I’ve gotten through (I believe) all the comments in the meta thread. So I want to establish a few things, first being a better definition on spam.

Spam is not “I don’t like this and its a paid product” or “I don’t like this and they used AI/LLMs”.

Spam would generally be considered:

  • Mass-posting - Posting the exact same post across a bunch of of different communities, rapidly.
  • Repetitive Content (aka karma farming) - repeatedly submitting old popular content. I’ll note that this is completely irrelevant on lemmy, this was more of a reddit issue due to karma.
  • Bot Activity / AI Abuse - Using scripts/bots/gen AI to automate posts and comments.
  • Unsolicited DMs - Mass private messages or chats to users, completely unsolicited

I’d say anything other than that deserves a followup rule, and this definition should go in the sidebar.

Regarding the promotional posts themselves, I think something like the 10% rule makes sense - no more than 10% of the account should be self-promotional material or comments within the community.

I do think it makes sense to include an exception for 100% free/libre open source projects. Partially open projects with a closed (paid) component should be subject to the 10% rule. So what I propose as the rule would be:

Promotional posts require community participation or they will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & without any paywalls, it will be exempt from this rule.

Questions, comments, clarifications, and harsh criticisms are welcomed in the comments. As a reminder from my intro post, and because of some comments in the other thread, I will mention:

There are people on both sides of the keyboards, so please be respectful of others.

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusOPMEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    Posts = “sounds great!”, “I love Syncthing!”, “Have you tried Jellyfin?” (or better LLM crafted variants) and THEN hit with ad = you technically engaged with the community.

    No, you spammed low effort comments that are easily seen.

    “Low effort” is doing some work there. How are you going to define it?

    The way its pretty universally defined…

    One-word/overly simplistic replies, unrelated content, vague comments/complaints, etc. Its not something you can automate, but when an account is full of just that its quite obvious. “Low effort” for comments and posts have been in common usage for 15-20 years now. Its not exactly new or poorly misunderstood.

    Multiplicity of signals, transparency and clear expectations.

    I can only see it having value for paid products though, and even there its questionable of value to me. Waiting a day or a week or a month, what difference would that make if they are actively and positively engaging with the community?

    • SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      Ah but it’s not 15-20 years ago. Low effort for a bot or llm doesn’t look like “yep”, “agree” etc. And it doesn’t necessarily have to look like slop either.

      Creeping someone post history is problematic too.

      If there were an easy solution to this, we’d know. At some stage soon, we’re going to need some sort of non PII cryotogenic proof of humanity.

      That isn’t here yet, so I’m advocating that multiple signals are better than one.

      What do you feel works best and why? You the one with skin in the game, self stated custodial not dictatorial role notwithstanding.

      • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusOPMEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        Ah but it’s not 15-20 years ago. Low effort for a bot or llm doesn’t look like “yep”, “agree” etc. And it doesn’t necessarily have to look like slop either.

        In the common vernacular for 15-20 years does not mean something has gone away in the slightest. Its defined.

        Creeping someone post history is problematic too.

        Firm disagreement, thats part of the custodial job. Everything is public, suggesting its “creeping” to see who is saying what, imo, is problematic.

        What do you feel works best and why? You the one with skin in the game, self stated custodial not dictatorial role notwithstanding.

        Works best? Whats been posted and edited.

        My personal preference would be zero paid-for selfhosted content posts, only discussions, which would be drastically easier to manage and (imo) be very easy to moderate. That isn’t what the community apparently wants though, so is what it is