I can see if accounts do it occasionally and organically but are accounts that exist solely to repost popular and recent posts from twitter/reddit/Facebook healthy for the Fediverse?

  • Rimu@piefed.socialEnglish
    10·
    3 days ago

    YSK that I’ve tagged all those accounts as bots on piefed.social.

    Unlike on Lemmy, on PieFed people can choose to still see bot-generated posts but have them semi-transparent which makes them easy to scroll past OR interact with if you want. As well as the Lemmy option of just filtering them out entirely.

    e.g. like this example:

    image

    I’ve also been thinking that a binary “this is a bot” or “this is human” flag is too limited and we need a third option - “this is a reposter” and people could choose to make-transparent, filter out or show their posts independently of the bot-or-not setting.

    • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Automated --> bot. If they’re using a “share to Lemmy” button, that’s not automation. If they’re using a one click script, that’s automation and should be marked as a bot.

    • Sergio@piefed.socialEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      I suggest that you set the number at which someone gets tagged “a reposter” kinda high. Like, I post niche memes at least 2-3 times a week, but I try to pick good ones and add context if they’re obscure. But I also post weekly watch party announcements, and it’d suck if those all got graybanned.

      Also… Are YouTube and Bandcamp links considered reposts? Because most music communities are made up of people posting links to songs they like.

      (p.s. I’m not hating… I’m a big fan of piefed!)

      • Rimu@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        2-3 times a week is nothing. 2-3 per day is completely fine.

        It would only be used for the most flagrant accounts, ones with some level of automation - dozens of posts per day with almost no comments. That sort of thing.

        I too find content on other networks (mostly Mastodon, occasional YouTube) and post them here. Often a few per day. But it’s all completely manual and I usually rewrite the description, add hashtags, etc. And I’ll interact with people who comment on the posts. Cross-pollination of content is normal and good.

        There’s a point though, usually enabled by using some extra software tools like the one above, where someone ends up flooding their target communities, not responding to comments on the posts, looking inauthentic when they repost OC which plainly isn’t theirs and causing extra moderation work because their content is in the wrong places. Sanitation is the most obvious example of this but there are others.

        Despite this, a lot of people upvote and comment on their posts. I don’t know if

        1. they’re even aware of who the author is. Most apps do not emphasise this strongly so it’s easy to miss.
        2. if they are aware then are they aware that the author is ignoring them and won’t learn from the feedback they’re getting?

        … Or if they don’t care. Maybe they’re just content with the conversation in the comments without the OPs involvement. That’s valid (although not the kind of conversation I personally want to be a part of).

        It’s probably a combination of don’t know and don’t care. For those people, labelling sanitation et al as a bot would seem heavy-handed. That’s why I’m leaning towards creating an in-between state, for these kinds of centaur accounts.