A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).
If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to [email protected]!
Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration), Search Lemmy
Invite only app maybe? If you get the sign up process to be an NFC or QR code type thing you could effectively limit it to people in that area that know each other or that see the qr code. You could even have the signin do imprecise GPS checking if you wanted to limit it further (not fool proof, but does it have to be?)
You could have something like the described in the digital bonfires idea and have a regularly scheduled means of moving things from local to people just passing through.
How to keep it from becoming disgusting like Topix? Vile things were said on those forums.
I can't seem to find anything relevant when I search for Topix, but I think we learn to moderate our local communities effectively. Just like here on Lemmy. The difference being that owners will have fewer people to moderate, so it should in theory be easier. If an owner is vile, create a competing instance.
I wonder if there would be enough people locally who want to moderate? That's the biggest issue imo, along with it being taken over by concerns about schools and/or gross gossip.
I believe Topix was completely anonymous and unmoderated, and it was a train wreck. As a citizen of my town I was embarrassed that it existed. I remember specifically that any time a local principal made any changes at her school vile comments and threats would be posted about her. It was a major concern in her life until the whole site was taken down.