this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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The Agora

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In the spirit of the Ancient Greek Agora, we invite you to join our vibrant community - a contemporary meeting place for the exchange of ideas, inspired by the practices of old. Just as the Agora served as the heart of public life in Ancient Athens, our platform is designed to be the epicenter of meaningful discussion and thought-provoking dialogue.

Here, you are encouraged to speak your mind, share your insights, and engage in stimulating discussions. This is your opportunity to shape and influence our collective journey, just like the free citizens of Athens who gathered at the Agora to make significant decisions that impacted their society.

You're not alone in your quest for knowledge and understanding. In this community, you'll find support from like-minded individuals who, like you, are eager to explore new perspectives, challenge their preconceptions, and grow intellectually.

Remember, every voice matters and your contribution can make a difference. We believe that through open dialogue, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to discovery, we can foster a community that embodies the democratic spirit of the Agora in our modern world.

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Everyone I have something very important to say about The Agora.

The Problem

Let me be super clear here to something people don't seem to understand about lemmy and the fediverse. Votes mean absolutely nothing. No less than nothing.

In the fediverse, anyone can open a instance, create as many users as they want and one person can easily vote 10,000 times. I'm serious. This is not hard to do.

Voting at best is a guide to what is entertaining.

As soon as you allow a incentive the vast majority of votes will be fake. They might already be mostly fake.

If you try to make any decision using votes as a guide someone WILL manipulate votes to control YOU.

one solution (think of others too!)

A counsel of trusted users.

The admin, top mods may set up a group to decide on who to ban and what instances to defederate from. You will not get it right 100% of the time but you also won't be controlled by one guy in his basement, running 4 instances and 1,000 alts.

Now i'm gonna go back to shit posting.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I... posted proof of vote manipulation.... perhaps, not yet detected here- but, its legitimately effortless to do (and to be extremely hard to detect)

https://lemmyonline.com/post/11492

two days before this comment was made....

I will check every profile. If people have dozens of alts with active, legitimate comment histories within a month of the platform forming, then I commend them for their activity.

When you run a script which randomly generates bot accounts on other various servers- you aren't going to notice anything tied back to a particular profile.

In the case of the proof I linked, the bot names were very generic, and extremely easy to spot. However, its VERY easy to have the bot generate real usernames.

Its also, extremely easy to have the workflow generate actual comments, related to random posts and conversations too.

Lastly- despite my username, this actually is not a bot account. lol.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ok, I get that bots exist on Lemmy, but I don't think they have the capability to infiltrate a tiny community such as this just yet. Please keep an eye out and inform me immediately if you see suspicious activity. I appreciate the information regarding their capabilities.

Lastly- despite my username, this actually is not a bot account. lol.

That's exactly what your username already says xD