“ community link fixer” bot spamming comments (lemmy.ninja)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja to c/lemmings_world_instance

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Can someone here explain why the community link fixer bot is spamming comments all over the fediverse?

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[+] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I admit I was pretty annoyed when I wrote that post, but I have three really big criticisms of this bot:

It's spam where a YSK post would do. Instead of one post where the bot author could raise awareness of whatever issue he's facing and debate/learn about it, he has decided to spam every person who uses the @. link format. Following people around and tut-tutting them about their perceived wrongdoings is a toxic behavior.
The bot is vague. It says that some users have problems with this format. Which users? What problems do they have? At least explain the problem if you're going to hit me with a notification by complaining about it.
It's wrong. The @. works just fine. [Edit: @j_roby@slrpnk.net was able to provide an advantage for using the !notation, at least for users of Lemmy's UI.. This just reinforces the problem with the vagueness of the bot's reply. If it had explained what it was trying to achieve, I could have tested this on my own and learned something. This still doesn't help the users who can't use this proprietary link format, like Mastodon users.]
It is actively doing harm to kbin users. Correct me if I'm wrong of course, but if you are a kbin user, the !@ link format does not work to search for a Lemmy community. Kbin users need the @. link format.

[-] rikudou 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s spam where a YSK post would do

There already is one, the reason I made the bot is that people don't read it: https://lemmy.world/post/77145

The bot is vague. It says that some users have problems with this format.

That's false, it says explicitly, that users on different instances have problems.

It’s wrong

Care to send a link with a false positive? I'm always eager to improve the bot!

It is actively doing harm to kbin users

Not sure about that and it might be a valid criticism. Thought it doesn't fix Kbin links, only Lemmy links, so if you post a Lemmy link, I think it's ok if the bot fixes it for users of Lemmy.

[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 1 year ago

It’s spam where a YSK post would do There already is one, the reason I made the bot is that people don’t read it: https://lemmy.world/post/77145

I just read the post. It's a good one! The post does a much better job of explaining the problem than the bot does. I've since blocked it, so I can't go back and look at the message, but I don't remember it containing a link to get more information. Maybe you should link to the YSK post?

[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The bot is vague. It says that some users have problems with this format. That’s false, it says explicitly, that users on different instances have problems.

Again, the bot doesn't explain what the problem is, or why it might be better to use the different format. It just says that some users have problems on different instances. You've left the user to guess what those problems are. I wasn't experiencing any problems with the URL form I was using, so of course I concluded that the bot was wrong.

It is actively doing harm to kbin users Not sure about that and it might be a valid criticism. Thought it doesn’t fix Kbin links, only Lemmy links, so if you post a Lemmy link, I think it’s ok if the bot fixes it for users of Lemmy.

I went back and tested the !link format on kbin, and it does in fact work. I previously edited my comment to reflect this. Note that I did not test this on a community to which kbin is not already linked, or on a community that has not been searched for on the user's Lemmy instance. However, you may be interested in Cold Hotman's feedback that this doesn't work for Mastodon users.

Edit: It appears that using the !format returns a 404 if nobody on your instance has searched for the community yet. That seems less desirable than the alternatives for people on small instances like mine.

[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 1 year ago

Just a quick followup: I did test the !notation on kbin.social. Their software is able to follow a !link to the destination. But the only test I did was for a community that was already linked to kbin.social. I have no idea what the user experience is like if they try to follow a !link to a community that has not been added to kbin -- or for a community that hasn't been previously searched for on the user's Lemmy instance.

[-] rikudou 1 points 1 year ago

So sorry for not noticing this post!

Do you have any ideas on how to make it better? In the comments you mentioned same false positives, can you please link to those? You can also block the bot on individual or community level and it will stop responding to you or the community.

[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 1 year ago

You can read my reply to Cold Hotman to get a list of my criticisms. But in general, a bot is not the right way to educate people. To quote Homer Simpson, "I'm really glad you corrected me Lisa. People are always really glad when they're corrected." If you must ping someone when they use a URL format that is slightly less convenient, at least send it as a DM instead of cluttering up threads with off-topic notifications.

[-] rikudou 1 points 1 year ago

off-topic notifications

The comment is intentional, it helps make the link clickable for other people if the original poster doesn't correct it. On some apps it's nearly impossible to navigate such a link and while it would definitely be better to fix the apps, it takes longer than writing a bot. I believe the bot is a good solution and the way it works is good. The only thing I'm concerned about is bugs (like false positives) which I'll definitely fix if I notice or someone lets me know and potential issues I didn't think of (like the one you mentioned with Kbin).

[-] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 1 year ago

Okay, I can see how it's on topic since it provides a clickable link.

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this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023

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