How should I be using Lemmy?
How should I be using Lemmy?
With spez ascending the last few remaining levels of becoming an absolute wanker, it's about time I got more active and I have been wondering how should I be using Lemmy efficiently? Like many I migrated from Reddit and I was primarly using Apollo to browse through my subscribed subreddits.
Over here on Lemmy.one, I have subscribed to communities and I scroll through my feed by sorting "All > Top Day" because sorting "All > Hot" means I end up seeing the same threads.
Then earlier today I discovered https://beehaw.org/communities where I found many communities I would love to subscribe to but then I got confused because I am also subscribed to more or less similar communities on lemmy.one.
I think I am sort of struggling to wrap my head around how lemmy really works and where I should be hanging out. It was easier on reddit in the sense that if I wanted to go LOTRmemes, there was only subreddit but here on Lemmy, there seem to be multiple instances of the same community :D
To top it off, it is proving hard to login to beehaw [probably the server is under stress] with the same details I use to login into Lemmy.one.
Not to forget there's also Kbin which I haven't even begun exploring. Phew.
ps - my apologies if I am sounding slightly incoherent as this is all new to me. If there is anyone out there who has this all figured out, I'd appreciate any help here.
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Now what might really cook your noodle is the info that the developers of the Lemmy software are pro-Russian genocide deniers, and there's a growing sentiment to not support that by dropping Lemmy in favor of kbin or something else.
Here's the best sourced info I found on the genocide topic: https://kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/t/47012/-/comment/196579
Just as I was starting to get the hang of this, it feels like I stepped into another wasp nest.
Ookay, then let's look at kbin, right? Well, there's literally only ONE developer and the current version still very much a (good) beta version. So, not kbin either, then?
What's left? Beehaw, who act like snowflakes and have disconnected from where growth and interesting stuff is happening?
I feel pretty lost in the sea of the fediverse right now. Go back to Reddit? Naw, not right either.
Except this is open source developed software. Using it doesn't actually funnel money to those people is any way similar to using something that is commercial does.
Unless you're also a direct supporter of that individual dev via buymeacoffee.com or something.
And again, it's open source. We can literally just take the code from them and start making it our own.
The devs have literally no power over instance admins. And anyone can start up a node, and be one.
That's one of the perks of open software. Unlike with corporations, where you have to take or leave the whole thing, you can actually change things in the direction you want without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Maybe that's Kbin, maybe its a future fork of lemmy that is able to convert existing nodes.
Regardless, the boycotting for change that we are forced to resort to under capitalism, isn't relevant here.
Mostly just wanted to make my first comment
I haven't signed up for Lemmy. Between the Lemmy and Kbin I like this Kbin a heck of lot more and decided to sign up here.
I haven't abandoned Reddit and I have no plans on doing so. I'll probably be on both platforms if this one takes off or until Reddit becomes something like a Myspace. For now I'm just exploring here.
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The Lemmy project maintainers are communists, and quite possibly Marxist-Leninists, but I've never seen them make any statements denying genocide. They're been fairly explicitly against genocide, and have made statements directly to that effect. Meanwhile, the actual software has seen contributions from many people from all over the political spectrum. Because that's how the open source development community works.
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Reddit's seen significant investment from Tencent, a Chinese company with well-known ties to the Chinese government and the CCP. Whether the people running the company believe China has committed genocide or not, those continued ties are implicit support for the government's actions (made even stronger by the Chinese government set to take ownership over a significant chunk of the company). They've been invested in Reddit for years, but that hasn't stopped basically anyone playing the "evil communist" card against the Lemmy devs from using Reddit. In fact, it's been used for a while now to try and convince people not to leave Reddit.
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Reddit's also seen investment from white supremacist and actual fascist Peter Thiel. He invested almost a decade ago. Once again, no one seems to have any issue with the politics of the people backing Reddit.
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The politics of the Lemmy devs can be separated from the usage of the software. The software is free, contains no ads, and usage of it does not directly financially support the Lemmy developers at all. Meanwhile, Reddit investors who implicitly deny or actively support genocide both in China and in North America stand to make considerable money off of farming our content out to chatbot developers and/or selling their stake in the business to greater fools.
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Beehaw defederated from like 3 Lemmy instances. Most of us on the fediverse still have unfettered access to their communities. All it takes to not be disinvited from their party is to not shit all over their rugs.
Here's the best sourced info I found on the genocide topic: https://kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/t/47012/-/comment/196579
Ah, I see. This is a common blind spot with respect to genocide. The word gets tied to the Holocaust and the massacres of Cortez, that it gives people an out when confronted by acts and attitudes that are very much genocide, but which do joy generate literal mounds of dead bodies.
And it doesn't change the dynamic with respect to service or product usage, because I can all but promise you that spez, and basically the entire staff of Reddit deny the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples in North and South America, the ongoing genocide of the Roma in Europe, and perhaos - even probably - the historical genocides of these groups (with the possible exception of the Aztec).
I don't mean to come off as if I'm playing with whataboutism. I'm not. Genocides done here do not excuse genocides perpetrated by foreign cultures or regimes. It's just that if we apply the same standards to people who deny genocides being perpetrated by our own peoples and institutions, then we basically can't go anywhere or do anything ever. The only difference with that particular Lemmy dev is that they're playing rhetorical games about a genocide that most of us probably never would have heard of if not for the US playing politics with China.
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Let's say they are - who cares? They write the software, they don't run the server you are on unless you are on their server, so don't be on their server then. That's the whole point of federation. If one developer at some company you like is a tankie, you wouldn't use that software?
@kerplunk Also to that point, this is apparently a baseless rumor started from someone who had some beef with the dev at some point. And it's only spiralled because people keep spreading this info to new people who then just rinse and repeated what they hear because they're all new.
I can't find the link but it's on the lemmy blog. So it's best not to spread the info based on what you hear in the comments anyway. Lemmy is fine as long as you like the software. The best way to not support them is by not donating or something. That's all they get from it. Let them be tankies if they are, and distance yourself from the core instances.
kbin is newer but in my opinion the better interface. And if I stick around it will only get better!
I'd say Beehaw is the fediverse for your kids. let them be soft and kind and ban curse words.
You're safe with lemmy or kbin, probably. Just live with some growing pains for a month or two.
It may not be so baseless after all. Here's the best sourced info I found on the genocide topic: https://kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/t/47012/-/comment/196579
Thank you for your comment though, you have good points, especially that Beehaw is also a Lemmy instance, and to look for one that is not operated by these people.
Just to clarify a few things:
- Some of the dev team members who wrote the apolitical Lemmy software are the ones being accused of things. However, anyone can copy that software and create a Lemmy instance. Those devs made one called lemmy.ml that they host and moderate themselves, but everyone else is just copying the base code.
- Beehaw is a Lemmy instance. Same apolitical software that runs all the other instances you see, just hosted and moderated by people who would rather not see disinformation, political propaganda, and hate speech on their site.
- Kbin is different software, but still uses the same ActivityPub communication so they can talk to Lemmy instances and Mastadon (Twitter-like) instances.
- Kbin.social is the main kbin instance run by the developer, but anyone can host their own version
It may not be so baseless after all. Here's the best sourced info I found on the genocide topic: https://kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/t/47012/-/comment/196579
Thank you for your comment though, you have good points, especially that Beehaw is also a Lemmy instance, and to look for one that is not operated by these people.
Well, you can always put one foot on each side. Make an account on both, use both a bit.
kbin has a better interface, in my opinion though, I'm cheering for them!
This is the first time I hear about the Lenny developers being pro-Russian. Do you have any source where we can look into it?
I'm curious about this Russian connection as well. This is the only related link I've found so far. Can anyone shed more light on this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/143o5xd/reconsidering_my_support_for_lemmy/
Here's the best sourced info I found on the genocide topic: https://kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/t/47012/-/comment/196579