alien.top is a new level of Reddit crossposting spam
Whoever is in charge of that instance, STOP.
It's an instance that crossposts posts from Reddit, except it also makes a new user for each Reddit account it came from. So if /u/hello123 made a post, it makes that post under a new account called hello123. That makes it impossible to block posting bots.
Not only that, it makes posts look like they're posted by real people, with many question and text posts being copied as well. I was very confused as to what these posts were until I realized they're crossposts.
Examples:
https://lemm.ee/u/pocalyuko@alien.top
https://lemm.ee/u/ItzMeRocket@alien.top
https://lemm.ee/u/CaptainCapp-n@alien.top
I strongly believe Lemmy isn't the place for mirroring content from other websites. You can host your own alternate Reddit frontend like LibReddit, there's no reason to spam the posts to everyone using Lemmy just because 5 people asked for it. Not to mention there are already enough instances mirroring posts, this is getting obnoxious.
Don't forget alternative c) the people who sign up through alien.top are not the people who are getting their content mirrored.
Also, it's important to point out that the best way to stop the mirroring is by simply logging out and taking over their account. The process is as simple as possible, people don't even need to create a password. All they need is to claim their account.
It is the exact same approach that Facebook did with Threads by leveraging Instagram.
my point stands, its bad publicity and will not help growing lemmy organically.
Its nice that meta, the nice little family run company did that. /s
noone asked meta to do that. it's a hostile move.
noone asked YOU to do that. it's a hostile move too.
you are using strategies of a megacorp with a reputation of crapping all over everything the fediverse stands for. i would recommend you start less doing and more thinking, and not on a technical level, but on the morality of your decisions. as you can see in the overwhelming negative responses (except for the ppl using you as their personal reddit-rss-feed) and the defederations, your actions already lead to the isolation of your instance, which will hurt your users too.
ETA: just wanted you to know that do think that your service is neither GDPR-compliant nor CCPA-compliant. i don't know if you checked with your lawyer before, but i'm pretty sure you don't have a process for deletion requests, since you don't have a privacy policy posted, which is where that info should be if you had any to give. (The data you copied over is another can of problems, namely reddits lawyers, who probably reserve all rights to make your life pretty sucky)
Is it growing now? Last I checked, it lost 2/3 of its active users since the summer, and it keeps going down. For all the talk that it generated, 32k MAU is a ridiculous low number.
Hostile move towards whom?
If it is against Reddit Corp, do you really care?
All the "hostility" being perceived against Lemmy users is from those complaining they are browsing via "All". Ok, I disabled the mirrors, now what? Are you going to be happier with a feed that is getting smaller every day? Do you feel better by being part of a social network that can not attract people for longer than a month? When Reddit does go on with their IPO and tightens their control over the data even more, do you think then people will be more likely to leave?
Do you think the protests were effective in any way? Do you think if we really want to have a space for ourselves free from corporate control we need to be ready to a proper war against Big Tech? Do you think they care about the "principles the Fediverse stands for"?
You are missing the point. Lemmy does not NEED to grow, since there are no profit incentives.
Its hostile towards Reddit admins. I don't care much, but they will.
Its hostile towards Lemmy admins, who already told you that your spamming techniques generate as much load as the largest instances. also, since your "content" gets federated to other instances, your legal liability might become theirs too.
Its hostile towards Lemmy users, who see lots of botspam which they cannot filter currently since the users you generate have to be blocked one by one.
Its hostile towards Reddit users, who get their created content and USERNAMES copied without given consent.
I also use "All"! I like seeing what others in the fediverse are up to, as long as it's authentic discourse. I don't care if it gets smaller currently. The quality is fine, and since most growth in fediverse projects come in spurs, i am not even slightly worried. I have also been attracted for more than a month, and since the discourse is authentic, i engage more than i ever did on reddit.
In my opinion, every bad move reddit makes will lead to another influx of users to the fediverse.
Yes, they were effective. Lemmy got a fresh infusion of users, and its not even how many, but WHO we got! We got especially the people who think for themselves and who are not apathetic towards bad moves; people who cared about their communities. This also explains why you get so much pushback. It does not sit well with them (and me) because it is in line with what Meta, Reddit or Google would do.
I don't think a "war" against big tech is Lemmys primary use case. Lemmy is there to bring people together and is doing a fine job of that, for a project that was not really ready at the time of the protest. I haven't seen people call for a war in the last months - raising awareness, yes; but ultimately the message should be a positive one - this is what makes Lemmy stand out from the "competition".
And the point you are missing: the social media networks that do have profit incentives are destroying our society and keeping yourself isolated in a cocoon is not going to save you - nor any of your loved ones.
So, I really disagree with you here: given that it is unlikely that we will be able to get rid of all social media, the next best thing is to have an alternative that is not so harmful. I believe that the Fediverse needs to grow because it's the only alternative that has a chance of replacing corporate-controlled social media and that perhaps can get us free from Surveillance Capitalism.
There has to be a name for this type of fallacy... Do you really think that the people that joined now are somehow better than the average redditor?
If I am being completely objective, every time I'm opening Lemmy it feels like a extreme version of Reddit's political echo chamber and none of the people who participate in anything remotely productive/entertaining/positive that you can find in the long tail of Reddit's niche communities. With very few exceptions, it feels like just one long stream of negativity and "Two Minutes Hate" displays. It's depressing and mentally draining. With the mirrors from my usual subreddits, I could at least make the experience here bearable. But now that the mirrors are disabled, it just makes more apparent how sterile this place currently looks.
And all of this drama just because people can not be bothered to curate their own feeds and learn to browse by subscribe. It's ridiculous...
my last response, and then i give up, because you are narrowmindedly chasing down your warpath and are not open to other views. the only one who is forcing something here is you, take your feedback seriously, or you are no better than what you are fighting. other than that, best of luck in your endeavors.
Seriously, this dude has a contrary response for everything. Even the concession speech was “well, you are all wrong but…”
I have no doubt that this has become a Quixotic quest. It's just that I am so tired of the endless talk about the "dangers of social media" and the general apathy from people, I don't know how to stop even if I tried.
Having a better understanding of what you're trying to do I think you make great points all around and it's a very noble and proactive attempt to drive users to Lemmy.
Obviously there's some communication gaps but I hope you don't let the haters get you down. Your intentions are obviously good, and you've put a lot of thought and effort into the execution to create a bridge that goes beyond just sharing content from Reddit.
I can recognize that the developer has put a lot of effort into this and has good intentions. The problem... it's just not really that great of an idea. For all the reasons people have listed already, I can't see it working out.
I don't agree -- I haven't really seen anything put forward here that marks it as a bad idea, just a bad execution with poor communication.