OK, I am SOOO Done!!!

FB is totally BORKED!!
Sending me notifications for posts I've seen more than 24 hours prior, Not showing me time critical posts until the events have already passed.

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

For these reasons primarily, I am leaving Social Media and retreating back to the good ole pre-internet BBS. The last bot free service on the planet other
than face to face meetups.

-FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (21:3/235)

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED
just about every form of
communications to the point it is
now virtually impossible to tell
the bots from real people.

Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)


--- NE BBS v2.00 (linux; x64)
* Origin: NE BBS - nebbs.servehttp.com:9223 (21:3/193)

Re: Social Media
By: Geri Atricks to All on Thu Apr 02 2026 11:41:59

The last bot free service on the planet other than face to face meetups.

Even that may change within a few years. Several companies are pushing to produce humanoid robots that interact naturally with people, like in the movie, I Robot.
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (21:2/101)

Re: Social Media
By: Geri Atricks to All on Thu Apr 02 2026 11:41:59

... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

Have it print a lude letter to to your Mom.
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (21:2/101)

Hello Geri!

02 Apr 26 11:41, you wrote to All:

FB is totally BORKED!!
Sending me notifications for posts I've seen more than 24 hours prior,
Not showing me time critical posts until the events have already
passed.

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of
communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

So true. Feels like FB is made by algorithms for algorithms, not for humans.

Jegor

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: (21:3/228)

Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of
communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

slacker wrote to Geri Atricks <=-

Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm
on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)

Yeah, twitter and Reddit are both champions of The Story That Never
Happened.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm
on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)

Yeah, twitter and Reddit are both champions of The Story That Never
Happened.

I think that can be said of pretty much any social media platform...
threads, bluesky, etc... where the posters are more anonymous vs. Facebook where you are usually posting things that people who actually know you can
see.


* SLMR 2.1a * Men are a pain in the @$$, women are a pain EVERYWHERE!
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: Capitol City Online (21:1/175)

On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell th bots from real people.

I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?

I think a lot of it is.

There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particularly from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be many old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory' pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

Were people just writing "How to use AWK" over and over?

I've also noticed it for many years in my profession, where I'd look up a topic, and often it would be an Indian site that comes up, where someone has written tons of pages, just briefly discussing a topic like Equipment Validation, a very brief page, no substance. All this crap was just designed to game the search algorithm.

... Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Re: Social Media
By: Geri Atricks to All on Thu Apr 02 2026 11:41 am

For these reasons primarily, I am leaving Social Media and retreating back to the good ole pre-internet BBS. The last bot free service on the planet other
than face to face meetups.

Congratulations, and welcome to the club.

Don't despair, many private communities exists which remain somehow sane.


--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

boraxman wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell th bots from real people.

I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?

I think a lot of it is.

There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particularly from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many
years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be many
old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory'
pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give
it time and it might be.
Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run
than bbs's though.


=== MultiMail/Linux v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)

On 07 Apr 2026 at 08:16a, Khronos pondered and said...

boraxman wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to te bots from real people.

I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots

I think a lot of it is.

There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particular from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be man old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory' pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.
Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.

I almost forgot about Mastodon...

Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

... Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. - Einstein

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but g it time and it might be.
Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to r than bbs's though.

I almost forgot about Mastodon...

Please pardon my ignorance, but other than the prehistoric ancester of the elephant, I've never heard of this Mastodon. Please enlighten me.

-FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

... They say there's always one weirdo on the bus, but I couldn't find them!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (21:3/235)

boraxman wrote to Khronos <=-

I almost forgot about Mastodon...

Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary
of platforms where there is undue censorship.

No central control, more of an anarcho-centric coalition. Each node has
their own policies and themes, and if they choose, they can block
specific nodes (and their users) based on whatever.

If you don't agree with the editorial bent of the node you're on, you
can pick another node - or start your own. And, you can easily
redirect your follow list and users to your current location. For
example, I started off on mastodon.social, the main server. After
playing with tildes, I found tilde.zone and wanted to use that as my
URL and my main instance. With a few settings, I was able to copy over
who I followed, and make mastodon.social point people to my new
location.



... Change ambiguities to specifics
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Khronos wrote to boraxman <=-

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but
give it time and it might be.

As long as the feed remains chronological and I can block/mute accounts
I don't want to hear from, I think Mastodon has a fighting chance. I've
already seen some servers get blacklisted, I think fracturing is more
of an issue than signal-to-noise ratio.

Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.

ActivityPub is an open protocol, and I've seen "servers" that are meant
more for a single user - sort of like a FTN point. Those don't take the
same horsepower as running a full node.

I can attest. I'm on a Telegram group with some old conspiracy-nut
BBSers (the group is called "foil hat") and 2 of them narrated setting
up Mastodon instances. Apparently the data cache is a bugger - caching
*all* of the images and videos being shared.

=== MultiMail/Linux v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)

... Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Re: Re: Social Media
By: Khronos to boraxman on Tue Apr 07 2026 08:16 am

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.

The fediverse really hasn't, I think mostly due to it being noncommercial in nature and decentralized. There's absolutely AI slop instances, and AI slop friendly corners, but they're generally not accepted on the whole.

Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.

Certainly do - I doubt most BBSes have 5-10K systems to connect to when people post a thing. ;-)
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)

Re: Re: Social Media
By: boraxman to Khronos on Wed Apr 08 2026 12:38 am

Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

The fediverse has no central control, no. Mastodon is just one instance flavour, like Thunderbird is to E-Mail.

Lots of stuff ties together, microblogging sites, video and audio streaming sites, reddit-alikes, web forum-alikes, facebook-alikes, etc.
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)

Re: Re: Social Media
By: Geri Atricks to boraxman on Tue Apr 07 2026 09:02 am

Please pardon my ignorance, but other than the prehistoric ancester of the elephant, I've never heard of this Mastodon. Please enlighten me.

Let me just throw you a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)

Re: Re: Social Media
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Khronos on Tue Apr 07 2026 07:38:34

Khronos wrote to boraxman <=-

In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.

As long as the feed remains chronological and I can block/mute accounts
I don't want to hear from, I think Mastodon has a fighting chance. I've
already seen some servers get blacklisted, I think fracturing is more
of an issue than signal-to-noise ratio.

You can control what you see and the order of the postings newest to oldest or oldest to newest whatever you prefer.
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)

On 08 Apr 2026, boraxman said the following...

I almost forgot about Mastodon...

Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

i don't recall if it was around here (bbs scene) or elsewhere but someone had mentioned some of the mastodon clients that would be the most useful (phone) come pre-configured to ban a collection of various servers for reasons you may or may not agree with.

the problem is you don't really get to choose..

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)