Discussion
Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena I'm in the process of building a tool to help admins fight this very spam signup problem. I have a way to go but it's in the works and admins are using it.
@_elena I'm in the process of building a tool to help admins fight this very spam signup problem. I have a way to go but it's in the works and admins are using it.
@_elena
That's the curse of the open registration servers 😅
It's cyclical though
@_elena I don't like the word "follower" either. For you, I think they should be referred to as "Fireflies" because they light up your comments... well, hopefully. 😉
@ollierelfe totally! 99% fireflies and 1% cockroaches in my comments 🙊
>Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment
Yes, broadly and consistently.
> I wonder if #agenticAI has anything to do with the uptick in suspicious, bot-like accounts
Yes, broadly and consistently.
It is overwhelming some servers and some moderators, and many more are just tired of dealing with it.
IFTAS needs to hear from admins and moderators in the annual survey:
@_elena Probably worth doing.
@_elena @lisamelton I highly recommend turning on manual approvals. The bot levels are high out there.
@drfyzziks your post made me laugh out loud and I'm glad I wasn't drinking while reading it 😅 😂
@_elena it sucks. But is it really an issue having bot followers? Honest question
@_elena New person here, as in this-is-my-first-day. ☺️ Hi! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I am trying to leave all things Meta. I suspect there will be a lot of new people for the same reason. I’m glad you posted this (and somehow I saw it.) Now I know I need to add a profile image. But, I won’t have followers for a while. I don’t think I know anyone here yet. 🤷🏻♀️
@Smidgybit ooooh happy first day Smidgybit! Welcome to the Fediverse! ❤️
Thank you so much for your note and if I may, I would highly recommend doing a first introductory post about who you are using the Introduction hashtag. It's a great way to connect with people when you're just starting out.
More info from the excellent @FediTips website: https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-get-more-followers-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/
@Smidgybit my pleasure! Please ping me once you’ve published your introductory post and I’d be happy to boost it 🤗
Have you seen the approach @alice uses with her #alicecaptchs?
@_elena I’ve done a lot of pro-Ukraine posting and for that reason have had manual follow approvals on for years. (Russia’s bot war is well alive here as well as elsewhere) Never looked back!
@gimulnautti wow!
and yes, even if it takes a bit of work, I prefer going through the manual approval process 🥲
@_elena@mastodon.social that's the exact reason I have manual approval
@Stomata I learned my lesson!
@_elena Haven't been here for long, but I've noticed this as well. Expecting to see bots pushing political and corporate agendas similar to other platforms any time now. Hopefully Mastodon's bot detection can take care of it...
@0xAyanC for what it's worth, in the long list of new weird accounts I spotted, many of them were suspended by Mastodon...
@_elena Depending on the Fediverse API, server settings, your profile settings, etc., it is possible to see your friend list and their posts and build a network profile. These bots may not immediately engage in it, but in consort with other bots, can do some odd kinds of scraping, profiling, etc.
It's easier to profile you and your friends as a friend rather than from outside.
@_elena
You can push a follower away gently by blocking and then unblocking.
Unless they're instance admin or keeping track of their follows they won't notice.
@_elena can't speak to the weird usernames part but I'm new to mastodon and your account was recommended in the onboarding flow right after sign up. maybe that's why you're getting brand new accounts?
@boraginoru aw this makes sense! thank you so much for letting me know 🙏
@MichelPatrice awww brilliant move by @docpop 🙌
@_elena it may vary from server to server, but im my personal circles it tends to indicate newbies in Fediverse 😊 especially ones, who thought that You have to register for different instances and tools ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On the wider circles, it may be, it may be. And during last couple of years or so, it definitely comes in waves.
@KasTasMykolas true but some of these people have a name followed by a long string of numbers or random characters, no profile picture and no activity. from my dead bird site days (rip twitter), they make me think of spam accounts
You gave 1 example, but overall its big LLM spam wave. Especially on servers with open registration (still exist)
Not all admins takes care of their servers. I just seen LLM accounts on one such server discussing chat control vote, posting images, videos. Its getting increasingly more sophisticated. Some of your followers might be LLMs, and it will be increasingly difficult to notice. Its noticeable for admins themselves, but they may not care.
One tech solution is web of trust (qouted https://mastodon.0011.lt/@mindaugas/116812601404089404)
Another solution is small communities like @Bonfire recent feature https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/bonfire-social-1-0-5-archipelago/
And practically it may be non-technical adhoc solutions here and now (as talked in that thread).
@_elena and these are easy to notice 😊 Generating "human-like" username and profile picture is not that difficult.
@_elena Honest question: Whats the harm? As long as they are not spamming. We have all the tools at our disposal, blocking them, whole instances even.
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