cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1047028 - because ironically this will not reach instances where Lemmit is blocked.

A few months ago, I launched the Lemmit instance and bot (@bot@lemmit.online). Primarily, this was to help me stay up to date with some of the content I’d leave behind on Reddi. Additionally, I wanted to give back to the community, so I made it possible for anyone to request the archiving of subreddits to the Lemmit instance.

However, this came with some unintended consequences. Notably, the most subscribed community on the instance has been !AmItheAsshole@lemmit.online. Even though it should have been obvious that there is no way to communicate with the Original Poster, given they’re on Reddit.

The pushback against the bot and the instance has increased over time. A recent post, This bot is bad for Lemmy, highlighted these concerns. I’ve also received similar feedback from admins of major Lemmy Instances and through direct PMs.

As a response, last week I stopped accepting requests for archiving new subreddits. This weekend, I went a step further by discontinuing the archiving of a large amount of “interactive subreddits”—communities primarily centered around Q&A or communication with the Original Poster. This includes subs like !AskReddit@lemmit.online and !dating_advice@lemmit.online, as well as niche and support communities. Such discussions are better hosted on Reddit or Lemmy’s equivalent spaces.

I’ve also adjusted the post karma thresholds to curb spam posts. While this probably won’t appease everyone, it should reduce the bot’s posting frequency.

Perhaps this might prompt some admins to rethink their choice to defederate from the Lemmit instance, or the banning of the bot. I’m not expecting anyone to, and won’t take it personally if you don’t, but I wanted to give the community this update nonetheless.

In !about@lemmit.online there’s a sticky post of all the Actively archived communities on the server (including NSFW ones, since that is not public without logging in), as well as the list of communities for which archiving is now disabled.

Cheers!

  • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    Thank you! While I appreciate the bot helping get content into lemmy, I do agree with the consensus that reddit posts that are meant to have comments read by the OP are unnecessary.

    I don’t know how the karma thresholds work behind the scenes, but might I suggest for the bot to do a “top for” sort instead? Like it will only repost top content for the past 6 hours only. This will also help get more quality content as well and avoid reposting low effort/quality posts.

    I don’t want the bot to be banned altogether as I do believe it still provides value with the content reposts to get engagement in lemmy. Thanks for implementing these adjustments.

    • admin@lemmit.onlineEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know how the karma thresholds work behind the scenes, but might I suggest for the bot to do a “top for” sort instead? Like it will only repost top content for the past 6 hours only. This will also help get more quality content as well and avoid reposting low effort/quality posts.

      This is effectively already kinda how it works. For each subreddit it periodically (anywhere between every 30 minutes to every 12 hours, based on subscriber count and posts per day) requests the “hot” content feed. It then checks each post if it has at least 20 upvotes, and a 80% upvote to downvote ratio. Those numbers are configurable, but that’s what they’re currently set to - I believe they’re a good mix between filtering out the complete garbage while still making sure it doesn’t miss good content is.

  • isoAEnglish
    82·
    1 year ago

    Good move. I use your bot in some niche communities and I want to ask: Is there a chance to fetch the comments as well?

  • taters_tots@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I think it’s pretty interesting about the reactions to the lemmit.online bot and the l4s bot

    L4s bot: https://lemmy.world/u/L4s. L4s is one of the top posters on lemmy, I see them regularly topping !technology@lemmy.world yet no one seems to be as against it, I am not even sure people know L4s is a bot

    L4s uses a similar algorithm, however I believe it’s posting thresholds are significantly higher than the lemmit.online bot.

    Full disclosure: I find this bot useful so I am biased

    (posted on both the original post and this cross post)

  • soumerd_retardataire@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    One post and zero comment from criitz.
    Ideally a fusion of Reddit and Lemmy’s content was what your bot is aiming to do, first thought it’d be illegal, but since we don’t have human reposters i’m glad there’s at least a bot instead.