Lately I see a lot of calls do have specific instances defederated for a particular subset of reasons:

  • Don’t like their content
  • Dont like their political leaning
  • Dont like their free speech approach
  • General feeling of being offended
  • I want a safe space!
  • This instance if hurting vulnerable people

I personally find each and every one of these arguments invalid. Everybody has the right to live in an echo chamber, but mandating it for everyone else is something that goes a bit too far.

Has humanity really developed into a situation where words and thoughts are more hurtful than sticks and stones?

Edit: Original context https://slrpnk.net/post/554148

Controversial topic, feel free to discuss!

  • 🐱TheCatEnglish
    111·
    1 year ago
    • They are forums
    • With open registration
    • Hosted online
    • Where a wide variety of people post and comment

    The only difference I see is their moderation stance in fact. So that would suggest that their (lack of) moderation is why it has become a haven of hate, and not some other aspect.

    • HasturOPMEnglish
      36·
      1 year ago

      Agreed to all points.

      While:

      • Lemmy is federated and not run on one central site (not like Reddit or any webforum)
      • Lemmy has instances with different stance on administration and moderation but all of them are moderated to some extent
      • AFAIK you can’t block, mute, or filter on most image board-like forums as a user. While on Lemmy you can filter and block users and communities (and probably soon even whole instances, it’s not that hard to do that client side)

      Given the above I think we have severely different scenarios and as such a completely different use case and type of user.

      • 🐱TheCatEnglish
        71·
        1 year ago

        Totally disagreed. That we see an exodus from reddit to lemmy shows that its not a different type of user. Most users are unaware of the server architecture and would not know the difference between a federated or centralized service.

        From my point of view, you are trying to look for a difference to muddy the waters, because this experiment has been run so many times already on so many social networks.

        If you want to be ‘innovative and experimental and take risks to find greater things’ then fine, don’t let us squares hold you back. But understand you sound a bit like the rich sub guy saying it’ll be different this time. And go far away from me when you try it ;)

        I have to run out so I will stop replying here.

        • HasturOPMEnglish
          34·
          1 year ago

          Apologies I messed up and mixed things up badly.

          Reddit and Lemmy share the same user base and type of user. The point I wanted to make and failed for xChan-Boards Vs Lemmy.

          • steakmeouttEnglish
            31·
            1 year ago

            Reddit and Lemmy share the same user base and type of user

            No they don’t - they just share some users, right now.

            Reddit users have no fucking idea how decentralized services like Lemmy work. They have been at the whim of mods and a commercial enterprise on Reddit - the most they can do is change subs and report badmins with the latter often leading nowhere or having sometimes deleterious effects.