7mo ago

What's up with all the ads here?

So, uhm, what the hell is going on with all these ad posts I’m seeing in this community?

60 comments

Whenever you see something like this, please just report the post as spam, block the user and petition your community moderators to recruit more mods, especially in other time zones.
Even better, volunteer as mod yourself.
Also please tell your admins to use an application rather than just the captcha - the captchas are easily broken.
- We also need shareable blacklists if they federate as well then that would be ideal. Surly someone can write a community thats a bot that gives democracy to blocklists.
  
  Not necessarily a bad idea, but most the spam I've seen is from new accounts on larger instances, so I'm not sure it'll help with this.
  
  I wish there was a seperate block as spam that would auto report. Some things I block due to lack of interest but others spam and our current report takes more clicks than I like. Then I would also like to be able to subscribe to peoples spam block list. If I like the cut of someones hib I might just subscribe to block any spam they block.
  
  Somewhat already exists, called Fediseer
  There are a few other instances that subscribe to lemmy.world's censures list on there
  
  Some instances may not want to use democracy to decide on what to block. But some web of trust would be nice perhaps. Like I trust an instance and if that instance blocks another instance, maybe I'd block it too.

Never have seen one so I'm guessing it's not all that common
- It is relatively common in that it happens regularly, but people thankfully downvote it so it rarely lands in peoples' feeds.
  
  I usually report them as spam.
  
  Not all of us get downvotes, I see them pretty much daily...
- sort by new
  
  Looks like they might be removed (except one). Sorting by new and looking for downvoted posts I just see the one ad and an article about string theory + AI (double whammy).

Haven't seen any ads. Maybe your Lemmy mobile app is inserting ads?

It makes me wonder if this place is getting bigger and more relevant, if it's attracting interest from spammers.

Bots and lack of mods on different timezones most likely.
Would probably make sense to have an account age requirement and comment requirement before posting somehow.
- account age requirement and comment requirement before posting
  This can also be very unwelcoming to new users though. Reddit often feels like a closed place because so many subs have karma requirements. I'd prefer we didn't go there.
  We should rather stop allowing sign ups without an application. The captchas are not good enough.
  
  We should rather stop allowing sign ups without an application. The captchas are not good enough.
  That's near impossible to enforce, due to the federated nature. Server admins could whitelist which instances they trust, but I don't think that'll do much good from a community point of view.
  Perhaps a sticky to find better moderator/timezone coverage could help. (And for that matter, I wouldn't mind stricter moderation on post relevance - not all news about tech companies or events that just happen to take place online is tech news, imho)
  
  If you think that's unwelcoming, applications are even more so. Most people don't want to fill out an essay just to be allowed to participate.
  If I had to fill out an application, I wouldn't be here, and I'm sure a lot of others wouldn't be either.
  That's not to say that better methods shouldn't be implemented though.
  
  Then you don't get any new people at all. (Or very few)
  
  This can also be very unwelcoming to new users though.
  For like the first week of posting...
  Then it's never an issue again.
  But it's hard for trolls and bots to build that up for every account.
  Theres been more than a few that just keep making new accounts on small instances the second they're banned
- I think this would be great to limit this. I really don't understand people wanting to comment right away. I just lurked for like a month to get a feel before I decided to participate.
  
  I don't know. Only reason I create an account is to comment and post. Why otherwise have one?
  
  A brand new account doesn't necessarily mean the user hasn't been lurking for a while. I lurked on Reddit without an account for years before creating an account there, and during the Reddit drama last year, I lurked here and a few other places, but didn't create an account anywhere until I actually wanted to participate.
- I guess a timezone difference too since I never see any ads.

Saw that too, it's annoying. In a weird way, spam kinda legitimizes this platform as a Reddit alternative.

What do you mean? When I lurk here, I ignore the sites that Idk. I rely on sites that I know are legit like Verge, Techcrunch, Engadget, Cnbc, Bloomberg, Ars Technica and Electrek. The sites that Idk may be legit too but I don't wanna spend much time researching the legitimacy.

No idea, but I notice it too
Just blocked and reported an account and the single shill-post it produced. Not sure what to do about it, maybe we need more mods

There's room for innovation. If enough people downvote, or flag a post, and those people have enough interaction with the community, let's say posting credit, or comments, or account age etc etc etc then a bot could auto remove posts. Kind of like craigslist does, or at least put those posts into a quarantine queue until a human can release it
- There's many problems with automatic removals though. It can be abused for instance.

If you have heard the term enshittification, then you know exactly what the hell is going on 🤷‍♂️ I don’t like it either, but it’s every social network, every time 🙄🤷‍♂️🙃
- How could it be enshittification? The Lemmy operators have no profit motive here.
  And what actual event are you basing this on in the first place, since we don't know what OP is even talking about ?
  First, you're making assumptions about who's doing what that are probably completely wrong.
  Second, doesn't sound like you understand what that word actually means. It doesn't mean just "stuff gets worse eventually".
  
  Alwuys right replyguy go brrrrrrrr
  Edit: reply-account with multiple days of edgelordy responses designed to get engagement, but kinda failing at it, go hurrrr

60 comments