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#PSA: Y'all might want to block or defed tags.pub and tagpush.app domain, because they're bot-boosting anything with hashtags.

My recent underwear post has a boost for each hashtag on it, and fuck this bot using my AlicePics tag as a username to boost all my nudes.

People can already follow hashtags, we don't need an *opt-out* bot-swarm to make things more "discoverable".

I don't need *every* server to see my nudes. Just the ones who have my actual, humanยน followers on them.

Edit: the owner of tags.pub suggested we also block the rest of his domains: groups.pub, activitypub.bot, and onepage.pub ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ

ยน and furry

#FediAdmins

This entry was edited (yesterday, 3:43โ€ฏAM)
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

we have noted this too; we're discussing with our current Speakeasers to see what they'd like to do about it. @tiefling noticed her posts being spam boosted (Spamoosted) last night.

We are really not surprised, looking at some of their partners. Meta, Flipboard, Automattic... hn.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

yesh one of our more techie ppl said that too, they are sort of just pretending to honor. It's Sat night, but once ppl have a chance to discuss it we will act on whatev they decide.

We might need an explicit bot rule tho "don't be a creep" prob applies.

@tiefling

in reply to Overgoddess

@Overgoddess
Spamoosed. Love it.

Image prompt: a moose carrying a post sack between his antlers. Letters pouring out where the antlers have pierced the sack. The supply of letters seems to be unlimited.

@alice @tiefling

in reply to Baloo Uriza

@BalooUriza and like, I'm fine with trending bots (somewhat) if they're the kind that asks to follow popular accounts or instances, then boosts the trending posts. At least I can decline those as followers, or let respectful ones follow me.

These "services" that hoover up everything with a tag or anything in the public timeline are often invisible until one of them (or a follower of mine) tips me off to their existence.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

I tend to go with recommending fedi.buzz because it works as a relay or you can follow individual tags or instances, and they only include Public posts (not unlisted or friends only like the problematic bot above) and honors #nobot and similar schemes. Like, you have to opt to post public and you're still able to opt out of it even if you do (making it so it's both opt-in and you can also tell it to fuck off).
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

> I'm fine with trending bots

I left a comment in the repo. Is below list OK with you?

[github comment]
Opt-in means that BOTH sides to the communication AGREED to interact with your bot. Both being informed parties.

1. the OP must have a means to tell the bot 'hey, I allow you to boost it to your foillowers'. It can be made eg. by an universal "#botboostok" tag

2. each recipient of must have FOLLOWed your bot, being informed they are about to follow a bot

3. Bot MAY NOT impersonate the OP โ€“ the boost must have come from the bot's id.
This way it can be a service, otherwise you'll just get defederated.

@BalooUriza

in reply to Baloo Uriza

@BalooUriza uh fedibuzz isnโ€™t great either. They use the streaming endpoint in a way that it wasnโ€™t designed for, without the consent of the server admins, federating posts to servers that the origin doesnโ€™t know about (often from other servers), and thus things like edits and deletes donโ€™t know to be sent to those servers that got posts from fedibuzz relays. And when the unauthenticated streaming access was closed in mastodon, they asked regular users to โ€œdonateโ€ api keys for their servers to continue doing this. Iโ€™d argue that fedi buzz is worse than a boost bot because the users dont even know their posts are being rebroadcast in this way
@alice
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

yeah im really tired of all my MA posts that include potentially identifiable information breaching containment of the "fedi bubble" I choose to participate in.

I have been directly involved in the fight for queer rights in canada for over 10 years, and have had to (many times) move and change industries because of coordinated violence campaigns. opsec is something I need to practice as a person for the safety of my family and friends, and this shit is not good opsec (also I recognize that im already breaching opsec containment a little bit by operating mutual aid but like fuck that shit girls gotta eat)

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

@kirtai apparently itโ€™s a project by one of the authors of activitypub to try to solve the problem/bug/nofuckyouitsfineactually (circle where appropriate) that folk on single-user or small instances canโ€™t usefully follow hashtags because hashtag-follows only see posts that would have already been delivered to your instance.
This entry was edited (Saturday, June 27, 2026, 10:47โ€ฏPM)
in reply to Kit Bashir

@Unixbigot @kirtai The problem this is trying to solve is also already solved - in a much better way. You can add relays from relay.fedi.buzz with individual tags (and I think maybe other things?) and they'll just show up like regular posts, which you can interact with.

There are definitely still concerns, but...

Example: relay.fedi.buzz/tag/monsterdon

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

in reply to Lizzie Rose ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€โšง๏ธ ๐Ÿฅ€

@lizzierose At some point I blocked them in the past. It's interesting to see this fire up because I recall running into their website and I was like "wait, they think they're some magnanimous fediverse org providing service?"

I did block that one account that seemed to represent themself in some way as an operator of the "service" today.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

I should re-enable boost notifications again. I would have caught it earlier today ๐Ÿคฆ๐Ÿฝโ€โ™€๏ธ

I don't understand what problem this is trying to solve exactly, since we have hashtags and they can be followed by people that are interested in them ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿฝโ€โ™€๏ธ

#PSA #FediAdmins

in reply to BewilderedKat

@h3mmy Because of how ActivityPub works, the post reaches the instance only(*) if someone from the instance is following the author already, or if someone already followed has boosted the post. If there's a single user instance, and the user doesn't follow Alice, following tags doesn't make any difference. The information "I follow the tag" is local to the instance.

But if the owner of this instance creates an account for their friend, and the friend follows Alice, Alice's posts will reach the instance. And those tagged will reach the timeline of the owner.

The tags.pub is a workaround for this problem. A person on a single user instance can follow the account at at tags.pub, and they will see everything boosted by the service.

Which is a double edged sword. Certainly, it's good for such single user instances, and general public tags. But because of how boosts in AP work, it creates a systemic item of making the original post reaching the unintended audience (defederated instance). Which is barely (if even) acceptable for general public tags, and a problem for the niche, "personal" tags.

(*) Not sure if really, there might be be some other conditions when it could happen, but for now it is a good approximation. If you are interested in all the technical details, someone more knowledgeable in AP needs to chip in.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

I should propably make an activitypub.bots.domain.block.list.tsv analogous to github.com/greyhat-academy/lisโ€ฆ just to remove said clutter...

There are some other bot domains like newsmast.social, which I consider a net negative like brid.gy

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

Yeah, even tho I keep it rather short to avoid overblocking as I want to honestly do better than TheBadSpaceโ€ฆ

- And that means rather being careful and concious of one's responsibility.
mstdn.social/@kkarhan/11105700โ€ฆ

in reply to kkarhan

That being said, I'm angry that #Mastodon #developers dismissed the valid need to support blocklist feeds as it makes administrating and updating these a nightmare requiring everyone to basically setup their own #git and #DIY a "replace" with the #API.
github.com/mastodon/mastodon/iโ€ฆ

I've yet to find some #ActivityPub Server Software (or even Middleware similar to #FediSuite) that can do that - even for individual accountsโ€ฆ

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

yeah, that is my gripe with those.

#Mastodon only does offer "replace" or "merge" and unlike anything else that I know of doesn't support blocklist feeds so people can choose to either have their own and/or trust others of their choosing.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

following hashtags only works if your instance already knows this toot by other means. There is no hashtag based push.
This works good enough on big insurances, but following hashtags is near useless on single user instances.
Yes, the notifications might be annoying, but I see a good reason for this service to exist.
This entry was edited (yesterday, 5:52โ€ฏAM)
in reply to Cassandrich

@dalias that's a very subjective statement.
Yes, I do agree the limited visibility helps mastodon to limit some of the issues of social media.
But I don't think most people do expect hashtags to mirror their current bubble and not allow breaking out of your instances bubble.
If a big event happens, I certainly would want to be able to find hashtagged posts, no matter where in the fediverse they were posted and I also wouldn't mind being able to see all mosstodon and mountainmonday posts throughout the fediverse on a regular basis.

The current system of how hashtags work certainly isn't the work or intent.
It works that way, since this was easy to implement within the given infrastructure.

And yes, I realize that if mastodon would implement hashtag push and allow for a more unified view, given the current climate on the platform it probably would end up being opt in, just like search and quotes, severely limiting its usefulness.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

There is a tendency for bot writers to see their bots as having all the rights and privileges (ethically) as a person. They don't.

Also, if doing what a bot does would be creepy or unacceptable if a human user did it, then what the bot is doing is creepy and unacceptable.

There's also a question of scale and frequency. If a human sat glued to Mastodon 24/7, instaboosting everything I did but otherwise never interacting or engaging, I would regard that as weird and want them to stop.

in reply to Wendy

@Wendy @๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„) Just to play devil's advocate: sometimes tags don't federate everywhere. Creating a central account everyone can follow increases the reach.

--- Devil's advocate mode ends here ---

This does not justify doing this without consent.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

he has some problems to understand consent ๐Ÿซค and opt in concept.

Github issue: github.com/social-web-foundatiโ€ฆ

I invite people to comment on this issue and report bot to admins.

UPDATE: behavior seems to be changed cosocial.ca/@evan/116827187311โ€ฆ ๐Ÿ‘


@leberschnitzel @matty blog post here:

socialwebfoundation.org/2026/0โ€ฆ

Our expectation was that people who use open-registration relay servers want their content distributed widely (the relay part), and don't require opt-in for every server it's distributed to (the open-registration part). That didn't meet other people's expectations, and I'd rather we didn't make people feel uncomfortable.

People who were using tags.pub through these relays can still connect their account or server directly.


This entry was edited (yesterday, 11:46โ€ฏAM)
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

@bark @dalite Something worth looking into to block them? The guy who is behind that clearly doesn't understand what the word consent means (or most likely - understands but thinks that it doesn't apply for him).
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

Forwarding a request to @MzAprilDaniels on this one, feels like it's probably worth defedding this pointless, nonconsensual waste of resources.

They pinged me a few times already on some posts, I was just like, "Oh yay, another bot farm clogging up my notifications."

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

We already have boost bots that people are happy with. They don't boost hashtags, they boost based on the bots userid being included.

Which makes them opt in. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

Sometimes they call themselves "groups" but they are really just boost bots.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

"We've also started the process of defining an interface to Mastodon so that following a hashtag on Mastodon taps into tags.pubโ€ฆ"

If you're concerned about how this service operates, you may want to weigh in here: github.com/mastodon/fediverse_โ€ฆ

(I will say that Prodromou was heavily involved in developing the fediverse from before that was even a word, so his voice can be pretty influential. Approach with caution.)

Mother Bones reshared this.

in reply to โ‚ L. Rhodes

@lrhodes yeah, fighting on main with A Fedi-founder was stressful to say the least, but it seems like he got ratioed hard for how he handled everything.

I do hope he learns more about consent, but also that this doesn't negatively affect his mental health.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

I didn't see that particular interaction, but my impression just from seeing how he posts and what initiatives he supports is that he sees the fediverse as tending toward a kind of global public square, rather than a set of distinct social spaces that have to decide how and when to overlap. When you start from that assumption, the sort of norms and affordances that make sense differ from those of the people who see things the other way.
in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

@lrhodes I remember GNUsocial - was even told about it in about 2010/2011

A lot of it seemed to be "absolute free speech" which mostly consisted of anarchists and rightwing edgelords bitterly arguing at each other in English, German and Swedish all at the same time and it was quite frankly a hostile environment (even though I can understand German quite well) and no better than anything else available at the time, compared to modern Fedi the LGBT+ folk and furries built over the years (and wrestled away large parts of control from centrist techbros)

I know which kind of network I prefer...

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

One of the weird things in the posts of his that I've seen as I've watched this unfold is how he's brought up how the SWF is there to "make the Fediverse better for everyone." ... So a non-profit with a board of three people, one of whom is currently struggling with ideas of informed consent, is... here to make the Fediverse better? How do they determine that? What does 'better' mean, especially if this ~service~ is to "improve" the Fediverse (but people are pointing out how easy it is to weaponise in very obvious ways)?

It's really discomforting.

in reply to โ‚ L. Rhodes

ouch, this is really bad:

github.com/mastodon/fediverse_โ€ฆ

A single FASP will never be used by all fediverse servers. To ensure it still gets a broad view not limited to a small number of servers, fediverse servers MUST share not only local but also remote content with the FASP.


This reads to me as: Mastodon seems to be drafting an interface by which they will share Fediverse posts from other instances with external services.

This is something that needs to be fought so they make it opt-in.

in reply to ๐Ÿ…ฐ๐Ÿ…ป๐Ÿ…ธ๐Ÿ…ฒ๐Ÿ…ด (๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฆ„)

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a moderately low effort way for mastodon web client users to domain-block a bunch of domains (as a user) without having to search for a user on each one:

create a plain text file blocks.csv containing one domain per line, and "import" it as a "domain blocking list" "merge."

example file:

activitypub.bot<br>groups.pub<br>onepage.pub<br>tagpush.app<br>tags.pub<br>

menu -> more -> import and export

choose "domain blocking list", "merge", select the file you made, and click "upload."

This entry was edited (yesterday, 5:20โ€ฏPM)

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