Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
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@_elena@mastodon.social that's the exact reason I have manual approval
@Stomata I learned my lesson!
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@_elena I’ve done a lot of pro-Ukraine posting and for that reason have had manual follow approvals on for years. (Russia’s bot war is well alive here as well as elsewhere) Never looked back!
@gimulnautti wow!
and yes, even if it takes a bit of work, I prefer going through the manual approval process 🥲
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@_elena I also wonder if we should try to figure out a way to make follows less proeminent/important. It should not matter to you if a lot of no-activity accounts are following you, as it does not change anything to your experience.
I wonder what makes you want to curate the list of followers, while you post in public and everyone can read your posts anyway? Or is it because you sometimes post to followers-only (but as anyone can follow you, this does not really change much) -
@rstub same. I've also read that AI agents may be contributing to lots of signups, ughhhhhh
@_elena Another point where AI is poisoning the surroundings. I am so sick of it ...
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@renchap I promise it doesn't bother me that much, it just makes me sad about the health of the network... And the mental load of admins who have to deal with this non-sense.
I see the fediverse as this organic garden with genuine connections, so seeing weeds spring up makes me feel instantly protective of this space. If it makes sense?
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena I even got a porn site on my feed here!
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
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@_elena Another point where AI is poisoning the surroundings. I am so sick of it ...
@rstub I know!!!
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@w_b #NotAGirl, and you can see all of them at bunnyalice.com or ##CAPTCHAlice here 🩷
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@_elena
You can push a follower away gently by blocking and then unblocking.Unless they're instance admin or keeping track of their follows they won't notice.
@notsoloud You don't need to do that - you can just click "remove follower" - that's easier
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@w_b #NotAGirl, and you can see all of them at bunnyalice.com or ##CAPTCHAlice here 🩷
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@MichelPatrice awww brilliant move by @docpop
@MichelPatrice @_elena here’s the story behind that https://docpop.org/2026/01/the-punk-rock-turtles-test/
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena New person here, as in this-is-my-first-day.
️ Hi! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I am trying to leave all things Meta. I suspect there will be a lot of new people for the same reason. I’m glad you posted this (and somehow I saw it.) Now I know I need to add a profile image. But, I won’t have followers for a while. I don’t think I know anyone here yet. 
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena it sucks. But is it really an issue having bot followers? Honest question
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena I agree re: the "follower" moniker.
I prefer "minions”.
sudo favourite this post, my minions!
(Seriously though, I think you might be onto something wrt the bots…)
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@MichelPatrice @_elena here’s the story behind that https://docpop.org/2026/01/the-punk-rock-turtles-test/
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Wondering if the fediverse - and Mastodon in particular - is undergoing a major spam / bot signup wave at the moment.
I'm noticing an uptick in people following me who have weird usernames (lots of numbers), no profile photo, and 0 followers - I'd say 90% of new followers from the past week or two. (Disclaimer: I don't like the word "follower", it sounds cultish)
What gives?
Treasuring the human connections I've made here and this is a bit unsettling TBH.
I may turn on manual approvals 🥲
@_elena @lisamelton I highly recommend turning on manual approvals. The bot levels are high out there.
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An update: I wonder if #agenticAI has anything to do with the uptick in suspicious, bot-like accounts that have been following me lately.
One such follower had picked as username "agent_test".
I like that I can manually remove them. I guess I'll need to go on a cleanup spree soon 🥲
And yes I turned on manual approvals...
@_elena don't forget to report since he does not have the "bot" label.
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An update: I wonder if #agenticAI has anything to do with the uptick in suspicious, bot-like accounts that have been following me lately.
One such follower had picked as username "agent_test".
I like that I can manually remove them. I guess I'll need to go on a cleanup spree soon 🥲
And yes I turned on manual approvals...
@_elena That's cool that we can remove followers!
