we already knew it is bad, which is why Gallowboob was so thoroughly disliked, he generates “”“”““content””“”“”, in other words, spam that drowns out the normal people who can’t compete with a professional marketer, much less a bot, which is exactly the reason why “Just block the bots” doesn’t work, because it ruins the genuine engagements on a forum by drawing people to the lowest common denominator of “”“”“”“”“”“content”“”“”“”“”“”“”.
Reddit, over the years, has turned into a platform for “bolstering engagement” for advertisers, and it does that by algorithmically stoking conflicts between people so they would endlessly argue and doomscroll. Why would we want that here? Now, I think most of us like the Lemmy/kbin right now because of the lack of bots here, and the conversations happen naturally and genuinely. I’ve even seen people here try to engage the bots, not realizing that they would never get a response out of them, because it felt normal to just talk about things.
(Eat your robot hearts out, @L4s and @BotIt)
Suppose then, if this repost bot situation was indeed temporary, why would people want to make original content if they are just going to be drowned out by bots? What’s to stop someone from turning on bots from /r/dankmemes or /r/tiktokcringe? The bots are not members of the community, because they are not people (save the /r/botsright joke for more appropriate times), and over time, we will just become dependent on the bots hosing us down directly from that burning dumpster fire and become doomscrolling addicts again.
That’s the number two lesson from the failure of Voat: that repost bots, like hate, should also not be tolerated, and Reddit will never die if we keep feeding it.
Everybody here are still currently all “Oh fuck reddit, fuck spez, I deleted my reddit account and all of my comments and will never go back again”, but after finally getting away from reddit, why are you so insistent on trying to turn this place back to the worst part of reddit again?
And if the reddit migration on July 1st does indeed occur, do you think they would be ecstatic to see a place that’s mostly reddit reposts, but with less “”“”“”“”“”“”“”“”“”“content”“”“”“”“”“”“”“”“”“”? If they wanted reddit, why wouldn’t they just go back to reddit?
When will we finally be rid of reddit, if we are the ones keeping it on life support?
I will say, if I sound frustrated, it’s because I am frustrated, because I actually can’t believe I even had to say this. Judging from the comments on this thread yesterday, I think a majority of people here would agree with me. We have something good here, and I’d like to keep it that way a bit longer.
Now, I very much appreciate that our admins here at lemmy.world and their amazing job of preemptively blocking suspicious bot infested instances, so I’m asking politely for @ruud, @Antik and the rest of our good admin team here to put their foot down on not allowing reddit repost spambots and nip this problem in the bud before it takes root, so I can get back to shitposting in peace.
Be better than reddit.
Burn reddit down.
I’m glad you are having fun here, we all are, and I feel free after being away from the awfulness there, and I’d like to keep this place feeling fun for a while.
I went back today for a last hurrah, and it’s pretty terrible, diffrrent energy. I couldnt tell if it was always like that or just a perspective change for me…and the best/worst part is I can see this easily devolving. But there are baked in work arounds…I imagine a lot of settling and splintering into smaller instances/communities as everyone blocks/subs over time. I personally like smaller communities, but am unsure where I’d settle to, because I largely avoid people. I’m quite new to social media tbh. I could even see lemmy being the reason that I stop coming on the internet altogether(in a good way). I can dream, right? Can I have my Vo5 back before I go, though? (:
But serious talk, you are just used to have humanity here at Lemmy, and you only saw how awful that place was from the outside after you’ve experienced something better.
Yea I think what happend at reddit is just inevitable with enough people, in most situations ime…yes your mostly right. My comments are usually heartfelt at least, but it was easier than I like to admit to find myself, even today, reducing my words down to some hot take, self depreciating, short tempered jab at nothing. Which is why I prefer smaller communities (: I kind of started my whole life over a year ago, and that’s when I started using reddit more than as google search. I quickly began ignoring my inbox completely out of anxiety. I am only a baby 1 year old, with a shit load of trauma, and lots of learning to do. You like to write, don’t you? Me too.
I was NOT wine-drunk in the shower last night, nobody saw anything, and I will deny it if you ask me about it in person.
-Morals Clause
I’ll see you in court.
Oh bugger.