[Done] Pictrs Migration- Between NOW and 1700 UTC Image Upload Disabled
Hi all,
We will be attempting to migrate Pict-rs tomorrow starting at 1700 UTC.
Between now and 1700, image uploads will be disabled to try and avoid any data loss.
You will still be able to like, comment and post until then.
During the upgrade window, Pict-rs will be offline, so viewing images might not work.
In theory CloudFlares CDN cache should cover us during the window, but YMMV.
Hopefully everything should go smooth, but we do our best to make sure we have backups!
Love how openly you guys communicate about the management of LW. It's interesting for anyone with an interest in self hosting things to see how you've scaled up. Keep up the good work!
Kind of like Imgur, it's a barebones Image hosting server which is what Lemmy uses to serve images uploaded to the instance. It makes it easier otherwise people would need to use things like catbox or imgur itself to host images.
I do feel like support could be better with it though, like if it gave us an interface where we could access our images from our account, or at the very least one for admins.
Want to say this because the release notes make it perfectly clear. Instance blocking is not and cannot be considered an alternative to defederation.
Users can now block instances. Similar to community blocks, it means that any posts from communities which are hosted on that instance are hidden. However the block doesnโt affect users from the blocked instance, their posts and comments can still be seen normally in other communities.
Not a replacement for defederation, it's still needed to keep instances healthy. Plus the fact that Lemmy doesn't really even have blocks, they're just mutes called blocks (which are only useful under the assumption that the blocked account is innocent, and the blocker is just having a fit or doesn't have credibility), if we had a way to restrict malicious users then I would say being more hands off isn't that bad but as it stands there isn't so defederation and moderation is still important and can't be substituted with blocking.
I implore you to read the article I just published regarding how people become radicalized. Your decision is ultimately going to affect the well-being and safety of the users of Lemmy.World.
I see the suggestion of personally blocking Threads purported as a solution, but that is limited to a personal level. That does not solve the problem of radicalization of the user-base in general. Users who have not blocked them or people viewing without a profile will be potentially exposed to misinformation and extremism.
As documented in my article, radicalization happens through a social contagion effect, in which repeated exposures reinforce the radical beliefs. People who otherwise would not believe such things become radicalized through repetition, and social media websites (including reddit and lemmy) serve as catalysts for radicalizing such vulnerable people.
Incels were spawned through their echo-chamber on reddit, and slowly radicalized to the point in which they have committed mass murder and acts of domestic terrorism. Read sources The_Donald on reddit was originally a satire subreddit that became a pro-trump echo-chamber, which snowballed into real-world extremism and had to be banned.
Threads has been subject to mass amounts of radicalizing, extremist content, and there have also been instances of users having personal information doxxed on Threads due to Meta's information-harvesting practices. [1]
Threads was marketed to be open to 'free speech' and encouraged the Far-Right movement to join, who have spread extremism, hate, and harassment on Threads already. [3] Threads has been a hotbed of Israel-Palestine misinformation/propaganda. [4]
They fired fact-checkers just prior to Threads' launch [1], however they claim they will have 3rd party fact-checkers next year. [5]
Meta/FB has a rampant history of illegal and unethical practices, including running experiments on their users which affected their moods and induced depression in many uninformed, non-consenting subjects. [6]
Meta/FB/Instagram also have a strong history of facilitating the spread of misinformation and extremism, which contributed to the January 6th insurrection attempt. [7]
If exploding heads was defederated with because of this sort of toxic extremism, why would you want to federate with a platform plagued by that same content? One known for shortcomings moderating it? And one which comes from a company with a long history of unethical practices regarding users?
With their rampant history of unethical and illegal business practices, I encourage you (the Lemmy. World team) not to federate with Threads for the well-being of the users in this instance. I have consistently seen a larger consensus of Lemmy.World users opposing federation than being interested in it.
A significant portion of Lemmy (in general as well as Lemmy.World) users migrated here from reddit after being disappointed in the reddit administration's failure to represent their users' interests. Unlike most of the users on reddit, a significant proportion of the users on Lemmy.World are the active users who cared enough about their principles to leave and start over here.
I have really valued the leadership of Lemmy.World thus far and have donated to you since my first week here, because I believed in this instance and our community. And I still do.
But I will be cancelling my donations and likely finding a different instance whose ethics are more aligned with my own, should you choose to federate with Threads. I have tried to be an active user and promote discussion and sharing content on Lemmy.World. But in federating with Threads, I believe you will lose a lot of active community members like myself.
I sincerely hope you will take this into consideration in making your final decision.