this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2023
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Due to the nature of how the protocols work, there needs to be some sort of server attached to an account
Wouldn't it be possible to create server that simply functions as an account registration server as a way to which automatically approves users when they attempt to create an account? That would easily solve the problem. Disallow any posts or interaction, it could just function as a way to register accounts.
Edit: Perhaps that goes too far. Instead, a simple indicator on whether a server allows automatic account registration or not would suffice. Would you guys find that to be an agreeable solution?
There's no central account system with lemmy, so what you're asking for isn't really possible. It's more or less by design choice. Ie, nothing is centralised at all, so no one can shut down the whole fediverse or control its content.
But, an open instance IS possible. Just the software is in its infancy so there are not strong anti-spam measures in place yet, so it may take a bit for someone to put in the effort to run one.
The problem I have with this is it's too high a barrier of entry. There is absolutely no way Lemmy can become a real reddit competitor with an invite only account approval process imo, because any barrier to entry whatsoever will dissuade many users from joining.
It is not invite-only. Most instances are approval-only. As I said earlier, as of now, it is a necessary evil.
Approval only, I used the wrong terminology. Apologies.
No worries :)
Chances are this will change on some instances once more anti-spam things are put in place.
Don't compare lemmy to reddit directly - think more of the days of internet forums. Lemmy is kind of a return to that with some reddit features I've personally found, and the average person was able to handle registering accounts with that in the past.
Fair enough!
What do you propose? There were a couple of people here constantly making accounts called hitler_was_awesome and they were posting gore.
Allow subs to have automod functionality that will automatically ban users with usernames containing hate speech or if they make comments that contain hate speech. Reddit has automod functionality, I see no reason lemmy cannot as well. It should be up to the server admins whether they want to implement an automod system if they choose to do so.
It is. Server admins can do whatever they want.
Then the solution I suggested would already solve the problem you described IMO.
If someone implements it on the per-instance basis, it works and is not resource heavy, great. But it will be a while, before someone actually gets there.
.
hmm I am not convinced it would work.
Lemmy had a slur filter in the early days, that blocked certain words from being able to be posted, and a lot of people hated that. Dunno why, but well.
An automod slur filter should be server specific and implemented by the admins who run that server. Decentralization requires that any user can create any account that they want in my opinion. Trying to censor anything is antithetical to Lemmy's stated goal. Lemmy's devs don't have to allow hate speech servers to be discoverable from the join-lemmy site, but banning an account wholesale like this for any reason defeats the purpose of this platform.
Accounts can't be banned wholesale. They can only be banned by the admins of a server.
It was. Again, you could do with the slur filter whatever you wanted as an instance admin. And admins of other instances can defederate with your instance for your decision, too.
I fully and wholeheartedly support that. I think the best solution now after some reflection would to just add an indicator the join-lemmy.org server listing page on whether a server automatically approves accounts or if they are invite only. Would that be agreeable to you?
I was just talking from experience. I believe that the spammer could easily create a new account and then just spam offending images, whatever.
I mean, again, automod could easily be configured to solve that if they build it into the platform. A server being invite only is totally fine to me, reddit has that functionality as well. I fully support the ability to make private servers with account approval processes.
Yes, I wouldn't mind a theoretical automod that helped with admin work. I am not against that. I am trying to explain how we arrived at the situation we are at today, where all servers are with application only.
Your account is 3 hours old, what do you think is the ethos of Lemmy?
Where do you read this, on lemmy or the website? https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/index.html
Because someone might spam disgusting content because they don't like lemmy.
FOR WEEKS THERE WHERE PHOTOS OF PEOPLE EATING SHIT IN THE TIMELINE A COUPLE OF TIMES PER DAY.
That's why the code is public, for lemmy as well.
You know, there was a nazi lemmy server, a while ago. It just wasn't connected to all but one or two very small other right-wing lemmy servers. Because everyone else blocked them.
So wait, do they even still exist on the platform at all, or are the servers themselves and the users as well entirely banned from the platform entirely?
There is no platform. There just are independent servers that make their own decisions.
Okay then to be honest, I'm really struggling to see the problem with what I'm saying here, since it seems to me you are agreeing that independent servers get to make those types of decisions. I'm a little confused and could use some clarification on what you mean.
Let's just stop this conversation here ^^
No prob! If you don't want to continue discussing that's entirely your prerogative, and I won't push the issue further.
My guess is once the software matures some some more open instances will pop up. The basics are still being figure out and honed, and with the higher user accounts the past few days admins are already struggling to keep things running. I've seen several of the larger instances go up and down all day (hence why I fired up my own for myself)
Question then, would a viable solution to what I'm suggesting be simply adding an indicator of whether servers auto-approve user account creation or not on the join-lemmy.org site?
Yep! That would be the place for them.
I'm not aware of any open instances that exist at the moment though. Eventually once some automatic moderation tools start developing they'll probably start (slowly) popping up.
I opened a github issue for this here: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/2899
Yeah as long as there is an indicator of whether a server is an open instance or not would immediately solve the issue I'm describing, for myself at least.
Yeah, had to use an auto-register server for Mastodon cuz I didn't know which servers would actually accept an account request
Fortunately for Lemmy they have a default instance that was pretty fast to get the account on, pretty sure it could go full auto but for the moment they're trying to ward off troll n whatnot
Edit: upon reflection, a much better solution in my eyes would simply be to indicate whether a server auto-approves user account creation on join-lemmy.org or if they are approval only. Would any of you find that to be agreeable?
Yeah, I really hope that Lemmy eventually goes auto with account registration on their default instance, but still letting you choose to take a shot at an invite-only instance if you really wanted too
Agreed!
Edit: If not global auto-approving of user account creation across all instances or automatic account registration on the default instance, I think what would be viable is an indicator of whether a server auto-approves account creation or whether it is invite only.