It’s confusing for new users, and this instance in particular has 7k users but no interactions. It’s a bot army, with the top user being called @admin.

Extremely shady and misleading.

  • DarraignTheSane
    shield
    M
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    FYI, I’m not going to remove this post or anything (and I agree as well), but it’s not likely to be seen by the right people here. /c/Sysadmin is just our community for discussing sysadmin things and I don’t know how much /u/Ruud or any Lemmy devs hang out here.

    You might try cross-posting it to these communities:
    [email protected]
    [email protected]
    [email protected]
    [email protected]

    Of note, lemmy.ml is the server that is operated by the primary Lemmy devs.

    • izzentOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      Oh wow, I didn’t realize, sorry! Thought I was in the right place. I could still remove it if you think it’s for the best?

      • DarraignTheSaneM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 years ago

        Nah, you’ve already got the post and some discussion going. As said, just make it easy on yourself and use the cross-post button to get it out to those communities where some Lemmy devs might get eyes on it. :)

        • izzentOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          Will do, and thanks for the heads-up :)

        • BitOneZero @ .world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          It isn’t exclusive to operators, and frankly most of them are ignoring it. They are either meeting in chat rooms or what, but they don’t seem to like to gather on Lemmy itself to discuss the issues.

    • PutangInaMo
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 years ago

      Damn I gotta go lock in a @potus username before it’s too late

  • t0m5k1
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 years ago

    just wow. Should be reported in github to main lemmy repo

    • izzentOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think some form of blanket ban on certain keywords in usernames should be used. Admin being an obvious one, but I’m sure a lot more would also be problematic.

      • breadsmasher
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 years ago

        I guess what I meant is, how? It could be put into Lemmy sourcecode but since its open source that could be easily removed.

        Each instance could possibly try and autoban any other instance user with that name?

        • izzentOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          I’ll admit I’m not tech-savvy enough to know how to implement something like that. Maybe someone else has a good idea though?

        • Cubes
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 years ago

          I think they could put it in the Lemmy source code that an instance won’t display or take comments/posts from anyone with those usernames. So even if someone removed that restriction from their own instance, they wouldn’t be able to post on any other instance that has that feature enabled

  • A_A
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    2 years ago

    Let’s not federate with that instance. Then, they can have any bots or username they want.

    • izzentOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 years ago

      Usually I’d agree, but there has to be something more that can be done to prevent others from putting keywords like that in their name. Otherwise it’ll just happen again…

      • Master
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I think admin, administrator and those type names (system administrator, sys admin etc) should be reserved but you shouldnt ban admin as being part of a name. What about sadmin / sadminute… or badmin / badminute (and every variantion of that like MadMinotaur )and other variants like that.

      • A_A
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        for other instances it’s name will appear as : @admin@Podycust …so not such a big deal

        • EatALime@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          Kbin doesn’t display the instance someone is on unless you click on their username for some reason. It’s not a great design choice for a federated platform.

          • A_A
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Today I’ve learned (TiL) ! thanks 🙂
            if original poster (OP) had posted there instead of in lemmy.world … would have been better … yet not a big deal 😌

            • izzentOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              2 years ago

              I don’t use kbin so I couldn’t have known, sorry.

              • A_A
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 years ago

                You are right, I’m getting confused
                … and I need a coffee 😋 !

          • Interesting_Test_814
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Conversely and interestingly, it seems Lemmy doesn’t show the instance of people that are on Kbin, but it also doesn’t show the @ before username for them so they’re still distinguishable (for example you show up as just EatALime, while the one you’re repling to shows as @A_A and someone on another instance like lemm.ee would show as @<username>@lemm.ee.)

  • average650
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think just banning them is enough. On other instances it will indicate they are on another instance.

  • emptyother
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 years ago

    What if a persons real name is Admin in some weird language?

    A bit far-fetched I know. Still, I think that if theres gonna be a global hardcoded blacklist of usernames, someone should be very careful which words is added to that list. Each specific instance would know better what words is good and what is bad in their main language(s).

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Official instance admin and community mod roles are denoted with badges, though. That’s consistent across every instance already.

    I could change my name to admin or use my local instance @admin account and post here, but neither would give me any superpowers. Looking at my remote @admin user from a federated instance wouldn’t badge me as an admin for that instance either.

    I don’t see the problem or see how that affects anyone. There can be an @john on every instance. Is that confusing for users, too? Should every instance coordinate and make sure there’s only one @john to rule them all? Who is the best John, and how is that determined?

    That’s just how the fediverse works.

    • izzentOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I’m confused, there’s no link in my post?

      Edit: oh I see, the link doesn’t get highlighted on the website. Idk, I just sent a screenshot because it looked like they had the admin username, but I guess that one redirects to the admin of kbin, so no clue.

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Interesting, so a bare “@admin” will link to whatever user has that name on your local instance? That should probably be a bug, I could type “@falafel” or whatever and end up linking to completely different people based on whatever instance someone happens to be reading from. Maybe giving all those people mention notifications, too.

          • VerifiablyMrWonka@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            I’m actually working on the problem now. It’s a tricky one to solve. There’s no context about who that user is, like at all. So we either don’t link any users. Or do a best effort.

            • FaceDeer@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              Personally, I would think either default to the same instance as the person who’s comment it is, or just don’t link it at all since it’s an incomplete address. Like failing to include the “.social” part of the “https://kbin” URL, it’s just a broken thing.

              • VerifiablyMrWonka@kbin.social
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 years ago

                Not actually a bad shout. When a local user submits we can fully qualify the handle if it’s short. Remote posts without a fully qualified won’t be able to be linked.

                🤔

      • Bappity
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I think they meant to refer to the profile in the screenshot you sent nvm someone else clarified

    • PaintedSnail@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      For those of us who understand how the platform works, it wouldn’t be an issue. However, if we want mass adoption of the platform, we need to take into consideration those who don’t fully understand the technology and avoid situations that will lead to scams where feasible. Names of authority, like admin, root, super, etc., make a user appear to have authority they don’t, which can mislead new users. (“Support our server by sending bitcoin to this address that is really my personal wallet” type scams comes to mind.) You could say that it’s the person’s fault for falling for it, but it’s something that would drive people away from the platform which can be easily avoided in the first place.