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Fair warning about this Mastodon behavior that can lead to embarrassment/leaks as new people start to use it: https://mastodon.social/@mmasnick/109299348553543

Fair warning about this Mastodon behavior that can lead to embarrassment/leaks as new people start to use it: https://mastodon.social/@mmasnick/109299348553543784 https://mastodon.social/@mmasnick/109299348553543784

latchkey 4y ago
Well, that seems like a spammers paradise. Hey, did you hear about this amazing product @insertYourNameHere?
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Less so than you might think: 1. DMs can be restricted to followed profiles. 2. Abuse can be reported and admins will likely act. Such a spam would be a once-and-done affair. 3. I'd need to check the spec / code, but suspect there's an upper bound on the number of profiles which can be mentioned in a single toot. I'm not saying there's no opportunity for abuse. But on the whole, and on a cost-benefit assessment for the spammer, there are probably more viable options for spreading a message.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    > on a cost-benefit assessment for the spammer, there are probably more viable options for spreading a message. True, it is hilarious to consider that $8 will disincentive spammers.
    - dredmorbius 4y ago
      $8 re-upped for each instance of rapidly-burned account will likely discourage low-return spam, at least. That's more-or-less the principle Metafilter's based on, and it's worked for a few decades. (MeFi's fee is $5, not $8.)
kurisufag 4y ago
this isn't a unique problem for the Fediverse. sometime in ~2018, Mastodon (IIRC -- it might have been a specific instance) implemented inter-user messaging over ActivityPub, showing users only messages addressed to them -- since it wasn't actually part of the spec, the rest of the Fediverse saw them as regular feed messages. Mastodon users assumed DMs were private and got burned, other instance operators were all of a sudden flooded with non-post messages, and everything was generally pretty suck-y until everyone got their shit together. this sort of thing happens periodically (see: Gab's federation flooding the network in a similar way), it's a consequence of different entities trying to develop individual features over a unifying protocol.
xtracto 4y ago
Interesting that Mastodon's [Back] button triggers a javascript:back event, so it takes me back to this forum. I don't know if in 2022 that is the expected behaviour haha.
- kzrdude 4y ago
  It might be intentional design, in case you linked from another mastodon instance.

latchkey 4y ago

Well, that seems like a spammers paradise. Hey, did you hear about this amazing product @insertYourNameHere?

dredmorbius 4y ago
Less so than you might think: 1. DMs can be restricted to followed profiles. 2. Abuse can be reported and admins will likely act. Such a spam would be a once-and-done affair. 3. I'd need to check the spec / code, but suspect there's an upper bound on the number of profiles which can be mentioned in a single toot. I'm not saying there's no opportunity for abuse. But on the whole, and on a cost-benefit assessment for the spammer, there are probably more viable options for spreading a message.
- latchkey 4y ago
  > on a cost-benefit assessment for the spammer, there are probably more viable options for spreading a message. True, it is hilarious to consider that $8 will disincentive spammers.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    $8 re-upped for each instance of rapidly-burned account will likely discourage low-return spam, at least. That's more-or-less the principle Metafilter's based on, and it's worked for a few decades. (MeFi's fee is $5, not $8.)

kurisufag 4y ago

this isn't a unique problem for the Fediverse. sometime in ~2018, Mastodon (IIRC -- it might have been a specific instance) implemented inter-user messaging over ActivityPub, showing users only messages addressed to them -- since it wasn't actually part of the spec, the rest of the Fediverse saw them as regular feed messages. Mastodon users assumed DMs were private and got burned, other instance operators were all of a sudden flooded with non-post messages, and everything was generally pretty suck-y until everyone got their shit together. this sort of thing happens periodically (see: Gab's federation flooding the network in a similar way), it's a consequence of different entities trying to develop individual features over a unifying protocol.

xtracto 4y ago

Interesting that Mastodon's [Back] button triggers a javascript:back event, so it takes me back to this forum. I don't know if in 2022 that is the expected behaviour haha.

kzrdude 4y ago
It might be intentional design, in case you linked from another mastodon instance.