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 "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.
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.)
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
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.
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.
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.
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...
The rules are openly posted for you to see before you join a community / buy property under an HOA.
decent Mods/HOA people are going to manage things in accordance with the posted rules and goals of the community/HOA, even when it doesn't align with their personal feelings
one could certainly argue for effective mechanisms to remove mods/HOA people if they are not representing the goals of the community. One person complaining should not be enough to remove a Mod/HOA person.
Some people want a heavily curated community/MOA. Some people absolutely do not want their neighbor letting their lawn go wild with multiple cars up on blocks leaking oil and confederate flags, and they specifically want an HOA to prevent those things from happening. There should be a mix of communities/HOAs with different intensities or moderation so that people can search out and find what fits them. Or go solo to create their own community / buy into a property with no HOA.
you are obviously savvy enough to find a community's rules and skim the mod log to see how the rules are followed. Don't buy into an HOA that doesn't align with what you want / don't join a community whose moderation philosophy isn't want you're looking for.
moving into a decently managed HOA where neighbors get along and agree with the HOA for the most part, then hollering about how all HOAs are terrible power-hungry assholes is a great way to not make any friends with neighbors. Contrast that with reviewing HOA rules, meeting a few neighbors to gage how the HOA actually operates before buying, then declining to buy if the HOA doesn't match your needs is the much more reasonable and civic-minded approach that leaves everyone happier in the end.
This is such a great analogy. All of my adult life I've listened to people bitch 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.
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:
The biggest problem with reddit mod abuse is they remove every post that isn't a low effort repost. For example in r/blackmagicfuckery they once removed a 3d renderer someone made in Microsoft excel which was OC made by the person who posted it but allowed the blatantly reposted and uninteresting "scientists think it's possible to run doom on 10 billion crabs" ass shit post.
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.
I disagree. I don't want a community full of vitriol. I come on Lemmy as entertainment, and reading through a bunch of angry people's rants is not fun to me.
I like that there are communities moderated in a way that creates an environment I enjoy. And I'm pleased that there are communities out there for you to discover that are full of vitriol.
You and I are never going to have every single community meet our preferences and that's ok.
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...
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.
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.
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.