I started working on a script that will take top post from subreddits to post then to corresponding c/ on lemmy with various accounts to give the impression of minimal activity.

The idea comes from a lemmy user etting saying they would never want to support reddit with lemmy content (or in general), and instead just taking the content from there and putting it on lemmy.

It feels like I'm just kinda sewing lemmy into the human centipede that is content filler. I can see why content does get reposted it's entertaining and engaging and they propagate.

It does feel like a Pandora's jar like I'm laying a foundation for a bot army even though I only plan to be small scale

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[+] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world -6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When reddit first started, it almost failed because there was no content.

So what they did was had staff members post, and reply to each other. They made sure to reply to any actual new people. And then they did this from hundreds of automated accounts.

They simulated activity to promote actual real activity.

I know everyone will disagree with me, but I'd say DON'T flag them as bots. If the bots fool humans, and cause growth of the fediverse/lemmy? Great. In time you can turn off the bots. But only once actual humans are here.

[–] Cattail@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I was thinking about putting my personal account on the script so that way I can get notifications and engage.

I like to think that lemmy users could just enjoy the content without having to go to reddit

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The problem isn't content, it's engagement on the content. Folks complain that niche communities have no engagement, just a bunch of posts by a single person... but it feels like 95% of the time, if I comment on those posts, there's no reply, not even from the OP, and that discourages further posting.

If you're willing to engage on everything you post, I don't see the harm in it, but at that point, why even use a bot? Why not just find content you like (or have the bot notify you of content), then post it yourself as an actual human?

[–] Cattail@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Yeah I'm liking this idea of a script just cross posting for me on my personal accounts then I can just react to comments that come from it. I would get surprised by whatever gets posted too.

Plus reddit does filter content. Seems fun to me

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

FYI, there's many bot accounts already reposting stuff. There was an entire instance previously dedicated to it, though I think it shut down at some point. It was not popular, most people blocked the accounts / instances and they just clogged up the feed for newcomers due to the lack of engagement.