They are probably new people here trying out the fediverse because a friend recommended it to them

Yet every one of those "new people" beelines straight to this community and starts posting like a power user right out of the gate. Yeah, that seems legit 🙄. The chances of that happening organically and without some interaction elsewhere is slim to none. The accounts that are finally getting banned are ones that have been posting and self-deleting for months or more.

could you link an example? also maybe there should be a lemmy-built-in feature to restrict new posts to maybe 10 per day or sth.

1. Literally no because it just comes up as "Error" and the users don't come up in search because they delete themselves.
2. I've stopped interacting with accounts less than a month old because they just up and delete themselves taking any of my contributions with them. Like, what's the point? That's to say I can't just go into my history and pull up a dead post link for you.
3. This has been going on for months if not longer
4. Such a Lemmy feature does not exist and does not appear to be on the horizon
5. Even if the number of posts is limited, it doesn't do anything to stop the self-destructing accounts.

I had saved several comic posts that just up and disappeared. One of them I remembered who posted, so I checked their history and "Error: person_not_found". Or I'll recall a comic from a few days ago and try to find it, and it's long gone along with the account that posted it. Not modded, not banned, but self-deleted.

Until there are built-in tools to assist with this and some major change to how Lemmy handles user deletions, I'm 100% in favor of the mods taking whatever measures necessary to keep the community fair to everyone else. These self-destructing accounts have a pattern, and the mods seem like they've caught on.

These self-destructing jerks are the ones you should be upset with, not the mods. Like I said, I've completely stopped interacting with any new accounts because of this hit-and-run, self-deleting bullshit. The only ones working against legit new users are the people who keep doing that.

Here is a list I made this morning of accounts created within the last 48 hours, spammed comics then deleted.

@lawrence3@lemmy.world
@wxy_z@sh.itjust.works
@corsalon_alpha@sh.itjust.works
@Aldoa3@sh.itjust.works
@helvi5@sh.itjust.works
@naylee@sh.itjust.works
@cannedtuna2@sh.itjust.works
@denehyx@lemmy.world
@Kierakaa@lemmy.world
@tatann_2@sh.itjust.works
@tisarra_q@lemmy.world
@seronda@lemmy.world
@Julianna7@sh.itjust.works
@zeds_dead@sh.itjust.works
@distino1@lemmy.world
@yulatro@sh.itjust.works
@Polumka@lemmy.world
@Calynnr@sh.itjust.works
@frog_on_a_log_in_a_bog@sh.itjust.works
@MaryTz@lemmy.world
@Esperanza@sh.itjust.works

What exactly is the issue with self-destructing accounts other than losing the comments, discussions, etc. associated with the posts? Because if that's the only thing, I don't see the severity.

It's unfair to anyone and everyone who participates. It's a PITA to save a post to have it just disappear later. Or remember a post and want to go back to it only to find it self-nuked. Yeah, some stuff may get modded but at least there's a usually correct and valid reason attached. The people doing this and self-destructing are basically unmarked spambots. I fucking hate bots.

The disposable troll account elsewhere in the comments here said "Content is king" which is the only thing in their statement I agree with. Well, when that content is ephemeral, then it's not really "content".

What is the story there? I've mostly ignored Stamets lately so it seems I missed some drama?