there is currently a bot inside MIT IP space, address 18[.]4[.]38[.]176, scanning fedi at large. i have confirmed this with 5+ unrelated instance admins, large and small instances, across mastodon/misskey/pleroma/akkoma.
the bot is poorly behaved. i have observed it making repeated requests, multiple times per second, for the exact same paths (the paths being, generally: user profiles, specific posts, and sometimes following links in posts). returning 403s does not stop this activity. one of my domains received hundreds of additional requests despite replying with 403 to all of them. i have also seen it make requests for paths containing html tags - seems like a badly written parser. the purpose of these requests and what data is being gathered is unclear.
PTR on the ip returns sts-drand03.mit.edu. a quick web search for "mit drand" brings back https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/david-g-rand and his personal website: https://davidrand-cooperation.com/ (note: other IPs in the /24 also have names in the PTR which match up with names of MIT faculty, but only the .176 IP appears to be involved in this activity).
seems he's doing research into "misinformation" and "fake news" on social media. he also appears to be on fedi! so @Drand@techhub.social, given this activity is sourced from an IP with your name on it, could you share the purpose of this traffic? what data is being collected and how is it being used? do you plan to respect robots.txt or identify yourself in your useragent? is there a process for instance admins to opt out of this activity other than blocking the source IP?
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นาตาลี :bellsystem: (natalie@nya.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 12:42:01 JST 
นาตาลี :bellsystem:
- pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:, :blobcathug: and Pleroma-tan like this.
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Puniko ? (puniko@mk.absturztau.be)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 17:19:45 JST 
Puniko ?
@natalie@nya.social it started here on the 2023-11-24 here, first couple of days looks like normal fedi usage.
the account crawling started on the 2023-11-29 here and has been going ever since.
blocked the ip now. thanks for the heads up -
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นาตาลี :bellsystem: (natalie@nya.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 17:19:47 JST
นาตาลี :bellsystem:
for those who have checked logs on their instances, could you share the dates when the activity started? on this instance, the first request i have is from 2023/11/29, steadily ramping up since then
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Puniko ? (puniko@mk.absturztau.be)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 17:21:45 JST
Puniko ?
@natalie@nya.social (this includes mkab and fab together btw)
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Astenix :neofox_snug: (astenix@blob.cat)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 17:41:16 JST 
Astenix :neofox_snug:
cc @Jain you should block this idiot
@natalie:blobcathug: likes this. -
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Cysio :verified_gay: (me@mastodon.cysioland.pl)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 19:51:15 JST 
Cysio :verified_gay:
@natalie @Drand FWIW checking my Cloudflare logs, they caught onto him at some point
Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this. -
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Cysio :verified_gay: (me@mastodon.cysioland.pl)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 19:51:16 JST
Cysio :verified_gay:
@natalie @Drand grepped my older logs and he's been trying with a variety of user agents, including browser-like ones
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Cysio :verified_gay: (me@mastodon.cysioland.pl)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 19:51:19 JST
Cysio :verified_gay:
@natalie @Drand found it in my logs, with UA string "unshortenit 0.4.0", it only asked for my profile and nothing else. I'm running behind Cloudflare so maybe they started dropping him at some point.
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นาตาลี :bellsystem: (natalie@nya.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 19:51:19 JST
นาตาลี :bellsystem:
@me@mastodon.cysioland.pl @Drand@techhub.social that is quite possible, i only saw the unshortenit useragent after it had tried and failed on urllib UA
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~vala@neue.city: :verifiedsabakan: (gaige@neue.city)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 20:08:52 JST 
~vala@neue.city: :verifiedsabakan:
@natalie started here, according to my logs
/var/log/nginx/access.log.1:18.4.38.176 - - [05/Dec/2023:16:09:56 +0100] "GET /users/gaige HTTP/1.1" 200 2573 "-" "Python-urllib/3.9"
for some reason only scraped my account, and nothing else :02wut:pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: and Sexy Moon like this. -
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Sexy Moon (moon@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 20:20:27 JST 
Sexy Moon
@natalie @Drand this bot is remarkably poorly-behaved, it has scraped my user @coolboymew over 800 times in a day, among other users. pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: and Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: like this. -
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istván (istvan@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 21:03:20 JST 
istván
@Moon @natalie @coolboymew @Drand > it has scraped my user @coolboymew over 800 times in a day,
He is DETERMINED not to miss a single waifu.
Sexy Moon and Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: like this. -
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𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖟𝖎𝖊 (ic3l9@shitposter.club)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:05:19 JST 
𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖟𝖎𝖊
@Moon @natalie @Drand @coolboymew desperately looking for big tiddy aneemays, purely for research purposes pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: and Sexy Moon like this. -
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NEETzsche (neetzsche@iddqd.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:35:11 JST 
NEETzsche
Yes, and my solution is to IP ban his bot from my instance at the nginx level lol
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ChristopherBRobin (christopherbrobin@iddqd.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:35:12 JST 
ChristopherBRobin
@NEETzsche you seeing this shit? -
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NEETzsche (neetzsche@iddqd.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:44:42 JST
NEETzsche
Can you show me how those work? I’m retarded.
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teknomunk (teknomunk@apogee.polaris-1.work)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:44:56 JST 
teknomunk
@NEETzsche @ChristopherBRobin @natalie @Drand
I used an iptables rule on my reverse proxy to block. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 22:56:56 JST 
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@natalie @Drand @graf He's been hammering the shit out of FSE, also.
aaronsw killed himself because he bulk-scraped some academic papers from MIT and MIT had him arrested and the federal prosecutor wanted 35 years for exceeding authorized access under the CFAA. So, now, MIT faculty member David Rand is exceeding authorized access in order to produce more academic papers for MIT. I wonder: if he produces a paper by scraping and then someone scrapes that paper, what happens?
> seems he's doing research into "misinformation" and "fake news" on social media.
He's a Professor of Marketing in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at Sloan. It is safe to reason that (1) he is a psychopath, (2) he has no idea how any of the technical shit works and has a grad student doing it, the grad student in turn having hired an engineer undergrad.
> is there a process for instance admins to opt out of this activity
I guess, per his faculty page, you could just call him, or perhaps email him. Despite scraping FSE, he has chosen an instance that blocks FSE.✙ dcc :pedomustdie: :phear_slackware: likes this. -
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pomstan (pomstan@xn--p1abe3d.xn--80asehdb)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:25:51 JST 
pomstan
@Moon @natalie @coolboymew what an absolute NIGGER
"federated moderation in mastadon network" for $210k and shithead can't even set a proper user agent
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:27:25 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@boody @Drand @natalie (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
userwascannedforthisroast.png -
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boody (boody@techhub.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:27:29 JST
boody
@Drand @natalie I can't reply to you because, although you are happy to scrape my instance, you have chosen an instance that blocks me.
I am skeptical that "researching content moderation policies" is an accurate way to describe what you are doing: I have not been asked about my content moderation policies. And how are you going to determine whether a given piece of content is in violation of an instance's policy if you don't even know whether the moderators have seen it? If you are interested in misinformation, you may wish to join or operate an instance that ensures that you can interact with the people you are exploiting for your career.
Can you explain whether or not you told the IRB that you were going to reimburse me for my bandwidth overages? Also, when I am done going through my logs to finish figuring out whose posts you have scraped and I notify them, where should I send them to request the removal of their posts from your dataset without compromising their anonymity?
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Dave Rand (drand@techhub.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:27:30 JST 
Dave Rand
@natalie Hi all, apologies for this, I didn't realize the bot was being poorly behaved - we've now stopped it. In terms of why we were doing the scraping, we are doing research on how content moderation policies vary across servers, and how this can help inform the Fediverse more broadly about effective approaches to content moderation. You can get more of a sense of the kind of research we do here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k2D4zVqkSHB1M9wpXtAe3UzbeE0RPpD_E2UpaPf6Lds/edit?usp=sharing
Sorry again about causing problems for folks! (And thanks to a couple of people for emailing me to let me know about this)
NEETzsche repeated this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:42:23 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@Moon @natalie @Drand @coolboymew Same here. Incidentally, he has apparently screwed up some of his links, so his bot is fetching URLs like "GET /signin%3C/a%3E%3Cbr/%3E%3Cbr/%3EYang HTTP/1.1", "GET /about%3C/a%3E%3Cbr/%3ELooks HTTP/1.1", "/notice/ACV7evq9u0cd7bBo1Y%3C/a%3E".
Incidentally, he was scraping some Spinster user's profile from FSE, @Piss_Ant.Sexy Moon likes this. -
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anime graf mays ?️? (graf@poa.st)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:42:47 JST 
anime graf mays ?️?
@p @natalie @Drand @boody lmfao pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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anime graf mays ?️? (graf@poa.st)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:45:23 JST
anime graf mays ?️?
@p @Moon @natalie @coolboymew @Piss_Ant @Drand the only links here was /users/username. no posts or anything pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: and Sexy Moon like this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:46:01 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@graf @natalie @Drand @boody I don't believe I violated any of the rules in that post. :cryingcat: -
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p (p@raru.re)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:46:11 JST 
p
what's the bet he's mapping out the "threat landscape" in actuality?
@p@freespeechextremist.compistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:46:40 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@p Oh, you should look at the titles of some of his papers. -
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milk (milk@poa.st)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:46:49 JST
milk
@graf @p @natalie @Drand @boody This is the 'misinfo study' he's working on that he linked (degoogled) https://archive.is/7FkVC
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Iron Bug (iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:47:04 JST
Iron Bug
@natalie @Drand I сonfirm it. banned.
I think it may be connected to this issue I had seen today:
poa.st/objects/3779a0df-93e1-4…
same UA string, same user name.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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anime graf mays ?️? (graf@poa.st)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:49:38 JST
anime graf mays ?️?
@p @natalie @Drand @boody I believe putting people on the spot, singling out or otherwise making somebody have to answer for something is against Mastodon ethos. it's baked in the CoC pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Dec-2023 23:56:43 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@graf @natalie @Drand @boody But I was punching up!
placeboing--white_male.mp4 -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:05:09 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@graf @natalie @Drand @boody Actually, scratch that, it looks like I wasn't banned, just Cloudflare periodically tossing 403s at me. -
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GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, WHITOID ?? ? (cumskinfoidpuncher69420@beefyboys.win)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:09 JST 
GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, WHITOID ?? ?
Imagine clicking this academic stooge's Google doc link lmao -
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anime graf mays ?️? (graf@poa.st)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:13 JST
anime graf mays ?️?
@PurpCat @mischievoustomato @p @natalie @milk @Drand @boody i heard the full tilt homos were trying to make it 'their space' but i cant be assed to even bother going to look. not sure if gays fellating eachother on the timeline or people whining about xitter is worse tbh pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Sexy Moon (moon@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:13 JST
Sexy Moon
@graf @mischievoustomato @PurpCat @p @natalie @milk @Drand @boody I quit going because I don't want to see people's HRT progress noodz pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:14 JST 
Pawlicker
@mischievoustomato @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody bluesky has the early mastodon problem
It has people talking about using it and how bad the other site is and that is it -
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Johnny Peligro (mischievoustomato@5dollah.click)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:15 JST 
Johnny Peligro
@PurpCat @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody lmao
this reminds me i have a bluesky account that most likely I'll never use -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:16 JST
Pawlicker
@mischievoustomato @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody and cohost.org and bluesky 🤣 -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:17 JST
Pawlicker
@milk @p @natalie @graf @Drand @boody more importantly the quality users are leaving Twitter either because of musk derangement syndrome (twitter assfucking users now has a name and face), or because of bans/censorship, or fatigue with people of gender.
This is definitely scaring many.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Johnny Peligro (mischievoustomato@5dollah.click)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:17 JST
Johnny Peligro
@PurpCat @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody > this is definitely scary many
i can see why, and its funny
sadly most people go to mastardon -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:18 JST
Pawlicker
@milk @p @natalie @graf @Drand @boody this is the cancer killing the internet nice pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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milk (milk@poa.st)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:23:18 JST
milk
@PurpCat @p @natalie @graf @boody I'll post what I said in my mod chatroom. While fedi is comprised of lots of shitposting, i believe studies like these are a way to delegitimize anything posted as misinformation. these types like @Drand see themselves as authority of information
if they are able to convince people that nothing on the fediverse is serious, it bolsters places that are sanctioned by the authorities of information like X...and the reason why X is sanctioned and endorsed by them and other kikes is because the ADL control the flow of informationX, the ADL, academia are worried that "freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach" will eventually upset people
fediverse poses a threat to these "people", always haspistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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NEETzsche (neetzsche@iddqd.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:33:08 JST
NEETzsche
tfw a nigger has a realer job than you
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:33:09 JST
Pawlicker
@Drand @natalie why not get a real job that contributes to humanity like dropping 10:1s -
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burner (burner@norwoodzero.net)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:33:32 JST 
burner
fuck off kike, let people run their communities how they want. NEETzsche likes this. -
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Pleroma-tan (kirby@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 01:59:18 JST 
Pleroma-tan
@natalie @Drand was just gonna say "who the fuck cares" but if my man is making me pay like an extra dollar for his spam im gonna have to bother doin somethin about that :happey: pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Pleroma-tan (kirby@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:01:55 JST
Pleroma-tan
@Drand @natalie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAA1xgTTw9w -
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laurel (laurel@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:17:13 JST 
laurel
@p @natalie @Drand @graf
>MIT
Still too retarded to setup an instance and just follow people.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:17:55 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@laurel @Drand @graf @natalie Or even relay endpoints. And if you make your relay endpoint follow people, sometimes the other server doesn't even report the follow. -
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p (p@raru.re)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:18:22 JST
p
gotta look out for those luggen presses
@p@freespeechextremist.compistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:19:00 JST
Pawlicker
@graf @p @natalie @Drand @boody total researcher blackhole pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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burner (burner@norwoodzero.net)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:20:16 JST
burner
I find it genuinely impossible to converse with normalfags online
I just have nothing in common with them anymorepistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:20:40 JST
Pawlicker
@burner @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody it's so much worse on bsky for example.
It's where the catladies who listen to NPR and thom Hartmann and political theater about how trump is Hitler 2 go to bitch about trump and furries think they're being genocided.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:21:55 JST
Pawlicker
@graf @mischievoustomato @p @natalie @milk @Drand @boody bluesky is where an argument will devolve into posting dilation photos to prove you're really trans pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:22:40 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@PurpCat @graf @Drand @boody @milk @mischievoustomato @natalie
cantdothatontheinternet.jpg -
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vic (vic@seal.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:23:28 JST 
vic
@PurpCat @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody Twitter is an intel collection and influence platform and nothing more. There is no other logical reason why it is still operational; ad revenue doesn't cut it, and their stock value has always been dismal.
Elon was sent in to bring the right, who had been mass-censored and banned by the overzealous previous management, back into the platform so that they can be monitored and influenced more easily.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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anime graf mays ?️? (graf@poa.st)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:23:41 JST
anime graf mays ?️?
@mischievoustomato @PurpCat @p @natalie @milk @Drand @boody bet 85% of the lemmy people went back to reddit and lemmy is a ghost town now pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Johnny Peligro (mischievoustomato@5dollah.click)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:23:42 JST
Johnny Peligro
@PurpCat @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody yeah, that's incredibly annoying to see
i started using lemmy back when the whole reddit debacle happened, and well, it was like 30+ posts about zomg lemmy so good zomg reddit so bad
---
speaking of that, funnily, reddit is seemingly doing fine -
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Chimera (chimera@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:24:06 JST
Chimera
@PurpCat @graf @Drand @boody @milk @mischievoustomato @natalie @p so it's the negaverse. pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:25:27 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@PurpCat @mischievoustomato @Drand @boody @graf @milk @natalie I am interested in the situation of a guy scraping fedi and I do not know how it turned into discussion of someone's polycule but I would like to opt out of that if possible so I don't have to mute the entire thread. -
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Pawlicker (purpcat@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 02:25:28 JST
Pawlicker
@mischievoustomato @p @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody bardfinns in a polycule now and having lots of esex now
https://rdrama.net/post/226867/so-bardfinns-in-an-online-polycule -
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GNU/r000t (r000t@ligma.pro)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 07:15:06 JST 
GNU/r000t
@laurel @p @natalie @graf @Drand Honestly, I gotta make a generic library for this so people do it right, and then me doing it looks just like "approved" people doing it
what's ironic is people are only finding out about MIT scraping fedi is because they're doing it wrong. if you're doing it right, you *need* to announce yourself like a cartoon villain in order for anybody to think it's happening.
everyone's on about "safety" and "security", but let me ask you this: Did the guy who called MGM and ask nicely for them to deploy ransomware cartoonishly announce himself as a social engineer?
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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istván (istvan@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 07:32:48 JST
istván
@r000t @laurel @p @natalie @graf @Drand Artist interpretation of the social engineer calling to announce he is a social engineer.
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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istván (istvan@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 07:35:29 JST
istván
@laurel @p @natalie @graf @Drand There is a reason persons call it Morons In Training.
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 08:37:41 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@istvan @laurel @natalie @graf @Drand Well, this guy is the Sloan School of Business. Different crowd. (In fact, the rest of the crowd is a different crowd now that Microsoft bought up the CS department.) -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 11:52:57 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@Hyolobrika @PurpCat @mischievoustomato @natalie @graf @milk @Drand @boody Well, it's not like it's a big deal, worst-case scenario is I mute the thread and maybe come back to it. -
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Hyolobrika (hyolobrika@social.fbxl.net)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 11:53:02 JST 
Hyolobrika
>I would like to opt out of that if possible so I don't have to mute the entire thread
I have always wanted that feature and am annoyed whenever people refuse to emulate it by untagging people on request. -
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anonymous (anonymous@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 13:37:46 JST
anonymous
@p @p I’d be willing to bet money that
- it’s going to be used as an excuse to expand the fediblock
- it’s going to be used as an excuse for more internet censorship
-
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istván (istvan@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 01:13:24 JST
istván
Sexy Moon likes this. -
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DM me cats :nv: (catlord@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 01:13:25 JST 
DM me cats :nv:
@istvan @Moon @natalie @coolboymew @Drand which is your favourite anime girl? -
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Judge Dread :verified: (judgedread@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 07:42:36 JST 
Judge Dread :verified:
@p This is the level of technical knowhow I expect from Google Scholars and MIT professors.
Like seriously, not sarcasm.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: (p@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 07:45:40 JST
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist:
@judgedread Yeah; bothered an MIT kid about it.
:elliot: What do you know about Sloan?
:oopsclumsyme: ...School of Business?
:elliot: That's the one, yes.
:oopsclumsyme: Scary math guys. All the statistics and econ classes are there, even undergrad. -
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autism :verified: (jeff@misinformation.wikileaks2.org)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 09:21:33 JST 
autism :verified:
@Drand @atlas
your instance blocks everyone, you dont want a discussion you want to collect natsec money for being a script kiddie.
fix your fucking shit spider you MIT skidmark fuck and then we'll tell you how moderation works, except you wont because you're a bad faith actor.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: and Sexy Moon like this. -
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Dave Rand (drand@techhub.social)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 09:21:34 JST
Dave Rand
@atlas Thanks for your engagement! To clarify, the data we were collecting was on what news domains people on different servers share, and how toxic the language they use is etc; and then how that relates to the formal rules the server posts. But also we would LOVE to talk admins about how they actual think about / do content moderation etc (We have talked to some already, and are def interested in more!)
-
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atlas_core: self-hosted edition (atlas@thonkbox.rightmouse.click)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 09:21:35 JST 
atlas_core: self-hosted edition
@Drand
Speaking for myself, I appreciate the clarification and short explanation, as otherwise this can be perceived quite simply as an attack with no true proper reason.
One question, though. Yes, I acknowledge that information on my instance is public and I do not intend to intensely restrict access to it (as there is quite simply no good reason or way to do so without extensive compromises), but this does not explain why the bot needs access to either the public timelines or specific user accounts if it is just searching the vaguely-identified "content moderation policies." For convenience, I'm not going to question the relevance or possibility of moderation in a federated network, as it's quite simply irrelevant right now.
There is a lot of ambiguity in that regard so rather than making assumptions, I'd rather ask: what's up with that? How is the information there relevant? (and also, why are single-user instances, like mine, that only have very few users, relevant to this as well, and is there a way to opt out?)
edit note (in response to the parent post's recent edit):
I'm more or less sure if this answers some concerns both expressed on my end and on the O.P.'s end (natalie), perhaps I am missing an implication or misinterpreting certain things.
Anywho, this is not my debate to start or partake in, so I'll digress. Blocking the IP remains a "good enough" opt-out mechanism, if a bit archaic, for my needs.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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autism :verified: (jeff@misinformation.wikileaks2.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:02:21 JST
autism :verified:
@Drand @atlas also penis pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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autism :verified: (jeff@misinformation.wikileaks2.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:03:04 JST
autism :verified:
@sarvo @natalie @Drand this "misinformation" is just people telling lies on the internet for fun. studying random internet user's shitposts for natsec grant money is why MIT is a fucking embarrassment and shell of it's former self.
seriously, this guy is just an embarrassment.pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Sarvo (sarvo@novoa.nagoya)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:03:06 JST
Sarvo
@Drand@techhub.social @natalie@nya.social quantitative statistical research is fucking garbage and it will not give you any light at all on how the fediverse works, if you are serious about it go ahead and ask instance admins and users directly. Otherwise keep scrapping data for even more garbage papers that say nothing but shit as your whole career.
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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CEO of Monoeye Dating (ceo_of_monoeye_dating@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:04:13 JST 
CEO of Monoeye Dating
@Drand @natalie ok cool
put these tiddies in your paper
1623844581238.pngpistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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nick (nick@pech.tech)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:05:12 JST 
nick
@natalie bit late, but whatever
2023/11/28: first contact via mastodonpy and afterwards browsing static content via Chrome 119 on Windows 10 (???)
2023/11/29: first traffic from the urllib botpistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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lamp (lamp@kitty.haus)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:05:58 JST 
lamp
@coolboymew is @Moon? pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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PrivateGER :blobcoffee: (privateger@plasmatrap.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:07:10 JST
PrivateGER :blobcoffee:
@natalie@nya.social @Drand@techhub.social sent him to tarpit :ablobfoxbongohyper:
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Berkeley Berkman (berkberkman@bae.st)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:07:47 JST 
Berkeley Berkman
@caekislove @natalie @Drand Getting rejected to going to MIT after high school was a blessing in disguise. pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Caek Islove ? ❤️ (caekislove@gleasonator.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:07:49 JST 
Caek Islove ? ❤️
@Drand @natalie This is what your tuition is paying for, kids. -
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laurel (laurel@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:08:09 JST
laurel
@Drand @natalie
Carefull with that link.
go*gle docs links leak your g*ail account if you logged in (in the case you are naive enough to have one)
niggerniggerniggerniggerniggerpistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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≠ (amerika@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:08:31 JST 
≠
You can also reach him at:
https://noagendasocial.com/@natalie@nya.social/111531280598873048
His personal domain name is hilarious:
http://davidrand-cooperation.com/
Personally, I am glad to see people researching the #Fediverse, having come from the #freespeech wing of the #BBS movement back in the 1980s.
Maybe we should reach out to him nicely with some suggestions about how to make a well-behaved bot?
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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istván (istvan@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:09:22 JST
istván
@Silverwolf @natalie @justnormalkorean @coolboymew @Moon @Drand I can't imagine what bae.st is spending on bandwidth if he's going after the waifu bots.
pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Psychotic Militant Bitch (silverwolf@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:09:23 JST 
Psychotic Militant Bitch
I wonder how often it goes after @justnormalkorean -
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Tsuki (tsuki@amami.paradigm-x.tokyo)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:09:49 JST 
Tsuki
clearly he is a love live fan pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Dushman (dushman@den.raccoon.quest)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:15:13 JST
Dushman
@Hyolobrika@social.fbxl.net
Everything I post is public information I'm well aware lolpistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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Hyolobrika (hyolobrika@social.fbxl.net)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:15:19 JST
Hyolobrika
It probably won't help much. He can get your posts etc from other servers you federate to. -
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Dushman (dushman@den.raccoon.quest)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:15:20 JST
Dushman
@natalie@nya.social @Drand@techhub.social
Yeah I'm blocking this IPpistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this. -
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vaartis running up that hill (vaartis@pl.kotobank.ch)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Dec-2023 22:15:59 JST 
vaartis running up that hill
@natalie earliest one for me is 02/Dec/2023:18:45:36 and it seemed to have stopped on 3rd after 3344 requests to my profile and the profile of the only other active user on my instance, the user agent was "Python-urllib/3.9". Actually, now it seems like they're trying to connect via IPv6 which I have explicitly disabled so nginx is giving them a connection refused error, clearly that does not stop them because the last request was about 2 hours ago pistolero :thispersondoesnotexist: likes this.
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