Just started Lemmying today. Have lots of questions. Someone mentioned mod logs, so I went down a rabbit hole reading mod logs. The only reason I left reddit was because many mods are dicks. But reading the logs, it seems mods ban people and censor like crazy here too. Isn’t Lemmy supposed to be more free and open? How is this different from Reddit? I honestly don’t understand.
It’s different from Reddit because if you don’t like the way your instance is moderated you can just use another instance and still see content from another
Unlike on Reddit, where if you don’t like a subreddit you’re totally unable to…
Wait hang on
(I think it is the natural endpoint of putting people in a position of power, then asking them to do a thankless job and interact with the worst the community has to offer day in and day out without reprieve and expect them to remain cheerful and evenhanded the entire time. I don’t think Lemmy has any particular advantage in that regard, except that it is younger and moderators have had less time to turn bitter.)
Yeah. Lemmy’s structure makes mod abuse much easier. That said, it is easier for groups to leave if they disagree with mods and admins, like with what happened with StarTrek.website.
I was talking about instance level stuff, for example I’m on Lemm.ee but I can still interact with lemmy.world, but yeah there isn’t much difference on the community level other than communities being able to have the same name if they’re on different servers
Okay. I don’t quite understand instances yet, but I think I see what you’re saying.
Instead of one central Reddit, imagine hundreds of mini-Reddits each with their own users, communities, rules, culture, etc. Now connect them all together so the users on each mini-Reddit can read/post/comment on any of the others. That basically how this works; each Lemmy instance is a mini-Reddit in a sea of peers.
May I suggest…
I’ve been saying that day 1 new here is very overwhelming. I’ve been suggesting a whole “new to Lemmy” wiki, which explains all the normal questions. Until then, I reccomend this community.
Also…don’t call us Lemmings. Some people do it, and I’m trying to stop them. I prefer fediversians.
The lemming ship is long since sailed. I don’t love it but fediversians may be worse lol
I like “lemmies” but I haven’t seen it used much…if ever…perhaps I made it up.
I’ve been suggesting a whole “new to Lemmy” wiki, which explains all the normal questions.
There is an FAQ in that community: https://sopuli.xyz/post/5798877?scrollToComments=true
Feel free to comment there with additional tips
You unintentionally bring up a point I’ve been confused about. How do I get rid of ?scrollToComments=true when I browse? I want my browser to stay at the top when I click a topic. Instead it ALWAYS skips the content, and scrolls me to the comments. I clicked for the content! I want my page to load at the top, and I’ll scroll as I read.
How do I change that?
Click on the title rather than the comments icon:
Well, unless they blocklist instances. It’s sad that operators would rather tear at the fabric of the fediverse than to allow users on their instances to get exposed to opinions that they don’t like.
See, thats the balancing act. I feel like it’s smart to say “well sign up to the smallest instance you can find”, that way the owner won’t care.
But I feel that runs the risk of that instance can disappear at anytime. Which I assume would make your account inaccessible.
We need to make defederating on an instance level not an option. If I want to block a community, or a person, I can. Why block everyone else from seeing something I disagree with?
Now I fully get why instances need to block an individual. If some guy came on here promoting nazism, sure. I get that. Ban him.
But me, not doing anything wrong can’t communicate with any instances that Lemmy.World has deemed me not needing to see…
Because some instances that aren’t managed well can just have tons and tons of spambots signing up constantly such that it’s not practical to ban individual accounts. Especially since most admin and mod teams are small on Lemmy. There are also literal nazi instances that exist just to go out and harass and threaten minorities or people they hate. While you could ban all the users it’s a lot easier to just block the whole instance.
So while I agree with you that it’s overused, I don’t see how completely disallowing it can work. Not sure what a better solution would look like though.
This naively assumes there aren’t malicious or extremists instances hell bent on brigading others in the fediverse. Without defederation, they can keep spinning up accounts to bypass individual bans until mods are overwhelmed.
Every instance retains their respective right to block who they deem a risk whether that’s an individual or instance. As an individual, you are more than welcome to create a separate account on another instances if you disagree with your current instance rules or bans, as is the nature of the fediverse.
Each community has rules which are outlined on the sidebar, so, generally, moderation follows those rules and when content is removed, the reasoning is generally publicly available on the modlog.
When I mod something, I specifically add a reply indicating why it was removed, this is because I fucking hated the whole reddit:
Removed
Removed
Removed
RemovedRemoved
Removed
I’ve been hearing arbitrary ban in reddit, also heard the same complain here but it’s mostly from individual that have comment with thinly veiled vitriol. Still, there’s a few incident with power mods, but iirc it’s been resolved. Might pop up in the future though.
The culture here is a bit different due to the nature of self hosting, sometime admin get called power tripping but then it’s their server and people who contributed to the cost have no problem with the rule being set up and enforced.
My thing is vitriol should be allowed. Some people deserve vitriol. Same for trolling. Sometimes trolling is funny. Mods get carte blanche to decide what goes. I’m not trying to pretend to be Mr Rogers to keep from getting banned.
the good news is that if you dislike/disagree with any decision by a mod or admin you’ll always still have the option to either:
- Instance Hop🐇
- Host Your Own Instance🤗
Or just mod your own community
yup, also true!👍
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I got banned by reddit by an AI automod. The messages had nothing wrong with them.
It’s “free and open” in the sense that you can create your own Lemmy instance and rule it how you wish. Other people are under no obligation to interact with you though.
Likewise, different communities have different norms and strictnesses. Follow the rules of their home or make your own.
Mods here are horrible. They are the worst.
Source: am mod
But it’s easier to circumvent horrible mods by migrating to a different community or instance.
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This is such a great analogy. All of my adult life I’ve listened to people removed about how horrible HOAs are…and also people go running to complain to the HOA the instant a neighbor does something they don’t like. It’s funny how people want it both ways. “Rules for thee, not for me” is a contagion I guess.
Wtf where’s the tendies
If you don’t find instances or communities that have a level of moderation you appreciate, you could still start your own imstance with your own/no rules and federate with the Lemmy universe.
However, if ‘your’ rules are too controversial, you might not find other people willing to engage with your communities and other instances might even decide to block your server.
I feel that people and discussions on Lemmy are less toxic compared to Reddit. With less toxic I mean less insults, less provocations, less trolling etc. and more (from my perspective) valuable and deeper discussions instead. And a generally more supportive and open-minded attitude.
Main reason is probably that a large part of Lemmy users is quite homogeneous: left leaning, IT focused, rather young people etc. You always have to bear in mind that opinions here are not necessarily representative for the society as a whole.
Regarding trolling: I personally rarely appreciate trolls and I’m happy that mods are setting certain boundaries in the communities I engage with.
left leaning, IT focused, rather young people etc
It would have been more balanced but all the right leaning people ended up on those torn-down and neutered fedivervse bastardizations (Gab, Truth etc) that don’t even bother to federate. And even if they did, I doubt that many lemmy instance operators would have the integrity to not childishly “fediblock” them.
Has nothing to do with having integrity. We don’t need the ‘balance’ of nazi racists, we’re good.
As always, it is quite an experience to drop into the different self-organized bubbles for a quick peek.
Mods are mods, doesn’t matter where you go, they cannot be escaped.
Been this was since BBS and IRC.
😩😩😩
Content moderation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just be glad Reddit and Lemmy are transparent about it unlike certain Musk and Zuck-owned websites…
just .ml, lemmygrad and probably hexbear too.
Depends on the instance.
Absolutely. Even if you don’t break their stupid rules you can get called out and removed.
The perceived position of power will always attract a certain type of people, so yeah, you’ll see this here too.
How is this different from Reddit? I honestly don’t understand.
The basic principle of the mods has been copied from reddit, and the mods here are former reddit mods. The 2 saddest facts about lemmy.
Therefore lots of mod problems are the same. They got the power, you got nothing. They are higher beings. They never justify or explain themselves. Modlogs are minimalistic and not helpful.
