• MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    The bots have inflated the total users count (around 2.4 million), but they aren’t active (yet). So for now active users is a recommended way to measure the fediverse. But once the bots start posting, we’ll have to find another way to track real user activity.

      • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, it’s absolutely disappointing and gross. Bots have been actively probing for obscure instances without registration validation and flocking to them. Good thing the top real lemmy instances (like lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, sh.itjust.works, lemmy.ca) have been much more vigilant about that.

      • NotAPenguin@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I don’t see how that could be done, the bot owners can always just spin up their own new instance where they control sign up requirements.

        Other instances can then defederate from the spam instance but they can quickly spin up a new one.

        Gonna be interesting to see how it’s solved.

          • NotAPenguin@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            The fediverse is decentralized, anyone can start their own lemmy/kbin/mastodon/whatever server and make an account they just approve themselves.

            If you mean some kind of global approval then that destroys the whole point of the fediverse.