1y ago

PSA: If you're tired of political posts in Technology, block user L4s

First of all, L4s (sorry misspelled in titel) is not a real user, so no harm done here.

It's an automatic bot xposting from reddit, making this community just as bad as r/technology, which kind frankly only revolves around politics and social media platforms.

I've had the user blocked 2 weeks now, and this community is muuuuch more enjoyable and is actually about technology now.

Just wanted to share a positive experience.

83 comments

The irony:

I'm so tired of reddit crossposts, they're fucking useless.
- I came here to avoid Reddit.
  Now I get their posts like non-interactive ads.
  
  Lemmy is basically Reddit it has all of the same community problems
- Yeah I'm here to talk to people, not read bot posts
- I forgot about those. Just blockbthe bot that posts them.
  I can see how they were useful when Lemmy was smaller. But now there's enough content for me to browse that I don't miss those reddit cross posts.

You can also make it so you don't see any bot accounts at all, makes the experience 10x better.
- There's a discussion about bots posting on HackerNews but feel free to comment here
  
  What is hacker news I keep seeing titles with discussion on hacker news only place I've ever heard it
- Which for awhile, this user(L4s) insisted on not labeling his bot as such because he felt his was special and deserved to be seen above others. Only after being massively called out did they fix it. But it left a bad taste in my mouth and I've had them blocked since, including their personal account. While the setting is useful, some users still need to be called out.
- Is there a whitelist for that? Some of the bots are actually kind of useful
- How?
  
  There's a checkbox in your Lemmy account settings to allow/block all bot accounts. Only works if they identify themselves as such, so it's not foolproof, but it's better than nothing.
  
  In your account settings, uncheck "Show Bot Posts".
  The one annoying thing is that if a bot replies to you (particularly the PeerTube bot) it can be tricky to clear the notification. There's no clear all button on the website, but there is in Jerboa.
- I think an instance popped up recently where every human user marked thselves as bot accounts.

First of all, L4s (sorry misspelled in titel) is not a real user, so no harm done here.
FYI: You can edit titles here, unlike Reddit.
- Thanks, unfortunately it's not possible in my client Boost for Lemmy.
  Edit: Nvm, found it through my desktop. Thanks again!

Omfg. It put up an anti Vax post about eradicating autism. Holy fk.

Should I also block L4sBot?
- Yeah, it's the same guy.
  
  It was easier for me to find this guy by just going into community posts instead of a search, thanks

- Fuck it, I'm joining you. That sounds like a mentally healthy choice.
  
  The biggest problem is that a LOT of people don't use the bot account flag, so it only blocks about 1/3 of bots on lemmy

As an aside, you can edit your submission title on lemmy/kbin/mbin.
- Thanks! I'm using Boost for Lemmy, and I can't really find the option here. Maybe it's not included in the app.
- ...mbin?
  
  @ripcord yeah a small group of people forked from kbin.

I went looking for a post by them to block them. Turns out I already did.

Thank You! Honestly I think one of the things I like a lot about lemmy, and the fediverse, is the ability to easily block users, communities, and whole instances I don't want to interact with a all. Everytime someone complains about seeing too many foreign meme or whatever I wonder if they have tried the blocking features to trim down the timeline.
- deleted
- How do you, as a user, block an entire instance? As far as I know only an owner of an instance can block (de-federate) another instance. I would love being able to block an instance as a user though.
  
  Through apps before and the feature was added to lemmy v0.19

- Can we just make a rule for that one?
  No elonposting

You a real one

Really odd some Lemmy choices, allowing News Aggregation Posts (Simple link and summary) from a particular user that is somehow not flagged a bot/influencer/paid. I duna know how you can post Tech News Links 10 times a day, every day, for 5 months and still be allowed to post as a "person".
- I've also been accused of being a bot. I assure you all I am not.
  I am merely a pathetic loser with lots of time on my hands.

L4s should be banned. Who controls it? What is their agenda?
- Their agenda is "noble" (keep the content flowing here), but the reality is what the OP mentioned. I stopped going to the technology reddit sub because it was tiring to sift through the doomscrolling.
- Yeah we shouldnt mirror reddit posts. If its not busy enough in a sub instance to foster news and discussion then it isnt busy. Growth should be organic.

Omg I had not noeall those posts were from the same bot..thanks!

Good tip, already blocked them a few weeks ago due to all the Musk spam, and my feed improved significantly

thank you for your service

Thanks for the tip!

How does that bot work?
- I'm not sure, but my best guess is that it scrapes top daily posts on r/technology and reposts them here.
  It's a good idea for other subreddits actually, but r/technology is a shitshow.

Did that long ago, along with other repost bots, and my experience improved significantly

deleted
- Thanks, unfortunately it's not possible in my client Boost for Lemmy.
  Edit: Nvm, found it through my desktop. Thanks again.
  
  deleted

Done and done!

Done and done.

I don't know about you but I find these bot posts actually useful! And there's healthy discussion too which is the point of lemmy?
- It's a fair point, but I don't believe it has anything to do with c/Technology. It belongs somewhere else.
  The requirement for posts are so low, that if something is just POSTED on a social media platform, it somehow has a place in this community.

83 comments