Technology

37740 readers

629 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

211

Admins, we're about to have a really bad SPAM problem when Lemmy removes captcha support in v.0.18 - You ALL have a responsibility to communicate back to lemmy devs to try to stop it. (tucson.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

180 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Look, we can debate the proper and private way to do Captchas all day, but if we remove the existing implementation we will be plunged into a world of hurt.

I run tucson.social - a tiny instance with barely any users and I find myself really ticked off at other Admin's abdication of duty when it comes to engaging with the developers.

For all the Fediverse discussion on this, where are the github issue comments? Where is our attempt to convince the devs in this.

No, seriously WHERE ARE THEY?

Oh, you think that just because an "Issue" exists to bring back Captchas is the best you can do?

NO it is not the best we can do, we need to be applying some pressure to the developers here and that requires EVERYONE to do their part.

The Devs can't make Lemmy an awesome place for us if us admins refuse to meaningfully engage with the project and provide feedback on crucial things like this.

So are you an admin? If so, we need more comments here: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3200

We need to make it VERY clear that Captcha is required before v0.18's release. Not after when we'll all be scrambling...

EDIT: To be clear I'm talking to all instance admins, not just Beehaw's.

UPDATE: Our voices were heard! https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3200#issuecomment-1600505757

The important part was that this was a decision to re-implement the old (if imperfect) solution in time for the upcoming release. mCaptcha and better techs are indeed the better solution, but at least we won't make ourselves more vulnerable at this critical juncture.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, I agree that the current implementation isn't the most robust in stopping all conceivable bots. Heck, it's quite poor as some others have pointed out.

The reality is, though, that it is currently making a difference for many server admins, now, today.

Let's use a convoluted metaphor!

It's as if each lemmy instance has some poorly constructed umbrellas (old captcha). Now a storm has arrived (bot signups) and while the umbrella is indeed leaky, but the umbrella operator is not as wet as they would be without it. Now imagine that these magical, auto-upgrading umbrellas receive an update during this storm that removes the fabric entirely while they work on making a less leaky solution. It would be madness right? It's not about improving on the product, that's desired and good! It's about making sure the old way of doing things is there until the newer solution is delivered and present.

As a user of this "magical umbrella", I'd be scrambling because the sudden removal of a feature that was working (albeit poorly and imperfectly) doesn't exist at all anymore. Good thing I have a MUCH bigger umbrella that I pay $$$ for (cloudflare) to set-up in the meantime. However this huge umbrella is too big, and if I don't cut some holes in it, it'll be to "dark" to function. So not even this solution is perfect.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

The reality is, though, that it is currently making a difference for many server admins, now, today.

Don't hear me wrong- I am not advocating for its removal. I am not saying it's not currently effective!

Let's be perfectly honest, it is THE most effective tool at our disposal currently.

I am just saying, as this platform explodes in size- since the implementation for the captcha is also open source, it's only a matter of time before it's rendered completely inoperable- to where it only stops the easiest attacks.