A post from 2 months ago which explained the context: https://lemmy.world/post/20694710
I just had a look, nothing has changed, the website is still using Lemmy’s content to pretend to be active
Hello Blaze,
One request, whenever you post about clubsall, can you please tag me so I can also participate? Thank you.
As for this discussion, when we had a discussion last time on reddit, I thought we agreed that as long as there is not meaningful traffic, it should be ok. I guess you were not fully onboard with this.
My request with all admins is - can we agree on some rules. If we block all new sites on hunch or rules as we make up, it will kill anyone trying to do something new.
There was another thread (that I cannot find now) where some rules were proposed. (If someone can find, please reply to this).
There are 2 things being discussed
- federating out
- open sourcing clubsall
I can give an update on both of these. As I mentioned previously, someone was helping me in doing some audit, implementing federation and then we could also open source. We were going to use “sublinks”, which would do a number of upgrades. So that seems the right choice moving forward. It will allow self hosting, federation, move to postgres, move to docker etc.
However during implementation we found that sublinks itself does not implement federation out. So we were blocked by that. I checked with developer just few days ago and I was told that since all developers are volunteers and they got busy, federation was delayed. The work will pickup again in new year.
I am not sure when they will be able to finish federation. I can quickly move there once done. However that seems months away.
In the meantime, can we have a discussion about a set of rules for clarification and fairness?
Let me give you my opinion, specifically as a React developer, if you don’t mind.
And let’s be clear: I intend this to be a constructive criticism. I hope you understand and don’t take it the wrong way.
To be honest, I don’t know how good or bad federating one-way is. This is more of a “people” problem rather than a technical problem.
But, to be honest, what I am bothered by, is the fact that the website doesn’t give an attribution in the UI about which instance certain users are from and which instance certain certain community are from.
Take a look at this post: https://clubsall.com/posts/theyre-trying-to-charge-luigi-with-terrorism-imagine-that-qfF82
The UI says that the post was posted by u[slash]BytesOnBikes. If I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed this was from a user from clubsall. But if you click the username, you realize that the link says u[slash]BytesOnBikes[at]slrpnk.net. I think this would be confusing as a user. What if there is the same user under the username BytesOnBikes from clubsall? At least if you include the instance name, user would know right away that both users are different. But if you didn’t include the instance name, I feel like this can be abused to impersonate user. This is a bad thing to happen to your website, don’t you agree?
Now that we both understand that lack of attribution is a bad thing to clubsall… What’s stopping you from adding an instance name to the username? I’m sure the app has a way to know which instance certain users are from. From what I gather, I feel like this is as easy as appending a string in the code.
I haven’t even talked about the community name on the UI. Or the ethicality of misleading attribution.
Yes this is easy to implement. While I do not fully agree because impersonation can still be done by using username Bytes0nBikes. I feel showing instance names adds complexity for the user and it does not fully address impersonation anyways.
But then again, even though I disagree, many people mentioned that lack of attribution bothers them. So I should take feedback and get this done. I hope this is what everyone meant and they will accept this as a solution.
This is rather easier to implement. I should be able to get this done rather quickly. I will try to do this before end of Dec.
One request, whenever you post about clubsall, can you please tag me so I can also participate? Thank you.
Sure, I’ll make sure to keep you tagged. I was not sure you were using your Lemmy account, so that’s why I did not tag you in this post.
as long as there is not meaningful traffic, it should be ok
You are channeling the traffic from 44k monthly active users to your website without giving credit to the instances where the content is created.
I just checked, the homepage of Clubsall shows content from !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone, while lemmy.blahaj.zone have you defederated: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/instances, as “clubsall.com” is in the blocked instances.
But if we look at the linked instances, there is now “api.clubsall.com” and “clubsall-api4.renchesterjramos.workers.dev”
If we block all new sites on hunch or rules as we make up, it will kill anyone trying to do something new.
Everyone here is trying to make a new platform. Every Lemmy server, as well as Mbin or Piefed, federate content both ways, and allow to go to the original posts from the federated copies.
In the meantime, can we have a discussion about a set of rules for clarification and fairness?
Every admin make their own rules. Feel free to convince them, a few of them are in this thread.
I just checked, the homepage of Clubsall shows content from !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone, while lemmy.blahaj.zone have you defederated: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/instances, as “clubsall.com” is in the blocked instances. But if we look at the linked instances, there is now “api.clubsall.com” and “clubsall-api4.renchesterjramos.workers.dev”
This is because federation is fairly complex and we are new to this and do not fully understand. I really do not know why we are getting content from lemmy.blahaj.zone when they have blocked us. The content is coming from federation, so how is it being pushed to clubsall after blocking?
You are channeling the traffic from 44k monthly active users to your website without giving credit to the instances where the content is created. In our last discussion, you said “your site is small, so people just ignore it. Should it become more active, then users are probably going to call their admins to defederate.” ClubsAll has not grown. This time you are saying we are not attributing. It seems even you change mind on to what is fair.
My request stays the same, give us some breathing room until some traffic threshold. Is that fair?
The content is coming from federation, so how is it being pushed to clubsall after blocking?
I blocked your instance based on your domain. But because you are using other domains to pull the content, you’re still receiving content from the domains you use that I haven’t blocked.
My request stays the same, give us some breathing room until some traffic threshold. Is that fair?
What is your plan for what clubsall will look like? I have no interest in killing a new and interesting platform for building community in the lemmy space. But if you’re just going to pull content from lemmy instances without giving anything back, that’s not building community…
Tell me you’ve got plans for something other than a content scraper, and I’ll happily work with you.
@db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com interested in cutting this site off perhaps?
@jerry@fedia.io This seems like a reasonable instance for Fedia to block.
Hello @Chozo@fedia.io and @jerry@fedia.io I am the creator of Clubsall. Can we have a discussion first so we can agree what is fair and I have a chance to save clubsall?
Hello @haverholm@kbin.earth and @jwr1@kbin.earth I am the creator of Clubsall. Please see my update above. Based on previous discussion, I was under the impression that until there is meaningful traffic, it is ok to give us time to implement federation. There were a set of rules proposed in another thread. However, seems like the rules were not finalized or not accepted or not distributed. If those rules are not acceptable, can we have a discussion first so we can agree what is fair and I have a chance to save clubsall?
Look, at a glance it looks to me like you’re populating a monetised platform with content off the fediverse without attribution. That’s strike one.
Then you seem to stall for time to implement federation while admitting your developer quit… and continuing the above content scraping. Strike two.
And from what I read in this thread it appears you’re actively dodging defederation by using subdomains to keep scraping content. Strike three.
My concern in this is the integrity of the fediverse and its users. Yours, apparently, is “saving” a platform that leeches content off federated platforms to make a buck off those users. I don’t see much chance of agreement on “what is fair”.
@jwr1@kbin.earth, I stand by that request to defederate.
i generally only block for spam or technical/legal reasons.
blocked for technical reason: scraper.
I’m unfamiliar with Clubsall. Is it pulling them via federation or fetching via API? Would defederating work? I appear to have already defederated, likely in response to your earlier post, but not sure if that does anything. And that only stops them from pulling content from my instance, not what I posted to any other.
ActivityPub I would say, they show up on https://lemmy.world/instances for instance
api.clubsall.com
clubsall-api.renchesterjramos.workers.dev
clubsall-api.appcafe.workers.dev
clubsall-api3.renchesterjramos.workers.dev
clubsall-api2.appcafe.workers.dev
clubsall-api2.renchesterjramos.workers.dev
clubsall-api4.renchesterjramos.workers.dev
So im a bit confused, if they are federated whats the issue? Is it just a one way street or something?
It’s a one way federation: they only fetch Lemmy’s comment, but don’t allow other instances to get their content.
There are more details in the post linked in the OP
