Comment on How can we stop bots on the fediverse?

DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• cabbage@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Don’t forget to report, if you have good reason to believe you’re seeing a bot that is not properly marked as such.

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• SorteKanin@feddit.dk ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  There’s nothing that can be done to stop it

  That’s not true at all. You can definitely do something:

  • Make a sign up process that filters out most low effort bots (e.g. applications, invite trees)
  • Get more moderators to catch the bots earlier. In a similar vein, encourage users to report bots.
  • Defederate from instances that don’t have similar measures and don’t take bot prevention seriously.

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  • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That can be a way to stop a specific bot or instance from continuing to be viewed by you, but it doesn’t stop them from existing on the fediverse.

    One of the main upsides to the fediverse is that it’s open and connected. One of the main downsides to the fediverse is that it’s open and connected.

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    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      but it doesn’t stop them from existing on the fediverse.

      Well of course, nobody has absolute power over the fediverse like that. Anyone can start an instance and create millions of bot accounts if that’s what they wanted. But “the fediverse” is only what it looks like from the point of view of your instance. If stuff is blocked or defederated, it may as well not exist.

      The point isn’t to eliminate all bad behavior on the fediverse (that’s not possible, by design of the system, and that’s good). The point is to allow users to seek towards those instances that keep bad behavior out.

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