Yesterday me and Blaze had a bit of a back and forth and upon review I had some thoughts.

Let me state first and foremost, I adore Blaze and his contributions to the threadiverse. I think he makes the threadiverse a better place with his presence alone.

That said, when we were arguing I had a few problems. But the biggest and most pertinent was that I felt he was chasing Redditors.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I chose Lemmy. Since I got here, I have put my fair share into making this place everything I want it to be. Whether that’s conducting myself properly or whether it’s trying to engage or provide a platform for engagement.

One thing I really don’t want Lemmy to be is Reddit. I engage on here far more than I ever did on Reddit. I have a perfectly curated timeline which is the perfect mix of news, entertainment, enlightenment and conversation. I want Lemmy to remain Lemmy.

Lemmy works for me and my mental health. The way Lemmy is set-up, I relish the fact that I can discuss popular topics away from the general populus. In general, I have zero interest in participating in the biggest communities with, what is inevitably the bottom of the barrel posters. So for my peace of mind, I stick to strongly moderated instances and away from the catch-all communities.

That’s not to say those communities don’t have their place. They do! In fact they have a special place in my heart because they filter the bad actors away from me.

And ultimately that’s what makes Lemmy beautiful. That there’s different instances, different crowds and different discussions.

One thing that Blaze said yesterday was that, “people from Reddit say it’s a ghost town.” and I said that doesn’t matter. He felt that we need to rectify that to ensure growth, but at what cost? Becoming Reddit? I don’t want to be Reddit. Even at the software level, Lemmy has tried hard to not be Reddit, hence no karma.

I don’t want Lemmy to sell its soul to attract the very people I don’t want to be around. I’m not saying there’s not room to grow or improve, I’m just saying we have to grow and improve while holding on to our values and having some integrity about it.

  • Libb@jlai.luEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    I think we would agree on quite a few points. I steer away from any polemical content, politics, memes and stuff like that.

    I have a perfectly curated timeline which is the perfect mix of news, entertainment, enlightenment and conversation.

    • Perfection is rarely a good thing and more often than not risks leading to living into an echo chamber. I like my feed as it is, including the occasional… what I would call turd content. Some troll or some plain braindead post. Why? Because it’s rare and because once in a while it won’t be a turd. It will be a surprising take on something, something that could challenge my own certainties.
    • Perfection is also very subjective. Yours may not be mine. Who will decide which one should prevail if not a vote from all participants? Even more so when the tool is allowing anyone to filter content as much as they fancy no matter what the community decided to vote for.

    I want Lemmy to remain Lemmy.

    The only things ‘remaining’ are memories (sweet as well as bad ones), and dead things that have ceased to exist.

    Here again, I would not trust myself if I realized I wanted for anything/anyone I care about to not change anymore. I’ve been living with my spouse for almost 30 years and counting and we’ve both changed a lot. That’s to be expected, that’s being alive. One only stop changing the instant one dies.

    I don’t want Lemmy to sell its soul

    Lemmy has no soul. It’s a tool. Like the hammer or the screwdriver in my toolbox, like that fountain pen on my desk.

    to attract the very people I don’t want to be around.

    Those very people you don’t want, exactly. That’s your right to not want to see them but I’d rather keep the hand on who I want and want not to see, thx ;)

    I’m just saying we have to grow and improve while holding on to our values and having some integrity about it.

    My values are not about deciding who we should (not) appeal to. It’s about considering how a tool (or a place) could be better in order to attract more users while not allowing anyone to take away any control from each user—so, every single one of us can make Lemmy work like they want.

    I don’t give a crap if people want to eat politics or memes all day long or whatever else I would consider an incredibly stupid waste of my time or toxic to my soul. I don’t mind provided I can easily ignore them… which Lemmy allows me to already. My feed feels great and it’s never a source of stress when I open it. And the occasional shit post I may stumble upon is, well, just that: an accident. Accidents are bound to happen, right ;)

    So, if appealing to more users helps attracting more devs I’m all for it in order to correct/improve what needs to be in Lemmy.

    Imho, what’s needed is not to keep ‘the bad’ people outside of ‘our’ little paradise. It’s to make sure Lemmy can’t ever be hijacked or taken hostage by anyone or any group of persons and be transformed into something we would not like and we could not transform back. That’s why a few years ago I switched to GNU/Linux (from macOS) and that’s why I will not switch back no matter how many things I don’t like under GNU/Linux and its community: I can always find a workaround and that’s priceless.

    edit: typos.

    • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.alOPEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      what’s needed is not to keep ‘the bad’ people outside of ‘our’ little paradise. It’s to make sure Lemmy can’t ever be hijacked or taken hostage by anyone or any group of persons and be transformed into something we would not like and we could not transform back.

      Definitely this! There’s a reason greenhouse flowers aren’t as resilient as wild flowers.