this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Should we have a Star Wars instance? (feddit.uk)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I previously posted this topic on the main Star Wars community, but it was removed for being too meta. Which is fair enough but it does leave is in a Catch 22 situation as you can't exactly get a SW instance started if you can't discuss starting one. Fortunately, @[email protected] was kind enough to suggest this instance would be a good venue for such discussions, so here we are.

So here's the original post with additional thoughts arising from the discussion or subsequent pondering:

__

In a Fediverse, far far away...

I have been involved in a few discussions about how to help the Fediverse grow and diversify and one thing I feel is key is to have more specific instances rather than large general purposes ones. It helps people when they are signing up and can help give communities a home. I know because I signed up with feddit.uk, helped grow the place and am now part of the Admin team.

Or, to cut a long story short, should there be a Star Wars Lemmy instance? Today seems the perfect time to open the discussion.

After all, there are other focused instances like:

  • startrek.website
  • sffa.community
  • literature.cafe
  • ttrpg.network
  • adultswim.fan
  • dormi.zone
  • futurology.today
  • lemmy.radio
  • hobbit.world

Could move across existing communities:

[edit: see more comprehensive list below]

And there are a lot of potential others:

  • A community per film and show
  • SW Books - with potential to spin-off popular and long-running series
  • SW Comics
  • SW Board Games
  • SW Video Games
  • SW Cosplay
  • SW Helmets
  • SW Lightsabers
  • SW Galaxy of Heroes
  • The Empire Did Nothing Wrong

Possible names? A lot of obvious ones will have been scooped up or you risk copyright infringement, but how about:

  • Fediverse's Edge

[edit: I found a discussion on the old place, about starting a Star Wars Mastodon instance and you could share resources and expertise by Hosting them on the same server. Which led me to suggest Fediverse's Edge as the umbrella domain with the Mastodon instance at Tootooine and thr Lemmy one at something like Lemmandalore). If you were doing this then you could also include an instance of BookWyrm, Galactic Library?, that would bring the Star Wars novels and comics front and centre. It could be a good example for others thinking of setting up instances for transmedia franchises like this - a Marvel part of the Fediverse, for example. It would really help people sign up to a chunk of the Fediverse as it is either all in one place or you could direct people elsewhere, to, say, a Pixelfed instance dedicated to toy photography.

Other name suggestions:

  • tattooine.social
  • dagobah.space
  • hoth.books
  • coruscant.forum
  • bespin.io
  • thesenate.domain
  • thesenate.im
  • unknownregion ]

May the FOSS be with you.

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Those who contributed to that previous thread are: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

And some who have been engaged in Star Wars instance discussion since (why I am bumping this post up my to-do list: @[email protected] @[email protected] ]

I also had a second post removed that listed all the Star Wars communities and it was relevant for this discussion to show the breadth of existing Star Wars discussion on here:

__

As a lot haven't federated over to my instance I went digging, so you may as well have the list:

Star Wars:

Misc:

TV and film:

Games:

[edit: I've since started [email protected] ]

NSFW:

__

Those who contributed to this thread: @[email protected]

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm almost always in support of new ones, and the few considerations I have for them are

  • who is running the instance
  • how can the instance build confidence that it will stick around

This is key.

People get hung up on:

  • Money - fundraising will scale with usage
  • Installing and maintaining the software - Lemmy tends to have a lot of people with the right skills, so this should be easy enough to address

And I will start another thread here about running an instance.

However, what makes or breaks an instance is:

  • Is there a good Admin team? Single Admin instances are just one day away from vanishing.
  • Are they in it for the, at a minimum, the medium haul.

When we took over the running of feddit.uk one of the most important things we did (perhaps influenced by the original Admin going AWOL) was to ensure that there was no single point of failure - duties are spread around between us and if any one of us gets hit by a bus tomorrow (not today, I'm busy) then the instance can carry on.

So the you just need a few people who are committed. Oh and they can't be dicks.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I agree with all of this ... and good to hear too!

I hope you start it and goes well!

While I agree with all the arguments about how effective topic specific instances can be ... one counter I'll just share is that they can maybe be rather damaging should they go down or sour on people, because the communities then fracture as there isn't an obvious place to go afterward.

This kinda happened with the start trek instance, where, if you don't know, the admins were viewed as being toxic or incompetent by some and so drifted away from the instance. Some reforming happened around some communities on lemmy-world, but I don't think things are the same afterward.

Which of course doesn't mean that a topic-specific instance can't be great ... quite the opposite really ... I think the lesson from the above is that ensuring that a good, healthy, transparent and sustainable admin team and culture would really be invaluable.

Perhaps one principle to center policies around (just a suggestion off of the top of my head) would be the idea that the instance kinda belongs to "the fans" ... so some democratic mechanisms or feedback, some ideas around changing "the guard" (as you've spoken about already) etc ... just to instill the idea that the instance is for the topic not just the admins hobby.