So, uhm, what the hell is going on with all these ad posts I’m seeing in this community?

  • @[email protected]
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    23 days ago

    Whenever you see something like this, please just report the post as spam, block the user and petition your community moderators to recruit more mods, especially in other time zones.

    Even better, volunteer as mod yourself.

    Also please tell your admins to use an application rather than just the captcha - the captchas are easily broken.

    • @[email protected]
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      2323 days ago

      We also need shareable blacklists if they federate as well then that would be ideal. Surly someone can write a community thats a bot that gives democracy to blocklists.

      • @[email protected]
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        1323 days ago

        Not necessarily a bad idea, but most the spam I’ve seen is from new accounts on larger instances, so I’m not sure it’ll help with this.

        • @[email protected]
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          1023 days ago

          Seems like a user pattern that should be fairly detectable. Might not be a bad idea to scrape logs to look for spammy/copypaste comments, particularly on very new accounts, and either flag them for manual review or just ban them outright.

        • HubertManne
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          423 days ago

          yeah usually less than an hour to a few hours old. occasionally they make it to days.

      • HubertManne
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        923 days ago

        I wish there was a seperate block as spam that would auto report. Some things I block due to lack of interest but others spam and our current report takes more clicks than I like. Then I would also like to be able to subscribe to peoples spam block list. If I like the cut of someones hib I might just subscribe to block any spam they block.

          • HubertManne
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            523 days ago

            yeah I want as much power pushed down to the individual as possible. I was even thinking you just sorta have recommended mods. like by default you are subscribed to their block lists for the community but if you subscribe you have an option to see unmoderated or such.

      • @[email protected]
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        623 days ago

        Some instances may not want to use democracy to decide on what to block. But some web of trust would be nice perhaps. Like I trust an instance and if that instance blocks another instance, maybe I’d block it too.

        • @[email protected]
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          323 days ago

          I thinking more on a per user basis content tagging should defiantly have blacklists as well. But tags arent a thing yet?

          • @[email protected]
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            423 days ago

            I don’t think they are. The closest thing is hashtags but tags aren’t really a thing in ActivityPub as far as I’m aware. This kind of system will also always depend on people correctly tagging their stuff of course.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏
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        623 days ago

        Somewhat already exists, called Fediseer

        There are a few other instances that subscribe to lemmy.world’s censures list on there

        • @[email protected]
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          -223 days ago

          Is that a content blacklist or a federation blacklist cos i left .world cos they kept degenerating with people.

  • @TrickDacy
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    4423 days ago

    Never have seen one so I’m guessing it’s not all that common

  • @[email protected]
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    2823 days ago

    It makes me wonder if this place is getting bigger and more relevant, if it’s attracting interest from spammers.

  • ben
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    2523 days ago

    Bots and lack of mods on different timezones most likely.

    Would probably make sense to have an account age requirement and comment requirement before posting somehow.

    • @[email protected]
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      3323 days ago

      account age requirement and comment requirement before posting

      This can also be very unwelcoming to new users though. Reddit often feels like a closed place because so many subs have karma requirements. I’d prefer we didn’t go there.

      We should rather stop allowing sign ups without an application. The captchas are not good enough.

      • just another dev
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        1923 days ago

        We should rather stop allowing sign ups without an application. The captchas are not good enough.

        That’s near impossible to enforce, due to the federated nature. Server admins could whitelist which instances they trust, but I don’t think that’ll do much good from a community point of view.

        Perhaps a sticky to find better moderator/timezone coverage could help. (And for that matter, I wouldn’t mind stricter moderation on post relevance - not all news about tech companies or events that just happen to take place online is tech news, imho)

        • @[email protected]
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          223 days ago

          near impossible to enforce, due to the federated nature. Server admins could whitelist

          What if you could automatically federate with any instance requiring an application, but anything else you would need to whitelist? Maybe that could work.

          • just another dev
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            823 days ago

            I’m no federation expert, but I think if you could convince your own instance admin, or the one hosting this community (lemmy.world), to do so, you’d be good. But that would potentially affect a lot more users than just the ones in this community, so they might take some effort.

            Also, I’m not aware of any tools that could automate this for you.

            • @[email protected]
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              323 days ago

              I know there isn’t anything like this now, I’m basically just theorycrafting how it should/could function :)

      • @[email protected]
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        1123 days ago

        If you think that’s unwelcoming, applications are even more so. Most people don’t want to fill out an essay just to be allowed to participate.

        If I had to fill out an application, I wouldn’t be here, and I’m sure a lot of others wouldn’t be either.

        That’s not to say that better methods shouldn’t be implemented though.

        • @[email protected]
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          623 days ago

          An application doesn’t have to be an essay. Feddit.dk has an application that literally just requires a sentence or two. It’s really not a big barrier to entry.

        • HubertManne
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          323 days ago

          I agree here. Filling out an application would have easily kept me out. Many may see that as a good thing though :)

      • @givesomefucks
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        223 days ago

        This can also be very unwelcoming to new users though.

        For like the first week of posting…

        Then it’s never an issue again.

        But it’s hard for trolls and bots to build that up for every account.

        Theres been more than a few that just keep making new accounts on small instances the second they’re banned

        • @[email protected]
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          823 days ago

          It is an issue if you change instance, which you may do more often than creating new accounts on traditional social media. And again, I just find it kind of unwelcoming.

          Maybe automatically creating a report to just check the post for spam when a new user posts would be nice? Then a mod can check it out but it’s not removed automatically or blocked.

          • @givesomefucks
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            223 days ago

            It is an issue if you change instance

            Again, only for like a week…

            There’s no valid reason to keep constantly churning accounts.

            • @[email protected]
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              23 days ago

              There is if you wish to change instance, for example if your admins do something you don’t like. That’s a perfectly valid reason.

              We can disagree, it’s okay. You don’t have to downvote just because you disagree.

                • @ricdeh
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                  523 days ago

                  nothing you’re saying is contributing to a meaningful discussion

                  The difference between them and you is that they are indeed contributing to the discussion and attempting to propose solutions on how to handle the situation. You, on the other hand, seem hellbent on enforcing your point of view without the slightest willingness or empathy to consider the issue from their perspective.

    • HubertManne
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      423 days ago

      I think this would be great to limit this. I really don’t understand people wanting to comment right away. I just lurked for like a month to get a feel before I decided to participate.

      • @[email protected]
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        123 days ago

        I don’t know. Only reason I create an account is to comment and post. Why otherwise have one?

        • HubertManne
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          223 days ago

          to subscribe and get a curated list of what you want to look at. I can’t imagine lurking without subscriptions to what im interested in.

      • @QualifiedKitten
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        123 days ago

        A brand new account doesn’t necessarily mean the user hasn’t been lurking for a while. I lurked on Reddit without an account for years before creating an account there, and during the Reddit drama last year, I lurked here and a few other places, but didn’t create an account anywhere until I actually wanted to participate.

        • HubertManne
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          123 days ago

          I bet you will make one a day sooner if you know you won’t be able to post for day.

  • @paf0
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    1223 days ago

    Saw that too, it’s annoying. In a weird way, spam kinda legitimizes this platform as a Reddit alternative.

  • @Ekybio
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    1023 days ago

    No idea, but I notice it too

    Just blocked and reported an account and the single shill-post it produced. Not sure what to do about it, maybe we need more mods

  • @drawerair
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    23 days ago

    What do you mean? When I lurk here, I ignore the sites that Idk. I rely on sites that I know are legit like Verge, Techcrunch, Engadget, Cnbc, Bloomberg, Ars Technica and Electrek. The sites that Idk may be legit too but I don’t wanna spend much time researching the legitimacy.

  • @[email protected]
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    523 days ago

    There’s room for innovation. If enough people downvote, or flag a post, and those people have enough interaction with the community, let’s say posting credit, or comments, or account age etc etc etc then a bot could auto remove posts. Kind of like craigslist does, or at least put those posts into a quarantine queue until a human can release it

  • beefbot
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    -1423 days ago

    If you have heard the term enshittification, then you know exactly what the hell is going on 🤷‍♂️ I don’t like it either, but it’s every social network, every time 🙄🤷‍♂️🙃

    • @ripcord
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      23 days ago

      How could it be enshittification? The Lemmy operators have no profit motive here.

      And what actual event are you basing this on in the first place, since we don’t know what OP is even talking about ?

      First, you’re making assumptions about who’s doing what that are probably completely wrong.

      Second, doesn’t sound like you understand what that word actually means. It doesn’t mean just “stuff gets worse eventually”.

      • beefbot
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        23 days ago

        Alwuys right replyguy go brrrrrrrr

        Edit: reply-account with multiple days of edgelordy responses designed to get engagement, but kinda failing at it, go hurrrr

        • SharkAttak
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          323 days ago

          Also failed to understand that those are ad spam posts, so they’re not from&for Lemmy operators, but sketchy medicines sellers, etc.