Post ApWmzzc6a5rT4SwJEW by AbandonedAmerica@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by AbandonedAmerica@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #ApWmzvHOh8v7d5DiOu by AbandonedAmerica@mastodon.social
       2024-12-29T05:13:18Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       I'm just going to throw this out there: I have been getting a ton of new follows, and a lot of them appear to be bots and fake accounts. I think we can mostly agree that bots and fake accounts are not a great thing for the majority of people in the Fediverse who aren't looking to artificially inflate follower counts - a process that really isn't beneficial to anyone who wants actual authentic engagement - and I'm concerned that this will eventually lead to the sort of spam plaguing Facebook.
       
 (DIR) Post #ApWmzwY5yXs5ZA2Z4C by matthew@social.retroedge.tech
       2024-12-29T05:19:39.477621Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Wow! Over 40 thousand followers!Yeah, doesn't help much if they aren't real people. I am one of your real followers. I have very much appreciated your photography and commentary on abandoned places and buildings.
       
 (DIR) Post #ApWmzzc6a5rT4SwJEW by AbandonedAmerica@mastodon.social
       2024-12-29T05:19:09Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       I probably don't need to explain why fake accounts and bots are bad, but I'm going to anyway: spam and scams are the biggest threat they pose. They also make it hard to determine accurate metrics and as much as I hate to say it, metrics are important if your account is part of your business. Thankfully, there's no algorithm here, so a bunch of bot followers aren't going to consign posts to oblivion by not interacting, but they still take the fun out of a platform really fast.