1 yr. ago • 92%

My entire Lemmy feed is 1 single user (bot?) reposting the same link across communities

Is there anything I can do about duplicates? I use Sync for Lemmy on Android.

63 comments

Block that bot user?

106
- How do u do this on sync? There is several annoying bots i want to block but clicking the name of the bot doesn't do anything.
  
  10
  
  If you can't find the option to block in your preferred app, you can always go to your instance in a browser and block the user in your settings.
  
  20
  
  3 dot menu on the post, then click on the user in the menu. That will take you to their profile so you can block them. Also, I believe clicking on the user/community name is a toggleable option in sync.
  
  13
  
  The bot doesn't have a profile? If it does, you have to go there then scroll to the right:
  
  3
  
  On a post in the feed, hit the three dot button and filter out that user/community or instance. If you want to block rather than just filter, go to the bot user profile and hit block in the top bar.
  
  2
  
  1
- Block that bot user?
  
  That's a stupid question. ;)
  
  Edit: Anyone downvoting this should be ashamed. It's a reference to his username.
  
  5
  
  Explain
  
  14
  
  FWIW, I (obviously) understood that reference and upvoted you :)
  
  12
  
  Not remembering a joke from an episode that aired 25 years ago doesn't really rank high on most people's shame-o-meters, my dude
  
  4
Soapbox opinion time. Post spamming to parallel communities across instances is antithetical to federation.

Post spamming discourages users from federating with parallel communities on federated instances because users who do end up with feeds congested with duplicate posts. This encourages unsubscribing which results in reduced engagement across communities and isn’t fair to other contributors who choose not to post spam. The alternative would be to block the post spammer, which wouldn’t be ideal either, since articles are often still worth reading.

If a post spammer is concerned about visibility from defederated instances, then I suggest using an instance that federates to more instances. Furthermore, please respect an instance’s choice to defederate from yours if that’s where you choose to be. If your instance was defederated from another, that means the users there do not want to see any posts from your instance, even if you think they do.

I implore post spammers to reconsider the logic behind their actions, as the impact on the fediverse is more negative than positive.

52
- I think crossposting is okay as it should take care of duplicates to the end user, right?
  
  1
I moved instances recently and have been too lazy to migrate by subscriptions, so I’ve just been browsing on All with Top 6-Hour sort.

The number of bot accounts that just spam post from RSS feeds every 15-30 minutes or so and get zero engagement are infuriating. No one interacts with it! Just give it up!

“There is also a discussion over on Hacker News” well tell hacker news that the news we want to discuss is how to mitigate spam from shitty bots!

39
- That hacker news bot is the worst.
  
  9
Getting real annoyed by these kinds of posts.

This happens on reddit too.

Look into your app filters. Block users. Block instances.

34
- FYI for anyone unaware: blocking users is a core Lemmy feature and blocking with an app should block inside Lemmy itself; meaning if you switch apps or log in from the web, your block list remains intact.
  
  Instance blocking is not a core Lemmy feature (yet) and so if it’s available in your app, be aware that your app is what does the blocking. Meaning if you switch apps or log in from the web that block won’t be there.
  
  11
  
  sync has block and filter.
  
  block is generic lemmy, filter is sync specific.
  
  you can filter keywords, users, communities and instances.
  
  you can only block users and communities.
  
  6
- How do you block an instance? All I see are users and communities.
  
  9
  
  It's a feature on an app. There are no filters and you can't block instances unless you're using that one app and apparently in some people's minds everyone uses that one app.
  
  3
Most have rightfully pointed out that you should block that user.

Another solution is joining more communities so it's not your ENTIRE FEED.

27
If you're using Sync, it's the three dots on any post or comment, then Filter. You can choose to filter (block) the user, the community, the linked website, or the entire instance hosting it.

Three dots usually indicate "options" or "settings" when using Android. I'd invite you to tap those buttons any time you see them and learn more about the tools you are using.

15
- For Sync, "filter" and "block" are separate functions, blocking a user or community will also block them on the site you use, but filtering them only removes the posts locally on Sync.
  
  4
Rand al Thor would disapprove of your actions, RandAlThor

11
- I think it's actually Randal Thor
  
  0
  
  It isn't.
  
  3
  
  I think it's actually Rand all Thor
  
  1
I feel like this can, and should, be handled client-side. It would be a relatively simple matter of auto-hiding a post where the title is a duplicate match to anything in the last, say, 25 posts. User configurable.

I know that feels like a hack, but for the reasons posted by the top commenters, we don't want to make things weird for parallel communities.

8
For immediate change, sort by active or top 12 hour. Hot gives too much new.

7
- Unfortunately Active or Top just serves me the exact same posts I scrolled through previously in the day. Not sure if it's an app issue or just a lack of content on lemmy overall.
  
  6
  
  I turn off the option to show viewed posts.
  
  1
  
  If you keep scrolling down you get more content (and away from the new spam).
  
  1
The default UI on web browsers has a fix for this already

4
There is currently a discussion about these bots going on in /c/meta right now. There are a few instances with rampant repost bots that just spam posts from Reddit constantly.

3
- FYI you're commenting on a lemmy.world post right now, not Lemm.ee.
  
  You can't drop /c/ in comment threads like you might use /r/ on Reddit, because there's no singular /c/meta. You have to clarify which instance's /c/meta you're talking about.
  
  1
I avoid duplicate topics in my subscriptions, unless I am especially interested in a particular topic.

1
You've been here for two months and you don't know how to block users or bots?

Yikes, Im scared of what your experience here has been like

-12
- I see the douchebags leaked from Reddit
  
  2
  
  I'm a douchebag because I know how to block accounts? Wat. It's a basic function on lemmy.
  
  -3

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