49
Why are there so many bots all lemmy?
(lemm.ee)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
49 points (91.5% liked)
Meta (lemm.ee)
3473 readers
5 users here now
lemm.ee Meta
This is a community for discussion about this particular Lemmy instance.
News and updates about lemm.ee will be posted here, so if that's something that interests you, make sure to subscribe!
Rules:
- Support requests belong in !support
- Only posts about topics directly related to lemm.ee are allowed
- If you don't have anything constructive to add, then do not post/comment here. Low effort memes, trolling, etc is not allowed.
- If you are from another instance, you may participate in discussions, but remain respectful. Realize that your comments will inevitably be associated with your instance by many lemm.ee users.
If you're a Discord user, you can also join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/XM9nZwUn9K
Discord is only a back-up channel, !meta@lemm.ee will always be the main place for lemm.ee communications.
If you need help with anything, please post in !support instead.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
We're trying to build communities. A good way to do it is to have bots post content, so there's stuff to see on our feeds.
It's always a balancing act that doesn't work for everybody. But the beauty here is that each individual can curate their own feed.
Edit: I misspoke, I'm not someone who actively uses of promotes bot use. I just remember people talking about this discussion previously and this was a justification used. OP asked a question, I provided an answer. It's not MY answer, but it's still one. Don't shoot the messenger.
It rubs me the wrong way tbh, because it doesn’t feel authentic at all
That's entirely understandable. That's the thing, though. It's hard to have a community grow on its own, organically, in these times. A large majority of users are rather passive, they don't actively contribute by posting or commenting so much. If they don't get enough content on a topic/community, they'll forget it exists.
So, to build a community, you get a bot to "seed" it with content until enough people know it exists and contribute stuff themselves.
It's weird and fucked and, unfortunately, it's the world we live in now.
I disagree, it just leads to spam and people blocking the bots, and therefore the communities. I think things will grow organically at whatever speed. People have to realise this isn't Reddit, and likely won't ever be as big, and that it's good that it won't be.
Yes, I've blocked a number of start up communities because they've flooded my feed with posts. Some of them even seemed interesting and I subscribed...only to immediately unsubscribe and block after seeing it has 10 posts an hour with 0 engagement.
No it won't. Social networks require a critical mass to get started. It's why platforms like Uber throw money at drivers and consumers at the start - without a critical mass, it won't work. Spez and his team had conversations with each other using sock puppet accounts during the early days of Reddit.
Fair enough, I feel that there are enough people on Lemmy now that it is past the getting started phase though. If new people come on and see bot after bot I feel that it will be a worse experience than having fewer communities with organic engagement.