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I’ve noticed a lot of posts lately that are just spam for slopware, often not even having anything to do with self-hosting. As sad as I am about it, I’m pretty close to unsubscribing to keep spam out of my Lemmy feeds.

Before doing so, though, I wanted to ask if there was any formal policy or rule for the community that could help cut down on thr spam, and if so, what would be most useful for me to do when I see a spam post? That I’d, is the Report button the right tool, is there some other way to let moderators know?

If I see AI slop I downvote. Shouldn’t that generally take care if it if everybody does it?

Downvote and move on. Mute accounts and communities you don’t want to see. Simple as.

Do you have examples?

Before doing so, though, I wanted to ask if there was any formal policy or rule for the community that could help cut down on thr spam, and if so, what would be most useful for me to do when I see a spam post? That I’d, is the Report button the right tool, is there some other way to let moderators know?

Rule 7 as stated in the sidebar of this community: “No low-effort posts. This is subjective and will largely be determined by the community member reports.”

So yes. Use the report tool and downvote it to oblivion.

But what’s the point of downvoting on Lemmy? It doesn’t seem to affect visibility. Or maybe there’s a setting somewhere I need to adjust?

The point is signaling to other people that it’s not worth their time. I sort by new so I often see these slop posts as well, but other readers very quickly down vote it into oblivion so if a post is older than say 15 minutes I generally will know not to read it even if it sounds interesting at first glance. A mod will come by later to actually delete it is that’s warranted, but until then down votes suffice.

Depending on your sorting method, downvoted posts will be featured less favorably. You will immediately know that a heavily downvoted post is not worth your attention. Some clients might let you filter displayed posts based on the votes.

downvote to oblivion

Even Sheogorath doesn’t want this stuff.

I just downvote and move on.

So yes. Use the report tool and downvote it to oblivion.

My instance doesn’t have downvotes, so reporting is the most effective remedy for everyone’s benefit

My instance has downvotes turned off (which I like). That action only benefits people who care about downvotes.

The better option that helps everyone is to report bad faith posts.

No. My instance doesn’t have downvotes. You downvoting a post does nothing for instances like mine.

Report that shit instead. There’s no reason it needs to stay on the Fediverse.

report bad faith posts

You’re supposed to report posts that break instance or community rules, not whatever you happen to consider to be “bad faith”. Moderators are not the arbiters of intent.

Looks like your comment is receiving downvotes just fine…

Maybe this thread is a lesson in how downvotes have a purpose and why instances turning them off is silly puritanical nonsense that serves to aid bad content more than anything else it purports to achieve.

Sounds to me like the other effective remedy for you would be changing instances. Downvotes exist for a good reason and disabling them is harmful.

I typically sort by “top six hours” and I’m barely aware of the problem OP is talking about. So yeah, it seems like downvoting works.

I fundamentally disagree with downvotes, so changing instances isn’t an option. Just report it. It helps everyone and it removes it from the Fediverse, not just pushes it to the bottom of a list by the arbitrary metric of popularity.

On your instance, yes. Those downvotes get dropped on my side, so I can’t see them, and neither can anyone else on a non-downvote instance. My proposal would address the issue of slop for everyone, whereas downvote proponents are just saying, “Yeah, well my way is better. Lemmy is only for people who do it my way.”

If this thread is a lesson in anything, it’s that the bad habits of Reddit carried over, and people are so fucking lazy, they can’t be bothered to click the report button.

You’re supposed to report posts that break instance or community rules, not whatever you happen to consider to be “bad faith”.

This isn’t Reddit. Mods aren’t beholden to some set of standards handed down by moneyed interests. They’re real people with (hopefully) common sense and a desire to create something better than Reddit.

Besides, even if your instance has disabled downvotes, other instances can still see them.

That’s my point. If instances like mine can’t see downvotes, it’s excluding people like me, because people can’t be bothered to report. Furthermore, all it is is a popularity contest. “A bunch of people don’t like it” is no guarantee you won’t, nor does it demonstrate that the content is in fact garbage; it just shows a bunch of people don’t like it.

I’ve also noticed too and they’ve been showing up on other communities with the flimsiest reasons for why it’s been posted e.g. “Oh well I made the slopware while using Linux so that’s why I’m posting to this Linux community”. Their profiles only contributions are self promoting their slop app and nothing else. Shameless

Some communities seemed to be fine with those low effort “I made a slop thing/I’m just going to shamelessly promote” though so I think block profile/unsub is the only option.

I’d love to know what an actual moderator would think if you imposed your idea on them.

Their profiles only contributions are self promoting their slop app and nothing else. Shameless

I have an alt where I occasionally make contributions in preparation for my self promotion.

No slop planned… for now.

If you mean a mod from this comm, I’d love some clarity on this matter, too.

But as a general application, what would that tell you? Moderators aren’t some special class of people; they’re regular people who volunteer.

The better question is: what would you do if you were a moderator? Would you want to review and remove a post that was potentially AI slop, or would you keep it and let users rely on downvotes and sorting?

For my part, if a particular community’s mods aren’t interested in clamping down on AI slop, then I know where I don’t want to be.

downvote proponents are just saying, “Yeah, well my way is better. Lemmy is only for people who do it my way.”

If anything you’re the one being obtuse and saying your way is better and that people must adapt to your way. Downvotes are the default behaviour of the software and the “reddit-like” experience of Lemmy

Maybe consider moving to an instance that includes basic functionality?

It’s not basic functionality. It’s optional, and I don’t want it. So, no thank you.

The insistence that everybody experience the Fediverse in a particular way is what makes centralized services garbage and prone to enshittification.

“Having common functionality around certain types of fediverse content is centralization.”

Wouldn’t it be better to just make downvotes clamp to zero?

I get not liking the rat race of up vs down votes, but the scoring is designed to help spam prevention itself.

Not having. Enforcing.

I don’t know that I’d be on board for clamping to zero. You would have to decide if you are going to have a weighted zero (i.e. secret negative tally), and if so, why bother with clamping? If not, why have downvotes?

Scoring just demonstrates popularity. It’s a voluntary poll, and it has no bearing on the quality or validity of someone’s comment. I’ve seen good posts go unnoticed, and I’ve seen bad ones get lots of points. Voluntary polls are almost useless as a metric, and especially for a system like this one where all you have to do is click a button, it’s even less useful than one where you are required to write a statement about why you voted the way you did.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t be allowed to have downvotes as a way to gauge popularity, if that’s a metric they want to use to filter their content, nor do I think they should be forced to experience the Fediverse my way. I am however saying that reporting helps everyone, regardless of whether downvoting is enabled or not (plus it has the added benefit of potentially removing content that doesn’t belong; server space is a premium here, after all). We have options here on the Fediverse, and it’s a small ask to use the reporting feature and not assume there’s a “correct” or “standard” way to experience Lemmy. We can create something better than Reddit.

You’ve just traded down votes for the report button.

I say they are two different use cases. There is often a very wide gulf between a comment that I feel does not contribute to good discussion and one that is so heinous that it needs to be removed. Most of your comments for instance: pretty naive and banal adding little good to the discussion overall, but I don’t feel that you’ve said anything hateful, obscene, or aggressive enough to warrant total removal. Usually I just downvote and move on, especially when I don’t want to hear that person’s bad take reply on my own point of view. I’ve made an exception here for you simply because you are trolling all over this thread, seemingly inviting downvotes. But, I’m going to block you and move on because you’ve killed any interest I have in this thread or the larger discussion. I still don’t think your comments rise to the level of reporting.

Reports and blocks aren’t a replacement for downvotes and if your instances doesn’t federate downvotes you shouldn’t use them that way.