I saw that this instance had a large number of users so I thought "more users->more content->more fun". Apparently, I had to prove my value by answering 3 questions that showed my interest in their community and my value as a potential future member.
What could possibly be my value to a general purpose instance besides money? I'm a software/cloud engineer so I guess there are things I could help with, but my guess is they were expecting me to say "I can donate".
I get it, they need donations to exist, but this upfront? And to a community I don't even know? Maybe I'm imagining things and they were looking for something else?
Do all instances rely on donations? I'd like to contribute to the instances I enjoy at some point. But only if I feel at home with them, not as a prerequisite to join.
What in this message made you think your rejection had anything to do with donations? Seems like you're jumping to that conclusion without any evidence.
I'm betting they saw his requested uname is also used on a sh.itjustworks (wherever the dots go ffs) account and that played a part, since they defederated with those guys. Just a feeling I get.
I believe they want to limit troll and bot accounts. I know that if I were hosting a community I would want to vet the members so that I didn't have to spend all my time dealing with compliants and having to delete comments and ban people.
It's like that with many instances. They ask you to fill out a form, answer questions or something similar to make sure you're not some spam-bot. That's it.
Should've probably asked them. They are trying to be a more curated community. You are expected to read and obviously follow the rules, and reflect that in your short application text.
If it's not for you that's obviously fine. Just like it's 100% within their rights to not want you. Don't make a big deal out of it.
beehaw is a little more restrictive than other instances, not about money but about political alignment, they're making sure you're not being employed by some troll farm to tell everyone you don't like the gays or dogwhistle terf shit
So I can see why people coming from centralized, for-profit platforms would assume everything is about money - because over there, everything IS.
In the fediverse (and the open source parts of the internet in general) - people are doing things for free for others benefit. As such, they don't NEED to cater to and attract everyone, nor do they generally have the time and money to run something that will require full-time effort. They can be choosy. They can look for 'their people'.
Do not take it personally. They didn't even reject you, but they do want you to put more effort into explaining why you want to join. And if you don't want to put in more effort and hate all these rules already then thats a good sign beehaw isn't for you. Looks like you found a good alternative
No, they are not asking for donations lmao. They just want you to prove you're a friendly woke inclusive person looking to make their community better with your contributions to their rules, peace, order and love and who knows what else. Just read beehaw org admins' comments and reverse engineer their opinion and regurgitate it onto an application.
Beehaw is notoriously strict with their content and philosophical approach to federation. Last I checked they banned hundreds of instances. That’s not my style. I looked for a well moderated instance that left the banning to the user and kept the server up to date and running. In fact I think they still have no instances banned yet. VLemmy did make me register and wait for approval which happened that same day and it’s been a real pleasure.
I have accounts on other instances and Kbin and all instances seem to carry about the same posts when sorting by All. The fediverse requires the user to search a bit more for the community that fits them best, and that’s a good thing.
Try a few instances and platforms. Kbin is pretty cool but not really my thing, I love Mastodon and my instance (shout out to mas.to and @rodti@mas.to).
It's nit-picky but you don't "ban" instances, you just de-federate with them. Individual users in a de-federated instance can still see posts, and can participate if they move to another instance.
It's a way of preventing brigading, if a single instance is the source of a lot of problematic users. With better moderation tools, defederation well become less common.
Honestly, the more I read about beehaw, the more it seems like a lost instance. They don't federate many people request an e-mail address to register and even have a member casting.
Doesn't seems like the most interesting place of the fedi
Most places request an email because of bot signups. Next lemmy version reintroduces captchas so instances such as this are only requiring them temporarily.
Unless you want to be a part of a curated safe-space you’re not missing anything. If you do want to be part of something like that, we’ll then you’ll need to reapply and sell yourself harder.
There is some stuff going on on beehaw, i am not quite sure about the details but essentially they defederated with some other big instances.
This means that they can no longer interact with those instances. And those instances can also not interact with communities on beehaw.
They can interact with other instances but are shielded from every comment and possibly even votes caused by defederated instances.
I believe this is a temporary trend that some instances are doing to protect their communities till better moderation tools exist. Not allowing new people in might be a part of that, Personally i am not a fan of this strategy but apparently current beehaw users are content with this.
I am on the fmhy instance myself, as far as i know we are not defederated with anyone so all of lemmy (including communities on beehaw) are open for me to see and interact with.
It's not about money. They do have a particular take on running their instance than most open general-use instances. You can read about that and their rationale and decisions and decide whether it is for you.
Informed by that, you might then decide if beehaw is for you or not. If beehaw is for you, talk about why you are joining in particular regards to gelling with their particular philosophy.
My answers were really short, and my app was approved. I figured it was a bot check, not actually reviewed by anyone.
I don't really use my beehaw account though, because they're heavyhanded with moderation and also cut off the largest lemmy instance, so I'd be missing a lot of content.
Lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works were growing fast without an approval process and beehaw felt with the current rudimentary mod tools they couldn't adequately handle the influx of unvetted users. Refederation is on the table in the future though.
For now I have an acct here and there and Liftoff apps makes browsing between the two seemless and I suspect it will be even more elegant once Sync for Lemmy releases in a month or two.
But keep in mind this affects beehaw users the most. If you're on a smaller instance or kbin you'll be able to interact with all three.
They defederated from many instances because of open registration s. Trolls were getting through (an inevitable) and the Beehaw team didn't want to moderate users from those instances anymore.
I think it would help if you actually posted what you said. I'm a member of both and it seems pretty easy to be let in if you are thoughtful about your answer and it resonates with creating a thoughtfully pleasant space.
Beehaw is trying to be a place where it's illegal to hurt people's feelings, not a general instance.
The only reason they have so many users is that they have consistent branding across all communities, which makes them seem credible to people who have no idea which instance to choose.
Rejected me too during the initial reddit exodus a month ago. I said I was looking for a reddit alternative, that I mostly lurk but occasionally post on tech subs as I am a software engineer. No response for a week then rejected around the same time they defederated. Figured they were just mass rejecting people at that point. Was already actively using accounts on lemmy.one and lemmy.world by then. I just use lemmy.one if I want to see Beehaw content.
Dawg even my clg didn't ask this much... they saw that I passed my 12 class exam, and asked for a 10k INR to block seat(private education here is a bit like that)
Why are you signing up at Beehaw?
What is it about this community that makes you want to join it?
What do you want to contribute to this community?
There is also a request to read at least one of three posts that detail the moderation/general philosophy of the instance to a) evaluate it's a place you actually want to participate in, and b) inform your answers.
Basically, go to beehaw.org and read some of the content you see there, learn a little bit about how they approach things, then make your case.
Instances currently rely on donations - I haven’t seen any ads on any lemmy instance
Beehaw is just one of those instances with a very strict sign up process. I haven’t seen anyone saying they were accepted or denied due to money/donations specifically- beyond this post