So I’m not looking for a fight, but can we have a friendly talk about the value of repost bots in the context of this medium? I just feel like yapping, so feel free to ignore if no.
Lemmy shares a format with Reddit - they’re feed aggregators. Their value proposition is having everything in one place so a community can pass judgment on it all. That’s why people hate reposts and bad faith actors, adverse or opaque sorting algorithms, and agenda-driven moderators - they directly devalue the medium. We tend to like original content, genuine sentiments and human connections, and relevant posts because those directly support the inherent value of a feed aggregator.
I’m not convinced either way about repost bots, yet. They’re clearly not genuine or original, and too many of them will tend to obscure - you know what? I got there in the end I see it now.
I could still see the value in a carefully chosen, rate-limited bot that reposts with the blessing of the moderators, but the rate and curation are important, and the rate has to take into account the number of other communities using them versus the number of active users, so it’s not trivial to decide what the right amount would be.
Unfortunately they don’t create the same engagement as a natural post. No one wants to comment on a wall of bot posts with no human involved. All it does is kill actual community engagement. Lemmy and reddit are not just link aggregators, they are forums for discussion, with humans.
The main issue for small subs can be solved with pinned threads.
The whole, where do I go to eat this here or what restaurant is good for this food or who does this kind of work locally or look at what I ate at so and so restaurant and you probably can imagine the theme here. Put into one post and ban whoever advertises. No need to repost pinned threads.
FINNISH HYMN
I think negative interaction is a good start. There’s a reason people get their posts deleted, shadow banned, or just banned.
Pinned threads solve for perpetual topics within (specific) communities sure, but the main area where too many repost bots will do the most harm if left unchecked is when cruising all or local. People who sort by new are the lifeblood of a feed’s (federated) community, and if there’s not enough of them to boost the most valuable signals, the (federated) community won’t grow and might even shrink.
So I’m not looking for a fight, but can we have a friendly talk about the value of repost bots in the context of this medium? I just feel like yapping, so feel free to ignore if no.
Lemmy shares a format with Reddit - they’re feed aggregators. Their value proposition is having everything in one place so a community can pass judgment on it all. That’s why people hate reposts and bad faith actors, adverse or opaque sorting algorithms, and agenda-driven moderators - they directly devalue the medium. We tend to like original content, genuine sentiments and human connections, and relevant posts because those directly support the inherent value of a feed aggregator.
I’m not convinced either way about repost bots, yet. They’re clearly not genuine or original, and too many of them will tend to obscure - you know what? I got there in the end I see it now.
I could still see the value in a carefully chosen, rate-limited bot that reposts with the blessing of the moderators, but the rate and curation are important, and the rate has to take into account the number of other communities using them versus the number of active users, so it’s not trivial to decide what the right amount would be.
Unfortunately they don’t create the same engagement as a natural post. No one wants to comment on a wall of bot posts with no human involved. All it does is kill actual community engagement. Lemmy and reddit are not just link aggregators, they are forums for discussion, with humans.
FIGHT!
The main issue for small subs can be solved with pinned threads.
The whole, where do I go to eat this here or what restaurant is good for this food or who does this kind of work locally or look at what I ate at so and so restaurant and you probably can imagine the theme here. Put into one post and ban whoever advertises. No need to repost pinned threads.
FINNISH HYMN
I think negative interaction is a good start. There’s a reason people get their posts deleted, shadow banned, or just banned.
Pinned threads solve for perpetual topics within (specific) communities sure, but the main area where too many repost bots will do the most harm if left unchecked is when cruising all or local. People who sort by new are the lifeblood of a feed’s (federated) community, and if there’s not enough of them to boost the most valuable signals, the (federated) community won’t grow and might even shrink.