That seems like an argument from tradition though. Just because something has default become some way doesn't mean it has to remain so. I think there's bigger principles at play, censorship of minority opinions for starters.
Yeah it won't happen on its own, there would need to be a concentrated effort to oppose .world domination at this point.
It won't be a problem until .world starts demanding mutual defederation (i.e. instances federated with .world have to pledge to defederate from instances .world deems problematic)
It won’t be a problem until .world starts demanding mutual defederation
To invoke the fallacy that isn't always fallacious (slippery slope) that seems like the logical next step. If they amass too much power and are already abusing it this way, what's to prevent them doing this next?
I think the concept of a mascot or poster child for Lemmy is somewhat antithetical to the concept of federated social media. Kind of a no gods no masters situation.
I feel like it’s been so active because app developers almost all default to lemmy.world. It’s a bit concerning honestly, I wish things were a bit more spread out because everyone is at the mercy of Lemmy world and as we’ve seen several times it doesn’t look like the admins of the instance are making decisions based on community feedback.
For a while Lemmy.World was one of the first ones you came across; between that, the open signups and the “general purpose” moniker, rapid growth was probably inevitable.
Add the fact that lemmy.ml and others were/still are doing applications for sign up instead of an automated system. I applied twice for a .ml account and never got a single response, not even a denial or "your application is being processed". I have no idea if my application was ever even seen.
On the other hand, I signed up to lemmy.world and kbin.social in minutes and have been using them ever since.
I mean, if I wanted a walled garden I'd just go back to Reddit. Federation is part of lemmy's beauty, but if the imposition of a particular mindset through defederation becomes the norm, why would anyone respond with anything but defederation?
This is my take. I choose the instance that fits best for me, and I know what my admin, u/db0, uses as his litmus test for defederation. As long as you find the instance that is handled how you want, you can avoid whatever side of Lemmy you choose. That's not to say badmins don't exist or won't replace the good ones eventually, but that's the nature of decentralization. You have to be prepared to move in those cases. That's why I bounced from .world real quick.
It's actually really bad. With how big it is, it's now the default for even new mobile applications, which means it will now only grow bigger. 5x is just the start. We are just seeing the start of the centralised decentralised Lemmyverse.