Bot infestation?

NumberedDuck@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 1 points –

So I was on the Mlem app and I see post after post made by bot. I’m assuming this really is a bot? Some new communities only seem to have posts made by bots, and in the text it says that they copied a post from Reddit. What’s going on? I don’t see the same thing when I’m on Lemmy through the weblink. Is there something I should do with those posts? Ignore them? Is there something wrong with the Mlem app?

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Some communities have bots that copies posts from Reddit. Some do that so there would be more content in Lemmy. Those bots probably don't break any rules set by the Admins of those instances.

Personally I don't like that content is being copied without the permission of those who made the posts in Reddit. Also, in some cases it sort of defies the whole point of the community. For example, one of the Explain Like I'm Five communities has a bot like that. The bot includes a link to the original post. Why would anyone reply to the bot's post, when you can just read the explanation from the original post? That doesn't help make Lemmy more active place when a bot posts things and no human ever replies to them.

Totally agree. We need content and we need it fast, yes, but not that kind of content. It's just theft.

Check out the ratio of comments to posts on World News, which has more than one bot. And check the same ratio for this community. It doesn't feel right, does it?

Thanks for explaining, I agree. Just copying Reddit isn’t going to enrich the fediverse. On the contrary. We need to make our own posts, our own discussions, useful information and our own databases.