FaceDeer , 1 year ago

I guess it'll become a standard feature for every default installation of Lemmy or Kbin to create a random "trap user" (analogous to the fake "trap streets" in maps used to detect whether someone copied them) for each federated partner, then. You'll have no idea which ones are actually paying attention to who's harvesting their data, just that everyone potentially could be.

Personally, as I said, I have no particular qualm with a service like this existing. I'd find it handy and if you really think that you'll be able to sell the data it collects I expect a dozen competitors would spin up immediately to soak up whatever profit potential it had. But I think the advantage lies with those who are trying to spot your "watcher" instances, they're going to have to federate and subscribe with everyone so they'll be pretty prominent in the Fediverse.

I think you'd do much better if you dropped the "muahaha, I'm so evil!" Act and just provided the service. There are plenty of Reddit analogues and nobody cares about them.