See the tool here: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/95652
And some discussion of the issue here: https://lemm.ee/post/177673
This tool produces a list of instances which have a very high number of users compared to the number of comments and posts. These instances are assumed to have high number of bot accounts on them.
Some other instances have started blocking them, should sh.itjust.works follow suit?
Of course, this need not be permanent, and will be reversed when those instances resolve the issue.
For reference, this is a list of instances suspected of being botted by the tool’s default settings: https://overseer.dbzer0.com/api/v1/instances?activity_suspicion=20&domains=true
Ayes and nays please!
Nay.
I do support blocking spam servers and bot farms, but what’s our criteria?
We need more information. How sure are we that they’re bot farms?
Aye, as long as there’s an easy way to unblock.
Nay.
I don’t like bots much, but this is still an assumption. I don’t want to get into preventative de-federation, if it is at all possible to avoid it.
The Meta/Facebook instance(s) should be though.
Aye but allow for some process for these instances to get themselves back in good graces. One mistake on the admins end and he wakes up with 30k bots. Might not be totally on purpose.
Aye
Aye
Aye
Aye!
Aye.
It’s pretty obvious which ones are botted instances. 30,000 users and 20 total posts on the instance? That’s a bot.
Hey! It’s the hypothetical software we were just talking about!
This sounds really useful. Having to have each admin independently de-federate from spam instances is a huge overhead that a tool like this would help with.
Wow, this platform is growing up before our eyes.
Thanks https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/db0.
It’s my understanding that db0 was a mod over at r/piracy and was able to get a big chunk of subscribers to come over to Lemmy. Good on him for being one of the only reddit mods to take a stand.
Aye But with human review
Nay! We should alert them of their mistake and help them fix it. We should only defederate from instances that are only host bots.
Aye but we need to figure out how the process of unblocking them will work.
