Old Mermaid Town AdminFeb 29, 2024

Edit: I’ve been corrected about some of the claims I made about Content Nation. I accept that it wasn’t designed to be a scraper, though it presents as one to admins viewing web server logs. I will be more careful with my language.

I was also wrong about the technical details of how it works; thanks sincerely for the lesson.

It was not cool for some vigilante to deliberately cause Content Nation to cache CSAM and then report them to the authorities. Fuck the person who did that.

Show threadSparrowFeb 29, 2024
@triton
Oh no.
Speaking of content scrapers, is kilioa dot org a known one? Because I saw pixelfed posts I made mirrored there and I don't remember giving my consent for that? Trying to look this up is also impossible for me personally because I only find more mirrored content.
Show threadeishiyaFeb 29, 2024
@Sparrowlicious While I'm not sure, as far as I can tell, Kilioa is just a regular Fediverse server that mirrors content from accounts followed by its users, just like any Mastodon, Pixelfed, etc server. This is a normal part of federation. For example, mastodon.ART isn't a scraper, but also has copies of your posts: https://mastodon.art/@Sparrowlicious@fandom.garden
Sparrow (@[email protected])

961 Posts, 16 Following, 63 Followers · Hi, I'm Sparrow! I'm a non-binary asexual individual, I'm in my thirties and I love fantasy stuff, Kylux, Murderbot Diaries (book series), video games and art. I'm both a fanfiction writer and fan artist with a few original works in between. (Avatar and header both drawn by me.)

Fandom Garden
Show threadSparrowFeb 29, 2024
@eishiya
Okay but *why* does it do that?
I think you can understand why this freaks me out a little.
Show threadeishiya
@Sparrowlicious It's part of what makes federation work. If servers didn't make local copies of posts, then people wouldn't be able to view those posts when using their own instances, they'd have to go to the source instance every time. Federated services would be unusable.
It would also make the Fediverse entirely unscalable - if there's just the one copy, a post going viral on another instance would take the original instance down.
Mar 1, 2024 at 12:45amWeb
Show threadSparrowMar 1, 2024
@eishiya
I meant, why do websites like kiliora exist where they just pull content from across the fediverse into a content goo website? I understand being able to view things across instances. I do not understand a website that just mirrors everything.
Show threadeishiyaMar 1, 2024

@Sparrowlicious Oh, Kiliora is running Mbin, which if I understand correctly which is a federated alternative to things like Reddit - it's a discussion forum for things found on the Internet. The original content on such services is typically the discussion, not the original post. For Fedi posts, it makes sense for the whole post to be pulled in and have the discussion attached to it, rather than being a link like on Reddit.

1/2

Show threadeishiyaMar 1, 2024

@Sparrowlicious And as I mentioned, nigh-wholesale mirroring of accounts is part of federation, so when that happens, that's usually just the server's local copy of your posts so people on Kilioa can follow you and view your posts. But because Kilioa is a Reddit-like content aggregator and discussion forum, it styles these posts like any other post, with up/downvoting, etc. You probably don't see this additional activity happening because it's foreign to Mastodon and Pixelfed.

2/2

Show threadeishiyaMar 1, 2024
@Sparrowlicious (Again though, I'm not familiar with Mbin, so this is just how I understand it works from a cursory look! I'm not really qualified to answer the question of why Mbin exists and why people use it the way they do, I don't even use Reddit 🤣)