this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Lemmy

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32 users here now

Everything about Lemmy; bugs, gripes, praises, and advocacy.

For discussion about the lemmy.ml instance, go to [email protected].

founded 4 years ago
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Please. Captcha by default. Email domain filters. Auto-block federation from servers that don't respect. By default. Urgent.

meme not so funny

And yes, to refute some comments, this publication is being upvoted by bots. A single computer was needed, not "thousands of dollars" spent.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But even then, however, what's to stop an army of bots from just ChatGPTing their way through the application process?

I went to a website to generate a random username, picked the first option of polarbear_gender, and then just stuck that and the application questions for lemmy.ml into ChatGPT to get the following:

I want to join Lemmy.ml because I'm really into having meaningful discussions and connecting with others who have similar interests. Lemmy.ml seems like a great platform that fosters a diverse exchange of ideas in a respectful way, which I like.

When it comes to the communities I'd love to be a part of, I'm all about ones that focus on environmental conservation, wildlife preservation, and sustainability. Those topics really resonate with me, and I'm eager to jump into discussions and learn from fellow passionate folks.

As for my username, I chose it because I've got respect for polar bears and how they live with the environmental challenges they face. And throwing in "gender" is just my way of showing support for inclusivity and gender equality. Building a more just and fair society is important to me.

I don't know the full criteria that people are approved or declined for, but would these answers pass the sniff test?

I'm just worried that placing too much trust in the application process contributes to a false sense of security. A community that is supposedly "protected" from bots can be silently infiltrated by them and cause more damage than in communities where you can either reasonably assume bots are everywhere, or there are more reliable filtering measures in place than a simple statement of purpose.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

As I said in my post-

There are very intelligent people who make lots of money creating “bots” and “spam”. NOBODY is going to stop all of it.

The only way to resolve this, is to work together, to identify problems, and take action.

If I decide I want to write spam bots for lemmy- there isn't much that is going to stop me. Even approvals, aren't hard to work around. Captchas are comically easy to get past. Registered emails? Not a problem either. I can make a single valid email, and then re-use it once on every single instance. Writing a script that waits for approvals, is quite easy.