Sep
1st
2024
Fraying at the edges? · 4:02pm September 1st
Just thinking aloud here. Maybe I've been unlucky, but I think I've seen a significant rise in stuff I'd rather not on here in the last few weeks. More than just a very occasional ad-spam comment. People totally ignoring group rules and openly celebrating it, despite that crowding out people doing their best. That kind of thing. Just me, or has anyone else felt this way recently too? I'd much prefer to hear that it was just me and that I've just been unlucky lately.
Yeah, I just had another dude post a mature story in my group, even though that’s not allowed.
Huh. I've gotten several "Hey, I liked your story, now give me money for a commission" spam PMs, but nothing group-violating.
As far as I have heard from the fimfic discord server, apis were closed, meaning that at least the bot accounts should be stopped from posting stuff and creating accounts, but just yesterday implemented.
But yes, there was a sudden rise past weeks of bot accounts making forum threads and dming people with scams for commissions
I've seen this problem all too often on the Human in Equestria group, and then one bot account went and posted a random piece of vague praise on my user comments with a hyperlink to something with a South African domain code.
I don't even know whether you're talking about the recent weeks' increase in posts of advertising spam to group forums, or if you've found ANOTHER problem getting bigger.
I haven't seen any such behavior, other than a couple of bot accounts that posted a single comment on one of my stories, but then I'm not active at all in the group scene, so if that's where it's primarily happening, I probably wouldn't notice.
I don't pay that much attention to groups for the most part, beyond noticing the sharp rise in bots spam-bombing them c_c
I don't pay attention to too many groups, but the spamming from bots is getting annoying. I already witnessed one person who took the messages at complete face value and thought they were legitimate compliments for their stories. I nearly did too, the first time I got one.
All the spam that I've seen are blog posts. I've marveled at the degree to which bots have mastered creating an account on this underused aspect of FiMFiction (it looks custom made, wobbly and modular). Some bots even manage to wrangle a user pic and to include a picture in with the text! As for forums. all I've seen are the usual posts from people throwing ideas against the wall and asking if it sticks.
If api's were closed to thwart spam posts, it's not working for the blog posts section. There be fresh spam aplenty!
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Thanks for the responses, everyone. It is mostly the spam accounts that are bothering me, since as Frith notes they're getting better at evading the barriers. It used to be really rare to see one get through, but it's... if not daily, certainly a weekly sight for me now. The other thing, which is a little more sensitive a subject, is that appeals for personal assistance -- requests for monetary help and the like -- are starting to appear in places that aren't really suited for them. Signal boosting those in personal blogs of totally fine, of course -- but harsh as it sounds to say this, a place like the Self Promotion Group isn't the right place for your GoFundMe, no matter how serious your situation.
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had two of those in one day the other day! shortly after I'd posted a fic. An academy record