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.
lets be honest: if someone were to post on reddit, and that webscraper copies the post and THEIR USERNAME onto an alternative service without prior consent, what is the reaction you should expect?
a) oh wow thats helpful thank you very much i will now drop reddit forever
or
b) your post and account stealing crapshoot of a server can go die in a ditch for all i care
i can assure you, most people will choose b), and even people who might have chosen a) will first hear about it from the pissed off group.
I believe your activism comes from the right place, but i think it’s actively harmful, even if you ignore that it annoys people in the fediverse itself.
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)
will not help growing lemmy organically.
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.
it’s a hostile move.
Hostile move towards whom?
- Reddit Corp
- Reddit users
- Lemmy Admins
- Lemmy users
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”?
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.
