I just realised, I can't post anything on lemmy.ml
So, I checked https://lemmy.ml/modlog, there's a new moderator.
All posts and comments talking about China, Jinping, Russia, and Putin have been deleted and users banned
Coming from Reddit, the very existence of this thread is a breath of fresh air. That there are mod logs at all to be able to document this, that there is a place where it can be posted that is not under control of the mods being criticized, is an enormous improvement over an unaccountable centralized platform.
The other beautiful thing is that if you aren't satisfied with the behavior of mods and admin on one instance, there are literally hundreds of others to choose from. You aren't stuck dealing with bad actors if you want to participate. And if moderation of a particular community upsets the users, they are free to move to or create a similar community on a different instance.
The major downside of this is that it's going to create echo chambers, but that's unavoidable. It's not like this is a new problem. Communities that reject outside ideas outright have existed long before the internet.
I think this is bad for Lemmy as a whole, as a community but only due to misunderstanding and generalizations... People are going to equate the "censorship" on the server lemmy.ml as censorship on Lemmy, the platform/software. That is just NOT THE CASE. Please, whenever someone mentions lemmy.ml and its censorship or the likes, be fast to mention that that is a specific lemmy server and the beauty of lemmy is its decentralization and the fact that it is open source. There are plenty of other servers.
I fear that this kind of thing drives people away from Lemmy, when it should not.
Well, the situation is a bit more complex. Admins of this "specific Lemmy Server" are creators and main maintainers of the Lemmy project as such.
So, generalization you are afraid of makes some sense.
I have replied to someone else further down with my opinion on this topic. I think it also fits in a reply to you, so I will just copy paste it here:
Yes, it might sound worrisome, but I dont think you are pushing authoritarian ideology by using Lemmy. The code itself is fine. The code is not authoritarian. The server which hosts your account is also not authoritarian.
Lemmy is, right now, the best alternative for a reddit-like platform. It is something created for the users, by the users. By using lemmy, you are not enriching the wallets of the shareholders. By using something like reddit, you provide content and a select few get to buy a new yacht.
Also, plenty of people are contributing code to lemmy. It is no longer just these 2. The code is also Open-Source. Anyone can fork it and create a new version of lemmy, with compatibility with the current version of lemmy. By using lemmy, you are allowing the possibility that, at any time in the future, someone else comes and says “I have some ideas to improve lemmy, let’s do this on my own terms”, forks it and continues the work without massively spliting the community.
Only if it's actually having an effect on the Lemmy project.
From what I've seen, the Lemmy devs recognize that their opinions aren't welcome everywhere, and that Lemmy should not have any biases.
Fuck these tankies man. I'm as leftist as they come and I HATE what these people are doing to the cause. We want healthcare and equal rights, and these loonies are dragging us all down with their fascination for those horrible fascist regimes (it takes 2 braincells to realize the CCP is 1984 incarnate).
I'm at the same time horrified and fascinated by them. I saw a comment that accused NATO of causing he war to "drag on". When I brought up that Russia could just leave, I got people unironically replying that Ukraine was the aggressor in the war and that it was Ukraine committing genocide and attacks on civilians. I understand that I could be trapped in a western bubble... but really? I didn't bother asking for a source because I'm sure the only source for that misinformation is the Kremlin. What's crazy is that you would think the Russian shills would be spread out trying to infect other communities with disinformation, instead they all flock to this echo chamber apparently, so it seems likely that they genuinely believe this stuff.
Obviously a bit thin skinned, but IMO lemmy.ml can do what they want with their moderation. It is not anybody else's decision how they moderate, except of course keeping it legal.
Seems to me almost all those comments are somewhat offensive, for instance calling people tankies, claiming they should go back under their stone, and frequently use the word fuck, as if those are some sort of argument. I'm guessing rule 2 is something about not being rude. Personally I find that perfectly OK not to allow rude comments.
OP should "read the room" and terms better, then maybe they could have a proper debate.
PS:
Rule 2 of lemmy.ml includes: "Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. " Clearly that rule is ignored over and over again by the above user.
I'm shocked the statement that lemmy.ml can moderate as they want is in any way controversial, yet here we are, and this post has about a third downvotes.
Lemmy dot ml is like, one step away from becoming another Lemmygrad.
and I think thats probably by design, Since lemmygrad is defederated from a lot of the better instances, what better way to get back into them than to take over a federated instance.
Especially when the admins and lemmy creators are down with your tankie ideology and support you taking over the instance.
It was always a tankie den. The Lemmy developers are very openly tankies.
They held their heads relatively low during the whole Reddit exodus, but that's about it.
Here are some examples: https://raddle.me/f/lobby/159606/is-lemmy-still-a-tankie-platform-or-are-there-actual
Reading this really troubles me. I don’t like the implication that using lemmy is pushing authoritarian ideology.
If I was born 50 yrs earlier I would literally have been put in the gas chamber. I tick several qualifiers for it.
Yes, it might sound worrisome, but I dont think you are pushing authoritarian ideology by using Lemmy. The code itself is fine. The code is not authoritarian. The server which hosts your account is also not authoritarian.
Lemmy is, right now, the best alternative for a reddit-like platform. It is something created for the users, by the users. By using lemmy, you are not enriching the wallets of the shareholders. By using something like reddit, you provide content and a select few get to buy a new yacht.
Also, plenty of people are contributing code to lemmy. It is no longer just these 2. The code is also Open-Source. Anyone can fork it and create a new version of lemmy, with compatibility with the current version of lemmy. By using lemmy, you are allowing the possibility that, at any time in the future, someone else comes and says "I have some ideas to improve lemmy, let's do this on my own terms", forks it and continues the work without massively spliting the community.
I really enjoyed reading your explanation. Thank you very much.
This calms me down quite a bit. :) have a good day.
Hah I'm in that screenshot. I just caught my second ban for suggesting that mass deportation of children might qualify as genocide.
It's infuriating, because if you talk to actual survivors of genocide, they use words like "vigilance" and "never again." Meanwhile, tankies literally just want to gatekeep the word to protect their ability to simp for tyrants.
Mass deportation of children is literally (one of) the dictionary definitions of genocide.
Always has been.
It's one of the reasons why lemmy never really took off until the great reddit migration despite having a decent software product.
Curious to see how this develops
tankies + fedidrama = classic lemmy
This is where I learned the word tankies. It sounds like British slang honestly.
Think that's where it started actually.
In typical internet fashion, rather than read these mod logs and decide who was right, I'm just going to say "down with the CCP" a bunch of times there and see if I get banned.
The creators are known to lean towards tankie rhetotic and I‘ve read they chose .ml because of Marx and Lenin before. That rose concerns from the beginning so it‘s hardly surprising a moderator there would do this. It is very concerning nonetheless and threatens to throw the creators‘ work into jeopardy because at that point you might as well use twixxer or whatever it‘s called now.
This is great news. It's their way if encouraging you to swap instances! You shouldn't stay on the main popular instance, it defeats the entire point of decentralization.
Fascists aren't morally healthy humans. Authoritarians can't cope with social reality, where different people can have different opinions and loyalties and yet support each other. They always seem to end up succumbing to patriarchal cults, where Lenin-Hitler-Mao-Trump gets to do whatever he wants to your sons and your daughters, and you and your working class have no recourse.
What’s the problem here?
All the stuff is listed as rule 1 and rule 2 and they seem to fit the description even without the helpful context.
There’s one ban evasion in there too.
Sounds like the Marxist mod is doing a good job.
In my country we have antifa for antifascists. Are you here some kind of anti-tankies? Because I see far, far more posts about antitankies fighting supposed tankies than I see people fighting fascists.
Tankies wpuld literally support the reincarnation of hitler if he said "america bad" they worship genocidal dictators on the sole grounds they oppose America. They hold literally no leftists values. They just like authority
Noticed that majority of tankie and genocide defending users are from lemmy.ml, grad of hexbear.
I am all for a temporary defederation.
.world has power. It has the people and the content. Flexing a little in support of human rights is 100% a good thing.
A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).
If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to !moderators@lemmy.world!
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