I recently made the jump from Reddit for the same immediate reasons as everyone else. But, to be honest, if it was just the Reddit API cost changes I wouldn’t be looking to jump ship. I would just weather the protest and stay off Reddit for a few days. Heck I’d probably be fine paying a few bucks a month if it helped my favorite Reddit app (Joey) stay up and running.

No, the real reason I am taking this opportunity to completely switch platforms is because for a couple years now Reddit has been unbearably swamped by bots. Bot comments are common and bot up/downvotes are so rampant that it’s becoming impossible to judge the genuine community interest in any post or comment. It’s just Reddit (and maybe some other nefarious interests) manufacturing trends and pushing the content of their choice.

So, what does Lemmy do differently? Is there anything in Lemmy code or rules that is designed to prevent this from happening here?

  • mjgood91@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 years ago

    I reckon it’d depend significantly on the instance. Beehaw has a signup form reviewed by humans - measures like this are by no means perfect, but coupled with other bot detection software could help. If an instance developed a real issue with bots, other more strict instances could potentially ban up votes and comments from accounts on it.

    At the very least, tracking instances that account interaction came from should be quite doable, so users part of more strict instances could filter out upvotes and comments from less strict instances if desired.

    • voiceofchris @lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      In other news, mobs of young out of work robo- tortoises, some sporting fresh scars from the ongoing Mojave Raven wars, have begun an all out assault on the dweebs of a little known Reddit spin-off. “An entire generation of robo-tortoise has been weaponized. They are equipping us with laser guns! They are making us to taste bad!” States one salty techno-turtle. “We are being shipped to the barren wastelands of America’s Southwest to fight a war in which we have no interest.” The repto-robots have decided to take out their frustration by relentlessly downvoting the “…federated tankies of Lemmy until those dweebs return to Reddit where they belong and leave the Threadiverse to us sentient snappers.”

    • voiceofchris @lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      2 years ago

      That’s disappointing. Screening new accounts only forces spammers to create the accounts with a human touch and then turn it over to their AI. What about a system to prevent bots from up/downvoting? Something like websites use to detect bots. Just by clicking in the little box that says “I am not a robot” the website can tell you’re not a bot. What if every single up and down arrow was formulated like that little box?

      • kadu@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        That’s the thing though - what system? Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, you name it, nobody managed to prevent bots. How would Lemmy be more successful at this? It’s an extremely challenging battle, unfortunately.

  • Greg@feddit.de
    1·
    2 years ago

    There’s a rumor that Reddit started with (automated and human) bots to gain popularity and kept to drive political and commercial interests.