Kevin Beaumont19h ago

I've had 20 sign ups to my Mastodon server in the past 48 hours, and 100% of them have been scammers, phishers and SEO spammers.

I make an effort to go in and suspend the accounts, nobody ever protests the suspension.

The fediverse is at a crossroads, the user base is dwindling and the new users are mostly just SEO spam accounts.

Show threadKevin Beaumont19h ago
For those who don't think the user base is dwindling, a few years ago Mastodon was celebrating about 2m monthly active users. Nowadays it's 0.7m.
Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙19h ago
@GossiTheDog I would guess 30% of that .7m are spam accounts. It’s a little sad.
Show threadKevin Beaumont19h ago
@jerry I think it might be more.. I've been keeping a close eye on accounts here lately and sadly almost all of them sign up, post some links in their profile, and then disappear. I don't allow brand accounts but they keep coming, it's all from India and Vietnam - SEO farms basically.
Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙19h ago
@GossiTheDog I definitely see a lot of that. Since we moderate signups here, I would estimate it's about 50/50 between legit people and spammers/scammers signing up. But we are overall losing more people that we are gaining.
Show threadJames Tinmouth19h ago
@jerry @GossiTheDog dammit! I'm just really really starting to love mastodon, and the bots have arrived to spoil it.
Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙19h ago
@tinmouth @GossiTheDog I am doing my damndest to keep them away.
Show threadWinterKnight 
@jerry doing a pretty good job from my perspective. I don’t really see any.
Mar 24 at 10:41pmWeb