Upvotes and downvotes.
Right now, I can browse by New on my subscribed communities and see every post since the last time I did that.
I can view or re-view posts and read every response. If the responses are legion, I can play with hot/top and get the meat of the discussion.
Did you notice that last sentence? On the few posts where there are too many responses to view all, I’ll try to get at those that are relevant.
If the Lemmy community grows large enough, I’ll need to do the same for posts. I will no longer be able to regularly view by new and have time to see everything.
So, I’ll need to rely on some sorting method to make certain I see relevant stuff.
Someone with millions of bots that never post have millions of upvotes and downvotes to influence the score used by the sorting algorithm that I’ll use to decide what to read.
Yeah, runaway global warming might not happen. Plant monocultures would begin to disappear. New invasive species wouldn’t happen, though existing ones might have a better time for a bit. Major thoroughfares wouldn’t create barriers to migration. Dams might take centuries to collapse, but I think humans going extinct might have one of the biggest impacts.