cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/177673

Cross posting this here for visibility since lemmy.ml federation has been very hit or miss the last week. Original post from @sunaurus@lemm.ee

Today, a bunch of new instances appeared in the top of the user count list. It appears that these instances are all being bombarded by bot sign-ups.

For now, it seems that the bots are especially targeting instances that have:

  • Open sign-ups
  • No captcha
  • No e-mail verification

I have put together a spreadsheet of some of the most suspicious cases here.

If this is affecting you, I would highly recommend considering one of the following options:

  1. Close sign-ups entirely
  2. Only allow sign-ups with applications
  3. Enable e-mail verification + captcha for sign-ups

Additionally, I would recommend pre-emptively banning as many bot accounts as possible, before they start posting spam!

Please comment below if you have any questions or anything useful to add.

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Why wouldn’t an instance require an email and a captcha? Seems like such an easy add that’s totally worth if it even just reduces bot traffic.

    • RQG@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I can see a reason for email in that people might want to minimize storing personal data.

      A captcha seems pretty harmless in any case.