I follow various “question-based” communities like AskLemmy, NoStupidQuestions etc and I have noticed some strange patterns recently. Mainly that some topics come up over and over again, like Nintendo Switch 2, foreign alphabets and foreign languages (especially Japanese). The users asking these questions will often (but not always) delete them after about an hour.

Looking into it further I’ve so far found 5 different accounts asking these questions. 4 of them have very similar profile pictures of characters from FPS video games (Battlefield, CoD and Metro), and they were all created between march 22nd and march 29th. On a recent thread of one of them, I asked them whether they were all alt-accounts. They immediately deleted the thread.

On a similar note, I asked another one of them about their thread deletions about a week ago. Once again, it got deleted rather quickly.

Sooo… Is the dead internet finally coming to Lemmy and we’re seeing an influx of LLM-based bot users which are given instructions on specific topics to talk about, as well as delete any thread where they’re called out? Or am I just being paranoid? Have you noticed any similar patterns on Lemmy recently?

  • squirrel@cake.kobel.fyiEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    I’ve noticed a couple of newly created accounts promoting their vibecoded software in various selfhosting communities and more general IT communities.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      The mod in !selfhosted@lemmy.world has done a good job of updating the rules to deal with those. It seems like some SEO or supply chain scheme.

      The ones mentioned in OP seem to be one user that is spreading their questions around multiple accounts, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if they’re posted at a rate that would be fine with a single account, and if they aren’t using more than one account in a particular thread.

      From what I remember about the deletion pattern, one of the accounts claimed to be doing it for mental health reasons. Whether that is true or not, to me it felt like they were creating bait posts to rile people up. People saw through it most of the time

      We do have bots, but at least some of the weird activity mentioned in this post seems to be from a handful of real people that are using the platform in a weird way

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    There’s definitely bots here though it feels wayyyyy way less than Reddit. Especially noticeable with accounts that try to lure in older men with their kink for age-play and such.

    I caught those posts about the switch this morning that you noticed and ignored them for this exact reason.

  • LeapSecond@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    Yes, the ones you mentioned. At least these accounts and threads are not always deleted. It’s happened before on lemmy that multiple posts get made on the same topic by new accounts and then both the post and account get deleted. I remember similar around last year so it’s not new.

    What I don’t get is why. This time some of the posts are actually interesting and generate discussions but the OP never interacts with any comments. What do they gain from this?

    • PonyOfWar@pawb.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      I’m not sure either, but there are 2 scenarios I can think of:

      • At some point, the bot accounts will edit all their old posts to some kind of spam adverts
      • The accounts post harmless, normal posts for a few months to appear legitimate, then pivot to posting targeted political propaganda for some kind of state or private actor
  • realcaseyrollins@hilariouschaos.comEnglish
    02·
    13 days ago

    Not too long ago, some Lemmy users had to let Reddit refugees know that karma isn’t a thing on the Fediverse. People were making posts and deleting them after getting downvoted so that their karma wasn’t affected lol.

    I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, but people deleting their posts after making them isn’t terribly unusual.