PSA: Many Lemmy instances are currently experiencing massive automated sign-ups (bots)

Today, a bunch of new instances appeared in the top of the user count list [https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list]. It appears that these instances are all being bombarded by bot sign-ups. For now, it seems that the bots are especially targeting instances that have: * Open sign-ups * No captcha * No e-mail verification I have put together a spreadsheet of some of the most suspicious cases here [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRthB7RtY4Rr0t5fhVKaliJnwSmptMc5oJi7uha_OBcF4wpu4eElxAxNzaCqjlq6NsOE9GpgSnMzZ2x/pubhtml]. If this is affecting you, I would highly recommend considering one of the following options: 1) Close sign-ups entirely 2) Only allow sign-ups with applications 3) Enable e-mail verification + captcha for sign-ups Additionally, I would recommend pre-emptively banning as many bot accounts as possible, before they start posting spam! Please comment below if you have any questions or anything useful to add. ----- ## Update: on lemm.ee [http://lemm.ee], I have defederated the most suspicious spambot-infested instances. To clarify: this means small instances with an unnaturally fast explosion in user counts over the past day and very little organic activity. I plan to federate again if any of these instances get cleaned up. I have heard that other instances are planning (or already doing) this as well. It’s not a decision I took lightly, but I think protecting users from spam is a very important task for admins. Full info here: https://lemm.ee/post/197715 [https://lemm.ee/post/197715] If you’re an admin of an instance that’s defederated from lemm.ee [http://lemm.ee] but wish to DM me, you can find me on Matrix: @sunaurus:matrix.org