Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,Fuck you.
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
I can't be the only one who had to look up sea lions (searching for it along with "reply guy" got me past the cute mammals). Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SealioningYay learning! And thanks, Alice, for your championing of the community here in the Fedi!
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@x41h different worlds I guess. Also, I'm an adult content creator, so I see my own stuff posted here 😋
@alice Got ya. Wonder if I need to check my settings. I've literally never saw any content from yourself or others.
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Re: Reply Guys
People get to the Fedi from the walled-garden social media platforms of Billionaires. They're used to having their feeds curated by algorithms, which censor them, keep their feeds full of friction-less, flattering posts, calculated to make the platform "sticky", for the sake of corporate bottom-lines. When folks get to the Fedi, they're suddenly rawdogging the planet's voices & are shocked that strangers across the Earth can read their toots, worse — reply to them.
1/n
This discomfort has been attributed to a bogeyman, a construct called "reply guys". Guess what? It's quite normal for people to want to share their ideas and reaction to your ideas. That's why it's called "social" media.
So how do we assuage these concerns? Perhaps Fedi platforms, such as Mastodon, should default to a more restrictive setting on who can reply to your toots. Anyone can change the settings in their personal preferences, though newcomers find it too inconvenient.
2/n
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This discomfort has been attributed to a bogeyman, a construct called "reply guys". Guess what? It's quite normal for people to want to share their ideas and reaction to your ideas. That's why it's called "social" media.
So how do we assuage these concerns? Perhaps Fedi platforms, such as Mastodon, should default to a more restrictive setting on who can reply to your toots. Anyone can change the settings in their personal preferences, though newcomers find it too inconvenient.
2/n
We could provide newcomers with step-by-step instructions on how to change their settings so that only people they follow can reply to their posts. Though the newcomers who complain about "reply guys" are the ones least likely to follow this inconvenient procedure to get rid of unwanted replies.
Reply guys don't exist. If you're unhappy about Mohammed from Gaza replying to your toots in bad English, fix your settings.
Democracy can be uncomfortable, and requires conscious effort.
3/3
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This rant brought to you by the spam accounts and bigoted trolls I suspended his morning, and the reply guys and death threats I've received since posting it.
Edited for inclusivity.
@alice@lgbtqia.space > copyright infringement—both of which are illegal
Depends, in some places noncommercial is either a misdemeanor-equivalent or an administrative offence, rather than the ridiculously harsh bullshit Japan has.
t. copyright abolitionist
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice
Thank you, Alice ✌🏾 -
Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice I should add: don't abuse message editing. Once I saw a poster editing a humour post adding a line to cause a gender war (e.g. "men should not reply" after many men replied). That's bait and switch. It's disrespectful. That's not lovely.

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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice Well said! Also thank you, now I know what a Sea Lion is, never heard of such a thing (in this context)
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@alice I'm just triggered by the endrant closing without a startrant opening. Feels wrong. Unmatched brackets.
(JOKE))But i am thinking of starting to filter some of the links to the more annoying ad filled sites.
Oh an bots that repeat the headline text twice and then again in the links preview.@jetsoft I get that. It's like when someone starts a quote with '"' and then forgets the "'" at the end.
I added all the big tech social platforms and their other domains to my blocklist, so I can click the links, but they just take me to a "whoops, that page has been blocked" page.
/startRant
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We could provide newcomers with step-by-step instructions on how to change their settings so that only people they follow can reply to their posts. Though the newcomers who complain about "reply guys" are the ones least likely to follow this inconvenient procedure to get rid of unwanted replies.
Reply guys don't exist. If you're unhappy about Mohammed from Gaza replying to your toots in bad English, fix your settings.
Democracy can be uncomfortable, and requires conscious effort.
3/3
@purrperl wait a sec, did you just spend three replies implying I'm new here, not familiar with the settings available, and explaining away reply guys to me...an admin who has been here for years longer and has over 20x the followers?
Ngl, that's pretty `reply guy` 💁🏼♀️
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I can't be the only one who had to look up sea lions (searching for it along with "reply guy" got me past the cute mammals). Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SealioningYay learning! And thanks, Alice, for your championing of the community here in the Fedi!
@dan that comic is such a good representation of sea lioning 😁
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
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@alice Got ya. Wonder if I need to check my settings. I've literally never saw any content from yourself or others.
@x41h well, if you have any interest, my gallery is freely available from a pinned post on my profile.
If that's not your thing, totally valid too 💖
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@alice@lgbtqia.space > copyright infringement—both of which are illegal
Depends, in some places noncommercial is either a misdemeanor-equivalent or an administrative offence, rather than the ridiculously harsh bullshit Japan has.
t. copyright abolitionist
@lispi314 true. Laws vary wildly, and even if it's not illegal in your area, stealing someone's art and reposting it is still a fucked up thing to do.
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@alice
Thank you, Alice ✌🏾@IDoodle totes 💕
I'm just trying to use my platform to keep this platform from turning into *that* platform.
We're all neighbors here 💞
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@lispi314 true. Laws vary wildly, and even if it's not illegal in your area, stealing someone's art and reposting it is still a fucked up thing to do.
@alice I'd contend that the closest one can actually do to stealing something infinitely replicable would be misattributing it (typically to oneself).
That is indeed very rude (to maker and viewer alike). -
@alice I'd contend that the closest one can actually do to stealing something infinitely replicable would be misattributing it (typically to oneself).
That is indeed very rude (to maker and viewer alike).@lispi314 these accounts farm followers off the artistic work of others, specifically sexworkers. By stealing our work and reposting it (especially without attribution), they're literally taking potential paying customers from us, while also making us less safe, and less likely to produce art on that platform.
Part of the social contract of me taking my clothes off for Fedi is that folx don't take advantage of that by redistributing copies elsewhere.
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@purrperl wait a sec, did you just spend three replies implying I'm new here, not familiar with the settings available, and explaining away reply guys to me...an admin who has been here for years longer and has over 20x the followers?
Ngl, that's pretty `reply guy` 💁🏼♀️
It's not about you or me, just some ideas on a general issue people encounter on the Fediverse, and suggestions on how to address them.
If you think you're above discussing things earnestly, so perfect that learning anything new is insulting, what can I say?
queer: you (1), me(1)
pansexual you(1), me(1)
enby: you(1), me(1)
autistic: you(1), me(1)
fedi-experienced: you(1), me(1)
POC: you(0), me(1)TOTAL: you(5), me(6)
I'm the bigger victim here.
Stop oppressing me, white folx!!! 😂 -
@purrperl wait a sec, did you just spend three replies implying I'm new here, not familiar with the settings available, and explaining away reply guys to me...an admin who has been here for years longer and has over 20x the followers?
Ngl, that's pretty `reply guy` 💁🏼♀️
It's a pretty autistic style of communication to pedantically give context, before getting to the point. If that insults you, you are an oppressor of minorities.
Some cogent ideas were put forth, for discussion. If you're insulted, then yes, I am the reply guy, the bad guy. Block me now. Complain to my fedi instance admin. Have me expelled. Silence the poor brown person. 😂
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice Good rant.