How can Lemmy avoid the bots? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by voiceofchris@lemmy.world to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world

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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?

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[-] Zak@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Something I'd like to see Lemmy and others adopt is a federated identity/reputation system.

My identity as @Zak@lemmy.world has only modest reputational value. It's moderately risky to let me participate in a new community, and busy moderators probably shouldn't give me much slack before banning me if I post something that makes me look like an asshole or a spammer. In a place with a high enough volume or vulnerable enough population, perhaps this account shouldn't be allowed to participate at all[0]. Someone willing to put a bit of effort into abusive behavior could create many accounts that look like mine.

If, on the other hand, I can prove that I'm also https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Zak, that's a more valuable identity. There aren't all that many 16 year old accounts on news.ycombinator.com. If I can also produce a verifiable token with some machine-readable facts about that account, such as its age, post count, reputation score, how many of its posts have been moderated, if it has ever been banned, etc... then communities could have automated criteria for joining.

Of course, communities would need to maintain lists of who they trust as reputation providers, which could also be shared to reduce the workload.

[0] Lemmy does not currently have tools to restrict participation other than only allowing moderators to post. I think it's going to need them.

[-] emptyother@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Like Keybase does?

[-] Zak@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The identity proof aspect is similar, but what I'm proposing goes beyond that to add a protocol for reputation information.

The idea is a substitute for the account age and karma requirements many subreddits use to make creating accounts for abuse difficult. There are opportunities to be more sophisticated about it though, such as a community only accepting reputation from certain closely-related communities.