this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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It appears to me that the current state of Lemmy is similar to other platforms when they were smaller and more insular, and that insularity is somewhat protecting it.

I browse Lemmy, and it feels a bit like other platforms did back in 2009, before they became overwhelmed and enshitified.

If I understand it correctly, Lemmy has a similar "landed gentry" moderation scheme, where the first to create a community control it. This was easily exploited on other platforms, particularly in regards to astroturfing, censorship, and controlling a narrative.

If/when Lemmy starts to experience its own "eternal September", what protections are in place to ensure we will not be overwhelmed and exploited?

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

On Reddit, before it went full goose step, you'd have the problem where the top mod of r/linux would be this weird open source zealot who would delete any thread that had any practicality in it. So actual discussion of using Linux would happen in r/linuxmasterrace, which was nominally a meme sub but it's where the actual community landed. You could use Reddit's vast namespace to steer around an individual top mod.

You couldn't steer around Reddit's admin though, they have root access to the servers, they can, have and increasingly do shut things down they don't like. It's double plus ungood.

Lemmy, and indeed the entire Fediverse, offers every user the Bender gambit. You can make your own instance with blackjack and hookers. There is no mechanism to shut it down everywhere. Instances are hosted by multiple people on multiple hardware platforms on multiple power grids in multiple countries under multiple jurisdictions.

The top mod of [email protected] is being a shithead? You could make [email protected], or you could start [email protected], or you could start your own instance and then YOU are in control of who gets to be a mod on at least one instance. No one person has the power to shut down everything everywhere; you start talking about severing undersea cables at that point.

[–] MajorHavoc 28 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Lol. We need to advertise "The Bender Gambit" more aggressively in our welcome materials. It really is part of what makes this place(s) great.

I'll be sure to do that when I make my own instance, with blackjack and hookers.

And you know what?! Forget the instance .

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 hours ago

I actually just found this on knowyourmeme:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Isn’t this still true of Reddit though? You could just make a new subreddit if you don’t like another.

How is it different?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Because at the end of the day, they're all on Reddit. So when reddit says "you'll get banned for upvoting content that promotes violence [against the oligarchs]," you can't just make another subreddit because they'll shut that one down too.

If the admin of lemmy.world says "you'll get banned for upvoting content that promotes violence [against the oligarchs]," then you can say okay and make [email protected]. People on Lemmy.world can still access the new site, or even leave Lemmy.world entirely if they decide they're not down with the admin. But they can still access all of the other federated communities they were subscribed to rather than having to quit Lemmy overall.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

What happens if lemmy.world admin forces the hand of the mods of [email protected] community to ban such content and then defederate from the madeupinstance.net where the new luigi community is hosted? Isn’t that the same problem as reddit? Lemmy.world users would not be able to see the luigi community at that point right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 42 minutes ago

Lemmy world bans [email protected]

Quite a few people switched to other instances when that happened

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 hours ago

You can easily create a new account on a different instance. The only thing you lose is your post/comment history, but many apps allow multiple accounts in case you still want access to that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

Ah that makes sense. Thank you for the clarification!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I feel like there is a real possibility of a federation schism where a bunch of server admins get together and defederate with the rest of the servers. In that case you either need two accounts on both side of the schism or just be blind to whatever is happening over there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

We're living it right now. It is my understanding that Truth Social is basically a fork of Mastodon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 minutes ago