Is it just Kbin, or does every fediverse service have the issue of being totally swarmed with bots advertising illegal pharmaceuticals? Is this just the result of limited moderation?
Kbin seems more affected than others from what I can see in reports but it exists on other instances too.
It is a moderation issue in the sense that it is too easy for these bots to sign up. Individual instances could improve this by requiring an application for example.
With Lemmy, we have seen huge numbers of bots at times but most large Lemmy instances have registration applications turned on. As in you apply to join an instance instead of just being able to make an account.
By default this means waiting for manual approval of your account, but many instances set up automated approval behind the scenes.
This function means many spam bots are averted before the public sees them, and also spammers avoid instances with registration applications.
I mention this because Kbin, or at least Kbin.social, doesn’t appear to have registration applications which makes it a prime target for spam.
Also Lemmy has coordination between dozens of instance admins sharing details of spammers. I.e. a lot of hard work behind the scenes. I’d guess the lack of moderation at the admin level also accounts for part of the issue on kbin.
(A lot of Lemmy spam also comes via federation from Kbin.social, so much that many instances block high spam communities on Kbin and some block Kbin completely).
Is it just me, or between the situation with Twitter, Reddit still being a trash fire if you look in the right places, and Threads just not really being great at viral engagement, is there just a huge wave of social media ennui and exhaustion?
I would easily believe it's just me. But every time I look at social media lately, I'm not seeing a lot of enthusiasm or mass engagement.
Just you. Went back through oldreddit a while back and it’s mostly back to business as usual. Either the reddit admin team is great at making things look normal or most people left just don’t give a shit. I’m sticking with lemmy just because they killed my RiF app. But I still check every now and then
It's interesting to see that in spite of being accused of being terminally online, I didn't boot my computer up until almost dinner time. I think it's probably a good sign.
Why do fast food places give out so much sauce? I got 4 chicken nuggets and some fries, asked for mayonnaise for the fries, they gave me three packets. Got honey mustard for the nuggets, and they gave me two tubs of it. Are people really using 1.66 oz. of sauce on 4 tiny nuggets?
If you're here from Reddiit, please remember to use the boost link in the post rather than the Upvote button, as the Upvote is meaningless to a user's reputation.
Lemmy doesn't currently have a boost button. Boosts are literally Mastodon's version of a retweet button and since kbin is more compatible with mastodon than lemmy is atm, kbin users have one too.
Unfortunately, incorporating Mastodon's system on a standard forum hasn't panned out quite well -- people are WAY more likely to downvote something than they ever are to reblog it, causing perfectly civil users to have a -400 karma balance. The kbin dev has already acknowledged that it's unbalancing things a bit, so hopefully that should be handled when he gets through the 900 other things. Until then, upvotes on Lemmy I assume are normal, but upvotes on kbin's side are literally just for looks.
Welcome, btw. It takes a while to get used to things here, but I hope you aren't finding things too difficult :)
for Lemmy users there doesn't seem to be a running, total tally the way there is on Reddit.
To be honest with you, I would rather kbin's karma be handled in the same manner that lemmy handles it. I see no reason for it outside of sorting. Communities could lock the ability to post behind a minimum karma like reddit did, but nobody can really pretend bots won't just get around the limit by reposting a single picture of a cat.
I sense by far what having a visible reputation on a user's profile is going to lead to is just a bunch of karma farming. The low-effort reposts, mindlessly repeated one-liners, and constant bitchy one-upmanship are all things I'd be very glad to leave behind me forever. I didn't even realize how bad it had gotten til I left, and now whenever I end up back on reddit for something, the whole thing just makes me tired. I seem to have been a frog, boiling alive in mean little shitposts.