I do not want to block all bots. I only want to block bots from specific instance. More specifically, the @alien.top instance is using most, if not all, bot accounts with random usernames. It uses that instance to post in communities of other instances. I thought about blocking other instances. But the main issue lies with random bot accounts from @alien.top. And I cannot block individually by usernames.
What shall I do to block posts posted by random bot accounts of @alien.top instance?
Update
I looked up potentially affiliated sites connected to that instance and found these.
https://level-up.zone/ (@communick, high post rate)
https://gearhead.town/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://viewfinder.pro/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://netheads.online/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://healthy.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://sfw.community/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://blockchained.world/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://matchpoint.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://poweruser.forum/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hi-fi.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://expats.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://nba.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://athletic.center/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://style.land/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://metacritics.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://academy.garden/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://foodie.rehab/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://indiehackers.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hardware.watch/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://nfl.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
The instances may be hours to two months old and are run by the same admin. Some have high post rate, while others have no post yet. The ones with posts are all using @alien.top’s random bot accounts. I suspect this problem will amplify.
Update2
Blocking by instance is finally working. I blocked @alien.top and @hardware.watch. Consider this issue resolved.
I pondered this and I think it would work great for communities where OP is not asking a question and the comments don’t matter - the SFW pic network, for instance. People would probably really appreciate seeing the content from subs like that without having to go to reddit. There are also so many of them that even going to reddit, I miss a lot of the photos the first time around. But the subs where OP is expecting tech help are perhaps the least appropriate for this current system and I think that mismatch is the main reason people on Lemmy had a problem with this. That, and might want to rethink the auto-account creation. Posting under one bot account would make it look less strange to people on Lemmy, and each post could have a byline explaining that it was mirrored from a specific reddit post. If that OP wanted to sign up for Lemmy via alien.top they still could, and to me it would seem less offputting than a mysterious account already having been made with my username.
With the concerns about storage and other system resource usage from federated instances, though, rate limiting would definitely be required. One post every couple hours would be okay. Some of the instances I saw when the mirror-bots were active had a post every 15 seconds or so.
Why would I post a question in a community that is 99% bots? It’s unlikely anybody on Lemmy would see it in the flood of posts mirrored from reddit. I’d be better off asking in a higher signal-to-noise ratio community on Lemmy or if I was desperate, just reddit. The excessive posts and unexplained nature that led people to conclude those instances were spam led many people to block them, which makes it even more unlikely someone on Lemmy would see my post there.
Marketing is great, but unsolicited DMs is NOT the way to do that. I’d suggest finding some other way of spreading the word.
Agree about SFW. So much so that I created another instance for it and was finishing setting it up: https://sfw.community
Disagree about separate bots for replicating content and also disagree about not having comments. This is exactly the approach taken by the lemmit.online dev, and he was facing pretty much the same backslash as me.
About “resource usage from federated instances”: I could argue that the real issue is caused by those people who are running scripts to subscribe to all communities (like https://github.com/wescode/lemmy_migrate). It’s key to understand that content is only copied between instances if there is one subscriber to that community. Also, it’s not like I am running a massive computing cluster or that alien.top is throwing terabytes of data every day. If the network cannot deal with the load that alien.top is generating, then it’s a sign that we are not ready for more people coming from Reddit. And if we are really that not unprepared for it, then I’d rather drop the whole project and go back to the drawing board.
Have you tried, or are you projecting your feelings towards it?
Cold call sales still exists. Direct Mailing still exists. If companies still put a lot of money to do these things, it means that it pays off.
If you have any other idea, I’m all for trying. But if they are not at least as effective as direct contact, I won’t be dropping the idea of sending DMs.
okay, that’s all cool.
I’m speaking from my experience with unsolicited messages and marketing, as well as the general impression people get from that. Direct mail and cold call sales work sometimes, but they’re often not welcome and reflect poorly on the organization doing it. I feel like doing it excessively would be likely to result in reddit suspending accounts or at least restricting message ability, plus, it would mean that for some people their first exposure to Lemmy is a message that many would see as spam (since unsolicited mail inviting you to do or buy something is the definition of spam).
Key word is excessively. I do not want to send mass messages, but i don’t see how a group of “community ambassadors” here focusing on reaching out to posters on reddit saying “hey, I saw your post on /r/XYZ, maybe you’d be interested in posting on /c/XYZ as well? If you don’t have an account on Lemmy, here is the one way to sign up…”