this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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I keep seeing communities which seem to consist of nothing but a bot that reposts stuff from Reddit.

What’s the point? Really? I ain’t posting a comment about a funny thing there. No one seems to post about the the second-hand funny thing here.

Can we please just sever ties with that shithole altogether?

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Block the bots making those posts, there are only around 3 or so that keep spamming. Your feed will feel a lot better after.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Liberal use of the block feature has made the Fediverse so much more pleasant. I can't recommend it enough!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This is why I don't think the Lemmy platforms will really grow to Reddit size until we solve this problem. Most folks don't want to curate their own feed when they first explore a social media platform. That usually comes later after they've been drawn in.

What Lemmy and kbin could really use is a set of default subscriptions that are curated by instance admins to provide the best new user experience.

For that matter, default block lists wouldn't be so bad either

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

That's true. It would be cool if we could "subscribe" to a curated block list, sort of like we do with AdBlock plugins.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In general, individuals blocking other users for [insert toxic misbehavior] is bad. The problem isn't that one user in particular is seeing it; the problem is that it exists at all and erodes the quality of the whole network.

Take trolling, for instance: if you just block the troll, all you're doing is giving them carte-blanche to keep spreading misinformation/shit-talking you/whatever without you knowing about it. Everybody else can still see it, though, which means they could still be doing damage to your reputation and you'd just appear to acquiesce to it.

People engaging in bad behavior need to be banned by the mods, not just blocked by individual users.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah & you could recommend Lemmy to friends who might ask you about all the nazis or whatever who became popular overnight without you seeing them.

If your mental health can’t take it you get a free pass for sure :)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Agreed that blocking is useful, but the default shouldn't be having to jump through hoops to make the fediverse usable, especially for new users.

I'd suggest the mirrors of other social media be delegated to their own instance that clearly states that it is a bot-run Reddit or whatever mirror and other instances don't show them by default.

Those that want the mirrored no engagement content can subscribe to those on those particular instances and nobody needs to have a problem.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Another great thing about Lemmy is that people can choose what they want to see instead of a platform deciding for them.

If you don't like the bots, block them. If someone wants the bots, they can subscribe to the communities.

It's really only a problem when someone is making too many separate bots that it gets hard to block all of them

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It is also a problem if it is not obvious that it is bot generated content and another if it floods actual user generated content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The ‘All’ feed could be considered a blessing or a curse.

Nevermind the bots.

If a [insert random community] post pops up and I comment on it then they get shitty and say “well why did you come in here to this niche subject and post?”

I think… “If it’s delivered to me in the ‘All’ feed then it’s fair game to post in.”

If people don’t want ‘outsiders’ in their “safe space” then perhaps some communities shouldn’t have their feeds set to shout their content to the whole Fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

More like the "Literally Just Memes" feed

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not the OP, but I've got the following bots blocked and it massively improved my Lemmy experience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I was gonna say "there's links to reddit?!". I blocked those so long ago I had forgotten about it.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’m cool with people stealing content from Reddit and posting it here. In fact I encourage it.

But yeah. A bot just auto posting is tiresome. No real curation of the best stuff.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

I've blocked L4sbot and lemmy is substantially better.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago

Not unilaterally. Linking to reddit is fine, but bots that just repost links are not. If you, a person, find something on reddit that's worthwhile (a comic that's only posted on reddit, or a thread detailing a tech solution, or something else) and link it, then that's fine. You, a person, found value on another site and shared it. I don't care what a bot thinks. I care what you, my fellow lemming, thinks.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yea if you want to steal something from Reddit, copy the content and paste it here. Don't just post a link and direct traffic back to that shithole.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

*click link to directing you to reddit...

*It's either a Twitter screen cap or a 4chan greentext...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"If I wanted to see Facebook or TikTok content, Id be on Facebook and TikTok."

Goes on to scroll Reddit or Lemmy and upvote all the screenshots from Facebook and videos taken from TikTok

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It’s funny to me that there’s a “Reddit” section on the fediverse where people just post complaints about Reddit. Just get over it already and move on.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's still helpful to talk about what's going on elsewhere

  • see what we can do better
  • see what good features are worth adopting here
  • Calling out bad actions by other platforms. We don't HAVE to help people that aren't on the Fediverse, but there are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable people on here that can discuss issues and how we can address them
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's something a lot of members had in common when that was most popular... reddit experience and Splez angst.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Yes, so much "auto archive" spam. What are you archiving? A link? Because there isn't any actual content there. As an aside, jerboa has an option to block bot accounts, so that's what I've been doing now

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Agree, doesn't really make sense to engage with them since the original post and discussions are somewhere else. I think the point of these bots is to create more content to attract new people here on lemmy

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Yes, there’s no engagement so no point.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

There are some subreddits I don't want to just lose and I don't expect them to grow super fast here. I'm glad for these bots, they give me the choice u/spez is trying to steal from me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I saw the same thing once I got into bluesky. It was just a bunch of screenshots and links to Twitter.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah. It’s been discussed a fair bit. There are/were a few different projects doing this, with the intent of “jumpstarting” or “kickstarting” communities on Lemmy. Some of the larger instances defederated from them. I don’t feel like it’s a solid theory either.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think treating Reddit like an other source of information (whether valuable or not) is fine to reference for conversation or topics. While I’m pissed at what the overlords there have done, it still has a large source of community based information.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I agree, but only with the amendment that links to reddit only be text posts and comment chains, or otherwise reddit-exclusive things such as /r/place.

Images and links should bypass reddit altogether and just link to the first source link (ie, the news article or w/e), or be posted as a lemmy image post with a credit citation in the description.

Nobody wants to have to click through 3 different pages to learn who's winning what war or to see a picture of a cat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s necessary in some cases

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I rather it be a screencap and then a link in the description or a comment. I just rather not a direct link.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you don't like it, block them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thanks I will, but the theme of the community is not what I object to, it’s the link to Reddit content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Fair enough.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Although the rss feed feature is broken so there's been no posts for a few days, [email protected] is one I used to track PC part sales. It was mirroring from Reddit, but just one easily blocked user from anyone not interested. We don't have enough people frequenting RedFlagDeals and if we rely on individuals posting deals it will be way too late. That community saved me from needing to check Reddit at all.