Real posts (from kbin.social magazines) are becoming quite rare. I find myself coming to this site now to do the following circuit:
sort by new and report SPAM and block users
scroll through headlines and read (the few) recent comments/posts to mags I'm interested in
come to kbinMeta and see if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing and feeling the same way
see if the radio silence has yet been broken by the dev
It's a fascinating case study in the rise and fall of an internet community and digital communication platform. And it highlights one important fact about human community management and technology development: COMMUNICATION IS KEY.
Using this approach, I am seeing none of those posts on /science. I updated the filters a bit today. The top post is a legitimate article from 2024-04-13 and is by HeartyBeast.
Now, I understand that this is seen as an unnecessary step (too fancy) for some. People want zero ads out of the box without anything extra. So I'm thinking about the next approach here.
Framing the problem:
Filtering should be automatic
End-user wants zero additional setup
There is no active upstream development
It's not possible to inherit moderation of a magazine due to some queue of moderator application requests that is not being approved
The third point and fourth points are important here, since that's currently intractable. You can't reconcile zero additional setup with that.
But let's suppose becoming moderator of a defunct magazine (point 4) were possible while point 3 remained unresolved. In other words, at least moderators can try to pick up the pieces. Something being underestimated here is how annoying it would be for the moderator to manually cull posts every single day. I think you would have instant turnover after a couple of weeks once the tedium sets in. Manual solution is not good. Clearly, automation is needed on the moderation side.
So assuming you could actually inherit a magazine, but with no guarantee of upstream development, what about restructuring the tool above so that it's for moderators, instead of end-users? That's pretty easy, and I could make it something the moderator clicks once and it's done, auto-banning the posts. This is a pretty good method.
But you can't inherit moderation right now, so that's back to square one.
Realistically, that leaves these options at the moment:
Wait (a long time) and see
Use the tool above and make magazines readable, albeit at some sacrifice of convenience (?)
Migrate to another instance
Third approach is the path of least resistance and is best for most casual users. Second is for diehards who cannot move instances due to some personal or technical reason. First approach is the most annoying and eventually leads to the third approach after frustration sets in.
Pick your poison, I guess. I can't think of any other prophylactic approach at the moment, maybe this comment triggers some idea.
I think I'm going to give up on Kbin. Every time in enter it's full of spam, so is not worth posting anything since is going to be buried in spam anyways
Has there been a change in sourcing new magazines? Last time I tried it I couldn't get anything to matriculate, at least not kbin style with searching etc. Big turn off for me but otherwise mbin seems like the best fit.
Not from what I've seen, unfortunately. Getting new instances to federate, at least from smaller, non Lemmy instances, is a bit of a pain. In the past I've done some testing with the two mags I currently own, and it looks like things don't always properly federate.
I've also noticed the same goes for voting. There's been more than once I've seen differing upvotes/downvotes on a thread depending on whether you're looking at it from kbin vs mbin.
Maybe I should reach out to the person who runs the mbin instance I am on. They were a kbin person before and may have some insight. An mbin version of this meta would be helpful, as mentioned!
@Gordon_Freeman
It really depends on the very magazine. Basically, it's magazines with Ernest as sole moderator where these problems occur. I'd give it a wait. @Haus
It would be nice if the report feature had a way to indicate if the problem is spam, content or whatever other issues people might have. You could have a threshold for spam reports to put the account in review and prevent of hide it's posts.
I have to type 4 letters for every spam I see. I'd prefer to check a box (on my phone where typing is annoying this is even more useful) I do this dozens of times per day - it gets annoying fast.
A short pull-down list would work well: Spam, Harassment, Site ToS Violation, Thread/Group Rules Violation, etc.
This way you can automate rules like: if an article get's N spam or harassment reports it's put into the review queue and hidden until a Moderator can review it.
@Kierunkowy74
Yes, moderators can access the reports tab within the magazine panel. Every report must include some reason, hence moderators see them. Regarding bans: without giving a proper reason, no ban can come into effect.
You can also check the modlogs on kbin and lemmy instances for bans (does not apply to mbin). @bayaz@jayrhacker
Most forums have dedicated categories for common stuff like this. Written reports are fine if an explanation is needed, not for the newly created samename37 spambot account illicitly selling drugs (or something that is probably phishing, like the delta airlines refund ticket type stuff) without really doing much to hide it.
It's the same communities and overwhelming at times to the point it doesn't even feel productive or even needed to report it. This is the lowest of low-hanging fruit.
Not sure where you're seeing them... it's always been in the microblog section, you can also follow individuals on Mastodon. They also come up in searches and hashtags.
Don't be intimidated, interaction works just fine!
I once again ask why there is no form of filtering, especially for new users who rapid post. Also spammers using the same names with a higher number after they get banned.
I registered the next-in-sequence for one of them. Haven't seen that username since. I like to think I broke a script somewhere, but it could just as easily have broken a spammer's tiny little brain. The disappointing but more likely explanation is that they shrugged and moved on to a different set of usernames.
Reporting them at the very least sends a message to the mods of the community the reported post/comment was on. Not sure about how/when it goes to instance admins, though. Which is where they really need to be reported to. Mods can block them from their community, but a spammer (human or bot) generally affects the entire server so it needs to go all the way to the top.
Blocking them also works to at least reduce the bots’ effectiveness. If everyone blocks it, it isn’t doing anything but wasting bandwidth, and if it’s not having the desired effect whoever deployed it might give up.
Most of the communities with significant spam problems have no moderators other than ernest. It's up to him to recruit more people to help moderate those.
In his most recent announcement, he said he's bringing 2 new instance mods. But I couldn't find the actual announcement post for the new team members. Unfortunately, these days Ernest often disappears for days or weeks at a time, so there's really no telling when we'll see the impacts of this.
I also felt the normalcy kicking back in at this moment; days or weeks ago, it felt like jumbled static and spammed noise perusing through this digital seaside village, with storms periodically downing the entire rafterstructure.
Whatever you are doing and faring right now, Mr. @ernest, stay humble and keep on doing for the best of all, even if it means having to ask for additional help from us when circumstances are dire. :D
Those are great news. Hope your recovery goes well and that you find some solid people to help with the maintenance in terms of moderation. kbin really is my favorite instance of this all, but needs some love.
We haven't heard from our developer/lead maintainer/near entirety of the staff for about a month, so it's kind of hard to say. If they are working on something in the backend, it doesn't feel like they care enough to inform the community about it.
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