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.
Anecdotally, I have found a similar experience modding slrpnk. It’s been (IMO) extremely low in drama, and due to the theme, the community is filled to the brim with incrediblely pleasant people who make it a joy to participate in, and often step up to moderate abandoned communities and reduce the load on us admins.
Though it probably helps that we’re still a smallish/medium sized instance, require written applications, and defederate from a small handful of instances to decrease potential conflict.
Yes, being strongly opionated at least ensures you get people joining with the same opinions which helps with cohesion.