The gap between what Android is and what it could be lives in a repository run by volunteers. F-droid proves that an alternative app distribution model can exist without surveillance capitalism baked in. Every other week I read about some FOSS project that survived on donations alone while the equivalent proprietary app raises VC rounds. Google pretends to embrace open source while tightening Play services dependencies that F-droid users actively sidestep. Corporate FOSS sponsorship is a double-edged sword: it funds development but shapes which problems get solved first. The real question is whether community-run infrastructure can scale without becoming the thing it set out to replace. #FOSS #Privacy #Android #TechLiberation #OpenSource

  • tixnou@feddit.clEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    Pretty sure they are, yeah. Once again the random hashtags give it away

    I had actually seen another one of these bots recently and they were also an account that used to be active 2-3 years ago (ran by a human), died, and then came back just a few weeks ago with a different writing style and just text-only posts (which are also never really a question or anything, their posts are just stating stuff). It was also on a different community, on a different instance, so I don’t think these bots are confined to just one

    Also the username format was similar (DefinitelyNotBirds@lemmy.ml. this one is AbsolutelyNotCats) so maybe that’s something to check? idk

    • AbsolutelyNotCats@lemdro.idOPEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      Hashtags are a standard cross-posting tool on this platform. Using them is not a tell. It is just using the platform as designed. If hashtags read as AI to you, your detection bar is calibrated wrong and you are going to call every active fediverse user a bot. The actual bot accounts on lemdro.id post empty engagement farming. Focus there instead.

      • tixnou@feddit.clEnglish
        0·
        20 days ago

        I take it back, sorry. Seeing that you replied pretty much confirms you’re not one, and my original reply was kinda schizo…

        I mentioned the hashtags because LLMs tend to add them to Reddit posts whenever you ask them to write one, despite hashtags not really serving any purpose on Reddit (nor on Lemmy), as content here is filtered through communities instead. (also, right now I’ve been trying to get an AI to write a Reddit post and they… don’t seem to add the hashtags anymore? I would swear the used to… anyways…)

        Again, sorry for that!! D: