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This magazine is dedicated to discussions on the federated social networking ecosystem, which includes decentralized and open-source social media platforms. Whether you are a user, developer, or simply interested in the concept of decentralized social media, this is the place for you. Here you can share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions on topics such as the benefits and challenges of decentralized social media, new and existing federated platforms, and more. From the latest developments and trends to ethical considerations and the future of federated social media, this category covers a wide range of topics related to the Fediverse.

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Why does most of the spam I see come from kbin accounts? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by ono@lemmy.ca to c/fediverse@kbin.social

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Whenever I see a run of spam posts on the fediverse, I've taken to looking at the usernames behind them. Nine times out of ten, they turn out to be from kbin instances. Here's a recent example:

https://kbin.social/u/valige

As I write this, that account shows 8 identical scam posts made within 7 minutes of each other, and nothing else. (I imagine they might be removed by the time you read this.) This is pretty common in my experience. These particular posts are all to kbin magazines, not lemmy communities, but I don't remember whether that's always the case.

Since the main kbin instance is not the only one broadcasting this stuff, I wonder if there's something about the kbin software that makes it attractive to spammers. Does anyone know?

Edit: Some examples that are still cached on my instance:

https://lemmy.ca/u/valige@kbin.social
https://lemmy.ca/u/NITIN-Hardiya279@kbin.social
https://lemmy.ca/u/ishadeshpande@kbin.social
https://lemmy.ca/u/varshareddy21@kbin.melroy.org
https://lemmy.ca/u/Satish-Kumar843@kbin.social
https://lemmy.ca/u/sareena@kbin.social
https://lemmy.ca/u/SidAvasthi@kbin.social

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[–] ono@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

just with kbin.social (and of course other badly moderated instances) specifically.

Yes, there's clearly a moderation problem, but it's not just kbin.social.

To rephrase the question: why is it that practically all the insufficiently moderated sites are kbin instances?

kbin currently only supports one admin per instance

An overwhelmed admin could partially explain why a lot of spam comes from a particular instance. But it wouldn't explain why most of the small instances generating spam have chosen kbin instead of lemmy.