this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
80 points (70.0% liked)

Unpopular Opinion

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People complaining about the bot are worse than the bot itself. Every comment thread or post about it (probably including this one) inevitably turns into people debating the bot’s usefulness.

If you’re someone who hates the bot, do what everyone has already said 10 trillion times: block it.

All the comment threads and posts by users wanting to “take it down” solve nothing. Just stop. It’s so irritating having to scroll past millions of comments of the same tired debate.

top 42 comments
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[–] Pronell@lemmy.world 32 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm always amused at the downvotes it collects. People hammering a button to acknowledge their dislike of something they are choosing to not block.

My only problem with these bots is that I don't want them counted toward comments - I hate going in to find the only comments are bots.

[–] CM400@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago

My only problem with these bots is that I don't want them counted toward comments - I hate going in to find the only comments are bots.

Agreed.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Blocking it does not stop it's misinformation. I'm not opposed to bots or it's layout in a comment. I'm opposed to having a blatantly biased source masquerading as an unbiased gatekeeper of credibility. You cannot block that.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm surprised we haven't seen an alternative news community on another instance than Lemmyworld and lemmy.ml emerge as an alternative without such bot.

Seems like the LW mods/admins don't want to change their opinion on the bot, so the expected reaction would be to see people leave those communities for others.

[–] transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

People just like complaining. They honestly just have too much free time

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago

Just remembered there is !globalnews@lemmy.zip

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago

Sounds reasonable

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 21 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Blocking it does not stop it's misinformation. I'm not opposed to bots or it's layout in a comment. I'm opposed to having a blatantly biased source masquerading as an unbiased gatekeeper of credibility. You cannot block that.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The irony of a comment reviewing the bias of some article is that someone else will always claim that the review is also biased. It's inevitable and unavoidable.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can avoid that by at least being internally consistent though.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 1 points 3 weeks ago

No, I don't think you can.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

So you’re smart enough to realize it’s “blatantly biased” but others aren’t so we need to get rid of it?

It’s kind of like Lemmy users don’t understand that this is a decentralized platform where you can connect to it and do whatever you want. The whole point is for it to not be regulated by any one entity.

The way you can “take it down” is by building a better instance (or sponsoring someone else to), maintain/manage it, etc. It’s strange to me that you expect your instance operator and/or the platform at large to implement blocking a specific bot just for you, especially when your account is basically on the default “how to use Lemmy” instance.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

So we shouldn't fight misinformation? We should just cede that space to whoever shows up with a bot?

No thank you.

[–] undefined@links.hackliberty.org 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So I’m no expert on the bot but it seems like the hard right crowd are the ones crying about it being misinformation.

You’re on a federated, P2P (as far as instances go) platform not expecting to find misinformation from a bot; meanwhile you got all sorts of “user” accounts posting fake propaganda every other post and real humans with equally problematic opinions but for some reason the bot that might be inaccurate (maybe because it’s a BOT) seems to be the breaking point.

I’ve said my piece, I’m not really so interested in this topic to keep drilling down endlessly. The whole thing is fucking stupid.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

it seems like the hard right crowd are the ones crying about it being misinformation.

Hahahahaha no.

And I call out those posters when I see it too.

[–] callouscomic@lemm.ee 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I did but that doesnt remove the comment counter for the bots comment from the post feed. So i think there is something to engage with but nope, just the shitty bot that serves no actual purpose to begin with. Nobody double checks and audits the bot so its completely worthless.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Blocking it does not stop it's misinformation. I'm not opposed to bots or it's layout in a comment. I'm opposed to having a blatantly biased source masquerading as an unbiased gatekeeper of credibility. You cannot block that.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I have never ever even seen that bot.

[–] Link@rentadrunk.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

It’s in the news communities on Lemmy.world

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't use the comms where this bot pops up (for unrelated reasons) so I'll comment the following as an external observer.

May I be honest? I think that both sides are being muppets.

People defending that bot are mostly saying two things:

  • "jus hide all botz in u're profile lol lmao" - asking people to throw the baby out with the dirty bathtub water, given that plenty other bots are desirable;
  • "if u dun liek it than ~~fuck off~~ block it lmao haha" - extremely short-sighted, as annoyances don't happen only once, and if people need to block bots to make Lemmy usable they'll simply leave.

You are not solving the problem, you're just knee-jerk reacting to the other side's whining. I don't need more than a quick glance at the bot's profile to know that the bot is bloody hated by the users. This shite should be fixed or ditched, because as it stands it is not doing what a bot is supposed to do, to provide desirable functionality to the users.

People complaining about that bot: the group above might be knee-jerk reacting to your whining, but you're still regardless whining, like a herd of redditors and unlike decent people. If it's clear that your complains are falling into deaf ears, pack up your things and leave, nurture competing communities without that bloody bot.

[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I like the bot but never upvote it because it's a bot...

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

I think that this goes for both sides - there should be plenty people like you, who like it and don't upvote it, as well as plenty more people who dislike it but aren't downvoting it.

(I typically vote on bot content because it's useful as feedback for the maintainer, as well as helping with post/comment sorting.)