Call out post for a particular karma farmer on kbin.social

@pollodiabolo - this user is a karma whore of epic proportions and they have made a shit load (10-15+) accounts on kbin that boost and upvote each other while sometimes mass downvoting others that have posts trending towards the top - all to farm karma.

See top comment on this thread

You will continue to see me calling out this person and their alts. This can't and won't become another Reddit and karma whoring folks need to be called out and discouraged.

The following accounts are all the same person and in the very unlikely event they are not, they are still collectively vote manipulating.

@pollodiabolo @journalism_died @ishitwhite @muftiboy @kilkennygriffin @jeremyfurzen @syscollapse @riseupagainstthem @ruse @johnson_waters @cazzodicristo @at @the @Schluchtschiss @fuckoffyoudumbcunt @extremelybullish @cringeminge4 @NoCunteryForOldMen @yesbabyyy @kneel_pleb

A few of these accounts have since cleared their boosting history but with some common sense it should be easy to verify.

If I get mass downvoted, be sure to see the age of the accounts as well as whether they are on this list to gauge their authenticity. I am pretty sure this won't reach many but I'll spam it enough times so it eventually will.

EDIT: This is not a comprehensive list and there are obviously more alts. These are beyond a reasonable doubt involved in mass self-upvoting.

EDIT2: Almost every downvote I have on this post are by accounts that were made after I posted this. They all belong to the same user that I have called out here. This is pathetic and should be proof enough that vote manipulation is something we need to deal with.

EDIT3: More accounts to add to the list: @puny_human @latvianbloke @pedanticc @SONOFNAT

EDIT4: And now they've started to remove their downvotes from new accounts and add them from the list. Bruh I don't even get it at this point. I'm just gonna go to bed that person's a headache to figure out honestly. Night y'all.

Name and shame karma farmers.

EDIT5: This is an excellent example, you might see some familiar names

Image in case they decide to retract their votes again

MauroPantin,

I think karma should only be visible on posts and not on people's profiles. The usability factor un voting ideas, topics and threads is great. Highly valuable feature.

Karma for users? Useless. It creates a sense of popularity contest, and it's everything that's wrong with social media.

Let's give merits or demerits to ideas, opinions and topics of discussion and let's take the Ego element out of the equation

Ignacio,
Ignacio avatar

Lemmy works that way. There is neither karma nor reputation in any place. You can upvote and, where it's allowed, downvote, but nothing more.

ryan,

Agreed.

And while it's always still possible for someone to manipulate the system to make their posts more visible, it's the responsibility of users to report these folks and instance moderators and admins to ban them. (My instance is very small so I won't be doing much by banning them from my side, but at least I won't see or engage with any of their content!)

static,
static avatar

I have not looked into the details, but this makes a solid case for public up/downvotes, it makes fuckery public.

FaceDeer,
FaceDeer avatar

Definitely. The public nature of voting means that it should be possible for anyone to write a bot that spots these patterns automatically.

Whether instance admins do anything about it is a separate matter, but at least everyone will know whether they're doing something about it.

livus,
livus avatar

Off topic but I just love your name/image so much!

FaceDeer,
FaceDeer avatar

Why thank you. :) It was a name I picked kind of randomly years ago when I decided to respond to a Reddit comment and needed to register an account, and I just happened to have seen the Endless Forest right beforehand. I never actually played it, though. It's since become my default online handle despite none of my interests being specifically oriented towards deer.

Then when I saw that Kbin/Lemmy allowed profile images I created a couple of potential avatars using Stable Diffusion and then cropped down my favourite.

livus,
livus avatar

Well, it's magical! It reminds me slightly of the forest spirit in Princess Mononoke but way more striking. Strange how these things come into being.

I really need to get a proper avatar. I just grabbed the first thing I saw that was the right size from my image folder.

Edit: omg those images are all fantastic. You can have a whole FaceDeer empire.

minnieo,
minnieo avatar

I was on the fence about the voting being public, some people may not wanna get shit for agreeing with one point or another was one point I saw (they may not feel they can vote freely) but it certainly does force accountability.

asteroidrainfall,
asteroidrainfall avatar

I think this is one argument in favor of having public boost/favorite lists, either on a post level or account level. Might help expose karma farming.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I would have blocked a lot of them just looking at the vile usernames. Thanks for the headsup.

HorreC,
HorreC avatar

all those accounts come back 404, maybe admins are on your side on this and took care of the issue.

fishos,
fishos avatar

I can still see them all tho on my end. I'm using the web app on kbin.

ozen,
ozen avatar

they all work for me when I click them. Some of them the pages just say "empty" probably due to them deleting their histories, but doesn't say 404

artisanrox,
artisanrox avatar

If you open the account in a new window it comes back 404. You have to directly just click the link and it'll show stats in the same window.

minnieo,
minnieo avatar

Direct @ links don't seem to work currently. The accs still exist.

RheingoldRiver,

They work if you left-click them, and not if you center-click them. I ticketed it last week. (on kbin)

HorreC,
HorreC avatar

yeah it seems to be that, if you @ someone that link comes back 404, but if you get them proper (from a comment or post) the page comes up. Thanks for pointing this out.

RheingoldRiver,

That's not quite what I meant: Here is an @ link: @HorreC If you left-click it, so it opens in the same tab, it should work properly. But usually people don't want to do that when they open profiles, they want to center-click them so they save the original tab. Try center-clicking it; you'll get a 404.

It's a bizarre bug haha

HorreC,
HorreC avatar

ahhh, thank you for walking me thru that!

RheingoldRiver,

no problem! figure a bunch of people are confused about it, now there's a link on kbin anyone can point to :)

HorreC,
HorreC avatar

damn it chica you are all over this site (I liked a lot of the alt looks you posted and noticed it was all you), but your name if I open a new tab on it is golden, but all of theirs come back with the 404, but like @RheingoldRiver said it might be a bug related thing.

contextual_somebody,

What a dork ass loser

StopMassDownvotingYouIdiot,

Its concerning that kbin might turn into Reddit with low effort shitposts hitting the front page most of the time because a few people decide to make tons of accounts and boost their posts early on to take advantage of the algorithm. They absolutely are a dork ass loser for ruining what could be a good thing - all for fake internet points, sheesh.

minnieo,
minnieo avatar

Thankfully the 'algorithm' of kbin is not near as toxic and shitty, it's a lot more simplistic and authentic. I like how comments with varying amounts of upvotes are displayed mixed up so I feel like I am actually experiencing a discussion involving everyone.

Pons_Aelius,

deleted_by_author

    •
    BaroqueInMind,
    BaroqueInMind avatar

    Name and shame.

    StopMassDownvotingYouIdiot,

    Exactly, the person I've mentioned in the post has already made 5 accounts in the last hour. We will never be able to block all of em. Identify, name, shame and of course downvote - the thing that will damage them the most.

    FaceDeer,
    FaceDeer avatar

    Admins have the ability to IP block (I assume - if they don't, I'm sure that's a feature that's in high demand). If they nuke accounts like this they should be able to prevent them from respawning.

    Failing that, automated detection of patterns like this should be possible.

    static,
    static avatar

    Upvotes are public, on kbin/not lemmy.

    With public upvotes bots should be detectable, I just have to write a bot to detect the bots.

    Teppic,
    Teppic avatar

    Not through the UI on Lemmy but, because of federation, upvotes can be exposed for Lemmy too.

    subignition,
    subignition avatar

    As long as activity remains public, this kind of inauthenticity will be transparent to anyone who wishes to look. Your vigilance is appreciated

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