For example:

  • bots everywhere
  • astroturfing
  • repost bots being sold to spread propaganda
  • etc.

This is my worry for the Web. Lemmy seems even more open than Reddit was (less bot prevention). Maybe Lemmy will get beefier protection as time goes on?

  • @[email protected]English
    38•2 years ago

    A few thoughts:

    • Unlike reddit, Lemmy provides a way for instances to not tolerate those sorts of activities by limiting what users can join their own instances and blocking entire instances where those activities are coming from.
    • With karma not being a public profile stat, there shouldn’t be any needs to farm it.
    • Without the corporate profit motive and centralized control Lemmy (as a whole) couldn’t do what reddit is doing with the APIs. An instance could and an instance could also serve ads, but people are free to move to another instance if they don’t like it while still maintaining access to most content.
    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      11•2 years ago

      Hmm, those are some good points. I am mainly concerned with the difficulty in moderating the server well (especially as it scales) but your and the other comments have mostly convinced me.

      • EinarEnglish
        5•2 years ago

        Same here. I just want to still see the ability to move or duplicate my account to another instance. For peace of mind.

        • Apolinario MabussyEnglish
          3•2 years ago

          It might be possible to raise it as an improvement suggestion on the project’s github, something like “allow migration of user accounts to other lemmy instances”. Not sure how much work it’s gonna take or if it’s even possible, but we do have more people willing to pitch in and help now.

          • EnglishMobster
            1•2 years ago

            AFAIK it was planned before everyone came over from Reddit. Right now they’re focusing on putting out the fires that are springing up.

    • TheFascination
      7•2 years ago

      I’m imagining a scenario where the mods of a semi-popular Instance X do a bad job and let a bunch of spam bots join. Other instances block Instance X, but X’s genuine users are the collateral damage. Hopefully moving accounts will be much easier by then…. but then the spammers might move too….

      • @[email protected]
        1•2 years ago

        Yep it’s a huge issue, and the inverse case where instance Y’s admins take a bung from some product manufacturer or agenda lobby and overnight the content moderation policy changes. There’s no point getting comfy with your account right now until user migration is lightweight, frictionless and doable after a ban, to reduce the cost to a user of a changing relationship with the admins of an instance.