Preemptive Blocking of Instances with high potential bot counts (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by smorks@lemmy.ca to c/main@lemmy.ca

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/919010

I have taken the advice from this post and blocked all instances with > 10,000 users, from this list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRthB7RtY4Rr0t5fhVKaliJnwSmptMc5oJi7uha_OBcF4wpu4eElxAxNzaCqjlq6NsOE9GpgSnMzZ2x/pubhtml

I will continue to monitor things and will make another announcement if more blocks are necessary.

If anybody is interested in getting a cleaned up instance federated again, feel free to contact me over DM (if you’re currently blocked, you can contact me on Matrix: @smorks:40to.ca).

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[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

Good choice. Just like email botspam will be an ongoing issue so we will need both backend integrated as well as server operated mitigation approaches.

[-] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

We appreciate your hard work. 😍

[-] PenguinTD@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the hard works!

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

What happens when somewhere like beehaw surpasses 10,000?

[-] TheWaterGod@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

From the original post, it sounds like this is for instances where there's a massive influx of users but little to no posts/comments. For example, the top of the spreadsheet lists lemmy.podycust.co.uk that has >86000 users and 9 Posts/34 Comments. That honestly seems pretty suspicious to me. So I don't think Beehaw or any legitimate instance is going to caught in this.

[-] smorks@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

exactly this. i didn't word it properly above, and have edited it for more clarity.

thanks!

[-] sinnerdotbin@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I believe .world has, though it still shows up as linked: https://lemmy.ca/instances

However there is another thread here about .world federation issues. I tested it and .world isn't syncing here.

@smorks does the configuration or tool you are using for this reflect in the linked/blocked page or is it blocked on another level when this +10,000 user block kicks in?

*edit: tested from .ml which has more than 10,000 users and worked. However if it is by "active" user, .ml, behaw below 10,000 where .world is above.