I’ve been trying Lemmy for a little while and wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

Today, I wanted to start blocking the most high-censorship instances until I could find a fully zero-censorship instance and simply block all the ones with censorship. Filter bots, not people.

When I looked into it further, I found out there are no zero-censorship instances, because Lemmy relies on a broken “federation” system where each instance is supposed to be able to fetch posts from other instances, but it’s never been finished to reach a fully working state. Lemmy’s official docs say you can’t even do federation over Tor at all. This means it uses DNS, so it won’t actually allow Lemmy instances to fetch posts from each other freely, it just gets blocked instantly and easily, every time the authorities feel like blocking anything.

So you can only ever have the “average joe lemmy” and “average joe reddit” with everything approved by the authorities, and then “tor copies of lemmy” and “tor copies of reddit” where you have free speech but you can only reach other nerds.

People seem to think Lemmy is different because this weird censorship fetish is extremely popular and most of you are happy to see bans happen to certain people, not just bots, so a small Lemmy that censors certain people feels fundamentally different from a big reddit that censors more people. But it’s the exact same thing, it’s reddit.

When reddit was smaller, you could say basically anything you wanted there, they just wouldn’t let it reach the main audience. Then it got too big, and any tiny part of the audience you could reach would be too big, so they won’t let you talk at all.

Lemmy is now the small part of reddit where you can say whatever you want, separated from the main audience, until too much growth happens and you have to move again.

It’s not actually a solution to reddit. It’s not designed to be different, it’s designed to match the past today and then match reddit’s present tomorrow, while being part of a system that’s about the same in past, present, and future.

Last year, this year, and next year, you’re posting somewhere it won’t be seen by many people, and the system that charges people for ambulance rides is getting another year of ambulance ride revenue, facing no organized resistance. There’s no difference here.

Lemmy urgently needs federation between onion service instances and DNS addresses in order to actually do what most users seem to wish it would do: allow discussion outside what the corporate authorities allow, while outgrowing reddit & helping undo the damage social media has done to human communication.

  • iloveDigit@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    The Fediverse.

    The Fediverse is not what?

    You keep acting like I’m going to remember all this shit, or scroll up to refresh my memory every time. I don’t care that much what you have to say when you’ve wasted so many hours trolling me and gaslighting me.

    “Harassing” = responding to them.

    Didn’t ask. Why waste time typing that?

    How am I harassing you anymore than you’re harassing me, by your logic?

    How am I supposed to answer this “by my logic” when I’m good enough at logic to comprehend how you’re not necessarily harassing me?

    Don’t see how I’m acting like it either.

    I didn’t ask if you do. What I asked was: “where did you get me saying “imply” and not being clear about what I was talking about?”

    I didn’t say you did.

    I didn’t ask if you said that.

    I was making the point that you are responsible for your own conduct and how you treat others.

    I didn’t ask what you think counts as a “point,” so I stopped reading this sentence at “point” (though “responsible” also slipped into my field of view)

    Name an insult I’ve thrown at you.

    Is there anything in it for me? No. That was a rhetorical question. You have nothing to offer and you’re basically just embarrassing yourself by repeatedly begging me to do shit.

    • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      The Fediverse is not what?

      The Fediverse is not commonly understood as you understand it.

      Didn’t ask. Why waste time typing that?

      I’m making fun of your claim that replying to your replies constitutes harassment.

      How am I supposed to answer this “by my logic” when I’m good enough at logic to comprehend how you’re not necessarily harassing me?

      So I’m not harassing you, but I would apparently harass other people who agree with you if you named them to me?

      Is there anything in it for me? No. That was a rhetorical question. You have nothing to offer and you’re basically just embarrassing yourself by repeatedly begging me to do shit.

      So you can’t. As usual. You have insulted me, I have not insulted you back.

      • iloveDigit@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        The Fediverse is not commonly understood as you understand it.

        True, unless you mean it’s not commonly understood as I understand the common understanding.

        I’m making fun of your claim that replying to your replies constitutes harassment.

        What makes it my claim when it’s not a claim I made?

        So I’m not harassing you, but I would apparently harass other people who agree with you if you named them to me?

        Right. I’m also prepared for the possibility you will start harassing me in the very near future. Why do you need me to explain your own behavior to you?

        So you can’t.

        Incorrect.

        As usual.

        Adding “as usual” to something doesn’t make it correct (or, indeed, usual).

        You have insulted me, I have not insulted you back.

        Incorrect. Repeating yourself doesn’t make it true. Doesn’t even make it seem true. You might want to try deleting or editing comments, if that will be enough to hide them from mods/admins. Or just keep lying, if this place is actually corrupt enough for lying to yield worthwhile results on its own. Personally, I recommend you come clean, apologize to me, and seek professional help.

        • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          Right. I’m also prepared for the possibility you will start harassing me in the very near future. Why do you need me to explain your own behavior to you?

          How would I do that? Why would you assume I would do that? All I’ve done is reply to you in a thread.

          Incorrect. Repeating yourself doesn’t make it true. Try deleting or editing comments, if that will be enough to hide them from mods/admins. Or just keep lying if this place is actually corrupt enough for that to yield worthwhile results on its own.

          It wouldn’t be enough to hide them because instance admins can see deleted posts. But in any case, I haven’t insulted you. You have insulted me repeatedly.

          • whoever loves Digit@futurology.todayEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            How would I do that?

            I don’t know or very much care.

            Why would you assume I would do that?

            Not the first time I’ve dealt with someone like you, obviously.

            All I’ve done is reply to you in a thread.

            Sure.

            It wouldn’t be enough to hide them because instance admins can see deleted posts.

            That’s good.

            But in any case, I haven’t insulted you.

            Incorrect. You have insulted me repeatedly.

            You have insulted me repeatedly.

            Correct. I have also insulted you repeatedly.