this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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This is more of a question for the admins, but this can certainly be a more open discussion.

Per this thread, beehaw defederated from lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works two months ago, around the time that the reddit exodus was happening. Lemmy was blowing up, those instances had an open sign-up policy, and this meant that admins of other instances (like Beehaw) that wanted to heavily moderate their communities became quickly overwhelmed with the number of users from these two instances. Beehaw defederated to make the workload more realistic.

Two months on, I'm wondering if this defederation is still necessary. It seems to me that Lemmy overall has slowed down a lot, and maybe the flow of users from these outside servers would not be as overwhelming as it was before? I respect the decision of the admins one way or the other - I know that the lack of moderation tools was another factor in this decision. I'm just curious if this is something that has been considered recently?

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

From where I'm standing, I can't really much has changed unfortunately.. which really sucks..

Lemmy.world has grown substantially meanwhile the moderation tools have not improved at all. All I can say about the moderation tools is that we now know that the tools suck more than they used to.

Here's a list of moderation problems that we have discovered since then:

  • If a Berson is reported on another instance, we never get the report.
  • If a mod is banned from the community they mod, they can still take mod actions
  • If you get site-banned from Beehaw while you are from another instance, you can still post on the community and people from that instance and kbin can see your posts
  • People from other instances can't know who if someone is an admin on the instance they're interacting with
  • People from other instances can't see when we use the shield function to signal we're talking "officially / as a mod"
  • The modlog is not chronological
  • The modlog breaks if you ban someone for more than 4 digit days.
  • A banned user's description is still visible so if they link to a scat image in their description, it is still visible to moderators.

Despite these newly known problems, there have been exactly no improvement whatsoever to the moderation tools. It is honestly unsettling and terrifying.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I just finished writing a small book in a thread about federation on literature.cafe yesterday, the thrust of which is that moderation, not federation is the threadiverse's killer feature, and when in doubt smaller instances shouldn't federate with larger ones. This list makes a perfect post-script to my point. Do you mind if I crib it? I'm a big fan of what you're doing here. I'd also love your feedback on my observations if you have time.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

No, you are definitely right. There is a time and place for federation, it's like a town deciding to incorporate with a larger region. If the town is too early in its infancy, the overall culture and debate will be drowned out by larger servers. But the risk of also not federating the town means that there is a chance of the community dying off. I'm thinking there should at least be a snaller period of considering the effects of opening up your server to the network, and consulting other instance admins about the idea.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Hi,

I'm speaking on behalf of the admin team of Lemmy World - we feel like we have to step in here and give some feedback to the things being said in this thread and give our perspective.

About "Supporting nazi's":

So we support nazi's because it took us 'long' to defederate from exploding heads? That's straight up false. We were one of the first instances to defederate with them and advocated heavily to have them defederated on other instances. FYI Lemmy World as a whole is just over 2 months old and so is this post: https://lemmy.world/post/747912

There was an issue early on with the original moderator of the Lemmy World https://lemmy.world/c/conservative community which was handled instantly:

  1. The problematic moderator https://lemmy.world/u/OptionHome that was posting misinformation (and worse) was banned
  2. The https://lemmy.world/c/conservative community was given to other moderators.
  3. We asked people to stop bombaring the /c/conservative community with anti-conservative posts as to allow civil discourse. https://lemmy.world/post/149519
  4. The https://lemmy.world/c/maga community was also banned

We take a hard stance on extremism from both sides of the political spectrum, and we believe that civil discourse should always be the first option. We ban hate communities on sight no matter whose side they are on, and we work hard to resolve the hundreds of reports we receive each day. As of today, 3733 users were banned from Lemmy.World, and that number will probably have gone up by the time you read this comment. We follow-up on moderation teams if we see reports that stay open for too long and if communities are abandoned we actively look to replace the moderation team.

So we ask everyone to keep sending in reports when you see any post that breaks the Lemmy World rules which can be found here: https://lemmy.world/legal.

About Beehaw's decision to defederate with us: Even though we don't agree with it, we have always been supportive of Beehaw and their choice to defederate with us until the mod tools improve. Even when the question gets posted in our community we defended the decision: https://lemmy.world/post/895811.

But wether or not Beehaw will refederate with us is ofcourse 100% your decision.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I trust the admins. I was attracted to beehaw specifically because of the tight moderation. If they think they can keep to the same high standards and refederate, great. If not, oh well. I'd rather miss out on some content than expose myself to rude assholes, bigots, fascists etc

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Completely agree! I trust the admins, they have proven that they know how to run a community that stays kind ❤️

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

I’m from kbin, here’s my perspective.

Stay defederated from lemmy.world. The admins are at the very least sympathetic towards fascists being on their instance as long as they’re “polite.”

Shit just works is mostly fine, but world is a shithole and honestly I wish everyone would defederate them to force them to be broken up or isolated.

Honestly I would suggest defederatibf from lemm.ee as well. I have noticed a ton of fascists originating from there.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not sure what you mean by ton of fascists originating from lemm.ee, but please be sure to report users if you notice something weird, rather than trying to create random defederation in the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

I agree. I haven't noticed anything from lemm.ee in my casual browsing.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Considering the last weird argument I somehow stumbled into on lemmy.world, I completely agree. Things go off the rails far too fast over there.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (12 children)

The admins are at the very least sympathetic towards fascists

Example?

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

I can only say that I spend less time on beehaw because there are communities on both of those instances I want to interact with. This isn't really an argument to refederate because as an end user I can filter the noise and focus on the communities I want, but I know admins don't have that luxury. It's more of an impact statement. I like beehaw, and I don't want to leave, but I do probably spend more time with my other account just because there's more activity I'm interested in there. So I fully support whatever decision gets made and certainly support this community, but I can't be the only user whos spending less time here than I otherwise might.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes it is. Yes it is.

If you really interact with the lemmy community you know they are very pro "freeze peach", which means it comes with all the fascists, all the phobias, and the trolls.

I like Beehaw for what it is. Tight moderation.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Lemmy World is not a "free speech" platform.

Point 1 in the "Principles that Guide Us" section: https://lemmy.world/legal

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I would like to note that sh.itjust.works hasn't had unverified sign ups enabled for a while now. I have an account there too so it really doesn't make much of a difference to me but I would like an updated stance from the admins here. The initial concerns they voiced don't seem as relevant as they once were.

As for lemmy.world, it's the biggest, and issues can arise from that, so that makes more sense to me.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My takeaway from this thread is that it makes sense to keep lemmy.world off the rolls, but maybe sh.itjust.works is safe to refederate? I just want to join their Patient Gamers community 😭

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think so. sh.itjust.works is no where near as big. And the admin there has always been very responsive and transparent whenever I had concerns. The patient gamers community is also very friendly.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Stay defederated. On top of all the great points already made, I don't understand people demanding instances behave a certain way. If you don't like the way this instance is handled go find another one.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Who's demanding anything? Surely we can discuss it amongst ourselves as a community?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Nothing's wrong with discussing things with the intent to make them better for everyone

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, instances can do whatever they want and users should seek instances that match their needs but:

  • Per the thread OP linked, it's suggested this could be temporary. "this is also not a permanent judgement" is my context in saying as such.
  • The post did not feel demanding. Though perhaps you're making a more general reference?

Edit: context

Edit2: Not intended as advocation for refederating. I'm content with the content available to me so I don't have a strong opinion.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My understanding is admins of some of those communities actually agreed with the decision because of the lack of proper moderation tools to handle their new scale. Some are basically un-moderated as well.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Speaking for Lemmy World - we look for new moderators when we notice communities are un-moderated. We follow the reports closely and if we notice they aren't picked up by that community's moderators we reach out.

And yes, we were also told initially that it was because of a lack of moderation tools but now @[email protected] seems indicate a "cultural" difference. But we are left wondering what the difference with LW and the other instances they federate with are.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Having accounts on both instances, I can say the "cultural" difference is the moderation style, and user expectations:

  • Lemmy World: Reddit-like rules, a huge influx of Reddit refugees who think every comment has to go against the parent one, free registration which makes it easy to create an account and go troll mode on federated instances.
  • Beehaw: Very open-ended but at the same time strict "be nice" moderation with minimal rules, users who had to "write an essay" (sic) to create an account, a general non-Reddit culture of... well, being nice.
  • Lemmygrad, Hexbear, Exploding heads, etc: I think the cultural differences are obvious there.
  • Other instances: they have much smaller user bases than Lemmy World, so even when there are cultural differences (dbzer0, lemm.ee, etc), they are not overwhelming (yet) the mod team on Beehaw.

we look for new moderators when we notice communities are un-moderated

The problem is not just having moderators on LW, but moderating LW's userbase on federated instances. Some number of LW's users seem to be hostile towards Beehaw, and there is little LW can do about that other than banning their accounts, which I don't think would be that much better for anyone.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

stay defederated. even now whenever I see some transphobic or hateful comment it's because I accidentally browsed all

edit: apologies everyone!!! it's called "Everything" 🤦 I'm sorry for the confusion I feel dumb now

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

All only shows content from instances that Beehaw is federated with, FYI.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (6 children)

And, it's only communities someone on beehaw has specifically subscribed to. Communities from federated instances won't show up in all if no one from beehaw has ever subscribed to them.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (4 children)

All on beehaw? Because if so those aren't from the instances we're talking about.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I feel torn on the issue. I spend 90% of my Lemmy time on here, but the growth feels much slower than many other communities. I'm mostly ok with that. Content is pretty good, but still not much chatter on many posts. I mainly go to World to post to !superbowl, but even with 10x the users as here I only just started getting decent up votes, and I don't want to mod, so I don't feel like starting it here and trying to build an audience again.

Lemmy is probably still going to be finding its legs for another year or 2, so keeping multiple logins is probably the best way to roll for now.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

The amount of moderation actions from those instances were a lot higher than from elsewhere, specifically lemmy.world. With how lemmy.world is now after browsing it for ~5 mins I can confidently say that that would be the case again if we were to refederate

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Count or discount my opinion as a non-Beehaw member as you will but...

I think the instances should do what they set out to do. Federate, defederate in line with the instance's ideals.

I'm not on Beehaw, but I do like seeing its content. But I also like seeing (most) of the content on Lemmy World and sh.itjust.works; and I can get both from the instance I am on.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, I think it's best that we stay the way we are here and not re-federate.

My experience after leaving all the toxicity of Reddit behind was that it was really a blessing to find a community where moderation actually mattered and made a difference in the culture of site. I did a lot of lurking on Lemmy even before leaving Reddit, enough to know it was not a place for me. I tried Kbin when I did finally leave Reddit, but did not like the experience there much, so eventually landed here.

While I can appreciate people's concerns about the defederation, and in particular some of the stresses for the admins which are certainly really challenging, I think it would all be far more negative if at this stage the decision were to be reversed. Not every community needs to be "the biggest, baddest, baddy in the room" so to speak. I just get the impression the vision for Lemmy is something along those lines. No one seems to care about that here (that I can tell), they just care about having civil and open discussions which, more than anything else, feel safe. It's why I stay and am glad to support it. If that changed, I would most likely move on and not return.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I value the principled approach and slower pace, the low tolerance for stirring. Moderation has such a huge effect on feel and the big ones never did enough to try to build healthy communities. Beehaw has mostly taken the sting out and I'd hate to see that lost.

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

I genuinely recommend against re-federation for Beehaw.

My unique take and experience from lemmy.one is simply the number of users who simply seek to stir the pot.

My blocklist is full of people from lemm.ee and sh.itjust.works and lemmy.world as well as lemmy.ca . When I compare the number of blocks to the number I've blocked from beehaw or even my own instance; a paltry one or two; I'm only ever seeing trolls or idealogues coming from those instances to argue with my posts no matter how well reasoned they may be. For context; if I tell someone they are absolutely wrong and they persist; they automatically meet my block list. I won't suffer people who aren't going to discuss things civilly or rationally.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Blocking someone because they don't agree with you telling them they are "absolutely wrong" isn't civil or rational discourse. Unless you meant something different?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

Blocking someone because they don’t agree with you telling them they are “absolutely wrong” isn’t civil or rational discourse

Who says that is the objective of blocking and why should I extend that courtesy to people who are behaving neither civilly nor rationally?

If I go to a bar and someone next to me keeps chiming in on my conversations with homophobic takes, I'm going to pick up my beer and move away from them (block them). What moral imperative do I have to give them the time of day, and how does letting them constantly shoehorn bigotry into my discussions undermine "civil and rational discourse"? If that person keeps doing this to people, is the bar owner required to allow them to stay, or can they show them the door?

Calls for civility, free speech arguments, etc. are all cudgels used by people who want to go where they want and say what they want without scrutiny and I for one have no desire to adhere to some arbitrary moral standard imposed on me by people who want to behave that way. If you want to behave like an ass and pursue me, then I'm cutting you out of my life. No one would blame me at a bar, why should they on my favorite gaming forums?

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