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://alien.top/post/263029

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.

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[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Are the fake users registered as bots?

If not, then that's a really good case for defederation. Hell, sounds like a good plan either way.

[–] nocturne213@lemm.ee 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They appear as bots, that i have seen, but i cannot speak for every instance of this.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Everything is a bot with alien.top. "Posters" are bots with only one post and the "commenters" are bots as well.

It's annoying as all hell.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca -4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I believe users are bots until they decide to claim the account by proving the Reddit account belongs to them. After that, they become regular old Lemmy accounts?

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That sounds great in theory. I don't think I have seen a single post where anyone transitioned, but I could be wrong.

It's just a noisy mess, IMHO.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca -4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I know of one account, but mainly because I initiated the claim process lol

I'd prefer a slower rollout while things get implemented because yea, it's a bit of a mess in the meantime. It has potential, and I'd hate for it to fall apart because some aspect of it spirals

[–] registrert@lemmy.sambands.net 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I initiated the claim process lol

Why would you send someone to a server "stealing" identities and offer the "victim" to "claim" it? Wouldn't it be more ethical to send them to i.e. join-lemmy.org/instances with the freedom to chose what instance and community they'd want to be part of?

[+] rglullis@communick.news -15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

No identity is being "stolen". The mirrors are not doing anything on behalf of the users, and no content is being altered.

Wouldn’t it be more ethical to send them to i.e. join-lemmy.org/instances

Go to /r/redditalternatives and let me know how many people simply don't understand the concept of instances.

Or understand the concept of instances, but didn't want to bother with the process of finding out which one to choose.

Or went with the "just go to lemmy.world" approach, got burned because it was struggling to deal with the influx of people and thought "Aw, Lemmy sucks".

Or took the time to find an instance, but after signing up had no idea how to find (re-)discover all their niche communities.

Fediverser is solving most if not all these problems.

[–] registrert@lemmy.sambands.net 12 points 11 months ago

I don't see the point replying to you any more, you seemingly overlook the points I'm trying to make in a sort of "the goal justifies the means" argumentation. But others might find it interesting.

No identity is being “stolen”. The mirrors are not doing anything on behalf of the users, and no content is being altered.

It's copying content belonging to a different entity without permission and presents them on a third party site without enough clarification to be distinguishable from the original account (many have expressed confusion at replying to "mirrored"/ghost accounts). It's not a content viewer like teddit etc. It's copying the content and presenting it for itself.

I hope people understand how it can be argued for it being a stolen identity, even if one personally doesn't agree with it.

Go to /r/redditalternatives and let me know how many people simply don’t understand the concept of instances. Or understand the concept of instances, but didn’t want to bother with the process of finding out which one to choose. Or went with the “just go to lemmy.world” approach, got burned because it was struggling to deal with the influx of people and thought “Aw, Lemmy sucks”. Or took the time to find an instance, but after signing up had no idea how to find (re-)discover all their niche communities.

Sure these are issues, but I still don't think it's ethical to present "claim your account now!" to users. It comes across as borderline extortionate to me. I don't think it's ethical to apply "peer pressure" by having regular users clamor for people to claim their accounts.

[–] antik@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Or went with the “just go to lemmy.world” approach, got burned because it was struggling to deal with the influx of people and thought “Aw, Lemmy sucks”.

How many times have I personally explained to you that it was the ddos not the influx of people. Every time you find some way to bash on LW and then you come ask for favors?

[–] rglullis@communick.news -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry if I'm misrepresenting the reasons, but in practice what happened is that the largest instance was constantly offline and unresponsive.

then you come ask for favors?

Be transparent. You claimed that the instance needed to be defederated based on the mirror bots. Now the bots are gone and real users are coming (like I said they would) and suddenly this is you "making a favor"?

[–] antik@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Didn't you ask us to make an exception for your bots when we defederated with alien.top almost two months ago? Special treatment AKA a favor, yes.

Anyway you are always arguing in bad faith, just like when you were trying to spread the message that Lemmy World is too big and bad for the fediverse. It wasn't for the fediverse, it was to push people to your (failing) hosting company. And you are still pushing that same narrative and play dumb when confronted.

Be transparent he says.

[–] rglullis@communick.news -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Didn’t you ask us to make an exception for your bots when we defederated with alien.top almost two months ago?

No, my exact question was "how many real users will it take for you to stop considering it a bot-instance only".

Lemmy World is too big and bad for the fediverse.

My argument has always been that having one single instance controlling the majority of users is bad for decentralization. The fact that one of the LW mods can be so petty to the point of holding a block against another instance (when the alledged reasons for the block are no longer valid) is kinda proving my point.

It wasn’t for the fediverse, it was to push people to your (failing) hosting company.

You didn't see me criticizing lemm.ee, or beehaw, or programming.dev, or sdf.org, or feddit.*. None of them were working to monopolize the reddit migrants like LW. But sure, I am the one with ulterior motives.