Hello everyone!

I’m having a hard time making this post as I’ve been so thankful for this awesome instance and the people in it and don’t want to sound ungrateful or start any unnecessary drama or controversy.

I’m thinking about setting up a recurring donation through opencollective but first wanted to try to make sure that I’m not supporting something that I’ll later regret.

I’ve been reading some worrying reports of sensorship from some of the major instances and political affiliations of some core people in the Lemmy project.

I’m of course all for everyone being able to voice their opinion (ofc. excluding harrasment, personal attacks etc.) but sensorship of critical posts (from reliable sources) about any organization/state/nation is kind of a dealbreaker for me. I sincerely hope that these reports are false.

The mastodon.world code of conduct starts with the goal: Provide a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment for everyone regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, political affiliation, or other similar characteristic.

Which sounds fantastic, but I’m interested in hearing if people have experienced any kind of censorship or other weird meddling with posts made on this instance or the mastodon.world one?

-Edit- Just wanted to clarify one more thing (sorry for the long post): I have NOT heard any reports of such activities in this instance (lemmy.world)

  • Sun-Spider@lemmy.world
    17·
    2 years ago

    Its an important question, and one I’d like to see more discussion on. Something you can do is look at the modlog for the instance and see if there’s any actions in there that make you suspicious.

    I chose this instance on the strength of that code of conduct, but I’d be happy to abandon this account right now and start fresh on a new instance if I no longer felt comfortable with the policies here. For now though I’ve chosen to put my trust here, and I guess thats all that can be done for now.

    The alternative is to start your own instance, because then you’d have maximum control, but I know thats not realistic for me or many others tight now.

    • mikehunt@lemmy.worldOP
      8·
      2 years ago

      Thank you! I did not know that the modlog is publicly visible, this is a great tool!

      I actually have the necessary knowhow and resources to start my own instance, but I’d rather support the awesome work done sofar by the creators of this one as long as I am able to trust them.

      • PriorProject@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 years ago

        Note that at least some moderation actions federate. I don’t think you can read a modlog and attribute all those actions to the admins of the instance you’re looking at. At least some will from community mods on other instances managing their communities. Some may or may not be from admins on other instances where user bans get replicated.

        I’m pretty fuzzy on moderation and federation in general, except to say that I’m quite certain the modlogs are tricky to read. I still do look at them to try to understand instance moderation, but I find it hard to be confident in what I learn.

    • mikehunt@lemmy.worldOP
      5·
      2 years ago

      I actually opted not to try to find any of the links I’ve seen here and on other platforms in order to not point out anyone or anything specifically, and so as to not give those reported claims anymore exposure if they indeed turn out to be false. As I said, this was en extremely awkward post to make, I’m not blaming anyone for anything, just asking for information.

    • animist
      2·
      2 years ago

      Serious question (not being snarky). What kind of proof could exist other than an image of [post deleted]?

      • netburnr@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 years ago

        Good question, just heard this a few times now and since I’m new here, I’d like to see some evidence before this just becomes some sort of urban legend.

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
    8·
    2 years ago

    It’s funny you mention you’re worried about censorship since that’s also a main concern of the devs. They write about it in the Lemmy Docs here: Censorship Resistance

    The entire idea of the fediverse is to prevent one person or group from having too much control over content. I’ve heard the devs have some unique perspectives, but they are intending on making a platform where you can freely disagree with them without them being able to do much about it.

    • mikehunt@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      2 years ago

      Thank you for the comment!

      I’m not really worried about Lemmy as a whole, the federated nature of the platform makes it infinately more resistant against manipulation than any of the centralized platforms.

      I was merely wondering about this specific instance and the people who run it as I’m thinking about donating.