• ceenote@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    57
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 days ago

    The tragic thing, though, is that if lemmy ever “takes off”, there’s nothing about it that will make it any more resistant to bots and trolls.

    It’s kinda like back when Macs had no viruses, because nobody bothered.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      I disagree. Lemmy is more resistant to bots because there’s no perverse incentive to boost user activity numbers to please investors and advertisers. Reddit for example doesn’t really care if most comments are fake on a post. It’s still interaction and it pumps numbers. Lemmy is built and run by us. It serves no other masters.

      Given that users naturally self-sort into instances, your trolls are also more likely to congregate on instances and communities that can be blocked. I don’t want to name any names but I do block some instances from my view for a reason. The Russian bots congregate in places that are amenable to this, and the design of Lemmy encourages this self-sorting into places where you’re accepted.

      The problem is still significant, but there are advantages to the fediverse.

      • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        3 days ago

        I think it would be more likely bots would flood instances with posts at a level that was unrealistic for the small scale admins we currently have to combat.

        • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          There is a bit of a chain of trust, however. Instance fills with spam bots? Defed.
          Spam bots start making their own instances? Go to whitelists.

          And as henfredemars says, because there is no financial incentive to grow the userbase, instances can slow things right down if the spam starts.

      • ceenote@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        This’ll probably be an “agree to disagree,” but I think most websites do make good faith efforts to lower bot usage. Not because I trust them or anything, but because the perception that bot spam is out of control is bad for their bottom line. It drives away real users and high bot activity makes advertisers disinclined to trust that the high traffic is of any value.

    • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      Not only that, but it’s actually a much easier target because of the relatively sporadic moderation.

      Compared to reddit, the Fediverse’s ability to moderate propaganda and advertising is puny and uncoordinated.

    • Vilian@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      3 days ago

      nah, descentralisation is what help, i already read as article explaining exactly that, lemmy problem is that one of it first instances are full of trolls lol