Alien Top
alien.top

I do not want to block all bots. I only want to block bots from specific instance. More specifically, the @alien.top instance is using most, if not all, bot accounts with random usernames. It uses that instance to post in communities of other instances. I thought about blocking other instances. But the main issue lies with random bot accounts from @alien.top. And I cannot block individually by usernames.

What shall I do to block posts posted by random bot accounts of @alien.top instance?

Update

I looked up potentially affiliated sites connected to that instance and found these.

https://level-up.zone/ (@communick, high post rate)
https://gearhead.town/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://viewfinder.pro/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://netheads.online/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://healthy.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://sfw.community/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://blockchained.world/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://matchpoint.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, low post rate)
https://poweruser.forum/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hi-fi.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://expats.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://nba.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://athletic.center/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://style.land/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://metacritics.zone/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://academy.garden/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, medium post rate)
https://foodie.rehab/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, no post yet)
https://indiehackers.space/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://hardware.watch/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)
https://nfl.community/?dataType=Post&page=1&sort=New (same admin, high post rate)

The instances may be hours to two months old and are run by the same admin. Some have high post rate, while others have no post yet. The ones with posts are all using @alien.top’s random bot accounts. I suspect this problem will amplify.

Update2

Blocking by instance is finally working. I blocked @alien.top and @hardware.watch. Consider this issue resolved.

  • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
    15·
    1 year ago

    Please, do not feel discouraged to participate. The idea of the bots is not to be a simple mirror, but to bootstrap real conversation. The next step of Fediverser is to allow two-way communication so that Reddit users can see the Lemmy content and migrate.

    The reason that alien.top content seems so overwhelming now is more to Lemmy"s losing its activity than a real “flood” of bots. My hope is that people will join in to the point of balancing out, but if this is leading to the opposite effect I will have to turn off, and that will be a shame because there are hundreds of people already using it “as intended”

    • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      1 year ago

      I read more about the project and it seems interesting. I suppose 2 way communication to sync accounts between reddit and lemmy would be interesting… would the reddit TOS allow that? Or would the reddit admins tolerate it for long? I suppose you’ve looked into it.

      The problem is the current state is confusing… if you look at the communities posted in by the bots, it is a huge flood of posts, like sometimes 20 posts in 15 minutes. I guess that would be different if Lemmy was more active, but it isn’t yet. Also, it’s confusing - one has to visit alien.top and github to have any idea what’s going on, and if the account holders aren’t receiving the posts, it’s sort of wasting people’s effort on lemmy and not creating true engagement. Perhaps a disclaimer like ‘this post mirrored by Fediverser’ would help.

      • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
        15·
        1 year ago

        I agree with pretty much everything but:

        it’s sort of wasting people’s effort on lemmy and not creating true engagement

        Even if we don’t have two-way communication, having the content mirrored has two purposes:

        • it allows lurkers to move away from reddit and browse here.

        • it works as a prompt for conversation between “organic” subscribers.

        I will add a comment to every post though (similar to how AutoModerator does) to indicate that is a mirrored comment and with general instructions on how to interact with the bots and some links to describe the project.

        • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Great, I think as my and other people’s experience illustrates it has been a bit confusing so far, being unexplained. The byline will help a lot, I think.

          Sure, it’s useful as it is as long as people check into their Lemmy accounts. I suppose I would if I signed up and was aware there might be replies waiting for me on Lemmy in addition to Reddit.

          • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
            15·
            1 year ago

            So, a comment like this one will be sent on every mirrored post. The only issue I see with this approach is that there is no way to pin a comment to the top of the thread…

              • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
                14·
                1 year ago

                Seems like you want to crowdsource advertising for alien.top.

                Yes and no. Anyone can set up a fediverser instance, and I am certainly not going to let it grow over past 10k “organic users”. My hope is to grow alien.top enough only to validate the idea of fediverser as a migration mechanism and to have more people deploying “fediversed” instances.

                  • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
                    14·
                    1 year ago

                    I hope people set up fediverse instances instead of fediverser mirror proxies, we need people to communicate with - Not a “shadowbanned” experience for new users where nobody interacts with them.

                    You are missing the point. There is no need to have multiple instances doing the content mirroring, and the more people migrate from Reddit, the more I will be able to disable the mirroring.

                    The idea is not to get fediverser instances just to mirror more Reddit content. The idea is to get more “fediverser” instances to scale the operation of a coordinated Reddit migration. alien.top itself can not be the home of a million Reddit migrants.

            • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              That’s cool, I think that will help explain it. I didn’t realize the accounts for people on reddit were being created on lemmy automatically though. Do the reddit users even know it’s happening?

    • remotelove
      51·
      1 year ago

      Your instance is misreporting its name somehow and it was super annoying when I was trying to block it.

      Is it alien.top or selfhosted.forum? Pick one please.

      Also, do you manage any other instances so I can block those as well? Needless to say, I am slightly pissed off that I have replied to several posts before I saw they were bots. Some of those replies took some effort when I was trying to actually be helpful.