Has anyone else noticed this, across the fediverse, Lemmy specifically. A lot of new users, but also a lot of first posts that are very inflammatory/rage baity.
Do we have another legit influx of new users? Or do we just have some bad actors trying to stir the pot? Or maybe I’m imagining it.
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I used to see new accounts with weird names posting long AMAs in the [email protected] community.
Are those LLM bots or are they real users?
I don’t think it’s an uptick, it’s been around for as long as I’ve used the Fediverse.
I’ve never understood the mindset that this social site is made up of a different mix of personalities than any other. It’s not. There’s very nice people here and there’s very mean people here. Often, the very nice are quiet so you won’t always notice them but the meanest are usually very outspoken and everyone comes across something left by them. Hatred, ignorance and toxicity is not something that’s left at the door of the fediverse.
We ought to moderate well and do better than elsewhere though. Well, at least I would hope that users would gravitate towards instances that moderate their users better, so we get more civil behavior.
I’ve never understood the mindset that this social site is made up of a different mix of personalities than any other. It’s not.
On the other hand, this is often the case in small communities. Most Lemmy instances are general-purpose or large enough to have a typical mix, but I have been to a few sites which will moderate away any hostility whatsoever, and that does make the site unusable for some personalities. These kind of sites have rules like “No politics. No insults. No drama.” Toxicity isn’t inevitable, there’s nothing forcing community staff to tolerate mean people or mean outbursts, but it does take a mixture of design decisions and careful micromanagement which most communities, and especially most large sites, don’t bother with.
edit: and on the flipside, there are also communities where toxicity is expected and it’s amazing to see someone acting nice there, it might even be done as a trolling method.
Bots originating in russa, china, etc, etc spreading social unrest
Those countries want to divide us and it’s working
That’s a lame and cheap attack and also ridiculous.
Try replying to these so-called “Russian and Chinese bot accounts” and see what happens
You won’t get evasive and broken English, rather a long and thorough breakdown grounded in theory and history
Lol
“Theory and history”
Nothing out of the ordinary personally.
Meta communities are prompt to drama, but that’s the usual.
Edit: I just remember I’ve seen a few one-day account posting obvious ragebait. That usually gets removed quickly.
Edit2: example https://lemmy.world/post/33629252
Intentionally inflammatory posts? I haven’t noticed an uptick, honestly. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one and doesn’t mean I won’t notice now that you posted it.
But I will say that I’ve basically stopped checking my notifications because all of a sudden it seems like almost every time I go in there, I’ve got at least one insufferable, hostile, negative, etc response or message in there. It didn’t used to be that way.
Mostly I assume we must’ve recently gotten an influx of new users from Reddit or someplace similarly toxic. Things usually get a bit unfortunate for a time when that happens.
As a fairly new user to lemmy I have found that the community can be pretty brutal and there are quite a lot of set things that are frowned upon. Windows always gets a lot of abuse, but for me here in the UK the amount of Mac and Linux users is miniscule, for example… yet Windows is frowned upon greatly. Sp whilst not raging, it is deffo anti a fair few things. I know it is to be expected as it is a fairly technical things to use lemmy/piefed/fediverse but it still makes me wince. Like everything these days, the less passionate just don’t post any more so it does bring out some strong responses
If you keep out of Political Communities then you may not see them.
This has been in the Ask communities unfortunately
Yeah but the toxicity is still negligible, but I do get your point.
Cool new avatar!
We try to keep an eye about those posts on [email protected]
Thank you! After Admiral Patrick left I felt like there was a void here, introducing Captain Swift!
Definitely. Most of the time communities are friendly and supportive - but I’ve noticed too that there are users who seem deliberately scratchy and saying things that are looking to provoke and who become fizzy if they’re challenged in any way about something they’ve said. I wondered if it’s much younger users who are coming from other places having picked up the “fight me” attititude there.
I think that’s why it becomes so noticeable - it’s usually so calm and chill that when someone comes in to stir the pot it’s so obvious
In my experience, it’s not new. I noticed things were far more hostile than my reddit experience from the moment i got on Lemmy. Maybe it’s because I unsubscribed from all the toxic places on Reddit (i promise they exist) but I browse /all here since it’s too quiet otherwise.
Not inflammatory, but I’ve noticed some new users who come only to do self promotion, without engaging in anyting else in the platform. Mostly in art related comms but also a couple trying to promote a shady website or the like. Even though my account is new I’ve been browsing for a good while and dislike people that are only looking for an audience not a community.
I do some self promotion, although I try to; 1: only post in relevant forums. 2: also engage outside of my own posts an then not talk about said posts.(this time is an exception but its kind of a meta discussion.)
Due to the nature of the fedivers what I post on mastodon and pixelfed might get federated on to Lemmy, which unfortunately might give the appearance of spamming, I’m aware of this but I don’t see a way around that. And lastly. I don’t think my videos on Peertube would get any views unless I post them outside of peertube since there is no real algorithm or good discovery functions across the instances. But I’m open to being in the wrong here.
And to clarify, self promo is ok! My complaint is about the ones who wouldn’t even see this post (or any other post for the matter), much less reply to it. They just take up space and do not give anything of value back. Imo. As the fediverse grows it’s bound to happen, it just pisses me off.
Or do we just have some bad actors trying to stir the pot?
Yes.
People are hostile idiots sometimes, also, so that doesn’t help. But yes, people are definitely trying to stir up deliberate ballache for whatever weird reasons of their own.
For context
