Going straight to Goodwin's Law, this really does remind me of behavior from soldiers during WWII. I don't know how anyone can do this to other human beings.
Tacocuted
joined 1 year ago
Apologies for the late reply. I'm open to help in either way, actually. It would be fun to contribute to a FOSS project that manages bots for the Fediverse or to answer questions for those already trying to mitigate their presence here.
Another nail in the coffin for Reddit.
As someone that makes a living off of finding and stopping bots, I wish I had known about this project and subreddit. I would have liked to work alongside these folks.
If anyone reading this is in need of bot detection on the Fediverse please message me.
You're doing great.
Thanks so much for the insightful responses. You're right regarding the millions of ways to attack and that it's a fact of life. As long as there are other tribes there will be rocks to throw.
I didn't realize how much of Usenet was full of bots. I can imagine spam and trolls but it's interesting to think about the early days of bots. I take it for granted that the problem has been around for longer than companies centered around mitigation. It's heartening to know that you all handled it so well then and that the bigger instances built on ActivityPub are managing too.
On your point of mitigating these issues as they scale and grow, I completely agree. Previously in my career I worked on analyzing and mitigating malware. Bots are similar. It's a cat and mouse game. Regardless of how well we manage to detect and stop the tools bad actors use they will always find new ways to circumvent those methods. It's good job security.
It's the best thing to happen to social media in a long time.
No doubt, it really is. It feels so much better than what I have encountered elsewhere in terms of social media.
It's really cool to hear your perspective on this topic as you have a lot more experience historically coming from the proto versions of online communities. I really believe what you say is true in respects to civility and constructive collaboration being the natural order. Something I keep pondering is how communities like this will respond to the software and hardware of antagonizing forces. For context, my 9-5 is bot analysis and mitigation. As I watch all manner of bot technology mature, I can't help but wonder if our communities, and humans as a whole, are prepared to solve these problems.
Feel free to tell me to take my tinfoil hat off. ;)
You're absolutely right. Often times it also didn't feel like a conversation; rather, it was just a bunch of one liners. I'm also suspicious that there are a lot of bots commenting as well. It just didn't feel organic. In any case, I have wondered about your point regarding the current size of the community and how it lends itself to a more intimate experience. I'm hoping that with growth we can keep that going. Do you think it's possible?
Thank you for sharing the article and the TLDR. I honestly had no idea any of this had transpired.
That's a fair point. I shouldn't be surprised.